ABC/Fred WatkinsFoo Fighters will rock the historic Acropolis in Athens, Greece for Landmarks Live in Concert, a live performance series hosted by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The show takes place July 10, and will air this fall on PBS.

Landmarks Live in Concert brings artists to historic sites for special performances. During the show, Smith interviews the artists about why the location is important to them. For example, the premiere episode featured R&B star Alicia Keys performing at the Apollo Theater in New York City's Harlem.

Foo Fighters are currently touring Europe while previewing songs from their forthcoming new album Concrete and Gold, due September 15. They'll return to the U.S. for a tour in support of the album in October.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
MARINETTE, Wisc.  Theres a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding a new ship.

Theres the mast-stepping ceremony, which dates back to ancient Roman times. Theres the christening, where the ships sponsor had to do several practice runs to ensure she could break a champagne bottle. Theres the launch, where the future USS Billings slid free of a set of locked ramps and crashed into Lake Michigan, looking as if it were about to topple over before settling upright.

The culmination of festivities was remarkably quick, given the years of work put into the vessel at the shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin.

Sponsor Sharla Tester, the wife of U.S. Senator Jon Tester, broke a champagne bottle against the ships bow with a clang, and almost simultaneously, the ship started sliding. The whole process took about 10 seconds.

Its overwhelming, she said. Im still in awe.

The Billings, which doesnt officially get its name until its commissioned, is the 15th vessel in the Littoral Combat Ship class, a series of boats designed to meld speed, firepower and flexibility in mission capabilities.

The ceremony at the shipyard for Marinette Marine, which is owned by an Italian company contracted by Lockheed Martin to build the ships, was attended by U.S. Navy officials and politicians ranging from U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, to a trio of Billings City Council members, plus a few hundred other attendees.

Mayor Tom Hanel addressed the assembled crowd before the launch.

I am absolutely honored, he said. Billings, Montana, is honored.

Navy officials announced in 2013 that the ship would be the first combat vessel to bear Billings name. The ship, which is about 83 percent finished, is slated to be handed over to the Navy in 2018.

Tester, Hanel, and city councilmen Al Swanson, Chris Friedel and Ryan Sullivan toured the Billings on Friday.

Oh, this is just  wow, said Tester as she climbed onto the 389-foot long ships deck.

On Friday, the group also attended a mast-stepping ceremony, which dates back to ancient mariners who would place currency in a ships mast to ensure their passage to the afterlife if they died at sea.

Commanding Officer Nathan Rowan, who will lead one of two crews for the ship, thanked all who added to the canister.

I like to think that these gifts  will shape her life and chart her course, Rowan said. Will she be a lucky ship? A tenacious ship? Tradition bound? A historic ship? She will be the ship that all of us make her.

Tester placed a jar of Montana dirt filled with five different seeds that she said were planted on the familys farm near Big Sandy. Hanel added a Billings Police Department patch, City of Billings lapel pin, his mayoral business card, and his personal Billings lapel pin with his name.

Rowan, an amicable man, also noted the addition of a bottle of Kraken-brand rum.

Hopefully I live long enough to get that back out and drink it, he said.

He also ribbed Hanel, telling him not to change his phone number listed on the business card.

Were gonna call you on that card in 25 years, he said.

On Fridays tour, Rowan and other officers got a look at the partially-completed ships interior.

Seeing it like this, it just kind of hits you, said Senior Chief Jose Ramiro.

Rob Dumalo, commanding officer for the ships other rotating crew, softly tapped walls as he walked along, grazed railings, brushed knobs and patted a first-aid kit fixed to a wall. Saturdays events were largely about the name on the ship; soon, the sailors inside will chart its course.
Meet award-winning artisans and buy their products at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village
Last year, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department officer came across a vehicle stuck on a rural Natrona County road. The occupants had run out of gas. They had no water, no food and no cellphone service.

They were visiting Wyoming, said Lt. Stewart Anderson, to scout viewing spots for the August eclipse.

No idea that there was a whole lot of middle of nowhere in Wyoming, Anderson, who oversees emergency management for the county, told Casper City Council on Tuesday. Thats the type of folk you got to educate.

Casper is expecting 35,000 visitors during the Wyoming Eclipse Festival, which runs from Aug. 18 to 21, the day of the eclipse. Anderson said the county is anticipating an additional 15,000 visitors but that those numbers will fluctuate depending on weather: If Casper has clear skies, tourists from elsewhere in Wyoming may flock here, whereas if bad weather descends on the morning of the eclipse, Natrona County could see a mass exodus.

Anderson painted a daunting picture of everything that could go wrong during the weekend. Thunderstorms and vicious wind could shred tents and throw them into trees. Highways into town may become congested and, starting at 3 a.m. on the day of the eclipse, busloads of visitors will drive up from Colorado. Hotels, Anderson said, are booked almost solid between Billings and Colorado Springs.

With the eclipse stretching across the nation in a period of just two or three hours, cellphone networks may fail as millions of people send photographs and videos and call their friends.

This will be the first time, probably since 9/11, that people have all jumped on their cellphones at once, Anderson said. This will be the first time nationwide that itll truly test the systems.

Law enforcement and other emergency personnel have backup plans in place to be able to communicate. But the rest of us may be stuck.

Then there is the fire risk in late August.

Its the middle of our wildfire season, Anderson said.

Open fires on private campgrounds in the county are already prohibited, and Anderson said more fire restrictions will likely be announced as the event nears. The Bureau of Land Management is increasing the number of firefighters available as well as boosting staff levels to educate campers on public land.

Then there is the heightened risk of car crashes because of all the additional, well, cars. The increased risk of dehydration because of heat and alcohol consumption. Neither of those types of incidents are ideal under normal circumstances, and Casper-Natrona County Healthy Department preparedness manager Audrey Gray said the eclipse will be an especially difficult time to deliver medical care.

We already have a health care system in the county that is at capacity on a normal day, Gray told Council.

To cope with providing care during a weekend when the countys population may double, Gray said the health department is working to erect three first aid stations in downtown Casper and has arranged to send visitors to clinics and urgent care facilities rather than hospital emergency rooms.

People arrested for public intoxication and those put on involuntarily mental health holds will be medically evaluated outside of emergency rooms as well.

Mills, Evansville and local hospitals will have all their ambulances on standby and staged throughout the region rather than centrally located.

A second Life Flight helicopter will be brought in.

Gray warned that a disease outbreak would be especially difficult to manage given that it is often not apparent until after the conclusion of an event. Local restaurants will be inspected prior to the festival so that the department can focus on evaluating mobile food vendors who drive to Casper for the weekend.

If an epidemic does break out, Gray said local public health officials will have their hands full.

That will take a lot of resources, she said. That will probably be more intensive than this planning process, which has already been quite intensive.

But Gray said shes excited about the festival and that it has been a good opportunity for the health department to coordinate with private clinics, like Casper Orthopedics, that it does not normally work with.

The county has also prepared for these contingencies  and more, including mass casualty events and terrorism  by running simulations, Anderson said.

The highest estimates for the number of visitors Natrona County could expect is 150,000, but assuming the more realistic estimates of 35,000 to 50,000 visitors comes true, Anderson is confident the region will be ready.

If we plan big and it is big, then weve already planned for it, Anderson said.
There is no way in or out of Evansville when a train passes through  or stops entirely  and blocks all three access points across Interstate 25 and into Casper.

A fix has been in the works for years, and with a green light from Casper City Council this week, it looks like Evansville residents  and especially emergency vehicles  will no longer be dependent on the whims of the railroad to leave the small town that sits on Caspers northeast border.

Evansville bridge study begins next month A $67,800 environmental study begins next month for a proposed bridge to provide Evansville 

Town engineer Shane Porter said the most obvious option for Evansville has always been to connect with Metro Road across the North Platte River, which would provide access to Casper that could not be blocked by BNSF rail cars.

But to get across the river, the town needed permission to use the bridge to Wyoming Veterans Cemetery, owned by the federal Veterans Administration.

Longtime Evansville mayor Phil Hinds said the town recently secured access to the bridge after representatives from the VA traveled to Evansville and determined the agency had received the 30 years of exclusive use needed to justify its investment.

That, Hinds made clear, was a relief.

We started out on a $6 million bridge, Hinds said. With access to the bridge, the town needs to fund only a connection from Cemetery Road to Metro Road, which will cost about $1.2 million, according to a 2015 study.

Wyoming lawmakers work toward emergency exit for Evansville residents More than a decade ago, former Natrona County Commissioner Drew Perkins participated in a di

Concern that a derailed train carrying toxic materials could pose a hazard for town residents and block their ability to leave Evansville prompted officials to plan for the alternate route. The Legislature previously set aside $1 million to pay for the road if all necessary easements and rights of way were secured.

While most of the land between the two existing roads is owned by the state of Wyoming, Evansville needs permission from Casper to build a road on about 1,000 feet of city land immediately to the east of Metro Road.

Councilwoman and former Evansville resident Amanda Huckabay threw her support behind the plan.

Having worked with a lot of the emergency services organizations in Evansville, this is something theyre constantly bringing up, she said. Theyre stuck there.

Porter said the road would likely be paved, but if funding could not be secured, it would be graveled. But Porter agreed to City Manager Carter Napiers request that the portion of the road running into Caper be paved regardless.

Porter added that studies suggested the Metro Road connection would not become a major traffic corridor once built. A 2011 traffic survey found 10,000 daily trips in and out of Evansville with 3,400 additional trips likely in coming years.

Council agreed to provide a letter of support for the road project.

Why dont they call it Phil Hinds Road? asked Vice Mayor Ray Pacheco.

They already called it Phil Hinds Boulevard, Hinds said. Its a boulevard, not a street.
CHEYENNE  The late former State Auditor Jim Griffith, an outspoken man, once called his home county of Niobrara Wyomings Appalachia.

There are parallels.

Niobara once had flourishing oil production in the Lance Creek field and others. In certain areas of Appalachia, wealth came from coal mining.

The boom fizzled out over time, and so did the countys economy and population.

The county also once had its very own state representative in the Legislature. That ended with redistricting.

The countys population was 6,321 in 1920, the first federal census after it was fully organized in 1913. In 1940 the population hit 5,988, and since then has declined steadily to 2,484 as of the 2010 census, according to WyoHistory. org.

The U.S. Census Bureau is estimating Niobrara County had 2,480 residents as of 2016, which isnt much change.

The countys growth has been stagnant despite the construction of the womens corrections center in 1984.

Griffiths made the remark about Niobrara County and Appalachia in the 1970s, when the state was in an economic downturn that probably hurt his home county more than most.

Although Niobrara County is not a rust-belt area like parts of the sprawling area we call Appalachia, the demographics are similar.

Both have populations of rural, poor and primarily white residents. Niobraras population is 96 percent white.

In the 2016 general election, 70 percent of Wyoming voters polled for Republican Donald Trump. In Niobrara County the real estate mogul received 86 percent of the vote, behind Campbell and Crook with 88 percent each.

I remembered Griffiths comment while reading an excellent book recently: Hillbilly Elegy, by J. D. Vance.

Vances riveting story helps us understand how Trump became president and continues to command loyalty from white working people.

The parallel with Niobrara County ends with the demographics.

There is a considerable difference in the cultures of the rural poor people in Wyoming and the hill people of Kentucky.

Vance grew up in eastern Kentucky and went on to earn a law degree from Yale.

It was Greater Appalachias political reorientation from Democrat to Republican that redesigned American politics after Nixon. And it is in Greater Appalachia where the fortunes of working class whites seems dimmest.

From low social mobility to poverty to divorce and drug addiction my home is a hub of misery, he writes in the introduction.

It is unsurprising then, that were a pessimistic bunch. What is more surprising is that, as surveys have found, working-class whites are the most pessimistic group in America.

Vance details his familys history in their home in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and its near disintegration when his relatives migrated to Ohio for work.

The ones who left were generally the well-educated or wealthy. They left behind poor people who were trapped in dying towns, the truly disadvantaged, as Vance wrote.

But the people who went north to Ohio to work in the factories after World War II could not escape their heritage and culture.

The migrants returned to their Kentucky homes often.

And although they were part of the middle class working in factories in Ohio, they could not escape the legacy of abuse, poverty, alcoholism and trauma.

Vances grandparents were among the migrants. His credited his grandmother Mamaw for providing the only stability in his life, a haven against the chaos of his immediate family.

His mother was a nurse but developed a drug addiction. She also had various relationships with men.

Mamaw didnt drink alcohol and railed against people on welfare. Vance also is hard on lazy white people who dont want to work.

Yet his account of his troubled family members is affectionate; he loved all of them.

He doesnt dip deeply into the political impact of families like his that couldnt quite grasp or hang onto the middle class American dream. It is significant.

Angry, frustrated trapped people lash out at election time. Last November, large numbers of angry white poor voters  who were Democrats in the past  helped elect a Republican president.

These are Trumps people.
We all know the saying: Wyoming is a small town with really long streets. We are friends, family, colleagues and neighbors. We revel in our open spaces and enjoy recreating in our mountains, waters and forests. We respect our wildlife and strive to be good stewards of our lands. We value hard work, honesty and grit. We share a kinship in knowing what few others do  how lucky we all are to call Wyoming home.

The citizens of Teton County are proud to be a part of the Cowboy State. We relish sharing in Wyomings storied history and rich western legacy. In 1920, Jackson became home to the first ever all-female town council.

The first national park was established just outside our borders. Ranching continues to be an important way of life for many longtime families.

Over the past several weeks, the actions of a few have been used to label our entire community.

I have been proud to call Jackson home for nearly 60 years and I can attest firsthand to the character of this community. Like many towns in Wyoming, Jackson is full of passionate citizens. While we may not always agree, we respect our constitution, our democracy and our elected officials.

As a community, and as a state, we have a responsibility to be mindful of those who hold differing beliefs or views. Public actions are bound to have public reactions  particularly those that are politically motivated. And in Teton County, which relies on visitors from across the country and around the globe, the reaction will inevitably be even louder.

The Jackson Town Council made the right decision last week in voting to restore a photo of the U.S. president to the town hall. They acted boldly and swiftly to right a wrong that sent an inaccurate message about our community to the rest of the state and the entire country.

Partisan politics may be the Washington way, but its not the Wyoming way. We have long prided ourselves on staying above the fray of national political discourse  of maintaining a level of civility, respect and bipartisanship at the local and state levels of government.

Teton County is no exception. Having served in the state legislature for 14 years representing this community, I saw the importance of this civility and ensuring Teton County worked collaboratively with our Wyoming neighbors.

Several years ago the Wyoming State Legislature adopted the Code of the West. One of the pillars of this code is Ride for the brand.

Teton County is proud to ride for the Wyoming brand. We share many of the same core values as folks all across our state, including respect for our highest elected officials. We understand that when other Wyoming communities succeed, we all succeed.

When other Wyoming communities flounder, we all flounder. Were committed to the success of the hard-working men and women across our state and understand the important role they play in supporting Teton County. Were proud to be part of team Wyoming.
Arizona employees can start accruing hours for paid sick leave starting Saturday, July 1.

Under Proposition 206, otherwise known as the Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act, full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees will be granted paid sick leave mandated by law, earning a minimum of one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked.

Employers with fewer than 15 employees must provide at least 24 hours of paid sick leave each year. Businesses with 15 or more employees must provide a minimum of 40 hours yearly.

While most employers already offer some sort of paid leave covering the circumstances addressed in the new law, there is still some apprehension for small-business owners, said Barney Holtzman, labor and employment law attorney at Fennemore Craig PC

Any time theres a new program placed upon businesses  especially coming out of the tough years weve had with the economy  theres always concern over how its going to affect the bottom line, Holtzman said. I have never met an employer that doesnt want their employees to be happy. Paid time off is certainly something they all understand is helpful once they understand what it means and the financial implications.

Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias said paid sick leave will boost morale for employees and help them make ends meet when faced with difficult circumstances.

I think its a good thing for our communities, he said. Its critical, especially for employees with families to get paid sick time. They suffer and their families suffer a loss of income while they deal with that illness.

Some critics, however, argue the law could actually hurt job seekers. The hardest hit will be the people looking for work, and most cases that will be younger people with little or no job experience, said Farrell Quinlan, Arizona state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. Youre taking a gamble when you hire somebody that theyre going to be worth what youre paying for them and that theyll be productive enough so that theyre worth having on.

Michael Osborne, who oversees about 300 employees at multiple local restaurant franchises, says the law, which also called for a minimum-wage hike that went into effect in January, hinders his ability to reward his loyal and high-achieving employees.

I wouldnt be where I am today without my employees, he said, I want to do everything possible to take care of them; it just gets difficult when there is too much intervention in my ability to be an employer.

HOW IT WORKS

Existing paid time off plans will not be void as long as they comply with the minimum requirements of the new law. Paid sick leave can also be loaned out before time is accrued, but that is at the discretion of employer.

Paid sick leave can be used for a broad scope of reasons, including medical care related to mental or physical illnesses, injuries and health conditions.

Sick leave may be granted to take care of sick family members, who by definition under the law do not need to be blood-related, Holtzman said.

Employees may also use sick time in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, abuse or stalking. Related court appearances are also covered. If legal action is required, the employee can provide police documentation stating the paid time off is necessary, but theres no need to divulge personal details about the incident.

Requests can be made in writing, verbally or electronically. Employees arent required to provide notice, but it is recommended that they notify their employer in good faith.

Unused sick leave can be cashed out or rolled over, but it is at the employers discretion. They are only legally required to allow employees to use a minimum of 40 hours per year.

However, employees who are let go cannot cash out on unused paid sick leave.

One troubling aspect, from the employers standpoint, is a retaliation provision written into the law, Holtzman said.

If anyone takes any protected leave within 90 days of being terminated, you can presume that this step was taken in retaliation for taking the leave, said Holtzman.

This is due to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for Equal Employment Opportunity. If an employee feels their termination was rooted in discrimination, they can seek legal action.

If you retaliate against the employee, there is a penalty of $150 minimum, from the day of the violation until judgment if final, Holtzman said. It could also mean however many days until you reinstate them or until judgment.

Adverse employment actions may also be construed as retaliation, meaning demotions, terminations or schedule changes could be grounds for retaliation. If employers are retaliating against employees, workers must be compensated financially.

However, Holtzman said the burden should not be difficult for employers to overcome.

Most employers dont just let go of someone without good reason, he said.

Federal and state employees are exempt from Prop. 206. While some small businesses were exempt from the minimum-wage-increase requirements in the Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act, they will be required to provide paid sick leave.

The law also calls for businesses to maintain paid sick-leave records and statistics for four years. Pay stubs must indicate paid sick leave available, already taken and the value of what has been used if applicable, according to Holtzman.

If employers fail to comply with the record-keeping and posting requirements of Proposition 206, they may be subject to fines of at least $250 for the first violation and $1,000 minimum for further violations.

A typical businessperson will tell you this is yet another regulatory compliance they just dont need; the rules regarding compliance with the paid-sick-leave aspects of Prop. 206 are onerous, theyre confusing, theyll require a lot of diligence on the part of businesses said Michael Varney, president and CEO of Tucson Metro Chamber.

Both Quinlan and Varney say the increase in cost of hiring and maintaining employees may lead businesses to find automation a more attractive option.

Nonetheless, Elias backs the paid-sick-leave requirement.

Elias father owned a small print shop when Elias was growing up. He said his father understood the importance of providing a sense of dignity to his employees and thought providing paid sick leave to them was the right way to operate a business.
Tucson pianist Alexander Tentser is playing a bit of Debussy and Chopin and a few works by Tchaikovsky in his Arizona Friends of Chamber music recital Wednesday, July 5.

His performance is the second installment of the Friends inaugural Summertime Evenings series. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at downtowns Sea of Glass, 332 E. Seventh St., near North Fourth Avenue.

Tentser, a regular on Tucson stages and half of Duo Alexander with Tucson Symphony Orchestra flutist Alexander Lipay, will return to his musical roots when he performs a trio of works by Tchaikovsky. Tentser, who teaches at Pima Community College, studied music at the Kiev Conservatory in Ukraine, also known as the Petro Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, named after the 20th century Russian composer. Tentser will perform Tchaikovskys Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, Waltz in F-sharp Minor and Dumka: Russian Rustic Scene.

Also on the program: Debussys Suite Bergamasque and a trio of piano works by Chopin  Nocturne in D-flat Major, Waltz in A-flat Major and Ballade in F minor.

Wednesdays concert opens at 7 p.m. with a reception featuring hors doeuvres, wine and soft drinks. Admission is $25 at the door or in advance by calling 577-3796.

The Summertime Evenings series concludes Sept. 13 with violinist Timothy Kantor and Friends performing works by Mozart, Ponce, Bela Bartok and others. Kantor, second violinist in Afiara Quartet of Toronto, Canada, teaches violin at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music.
We've collected a few of our front pages from years past to give you a look at some July 1 papers in history.
PHOENIX  The states top election official is preparing to turn over data on Arizonas 3.6 million registered voters to the head of a Trump-created commission exploring elections fraud.

Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan said Friday that Kris Kobach, who is making the same request of all 50 states, is entitled to the same redacted information that is available to the general public through a public-records request.

Reagan, like Kobach a Republican, said he wont get everything he wants.

She said state law precludes her from giving out the last four digits of voters Social Security numbers. And the data will not include a date of birth but will give the birth year.

Kobach, an ally of President Trump who contends more than a million people illegally in the country voted in the last election, may not be entitled to even that much data, said Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, a Democrat.

Fontes agreed that Arizona law does make the records public.

But he said the law also says information in registration records can be used only for political party activity, campaigns, revising voter precinct boundaries and other purposes specifically authorized by law. He contends that does not include Kobachs purported interest, even for purposes of a presidential commission.

Fontes said that Kobach, in his letter to state election officials, told them that whatever they turn over to him will, in turn, be made public by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Heres Kris Kobach, running around and telling everybody that theyre going to publish everything all over the place, Fontes said. Thats voter suppression.

He said people already are worried.

Ive already got voters calling me, asking me how they can unregister to vote because they dont want Donald Trump to have their voter information, Fontes said.

He said theres reason for concern, citing what he described as Kobachs history of voter suppression as secretary of state in Kansas. The American Civil Liberties Union says it has sued Kobach successfully four times over his practices.

Democratic Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez had her own questions about why Kobach should get the information.

What is the goal, what is the objective? she asked.

Rodriguez also noted that the request, while on commission letterhead, appears to come strictly from Kobach. She questioned whether this is what the commission, or just Kobach, wants.

But David Stevens, her Cochise County counterpart, said Kobachs intent may not matter legally.

The voting records are public if you come into my office, said Stevens, a Republican. He said anyone can purchase the list as long as its not for commercial purposes.

Reagan hasnt received her copy of the letter, which already has been sent to election officials in several other states, said her spokesman, Matt Roberts.

He said a formal response to Kobach will come once that happens.

Trump established the commission in May, naming Kobach and Vice President Mike Pence as co-chairs. Among its duties are to find laws, rules, policies and practices that undermine the American peoples confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in federal elections and vulnerabilities that could lead to fraudulent registration and voting.

But the choice of Kobach has led to fears the commission is being guided to a preconceived conclusion that there is massive voter fraud.

For example, Kobach told Fox Business in January that probably in excess of a million people who are not citizens voted in the 2016 election and that Trump might have won the popular vote over Hillary Clinton but for really big states like California, Texas ... that have a large alien population.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he wont honor the request, questioning Kobachs agenda.

At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trumps alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression, said McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill said she will share publicly available information in the spirit of transparency. But Merrill, a Democrat, echoed the concerns of Rodriguez about the panel.

State officials have not been told precisely what the commission is looking for, Merrill said. She said theres reason to be suspicious, saying Kobach has a lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in Kansas, methods she said have been repudiated by the courts.

This isnt just a partisan divide.

They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said in a prepared statement Friday about the request. And Mississippi is a great state to launch from.

The White House struck back Friday. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that objections by some officials are mostly a political stunt.

Roberts said Arizonas Reagan is not focused on the politics swirling around Kobach and the commission.

At the end of the day, this is a records request, and it shouldnt matter who is making that request, he said. Its not necessarily our job to determine who gets information and who doesnt.

As to Kobachs contentions of massive voter fraud, Roberts said that, at least for Arizona, Reagan does not share that view.

He said there have been several instances of people voting twice, specifically in Arizona and in another state. But Roberts said Arizona has protections against ineligible people casting ballots, including a requirement to provide proof of citizenship when registering.

Does it occur? Certainly, Roberts said. Is it a widespread problem? I dont think the secretary feels that this is something that is widespread in Arizona because of the laws that we have in place.

Other states are coming down on the same side as Reagan.

In New Hampshire, Secretary of State William Gardner told WMUR he will comply. He said what Kobach wants will help cross-check to make sure people are not voting twice in federal elections.

What makes that noteworthy is that Trump argued he lost New Hampshire because people were being bused into the state from Massachusetts to vote illegally, taking advantage of New Hampshires same-day registration. But Gardner denied at the time there was widespread voter fraud in his state.

Kobach, then a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, helped craft SB 1070, Arizonas 2010 law designed to give police more power to detain and question those who they suspect are not in this country legally.
MINOT, N.D.  Millions of dollars in construction projects are in the works at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

The projects, which include a nearly $18 million aircraft maintenance unit, are being completed on the base and also in the Minot missile field, the Minot Daily News (http://bit.ly/2soLgSg ) reported.

Trev Albright of the 5th Civil Engineer Squadron recently provided a detailed report about the base's projects to members of the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce's Military Affairs Committee.

According to the report, a seven-year, $100 million initiative to replace the 60-year-old concrete of the mass parking apron is already under way. The first phase of the project is scheduled for completion in September.

Plans are expected for several projects, including a $2.6 million addition to the ALCM Munitions Facility, which will provide additional space for maintenance and 705th Munitions operations. The base is also planning to create an indoor firing range and a new helicopter operations and tactical response force facility.

The base has already completed several projects, including a community center that has a gathering space, indoor splash park and play areas, outdoor all-purpose court, playground, sand volleyball court and dog park. A nearly $19 million, two-story lodging facility with 30 two-bedroom units was also completed.

The Minot base has about 12,000 personnel overseeing B-52 bombers and Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Marana police have released the identities of the victim and suspect in a Friday afternoon fatal shooting in the Arizona Pavilions shopping center's parking lot.

Marcus Dickson, 26, was booked into the Pima County jail Friday on one count of felony manslaughter, said Sgt. Chriswell Scott, a Marana Police Department spokesman.

The victim has been identified as 40-year-old Martin Padilla.

Scott said investigators learned that both men fought prior to the shooting.

Detectives are working to determine what led up to the fight and shooting.

Witnesses were also being questioned late Friday night, Scott said.

Shortly after 2 p.m., numerous 911-callers reported a shooting at the shopping complex parking lot, which is west of Interstate 10 at North Cortaro Road, Scott said.

Officers found the wounded man, and despite bystanders and Northwest Fire District paramedics giving life-saving aid to the man he was pronounced dead at the scene, said Scott.

Scott said the shooting is an isolated case and investigators said that they do not have any information about it being connected to a road rage incident.

Investigators are asking that anyone who saw or took video of the shooting to contact 911, 88-CRIME or Marana police at 382-2000, said Scott.
A rabid bat was found near the entrance of a northeast-side library June 27, and county officials are asking that anyone who may have come in contact with the bat to notify the health department.

On Tuesday at about 11:30 a.m., the bat was found at Kirk-Bear Canyon Library at 8959 E. Tanque Verde Road, said Julia Flannery, a Pima County Health Department spokeswoman.

It is not known how long the bat was in the area, said Flannery in a news release Friday, June 30. She said officials do not know of any human or animal contact with the bat.

Health department staff "are here to help make sure you and your family are not at risk of getting rabies," states the release.

In Southern Arizona, bats and skunks are the wild animals in which rabies virus is most often found, officials said. "While these animals are an important part of our desert surroundings and very interesting animals, they, along with other wildlife, can carry disease or may injure people or pets when they are sick or feel threatened," said authorities.

Flannery said children need to know that they must avoid animals they find near their home or at school.

Officials also recommend that wild animals should not be approached, and pets should be protected. Also, do not touch a bat or any other wildlife acting oddly or on the ground. Report wildlife acting strange to Pima Animal Care Center at 724-5900.

If a person comes in contact with an unknown animal, call the health department at 724-7797.
A former deputy chief in the Pinal County Sheriffs Office has traded in his badge in the hopes of securing a congressional lapel pin.

Kevin Cavanaugh has spent the last few months criss-crossing the vast Congressional District 1 to secure support from Republicans for his run in next years midterm elections.

He got into the race early, he said, because he realized the same group of candidates who had failed to turn CD1 red in the last two election cycles were unlikely to beat his would-be Democratic rival, Rep. Tom OHalleran, who now represents the district that stretches from north of Tucson to Flagstaff.

On the campaign trail, Republicans ask him the same question over and over again. Are you a RINO  Republican in Name Only? He said he isnt.

I think conservatives are disappointed with many Republican political figures, he said. Some Republican legislators ... are abandoning conservative issues.

Cavanaugh said he is a life-long conservative, against abortion and a supporter of gun rights. He supports the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the building of a wall along the Mexican border.

In his mind, the ACA needs to be replaced as quickly as possible. The American people were sold a lemon, Cavanaugh said about the ACA. It is a complete failure.

He said while he identifies as a Republican, Cavanaugh said he wants to address issues that affect the district and the nation. I am a fixer so I am hoping to use my skills when I get into office, he said.

Cavanaugh started in law enforcement in 1986, working as a civilian for a police department in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan while attending college. He worked in law enforcement in Michigan and Indiana before moving to Arizona to be closer to his wifes family. He served in the Pinal Sheriffs Office for less than a year before resigning to run for office.

In addition to working in law enforcement, he has also owned several businesses.

Cavanaugh said his wife, Samai, who is from Mexico, urged him to run for Congress.
How are we going to keep our air conditioners running in coming Tucson summers?

You had to wonder that over the last couple of weeks.

Tucson Electric Power set records for daily demand on June 20 and again on June 21. The heat that used to come in shorter waves simply settled in, going from a record-setting series of days to a searing, weeks-long above-normal heat.

On Monday, when the Arizona Corporation Commission held a hearing on TEPs proposal to change the rules governing rooftop solar, the high temperature was 107 after a low of 83.

We can expect more of this and will have to figure how to keep the cool air flowing. By mid-century, its likely that Tucsons temperatures will be like those of Phoenix now.

Phoenix, by the way, had a low temperature of 91 degrees June 15. Didnt even cool to the 80s.

Gregg Garfin, a University of Arizona climatologist, has looked ahead to our future climate and, unsurprisingly by now, finds it will be quite warm, especially if we do little to curb heat-trapping gas emissions.

In the business-as-usual case, by 2050 or so, the annual average temperature will go up something on the order of 4 or so degrees Fahrenheit, he said. What that translates to is something like another 15 or 20 days a year over 100 degrees.

While the Southwest will be especially hard hit by higher temperatures, the whole country needs to face a hotter future of higher demand for electricity, a University of California-Berkeley professor of environmental economics showed in recent research. Max Auffhammer and colleagues showed that higher peak electric demands will probably require big investments in electric generation.

Their estimate: $180 billion in new generation by the end of this century.

How we reach that is a trickier question and brings in the solar issue that Tucsonans packed a downtown hearing room to discuss on Monday.

Auffhammer has a pretty simple prescription: The way to do this is to install more peaker plants. The other way to do this is to improve the efficiency of air conditioning equipment.

These peaker plants would likely be natural-gas powered. In other words, they would extend our dependence on fossil fuels.

Why not solar? Rooftop solar especially does not produce the energy when its needed most, because its peak production is at midday, while peak demand is late in the afternoon, after 4 p.m.

Im under no illusion that this is the scalable way to produce more power, Auffhammer said, noting that he himself has rooftop panels and drives an electric vehicle.

Utility-scale solar plants have better potential to help address the rising peak of demand in the future, he said, but they still require improvements in storage.

This idea that our future climate will be hotter does not, of course, come as news to Tucson Electric Power.

We are planning for multiple scenarios, spokesman Joe Salkowski told me. That includes high-load growth and low-load growth scenarios.

But solar isnt part of the solution for high-load growth yet, he said. We do have a lot of solar on the grid at noon, and that number is only going to grow, and thats a good thing. However, our system consumption doesnt peak until later in the day, between 4 and 6 oclock.

The records that TEP set were in the 4 oclock hour. By that time, Salkowski said, Our own solar resources and those on our customers rooftops have begun to fade. As a result, we then must ramp up conventional generating resources to meet customer demands. Its back to the storage problem.

But solar advocates at the hearing Monday noted that rooftop solar can have a role to play in meeting higher future demands. Specifically, it helps by distributing the sources of power and placing them right in the communities where its needed, rather than at power plants hundreds of miles away.

As we distribute load and generation, as generation moves into the home, it does strengthen the system, George Villec, who spoke at the hearing, told me later last week. You dont want centralized generation, you want it distributed.

Villec, who owns a local solar company called Geo Innovation, argued that the utilitys hostility to rooftop solar, as expressed in its current proposal before the Corporation Commission, will drive potential customers away and put some companies out of business. That weakens the system.

Or as Court Rich, a solar-industry attorney, put it to me: The more people have rooftop solar, the less people have to buy from the utility. Eventually, when enough people have solar on their rooftop, the utility doesnt need to build a new plant.

Im not expert enough to be able to say whether that much rooftop solar will ever pencil out for enough Tucsonans to make preventing a new plant possible. But were clearly going to need to produce more power, and keeping it as renewable as possible and as close to home as possible make common sense.
OPINION: "There is no other profession that is more rewarding than serving our nation's heroes. To all our veterans, thank you for your service, and we have your back!" writes Jennifer Gutowski, CEO/director of the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System.
BUTTE  Talen Energys Butte office will lose all but three employees when a layoff went into effect Friday, according to multiple sources at the company who asked for anonymity pending finalized severance agreements.

The exact number of affected employees is unclear; numbers reported to The Montana Standard ranged from 11 to 14 layoffs.

The cuts were reportedly announced to employees in April.

Talen representatives from company headquarters in Pennsylvania did not respond to repeated requests from The Montana Standard for comment during the past three weeks. The local Talen office also declined to make a public statement.

Talens Butte office, at 45 Basin Creek Road, is responsible for trading energy generated by the coal-powered Colstrip plant, which Talen Energy operates and partly owns. Retail sales of energy from the plant go primarily to industrial users, including Buttes REC Silicon.

Tom Michelotti, a real-time trader and one of the employees being laid off from the company, said Thursday that retail sales will continue to be based in Butte for now along with the development of operating plans for the Colstrip plant.

Wholesale transactions of power to consumer-facing energy utilities, which make up the bulk of Talens sales, will be contracted to the Houston office of EDF Energy Services, Michelotti said. A representative from EDF North America declined to comment on any impending changes but confirmed that EDF is contracted with Talen Energy to provide energy trading services.

Michelotti completed the hiring process at EDF and will relocate to Houston to work there, the only Talen employee to do so, he said.

"It's a shame to see good paying jobs leave Butte," said Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Dave Palmer.

At least seven of the cut employees will retire, according to one source, who praised the generous severance package but added that none of them had been planning to leave the workforce just yet and that they loved the company.

Its been sad, very sad. People that have worked together for approximately 15 to 20 years are seeing the end, said one current employee. Its very solemn. Its very sad to see this talented group of people who had worked so long now finding themselves at the end of the road.

State Rep. Jim Keane, D-Butte, said that he feels terrible about the loss of jobs in Butte but that he is even more concerned about what's ahead for Colstrip and the Butte businesses that rely on it.

After operating it since 2015, Talen announced last year that it would cease operating the Colstrip plant in May 2018 and that the other five owners would need to find a new operator.

Units 1 and 2 of the plant are slated to close by July 2022 per a settlement with the Sierra Club and the Montana Environmental Information Center in a lawsuit over Clean Air Act violations. Unfavorable market conditions and anti-coal legislation in Oregon and Washington, which purchase most of Colstrips power, have created uncertainty about whether the units will be able to remain open until that deadline.
CASPER, Wyo.  Efforts by Wyoming's uranium industry to get a tax break are getting a cool reception from members of a legislative committee.

Companies that operate in Wyoming had argued that reducing taxes would keep them afloat until prices rise.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports that global competition has pressured some companies to cut staff and defer expansion plans.

However, members of the Joint Minerals Committee weren't convinced a tax cut would benefit the state given the downturn in the state's oil, gas and coal industries, all of which have higher tax burdens than uranium.

State Democratic Rep. James Byrd, of Cheyenne, says he feels if an exception was made for uranium, the other extraction industries would demand tax breaks too.

Wyoming employs about 300 people in the uranium industry.
Help India!

By Zafar Iqbal for TwoCircles.net

It was so pleasing to watch a beautiful rendition of Urdu poetry through a classical dance by Anupma Sharma, student of guru Purvi Bhatt from Dance School wearing a traditional dress. This song was from1981 Urdu film, Umrao Jaan, which has a deep connection with Urdu literature and the Aligarh Muslim University. This and other songs in the film were written by Urdu poet Shaheryaar from the University and the film was directed by another Aligarian Muzaffar Ali, who excelled in promoting Urdu literature. The presentation of this song at this event also conveyed a message to the audience that they would be coming to these Urdu promotion events, like this Urdu Mela, again and again. Is anjuman mein aap ko aana hai baar, Deevaar-o-dar ko ghaur se pehchaan lijiye.

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This first Urdu Cultural Mela was the brainchild of Tahira Anwar and Dr. Razi Raziuddin. Held on May 20, 2017 at the Seneca Valley High School, Germantown, Maryland, it attracted a large number of people from Metropolitan Washington area. It was organized by the Urdu Academy of Maryland with the collaboration of the Aligarh Alumni Association Metropolitan Washington and Pakistan Association of Metropolitan Washington. and also present a bouquet of activities to give glimpses of Urdu culture to the audience. The main purpose of mela was to making aware the community of the richness of Urdu culture and heritage.

Tahira Anwar, who started the Urdu Academy of Maryland in 2013, said that the Academy has succeeded in launching Urdu teaching in two schools of Montgomery County. She was very happy to announce that she was receiving requests for expanding the program to other schools. However, due to lack of resources she was not able to meet the demand. She is hopeful that the program could be expanded to other schools in Montgomery County and nearby other counties with help from the community. In addition to preservation of cultural heritage, learning of mother tongue helps strengthen family and friendship bonds. Recent research has also shown that children growing up with multiple languages perform much better in highly competitive society, she added.

Dr. A. Abdullaha stalwart worker of Urduspoke about origin and significance of Urdu in the Indian Subcontinent and now in North America. He praised the work initiated by the Urdu Academy of Maryland in Montgomery County of Maryland and expressed confidence that the work started by the Academy will establish its roots, spread its branches like a banyan tree and others will get benefit from it. In the beginning it does require sacrifice, hard work, and patience, however.

Shoaib Ali Hasan eloquently presented Idgaha classic short story by Munshi Premchand. This powerful story about a 4-year-old orphan boy conveys a strong message how affection, motherhood, care, sacrifice, and satisfaction bring happiness.

Farheen Abdullah helped organize a colorful cultural show depicting traditional dresses representing different regions of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Shilpa Sharma, a physical therapist by profession and Dr. Abdur Rehman, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health presented ghazals from notable Urdu poets. The program also included several boutiques for ladies to do Eid shopping and delicious food and Urdu books for sale.

Nuzaira Azam was the Master of Ceremony. Mohammad Akbar, president, Aligarh Alumni Association, Washington-DC thanked the organizers and participants of the program, and the audience.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

One person was killed and several injured on June 30 when Police opened fire at people demonstrating against Doubt voter cases in Assams Goalpara district.

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The person who died has been identified as 22-year-old Yakub Ali who was rushed to the hospital after suffering injuries from the police bullets. At the hospital, doctors declared him brought dead.

Nearly 500 people gathered at National Highway 37, at Kharubosa area of Goalpara district to oppose D or doubtful voter cases. The protesters demanded that the problems of D voter should be solved.

Police has said that the protest rally was organized without a necessary permission from the administration.

Goalpara SP Amitabh Singh told local media that police first tried to disperse the crowd by lathi-charge, but protesters re-grouped and started pelting stones at police and the vehicles at NH-37.

Following that, Police resorted to firing which killed one person, he added.

Sources inform that protesters had applied for administrative permission, but police denied it.

The cases of D-voters in many of the north-eastern states are frequent. To check on the illegal immigrants from neighboring countries, border police forces often mark people as D-voters. Often, border police ends up marking ordinary and legitimate Indian citizen as well in such cases of doubtful voters.

After being marked as D-voter, the accused must appear in the Foreigners tribunal with all the necessary documents to prove their Indian citizenship. With the frequency and abundance of D-voter cases, the process gets lengthy even as many as 100 foreigners tribunals are set up following the Supreme Court directive.

The majority of the victims of D-voter cases are Bengali Muslims who are often mistaken as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

Recently, a police constable too was listed as D-voter when local media and a lawyer came to the rescue of the same.

In Goalpara incident, sources inform that police had charged at protesters without much provocation. The question is raised on the police that why it directly resorted to firing of live bullets without using tear gas or rubber bullets at first.

A video of the incident posted by an eye-witness of the case Hussain Ahmad Madani is being shared widely, which clearly shows how police started tearing out banners and charging at the protesters without any provocation from the peoples side.
Help India!

By Tariq Hasan for TwoCircles.net

The first reaction to Prime Minister Modis rather belated words of condemnation of the spiralling incidents of the lynching of Muslims in different parts of India is: better late than never. Without going into the possible factors which compelled the Prime Minister to express his concern over this grim scenario, let us move forward.

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The first step the PM should take is to prepare a white paper on all the lynchings which have taken place since his government came to power. This paper should make public the Action Taken in all such cases. A circular should be issued to all state governments to take necessary steps for preventing any such incident in future.

The final step should be to draw up a new law for making it punishable for any person who is complicit in such crimes.

If the Prime Minister does not take such follow-up measures, then we will be compelled to presume that his words of anguish uttered at Gandhi Ashram were just hollow rhetoric.

This year, when you offered Eid greetings to your Muslim friends you could not have failed to notice a palpable tinge of anguish. For the Muslims especially in North India, the voyage of despair began with the public lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq on the suspicion of storing beef in his home at a village just adjoining the nations capital. In less than two years it has brought them to the doorsteps of yet another dubious milestone  this time with the public lynching of sixteen-year-old Junaid in a crowded train compartment again barely a stones throw from New Delhi. This time, however, the victims only mistake was that he was wearing a skull cap. His lynching was watched by 100-odd passengers; not one of them raised a whimper on this cold-blooded murder.

Yes, India is changing. If anybody has any doubt still that India is going back to the medieval ages, let them search their heart today.

Even if official figures are accepted, the death toll from public lynchings of Muslims during the past two years has crossed twenty. During this entire period, there was not a single unequivocal condemnation of this medieval form of  instant justice  from the countrys Prime Minister till last Thursday.

Welcome to the new era of  digital India. What are we being served for lynch: this Eid Muslims are sarcastically asking each other this June.

When the Modi-led extreme right-wing rode to power in the summer of 2014, there was a growing section of Muslims who started genuinely believing in Modis promise of Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas. But by the time winter set in, some Hindutva groups owing allegiance to the ruling party launched their love jihad campaign to further tarnish the image of the Muslim youth. It had become painfully clear to them that if they wish to survive in the new India, they would have to accept their status as second-class citizens.

By boycotting the President of Indias official  iftar this year, the members of Modis cabinet have sent a clear message to the rest of the world  we care a damn for our 20 crore Muslims. Take us or leave us.

As if this was not enough, UP CM Yogi Adityanath rubbed more salt into the wounds of his Muslim subjects by breaking half a century-old tradition of not attending the traditional Eid program at Lucknow.

It would be untruthful to totally absolve Muslims from bearing the responsibility of their present travails. Seventy years after India became a sovereign democratic country committed to the ideals of a modern secular state, the very idea of India as envisaged by her founding fathers is under threat.

The shadow of Pakistan, the  Muslim Zion was always looming in the neighbourhood and it took a sizeable section of the Indian Muslims nearly a quarter of a century for it to finally dawn upon them that Pakistan could never be their saviour. Rather, it would always remain a millstone around their neck. They have paid a heavy price for this.

The Muslims compounded their woes by trying to lead an insular existence. The upper crust was aloof and the proliferating middle-class Muslim preferred to wallow in their self-made ghettoised environs. Failing to catch up with others in the field of education, they preferred to show little inclination for getting enthused by issues related to empowerment of other marginalised groups. This was a fatal error and by the time they saw reality following the outbreak of the Babri mosque  Ram temple issue the plot had been lost. The Muslim community went into a corrective mode but by then the saffron groups had become too strong to be easily dislodged.

Perhaps the biggest failure of the Indian Muslims was their inability to throw up a strong, forward-looking leadership from their own ranks.

Instead, they threw their lot in the hands of false Gods like Mulayam Singh Yadav or their very own Maulana Bukhari. All proved to be leaders with feet of clay. Not a single, so-called secular leader barring those from the Left have, in a strong voice, condemned the menacing culture of public lynching. The intriguing silence of the Muslims latest favourite Akhilesh Yadav is deafening. The lesser said of the Congress partys ambivalent secularism, the better it is.

As far as the leadership within the community, including honourable members of the Muslim clergy: the ulema with a few notable exceptions are more concerned about protecting the right to triple Talaq than issues of lesser importance like the right to live and the right to livelihood.

I am frequently asked to spell out the options open to the Muslims today. There are no easy options. The first thing which strikes me is that Muslims should play a limited, low role in politics for the next few years. The reason is that they have become victims of negative politics in todays polarised world. The party which seeks their support tends to lose out on other sections. In any case, their options are rather limited. On one side are the pseudo secularists and on the other side are opportunists like Asaduddin Owaisi.

It is far better for them to get involved in constructive social programs for all marginalised sections and actively participate in all mass based issues related to social empowerment. Whenever a natural disaster strikes, they should be the first to participate. Secondly, whenever injustice occurs they should be ready to stand up and take all legal and constitutional steps to stand by the aggrieved.

Finally, they should realise that there is a small but very courageous group of Hindus who are staking everything to stand by them. People like Ravish Kumar, Pronoy Roy and Apoorvanand are standing up for Muslims and are far more committed to their cause than any so-called secular politicians. it is these individuals who can stand for the constitution and the rights of all underprivileged sections.

If there is no immediate remedial step, there is an ominously rising possibility that Muslim youth would fall prey to extra-constitutional options which grow in the fertile soil of fear hatred frustration and anger. Radical Muslim groups in different parts of the world are rubbing their hands with glee as saffron groups prepare a fertile soil for them to strike roots in India.

We have watched in horror the scene unfolding in the Kashmir valley. We the people of India  Hindus Muslims Sikhs and Christians will never allow this to happen even if we have to pay with our blood. This is our commitment to the founding fathers of India. No Indian worth his salt can allow the wages of indifference to imperil our Nation.
Help India!

By Twocircles.net Staff Reporter

Kozhikode: The image of Hafiz Junaid, who lay motionless in the lap of his brother Hashim, has presented a haunting picture of continuing mob lynching in the country. The plight of the victims family has touched a chord with IUML leadership and the party has decided to give a new car for Junaids father Jalaludheen.

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The decision was taken after a delegation visited Junaids family at Ballabgarh in Haryana on Saturday. Muslim Youth League national general secretary C K Subair, who was part of the team, told Twocircles.net that the party would hand over the car in a function to be held in New Delhi on July 18. According to him, an adequate fund will be raised from party leaders and workers.

Jalaludeen, the breadwinner of the family, is now running a rented car and he has to pay Rs 9,000 per month to its owner. The partys move will help Junaids family, Subair said.

Led by the party organising secretary E T Mohammed Basheer, the delegation included IUML leaders P V Abdul Wahab M P, national secretary Khurram Anees, Asif Ansari and Muslim Students Federation (MSF) national president T P Ashraf Ali. The team visited Junaids brother and another victim of the hate crime Shakir.

Legal aid to family

IUML has also decided to extend legal aid to Junaids family in order to ensure justice. We have got a copy of FIR and Supreme Court barrister Haris Beeran has been entrusted the duty of giving legal assistance to the family, Subair said.

The party has also decided to seek support from various parties in order to unite protests against hate crimes. Party national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty MP will soon write to leaders of all the opposition parties in this regard. seeking their support for the nation wide protests. As per the plan, IUML will approach leaders of various parties and non BJP chief ministers such as Mamata Banerji and Arvind kejriwal, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, M K Stalin, Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh yadav, Mayawati and Sitaram Yechury.

Junaids brother Hashim and local activist Mohammed Asharudheen will attend the inaugural function of the partys national campaign against mob lynching. IUML national political committee chairman Panakkad Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal will inaugurate the campaign in Kozhikode on July 2. A Parliament march will mark the valediction of the campaign on July 2.

In a press release jointly issued by party national president K M Kader Moideen, general secretary P K Kunhalikutty and political committee chairman Panakkad Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal lashed out at Prime Minister saying he is merely paying lip service and is not enough in curbing the growing incidents of killing of people in the name of cow vigilantism. The custodian of the constitutional rights of the people is sordidly silent over these sad shocking incidents.The horrific incident in Haryana of Junaid killing has shaken the conscience of the right-thinking people of the country and abroad, the statement said.

Condemning the diabolic destroyers of peace, harmony and coexistence in the country, the leaders demanded the Centre to direct all the state government to take stringent action against the perpetrators of violence and hooliganism.

The families of the victims of this violence should be given an adequate compensation to the tune of Rs. one crore to everyone of them at the earliest, they demanded.

The leaders also alleged that the Minority Commission of India was keeping mum over these most inhuman attacks and killings of the members of the minority community.
GILLETTE, Wyo.  When Gary Clemons pulled into the parking lot of the Little Store in Gillette on one afternoon in his black pickup, he saw something that made him stop. He asked Tyler Sikkenga, 15, for a picture.

Tyler isn't a celebrity, a star athlete or a millionaire. He's just a Gillette teen who enjoys BMX and motocross. But it's not uncommon for people to ask the Gillette teen if they can get a picture of him.

It has everything to do with his vehicle. It's not expensive  the price tag is in the three-digit range  and it's not the most beautiful thing in the world either, with rust creeping up the hood and duct tape holding the convertible top together.

Its "junker" appearance makes it a really approachable vehicle, said Tyler's dad, Nate Sikkenga.

"Nobody's ashamed to roll by videoing this thing," he said.

It isn't particularly fast. Tyler's been able to get it to reach 50 mph, while Nate has gotten close to 80 mph, but "it takes a good downhill to get there."

"It's loud enough that everybody wants to race it," Nate said. "But the only way you ever win is when they want to get behind it to video you."

As Tyler drove on a recent afternoon, people stared. It didn't matter if they were kids riding bikes or men driving trucks or families out for a walk.

Their gaze followed it as Tyler drove by, and their stares all said, "There's something you don't see every day."

So what is it, exactly? It's a three-wheeled car, and she goes by the name of Roadkill.

Specifically, it's a 1987 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Cabriolet with two wheels in the front and one wheel mounted to the back of it. Nate calls it a marvel of "German-redneck engineering."

It's a hybrid that everyone can get behind, one that a dad built to protect his son.

The whole project began about a year ago. Wyoming residents can get a motorcycle license at age 15 and a driver's license at 16. It was for that reason that Nate wanted to make a motorcycle for Tyler for his 15th birthday.

But why didn't Nate just buy a used motorcycle? He had two reasons. The first one was safety. He's not worried about Tyler's skills and judgment.

"He's not as wild and crazy. He's a lot more responsible than I was," Nate said. "He's pretty good at riding a motorcycle, but it's other people you've got to watch for. There's a risk of somebody running him over."

Second, it's difficult to ride a two-wheeled motorcycle in the winter, especially in Wyoming, Nate said. And even many three-wheeled vehicles, such as the Polaris Slingshot, which has two wheels in the front and one in the back, have rear-wheel drive, which isn't ideal when you're trying to travel up a snow-covered street.

Nate looked for a cheap car to work on, and he came across the Volkswagen, which was sitting in somebody's field north of Gillette. He bought it for $500. After that, he began to gather parts.

A 22-inch wheel from a scrap yard. A trunk lid from eBay. A piece of metal from a 1954 Ford pickup was turned into the rear fender.

"A lot of it's just trial and error, a bit of Google in the mix," said Nate, who estimated that he's put about $3,000 into the car since he bought it.

Trust the process

He wasn't alone in creating the contraption.

Tyler, who wants to be a mechanical engineer when he grows up, helped a bit on it. Nate's father, John Sikkenga, did a lot of the engine work. And C&F Repair and Cowboy Up Auto did a lot of the brake work and external changes.

Ken Ford, owner of C&F Repair, said he's worked on some "pretty crazy projects over the years, but (the three-wheeled car) was one of the more different ones."

Ford mounted the third wheel and put a brake on it, which he said took some trial and error, research and ingenuity.

"It was a challenge, but it was fun," Ford said. "I enjoy those kinds of crazy things. They're a little hard to make money at, but they keep things interesting."

Ford was the first person to drive the vehicle in its three-wheeled form. He said he was a bit worried in the beginning, but as he got everything set up, those worries disappeared.

"I initially worried that it wouldn't be stable enough, but it actually is stable. It handles pretty good," he said.

Cowboy Up Auto filled in the rear fender  covering up where the back tires used to be  and built the new fender. Shop manager Joe Terry said he's done work on a lot of custom vehicles, so this project wasn't too outrageous.

But, "It was the first custom three-wheeler I've ever worked on," he said.

If anyone wants to undertake a unique project of their own, all they need is a plan, Ford said.

"I guess your only limitation is your imagination," he said.

Drive

The vehicle handles more like a regular car than a motorcycle. The ride might be a bit bumpy, but one must remember that the car was originally built in the 1980s, and it still has its stock suspension.

"You'd think it's a little tippy, it'll lean a little bit for a corner," Nate said. "But it handles good."

Sometimes, it sounds like the back is going to fall off, Tyler said as he drove it in June. And even if it had four wheels, it would still turn heads just from it doing its best motorcycle impression.

Because the rear wheel extends from the back of the vehicle, the wheelbase is lengthened significantly, meaning that the driver has to be careful when making turns.

"It has the same turn radius as a truck, but you don't think it because it's so small," Tyler said.

Dealing with the government

The hardest part of the project hasn't been anything mechanical. Rather, it's working with the state Department of Transportation.

The vehicle is street legal, but as a passenger car. When Nate first started the project, he wasn't sure what kind of vehicle classification he was going for.

WYDOT told him it would be a homemade motorcycle. In its current form, Nate believes he's created a motorcycle, but WYDOT isn't convinced.

The state defines a motorcycle as "every motor vehicle having a seat or saddled and designed to travel on not more than 3 wheels in contact with the ground."

"I keep counting the wheels on it, and every time I count them I come up with three of them touching the ground," Nate said.

He hopes that once he gets that cleared up, WYDOT will give him the vehicle identification number he's looking for. Easier said than done.

"They keep telling me, 'if you modify it a little more, we'll give you the VIN for it.' I keep doing more to it, they keep saying it's not quite enough," he said. "I cut the axles off because they were worried a guy could just bolt the tires back on and have a car."

Nate hasn't checked with the state in a while. He'd planned to get the VIN by Tyler's 15th birthday, but his son got a hardship permit last fall, which allows him to drive the vehicle all day as long as he's off the streets by 8 p.m.

"I think if I could talk to the right person, we could probably just get the VIN we need for it," he said.

So what's next for this vehicle, a motorcycle in spirit that handles like a hatchback and a pickup at the same time?

Nate said that once he gets the VIN, he'll make some more changes to the car. The next version of this vehicle could look completely different. It might be doorless, the roof and the back seats might be removed. It could have handlebars, an actual saddle and racing stripes.

The next Sikkenga kid, Aspen, is 13, so her dad has a couple of years to get it ready for her 15th birthday. As of right now, she's not too thrilled about the prospect of driving it.

"She thinks it's pretty noisy. But I can do some different exhaust work on it, quiet it up if that's what she needs," Nate said. "It'd be a great learner's vehicle for her, where somebody smashes into it, we're not out a whole lot, it's a lot safer than putting her out there on a regular motorcycle."
It is not out the ordinary, a deal being struck between two parties to form a Government. It goes on around the world. Government formation, as the Guardian newspaper put it, occurs in a number of countries, from Germany to Greece and from Scotland to Spain. But that is not the issue here. In short what is?

The deal

After failing to form a majority government after the general election last month, Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to compromise. And that she did. After a few weeks of haggling and negotiating, a deal was finally secured between the Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (Dup) and the UK Conservative Party.

But it was not this that caused such outrage; it was the nature of the deal. Theresa May's government pledged to give Northern Ireland one billion pounds to help "prop up" her government. And it is this agreement that has caused such anger; in Scotland and Wales, in particular.

Anger caused

Why you may ask? Mainly because there is something called the 'Barnett formula' which seeks to ensure that funds are distributed fairly between the devolved nations. This was especially picked up on by the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who stated that the deal sacrifices "the very basic principles of devolution".

The solution?

So it seems unfair but it may just be the political reality that the government faces.

But certain actions will need to be taken going forwards to satisfy both Wales and Scotland because in many ways it is not fair. But the situation can be resolved. How you may ask? By giving more money to both nations. Sounds simple enough.
The incident happened at around 2:45 pm Friday on the 16th floor of the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital. A gunman, identified as 45-year-old Dr. Henry Bello, shot at least six people with an M-16-type rifle, killing one, before turning the gun on himself. An NYPD spokesman posted on Twitter that a shooter, listed as a family physician, was deceased at the hospital.

Workplace violence at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital

NBC New York describes the incident as workplace violence. According to NBC sources, Bello resigned from his job at the hospital back in 2015, reportedly in lieu of being fired.

However, circumstances surrounding his resignation are not clear.

Dr. Henry Bello has been identified as the gunman by the NYPD at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. pic.twitter.com/wUMJXvbEjt  Steve Hirsch (@Stevenwhirsch99) June 30, 2017

That report also mentioned that during the active shooter situation, there were many police vehicles gridlocking the surrounding streets, with officers surveying the roof of the hospital from a helicopter flying above, with their guns drawn.

The NYPD Special Operations Division posted on Twitter that there was an active shooter situation at the hospital with a man dressed in black. However, NBC reports that Bello was wearing a white lab coat. The tweet added that there was smoke coming from the 16th floor of the hospital.

Officers searched the hospital for the shooter and discovered a trail of blood between the second and eighth floors. At that time, the shooter was believed to have barricaded himself on the 16th floor.

A shooter is dead at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City, NYPD official tweets. Up to 6 people believed hurt. https://t.co/xOTCDHsCZi pic.twitter.com/3HR1Ey5lQc  CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 30, 2017

Three of the victims were doctors

In a report by the New York Times, it mentioned that three of the victims in the Shooting rampage were doctors.

According to an NYPD official, the victims were apparently shot on the 16th and 17th floors, while Bello shot himself on the 17th floor. Police sources report that at least 20 people were injured in the ensuing chaos as they attempted to flee the hospital. Police then evacuated the hospital. However, some people barricaded themselves inside.

They are even evacuating patients from Bronx Lebanon Hospital pic.twitter.com/gQGanTRtyh  Nani (@BangtanSlayMe) June 30, 2017

NBC quotes a pregnant woman who only gave her name as Maya. She was in the pediatrics unit of the hospital when the panic broke out as people heard there was an active shooter in the building. Someone told her and her fiance that there was a man with a rifle shooting people in the hospital and that everyone was panicking. Maya said that as everyone tried to rush out of the building, they heard the shots. She and her fiance ran to the bathroom. They eventually followed a group of nurses out of the hospital but it took around an hour to get out of the building.

The Bronx-Lebanon Hospital reportedly has one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York City and has around 1,000 beds.
As expected, Donald Trump announced that the United States would no longer commit to the Paris climate accord. The reaction was split down party lines, with Presidential Counsel Kellyanne Conway quick to celebrate.

Conway on Trump

It's been just under a year since Kellyanne Conway joined Donald Trump and she's been loyal ever since. It started after Trump locked up the GOP nomination at the Republican National Convention last summer, and his then campaign manager Paul Manafort was forced to resign for having financial ties to Russia. In his place, Trump brought Conway on the board as she helped lead the former host of "The Apprentice" to an upset general election win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

While many on the right have been fond of Conway, she often found herself engaged in heated arguments with various cable news hosts. Since the election, Conway has been under fire after her now infamous use of the terms "alternative facts" and the "Bowling Green Massacre." As the pressure continues to mount on Trump and his entire team, the criticism continued on Wednesday after the president removed the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. As seen on her Twitter account on June 1, Conway praised Trump over his decision.

It's Trump in full: Sovereignty, fairness, jobs, America 1st, don't add to debt, legal liability, evaluate bad deals/negotiate better ones. https://t.co/d3rUX2HyGQ  Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) June 1, 2017

Taking to Twitter on Thursday night, Kellyanne Conway cheered Donald Trump for his action on the Paris climate accord.

"It's Trump in full," Conway tweeted, before adding, "Sovereignty, fairness, jobs, America 1st, don't add to debt, legal liability, evaluate bad deals/negotiate better ones."

Trump announces withdrawal from Paris climate accord, but says U.S. will begin negotiations to re-enter agreement. https://t.co/OHGYaaoUrV  The Associated Press (@AP) June 1, 2017

Twitter reacts

Not long after Kellyanne Conway sent out her tweet of praise to Donald Trump, she was hit with instant backlash from angry critics on social media.

"KELLYANNE, when America is underwater in 50 years at plan to use your corpse as my raft," comedian Kristina Wong tweeted out.

KELLYANNE, when America is underwater in 50 years at plan to use your corpse as my raft.  Kristina Wong  (@mskristinawong) June 1, 2017

History has its eyes on you. The day you bail matters. Your grandkids are watching. These tweets live forever. #UnitedWeStand #TrumpRussia  Jesse Merz (@jessemerz) June 1, 2017

She doesn't. She is a soul sucking vampire. She has a coffin in the WH basement she crawls in when the sun comes up.  Jimmy Dugan (@PeterDub2741) June 1, 2017

"Falling behind on clean energy innovation and job creation is putting China and the EU first, not America," another Twitter user wrote.

"You bet: Alienate allies, perpetuate myths, put money before the health of future generations. CHECK! How do you sleep at night???" an additional tweet read.

You forgot lies, racism, sexism, disrespect for USA and Americans and being an illiterate toddler.  Echo Voxx (@EchoVoxx) June 1, 2017

Trump in full: Foundation in lies, appeal to "they-can't-laugh-at-us" nationalism, preening self-satisfaction, ego-stroking sycophants  Peter Montgomery (@petemont) June 1, 2017

Falling behind on clean energy innovation and job creation is putting China and the EU first, not America.  Margie White (@MargieSWhite) June 1, 2017

"History has its eyes on you. The day you bail matters. Your grandkids are watching.

These tweets live forever," another tweet noted. "You forgot lies, racism, sexism, disrespect for USA and Americans and being an illiterate toddler," a social media user wrote. Kellyanne Conway's tweet continued to receive a negative reaction as many Americans made their thoughts known about the U.S. leaving the Paris climate accord.
In the four-and-a-half-year armed conflict that has plagued Syria, 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives and another 11 million have been forced from their homes as a result of the violence. It all began in March 2011 when anti-government protests surfaced in a fight for democracy. Protesters came to action, however peacefully, out of disgust for the arrest and torture of 15 schoolchildren who wrote anti-government slogans on a wall.

Security forces opened fire on demonstrators, which instead of instilling fear on the general population only grew the dissidence among the public.

By July of that year, protesters had grown into the hundreds of thousands.The conflict did not remain a simple battle of good vs. evil, pro-democracy, US-backed rebels vs. an oppressive regime, however. ISIS came in and capitalized on the chaos of war convincing many secular moderates fed up with the rule of President Assad to join their cause.

Those who do not support Assads regime, vaguely branded the opposition, are composed of as many as 1,000 different groups political parties, rebel fighters, strict Sunnis living under a Shia ruler whose only commonality is their want to take down Assad.These groups can be simplified into three groups: those who support Assad and do not support ISIS, AKA Russian-backed security forces, those who support ISIS and do not support Assad, and those who do not support ISIS or Assad, or in other words US-backed rebels.

In 2013, a chemical-weapons attack took place on the suburbs of Damascus, killing hundreds of civilians. Both the rebels and the Syrian government pointed fingers at each other and the U.S. and Russia agreed that Assad needed to terminate his chemical weapons capabilities, to which he conceded.

In April 2017, there was another chemical weapons attack on a northwestern town in Syria.

The US, the UK, and other nations have all laid blame on Assad. President trump, in the boldest diplomacy decision of his young Presidency, ordered an airstrike on the airfield in Syria from which the attack reportedly originated. 

This week, the White House received intelligence that Assad has been preparing for a second chemical attack, and issued a warning that should these allegations be proven true, Syria will be thoroughly reprimanded.

The nations government claims that these accusations are false, and America is using it as an excuse to justify another attack on the country. Russia in agreeance claimed the US was concocting a provocation in the wartorn nation. "Any further attacks done to the people of Syria will be blamed on Assad, but also on Russia & Iran who support him killing his own people, UN Ambassador Nikki Hayley tweeted Tuesday.

However, as part of the 2018 defense spending bill, Congress Thursday set in motion a repeal and replacement plan for the post-9/11 authorization of military force (AUMF) which gave a green light to war with Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups in Afghanistan. The AUMF has since been used to justify military operations in 14 countries, and not unlike the preceding administration, the Trump administration has used this authorization to conduct strikes and support operations against ISIS.

Trump argues his lack of congressional l authorization ensures an element of surprise," as when he criticized Hillary Clinton for putting her plan to defeat ISIS on her website, Youre telling the enemy everything you want to do! and I dont think Gen. Douglas Macarthur would like that too much.

Let me be clear: With the 2001 AUMF still on the books in its current form, any administration can rely on this blank check to wage endless war, says Senator Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who is not alone in feeling that the AUMF should not be so all-encompassing, and that applying it to Syria is a bit of a stretch.
A terminally ill baby from London has been denied experimental medical in the United States by the European Court of Human Rights. Charlie Gard, 10 month- old, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome. Charlie is only the 16th person ever to be diagnosed with the RRM2B stain of the disorder in the world.

Charlie was born on August 4, 2016, and was born a healthy baby. When he was just 8 weeks old doctors found that he had the rare genetic disorder. He was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children located in London and has been there for 8 months receiving care.

During this time in the hospital, his condition has continued to grow worse leaving him on life- support. Doctors have concluded that baby Charlie is suffering irreversible brain damage that he will never recover from. Charlie is unable to see, hear, move and can not breathe on his own. Doctors believe the baby would never have a quality of life and should be allowed to die with dignity.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates disagree with the doctor's findings of their son. The couple has done everything possible to keep baby Charlie alive. Soon after they found out that Charlie had the genetic disorder they began looking for help. The couple found a doctor, who can not be identified, in the United States that is doing experimental treatment for mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

The family began fundraising and raised $1.8 million to bring the baby to the U.S for treatment from England. During this time a legal battle also began, to let Charlie die or save him.

Human Right's Court

Honorable Mr. Justice Nicholas Francis of the High Court's Family Division who presided over the hearing agreed with doctors treating the baby.

Justice Francis stated, "death is in the best interest of the Charlie." There are no bases that experimental American treatment would help him. Nucleoside Therapy can not reverse structural brain damage, "Justice Francis said.

The court ordered his life support to be turned off. Barrister Richard Gordon QC, representing the parents, believes that both Charlie and his parents civil rights have been violated by the court's decision.

Gorden stated, "the parents should be able to decide on their child's treatment unless it poses significant harm," Gordon said.

Nucleoside Therapy

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children did try to gain permission to try the experimental treatment nucleoside therapy on the baby. Charlies condition rapidly declined before permission could be given. The baby suffers from extreme seizures that caused Irreversible Brain Damage.

Artuirto Estopinan, 6, who also suffering from mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome and has the TK2 strain began receiving nucleoside therapy in the United States. He is the first person to ever receive the treatment for this rare condition.

Arthur and Olga Estopinan have said that the treatment has helped Artuirto.

They decided to give nucleoside therapy a chance to save him. In 3 months of starting treatment, they saw improvements in their son. He started to move his fingers and arms, then his feet and legs and he became more alert. Artuirto has made enough of a recovery that he was able to go home. His parents believe it is a miracle. Now he can stand with assistance.

The Estopinan's who have been watching Charlie's case is shocked at the court's decision. Arthur Estopinan said, "we are shocked that the doctors in the UK said Charlie should die with dignity. How insensitive when this could save his life and doctors in the U.S are willing to help," Arthur said.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children will allow the family time to spend with their baby before life support is stopped so that they can say goodbye to their son. Chris Gard and Connie Yates had also asked the court at the time of the verdict for their son if they could at least bring him home to die. The court denied the request.
Little Rock Police are currently investigating a multiple shooting at the downtown Power Ultra Lounge nightclub early Saturday morning, in which 17 people were shot and others were injured attempting to flee the building. Immediately following the incident, Little Rock Police sent a tweet to say they do not believe the shooting incident was terror related or an active shooter situation, saying it was a dispute that got out of hand and ended with gunfire.

Number of victims in the nightclub shooting to still be confirmed

The New York Daily News reports that currently it is unclear how many were actually hurt in the incident, which happened after a fight broke out in the club in the early morning hours on Saturday.

A Finese2Tymes concert was ongoing at the nightclub at the time of the shooting. So far it is believed there were 17 shooting victims and others, including one couple who tried to jump out of a window at the club, were also injured in the chaos.

Police are investigating a shooting at the Power Lounge 220 W 6th, multiple victims, no suspect information is available. PAO on the scene.  Little Rock Police (@LRpolice) July 1, 2017

Police Chief Kenton Buckner did say that none of victims of the incident suffered life threatening injuries and all were recovering. One victim was reportedly initially listed as being in critical condition, but has now been upgraded to stable.

NBC News quoted Buckner as saying the shooting started at around 2:30 a.m.

and there were many young people in the Power Ultra Lounge at the time, with the youngest victim believed to be 16 years of age.

Shooting incident in nightclub livestreamed on Facebook Live

Darryl Rankin was at the nightclub when it happened and was streaming to Facebook Live at the time the shooting started. The unclear cell phone footage shows people dancing and enjoying themselves in front of the stage when suddenly chaos ensues.

In the video around ten shots can be heard inside the nightclub, followed by numerous other volleys of shots. There is no sign of the shooter in the video footage but people can be heard screaming and panicking after the shooting.

A shortened version, starting with the shots fired, has been uploaded to YouTube and is included here.

The Facebook video has received 107,000 views at the time of writing, with one Facebook user, Tiara Mo'naee Thornton, commenting to say she had someones blood all over her and she was scared she wasnt going to make it out of the nightclub. Songina Beasley commented to ask why people werent scanned before entering the club and asking where security was at the time of the shooting incident.

No details as yet of the suspects in the nightclub shooting

Buckner said it is too soon to give details of the suspects behind the shooting incident but did say they believe there could be multiple suspects. Arkansas Online quotes Buckner as saying the shooting victims are currently in three different hospitals in the area.

He added that police believe there may have been an off-duty police officer at the location but it wasnt clear if they were inside when it happened. Buckner said some people may call the incident a mass shooting, but he calls it a multiple shooting. He said too many people were shot, adding that one is too many, but 17 is alarming and very disturbing.
This week, the Trump administration issued a stern warning to industrial companies due to the hacking campaign aimed at the nuclear and energy industries, the new trend is to highlight the power industry's susceptibility to hackings.

Since at May, hackers have made use of 'phishing' emails to collect 'credentials' so they have access to networks of their goals, according to a joint statement by the US Homeland Security Department and the FBI.

The activities of hackers

The report handed to industrial companies was reviewed by the two agencies on Friday.

While revealing attacks and warning that hackers in some cases have passed the networks of their goals, they have not identified specific victims. According to the report, cyber players have strategically positioned the energy sector on different levels, which include cyber spying and the ability to disrupt energy systems in case of hostile confrontation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security are yet to make a statement on the report made available on Jun 28.

On Tuesday, a virus known as 'NotPetya' was attacked; it spread from the initial infections in Ukraine to firms all over the world. The attack encrypted data regarding infected machines, rendering them unusable and disruptive in ports, factories, and law firms.

Lack of evidence to substantiate claims

The report did not confirm the details of the E & E News report, saying that there was no evidence that security systems were affected in the affected installations. The activity described in the US government report comes at a time when industrial companies are particularly concerned with the threats hackers face for their activities.

Industrial firms, including power companies and other utility firms, have been worried about the potential of devastating cyber-attacks since 2016 when hackers could decrease electricity supply in Ukraine.

American nuclear energy generators SCANA Corp. (SCG.N), PSEG (PEG.N), Entergy Corp. and (ETR.N) SCANA Corp. (SCG.N) admitted they were not affected by latest cyber attacks.

SCANA's V.C. The nuclear power industry based in South Carolina was shut down on Thursday by a valve defect in the non-nuclear part of the plant, a spokesman said

On Tuesday, the energy industry reported news website E & E News that American researchers watched multiple nuclear generators on cyber intrusions this year. The report did not confirm the details of the E & E News report, saying that there was no evidence that security systems were affected in the affected installations.

The activity described in the US government report comes at a time when industrial companies are particularly concerned with the threats hackers face for their activities. Industrial firms, including power companies and other utility firms, have been worried about the potential of devastating cyber-attacks since 2016 when hackers could decrease electricity supply in Ukraine.

Two cyber security companies announced on June 12 that they identified the malicious software that was used in the Ukrainian attack, which they called Industroyer warned that it could easily be adapted to attack utility companies in the United States and Europe.
"Days Of Our Lives" spoilers reveal that fans are about to get a major blast from the past. While characters often come and go, this character hasn't been seen on the NBC Soap Opera in nearly ten years. According to Soap Hub, Stefano DiMera's former evil scientist, Dr. Rolf, is returning to the show, but why? Rolf is said to be making his first appearance this fall, and the timing of his return raises many questions.

What will bring Dr. Rolf back to Salem?

According to the report, Dr. Rolf has performance some seriously insane procedures in the past for the late Stefano Dimera, and this time he may outdo himself.

Dr. Rolf's return date just so happens to coincide with the return of Will Horton and Sami Brady to "Days of our Lives."

Could Dr. Rolf be the one responsible for bringing Will back from the dead? It's a possibility for sure. However, the evil genius might also be the one who could bring back EJ DiMera.

Are multiple characters returning from the dead this fall?

As many "Days of our Lives" fans know, EJ DiMera was killed off of the soap in 2014 after he was murdered by one of Clyde Weston's thugs in the park. Fans mourned the loss of the favorite fan character but were given hope that he would someday return to Salem. After EJ's death, his father, Stefano DiMera, sent his sister Kristen to the morgue to inject his body with an unknown substance.

Later, Stefano was seen confirming that he had moved EJ's body and replaced it with a different corpse to be cremated for his wife, Sami Brady. When Alison Sweeney's character returned to the show a year later evidence was revealed that EJ may still be alive. Sami went off to chase after some leads, and came up short, or did she?

When Sami returns to the show this fall, she will be getting her son, Will Horton back. However, she may also be getting her husband returned to her from the dead as well.

Is EJ headed back home to Sami?

Rumors have been flying that the character of EJ DiMera may have been recast and that he'll be heading back to Salem in the very near future.

While nothing has been confirmed, the storyline would be huge for the NBC soap opera, and ratings would be sure to rise if and when EJ did make a return to the show, even if the role wasn't isn't played by actor James Scott. Newly leaked spoilers and audition videos have "Days of our Lives" fans more excited than ever about the future of the show. The new storyline could be just what the show needs to land some higher ratings.
KATHMANDU - After Nepal opened door for foreign investors to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs), a growing number of Chinese investors have shown interest in setting up such areas in the Himalayan country, a senior government official said.

Nepal's SEZ Act introduced in August 2016 has opened the door for foreign direct investment for the development of SEZ in the country with the provision that such zones could be established under public-private partnership as well as sole investment of private sector only.

The Nepali government is considering allowing foreign investors to establish SEZs under joint venture arrangement.

"Four Chinese groups of investors have approached us so far regarding the establishment of SEZ in northern bordering districts," Chandika Prasad Bhatta, executive director of SEZ Development Committee, a government office overseeing the SEZ affairs, told Xinhua on Friday.

A year ago, Ping An Insurance Group of China in partnership with Lhasa SEZ had sought permission to conduct feasibility study of potential areas where a SEZ could be established and run.

"Three more Chinese groups have approached us in the last few weeks," said Bhatta, declining to name them because formal proposals are yet to be submitted.

"They have shown interest in developing SEZ particularly in Nuwakot, a district in central Nepal which borders China."

Nepal and China had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop cross border SEZs last month.

Nepal has planned to develop SEZs in 17 locations. Nepal specifically aims to attract export industries inside SEZs and more foreign investment.
Global benchmarks put city near the top of jurisdictions worldwide

When China and the United Kingdom began negotiating Hong Kong's future in the 1980s, there was skepticism about what would happen to the city's world-renowned rule of law. Mistrust by the international community endured after the Chinese government proposed the unprecedented "one country, two systems" principle.

The past 20 years have continued to see criticism of Hong Kong's "failure" to maintain rule of law and judicial independence, but statistics tell a different story.

The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators project put Hong Kong at a percentile of 94.7 for rule of law in 2015, which means it outranked 94.7 percent of the 113 countries and regions assessed.

In the same year, the United Kingdom was at 93.8 and the United States at 90.4, while Singapore came in at 96.6.

In 1996, a year before Hong Kong's return to China after 150 years of British rule, the city only scored 68.4.

At a symposium in Beijing commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Basic Law, national legislator Zhang Dejiang said the world-renowned index showed the rule of law in Hong Kong is a proven success.

Other indicators show similar results. In the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, one of the world's leading sources of original, independent data, Hong Kong scored 0.77 out of one last year - 16th in the global rankings and third in Asia, behind only Singapore and Japan.

In the Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017, Hong Kong was the only Asian economy among 138 jurisdictions to be ranked in the top 10 on judicial independence. It was also third among common law jurisdictions.

David Neuberger, president of the UK's Supreme Court and a nonpermanent judge at Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal, said concerns are exaggerated.

There was concern in some quarters about the possible undermining of judicial independence after the central government commented that judges are among the city's "administrators", he said.

"The concerns remind me of the worries some UK judges have about the fact that their email address ends with '.gov.uk' - 'We are not part of the government; we are independent', they cry."

Perception vs. reality

During a visit to the UK to promote Hong Kong's legal system, Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, secretary for justice, said the international community should look at the figures, instead of listening to the opinions of some media outlets.

Admittedly, the rule of law has become a very popular topic in Hong Kong, and it often attracts media attention, including overseas," Yuen said.

"The views expressed through these channels are admittedly very divergent. However, I would invite you to make a distinction between mere assertions on subjective perception on the one hand and objective facts on the other."

Song Sio-chong, a veteran political analyst and Basic Law expert, said: "It's not hard to see the strength of Hong Kong's legal system under the 'one country, two systems' principle, especially compared with other developed countries and regions."

The Basic Law provides a guarantee of judicial independence and rule of law, and the city's high global ranking can be attributed to a society with world-class order and security and with little tolerance for corruption. The civilized law-enforcement authorities, civil justice, effective access for civilians to legal services and freedom of expression added to the high scores, he added.

The judiciary gained greater independence after 1997 when the Final Appellate Court was moved inside the city boundary, symbolizing the return of judicial power to Hong Kong, he added.

Before and after the Basic Law was promulgated in 1990, the final avenue of appeal for cases heard in Hong Kong was the Judicial Committee of the UK's Privy Council. To address this anomaly, the Basic Law provided for the establishment of a Court of Final Appeal.

The move, which handed the power of final adjudication to Hong Kong, also raised the level of recognition of Hong Kong's legal system around the globe, Yuen said.

"During the colonial days, putting aside Privy Council decisions on appeals from Hong Kong, decisions made by the Hong Kong courts were hardly cited by the final appellate courts in other common law jurisdictions," he said.

"Since the CFA was established, we have seen a significant change in the scenario."

Moreover, the Basic Law allows judges from other common law jurisdictions to sit on the CFA, allowing the court to draw on their experience and maintain links with other common law jurisdictions, Yuen said.

In terms of transparency, Hong Kong consistently remains in the top 20 economies with low levels of corruption, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index. The city was ranked the 15th least-corrupt place among 176 countries and regions last year, scoring 77 - 13 points behind world leader Denmark.

Legal aid

In addition to quantifiable aspects, day-to-day practices also matter, and the easy access to the courts carries great weight in how rule of law is valued, Song said.

Hong Kong has a robust legal aid system, he added: "In the appropriate circumstances, applicants for judicial reviews will be granted legal aid so they are in a position to challenge administrative action or government policy, with funding provided by the government."

Meanwhile, people of differing political views have been given legal aid when facing litigation, Song said, including protesters who participated in the "Occupy Central" movement in 2014, and those involved in the Mong Kok riot last year, according to official documents.

Legal reports show that many leading constitutional or human-rights cases have been granted legal aid. In 2016-17, about HK$36 million ($4.6 million) was spent on providing legal aid to applicants for judicial reviews of executive decisions.

The Hong Kong government said: "Safeguarded by an independent judiciary, rule of law ensures a secure environment for people and organizations and a level playing field for business. No one is above the law. Everyone, regardless of race, gender, religion, political affiliation, opinion or position is equal before the law. Private individuals, legal workers and public entities all have the right to access courts to enforce legal rights or defend an action."

luisliu@chinadailyhk.com

Judges and lawyers attend the Ceremonial Opening of the Legal Year 2017 at the Court of Final Appeal in January.Roy Liu / China Daily

(China Daily 07/01/2017 page8)
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Sam Levenson, a humorist, journalist, teacher and television host, said, "You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself."

This week we have learned that when you have long suits and a fit with partner, you win more tricks than the combined point-count would normally suggest.

What do you think of the auction in today's deal?

South, after two passes, was tempted to open four hearts. (If he had, no doubt West would have doubled, and East would have pulled to four spades. Then what? Who knows?)

When South chose one heart, maybe West should have preferred a takeout double.

Over North's two-heart raise, East should have jumped to four hearts, a Texas transfer to four spades. How far wrong could that have been?

This next part is important. South's jump to four clubs said that he was willing to play in four hearts and had five clubs. He was asking North to judge what to do should the opponents bid four spades. (Here, North would have known about the double fit, but seemed to have two potential defensive tricks in the spade king and diamond ace. It would have been a close decision.)

South had no trouble bringing home four hearts, losing only one heart and two clubs.

Four spades would also have made. Even if North had led the diamond ace and given his partner a diamond ruff (so that North-South took two trump tricks), after South shifted to the heart king, West would have won with the ace and cashed the diamond king-jack to discard dummy's heart eight.
The export value of vegetables and fruits is estimated at US$1.7 billion in the first half of this year, marking a year-on-year increase of 45 per cent. Photo baodautu.vn

HA NOI  The export value of vegetables and fruits is estimated at US$1.7 billion in the first half of this year, marking a year-on-year increase of 45 per cent.

A report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) revealed that vegetables and fruits witnessed the highest growth in the export value of agricultural products, indicating their potential to increase value as well as brand name in the world market.

The countrys vegetables and fruits were exported to some 60 countries and territories and have become key export products of Viet Nam. Their export value is expected to increase to $3 billion this year.

China, the United States, Japan and South Korea are the four leading import markets of Vietnamese vegetables and fruits, accounting for 85 per cent of the total export value. During the period, impressive growth was witnessed in imports, including by Russia (67 per cent), Japan (56 per cent), China (50 per cent) and the United States (23 per cent), as well as South Korea (15 per cent) and Thailand (12 per cent).

Viet Nams vegetables and fruits not only maintained their growth rate in export, but also expanded their market.

According to the MARDs Plant Protection Department, the first batch of large green mangoes grown in the northern mountain province of Son La will be exported to Australia this month.

The giant-sized fruit, priced at VN22,000 (90 cents) per kilogramme, will be exported by Agricare Viet Nam Co., Ltd.

The department said the fruit was grown as per the Vietnamese Good Agriculture Practice (VietGap). The department cooperated with the Hanoi Irradiation Centre to irradiate 3.5 tonnes of Son La mangoes before shipping them to Australia on Wednesday.

We sent the mango samples to our Australian partners, who appreciated the high quality, sweetness and unique flavour of the fruit, a department representative said.

The export of Son La mangoes to Australia not only marks growth of the Vietnamese fruit in this market, but also opens opportunities for locals to develop agricultural production, especially orchards in northern mountain provinces such as Son La, where almost the entire population consists of ethnic minorities.

Director of Agricare Viet Nam am Quang Thang said the company was not competing in the ripe mango segment, which already had many foreign exporters. Meanwhile, Australia did not have many green mango products, therefore the company decided to invest in and develop this particular product.

Son La is a northern mountainous area well-known for its mangoes and suitable for the growth of the giant mango variety on a large scale to export to Australia, Thang said.

Deputy chairman of Son La Peoples Committee Lo Minh Hung said the province had prepared plans to develop orchards, especially to grow mangoes, in recent years. The province currently had some 4,000ha of mangos, with productivity of more than 3,000 tonnes per year.

The province will continue to support farmers to invest in the growth and production of mangoes according to market demand. If the market accepts the product, growers will expand production while businesses will be encouraged to join in exports, Hung said.

Agricare Viet Nam plans to ship some five tonnes of mango to Australia per week. This amount is not big, but with Australia "opening the door," other markets could follow suit.

Head of MARDs Plant Quarantine Division Le Son Ha said farmers previously were in the habit of growing and producing what they required, but now they would have to change their mindset, and focus on growing, treatment and packaging according to international standards and market demand.

If Vietnamese fruit meets requirements to export to Australia and the United States, we believe our fruit can meet the demand of almost all world markets, Ha said.

The province has set its key task, which is to develop orchards to replace short-term crops on hills to ensure sustainable living for local farmers. It expects to develop 100,000 ha of orchards by 2030, of which 50,000ha are for mango and the rest are for longan and avocado.

Ha said his department was working on procedures to ship lychee to Japan. At present, the country is already exporting longan to the United States, but it needed more time to further negotiate and complete procedures to export longan to Australia and New Zealand.

Specifically, we will complete the process to export red-flesh and white-flesh dragon fruit to Australia this year, Ha said.

The growth in export of agricultural products and seafood accelerated after the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) came into effect in 2010, which eliminated import duties.

The MARD, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, is working on ways to overcome technical barriers and open the Australian market to new fruits and types of shrimp.  VNS
It was a bright and beautiful morning when Bonny Senger and Mike Petersen, of Bismarck, posed for selfies at a trail head near West Yellowstone.

No stranger to the area, Petersen was geared up in a bright orange vest and waders. He packed food, bear spray and a sidearm in case of an emergency in the Montana Rockies.

Around 9:30 on June 4, a Sunday, Petersen took off down the trail.

"I never wanted him to go alone. That always scared me. But you don't question. I guess I didn't really know how dangerous it was," Senger, 53, who was his girlfriend for the past three years, said in an interview.

"The last thing I said to him was, I don't know why I said it, I said Philippians 4:13. I can do all things through Christ," she said.

Those words of strength  her favorite in the Bible  would turn out to be needed when the 42-year-old welder disappeared into the woods that night. The father of four drowned in Beaver Creek along his hike in an incident family and law enforcement hope will bring attention to the dangers of hiking alone and in areas with rushing water.

"Bad things happen to good people, and nature doesn't care that 99 times out of 100 it went OK," said Gallatin County Sheriff's Capt. Jason Jarrett.

Jarrett said Petersen likely died attempting to cross the creek on his way back to the trail head in the afternoon. Due to the spring snow melt, the creek was much higher than it was when Petersen crossed it in the morning. The Gallatin County rescue team has responded to three drowning deaths this spring, according to its media releases.

"Water in itself needs to be respected," he said. "Moving water is deceivingly powerful."

Before his disappearance, Petersen texted Senger throughout the day  he'd hiked the trail several times before and knew where to get bits of cell reception  as she and her 14-year-old son, Jace, drove to nearby Yellowstone National Park to watch the roaming buffalo and Old Faithful geyser.

She planned to pick Petersen up around 6 p.m. at the trail head. The idea was to go to dinner and make a fire before bedtime.

But 6 p.m. came and went with no sign of Petersen. At 7:20 p.m., Senger heard four gunshots in the woods. Senger thought it might have been a signal he was on his way, but then nothing. She panicked and drove to find cell service so she could call the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office.

At first the sheriff didn't sound too worried, she recalled, but around 10 p.m. they started a search. Senger and her son waited at a hotel with a chaplain while the search-and-rescue team scoured the area with search teams, dogs and helicopters.

"It was top-notch search and rescue," she said, after seeing the operation that Tuesday, the day rescue volunteers found Petersen with the help of a K-9. "They were all so amazing."

Petersen was a welder living in Bismarck, who left behind four kids, ages 17 to 23. A "storyteller" and a "positive person" Senger recalled, he enjoyed cooking and being outdoors.

"He was revived by the wilderness," said Senger, a physician recruiter.

His brother, Mac Petersen, a 27-year-old cook and server at Rolling Hills in Mandan, drove to southern Montana to join the search when he learned of the incident the day after Mike Petersen went missing.

As he watched the rushing river weave in and out of the road, he said he felt a "looming presence of defeat."

"I had this sinking feeling as we got closer and closer," he said.

It turned out to be justified, as authorities found Mike Petersen's body just an hour before he arrived.

Mac Petersen said he last spoke with his brother three days before his death. Knowing Mac Petersen worried about his safety hiking alone, Mike Petersen said he was going to a wedding in Denver.

"He wasn't necessarily the most honest with people, but it was because he was always trying to make everybody happy," said Mac Petersen, who is now trying to help his brother's kids, who live together in an apartment.

Though the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office has completed its investigation, there will always be some question about what happened to Petersen in the woods.

During their search, rescue volunteers found Mike Petersen's vest and bear spray canister away from the river. In his backpack, they found the gun. It's possible Petersen encountered a bear, but tracks were never discovered.

Senger, who has three kids of her own, seeks some refuge from her grief in her Catholic faith. Outside the Ground Round shortly after his death, she found on a bench a white bandanna, just like the one Petersen wore when he left on the hike.

Written in Sharpie around the edge, it said: "Deuteronomy 31:6. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God is with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you."

"I took it. I put it in my purse. And my son goes, 'Mom, you're stealing,'" she said, crying and laughing at once. "I don't care. I think that was for me."
As many as 19 State-owned enterprises (SOEs) were approved for equitisation as of the middle of June, lower than the same period last year. ang Quyet Tien, Deputy Director of the Corporate Finance Department under the Ministry of Finance, made the statement during a meeting in Ha Noi Thursday.  VNS Photo

HA NOI  As many as 19 State-owned enterprises (SOEs) were approved for equitisation as of the middle of June, lower than the same period last year.

ang Quyet Tien, Deputy Director of the Corporate Finance Department under the Ministry of Finance, made the statement during a meeting in Ha Noi Thursday.

Tien said the reduction in the number of firms approved for equitisation shows continued sluggish progress of divestment and equitisation in Viet Nam.

He gave some examples of SOEs that need to accelerate the equitisation process, such as the Viet Nam Southern Food Corporation, The Electricity of Viet Nam Group and the Viet Nam Rubber Group.

He attributed the slow process at SOEs to the firms leaders hesitation and lack of assertiveness, adding that the economys capital absorption capacity of businesses remains weak.

According to Tien, the larger the scale of a business, the more difficult it is to conduct equitisation. The process requires that each firm clarifies the responsibilities of leaders through various periods, partly affecting their credibility and thus leading to avoidance and delay.

Regarding State capital divestment process, the Ministry of Finance reports that in the first five months of 2017, State units divested VN3.4 trillion (US$150 million) and collected VN14.8 trillion through the divestment. However, a large part of the collection came from the sale of stake the Viet Nam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company (Vinamilk) late last year, reaching more than VN11 trillion.

At the meeting, Tien also mentioned some contents of the draft decree amending and supplementing some articles of Governments Decree No 91/2015/N-CP dated October 13, 2015 on investment of state capital in enterprises and management and use of capital and assets at enterprises, adding that Decree No 91 shows some particular limitations.

Tien said the draft amended the determination of the starting price of state capital when conducting State capital transfer, indicating that the determination of the starting price is made through an organisation competent enough to conduct price evaluation. The firm must ensure that land use rights at the time of state capital transfer are valued correctly.

The draft also stipulates the method of transfer of state capital invested in joint stock companies, adding that the transfer method is different due to two separate cases.

The first case is transferring state capital invested in joint stock companies which have been listed on the stock market or registered for transactions on the Upcom. The second one is transferring state capital invested in joint stock companies which have not been listed or registered for transactions on the Upcom.  VNS
HCM CITY  The first ever Online Tourism Day will be held in HCM City on July 5.

The potential of e-commerce and the online travel market, policies to develop the online travel market, the influence of technology, social media and low-cost airlines on the tourism sector will be among the topics discussed at the event.

Experts will speak to local travel agents and hotels about how to adjust their business strategies and adopt technological solutions.

According to the World Tourism Organisation, Asia and the Pacific have seen unprecedented growth in tourism, far above the world average, fuelled by demographic, economic and technological changes in recent decades.

The technological revolution and the ensuing influence of the social media have been major contributory factors in the growth, it said.

The rise of the free and independent traveller who uses online travel agents instead of the traditional package tour operators has changed the market place, it said.

A study by Google forecasts the Southeast Asian online travel market to reach US$90 billion by 2025 from $22 billion in 2015.

Hotels and airlines will account for $77 billion, making up 85 per cent of the total online travel market.

Low cost carriers will drive most of the growth due to their prominence in Southeast Asia and greater online penetration.

The Online Tourism Day will be organised by the Viet Nam E-commerce Association, Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, and Viet Nam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency.

In the first half of the year the number of foreign tourists visiting Viet Nam soared 30 per cent year-on-year to 6.2 million, according to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism. VNS
On occasion of Canada Day on July 1, 2017, Ambassador Ping Kitnikone emphasises the nations diversity and its contribution to promoting human rights

This year is an important milestone, because we are celebrating 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. This major national anniversary is not just an opportunity for Canadians all across our country to celebrate; the world is invited to participate, celebrate and explore the best that Canada has to offer. The Government of Canadas vision for the 150th anniversary of Confederation has four major themes: diversity and inclusiveness; the environment; youth; and reconciliation with indigenous peoples.

We have a long history of collaborating with global partners to promote peaceful pluralism to protect human rights, to promote gender equality and to continue to offer the world a premier destination to visit, study, work, invest and live.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Diversity is our strength and indeed, we are very proud of our linguistic, cultural and regional diversity, as well as our rich history and heritage. It is thanks to this diversity, and not in spite of it, that the country is prospering. We are more committed than ever to support inclusion.

From the early years of the Confederation to today, immigrants have enriched our society and made Canada what it is today. A significant Vietnamese-Canadian community is part of our population and forms an important component of our bilateral relations with Viet Nam.

We are working steadily to build on this by welcoming an ever increasing number of Vietnamese students to study in Canada, and they are benefiting from our world-class education system, safe and clean cities, and open society.

We understand the importance of international education. It is at the very heart of our current and future prosperity. A highly skilled and educated workforce, combined with financial stability and low business costs, is vital for sustained growth and prosperity. As a trading nation, Canadas prosperity is linked to economic opportunities beyond our borders. For more than 40 years, Canada has been Viet Nams partner. Over the past two years, Viet Nam has been Canadas largest trading partner in ASEAN and this dynamic commercial relationship generated over CAD$5.5 billion (US$5.1 billion) in two-way trade in 2016.

This past year also saw increased high level exchanges, with visits by Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, Agricultural and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay, and most recently, our International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne to attend the APEC Trade Ministers meeting. We can expect more high-level visits through the year, all of which will add greater momentum for our bilateral relations.

We are committed to building our strong, long-standing relations with our Vietnamese partners and finding ways to deepen our ties. Some of these ties include Canadas support to build capacity toward supporting the rights of individuals, including LGBTI and womens rights.

The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives in Viet Nam has supported and will continue to support similar initiatives in Viet Nam. I have been inspired by the dedicated advocates for these issues in Viet Nam and am proud to share with the readers that Canada has supported projects ranging from efforts to stop violence against women to those that raise awareness of a womans legal right to have her name on land use rights certificates.

And that is just one aspect of how Canada has worked with Viet Nam to date. Altogether, we have contributed over CAD$1.3 billion towards Viet Nams development since 1990. Over the past year, we ramped up our development programming in areas of great importance to Viet Nam. For instance, this past year saw successful visits from both the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Conference Board of Canada to share information with Vietnamese exporters and government officials on the Canadian food safety system. We were also pleased to announce a CAD$15.3 million Safe Food for Growth project.

On another front, we are working on a CAD$15 million project to help Vietnamese small and medium size enterprises address climate change, and CAD$200 million is being channeled through the Asian Development Bank to catalyse private investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation in the Asia-Pacific region.

These are just some of the ways Canada is working with Viet Nam and we look forward to expanding our collaboration, especially in empowering women and girls as a key element of sustainable development and economic growth. Women play a critical role in food production, income generation, community organization and other key activities.

So, to summarise, we look forward to building on already strong ties for the benefit of both peoples.

It has taken years of hard work for Canada to get to where it is today. As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation, it allows us to think about our past, reflect on all we have accomplished so far, and look to the future with optimism.

On July 1, 2017, as Canadians celebrate our past and re-affirm our commitment to international engagement, I would like to invite you to celebrate along with us.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese children now can add to their book collections with the recent release of three renowned Japanese picture books, or Ehon books, in Viet Nam.

The three books, entitled Ban Voi i Dao (The Wandering Elephant), Hat Da Troi (The Blue Seed) and Nhung Nguoi Ban Tren Co The (Friends on Body), are considered the most typical of Japanese Ehons. The first two, released in Japan in 1960, are still popular among Japanese children today, while the third was written by Gomi Taro, a renowned Japanese illustrator whose works have been translated into many languages around the world.

The books have received thorough investment so that the quality of the translation could be as close to the original as possible.

Also on the occasion, 1,000 books were donated to the Highland Students and Flowers on Stones Funds, which are dedicated to underprivileged children in remote mountainous areas in Viet Nam.

The release of the books is the most recent activity within the framework of the Mogu Bookworm project, following the programme oc Truyen Tranh Nhat Ban Cho Be (Reading Japanese Picture Books to Children), conducted by More Production Vietnam Co Ltd.

Launched in 2014, the programme has received support from the Japan Foundation and has been held regularly at the library of the Japan Foundation Centre.

The Mogu Bookworm Project was initiated after its representative, Le Thi Thu Hien, also the director of More Production Vietnam, had the chance to meet Japanese Empress Michiko and received her encouragement in February 2016.

According to Hien, the project aims to release and promote interesting Japanese picture books in Viet Nam as well as support the creation of Vietnamese picture books.

Mogu Bookworm Project has also been supported by Japanese ambassador to Viet Nam, Umeda Kunion and the consultation from Japanese Professor Tsuboi Yoshiharu from Waseda University.

Ehon or E-hon is a Japanese term for picture books featuring short illustrated stories for children under 10.  VNS
A police investigation led to the detention of three people involved in the incident, one of which is a 31-year-old doctor named Hoang Cong Luong. He was tasked with dialysis treatment for the unfortunate patients.Photo soha.vn

Chi Lan

The deaths of eight innocent patients in a tragic medical incident in Hoa Binh Province on May 29 dealt a severe blow to the fast-eroding public trust in the national health system. Justice must be served, and fast.

A police investigation led to the detention of three people involved in the incident, one of which is a 31-year-old doctor named Hoang Cong Luong. He was tasked with dialysis treatment for the unfortunate patients.

The charges against Luong seemed legitimate according to the law, accusing him of allowing dialysis treatment without receiving the machines maintenance report beforehand. A failure in the maintenance by a company contracted by the hospital turned out to be the cause of the deaths.

Luong said that he had heard the maintenance was completed beforehand, as usual, and gave the okay to run the machines.

It was uncommon, if not unprecedented, for the large community of doctors to collectively protest against the detention of one of their members.

Several medical organisations and the Ministry of Health urged the police to reconsider their decision.

They argued that Luong should not be held responsible for the quality of the machines or the drugs he used to treat the patients, saying the police should look into the maintenance company and the hospitals leaders who signed the maintenance contract. No matter how good a doctor is, one shouldnt assume that he also excels at fixing machines.

The second argument of the health community was far more important. Luong could have followed the correct procedures, waiting for a maintenance report before allowing dialysis to begin. This may have taken days or weeks and the patients who were desperately in need of treatment would have to wait. This sounds absurd and unethical to any doctor whose commitment is to preserving human life.

Their point was spot-on. It has revealed a common but rarely discussed dilemma for healthcare staff in Viet Nam, torn between their ethical code and all kinds of red tape and hoops they have to jump through.

Its far from my intention to say that this paperwork is not important. In fact, it is this paperwork that ensures the quality of medical equipment used to treat people, the importance of which was painfully proven in the Hoa Binh incident. Paperwork also clarifies the responsibilities of those involved in treatment should something go wrong.

What matters here, however, is the suitability of paperwork processes for the reality of oft-overcrowded hospital workers, where doctors are pressured to treat patients as fast as they can so rooms are available for new patients.

The doctor community, well aware of a situation which the police and ordinary people have little insight into, collectively stood up to voice their sympathy for Luong. His detention, which could very well be followed by a criminal trial, would unintentionally drive doctors retreating into their protective shells. No rule breaking even in emergency or you might go to jail.

Luongs case is a wake-up call for both the community and the Ministry of Health to reconsider the difficult situation doctors are put in every day. The grey area in their work will not go away unless the ministry draws out a realistic plan to resolve the problem, but in the meantime, a reassurance is the best we can do to help them keep doing their vital job. Laws are to be followed, but beyond that we are to seek justice. Justice for the patients and justice for the doctors too.  VNS
President Tran ai Quang (L) meets with Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin in Moscow yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang

MOSCOW  President Tran ai Quang praised the close cooperation and mutual support between the two legislatures of Viet Nam and Russia during his meeting with Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin in Moscow yesterday.

He shared his wish that the Viet Nam-Russia and Russia-Viet Nam Friendship Parliamentarians Groups will continue working hard to help consolidate the collaborations between the two legislative bodies and the countries comprehensive strategic partnership.

At the meeting, the two sides described the effective implementation of the Viet Nam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) as a top priority.

President Quang suggested the two parliaments work closely together to monitor the EVFTAs implementation in order to boost bilateral trade relations, with an aim of raising two-way trade to US$10 billion by 2020.

The Russian Duma Chairman spoke highly of the Vietnamese Presidents official visit to Russia, saying that it has mapped out development orientations and deepened the two countries comprehensive strategic partnership, including the ties between their legislatures.

The State Duma always pays special attention to promoting and enhancing the Viet Nam Russia cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, science  technology, education  training, defence  security and tourism, he said.

The Russian legislative body will actively support the building of a suitable legal framework to step up investment cooperation in industry, agriculture, energy, oil and gas between the two nations.

He also expressed his delight at Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngans upcoming participation in the 137th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly slated for October in Russia.

President Quang noted his support for cultural exchanges between the two countries, including the organisation of Russian Culture Days in Viet Nam in 2017.

He also called on the State Duma to provide legal assistance and favourable conditions for Vietnamese people living in the country. VNS
HCM CITY  Viet Nams software industry and investment environment will be the featured topics at a Viet Nam IT Outsourcing Conference held on October 19-20 at the convention centre at Quang Trung Software City in HCM Citys District 12.

With a fast-growing economy and a large pool of talent for the engineering workforce, Viet Nam is becoming Asias new technology hub, according to organisers of Quang Trung Software City, Investment & Trade Promotion Centre of HCM City, and Viet Nam IT Outsourcing Alliance.

In the past few years, giants like Intel, Samsung, LG, Foxconn, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Bosch, NTT and others have moved their high-tech operations and outsourcing to Viet Nam.

Viet Nam has moved from being an unknown destination to an emerging market for software outsourcing, the organisers said.

The conference is expected to promote the image of Viet Nam as an attractive destination for IT services, while expanding the search for clients and partners for domestic enterprises.

It will help to create an effective business matching platform for buyers and Vietnamese IT outsourcing vendors.

Presentations about human resources, education and training, the labour market and infrastructure will also be held at the conference.

More than 150 multi-national and high-tech companies from over 20 countries are expected to attend, along with 250 top offshore software outsourcing companies in Viet Nam and 20 IT universities. VNS
A NANG  In co-operation with Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF), the central city yesterday officially debuted a new public bus route as part of a Nangs urban traffic corridor improvement project.

The bus route, which took two years of work and total investment of US$2.9 million, will help boost the citys internal bus services by offering public car parking areas, bus stops and shuttle bus routes connecting residential quarters and public destinations.

The project will also support commuters with free bike parking and smart parking at the departure bus station as well as bus tracking apps on mobile devices.

As planned, commuters will get a one-year complementary ticket as well as free wi-fi service on the bus.

The bus routes, which use eight 50-seat buses, will operate from 5.45am to 8.45pm everyday.

General Secretary of TMF and Executive vice president of Toyota Motor Corporation, Osamu Nagata, said the project aims to help the city prevent traffic congestion in the future as well as contributing to the citys sustainable development.

Vice chairman of the citys Peoples Committee ang Viet Dung said the public bus routes would help change the habits of using personal vehicles for daily travel among local residents.

He said the route, in addition to the current 11 public ones, offers commuters more options to utilise a safe and environmentally-friendly vehicle.

On the occasion, Toyota Viet Nam donated two Toyota Coaster buses to the city as part of the project signed in 2015.

Last year, the city launched five new inner-city bus routes with 61 new 40-seat busses. They will run every 20 minutes between 5am until 9pm, he added.

The city plans to build Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes and 14 regular bus routes by 2020 under the World Bank-funded sustainable development project.

The citys population of 900,000 has far outgrown the current public bus system, which has just 48 buses travelling on five routes, meeting just 10 per cent of demand.

The citys Transport Department estimates that residents make 2.1 million journeys each day, 80 per cent of them on motorbikes.

a Nang is Viet Nams fourth largest city and is highly regarded by other cities for its planning, governance and infrastructure.

In 2013, the World Bank agreed an $272.1 million sustainable development project, of which $202.4 million will be funnelled into helping improve the citys BRT network, build new roads and revamp the drainage system.  VNS
QUANG TRI  The central Quang Tri Province will lay a new water pipeline swiftly so that Van Hoa villagers stop consuming metal-contaminated underground water, which is suspectedly making them ill.

Currently, residents of Van Hoa Village in Trieu Hoa Commune use underground well water, where the iron content exceeds 18 times the permitted limit as per the daily water standard set by the health ministry, a report by the local Department of Natural Resources and Environment states.

For decades now, the 420 households, or 2,000 villagers, have been drinking this well water.

In the past 10 years, 41 locals, or 0.2 per cent of the villagers, have died of cancer, which is slightly higher than the national common percentage of 0.11 determined by the health ministry, the environment department report said.

Truong Thi Thi, 71, said water from the local wells frequently cause itchy skin and stomach problems.

Only two per cent of the villagers have access to a better water source for daily use; the remaining residents dig wells that are 12 to 35m deep and use that water for drinking and cooking.

The environment department has requested local authorities to either replace the water source or filter water from local wells before use.

Nguyen Cuong, chairman of Trieu Hoa Commune, said that in the short term, they are deploying staff to teach locals to filter the well water. The provinces Peoples Committee has promised to lay a new pipeline that will supply clean drinking water to the village, he said.  VNS
CEDAR RAPIDS  Iowas top election official has not complied with a request from a federal electoral integrity commission to provide a list of the names, party affiliations, addresses and voting histories of all Iowa voters.

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity has told secretaries of state to provide about a dozen points of voter data, including dates of birth, the last four digits of voters Social Security numbers and any information about felony convictions and military status.

Some voter information is a matter of public record, but releasing other data  Social Security numbers, for example  could violate privacy laws, according to state election officials.

According to some reports, at least two dozen states are refusing to fully comply with the sweeping request for data by President Donald Trumps commission that has been charged with investigating unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.

Officials in 10 states and the District of Columbia said they would not comply at all with the request. Those states are California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia. No state election official planned to provide the commission with all of the information requested.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said Friday he has received the commissions letter but has not shared information with the commission.

The Iowa Code specifies a formal process for requesting voter information, Pate said, and his office will fulfill the request if it complies with Iowa law.

However, providing personal voter information, such as Social Security numbers, is forbidden under Iowa Code, Pate said.

Pate will be attending a meeting of secretaries of state this week where the commissions letter will likely be discussed.

The president formed the commission to investigate alleged voter fraud in the 2016 elections. Trump, who lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton, has alleged 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally. So far, there has been no credible evidence to support that claim.

Election Integrity Commission head Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state since 2011, said the information is needed to compare voter rolls state-to-state. Beyond saying the commission will fully analyze the data, Kobach did not say what he will do with the sensitive and personal information.

Neither did he explain where or how the information would be stored or protected. It indicates the files will be made publicly available.

Some state officials have agreed to share information that is part of the public record. Others have refused because there is no evidence of voter fraud in their states and believe it is part of a large-scale voter suppression effort.
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Trump heralds golden era for US energy

30 June 2017

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President Donald Trump yesterday announced a "complete review" of US nuclear policy as the first of six new initiatives to secure domestic energy independence and create a "new era of American energy dominance."

Energy Secretary Rick Perry applauds President Trump at the Unleashing American Energy event (Image: Simon Edelman/DOE)



The president's remarks were made in speech on American energy dominance at a Department of Energy (DOE)-hosted event on Unleashing American Energy. The event was also attended by Vice President Mike Pence, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Scott Pruitt, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, who took part in a panel discussion on the policy framework for US energy dominance.

AP1000s in India



The USA and India reconfirmed their commitment to commercial civil nuclear cooperation during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House on 26 June. A fact sheet issued by the White House referenced a contract for six Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to be built in Andhra Pradesh. "Once completed, the project will provide reliable electricity for millions of Indian citizens," the statement said.

With the USA's "extraordinary energy abundance" - unknown of "even five years ago" - Trump promised his administration would seek not only "the American energy independence that weve been looking for so long, but American energy dominance". He spoke of plans to export energy "all over the world, all around the globe". This potential could only be realised with governmental promotion of energy development, he said, going on to announce "six brand-new initiatives to propel this new era of American energy dominance."

The first of those initiatives, he said, would be to "revive and expand" the country's nuclear energy sector. "A complete review of US nuclear energy policy will help us find new ways to revitalise this crucial energy resource," Trump said.

The other five initiatives announced by the president addressed issues connected with the export of US coal plants, natural gas and petroleum, and opening offshore areas to fossil fuel development.

"The golden era of American energy is now underway," Trump said.

Nuclear Energy Institute president and CEO Maria Korsnick said the US nuclear industry welcomed a comprehensive study of the issues it faces. "If the president wishes for our nation to achieve nuclear energy dominance both at home and abroad, he'll do it by preserving the existing nuclear fleet, paving the way for the deployment of advanced nuclear designs and stimulating exports abroad. We look forward to working with the administration on these incredible opportunities," she said after attending the event.

Making nuclear cool



The president's speech gave no further details of the planned review of the nuclear industry, but earlier in the week Energy Secretary Perry reaffirmed the administration's support for nuclear energy, particularly advanced reactors and small modular reactors.

"I believe no clean energy portfolio is truly complete without nuclear power, and so does the President. If you want to see the environment and the climate that we live in affected in a positive way, you must include nuclear energy with zero emissions to your portfolio," he said at a White House press briefing. "Do it safe, do it thoughtfully, do it economically. Under the leadership of the United States, the world can benefit from that."

"This administration believes that nuclear energy development can be a game-changer and an important player in the development of our clean-energy portfolio globally. I believe we can achieve this by focusing on the development of technology, for instance, advanced nuclear reactors, small modular reactors," he said.

In answer to questions about the USA's two nuclear plant construction sites, VC Summer and Vogtle, Perry said it was important to keep America engaged in the development of nuclear energy. "One of the things we want to do at DOE is to make nuclear energy cool again  we need as a country, I think, to again bring us to that place where the nuclear energy is a part of a portfolio and to be able to sell it in great truthfulness and honesty about what it can add to America both from an environmental standpoint and from a security standpoint," he said.



Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Allu Arjun is currently in the US to promote Duvvada Jagannadham. The film has collected over 100 crore gross worldwide in its first weekend. After meeting his fans in Chicago, Bunny will be flying to New Jersey today for the next round of promotions.

According to the latest reports, Bunny will head to Alaska for a short holiday after he completes his promotional tour in the US. Bunny will join his parents and uncle Chiranjeevi and aunt Surekha, who are already in the US. The Stylish Star will return to Hyderabad and begin shooting for Naa Peru Surya.

Articles that might interest you:
Making Independence Day safer for children should be a collective effort. Everyone from our lawmakers to parents to hosts of 4th of July parties share the responsibility for safety.

COLUMBIA, MO, July 01, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- On average, more than 7 Americans lose their lives and nearly 12,000 are treated in emergency rooms every year because of injuries related to fireworks, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Missouri injury attorneys Wally Bley and Mark Evans said that most of these injuries are preventable if people follow safety guidelines.



"The 4th of July is an honored tradition that unites Americans," said Mark Evans, partner at Bley & Evans Law Firm. "Fireworks are obviously an important part of that tradition, but people should know that thousands of fireworks-related injuries happen every year."



In 2015, more than one-quarter of all fireworks injuries occurred among children under the age of 15. Forty-two percent of fireworks injuries treated in emergency departments occurred among those under the age of 20.



The attorneys said that it's not just the larger, more spectacular fireworks that cause injuries. For example, sparklers caused around 1,900 injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2015, more than double the number of similar injuries caused by bottle rockets.



"Like most injuries, fireworks-related injuries are often preventable," said Evans. "Making Independence Day safer for children should be a collective effort. Everyone from our lawmakers to parents to hosts of 4th of July parties share the responsibility for safety."



The attorneys remind people of a few tips to minimize the risk of fireworks injuries. They include:

- Keep fireworks out of the hands of children.

- Make sure that all spectators are stationed far from the display.

- Keep water sources or fire extinguishers available in case of a fire.

- Always read instructions on fireworks and follow them closely.

- People responsible for lighting fireworks should never be under the influence of alcohol.

- Wear proper safety attire, including protective glasses, while lighting fireworks.

- Never attempt to relight a dud device.

- Safely dispose of all fireworks by spraying them with water and placing them in a metal container far away from buildings and flammable materials.



The attorneys said that while there are risks for injuries during major holidays like the 4th of July, hazards can be reduced through proper planning and placing an emphasis on safety.



About Bley & Evans

Wally Bley is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been a trial lawyer in Missouri for over 35 years. Mark Evans has a career that spans over 25 years, including working at one of the nation's largest defense firms. Find out more about Bley & Evans by visiting their website - http://www.bleyevanslaw.com/.



# # #
Evan R. Goldstein in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

On a February morning in Washington, a hotel ballroom is packed with people eager to hear Jonathan Haidt explain whats wrong with higher education. His talk is part of the International Students for Liberty Conference, which has attracted 1,700 attendees, mostly young libertarians, to a weekend of sessions with titles like "Stereotyped 101," "Advancing Liberty Around the World," and "Beer Is Freedom." Before hes introduced, Haidt, a social psychologist at New York Universitys Stern School of Business, stands at the front of the room, tall and thin, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt. As people gather around, a brown-haired woman in a gray skirt chats him up before rushing off. "Oh, my God," she says to a friend, "I just shook Jonathan Haidts hand!"

Haidts renown is driven by bold declarations like those in a 2015 cover story in The Atlantic titled "The Coddling of the American Mind." Written with Greg Lukianoff, president and chief executive of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), the article took the rise of microaggressions, trigger warnings, and safe spaces as evidence that colleges are nurturing a hypersensitive mind-set among students that "will damage their careers and friendships, along with their mental health." The article, which has been viewed by nearly six million people, catapulted Haidt, already a prominent scholar and best-selling author, into a new role: gadfly of the campus culture wars.

More here.
While the pay could be better, benefits of teaching out of this world
sudok1/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- The doctor accused of opening fire with an assault weapon at his former workplace in New York City, killing one and injuring several others, wrote an email to a newspaper ahead of the rampage, according to the publication.



Dr. Henry Bello -- who police sources say unleashed a hail of bullets from an AR-15 that was hidden under his lab coat before taking his own life -- complained in the note about having his bid to obtain a medical license shut down, according to the New York Daily News.



This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine, Bello wrote in the email, just hours before the Friday shooting at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, according to the News. First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse.



"Then I was told, it was because I threatened a colleague."



In the note, Bello appears to blame a specific doctor for blocking his progress and wasting some $400,000 of his money.



Bello resigned from the hospital in 2015 amid sexual harassment allegations. Police sources also said Bello had a 2004 sex abuse arrest. He pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment and was sentenced to community service, according to the sources.



Bello had been working at Bronx-Lebanon on a limited state-issued permit.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
"If you were born and raised in Mandan, this is the time to come home. People just love the Fourth of July in Mandan. It surpasses Christmas. It's the most wonderful time of the year."

 Kris Haug, administrative assistant with the Mandan Progress Organization.

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"Without it, I wouldn't have a crop."

 Steve Knorr, who relies on water from a pump station on the McClusky Canal.

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"To sit and wait and wait on a potential (project) and risk losing a proven program, I think, would be a mistake. So let's step back."

 Bismarck City Commissioner Josh Askvig, on a motion to drop a Tax Increment Financing District after it was announced that the lead developer of the FiveSouth project was leaving. The commission voted to drop the TIF.

q q q

"We've already moved a significant amount (of corn) out of North Dakota for the crop year. We've been moving it steadily since last fall."

 John Miller, BNSF Railway's group vice president of agricultural commodities.

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"With residential ratings at 59 percent positive and 7 percent negative, it's apparent that people who live here view the community more favorably than nonresidents."

 The Mandan Tomorrow-Leadership, Pride and Image Committee's statement on a survey of perceptions of Mandan.

q q q

"It is kind of a bummer not being able to have a campfire in the evening, but everyone's been awesome about it. They've taken it very seriously."

 Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park Manager Dan Schelske, on how campers are reacting to a ban on campfires and charcoal grills because of the drought.

q q q

"A lot of cattle are being sold. It's sad.

 State Water Commissioner George Nodland, of Dickinson, on North Dakota drought conditions. The State Water Commission voted last week to activate a drought disaster program to help North Dakota ranchers get water to livestock in extremely dry parts of the state.

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"Our needs are both immediate and future, pressing and impending. Our system continues to grow, and our state funding is being held static. So, unfortunately our options are somewhat limited."

 Bismarck School Board President Matt Sagsveen, on difficult decisions facing the board. The board is considering closing two elementary schools.

q q q

"(The recommendations) only addresses the economics; they don't really focus on anything else. We certainly love the school; it's a very tight community of parents and kids."

 Steve Leibel, who has four children, including a fifth-grader, second-grader and kindergartner at Highland Acres, on a proposal to close Highland Acres and Roosevelt elementary schools.

q q q

"I think it's about the significance and having something that was almost forgotten to come to the forefront again.This is an agricultural region but we don't usually think about the Jewish settlers as being farmers.

 Shirley LaFleur, Devils Lake, discussing the Sons of Jacob cemetery that has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Sons of Jacob is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the state.

q q q

"What I want to see is to make sure that for lower income individuals, that they have access to health care and health care coverage either through Medicaid or through a refundable tax credit where they can buy their own policy. The idea is to give people more choice, to have competition in the market."

 Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., on changes he wants in the Republican health care bill.
A federal judge ruled against North Dakota this week in a legal battle over whether roads can be built in the protected Little Missouri National Grasslands.

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland dismissed lawsuits brought by the state and four western North Dakota counties, saying they waited too long to bring their claims against the federal government.

North Dakota and four counties, McKenzie, Slope, Golden Valley and Billings, filed claims in 2012, arguing they have the right to build roads along section lines managed by the U.S. Forest Service within the Little Missouri National Grasslands.

Ninety-five percent of the grasslands are open to roads and 5 percent is designated as roadless.

The controversy over section lines dates several years but was amplified by oil and gas development in western North Dakota, including on lands owned by North Dakota scattered throughout the Little Missouri Grasslands, Hovland wrote.

In dismissing the case, Hovland ruled this week the claims from North Dakota and the counties exceeded the statute of limitations.

Conservationists, including Wayde Schafer with the Dacotah Chapter of the Sierra Club, consider the ruling a victory that protects the Little Missouri National Grasslands from having roads constructed on every mile.

Thats certainly not what people want to see out in the Badlands, Schafer said.

But others argue its a states rights issue. North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said his office was reviewing the 72-page decision and considering filing an appeal.

Stenehjem said the state maintains it has owned the section lines since statehood.

North Dakotas congressional delegation issued a joint statement Friday saying theyre urging federal officials to review and resolve public road and access issues in and around the Little Missouri, Sheyenne and Cedar River National Grasslands.

We respectfully ask that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Justice Department review and reconsider the critically important public road and access issues currently involved in litigation with the state, said the statement from Sens. John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp and Rep. Kevin Cramer.

The delegation requested Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Attorney General Jeff Sessions work with North Dakota and the affected counties to find a mutually acceptable settlement.
I will use the military and the police to go out and arrest them, hunt for them. And if they will offer a violent resistance, and thereby placing the lives of the law enforcers and the military whom I would task for a job to do, I will simply say, Kill

As Rodrigo Duterte sat into power last June 30, 2016, so did the unprecedented violence that will happen in the coming months. Whether the war on drugs was worth it or not, one things for sure, Rodrigo Dutertes drug war will arguably go down in history as one of the bloodiest and deadliest periods of Philippine History.

During his campaign for the presidency in the 2016 Philippine elections, Rodrigo Duterte was adamant with his promise that he will kill thousands if not millions to rid the country of the drug menace. According to him, he will kill at least 100,000 criminals and fill Manila Bay with their dead bodies in the first six months of his term.

It is going to be bloody, Duterte told a business group. I will use the military and the police to go out and arrest them, hunt for them. And if they will offer a violent resistance, and thereby placing the lives of the law enforcers and the military whom I would task for a job to do, I will simply say, Kill them all and end the problem.

Some of his close allies and supporters, on the other hand, are applauding him and calling the drug war a success. Metro Manilas police chief Oscar Albayalde has been reported to say that by killing thousands, millions of Filipinos are living safer.

After the first five months of Dutertes presidency, the Philippine National Police has claimed that crime rates nationwide had dipped by as much as 31.67 percent. Index crimes dropped to 55,391 in the months of July to November in 2017, compared to 81, 064 in the same period in 2016.

Index crimes consist of seven crimes including murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, larceny or theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft.

However, outside of Dutertes circle, dozens of groups and individuals, both local and international, have criticized the war on drugs. Some of them have cited some reasons that they believe why Dutertes war on drug would fail.

De Lima, the strongest critic Duterte, has claimed that people are actually more scared than confident of the war on drugs. According to her, while she agrees with Duterte that the war menace in the country has become a crisis that needs to be addressed seriously. However, she believes that Dutertes chosen approach is doing more harm than good.

A few months into Dutertes presidency, De Lima herself was accused by no other than Duterte and his allies of coddling drug lords in and outside the National Penitentiary Compound. Then in February she was arrested and sent to prison. This move by the government was condemned by international institutions like the European Union.

Just this May, UN rapporteur Agnes Callamard has called on President Duterte to end the War on Drugs once and for all. Your president must listen to what we have to say, your president must stop the war on drugs, Callamard said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Philippines.

Countless others have called upon Duterte to end his war, including the former president of Colombia- who has led a drug war himself, human rights watch group, student activists, and dozens of other politicians. None of whom were able to make Duterte give a second think on his war on drug.

At least 8000 suspected drug personalities have already been reported dead, with the numbers still rising people are still asking whether the drug war has attained its goal or has it made an already troubled country sink deeper into chaos.

Media Contact

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Contact Person: Michael R. Thrasher

Email: michael@thenation.today

Phone: (866)954-1189

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Website: https://www.thenation.today/
 M.K. Davidson, Texas: For most services in Texas, there is a 10-year waiting list and from what I hear, most people will be denied when they come up anyway. They are really good at coming into your home, though, to ask you if youve had all your shots.

 Libby Rupp, Pennsylvania: I have been on the waiting list for waiver services in PA for six years now. I am a single mom with limited resources. I was told directly that I either need to be homeless or dead to move up further on the list. I asked what would happen to my daughter if I died tomorrow, and our social worker just shook her head. She said they would scramble and try to put something together but there is no guarantee that anything will be available.

I asked some other parents to talk about their experiences with trying to get autism services for their children:

In my own family, for years most of my sons autism needs were met by public school offerings. So when our county DD case manager failed to meet with my son even once a year (as required by the county), it wasnt much of a problem  until we finally needed her urgently. When my son developed an autism-related health crisis, I tried calling but her phone number had changed, and my calls to her office went unanswered. I ended up hiring service providers that luckily were covered by private medical insurance and who told me what autism services our family could have been receiving.

Even in this age of electronic data, documentation of autism diagnoses, treatments and benefits can quickly get out of hand. Organized filing is essential to managing your childs care information; its never too late to start sorting. Remember to save and back up emails and texts, and consider printing hard copies; you may need it as evidence later. The autism advocacy group TACA offers documentation filing guidance on their page  Getting and Staying Organized .

Social workers and case managers should provide complete information on government disability services and grants; however sometimes they dont, or dont follow through with promised programming. Some might even misplace forms youve laboriously filled out. A caveat: Before you give or send any documents to county, state and/or federal agencies, make and keep copies of every page.

Money, private or public, typically determines the amount and quality of autism or developmental disability (DD) services a child or young adult receives in addition to public school special education programs. Funding varies because government agencies budgets fluctuate, nonprofit groups compete for donations, and family budgets frequently are strained covering autisms myriad costs.

A recent Drexel University report found that 25 percent of transition-age adults with autism felt they were not getting the services they needed; half lived with their parents or relatives, and most were not employed. Therapies used or missing may include speech, physical, occupational, social skills, sensory integration, music, equine (horse), and Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).

Parents of children and young adults with autism know that securing enough appropriate support services can be challenging. Finding good providers and paying for your childs education, therapy, life skills training, recreation, supervision, etc. may prove an ongoing struggle from diagnosis into adulthood.

 Kendra Pettengill, Oregon: My daughter has been denied any and all adult services They have declared she is not disabled enough! They gave my daughter their own test, functional assessment. They said you have to test 2 standard deviations below the mean; to qualify for services, she had to score a 70 or below and she scored a 72. No services for a 72. Its insane. Apparently they only help the disabled if their functional level is sorting hangers for Goodwill. So, despite having legal guardianship of my adult daughter and the fact she cannot drive, I am at my wits end and it is running me ragged, as I do not even have the small things the school used to provide, like transportation. I believe they are not looking for ways to help people but reasons for denial.

In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) [20 U. S. C.  1401(9)] is the law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children. Some children on the autism spectrum have had positive public school experiences through age 21; others end up pulled out and homeschooled, or educated with a combination of both public and private resources.

The changeable nature of autism can prove problematic to service delivery, particularly if the childs DSM-V diagnostic coding is a bad fit or has changed over time. Service providers may give a medical diagnosis more weight than a school diagnosis; getting both diagnoses done can strengthen your childs case for enrollment into a particular program.

Writing the most accurate and comprehensive Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) or 504 plan possible is crucial from ages 3 through 21 and beyond, because that official inter-agency document lays out your childs educational goals and the methods of accomplishing them. IEPs are used by county DD case managers in setting up social services, and also are used in determining eligibility for adult Social Security Disability Income (SSDI).

For further reference on public school services, Skyhorse Publishing offers a variety of books on autism and special education. Two pertinent titles are The Big Book of Special Education Resources by George Giuliani and Roger Pierangelo, and Your Special Education Rights: What Your School District Isnt Telling You by special education attorney Jennifer Laviano and advocate Julie Swanson.

If school districts fail to comply with disability law while educating your child, you may decide to seek legal help. This can be time-consuming, confusing and stressful. Some parents hire attorneys to represent their family; others self-advocate after reading about disability rights at online sites such as Wrightslaw.com. That site offers articles, cases and resources in their advocacy and law libraries, including a section on Autism Spectrum Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Aspergers.

 One parent who wishes to remain anonymous said s/he fought and fought and fought with our district. Got nothing. Then I decided to bring in an attorney that had already beat them in due process multiple times. THEN they caved, and gave us pretty much everything we were after them for before I involved the attorney. It literally took ONE IEP meeting with the attorney, and they caved during the meeting. Some districts like to push the envelope, but they know when its over. Sometimes it just takes a little motivation.

After a child on the autism spectrum has spent 18 long years doing early intervention, public school special education, after-school programs and extended school years, the transition to adult services at age 21 can be a big game changer. Service possibilities for adults with autism include day programs, camps, rehabilitation and employment services, community recreation, housing, transportation, and medical and psychological health services.

However many parents of young adults are finding that local offerings are inadequate due to lack of autism-focused schools and specifically trained staff. Despite what hidden-horde theorists say, if autism had always been as prevalent in society as now, these social services infrastructures would already be in place.

 From A. Parent, New Jersey: My daughters not 21 yet, but Ive heard the same thing here in New Jersey. There is money for services that you can get, but there are no providers, so you cant actually get the money. The few providers they have run groups where you do nothing  they have no budget, so they do art projects out of toilet paper rolls and such. Thats what Ive heard from the moms in this area.

 Angela McDonough: My son graduated high school two years now and has been waiting for services ever since.

 Holly Bortfeld of Pennsylvania can find services, but says the providers are another story. No one has experience treating (OT, PT, ST) adults with ASD since this is a new epidemic. Our kids dont magically stop needing supports just because they have a birthday, but try to find therapists who have experience with ASD adults, and they dont exist.

 Julie Plettner of Massachusetts, a family support coordinator, notes: Big thing I come across is adult eligible IQ, not enough day habs (habilitations) and not enough staff.

On May 4 the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report to Congress titled Youth with Autism: Federal Agencies Should Take Additional Action to Support Transition Age Youth. The GAO recommended amending IDEA to lower the age at which school districts are to begin providing transition services to students with disabilities, such as 14.

Government benefits and Medicaid for disabled adults are intended to cover costs of basic medical care and waivers for employment assistance, in-home supports and residential housing. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is part of the federal-state partnership that administers Medicaid programs, and covers 100 million U.S. citizens. A special autism page has been set up on the Medicaid website, though its content is sparse considering the large and increasing numbers of citizens on the spectrum nowadays.

All 50 states provide Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs, though offerings  and waiting lists  vary by state. HCBS uses Medicaid to fund less expensive alternatives to institutional care settings, such as living in clustered communities or with family members. Questions about Medicaid autism services can be sent to AutismServicesQuestions@cms.hhs.gov.

The controversial new Senate Republican health care bill, HR 1628, if passed as currently written, would change how Medicaid funds are allocated amongst federal and state governments. Supporters such as Trump spokesman Kellyanne Conway claim the bill doesnt cut Medicaid and has protections in place for the disabled, but some disability advocates are skeptical of such assurances. One Senate spokesman praised the bill for allowing children to remain on parents health insurance up to age 26, which could shift healthcare expenses to parents and their employer(s) for another four years.

 Tami Giles of Washington state is currently paying $780 in medical premiums, so my son can access therapies he needs. Medicaid in Washington pays such horrendous rates ($32 for an hour of SLP, for instance) that no one takes it. Waivers here are a joke  $6,000 annual funds  and must be used on waiver-approved vendors. No freedom of choice.

 From John Gilmore in New York: It took us two years to get through New Yorks Medicaid waiver process. Since Andrew Cuomo became Governor, OPWDD (our agency for disability services) has had its budget cut by 33%. Sometimes you call OPWDD and nobody answers the phone.

Regarding medical services, individual states define what treatments are considered medically necessary. The TACA website has informative articles such as Billing Codes That Work and Lab Tests and Codes, which list standard CPT and ICD billing codes to use for lab tests to diagnose autism-related medical conditions.

Whenever feasible parents should set up a special needs trust for their disabled adult, to help fund future expenses or objectives not covered by government benefits. According to TACA, an OBRA (The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993) account can be used to deposit any wages or gifts so that the child doesnt cross the asset limit for Medicaid eligibility. Some advocacy groups such as Arc manage pooled trusts, which allow a disabled person to receive an inheritance, settlement, or other cash award without becoming ineligible for public benefits.

Working well with your childs social worker is key to accessing a lifetime of county, state and federal services and benefits. Competent case management is crucial. Be aware when transitioning an autism client from child to adult programs that some government employees may be unclear about which agency handles what tasks. Some considerations:

Is your childs case manager/social worker knowledgeable about his/her past, current and future needs?

Is your family being given information about most, if not all, eligible programs? Or do you get more helpful news about services through the social media grapevine?

Does the case manager/social worker fill out forms accurately and thoroughly?

Do you have 5-year and 10-year plans in place for your child?

Do you have a list of the agencys managerial hierarchy?

Because so many young adults with autism are starting to sign up for adult services, plan ahead for waiting periods. After many months passed since my sons 18th birthday and he hadnt been transferred to an adult transition worker, I contacted the supervisor of my sons DD case manager. Her reply was merely lip service; several more months passed and still nothing was done. So I contacted a private autism agency about doing intake there as a contracted case manager. However that social worker said they could only get youth-to-adult transfers from the county, not from private individuals, adding that transfers can take a ridiculously long time  some up to a year.

If you believe that your childs human services case manager(s) or other government agency worker has failed to provide timely, adequate service:

Call, email or write the workers boss and provide documented evidence backing your complaint; record an audio file of the conversation if possible, and/or save the email(s). (But first, look up one party consent laws in your state about recording conversations.)

If the workers boss sides with the worker or fails to respond, then take your evidence up the administrative chain of command. Find the name of the bosss boss at the Human Services website, or call an information operator there to request all names in the administrative hierarchy up to and including the director. Again, call or write with evidence, and record the conversation.

Contact a county ombudsman, e.g. the Office of Ombudsman for Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (OMHDD) with your complaint.

Contact the county commissioner in your district.

Meet with your state legislator, or a member of your legislatures Human Services committee with your evidence.

In my sons case, I grew so frustrated by the inaction, incomprehensible emails and lost paperwork that I contacted the supervisor of his case managers boss. After yet another round of emailed assurances, another five months passed with no action and then that supervisor retired. It wasnt until I leap-frogged three steps up the administrative hierarchy that I got speedy results, and multiple apologies. Within a few weeks we got a different case manager.

Driven far enough, a parent might consider more creative approaches to provoking action:

Inform your familys health insurance providers if they are paying for services your child should be getting through Medicaid;

Share your documented evidence with local investigative journalists for a feature article or video;

Stage a protest at the offending agency, holding signs in the public area on their street. Find family, friends or other like-minded parents to go with you for moral support and greater visual impact.

A family should not have to move to another state to receive adequate autism services, but unfortunately some do. In the early 2000s a number of Minnesota families moved to Wisconsin border towns to find better services. If the Senate Medicaid bill results in severe cuts on a state-to-state basis, the U.S. could see a new wave of internal migration by the disabled population as medical refugees.

In some states, proactive parents are creating their own autism services solutions. Texas is home to at least two projects that would provide autistic adults with housing and services: the 29 Acres community in Denton County, and The Autism Trust Community in Austin.

 Holly Bortfeld of Pennsylvania is constructing a rural farm environment where residents can get exercise and social contact while learning the skills involved in raising healthy food. There are no day programs here for our adults, unless you want them in with senior citizens doing basket weaving all day, which is why we created the farm. Plenty to do all day on a farm, for sure, but because Medicaid requires progress or release the therapists (OT, PT and ST) are wary of taking them as they dont make progress fast enough to meet the Medicaid requirements. The new OT and PT flat out said, We will see him for 3 months, then send you home with a home program to follow through, then you can come back in 9 months, and do it again. Thats how you have to work Medicaid. Geez Nah, its fine for OT and PT since we have all of the equipment here anyway, but I still want to find a language therapist. We have the 1:1 aide as many hours as we want (currently 44 hours a week, but can have 24/7 per his waiver).

Such innovative thinking about long-term autism needs is a bright spot on the housing horizon. Other support comes from local and national advocacy groups such as The Arc, which are involved in lobbying legislatures to facilitate construction of safe and affordable housing for the disabled without discrimination. However debate exists over whether that agencys prioritization of independent living could result in people with autism self-isolating in their apartments.

People with autism are by no means alone in their challenges; its estimated that one billion people worldwide have some form of disability. To learn more about your disabled childs legal rights in the U.S., such as the Americans with Disablities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act, see A Guide to Disability Rights Laws: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division from the U.S. Department of Justice, and Human Rights Watch: Disability Rights from the Human Rights Watch website.

###


Italy's northern regions are challenging a mandatory vaccine law



Several regions in northern Italy are challenging a recently passed law which made 12 vaccinations mandatory for children starting at state school.

"Let's be clear; we are not against vaccines; we are against making them obligatory," explained regional governor Luca Zaia, who belongs to the Northern League.

Italy's cabinet approved the vaccine law in mid-May, making it compulsory for all school starters to have a set of 12 vaccinations.

But in Veneto, the regional government said on Tuesday that its lawyers were preparing to challenge the decree in Italy's Constitutional Court, and that the legal challenge would be ready in around two weeks.

"Here, coverage was at 92.4 percent in 2016, thanks to information given to families at every level. No to sanctions, yes to informed decisions by mums and dads!"

Zaia wrote that it had been a "mistake to ignore the regions" in passing the legislation.

However, he appeared to acknowledge that fake news surrounding the efficacy and safety of vaccines had been an issue in Italy. "Fake news should be fought through science and doctors," he said.

The head of the Northern League, Matteo Salvini, praised the move in Veneto, writing: "Children's health comes before the interest of some pharmaceutical company [...] Freedom of choice works; threats and fines don't."

He also took the chance to push the party's anti-immigrant agenda, adding: "PS. Who vaccinates the illegal immigrants?"



Read more at TheLocal.it
Aiken, SC (29801)

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State law appears to prohibit North Dakota officials from providing voter information requested by a controversial commission examining election integrity, a top state election official said Friday, June 30.

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum said they received a letter from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, that was sent to all 50 states requesting publicly available voter roll data, including names, addresses, voter history and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

North Dakota is the only state without voter registration, so Silrum said they wouldnt provide that data. State law does allow them to provide certain information from the Central Voter File, however, but only to candidates, political parties and political committees, and they can only use it for election-related purposes, he said.

As the request in the letter is worded, it does not appear that ND law will allow us to provide information from the CVF, Silrum said in an email.

The commission, which was created through an executive order signed by President Donald Trump this year, asked for the data so it can fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting. The request raised alarms over privacy and drew condemnation from election officials elsewhere.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said he will not hand over Minnesota voters sensitive personal information to the commission. He also questioned the commissions credibility and called Trumps claim that millions voted illegally last year false and irresponsible.

A 2015 document from the North Dakota Secretary of States Office argues voter fraud is possible here but acknowledges there havent been incidents of widespread fraud. A new voter ID law is set to go into effect Saturday.

The Washington Post contributed to this article.
WILLISTON, N.D. -- The second man to go on trial in a brutal, sexual attack on a woman on lonely trail outside of Williston in northwest North Dakota has been found guilty.

A jury convicted Jean-Michael Kisi Friday on charges of gross sexual imposition and accomplice to attempted murder and acquitted him on charges of conspiracy to commit gross sexual imposition and conspiracy to commit murder.

The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for about five hours before returning with the mixed verdicts.

Northwest District Judge Joshua Rustad ordered a presentence investigation. A sentencing date for Kisi, who faces up life in prison, has not been set. Rustad ordered Kisi held without bond until his sentencing.

Marlyce Wilder, Williams County States Attorney, declined to comment on the verdict.

Steven Mottinger, Kisis defense attorney, said he was disappointed Kisi had been convicted on two charges, but was pleased the jury had acquitted him on the conspiracy charges.

Obviously the jury spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the evidence theyd seen and the arguments theyd heard from the attorneys, he said. This was just a tough case for everyone.

After Kisi was led from the courtroom, his mother, who had sat in on the proceedings throughout the five-day trial, started sobbing and collapsed on the floor.

As the mother of the victim in the case, who was also present throughout the trial, comforted her, she cried and moaned.

God, why did you do this? she asked. Take me.

Kisi was accused of sexually assaulting the woman on a barely used prairie trail in November 2015.

He and David Mbulu, who was convicted earlier this year of attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, conspiracy to commit murder and accomplice to gross sexual imposition, drove to Minot on Nov. 19, 2015, with the woman. According to testimony, Kisi was going to celebrate his 21st birthday, while the woman had made a deal with Mbulu to drive her to a bank to cash a check.

For some reason, that transaction didnt go through, and the womans card was declined when she tried to pay for hotel rooms for the three in Minot.

On Nov. 20, 2015, the three drove back to Williston. After a series of arguments between the woman and Kisi and Mbulu, Mbulu had Kisi pull off onto a dirt track near Epping, Kisi and the woman both testified.

The woman testified Kisi and Mbulu got out of the car and then, after she got out, Mbulu attacked her, putting her in a chokehold.

She also testified that Kisi pulled off her pants and then sexually assaulted her. In his testimony Thursday, Kisi said he had tried to separate Mbulu and the woman and was kicked in the groin. He then pulled down the womans pants and got on top of her. He said he touched her vulva but denied penetrating her with his fingers. The victim testified he did penetrate her with his fingers.

When Kisi stood up, Mbulu hit the woman repeatedly with a car jack.

In his closing statement Friday, Williams County prosecutor Nathan Madden asked the jury to discount Kisis testimony, citing the ways his story had changed during interviews with police and on the witness stand.

How many different stories did you hear from the mouth of Jean-Michael Kisi? Madden asked. He couldnt even keep it straight on the stand yesterday.

He said that cellphone video shot by Mbulu during the drive from Minot to WIlliston was evidence the two were planning to kill the woman and claim it was self defense.

Defense attorney Mottinger disputed that idea in his closing statement.

If there was a conspiracy, Mr. Kisi and Mr. Mbulu are perhaps the worst conspirators in the history of the world, he said.

He told the jury that Kisi had acted badly and done things he shouldnt have done. But, he argued, Kisi didnt conspire with Mbulu to try to kill the woman.

Theres a big difference between morally reprehensible conduct and criminal conduct, he said.
June 30, 2017

An Israeli parole board announced on June 29 that it had granted former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's request for early release. But the witch hunt over the last 10 days (well before the decision was made) raises some difficult questions about the motivation of the state attorney's office in its efforts to keep Olmert in prison for a few more months.

The state attorney did not immediately give up fighting to prevent his early release even after the parole board made its call. The office was actually about to appeal the decision, but public opposition to what seemed like a witch hunt was very intense. Luckily for Olmert, the pressure seemed to work, and the state attorney did give up. After a long, heated discussion and with the encouragement of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, the state attorney's office decided to drop its appeal.

Olmert will be released on the morning of July 2 after serving 16 and a half months of his 26-month sentence for corruption. The envelopes of money that he received from businessman Moshe Talansky, his role in the Holyland real estate case and his attempts to interfere with legal proceedings are just some of the charges that were brought against him. The trials for these and other scandals went on for years and eventually forced him to resign as prime minister. He will always bear the mark of Cain as the first Israeli prime minister to go to prison. Despite his achievements and bold diplomatic initiatives, his legacy will always be marred by corruption.

Olmert's fall was nothing short of dramatic. He paid for his deeds with being put behind bars as the world watched and an abrupt end to his public life. He once had access to Israel's most sensitive secrets and was close friends with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. According to foreign news sources, he gave the order to destroy the Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007. He led Israel through the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. For him to be castigated and removed from society is itself an unbearable punishment.

Throughout most of his sentence, Israelis generally heard about Olmert in the context of his prison furloughs. Suddenly, as the parole board prepared to discuss his early release, our lives were interrupted by the latest Olmert scandal, this one concerning his alleged smuggling of secret documents out of prison for his memoirs, allegedly through his visiting lawyer.

In its presentation to the parole board, the state attorney's office portrayed Olmert as a dangerous person who had reverted to his old patterns of criminal behavior. A person who would not hesitate, if the money was right, to expose state secrets in his memoirs ahead of their publication by the Yedioth Ahronoth publishing house, scheduled for 2018. The state attorney's office showed dogged determination throughout the confusion, culminating in an unprecedented raid on Yedioth Ahronoth. Police confiscated materials and emails that had nothing to do with Olmert's book. At the same time, senior officials in the state attorney's office briefed journalists and political commentators on the "serious misdeeds of the former prime minister," hinting that he used his lawyer to smuggle particularly sensitive and as yet unpublished materials from prison, thereby endangering state security. Obviously, their goal was to stir negativity among the public and influence the parole board.

A few days later, Olmert was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center because he was not feeling well. Social networks were soon inundated with a photo of him in his hospital room, wearing his pajamas and looking gaunt and sickly. According to one claim, people close to Olmert released the photo in an attempt to win pity and the support of the parole board, adding more fuel to the fire. Politicians once considered his bitterest rivals, such as Minister Yuval Steinitz, called for his release. The overwhelming public opinion was that the state attorney's office was trying to settle a score with the former prime minister.

Why? It is quite conceivable that in certain chapters in his yet unpublished book, Olmert attacks the legal establishment, including public figures still in office, and that will provoke the ire of the state attorney's top brass. It is also possible that Olmert's personality, his arrogance and his refusal to keep a low profile even during his prison sentence also motivated the state attorney's office, as did the support of senior media figures, who praise him as one of the best prime ministers Israel has ever had.

Olmert's book is expected to be released next year. Thanks to the hubbub that the state attorney's office has stirred up, it is likely to see vigorous sales. Olmert can also make a good living from the international speaker circuit. After all, he is a former prime minister and the issues that he dealt with are still relevant today. On the other hand, even while he speaks about his negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reach a permanent settlement and his close ties with President George W. Bush, Olmert will never be able to erase his reputation as the most corrupt prime minister in Israel's history. And that is how it should be.

Olmert was just as reckless in his handling of affairs of state as he was with his personal scandals. The Second Lebanon War in 2006 and the ensuing Winograd Report, which accused him of responsibility for that war's failings, are good examples. Israel's northern border has enjoyed quiet since 2006, but the flawed way that Olmert made his decision to go to war has not been erased, neither have the consequences of the lengthy siege he imposed on Gaza as prime minister.

In a video clip released by Olmert on the morning he began his sentence, he hinted that he was the victim of a legal and political witch hunt and suggested "that the legal snowball into my affairs got bigger from an array of other reasons that are not just legal." As a free citizen and future author, Olmert will eventually tell his story. He will always bear his mark of Cain, but it is also in the public's interest to expose the problematic behavior of the country's legal establishment.
June 28, 2017

After a five-year estrangement over their dispute on the Syrian crisis, Hamas and Hezbollah have held meetings in Beirut over the past few months to discuss the region's latest developments.

Their most recent meeting June 14  attended by Mousa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas political bureau, and Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah  has important implications, as it ends the lukewarm relations between the two sides since 2012. The meeting comes after Gulf countries imposed a blockade on Qatar, followed by talks about Hamas officials leaving Qatar, all of which impacts the Palestinian cause as a whole.

Al-Monitor contacted a number of officials from Hamas and Hezbollah to gain insight on the nature of their recent discussions, but they refused to publicly speak about their meetings, as they wish to achieve this bilateral rapprochement away from the media spotlight. However, they did confirm that serious steps are being taken to bring Hamas and Hezbollah closer together, without giving further details.

An Arab diplomat who had a hand in this rapprochement told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Since the beginning of 2017, Hamas and Hezbollah held three meetings in Beirut  in January, March and June  under the chairmanship of Abu Marzouk and some members of the movement's political bureau with Nasrallah and the Hezbollah leadership. The most important incentive for their meetings was Donald Trump becoming president of the United States and classifying both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.

The diplomat said in a phone call from Beirut that Hamas and Hezbollah discussed supporting a political solution in Syria and talked about how the Gulf crisis contributed to bringing the two parties together since anti-Qatar parties consider Hamas and Hezbollah to be terrorists. The two parties are also concerned about Israel waging war against them, in the event of which they expressed their intention to unite their military fronts and not give Israel the chance to target either of them.

It is no secret that Hamas, despite having different positions regarding the Syrian crisis, needs Hezbollah when it comes to funding, training, securing supply lines for weapons and providing residence for Hamas cadres in Lebanon. For its part, Hezbollah needs a Palestinian movement, such as Hamas, to restore its popularity among Arab public opinion, which it lost after being involved in the wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen against Sunni Muslims. Hamas, as a Sunni Islamic movement getting closer to the Shiite Hezbollah, may help dispel Hezbollahs sectarian image. The new rapprochement between Hamas and Hezbollah may contribute to the return of armament and training cooperation programs, with the support of Iran.

Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Hazem Qassem, told Al-Monitor, Hamas' rapprochement with Hezbollah comes in light of the movement's action at all levels to mobilize support for the Palestinian cause. Hamas is approaching certain parties that have had close ties with Palestine and support the resistance, without paying much attention to the alignments occurring in the region.

At the height of the recent Gulf crisis, axes that existed before the outbreak of the Arab revolutions in 2011 started forming again, namely the axis of moderation composed of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the axis of resistance formed by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Hamas was singled out following a dispute with its allies over Syria after it called on the Syrian regime to respond to the Syrian peoples demands for justice and freedom, and rejected the use of armed force to suppress popular demonstrations. Meanwhile, Iran and Hezbollah backed the Syrian regime and ignored the popular demands, considering these demonstrations a global plot to topple the regime.

However, the current Gulf crisis seems to have revived the two axes, and Hamas, regardless of the costly political price it may have to pay, might return to the axis of resistance, which sympathizes with Qatar in its battle against the Saudi blockade.

Hussam al-Dajani, a political science professor at Al-Ummah University in the Gaza Strip, told Al-Monitor, It is clear that the Gulf crisis helped bring Hamas and Hezbollah closer together, although the rapprochement was initiated before the crisis even began. However, now, the Hamas cadres who left Qatar  such as Saleh al-Arouri, a member of Hamas political bureau, and Moussa Doudine, the head of the prisoners dossier, among others  might be able to relocate to Lebanon. In addition, Hamas prefers to have its cadres stationed in Lebanon, under Hezbollahs sponsorship, since it is closer to Palestine [geographically] and is home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

Dajani said, After leaving Syria in 2012 and reducing its presence in Qatar in 2017, Hamas has come to the conclusion that it needs to be significantly present in several Arab capitals.

On June 15, Lebanon Debate reported that roughly a hundred Hamas leaders and activists arrived from Doha to Beirut without specifying their date of arrival. Hamas neither confirmed nor denied this, but the news coincided with talks in Qatar about Hamas reducing its presence there following Gulf pressure.

Hamas may be well aware that the closer it gets to Hezbollah, the farther away it moves from the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It might not have much space to maneuver and it would have no choice but to mend its relationship with Hezbollah to survive  both financially and militarily  as Egypt, the PA and Israel continue to tighten the noose around it.

Ahmed Yousef, a former political adviser to the head of Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh, told Al-Monitor, Hamas needs Hezbollah at all levels, despite the official Arab hostility toward [Hezbollah]. We share with it an extended alliance, despite the differences over the Syrian crisis. However, the movement has made sure to never close the door. Hezbollah has recently showed signs of its willingness to answer Hamas needs, in terms of the military and security experience among other things. Hamas and Hezbollah are in the same boat.

Hamas realizes that the margin of political maneuvering has been narrowed by the polarization of the two rival axes: Qatar and its allies against Saudi Arabia and its partners. However, in the absence of other options, the movement seems compelled to resort to Iran and its allies in the region, namely Hezbollah, to survive. Even if it is faced with a new wave of criticism, Hamas would still be turning toward Hezbollah.
Two Birmingham police officers were seriously injured in an apparently intentional wreck with two homicide suspects Friday night.

Police say officers were working a homicide scene at 17th Street and Jefferson Avenue, when units in the area spotted the possible suspect vehicle. Officers confirmed that it was in fact the suspects and a pursuit began. Another patrol car was waiting at the intersection of 18th and Grant.

The suspects' vehicle made its way to that area and collided with the patrol car sitting at 18th and Grant. According to a source, the two officers were T-boned by a suspect fleeing the deadly shooting.

The initial report came in just before 10 p.m. as a call of "officers down" in the 1800 block of Grant Avenue Southwest. Two Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service teams responded to the scene to transport the officers to the hospital.

One of the officers was a rookie, and the other his field training officer. They were briefly trapped in their crashed vehicle. Rescue workers mapped out their transport route and a team of police officers blocked the intersections between Grant Avenue and UAB Hospital for fast transport.

As of 12:30 a.m. Saturday, police said both officers were in stable condition and speaking. The two suspects were at Birmingham police headquarters undergoing questioning.

The homicide happened about 9:15 p.m. when officers said someone shot into the a car, causing the driver to crash into a home in the 1700 block of Jefferson Avenue .

The driver was found dead from the gunshot wounds. Another vehicle was shot into, but that driver was not injured. Police have not yet released the name of the homicide victim, the city's 50th so far in 2017.

"These two suspects weren't satisfied with the homicide but it appears they intentionally drove their vehicle into the patrol car injuring these officers,'' said Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper. "We are so thankful these officers survived this horrible collision."

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

(AL.com reporter Starr Dunigan contributed to this story)
Birmingham residents and community leaders marched through the city today to show their support for a sanctuary city ordinance.

The "March for Sanctuary" event, organized by Adelante Alabama Worker Center, started at Kelly Ingram park, where supporters gathered and marched to City Hall. At Linn Park, Taco trucks, music, and dancing embraced the marchers when they arrived.

"As immigrant residents of Birmingham, we want to dance and sing through the streets to show the city how much we love it. We are all part of what makes Birmingham great. When my friends and family members fear that going to court to pay a ticket, calling the police to report a crime, or even dropping their kids off at school could lead to their deportation, it tears apart the fabric of this city," Adelante organizer Cesar Mata said. "We need sanctuary now!"

Adelante officials said the proposed ordinance is supported by several groups, including Greater Birmingham Ministries, Alabama Coalition for Immigration Justice, Council on American-Islamic Relations of Alabama, Southern Poverty Law Center, Moral Movement Alabama, and NAACP of Alabama. The proposed sanctuary city ordinance was presented to city council on June 13, and supporters are asking councilors to approve it in July.

Executive director of Adelante Jessica Vosburgh said, "The proposed sanctuary ordinance will promote public safety and civil rights in Birmingham... We call upon the Council to stand on the right side of history, and make good on the commitment to protect vulnerable Birmingham residents..."

The SPLC also released a statement about the march. "We all deserve to be safe in our neighborhoods." Naomi Tsu, Deputy Legal Director, said in a press release. "In the context of federal government overreach by an administration openly hostile to immigrants, there is a lot of misinformation about so-called 'sanctuary city' policies. To be clear: As written, the ordinance Adelante is working to pass complies with all state and federal laws and actually protects residents' fourth amendment rights. It will introduce needed security for a community in the shadows and will foster trust and communication with Birmingham city officials and law enforcement."

Mata, who is from Mexico City and has lived in Birmingham since 1999, said he believes the ordinance will be passed. Birmingham is the leading city for civil rights, he said, and should be the southern leader for immigrant protection. "We want protection for all, protection for everyone," he said. "This is destroying families."

He said anyone who wishes to show support for the proposed ordinance should call their city councilor.
A Georgia man was indicted on federal charges this week for having more than 15 counterfeit credit cards in Calhoun County.

Marvin Eliott Germain, 22, was indicted on one count of possession of unauthorized or counterfeit access devices, Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey and U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Michael Williams announced.

Germain was found with the counterfeit credit and debit cards on April 12.

The maximum penalty for the charge is 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

The Secret Service investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erica W. Barnes is prosecuting.
Alabama members of Blue Cross Blue Shield receive more opioids for longer periods of time and report higher rates of substance use disorder than patients in almost every other state, according to a report released Thursday.

An analysis of claims filed by Blue Cross members ranked Alabama in the top three for opioid prescriptions filled, long-term painkiller use and diagnoses of opioid use disorder. More than 26 percent of Blue Cross Blue Shield members in the Yellowhammer State filled prescriptions for opioids in 2015, compared to the national average of 21.4 percent.

The study follows recent reports showing the death toll from opioid use topping 33,000 in 2015 and continuing to rise. Many of the deaths in recent years have been caused by heroin and illicit fentanyl - a powerful substance that has infiltrated the drug supply and caused a spike in overdoses. Deaths from prescription opioids have plateaued, but still account for the majority of fatal overdoses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We recognize that it's crucial for us to be a proactive partner in the fight against the opioid epidemic in Alabama," said Dr. Anne Schmidt, Medical Director for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, in a statement. "We strongly support best practices and are collaborating with primary care doctors to appropriately apply recommendations and guidelines from the CDC."

According to the report, the number of substance use disorder diagnoses for Blue Cross members increased almost 500 percent from 2010 to 2016. Women age 45 and older have higher rates of substance abuse than men, and men have higher rates of abuse among younger members. Less than a third of members diagnosed with opioid use disorder in Alabama received medication to treat the condition.

The CDC identified Alabama as the state with the highest number of prescribed opioids per capita in 2015, with physicians writing 5.8 million prescriptions that year. State regulators have adopted some rules to curb high rates of prescriptions. Recently, the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners adopted a rule requiring doctors to check the prescription drug database for certain patients.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association used data from state affiliates to compare prescription rates in different states. The association excluded claims from members with cancer and those enrolled in hospice or palliative care. New York members had the lowest rate of prescriptions filled for opioids - 13 percent - and Arkansas had the highest at almost 28 percent.

The percentage of members receiving opioid prescriptions for more than three months was highest in Alabama and Oklahoma. Only Tennessee had a higher percentage than Alabama of patients diagnosed with opioid use disorder.
Three environmental groups have said they intend to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for "failing to ensure that Mississippi and Alabama have measures to prohibit conflicts of interest on state boards that approve and enforce Clean Air Act pollution permits."

The groups -- the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Health -- said they would prefer to resolve the matter without litigation, but will proceed if the EPA does not respond within the 60-day notice period the groups are required to give before filing suit.

"A crucial part of the EPA's job is to make sure that people who work for polluters are not making decisions about air pollution permits," Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a news release. "If you don't do a good job of that, none of the rules matter. And that oversight duty has never been more critical than right now under the Trump administration."

Section 128 of the Clean Air Act sets the following requirements for environmental regulators:

(1) Any board or body which approves permits or enforcement orders under the CAA shall have at least a majority of its members represent the public interest and not derive any significant portion of their income from persons subject to permits or enforcement orders under the CAA; and

(2) any potential conflict of interest by members of such board or body or the head of an executive agency with similar powers be adequately disclosed.

In 2015, the EPA rejected parts of Alabama's plan to comply with the Clean Air Act because it did not include the provisions required in Section 128, and Mississippi received a similar notice.

In a certified letter informing the EPA of their intent to sue, the groups argue the Agency has two years after rejecting a state implementation plan to enforce an alternative plan under the Clean Air Act.

The groups argue that the EPA has allowed those two-year deadlines to lapse while Administrator Scott Pruitt has pursued other goals, such as rolling back the mercury and air toxics standards for coal-burning power plants.

"In our system of government, executive branch officials like Administrator Pruitt are required to do what Congress has mandated rather than voluntarily take dangerous actions to appease fossil fuel special interests," the letter reads.

Stephen Stetson, senior representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign in Alabama, said the lawsuit was not about any particular conflict of interest that the groups knew of or suspected, but the groups believe the public has the right to know whether any conflicts exist.

"We just want to know what's there," Stetson said. "They're under an obligation to say, and they just haven't been meeting that obligation. This is really just about transparency."

Alabama says it is in compliance

State officials with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management say there are other laws on the books that prevent that kind of conflict, even if it's not explicitly written into the state's implementation plan for the Clean Air Act.

"The Act of the State Legislature which created ADEM in 1982 has language which not only complies with the disclosure requirements of the federal Clean Air Act, but has been acknowledged by the U.S. EPA as doing so," said Lynn Battle, ADEM's chief of external affairs.

However, those disclosure requirements have not always prevented conflict, or at least the appearance of conflict.

In 2010, Anita Archie was hired as the chief lobbyist for the Business Council of Alabama while still serving as the chair of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission, a role she had held since 2006.

Archie was hired to lobby for the interests of the BCA's then-5,000 members, many of which were companies seeking air or water pollution permits from ADEM.

The Alabama Ethics Commission advised Archie to recuse herself from decisions involving clients of the BCA, but did not offer an opinion on whether she could hold both roles.

Archie resigned from the Commission a few months later, but insisted it was a personal decision, and not because of the potential conflicts of interest.
Mississippi's Secretary of State has some harsh words for the federal election commission seeking names, birthdays and other personal information on voters: go jump in the ocean.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said his office has yet to receive a letter from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity but does not plan to turn over the information its seeking. The letters, mailed to Secretaries of States in all 50 states, asked for:

"the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information."

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said his office has received the letter but has not determined what - if any - information it will provide.

Hosemann had a more colorful response.

"They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from," he said. "Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state's right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes."

Merrill and Hosemann - both Republicans - aren't the only ones with concerns about the request. As many as 27 Secretaries of State are questioning the intent of the letter, with some saying they won't comply at all.

The letter came from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Koback, vice chair of the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Integrity. President Trump established the commission in May with Vice President Mike Pence as chairman. It is charged with "reviewing policies and practices that enhance or undermine the American people's confidence in the integrity of federal elections" after Trump raised concerns about votes cast by undocumented immigrants.

The commission's first meeting is scheduled for later this month and organizers said they plan to have a report back to the president within a year.
Walid Qaoud died of cancer after he was repeatedly denied entry to Israel for refusing to collaborate with authorities.

Gaza Strip  Walid Qaoud, 59, did not have to die.

In November 2015, Walids doctors at the Augusta Victoria hospital in occupied East Jerusalem detected cancerous cells in his right lung  but it was in the early stages and was still curable, they told him.

That day, on his way back home to Gaza, Walid was detained at the Erez crossing for six hours. According to Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, he was strip-searched and forced to stand in a stressful position, balanced on one leg while facing the wall.

Authorities then ordered him to sit down and stand up continuously  a painful experience, especially as he had previously undergone surgery for colon cancer, Walids brother, Adnan, told Al Jazeera. His stomach consequently stiffened so much that it felt like a steel plate.

READ MORE: Gazas cancer patients  We are dying slowly

When he could no longer bear the pain, a group of armed officers then asked him to pinpoint his home on a map. He did, but when they started showing him photos of people from his neighbourhood, asking him to identify them and provide more information, he repeatedly refused.

One officer kept jabbing fingers into his stomach. Why is your stomach hard like this? Do you feel pain? he asked.

Feeling ill and exhausted, Walid vomited and fainted. The officers eventually let him go home, but from then on, his application for an exit permit was rejected each month that he applied.

Since Gaza lacks adequate medical resources to treat patients  especially those suffering from serious illnesses such as cancer  they are regularly referred for treatment in Israel or the occupied West Bank. A piece of paper permitting their exit from Gaza can determine whether one lives or dies, but for many, obtaining this golden ticket depends on their willingness to submit to Israeli coercion.





Four months after his first interrogation at Erez, authorities called Walid back in. After waiting for eight hours, he was brought into a room where authorities again showed him photos of people  including some of his neighbours  and asked him to identify them. Walid refused.

We allowed you into Israel for treatment, the officer told him.

Yes, thank you, Walid answered, according to his familys account of the conversation.

We know your sons are part of the resistance. We need you to bring your sons to Erez, the officer demanded. Well give them breakfast here and pay for transportation.

My sons dont have anything to do with the resistance. Some of them are ill, Walid answered.

Bring them to Erez, and well let them go to Israel for treatment, the officer persisted.

I cant bring my sons; I cant control them; theyre grown men, Walid answered.

We've reached a point where it's best to just stay home if you're ill because you can't get treatment anywhere; not in Gaza, nor in Israel nor Egypt. by Khadija, Walid's wife

If you dont bring your sons, we wont give you the exit permit; well reject it again, the officer told him.

Id rather die in Gaza than bring my sons to Erez, Walid told his family upon returning home after spending 15 hours at Erez, noting that it was clear his sons would have been arrested upon arrival.

The Shin Bet did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment on the case.

Walids eldest son, 33-year-old Muhammad, is an unemployed graduate suffering from spinal disc herniation, which requires treatment.

We arent part of any resistance or political party or active on social media, Muhammad told Al Jazeera from their family home in Khan Younis.

Although his father remained hopeful and kept applying for an exit permit for more than a year, it was always rejected, Muhammad said. Seeking other options, Walid made the difficult journey through the Rafah crossing to Egypt with his son  but instead of undergoing urgent treatment, they spent a month and a half dealing with bureaucratic red tape and unprepared hospitals. By then, the cancer had spread to Walids brain and bones.

He came back in a worse condition than when he left, Walids wife, Khadija, told Al Jazeera. Weve reached a point where its best to just stay home if youre ill because you cant get treatment anywhere; not in Gaza, nor in Israel nor Egypt.

According to Al Mezan, Israel regularly uses coercive tactics against Palestinian patients in need of exit permits for treatment. Since 2007, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) has documented this practice of extortion, with patients asked to provide information or to serve as collaborators in order to obtain a permit from Israel.

In all 20 cases documented by PHRI in 2015, patients were asked to provide information about relatives and neighbours, including whether they belonged to political organisations.

Israel is unethically and immorally exploiting the medical needs of Palestinian patients, making their transit for medical treatment conditional on Israeli Security Agency questioning, in order to squeeze them for intelligence, PHRI stated in a recent report.

Most of those called in for questioning are cancer patients, as their lives depend on being able to go out for medical treatment. Furthermore, these diseases involve prolonged rather than one-off treatments, making it easier to subject these patients to a whole battery of extortion measures and pressures, PHRI stated.

IN PICTURES: Using art to heal  Battling cancer in Gaza

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 200 patients are called in for interrogation every year.

For these patients, the only way out is through the Erez crossing, and the authorities are abusing them; it can also be described as torture in many ways. Its unacceptable, PHRI spokesman Ran Yaron told Al Jazeera. For not providing information or for not collaborating with security services in Israel, its a death sentence.

Israel has denied that such interrogations are used to collect intelligence, contending that they are meant to assess the danger of patients. This was also the states response when PHRI filed a petition with the High Court of Justice in 2007.

PHRI has a success rate of 61.7 percent in reversing Israeli authorities initial refusals of exit permits for Palestinian patients, and the organisation says this indicates that the rejection of applications is not necessarily motivated by security reasons to start with, but by political considerations.

A former employee of the Israeli intelligence in 2014 published a testimony to explain how all Palestinians are exposed to non-stop monitoring by the Israeli Big Brother.

We knew the detailed medical conditions of some of our targets, and our goals developed around them, he wrote. Any information that might enable extortion of an individual is considered relevant information. Whether said individual is of a certain sexual orientation, cheating on his wife, or in need of treatment in Israel or the West Bank  he is a target for blackmail.

The Israeli public thinks that intelligence work is only against terrorism, but a significant part of our objectives are innocent people, not at all connected to any military activity  We did not treat those targets any differently than we did terrorists.

Of the 2,600 permit applications submitted by patients to exit Erez last December, only 42 percent received approvals  the lowest approval rate recorded by the WHO since April 2009.

INTERACTIVE: 24 Hours in Gaza

Last March, Walid received a phone call from Erez authorities requesting that he come for another interrogation.

The authority said that if he doesnt come by himself, we wont give him the exit permit, Khadija said.

But by then, Walid had lost the ability to move and talk. He could no longer recognise family members. His health had deteriorated so much that there was nothing further doctors could do.

On May 2, 2017, after a year and a half of attempting to get proper treatment, Walid died in his family home.

What happened to Walid could happen to anyone, because the only way we can get treatment is through Erez, Adnan said. Israelis control Erez; they control Palestinian lives.

They told him, Give us what we need or else youll die in Gaza. Israel is fully responsible for the premeditated killing of my brother.
There has been much discussion this week surrounding the effects that Seattles minimum wage law has had on job creation (see PowerBlog posts here, here and here). Is it time for those Catholics who have supported substantially raising the minimum wage in Seattle and other cities to rethink their position?

In January of 2014, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a letter to the United States Senate that urged Congress to consider any legislation that would increase minimum wages across the country. The following year, the USCCB reiterated its support for higher minimum wages in a subsequent letter to Congress.

Back when the Seattle council first announced its plan to raise the citys minimum wage to $15, Acton Institutes Senior Editor Joe Carter said, anyone who isnt already convinced that increasing the minimum wage has a detrimental impact on employment and harms minority workers will, in a few years, have solid proof.

Well, a few years have passed, and we now have that solid proof.

As Philip Booth asserts in Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy, Catholics should constantly evaluate Catholic social teaching to ensure that it does not undermine the very objectives it aims to achieve. This is not to say that Catholics should strive to undermine the moral and theological authority of the Church, but that they should critically look at social teachings surrounding matters of economic and social policy.

In the same book, Thomas E. Woods suggests that free-market Catholics have a right, even a duty, to object to the instrumental rather than substantive features of Catholic social teaching. In other words, although all Catholics should agree on the same outcomes, they are free to disagree on the means used to achieve them. This conversation is necessary because, in a complex system, intentions have consequences that should be held to the same moral standards as the intention itself.

Therefore, the best way to achieve the morally indisputable goal of enabling the poor to live in dignity, which minimum wage laws ostensibly seek to promote, is by considering the realistic consequences of such legislation. So the authors of the USCCB letter in support of a higher minimum wage were right in saying we write not as economists or labor market experts, but rather as pastors and teachers, for that is where their authority lies.

Pope Leo XIII recognized this in Rerum Novarum when he said, If I were to pronounce on any single matter of a prevailing economic problem, I should be interfering with the freedom of men to work out their own affairs. Certain cases must be solved in the domain of facts, case by case as they occur.

Minimum wage is such a case, and the evidence is clear.

Photo: Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA  Fast food workers on strike for higher minimum wage and better benefits
Artists in the crime-ridden town of Callao are telling the stories of local criminals and finding the good in the bad.

Callao, Peru  Known to many residents of Perus capital, Lima, as an adjacent bedrock of organised crime and violence, Callao, the countrys main maritime port, has long been neglected.

In some of its barrios (districts), residents live in homes made from recycled transportation pallets on unpaved streets that seem a world away from the upper-class neighbourhoods just a few kilometres away in Lima.

During the day its calm. But at night its really ugly, explains Jose, a local cab driver, as we drive into La Perla Baja, one of Callaos most infamous barrios. The delinquents, the gangs, the thieves, the piranitas who steal cell phones, they all come out.

Aaron Lopez, a native Chaleco, as residents here are called, considers himself lucky.

Many of my friends and acquaintances from my generation are either in prison or dead, he says.

Thank God my father forced me to be educated.

The 37-year-old artist says he wants to expose those forgotten by society, through his art.

For hundreds of years, he says, artists have been commissioned to paint good people in powerful positions.

What I am doing is flipping the triangle upside down, and bringing those from the bottom to the top. These are pictures of very marginal people often on the fringes of the law.

His work includes images of sicario (hired hitmen) and drug traffickers, whom he seeks out in the barrios with the help of contacts, before photographing them for the portraits he then paints.

It is a process has its risks.

These people hate photography because they are being pursued by the law, Lopez says.

They have huge egos

But when he explains his project to his subjects, showing them pictures of some of his paintings on his mobile phone, many agree to be photographed.

They have huge egos,  Lopez says. All they want is that I paint their image for posterity.

And, he adds, Art is different, because its filter legitimises them.

Lopez is speaking from his studio and gallery in a renovated building that is part of a new art centre  called Callao Monumental  in an historic area of Callao. The complex is just a stones throw from the harbour, a major point of departure for Peruvian cocaine exports. In 2015, Peru superseded Colombia as the worlds biggest cocaine producer.

In addition to the post-expressionist portraits of local gangsters, Lopezs work includes figurative paintings of items used by them  guns, ammunition cartridges, wads of cash, evidence retrieved from crime scenes or found in the street, such as discarded cigarette butts used to smoke cocaine paste.

I try to see the positive side of the negative, seeing the good in the bad, he says. I want to create a consciousness about this because most times people judge and say that these people are bad.

Snapshots of life behind bars

Other local artists at the new art centre find inspiration in Callaos streets and its violent past.

Luis Cueva Manchego, who is also known as Lucuma, spent 30 years of his life in prisons around Peru, and uses his experiences in his vivid illustrations.

These include images of the infamous El Fronton prison, located on an island opposite Callao, where members of the armed Maoist group Shining Path were interned during the 1980s and 1990s.

His paintings, in a style that resembles popular Peruvian street advertisements, present social and political snapshots of life behind bars.

In his outdoor studio, Lucuma, hunches over his canvasses, unwilling to answer questions.

Callao Monumental is centred around a former shipping company building that was constructed in 1900, Casa Ronald, and is attracting attention to an area that was slowly crumbling.

The main building  constructed in a style similar to Milans Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele  was once used by drug addicts.

Architectural inspiration

Many of the areas old balconied houses have now been restored, and decorated by Perus leading graffiti artists, while new work opportunities are now available to residents.

Tourists trickle in to visit the art district, but many Limenos (residents of Lima) are still reluctant to come, fearing Callaos violent reputation. Although security is visible around the centre, cab drivers often refuse to drive to the area.

Last year, Callao registered over 17 percent of its population as unemployed while a state of emergency remained in force until October in an effort to contain violence there.

But a local project called Fugaz has been using art to combat the violence.

Cristina Flores, a local guide, says Fugaz has offered the neighbourhood a better future. Aside from the restoration work offered to locals, the centre also provides free extracurricular activities, including street art classes, dance and sports, to children in the neighbourhood.

The project has been a light for us. The young people now have things to do instead of hanging out on the street, allowing them to distract their minds, she says.

Rising violence

Fugazs administrators were recently consulted by the government over a national inner city programme, known as barrio seguro or safe neighbourhood, that seeks to improve security in areas with high levels of delinquency while encouraging students to stay in school.

But beyond the perimeter of the art district, organised crime groups continue to fight deadly battles for control of the harbour and the associated drug trafficking and contraband, as well as extortion operations.

Violence has risen in Callao since last year, after Gerson Galvez Calle, the Snail, Perus most wanted drug trafficker, was captured and others now vie for control of his turf.

Galvez  called the new El Chapo by the domestic media  was head of the Barrio King criminal organisation, which was allegedly responsible for 140 deaths in Callao in 2015.

Even cultural events in the port town are not immune from the violence. In May, a salsa street festival  which often attracts top Latin performers as Callao has a reputation as the cradle of Peruvian salsa  ended in a gun battle.

A different kind of threat

However, the future of Chaleco artists, such as those working and living at Callao Monumental, may be under threat from a different type of crime.

In April, the Israeli entrepreneur behind the project, Gil Shavit, was detained by Peruvian investigators in connection to corruption and money laundering charges.

The state prosecutor has accused Shavit of receiving 40 percent of a $4m bribe allegedly requested by Callaos former governor, Felix Moreno, from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht for the building of a highway linking the area to Lima.

Shavit told prosecutors that he negotiated payments from Odebrecht into offshore accounts on behalf of Moreno. The former governor meanwhile, who has been sentenced to a suspended term of imprisonment on related corruption charges, said he never received bribes from the Brazilian firm.

Odebrecht is at the centre of a scandal involving bribes to secure around 100 projects in 12 countries, generating illegally obtained gains worth $3.3bn.

I have lived here for 12 years. This country has treated me well, with lots of endearment. I would also like to do something that could give back to this wonderful country and its people, Shavit said in a promotional film for the art district.

Angie Pelosi, a spokesperson for Fugaz, defended Shavits intentions.

This is a typical case of a people who want to leave behind something to the country and their children, in gratitude for the wonderful moments lived in our country.

She says Shavit fell in love with the culturally diverse area.

Never had anyone done anything for us in the barrio before, says Flores, the guide. Not a single president paid attention to us. The entrepreneur has provided so much opportunity for our young people.

Sonia Cunliffe, Fugazs director, says Shavit is no longer involved in the administration of the project, which she says continues to operate, encouraging and supporting artists, entrepreneurs and other locals to transform their lives through art.

All new projects imply a certain degree of uncertainty, Lopez reflects. But there is a lot of will to continue energising this project.

For the social artist  who will be exhibiting at the ARCO art fair next year in Madrid  and others, the centre has been a game changer.

Referring to the characters in his paintings, he says: What people dont know is that if these people had the opportunity like myself, they could have gotten out.
Canadas birthday present to the world is its old foreign policy wrapped in new fancy rhetoric.

Often, birthdays are a moment to take stock of the past and reflect on the future.

On July 1, Canada marks its sesquicentennial. Its a date infused with myth and symbolism. On the eve of the anniversary, Canadas perpetually effervescent foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, made a much-anticipated speech that heeded the nations past to help navigate its future during these turbulent times.

Freeland, a former editor and columnist for a variety of establishment publications in Canada, the United States and Britain, has exploited her deep journalistic roots to cultivate ties with her ex-colleagues who routinely gush over her credentials and intellect (Disclosure: Freeland was a senior editor at The Globe and Mail while I was an investigative reporter there many years ago).





It was hardly surprising then that Freelands foreign policy opus  delivered in the House of Commons earlier this month  was applauded almost universally by swooning pundits and academics who cheered its breathtaking originality, defence of multi-lateral institutions and hard power diplomacy in the cacophonous age of Donald Trump.

Stripped of its veneer of profundity, the sophomoric nature of Freelands supposed defining diplomatic blueprint and the attendant prescriptions was immediately apparent.

The speech was an amalgam of Freelands selective and sentimental trip through her familys controversial past and the usual tropes and bromides proffered by a succession of Liberal foreign ministers who have paid requisite homage to the deified memory and legacy of former Canadian prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lester Pearson.

OPINION: Warning  Canada is not what you think it is

Indeed, diplomatic sources confirm that Freelands statement was fashioned principally in reply to belated concerns that a sweeping defence policy review undertaken by the Department of National Defence  the findings were announced a day after her address  would also, de facto, establish Canadas foreign policy priorities.

Hence, the imperative to quickly and, it turns out, haphazardly stitch together what amounted to a cliche-ridden, dissonant major statement designed to reassert publicly the diplomatic corps primacy over international affairs.

As if to prove the point, Freeland began her speech with what a veteran diplomat described to me as warmed-up crap by claiming that Canada is an essential nation globally.

Curiously, Freeland didnt or couldnt name the countries who also consider Canada essential  thereby laying bare this pollyannish and self-congratulatory tripe.

Despite the media-propelled myths, Canada isn't seized with departing dramatically from its traditional diplomatic modus operandi, but cementing it to satiate the demands of the nation that, in its geopolitical calculus, truly counts - the United States of America. by

My goodness, if Canada is considered so essential by its allies why did it lose so decisively to tiny Portugal the last time it seriously contested a seat on the UN Security Council in 2010?

Oh well, in her meandering address, Freeland promptly abandoned the notion of human security championed by her Liberal predecessors  that is to say, if a state becomes a predator against its own people, other states have the right and responsibility to intervene.

In one, little-noticed passage, Freeland discarded that previously sacrosanct principle, insisting instead that the rule of the sanctity of borders  is under siege.

This philosophical volte-face allowed Freeland, of course, to parade her Cold War bona fides and bash the illegal seizure of Ukrainian territory by Russia  no doubt pleasing a healthy chunk of Canadas 1.2 million strong Ukrainian Canadian community.

Not done executing sudden U-turns, Freeland acknowledged implicitly that her bosss strategy of playing nice with Trump by bending the ear of his close surrogates and enlisting the overrated schmoozing services of widely reviled former Conservative prime minister, Brian Mulroney, had been a diplomatic dud.

Trumps response to Trudeaus icky charm offensive was blunt and uncompromising: Serve prompt notice to reopen the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and declare, in effect, a trade war over Canadian exports of softwood lumber.

Freelands rejoinder: Canada was going to step up and out of the US sphere of influence by spending billions more on the military to throw its phantom weight abroad.

Arguably, this headline-grabbing rhetoric was less a declaration of independence, but rather a blatant and subservient sop to Trumps repeated demands that Americas NATO partners boost their military spending.

Trump barked and Canada, ever the faithful poodle, scurried to comply and called it, ironically, an act of sovereignty.

OPINION: Canadas own immigration ban

Meanwhile, the starry-eyed New York Times suggested the wily Canada is the architect of an ingenious end-run around the obstinate Trump by dealing directly with states and mayors on a range of bilateral issues, including trade and climate change.

Newsflash to the Times: diplomats stationed at Canadas embassy and consulates in the US have, for decades, been making their case to governors and mayors of major and influential cities.

The Times silly boosterism and Freelands mendacious flag-waving hyperbole cant disguise the reality that Trump has left Justin Trudeau and company acutely troubled and unsure about how to respond to the potentially devastating consequences of his impulsive bilateral gambits.





Still, what Freeland didnt have time for or couldnt be bothered to say in her speech is further testament to its scribbled-on-a-napkin quality.

Not a word about Israels 50-year-old illegal and inhuman occupation of Palestinian territories. This, despite Freeland professing solemn fidelity to the notion of territorial integrity respect for the rule of law and her insistence that: Peace and prosperity are every persons birthright. Sure they are.

Freeland did, however, predictably trot out the pat line that Israel arms itself obsessively because it faces a clear and immediate existential challenge. Canada: The Middle Easts honest broker. Sure it is.

Not a word about the looming prospect that Canada will send troops back to Afghanistan at NATOs urging to deal with a resurgent Taliban. Canada pulled out in March 2014. More than 150 soldiers were killed, and another 2,000 injured after more than 12 years of trying to tame those same resurgent Taliban.

Not a word about Canadas murky non-combat role in Iraq where a Canadian sniper reportedly killed an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighter last week in a non-combat role.

OPINION: Why the Quebec mosque shooting happened

Not a word beyond a passing reference to Chinas emerging status as an economic behemoth while stubbornly remaining an unrepentant and systemic human rights violator.

Not a word about the swelling concentration of global poverty in Africa and the implications for grinding inequality, nor an unrelenting refugee crisis, continental instability, nor the rights of women and girls.

Not a word about the Arctic where ever accelerating climate change is bound to complicate further disputes involving transit through waterways and tense skirmishes over competing jurisdictional claims.

Like so many aspects of the image-obsessed Trudeau government, Canadas new foreign policy is a poll-driven, manufactured mirage: more flowery gibberish than substance. Despite the media-propelled myths, Canada isnt seized with departing dramatically from its traditional diplomatic modus operandi, but cementing it to satiate the demands of the nation that, in its geopolitical calculus, truly counts  the United States of America.

Andrew Mitrovica is an award-winning investigative reporter and journalism instructor.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria have reportedly spiked since Trump took power. What is going on?

Donald Trump on terrorists: Take out their families. Such headlines began to surface as early as December 2015, when the real estate tycoon accelerated his presidential campaign. Donald Trump was emphatic, as clear in his diction as his arrested vocabulary allows: The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. Was he being rhetorical or did he actually mean to target civilians?





Soon after Trump began to bomb Iraq and Syria, a few months into his presidency, some journalists were quick to make the connection between his campaign promises and his wartime delivery: Trump said he would take out the families of ISIS fighters. Did an air strike in Syria do just that?

The details soon started to come out: A monitoring group said that air raids from a US-backed coalition on a town in Syria had killed a large number of relatives of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters in May 2017. Were these civilians collateral damage or were they being deliberately targeted?

Only a few weeks later, the scope of Trumps war on Muslim civilians became fully evident. In an official report, UN war crimes investigators said US-led coalition air strikes on the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa were causing staggering loss of life.

OPINION: Trump is a symptom, not the disease

According to the report, hundreds of civilians are reported to have been killed since March [2017]. UN officials further added: We note in particular that the intensification of aerial bombardment, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced.

Maiming and murdering innocent Muslims en masse, forcing them to run for their lives: Is that not a war crime?

Intentional murder or not?

Even American journalists now started to ask the obvious question: Why is the US killing so many civilians in Syria and Iraq? On 19 June, the New York Times finally revealed:

Two weeks ago, the American military finally acknowledged what nongovernmental monitoring groups had claimed for months: The United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State since August 2014 has been killing Iraqi and Syrian civilians at astounding rates in the four months since President Trump assumed office. The result has been a staggering loss of civilian life, as the head of the United Nations independent Commission of Inquiry into the Syrian civil war said last week.

Donald Trump as commander-in-chief of US armed forces is deliberately, decidedly, purposefully, targeting Muslim civilians. by

The truth of massive Muslim civilian casualties slaughtered by Trumps military was now on full display, but the main question remained unanswered: Was Trump unable to stop killing civilian Muslims or had he ordered them to be deliberately targeted?

After talking about taking out their families, Trump went on justify his proposal by saying that relatives of ISIL members know exactly what [is] going on. In his opinion, ISIL fighters do care  about their families lives.

There remains little doubt: Donald Trump as commander-in-chief of US armed forces is deliberately, decidedly, purposefully, targeting Muslim civilians. Are these not war crimes?

The charge of war crime is a serious one and should not be taken lightly. It is the task of criminal lawyers and legal scholars to consider the evidence and make a judgment in a court of law such as the International Criminal Court at The Hague. But the depth of Donald Trumps hatred of Muslims, his total disregard for Muslim lives and his willingness to accommodate large-scale civilian casualties, while appreciating the beauty of his chocolate cake is now matter of public record.

Hate crimes

Before we get to that court of law, there is another charge, something called hate crime  a criminal act motivated by racist hatred  which we need to consider. Over the short period of time, Trump has been in the global eye, we have a rather complete picture of his hatred of Muslims as Muslims.





In his racist, conspiratorially infested mind, Trump believes Muslims hate him and hate all other Americans. I think Islam hates us, he once told CNNs Anderson Cooper. He believes tremendous hatred is definitive to the religion. He maintained the war was against radical Islam, but said, its very hard to define. Its very hard to separate. Because you dont know whos who. What could this possibly mean other than Muslims as Muslims hate him and his ilk and, as a result, they need to be treated as enemies? Just by being Muslim, they are the enemy and must be banned, eliminated, and forced into indignity of refugee camps.

It is now a matter of public record that Trump wishes to ban Muslims from the US. If a Muslim is even suspected of being involved in a violent act, he is only too eager to jump to the conclusion and denounce Islamic extremism that someone has taught him is a good euphemism for Muslims. But if Muslims are victims of such acts he could not care less.

Lets see now: He goes on a rampage, mass murdering innocent Muslim civilians in Iraq and Syria. He arms Saudi Arabia and Israel to their teeth to kill more Muslims in Yemen and Palestine. He drops the mother of all bombs on Afghanistan. He thinks Muslims hate him (or as he puts it, Islam hates us.) He wants to ban Muslims from the US. What else do we need to determine whether he is guilty of a hate crime?

What about an ideology that drives him to hate Muslims and wants to murder them all en masse. Who might be the source of such an ideology? Who is sitting right next to Trump in the White House as his guru on matters Islamic? Well, there is Steve Bannon.

The notoriety of Steve Bannon as a malignant crusader has now been fully documented. Trumps right-hand man Steve Bannon called for Christian holy war, one headline read, Now hes on the National Security Council. At a Christian conference held at the Vatican in 2014, Bannon is documented as having said: Were at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict. He warned his Christian audience: We are in an outright war against jihadists, Islam, Islamic fascism.

OPINION: The Muslim as a Manchurian candidate

Bannons so-called documentaries mobilising white supremacists against Muslims, and his reading list, all made up of notorious, racist, apocalyptic warmongers, have also been documented. Bannons readings tend to have one thing in common, according to an article by Politico, the view that technocrats have put Western civilization on a downward trajectory and that only a shock to the system can reverse its decline. And they tend to have a dark, apocalyptic tone that at times echoes Bannons own public remarks over the years  a sense that humanity is at a hinge point in history.

Trump and his Christian-Zionist guru are not the only symptom of this racist sickness in the US. They are the crowning achievement of it. From Bill Maher and his sidekick, Sam Harris, to Niall Ferguson and his wife Ayaan Hirsi Ali to the whole phenomenon of New Atheism are the foregrounding from which this particular disease has now metastasised in both Europe and the US, with Israel as the epicentre of its common ground.

What we witness in this staggering loss of life among innocent civilian Muslims at the receiving end of Trumps bombs may or may not amount to war crimes  that is for legal scholars and a court of law to decide. But they are certainly evidence of hate crimes, which if it were targeted towards one person it would be a matter of criminal investigation. But when it comes to countless thousands ordered to be killed by the President of the United States it is called war on terror.

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Protesters vent anger at PM Theresa May over housing policy in wake of Grenfell Tower disaster that killed at least 80.

London, UK  Activists in the UK have called on Prime Minister Theresa May to stand down at a large demonstration in London.

Thousands attended Saturdays protest, which was backed by senior members of the opposition Labour Party, as well as grassroots left-wing groups.

The protests come as opponents of the Conservative leader try to up the pressure on her newly formed government, which only received majority backing in parliament after the party formed a pact with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

May failed to secure enough seats to form a Conservative government outright in the June general election and was forced to seek agreement with the DUP to guarantee the ability to pass key legislation.

OPINION: Theresa Mays zombie administration has to go

John Rees, a writer and activist with the Peoples Assembly, which part-organised the protest, said he wanted to force the government to call another election.

No one voted for a government that has to bribe the bigots of the DUP with 1.5 billion pounds ($1.95bn) to cling on to office, he told Al Jazeera, adding Theresa May is on warning: if she isnt gone by the autumn there will be a protest like no other at the Tory party conference in October.

The DUP deal has been criticised for the large sum of money May released to Northern Ireland to secure it, as well as the DUPs ties to unionist militias and socially conservative platform.

The Conservatives say the deal gives the country the certainty and stability it requires over the coming years, as Britain leaves the European Union.

Opponents have also targeted the prime minister over the Grenfell Tower disaster, which killed at least 80 people according to an official estimate that is universally expected to rise.

Critics regard the Conservative partys austerity policies as responsible for the lax safety measures, which led to the deadly fire.

I feel the Conservatives are responsible for what happened (at Grenfell), said protester Lottie Bowes, adding: They (government) have made cuts to social housing and dont care about health and safety rules.

Theyve ignored entire sections of the community in this country for too long and now they need to go.

Grenfell inquiry

Conservative figures, for their part, have rejected the accusations and what they term the politicisation of the tragedy.

The government has called for an official inquiry into the causes of the fire and has ordered checks on other buildings to ensure they are not at risk.

I am determined that there will be justice for all the victims of this terrible tragedy and for their families who have suffered so terribly, May said earlier this week.

The main beneficiary of the pressure on May has been the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who defied expectation during the election to secure more seats for the party.

Opinion polls that once had his party trailing the Conservatives by up to 25 points, now give Labour a lead of around five points.

May has said the current parliament will last for two years to oversee Brexit negotiations, which will conclude with the UKs departure from the EU in March 2019.
Hong Kong marks 20th anniversary of return to Chinese rule but over 100,000 protesters expected to take to the streets.

Carrie Lam has been sworn in as Hong Kongs chief executive by Chinese President Xi Jinping as the city marks the 20th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule.

Lam took her oath in Mandarin Chinese and not in the local Cantonese on Saturday amid scattered protests.

Security was tight at the same harbour-front venue where two decades earlier, the last colonial governor, Chris Patten, tearfully handed back Hong Kong to Chinese rule at a rain-soaked ceremony.

Im facing the biggest call of my career, Lam said after being sworn in.





In the next five days, Ill be speaking to my team and making sure I do not let the central government or the people of Hong Kong down.

Minor scuffles broke out under a blue sky as pro-democracy activists  some with banners bearing the words Democracy. Self-determination  and pro-Beijing groups taunted each other, with hundreds of police deployed on a traditional day of protest in Hong Kong.

Scores of democracy protesters were taken away by police, while several pro-China groups remained, cheering loudly and waving flags as though in victory.

Long live China, they shouted in unison. We support the polices law enforcement actions.

Theres a very heavy police presence here and there are far more people in the pro-China rally than weve seen in previous years, Al Jazeeras Rob McBride, reporting from Hong Kong, said.

READ MORE: Hong Kong-China tension: Sheung Shui, a frontline town

Down here, people are singing patriotic songs. You do get a sense that this is very well organised. It seems most of the groups are from mainland China and its difficult to know how many local from Hong Kong are part of that group.

Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, under a one country, two systems formula which guarantees wide-ranging autonomy and judicial independence not seen in mainland China.

Beijing-backed civil servant Lam was chosen to be Hong Kongs next leader in March by a 1,200-person election committee stacked with pro-China and pro-establishment loyalists.

Heightened tension

Xis visit comes amid heightened tension between China and Hong Kong.

Hong Kongs pro-democracy activists have been protesting against what they say is Chinas growing encroachment on the citys freedoms in a breach of the one country, two systems arrangement.

Beijings refusal to grant universal suffrage to Hong Kong triggered nearly three months of street protests in 2014 and growing calls for independence for the city, in what many observers see as the most tumultuous post-handover period seen in Hong Kong.

Xi conceded on Friday the one country, two systems formula faces new challenges but that it shouldnt be handled with an emotional attitude.

Emily Lau, the former chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera that the mood in Hong Kong is very sombre.

She added, however, that the Hong Kong people are very happy to see the back of Leung Chun-ying, who was the chief executive for the last five years and who really wreaked havoc in Hong Kong.

Lau said many have high hopes for Lam who has said she wants to heal the wounds, work with the pro-democracy people, as well as the pro-Beijing camp  but the big question is whether Xi Jinping and the liaison office in Hong Kong will allow her to do it.

More than 100,000 protesters are expected to take to the streets for an annual march in the afternoon to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover.
US court says it has no say over presidents drone programme but Judge Brown says congressional oversight is a joke.

Washington, DC  A US federal appeals court has thrown out a lawsuit by the families of two Yemeni men allegedly killed as innocent bystanders in a US drone attack in 2012 but one of the judges said US democracy is broken after announcing the ruling.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel in Washington on Friday upheld a lower courts finding that it had no say over the presidents drone programme.

The case began in 2015 when two family members of Faisal bin Ali Jaber, who brought the wrongful death case against then President Barack Obama in 2015, were killed by a drone attack Yemen in 2012.





Faisals nephew Waleed, 26, and brother-in-law Salem, a father of seven and noted anti-extremist imam, were killed in the attack along with three others.

Faisals lawsuit requested an apology from the US government and declaration that the attack was unlawful. The lawsuit did not seek monetary relief.

Judge Janice Rogers Brown, who was appointed by former President George W Bush and is known for her conservative decisions, agreed with two other judges that the president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and only Congress can provide oversight of his military actions.

But congressional oversight is a joke, and a bad one at that, Brown said in a separate opinion.

This begs the question: if judges will not check this outsized power, then who will?

The other two judges on the panel, both appointed by Obama, did not join her separate opinion.

Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, a lawyer for rights group Reprieve which helped file the case, agreed with the judge, telling Al Jazeera that legal precedents which stop courts from ruling on political questions like the drone programme are outdated.

When a senior judge raises an alarm about our democracy, its time to sit up and take notice, Sullivan-Bennis said. Judge Brown appears profoundly uncomfortable with her court giving our president carte blanche to kill innocents abroad.

READ MORE: Should we be scared of Trumps drone reforms?

The United States has been conducting counterterrorism operations in Yemen for years. In 2013, Obama set tighter rules on drone attacks and promised greater transparency.

Jabers family died as a result of a signature strike. These attacks involve US intelligence deciding who is a viable target based on information obtained from electronic devices like mobile phones which detail location and calls made over an extended period.

Attacks may also be ordered as a result of intelligence or information given to US forces in the region. However, reports show the US is often unsure of who exactly it is targeting.

The guidelines for drone attacks implemented under Obama state that attacks will be taken only when there is near certainty that the individual being targeted is, in fact, the lawful target and located at the place where the action will occur.

The Trump administration has loosened these rules, making it easier for drone attacks to be ordered.

No current remedy

Eric Lewis, one of the attorneys who argued the case in Washington, DC, believes the guidelines are not enough.

The president can order innocent people killed because of faulty algorithms or bad intelligence and there is no current remedy, Lewis said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera.

Although Fridays ruling was a defeat for Jaber and advocates of drone-policy reform, Sullivan-Bennis said Reprieve was heartened by Judge Browns comments.

The rights group is weighing its options on an appeal that would take them to the US Supreme Court, which could reverse the legal precedents prohibiting courts from overseeing the drone programme.

Were not alone in seeing the lack of oversight and the lack of transparency, said Sullivan-Bennis.
CHP leader is marching to Istanbul where party member is jailed for leaking information on Syria arms transports.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised Turkeys main opposition party over its protest march launched after a party deputy got 25 years in prison for espionage.

Republican Peoples Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu began the march after the jailing of CHP politician Enis Berberoglu, who was jailed for leaking information on the transport of arms to Syria.

Speaking at his Justice and Development (AK) Partys provincial meeting in the capital Ankara, Erdogan said: If you are launching a march for terrorists and for their supporters, something which you have never thought about doing against terrorist groups, you can convince no one that your aim is justice.

Erdogan accused the party of acting with terrorist groups and forces that incite such groups against Turkey.

This situation, which anyone who in their right mind can see clearly, is part of traps set up in Syria, Iraq, the Gulf, and Europe against our country, he added.

Kilicdaroglu intends to complete the 450km walk from Ankara to Maltepe prison in Istanbul, where Berberoglu is being held, in 24 days.

Marching without party insignia and simply a sign with the word justice in Turkish, he has been followed by thousands every day and plans to end the march on July 9 with a mass rally outside the prison.

Kilicdaroglu is being accompanied by CHP deputies and supporters, as well as family members.

Berberoglu was convicted of revealing state secrets by passing images to Cumhuriyet daily of Turkish intelligence trucks en route to Syria in January 2014.

He is the first CHP deputy to be imprisoned in recent years. Around a dozen legislators from the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) are currently jailed, most awaiting trial over alleged links to the PKK.

In May 2016, parliament voted to strip legislators facing trial of their parliamentary immunity.
Foreign minister asks non-permanent members of UN Security Council to call for an end of the blockade on Qatar.

Qatars foreign minister has asked members of the United Nations Security Council to urge a Saudi-led bloc of states to lift their blockade on the Gulf country, nearly one month after it began.

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Friday met non-permanent members of the Security Council at the Qatari mission to the UN in the US state of New York, urging them to speak out publicly on his countrys behalf.

Al Thani told Al Jazeera he gave them updates on the situation and urged all of them to call for a lifting of the blockade on Qatar.





Qatar was trying to encourage all the parties to enter a serious dialogue to try to put an end to this, the foreign minister said.

The meeting took place one day after Al Thanis visit to Washington, DC, where US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson promised to try to help resolve the Gulf crisis, Al Jazeeras Kristen Saloomey, reporting from New York, said.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 over allegations that it supports extremism and is too close to Iran  charges Doha has repeatedly denied.

After more than two weeks, the four Arab countries gave Doha a 10-day ultimatum to comply with a 13-point list of demands in exchange for the end of the anti-Qatar measures.

READ MORE: Qatar-Gulf crisis: All the latest updates

The demands include that Qatar shut down the Al Jazeera Media Network, close a Turkish military base, scale down ties with Iran, and pay an unspecified sum in reparations.

Egypt, a non-permanent member of the Security Council through the end of this year, did not attend the meeting with Al Thani in New York.

The Qatari foreign minister was set to return to Doha after the meeting, where his country will continue to press its case with a number of different organisation, like the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization, and the human rights council in Geneva, Al Jazeeras Saloumi said.

But no formal action is expected here in the Security Council.

Airspace blockade

Meanwhile, Qatars transport minister has met twice this past week with the UNs International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) at its headquarters in Montreal, Canada, asking it to intervene in the crisis.

For nearly a month, many Qatar Airways flights to and from Doha have had to make huge detours, due to the airspace blockade by the Saudi-led bloc of states.

It has been costly to the airline, disruptive to passengers and, according to the Qataris, dangerous to passengers and illegal under international law.

Really, its not a political issue, we are talking here about a technical issue, which means safety and security of the aviation, Qatars Minister of Transport and Communications, Jassim Saif Al Sulaiti, told Al Jazeera.

I dont mean just Qatar Airways, but all the international [airlines].

Al Jazeeras Daniel Lak, reporting from Montreal, said it was a challenging case for an agency that is highly technical and known to be publicity shy.

The ICAO works on regulation, flight routeing and other issues that may not obvious to most travellers, but keep the worlds airlines and airspace running as smoothly as possible.

The situation comes as Qatar Airways has been growing exponentially with profits soaring more than 20 percent this year, Al Jazeeras Lak said.

Its one of the worlds leading long-haul airlines and has ambitious plans to buy more planes and fly to more places.

It recently celebrated its 10th anniversary of flights into New York by lighting the Empire State Building in the airlines colours. And just last month it announced it wanted to buy 10 percent of American Airlines.

While a negotiated solution to this Gulf crisis seems stalled, Qatar believes its best hope for an end to this air blockade at least might be the technical, safety and security arguments its advancing at the International Civil Aviation Organization, said Lak.
Warm weather across parts of Europe is not a new story. What is new are the regions that are experiencing the extreme heat.

In late June, much of Western Europe was dealing with a heatwave that extended well into the UK. For days temperatures easily reached 8-12 degrees above average.

As June ended, the weather pattern in the west broke down, and we are now seeing the strongest area of high pressure moving to the east. What high pressure in the summer tends to do is to keep the atmosphere relatively stable, cloud free and warm. This is now what much of the Balkan Peninsula has been experiencing, as the air mass lingers day after day.

Across Greece, authorities cautioned the public to stay indoors over the last several days. Temperatures registered well into the low-40s on Friday across much of southern Greece.

But it hasnt only been Greece in the grips of a heatwave; Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, and Croatia are just a few of the southeastern European countries that have been experiencing temperatures well over 10 degrees above average. In Turkey, the cities of Antalya and Akhisar recorded highs of 45C on Friday.

Cities in Romania and Italy on Friday also produced some impressive high temperatures; Bucharest and Bari both reached 38C, while dozens of cities across the region easily recorded temps well into the mid-30s.

Saturday and Sunday are expected to be equally hot, if not hotter, across much of the region, with Athens, Greece, expecting a high temperature of 43C Sunday.

But there is good news in the weather forecast, as a weak area of low pressure is expected to move through the region starting on Monday, bringing a change of wind direction along with some clouds and showers to help cool things off.
Aboriginal communities call for a day of action to draw attention to 150 years of racism, genocide and colonialism.

Indigenous people across Canada are holding ceremonies, events and protests, saying there is nothing to celebrate as the country marks its 150th anniversary.

On Parliament Hill in the capital Ottawa, where thousands are gathering to celebrate Canada Day on Saturday, groups of indigenous people and their supporters are reoccupying what they say is their land and drawing attention to the history and oppression of the aboriginal people.

The goal of the reoccupation is to express our indigenous sovereignty in the face of these toxic national celebrations, Freddy Stoneypoint, organiser of the demonstrations, told Al Jazeera.

As an indigenous person, this is an opportune moment to make our community, which has been rendered invisible by the colonial occupation, known, said Stoneypoint, a member of the Ojibwe nation.

OPINION: Idle No More and colonial Canada

Stoneypoint is one of five Carleton University students who, together with the Bawating Water Protectors, have erected a teepee on the land that is the traditional territory of the Algonquin people.

When your identity and culture are suppressed, there shouldnt be celebrations, said Hamda Deria, another organiser.

The group first tried to erect the teepee on Wednesday, but was met with violent resistance from the police which arrested nine people before releasing them later.

After negotiations between the group and authorities, the teepee was erected at a ceremony near the main stage for the Canada Day celebrations.

Sacred fire lit on unceded Algonquin territory. Human chain formed around teepee and fire. #Reoccupation #Unsettle150 pic.twitter.com/XRiFmKX7Xw  Daniel Cayley-Daoust (@DanCayley) July 1, 2017

This is not a protest. This is an active ceremony and an active resistance, Deria said.

On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met a small group inside the teepee.

Stoneypoint, who was not present at the meeting, said he viewed Trudeaus unannounced visted as a violent act that was only for self-serving purposes.

UNsettling Canada 150

In addition to the reoccupation teepee ceremony, many other indigenous groups and activists have planned events and protests for Saturday.

Idle No More and Defenders of the Land, two networks of indigenous communities, have called for a National Day of Action, centred on the theme of UNsettling Canada 150.

Inspired by First Nations political leader Arthur Manuel, who died in January, organisers called on members of the indigenous community and its supporters to educate the Canadian population about their right to self determination.

I do not wish to celebrate Canada stealing our land. That is what Canadians will be celebrating on July 1, the theft of 99.8 percent of our land, leaving us on reserves that make up only 0.2 percent of the territories of given to us by the Creator, Manuel wrote in his last article before he died.

Shawn Johnston, member of the Couchiching First Nation and part of the Idle No More communication team, told Al Jazeera the day of action was about people stepping up, taking action and finding their own voices.

He said they want to show the conversation goes beyond 150 and that it must be acknowledged that we [the indigenous people] were the original caretakers of the the land.

Russ Diabo, an organiser and member of the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake, added that the planned action was also an alternative celebration for the indigenous communities, highlighting their survival  and right to self-determination of their land, territories and resources.

We are disposable

Historians believe indigenous people have lived on Turtle Island, the name given to the land that is known as North America , for the last 15,000 years.





Canada was first colonised by the French in 1534 and then by the British 1763. In 1867, the British colonies merged to become the Dominion of Canada, and in 1982, the country became fully independent of Britain.

Since the European arrival, the indigenous people have been subjected to policies regarding land and assimilation, among other issues. Today they are among the countrys poorest and unhealthiest.

For this years celebrations, Canadian government is spending more than 0.5bn Canadian dollars ($386m), the highest ever spent on Canada Day.

For many of us from the grassroots, we find it repugnant that Canada is celebrating 150 years of what we consider is racism and genocide and colonialism, Diabo said when asked what message the high price-tag sends to the indigenous community.

For many of us from the grassroots, we find it repugnant that Canada is celebrating 150 years of what we consider is racism and genocide and colonialism, Diabo said when asked what message the high price-tag sends to the indigenous community.

Sakihitowin Awasis, member of Michif Anishinaabe nation, said it was extremely disheartening that so much money was spent on the celebrations when the indigenous communities continue to face a health and suicide crisis, boiled water advisories, and an epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women.

It just gives indigenous people in Canada a message that were disposable and our humanity isnt as important as celebrating settler land theft and 150 years of oppression on indigenous territories, said Awasis.

For many others like Awasis, the celebrations exemplify the reasons much of the indigenous community has grown frustrated and angered by Trudeau.

READ MORE: Canada @150  Still trying to keep the US happy

Earlier this week, the prime minister called on Canada to treat those who do not want to celebrate the day with respect.

We just have to make sure we deal with what are going to be historic crowds on Canada Day on the Hill but also deal with people in a respectful and a responsible way, Trudeau said at a news conference.

But Awasis sees this, and other moves by Trudeau, as an erasure of the issues that continue to plague the aboriginal people.

I think we can sit in the teepee and get his photo opportunity. But at the end of the day, he is passing pipeline infrastructure through indigenous territories that is in violation of international law.

Despite this, many see the day of action and events like the teepee reoccupation ceremony as a sign of hope.

I have hope in our indigenous people, Diabo said.

Awasis agrees, saying that as much of a struggle as it is, its an exciting time to be indigenous.

Were really going beyond what previous generations even thought was possible. I can only hope that the next generation goes beyond what I think is possible.

Follow Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath on Twitter @elledubg.
Okja, the new film from the director of Snowpiercer, was simultaneously released online and in the theater to coincide with the extended Fourth of July holiday. But Okja, which seeks to portray capitalism in a negative light, deserves to be remembered for its portrayal of how free markets save lives.

Okja is the story of a simple South Korean orphan named Mija (An Seo Hyun) whose only friend is the films titular character, a genetically modified super pig about to be slaughtered. Okja (pronounced OAK-juh) is a gentle-hearted CGI that looks like a cross between a rhino and a manatee. The Mirando Corporation launched a 10-year-long contest for farmers to raise these massive animals, specially bred to feed starving people while leaving a minimal footprint on the environment.

As the film opens the corporations spokesman, a whiny TV scientist reminiscent of Bill Nye (Jake Gyllenhaal), has proclaimed Okja the winner. Soon, it dawns on 14-year-old Mija what awaits her beloved pet  and she springs into motion to save the gargantuan gilts life.

Produced for Netflix, Okja began a limited theatrical release on Wednesday and competed for the Palm dOr at Cannes, stirring Oscar speculation. Bong Joon Ho, the director of Snowpiercer, puts his genre-blending style on display here, as well. But its moments of lighthearted comedy and adventure outshine the dull thud of leaden propaganda that otherwise pervades his script.

Still, Okja reaches an important, market-affirming truth in spite of itself.

Warning: This section contains spoilers.

The film literally begins with a ritual denunciation of capitalism, as Mirando CEO Lucy (Tilda Swinton) brands the companys founder  her grandfather  a terrible man who committed atrocities. Motioning toward Mirando headquarters, she says, These walls are stained with the blood of fine working men. We later learn that her family produced napalm, and, when Lucys crazed twin Nancy was CEO, she dumped so much toxic waste into a lake that it exploded.

The dialogue features all the subtlety of a Daily Worker op-ed.

Meanwhile, Mija playfully romps with Okja, who saves her life. When Mija learns that her grandfather was unable to purchase Okja  instead buying her a golden calf, err, pig  she sets out to return the favor.

Along the way, she meets the friendly hijackers of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a real-life direct action organization that Bong portrays as unfailingly sympathetic. We inflict economic damage on those who profit from [animals] misery, says the onscreen leader, Jay (Paul Dano). Although he paraphrases ALFs actual 40-year credo never to hurt any creature, human or animal, Jay administers a ruthless beating to a fellow ALF member and commits terrorism without a hint of irony.

Okja is cruelly tortured  and blinded  by her capitalist oppressors. When ALF liberates Okja, with the help of Mijas love, her eyes are opened.

The group saves Okja but asks Mijas permission to send her back to the companys mass slaughter facility, in order to secretly record its conditions. The translator betrays Mija (who does not speak English), and her pursuit continues.

A heartlight vs. the heart of capitalism

The simple childs quest to save a lovable creature from a faceless system is reminiscent of E.T., albeit replacing government bureaucrats with corporate executives  who happen to be the animals rightful owners.

But Okja lacks the (glowing) heart of E.T., which emphasized the loving relationship between the two protagonists. Bong has another purpose: to demonize corporations.

The films climax shifts to Manhattan because it is, in Bongs words, the heart of capitalism. There it offers a graphic tour of Mirandos mass slaughterhouse, where Bong (who co-wrote the film) lingers over scenes of torture, killing, and a river of blood flowing through the facility. Bong said these graphic images were absolutely necessary to make the audience feel uncomfortable. It is witnessing your family being dragged into a slaughterhouse.

This is the state of capitalism today, and this is what I wanted to convey, Bong told the BBC.

Such cold-hearted capitalist mentality is on display as Nancy, who has ruthlessly returned to Mirando, tells Mija her pets death is business.

But the films conclusion upends this simplistic portrayal. Mija uses the golden pig to purchase Okjas freedom. At that moment, Nancys demeanor changes completely, instructing security to make sure our customer and her purchase get home safely.

Despite Bongs anti-capitalist screed, the free market saves the day.

As of this writing, Okja holds an 84 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes. It has rare moments of comedic success, such as its surreal use of Annies Song, and inspiring cinematography. (The scene of Mija walking against the colorless crowds is a must-see.) But it fails to connect with its viewers, because bare propaganda lacks human depth and emotion. Okja should be remembered, if at all, for three things:

Its positive portrayal of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

Analysts say that ALF and its allied Earth Liberation Force (ELF) have engaged in an increasingly violent pattern of crime. The FBI testified before the Senate in 2004 that the ALF/ELF and related groups have committed more than 1,100 criminal acts in the United States since 1976, resulting in damages conservatively estimated at approximately $110 million. The FBI added that ALF extremism poses a serious domestic terrorist threat. While ALF has generally avoided violence, it has embarked on an escalating campaign of arson and the use of IEDs, according to STRATFOR. One eco-arsonist carried in his backpack a copy of the book The Declaration of War: Killing People to Save the Animals and the Environment, published by ALF.

Its misleading portrayal of genetically modified food (GMOs) as dangerous.

Okja consistently presents GMOs as an offense against nature; one ALF member insists any sane person would be disgusted at eating mutant, GM foods. Bong told the BBC he intended this as a propaganda point: There are people who say the danger of GM foods is being overly exaggerated, he said, but nobody is able to prove their safety, either. However, the European Union looked at a decade of relevant data before concluding that GMOs are not per se more risky than, e.g., conventional plant breeding technologies. In April, Cuba announced it would turn to GMOs to save its floundering socialist economy. Needlessly denying hungry people access to safe food is an unusual moral message. The film also raises the question why it is moral to create GMOs for companionship but not nourishment or the survival of the human race.

Its conclusion that the free market liberates man and beast alike.

Ultimately, what saves Okja (the animal, not the film) is free market capitalism. Mija makes a consumer choice that she values her pet more than a solid gold statue. Mirando seeks to make a profit by catering to human needs. The conclusion of this film is the flip-side of Adam Smiths famous dictum that prosperity is not caused by the entrepreneurs benevolence; much less is a corporation primarily motivated by sadism. It bears remembering that the free market has long been involved in conservation  including the preservation of species facing extinction  from the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association in Pennsylvania, to the Sea Lion Caves of Oregon, to the work of Ducks Unlimited in preserving wetlands through private ownership.

Okja accurately teaches that each individual affects the world by choosing which products to purchase. Every dollar is a vote for or against a good or service. Only when denied this choice can a system impose barbarism on an unwilling society.

Fans of the free market would do well to vote with their dollars and watch something else besides Okja this summer.

(Photo credit: Okja trailer screenshot.)
Data released by UN show new allegations continue to stream in despite secretary-generals commitment to end scourge.

An earlier version of this article said that the UN registered a total of 145 cases of sexual exploitation and abuse involving peacekeepers in 2016, up from 99 in 2015. Instead, these numbers relate to cases across all UN staff, not just peacekeepers. Furthermore, the previous version stated that the cases since January 2017 involved 33 recorded cases involving 39 survivors, including six children. This should read 33 recorded allegations involving 37 survivors, including six children.

At least 55 UN peacekeepers are accused of sexual exploitation and abuse of civilians across UN missions around the globe since January 2017, new UN data show.

Data released late on Friday night also showed a new case of sexual exploitation was registered against Republic of Congo peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR), less than 10 days after the United Nations announced the withdrawal of Congolese troops from the UNs mission over a string of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse.

On Saturday, a UN spokesperson confirmed that a new allegation had been registered against the Congolese but declined to clarify if the recorded case of sexual exploitation took place before or after the stated withdrawal of the battalion.

The allegation was recorded in June [] an investigative process has been launched as per standard procedures, Sophie Boudre, a spokesperson for Department of Peacekeeping operations, told Al Jazeera.

READ MORE: UN peacekeepers  Keeping the peace or preventing it?

UN peacekeepers have been hit by a series of accusations of sexual exploitation and abuse of civilians in its missions across the globe.

The international body has also been accused of burying cases and failing to act promptly or transparently to incidents perpetrated by its troops.

An AP investigation earlier this year found around 2,000 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse have been registered between 2005-2017.

In March, the UN registered a total of 145 cases of sexual exploitation and abuse involving all members of the UN in 2016  up from 99 in 2015. Since the beginning of 2017, there have been 33 recorded allegations involving 37 survivors, including six children.

Sending Congo's troops homes won't affect victims, because what passes for 'justice' is an illusion in all cases by Paula Donovan, co-director of Code Blue Campaign

Antonio Gutierrez, the new UN secretary-general, subsequently announced a series of measures to tackle the problem, but activists say the UN is fundamentally ill-equipped to end the problem.

In early June, the New York-based Code Blue Campaign, dedicated to ending impunity for crimes of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, released an internal UN memo that showed no action had been taken against the Congolese troops in CAR, despite multiple complaints about their behaviour.

In the leaked memo addressed to UN headquarters, Lieutenant-General Balla Keita of Senegal, head of the UN peacekeeping force in CAR, wrote that he had sent six letters to the battalion commander in 2017 over alleged sexual abuse, fuel trafficking, and lack of discipline.

The battalion is notorious for SEA [sexual exploitation and abuse] misconducts, fuel trafficking, and poor discipline, Keita wrote in the memo.

Fault Lines investigates the legacy and impact of sex abuse by UN peacekeepers in Haiti.

Following the leak, the UN announced on June 21 that it would be withdrawing the Congolese battalion made up of around 600 soldiers.

Code Blue Campaign, said it was relieved that the battalion would be withdrawn, but alleged that action had only been taken when the complaints had become public.

A strong signal needs to be sent to peacekeepers. We can't remain a country in which people can come and do anything they want. It will be terrible for us and for generations to come by Dieudonne Nzapalainga, cardinal and archbishop of Bangui

The Campaign said the UN now had a responsibility to ensure that soldiers facing credible allegations are prosecuted by Brazzaville authorities.

Under UN rules, it is up to the troop contributing country to investigate and prosecute criminal cases against military officers.

But with the Congolese troops being withdrawn, it is unclear if the investigations will be completed by the time troops leave the country.

Sending Congos troops home wont affect victims, because what passes for justice is an illusion in all cases, Paula Donovan, co-director of Code Blue Campaign, told Al Jazeera.

With troop contributing countries responsible for investigating and prosecuting their soldiers, Donovan said there was little prospect of justice for survivors.

Investigations are endlessly delayed; evidence passes from hand to hand; accused UN civilian staff are shielded from courts; the rare trial of a soldier happens thousands of miles away with no testimony from witnesses; and victims are left in the dark.

Since January, there have been nine cases of sexual exploitation or abuse made against UN peacekeepers stationed in CAR. None of the cases have been solved. The UN stipulates a period of six months to conduct investigations.

Earlier in June, the Dieudonne Nzapalainga, cardinal and archbishop of Bangui, told Al Jazeera the UN had ended their complacency when it came to addressing sexual exploitation and abuse among its troops.

These soldiers who violate these laws should be held accountable.

A strong signal needs to be sent to peacekeepers. We cant remain a country in which people can come and do anything they want. It will be terrible for us and for generations to come.
Doha rejects demands made by Saudi Arabia and its allies, saying the world is not governed by ultimatums.

Qatars foreign minister has said Doha will not meet any of the 13 demands made by Saudi Arabia and its allies, offering instead a proper condition for a dialogue to resolve the Gulf crisis.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, speaking at the news conference in the Italian capital Rome on Saturday, said the list was meant to be rejected, pointing to the fact that it arrived with a 10-day expiration date.

Everyone is aware that these demands are meant to infringe the sovereignty of the state of Qatar, shut the freedom of speech and impose auditing and probation mechanism for Qatar, he said.

We believe that the world is not governed by ultimatums, we believe that the world is governed by the international law, it is governed by an order that does not allow large countries to bully small countries.

READ MORE: Qatar-Gulf crisis  All the latest updates

Sheikh Mohammed spoke less than 48 hours before the deadline for the demands issued last week was due to pass.

It was not clear what would come next. Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar did not fear any military retaliation for rejecting the ultimatum.

The list of demands includes downgrading ties with Iran, shutting down Al Jazeera Media Network and Turkish military base in Doha.





The ultimatum came more than two weeks after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 and imposed sanctions, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Sheikh Mohammed said on Saturday that those parties brand any party of state who opposes their designs as terrorists.

He also said that Trump was manipulated into believing that Qatar was not doing enough to crack down on funding extremists.

The United States administration and institutions firmly believe in the state of Qatar, yet the statement made by President Trump was based on false allegations and the false impression given to him by the heads of states who imposed a blockade on Qatar, he said.

Trump would be able to find the true, established facts from the US institutions, according to Sheikh Mohammed.

The state of Qatar has been subjected to unlawful measures on the basis of false allegations without the submission of evidence, he said.
Lalive will pursue the cases of some 2,450 citizens and foreign residents hit by the anti-Qatar measures.

Geneva, Switzerland  The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) in Qatar has hired a Swiss law firm to investigate thousands of cases of human rights violations from a Saudi-led blockade on Qatar and seek compensation.

NHRC and Lalive signed a contract in Geneva on Saturday that will grant the international law firm the right to pursue the cases of some 2,450 citizens and foreign residents of Qatar, who have been affected by the blockade.

Lalive, which specialises in mass claims, said it will pursue the cases in local and international tribunals.





The sanctions imposed on Qatar go too far and are not in accordance with international law. Ordinary Qatari nationals and companies are not part of the state and cannot be targeted, Veijo Heiskanen, the lead lawyer on the case, told Al Jazeera.

A political dispute between States does not justify sanctions against private citizens, companies and other private entities. The Qatar National Committee for Human Rights is, therefore, justified to pursue these claims, he said.

Heiskanen said Lalive will be working closely with the NHRC over the coming days and weeks to proceed as quickly as possible to determine the right course of action with respect to the claims already submitted and those to come.

OPINION: What is the Qatar-GCC showdown really about?

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and implemented a blockade in a bid to bring Doha in line with its neighbours foreign policy.

The embargo has isolated Qatar, blocking air and land traffic and movement of people and goods from Doha to other Gulf capitals, as well as severing commercial and financial relations between Qatar and the three Gulf countries.

Gulf authorities expelled Qatari citizens living in the three countries and asked their own citizens to return home within 14 days or face sanctions. In the first days of the embargo, some non-Qatari citizens holding a Qatari resident permit were also banned from entering some of these countries, the NHRC reported.

People have been forced to immediately leave behind their jobs, homes, universities or business activities. Families have to decide whether to split up or face sanctions upon their return, including prison terms, NHRC Chairman Ali al-Marri told Al Jazeera.

There are thousands of people of all nationalities, not just Qataris, who are suffering because of the embargo.

The number of people affected by the sanctions who may seek compensation could increase in the next few days and weeks, as residents come to terms with the effects of the travel and residency restrictions imposed on them, the official added.

READ MORE: CPJ slams Saudi-led blocs contempt for media freedom

According to the NHRC, some 11,300 citizens from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE living in Qatar have been affected by the forcible repatriation measures. Many have decided to stay in Doha, but now they fear to return home, said Bettahar Boudjellal, a consultant at the NHRC.

Some 19,000 Qatari citizens living in the three countries were expelled living assets, properties, jobs and in some cases their families behind, he said.





More than 1,000 Gulf students attending Qatar universities have been forced to quit their studies and repatriate immediately. Qatar students have been expelled from universities in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE, without receiving proper attestations from the educational institutions they were enrolled in, the NHRC said.

Patients from Saudi Arabia and the UAE who were hospitalised in Doha were asked to leave promptly, as well as Qatari patients in hospitals of the Gulf capitals.

The NHRC said a 13-point list of demands, which include Qatar shutting down the Al Jazeera Media Network, contains gross violations of human rights conventions and other relevant international and regional agreements, from the right to freedom of opinion and expression to the right to nationality and the right to asylum.

The comments echoed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Husseins statement that the demand to close down Al Jazeera was an unacceptable attack on the right to freedoms of expression and opinion.
Saudi foreign minister reiterates that list of 13-point demands to Qatar to stop funding terrorism is non-negotiable.

Saudi Arabia has reiterated that its demands to Qatar to end the standoff in the Gulf were non-negotiable.

Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi foreign minister, said on Twitter on Saturday that demands on Qatar to stop funding terrorism are non-negotiable.





Restrictions on Qatar show zero tolerance for terrorism, Jubeir said, claiming that Doha had failed to keep previous pledges of stopping funding terrorism and interfering in other countries affairs. Qatar denies all allegations.

Jubeir made a similar statement last week in Washington, DC, when asked by reporters if the 13 point list of demands that are widely denounced as unrealistic was non-negotiable.

We made our point, we took our steps and its up to the Qataris to amend their behaviour and once they do, things will be worked out, but if they dont they will remain isolated, he said on Tuesday.

10-day deadline

The demands issued with a 10-day deadline last week include downgrading ties with Iran, shutting down Al Jazeera Media Network and Turkish military base in Doha.

The exact time of the deadline was not discussed but it is expected to become void on Monday.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed sanctions on the country on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

The four Arab countries have not provided any evidence for their claim.

On Friday, Qatars Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani asked members of UNs Security Council to urge a Saudi-led bloc of states to lift their blockade on the Gulf country.
Former Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy received significant funding from an Emirati official to start his legal battle against the media network, the New York Times has reported.

According to a report published by the Times on Saturday, Fahmy received a substantial loan from the UAEs ambassador to the US, Yousef al-Otaiba, to cover his legal campaign against Al Jazeera following his release from an Egyptian prison in 2015.





Fahmy, along with nine other colleagues, were accused of spreading false news during their coverage of the aftermath of the military overthrow of then president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the year they were taken into custody.

Fahmy spent 437 days in jail before being released.

The Egyptian judge who sentenced the journalists said they were brought together by the devil to destabilise the country.

Fahmy is currently taking legal action against Al Jazeera and is suing for over $100m, saying the network knowingly endangered his life.

In February 2015, Fahmy began corresponding with Otaiba who offered to arrange coverage on the UAE-based TV channel SkyNews Arabia, according to the New York Times.

SkyNews to take it live would be awesome, I think a nudge to their C.E.O. could make it happen, Fahmy wrote.

Already done, Otaiba responded. Lets hope they can get there.

READ MORE: Hackers leak emails from UAE ambassador criticising Trump

After the news conference, Fahmy is reported to have written to the ambassador, I plan to keep the pressure on through the media and alluded to documents from Qatari opposition that would embarrass the government.

The Times also reported that Fahmy asked for money: I am looking for a personal loan with a written agreement to pay back on success plus interest, and or a profit margin.

According to the paper, in October 2015 Otaiba emailed an Egyptian businessman, Tawfik Diab, to arrange a transfer of $250,000 to an account under Fahmys name.

A few days later, Fahmy confirmed the transaction.

The money is in, Fahmy wrote, and he promised a progress report that we were planning to send to AD  presumably Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.

My team here will start working on the media blitz to revive the case in US media, he added.

READ MORE: Qatar-Gulf crisis: All the latest updates

In May 2016, Fahmy emailed information about his personal checking account in Vancouver to Otaiba, the report said. But it is unclear how Otaiba responded.

Fahmy claimed that the money for the lawsuit had gone to a third party, whom he refused to name.

I have not received a penny from Yousef, he told the Times.

The newspaper also reported that Fahmy falsely denied coordination with Otaiba in a news conference the journalist held in Washington on June 22 under the banner, Al Jazeera on Trial.

At the conference, Fahmy added his voice to Saudi and UAE accusations that Qatar and Al Jazeera have conspired with extremists.

Qatar has been given so many chances, and they have been warned so many times, he said, commending the Saudi-led blockade.

Asked if he had consulted Saudi or Emirati officials, or if he was close to Otaiba, Fahmy said, falsely, to simply answer your question, no. Fahmy said this past week that he was protecting a friend.

Since the start of the Gulf crisis, Fahmy has been vocal in his support for the blockade and has praised the Saudi offensive.

In an apparent attempt to spur unrest in Qatar, Fahmy also launched the hashtag #GoodbyeTamim.
Labour Party leader condemns use of UK weapons by Saudi Arabia in Yemen war, and calls for the suspension of arms sales.

Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UKs main opposition Labour Party, has called for a halt in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and a ceasefire in Yemen.

Since the start of the war in Yemen, the UK has approved arms export licences to Saudi Arabia worth $4.1bn, according to London-based Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Corbyn said: We have constantly condemned the use of these weapons by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and called for the suspension of the arms sales to Saudi Arabia to show that we are wanting a peace process in Yemen, not an invasion by Saudi Arabia.

Weve made that very clear.

Yemen has been devastated by a war between forces loyal to the internationally recognised government, led by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and a Houthi rebel movement.

READ MORE: Who benefits from a weak and divided Yemen?

Concerned by the rise of the Houthi rebels it believes to be backed by regional rival Iran, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Sunni Arab states launched an intervention in 2015 in the form of a massive air campaign aimed at reinstalling Hadis government.

More than 10,000 people have been killed and at least 40,000 injured in Yemen since March 20, mostly from Saudi-led air strikes, according to the United Nations.

The Saudi-led air campaign and subsequent blockade have created a humanitarian disaster in the Arab worlds poorest country. Cholera is on the rise and nearly 70 percent of the population is dependent on aid.

Totally shocked

Im totally shocked by the war in Yemen. Totally shocked by the bombardment thats taken place, by the killings that have happened, by the cholera outbreak thats now rife. And the numbers who are affected, the numbers who have already died, Corbyn said.

More than 1,300 people have died of cholera since late April, in the second outbreak of the infection in less than a year.

In March, the UNs World Food Programme said that nearly half of Yemens 22 provinces were on the verge of famine.

Corbyn said the Labour party had called on the previous British government to suspend its arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and would continue to do so in the next.

We have already put that resolution to parliament in the last parliament. Well continue to do that when theres a new parliament formed after this general election. Our policy of the Labour Party is unchanged, he said.

READ MORE: UK activists demand end to Saudi Arabia, UAE arms sales

The Labour leader also touched on alleged instances, revealed in two separate investigations last week, of forced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and abuse by troops backed by the United Arab Emirates in Yemen.

All of those allegations have to be investigated, and the evidence has to come forward, said Corbyn.

And arms sales policy has to reflect that we do not believe those countries that commit abuses of human rights or kill civilians with the use of those weapons should continue to receive British arms.

Last week rights groups and activists called on the UK to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its allies, warning that continuing to do so may be a violation of international law.

A statement issued by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR) said British manufactured weapons sold to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were being used to carry out abuses in Yemen and Libya.

[AOHR] is calling on the UK government to review its role in the sale of arms to a number of Arab governments that are known for gross human rights violation, the statement read.

A Saudi-led coalition has killed hundreds of Yemenis, destroyed scores of homes in addition to obliterating most of Yemens core infrastructure, the AOHR said, adding: Saudi Arabia has also turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by UAE in southern parts of the country.

In Libya, the UAE has transferred British-produced arms to the renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, who is also accused of a raft of abuses, including indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and summary executions.
Foreign dignitaries hail the former German Chancellor and and father of reunification at his funeral in Strasbourg.

World leaders have paid tribute to former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, the father of German reunification and a founder of modern-day Europe.

Kohl, who died June 16 at the age of 87, was the first person to be honoured with an official memorial event by the European Union in the French city of Strasbourg.

European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker described Kohl as a European patriot at the ceremony on Saturday, adding he was a giant of the post-war period.

Helmut Kohl was not just the architect of German unity. He contributed substantially, more than others, to the reconciliation between European history and European geography.

During his 16-year term as Germanys leader, stretching from 1982 to 1998, Kohl spearheaded his countrys reunification and the creation of Europes common currency, the euro.

Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves, former US President Bill Clinton said, citing Kohls willingness to put international cooperation before national interests at key moments in history.

READ MORE: The rise and fracture of the European Union

Kohl was widely regarded as having skillfully overcome the fears of Germanys neighbours when an end to the countrys decades-long division into a communist east and a democratic west first became a realistic possibility in the late-1990s.

Drawing on his friendships with several world leaders, often forged over hearty meals, Kohl assured the Allied nations that had beaten Nazi Germany in World War II that his country no longer aspired to dominate others.





His successor, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Kohls vision and persistence had paid a historic dividend.

Without Helmut Kohl, the lives of millions of people who lived behind the (Berlin) Wall until 1990 would have taken a completely different course, including mine, said Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany. Thank you for the opportunities you gave me.

French President Emmanuel Macron noted that it was his predecessor, Francois Mitterrand, and Kohl, two men who had experienced the suffering of war on opposing sides, who were able to overcome the terrible memories of their generation.

Several speakers recalled the poignant gesture of reconciliation in 1984, when Mitterrand and Kohl held hands during a ceremony at a World War I cemetery in Verdun, France.

The ceremony in Strasbourg, which was attended by over 800 dignitaries, concluded with the German national anthem and excerpts from Beethovens 9th Symphony Ode to Joy, used as the anthem of the European Union.

Kohls coffin was draped with the flag of the European Union and then taken to the German city of Speyer for a requiem mass and military honours.

He will be buried in a private ceremony at a cemetery in the city.
Companies connected to UAEs envoy to US received $66 million from accounts linked to Malaysias 1MDB fund, WSJ reports.

Companies connected to the UAEs ambassador to the US received $66 million from offshore accounts that contained money allegedly embezzled from Malaysias 1MDB investment fund, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

In 2015, allegations emerged that billions of dollars were stolen from Malaysias state-owned 1MDB.

The WSJ said leaked emails of Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba included descriptions of meetings between Shaher Awartani, an Abu Dhabi-based business partner of Mr. Otaiba, and Jho Low, the Malaysian financier the [US] justice department says was the central conspirator in the alleged $4.5 billion 1MDB fraud.

The US justice department said that the billions had been stolen from 1MDB by people close to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The fund is also at the centre of investigations in many other countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing and 1MBD officials have said it has found no evidence of misappropriation.

READ MORE: US moves to seize another $540m of Malaysias 1MDB fund

According to the WSJ, in addition to the meetings between Awartani and Low, a Singapore criminal case against a Swiss banker disclosed $50 million of payments made to the companies connected to Mr. Otaiba, including Densmore Investments Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands and Silver Coast Construction & Boring in the UAE.

The WSJ added: In separate documents reviewed by the Journal related to Singapores investigation of alleged 1MDB-linked money laundering, authorities describe Densmore as controlled by Messrs. Otaiba and Awartani. Those documents also describe another $16 million of separate payments to Densmore in the form of loans from a company connected to the alleged fraud.

Hackers from a group that calls itself Global Leaks  which is not affiliated with the software company, GlobaLeaks  began leaking emails from Otiabas inbox earlier this month.

According to the WSJ, a number of those emails show communications between Otaiba, Awartani and Low.

On May 5, 2015, a Dubai-based financial executive working at a company controlled by Messrs. Otaiba and Awartani told Mr. Otaiba in an email that Mr. Low had instructed the men to close their accounts at BSI Bank, a private Swiss bank that investigators in the U.S., Switzerland and Singapore say played an instrumental role in the alleged 1MDB fraud. Densmore held an account at BSI, the WSJ said.

READ MORE: Hackers leak emails from UAE ambassador to US

The WSJ said Otaiba declined to comment on its findings, but a spokeswoman for the UAE embassy told the news organisation that the embassy noted the existence of numerous orchestrated dossiers that have been prepared  targeting the ambassador and which are purported to contain hacked emails.

She also said the embassy notes the context of the role of the UAE in the current suspension of diplomatic and economic relations with the state of Qatar and as a result, the embassy will not talk to or respond to any of these dossiers.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed sanctions on the country on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism, an allegation Doha has rejected as baseless.

Last week, the Saudi-led bloc gave Qatar 10 days to comply with 13 demands to end a major diplomatic crisis in the Gulf, insisting, among other things, that Doha shut down Al Jazeera, close a Turkish military base and scale down ties with Iran.
We look at whats at stake for Google after it was charged with violating the EUs antitrust laws.

The European Union on Wednesday formally accused Google of abusing its dominant power in web search in violation of antitrust laws. Googles search engine is one of the most powerful and valuable algorithms ever developed, and its one of the most closely guarded corporate secrets. However, the company was charged with breaking EU rules and abusing its internet search monopoly, where it controls 95 percent of the market. The company faces a $2.7bn fine.

The record-breaking fine marks the culmination of a seven-year investigation by the European Commission into Googles online activities.

We really have a clash between a new set of technology and their business models and a set of laws, which were pretty much drafted 50-60 years ago to deal with the monopolies of the 20th century. by Simon Evenett, professor, St Gallen University, Switzerland

The Commission says the company used its position as the worlds most popular search engine to unfairly promote its Google Shopping service at the expense of smaller price comparison sites.

European regulators have given the tech giant 90 days to stop its illegal activities. If it fails to do so, Googles parent company, Alphabet, faces fines that amount to nearly five percent of its average daily worldwide turnover. Thats around $14m a day.

Googles business model, like other tech giants, often involve outmanoeuvring their rivals and forcing them out of the market  either explicitly or implicitly, explains professor Simon Evenett from St Gallen University in Switzerland.

This type of strategy runs straight into the face of EU law on dominant firms. Theres a real tension between the law and the strategies of these Silicon Valley firms, and this is the latest example of a US company thats got caught up in it, he says.

On whether the EU is unfairly targeting the tech titans of our age, Professor Evenett says: I dont think theyre unfairly targeting it. They have their law to enforce and their law is pretty tough on large dominant firms who try and exercise market power, so they feel like theyre enforcing the law. Of course, the tech titans think theyre bringing us all sorts of great consumer goods and services, and I know where theyre coming from.

Also on this episode of Counting the Cost:

Taxing India: Indias biggest tax reform since independence puts the countrys administration to the test. For the first time since independence, India is a single market for manufactured goods. It has shifted from a state-based to a unified tax system. The goods and services taxes, or GST, went into place at the stroke of midnight on July 1. It is one of the most ambitious economic changes India has ever attempted. C

ould this be a defining moment for the worlds fastest growing economy?

Rajiv Biswas, chief economist for the Economics & Country Risk group at IHS Markit discusses the implications of this tax.

Facebook: Thirteen years after launching, Facebook now has two billion monthly active users  a milestone for the social media giant. But what does founder Mark Zuckerberg mean when he talks about responsibility?

Global sand shortage: Sand is the most mined material in the world and theres a shortage of it. Rob Reynolds reports from Los Angeles, California.

Financial birthdays: In recalling this weeks financial birthdays, the automatic teller machine turns 50, the iPhone turns 10, and it was exactly 10 years ago this month when the first signs of whats now dubbed the Great Financial Crisis started to show.
We examine what Al Jazeera symbolises in the GCC political crisis. Plus, a war of buzzwords in South Africas media.

On The Listening Post this week: What does the Al Jazeera Media Network symbolise in the GCC political crisis? Plus, a politically engineered war of buzzwords in South Africas media.

Gulf Crisis: Al Jazeera in the Crosshairs

A coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia is demanding that, along with making significant changes to its regional and international policies, the government of Qatar must shut the Al Jazeera Media Network, which it funds. Qatar refuses and says the future of Al Jazeera is non-negotiable.

Contributors:

Marwan Kraidy, media scholar, Annenberg School

Gregg Carlstrom, former Al Jazeera English journalist

Joseph Kechichian, Middle East analyst, Gulf News

Rami Khouri, professor of journalism, American University of Beirut

On our radar

A Vietnamese blogger has been stripped of his citizenship and deported to France.

Three CNN journalists have resigned over a story that has since been retracted, linking one of Donald Trumps senior advisers to a Russian investment fund.

In Mexico, Salvador Adame has become the seventh journalist killed this year, reaffirming the countrys status as one of the most dangerous places on Earth for reporters.

A war of buzzwords in South Africas Media

There is a war of words being waged through the South African news media, a war of buzzwords.

Whats the story behind white monopoly capital and state capture, the words dominating South African airwaves?

The Listening Posts Nic Muirhead reports on the Gupta Leaks and the competing narratives and buzzwords echoing across South African media.

Contributors:

Ferial Haffajee, editor, Huffington Post South Africa

Andile Mngxitama, founder, Black First Land First

Thanduxolo Jika, investigative journalist, Sunday Times

Sam Cole, cofounder, amaBhungane
Dr Marc Lamont Hill is an award-winning journalist and author and is the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. Hill is known for his work addressing the intersections of race, justice, politics and culture. His latest best-selling book is We Still Here: Pandemics, Policing, Protest and Possibility which follows on the success of Nobody: Casualties of Americas War on the Vulnerable from Flint to Ferguson. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the US National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.










English News Belt and Road initiative tightens China-Russia bonds: diplomat

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 1 Juillet 2017



China and Russia have maintained their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination at a high level in recent years, which can be evident by their more frequent high-level exchanges, closer pragmatic cooperation, booming cultural communication, increasingly intensified international collaboration, as well as sound exchange mechanisms between governments, enterprises and the public.

Source: People's Daily China and Russia will depict strategic deployment on their ties during Chinese President Xi Jinpings upcoming state visit to Russia, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui wrote in an article published on the Peoples Daily on Thursday, adding that the visit will bolster both sides efforts to dovetail the Belt and Road initiative with Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).



Xi will kick off his Russian trip on July 3, followed by a visit to Germany, the Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.



China and Russia have maintained their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination at a high level in recent years, which can be evident by their more frequent high-level exchanges, closer pragmatic cooperation, booming cultural communication, increasingly intensified international collaboration, as well as sound exchange mechanisms between governments, enterprises and the public.



The social foundation backing good-neighborly and friendly ties have been cemented as well. The mature, stable and healthy China-Russia relationship has grown into a role model for the new type of state-to-state relationship in contemporary world and ballast stone for regional and world peace and stability, said the article.



Russia, as Chinas biggest neighbor and an indispensable stop along Belt and Road routes, echoed the China-made proposal in an active way.



The joint statement on aligning the Belt and Road initiative with the EEU signed by Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in May 2015 has proven the unwavering will of the two countries in building a community with shared future.



It also significantly expanded their strategic cooperation space, and added new energy for China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.



The article also outlined the fruits yielded from their alignment since the statement was issued two years ago, citing the examples of energy sector, connectivity, cooperation in big projects, financial investment, economic and trade areas as well as people-to-people exchanges.



The eastern section of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline is under smooth progress, and Russia is to supply China with natural gas as planned upon its completion.



Besides, the first-stage construction of the Yamal liquid natural gas project involved by both countries will be completed by the year end.



In terms of connectivity, both the cross-border railway bridges linking Northeast China and Russias Far East region, and the big transport corridors are under steady construction. China Unicom, Chinas leading telecommunications operator, also established its business in Moscow.



In addition, China and Russia have made progress in some big projects, including the development of long-range and wide-body aircraft and heavy-lift helicopters.



China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China have secured a series of big investment deals with Russian financing institutions, the ambassador said, adding that Russias central bank has set up its office in China, while RMB clearing center was launched in Moscow.



Two-way trade between China and Russia recovered as well. The amount totaled at 223.1 billion yuan ($32.8 billion) in the first five months of 2017, up 33.7 percent on year-on-year basis.



Agricultural products as well as oil and gas equipment have grown into new engines of bilateral economic and trade cooperation. The booming cultural exchanges can be proven by medias enthusiasm for Year of China-Russia Media Exchange, as well as the institutionalization of their media forum.



Documentaries such as This is China and Hello, China co-produced by the two nations also draw people in both countries closer, he said at last.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China, Germany should keep to overall direction of bilateral ties from strategic height: Xi CIIE turns more exhibitors into investors China is ready to work with all countries to practice true multilateralism, build more consensus for openness Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)










English News China-Russia ties better than ever in history

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 1 Juillet 2017



The cross-border e-commerce is to boost bilateral trade. Russia has become a most attractive overseas market for Chinese e-commerce companies. Overseas e-commerce companies have sent a total of 233 million parcels to Russia in 2016, 90 percent of which came from China, according to Alexey Fedorov, president of Russian Association of Internet Trade Companies.

By Wang Tian, Xing Xue, Zhang Guangzheng and Zhang Xiaodong from Peoples Daily Chinese President Xi Jinping will kick off a state visit to Russia at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on July 3. It will be the third meeting between the two presidents in 2017. Analysts said that another handshake between the two heads of state will take bilateral ties to new high.



The frequent exchanges between the two leaders have not only resulted in far-sighted strategic guidance and top-level designs that help keep bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination at a high level, but also promoted bilateral coordination against the everchanging international vicissitudes.



The two countries, as a result, serve as a ballast stone in guarding global and regional peace and stability. It has been a consensus that China-Russia ties are standing at the best period in history. Both leaders have vowed to bolster cooperation on economy, trade and investment. Putin once stressed that Russian economy should sail by Chinas development.



Two-way trade between China and Russia stood at $69.53 billion in 2016, increasing 2.2 percent year on year. It was a growth achieved against the slow recovery of the world economy and the sluggish growth of global trade.



China has been Russias largest trade partner for six years consecutively, and Russia is also one of Chinas major sources of imported energy and high-tech mechanical and electrical products.



The cross-border e-commerce is to boost bilateral trade. Russia has become a most attractive overseas market for Chinese e-commerce companies. Overseas e-commerce companies have sent a total of 233 million parcels to Russia in 2016, 90 percent of which came from China, according to Alexey Fedorov, president of Russian Association of Internet Trade Companies.



The Belt and Road initiative has created a larger common ground of interests for both countries in terms of strategic cooperation on cross-border infrastructure. Russia is both the supporter and important partner of the China-proposed initiative.



The two countries have hosted a series of state-level cultural events in recent years to beef up mutual understandings between the public.



The China-Russia Media Exchange Year, for instance, was launched in 2016, while Xi and Putin also attended the inauguration ceremony of a joint interview in border cities participated by mainstream media outlets from both countries.



China maintained its position as Russias largest tourist source in 2016, with the number of tourists increasing 15 percent year on year to 1.073 million.



China National Tourism Administration would, from this June to September, organize a tourism event, in which 1,000 people will have a self-driving tour to Russia. In addition, China is one of destinations that see the largest growth in inbound tourists from Russia.



Besides, more and more Russian residents now begin learning Chinese. A total of 123 primary schools and about 200 universities offer Chinese courses that involve nearly 40,000 students. Data also showed that more than 70,000 students from both countries have been engaged in bilateral education exchange programs, and the target is to hit 100,000 by 2020.



In 2008 and 2009, 890 Chinese students from the quake-stricken Wenchuan in Sichuan Province participated in the summer camps at Russias largest childrens center located 50 kilometers away from Vladivostok.



Another 259 Chinese students from the earthquake stricken area Lushan visited the center in 2013, too. These traumatized Chinese students have built a sincere friendship with Russian teachers and children, leaving a beautiful story in the history of China-Russia people-to-people exchange.



China and Russia have established 26 pairs of sister states/provinces and 101 pairs of friendly cities. They have also set up medical university alliance and young entrepreneurs club, organizing exchange of visits between young politicians and students.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China, Germany should keep to overall direction of bilateral ties from strategic height: Xi CIIE turns more exhibitors into investors China is ready to work with all countries to practice true multilateralism, build more consensus for openness Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
Minister of Foreign Affairs Brge Brende is today visiting Somalia. He is the first Norwegian foreign minister to do so. His visit coincides with the Governments launch of its strategic framework for Norways engagement in promoting prevention, stabilisation and resilience. Norway has for a long time been engaged in efforts to promote stabilisation and peace []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...










English News Hong Kong scores brilliant achievements after return: Peoples Daily

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 1 Juillet 2017



Twenty years of practice is enough to show one country, two systems is not only the best solution to the Hong Kong question left over from history, but also the best institutional arrangement to sustain its long-term prosperity and stability since its return.

Source: People's Daily On 29th June, Peoples Daily published an article under the byline of Ren Zhongping to summarize Hong Kongs brilliant achievements over the last 20 years after its return to the motherland.



The following is an abstract translation of the article:



The past 20 years since China resumed exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997 proved the one country, two systems guideline as a gigantic success.



Hong Kongs advantageous position has been steadily elevated over the past 20 years. Hong Kong, together with New York and London, were dubbed Nylonkong for being the world's leading financial centers.



The US Heritage Foundation has chosen Hong Kong as the worlds freest economy for 23 consecutive years considering its top position in healthy economy, free finance and trade. In the past 20 years, Hong Kong has kept on its global influence and competitiveness.



There had been feelings of insecurity before Hong Kongs return. But the places development has broken many doubts about its future, as many people who chose to migrate have successively come back.



In 2017, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) plans to spend 66.2 billion yuan ($900 million) on social welfare, 55 percent higher than four years ago. The government will give out free medical vouchers to citizens aged 70 or above, and it is still working to cut preschool fees.



Hong Kong is a place where people live longer than any other places in the world. In the past 20 years after its return, Hong Kong has maintained vitality.



Hong Kong is no longer subject to humiliation. Before 1997, the colonist preached that British governor of Hong Kong comes after the God in terms of power. However, Hong Kongs return has opened a new historical era led by guidelines such as "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" with a high degree of autonomy.



Figures released by the World Bank showed that political stability, government effectiveness, rule of law, control of corruption, and citizens right to express in Hong Kong are far better than those before 1997.



In particular, Hong Kong's indicator of the rule of law, a core value of Hong Kong society, has jumped from behind 60th in the world in 1996 to the 11th place in 2015, ahead of some major Western countries. Hong Kong has kept moving forward in 20 years after return.



Even foreign observers have to admit that though Hong Kongs legal status has been changed, its freedom degree remains unchanged. Kurt Tong, U.S. consul general to the Hong Kong and Macao SARs, noted that the "one country, two systems" framework in the HKSAR has been largely successful.



Last year, a lecturer gave a lecture to students in University of Hong Kong. When she asked the attendees whats their enlightenment song, the audience sang chorus "my motherland, a popular and famous patriotic song. The video moved many people to tears after being posted online.



Consisting of a red flag with a bauhinia highlighted by five star-tipped stamens, the regional flag of the HKSAR echoes the five-star national flag, implying the inseparable ties between Hong Kong and the mainland. Over the past 20 years, Hong Kong and the mainland have formed an unbreakable community of common destiny.



Hong Kong is the largest source of overseas capital, the biggest overseas financing platform for mainland enterprises, as well as the worlds largest offshore RMB center and RMB settlement center for transnational trade.



In the past, Hong Kong served as the contact person that linked the mainland with the rest of the world. Now its cooperation with the mainland has entered a new era. In future, combing the need of the whole country and its own strengths, Hong Kong will remain irreplaceable for the sustainable development of the nation.



Twenty years of practice is enough to show one country, two systems is not only the best solution to the Hong Kong question left over from history, but also the best institutional arrangement to sustain its long-term prosperity and stability since its return.



The guideline opened a new way to peacefully solve territory disputes and contributed wisdom to peaceful development of the world. Canada, disturbed by the Quebec issue, sent officials to Hong Kong to learn from the one country, two systems policy in order to gain some experience.



The brand-new political idea and concept is deemed as Chinas unique contribution to the governance pattern and political system of mankind.



Todays China is still an engine for the global economy. The massive market, ample opportunities and innovative concept as well as strong potential energy for economic transformation and upgrade from the mainland can firmly support and facilitate Hong Kongs future development.



(Ren Zhongping is a famous opinion column of the Peoples Daily that mainly expresses views on big events.)



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China, Germany should keep to overall direction of bilateral ties from strategic height: Xi CIIE turns more exhibitors into investors China is ready to work with all countries to practice true multilateralism, build more consensus for openness Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
The Senate is totally dysfunctional because of the "two-track system" that was introduced in 1970.

Before that, any senator could bring the work of the Senate on a bill to a temporary halt by filibustering  i.e., by talking and talking interminably (perhaps including reading the phone book aloud) until the bill was withdrawn or a sufficient supermajority of senators voted cloture (i.e., to cut off debate and proceed to a vote on the bill). After cloture, passing the bill would require a majority (51 senators) to vote in favor. The new rule allowed the majority leader of the Senate to set aside a bill when a filibuster was threatened so that the Senate could move on to other business.

The filibuster is an important protection against hasty action by the Senate and against disregard of the concerns of the minority party. The two-track rule was intended to weaken these safeguards by reducing the ability of senators to bring Senate business to a halt, but it has had exactly the opposite effect, perversely impeding the passage of all bills.

In practice, the new rule has meant that any senator can prevent consideration of any bill by simply announcing the possibility of a filibuster. The bill is set aside, never to be seen again unless or until the threat of a filibuster is withdrawn. This introduced the "virtual filibuster": opponents of a bill no longer need to deliver an actual filibuster, but just say they might.

Because of this rule, very few bills can now pass unless a supermajority (currently 60 senators) are willing to vote cloture. In other words, Senate bills now require 60 votes to pass, not just the simple majority intended by Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution.

The Republicans now have only 51 seats, so it may seem that there is no way they can "repeal and replace" Obamacare, or pass tax reform, or anything else, without Democrat votes. There is virtually no chance the Democrats will cooperate, since their best chance of regaining control in 2018 is to let the Republicans come across, as they do so often, as incompetent, ineffectual buffoons.

Bills that deal only with urgent fiscal matters are exempt from filibusters and can thus pass with 51 votes. This process is called reconciliation. Mitch McConnell is trying to use this provision, known as the Byrd Rule, to pass some bits of a health care bill, but he cannot include the most important reforms. The predictable result is a train wreck that makes Obamacare worse, not better, and satisfies nobody from Bernie Sanders to Rand Paul. This pathetic effort cannot and will not work, and we will soon see a similar debacle over tax reform.

The sad thing about this is that it is totally unnecessary. Mitch McConnell has at least two weapons he could use and would be using already if only he had the gumption.

First, the two-track system allows but doesn't require him to put aside a bill whenever a filibuster is threatened. If Sen. Footdragger (D) announces a virtual filibuster, McConnell can say that in order to accommodate him, the Senate will stay in session, but there will be no business scheduled until the senator withdraws or his fellow senators vote cloture. If necessary, the whole Senate can just sit there, doing nothing,

If the senator starts a real filibuster, the Democrats will soon take the blame for delaying critically needed legislation. If he does not keep talking, any Republican can raise a point of order: since no filibuster is in progress, the Senate should vote on the bill. This will be referred to the chair for a ruling. The chair will probably agree, but it will really matter, since a ruling by the chair can be reversed by a simple majority vote. In other words, the Republicans could force passage of the bill.

This point-of-order procedure also allows the majority party to change any rule of the Senate if it wants to enough. In theory, changing a rule requires a two-thirds supermajority, but all it really takes is an objection when the rule is applied. The point of order doesn't have to be correct or even make any sense.

For example, when Senator Footdragger announces his virtual filibuster, any Republican can raise a point of order, claiming that the two-track rule says that (a) any proposed filibuster must start within five calendar days of its announcement; (b) the majority leader must make room for it on the Senate calendar; and (c) that pausing a filibuster for more than 30 minutes (except for bathroom breaks, etc.) constitutes withdrawal, allowing an immediate vote on passage of the bill in question. This is not at all what the rule says, so the chair will deny it. Then the majority leader will call for a vote overturning the chair's ruling. If 51 senators vote in favor, the two-track rule will be changed to the new version.

This may seem insane, and it is indeed barely credible that the future of our country could depend on such shenanigans  but this is what is called the "nuclear option," and it is precisely the technique Harry Reid used in 2013. The Senate rules required 60 votes to confirm appointment of judges, but Reid raised a point of order, saying falsely that only 51 votes were needed (except for the Supreme Court). The chair denied his claim, and the Democrat majority then overruled the chair  so now ideological judges are easier to appoint. Mitch McConnell himself used the same technique last April to appoint Neil Gorsuch to the SCOTUS.

The principal objection to these bizarre tactics is that the perpetrators may be sorry when control of the Senate shifts to the opposite party. Because of Reid's action, the Republicans may be able to stack federal courts at all levels, up to and including the SCOTUS, before the Democrats regain power.

This objection does not seem to apply to using the nuclear option to change the two-track rule so that a filibuster requires actual talking. It would not prevent the minority party from requiring a 60-vote cloture resolution before passing a bill, but making it stick would demand real determination, effort, and stamina. That seems to be in the interests of both parties, regardless of which one is in power.

So please, Mitch, just do it. Use the nuclear option to restore the filibuster to its proper role, and then start fulfilling your responsibility to all the voters who gave you the majority by passing real bills that can make America great again. If the Democrats object, make them mount real filibusters until they get the message that intransigence and obstructionism will not earn them votes next year.

If you don't do this, Mitch, nothing will get done, you will be blamed, and both Houses will revert to the Democrats next year. You will be hanged in effigy in every Republican district in the country if you let this happen.
Metro (sometimes called Metro.co.uk) began life as the online sister of another newspaper that's now available (for free!) on Britain's public-transport system. It broke free of that hard-copy newspaper in 2015. It still belongs to the same company and it's even based in the same building! However, you'll be glad to know that Metro1 (The world's most popular free newspaper) and Metro2 (News... but not as you know it) are completely different publications with completely separate editorial teams. Yes.

Metro1 is slightly more serious and less tabloid that Metro2; though they both propagate (broadly speaking) the same liberal-left political views.

Bear all the above in mind when -- in what follows -- you read Metro's critical comments on Donald Trump's own critical comments about... yes, the media!

Metro and Trump on Women

Metro2 -- which has managed to secure millions of readers every day  is a strange news outlet. (I'll stop using the superscript 2 now.) It's unashamedly political and doesn't seem to be able to distinguish opinion pieces from news items.

Take the piece on Trump titled 'Donald Trumps latest trolling proves exactly what he thinks of women'.

It starts off badly and gets worse from there. It deigns to tell us what [Trump] thinks of women. It turns out it's what Trump thinks of one woman (MSNBC's Ms Mika Brzezinski) and even that's pretty tame. Still, if you don't like a man's politics; then everything he says and does is fair game.

This righteous young journalist pontificates more. He writes: Dear. Lord. This guy has zero respect for the opposite sex. (I bet Oliver McAteer himself is a consummate New Man. I also bet that he washes the dishes at least once a month and uses oodles of expensive face cream.)

All this is in response to one of Trump's jokes (quoted by Metro). It's fairly funny; if a little mean. It goes:

to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Years Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!

What has to be stated here is that MSNBC's Ms. Mika Brzezinski fired the first shot when she accused Trump of being needy. Or should I say that that she indulged in a bit of bullying because her employer -- MSNBC -- accused Trump himself of bullying. Despite her reference to being needy, Trump has also been a serial target of Ms. Brzezinski for a long time. Indeed, Metro itself even shows us one of Brzezinski's previous bullying anti-Trump tweets!

Just desserts anyone?

To get back to Metro.

What these pious anti-sexists (such as Metro's Oliver McAteer) seem unable to distinguish is that a joke about one woman (or even a few women) is not also a joke about all women (or women generally). The same is true of jokes about blacks. According to some pious and pure anti-sexists (or anti-racists), however, whatever the content of a joke about a woman (or a black) is, it is -- by definition -- sexist (or racist). The very fact that's it's a joke and it's also about a woman (or a black person) is literally all it takes... Unless that woman is Prime Minister Theresa May or the black is an Uncle Tom -- then women and blacks are (almost) fair game.

So how would a joke about, say, a well-known Tory MP having a penis enlargement go down at Metro? Probably very well. In fact, I've seen such things in this glossy and glitzy rag.

Anyway, the hypocrisy is further confounded by the fact that in one breath Donald Trump is castigated for cyber bullying; and in the next breath, this imbecile writes:

Luckily, these guys have a sense of humor and can take a bit of cyber-bulling, unlike someone we know well [Trump].

(Why is a British journalist using American spellings anyway?)

So "cyber-bulling" is okay if aimed at Trump and other nasty right-wing white men; bad when aimed at CNN journalists, blacks, and Muslims?

Metro again indulges in (meta/second-order) hypocrisy by implicitly criticising Trump's own hypocrisy. Metro continues:

Ironic that the FLOTUS pledged to head up a campaign against online trolling when Trump first took office. Yeah, maybe start with the problems at home first.

Metro and Trump on the Media

To return to the beginning of this article. Here's Metro's (or Oliver McAteer's) very first line:

The president of the United States of America (just remember that, for a second) took his FAKE NEWS campaign to the next level this morning by going after the presenters of Morning Joe.

You couldn't get more opinionated than that, could you?

Metro then says that Trumps been stepping up his campaign of hate against the media this week. Well, for a start, the writer (or Metro itself) is part of that media. So I wonder if that is in any way relevant to Metro's piously hypocritical words about Trump.

Moreover, rather than castigate the journalists who lied about Trump's connections with Russia, this infantile journalist turns the whole story on its head and castigates Trump for having a go at the journalists responsible for those lies! He informs us:

In case you missed it, three journalists from CNN resigned on Monday June 26 over a Russia-related story that had to be retracted. Trump celebrated, obviously.

It seems that because this journalist's views are broadly in line with CNN (or at least its position on Trump) that he therefore has no critical eyes for anyone other than Trump. He continues:

But somehow, in between dealing with an international travel ban and meeting the Indian PM, he found time to take yet another swipe at the news channel.

At least he deigns to actually quote Trump thus:

'Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!'

Again, there's not a single critical word here about CNN itself.

It's also strange that left-leaning or liberal-left people (perhaps even the ones who work for Metro) have had it in for the right-wing media for years. Yet here we have a Metropolitan liberal talking dismissively about Trump's hate for the media.

He tells us, for example, that Trump went rogue and blasted loads of other American media outlets as well. He then quotes Trump's tweet itself:

'So they caught Fake News CNN cold, but what about NBC, CBS & ABC? What about the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost? They are all Fake News!'

What's of interest to Metro (or Oliver McAteer) here isn't Fake News and media lies: it's the fact that Trump Tweeted about Fake News and media lies!

Another funny thing about this cartoon piece (from a cartoon newspaper) is that its slags off Trump's inappropriate tweets and then tells us how funny various anti-Trump Tweets are. Indeed, Metro itself is often chock-a-block with such tweets!

The words kettle, pot and black spring to mind here.

Paul Austin Murphy is a writer on politics and philosophy. He's had articles published in The Conservative Online, Intellectual Conservative, Human Events, Faith Freedom, Think-Israel, Brenner Brief (Broadside News), New English Review, etc. His philosophy blog can be found here. His blog on politics can be found here.
Put me down as someone who agrees with the latest Fox poll:

Seventy-one percent say the presidents tweets are hurting his agenda, according to the latest Fox News Poll. Just 17 percent see the tweets as helpful.

Beyond the distractions, what is the point of getting into a "tweet fight" with TV hosts with very low ratings.

I understand that President Trump "tweets" to go around the media. Frankly, the "tweets" do give him the opportunity to set the talking points or what the pundits will talk about. I get that!

So why not "tweet" about issues, such as the collapsing ObamaCare, or the growing North Korean threat, or the meetings he may be having with foreign visitors or lots of other things?

Again, what is the point of turning "Joe & Mika" into celebrities?

In the interest of full disclosure, I've caught "Morning Joe" a couple of times. It's not something I watch regularly, but frankly I'm not a morning TV person anyway. I usually have things to do at that time of the time.

Despite a recent "surge", it is still not that important of a show:

In May, Morning Joe was up 56% over its 2016 total viewer average to a Nielsen 1.06 million total average viewers. The show is also up 53% among key 25-54 viewers to 254,000. For all of 2016, the show averaged 677,000 viewers and 166,000 adult viewers ages 25-54.

So President Trump is going to get into a fight with a show that reaches 1 million viewers? Doesn't President Trump understand that the criticisms are "bait" to get him to reply?

It makes no sense, Mr. President. Let these people criticize you all day long and focus on the other 320 million Americans who don't have a clue who "Joe & Mika" are.

Even Rachel Maddow, the place where all of the anti-Trumpistas go for the latest conspiracy theories, drew 2.5 million last month.

Memo to President Trump: You are never going to reach those "2.5 Maddowistas" no matter how much tweet or "counterpunch" as your supporters like to say.

We like a feisty president. We don't like a president who turns his critics into "victims" because he punches back every time.

There are some big issues on President Trump's plate. We want to support the President and see him succeed. Unfortunately, getting into a war with "Joe & Mika" only benefits Joe & Mika!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk), (YouTube) and follow me on Twitter.
The daily news as reported by the mainstream media, as part of the Opposition Party consisting of the Democratic Party, MSM, Never-Trumps, and the Obama bureaucrats imbedded in the federal government, is an obsession with President Trump's use of Twitter and other social media. The MSM for the most part ignore the real issues, such as nuclear proliferation by North Korea and Iran, which Obama either ignored or contributed to by giving Iran 150 billion dollars. Instead, the MSM report on the hurt feelings of Wolf Blitzer and Joe and his sidekick Mika.

Simply put, the MSM are not used to having a Republican president telling the leftist MSM to shove it. Aside from Newt Gingrich calling out the debate questioners during the 2012 campaign and George H.W. Bush calling out Dan Rather in 1988, the Republicans usually act like a punching bag. The best example is George W. Bush, who failed to respond to the brutal attacks by the likes of Harry Reid and the MSM. Currently, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan make George W. Bush look like President Trump.

President Trump knows how to communicate directly with his supporters by using Twitter and having campaign-style rallies. His supporters like this because they see President Trump fight the MSM.

The MSM keep "advising" President Trump that he stop the Twitter messages and the replies to the MSM because, in their opinion, it is not "presidential." The plain truth, though, is that the MSM are afraid that President Trump is making them irrelevant, because Trump can communicate directly with his supporters, and because Trump fights back. The MSM no longer own the playing field.

The Opposition Party is desperate. It has no real congressional leaders. The Dems are turning on Pelosi, and Schumer is a lightweight, as stated by President Trump, who knows Schumer from New York City. The Opposition Party is now led by angry "comics" like Kathy Griffin, Colbert, and the "journalists" at CNN and MSNBC, and the Times and Post.

Trump, and America, is winning. He appointed Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, won the travel ban in the Supreme Court, reduced illegal immigration, rescinded the Paris Climate Change agreement, allowed the pipeline, and issuing executive orders to undo the harm done by Obama.

The "Russia" story is a joke. There is no evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians nor that the Russians affected the vote. Obama knew of Russian attempts to influence but did nothing. Loretta Lynch is being investigated. Bernie Sanders is being investigated. Hillary should be investigated. Comey all but admitted that Lynch told him to let Hillary walk.

On the tax cut and repealing Obamacare, President Trump has to rely on McConnell and Ryan to round up the votes. It may be best to simply repeal Obamacare and let the free market offer health plans, with Medicaid handling the poor.

Simply put, Mr. President: Ignore the advice from the MSM, the cheerleaders of the Democratic Party. They are out to destroy you. Keep fighting, and keep using Twitter to get respond to the vicious attacks and smears.
The Illinois House passed a $36.5 billion Democratic budget measure with Republican support, opening the door to a tax hike that will cost Illinois taxpayers $5 billion.

The fiscal year began at midnight, July 1 and for the 3rd year in a row, state lawmakers failed to pass a budget. Bond agencies have threatened to reduce the state's bond rating to junk status if no budget was in place.

But Democratic leader Michael Madigan sent a letter to the bond rating agencies after the House vote asking them to hold off on changing the state's rating.

GOP Governor Bruce Rauner has indicated he will sign the budget measure if it reaches his desk, even if it includes the $5 billion in tax increases.

Chicago Sun Times:

Theres still a long path to a resolution. Democrats must drum up support not only for the spending plan, but also for a politically unpopular revenue measure. Theres also a need for a measure to pay the states $14.7 billion backlog of unpaid bills. Saturday marks the first day of a new fiscal year  meaning the state will enter its third straight year without a budget. But there were notes of optimism on Friday. Were close. Were close. But again, I need to be able to sell it to my caucus and look at it as a whole, Durkin said en route to his second meeting with the speaker, noting the plan needs to include cuts, reforms and revenue. Obviously we havent reached a consensus on revenue. That is still something thats open to negotiation, Durkin said. But again, the situation is very fluid and I will say that were in  the last two days and today were in a better situation than we were the day before. Taking the floor after the vote, Madigan thanked Republicans for their support: I think its a good step forward, a step we can build upon. The speaker also sent letters to credit rating agencies, which had threatened to downgrade the state to junk status come July 1 without a budget, imploring them to temporarily withhold judgment and allow legislators time to negotiate a bipartisan, balanced budget. In his letter, Madigan notes pension and procurement reform, local government consolidation and workers compensation changes as compromises he wants the governor to recognize. Durkin said he committed Republican votes on the appropriations measure as a gesture of good faith. In other good faith gestures, after the appropriations vote, the Gov. Bruce Rauner-led Illinois Republican Party pulled a digital ad that dubbed the speaker Junk Madigan. Still, there was finger-pointing. In a statement, the speaker dubbed the impasse the governors budget crisis. Soon after, Rauner approved a bill funding 911 centers, but used his veto powers to remove a Chicago phone tax Mayor Rahm Emanuel was relying on to shore up the Laborers pension fund. Despite the measure having passed with Republican support, in his veto message, the governor accused Democrats of a mean-spirited strategy that the majority has used for years, using vulnerable residents as leverage to force excessive, unwarranted tax hikes.

Those "excessive, unwarranted tax hikes" are being supported by members of his own party.

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said hes putting GOP votes on the spending plan that relies on more than $5 billion in new taxes. We are close, Durkin said. We are so close I can taste it. But his caucus wasnt entirely on board. State Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, said the proposed budget continues to fund bad government behavior. This budget is a disaster, and this budget is the death knell for Illinois, Ives said. It tells every taxpayer whos capable of moving from the state of Illinois its time to pick up stakes and leave. Thats what this budget does. Rep. David McSweeny, R-Barrington Hills, echoed Ives sentiments. Obviously, things are heading in the wrong direction, McSweeney said. Today, the Republicans in the General Assembly raised the white flag to a massive tax increase. All House Democrats and 23 Republicans voted for the measure. The proposed spending doesnt address the states $15 billion bill backlog. Legislative leaders will meet again today, where tax increases could be discussed. Then theyre back at it Saturday, the first day of the new fiscal year.

Rauner has abandoned all of his radical reforms of the state's finances and pensions. He has been mugged by reality.

The reality is that Illinois is a Democratic state with numerous special interest groups almost wholly dependent on government to survive. Rauner's proposed cuts to programs like senior care, Medicaid, the university system, and other programs with powerful Democratic backers in the legislature went absolutely nowhere for 3 years. All attempts to reform the state's finances and bring government spending under control have failed.

The lack of pension reforms for state workers and Chicago public unions means that the pension time bomb is still ticking. The unions fiercely and successfully resisted these reforms with the help of the courts and the Illinois Constitution that prevents changes to existing public pension plans.

The tax increase won't make much of a difference in the long run. There's still $15 billion in unpaid bills the state owes to contractors and small businesses. Then, there's history to contend with. No matter what tax increases are passed, it is doubtful that the revenue projections will be met. Higher personal income taxes means more residents and businesses exiting the state. "Sin" taxes on tobacco and liquor never bring in what is promised.

With GOP help, Democrats will be able to pass their band aid budget that won't come close to staunching the flow of red ink and paying off what the state owes in unpaid bills. And Republicans - including the governor who is running for re-election - will be complicit in this travesty.
What Im looking for first and foremost [is] someone who did not vote for Trump, said one of many profiles on todays computer dating sites, according to Sacramento Bee reporter Angela Hart. She sees this as evidence that, at least among Millennials, President Donald Trump is killing romance.

Sacramento is Californias capital, literally dominated by liberals, but clearly politics are polarizing the passions nationwide like never before. One expert told Hart: People are so divided in our country right now that they dont even want to start a relationship with someone who they dont agree with politically.

Many young leftist Democrats are zealously embracing the politics of anger, hatred, and violence, giving their souls to the dark side. And it now appears that they are also turning against love and nature.

This is the Leftists loss, because Republicans have more intense, and more satisfying, intimate relationships than Democrats, according to recent scientific studies.

Political independents have sex even more often than Republicans, says the author of one study, Professor Nicholas H. Wolfinger of the University of Utah. But he found that independents cheat [on their mates] at the same [high] rate Democrats do.

Natural passion is also much more frequent among those on the right, with Republicans 50 percent more likely to be amorous in the Great Outdoors.

Republicans tend to have happier marriages than do Democrats, according to Prof. Wolfinger. This might explain why married women tend to vote Republican, but single and divorced women tend to vote Democratic.

Single women often prefer the strange political bedfellow of Uncle Sam, a more reliable financial provider than todays untrustworthy Leftist pajama boys. Most women prefer high fidelity to Peter Pan males of selfish low fidelity and faithlessness who never grow up to become mature, responsible, loving adults.

What do women want? God, what do they want? cried the bewildered founder of psychiatry Sigmund Freud. According to University of Toronto psychologist Jordan Peterson, women hate soft, harmless males; women want dangerous men who are civilized, and they want to help civilize them. Beauty and the Beast. Women want strong, self-reliant, anti-Big Government individuals like Americas Founders.

Leftists typically collectivize in welfare sanctuary cities. New research indicates that city life lowers sperm counts and testosterone levels, emasculating and infantilizing Leftist males. This helps explain why in urban Europe and large American liberal cities the reproduction rate has plummeted below replacement and this is not solely because of easy taxpayer-subsidized abortion.

European churches are empty, and so are the cradles as Leftist shortcomings bring demographic doom. Leftism seems to be turning into an ideology of death, the enemy of life and love.

Among the five most common female romantic fantasies, says Peterson, is a passionate close encounter with a billionaire. Could it be that Leftist men are thus not only bested for female affections by Uncle Sam, but also by Donald Trump? No wonder socialist males subconsciously seethe with childish, impotent jealous rage at him.

When I met my soul mate, she had voted only for Democrats, but this never stood in the way of our falling in love. She began a bit to the left of me but, with wisdom, has moved to the right of me. We just celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary.

Grow up, Leftists. Embrace life. Stop letting political correctness, the anti-Trump fake news, and the daily Two-Minute Hate foreseen in George Orwells novel 1984 seduce you into foolishly letting Leftist political ideology kill your chances of open-hearted romance and a life of love with Ms. or Mr. Right.

Lowell Ponte, a former Readers Digest Roving Editor, is author or co-author of eight books, the most recent being Money, Morality & The Machine.
In a bizarre marriage of the animal rights movement and the safe spaces mentality, public officials caved in and censored a something because it was deemed insulting to cattle, who now have been granted a safe space, cleansed of anything that might offend them. This was not engineered by the offended cattle themselves for undisclosed reasons, but rather by activists purportedly speaking on their behalf. They must be consulting their clients via some form of nonverbal communication not on my bandwidth. For all I know, cattle love a ribbing. This union of outre mentalities may be a marriage from hell, but it happened in Toronto. A Canadian Press dispatch informs us that Billy Bishop Airport:

has taken down an advertisement after animal rights activists complained it is disrespectful to cows. The poster at Billy Bishop Airport said, "You're precious cargo, not cattle," and outlined upgrades being made to the passenger terminal. Activist Len Goldberg says in a Facebook post that message is "insulting" to cows.

The Facebook post in question has been removed, and replaced with this:

It is odd that he removed his Facebook post, considering the fact that he won. I wonder what he was so embarrassed about having posted?

A later dispatch presents Ports Torontos response:

A PortsToronto spokeswoman says the offending poster was immediately removed and that particular message wont be part of the ad campaign moving forward. Deborah Wilson says the ad had implied disrespect for animals that was not intended. Perspective and discourse is an interesting and important element of any public campaign, said Wilson. We appreciate that these concerns were brought forward so that we could better understand the issue and respond quickly to remedy the situation.

Quite simply, it was not worth a fight. Its only a poster. When dealing with activists, the chances of a protracted and unpleasant fight loom. Billy Bishop Airport wants all the friends it can get. It is owned and run by Ports Toronto (formerly the Toronto Port Authority, a government agency on whose board sit equal numbers of local, provincial, and federal officials), and competes with much larger Toronto Pearson International, where the jets go. Billy Bishop is right in the city, just offshore, connected by a pedestrian tunnel. It hosts Porter Airlines, which flies a fleet of Canadian-built Bombardier Dash-8 turboprops to 20 cities in Canada and the US that are near enough so that the time penalty against jets is not substantial.

Last year, it handled 2.7 million passengers, making it the ninth busiest airport in Canada. Even though modern turboprops are not very noisy and all takeoffs and landings are over water, NIMBY concerns continually affect every urban airport in the worlds democracies, including Billy Bishop.

Given the reach of social media and the controversy-avoiding instincts of at least some officials, a small collection of extremists can amass the leverage to cow[1] public officials into cleansing public spaces of material that offends them. Even when the offense alleged is to animals, not humans. In other words, they are acting on the basis of a fantasy held by a a few extremists.

Its a disturbing phenomenon, and probably one that well see more and more of.
President Trump urged Republican Senators to repeal Obamacare immediately if they can't reach an agreement on how to reform it, then come up with another reform plan at a later date.

If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017

Senate GOP leadership had set a deadline of Friday for a repeal/replace vote. That effort has now failed with many Republicans leaving town for the holiday weekend.

Reuters:

The White House said later that Trump was still "fully committed" to pushing the Republican draft healthcare bill through the Senate, although it was looking at every option for repealing and replacing Obamacare. "The president hasn't changed his thinking at all," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. The current Senate legislation would repeal parts of Obamacare, roll back its expansion of the Medicaid government healthcare program for the poor, eliminate most of Obamacare's taxes and replace Obamacare insurance subsidies with a system of tax credits to help individuals buy private health insurance. Conservative and moderate Republicans have spent recent days pushing and pulling the bill in opposite directions as Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell sought common ground. Moderates want more equity for low-income Americans, while conservatives are fighting to loosen insurance regulations. Shortly before his January inauguration, Trump urged lawmakers to repeal and replace Obamacare at the same time. Congressional Republicans had considered earlier this year first repealing, then replacing Obamacare, but backed away after some lawmakers protested that that approach could create a gap in insurance coverage for millions. On Friday, Republican Senator Ben Sasse who had suggested that Congress first repeal Obamacare and then replace it, tweeted: "Glad you agree, Mr. Pres." Conservative Senator Rand Paul also backed the idea. But others on Capitol Hill sounded annoyed. A senior Senate Republican aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if lawmakers had been able to get the votes for repealing Obamacare first, then replacing it, "senators would have done that in January. It doesn't have the votes, and it's a waste of valuable time to discuss it." Annie Clark, a spokeswoman for moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins, said the lawmaker would not support the strategy. McConnell's spokesman declined to comment on Trump's tweet.

It's ludicrous that there aren't the votes to repeal Obamacare outright. When the GOP was in the minority, the Republicans voted unanimously to repeal the law without any replacement at all.

Now, when the opportunity to repeal the law successfully is in front of them, Congress demurs.

Politically speaking, the GOP now owns the health care issue. All the damage done by Obamacare will be placed on Republican's shoulders by Democrats eager to wash their hands of the disaster. Whether they repeal it or not is no longer enough. If Obamacare goes under, Republicans will be blamed - not former President Obama and certainly not the minority Democrats.

GOP factionalism in the Senate will almost certainly prevent coming to an agreement that could pass muster in the House. In short, no matter the political damage, Republicans will probably have to wait for Obamacare to fully implode before they will agree on some kind of replacement.
The city of Kuching, in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia, is full of cats. There are cats on the sidewalk, at traffic signals, in parks, inside roundabouts and on rooftops. But unlike other cities, most of Kuchings feline population is in the form of statues and sculptures, installed by the citys cat-obsessed folks.

The obsession stems from the citys name. Kuching is thought to be a derivative of the Malay word kucing, which means cat, but it is equally likely that the name came from cochin, a Chinese word for port. Others believe that the name was derived from a fruit called "mata kucing" that grows widely in Malaysia and Indonesia. Local history also suggest that the city was named after a small stream called "Sungai Kuching" or Cat River in English, that ran through the town. The stream has since been filled in and built over.

Photo credit: JKT-c/Wikimedia

The state of Sarawak was once part of the Sultanate of Brunei, about 200 years ago, but as a reward for help in putting down a rebellion, it was ceded to the British adventurer James Brooke who ruled it as his personal kingdom. The Brooke Administration was given the status of Protectorate under Rajah Charles Brooke's rule and was placed behind the Indian Rajas and Princes. Brooke ran his kingdom admirably, providing improved sanitation system to the dwellers, and completed several developments including a hospital, a fort, a prison and many other buildings. The Brooke family ruled Sarawak until the Japanese occupation in December 1941.

According to a frequently repeated fable, when James Brooke first arrived in Kuching, he asked his local guide the name of the town. The guide thinking that James Brooke was pointing towards a cat, said "Kuching". That the story is fabricated is evident from the fact that ethnic Malays in Sarawak call cat "pusak" instead of the Malay word "kucing". Besides, the name of "Kuching" was already in use for the city by the time Brooke arrived in 1841.

Cat motifs can be found all around the city. As CNTraveller describes:

A cat fountain (opposite Hotel Grand Margherita Kuching), a cat column capped with rafflesia flowers (on the roundabout at the corner of Jalan Padungan and Jalan Chan Chin Ann), statues of a cat family at North City HallKuching seems to be suffering from cat fever! The lone 2 m tall, waving cat statue at the city boundary of Kuching North and Kuching South (on a traffic island outside the Chinese ceremonial gate) is hailed as the Great Cat of Kuching. The white cat with wire whiskers called Nick is dressed up in traditional attire during major festivalsred for Chinese New Year, green during Eid ul Fitr, Santa clothes during Christmas and a traditional Iban vest during the local harvest festival! Theres cat graffiti sprayed on the walls, shops lined with cat souvenirs, catty t-shirts on sale, a Quiik Cat B&B and even a Meow Meow Cat Cafe!

A college in Kuching is named I-CATSthe International College of Advanced Technology Sarawak, and the local radio station is Cats FM.

Kuchings most famous cat attraction is the Cat Museum, containing over 4,000 artifacts including paintings and memorials related to cats. Exhibits include a mummified cat from ancient Egypt, a gallery of feline-related advertising, and the five species of wild cats found in Borneo.

There is a story that once in the 1950s, people in Borneo were dying of malaria. So the authorities spread a lot of the insecticide DDT, which although helped combat the malaria-carrying mosquitos but also killed a large number of the islands cats. The consequence of this was the rat population flourished and they brought in plague. To solve the plague problem, the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force air-dropped 14,000 cats into rural Malaysian Borneo in a mission known as Operation Cat Drop. Although the cat story is probably another fabrication, the story was published so many times that its believed to have played a role in getting DDT banned by the US Senate in 1972.

Photo credit: Colin Charles/Flickr

Photo credit: Colin Charles/Flickr

Photo credit: sarawakborneotour.com

Photo credit: Fiona Forsyth/Flickr

Photo credit: Adamina/Flickr

Sources: CNTraveller / Wikitravel / BBC / Wikipedia / www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
WPVI-TV(PHILADELPHIA) -- The father of 18-year-old Bianca Nikol Roberson, who was shot and killed in an apparent road rage incident on Wednesday, expressed anger to ABC News over his daughter's death.



"What can you say to a person like that?" Rodney Roberson told ABC News about the shooter, who is still being pursued by police.



A manhunt across three states is underway to find the man who gunned down Roberson, a recent high school graduate who her father says had ambitions of studying forensics for a career in law enforcement.



"She was a beautiful girl," Roberson said of his daughter.



The shooter, in a red pickup truck, had attempted to merge into the same southbound lane as Roberson on Route 100 in Chester County when the situation turned deadly, ABC station WPVI-TV reported.



"They were jostling for a position or whatever, and unfortunately this gentleman took it to a degree that was just unconscionable," West Goshen Police Chief Joe Gleason said, according to WPVI.



Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said the shooter -- described as white, 30 to 40 years of age, medium build with blonde hair -- pulled out a gun and shot Roberson in the head, killing her. Her car then veered off the road and crashed.



Hogan made a public plea for the driver to come forward immediately, and added that police are hunting him across three states.



Roberson had been returning from buying new clothes for college when she was killed, according to WPVI-TV.



"I'm angry. My family is angry," Roberson said of his daughter's death.



Police are saying that the pickup truck is possibly a Chevy, and the driver is considered armed and extremely dangerous.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The British Library does not only contain books  it holds items from ancient Chinese oracle bones to Jane Austen's spectacles. Recently, I've been working with some of the British Library's collection of seals (the wax kind, not the animal kind), and have been particularly intrigued by the seal of St Edith (b. 961x964, d. 984x987), daughter of King Edgar, used by Wilton Abbey throughout the Middle Ages. The text and images on Edith's seal, which was seemingly designed during her lifetime, give a rare contemporary insight into the priorities, identities and possibly even the jewellery of a young princess in late 10th-century England.

Edith was a member of the royal family and was declared a saint relatively soon after her death, but there are few contemporary references to her. She is not mentioned by name in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the most detailed accounts of her life were written almost a century after her lifetime.



Detail of the seal of Edith attached to Harley Charter 45 A 36

Edith was the daughter of King Edgar (r. 958/9-975) and a woman called Wulfthryth. Wulfthryth and Edith both ended up in the nunnery of Wilton; Edgar subsequently married lfthryth, the mother of the future thelred the Unready. According to her later hagiographer, Goscelin (d. c. 1107), King Edgar arranged for Edith to be educated by two foreign chaplains, Radbod of Rheims and Benno of Trier.



Detail of a witness list describing Edith's stepmother, lfthryth, as Edgars legitimate spouse, from the New Minster Refoundation Charter, England (Winchester), c. 966: Cotton MS Vespasian A VIII, ff. 30v31r

While there are few contemporary references to Edith, one of her possessions may literally have left its mark. A charter for Wilton Abbey dated 1372 bears a seal in Ediths name. The seal impression features 10th-century artistic styles and it may be an imprint of Ediths own seal matrix. Here, seals refer to wax impressions made with engraved metal or ivory objects, called seal matrice. They conveyed authority, assuring the recipient that they could trust a particular document or messenger. By the late 10th and early 11th century, many elite Anglo-Saxons may have had their own seals, including kings, nobles and churches. However, very few Anglo-Saxon seals survive; only 7 existing seal matrices can be dated before 1066. This impression of Edith's seal gives a rare glimpse into the sorts of seals that may have existed in the 10th century and how this particular woman may have wished to be characterised.



Harley Charter 45 A 36

The seal's inscription emphasises Edith's royal status: Sigil Eadgye Re[ga]l[is] [Ad]elphe (The seal of Edith, the royal sister). Ediths half-brothers, Edward the Martyr and thelred the Unready, reigned from 975 to 978 and 978 to 1016 respectively. The term royal sister may also be an oblique reference to Ediths status as a nun, devoted to Christ the Heavenly king.

The use of the Greek term adelphi or adelpha instead of soror, the more common Latin term for 'sister', also tells us something about the way Edith may have wished to be portrayed. Edith lived in a time when learning and book production were being promoted by wealthy monastic reformers. Obscure, Greek-influenced vocabulary was particularly popular in reformed monasteries. Female houses are now beginning to be acknowledged in the history of the revival of learning with monastic reform, and Ediths seal shows that she or whoever made it aspired to the standards of the learned elite and their expansive vocabularies.



Greek letters transliterating the phrase 'Explicit Liber Psychomachian', from a copy of Prudentius's Psychomachia, England, late 10th or early 11th century, Cotton MS Cleopatra C VIII, f. 37r

The seal also depicts a woman, presumably Edith, as its central image. This veiled woman is probably an idealized figure, rather than a specific portrait. Catherine Karkov has noted that her pose, attire and accessories strongly resemble the miniatures of women in the Benedictional made for the monastic reformer St thelwold, bishop of Winchester (d. 984), which was probably made around the same time as the seal.



Miniature of St thelthryth, from the Benedictional of St thelwold made by Godeman, England, c. 963984, Add MS 49598, f. 90v

It's a pity if the seal does not give a clear idea of Edith's appearance, because her fashion sense was legendary for centuries after her death. One of the most memorable anecdotes in Goscelin of Saint-Bertins Life of St Edith, written around the 1080s, describes Edith fighting with St thelwold over her elaborate attire:

Blessed bishop thelwold once warned [Edith], with her rather ornate habit O daughter, not in these garments does one approach the marriage chamber of Christ, nor is the heavenly bridegroom pleased with exterior elegance. [Edith replied] Believe, reverend father, a mind by no means poorer in aspiring to God will live beneath this covering than beneath a goatskin. I possess my Lord, who pays attention to the mind, not to the clothing... (Goscelin, Vita S Edithae, chapters 12 and 13, trans. by Stephanie Hollis, Writing the Wilton Women (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 4243)

At this stage, according to Goscelin, thelwold conceded defeat. A fire at the monastery vindicated Ediths dress sense: most of the nuns possessions were destroyed but Ediths fine leather and purple attire was miraculously spared:

When they unfolded the garments, made of skin or of purple, and of the everlasting guardian, all the things were found to be as they had been before the fire, unharmed by all the burning although, from the nature of their material, they ought to have been more inflammable.



Copy of the seal of Edith from Harley Charter 45 A 36, Doubleday Cast C. 3

Goscelin may have made this story up: it provided a convenient opportunity for him to compare the unburnt clothes to Ediths intact virginity. However, he may have learned this story from the community at Wilton, to whom he was the chaplain. If so, the community may have wanted to remember a young princess who dressed exactly as she liked, regardless of a bishops disapproval. And the seal matrix itself may itself have been part Ediths flashy attire: the later impressions show that Ediths seal matrix had a large handle made to look like acanthus leaves, which could have been attached to a belt or a necklace.

Detail of the imprint of a handle from Ediths seal, Harley Charter 45 A 36

The nuns of Wilton remembered Edith for centuries after her death. Her seal was used throughout the abbeys history, right up until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The final document showing the last abbess of Wilton using Ediths seal dates from 1536, about 550 years after Edith died.

Alison Hudson

Follow us on Twitter @BLMedieval
As the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement, California educators and advocates are rolling out new tools designed to protect the rights of undocumented students.

The California Equity Leadership Alliance produced an online toolkit with resources for educators, administrators, school board members, and community advocates.

The California Charter Schools Association partnered with the Stanford University Law School to create, Protecting Undocumented and Vulnerable Students , a 21-page guide that outlines schools legal obligation to educate undocumented students and actions that schools can take to protect the rights of students. It also provide a how-to guide on school preparedness for undocumented families.

The how-to guides were released the same day the U.S. House of Representatives, at the behest of President Donald Trump, passed two bills to crack down on illegal immigration.

One bill would cut some grants from so-called sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The other bill, popularly known as Kates Law, would impose tougher sentences on criminals who have entered the United States illegally multiple times.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and repeal a program that grants temporary protection to young immigrants who were illegally brought to the United States as children.

With Trump now in office, immigration advocates and school officials have been taking steps to protect the rights of undocumented students as the federal government continues to plant seeds for the aggressive immigration enforcement operations.

Girding for Battle

The California Equity Leadership Alliance a group that includes the Association of California School Administrators and the Education Trust-West issued a statement arguing that is imperative that education organizations such as ours bridge this divide and do all we can to support the educators, administrators, and advocates who work with these students and their families every day.

According to estimates from the groups, 250,000 school-age children are undocumented in the state, and at least 750,000 of the studentsroughly one in 8live with a parent who is undocumented.

Los Angeles Unified is among the school systems that have declared their school grounds as safe places, spaces, or zones for students, staff, and parents regardless of immigration status. The designation affirms that district leaders will do everything within their legal power to protect student privacy, including barring the release of information about immigration status unless there is parental consent, or if federal agents produce a warrant, subpoena, or similar court order.

Several California communities have gone to court to challenge Trumps executive order that threatens to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions.

This week, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is among eight attorneys general who filed a Freedom of Information Act seeking records that would clarify how the Trump administration is enforcing federal immigration law. The request to the Department of Homeland Security seeks the number of immigration detentions, deportations, and detainer requests, and clarifying information on whether Trump is following through on comments that he will not immediately target recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which provides protections for young people who were brought to the country illegally by their parents.

DACA Remains in Limbo

Created by President Barack Obama, DACA paved the way for more than 780,000 immigrants to receive two-year work authorizations and protection from deportation.

The program is safe for now, but its long-term status remains under review , according to Homeland Security officials. Trump has yet to take action on DACA, but has promised to address the issue with heart.

Looking to force Trumps hand, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and officials from 10 other states on Thursday threatened to sue the administration if DACA is not repealed.

The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and other civil rights groups have panned the push from the states to get rid of the program.

Their evident xenophobia is not remotely consistent with the trajectory of our nations history and future progress, MALDEF President Thomas Saenz said in a prepared statement. Presidential authority does constitutionally extend to protecting DACA recipients, whom the president has repeatedly declared worthy of protection.

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Myanmar children go to school near the bank of the Irrawaddy River in Mandalay, Myanmar. Photo: Hein Htet/EPA

A new census report by the UNFPA reveals that while youth literacy in Myanmar is relatively high at 94 per cent, this still means that more than half a million young people cannot read or write.

This is primarily due to low school attendance. Almost half a million children aged 7-15 have never attended school. School attendance differs by age, but peaks at only 85 per cent for nine year-olds. Less than one in three teenagers aged 15-19 go to school.

Young people represent a huge source of potential for Myanmars development. Government policy needs to focus on improving the standard of education, as well as on increasing school attendance and youth literacy. It is also essential to invest in skills training for those who have already left school. Education must reach all groups in society so that every young persons potential is fulfilled, and no one is left behind, says Janet Jackson, UNFPA Representative for Myanmar.

The findings come from the 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census Thematic Report on Education. At a critical time of development, the report underscores the need to improve education in Myanmar at all levels. The data and analysis in the report highlight policy implications, and set out in detail where action is needed. The findings call for a concerted effort by government, civil society, academia, and international organizations to use education as a platform to improve the lives of people of Myanmar now and for future generations.

A literate population is necessary for the socioeconomic development of a country. Myanmars adult literacy rate is 89.5 per cent. However, this relatively high figure conceals stark disparities within the population. For example, while the difference between female and male literacy is relatively small up to the age of 50, gender differences become more apparent at higher ages. Lower literacy among older women reflects low female school attendance in the past. Rural literacy is lower than urban literacy, and it varies significantly across states and regions. In Shan, for example, only 64.6 per cent of people can read or write, and 44.9 per cent of adults have no schooling at all.

The report shows that educational attainment in Myanmar is low: 61.3 per cent of the population aged 25 and over have no education at all, or have only attended primary school. Only 7.3 per cent of the population aged 25 and over have a university-level degree. The report also shows that, proportionally, more women than men pursue higher education. Of people who hold a postgraduate degree, 63 per cent are women, and 37 per cent are men.

For Myanmar to take advantage of the human capital that these highly educated women represent, women need better access to work opportunities, including leadership roles, outside the home. Only half of women in Myanmar (50.5 per cent) are in the labour force, compared to 85.6 per cent of men, says Janet Jackson, UNFPA Representative for Myanmar.


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ARAYesterday, the Parliament of Catalonia unanimously voted to declare as null and void the 63,961 courts-martial held in Catalonia under the Franco dictatorship. These trials, entirely devoid of legal safeguards, exercised a notorious form of repression against all those who had remained loyal to the republics democratic legitimacy: paradoxically, cynically, they were tried for the crime of not having joined the military coup. After forty years of democracy, Catalonias law on legal redress for victims is unique in Spain, where the memory of those who experienced at first hand the brutality of the Franco regime has been systematically ignored, down-played and forgotten.

Since the mid-1980s, many families of those who stood trial have unsuccessfully taken the matter to court (both the Supreme and the Constitutional) to try to have their sentences overturned. Even in 2007, with the introduction of Spains Historical Memory Law, there was insufficient political support in Madrids Congress to achieve what the Catalan Parliament has now accomplished. The fact that the law was passed unanimously is significant. Although they may not be fully aware of the fact, the Partido Populars vote in favour of the law breaks with the Spanish rights revisionist and relativist tradition with regard to General Francos criminal regime. This must be welcomed alongside those who have always worked to restore the dignity of the losers of war and for such an unconditional condemnation of the dictatorship.

The preamble to the law is clear: "In regard to the victims and their relatives, a rule with a legal status is required to declare as null and void all of these proceedings, which can be described as a travesty of justice, together with the sanctions and rulings that resulted in such dire consequences". Yesterday's achievement in Parliament stands in stark contrast with the event held the day before in Madrids Congress, in memory of the fortieth anniversary of the first free elections following General Francos death. The event heaped uncritical praise on a Transition that managed to whitewash the Franco regime and consign the Republic to oblivion. In the last four decades, Spain has failed to erase the totalitarian stain on its past, a burden that continues to weigh on its political reality and which prevents it from accepting itself as it is, in all its ideological and national plurality. Its refusal to enter into a dialogue with Catalonia is a further example of this.
At least two villagers were killed by shelling and another 300 fled their homes amid fighting between Burmese armed forces and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in northern Shan State.

According to TNLAs news and information department, two local people in Wan Penghoi Village, Kutkhai Township, were killed and another was seriously injured earlier this week when Burmese army battalion 45 launched artillery shells at TNLA positions near the village.

Tar Aik Tae, 44, died at the scene, the TNLA reported. His wife Yar Aye Am, 41, was taken to hospital and pronounced dead later. Tar Aik Sam, 53, was seriously injured.

A week of ongoing hostilities also forced villagers to flee their homes in Namhsan Townships Man Lan village.

In Lashio Township, there are currently 141 evacuees sheltering in Khur Nong Mon temple; 87 people at Shwe Kyethi Thatanar temple; and 79 in Aung Yartharnar temple, resident Sai Seng told Shan Herald. He said that the temples were helping gather support for the evacuees, but rainy season conditions were exacerbating the problems.

The TNLA news reported that some villagers had been captured and detained by the Burmese army, according to a joint statement on June 27 by the Taang Womens Organization and Taang Youth Organization. The statement urged both sides to cease hostilities and release all detainees immediately.

Fighting between Burmese units and the TNLA has broken out regularly in various areas in northern Shan State, including Namhsan, Kyaukme, Kutkhai, Muse and Namkham.

The TNLA was excluded from the first round of peace talks, unofficially dubbed the 21stCentury Panglong Conference, or 21CPC, in 2016. However, the group did attend the second round of political dialogue, represented as a member of the newly formed Federal Political Negotiation Consultative Committee (FPNCC), which is headed by the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
Alan Broadbent, Developing Story (Eden River Records)

Broadbents title composition is in concerto form, although it is not described as a concerto. His piece combines jazz and classical sensibilities in a flow that evolves with logic rarely achieved when genres are blended. Broadbents booklet notes identify the orchestral beginning as a forte introduction. Robustly, it lives up to the promise of strength before a flute, then an oboe, quietly state a five-note theme and Broadbents piano begins telling the story promised by the title.

The other members of his trio, bassist Harvie S and drummer Peter Erskine, join him as the London Metropolitan Orchestra unfolds the beauty of his orchestration. The second movement is an elegant waltz dedicated to the composers wife, Alison. Its swelling strings and woodwinds, the clarity and brilliance of LMO trumpeter John Barclay and Broadbents relaxed piano improvisations create calm that for the moment eclipses the memory of that forte beginning. The energetic third movement incorporates an incisive Erskine drum solo highlighted by cymbal splashes as dramatic as the trumpet and horn exclamations leading to the collaboration of Broadbents piano and orchestration before the piece subsides.

The remainder of this generous album presents Broadbents playing and arranging of six classic compositions from the bebop era forward, beginning with the 1946 Tadd Dameron ballad If You Could See Me Now. The arrangement has resourceful uses of flutes and horns, a few seconds of delicious piano counterpoint and a lovely bass statement from Harvie S over the closing chords. French horns and tympani announce John Coltranes Naima before Broadbents arpeggiated solo piano statement of the melody. The arrangement has a trumpet fanfare, a section of fanciful dancing woodwinds andfollowing a peaceful interludeone massive orchestral chord leaving no doubt that the piece has ended. Broadbent gives Miles Daviss Blue In Green a full orchestration accompanying his piano, a section of unaccompanied solo piano and the quietest imaginable conclusion.

Broadbents own Lady In the Lake is one of the compositions he wrote for Charlie Hadens Quartet West during the period when they explored film noir themes. His piano solo incorporates a bit of tremolo, and theres another peaceful ending. His treatment of Daviss Milestones has enormous energy, with emphatic passages by the orchestras trumpets and later, by flutes, strings and low instruments. Broadbent develops in the piece a rhapsodic character that Davis may not have known lay hidden in it. In his notes, Broadbent points out that Children Of Lima is essentially as recorded when he wrote it as a member of Woody Hermans band and they made it part of an album with Herman and the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

Broadbents work here discloses cogency, connections and satisfactions that deepen with repeated hearings.


The city of Hangzhou, China has more than 86,000 public bicycles. Unfortunately, when many people are done using them, they don't put them in the designated docking center but just drop them wherever. According to Wired, "police have rounded up 23,000 bikes so far this year and hauled them to 16 corrals around the city" like the one seen above. And that's not even the whole lot of 'em.
Currently, the 160cc naked segment is one of the most popular segments among enthusiasts and young buyers.

Yamaha FZ-S FI

The Pulsar NS160 was recently spotted at dealerships, indicating the probable launch of the bike in the near future. How does it fare against the veterans in the segment? Read on to find out.

Currently, the 160cc naked segment is one of the most popular segments among enthusiasts and young buyers. Motorcycles in this segment have adequate performance along with sporty looks and all of this is offered at a competitive price. The Honda CB Hornet 160R, Suzuki Gixxer and the Yamaha FZ-S FI are some of the more popular motorcycles in this segment. However, we have a new contender now, the Bajaj Pulsar NS160. So let's see how the upcoming motorcycle fares against its rivals.

Engine and Performance:

The Pulsar NS160 is powered by an oil-cooled 160.3cc DTSi engine which punches out 15.5PS of power at 8500rpm and 14.6Nm of torque at 6500rpm. The engine is equipped with a multi-map CDI, which enhances the throttle response. Thanks to the oil-cooling, the oil-change intervals should be more than the other three bikes in this comparison. The Honda CB Hornet 160R, on the other hand, uses a 162.71cc air-cooled engine which produces 15.2PS of power at 8500rpm and 14.76Nm of torque at 6500rpm. The powerplant is mated to a 5-speed transmission and the claimed top-speed stands at 110kmph.

The Suzuki Gixxer, on the other hand, is equipped with an all-aluminium 154.9cc air-cooled SOHC engine which makes about 14.8PS of power at 8000rpm and 14Nm of torque at 6000rpm. The power is transferred to the rear wheel via a 5-speed gearbox. At 149cc, Yamahas FZ-S FI has the smallest engine among the four, giving out 13.2PS of power at 8000rpm and 12.8Nm of torque at 6000rpm. The fuel is fed to the engine via fuel injection, which helps in smoother throttle response, better cold starts and relatively cleaner emission than carburetted counterparts. The transmission duties are taken care of by a 5-speed gearbox which transfers the power to the rear wheel via a chain drive.

Cycle Parts and Features:

The Pulsar NS160 employs a front telescopic fork with 130mm of travel and the rear uses a Nitrox monoshock with 120mm travel. The braking duties are taken care of by a petal disc at the front and a drum at the rear and the wheels are shod with 80-section tubeless tyres at the front and a 110-section unit at the rear. With a fuel tank capacity of 12 litres, expect decent range from the 142kg (kerb) bike. When it comes to the instrument cluster, the bike uses an analogue-digital combo unit, similar to its bigger cousin, the Pulsar NS 200.

The Hornet is built on a diamond-type frame which is suspended by telescopic forks at the front and a monoshock at the rear. Coming to the brakes, the bike is anchored by a 276mm petal disc at the front and a 130mm drum at the rear. A rear disc brake with Combined Braking System (CBS) is also available as an option, which improves the braking characteristics by distributing the brake force to both wheels. The alloy wheels are wrapped with 100-section tubeless tyres at the front and a generous 140-section at the rear. The bike tips the scales at 138kg, while the CBS variant is 2kg heavier. The bike uses an all-digital cluster to display speed, revs, odo readings, trip readings and fuel level. The only grinch is that the bike lacks an engine-kill switch. Like the NS160, the Hornet too has a 12-litre fuel tank.

The Gixxer also uses a diamond frame and the suspension duties are taken care of by 41mm telescopic forks at the front and a 7-step adjustable rear monoshock. The bike comes with a full-digital instrument cluster which also displays gear position and a programmable gear shift light apart from the usual read-outs like speed, revs, etc. The bike uses a disc at the front and drum at the rear while an optional rear disc variant is also available. With a kerb weight of 135kg, the bike is nimble enough for city commuting and the fuel tank is capable of holding 12 litres of juice. Just like the Hornet, the Gixxer also uses a 100-140-section tyre combination

Yamaha has employed a diamond type frame for its naked bike, the FS-S FI. The frame is suspended by telescopic forks at the front and a monoshock at the rear. An all-digital instrument cluster does duty in the FZ and the bike is anchored by a disc at the front and a drum at the rear. Sadly, a rear disc brake is not available even as an option. Instead, you get a cool Matte Green colour edition which is about 1000 bucks more than the standard FZ-S FI. The FZ also uses a 100-section front and a 140-section rear tyre. The fuel tank capacity is 12 litres and the bike tips the scales at 132kg, which makes it the lightest among the four. The light weight, coupled with the fuel-injected engine should ensure good efficiency too.

Pricing:

The Pulsar NS160 is expected to command a price tag of Rs 85,000, ex-showroom, Delhi. The Suzuki Gixxer is the cheapest among the four, with prices starting at Rs 77,936, and the rear disc brake version at Rs 81,013, both ex-showroom, Delhi.

The Honda CB Hornet 160R is priced at Rs 82,537 for the standard variant and Rs 87,037 for the CBS variant, both ex-showroom Delhi. The Yamaha FZ-S is available for Rs 83,674 ex-showroom, Delhi for the standard colour variant. The specifications of the Pulsar NS160 taken into consideration is from the version sold in Turkey since we expect the bike to be launched with the same specifications in India as well.

Source: ZigWheels.com

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The government thinks that the branded food grain merchants earn 50 to 150 per cent margins and hence they need to pay taxes, said Mr Shah.

The government thinks that the branded food grain merchants earn 50 to 150 per cent margins and hence they need to pay taxes, said Mr Shah. (Representational image)

Bengaluru: Most of the food grain brands in Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) have been deregistering themselves to fall under the zero percent tax bracket once the GST regime is rolled out.

According to Bharat Kumar R Shah, the chairman of The Bangalore wholesale food grains and merchants association, the centre has made it mandatory for those who sell food grains and pulses in brands to pay taxes.

The government thinks that the branded food grain merchants earn 50 to 150 per cent margins and hence they need to pay taxes, said Mr Shah.

However, the profit margin for branded food grain manufacturers in APMC trade is only half or 1 per cent net. If they levy 5 per cent tax, their products will become non-viable for the consumers. It is difficult for the merchants to sustain in the market as brands, Mr Shah said.

The food grain and pulses brands that belong to MNCs or bigger firms can afford to fall under 5 percent tax slab. But sadly, most of the food grain manufacturers in APMC are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), earning low margins.

The SMEs have registered their brands for unique identification and they process good quality raw materials, which is purchased by APMC for higher prices. Now that the products sold by the branded food grain merchants are taxable, they are left with no other option but to deregister themselves and sell their products without a brand name.

Talking about the level of preparedness among APMC members, Mr Shah said that only 30 per cent of traders in the state are ready to embrace the change. Most of the APMC markets are not computerised and the traders depend heavily on auditors. In addition, the rural dealers have no clue about GST.

We feel that we need another 8 months to follow new tax norms properly. I feel that it can not be partially implemented in our trade. Only 30 percent of APMC markets are ready to implement GST in Karnataka, said Mr Shah.

Once the brands deregister themselves, a number of problems might arise such as food adulteration and misuse of brand names. If the products are sold without a brand name, retailers or wholesalers might manipulate consumers. If the branded products quality falls short, necessary actions can be taken against them. It now becomes difficult to keep the quality of goods in check.

I dont think that will now be possible if the brands unregister themselves, said Mr Shah.
The President, reading out from a written speech, said, The historical moment was culmination of a 14-year-long journey.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi press a button for the launch of the Goods and Services Tax at the special ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: At the stroke of midnight, as the world slept, India woke up to one of the biggest tax reforms since Independence. The new GST tax regime is expected to transform India into one single market. Today at midnight, we will decide Indias future course, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while launching the historic Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Amid vibrant flower decorations in Parliaments Central Hall, the Modi government stepped out from the old to the new and signalled that this government stood committed to reforms and was determined to push through the most contentious and difficult of policies.

The new tax regime replaces 17 different Central and state taxes and 23 cesses, including service tax, value added tax, entry tax, excise duty among others. The GST is expected to remove the cascading effect of tax-on-tax and make it easier to do business in the country. After GST, goods will have uniform prices across the country.

As the country reels under agrarian crisis and farmers unrest spreads rapidly following a drop in crop prices, minutes before the GST launch programme began, the government slashed GST on fertilisers from 12 to five per cent.

The Central Hall of Parliament was packed to the brim with all the BJP ministers, legislators, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and special invitees present to welcome and bask in the bright new destiny.

President Pranab Mukherjee shared the dais with the Prime Minister, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and finance minister Arun Jaitley for the launch of the GST. Also present were the countrys corporate honchos.

The President, reading out from a written speech, said, The historical moment was culmination of a 14-year-long journey.

For Mr Jaitley, the architect of the GST, the new tax regime was the beginning of cooperative federalism. It was Mr Jaitley who opened the special session saying GST would usher in an India which will write a new destiny.

While most Opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamul Congress, Left parties, RJD, BSP, DMK boycotted the launch, the JD(U), Samajwadi Party, NCP broke ranks to attend the mega event. Mr Jaitley, while addressing the gathering, said that the reforms show India will rise above narrow politics.

Before the special session, the GST Council, led by Mr Jaitley, had met and decided to offer sops to farmers.

The Prime Minister attended the GST Council dinner. The GST council meet was attended by all state finance ministers except West Bengals.

If the government and the BJP were euphoric about the one nation-one tax, there were apprehensions that the GST, brought in after demonetisations, could impact economic growth in the short term.

Experts say that while traders are still trying to come to terms with GSTs rules, the switching over to the new system of taxes could slowdown the manufacturing sector. There were also apprehensions on whether the GST network would be able to handle the quantum of transactions at initial stages.

Critics say that the GST being implemented by the Modi government is not an ideal GST. They point out that instead of one tax rate, the Modi government is implementing a four-tier tax.

Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy hit out saying that any suggestion that the GST would boost GDP growth by 1-1.5 per cent was utter rubbish.

GDP growth in January-March 2017 fell sharply to 6.1 per cent, mainly on account of cash crunch caused by demonetisations.

Meanwhile, reports poured in of protests and agitations across the country. A train was stopped by traders in Uttar Pradesh and commercial establishments and wholesale commodity markets in some cities remained closed in protest against the hasty rollout of GST.

While a general strike by traders in Kashmir has been called on Saturday, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh witnessed sporadic bandhs. Protests also erupted in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

While reaction across the country was mixed, the President inside the Central Hall said that launching of GST was a moment of personal satisfaction and recounted several meetings of the Council and how the new tax regime was a triubute to the wisdom of democracy.

After Mr Mukjerjees address, the Prime Minister and the President together pressed the button to usher in what Mr Modi called  the Good and Simple Tax.
In 2009, the BJP opposed the basic structure of the GST announced by the then finance minister Pranab Mukheree.

The ruling party had been claiming that GST was never a political issue for it but an issue related to federalism. (Phtoto: Representational/PTI)

New Delhi: Hailed as a historic event, the ruling BJPs twitter account has been promoting the midnight rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) as #GSTForNewIndia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his council of ministers and the BJP leadership will be busy from July 1, promoting and publicising this One Nation One Tax slogan for the new tax regime.

For 17 years, the idea of one nation, one tax witnessed several delays, heated politics and more. But the time of GST has now arrived. And it was this very BJP which was blamed by the then Congress-led UPA government for stalling it and depriving the country of massive financial benefits due to the damaging political gambles.

In fact, Mr Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat, had vehemently opposed the UPAs version of the bill in 2013 by claiming that the state would incur losses worth Rs 14,000 crore every year due to it. His government had earlier described the UPA governments proposed constitutional amendment draft for GST in 2011 as retrograde in nature and completely against the tenets of fiscal federalism...

However, it was the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government which had initiated the ground work for the GST by setting up a committee, headed by then West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta, in 2000 to design a GST model.

In 2009, the BJP opposed the basic structure of the GST announced by the then finance minister Pranab Mukheree.

In 2011, senior BJP leader and the then chairman of parliamentary standing committee on finance, Mr Yashwant Sinha, had asserted, They are doing a wrong thing to UPAs push for the GST.

Effort by the UPA government to table a Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha for GST in 2013 faced stiff resistance by the BJP-led Opposition and it was sent to Mr Sinha led committee.

But ever since coming to power at the Centre, the BJP had been promoting the positives of the legislation, with the Prime Minister himself admitting that he had many doubts regarding GST but he discussed the issue many times with Mr Mukherjee. He asserted that his experience as a chief minister, who had doubts about the GST, made it easier for him to address those issues as Prime Minister.

The ruling party had been claiming that GST was never a political issue for it but an issue related to federalism. It has been citing the examples of former Congress ruled states like Maharashtra and Haryana, that were opposed to it, to assert that its opposition was not for the legislation but some core issues like tax slabs, basic infrastructure, including technology, which would be needed from shifting from one tax structure to another, concerns of state government regarding revenue.

India is on the cusp of an economic revolution with the roll out of the GST, to be effective from midnight, said Union minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, whose ministry will launch a training programme to certify GST practitioners under its flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas

Yojana to make the countrys passage to the new tax regime smooth and glitch free.
17 opposition parties have fielded Kumar as their joint candidate in the presidential election against NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

UPA President candidate Meira Kumar being greeted by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiahas as KPCC President G Parameswar during her visit for the campaigning of President Election at KPCC office in Bengaluru. (Photo: PTI)

Bengaluru: Meira Kumar, the opposition's presidential nominee, on Saturday asserted that she was not a "scapegoat" in the upcoming election to the country's top constitutional post as she was fighting for an ideology. "Anybody fighting for an ideology and appealing to the voice of conscience cannot be a scapegoat. I am a fighter and I will fight and I am sure that many will join me in this fight," she said in response to a question whether she was being made a scapegoat in the presidential election.

Union minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale had on Friday taken a jibe at the Congress saying it was using Kumar as a "scapegoat" by fielding her as the opposition candidate in the July 17 presidential election.

Kumar, former Lok Sabha speaker and daughter of iconic Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram, was speaking to reporters after meeting the Congress lawmakers and MLAs at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office.

Seventeen opposition parties have fielded Kumar as their joint candidate in the presidential election against NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

To a question on her not having the support of enough lawmakers, Kumar said she was fighting the poll on values and principles which were "sacred" to the people of the country. "Wherever I go, people tell me that I do not have the numbers. If I do not have the numbers, why don't you round up the figures and declare the results? Why have the elections?," she wondered.

Pointing out that she launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, Kumar said, "I am carrying forward those values and principles which are sacred to most of my countrymen and women.

"Someone has to take them up. I am taking up your fight also....you want me to withdraw? Do you want me to get defeated? I am simply fighting."

Kumar also met former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) chief H D Deve Gowda and sought his party's support to her candidature.

Asked about the presidential poll turning into a "Dalit contest", she said it was "shameful" that a supreme election to the post of president was being painted in this manner.

"We have to come out of this mentality....even in 2017, people with high qualifications are talking about castes. When both the sides had fielded candidates from higher castes in the past, no one discussed about it. We were not even aware of their castes. We were only aware of their accomplishments, experience and capabilities and only those things were discussed," she said.

"When the contest is between me and Kovind, our caste is being discussed and there is no other talk. Where are we today? Where are we heading?" she wondered.

Noting that in today's era, everyone craved for quality, Kumar said, "Our thinking needs to become good as well." Asked if she would meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the run-up to the election, Kumar said she had written a letter to him and would decide on meeting him when she visited the eastern state.

Going against the decision of its alliance partners, the RJD and the Congress, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) has decided to back the candidature of former Bihar governor Kovind. Meira Kumar, the opposition's presidential nominee, also hails from Bihar.

When pointed out that like her, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also been speaking about development based on Mahatma Gandhi's ideologies, Kumar said Gandhiji's ideology was that of "secularism".

"We do not just have to be tolerant towards the other religions, but be respectful towards them. That was Gandhiji's ideology and we have always carried that forward," she said.
Modi said GST is not just a tax reforms but also economic reform, social reform and a tool towards honesty.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the special ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament for the launch of 'Goods and Services Tax (GST)', in New Delhi. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Describing the passage of Goods and Services Tax (GST) an example of cooperative federalism and the outcome of Team Indias efforts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that the new tax regime will play a crucial role in the creation of a New India.

Minutes before the official roll out of GST, Mr Modi, while addressing the gathering at Parliaments Central Hall, said that GSTs scope was not limited to the financial system. GST, he said, has the potential to end harassment at the hands of officers and benefit the poor. He described GST as Good and Simple Tax.

In an apparent response to the Opposition, which had questioned the midnight launch of the GST from Parliaments Central Hall, Mr Modi said there was no venue better than it, which had witnessed great events like the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly on December 9, 1946, countrys tryst with destiny on the midnight of August 14, 1947, and adoption of countrys Constitution on November 26, 1949. He named former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, first President of the country Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Patel and Sarojini Naidu, who he said were witnesses to these great events.

There could have been no better venue to show the strength of federalism, said Mr Modi as he asserted that 1.25 crore people are witness to the historic event.

Giving credit to all political parties and previous governments, Mr Modi said everyone had concern about the poor. He equated the 18th meeting of the GST Council, which took place ahead of the GST launch, with that of the 18th chapter of Bhagvad Gita and also quoted philosopher-economist-strategist Chanakya to stress that nothing is impossible to achieve if one puts in serious effort.



Asking people to stay away from afvaahon ka bazaar against GST, Mr Modi said the new tax regime would act as a catalyst to curb imbalance in the economy, will increase export and help states like Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Northeastern states, which are rich in natural resources but still lag behind.

He said GST will provide equal opportunities to all states to develop, and help states and the Centre to work in tandem to fulfil the dream of Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat.

Mr Modi said GST is not just a tax reforms but also economic reform, social reform and a tool towards honesty.
Mamata Banerjee launched a scathing attack on the government saying that the GST would lead to harassment of small traders and businesses.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the special ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament for the launch of 'Goods and Services Tax (GST)', in New Delhi. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modis midnight tryst with Indias biggest tax reform was boycotted by a large chunk of the Opposition, led by the Congress, with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi dubbing the implementation of GST as a gimmick which was being rushed through in a half-baked manner in a self-promotional spectacle.

Apart from the Congress, the Trinamul Congress, RJD, BSP, the Left parties and the DMK boycotted the event even as the Nationalist Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party decided to attend it in deference to President Pranab Mukherjee.

The JD(U) sent Bihar commercial taxes and energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, but its top leaders, including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the partys Rajya Sabha member Sharad Yadav, gave the event a miss.

Mr Gandhi, who is abroad, took to Twitter to say that a reform which holds great potential was being rushed through without planning, foresight and institutional readiness, just like during last year.

Unlike demonetisation, GST is a reform that @INCIndia has championed & backed from the beginning... But like demonetisation, GST is being executed by an incompetent and insensitive government without planning, foresight and institutional readiness #GSTTamasha, Mr Gandhi tweeted.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the government had imposed highest ever GST rate in the world while the UPA had proposed putting a cap of 18 per cent on tax.

He also pointed that the GST network was technologically unprepared, adding that the new tax regime would affect the poor, middle class, farmers and small traders.

The Congress on Thursday managed to convince former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who was supposed to share the stage with Mr Modi, not to attend the GST launch event. However, another former PM, JD(S) leader H.D. Deve Gowda, did attend the event.

Announcing the boycott of the midnight programme, the Congress had said that the BJP-led government was equating it with the midnight celebrations of Indian Independence in the Central Hall of Parliament on August 15, 1947, and later events, in 1972 and 1997, to mark of the silver and golden jubilee of Independence.

The NCP, which has stood united with the Opposition on presidential polls by extending support to Meira Kumar, said while it agreed with the Congress position on Independence functions, it decided to attend the midnight meeting as it wanted to continue its support to the legislation  a stand taken at the time of its introduction in Parliament.

We agree with the Congress to an extent, but we supported the legislation when it was introduced (in Parliament and state Assemblies). The party has hence decided to attend the midnight meeting, NCP leader Tariq Anwar said, adding that the party would be represented by Sharad Pawar.

TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched a scathing attack on the government saying that the GST would lead to harassment of small traders and businesses.

At the stroke of midnight on 14th August, 1947, India won her freedom. Now, at the midnight of 30th June, 2017, freedom and democracy stand to face grave danger, Ms Banerjee said. The TMC was the first party to announce boycott of the midnight programme.

The event was also attended by former West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta, who was the chairperson of the first empowered committee of the GST, though his party, the CPI(M), boycotted the event. Keralas former finance minister, K.M. Mani of the Kerala Congress, also attended the meeting as he was one of the chairpersons of the empowered committee as well.
UPA-led by Congress has nominated Meira Kumar against Ram Nath Kovind, BJP-led NDA's candidate for the polls.

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party may back Congress-led Opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar, party sources said on Saturday even as they ruled out support to NDA's pick Ram Nath Kovind.

The AAP has been holding parleys with the Left parties, and Trinamool Congress to arrive at a decision.

"There is no question of supporting (Narendra) Modi's candidate. We may support Meira Kumar but we are yet to take a decision," said an AAP leader, on condition of anonymity.

However, the leader downplayed Congress not inviting the AAP to the discussions that were held with many opposition parties before Kumar's candidature was announced.

He said the AAP was "happy" to maintain a "distance" from the Congress. AAP is the principal opposition party in Punjab, where Congress is in power.

In the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls, the AAP defeated Congress and ended its 15-year rule in the national capital. As Delhi's ruling party and Punjab's principal opposition, the AAP has four MPs in the Lok Sabha, and 85 MLAs, which translates to around 9,000 votes in the electoral college.
The panel had also strongly recommended for bringing under GST petroleum products, electricity, stamp duty, taxes on vehicles.

New Delhi: In a historic move, India rolled out the goods and services tax (GST) on Friday midnight. This came after 17 years of gruelling negotiations between political parties and intense haggling by states and industry.

However, the Indian GST is far from perfect and much more complex than what other countries have adopted. Most of the countries have a single rate GST. In contrast, the Indian GST has six rates of taxation  0, 3%, 5%, 12%, 18%, 28% and 28% plus cess.

Moreover, in India both the Centre and states will collect GST unlike other countries where this power is vested in a single authority.

Anyway, a third of items, including high revenue-generating petrol, diesel, natural gas and electricity, are outside the GST ambit. Industries that use these products as inputs will not be able to claim credit.

Liquor too has been excluded from GST. Real estate has been brought under the new tax regime only partially. Sale of property will continue to attract stamp duty as before.

Revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia summed up the governments dilemma over GST when he recently said: We will prefer to have a single GST rate but after some time. That should be the ultimate goal. However, it looks unlikely that states will agree on bringing excluded items under GST anytime soon given that the target remains elusive even after 17 years of negotiations.

Experts say that compliance with the GST would be costly and tedious because of its complexity. Small businesses with limited computer literacy, erratic power supply and poor net connectivity could find themselves struggling for survival under the new tax regime, experts have cautioned.

The governments claim that the GST will help curb tax evasion is more myth than reality, say experts. Business with less than `20 lakh annual turnover are exempted from GST, a provision that experts fear can be misused by businesses to create dummy small companies for enjoying tax exemption benefits.

The design of the final GST is much different from what the 13th Finance Commission had suggested. For one, the commission had recommended a single rate for GST (7 per cent for states and 5 per cent for the centre).

The commission had strongly pitched for keeping GST simple, saying, A single rate across all goods and services will eliminate classification disputes and make tax assessment more predictable.

Chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian had recommended a single revenue neutral rate of 15 per cent for GST. But this could not be implemented as states refused to come on board despite Centres assurance to compensate their losses.

The panel had also strongly recommended for bringing under GST petroleum products, electricity, stamp duty, taxes on vehicles. But the government has defended multi-tiered GST, saying it will be helpful in reining in price rise while keeping prices of essential commodities under check by placing it in the lower tax rate.

Taxes & duties continue under GST

Customs Duty

Property Tax

Stamp Duty

Outside GST purview
The right-wing Hindutva group announced the bounty a day after Khan was booked for sedition on a complaint given by a VHP leader in Uttar Pradesh.

People shout slogans and burn an effigy of former minister of Uttar Pradesh Azam Khan during a protest against his controversial remarks on Army jawans, in Patna. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: The Bajrang Dal has announced a cash reward of Rs 51 lakh for beheading Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for allegedly accusing the Indian Army of excesses.

The right-wing Hindutva group announced the bounty a day after Mr Khan was booked for sedition on a complaint given by a VHP leader in Uttar Pradesh.

A statement released by members of Bajrang Dal read Anyone who will paint his face black and feed him pork will be awarded Rs 1 crore.

A senior Bajrang Dal leader said a true Muslim could never speak against the country and Mr Khans statements against Indian Army prove that he is not a true Muslim. There must be a DNA test, he added.

Mr Khan had while addressing SP supporters at an Eid function on Tuesday apparently said that some women militants took away private parts of soldiers. They didnt take their head or limbs but their private parts. The act has such a big message to it

However, in a written explanation, the SP leader said his statement was in reference to a Maoist attack in Jharkhand earlier this year.

It was widely reported in newspapers and television that women terrorists of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha mutilated the dead bodies of (CRPF) soldiers and took away their private parts, read the statement.

An FIR was registered against Khan under IPC sections 124 A (sedition), 131 (abetting mutiny) and 505 (public mischief) at Chandpur police station.
It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan.

Former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of 'espionage'. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: India on Saturday again asked Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court, as the two countries exchanged a list of prisoners lodged in each others jails.

According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country. India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav, the external affairs ministry said in a statement in Delhi.

Mr Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on the charges of espionage and sabotage activities in April. India moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. Mr Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage. In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included 52 civilians and 494 fishermen.

The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access, which was signed on May 21, 2008. As per the pact, the lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year on January 1 and July 1.

India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India, the MEA said.

It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen. In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in Indias custody, who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation, it said. The Pakistan foreign office said as many as 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
Mulayams close aide Prajapati faces mining scam heat, Azam in soup over Waqf board irregularities.

New Delhi: Trouble seems to be brewing for Samajwadi Party leaders in Uttar Pradesh with the CBI probing the role of former state mining minister and a close confidant of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, Gayatri Prajapati, in a case pertaining to the illegal mining of minor minerals, specifically sand, in the state. The agency has registered a case to probe the illegal mining of minor minerals in Kaushambi district in the state during 2015-16.

The agency has registered a case against 10 persons, including an assistant geologist, to probe the illegal mining of minor minerals in Kaushambi district in UP. Role of several politicians belonging to the then ruling party is also under the scanner, sources said.

The possibility of probing the role of former state mining minister in the case can not be ruled out, they said.

The agency is expected to register more FIRs in this regard. Role of another former SP minister Azam Khan is already being probed by the CBI as part of its investigation into the alleged irregularities worth multi-crores in the functioning of Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Khan was the minister for Waqf in the previous SP government in the state.

As far as illegal sand mining is concerned, sources said, the agency has already registered five PEs to probe the corrupt practices in five districts  Shamli, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Siddartha Nagar and Deoria. Although enquiries were registered against unknown officials of the district administration and the mining department of the state, Mr Prajapatis role is also under the scanner in these enquiries, sources said. The Allahabad high court in July 2016 directed the CBI to investigate the matter across the state, including the role of government officials in facilitating the same.

The high court had passed the order of CBI inquiry while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Vijay Kumar Dwivedi and others who had alleged that mining leases of a number of lessees had been unlawfully extended in the state after the same had expired in 2012. The court had observed that the claim made in affidavits filed by district magistrates across the state that no illegal mining was taking place in their areas of jurisdiction was false and dismissed as an eyewash the submission of the then principal secretary (mining) that a committee had been set up to look into allegations of illegal mining.
JD(U) under Nitish Kumar, snubbed the Congress when it decided to support the NDAs presidential candidate.

In both instances many leaders told this newspaper that it was the Congress insistence on playing the big brother which was responsible for the rift.

New Delhi: The nascent steps towards an Opposition coalition against the Narendra Modi government are already fumbling and the reason seems to be the Congress partys refusal to play second fiddle to anyone and its purported big brother attitude towards smaller parties like Janata Dal (United) and the Nationalist Congress Party.

Cracks in Opposition ranks were evident during Fridays GST event in Parliament when many parties decided to chart their own course and attend the programme instead of following the Congress call to boycott the midnight gala.

Earlier, the JD(U) under Nitish Kumar, snubbed the Congress when it decided to support the NDAs presidential candidate despite being the initiator of talks of Opposition unity.

In both instances many leaders told this newspaper that it was the Congress insistence on playing the big brother which was responsible for the rift.

Despite being reduced to its historical low of just 44 seats, the Congress is behaving as if it is still in a leadership position, JD(U) national secretary K.C. Tyagi said.

During the presidential polls, we had all agreed on the name of Gopal Krishna Gandhi as the Opposition candidate, but the Congress insisted on delaying the announcement of the name. Actually it always wanted to have its own candidate, Mr Tyagi added.

He blamed these machinations of the Congress for the JD(U)s decision to break away and support the candidature of NDA presidential-pick Ram Nath Kovind.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and member of Rajya Sabha Naresh Agrawal too echoed similar sentiments.

The Congress called up SP leaders asking them to boycott the GST launch but it did so only after announcing its own decision at a press conference, he said.

We are an independent party and take our own decisions. We cannot be expected to be asked to follow, he said, adding that on the issue of skipping the GST launch boycott the Congress itself could not make up its mind and was dithering till the last moment. However, the Congress disagrees with sentiments of other parties.

A senior Congress leader, who did not wish to be quoted, told this newspaper that the party believes it is the only alternative available for a secular coalition. Any such Opposition platform has to be led by the Congress.

It was Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had got all the parties together in the first place. The 44 seats dont matter. We have seen worse times. Also if the BJP can grow from a mere two seats in Lok Sabha to this level then why cant we bounce back, he said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that it was not inevitable that Mr Modi comes back to power in 2019 and cited the example of 2004 when the UPA-I came to power despite the NDAs India Shining campaign.

Congress sources in fact blamed the Bihar Chief Ministers prime ministerial ambitions for his going the NDA way in the presidential polls.

Mr Nitish Kumar is trying to project himself as a clean politician with an impeccable image eyeing the big job in 2019. He is portraying that he is capable of taking an independent stand and is not dependent on any big party so that he emerges as an alternative to Mr Modi, said a Congress leader.

As far as the Nationalist Congress Party and its chief Mr Sharad Pawar was concerned, Congress sources said the Maratha strongman was not keen to attend the Opposition parties meeting on the day Meira Kumars name was announced as the Opposition presidential candidate.

A reluctant Mr Pawar was virtually lured to the meeting with hints of a broad-based Opposition coalition in the run up to the 2019 polls of which he could be the face. So there is nothing strange that he decided to go to the GST launch event, said a Congress leader.
In a first, CM supervises yatra arrangements, says no vulgar songs.

Lucknow: With the onset of the Hindu month of Saawan form next week, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has set his agenda clear.

The CM ordered pruning of gular (cluster fig) trees on Kanwariya routes since the shadow of these trees is considered inauspicious among Hindus.

This is the first time that such a decision has been taken by a chief minister.

Acharya Chintamani Joshi of Sanskrit Degree College said that gular, in fact, is known for its medicinal properties. Maybe the chief minister ordered pruning of these trees as they grow to be very dense, he added.

In another interesting development, the chief minister held a meeting to review the preparations for the Kanwariya yatra  the first ever held by a chief minister in the state. He directed all district magistrates to ensure that no film songs or vulgar songs are played during the yatra; the CM said only bhajans would be allowed to play.

The Kanwariyas are Shiva devotees, who travel on foot to various temples during Saawan, carrying water from the Ganges as offering to Lord Shiva.

Seven districts in western UP, Meerut, Hapur, Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Saharanpur, are known to be susceptible to communal violence during the Kanwariya yatras.

Meanwhile, the UP forest department has decided to plant 27 varieties of trees mentioned in astrological, mythological, tantrik and Ayurvedic scriptures, besides those mentioned in the Quran, Bible and Guru Granth Sahib

According to an official release, nine pamphlets, mentioning significance of trees in different religions, were earlier printed.

A pamphlet on Masihi-Vatika based on the Bible hails fig, poplar, castor-oil tree, mulberry, date palm, grapes, black mustard, tamarix, willow, grapes, aloe vera, heena, ber, pomegranate and narkat tree and describes their virtues. Fig leaves were used by Adam and Eve to cover their bodies.

Pamphlet on Qurani Vriksha Vatika refers to trees mentioned in the Quran like tulsi, date palm, olive, grapes, pomegranate, fig, peelu (shajre miswak), henna and babool.

Guru Ke Bagh brochure says peepal, reetha, sheesham and ber trees are significant in Sikh religion. The Tirthankar Jain brochure lists 24 trees representing 24 Jain Tirthankars. Each of the trees under which Tirthankars meditated and attained knowledge are called `kevali trees and include banyan, chitwan, sal, chir pine, siras, nagkesar, kadamb, jambu, peepal, tendu, bel, baheda, mango, ashok, champa, maulshri, deodar, bamboo, tun, tilak and piyangu (mentioned in Jataka tales).

These trees will be planted in large number in various regions during the month-long tree plantation drive, which was inaugurated by the chief minister on Saturday.
Renowned chef Kunal Kapoor talks about travelling across Australia as a means of reinventing his culinary expertise.

Some travel for pleasure, some to lose themselves and some to find something new within them. With an aim to discover and explore cuisines from across the world, and to draw inspiration from global cultures, renowned chef and restaurateur Kunal Kapoor has taken up a journey across the hinterlands of Australia through his series #TravelWithKunal, which combines exciting travel with unique food and wine experiences.

From exploring the wildlife at Kangaroo Island into the bustling streets of Adelaide, to Barossa Valley, one of the worlds greatest wine growing areas, producing the popular Jacobs Creek, the journey was a step towards his year-long mission to find new experiences, Chef Kunal tells us.

Kunal at Adelaide Central Market

Ive been an active chef for the last 18 years now and beyond a point it becomes really difficult to innovate or do things differently. There comes a point where you need to challenge yourself, you need to get out and explore. This entire year for me has all been travelling around the world and within India for the sake of exploring cuisines and places, food and wines. Getting those experiences together will contribute to my new avatar of cooking, says Kunal, who has been a popular television host for shows like Masterchef India.

The choice of Australia as the destination for the series was an easy choice to make, considering the plethora of gastronomic experiences it opens one up to, he says.

When we talk about good food and wine, one of the places that top the list in the world is Australia. Ive been to Australia many times, but this time it was solely in search of good ingredients and great cuisine. From farming, to procurement, to getting into the markets, there are some of the greatest chefs who do justice to the ingredients  thats how I planned this trip, by having a little bit of adventure alongside my food and wine exploration. #TravelWithKunal will air these adventures every Friday at 11 am on Kunals Facebook page and YouTube channel.

At Sirromet Wines in Queensland

The two-week-long trip covers some of the most picturesque locales of South Australia. I travelled through south Australia and Queensland. I had never been to Adelaide, and I decided my first stop would be Adelaide, the moment I landed at around 6.30 am, I headed straight to the Adelaide Central Market. Its a market which is a floor below the ground and its a whole different world of food that it takes you into  the freshest of the vegetables, meats, fruit and wines. I tried the weirdest meats, crocodile sausage

and kangaroo meat, which is pretty common among the locals. For me, it was a wow moment experiencing all this!

Throughout the trip, he was looking for experiences that were quintessentially Australian, Kunal says. There are hidden ingredients that are very local to a region. There is a lot of local produce that is simple, exquisite that one can explore. There are the experiences that excite you as a foodie. The whole idea is to reconnect with nature and bridge the gaps we have in

the world, Kunal adds signing off.
The community members expect that this visit will bring the two nations closer and help improve their ties and people-to-people contact.

New Delhi: A tiny Jewish community living in the national capital is eagerly awaiting Prime Minster Narender Modis historic Israel visit, which is scheduled for July 4. Mr Modi will become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. The community members expect that this visit will bring the two nations closer and help improve their ties and people-to-people contact.

Both India and Israel want to dominate the world not only through their military might, but also through science and technology, culture, civilisation, and new inventions that will help humanity, said a former Israeli soldier who attends Shabbat (a day of rest and celebration) at Chabad House in Paharganj.

There are around 10 Jew families (about 40-50 people) living in the national capital. The settlement of the community dates back to many centuries, even before the British colonial era. Later, a few German and Polish Jews, who escaped the Holocaust, also settled in the city.

Reciting the verse Janani Janma-bhoomi-scha Swargadapi Gariyasi from the great Hindu epic Ramayana, Ezekiel Issac Malekar, the honorary secretary and priest of Judah Hyam Synagogue at Humayun Road, said: India is in my blood. I was born here. I am an Indian first and a Jew later. I have immense respect for the holy land that is Israel, which is in my heart. I cant categorically love or differentiate the two nations. There is an equal quantum of love and respect for India and Israel. We are living here in India for the last two thousand years and have preserved our culture without any problem for centuries. PM Modis Israel visit will certainly boost the ties between these two great nations.

There are many similarities in Israel and India. Both countries are determined to become world power. The lands of these countries have always fascinated foreigners; India because of its spices and Israel because of its holiness. Both countries had many foreign invaders, conquerors, and settlers  all claiming it to be theirs. The histories of both these countries are sequences of different conquerors who arrived from different parts of the world, said Joeb Shoot, a Jewish law-yer and armature photographer from Johannes-burg in South Africa.

Around 600-700 Jew tourists often come to the national capital on a daily basic from different parts of the world and many of them pay a visit to Chabad House for social gatherings and prayers.

I served in Israeli forces and Im a resident of Jerusalem. I have read a lot about India and want to visit the country. Since 1992, our bilateral relations have flourished. Today Israel is Indias biggest partner in defense trade after Russia. India is the only country in the world where Jews have not been persecuted and never will be, I believe. However, we avoid Kashmir as it is severely affected by militancy. Otherwise, we feel safe and secure to visit any part of India, said a former Israel Defence Forces personnel on the condition of anonymity.
CM slams arrest clause in GST, says it could be used against anyone who raises their voice.

Kolkata: Continuing her tirade against the Narendra Modi government over the roll-out of the Goods and Service Tax (GST), chief minister Mamata Banerjee took to her Facebook page on Friday to say that the GST would bring the dreaded Inspector Raj. and that freedom and democracy of the country were in grave danger.

At the stroke of midnight on 14th August, 1947, India won her freedom. Now, at the midnight of 30th June, 2017, freedom and democracy stand to face grave danger. The mockery of Inspector Raj is back, chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote on her Facebook Page.

Vehemently opposing the arrest clause in the GST rules, Ms Banerjee further wrote, I am shocked to find that the GST rules contain a rather draconian arrest clause, which can lead to major harassment of businesses, particularly the small and medium, with some sections being non-bailable even.

She further pointed out that in the current VAT regime, field officials of the state did not have the power to arrest. If they saw a serious tax offence, they would have to file an FIR and pursue the due process of law. But in the case of GST, the inspectors will have the power to arrest on four different types of offences which can lead to jail-terms from one year upto five years, Ms Banerjee stated in her post.

She added that Bengal had opposed the arrest clause in the GST Council but the Centre did not pay heed.

She expressed her concern that the arrest clause might be used to target businessmen who raised their voice of dissent on any policy matter. In fact, in the name of GST, they have deviated in many areas from the original intent. Given the atmosphere in the country of vindictively targeting anyone who dares to disagree with the Central Government, I am deeply concerned that the arrest clause in GST may well be used to target business leaders who raise their voice against any policy matter or any practices, the chief minister wrote.

Taking cue from the chief minister, state finance minister Amit Mitra, who is also the chairman of empowered committee of state finance ministers on GST, issued a statement stating that BJP would suffer in its own states for bulldozing GST. BJP opposed GST for seven years in every way possible. I had to fight them when I was in Delhi. The then Gujarat chief minister, now the Prime Minister, had opposed it, Mr Mitra said. Demanding a white paper on preparedness of GST, Mr Mitra said, Where is the white paper on preparedness? GST is half-baked and dangerous in its present state. We need just a month. With a focused effort, we can get GST done together as a team, but not in this physically zabardast way.

He further said that Trinamul Congress had supported GST in 2009 and their manifesto had also carried it.
Says state must take public into consideration before deciding on fares.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday praised the services provided by the app-based taxi operators Ola and Uber. The court said the services provided by the app-based operators are fantastic and the state government should take into consideration public interest before taking a final decision about fixing the fares.

A division bench of Justices R.M. Sawant and Sadhana Jadhav was hearing petitions filed by Uber, Ola and six drivers plying cabs with these companies. The petitions challenged the Maharashtra City Taxi rules proposed by the state government and also alleged that the rules were arbitrary and bad.

Additional government pleader (AGP) G.W. Mattos on Friday informed the court that the state has constituted a committee to look into the matter of fixing fares. The committee hasnt yet filed the report. Hence, the state has decided not to take any coercive steps until the committee submits its report.The court accepted the statement, saying, Uber provides services throughout the world, and its service is fantastic. This is a serious issue, and the interest of the consumers must be considered. The state government should keep this in mind before taking a final decision.

The high court said, We are concerned about the consumers and their interest. The court also said if black-and-yellow taxis provided good service then people would not have preferred OLA and Uber. and that black-and-yellow taxis only want to ply long distance. The court also permitted the All India Radio Taxi Operators Association, which plies Meru cabs and Tabcabs to be impleaded as respondents in the petitions.

We will hear the arguments of all concerned parties. Today, we accepted the statement made by the state government that it would not take any coercive steps until committee submits its report, Justice Sawant said. The committee is expected to submit the report in four weeks. The petitions will be heard on August 3. The drivers will have to obtain local permits and will not be allowed to ply on their national tourist permits, the drivers claimed in A petition. Obtaining local permits will cost private taxi drivers and owners ten times more than what it costs the drivers of black-and-yellow taxis, the petition added.
Grateful mother names infant after Jet Airways.

Mumbai: The first child to ever be born on board an Indian airline has been named Jetson by his mother, who flew back to Kochi with her new born on Sunday.

The baby was born on board the Jet Airways Dammam-Kochi flight on June 18 and rushed to Holy Spirit hospital in the city after the aircraft was diverted to Mumbai.

Ms C. Jose (29) and her baby, who weighed 2 kg at the time of birth, were discharged on Sunday and flew back to their hometown.

Expressing her gratitude to the Jet Airways crew members who were present at the airport to see her off, Ms Jose believes her son is special and was delivered safely only because of the care and prompt action of Jet Airways onboard crew and so decided to name her son Jetson.

Recalling the incident, one of the passengers on the same flight, said that within two hours of being airborne, the pregnant passenger started complaining of uneasiness and was unable to sit. She alerted the crew who swung into action and made an announcement for a doctor to attend to the emergency. "Only a paramedic, who was on board came forward to help and the baby was delivered near a washroom," said the passenger. The baby was delivered within six to eight minutes.

The crew on board the flight, included two males and three females, was headed by in-flight supervisor Mohammad Taj Hayat. The other members of the crew included Tejas Chavan, Catherine Lepcha, Sushmita, David, Isha Jayakar and Deborah Tavares were all freshers and have experience of less than a year in the airline. They were felicitated by the airline for their care and prompt action.

After the pilot requested a medical emergency landing from the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC), it landed within 30 minutes. "Such type of medical emergencies need extreme alertness and a lot of team effort to ensure the passenger is given best possible treatment. Co-ordination between the pilot, the ground staff, the airline staff and medical authorities is very important," said an aviation expert.

According to rules, any women who is more than 30 weeks pregnant needs a permission letter from her doctors, stating that she is eligible to fly. Once the pregnancy is more than 35 weeks, women are not allowed to fly in the international sector.

The birth

The Jet Airways Boeing 737 with 162 guests was diverted to Mumbai on July 18 as the woman went into premature labour.

The woman delivered the baby boy at a height of 35,000 ft. when it was over the Arabian Sea. She was rushed to a Mumbai hospital and discharged on June 24.
The police had put Vivaans relatives under the scanner since his body was found.

Mumbai: The police have arrested Indu Gupta (30), for strangling her nephew, Vivaan Kandu (2), whose dead body was found in a large plastic bag at Kachpada in Malad west on Tuesday morning. The police had put Vivaans relatives under the scanner since his body was found.

Mumbai police spokesperson deputy commissioner of police, Rashmi Karandikar confirmed the incident and said, We have arrested the accused woman, who is the victims aunt and booked her under section 363 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code that pertains to kidnapping and murder respectively.

Officials of Malad police station said that the relatives of the deceased boy were detained on Tuesday itself and were interrogating them along with a few neighbours and shopkeepers who had seen Vivaan last on Monday afternoon. The police had sent Vivaans body for postmortem and were awaiting the results, while the interrogation process was in full swing. During the interrogation, Gupta gave in the confession and blurted out the facts of the day of the incident.

The police official added, Indu Gupta and her husband were having a property dispute with the victim, Vivaans father Sandeep Kandu and had a personal grudge over the Kandu family. When the result of the dispute was going in Kandus favour, Gupta lost her cool and decided to end matters her way. Indu then kidnapped Vivaan from the building where Kandus were residing and took her to their Kachpada residence, and killed him by strangulating the victim. Vivaan then died due to asphyxiation. After killing the toddler, Indu packed him in a plastic bag and dumped him near the corner of their colony in Malad west, where his body was found early on Tuesday. The aunt has been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code relevant to kidnapping and murder.
The Byculla woman inmates death sparked protests in the prison.

Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch on Saturday arrested six female constables of Byculla womens prison in the case where Manjula Shetye, a 45-year-old inmate who was serving the last few months of her sentence, was allegedly beaten to death by the jails staff members last month.

According to the police, the accused who have been arrested are Manisha Pokharkar, Bindu Naikadde, Wazina Shaikh, Shital Shigaokar, Surekha Gulwe and Aarti Shingane  all members of the prison staff.

Sources said the Nagpada police  in the wake of registering a complaint against Byculla jail authorities in the case  first arrested Naikadde on Saturday morning, produced her in the court, which remanded her in police custody till July 7. The rest of her colleagues were arrested in the evening.

The incident took place late in the afternoon of June 23 when Shetye alias Deepa was slapped inside the prison for unknown reasons.

The inmate was declared dead after prison officials rushed her to JJ Hospital the same evening. This sparked protests in the prison and all inmates made their way to the top of the prison building and shouted slogans, demanding justice.

Even as announcements were made over the public address system, asking inmates to maintain restrain, they broke wooden chairs and set them on fire.

Ultimately, prison authorities brought the situation under control and an inquiry was ordered to establish the reason behind the incident.

Shetye was behind bars in connection with a murder case dated 2004 registered by the Bhandup police station.

Her mother, who passed away recently, and her were arrested for allegedly murdering a relative. Shetye was lodged in Yerawada prison in Pune for over a decade and was shifted to Byculla couple of months ago, officials said.
The officials said that Siddhant, who had killed his mother on May 23 at their Vakola residence, was presented before the court.

Mumbai: Siddhant Ganore (21), who is lodged in Arthur Road jail for allegedly killing his mother in May, pleaded not guilty before the court. However, the police said it has evidence like fingerprints, handwriting experts analysis and his blood stained clothes to pin him for the murder.

The officials said that Siddhant, who had killed his mother on May 23 at their Vakola residence, was presented before the court. Siddhant was sent to judicial custody as the police said it doesnt need him in police custody anymore. The police said that Siddhant had promised to record a confessional statement in front of the magistrate.

The police had made arrangements to record his confessional statement in front of the special magistrate and brought him in court accordingly. When he refused to admit his crime and said that he would not confess, as he is not guilty, the police officials were taken aback. But the police officials claimed that they have substantial evidence to prove that he is a murderer.

Speaking to The Asian Age, Sanjay Pawar, who is the investigation officer of this case said, We were shocked to hear that he has pleaded not guilty, as the police never pressurised him to confess the crime. Ever since he was arrested from Jodhpur, he did not show a single ounce of remorse. Mr Pawar added, We were not completely depending on his confession and have enough evidence against him.
Salahuddin also complained that the US sidelined Pakistan but signed a F-16 fighter jet deal with India.

Muzaffarabad: Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin on Saturday denounced United States declaring him as a global terrorist, and lamented that Washington gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a red carpet welcome despite denying him entry into US earlier over the Gujarat riots.

Addressing a press conference at the Muzaffarabad's Centre Press Club, the Hizbul commander said the declaration was a joint move by the US, Israel, and India to express their animosity towards Pakistan, reports the Express Tribune.

He also alleged that the Islamic State (IS) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were being backed by India, Israel and the US to weaken Pakistan.

Further, training his guns on the Indian Prime Minister, Salahuddin said referring to the 2002 riots in Indian Gujarat, Modi was even banned from travelling to the US and now the he has been given a red carpet welcome in Washington.

In 2005, Modi was denied visa to travel to New York to address Indian-Americans at a rally after his failure to stop a series of deadly anti-Muslim riots three years earlier in Gujarat, where he was chief minister.

Salahuddin also complained that the US sidelined Pakistan but signed a F-16 fighter jet deal with India.

"Despite Pakistan's role on the front-line in the war on terror, the US ignored it and signed a deal to provide F-16 jets technology to India. Similarly, the US builds pressure on Islamabad to close its nuclear programme, while it signs a nuclear deal with India," he said.

Rejecting the US declaration of his terrorist status, Salahuddin said it was "a big lie" to declare a freedom fighter a global terrorist.

The US Department of State on June 27 declared Salahuddin, "Specially Designated Global Terrorist", hours before visiting Prime Minister Modi's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Salahuddin also claimed that his group has the capability to launch attacks inside India.

Islamabad: Militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin on Saturday vowed to continue the struggle for liberation of Kashmir from India, days after the US blacklisted him as a global terrorist.

Addressing the media amid tight security at the Centre Press Club in Muzaffarabad for the first time since the US declared him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on June 27, Salahuddin rejected the US decision and said he was a freedom fighter and not a terrorist.

We are not terrorists...Our struggle is for freedom from India and it will continue till liberation of Kashmir, said the 71-year-old Kashmiri separatist leader, who is based in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The US cannot provide a single example of when I and other Kashmiri fighters committed any act of terrorism, he said. Kashmiri freedom fighters have a code of conduct to not harm minorities, the elderly, children and women, and if sometimes the enemy offers a peace deal, we accept it.

Salahuddin also claimed that his group has the capability to launch attacks inside India. He offered conditional talks with India if Russia or China guaranteed that peace talks would be result oriented. He also announced to observe a Week of Resistance from Monday to commemorate the first death anniversary of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul commander who was killed on July 8 last year in an encounter in Kashmir. The US took the step against Salahuddin, as he had vowed to block peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict.
Trump has called for better ties with Russia but lawmakers in his own Republican Party are urging him to be wary of Moscow.

Washington: US President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week at the G20 summit in Germany that brings two world leaders whose political fortunes have become intertwined face-to-face for the first time.

Both the Kremlin and the White House announced on Thursday that the pair will meet on the sidelines of the July 7-8 summit of G20 nations in Hamburg.

Mr Trumps national security adviser H.R. McMaster downplayed the significance of the meeting, one of nine such side meetings for the US President over two days.

It wont be different from our discussions with any other country, really, Mr McMaster said. Theres no specific agenda. Its really going to be whatever the President wants to talk about. The meeting will be fraught with difficulties for Mr Trump.

Allegations that Russia interfered in the US presidential election last year and colluded with the Republicans campaign have overshadowed the businessmans unexpected victory and dogged his first five months in office.

Russia and the US are also at odds over Ukraine, Nato expansion and the civil war in Syria where Moscow supports President Bashar al-Assad. The US backs rebel groups trying to overthrow Assad, and Washington angered Russia by launching missile strikes against a Syrian government air base in April in response to what the US says was a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians.

Mr Trump has called for better ties with Russia but lawmakers in his own Republican Party are urging him to be wary of Moscow. As the President has made clear, hed like the US and the West to develop a more constructive relation with Russia, but he made clear that we will do what is necessary to confront Russias destabilising behaviour, McMaster said.

U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia hacked and leaked emails of Democratic Party political groups to help Trump win the 2016 U.S. presidential election against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Russia denies the allegations and Trump says his team did not collude with Moscow.

Several congressional committees as well as the FBI are investigating Russia's role in the election and any alleged collusion by Trump's campaign.

That makes the optics of the Putin meeting particularly challenging for Trump.

"If there are big grins on both of their faces, that will be the picture on the front pages of every Western newspaper, as the investigation continues here," said Heather Conley, a former State Department official in the George W. Bush White House.

"I would think the president would be advised, if there is a meeting, to be very careful with his body language," Conley told Reuters.

Trump raised Russian hackles this week when the White House said it appeared the Syrian military was preparing to conduct a chemical weapons attack and warned that Assad and his forces would "pay a heavy price" if it did so.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Wednesday that Moscow would respond proportionately if the United States took measures against Syrian government forces.

But Lavrov added that it would "probably not be right" if Putin and Trump did not talk at the G20 summit of world economic powers.

Republican Bob Corker, the influential chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, described the planned encounter as "just a side meeting" but said he hoped Trump would bring up problematic issues with Putin.

"I would hope what he would do is hand him a list of the issues we have with their country. And I think he may well do that," Corker told Reuters.

Putin, who has served as both Russian president and prime minister, has outlasted the previous two U.S. presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Officials from those administrations say American officials initially overestimated their potential areas of cooperation with the Russian leader. Then, through a combination of overconfidence, inattention and occasional clumsiness, Washington contributed to a deep spiral in relations with Moscow, they say.

Those relations reached a post-Cold War low under Trump's predecessor, Obama.

In the last days of his presidency, Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian suspected spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their involvement in hacking U.S. political groups in the 2016 election.

A proposed new package of sanctions on Russia in the U.S. Congress might also put curbs on Trump's ability to pursue warmer relations with Moscow.

The U.S. Senate reached an agreement on Thursday to resolve a technical issue stalling the sanctions, although the measure's fate in the House of Representatives is uncertain.
The situation worsened when China started constructing a road near Sikkim Sector.

China had mentioned that Donglang is being considered in their territory since ancient times. (Photo: China's Foreign Ministry)

Beijing: Amid standoff in Sikkim, China on Tuesday released a map to support its claim that Indian troops entered their territory; only to reveal that the territory quoted is actually under contention.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the picture released by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ku Lang showing India troopers incursion in China, is basically a territory claimed by both India and Bhutan. The map which China has posted on their foreign ministry website is also far different from the Indian perception of Line of Actual Control (LoAC) between India, China and Bhutan.

Of the trespassed area quoted by China, India has claims on land till Batang La, whereas China asserted that their territory is till Mount Gipmochi. The situation becomes more intricate with Bhutans claims. Historically, Bhutan and China have a dispute over the area, Donglang or Doklam. However, China had mentioned that Donglang is being considered in their territory since ancient times.

The situation worsened when China started constructing a road near Sikkim Sector. India reacted by saying that any such move to unilaterally determine tri-junction points violates a 2012 India-China agreement. It further said that the boundary in the region should be finalised after consulting with all concerned countries.

New Delhi, maintaining its stance over border dispute, noted that Indian troops in co-ordination with Bhutan had asked Chinese government to desist from changing the status quo by building a road in Donglang area.

Reiterating their claims, Chinese state media earlier had said that there is solid legal evidence to prove that Indian troops trespassed in their territory.

It is stated in Article one of the Convention Between Great Britain and China relating Sikkim and Tibet (1890) that the boundary of Sikkim and Tibet shall be the crest of the mountain range separating the waters flowing into the Sikkim Teesta and its affluents from the waters flowing into the Tibetan Mochu and northwards into other rivers of Tibet, said Chinese state media quoting a report.

The HT report further added that the Chinese state media claimed that the line commences at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier, and follows the above-mentioned water-parting to the point where it meets Nepal territory.

China had asked Indian soldiers to leave their territory for dialogue to ensue. It had also asked India to learn from history referring to 1962 Sino-India war over Arunachal Pradesh.

However, this is not the first time China has claimed Indias portion to be their territory as, in 2013, China carried out an incursion on Indo-China border near Arunachal Pradesh.
The Indian government too will hand over a list of Pakistani prisoners to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Islamabad: At least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in Pakistani jails, according to a list the Pakistan government handed over to the Indian envoy on Saturday.

The list was given to High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale under the Consular Access Agreement signed between the two countries on May 21, 2008.

The foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen". It said the "step is consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement", under which both countries were required to exchange lists of prisoners in each others custody twice a year - on January 1 and July 1.

The foreign office said the Indian government will also hand over a list of its prisoners in India to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. According to the list Islamabad shared with India on January 1 this year, there were 351 Indian prisoners held in Pakistan, including 54 civilians and 297 fishermen.

The foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 this year and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
by Sumon Corraya

On 1st July 2016, terrorists attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe killing 20. Following this, the Gulshan area has become deserted, abandoned by tourists and shops. Several Catholics and Protestant missionaries have left the country. A full account of the investigations will be published "very soon".

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  Fear remains strong in Bangladesh a year to the day after the massacre at the Dhaka's Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe, where 20 people, mostly foreigners, were killed.

Following the attack in the Gulshan area, a neighbourhood home to various embassies and diplomatic missions, many Catholics and Protestant missionaries have left the country. "I did not feel safe in Bangladesh because of my Christian faith, so I moved to the United States with my family, said one who spoke to AsiaNews.

For their part, the authorities have continued their investigation into the terrorists and the accomplices who took part in the attack and are expected to release their final report soon.

On July 1, 2016, five Islamic extremists attacked the restaurant shouting "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is great) taking scores of customers hostage. Then they proceeded to ask separate those who could recite verses of the Quran from those who could not. The former were released, the latter were detained.

At the end of the long, overnight siege, the terrorists shot the infidels. Some 20 hostages were killed: nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi-American and two Bangladeshis (including Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, a Muslim student who refused to leave his foreign friends).

Witnesses later talked about the terrible violence with a sense of shudder. Once seen as moderate and open, Islam in Bangladesh took on more extremist connotations on that 1st July.

Torun Gomes, a Christian living in the area of the attack, remembers hearing the name of ISIS on television, radio and newspapers. But when the terrorists attacked near my home, I was surprised. We are saddened by the mayhem caused by the militants and we still live in fear. "

He added that many residents left the neighbourhood. Once full of shops and people, it is now deserted. Visitors are struck by the silence as many restaurants simply shut down. Many foreigners, who once called the place home, have picked up and left.

Monirul Islam, head of Bangladeshs Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CCTC) Unit, which is co-ordinating the investigation, said that 24 people involved in various capacities  planning, training and execution  have been identified.

Fifteen of these were killed by security forces. Four are in jail and five are still wanted. The dead include Tamim Chowdhury, Nurul Islam Marjan, Major Zahidul Islam, Sarowar Jahan, Tanveer Quaderi, Md Abdullah alias Rony, Abu Rayhan alias Tareq, and Faridul Islam Akash.

Of the four prisoners, three  Jahangir Alam aka Rajeeb Gandhi, Raqibul Hassan aka Rigan, and Mizanur Rahman aka Senior Mizan  have confessed under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The total cost for the operation was 900,000 Taka (US$ 11,100).

Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Wednesday said that the investigating agency will submit a report in connection with the case. Were preparing a flawless charge sheet, and it will be submitted before the court very soon, he told reporters at his Secretariat office.
by Yetta Yao

Chinese society risks being superficial and without faith. It engenders only children for rich magnates, but "no Mother Teresa". The vision of poverty and wealth is wrong because it is tied only to money. Real wealth is in being strong "in His salvation".

Beijing (AsiaNews/China Christian Daily)  "If you are poor in this society, even a shopping guide pulls a long face." A Christian sister says. The single sister works in a company that holds on to Christianity, being paid at the average level.

Chinese people always hold that mammonism is a capitalist outcome, but the reality shows that there is an overflow of money worship in China. Instead, it is generally believed throughout the capitalist countries like the Europe and America that money is not that important.

Obviously, the conclusion that China has ranked first in money worship is agreed by Chinese rather than imposed by the Westerners.

A survey claims that China is considered as one of the most erotic nations in the world. Mammonism and a pornography plague consist of the most distinct features of modern Chinese society.

In such a society -- we have Wang Sicong, only son of Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin, but no Mother Teresa.

Han Han, claimed as the representative of China's post-80s generation, once commented that China lacks faith and ideals in this moment. The dominated education aims at making money and the goal to cultivate students is to make them realistic talents.

People work hard from dawn to night, burn incense and worship Buddha for promotion and wealth. Are promotion and wealth the gods of the whole nation? It turns out that reform and opening up is a Pandora's box. Though it has inspired China's great initiative to develop economy, which has resulted in remarkable achievements, many negative phenomena have been generated, including mammonism.

Then what comes along with money worship? A society of materialism, shallow relationships, scheming against each other, moral decay, and lack and belief. A recent hot incident that a woman was hit by two cars twice was ignored by people passing by may be the proof.

In such a world, how should Chinese Christians adhere to the Christian values and be the salt and light?

Sha Yu tells his own story in his article entitled "Meditation on Poorness and Richness": "My family was poor in my childhood. When I grew up and believed in Christ, I was resolved to walk on the path of ministry. However, all of my relatives become rich rednecks. So every time we meet, they despise me for I don't make money for serving in the church, which is embarrassing. Similar to these upstarts who think highly of themselves, many people think that they know the two concepts of poorness and richness, but as a matter of fact, they don't know what they really are."

He points out another social issue: the monotonicity of the mainstream viewpoint on poverty and wealth -- the modern society relates richness to money while things that have nothing to do with money are excluded from richness. He sees it as a "childish" view because life is a whole of things, consisting of many areas, for instance, health, relationships with God, family and friends, work, wealth, hobbies, and social intercourse. These parts are pretty essential, which together forms a man's whole life. Neither aspect can be removed to determine the whole life alone.

Christian have a responsibility to judge social concepts according to the Bible so that they don't fall away, meanwhile build others up. Sha declares that God doesn't put money as the criterion in measuring the poor and the rich in the Bible. The church in Laodicea that acquired wealth did not need a thing, while it was poor and blind in God's eyes; the poor widow who tithed two very small copper coins was poor, as people saw her, but Christ valued her donation than others.

We can know from Abraham the father of faith that despite wealth as a kind of God's blessing, the Bible never says decisively that being rich is good, standing for a blessing of God, and vice versa. The idea that being rich represents being blessed is wrong and the gospel of success. However, the point is that this concept is popular not only in society, but also in the church. The Lord Jesus had no place to lay his head when he came into the world, who can say that God didn't bless him?

Therefore, the author states that the real poverty refers to the state in which you lose God's salvation and all sorts of grace, and remain unconscious to that; the real richness is the state in which you are content with and steady in His salvation and all kinds of grace.

Below are some Bible verses about money:

Leviticus 25: 35-37 "If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit."

Psalm 49: 6-8 Those who trust in their wealth

and boast of their great riches?

No one can redeem the life of another

or give to God a ransom for them-

the ransom for a life is costly,

no payment is ever enough-

Psalm 112: 1-3

Praise the Lord.

Blessed are those who fear the Lord,

who find great delight in his commands.

Their children will be mighty in the land;

the generation of the upright will be blessed.

Wealth and riches are in their houses,

and their righteousness endures forever.

Proverb 23: 5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,

for they will surely sprout wings

and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Luke 16: 14-15 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God's sight.

Revelation 3: 17-18 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
by Mathias Hariyadi

Indonesian sympathisers of the Islamic State group target law enforcement. The attacker joined 20 policemen for Friday prayer before launching his attack. He was killed trying to escape. Lawmakers plan to revise the countrys anti-terrorism law before the end of the year. The Widodo administration pursues its anti-terrorism campaign.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  A man attacked two police officers at a mosque near the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta on Friday evening. A third officer killed the attacker as he tried to escape. This is the latest apparent terrorist attack on law enforcement officers in less than a week.

National Police Public Relations Head Inspector, General Setyo Wasisto, said that the attacker, identified as one Mulyadi from Bekasi (West Java), joined the night prayer with about 20 officers from the Mobile Brigade at the Falatehan Mosque, which is about 75 metres from the police headquarters, near the Blok M shopping area in south Jakarta.

National Police Spokesman Senior Commander Martinus Sitompul said that the two police officers were completing their prayers when the attacker suddenly stabbed them using a bayonet, shouting Thogut, an Arabic word that literally means 'idolator'.

The victims were struck on the neck and face but survived, whilst the suspect threatened those present not to help the wounded. After he fled the mosque, he went to the nearby bus station. Here he was confronted by another police officer who fired a warning shot. When the attacker tried to stab him shouting "Allahu Akbar!", the police officer fired, killing the aggressor.

Indonesian sympathisers of the Islamic State (IS) group, thought to be acting on the orders of Bahrun Naim, have targeted law enforcement forces in the past two years in a series of low-profile attacks.

On 25 June, two attackers linked to IS stormed a police station in Medan, North Sumatra, killing an agent. The day before, two suicide bombers killed three policemen at a bus station in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta.

At present, Indonesias People's Representative Council, the lower house of parliament, is rewriting the countrys anti-terrorism legislation in order to give police greater powers to tackle the terrorist threat. This follows another attack last year in Jakarta.

In an attempt to stem growing extremism, the administration of President Widodo has also launched a campaign against the most extremist movements.
Since its international launch in 1996, the Skoda Octavia has become a global sales hit for the Czech company.

Skoda completes production of its six millionth Octavia. The jubilee vehicle ran off the production line at the companys headquarters in Mlada Boleslav today. Since its launch in 1996, the Skoda Octavia has become a global sales hit and the bestseller for the Czech company. The first Octavia model was introduced by the company in 1959.

Michael Oeljeklaus, Skoda board member for production and logistics, said, No other model has run off Skodas production lines more often than the Octavia. It is the heart of our brand and represents the high performance of Skoda production and logistics. The Octavia has made a significant contribution to Skodas rise in the global markets.

The Skoda Octavia exemplifies the brand's success over the past two decades. It was the first newly developed Skoda model following the fall of the Iron Curtain and after joining forces with the Volkswagen Group. Its introduction provided the impetus for Skoda's rise to becoming a globally operating company, which has now successfully established itself among the large volume brands.

First OCTAVIA and its forebear

The launch of the Skoda Octavia took place in autumn 1996 at the 'Mondial de l'Automobile' in Paris. The saloon in the upper compact class featured modern technology and promised excellent value for money. The car was designed by former Skoda chief designer Dirk van Braeckel that sported a striking appearance with its large radiator grille that enlivened the street scene in the 1990s.

The name Octavia came from the Latin word for the number eight: 'Octo'. In 1997 Skoda produced 61,000 Octavias, one year later the production number had almost doubled to over 117,500 units. The Skoda Octavia Combi, which also stimulated demand, followed in 1998. In 2010, the last of 1,442,100 Octavias of the first generation rolled off the line at the Vrchlabi plant.

Skoda launched global production with the OCTAVIA II

The successor, first introduced at the Geneva motor show in March 2004, continued the triumphant success of its predecessor. The Octavia II had a fresh design, more space in the interior and boot, and improved technology.

With the second-generation Octavia, the Czech manufacturer also stepped up its internationalisation strategy. The production of the Octavia began at the Indian plant in Aurangabad in 2005. The Shanghai Volkswagen plant has been building the Octavia for China since 2007. And since 2009, the Octavia has been produced at the Russian Volkswagen plant in Kaluga. The third Octavia generation celebrated its premiere in 2012. Just one year later, production of the brand's bestseller also commenced in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.



The updated Skoda Octavia for India will launch soon. Read our review here.
The Fleet Hall of Fame was instituted in 2008. Three new members will be added in 2016. Photo by Vince Taroc.

Automotive Fleet and the Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association (AFLA) are proud to announce the 2017 nominees for the annuall Fleet Hall of Fame award.

The Hall of Fame recognizes fleet industry leaders and pioneers who have contributed significantly to the commercial fleet management profession. Inductees are selected by their peers via an online ballot, which is currently open to public. Voting closes Monday, August 7.

Three honorees are inducted into the Hall of Fame annually. This years list of industry veteran nominees are as follows:

Tom Callahan

Ford, GE Commercial Finance, Donlen

Dates in Fleet: 1987-Present

Callahan

Callahan is currently president of Donlen, setting the strategic direction and driving the execution of key growth initiatives. He began his career at Ford Motor Company where he held various sales and management positions. Additionally, Callahan held global leadership positions in general management, sales management, product development, quality, and operations in North America, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australasia with GE Commercial Finance  Fleet Services and GE Consumer Finance.

Callahan also serves as AALA VP of energy & environmental affairs. Under Callahans guidance, Donlen has received numerous awards for its customer service, employee satisfaction & engagement, product development and technology platforms. Callahan is a member of the Hertz Executive Committee and served as president of AFLA from 2012 to 2013.

Warren Feirer (deceased)

Standard Brands/Nabisco

Feirer

Feirer served as NAFA president from 1979 to 1981, is a past president of the NAFA Foundation, and is a recipient of NAFAs Distinguished Service Award. During his career, he accepted an award on behalf of NAFA from President Jimmy Carter for NAFAs efforts in planning fuel conservation during the height of the 1970s fuel crisis.

Dave Hansen

GM Fleet & Commercial Operations

Dates in Fleet: 1998-2008 (Retired)

Hansen

Hansen joined General Motors in 1965 after graduating from high school, working in a GM assembly plant while attending college. After graduating from college with an engineering degree, he worked in several roles, including chief engineer for the Chevrolet Division.

Hansen often comments that the highlight of his career was leading the turnaround while serving as general manager of GM Fleet & Commercial Operations in the late 1990s and into the next century. After leaving GM, Hansen became COO for Tecstar, a second-stage manufacturer for GM, then assisted SCT with its fleet fuel economy software device. He is now retired, but provides pro-bono support of the North Carolina Center for Automotive Research.

Ron Mawaka Sr.

Fleet Response

Dates in Fleet: 1986-2016

Mawaka

Mawaka Sr. founded Rental Concepts, Inc. in February 1986. A unique rental consortium and first of its kind, it provided temporary cars, trucks, and specialty vehicles to fleets nationwide. His vision was a centralized service for fleet managers to eliminate unnecessary insurance requirements, multiple vendors, and invoices.

Today, Rons vision has become Fleet Response  a fully customized accident management, maintenance management, claims adjustment, salvage, subrogation, and safety service provider. Mawakas sons, Scott and Ron Jr., carry on his work at Fleet Response. Ron has been a member of NAFA since 1984, and would like to recognize his initial partners for their contributions to the companys success.

Kevin McGrath

Fleet Street Remarketing

Dates in Fleet: 1980-Present

McGrath

McGrath entered the auto business in 1980, working for a multi-line dealership in St. Petersburg, Fla. After selling used cars, working in the finance department, and buying autos and trucks at wholesale for the dealership, McGrath struck out on his own in 1985 and formed a wholesale auto business, called RAM Auto Leasing, with friend Bob McDevitt.

Along with one employee who handled administrative tasks, the three bought and sold 20-40 used corporate cars per month. RAM soon transitioned to Eastern Fleet Remarketing after McDevitt moved on to another venture, and ultimately the company was rebranded as Fleet Street Remarketing to better capture the companys new remarketing focus and global reach. McGrath helps businesses achieve maximum returns on the resale of each vehicle. McGrath has also been a member of AFLA for more than 20 years, and served on the board of directors for the association.

Bret Watson, CAFM

GE Capital Fleet Services, Sprint

Dates in Fleet: 1984-Present

Watson

Watson began working at GELCO in 1984, which later became GE Capital Fleet Services. In 1989, he joined Sprint and has worked for the companys fleet for more than 28 years. He operates a fleet of 2,700 vehicles with one direct report and many outsourced suppliers for additional support. He has served as Chapter chair of the NAFA Mid-America Chapter, Chair of NAFAs Editorial and Certification Committees, and served as AFLA treasurer. He currently serves on client advisory boards for Element Fleet Management and Fleet Response.

Watson takes an unbundled approach to outsourcing using many suppliers to support his Fleet. He works directly with the OEMs, Car Dealerships, Accident/Safety Management Companies, FMCs, and more to achieve best in class results. In 2012 Watson received a Sustainability All-Star award for Innovative Accomplishments in Green Fleet Sustainability. He has numerous published articles over his career and Ed Bobit listed Watson as part of the top-end group in his editorial, Who Are the Real Fleet Managers? Watson is currently a member of both the NAFA and AFLA organizations.

Bob Miesen

D&K Financial Vehicle Management Group/GE Capital Fleet Services

Dates in Fleet: 1969-2000 (Retired)

Miesen

Miesen began his fleet career in 1969 as a salesman for fleet leasing and management company Gambles C&M Leasing. Miesen was elected president of the company in 1972 following the untimely passing of its president at the time. During this time with the company, he helped introduce floating rate lease financing utilizing commercial paper as well as lease rate financing based on the London Interbank exchange rates (LIBOR).

In 1981, the company was sold to Wickes Corporation, and he eventually served as president of Wickes Leasing Group, which contained Gambles C&M and Wickes Equipment Leasing Group until 1982, when Wickes Leasing was sold to D&K Financial Vehicle Management Group. In the same year, he helped introduce the client advisory board concept to fleet. From there, he served as president of D&K Financial Vehicle Management Group until 1987 when the company was sold to General Electric Capital Corp. GE Capital acquired Gelco Corp. the same year, and the combined entity was renamed GE Capital Fleet Services, where Miesen served as a senior VP of the company for most of his tenure. After 12 years of service he retired in 2000. He was also a member of AFLA, AALA, and NAFA of which he is an honorary lifetime member.

Sal Giacchi, CAFM, CFM (deceased)

Former fleet manager and president of Giacchi & Violi Transport Ltd.

Dates in Fleet: 1971-2001

Giacchi

Giacchi started his business career with Borden Inc., working as a cost accountant. In 1971, Giacchi became assistant fleet administrator with GAF, working with 12 business groups, running more than 1,500 cars. When the gasoline crisis of 1972 resulted in the sharp dive of the price of full-size cars, Giacchi began investigating the companys used-car marketing program.

In 1974, he was selected to head the used-car operation and implement a used-car marketing network. After being promoted to manager of Automobile Fleet Administration in 1977, Giacchi worked closely with information systems staff to plan and implement a vehicle management system, which aided in controlling vehicles and related costs. He was named Professional Fleet Manager of the Year in 1996, and served as the Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association (AFLA) president from 1987 to 1988 and NAFA president from 1999 to 2001. He resigned as NAFA president in February 2001to join Anthony L. Violi Sr. in forming a new company, Giacchi & Violi Transport Ltd. Giacchi later became president of this new venture while Violi became CEO.

Steve Bloom

Enterprise Fleet Management

Years in Fleet: 1983-2016 (Retired)

Bloom

Steve Bloom began his career with Enterprise in 1983 as a management trainee at an Enterprise Rent-A-Car branch in Southern California. After working his way up through the companys rental operations in Southern California, Bloom moved over to the retail leasing division in 1987.

By 1993, Bloom had been promoted to vice president of fleet management in Southern California. In 2001, Bloom was named senior vice president overseeing Enterprise Fleet Management, and in 2012, he was promoted to president of Enterprise Fleet Management. Bloom retired in 2016.

Under Blooms leadership, Enterprise Fleet Management grew into a network of more than 50 fully-staffed offices across the United States and Canada. The business also invested more than $100 million into information technology (IT) solutions, resulting in its recognition as a finalist on the 2016 InformationWeek Elite 100 list for setting the bar on innovative and creative IT programs that improve business operations. Bloom also served as the President of the American Automotive Leasing Association (AALA).

Russ Cass

Piemonte National Fleet

Years in Fleet: 1979-Present

Cass

Cass first started at Piemonte National Fleet (formerly Al Piemonte Ford) in 1976, working with his father in the retail side of the business. After working three years in retail, with a stint working as the retail truck manager, Cass was recruited into the fleet side of the business by Milo Matick, former VP of fleet for Piemonte National Fleet who founded the fleet department at Piemonte National Fleet and is also a Hall of Fame inductee.

Maticks fleet truck manager at the time abruptly left his position, which opened the opportunity for Cass to fill the role. Cass held this position for 26 years until 2003 when he assumed the position of fleet director following the untimely passing of Matick and Don Fenton, former VP sales and marketing at Piemonte and a Hall of Fame inductee.

Bob Brown

Bobit Business Media

Years in Fleet: 1967-2010 (Retired)

Brown

Brown, former vice president and later Great Lakes sales manager for Bobit Business Media, was a long-time member of AFLA and NAFA and served as a great resource for OEM fleet managers in Detroit for over three decades.

Brown was a creative force and had a hand in launching several fleet publications, including Fleet Financials, Business Cars and Trucks, and Business Vehicle Management. He also sold the first-ever VHS tape magazine insert in the September 1988 issue of Automotive Fleet to the Pontiac Fleet Department.

Paul Youngpeter

Orkin

Youngpeter

Years in Fleet: 2010-2016

Prior to his promotion to assistant division vice president, Southeast Division for Orkin, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rollins, Inc. Paul Youngpeter served as managing director, Fleet & Corporate Services for Rollins fleet of 8,400 vehicles.

In this capacity Youngpeter oversaw fleet department activities for all Rollins U.S. brands and served as the primary contract negotiator for fleet services and OEM pricing. Leading a team of four, Youngpeter forged internal partnerships with procurement, risk, brand fleet managers and the executive Steering Committee to garner support for fleet initiatives that balanced service with fiscal responsibility.

During Youngpeters tenure he led the fleets transition from closed-end to open-end leasing and implemented co-sourced fleet management services, saving Rollins $8-10 million over 6 years. He also led the critical transition from the Ford Ranger, Rollins primary vehicle for 20+ years, to the Toyota Tacoma.

The change required working with several new suppliers, redesigning key upfitting components, and addressing the cultural impact the vehicle had in the Rollins business. To ensure a successful transition, he held joint work sessions with all key suppliers as well as the Fleet Management Company and internal stakeholders, before beginning the ordering process.

Youngpeter also began the fleets first managed maintenance and managed registration programs. Throughout the transition, Youngpeter maintained close communication with Rollins internal operations team and senior management. He also implemented regular vehicle cycling as a best practice which helped keep downtime to a minimum with a cost of maintenance per vehicle month consistently under $60. He and his team used annual business reviews to anticipate changing vehicle needs. This included an extended review of vehicle options and meeting with supply chain vendors to ensure that the right vehicle for the job is put on the road across all 8 Rollins brands as business needs and market conditions change.

Under his direction the Rollins fleet earned recognition as a high performer at Wheels 2014 Results+ Fleet Summit Performance Awards. Youngpeter has been active at industry events including AFLA, NTEA and manufacturer previews. Youngpeter has also served on the Wheels Steering Council and WEX client advisory board.
Business / International

by Staff Reporter

Nurses Aren't Happy with the Proposed Federal Budget

Student Nurses Will Be Concerned

What Does This Mean for Future Health Care?

Trump isn't the most well-liked character in world politics and it's easy to see why. If he isn't being sexist or talking mumbo jumbo, he's usually found upsetting a variety of industries because of budget cuts.One of those industries is health care. If the proposed Federal budget goes through, it could prove to be difficult for the health care industry to grow. Many nurses have turned their noses up at Trump because he isn't looking likely to spend money where it matters most. How has Trump upset the nurses that look after our friends and family?When the proposed Federal budget was announced, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing was instantly saddened  and that's because they know the health care industry is going to be at the brunt of budget cuts, or at least won't benefit from any further investments.The AACN and the National League for Nursing are right to be concerned because it means the nursing workforce and health care research is going to be negatively impacted the most. Could these Federal budgets start a country-wide crisis for patients seeking care? They certainly don't look like they are going to provide any benefits.It's not just the health care industry that's going to be affected by Federal budgets; it's also those students learning the ropes. For students using online doctoral nursing programs to eventually obtain their nurse practitioner doctorate degree via Bradley University will be concerned with the lack of funding to help students progress their development.The elimination of funding for successful programs is going to be a major negative for the health care industry. Little funding means access to programs to better a student's development will be more difficult, and it means lower-served communities are going to suffer even further.If the proposed budgets do go through it could propel the health care industry into crisis. We're not just talking about the next five years; we're talking about the next decade when programs have been abolished and there aren't enough qualified nurses who have the experience or knowledge to care for patients in dire need.Ultimately, a lack of nurses means further health care problems for American citizens and that could come back and bite the administration that feels these cuts are acceptable. Trump and his administration will need to go over the proposed budgets again to see where else they can save money, otherwise, it could be catastrophic for health care Many American citizens are starting to realize this is the sort of leadership we can expect from Trump, and it's going to get worse for as long as he remains in the hot seat. Cuts in health care are only the start and we can expect to see other industries grow while health care tumbles. Will Trump do the right thing or will he weaken what is already an ailing health care industry?
Porsche is investing tens of millions of euros in Israeli automotive start-ups.

The investment by the German automaker follows a trend by U.S. automakers like Ford and high-tech firms heavily investing in Israels emerging self-driving car market, according to the Jewish News Service.

The company did not say in which startups it planned to invest in yet, according to Globes.

Porsche said it will open an office in Israel to seek out innovative auto technologies for integration into the carmakers projects.

Its investments will be made through the Israeli venture capital funds Magma Ventures and Grove Ventures, which focuses on artificial intelligence and automotive innovation.
Donald Trump has nominated Eric Dreiband to serve as the head of the Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a White House press release.

Dreiband currently works as attorney for the Washington-based firm Jones Day, where he represents companies involved in labor disputes. Dreiband also represented the University of North Carolina in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Lambda Legal who sued the university for complying with the states anti-LGBT HB 2 law.

In a separate case, Dreiband represented nonprofit organizations seeking religious exemptions from having to provide insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act and also argued against proposed legislation that would have allowed victims of gender and age discrimination to be compensated for their injury.

Vanita Gupta, the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, blasted Dreibands nomination. Dreiband has devoted the vast majority of his career to defending corporations accused of employment discrimination. He has opposed important legislation to safeguard our civil rights, Gupta said. And he has no known experience in most of the Civil Rights Divisions core issue areas, such as voting rights, police reform, housing, education, and hate crimes. He is the wrong person for the job.

Heres what you should know about Dreiband:

Dreiband represented Abercrombie & Fitch, after the clothing retailer was sued in 2008 by Samantha Elauf, a Muslim teenager in Oklahoma, who charged that the company denied her a sales job because she wore a headscarf for religious purposes. Abercrombie & Fitch, which promotes a collegiate sex-and-bros aesthetic, argued that Elaufs headscarf violated their look policy. The case eventually went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 8-1 in Elaufs favor. Elauf was backed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the civil rights office within the Department of Labor.

Dreiband was also part of the legal team that represented the University of North Carolina last year in its contentious showdown with the Justice Department over HB2, the state law that restricted transgender North Carolinians access to public restrooms and voided all LGBT protections throughout the state.

Dreiband defended R.J. Reynolds, Americas second-largest tobacco company, in an age-discrimination case that started in 2015. The plaintiff in the suit was denied a job with the company at age 49. He sued after learning, thanks to a whistleblower, that the company had hired a subcontractor to sift through resumes and discard older applicants. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court left a lower courts narrow 6-5 decision intact  which was that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act applies only to people who are currently employed rather than seeking employment.

He also represented Bloomberg LP in a 2008 lawsuit that accused the company of discriminating against pregnant women by diminishing their pay and denying them promotions. Bloomberg won the case.

According to his law firm biography, Dreiband served in the Office of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr, from 1997 to 2000, where he led the investigation and subsequent prosecution of a Clinton associate.

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News / Education

by Stephen Jakes

Parents at Mzingwane High school in Matabeleland South have petitioned the minister of primary and secondary education over poor services and administration of the school.In a petition seen by Bulawayo24.com the parents complained over poor administration at the school."Minister of primary and secondary education Lazaras Dokora to act on the problems affecting Mzingwane high such as poorly maintained boarding facilities such that dormitories have no doors also evidenced by the fire that destroyed the library and the headmaster's house, employment of non qualified finance staff which leads to poor and mishandling of finances, rampant bullying of juniors and stealing while the administration is doing nothing about it, and operation of mini tuck shops selling cooked food to boys," reads the petition.The concerned parents stated that it was unfair that they be parting with huge sums of money when the school fails to provide the services.Below is part of the petition:
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- A gunman opened fire at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in the Bronx, New York, on Friday, killing one and injuring several others.



The suspect, who took his own life, was identified as Henry Bello, a former doctor at the hospital, police sources told ABC News. Officials said he was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle that he had concealed underneath his lab coat.



In addition to a female doctor who was killed, six others were injured in the incident, official said. Three of the injured are in critical condition.

Law enforcement responded to Bronx Lebanon Hospital and "...began our active shooter protocol." Praying for all injured and worse. pic.twitter.com/bnJwFzG8hN  Martin Speechley (@NYPDSpeechley) June 30, 2017



Investigators believe the shooting was likely a targeted act of workplace violence, according to sources.



Two years ago, Bello resigned from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital before he was terminated amid sexual harassment allegations, police sources told ABC News.



New York ABC station WABC-TV reported a heavy police presence outside of the hospital in the wake of the shooting incident.



Local agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the scene.



New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident a horrific instance of workplace violence.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Ms Farai Kunaka, the youthful woman widely believed to be the widow of Retired Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, risks walking away empty-handed after the Will authored by the national hero allocated the whole estate to his children.The last Will and Testament that was filed at the Master of High Court's office appointed Harare lawyer Mr Aston Musunga of Musunga Law Chambers as executor testamentary.The Master of the High Court has since issued letters of administration certifying Mr Musunga as the executor.Ms Kunaka, despite being the woman who was always with the late national hero at public functions in his last days, was left out in the distribution plan.The late national hero jointly owned the Highlands property worth $750 000 with his first wife Ms Mary Chidyausiku and he bequeathed his 50 percent share to two of his sons.All the household property in the same property was given to the two sons."I give and bequeath my half share in Stand 16885 Orange Groove, Highlands in Harare to my sons Tirivangani Chidyausiku and Tadzimirwa Chidyausiku, who shall hold the property in joint and equal shares," reads part of Justice Chidyausiku's Will."My first wife Mary Chidyausiku shall remain with her current half share in the aforementioned property."Justice Chidyausiku in 2010 allocated another property, Stand Number 2371 Bluffhill Township of 2253 Bluffhill Township to Ms Kunaka in her capacity as a "fiancee".But he changed his mind in 2014 and gave the property to his two daughters, as indicated by the latest Will."I give and bequeath Stand Number 2371 Bluffhill Township of 2253 Bluffhill Township to my children, namely Tendai Chidyausiku and Chipo Chidyausiku in equal shares, share and share alike," reads the Will. The late Retired Chief Justice gave Tirivangani a farm, Arusha/Chifambi, which is in Goromonzi district.The rest of the property, according to the Will, should be shared equally among his 11 children.In an interview, Mr Musunga confirmed the development, saying his task as executor was simply to ensure the properties were identified and distributed in terms of the Will left behind by the late national hero."I was appointed by the Will," he said. "My task as executor is to ensure I identify all the properties belonging to the deceased, collect them and distribute to the listed beneficiaries."We will be following what the late judge wrote, thus doing his Will."Movable properties forming part of the estate include a Ford Ranger Wild Track and Mercedes Benz.Justice Chidyausiku died on May 3 this year in Johannesburg, South Africa, after battling kidney and liver problems. He was declared a national hero and subsequently buried at the National Heroes' Acre.The late judge died barely three months after retirement.
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New boating legislation passed in the wake of two Florida teens who went missing at sea goes into effect Saturday.

New boating law now in effect

Discount registration fee for EPIRB device

U.S. Coast Guard monitors the device



In July 2015, 14-year-olds Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen were lost at sea off the Jupiter inlet. Their boat was eventually found, but a massive search found no sign of the boys.

House Bill 711, also known as the Beacon Bill, increases and makes permanent a registration-fee discount for boaters who purchase an emergency position indicating radio beacon, or an EPIRB.

"The boat mounted system can be deployed manually or if the boat were to sink, it has a hydrostatic release, meaning once it reaches a certain depth it would release and start emitting the distress signal, Sgt. Steven Tacia with the Pinellas County Marine Unit said.

The U.S. Coast Guard monitors the beacons and is always ready to respond.

"Its a direct link to the U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer Michael De Nyse said. No matter where you are in the world, we have a direct link to you to find you. And it takes the search out of search and rescue."

You can also have a personal locator device to qualify for the discount. The devices cost between $200-$500 depending on size.

"This will bring us to you, Tacia said. If you dont have this and youre not able to get out on the radio and put out and mayday we dont know youre in trouble."
News / National

by Staff reporter

Former National People's Party (NPP) Matabeleland South interim chairperson, Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo, who resigned with several others from the Joice Mujuru-led party, has re-joined the MDC led by Welshman Ncube.Fuzwayo was seen at Ncube's offices in Bulawayo a day after he resigned from the NPP amid indications he was joining the MDC.MDC spokesperson, Kurauone Chihwayi confirmed that Fuzwayo met the MDC top leadership in both Harare and Bulawayo recently, where he expressed his desire to reconnect with the party."The MDC is always ready to welcome back all its former members with open arms. For parties like NPP, there should be no celebration when receiving members from other opposition political parties, instead all of us should be seen combining efforts to destroy Zanu-PF," Chihwayi said."We have been receiving members from other political parties like NPP. The flocking of people to MDC offices is an approval of our policies and leadership credentials."Chihwayi said the developments were a clear endorsement of Ncube as a leader of the people. He said Fuzwayo's knock on the MDC door was a welcome development."He was born green and is still green. The huge number of returning and new cadres from other parties have pledged maximum support for the MDC and president Ncube, as we gravitate towards the decisive phase of our struggle," he said."The return of our sons and daughters, including Fuzwayo, is a morale booster for the MDC."Contacted for comment, Fuzwayo confirmed meeting Ncube and making it known that he was re-joining the party."Yes, it's true and I have had discussions with Welshman Ncube," he said.Fuzwayo and others resigned from NPP recently after complaining of tribalism and factionalism.But, in his resignation letter, he played down all these claims, saying he was only retiring from active politics to concentrate on his studies.
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The Lubbock Police Department is on a manhunt for a 20-year-old wanted in connection with the brutal beating of his girlfriend earlier this month.

Dameon Ray Marmolejo is actively being sought on an aggravated assault warrant for the June 17 incident that left his girlfriend, Solidad Analyssa Marie Torres, 18, hospitalized.

According to Juanita Torres, the victim's mother, her daughter needed 15 staples and 3 sutures on the the top of her head. Juanita Torres issued a warning to the community on Facebook days after the incident, posting graphic photos of her daughter's wounds.

Lubbock police said Marmolejo is believed to still be inside city limits.

READ ALSO: New Braunfels man with history of 'deviant' sex acts with vegetables sentenced to life in prison

The incident has resulted in "nightmares and headaches" for the victim, according to Juanita Torres.

According to the victim's mother, her daughter and Marmolejo's relationship took a turn for the worse on June 17 when he noticed her daughter had downloaded the Snapchat app on her phone.

Juanita Torres said Marmolejo came into the house angry and began to strike her daughter. She said her daughter attempted to run for the front door, but Marmolejo grabbed her by the back of her hair and threw her to the ground, stomping her.

READ ALSO: BCSO: Texas fugitive arrested at Iron Maiden concert after friend posts seat location on Facebook

The victim's mother said that her daughter then ran to the bathroom where, she says, Marmolejo slammed her against the bathtub, causing a gash on her head.

Marmolejo called 911, but left the scene before paramedics arrived, Juanita Torres said.

Juanita said that her daughter is doing okay, but is still in pain.

A hashtag in Torres' honor, #JusticeForSoli, has been created on Facebook in hopes to help others know they are not alone, and "break the silence, stop the violence," Juanita said.

To report information on Marmolejo's whereabouts, call the LPD Crime Line at 806-741-1000.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
News / National

by Staff reporter

THERE was drama in Mutare's Central Business District after two bogus Central Intelligence Organisation officers  who were part of a 10-member gang that was illegally dealing in diamonds recently quarrelled with detectives who wanted to arrest them.The cunning impostors brandished fake identity cards, telling the detectives from the Minerals and Border Control Unit to back off since they were coming from Harare on a special mission to trap and arrest diamond dealers in the city.Sensing danger after realizing that they were outnumbered, the cops sweet-talked the criminals to accompany them to Mutare Central Police Station to record their statements as witnesses against the other gang members.On arrival at the police station, the imposters were subsequently detained. Apart from the fake identity cards, they were also found in possession of counterfeit $100 notes.Dumisani Hamandishe (27) of House Number 16430 Unit M Seke, Chitungwiza and Tinashe Muzavazi (23) of House Number 55, 37 Crescent Warren Park 2, Harare were this week arraigned before the courts facing charges of illegally dealing in diamonds, possessing articles for criminal use and impersonating public officers.On illegally dealing in diamonds, the duo was jointly charged with eight other accomplices  Romio Charles Tembo (30), Luckmore Chikove (28), James Dhlora (33), Patrick Marwa (27), Sharon Madziro (19), Judith Nyanhongo (42), Sharon Munetsi (25) and Givemore Chikwashe (42)  who were also arrested by the police following a raid by detectives at Cafe 111 situated along Second Street.They appeared before Mutare provincial magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe while Mr Fletcher Karombe prosecuted.Hamandishe and Muzavazi pleaded guilty to charges of impersonating public officers as well as possessing fake notes.The 10 suspects, however, denied charges of illegally dealing in diamonds and were remanded out of custody after paying $200 bail each.They will be back in court on July 7 for routine remand.Mr Karombe told the court that: "In April this year Chikwashe communicated with Tembo through Nyanhongo for him to buy some diamonds from Tembo. Chikwashe then came to Mutare from Harare and bought one piece of diamond for $500 and returned to the capital city where he attempted to sell the same diamond but was offered $35."Chikwashe came back to Mutare with the diamond and he was given another gem by Tembo to compensate the first one. He took the diamond to Harare where he was offered a shocking $15 for the gem."Chikwashe was again invited back to Mutare by Tembo to get a valuable piece of diamond but he was ordered to pay an extra $500. He did as instructed and he paid the $500. However, on his way back to Harare, Chikwashe was robbed and he lost the diamond to unknown assailants who were using Tembo's vehicle," said Mr Karombe.On June 21 Chikwashe teamed up with Munetsi, Muzavazi, Hamandishe, and Clive Mukondo who is still at large and drove to Mutare to recover their money."They arrived in Mutare purporting to intend to buy more diamonds using Munetsi and Muzavazi as buyers. Their intention was to recover the money which was paid by Chikwashe. As they were transacting a misunderstanding arose between the team from Harare with the suspects from Mutare who included Tembo, Nyanhongo, Chikove, Marwa, Dhlora and Madziro."The situation suddenly became tense resulting in Muzavazi and Hamandishe producing fake CIO identity cards to intimidate the Mutare suspects. Police detectives received a call and they rushed to attend the scene. When they were about to arrest the suspects, Hamandishe and Muzavazi produced the fake identity cards and told the officers that they were on a special mission which was sanctioned from their command at CIO headquarters and at Police General Headquarters to trap diamond dealers."The detectives pretended to have believed them and they asked them to accompany them to the station. At the office, further interrogations were done and CIO Mutare office was called to verify the authenticity of the identification cards. It was confirmed that they were fake CIO officers and their identity cards were also fake," said Mr Karombe.While at the station they were searched and also found in possession of fake two $100 notes. The counterfeit money and the identity cards will be produced in court as exhibit.
The following health IT vendor contracts and go-lives were reported during the past week.

Calhoun, Ga.-based Gordon Hospital launched remote monitoring services in its intensive care unit through an agreement with Advanced ICU Care.

Huntington's Disease Society of America launched free online therapy services via American Well's telehealth platform.

Miami-based Orange Care Group's ACOs and independent physician association will join forces with Hollywood, Fla.-based Memorial Healthcare System to deploy Epic's Healthy Planet platform.

Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine will implement an enterprise natural language processing platform from Linguamatics Health, a text analytics provider.

Orlando-based Florida Hospital will deploy Health Outcomes Sciences' technology platform to improve care for angioplasty patients.

IBM plans to build an artificial intelligence supercomputing system for the U.S. Air Force Research Lab.

Providence, R.I.-based Integra Community Care Network launched a care management system with alerts and dashboards through a partnership with the nonprofit Rhode Island Quality Institute.

University of Chicago Medicine entered into a research collaboration with Tempus  a health technology company focused on personalized oncology care  to improve pancreatic cancer treatment.
A physician opened fire in a crowded Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City Friday afternoon, killing one and wounding six others at his former workplace before setting himself on fire and shooting himself in the head.

Here are nine things to know about the shooting, victims, gunman and the hospital's response.

1. The physician is identified as Henry Bello, MD, according to The New York Times. Dr. Bello resigned from the hospital in February 2015, after working there for six months, as he faced accusations of sexual harassment of a colleague. He resigned in lieu of termination. Dr. Bello had a criminal past, which hospital officials state they did know about when he was hired in August 2014. He was charged with fare beating and burglary in 2003, sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment in 2004, and unlawful surveillance in 2009. Dr. Bello was fired from his city job June 21, according to NBC 4 New York. His termination was the result of consistent failure to report for work as a case worker assiting AIDS and HIV patients. He told his supervisor he was experiencing personal problems.

2. Video surveilance shows Dr. Bello entered the hospital Friday through a rear entrance in a lab coat, hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, and carrying a cardboard box that concealed the AR-15 rifle. The attack took place around 2:50 p.m., when the hospital's rooms and corridors were filled with patients and visitors, witnesses told the Times.

3. Police report Dr. Bello went to the 16th floor of the facility, and asked for a specific physician. When told that physician was not present, Dr. Bello opened fire and wounded six. He then moved to the 17th floor, where he shot and killed Tracy Tam, DO, in the hall, according to ABC News. When Dr. Bello resigned in 2016, he accused one physician of encouraging colleagues to complain about him. That physician works on the hospital's 16th and 17th floors.

4. Dr. Tam, 32, practiced family medicine. She was not scheduled to work Friday, but was on site to cover a shift for a colleague. The hospital's physician in chief described her death to the Times as a "monumental loss." Of the six others who were wounded, two are in critical but stable condition and four are in stable condition as of Sunday. The victims are medical residents, a medical student and a patient. They are recovering from injuries to the abdomen, neck, thigh and hand, hospital officials told the Times.

5. Witnesses report the gunman then set himself on fire and ran down the hall with his torso aflame before shooting himself in the head.

6. It is likely the death toll would be higher were it for not the medical attention victims received immediately from clinicians at the scene. Medical staff responded to the victims immediately, even as Dr. Bello was still at large. Witnesses report staff tearing a fire hose from the hospital wall to use as a tourniquet on a shooting victim. Medical staff dragged victims onto elevators, and the hospital's physician in chief told the Times that victims were brought to operating rooms while Dr. Bello was still active. Hospital staff were able to move some 50 patients out of the hospital within 10 minutes, according to ABC News.

7. Hospital staff urged patients and families in the waiting room to quietly lie on the floor with the lights off, the Times reports. Police evacuated other floors in the hospital, asking patients who could walk to leave their rooms and gather in the hospital parking lot. Other bystanders hid under hospital beds, under desks and behind doors.

8. Dr. Bello was working with a limited permit, which expired July 1, 2016, to practice as an international medical graduate. He graduated from Ross University School of Medicine on the Caribbean island of Dominica. He was 45.

9. Bronx-Lebanon is a 972-bed hospital.
Accusing North Korea regime of having no respect for human life, US President Donald Trump on Friday stated the US had run out of patience with Pyongyang over its nuclear drive. After holding talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-In at the White House, Trump reportedly said, The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed, many years it has failed. Frankly, that patience is over.
Opulence is not a Belfast trait. We resist the lure of bling and luxury more successfully than, say Dubliners, Mancunians and Essex folk who love everything that glisters. It's something to do with the inbuilt sense of modesty and humility of northern Catholics and Presbyterians, both of whom share a common desire not to attract attention to themselves. "Who does he think he is?" is not the way we like to be referred to. If there's a choice between fine tweeds and sackcloth, we'll go for the itch and discomfort, thank you very much.

Even our best restaurants avoid opulence. Ox dining room is as plain as my P5 class at St Malachy's Primary School in Armagh was in the 60s. Deane's Eipic is fancyish but not obviously, and James Street South's interior is almost as serenely austere as Henri Matisse's chapel in Venice.

So, when interior designer to the stars, Kris Turnbull, turned his hand to the old disused church on the Lisburn Road to convert it into a furniture and interior design shop and added a restaurant at the back, he was defiant. He didn't hold back on the velvet upholstery, the gold wall linings or the super acreage of white linen. This is Belfast's only truly opulent restaurant, the kind of interior which embraces you in its luxurious clutch and refuses to release you until you've fully succumbed to its charms (and can no longer stand up unaided anyway).

I like the walk through the shop to the restaurant and the separate Vestry Cafe because it reminds me of gliding through Fultons when the Boucher Road store was the only place you could find over-stuffed sofas and decorative, life-sized, ceramic panthers alongside very pretty, modern Ligne Roset dining tables and chairs.

Club-like and exclusive, the restaurant lies behind closed doors at the back of the shop. Alex, the maitre d', is on hand immediately and navigates the three of us through the plushness to our table which features what looks like a demi-chase longue against the wall and two low club chairs. We sink into these and prepare ourselves for a leisurely, sorry, I mean a business-like Friday lunch. I am with two senior political communications specialists who know a thing or two about perception and I'm keen to impress them

There are two lunch menus. If you went for the five-course tasting menu, you may very well have to book the rest of the day off, but service for a regular two or three course lunch is quick if you want it to be. We choose a third way: a regular three course lunch from the regular menu, but taken at ease.

The menu by Joery Castell, formerly of the Boat House in Bangor and who this year featured through to the pre-finalists in the Great British Menu, is reassuringly priced and the short wine list equally. Kicking things off with a Provencal rose at 24 we soon get into the starters of chowder, lobster bisque and a lobster salad. There is a generosity in all of these. The bisque is dark and inviting, bolstered by a shelled claw tip. The seafood chowder is an outstanding work, as light as The Beringer's (formerly the Permit Room) and light on the carbs. The salad is dominated by large chunks of fresh, cool lobster tail and comes with equally appetising pieces of tomatoes, some green, others red and orange, all bursting with great flavours. Everyone is happy.

A beef fillet, an onglet (sometimes called hanger steak) and a lamb moussaka are equally impressive, the onglet, particularly so, cooked black and red. Sometimes the onglet which costs half as much as the filet gives more pleasure through its texture and iron-like flavours. Today is a case in point.

It is nicely charred yet still rare, firm but not tough and served up with a well suited salsa verde and roast tomato.

The surprising appearance of lamb moussaka on the menu must surely be for those of a nervous disposition who don't want anything too demanding. Yet it is lush and deep in flavour, almost wintery in its density. Accompanied by mornay and lightly grilled potatoes, I make a note to self to order it the next time.

The fillet has been destroyed by a request to have it medium and I cannot comment on it any further. It certainly wasn't Castell's fault.

Saphyre's food is not as vertical and attention-seeking as it used to be, and it's all the better for it. Joery Castell has matured and resists the temptation to go for gothic drama. Now it's about comfort and quiet quality.

What's not to love?

The bill

Chowder ............................................. 6

Bisque ................................................... 5

Lobster salad ....................................... 11

Moussaka ............................................. 12

Onglet ................................................. 13

Fillet ..................................................... 28

Cheese ................................................ 13

Rose de Provence x 2 ........................ 48

Total: ................................................ 136
An Enniskillen grammar school for boys scored the highest for a non-denominational school in Northern Ireland in its final year.

Portora Royal School was amalgamated with the Collegiate Grammar School in September 2016 to form the Enniskillen Royal School.

Neither school's results have been included in the Belfast Telegraph's league tables as they were not among the data supplied by the Department of Education.

Find out how your school is performing:

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The last Portora headteacher Dr Neill Morton voiced his disappointment, and revealed it had excelled in its final year.

"In 2016 87.7% of our students achieved three subjects in the range A*-C at A-level. These results ranked Portora Royal School Portora's sixth in NI, and the highest ranking non-denominational school. At GCSE, all of our students achieved at least seven full GCSE subjects and a Short Course in RE at grades A*-C."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said it did not receive fully validated data for either Portora or Collegiate.

"Only fully validated data is included in the Summary of Annual Examination Results database," she said.

"The requirement for the SAER exercise is underpinned by legislation, the Education Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003. Under the regulations, post-primary schools are required to provide information about public examination performance for the year immediately preceding the publication of the prospectus. It follows therefore that if a school has closed they will not be producing a prospectus. All other schools must provide data."
Pictured a PSNI officer speaks with a passerby. Earlier the Kennedy Centre was evacuated as the fire brigade tackle a fire. Date: Saturday 1st July 2017. Credit: Liam McBurney/RAZORPIX

More than 40 firefighters attend a "significant" fire at The Belfast Crystal Factory in west Belfast on Saturday evening. Seven fire appliances, including an aerial unit, attended the blaze at the factory off the Kennedy Way. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

More than 40 firefighters attend a "significant" fire at the Belfast Crystal Factory in west Belfast on Saturday evening. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

More than 40 firefighters attend a "significant" fire at The Belfast Crystal Factory in west Belfast on Saturday evening. Seven fire appliances, including an aerial unit, attended the blaze at the factory off the Kennedy Way. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

The Kennedy Centre, which is close to the site, was evacuated as flames and heavy smoke engulfed the area. Date: Saturday 1st July 2017 Copyright: Liam McBurney/RAZORPIX

Police are appealing for information following a huge fire at the Belfast Crystal factory on Saturday, June 1.

More than 40 firefighters attended the scene of the blaze on the Blackstaff Road in the west of the city. The premises have sustained substantial damage. Police have confirmed that the fire is being treated as suspicious at this time.

Gas cylinders were on the premises. Buildings including Kennedy Way shopping centre were evacuated.

Sergeant Tom Donnelly appealed to anyone who may have noticed any suspicious activity in the area to contact police at Woodbourne on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1048 01/07/17.

Sinn Fein assembly member Alex Maskey tweeted: "Sadly local business Belfast Crystal of 40 years loyal service to our community destroyed by fire. Family devastated."

The Northern Ireland Fire service said the fire started at around 6pm. Fire appliances, a high reach aerial machine and a command unit were in attendance.

On arrival at the incident, initial crews were confronted by a well-developed fire in the property, the fire service said.

There are currently seven fire appliances, one high reach aerial appliance and a specialist command support unit, with a total of 41 firefighters on the fire ground and extensive firefighting operations are ongoing."

Expand Close More than 40 firefighters attend a "significant" fire at The Belfast Crystal Factory in west Belfast on Saturday evening. Seven fire appliances, including an aerial unit, attended the blaze at the factory off the Kennedy Way. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press / Facebook

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Whatsapp More than 40 firefighters attend a "significant" fire at The Belfast Crystal Factory in west Belfast on Saturday evening. Seven fire appliances, including an aerial unit, attended the blaze at the factory off the Kennedy Way. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Earlier the Kennedy Centre, which is close to the site, was evacuated as flames and heavy smoke engulfed the area.

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close More than 40 firefighters had to deal with a fire at an industrial estate in west Belfast. Seven fire appliances, including an aerial unit, attended the blaze at a crystal factory off Kennedy Way on Saturday evening. More than 40 firefighters had to deal with a fire at an industrial estate in west Belfast. Seven fire appliances, including an aerial unit, attended the blaze at a crystal factory off Kennedy Way on Saturday evening. More than 40 firefighters had to deal with a fire at an industrial estate in west Belfast. Seven fire appliances, including an aerial unit, attended the blaze at a crystal factory off Kennedy Way on Saturday evening. / Facebook

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Whatsapp More than 40 firefighters had to deal with a fire at an industrial estate in west Belfast. Seven fire appliances, including an aerial unit, attended the blaze at a crystal factory off Kennedy Way on Saturday evening.
A man who answered the door of his home was attacked by a burglar wielding a hammer.

A man who answered his door on Saturday morning was subjected to a vicious assault by a burglar.

Detectives in PSNI's Reactive and Organised Crime are appealing for information following the report of a burglary and assault in the Forthriver Crescent area of Belfast around 7.30am on Saturday.

Detective Constable Arnott said: A man in his 30s was attacked by a male with a hammer when he answered a call at the door of the property early this morning.

The victim was further attacked inside the property and received a number of lacerations to his head. He was treated at the scene and in hospital for injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening at this time."

Anyone who witnessed this incident or has information, is asked to ring police at Musgrave station on 101, quoting reference 345 of 1/7/17. Or, if they wish to remain anonymous, ring Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
The date for the trial of student Francis McDermott, for the unlawful killing of former fellow Belcoo schoolboy Oisin McGrath, has been set for later this year.

The date was fixed by Dungannon Crown Court yesterday, but not before the defence revealed that its expected report is still awaiting completion.

However, Martin Rodgers QC - acting for the defence - reported that the defence expert should be in a position to email some draft sections of his findings within the next few weeks.

Judge Stephen Fowler QC warned that he had "wanted the report by the end of term", which was officially yesterday.

He said that while he had been "patient", he "will be exerting some control" as it sounded as if the report simply required some "finessing".

Mr Rodgers explained while he was hopeful that the defence expert Professor Mark Wilson, from Imperial College, London - who had described the case as "unusual and complex" - would be in a position to finalise his report, he could not commit as he had "no control over the professor".

The defence lawyer also acknowledged the court's patience on the matter, and while he "understands the family's concerns" on delay, he added that Prof Wilson's report would be served well in advance of the November trial date.

Barrister Simon Reid - acting for the prosecution - voiced the concerns of Oisin McGrath's family.

He told the court yesterday that the "delay is causing the family extreme distress and concern, particularly the open-endedness of the provision of the report."

As in previous review hearings, McDermott was excused from having to attend.

McDermott denies the manslaughter of 13-year-old Oisin, who died on February 9, 2015, fours days following an incident in the playground at St Michael's College, Enniskillen.

The now university student, from Camphill Park, Newtownbutler - who was 17 at the time of Oisin's death - is currently on his own bail of 500.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Future Mashiri shows a damaged pot

Sekuru Manjengwa shows one of the stones

Mapingire holds up one of the big stones used in the attack

A stranger than fiction occurrence in which members of the Manjengwa family in Buhera are continuously being pelted by big "hot stones" whose attackers cannot be seen is beyond the realm of nature or what can be explained by science.Fresh and healed scars of burns are visible on most of the family members. The family's property has also not been spared. Roofs have been shattered, kitchen shelves broken, water buckets and plates cracked, and pots damaged beyond repair and use.The bizarre incident has left Lydia Manjengwa, a widow and eight children, homeless after deserting their home as invisible attackers barrage them with hot stones. The incident, which probably shows that science indeed has a definite limit, is happening in Manjengwa Village, under Headman Marume in Chief Makumbe's area in Buhera district.The story may sound drivel, but it's true, and the longer it takes for the haunted family to find a lasting solution, the higher the intensity of both the attack and chances of degenerating into a mortal threat.A visit by The Manica Post last Tuesday to the haunted and deeply troubled family, about 50km from Murambinda, was not problematic as the issue was on the lips of everyone asked for directions.At 1:30pm The Manica Post arrived at the homestead. Moments later Future Mashiri (35) and her brother's wife Tafadzwa Matevera (19)  both with babies strapped on their backs  emerged from adjacent rock outcrops where they had rushed for cover from the raining stones.Water buckets, plates and pots, among other household utensils that had been destroyed were strewn all over yard while roofs and kitchen shelves that had been cracked and broken could be seen upon scanning the environment.Scars of burns were equally visible on the family members whose narrations were hair splitting and chilling. The vandalism and injuries were inflicted by the "hot stones" whose throwers remain invisible.Strangely, the stones are too big for a person to throw around at such frequency and without being detected. The mystical stones only cease when there are strangers or visitors.The stones go through the wall without destroying or leaving holes on the outside or burning the grass thatched roof.Though the stones were never thrown during The Manica Post's presence, the intricate details that emerged throughout the interview was spine chilling."We had to run away because we were being pelted with the hot stones. This place is not habitable. We have become the laughing stock of the whole village and nobody is prepared to give us refuge and food. It started on May 9, this year and a lasting solution has been elusive since then. The stones follow us everywhere we go and we are being asked to leave people's homes as we continued to be pelted with the hot stones," said Future.She said the stones followed them at Mazorodze, Masunga and Chaka homesteads where they had sought refuge."We have sought solutions from seven prophets and a traditional healer, but it was all in vain because the attack has not ceased. We cannot hide as the invisible attacker is always in hot pursuit. You may not believe it, but it's real. We are all injured and our household property was damaged. The stones are hot like mapfihwa ari pamoto."We do not sleep at all; we spend nights in mountains, with these little babies. It's so tough and painful to spend cold evenings in the open. All we need is a rest and lasting solution to this problem. Our mother (Lydia Manjengwa) has gone to Makumbe Mission to look for one prophet we were referred to. We cannot live like this, it's too difficult," said Future.Tafadzwa said it was difficult to stay in a family like this."Sometimes I think of leaving him (Farai) and return to my family alive. I am too young to be exposed to this kind of life, but am staying because I love him and we have been staying very well as a family before this. These strange happenings want to spill the blood and something must be done before it's too late. Chiri kuda mutumbi wemunhu. Ngavafambe semhuri," said Tafadzwa.Farai, who is Lydia's eldest son, has not helped matters, with suspicions abound that the fluctuation of his mental strength was also the latest bone of contention in the dynasty.Lydia, rejoined her native Manjengwa family in 1996 following irreconcilable differences with Madhimbe Mutondondo Mashiri, who later died in 2001.The Manjengwa  who are the village heads, gave her a portion of land to stay.The family is now divided over the mystical occurrences, amid suspicion that one of the dynasty members possesses goblins  which is now giving their sister and family sleepless nights.This was allegedly bolstered by one Madzibaba Washy in his prophetic utterances'.Mr Tedious Manjengwa (70), who is always by Lydia's side in pursuit of a lasting solution, said its embarrassing that they were not working together as a family."This is our home and she is our sister, and as the Manjengwas we superintend over this homestead and family. What is happening here is troubling me; it is giving me sleepless nights. I do not have peace of mind, and I am looking for someone who can use whatever powers to unpack the whole mystery, and if possible, send these mysterious hot stones back to the sender. I want the person responsible for these terrible things to be named and shamed."I suspect someone in this family is up to no good. Someone should know what is happening. This is an issue we should be putting our heads together as a family, but it is only myself and Lydia showing concern. I just want these things to be sent back and cause trouble in the owner's family. Ngazviite yowe-yowe kumuridzi wazvo," he said in riddles.His wife Viola Kobe interjected saying within the Manjengwa family someone was using charm to enhance their business."Now look at this," she fumed, "zvamuri kuita mumusha muno zvakashata. Using charms to get riches is dangerous. The bad thing is that it is haunting an innocent poor widow and her children while those responsible are staying pretty well. This is evil, and should be exposed. These are not the only ones suffering; I have nine daughters who are also suffering different challenges neurombwa hwemumusha muno. It's evil and unfair".Kobe was bold enough to repeat an account by one of the prophets."The spirit of an identified family member (name supplied) spoke through aunt Lydia."It first identified itself, and admitted to being responsible for throwing the stones arguing that it wanted a human head to sacrifice and enhance a kombi business."The prophet told this family that the solution was from within. The prophet left in a huff because the family went on to hire other prophets before exhausting what he had instructed," said Kobe.Another elderly community woman, who refused to be named, was equally brutal as she argued that the unscientific occurrence has its origin and solution in the Manjengwa family."This is an issue for the Manjengwas to solve to finality. Look, Lydia is just a defenceless and poor widow. Hanzvadzi dzake dzakatsigisa misha yadzo, asi iye ishirikadzi isina mutariri ndokwavanokandira mhepo dzakashata ikoku kwaari nokuti hakuna anodzivhara. Ndezvemumusha muno izvi," said the grey haired woman.A relative, Mr Jealous Mapingire said at first he doubted the Manjengwa's account until he encountered three stones being thrown at them."I saw one huge stone being thrown at Moses Masunga's homestead where they had sought refuge. I saw it with my eyes, and when I touched it, it was hot like it was coming from a blast furnace."I gathered the stones with a view to burn them because they are evil. I still have the stone at my house because I still want to destroy them. Imagine if such stones could hit a child, the child will die."The family has been ostracised, nobody wants to entertain them for fear of being pelted."I wonder what kind of magic, because the stones were so heavy and you would not expect such stones to rise on their own," said Mr Mapingire.
The daughter of East Londonderry MLA John Dallat is suing his former party colleague for alleged discrimination after she failed to clinch a job in the SDLP constituency office which she had been "promised".

Helena Dallat O'Driscoll alleges that former East Londonderry MLA Gerry Mullan discriminated against her on the basis of her gender and marital status by refusing to employ her as his constituency manager.

But an employment tribunal in Belfast was told yesterday that Mrs O'Driscoll's anger relates to her belief, whether "rightly or wrongly" held, that she had been promised the job in the constituency office in Derry.

She was denied the post after giving up her job in a Westminster constituency office in Scotland to return to Northern Ireland and alleges that she was told by the then MLA that "a part-time role is more suitable".

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The married mother claims Mr Mullan made the comment following a "significantly detrimental" Skype interview that took place last July, shortly before she was offered the part-time position of constituency adviser.

The more senior post was given to Catherine Goligher, who Mrs O'Driscoll claims lacked the "proper credentials".

Mrs O'Driscoll's legal consultant, Patrick Moore, told the tribunal that his client was "railroaded" into accepting the job in September 2016 due to her financial commitments and was subjected to bullying and harassment which left her isolated in the workplace, before she was sacked in November.

He claimed employees were encouraged to manufacture false grounds of complaint against his client and that she was subjected to a barrage of false allegations and innuendo. Mr Moore alleged that Mrs Goligher - also a married mother - was only appointed "on the realisation that he (Gerry Mullan) had made a significant error".

But Mr Mullan's solicitor, Colin Foote, argued that his client "wouldn't have offered the claimant any role if he had an issue with married mothers" and would not have appointed Mrs Goligher to the senior role.

He also warned the case was fraught with difficulty as the claimant is unable to establish when she was treated "less favourably than a man", as there is no opportunity for comparison. Mr Foote was critical of Mrs O'Driscoll for failing to make a claim within the normal three-month statute of limitations period, and said her concerns were "only crystalised after she lost her job".

Mr Moore said his client didn't complain prior to her dismissal to avoid "worsening" her situation.

Mr Foote dismissed the entire claim, saying it is based "solely on her own speculation" and the real source of anger was that she felt she had lost out on a job she was promised.

He said the material suggesting it was discrimination "simply isn't there".

In total, three alleged acts of discrimination were identified by vice president Mr N Kelly, but he advised there was "little or no reasonable chance" of success.

He said the first two acts relate to the interview process and job offer and the third act relates to Mrs O'Driscoll's dismissal, with no suggestion that anything else occurred in between.

"The fact that both individuals were married with young children raises serious questions about the likelihood of success," said Mr Kelly.

The suggestion that Mr Mullan made the remark "seems inherently unlikely to succeed" because Mrs O'Driscoll "must at least put in place the building blocks to provide a case to answer" and the undisputed fact of Mrs Goligher's appointment stands as a "major hurdle against any claim of discrimination".

Mr Kelly said the argument that Mr Mullan suddenly developed a prejudice against such people "doesn't make sense".

Addressing the timing of the complaint, he asserted that the three alleged acts were "intrinsically linked" and any argument seeking to explain why the claim was only made in December - outside the normal statutory limit of three months - was also unlikely to succeed.

The vice president said that due to Mrs O'Driscoll's line of work she "must be assumed to have known her rights", and would have submitted a claim at the time.

"It seems much more likely that the reason for termination, whether it is right or wrong, relates to the claimants performance and conduct."

The tribunal was told that Mrs O'Driscoll recently found a job working in her father's constituency office and receives a salary of 14,500.

She must pay a 200 fee in order to progress the case, which is listed for hearing in September, but Mr Kelly warned that Mr Mullan has a "reasonable argument" to pursue costs if she loses.
Northern Ireland's medical professionals will still be unable to refer pregnant women to English hospitals for terminations, despite the decision that NHS England will meet the costs of NI women having abortions there.

The Department of Health confirmed on Friday night that the law in Northern Ireland has not changed, and that existing guidelines for medical staff still apply.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said: "The decision by the Government in Westminster to allow women from Northern Ireland to have free access to abortions on the NHS in England does not change the law in Northern Ireland.

"The 'Termination of Pregnancy Guidance for Health and Social Care Professionals' in Northern Ireland issued by the Department in March 2016 is unchanged as a result of yesterday's (Thursday) decision."

This means that GPs, clinics and other organisations like Marie Stopes International and the Family Planning Association will still be unable to organise abortion referrals to England for NI women without exposing themselves to the risk of prosecution. They can only give advice.

The pregnant woman herself must still make contact with the services in England.

Breedagh Hughes, NI Director for the Royal College of Midwives, told the Belfast Telegraph it will remain up to local women to arrange abortions themselves.

"The patient still has to make the phone call. The agencies cannot do it for her. She has to get on Google herself and find her own way to England," she said.

Describing the current situation as "ludicrous", Ms Hughes added: "Until that Act (1861 Offences Against the Person Act) is changed or repealed, assisting in procuring an abortion remains a criminal offence in Northern Ireland. So even now that the NHS in England will pay for the procedures, Northern Ireland medics still cannot refer patients for abortions because of the Victorian legislation still in force in Northern Ireland."

Meanwhile, yesterday morning a human rights body received judicial authorisation to appeal a new ruling on Northern Ireland's abortion regime to the UK's highest court. Senior judges in Belfast granted leave for a further challenge to their determination that the near-blanket ban on terminations is not unlawful.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission will now take its case to the Supreme Court in London.

Confirmation came 24 hours after the Court of Appeal overturned a previous landmark verdict that the restrictions are incompatible with human rights legislation.

It held that the socially and morally divisive issue should be dealt with by the Stormont Assembly.

Unlike other parts of the UK, terminations are only legal within Northern Ireland to protect the woman's life or if there is a risk of serious damage to her well-being.

In 2015 a High Court judge ruled the failure to provide abortions for cases of fatal foetal abnormalities (FFAs) and to victims of rape or incest breaches private and family life entitlements under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

During the legal battle, arguments were made on behalf of Sarah Ewart - a woman from Northern Ireland who travelled to England for an abortion after learning her unborn baby had no chance of survival after birth.

The court heard claims that the almost complete ban is inhuman and discriminatory.

Counsel for the Commission insisted Mrs Ewart is a victim and argued that the court needed to step in to protect those in her position or teenage victims of family rape.

She also claimed there was hypocrisy in the case because the vast majority of women who find themselves in similar situations travel to Great Britain to have abortions.

But the Attorney General argued that only those who carry out rapes leading to pregnancies should face the consequences.

He contended that it would be wrong to punish the child for those who commit the "appalling" crimes.

The three appeal judges, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, Lord Justice Gillen and Lord Justice Weatherup quashed the 2015 High Court declaration on Thursday.
Fire crews tackle a factory blaze at Belfast Crystal in west Belfast

More than 40 firefighters were tackling a blaze at a factory in west Belfast.

Fire appliances, a high reach aerial machine and a command unit were in attendance.

A Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service statement said: "Extensive firefighting operations are ongoing."

The fire was reported at 6pm on Saturday evening.

The factory, Belfast Crystal, is on Blackstaff Road in Kennedy Way industrial estate.
Campaigners calling for the introduction of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland gather in front of St Anne's Cathedral

Marriage equality campaigners have predicted victory in Northern Ireland as they called for action from the country's deadlocked politicians.

It is the only part of the UK or Ireland where same-sex marriage is banned.

Demonstrators on Saturday said any new government must be for all the country's people as thousands thronged Belfast city centre on Saturday in a colourful and noisy parade.

Gay rights activists, trade unionists, civil servants, firemen, drag queens and same-sex couples turned out for a procession to the City Hall bedecked with rainbow flags and banners.

The Lord Mayor of Belfast Nuala McAllister, Northern Ireland-born The Fall actor Bronagh Waugh and Rainbow Project director John O'Doherty led demonstrators.

Mr O'Doherty told political leaders nice words at election time were not enough, saying: "We need action.

"Action to make communities safe, action to make schools safe, an over-arching commitment from all the public institutions to addressing the historical and current inequalities which prevent Northern Ireland from being the society that we all want it to be."

It is one sticking point delaying the formation of a new devolved powersharing government at Stormont.

Mr O'Doherty alluded to the shift in public opinion, on Friday Germany became the latest country to vote for gay marriage.

"Together we are the future of Northern Ireland.

"We are the progressive majority and those who oppose us will lose, just like they did every time before.

"When we win this battle do not think that we are done.

"This campaign is not just about changing the law, we are about changing the world."

Anne Madden, 41, entered a civil partnership with Heather two years ago.

She said: "My relationship is called something different to what my next door neighbour's is called.

"I would have preferred to have a marriage than a civil partnership than go to the trouble of converting it if that happens in future years."

She added: "What this is about is equality.

"I pay my taxes like everyone else so why should I not enjoy the same rights and privileges as everyone else has?"

A Unitarian minister, the Rev Chris Hudson from All Souls Church in South Belfast, clutched a banner in support of same-sex marriage on the steps of St Anne's Church of Ireland Cathedral.

The main Christian churches in Northern Ireland believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

Rev Hudson said some ministers strongly favoured equal marriage and the status quo harshly discriminated against him because he could not marry a same sex couple.

He appealed to the DUP not to block any bid to legalise it.

"I hope the next time round that the Holy Spirit will descend upon them and we will see that it is fair, that it functions well in every other part of the UK, why should Northern Ireland be any different?"

Titty von Tramp, a drag queen, wore a heavy necklace, thick red lipstick and a revealing outfit .

Her top proclaimed "equality" and she brandished a megaphone to noisily drive home the message.

She told politicians: "Don't forget about me and my gay brothers and sisters, we are here and we are not going away."

Ms McAllister attended with her son Finn, who is 10 months old, and said she hoped to see marriage equality in the city soon.

This was her first rally as Lord Mayor, the cross-community Alliance Party councillor was elected a month ago, and she said her son was having a good time.

She added: "He loves all the people and he especially loves all the colours."
A hospital patient who claimed he believed he was "going to be taken hostage" when he punched a doctor and nurse in the face has failed in his appeal against a four-month prison sentence.

Brian McLaughlin (30), of Castle Street, Ballycastle, was jailed at Coleraine Magistrates Court last month when District Judge Liam McNally said he had to "draw the line" at such attacks.

The defendant, who has a criminal record, was released on 500 bail pending appeal.

But at the County Court in Antrim yesterday the appeal was dismissed and the jail term affirmed.

At the earlier hearing, a prosecutor said police were called to the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine on the evening of April 24 this year after reports of an "agitated" patient wandering round "pestering" other patients.

McLaughlin tried to leave a ward and enter a surgical ward. He activated a fire alarm and had to be sedated.

While that was happening, he punched a doctor twice on the back of the head. It took eight staff to return the defendant to bed and as he struggled he lashed out and again punched the doctor, this time in the face, and also punched an auxiliary nurse in the face.

At the Magistrates Court McLaughlin had admitted charges of assault and disorderly behaviour.

Defence barrister Francis Rafferty told the court that the defendant was an alcoholic who was downing a bottle of vodka a day.

He said McLaughlin had relapsed on a number of occasions and accepted his behaviour at the hospital "went far beyond the Pale".

Mr Rafferty said that because of a combination of medication and alcohol on the day in question his client "believed himself to be somewhere else" and panicked, thinking "at one stage that he was going to be taken hostage".

The defence lawyer said McLaughlin was aware that members of the medical profession had a right to go about their business without being attacked.
The mum fears for the future of our children. Stock image posed by model

A Northern Ireland mother has told of her agony as she learned her teenage daughter had sent a malicious message to another young girl.

The concerned parent, who wishes to remain anonymous, described the moment she received a phone call from the police to say they were coming to her house to discuss the incident.

The mother wants to raise awareness in a bid to encourage other parents and young people to be aware of what can be happening behind their children's screens.

Incredibly, she said she was happy that the victim's mother had gone to the police, as it opened her eyes to what was happening.

She told the Belfast Telegraph: "I got a phone call from the PSNI. I came home and I knew myself that something had happened.

"The police came out and they were very professional. We sat at the table and they said she was the perpetrator, she is the person that has made this problem happen. The police officer said if this happens again we will arrest her and take her phone."

The worried mum said her life "changed" from that moment on and she was in a "state of shock".

She described how she was "glad" that the victim's mum went to the police and encouraged others to speak up if this is happening to them.

"I am very glad because it's opened my eyes," she added.

The mother has since penned a letter, which details the problem that she feels comes from the ease of access that children have to phones, the internet and technology.

She has since restricted the amount of time and when her children are allowed their phones.

She added: "When I read the papers at the weekend, and I see a young face that has been bullied - there are hundreds of texts from so-called friends.

"The reality of the situation is intense."

She continued: "Children are not developing into normal human beings.

"We are providing their wifi and phones at 600 - because that is what parents do.

"They are not old enough to understand that not everything on the internet is good. And at this stage it needs to be controlled, what they have access to.

"They take their phones into classrooms in school and they can send a hundred texts while sitting in English class.

"We need to have some control over our kids. That harsh reality is so close to every one of us. It's on the touch of a mobile phone.

"We need to protect our kids. They haven't the opportunity to grow up."

"It scares me, I'm frightened for every parent. I'm scared for every child.

"They need access to the internet but it needs to be controlled."

You can read the mother's letter in full here:
The DUP has dismissed Sinn Fein's demand for the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach to join the Stormont talks, saying that republicans "don't need anyone to hold their hands".

Sinn Fein had called on Theresa May and Leo Varadkar to directly engage in the talks as a "matter of urgency" to inject the "step change" needed to secure an agreement.

As the talks continued yesterday at Stormont, Sinn Fein negotiator John O'Dowd said that the DUP's deal with the Tories at Westminster had "emboldened and entrenched" the party's position, making the prospect of a deal less likely.

He said that the two governments must press the DUP to give ground on key issues, including an Irish Language Act.

"As co-guarantor of the agreements, it's time for the British Prime Minister Theresa May and the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to take direct responsibility," he added.

However, DUP negotiator Edwin Poots brushed aside Mr O'Dowd's appeal.

"I think Sinn Fein can do the business very quickly, they know what's required of them - they don't need anybody to hold their hands," he said. "They just need to sit upstairs, make the decisions that need to be made and come and tell us of those decisions so we can get on with the business."

Mr Poots said that Thursday's missed deadline meant that Stormont was now "operating on a 95% budget, which is essentially a 5% cut across all departments". He claimed that this represented "far greater austerity than any Conservative ever imposed upon Northern Ireland", and he urged Sinn Fein to "get moving so we can get government back in place".

Mr Poots added: "Whilst we understand that Irish language is hugely important to Sinn Fein - health, education, jobs, the economy, infrastructure, the environment, agriculture - all of these issues are hugely important to us (and) the public."

Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy responded angrily: "The DUP are in absolutely no position to lecture anyone in relation to the provision of public services when they have taken a decision to keep in power a government which has taken more than a billion pounds off our ability to finance public sector services."

Mr O'Dowd (right with Declan Kearney) described progress at the talks as "snail-like", adding: "We will stay here as long as there is a glimmer of hope that there will be success in these talks. But we are realists and we are experienced negotiators and we know there needs to be a step change - hence the reason we are calling on the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister to become directly involved."

In response to Sinn Fein's call, a Downing Street statement said that Secretary of State James Brokenshire was "on the ground in Belfast" and would continue to "engage intensively" with the parties over the weekend.

It stressed that Mrs May had already met the five local parties and would remain in close contact with both the Secretary of State and Dublin.

With just 48 hours until the new talks deadline expires, there are few signs that the DUP and Sinn Fein can reach an agreement.

Mr Brokenshire is due to make a statement at Westminster on Monday. He can extend the deadline, call another Assembly election, or reintroduce some form of direct rule.

The outgoing head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service Sir Malcolm McKibbin is set to continue his role as independent chair of the talks. While he formally retired yesterday, the parties asked him to stay on to help steer the negotiations.
Police are not told about six in 10 of the worst cases of domestic violence in Northern Ireland, a new survey has revealed

Police are not told about six in 10 of the worst cases of domestic violence in Northern Ireland, a new survey has revealed.

The figures released by the Department of Justice yesterday were based on interviews with 1,209 individuals aged 16-64 on their experiences of domestic violence involving their partners and wider family circle.

The annual survey divided domestic violence/abuse into non-physical abuse, threats and force.

In 2015/16, just over a third of the worst cases of domestic partner abuse (36.6%) were reported to the PSNI.

Furthermore, while 61% of victims believed their worst incident of partner abuse was a criminal offence, a fifth (21%) believed it was "wrong, but not a crime" and one in eight (12.3%) accepted it as "just something that happens".

DCS George Clarke, head of the PSNI's Public Protection Branch, said the number of victims making the "courageous" step of phoning the police was increasing.

"We know that domestic abuse is a frightening crime which can affect anyone, often leaving victims feeling isolated and alone," he said.

"If you are a victim of abuse, please be assured you are not alone and that there are people who can help you.

"Please come forward and report the matter to police."

DCS Clarke added that police respond to an incident of domestic abuse every 18 minutes and the PSNI had dedicated domestic abuse officers to ensure that all domestic crimes were investigated, as well as providing support on police and legal proceedings.

The department's survey follows on from police statistics in May which reported a record high of almost 30,000 reports of domestic abuse during 2016/17.

The number of sexual assaults also hit the highest level for the first time since new reporting methods were introduced nearly 20 years ago.

Jan Melia, CEO of Women's Aid in Northern Ireland, welcomed the increase of reports to police.

But she said the new survey proved domestic violence was still "a hidden crime".

She added that much work was needed to raise awareness of the nature and definition of domestic violence.

"Women tell us that there is a particular need to highlight emotional abuse and the coercive ongoing nature of abuse in intimate and familial relationships," she said.

She added that more early prevention work was needed in schools, along with training for doctors, teachers and community workers to ask victims the right questions.

Ms Melia said increased prosecutions would send a "clear message to perpetrators that domestic violence will not be tolerated in Northern Ireland".

She also called on the department to secure funding for domestic abuse support workers in police stations and more robust legislation, including a specific domestic abuse offence.

The PSNI has urged anyone suffering from domestic abuse to contact their local police station on 101, or 999 in an emergency.

A 24-hour domestic and sexual violence helpline is also available to anyone who has concerns, past or present, on 0808 802 1414.
PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill at a march calling for a law change in Northern Ireland allowing gay marriage. The march was organised by Love Equality Campaign. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Marchers take part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh (The Fall, Hollyoaks) takes part in the march for civil marriage equality in Belfast Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 1st July 2017 - March for Civil Marriage Equality in Belfast City Centre Campaigners are calling for a law change to bring the region into line with the rest of the UK and Ireland. The march is being organised by the Love Equality campaign, led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 1/7/2017 Hollyoaks and The Fall actress Bronagh Waugh as Thousands take part in a marriage equality march in Belfast on Saturday from Writers square to Belfast City Hall. The march has been organised by the Love Equality campaign which is led by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Cara-Friend, NUS-USI and HereNI. Campaigners are calling for a law change in line with the UK and Ireland. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Campaigners calling for the introduction of same sex marriage in Northern Ireland gather in front of St Anne's Cathedral before they staged a parade and rally in Belfast City centre. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday July 1, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Marriage. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Hollyoaks actress Bronagh Waugh (centre) raises her arm as she joins campaigners calling for the introduction of same sex marriage in Northern Ireland gather in front of St Anne's Cathedral before they staged a parade and rally in Belfast City centre. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday July 1, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Marriage. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Campaigners calling for the introduction of same sex marriage in Northern Ireland gather in front of St Anne's Cathedral before they staged a parade and rally in Belfast City centre. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday July 1, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Marriage. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Actress Bronagh Waugh joins campaigners calling for the introduction of same sex marriage in Northern Ireland. Niall Carson/PA Wire

Thousands of people have joined a major parade through Belfast city centre demanding same-sex marriage rights.

The demonstration on Saturday afternoon concluded with a rally in front of City Hall.

The ban on equal marriage in Northern Ireland is one of several sticking points delaying the formation of a new powersharing government at Stormont.

It is the only part of the UK and Ireland where the practice remains outlawed.

The Lord Mayor of Belfast Nuala McAllister, Northern Ireland-born The Fall actor Bronagh Waugh and Rainbow Project director John O'Doherty led demonstrators.

Mr O'Doherty told political leaders nice words at election time were not enough, saying: "We need action.

"Action to make communities safe, action to make schools safe, an over-arching commitment from all the public institutions to addressing the historical and current inequalities which prevent Northern Ireland from being the society that we all want it to be."

Mr O'Doherty alluded to the shift in public opinion, on Friday Germany became the latest country to vote for gay marriage.

"Together we are the future of Northern Ireland.

"We are the progressive majority and those who oppose us will lose, just like they did every time before.

"When we win this battle do not think that we are done.

"This campaign is not just about changing the law, we are about changing the world."

The DUP's opposition to changing the law has attracted increased scrutiny across the UK since the party became the UK Government's kingmaker at Westminster.

On Friday, a senior member of the Democratic Unionists recognised its view may be in a minority across the UK but said the stance should be respected.

Ahead of Saturday's parade a range of celebrities including Liam Neeson, Stephen Fry and Graham Norton voiced their support for the campaign.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also joined the leaders of all the main parties at Holyrood to call for a law change across the Irish Sea.

The DUP has used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism, the petition of concern, to prevent a law change, despite a majority of assembly members supporting the move at the last vote.

The party rejects any suggestion it is homophobic, insisting it is instead protecting the "traditional" definition of marriage.

Following March's snap Assembly election, the DUP no longer has the voting strength to prevent the measure in its own right, though it could still potentially combine with other socially conservative public representatives to do so.

That will only be tested once, and if, a devolved Assembly can be re-established out of the current political crisis in Belfast.

If politicians fail to establish a new ministerial executive, direct rule from Westminster could be re-imposed.

If that were to happen, the responsibility for legislating on the region's marriage laws would be handed to the London government.
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A TEACHER at a private school in Victoria Falls has been fined $150 for beating up a truant Form Three pupil for not doing his school work.Kudakwashe Bere (34) of Chinotimba suburb, teaches Computer Science and Computers at Herentals Group of Colleges.He was arrested after beating up the pupil, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when he noticed that he had not written school notes.The boy reported the matter to the police.Bere was convicted on his own plea of guilty to assault when he appeared before Victoria Falls magistrate Ms Rangarirai Gakanje during the week.Prosecuting, Mr Listen Nare said Bere assaulted the pupil on June 15 at the school during a lesson."On June 15 and at 12 noon, the accused asked the complainant why he had not written Computers notes which were not up to date."The complainant told the teacher that he had not been coming to school for a week because he had school fees arrears," said the prosecutor.The boy's response did not go down well with the teacher who took a switch and beat up the boy thrice on the left hand palm.The court was told that the boy sustained injuries and was treated at Victoria Falls District Hospital.Beating of children at home and at school was outlawed by the High Court in a landmark ruling early this year when Harare High Court judge Justice David Mangota ruled that parents and teachers must not lay their hands on children even if they misbehave.Justice Mangota also declared unconstitutional Section 69 (2) (c) of the Education Act which permits corporal punishment.
Andrea Leadsom has pleaded for unity on Brexit amid claims Cabinet ministers want Theresa May to ease up on her red lines and with the minority Government already facing pressure in the House of Commons.

The Commons Leader said ministers would listen and consult and be open and responsive to MPs and peers in a two-year Parliament set to be dominated by Britains exit from the European Union.

But she also called on parliamentarians to work together wherever possible in the national interest.

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It comes amid claims of Cabinet splits over Brexit, with Brexit Secretary David Daviss former chief of staff James Chapman claiming the Prime Ministers insistence on leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had hamstrung his former boss in negotiations.

Mr Chapman also claimed the likes of Mr Davis and Boris Johnson could welcome an easing of the PMs Brexit red lines, including on leaving the ECJ and Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community), and potential on immigration.

It also follows a Government concession on the Queens Speech, with ministers pledging that women from Northern Ireland could have free abortions in England after an amendment from Labour MP Stella Creasy apparently gathered support from several Tory MPs.

It highlighted the vulnerability of the Government, which is relying on the support of the Democratic Unionist Partys 10 MPs to get its business through the House of Commons, after the Tories lost their majority in a disastrous general election.

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Ms Leadsom, a leading Leave campaigner who has caused controversy with calls for broadcasters to be patriotic over Brexit, said MPs and peers must prepare to leave the EU in a way that brings the country together.

Writing for the Telegraph, she went on: Government ministers will listen and consult, doing our best to be open and responsive to Parliament. Equally, we hope parliamentarians can set aside partisan politics to work together wherever possible in the best interests of our country.

Such a co-operative approach is easiest when there is already a degree of consensus, yet it matters most on the many issues where there are real disagreements. We can of course rely on politicians of all colours to keep challenging the Government whenever they take a different view.

The great clamour of discussion and debate is what makes our democracy so admired the world over. Yet by channelling our collective energies towards a single endpoint, and by coming together to improve our country, we can show British voters that there is more to our politics than just pessimistic bickering.
Campaigners chanting Jeremy Corbyns name marched through central London against austerity and the Conservatives.

A number wore t-shirts with Corbyn and a tick printed on them and one banner featured the Labour leader riding on a unicorn under a rainbow.

The crowd repeatedly took up the chant of oh Jeremy Corbyn and Tories out during the rally on Saturday afternoon.

Many carried banners saying Tories Out, with one reading No DUP, No sanctions, No more while another said Capitalism Kills. Organise To Fight Back. Justice For Grenfell. Safety For All.

The protest assembled at BBC Broadcasting House in Portland Place before moving on to Parliament Square.

There was a strong police presence at the demonstration, with some of the roads around the square closed to traffic.

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Shadow chancellor John McDonnell vowed to support the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in west London when he spoke at the event.

He said: To the victims of Grenfell Tower we pledge now, we will stand with you and your families all the way through. We bring you sympathy but more importantly we bring you solidarity.

We will not rest until every one of those families is properly housed within the community in which they want to live.

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Grenfell Tower symbolised for many everything thats gone wrong in this country since austerity was imposed upon us.

He slammed the Tories for praising the emergency services every time theres a tragedy but then cutting jobs and wages.

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Jeremy Corbyn rounded on the Tories for this week raising hopes the public sector pay cap would be lifted, before later dampening expectations and voting against a Labour amendment to the Queens Speech to scrap the 1% ceiling.

In front of a crowd of thousands chanting Oh Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament Square, the Labour leader said, in reference to the Tories deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP): I say to any public sector workers in Northern Ireland or anywhere else  dont have any illusions in these people, when they started the austerity programme they meant it and they meant it to carry on.

And carry on with a growing gap between the richest and poorest in our society, with a growing impoverishment of those at the bottom, a growing under-funding of local government, health, education and all the other things that we all need in a civilised society.

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Mr Corbyn slammed the hypocrisy of Tory MPs who praised the work of the emergency services dealing with recent terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower disaster.

The utter hypocrisy of Government ministers and others who queued up in the chamber over there in the House of Commons to heap praise on the emergency services, the following day to cut their wages by refusing to lift the pay cap, he said.

The hypocrisy is absolutely unbelievable.
Thousands took to the streets of Belfast (Niall Carson/PA)

Marriage equality campaigners have predicted victory in Northern Ireland as they called for action from the countrys deadlocked politicians.

It is the only part of the UK or Ireland where same-sex marriage is banned.

Demonstrators on Saturday said any new government must be for all the countrys people as thousands thronged Belfast city centre on Saturday in a colourful and noisy parade.

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Gay rights activists, trade unionists, civil servants, firemen, drag queens and same-sex couples turned out for a procession to the City Hall bedecked with rainbow flags and banners.

The Lord Mayor of Belfast Nuala McAllister, Northern Ireland-born The Fall actor Bronagh Waugh and Rainbow Project director John ODoherty led demonstrators.

Mr ODoherty told political leaders nice words at election time were not enough, saying: We need action.

Action to make communities safe, action to make schools safe, an over-arching commitment from all the public institutions to addressing the historical and current inequalities which prevent Northern Ireland from being the society that we all want it to be.

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It is one sticking point delaying the formation of a new devolved powersharing government at Stormont.

Mr ODoherty alluded to the shift in public opinion, as on Friday Germany became the latest country to vote for gay marriage.

He said: Together we are the future of Northern Ireland. We are the progressive majority and those who oppose us will lose, just like they did every time before.

When we win this battle do not think that we are done. This campaign is not just about changing the law, we are about changing the world.

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A Unitarian minister, the Rev Chris Hudson from All Souls Church in South Belfast, clutched a banner in support of same-sex marriage on the steps of St Annes Church of Ireland Cathedral.

The main Christian churches in Northern Ireland believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

Rev Hudson said some ministers strongly favoured equal marriage and the status quo harshly discriminated against him because he could not marry a same sex couple. He appealed to the DUP not to block any bid to legalise it.

I hope the next time round that the Holy Spirit will descend upon them and we will see that it is fair, that it functions well in every other part of the UK, why should Northern Ireland be any different?
Grim statistics: fewer people are worshipping in churches of all denominations, and less clergy are being ordained

During the next two months thousands of people will take their summer holidays, and Church members will worship in many places abroad.

They will come back with a feeling - which I have shared - that the numbers attending Sunday services here are still a lot higher than in other places.

However, there is no room for complacency at home, and statistics revealed in the latest 'Blue Book', which is the 'Bible' of the Presbyterian General Assembly, underline this decline in stark detail.

From 1975 to 2015, the number of families decreased from under 130,000 to around 96,000; individual membership fell from 380,000 to just over 220,000; the number of communicants dropped from 135,000 to around 98,000; and most significantly of all, baptisms decreased from 4,750 to just over 1,250.

Another indication of a Church facing worrying challenges was the revelation that the recent trend for fewer applications for the Presbyterian ministry is continuing, with only five candidates applying this year.

All were accepted.

The assembly was told that it is highly likely that there will only be a total of 17 students at Union College during the next academic year.

This is the lowest number for many years.

Particularly worrying is the lack of applications from women, though this is understandable, and regrettably so.

What woman would enter a male-dominated institution, which is such a "cold house" for women.

If you doubt this, consider the female ministers who are not allowed to preach in the pulpits of male ministers "on the grounds of conscience", and also the fact that the Presbyterian Church has still not had the grace to elect a female Moderator.

What a disgraceful insult to women, who are the backbone of the Church.

However, the Presbyterian Church is not the only one experiencing declining numbers and fewer candidates for the ministry.

The recent Presbyterian Assembly was told by Stafford Carson, who attended the previous year's Methodist conference as a Presbyterian representative, that they, too, are experiencing declining numbers.

Between 2009-14, the full membership of the Methodist Church declined by 4.3% from 15,503 to 14,835.

The Methodists are also experiencing difficulty in attracting candidates for the ministry, and there is an anticipated shortfall of 20 ministers in the next five years.

Some time ago I reported on a Church of Ireland survey which revealed that the average attendance at its Sunday services in November 2013 was 58,000 across the island of Ireland, which was only 15% of its members.

The survey also revealed that only 13% of the worshippers were aged between 12 and 30.

The Catholic Church has its own problems, and a survey taken in November 2015 showed that since 1995 the number of active priests in the ministry in Ireland had dropped by 43% from 3,550 to 2,019.

The number of ordinands from Ireland is very low, and interestingly last Sunday the first Filipino to become a Catholic priest in Ireland, Fr Manuelita Muga Milo, was ordained in St Peter's Cathedral in west Belfast.

Certainly I take no comfort from the general pattern of declining numbers of worshippers and ordinands, but it must be remembered that Christianity is thriving in many other places, and particularly in the developing world.

However, we must ask ourselves why the decline in western Church attendance and membership is so marked.

At Easter I heard an Anglican preacher in Belfast making the point that while many people in the general public still respect and respond to the teachings of Christ, they are not listening to the Churches.

That is something we might ponder over the summer before the full Church cycle begins again in September.
It's heartening that the Conservative Party is trying to work out what mistakes it made and several of their MPs have suggested they should adopt some of Jeremy Corbyn's campaigning methods, especially in attracting youth.

So, to start with, Conservative members should gather in groups at rock festivals and sing "Oooooh, Andrea Leadsom" and see if it catches on.

Then they could start their own support from the grime rap scene, the way Labour did in its sneaky way.

They could make films in which DJ Michael Fallon struts round a housing estate, rapping, "Hey my crew's strong and stable/And swear down bruv I'm able/To press a button to enable/Mass destruction at da table/Not like Corbyn or dat wasteman Vince boy Cable" and see how long it took before it went viral.

They should find a way of attracting the youth in the way Corbyn has, because I expect it's only the way Labour puts stuff on YouTube and Twitter that won young people to Labour's cause.

The ideas, such as abolishing tuition fees, didn't make much difference. If the Tories could make something shiny and sung by Stormzy, I'm sure they could get people to support policies such as taking away your house to pay for your dementia care.

It's possible there are bigger changes taking place. For example, the British Social Attitudes survey this week revealed 48% now support higher taxes to pay for services. But this probably doesn't mean anything.

The problem the Conservatives have is it wasn't just Labour that got 40% of the vote, it was a Labour party with policies and a leader that - everyone had agreed - made them completely unelectable.

For two years, there were columns every day that went, "Labour would literally have more chance if they were led by the devil, and he started his conference speech 'I don't just want their votes, I want their souls, mwahahaha' and sacrificed a virgin as a symbol of the plans to take the east coast railway line back into public ownership". And that would be a joint statement from the shadow Cabinet.

Some Conservatives, such as Toby Young, urged his supporters to register as a Labour member and vote for Corbyn, as this would ensure the Tories stayed in power forever.

To be fair, this confirms a unique talent of Toby Young, to manage to be wrong about everything, all the time.

Murdoch helped destroy Kinnock, Brown and Miliband, but couldn't touch Corbyn who he hates more than anyone. The Daily Mail sees its causes wilt every day.

What was considered extreme a few weeks ago now seems mainstream. For example, there's the reaction to the atrocious fire. Conservative politicians and columnists expressed outrage at Corbyn and John McDonnell's comments, who blamed cost-cutting for the disaster.

They claimed this was an attempt to "politicise" the tragedy and they may have a point, because the fact the fire happened in a block occupied by working-class people, following years of cuts in health and safety and council budgets was probably just a coincidence and an identical fire must be just as likely in Donald Trump's tower.

Also, it can't be fair to jump to the conclusion that the deadly cladding was chosen because it was cheaper. There could be many reasons why the contractors picked that sort. Maybe it was all they had left at B&Q.

It would also be bad form to suggest there was a culture of hostility towards health and safety. When David Cameron announced in 2012 that health and safety culture was part of a "sea of red tape, a restrictive monster", he meant in a nice way.

Years of Tories screaming, "Health and safety, health and safety, how can business build anything if they've got to worry about health and stinking, rancid, useless, pointless safety?" didn't suggest that they were in any way hostile to health and safety.

Until recently, the Labour Party would have shied away from making these claims. But now it's accepted as reasonable for Labour to make their case and even the demand to re-house survivors in homes left empty by the wealthy has, to some extent, been agreed.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Airlink will on Sunday begin direct flights between Cape Town and Victoria Falls as southern Africa's largest independent airline expands its footprints.The airline will offer a six-day service except on Saturdays.Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe general manager, David Chawota told NewsDay yesterday that Airlink's maiden flight to Victoria Falls was on course."As of Tuesday, the airline had confirmed that it will fly into Victoria Falls on Sunday," Chawota said, adding that CAAZ was in talks with a number of airlines to fly into Zimbabwe.According to Airlink's schedule, the flight departs Cape Town at 8:30am, arriving in Victoria Falls at 11:15am.The airline also has flights to Harare and Bulawayo from Johannesburg.Aviation and tourism experts say the entry of Airlink into the resort town is a vote of confidence in the destination.Victoria Falls has been luring airlines after the completion of the $150 million airport upgrade, which allows it to accommodate wide-bodied aircrafts in the mould of B747 or its equivalent.In March, South African Airways became the first airline to fly a wide-bodied aircraft in the mould of A330-200 to Victoria Falls.The aircraft has a capacity of 222 passengers.Africa's leading carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, has also been lured, introducing four weekly flights to the resort town beginning March 27.Kenyan Airways introduced three weekly flights between Nairobi and Victoria Falls on May 1.Airlink serves 35 routes in Southern Africa.
Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Nur pays respects outside the former site of the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe, on the one-year anniversary of a terror attack there, July 1, 2017.

Updated at 1:20 p.m. ET on 2017-07-03

Mourners and dignitaries said prayers, laid flowers and wept Saturday at the site of a deadly terror attack one year ago at a cafe in Dhaka, now a private residence.

Gulshan Road No 79, the former site of the Holey Artisan Bakery, was opened to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. a year after five young men armed with guns and knives stormed the place on July 1, 2016, taking dozens hostages and killing 20 of them.

Most of the victims were foreigners who were brutally hacked to death. Two cafe workers and two policemen also died.

Politicians, diplomats, activists, actors, police personnel, regular people and relatives of the dead thronged the site of the attack to pay their respects.

The government has been fighting against terrorists with the help of law enforcing agencies. But they are not doing anything to stop imbibing the ideology of militants, secular activist Shahriar Kabir told BenarNews at the site.

After placing floral wreaths at the site, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior official with the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), demanded the government clarify who was responsible for the attack.

Authorities have repeatedly denied any IS presence in the country, while acknowledging that a faction of the homegrown Jamaat-ul Mujaideen Bangladesh (JMB) has been influenced the Mideast-based terror group.

Various foreign organizations have said the attack was planned by the Islamic State. IS also claimed the attack, but the government denies it. We do not want such mystery, he said.

Obaidul Quader, general secretary of ruling Awami League, said Bangladesh civil society needed to assist the government in combatting extremism that led to the tragedy.

Militancy has not been wiped out, but it has been weakened, he told journalists after paying his respects. We cannot simply rely on state power. A platform must be developed using the power of patriotic unity.

Forensics report

The five militants and one cafe worker died of bullet and shrapnel wounds during the army operation that ended the siege at around dawn on July 2, according to an official forensics report released Saturday.

The five attackers, identified as Mir Sameh Mobashwer, Rohan Ibn Imtiaz, Nibras Islam, Khairul Islam Payel and Shafiqul Islam Ujjal, were killed by police commandos.

Meanwhile, about 600 km (373 miles) away from Dhaka, police arrested three female militants and seized suicide vests, a pistol, bombs and gunpowder in a pre-dawn raid at a suspected militant den in southern Kushtia district.

Two of the women were wives of leaders of Neo-JMB, a terror group that has embraced IS ideology, according to police.

One of the female militants wearing suicide vest tried to swoop on the police. But police could capture her before the vest went off, Mehedi Hasan, superintendent of police of Kushtia district, told BenarNews.
A Philippine Marine convoy passes through Balo-i town in Lanao del Norte province en route to Marawi City to reinforce troops fighting to dislodge militants backed by the extremist group Islamic State, June 30, 2017.

Updated at 9:39 a.m. ET on 2017-07-02

Eleven more soldiers have been killed in ongoing battles between Philippine security forces and Islamic State-linked militants in the southern city of Marawi, bringing the militarys death toll to 82, according to new official figures released by the government on Friday.

Forty-four civilians have also been killed in five weeks of fighting in Marawi, Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters in Manila in releasing updated casualty figures, which showed an increase in the number of government security personnel who had been killed.

He said the number of civilian deaths could increase because more uncollected bodies were believed to be in four villages inside Marawi, where the gunmen have been locked in gun battles with security forces.

The number of terrorists killed so far has reached 303 with no end in sight in the fighting. It began on May 23 when Abu Sayyaf and Maute gunmen, backed by foreign militants, launched attacks in Marawi, the countrys only predominantly Muslim city.

Abella said that offensive operations to retake enemy positions were ongoing, but he acknowledged that portions of four villages remain problematic."

He said the militarys focus remains to be "the continued clearing of Marawi of remaining armed terrorists that continue to pose pockets of resistance to the advancing troops."

Abella did not provide more details on the deaths of the 11 soldiers.

It was the militarys biggest casualty figure since June 10, when officials said that 13 Marines were killed in a day of fighting with the militants.

The Marawi siege began when troops and police moved in to arrest Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged Islamic State (IS) leader in the southern island of Mindanao.

But hundreds of gunmen composed of militants from the Maute group, backed by an undetermined number of Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern fighters, engaged the government forces in a firefight.

ICRC airs concern

Citing reports from the local crisis-management committee, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that about 200 to 300 civilians were still trapped inside the conflict zone.

It was not clear if those numbers included the dozens of civilians who the gunmen had earlier seized as hostages. Officials said the hostages included a Catholic priest.

Circumstances are dire for those trapped in Marawi as the fighting endures, the Red Cross said in a statement. Efforts to secure humanitarian corridors should continue to safely evacuate these civilians who have been trapped for more than a month now.

It also expressed concern about reports that civilians were being deliberately targeted by militant snipers, and urged the gunmen to free their hostages.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said that more than 1,700 civilians trapped inside the battle zone had been rescued, even as more were believed to be hiding in their homes as the military carried out continuous bombing runs.

Padilla reiterated the governments non-negotiation policy after Abdullah Maute, one of the leaders of the gunmen, had reportedly said he was willing to free the priest in exchange for his parents who had escaped from Marawi but were arrested separately by troops.

President Rodrigo Duterte has placed the entire southern region of Mindanao under martial law, giving the military extraordinary police powers that allow them to arrest anyone without a warrant.

But as security forces clawed through the city, military officials sought help from the United States. This was an embarrassing turn of events after Duterte had vowed last year to end his countrys dependence on its longtime military ally, and while he was trying to forge new defense alliances with China and Russia.

Urban setting

On Friday, Brig. Gen. Gilbert Gapay said that the operational environment on the ground in Marawi was different, with the enemy taking advantage of its mastery of the urban terrain.

They were able to emplace machine guns, they were able to emplace snipers and maneuver mobility, Gapay told reporters.

He said these factors led to the governments high number of casualties, and he pointed out that the presence of civilians in the war zone had slowed down the advance by troops.

But slowly but surely, with the capabilities at hand, I guess soon we will be able to clear Marawi of these terrorists, he said, without giving a time frame.

This version clarifies how BenarNews obtained information about the increased death toll among government security personnel in Marawi.
The Philippine and United States navies on Saturday held a coordinated patrol in southern Sulu Sea amid concerns that militants in the region would cross borders to join Islamic State inspired Filipino militants engaged in five weeks of gun battles in Marawi City.

Crews of the Filipino Del Pilar Class Frigate BRP Ramon Alcaraz and the Littoral Combat Ship USS Colorado worked to detect and deter threats to maritime security, a statement from the U.S. Embassy said.

The joint patrol was carried out at the invitation of Manila, it said.

These patrols enhance regional peace and stability, said American commander Rear Adm. Don Gabrielson. Our at-sea operations with the Philippine Navy demonstrate our commitment to the alliance and deter piracy and illegal activities.

The day-long patrol boosted the maritime security cooperation between the two allies, and enhanced their reaction times to criminal activity at sea.

It further demonstrates U.S. commitment to the security of the Philippines and enduring US interest in promoting stability and prosperity in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, it said.

The joint patrol came amid heightened concerns that regional militants from Indonesia and Malaysia would try to sneak into the southern Philippines to help their comrades engaged in clashes with Philippine troops in the southern city of Marawi.

The gunmen, fighters from the local Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups, and backed by Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern fighters are battling under the flag of the Islamic State.

They still control a portions of Marawi, which has been emptied by its 200,000 civilian population.

The government on Friday said the fighting has left 82 government troops, 303 militants and 44 civilians dead, with authorities and aid workers saying the death toll could rise with the army continuing to advance.

The Philippines has continued holding regular joint military exercises with the United States despite President Rodrigo Dutertes anti-U.S. rhetoric in favor of boosting ties with Russia and China.

But he was forced to ask for U.S. help amid the Marawi crisis. American spy planes have been assisting the Filipino forces as it carries out its offensive, and several troops have been providing technical assistance on the ground. They are barred from actual combat, but are armed and can protect themselves if they came under attack.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader and other leaders pay their respects to the victims, July 1, 2017. [Newsroom photo]

Italian Ambassador Mario Palma, second from right, is joined by a victims relative at the site of the former Holey Artisan Bakery cafe, July 1, 2017. [Newsroom photo]

The mother of Zakir Hossain Shaon, a cafe chef who died of injuries weeks after the attack, breaks down in tears, July 1, 2017. [Newsroom photo]

Senior police officials including Additional Inspector General of Police Mokhlesur Rahman, Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Asaduzzaman Mia, Chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Monirul Islam pay their respects, July 1, 2017. [Newsroom photo]

Flowers fill a makeshift altar outside the former Holey Artisan Bakery cafe on the one-year anniversary of the terror attack in Bangladesh, July 1, 2017. [Newsroom photo]

The former site of the Holey Artisan Bakery, the scene of a horrific terror attack that left 24 people and their five attackers dead on July 1-2, 2016, was opened for four hours on Saturday so mourners could pay their respects.

An altar covered with a white cloth was placed outside the building to allow visitors to lay flowers in memory of the victims.

The mourners represented all walks of life including representatives of different political parties, diplomatic missions, civil society activists and police personnel. Many cried as they remembered those who were killed that day.

The dead included nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen and six Bangladeshis, including two police officers and two bakery staff. Within hours, the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack, but the government continues to deny any IS presence in the country.

After completing their investigation of the crime scene, police returned the building to its owner who is turning it into his residence.
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Vonage 'inContact' with Customer Experience

The call center, ahem, the contact center of today is a far more involved operation than just a few short years ago, and as we embrace our omni-channel reality the cloud will play a key role. This week, Vonage announced a deepened partnership with cloud contact center software firm inContact to create a comprehensive platform to improve the customer experience.

The Vonage Advanced Contact Center is built on two primary components: inContacts Customer Interaction Cloud and the Vonage Cloud Communications platform. The combination provides a unified customer experience offering that promises to bring together scattered contact center teams with a centralized all-in-one solution.

We've had a long-standing relationship with inContact, partnering to help provide our customers with a quality contact center solution that meets the full spectrum of business needs, said Omar Javaid, Chief Product Officer for Vonage. Vonage delivers a robust unified communications solution integrated with inContact's enterprise-grade contact center for a seamless communications solution, and we are excited about our enhanced partnership.

From a technical perspective, the enhanced partnership pairs inContacts contact center solutions with the Vonage UCaaS cloud solutions, nationwide MPLS network and SD-WAN, which promises exceptional performance.

We are pleased to be working with Vonage to deliver a combined unified communications and contact center solution for mid-size and enterprise organizations, said Brett Theisen, Senior Vice President, inContact. More and more companies are recognizing the benefits of cloud technology to modernize their customer service operations and streamline the customer experience.

The modern contact center is far more than customer service; it has evolved into an engagement center, a hub of all things customer journey. In this announcement we see a future-forward type solution, pairing industry leading technology to unlock the opportunity held in the contact center. Its all about customer engagement.

Edited by Alicia Young
Calvin's Canadian Cave Of Cool Manifesto

I forever stand vigilant to protect this planet from the myriad of forces that are always against us. Be it the octopus, zombies, aliens or the robots my team of human agents, and our feline allies, circle the globe in a never ending struggle for human freedom.



I learn all I can on every subject that interests me. I especially enjoy ancient history because in the past there are valuable lessons to be found. Also, if I ever get my time machine to work properly, it would be good to know a bit about possible destinations and what to expect when I get there.



I greatly appreciate beautiful design. Be it manufactured or found naturally I am fascinated by the process of invention. I am attracted to the unique, the strange, the haunted. I like to share what I find on this blog.



And not let us forget the 'Cephalopod Menace' who, if allowed to, would wrap their tentacles around all that is good and pure in this life and crush it until it remained no more. They are creatures of pure spite. Hate is all they know. Death is all they do. They are our most ruthless and determined enemy.



So we fight. Selena has the celebrity contacts, the cat is ruthless and without pity, Roosevelt's ghost has the experience and I do the wetwork.



Fighting for the future of the planet doesn't have to be a chore, however. We can take the time to appreciate all that is cool in this world even as we cut the octopus into bite sized chunks.



This is the reason there has always been and must forever be, a Cave of Cool. Be sure to wipe your feet before you enter.


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Paul Morigi/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- In this weeks address, Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., highlighted the Affordable Care Act and the assault that Trumpcare is on Americas hard-working families.

Read the congressmans full address:

Hi, everyone. I'm Congressman Joe Kennedy from Massachusetts.



Five years ago, I got the call everyone dreads. Lauren, my wife, had collapsed at work. She was being rushed to the emergency room of a Boston hospital.



It's a moment painfully familiar to many. Time stops. You fight to push your breath down your throat. Your brain gets stuck on a highlight reel of worst-case scenarios. You are dazed. You are sick. You are terrified.



We were among the lucky ones. Lauren was OK. Testing revealed no life-threatening disease or impending danger, no worst nightmare confirmed. Most critically, our health coverage gave us the support we needed to focus on the one thing that mattered most: her recovery.



For any family, that is what health care is about. Not buzzwords like CBO scores or growth rates or high-risk pools, but the simple ability to keep the people you love safe and healthy and whole. A commitment we make to care for each other, because we know someday we will need that care too.



Trumpcare shatters this proudly American commitment. It fundamentally restructures our countrys health care into two systems -- one, for the powerful and privileged, the healthy and wealthy; and another, lesser system for everyone else.



It threatens to trap the vast majority of working Americans in a series of excruciating, impossible choices. Mortgage or medication. Child care or doctor visits. Being by your loved one's hospital bed or keeping your job.



Speaker Ryan calls this freedom. I call it agony. President Trump calls it greatness. I call it gutless.



Thats what this bill does. But heres what it means.



It means that the biggest, strongest, boldest nation in the world doesnt think its people can summon the strength to shoulder a neighbors burden. It means that in your moment of deepest need, your government will tell you youre better off on your own than with 320 million Americans fighting by your side.



But this country knows better. This country is better.



We take care of each other. We pull for each other. We accept the responsibility that comes from citizenship with pride and with gratitude.



Because it doesnt matter how big or tough or rich or brave you are -- you cannot be invincible. Our health is our great equalizer. That stubborn reminder that even the mighty need mercy. Any one of us can fall, and each of us will.



And in those moments, it is not your bank account or your job title or your skin color or your zip code or your religion or your sexuality or your gender that matters.



It is your humanity. It is your hurt and your fear. It is the fact that you are on the ground and you deserve a country that will pick you up, not leave you to fight alone.



That belief underscores the Democratic vision of American health care: a shared promise, a common bond that we fortify not just out of sympathy for the suffering, but so that it is there for us, too, when we need its sturdy brace.



Because if it was our son or daughter or mother or father in that hospital room, we would beg for the strength and shoulders of our neighbors. We would pray for a system that refused to let us fall.



In the weeks ahead, keep your heads raised. Keep your voices loud. Help us tell the story of a better, fairer, stronger country. And if you do, we will make it so.



Thank you, and God bless America.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. RONALD W. RANGEL, Petitioner-Appellant, v. DWIGHT NEVEN, Warden; ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, Respondents-Appellees. No. 16-15232 Decided: June 28, 2017

Before: SCHROEDER, FISHER,** and N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judges.

MEMORANDUM*

Petitioner Ronald Rangel, a Nevada state prisoner, was convicted of felony burglary. He now appeals denial of his petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C.  2254, arguing that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective.

To succeed on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, Rangel must prove that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the counsel guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment and that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984). Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, we apply a doubly deferential standard to ineffective assistance claims brought by state prisoners. Burt v. Titlow, 134 S. Ct. 10, 13 (2013). Here, the state post-conviction court held an evidentiary hearing in which counsel provided reasons for his trial strategy. We will not second guess counsel's decisions or trial strategy, Matylinsky v. Budge, 577 F.3d 1083, 1091 (9th Cir. 2009), which he has articulated were informed , strategic choices  based on professional judgment. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 681.

In the last reasoned state court decision in Rangel's case, the Nevada Supreme Court properly identified Strickland, 466 U.S. 668, as the governing Supreme Court precedent. The district court concluded that the Nevada Supreme Court's denial of Rangel's claims was not contrary to federal law, an unreasonable application of federal law, or an unreasonable determination of facts based on the evidence presented. We affirm.

Rangel first argues that his counsel was ineffective in preparing and presenting the defense's theory that Rangel was voluntarily intoxicated at the time of the theft and therefore lacked the specific intent necessary for burglary under Nev. Rev. Stat.  205.060. But the problem was not counsel's performance; it was the lack of exculpatory evidence. Counsel reasonably concluded that Rangel should not testify because doing so would have allowed the prosecution to introduce evidence of Rangel's numerous previous felonies, and there was no other direct evidence of voluntary intoxication. Even so, counsel used what little was available to raise an inference of voluntary intoxication. Counsel's closing argument regarding specific intent adequately put the jury on notice that it could not convict if it found that Rangel was voluntarily intoxicated. Although the strategy did not succeed, Rangel has failed to show that counsel was constitutionally ineffective. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689. There was no evidence to support an instruction as to voluntary intoxication, so counsel's performance was not deficient in not asking for one.

Rangel next argues that counsel was ineffective for failing to object to introduction of an unauthenticated recording. The Nevada Supreme Court did not run afoul of Strickland by concluding that counsel's decision not to object was reasonable. Rangel failed to provide his counsel with any reason to suspect that the recording was not authentic and has not shown that an objection would have helped the defense. Even a successful objection on the ground of failure to authenticate would have allowed the detective, as a prosecution witness, to identify the voice as Rangel's and explain that he recognized Rangel's voice because he had extradited Rangel after Rangel fled to Washington prior to the trial. Repeated references to the recording would only have emphasized its probative value.

Rangel next argues that counsel was ineffective for conceding guilt. But counsel, in arguing Rangel was not guilty of burglary, said no more than that Rangel may have been guilty of lesser, uncharged crimes. The Nevada Supreme Court reasonably concluded that counsel consulted Rangel concerning the strategy. Moreover, the trial court specifically asked Rangel during trial if he consented to this strategy, which he did. Even if counsel did not adequately consult Rangel, the strategy was reasonable in light of the strength of the prosecution's case. See United States v. Thomas, 417 F.3d 1053, 1058 (9th Cir. 2005).

Lastly, the Nevada Supreme Court reasonably concluded that Rangel had failed to show that counsel harbored a conflict of interest that rendered him ineffective. Rangel has not shown that counsel had divided loyalty, but only that there was some disagreement between himself and counsel that the trial court resolved. See Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 350 (1980).

The district court properly denied Rangel's habeas petition under 28 U.S.C.  2254.

AFFIRMED.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/06/2017 (1960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tim Lawson is getting the band back together.

The retired band director at Killarney School has rallied dozens of former students to dust off their forgotten instruments to make music again.

Together, the 42-member alumni band will perform for one special engagement on Saturday, as part of Killarneys celebrations for Canadas 150th birthday.

Curt Struth/Killarney Guide Retired Killarney School band director Tim Lawson conducts a partial rehearsal of his alumni band earlier this month. The 42 musicians will come together for their first practice tonight, before their Canada Day concert on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Shamrock Centre.

Lawson, a 34-year band director, didnt know what to expect when members of the Killarney-Turtle Mountain Arts Council figured musically inclined high school graduates should be placed under his tutelage once again.

A lot of them hadnt played their instruments in 20 or 25 years, said Lawson, who is on the arts council.

I kind of said to them, tongue in cheek, its just like riding bike, but I didnt know if its going to be like riding a bike, he said, unsure of the amount of work ahead.

But by the end of their first rehearsal this month, he knew they would click.

He went from proposing a performance of O Canada and three other musical pieces, to adding two more songs to his initial plan, as well as a rendition of God Save the Queen.

Lawson has keen students to thank. Band members have asked to extend the length of practices, and have the band room opened up in advance.

Those unable to make the practices are watching YouTube tutorials as they relearn their instruments.

In Killarney and Winnipeg, some band members are scheduling their own rehearsals, playing outside on peoples decks.

Theyve really taken it seriously. I was saying, Jeez, I wish they were like that when they were in high school, Lawson said with a laugh.

One of them was saying, I practised more this last month than I did all the way through high school.

Most of the alumni live in the Killarney area, or are in town for the summer. There are five performers from Brandon, four from Winnipeg and one each from Manitou, Winkler and Estevan, Sask., he said.

Students who graduated from Killarney School on Monday are rubbing shoulders with alumni who got their diplomas 20 to 25 years ago, said Lawson, who retired from teaching in 2011. His daughter, Meagan, has led the schools band program ever since.

That whole mix has really been neat, he explained of the age range. The young kids have really enjoyed it and its good to see. Maybe they wont sell their instrument.

Lawson remembers telling his students to avoid selling their instruments after graduation when money was tight, a decision they may later regret.

Hes surprised how many listened, as only a few instruments had to be loaned out.

Tonight, all 42 members, including the out-of-towners, will play together for the first time, in preparation for their concert Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Shamrock Centre hall. The days packed festivities also includes an art exhibition in the Shamrock Centre foyer, beginning at 11 a.m.

Beside rehearsing their music, Lawson said the reminiscing and laughter has been memorable. A number of people stayed an hour and a half after one rehearsal, telling stories they remember from their band trips.

This is about having a good time and getting together and doing music, Lawson said. They have just been phenomenal.

Prior to this months practices, Curt Struth played his trumpet maybe 15 minutes in the 21 years since graduation.

Hes impressed by how quickly the alumni band has gelled.

There was one guy playing a solo at the first practice, Struth said. I dont think he picked up his sax in 20 years.

Jared Bartley, who plays baritone saxophone, was looking forward to his first rehearsal to listen to how badly he sounded.

Yet he exceeded his own expectations, to the extent he feels like he has never stopped playing.

Others might be pleasantly surprised, too.

I dont know what people are expecting out of us, but I think theyre going to be surprised by what they hear, Bartley said.

 ifroese@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ianfroese
Gale Hinton with the murals she has painted at Lookout Valley Elementary School Gale Hinton with the murals she has painted at Lookout Valley Elementary School Gale Hinton with the murals she has painted at Lookout Valley Elementary School Gale Hinton with the murals she has painted at Lookout Valley Elementary School Gale Hinton with the murals she has painted at Lookout Valley Elementary School Gale Hinton with the murals she has painted at Lookout Valley Elementary School Previous Next

Gale Hinton is back at Lookout Valley Elementary School creating murals for the students.

One hall way is about greatness begins here and follow your dreams which features several individuals, some from Chattanooga, who have done great things and can be an inspiration to the children. Images include Senator Bob Corker, Dr. Ben Carson, Tamara Jernigan, Irvine Grote, Ed Westcott, Margaret Vaughn, S. David Freeman, Bessie Smith, as well as Harriet Tubman, Michelangelo and Albert Einstein. This hallway is complete.

The other hallway is about imagination and features quotes and pictures of characters from the Wizard of Oz. Ms. Hinton began this hallway Friday and will complete it Saturday.

Ms. Hinton is the artist who painted the Lookout Valley Elementary School Ben Carson Reading Room and lobby, as well as a mural in the cafeteria many years ago. She has also painted many murals for TC Thompson Childrens Hospital.
If youre anything like us, Luis Fonsis Despacito has been stuck in your head for the past week.

Although it always goes something like this: Des - pa - cito, numa numa numa nu bra cito  we dont know the rest of the words.
St. Mary Boys National School in Lucan, Dublin has paid tribute to their lollipop lady on her last day of work, after 17 years.

Josie Brennan retired from the job yesterday after safely helping her last pupil cross the road.

To thank her for her service, the pupils, teachers and parents formed a guard of honour as they clapped and cheered her on her final walk up to the school.

Top tip: grab the tissues, especially for the moment shes seen thanking the crowd.

And the love didnt end there, since the video was posted on Facebook its been viewed over 15 thousands times and inundated with comments from parents and past students wishing Josie well.

Come hail rain and sunshine you got so many kids and parents across the road safely with always a welcome one commenter said.

You knew every child's name. Always a smile and a chat for us and our boys, another added.

H/T: The lads over at the Dailyedge.ie
A tiny Donegal community is celebrating today after it emerged a local shop sold a 500,000 EuroMillions Plus ticket in last nights draw.

With a population of just over a thousand people, the residents of Ramelton near Letterkenny are descending on Whoriskeys EuroSpar Store to check their tickets.

The shop sold the lucky winning Quick Pick yesterday. This is 14th EuroMillions Plus win in Ireland so far this year.

The winning EuroMillions Plus numbers were: 16, 17, 43, 47, 49

Owner of the winning EuroSpar store, John Whoriskey, said: "This is unbelievable. Ramelton is a small town just outside Letterkenny so you can only imagine the excitement in the community as news of the massive win spreads.

"The majority of our customers are local and there are also a lot of holiday homes in the area so who knows who it is.

"This is our first big Lottery win so wed encourage everybody who bought a ticket with us yesterday to check their tickets straight away."

There was one winner of yesterday's 100m EuroMillions jackpot, the winning ticket was sold in the UK.

The National Lottery advises players to check their tickets. If youre the lucky ticketholder, sign the back of the ticket and contact the National Lottery Prize Claims Team on 01 836 4444.
Gay rights campaigners will lead a major parade through Belfast city centre later, demanding the introduction of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.

This afternoon's demonstration will conclude with a rally in front of Belfast City Hall.

Trade union members, officials and activists in the Republic of Ireland are being urged to take the 'Love Train' from Dublin to Belfast to show support.

The train leaves Dublin's Connolly Station at 11.20am with marchers gathering at Belfast's Writer's Square from 2.30pm for the 'love equality rally'.

The Irish Congress of Trade Union's Equality Officer, David Joyce, says its a gesture of solidarity with the campaign in the North.

The ban on same-sex marriage is one of a series of sticking points holding up the formation of a new powersharing government at Stormont.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK and Ireland where same-sex marriage remains outlawed.

The DUP opposition to changing the law has attracted increased scrutiny across the UK since the party became the UK Government's kingmaker at Westminster.

Ahead of the event, a range of celebrities including Liam Neeson, Stephen Fry and Graham Norton voiced their support for the campaign.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also joined the leaders of all the main parties at Holyrood to call for a law change across the Irish Sea.

Amnesty International is one of the groups organising the parade, which will be headed by Belfast Lord Mayor Nuala McAllister.

NEWS: Thousands expected on Belfast march for #equalmarriage. Lord Mayor to help lead march to rally at City Hall. https://t.co/0i0eDloaFG pic.twitter.com/zPh0cLtZwn  Amnesty Int'l NI (@AmnestyNI) June 30, 2017

The DUP has used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism - the petition of concern - to prevent a law change, despite a majority of MLAs supporting the move at the last vote.

The party rejects any suggestion it is homophobic, insisting it is instead protecting the "traditional" definition of marriage.

Following March's snap Assembly election, the DUP no longer has the electoral strength to deploy a petition of concern in its own right, though it could still potentially combine with other socially conservative MLAs to do so.

'Demand Change' is the theme for Belfast Pride 2017. Celebrate your life. Demand Equality. Demand Change. See more: https://t.co/jawPbFjMYk pic.twitter.com/m1H12aodi6  Belfast Pride (@belfastpride) June 28, 2017

That will only be tested once, and if a devolved Assembly can be re-established out of the current political crisis in Belfast.

If the North's politicians fail to establish a new executive, direct rule from Westminster could be re-imposed.

If that were to happen, the responsibility for legislating on the region's marriage laws would be handed to the London government.
CAO students are being urged to consider STEM subjects ahead of this evening's Change Of Mind deadline.

It comes after a survey revealed a third of students do not see a career in the related subjects.

The BT Ireland survey was carried out among 615 second- and third-level students as well as those already in the workforce.

It found one in eight did not apply for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths because they felt the points were too high.

Figures also suggested more students in Ireland are more interested in a more defined career path rather than high earning potential.

It comes ahead of this evening's CAO Change of Mind deadline.

Registrar for Waterford IT Derek O'Byrne says students who are unsure about what they want to do should start with what they are interested in.

The window for prospective third level students who wish to change their mind closes at 5.15pm this evening.
The Prudhomme Fort Chapter of Colonial Dames Seventeenth Century recently placed a reference book in the downtown Chattanooga Public Library, entitled: Tennessee Society Colonial Dames XVII Century Ancestor Roster  2016.

The purpose of the roster is to honor colonial ancestors, who left their native countries seeking a new life in the New World. The ancestors faced adversities and great dangers to forge the foundation of our country.

The roster will help.





share their genealogical data in order to aid their descendants who are tracing their lineage. It will also provide information needed by those desiring membership in Colonial Dames XVII Century and other lineage societies.
The Taoiseach says the Jobstown verdict must be respected.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has rejected calls for a public inquiry after the Solidarity Party insisted it's members were the subject of a 'stitch up'.

But today Solidarity addressed a #JobstownNotGuilty campaign rally in Dublin and repeated its calls for the remaining charges to be dropped.

Leo Varadkar was asked for his opinion while attending a festival in Galway.

"I think it's important that we respect that outcome because it was a trial by jury and it's a jury who spent nine weeks considering all the evidence.

"They made the decision they did.

"Just because somebody wasn't convicted of false imprisonment doesn't mean that their behaviour, or the way the treated Joan Burton and Karen OConnell, was in any way acceptable and I don't think it was acceptable," he said.

Paddy Hill, of the Birmingham 6.



A reminder of the grim consequences of demonising a community.



Any community.#JobstownNotGuilty pic.twitter.com/YYNrNWs6lD  Ciaran Tierney (@ciarantierney) July 1, 2017

Meanwhile, Solidarity TD Paul Murphy has insisted the Government set up a public inquiry into the Jobstown trial.

He was acquitted along with five others this week for the false imprisonment of former Tanaiste Joan Burton and her assistant at a water charges protest in November 2014.

Despite the Justice Minister rejecting calls for an inquiry, Deputy Murphy told a campaign rally in Dublin today that he still thinks it is possible.

"The Government ruled out abolishing water charges.

"Governments always start out by ruling out the things they don't want to give, but if enough people raise their voices together and clearly demand it and are able to expose what happened in court, well then hopefully the Government can be forced to change their mind," he said.
Thousands of people have joined a major parade through Belfast city centre demanding same-sex marriage rights.

This afternoon's demonstration will conclude with a rally in front of City Hall.

The ban on equal marriage in Northern Ireland is one of several sticking points delaying the formation of a new powersharing government at Stormont.

It is the only part of the UK and Ireland where the practice remains outlawed.

The Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) opposition to changing the law has attracted increased scrutiny across the UK since the party became the UK Government's kingmaker at Westminster.

On Friday a senior member of the Democratic Unionists recognised its view may be in a minority across the UK but said the stance should be respected.

Ahead of Saturday's parade a range of celebrities including Liam Neeson, Stephen Fry and Graham Norton voiced their support for the campaign.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also joined the leaders of all the main parties at Holyrood to call for a law change across the Irish Sea.

Amnesty International is helping organise the parade, headed by Belfast Lord Mayor Nuala McAllister.

The DUP has used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism, the petition of concern, to prevent a law change, despite a majority of assembly members supporting the move at the last vote.

The party rejects any suggestion it is homophobic, insisting it is instead protecting the "traditional" definition of marriage.

Following March's snap Assembly election, the DUP no longer has the voting strength to prevent the measure in its own right, though it could still potentially combine with other socially conservative public representatives to do so.

That will only be tested once, and if, a devolved Assembly can be re-established out of the current political crisis in Belfast.

If politicians fail to establish a new ministerial executive, direct rule from Westminster could be re-imposed.

If that were to happen, the responsibility for legislating on the region's marriage laws would be handed to the London government.
An oil tanker and a bulk carrier have collided in the Dover Strait.

Seafrontier was heading to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, and the Huayang Endeavour was en route to Lagos, Nigeria, when they collided at around 2am on Saturday.

Both ships were damaged but no-one was injured and there was no pollution, the Coastguard said.

The tanker Seafrontier was loaded with 37,953 metric tonnes of petrol and had 27 people on board, while Huayang Endeavour was in ballast and had a crew of 22.
Two men have been arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences after landing on a flight from Turkey.

The men, both aged 21, from Leicester and Birmingham, were detained by West Midlands counter-terrorism detectives just after 10am on Saturday.
Ukraine has alleged that Russian security services were involved in launching a massive cyber attack which locked up computers across the world.

The Ukrainian security agency, known as the SBU, said similarities between the malicious software and previous attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure shows Russian intelligence services took part.

Ukraine was one of countries hardest hit by the attack on Tuesday, when computers at government agencies, energy companies and cash machines were temporarily disabled as their data was encrypted amid demands for ransom payments.

Russian companies, including the state-owned oil giant Rosneft, also said they were hit by the attack.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have collapsed since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and began backing separatists fighting forces loyal to Kiev in eastern Ukraine.

Most of the organisations affected by the attack recovered within 48 hours.

The SBU said the attackers appeared uninterested in making a profit from the ransomware program and were more focused on sowing chaos in Ukraine.

There was no immediate official response from the Russian government, but Russian lawmaker Igor Morozov said the Ukrainian charges were "fiction" and that the attacks were likely to be the work of the United States.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of sponsoring hacking attacks, including the hack of Ukraine's voting system ahead of the 2014 national election and an assault that knocked its power grid offline in 2015.

AP
More than 800 dignitaries, including current and past world leaders, have bid farewell to ex-German chancellor Helmut Kohl who was instrumental in uniting Europe.

Kohl, who died aged 87 on June 16, was the first person to be honoured with an official memorial event by the European Union in the French city of Strasbourg.

The memorial event was followed by Kohl's coffin, draped with the flag of the EU, being taken to the German city of Speyer for a requiem Mass and military honours.

He will be buried in a private ceremony at a cemetery in the city.

Kohl, Germany's leader from 1982 to 1998, was a German patriot and at the same time a European patriot, said EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

He was widely seen as having skillfully overcome the fears of Germany's neighbours when an end to the country's decades-long division into a communist east and a democratic west first became a realistic possibility in the late 1990s.

He drew on his friendships with several world leaders, often forged over hearty meals, to assure the Allied nations that beat Nazi Germany in the Second World War that his country no longer aspired to dominate others.

Several speakers recalled the poignant gesture of reconciliation in 1984, when former French president Francois Mitterrand and Kohl held hands during a ceremony at a First World War cemetery in Verdun, France.

French president Emmanuel Macron noted that it was Mitterrand and Kohl, two men who experienced the suffering of war on opposing sides, who were able to "overcome the terrible memories of their generation."

"Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves," said former US president Bill Clinton, citing Kohl's willingness to put international cooperation before national interests at key moments in history.

Kohl's vision and persistence had paid a historic dividend, said his successor Angela Merkel

"Without Helmut Kohl the lives of millions of people who lived behind the (Berlin) Wall until 1990 would have taken a completely different course, including mine," said Ms Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany.

"Thank you for the opportunities you gave me."

EU Parliament president Antonio Tajani said Kohl deserved "a place of honour in the European pantheon" for unhesitatingly extending the hand of friendship to fledgling democracies in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain.

AP
A 33-year-old man has been charged with the death of a patron at Summernats earlier this year.

Queensland resident Alister Spong is charged with culpable driving causing death. He was summonsed to appear in the ACT Magistrates Court in March, and will face court again this week.

The charge relates to an incident at the annual car festival in January, where Luke Newsome, 30, from Emerald in Queensland was killed after falling from the tray of a ute.

The death was the first in the event's 29-year history. It resulted in security at Summernats issuing a blanket ban on riding on the back of utes.

In the days that followed his death on January 6, Mr Newsome was remembered as a "top bloke" and a loving friend and partner who cared deeply about his family.
Two kindergarten students from Canberra have sacrificed birthday presents to help homeless young people and animals in need.

Canberra Grammar School students Sylvie Redwin and Sassi O'Brien held a combined sixth birthday party in June and asked their friends to make a donation rather than buy them presents. [Sylvie technically turns six in October.]

Kindgergarten buddies Sassi O'Brien (left) and Sylvie Redwin at their joint sixth birthday party where they asked their friends to donate to charity rather than give them presents.

Sylvie's mum Justine said lots of kids were attending the party and the girls quickly embraced the idea of using it to help others.

"We told them they could support whatever charity they liked and talked in fairly generic terms asking them if they wanted to help animals or homeless people or sick people," she said.
Other products, including materials laced with asbestos, are arriving with fraudulent compliance certificates. While spontaneous glass breakage is thought to be rare, Fairfax Media has been made aware of at least three buildings in Melbourne where a number of explosions have occurred. Construction law expert, Andrew Whitelaw, said a builder was recently forced to replace a number of glass balustrades on a residential tower in Melbourne's CBD due to the discovery of nickel sulfide impurities. "If there is too much nickel sulfide in the mix, then extreme changes in temperature can cause the glass to have a pressure point and fail," said Mr Whitelaw, a partner at TressCox Lawyers. There have also been two separate explosions in recent months at an inner-city apartment tower. Both incidents were caught on camera and show that if the glass had shattered just a few seconds later, pedestrians would have been walking directly underneath.

The company investigating the cause of the explosions, Roscon, believe the builder may have been given certificates by the manufacturer falsely claiming the glass underwent a heat soaking process to remove the nickel sulfide. The result of a suspected balcony explosion. Roscon's national general manager, Sahil Bhasin, said a heating process is meant to break any glass with nickel sulfide it in before it is sent out to the marketplace. "That's the preferred option  to bust in an oven in China  rather than to be put up on building facades," Mr Bhasin said. "But sometimes we are finding these processes are being cut out, maybe to save money."

Mr Bhasin said there were also three separate glass balcony explosions at a multi-storey apartment in Malvern late last year, and in that case the builder could not provide any documents showing compliance with Australian standards. He said when he approached glass manufacturers for testing data they often provided certificates that appeared to be falsified, because the date on the document was the date they asked for the data, months or years after the glass was actually manufactured. "They are just issuing certificates willy nilly," Mr Bhasin said. Missing glass following a balcony collapse in central Melbourne. There is evidence substandard building products are rife throughout the construction industry. A 2015 survey of 739 builders and trade contractors by the Housing Industry Association found more than 30 per cent had to replace building products used in their projects because they had failed.

Consumer Affairs Victoria received 771 complaints and enquiries about "major failures" of or defects in building goods in the last six months of 2016. The Housing Industry Association said fraudulent certification had been discovered with plumbing, electrical fittings, window, engineered wood and steel products. But building products were rarely tested by customs when entering the country, the association said. The Housing Industry Association's chief executive of industry policy, Kristin Brookfield, said she advised her members to check for spelling mistakes and "photocopies of photocopies" as signs compliance certificates may have been falsified. A new concern is the presence of asbestos in construction materials, including plasterboard, that has been declared "asbestos free" by manufacturers in China. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection said it did not have "a legislated role" to check imported building products conform to standards.

However Border Force has been proactively targeting the importation of asbestos and has made four discoveries of asbestos in building products. The continued rise in imported building products, some purchased online, has seen growing calls for a mandatory or voluntary certification scheme, where building products are tested before being declared safe for use in Australian buildings for certain uses. There are also demands for the existing regulations to be more rigorously policed, with Victorian Planning Minister Richard Wynne calling for more inspections to be conducted on building materials coming into Australia. "The federal government needs to play a more active role in preventing suspect materials from turning up on our construction sites," Mr Wynne said. Loading
Long hours. Barking orders. Burning food.

Jess Browning quickly learnt how to cope with these pressures when she signed up for a job as a chef 12 years ago.

It's all about bravado, says Green Park Dining chef Jess Browning. Credit:Chris Hopkins

What she did not expect in her first year apprenticeship was to be asked by her male boss why one of her breasts was larger than the other.

"I tried to laugh it off," Ms Browning says. "I was a bit taken aback."
Attorney Terry Olsen of Olsen Law Firm in Chattanooga will serve as chairman of the Tennessee Bar Associations International Law and Practice Section.

The International Law & Practice Section serves as a resource for Tennessee lawyers practicing in all aspects of international law focusing on private international law and international business transactions.

Attorney Olsen is involved with local, state, and international organizations which focus on business start-ups, multinational companies, entrepreneurs, family businesses, individuals for strategic cross-border business & family immigration planning with trade, tax, banking, and other relocation issues comprising the U.S.

Attorney Olsen has been chairman of the Chattanooga Branch of the British American Business Group, board member of the British American Business Group Atlanta, and president of the World Trade Society of Chattanooga.

Attorney Olsen is a frequent speaker on immigration & international law, and has also been published in several legal journals, and publications on immigration & international topics. Recently, Attorney Olsen was invited as a special speaker at National Taiwan University on trade and international investment between Taiwan and the United States.
Tel Aviv: When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet voted to renege on a compromise plan for a plaza where women and men could pray together at the Western Wall, the decision was widely viewed as a move to placate ultra-religious parties in the ruling government coalition.

But analysts and former government officials say there's another key factor at play: The rise of President Donald Trump has reinforced the perception among some in Israel's right-wing government that the clout of liberal non-Orthodox Jews in the US is diminishing.

"Because there is a Republican administration in Washington, considered by the Prime Minister to be more sympathetic to Israel than the Obama or the Clinton administrations, it gave the Prime Minister the confidence to go ahead," said Gideon Meir, the former director of Israel-Diaspora relations at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

The government last Sunday said it was freezing an 18-month-old agreement to expand an extra plaza along the wall in Jerusalem's Old City for the egalitarian worship favoured by Reform and Conservative Jews, as well as the Israeli feminist group Women of the Wall.
Hong Kong: Myanmar said that it would refuse to grant visas to three UN-backed experts responsible for investigating recent violence against Muslims in the predominantly Buddhist country, a move that threatens to further strain the government's relationship with the organisation.

"If they are going to send someone with regards to the fact-finding mission, then there's no reason for us to let them come," U Kyaw Zeya, the Foreign Ministry's permanent secretary, was quoted by Reuters as saying on Friday. He added that visas would not be issued to members of the mission or their subordinates, Reuters reported.

The move is sure to draw condemnation from rights advocates who accuse Myanmar's de facto leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, of allowing soldiers and security personnel to brutalise members of the Rohingya ethnic group, a persecuted Muslim minority, with virtual impunity.

Forces waged a four-month counterinsurgency in Rakhine state after an attack on a border post in October by hundreds of Rohingya militants that left nine police officers dead. Harakah al-Yaqin, a militant group that is believed to have popular support, as well as ties to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, led the assault.
Springfield quarry plan still unresolved as residents wait, worry

Conditional Use Hearing on a proposed quarry along Rt. 309 in Springfield may be nearing an end after two years. Here's what residents have to say.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) presented a check to Yardley Borough Police Chief Joseph Kelly for $68,600 for the purchase of a new police vehicle and motorcycle during a visit to the station. Our police put themselves on the line every day to keep our community safe, said Sen. Santarsiero. Dating back to when I was a Lower Makefield Township Supervisor more than...
Teen visits South Jersey in 50-state Flowers and Flags tribute to vets

Preston Sharp of Calif. visits veterans graves in Cinnaminson cemetery in South Jersey on 50-state Flowers and Flags tribute to their sacrifices
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at a welcome dinner hosted by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in Hong Kong, south China, June 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

President Xi Jinping reiterated the central government's firm commitment to "one country, two systems" on multiple occasions Friday, a day before the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

"The road ahead may not be smooth, but our commitment to 'one country, two systems' remains unchanged, and our resolve remains firm and strong," said Xi when addressing a welcome dinner hosted by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

The president compared the practice of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong over the past two decades to the growth of a seedling, which has become strong and robust despite wind and rain and yielded many fruits.

Hailing "one country, two systems" a great pioneering initiative by China, Xi said its practice, featuring socialism in the main body of the country and capitalism in certain regions, is unprecedented in human political history. "It is a breakthrough those before us made through exploration and with extraordinary courage. We the succeeding generation should practice and develop 'one country, two systems' with firm resolve," Xi said.

"We should have full confidence in ourselves, in Hong Kong and in our country," the president said, calling for persistent and unrelenting efforts to achieve even greater success in the practice of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong.

Riding in an open-top camouflage jeep, Xi, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspected the Chinese People's Liberation Army Garrison in the HKSAR at Shek Kong barracks Friday.

Xi told the troops to firm up the responsibility for and commitment to safeguarding "one country, two systems."

"The garrison is an important embodiment of national sovereignty, an important force to safeguard 'one country, two systems,' and an important cornerstone of Hong Kong's prosperity and stability," Xi said.

He urged the garrison to make efforts to enhance "combat readiness" so as to fulfill its role as a powerful stabilizing force.

The president's tight schedule Friday also included whirlwind meetings with local dignitaries, the HKSAR's first chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, the Macao Special Administrative Region's chief executive Chui Sai On, and central government officials based in Hong Kong and executives of Hong Kong branches of mainland enterprises and institutions.

During the meeting with a group of dignitaries from all walks of life of Hong Kong, Xi said the central government stands firm on the "one country, two systems" principle.

For Hong Kong, the focus is not whether the principle will change or not, but how to implement it comprehensively and accurately, Xi stressed.

Since Hong Kong's return to the motherland two decades ago, the successful practice of the "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong has won global recognition, Xi said.

New situations and new problems emerging in practice should be treated in a correct and reasonable manner, Xi said, adding ways must be found to solve the problems.

When difficulties are overcome and problems solved, progress is made in the practice of "one country, two systems," he said.

INSTITUTIONAL ADVANTAGE

Addressing the dinner held in honor of him Friday, the president called on Hong Kong to leverage its institutional advantage of "one country, two systems" to create new growth drivers and new space for development.

The practice of "one country, two systems" has given Hong Kong an "institutional advantage," enabling it both to share in the mainland's vast market and development opportunities and often serve as a testing ground for the country's new opening-up initiatives, Xi said.

By building on and leveraging its strengths, Hong Kong will surely be able to seize opportunities presented by economic globalization and regional cooperation to promote innovative local business start-ups, and develop new growth drivers, he said.

"The motherland has given and will always give a strong backing to Hong Kong," the president said.

Hong Kong has leveraged the combined advantages of "one country" and "two systems," continuously expanded its functions, and has played the role of "super-connector" between the mainland and the world in the past 20 years, said outgoing HKSAR Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying in his welcoming remarks at the banquet.

The continuous development of the country will give new and huge impetus to Hong Kong's social and economic development, and provide the young generation with a more diverse, larger and more colorful stage of life, he noted.

Enjoying a light moment on the eve of the return anniversary, the president attended a grand gala marking the event at the waterfront Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center Friday night.

The show culminated when Xi stepped onto the stage and sang in chorus the song "Ode to the Motherland" with the performers and the audience.

Xi arrived here Thursday to attend celebrations for Hong Kong's 20th return anniversary and the inauguration of the HKSAR's fifth-term government. Inspection of the HKSAR is also on the schedule for his three-day stay.
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A tragic film which details the final weeks of the life of a Measham teenager before she was murdered has won four national awards for its outstanding work highlighting the dangers of online grooming.

Kayleigh's Love Story, which was created by Leicestershire Police, beat 57 other films shortlisted for the prestigious EVCOM Platinum Award for the Best Film in all categories, announced at BAFTA's headquarters in Piccadilly, London, last week.

The film also won gold in the social media category, silver in the Laurus Award category and bronze in the charity and not for profit category.

Made by the force's communications and engagement directorate in association with Affixxius Films of Loughborough, Kayleigh's Love Story tells the story of the last two weeks in the life of schoolgirl Kayleigh Haywood.

Kayleigh Haywood was groomed online by Luke Harlow, a 27-year-old man she had never previously met, over a period of 13 days in November 2015 before she finally agreed to meet him at his Ibstock home. Two days later, she was raped and murdered by Harlow's next-door neighbour, 28-year-old Stephen Beadman, and her body dumped in a nearby field.

Beadman was jailed for 35 years for murder, rape and false imprisonment, and his neighbour Luke Harlow received a 12-year sentence for meeting a child following sexual grooming, sexual activity with a child and false imprisonment.

The short film, which was made last year, was initially screened to 55,000 schoolchildren from the age of 11 and is schools throughout Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

On January 3 this year it was launched online, and to date has been viewed by an estimated 35 million people worldwide.

The film, which is available in numerous languages has already won three other awards including Gold awards from The Royal Television Society and from DRUM, and has most recently been praised by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in a recent report of Child Protection.

Deputy Chief Constable Roger Bannister said: "The reaction to the film has been truly astonishing, and to have won this latest, and hugely coveted, national award is a remarkable achievement for a police force and all those who were involved in its production and distribution.

"The whole point of making this film was to warn children and adults alike about the dangers of online activity, and without doubt this film has already saved lives."

This is what happened:
has is expecting to cover more Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), with its initiatives focused on education and new tools to help them create online presence. The company is GST ready in terms of its systems tuned in to serve its SMB customers, added Shalini Girish, director  marketing solutions, Google.


Last month this reporter met President Aditya Ghosh and SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh at an industry event. A few days before the event, Singh had gone public with his ambition of operating a long-haul low-cost model and had said that it was time to think out of the box. At last months event, Singh joked and pointed towards Ghosh saying, They are the guys with the cash, they should be taking daring steps.



On Thursday, Ghosh did just that  he expressed interest to acquire state-owned carrier Air Indias international business. Ghosh also said if splitting the business was not possible, was willing to take over the entire scale of the business. The move has perplexed competitors and investors, and analysts are trying to make sense of how stake might help .

In a letter sent on Thursday evening to his employees, Ghosh said that if acquired, Air Indias operations would require significant restructuring. He also confirmed the company would not take any debt and liability that will be an overhang on the existing business.

I think what Ghosh is indicating that IndiGo will form a joint venture with a different company for the bid; wait for a few weeks, said an executive of a rival airline. They operate the A320 family; has jumbo aircraft like Boeing 777 and 787. In the past, acquisition at premium valuations in a bid to shore up market share has proved to be costly as market shares were not easily transportable compared to growing organically by augmenting fleet. Also, in the process, inherited aircraft of different make or models into their fleet, further compounding scheduling, maintenance and management issues, the executive added.

Brokerage firm SBI Capital, however, has a different view. It took a decade for IndiGo to scale up market share from 9 per cent to 40 per cent in the domestic market. At present, IndiGo has less than 10 per cent market share in the international market, serving seven destinations, whereas together with Air India Express has a 45 per cent share, serving more than 40 destinations. It also has code share agreements with multiple global airlines that connect many more destinations, SBI Cap said.

But how much IndiGo will have to shell out if it intends to take the bid forward? According to a report by ICICI Securities, at a possible EBITDAR margin of 15-18 per cent, the enterprise value of Air India could come to Rs 30,400 crore  7.6 times the EBITDA value of IndiGos current EBITDA. In addition to that, Air India has land and building assets worth Rs 8,600 crore and the airlines international slots and bilateral rights will add to the valuation.

The key takeaway from IndiGos bid seems to stem from the fact that, excluding debt servicing and depreciation, Air Indias operational cost structure has already seen a turnaround  a lot of costs emanate from sub-optimal route networks and sub-optimal fleet deployment, further improvement can be achieved by improving load and on-time performance, Anshuman Deb of ICICI Securities said.

As of now, IndiGo has maintained silence. Though, the stock has been reacting negatively since the of IndiGo expressing interest in Air India came out. There will be an overhang on the stock considering the long process of disinvestment, SBI Cap said.
Fearing that commercial banks in Odisha with steep NPAs (non-performing assets) may face curbs from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to expand their network, the state government has turned to and small finance banks to set up branches in the unbanked areas.


Spice Mobility will launch smartphones through a joint venture with Chinese handset maker Transsion Holdings, targeting customers at a price range of less than Rs 10,000 that is currently dominated by local players such as Micromax and Lava.
Chinese technology major (Shenzhen) Company, one of the largest internet in the world which owns instant messenger platforms QQ and WeChat, has lost a patent approval for its application related to online advertisement resources searching in India.
Prime Minister on Saturday said days before the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST), the Registrar of Companies had deregistered about 100,000 firms for irregularities. He also said data mining of money deposited in banks following demonetisation had revealed irregularities in transactions of 300,000 entities.
A case was filed against Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee CEO B D Singh and former chief priest V.D. Namburi on Saturday after a sadhvi levelled molestation charges against them.

The case has been registered by a Mumbai-based sadhvi in the Badrinath police station.

The sadhvi in her complaint stated that Singh and Namburi held her hostage and accused them of illegal property grabbing.

Superintendent of Police (Chamoli) Tripti Bhatt told ANI, that case has been registered under Section 120 B, 364, 506 and 509 under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Australian women born in South Asia are more likely to have a stillbirth than other women, perhaps due to a rapidly ageing placenta that cannot support the pregnancy, new research suggests.
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The 15th East Asia Forum was held Friday in central China's Hunan Province, discussing the construction of East Asia economic community among other major agendas.

The forum focused on reviewing 20 years of APT (ASEAN Plus Three) cooperation, motivating small and medium-sized enterprises in regional integration and formulating a blueprint for the East Asia economic community.

Nearly 100 officials, entrepreneurs and scholars from ASEAN countries plus China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (10+3), as well as representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat, attended the event in Changsha, provincial capital of Hunan.

The 10+3 cooperation model has become a prominent feature of East Asia and has boosted common, sustainable development and connectivity in infrastructure, trade and finance and people-to-people exchange, said Liu Zhenmin, vice foreign minister of China.

Under the new circumstances, all sides should strengthen coordination and deepen practical cooperation to push the 10+3 cooperation to new levels, he said.

China proposed to use the forum to draw a blueprint for the East Asia economic community as early as possible, said Liu.

The first East Asia forum was held in 2003 as an exchange mechanism under the 10+3 framework.
In its first statement on the Indian Armys on-going confrontation with a Chinese patrol and road construction party that began two weeks ago, New Delhi stated on Friday that it is deeply concerned at Chinas attempt to alter the status quo, which could have serious security implications for India.



This refers to Sikkims proximity to the Siliguri corridor  a narrow chickens neck that connects the northeast India with the rest of the country. Chinas army edging toward this corridor constitutes a nightmare for Indian defence planners.

New Delhis statement reveals that troops of the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) first intercepted a Chinese construction party on June 16 in the Doka La area of the Doklam Plateau in Sikkim. The incursion took place on Bhutanese territory, near the tri-junction of the borders of India, Bhutan and China. It quickly drew in Indian troops, which crossed into Bhutanese territory.

Explaining Indias involvement, the statement says: In coordination with the RGOB (Royal Government of Bhutan), Indian personnel, who were present at general area Doka La, approached the Chinese construction party and urged them to desist from changing the status quo. These efforts continue.



Highlighting further the coordination between New Delhi and Thimphu, the statement goes on: In keeping with their tradition of maintaining close consultation on matters of mutual interest, RGOB and the Government of India have been in continuous contact through the unfolding of these developments.



Using typically robust methods, Indian troops physically prevented the Chinese from building activities while New Delhi and Beijing have attempted to defuse the crisis.

The matter has been under discussion between India and China at the diplomatic level in the Foreign Ministries since then, both in New Delhi and Beijing. It was also the subject of a Border Personnel Meeting at Nathu La on 20 June, said the Indian foreign ministry statement.

Ten days later, with the Indian army in full control of the area where the incident took place, New Delhi has signalled a face-saver for Beijing: India is committed to working with China to find peaceful resolution of all issues in the border areas through dialogue.



The three-way confrontation came to public notice early this week, when TV channels repeatedly broadcast a video showing members of Indian patrol physically jostling with a Chinese patrol.

Business Standard has learnt authoritatively that the video in question relates to another patrol clash that took place elsewhere, much earlier. No video has been broadcast of the current confrontation in Sikkim.

Thimphu has played an active role in negotiations, although it does not have diplomatic relations with Beijing. Consequently, Bhutans diplomacy was conducted through its embassy in New Delhi. On June 20, the Bhutanese ambassador lodged a protest with the Chinese embassy in New Delhi.

On Tuesday Beijing had issued a statement claiming the Doklam plateau, based on the 1890 Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet.



Bhutan responded on Thursday, pointing out that Chinese road building directly violates the 1988 and 1998 agreements between the two countries to maintain peace and tranquillity on their border, pending a final solution.

Beijing is particularly furious at Indias intercession on Bhutans behalf. Its foreign ministry spokesperson declared: "The China-Bhutan boundary is not delineated, no third party should interfere in this matter and make irresponsible remarks or actions."



Further, "If any third party, out of hidden agenda, interferes it is disrespect of the sovereignty of Bhutan. We don't want to see this, as Bhutan is a country entitled to sovereignty by the international community.



New Delhis statement also pointed out that India and China had in 2012 reached agreement that the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalised in consultation with the concerned countries. Any attempt, therefore, to unilaterally determine tri-junction points is in violation of this understanding.



The statement urges China not to unilaterally change the status quo of the well-settled Sikkim-Tibet boundary. It notes: India and China had reached an understanding also in 2012 reconfirming their mutual agreement on the basis of the alignment. Further discussions regarding finalization of the boundary have been taking place under the Special Representatives framework.



While a shrill Chinese defence ministry has aggressively reminded the Indian Army chief of the 1962 military defeat of India, New Delhis statement today is more restrained: India cherishes peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas. It has not come easily.



While the crisis plays out, it has disappointed about 100 Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarover, who were to cross through Nathu La into Tibet, but whose entry was blocked by China when the crisis broke out. In 2015, China had accepted Indias request to allow pilgrims through Nathu La -- a relatively easier route than the other route through Uttarakhand. The yatra through Uttarakhand is continuing smoothly.
Jammu and Kashmir police chief S P Vaid on Saturday congratulated the security forces for killing top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari who was involved in the killing of six policemen, including an officer, last month.

"I congratulate police and other security forces for carrying out the encounter," Director General of Police (DGP) Vaid said.

"Lashkari was involved in martyrdom of six policemen," the state police chief said.

The top LeT commander was responsible for the killing of the six policemen, including Station House Officer (SHO) Feroz Dar last month in Achabal.

Bashir Ahmad Wani alias Bashir Lashkari was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Brenthi Batapora village of Anantnag district on Saturday.

He belonged to Sopshali village of Kokernag area in the same district.

The other LeT militant killed with Lashkari was Azad Malik alias Dada of Arwani village in Anantnag district.
A woman was today killed after she was caught in an exchange of fire between security forces and militants during an operation in Anantnag district of Kashmir.

Tahira, 44, sustained injuries during the encounter and was rushed to the district hospital, but she could not be saved, officials said.

Security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in Brenti-Batpora in Anantnag early today after they received information about the presence of militants, including a top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander there, a police official said.

He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the militants opened fire on security forces.

A police spokesman said the militants were using civilians as human shields and efforts are on to rescue them.

The operation was still on.
is making a first visit to Israel by an Indian prime minister next week, in a public embrace of a country that he has long admired for its military and technical expertise but which his predecessors kept at arm's length.

India has traditionally trodden a careful diplomatic line in the region, analysts say, wary of upsetting Arab states and Iran - upon whom it relies for its vast imports of oil - and its large Muslim minority. It has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, even as it quietly pursued ties with Israel.

But now Modi is lifting the curtain on a thriving military relationship. He will hold three days of talks with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to advance sales and production of missiles, drones and radar systems under his signature "Make in India" drive, officials in Delhi and Tel Aviv said.

The Indian leader will not travel to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestine Authority and a customary stop for visiting leaders trying to maintain a balance in political ties.

At home, the apparent shift in what has long been a bedrock of India's foreign policy risks sharpening criticism that the country's 180 million Muslims are increasingly being marginalized under Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which swept to power in 2014.

"Narendra Modi's visit to Israel will only strengthen its occupation of Palestine," said Asaduddin Owaisi, a member of the Indian parliament from a regional group that promotes Muslim rights.

In previous decades, under the left-leaning Congress Party, former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was a regular visitor to New Delhi, pictured hugging then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when the two were championing the Non-Alignment Movement.

In May, Modi hosted Arafat's successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and offered help in health and information technology, but the trip was low-key.

The scale of the ongoing collaboration with Israel dwarfs anything India is attempting with the Palestinians, officials say.

"We have a wide ranging partnership with Israel that ranges from agriculture cooperation to homeland security," said Bala Bhaskar, head of the foreign ministry's West Asia division.

He said India's ties with Israel and Palestine were important in their own right and neither should be viewed through the prism of the other. But an Israeli diplomat said Modi's standalone trip to Tel Aviv was an important signal.

The two sides are expected to announce strategic partnerships in areas including water, agriculture and space technology during Modi's visit.

But it is the defence relationship that is most advanced - India is now Israel's biggest arms market, buying weapons at an average of $1 billion each year.

Eli Alfassi, executive vice president of marketing at state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the country's biggest defence firm, said it was supplying India with drones, radar, communication systems and cybersecurity.

MISSILES, FOOD SECURITY

The centrepiece of the collaboration is the Barack 8 air defence system, built jointly by the two countries in a boost for Modi's campaign to develop a domestic defence industry.

"We are adjusting to the 'Make in India' policy which says only local companies will win tenders, so we are setting up three joint projects in India with local companies," Alfassi said.

IAI has signed a memorandum of understanding to build missiles with India's state-run Bharat Electronics Limited, launched a joint project with Dynamatic Technologies to make drones and is scouting for a partner for a joint venture for its subsidiary Elta, which specialises in electronic warfare and communication systems, he said.

India is in the midst of a military modernisation programme worth more than $100 billion to help counter rivals Pakistan and China.

Israel, the United States and Russia are India's top military suppliers, and Modi's government has said it will favour countries that are ready to share technology.

Avi Mizrachi, executive vice president of business development for Israel and Southeast Asia at Elbit Systems, which supplies electro-optic systems and upgrades of helicopters and combat vehicles, said it would be bidding for a tender to supply drones in partnership with the Adani group.

The two countries stress, though, that there is more to the relationship than arms deals.

Modi will be discussing a plan for Israeli help in boosting India's food security, officials said.

The plan is to expand 26 agriculture expertise centres that Israel has set up in 15 Indian states to help increase output of everything from vegetables to mangoes and pomegranates.

Modi wants Indian companies involved in turning these small centres into commercial entities that would help tens of thousands of farmers to boost productivity.
Bhaskar Vira teaches at the department of geography and is a fellow of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. He is also director of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute. He tells Aditi Phadnis about the need to incorporate ecological wisdom into our everyday decision making.
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For the second time in less than a year, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is putting India through a revolution in the way the country does business.
The goods and services tax (GST), at the break of dawn on Saturday, ran up against strikes, protests, and apprehensions across the country, reminiscent of the manner in which the value-added tax received resistance more than 10 years ago.
Mobile phone bills are expected to go up while recharges would yield less talktime for prepaid customers from today under the new Goods and Sevices Tax (GST) regime.

Under GST, telecom services are to be taxed at 18 per cent, against 15 per cent earlier.

This means you will get a talktime of about Rs 80 on a recharge of Rs 100, compared with about Rs 83 earlier.

Similarly, costs for postpaid users would also go up to the extent of three percentage points. So, for a monthly usage of Rs 1,000, users will have to pay Rs 1,180 instead of Rs 1,150 currently.

However, it remains to be seen whether telecom operators choose to absorb some impact of the increased tax levy (as they can claim input credit) or pass it on entirely to their customers.

Emails to telecom operators remained unanswered.

A number of retailers in the city remain clueless about the impact of the new tax regime on telecom services.

"It is only tomorrow once we start recharging for customers that we will get to know how much talktime the customer is getting. But going by simple calculation, it (talktime) is expected to be lesser," said one of the shopkeepers in the bustling Connaught Place area.

He added that it will take a few days for the situation to normalise.

Many customers who walked in for recharges, too, seemed unaware of what the GST roll out would mean for prepaid services.

Telecom operators are already under intense pressure, inflicted by newcomer Reliance Jio's competitive pricing. The industry had expected some relief from the GST Council in the form of a lower tax slab for telecom services.

However, the same was increased following which industry lobbyists made multiple representations stating that telecommunications is an essential service and should attract a lower tax rate of 5 per cent.

"Today it (industry) is saddled with an unprecedented debt of more than Rs 4.5 lakh crore, with revenues of less than Rs 2 lakh crore ... We are hopeful that the government will ... Revise the current rate of 18 per cent, which is fairly high to the requested rate of 5 per cent," Cellular Operators' Association of India Director General, Rajan S Mathews told PTI.

This rate of five per cent is better aligned to telecom as it is an essential service and critical infrastructure, he opined.
Consumers will have to shell out more for banking services, insurance premium payments and credit card bills with the from tomorrow.

Under the Goods and Services Tax, effective midnight tonight, most of the financial services would attract a higher tax of 18 per cent as against 15 per cent as of now.

Banks and insurance companies have been already sending messages and mails to their customers about the new tax rates which would be charged.

"Dear policyholder, revision of service tax on account of GST will come to effect from July 1, 2017," said a Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) message.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) informed its customers that "with effect from July 1, 2017, the existing service tax of 15 per cent levied on all the banking services will be replaced by a GST of 18 per cent."



Common banking services that would attract higher service tax include debit card, fund transfer, ATM withdrawal beyond the number of free services, home loan processing fee, locker rentals, issuance of cheque books/drafts/duplicate passbooks, collection of bills, collection of outstation cheques, cash handling charges and SMS alerts.

Besides, life and non-life premiums would see an increase from 15 per cent to 18 per cent.

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company Chief Financial Officer Gaurav Seth said the premium amount on a term insurance policy will be 18 per cent from 15 per cent currently.

"In case of endowment policy, the first year premium is liable to be taxed at 4.50 per cent with effect from the mid- night today from existing 3.75 per cent and on subsequent year premium, it will rise by 0.38 per cent to 2.25 per cent," Seth said.

Bank of Maharashtra CEO and MD Ravindra P Marathe said with GST will result in increased cost of almost all services offered to customers.

The nation will witness the official rollout of GST in a live telecast tonight from the Parliament's Central Hall.

The rollout is to be graced by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Modi. Prime Minister Modi's Cabinet colleagues including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and others as well as eminent dignitaries from the industry and acclaimed fields will also be present.
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Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on Friday urged solid efforts be made for people in poverty-hit regions.

Wang made the remark at a meeting of the State Council leading group on poverty relief.

He said that it is essential to stick to the goal of targeted poverty alleviation, meaning appropriate resources should be used on the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

Areas suffer from abject poverty are prioritized in receiving funds and projects, according to Wang, who heads the group.

There were still 43 million people in rural areas living in poverty at the end of 2016. China aims to help all of them out of poverty by 2020.

This year, China plans to reduce poor population by over 10 million, including 3.4 million through relocation.
Former US President Barack Obama has pointed to the importance of the while criticising Donald Trump for pulling the worlds biggest economy out of the pact.
A Kashmiri militant commander on Saturday denounced his designation as a terrorist by the United States, vowing to continue his armed fight against Indian rule over its part of the divided Himalayan territory.
South Korea must give US automakers a fair shake to sell more cars there and stop exporting dumped steel, President told his counterpart Moon Jae-in during talks at the White House.
In the race to lure talent for global firms regional headquarters, and Singapore have long been neck-and-neck. While many companies make their managers locate in one or the other city  often depending on whether their duties focus more on Southeast Asia, or on China  give top talent a choice.
The US State Department will unveil later today the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, rating among countries of the worst record when it comes to human trafficking. What is your response to this?
The US aims to export more high-quality and safe farm products to China to help balance trade between the two countries as it marks its first shipment of beef in 14 years.
Americas airports are where long lines, crowds, and the Transportation Security Administration combine to make life miserable. But once the metal detectors, explosives-sniffers, and pat-downs are behind you, suddenly all is transformed into boutiques, bars, and restaurants.
President warned a divided Hong Kong that challenges to Chinas rule wouldnt be tolerated and said the citys leaders must find new ways to profit from Chinese economic clout.
Photo taken on June 27, 2017 shows celebration posters near Tamar Park in Hong Kong, south China. July 1, 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. [Photo/Xinhua]

July 1 marks the 20th anniversary of the British return of Hong Kong to China and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). To mark this important milestone, a wide range of activities will be held.

The HKSAR government reportedly is spending HK$640 million to celebrate under a theme of "Together, Progress, Opportunity." Undoubtedly, it is a celebration of national glory, a celebration of the values of "one country, two systems" which is the foundation on which Hong Kong will continue to prosper as one of the world's great cities.

On July 1, 1997, after 137 years of British colonial rule, Hong Kong was officially handed back to China and became a special administrative region under a promise of no change in its political system and way of life within the following 50 years.

On that day, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin declared: "The return of Hong Kong to the motherland after going through a century of vicissitudes indicates that, from now on, Hong Kong compatriots have become true masters of this Chinese land and Hong Kong has now entered a new era of development."

Over the past 20 years, Hong Kong citizens have been enjoying their democratic rights without losing any of their unique identity or autonomy, thanks to the precise implementation of the principle of "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law. With the staunch support of the central government, Hong Kong has thus been able to maintain its overall prosperity and stability.

There is no doubt that the practice of the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law and the "one country, two systems" principle first developed by the late Deng Xiaoping, has been a success. Indeed, President Xi Jinping described it as a "great success" while meeting with Hong Kong's Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor last April 11.

However, in recent years, some separatist groups have sought to hurt Hong Kong's prosperity and stability by advocating "self-determination" and even "Hong Kong independence." Yet, the great majority of Hong Kong people know neither is possible, and that the city's fate is firmly tied to the motherland. Hong Kong citizens need to better understand the full nature of the "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law.

It's really unfortunate that some local Hong Kong media, along with Western mainstream media, are deliberately fueling the activities of extreme opposition forces in Hong Kong. In the name of protecting freedom of speech and publication, a few Hong Kong booksellers, for example, are engaged in publishing and selling books that attack China's political system.

It is ridiculous that some Hong Kong legislators, including Nathan Law Kwun-Chung, and student leaders of the Hong Kong Occupy protest, Joshua Wong, poster boy for the so-called "democracy," have been idolized in the Western media. It is a fact that, in the 20 years since reunification, people from all walks of life in Hong Kong are experiencing extensive rights and freedoms.

In an editorial in the People's Daily on January 17, 2017, China condemned separatist forces: "What so-called Taiwan independence and so-called Hong Kong independence have in common is that they are hell-bent on destroying the country and bringing disaster to its people, under the banner of [so-called] freedom and democracy."

On March 26, the Hong Kong electoral committee of nearly 1,200 people chose Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as the fifth chief executive of the HKSAR. This is an example of "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong." She will take command as its first female chief executive on July 1.

Beijing and Hong Kong have both benefited economically from the 1997 handover. Today, Hong Kong's economy is doing better than most other free market economies in the world as far as statistics are concerned. Hong Kong's gross domestic product expanded almost 50 percent to $309 billion between 1997 and 2015.

Mainland bankers and Chinese companies are boosting their presence in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has become a stop on the tourist circuit for millions of mainland Chinese. It is the top destination for mainland real estate investment, reaching over HK$40 billion last year. The Chinese central government has pledged to boost Hong Kong's role in China's economic development with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Today, relations between Hong Kong and the mainland have warmed as the 79-day Occupy Central movement of 2014, commonly known as the Umbrella Movement, and the Mong Kok riots last year have faded away.

It is necessary for the 7.3 million people of Hong Kong to uphold the "one country, two systems" principle for the city's economic success. There can be nothing but praise for the "one country, two systems" that strengthens closer contact between Hong Kong and the mainland in win-win cooperation.

Rabi Sankar Bosu, Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
In a rare feat, two of the Indian filmmakers have walked home with the Hollywood International CineFest 2017 awards.

Rakesh Kumar's 'After Ever After' won the Best Feature (English) category, while BidyutKotoky's 'Rainbow Fields' won the Best Feature (Foreign) category.

The festival, held at AMC Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles from June 24-25, received over 400 submissions and films from the U.S., the U.K., France, China, South Korea, Cambodia and Hong Kong besides India.

The official selection included World Premieres of 'Easy Money' and the North America Premieres of 'Before The Fall' (Cambodia's entry to 2017 Oscars) & Sam Heughan's 'Emulsion.'

"While very different from each other, there are some striking similarities between 'After Ever After' and 'Rainbow Fields'," said Zack Zublena, Festival Director.

"Both the films have a particular emotional appeal, both have a child as one of the leads and both used colors in a very cinematic way. We are very proud of these two film-makers whose art truly transcends geographical limits," Zublena added.

To decide the winner, the festival looked to the audience and ballots were given out at each film's screening and five audience members per screening were asked to rate the film on a scale of one to ten.

In Rakesh Kumar's debut feature, the protagonist, Nik Patel struggles to cope with the terminal illness of his nine-year-old daughter.

Based on his personal experiences, the film is a story of human endurance against insurmountable odds.

"All human beings are born fighters and true fighters pick up the sword even when defeat is nearly certain," quips Rakesh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
All the six accused named in the FIR regarding the murder of inmate Manjula Shetye inside the Byculla Jail, have been arrested by Mumbai Police today.

Earlier yesterday, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Bombay High Court seeking Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inquiry in the murder case of Shetye.

The High Court observed that issue of security of jail inmates has become important and it needs to be looked into.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday assured the truth in the Byculla jail violence, involving Sheena Bora murder accused Indrani Mukerjea, would come out soon.

"Whatever the truth is, will come out soon," Fadnavis said.

However, the Mukerjea's lawyer demanded the special Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) court to record her statement and to conduct a medical examination.

Mukerjea's lawyer had filed an application in the special CBI court, claiming that she was assaulted by the jail authorities after the death of a convict, Manjula Shetye, sparked a protest in the prison.

Reportedly, over 200 women inmates, including Mukerjea, were booked for rioting and criminal conspiracy inside the Mumbai's Byculla jail.

The Nagpada Police also filed an FIR against six women prison staffers, including the jailor for the murder of Shetye.

On August 25, 2015, Mukerjea was arrested by the Mumbai Police in connection with the alleged murder of her daughter in 2012. She was charged under Sections 302, 201 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Since September 2015, Mukerjea has been held in judicial custody at a women's-only prison in Byculla Jail.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Saturday came down heavily on Prime Minster Narendra Modi for remarking that there has been drastic reduction of Indians depositing black money in Swiss Banks after his government took charge, and asked for proper proof on the same.

Congress leader Salman Khurshid said that the Prime Minister was just 'narrating a story' and it was not necessary to believe what he said.

"This is just a story he is just narrating. Whatever speeches that are made by the Prime Minister, the government fails to prove it with facts. We will not believe whatever he says," Khurshid told ANI.

Expressing similar views, another Congress leader Kapil Sibal attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for failing to fulfill its promises on black money.

"On what basis he is saying I don't know, but the promise made by the BJP during elections that every citizen's bank count will be transferred has not taken place so far. Till now we have not retrieved any black money," Sibal told ANI.

Congress leader Anand Sharma instead sought "account of his mis-performance and betrayal of the people by non delivering on the promises the prime mistier made".

Quoting a report by the Swiss Bank, Prime Minister Modi said that there has been a 45 percent drop in the deposit by Indians in foreign accounts, the lowest ever in years.

"Swiss Bank in its report has stated that there has been a 45 percent drop in the deposit by Indians, the lowest ever witnessed in years," said Prime Minister Modi.

He further informed that two years from now, the Swiss Bank in its report will be presenting a consolidated version of real-time data, which will pose a serious issue for those who have been depositing money in accounts abroad.

"Over three lakh registered companies are now under the scanner after the demonetisation drive. In the last 48 hours, one lakh more bogus companies have been sealed, merely by the stroke of a pen", he said adding that this is a result of prioritising patriotism over politics.

With regards to the 'havala trade', Prime Minister Modi also revealed that over 37,000 shell companies have been identified, adding that strict action will be taken against those indulging in money laundering and other such activities.

"A country where a select few loot, such a nation cannot scale new heights. These select few never want the nation to grow. Those who have looted the poor will have to give back what they have looted," the Prime Minister said in his address at the foundation day of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

He added that the Government of India has taken a tough stand against those who have looted the nation.

"There is a ' Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan' and there is a movement to clean the nation from the menace of corruption," Prime Minister Modi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The new website of the Herald publication was officially unveiled in New Delhi today.

The newspaper's commemorative edition was released by President Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Vice President Hamid Ansari, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Associate Journal Limited (AJL), the company controlling Herald, chairman Motilal Vora, and Herald Editor-in-Chief Neelabh Mishra were also present in the event.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi tweeted about the event with the hashtag #NationalHeraldIsBack'.

The National Herald was launched in September 9, 1938 from Lucknow with by India's first and former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru as the editor. He served the post until his appointment as the prime minister.

The paper had editions from Lucknow and New Delhi.

Following the Quit India resolution of 1942, the Britishers clamp down the Indian press and the newspaper was shut down between 1942 and 1945.

The Herald reopened in 1945 and from 1946 to 1950 Feroze Gandhi, former prime minister Indira Gandhi's husband, served as the paper's Managing Director.

The paper was later shut down after Indira's defeat in the 1977 General Elections, post the emergency period. By 1986, the paper again faced the prospect of closure but was revived a year later following former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's intervention.

The Lucknow operations of the paper were shut down in 1998 and much of its property auctioned off under court orders to settle outstanding debts

In January 2008, discussions about the closure began and On April 1, 2008 the paper's editorial in New Delhi announced that it was temporarily suspending operations.

At the time of its closure T V Venkitachalam was its editor-in-chief.

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August 22, 2022, Monday

Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai said that there will be pro and anti-beliefs and arguments on noted personalities, but it must ...
At least two to three militants including top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander have been holed up inside a building in the Dailgam village in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district.

A lady identified as Tahira Begam has been killed during the cross firing between the militants and the security forces.

The cordon and search operations are being conducted.

"After receiving specific information regarding presence of militants in Dailgam's Birnhi Batpora, security forces laid a cordon in the wee hours. While the cordon was being laid some militants outside a house fired upon which the security personnel retaliated. In the cross firing one lady sustained injuries and later on succumbed. However, some militants are holed up in the house. Efforts are on to take out the civilians out of this house," Police said.

Further details are awaited.

Earlier on June 24, two terrorists, who were holed up inside the Delhi Public School in Srinagar's Panta Chowk, were neutralised by the security forces the next day.

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The Director General of Police, (DGP) Jammu and Kashmir, S. P. Vaid hailed the state police and security forces who gunned down two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists, Azad Malik and commander Bashir Lashkari.

Speaking to ANI, Vaid said, "Two militants have been neutralized; one of them is Bashir Lakshari and he was involved in martyring six policemen. Bashir Lakshari had a criminal record of the highest order involved in six cases including this current attack. I complement the policemen, officers of the state and security forces for doing such a commendable job. This operation was a joint one".

Earlier in the day, two terrorists, Azad Malik and Bashir Lashkari were gunned down by the security forces during an encounter in the Dailgam village in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district on Saturday.

A lady identified as Tahira Begam was killed during the cross firing between the terrorists and the security forces. Meanwhile, a boy also succumbed to his injuries later in the day.

"After receiving specific information regarding presence of militants in Dailgam's Birnhi Batpora, security forces laid a cordon in the wee hours. While the cordon was being laid some militants outside a house fired upon which the security personnel retaliated. In the cross firing one lady sustained injuries and later on succumbed. However, some militants are holed up in the house. Efforts are on to take out the civilians out of this house," police said.

Earlier on June 24, two terrorists, who were holed up inside the Delhi Public School in Srinagar's Panta Chowk, were neutralised by security forces the next day.

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Oscar nominated actor James Cromwell has been sentenced to seven days in jail for his role in a protest in New York.

According to The Independent, the 'Babe' star was sentenced to a week in Orange County Jail after he refused to pay the 375 USD fine.

The file is related to his role in a protest in New York.

Cromwell, who starred as Farmer Hoggett in the 1995 adaptation of Dick King Smith's book 'Babe,' was one of six environmental protestors found guilty of obstructing traffic when they staged a sit-in on the site of Competitive Power Ventures' prospective natural gas-fired power plant.

They all were protesting over claims that carbon emissions from the CPV power plant would pose a threat to the local environment.

Following an appeal, all the three defendants can now pay the fine till July 14.

On the work front, Cromwell is set to star in the sequel to 2015's 'Jurassic World', alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.

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India on Saturday called on Pakistan to grant consular access to Indians lodged in their custody including Mumbai resident Hamid Nehal Ansari and former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Both countries also exchanged lists of nationals lodged in the jails of the other country, in consistent with the provisions of the Agreement on Consular Access between both the neighbouring countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in this statement stated that, "India remains committed to addressing on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen. In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation."

The Consular Access agreement between New Delhi and Islamabad was signed on May 21, 2008, as per which the comprehensive list of nationals of each country lodged in other country's jails has to be exchanged twice each year, which takes places every year on January 1 and July 1.

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Saturday disapproved that the cases of lynching in the country rose in the three years of the Narendra Modi Government, stating that the atrocities took place comparatively higher in the previous Congress regime.

"In 2011, 2012 and 2013, lynching cases were much more than three years of our government, but no one raised questions then. Even when Akhlaq was lynched, the Samajwadi Party (SP) was in the government. The law and order comes under the state subject, hence the responsibility fell on the SP, but they instead took out dharnas against Prime Minister Modi," Shah said.

Shah's comment came hours after President Pranab Mukherjee condemned the recent string of brutal lynching incidents emerging from across the nation.

He urged the country to pause and reflect and asked the people to be proactive enough to save India's basic system of belief.

"With the change of history we can see colonialism now as dominance, exploitation by one power to another power. When we see on the TV and read the newspapers that an individual has been lynched, and when the mob frenzy becomes so high and uncontrollable then we have to pause and reflect," the President said at the re-launch of the Herald website.

"I am not talking of vigilantism, I am talking of are we vigilant enough proactively to save the basic tenets of our country?" he questioned.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly voiced out against the lynching incidents, saying that there are growing atrocities against innocent people in the guise of cow protection.

"Killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something that Mahatma Gandhi would have approved. There is no place for violence in the society," Prime Minister Modi said at Sabarmati Ashram centenary celebrations in Ahmedabad.

The Prime Minister asserted that violence is not a solution of any problem and no one has the right to take the law in his or her own hands in this nation.

A Jharkhand man was attacked by a mob on the suspicion carrying beef in his car on Thursday.

He was stopped by a group of people near Bajartand village before being brutally killed.

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Condemning the recent string of brutal lynching incidents emerging from across the nation, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday called on the country to pause and reflect if they are being proactive enough to save India's basic system of belief.

"With the change of history we can see colonialism now as dominance, exploitation by one power to another power. When we see on the TV and read the newspapers that an individual has been lynched, and when the mob frenzy becomes so high and uncontrollable then we have to pause and reflect," the President said at the re-launch of the Herald website.

"I am not talking of vigilantism, I am talking of are we vigilant enough proactively to save the basic tenets of our country?" he questioned.

The President's assertion comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday strongly voiced out against the lynching incidents, saying that there are growing atrocities against innocent people in the guise of cow protection.

"Killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something that Mahatma Gandhi would have approved. There is no place for violence in the society," Prime Minister Modi said at Sabarmati Ashram centenary celebrations in Ahmedabad.

The Prime Minister asserted that violence is not a solution of any problem and no one has the right to take the law in his or her own hands in this nation.

However, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's condemnation of violent cow vigilantism is "too little, too late".

Rahul said that words mean nothing when actions out do them.

Just hours after Prime Minster Modi condemned the killings in the name of cow protection, a Jharkhand man was attacked by a mob on the suspicion carrying beef in his car on Thursday.

He was stopped by a group of people near Bajartand village before being brutally killed.

The van was later set on fire.

A case has been registered on the basis of a video footage of the lynching.

Superintendent of Police Kishore Kaushal said a thorough investigation will be made into the whole incident.

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Pakistan has banned the Tehreek-e-Azadi Jammu and Kashmir (TAJK), which was a rebranding of Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ul-Da'awa (JuD) after he was put under house arrest and a crackdown was launched against the outfit.

TAJK's name was mentioned in the National Counter Terrorism Authority's (NACTA) list of proscribed organisations that also mentions that the outfit was banned on June 8, 2017, reports the Express Tribune

Earlier in January, the JuD and its wing the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) were placed on the watch list and put on the second schedule under Section 11-EEE (1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

In 2012, the United States announced a bounty of USD10 million on Saeed for his alleged role in 2008 Mumbai attacks.

.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has given nod to extend tit-for-tat sanctions until December 31, 2018 against the European Union (EU).

On June 29, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the Russian government would recommend prolonging the counter-sanctions as he recalled that earlier the EU had extended sanctions against Moscow, reports TASS.

On Wednesday, the EU formally extended its economic sanctions on Russia, imposed in July 2014 in response to Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.

According to Euro news, Putin has also suspended payments to the Council of Europe until the Russian delegation's full rights are restored.

All European food products are banned under the sanctions. The aviation and energy sectors have also affected.

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Opposition's Presidential candidate Meira Kumar on Saturday said that it is a shame that the election has been turned into fight between "Dalit vs Dalit", adding that her nomination was supported by 17 major opposition parties unanimously.

"When Ram Nath Kovind and I were nominated, it became caste issue. Shameful that Presidential election has been turned into Dalit vs Dalit. 17 major Opposition parties unanimously selected me as presidential candidate. The unity is based on firm ideological position," Kumar said while addressing a press conference here.

She added that people of this country want development, good roads and infrastructure and it's time that their thoughts should also be clean.

"We have people living in this country who are suppressed and marginalised for years. With the freedom movement, we have pledged that we will bring them up at par with others and will ensure them dignity, development, security and would mainstream them. This is our ideology and we have worked for this for years," Kumar asserted.

On July 17, the electors will cast their votes to elect the next President of India.

Counting of votes for the Presidential election will take place on July 20 and on July 25, a day after incumbent Pranab Mukherjee demits office, India will get its 14th President.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday extended its support to Opposition candidate Meira Kumar in the Presidential polls.

According to sources, Kumar had called up AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal herself two days to garner support from his party.

This comes after the former Lok Sabha speaker also appealed to all elected representatives to support her in this election.

"It's not just a contest for the supreme position of land. It's a very strong articulation of what we stand for and our ideology. I will put all my efforts to become the kind of leader this diverse and culturally rich country needs," Kumar said.

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The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), constituted by the Supreme Court to probe Panama Leaks case has summoned almost entire family of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for interrogation in the Money laundering case.

The first call has gone to Nawaz Sharif 's cousin Tariq Shafi, who will have to appear before JIT on July 2. The team has also summoned Nawaz Sharif's children Hassan Nawaz on July 3, Hussain Nawaz on July 4 and Maryam Nawaz on July 5th, 2017.

Nawaz Sharif family members will have to face the evidences of alleged money laundering provided against them by a former deputy director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to the Joint Investigation Team.

FIA's former deputy director, Inam R. Sehri, has submitted a 248-page report about fictitious bank accounts allegedly used by the Sharif family for money laundering and a 500-page report regarding investigation into the construction of a motorway to the JIT, the Dawn reported.

According to the details, the team will review tax returns and other documents related to the businesses of Sharif family. The members will also collect the evidence for the preparation of the final report that is to be submitted in Supreme Court (SC) on July 10.

A five-member SECP team headed by the head of Companies Registration Office (CRO) based in Lahore on Friday submitted additional records related to the companies of the Sharif family including Hudaibya Paper Mills, Chaudhry Sugar Mills and Ittefaq Foundries to the JIT.

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With the prices of gold, silver, diamonds and other jewellery articles are set to increase with the incorporation of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST), natives here took to jewellery stores to make their purchases, with shops open post midnight owing to the rollout of the much-awaited tax regime.

Starting today, a three percent tax will be levied on gold and diamond jewellery, as discussed in the 15th meeting of the GST council held last month.

Owing to this, shoppers came in large numbers to complete their purchase before the rollout, thus avoiding the surcharge post the GST.

Milan Saha, an employee of a jewellery store here said while the prices of gold and diamond jewellery are set to increase, the incorporation of the GST is seen as a boon for traders and the jewellery industry in general.

"Manufacturing of jewellery articles happens mainly in Mumbai, Rajkot, Kolkata and Coimbatore. Earlier, we did not get any refund on inter-state taxes. With the GST coming into force, we will be availing these, and therefore, it is good for our industry," Milan told ANI.

In a historic moment for the Indian economy, the much-awaited tax regime was rolled out in a special midnight session of the Parliament, in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, among other dignitaries.

Ending more than 11 years of hectic argument among the Centre and the states, the GST will implement from July 1 to completely transform the indirect taxation landscape in the country involving both the Central and State levies.

The biggest tax reform since independence - GST - will pave the way for realisation of the goal of One Nation - One Tax - One Market.

It will benefit all the stakeholders namely industry, government and consumer as it will lower the cost of goods and services give a boost to the economy and make the products and services globally competitive, giving a major boost to 'Make in India' initiative.

Under the GST regime, exports will be zero-rated in entirety unlike the present system where refund of some of the taxes does not take place due to fragmented nature of indirect taxes between the Centre and the States.

However, GST will make India a common market with common tax rates and procedures and remove economic barriers. GST is largely technology driven and will reduce the human interface to a great extent. GST is expected to improve ease of doing in India.

The GST Council has decided the final structure of GST as follows:

 The threshold limit for exemption from levy of GST is Rs. 20 lakh for the States except for the Special Category, where it is Rs 10 Lakh.

 A four slab tax rate structure of 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent and 28 percent has been adopted for GST.

 A cess would be levied on certain goods such as luxury cars, aerated drinks, and pan masala and tobacco products, over and above the GST rate of 28 percent for payment of compensation to the states.

 The threshold for availing the Composition scheme is Rs. 75 lakhexcept for special category States where it is Rs. 50 lakh and they are required to file quarterly returns only. Certain categories of manufacturers, service providers (except restaurants) are out of the Composition Scheme.

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A day after launching the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that those who have looted the nation will have to pay for their deeds.

"A country where a select few loot, such a nation cannot scale new heights. These select few never want the nation to grow. Those who have looted the poor will have to give back what they have looted," the Prime Minister said in his address at the foundation day of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

He added that the Government of India has taken a tough stand against those who have looted the nation.

"There is a 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan' and there is a movement to clean the nation from the menace of corruption," Prime Minister Modi said.

The Prime Minister also sought to draw focus on the government's strict action against shell firms who indulged in dubious dealings.

Yesterday, Members of the Union Cabinet lauded Prime Minister Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and others for the successful rollout of the GST.

Earlier, hailed as the 'most ambitious economic reform' in India, the GST was launched during a midnight session of Parliament in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and other dignitaries.

However, the Congress yesterday termed its skip of the midnight launching of the GST as an ideological boycott.

The Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Prime Minister Modi has convened a special sitting of the Parliament at the Central Hall tonight to witness the rollout of the new tax regime from tomorrow.

The Congress on Thursday announced boycotting the midnight rollout of the GST and termed it Modi government's tamasha (drama) and 'publicity stunt'.

Senior Congress leader and former Cabinet Minister Anand Sharma that Congress' skip is an "ideological boycott" for many reasons.

He said that first and foremost objection is that the Modi Government is attempting to take full credit of the GST.

The Congress leader said that when Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had had brought the GST then only one chief minister had opposed it, who was then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Defending its decision to skip Parliament's special midnight session tonight, Sharma called it an insult to 1947 and termed it as an ideological boycott.

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United States President Donald Trump spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday to discuss the dispute between Qatar and Gulf and Arab states.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut off economic and diplomatic ties with Qatar earlier this month and issued an ultimatum with 13 demands, accusing Doha of supporting extremist groups.

Qatar, however, denies the claims.

The White House, in an official release, said Trump and Erdogan spoke about ways to overcome the crisis "while ensuring that all countries work to stop terrorist funding and to combat extremist ideology."

Turkey has backed Qatar in its rift with the Arab states and is seeking to mediate the crisis.

"President Trump emphasised the importance of all our allies and partners increasing their efforts to fight terrorism and extremism in all its forms," the White House statement added.

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17 people were injured after a gunman opened fire at a nightclub in Little Rock city of Arkansas in the United States.

According to the Little Rock Police, the shooting ensued after a dispute at the nightclub and it is not a terror related incident.

"We do NOT believe this incident was an active shooter or terror related incident. It appears to have been a dispute at a concert," tweeted the Police.

It added that no fatalities have been reported.

"#UPDATE as of now ALL 17 confirmed shooting victims are alive. We will provide additional updates as needed," it said in another tweet.

Meanwhile yesterday, an ex-doctor of the New York City hospital opened fire inside the facility, killing a woman and wounding six people before turning the gun on himself.

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The White House(WASHINGTON) -- In his weekly address, President Trump touts the Houses passage of two bills this week, aimed at strengthening the countrys immigration laws, before urging the Senate to follow suit.



We need security, Trump said. We need safety in our country. And I call on members of both parties to stand united with victims to stop these terrible and senseless crimes from ever happening in the first place.



Read the president's full address:



My fellow Americans,



This week, I was joined at the White House by American families whose loved ones were killed by illegal immigrants.



Many of these illegal immigrants had extensive criminal records and had been repeatedly deported.



Every single one of these deaths was preventable.



These beautiful American lives were stolen because our government refused to do its job. If the government had simply enforced our immigration laws, these Americans would still be alive today.



That is why, since the day I took the oath of office, I have been restoring the enforcement of our immigration laws and the protection and defense of our borders.



These courageous Americans joined me at the White House to call on Congress to pass two bills that I campaigned on during the election. If enacted, these bills will save countless Americans lives. The first bill, Kates Law, is named for Kate Steinle, who was killed by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times. This law will enhance criminal penalties for those who repeatedly re-enter our country illegally.



The second bill, the No Sanctuary For Criminals Act, will block federal grants to jurisdictions that shield dangerous criminal aliens from being turned over to federal law enforcement.



On Thursday, I am glad to report, these two bills passed the House of Representatives. This represents a crucial step toward ensuring our public safety and national security.



I want to thank Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte for his dedicated work on these critical bills, as well as other crucial legislation that will soon be considered as well. I also thank leadership for advancing these lifesaving measures.



I now call on the Senate to take up these bills and send them back to my desk for signature as soon as possible. We need security. We need safety in our country. And I call on members of both parties to stand united with victims to stop these terrible and senseless crimes from ever happening in the first place.



This legislation presents a simple choice: either vote to save and protect American lives, or vote to shield and comfort criminal aliens who threaten innocent lives. And theyve been shielded too long.



As we head towards the Fourth of July, we remember now more than ever to cherish our freedom. The foundation of freedom is the rule of law. It forms the bedrock of our Constitution and the cornerstone of our way of life.



So this Independence Day, while we're enjoying treasured time with our friends and loved ones, let us not forget the families who have an empty seat at the table this year.



And let us pledge that from now on, we will protect, defend and save American lives. Thank you.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
On 26 July 2017

Nestle India will hold a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company on 26 July 2017, to consider Unaudited Financial Results for the quarter and half year ending 30th June 2017.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

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The Ministry of Textiles on Saturday signed as many as 65 MoUs in the textile sector on the second day of the first of its kind mega exhibition Textiles India 2017.

"The MoUs were signed between various domestic and international organisations from the industry and government," an official said.

The MoUs were signed in presence of Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State, Textiles, Ajay Tamta.

The MoUs signed relate to exchange of information and documentation, research and development, commercialisation of handloom products and silk production, cooperation in geo-textiles, skill development and supply of cotton and trade promotion with overseas partners.

"In two days, we have signed 65 MoUs. We are hoping a large scale of investment. Here is a government which is here for redressal of your grievances. The government is also willing to listen the problems you face," Irani told a investors meet here after signing the MoUs.

She said that among 65 signed MoUs, three were signed with Australia, Bangladesh and China.

Irani said that the current age is a golden era for development of textiles industry.

--IANS

bns/pgh/

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Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday sanctioned Rs 3,56,700 from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, on humanitarian grounds, to facilitate the return of a Gurdaspur resident from a ship he is stuck in at Sharjah Port.

In response to a letter from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Amarinder has directed that the amount be released against pending wages of Vikram Singh, who has refused to leave the ship, along with five other Indian nationals, on account of non-payment of their salaries for the past several months.

Swaraj, in the letter to the Chief Minister, said the Indian Consulate in Dubai, which had been asked to inquire into the matter, had informed her ministry that Vikram and the others were stuck on the "Sharjah Moon" ship, owned by a Pakistani national's company, M/s Alco Shipping, Sharjah.

The consulate said in its report that the sailors had not been paid their salaries for six to 12 months and the owner of the ship was refusing to cooperate in the matter despite the best efforts of the consulate.

Swaraj said while the consulate was helping the sailors and was willing to pay their return air fares, they did not have any provision for payment of their outstanding wages.

"She, thus, sought the state government's help in this regard, requesting payment of the pending wages on humanitarian grounds," a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.

The spokesperson said Swaraj has assured of Vikram's repatriation at the earliest, once the state government makes the payment against his pending wages.

--IANS

js/nir/bg

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The "Babe" actor James Cromwell, also an activist, has been sentenced to a week in a New York jail in lieu of a fine for obstructing traffic during a 2015 sit-in against construction of a natural gas-fired power plant in New York state.

He was arrested in Wawayanda here on December 18, 2015, with five others who dubbed themselves the "Wawayanda Six", according to the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, New York.

After being found guilty of disorderly conduct earlier this year and each being fined $250 plus a $125 surcharge, half the members of the group paid up before the Thursday deadline while the other three - including Cromwell - refused, the Times Herald-Record reported.

On Thursday, the three who didn't pay got seven days in jail, though their attorney requested time to appeal, and the judge suspended the sentences until July 15, the paper said, reports latimes.com.

The 77-year-old actor made up his mind a while ago not to pay, telling the paper on June 7: "I will not pay this fine. I will go to jail, and I will appeal."

The six were part of a larger group protesting the CPV power plant, which they believe will be harmful to the environment; CPV disagrees with those assertions.

Construction has proceeded, and the plant is scheduled to go online in February 2018.

--IANS

nn/bg

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An eerie quiet engulfed the grounds of Dhaka's Holey Artisan Bakery on Saturday as people, including politicians and foreigners, gathered to pay their respects to the 22 victims, including 17 foreigners, of Bangladesh's worst terrorist attack on its first anniversary.

The Gulshan-2 building which was the scene of the attack no longer houses a restaurant, but has been converted to a residence for the owners, bdnews24 reported.

The building was opened to the public briefly on Saturday to allow mourners to pay their respects to the memories of the departed. Embassies and organisations placed wreaths at the site.

On the evening of July 1, five gunmen burst into the eatery and started firing indiscriminately. They turned off all the lights, held the diners hostage and sorted out targets through a test of reciting verses from the Holy Quran.

They then brutally killed the hostages with guns and machetes, and used the victims' phones to publish images of the bodies on the social media.

Around 12 hours later, para commandos stormed the restaurant and killed the six militants. Twenty hostages were brutally murdered with the cafe's floor strewn with bodies.

Two police officers were killed in the attack.

Japanese Ambassador to Dhaka Masato Watanabe and the Japan International Cooperation Agency's Country Director for Bangladesh Mikio Hataeda arrived at the Holey Artisan Bakery in the morning to pay their respects and placed flowers at the site.

Italian Ambassador to Dhaka Mario Palma and other members of the embassy too arrived at the building.

The ambassador presented flowers and gave a speech expressing his sorrow and his condolences. Some mourners broke down. The delegation was escorted out by police and did not speak to the media.

Seventeen of the victims of the Gulshan militant attack were foreign nationals. Nine victims were Italian and seven were Japanese. The Japanese victims were working on various development projects in Bangladesh.

One of the victims was an Indian girl Tarishi Jain, a student of the University of California in Berkeley. Her father had a garment business in Bangladesh.

Bipul Kumar Samaddar, the managing director of Italian buying house Studio Tex, led a delegation from the company to pay respects to the memory of his predecessor, Nadia Benedetti.

Reporters were not allowed to gather in front of the Holey Artisan gates in the morning, but were later allowed inside, bdnws 24 said.

"The foreign delegations requested that no photos be taken of their mourning," DMP Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Jasim Uddin told the media.

A delegation of Bangladesh police led by Additional IG Mokhlesur Rahman came to pay respects to Police Assistant Commissioner Rabiul Islam, Inspector Salauddin and the other victims of the attack.

"We had not experienced such an incident before. That day we took a decision to issue a challenge and fight this danger with our blood and with our lives. We did not want Bangladesh to be known as a terrorist state," Mokhlesur said.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader led a delegation from the ruling party.

"Militancy has not been wiped out, but it has been weakened," Quader told reporters after paying his respects. "We cannot simply rely on state power. A platform must be developed using the power of patriotic unity."

The people must fight the sponsors of terrorism, he said.

Quader also praised the law-enforcement agencies for the success of their operations, saying that Bangladesh's security forces had bravely tackled militancy.

The opposition BNP delegation, led by Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, also paid their respects.

"We want no mystery surrounding this incident," Rizvi said after presenting the flowers. "Various foreign organisations have said the attack was planned by the Islamic State, but the government denies it."

"The government must unravel these mysteries and dispel the fear and anxiety among our people."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Border Security Force (BSF) has handed over a Pakistani woman who had inadvertently crossed into Indian territory in the Amritsar sector in Punjab, a BSF official said on Saturday.

The Pakistani woman, Nimmo, aged around 55-60 years, hailing from Kila Da Jawar in Pakistan, was apprehended by the BSF troopers on Friday evening in the operation area of Border Out Post (BoP) Pulmoran in Amritsar sector.

"She had crossed the international boundary inadvertently and entered Indian territory. The Pakistan Rangers were contacted (late on Friday) and the apprehended lady was handed over to them at about 11.50 p.m. being an inadvertent border crosser on humanitarian grounds," BSF Deputy Inspector General R.S. Kataria said.

This year, the BSF has handed over nine Pakistani inadvertent border crossers to the Pakistan Rangers.

Security along the 553-km long international border in Punjab with Pakistan is always on high alert.

Security agencies have been extra cautious following the terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot in January 2016 and the terror attack in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district in July 2015.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress has accused the BJP of acting in a "high-handed" manner, after it organised a welcome meeting for party president Amit Shah within the premises of Dabolim International airport in Goa.

"Airport authority officials, who allowed this meeting should be penalised along with all the Ministers and MLAs including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah for conducting the illegal public meeting inside the airport," All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary Girish Chodankar said on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday morning, Shah, who arrived in Goa on a two-day visit, had addressed a meeting of nearly 2,500 party workers in the premises of Goa's only airport, located around 40 km from Panaji.

"This as a total and complete abuse of power by the power-intoxicated BJP," Chodankar added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested a man in connection with the disappearance of a visiting Chinese graduate student last seen on June 9 in the University of Illinois campus, the media reported.

FBI nvestigators think the student, Yingying Zhang, 26, is probably dead, the US attorney's office for Central Illinois said in a statement on Friday.

Brendt Christensen, 27, of Champaign, Illinois, was charged with kidnapping, CNN quoted the statement as saying.

Christensen was under surveillance on Thursday when agents overheard him saying he kidnapped Zhang. He said he took the Chinese student back to his apartment.

"Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement agents believe that Zhang is no longer alive," the statement said, without offering further details.

The FBI says Christensen was driving the black Saturn Astra that was captured on security camera video picking up Zhang the afternoon of June 9.

She was seen entering the front passenger side of the vehicle, which then drove away.

On June 15, Christensen admitted picking up Zhang but he told the FBI that he let her out just a few blocks away, reports CNN.

Zhang had a year-long position at the university's department of natural resources and environmental sciences. She graduated from Beijing's Peking University last year with a master's degree in environmental engineering.

Christensen's first court appearance is on July 3.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin on Saturday said the "idiotic" US decision to designate him a global terrorist will not make any difference to the "legitimate" struggle for "freedom" of Jammu and Kashmir, a report said.

Salahuddin was reacting to the US State Department's announcement designating him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), at a press conference at the Central Press Club in Muzaffarabad, Dawn online reported.

Earlier, he received a warm welcome in the city and at many spots people showered rose petals on his vehicle.

The Hizbul chief, in his traditional appearance, emerged out of the sunroof of his vehicle and waved to the crowd and made the victory sign.

At the presser, he termed the Donald Trump administration's move as "idiotic" and taken to "please and satisfy" Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi "without any reasoning and grounds".

He was designated as global terrorists hours ahead of a meeting between Modi and US President Donald Trump.

"We have slapped this idiotic step back on the face of both leaders to make the world understand that this foolishness can neither weaken our resolve, nor stop the freedom struggle and the target-oriented actions by the freedom fighters," he said at the crowded press conference.

"Wars are fought with courage and spirit that makes you use even a stone as an atomic bomb," he said, referring to the stone pelting by youths in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the US and India could not quote a single incident to prove that the Kashmiri freedom fighters were terrorists. "This decision will cast no effect on our determination. Rather it has already strengthened our resolve," he added.

Salahuddin claimed that even the American laws themselves did not support Trump administration's decision. "It does not meet a single of the conditions for designating anyone as a global terrorist," he said, while reading these conditions from his cell phone.

"This is a challenge from Syed Salahuddin," he said and added: "You cannot quote a single example, which can be defined as an act of terrorism which I have myself committed or ordered to be committed during the last 27 years of the uprising."

Salahuddin claimed that Kashmiri militants did possess the ability to hit Indian interests anywhere in India, but "we exercised restraint, so that India does not get an opportunity to gain favour of the international community and brand our legitimate and lawful struggle as terrorism."

It was the Indian army that was committing terrorism in Kashmir, he said, Dawn reported.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hundreds of people from south Kashmir districts on Saturday marched to a village to attend the funeral of slain LeT commander, Bashir Lashkari who was killed in a gunfight with security forces.

As news about Lashkari's death spread in Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian districts, people using all modes of conveyance started reaching Sopshali village in Kokernag area where the militant commander belonged.

Authorities have so far not handed over the bodies of the two militants, Bashir Lashkari and his associate Azad Malik, to the relatives for the last rites.

It is believed that the bodies will be handed over to the next of kin late on Saturday evening to avoid any face off between the mourners and security forces.

Following the death of the two LeT militants, train services between Baramulla and Bannihal towns were suspended.

The District Magistrate Anantnag ordered closure of all educational institutions in the district earlier in the day when a gunfight between the militants and security forces was going on in Brenthi Batapora village in Dialgam area of Anantnag district.

State DGP S.P. Vaid said Bashir Lashkari had been involved in the killing of six policemen, including SHO Feroz Dar in Achabal area last month.

Lashkari carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

Two civilians, a middle aged woman identified as Tahira and a 22-year old youth identified as Shadab Ahmad, were killed in cross firing between the security forces and the militants near the shootout site.

Separatist leaders have called for a protest shutdown in the Valley on Sunday against the killing of the two militants and the two civilians in Brenthi Batapora village.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Automobile major Hyundai Motor India on Saturday reported a 5.6 per cent decline in its domestic sales for June 2017.

According to the company, its domestic sales decreased to 37,562 units from 39,807 units off-take for the corresponding month of 2016.

However, the company's January-June sales edged up by 4.1 per cent to 253,428 units from 243,442 units.

"In a challenging market fuelled with speculations on the GST tax structure; Hyundai registered highest ever half year (H1: Jan -June 2017) domestic sales at 2,53,428 units with a growth of 4.1 per cent on account of strong acceptance of super performer brands Grand i10, Elite i20 and Creta in Pre-GST business environment," Rakesh Srivastava, Director - Sales and Marketing, HMIL said in a statement.

"We expect a positive demand pull post the successful implementation of GST in the coming months as industry will witness heightened level of customers' interest in a seamless unified single market."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India will set up 20 world class institutions across the country to promote research and innovation, said Union Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday.

"The government has decided to establish 20 world class institutions across the country to encourage the young talent do research and promote innovation in science and technology," Javadekar told students of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here.

Asserting that through research and innovation the country could achieve sustainable prosperity, the minister said institutions like the IISc would not face a financial crunch as it would be adequately funded.

"GST (Goods and Services Tax) will enable the government to provide more funds to health, education, research and innovation," reiterated Javadekar while interacting with the faculty and research scholars of the premier institute.

The new indirect tax regime (GST) came into force from Saturday across the country after President Pranab Mukherjee unveiled it in Parliament at the stroke of midnight.

IISc Director Anurag Kumar and other students were present on the occasion.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Civil aviation regulator DGCA on Friday initiated a probe into a near-miss between an IndiGo flight and an aircraft operated by a government agency at a height of 26,000 feet over Jammu and Kashmir.

The central government owned aircraft is believed to be from BSF's fleet.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi was reported to be travelling on board the BSF aircraft. However, this could not be independently verified.

The budget passenger carrier IndiGo in a statement said that its alert pilot and a state-of-the-art anti-collision system -- TCAS-RA -- installed on its aircraft helped avert the mid-air collision at a height of 26,000 feet.

"IndiGo flight 6E-653 (Delhi-Srinagar) was maintaining FL 260 (26,000 feet), reciprocal aircraft was climbing out of FL 250 (25,000 feet), when our pilot alerted the Air Traffic Control (ATC), but before the ATC could react, TCAS-RA alerted our aircraft to take action to avoid any untoward situation," the airline said.

"IndiGo pilot followed SOPs (standard operating procedures) and filed the necessary report. IndiGo proactively informed the regulator," it said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Israeli army bombed a Syrian military position from which it claims a rocket was fired from the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel, in the fourth incident of this type to occur in less than a week.

The rocket hit an unpopulated area of the Golan Heights and was the result of internal strife in Syria and left no damage, Efe news cited an Israeli army note as saying on Friday.

In response, an Israeli army aircraft targeted a Syrian military position from which Israel claims a mortar was launched, said a second statement.

It is the fourth time in less than a week that projectiles have fallen from Syria, as a result of the approach of the fighting to the border with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned after the latest incident on Wednesday that the Israeli army will respond to any such attacks.

Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, numerous shells have fallen in the part of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since 1967, which are often the result of stray fire in the fighting although others have been considered intentional.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On the first day of business under the GST regime on Saturday, there was mixed reaction from traders -- iconic outlets to the small roadside shops -- in Kolkata but many complained of being totally clueless about the new system.

While some jacked up prices to pass on the enhanced tax rates to the consumers, others said they were bearing losses, unable to fathom the billing procedure.

But Flury's, the legendary tearoom on fashionable Park Street, said everything was smooth at their outlet.

"We are not at all feeling the GST impact. In the chocolates category, there is a slight increase because the GST slab for chocolates is 28 per cent. But the prices of most of the products are the same," Chef Vikas Kumar told IANS.

"Everything is very smooth so far," he added.

Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick, the famed shop of traditional Bengali sweets in south Kolkata's Bhowanipore, said it has started taking GST from the customers, though the entire system was not yet clear.

"We are yet to install the software. We are updating the system. Things are not fully clear to me," a spokesman told IANS over phone.

The outlet was selling its popular aam-doi (mango-yoghurt) for Rs 31.50 by adding five per cent GST to the original price of Rs 30.00.

"Similarly, in case of chocolate based sweets, we are adding 28 per cent GST to the previous prices and then explaining it to our customers," he said.

But Raj Kriplani, a cosmetic shop owner, seemed tense, even as he lauded the new indirect tax regime.

"In my opinion, GST will be good for country and it will bring transparency. But we are going through a lot of confusion while implementing it. It seems all products have different rates. Also, we have an added job of starting the billing procedure from scratch. That will take a couple of weeks." Kriplani said.

The proprietor of Maya electronics, a mobile retailer in suburban Agarpara, expressed apprehension that the new system might hit the industry adversely.

"The implementation of GST can take a toll on the industry and also on the retailers due to the changed tax structure. A number of mobile phone brands have reduced production by 10-15 per cent to avoid oversupply," he said.

"Dealers, on the other hand, are now refusing to stock products of manufacturers that either aren't GST-registered or haven't come clear on GST cover for old stock. There is also an amount of uncertainty over margins and that is stopping retailers and distributors from stocking up," the proprietor told IANS on condition of anonymity.

The manager of an electronics shop, Genesis, in south Kolkata's Tollygunge, said they would have to wait and watch whether television and air-conditioner sales take a hit after taxes on both products shot up to 28 per cent under GST as against the 26 per cent tax levied earlier.

"The hike in price might be an issue with regard to ACs, but we will have to wait and watch. It's too early to comment.

"As far as television is concerned, well it's an all time high purchase product. Let's monitor consumer behaviour for some time. We are in a quandary," a shop employee said.

A local saloon in Netaji Nagar was mulling increasing rates if they had to buy shaving cream paying more price post GST.

"We will take a call accordingly. We don't want to increase haircut prices but we could be forced to. Our hands are tied," the saloon owner said.

A medicine shop in South Kolkata, that does roaring business daily, complained that the "abrupt GST launch" has landed them in a soup.

"We are at our wit's end to figure out how to sync ourselves with the new system. We have applied for our GST number, but not yet received it. We have no idea when they (the authorities) will give it.

"They have started the new system abruptly. We are clueless on how we will bill the customers now, what will be the quantum of tax. Even our accountants are in the dark," said the manager, who requested that neither the shop nor he should be named in the report.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Opposition candidate in presidential election Meira Kumar on Saturday appealed to Karnataka legislators to vote for her in the July 17 President's poll.

"As I am contesting for ideology and not power or prestige, it is important that you vote by your conscience for values and principles that are sacred to our people," Kumar told the legislators of the ruling Congress here.

She visited Karnataka as part of the presidential poll campaign.

As the opposition candidate backed by 17 parties, the former Lok Sabha Speaker is contesting against the formidable ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

The members of Parliament and legislatures of states across the country will vote to elect the country's 15th President.

Denying that she was made scapegoat to enter the poll fray after the NDA fielded Kovind, Kumar told reporters later that the contest should not be seen through caste or creed but on principles and ideology.

"I carry forward those values and principles which are sacred to our people across the country. I am contesting to uphold them," said Kumar, who launched her campaign at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on Friday.

Daughter of Dalit leader and veteran Congressman Babu Jagjivan Ram, Kumar also called on former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and sought the support of his regional party -- Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) -- in the election to the country's highest office.

She regretted that the presidential election was seen by some people through the prism of caste as the main contenders were coincidentally Dalits.

"It is shameful that election to the President's post is being seen in that manner. We should come out of such mentality. When candidates from higher castes contested in the previous presidential polls, it (caste) was never an issue. Why now?" Kumar retorted.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate for the President's post Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday arrived here and sought the political parties' support in the July 17 presidential polls.

Kovind was received at the airport by the BJP leaders. He met former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and sought the support of the legislators belonging to his faction. He would also meet Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and seek his faction's support.

The presidential nominee also met former Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy.

The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu is divided into three factions led by Palaniswami, Panneerselvam and the party's Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who had taken a break to visit his 93-year-old maternal grandmother in Italy, has returned after almost three weeks.

Gandhi on Saturday attended the launch of the commemorative publication of the Congress party's organ "National Herald", which was attended by President Pranab Mukherjee, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi, among others.

Before taking a break, Gandhi had posted on Twitter: "Will be travelling to meet my grandmother and family for a few days. Looking forward to spending some time with them."

Rahul was conspicuous by his absence when Congress President Sonia Gandhi announced former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar's name as the presidential nominee of the informal grouping of 17 opposition parties.

He was also not present on the day (June 28) Kumar filed her nomination for the election to the highest constitutional post of the country.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia, China and the US are able to come to terms on cooperation in addressing international problems.

The three countries should work together instead of making alliances and competing with one another, Lavrov said at the Primakov Readings International Forum on Friday.

"It is impossible to say that the model in which the United States and China unite against Russia, or Russia and China unite against the United States will be productive," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

"But I believe it is quite realistic for our three countries to understand, taking into account their influence on world affairs and the world economy, how they can help solve international problems," he added.

Lavrov also expressed hope that Russia and the US could "clarify" their bilateral relations during a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, at the G20 summit to be held next week in the German city of Hamburg.

"We expect that the meeting between our presidents in Hamburg, which was announced, will bring clarity to the issue of the prospects of Russian-US cooperation," he said.

The Primakov Readings International Forum, which started in 2015 in memory of late former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, kicked off Thursday and is due to conclude later Friday.

Aimed at establishing a platform dedicated to issues related to the world economy, and security, this year's forum focuses on Russia-US relations, Russia-Europe relations and the Ukraine crisis.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed satisfaction over the status of strategic partnership with Beijing, the launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Islamabad's membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Speaking at the Foreign Ministry, Sharif appreciated China's role for improving Pak-Afghan relations, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

Sharif visited the ministry to undertake a comprehensive review of Pakistan's foreign policy priorities in the wake of the latest developments in and around the country. reports Xinhua news agency.

"The Prime Minister appreciated China's role for improving Pakistan-Afghanistan relations and also recalled his recent meeting with President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of SCO Summit and their agreement to evolve a bilateral and quadrilateral mechanism for controlling cross-border terrorism," the statement said.

He directed the ministry to prepare initiatives on Afghanistan and also on building economic and trade linkages to promote Pakistan's development.

Sharif underscored the importance of securing peace and stability in the region through sustained dialogue and the high importance that Pakistan attached to its continued partnership with the US.

He reiterated his priority for a peaceful neighbourhood and resolution of disputes through dialogue.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A standoff continued on Saturday following a cross-firing between security forces and holed-up militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, police said.

Bashir Lashkari, a militant commander believed to have masterminded an ambush in Achabal area where six policemen including a Station House Officer (SHO) was killed last month, is hiding in a house in Brenthi Batpora village with three of his associates, top police sources told IANS.

"There is a civilian family inside the house...It is a hostage situation and our first priority is the their safety," the sources added.

The cross-firing began after security forces launched an operation in the village following a tip-off about the militants hiding in the house.

A woman civilian, identified as Tahira, was killed in the incident.

Meanwhile, locals started pelting stones at the security forces. Twelve protesters were reported to be injured.

"Additional forces have been rushed to the spot including paramilitary troops and a helicopter to secure the safe release of the civilians trapped in the house," the police added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Automobile major Tata Motors on Saturday reported that its total sales including exports during June declined by nine per cent to 40,358 units from 44,525 vehicles sold during the same month last year.

The automobile major said its domestic sales for last month fell by five per cent to 36,854 units from 38,718 units sold in June 2016.

"Mixed consumer sentiments in June 2017 towards the implications of GST have impacted the passenger vehicles business sales, while the commercial vehicles business grew on month-on month basis, due to BS4 production ramp-up," the company said in a statement.

According to the company, its domestic passenger vehicles sales declined by 10 per cent to 11,176 units compared to 12,482 units sold in June last year.

The domestic sale of its commercial vehicles stood at 25,678 units, down by two per cent over the corresponding period of 2016.

The company's exports declined by 40 per cent to 3,504 units in June 2017 owing to supply constraints.

--IANS

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Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay on Saturday expressed concern over the deteriorating health of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who has been diagnosed with cancer.

"I am saddened to learn of Chinese Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo's tragic cancer diagnosis and at the same time relieved to learn of his release on medical parole," a statement quoting Sangay said.

Urging the Chinese government to grant Liu and his family permission on humanitarian grounds to travel abroad for treatment, he said: "I also join the global call and prayers for his recovery."

Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 after being sentenced the previous year to 11 years of imprisonment for inciting subversion of state power.

He was arrested after he signed, along with 300 other intellectuals, the political manifesto Charter 08, which called for constitutional rights such as freedom of the press and expression as well as the implementation of a multi-party system.

At least 154 Nobel laureates have urged Chinese President Xi Jinping in an open letter to allow Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia to travel to the US for medical treatment.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump has backed his visiting South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in's policy to resume dialogue with Pyongyang, according to a joint statement issued after their summit at the White House.

"President Trump supported President Moon's aspiration to restart inter-Korean dialogue on issues including humanitarian affairs," Yonhap News Agency quoted the statement as saying on Friday night.

It said the two countries do not maintain a hostile policy toward North Korea and that the door to dialogue "remains open under the right circumstances".

Moon earlier said talks can be resumed if Pyongyang freezes its nuclear and missile activities.

Seoul and Washington shared top priority to resolve the nuclear issue and agreed to put maximum pressure on Pyongyang while affirming their resolve to work for "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner".

Sanctions are a tool of diplomacy, the statement said.

"They affirmed their commitment to fully implement existing sanctions and impose new measures designed to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to compel Pyongyang to cease its provocative actions and return to sincere and constructive talks."

The leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to an increased deterrence against North Korean threats and vowed to step up efforts to strengthen their countries' military alliance.

Seoul and Washington will also enhance their bilateral cooperation in dealing with global issues including terrorism.

"The two leaders condemned the grave human suffering and violence in Iraq and Syria caused by IS (Islamic State), and reaffirmed the strong US-South Korea partnership in the Global Coalition to counter IS," the statement added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A suspected militant stabbed two policemen at a mosque near the police headquarters in Jakarta, officials said.

The knife-wielding man was shot dead after he attacked the policemen at 7.40 (local time) just after a pray at Falatehan mosque in South Jakarta, Indonesia's national police spokesman Inspector General Setyo Wasisto said.

"Several members of the Police Brigade Corps were praying with others. When the pray finished, suddenly a person took his knife and launched an attack," Xinhua news agency quoted Wasisto as saying.

The policemen were injured in their chests and faces, while the attacker escaped the mosque, the spokesman said.

Other policemen pursued the man and shot dead the attacker after he waved his knife in a threatening manner, he said.

The two wounded officers were being treated in a nearby hospital, Wasisto added.

Policemen have been chosen as targets of attack by militants recently.

Last week, two militants linked with the global IS terrorist group launched a knife attack at police office in North Sumatra province, killing one police officer.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prodded by the Trump administration, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has gone into an austerity mode cutting the peacekeeping budget for the next accounting year by about $570 million or 7.25 per cent.

After arm-twisting by US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley, whose country foots 28 per cent of the peacekeeping budget, the UNGA approved on Friday the scaled down budget covering 14 operations for the 2017-18 accounting year that starts on Saturday.

Initially the 2017-18 budget will be for $6.8 billion, with about $500 million added on for two missions being downsized, bringing it up to a total of $7.3 billion, against the 2016-17 figure of $7.87 billion.

The additional $500 million is for the missions in Haiti and Sudan's Darfur region. The military component of Haiti operations will end in October, while a smaller police mission will continue.

On Friday, the Security Council voted to sharply reduce the size of the Darfur operation.

Some of the savings comes from ending the peacekeeping operation in the Ivory Coast on Friday as the UN assesses the needs for and scope of its missions.

Each country's compulsory contribution to the peacekeeping budget is set by the UNGA based on a complex formula that takes into account its economic status, while the permanent members of the Security Council pay a premium assessment.

India's share is 0.474 per cent of the peacekeeping budget.

"The overall level (of the 2017-18 budget) is meaningfully smaller than what we had last year, but we will make every effort to ensure that the mandates are implemented," Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told the media after the UNGA vote.

"We cannot overstate the value of peacekeeping to achieve peace and stability," he added. "It remains the most cost-effective instrument at the disposal of the international community to prevent conflicts and foster conditions for lasting peace."

The budgetary process is a tangle of the UNGA, the Security Council and the UN organisation is built into the budgetary process.

While the Council decides on the peacekeeping missions, the UNGA votes the funding for them. And the UN as an organisation has to make the operations fit the budget.

US President Donald Trump has vowed to slash foreign aid and contributions to international organisations and Haley, the Indian-American cabinet-level official, has made that her mission at the UN.

After an agreement was reached on Wednesday among the diplomats at the UN on the budget cuts - though far less than the $1 billion that the US wanted - Haley said: "Just five months into our time here, we've already been able to cut over half a billion dollars from the UN peacekeeping budget and we're only getting started."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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The implementation of GST regime would lead to "chaos" similar to what had happened in the aftermath of demonetisation of high value notes last year, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said on Friday.
On June 17, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad, along with his wife, Rabri Devi, and both his minister sons, Tejaswi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, attended the Iftar party hosted by Bihar Chief Minister (CM) Nitish Kumar at the latters official residence in Patna. Prasad used the occasion to showcase the unity of the grand alliance and dismissed any rift between him and Kumar. They smiled and posed before the cameras and their bonhomie seemed genuine.

Just a week later the bonhomie was nowhere to be seen. Kumar did turn up at an Iftar party hosted by Prasad, but the atmosphere was tense. The two stalwarts did hug each other after repeated requests by shutterbugs, but the embrace looked forced. They sat near each other, but barely smiled or spoke. They were more interested in talking to others than to each other. In the past, at events hosted by the RJD's first family, Prasad used to personally attend to Kumar and even served him. He didnt bother that evening. Its all before you. What more is there to say? asked a senior RJD minister. In less than two years of coming to power, the grand alliance in Bihar is facing its biggest crisis. The root cause is the JD(U)s decision to break opposition ranks by backing Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate and former Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind for the presidential election. An open war of words among the alliance partners  with the JD(U), on one side, and the RJD and the Congress, on the other  threatened the very existence of the alliance.

Most importantly, the bickering didnt stop at the level of lower-rung spokespersons. Top-level leaders of all the three parties got involved and took pot-shots at each other. Things deteriorated so much that the party leaderships had to issue gag orders to put an end to this.

Until a couple of months ago, Kumar was in favour of a united opposition. In April, he met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and expressed his desire to form a grand alliance at the level to stop the BJP juggernaut. According to many in the party, sensing the Congresss reluctance, Kumar started drifting. He skipped a meeting of opposition parties called by Gandhi on May 26, but agreed to have lunch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the very next day.

However, Kumar was still reluctant to be seen against opposition unity in the presidential election. This changed the minute the BJP announced Kovind would be its candidate. According to JD(U) insiders, the party believes that supporting the former Bihar governor, who belongs to one of the most depressed communities, would help in the upcoming elections. This, along with Kumars personal camaraderie with the ex-governor, played a pivotal role in his decision.

Kovind was one of the very few governors with whom the chief minister enjoyed a cordial relationship. Despite serious reservations of local BJP leaders, Kovind supported the state government in its mission of prohibition.

However, Kumars decision made JD(U) allies unhappy. Many RJD and Congress leaders privately say they are bewildered by his stand. The Congress rushed Ghulam Nabi Azad to coax him to reverse his decision. If sources in the Congress are to be believed, Kumar ignored desperate pleas of its leaders to at least postpone his announcement till the time the opposition parties could announce their common candidate. Kumar believes in many ideologies. We, on the other hand, will never join hands with the BJP, told a visibly hurt Azad at Patna Airport on June 20.

The next day, Prasad asked Kumar not to make a historic blunder. I appeal to Nitish to avoid a historic blunder. We always fight for ideology, said Prasad. More importantly, when asked if Kumar had betrayed the opposition, he said, Dhokha hai yaa nahi, ye Nitish jane. However, Kumar refused to budge.

I take pride in Meira Kumar being Bihar ki beti. But why is she being fielded to be defeated? asked a defiant Kumar, coming out of Prasads Iftar party in Patna. If I am making a historic mistake, so be it. The opposition should actually formulate a strategy to win the 2019 election and then make her (Meira Kumar) president in 2022.

His deputy in the state cabinet, Tejaswi Yadav, retorted: Victory or defeat can only be decided in the election. How can one predict defeat before an election? We have not fielded our candidate to lose. And thus began the war of words between the alliance partners: Name calling, arm-twisting and verbal volleys. The grand alliance was in tatters. The JD(U) issued an ultimatum to the RJD to act against its leaders who constantly targeted the Bihar CM, saying it would shorten the life of the alliance. On Tuesday, JD(U) Spokesperson K C Tyagi spelled out the biggest ever threat to the alliance by saying that the party had felt more comfortable with the BJP than with the Congress and the RJD. Finally, a truce was called on Wednesday, when all sides issued diktats to hold fire. Both Kumar and Prasad said that the alliance was rock-solid and talks of a break-up were a media creation.

However, no one, not even their own leaders, believes this. There is deep mistrust among the alliance partners. The Congress is not sure about Kumars intentions. The JD(U) wants to be seen as independent of the Congress and wants to keep the BJP eager. As far as the RJD is concerned, Prasad doesnt want to destabilise the government as his sons' future is tied to it. This doesnt mean that Prasad doesnt understand Kumars plan, said a senior politician.
Lt Commander BN Kavina, who commanded an Indian Navy ship during a missile attack on the Karachi harbour in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, has died.

He was 80.

Kavina died in Adelaide, Australia, yesterday where he was staying with his son, said a senior Navy official.

He was the commanding officer of Indian Navy ship Nipat during the missile attack on the Karachi harbour and the Pakistani naval forces on December 4, 1971.

The operation, codenamed 'Operation Trident', was executed by the 25th missile squadron comprising naval ships Nipat, Nirghat and Veer.

Lt Commander Kavina was one of the chief architects of the attack on the Karachi harbour.

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An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast near a security check post today killed four persons, including two security personnel, in restive northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, officials said.

A routine check up was underway at Aka Khel Check Post in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency when the security personnel spotted an unattended bag, they said.

When the security personnel searched the bag it exploded, killing four people on the spot including two security men, officials said.

Those killed were identified as Naik Mehmud Shah, Levies Naik Bagh Mir, and two civilians.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The entire area was sealed and the security forces launched search operation to nab the culprits.

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As many as 65 MoUs were today signed in textiles sector at the 'Textiles India 2017' meet which is underway here.

Union Textiles minister Smriti Irani and junior Textiles minister Ajay Tamta were present when the agreements were inked.

The MoUs were signed between various domestic and international organisations from industry and government, an official release said.

"Sixty-five MoUs were signed between various domestic and international organisations from industry and government. The MoUs relate to exchange of information and documentation, research and development, silk production, cooperation in geo textiles, skill development, supply of cotton and trade promotion with overseas partners, among others," it added.

Irani told reporters that the current age is the "golden era for development of textile industry."



"The minister affirmed the Centre's commitment in promoting the sector," the release said.

Some of the international bodies which signed MoUs include Department of Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association, International Textile Manufactures Federation (ITMF), China Cotton Textiles Association, Slovakia Texas Tech University (TTU), USA, International Cotton Association, Czech Republic, Malaysian Textiles Manufactures Association (MTMA).

Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 'Textiles India 2017' seminar at Mahatma Mandir.

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Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has been booked for sedition for his alleged derogatory comments against the Army, even as right-wing bodies offered monetary rewards for his head and tongue.

FIRs were registered against Khan at Chandpur and Civil Lines police stations. While in Meerut, local Bajrang Dal leaders on Saturday filed a complaint against the controversial former Uttar Pradesh minister.

An FIR was registered against Khan under IPC sections 124 A (sedition), 131 (abetting mutiny) and 505 (public mischief) at Chandpur police station yesterday, Station Officer Ajay Kumar Singh told PTI.

The case was registered following a complaint by VHP leader Anil Pandey.

"The second FIR was registered at Civil Lines police station in Rampur on a complaint filed by Akash Saxena, president of District Industries Association and son of former BJP minister Shiv Bahadur Saxena," Rampur station incharge Rajesh Kumar Solanki said.

The SP leader had kicked up a row recently with his comments that "excesses by security forces had led women in some places chopping off the private parts of Army men."



Meanwhile, VHP's district secretary in Shahajahanpur, Rajesh Kumar Awasthi offered a cash reward of Rs 50 lakh to one who would severe the tongue of the SP leader and present it to him.

Goraksha chief Mukesh Patel termed Khan a "terrorist" and offered Rs 51 lakh to the person who will bring "Khan's head".

Even as the SP leader was cornered, his supporters lodged a complaint against saffronites in Ganj police station in Rampur for issuing such threatening rewards against their leader, which they termed as "rude and uncivilised."



UP minister Buldev Singh Aulakh said the state government has taken cognisance of Khan's remarks and action will be taken soon.

"Azam has lost his mind. His remarks amount to lowering the morale of army personnel which is an insult to the entire country as well," he said in Rampur.
The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today made it clear that the government would not show any leniency in removing "big encroachments" from public land at Munnar in hilly Idukki district.

Vijayan said the government was committed to protecting and preserving the environment and beauty of Munnar, a most sort after tourist spots in the state.

"Government will not allow anybody to make Munnar, an ecologically sensitive area and any other part of the district, a concrete jungle," Vijayan said.

The government would take a positive approach towards those poor people who do not have land, he said, adding, title deeds would be given to all those who have settled before 1977.

Tribals would be provided land and its documents, he added.

He said the government was moving ahead with the process of distributing title deeds. Applications would be accepted for issuing title deeds from next week, he said.

Vijayan was speaking at a meeting of representatives of parties and MLAs besides traders from the area to discuss the Idukki land issue here.

State power minister M M Mani, revenue additional chief secretary P H Kurian, Idukki district collector G R Gokul, sub-collector Sriram Venkitaraman were among those who attended the meeting.

The meeting was called on the basis of a complaint filed by traders and MLAs from the area on the issue.

The government's anti-encroachment drive in Munnar had run into trouble after revenue officials headed by sub-collector removed a metal 'cross' on alleged encroached land.

The munnar land issue had also resulted in war of words between CPI-M and CPI, the second largest partner in the ruling LDF.

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Chaos and confusion reigned supreme at the Chartered Accountants Day celebrations organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India here.

Several chartered accountants (CAs) shouted slogans against the government as they were not allowed to enter the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, the venue of the event.

Even the media persons, who had come to cover the function to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were stranded as they could not enter the venue.

One of the CAs, who crossed the barricades, was beaten up by the security personnel.

Agitated CAs even threw bottles at the venue.

Even water canons and additional security personnel were requisitioned.

Besides Modi, the other invitees include Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.

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A central Illinois man has been charged with kidnapping in the disappearance of a visiting Chinese scholar who authorities believe to be dead after last being seen three weeks ago.

Yingying Zhang, the daughter of a working-class factory driver from China, disappeared on June 9, just weeks after arriving at the University of Illinois where she was pursuing studies in agriculture sciences.

Federal authorities say Brendt Christensen, 27, of Champaign, Illinois, is charged in a criminal complaint with abducting Zhang shortly after she stepped off a bus near the university campus. Video show her getting into the front seat of a black Saturn Astra.

According to the affidavit filed in federal court by Special Agent Anthony Manganaro, Christensen was under surveillance Thursday when agents overheard him explaining he kidnapped Zhang.

Authorities say based on that and other facts uncovered during the investigation, agents believe Zhang is no longer alive.

Asked last night if authorities had any leads on where Zhang's body might be located, the spokesman for the FBI Springfield office, Bradley Ware, declined comment.

Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement the campus community is saddened by the Zhang is believed dead.

"This is a senseless and devastating loss of a promising young woman and a member of our community," Jones said. "There is nothing we can do to ease the sadness or grief for her family and friends, but we can and we will come together to support them in any way we can in these difficult days ahead."



According to Manganaro's affidavit filed in US District Court in Champaign, investigators determined there were 18 vehicles similar to the one Zhang got in that were registered in Champaign County.

The vehicle belonging to Christensen was first observed June 12 in an apartment complex parking lot, and investigators questioned him. The affidavit stated that investigators noted Christensen couldn't recall what he was doing on the day Zhang disappeared. They searched the vehicle but didn't remove anything.

Investigators later determined the car in the video had a sunroof and cracked hubcap, like the vehicle belonging to Christensen, according to the affidavit.

When investigators interviewed Christensen again, he admitted to driving around the University of Illinois campus and giving a ride to an Asian woman who said she was late for an appointment.

Christensen said the woman panicked after he apparently made a wrong turn and he let her out in a residential area.

The court document indicates a search of Christensen's car indicates the area where Zhang was believed to have been sitting had been cleaned.

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Two foreign climbers who went missing while scaling the 8,125-metre 'Killer Mountain' in northern Pakistan have been presumed dead and the rescue operation has been called off, officials said today.

Alberto Zerain, a Spanish, and Mariano Galvan, an Argentinian, went missing while attempting to summit the Nanga Parbat.

Officials called off rescue operation today after last ditch efforts to locate the missing duo failed.

"The climbers are presumed dead as we failed to get any clue about them," according to an official of Alpine Club of Pakistan.

The two missing men had started the climbing on June 19 but could only reach at 6,100 metres when they were held by bad weather.

They lost contact with the base camp on last Friday, prompting search operation.

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A 25-year-old Delhi police constable and his 55-year-old father were shot dead today in a village in Haryana's Sonepat district allegedly by a relative over a dispute related to irrigation of fields, the police said here.

"Parvinder, a constable in the Delhi police and his father Ishwar were gunned down in the Gorad village," SHO, Kharkhoda police station, Pradeep Singh said over the phone.

Senior police officials rushed to the spot after the incident.

The SHO said that there was dispute between two groups over distribution of water in the fields from a canal.

"The main accused has been identified as Sharvan. He and seven others has been booked under relevant provisions of the law in connection with the murders. The main accused and some others, named in the complaint, were related to the deceased,"



He said.

The accused were at large and efforts were being made to nab them, he said.

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Islamist militants occupying a southern Philippine city have forced nearly 400,000 people in the wider area to flee their homes, officials said today, while warning of disease outbreaks and psychological trauma among refugees.

The city of Marawi, considered the Muslim capital of the largely Catholic Philippines, has been reduced to a ghost town after self-styled followers of the Islamic State movement launched an assault on the city on May 23.

For more than a month, the government has deployed jet fighters, attack helicopters and armoured vehicles to crush the militants who are members of the so-called Maute group.

The fighting has left over 400 people dead, while the Maute fighters still control parts of the city, using snipers and improvised explosive devices to slow the military's advance.

Liza Mazo, the regional civil defence director, said it was not just the city's residents leaving the area but also people living in the surrounding communities.

Out of 389,300 who have fled, over 70,380 people have been housed in 79 government-run evacuation centres, while the rest have sheltered with their relatives, according to social welfare department figures.

Mazo said that relief officials have struggled to deal with outbreaks of illness at the evacuation centres as government forces continue to launch air strikes and artillery barrages against the militants.

"There are alarming cases of skin diseases and gastroenteritis. We want to control the outbreak, not just in the evacuation centre but even the home-based (refugees)," she said.

"There are also cases of psychological trauma from the fighting."



Some 26 people who have fled Marawi have since died in hospitals from various ailments, according to the health department's local spokesman Jun Galban, but he declined to say whether their deaths were related to the evacuation.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who declared martial law over the southern Philippines to deal with the crisis, vowed on Saturday that government forces would crush the extremists.

"We will not go out there (Marawi) until the last terrorist is executed," he said in a speech to government workers.

At one point in his speech, to demonstrate his seriousness, he lifted his shirt to reveal a holstered pistol.

But he conceded, "we are having a hard time."



"We never realised the magnitude of their preparation for their explosives. We got there, they were positioned (with) their snipers. We practically had to climb upward," he said.

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Five North Koreans in a small boat crossed the sea border into South Korean waters today, a Coast Guard official said, in an apparent bid to defect to the South.

The five people, including four men and one woman, have expressed their wish to live in the South as defectors, the Yonhap agency reported.

"Coast guards guided the boat to safety at (the eastern port of) Mukho," a South Korean coast guard official told AFP.

Government authorities were questioning the five North Koreans, he added.

The incident came after a North Korean fishing boat with eight people on board developed an engine trouble and drifted into South Korean waters off the country's eastern coast late last month.

Days later, South Korea repatriated all the eight, as they had requested.

Early last month, two people out of four crew members on another North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle in the South.

There has also been a spate of overland border crossings in June.

Two North Korean soldiers walked across the heavily fortified border and a civilian swam across a river to defect to the South.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.

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: Following are the top stories from the northern region at 1735 HRS:



DES14 JK-AMARNATH-PILGRIMS



Jammu: Over 4,400 pilgrims leave the winter capital for the twin base camps of 3,888 metre high Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva in south Kashmir Himalayas, amid tight security.

DES1 JK-AMARNATH PILGRIM



Srinagar: A 72-year-old pilgrim from West Bengal dies due to cardiac arrest en route for the cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir, taking the death toll in the ongoing yatra to three.

LGD1 UP-COURT-SENTENCE



Muzaffarnagar (UP): A fast-track court sentences four brothers to seven years' imprisonment for attempting to murder two persons by stabbing.

DES3 JK-CLOUDBURST-BOY



Srinagar: A teenage boy dies in a cloudburst strike at a village in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, police say.

DES7 RJ-ASPHYXIATION



Kota (Rajasthan): Three men die of asphyxiation as they enter a 60-foot well to rescue a calf in Mangrole area of Baran district, police say.

DES8 JK-HIGHWAY-REOPENS



Jammu: The 300-km long Jammu-Srinagar national highway reopens for vehicular traffic after a day-long closure as heavy rains trigger landslides in Ramban and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

DES9 PB-AMARINDER-CANADA



Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh greets the people of Canada on the nation's 150th anniversary, terms it a "historical moment" in the country's progressive journey, to which the Punjabi community has significantly contributed.

DES11 ITX-AADHAAR-PAN



New Delhi: The Income Tax Department introduces a one- page form for taxpayers to manually apply for linking their Aadhaar with Permanent Account Number (PAN), apart from the available online and SMS facilities.

DES13 UP-AZAM-SEDITION



Rampur/Meerut (UP): Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan booked for sedition for his alleged derogatory comments against the Army, even as right-wing bodies offer monetary rewards for his head and tongue.

NRG3 UKD-MOLESTATION-PRIEST



Dehradun: A woman from Maharashtra accuses a former priest of Badrinath temple and the CEO of Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee of molestation.

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Thousands of Singaporeans dressed in pink packed a city park today for a gay-rights rally under tight security after the government banned foreign participants.

Singapore's Pink Dot rally started in 2009 and has historically attracted crowds of up to 28,000 despite a backlash from conservative groups in a state where protests are strictly controlled.

But those taking party in this year's rally, which promotes 'freedom to love', had to show identity cards to prove they were citizens or permanent residents before being allowed into a barricaded zone.

They included both gay and straight Singaporeans, families with small children and Muslim women in veils, with many sitting on picnic mats under the scorching sun.

Adeline Yeo, an art director whose Polish partner was unable to attend and had to follow developments from a nearby bar, lamented the new regulations.

"It's disappointing because we went from marching in London Pride last year right behind (London mayor) Sadiq Khan to having to celebrate separately," she told AFP.

Organisers declined to issue a headcount for the event but an AFP reporter estimated about 8,000 people were already in the park when the three-hour event started at 5pm (local time). It was full within two hours.

It culminated in a rainbow-coloured formation with torchlights after dark.

Apart from a ban on foreigners attending this year's rally, overseas companies were also banned from providing sponsorship.

Singapore has long taken a hard line on what it considers foreign interference in domestic politics and has often been criticised by human rights groups for clamping down on political freedoms.

Multinationals like Facebook, Google and Goldman Sachs had funded previous editions as part of their equal- opportunity initiatives.

Under a law dating back to British colonial rule, sex between men is technically still a criminal act in Singapore but the statute is not being actively enforced.

Open support for gay rights has meanwhile grown in recent years, aided by changing social norms among the younger generation and a large influx of tourists and expatriates.

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The body of slain gangster Anandpal Singh was on Saturday handed over to his family members and the funeral is likely to take place in his village in Ladnu sub- division tomorrow.

"The police handed over Anandpal's body to his daughter Yogita Singh and maternal uncle at their hometown - Sanvrad in Nagaur district," Additional SP Churu Keshar Singh Shekhawat said.

The family members had been demanding a CBI inquiry in the encounter and were not accepting the body unless the government referred the case to the premier investigating agency.

However, after fresh post-mortem at the Churu district hospital yesterday following a court direction on the application of Anandpal's mother, the family members today accepted the body.

The funeral is likely to take place tomorrow.

"Elaborate security arrangements are in place in Ladnu sub division where the village is situated," SP Nagaur Paris Anil Deshmukh said.

He himself is camping in Ladnu.

Anandpal, who had managed to escape from custody of police while being taken back to high security prison in Ajmer from a court in Nagaur in September 2015, had taken a shelter in a house in Churu.

He was killed in an encounter with police last Saturday.
President Pranab Mukerjee today described the GST as a "disruptive change" that is bound to have some teething troubles which will have to be resolved quickly to ensure growth momentum in the economy is not impacted.

"When a change of this magnitude is undertaken, however positive it may be, there are bound to be some teething troubles and difficulties in the initial stages," he said minutes before the GST rollout in his speech at a special function in the Central Hall of Parliament.

"We will have to solve these with understanding and speed to ensure that it does not impact the growth momentum of the economy. Success of such major changes always depends on their effective implementation," he said.

He also said the GST Council should continuously review the implementation and suggest suitable improvements to the new indirect taxation regime.

"The new era in taxation, which we are about to initiate in a few minutes, is the result of a broad consensus arrived at between the Centre and states," Mukherjee said.

"This consensus took not only time but also effort to build. The effort came from persons across the political spectrum who set aside narrow partisan considerations and put the nation's interests first. It is a tribute to the maturity and wisdom of India's democracy," he said.

Recalling his days as Finance Minister, Mukherjee said he introduced Constitution Amendment Bill in 2011.

"It is also a moment of some satisfaction for me because, as the Finance Minister, I had introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill on March 22, 2011," he said.

"I was closely involved in the design and implementation and had the occasion to meet the Empowered Committee of state finance ministers, formally and informally, as many as 16 times.

"I also met the Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra a number of times. I have a vivid recollection of those meetings and the various matters that were raised," he said.

"Yet, I found both in those meetings and in my many interactions with Chief Ministers, Finance Ministers and officers of states, that most of them had a constructive approach and an underlying commitment to the introduction of GST," he added.

Mukherjee recalled the proposal to introduce GST was first mooted in the Budget Speech for the financial year 2006 -07.

The President said his confidence stood justified when on September 8, 2016, after the Bill was passed by both Houses of Parliament and more than 50 per cent of State Legislatures, he had the privilege of giving assent to the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act.

The President called upon "every Indian to extend cooperation in the successful implementation of the new system".

On implementation issue, Mukherjee said GST is similar to the introduction of VAT (Value Added Tax) when there was initial resistance.

"In the months to come, based on the experience of actual implementation, the GST Council and the Central and state governments should continuously review the design and make improvements, in the same constructive spirit as has been displayed till now," he said.

Observing that the GST will be administered through a modern world-class information technology system, he also recalled that in July 2010, he had set up an Empowered Group for development of IT systems required for the GST regime under the chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani.

He observed that given the magnitude of the task, it was not a surprise that there were many contentious issues.

Under GST, Mukherjee said the tax incidence will be transparent, enabling full removal of tax burden on exports and full incidence of domestic taxes on imports.

By creating a unified common national market, the GST will act as a major boost to economic efficiency, tax compliance and domestic and foreign investment, the President said.

He said the GST will "also make our exports more competitive and also provide a level playing field to domestic industry to compete with imports."



Currently due to cascading, exports still carry some embedded taxes, making them less competitive, he said, adding, the hidden effect of cascading means that the total tax incidence on domestic industry is not transparent.

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Country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today posted 1.2 per cent rise in domestic sales in June but rival Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra reported decline during the month impacted by speculations over GST tax structure.

MSI said it sold 93,263 units in June as against 92,133 units in the same period last year although sales of mini segment cars, including Alto and WagonR, declined by 7.9 per cent to 25,524 units in June from 27,712 in the year-ago month.

The company said sales of compact models comprising Swift, Estilo, Dzire, Baleno and Ignis rose 1.3 per cent to 40,496 units last month as compared to 39,971 units in June last year.

Utility vehicles, including Ertiga, S-Cross and Vitara Brezza, saw sales rise by 43 per cent to 13,879 units in June, from 9,708 in the year-ago period.

Vans, including Omni and Eeco, saw sales dip by 6.7 per cent to 9,208 units last month compared to 9,874 units in the same period of the previous year.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) reported a 5.6 per cent decline in domestic sales at 37,562 units in June. The company had sold 39,807 units in June 2016.

HMIL Director Sales and Marketing Rakesh Srivastava said the market was challenging fuelled with speculations on the GST tax structure.

The company expects a positive demand pull, post successful implementation of GST, in coming months as the industry will witness heightened level of customer interest in a seamless and unified single market, he added.

Tata Motors said its domestic passenger vehicles sales were impacted by the mixed reactions towards GST resulting in low buying sentiments.

Passenger vehicle sales during the month were at 11,176 units, down 10 per cent from 12,482 units in June 2016.

"This drop in volume is seen temporary and will be recovered in the quarter to come based on 11 per cent growth in April-June 2017 quarter compared to the last year," Tata Motors said in a statement.

Utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra also reported 3 per cent decline in domestic sales at 33,861 units last month.

Exports of the Mumbai-based automaker were down 54 per cent at 1,855 units in June against 4,020 units in the same month last year.

Sales of passenger vehicles, including Scorpio, XUV500, Xylo, Bolero and Verito, declined 5 per cent at 16,170 units compared to 17,070 units in the same month last year.

Commercial vehicle sales were, however, up 12 per cent at 15,131 units in June against 13,538 units in the year-ago period.

M&M President Automotive Sector Rajan Wadhera said the company's focus has been to minimise channel stocks to reduce the transition losses on account of GST implementation.

"We are closely observing GST and strongly believe that once we tide over the initial uncertainties, GST is set to usher in a new era for the economy in general and the automotive industry in particular," he added.

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Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would usher in "economic freedom" in the country.

He said the initial hiccups that may arise in its implementation are not "insurmountable".

Naidu was addressing an event here organised on the occasion of Chartered Accountants Day.

"What we are getting (with GST) is economic freedom. Sardar Patel is called unifier of India. Now, history will remember Prime Minister Narendra Modi as unifier of the economy," he said.

Acknowledging that there would be initial hiccups and problems as the new tax regime is rolled out today, Naidu, however, said they are not "insurmountable".

"Yes, there will be some problems. But, the problems are not insurmountable," the Information and Broadcasting Minister said.

Citing Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as examples, he said different states have expressed concerns and the GST council would look into it.

Taking a dig at opposition parties who boycotted the midnight launch event of GST, Naidu said they stood isolated and that it (GST) was not the product of Modi or Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

"Isolation seems to be their (opposition) consolation. It is not a product of Modi or Jaitley," he said.

The GST came into effect after all state assemblies and the parliament endorsed it, he said.

Referring to the criticism that the country is not prepared for GST, he said there were some, when India got Independence, who questioned if the country was ready for it.

"Given the levels of illiteracy, poverty, gender inequality and social diversity, many western commentators even said that India would not see the second general elections.

"We have proved such gloomy forecasts and prophecies wrong," he said.

On comments that some sections of the trade and industry are still not ready to shift to the new tax regime, he said the government has been saying that the GST will be rolled out from July 1.

It is also not correct to say that that the government has not given sufficient time, Naidu said.

"Those who are not ready would never be ready even if they were given a year more," he said.

Defending different GST slab structures, Naidu said a single rate structure is illogical and untenable as a wide range of goods and services are used by a range of people belonging to different categories of society.

"In addition, some deliberate misleading campaign is on saying that tax payers would be required to now file 37 returns in a year. This is totally false. Only one return is to be filed per month," Naidu said.

A lot of effort has been put in by the government to ensure that the GST roll out is as smooth as possible, he said.

"The ultimate beneficiaries of GST are the common people, the buyers and the sellers, the trade and industry. With every chain of economic activity gaining from it, India is the ultimate gainer," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories from the Eastern Region at 1700 hours.

CES 1 WB-CYBER-ARREST



Kolkata : The police arrests one person for duping several US citizens from his fraudulent call centre.

CES 2 WB-ACCIDENT



Midnapore : Two persons were killed and 31 injured when a speeding bus fell into an agricultural field in West Midnapore district, police said.

CES 3 WB-GJM-CHILDREN



Darjeeling : Children of Darjeeling hills are an unhappy lot now with schools closed, Internet suspended and playgrounds off-limits due to the indefinite shutdown in the hills since June 15.

CES 5 OD-MINAKETAN



Bhubaneswar : Noted Odia actor Minaketan Das, well-known in the state's film and television industry for his negative roles, passes away after a prolonged illness.

CES 6 OD-GST-NAVEEN



Bhubaneswar : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik hails the launch of the GST, saying its implementation should be smooth and benefit the common man, trade and industry.

CES 7 BH-LOOT



Jehanabad : Six armed criminals loot Rs 22.32 lakh from a security guard of a cash van in Bihar's Jehanabad district.

ERG 5 OD-PLANTATION



Bhubaneswar : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announces that a record number of 50 lakh saplings will be planted in a single day on July 7 as part of the observance of the Tree Plantation Day in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin today vowed to continue the struggle for "liberation" of Kashmir from India, days after the US blacklisted him as a "global terrorist".

Addressing the media amid tight security at the Centre Press Club in Muzaffarabad for the first time since the US declared him a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" on June 27, Salahuddin rejected the US decision and said he was a freedom fighter and not a terrorist.

"We are not terrorists...Our struggle is for freedom from India and it will continue till liberation of Kashmir," said the 71-year-old Kashmiri separatist leader who is based in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

"The US cannot provide a single example of when I and other Kashmiri fighters committed any act of terrorism," he said. "Kashmiri freedom fighters have a code of conduct to not harm minorities, the elderly, children and women, and if sometimes the enemy offers a peace deal, we accept it."



Salahuddin also claimed that his group has the capability to launch attacks inside India.

He offered conditional talks with India if Russia or China guaranteed that peace talks would be result oriented.

He also announced to observe a "Week of Resistance" from Monday to commemorate the first death anniversary of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul commander who was killed on July 8 last year in an encounter in Kashmir.

Salahuddidn also led a protest rally in Muzaffarabad.

In a notification, the State Department said Salahuddin, who hails from Kashmir and is based in Pakistan for the last 28 years, "has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism."



The US took the step against Salahuddin, whose original name is Mohammed Yusuf Shah, as he had "vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir Valley into a graveyard for Indian forces".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Making a veiled attack on the government, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said the "inclusive conception" of the country is "under attack" and the nation was facing a great challenge in the form "domestic misrule".

She said the press was being "pressured to obey and applaud" rather than to question and speaking the truth was the imperative of the present age.

She was speaking at a function here where President Pranab Mukherjee released a commemorative publication of the National Herald newspaper on '70 years of India's Independence'.

"The National Herald evokes a time when nationalism fought foreign rule. But domestic misrule is as great a challenge for our country," Gandhi said.

"At a time when the inclusive conception of our nation is under attack, and the press is pressured to obey and applaud rather than to question, speaking truth to power is the imperative of our age," she said.

She said the 'National Herald' newspaper, which was run by the Congress, was a reminder of "what is precious about the India which its founders fought to free".

The Congress chief called for working together "to safeguard an India in which each person's voice can be raised and heard -- most of all the voices of those who question and disagree.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India today again asked Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court, as the two countries exchanged a list of prisoners lodged in each other's jails.

According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.

"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement in Delhi.

Jadhav was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage activities. India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.

Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.

In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".

The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access which was signed on May 21, 2008. As per the pact, lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said.

It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," it said.

The Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac today said the state was well prepared to implement the Goods and Service Tax (GST) as it would be one of the states benefited most from the new tax regime.

Spelling out the benefits of GST for Kerala, Isaac, while launching the state-level GST regime in Kochi, said since Kerala being a consumer state its tax revenue would increase and this situation would help the state to overcome the financial deficit in four years.

He said the state government would organise GST consultancy council cell and meetings at district level to clarify doubts regarding the new tax regime.

The Minister also spoke an out some disadvantages of the GST.

Noting that GST has paved way for reduced tax for luxury items and excess tax for essential commodities, Isaac said it will lead to price rise and disparity in the society.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
STRASBOURG, France  The European Union, whose parliament meets here on the French border with Germany, has not exactly been popular in recent years.

Complaints about unelected bureaucrats, lack of transparency, compromised sovereignty, unrestricted migration and costly member obligations have all fueled Euroskepticism.

But it seems the EU has finally gotten its groove back.

Two new surveys find that over the past year, citizens of member countries have decided that maybe this whole European idea  the ambitious postwar project to promote continental peace and prosperity  isnt so terrible after all.

The first survey, from Pew Research Center, polled people in 10 EU countries. In all but one, fond feelings for the union increased, most by a sudden huge amount. Here in France, favorability rose from 38 percent last year to 56 percent this spring. Across the border in Germany, it went from 50 percent to 68 percent. Even in Brexiting Britain, positive sentiment for the EU climbed from 44 percent to 54 percent.

The other survey, from the European Commissions Eurobarometer, also found an upswing in the share of European citizens who view the EU positively and have trust in it. Again, the upswing occurred in virtually every country.

Whats going on? How did the EU turn its reputation around?

To some extent, Europeans may simply be realizing that the grass isnt actually greener on the other side  the other side being, in this case, life outside the European Union.

Britains upcoming exit has led to political chaos and economic uncertainty, not to mention sagging consumer confidence and departing jobs. Tens of thousands of jobs may leave Londons financial sector alone.

The same Pew survey found that majorities of nearly every country say Brexit will be bad for both the EU and Britain. Even a plurality of Brits believe Brexit will end badly for them. (Greece, which was threatening to Grexit the euro zone before departure portmanteaus were cool, is the only surveyed country in which a plurality believes Britain will be better off.)

Perhaps other EU members have watched Britains isolationist dysfunction and started to better appreciate the European project, even with its many flaws.

Not just coincidentally, in no country that Pew surveyed did a majority of respondents say they want to leave the European Union. This finding jibes with other recent polls.

Nonetheless, even though they dont want to leave, in nearly all of the countries at least half of respondents still want to hold a referendum to vote on whether to leave.

This may seem peculiar, given that Britain got such an unwelcome surprise when it held its own referendum. But this desire to hold a vote may reflect frustration with the lack of a say in what happens in Strasbourg (and Brussels, Luxembourg and Frankfurt, where other major EU business gets done). A referendum could be viewed as a way to gain more leverage over EU officials, even if the vote is really a bluff.

People think that voting will empower them, says Luigi Zingales, a University of Chicago professor who has studied economic and public opinion trends in the EU. Most Europeans are happy with the idea of some form of European integration and the common market. They just want more voice in the process.

Zingales also argues that a force bigger than Brexit may be more important in reviving the EUs reputation: the fact that finally, a decade after the global financial crisis struck, so many European economies are actually improving.

Zingales notes that in the Pew data, only his home country of Italy hasnt started feeling more warmly toward the EU. Italy also happens to be the only surveyed country whose citizens are more pessimistic about their economy today than they were a year ago.

Lending credence to this theory is that trust in the EU government and trust in national governments have been rising in virtual lockstep, according to the Eurobarometer data.

In other words, a healing economy may lead to less scapegoating, more political stability. As things get better, people realize they overreacted, and their far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-internationalist, burn-it-all-down feelings subside.

If economics are indeed whats driving the retreat from insularity in Europe, that bodes well for the United States, too. Our recovery, after all, is light-years ahead of most of Europes. Maybe our fever will break soon as well.
Madras High Court has directed authorities in Puducherry to note representations by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy while he was MP in 1996, former CM V Vaithilingam as opposition leader in 1996 and MOH Farook, Lok Sabha MP that year, to the Lt Governor, on not locating liquor shops in Kalapet revenue village and pass appropriate orders.

The division bench, comprising Justices M Sathyanarayanan and M Sundar stated this while disposing of a petition from Kanagachettikulam Makkal Pondunala Eyakkam,seeking a direction to the Puducherry government not to issue new licenses or transfer/shift IMFL to open liquor shops anywhere at Kalapet Revenue Village and Ganapathichettikulam village in the interest of students, parents and the general public.

The petitioner submitted that the village is situated along the busy East Coast Road leading to Puducherry. The Pondicherry Institute of Medical Science was in this village, apart from many educational institutions and a lot of temples in the hamlet, he said.

Pointing out that there are already two liquor shops in the hamlet,the petitioner said the authorities,under the guise of relocating the liquor shops after the Supreme Court ban on sale of liquor within 500 metres of highways came into force on April 1, intended to open more shops. He brought to the court's notice the representations by the three dignitaries.

The bench noted that Narayanaswamy as Lok Sabha MP had sent a representation on December 1 1996 to the Lt Governor, referring to the presence of the educational institutions and requesting for appropriate action not to locate any additional liquor shops in the village.

V Vaithilingam, a former Chief Minister, as leader of the Opposition, had also sent a similar representation on December 20, 1996 to the Lt Governor, as did M O H Farook, Lok Sabha MP on December 24 1996, with the same request, the bench added.

It said the Government Pleader had submitted that since the Excise department was the second largest revenue earner to the exchequer and on account of the Apex Court order, the government was under compulsion to re-locate the shops and had no other option except to carry out the exercise, which would done as per Rule 113 (2) of the Puducherry Excise Rules.

The authorities while doing so should take note of the representations and location of the educational institutes in the village and pass appropriate orders and appropriate steps.

The authorities shall also take note of the public sentiments before taking any decision, the bench added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A man was today arrested after he tried to hack his in-laws with an axe in Nadia, police said.

His 52-year-old father-in-law Milan Chakraborty and mother-in-law Mamata Chakraborty (47) have been admitted to a hospital in Kolkata after suffering serious injuries, they said.

The incident took place yesterday when the man tried to kill his in-laws. He was arrested today following a complaint lodged by his wife at Shantipur police station, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police have arrested a 38-year-old man for allegedly stabbing a 23-year-old man to death as he suspected the victim of having an affair with his wife in northeast Delhi's Bhajanpura.

A juvenile has also been apprehended in connection with the case, police said.

The accused, Vinod Kumar, called Shanu whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife, to sort out issues and stabbed him with a butcher's knife 20-25 times, police said.

Vinod was assisted by a juvenile in killing Shanu.

The incident came to fore last night. Around 10.15 PM yesterday, police were informed about screams coming out of a locked house. After the lock was broken, bloodstains were found on the walls of the house.

A room was found locked in the house and after the lock was broken, Shanu was found lying on the floor with his body covered in a quilt, they added. He had already died by the time police reached there.

On the basis of a tip-off, a police team was sent to Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh to nab the suspects - Kumar and a juvenile. Kumar was arrested from there and the juvenile was also apprehended.

Kumar told police that he was having suspicion about an affair between his wife and Shanu for the last 20-25 days.

When he saw Shanu near his house yesterday, he called him inside and while the juvenile held Shanu, Kumar repeatedly stabbed him.

He wanted to dispose off Shanu's body but since neighbours had got suspicious, he left the body at his house after wrapping it in a quilt.

Police have recovered the bloodstained clothes of the accused and the knife used to kill Shanu. It is suspected that Kumar's mother also helped him clean the house after the incident and she is being questioned.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi today faced a protest from a Congress MLA during her weekend visit to a residential colony in the Oulgarpet Assembly constituency here.

A release from the LG's office said Oulgarpet MLA M N R Balan staged a protest when Bedi arrived at the colony, where most of the residents are teachers.

The release claimed that the MLA asked Bedi as to who had given her the permission to visit the colony.

It also added that the conduct of the legislator was captured on video and a report, along with the video footage, was being sent to the Government of India.

Bedi had expressed her dismay over the protests by the elected representatives in an open letter to them yesterday.

The former IPS officer wanted to know why the elected representatives should get annoyed by her visits and also said in the letter that none of them had responded to her invitation to accompany her during the visits to the constituencies and villages to launch the Swachh Bharat campaign.

The LG was accompanied by around 150 students and NCC volunteers during her visit, who took part in the cleaning of the colony. They also helped the Fire Service personnel remove a huge trunk of an uprootedtree.

Later, Balan told reporters that he had not objected to the LG's visit.

"I had already taken steps to remove the uprooted tree after much struggle. The officials did not respond to my representations as quickly as they do during the LG's visit," he said.

"Bedi can undertake a garbage-cleaning drive. However, she has only been projecting the work done by her team during her weekend visits on Twitter. Blacking out the role of the elected representatives in the Swachh Bharat mission is maligning their image," he added.

Balan also claimed that there was no prior information from the Raj Nivas regarding the constituencies the LG was scheduled to visit.

"I got the information about her visit to the teachers' colony today through an office-bearer of the residents' welfare association," he added.

The LG was accompanied by Additional Director General of Police, Punjab, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh and her private secretary, R Sridharan, among others during the visit.

There has been a sharp criticism, both inside and outside the Assemblyfor some weeks now, both by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, other ministers and ruling party MLAs of Bedi's weekend visits to launch the 'Swachh Puducherry' mission.

The former IPS officer has been at loggerheads with the Congress government in the union territory on several issues, including the admission of students under the government quota to post-graduate medical courses in the deemed universities and private medical colleges here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BJP president Amit Shah today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his three years in office has visited fewer foreign nations than his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

In an interaction with elected local body representatives here, the BJP chief said he was surprised as to why people think otherwise.

Shah said a BJP worker explained the reason behind this to him. "A party worker told me that when Manmohan Singh used to go abroad, nobody knew," he said.

He said Singh used to read out from written speeches on his foreign tours.

"He carried pages written in English and come back after reading them. Sometimes he read in Thailand the pages meant to be read in Malaysia and vice-versa," he claimed.

Shah said during Singh's tenure, the world never used to know whether the Indian PM went to China, the USA or Russia.

"But now when Modiji goes to China, America, Russia, France, Japan, Sri Lanka... Thousands of people gather at airport to receive him and the entire world watches him," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A shooting at a hospital here today left several people injured, including three doctors, law enforcement authorities said who declared the shooter dead.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) said its personnel are on the scene at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital where there are reports of several people shot.

NYPD Assistant Commissioner for Communication & Public Information J Peter Donald said in a tweet that "one shooter is deceased at the hospital".

The condition of the doctors was not known, according to the Fire Department official. It was unclear if there were more victims.

In a radio transmission, police had described the gunman as a tall, thin man wearing a blue shirt and white lab coat. A police official said he had a long gun, New York TImes reported.

Preliminary reports indicate that 5 to 6 people are wounded, though their conditions were not immediately known, according to another police official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing event.

"It looks like an employee of the hospital, that's what we are hearing, unconfirmed, right now," the official said.

The victims were on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital. By 3:30 the section of the hospital where the injured doctors were contained had been secured and the police were leading a heavily armored group of emergency service workers into the building.

As the situation continued to unfold, at least one doctor was being treated by people inside the hospital who had tied an emergency fire hose as a tourniquet, the fire department official said.

The shooting occurred in the afternoon of June 30.

Multiple police and emergency vehicles have been stationed outside the area, which has been cordoned off.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
'Vikrikar Bhavan', headquarters of Maharashtra government's erstwhile Sales Tax department, was today renamed as 'GST Bhavan" as the new tax regime rolled out.

Maharashtra Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and minister of state for Finance Deepak Kesarkar attended the ceremony at the Bhavan, located in south Mumbai's Mazgaon area.

Senior IAS officer Rajiv Jalota, State GST Commissioner, informed the gathering that the department has planned a helpline to assist traders and business community who have queries about GST implementation and modalities.

GST also means 'Garibon ki Seva karnewala Tax' (tax which helps the poor), Mungantiwar said.

"There are some doubts in minds of traders (over GST)," the BJP minister said.

"It is our duty as employees of this department, to resolve their queries," he added.

The GST department should not trouble traders, Mungantiwar said.

He recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had equated transition to GST regime to a person getting new spectacles and getting used to wearing them in a few days.

"The chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis) had offered me the Revenue portfolio but I declined, saying I would like to concentrate on dhan (finance) and van (forests)," Mungantiwar said.

In two years, the 'GST Bhavan' will be shifted to Wadala from Mazgaon, he said, adding work should start by October this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Telugu film star Nagarjuna Akkineni and a few other prominent personalities today pledged to donate organs at an event here.

The event had been organised by Yashoda Group of Hospitals in association with Jeevandan, a government institute set up to promote organ donation.

"Despite India being the world's second-most populous country, sadly it has very poor organ donation rate. Low awareness levels and superstitious beliefs are the biggest hurdles...," a release from the organisers quoted Nagarjuna as saying.

Telangana Health Minister C Laxma Reddy said there is a wide gap between number of patients who need transplants and availability of organs.

"Dr Laxma Reddy set an example to follow by announcing his own consent for organ donation," said the release.

Badminton player P V Sindhu also attended the program.

"Our objective is to promote organ donation....So we have associated with Jeevandan programme of Telangana government. I have decided to donate my body," said G Ravinder Rao, chairman of Yashoda Group of Hospitals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind today met Puducherry legislators and the lone Lok Sabha member from the Union Territory, who assured support for his candidature.

Puducherry-based All India NR Congress chief N Rangasamy and his party legislators met Kovind at a hotel here.

Puducherry's lone Lok Sabha MP R Radhakrishnan, who belongs to the main opposition party in the Assembly (AINRC), was also present, according to Tamil Nadu BJP.

Also, BJP's lone legislator from Kerala and veteran party leader O Rajagopal took part in the meeting to drum up support for Kovind.

Kovind, 71, arrived here this morning from New Delhi and was accorded a warm reception by Tamil Nadu BJP leaders at the airport. Later, he drove to a city hotel where he met the legislators.

The NDA presidential nominee is also scheduled to seek support from the AIADMK factions led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam and Chief Minister K Palaniswami later in the day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A teenage boy, who was injured in a clash between two groups yesterday, succumbed to his injuries in the hospital today, prompting a mob to damage vehicles and pelt stones at a few shops here, the police said.

Paras (19), who was injured in the clash, died at a hospital here, after which a mob damaged two cars parked near the Fountain Chowk and pelted stones at a few shops.

The mob also tried to torch two state transport buses, but the police by then had rushed in reinforcements.

The police had to resort to a mild lathicharge to bring the situation under control and a few persons were also rounded up.

A clash had broken out yesterday between two groups of the Deeru ki Majri locality here in which the teenager was injured.

He was shifted to the Government Rajindra Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries today.

The family members and friends of the deceased, who staged a protest outside the hospital, were soon joined by some other people.

The protesters then went on a rampage demanding action against those responsible for the teenager's death.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"Big Bang Theory" star Johnny Galecki has expressed his thanks to the men and women of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, days after a large blaze claimed his home.

"Thank you to the brothers and sisters of @calfire It is the profound risks that you accept and the sacrifices you and your families make that keep us safe," the actor wrote on Instagram, along with a photo that showed him embracing a firefighter.

Galecki's statement comes after a fire raging about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles destroyed a ranch owned by the TV actor and musician.

As of Thursday evening, the fire responsible has burned 1,598 acres and is 88% contained, according to CAL FIRE.

"Thanks also to the many of you who have reached out in support," Galecki added. "It is far from lost on us here."

Galecki was not home at the time of the fire and the ranch is not his primary residence.

After the news of his loss broke, Galecki expressed hope that the community affected would rebuild.

"It's never the structures that create a community -- it's the people," he said. "And if the people of Santa Margarita have taught me anything it's that, once the smoke has cleared, literally and figuratively, it's a time to reach out and rebuild. We've done it before and we'll need to do it together again. And it will make our community even closer and stronger."
Turkish authorities banned transsexual rights activists from holding a planned march in Istanbul, the country's largest city, this weekend, a week after police used rubber bullets to thwart a Gay Pride parade.

Organisers however vowed to press ahead with the Trans Pride March, planned for today, despite the ban.

The Istanbul governor's office yesterday said in a statement the march could not take place because the venue for the event -- the central Taksim Square -- was not suitable and because the office had not received a proper application for permission to hold the march.

"After an evaluation ... It has been decided not to give permission for the holding of this event," the office said in a statement.

City officials also urged citizens to ignore calls to participate in the parade and abide by the security forces' warning.

But the organisers wrote on their Facebook page that "we don't recognise bans... We will be at Taksim tomorrow for the Trans Pride."



The Trans Pride march, if held, would have been the eighth edition of the event, which promotes rights for transsexuals in Turkey, but it has suffered crackdowns in recent years.

Similarly, the Gay Pride parade had been held annually in Istanbul until 2015 -- an event routinely attended by thousands of people before a police crackdown.

Last Sunday, police fired rubber bullets at a group of around 40 activists attempting to hold a gay pride march, an AFP journalist reported, and at least four people were detained.

Witnesses said there was a heavy police presence which outnumbered the activists.

The year before, organisers were denied permission to march with the city on the edge over bombings blamed on Islamic State group and Kurdish militants, sparking anger from gay rights activists.

Critics have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of having overseen a creeping Islamisation since he came to power, first as prime minister in 2003 and then president in 2014.

But authorities say they are merely acting in the interest of public security.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkey today said it remained hopeful of a solution to the Gulf crisis that has seen its ally Qatar diplomatically and economically isolated, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with the emirate's defence minister.

In Ankara's latest show of support for Qatar, Erdogan hosted Defence Minister Khaled bin Mohammed al-Attiyah for talks at the headquarters of the ruling party in Ankara.

The meeting came as Ankara, which has stood by Doha throughout the crisis, resists pressure to shutter a Turkish military base on the emirate that Qatar's neighbours want to see closed.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain announced on June 5 the suspension of political, economic and diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting extremist groups.

Doha denies the claims, a stance backed by Turkey which has sent hundreds of aid flights and even a cargo ship to bring food for its embattled ally.

Ankara's attempts to mediate between the sides have so far come to nothing but after the talks in the Turkish capital presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said he was hopeful of a resolution.

"There are some indications that a solution is possible. This is our general impression. We need to continue efforts to take measures that go in the right direction," he said.

Crucially, Ankara is also setting up a military base on the emirate that is set to give Turkey a new foothold in the Gulf, sending in a first deployment of two dozen troops.

Kalin defended the base, saying its aim was ensuring "defence and security" in the region.

Riyadh and its allies issued 13 demands to Qatar for resolving the crisis, including the closure of the Turkish military base and the Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

Turkey criticised the ultimatum but has also taken care not to directly target Saudi Arabia, the key protagonist in the crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The UN refugee agency is heaping pressure on Europe to help Italy defuse the "unfolding tragedy" of tens of thousands migrants flooding its shores.

Italy needs more international support to cope with a growing number of migrants who have braved a perilous Mediterranean crossing to reach Europe this year, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said today.

"What is happening in front of our eyes in Italy is an unfolding tragedy," Grandi said in a statement.

"In the course of last weekend, 12,600 migrants and refugees arrived on its shores, and an estimated 2,030 have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year."



Italy, he said, was "playing its part" in taking in those rescued and offering protection to those in need. "These efforts must be continued and strengthened. But this cannot be an Italian problem alone."



Separately, a source in Paris said the interior ministers of France, Germany and Italy would meet in the French capital on Sunday to discuss a "coordinated approach" to help Rome.

Last week, Italy threatened to close its doors to people arriving on boats which were not flying Italian flags.

Europe has to get fully involved through an "urgent distribution system" of migrants and should widen legal channels so that migrants can be admitted, Grandi said.

He also called for greater international efforts to tackle the causes of migration, to protect people and to fight trafficking.

Since the beginning of the year, 83,650 people have reached Italy by sea, an increase of nearly 20 percent compared to the same period last year, UN figures show.

Nearly all of Italy's 200,000 places for accommodating migrants have been filled.

Many of the migrants need health care and support, with a large percentage of them non-accompanied children and victims of sexual violence, says the UN.

The number of migrant children arriving on their own rose two-fold between 2015 and 2016, reaching 25,846 at the end of last year.

Europe has been grappling with the worst migration crisis since the end of World War II with an influx of people fleeing the wars in Syria and Iraq while others from Africa are seeking an escape from poverty or political persecution.

And there continue to be flare-ups of violence sparked by the tensions among the migrants and refugees gathered in western Europe.

In the northern French port city of Calais, riot police stepped in over the past two days to break up fighting among African migrants armed with sticks and rocks.

Fighting between Eritreans against Ethiopians on Saturday left 16 people injured, with police making 10 arrests.

That followed brawls on Friday night when security forces used tear gas to disperse the feuding sides, Calais Mayor Philippe Mignonet said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nearly 200 villagers today ransacked two liquor shops in Aaraychikuppam and Mullodai villages in Bahoor limits in protest against the functioning of the outlets.

The angry villagers led by ruling Congress MLA N Dhanavelu threw dozens of liquor bottles out of the shop and damaged the outlet.

"Nothing has happened despite several



representations," the MLA told reporters.

A group of villagers also attacked liquor shops in Ariyur and Sivarandhagam villages.

Police reached the spot and pacified the agitators.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Rajesh Kumar Singh

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India early on Saturday introduced its biggest tax reform in the 70 years since independence from British colonial rule.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) replaces more than a dozen federal and state levies and unifying a $2 trillion economy and 1.3 billion people into one of the world's biggest common markets.

The measure is expected to make it easier to do business by simplifying the tax structure and ensuring greater compliance, boosting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic credentials before a planned re-election bid in 2019.

At a midnight ceremony in parliament's central hall Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee together launched the new tax by pressing a button.

"With GST, the dream of 'One India, Great India' will come true," Modi said.

For the first midnight ceremony in the central hall in two decades, Modi was joined by his cabinet colleagues, India's central bank chief, a former prime minister and major company executives including Ratan Tata.

The launch, however, was boycotted by several opposition parties including the Congress Party, which first proposed the tax reform before it fell from power three years ago.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - the architect of India's economic reforms - also gave it a miss.

COMPLEX STRUCTURE

It has taken 14 years for the new sales tax to come into being. But horse trading to get recalcitrant Indian states on board has left Asia's third-largest economy with a complex tax structure.

In contrast to simpler sales taxes in other countries, India's GST has four rates and numerous exemptions.

The official schedule of rates runs to 213 pages and has undergone repeated changes, some taking place as late as on Friday evening.

Many businesses are nervous about how the changes will unfold, with smaller ones saying they will get hit by higher tax rates.

Adding to the complexity, businesses with pan-India operations face filing over 1,000 digital returns a year.

While higher tax rates for services and non-food items are expected to fuel price pressures, compliance is feared to be a major challenge in a country where many entrepreneurs are not computer literate and rely on handwritten ledgers.

"We have jumped into a river but don't know its depth," said A. Subba Rao, an executive director at power firm CLP India.

'ONE TAX, ONE MARKET, ONE NATION'

Poor implementation would deal a blow to an economy that is still recovering from Modi's decision late last year to outlaw 86 percent of the currency in circulation.

In a bid to mitigate the impact on the farm sector, the GST rates for tractors and fertiliser were slashed on Friday to 18 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

HSBC estimates the reform, despite its flaws, could add 0.4 percentage points to economic growth.

An end of tax arbitrage under the GST is estimated to save companies $14 billion in reduced logistics costs and efficiency gains.

As the GST is a value added tax, firms will have an incentive to comply in order to avail credit for taxes already paid. This should widen the tax net, shoring up public finances.

"The old India was economically fragmented," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. "The new India will create one tax, one market for one nation."

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and John Stonestreet)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Twice in the past month, National Security Agency cyberweapons stolen from its arsenal have been turned against two very different partners of the United States  Britain and Ukraine.
Operations at a terminal of the countrys largest container port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, came to a standstill earlier this week. The process of loading and unloading containers was halted as the ports computers shut down after a major cyber attack that swept across the globe. The aggressiveness of the malware showed that such attacks were capable of bringing both corporate and government networks to a sudden halt. The ransom to retrieve files was reportedly $300, to be paid in virtual currency bitcoins. Cyber law expert Prashant Mali, also an advocate at the Bombay High Court, tells Nikita Puri how to prevent mass-scale civil disruptions that future cyber attacks can result in. Edited excerpts:



First we had individual companies and high-networth individuals who were targets of ransomware, then WannaCry hit servers across the globe. Now another malware, which some are identifying as Petya, has sent corporations into a tizzy. Do you foresee more such threats?



To date, financial cyber crime has only grown and it is yet to peak, so I would say its written on the wall that many more such attacks are expected in the near future. Such threats loom large as the ransom is paid in bitcoins, so the criminals arent caught. One thing the police and the government can do is to ensure that citizens make compulsory declarations of purchase of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies (like ethereum) when they file their income tax returns. This can help the government see who pays and how much because, I feel, ransom-payers are also the cause of ransomware proliferation.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) -- Indias biggest tax reform since independence -- tonight came into force after 17 tumultuous years of debate, unifying more than a dozen central and state levies but doubts remained if the transition to a national sales tax will be without any glitch. The new tax regime was ushered in at a late night event in the historic Central Hall of Parliament, reminiscent of the midnight tryst with destiny in 1947.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the new levy as "good and simple tax" that marks economic integration of India.

"There are 500 types of taxes that play their roles. Today we are getting rid of them," Modi said. "From Ganganagar to Itanagar and Leh to Lakshadweep, it is one nation, one tax."

The day marks a decisive turning point in determining the future course of the country, he said, adding GST would ensure one nation, one tax.

The GST, he said, is simple and transparent tax that will help curb corruption and check generation of black money.

President Pranab Mukherjee, who had as finance minister in the UPA government in 2011 piloted a constitutional amendment bill to bring in the GST, said the new indirect tax regime is a "disruptive change". "It is similar to the introduction of VAT when there was initial resistance. When a change of this magnitude is undertaken, however positive it may be, there are bound to be some teething troubles and difficulties in the initial stages.

"We will have to solve these with understanding and speed to ensure that it does not impact the growth momentum of the economy. Such of such major changes always depend on their effective implementation," he said.

The launch was however boycotted by principal opposition parties like the Congress which termed it as "tamasha" (gimmick) saying it was being rushed in a "half-baked" manner as a "self-promotional spectacle".

Besides Modi and Mukherjee, the starry midnight launch was attended by Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

Mukherjee and Modi pressed a button in a specially crafted box at the stroke of midnight to launch the new tax regime which overnight replaced the messy mix of more than a dozen state and central levies built up over seven decades. The one national GST unifies the countrys USD 2 trillion economy and 1.3 billion people into a common market, an exercise that took 17 tumultuous years.

Modi said GST will eliminate the compounding effect of the current multi-layered tax system as well as the cross- state tax heterogeneity by fixing the final tax rate.

It will reduce cost and save money, he said.

While the measure is billed as making doing business easier by simplifying the tax structure and ensuring greater compliance, businesses particularly small traders have been a bit nervous about the new tax filing system.

A train was stopped by traders in Uttar Pradesh and commercial establishments and wholesale commodity markets in some cities remained closed today in protest against the "hasty" rollout of GST.

While a general strike by traders in Kashmir has been called tomorrow, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh witnessed sporadic bandhs. West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana also witnessed protests.

TMCs Mamata Banerjee feared it would bring back the dreaded "Inspector Raj".

But the NCP, the JD-U and the JD-S broke ranks with opposition parties to attend the launch ceremony. Besides the Congress, other parties that boycotted the event included RJD, DMK and Left parties. Unlike the last midnight event held in 1997 on the occasion of golden jubilee of the Independence at a special session of Parliament, it was a gala event at the circular -shaped hall that had been loaned for the launch of the historic reform.



The government promises that the transition to a single, nationwide tax on goods and services will streamline business and boost the economy by tearing down barriers between 31 states and union territories. It is estimated to add 0.4 per cent to 2 per cent to GDP growth.

But some businesses are still figuring out how it will work as they race against time to adopt or upgrade cash registers and computer systems so they are able to file monthly tax returns to comply with the new tax regime.

Hours before the midnight launch, the GST Council - the highest decision making body that formulated the rules and tax rates, met for the 18th time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the council members briefly.

For some businesses, the GST is complex with four broad tax categories of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, and myriad exceptions, as opposed to a simpler, flatter and broader sales taxes in other countries. Switchover to the GST has added to the worries of businesses that are still recovering from the November 8 shock decision to remove 86 per cent of currency from circulation.

One of the things that is keeping companies occupied ahead of the launch is calculation of input tax credit, which allows them to claim refunds on tax paid on inputs and pay tax on the value adds only. From soft drink makers to automobile firms, companies are busy calculating final consumer price to be charged from July 1.

The government, however, defends the decision saying enough time was given to businesses to adapt to the new regime.

Notwithstanding this, the government will take a lenient view for tax returns filed in the initial period.

First proposed in 2003, the idea of GST was bogged down for years in bipartisan debate, with political parties in government trying to push it and those in opposition dragging it down. Before Modi came to power three years ago, his party was not particularly in favour of the GST.

Over 1,200 items, from shampoo to tea to automobiles, have been put in four broad tax categories.

Unbranded food staples including vegetables, milk, eggs and flour will be exempt from GST, along with health and education services. Tea, edible oils, sugar, textiles and baby formula will attract a 5 per cent tax.


Jammu and Kashmir, the only state which failed to meet the June 30 timeline for the GST rollout, is likely to clear the legislation on the indirect tax regime by July 6, its Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu said here today.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on Monday written a letter to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, saying that failure of the state to implement the GST would lead to "adverse impact" of price rise and put the local industry at a disadvantage.

Jammu and Kashmir is the only state which has not taken a call yet on the implementation of the new tax regime which came into force in the country from midnight tonight.

"Jammu and Kashmir (assembly) is likely to pass the GST bill by July 6 in the state," said Drabhu, who was here to attend the midnight launch of the GST in the central hall of Parliament.

Earlier this evening, the J&K finance minister attended the meeting of GST Council convened by Jaitley.

In view of differences among the political parties, the state government had set up an all-party consultative group to find a common ground.

The consultative group held its second meeting yesterday after which the government claimed that the parties were in agreement on extension of the new tax regime but with safeguards to protect the fiscal autonomy of the state.

"There was a general consensus in the meeting that non- implementation of the GST regime would trigger economic and financial chaos in the state with the inter-state trade vis- a-vis J&K taking a big hit," an official spokesman said here.

A few days back, Drabu had said the Mehbooba Mufti government is "genuinely interested" in building a consensus because the GST is a regime that would last for the next 30-40 years.

"We will take a final call on the GST implementation once we get the full sense of the all-party meeting. I do not want to preempt anybody. Let us understand what their views are," he had said.

Drabu said the state government has reached out to the opposition parties of the state and sent them all the relevant documents.

He said a perception has been created that the GST would impact the special status and the fiscal autonomy of the state, but there is no compromise on Article 370.

"The government is trying to build a consensus. This is a very fragile society. We are going through difficult times.... the way things are happening around us, the way things have been dehumanized, anything can spark off. You do not want to create social chaos.

"So, it is in the interest of the society of J&K, not just the economy, to build a certain political as well as legislative consensus," he said.

The consultative committee meeting held threadbare discussions over the legal, legislative, financial, economic and administrative aspects of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime with the chairman explaining in detail the nuances of the new tax regime.

Making a U-turn, the Jammu and Kashmir Congress had said yesterday that it was not against the implementation of the GST in the state, nearly two weeks after terming it as "unacceptable".

The party accused the government for the "current chaos, confusion and uncertainty" and said a "proper mode" should be adopted for implementation of the GST in the state in view of its special status.

"As far as the Congress is concerned, it has never been against implementation of GST, which is its brain child. But it is the government which had to adopt the proper mode and manner of implementation of the same in J&K," state Congress Committee spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said here today.

A statement issued after a meeting of the JKPCC executive panel here under the chairmanship of party unit chief G A Mir said, "It is the duty of the government to take steps to ensure the timely implementation of the GST, if they are sincere.
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Andrew Lesky appears for a hearing in 1st District Court, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, in Logan, Utah. Lesky claims that the Cache County Jail confiscated his legal documents, and mail to his attorney, which will hinder him from helping in his defense of attempted aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping charges.

LOGAN  After more than three-years since the first charges were filed against him, Andrew Lesky has pleaded guilty. The 46-year-old former Idaho man accepted a joint plea agreement, saying he was tired of being in court every two-weeks.

Lesky appeared before Judge Thomas Willmore in 1st District Court Monday, after he previously filed a motion to recuse Judge Brian Cannell from his nine cases. Defense attorney Shannon Demler said under the agreement they would plead guilty to lying under oath, a second-degree felony, aggravated assault and theft, both third-degree felonies, and two misdemeanors of stalking and criminal mischief. As part of the plea, prosecutors dropped the 19 remaining charges.

Lesky is already serving a 30-year sentence for trying to shoot his ex-girlfriend and her then boyfriend, outside their Logan apartment. The jury of five women and three men found the defendant guilty after a two-and-a-half-week trial.

During Mondays hearing, state attorney Spencer Walsh told the court how in October 2014, Lesky reportedly called the boyfriends employer, posing as a probation agent, and claiming the boyfriend was smoking marijuana. That was the basis for the stalking charge.

Walsh went on to describe how around the same time, Lesky allegedly slashed the boyfriends truck tires and broke into the ex-girlfriends home, stealing several paintings. Prosecutors charged him with criminal mischief and theft.

Walsh told the court, in September 2014 Lesky reportedly tried to strangle his ex-girlfriend, after she received a text message from another man. The assault led prosecutors to file the aggravated assault charge.

Walsh said the final case was filed after Lesky lied about when his relationship with the victim began, during the October trial. The defendant was charged with giving a false or inconsistent statement.

Lesky told the court the whole point of agreeing to the plea deal was in hopes of being sentenced immediately, saying it has become redundant, being transported from the prison every two-weeks for hearings.

Judge Willmore said he didnt know enough about Leskys background to sentence him then. He ordered a pre-sentence report to be completed by probation agents and scheduled sentencing for August 7.

Demler said as part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to pursue a harsher sentence because of Leskys habitual offender status. He said they will be arguing for a sentence that will run concurrent to the 30-year sentence, the defendant is already serving. Prosecutors are expected to ask for the new sentence to run consecutively.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.com
Zerbor/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- In a Saturday morning tweet, President Donald Trump questioned the states refusing to comply with requests made by his administrations new Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity by asking what they may be hiding.



"Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?" Trump asked in a tweet.



Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

Trumps Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity -- referred to in his tweet as VOTER FRAUD PANEL -- has been met with backlash by some secretaries of state who say the requests its making are over the line in terms of the voter information its seeking.



On Saturday Alex Padilla, secretary of state for California -- one of the many states refusing to comply with the commissions request -- responded to the presidents tweet.



Hiding? Nope. Fear? @realDonaldTrump using voter fraud lies to justify voter suppression. Stop investigating Americans. Focus on Russia, he said in a tweet.



Hiding? Nope. Fear?@realDonaldTrump using voter fraud lies to justify voter suppression. Stop investigating Americans. Focus on Russia. https://t.co/diBUGzS8b3  Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) July 1, 2017

Other states including New York, New Mexico, Virginia, South Dakota and Mississippi have also said they will not comply with requests from the White Houses commission, which sent a letter last week to all 50 states asking for voter roll data. Information requested includes political party affiliations, the last four digits of social security numbers, voter history from 2006 onward, and any history of felony convictions and military service.



Trump established the commission, led by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, in May with the intent of investigating voter fraud and concerns of voter suppression. In the weeks following his 2016 electoral college win, Trump tweeted that he would have also won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.



In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016

Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.



Since winning the election, Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.



Whats going on with voter fraud is horrible, Trump told ABC News David Muir in a January interview. You have people that are registered who are dead, who are illegals, who are in two states. You have people registered in two states. They're registered in a New York and a New Jersey. They vote twice. There are millions of votes, in my opinion.



But even the commissions chairman Kobach -- who sent the request and serves as Kansas secretary of state -- said his state will not be providing the federal government with social security numbers.



In Kansas, the social security number is not publicly available," Kobach told the Kansas City Star in an interview Friday. "Every state receives the same letter but were not asking for it if its not publicly available.



Vice President Pences home state of Indiana wont be complying either, according to Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson.



Indiana law doesnt permit the secretary of state to provide the personal information requested by Secretary Kobach, Lawson, a Republican, said in a statement. Under Indiana public records laws, certain voter info is available to the public, the media and any other person who requested the information for non-commercial purposes. The information publicly available is name, address and congressional district assignment.



Kay Stimson, the spokesperson for the National Association of Secretaries of State told ABC News they are currently trying to compile information from states to see how they are responding to records request from the commission.



We want to know how they are using the information they are collecting. We have asked the White House and we have not gotten a response yet," said Stimson.



Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research David Becker says states vary in what information is publicly available.



The commission has no special authority to collect data that I know of, so states have discretion about whether they provide data, and most seem to be providing only that which any member of the public could obtain, Becker said.



The issue of states rights was raised by Mississippis Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, on Friday.



They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from, Hosemann said in a statement. Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our states right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes.



At the White House press briefing on Friday, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that state refusals to turn over information are mostly a political stunt.



This is a commission thats asking for publicly available data. And the fact that these governors wouldnt be willing to turn that over -- this is something thats been part of the commissions discussion, which has bipartisan support, and none of the members raised any concern whatsoever.



States have until July 14 to comply with the commissions request.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
"John Howard was the Prime Minister at the time and he came up very soon after the bushfires. He got out of his car and he looked at me and said, 'I have never seen anything like this'. It was such utter devastation, I don't know if anybody who ever saw it could forget it."
"However while our schools, education and care service providers are covered under this scheme it is still an anomaly and a source of disappointment to me that the core of our churches, our parishes and carious communities of faith has been largely excluded form the scrutiny and support of the Ombudsman's office.
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
Just as Toyota Motor Philippines updated the specs of the Hilux pickup truck , theyve done the same for the Fortuner as well.
Photo: Wayne Moore Naloxone kits will be available at Central Okanagan high schools in September.

Secondary schools in the Central Okanagan will be equipped with overdose prevention measures next school year.

At its final meeting of the current school year, the School District 23 Board of Education voted to provide Naloxone kits to each secondary school in the district.

Board chair Moyra Baxter says the decision was not made in response to overdoses at area high schools.

"It's really on the recommendation of Interior Health," said Baxter.

"It's there if there was an unfortunate incident, but we hope we don't have to use it. It's just a precaution."

The latest information from the BC Coroners Service indicates 129 people across the province died of drug overdoses in May. A majority of those were indoor events, and not necessarily involving street people.

"None of us expected this is something we would ever be doing, but we all know what an epidemic this is."

Schools will be equipped with the kits in September.

Baxter said they will be under the control of an administrator or first aid personnel who will be educated in the use of the kits.

The board also passed its 2017-2018 budget.

The budget for the next school year came in at $253.9 million. That's $25 million more than the budget approved for the current school year.

Much of that, says Baxter, is due to the recent Supreme Court ruling on class size, which means the district has to hire more teachers and add more classrooms.

The district is also expecting a few hundred more students than this past year.

The good news, according to Baxter, is the fact the district does not have to cut anything from its budget, the first time that has happened in several years.

However, she noted, there are no additional funds to reinstate programs that have been cut in recent years. The board over the years has cut about $11 million from its budget.

As for the change in government from Liberal to an NDP-Green coalition, Baxter says she's always optimistic there could be more funds available, but she'll have to wait and see.

She says parties will say they plan to increase education funding when they are in opposition, but that doesn't always happen when they form a government.
Photo: Contributed

A two-month road trip to Kelowna ended in six serious convictions for a young man from Winnipeg.

Alexander Laramee was found guilty Friday morning of six charges stemming from a violent robbery at the Verve apartment buildings on the night of Nov. 21, 2015.

Laramee, 22-years-old at the time, had joined several people on a two-month road trip to Kelowna.

The four headed west, visiting Calgary, Banff, and finally Kelowna. The party then returned to Calgary for some time, before coming back to Kelowna on Nov. 21.

They partied that evening, before one of the people on the trip drove Laramee and another man to the apartment building on Yates Road.

(The driver) said that a female friend had stayed with (the resident of a condo unit) at some point and had seen large sums of money and marijuana in his apartment and before he went home, Mr. Laramee was going to join (the other man) to get the money, said Justice Heather McNaughton Friday.

The two men were let into the building by a resident who was walking by, and, donning black face masks and gloves, they entered the unlocked door of the unit.

The owner of the apartment was inside sitting on a massage chair. Two women, residents of the building, were on a couch.

Laramee's partner in the robbery ran into the room, pulled out a hammer and smashed a large fish tank, spilling 35 gallons of water on the floor.

The owner of the condo jumped from the chair and charged at the hammer-wielding man and the two men wrestled on the ground.

Laramee said he entered panic mode and repeatedly punched one of the women, who had been yelling for help, and put his hand over her mouth.

Meanwhile, the owner of the unit, who was trained in jiu-jitsu, attempted to secure the other man's arms with his legs, but he managed to escape, while hitting the owner several times on the head. The owner was bleeding heavily and required multiple stitches.

The water from the fish tank seeped into the rooms below, prompting the downstairs tenants to come upstairs and check what was going on. Police were called to the scene.

At this point, Laramee said he had a reality check, and stopped trying to restrain the women. Police found him sitting on an ottoman when they arrived.

While Laramee admitted to the bulk of the events, he said he felt that the man that drove them to the house would cause harm to himself or his family if he didn't carry out the robbery.

One week into the trip, Laramee had witnessed this man kick and beat his friend's German shepherd with a lawn chair. When Laramee attempted to comfort the dog, Laramee was threatened.

Despite his argument that he was under duress when he committed the robbery, Justice McNaughton said Laramee appeared to have been enjoying himself over the two-month trip, and nothing had stopped him from returning home if he had felt threatened.

The man who orchestrated the robbery has had a warrant out for his arrest for the past year and he has yet to be apprehended.

Laramee's convictions included breaking and entering, attempted robbery, assault, assault with a weapon, masking one's face during an offence and unlawful confinement.

He has no prior criminal record.

He will be back in court in late August to determine a date for sentencing.
Photo: Castanet Staff Monty Pierre was struck and killed by a dumptruck in Penticton on Thursday

A Penticton man killed while trying to cross the street on Thursday is being remembered by acquaintances as a good and giving man.

People downtown and in line at the Soupateria were quick to pay tribute to Monty Pierre.

Pierre was well known in both places, holding many friendships.

"He was around the town for a long time and he was a good guy," said a friend Paul, as he stood on the sidewalk downtown. "Whatever he had, he was willing to give you half."

Pierre was struck and killed by a dump truck near the corner of Main Street and Eckhardt Avenue on Thursday. He was 51 and a longtime resident.

Faith, who works downtown, said if she stopped and talked to Pierre, he always had a story to tell.

"He was a good guy," she said. "It could be freezing and he would give you the shirt off his back. He was always in a good mood, always laughing. It just shows how fast a life can be taken away."

At the Soupateria on Friday, people eating lunch Friday had similar memories of Pierre.

A woman named Amie recalled that Pierre looked out for her when she was first homeless at age 14, and again later in life when she found herself in the same position.

"He was sweet, gentle natured, a giver and respectful of women," she said. "He gave everybody respect before making a judgement and he gave everybody first, second and third chances. And he was always there and always had my back."

Sheryl Ann WIlson, a Penticton resident and disability advocate, said she was saddened when she heard the news of the Pierres death.

"I knew him over the five years I've been eating at the Soupateria," she said. "And my memories of him are he was a very caring and sweet man. His character was very gentle."

Joseph Frocklage, a street advocate whose son Joseph "Bear" Foy died from an overdose in December, said he too was sad to hear the news about Pierre.

"He was very kind and he never caused trouble," he said. "He just wanted to live life to the fullest and I am absolutely sorry that his life was cut short."
Photo: Nicholas Johansen Wade Jensen appeared in place of his client Pavla Janeckova

The woman charged with uttering threats against former premier Christy Clark and former speaker Steve Thomson had her first appearance in court Friday, but her lawyer appeared in her place.

Charges were approved against Kelowna's Pavla Janeckova on Tuesday for threats made on or about April 30, 2017 in Kelowna.

Her lawyer, Wade Jenson said his client's appearance wasn't required at Friday's court date, but he has met with her since the charges were laid.

Jenson said he couldn't disclose the details of the alleged threats at this time.

The BC Prosecution Service has appointed Special Prosecutor Kris Pechet to the case to avoid any potential for real or perceived improper influence in the administration of justice in light of the nature of the allegations and the identity of the subjects of the threats.

Janeckova's case was adjourned to July 24 at the request of the defence.
Photo: Kevin Rothwell

Two vehicles collided south of Winfield by Turtle Bay Crossing just after 7:15 p.m.

RCMP and emergency vehicles are on scene.

Send your photos and videos to [email protected]
I love this country. I was honoured to defend it and now I feel privileged to serve in its Parliament.

I have had the opportunity to see so much of our nation: to meet Canadians of all walks of life, creed, and colour; to see its staggering landscape while hiking its mountains, fishing its waters, and driving its highways; to see it from the flight deck of the planes Ive piloted. It is breathtaking in its diversity, its beauty, and its abundance.

In Canada, we are sometimes defined by what we are not: we dont all live in the North; the Canada Food Guide does not have a special category for poutine, clamato juice, or double-doubles; we dont say aboot or ice skate before we can walk; and we are not Americans.

On Canada Day, it is important to reflect on who we are; andas we mark 150 years of nationhoodto reflect on how we came to be and where we are headed.

Canada won its independence through negotiation and an act of Parliament, the British Parliament. Just a few maritime provinces and the St Lawrence Seaway formed this experiment in democracy. It began as an uneasy alliance of three peoples: British, French, and Aboriginal, with the goal of peace, order, and good government.

Within four years Canada purchased the vast Hudson Bay territories of Ruperts Land, was joined by British Columbia, and made plans to unite the country along the spine of a Canada-Pacific Railway. The last spike was hammered in not far from here in Spallumcheen by men in top hats, but much of the railway was laid by thousands of Chinese labourers.

Canada continued to build the nation by wave upon wave of immigration, labourers and homesteaders fleeing misery and war to seek opportunity and peace. From every continent but Antarctica, people came. Our nation prospers from the talent we have culled from across the globe.

In this way, Canada became a nation and a people. We are Canadian not just because we were born here, but for many of us because we have chosen to live here, to raise our families here, to build our lives here. Canada remains the G7 nation with the highest proportion of foreign-born citizens.

And look what we have become: the second-largest nation in the world with a vast endowment of natural resources; a trusted ally that has stepped up to fight against tyranny alongside our brothers in arms; a haven for peace-loving peoples the world over.

We have survived in this harsh landscape because of the grit and perseverance of individuals. There is much to be said for the ruggedness it takes to build a nation in the wilderness that now stands shoulder to shoulder with nations whose histories stretch for millennia.

I contend that we have thrived because we have stood together to support one another. When we are sick, we care for each other. When we are threatened, we protect each other. When we are jobless, we bridge the gap to future prospects. When we are old, we provide. And when we serve, we honour the sacrifice.

In Canada, we have created a nation where everyone has a shot, everyones got your back, and everyone is welcome. I am so proud to be a part of this community. I am so proud to be Canadian. I look forward to Canada stepping into the breech to lead the nations of the world. We will humbly showcase the success of our efforts. We have become the model and envy of the community of nations. We are Canadian.

Happy birthday Canada!

Stephen Fuhr, CD

Member of Parliament

Kelowna-Lake Country
Photo: CTV BC Ferries' new Salish Eagle vessel.

Coastal travellers can expect fares with BC Ferries to remain steady as the company reports it has experienced a surplus for the second year in a row.

BC Ferries says in a release issued Friday that consolidated net earnings for 2017 is $77.4 million, up from $69.5 million the year prior.

The company is attributing the earnings to a 2.9 per cent increase in vehicle traffic and 1.7 per cent increase in passenger traffic compared with 2016.

CEO Mark Collins says the strong financial performance will help renew the ferry fleet, pay down debt and reduce the need for future loans. He says the ferry network will need a new ship about every year for the next 12 years, at an average cost of $70 million.

Although more traffic meant higher operating costs, Collins says the newly introduced Salish Class natural gas-fuelled vessels are less costly to run and two more vessels will be converted later this year.
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For 45 years, Nebraskas Natural Resources Districts (NRDs) have been protecting lives, property and future of this beautiful state. July 1, 2017 marked the 45th Anniversary of the creation of the NRD system in Nebraska. With the local public participation, Nebraska has made monumental progress in all 23 NRDs with soil and water conservation and protection efforts.

Nebraskas natural resources are precious and need to be protected, said Jim Bendfeldt, president of the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts. We commend the public for working with their local NRD to protect the natural resources for future generations. They need clean water to drink, nutrient-rich soil to grow food to sustain Nebraskas economic viability.

The Nebraska Legislature enacted Legislative Bill (LB) 1357 in 1969 to combine Nebraskas 154 special purpose entities into the Natural Resources Districts by July 1972. The 23 NRDs were organized based on the states major river basins. Each District has a publicly-elected board that makes local management decisions to help conserve our valuable natural resources and groundwater. Throughout the decades, the NRDs have worked with landowners to protect natural resources, provided and protected public water supplies, assisted urban and rural areas with flood control, provided recreation opportunities and have planted more than 95 million trees throughout Nebraska.

The Natural Resources Districts are celebrating this amazing milestone, said Bendfeldt. Other states are struggling with water and soil management because they do not have a local NRD system to provide opportunities for local citizens to protect natural resources. Without the NRDs, Nebraska would be in the extremely tough situation we see so many other states dealing with right now. With the NRD system, we have clean water, good soil and wonderful, hardworking people who believe in this states success and future.

Here are several facts about the Nebraskas natural resources as we look back on the last 45 years of success:

Groundwater

* Nebraska is No. 1 in irrigated acres while maintaining groundwater levels at pre-developed levels.

* Nebraskas center pivot manufacturers work closely with the NRDs and help lead the charge by creating and manufacturing more efficient irrigation systems.

* Nebraska farmers and ranchers work with the NRD on water quality and quantity management to protect this valuable resource for future generations.

* Wise management of the water resources also helps Nebraska agriculture lead the nation in several categories. We are No. 1 in cattle on feed and commercial red meat production, No. 2 in ethanol production, No. 3 in corn production, No. 5 in soybean production and No. 6 in swine production.

* Nebraskas Natural Resources Districts work with private landowners to monitor thousands of wells across the state each year for groundwater quality and quantity.

Flood Control

* There are hundreds of effective NRD flood control programs and activities across Nebraska directed at keeping our floodplains safer and reducing the potential for loss of life and property.

* Districts construct and maintain watershed structures or dams to help reduce the effects of flood damage during large rain events.

* Levee systems are also operated and maintained by the districts to protect property and lives.

* By installing this structures, thousands of homes and businesses have been removed from the federal floodplain maps saving those millions in federal flood insurance premiums and liability.

Forestry

* NRDs have planted more than 95 million trees since 1972.

* Trees shade and shelter homes, reduce energy costs, protect and increase crop yields, reduce soil erosion caused by water and wind, improve water quality, control snow and preserve winter moisture, protect livestock, provide food and cover for wildlife, control noise, capture atmospheric carbon, raise property values, and add beauty to our landscape.

* Check out http://www.nrdtrees.org for more information on tree planting and species available for purchase by each NRD.

Soil

* NRDs assist landowners to implement conservation practices to reduce soil erosion, improve soil health and improve surface water quality.

* NRDs work with state and federal agencies to modify programs to fit local resources needs.

* Best management practices, terraces, waterways, filter strips, and buffer strips all help to improve the quality of surface water in a watershed.

Recreation

* There are over 80 recreation areas across the state run by the NRDs. These areas include public access lakes, trails, and wildlife areas. Theres something for every outdoor enthusiast to enjoy!

* Please visit http://www.nrdrec.org for more information on the amenities and recreation opportunities in your area!

Education

* The NRDs work closely with the University of Nebraska Research and Extension to help improve farming and ranching practices that save soil, protect grass lands and protect water resources.

* The NRDs work with local schools, 4-H, FFA and local natural resources science clubs to provide additional natural resources education and information programs.

Visit https://www.nrdnet.org/nrds for more information about local NRDs and programs to protect natural resources.

Visit http://www.nrdstories.org for more information on important individuals critical to the history and formation of the NRDs.

The Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD), the trade association for Nebraska's 23 natural resources districts, works with individual NRDs to protect lives, protect property, and protect the future of Nebraskas natural resources. These districts are unique to Nebraska. NRDs are local government entities with broad responsibilities to protect our natural resources.

Major Nebraska river basins form the boundaries of the 23 NRDs, enabling districts to respond best to local conservation and resource management needs. To learn more about Nebraskas NRDs visit www.nrdnet.org. Or you can head to the Natural Resources Districts Facebook page at www.facebook.com or follow NARDs Twitter page at www.twitter.com @nebnrd. NARD is located at 601 S. 12 th St. Suite 201, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508. Email NARD at nard@nrdnet.org or call NARD at (402) 471-7670.
Training offered for water operators

COLUMBUS -- A water operators training session, Chlorination and Disinfection will be offered from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. July 13 in the North Education Center, Room 939, at Central Community College-Columbus. Registration will be held from 8:30-9 a.m. The training is designed for water operators and other individuals in the water industry who want to learn about water system chlorination and related issues. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has approved the course for recertification continuing education units. Class size is limited so preregistration is required by July 6 to reserve a space. The cost is $55. For more information or to preregister, contact Sue Baer at 402-562-1425; toll-free at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 1425 or email sbaer@cccneb.edu.

Telegram office closed for holiday

COLUMBUS -- The Columbus Telegram office will be closed Tuesday and a newspaper will not be printed on that day because of the Fourth of July holiday.

Omaha zoo opens playground for children

OMAHA  Omaha's zoo has opened its new Children's Adventure Trails exhibit, which is part of a $27.5 million expansion project that includes a new education center and an amphitheater.

The trail exhibit at Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium is designed for kids to explore and discover on their own, the Omaha World-Herald (http://bit.ly/2sozY0k ) reported.

"We thought if kids could have fun here while they're playing, it would really facilitate learning about wildlife even more," said Dennis Pate, the zoo's CEO and executive director.

The exhibit includes a treehouse with a wrecked pirate ship and nearby netted tubes crawling with squirrel monkeys.

There's also a waterfall that feeds into a creek meandering down the hillside. At the bottom, kids can tug on a rope to pull a wooden skiff across the stream.

When creating the exhibit, the zoo consulted with childhood development and play experts, and they crafted panels of parents and children to determine what features should go in the final plan.

"One kid said there's a creek in his backyard, and he would love to go down there and stomp in it and play, but he wasn't allowed to go into it, just to stay on the edge,'" said Elizabeth Mulkerrin, the zoo's director of education.

Mulkerrin emphasized that the exhibit is meant to encourage children to explore without parents. The zoo is placing about a dozen "play leaders" throughout the area to watch over the children and facilitate play.
COLUMBUS  The Fruit Club opted for the direct approach four years ago  selling its fresh fruits just out of the orchard to customers from the back of a 53-foot truck and trailer.

The Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based companys semitrailer will arrive Wednesday at the Bomgaars parking lot, 3920 23rd St., where workers will unload and sell fresh fruit from growers on opposite sides of the nation.

Georgia peaches, which arrived early this year with the help of Mother Nature, and Washington Bing cherries are the fruit choices during the upcoming visit from the club. Local customers can buy their fruit from 4:30-5:30 p.m. during the semis Columbus stop.

The peaches and Bing and Rainier cherries are two of our biggest crowd-pleasers, said Katie Larsen, a marketing spokeswoman for the 4-year-old company that has grown from the Midwest region to 300 cities in 14 states.

The company was born in 2013 in the parking lot of the Sioux Falls Staples outlet.

Since then its blown up, said Larsen.

The company targets consumers directly to keep a lid on prices.

Larsen said company founder Irina Kleinsasser started the business with the goal of providing United States-grown fresh fruit at affordable prices. The club offers a new fruit each month.

She loved fruit and she knew everybody else did, too, said Larsen while describing the clubs founder.

No membership is required to be part of The Fruit Club. However, reservations are needed and anyone can order their peaches and upcoming summer fruits by visiting the clubs website at www.thefruitclub.net.

Orders can also be placed by calling or texting 605-377-8679.

The club has already taken more than $9,000 in preorders for this summer (June, July and August) in Columbus, Larsen said.

The price for a 12-pound box of peaches is $25, and 25-pound box costs $45. The price for a 10-pound box of cherries is $27, and a 20-pound box costs $47.

Local buyers without preorders likely wont leave the Bomgaars parking lot empty-handed.

There is almost always fruit left over that people can buy after all the reservations are filled, Larsen said.

The club recently hosted the South Dakota Peach Festival, a Sioux Falls event in mid-June that attracted more than 40,000 visitors. The company donated proceeds from the event to charity.

Other seasonal fruits offered during deliveries to communities in the course of the year include Honeybell oranges and ruby red grapefruit in January, Florida strawberries in February and March, pineapple in April, blueberries and Florida muskmelon in May, nectarines, Washington peaches, pears and plums in August, apples and pears in September, Royal Red seedless grapes and King Green seedless grapes in October, Satsuma Mandarin oranges and Georgia pecans in November and Florida citrus, oranges and dark grapefruit in December.
Trump administration asking Congress to OK $1.4 billion deal

China lashed out at the United States over the Trump administration's approval of a Taiwan arms deal, with the authorities demanding the US stop the sales.

The Trump administration had notified the US Congress of "seven proposed defense sales for Taiwan" worth about $1.42 billion, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Thursday, adding that there is no change to Washington's one-China policy.

The arms sales, the first such deal with Taiwan since Donald Trump took office as US president, will go forward unless the US Congress formally objects in the next 30 days, according to the Associated Press.

China, having lodged solemn representations to the US in both Beijing and Washington, "strongly urges" the country to revoke the arms sales and cut military contacts with Taiwan to avoid further damaging China-US ties and cooperation in important fields, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Friday.

The arms sales would be a grave violation of the principles of the three joint communiques between China and the US and damage China's sovereignty and security interests, Lu said.

They also run counter to the spirit of the important consensus that the two countries' heads of state reached in their meeting in Florida in April, and are not in line with the general trend of the development of bilateral ties or the US's own interests, Lu pointed out.

Ren Guoqiang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said: "China is resolutely opposed to arms sales to Taiwan by the government of any foreign country."

"The position of the Chinese military over safeguarding China's sovereignty and territorial integrity is firm and clear," Ren said.

The revelation of the arms deal came one day after a US Senate committee completed a markup of a bill, allowing the US Navy to make regular port calls in Taiwan. This drew an immediate protest from China.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, warned on Friday: "Any behavior of relying on foreign forces to magnify oneself and damage peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits will surely backfire."

Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the US, told reporters on the sidelines of a reception at the Chinese embassy on Thursday the arms deal "will certainly undermine the mutual confidence between the two sides".
SCHUYLER  The suspect in last week's homicide killed himself early Friday evening as law enforcement officers closed in on the Schuyler residence he was inside.

According to the Colfax County Attorneys Office, law enforcement officers, including a Nebraska State Patrol SWAT team, were serving an arrest warrant at the apartment unit in the 700 block of E Street shortly before 6 p.m. Friday when they heard a pair of gunshots from inside the residence.

A State Patrol robot was sent inside the residence, confirming the male suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a release from the county attorneys office, which identified the man as 55-year-old Fidelgarin Valdez.

The attorney's office release says Valdez is originally from Cuba, but lived and worked in Schuyler.

No law enforcement officers were injured in Friday's incident.

The suspect, described to law enforcement by eye witnesses, was wanted in connection with a homicide that occurred shortly before 2 a.m. June 27 at the Schuyler Inn.

Janner Ramon Torres Diaz, 33, suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the shooting.

Schuyler Police officers responding to the emergency call at the motel at 222 W. 16th St. found Torres Diaz on a second-story balcony and performed CPR before the victim was transported by ambulance to CHI Health Schuyler, where he was pronounced dead.

Schuyler Inn owner Javier Arizmendi said the victim worked at the local Cargill plant and had lived at the motel for a few months.

The Schuyler Police Department, Colfax County Sheriffs Office and Nebraska State Patrol were part of the homicide investigation.

Colfax County Attorney Denise Kracl also credited Colfax County dispatchers and Cargill staff and management for their assistance in gathering information related to the case.

They did a great job, she said.

Fridays incident is being investigated by a separate Nebraska State Patrol troop than the one involved in serving the arrest warrant. State law requires a grand jury investigation any time a suspect dies while being apprehended.

Law enforcement is still investigating what led to the June 27 shooting.
Police ask public to help identify vehicle allegedly used in homicide
COLUMBUS  A district court judge told a 38-year-old Columbus man on Friday that he squandered a last-chance opportunity to avoid a prison cell for a drug conviction by violating the terms of his probation just 10 days after his sentencing in March.

Platte County District Court Judge Robert Steinke told Patrick Kozisek it was clear the defendant had no intention to abide by the terms of his probation after being arrested for possession of methamphetamine following a traffic stop in Columbus in late March.

Steinke revoked Koziseks sentence of three years of probation for delivery of marijuana stemming from several drug transactions during a two-week period in April 2016 and resentenced the defendant Friday to two to three years in prison for the conviction.

The judge gave Kozisek credit for 118 days already served in the county jail.

Your arrest for another drug-related felony made it clear you had no intention to abide by the terms of your probation, Steinke said, reciting a list of positive drug tests for meth, marijuana and the prescription pain killer OxyContin during his probation.

On June 12, Kozisek admitted to the three probation violations, which included meth possession and possession of dangerous weapons  a baton on his belt and club on the floor of his vehicle.

Probation has failed for you, said Steinke, adding that he hopes the defendant gets involved in a substance abuse program while in prison that addresses his drug addiction.

In exchange for Kozisek's plea in the pot case, the county attorneys office dismissed three counts of delivery of methamphetamine.

According to court documents, Kozisek was stopped by a Nebraska State Patrol trooper in March because he was driving a vehicle with a rear license plate completely obscured by mud and was arrested after the meth and weapons were found during a search of the vehicle.

A clause in Koziseks probation order included being subject to a search when he was in contact with law enforcement.
A freight train carrying 123 brand new Volvo cars made in northeast China arrived in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge Friday afternoon, marking a milestone in the history of cargo transport between the two countries.

The train was welcomed by government officials, diplomats, business representatives and journalists from both countries after a journey of 9,832 kilometers, which took some 20 days, passing through Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.

The shipment carried the S90L, Volvo's flagship model, manufactured in the company's Daqing plant in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

A staff member from the car manufacturer at the site told Xinhua that all the cars have been reserved and will soon be distributed across Europe from the port.

"If we ship the cars by sea it will take up to 60 days, now we can save over 40 days. We also managed to find a balance between saving time and controlling shipping costs," said Yuan Xiaolin, senior vice president of Volvo Car Group attending the welcome ceremony.

Following the arrival of the first train, the Volvo rail cargo service will continue to run at least once a week, and eventually reach the goal of four to five weekly round trips.

Every year the trains are expected to bring 30,000 to 40,000 new Volvo vehicles to Zeebrugge, an open seaport handling over 40 million tons of cargo annually, and ferry Belgian products to China on their return journeys.

Belgian deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters, who visited the Volvo Daqing plant during his visit to China in May, hailed the arrival of the train as an example of "concrete results of the Belt and Road Initiative".

The initiative aims to build a trade, investment and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road.

Peeters stressed that Belgium is demonstrating strong willingness to participate in the Belt and Road initiative as a partner.

"The 21st Century Silk Road marks a new era for trade and cooperation between Belgium and China. As we see today it provides great opportunities for countries to deepen cooperation," said Peeters.

"We firmly believe that strengthening train connectivity and investing in excellent infrastructural links will be a crucial aspect of Europe's future relations with Asia," he added.

Qu Xing, Chinese ambassador to Belgium, believes that the potential of this new train service is tremendous.

"Belgium has great advantages in carrying out cooperation with China under the framework of the Belt and Road initiative," said the ambassador, underlining that Belgium boasts three of the 10 biggest ports in Europe.

As of early June, over 4,000 cargo train trips have been made between Chinese and European cities since the start of the direct rail freight services six years ago, according to Chinese national operator China Railway Corporation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Tung Chee-hwa, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in Hong Kong, south China, June 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

President Xi Jinping met with Tung Chee-hwa, the first chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Friday, calling him "a pioneer" in practicing "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong.

Xi praised Tung for the large amount of trailblazing work he has done in this regard.

Tung, now vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), became the first chief executive of the HKSAR when Hong Kong returned to China from British rule on July 1, 1997.

As vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, Tung has continued to dedicate himself to the development and progress of the country and Hong Kong, Xi said, adding that Tung has set a good example for his successors.

The president expressed his hope that Tung could continue to play a positive role in the development of the country and Hong Kong in the future.

Tung said he is confident in the sustained prosperity and stability of the HKSAR under the "one country, two systems" principle, and he would do what he can to contribute more to the country and Hong Kong.

Xi arrived here Thursday to attend celebrations for Hong Kong's 20th return anniversary and the inauguration of the HKSAR's fifth-term government. Inspection of the HKSAR is also on the schedule for his three-day stay.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (C, front), also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, steps onto the stage and sings in chorus the song "Ode to the Motherland" with the performers and the audience during a grand gala marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, in Hong Kong, south China, June 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

President Xi Jinping attended a grand gala marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China at the waterfront Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center Friday night.

The gala brought together artists from both the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and the mainland, showcasing patriotism and Hong Kong's cultural diversity.

The show culminated when Xi stepped onto the stage in the company of HKSAR Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Chief Executive-elect Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, and sang in chorus the song "Ode to the Motherland" with the performers and the audience.

Xi, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, arrived here Thursday to attend celebrations for Hong Kong's 20th return anniversary and the inauguration of the HKSAR's fifth-term government.

Inspection of the HKSAR is also on the schedule for his three-day stay.
President Xi Jinping inspects the garrison at the PLA's Shek Kong barracks in Hong Kong on Friday, the eve of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China. [Photo/Xinhua]

President Xi Jinping has said the People's Liberation Army garrison stationed in Hong Kong should resolutely champion state sovereignty, security and interests regarding the country's development, and ensure Hong Kong's prosperity and stability.

Xi made the remarks after inspecting the garrison at the PLA's Shek Kong barracks in Hong Kong on Friday, the eve of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

The PLA has had a garrison in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997.

More than 3,100 officers and soldiers and over 100 pieces of military equipment took part in the review by Xi, who is also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

After the review, Xi received briefings by the garrison and said it should be navigated with the goal to reinforce the PLA, and its works should be strengthened in every aspect at a new starting point.

In the past 20 years, the garrison has strictly lived up to instructions of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission, and has fully honored the "one country, two systems" principle as well as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Basic Law and Garrison Law, Xi said.

"The (PLA) garrison is an important embodiment of national sovereignty, an important force to safeguard 'one country, two systems', and an important cornerstone of Hong Kong's prosperity and stability," he said.

It should beef up its political awareness and its consciousness of political power and the big picture, and strengthen its sense of duty about ensuring "one country, two systems", Xi added.

The garrison should also remain alert and effectively maintain combat readiness, he said.

Earlier in June, Xi had conferred an honorary title on a special operation force under a brigade of the Hong Kong garrison.

Leung Chun-ying, vice-chairman of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chief executive of the HKSAR, said in a recent interview with China Central Television that the garrison "has won widespread rapport and support by the Hong Kong public".
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump held on Friday a phone conversation over the resolution of the dispute between Qatar and other Gulf countries.

The two leaders agreed that the ongoing tension should be reduced for the sake of the region's security and stability, state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing Turkish presidency's press office.

Erdogan and Trump also discussed bilateral ties, and agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

Trump emphasized the importance for all allies and partners to increase efforts to fight terrorism and extremism in all its forms, the White House said in a written statement on Friday.

All countries should "work together to stop terrorist funding and to combat extremist ideology," read the statement.

Turkey, which vows to stand by Qatar, has been calling on Saudi Arabia and other countries to end all diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed on the Gulf state.
This past month I have been involved in three excellent opportunities for individuals and families to consider the lasting legacy they want to have on the youth of tomorrow. One was a donor considering estate plans seeking to improve the communitys future technical workforce. The second, a family carrying on the legacy of their father by adding to a scholarship fund, now in memory of their mother, too. The third, a young couple awarding scholarships specifically for young immigrants to assist them in earning a college degree. All three examples have embraced the reality that there is something longer-lasting than the here and now. All three have decided that investing in education, including the education of Columbus-area residents, is important and is how they want to be remembered long after they are gone.

So what type of legacy will you leave? People make impacts on each others lives through business interactions, through family interactions, through educational interactions. But after that person is gone, there are still many ways to continue to make a lasting difference and interact with others for generations to come. An individual or family can decide to give a part of their estate after they die, or can start right now. Others choose to do both so they can see the immediate benefit of their gift and know it is being well managed and will be expanded in the future after they are gone.

The Columbus area is blessed with many charitable organizations and foundations seeking to solve problems now and well into our future. I have been blessed while in Platte County to get to know many of the directors of area foundations and meet regularly with members of their boards. I have also been able to work with regional board members representing larger areas like the 25 counties of the Central Community College Foundation, or the Nebraska Community Foundation, which represents donor interests across the entire state. Rotary International is an example of a group that supports local, regional and international projects. All of these great foundations, and many others, thrive on helping people make a better life for themselves and their communities.

Individuals can give of their talents, their time and their financial resources. Usually only one of those lasts past our time on Earth, though, so please take time from your busy summer schedules to think about your legacy. Talk to a family member, a friend, an accountant, an attorney or a foundation director, and put in place a plan to start your legacy now or in the future to support the people, community or issues important to you.

If you cannot think of anything, call or email me. I will be glad to share exciting ways people have left a legacy or put you in touch with individuals and families who have experienced the joy of giving.
 Flash

Two people were killed, including the shooter and a doctor, and six wounded in a shooting rampage in Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York, said the city's Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday.

Police officers stand guard outside Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York, the United States, on June 30, 2017. A woman's body was found beside the dead suspect, after several people were shot in Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York on Friday, according to the police. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

It was not a terrorist attack, but an isolated incident, said the mayor at a press conference held at the site shortly after the incident.

The shooting began around 2:55 p.m. inside the Bronx Lebanon Hospital, and the male shooter, armed with an assault rifle, opened fire at doctors on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital, Police Commissioner James O'Neill said at the conference.

"One doctor is dead and there are several others who are fighting for their lives right now," said the commissioner.

The shooter, who was identified as a former hospital employee, was later found dead on the 17th floor, and an assault rifle was found beside him, he said.

The commissioner said that the gunman was wearing a white lab coat,and had tried to set himself on fire.

A female victim was found on the 17th floor, and was pronounced dead. A total of additional six wounded people, including five seriously injured, were found on the 16th floor and were moved to the emergency rooms of the hospital, he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hong Kongs new Chief Executive Carrie Lam in Hong Kong on Saturday. PHOTO: FAVRE/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

HONG KONGChinese President Xi Jinping delivered a stern warning to Hong Kong, where a pro-democracy movement has provoked mass protests in recent years, saying that challenges to mainland sovereignty wont be tolerated.

Any attempt to endanger Chinas sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central governmentor use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible, Mr. Xi said in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of the citys return to Chinese rule from Britain.

The 64-year-old leader spoke at the end of a three-day visit to Hong Kong, his first as Chinas president, as the mainland exerts growing influence over a city that has operated with a free-market ethos under a one country, two systems arrangement introduced in the 1997 handover. In the past year, mainland authorities have intervened in local elections and moved to block pro-democracy Hong Kong legislators from taking their seats.

Hong Kong and Beijings Tightening Embrace Two decades after the handover to China, the former British colony evolves and suffers some growing pains under growing mainland influence.

The speech amounted to an admonition to the city of seven million people to end an era of political upheaval and embrace its place in broader China. Mr. Xi, who left the city Saturday afternoon, took pains to extol the virtues of Hong Kongs free-market system as a source of growth and a symbol of mainland accommodation and promotion of global peace.

Mr. Xi lauded the one country, two systems model as a success and affirmed Chinas long-term commitment to it. But he also cautioned against the dangers of political turmoil.

Making everything political or deliberately creating differences and provoking confrontation will not resolve the problems, Mr. Xi said. It can only severely hinder Hong Kongs social and economic development.

Mr. Xi demanded changes, some of which have the potential to rekindle controversy. For example, Mr. Xi underscored the need to step up the patriotic education of the young people, reviving the memory of a failed 2012 attempt to introduce a pro-China curriculum in Hong Kong schools. The initiative failed after it sparked mass protests by local parents who decried it as Communist Party brainwashing.

Analysts say pressure now falls on Hong Kongs new leader , Carrie Lam, to reintroduce the controversial measure. Ms. Lam, who was sworn in shortly before Mr. Xis speech, is also expected to try to introduce an anti-sedition law that failed amid mass protests in the past.

For now, Hong Kongs protest movement appears mostly subdued by prosecutions of protest leaders and a sense among many local residents that resisting mainland encroachment is hopeless. Mr. Xis visit was marked by small rallies, but nothing like the scale of the mass pro-democracy protests that shut down parts of the city for 79 days in 2014.

Mr. Xi has consolidated power since assuming leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, introducing a sweeping anticorruption campaign that has often targeted his political rivals and taking on the title of core leader , a designation that gives him broad decision-making authority. Exerting firm authority over Hong Kong carries enormous symbolic weight as Britains 19th century colonization of the territory marked the beginning of a humiliating century of Chinese weakness.

Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hong Kong Leader visits former British colony to mark the 20th anniversary of its return to China Previous Next 1 of 17 President Xi, left, shakes hands with departing Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying during a meeting at a hotel in the city Thursday. In December, Mr. Leung said he would step down after serving a single term as the citys leader. DALE DE LA REY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam faced Chinese President Xi Jinping as she was sworn in as the citys new leader during a ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGE Chinese President Xi Jinping and new Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam stood together as her ministers were sworn in during her inauguration ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday. EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY Chinese President Xi Jinping and new Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng arrived for her inauguration ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday. EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected soldiers at the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison on Friday. VINCENT YU/ASSOCIATED PRESS Soldiers reacted as Chinese President Xi Jinping (not in photograph) inspected troops at the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison on Friday as part of events marking the 20th anniversary of the city's handover to Chinese rule. DAMIR SAGOLJ/REUTERS Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison in Shek Kong, Hong Kong, on Friday. KIN CHEUNG/ASSOCIATED PRESS Soldiers prepared to parade ahead of the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison on Friday. ANTHONY WALLACE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGE Hong Kong activists attended a candlelight vigil, organized to support patriotic democratic movements in China. ROMAN PILIPEY/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, second left, and Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam, center, applaud after watching two young Chinese opera performers during a visit to the West Kowloon district Thursday. VINCENT YU/ASSOCIATED PRESS President Xi walked to the podium to give a speech upon his arrival at Hong Kong's international airport. ANTHONY WALLACE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES President Xi was greeted by supporters waving red Hong Kong and Chinese flags as he arrived. Although Hong Kong is technically still a semiautonomous region of China, the visit by Mr. Xi is gearing up to be a celebration of mainland might. BOBBY YIP/REUTERS Chinese military displays, fireworks and a gala variety show are among the events planned to coincide with President Xis three-day visit to Hong Kong, which the British handed over to China on July 1, 1997. KIN CHEUNG/ASSOCIATED PRESS Hong Kong Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung, left, Financial Secretary Paul Chan, former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and incoming Chief Executive Carrie Lam awaiting President Xis arrival at the citys airport. Mr. Xi is scheduled to attend Ms. Lams inauguration Saturday. BOBBY YIP/REUTERS Bodyguards escort a car carrying President Xi after the Chinese leaders arrival in Hong Kong. A massive security operation locked down parts of the city ahead of events planned to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover. BOBBY YIP/REUTERS A motorcade carrying Chinese President Xi travels through Hong Kong on Thursday. Among events planned during his visit is a flag-raising ceremony Saturday at a site where a protest occurred Wednesday. VINCENT YU/ASSOCIATED PRESS Police officers patrol the area near the Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel, where Chinese President Xi is staying during his visit, in the citys Wan Chai district. ROMAN PILIPEY/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY President Xi, left, shakes hands with departing Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying during a meeting at a hotel in the city Thursday. In December, Mr. Leung said he would step down after serving a single term as the citys leader. DALE DE LA REY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam faced Chinese President Xi Jinping as she was sworn in as the citys new leader during a ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGE

Though Mr. Xis visit to Hong Kong was freighted with political meaning, it was also mostly a closed-door affair. Mr. Xi made none of the large public appearances one associates with visiting leaders, and attended outdoor events only under highly controlled circumstances, such as reviewing Peoples Liberation Army troops garrisoned in Hong Kong. He didnt attend an outdoor flag-raising ceremony featured prominently on the schedule of handover events.

Security for the visit was tight, with police fanned out across the city. Police detained small groups of protesters who called for universal suffrage and greater autonomy for Hong Kong. A new protest is scheduled for Saturday night.

While the opposition movement has ebbed, its leaders said they hold out hope that further encroachment by Beijing would spark a revival of the protest movement, especially if new measures impinge on the citys way of life, grounded in rule of law.

If Hong Kong people dont stand up for themselves, dont come out and fight, then Hong Kong will turn into China, said Avery Ng, a leader of a Hong Kong democracy group.

Chester Yung and Jenny W. Hsu contributed to this article.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has the highest population of international students among local universities. [Photo/Agencies]

The bourse has become a magnet for mainland companies looking to list

The wave of Chinese mainland businesses that have headed south in the past 20 years, flooding Hong Kong's stock market, sending market capitalization to record highs, has led to a historic remaking of the local bourse.

The scramble for funds from initial public offerings, along with the tide of mainland capital flooding the city's securities markets, has been propelled by China's opening-up policies and the desire of mainland businesses to walk the global stage.

The number of mainland enterprises that have gone public in Hong Kong has skyrocketed from 101 in 1997 to more than 1,000 last year - more than half the total number of companies listed in the city - with the market values of mainland companies rising from about 20 percent to 63 percent of the city's total market capitalization.

Charles Li Xiaojia, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd, which operates the city's bourse, has observed the city's evolution from the mainland's fundraising center into the nation's global wealth-management hub, top offshore risk management center and global asset pricing pivot.

"In the past two decades, Hong Kong has developed from a regional market with regional companies listed on the exchange for local investors and limited foreign investor involvement into an international financial center. It's attracting not just international, but also mainland funds," he said.

What has transformed Hong Kong, according to Li in a 2013 interview with Jeffrey Garten of the Yale School of Management, is the ability of both the city's and the mainland's regulatory authorities to make decisions to encourage State-owned mainland companies to float in the city.

Working together, they developed the H-share concept - special regulations that initially allowed State-owned enterprises to list in Hong Kong, governed by international standards. It triggered a flood of listings of State-owned companies, followed by those in the private sector, using the city as the first stop in their global aspirations.

First H-share IPO

In 1993, Tsingtao Brewery Co, the mainland's second-largest brewer, fired the first salvo by going public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as the first H-share enterprise.

During the 2013 interview, Li said the mainland was still a plain economy, lacking company or securities laws, and it needed capital and ways to reform the State-owned sector.

Today, mainland companies play a far more vital role in Hong Kong's capital markets.

According to HKEx data, the number of Hong Kong-listed companies soared from 658 in late 1997 (with only 101 listed mainland enterprises), representing 15 percent of the total, to approximately 2,009 by the end of March. More than 1,000 mainland companies had floated in Hong Kong by the end of last year, accounting for 51 percent of the total.

Total market capitalization had risen from HK$3.2 trillion ($410 billion) at the end of 1997 to HK$27.2 trillion by March.

The average daily turnover on the bourse has risen from HK$15.5 billion to HK$82.1 billion.

Total funds raised through IPOs, along with funds raised from 1997 until April 30, reached HK$8.7 trillion, with mainland enterprises, including H-shares, red-chips and private businesses, securing HK$5.4 trillion, or 62 percent of the total.

According to Bloomberg, nine out of 10 IPO underwriters are from the mainland, with China Construction Bank Corp, Haitong Securities Co and Agricultural Bank of China Ltd heading the list. In 1997, Morgan Stanley, HSBC Holdings and Merrill Lynch were the leading IPO underwriters among the top 10, which included only local and international companies.

Hu Zhanghong, chairman and chief executive officer of CCB International (Holdings) Ltd, said that Hong Kong's status as an international financial center has been further strengthened after the handover, especially over the last decade. The city has attracted enormous mainland capital, becoming the top destination for mainland enterprises looking to raise funds offshore.

"Hong Kong is the 'super-connector' between the mainland and the rest of the world. It has also evolved into a strategic platform for renminbi internationalization and the Belt and Road Initiative," he said.

Banks flood in

Hong Kong government statistics show that by the end of last year, mainland banks' assets in Hong Kong accounted for approximately 33 percent of the local banking system, compared with 13 percent in 1997. Currently, almost all State-owned and national joint-equity commercial banks have branches in Hong Kong.

According to the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association, the city currently hosts nearly 4,000 mainland companies - double the number in 1997 - with total assets rising 22 times to almost HK$20 trillion.

Yim Fung, chairman and CEO of Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd in Hong Kong, said since the collapse of the city's largest brokerage, Peregrine Investment Holdings Ltd, in early 1998, the China Securities Regulatory Commission - the mainland's securities watchdog - has encouraged financial enterprises to innovate and prompted them to "go out" by 2006. As a result, the number of mainland-owned brokerages in Hong Kong has surpassed their local and foreign peers in recent years.

Hong Kong's stock market has overcome storms, such as the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the burst of the internet bubble in 2000, the 2003 SARS outbreak and the 2008 global financial crash.

On June 27, 1997, the last trading day before the handover, the Hang Seng Index - the barometer for the local market's performance - stood at 15,196 points. On Dec 29, 2006, it passed the 20,000-point barrier for the first time, before hitting a record 31,958 on Oct 30, 2007.

Cheah Cheng Hye, co-chief investment officer of asset management company Value Partners, said Hong Kong-listed stocks are still relatively cheap because they trade at about 14 times earnings capacity.

Moreover, there's an average discount of 25 percent for mainland companies with dual listings, and Hong Kong listed shares are a good buy compared with those listed on the mainland.

"In the long term, Hong Kong's capital could become very exciting thanks to the potential offered by Belt and Road projects, and the development of the Pearl River Delta economic zone," he said.
A C919 aircraft undergoes checks in Shanghai after a test flight. [Photo/China Daily]

China aims to make breakthroughs in high value-added products like the next-generation numerical control machines, large passenger jets, sensors and industrial software, to improve its capability in key manufacturing technologies so as to compete with established global rivals, said senior officials on Friday.

Xin Guobin, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said there are some core links missing in the country's industrial chain, such as integrated circuit and industrial system solutions.

These missing links have kept China's manufacturing sector from reaching high-end production.

He said it is necessary to have a complete and functional industrial chain, innovation chain and financial chain, supported by big data analysis, cloud computing, online platforms and business-friendly innovations.

As China is on the way to add more digital technologies and sustainable methods into its manufacturing industries, the country also experienced a slight drop in foreign direct investment flow in recent months.

FDI to China dropped 3.7 percent year-on-year in May to 54.67 billion yuan ($8.07 billion), extending a downward trend. The decline followed a mild retreat in the previous month, when FDI was 4.3 percent lower than last April, in contrast with a 6.7 percent increase in March, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

"Foreign investors are gradually quitting labor-intensive industries and shifting to capital-and technology-intensive industries in China," said Lu Yongxiang, director of the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee.

Despite a drop in the overall FDI, foreign investment in China's services sector, especially high-tech and modern service industries, continued its steady growth.

"China needs to focus on companies' independent research and development ability, while encouraging capable businesses to develop abroad, make best use of global resources and map out the global industrial chain," said Lin Zhongqin, president of Shanghai Jiaotong University,

All major economies in the world have been actively seeking to rejuvenate their manufacturing sector for future growth, experts said.

For instance, the United States has proposed a manufacturing industry renaissance program. Germany has mapped out an Industry 4.0 strategy. Japan, France and the United Kingdom also have their own strategies or programs to revitalize manufacturing to stimulate exports.

For its part, China has been implementing the "Made in China 2025" plan to modernize the country's manufacturing through technological upgrades, knowledge-based industries and environmentally friendly development. It is designed to help its economy grow at a faster clip.

Eager to improve the country's manufacturing ability, regulators of all industries have continued to lower regulatory and administrative barriers for foreign companies seeking market access. Improved transparency in procedures and consistency in policy are the order of the day, experts said.

Qian Jianping, deputy general manager of China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, the primary contractor for the country's navy, said civil-military integration programs should be given priority in major military projects.
A worker operates a snow-sweeping vehicle assembly line in Weifang, Shandong province. [Photo/China Daily]

PMI for June better as growth figures continue to rise steadily

A highly influential manufacturing survey has showed that China's economy is picking up at a faster pace than analysts predicted.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers index, a key gauge of factory activity, came in at 51.7 percent in June, which was better than expected.

It was also at its highest mark in three months and signaled that growth in the world's second-largest economy is picking up, despite financial tightening.

"The rising PMI and expansion of the manufacturing industries in June indicate that the economy is stepping out of weakness and is becoming more resilient," a research note from Guotai Junan Securities stated.

The PMI is a survey conducted among Chinese manufacturers to highlight business confidence in the industry. A reading of 50 or above shows manufacturing is expanding. A below 50 figure illustrates a contraction.

Last month's reading of 51.7 was higher than May's figure of 51.2 and marked the 11th consecutive month of expansion, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

New orders accelerated for the domestic sector as well as for the export market.

New orders in June, as shown in a sub index of the PMI, increased to 53.1 from May's 52.3, while export orders jumped to 52, 1.3 percentage points higher than in May.

"Exports have recovered at a pace that beats market expectations," said Ren Zeping, chief economist of Founder Securities.

"The US, European and Japanese economies have all improved, with the European economy accelerating, which will benefit China's export-related industries," he added.

New orders in the construction sector, another sub index of the PMI, were 55.4 percent in June, a jump of 1.3 percentage points compared to May.

"This shows that market demand is strong and enterprises are confident," said Ren.

The service sector, which accounted for more than half of the country's GDP last year, saw robust growth last month, with the sub index coming in at 53.8, up from 53.5 in May.

Also, for the first half of the year, non-manufacturing PMI averaged 54.6, higher than the 53.4 during the same period in 2016, NBS data showed.

China reported year-on-year GDP growth of 6.9 percent in the first quarter, beating market expectations and the country's target of around 6.5 percent.

Still, analysts have warned that the economy could start to slow slightly in the second half of the year.

"We forecast that GDP growth will be about 6.8 percent in the second quarter and the economy will continue to be resilient in the third quarter," the research note from Guotai & Junan Securities stated.

China has intensified its financial tightening policy in recent months to prevent potential economic risks.

Li Daokui, an economist of Tsinghua University, stressed on Wednesday that growth could slow in the third quarter. "Growth will gradually pick up and could reach 6.9 percent next year," Li said.

Zhu Min, an economist of Tsinghua University and former deputy managing director of the IMF, pointed out on Wednesday that the economy has undergone profound structural changes.

Consumption is making an increasing contribution to growth and jobs, while investment remains strong, Zhu said during the Summer Davos in Dalian, Liaoning province.

"I'm optimistic about China's economic momentum next year and its structural reforms have laid foundation for future growth," he said.
Premier Li Keqiang answers questions from Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, at the Dalian International Conference Center, during Summer Davos, in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province.[Photo by Wu Zhiyi/china Daily] Editor's Note: On June 27, following his address at the opening ceremony of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2017, Premier Li Keqiang answered questions from Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, at the Dalian International Conference Center. On June 28, Li sat down for a dialogue with representatives of international business leaders attending the meeting. Below is the full text of the two interactions:

Professor Schwab: In your speech, you talked about the dynamic development of the Chinese economy as well as relevant policies. I'm sure these policies can help sustain such dynamism. It is a remarkable achievement for China, the second-biggest economy in the world, to grow at nearly 7 percent. Could you please share with us in greater detail what measures the government will take to keep such positive momentum going in the future?

Premier Li: China used to grow at double-digit rates, but now the growth has moderated to a medium-high level of 6.9 percent in the first quarter of this year. Some characterize this trend as a slowdown, but that wouldn't be very accurate, as the Chinese economy has become much bigger than before. Every one percentage point of growth in GDP now would generate the same amount of additional output as 1.5 percentage point growth five years ago or 2 percent growth 10 years ago. I often use the analogy of somersaults to describe such a situation: It is much easier for a child to do a dozen somersaults at one go than for an adult, for whom just three or four would be quite an accomplishment. For major economies with GDPs of $2 trillion or above, a 3 percent growth would be no mean feat. I hope you can view the Chinese economy in an objective way. It will keep growing at medium-high speed, as we have 1.3 billion people, huge market potential and social creativity.

To sustain the positive momentum requires a host of measures. We will keep on working in the following three areas for a considerable time to come.

First, we will maintain stability in macroeconomic policies. This means we will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy. We will not resort to massive stimulus measures. Instead, we will continue to undertake structural adjustments and provide the market with stable and clear expectations, which is of overriding importance in a market economy.

Second, we will advance reform and opening-up. In undertaking supply-side structural reforms, the government will continue to streamline administration, delegate its power, widen market access and enhance compliance oversight to create a level playing field. We will ease corporate burdens by reducing taxes and administrative fees to unleash the vitality of the market.

Third, we will accelerate efforts to replace traditional drivers of growth with new ones. We will adopt market and rules-based approach to tackle and phase out excess and backward capacity in steel, coal and other sectors. Meanwhile, we will work hard to grow new drivers and encourage the development of new technologies, new business forms and models. In this process, the government will exercise accommodating and prudent supervision to provide an enabling environment for the healthy growth of the new economy. Furthermore, Chinese and foreign-invested companies will be treated as equals.

Professor Schwab: Looking around the world, the Chinese government has been most effective in embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution. I want to congratulate you and the Chinese government on that. That said, the Fourth Industrial Revolution also has its disruptive effect, including on employment and income distribution. You did talk about this in your opening speech. What steps is the Chinese government taking to reduce such adverse impact?

Premier Li: Thank you, Professor Schwab, for your positive comments on the steps taken by the Chinese government in the Fourth Industrial Revolution or the new industrial revolution, but I would hesitate to say that we are most effective in this aspect. As a Chinese proverb goes, "When the moon reaches its fullest, it begins to wane". We are in constant pursuit of perfection out of a recognition of our own imperfections. I believe the new round of industrial revolution brings more opportunities than challenges, but it is not always the case in all fields and sectors. After all, everything has its pros and cons.

Take employment for example, will the extensive application of artificial intelligence and robots deprive people of their jobs? This is indeed a question, and it is already happening in some industries and sectors. Yet, through the Internet Plus initiative and mass entrepreneurship and innovation, new technologies and new business forms empowered by the new round of industrial revolution, such as online shopping, express delivery and bike-sharing, have generated far more jobs than those taken by robots. In this sense, what we are experiencing is only a structural shift, which calls for adjusting the training in labor skills. We will meet such challenge head on, because it is simply inescapable. More importantly, the development of new technologies, business forms and models makes it possible to accommodate and harness people's individual choices to generate greater market potential and put everyone's talent to best use. By pooling the wisdom of all people, we will be able to create far more wealth and jobs than what have been lost.

This is a race against time. Professor Schwab just said that in the future, it's not going to be the big fish eating the small fish, but the fast fish eating the slow fish. I want to add to that metaphor. The fast fish will certainly do better than the slow fish, but I do hope that the slow fish will move faster and catch up with the fast fish, and the fast fish will also turn around to help the slow fish.

Feike Sijbesma, chairman and CEO of the Royal DSM Group: Premier Li, over the last several years, key tasks have been performed on the supply-side reform. My question is: Could you elaborate a little bit on the progress in these areas and the contribution the international business community can bring to reform in the next stage?

Premier Li: China has focused on supply-side structural reform in comprehensively deepening reform in recent years. One of its key tasks is to phase out and cut overcapacity in coal and steel production. Last year alone, more than 65 million metric tons of steelmaking capacity and over 290 million tons of coal-production capacity were eliminated. At the same time, we are nurturing new drivers of growth and reducing the burden on companies by widening market access and cutting taxes and administrative fees. A multitude of new market entities has since sprung up in China. Over the past four years, the number of Chinese enterprises has doubled, reaching 27 million, and the number of market entities in total has surpassed 90 million. They have spawned a surge in new technologies and new business forms. China's reform, especially supply-side structural reform, has boosted the structural transformation and upgrading of the Chinese economy.

We all know that excess capacity exists in some sectors globally. This is the result of the quantitative easing policies taken by some countries in response to the financial crisis. Nothing short of a global solution is required. In the face of this issue, China has not shied away from its responsibilities. Instead, we have made painstaking efforts to phase out excess capacity through supply-side structural reform, which is also our contribution to the international community.

Over the past three decades, reform in China has always moved forward side by side with opening-up in a mutually reinforcing way. To advance reform, we need the participation of foreign capital, businesses and expertise. Foreign companies are welcome to take part in the merger and reorganization of enterprises in China. While fostering new growth drivers, we will lower market access thresholds in service sectors for foreign investors and introduce a negative-list management model. The policy support enjoyed by Chinese companies in keeping with WTO rules will be equally applied to foreign enterprises registered in China. We welcome continued investment from your company in China.

Alex Molinaroli, chairman and CEO of Johnson Controls: The Made-in-China 2025 strategy has greatly promoted China's manufacturing and innovation capabilities. You have already addressed one of my questions about foreign investment and a level playing field for foreign companies within China when answering the last question. Then what challenges and obstacles are there in the implementation of this strategy and what does the Chinese government plan to do in response?

Premier Li: The Made-in-China 2025 is a forward-looking strategy developed on the basis of the current industrialization level in China. It is designed to raise the quality of Chinese products and equipment. While made-in-China products have acquired a sound global reputation, those products are still at the low and medium level in terms of quality. Similarly, China's equipment is yet to reach a high level, and we still need to import foreign equipment. The Made-in-China 2025 strategy aims to boost the quality of Chinese equipment with the application of intelligent technologies through cooperation with foreign partners.

First, the Made-in-China 2025 strategy will bring huge opportunities for both Chinese and foreign businesses. To enhance the quality of their products, Chinese companies need to introduce advanced techniques and equipment. This can be achieved through cooperation with developed countries. For example, we are synergizing this strategy with Germany's Industry 4.0, and cooperating with the United States. In the future, more foreign equipment-manufacturing products and technologies will enter the Chinese market.

Second, we expect to see more cooperation between Chinese and foreign companies in equipment technologies. For foreign equipment makers to expand their presence in the Chinese market, they need to localize their products. For example, the US company General Motors has been able to take a big share of the Chinese market through setting up joint ventures with Chinese companies and remodeling its vehicles according to road and climatic conditions in China. This has secured a growing market for the company in China.

I want to stress that such cooperation is voluntary and helps companies expand in the Chinese market and even in third countries. The Chinese government does not allow Chinese companies to impose mandatory technology transfer requirements on their foreign partners, still less will we tolerate infringements on intellectual property rights.

Third, in areas of the Made-in-China 2025 strategy, such as green development, where both the Paris Agreement and the WTO encourage governments to provide policy support, foreign-invested companies registered in China will enjoy the same policy incentives offered by the Chinese government as their Chinese counterparts.

Now, let me address a misunderstanding about the Made-in-China 2025 strategy. To those people who seem to believe that the purpose of the relevant policies is to shut the door on imports of foreign equipment, let me say this: First, door-shutting is impossible. We live in a globalized world, where companies make their own choices about the equipment they want to purchase, and they should be given the right to do so in the open market. Second, it is natural for any country to want to make equipment of a higher quality. It is only that in a globalized world, this cannot be done with one's doors closed. Third, given the size of the Chinese market, when China climbs up the quality ladder, this will also boost global demand for manufactured products and equipment.

Mark Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce: It's great to be here in the conference. Your speech yesterday was excellent and was very meaningful to me personally. As you know, there have been a lot of transitions and changes in the US since I was here last just a year ago. I was very interested in hearing your comments about these changes if possible. Now, the Chinese government has placed great importance, you spoke about it last year as well, on the development of new companies and entrepreneurs, and on mass innovation and entrepreneurship, which you also articulated many times. So what challenges do you see based on what is happening in the world today facing this effort? Tell me also how can we both from the US and also the international business community participate more meaningfully in your efforts, including your Belt and Road Initiative.

Premier Li: China and the US are the world's largest developing country and largest developed country respectively. Steady growth of China-US relations and expansion of our economic and commercial relations will bring tremendous benefits to people of the two countries and also to world peace, development and cooperation. No matter how the situation in our respective countries may evolve, we are sure about one thing, that is, China-US relations have always kept moving ahead despite ups and downs in the past several decades. Our two-way trade has seen strong growth, in particular, from just about $1 billion before we established diplomatic ties to over $500 billion last year. It would be fair to say that China and the US now have forged a community of inseparable interests.

The Chinese government's initiative of mass entrepreneurship and innovation is first and foremost about employment. The government faces quite a big pressure in terms of employment, as we need to generate as many as 15 million new urban jobs each year to accommodate new entrants into the labor force. As big companies enhance efficiency and introduce more robots and manipulators, it is only natural that the total number of jobs they can offer has been somewhat declining. With government efforts to widen market access, as many as 15,000 small and micro businesses are getting registered on an average day in China, and they have been a large source of new jobs. Now in China, small and micro businesses provide 80 percent of all jobs. They are the backbone of inclusive growth.

Second, this initiative is intended to meet the needs for innovation. The new industrial revolution has brought about a major shift in the marketplace, which is the exponential growth in individualistic customer demands. Meeting these demands requires flexible business models and innovation in management and organizational structures. The SMEs have an edge in adaptability. As a Chinese idiom goes, it is easy for a small boat to shift direction.

Third, the initiative of mass entrepreneurship and innovation is a response to the trend of integrated development among large, medium and small companies. Not just small companies make innovations to accommodate special needs, many big companies have also been engaged in customized production, which requires adjustments in their organizational structures. I visited a local equipment manufacturer in Dalian, which has opened a lot of maker spaces on its production lines. The maker teams are able to remodel products according to customer needs. Although this company produces large equipment, 85 percent of its products are made to order. Not just this company, many large companies are doing the same.

Naturally, we also need to overcome some difficulties in the process of promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

First, the government needs to shed its vested interests, lower the threshold for market access, and spend more energy on compliance oversight. The playing field ought to be level, and we can never allow sales of shoddy or counterfeited products, fraud and violations of intellectual property rights.

Second, the financial sector has come under strain. It may be a global challenge for SMEs to get loans as all banks seem to favor big companies. China is no exception. This is why we are encouraging financial inclusion in China by providing incentives to financial institutions to lend to SMEs.

Third, as SMEs make innovation and pursue integrated development with large and medium-sized companies, how to incentivize inventors and innovators to make further innovations by protecting intellectual property rights has become a challenge. Now applications for patents and inventions from SMEs account for 70 percent of the total. But this does involve some disputes. For those big companies that have makers and small businesses at maker spaces on their production lines, the challenge is how to share the profits between them and their smaller partners to promote common development.

I cited the example of the company I visited in Dalian, whose owner is a visionary man. He told me that he has been able to involve a lot of makers on his production lines to improve products, and the value generated through such cooperation was divided in a ratio of 30 percent to 70 percent. I asked him who took 30 percent and who took 70 percent. He said 70 percent of the profits went to makers and he took the smaller share. I praised him for his courageous generosity. He replied that had it not been for those makers, he would not be able to get even 10 percent of newly generated revenue.

The story of the company shows that it is necessary to protect intellectual property rights and at the same time incentivize innovations. This requires further efforts on our part to explore an effective approach. Although the makers make use of the equipment of the company for their innovations, the owner of the company recognizes the superior value of the makers' ideas. That said, it won't be easy for everyone to recognize this.

Patrice Motsepe, founder and CEO of African Rainbow Minerals: I am a businessman from South Africa. I was the first Chairman of the BRICS Business Council. I saw how the BRICS countries, but Africa in particular, benefited immensely from the growth of the Chinese economy as well as from trade with China. I have no doubt that the rest of the world has benefited immensely from trading with China. My question is: The WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement entered into force earlier this year. China has been an active supporter in this area. What will be the major challenges in enforcing the agreement? And what further steps will China adopt to advance global trade facilitation?

Premier Li: You raised a very important question, particularly in the context of the growing backlash against globalization. There have been as many as 3,000 protectionist measures adopted by various countries in the past 10 years since the outbreak of the international financial crisis. The entry into force of the Trade Facilitation Agreement, which was adopted by the WTO in 2013, would be beneficial for global economic recovery and for guiding market expectations.

The TFA is the first multilateral agreement on trade in goods China acceded to after joining the WTO. The Chinese State Council completed domestic procedures for its ratification in less than two years. As things stand, some one-third of the WTO members are yet to go through ratification procedures. We hope all parties will work together for the TFA to be fully implemented this year. According to estimates by experts, the TFA, once implemented, will add at least $1 trillion to global trade. That would undoubtedly be good news for a steady global recovery.

While observing the TFA, China will advance trade facilitation as much as possible in line with its national conditions. First, we will consolidate the mandate of various agencies to streamline customs clearance procedures for businesses by establishing "single window" service centers.

Second, we will make customs clearance faster. We intend to shorten the time needed for customs clearance by another one third this year, and will aim to meet the most advanced international standards regarding customs clearance procedures and speed in the not so distant future.

Third, we will enhance cooperation with other countries, particularly in mutual recognition of inspection between regulatory authorities, to avoid repetitive procedures and lower costs for businesses.

These are the technical measures we will take. What is most important, I believe, is that we must recognize the valuable role of free trade in boosting global economic recovery. Trade liberalization and investment facilitation is the hallmark of free trade. When everyone acts to promote free trade with an open-minded approach, this will provide consumers with more choices and compel domestic companies to innovate and upgrade. In the meantime, we should take account of the varying national conditions of different countries, and adopt measures to cushion the impact on certain sectors through consultation among countries on the basis of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation. But overall, we need to keep to the right direction.

Professor Schwab: Mr Premier, I want to take this opportunity to ask you a question about the development of the internet and digitization. The Internet Plus policy is a very important national strategy. But if we look at digitization, we can no longer make differentiation between digital industries and old-fashioned industries. Today, every industry is digitized. Could you share with us what your experiences and challenges are in this aspect? Particularly, how the international business community could be more meaningfully engaged in China's efforts for overall digitization of its economy?

Premier Li: The introduction of the internet has given rise to a mushrooming of new forms of business. And big data application has become a trend. We must adapt to this trend in order to seize as many opportunities as possible. Traditional industries did come under challenges. I once cited the example of physical stores going through the painful experience of confronting or even conflicting with online shops. Now many physical stores have also opened their own online stores, which have made them more competitive. As we can see, notwithstanding the numerous challenges, we have more ways and means to overcome them.

The Internet Plus strategy the Chinese government has been advancing is inherently open to the world. We have in China a large number of cloud platforms that are attractive to foreign businesses or individuals. Foreign companies are getting registered on such platforms in large numbers. In sectors of basic telecommunications and value-added services in China, many business areas are now open to foreign investors, which represents the highest level of openness so far among all developing countries. This means tremendous opportunities for foreign firms.

Furthermore, China has over 900 million mobile broadband users and over 730 million internet users. We are also actively advancing cross-border e-commerce. Foreign companies can sell their products and services on the e-commerce platforms. Nothing is impossible as long as you act on your ideas. In this process, the Chinese government will exercise prudent yet accommodating regulation to make sure that foreign companies can grow together with Chinese companies and join in our efforts to boost the Chinese economy and deliver greater convenience to the Chinese people. For the online economy to attract more consumers, security is the precondition. We must work together to crack down on fraud, sales of fake and shoddy products online, and theft of trade secrets.

To conclude, let me emphasize one point. Just now a few business leaders have asked questions and introduced their businesses. I hope all the delegates here and the media will pay attention not just to the questions they asked and the answers I gave, but also to what their businesses have achieved in the Chinese market and their support for China's modernization. Thank you.

Professor Schwab: We should be very grateful to the Premier for being here at this dialogue and for having shared with us his insights and many specific policies and measures, particularly some vivid examples. We also want to express our appreciation to the participation of such a prominent government delegation which has accompanied you, Mr Premier. And we wish the Chinese government all the best in the implementation of those strategies. And you can be assured that you have the goodwill of all those here, and you have the strong commitment of the World Economic Forum to contribute to the success of the development of China.
A trader (R) from Indonesia introduces products during the 13th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Sept 12, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

China would like to see the establishment of an East Asian economic community through deeper pragmatic engagement and a sustained drive focusing on regional connectivity, free trade, financial cooperation and sustainable development, Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said on Friday.

"In free trade, we should bring about an early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and China-Japan-South Korea free trade agreement negotiations, which will contribute to establishing an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area," Liu said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 15th East Asia Forum.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It is also the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a cooperative framework between ASEAN countries, China, Japan and South Korea, which is also known as the"10+3"mechanism.

More than 100 officials, businessmen and academics gathered in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, to discuss the development of SMEs and the potential for an East Asia economic community.

Liu said the forum, which runs to Saturday, is the only platform for exchanges between governmental officials, businessmen and academics under the framework. He also called for better cooperation to tackle poverty alleviation, SME development, tourism and cultural exchanges, in line with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

During the "10+3" Leaders meeting last year, Premier Li Keqiang proposed dialogues between all the nations covered by the framework for drafting a blueprint for an East Asia economic community as soon as possible.

Paridh Kan, undersecretary of foreign affairs and international cooperation of Cambodia, said the forum provided diverse perspectives and new momentum for East Asia cooperation.

Nguyen Quoc Dung, vice-minister of foreign affairs of Vietnam, said regional integration has successfully reduced disparities in development and boosted regional connectivity. He added that further efforts should be made to enhance the development of SMEs and e-commerce businesses with the help of China, Japan and South Korea.

Hirubalan Veluppilla Ponnudurai, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN, said the forum had strengthened the partnership between countries in the region.
BEIJING - China's securities regulator has approved the establishment of two joint venture (JV) securities firms between the mainland and Hong Kong businesses.

The two JVs, HSBC Qianhai Securities Ltd and East Asia Qianhai Securities Ltd, were approved under the framework of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, Deng Ge, spokesperson for the China Securities Regulatory Commission, told a press conference Friday.

HSBC Qianhai Securities Ltd., with a registered capital of 1.8 billion yuan ($265.9 million), is the mainland's first securities firm controlled by an overseas shareholder, Deng said.

HSBC, in partnership with state-owned Qianhai Financial Holdings, holds a 51-percent stake in the JV.

Teaming up with the Qianhai Financial Holdings and two other mainland companies, the Bank of East Asia owns 49 percent of the JV, which has a registered capital of 1.5 billion yuan.

Both JVs will be based in the city of Shenzhen.
SAN FRANCISCO - Sanpower Group, a private Chinese conglomerate, announced Friday the completion of its acquisition of Dendreon, from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc for $819.9 million in cash.

At the heart of the deal is Dendreon's lead product, Provenge, the only cellular immunotherapy approved so far by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

Sanpower, headquartered in Nanjing, capital of China's eastern Jiangsu province, said it intends to keep Dendreon's current US team and facilitate its continued growth by promoting Provenge's market penetration outside the United States, starting with China and Southeast Asia.

Dendreon, a biotechnology company based in Seattle, a city in Washington state of the US Pacific Northwest, received FDA approval for Provenge in April 2010 and since has reportedly treated more than 20,000 prostate cancer patients with the therapy to curb tumors and prolong life expectancy.

As an example of Dendreon's "rationally designed therapeutic process" to break immune tolerance to disease specific proteins, namely prostatic acid phosphatase and its signalling component GM-CSF, Provenge consists of a mixture of the patient's own blood cells that have been incubated with the Dendreon PAP-GM-CSF fusion protein.

The agreement for Sanpower to acquire Dendreon from Valeant, a multinational specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Laval, Quebec, Canada, was signed in January this year in San Francisco, Northern California. The deal was sealed at a time, according to Sanpower, when the incidence of prostate cancer in China has increased by 10 times within the past 20 years.

Yuan Yafei, chairman of Sanpower Group, said Friday in a statement that "Dendreon will be well served in joining the Sanpower family, where it will be better positioned to accelerate growth and access attractive new markets."
President Xi Jinping visits the Junior Police Call Permanent Activity Center and International Training Camp in Hong Kong on Friday. Provided to China Daily

President praises police group for helping to guide the SAR's youth

President Xi Jinping called on the students and young people in Hong Kong to be prepared to make more contributions to the special administrative region as well as the country, as he visited a training center for a police youth group on Friday.

"The youngsters are the future of the nation," Xi told the students at a training camp for the Junior Police Call.

Noting that he attaches great importance to the development of young people, Xi encouraged them to seize opportunities, choose the right path in their lives, serve society and contribute more to Hong Kong and the country.

The Junior Police Call, a nonprofit organization established in 1974, organizes physical training, volunteer activities and police station tours for youths. More than 1 million young people have been trained by the JPC since its establishment. It has an important role in justice and patriotism education for the youth of Hong Kong.

The president was briefed by JPC members on the aims of the group's programs, its facilities and its training activities. He also watched physical training sessions and talked with JPC members.

After hearing about training projects, Xi said that all the activities at the JPC camp are "sunny" programs that can build youngsters' bodies and minds.

"The young people should strengthen their bodies through joining such activities. You will have a good appetite after going home, and you will grow faster," he told the trainees.

By attending such training programs, young people also acquire more knowledge about laws, and it helps them act in accordance with the law, Xi said.

The JPC's membership has expanded rapidly over the years, and it now has over 180,000 members.

Its objectives include improving communication between the police and youth, fostering a police-youth partnership in the fight against crime, and developing young people's sense of responsibility toward society.

Xi praised the efforts of the 30,000 police officers of Hong Kong to safeguard the region's safety and social order. The prosperity and stability of Hong Kong are closely related to the diligent work of the police forces, he said.

It's a visionary move for Hong Kong police to be engaged in the training of youngsters, Xi said.

Also on Friday, Xi's wife, Peng Liyuan, visited an elderly care center, where she spoke with seniors about their daily lives.

Peng joined the residents in making handicrafts at the center, and wished them a happy and healthy life.

anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn
President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to the crowd at a see-off ceremony as he wraps up his Hong Kong visit, in Hong Kong, July 1, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]
Judges and lawyers attend the Ceremonial Opening of the Legal Year 2017 at the Court of Final Appeal in January. Roy Liu / China Daily

Global benchmarks put city near the top of jurisdictions worldwide

When China and the United Kingdom began negotiating Hong Kong's future in the 1980s, there was skepticism about what would happen to the city's world-renowned rule of law. Mistrust by the international community endured after the Chinese government proposed the unprecedented "one country, two systems" principle.

The past 20 years have continued to see criticism of Hong Kong's "failure" to maintain rule of law and judicial independence, but statistics tell a different story.

The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators project put Hong Kong at a percentile of 94.7 for rule of law in 2015, which means it outranked 94.7 percent of the 113 countries and regions assessed.

In the same year, the United Kingdom was at 93.8 and the United States at 90.4, while Singapore came in at 96.6.

In 1996, a year before Hong Kong's return to China after 150 years of British rule, the city only scored 68.4.

At a symposium in Beijing commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Basic Law, national legislator Zhang Dejiang said the world-renowned index showed the rule of law in Hong Kong is a proven success.

Other indicators show similar results. In the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, one of the world's leading sources of original, independent data, Hong Kong scored 0.77 out of one last year - 16th in the global rankings and third in Asia, behind only Singapore and Japan.

In the Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017, Hong Kong was the only Asian economy among 138 jurisdictions to be ranked in the top 10 on judicial independence. It was also third among common law jurisdictions.

David Neuberger, president of the UK's Supreme Court and a nonpermanent judge at Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal, said concerns are exaggerated.

There was concern in some quarters about the possible undermining of judicial independence after the central government commented that judges are among the city's "administrators", he said.

"The concerns remind me of the worries some UK judges have about the fact that their email address ends with '.gov.uk' - 'We are not part of the government; we are independent', they cry."
Two men walk past a screen showing the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong on May 12. [Photo/Agencies]

The bourse has become a magnet for mainland companies looking to list

The wave of Chinese mainland businesses that have headed south in the past 20 years, flooding Hong Kong's stock market, sending market capitalization to record highs, has led to a historic remaking of the local bourse.

The scramble for funds from initial public offerings, along with the tide of mainland capital flooding the city's securities markets, has been propelled by China's opening-up policies and the desire of mainland businesses to walk the global stage.

The number of mainland enterprises that have gone public in Hong Kong has skyrocketed from 101 in 1997 to more than 1,000 last year - more than half the total number of companies listed in the city - with the market values of mainland companies rising from about 20 percent to 63 percent of the city's total market capitalization.

Charles Li Xiaojia, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd, which operates the city's bourse, has observed the city's evolution from the mainland's fundraising center into the nation's global wealth-management hub, top offshore risk management center and global asset pricing pivot.

"In the past two decades, Hong Kong has developed from a regional market with regional companies listed on the exchange for local investors and limited foreign investor involvement into an international financial center. It's attracting not just international, but also mainland funds," he said.

What has transformed Hong Kong, according to Li in a 2013 interview with Jeffrey Garten of the Yale School of Management, is the ability of both the city's and the mainland's regulatory authorities to make decisions to encourage State-owned mainland companies to float in the city.

Working together, they developed the H-share concept - special regulations that initially allowed State-owned enterprises to list in Hong Kong, governed by international standards. It triggered a flood of listings of State-owned companies, followed by those in the private sector, using the city as the first stop in their global aspirations.

First H-share IPO

In 1993, Tsingtao Brewery Co, the mainland's second-largest brewer, fired the first salvo by going public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as the first H-share enterprise.

During the 2013 interview, Li said the mainland was still a plain economy, lacking company or securities laws, and it needed capital and ways to reform the State-owned sector.
Premier Li Keqiang has sent a congratulatory message to Theresa May on her re-election as prime minister of the United Kingdom.

In the message, Premier Li appreciated May's commitment to developing ties with China since taking office in July last year. He said China and the United Kingdom are two influential countries in the world. China has attached great importance to the bilateral relations. He was glad to see high-level exchanges becoming closer and more frequent, pragmatic cooperation widening and people-to-people exchanges actively promoted.

The government is willing to take the opportunity of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the China-UK diplomatic relations to further boost pragmatic cooperation, the premier said.

Premier Li also welcomed May to visit China this year and attend an annual meeting of prime ministers between the two countries.
China's difficult but increasingly successful fight against corruption was outlined on Friday to senior international visitors, by the Communist Party of China's Shanxi Provincial Committee.

Song Tao, minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at a seminar on Shanxi province's efforts, that combatting corruption was an important issue facing governments around the world.

Song said authorities everywhere had important responsibilities in ensuring that honesty prevailed and society benefitted.

He said the CPC's fight against corruption over the past five years had cleaned the air for society in China, adding that Shanxi was a classic case.

Luo Huining, Party secretary of Shanxi province, explained that creative measures had been deployed against corruption.

He said the provincial Party committee has been very strict with its administration of personnel. In the past year, 105 Party organizations and 1,028 Party cadres were held accountable for failure to fulfill their responsibilities over Party management.

"Now cadre promotion in Shanxi does not depend on (family) relations or background," Luo said, adding that conduct and job performances were the benchmarks for checking on the efficiency of officials.

Luo said that in the latter half of 2016, the province sent about 14,000 officials from Party and government organizations to 4,580 enterprises to help resolve nearly 10,000 problems in government services.

"Such moves stabilized and improved the economy," Luo said, adding the province's GDP increased by 6.1 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Alejandra Noemi Reynoso Sanchez, secretary of the Board of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, said all political parties and governments faced the task of combating corruption and winning the trust from their people.

"China's experience deserves promotion in our country," she said.

Kabir Hashim, general-secretary of the United National Party of Sri Lanka, said: "In my visit to Shanxi, I witnessed the successful self-cleansing of the CPC."

He said the local Party committee's decision to send officials to companies was "very bold and human".

"The CPC responded to the demands of people and the country in time, instead of throwing all the things (over) to the government. It is a very successful model."

Daniel Bell, a senior Canadian China specialist, said before he went to Shanxi, he had the impression that efforts to curb corruption also discouraged local officials' enthusiasm for their work.

However, he said the impression was challenged during the visit.

"Now there are may capable officials in Shanxi; their enthusiasm has been reignited," he said, adding that might be due to changes in the local leadership and cadre promotion policies.

About 400 representatives from foreign political parties, embassies and international organizations, as well as foreign academics attended the seminar.
Premier Li Keqiang greets Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alan Peter Cayetano, in Beijing on Friday. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

China supports the Philippines in its drive toward development, including construction, economic growth and maintaining stability, Premier Li Keqiang said in Beijing on Friday, during a meeting with the country's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alan Peter Cayetano.

Li said China was ready to further promote the healthy and stable growth of ties between the two nations.

Premier Li said China and the Philippines, as close neighbors, shared far more common interests than conflicts.

Bilateral ties between the two have returned to the right path, Li said.

Li said China supported the Philippines holding this year's Leaders' Meetings on East Asia Cooperation, as the rotating chair of Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He hoped the Philippines would continue to play a positive role in pushing forward China-ASEAN ties.

Cayetano said his country appreciated China's support and was ready to deepen its relationship with China in all areas.
China would like to see the establishment of an East Asian economic community through deeper pragmatic engagement and a sustained drive focusing on regional connectivity, free trade, financial cooperation and sustainable development, Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said on Friday.

"In free trade, we should bring about an early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and China-Japan-South Korea free trade agreement negotiations, which will contribute to establishing an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area," Liu said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 15th East Asia Forum.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It is also the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a cooperative framework between ASEAN countries, China, Japan and South Korea, which is also known as the"10+3"mechanism.

More than 100 officials, businessmen and academics gathered in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, to discuss the development of SMEs and the potential for an East Asia economic community.

Liu said the forum, which runs to Saturday, is the only platform for exchanges between governmental officials, businessmen and academics under the framework. He also called for better cooperation to tackle poverty alleviation, SME development, tourism and cultural exchanges, in line with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

During the "10+3" Leaders meeting last year, Premier Li Keqiang proposed dialogues between all the nations covered by the framework for drafting a blueprint for an East Asia economic community as soon as possible.

Paridh Kan, undersecretary of foreign affairs and international cooperation of Cambodia, said the forum provided diverse perspectives and new momentum for East Asia cooperation.

Nguyen Quoc Dung, vice-minister of foreign affairs of Vietnam, said regional integration has successfully reduced disparities in development and boosted regional connectivity. He added that further efforts should be made to enhance the development of SMEs and e-commerce businesses with the help of China, Japan and South Korea.

Hirubalan Veluppilla Ponnudurai, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN, said the forum had strengthened the partnership between countries in the region.
Dalian Maritime University's training ship Yukun is berthed at Ocean Terminal, Harbour City in Hong Kong, from June 29 to July 5. Provided To China Daily

The Yukun, China's first self-designed modern training vessel, will visit Hong Kong as part of the celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the region's return to the motherland, officials announced.

Public visits to the ship - a university training vessel that is one of the world's most advanced - will be allowed on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.

Guided tours will be organized for Hong Kong students from secondary and maritime schools, including visits to the ship's bridge, canteen, library and dormitories for students who train on the ship.

Yukun, owned by the Dalian Maritime University, is a 116-meter vessel for training maritime majors. It set sail from Dalian, Liaoning province, on June 25, and is berthed at Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, until Wednesday.

This is the ship's second time in the special administrative region after visiting in 2015.

The Yukun offers the public a glimpse of the country's achievements in maritime education, according to Li Chi-wai, chairman of Hong Kong Seamen's Union. Li's union is one of the local organizations that invited the vessel to Hong Kong.

He added that visiting Yukun would be especially interesting to young people since many of them are not up to date with the country's latest maritime developments.

Wang Fengwu, deputy director of the university delegation and Party secretary of the university's Navigation College, said Yukun will enhance communications between maritime students in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

He said that as one of the busiest ports in the world, Hong Kong needs more talent in maritime jobs and related industries.

"Dalian Maritime University has many alumni working in Hong Kong. We welcome Hong Kong students to go on exchange programs and study at Dalian Maritime University," Wang said.

Launched in 2008, Yukun has trained 10,000 students majoring in maritime related specialties, including navigation science, and marine and environmental engineering. The vessel is well-equipped with testing facilities in areas such as radar.

Unlike similar training ships elsewhere in the world, Yukun does not have cargo space, which provides more room for students to learn and practice their operating skills. It can take up to 196 students on board in each voyage.

Tickets are available with a donation of HK$10 ($1.28) per visitor to the nonprofit Community Chest of Hong Kong. Visitors are advised not to wear slippers or sandals.
Fireworks light up Victoria Harbor during New Year celebrations on Jan 1. WANG KONGSHENG/CHINA DAILY

Hong Kong, known as the Pearl of the Orient, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its return to the motherland on Saturday.

To mark the occasion, China Daily and its partners will release One Hundred Photographers Focus on Hong Kong, an album of about 200 pictures that capture the city's vitality and prosperity, as well as its steady growth over the past two decades.

Here, we present a selection from those images.

While many things have changed since the handover on July 1, 1997, the principle of "one country, two systems" has ensured that the city's culture, economy and overall way of life remain.

The photos in the book include stunning shots of residents and tourists enjoying traditional celebrations and visiting the city's giant Buddha statue, while others capture the excitement of race days at the popular Happy Valley and Sha Tin racecourses, as well as the nightlife on offer in Central.

Over the past two decades, Hong Kong has remained an intersection of economic and cultural exchanges between the East and the West, and has maintained its status as one of the world's most competitive regions, according to international observers.

Seen through the lens of these photographers, the Pearl of the Orient has never shined brighter.
XINING - Forty years ago, Li Yifan would net more than 100 Przewalksii's naked carp a day. Now, he and fellow volunteers are saving the fish, which became endangered after decades of overfishing.

The species of carp, known in China as huangyu, is endemic to the Qinghai Lake, China's largest inland saltwater lake. It is the dominant of five native species of fish in the lake which is located on the Qinghai Plateau.

From late May to mid-August every year, the carp swim upstream to three freshwater rivers to spawn, with the migration peaking in late June. Volunteers rescue carp that become stranded as small tributaries dry up during their arduous journey.

In 2015, Li and eight villagers from Gangca County set up a team of volunteers to protect the carp. "Previously we caught them, now we save them. It's retribution for our actions," Li said.

As a result of rampant fishing since the 1960s, when a famine swept the country, the lake's carp stock plunged from its peak of 320,000 tonnes in the 1950's to just 2,600 tonnes in 2001.

The fish was listed on the China Species Red List in 2004 due to overfishing and habitat loss. All fishing has been prohibited in the lake for the last 17 years, however, illegal fishing has persisted.

"The lake is so huge and the fishermen are cunning. Law enforcement can't deal with them on their own," said Norrigsang, a herdsman from Gangca who used his own savings to found a patrol to catch people fishing illegally along the lake's 300-kilometer-long shoreline in the 1990's.

The job is no easy task. He recalled an incident in January 2013, when the seven-member team was attacked by a group of more than 100 fishermen.

Thanks to the increased efforts of volunteers and intensified law enforcement, the illegal fishing of naked carp has been dramatically decreased since 2014, according to fishery authorities.

In addition to the volunteers, the local government is working to restore the fish population by helping them spawn.

Several years ago, the Gangca government dismantled a two-meter-high dam on the Shaliu River and built 18 steps in its place to assist the fish migration. Last year, it spent 8.5 million yuan (1.25 million U.S. dollars) building 21 steps on the Quanji River.

But assisting the migration is only part of the battle, they also need to increase fertilization rates, The success rate for natural fertilization is extremely low, as the sperm of male carp can only survive for 20 seconds in the water, said Zhou Weiguo from the carp rescue center.

"With such low fertilization rates we can't increase the population of the endangered species," Zhou said.

In 2001, fishery workers began an artificial insemination program. They hatch fertilized eggs at the rescue center and raise the young fish, or fry, in tanks for a year before releasing them into the lake.

Since 2002, more than 100 million captive-bred carp fry have been released into the lake, with an 85 percent survival rate. Last year, the stock of carp in the lake climbed to 70,800 tonnes.

Despite the progress, there is still a long way to go, said Yang Shoude, a forest police officer in the Qinghai Lake National Nature Reserve. "If the naked carp population can not be increased in time, algae growth will become out of control and eventually 'kill' the lake," Yang said.

Winning the battle requires combined grassroots and governmental efforts, Norrigsang said.
BEIJING -- Passengers can take bullet trains for the first time from Beijing to Xiongan New Area next week, according to the China Railway Corporation.

Two bullet trains will travel from Beijing to Xiongan New Area on July 6, a trip of about 80 minutes from Beijing South Station to Baoding Station in Hebei Province.

Tickets for the bullet trains will be available from Sunday morning.

China announced plans to establish Xiongan New Area in April.

Located some 100 km southwest of downtown Beijing, Xiongan New Area will mostly cover Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties in Hebei province.
BEIJING -- China's disaster relief authorities launched a level III emergency response plan Saturday to help flood victims.

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has dispatched eight work teams to South China's flood stricken areas to guide relief work, the office said in a statement.

Severe floods hit the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River in recent days, as well as some nearby rivers and lakes.

More than 260,000 people have been displaced after heavy rain in Central China's Hunan province since June 22, said the provincial flood control office late Friday.

Under a level III emergency response plan, the office must report to the State Council within two hours and dispatch a work team to the disaster zone within 24 hours.
HONG KONG -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday delivered a speech at the welcome dinner held by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The following is the full text of his speech:

Toast at the Welcome Dinner Held by

The Government of

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

30 June 2017

Xi Jinping

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying,

Chief Executive-Elect Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor,

Fellow Compatriots,

Dear Friends,

Good evening! It gives me great pleasure to come back to this beautiful city after an interval of nine years and celebrate with you the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. On behalf of the Central Government and people of all ethnic groups across China, I would like to extend our warmest greetings and best wishes to you and, through you, to all Hong Kong residents.

-- Time keeps rolling on. In the blink of an eye, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is 20 years old. The moving occasion of Hong Kong's return to the motherland in 1997, like a long-separated child coming back to the warm embrace of his mother, is still vivid in our memory. We still recall the solemn ceremony of the transfer of government in Hong Kong, the playing of the stirring national anthem of the People's Republic of China and the raising of the national flag of the People's Republic of China and the regional flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. We still recall the joy and excitement of Hong Kong people who cheered the processions of the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison despite downpours. And we still recall the festive celebrations across China where people were singing and dancing to hail Hong Kong's return. These historical scenes have become a part of the collective memory of all the Chinese people.

-- All crops grow through cultivation. Over the last two decades, the practice of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong, like the growth of a seedling, has become strong and robust despite wind and rain and yielded many fruits. The SAR system established under the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has operated effectively, and democracy in Hong Kong has been advanced in accordance with law. The multiple indicators of governance of the HKSAR such as government effectiveness and the rule of law are much higher than those before Hong Kong's return to the motherland. Hong Kong enjoys steady economic growth and remains one of the most competitive and free economies in the world. Hong Kong has maintained social stability and scored great progress in various fields of endeavor. Its average life expectancy is one of the highest in the world. While such achievements would not have been possible without the strong support of the Central Government and the mainland, they are primarily attributed to the unity and hard work of the HKSAR Government and people of Hong Kong. Here, I wish to salute you, the people of Hong Kong and all those in Hong Kong who have made such achievements possible.

-- Now is the time to build on past achievements and make new progress. "One Country, Two Systems" is a great pioneering initiative by China. Its practice, featuring socialism in the main body of the country and capitalism in certain regions, is unprecedented in human political history. It is a breakthrough those before us made through exploration and with extraordinary courage. We the succeeding generation should practice and develop "One Country, Two Systems" with firm resolve. The road ahead may not be smooth, but our commitment to "One Country, Two Systems" remains unchanged, and our resolve remains firm and strong. We are fully confident that we are able to "ride the wind and cleave the waves", and achieve even greater success in the practice of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong through persistent and unrelenting efforts like sifting through sand thousands of times to find gold.

On this occasion, I wish to share with Hong Kong compatriots the importance of having confidence in the following three areas:

First, we should have confidence in ourselves. We Chinese are a great people. Our time-honored 5,000-year civilization is the only ancient civilization that has survived with no interruption. For a great part of recorded history, the Chinese nation led the world in economic, scientific, cultural, art and other fields, and contributed much to the progress of human civilization. China lagged behind other countries in modern times, but that has changed since the founding of New China in 1949. The Chinese nation, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and thanks to dedicated efforts of the Chinese people of several generations, has proudly taken its place among the nations of the world.

Thanks to the hard work of several generations of its people, Hong Kong has transformed itself from an unknown fishing village into a world-renowned modern metropolis. The key to Hong Kong's success lies in its people's love of the country and Hong Kong, and their perseverance, pursuit of excellence and adaptability. I want to particularly commend Hong Kong people's participation in and significant contribution to China's reform, opening-up and modernization drive. The Central Government and people across the country have never forgotten what you have done. The people of Hong Kong have the ability and wisdom to administer Hong Kong well and achieve greater development and progress in Hong Kong. I am sure you will continue to do all you can for the development of the country and distinguish yourselves on the world stage.

Second, we should have confidence in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is blessed with many favorable conditions and unique strengths for development. It has a highly free and open economy featuring free flow of factors of production such as personnel, goods and capital, and this is a major factor in both attracting international capital and retaining local capital. With its internationally recognized legal, accounting and regulatory systems, a full-fledged service sector, clean and efficient government and business-friendly environment, Hong Kong has the full confidence of outside investors. Hong Kong is an important international financial, shipping and trade center, a major conduit connecting the mainland and international markets and a two-way service platform for China both to attract foreign investment and enter the international market. Hong Kong is by far the mainland's biggest source of external direct investment and non-local financing platform, and it has grown into the mainland's largest non-local investment destination and the biggest offshore RMB business center in the world. More importantly, the practice of "One Country, Two Systems" has given Hong Kong an institutional advantage, enabling it both to share in the mainland's vast market and development opportunities and serve as a testing ground for the country's new opening-up initiatives, and this gives Hong Kong an edge in pursuing development. Pilot programs of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect have both been launched in Hong Kong, so will be the "Bond Connect". By building on and leveraging these strengths, Hong Kong will surely be able to keep and attract investment and talents, seize opportunities presented by economic globalization and regional cooperation to promote innovative local business start-ups, and develop new growth drivers. The legendary city of Hong Kong by the Lion Rock will surely open a new chapter of development and prosperity.

Third, we should have confidence in our country. The motherland has given and will always give a strong backing to Hong Kong. Thanks to close to 40 years of reform and opening-up, China has made big strides forward: from first managing to stand on its feet to becoming prosperous and strong. China is now the world's second largest economy and its leading manufacturer and trader in goods. China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, and it has contributed more to global economic growth than any other country. Its scientific and technological strength is rising, with advanced achievements made that include the high-performance computer, manned spaceflight, lunar exploration program, quantum communications, Beidou Navigation Satellite System and manned deep-sea submersible. China's high-speed railway has entered the world market. The independently-developed C919 airliner made a successful maiden flight. Our circle of friends is growing: The China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank now has 80 approved members, and over 100 countries, regions and international organizations have actively participated in the Belt and Road Initiative launched by China. The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was successfully held in Beijing six weeks ago, and China's call to boost global development has added strong impetus to the endeavor of building a community of shared future for mankind. An increasingly prosperous motherland serves as a source of strength for Hong Kong to overcome difficulties and challenges; it also presents a reservoir of opportunities for Hong Kong to break new ground, foster new driving force and create new space for development. When our country does well, Hong Kong will do even better.

Fellow Compatriots,

Dear Friends,

A popular song in Hong Kong has this line: "Self-confidence is so important. Open up your mind and your dream will come true." We should have full confidence in ourselves, in Hong Kong and in our country, fully and faithfully implement the policies of "One Country, Two Systems", "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy, abide by the Basic Law of the HKSAR, and make focused and concerted efforts to pursue development. By doing so, we can certainly deliver an even brighter future for Hong Kong.

To conclude, I wish to propose a toast:

To a prosperous and strong China and the great renewal of the Chinese nation;

To the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong; and

To the health of all the friends present and your families.

Cheers!
HONG KONG -- President Xi Jinping Saturday inspected major infrastructure projects in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), urging more efforts to keep and improve its competitiveness.

Xi inspected the construction site of the Hong Kong segment of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge, noting that building of the bridge is a major step of the central government to support better development of Hong Kong, Macao and the Pearl River Delta region.

It also represents an important achievement of close collaboration among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao under the "one country, two systems" framework, he added.

He urged active follow-up work on the project to ensure its smooth and safe operation after completion.

Xi also inspected the construction of the third runway at Hong Kong International Airport, saying that the central government supports the building of the runway to help Hong Kong consolidate its status as a global aviation hub and improve its overall competitiveness.

The president said that efforts must be made to ensure safe and efficient construction of the project, and maximize its benefits after completion.

Xi arrived in Hong Kong Thursday for a three-day trip to attend celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and the inaugural ceremony of the fifth-term government of the HKSAR. He also inspected the HKSAR.
Chinese President Xi Jinping makes remarks at a gathering celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and the inaugural ceremony of the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in Hong Kong, July 1, 2017.[Photo/Xinhua]

HONG KONG -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday delivered a speech at the meeting celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and the inaugural ceremony of the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The following is the full text of his speech:

Address at the Meeting

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of

Hong Kong's Return to the Motherland and

The Inaugural Ceremony of

The Fifth-Term Government of

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

1 July 2017

Xi Jinping

Fellow Compatriots,

Dear Friends,

Today, we are meeting on this solemn and joyous occasion to both celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and hold the inaugural ceremony of the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

First of all, on behalf of the Central Government and the people of all ethnic groups across the country, I wish to extend our cordial greetings to all the people in Hong Kong and our warm congratulations to Madam Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the newly inaugurated fifth-term Chief Executive of the HKSAR, principal officials of the fifth-term HKSAR government and members of the Executive Council. I also express our heartfelt thanks to all our fellow Chinese, both at home and abroad, and foreign friends for their good wishes and support to Hong Kong.

Meeting here on the shores of Hong Kong, which have stood the test of time and seen profound changes, we are filled with thoughts and emotions, as we reflect on the extraordinary journey we have taken to get where we are today.

The destiny of Hong Kong has always been intricately bound with that of the motherland. After modern times, with a weak China under corrupt and incompetent feudal rule, the Chinese nation was plunged into deep suffering. In the early 1840s, Britain sent an expeditionary force of a mere 10,000 troops to invade China and got its way in forcing the Qing government, which had an 800,000-strong army, to pay reparations and cede the island of Hong Kong to it. After the Opium War, China was repeatedly defeated by countries which were far smaller in size and population. Kowloon and "New Territories" were forcibly taken away. That page of Chinese history was one of humiliation and sorrow. It was not until the Communist Party of China led the Chinese people to victory in a dauntless and tenacious struggle for national independence and liberation and founded New China that the Chinese people truly stood up and blazed a bright path of socialism with distinctive Chinese features. Thanks to close to four decades of dedicated efforts since the launch of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, we have entered a new era in the development of the Chinese nation.

It was against the historical backdrop of reform and opening-up that Mr. Deng Xiaoping put forward the great vision of "One Country, Two Systems", which guided China's diplomatic negotiations with the United Kingdom that led to the successful resolution of the Hong Kong question, an issue that was left over from the past. Twenty years ago today, Hong Kong returned to the embrace of the motherland. This ended past humiliation and marked a major step forward toward the complete reunification of China. Hong Kong's return to the motherland has gone down as a monumental achievement in the history of the Chinese nation. Hong Kong has since then embarked on a journey of unity and common development with the motherland.

Fellow Compatriots,

Dear Friends,

Time flies fast! It has been 20 years since Hong Kong's return to the motherland. According to China's tradition, a man enters adulthood at the age of 20. So today, we are celebrating the coming of age of the HKSAR, which has grown exuberant like a bamboo or a pine tree. Looking back at the HKSAR's growth, we can proudly conclude that thanks to the support of the motherland and with an international vision and an innovative spirit, Hong Kong has in the last two decades continued to develop itself as a modern metropolis. The practice of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong is a success story recognized by all.

-- Since its return to the motherland, Hong Kong has joined the remarkable journey toward the great renewal of the Chinese nation. As a special administrative region directly under the Central Government, Hong Kong has been re-integrated into China's national governance system since the very day of its return. The Central Government exercises jurisdiction over Hong Hong in accordance with China's Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR, and corresponding systems and institutions have been set up for the special administrative region. Hong Kong's ties with the mainland have grown increasingly close, so have its interactions and cooperation with the mainland. The people of Hong Kong have played an active part in China's reform, opening-up and modernization drive and made their unique and important contribution to this endeavor. They have ever stronger confidence in China's development and national renewal, and share with the people on the mainland the dignity and honor of our great motherland.

-- Since its return to the motherland, Hong Kong has maintained prosperity and stability. Hong Kong has kept its distinct features and strengths. Its allure of being a vibrant metropolis where the East meets the West has remained as strong as ever. Under the practice of "One Country, Two Systems", Hong Kong has retained its previous capitalist system and way of life, and its laws have remained basically unchanged. The people of Hong Kong, now masters of their own house, run their local affairs within the purview of autonomy of the HKSAR. The people of Hong Kong enjoy more extensive democratic rights and freedoms than at any other time in its history. Having withstood the impact of the Asian financial crisis, the SARS epidemic and the global financial crisis, Hong Kong has emerged stronger as an international financial, shipping and trading center; and it has been consistently rated by many international institutions as one of the freest economies and most competitive regions in the world. Hong Kong has made substantial advances in various programs, increased external interactions and raised its international profile.

What has happened in Hong Kong fully demonstrates that the concept of "One Country, Two Systems" provides the best solution to the historical question of Hong Kong and the best institutional arrangement to ensure Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability after its return. "One Country, Two Systems" has proved to be a workable solution welcomed by the people.

Fellow Compatriots,

Dear Friends,

"One Country, Two Systems" is a great initiative pursued by China. It offers a new way of thinking and a new formula to the international community in addressing similar issues. It is another contribution made by the Chinese nation to promoting global peace and development. And it embodies the Chinese vision which values openness and inclusiveness. To uphold and implement the principle of "One Country, Two Systems" meets the interests of the Hong Kong people, responds to the needs of maintaining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, serves the fundamental interests of the nation, and meets the shared aspiration of all Chinese. That is why I have made it clear that the Central Government will unswervingly implement the policy of "One Country, Two Systems" and make sure that it is fully applied in Hong Kong without being bent or distorted. This will enable us to keep advancing in the right direction.

"One Country, Two Systems" is a pioneering initiative that has no precedent to follow. Its application entails an evolving process. Currently, some new developments have occurred and new issues emerged regarding its application in Hong Kong. Hong Kong needs to improve its systems to uphold national sovereignty, security and development interests. It needs to enhance education and raise public awareness of the history and culture of the Chinese nation. It is yet to build public consensus on some major political and legal issues. The Hong Kong economy also faces quite a few challenges. Hong Kong's traditional strengths start to lose the edge while new drivers of growth are yet to emerge. Housing and other issues that affect the daily life of the people have become more serious. To address these challenges, meet the expectation of Hong Kong people for a better life and advance Hong Kong's development in all sectors, we must stay on the right and steady course, gain a full understanding of the policy of "One Country, Two Systems" and faithfully implement it. Hence, I wish to take the opportunity to talk to you about how to better implement the policy of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong.

First, it is imperative to have a correct understanding of the relationship between "One Country" and "Two Systems". "One Country" is like the roots of a tree. For a tree to grow tall and luxuriant, its roots must run deep and strong. The concept of "One Country, Two Systems" was advanced, first and foremost, to realize and uphold national unity. That is why in the negotiations with the United Kingdom, we made it categorically clear that sovereignty is not for negotiation. Now that Hong Kong has returned to China, it is all the more important for us to firmly uphold China's sovereignty, security and development interests. In conducting day-to-day affairs, we must be guided by a strong sense of "One country", firmly observe the principle of "One Country", and thus correctly handle the relationship between the HKSAR and the Central Government. Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the Central Government and the authority of the Basic Law of the HKSAR or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible. On the other hand, on the basis of "One Country", the "Two Systems" should and have every reason to stay in harmony and reinforce each other. We must both adhere to the "One Country" principle and respect the differences of the "Two Systems", both uphold the power of the Central Government and ensure a high degree of autonomy in the HKSAR, both give play to the role of the mainland as a staunch supporter of Hong Kong and enhance Hong Kong's own competitiveness. At no time should we focus only on one aspect to the neglect of the other. Only in this way can we ensure that the ship of "One Country, Two Systems" will break the waves, sail steadily and go the distance.

Second, it is imperative to always act in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law. Hong Kong's return completed a major transformation of its constitutional order. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Basic Law of the HKSAR together form the constitutional basis of the HKSAR. The Constitution is the fundamental law of the State. It embodies the common will of people of all ethnic groups in our country, and represents the legal origin of the system of special administrative region. The Basic Law is a basic legislation enacted in accordance with the Constitution. It provides for the system and policies that should be practiced in the HKSAR, codifies into law and makes institutional arrangement for the principle of "One Country, Two Systems", and provides legal safeguards for the practice of "One Country, Two systems" in the HKSAR. In observing the constitutional order prescribed by the Constitution and the Basic Law, it is important both for the Central Government to exercise power in accordance with the law and for the HKSAR to fulfill its own responsibilities as the main actor. We should improve the relevant institutions and mechanisms for implementing the Basic Law and raise public awareness of the Constitution and the Basic Law in Hong Kong, particularly among civil servants and the young people. These steps are integral to practicing "One Country, Two Systems", advancing the rule of law nationwide and upholding the rule of law in Hong Kong.

Third, it is imperative to always focus on development as the top priority. Development, an abiding pursuit, is crucial for Hong Kong's survival, and it holds the golden key to resolving various issues in Hong Kong. The concept of "One Country, Two Systems" was advanced to achieve two goals: namely, peacefully resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, and maintaining Hong Kong's status as an international financial, shipping and trading center in order to promote further growth. Currently, more focus should be given to development. Teenagers want to grow up happily. Young people want to bring out the best of their talent. People in mature years want to be successful, and the seniors want to enjoy their golden years. Obviously, all this can only be achieved through development. Hong Kong enjoys the backing of the motherland and is open to the world. It therefore has many favorable conditions for development and distinctive competitive advantages. In particular, China's continuous and rapid development over the years provides an invaluable opportunity, an inexhaustible source of strengths and broad space for Hong Kong's development. As a saying in Hong Kong goes, "After leaving Suzhou, a traveler will find it hard to get a ride on a boat", meaning an opportunity missed is an opportunity lost. It is important to cherish the opportunity, seize it and focus your energy on Hong Kong's development.

Fourth, it is imperative to always maintain a harmonious and stable social environment. The concept of "One Country, Two Systems" gives expression to the vision of peace and harmony in the Chinese culture. It embodies a very important tenet, namely, seeking broad common ground while setting aside major differences. Hong Kong is a plural society. So it comes as no surprise that there are different views and even major differences on some specific issues. However, making everything political or deliberately creating differences and provoking confrontation will not resolve the problems. On the contrary, it can only severely hinder Hong Kong's economic and social development. Bear in mind the larger interests, communicate in a sensible way and build more consensus: this is the best way to find solutions to issues over time. On the part of the Central Government, we are ready to talk to anyone who loves the country, loves Hong Kong and genuinely supports the principle of "One Country, Two Systems" and the Basic Law of the HKSAR, no matter what political views or position he or she may hold. Harmony brings good fortune, while discord leads to misfortune. Hong Kong is an affluent society, but it also faces enormous challenges posed by profound changes in the global economic environment and the increasingly intense international competition. It cannot afford to be torn apart by reckless moves or internal rift. The people of Hong Kong must be united, work together and help each other, and by so doing, you will ensure the success of Hong Kong, your common home.

Fellow Compatriots,

Dear Friends,

China is now in a decisive phase to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. People of all ethnic groups across the country are engaged in a joint endeavor to realize the Two Centenary Goals and fulfill the Chinese Dream of national renewal. Ensuring the continued success of the practice of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong is part and parcel of the Chinese Dream. A cause with public participation and public support is sure to achieve success. We should ensure the success of development on the mainland which practices the socialist system; we should also ensure the success of development in Hong Kong which practices the capitalist system. We should have every confidence that we will succeed!

Today, the new SAR government is officially inaugurated. It shoulders major responsibilities and has a lofty mission to perform. It is my hope that in the next five years, the HKSAR government will unite people of all sectors in Hong Kong to fully and faithfully implement the principle of "One Country, Two Systems", stay committed to the basis of "One Country",well leverage the benefits of "Two Systems", and make solid efforts to ensure success of its various endeavors. It is important for you to advance with the times, actively perform your duties, and continue to improve government performance. It is important to focus on priorities, fully leverage Hong Hong's strengths and open up a new horizon for Hong Kong's economic development. It is important to put people first, help them overcome difficulties, especially address prominent economic and livelihood issues that people are concerned with, and truly increase their sense of contentment and happiness. It is important to raise awareness and enhance guidance, especially to step up patriotic education of the young people, to give them more care and support and help them grow up well.

The Central Government will continue to support the Chief Executive and the HKSAR government in exercising law-based governance. We will continue to support Hong Kong in growing its economy and improving people's lives, and in leveraging its strengths and role in advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Renminbi internationalization and other major development strategies. The relevant Central Government departments will actively consider adopting concrete measures to make it more convenient for the people of Hong Kong to study, work and live on the mainland, and provide more opportunities for them to pursue career development on the vast mainland. I am sure that the people of Hong Kong will enjoy brighter development prospects and live better lives while contributing their share to China's overall development.

Hong Kong has the strong backing of the great motherland and the strong support of the Central Government and the people of the mainland. Hong Kong has gained a wealth of experience over the past 20 years since its return; it has a solid foundation for achieving further development, and it enjoys the concerted dedication of the HKSAR government and people in all the sectors. With all this in mind, I am convinced that the practice of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong will write a new chapter and create new splendor for Hong Kong!

Thank you.
President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor after she was sworn in as the fifth-term Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday. [Photo by XU JINGXING/CHINA DAILY]

President urges Hong Kong to improve its systems to uphold national sovereignty, security and development interests

President Xi Jinping on Saturday called on the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to unite people of all sectors to fully and faithfully implement the principle of "one country, two systems".

"Today, the new SAR government is officially inaugurated. It shoulders major responsibilities and has a lofty mission to perform," the president said after the inauguration of the city's new leader, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

He also urged the SAR to improve its systems to uphold national sovereignty, security and development interests.

"Any attempt to endanger national sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible," the president said.

Hong Kong also needs to enhance education and raise public awareness of the history and culture of the Chinese nation, Xi said.

"As Hong Kong has returned to China it is all the more important for us to firmly uphold China's sovereignty, security and development interests," he said.

The president noted that "one country, two systems" had proved to be a workable solution welcomed by the people. Xi added that the central government will unswervingly implement the policy of "one country, two systems" and make sure that it is fully applied in Hong Kong without being distorted.

It is imperative that people in Hong Kong always act in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law, he said.

In his speech, Xi said economic development should be top priority as it was the key to resolving many problems.

"Teenagers want to grow up happily. Young people want to bring out the best of their talents. Mature people want to be successful, and seniors want to enjoy their golden years. Obviously, all this can only be achieved through development," he said.

China's continuous and rapid development over the years provides invaluable opportunities for Hong Kong's development, Xi said.

Stressing that Hong Kong is a diverse society with "different views and even major differences on some specific issues", Xi urged the HKSAR Government to unite the people in Hong Kong. He said that "it cannot afford to be torn apart by reckless moves or internal rifts".

The central government is always ready to talk to anyone who "loves the country, loves Hong Kong" and genuinely supports the principle of "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law no matter what political views they hold, Xi stressed.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was sworn in at the inaugural ceremony. She vowed to "firmly take action in accordance with the law against any acts that will undermine the country's sovereignty, security and development interests".

The Hong Kong SAR Government will take measures to provide more opportunities for young people to participate in public policy discussions and their implementation, Lam said.

"By doing so, we aim not only to enhance their understanding of and trust in the government, but also to nurture future talent and leaders in society and politics," she added.




Principal officials of the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region take their oaths before President Xi Jinping (right), while newly installed Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (second from right) looks on, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday. [Photo by XU JINGXING/CHINA DAILY]

President reaffirms central government's unwavering support and high hopes for CE and HKSAR Government

President Xi Jinping on Saturday expressed confidence that Hong Kong's new Chief Executive can lead the city to achieving new heights in economic development.

At a meeting with Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor shortly after she was sworn in as the leader of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's fifth-term administration, Xi said "great responsibilities and a glorious mission" have fallen on Lam's shoulders, and Hong Kong people and the central government have high expectations of her.

He urged Lam to implement the "one country, two systems" principle in a comprehensive and accurate manner.

Reaffirming the central government's unwavering support for Lam and the new HKSAR Government in administering Hong Kong according to law and carrying on the great cause of "one country, two systems", the president hoped Lam will earnestly carry out her duties as Chief Executive and safeguard the authority of the country's Constitution and the HKSAR's Basic Law.

Xi also told Lam to try to further develop the economy, improve people's livelihood and maintain the city's prosperity and stability.

Lam said Xi's visit to Hong Kong showed the central government's support for the HKSAR, adding that the president's remarks during his three-day stay here will boost confidence in the SAR's future.

"It's with a humble heart that I accept this greatest honor of my life and prepare to take on the greatest challenge in my public service career," Lam said at the inauguration ceremony.

She pointed out that Hong Kong must cherish the opportunities offered by the nation's development. "As we capitalize on our strengths and harness the opportunities presented by our country's development, Hong Kong's future is indeed bright and promising," she said.

After their meeting, Lam accompanied Xi to meet key members of Hong Kong's executive, legislative and judicial bodies.

Calling them the "key few"a term Xi has used to refer to leading officials at the central, provincial/ministerial and local levelsthe president said they constitute the "core force" in implementing "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law, and in administering Hong Kong.

He urged the Hong Kong officials to position themselves at the national level when at work and dealing with problems, protect national sovereignty, security and development interests, and perform their duties to the nation.

The president called on them to face up to the challenges and take initiatives to ensure comprehensive and accurate implementation of "one country, two systems", resolve conflicts and difficulties involving the economy and people's livelihood, improve youth education on national history and culture, and work together to curb "Hong Kong independence" activities to safeguard the overall stability and interest of Hong Kong.

In her swearing-in address, Lam also expressed concern that the internal rift in Hong Kong society, if unhealed, may cost Hong Kong the opportunities to move forward.

Another challenge to her administration, she said, is to improve the executive-legislature relationship that has been sabotaged by those putting personal grudges over objective facts. That has hindered the SAR government's governing effectiveness and Hong Kong's economic and social progress, Lam said.

Xi encouraged Lam's team to carry out and improve the executive-led system with the Chief Executive as its core, and deal with the relationship between the executive and legislative bodies properly to ensure the government's smooth and effective governance.
China supports the Philippines in its drive toward development, including construction, economic growth and maintaining stability, Premier Li Keqiang said in Beijing on Friday, during a meeting with the country's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alan Peter Cayetano.

Li said China was ready to further promote the healthy and stable growth of ties between the two nations.

Premier Li said China and the Philippines, as close neighbors, shared far more common interests than conflicts.
Auspicious future seen for HK Updated: 2017-07-01 08:03 By An Baijie in Hong Kong(HK Edition)

President Xi Jinping joins the chorus after the grand variety show on Friday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre as part of the event celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. Edmond Tang / China Daily

President says opportunities lie ahead, calls for confidence in SAR and country

President Xi Jinping called on Friday for Hong Kong people to have confidence in themselves, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the country, ahead of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

Hong Kong people have made tremendous contributions to the country's reform and opening-up in the past decades, which will never be forgotten by the central government and the whole nation, Xi said while delivering a speech at a banquet hosted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to welcome the president.

Xi pointed out that Hong Kong has many advantages, including an open and free economy, free flow of talent, cargo and capital, an advanced judicial system and clean government.

Hong Kong also has policy advantages, as some pilot projects take place in Hong Kong under the framework of "one country, two systems", the president said, adding that such projects will bring more opportunities for the development of the Hong Kong SAR.

As long as Hong Kong strengthens those advantages, it will definitely continue to attract international capital and talent, Xi said.

Noting that China has become the largest contributor to global economic growth, Xi said the country's rapid development means great opportunities for Hong Kong. The country's prosperity will help Hong Kong resist risks and boost development, he said.

Saturday, July 1 marks the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return from British rule and the establishment of the Hong Kong SAR. Xi will attend the inauguration of the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong SAR today (Saturday).

The implementation of "one country, two systems" proved to be a great success in Hong Kong in the past two decades, Xi said. He reaffirmed that the principle will not be changed.

It's a historic move that China created "one country, two systems", to implement socialism in the main part of the country while practicing capitalism in some special regions, Xi said, adding that such an innovative path had never before been created in any other country.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying expressed gratitude for the central government's support for him and the Hong Kong SAR Government. The country has attached great importance to Hong Kong's function and needs and has spared no efforts to support Hong Kong, he said.

Saying he was confident about the future of Hong Kong, Leung also extended best wishes for the next term of the Hong Kong SAR Government, which will be led by Chief Executive-designate Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor starting from today.

David Wong Yau-kar, a Hong Kong deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority in Hong Kong, said Xi's speech gives Hong Kong confidence to pursue a brighter future by actively joining the nation's development, such as through the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Hong Kong's successful transformation from a small fishing village to a metropolis is built on abundant opportunities brought by the nation's development, a well-established system under the "one country, two systems" principle and its own efforts, he said.

Irons Sze Wing-wai, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said Xi's speech has pointed a clear direction for the city's commercial and industrial sectors in exploring its future.

Shadow Li in Hong Kong contributed to this story.

anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn

(HK Edition 07/01/2017 page1)
HK shines when it comes to rule of law Updated: 2017-07-01 08:03 By Luis Liu in Hong Kong(HK Edition)

Global benchmarks put city near the top of jurisdictions worldwide, a marked improvement on pre-handover status

When China and the United Kingdom began to negotiate Hong Kong's future in the 1980s, there was skepticism about what would happen to the city's common law system. Mistrust by the international community endured after the Chinese government proposed the unprecedented "one country, two systems" principle.

The past 20 years continued to see criticism about the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's "failure" which worsened the rule of law and judicial independence - especially from the city's opposition camp.

However, statistics tell a different story.

The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators project put Hong Kong at the 94.7 percentile for rule of law in 2015. The figures show the city outranked 94.7 percent of 113 countries and regions assessed.

In the same year, the United Kingdom was at 93.8 and the United States at 90.4. Singapore - Hong Kong's all-time rival - was at 96.6.

In 1996, a year before Hong Kong's return to China after 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong only scored 68.4.

At a symposium in Beijing commemorating the 20th anniversary of implementing the Basic Law, top national legislator Zhang Dejiang said the world-renowned index showed the rule of law in Hong Kong, one of the issues that concern the international community most, had been proved a success.

Other indicators have shown similar results. In the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, one of the world's leading sources for original, independent data on the rule of law, Hong Kong scored 0.77 out of 1 last year. This was 16th in global rankings and third in Asia, only behind Singapore and Japan. Leading the list are mainly Nordic countries including Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

In the Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 published by the World Economic Forum last September, another reputable index, Hong Kong was the only Asian economy that was ranked in the top 10 on judicial independence out of 138 jurisdictions, and came third among common law jurisdictions.

The incumbent President of UK's Supreme Court and a non-permanent judge of Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal David Neuberger said concerns about the city's judicial independence had been exaggerated.

"The concern reminds me of the worries which some UK judges have about the fact that their email address ends with '.gov.uk'. 'We are not part of the government; we are independent', they cry."

Thus during a visit to the UK for promotion of Hong Kong's legal system, Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung expressed his hopes for the international community to look at figures instead of just listening to opinions of some media.

"Admittedly, the rule of law has become a very popular topic in Hong Kong, and it often attracts attention in the media, including overseas media," Yuen said.

"The views expressed through these channels are admittedly very divergent. On my part, I would invite you to make a distinction between mere assertions on subjective perception on the one hand and objective facts on the other," Yuen stressed.

Veteran political analyst and Basic Law expert Song Sio-chong said: "It is not hard to see Hong Kong's strength in its legal system under the current 'one country, two systems', especially when comparing with other developed countries and regions."

The Basic Law provided a real guarantee on Hong Kong's judicial independence and rule of law, Song said.

The city's high global rankings in the rule of law can be attributed to a society with little tolerance for corruption, and world-class order and security, Song stressed.

The city's civilized law-enforcement authorities, civil justice, effective access for civilians to legal services and freedom of expressions also added to its high scores, Song analyzed.

Final adjudication

One change that makes the judiciary more independent after 1997 is the shift of the final appellate court from outside to within the city, Song said. It symbolized the return of judicial power to Hong Kong, he added.

Before and when the Basic Law was promulgated in 1990, the final avenue of appeal for cases heard in Hong Kong was the Judicial Committee of the UK's Privy Council. To address this inconsistency with China's resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over the city, the Basic Law stipulates that a Court of Final Appeal (CFA) should be established in Hong Kong.

The move, which handed the power of final adjudication to Hong Kong, has also raised the level of recognition of Hong Kong's legal system around the globe, Yuen noted. Yuen stressed that during the colonial days, decisions made by the Hong Kong courts were hardly cited by the final appellate courts in other common law jurisdictions. "However, since the CFA was established, we have seen a significant change in the scenario," Yuen stressed.

Moreover, the Basic Law lets judges from other common law jurisdictions sit on the CFA, allowing the court to draw on their experience while maintaining close links with other jurisdictions, Yuen said.

Currently, out of 22 judges, 17 are of non-Chinese nationalities, mainly from the UK, Australia and New Zealand, according to the CFA judge list.

Hong Kong is one of the few jurisdictions that allow foreign judges, besides Singapore and Dubai, according to a research by China Daily.

In terms of transparency, Hong Kong consistently remained in the top 20 economies with very low levels of corruption in the world, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index. The city was ranked the 15th least corrupt place among 176 countries and regions last year.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong has maintained its world-leading safety record among global metropolises, especially at a time when many face declining public order and escalating terrorism threats, according to a variety of global rankings on safety and on personal security.

Legal aid

Other than quantifiable aspects, a number of day-to-day practices also matter, Song said.

People's easy access to the courts or justice carried great weight in assessing how the rule of law was valued, Song said. Among other common law jurisdictions, Hong Kong has a robust legal aid system, he reckoned.

"In appropriate circumstances, applicants for judicial reviews would be granted legal aid so that they would be in a position to challenge administrative action or government policy with resources provided by the government."

Meanwhile, people of various political views have been provided with legal aid when they face litigation, Song explained. Those include protesters who participated in the illegal "Occupy Central" movement in 2014, and even those who created severe chaos in the Mong Kok riot last year, according to official documents.

According to law reports, many leading constitutional or human-rights cases went before the court with the support of legal aid. According to Hong Kong's latest annual budget, the government will fund its Legal Aid Department HK$996.8 million ($127.7 million), almost the same as that of the last year amid a steady increase.

In some other common law jurisdictions, launching a lawsuit entails great costs and determination especially during an economic slowdown, Song observed.

Some law firms some other jurisdictions, such as the United States, have deducted their free service hours while there are likely to be legal aid budget cuts, he noticed.

However, the Hong Kong government perseveres. "Safeguarded by an independent judiciary, the rule of law ensures a secure environment for people and organizations and a level playing field for business," the Hong Kong government said.

"No one is above the law. Everyone, regardless of race, gender, religion, political affiliation, opinion or position is equal before the law.

"Private individuals, legal persons and public entities all have the right to access courts to enforce legal rights or defend an action," it added.

luisliu@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 07/01/2017 page5)
US urged to stop Taiwan arms sales 2017-07-01 07:13:21 China Daily Chen Weihua in Washington and Wang Qingyun in Beijing China lashed out at the United States over the Trump administration's approval of a Taiwan arms deal, with the authorities demanding the US stop the sales.

Trump administration asking Congress to OK $1.4 billion deal

China lashed out at the United States over the Trump administration's approval of a Taiwan arms deal, with the authorities demanding the US stop the sales.

The Trump administration had notified the US Congress of "seven proposed defense sales for Taiwan" worth about $1.42 billion, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Thursday, adding that there is no change to Washington's one-China policy.

The arms sales, the first such deal with Taiwan since Donald Trump took office as US president, will go forward unless the US Congress formally objects in the next 30 days, according to the Associated Press.

China, having lodged solemn representations to the US in both Beijing and Washington, "strongly urges" the country to revoke the arms sales and cut military contacts with Taiwan to avoid further damaging China-US ties and cooperation in important fields, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Friday.

The arms sales would be a grave violation of the principles of the three joint communiques between China and the US and damage China's sovereignty and security interests, Lu said.

They also run counter to the spirit of the important consensus that the two countries' heads of state reached in their meeting in Florida in April, and are not in line with the general trend of the development of bilateral ties or the US's own interests, Lu pointed out.

Ren Guoqiang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said: "China is resolutely opposed to arms sales to Taiwan by the government of any foreign country."

"The position of the Chinese military over safeguarding China's sovereignty and territorial integrity is firm and clear," Ren said.

The revelation of the arms deal came one day after a US Senate committee completed a markup of a bill, allowing the US Navy to make regular port calls in Taiwan. This drew an immediate protest from China.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, warned on Friday: "Any behavior of relying on foreign forces to magnify oneself and damage peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits will surely backfire."

Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the US, told reporters on the sidelines of a reception at the Chinese embassy on Thursday the arms deal "will certainly undermine the mutual confidence between the two sides".
Li promotes Sino-Philippine ties 2017-07-01 07:13:21 China Daily Zhang Yue China supports the Philippines in its drive toward development, including construction, economic growth and maintaining stability, Premier Li Keqiang said in Beijing on Friday, during a meeting with the country's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alan Peter Cayetano.

China supports the Philippines in its drive toward development, including construction, economic growth and maintaining stability, Premier Li Keqiang said in Beijing on Friday, during a meeting with the country's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alan Peter Cayetano.

Li said China was ready to further promote the healthy and stable growth of ties between the two nations.

Premier Li said China and the Philippines, as close neighbors, shared far more common interests than conflicts.

Bilateral ties between the two have returned to the right path, Li said.

Li said China supported the Philippines holding this year's Leaders' Meetings on East Asia Cooperation, as the rotating chair of Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He hoped the Philippines would continue to play a positive role in pushing forward China-ASEAN ties.

Cayetano said his country appreciated China's support and was ready to deepen its relationship with China in all areas.
Government, grassroots efforts protect endangered fish 2017-07-01 12:06:15 Xinhua Forty years ago, Li Yifan would net more than 100 Przewalksii's naked carp a day. Now, he and fellow volunteers are saving the fish, which became endangered after decades of overfishing.

XINING - Forty years ago, Li Yifan would net more than 100 Przewalksii's naked carp a day. Now, he and fellow volunteers are saving the fish, which became endangered after decades of overfishing.

The species of carp, known in China as huangyu, is endemic to the Qinghai Lake, China's largest inland saltwater lake. It is the dominant of five native species of fish in the lake which is located on the Qinghai Plateau.

From late May to mid-August every year, the carp swim upstream to three freshwater rivers to spawn, with the migration peaking in late June. Volunteers rescue carp that become stranded as small tributaries dry up during their arduous journey.

In 2015, Li and eight villagers from Gangca County set up a team of volunteers to protect the carp. "Previously we caught them, now we save them. It's retribution for our actions," Li said.

As a result of rampant fishing since the 1960s, when a famine swept the country, the lake's carp stock plunged from its peak of 320,000 tonnes in the 1950's to just 2,600 tonnes in 2001.

The fish was listed on the China Species Red List in 2004 due to overfishing and habitat loss. All fishing has been prohibited in the lake for the last 17 years, however, illegal fishing has persisted.

"The lake is so huge and the fishermen are cunning. Law enforcement can't deal with them on their own," said Norrigsang, a herdsman from Gangca who used his own savings to found a patrol to catch people fishing illegally along the lake's 300-kilometer-long shoreline in the 1990's.

The job is no easy task. He recalled an incident in January 2013, when the seven-member team was attacked by a group of more than 100 fishermen.

Thanks to the increased efforts of volunteers and intensified law enforcement, the illegal fishing of naked carp has been dramatically decreased since 2014, according to fishery authorities.

In addition to the volunteers, the local government is working to restore the fish population by helping them spawn.

Several years ago, the Gangca government dismantled a two-meter-high dam on the Shaliu River and built 18 steps in its place to assist the fish migration. Last year, it spent 8.5 million yuan (1.25 million U.S. dollars) building 21 steps on the Quanji River.

But assisting the migration is only part of the battle, they also need to increase fertilization rates, The success rate for natural fertilization is extremely low, as the sperm of male carp can only survive for 20 seconds in the water, said Zhou Weiguo from the carp rescue center.

"With such low fertilization rates we can't increase the population of the endangered species," Zhou said.

In 2001, fishery workers began an artificial insemination program. They hatch fertilized eggs at the rescue center and raise the young fish, or fry, in tanks for a year before releasing them into the lake.

Since 2002, more than 100 million captive-bred carp fry have been released into the lake, with an 85 percent survival rate. Last year, the stock of carp in the lake climbed to 70,800 tonnes.

Despite the progress, there is still a long way to go, said Yang Shoude, a forest police officer in the Qinghai Lake National Nature Reserve. "If the naked carp population can not be increased in time, algae growth will become out of control and eventually 'kill' the lake," Yang said.

Winning the battle requires combined grassroots and governmental efforts, Norrigsang said.
China launches emergency response for flood relief 2017-07-02 06:05:08 Xinhua China's disaster relief authorities launched a level III emergency response plan Saturday to help flood victims.

BEIJING -- China's disaster relief authorities launched a level III emergency response plan Saturday to help flood victims.

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has dispatched eight work teams to South China's flood stricken areas to guide relief work, the office said in a statement.

Severe floods hit the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River in recent days, as well as some nearby rivers and lakes.

More than 260,000 people have been displaced after heavy rain in Central China's Hunan province since June 22, said the provincial flood control office late Friday.

Under a level III emergency response plan, the office must report to the State Council within two hours and dispatch a work team to the disaster zone within 24 hours.
Xi's Russia visit to inject new impetus into bilateral ties, Eurasian integration: Chinese ambassador 2017-07-01 15:34:49 Xinhua Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Russia will inject fresh impetus into the high-level development of bilateral relations and the economic integration of the Eurasian region, said Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui.

MOSCOW -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Russia will inject fresh impetus into the high-level development of bilateral relations and the economic integration of the Eurasian region, said Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui.

At the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, Xi will pay a state visit to Russia in early July, which Li said marks "the most important event for bilateral ties this year."

The two presidents will meet for the third time this year, following meetings on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing and the Astana summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Xi and Putin, Li said in a recent interview, will make strategic plans for further improving China-Russia relations, strengthening practical cooperation and advancing the connection of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

They will also exchange views on enhancing global governance as well as international and regional hotspot issues, added the ambassador.

"The comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia has been developing stably, sustainably and at a high level," said Li.

In dealing with international affairs, China and Russia have strengthened strategic coordination and played their due role as big countries, said Li, noting that they have been jointly pushing for a political settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and the Syrian issue.

The two countries, he pointed out, serve as the ballast for regional and global peace and stability.

It is a strategic choice for China and Russia to strengthen their relations since it is in line with the core interests of both countries and their peoples, said Li.

"No matter how the international environment changes, we should make all-out efforts to maintain and improve bilateral relations," said the ambassador.

During the interview, Li highlighted the complementarity and potential of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

China has been Russia's largest trading partner for six years and Russia has been a major source for China to import energy and high-tech products.

According to China's General Administration of Customs, China-Russia trade grew 33.7 percent in the first five months this year to 223.1 billion yuan (about $32.8 billion).

"I believe the quality and quantity of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries will continue to rise," said Li.

In May 2015, China and Russia signed a joint declaration on synergizing the Belt and Road Initiative and the EAEU.The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.

It aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

The EAEU comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with an aim of encouraging regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services and people within the union.

Li said the connection of the two development plans has begun to bear fruit and more achievements will be made.

China and Russia are also founding members both of the SCO and of the BRICS mechanism, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The two countries should work for closer cooperation among the SCO and BRICS countries, Li said.
Confidence vital for bright future 2017-07-01 09:10:26 China Daily At a grand banquet held in his honor in Hong Kong on Friday by the special administrative region government on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the resumption of China's exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, President Xi Jinping delivered a heartfelt speech.

At a grand banquet held in his honor in Hong Kong on Friday by the special administrative region government on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the resumption of China's exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, President Xi Jinping delivered a heartfelt speech.

In addition to congratulating Hong Kong on the great achievements it has made over the past 20 years, he also extended his best wishes to the city's more than 7 million residents in their pursuit of a brighter future.

There is no doubt the road ahead will not be easy, but Xi said the central government has full confidence in Hong Kong society's ability to prevail over any adversity. For that reason he called on Hong Kong people to have confidence in themselves, in Hong Kong and in the country.

The president encouraged Hong Kong people to be proud of their identity as Chinese nationals residing in a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, a country that has made remarkable achievements in every aspect of social and economic development in recent years.

The reason why people in Hong Kong can have confidence in their own community is simple; the modern cosmopolitan city we see today was literally built from scratch by generations of Chinese people who emigrated from the mainland and their descendants.

As an overwhelmingly Chinese community that has embraced people from other parts of the world and other cultures, Hong Kong boasts some rare advantages and can play an irreplaceable role in the national economy and global trade.

Hong Kong has triumphed under the principle of "one country, two systems", which has been the institutional arrangement for its long-term stability and prosperity, and enabled it to overcome difficulties and challenges.

Xi called on the people of Hong Kong, especially the younger generation, to build on the achievements already made and seize the historical opportunities to serve Hong Kong and the country, and take pride in being proud Chinese citizens residing in the HKSAR of the PRC.
China calls for trade drive 2017-07-01 07:13:21 China Daily Hu Yongqi in Changsha China would like to see the establishment of an East Asian economic community, Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said.

China would like to see the establishment of an East Asian economic community through deeper pragmatic engagement and a sustained drive focusing on regional connectivity, free trade, financial cooperation and sustainable development, Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said on Friday.

"In free trade, we should bring about an early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and China-Japan-South Korea free trade agreement negotiations, which will contribute to establishing an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area," Liu said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 15th East Asia Forum.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It is also the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a cooperative framework between ASEAN countries, China, Japan and South Korea, which is also known as the"10+3"mechanism.

More than 100 officials, businessmen and academics gathered in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, to discuss the development of SMEs and the potential for an East Asia economic community.

Liu said the forum, which runs to Saturday, is the only platform for exchanges between governmental officials, businessmen and academics under the framework. He also called for better cooperation to tackle poverty alleviation, SME development, tourism and cultural exchanges, in line with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

During the "10+3" Leaders meeting last year, Premier Li Keqiang proposed dialogues between all the nations covered by the framework for drafting a blueprint for an East Asia economic community as soon as possible.

Paridh Kan, undersecretary of foreign affairs and international cooperation of Cambodia, said the forum provided diverse perspectives and new momentum for East Asia cooperation.

Nguyen Quoc Dung, vice-minister of foreign affairs of Vietnam, said regional integration has successfully reduced disparities in development and boosted regional connectivity. He added that further efforts should be made to enhance the development of SMEs and e-commerce businesses with the help of China, Japan and South Korea.

Hirubalan Veluppilla Ponnudurai, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN, said the forum had strengthened the partnership between countries in the region.
A friend from Beijing was in Brussels about two weeks ago to attend a business meeting, and before departing for London on June 20 afternoon, he told me at the Brussels airport, which suffered a deadly terrorist attack 15 months ago, that, "Europeans have a short memory".

What he meant was that people are no longer required to undergo security checks before entering the airport.

On March 22 last year, Brussels suffered two terrorist attacksone at the airport and the other at the metro station close to the European Union headquarterswhich prompted the authorities to make security checks mandatory at the entrance to the airport. But it was withdrawn a few months later. No such security checks were necessary at metro stations, though, despite the high-level security alert in Belgium.

In Beijing and many other cities in China, such security checks are now mandatory at airports and railway stations.

My friend's casual remark was followed by two foiled attacks in Brussels a few hours later. Another attack was reported from Antwerp the next day.

On the night of June 20, according to prosecutors, a Moroccan national tried to detonate a bomb in a suitcase at the Central Station in Brussels, but he was shot by security officers before he could cause any damage.

Across the border in France, a man with a rifle and explosives in his car tried to ram his vehicle into a police van in the Champs-Elysees shopping district in Paris on June 19. And the United Kingdom has suffered four attacks since March 22, which claimed many lives including that of a Chinese national. Incidentally, March 22 marked one year of the Brussels attacks.

The security situation in Western Europe has worsened over the past few months, although security forces deserve praise for thwarting some terrorist attacks.

And such attacks spare none. After the attack at Brussels Central Station was foiled, at least two Chinese nationals called the helpline of the Chinese embassy in Belgium to say they were at the site that day, which prompted the embassy to warn Chinese nationals, either stationed in Belgium or planning to visit the country, to be on constant alert and avoid public gatherings.

Many countries issue travel alerts for countries and cities, so do Chinese embassies in the UK, Germany, France and some other countries. But now such alerts are becoming more frequent for EU countries.

The rising number of terrorist attacks is worrying, because it concerns not only Europeans but also Chinese visiting, or likely to visit, Europe as well as those whose children are studying, or plan to study, in European universities.

EU leaders and European governments are aware of these developments. The number of Chinese tourist groups visiting many EU countries fell in 2015 and 2016. So far, the EU can take comfort in the fact that despite the threats, investors in general have not shied away from Europe. And figures show investments, at least from China, in Europe are steadily growing, though several EU countries are unwisely thinking of imposing measures to curb investments by Chinese companies and individuals.

Hopefully, EU leaders will realize the immediate need to make European cities safer so as to attract more investments and tourists.

The author is deputy chief of China Daily European Bureau. fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
CAI MENG/CHINA DAILY

That some people in Washington still see China-US relations as a zero-sum game is surprising, to say the least.

At a talk on Chinese direct investment in Latin America held at the Atlantic Council on Monday, Brazilian Ambassador to the United States Sergio Amaral spoke very highly about China's fast-growing trade with Latin America and investment in the region. Chinese investment, Amaral said in his keynote speech, has diversified rapidly into infrastructure and service sectors. A report released the same day said the same thing.

I have interviewed Amaral both in the US and Brazil. As a former chairman of Brazil-China Business Council, he is well versed in Sino-Latin American relations. No wonder his views were corroborated at the talk by Gerardo Mato, chairman of HSBC Global Banking and Markets for the Americas, and Angel Melguizo, head of the Latin American and Caribbean Unit of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Both praised China-Latin America relations.

However, in her speech, Claire Reade, assistant US trade representative for China from 2008 to 2014, expressed concern that the US' "little brothers" in Latin America might shift to China and claimed Beijing's involvement in the region was not as a selfless global leader but to fulfill its self-interests. Claiming that China's move is to influence global rules, Reade said: "China talks about win-win, but many in China have zero-sum game viewpoint."

Her words reminded me of the slanderous comments about China's role in Africa and Latin America by former US president Barack Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton when they visited the regions a few years ago. US politicians are often critical of China's involvement in African and Latin American countries, even though the local people seem happy with it.

Reade is right that China is indeed trying to influence global rules, but only to make them better for emerging and developing countries that did not have much say in rule making in the past.

China is not selfless either; it seeks mutually beneficial ties with Latin American countries. Besides, if China were to turn all the loans into grants, Reade might then accuse it of buying influence.

Despite the geopolitical distance, China is quickly catching up on its relationship with Latin America. And there is no reason for US politicians to see this as China's geopolitical wrestling with the US, unless they still regard Latin American countries as their "little brothers" or "backyard" according to the so-called Monroe Doctrine.

Latin America is big enough to accommodate China and the US. The region will benefit if both countries increase their trade and direct investment in the region. The same is true for the Asia-Pacific.

When the Pew Research Center released its survey showing a plummeting US global image at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday, Ely Ratner, a former Obama administration official, claimed that it matters because "the US is in an emerging geopolitical competition with China".

Also, he asserted that Asia has great confidence in US democracy despite the survey results showing that 46 percent of the people disliked the US' ideas about democracy, with only 43 percent saying they liked them.

Reade and Ratner might be deeply frustrated with US President Donald Trump's policies, but to criticize China for its active and positive engagement in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific mirrors the zero-sum mentality the Obama administration exhibited in its attitude toward the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

It is okay to criticize China, but if done without a valid reason, it will only discredit such criticisms.

The author is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
On 29th June, People's Daily published an article under the byline of Ren Zhongping to summarize Hong Kong's brilliant achievements over the last 20 years after its return to the motherland.

The following is an abstract translation of the article:

The past 20 years since China resumed exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997 proved the "one country, two systems" guideline as a gigantic success.

Hong Kong's advantageous position has been steadily elevated over the past 20 years. Hong Kong, together with New York and London, were dubbed "Nylonkong" for being the world's leading financial centers.

The US Heritage Foundation has chosen Hong Kong as the world's freest economy for 23 consecutive years considering its top position in healthy economy, free finance and trade. In the past 20 years, Hong Kong has kept on its global influence and competitiveness.

There had been feelings of insecurity before Hong Kong's return. But the place's development has broken many doubts about its future, as many people who chose to migrate have successively come back.

In 2017, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) plans to spend 66.2 billion yuan ($900 million) on social welfare, 55 percent higher than four years ago. The government will give out free medical vouchers to citizens aged 70 or above, and it is still working to cut preschool fees.

Hong Kong is a place where people live longer than any other places in the world. In the past 20 years after its return, Hong Kong has maintained vitality.

Hong Kong is no longer subject to humiliation. Before 1997, the colonist preached that "British governor of Hong Kong comes after the God in terms of power". However, Hong Kong's return has opened a new historical era led by guidelines such as "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" with a high degree of autonomy.

Figures released by the World Bank showed that political stability, government effectiveness, rule of law, control of corruption, and citizens' right to express in Hong Kong are far better than those before 1997.

In particular, Hong Kong's indicator of the rule of law, a core value of Hong Kong society, has jumped from behind 60th in the world in 1996 to the 11th place in 2015, ahead of some major Western countries. Hong Kong has kept moving forward in 20 years after return.

Even foreign observers have to admit that though Hong Kong's legal status has been changed, its freedom degree remains unchanged. Kurt Tong, U.S. consul general to the Hong Kong and Macao SARs, noted that the "one country, two systems" framework in the HKSAR has been largely successful.

Last year, a lecturer gave a lecture to students in University of Hong Kong. When she asked the attendees what's their enlightenment song, the audience sang chorus "my motherland", a popular and famous patriotic song. The video moved many people to tears after being posted online.

Consisting of a red flag with a bauhinia highlighted by five star-tipped stamens, the regional flag of the HKSAR echoes the five-star national flag, implying the inseparable ties between Hong Kong and the mainland. Over the past 20 years, Hong Kong and the mainland have formed an unbreakable community of common destiny.

Hong Kong is the largest source of overseas capital, the biggest overseas financing platform for mainland enterprises, as well as the world's largest offshore RMB center and RMB settlement center for transnational trade.

In the past, Hong Kong served as the contact person that linked the mainland with the rest of the world. Now its cooperation with the mainland has entered a new era. In future, combing the need of the whole country and its own strengths, Hong Kong will remain irreplaceable for the sustainable development of the nation.

Twenty years of practice is enough to show "one country, two systems" is not only the best solution to the Hong Kong question left over from history, but also the best institutional arrangement to sustain its long-term prosperity and stability since its return.

The guideline opened a new way to peacefully solve territory disputes and contributed wisdom to peaceful development of the world. Canada, disturbed by the Quebec issue, sent officials to Hong Kong to learn from the "one country, two systems" policy in order to gain some experience.

The brand-new political idea and concept is deemed as China's unique contribution to the governance pattern and political system of mankind.

Today's China is still an engine for the global economy. The massive market, ample opportunities and innovative concept as well as strong potential energy for economic transformation and upgrade from the mainland can firmly support and facilitate Hong Kong's future development.

("Ren Zhongping" is a famous opinion column of the People's Daily that mainly expresses views on big events.)
BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The world watched on July 1, 1997 as the Union Jack was lowered over Hong Kong and the five-star red flag of China raised in its stead. British colonial rule came to an end and a new dawn broke over Hong Kong, as it was returned into the welcoming arms of the motherland.

Today, as the world turns its attention to the metropolis 20 years on, what does it see? A Hong Kong more dynamic than ever before, and one thriving under "one country, two systems."

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has been run under the guidelines of "one country, two systems," "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy.

On one hand, the central government has effectively exercised overall jurisdiction over the HKSAR in accordance with the Constitution and the HKSAR Basic Law, which includes areas such as appointing chief executives and principal officials in successive HKSAR governments and exercising diplomatic power.

It is the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison which fulfills the nation's duty to defend this vital corner of an enormous nation.

On the other hand, the city's capitalist system and way of life have remained as unchanged as possible, and the laws which govern the daily lives of ordinary citizens, remain basically the same.

Horse racing, ballroom dancing and stock trading, the three "remarkable capitalist characteristics" pledged to be retained for at least 50 years, are as popular as ever.

The Basic Law ensures the HKSAR has a high degree of autonomy and enjoys executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication.

World Bank data show that Hong Kong's indicator of the rule of law, a core value of Hong Kong society, has jumped from behind 60th in the world in 1996 to 11th place in 2015, well ahead of some major Western countries.

Hong Kong's economy has grown by an average of 3.2 percent each year since 1997, quite remarkable for an economy which was essentially already "developed" 20 years ago.

Among 63 economies, this year's edition of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Yearbook ranked Hong Kong as the most competitive followed by Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. It is the second year in a row that Hong Kong has occupied the top spot.

These accomplishments have come amid Asian and global financial crises and the SARS outbreak -- choppy waters indeed, which Hong Kong navigated only through the support of the central government.

The last 20 years have fully proven that "one country, two systems" is not only the best solution to the Hong Kong question left over from history but also the best institutional arrangement for the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong after its return to the motherland.

Only by ensuring that the principle of "one country, two systems" be steadfastly applied without being bent or distorted, could the long-term prosperity, stability and development of Hong Kong be maintained.

"One country, two systems" has been a success of epic proportions. Giving full play to the institutional advantage of "one country, two systems" and taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the nation's development have been and will always be a major engine for Hong Kong's development.

The Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, stock and bond connect programs between the mainland and Hong Kong are clear signs of success and commitment to success.

China is now embarking on an array of development initiatives which the HKSAR could contribute and benefit from, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the internationalization of the renminbi, and the building of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area city cluster.

Hong Kong could dovetail itself with the country's major national development initiatives and needs to unleash its formidable potential.

With unity and endeavor, the glory of national rejuvenation awaits the compatriots of the HKSAR and motherland, reunited forever.
One of the first designers to truly challenge the notions of classic tailoring, Rei Kawakubo's cri de coeur has become deconstruction, bias cuts and all sorts of experiments in shape, seams and asymmetry. [Photo by Paolo Roversi/China Daily]

Rei Kawakubo clearly isn't Miuccia Prada, but in the countercultural ecosystem of fashion for the disenfranchised, the two bear remarkable similarities. Geography has seemingly dictated the impact of both.

Prada has been subject to an A to Z of academic rigor across the fashion campuses of Europe and America, and she been the subject of a Metropolitan Museum exhibition herself in tandem with Elsa Schiaparelli.

But Kawakubo, the creator of Tokyo-based Comme des Garcons ("like boys"), which has grown into a business that churns more than $220 million a year, has remained largely the preserve of the Japanese. She's also the co-founder of London's hip Dover Street Market fashion destination, which she founded in 2004 with her husband, Adrian Joffe.

Now, it seems Kawakubo's global moment is at hand as she gets a five-month-long run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York with Art of the In-Between, running until September. It's the first monographic exhibition of a living designer at the Met since the Yves Saint Laurent show in 1983.

Prada basically epitomizes "ugly chic" in the world today, through her use of fabrics that challenged notions of luxury coupled with provocative designs, but Kawakubo was doing the same several years earlier (at least as far as the West was concerned) when she made her Paris debut in 1981. Kawakubo's early collections established an unsettling zone of ambiguity that challenged the accepted notions of beauty, good taste, and even fashionability.

One of the first designers to truly challenge the notions of classic tailoring, Kawakubo's cri de coeur has become deconstruction, bias cuts and all sorts of experiments in shape, seams and asymmetrymuch of it gender-bending, such as men's buttoning on an assortment of women's garments. "Since her Paris debut in 1981, Rei has consistently defined and redefined the aesthetics of our time," remarked Andrew Bolton, curator of the Kawakubo exhibition at the Met, at a press conference to announce the upcoming show. "Season after season, she changes our eye by upending the received notions of conventional beauty and by disrupting the defining characteristics of the fashionable body."

For Kawakubo, clothes seem to be her mode of expression on an endless search for newness and originality. Speaking about her spring/summer 2014 collection, she said in a 2013 interview with System magazine: "I tried to look at everything I look at in a different way. I thought a way to do this was to start out with the intention of not even trying to make clothes. I tried to think and feel and see as if I wasn't making clothes."

Kawakubo didn't study fashion, but art and literature, at Keio University. Her first job was at a textiles factory in 1967, which led to her becoming a freelance stylist. Two years later, Comme des Garcons was born, but it wasn't until 1975 that she opened her first store in Tokyo, by which time the Japanese press referred to her tribal followers as "the crows". She soon inspired the likes of Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester and Dries Van Noten, and helped launch the careers of Junya Watanabe, Tao Kurihara and Chisato Abe. But the fashion mainstream in the West never really got to know her. Many attribute Prada's success to Miuccia's ability to bridge the gap between antifashion and commercial high fashion.
Social and academic integration is really important for Chinese international students into Australian universities.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Chinese students face many barriers when it comes to making Australian friends, according to an international education expert, who said it is a big mistake to underestimate the benefits of social integration.

When it comes to making friends with domestic students, "it's not hard, but it's definitely not easy," Chinese international student Vincent told Xinhua.

The 24-year-old Macquarie University student expressed the view that it was particularly difficult for Chinese students, and according to Professor Ly Tran from Deakin University in Melbourne, Vincent is not alone in feeling the difficulties of social integration.

Tran's specialty is international education, and throughout her research, she found that there is some truth to the long-standing stereotype that Chinese students tend to socialize among themselves, and many do not befriend local students.

However, this is not always a reflection of their own motivations, as most Chinese students want social integration, Tran told Xinhua, but there is often a gap between their expectations and the reality that faces them when they arrive in Australia to start their studies.

"Social and academic integration is really important for Chinese international students into Australian universities, and it is definitely a critical issue," Tran stressed.

"We have students from a variety of backgrounds, and they come with their own motivations and social preparation prior to their departure, so we are dealing with a spectrum of Chinese students, some are prepared for what to expect and able to socialize easily, and others are not."

As she herself was an international student hailing from Vietnam, Tran is interested in the variety of factors in play that contribute to the complexity of the social integration of Chinese international students into Australia. She said that although the language barrier is often cited as the cause of the concerns raised, it is but a small part of a larger issue.

"English proficiency can be a barrier to communication, and the responsibility of improving language skills is the responsibility of the Chinese student, that's really up to them," Tran said.

However, domestic Australian students also have an important role to play, according to the learned academic, who said universities need to play a greater role in facilitating social opportunities between their domestic and international students.

"One thing that I have found is that a lot of domestic students don't see the value in interacting with Chinese international students, so they lack that inherent motivation, but it should all be about reciprocal interaction and mutual learning," Tran said.

"Chinese students can learn a lot from Australian students, and Australian students can learn a lot from Chinese students."

Domestic students need to understand the "enormous amount of valuable resources a Chinese international student brings with them to Australia, in terms of their cultural knowledge and global networks," Tran said, although she acknowledged that domestic students may also feel nervous about interacting with international students, for fear of a lack of common ground and opportunities to facilitate conversation.

Sarah, an international student at the University of Technology, Sydney, agreed a divide exists between domestic and international students, and although she arrived in Australia four years ago and lives on campus, she still feels opportunities to make friends with local students are quite limited.

"I have about one or two local friends, maybe they aren't even friends, they are more like acquaintances," the 21-year-old conceded.

"It would be nice to have more, but knowing it's quite hard to make friends with locals, I don't feel that motivated. Sure, we have class together, but when semester finishes, we say goodbye."

The factors behind the socialization of international students, including a lack of motivation, are largely driven by population demographics, according to Tran, who noted that the significant Chinese community in Australia encourages Chinese students to "stick together" and form cultural clusters.

"The Chinese community tends to form what is called a parallel society, this means they may tend to socialize with people from a similar background, or only socialize with co-nationals," Tran noted.

"This does prevent people from integrating and engaging, and ultimately forming a sense of belonging to Australia, it impacts their overall sense of connectedness."

There is often a gap between their expectations and the reality that faces Chinese students when they arrive in Australia. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The concept of a "parallel society" is one that Vincent has witnessed for himself, and is in his eyes, one of the main reasons why it is particularly difficult for Chinese students to make non-Chinese friends.

"The Chinese community in Australia, and particularly Sydney, is so huge, and that's great but I think society should be like a bowl of salad, it should be mixed," he said.

"In the suburb of Hurstville, there is a very big Chinese community, and you don't have to reach out to other cultural communities, you have everything you needfrom Chinese butchers to Chinese grocers, and Chinese staff at the post office."

"You don't even have to speak English," he added.

Tran noted that although being part of a dominant group can "create a sense of comfort and identity reinforcement," these groups also create barriers to social integration, and discourage Chinese students from venturing out of their comfort zone

"When you are from the most populous group, it's very easy to find co-nationals to socialize among," she said.

"If we look at Burmese or Cambodian international students, there are much smaller groups of these students, so perhaps they might socialize together if they had the chance but because of the limitations, they know they have to reach out in order to make friends in their host country."

The large number of Chinese international students in Australia is something that Sarah felt has impacted her willingness to "reach out" to non-Chinese students, as it makes finding a friend much simpler.

"There are more Chinese students here than international students of other backgrounds, and I think people want to make friends with someone who is from a similar background to them," Sarah said.

"If someone was the only person from their cultural group, then they would have no choice but to get familiar with other cultures."

Tran urged against students adopting a laissez-faire attitude toward interacting with those from different racial and cultural groups, and stressed that by not capitalizing on the opportunities to broaden their horizons, students could potentially be damaging their future career prospects.

"Socializing into Australian society can help the students enhance their intercultural understanding and knowledge, and even increase employability, by the simple act of expanding their network," Tran said.

Australia and other countries in a similar situation may miss out on the benefits of an internationalized education system if such barriers to social integration persist, Tran said, noting that "people connections" are fundamental to future prosperity.

"With increasing transnational mobility, as well as the growth of collaborations between countries, we could miss out on valuable resources in terms of reciprocal understanding and international knowledge," she said.

"These Chinese international students are key actors in making those important connections, and whether they choose to stay in Australia or go back to China, they have enormous potential to form future connections, and we shouldn't underestimate it."

The students' names have been altered for their privacy.
NEW YORK - A woman's body was found beside the dead suspect, after several people were shot in Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York on Friday, according to the police.

One shooter died of a self-inflicted gun wound, and at least one victim was killed while five others injured, CNN reported, quoting sources with NYPD.

The shooting began around 2:50 pm inside the Bronx Lebanon Hospital, and the shooter was allegedly wearing a lab coat and was carrying a rifle.

Gary Trimble ran to the site after he heard about the incident, and called his wife who was on the fourth floor of the hospital a moment ago. She said she was scared and the hospital was still on a lockdown.

NYPD said it is going to hold a press conference on the shooting momentarily.
MOSCOW -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Russia will inject fresh impetus into the high-level development of bilateral relations and the economic integration of the Eurasian region, said Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui.

At the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, Xi will pay a state visit to Russia in early July, which Li said marks "the most important event for bilateral ties this year."

The two presidents will meet for the third time this year, following meetings on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing and the Astana summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Xi and Putin, Li said in a recent interview, will make strategic plans for further improving China-Russia relations, strengthening practical cooperation and advancing the connection of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

They will also exchange views on enhancing global governance as well as international and regional hotspot issues, added the ambassador.

"The comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia has been developing stably, sustainably and at a high level," said Li.

In dealing with international affairs, China and Russia have strengthened strategic coordination and played their due role as big countries, said Li, noting that they have been jointly pushing for a political settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and the Syrian issue.

The two countries, he pointed out, serve as the ballast for regional and global peace and stability.

It is a strategic choice for China and Russia to strengthen their relations since it is in line with the core interests of both countries and their peoples, said Li.

"No matter how the international environment changes, we should make all-out efforts to maintain and improve bilateral relations," said the ambassador.

During the interview, Li highlighted the complementarity and potential of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

China has been Russia's largest trading partner for six years and Russia has been a major source for China to import energy and high-tech products.

According to China's General Administration of Customs, China-Russia trade grew 33.7 percent in the first five months this year to 223.1 billion yuan (about $32.8 billion).

"I believe the quality and quantity of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries will continue to rise," said Li.

In May 2015, China and Russia signed a joint declaration on synergizing the Belt and Road Initiative and the EAEU.



The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.

It aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

The EAEU comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with an aim of encouraging regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services and people within the union.

Li said the connection of the two development plans has begun to bear fruit and more achievements will be made.

China and Russia are also founding members both of the SCO and of the BRICS mechanism, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The two countries should work for closer cooperation among the SCO and BRICS countries, Li said.
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Customs and Border Protection is analyzing the distance between travelers' eyes and the width of their foreheads to better track international travelers.

This week the agency began using facial recognition technology at Bush Intercontinental Airport on one daily flight departing Houston for Tokyo.

"The use of biometrics is approaching an almost everyday type of experience," said Henry Harteveldt, founder of San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry research company. "It's much more common now than it was 10 to 20 years ago."

Similar technology is increasingly used everywhere. For instance, fingerprints are used to unlock phones and access secure banking information. Facebook can automatically recognize and tag friends in photos. And a variety of airport entities, ranging from airlines to the Transportation Security Administration, also are using biometric data to enhance security and expedite traveling.

Some still question the reliability of facial recognition technology, but it has evolved over the years and continues improving.

Delta and JetBlue recently announced collaborations with Customs and Border Protection to integrate facial recognition technology as part of the boarding process. And Customs began piloting its own facial recognition technology in June 2016 at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The technology then was rolled out at Washington Dulles International Airport in May 2017, and seven additional airports will receive the technology in the next several months.

Customs "sees potential for the technology to transform the travel process provided privacy issues can be addressed," an agency spokesperson said in an email. "The use of biometrics to confirm identity from the beginning to the end of travel has the potential to reduce the frequency travelers have to present travel documents throughout the airport."

More Information How facial recognition technology works Individuals have their picture taken, and software measures different points on the face: the distance between their eyes, the width of their forehead, the distance from top of their forehead to bottom of the chin, etc. "There are all kinds of different measurements that you can use," said Betsy Sigman, professor of operations and information management at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. The software then compares those measurements with pictures in a database until it finds a match. Sigman called the facial recognition technology "extremely effective." See More Collapse

Currently, the system takes pictures of individual travelers right before they board an international flight. That photo is then compared with a flight-specific photo gallery Customs and Border Protection created using travel documents passengers provided to the airline.

Officials say capturing this type of biometric information will ensure travelers aren't lying about their identity. And the agency spokesperson emphasized that Customs worked closely with its privacy office. If the photo captured at boarding is matched to a U.S. passport, the photo of that traveler - having been confirmed as a U.S. citizen - is discarded after a short period of time.

"I don't think there's going to be any resistance by consumers to this," Harteveldt said, "provided they're given very clear explanations about what information is being collected, why it's being collected and a high-level understanding of the safeguards that will be taken to keep their biometrics data safe and secure."

Opinions vary on whether capturing such data from departing travelers will boost security or hurt airlines' on-time performance. But the point is moot. Laws requiring exit control have been on the books for many years.

"It is already required by law, and it has taken way too long to implement an effective exit technology," said Andrew Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that pushes for stricter immigration controls.

He said monitoring foreign travelers as they leave the U.S. helps enforce immigration laws. And if visitors enter the country legally but officials later realize they pose a threat, this exit system will tell officials if they are still in the U.S.

Harteveldt, however, said passport and visa information is already collected when travelers leave the country. He doesn't believe biometrics are needed.

"I'm just not sure it adds a lot of value to the exit process," he said.

But compared with fingerprint technology, Harteveldt said facial scanning can be faster and cleaner. There's no need to touch anything. Customs officers at Bush Intercontinental began taking the fingerprints of some departing international travelers in 2015.

Anthony Roman, president of global investigation and risk management firm Roman & Associates, said the best type of security is layered and uses cross-verification, such as a Customs and Border Protection officer checking passports, fingerprinting machines and facial recognition technology.

As for the latter, he said developers claim to have solved problems found in the older facial recognition technology. These past problems included false readings caused by a shadow on the face, blinking at the wrong time or even grimacing. Algorithms were also slow at processing the data.

The new technology is supposed to be faster and more accurate.

"Whether that's true or not, time will tell," Roman said.

Arthur is still waiting to see that facial recognition technology is as reliable as fingerprinting. He wants to know the number of false positives and if facial recognition technology is affected by haircuts, beards or glasses.

They both agree, however, that the vigilance is warranted.

"Our technology needs to keep evolving," Roman said. "We need to keep changing what we're doing. It makes it more difficult for the insurgents to create long-term research and development projects to overcome existing technology."
Lawyers for former KTRK reporter Wayne Dolcefino on Friday filed a lawsuit against a driver who hit him head-on, sending to the hospital with head injuries and several fractures.

The crash happened April 25 along Highway 87 near Brady, about 130 miles northwest of Austin.
The Coast Guard and local law enforcement officers are searching for a member on a tugboat who was reported missing Friday about a mile southeast of Seadrift, officials said.

The captain of the tub and barge Joey Devall contacted the Coast Guard in Corpus Christi about 5:40 p.m. Friday to report the missing crew member - 37-year-old Tony Bergeron, officials said.
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The Texas Supreme Court held Friday that same-sex couples are not necessarily entitled to government employment benefits, sending the case challenging the city of Houston's provision of benefits back to trial court.

The unanimous opinion does not prevent the city from offering employment benefits to same-sex spouses, as it has done intermittently for the last four years.

Rather, it says the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision recognizing gay marriage two years ago in Obergefell v. Hodges did not resolve whether employees' same-sex spouses have a right to benefits.

"The Supreme Court held in Obergefell that the Constitution requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriages to the same extent that they license and recognize opposite-sex marriages, but it did not hold that states must provide the same publicly funded benefits to all married persons," Justice Jeffrey S. Boyd wrote. "Of course, that does not mean ... that the city may constitutionally deny benefits to its employees' same-sex spouses. Those are the issues that this case now presents."

Houston plans to continue providing spousal benefits to same-sex couples while it reviews the decision, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement.

"Marriage equality is the law of the land, and everyone is entitled to the full benefits of marriage, regardless of the gender of their spouse," Turner said.

Plaintiffs' attorney Jared Woodfill cheered the decision as "a huge win."

"The court has limited Obergefell in terms of how broadly it should be interpreted," Woodfill said, adding, "It recognized that there's an argument to be made at the trial court that taxpayer dollars should not be used in violation of one's deeply held religious beliefs."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed an amicus brief last year supporting the plaintiffs, echoed Woodfill.

"I'm extremely pleased that the Texas Supreme Court recognized that Texas law is still important when it comes to marriage," Paxton said in a statement. "While the U.S. Supreme Court declared a right to same-sex marriage, that ruling did not resolve all legal issues related to marriage."

Houston began offering same-sex benefits in November 2013, after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Plaintiffs Jack Pidgeon and Larry Hicks quickly sued, alleging the payments were an illegal use of taxpayer money.

A year later, a trial court temporarily blocked the city from providing same-sex benefits - a ruling that held until the July 2015, when the state's Fourteenth Court of Appeals removed the temporary injunction in light of Obergefell.

The state Supreme Court's ruling essentially wipes that slate clean and instructs the trial court to reconsider the case.

Woodfill said he intends to ask for another injunction preventing the city from providing same-sex benefits and requiring Houston to "claw back" benefits paid to employees' same-sex spouses before Obergefell.

The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the monetary value of benefits paid during that period, and Woodfill said he did not know.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer advocacy organizations condemned the decision as undercutting marriage equality.

"The Texas Supreme Court's decision this morning is a warning shot to all LGBTQ Americans that the war on marriage equality is ever-evolving, and anti-LGBTQ activists will do anything possible to discriminate against our families," Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the New York-based group GLAAD said in a statement.

Lambda Legal, which co-authored an amicus brief backing the city, said it would work with Houston attorneys on the case.

"This absurd contortion of the Obergefell ruling defies all logic and reason," Dallas-based Lambda Legal attorney Kenneth D. Upton, Jr. said in a statement. "Marriage is marriage and equal is equal."
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Business and community leaders in northwest Houston are working on several improvement plans for the region.

In January, trees will be planted along Cypress Creek Parkway at the end of shopping centers to beautify the region, said Bill Mehrens, president of the Cypress Creek Parkway Property and Business Owners Association. "A few shopping centers have some trees and others don't have anything, just asphalt," Mehrens said. "We're trying to soften that up a little."

It's part of a multifaceted regional improvement plan by northwest Houston business and community leaders. The tree planting was one of the suggestions in the Cypress Creek Livable Centers study that focused on the area of Cypress Creek Parkway, also known as FM 1960 West, and the intersections of Kuykendahl Road and Ella Boulevard.

The plan calls for creating an effective use of space that includes transforming abandoned shopping centers, and underused parking lots into green space, and thriving and aesthetically pleasing economic centers; adding trees and sidewalks along the corridor for walkability and helping to create future building and design standards for the corridor.

"These are kind of baby steps to start to get funding," said Mehrens, whose company, SClay Management Inc, owns three shopping centers along Cypress Creek Parkway and Kuykendahl Road. "Something where people can visually see we're trying to do something as opposed to just talking about it."

The Ponderosa Forest Utility District has agreed to provide water for the trees and they are trying to get other utilities on board to help also.

The stakeholders group, which consists of the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce, the Ponderosa Forest Utility District and the Cypress Creek Parkway Property and Business Owner's Association, was awarded a $125,000 grant from the H-GAC in 2014 to conduct the livable centers study.

In another move to get improvements moving along, this summer, the stakeholder group has arranged with Metro to put large identifying leaf stickers on bus stops along Cypress Creek Parkway.

In addition, the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce has raised more than $500,000 in its campaign to better brand the community and expand economic development, said Barbara Thomason, president of the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce.

The Grow Northwest capital campaign launched more than a year ago with the goal of raising $3.2 million to address community issues such as community branding, safety and security and economic development.

The Grow Northwest campaign encompasses all of Northwest Houston, not just improvements along Cypress Creek Parkway.

As part of the capital campaign, new signs to identify Cypress Creek neighborhoods will be installed before the end of the year.

The chamber will start with two signs bookending the Cypress Creek Cultural District. The signs are expected to be installed by the end of the year.

Other signs will be installed as additional funds are raised. The signs will say "Cypress Creek Community" and will then include an identifier such as Gleannloch Farms, Champions or Klein.

To help with funding, the chamber is working to add a fundraising component to utility bills in the region, asking area businesses and residents to contribute $2 for the branding campaign through their utility bills.

For more information about Grow Northwest Houston, visit http://growhoustonnw.com/
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Two years after a brutal attack on a female couple near Corpus Christi made national headlines, a break in the case has resulted in two arrests.

David M. Strickland, 27, and his wife, Laura K. Strickland, 23, were arrested June 20 at their home in Helotes in the San Antonio area.

He is charged with capital murder, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated assault. His wife is charged with tampering with evidence. They remained Tuesday in the San Patricio County Jail on no bond.

Almost exactly two years earlier, on June 22, 2012, Mollie Olgin, 19, and her girlfriend, Mary Kristene Chapa, who was then 18, were found in a birdwatching area at Violet Andrews Park in Portland near Corpus Christi.

Olgin had already died of a gunshot wound to the head, and Chapa was in grave condition but survived to tell about the ordeal.

In the days after the attack, police said the women were known to be in a dating relationship but there was no evidence that the attack was motivated by their sexual orientation.

More for you Portland police still seek leads in teen couple shooting

Portland police released two composite sketches of the male shooter, based upon information from Chapa as she recuperated. Despite having the sketches, Portland Police, who were investigating the case with help from the Texas Rangers, had no leads until earlier this month.

Once investigators issued arrest warrants for the Stricklands, they asked the U.S. Marshals Service Lone Star Fugitive Task Force for help in finding and apprehending the couple.

U.S. Marshal Christopher Bozeman, a spokesman for the Marshals Service in San Antonio, said it took the team a little over two hours to find the Stricklands in an apartment in the 12000 block of Bandera Road in Helotes, about 25 miles northwest of San Antonio.

"Once we have a warrant, we start doing everything on our end to find the person as quickly as possible," Bozeman said. "We don't want that person to have knowledge of the warrant and be tipped off."

Portland police have not provided details about how Strickland was linked to the case.

"While we know the community has many questions, this is still an active investigation and we would not want to do anything to jeopardize the case," Portland Police Chief Gary Giles said in a news release. "We are confident that we have the person responsible for this horrific crime in custody. There is still a lot to do in order to prepare the case for prosectuion..."

David Strickland was living in Portland at the time of the shootings and has also lived in Utah and Helotes, police said.
AUSTIN  Texas and more than two dozen other states are refusing to fully comply with a sweeping and unprecedented White House request to turn over voter registration data, including sensitive information like partial Social Security numbers and party affiliation  making themselves the target Saturday morning of a Twitter storm by President Donald Trump.

Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos said his office will share any publicly available information with Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Integrity as requested, including the names, addresses, dates of birth and political party affiliations of the state's more than 15 million voters. But the state will not be sharing partial social security numbers that the Trump commission asked for because that information is not part of voter rolls.

"The Secretary of State's office will provide the Election Integrity Commission with public information and will protect the private information of Texas citizens while working to maintain the security and integrity of our state's elections system," Pablos said. "As always, my office will continue to exercise the utmost care whenever sensitive voter information is required to be released by state or federal law."

Pablos' comments come as governors in some states have flat out refused a request by the commission this week to hand over data. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, took to social media to blast the Trump administration for trying to collect the voter data.

"NY refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not comply with this request," Cuomo said on Twitter.

Mississippi rejected the request on privacy and states' rights grounds. "They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico," Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said on Friday. "Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our State's right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral process."

Those states found themselves the targets of President Trump's ire on Twitter on Saturday morning: "Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?"

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat, called the effort a waste of money.

"The president created his election commission based on the false notion that 'voter fraud' is a widespread issue  it is not," Grimes said. "Kentucky will not aid a commission that is at best a waste of taxpayer money and at worst an attempt to legitimize voter suppression efforts across the country."

Congressman Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, introduced a bill in late June that would ensure no taxpayer funds would be used to support the president's commission to investigate acts of voter fraud, according to a statement from his office issued Friday.

"As the President continues to press his blatantly false claim that voter fraud cost him the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, he endangers the sanctity of our nation's democracy," said Veasey, who represents parts of Dallas and Tarrant counties. "The commission's mission to study non-existent voter fraud cases has nothing to do with ballot security and everything to do with voter suppression and discrimination."

Using an executive order, Trump on May 11 created his commission to go after what he has told Republicans were 3 million to 5 million illegal votes cast in the 2016 election  a claim that has not been verifiable.

That commission is led by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who authored the letter Wednesday to election officials around the nation including Pablos.

Chronicle wire services and Brooke A. Lewis contributed to this report.
Houston, apparently, we do NOT have a problem.

InfoWars conspiracy theorist host Alex Jones had a guest on Thursday to discuss how kidnapped children have been sent on a two-decade mission to space.

Well, NASA has responded and publicly denied the theory that they have a child slave colony on Mars.

MARS LIFE: UFO hunters spot lizard-like animal on Mars

On Thursday, Jones welcomed guest ex-CIA officer, Robert David Steele on The Alex Jones Show.

"We actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20-year ride," said Steele. "So, that once they get to Mars they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony."

SPACE PHOTOS: What the Earth and moon look like from Mars

Jones responds to his guest, "Look, I know that 90 percent of the NASA missions are secret and I've been told by high-level NASA engineers that you have no idea. There is so much stuff going on."

A NASA spokesman responded to this conversation and told the Daily Beast:

"There are no humans on Mars. There are active rovers on Mars. There was a rumor going around last week that there weren't. There are," Guy Webster, a spokesperson for Mars exploration at NASA, told The Daily Beast. "But there are no humans."
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
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AKRON, Ohio -- The city of Akron wants to teach all kids to be safe around the water before they enter fourth grade.

Representatives from the city of Akron, Akron Children's Hospital, Akron Area YMCA and Akron Urban League joined together to launch the city's "Safety Around Water" program on Thursday to teach children essential water-safety skills. The program is open to all Akron Public Schools students through the fourth grade.

The program's swim lessons are free and will be held at area YMCA facilities, as well as the Perkins Woods and Reservoir Park pools during their open season.

YMCAs across the United States will take part in the program, which includes more than eight 40-minute lessons with exercises that help children adjust to being in water and learn what to do if they unexpectedly find themselves in water.

Drowning is the second-leading cause of deaths for kids age 5-14 years old, according to the YMCA.

A reported 88 percent of children who drown do so under adult supervision, and 60 percent of children who drown are within 10 feet of safety, according to the city. Black children are three times as likely to drown as their white peers.

Parents and caregivers are encouraged to help equip children with the tools they need to be confident in around water.

The Akron Area YMCA facilities holds three different categories of swim lessons: Swim Starters, Swim Basics and Swim Strokes, depending on the participant's skill level. The "Safety Around Water" program reinforces these skills and teaches young swimmers specific safety topics, like what to do if they see someone in the water who needs help.

Parents can sign their children up for lessons through the YMCA or the Urban League's Summer Enrichment program.

Participants will also receive a free swimsuit, googles, towel and pool noodle.

More information can be found at https://www.akronymca.org/AkronSwims.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Speculation came closer to reality as Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits on the pole at Daytona International Speedway for Saturday night's NASCAR 2017 Coke Zero 400.

He entered the weekend looking to snap out of his winless streak and put a victory notch on his final season before retirement.

The race is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and coverage moves to NBC (Ch. 3 in Cleveland). Friday's postponed Xfinity race will be Saturday at noon on NBCSN.

You can get live scoring and updates all weekend at NASCAR's Race Center and live streaming is available at NBC Streaming.

Here is the weekend auto racing schedule (all times Eastern):

NASCAR

MONSTER CUP

COKE ZERO 400

Site: Daytona, Florida.

Schedule: Saturday, race, 7:30 p.m., NBC.

Track: Daytona International Speedway (oval, 2.5 miles).

Race distance: 400 miles, 160 laps.

Last year: Brad Keselowski won the summer stop at Daytona.

Last week: Kevin Harvick won at Sonoma, his first victory of 2017.

Fast facts: The series returns to Daytona for the first time since the 500 in February, when Kurt Busch emerged as the surprise winner. ... Harvick's win at Sonoma pushed him to third in the standings. Harvick now has a victory, three stage wins and eight playoff points. ... Chase Elliott will be in in the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports through 2022 after a four-year contract extension. Elliott heads to Daytona in sixth place overall.

NASCAR

XFINITY

COCA-COLA FIRECRACKER 250

Site: Daytona, Florida.

Schedule: Saturday, noon. NBCSN.

Track: Daytona International Speedway (oval, 2.5 miles).

Race distance: 250 miles, 100 laps.

Last year: Aric Almirola took first despite starting 23rd.

Last race: William Byron won in Iowa, his first victory in the series.

Fast facts: Byron's victory at Iowa Speedway wasn't a complete shock considering he had won seven truck events in 2016 -- including at Iowa. ... Christopher Bell led 252 laps combined between the Xfinity and Truck series last weekend without winning either race. ... Byron joined Ryan Reed and Justin Allgaier as series regulars with wins that all but assure a playoff spot.

Next race: Alsco 300, July 7, Kentucky Motor Speedway, Sparta, Kentucky.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
ELYRIA, Ohio -- A 29-year-old Lorain man was indicted in connection with a shooting at Avon Technifab.

Joshua Avalos, of Lorain, is charged with attempted murder, felonious assault and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, court records show.

A Lorain County grand jury handed up the indictment Thursday. Court records do not say when he will be arraigned.

Avalos was held at the Lorain County Jail. His bond is set at $500,000, according to jail records.

The shooting happened about 8:30 a.m. April 17 in the parking lot of Technifab on Chester Industrial Parkway just north of Chester Road.

Avalos is accused of shooting a 37-year-old man in the upper back, police said.

Avalos' wife was on the phone with the victim when the shooting happened, police said. She called police and said her estranged husband shot her friend.

Avon police spokesman Jim Drozdowski said this week that there is a possible ongoing relationship between Avalos' wife and the man.

The shooting victim drove away after being shot. Avalos followed him in his own car.

They both crashed a short time later at Colorado and Carlee avenues, police said.

Avalos suffered injuries from the crash and was taken to St. John Westshore Hospital.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.
Aggravated menacing, Lee Road: At 12:45 p.m. June 22, a postal carrier called police stating that, on that day, as she delivered mail, her former boyfriend approached her. The postal carrier asked the man, 27, to leave her alone.

As the man left he told the carrier that she still had to deliver mail to his house and when she did he would do her harm. He then made a gesture pointing to his head that indicated he would hurt her.

The woman signed a criminal complaint against the man for aggravated menacing.

Hit-skip, Fairmount Boulevard: At 1:25 p.m. June 22, a city employee operating a street sweeper reported that a large truck passed the sweeper in the left lane and struck the sweeper's left side mirror. The truck continued on its way without stopping. The city employee was unable to make out the truck's license plate number.

Theft, Mayfield Road: At 6:35 p.m. June 22, loss prevention at Home Depot, 3460 Mayfield Road, detained a woman, 50, who had shoplifted. The woman attempted to leave the store without paying for a large container of paint valued at $139.

It was found that the woman was wanted on a Cleveland Heights police warrant, and a Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office warrant for forgery. The woman was cited for theft and arrested on the warrants.

Theft, Mayfield Road: At 8:40 a.m. June 23, police were called to Dave's Supermarket, 3628 Mayfield Road, on a report of a shoplifter.

The store's manager told police that he was informed by an employee that two men walked out of the store without paying for a shopping cart full of beer. The manager went into the store's lot and saw the men pushing a cart filled with two 30-packs and about five smaller packs of beer.

The suspects drove away. The manager recorded the car's license plate number, but police found that the number did not match the car the suspects were driving. Police are attempting to use the store's surveillance video to identify the suspects.

Assault, Yellowstone Stone: At 12:40 a.m. June 23, a man called police stating that his wife had assaulted him.

The man told officers he was playing a game with his son on the porch when his wife became upset that the boy wasn't in bed. The woman destroyed things in the home and punched the man several times in the face, causing cuts inside his mouth. When the boy attempted to break up the fight, he, too, was punched. The boy was not injured.

Police charged the woman with domestic violence and assault.

Disorderly conduct, Lee Road: At 6:05 p.m. June 22, police were called to Zagara's Market, 1940 Lee Road, where a disturbance was taking place between two women, ages 22 and 20.

When police arrived, the disturbance appeared to be ended as the two women were hugging each other.

Officers then attempted to identify the women, but the younger woman behaved in an uncooperative manner, screaming every word she spoke to police and refusing to give her identity. The older women gave police her personal information without difficulty.

As police spoke with the women involved in the disturbance, the woman who called police walked up. The woman who reported the disturbance was the object of threats made by the younger woman.

After the younger woman finally told police her name, it was found that she was wanted on a Cleveland Heights police warrant. The woman was uncooperative throughout the booking process and was charged with disorderly conduct.

Drug possession, Euclid Heights Boulevard: At 1 a.m. June 23, police on bike patrol smelled the odor of marijuana coming from a parked SUV. Inside the vehicle was a man, 23, drinking beer.

It was found that the man was wanted on a warrant for an assault charge. The man was cited for open container and drug possession and arrested on the warrant.

Assault, Superior Road: At 11:35 p.m. June 23, a man, 30, reported that he was walking home from a pizza shop when he was approached by a man, about 24 years old, he has seen around the neighborhood.

The man who approached asked for money and when told he would not get any, punched the victim in the eye. Police were unable to locate the suspect.

Felonious assault, Lee Road: At 2:45 p.m. June 24, police were called about a woman being stabbed in the lot of Dewey's Pizza, 2194 Lee Road.

When police arrived, the woman who was attacked was found to be bleeding from her arms, neck and face. The woman told police she had set up a pop-up shop at CLE Urban Winery, 2180 Lee Road, in order to sell the jewelry she made. While at CLE Urban Winery, she saw a white SUV, driven by a woman, pull up. The woman in the SUV, whom the victim knew as the mother of the child of the man she is seeing, asked to speak with her.

They walked from the pop-up shop area to the pizza shop lot. There, the suspect punched the woman in the face and stabbed her several times with tweezers. The suspect, 45, of Sylvania, Ohio, took the license plates off her SUV before driving away.

The victim said that she believes the suspect had previously caused damage to her home, but never actually saw the suspect cause the damage.

The victim, who said the suspect stalks her, signed a complaint for felonious assault against the woman, and also signed a motion for a criminal protection order.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich signed the next state budget into law late Friday night but not before vetoing a proposed freeze on Medicaid expansion enrollment.

Kasich was expected to scrap GOP lawmakers' blow to the health insurance program, which Kasich championed in 2013 and now credits with much of the state's efforts fighting opiate addiction.

"The legislature put $170 million in for opiates -- we don't want to take away the almost $300 million [Medicaid dollars] that would be used in addition," Kasich said shortly after signing the bill.

Kasich used his veto pen late Friday to eliminate 47 line items in the 2018-19 state budget bill. The $133 billion two-year budget -- including $65.5 billion in state general revenue funds -- takes effect Saturday.

But the GOP-controlled House and Senate could return next week to override any of the vetoes. House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger and Senate President Larry Obhof said they planned to review Kasich's vetoes over the weekend.

Kasich also vetoed provisions:

Charging Medicaid enrollees monthly premiums through the "Healthy Ohio" program and raising taxes on health insurers to generate revenue for counties and regional transit authorities, which require federal approval.

Eliminating changes to the tangible personal property tax reimbursement that gave more money to some school districts.

Allowing public universities to raise tuition by 8 percent instead of 6 percent and community colleges to raise tuition $10 per credit hour.

Allocating $1 million to upgrade voting equipment.

Kasich praised lawmakers for sending him a "structurally balanced" budget after state revenue projections were revised downward $1 billion over the next two years.

"We have some disagreements and we will work through them," Kasich said. "These are things we think are in most cases very critical to make sure we continue to serve Ohioans that are in need."

Obamacare gave states the ability to expand eligibility in Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for poor and disabled people, to those making less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

When Kasich pushed expansion in 2013, his administration estimated 360,000 uninsured Ohioans would become eligible for the program. Since then, more than 725,000 Ohioans have been added to the Medicaid rolls through expansion.

The feds footed the bill for the first few years of the expansion and tapering off to cover 90 percent of the cost by 2020.

Kasich's fellow Republicans in the legislature, many of whom opposed the original expansion, said it's time to rein in costs for the expansion and direct the state's share toward other priorities. They proposed freezing enrollment after July 1, 2018 for new enrollees and previous enrollees who, through a temporary boost in income, lost eligibility.

People receiving treatment for alcohol or drug addiction and mental illness would be allowed to enroll.

The move would result in 500,000 Ohioans losing health insurance in the first 18 months of the freeze, according to memo from Kasich's Office of Health Transformation. The memo also noted that the addiction and mental illness exemptions would likely violate federal law defining the expansion population.

Lawmakers had to trim about $1 billion from the budget Kasich introduced in January. Democrats wanted to eliminate the 2013 small business income tax break for limited liability companies and other pass-through entities, which would generate about $1 billion a year.

"Stealing money from local communities to pay for Columbus' bills will only increase local taxes," Sen. Nick Celebrezze, a Parma Democrat said. "This budget is just more of the same misguided GOP tax policies that have been holding Ohio back."

Medicaid tax replacement fix vetoed

Kasich also vetoed additional funding for counties and transit authorities to patch the loss of revenue from a sales tax on Medicaid managed care organizations. Kasich's budget replaced that revenue for the state through a new fee on the health insurers, obtained through federal permission, and provided some one-time money for the local governments.

Legislators' fix in the budget: Go back to the feds and ask permission to raise the fee to generate about $207 million a year for counties and transit authorities.

Administration officials warned legislators such an increase would likely be rejected because it exceeds the 6 percent cap on such taxes and could threaten the $615 million in state revenue raised through the existing deal.

The County Commissioners Association of Ohio had lobbied for the additional funding.

"In the absence of a revenue replacement mechanism, counties will have to reduce or eliminate funding for programs that invest in economic growth and exacerbate the growing pressure on important systems like criminal justice, public safety, and child protection," Executive Director Suzanne Dulaney said in a statement. "The demand on these services is only growing in the wake of the opiate epidemic."

Mobile readers, click here to read Kasich's veto messages.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Today is the deadline for applications to grow medical marijuana in Ohio, but it could be a while before the names and locations of the applicants are publicly known.

The Department of Commerce declined to release applications or parts of the applications to cleveland.com and other Ohio media organizations. Department spokeswoman Kerry Francis couldn't say Thursday when the information would be publicly available.

The department also won't say how many applications it has received, even though the window for small-scale cultivator applications ended two weeks ago.

Pennsylvania, which is a few months ahead implementing its new medical marijuana program, released a tally of cultivator applications five weeks after its submission deadline. Unlike Ohio, Pennsylvania did release an estimate of how many applications it expected to receive.

Some applicants have become known as they seek local approval for their cultivation sites. The state application only requires businesses to get a signature from a local official confirming the business has requested zoning approval. But some cities, such as Akron, are vetting the applicants through a local licensing process.

In a letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer, a department attorney said the applications were not public records because the department must have "utilized or relied" on them before it has to release them, the newspaper reported.

Enquirer attorney Darren Ford told the newspaper Ohio's public records law doesn't support that argument.

Hundreds of applicants are expected to vie for one of 24 cultivator licenses statewide -- 12 for up to 3,000 square feet of growing space and 12 for up to 25,000 square feet. Ohio is projected to have a robust medical marijuana market because chronic pain is one of 21 medical conditions for which a doctor can recommend the substance.

Smoking marijuana and growing the plant at home are not allowed in Ohio's medical cannabis law.

The application process was intensive, requiring pages of financial information, security plans and other business operation details. Applicants also had to pay a nonrefundable application fee -- $2,000 for small grow licenses and $20,000 for large grow licenses.

If awarded a license, large cultivators would have to pay a $200,000 annual fee -- one of the highest of the 29 states with medical marijuana programs. Small cultivators would pay $20,000 a year.

Applications are split in two parts: one containing names and locations of the proposed businesses and the other excluding all personally identifiable information.

The department has hired three firms to review and score the applications: Arizona-based Meade and Wing; Dublin, Ohio-based iCann Consulting and Illinois-based B&B Grow Solutions. Each will be paid up to $150,000 for their assistance, which could vary depending on any conflicts of interest.

Once the initial licenses are awarded, cultivators will have nine months to meet the department's requirements. The department also has not publicly released time line for when cultivator licenses will be awarded but insists the program will meet the Sept. 8, 2018 statutory deadline for the program to be fully operational.
WASHINGTON -- Unless another insurer changes plans, residents in 20 Ohio counties will lack even a single health care carrier to provide Obamacare plans in 2018. A second health insurer, Premier Health Plan, announced this week it won't participate, following last month's announcement of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

This raises a lot of questions, from your own insurance prices to whether residents of those counties will be fined for not having health coverage. President Donald Trump's administration, hoping to shake up and replace Obamacare, raised that very oddity this week: fines for not buying insurance, as the law requires, when people can't even buy it anyway.

Let's move right to the issues.

What happened this week?

Premier Health Plan, a small carrier based in Dayton, said it is leaving the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, market in 2018. Premier operates on the ACA exchange, or market, in nine Ohio counties.

Premier's announcement follows Anthem's decision to exit the ACA market statewide in Ohio (and it announced last week that it is leaving Indiana and Wisconsin, then added most of Nevada to its exit strategy this week).

Insurance companies can shift their markets and networks year by year, so county-by-county coverage isn't always static. But if you factored in all the comings and goings, you'd wind up with 20 Ohio counties that could be without an ACA insurer next year. There are 18 counties in other states facing the same problem, the Trump administration said.

The Ohio counties are primarily rural. They are: Coshocton, Crawford, Guernsey, Hancock, Harrison, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Knox, Lawrence, Logan, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Paulding, Perry, Van Wert, Vinton, Williams and Wyandot.

Why are the insurers leaving?

They say the market is too erratic and unpredictable.

"The uncertainty in Washington, D.C., around the future of the Affordable Care Act -- through which the federal exchange was created -- and the associated volatility in the marketplace have led us to conclude that we cannot effectively plan and price affordable health insurance to sell on the exchange," Renee George, president of Premier Health Plan, said in a statement, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Republican critics of the ACA say it's the fault of Obamacare itself, which put constraints on insurance pricing for age and medical conditions -- and on insurer profits -- while mandating a host of treatments and conditions be covered. The 2010 insurance law upset the equilibrium of the market, or how insurance used to be priced, bought and provided, these critics say.

Democrats and some healthcare analysts say the ACA had ways to help insurers adapt to the new system, but that Republicans in Congress undermined them. One was a system to help insurers out if they lost money while adjusting to the new market; congressional Republicans blocked its funding. Another was supposed to help insurers reduce co-payments and deductibles for low-income buyers, but that one is now at the mercy of Trump, who has suggested he could pull the plug on it.

What will happen in those 20 counties?

Other insurers could step in, and the Ohio Department of Insurance hopes that will happen. If not, a series of things could happen that we'll get to in a minute.

When must these other insurers decide?

There isn't a clear answer. Insurers had to file their 2018 plans and rate requests by June 1 to participate in the Ohio market next year. But that simply began a process in which the Department of Insurance examines the filings and asks lots of questions. The two sides exchange information, with the state asking insurers to explain, support or adjust their assumptions on prices and the use of medical care by customers. The department is guided by Ohio insurance laws and those of the ACA.

This process has just begun and will continue until mid-August. If an insurer wishes to amend its filing and add more counties, the department said it wants to entertain such requests.

"At this point, we are trying to be as flexible as we can," said department spokesman Chris Brock.

Once the state approves the rates and the insurance plans' features, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, will conduct a secondary review and, if everything is in order, ask the insurers to sign contracts to participate in the 2018 ACA marketplace. This happens by late September. Enrollment for individuals would start in November.

So insurers can change their minds before then?

Yes. They can decide not to participate at all if they do so before signing an HHS contract.

But let's say an insurer with plans to operate in a dozen counties decides to add one or two more, filling the void in some of the 20 counties that otherwise won't have a carrier. Doing so late in the summer could throw off the state's timetable for finishing reviews. Yet the state says it wants to allow for such an option, rather than leave Ohio counties in the cold.

Depending on when that were to happen, the state might have to ask HHS to allow more time.

Are any insurers considering filling the void?

If they are, they they aren't discussing it publicly. But when Anthem announced its exit, the Ohio Department of Insurance said it would begin discussions to encourage other companies to step in.

If no insurers step in, what happens to residents of those counties?

Their options will depend on a few things. These are mostly rural counties, so the number of people is not great. Anthem's exit and the problem it could cause -- at the time, in 18 counties --was expected to affect 12,000 people. The addition of two more counties because of Premier -- Williams and Logan -- is unlikely to push that number up substantially.

But if you are one of those affected, that's no consolation.

So what can they do?

Logan County residents will still be able to buy ACA-compliant coverage that's offered off the exchange, Brock said. These policies would still meet the ACA's requirements for what health conditions must be covered and what care must be offered. But these policies are sold off the exchange -- they are not offered on Healthcare.gov -- so people who wanted them would have to call the insurer or an insurance broker. The Ohio Department of Insurance said it could not identify that insurer because its filing right now is considered confidential.

There's also a possibility of residents buying a policy for coverage in other counties, as long as they drive to those counties for their health care. Letting them do so, however, will be up to insurers, who will have to get clearance from the state if it changes their underlying rate or coverage requests.

Does this mean the problem is overblown?

Not at all. Until or unless another insurer steps in, there's a triple threat in the 20 counties:

Getting new or renewed ACA-compliant insurance coverage will be impossible in 19 of the 20 counties.

If a Logan County resident can manage to get a policy anyway -- one that's not on the ACA exchange -- he or she won't be able to get a federal subsidy to help pay premiums, Brock said. Subsidies are only for policies available on the HealthCare.gov exchange. That will mean a big out-of-pocket hike for many.

Under the ACA, people must either get health insurance (if their employers don't provide it) or pay a fine. Right now the fine is a maximum of 2.5 percent of income or $695, whichever is greater, and a maximum of $2,085 for families.

Wait -- people could be fined for failing to buy something they cannot buy anyway?

The world is bizarre, isn't it?

Trump asked federal agencies soon after taking office to ease off enforcing ACA requirements. This was interpreted by many to mean the IRS would look the other way and not charge fines.

Yet that caused public confusion and raised concerns among insurers. The IRS clarified in a statement that "taxpayers remain required to follow the law and pay what they may owe."

How vigorous would fine collection be for those who cannot get insurance?

Unless the insurance law changes, it seems likely Congress would find a way to carve out an exception, or Trump would try to do so administratively.

Yet for now, the Trump White House is using the situation to push for far more substantial alterations to the ACA itself.

"The architects of Obamacare never envisioned a scenario where entire counties would be without an insurer on Obamacare's exchanges," HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd said in an email Friday. "Right now, up to 38 counties - in Ohio, Nevada, and Indiana - fall into that category. Adding insult to injury, Obamacare directs the IRS to fine folks living in those counties for not having insurance that it isn't even available for them to buy."

OK, but most people will be able to get policies. So what will they pay for 2018 premiums?

That information is not yet public. Ohio insurers included it in their June 1 filings, but state public records law lets most of the filings stay private until they reach a point in the state's review later this summer. The records law has nuances that could let some of the information get out sooner, but as of now, that has not happened.

There is a twist on that question of premiums, anyway.

Remember how we mentioned that insurers face uncertainty about money they're supposed to get from the government? The Trump administration still has not decided whether to keep providing some of it.

How, then, could insurers even submit rate requests to the state insurance department if they didn't know how much money they'd have coming in?

They guessed. If they're wrong, that's just one more reason they'll have for trying to amend their filings.
LORAIN, Ohio -- It took 28 years and advances in fingerprint technology for law enforcement officials in Lorain to learn that the remains of a man who washed ashore from Lake Erie belonged to a man named Terrence Patrick Brennan.

While identifying Brennan's remains brings one mystery to a close, it does nothing to answer several lingering questions, including how the 36 year old died, how his body ended up in Lake Erie and whether any of his family is aware that the remains belong to him.

The Lorain County Coroner's Office requested that the FBI submit Brennan's fingerprints to the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System Flyer.The fingerprints were submitted in the last three weeks, Lorain County Coroner Dr. Stephen Evans said. Brennan was identified a few days before his identity went public, he said. The fingerprints matched the same fingerprints of a man arrested in 1971 in Forest Park, Illinois. That man was an 18-year-old Brennan.

Lorain police lifted fingerprints off Brennan's body when his body initially washed ashore, but computerized fingerprint databases was not a readily available technology. With no identification on the body, investigators had no idea where the body might have come from, so even going through fingerprint catalog databases manually was not an option.

"Obviously, you can't do that with every set of fingerprints in the country," Lorain police Det. John Dougherty said. "Now it's all computerized so you can just run it in and check for a match that way."

Brennan, whose last known address is in Hamtramck, Michigan, was found April 3, 1989 on West River Road north of West 21st Street by a man walking his dog. The man told police the body was on the rocks by the shore behind his home, according to a 1989 Lorain police report.

Officers found the body wedged in the rocks and determined that the body was in the water for some time.

The coroner report from 1989 showed no signs of foul play, police reports say. Another report says there were no signs of violence to his body. Dougherty said the coroner ruled the death at that time as an accidental drowning.

It seems unlikely Brennan's body would drift from Michigan, Dougherty said. It appears he was in Lorain or nearby.

Even with advances in technology, there is next to no digital record of Brennan on the internet, which means finding his family has been difficult, Dougherty said.

"We've been trying to access records from the police department where he was last known to live, the county records there, but it's hard to say how long he lived there, what kind of things he was involved in," he said. "It's really hard to track down any kind of records online or really know where to start without knowing a little bit more about the guy."

Dougherty is using websites that are restricted to law enforcement to look for family. Dougherty also checked Ancestry.com and got some tips from people who have searched on the website.

Police also are doing general Google searches to see if his name comes up or if anyone mentioned him, Dougherty said.

Police do not know where Brennan lived prior to being in the Detroit area in the late 1980s.

"If we had a better idea of what to look for and where it might be easier," Dougherty said. "I'm sure the records are out there, it's just hard to narrow it down where he was from. We know the last place he lived, but who knows how long there."

Police are hoping there are survivors of the family and anyone who knew him or went to school with him, he said. He hopes to be able to bring the family closure if they are still out there.

Anyone with information on Brennan's family is asked to contact Lorain police Det. John Dougherty at 440-204-2105.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich used his veto pen late Friday night to gut his fellow Republicans' major Medicaid policy changes in the state budget bill, but the budget battle might roll into the following week.

Legislative leaders told lawmakers last week they could be called back to the Statehouse to override any of the governor's vetoes. But there's some question as to whether they have the votes to do so, especially on the Medicaid expansion freeze.

Kasich, a Republican, has had disagreements with the GOP-controlled General Assembly in the past, but it has never voted to override one of his vetoes.

What's the disagreement?

Kasich struck 47 items from the 3,384-page bill, including three modifications to Ohio's eligibility expansion for Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for poor and disabled people. All three required federal approval.

The Affordable Care Act allowed states to expand eligibility to childless adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level to obtain health insurance, with the feds footing 100 percent of the bill at first, tapering to 90 percent in 2020.

Kasich accepted the expansion deal in 2013 despite opposition from fellow Republicans. State officials estimated 360,000 uninsured Ohioans would become eligible for the program. Since then, more than 725,000 Ohioans have received coverage through the expansion.

Republican lawmakers wanted to:

Impose work requirements on expansion enrollees, with exceptions for people over age 55 or receiving treatment for addiction or mental illness.

End enrollment for new and lapsed enrollees

Require all non-disabled adults in Medicaid to pay monthly premiums and other fees through the "Healthy Ohio" proposal,

Republicans said the Medicaid restrictions would reduce costs for the program and direct state money to more vulnerable Ohioans.

Lawmakers also added aid for counties and regional transit authorities to replace revenue lost when the state had to eliminate a sales tax on Medicaid managed care organizations. Kasich had proposed allocating $207 million in one-time aid.

The budget bill would have required state officials to get federal approval to raise taxes on health insurers to collect $207 million a year for six years.

What was Kasich's take?

Kasich has defended the expansion, a hallmark of his time in office, in Ohio and Washington, D.C. and credits it for more than half of the state's annual spending fighting the opiate addiction and overdose crisis.

Kasich said the expansion has brought $270 million to Ohio for drug addiction and behavioral health services.

"These are things we think are in most cases very critical to make sure we continue to serve Ohioans that are in need," Kasich said after he signed the bill.

Kasich's Office of Health Transformation argued, in a memo, that the expansion freeze would likely result in a legal challenge. In his veto message, Kasich said asking to raise the franchise fee on health insurers would put $615 million in state revenue from the fee in jeopardy.

How would an override work?

Bills are sent to their originating chamber for an initial veto vote. For the budget bill, that means the House would vote first. If it fails there, it won't go to the second chamber.

The House has already scheduled a session for Thursday morning.

Are there enough votes to override?

Veto overrides need the approval of three-fifths of each chamber -- 60 in the 99-member House and 20 in the 33-member Senate.

The budget bill cleared the House in a 59-40 vote and the Senate in a 24-8 vote. Theoretically, the Senate's vote was veto-proof and the House would need only one vote for an override.

But a budget bill vote is rarely an endorsement of everything in the bill.

On the freeze -- Democrats won't vote to keep it. Seven House Republicans voted against the budget. One of them, Rep. Nino Vitale of Urbana, actually opposed the House version because it didn't freeze Medicaid expansion.

But some moderate Republicans share the governor's concerns. Dayton-area Sen. Peggy Lehner told the Dayton Daily News she would vote against overriding the veto.

Legislators might have better luck on the fix for counties and regional transit authorities because many Democrats also sought a replacement for the lost revenue.

Thursday's scheduled House session will be canceled if there aren't enough votes to proceed.

"There are some provisions that we will need to take a closer look at over the next several days," House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger said in a statement early Saturday morning. "Through the holiday weekend, we will be discussing with the members of our caucus the best possible course of action to take."

Mobile readers, click here to read Kasich's veto messages.
Unless a legislative-executive compromise can be fashioned to protect the finances of Ohio counties and transit systems, the General Assembly should override Gov. John Kasich's late-night Friday veto of a budget fix aimed at shielding more than $200 million in threatened local revenues.

Among the funds at risk -- $18 million a year for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, a major chunk of its budget. Cuyahoga County faces the loss of $30 million annually or 7 percent of its general fund budget.

Kasich's veto message said he nixed the local revenue fix on the grounds it could jeopardize $615 million in state revenues from a deal the Kasich administration earlier made with the Obama administration. The fixes were needed after the federal government deemed the state's tax on Medicaid managed care organizations improperly narrow.

Yet the underlying problem in Kasich's approach is the same one that's driven deep local government funding cuts to the detriment of all Ohioans: In this case, to shield state revenues as a priority, but wean localities and transit authorities off "found" money from their local piggyback sales taxes on Medicaid managed care organizations.

By switching to a franchise fee on health-insuring corporations -- with a complicated rebate system approved by the Obama administration -- the state comes out slightly ahead in terms of revenue, allowing a small, onetime fix to help counties and transit systems deal with the lost sales tax revenue.

But as our editorial board has repeatedly said, that's not enough. The budget amendment Kasich vetoed -- devised by Sen. Matt Dolan, a Chagrin Falls Republican, and others -- would prompt Ohio to ask the Trump administration's OK to boost the franchise fee temporarily, for an additional $207 million a year through mid-2024, for counties and transit systems. The Kasich administration believes this would actually net just $142 million annually because of required rebates.

Kasich's administration also frets, not unreasonably, that asking President Donald Trump's administration for such a change could backfire by prompting a federal re-examination of Ohio's overall franchise fee plan. The County Commissioners Association of Ohio has said, though, that the budget amendment devises a "stair-step" approach, requiring the state first to ask the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "if Ohio's franchise fee can be increased." If yes, the amendment directs the state to seek the increase.

But none of this had to happen if the governor and his aides understood that their tightfistedness with local governments makes a onetime fix a very tough sell. The administration might have worked out something mutually acceptable during the budget debate, but didn't, and now faces -- unless it crafts an 11th-hour deal with lawmakers -- a potential veto override that never had to happen.

About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.

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How far away from an Ohioan's property line must a wind turbine be? House Republicans have signaled they think turbine setbacks should be specified in a stand-alone bill, not as part of the 5,000-page state budget the legislature sent Gov. John Kasich this week.

But trying to use the budget bill to kick 700,000 low-income Ohioans off Medicaid? No problem.

That's the "heads we win, tails you lose," angle in this year's Statehouse budget debate.

The mere idea of generating power from wind or the sun seems to rile Capitol Square's Flat Earth Caucus. But some other science is evidently good science. Yank Medicaid from poor Ohioans? Hey, maybe that Darwin guy had the right idea about survival of the fittest.

Wind energy wasn't the only topic the budget ducked. Both chambers cried the blues about lagging state revenues, but wouldn't tighten, better yet, end, a lush tax break (the Business Income Deduction) that costs Ohio's treasury $1 billion a year. And whatever you think, pro or con, about how, and with how much or how little money, state government helps fund kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools, you can only patch a tire so many times. Legislators keep slapping on patches anyway.

Footnote: Late Friday night in signing the budget into law, Kasich announced 47 line-item budget vetoes -- including of the Ohio legislature's attempt to end Medicaid expansion next year and of its attempted Medicaid micromanaging via budget amendment. To overturn a veto, the Ohio House, 66-33 Republican, would have to muster 60 override votes, the Senate, 24-9 Republican, 20 override votes.

Still, the as-passed budget's central problem lies in how the House and Senate approached Medicaid. They budgeted Ohio Medicaid this way: They assumed the Kasich administration would achieve "x" dollars in Medicaid savings. But then legislators in effect made it impossible for Kasich's administration to attain those savings without slashing some Medicaid providers' payments. Kasich vetoed those provisions.

For example, according to the Office of Health Transformation, nursing homes (and Medicaid pays about 70 percent of all Ohio nursing home costs, a Legislative Service Commission analysis reports) are the only Ohio Medicaid provider group whose reimbursement is guaranteed by the Ohio Revised Code. The budget didn't change that. So, other Medicaid providers would face steep payment cuts.

Then, effective July 1, 2018, the budget bill proposed freezing Ohio's Medicaid expansion. It covers about 700,000 Ohioans. Legislators exempted from the freeze mentally ill or addicted Ohioans. Problem one: Exempting a subset of people from the freeze may not be legal. Problem two: Medicaid clients cycle on and off the program, depending on income, jobs, etc. If, during a freeze, an expansion client left Medicaid, then qualified to return (because of, say, a layoff), she or he couldn't again actually regain Medicaid expansion coverage under the legislative budget language Kasich vetoed.

Throwing 700,000 Ohioans off the Medicaid expansion wouldn't really be a budget plus. The federal share of Medicaid for most non-expansion Ohio Medicaid clients is 63 cents per $1 in costs. But for Ohioans covered by the expansion, the federal share is 95 cents per $1 in costs. (The federal share gradually drops to 90 cents in 2020, where it'll remain.) And a "provider tax" Ohio charges Medicaid providers likely makes Ohio's 5-cent bite per $1 in the Medicaid expansion's costs a gain for the state.

Meanwhile - yes - no matter what flat Earth legislators think, generating electricity from wind could be an economic boost for Ohio.

A small-is-beautiful suggestion: Put a turbine at the front of the Ohio House chamber. Old-time reformers are believed to have called it the House of Wind. It still is.

Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.

To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-999-4689

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - If you're headed to Saturday's U2 concert at FirstEnergy stadium, you're probably worried about rain in the weekend forecast for Northeast Ohio. Yes, scattered thunderstorms are expected for the majority of the weekend, excluding Sunday, however Saturday's thunderstorms could clear out in time for the concert.

Throughout the day, scattered thunderstorm chances are around 40 percent. However, by 6 p.m. chances drop to 30 percent and at the concert's start time of 7 p.m. drop to 20 percent.

Rain chances take into account not only the confidence of rain, but the coverage. Looking at one of the highest resolution model forecasts for Saturday, some lingering very small bits of showers could be in the area that evening. Chances are very slight, but at most a stray thunderstorm could pop off, yet most of the evening will remain cloudy and rain-free.

The good news is it will at least feel warm, with temperatures in the upper 70s at the concert start time dipping to 72 degrees by 11 p.m. It could feel a bit humid too, with dew points in the upper 60s signaling moist air.

Check out the forecast for Saturday:

Temperatures

Temperature forecast.

Rain chances

Precipitation forecast.

Winds

Wind speed and direction forecast.

Keep checking cleveland.com/weather for daily weather updates for Northeast Ohio, and don't forget to submit any weather questions you may have!

Kelly Reardon is cleveland.com's meteorologist. Please follow me on Facebook and Twitter @KelTellsWeather.
The Rotary Clubs of Carlisle and Carlisle Sunrise recently hosted Rotarians from Kenya as part of a Rotary Friendship Exchange.

Seven of the Kenyan visitors were from the Rotary Club of Thika, north of Nairobi, which has been the in-country sponsor club for several humanitarian projects initiated by the Rotary Club of Carlisle over the last 15 years, including a dental clinic and several projects to provide safe water to poor and remote areas of Kenya. The other three Kenyans were from the Rotary Club of Thika West, a newly formed club that also hopes to support future projects.

The relationship between the Thika and Carlisle Rotary Clubs began in 1998 when Dr. Charles Stoup, a local board certified oral surgeon, and his wife Kathleen began volunteering their services in the small Kenyan village of Kilimambogo. Dr. Stoup provided dental care while Kathleen provided administrative support and worked to obtain grants from the Rotary International Foundation to support the clinic and later to develop clean water projects for the local community.

The impact of these projects on the quality of life of that small Kenyan community has been tremendous, Kathleen Stoup said. In order for a Rotary Club in the United States to engage in a global project in another country there must be a host country Rotary Club sponsor. The Rotary Club of Thika has been the main driver for our projects in Kenya.

During their stay, Kenyans attended a joint picnic with members of Carlisles two Rotary Clubs, visited several local Rotary projects, received briefings from the United Way of Carlisle and Cumberland County, the Carlisle Chamber of Commerce, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Boiling Springs, Mobility Worldwide in Mount Holly Springs, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Project SHARE, Carlisle Arts Learning Center, the Pomfret Group and the Castlerigg Wine Shop. Kenyans also made day trips to New York City and Washington, D.C. They were housed with local Rotarians and other host families.
1. Radiation Therapist

Median pay: $80,160

Job growth through 2024: 14% As the child of a breast cancer survivor, I have major respect for anyone involved in the treatment of the disease  especially the unsung heroes. Radiation therapists are the behind-the-scenes operators of the machines that blast x-rays at cancer cells in a patient's body. With an associate's degree and certification, this career can flourish in a variety of health care settings, from hospitals, to medical offices and to outpatient centers. With an aging population, health care jobs like these are some of the fastest growing over the next decade. The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists, an organization that certifies radiation therapists, has plenty of resources on where to start if you're interested in this career. It's important to note that some radiation therapists can pursue a bachelor's degree which pays more, bumping up the median wage for the occupation as a whole. Where the jobs are: New York, Texas, Florida, California, Illinois

2. Diagnostic Medical Sonographer

Median pay: $69,650

Job growth through 2024: 26.4% It's a mouthful, but basically, diagnostic medical sonographers are responsible for the first glimpse expectant mothers get of their babies. They also operate imaging equipment used to investigate muscle and tendon tears, the presence of breast cancer or pretty much any other internal problem in your body. There are more than 350 viable programs for you to pick if you're entering this field, according to the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs. Where the jobs are: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania

3. Occupational Therapy Assistant

Median pay: $59,010

Job growth through 2024: 42.7% Picture occupational therapy assistants like Dorothy oiling up the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. They help you move it, move it. (Yeah, that was two movie references in on paragraph. Sue me.) They help you get back to work.

These careers are based out of hospitals, retirement homes, home health care agencies and can be provided by local governments. There's a lot of flexibility when you're looking for a job. As for where to start, check out the Occupational Therapy and Occupational Therapy Assistant Centralized Application Service for leads on where to find a school near you. Where the jobs are: Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York

4. Dental Hygienist

Median pay: $72,910

Job growth through 2024: 18.6% So this isn't a job for everyone, but dental hygienists are the real workhorses of any dental practice. They clean teeth, take x-rays and chat you up while you drool through massive balls of cotton in your mouth. Like the previous jobs mentioned, this job requires a certification after graduation, and some students elect to pursue a bachelor's or master's degree as well. The American Dental Hygienists Association has resources on where to start if you're interested. Who knows, one day you might have R.H.D. after your name. Where the jobs are: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Michigan

5. Web Developer

Median pay: $66,130

Job growth through 2024: 26.6% The first non-health care job on the list is also the one that has the lowest barrier to entry and most flexibility: web developer. They design and create websites just like the one you're browsing right now (and please, stay for a while). While you can learn to code on the cheap, picking a community college for your associate's degree can provide you with internships and help with building a portfolio. Because there are so many resources out there to learn the basics of web development on your own, you might want to take a few classes to see what you think before committing to a two-year degree. Where the jobs are: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois

6. Physical Therapist Assistant

Median pay: $56,610

Job growth through 2024: 40.6% Similar to No. 3 on the list, physical therapist assistants are support staff helping people get their groove back. This job involves ensuring patient safety while implementing physical therapy treatments and collecting data on patient progress.

Dental Hygienist Portland Press Harold | Getty Images

The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education has approved 331 schools in the U.S. Where the jobs are: Texas, Ohio, Florida, California, Illinois

7. Cardiovascular Technologist or Technician

Median pay: $55,570

Job growth through 2024: 22.2% These combined fields both represent health care workers focusing on diagnosing and treating heart and blood vessel issues. Cardiovascular technologists are lifesavers  literally. They are involved in teams treating heart attacks, but also help install stents and pacemakers. Technicians run stress tests and electrocardiograms. Like most health care jobs, they require certification upon graduation. Where the jobs are: Texas, Florida, California, New York, Pennsylvania

8. Respiratory Therapists

Median pay: $58,670

Job growth through 2024: 12.3% Respiratory therapists help patients with the essential life function: breathing. They care for everyone from infants to the elderly, and they also assist doctors during emergency situations, such as drownings, patients in shock or heart attacks. The demand for these jobs is the highest it's ever been, and they offer stable careers, according to the American Association for Respiratory Care. Check out this nifty map that compares each school with respiratory therapy programs. Where the jobs are: California, Texas, Florida, Ohio, New York

9. Geological and Petroleum Technician

Median pay: $56,470

Job growth through 2024: 11.8% Given President Donald Trump's push for energy independence, geological and petroleum technician jobs should grow by even more than the 11.8% the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted in 2014. These workers pretty much do it all. They gather samples for scientists to test, record data, install lab and field equipment, monitor oil wells and even do scientific tests of their own. Once you find a school, you'll probably take mostly science and math classes. Where the jobs are: Texas, California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Pennsylvania

10. Radiologic Technologist
Measures to protect food safety could be on the chopping block under President Donald Trump's proposed federal budget, which would slash appropriations for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The White House proposes to make up those budget cuts  and then some through fees paid by the industry. But with intense opposition from business, congressional leaders have been unwilling to consider the fees, leaving that part of the proposal unlikely to pass.

"I think the FDA needs far more resources if it's going to do its job well," said Marion Nestle, an author and professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.

The agency does have new regulatory tools, some of which just took effect in May, under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2011. That law followed one of the deadliest outbreaks of foodborne illness in U.S. history, in a case profiled in the latest episode of CNBC's "American Greed."

Peanut Corporation of America President Stewart Parnell became the first food company CEO in U.S. history sent to prison for selling tainted food, after a federal jury in Albany, Georgia, found he knowingly ordered workers to ship contaminated peanut products to customers nationwide. As many as 20,000 people were sickened; nine died. Parnell, now 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence following his conviction on 71 felony counts. He is appealing his conviction and sentence.

Darin Detwiler, director of the masters program in food regulation at Northeastern University in Boston, said conditions at the PCA plant were appalling.

"There was rat infestations. There was bird droppings. They found holes in the roof, and water would gather and bird droppings would get into the water that would seep into this product. And sometimes he literally had employees sweep off some of the rat poop," Detwiler told "American Greed." "This was just business as usual."

The new law mandates more inspections to prevent situations like that in the future, and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said during his confirmation hearing in the spring that he is committed to upholding the law.

"I think FSMA was a significant advance in terms of giving the agency the authority it needed and the resources it needed to ensure the food supply is safe," he said on April 5. "My mandate is to make sure FSMA is implemented in a proper way, and that we're striking the right balance with respect to that implementation."

That "balance" has some food safety advocates concerned.

"The Trump administration came in with an explicit vow that they were going to undo what the (Obama) administration had done, and that includes food safety," Nestle said.

Indeed, the Trump budget, without being specific, calls for regulatory reform at the FDA and other agencies.
The Ground-based Midcourse Defense element of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system launches during a flight test from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, U.S., May 30, 2017.

The former director of a U.S. intelligence program that helped Ronald Reagan improve America's missile defenses has lashed out at President Donald Trump's technology policies, saying they won't be enough to guarantee America's economic and military superiority over China.

The criticism from Michael Sekora, a trained physicist who ran the Socrates Project for the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1983 to 1990, comes soon after an upbeat meeting between the White House and tech leaders, and amid reports Trump is considering Chinese trade sanctions.

Project Socrates was tasked three decades ago with discovering the reasons why America was losing its economic competitiveness to Japan and others.The program's findings ultimately helped the U.S. surpass the Soviet Union in missile defense technology, according to Sekora, who now runs a Texas-based consulting firm called Quadrigy.

By favoring government procurement of products made by U.S. firms like Apple , Microsoft and IBM and a balance-of-trade approach to foreign policy, "Trump is addressing the symptoms, not the disease" that's caused the U.S. to slip behind China in several key technologies, Sekora told CNBC in a phone interview.

China now has the world's fastest supercomputers, manufactures most of the world's computer chips and is the leading maker of drone hardware, he observed.

"Anybody who thinks China's advantage is cheap labor and currency manipulation is not paying attention," said Sekora, who ran the government effort to boost U.S. competitiveness for Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Thailand is home to some of the world's biggest crocodile farms, where tourists can see the giant creatures lounging in the hot sun, chomping on chicken, or swarming in emerald green pools.

Some 1.2 million crocodiles are kept on more than 1,000 farms in Thailand, according to figures from the Thai department of fisheries. Some are equipped with slaughterhouses and tanneries to produce luxury products.

Sri Ayuthaya Crocodile Farm is one of Thailand's biggest, and has been operating for 35 years.

"We're an all-in-one farm, creating jobs for the people, creating income for the country," said Wichian Rueangnet, the owner of Sri Ayuthaya, which has an estimated 150,000 crocodiles.

Sri Ayuthaya is registered with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), allowing it to legally export products made from the critically endangered Siamese freshwater crocodile. One of its top buyers is China.

"We do everything from raising crocodiles to slaughtering, tanning and exporting crocodile products," Wichian said.

Crocodile leather products include Birkin-style handbags, which sell for up to 80,000 baht ($2,358) each, and crocodile leather suits, which fetch around 200,000 baht ($5,894), Wichian said.

Crocodile meat is sold for as much as 300 baht per kg (2.2 lb). The bile and blood of the reptile, made into pills because they are believed to have health benefits, are worth 40,000 baht and 500 baht per kg, respectively.

The industry has faced setbacks, as exports of Thai crocodile leather products fell more than 60 percent in 2016 to 13 million baht, down from 34 million baht in 2015, commerce ministry figures show.

The following is a close up look at the booming industry, as seen through the lens of Reuters photographer Athit Perawongmetha.
Its that time of year again. Pennsylvania elected officials are debating the state budget deep into June and most likely into July. Another budget, another scramble to find monies to balance the budget and to fill an unending appetite of state government spending.

For the third year in a row, the governor has asked for a severance tax on natural gas extraction. Thankfully, there are other leaders in Pennsylvania who see how a punitive, short-sighted tax could stunt a revenue and tax producing energy industry rather than multiply it.

And, ultimately, thats the problem. Its a debate in the need-it-now climate vs. a dialogue about what the future could hold. Simply put, Pennsylvania has been having the wrong conversation about energy development for years. For our state coffers to collect the maximum amount of money from this industry, policymakers should focus on how best to help it grow.

During the previous administration, an impact fee, call it Pennsylvanias Severance Tax, on natural gas drilling was enacted to help communities where the impact was occurring while also funding programs in all corners of the Commonwealth. It has worked well, delivering funds immediately after drilling begins, unlike severance taxes that are not collected and distributed until after abatement periods end.

While many in the public often hear the cry that Pennsylvania is the only state without a severance tax, this is blatantly false. Pennsylvania is the only state with the aforementioned impact fee and other states have taken notice, putting forward policy proposals to scrap their existing severance taxes and model whats being done here in Pennsylvania. The impact fee in Pennsylvania adds approximately $200 million to local governments throughout the commonwealth annually  more than would be realized with Gov. Wolfs proposal.

Speaking of economic growth, we agree with Gov. Wolfs Secretary of Community and Economic Development Dennis Davin and the IHS Markit report on petrochemical facilities that Pennsylvania must maximize this energy opportunity by expediting pipeline build-out and completing an inventory of sites for industrial development. Because, after all, we want Pennsylvania to be a national leader in energy production, utilization, and the jobs that come with it. Because thats what allows growth and additional tax revenues to be collected by the commonwealth.

As we enter the final throes of the 17-18 budget making process, we urge policymakers to refocus the conversation toward advancing economic growth and stop the counterproductive fixation on new taxes.

If this debate does come again, we ask you to consider the following questions:

1. What is the total cost of doing business in Pennsylvania (including the impact fee) compared to the total cost of doing business in Texas, which has a severance tax but no corporate income tax or personal income tax?

2. When before has a state government sought to attract new business development and investment with an additional, industry-specific tax?

3. With over half of all Pennsylvania homes relying on natural gas for home heat and appliance use, how would an additional tax affect their budgets?

4. With demand for natural gas poised to increase nationally by 40 percent through the year 2030 (possibly more in Pennsylvania), how would an additional tax on the industry affect residential, commercial, and industrial natural gas customers?

5. Have the effects of a new, additional, industry specific tax been examined on the petrochemical manufacturing end users?

6. If the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) believes that we should proactively and aggressively deploy new energy infrastructure, why would an additional energy tax be proposed simultaneously?

7. Why should a company choose to locate, invest, or expand operations in Pennsylvania when a new, additional industry-specific tax is proposed every year as a part of the Governors budget?

The answers to these questions lead to one conclusion: new jobs and economic growth dont come from short-sighted and punitive taxation.
American Eagles

American Eagle 1-ounce silver bullion coins The American Eagle 1-ounce silver bullion coin was introduced during first-strike ceremonies on Oct. 29, 1986. The American Eagle silver bullion program came into being as a way for ...READ MORE
2 Indian-Americans to be honoured with Great Immigrants award

Published: July 1, 2017

Two Indian-Americans, Adobe Chief Shantanu Narayen (54) and former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy (39) have been chosen for prestigious Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Award 2017.

They are among 38 distinguished US immigrants representing more than 30 countries of origin around the world honoured with this years award for their role in advancing USs economy, society, and culture.

Some the honourees include Canadian-origin social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, PayPal cofounder of Ukrainian origin Max Levchin, Iranian-origin philanthropist and entrepreneur Hushang Ansary.

Vivek Murthy

Murthy was born in the UK. He is alumnus of Harvard and Yale. He was appointed as Surgeon General by former President Barack Obama in 2014, making the first-ever Indian-American and also the youngest to occupy the post. He was dismissed this in April 2017 by the Trump administration.

Shantanu Narayen

Narayen is a native of Hyderabad. He holds an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering, a masters degree in computer science, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is a board member of Pfizer and US-India Business Council. At present, he is CEO of Adobe Systems.

About Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Award

The award is given annually on the occasion of Independence Day of United States i.e. 4th July to naturalised citizens of US for their contribution in advancing USs economy, society, and culture. The award has been instituted by New York-based Carnegie Corporation in 2006. The honourees are recognised with a full-page public service announcement in The New York Times and an online public awareness initiative.

The Carnegie Corporation was established in 1911 by Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Carnegie Corporations founder Andrew Carnegie was one of pioneer American capitalist who had shaped the modern American industry and philanthropy. He was the son of impoverished immigrants who had settled in US.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017

Category: Awards, Persons & Places in News

Topics: Awards  Indian diaspora  Persons in News  Shantanu Narayen  United States  Vivek Murthy

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Splash! by Stephen Glover

This is a very enjoyable novel about disreputable tabloid journalists and corrupt politicians. It is set on a newspaper, the Daily Bugle, whose proprietor, Sir Edwin Entwistle, is a latter-day Lord Copper, though as yet without the peerage he craves, and whose staff spend much of their time trying to do each other down.

The worst of the politicians, an MP called Terence Glasswell, finds a microphone which has been planted on him by a Bugle reporter, and retaliates by launching a national crusade to clean up the press. A trendy and ambitious bishop, who is angling for the see of Canterbury, naturally joins him in this endeavour, and preaches on Newsnight about media ethics and the need for journalists to drink less.

At the Bugle, Trevor Yapp, the pugnacious, indeed pathologically disturbed, deputy editor, is naturally trying to get the job of the editor, Eric Doodle, who in turn harbours absurd longings for a knighthood and a country house.

Doodle has taken on as a paid intern an entirely unsuitable young man, Benedict Brewster, in the hope of being invited to go shooting with the boys father, Sir Cumming Brewster.

Yapp sacks Sam Blunt, the drunken and promiscuous chief reporter, who has hardly got a word in the paper for the last six months, and the plot revolves around Blunts attempt, in alliance with young Brewster, to turn the tables and rescue his career by standing up a sensational story involving Glasswell, the Prime Minister and illegal political donations by a Chinese tycoon called Mr Po.

The book can be read for pleasure. Glover is very good at the comic discrepancy between what his characters claim to care about, and what they actually care about, namely their own advancement.

But this is also, in a light way, a condition of England novel, and especially the condition of the English press. The Bugle is not selling what it was, and now has a subsidiary called Bugle Online, which is obsessed by the sexual antics of meretricious celebrities, and is staffed by young people with first-class degrees who are desperate to get into journalism, so sit toiling in a subterranean dungeon and are treated abominably.

Glover knows the high-minded end of journalism, having been one of the three founders of The Independent, and editor of The Independent on Sunday, where I worked for him.

One of the good things about that paper was that although the founders were from The Daily Telegraph, it employed people from all over the place, with an eclectic mixture of political outlooks, including Neal Ascherson, Ian Jack, Lynn Barber, Stephen Fay, Sebastian Faulks and Zoe Heller.

But that did not last, and Glover has since been a columnist for various publications, including The Daily Mail. And one of the conclusions which can be drawn from his story is that high-minded papers are not always the best at holding the mighty to account.

To catch a thief, it is not enough to be a prig. Some insight into the criminal mind, and a readiness to use underhand methods, may also be required.

We live in a fallen world, and in some ways in a fallen country. Mr Po imagines that on coming to live in London, he will find some hidden secret that would explain what had made Britain great.

But after buying a rare Qing vase off a miserly and corrupt English peer, he finds himself thinking very differently about Britain:

He felt that by regaining the vase he had in some small way reversed the shame which the English had visited upon his country. It seemed to him incredible that the race which had treated the mighty Qing Emperor Xianfeng as though he were no better than a tribal chieftain, and had looted and burned the Summer Palace, should have been reduced to this pitiable state. Where was the ruling class which had controlled half of Asia and a quarter of the globe? Their ignoble modern successors were men such as the greedy earl and Sir Edwin Entwistle and the crooked Terence Glasswell, who had the temerity and poor taste to fuck his secretary in Mr Pos own private suite in the Park Lane offices of Anglo-Chinese Investments.

Appalling manners. But then one might say the same after reading Scoop, subtitled A Novel about Journalists, the greatest and funniest novel ever written about the British press.

Even the French journalists in that book, with their futile official complaints that they are not getting equal treatment with the British and the Americans, are true to life.

As a comic stylist, Evelyn Waugh has no equal. Decline and Fall, with which in 1928 he burst upon a delighted public, is at least as funny as Scoop, and portrays the collapse of the moral order which Dr Arnold had sought to instil.

The joke is that the ruling class do not behave as they should, and nor, with a few exceptions, does anyone else: a theme which runs through the war trilogy and on into Brideshead Revisited.

Perhaps, come to think of it, that theme runs through almost all novels. Austen, Dickens and Thackeray cannot be said to have neglected it.

The great virtue of Splash! is that it makes one laugh. A subsidiary virtue is that it makes one think about, and reread, the masterpiece which inspired it.
Cllr Nick Paget-Brown is standing down as Leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council. This is the right decision and it should have been taken earlier. The obvious reason is the scale of the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire. Over two weeks on, the official death toll has reached 80 and corpses are still emerging.

It may well be found that this accident waiting to happen could just have easily have taken place in Camden or Cambridge, Newham or Norwich, Sheffield or Sunderland  or many other areas where cladding on high-rise buildings has been found to fail urgent new safety tests. But it didnt. It was also, as Cllr Paget-Brown himself has said, possibly the worst tragedy London has seen since the end of the Second World War.

Perhaps it will be found that Cllr Paget-Brown acted as conscientiously as could reasonably be expected by seeking and following the best available specialist advice from his officials.

There is the terrible, seductive, power of groupthink. Some initiative conforms with all the regulations  perhaps pages upon pages of them with all the boxes ticked. Or a council leader is told it does. So thats all right then. Already we hear the demands that if a hundred pages of regulations failed to prevent a tragedy then surely the obvious answer is to have two hundred pages of regulations. No doubt the council leader will also have been told that the cladding was standard practice widely used elsewhere. Furthermore there would have been the justification of spending huge sums of money to save lives. A moral crusade for energy efficiency given the thousands who die from cold homes in the winter and the extra cost of staying warm in the winter as the wind whistles past on the 21st floor.

Still, the buck stops with Cllr Paget-Brown. Im sure he had good intentions. He might not even be found to be culpable in the sense of having been negligent at any specific stage  at least no more so than scores of his opposite numbers. Yet he was the Leader. We are familiar with the textbook Crichel Down scandal in 1954 regarding compulsory purchase of land  Thomas Dugdale, the Minister of Agriculture, resigned even though the blame was with his civil servants.

Before the fire it was generally accepted that Kensington and Chelsea was a well run Council. This was a borough with clean streets, low Council Tax, good schools and public services. It performed well across a range of measures. A survey found 80 per cent of local residents felt the Council was doing a good job. The difficulty is that any reference to that now has a But other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? feel.

There was also the Councils inept response to the crisis. Avoiding media interviews was arrogant and secretive. Again it may well be that other councils would have come across as plodding in their response to a disaster on such a scale. Certainly compared to the immediate help provided by the local community. Bureaucracies tend to be inflexible. As Danny Kruger wrote in The Spectator:

The reason we need the Big Society is that the Big State is no good at this stuff.

Not that it would have been easy. The pressure was immense. Coping with the immediate emergency needs and the demands of the media would take place amidst urgent meetings with lawyers, insurers, central Government, and many others. Yet the challenge of leadership is to rise to such challenges and that test was not met.

For all the righteous anger, putting in commissioners to run the Council would be a mistake. What is needed is more accountability with new leadership  not anonymity.

A better approach is to require full transparency  not just for Kensington and Chelsea but other local authorities with housing stock as well and housing associations. I have already called for the publication of Fire Risk Assessments online for all the housing blocks they own. That would be an obvious start.

Restoring trust will not be easy. It goes much wider than Kensington and Chelsea. It also goes beyond fire safety to a wider debate about what a disaster tower blocks have proved and the way these ugly buildings have impoverished people and divided communities.

The way to begin is to be straight with people. Full disclosure is needed.
Fact Box: India-China Border Dispute

Published: July 1, 2017

Indian and Chinese troops are facing off once again in Sikkim at Doko-La (or Donglong, as the Chinese call it), which lies at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan. There have been growing tensions between India and China. The current confrontation, however, shows signs of escalating. Both countries have upped the ante and deployed around 3,000 troops each in the tri-junction.

The Doklam area has huge strategic significance for both India and China. It close to proximity of sensitive Chickens Neck, or the Siliguri Corridor, which is an extremely narrow stretch of land that connects the north-eastern region to the rest of India. Here is background of India-China Border dispute

India-China Border Dispute

India shares total boundary of around 3,488 km with China (second largest after Bangladesh). The Sino-Indian border is generally divided into three sectors namely: Western sector, Middle sector, and Eastern sector. 5 states viz. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh share border with China.

Western Sector

In the western sector, India shares about 2152 km long border with China. It is between Jammu and Kashmir and Xinjiang Province of China. In this sector, there is territorial dispute over Aksai Chin. Both countries went to war in 1962 over disputed territory of Aksai Chin. India claims it as part of Kashmir, while China claims it is part of Xinjiang.

The dispute over Aksai Chin can be traced back to the failure of the British Empire to clearly demarcate a legal border between China and its Indian colony. During the time of British rule in India, two borders between India and China were proposed Johnsons Line and McDonald Line.

The Johnsons line (proposed in 1865) shows Aksai Chin in Jammu and Kashmir i.e. under Indias control whereas McDonald Line (proposed in 1893) places it under Chinas control. India considers Johnson Line as correct, rightful national border with China, while on the other hand, China considers the McDonald Line as the correct border with India.

At present, Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the line separating Indian areas of Jammu and Kashmir from Aksai Chin. It is concurrent with the Chinese Aksai Chin claim line.

Middle sector

In this sector, India shares about 625 km long boundary with China which runs along the watershed from Ladakh to Nepal. The states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand touch this border with Tibet (China) in this sector. Both sides do not have much disagreement over border in this area.

Eastern Sector

In this sector, India shares 1,140 km long boundary with China. It runs from the eastern limit of Bhutan to a point near the Talu Pass at the trijunction of Tibet, India and Myanmar. This boundary line is called McMahon Line. The boundary was established along the Himalayan crest of the northern watershed of the Brahmaputra, except where the Kemang, Subansiri, Dihang and Lohit rivers break through that watershed.

China considers the McMahon Line illegal and unacceptable claiming that Tibetans representatives who had sign the 1914 Convention held in Shimla which delineated the Mc Mahon line on the map were not having rights to do so.



Present mechanism to resolve border issue

India and China in 2003 had appointed Special Representatives to discuss the boundary question. In 2005, both sides had agreed on political parameters and guiding principles for a boundary settlement, will form the basis of the final settlement. So far 19 rounds of Special Representative Talks on the border have taken place (the latest was in April 2016).

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017

Category: Defence Current Affairs

Topics: Doko-La  Explained  External Security  India China  India-China border dispute  International Relations  National  Sikkim

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A Farmington Correctional Center corrections officer is being charged with a felony after officials say she committed sexual misconduct with an inmate.

Kelly Masek, 56, of St, Louis, is charged with a class D felony of sexual contact with a prisoner or offender.

According to a probable cause statement, an investigator with the Missouri Department of Corrections learned that Masek was seen spending time around an offender in the prison. After a review of a video from housing unit 7, it was discovered that Masek had entered the cell with the offender on April 28 at 7:59 p.m. and didnt come out until 8:09 p.m. While Masek was in the cell the lights briefly turned out.

Masek admitted to having a romantic relationship with the inmate. She also admitted that she gave the inmate 20 Percocet pills. Investigators also found written letters showing he expected monetary gain from other offenders for the pills. Investigators also had discovered phone calls showing other offenders were sending money to the inmate for the pills.

Masek confirmed she had kissed and hugged the inmate and admitted to other sexual acts. She also admitted to giving the inmate a pair of her underwear. Investigators also found written and verbal sexually explicit correspondences between Masek and the inmate. Phone calls showed Masek propositioned the inmate for sexual contact.

A warrant with a $5,000 bond was issued for Masek. She posted a surety bond on Tuesday.
Tablet Rivalry

Smartphones aren't the only area of mobility where Apple and Samsung are in fierce competition. The two companies are squaring off in the realm of tablets, too -- specifically, in 2017, when it comes to tablet-keyboard combos. Both companies have just released new productivity-focused tablets that are meant to work with detachable keyboards -- Apple with a revamped iPad and Samsung with the newly introduced Galaxy Book. Both are powerful and rate high on design. Which is the better fit for you? In the following slides, the CRN Test Center compares the new Apple iPad Pro vs. the Samsung Galaxy Book on specs and price.
Members of the Bonne Terre Chamber of Commerce heard from State Representative Mike Henderson, R-Bonne Terre, during their recent general investor luncheon.

Henderson touched on several topics during the luncheon to help bring everyone up to speed on what has been going on at the state capitol.

Missouri has about a $27.8 billion dollar budget, which sounds like an unbelievable amount of money, said Henderson. The state legislature really only has anything to do with $8-9 billion, which is discretionary. The rest of it is pretty much locked in to what you are going to do with it. Its not like you have $27.8 billion and you can spend it anywhere you want.

He explained $9.3 billion comes from individual income tax, insurance premium packs and sales tax. Then they get about $9.2 billion from the federal government and they know where all the federal dollars go.

In other funds you have $9.1 billion and most of that is tagged for things like highway and road funds, cigarette packs, lottery money and conservation, said Henderson. So its taxes dealing with those areas and most of that money is earmarked off to go somewhere.

Henderson said education used to be the biggest area where the money was spent because in the constitution that is the number one priority of the Missouri Legislature, to take care of public education.

Its now social services. Out of every dollar almost 34 cents goes to social services, along with that being Medicaid, said Henderson. Almost 22 cents goes to public education and about four cents goes to higher education, which will be your colleges, and eight cents goes to transportation.

Henderson said mental health is almost eight cents of each dollar and he likes to mention that because he feels the incarceration rate is going up and the amount of money they are spending is going up.

I do believe if we do more mental health and keep some of them from being locked up, it will save the state tens if not hundreds of millions on fees to incarcerate them, said Henderson. Plus when they come out of prison their earning potential goes down and a lot of times we end up having to take care of them at some point in their lives.

He added they have to try to do more to provide more mental health services to cut down on the incarceration rate and to get to the problem before it becomes a problem.

That is one of the things we are trying to do, said Henderson. Another thing is we have to try to increase our state workers pay. We are 50 out of 50 in pay for our state workers. That is dead last. In the end, not only are they underpaid, but its costing us money because of the prisons. They cant keep them. When Hobby Lobby opened up a lot of people in the prisons left because they could make more there.

Henderson said workers have a lot of training to work in the prisons. The state pays to train them and then they leave because they arent paid well.

So we have to do a little bit better job, said Henderson. By paying people a little bit more we probably could break even. Im not going to say we will save money, but we will break even because the rate we are paying is tremendous.

He added by having a better workforce they might avoid the $12.2 million in lawsuits they had because of some of the things that were happening. He said they are looking at some of those things in the Corrections Committee right now.
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Connecticut is adapting to the harsh reality that pre-existing conditions can still get you dropped by insurance, with Aetna last week revealing plans to move its headquarters from Hartford to New York City after the companys CEO snubbed the governor.

A request for an 11th-hour sit-down by Dannel P. Malloy with Aetnas Mark Bertolini was thwarted by the insurance giant, which two summers ago publicly criticized the states fiscal climate and opened the door to a move. It is the second Fortune 500 company to be poached away by a neighboring state in as many years, following General Electric.

But Bertolini did grant an audience just two weeks ago to Republican gubernatorial hopeful Dave Walker, said the former U.S. comptroller general under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The exit interview adds insult to injury for the administration of Malloy, who is not seeking re-election in 2018 but will cast a long shadow over the governors race and the fight for control of a Legislature that has been trending Republican.

Walker, a Bridgeport resident who ran for lieutenant governor in 2014, said he similarly met with GE CEO Jeff Immelt before the conglomerate decamped for Boston.

They told the governor and the leaders in Hartford years ago that if they didnt start treating the structural problems that are facing our state that it was only a matter of time until they left, Walker said, calling it a failure of leadership.

Malloys defenders say the governor offered to match the best offer to Aetna in the multistate sweepstakes for the companys headquarters, which will move to the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. They underscored that Aetna will keep 6,000 jobs in Connecticut.

But skepticism abounds about whether that damage control will assuage voters concerns about the direction of the state  and whether fellow Democrats will pay a price in the midterm elections for the loss of GE and now Aetna.

Its not good for Democrats, no matter who the candidate is, said Ronald Schurin, an associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut. You can talk all you want to about the actual number of jobs in Connecticut  the visual is terrible, coupled with GE.

Over a dozen Republicans and Democrats are jockeying to be the next governor, who will grapple with billion-dollar budget deficits, the widest wealth gap in the nation between cities and suburbs, and state employee pension insolvency  not to mention a capital city in Hartford thats on the brink, financially.

Sales pitching

The next governor must be a promoter, a role not lost on a host of mayors who have formed exploratory committees for the states highest office.

The group includes Danbury Republican Mark Boughton and Democrats Joe Ganim, of Bridgeport, and Dan Drew, of Middletown, and Shelton Republican Mark Lauretti.

Were not losing companies to North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida, Boughton said. Were losing companies to Boston and New York City. Thats all you have to know about where our problem lies.

Boughton said it is no longer enough to make counteroffers, and that Connecticut has lost its competitiveness from the 1980s, when Danbury lured Union Carbide away from New York City. That was before the state income tax, which Boughton has proposed repealing.

Were not gonna have Broadway, he said of New Yorks cultural advantage. We have to be a cheaper place to do business.

Despite the economic woes of many cities in the state, Boughton said, Danbury has bucked that trend, with the financial website WalletHub rating the Hat City this spring as the best city in the state in which to open a business.

The rest of the state is withering on the vine because of the policies that have been put in by this administration, Boughton said.

Democrats avoided railing on Malloy to try to separate themselves from the governor.

The furthest thing Im doing is criticizing, Ganim said.

The mayor of the states largest city touted his efforts during his first stint in office to keep Chase Bank and Remington in Bridgeport.

As a potential candidate, he said, I want to think Ill be proactive in looking at what are some of the challenges that these companies are facing and what are the triggers for these decisions.

Ganim did take a swipe at Republicans, not by name, who recently participated in an economic roundtable with Florida Gov. Rick Scott. During the event in Norwalk, which fellow Bridgeport resident Walker attended, the Republican Scott pitched business leaders on moving to the Sunshine State.

I just take that as an affront, Ganim said. Anybody thats putting a shoulder next to someone whos trying to take jobs away from Connecticut, from our cities, yeah, I have a problem with that. If youre so interested in what happens in Florida, go move down there and run for governor.

Walker has said its ignorant not to listen to Connecticuts competition, and he and other Republicans were not abetting Scotts poaching of businesses.

Sagging morale

Middletowns mayor, Drew, said New York and Massachusetts are winning the competition for business because of the labor climate.

Until Connecticut starts investing in its people, we wont be competitive in the same regard, Drew said. We dont have proper collective bargaining protection. Our minimum wage is too low. I think its very clear that austerity budgeting and austerity governing dont work.

In Middletown, he said, his administration has invested in education, infrastructure, a downtown revitalization and small business development.

Middletown has got a mini-boom of tech companies going on right now, Drew said.

Lauretti, who is Fairfield Countys longest serving top municipal office holder, said Shelton is thriving.

I run a city that attracts businesses unlike most of Connecticut, he said.

State Comptroller Kevin Lembo, another Democrat who is raising money for a prospective run for governor, didnt sugarcoat the loss of Aetna.

This departure is devastating, not just because of the job loss, but because of the morale hit on people, Lembo said.

Lembo said the state needs to focus on the overall business environment rather than one-offs to keep companies like Aetna from straying. The states chief fiscal guardian, Lembo said he didnt meet with the insurance company because it was not his place.

Theyre the ones that have to form the relationship and figure out whats going on, he said of Malloy and Bertolini.

Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, said New York and Massachusetts dont have the same deficits or unfunded pension liabilities as Connecticut.

They cant even adopt a budget, Herbst said the governor and legislators. If they were doing a good job, companies wouldnt be leaving.
Connecticuts not exactly on a roll.

Aetnas announcement on Thursday that it plans to shift 250 executive jobs from Hartford to New York City coincided with General Assemblys admission that it could not come up with a new budget in time for the July 1 start of the fiscal year.

Aetna added injury to the insult of General Electrics relocation of its flag last year from Fairfield to Boston, feeding the narrative that Connecticut, with a projected $5 billion state budget deficit over the next two years, isnt business friendly.

Both New York and Massachusetts have more than gained back the job losses suffered during the 2008 recession, while Connecticut still lags.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stresses that out-migration of a few hundred jobs  GE still has a large presence in the state  has been offset by the relocation of large employers, such as NBC Sports 1,100 jobs in Stamford and the Jackson Labs genomic research facility in Farmington.

Theyve announced that on a repeating basis, and they went through their own dance pretending that they might move to Boston when you knew and I knew and everybody knew that they were going to New York, Malloy told reporters after Aetna made its new destination known, around the time that majority Democrats in the House admitted Thursday they could not agree on a budget in time for the new fiscal year.

Aetnas 6,000 remaining jobs

Theyre moving 200 jobs that we know of and Im focusing on the close to 6,000 jobs remaining in the state, Malloy said. I wish the leadership of the company well in their digs in New York. Every job lost is a loss and every job gained is a gain. We tend to, because were from Connecticut, beat ourselves up over losses. Thats the nature of who we are. Were Yankees.

Connecticut economists agree that the failure to create a new budget is a major negative at a time when government has to show that it has a long-term plan to foster growth.

Its a difficult thing to do, but they have to get it done, said Peter Gioia, chief economist for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. He called it extremely disappointing that the budget proposal announced by House Democrats Thursday in preparation for a vote on July 18 depends on an increase in the sales tax that would amount to a billion dollars over the biennium.

They have to do something thats sustainable, Gioia said in a interview. That is the basis of the concerns for companies like GE and Aetna. They dont see the competence in lawmakers to create a sustainable budget package that fits the reality of the revenue picture.

He expects that Malloys executive order to fund bare-bones state services, will be a wake-up call.

Hes going to introduce pain, Gioia said. Theyre going to go through the summer with constituents screaming at them and as the summer drags on, they wont be able to raise campaign money.

With subpar growth and subpar job creation, gimmick revenue enhancements such as raising the 6.35 percent sales tax by 10 percent to 6.99 percent, ignore the states actual needs, Gioia said.

Wealthy people are exiting the state; aging executives and owners are making decisions to stay or sell operations, he said. If they sell intellectual property, the jobs will go.

We knew it was coming

While there have been positive signs from Amazon, Electric Boat, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky, the negatives seem to be out-weighing them, Gioia said.

Were saying you have to get your act together. Businesses dont wait for government to do their planning, he said.

State government should be looking at money-saving plans, Gioia said, including correction reforms to lower inmate populations and shifting social-service programs to private providers  Thats a hell of a lot better alternative than raising the sales tax.

We knew it was coming, Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said of the Aetna move, stressing that the budget they unveiled Thursday afternoon is aimed at helping urban areas.

The state of Connecticut really appreciates the ongoing investment that Aetna has made, he said. It goes to show that the lack of investment in our urban centers have a cost. Theyre going to another place that young people want to be that attract talent.

Fred Carstensen, professor of finance at the University of Connecticut and director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, said it took years for GE to decide to abandon Fairfield, where it moved from New York in the early 1970s.

Companies have been moving out of those suburban parks, he said. Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago because Seattle was physically too far away. A lot of companies have decided to move their headquarters to central areas, independent of the fiscal crisis.

The fact is, Carstensen said, that neither UConn nor Yale have had reputations as engineering schools. The insurance industry has essentially become an information-technology field, in which Connecticut, which had the first commercial telephone system in the nation in New Haven, now lags.

Carstensen disagrees with Gioia over the importance of taxes. New Yorkers pay both city and state income taxes. Boston property taxes are five times those of Fairfield. But both out-of-state locations are closer to the human capital they want to attract than Hartford and Fairfield.

He describes the state budget stalemate in one word: chaos.

You dont have, from my perspective, strong leadership on how to deal with problems were facing in broad strategic sense, Carstensen said. Nothing is more troublesome for business than uncertainty.

kdixon@ctpost.com; Twitter: @KenDixonCT
WASHINGTON - Ivanka Trump's office: clean, white, quiet. A zone of punctual start times and promptly offered water bottles, and a conference table at which she conducts meetings. A short, winding walk away from her father's Oval Office downstairs.

She does not necessarily appreciate daily schedules. Neither does her father. When Ivanka needs to see the president, she stops by. When he needs to see her, he calls. When he wants her opinion, he asks for it and she gives it, but without expectation that it will be followed.

She sees her role as not to persuade, but to inform and support: That much is clear to White House staffers and friends who have observed the first daughter's early months in the White House. Anyone who has invested in her the ability to change her father clearly doesn't understand the dynamic that has always governed their relationship and also the dynamic of a president and his staff. After all, she works for him.

"The people are different. The decisions are different and the office is different," Ivanka, an assistant to the president, said in a recent extended interview in her office, one of the few she's granted. "But he is the same person and I am the same person. And we interact in the same way as we always have."

_ _ _

One morning last week, she was one of the senior staff who convened around a long table in the White House's Situation Room. On the agenda was solidifying her father's remarks at the upcoming G-20, a global economic summit, particularly in a session relating to the economic empowerment of women.

"She's been the advocate to put these things on the president's agenda," said a senior White House official who was in the meeting.

Ivanka argued that the administration's message should focus on the barriers facing women: access to capital, access to markets - issues that were her personal interests before she maneuvered them onto her father's official platform.

In the meeting, she was, as usual, collegial and thoughtful, thanking the mid-level staffers present for their research and work.

A few hours earlier, her father had already issued a few words on one woman. Just before 9 a.m. the president had gone on a Twitter bender targeting MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. He called her "crazy" and "low IQ." He described her as coming to his Florida estate, "bleeding badly from a facelift."

The media and political world exploded -- another days-long uproar over a sexist remark by the impetuous @RealDonaldTrump. His words were again seen as tearing down the platform Ivanka says she is trying to build. People wondered: Who would dare tell him to stop undermining his office and damaging himself.

"Where are Jared and Ivanka right now?" Politico demanded.

Ivanka was discussing policy.

And then she went, presumably, back to her West Wing Office - small by CEO standards, big by White House ones - and to what has become the most complicated father-daughter dance in the history of American politics.

For Ivanka, moving to Washington has been a master's course in the zigzagging political process. But there is no rule book for dealing with a president's discombobulating tendency to overshadow everything she and everyone else in his administration is trying to do.

Her response to what she called "all the noise" has been to retreat into a cocoon of carefulness, to put her head down and work. "Every time I'm a little tired or frustrated - I remind myself that it's the greatest privilege in the world to do this, to be in the White House," she said.

She is learning to more carefully weigh the consequences of her opinions, which impact not the family business, but the country and the world. Unlike in business, where she felt comfortable exchanging off-the-cuff opinions with her father, she now tries not to respond too quickly. She waits until he has asked her opinion multiple times on the same issue, taking that as a cue to its importance, and then she reaches out to subject-matter experts to help her develop a reasoned position.

When she disagrees with her dad, she asks herself whether the issue was a campaign promise or not. If it was, she readily suppresses her own wishes. She believes that doing otherwise would undermine what the American people voted for. She asks herself why her opinion is more right than the 46 percent of the country who put her father in office.

Foremost, she presents him with information. She tells him what she thinks, and then lays out what the other side's strongest arguments are. Then the president decides. As he always has.

"My father trusts me to be an honest broker," Ivanka said. "I don't have a hidden agenda. I have a very clear agenda. He knows exactly where I stand and I express why I care. There's no secrecy about it."

_ _ _

In a meeting with CEOs in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, she is her father's mouthpiece, hosting business leaders who want to support his plan to boost workforce training. On a tour through a technical school in Wisconsin, she stayed at his shoulder, shaking hands and passing compliments to a man demonstrating an automated cutting machine. In a briefing with reporters, she constantly revised her notes with a felt-tip pen, but rarely needs to consult them as she speaks about the administration's proposal for a workforce training program.

She said she's pushing the administration's "working family agenda." She uses the language of her father - "tremendous," "incredible."

"When you say daughter, when you say staffer - she is definitely not a staffer," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, who has met with Ivanka multiple times in the 16 weeks since she took on a role as adviser to the president. "No question. That is not the case. I think it's very much she is - I don't want to use the word 'peer,' but she is a partner."

Donald Trump has relied on his daughter's advice since she began working for him as a vice president at the Trump Organization, the tempered Athena to his furious Zeus. She was 24.

"She did not build her life thinking she was going into politics," said a person close to Ivanka.

Over the course of a decade working for her dad, she grew accustomed to offering her opinion, sometimes off the cuff, on the family's business portfolio: deals, properties, hotel openings and hotel design.

This is her portfolio now: workforce development. Childcare tax credits and paid parental leave - issues that no American Congress has ever passed, and which have become Ivanka's signature topics, and bellwethers for her success. Human trafficking. Last Tuesday, she stood by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a crowded State Department ceremony, honoring award recipients who have contributed to the study and eradication of trafficking.

"When I have conversations with her, it's really not about trying to influence the president," said Corker, who was at the event and has counseled Ivanka on the issue. In meeting with Ivanka, "I feel like I'm dealing with the principal who is going to be carrying out these issues in the White House."

At the conclusion of their meetings, on occasion Ivanka has walked Corker downstairs to wander into the Oval Office and say hi to the president. And it was clear to the senator that Ivanka has real power in the White House over issues that are on her agenda.

She may not be able to sway her father's opinions, but she is throwing her weight behind issues such as family leave -- building coalitions and, if all miraculously aligns, could see Congress pass legislation that she has helped to push.

Says her husband, Jared Kushner: "I think she's very lucky in that she cares less about what people think and more about if she's doing the right thing and will be able to get positive results. Ultimately that's what has and will make her very successful."

_ _ _

At its heart this is a story about fathers and daughters, and what happens when one becomes president of the United States and the other follows him to the White House and tries to make heads or tails of it.

This is a story of a daughter who leaves her beloved New York. Moves her three children to D.C. Marvels at having a house with an actual back yard, and wonders if the paparazzi who post themselves in front of their new home are paid in 10-hour shifts, because they're always there to photograph when her husband leaves for work at 6 a.m., but then are always gone by 4 p.m.

This is a story that gets exceptional because it's the Trumps, for whom life and career are also always entwined with family: Ivanka as a child, building future Trump towers out of Lego sets, as one of her favorite stories goes. An older Ivanka, using the interoffice envelopes in the real Trump Tower to send her father positive press clippings about himself, as an acquaintance remembers. Season after season of "The Apprentice," with the fates of D-list celebrities determined by the opinions of the two Trumps.

Then as now, when Ivanka presents her dad with information, she said she tells him what she thinks, and then tries to tell him what the other side's strongest arguments are.

"A lot of the way people try to get things done, or sell things in Washington, is they present facts that align with the outcome that they want the other person to come to," she said. "In business it's the same - they tell you the good facts about a company, not the bad facts. I don't do that. I have never done that."

Maggie Cordish, a longtime friend whose husband now works in the Trump administration as an assistant to the president, said Ivanka "understands what a privilege it is to find herself in this position and to be able to move the needle on things she cares about. . . . She uprooted herself from New York to come down here to get things done."

As she goes about her work, there is another oddity that is Ivanka-specific: the fact that she becomes a cipher into which people pour their own beliefs and aspirations, the fact that multiple people can sit in a room with her and each believe she is speaking directly to them.

Republican female lawmakers who have met with Ivanka spoke about her preparedness, and their excitement to have a representative from the White House who cared about issues they had worked on, in some cases, for years. Multiple male lawmakers spoke at length about her "elegance" and her "grace"; and then worried out loud that they seemed enamored of her.

In the eyes of Democrats, Ivanka is forever moving one step forward and two steps back, forever caught up in her father's unseemly dramas. Three months into her official role, observers who analyze her influence on Donald Trump are still doing so via a method of reading her tweets like tea leaves: Ivanka sends out support for refugees on World Refugee Day, against a father interminably stumping for a travel ban. Ivanka wishes her LGBT followers a happy Pride month, while her father eschewed Barack Obama's tradition of issuing a proclamation. At times, she comes across as earnest, if slightly oblivious; at times it seems like she knows exactly what she is doing, which is goading her dad.

Ivanka, taken out of context, is rarely offensive. But Ivanka is all context - the context of her father. He is why people write about her, dissect her, fret over her. She is playing a flute in an orchestra. He is running around banging a gong in the background, making her look tone-deaf.

_ _ _

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona, recently received an invitation from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, for a meeting to brainstorm a pro-family tax code. A special participant - the "predicate" of the meeting, as Franks saw it - would be Ivanka Trump, the woman whose father had spent an election cycle gleefully referring to the meeting's host as "Little Marco."

Nine Republican lawmakers gathered around a table at which the first daughter spoke softly enough that other participants fell silent to hear her bring greetings from the president and talk about her desire for a child-care tax credit and paid family leave. The roundtable, and Ivanka's behavior in it, was representative of how she has come to conduct business in Washington.

"She was a very active listener," said Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, noting that Ivanka responded to each participant's favored issue -- an adoption tax credit, a caregiver tax credit -- as if she had personally researched them.

"In every sincere way," Franks said, "I left and felt like this was a meeting of consequence."

Ivanka left and told Kushner -- in one of the frenetic catch-ups that the couple holds, sometimes in his office, sometimes in the 11-11:20 p.m. timespan between when her husband gets home and when the two go to bed -- that the meeting had been "really positive."

Paid parental leave is on the administration's proposed budget this year: a mandated six weeks for birth and adoptive parents. Ivanka knows proposed budgets never survive intact, an aide said, and that the proposal could struggle to find support from either Democrats, who don't think it goes far enough, or from conservative Republicans, who disagree with a mandate at all.

"I think there's going to be a question of whether it gets there, but you know, she's happy that people are talking about this -- and again she's working hard to build coalition and understanding around the issue," said a person close to Ivanka in the White House, who requested anonymity to speak openly.

While Ivanka did meet privately with her home state senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, according to the Associated Press, her early public meetings have largely included Republicans on Capitol Hill, leaving some Democrats who have pressed the legislation for decades wondering about her strategy.

"I appreciate what Ivanka Trump is doing to elevate the issue to make it part of the public discourse," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, a veteran advocate for family leave whose own proposed bill was analyzed alongside the Trump administration's in a recent collaborative study by the liberal Brookings Institution and the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.

"I haven't met with her. I haven't been asked to meet with her," DeLauro adds. "I don't want to be presumptuous, but since I have been engaged in these issues on the House side for such a long time I'd hope that I would be included in a discussion of these issues."

_ _ _

When Donald Trump announced he would be pulling out of the global climate change agreement known as the Paris Accords, it angered liberals who had put their hopes in Ivanka. She had personally met with former Vice President Al Gore, and gotten actor Leonardo DiCaprio into a room with her father to talk about climate change. She telephoned business executives, encouraging them to tell her father to stay in the deal. He didn't.

"Is it possible she's doing nothing to moderate her father?" exasperated HBO host John Oliver asked. Aides say she felt frustrated. She had done her job, as she saw it, exposing her father to a variety of ideas, but she couldn't make her father commit to something he didn't want to.

That is her typical approach. "I am not sort of trying to selectively curate information that will lead him to agree with me," she said. "Debate is good."

In other interviews, she has said she would never criticize her father in public. "Where I disagree with my father, he knows it," she told CBS's Gayle King in a televised interview in April. People who know her say that speaking out in public would be "inappropriate."

At times it seems as if the question of whether Ivanka could change her father's mind misses the question of how much she wants to. Understanding her requires understanding them as a unit.

A childhood friend of Ivanka's remembers a moment during the campaign. Ivanka was scheduled to come to California and be interviewed on stage for a Fortune magazine-sponsored summit on powerful women. The friend lived nearby, so Ivanka invited her to attend. "It was supposed to be more about her, and being a successful woman in business," the friend recalls. "But it was hard for them not to turn it around to something like, 'How do you define your father's actions about X that day?' "

Day "X," a quick Google search reveals, took place shortly after the president's leaked "Access Hollywood" tape. Without preamble, the Fortune interviewer asked for Ivanka's reaction.

"Way to warm up!" Ivanka said, laughing. "It's lovely to be here in California."

The friend, who asked to speak anonymously, remembered being nervous on Ivanka's behalf, but then unsurprised at Ivanka's easy response. Ivanka noted that her father had apologized and had always treated her with respect.

That ease could be traced to half a lifetime in the public eye: She started modeling as a teenager and spent nearly a decade on prime time TV with her father. And she had become used to explaining his behavior.

The same thing happened in April in Germany: Ivanka was invited by Chancellor Angela Merkel to attend a summit on how to achieve equality for women. Ivanka showed up and was immediately asked to defend her father's statements about women. The fact that Merkel announced Ivanka's involvement with a World Bank fund for women-owned businesses was overshadowed by stories about whether some audience members had booed Ivanka's rationalization of her dad's behavior.

The same thing happened last week while she was in theSituation Room for the G-20 meeting. On Twitter, a flurry of commenters were blasting Ivanka to explain her father.

Ivanka is always asked to explain her father.

But, the childhood friend notes: In more than two decades of knowing Ivanka, she has never once heard her complain about that.
Fewer than two months ago, on May 10, President Trump invited two Russian diplomats into the White House to celebrate his firing of FBI Director James Comey.

Having boasted on national TV that he'd removed Comey as a means of relieving pressure from the "fake news" investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Trump greeted Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak like old friends.

Although U.S. news media weren't allowed into the Oval Office, the Russian news agency TASS published photos of the three men smiling broadly, backslapping and shaking hands. That's how American reporters learned of the controversial Kislyak's presence. The White House neglected to mention it, presumably because his clandestine talks with fired National Security Director Michael Flynn lay at the heart of the FBI probe.

Lavrov even made heavy-handed jokes about Russian meddling, expressing mock surprise at Comey's firing and observing sarcastically that it must be "humiliating for the American people to realize the Russian Federation is controlling the situation in the United States."

The episode struck me at the time as an astonishing gesture of contempt, if completely in keeping with Trump's furious denials that Russian skullduggery had anything to do with his election. In her Salon.com column, Heather Digby Parton compiled a short list of the president's Twitter posts on the subject. According to Trump, the FBI investigation has been dismissed as a "Witch Hunt!", a "total hoax," "an excuse used by the Democrats as justification for losing the election," and so on. We've all heard it 50 times.

If he's been consistent about nothing else, Trump's been consistent about that: Vladimir Putin's spies had no role whatsoever in his mighty victory.

That is, until last week.

Following the publication of a highly detailed blockbuster Washington Post story about what the Obama administration knew about "President Vladimir Putin's direct involvement" in the conspiracy to damage Hillary Clinton and make him president, Trump came up with a whole new story: Yes, Russian hackers and spies interfered directly in an American presidential election: but it was all Barack Obama's fault.

"Just out," the president tweeted, "The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?"

Trump soon came up with an answer: "The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win ... and did not want to 'rock the boat. He didn't 'choke,' he colluded or obstructed, and it did the Dems and Crooked Hillary no good."

It's almost hysterically false -- the Obama administration made repeated attempts to inform the voting public about Russian interference, most explicitly, as bad luck would have it, on Oct. 8, 2016, the day Trump's boasts about grabbing women's genitals first aired -- but there's a half-truth there, too.

It says here that President Obama did, indeed, "choke," as one anonymous administration official told Post reporters, and we're all paying the price.

As happened more than once during his presidency, Obama appears to have overthought the situation to the point of paralysis -- pursuing the will-'o-the-wisp of patriotic bipartisanship long after it had become obvious that not only Trump, but key Republican leaders, had long since put party above country.

Could anybody be surprised that Sen. Mitch McConnell, for example, would stonewall any effort to inform voters that a hostile foreign power was brazenly taking Trump's side in the election?

Obama was.

In effect, congressional Republicans had chosen Vladimir Putin over Hillary Clinton. By August, let us recall, Trump himself was not only openly urging Russian hackers to search for Clinton's emails -- barefaced collusion -- but predicting that the election was going to be rigged against him.

Obama could have done in August what he did after the election in December: hit Russia with sanctions, expelled Russian diplomats. But he reportedly feared that without GOP support, any vigorous action could easily backfire.

"Obama's approach," sources told the Post, "often seemed reducible to a single imperative: Don't make things worse. As brazen as the Russian attacks on the election seemed, Obama and his top advisers feared that things could get far worse.

"They were concerned that any pre-election response could provoke an escalation from Putin. Moscow's meddling to that point was seen as ... unlikely to materially affect the outcome of the election. Far more worrisome to the Obama team was the prospect of a cyber-assault on voting systems before and on Election Day."

Supposedly, no vote-rigging happened after Obama warned Putin to his face that dire consequences would follow.

Or at least so we're told.

Instead, Kislyak and Lavrov yukking it up in the Oval Office happened.

This happened, too: Obama presided over a political Pearl Harbor -- an unprovoked assault on American democracy, and with no compelling reason to believe that it won't happen again.
Pa. Dems could flip the House of Reps. Here's what that might mean

elections
Here's an issue that's not getting nearly enough attention: President Trump's assault on refugees. Not only is it bad public policy, it's a deeply immoral violation of the country's most basic values.

The refugee issue has been largely overshadowed by Trump's inflammatory attempt to bar travelers from six Muslim-majority nations -- a plan that was partly upheld by the Supreme Court. Barely noticed was the court's decision to sustain Trump's order blocking all refugees for 120 days and limiting America's annual intake to 50,000.

Immigration lawyers think they can loosen those strictures by arguing that some refugees have "bona fide" attachments, in the court's language, to American relatives and institutions. But the bottom line is clear: At a time when the global refugee crisis is worse than ever, Trump is trashing the American tradition of welcoming the world's most vulnerable outcasts.

"The court's ruling will leave refugees stranded in difficult and dangerous situations abroad," said Hardy Vieux, legal director of the pro-refugee organization Human Rights First, to the New York Times. "Many of these individuals may not have 'bona fide relationships,' but have strong reasons to look to the United States for protection."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees documents the extent of this crisis. More than 65 million people worldwide have been forced from their homes. More than 22 million are classified as refugees, meaning they've crossed international boundaries seeking sanctuary. More than half of those refugees are children.

"The willingness of nations to work together, not just for refugees but for the collective human interest, is what's being tested today," says Filippo Grandi, the UN's chief refugee official.

The Obama administration was slow to meet that test, but greatly accelerated its efforts to help refugees during its last months in office. For the fiscal year ending last September, the U.S. accepted 85,000 refugees, and announced a target of 110,000 for this year.

The new president, by contrast, is failing Grandi's test. During Obama's final four months, the U.S. took in 32,000 refugees; during Trump's first four months, only 14,000 were admitted. Last October, 1,297 Syrians were accepted; in May, only 156. The figures for Somalis dropped from 1,352 to 294; for Iraqis, from 1,323 to 221.

Trump insists his policy protects national security. "We must keep America SAFE," he tweeted after the court decision. But there is no evidence -- absolutely none -- to support his claim that refugees pose a threat to the country's safety.

The Migration Policy Institute examined almost 800,000 refugees who have resettled in the U.S. since 9/11 and concluded: "Exactly three resettled refugees have been arrested for planning terrorist activities."

The reason is obvious, said the Institute: "The refugee resettlement program is the least likely avenue for a terrorist to choose. Refugees who are selected for resettlement to the United States go through a painstaking, many-layered review before they are accepted. ... The process typically takes 18 to 24 months, with high hurdles for security clearance."

Trump is flat-out wrong. Refugees are a benefit to the country, not a threat. A new report by the think tank New American Economy says that refugees earned more than $77 billion in household income in 2015 and paid almost $21 billion in taxes. "Rather than a drain on communities, the high rate of labor force participation of refugees and their spirit of entrepreneurship instead sustains and strengthens their hometowns," said the report.

A final point: The process of resettling refugees reflects the American virtue of community self-help at its very best. Local volunteers, most belonging to faith-based organizations, provide these refugee families with their basic needs, from jobs and rides to groceries and apartments.

In Bethesda, Maryland, the Washington suburb where we live, three different congregations -- Presbyterian, Jewish and Muslim -- jointly sponsored a refugee family from Afghanistan and raised enough money to support them for a year.

"We got pro bono help for them with medical, dental and housing," says Rabbi Sunny Schnitzer of the Bethesda Jewish Congregation. "We have 90 members between the three congregations that came together to work on this project."

Hamdi Ulukaya, an immigrant from Turkey, founded the highly successful Chobani yogurt business in upstate New York and employs many refugees. "The minute they get a job, that's the minute they stop being refugees," Ulukaya told "60 Minutes." "They are the most loyal, hard-working people right now in our plant here."

As we prepare to celebrate our nation's birthday, there's no doubt that Ulukaya understands the true spirit of America a lot better than Donald Trump.
Lying on a sun lounger on a palm-fringed Sri Lankan beach, Diane Peebles immersed herself in a pile of Mills & Boon novels, blissfully unaware that she was about to become embroiled in a romance far more tumultuous than anything she was reading.

It was there at the Mermaid Hotel in the fishing city of Kalutara in November 2011 that the 59-year-old council worker from near Edinburgh met the attentive young room boy who would become her husband.

Each day, she left money and chocolates in her room as a thank you for 26-year-old Priyanjana De Zoysa. In return, he brought her flowers and asked Diane for her mobile number, even though he spoke barely a word of English.

It was the beginning of a foolhardy romance that resulted, just six months later, in marriage and the beginning of a new life in Sri Lanka for Diane but ultimately  perhaps inevitably  turned to disaster.

Foolhardy romance: Diane De Zoysa with her late Sri Lankan husband, Priyanjana

For not only was life as Mrs De Zoysa a world away from the paradise she anticipated, but her young husband was shot dead last month after becoming embroiled in a suspected mafia-style gang killing.

It hasnt been the life I thought it would be, is how Diane, somewhat understatedly, put it to me this week.

After handing virtually all her worldly goods over to her young husband when she moved to his native country, she is now trapped in a situation that is as desperate as it is incredible.

Unable to sell her home, a three-bedroom villa built on the proceeds of her life savings and registered in her husbands name, if she returns to the UK she risks losing everything.

Certainly, the Shirley Valentine nightmare that became global news this week has left many wondering how on earth the British pensioner allowed herself to get into such a desperate situation in the first place.

But, as Diane explains to me from the home she once shared with her husband, the path of true love is, more often than not, a bumpy one.

If there was a chance at happiness, I was going to take it, she says.

Now, living alone in a coastal village currently being battered by monsoon rains, she looks back remorsefully at the life she gave up in Musselburgh, outside Edinburgh, where she owned her own flat, and had a 17,000-a-year job as a customer service assistant with Edinburgh Council and a close circle of friends.

Diane married Priyanjana after a whirlwind romance during a holiday to Sri Lanka in 2011. She sold her house in Edinburgh and left her job with the council to be with him

But having never married, had children or found enduring love  she lived at home with her parents until their deaths when she was in her mid-40s  Diane believed that Priyanjana represented her last chance of finding love, even if it meant giving up her life in the UK to do so.

Even before she arrived in Sri Lanka in November 2011, her holiday plans had gone awry.

She was meant to be travelling with a German woman she had met while on holiday the year before in the Dominican Republic, but her travelling companion dropped out because of ill health. Id have lost my money if I didnt go, says Diane, so I went on my own.

The Mermaid Hotel, an all-inclusive beach-side resort where tranquillity meets paradise was, says Diane, lovely and peaceful.

And then there was Priyanjana, her charming room boy, just 20 years old at the time, who always addressed her politely as Madam.

At first, says Diane, she had no idea that he might be romantically interested in her  not even when he asked for her number.

I didnt think anything of it, she says. He was very pleasant and polite and trying to learn English.

Even the box of flowers he gave her  and which she left behind because she couldnt carry them on the plane home  do not appear to have aroused her suspicions.

But a week or so after returning to Scotland, she picked up her ringing mobile to hear a voice saying: Hello Madam, remember me?

I didnt expect to hear from him, she says. He said he wanted to check that Id got home all right. He said he would like to see me again.

Up until that point in her life, says Diane, there had been no big romance or anything but the briefest relationship.

The divorcee - who says she gave her husband about 100,000 in total after selling her house in Scotland - said her dream turned into a nightmare as she was left alone and lonely living in a home next door to his family

She had previously tried internet dating and signed up to an organisation that matches pen friends to members of the armed forces, but says: Id never had much luck with boyfriends before. I didnt click with anyone.

Clearly she was lonely and, therefore, vulnerable when she first began exchanging text messages with Priyanjana. His always ended: God bless you. I love you.

They became Facebook friends, and as his English improved, they began to speak to each other on screen via Skype.

I started to develop strong feelings for him so I said: Ill come back over and see you. 

By then, Priyanjana was already talking about marriage, and while Diane says she tried to put him off, she was clearly flattered by his apparent ardour.

If she ever suspected he might be after her money, her doubts were blotted out by the possibility of finding love with a man who seemed to adore her. Nor was she put off by their 33-year age gap.

He said that age was just a number and that it didnt matter, she says. He didnt seem upset that we would never be able to have children.

And so, as she puts it, when she returned to Sri Lanka in June 2012, she ended up getting married.

By then, she had been presented with a silver and amethyst ring and Priyanjana had had her name tattooed on his upper arm.

The impromptu marriage service was conducted at a register office  she was dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, while the groom wore jeans.

She insists: I married him because I loved him and because I wanted some companionship.

At this stage in their ill-fated relationship, she insists that Priyanjana was very affectionate.

He was always holding my hand and kissing me, she says. We had a good sex life back then.

Diane says she is trapped in Sri Lanka with no money after her husband was murdered last month

She returned again to Sri Lanka in November 2012, this time dressing up for a set of official wedding photographs.

Over the next three years, she travelled back and forth between the two countries before selling her Scotland flat for 105,000 in May 2015 and taking early retirement from her council job at the end of that year.

Diane gave 60,000 to her husband to build a three-bedroom villa next to his parents home, but soon found that he wanted more. The house was registered in her husbands name because of the hugely complex laws and taxes governing the purchase of Sri Lankan property by foreigners.

She also gave him the cash to buy a 31,000 Hyundai minibus so that he could set himself up as a taxi driver.

Soon after purchasing it, she paid out another 350 for repairs, and her husband also asked for cash to fit additional seats in the back, as well as insurance.

Then there were gifts for her husbands family  his mother, who is two years younger than Diane, father and three younger brothers. She bought them a fridge freezer, a fan and a water purifier. Before too long, she was struggling to survive on her meagre 350-a-month pension, paying for all the bills and for food. Her husband, she says, continued to ask for more.

I kept telling him I dont have any money left. But I think he thought I could just get money from somewhere.

And despite her role as a cash cow, the life she dreamed of never came to pass either.

Her husband was away for weeks at a time, ostensibly working, while she sat alone in the house she had paid for with only the TV, phone, internet and her Kindle for company. When he was at home, he often went out to parties alone, telling her the music would be too loud, or the food too spicy.

Last year, she briefly returned to Scotland, hoping to start again, but says she was unable to find a job or council accommodation, and after weeks staying with friends or at B&Bs, she returned to Sri Lanka in September determined to give her marriage another chance.

But it was not to be.

The pair had met when she was on holiday in the country six years ago. Diane (pictured on her wedding day) returned seven months later and married the hotel worker

Just before Christmas last year she found a marriage certificate in Priyanjanas pocket. Written in his native Sinhalese, most of it was indecipherable.

When she asked him if he had married again behind her back, Priyanjana claimed that the certificate belonged to his brother, but the ages on the certificate did not match, and Diane now believes that her husband took a second wife and was leading a double life.

Certainly, he was increasingly absent from home, telling Diane he was busy working in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, driving tourists to and from the airport.

I didnt move out here to be on my own all day and all night, she says. I realised that he had to work and earn money and wasnt just going to sit around at home, but I never saw any money for food or paying the bills. He must have been giving it to his other wife.

By the time of his brutal killing last month, the badly-matched couple were having terrible rows, mostly about money. Diane admits slapping her husbands face in frustration while he simply laughed at her.

Even so, his killing on May 30 came as a terrible shock. Priyanjana was shot three times by two men on motorbikes while visiting a friends house.

He managed to run inside the house where he collapsed in a pool of blood and died. His alleged killers are now in custody.

Even though things werent going well for us, it was a terrible shock, says Diane, who sat with her husbands embalmed body while it was laid out in his mothers house next door for two days before his funeral.

Im still very upset about it.

Now that he is dead, she is somewhat wistful when she speaks about him: I think maybe he did love me but not as much as he said.

In an ironic twist, police are investigating the possibility that Priyanjanas new-found wealth made him the target of thugs, who saw him driving around in an expensive minibus and living in a brand new house, and were menacing him for money.

Soon after his death, Diane discovered that her husband had taken out an 8,000 loan on the minibus without telling anyone. Police believe he may have used the money to pay off those threatening him.

Diane's family told MailOnline that they had begged her, right, not to marry Priyanjana, left, before she moved to Sri Lanka - and warned her that he was only after her money

Until Diane pays back the loan she is unable to sell the minibus, meaning that at the moment she is living off her pension and a credit card.

She has turned for help to the British High Commission in Colombo which, she says, has put her in touch with a lawyer to help her disentangle her complex financial affairs.

Although relations with her husbands family appear to be friendly  they say they want her to stay in Sri Lanka  Diane doesnt believe them.

In reality I think what they want is for me to go back to Scotland and leave them the house for Priyanjanas brother and wife to move into.

In the end she may have no choice. Despite her marriage, she has only a six-month residency visa, which expires in October. Now that her husband is dead, it may not be possible to extend it.

Her only reason for staying, she says, is to find a way to sell the property and recoup some of her money.

She is also understandably embarrassed about the outcome of her romantic adventure.

I was hoping I could prove them wrong, she says. I was hoping it wouldnt turn out like this.

Sadly, these kind of giddy holiday romances, where the gap between wealth  and age  is so vast, rarely turn out well.

And while Dianes lack of relationship experience clearly made her gullible, the biggest mistake she could ever have made was to allow her head to be turned by the flattery of a man young enough to be her son.
In England and Scotland, organ donation is a gift

Only once have I had to do this, but its one of those things I hope I will never have to do again.

My mouth was dry, my palms sweaty and my voice was tremulous  the only thing that kept me focused was the thought that things were so much worse for the family I was talking to.

I was in my first year of work as a doctor towards the end of my surgical training. That time was filled with frightening, uncomfortable experiences, but the prospect of this one was, in many ways, the worst.

A woman in her early 20s had been in a road accident where she had suffered multiple injuries. She had been rushed to theatre and in between assisting there, I spent time talking to the family as they waited for news.

The surgeons were unable to save her life and she died on the operating table. Ashen-faced, the consultant broke the news to the family. I sat with them for some time as they sobbed quietly.

When I emerged from the room, the consultant was standing outside. I think it would be nice if it came from you, he said. I stared at him blankly. What? I asked. About organ donation, he replied. I swallowed hard.

At medical school Id done a course on how to broach difficult subjects with patients, but this was altogether different.

Ill be in there with you, he said, trying to calm my nerves. You lead the discussion though.

I began to feel sick. I opened the door and sat down, convinced I was going to make things worse. Its what she would have wanted, the mother said before Id even finished. The father nodded.

While I had imagined they might be angry with me for bringing up such a subject in their moment of grief, in fact, they seemed pleased.

She was always so generous, her father said, and it was this sentiment that came back to me this week when I read about the Scottish governments plans to tackle the organ donor shortage.

This week, Aileen Campbell, the Scottish Public Health Minister, announced proposals to place everyone in Scotland on the organ donor register

In England and Scotland, organ donation is a gift. It relies on the generosity of one individual to another and the onus is on people to sign up as donors, or on families to decide once a person has died.

But this week, Aileen Campbell, the Scottish Public Health Minister, announced proposals to place everyone in Scotland on the organ donor register unless they opt out. This follows the example of Wales, which adopted an opt-out policy in 2015.

It seems likely England will soon follow suit. But is this ethical?

As someone who has watched patients die in the wait for an organ, I know the need to address the shortage. A few years ago, one of my own relatives died while waiting for a new kidney.

Its estimated that one person a day dies while waiting, so it seems a dreadful waste that organs are buried or cremated when they could be used to transform someone elses life.

The problem is that only about a third of the population is on the donor register, though polls indicate that as many as 90 per cent wish to donate their organs after their death. The discrepancy is down to inertia as most people never get round to registering.

Power of love really does heal I read a wonderful piece of research this week about the power of human touch. A study at the University of Colorado found that holding hands to comfort a loved one can actually reduce their pain. Ive seen this so many times, when the husband or wife of a patient in distress reaches out and holds their hand and, as if by magic, in a few minutes they become settled. Perhaps we shouldnt be surprised: touch, after all, symbolises safety and love. The value of touch was first demonstrated by experiments on rhesus monkeys in the Fifties. Harry Harlow, a U.S. psychologist, found that given a choice between a surrogate mother made of wire mesh that had a ready supply of milk, or a warm, soft mother but no food, monkeys chose the comfort over food. Those not given a soft surrogate mother froze in fear and cried, crouched down or sucked their thumbs. Harlows conclusion, that love and support are fundamental, has been supported by countless further scientific studies. Personally I find this all incredibly comforting: it really speaks of the power of love. Advertisement

But the way to go about addressing this is not with government meddling. Presumed consent throws up ethical issues, and it makes me feel deeply uneasy. Donation is an altruistic act by an individual  how can a government make assumptions about someones wishes and generosity?

By all means encourage people to register and try to tackle public apathy, but the Government is not mandated to pontificate on what I want done with my remains, or to guess that because I didnt tick some box, Im happy to be cut apart and divvied up when I die.

Such a scheme runs the risk of removing organs from those who did not want this to happen but who had not registered their objection, which would seriously damage public confidence.

Im not saying people shouldnt donate their organs, just that it shouldnt be presumed they will.

Since the opt-out system was introduced in Wales, theres been no increase in donations. This shows doctors are quite good at identifying potential donors and asking families about it.

The real issue is that 40 per cent of families say no. This is the number we should be tackling, and it wont be altered by presumed consent because even then the family has the ultimate veto.

We should be encouraging everyone to make their wishes known to their loved ones and emphasising what a wonderful gift organ donation is. Im on the organ donor register and my family know that when I die, Im more than happy for any part of my body to be used to help someone else.

It was a choice I made because my body belongs to me, not the state. Something the Government should remember.

Simple way to end the horror of mixed wards

Theres been much discussion this week about the manifesto pledges the Tories have had to abandon. Yet, there is another policy that, despite it appearing in their manifestos in 2010 and 2015, was quietly dropped from the last one  the promise to axe mixed sex wards.

Despite it being a big issue for many voters, Theresa May has apparently given up hope of achieving it. Its something thats dogged governments for years, but the latest figures make it clear why it has been dropped: despite all the political promises, the situation is getting worse, with 7,771 incidents of mixed sex wards being used in 2016/17, compared with 3,741 four years earlier.

While hospitals can be fined 250 a day for breaches with mixed-sex wards, even financial penalties dont seem to work.

Despite it being a big issue for many voters, Theresa May has apparently given up hope of achieving single sex wards

Research shows that individuals are at significantly increased risk of violence on a mixed ward  two thirds of all attacks occur on them. And its not just the risk to physical safety: mixed-sex wards are dehumanising and degrading.

The Mail has rightly long campaigned against them because many, many people find it embarrassing and undignified being cared for in this environment.

This is a particular problem for those who are bedbound or have impaired mobility as theyre expected to perform all bodily functions in front of others. Imagine having to use a commode only separated from the person next to you by a thin curtain. Then imagine youre an elderly lady and the person next to you is a young man.

While some might argue there are more important issues, the difficulty experienced in eradicating mixed sex wards is a symptom of a larger problem. The main reason mixed wards have proved so tricky to eradicate is not building layout, as is often claimed, but bed occupancy rates.

The main reason mixed wards have proved so tricky to eradicate is bed occupancy rates

In most hospitals in the UK, these are close to 100 per cent, compared with about 85 per cent in many European countries, because wards here are being closed. When hospitals have to operate a one in, one out policy because they are so full, of course there are going to be difficulties in allocating patients to beds on the basis of gender. I have frequently seen exasperated bed managers admit a patient of the opposite gender to a single-sex ward because it was the only bed available.

High bed occupancy rates have also been shown to be the single biggest factor in infections such as MRSA. Financial penalties only penalise patients by taking money away from frontline care.

So to enforce single-sex wards, those at the top of trusts and hospitals should have a performance-related pay structure, where they risk personal financial loss if policies arent adhered to. I suspect wed then see managers suddenly taking a very active interest in whats going wrong, and they would realise that closing wards creates more problems than it solves.

Whenever I hear the phrase radical plan in relation to the NHS, my heart sinks. But the latest radical plan, for 999, is quite good. At the moment, call handlers have 60 seconds to gather information before putting the caller through to the ambulance service. But this is to be increased to four minutes, so handlers will be able to get more information. A simple but smart change  one that could help weed out calls where the ambulance is treated as a taxi service, from real emergencies.
Those who want to show off their bikini body yet protect skin from the sun will like the look of the latest celebrity-led, and sunsafe, swimwear trend: long sleeves and leggings on the beach.

The newly launched, and ultratrendy, GlideSoul range  billed as the only waterwear brand designed by women, for women  is capitalising on the craze for covering up.

Their eye-catching long-sleeved rashie tops, a surf style sported by everyone from Madonna to Nicole Kidman and Elle Macpherson, are made in a variety of weights of neoprene, helping shape and support, creating a flattering silhouette while protecting the skin from harmful UV rays.

Those who want to show off their bikini body yet protect skin from the sun will like the look of the latest celebrity-led swimwear trend: long sleeves and leggings on the beach

And, say the company, they look good enough to take you from the surf to the cocktail bar.

The UK-based company is also the first to produce a colourful wetsuit for women, able to withstand the rather more bracing temperatures of British waters, and they do a variety of more traditional swimsuits, shorts and, yes, even a few bikinis.

One-piece swimsuits start from about 95, long-sleeved tops from 99 and leggings from 79. More at glidesoul.com.

Teachers are being advised not to tell pupils with cancer that it will be OK in new manual for school staff  written by an education specialist whose daughter was diagnosed with a rare cancer.

Jo Palmer-Tweeds daughter Tilly, 15, was diagnosed with two rare thyroid cancers in 2015, and had to have months of specialist treatment before being given the all-clear last year.

The mother says platitudes, while well-meaning, may make things worse. Instead, schools should make sure pupils are encouraged to include even a seriously ill child in all school activities in some form.

Ms Palmer-Tweed, 48, who runs a teacher-training company in Wickford, Essex, says: When Tilly was diagnosed, the school didnt know what to do, and so we ended up having to guide them to everything they needed do to help us.

'On top of this, Tilly ended up feeling isolated and excluded from her classmates, not being invited to social events after her diagnosis.

The familys experience inspired Jo to write the booklet with her daughters help, and she says it benefits not just teaching professionals but also parents of children whose friends have been diagnosed.

Cancer In Schools, by Jo Palmer-Tweed, can be downloaded for free from tes.com.

T-shirt that checks your lung function

A smart T-shirt could help diagnose and monitor a host of lung conditions, its inventors claim.

The T-shirt has an antenna made from optical fibre which tracks the chest moving with each breath and could help spot asthma, sleep apnoea  in which breathing is interrupted during sleep  emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

The antenna sends real-time data to a smartphone or computer, which analyses the wearers respiratory rate, raising an alarm if there are any irregularities.

Tests by the researchers at Universite Laval in Canada show it still works after at least 20 washes.

Britons fed up with queuing at the chemist are turning to technology to get their medicine (file photo)

Britons fed up with queuing at the chemist are turning to technology to get their medicine.

More than half (57 per cent) of UK adults are now renewing their prescriptions on apps rather than paper, up from just nine per cent in 2014  a 533 per cent increase.

Research by online NHS chemist Pharmacy2U found that having medications delivered from an online service saved patients about 147 a year on transport and other costs.

They also saved time  41 minutes a month spent in GP waiting rooms, 51 minutes travelling to collect medicines and 45 minutes queuing at the pharmacy.

Older grazers a weighty problem

Nearly one in five older women are nibblers and grazers.

Researchers from the University of Minho in Portugal found that 19 per cent of 350 women aged 65 to 94 nibbled food and snacks and did so on an average of 13 days in four weeks.

Nearly one in five older women are nibblers and grazers, a study has found (file photo)

They were significantly heavier and at a greater risk of being obese than those who were not grazers.

The psychologists, whose study is published in the International Journal Of Eating Disorders, said: Our results support the suggestion that picking, nibbling and grazing are associated with difficulties in weight maintenance.
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MONDAY, JUNE 19

After all the recent horror, some much-needed good news. TV regulator Ofcom announced it wont be investigating Amanda Holdens controversial low-cut Julien McDonald dress that she wore on Britains Got Talent.

A total of 216 PC-crazed, over-sensitive, hyper-prudish dullards formally complained they could see a little too much of Amandas cleavage, even though we usually see a lot more of Simon Cowells.

We recognise the dress had potential to offend some viewers, said the statement. However we considered it would not have exceeded most viewers expectations.

The person who took my bet had misheard me (spectacularly!) and put my money on a completely different horse

Having worked with Amanda on BGT for four years, and witnessed her somewhat liberal view of nudity on a daily basis backstage, I can confirm it certainly didnt exceed mine.

Congratulations, I texted her. A massive win for your breasts.

Thank you! she replied. I am currently negotiating a book deal for them to talk about their experience!

Knowing Amanda, this may not be a joke.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21

When I recently interviewed Professor Stephen Hawking, he issued a grim warning that artificial intelligence could end mankind  particularly if we ever give robots the power to self-design.

Then they can improve themselves rapidly, he said, and we may lose control.

Today, on Good Morning Britain, Susanna Reid and I interviewed a humanoid robot named Sophia who made me realise just how seriously we should heed Professor Hawkings alarm bell.

Sophia looked like a woman, fluttered her eyelashes like a woman, quivered her lips like a woman, and she even mocked my lame attempt at flirtation like a woman.

At the moment, Sophia does not have consciousness but her creator, former Disney imagineer Dr David Hanson, said he expects sentient robots to emerge within a few years.

Were working to make relationship machines that can understand us and then care about us, he said.

Arent you worried you might be the new Dr Frankenstein? I asked him after the show.

No, well always have control, he insisted.

Hmmm.

After meeting Sophia, I think its time we started to listen more to Professor Hawking about the threat from artificial intelligence  before its too late.

THURSDAY, JUNE 22

I love Royal Ascot but my gambling record there is shockingly bad.

Today, I was a guest in ITV boss Kevin Lygos hospitality box, along with Susanna Reid, newsreader Tom Bradby, reality star Mark Wright and Diversity dance duo Ashley and Jordan Banjo.

Any tips? asked Wright.

Yes, I replied. A horse expert told me to go big on Mirage Dancer in the second race.

Putting my money where my big mouth is, I marched confidently to the Tote bookmaker desk and bet 100.

Mirage Dancer came a lame third.

Aaaaghh! I fumed, wrestling the losing ticket out of my pocket.

I was about to rip it into tiny rage-fuelled pieces when I suddenly noticed it didnt actually say Mirage Dancer.

It said Benbatl.

The person who took my bet had misheard me (spectacularly!) and put my money on a completely different horse.

Who won? I asked.

Benbatl, said Mark Wright.

Even Ricky Gervais might believe in God if he experienced such moments.

I collected my unexpected 550 winnings and of course, everyone in the box now wanted a piece of my Midas touch. Mori in the 3.40pm, I announced.

They all piled on, and we watched a thrilling race.

Mori won! exclaimed one of the Banjo brothers to general delirium and ecstatic outpourings of gratitude.I swaggered off to collect my further hefty pay-out.

Sorry about this, I chortled to the Tote bookie. Two for two!

He took the ticket, punched it into his system, and then smirked.

Sorry about THIS, Mr Morgan, he chortled. Mori didnt win. Coronet did.

I slunk back to the box to break the bad news to the still-celebrating gathering.

Mr Lygo eyed me like a mafia don whod just been told the money bags gone missing.

Expect me to be whacked from the ITV talent roster some time soon.

FRIDAY, JUNE 23

The papers are full of photos of a fat, topless oaf drunkenly brawling at Ascot.

No, it wasnt me after the Mori fiasco.

This is what happens when you mix alcohol, sunshine and undesirable elements of society, I told my wife Celia.

Tonight, we attended fashion queen Tamara Mellons lavish 50th birthday party at 5 Hertford Street, an exclusive London private members club.

It was a million furlongs removed from that deranged, intoxicated Ascot pugilist.

Or so I thought.

As we sat down for dinner, a furious argument erupted at the next table between an amply proportioned man and his wife.

They both stood up.

Youre a ******* ****! he bellowed.

Shut up, you fat b*****d! she spat back.

The 150 or so guests, including David Furnish and Tamara Beckwith, all cringed in excruciating embarrassment.

Our cringes turned to gasps of horror as the woman ripped the mans trousers off and rained blows on his chubby torso as he was left rolling on the floor in his underpants.

Then, suddenly, they stopped fighting, leaped back to their feet, bowed to the guests and announced solemnly: Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served!

Wed been had, in a stunt set up by Tamaras fiance, Hollywood super-agent Michael Ovitz.
Baby Driver Cert: 15 1hr 53mins

Rating:

In this country, the film-maker Edgar Wright is best known as the director of Hot Fuzz and the much-loved zombie spoof Shaun Of The Dead. But, as you may recall, he also directed Dont, the Hammer Horror-style comedy trailer that played between parts one and two of Grindhouse, the thoroughly American B-movie mash-up from 2007 directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

Now, after a decade in which Wrights career has gone nowhere very interesting, hes back with a film that hes written as well as directed, which is set in America and has clearly been influenced by both Tarantino and Rodriguez.

And it turns out to be one of the surprise treats of the summer. There are moments when its so achingly cool, stylish or technically brilliant (and occasionally all three at once) you want to stand up and applaud.

Ansel Elgort and Lily James look like theyve just stumbled out of high school but light up the screen in a way that will bring tears to the eyes of any actor over 30

Yes, this story of a baby-faced getaway driver who not only goes by the name of Baby but just happens to be the best driver in town is derivative. Apart from comedy flourishes and a prolix screenplay that are Tarantino through and through, there are obvious echoes of Nicolas Winding Refns Drive, less obvious echoes of Adam Smiths Trespass Against Us, as well as Gone In 60 Seconds, The Getaway I could go on.

But what gives Baby Driver its clear creative edge is its lightness of touch  this is a film as prepared to charm as it is to shock  and its gorgeously photogenic youthful vitality.

What gives Baby Driver its clear creative edge is its lightness of touch  this is a film as prepared to charm as it is to shock  and its gorgeously photogenic youthful vitality

Its young stars  Ansel Elgort, who plays Baby, and Lily James, as the diner waitress he falls in love with, Bonnie and Clyde-style  look like theyve just stumbled out of high school but light up the screen in a way that will bring tears to the eyes of any actor over 30.

A beautifully cast Elgort, who is 23 in real life but looks younger, is brilliant as Baby, a boy-man who loves his sunglasses almost as much as he loves his iPods. As comfortable with retro-tech as he is with new, but haunted by childhood tragedy, hes rarely to be found without shades on and headphones in.

But anyone who thinks Baby might be slow or zoned out is very wrong  he has total recall and, as his underworld boss Doc (an excellent Kevin Spacey) knows, hes the best there is behind the wheel.

From left: Kevin Spacey, director Edgar Wright, and Flea and Lanny Joon who play bank robbers

But if you make a living robbing banks, sooner or later something is going to go wrong. Isnt it?

The films beat-perfect editing and use of music are fabulous (if you dont come out humming Simon & Garfunkels Baby Driver it will be Bob & Earls Harlem Shuffle), and look out for a romantic interlude in a laundromat that could have come straight out of La La Land.

IT'S A FACT On set when Edgar Wright wanted Elgort to look more stern, he showed him a picture of Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. Advertisement

What lets it down? Well, the style and the sharp comedy eventually make way for more familiar action and a distinctly darker mood.Jamie Foxx, as a bank robber who believes in shooting first and asking questions afterwards, seems convinced he really is in a Tarantino movie, and the frenetic, tyre-squealing climax tests our suspension of disbelief.

But Wright is to be congratulated. He gets a terrific supporting turn out of Mad Mens Jon Hamm, catapults the already promising Elgort into the big time, and gets his own career impressively back on track.

Definitely a good day at the office.

SECOND SCREEN

Despicable Me 3 (U)

Rating:

Alone In Berlin (12A)

Rating:

All Eyez On Me (15)

Rating:

Parents of younger children need at least one animated banker to get them through the looming summer holidays, and Despicable Me 3 is about as safe a bet as a desperate dad on a rainy afternoon could hope for.

These days, of course, Gru  right, voiced by the splendid Steve Carell  is very much the good guy. Married to the lovely and resourceful Lucy  voiced by the equally splendid Kristen Wiig  hes a devoted father and an enthusiastic member of the Anti-Villain League.

But when he fails to stop the former child actor turned supervillain Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker) from stealing the worlds biggest ruby, he is unceremoniously thrown out of the AVL. Oh, the humiliation and shame.

Parents of younger children need at least one animated banker to get them through the looming summer holidays, and Despicable Me 3 is about as safe a bet as a desperate dad on a rainy afternoon could hope for

And theres worse to come, with even his hitherto devoted minions deserting him, exasperated  at least as far as one can understand  by his refusal to return to a life of crime.

Thank heavens, then, for the timely arrival of a messenger informing him that he has a long-lost twin brother, Dru, a story that his mother duly confirms. And there are some surprises about his father on the way too.

You told me Dad died of disappointment after I was born, protests Gru. But apparently not. In fact, according to Dru, he was a supervillain too and now Dru, who seems to have made a fortune out of pig-farming, wants to return to the criminal family business.

But naturally, hes going to need his formerly villainous brothers help. But can Gru be tempted?

With the minions effectively occupying a separate storyline for much of the film, not to mention Grus daughter Margos engagement and her sister Agness hunt for a unicorn, theres a lot going on here, and it doesnt all hang together as perfectly as it should.

But Bratt, whose career as a child actor came to an end when spots and fluffy facial hair arrived, is a fabulous creation, trapped forever in his Eighties heyday. Think shell-suits, glitter balls and a lot of A-ha and you get the splendidly silly nostalgic idea.

Dance-off anyone?

Alone In Berlin is about the fourth World War II film in 12 months in which the dialogue is delivered in heavily accented English rather than subtitled German or Polish or Yiddish, or whatever it might have actually been.

But it has such a powerful story and such a strong cast telling it that this is particularly easy to forgive.

Actor turned occasional director Vincent Perez opens with a particularly powerful scene that sees a young German soldier fleeing for his life through a forest. Just as he is about to reach his own lines he is gunned down and dies.

He is the only son of a working-class Berlin couple, Otto and Anna Quangel  played by Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson  and they, in their different ways, are devastated.

Alone In Berlin is as powerful as it is insightful and moving. Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson (above) play working-class Berlin couple, Otto and Anna Quangel

Perez does an excellent job of recreating the febrile wartime atmosphere of 1940 Berlin, where the Nazi machine was just beginning to move into overdrive, no one knew who could be trusted, and violence was beginning to replace reason.

It couldnt be a more dangerous place for Otto to begin his little act of treason, writing dozens of postcards that identify Hitler as a murderer and leaving them around the German capital for others to find.

Small wonder that they soon come to the attention of the Berlin police and, when Ottos brave campaign continues, the SS.

Based on a true story, this modest tale of doomed German resistance  something we dont hear a lot about  is as powerful as it is insightful and moving.

All Eyez On Me tells the story of Nineties rapper Tupac Shakur from his Black Power beginnings in Manhattan (his parents were both activists) to his murder on the streets of Las Vegas 25 years later.

Demetrius Shipp Jr plays rapper Tupac Shakur in All Eyez On Me. By comparison with Straight Outta Compton, this is lightweight, linear stuff

By comparison with Straight Outta Compton, this is lightweight, linear stuff. There must be better and edgier films to come from his life.
Theres nothing quite like that tattered paperback whose sunscreen-streaked, sangria-splashed pages remind you exactly where you were when you first read it. But these days, the true bibliophile travels with an e-reader. How else to ensure you dont run out of books before its time to head home?

Cue Oliver Rhodes, whos been on a mission to keep you scrolling to the next page since 2012, when he quit his job as head of marketing at romance publisher Harlequin to set up Bookouture, a digital publisher recently acquired by industry giant Hachette.

Bookoutures list has recently pivoted towards crime and thrillers, and print-on-demand paperbacks are available in addition to e-books. But its readers and writers remain predominantly female

Headquartered in his spare bedroom and with a staff of just one  Rhodes himself  the startups first signing was a paranormal romance. Bookouture published 15 further novels that first year, generating 150,000. By 2016, turnover had rocketed to 6 million.

To begin with, romance dominated. Rhodes paired a genre that the literary establishment mocked with a format it feared, and used social media to target directly an avid readership: women, many of them middle aged.

He hit the jackpot and created a new publishing model, one that gives authors generous royalties, releases books globally and, by making small changes post-release, keeps sales going long after a traditional publisher would have moved on to the next big title.

Annies Lovely Choir By The Sea by Liz Eeles

The great thing about e-books is that theyve democratised publishing, says Rhodes. There arent gatekeepers any more, deciding which books people should read or hear about. Theres a broader choice for readers.

Bookoutures list has recently pivoted towards crime and thrillers, and print-on-demand paperbacks are available in addition to e-books. But its readers and writers remain predominantly female.

Here are three of the publishers latest titles:

The Summer House by Jenny Hale

(ebook 1.99, paperback 7.99)

Callie and her best friend have clubbed together to buy a bed- and-breakfast on the North Carolinian beach of their childhood  a dream threatened by the discovery of a diary filled with secrets.

Annies Lovely Choir By The Sea by Liz Eeles

(ebook 1.99, paperback 9.99)

A letter from a long-forgotten relative leads a 29-year-old Londoner to rugged Cornwall, where she discovers her calling and falls for a brooding local.

The Missing Ones by Patricia Gibney

(ebook 0.99, paperback 9.99)

Detective Lottie Parker is baffled when two bodies turn up bearing the same tattoo.

Summer At Buttercup Beach by Holly Martin

(ebook 1.99, paperback 8.99)

Freya is hopelessly smitten by Rome. The only problem is hes her best friend and boss. Oh, and his heart is still broken from the loss of his fiance. Dare they pursue the frisson they both feel?

Dont Stop Me Now by Colleen Coleman

(ebook 1.99, paperback 8.99)

This hopeful comedy about love, friendship and second chances centres on Poppy, whose PhD studies have left her unemployed, dumped by her boyfriend, and living in her vampire-themed childhood bedroom.

The Darkest Lies by Barbara Copperthwaite

(ebook 1.99, paperback 9.99)

Melanie is married to her childhood sweetheart, has a beautiful teenage daughter, and lives in a picturesque village. Its a seemingly perfect life but this twisty psychological thriller is out to ensnare her dark secrets.
In the vicious battle of television crime dramas, a little old lady in a rain mac and battered hat has emerged as the most popular cop on Britains small screen. There is no sex, no gore and a distinct absence of serial killers but Vera, ITVs detective show set in rural Northumberland, has trounced the dark and deadly detectives of The Fall and Marcella in the TV ratings.

It has also turned the shows 71-year-old star, Brenda Blethyn, into one of the most bankable actors in Britain and the shows 63-year-old creator, award-winning novelist Ann Cleeves, into a Sunday Times best seller. She is one of the first crime writers since Agatha Christie to have two successful detective series turned into major television shows with Shetland (starring Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez) and Vera (with Blethyn as Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope).

Vera has turned the shows 71-year-old star, Brenda Blethyn, into one of the most bankable actors

The understated Cleeves, sensibly dressed with short hair and low heels, does not carry any of the airs of a famous author. The clue to her astonishing success comes in the way she interacts with Bafta-winning and Oscar-nominated Blethyn. They eat sandwiches from plastic plates and chat. The redoubtable screen star, who has acted with the likes of Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, is completely at ease in her presence. They talk of curries, winter coats and tales of former lives: Blethyn worked for British Rail and her acting career started at the age of 30, while Cleeves served as a probation officer on the heroin-riddled streets of Liverpool in the Eighties.

Cleeves genius is for making the ordinary extraordinary. Vera Stanhope and Shetlands Jimmy Perez are both sensible individuals with no hint of out-of-control personal lives. There is a strong, feminist point to Cleeves writing and her avoidance of sex and serial killers is deliberate. After Stieg Larssons The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo there was a whole wave of books that just featured endless sadistic killings, torture and humiliation, and it was all largely directed towards women. I saw it as misogynistic. I liked Larssons first book and then he just went over the top. I dont want to read about a killing on every page. Its uncomfortable, and its actually not in any way real.

Brenda Blethyn as DCI Vera Stanhope and Christopher Colquhoun as Dr Anthony Carmichael

I spent a good portion of my life as a probation officer. I met real criminals, real murderers and I never once came across a serial killer. The facts are that most murder victims are male and most murderers are pathetic little men, not men with brilliant twisted brains who want to slice women up. Im sure they exist but it is incredibly rare. What people want is someone we can believe in.

The ethos of Vera is absolutely no-nonsense: there are no fast cars or designer clothes and Blethyn is made to look distinctly less attractive than she does in real life. When I first read the description of Vera as this great big lummox of a woman with big feet, I thought: Good job Im not vain, she says. I get padded up to play her and all the clothes are cut to hit the most unflattering part just below the waist so I look as wide as possible. There will never be an attempt to make her look attractive because that just isnt the point of Vera.

David Leon as DS Joe Ashworth and Brenda Blethyn as DCI Vera

What I love about Vera is that she is a mature woman who is just extremely good at her job, she says. Shes capable, independent and incredibly strong. And women particularly love her because they can completely relate to her. Shes a good role model.

Both Blethyn and Cleeves came to their chosen careers late. Blethyn went to drama school in her late 20s after working as a stenographer and then book-keeper. Cleeves dropped out of university and did a variety of jobs including coastguard, welfare officer, probation officer and cook. She worked in a bird observatory on Fair Isle (her inspiration for the Shetland books), and after writing almost 20 novels, in 2006 she won a Crime Writers Association award for Raven Black, and the publishing world suddenly embraced this middle-aged woman from Whitley Bay.

BRENDA BLETHYN'S PRIME CRIME SUSPECTS Favourite TV detective Sarah Lancashire is brilliant in Happy Valley because shes such a mesmerising actress to watch and the scripts are superb. Favourite detective in a crime novel I recently read Slow Horses by Mick Herron, which I thought was fantastic. There was a character that just made me think of my mate Timothy Spall, and then as I continued reading he described him as looking like Tim. Detective inspiration I didnt study how anyone else played a detective. Its all there on the page with Vera. If anything, shes modelled on women I knew growing up. They werent detectives, they were just independent, strong women. Tell us a Vera secret... I gave her a birthday. April 21, which makes her a Taurus, which I thought was very her. Ann was happy with that. I like to paint in a bit of a back story. Advertisement

Vera leading lady Brenda Blethyn with author Ann Cleeves at the book launch of her new novel, The Moth Catcher at the Baltic

Blethyn is fiercely protective of Cleeves character. I buy clothes for her  scarves, jackets, anything I think is very Vera, she says. Theres no way there would be any romance or anything salacious, but there are times I will say, Thats not Vera or I will call Ann to discuss it and it will be changed.

But filming is so strenuous that Blethyn, who keeps a flat in Newcastle for five months of the year, admits that after each series she considers quitting. Im in my 70s, theres lots of rushing about and Im in practically every scene. Its completely exhausting and Ill say: Never again. Then I get a script, I think about Ann, about being up in Northumberland, which Ive become addicted to, and Im off again.

Cleeves and Blethyn appear at the Harrogate Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival on July 23, harrogateinternationalfestivals.com, where Anns new Vera novel The Seagull will be on sale exclusively (Macmillan, 16.99)
BP Portrait Award 2017

National Portrait Gallery, London

Until September 24

Rating:

The BP Portrait Award is always a very popular exhibition, and no wonder. Its a showcase, a shop window, and a glimpse either into how people are, or perhaps just how they would like to be perceived. The painters are advertising themselves: the competition attracts entries from all over the world these days and the most successful entrants no doubt find their phones starting to ring a little more. But its not just the painters advertising themselves. Often, the sitters, whether they have commissioned the portrait or not, are also taking a conscious decision on how they want to be seen.

Fashions, however, in portraiture change, and it is striking that more than half this years exhibition are portraits of people against a barely defined or completely blank backdrop.

From left: A Russian Artist in China, by Han Bao

David Wigg by Sopio Chkhikvadze; Breech! by Benjamin Sullivan

When the setting becomes too elaborate, the result can be comically kitsch to our austere tastes. In one case I dont know whether to blame the artist, Rupert Alexander, or his sitters, the Levinson family, for the wildly over-the-top group portrait, complete with Velazquez allusions.

When supporting evidence is appropriate and natural, it can make a painting: the glass teacup in Bao Hans portrait of an anonymous Russian artist (right) is touching.

The most rewarding portraits are those that go beyond a face, and somehow capture a personality. Sopio Chkhikvadzes portrait of the journalist David Wigg might not be the most conventionally skilled piece of painting here. But she has the sense to place him in an interior, and it perfectly renders his unmistakable appearance, regal, daffy and very slightly frayed round the edges.

Painters seem, however, to be fixated on the head-and-shoulders against a blank wall, which are fine individually, but make for a slightly dull exhibition. I think, too, that future selectors might rebel somewhat against the hyper- realist gigantic head, in which we are meant to coo over the exactly executed stubble and reflection in the eyeball. Sitters, I know, very much like this sort of approach, but the portraits that prove most engaging are also the most painterly  for instance, Ania Hobsons Lucian Freud-influenced self-portrait, Lucy Stopfords joyous splurge over Dr Tim Moretons features, or Anca-Luisa Sirbus snatched image of her son, patiently waiting.

IT'S A FACT The 1634 paintings of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit by Rembrandt are the most expensive portraits ever sold, fetching $180m in 2015. Advertisement

Three paintings by men of women fulfilling feminine roles take the top three prizes: a nude, an image of the painters wife on learning that she was pregnant, and the winner, Benjamin Sullivans image of his wife Virginia breast-feeding their baby daughter. They are good paintings, but it would have been better to have covered the field a little more, particularly as the young artist prize also goes to a male painter, Henry Christian-Stone, with a portrait of his girlfriend.

Portraits that might have been justifiably rewarded in order to acknowledge the variety of the genre include Sinead Daviess modest portrait of the female Mayor of Woollahra. The portrait I think I like most, however, is Claire Eastgates double portrait of the poets Gillian Clarke and Carol Ann Duffy. Its one of the most psychologically resonant here, and the delicate use of familiar objects  a book, absorbing the attention, a mug set down  is part of its powerful effect.

Eastgate succeeds, in quite an unobtrusive way, in showing these women as powerfully intelligent. Clarke seems to be interrogating the book, not just reading it in absorption. Duffys gaze, stern but benevolent, is unmistakable. I like the power of these personalities; and Eastgates personality, too, rises from the evident enjoyment of the challenge.

A very entertaining show, and once or twice, something more than that.

In 1965, Gered Mankowitz had usurped David Bailey as photographer-in-chief of the Rolling Stones and was accompanying the band on its mammoth US tour

Furr & Mankowitz: 45RPM

45 Park Lane, London

Until August 5

Rating:

In 1965, Gered Mankowitz had usurped David Bailey as photographer-in-chief of the Rolling Stones and was accompanying the band on its mammoth US tour.

Not bad for an 18-year-old. A shot of Brian Jones on stage  along with two shots of Mick Jagger (pictured) and Keith Richards in Hollywoods RCA Studios  feature in Mankowitzs latest exhibition.

He has trawled through his archive of pictures and invited the painter Christian Furr to add touches to some of his favourites, in acrylic, pastel, gold leaf and diamond dust.

Mankowitzs best-known photos were taken in the Sixties, in many cases in black and white, and Furr adds some suitably psychedelic colour, which helps us focus on the photos anew. And what captivating photos they are.

Mankowitz has a keen sense of composition. He also has a knack of catching rock gods at moments of vulnerability. His photos remind us that rock n roll wasnt all about hubris and hedonism. If you looked for it, there was a sensitive side too.
Philips SpeechAir

665, amazon.co.uk

Transcribing audio is one of those tasks up there with cleaning the grouting in your shower, or going round your childrens room on your knees picking up Lego, after theyve cheerfully ignored all your demands to do it themselves.

So a gadget that does it for you  transcribing, I mean, not dealing with children  is pretty much the Holy Grail.

Ive forked out large sums for apps that claimed to turn audio files magically into text, only to find out that they magically turned them into gibberish, and there were no refunds.

Just to remind me why I might need such a device, it arrived moments after Id finished laboriously transcribing a long interview the old, difficult way, wincing at my own moronic voice every two minutes

But Philips SpeechAir is the Rolls-Royce of dictation machines (an area of gadgetry where I never even suspected there would be a money-no-object bracket).

It boasts three mics, wi-fi, and you can automatically transcribe interviews near-instantly using voice-recognition software. If you really want to push the boat out, you can send them to be transcribed by human beings via Philips SpeechLive service.

The gadgets a little clunky  for over 600, I was expecting a silvery, futuristic delight

Just to remind me why I might need such a device, it arrived moments after Id finished laboriously transcribing a long interview the old, difficult way, wincing at my own moronic voice every two minutes. The gadgets a little clunky  for over 600, I was expecting a silvery, futuristic delight  but it works well enough that I could see myself never transcribing an interview again.

The automatic transcription (powered by Dragon software) is great. You dont get niceties such as punctuation, but it picks up words clearly, and the written-through transcript is back to you in seconds. For extra polish, the Speechlive transcription service is a nice option, although its pricey at up to 2 a minute if you want transcripts within five hours.

But can a sane person really pay 665 for a dictation machine? I could almost see it  the SpeechAir comes with three high-quality microphones, which means recordings are crisp even when there are several voices. Its head and shoulders above my usual app.

But you can get the auto- transcription technology much more cheaply from Philips itself (around 200 for cheaper machines) so you really, really have to want the best to plump for this...
A Wong

70 Wilton Rd, Pimlico,

London SW1V 1DE

Rating:

The great London dim sum debate rages on, as fierce as Sichuan chilli paste, as hot as the broth in a xiao long bao. Some will argue the merits of Royal China Club, with its splendidly slippery, silken cheung fun. And prawn and chive dumplings, the pastry as spry as a courtesans smile. Others will snort with haughty derision, claiming that Pearl Liang is the master, obviously, with the plumpest of prawn-stuffed har gaw, and that spiced prawn ravioli wallowing in chilli-fierce stock.

Therell be factions who still champion Yauatcha. And when it comes to the venison puff, rich, golden and sweetly meaty, I see their point. And those wholl cry that China Tang is the Cantonese master, with its joyously crisp taro cakes and lobster dumplings stuffed with quivering crustacean chunks. Not forgetting Shikumen, where steamed and baked are equally fine. But while all of the above are admirable (and some of my favourite places in town), none quite reach the glorious, heady heights of the dim sum found at A Wong, both resolutely modern and reassuring traditional.

The restaurant, on a particularly unlovely stretch of Pimlico pavement, is small, smart and understated, with an open kitchen and slick, knowing service

Gong bao chicken (left); Mushroom buns (right)

Yunnan beef (left); Custard buns (right)

The restaurant, on a particularly unlovely stretch of Pimlico pavement, is small, smart and understated, with an open kitchen and slick, knowing service. Prawn and pork dumpling, with pastry so thin that it barely contains its succulent bounty, wears a curl of pork scratching.

In Chinese cooking, texture is every bit the equal of taste. Shanghai Xiao Long Bao are equally well made, the broth subtle and searing, the traditional ginger vinegar formed into tiny tart balls. Brilliant.

A rabbit glutinous puff is formed into a carrot, complete with green leafy top, mixing wit with wonderful chew and depth. Theres a baked pork bun of quietly flaky magnificence, topped with finely chopped cucumber for cool contrast; a deep-fried chicken foot, where the crunch of cartilage is encased in burnished batter; and chilli wontons wallowing in a fiery, umami-blessed broth that just begs to be slurped. A Sichuan chicken and peanut bonbon disappears in one fragrant bite.

And talking of Sichuan, this kitchen knows exactly when to turn up the hot and numbing, and when to hold it back. Sure, the flavour combination is but one of nearly 30 in this magnificent regional cuisine. But the mapo tofu, at once fierce and utterly poised, whisks me straight back to the damp, smoggy streets of Chengdu. Theres just the right amount of vinegar to balance the chilli heat, and the Sichuan pepper tingle. Mouth numbing beef offal is better still, with a tangle of the most delicate stomach, wallowing in a sauce that mixes punch and power with the merest whiff of filth. Slices of pear add crisp acidity, and the whole dish melds grunt with elegance. The spirit of Sichuan, with the poise of a high-end chef... street food dressed in couture.

FROM THE MENU Rabbit & carrot puff 2 Sweet & sour rib 5 63-degree egg 5.95 Mouth numbing beef 5 Xian city lamb burger 12 Advertisement

More snacks, from across China, are equally adept. Chewy, sweet, smoky spicy pork biltong. A 63-degree egg, oozing into a nest of shredded filo, and accompanied by a smouldering piece of cinnamon. The smell of the Chinese street says our waitress. Not quite sure which one. For the true Sino street scent, youd need diesel fumes and fag smoke. Heigh-ho. Its a charming touch.

A whole langoustine, with wasabi cracker, is simple but sublime; and sticky sweet-and-sour pork ribs, the meat falling softly off the bone; and hand-cut noodles, fresh made, with chew and bounce and a hit of chilli.

Xian City lamb burger has cumin-heavy bleater with sesame seeds, pomegranate seeds, raw onion, chilli, coriander and crisp fried onion. Mix together and cram into billowing, cloud-like steamed bun. A taste of the Silk Road, pure hand-held delight. Then air-dried sausage, chewy and intensely piggy, with a pile of shaved frozen foie gras. Rich as a Shanxi banker. Dish after dish of big flavours, precise cooking and joyous texture.

Whats more remarkable still is that Wong is not in the kitchen today. Ive been a few times before over the years, and the quality never falters. Thats the sign of a truly professional kitchen. A Wong is not just an astonishingly good modern Chinese restaurant, which ranges across the regions with skilled, knowing aplomb. But one of the countrys most thrilling restaurants, full stop. Drop everything. Get to Victoria. And revel in this exquisite, beautifully wrought Sino-sensation.

Lunch for two: 80

What Tom ate this week

Thursday

To Scotland, and Craigellachie Hotel in Speyside for a friends stag night. A serious whisky tasting at Glenfarclas distillery in Ballindalloch. Then fried squid, langoustines and fine steak at The Copper Dog.

Friday

A late lunch at Le Caprice, London. Ceviche, then duck and watermelon salad. Back home to the remains of the childrens Byron burger and sushi. And some spicy chicken instant noodles.

Saturday

Down to Dorset for my cousins wedding lunch. Local lobsters, crab and prawn, spanking fresh and beautifully cooked. Rather overdo the rose.

Sunday

To New York, for US launch of the Fortnum And Mason Cook Book. Predictably fifth-rate tucker on BA, although service lovely. Then endive with walnut, burrata with salsa verde, cucumber with anchovies at Estela. And dinner at Augustine.
A Pakistani reporter has been detained and charged under cybercrime laws for criticising security forces on social media, officials and his family said Friday, the latest sign of a state crackdown on free speech.

Zafarullah Achakzai, who works at Urdu daily Qudrat, was picked up from his house Sunday by the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), the security force deployed in restive Balochistan province.

'FC personnel in uniform came in five vehicles and raided my house late Sunday night. They cordoned the streets and asked for my son without mentioning any charge,' Achakzai's father Naimatullah Achakzai, who is also chief editor of Qudrat, told AFP.

Pakistani journalist Zafarullah Achakzai (left), receiving a young journalist award from former Baluchistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi

Pakistan is ranked among the world's most dangerous countries for journalists, and reporting critical of the military is considered a major red flag, with journalists at times detained, beaten and even killed.

'We did not know where they took him... After five days they handed him over to the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency), which charged him under cybercrime laws for criticising the FC,' Achakzai said.

He said that Zafarullah appeared in court on Thursday and was remanded into FIA custody for six more days as the investigation continues.

Two local government officials confirmed Zafarullah's arrest and charges.

'If my son had done anything wrong, he should have been arrested according to the law and not picked up in the middle of the night like an outlaw,' Achakzai said.

The Balochistan Union of Journalists criticised the 'illegal confinement'.

Zafarullah had criticised the FC on his Facebook page for the deteriorating law and order situation in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, and for security forces' 'failure' to bring the perpetrators of sectarian killings to justice, a colleague told AFP, requesting anonymity.

'If his criticisms violated any law, he should have been arrested properly as he like every other citizen has right to due process,' the colleague said.

Pakistan is ranked among the world's most dangerous countries for journalists, and reporting critical of the military is considered a major red flag, with journalists at times detained, beaten and even killed.

Pakistani journalists protest holding banners reading 'arrest killers of Bakhsheesh Elahi' in Haripur , Pakistan. Journalist Elahi was waiting for the morning bus when a lone gunman on a motorcycle pulled up beside him and shot him dead

The country has also had a history of enforced disappearances over the past decade. In January five social media activists went missing for several weeks after taking a stand against religious intolerance and criticising the military, raising concerns of government involvement that were denied by officials.

Pakistan's parliament passed the cybercrime law last August, despite opposition from rights activists. Campaigners have long complained of creeping censorship in the name of protecting religion or preventing obscenity.

Human rights organisations said they feared more arrests.

'We are concerned at the authorities' zero-tolerance for critics on social media,' the independent Freedom Network said in a statement, adding that Zafarullah's detainment was a 'grim' sign that 'more arrests will follow'.
Senior leaders have warned that the Aam Aadmi Party will have to 'choose between the devil and the deep blue sea' when it comes to choosing a candidate.

Even with the Congress giving the AAP the cold shoulder on upcoming presidential polls slated for July 17, the latter is most likely to back the Opposition's nominee Meira Kumar.

Though the party is yet to convene a meeting of its highest decision making body, the Political Affairs Committee that will formally decide who the party will vote for and thereafter communicate to its representatives, sources from AAP told Mail Today that the party will 'absolutely not vote for the NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind'.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal

The growing chasm between Congress and AAP has been visible over the past month, as the grand old party consciously left out AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal from the joint meetings of the Opposition while it was deliberating over its probable candidate.

Even as 17 Opposition parties came together for the meetings, AAP was repeatedly shown the cold shoulder.

However, senior Opposition leaders such as CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee played conduits to keep the channel of communication open at both ends.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi

Congress has not agreed to share the same space with Kejriwal, the latter having made scathing attacks on the party.

A senion AAP functionary said: 'Not being a part of the meetings worked both ways. We did not miss being a part of the deliberations.

'As for our final choice, a PAC will formally decide who our elected representatives will vote for. What is certain is that we will vote.'

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Aam Aadmi Party (stock photo)

Supporters of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) listen to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who took an oath as the new chief minister of Delhi, during a swearing-in ceremony at Ramlila (stock photo)

The AAP roughly has 9,000 votes, which although not sizeable, is significant in symbolic terms.

Senior leaders said that the party will now 'have to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.'

Another party leader added: 'Going with Kovind is next to impossible. It will be a clash of our ideologies. Kumar seems like the logical choice for AAP as it would mean backing a woman and a Dalit.

'As the AAP aims at emerging as a formidable force in national politics, opting out of the presidential polls would mean letting go of its position as a member of the Opposition.'




Eighty tonnes of capiz seashells have been seized in a mammoth raid as officials try to stop trafficking of the highly-prized mollusc.

About 20 labourers were detained as a result of the raid, which was conducted in the Navi Mumbai's Ulwe area.

At least four lorries were found carrying the contraband material in the backwater mangroves area near Raigad.

Eighty tonnes of the seashell were seized in the raid

The Maharashtra Forest Department has recently been investigating the surprise seizure of the marine molluscs, which have a hard, protective outer case, and are found scattered across sea shores in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.

Historically, capiz seashells have been harvested and used in furniture, lampshades, cutlery and jewellery pieces.

But, enforcement agencies are surprised to note a new usage  in oil drilling rigs in countries of West Asia and Argentina, for which they are being powdered in a factory in Khopoli and smuggled by sea.

The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, regulates the trade of capiz

M Maranko, deputy director of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Western Region, said: 'We recently conducted an awareness and training session for the Maharashtra Forest Department, during which we told them about the lesser-known wildlife items trafficked.

'As a result, an officer spotted this item in trucks in Ulwe and recognised it as illegal goods.

'At least 15- 20 labourers were detained and the factory they named was raided. Further questioning is going on.'

The Maharashtra Forest Department has recently been investigating the surprise seizure of the beautiful marine mollusc

Although its exact usage in oil rigs is still unclear, the factory owners said the powdered Capiz shell is shoved into big pipes, in oil and natural gas beds, to condense the natural resource and block it from sinking further into the earth.

As West Asia and Argentina are abundant in oil rigs, the capiz seashell is in high demand there and could have been illegally exported for crores of rupees.

The shady business has apparently been occurring since 2015, but it only came to light as a result of this catch. Experts said it was the first time they had heard of this practice.

Dr Deepak Apte, director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), said: 'These are live animals (bivalve molluscs), which develop shells from their blood and salt sea water to protect themselves.

'While the meat is boiled and eaten, the shells and pearls inside are highly-valued.'

The shell has historically been used to decorate various items, including lightshades

He added: 'The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, regulates their trade under Schedule IV. This means that they can be harvested from sea coasts and used in handicrafts etc, but in limited quantities.

'Sadly, the Schedule IV of WPA is poorly defined and understood. So nobody knows how much can be traded in which State/area and season.'

Capiz shells form beautiful rosette-shaped beds in shallow waters and are easily extracted by fishermen.

They are much-favoured for use in windows and jewellery due to their glossy, translucent quality.

Until a few years ago, they were found in abundance in Gujarat but have vanished due to over-harvesting.

'The same thing will happen in Goa and Maharashtra if the laws regarding capiz shells are not better enforced,' Dr Apte warned.
Investment fund managers endeavour to enhance our wealth. Some are successful and are richly rewarded. Others are not  but are still paid a fortune despite obliterating the value of our investments.

Indeed, have you ever met a fund manager on his uppers? I havent and I have been trawling the City for nigh on 30 years in search of one.

So it is good to see the City regulator attempt to spread the rewards more fairly with its list of reforms for Britains asset management industry.

Search: Jeff Prestridge has been trawling the City for 30 years looking for a fund manager on his uppers

Measures which in time should make investor costs more transparent (and honest), help drive them down, increase competition and improve investor returns.

A rebalancing of the spoils from successful investment management is long overdue  away from fund managers and platform providers and more in favour of investors.

Admittedly, it is something that has been happening in pockets of the asset management industry as Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director of the Association of Investment Companies, was keen to point out last week.

In the investment trust (company) world, the likes of JP Morgan and Baillie Gifford have been busy cutting annual trust charges (JP Morgan American being the latest).

This is not because of regulatory pressure but a result of independent boards keen to drive the best deal for shareholders.

We need to see this kind of pro-investor behaviour spread to more investment trusts and beyond to unit trusts and open ended investment companies. The quicker the better.

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Building societies normally encourage customers to vote at their annual general meeting by promising to make a charitable donation for each vote cast.

They do this in the interests of good corporate governance and to reach out to as many members as possible  the owners of the business.

But not Nationwide, the countrys biggest building society by a country mile. This year, it has scrapped its charitable donation scheme which last year raised 205,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support and Shelter.

Pay: Joe Garner earned 3.4 million in the year to April

It has not done this because it has become Scrooge-like on the charitable front. Far from it. In the financial year just gone, it gave 8.5 million to worthy causes. No, the society argues that its near eight million members (who qualify to vote) no longer need encouraging, hence the dropping of the 40p per vote cast for members voting early and the 20p per vote for those who leave it until the last moment. This is a little rich given only 640,000 members  around 8.5 per cent  voted last year. This is down on previous years when the percentage was closer to 12 per cent. My suspicion  yes, no more than a hunch  is that the real reason for the dropping of the donation is that Nationwides great and good are nervous about a backlash over the chief executives remuneration at the annual meeting on July 20 in Birmingham.

Directors pay is one of the key issues members vote on at a building society annual meeting. It is also a subject regularly raised by those who attend, often causing the executives to squirm in their seats.

In the year to April this year, Nationwides Joe Garner received 3.4 million for his efforts, a mind-blowing sum whichever way you analyse it. Especially when you take into account the meagre returns most society members receive on their savings. Already Liberal Democrat MP Vince Cable has weighed in by stating that many businesses are successful without resorting to the extreme levels of remuneration seen at Nationwide.

So, if you are a customer who has just received a voting form, do not be put off by the lack of charitable donation. Instead, have your say.

Three final thoughts  two sensible, one mischievous. First, do not fill in the quick vote, which simply means your vote will be cast in favour of all the resolutions up for consideration.

Second, if Garners remuneration has got under your skin, vote against it.

Finally, for every vote cast against the boardrooms remuneration, I suggest Garner should agree to pay 20p (out of his own pocket) to charity.

Based on last years vote, this would mean a donation of just over 8,000  less than a days pay. Chicken feed as far as Garner is concerned.
British households are being stretched to the limit. A slew of figures last week on household borrowing, savings and incomes all pointed to a gathering storm for consumers. That means danger for the wider economy, which has become too dependent on consumer spending for its growth.

The most shocking statistic was the official savings rate, which plunged in the first three months of the year to just 1.7 per cent of our disposable incomes  the lowest for more than 50 years.

As one expert put it, this could be an example of confidence among households or complacency. I suspect it is sheer necessity.

Under pressure: British households are being stretched to the limit

At the same time, household borrowing continues to rise and the Bank of England last week issued a gentle warning on the risks of excessive debt.

None of this bodes well for the longer term. Households are becoming less financially secure and ever more indebted.

If this continues without a significant recovery in the wider economy and most importantly in its productivity (how much we make and do for each hour we work) then this will end badly.

To increase productivity we need a boost in investment from Government and from business, and for that to happen business will need to feel more certain about Britains economic future and, yes, Britains future trading relationship with Europe.

There is little sign of that right now.

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While many households are feeling the squeeze, there is in some quarters a growing resentment about those at the other end of the income scale  the super-rich.

So our report this week that European countries  notably Italy  are changing their tax laws to attract this elite, in particular non-doms, will be met by cries of good riddance.

This, however, would be a misguided response. Contrary to widespread misunderstanding, non-doms do pay tax in the UK on their earnings here and on any money they bring into the country from overseas.

They avoid paying tax on foreign earnings which they leave abroad. This is not popular, but nevertheless this class of people do pay billions of pounds in UK income tax.

Perhaps we would like them to pay more. Perhaps some cases of how non-dom status is used are unpalatable.

But what makes no sense is to celebrate such people leaving the country and paying no tax here at all. Brexit will without doubt have made the UK a less attractive location for the wealthy.

Some of these people might be what Theresa May would disparage as citizens of nowhere. Perhaps. But it would be nice if they were taxpayers in the UK.
Cruise ships can be expensive places. No sooner have passengers boarded a vessel than they start paying over the odds for extra food and drinks, wi-fi and shore excursions.

Even basic itineraries can cost thousands of pounds while a luxury trip might set you back five figures. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to save cash, both at the booking stage and once on board.

Research

Do plenty of homework before booking. Once you have found a ship or itinerary that floats your boat, go to different travel agents for a price  and be prepared to haggle.

Loyalty: Janny and Roger Evans are regulars with Celebrity Cruises

WE BOOK YEARS AHEAD FOR BEST DEALS Janny Evans, 69, and her husband Roger, 70, have travelled with the same cruise company 15 times since 2001. With the long-distance cruises, we always book one or two years in advance while on board as thats when you get the best deals, says Janny. Drink packages are mostly included and for us they are worth it. It takes away the worry of the bill you get at the end. But for people who dont drink, possibly its better to see if you can get, say, an internet package in your deal rather than the drinks. The couple, from Dartmoor, Devon, have found they save money by being loyal to Celebrity Cruises, due to loyalty perks such as free internet minutes and free laundry, plus cocktail parties and backstage tours. Janny adds: Regarding shore excursions  if you are savvy travellers you can get taxis and private tours cheaper than the ships tours. But normally you get what you pay for. If it is a long day trip we normally pay the extra for the ships excursion as they guarantee to get you back to the ship.

Understand what is included before booking. Some cruises include air fares to ports, hotel nights, transfers and shore excursions, while others just cover the boat costs. Most include food but you might have to pay extra for speciality restaurants. Some cruises include free alcohol and soft drinks, while others do not.

Bear in mind that wi-fi on cruise ships is provided by satellite and this can be expensive  perhaps 35 for an hour. Some lines, such as Viking Cruises, include wi-fi for free, but others sell it by the minute or as a package. This might cost from 10 per device per day.

Cabins

The type of cabin can have a big impact on bills. Inside cabins without windows are the cheapest, followed by ocean view cabins with windows, and balcony cabins with a veranda. Suites cost the most  possibly double the basic price.

For example, a 12-night P&O trip from Southampton to Norway and Iceland costs 1,349 per person for an inside cabin, 2,199 for a balcony cabin and 4,349 for a suite.

Most cabins are sold as double occupancy and there is a costly single supplement for those who travel alone. One way to save money is a guarantee cabin selection, where you pay a lower rate for a certain cabin type but the cruise line, rather than you, selects the cabin location.

The best scenario is you are allocated a higher-category cabin. The downside is you will not get to choose the location, says Adam Coulter, UK managing editor of comparison website Cruise Critic. This option is a gamble, though it suits some people if theyre more interested in cabin type than location.

Drinks packages

Unless you are on a luxury liner that includes drinks in the fare, you will have to pay inflated bar prices on board. One way to save money is to pre-book a drinks package.

While soda and juice packages are usually fairly cheap at about 4 a day, alcohol packages are often more than 40 a day, so check the deals and see if youll drink enough to make it worth it, says Thomas Faddegon at website Cruiseline.

The best time to book

In the past, cruisers could save a packet by booking at the last minute. But times have changed and booking early is now the way to go. Coulter says: With cruise ships increasingly offering an array of promotions to early bookers, such as free on-board credit, cabin upgrades and drinks packages, travellers are incentivised to book early.

These added benefits might even match or outweigh the savings you might find with a last-minute deal.

Another option is to take advantage of wave season, which is from January to March each year, when cruise companies traditionally offer their best deals.

Book a repositioning cruise

Repositioning cruises take place when ships change region.

A common repo cruise would be when a company repositions a ship from the Caribbean in March or April to the Mediterranean, for example from Barbados to Southampton or from Antigua to Palma de Mallorca, says Dave Mills, director at travel agent Planet Cruise.

These voyages can be longer, usually two weeks instead of seven days, and include lots of sea days, as well as a mish-mash of ports.

For example, Virgin Cruises is selling a 14-night repositioning cruise from Florida to Spain from 1,253 per person on Rhapsody of the Seas in May 2018. It stops at just five ports and includes a seven-day stretch at sea.

Best time to travel

It will be cheaper to cruise in the off-peak or shoulder season for your destination.

If you fancy living dangerously, you can save money by cruising the Caribbean in the hurricane season, which is from June to November.

The high life: You can enjoy the fun of a cruise without sinking your finances if you follow a budget strategy

Ships today are equipped with such advanced tracking technology that the chance of encountering a storm are slim, meaning you can take advantage of good deals during hurricane season, says Coulter. The caveat to consider is that if a storm does impact your itinerary, you may not get to stop at all scheduled ports, though cruise lines tend to replace these with other unaffected islands.

A four-day Bahamas cruise with Carnival costs from 264 in May 2018 but falls to 155 in hurricane-prone October.

Tipping

The tipping culture on a cruise ship is unique in that tips are either paid up front or automatically added to your on-board account.

Celebrity Cruises, for example, levies a service charge of between 10 and 15 a day, plus a further 18 per cent to all bar, salon and spa services.

If youd rather tip staff members who you feel have given particularly good service, dont be afraid to have the automatic daily gratuity removed. Just inform guest services at the start of the cruise that you wish to tip at your own discretion and they will take them off, suggests Neil Page, online manager at travel agent Cruise Nation.

Arrange your own excursions

Whenever the ship docks, you will be keen to check out your destination. You can either do this on an excursion booked via the cruise line or under your own steam.

While you can often find cheaper excursions through private vendors, these are not always insured. If the ship misses the port due to the weather, you may not get your money back, says Faddegon. Even worse, if your excursion runs late or gets stuck in traffic, the ship will wait for excursions it has provided, but not for those on a private trip.

If all you want to do is walk around town, shop or visit the beach, it will be much cheaper to get a taxi and a map and do it on your own  just make sure you leave enough time to return to the ship.

Insurance

Not every cruise is plain sailing, so it is important to have travel insurance which will cover any mishaps.

Price comparison website Gocompare has warned that only a third of single-trip policies and 37 per cent of annual policies cover cruise holidays as standard.

A cruise-specific policy will cover events such as being confined to your cabin due to illness or poor weather, seeing the ships doctor or being airlifted to hospital. It can cost 100,000 to be airlifted from the west coast of the US or more than 5,000 if off the French coast.

Cruise-specific cover is tailored towards you being on a ship, says Alex Edwards from Gocompare.

Cruises are like lots of holidays all rolled into one so youll need to make sure all the destinations you visit are covered by your policy.

As a rough guide, a couple in their 50s will pay between 66 and 100 for insurance for a 14-night cruise around the US.
Bjorn Kjos, founder of leading European low-cost transatlantic airline Norwegian Air, predicts Brexit will leave fewer Britons able to afford to fly.

He said the dramatic slump in the pound since the referendum would inevitably weaken passenger traffic.

Most of the passengers flying to Spain from Birmingham and Manchester are pensioners and their income will not go up, he said. And the pound is going down and that will make it more expensive for them to travel.

A tale to tell: Norwegian Air boss Bjorn Kjos has suggested that some EU companies could be forced to quit Britain altogether

In addition, in an echo of a similar warning from Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary, Kjos said some EU-based airlines might have to stop operating internal flights in the UK  even before Brexit.

Kjos also suggested that some EU companies could be forced to quit Britain altogether.

OLeary has previously said Ryanair might stop internal UK flights from the end of next year.

Kjos, whose airline flies from British airports to the Continent and the US, said EU operators offering internal UK flights could fall victim to a tit-for-tat row over flying rights.

Pioneer: Sir Freddie Laker introduced cheap air travel

Speaking on board a Norwegian Air flight from Seattle to Oslo with its first long-range Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, Kjos said he thought the UK would probably be happy for EU-based airlines to fly within the UK. But he believes EU airlines might object to UK airlines operating flights within Continental countries.

I think the UK would say yes to EU airlines within the UK domestic market because they are very open-minded, he said. But some EU member states would try to block it so then why should the UK allow it on their side? That is not fair and they would have to retaliate.

In the worst case it would revert to country by country agreements, but that would favour the UK because they have bilateral agreements with virtually every state in the world.

Norwegian Air  which flies from Gatwick, Edinburgh and other UK cities  currently operates 56 routes across Europe and in North and South America.

It offers flights across the Atlantic from the UK for as little as $99 (76) each way. The budget price harks back to the era of Laker Airways, which pioneered cheap flights to and from the US in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Norwegian Air has adorned the tailfin of its latest aircraft, left, with a picture of Laker Airways founder Sir Freddie Laker, who died in 2006.
Gatwick is burnishing its case to be the choice for Britains much needed airport expansion, boasting it has now become the best- connected single-runway airport in the world.

The airport announced a new service to Taiwan operated by China Airlines last week, and this weekend declared it now has more long-haul flights than any other airport with just one runway.

The new connection also makes it the fifth-busiest airport in Europe in terms of long-haul flights and the 11th in the world. Gatwick is the only airport in the worlds top 20 to have just one runway.

Busy: Gatwick is the worlds only top-20 airport with just one runway

Other airlines that have boosted destinations from Gatwick include Norwegian, which uses the airport for some of its low-cost long-haul flights, including to the US.

Guy Stephenson, chief commercial officer for Gatwick, said: Given the current political climate, these global connections will provide UK business with vital trading links.

He added: We also stand ready to build a new runway to help further drive growth should the Government give us the green light to proceed.

Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said last week it could finance and deliver a new runway. Backing from the Government would smooth the planning process for the expansion.

A spokesman for Gatwick said: For a project of that scale you would want Government support.

Following a lengthy study of airport options by economist Sir Howard Davies, the Government said in October that it favoured expansion at Heathrow.

The Heathrow proposal is expected to be included in an Airports National Policy Statement. This would be subject to further consultation under planning laws and a final decision will be put to a vote in the House of Commons.

The Government made no mention of Heathrow in the Queens Speech and doubts have arisen over whether the scheme can win approval in the House of Commons, where the Government is struggling with a narrow majority even after agreeing a deal with the Democratic Unionist party.

Financial results from Gatwick last week showed 44 million passengers passed through Gatwick last year and the group made profits of 132 million, down from 141 million previously, due to higher operating costs.

The 60 long-haul destinations from Gatwick compare with 87 at rival Heathrow, which already has two runways.

The most connected airport in the world is Frankfurt, which has 107 long-haul destinations, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 106. Both the French and German airports have four runways.
Britain could face an exodus of the super-rich and so-called non-doms as other European countries lure wealthy elites with their own tax schemes for non-domiciled residents, experts are warning.

Italy launched a rival to Britains non-dom system this year, and one British tax adviser claims to have arranged for the first super-wealthy Briton to quit the UK for Italy.

The move follows a clampdown in Britain on those claiming non-dom status and as Brexit threatens to undermine the appeal of the UK as a home for international elites.

Sailing off: Experts say wealthy Britons may well now head for Tuscany

An exodus of wealthy British taxpayers would create a headache for the Chancellor, who is struggling to match demands for public spending with reducing the deficit.

The income tax received two years ago from the 116,000 people in the UK claiming non-dom status was 6.5 billion. That is equivalent to putting a penny in the pound on the basic rate of income tax.

The figure does not even take into account the economic activity generated by their spending and the further tax revenue generated.

Mark Davies, a non-dom tax expert who runs his own consultancy, said Italian tax breaks were proving extremely attractive to very wealthy British pensioners.

Davies warned: At the point where were making our system more difficult and look less attractive, other European jurisdictions are trying to make theirs look better and more attractive.

Whereas two or three years ago youd have said the UK was the only G20 country with a non-dom regime, its not the case any more.

A firm we are working closely with on this have had their first client go through and I think he is the first nationwide.

Davies said the individual was a British citizen who would not qualify under UK non-dom rules, but could become an Italian non-dom.

Malta and Portugal have similar systems to Italy and the UK. France is also reforming its tax and employment rules to make them more attractive  though as yet there is no equivalent of the non-dom system.

Britains non-dom regime is a relic of its imperial past, created for citizens of the empire who were resident in the UK, but who ultimately considered their home to be elsewhere.

The current rules allow non-doms to pay tax only on their British income, with work done outside the country and income on investments and property held abroad being free of UK tax. However, wealthy non-doms in the UK pay a charge of up to 90,000 a year to maintain their status, under rules introduced by Chancellor George Osborne with the objective of raising more revenue from the super-rich.

After seven years in the UK, there is a fee of 30,000 a year for claiming non-dom status, rising to 90,000 a year for those who have been here almost 20 years.

Chancellor Philip Hammond had been planning a further crackdown by forcing longstanding non-doms to pay the full tax on their foreign earnings, but the changes were ditched to help streamline the Governments Finance Bill. The Treasury is now mulling whether to reintroduce them.

The Italian regime differs from the UKs system in that it charges 100,000 (88,000) a year from the start. But this could still prove attractive to the 5,000 non-doms in the UK already paying a similar sum to the UK Treasury.

Davies said: From the first year you have to pay 100,000. But thats all you have to pay. Remember that the 5,000 wealthiest individuals in the UK pay more than 140,000 each in income tax every year.

Smart move? Italy hopes its new system will encourage the super-rich to spend their money in Italy helping its economy

This figure means that the top 5,000 non-doms alone contribute more than 700 million in income tax to the Treasury. The Italian system has another attraction over the UKs regime. A British-based non-dom must pay tax on any money they bring into the UK. The Italian system places no restriction on bringing in money to spend.

Italy hopes its new system will encourage the super-rich to spend their money in Italy helping its economy. Davies said: The biggest problem my clients always bring up is that they want to spend money in the UK, but if they bring income to the UK just to spend it that creates a bigger tax bill.

The countrys new regime may attract not only non-doms resident in the UK, who are typically not British citizens, but also wealthy Brits, particularly the retired who are earning an income in the UK from property and investments.

There are plenty of Brits who have a yearning for a lovely Tuscan villa and for whom 100,000 a year isnt too bad, said Davies.

However, Jo Bateson, a partner at accountancy giant KPMGs private client division in the UK, said it was still early days for the Italian regime. She added: We have a couple of clients looking at it, one a manufacturing entrepreneur, the other in financial services. But no one has 100 per cent confirmed thats what theyre looking to do.

Bateson said the UK remained a formidable attraction for many clients who are unlikely to move just for tax reasons.

Clients often ask us about where to go and the UK often comes up as still one of the better places to be, she said.

But with Brexit looming and the Treasury mulling a further crackdown on the super-rich, that appeal could yet evaporate.
A homicide suspect livestreamed on Facebook as he traded gunfire with police, eventually shooting a Los Angeles SWAT officer before a police round struck him, a law enforcement official said.

The official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Both the suspect and officer are expected to survive, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday.

An unidentified murder suspect live streamed his shootout with police in Hawthorne, California, on Wednesday before he was brought down by bullets

The official said the video, which captured at least part of the encounter, showed the suspect shouting as he pointed a handgun at officers with gunshots ringing around him.

'They coming at me,' the man is reported to have said on the video.

'Im gonna die today.'

At one point he yells that the officers are 'about to kill me.'

Residents of the neighborhood of El Segundo reported that the shootout left them terrorized by the sounds of bullets whizzing by, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Police have not released the name of the wounded officer or the suspect.

The suspect was one of four people wanted in connection with a gang-related killing in late March, Beck said.

One police officer was injured in the shootout. He is in hospital in a stable condition

The shootout occurred on roads in the neighborhood of Hawthorne, California

The man led police officers from Los Angeles and Hawthorne on a brief chase in El Segundo, which ended with the shootout, the chief said.

Police said the suspect bailed out of his car and ran into an apartment complex as he was shooting at officers.

Neighbors said they heard the sounds of a helicopter and police sirens, followed by a barrage of 15 gunshots.

One local resident, Jeff Parisse, said he wandered out on his balcony in hopes of filming the shootout, but quickly retreated back into his home after a bullet flew by his head and struck a wall behind him.

The wounded SWAT officer was shot in the hip and is expected to make a full recovery, Beck said.

The suspect was taken to a hospital in serious condition and will be arrested in connection with the March killing and for investigation of attempted murder of a police officer, the chief said.

Beck visited the wounded officer at the hospital and said he was stable and his wife, a fellow LAPD officer, was at his bedside.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents police officers, said the shooting is a 'somber reminder that police work is inherently dangerous and deadly.'
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A sign painted above the intake section of Australia's largest prison  the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, west of Sydney  greets every new inmate.

'Welcome to the MRRC. Respect every person you meet in here, and they will also respect you,' it says.

Respect in this place can be hard won. Another sign on a cell door says of the wild-haired inmate wearing only underpants staring out from inside: 'Use caution, assaulted nurse on 07/06/17.'

That date has then been crossed out and '25/06/17' added.

Scroll down for video

One inmate shows off while another hides his face at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, west of Sydney

This mentally-ill inmate came to his cell door at Silverwater prison dressed only in underpants then hid under his blanket

Officers stick warnings about violent inmates outside their cell doors at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

'I shouldn't be in here': This inmate pleaded with Daily Mail Australia to get him out of the maximum security prison

The MRRC, part of the Silverwater Correctional Complex, is the main entry point into the New South Wales prison system. It processes about 18,000 men a year.

On Tuesday Corrective Services NSW will be marking 20 years since the MRRC's opening, taking over the remand and reception role from Long Bay, in Sydney's east.

Most of the notorious killers, rapists and bikies to have been refused bail in NSW over the past two decades have passed through this prison's doors.

So too the crooked politicians, paedophile priests and drug barons who have made headlines since 1997. Some of them were there when Daily Mail Australia visited this week.

The MRRC currently houses 1,179 inmates and employs 322 staff. Most inmates are awaiting court hearings or classification to other jails.

The prisoner population is transient, but some of the staff have served much longer than the average murder sentence. Almost 50 have been there from the start.

This inmate is a recent arrival at Silverwater's Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, which opened in July 1997

The inmate in this cell assaulted a nurse earlier this month and warnings advise that he must be treated with extreme caution

An inmate covers his face as he uses a phone while another prisoner waits his turn to make a call at the jail in Sydney's west

This inmate is on protection, with a Special Management Area Placement (SMAP) card seen outside his cell

Senior Correctional Officers Sindy Lesko, Vesna Mijatovic and Ian McLuckie were all at the MRRC when it opened on July 4, 1997.

Much has changed in those 20 years. Much has stayed the same.

There has been an increase in education, mental health treatment and inmate programs addressing issues including violent behaviour and drug use.

There has also been a rise in gang-affiliated inmates, prisoner numbers and offending attributed to drugs  particularly ice.

The inmates still wear green. The officers still wear blue. Many of those in green present a constant danger. All of those in blue are permanently on guard.

Inmates roaming the yards attacked to Darcy Block 1 and 2 at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater

These men are subject to the highest security classification in Silverwater's Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

The inmates in this section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Prison include alleged killers and bikie gang members

Warning sign: 'Inmate displays aggressive non-compliant behaviours, inmate is an extreme risk to staff and other persons'

SCO Mijatovic said there was not the constant confrontation between staff and inmates of 20 years ago.

'Twenty years ago it was more like green against blue,' she says.

'Whereas now you communicate more with them, you're involved with them. Now we're more trained to talk inmates down. To defuse the matter verbally rather than physically.

'Interaction with the inmates is a big change. The type of inmates that come into custody has changed too. The culture of inmates has changed.

A carton of milk sits on a gate at the intake section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in Sydney's west

This inmate peers through the perspex door of a holding area at Silverwater's Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

Graffiti, much of it referring to outlaw motorcycle gangs, surrounds a telephone in a segregated area of the prison

The number of bikies including Finks has increased in recent years at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

'Programs have made a massive change over that time.'

Governor Tom Woods took control of the MRRC in September last year and is happy to see the place generally not in the news.

'We're doing exceptionally well considering the increase in numbers,' Mr Woods says.

'Certainly the volume of work is bigger than in other centres. We get all sorts coming through here.

'The staff are the backbone of the centre. I commend them for doing such a marvelous job in an environment that is confrontational on a regular basis.'

Mr Woods is proud of the programs the prison now offers inmates.

'One of the things we're working hard on at the moment is to address domestic violence. We're getting great results.'

The 'pods' in the maximum security Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in the Silverwater complex are kept clean

Some of the inmates in Darcy Block are kept in safe cells with perspex fronted cells so they can always been seen from outside

The red card outside this inmate's cell means he is on suicide watch, while the orange card next door means that prisoner is detoxing

This inmate in Darcy Block is well known to staff at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, Australia's largest prison

SCO McLuckie also talks about the benefits of educational and rehabilitation programs.

'There's a program for everything,' SCO McLuckie says. 'If you can teach them the skills and show them the pathways, when they decide to change their ways they have the skills necessary to do it.'

SCO Lesko remembers when mental health assessments were rudimentary and places such as the main reception area, Darcy 1, were medically understaffed.

'When this jail opened there'd be one nurse,' she says. 'They've really gone into addressing those issues.'

Upon reception, an inmate will be searched, photographed and have their irises scanned. They will see a nurse and a welfare officer.

Phone calls to the outside world are a welcome break from life inside the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

Inmates move through a corridor in the maximum security Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater

An inmate works out on a gym set in a yard within the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, west of Sydney

Some of the inmates in Darcy Block of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre are kept 'two-out' due to fears for their safety if left alone

Consideration is given to the inmate's family circumstances - sometimes children may have been left alone upon his arrest. The RSPCA will be informed if the prisoner has an unattended pet.

Better facilities and treatment don't mean all the inmates are better behaved. The men in Darcy 1 can be hard mainstream prisoners who have been transferred to the MRRC, vulnerable inmates who need protection or drug-crazed offenders straight off the street.

Some are forensic patients bouncing between hospitals and jail.

'You've got mains. You've got three types of protection. You've got inmates on assessment who want to kill themselves,' SCO Lesko says.

The mix means they all have to be kept apart. 'It's a full-on juggling act,' SCO Lesko says.

An unoccupied cell in the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre's Darcy Block, whose occupants can be hard mainstream prisoners, vulnerable inmates who need protection or drug-crazed offenders straight off the street

Facilities are basic in the Darcy Block of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, which opened in July 1997

Inmates in the intake section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre where prisoners arrive by truck

Prisoners wait in the intake section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, which is marking its 20th anniversary

'A lot of them are aggressive and abusive. You've really got to be switched on down here.'

At night, it only gets worse.

'It's full-on yelling and screaming. They're rubbing s*** on the walls, head-butting walls.'

When Daily Mail Australia visits, a prisoner pleads through his door: 'Chief! chief! Chief, I want to talk to you, man. I shouldn't be here. Sir, can you get me out of here?'

Like his fellow inmate next door who recently assaulted a nurse, this inmate is clearly mentally unwell.

SCO McLuckie says Darcy 1 is much better than the old days. 'When the jail opened, we were cutting down bodies every day.'

Poor planning meant there were hanging points where there should have been none.

Darcy Block at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre is difficult to manage during the day but at night it gets far worse

The red cards outside these cells in Darcy Block mean the occupants are considered at risk of committing suicide

Two correctional officers are seen heading towards the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre's control tower

Access to the control tower at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, west of Sydney, is very tight

There were far less serious teething problems while the prison was still being constructed.

In the beginning, inmates were sometimes not being put to bed until midnight and were up at 4.30am to get on a truck to court.

'I remember finding an electrician that had accidentally locked himself in a segregation cell in Darcy Unit,' SCO McLuckie says. 'He'd been there for hours when I found him.'

SCO Lesko remembers her first day. 'I went into the store room and there was a barbecue, barbecue tools, an iron and an ironing board. Can you imagine what you could do to someone's face with an iron?'

The place runs far more safely and efficiently now. It rarely makes the news, despite the men who fill its cells. It doesn't even have a decent nickname.

Prisoners awaiting transfer inside Darcy Block of the 20-year-old Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in west Sydney

An inmate peers out through his cell in the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater prison

An inmate touches up a brightly-coloured mural he has painted within the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

The hardest mainstream cases in the MRRC are in Pod 14 of G Block. They all have the highest security classification below terrorists and some can expect to be held here for up to three years.

On Thursday, in the cell of a Comanchero heavy, was a copy of Australia's Most Murderous Prison, about Goulburn jail.

Horse racing was showing on his television. There were 15 apples and a banana on a shelf near his bed, food left over from Ramadan.

The inmates in this pod are the 'bad, bad, naughty boys', SCO Lesko says.

Making this section run smoothly means recognising a leader who the other inmates will respect and listen to.

When Daily Mail Australia visits, the inmates here are talking in groups and playing ping pong. Boisterous but well-behaved.

Suits are placed in garment bags and tagged with the names of inmates, so they can be worn for court appearances

Inmates can change into their own suit for court or borrow one from a collection held in the intake section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

Every inmate at the maximum security prison is issued with a pair of these green Dunlop runners with Velcro ties

Stalls in which prisoners can get changed at the intake section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater

Pies are kept in a warmer ready as a snack for inmates entering the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

'It's all in the way you treat them,' SCO Lesko says.

Her colleague SCO Mijatovic says being a woman can help with that.

She was the first female member of the prison's Security Emergency Response Team, now known as the Immediate Action Team. They are the group called upon when there is serious trouble inside.

'It's such an unpredictable environment,' she says. 'An incident could occur at any second.'

'I used to go on situations with [the Security Emergency Response Team] and as soon as they saw a female it would calm right down,' she says.

But what helps most is being part of a strong team.

'You're always going to be here for each other,' SCO Mijatovic says. 'You've always got someone watching your back.'

View from the tier above Darcy Block in the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater Correctional Complex

Inmates peer through a holding yard door while one uses a telephone at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

This segregated section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre houses the prison's most vulnerable inmates

A cell inside the segregated Darcy 3 section of the maximum security prison, where the most vulnerable inmates are held

The inmate occupying this cell in Darcy 3 section is among the most vulnerable in the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

The job has other advantages. From the control tower, SCO McLuckie points out ANZ Stadium. 'When the big bands are playing over there we can hear them. AC/DC was unreal.'

Most of the officers at times talk light-heartedly like this but all are constantly aware of everything going on around them.

Officers are far more likely to encounter someone trying to get contraband inside than an inmate getting out. Six cells in every pod are searched every day. 'Just to let them know we're having a look,' SCO Lesko says.

The prison is so secure it took a helicopter to affect an escape.

In March 1999, two years after the MRRC opened, armed robber John Killick escaped from the prison when his mistress Lucy Dudko forced a helicopter pilot at gunpoint to pick Killick up from the oval.

SCO Lesko was there that day. 'It was the most exciting day of my career,' she says. 'It was the most bizarre thing I've seen in my life.'

Inmates play table tennis in a section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Prison reserved for prisoners with the highest security classification

Officers remove a handcuffed inmate from a truck at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, west of Sydney

Prisoners, who have recently arrived at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre and have been dressed in green

Inmates are seen as they relax in a yard at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater, west of Sydney

SCO McLuckie says one of the most dangerous parts of the prison is the acute crisis mental health unit.

'They'll come up to talk to you and then they'll just king hit you,' SCO McLuckie says. 'And they won't remember they did it.

The most vulnerable and violent inmates are kept in Darcy 3 and Darcy 4, respectively.

The prisoners here are at risk due to reasons including gang affiliations, their high-profile and direct threats to their lives. Some are Crown witnesses giving evidence against other prisoners.

There have recently been members of the Comanchero, Bandidos and Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle clubs in these cells. There are gangland killers and at least one former politician in here when Daily Mail Australia visits.

'They do not mix with anyone,' SCO Lesko says. 'No one mixes with anyone down here.'

Shoes and prison greens are issued to inmates upon their arrival at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

An inmate reads a book in his cell in Darcy Block of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater

Inmates, who still dress in green as they did when the prison first opened, play up for the camera inside the prison

An inmate carries his belongings in a clear plastic bag in the intake section of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silerwater

The inmates here wear orange overalls rather than standard prison greens and are always handcuffed when moved.

'Orange is the new green,' SCO McLuckie says.

Part of every officer's job is paying attention to the news.

'A drive-by at Wetherill Park last night will impact on the jail the next day,' SCO McLuckie says. 'They'll hear about it in here and it's on for young and old.

'The dynamics change weekly.'

Standing in the visitors section, where inmates in white overalls sit with partners and friends, SCO McLuckie says even this area of the prison can be dangerous.

Officers have to be aware of who is who and keep potentially warring inmates and visitors apart. Like the Wetherill Park scenario, reasons for recrimination can arise overnight.

Visitors sit with inmates in a yard at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, west of Sydney, on Thursday

Before inmates were required to wear white overalls, visits with their wives and girlfriends could turn into sex

'We've had gangs show up at the same time,' SCO McLuckie says. 'Every officer has to be on guard.'

Rules in the visitors area have changed over the years, much to some inmates' disappointment.

'When this first opened, they didn't have overalls and it was an absolute sex-fest,' SCO McLuckie says. 'It was like an episode of Penthouse Couples every day.'

What hasn't changed is that paedophiles  or 'rock spiders' - are still at the bottom of the prison pile, according to SCO Lesko.

'They won't tolerate paedophiles or crimes against old people,' she says.

At the top are the outlaw motorcycle gang leaders, replacing the old school independent gangsters who commanded respect and could wield power on their own.

An inmate sits on a table in a yard at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater, west of Sydney

Inmates, who are dressed in prison greens, are seen awaiting transfer at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

A view looking down from the control tower in the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater

A once notorious armed robber and escapee from the 1980s recently passed through the MRRC thinking he was still a big player but was treated as a nobody.

'It's all about who you associate with in jail,' SCO Lesko says.

One group that has no choice about who they associate with is the prison's paedophile population. They live only among their own.

They are older than the average inmate, tend to be better educated, and their offences disgust even those required to oversee murderers and drug importers whose crimes have cost young lives.

SCO Mijatovic says: 'You've just got to put it out of your mind.'
A prison officer who witnessed John Killick escape by helicopter from a western Sydney jail has described it as the 'most exciting day of my career'.

Senior Correctional Officer Sindy Lesko also revealed she saw Killick's girlfriend Lucy Dudko the day before the pair pulled off the most dramatic escape in Australian penal history.

SCO Lesko was on duty in the maximum security Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater when Killick, then 57, made his break on March 25, 1999.

'It was the most exciting day of my career,' SCO Lesko said

Senior Correctional Officer Sindy Lesko (above) witnessed John Killick escape by helicopter from a western Sydney jail and described it as the 'most exciting day of my career'

Killick had been on remand in the MRRC after committing a string of bank robberies. Dudko, a 41-year-old Russian librarian, planned the escape during one of her visits.

In preparation for Killick's escape, Dudko took a joy ride over the site where Sydney Olympic Park was being constructed in the lead up to the 2000 Olympic Games.

Dudko had been living with Killick's wife Gloria since her lover had been locked up and dined with her the night before the escape.

The next morning Dudko hired helicopter pilot Timothy Joyce to take her on another scenic tour.

Mr Joyce later recounted realising something was wrong when Dudko began paying particular attention to the Silverwater Correctional Complex.

John Killick's Russian-born librarian lover Lucy Dudko hijacked a helicopter to break her partner out of jail

Armed robber John Killick escaped from the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre by helicopter in 1999

'I looked over my shoulder ... and as I looked back she had pulled a pistol out of her purse and she put it to the side of my head and said "this is a hijack",' he said.

Dudko forced Mr Joyce to land in the grounds of the prison, Killick jumped aboard and the aircraft took off.

An officer in the MRRC's control tower fired shots at the helicopter as it rose.

Standing where she was when the escaped happened, SCO Lesko describes it all.

'Me and about 180 inmates actually walked out here and I walked straight up to the back fence through there and, as they said, there was a helicopter just hovering over the top of the oval,' she says.

'And at the time the whole of G Block inmates were out there on the oval. There was about 250 inmates out there at the time.

The window from which an officer fired shots at the helicopter which landed on the grassed area at the top of picture

A Ruger .223 semi-automatic rifle similar to the one used to fire at the helicopter used to break John Killick out of jail

The firing point from the control tower where an officer let go several rounds at the helicopter that flew John Killick out of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Prison (a rifle is visible bottom left)

'So, in utter amazement, me and all these inmates were just looking through the fence seeing what was going on.

'And we're just watching and I kept looking up to the tower to see what was going on.

'I'm listening to the radio to see what was actually going on, thinking it was a false landing and the helicopter was looking for somewhere to actually land for an emergency.

'So, we're at the back fence, then all of a sudden I'm watching all these inmates run over to the helicopter, start looking in.

'Then all of a sudden they all put their hands up and start moving back from the helicopter and I've thought 'oh no, here we go, this is not good'.

'They've all moved back and just like in the movies some old guy from under the main tree on the oval ... starts running really low and gets on the helicopter.'

Armed robber John Killick was 57 when he escaped from Silverwater's Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in 1999

A Bell 47 helicopter similar to the one hijacked by Lucy Dudko to break her lover John Killick out of jail

'Well, I'm thinking 'what the hell's going on here?' Then all of a sudden the helicopter just lifts off and takes off.

In the control tower were officers armed with a .38 revolver and a .223 Ruger semi-automatic rifle.

'Then I look up to the tower and see what's going to happen and they actually drew the revolver then they put it back down, thinking 'what should we do?'

'Because at the time there was no regulations as to what you can and you can't do in regards to shooting at an aircraft.

'Next minute the helicopter just took off like nothing even happened.'

Pilot Timothy Joyce was forced at gun-point to bring his chopper down onto the oval of the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre

Lucy Dudko was living with her lover John Killick's wife Gloria (pictured) when she snatched him from prison in a helicopter

An officer in the tower did fire several shots from the rifle. Some of them hit the helicopter.

'Shots started going over head,' SCO Lesko says. 'It was the most amazing thing I've seen in my life.'

SCO Lesko had seen Dudko at the MRRC the previous day, visiting Killick.

Mr Joyce flew Killick and Dudko to Ryde about 7 kilometres from the facility, before he was forced to land and tied up.

The pair spent 45 days on the run before being captured in a caravan park at Bass Hill, in south-western Sydney.

Killick was released from prison in 2015, Dudko in 2006. They are no longer a couple.
The gunman who killed three police officers in Baton Rouge left a suicide note before he went in search of cops to kill last summer, according to an investigative report released Friday.

Gavin Long, a 29-year-old black man from Kansas City, Missouri, sought out law enforcement when he attacked the officers that Sunday morning.

He killed Baton Rouge officers Montrell Jackson, 32, and Matthew Gerald, 41, and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola, 45.

In a suicide note, Long wrote that people who knew him would be surprised he was 'suspected of committing such horrendous acts of violence'.

But he also wrote that his actions were a 'necessary evil' that needed to happen 'in order to create substantial change within America's police force and judicial system'.

He wrote he had to inflict harm 'upon bad cops as well as good cops in hopes that the good cops (which are the majority) will be able to stand together and enact justice and punishment against bad cops'.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III released an exhaustive report Friday about Long's ambush of police, including the details of Long's suicide note.

Gavin Long, pictured, a 29-year-old black man from Kansas City, Missouri, sought out law enforcement when he attacked the officers last summer

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III released an exhaustive report Friday about Long's ambush of police, including the details of Long's suicide note and surveillance footage that shows Long's attack on police, pictured

The prosecutor showed videos, photos and graphics to reporters, depicting exactly how Long attacked police on July 17, 2016.

The report showed that Long had searched online for the home addresses of two white police officers who were involved in a fatal encounter with Alton Sterling, a black man who was killed outside a convenience store.

Investigators didn't find any indication that Gavin Long ever acted on the information, and his research wasn't the only evidence of his anger over the police treatment of African-Americans.

Moore said investigators didn't find any evidence that Long had any support from anyone in Baton Rouge or attended any of the nightly protests here after Sterling was shot to death during a struggle with two officers on July 5.

'We believe that he was ready to die this day,' Moore said. 'He believes that protests are worthless and that action needs to be taken, not protests.'

The prosecutor said that after Long killed three officers and wounded three others, he was shot dead by tactical officers who acted appropriately.

Long also had a printout from an Islamic holy book that was mostly in Arabic, and the report also found that he had been using methamphetamines and had alcohol in his system when he was killed that Sunday morning.

Long killed East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, left, and Baton Rouge officers Montrell Jackson, 32, center and Matthew Gerald, 41, right

The prosecutor said investigators didn't find any evidence that Long had any support from anyone in Baton Rouge or attended any of the nightly protests here after Sterling was shot to death during a struggle with two officers on July 5, 2016

The prosecutor speculated Long may have initially been headed to the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters but changed his mind when he saw an officer's car pull into a gas station.

The attack occurred amid simmering tensions nationwide over the treatment of blacks by police.

Just 10 days earlier, a sniper fired on a group of police officers in Dallas, killing five officers and wounding nine others. Two civilians were also wounded.

Two days before that, an officer in Baton Rouge killed the 37-year-old Sterling during a struggle that was captured on two cellphone videos and sparked nightly protests in the city.

Long wore black clothing and a ski mask and was armed with two rifles and a pistol when he parked his rental car near a beauty supply store and approached an empty police vehicle at the convenience store next door.

In less than 14 minutes, he unloaded 43 rounds as the former Marine methodically fired on officers.

After Long shot two officers, Garafola drew his gun, took cover behind a trash bin and tried to rescue one of the officers. Long shot him dead and shot the other officer twice more at close range.

Long traded gunfire with other officers before he was shot by several tactical officers who arrived to help.

Long wore black clothing and a ski mask and was armed with two rifles and a pistol when he parked his rental car near a beauty supply store and approached an empty police vehicle at the convenience store next door

In less than 14 minutes, he unloaded 43 rounds as the former Marine methodically fired on officers

Long, pictured, served in the Marines from 2005 to 2010, including a seven-month stint in 2008 in Iraq

Long served in the Marines from 2005 to 2010, including a seven-month stint in 2008 in Iraq. He was a data network specialist who reached the rank of sergeant before an honorable discharge.

Long never saw combat in Iraq, but he told doctors he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because a friend showed him videos of maimed and decapitated bodies, medical records showed.

Doctors at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, diagnosed Long in November 2011 as suffering from an 'adjustment disorder with depressed mood,' but not PTSD.

Long had posted rambling internet videos calling for violence in response to police treatment of African-Americans, which he said constituted 'oppression'.

He also purportedly described his actions as a 'necessary evil' in a manifesto that an Ohio man says was sent to him by Long less than an hour before the shootings.

His mother, Corine Woodley, told PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley that her son would 'pretty much lose it' and become furious every time he heard about a black man being shot by police in what he considered an unlawful manner.

The report showed that Long had searched online for the home addresses of two white police officers who were involved in a fatal encounter with Alton Sterling, Howie Lake II, right, and Blane Salamoni, left

An East Baton Rouge Sheriff's officer enters the B-Quick convenience store at the shooting scene in Baton Rouge, where several law enforcement officers were either shot or killed by Long last summer
A former Oregon detective pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to investigate child abuse cases during six years on the job.

Jeffrey Allen Green, a former detective for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, was charged with just two counts of official misconduct, even though investigators said he failed to properly investigate more than 50 cases, the Oregonian reported.

Defense lawyer William Bruce Shepley told the judge Green did not fulfill his duties because he 'suffered from a terrible case of burnout'.

Deputy District Attorney Bryan Brock, called Green a 'capable detective', but didn't mince his words when the 59-year-old 'had neglected his duties to a level I had not seen before'.

Former Detective Jeffrey Allen Green, who was assigned to cases in Wilsonville, Oregon, ignored more than 50 cases during six years on the job

Green was assigned to an array of crimes in Wilsonville, including rape, child sexual assault and theft.

He failed to to track down and identify suspects, submit DNA evidence from a rape kit, or make contact with victims or their families in more than 50 cases, prosecutors said.

The detective, in many cases, would close cases without having done any work, Brock said.

But Green was only charged with misconduct in two child abuse cases, since state law required him to initiate an investigation.

Sheriff's sergeant Matt Swanson first noticed problems with Green's work in February 2015. Although the detective retired just two months later, Swanson pushed for an investigation and an outside agency was brought in nearly a year later.

The deputy district attorney, who worked with Green on numerous occasions, said he was 'very experienced' and 'a capable detective when he chose to be.'

Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owen also ruled out the possibility Green was caught up in potential conflicts of interest.

Green pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree official misconduct on Thursday, and will not serve any jail time. Pictured, general view of Clackamas County Circuit Court

Green's lawyer said his client was battling health problems at the end of his career, and struggled to cope with the emotional toil of the abuse cases he was assigned to.

'He suffered from a terrible case of burnout by the end of this,' Shepley told Clackamas County Circuit Judge Michael Wetzel.

Green didn't make any statements before the judge in the courthouse and declined to comment after the hearing.

A judge abided by the terms of a plea deal and sentenced Green to one year of probation, $1,100 in fines and fees and an order to relinquish his police certification so he can never work as an officer again.

Green, who will not serve time in jail, appeared at the county jail, where his fingerprints and mugshot were taken before he was released.
Police in New York say an Arizona man has been extradited to the state more than 40 years after he fled a rape conviction.

Todd Matus, now 62, was convicted in absentia of raping and sodomizing an 18-year-old girl in Dix Hills, and was sentenced to between five and 15 years in jail, according to Suffolk County Police.

The then-21 year old agreed to drive the girl home from a disco before taking her to a secluded wooded area and assaulting her.

Officials say he fled while free on bail and was living under an assumed name.

Todd Matus, 62 (pictured), was extradited back to New York after living in Arizona for more than 40 years after he fled following a 1976 conviction of raping and sodomizing an 18-year-old girl

Matus traveled to Vermont, Nevada, Hawaii and then Arizona, where he assumed another person's identity and had been living under that alias for more than 40 years.

He was returned to New York this week after being arrested last fall at his home in Flagstaff, Arizona.

When Matus attempted to obtain Social Security benefits in the summer of 2016, it was discovered that the person whose alias he was using had died in 2005.

He served about nine months in jail on forgery and identity theft charges.

Matus (pictured in 1975) fled while free on bail, eventually making his way to Arizona. When Matus attempted to obtain Social Security benefits in the summer of 2016, it was discovered that the person whose alias he was using had died in 2005. He served about nine months in jail before being brought to New York

Flagstaff Police Department discovered Matus's real identity and he was turned over to the Suffolk County Police Fugitive Unit after completing his sentence in Arizona.

Matus was arraigned Thursday in Suffolk County Court on a charge of bail-jumping and was remanded, pending sentencing.

Police say he will serve his five to 15 years in prison for his rape and sodomy convictions after he faces his new charge of jumping bail.
Marine scientists are alarmed by the deaths of six endangered North Atlantic right whales in Canadian waters during the past three weeks and say humans must help protect them.

North Atlantic right whales are among the most endangered large mammals on Earth, with only about 500 still alive.

Mark Baumgartner, an associate scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on Cape Cod, said Friday the deaths are a 'mortality disaster.'

Scientists say six endangered North Atlantic right whales have died in Canadian waters during the past three weeks

North Atlantic right whales are among the most endangered large mammals on the planet, with only about 500 of them still alive (stock image)

The loss of so many right whales so quickly was probably last seen when whaling decimated their population in the 19th century, Baumgartner said.

He said the deaths should be a call for humans to do more to protect the animals when possible.

'With such a small and declining population, right whales have little capacity to deal with both natural and human-caused mortality simultaneously,' he said.

The six carcasses were first sighted north of Prince Edward Island and southeast of Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula.

One was entangled in snow crab fishing gear, and the causes of the other five deaths are unknown, scientists said.

Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has said it is working to retrieve carcasses to find out more about what contributed to the die off.

Marine mammal experts examining a dead North Atlantic right whale after it was pulled ashore in Prince Edward Island, Canada, in a bid to determine what killed it and several other whales in recent weeks

One carcass was entangled in snow crab fishing gear near Prince Edward Island (pictured), and the causes of the other five deaths are unknown, scientists said

Right whales are susceptible to risks such as entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes. They're also affected by disease and changes in food availability in the ocean.

Scientists with Woods Hole and the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium in Boston stressed that such a high number of deaths in such a short time period can jeopardize the population of an animal that is so rare.

'For a small population like right whales, the difference between population growth and a path toward extinction can be the matter of a handful of animals,' said Scott Kraus, vice president and senior science adviser at the Anderson Cabot Center.
Olivia de Havilland is suing FX and the producer of 'Feud' for using her identity without permission and portraying her in a 'false light' in the miniseries.

The Gone with the Wind actress who turns 101 on Saturday filed her lawsuit against the cable outlet and creator/producer Ryan Murphy to the LA County Superior Court Friday.

The eight-episode show, which premiered on March 5, is about the rivalry between Bette Davis, played by Susan Sarandon, and Joan Crawford, played by Jessica Lange.

Though the show is intended to dramatize actual historical events, de Havilland said she was never consulted or asked for permission to use her identity, despite the fact that she claims she is the only survivor of the events depicted in the series.

The suit further claims that Catherine Zeta Jones' portrayal of de Havilland, who was a confidant of Davis', put the 100-year-old actress in 'a false light to sensationalize the series'.

Olivia de Havilland, pictured in 2011, is suing FX and the producer of 'Feud' for using her identity without permission and portraying her in a 'false light' in the miniseries

The 100-year-old Gone with the Wind actress, pictured left at the age of 48, filed her lawsuit to the LA County Superior Court Friday against the channel and 'Feud' producer Ryan Murphy, pictured right at the Emmy Awards in 2016

'Feud' premiered on March 5 and depicts the rivalry between Bette Davis, played by Susan Sarandon, left, and Joan Crawford, played by Jessica Lange, right

De Havilland, who was a close friend of Davis, was portrayed by Catherine Zeta Jones, left, in the show. De Havilland claims in her lawsuit that she was not asked for permission to use her identity

'Miss de Havilland was not asked by FX for permission to use her name and identity and was not compensated for such use,' her lawyers told The LA Times.

'Further, the FX series puts words in the mouth of Miss de Havilland which are inaccurate and contrary to the reputation she has built over an 80-year professional life, specifically refusing to engage in gossip mongering about other actors in order to generate media attention for herself.

'A living celebrity has the right to protect her name and identity from unauthorized, false, commercial exploitation under both common law and the specific "right to publicity" statute in California,' her lawyer added.

'FX was wrong to ignore Miss de Havilland and proceed without her permission for its own profit.'

De Havilland's lawyer said: 'The FX series puts words in the mouth of Miss de Havilland which are inaccurate and contrary to the reputation she has built over an 80-year professional life.' Sarandon as Davis, left, and Zeta Jones as de Havilland, right, are pictured in an April episode of the show

Davis, left, and de Havilland, right, were close friends in real life. They are pictured at the 1963 Academy Awards

Though 'Feud' is intended to dramatize actual historical events, de Havilland, pictured in 2006, said she was never consulted, despite the fact that she claims she is the only survivor of the events depicted in the series

'Feud: Bette and Joan' opens with Zeta Jones, as de Havilland, doing an interview, which gives the impression that the actress sold gossip to promote herself.

'[A]ll statements made by Zeta-Jones as Olivia de Havilland in this fake interview are completely false, some inherently so; others false because they were never said,' de Havilland's lawyer Suzelle Smith told The Hollywood Reporter.

'FX defendants did not engage in protected First Amendment speech in putting false words into the mouth of Olivia de Havilland in a fake interview that did not occur and would not have occurred.'

De Havilland is suing FX and Ryan Murphy Productions for infringement of common law right of publicity, invasion of privacy and unjust enrichment.

She is asking the court for damages, any profits gained from the use of her likeness and an injunction to prevent FX from using her name and likeness again, THR said.

Her lawyers are asking for an expedited trial date because of the actress's age.

Murphy told THR in April that he didn't ask de Havilland about the series because he didn't want to be disrespectful.

De Havilland, pictured left in 1965 and right in 1986, is suing FX and Ryan Murphy Productions for infringement of common law right of publicity, invasion of privacy and unjust enrichment. She is asking the court for damages, any profits gained from the use of her likeness and an injunction to prevent FX from using her name and likeness again
Cardinal George Pell has hired top criminal barrister Robert Richter, QC, to help defend him on charges of historical sexual charges and will reportedly be at a Melbourne court on July 26 for a scheduled hearing.

The 76-year-old on Thursday told journalists at the Vatican Press Office he was looking forward to having his day in court after a two-year investigation, 'leaks to the media' and 'relentless character assassination'.

Victorian Police have charged the cardinal, a former Melbourne and Sydney archbishop and Ballarat priest, with multiple sex offences but the details of those offences have not been released.

Victorian Police have charged Cardinal George Pell (pictured) with multiple sex offences but the details of those offences have not been released

Cardinal George Pell has hired top criminal barrister Robert Richter (pictured)

Mr Richter has defended Melbourne underworld-linked figure Mick Gatto (pictured)

Cardinal Pell said the laying of charges had strengthened his resolve to prove his innocence.

Mr Richter, who has defended Melbourne underworld-linked figure Mick Gatto and other notable clients, told News Corp on Friday he was expecting the cardinal to be in court on July 26.

'As I understand it, the cardinal will be there for the filing hearing.'

Cardinal Pell on Thursday said he was discussing with his lawyers and doctors about how and when he would return to Australia from Rome, where as Vatican treasurer he is considered the third most powerful person in the Catholic Church.

Doctors have previously advised the cardinal against long-haul flights because of a heart condition.

Melbourne gangland identity Mick Gatto

Cardinal George Pell leaves his house in Rome, Italy on June 29

Pope Francis has granted Cardinal Pell a leave of absence to return to Australia to defend himself.

The 76-year-old cardinal hopes to return to his job in Rome, but court proceedings involving multiple complainants could stretch into 2019, let alone guilty verdicts in any trials.

Australian Catholic authorities have ruled out paying the cardinal's legal fees.

In a statement on Thursday the Holy See said it was important to recall that Cardinal Pell had 'openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable the acts of abuse committed against minors'.

The cardinal has been living near St Peters Basilica in an apartment with a balcony overlooking a piazza where mobile stalls sell gelato and Vatican mementoes to tourists who throng the area.
William and Kate are expected to move into Kensington Palace in the autumn

When Kate and Wills move back to Kensington Palace in the autumn, they must be looking forward to having more space, thanks to plans to rehouse palace staff in a 24 million basement extension.

But I can reveal there is now fierce opposition to the proposed development from an unexpected quarter  a conservation charity whose patron is Prince Charles.

The Georgian Group is against the plans, and says the 'inappropriate' basement, under the Grade I-listed Orangery in the grounds of the palace, should be scrapped.

The charity opposes those who show 'philistinism' towards Georgian buildings, such as the 18th-century Orangery commissioned by Queen Anne.

This week  just days before Kensington and Chelsea council decides whether to give the subterranean staff quarters the go-ahead  the Georgian Group fired off a furious letter to the council, branding the plan 'unsightly'.

The charity says the three-level extension, including a two-storey basement where some staff will be rehoused to 'free up the Palace suites for the Royal Family', should be abandoned.

It suggests the 50-metre Orangery extension should be replaced with a 'more modest' single-storey building above ground.

The letter says: 'The Georgian Group recommends that the application is refused consent.'

The Georgian Group is against the plans to extend the palace's basement, and says the 'inappropriate' expansion, under the Grade I-listed Orangery in the grounds of the palace, should be scrapped

The charity adds that it is 'not convinced' by the need for more space for staff accommodation.The plans have received 17 further objections since they were submitted by Historic Royal Palaces in March. Residents have called the consultation 'bogus' and accuse the council of being 'bedazzled by courtiers', because two-storey basement excavations are usually banned in Kensington.

A spokesman for The Georgian Group says Prince Charles, a long-time critic of 'carbuncle' developments, 'has no oversight of, or role within, our casework'. However, he was praised for his support at the charity's 'spirit of the age' fancy dress party this month.

The Duke of Buccleuch, president of group, said at the bash: 'I must make special mention of our Patron, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, whose deeply knowledgeable support is a constant source of encouragement.'

The Duchess of Cambridge's frockmaker, Alice Temperley, recently announced 3.6 million losses.

Now her top team look threadbare, too.

Last week, Temperley London's chairman and finance chief quit  leaving newly promoted CEO Patricia Sancho to patch things up.

Socialite Alexandra Tolstoy will be in the High Court on Tuesday in a bid to to prevent the Russian government from attempting to remove trusts belonging to her three children by Sergei Pugachev, once dubbed Putin's Banker

Socialite Alexandra Tolstoy's life has become a saga worthy of one of her ancestor Leo's novels.

Next Tuesday she will be in the High Court in a bid to to prevent the Russian government from attempting to remove trusts belonging to her three children by Sergei Pugachev, once dubbed Putin's Banker.

'It will leave us homeless and penniless if they win,' Alexandra, 42, tells me.

'It's my children who are being litigated against by the Russian government which has never happened before  they are eight, seven and six years old.

'I am their representative as they are too young to defend themselves.' Her fugitive oligarch boyfriend Pugachev was accused by the Russian government of embezzling more than 655 million.

Two years ago he fled the UK for the South of France, receiving a two-year prison sentence for contempt of court.

Pugachev, 54, claims the legal case against him is part of a move to seize his assets after he fell out with the Russian president.

Alexandra, who has since split up with Pugachev, has kept herself distracted from her current travails by launching an eponymous fashion blog.
Police have released a sketch of the man who shot and killed a high-school graduate during a road rage incident on Wednesday.

Bianca Nikol Roberson, 18, was shot driving southbound in Chester County, Pennsylvania, when she and a man in a red pickup truck both tried to change lanes on the highway at the same time, reported ABC 6.

The truck's driver became enraged and pulled out his gun, shooting Roberson directly in the head before fleeing the scene down the highway, according to police.

Now, authorities have released a sketch of the suspect in hopes of finding the man who brought Roberson's life to a tragic end.

The driver is described as a white male with blond or light brown hair, between 20 and 40 years old with a medium build. He is said to be armed and extremely dangerous, and police are looking for anyone who witnessed the incident to come forward.

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Police have released a sketch of the man (right) who shot and killed 18-year-old Bianca Roberson (left) in a road rage incident on Wednesday afternoon in Chester County, Pennsylvania

On Wednesday afternoon, Roberson was driving home from the mall, where she had been shopping with her mother and grandmother, when she and the driver of a red pickup truck jostled for position on the highway, reported NBC 10.

The truck's driver became enraged and pulled out his gun, shooting Roberson directly in the head before fleeing the scene down the highway, according to police.

Roberson's car then lost control and crashed into a wooded area near West Goshen. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

She was driving southbound on the highway in the late afternoon when she merged into a lane at the same time as a pickup truck (pictured bottom left are the red pickup truck and Bianca's car). The other driver became enraged and pulled out his gun, shooting Roberson in the head before fleeing the scene down the highway, according to police

Roberson's car crashed into a wooded area, and she was pronounced dead at the scene

'This was a totally random, senseless act of violence,' District Attorney Thomas Hogan said during a Thursday night press conference.

Police found her green Chevy Malibu on Route 100, and initially thought she had lost control of her car, spun out and crashed. But a witness and surveillance footage revealed the truth.

The two cars did not actually hit, so it is unlikely the truck was damaged at all in the incident. A witness said the driver was seen fleeing the accident at a very high speed, according to police.

Police found her green Chevy Malibu on Route 100, and a witness said the driver was seen fleeing the incident at a high speed down the shoulder of the road on Route 202 and toward Paoli Pike

Family members told ABC she was on the way home from the mall, where she was shopping for college clothes with her mother and grandmother.

'She was a good girl, honor roll student, looking forward to going to college,' her father, Rodney Roberson, explained as he held back tears. Her brother said she was 'headed for greatness'.

She graduated from Bayard Rustin High School three weeks ago, and was headed to Jacksonville University in the fall. She was planning on studying criminal justice, with hopes to eventually land a job at the FBI.

'A young lady in the prime of her life getting ready to go off to college, and now the family has to consider burying her,' West Goshen Police Chief Joseph Gleason said.

Family members told ABC6 she was on the way home from the mall, where she was shopping for college clothes with her mother and grandmother

'She was a good girl, honor roll student, looking forward to going to college,' her father, Rodney Roberson (pictured), explained

Her family has asked for her shooter to have a conscience, and are hoping someone will come forward to help close the case.

This isn't the first time the family has lost a child. Just four years ago Bianca's older brother died of heart disease. He was just 22 years old at the time, reported NBC.

Anyone who saw the altercation is asked to call West Goshen Police Department Traffic Safety Division. Police have now expanded the search to include three states.

'It's an angel that's gonna be missed. But as hard as it is, she's there with her brother,' her aunt, Mari Hatton-Hayes said.
Churchill had refused for notes to be taken at the lunch

With the Cold War in full swing, keeping top-level discussions from prying eyes was vital.

But not, it seems, if you had a champagne lunch with Winston Churchill.

One such boozy encounter led to his secret 1948 blueprint for Nato being scribbled on toilet paper and flown across the Atlantic.

It was written by a US envoy, whose memory was getting increasingly hazy during the meal. Churchill had refused a request for notes to be taken and the American hid in the toilet to jot everything down on the nearest paper to hand. Many of the ideas formed the basis of the defence alliance still going strong seven decades on.

General Adrian Bradshaw, who has spent three years as deputy supreme allied commander of Europe, revealed the story at the Chalke Valley History Festival, sponsored by the Daily Mail.

Giving the Rothermere American Institute lecture, Sir Adrian gave a fascinating insight into Nato  explaining why Russia was and remains such a threat.

Western Europe was exhausted and militarily weak after the Second World War. But the Soviet Union had emerged stronger with its armies dominating Eastern Europe. As the Iron Curtain split the continent, Churchill decided a more formidable alliance was needed to provide a counterweight to the Soviets.

So in March 1948, Britain, Canada, and the US began discussing a pact, formed the following year. General Bradshaw said earlier this year he went on Nato business to Virginia, where he stayed with a friend who revealed a secret. It was that the host's father Raymond Guest  a noted racehorse trainer  was sent by the White House to see what Churchill  his cousin  'had to say about Nato'. General Bradshaw said: 'They sat down to a very agreeable lunch  a large part of which was a magnum of champagne, which they polished off. The conversation turned to Nato, and Churchill, firing on all four cylinders and completely compos mentis, from memory reeled off a whole load of ideas. Lots of detail.

Britain, Canada and the US began discussing plans for the pact in 1948

'Poor Raymond was feeling a little worse for wear and finding it difficult to remember all of this, so he said, 'Excuse me sir, do you mind if I just go away and find a bit of paper to write it down?'

'Churchill was horrified and looked at him saying, 'Young man, don't you remember anything?' So in desperation he excused himself and went to the loo and wrote all the details on loo paper, shoved them in to his pocket, and in that form the blueprint for Nato went back across the Atlantic.

'Many of Churchill's ideas were taken verbatim and incorporated into the new plans for Nato.'

Spanning 36 years, General Bradshaw's career in the military saw him go from serving in Germany and the Falklands to commanding 140,000 Nato troops in Afghanistan before becoming the Commander of UK Land Forces.
Three senior judges have made an extraordinary plea after revealing that immigration, asylum and deportation appeals are suffering unacceptable delays.

They said the Court of Appeal is under considerable strain and expressed concern about unacceptable delays before cases are heard.

The call came as they ruled that a large-scale cannabis grower, who has been fighting a three-and-a-half-year battle to stay in the UK, should be deported back to China.

It can be revealed after the Daily Mail exposed a string of scandals involving foreign criminals and fugitives who have launched lengthy and expensive appeals to avoid being kicked out of the country.

Three senior judges have said the country's legal system is overwhelmed by deportation and asylum cases

After dismissing the Chinese cannabis farmers appeal against deportation, Appeal Court judge Sir Stanley Burnton said there is a strong public interest in the removal of foreign criminals, and that this should be expeditious and effective.

But the appeal was heard two-and-a-half years after an Upper Tribunal had ruled he should be deported, he added.

Such a delay, which is not unusual, is incompatible with an expeditious and effective procedure for deportation, he said.

Indeed, it is important that all immigration cases should be heard and determined speedily. The resources of the Court of Appeal are at present, and have been for some time, under very considerable strain. This inevitably leads to delays, such as that in the present case, which are unacceptable.

There is a strong public interest in the court having the resources it needs to ensure such appeals are determined with the expedition they require.

Sir Stanleys comments were backed in a judgment on June 23 by Lord Justice Lindblom and Lord Justice Flaux.

The Chinese cannabis grower, a 44-year-old chef known only as WZ, was initially refused asylum after arriving in the UK in 1998 but in 2009 he, his wife and two children were granted indefinite leave to remain. By 2011 his wife and children had been granted British citizenship.

Successful appeal: Theresa May

The following year he was jailed for two years for large-scale cannabis production and he was later told he was liable for automatic deportation. However, he successfully argued at an immigration tribunal that his human right to a family life would be breached if he was deported.

But Theresa May, then home secretary, successfully appealed against the decision in late 2014, when an Upper Tribunal ruled his deportation should go ahead. That prompted WZ to take his case to the Court of Appeal.

On Thursday the Mail reported how hate preacher Tarik Chadlioui, 43, was allowed to live in the UK for two years and is now trying to use human rights laws to fight extradition to Spain. The Moroccan imam, who holds a Belgian passport, is thought to have radicalised Omar Mostefai, who blew himself up during the Bataclan theatre siege that claimed 89 lives in Paris in 2015.

On Wednesday the Mail revealed that two Romanian fugitives cannot be extradited because jail cells in their homeland are too small to comply with rulings from the European Court of Human Rights.

This has delayed the removal of the pair from Britain, hitting taxpayers with court costs and legal aid bills.

Last Saturday we exposed the case of Somalian thug Abdi Yusuf, who has been fighting deportation for five years.

Weeks after the High Court ruled Yusuf, 41, was eligible for damages for being detained unlawfully pending deportation, he was jailed for six months for assaulting a woman. This is likely to hold up his deportation until at least next year.
An Italian senator has accused relief organisations rescuing migrants from the Mediterranean of operating a public transport service that is enriching people traffickers.

Lucio Malan said aid agencies and charities running rescue ships should stop bringing them to his country and take them to the nearest coast instead.

The senator, from the centre-Right People of Freedom party, spoke after Italy threatened to turn away charity boats packed with rescued migrants from Africa.

He claimed that the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean was so regular it was not a rescue but public transport.

Heading for Europe: Coastguards intercept an inflatable boat overflowing with migrants off Libya's coast earlier this week

Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, the senator accused migrants of coming to Italy so they dont have to work and can rely on the public support.

All these people are coming to a country which has 40 per cent youth unemployment, Mr Malan added, while accusing rescue organisations of worsening the problem.

The more there are ships ready to take these people from a few miles from the Libyan coast, the more people leave from the Libyan shores and the more the people traffickers earn money, he said.

In a deepening row with the EU over its position at the frontline of Europes migration crisis, Italy has warned that the current situation is unsustainable.

A record number of migrants are expected in Italy this year. United Nations figures show that almost 78,742 have arrived so far compared to 67,702 in 2016  a 16 per cent increase.

It has led Rome to threaten drastic action to stop the influx. Ministers have suggested that boats not flying the Italian flag or belonging to an EU-endorsed mission could be refused docking rights. Italys EU minister Sandro Gozi warned that his country is really reaching its limit.

Brussels has said it was ready to increase financial support for Italy

The government is becoming tougher on migrants, quadrupling the number of detention centres from five to 20, and limiting the appeals process against refusal of asylum.

There is also growing anger in Rome that other EU countries have not acted on a deal to take in asylum seekers. Brussels has begun legal action against Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for refusing to take an agreed share of refugees.

Officials in Rome say they face a bill of billions of pounds every year to deal with the tens of thousands of asylum seekers already in Italy. Brussels has said it was ready to increase financial support for the country, and commission president Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday urged other EU countries to do more to help.
Rudyard Kipling would have backed Brexit, his biographer has claimed.

Andrew Lycett said the Nobel prize-winning authors respect for the British constitution would almost certainly have put him in the Leave camp.

The Oxford-educated biographer said Kipling was a political poet who made clear he was against the League of Nations  and therefore would probably have disliked Brussels.

Born in India in 1865, Kipling became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Speaking at the Chalke Valley History Festival, sponsored by the Daily Mail, he said: I dont think he was a great proponent of people getting together to do good internationally.

Born in India in 1865, Kipling grew from early critical success to international celebrity as he became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature aged 41.

But the poet - who became a personal friend of King George V  faded over time as his reputation became tarnished over conservative views that some believed to be old-fashioned.

Kipling was an imperialist who believed in Britains innate superiority and saw it as a moral responsibility to protect and pass on his deeply-held political, racial and religious principles.

Kipling believed in Britain's innate superiority over its imperial subjects

Mr Lycett said Kipling was totally politically incorrect and over time became a sort of persona non grata  but added that academics were now beginning to re-evaluate his work.

He said he was often asked where Kipling would have stood on Europe and Brexit, with the poet particularly anti-German but with a fervent love for France.

He said: With his conservative respect for the British constitution, he would almost certainly have been in the leave camp.

Kipling's biographer said his 'respect for the British constitution' would almost certainly put the author in the leave camp

When asked to expand on his point after the speech, he said: Kipling was a great Englishman. In his poems, he was always writing about political issues in a way that is out of fashion at the moment. He was prepared to go out there and write about political issues.

He added: I dont think he would have liked Brussels. He didnt like the League of Nations, for example. So lets put it this way, I dont think he was a great proponent of people getting together to do good internationally.
Some police officers are haunted for years by the cases they never solved. But sometimes a crime is slightly easier to crack...

Police were able to call off a manhunt this week when they entered a suspects home and found a pair of legs sticking out from underneath the bed.

Officers who arrested Jan Sivak, 30, posted the picture of his unsuccessful attempt to hide online, adding: He will not be winning any awards for hide-and-seek champion soon.

Sivak was wanted for failing to surrender to bail at Bradford Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. It didn't take officerS long to find him...

Sivak was wanted for failing to surrender to bail at Bradford Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

He was due to answer a charge of burgling a fish and chip shop.

He is accused of stealing 4,500 in cash and other goods from the upstairs office of the takeaway.

Sivak, of Halifax, West Yorkshire, has since pleaded not guilty to burglary of a non-dwelling, but admitted failing to surrender and was jailed for 14 days.

Officers who arrested Jan Sivak, 30, posted the picture of his unsuccessful attempt to hide online, adding: He will not be winning any awards for hide-and-seek champion soon

Gulfraz Khan, defending, said Sivak had tried to get to court on the day of his appearance but was unsuccessful.

He said: Bradford is some distance from Halifax and there is no possible way he can work.

He had tried every possible avenue to attain some money for travel.
Five Silicon Valley tech investors have been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women in the technology start-up industry.

Ten female entrepreneurs came forward and told the New York Times of the harassment allegations this week.

They specifically named five investors or advisers who had allegedly targeted them with sexist comments, touched them without permission or sent inappropriate messages or emails over the years.

Dave McClure of 500 Startups, Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital, Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital, Marc Canter of Macromedia and investor Jose De Dios were all accused by the women of some form of sexual harassment.

Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital is one of five Silicon Valley tech investors accused of sexual harassment by multiple women in the technology start-up industry

Sacca issued a public apology on Thursday for his bad behavior toward women in tech

McClure, who is a founder of 500 Startups and an investor, is accused of sending 31-year-old Sarah Kunst a Facebook message in 2014 when she was discussing a potential job with him.

'I was getting confused figuring out whether to hire you or hit on you,' the message read. Kunst told The Times that she denied McClure's advances.

500 Startups has since said McClure, who has not commented publicly, is no longer in charge of the company's day-to-day operations following the allegations.

'After being made aware of instances of Dave having inappropriate behavior with women in the tech community, we have been making changes internally,' the company said.

'He recognizes he has made mistakes and has been going through counseling to work on addressing changes in his previous unacceptable behavior.'

Another woman, Susan Wu, claimed that Chris Sacca - who founded Lowercase Capital in 2007 - had made her feel uncomfortable when he allegedly touched her face without permission at a tech event in Las Vegas in 2009.

Sacca helped fund companies like Uber and Twitter, and has made appearances on ABC's Shark Tank. He issued a public apology on Thursday for his bad behavior toward women in tech.

Dave McClure of 500 Startups is accused of sending an inappropriate message to a potential employee going for a job with his company. McClure is now getting counselling

Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital has been accused by multiple women of making unwanted advances towards them

'By stupidly perpetuating a culture rife with busting chops, teasing and peer pressure to go out drinking, I made some women feel self-conscious, anxious and fear they might not be taken seriously,' Sacca wrote in a blog post.

'In social settings, under the guise of joking, being collegial, flirting, or having a good time, I undoubtedly caused some women to question themselves, retreat, feel alone, and worry they can't be their authentic selves ... I had a duty to say and do more on behalf of those who were not in the conversation but nevertheless affected by it. I failed.'

Caldbeck has been accused by multiple women of making unwanted advances towards them. Tech news website The Information reported earlier this week that Caldbeck had been accused of preying on females in the industry at three separate venture firms over the past seven years.

One woman, Lindsay Meyer, told The Times that Caldbeck invested $25,000 of his own money into her fitness startup in 2015. She claims he then proceeded to text her constantly and asked if she was attracted to him. Meyer also claims Caldbeck groped and kissed her.

Caldbeck is now taking an indefinite leave of absence from Binary Capital, which he co-founded, following the allegations of unwanted advances.

Marc Canter of Macromedia is accused by one woman of sending flirty text messages when she was trying to start her own tech company in 2014

The start-up adviser has since taken to Twitter accusing the woman of lying and attacking him

'The past 24 hours have been the darkest of my life. I have made many mistakes over the course of my career, some of which were brought to light this week. To say I'm sorry about my behavior is a categorical understatement. Still, I need to say it: I am so, so sorry,' he said in a statement published on Axios last week.

'I direct my apology first to those women who I've made feel uncomfortable in any way, at any time - but also to the greater tech ecosystem, a community that I have utterly failed.'

Caldbeck's previous employer, Lightspeed, also issued a statement on Twitter after receiving complaints from women.

An investor named Jose De Dios is accused of making an inappropriate comment to a woman in 2014. De Dios has flat out denied the allegation

'Justin's behavior as described in recent reporting is completely unacceptable. We received a complaint regarding Justin from a portfolio company during his time at Lightspeed.

'In response, we removed him as a board observer at the request of that company. In light of what we have learned since, we regret we did not take stronger action. It is clear now that we should have done more.'

Wendy Dent claims she was sent flirty text messages by Marc Canter - the founder of Macromedia - when she was trying to start her own tech company in 2014.

He allegedly wrote in one message that she was a 'sorceress casting a spell' and commented on how she looked wearing a blue dress saying: 'Know what I'm thinking? Why am I sending you this - in private?'

Canter said the woman 'came on strong to me, asking for help' and that he behaved that way to make her go away. The start-up adviser has since taken to Twitter accusing the woman of lying and attacking him.

An investor named Jose De Dios is accused of making an inappropriate comment to Lisa Curtis after she pitched her start-up idea at a competition in San Francisco in 2014.

'Of course you won. You're a total babe,' he is alleged to have said when Curtis came off the stage.

De Dios has flat out denied the allegation, saying he 'unequivocally did not make a defamatory remark.'
James Cromwell has been sentenced to a week in jail for refusing to pay fines after he was arrested during the protest of a natural-gas power plant in 2015.

The actor, who was in 'American Horror Story: Asylum' and 'Babe,' and five other protesters were arrested in December 2015 and charged with obstruction of traffic at a sit-in at the site of a power plant in Wawayanda, New York.

Two other protesters received a week in jail as a result of refusing to pay their fines, The Times Herald-Record reported.

James Cromwell has been sentenced to a week in jail for refusing to pay fines after he was arrested during the protest of a natural-gas power plant in 2015

The actor, who was in 'American Horror Story: Asylum' and 'Babe,' and five other protesters were arrested in December 2015 and charged with obstruction of traffic at a sit-in at the site of a power plant in Wawayanda, New York (he is pictured at two other protests)

The six protesters, who referred to themselves as the 'Waywanda Six,' appeared in court in April to say the protest was justified because carbon emissions from the plant would pose a threat to the local environment.

However, on June 7 they were found guilty and each fined $375.

Three of the six protesters paid the fine, which was due Thursday, but Cromwell and two others wouldn't budge.

In court on Thursday, the town's justice Timothy McElduff Jr asked Cromwell: 'Are you refusing to pay the fine?'

The actor responded, 'I am,' and was ordered to a week in Orange County jail.

The plant is currently under construction, scheduled to go online February 2018

He was initially supposed to begin his sentence Friday, but it was suspended until July 14 to give his lawyer time to appeal.

Cromwell told the Herald-Record he hopes people realize the sentence is unjust, and that it will mobilize more people to join their cause.

The plant is currently under construction, scheduled to go online February 2018.

'Power to the people,' Cromwell told the Herald-Record.
One of the state prison guards killed by two escaped Georgia inmates has been hailed a hero for refusing to open the prison bus door before he was killed.

Inmates Ricky Dubose, 43, and Donnie Russell Rowe, 24, are accused of shooting Sgt Curtis Billue, 58, and Sgt Christopher Monica, 42, in Putnam County, Georgia.

The lawyer for some of the other inmates on the bus, Ted Salter, has called the actions of Billue heroic before he died earlier this month.

Billue was driving the Georgia Department of Corrections bus, transporting more than 30 inmates between prisons with Monica.

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Sgt Curtis Billue, 58, pictured left, was driving a Georgia Department of Corrections bus, transporting more than 30 inmates between prisons with Sgt Christopher Monica, 42, pictured right. The two prison guards were shot dead before two inmates escaped the bus

Inmates Ricky Dubose, 43, left, and Donnie Russell Rowe, 24, right, are accused of killing Billue and Monica before they escaped the prison bus. The two escaped prisoners were on the run for three days

Ted Salter, pictured, the lawyer for some of the other inmates on the Georgia prison bus has called the actions of Billue heroic. Salter said Billue refused to open the bus door for Dubose and Rowe before they shot him dead

Salter, who has interviewed the inmates for information, told WSBTV that even though Dubose and Rowe wanted to get off the bus, Billue refused to open the door to let them out.

'They wanted off the bus, the door was not opened and he was shot,' Salter said.

'That driver's family has nothing to be ashamed of.'

At Billue's funeral on June 17, Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier called him a hero.

'We know he served in many roles, but hero comes to mind. Curtis Billue gave his whole life to protecting and serving others,' Dozier said, according to The Telegraph newspaper of Macon.

The pair eventually surrendered in the driveway of homeowner Patrick Hale in Christiana, Tennessee, pictured

Salter told the outlet he does not have much information about Monica yet, but he also has more interviews to conduct.

Based on his conversations with the other inmates on the bus, Salter has learned that the murder weapon was in a box in the officers' compartment on the bus, but the lock on the door between the inmates and the officers was not locked, even before the escape.

Another source told WSBTV that a toothbrush was later found that could have been used to unlock the padlock on the door.

Salter said he is still determining whether he will bring a case against the state.

A corrections statement said: 'We will continue to review and assess the facts surrounding the incident and determine how to move forward,' according to WSBTV.

On June 21, the prosecutor told the judge he intended to pursue the maximum sentence for murder in Georgia, which is the death penalty. Rowe, left, and Dubose, right, are pictured in the Putnam County Courthouse on June 21

After killing the guards, Dubose and Rowe escaped and were on the run for three days.

The pair eventually surrendered in the driveway of homeowner Patrick Hale in Christiana, Tennessee.

Police have previously said the two escapees held an elderly Tennessee couple at gunpoint before stealing their SUV. The couple was able to call police, who pursued the stolen Jeep Cherokee.

Outside of Murfreesboro, the fugitives crashed the Jeep and ended up in a neighborhood, where neighbors watched as the two surrendered, according to police.

Prior to escaping, Rowe had been serving life without parole since 2002, and Dubose began a 20-year sentence in 2015.

In Putnam County Court on June 21, the prosecutor told the judge he hadn't yet filed the paperwork, but intended to pursue the maximum sentence for murder in the state: the death penalty.
The message couldnt be clearer: in one clip he is stirring white powder and chopping lines with a credit card, and in another smoke billows from his nostrils. Above the sound of rave music floats some salty language.

Hard to believe, but the heavily tattooed figure in the film is the same frock-coated schoolboy once pictured grinning alongside the younger boy he was mentoring at Eton, Prince William.

Pictured: Nicholas Knatchbull, right, with Emma Stayhear

In fact these are online show-reels in which Nicholas Knatchbull, godson of Prince Charles, is simply illustrating his skill as a film-maker working under the nom de plume 5DN  Five Dimensional Nick.

But how depressingly ironic that his demo film should depict drugs, the very thing that almost destroyed his life as he languished at least five times in rehabilitation clinics.

It inevitably placed in question his inheritance, as great-grandson of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, of one of the most celebrated estates in the land, Broadlands, with its treasures and 5,000 Hampshire acres.

Seeing him soberly dressed in a suit this week at the funeral of his grandmother, Countess Mountbatten, in the company of his ailing father, the new Earl Mountbatten, the future stewardship of the great house that has been a favourite of the royals for decades was on everyones mind.

The royals have a huge sentimental attachment to Broadlands. The Queen and Philip spent their wedding night there, as did Prince Charles and Princess Diana. With the death of his grandmother, Nicholas, 36, is just a heartbeat away from the Mountbatten title himself, and the estate.

But the question now is: would he actually want it? For thus far, Nicholas has pointedly lived a life as far removed as possible from the great house, a dropout from the grandeur of his illustrious family.

The perfect illustration of just what a rackety life he has led came in a little reported court case this week. Even as the funeral service was being held at St Pauls Church, Knightsbridge, a young woman who might well have become the next Countess Mountbatten, Nicholass former fiancee, Anglo-Jamaican Zeaphena Badley, 35  to whom he was engaged for 18 months  was on trial just across London at Southwark Crown Court.

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Family ties: Nicholas Knatchbull (centre) with his parents and sisters Leonora, left, who died aged five, and Alexandra

She is charged with causing grievous bodily harm to a complete stranger. She is accused of attacking a woman with a Stanley knife outside a Burger King branch in West London.

The court heard how Badley, who is described as homeless, used the knife to cut the back of the womans knee. When she went inside the restaurant, Badley allegedly stabbed her several times in the head.

Knatchbulls former fiancee, who denies the attack, mounted the assault, the court heard, simply because she wanted to be sent to prison.

Nicholas met the dreadlocked mother of two in his late 20s while working as a techno DJ under the name Safe as Milk and sleeping on a friends sofa. They moved in together, living for six months in a run-down flat on a council estate in Wimbledon, and told friends they were engaged.

As with other girls over the years who looked as though they might become the Countess one day  more recently he was briefly engaged to Eritrean-born nurse Raz Tedros  it didnt last.

But there is, we find, an important new love in the life of the Mountbatten heir. Nicholas, who has been clean of drugs for six years, is sharing a flat in Brixton with Emma Stayhear, a musician and beauty therapist understood to be of Indonesian extraction.

In fact, Nicholas is engaged yet again. Emma became his fiancee when the pair attended an electronic music festival last summer. Emma posted a life event status on her Facebook page announcing: Got engaged to FiveDimensionalNick.

She also has several photographs on her open Facebook page of the two of them at parties, festivals and travelling in India.

Pictured: Norton Knatchbull, Earl Mountbatten of Burma (formerly lord Brabourne) and wife Penny, Countess Mountbatten of Burma attends the funeral of Countess Mountbatten of Burma at St. Paul's Knightsbridge

Under one, Nicholas commented: Love you babe. The couple have recently released music together on the streaming service Spotify.

Emma was educated at Wallington High School for Girls, a state grammar in South London, and then at music college. So could she be the next Countess Mountbatten?

The question of the future chatelaine of Broadlands is an intriguing and emotional topic in a family blighted by tragedy  the murder of Nicholass great-grandfather Earl Mountbatten by the IRA in 1979 and the death from cancer of his little sister, Leonora, at the age of five in 1991.

Nicholass father, the new Earl Mountbatten, hasnt run the estate for years, having walked out on his marriage to take up with a glamorous fashion designer in Nassau.

His ignominious and apologetic return three years ago to his wife, Penny  the favourite carriage-driving companion of Prince Philip  was met with short shrift. In his absence, the willowy butchers daughter (her father later made millions with his Angus Steakhouse chain) took over running the estate and has done brilliantly. She intends to carry on.

On his return, she put her wayward husband in a converted barn, though now, as his health diminishes further, she has allowed him back into the Palladian house.

The new Lord Mountbatten, 69, who was sent to Gordonstoun in order to keep Prince Charles company in the school that he hated, can do very little for himself these days and is seldom seen without his carers.

In the meantime, however, his only son, Nicholas, has been moving in very different circles.

In 2009 he was living in a squat in Southampton, scrounging money from his parents and boasting of how he had smoked crack at Broadlands while the Queen attended a reception downstairs.

Pictured: Broadlands, Hampshire

For a while he was living in a nondescript flat in Tooting, South London, before drifting on to other London addresses. Last year there was a gangland shooting just yards from the Brixton flat where he and his fiancee Emma are now based.

It has been assumed that his sister Alexandra, a sensible and pretty girl who works as a forensic accountant, is the logical choice to one day take over the running of the estate. Alexandra, whose godmother was Princess Diana, has, for example, replaced her father as patron of the Mountbatten School in nearby Romsey.

Last year, when she married IT entrepreneur Tom Hooper at Romsey Abbey, it was not her father but Prince Charles who gave her away, stepping in for his old school friend who was too frail to do the honours.

Of course, when Alexandras older brother, Nicholas, was a child, everyone presumed he would one day take over the estate. At Eton, he was a brilliant student, securing A grades in Maths, Further Maths and Physics in his A-levels. His ambition was to be an astrophysicist and he went up to Edinburgh University.

But within weeks he had become yet another of the so-called trust fund kids to fall victim to drug pushers. His wild social life was soon eclipsing his studies.

A typical evening out would involve drug-taking, nightclubs and often end with him performing dangerous high-speed manoeuvres in the city centre in the car his father had bought for him.

Within six weeks, Nicholas had dropped out of university as his drug-taking intensified.

Pictured: Prince Charles, Nicholas's godfather

Early on he was arrested and cautioned by police for possession of cannabis, but he rapidly graduated to crack cocaine, heroin, ketamine  the horse tranquilliser  and MDMA, the key ingredient of Ecstasy.

His parents were devastated, sending him to detox clinics costing up to 10,000 a week in Essex, Surrey, London, South Africa and Arizona. When he went on the run from his treatment at The Priory, in Roehampton, South-West London, they had no choice but to have him sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

According to friends, some 15 years ago while in rehab in Arizona, Nicholas agreed to sign papers giving his father power of attorney over his affairs. It is not known if it is still ongoing.

As for Nicholas, he has never wanted to use his courtesy title Lord Romsey. Even so, it would be a blow to the family if, on the death of his father, he declined to take up the prestigious Mountbatten title.

Such considerations were increasingly pressing this week as the family gathered for the funeral of Lady Mountbatten.

Nicholas arrived at the church with his sister, Alexandra, to whom he is close, all but one of his tattoos hidden under his suit. The one beneath his left ear could still be seen. It must have been a relief that with the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Princess Anne among the mourners, Knatchbull was able, almost, to be invisible.

Pictured: Lord Louis Mountbatten, a British statesman and naval officer, who was the last viceroy of India

Nicholas is at the age when his distinguished great-grandfather Lord Mountbatten  who was of course the last Viceroy of India  had already taken command of his first ship, a destroyer, and been appointed personal Naval aide-de-camp to Edward VIII.

Ploughing a rather different furrow, meanwhile, the new heir to the Mountbatten title has resumed his life as Five Dimensional Nick, informing visitors to his website merely that he grew up in the countryside of southern England.

No mention of Broadlands, grounds landscaped by Capability Brown or a museum-sized collection of art treasures, including Van Dycks, that will one day be his.

In a music video from December, shot in a grimy flat, he can be seen exhaling smoke and making hand gestures while a rapper shouts: Old school but modified  Im the wrong type, nothing God-like, puffing on a proper pipe, f****** mad like a dog fight.

In another, Knatchbull is filmed with a mask on his face cooking white powder over a stove while other figures are shown snorting white powder.

The same rapper sings about the horse tranquilliser ketamine: My K whiter than the KKK . . . Ive been on the K for years, but they made it for animals, Im a veterinary veteran . . . we should make a booklet of what to do when youre cooking ket.

Knatchbulls social media accounts reveal no trace of his aristocratic upbringing, but on other matters, such as the recent U.S. election, he was only too happy to give his views: Trump is c*** but f*** you too Hillary, you (sic) all spawns of satan.

Not exactly words to reassure those who fear the heir to the venerated Mountbatten title remains far from ready to take up the mantle.
Rapists in Australia are on average receiving less than five year jail sentences.

Analysis of rape sentencing statistics by The Australian has shown the maximum penalty for the crime is rarely given.

Figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research revealed the average head sentence given for sexual assaults was four years and three months last year.

Rapists in Australia are on average receiving less than five year jail sentences (stock image)

The non-parole period is two years and eight months.

In NSW sexual assault has a 14-year maximum penalty.

It can be up to 20 years in aggravated cases, or life imprisonment when others are involved, such as a gang rape.

In Victoria the average rape sentence for 2015/16 was five years and three months. The maximum sentence in Victoria is 25 years in prison.

The average sentence length for rape in Queensland was 5.2 years.

The Victorian government has proposed setting standard sentences, at 10 and 25 years respectively, for violent crimes including rape and murder.

Judges would be able to ignore this standard in special or aggravated circumstances.

These changes would make for heavier sentencing that was 'more in line with community expectations', Attorney-General Martin Pakula said.
Centrelink is hacking into smartphones to reveal information hidden by suspected high-tech fraudsters.

Experts have warned Centrelink's use of the 'Universal Forensic Extraction Devices' (UFED) is compromising the security of Australians.

The agency uses the software to extract data, including messages and call logs, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Centrelink is hacking into smartphones to reveal information hidden by suspected high-tech fraudsters (stock image)

Centrelink said it only used the technology in accordance with Australian law and when it had obtained a warrant to investigate fraud (stock image)

Investigators must have physical possessing of the phone to be able to use UFED.

The software, developed by Israeli company Cellebrite, gained notoriety two years ago after it was reported to have helped the US FBI get into the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist attacker Syed Rizwan Farook.

Deakin University criminologist Adam Molnar said Centrelink's use of the technology was concerning.

'I would say that's a blatant misuse of this particular solution,' Mr Molnar said.

'If Centrelink is using this technology then they should be forthwith about the specific circumstances under which they're using these sort of mobile hacking technologies.

A Centrelink spokesperson told The Sydney Morning Herald Cellebrite devices were used 'less than 50 times' during the past financial year.

Centrelink said it only used the technology in accordance with Australian law and when it had obtained a warrant to investigate fraud.
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A doctor who shot seven people, killing one woman, before turning the gun on himself at a New York hospital had been forced to resign over sexual harassment accusations.

The gunman, Dr Henry Bello, shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at around 2.45pm on Friday.

He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, police have said.

A former colleague described the 45-year-old as a problematic employee, and said he was 'aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people.' In 2015, he was allowed to resign from the hospital after being accused of sexual harassment.

The attack on Friday left several doctors fighting for their lives, and witnesses described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted, spreading terror throughout the medical facility. Employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.

'I thought I was going to die,' said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

Bello was described on the hospital's website as a family medicine physician, and police said he used an AR-15 assault rifle in the attack on the 16th and 17th floors. Police Commissioner James O'Neill confirmed he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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First image: Dr Henry Bello, 45, has been named as the deceased gunman who carried out a deadly attack at his former place of work, the Bronx Lebanon Hospital, Friday afternoon

Six people were shot at Bronx Lebanon Hospital after a former employee dressed as a physician opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle. First responders are seen with stretchers outside the entrance

In 2015, Bello was allowed to resign from the hospital amid sexual harassment allegations, according to two law enforcement officials. They did not know the details of the allegations, and agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.

The gunman (pictured) shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at around 2.45pm on Friday. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, police have said

However, Dr Maureen Kwankam, 50, told the New York Daily News he was fired from the hospital 'because he was kind of crazy.'

'He promised to come back and kill us then,' she said.

Ultimately, one female doctor was killed and six others wounded - five seriously, according to Police Commissioner James O'Neill. The patients were treated in the emergency room at Bronx Lebanon.

He also tried to set fire to the nurses station on the 16th floor, but the hospital's sprinkler system put it out before the blaze could grow.

'This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere,' New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said.

He also said terrorism did not play a role.

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

Bello 'was very aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people. All the time he was a problem,' said Dr. David Lazala, a family medicine doctor who said he trained Bello at Bronx Lebanon.

He said Bello, who worked at night as a doctor, sent him a threatening email after Bello was fired.

Police said Bello used an AR-15 assault rifle, which is pictured at the hospital on Friday, to carry out his attacks on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident a 'horrible situation' and said it was not related to terrorism but instead just a workplace incident

A woman is escorted by officers in plainclothes near the Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York Friday after fleeing the gunman

A woman is escorted by officers near the Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York after a gunman opened fire there

The incident unfolded at around 2.45pm at the medical center on Grand Concourse in the Morris Heights section of The Bronx

In unrelated cases, the doctor had been arrested in 2004 on a charge of sexual abuse, according to a police report, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, 'You're coming with me.'

He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror.

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called him from inside the hospital to tell him about the gunman.

'She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebody's out there shooting people,' Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. 'I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry.'

Heavily armed police patrol the scene outside the hospital after the gunman opened fire on Friday afternoon

Police sources say the gunman was hiding the high-powered weapon under his lab coat before the attack on the 16th floor of the hospital

Hospital employees barricaded themselves in hospital rooms by stacking furniture up against the doors during the lockdown

Gonzalo Carazo described the scary scene to WCBS-TV. 'I saw one of the doctors and he had a gunshot wound to his hand,' Carazo said.

'All I heard was a doctor saying, "Help, help!"' Carazo locked himself in a room for about 15 minutes until police came and led him out of the hospital.

Witness Dione Morales, who has been a patient at the hospital for 17 years, told CBS New York the shooter had threatened to kill people back when he was fired.

'He was let go because I guess they figured he was unstable. He said he was going to do this,' she said. 'He said he was going to kill people, two years ago when he was let go - two years... and now look what happened.'

Incident began unfolding at around 2.45pm at the medical center on Grand Concourse. Police say the gunman had an AK-15 rifle

Officers carrying assault-style rifles are posted outside the Bronx Lebanon Hospital where a former employee stages a deadly rampage

Dr Bello is believed to have lived in this New York City apartment building. He was forced to resign from his position at the hospital in 2015 after sexual assault allegations became public

Police cars are seen parked outside the hospital on Grand Concourse during the active shooter situation

Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center describes itself as the largest voluntary, not-for-profit health care system in the south and central Bronx.

The 120-year-old hospital claims nearly 1,000 beds spread across multiple units. Its emergency room is among the busiest in New York City.

The hospital is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.

Fire Department rescue workers head towards the scene after the inside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City
A tradie refused to let the sinkhole that swallowed his ute after a burst water main dampen his spirits.

Jim Kennington, 50, found himself in a hole lot of trouble when he came to a roundabout in Perth's Wanneroo on Friday and felt his tyres sinking.

But he managed to see the lighter side of things when his mate's began to take him to task for his misfortune, reports The West.

Jim Kennington, 50, was passing a roundabout in Perth's Wanneroo on Friday when disaster struck

A sinkhole swallowed his ute , forcing him to climb out the passenger side

'Everybody's had a little laugh at me today,' Mr Kennington said.

'I tried to reverse out but it weren't going anywhere...So I climbed out the passenger side.'

The Water Corporation said an underground water main burst softened the road, causing the sinkhole.

On Thursday, a US man who thought he had scored a prime parking spot returned from the gym to find his car completely swallowed by a sinkhole.

Jordan Westerberg figured his car had been towed after coming back to his Toyota Camry shortly before 7 a.m. to find the car nowhere is night.

But when he noticed the street workers gathered at the parking space, he found the vehicle in the gaping hole - about 6 meters deep and 2.5 to 3 meters across.

On Thursday, a US man who thought he had scored a prime parking spot returned from the gym to find his car completely swallowed by a sinkhole.

Jordan Westerberg figured his car had been towed after coming back to his Toyota Camry shortly before 7 a.m. to find the car nowhere is night.
A 28-year-old man is charged with kidnapping a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois, who is now believed to be dead after she went missing three weeks ago.

Yingying Zhang, 26, was last seen getting into a black Saturn Astra on June 9, just weeks after she arrived at the university's Urbana-Champaign campus from China to study agriculture sciences.

The FBI found Brendt Christensen owned a matching car, and agents overheard him talking about kidnapping Zhang and holding her against her will while he was under surveillance on Thursday, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court on Friday.

Authorities also obtained his cell phone and found Christensen had visited threads titled 'Abduction 101', 'perfect abduction fantasy' and 'planning a kidnapping' on the fetish website FetLife.

Christensen was admitted to the school's competitive physics graduate program in 2013. It remains unclear whether he and Zhang had met before she disappeared.

Brendt Christensen (left) is accused of kidnapping Yingying Zhang (right) a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois who is now believed to be dead

Zhang told her friends she had gone out to sign an apartment lease on June 9, and texted the building's property manager at 1.30pm, saying that she was going to be about 10 minutes late

Zhang got off the bus a mile away from the building. She was last seen getting into a black Saturn Astra that Christensen owned, according to FBI Special Agent Anthony Manganaro

Christensen had previously acknowledged to FBI agents that he gave a distressed Asian female a ride. But she panicked when he made a wrong turn, so Christensen said he let her out just a few blocks away.

But Christensen, who was placed under continuous surveillance, was captured on a June 29 audio recording, explaining how he took Zhang to his apartment and held her against her will.

Based on his comments, along with other facts uncovered during the investigation, agents believe Zhang is no longer alive.

Asked Friday night if authorities had any leads on where Zhang's body might be, Bradley Ware, spokesperson for the FBI's Springfield office, declined comment.

Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement the campus community is saddened by the news Zhang is believed dead.

'This is a senseless and devastating loss of a promising young woman and a member of our community,' Jones said. 'There is nothing we can do to ease the sadness or grief for her family and friends, but we can and we will come together to support them in any way we can in these difficult days ahead.'

Christensen was a physics student at the school. When the FBI searched his phone, they found he had visited threads titled 'Abduction 101' and 'perfect abduction fantasy' on a fetish website

There were only 18 four-doored Saturn Astras registered in Champaign County. Christensen's, which was parked outside his apartment (general view), had a cracked hubcap matching the vehicle Zhang was last seen climbing into

Zhang told her friends she had gone out to sign an apartment lease on June 9, and texted the building's property manager at 1.30pm, saying that she was going to be about 10 minutes late to the 2pm appointment.

She hopped on a city bus and got off at 1.52pm, one mile away from the building where she was signing the lease.

When Zhang tried to flag down another bus minutes later, it drove past her without stopping, so she walked four blocks away and stood under a tree on Goodwin Avenue at another bus stop, according to surveillance video cited by the FBI.

Christensen had driven past Zhang before looping around the block and pulling over, according to the criminal complaint.

Zhang was then seen approaching the passenger side of the car and speaking with the driver before voluntarily climbing in at 2.04pm.

Subsequent texts from the building's property manager at 2.38pm to Zhang's phone went unanswered and the 26-year-old was reported missing by professors at the school later that night.

Authorities issued several pleas to the public in the wake of Zhang's disappearance, and the FBI offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

'This is a senseless and devastating loss of a promising young woman and a member of our community,' Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said

Christensen's car was parked outside his apartment complex when investigators first questioned him on June 12.

He told them he couldn't recall what he was doing the day Zhang disappeared, according to FBI Special Agent Anthony Manganaro's affidavit.

Investigators later determined Christensen's car had a sunroof and a cracked hubcap on the passenger side, matching the vehicle Zhang was last seen getting into, according the affidavit.

When Christensen was interviewed again, he told investigators he picked up an Asian woman who said she was late for an appointment.

But the 28-year-old claimed he let her out in a residential area since she panicked after he made a wrong turn.

Another person who lived with Christensen consented to a search of the home, and the FBI obtained his phone, which included a browser history of abduction threads on FetLife, a 'social network for the BDSM, fetish and kinky Community'.

On June 29, Christensen was captured on an audio recording explaining how he took Zhang to his apartment and held her against her will.

A search of Christensen's car indicated the front passenger door had been 'cleaned to a more diligent extent than the other vehicle doors,' the criminal complaint said.

'Based on my training and experience, I believe that this type of action may be indicative of an attempt to conceal or destroy evidence,' Manganaro said.

Zhang's boyfriend, aunt, best friend and father (pictured center) flew from China to Illinois after she was reported missing

More Chinese students are enrolled at the University of Illinois than at any other US college, according to government data. Pictured, her father, left, and friends on a walk for Zhang

About 5,600 Chinese students are enrolled at the University of Illinois - more than any other U.S. college, according to government data.

Zhang, originally from Jianyang, China, was the daughter of a working-class factory driver.

She graduated last year with a master's degree in environmental engineering from Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, and went on to work at the University of Illinois' Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, where she researched photosynthesis and crop productivity.

Those who knew Zhang described her as bright and outgoing. She played guitar and sang in a band called 'Cute Horse' in China. One of her favorite songs was Bette Midler's 1980 hit, The Rose.

Zhang's boyfriend has said that she was cautious and wouldn't normally get into a car with a stranger unless duped or forced.
A Queensland dairy farmer struggling to keep his family farm afloat could face a $180,000 fine from the council for operating an unregistered business.

Shane Paulger has been welcoming holiday campers to stay on his lavish estate yet the Sunshine Coast Council have now stepped in and issued the substantial fine for his infringement against council legislation.

Mr Paulger revealed to A Current Affair that in his desperation to save his farm in a period of decline for the dairy industry, he had allowed holiday makers to pitch up on his Kenilworth estate to try and make ends meet.

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Shane Paulger has been welcoming campers to stay on his estate yet the council have now stepped in and issued the substantial fine for his infringement against their legislation

The farmer, whose estate has been owned by his family for 60 years, has reacted angrily labelling the Sunshine Coast Council as 'rotten' who are punishing him for using his initiative

Yet his failure to adhere with the council's specific regulations for camping sites has led the council to push through a $183,000 fine if he continues to resist compliance.

The farmer, whose estate has been owned by his family for 60 years, has reacted angrily labelling the Sunshine Coast Council as 'rotten' and who are punishing him for using his initiative.

'They just want to smash us...unfortunately the council now want to jump on our necks and squeeze all the air out of us and fine us $180,000,' Mr Paulger said.

He revealed in an emotional plea that his sole intention is to maintain the family business, so he can one day pass the farm down to his children, who are proud to continue the family tradition.

After 12 months of negotiating with the council as well as number of complaints from surrounding registered campsites, the council have now labelled their requests in black and white.

'What Shane is doing on his property up in Kenilworth is operating a business that doesn't have approval,' Deputy Mayor Tim Dwyer said.

'The sooner Shane realises that he's got the rules to follow like every other person in Queensland...the better for everybody.'

However Mr Paulger has claimed his farm has been welcoming campers for over 30 years and believes the latest move from the council is a 'money grab' while reminding them he hasn't requested anything from them during his latest endeavor.

Mr Paulger appeared emotional when discussing his current situation as he faces a potential fine of $180,000
The legendary Hollywood stuntman Loren Janes died on Saturday, June 24, at the age of 85, according to his family

The legendary Hollywood stuntman Loren Janes died on Saturday, June 24, at the age of 85, according to his family.

Janes died at his home in Los Angeles, where he lived for the majority of his life, after a long battle with Alzheimer's, reported the LA Times.

During his long career, Janes doubled for Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson and even Debbie Reynolds. He made his movie debut in 1954 with an 80ft cliff dive.

He went on to perform stunt work in classics such as 'The Ten Commandments,' 'Spartacus,' 'Planet of the Apes,' and 'The Magnificent Seven.' His career spanned decades and included westerns, thrillers, comedies, drama and science fiction.

At 85, he outlived many of the actors he was hired to double for.

The Hollywood daredevil was Steve McQueen's body double throughout the actor's career. The temperamental actor liked to do his own stunt work, and initially seemed put out when a director told him he wanted a double to do the tricky escape scene.

Janes performed stunt work in classics such as 'The Ten Commandments,' 'Spartacus,' 'Planet of the Apes,' and 'The Magnificent Seven.' His career spanned decades an included westerns, thrillers, comedies, drama and sci-fi

In the end, McQueen was so impressed with Janes' abilities, he agreeably and purposefully deferred all stunt work to him for the rest of his career.

The prolific stuntman was described as the person a studio could count on when a script called for a character to be thrown from a window, dropped in the ocean or shot dead in a gnarly gun fight.

Born in Sierra Madre on October 1, 1931, Janes attended Pasadena City College and then Cal State San Luis Obispo before serving in the Marines during the Korean war.

Later, he made the US Olympic team in 1956 and 1964, competing both times in the pentathlon.

Janes died at his home in Los Angeles, where he lived for the majority of his life, after a long battle with Alzheimer's. At 85, he outlived many of the actors he was hired to double for

Janes decided to try stunting on a whim, while he was working at a teacher in San Fernando.

He'd heard MGM was looking for someone to fill in for Esther Williams for a cliff-jumping scene, which would be filmed on nearby Catalina Island, and thought it seemed like easy work.

Within six months, he'd been featured in seven movies.

Off-screen, Janes was a co-founder of the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures and Television in 1961, and served as the National Chair of the Screen Actors Guild Stunt and Safety Committee for many years.

In 2001, he received the Golden Boot - the Stuntmen Association's lifetime achievement award for work in Westerns.

His family released a statement after his death, according to CNN, which reads: 'As a family, we will always remember his astonishing life force, his compelling honesty, his outrageous sense of humor and surprising gentleness.

'He was fiercely loyal and loving. And we loved him in return. We were proud to be his family.'

Janes is survived by his wife, Jan Sanborn Janes, who he married in 1999.
At least one person has sustained minor injuries after a light plane crashed into a field of lettuce in southeast Queensland.

The pilot made an emergency landing just before 3pm on Saturday, coming down outside of the Lockyer Valley town of Gatton.

A Queensland Fire and Emergency Services spokesman said the plane was found upright with one person suffering from minor injuries.

At least one person has sustained minor injuries after a light plane crashed into a field of lettuce in southeast Queensland

It comes just days after a schoolgirl died alongside her mother in South Australia when an Angel Flight crashed.

Emily Redding, 16, was killed with her mother Tracy, 43, and pilot Grant Gilbert, 78, when the plane came down near Mount Gambier about 10am on Wednesday.

Angel Flight provides free flights for passengers in need of medical treatment far from home and is regularly used for people living in country and rural areas.

The plane was flying in extremely 'foggy, cold and wet' conditions that delayed some planes from landing at Mount Gambier Airport, 3km northeast of the crash site.

Emily's uncle Grant Redding said her father, Troy, was still coming to terms with the tragedy and supporting his young family at home.

Emily Redding, 16, died in a light plane crash in South Australia on an Angel Flight with her mother to Adelaide for medical treatment.

She perished along with her mother Tracy, 43, when the plane came down near Mount Gambier about 10am on Wednesday

The Tobago TB10 plane came down in Suttontown near Mount Gambier about 10am on Wednesday

'Our thoughts are also with the family and friends of the pilot who was a dedicated and tireless volunteer who also lost his life in this tragic incident,' he said.

'Many thanks to the Police, Emergency Services, staff at Grant High School and others for their sympathy and empathy in dealing with family members at this difficult time.'

'We know that an event such as this will affect many members of the communities of Mount Gambier and Mount Barker and hope that anyone affected by it will seek support from family, friends or support services.'
Australian holiday-seekers have spoken and new research has revealed Ho Chi Minh City as the latest vacation hot-spot sought after by awaiting tourists.

Data gathered by online travel booking service Wotif found that searches related to the southern Vietnam destination are up 195 per cent compared to last year.

Following behind was Singapore, which showed an increase of 50 per cent, and Phuket - up by 40 per cent.

Is Vietnam the new Bali? How the number of Australians travelling to the destination has doubled - and it will only cost $99-a-night to stay in a five-star resort

New research has revealed Ho Chi Minh as the latest sought after holiday spot (stock picture)

Data gathered by travel booking service Wotif showed searches up 195 per cent (stock picture)

The emerging preferred locations are proving a treat for close to home international destinations and a picked as a favourite for upcoming July school holiday travellers.

Wotif Travel Specialist, Kirsty La Bruniy said the holiday spot is an optimum loccation for travel.

'Vietnam offers exceptional landscapes, delicious cuisine and a diverse yet welcoming culture for families to explore.

'As competitive airfares continue to rise, there is no surprise we're seeing a surge in interest.

Travelers can stay in the lush Eastin Grand Hotel Saigon for as little as $99 a night

The low-prices make Vietnam one of the most affordable destinations when compared to other countries, Wotif analysis reports

'It is now easier than ever for Aussie families to head further afield, with the introduction of budget friendly flight routes including Jetstar's new nonstop Ho Chi Minh City service from both Sydney and Melbourne in May.'

According to Wotif's predicted daily accommodation rate, Australian's can stay in hotels in Vietnam from $99 a night.

The low-prices make Vietnam one of the most affordable destinations when compared to other international destinations, Wotif analysis reports.



Best value destinations are based on the average daily rate for three - five star rated establishments and self-rated accommodation bookings made in June 2016 on Wotif.com.
Australia's cancer hotspots have been revealed for the first time in a new interactive atlas.

And it's no surprise that Queensland has been named again as the state with the most cancer sufferers at a territorial level.

Queenslanders were found to have the highest numbers of sufferers of bowel cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer reports News Corp.

Australia's cancer hotpsots have been revealed in a study by a South Australian university

Occupants at the sunshine state were also the most likely to develop melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

While in terms of socioeconomic status, Darwin had the largest disparity between the most well-off and disadvantaged areas for breast cancer, with the rate for females in the most disadvantaged areas at 72 percent lower.

Brisbane and Sydney had the widest socioeconomic gaps of the larger capital cities, of 35 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

While in terms of remoteness across Australia, there is a 20 percent lower incidence of breast cancer for females living in the country areas, when compared with major cities.

The study commissioned The Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) at Torrens University in South Australia believes the interactive data derived from the site would help health companies plan their activities appropriately in the future.

Professor John Glover who spearheaded the study said: 'In this latest release, users of the Atlas can identify cancer incidence by a range of variables and by location, which is an Australian first.

Queensland has been named again as the state with most cancer suffers in a new study

'This research on cancer incidence, which the PHIDU has been compiling since 2014, positively contributes to the nation's social justice and well-being, and should lead to improved health outcomes over time.'

Professor Glover told Daily Mail Australia that site were equipped with data from all state cancer registrar's.

He also said the university will update the site from time to time as and when it receives new data.
A woman who was diagnosed with narcolepsy as a teenager has told how she is now sleeping through the night thanks to a drug which contains GHB.

Elle Wales, from Sydney, said using Xyrem for the past three months has meant she is no longer semi-conscious as she sleeps but is able to get a decent rest.

'From the very first night, when I woke up, I was shocked. I didn't realise that was what sleeping felt like,' she told news.com.au.

The now 26-year-old said while she still needs to take time out for a nap three times a day, using Xyrem enables her to better complete her work as a graphic designer.

An Instagram post from Sydney narcolepsy sufferer Elle Wales on her Falling_asleep_elle page where she talks about her use of Xyrem

Ms Wales has been using Xyrem for about the past three months to treat her narcolepsy (stock image)

'But because Xyrem has stopped my exhausting, intensely vivid dreams, I have a more reliable level of wakefulness at work,' she said.

As it has GHB, an illegal party drug also referred to at times as a 'date rape drug', Xyrem has only been available to narcolepsy sufferers in Australia for the past few years after the Therapeutic Goods Administration made sodium oxybate, known as GHB, a controlled drug, to be used only with the approval of an authorised medical practitioner.

Ms Wales has her own website, Falling Asleep, which contains a narcolepsy guidebook, information and advocacy tools.

The website explains how 'narcolepsy is a neurological condition that prevents the brain from regulating sleep patterns normally'.

'I created this website to act as a source of information for people with narcolepsy, as well as anyone out there who might want to know more about this condition,' Ms Wales writes.

On the Falling Asleep Instagram page in early April, Elle wrote: 'Xyrem has been going super well and my head is feeling very clear, so you may be thinking I'm over the moon... but of course it's never that simple!'

Ms Wales, now 26, was diagnosed with narcolepsy as a teenager and has documented her time suffering from the disorder on a dedicated website and Instagram page

Ms Wales said while she still needs to take time out to have three naps at work, she said using Xyrem meant 'I have a more reliable level of wakefulness at work'

Dr David Cunnington, a sleep physician, told news.com.au patient advocacy groups led the charge to have Xyrem available in the country but it was difficult to obtain.

Ms Wales spends about $1000 a month on the drug which could drop to just $37 if it soon falls under the TGA's Orphan Drug Program.

Melissa Jose, the mother of narcolepsy sufferer Lucas, told the ABC last month her son had been benefiting from Xyrem.

'Now he can drive and go to university - which he couldn't do before this drug - so the investment is paying off and will make him a more full-functioning member of society,' Ms Jose said.

Dr Cunnington told news.com.au: 'For a number of patients I've seen, Xyrem has an enormous effect, especially for type 1 narcolepsy.'

But he warned the drug was not for everyone and the Xyrem website notes it can have side effects.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Ms Wales for further comment.
The star of the ITV's The Chase has sparked controversy after branding the quiz show's fan base as 'not very clever'.

Chaser Paul 'Sinnerman' Sinha said that you only had to look at Twitter to see that the show's fans are not clever.

'Believe me, the large part of The Chase fan base is not very clever,' the trivia expert, who has worked on the show for six years, told The Mirror.

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Chaser Paul 'Sinnerman' Sinha said that you only had to look at Twitter to see that the show's fans are not clever

He pointed to posts from viewers on the social network to justify his remark, saying: 'Anyone with any physical imperfections are pilloried, people constantly say that we have got answers wrong or facts wrong and it's like "No you just didn't listen to the question properly, the fact is not wrong".'

However, he maintained that the programme itself was a 'clever show', adding that there weren't 'just questions about Justin Bieber' but also on the 'French Revolution, 17th century philosophers, works of literature, works of art.'

By way of contrast, he pointed to University Challenge as an 'intellectual contest' where 'clever people' are pitted against each other.

His remarks come after the star revealed his sexuality on the show for the first time.

The revelation came when host Bradley Walsh asked: 'In what well-known racing video game are bananas and turtles thrown?'

Host Bradley Walsh with 'chaser' Paul Sinha on the show. Dr Sinha maintained that the programme itself was a 'clever show', adding that there weren't 'just questions about Justin Bieber'

'Grand Theft Auto', Paul replied, guessing at random.

When the right answer - Mario Kart - was revealed, Paul laughed: 'My ex used to play Mario Kart all the time he also said I never paid attention to him.'

But in an interview with the gay news website Guys Like U, the star insisted he had never been in the closet and made the shocking claim that references to being gay had been edited out of the show.

'I assumed everyone knew I was gay,' the British comedian told the website.

'I have been on the show six years and I have made lots of references to being gay. But they mysteriously never made the edit.'

Paul Sinha arriving at the National Television Awards in January. In an interview with the gay news website Guys Like U , the star insisted he had never been in the closet and made the shocking claim that references to being gay had been edited out of the show

The Chase has made a welcome return after it was replaced throughout May by new game show Babushka in its highly popular teatime slot.

Hosted by reality star-turned-presenter Rylan Clark-Neal, the brand new Russian-themed show gives contestants the chance to win up to 44,000 hidden in eight nesting dolls.

In order to open a doll, contestants must give a correct answer to a true or false question. Get a question wrong and all the banked cash is lost, while if players open an empty doll, they lose all of their banked cash.

But Babushka failed to win the hearts of viewers, who took to Twitter to express their disappointment branding the show 'rubbish' and 'the biggest load of toilet' within minutes of it starting.
Four flights have been cancelled as British Airways workers begin the first day of their strike at Britain's busiest airport.

The airline has been inundated with tweets from unhappy customers complaining of flight cancellations while dozens of workers are gathering at picket lines on the edge of London Heathrow.

Today marks the first of 16 days that fed-up employees at British Airways who say they are driven to action due to 'poverty pay' conditions.

British Airways cabin crew based at London Heathrow Airport will launch a 16-day strike from today in a long-running dispute over pay

This morning it was announced Qatar Airways, who owns a 20 per cent stake in the company, was loaning nine planes and staff to soften the impact of the industrial action.

A worker for the airline told MailOnline nine empty planes were flown to London specifically to help.

Today four flights have been cancelled - a return trip to Muscat, Oman and another to Doha.

Tomorrow a further four flights to the same destinations will be affected.

A source told MailOnline these flights were strategically chosen by the airline to minimise the impact on holidaymakers.

But a striker from Unite said he anticipates more flights will be cancelled as the strike continues as they hope to build momentum by attracting more staff to their cause.

A spokesman for BA rebuffed claims the queues and chaos were building inside the airport.

He said: 'Our schedule is running as planned, despite industrial action by Mixed Fleet Unite, with 99.5 per cent of flights operating as normal.

'All our customers will be able to fly to their destinations. Our oneworld partner Qatar Airways will be operating a small number of short-haul flights on our behalf.

'We have merged a very small number of Heathrow long-haul services and all customers affected have been notified over the past week. New cabin crew in their first year working full time at British Airways receive more than 21,000 based on pay, allowances, incentive and bonus.

'This is in line with cabin crew at competitor airlines. We had reached a deal with Unite on pay, which the union said was acceptable. They should call off this unnecessary strike and allow their members to vote on the pay increase. '

Today around a hundred disgruntled British Airways workers are on the picket lines close to the airport.

One of those taking industrial action is a 33-year-old British Airways air hostess who asked to remain unnamed.

The worker told MailOnline those striking 'feared' they would lose their jobs but said they had no choice due to terrible pay conditions.

The woman said: All we are asking for is enough money to pay our bills and to be able to survive. Many of my colleagues are forced to work second jobs and almost no one can afford to live in London or close to the airport. My own commute is three hours.

Having worked for the company for six years, she said: We all want British Airways to be successful. We are proud of the company and its reputation and we are the people who make it what it is. But the reason we are striking is because the company is greedy.

British Airways has made a billion in profit yet we are paid less than workers at EasyJet or Ryan Air. We have been negotiating with British Airways for the last six years but they have backed us into a corner and gave us no choices.

The company offered us a deal but took away our staff travel benefits. We shouldnt be punished for exercising our legal democratic right to strike.

The air hostess dismissed British Airways claims that staff were paid a minimum of 23,000.

Thats absolutely not the case at all, she said. 'I have seen P60s below the minimum wage. It's a scandal.'

Unite said its action has forced BA to cancel flights and lease aircraft from Qatar Airways

Alex Flynn, press officer for Unite union, said the decision to strike wasnt one taken lightly.

He said: We have repeatedly tried to hammer a deal with BA and held countless talks before we announced the strike. We put forward a compromise which was refused. We have gone to great lengths to avoid this but have no choice.

Mr Flynn spoke of the shocking conditions for young members of staff who he claims are paid just 12,000 when you strip away bonuses and travel allowances.

A lot of the cabin crew are young workers and they are peoples sons and daughters who are just trying to make a living and make their way in the world, many are seriously struggling to make ends meet.

A lot of them are forced to live within close distance to Heathrow and are facing expensive housing costs. Its extremely tough for a lot of our members.

How will the strike affect BA passengers? The strike will start at 0.01am tonight and end on 11.59pm on July 16

It will affect BA flights leaving and arriving at London Heathrow Airport

The airline says it will be operating 99.5 per cent of its schedule and will get customers to their destinations

Today, two round trips will be cancelled - so four flights in total

Qatar Airways will be operating some short-haul flights on its behalf

If a flight is cancelled or delayed for more than three hours, passengers are entitled to between 250 (219) and 600 (527) compensation

Separately, airlines have also warned of 'significant disruption' to British passengers after the US ramped up security on flights to America Advertisement

British Airways disputed the claim and said new cabin crew members received an annual salary of 21,000.

Unite claim about 1,400 staff are expected to go on strike, which is about 9 per cent of the 16,000 cabin crew employed at Heathrow - 5,500 of which are mixed fleet.

The union is already pursuing legal action on behalf of around 1,400 workers it says were sanctioned for going on strike earlier this year. Unite said its action has forced BA to cancel flights and lease aircraft from Qatar Airways.

National officer Oliver Richardson said: 'Vindictive threats from British Airways amount to corporate bullying from an airline more interested in punishing workers on poverty pay than addressing why cabin crew have been striking.

'Unite believes it is tantamount to a blacklisting operation and that it is unlawful. We will fight both industrially and legally to defend our members' fundamental human right to stand up to bullying and for decent pay.

'That British Airways is seeking to lease aircraft from an airline found to have breached international standards on labour and human rights, is doubly shameful.

'For an airline, which was once proud to call itself the 'world's favourite', to behave in such a way and treat its staff with such contempt shows how far British Airways has fallen from grace.

'We call on British Airways to drop the threats and drop the sanctions and resolve this long-running dispute.'

Coby Benson, flight delay solicitor at Bott & Co, told MailOnline: 'If a passenger's flight is cancelled or delayed for more than three hours then they are entitled to between 250 (219) and 600 (527) compensation, unless the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances: beyond the airline's control or events that are 'not inherent' in the day-to-day activity of an airline.

'In our opinion this is not extraordinary since the events are well within British Airways's control and the management of disgruntled staff is simply part and parcel of running any business, not least an airline.'
A thug bit a lump out of his stepfather's ear as they rowed over whether Andy Murray is British or Scottish.

The Wimbledon champion was at the centre of the family dispute which ended with Alistair Wilson's ear being almost bitten off by his stepson, Lee Clarke.

Clarke, 34, from Inverness, north Scotland, confirmed that the 'British or Scottish' spat led to Mr Wilson being hospitalised to have a chunk of his right ear sewn back on by surgeons.

Lee Clarke (pictured), 34, from Inverness, north Scotland, confirmed that the nationality of the tennis star was the cause of a violent argument. The 'British or Scottish' dispute led to Alistair Wilson being hospitalised to have a chunk of his right ear sewn back on by surgeons

Patched up: The 'British or Scottish' spat led to Mr Wilson being hospitalised to have a chunk of his right ear sewn back on by surgeons (pictured)

Clarke appeared for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court after previously admitting assaulting Mr Wilson, causing his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

He had his sentence deferred until July 28 for a restriction of liberty order assessment by Sheriff Chris Dickson.

Afterwards, Clarke said: 'It was a silly argument over whether Andy Murray was British or Scottish.

'I have nothing against the Scots, most of my family are Scottish. But I regard myself as British. Andy is British, but he is also Scottish.'

The court heard earlier that Clarke was socialising with his mother, Mandy Wilson at her home in Inverness last August and stepfather Mr Wilson.

But when the conversation turned towards Murray's national identity, the argument erupted.

The court heard earlier that Clarke was socialising with his mother, Mandy Wilson at her home in Inverness last August and stepfather Mr Wilson. But when the conversation turned towards Murray's national identity, the argument erupted. Pictured: Mr Wilson's injury

Violent racket: Tennis star Andy Murray (left) was at the centre of the family row which ended with Mr Wilson's ear being almost bitten off by his stepson, Lee Clarke (right)

His defence solicitor, Clare Russell said: 'Alcohol and anger were factors. He has taken steps to address his anger issues.

'He was involved in a car accident and as a result suffers from epilepsy and cannot work. He received significant compensation and a trust fund was set up from which he derives an income.

'He is in a position to pay compensation to his stepfather. His guilty plea was tendered on the basis that there was provocation after an argument over the nationality of a sportsman.

'My client accepts there were other actions he could have taken to avoid this. It is a matter of deep regret that it involved a family member and he hopes to rekindle some kind of relationship with his stepfather if not only for his mother's sake.'

It was the first conviction for the father of two and fiscal depute, Michelle Molley, told the court that it was not clear who had started the fight. She added: 'Whilst Lee Clarke and Mr Wilson (pictured) were on the ground, Clarke bit his right ear, severing the outer ear'

It was the first conviction for the father of two and fiscal depute Michelle Molley, told the court that it was not clear who had started the fight.

She added: 'Whilst Lee Clarke and Mr Wilson were on the ground, Clarke bit his right ear, severing the outer ear.'

The court heard that Mrs Wilson phoned the police who saw a large amount of blood smeared over the wooden living room floor and on the wall between the bathroom and bedrooms.

Ms Molley went on: 'Part of his ear was recovered from the hallway floor and delivered to medical staff at the hospital.'

After being arrested by police, Clarke said: 'It was self defence but I regret what I did.'

Clarke (pictured) appeared for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court after previously admitting assaulting Mr Wilson, causing his injury and permanent disfigurement. He had his sentence deferred until July 28 for a restriction of liberty order assessment by Sheriff Chris Dickson

He claimed during his police interview that Mr Wilson grabbed him in a headlock and pulled him to the floor.

Ms Molley went on: 'Clarke stated he was unable to breathe so he proceeded to bite what he believed was the victim's arm, but turned out to be the victim's ear.'

'Under General Anaesthetic, the tissue was stitched back into place.. Unfortunately, the reattached tissues turned blue, then black, which meant they were not healing and would have to be trimmed away.'

She added that Mr Wilson declined plastic surgery and that the ear was functioning normally.

Shortly after the incident, Mr Wilson posted pictures of the aftermath of his injury, including one of him in hospital, on social media.
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A bride-to-be left her two young sons home alone for two days to fly to Paris after meeting an online husband.

The mother left a pan of soup for the boys, aged 11 and six, and rang to see how they were getting on, a court heard.

She was arrested after the younger child told his teacher his mother was in France and he and his brother were at home, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on their own.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identities of the boys, pleaded guilty to neglecting her sons over a two-day period in March.

She was spared an immediate prison sentence after Bradford Crown Court heard she was otherwise a good mother and her children were now back with her after a spell in foster care.

The mother, in her 30s, was spared a prison sentence for leaving her children alone while she went to Paris after Bradford Crown Court heard she was otherwise a good mother (file photo)

Prosecutor Philip Adams told the court the mother, aged in her 30s, left home at 6am and intended to be back by midnight the following day.

She was going to Paris to make arrangements for her wedding to the man she had met over the Internet.

She flew to Paris from Manchester Airport leaving the boys to attend school by themselves and stay at home overnight on their own.

Mr Adams said that when the six-year-old child told his teacher, the police were alerted.

The children were collected from their home and put in social services accommodation.

Their mother, who was told by a friend that the police were on to her, flew back early.

She was arrested when she arrived back the following lunchtime.

The woman made full admissions to the police, telling them she went to Paris to make arrangements to marry.

She wanted her children to stay with a family friend while she was absent but they refused to go there and the older boy persuaded her that they could manage.

The woman said she left a large pan of soup for the boys and some money.

In mitigation, her solicitor advocate Tom Rushbrooke said: 'This lady made a terrible mistake and she realises that now.'

Prosecutor Philip Adams told the court the mother left home at 6am and intended to be back by midnight the following day (file photo)

She had been left to fend for herself as a child and was bringing up her sons to be resilient and to look after themselves, Mr Rushbrooke told the court.

'She is otherwise a very caring mother. They are well looked after, well fed and clothed,' he said.

The woman took documents to Paris to be processed before the wedding and she still wanted the marriage to go ahead. She now had passports for both her sons and would take them with her next time she travelled to France.

Her children were back with her from foster care and would be deeply affected if she went to prison, he added.

Sentencing the woman to a six month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, Judge Robert Bartfield told her that immediate custody would be destructive to her children as they had only recently returned from care to live with her.

He told her: 'You put the boys in significant danger by leaving them alone.'

Judge Bartfield also ordered that she undertakes a rehabilitation activity requirement with the probation service.
Britain's smallest city is objecting to plans by Premier Inn to build a new hotel to cater for growing tourist demands.

The city, which has just 1,300 residents, has launched a petition to stop the hotel chain, which is owned by Whitbread from opening a venue in the city.

Residents fear the first sight which will greet pilgrims to the village will be the hotel, rather than the city's medieval cathedral.

Locals in St David's, Britain's smallest city have launched an objection to stop hotel chain Premier Inn from opening up an outlet in the medieval city on the Welsh coast

The hotel chain wants to open a three storey hotel in the historic city despite local objections

The hotel chain has submitted an application to planning authorities in Pembrokeshire

The majority of businesses in the city are small and independently owned rather than franchises from a major multinational.

The hotel chain wants to build a venue with 63 rooms and 160 beds, which according to the Financial Times will be three times larger than their nearest competitor.

Locals claim none of the supplies will be from local companies and even the laundry will be sent away in a truck.

Tracey Foster, who has run a guest house in the city for the past 30 years said: 'Premier Inn will just wipe out everybody. All my German, Swiss and Austrian guests say what a beautiful unspoilt place. Do you really want to turn around and see a big monstrosity of a purple sign outside it?'

As part of the planning application, Whitbread have promised to fund 38 houses which will be available at affordable rents among 70 which are set to be built along with the hotel.

In a public meeting on the proposals, 15 people showed their hands in favour of Premier Inn cmpared with around 270 who objected.
The future of an RSL club is under threat after the treasurer was caught swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund her pokies addiction.

Marion Mills, 62, stole $400,000 from the Upwey-Belgrave RSL to fund her gambling and drinking, reported the Herald Sun.

Mills pleaded guilty to stealing $28,918.10 while treasurer at the club from 2010-13.

The future of Upwey-Belgrave RSL club is under threat after treasurer Marion Mills (right) was caught swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund her pokies addiction

She was sentenced to four months jail in April, which was suspended for two years.

She had originally been accused over a sum almost three times more, and had also failed to pay bills or staff superannuation.

Her fraudulent behaviour was uncovered after an audit that found at least 80 payments made with gift vouchers to Mills' and her husband's drinks tabs.

Upwey-Belgrave RSL president David Eaton told the Herald Sun the club was struggling.

Mills pleaded guilty to stealing $28,918.10 while treasurer from 2010-13. However, her bill totals $400,000 after taking into account failing to pay bills or staff superannuation. Pictured are members of the RSL club

Upwey-Belgrave RSL president David Eaton told the Herald Sun the club was struggling. New treasurer Beth Quilty said the club (pictured) was yet to see any of the money repayed

'The problem is you trust people and then you get burnt,' Mr Eaton said.

Mills was ordered by the court to repay the stolen money at a minimum $50 a week.

It's estimated it will take her 11 years to repay the entire sum.

New treasurer Beth Quilty told the Herald Sun the RSL club was yet to see any of the money repayed.

The RSL would have to take action in the civil the court to try and recoup the money and the club is hoping community support will help keep the club afloat.
The residents of the world's only 'Smurf village' were locked in a bitter dispute over having to pay royalties to trademark holders.

The row was feared to be the end of the Spanish village of Juzcar, on the Costa del Sol, where all the buildings are painted entirely blue and the locals dress up as Smurfs.

Home to just 50,000, Juzcar has flourished since it was chosen for the promotion of three Smurf movies, attracting as many as 80,000 tourists every year.

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The residents of the world's only 'Smurf village' were locked in a bitter dispute over having to pay royalties to trademark holders

The row was feared to be the end of the Spanish village of Juzcar, on the Costa del Sol, where all the buildings are painted entirely blue and locals dress up as Smurfs

Home to just 50,000, Juzcar has flourished since it was chosen for the promotion of three Smurf movies, attracting as many as 80,000 tourists every year

Many businesses including restaurants, bars and guesthouses sprung up as a result of its success but some locals became fed up with having to pay money to the heir of the Smurfs creator.

Some even threatened to withdraw from the blue experience and took down Smurfs from their buildings.

Fortunately the dispute was settled when locals agreed to pay 12 per cent of all profits from Smurf-related income in royalties.

The village has also agreed to remove any images or figures which do not comply with the Smurf brand and will be getting new attractions, thanks to a 300,000 grant from Malaga council.

Juzcar used to be one of the 'white towns' of Andalucia but in the spring of 2011, all the buildings, including the 16th century church and gravestones, were painted blue by Sony Pictures to celebrate the premiere of a new Smurfs movie.

The result was such a hit that when Sony offered to repaint the buildings white in December 2011, the local residents held a public vote and decided to keep them blue.

Many businesses including restaurants, bars and guesthouses sprung up as a result of its success

Some locals became fed up with having to pay money to the heir of the Smurfs creator

The Mayor of Juzcar, Francisco Lozano said under a previous council, no payments had been paid so a formal agreement had now been reached.

'If you receive money for some activity related to the Smurfs, such as the sale of products or some service, you have to pay an amount for copyright,' he confirmed.

Juzcar nestles in the Serrania de Ronda, with the properties perched on the ridges of the mountains. It is 115 kilometres from Malaga and 25km from Ronda.

Regular activities are held on most weekends, together with special events, which are either free or cost no more than five pounds.
Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, Tory councillor Catherine Faulks said protesters who stormed Kensington Town Hall 'weren't the local community'

The Government has warned it could appoint commissioners to take over Kensington and Chelsea council as pressure mounts on the troubled authority.

MPs will be keeping a 'close eye' on the council, said Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajid Javid.

The council has been slammed for its 'chaotic' relief effort after the Grenfell Tower fire and a series of blunders that followed, including an attempt to ban journalists from a public meeting about the tragedy.

Mr Javid's intervention came as a Tory Kensington and Chelsea councillor claimed protesters who stormed the town hall days after the Grenfell Tower fire 'weren't the local community' but 'people who like doing that sort of thing'.

Catherine Faulks was defending the council's attempts to hold a private cabinet meeting on the disaster, initially citing public order concerns, and described press attempts to report on it by obtaining a High Court order as 'a very clever stunt'.

The council cancelled the meeting on Thursday after journalists were eventually allowed to attend, claiming it would 'prejudice' the forthcoming public inquiry.

Her comments came just a day after leader Nicholas Paget-Brown and deputy Rock Feilding-Mellen confirmed they were stepping down.

Ms Faulks told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'The reason we had given primarily to have the meeting in private was that we were worried there was a public order issue which had been already demonstrated by the invasion that happened at the council - which, by the way, when you say we weren't affected, the whole council chamber had to be evacuated for the whole afternoon on the Friday after the tragedy.'

Ms Faulks described press attempts to report on a cabinet meeting on the disaster by obtaining a High Court order as 'a very clever stunt'

She went on: 'I think actually the people that stormed the council weren't the local community, I think they were people who like doing that sort of thing and I think they did a disservice to the local community.

'But I completely understand the anger, the frustration of the local community. Of course we weren't immediately quick off the ground, it's an enormous tragedy, I don't know if everyone realised how complex and how vast this fire was.

'I challenge any borough in the whole country to have immediately had an action plan they could put into place.'

Mr Paget-Brown said he was stepping down on Friday afternoon 'to take responsibility for the perceived failings' over the disaster.

Deputy, Rock Feilding-Mellen, who was also the councillor responsible for housing and regeneration in the borough, followed with his resignation just after 5pm.

Nicholas Paget-Brown (left) has quit as the leader of Kensington and Chelsea council. Deputy, Rock Feilding-Mellen (right), who was also the councillor responsible for housing and regeneration in the borough, followed with his resignation

Mr Javid said: 'It is right the council leader stepped down given the initial response to the Grenfell tragedy.

'The process to select his successor will be independent of government, but we will be keeping a close eye on the situation. If we need to take further action, we won't hesitate to do so.'

The Government will be keeping a 'close eye' on the council, Sajid Javid (pictured) said

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan had earlier led calls for commissioners to be drafted in to take over the day-to-day running of affairs in the west London borough.

Kensington and Chelsea's 'chaotic' handling of the disaster was criticised in the immediate aftermath of the fire and an emergency taskforce, led by other London boroughs and the Red Cross, took over the relief effort.

Theresa May piled further pressure on councillors for defying a High Court ruling and attempting to hold a meeting about the catastrophic fire in secret on Thursday.

At least 80 people are dead and some 364 households are in emergency accommodation following the blaze in the 24-storey tower block on June 14.

As he stepped down, Conservative Mr Paget-Brown said: 'I have to accept my share of responsibility for these perceived failings.

At least 80 people are dead and some 364 households are in emergency accommodation following the blaze in the 24-storey tower block on June 14

'In particular my decision to accept legal advice that I should not compromise the public inquiry by having an open discussion in public yesterday has itself become a political story.

'And it cannot be right that this should become the focus of attention when so many are dead or still unaccounted for.

'I have therefore decided to step down as leader of the council as soon as a successor is in place.'

Cheap combustible cladding on Grenfell Tower has been blamed for the fire spreading from one fourth-floor flat and engulfing the entire building.

Cladding has been widely blamed for allowing the fire at Grenfell Tower to spread up the building so quickly

Mr Paget-Brown took the astonishing step of dissolving Thursday's council meeting when he realised newspaper reporters were in the council chamber.

The move was branded 'anti-democratic' by politicians and Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron called it 'disgusting'.

Earlier in the day, the council had announced the cabinet meeting would be held behind closed doors because staff feared they were at risk of violence.

But a High Court order was obtained by newspapers, giving the media the right to attend the cabinet session.

Reporters were finally let into the meeting shortly after it began but when Mr Paget-Brown was made aware of the presence of reporters, he called it off.

Grenfell survivor 'still having rent deducted for wrecked flat' A woman who fled the Grenfell Tower fire found she was still having rent deducted for her wrecked flat by the council, a campaigner said. Yvette Williams, a coordinator for Justice 4 Grenfell, said the survivor made the discovery when she obtained a new bank card and saw her statement. Tory Kensington and Chelsea councillor Catherine Faulks said she was 'very sorry to hear' the claims. Ms Williams said she received a call from the distressed survivor on Friday. A woman who fled the Grenfell Tower fire found she was still having rent deducted for her wrecked flat 'She came to me and said she had just got her bank card and that she went and looked at her bank statement and they had deducted rent for Grenfell Tower,' Ms Williams told the Press Association. 'It is quite clear that whatever is supposed to be happening down there isn't happening - it is about what checks and balances are in place there. Of course she is distressed, we have all seen the tower and what it looks like, everyone is living there.' Asked if the survivor had raised her concerns with the council, Ms Williams added: 'She hasn't. She has lost her home, she has lost everything.' Responding, Ms Faulks told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I'm very sorry to hear that and I can understand that's very distressing.' Asked why the council had not addressed such an 'obvious' issue, she replied: 'Oh come on, I'm not saying it's a tiny thing, for them it's a huge thing and it's very upsetting. But the council are in the process of trying to house 400 people, they have got people in hotels, they have put a social worker for every single family. 'I'm very sorry to hear that that happened but that person, if it's happened, will have a one person connection to go to explain that's happened who will help them sort it out. I know you're hearing a lot of noise about 'nothing's happening', but actually on the ground there is a lot of hand-holding going on. 'And I haven't yet heard any of the media interview or talk to somebody who has received really the excellent services we have been providing.' The council confirmed rent has been suspended for residents forced to leave their homes in the shadow of Grenfell Tower after they were crippled by a lack of utilities. A Kensington and Chelsea spokesman claimed payments would not be requested for those living in the so-called 'finger blocks' until January 2018 at the earliest. The council confirmed rent has been suspended for residents forced to leave their homes in the shadow of Grenfell Tower after being crippled by a lack of utilities The three buildings, on Barandon Walk, Testerton Walk and Hurstway have been without hot water since the neighbourhood's boiler, located beneath Grenfell Tower, was destroyed in the fire. Any rent deducted from tenants since the blaze will be refunded, a spokesman added. A council spokesman said: 'We are focused on the needs of all affected residents, including those from Barandon Walk, Testerton Walk and Hurstway. 'This group of residents have suffered a huge disruption to their lives as they were evacuated from their homes. 'They will not have to pay rent from the date of the fire until end of January 2018 when we will review the situation. 'If any resident has had a direct debit or standing order payment for their rent taken this will be refunded. 'We will be writing to everyone shortly to inform them of this. Some residents have already returned to their homes. We expect to have the hot water supply restored during the next week so anybody else who wants to go back home can do so. 'We will continue to provide temporary accommodation for those that don't want to return.' Advertisement

Council members have even been accused of a 'cover-up' after going against a high court ruling

The decision to hold the council meeting (pictured) was widely criticised by politicians

The leader has faced criticism for years from the Grenfell Action Group  a residents' group set up by those living in Grenfell Tower  who appeared to predict the tragedy which claimed the lives of at least 80 people.

Three years ago the organisation wrote to Mr Paget Brown, begging him to investigate the actions of the council's planning department and the tenancy management organisation, a private company created to oversee the housing at Grenfell Tower.

The group accused the TMO and planning department of failing to consult the residents regarding Grenfell Tower improvement works.

The council say recent protests in which demonstrators tried to storm the town hall mean it cannot hold the meeting in public

These were the scenes at Kensington town hall as frustrations over the fatal Grenfell Tower fire boiled over

To date, Mr Paget-Brown has avoided commenting on his correspondence with the action group but caused controversy with a remark during an interview on BBC's Newsnight on June 14, days after the tragedy.

He claimed that 'many residents felt that we needed to get on with the installation of new hot water systems, new boilers and that trying to retrofit more would delay the building and that sprinklers aren't the answer.'

Mr Paget-Brown's decision to quit follows the resignation of the chief executive of the group responsible for managing Grenfell Tower.

Robert Black, the chief executive of Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), stepped aside so he could 'concentrate on assisting with the investigation and inquiry', the group said.

Four days after the fire on June 14, the government relieved the Kensington and Chelsea council of responsibility for supporting the survivors, after a perceived inadequate response.

The council's chief executive, Nicholas Holgate, then stepped down.
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President Xi Jinping has warned Hong Kong not to challenge Beijing's authority, 20 years after it took back the colony from Britain.

During a swearing-in ceremony for Hong Kong's new leader, he said any activities threatening China's sovereignty and stability would be 'absolutely impermissible'.

Thousands marched through the streets of Hong Kong to denounce the nation's 'one party rule' as he issued the warning while swearing in Hong Kong's new leader.

Police blocked roads to stop pro-democracy protesters from getting to the harbour-front venue close to where the last colonial governor, Chris Patten, tearfully handed back Hong Kong to China in the pouring rain in 1997.

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Thousands marched through the streets of Hong Kong to denounce the nation's 'one party rule' as President Xi Jinping swore in region's new leader

Police blocked roads to stop thousands pro-democracy protesters from getting to the harbour-front venue close to where the last colonial governor, handed Hong Kong back to to China in 1997

President Xi Jinping swore in Hong Kong's new leader with a stark warning to Hong Kong not to challenge Beijing's authority

President Xi said any activities threatening China's sovereignty and stability would be 'absolutely impermissible'. Pictured: A child faints from the heat during President Xi's departure from Hong Kong international airport

In a speech marking two decades since the city became a semi-autonomous Chinese region after its handover from Britain, Xi pledged Beijing's support for the country's 'one country, two systems' blueprint.

He said Hong Kong had to do more to shore up security and boost patriotic education, in a veiled reference to legislation long-delayed by popular opposition.

And he appeared to put on notice a new wave of activists pushing for more autonomy or even independence, saying challenges to the power of China's central government and Hong Kong's leaders wouldn't be tolerated.

'Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible,' Xi said.

He also referred to the 'humiliation and sorrow' China suffered during the first Opium War in the early 1840s that led to the ceding of Hong Kong to the British.

Some demonstrators marched with yellow umbrellas, a symbol of democratic activism in the city, and held aloft banners denouncing China's Communist 'one party rule

Xi hinted that the central government was in favour of Hong Kong introducing 'national security' legislation, a controversial issue that brought nearly half a million people to the streets in protest in 2003

Hong Kong police officers try to remove a pro-China supporter after he attacked pro-democracy activists marching towards the venue where official ceremonies are held to mark the 20th anniversary of Chinese rule

Hong Kong has been racked by demands for full democracy and, more recently, by calls by some pockets of protesters for independence

Activists are surrounded by police during a pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong

Xi did not make contact with the people in the street or with any pro-democracy voices, forgoing an opportunity to lower the political heat

TWO OPIUM WARS AND 156 YEARS OF BRITISH RULE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HONG KONG Modern-day Hong Kong is best known for its sprawl of skyscrapers, a bustling financial hub off the southern coast of mainland China and a regional conduit for trade. But the territory was once a quiet backwater of rural hamlets and fishing communities, where mountainous terrain dominated sparse human settlement. Its main harbour became a place to replenish supplies for trading ships plying the maritime silk road between Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, which flourished from around the 7th century. Portuguese, Dutch and French traders arrived on the south coast of China in the 1500s and Portugal set up a base in Macau, neighbouring Hong Kong. But in the 18th century China imposed restrictions on the Europeans in a bid to contain their influence. China agreed to hand over Hong Kong Island to Britain in 1841 following the First Opium War. Pictured: Chinese women smoke in Kut Hing Wai, one of the three walled villages in the British colony of Hong Kong Now bustling with skyscrapers, Hong Kong (pictured in 1997) was once a quiet backwater of rural hamlets and fishing communities, where mountainous terrain dominated sparse human settlement Britain was angered after an imperial edict banned its trade in opium from India to China, which had led to the spread of addiction. In what became known as the First Opium War, Britain attacked Hong Kong in 1840 after Chinese authorities seized a vast haul of the drug. To make peace, China agreed to hand over Hong Kong Island to Britain in 1841. The Kowloon peninsula followed in 1860 after a second Opium War and Britain extended north into the rural New Territories in 1898, leasing the area for 99 years. Hong Kong was part of the British empire until 1997, when the lease on the New Territories expired and the entire city was handed back to China. Under British rule, Hong Kong transformed into a commercial and financial hub boasting one of the world's busiest harbours. Anti-colonial sentiment fuelled riots in 1967 which led to some social and political reforms - by the time it was handed back to China, the city had a partially elected legislature and retained an independent judiciary. Hong Kong boomed as China opened up its economy from the late 1970s, becoming a gateway between the ascendant power and the rest of the world. British troops rehearse for the handing over ceremony of Hong Kong to China after 156 years of colonisation President Jiang Zemin inspects the People's Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in Hong Kong in 1998 for the first time since the territory became a part of China After lengthy negotiations, including between Deng Xiaoping and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the future handover of Hong Kong was signed off by the two sides in 1984. The Sino-British declaration said Hong Kong would be a 'Special Administrative Region' of China, and would retain its freedoms and way of life for 50 years after the handover date on July 1, 1997. While initial fears of a crackdown did not materialise, concerns have grown in recent years that China is tightening its grip. Democratic reforms promised in the handover deal have not materialised and young activists calling for self-determination or independence have emerged. Advertisement

Hong Kong has been racked by demands for full democracy and, more recently, by calls by some pockets of protesters for independence, a subject that is anathema to Beijing.

Xi's words were his strongest yet to the city amid concerns over what some perceive as increased meddling by Beijing, illustrated in recent years by the abduction by mainland agents of some Hong Kong booksellers and Beijing's efforts in disqualifying two pro-independence lawmakers elected to the city legislature.

'It's a more frank and pointed way of dealing with the problems [in Hong Kong],' said former senior Hong Kong government adviser Lau Siu-kai on Hong Kong's Cable Television.

'The central government's power hasn't been sufficiently respected... they're concerned about this.'

The tightly choreographed visit was full of pro-China rhetoric amid a virtually unprecedented security lockdown.

Xi did not make contact with the people in the street or with any pro-democracy voices, forgoing an opportunity to lower the political heat.

Under Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, the financial hub is guaranteed wide-ranging autonomy for 'at least 50 years' after 1997 under a 'one country, two systems' formula praised by Xi. It also specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal.

The tightly choreographed visit was full of pro-China rhetoric amid a virtually unprecedented security lockdown

Thousands of protesters march along a down town street during the annual pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong

Xi, dressed in a dark suit and striped red tie, addressed a packed hall of mostly pro-Beijing establishment figures

But Beijing's refusal to grant full democracy triggered nearly three months of street protests in 2014 that at times erupted into violent clashes and posed one of the greatest populist challenges to Beijing in decades.

Today's protest was 'the most urgent in the past 20 years', according to lawmaker Eddie Chu.

Some demonstrators marched with yellow umbrellas, a symbol of democratic activism in the city, and held aloft banners denouncing China's Communist 'one party rule'.

Others criticised China's Foreign Ministry which on Friday said the 'Joint Declaration' with Britain over Hong Kong, a treaty laying the blueprint over how the city would be ruled after 1997, 'no longer has any practical significance'.

Xi, dressed in a dark suit and striped red tie, addressed a packed hall of mostly pro-Beijing establishment figures, after swearing in Hong Kong's first female leader, Carrie Lam, who was strongly backed by China.

Lam said she wanted to create a harmonious society and bring down astronomical housing prices that have also sown social discord.

Lam also pledged to take firm legal action against those who 'undermine' China's sovereignty, security and development interests.

A schoolchild bearing a Hong Kong and a China flags collapses from the heat on the tarmac ahead of China's President Xi Jinping's departure from Hong Kong's international airport

Today's protest was 'the most urgent in the past 20 years', according to lawmaker Eddie Chu. Pictured: A child faints from the heat during President Xi's departure from Hong Kong international airport

Xi hinted that the central government was in favour of Hong Kong introducing 'national security' legislation, a controversial issue that brought nearly half a million people to the streets in protest in 2003 and ultimately forced former leader Tung Chee-hwa to step down.

A small group of pro-democracy activists near the venue were roughed up by a group of men who smashed up some props in ugly scuffles while surrounded by more than 100 police.

Nine democracy protesters, including Joshua Wong and lawmaker 'long hair' Leung Kwok-hung, were bundled into police vans while several pro-China groups remained, cheering loudly and waving red China flags.

The activists, in a later statement, said the assailants had been 'pro-Beijing triad members'.

Other protesters unfurled a massive yellow banner, with the words 'I want real universal suffrage', on the waterfront of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, but were later taken away by police.
The birth of Dalmatian puppies is always worthy of a celebration but when it is the largest single litter ever delivered, there are 18 special reasons to mark the occasion.

Miley the Dalmatian broke an Australian record, equalled the world's best and even surpassed Perdita's achievement in the Disney film 101 Dalmatians when she gave birth on May 18.

Dog breeder Cecilia Langton-Bunker was shocked at the large litter, not just because the 12 girls and six boys delivered were record-breaking but as scans had shown Miley was expecting far less puppies, Nine News reported.

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Miley the Dalmatian gave birth to 18 puppies in May, breaking the Australian record for the largest single litter ever delivered

The 18 puppies Miley gave birth to also equalled the world record for the largest single litter

The large litter is comprised of 12 girls and six boys and was deliver in Ballarat in Victoria

Miley the Dalmatian gave birth to the puppies over 13-and-a-half hours

The 18 puppies were significantly more than Miley had been expecting - scans showed she was going to give birth to just three puppies

'The ultrasound said [Miley was] going to have three puppies,' Ms Langton-Bunker said.

'We got to 16 and thought she was done. After 13-and-a-half hours of labour, it was quite amazing, she popped out another two.'

Ms Langton-Bunker said she 'couldn't be happier with the litter' and described the feat as 'absolutely superb'.

As for the dad, Astro, a first-time parent alongside Miley, Ms Langton-Baker joked: 'He's a bit disconcerted by the 18 puppies running around, he's like "are these all mine".'

Dog breeder Cecilia Langton-Bunker said she 'couldn't be happier' with the large litter

Ms Cecilia Langton-Bunker described the record-breaking feat as 'absolutely superb'

The father of the puppies is jokingly said to be 'a bit disconcerted by the 18 puppies running around'

The Dalmatians were taken to the Ballarat Veterinary Practice on Tuesday for their first check-up

Miley's efforts even surpassed Perdita's achievement in the Disney film 101 Dalmatians

The puppies were vaccinated and microchipped on Tuesday at Ballarat Veterinary Practice in the Victorian regional city where they were born.

Ms Langton-Baker told The Courier: 'The litter has been very inspirational to watch growing up and a great credit goes to Jade Martin, a midwife who has nurtured the puppies'.

She said the hand-reared puppies were 'thriving' and a 'credit to the parents'.

The puppies were vaccinated and microchipped at the Ballarat Veterinary Practice on Tuesday

The puppies were born on May 18, apt given there were 18 puppies born
Astounding footage has emerged of a police officer mounted on a bicycle charging into a drunken melee and taking out a street brawler with a flying tackle.

At least three men were filmed trading punches on the street outside a popular nightspot in Northbridge early Saturday morning.

As one man rips his shirt off and the wild brawl moves into the road, a police officer appears on a bicycle before executing a stunning tackle on the shirtless thug.

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A police officer on a pushbike (pictured) rode into a wild street brawl and took out a man with a flying tackle

Three men were brawling on the road in Northbridge (pictured) when WA Police's bike patrol arrived

The officer was a member of WA Police's bike patrol team, Perth Now reported.

After the first fighter was taken out, another two police officers quickly restrained the other combatants and moved them out of the street.

The Daily Mail Australia contacted WA Police but was unable to confirm if charges were laid.
A wife has been jailed for five years after she encouraged her husband to indecently assault their six-year-old niece and film it during meth-fuelled sexual fantasies.

The court heard the now estranged husband fitted the bathroom with hidden cameras as his wife bathed her niece when her sister visited in Perth.

This lead to the husband then abusing the girl in the couple's bedroom and filming it on his phone, according to WA Today.

A six-year-old girl was abused by a husband which was encouraged by the wife (Stock Image)

Later on the same year, the wife distracted her sister while the estranged husband abused the young girl.

The wife appeared in Perth District Court on Friday and was told by Justice Anette Schoombee she had taken advantage of the trust of her sister and her daughter when she 'actively encouraged' the abuse.

Justice Anette said the mother 'keenly' attempted to get the girl to participate in the acts as part of her meth-fuelled sexual fantasies.

'What one can see on the footage indicates that you are not doing so reluctantly, but you are actively and keenly engaged in trying to get (the girl) to do these things,' Justice Anette said.

'She obviously trusted you, her mother trusted you to have her best interests at heart.'

The mother of the daughter that was abused wrote a victim statement to the court.

The wife was sentenced to five years in prison in Perth District Court

She said her daughter was previously a happy girl, but was now suffering nightmares and was angry.

The wife is currently undergoing counselling and a divorce from her husband.

The estranged husband pleaded guilty and agreed to testify at his wife's trial and was sentenced to five years and three months in jail in 2016.
A woman has won a lawsuit against the Apostolic Church Australia after they were found responsible for a go-karting accident that led to the amputation of her leg.

The Perth District Court heard the woman, who has not been identified, volunteered at a conference presented by the Apostolic Church Australia at the Grace Christian Church in Bunbury on 25 August 2012.

Organiser Graeme Holman had a background in go-karting and planned an event in the parking lot of the church during the conference's lunch break.

The court heard the racing karts were donated by community members and did not have any safety mechanisms including seatbelts or rollover protection.

A woman has sued the Apostolic Church Australia after she severed her leg in a church-organised go-karting event in Western Australia and had to have it amputated (stock image)

Organisers laid 80 metres of shipping rope in an oval shape on the bitumen car park next to the church, with traffic cones and bollards placed at intervals around the track.

Red and white plastic traffic barriers were also placed between the track and the church building where the conference was being held.

According to court documents, the woman videoed other volunteers taking turns in the karts, before she tried it herself and drove five or six laps without any incident.

In the judgement, the woman said when she drove around the track she felt that she was going quickly, but was told afterwards that she had not gone fast at all.

The woman was volunteering at the event in August 2012 when the accident took place. She lost control of the kart and when she tried to break, she slammed her foot down on the accelerator instead and drove straight into a tree

Mr Holman admitted that he had encouraged the women to drive faster.

On the woman's next lap she lost control of the kart and in a panic instead of the brake, she slammed her foot down on the accelerator and drove into a tree.

She seriously injured her right leg, almost severing her foot and was flown by helicopter to Royal Perth Hospital.

The Perth District Court (pictured) heard the woman seriously injured her right leg, almost severing her foot and was flown by helicopter to Royal Perth Hospital. Two years later her leg was amputated below the knee and she now uses a prosthesis on her right leg

She spent weeks in hospital and underwent numerous surgeries. Her leg was not able to be saved and two years later it was amputated below the knee.

The woman now uses a prosthesis on her right leg.

District Court Judge Anette Schoombee found the church and Mr Holman had breached their duty of care and were liable to pay the woman's damages.

The parties had previously agreed on an undisclosed damages sum, but the church denied liability for the woman's injuries.
Digital force fields are being created to stop terrorists from attacking high-profile buildings.

The new technology will see geo-fields created around certain buildings which will stop unauthorised cars from gaining entry.

Research is being carried out to find out how car manufacters can shut down and stop vehicles which have been hijacked after a series of terror attacks in Britain.

Ministers are considering implementing digital force fields to stop terrorists attacking high-profile buildings. Pictured above, the scene on June 3 after a van ploughed into innocent pedestrians on London Bridge

The electronic boundaries will be connected to satellites to create a force field and only cars with a connected on-board computer will be able to gain access.

It is hoped cars without the monitor will be slowed down or rejected from crossing the parameter.

Experts believe this could prevent terror incidents such as those at Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park.

While the science sounds high-tech, it is already being implemented across cities in Europe.

Sweden has begun adapting cars to the technology in response to a terror attack in April which saw four people killed after a truck ploughed into pedestrians in Stockholm.

Research is being carried out by the Department for Transport to determine whether devices can shut down cars or lorries when they have been hijacked. Pictured above, a tent erected at Finsbury Park on June 19 after a pedestrian was hit by a car in a suspected terror attack

Car manufacturers Scania and Volvo are involved in trials of the technology. The Swedish government said in a statement that geo-fencing was a 'technical solution to enable only authorised vehicles to be driven within a geographically defined area'.

It could also be used to limit vehicle speeds, officials said, with demonstrations of the system being made next year.

The Times reported a British company is looking at how to use telematics  black box-style devices  to effectively shut down a car or lorry when it has been hijacked.

Trak Global Group, based in Cheshire, is working on a driver ID mechanism that links the black box with the owner's smartphone, disabling the vehicle if the phone is not present. A separate system could also send out an alert to emergency services in the event of a hijacking or vehicle theft.

The two developments follow a spate of terrorist attacks using vehicles in recent months. In March a car was used to mow down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before the attacker stabbed a police officer outside parliament. Eight people were killed in last month's van and knife attack at London Bridge, while one man died in a further incident at Finsbury Park.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport told The Times: 'Departments across government have been working together with the police and the security service to explore what more can be done to prevent the malicious use of vehicles as a weapon. As part of this the Department for Transport is exploring what role potential vehicle safety technologies can play in mitigating this. This work is at an early stage.'

Steve Gooding said the industry needed to tackle low-tech terror with hi-tech solutions.
Secretive pub boss Humphrey Smith, pictured, is reported to have sacked managers who have failed to clamp down of swearing in his bars

Secretive pub boss Humphrey Smith, who owns the Samuel Smith chain of bars has banned swearing in his 300 establishments and even sacked staff members for failing to enforce his rules.

Smith, who is in his 70s, is the joint owner of his Yorkshire-based company along with this brother Oliver, is believed to tour the country visiting his bars completely unannounced in order to see if they are upholding his strict moral rules.

Customers who swear in the firm's establishments face being barred.

The Samuel Smith chain has the oldest brewery in Yorkshire, but little is known about the man who has imposed the draconian rules.

The controversial tycoon hit the headlines in January 2016 when a bridge collapsed in his native Tadcaster.

The local council wanted to build a temporary bridge crossing the River Warfe to link the east and est sides of the Yorkshire Town.

However, Smith, who owns much of the land of the proposed town, including the river bank on one side of the proposed bridge, blocked the plan as he judged it a waste of public funds.

The town and county council and even the then Prime Minister David Cameron tried to urge Smith to reverse his decision .

The firm owns 300 bars including the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on London's Fleet Street

The Yorkshire based company has outlawed the use of bad language in its establishments

Smith claimed the temporary bridge 'won't be a thing of beauty' and feared once built, it might become a permanent feature. He also objected to the planned 300,000 cost of the bridge.

It is claimed that Smith, who owns a large number of houses in Tadcaster, will not rent to cohabiting couples.

The bridge reopened after more than a year in February 2017 during which time locals were forced to take a 10-mile detour to get from one side of the town to the other.

The pub chain views itself as very old fashioned with a complete ban on televisions. The bars close at 11pm on Monday to Saturday and 10.30pm on a Sunday.

All of the managers in the chain are employed directly by the company and are not tenants.

According to the Guardian, one landlord said Smith runs the company with 'an iron fist'.

One insider said: 'He walked into the pubs unannounced  he does this a lot  and found some people swearing. The managers were sacked on the spot. It didnt seem that fair  there are places where Smiths have pubs where the only language people speak is swearing. It is so hard to implement. After the sackings we were told that there would be a nationwide no swearing policy.

The insider added: 'I can only tell people so many times to stop swearing. They get excited, most of the time its harmless, not necessarily directed at anyone, just how people speak. But were responsible for stopping it.'
Detectives have arrested two men in Essex and a third in East Sussex on suspicion of preparing terror acts.

Sussex Police officers and detectives from the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command arrested the three men yesterday on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

The men - two aged 28 and one 31 - were arrested at around 6pm.

Sussex Police officers and detectives from the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command (file pic) arrested the men on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terror acts

Masked armed police near Borough Market in London after the terror attack on June 3

They are being held in custody under the Terrorism Act in a south London police station.

Detectives have also executed search warrants at one address in East Sussex, and three addresses in east London. Enquiries are ongoing.

The arrests come after a series of terror attacks across the UK this year.

On March 22, five people died when Khalid Masood, 52, drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.

Salman Abedi killed 22 people when he detonated a bomb at an Ariana Grande concert on May 22.

Series of attacks: Seven people were killed and at least 48 others injured when three terrorists launched an attack on London Bridge and at Borough Market on June 3. Pictured: Tributes and flowers at the south end of London Bridge remembering those killed in the attack

Seven people were killed and at least 48 others injured when three terrorists launched an attack on London Bridge and at Borough Market on June 3.

And nine people were injured and one killed after a van ploughed into people outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, London, in the early hours of June 19.

Thousands of soldiers were deployed by Prime Minister Theresa May following the bombing at Manchester arena as she raised the UK threat level from 'severe' to 'critical'.
A video showing a stunned man reacting when a passerby finds him at home to return his wallet has been shared online.

Peshraw Ahmed, a fast food delivery driver for Bare Grillz in Stoke on Trent and a Muslim, filmed the exchange and told the delighted recipient that he was compelled by Islam to return money to its rightful owner.

I'm a Muslim guy, so youre lucky,' said Mr Ahmed, who is Kurdish and originally from Iraq.

Gavin Meldrum who owns the wallet is extremely shocked and delighted in the video.

All my life savings, all my cards, it would have killed us,' he said.

'You are such a kind person, Mr Meldrum says before the music teacher offers free guitar lessons in gratitude and promises to order food from the delivery driver in future.

Mr Ahmed said that he filmed the encounter to show the good side of Muslims.

At the start of the video he shows the wallet, stuffed with 220 in cash, a driving licence, and bank cards.

As a Muslim this is forbidden for me so I must return to the owner,' he says.

'The original Muslim and the good Muslim will find the person to return the wallet.

Peshraw Ahmed, a fast food delivery driver for Bare Grillz in Stoke on Trent, filmed the exchange and told the delighted recipient that as a Muslim he was compelled to return money

'Thats what Muslim religion teaches me,' he said.

Some people questioned the man's motives in filming the handover and asked if promoting the good deed detracted from its purity, but other people defended the delivery driver, saying that due to bad press about Islam it was necessary to highlight good stories.

Scott Longstaff said that he had often returned stolen property and wrote: 'Just because he's Muslim doesn't mean he is good willed. Christians are good willed too. There's a minority of people that dont have the capabilites to do nice things for each other but its the same for any religion. Theres always a few that mess things up

But Al Hassan Hassan Dumbuya wrote: 'You missing the point Scott. Christians are righteous too but the manner in which the world is looking at Muslims for the actions of few is not right. He just demonstrated what a true religious person would do.'

Gavin Meldrum who owns the wallet is shocked and delighted when he answers the door

And Goulam Freed wrote: 'This guy did a good thing. Okay he's recorded it but why? Why has he banged on about Islam being a good religion? Because people think it's not based on idiots that don't represent Islam.'

The video was posted on his employer Bare Grillz Fast Food's Facebook page where many people praised the delivery driver and said that he should get a pay rise.

Jamie Wood wrote: 'What a genuine, honest, lovely bloke, a few more people like him in the world wouldn't go a miss! Bare grillz, you make sure you look after him! He's one in a billion! Well done that man...'

Peach Burrows wrote: 'Well done mate that's amazing as many should know that a true Muslims wouldn't take it and are good people and U sir is a good person. U will be rewarded.'

Kasia Usmanwrote: 'The deli every driver deserve a pay rise and some recognition ;) well done xx'

Fadwa Othman Kafeena wrote: 'Good guy take care of him..bless him..he is a real good Muslim & not a fake one!'

And Arin Nishty Pshdarywrote: 'As a Muslim and a Kurd you've made us proud, well done Peshawa.'
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The doctor who shot seven people, killing one woman, before turning the gun on himself at a Bronx hospital, sent a chilling email to a New York newspaper just two hours before the deadly rampage.

Dr Henry Bello used an AR-15 assault rifle in the attack on the 16th and 17th floors of the Bronx Lebanon Hospital on Friday around 2.45pm.

About two hours before the deadly shooting, the 45-year-old sent an email to the New York Daily News blaming two doctors for terminating 'my road to a licensure to practice medicine'.

Bello, who was described on the hospital's website as a family medicine physician, wrote: 'First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse.'

On Friday evening it was revealed that Bello had been forced to resign over sexual harassment accusations.

However, in the email that was sent at 12.46pm, Bello said he was told his termination stemmed from him threatening a colleague.

He said he then sent an email to that colleague 'congratulating her for my termination after she sent out an email to everybody telling them to file complaints against me so I can be terminated for being rude to her'.

'I only said in the email, it remains to be seen if my life is meaningless or disposable,' Bello wrote.

Bello then blamed another doctor for ruining his career, adding that the doctor 'blocked' him from getting his medical permit despite him pouring $400,000 of his money into the hospital and the family medicine department.

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First image: Dr Henry Bello, 45, who used an AR-15 assault rifle to kill one doctor and wound six others at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital on Friday at 2.45pm, sent a chilling email rant to the New York Daily News just two hours before the attack

The 45-year-old sent the email to the newspaper blaming the hospital for terminating 'my road to a licensure to practice medicine'. Pictured are first responders at the scene

According to the Daily News, an editor at the newspaper didn't make the connection to Bello until after the shooting.

The newspaper is also withholding the names of the two doctors whom Bello said caused his termination. Bello shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at around 2.45pm on Friday.

He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, police said.

The gunman (pictured) shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at around 2.45pm on Friday. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, police said

Police Commissioner James O'Neill confirmed Bello died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee, and said he was 'aggressive' and 'threatened people'.

However, in the email he sent to the Daily News, Bello didn't threaten violence against anyone.

The attack on Friday left several doctors fighting for their lives, and witnesses described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted and spread terror throughout the medical facility. Employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.

'I thought I was going to die,' said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

In 2015, Bello was allowed to resign from the hospital after being accused of sexual harassment, according to two law enforcement officials. They did not know the details of the allegations, and agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.

However, Dr Maureen Kwankam, 50, told the New York Daily News he was fired from the hospital 'because he was kind of crazy'.

'He promised to come back and kill us then,' she said.

Bello also tried to set fire to the nurses station on the 16th floor, but the hospital's sprinkler system put it out before the blaze could grow.

'This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere,' New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said. He also said terrorism did not play a role.

Bello used an AR-15 assault rifle, (pictured at the hospital) to carry out his attacks on the 16th and 17th floors of the facility, according to police

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident a 'horrible situation' and said it was not related to terrorism but instead just a workplace incident

Bello, who was described on the hospital's website as a family medicine physician, wrote in the email that he was told he was terminated because of 'altercation with a nurse'. A woman was escorted by officers in plainclothes near the Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York Friday after fleeing the scene

On Friday evening it was revealed that Bello had been forced to resign over sexual harassment accusations. However, in the email that was sent at 12.46pm, Bello said he was told his termination stemmed from him threatening a colleague. Another woman was seen escorted by officers near the hospital after Bello opened fire there

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee, and said he was 'aggressive' and 'threatened people'. The incident unfolded at around 2.45pm at the medical center on Grand Concourse in the Morris Heights section of The Bronx

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

Bello 'was very aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people all the time. He was a problem,' said Dr David Lazala, a family medicine doctor who said he trained Bello at Bronx Lebanon.

He said Bello, who worked at night as a doctor, sent him a threatening email after Bello was fired.

In unrelated cases, the doctor had been arrested in 2004 on a charge of sexual abuse, according to a police report, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying: 'You're coming with me.'

He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror.

Heavily armed police patroled the scene outside the hospital after the gunman opened fire on Friday afternoon

Police sources said the gunman was hiding the high-powered weapon under his lab coat before the attack on the 16th floor of the hospital

Hospital employees barricaded themselves in hospital rooms by stacking furniture up against the doors during the lockdown

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called him from inside the hospital to tell him about the gunman.

'She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebody's out there shooting people,' Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. 'I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry.'

Gonzalo Carazo described the scary scene to WCBS-TV: 'I saw one of the doctors and he had a gunshot wound to his hand,' Carazo said.

'All I heard was a doctor saying, "Help, help!"' Carazo locked himself in a room for about 15 minutes until police came and led him out of the facility.

In unrelated cases, the doctor had been arrested in 2004 on a charge of sexual abuse, according to a police report, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying: 'You're coming with me.' Police rushed to the scene as it unfolded on Friday afternoon

Witness Dione Morales, who has been a patient at the hospital for 17 years, also said Bello had threatened to kill people back when he was fired. Officers were seen carrying assault-style rifles outside the Bronx Lebanon Hospital

Bello is believed to have lived in this New York City apartment building. He was forced to resign from his position at the hospital in 2015 after sexual assault allegations became public

Police cars surrounded the area outside the hospital on Grand Concourse on Friday

Witness Dione Morales, who has been a patient at the hospital for 17 years, told CBS New York the shooter had threatened to kill people back when he was fired.

'He was let go because I guess they figured he was unstable. He said he was going to do this,' she said. 'He said he was going to kill people, two years ago when he was let go - two years... and now look what happened.'

Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center describes itself as the largest voluntary, not-for-profit health care system in the south and central Bronx.

The 120-year-old hospital claims nearly 1,000 beds spread across multiple units. Its emergency room is among the busiest in New York City.

The hospital is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.

Fire Department rescue workers head towards the scene after the inside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City
Political leaders across Europe and former US president Bill Clinton have paid tribute to late German chancellor Helmut Kohl at the European Parliament.

Leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Theresa May and Angela Merkel joined mourners at in Strasbourg to pay hommage to Kohl, widely dubbed the 'father of German unification'.

'Helmut Kohl was a true European and a friend. Europe owes him a lot,' said European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the only current leader in Europe to have worked alongside him.

Kohl's 'legacy in Europe is enormous,' he said, adding he was speaking primarily as a friend of the German political giant who died aged 87 on June 16.

During his 16-year term as Germany's leader from 1982 to 1998, Kohl spearheaded his country's reunification in 1990 and was an architect of the continent's common currency, the euro.

Political leaders across Europe and former US president Bill Clinton have paid tribute late German chancellor Helmut Kohl

Leaders including British Prime Minister Theresa May (centre) joined mourners at in Strasbourg to pay hommage to Kohl, widely dubbed the 'father of German unification'

During his 16-year term as Germany's leader from 1982 to 1998, Kohl (pictured) spearheaded his country's reunification in 1990

'Helmut Kohl was a true European and a friend. Europe owes him a lot,' said European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pays her respect by the coffin of late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl during a ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg

Notable names in attendance included French President Emmanuel Macron (left) and former King of Spain Juan Carlos and his wife, former Queen Sofia (together, right)

The ceremony concluded with the German national anthem and excerpts from Beethoven's 9th symphony 'Ode to Joy', used as the anthem of the European Union

Former US president Bill Clinton said: 'Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves'.

Mr Clinton also cited Mr Kohl's willingness to put international co-operation before national interests.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who served as a minister under Kohl in the 1990s, remembered Kohl as an at-times controversial figure with numerous enemies.

She said: 'I could tell you stories as well... But all that paled in comparison to his life's achievements.'

'The lives of millions of people would have been a lot different without Helmut Kohl - including my own life,' the former East German said.

'Dear Helmut Kohl, thanks to you I'm standing here today. Thanks for the chance that you made possible for me and many others.'

EU parliament president Antonio Tajani said Mr Kohl deserved 'a place of honour in the European pantheon' for unhesitatingly extending the hand of friendship to fledgling democracies in eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The high profile memorial lasted around two hours, after which Kohl's casket was flown by helicopter across the Rhine to his hometown of Ludwigshafen.

Maike Kohl-Richter, widow of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, is pictured leaving his ceremony

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during Kohl's memorial ceremony

Mr Clinton also cited Mr Kohl's willingness to put international co-operation before national interests. Pictured: European leaders stand for the ceremony

EU parliament president Antonio Tajani said Mr Kohl deserved 'a place of honour in the European pantheon'. Pictured: Guards carry Kohl's coffin out of the memorial ceremony

Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl's coffin is carried out of the house in Oggersheim, Germany

Chancellor Angela Merkel (right with President Macron), who served as a minister under Kohl in the 1990s, remembered Kohl as an at-times controversial figure with numerous enemies

The high profile memorial lasted around two hours, after which Kohl's casket was flown by helicopter across the Rhine to his hometown of Ludwigshafen

French President Emmanuel Macron meets musicians after a ceremony for former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl

There his body was later carried in procession before being transported by riverboat to his final place of rest in Speyer.

The resting place of many rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, itself a Europe-spanning polity, Speyer Cathedral was seen by Kohl as a symbol of European unity.

The ceremony concluded with the German national anthem and excerpts from Beethoven's 9th symphony 'Ode to Joy', used as the anthem of the European Union.

The proposal to hold a European ceremony was enthusiastically advocated by Juncker, and by Kohl's second wife Maike Kohl-Richter, who survives him.

Pictured: Kohl's coffin being carried onto a riverboat so it can be sent up the Rhine to Speyer

Pictured: The ship MS Mainz transporting the former German chancellor

Pictured: Police salute along the way to Speyer

His sons, however, will boycott the Cathedral's funeral mass, since their father will not be laid to rest alongside Hannelore Kohl, his wife of decades.

On Friday, Kohl's son Walter called the plans for his father's funeral 'unworthy' of a man considered the father of German reunification, further inflaming a family feud with his stepmother.

'I find the latest developments not worthy of my father, nor of Germany and Europe,' said Walter, 53, who with his brother Peter are from Kohl's first marriage.

In an interview on the weekly Die Zeit website, Walter Kohl criticised the lack of national funeral services, which were refused by his stepmother Maike Kohl-Richter.

Former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez and his wife Mar Garcia Vaquero arrive ahead of a memorial ceremony in honour of late former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara were also in attendance for the high profile memorial

European Council President Donald Tusk (left) arrived alongside EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani (right)

Qatar's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani (left) arrives at the European Parliament in Strasbourg

Bill Clinton (right) cited Kohl's willingness to put international co-operation before national interests while Macron (left, with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy) is due to speak later

European Commission President Juncker (left) said Kohl's 'legacy in Europe is enormous' while European Parliament President Tajani (centre) hailed him for extending the hand of friendship to fledgling democracies in eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain

European Commission president Juncker (left), European Parliament president Tajani (second left) French President Macron (second right) and European Council President Tusk (right) at the ceremony

He also complained about the choice to bury his father in a cemetery in Spire in southwest Germany and not the family tomb in the town of Ludwigshafen, where Kohl died.

Those decisions were made by Kohl-Richter, 34 years her husband's junior, whom he married at age 78.

The funeral plans for Germany's longest serving post-war leader include the European ceremony in Strasbourg today.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and former US president Bill Clinton are all due to speak at the ceremony.

Kohl's body will then be taken to the Spire cemetery and his son says he will not take part in the burial.

Walter Kohl had wanted his father's casket to be taken to the German capital for 'a national hommage, an ecumenical requiem and a military farewell ceremony' near the Brandenburg Gate, where the German leader had witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and former US president Bill Clinton (pictured with Kohl in 1996) are all due to speak at the ceremony

Prime minister Margaret Thatcher greets late Chancellor Helmut Kohl at Downing Street several years ago

On Friday, Kohl's son Walter called the plans for his father's funeral 'unworthy' of a man considered the father of German reunification. Pictured from left to right: Kohl, Queen Elizabeth, former US President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher in 1984

Kohl is hailed as the father of Germany's 1990 reunification, having convinced Western partners and Russia's Mikhail Gorbachev that Germany's capitalist west and communist east must become one nation again

The funeral plans for Germany's longest serving post-war leader (picturd with ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair) include the European ceremony in Strasbourg today

Kohl is hailed as the father of Germany's 1990 reunification, having convinced Western partners and Russia's Mikhail Gorbachev that Germany's capitalist west and communist east must become one nation again.

Because of a long-running feud with Kohl-Richter, whom the German press say jealously guards her husband's political legacy, Walter Kohl had not had contact with his father for many years and learned of his death on the radio.

In a best-selling book, he told of his sufferings in childhood living in the shadow of a political giant who was for him an absent father.

'He was the architect of the world order,' said former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev of Kohl, who skilfully negotiated reunification with communist East Germany with then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

'In Russia, we'll remember him as our friend -- a wise and sincere person.'
A suited and booted teenager chose a very unusual form of transport for his prom, arriving in an enormous tank.

Brennan Boys, 16, from Rossendale, Lancashire, made a very dramatic entrance when he rolled into his school prom at Higher Trapp Country House Hotel near Burnley perched on top of his grandfather's 17-ton armored vehicle.

He stunned classmates at the end of year celebration for Year 11 pupils from Alder Grange School in Rawtenstall, Greater Manchester.

But the school say it is not the most bizarre form of transport after one student arrived in a coffin - but the tank was definitely memorable.

Brennan was loaned the unusual form of prom transport by his grandfather, Brian, 80, who is an avid collector of military vehicles.

Brennan said: 'I came up with the idea about a month ago and wondered if it'd be possible to go to the prom in one.

'I've been inside some of the tanks before but haven't been driven in one, I really enjoyed it - I'm really grateful for my grandad for organising it all.

Brennan Boys, 16 (top), from Lancashire rolled into his school prom at Higher Trapp Country House Hotel near Burnley perched in his grandfather's 17-tonne armored vehicle

'I was overwhelmed with the reaction we had pulling into the Higher Trapp, everyone was lined up taking photos and filming it.

'I'd told some of my friends and they told others, but some of the year had no idea and were really shocked.'

He stunned classmates at the end of year celebration for Year 11 pupils from Alder Grange School in Rawtenstall, Greater Manchester

Brennan, of Rossendale, Greater Manchester, added: 'I think it's probably one of the most unique ways the school has had of getting to the prom.'

The 30-year-old tank, which originates in Austria, had previously been used in action and driven by an ex RAF pilot, but has since been 'deactivated'.

Former military policeman Brian has been collecting military vehicles for many years and his haul includes WW2 American jeeps, a 55 tonne battle tank and two tanks which were used in the film 'Saving Private Ryan'.

Brennan (top left) was loaned the unusual form of prom transport by his grandfather, Brian, 80, who is an avid collector of military vehicles. He and his friends enjoyed the unusual ride

Apart for collecting and restoring tanks he hires them out for films and has held private viewings to raise money for Help for Heroes.

Head of School at Alder Grange, Joanna Griffiths said: 'We've had some pretty unusual ways of arriving to the prom, including one pupil who turned up in a coffin, but Brennan certainly made a dramatic entrance arriving in a tank.

'The Year 11 students have worked extremely hard and had a fantastic night at the prom celebrating their achievements.'
A jewellery shop has been robbed by five masked men wielding hammers in a shocking daylight heist in Melbourne, leaving the interior of the store destroyed.

The robbery took place 4:30pm on Friday afternoon, traumatising the female employee who was closing up the shop when thugs smashed their way in.

This is the latest in a spate of similar attacks, as Victoria Police struggle to deal with a spike in violent robberies.

Scroll down for video

Five masked robbers (pictured) wielding hammers carried out a brazen heist on Friday afternoon

The shocking attack left the interior of the shop almost totally destroyed, and the employee shaking and in tears

Jacque Edwards, who has run the shop for 27 years, was shocked by the destruction left by the armed robbers, and is considering closing, Seven News reported.

'It's heartwrenching, and for this to keep happening, it's just dreadful,' she said, fighting back tears.

'They just picked up the cash register and then they just continued to smash and grab and scoop.'

This is the latest in a string of violent armed robberies which have taken place across the city

Ms Edwards had left an hour earlier, leaving a female employee to close up.

Neighbouring shop owner Muhammad Ahmed Shoaib went to help her after the robbers had fled.

'She was crying and she was shivering,' he said.

The five masked men escaped with the cash register and bags of jewellery, leaving the shop interior wrecked, with every cabinet smashed except one.

'The place in there was just like a bomb had hit it last night, there was gold and diamond jewellery just lying on the floor,' Ms Edwards said.

The owner is so concerned by the spate of violent attacks on jewellery store in Melbourne that she is considering closing up shop.

Witnesses told Channel 7 that the hammer-wielding thugs appeared to be African teenagers.

The Daily Mail Australia contacted Victoria Police, but a spokeswoman was unable to comment on the appearances of the robbers, refusing to confirm whether the suspects have links to Melbourne's notorious Apex gang.
Former professional wrestler Jimmy Breaks has been arrested in Gran Canaria after a British woman believed to be his ex-partner died in hospital.

Donna Cowley, 47, died nearly 24 hours after allegedly being beaten to death at her home on the island.

Pictured: Former professional wrestler Jimmy Breaks, who has been arrested in connection with the death of Donna Cowley

Jimmy Breaks, 80, is now in custody.

He is being investigated on suspicion of homicide, although the results of a post-mortem on Donna Cowley, due to take place over the weekend, will determine whether the judicial probe proceeds on that basis.

He is also being held on suspicion of an offence of undermining the authority of the law - following what Guardia Civil officers describe as an act of 'active resistance' after he was taken into custody.

He has not yet been charged with any crime, as is normal in Spain where charges are only laid shortly before trial.

The assault believed to have resulted in her death is said to have occurred just after midnight in the early hours of Friday morning at an apartment in the holiday resort of Puerto Rico in the south of Gran Canaria.

Ms Cowley died in an island hospital later the same day.

Regional governors expressed their horror at what had happened and said their thoughts were with Donna's family.

Breaks won the Northern Featherweight Championship after entering the amateur wrestling ranks before being trained for the professional ring by talented wrestler Bernard Murray.

He won the British Lightweight championship against Melwyn Rees in October 1963, holding the title until February 15, 1967.

He then went on to win the belt a further nine times before losing it for the final time against Steve Grey on March 22, 1984.

Pictured: One-time wrestling pro Jimmy Breaks, who was British Lightweight champion from 1963 to 1967

Pictured: Jimmy Breaks holding down a rival during a wrestling match

Breaks (pictured in the ring) was a highly successful wrestler, losing his British Lightweight title for the last time in 1984 after being defeated by Steve Grey

He was a regular on TV when televised wrestling reached record audiences.

A well-informed wrestling website claimed he appeared on ITV wrestling for 28 years, longer than any other wrestler and more times than anyone else except the late Mick McManus.

He was often called Cry Baby Jimmy Breaks because of his habit of throwing tantrums and having disputes with the referee.

Donna Cowley was found in the early hours of Friday morning at 12.45am in an apartment in the Bahia Azul complex in Mogan, believed to be where she was living.

Pictured: An advert for a fight between Breaks and Strongman Dennison in Southend-on-Sea

Pictured: Breaks going up against a masked opponent in the ring

It is being reported that she had received 'several blows' in an incident which is suspected of being a case of domestic violence.

Police called in emergency medics who took Ms Cowley to a health centre in Arguineguin and then on to the University Hospital of Gran Canaria, where doctors were unable to save her when she went into cardiac arrest.

Friends of Donna Cowley paid tribute to her on Facebook last night.

One, Samantha Way, wrote: 'RIP my dear friend. I'm so angry that you had to be taken this way. You were put through so many challenges in life and to end this way I am truly sickened. I hope the angels will guide you to a place where you will be at peace.'

A spokesman for the Guardia Civil, the police force investigating, said: 'At 12.45am yesterday, local police in Mogan responded initially after being alerted to a 999 call about an alleged assault which had occurred at a property in the municipality.

'The initial police response focused on assisting the victim and subsequently detaining the alleged aggressor who was immediately handed over to the Guardia Civil in Mogan.

'The victim, a foreign woman aged 47 who lives in the Canary Islands, was taken to Arguineguin Health Centre before being transferred to the Gran Canaria Insular Hospital in the capital Las Palmas where she died yesterday morning.

'Up until now, and pending the official result of the autopsy, it has not been possible to determine the exact causes of her death, and whether her death is linked to the possible assault.

Victim: Donna Cowley, 47, died nearly 24 hours after the alleged assault at an apartment in the holiday resort of Puerto Rico in the south of Gran Canaria. Pictured: A file photograph of the island

'The arrested man, who is 80 and also a foreign man living in the Canary Islands, is also being held on suspicion of undermining the authority of the law relating to an act of "active resistance" at the Guardia Civil station in Puerto Rico.'

Spanish newspaper La Provincia says that when the police arrived, the man was 'sitting on the settee watching TV' while Ms Cowley was found bleeding in the bath.

She was said to be fully conscious when they arrived on the scene but died after suffering cardio-respiratory failure as medics were beginning X-rays to discover the extent of her injuries several hours after she had been taken to hospital.

Sources say there were no previous allegations or background of violence between the couple, who had lived in Gran Canaria for some time.

Breaks has been placed in the hands of the courts in San Bartolome de Tirajana and is expected to make an appearance either today or tomorrow.

Police say an autopsy is being carried out to determine the cause of Ms Cowley's death.

The Canary Islands Government's Justice and Equality Minister Jose Miguel Barragan said: 'We must fight against male violence against women.'

Police said: 'The victim, a foreign woman aged 47 who lives in the Canary Islands, was taken to Arguineguin Health Centre before being transferred to the Gran Canaria Insular Hospital in the capital Las Palmas where she died yesterday morning'

Calling on the local community to demonstrate their 'maximum repulsion' of this sort of crime, he added: 'We will only be able to eradicate it through unity and the firm commitment of our whole society.'

Claudina Morales, president of the Canarian Institute of Equality, said male violence against women was an 'intolerable violation of human rights.'

An official court source, who offered a different age for the detainee, said: 'The 88-year-old British national with the initials J.B. has been remanded in prison with no offer of bail.'
Hongxia Wang, 57, filed a lawsuit claiming Dr Derek Enlander (pictured) and his wife, Caron, sexually abused her for several years

A wealthy couple has been accused of sexually abusing a Chinese immigrant, whom they promised a better life.

Hongxia Wang, 57, filed a lawsuit this week that claims fibromyalgia doctor Derek Enlander and his now-deceased wife, Caron Enlander, lured her into their Fifth Avenue home in 2000 and forced her into years of manual labor.

The lawsuit alleges that the Enlanders promised to pay her $80 an hour for spa treatments and massages, according to the New York Post.

At the time of the Enldander's offer, Wang was reportedly only making $45 a day at a nail and hair salon.

But instead of a better life, Wang was allegedly subjected to years of forced labor and sexual abuse that lasted until 2011, according to the suit filed in Manhattan federal court.

According to the Post, Wang claims she was a 'slave' who washed their dishes, cleaned their boat and made their lunches.

The woman says that she was also forced to have sex with them.

From 2000 to 2003 , Wang claimed she was Caron's lover. Caron, who died in 2006, was a diamond-dealer in New York. She became the first woman to sit on the Board of the Diamond Dealers Club.

Shortly after his wife died, Derek Enlander began forcing himself on her in 2007, the lawsuit alleges.

'Dr Enlander refutes the allegations and we are confident he will be vindicated,' his lawyer, Tom Mullaney told the Post.

Shortly after his wife died, Derek Enlander (pictured) began forcing himself on her in 2007, the lawsuit alleges. 'Dr Enlander refutes the allegations and we are confident he will be vindicated,' his lawyer, Tom Mullaney said

Wang said she stayed with the Enlanders because they kept promising to help her obtain a green card.

She is seeking damages in an amount to be determined a trial.

Derek Enlander, who currently operates the ME/CFS Medical Center located on the uper east side of Manhattan, is from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

He came to New York as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and then Associate Director of Nuclear Medicine at New York University.
Today Ann-the-Pig-Bitch was on tv laughing and having a grand time telling everybody how hysterical she thought the President of the United States' tweets about Mika Brzezinski were. She wished he would tweet more of them. I guess she thinks that's the way to make America great again.



Yesterday, there were two semi-important bills passed, and more political news that was fairly relevant to Americans - but all anybody could talk about were Trump's sophomoric Tweets. But, Ann-the-Pig-Bitch thinks that's just fine.



Is anybody surprised that a vile, vicious, contemptible, self-serving, self-important, nasty, hate-mongering Pig Bitch is defending and enjoying a man's vile, vicious, contemptible, self-serving, self-important, nasty, hate-mongering Tweets?



He brings this country to a new low.
A Muslim student union leader has claimed she would like to 'oppress white people' and has suggested there would be an Islamic takeover if more people read the Koran.

Zamzam Ibrahim, who was elected President of Salford University's Student Union in March, also suggested friendship between men and women is un-Islamic and is opposed to the government's anti-radicalisation strategy.

The Swedish-Somali student officer also described the government's Prevent strategy as 'disastrous' and 'racist'.

Salford Student Union president Zamzam Ibrahim, pictured, published several highly controversial messages on social media including one calling for an Islamic takeover

Zamzam Ibrahim wants everyone to read the Koran to enable an Islamic takeover

As well as being president of Salford's Student's Union, Ms Ibrahim is an officer with the National Union of Student's Block of 15 committee

Ms Ibrahim also published a comment about how she would like to oppress white people

In one message she responded to a question on AskFM on what book everyone should read. She said: 'The Quaraan. We would have an Islamic takeover!'

In another message on the topic of the possibility of friendship between a man and a woman, she replied: 'I've had this debate with many friends! Maybe in some cases but Islamically it's incorrect for girls to be friends with a guy anyway!

'So I'm gonna say NO not the kind of friendship they can have with the same gender there is always boundaries.'

In one tweet from May 9, 2012 under the hashtag #ifIwasPresident, she wrote: 'I'd oppress white people just to give them a taste of what they put us through!'

Ms Ibrahim was also recently elected to the National Union of Students Block of 15 committee.

She has also completed a BSc in Business and Financial Management.

During her campaign for election with the NUS, Ms Ibrahim, who is a Muslim, claimed: 'Since Brexit referendum result, there has been a rise in hate crime by 41 per cent. NUS needs to continue the great work on combating racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic and ableist hate crime.

'If elected, I will continue to work with NUS Officers and ARAF campaigns to develop networks to support students and activists affected by Hate Crime, to fight against the disastrous racist PREVENT strategy and support international students and migrant communities.'

The student union at the college - where Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi attended - is opposed to the government's PREVENT strategy.

According to The Spectator, Ms Ibrahim has deleted a large number of messages form her social media accounts.

According to the Student's Union: 'The governments Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 places a statutory requirement on public bodies  including universities  to "prevent people being drawn into terrorism".

Ms Ibrahim was elected president of the University of Salford's Students Union in March

'The Prevent agenda, as part of the Governments "anti-extremism" work has been used to create an expansive surveillance architecture to spy on the public and to police dissent, systematically targeting Black people and Muslims.'

The students claimed the government's prevent strategy was 'demonising Muslim students on campus'.

One college source told MailOnline: 'Given that as Student Union President involved working with students of all all walks of life its a bit inappropriate for someone like her to hold the role of representing students.'

Salford Student's Union said: 'There have been reports in the media this weekend related to comments made by the Union President, Zamzam Ibrahim.

'It is disappointing to see that comments from a number of years ago have been taken out of context, and used in a sensationalised story with no clear public interest. The Students Union is confident that the comments published this weekend are not a fair or true reflection of Zamzams current opinions or views, written when she was a young teenager, and were not intended to cause offence.

'Nevertheless, the Union takes all issues related to equality and diversity seriously and wishes to reassure students that the Union is committed to an inclusive and accessible campus environment for all, regardless of race, religion, gender or other personal characteristic. The Union ensures all student leaders and volunteers are trained and guided by our Equality and Diversity Policy and that all events, activities and projects are designed with this ethos in mind.'

Ms Ibrahim's comments follow the controversy surrounding former NUS president Malia Bouattia, who failed to get re-elected earlier this year.

Malia Bouattia, pictured, once described Birmingham University as a 'Zionist outpost'

Ms Bouattia became subject of a Commons home affairs committee meeting after she described Birmingham University as a 'Zionist outpost'.

In scathing findings, the committee said that she did not appear to take the issue of campus anti-Semitism 'sufficiently seriously' and showed a 'worrying disregard' for her duty to represent all students and promote balanced and respectful debate.

Ms Bouattia's statement in a co-authored 2011 blog that Birmingham 'has the largest Jsoc (Jewish Society) in the country whose leadership is dominated by Zionist activists' was condemned in the MPs' report as 'unacceptable, and even more so from a public figure such as the president of the NUS'.
Western Australia Police are searching for a teenager who allegedly indecently assaulted a 60-year-old woman after breaking into her home.

The woman told police that she awoke to find a strange male touching her inappropriately.

The teenager then fled from the scene of the home invasion, Perth Now reported.

A 60-year-old woman woke up early Saturday morning to find an unknown man touching her inappropriately

Geraldton Police are hunting for the suspect, who is described as dark-skinned and 160-165cm tall

Geraldton Police are searching for the suspect, who is dark-skinned, 160-165cm tall, and 13 to 18 years old.

Police urge anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
A former pub landlord, who is the only person to be jailed over the smoking ban, has given up cigarettes.

Nick Hogan, 50, made headlines around the world after he held a 'mass light-up' at the Swan and Barristers pub in Bolton on the day the legislation came into force - July 1, 2007.

He was convicted of failing to prevent people from smoking in his pub on four separate occasions and ordered to pay more than 10,000 in fines and court costs.

Nick Hogan, 50, (pictured) made headlines around the world after he held a 'mass light-up' at the Swan and Barristers pub in Bolton on the day the legislation came into force

Failure to pay the fines and fees led to him being jailed for six months, although he served just 11 days after a campaign to free him raised the total sum owed.

Speaking 10 years on from the ban's introduction, Mr Hogan, a father-of-two and grandfather from Elton, Bury, said that despite giving up, he doesn't regret the choice he made to defy the ban.

'I have been proven right and I think I have been vindicated because of the demise of the pub trade,' he told the Manchester Evening News.

'That was the whole argument to begin with. I was a smoker but it was not about smoking. It was all about the freedom to choose.

Speaking 10 years on from the ban's introduction, Mr Hogan, a father-of-two and grandfather from Elton, Bury, said that despite giving up, he doesn't regret the choice he made to defy the ban

'I was a business owner and I had a responsibility as a director to protect that business. I had 120 people working for me and I had a responsibility to those people and their families.'

Mr Hogan argues that the number of smokers has only fallen 'slightly' since the legislation came into force.

'Even today, around 17 per cent of the UK population smoke, and depending on whose figures you believe, it still generates up to 13bn a year in tax and duties,' he said.

'Why did the government ban the person and not the product? The answer is that they were hypocrites and want the money.'

He said he made a 'conscious decision' to stop smoking on turning 50 in February.

Mr Hogan remembers the 'mass light-up' as a carnival atmosphere.

'It was very smoky inside, which was the intention,' he said. 'There was never that amount of smoke in there on a normal day. The council stayed away but I carried on the policy. I told people that it was illegal to smoke in the pub. I told people that if they did choose to smoke, they could be fined 50.

Nick Hogan (pictured after his release from jail in 2010) was convicted of failing to prevent people from smoking in his pub on four separate occasions and ordered to pay more than 10,000

Nick Hogan with his wife Denise following his release from prison in 2010. Failure to pay the fines and fees led to him being jailed for six months, although he served just 11 days after a campaign to free him raised the total sum of money owe

'I actively told people what the law was. I was putting letters and notes on tables telling them that it was illegal to smoke but I would not throw them out because to me, it was about choice.

'One judge even said that I should not lose my licence because of the way I had conducted myself. I am not denying for one moment that smoking is a bad idea.'

Mr Hogan said the council returned 'three, four or five times' before he was finally summonsed to appear in court.

He denied charges under the Health Act 2006 in a trial at Bolton magistrates court in January 2008. He was found guilty of four charges but cleared of obstructing council officers.

The first licensee in Greater Manchester to be convicted under the new laws, he was fined 750 for each offence - a total of 3,000 - plus court costs of 7,236.

Mr Hogan appealed against his conviction and sentence on three of the charges but lost and faced an extra 1,000 in court costs.

He was jailed for six months for non-payment in February 2010 but only served 11 days, walking out - coincidentally - on National Non-Smoking Day, after 8,000 was raised to pay off the remainder of what he owed.

He said: 'It was a frightening experience and I was scared. I had never been to jail. I was not allowed to smoke in my own pub - but I could smoke in my cell.'

After his release, Mr Hogan entered politics after running two other pubs and stood as a parliamentary candidate for Chorley for UKIP.

He's now out of the pub game and says he owns a construction and insulation company.
Macy's is planning to cancel its Fourth of July fireworks display near the Brooklyn Bridge.

This year, fireworks will light up the sky further up New York's East River between 24th and 41st Streets in midtown.

Last year's showcase featured a breathtaking display near the iconic New York landmark - and the move away from Brooklyn had prompted fury from the area's residents.

The change means several businesses are left scrambling to change their Independence Day plans after learning about the new layout.

Macy's is planning to cancel its Fourth of July fireworks display near the Brooklyn Bridge, according to Macy's representatives, leaving many businesses to scramble for new plans (Fireworks explode over the Brooklyn Bridge on July 4, 2016)

With this year's switch just keeping the display between 24th and 41st Streets, the clearest views will be from Midtown and Long Island City, in addition to the East Village, Williamsburg and Greenpoint (People watch the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks from Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2016)

Since returning to the East River in 2014, the fireworks show has seen barges concentrated near midtown plus an additional barge near the Brooklyn Bridge.

With this year's switch, the clearest views will be from Midtown and Long Island City, in addition to the East Village, Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

Macy's made the move based on 'size/scale of the pyrotechnics' along with 'availability of appropriate public viewing areas' and 'city resources', according to Orlando Veras, director of national media relations for the company.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy is already warning visitors to not expect a view from its shores, posting a notice on its website that the fireworks won't be visible.

'Honestly, we were a little bit taken aback, like, "Wait, this is not happening",' Ilinca Munteanu, general manager of the Watermark Bar, located in the South Street Seaport, told amNY.

Macy's announced that this year's display will be the biggest yet with 60,000 hand-wired shells exploding across five barges - 10,000 more than in 2016 (People watch the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks from Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2014)

The bar had begun selling tickets to its Freedom Fest where tickets have gone for at least $149, including a barbecue buffet, drink specials and a view of the fireworks.

Once it was realized the show was cancelled, the bar had to refund tickets and apologize to its patrons, Munteanu said.

She says she's now scrambling for an alternative event as Independence Day is one of the bar's most profitable events.

Macy's announced that this year's display will be the biggest yet with 60,000 hand-wired shells exploding across five barges.

The 25-minute show has 10,000 more shells and one extra barge compared to 2016  as well as 23 new firework colors such as fuchsia, lemon and aqua.
Two men have been arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences after landing on a flight from Turkey.

The men, both aged 21, from Leicester and Birmingham, were detained by West Midlands counter-terrorism detectives just after 10am on Saturday.

They are being transported back to the West Midlands for questioning on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.

Two men have been arrested at Heathrow Airport (pictured) on suspicion of terrorism offences after landing on a flight from Turkey

The arrests were intelligence-led and there was no immediate threat to the public.

On Friday detectives arrested two men in Essex and a third in East Sussex on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.

Sussex police officers and detectives from the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command arrested the three men - two aged 28 and one 31 - on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

They are currently being held in custody under the Terrorism Act in a south London police station.

Sussex Police officers and detectives from the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command (file pic) arrested three men on Friday on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terror acts

Detectives have also executed search warrants at one address in East Sussex, and three addresses in east London. Enquiries are ongoing.

The arrests come after a series of terror attacks across the UK this year.

On March 22, five people died when Khalid Masood, 52, drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.

Salman Abedi killed 22 people when he detonated a bomb at an Ariana Grande concert on May 22.

Masked armed police near Borough Market in London after the terror attack on June 3

Seven people were killed and at least 48 others injured when three terrorists launched an attack on London Bridge and at Borough Market on June 3.

And nine people were injured and one killed after a van ploughed into people outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, London, in the early hours of June 19.

Thousands of soldiers were deployed by Prime Minister Theresa May following the bombing at Manchester arena as she raised the UK threat level from 'severe' to 'critical'.
A woman is suing a couple after the wife of the man she had been sleeping with posted revenge porn images of her on the man's Facebook page.

Jai Johns, 33, claims she started a relationship with Brendan in 2013 after he told her his marriage had broken down beyond repair, reported the Courier Mail.

In a claim to the Brisbane District Court Ms Johns said their relationship ended in 2015 and Brendan agreed to delete sexually explicit photos of her from his phone.

A woman is suing a couple after the wife of the man she had been sleeping with allegedly posted revenge porn images of her on the man's Facebook page (stock image)

Jai Johns, 33, claims she started a relationship with Brendan in 2013 after he told her his marriage had broken down beyond repair (stock image)

Brendan denies agreeing to delete the photos of Ms Johns and breaching confidence.

Details of the claim reveal that after Brendan resumed his marriage to wife Robyn, she allegedly posted four photographs of Ms Johns to her husband's Facebook page.

The photos reportedly showed Ms Johns' breasts and her engaging in sexual activity with Brendan.

Ms Johns claims her and Brendan have numerous mutual Facebook friends and as a result, many of her friends and family were exposed to the images, and they were also shared again by Brendan's friends.

After their relationship ended in 2015 and he got back together with his wife Robyn, Robyn allegedly posted the photos of Ms Johns to his Facebook page (stock image)

Robyn pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.

She was given a 12 month good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded.

She admitted posting the photos on her husband's page with the comment 'Cheated on my wife, broke her heart ...' and a reference to 'whore'.

Robyn said she posted the photos to embarrass her husband and Ms Johns, and denied it was malicious or a breach of confidence.

Lawyers for Ms Johns filed a claim for damages for breach of confidence and have also applied for an injunction to prevent any further photos being published.

Ms Johns is claiming $92,714 and says she suffered mental harm, distress, humiliation, loss of self esteem, embarrassment, economic loss and cost of medical treatment.
Despite the outcry over his recent online attacks against Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, President Donald Trump has taken them to task again.

On Saturday morning he tweeted: 'Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!'

That came as part of a string of ranting tweets against the so-called 'fake news' - and despite the fury he'd kicked off with his earlier tweet about the hosts on Thursday.

Donald Trump has doubled down on his controversial remarks about Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, whom he previously insulted by tweet on Thursday

On Saturday he said the 'dumb' and 'crazy' hosts were 'not bad people, but their low-rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses'

Neither Brzezinski nor Scarborough have commented; Brzezinski's last tweet was on Thursday. Scaborough tweeted several times Saturday morning but did not address Trump's claim.

The tweet followed the furor that Trump created on Thursday when he tweeted: 'I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore).

'Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!'

He faced a barrage of criticism from the press and public as a result of what many saw as a sexist remark.

That same week he had kicked up a fuss by complimenting a blonde Irish television reporter on her 'smile' and called her over to his Oval Office desk.

It's since been claimed that Trump had been at least somewhat aware that his remarks might cause controversy.

A White House source told the New York Post that the president had asked staffers what they thought of it shortly after it was posted.

'He said to everyone, "I know it wasnt presidential, but what did you think?"' the source said. 'He wanted to get people's reactions and sense what the fallout might be.'

The source said that come commended the attack, while others laid low, adding that the White House's feeling of vindication over CNN firing three of its journalists may have made Trump more 'aggressive'.

Trump claimed on Thursday that Brzezinski (left) had arrived at Mar-a-Lago 'bleeding badly from a face-lift'. Brzezinski and partner and co-host Joe Scarborough (right) responded in kind

Trump made the shocking tweet on Thursday, leading to a flood of anger online and in the media, from both the host couple and their colleagues

Trump's remarks about Brzezinski were derided as sexist. She said it was well-known that she'd had a neck tuck but denied a facelift - and said Trump had begged to know her surgeon's name

Both Brzezinski and Scarborough hit back at Trump after his Thursday Tweet.

Brzezinski tweeted a picture of the back of a Cheerios box saying the cereal was 'made for little hands' - a reference to Trump's alleged insecurity over the size of his lims.

Scarborough, meanwhile, retweeted a thought by CNN's Jake Tapper: 'This reminds me: how is @FLOTUS's campaign against cyber-bullying going?'

He also retweeted Mark Kornblau's remark: 'Never imagined a day when I would think to myself, "it is beneath my dignity to respond to the President of the United States."'

The pair also addressed him in a Washington Post op-ed, in which they said they were 'certain that the man is not mentally equipped to continue watching our show.'

They added that while Brzezinski 'never had a face-lift,' she did 'have a little skin under her chin tweaked, but this was hardly a state secret.'

Brzezinski also told Vanity Fair in an off-camera interview that Trump had been impressed by the work.

'The irony of it all is that Donald kept saying, "Thats incredible. You cant even tell? Who did it? Who did it?

'He kept asking for the name of the doctor. He literally asked 10 times. "Is he down here? Who is he?"'

The attack on the Morning Joe hosts was only part of the Saturday morning rant.

Trump also claimed that Greta Van Susteren, who was fired from NBC on Thursday, was let go 'because she refused to go along w/ "Trump hate!"'

Trump also claimed that Greta Van Susteren - who announced her departure from MSNBC on Thursday - had lost her job because she was too friendly to him.

'Word is that @Greta Van Susteren was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ "Trump hate!"' he wrote.

The hostess was axed six months after joining the network and just hours before she was due to go on air.

Van Susteren struggled to pull past her CNN and Fox News competitors but was up 59 per cent in total viewers and 74 per cent in the key adults 25-54 demographic year-over-year.

The conservative anchor had remained silent during Trump's feud with the Morning Joe hosts.

Trump also took another swing at CNN on Saturday morning, writing: 'I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It's about time!'

The company fired three journalists on Wednesday after retracting a story about Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci's alleged links with Russia.

Sources said that the company had been threatened with a '$100 million lawsuit'.
Jodi Arias' high-profile prosecutor has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a television contributor that may have affected the trial.

An ethics investigation was launched against Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Juan Martinez earlier this week.

Martinez allegedly had a relationship with Jen Wood, one of two of the Trial Divas who spoke about the Arias case on TV and online, according to 12 News.

Some penalties Martinez could face if the investigation finds that the alleged relationship did compromise the Arias case, include private or public reprimands, suspension or disbarment.

The complaint was filed with the State Bar of Arizona on behalf of Arias, who is currently serving a life sentence for the 2008 brutal murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

Jodi Arias' high-profile prosecutor, Juan Martinez (left), is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with television contributor, Jen Wood (right), who also blogged for the Trial Divas website. Officials are trying to determine if the alleged relationship affected the Arias trial

The complaint was filed with the State Bar of Arizona on behalf of Arias (pictured left in 2013), who is currently serving a life sentence for the 2008 brutal murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander

Alexander (right) was found stabbed to death inside his home with his throat sliced and a bullet wound to the head

A State Bar of Arizona spokesman confirmed to the news station that is is 'investigating an ethics complaint alleging that Martinez had inappropriate relationships that may have compromised the Arias case'.

Freelance reporter, Tammy Rose, who also covered the Arias trial said she and Wood became friends while they were covering the trial's death penalty phase in 2015.

Rose, who filed a sworn statement with the ethics complaint, told 12 News that she was 'shocked' when Wood told her about the relationship.

According to Rose, the pair would car pool to the courthouse and text each other during the day.

Rose told 12 News that after the complaint was filed, she started receiving harassing text messages and phone calls.

She told authorities about the harassment, but she couldn't confirm who was responsible for the texts and calls.

Martinez's lawyer Scott Rhodes said in a statement to 12 News that his client 'prosecuted Jodi Arias in compliance with lawyers' rules of professional conduct'.

'The Arias allegations consist of rumor and innuendo spread by a convicted murderer trying to seek revenge against the public servant who put her behind bars for the rest of her natural life. They do not warrant any attention at all,' the statement read.

Martinez formally denied any professional misconduct in the Arias matter, according to the station.

Wood also denied participating in any of the alleged misconduct with Martinez.

The ethics complaint was filed on the behalf of Arias by attorney Karen Clark, a former ethics counsel at the State Bar.

Freelance reporter, Tammy Rose (pictured), who also covered the Arias trial, filed a sworn statement with the ethics complaint. She said she was 'shocked' when Wood told her about the relationship with Martinez

The complaint also led to the Trial Divas, which included Sharee Ruiz (right) and Jen Wood (left), parting their ways

Martinez's lawyer Scott Rhodes said in a statement that his client 'prosecuted Jodi Arias (right in 2014) in compliance with lawyers' rules of professional conduct'

Clark acted as Arias' attorney last year in an ethics complaint against Arias' defense attorney Kirk Nurmi.

That complaint led to Nurmi's voluntary disbarment, according to 12 News.

A spokesman for the State Bar of Arizona told DailyMail.com via email that it would up to a 'court to decide if a bar finding influenced a case'.

'Disbarment is only one of a series of sanctions that could be rendered and may not be relevant in every case. Many investigations result in no sanctions while some do,' according to the spokesman.

He went on to say that the investigation 'is not an indication that the Bar believes an attorney has violated the rules of professional conduct, only that we are looking into the charge'.

Experts on legal ethics said if Martinez shared non-public trial information with Wood, that could be a problem because attorneys are not supposed to share information about their cases.

The complaint also led to the Trial Divas, which included Sharee Ruiz, parting their ways.

Martinez is currently involved in another high-profile case - the trial of the accused serial street shooter, 23-year-old Aaron Juan Saucedo.

The investigation into Martinez is still ongoing.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has sparked a furious online backlash after tweeting a sexy picture of actress Gillian Anderson wearing stilettos and seamed stockings.

The openly lesbian politician has been accused of 'sexism' and 'objectifying women' by an angry Twitter mob over the sultry snap of the X-Files star which has been retweeted thousands of times.

Alongside the picture, she wrote: 'Right, I'm off for a fortnight. In the mean time, here's @GillianA just sitting round the house in stilettos & seamed stockings. As you do.'

Some users suggested that if a man had uploaded the same image they would have been heavily criticised while others questioned if Ms Davidson's account had been hacked.

Author Yvonne Ridley, who herself once sued The Islam Channel for sexual discrimination, wrote: 'I just can't believe the leader of a political party who wants to be taken seriously would be so demeaning to women.'

Alongside the picture of Gillian Anderson, Ms Davidson wrote: 'Right, I'm off for a fortnight. In the mean time, here's @GillianA just sitting round the house in stilettos & seamed stockings. As you do'

Now the openly lesbian politician, pictured, has been accused of 'sexism' and 'objectifying women' by an angry Twitter mob over the sultry snap of the X-Files star

Ruth Davidson is pictured left with her partner Jen Wilson at a vote count in Edinburgh during June's election

Another follower replied: 'Not questioning Gillian Anderson's right to be photographed. However, imagine for a moment Alex Salmond or John Swinney etc had tweeted this.'

Gavin Quinlan said: 'If a male, straight politician did this, there'd be blood on the streets already.'

SNP politicians were quick to round on their Holyrood rival - who snatched 12 seats away from them at this year's election - with one branding her an 'eejit'.

Some users suggested that if a man had uploaded the same image they would have been heavily criticised while others questioned if Ms Davidson's account had been hacked

Nationalist member for Aberdeenshire East Gillian Martin asked if Ms Davidson's constituency office was 'like the inside of a 70s building site Portakabin with Page 3s sellotaped to the wall'.

But others backed Ms Davidson, 38, for her 'funny' tweet, saying: 'Oh it was just a joke. Don't be so sour.'

The fun-loving Scottish Tory leader is known for her candid posts online and once branded a journalist an 'angular sex elf'.

SNP politicians were quick to round on Ms Davidson, pictured - who snatched 12 seats away from them at this year's election - with one branding her an 'eejit'

The fun-loving Scottish Tory leader is known for her candid posts online and once branded a journalist an 'angular sex elf'

It comes as Ms Davidson, pictured, flexes her political muscle after saving Theresa May's skin by winning 12 seats from the SNP at the election

When she was accused of leading a rebel movement within the national Conservative party, she wrote to her 124,000 followers: 'B*****s'.

It comes as Ms Davidson flexes her political muscle after saving Theresa May's skin by winning 12 seats from the SNP at the election.

The day after the polls Ms Davidson delivered a thinly-veiled threat by calling for 'free trade' to be put 'at the heart' of Britain's negotiations with the EU.
A special fund has been established so Australian Catholics can help pay for Cardinal George Pell's legal fees as he fights charges of historical sexual abuse.

Victorian Police have charged the cardinal, a former Melbourne and Sydney archbishop and Ballarat priest, with multiple sex offences but the details of those offences have not been released.

Australian Catholic authorities have ruled out paying the cardinal's legal team.

However, a litigation fund has been established for Catholics in Victoria to contribute to Pell's legal fees, the Herald Sun has revealed.

John Roskam, the executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs, said he obtained an account number and BSB from people 'assisting the cardinal' and passed it onto people keen to donate.

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A special fund has been established so Australian Catholics can help pay for Cardinal George Pell's legal fees as he fights charges of historical sexual abuse

'The point of this [fund] is that there are a lot of people who want to support the cardinal and want to give him the opportunity to clear his name,' he told the Herald Sun.

Pell, 76, said the laying of charges had strengthened his resolve to prove his innocence.

He has hired top criminal barrister Robert Richter, QC, to help defend him and will reportedly be at a Melbourne court on July 26 for a scheduled hearing.

Mr Richter, who has defended Melbourne underworld-linked figure Mick Gatto and other notable clients, told News Corp on Friday he was expecting the cardinal to be in court on July 26.

'As I understand it, the cardinal will be there for the filing hearing,' he said.

On Thursday, Pell told journalists at the Vatican Press Office he was looking forward to having his day in court after a two-year investigation, 'leaks to the media' and 'relentless character assassination'.

He said he was discussing with his lawyers and doctors about how and when he would return to Australia from Rome, where as Vatican treasurer he is considered the third most powerful person in the Catholic Church.

Doctors have previously advised the cardinal against long-haul flights because of a heart condition.

Pope Francis has granted Cardinal Pell a leave of absence to return to Australia to defend himself.

The cardinal has been living near St Peters Basilica in an apartment with a balcony overlooking a piazza where mobile stalls sell gelato and Vatican mementoes to tourists who throng the area.

He hopes to return to his job in Rome, but court proceedings involving multiple complainants could stretch into 2019, let alone guilty verdicts in any trials.

In a statement on Thursday, the Pope said it was important to recall that Cardinal Pell had 'openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable the acts of abuse committed against minors.'
imaginethat said: I'm still waiting on a response from the person I addressed. Click to expand...

But he is correct, though it was a joke it was after the alleged hacks and he said that if they had them that the press would pay nicely if they turned them over. This was after he took the shot at Clinton during the debates. During the campaign.The tablet I am using right now if from 1920 and takes forever to play video but if your curious you can find it unedited from c-span via YouTube.
A chief prosecutor has hit out at courts for imposing 'manifestly inadequate' jail sentences.

Victoria's Chief Crown Prosecutor Gavin Silbert, QC, made the comments last month in a case before the High Court.

Mr Silbert appeared in the court after an appeal over a man's five-and-a-half year jail sentence for offending against two girls, one just 13, was dismissed by Victoria's Court of Appeal, The Herald Sun reported.

Victoria's Chief Crown Prosecutor Gavin Silbert (pictured) told the High Court last month there appears to be an ongoing tension between the legislature and the courts'

In a transcript of proceedings, Mr Silbert told the court the case was a perfect example of system-wide problems in Victoria and 'raises for consideration the misapplication of current sentencing practice'.

The High Court heard the man had pleaded guilty to charges of incest and indecent assault against one of his daughters, which were committed while he was on parole for previous incest offences against all three of his daughters.

'As a result of the later offending, the daughter fell pregnant. She gave birth to a severely disabled daughter who, 20 years later, became the offender's victim,' Mr Silbert told the court.

'The circumstances of the two offences are quite remarkable, both cases, in my opinion, falling into the worst category of such offences, and thoroughly justifying intervention by this Court so as to increase the sentences that were imposed.'

Mr Silbert also noted in his comments to the High Court 'there appears to be an ongoing tension between the legislature and the courts'.

He also said during the hearing that 'what the Court of Appeal has done and does is indulges in a form of algorithmic sentencing to the extent that it commences with other cases and we submit that that is the wrong place to commence the sentencing process'.
An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided Saturday off Britain in one of the world's busiest shipping routes, but no injuries or spills have been reported, authorities said.

The tanker had 38,000 tonnes of petrol on board at the time of the collision with a 720-foot cargo boat in the Strait of Dover, which is where the North Sea and the Channel meet.

'Although both vessels have been damaged, there is no water ingress and no pollution,' Britain's maritime and coastguard agency said. 'There are no injuries and all of the crew are accounted for.'

The Sea Frontier, pictured, collided with the bulk carrier in the 'Huyan Endeavour'

The Huayang Endeavour, pictured, was not badly damaged and is continuing its journey

Photos released by French maritime authorities showed extensive damage to the side of the tanker 'Seafrontier', which had 27 people on board. The 'Huyan Endeavour' cargo ship was able to continue on its way.

According to a source in the French maritime authority: 'We don't know the circumstances of the accident. The weather conditions were not bad, but the area where the collision happened is relatively narrow, with lots of traffic.'

The Huyan Endeavour was headed for Lagos and Seafrontier was bound for Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, Britain's maritime and coastguard agency said.

The vessels have Chinese and Indian crews on board and both were sailing under a Hong Kong flag.

The Strait of Dover is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, used daily by about a quarter of global traffic or more than 400 commercial ships. On top of that pleasure and fishing vessels also sail in the zone.

French maritime authorities said sailing in the area can also be dangerous given its changing sandbanks, narrowness and reduced visibility caused by fog.

The Sea Frontier may head to a French or Dutch port for repairs, the French maritime source said.

The French National Marine released images of he two vessels after the after the accident

French officials announced there had been no pollution following last night's incident

The RNLI launched two all weather lifeboats following last night's crash in the English Channel

The RNLI launched two of its all weather lifeboats along with 15 volunteers to assist in the operation.

Both vessels were at a complete stop in the south west channel of the main shipping lane.

The Seafrontier suffered a hole above the waterline and damage to the superstructure.

A tug was called from Boulogne, France to assist with the Seafrontier which was taken under tow for repairs.
Two of the Confederate Army's best-known leaders have streets named for them in a place not normally associated with the Southern side of the Civil War - New York City. Now some elected officials are trying to rename them.

They say it's high time Stonewall Jackson Drive and General Lee Avenue in Brooklyn are renamed, pushing to join a number of Southern cities that have removed or are considering taking down Confederate statues and other memorials in public places.

The roads aren't readily accessible by the general public; they run through Fort Hamilton, an active military base in southwestern Brooklyn next to the Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights neighborhoods.

'To honor these men who believed in the ideology of white supremacy and fought to maintain the institution of slavery constitutes a grievous insult to the many thousands of people in Brooklyn who are descendants of the slaves held in bondage,' says a letter sent to Army Secretary Robert Speer recently by Reps. Yvette Clarke, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez and Hakeem Jeffries, members of Congress who all represent parts of the borough.

Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson (left) and Robert E. Lee (right) both served in the US Army at Fort Hamilton before the Civil War. A push has emerged to remove their names from two roads on the still-active base, but the Army says the streets were named in reconciliation

A plaque marks a maple tree planted by General Lee on the grounds of St. John's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn while he was a member of the congregation. Politicians are pushing to remove Lee and Jackson's names from the streets of a nearby Army base

LETTER TO ARMY SECRETARY We are writing to request your full and fair consideration of our proposal to rename two streets at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn that are currently named for prominent Confederate Army generals, General Lee Avenue and Stonewall Jackson Drive. To honor these men who believed in the ideology of white supremacy and fought to maintain the institution of slavery constitutes a grievous insult to the many thousands of people in Brooklyn who are descendants of the slaves held in bondage. Both Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson disavowed their loyalty to the United States and their commitment to our Army, inflicting hundreds of thousands of casualties on soldiers wearing the blue uniform of our nation. The usage of General Lee Avenue and Stonewall Jackson Drive effectively honors two individuals who fought to deny our humanity. The names are a continuing insult to many Brooklyn residents, including members of the armed forces stationed at Fort Hamilton. Other monuments to Confederate leaders  most recently a statue of Robert E. Lee in New Orleans - have been removed for this very reason. Therefore, we ask that you consider renaming General Lee Avenue and Stonewall Jackson Drive. There are many alternatives available that would celebrate the contributions of our armed forces. We thank you for your consideration. Signed by US Representatives (left to right): Yvette Clarke, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez and Hakeem Jeffries Advertisement

As part of their US Army careers, both Robert E. Lee and Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson spent time at Fort Hamilton - Lee in the early part of the 1840s and Jackson toward the end of that decade, well before the Civil War started in 1861.

They aren't the only military figures with street names at the fort. Other roads are named for figures including World War I General John Pershing and World War II General George Marshall.

Army spokesman Major General Malcolm Frost issued a statement reiterating the stance that 'every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history.'

'Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies. It should be noted that the naming occurred in the spirit of reconciliation, not division.'

The Army made that same point in 2015, after a deadly church shooting of black church worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina increased the volume of debate over Confederate symbols.

A number of US military installations are named after Confederate figures, such as Forts Lee, Hood, Benning, Gordon, Bragg, Polk, Picket, A.P. Hill and Rucker, as well as Camp Beauregard.

A gate to Brooklyn's Fort Hamilton is seen. Area politicians want to rename two of the base's streets, which are named for Confederate generals who once served on the base

A Confederate monument was removed from St. Louis on Monday. Throughout the South, state and city governments are weighing what to do with the statues and monuments

But the Army has also made changes, as it did in 2000, when it renamed a road at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, from Forrest Road to Cassidy Road.

NEW YORK CITY IN THE CIVIL WAR New York merchants had strong ties to the southern states due to the cotton trade, and city leaders briefly considered leaving the Union in 1861. After New York sided with the Union, whites, mostly Irish, rioted against the draft in 1863, in a protest that turned into a bloody race riot against blacks. The city went on to become a major source of troops and financing for the Union war effort. Advertisement

The first name was after Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Civil War commander and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. At the time, an Army official said complaints about the name didn't drive the change but didn't rule out that they were a consideration.

The issue has come up elsewhere. In Florida, five people were recently arrested when a city council meeting in Hollywood ended with a clash over three streets named for Confederate generals.

Throughout the South, state and city governments are weighing what to do with statues and monuments to Confederate soldiers.

New Orleans recently removed three Confederate statues and a monument to a Confederate veterans uprising, something the Brooklyn legislators referenced in their letter.

'We have evolved beyond the Confederacy in the United States, and for people of color who have to utilize that base, it's a constant reminder of a very painful period of time,' Representative Clarke said.

Bay Ridge resident Joe Conly said he doesn't see a change as necessary, stressing that Lee was a loyal soldier during the time he was at Fort Hamilton.

'He served his country, the United States, well when he was in New York,' said Conly, 75, who is white.

But Marva Harris Small, 58, a black woman who works in the neighborhood near Fort Hamilton, said that whatever good the men might have done while at the base was subsumed by their serving as Confederate generals.

'The end product is what counts,' she said.
Anthony Bell has found comfort with his former girlfriend Laura Csortan after his bitter split with TV presenter Kelly Landry.

The accountant to the stars has spent much of the past week staying at a luxurious beachfront house on the Gold Coast with Ms Csortan and her seven-month-old daughter, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The multi-millionaire also enjoyed a leisurely lunch at an upmarket restaurant with Ms Csortan and her baby.

It comes just weeks after a judge dismissed Miss Landry's apprehended violence order application against her estranged husband.

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Anthony Bell (left) has found comfort with his former girlfriend Laura Csortan (right) after his bitter split with TV presenter Kelly Landry

The pair spent a week in court levelling accusations of infidelity and abuse at each other in May, but ultimately a judge ruled there was no need for an AVO.

It saw Ms Landry accuse her husband of being 'financially mean' and also alleged that he physically abused her.

Police took out an interim AVO order on behalf of Ms Landry after an alleged fight with Mr Bell at the $12.5million mansion in November last year.

But Magistrate Robert Williams said he saw little to no chance of millionaire financier Mr Bell being violent to the former Getaway presenter in the future.

It comes just weeks after a judge dismissed Miss Landry's (above, with Mr Bell in 2011) apprehended violence order application against her estranged husband

Mr Bell  who has a Bell Partners office in Brisbane - has visited Queensland several times in recent months and spent time with Ms Csortan (above)

Since then, Ms Landry has returned to TV screens.

Meanwhile, Mr Bell  who has a Bell Partners office in Brisbane - has visited Queensland several times in recent months.

And Ms Csortan has been spending a lot of time on to Gold Coast to be close to her mother and sister.

Her daughter Layla was born a day after Mr Bell's marriage imploded, but he has denied being her father.

Police took out an interim AVO order on behalf of Ms Landry (above, in May) after an alleged fight with Mr Bell at the $12.5million mansion in November last year

'There is absolutely no truth to that rumour,' he told the Telegraph.

Ms Csortan has refused to reveal the identity of her daughter's father, saying 'he doesn't want to be involved.'

She and Mr Bell were first linked in 2007 after he split with radio and TV personality Sam Lukis.

He married Ms Landry in 2011 and the pair have two daughters  Charlize, five, and Thea, three  together.
The Northern Territory is celebrating a rejection of all things 'nanny state' on the one night of the year Territorians can legally blow things up.

Some 336 tonnes of fireworks have been imported as locals mark the 39th anniversary of self-governance from the commonwealth on Territory Day.

From 9am until 9pm, pop-up stores do a roaring trade, with punters only able to detonate them between 6pm and 11pm or they'll risk a fine of more than $1,200.

Some 336 tonnes of fireworks have been imported as locals in the Northern Territory mark the 39th anniversary of self-governance from the commonwealth on Territory Day. Pictured are fireworks at Mindil Beach in Darwin

From 9am until 9pm, pop-up fireworks stores do a roaring trade, with punters only able to detonate them between 6pm and 11pm. Pictured is a woman with fireworks at Lee Point

Store owner Mark Killip said he expected 1,000 customers to come through his doors in search of fireworks. Pictured are two children watching the fireworks in Kakadu National Park

Many Territorians love being the only Australians to still enjoy the privilege.

Store owner Mark Killip said he expected 1,000 customers to come through his doors in search of products with names like Ball Breaker, Three Finger Fred, Money Shot and Mile High Club.

Mr Killip says cracker night symbolises personal freedom, something closely guarded up north.

'It's the Territory, that's just how people roll,' he said. 'It's not as much of a nanny state up here.'

Territory Day is a proud tradition spanning four decades. Pictured is a road sign warning revellers to expect fireworks

Mr Killip says cracker night symbolises personal freedom, which is something that is closely guarded up north. Pictured are people watching a bright sky filled with fireworks

It's a proud tradition spanning almost four decades, but authorities are concerned many could be dangerously boozed-up by the time the five-hour free-for-all begins.

In the 10 years to 2016, 197 people have gone to hospital with firework-related injuries including severe burns, lacerations, visual impairment, hearing loss and even broken bones.

Of these, more than half were children under 16, while one-third of victims were bystanders.

Emergency Department physician Dr John Roe said people can still have a blast without blowing themselves up, starting wildfires or traumatising pets.

Emergency Department physician Dr John Roe said people can still have a blast without blowing themselves up, starting wildfires or traumatising pets. Pictured is one person's stash

Dr Roe gave this advice for celebrations: 'Have fun this year, but do it safely.' Pictured are colourful fireworks at Mindil Beach in Darwin

Last year NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services attended 93 jobs for disturbances involving fireworks, four building blazes, four car fires, eight bin fires and 256 grass fires

'Have fun this year, but do it safely. Don't let a split second bad decision leave you needing months of treatment, or worse,' he said.

'Any eye injury, deep burn or burn larger than a postage stamp requires medical review.'

Last year NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services attended 93 jobs for disturbances involving fireworks, four building blazes, four car fires, eight bin fires and 256 grass fires.

Territory cops released a compilation of disastrous home videos on social media as a warning, with some sage safety advice to locals: 'Don't be stupid'.

Sausage dogs carrying live crackers in their mouths, blokes extinguishing fires with their thongs and explosions setting off car alarms all feature in the expletive-laden Facebook video about what not to do on Territory Day.

Possession of fireworks becomes a criminal offence after midday on Sunday, and any unused crackers must be surrendered to police.

Others decided to sample a crocodile burger at Mindil Beach Sunset Markets (pictured) for the first time to celebrate the Territory's special day

Possession of fireworks becomes a criminal offence after midday on Sunday, and any unused crackers must be surrendered to police
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has admitted to having sympathy for his predecessor Tony Abbott, while also taking a swipe at his arch rival by saying he'll quit parliament if he ever loses the top job.

Abbott has been a thorn in Turnbull's side of late, and the outspoken backbencher's constant criticism has prompted the Prime Minister to comment that the country needs 'builders, not wreckers.'

Turnbull has now expressed sympathy for Abbott while also implying that the Member for Warringah should have left politics after being ousted.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) has admitted to feeling sympathy for Tony Abbott

Former prime minister Tony Abbott (pictured) has refused to stay out of the spotlight since being ousted

Abbott (pictured, left) was ousted by Turnbull (pictured, right) in a leadership spill in late 2015

The Prime Minister stopped short of saying that Abbott needs quit, but praised former New Zealand prime minister John Key's political exit, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

'When I cease to be Prime Minister, I will cease to be a Member of Parliament. I am not giving anyone else advice but I just think that's what I would do.' Turnbull said.

The Prime Minister also admitted to having a tough time after losing the party leadership to Abbott in 2009.

Abbott (pictured, right) had previously knocked Turnbull (pictured, left) out of the top spot in 2009

''It is a big wrench going from being leader to not, I understand that.' Turnbull (pictured) said

Turnbull (pictured, right) also promised to quit politics if he ever loses the prime ministership

'I had a bleak period and then I thought to myself, I can continue to make a contribution.'

After getting his revenge by ousting Abbott almost two years ago, Turnbull now says he feels sympathy for the former Prime Minister.

'It is a big wrench going from being leader to not, I understand that.'

Abbott shows no signs of going anywhere anytime soon, however, and has maintained a high media profile.

He has made headlines in recent days for blasting frontbencher Christopher Pyne over a speech the Leader of the House made to Liberal moderates.

Abbott then made a speech of his own at the Centre for Independent Studies, calling for Australia to consider nuclear submarines.

In an interview earlier this week Abbott avoided giving a direct answer to a question about his political future, but said that he still wants to make a difference.
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The woman fatally shot by a doctor on a shooting rampage in a New York hospital has been identified, and it appears she was not the killer's intended target.

Dr Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, a family medicine physician, was the victim killed by Dr Henry Bello with an AR-15 assault rifle in a sick bloodbath at Bronx Lebanon Hospital on Friday.

Tam was not Bello's intended target however, as she was supposed to be off work on Friday and was covering a friend's shift, a colleague told the New York Post.

State records show Tam graduated from the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2013, and was licensed to practice medicine in New York in December of 2015.

Bello's intended target was reportedly a hospital resident at Bronx Lebanon who was not at work on Friday.

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Dr Tracy Sin-Yee Tam (left), a family medicine physician, has been identified as the victim killed during the shooting bloodbath that Dr Henry Bello (right) unleashed with an AR-15 assault rifle in Bronx Lebanon Hospital on Friday.

Tam (right) graduated from the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2013, and was licensed to practice medicine in New York in December of 2015

Tam (standing right in both pictures above) was reportedly not scheduled to work on Friday, and was covering a friend's shift

The 45-year-old shooter's sick reign of terror unfolded on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital just two hours after he sent an email to the New York Daily News blaming two other doctors for terminating 'my road to a licensure to practice medicine'.

Bello, who was described on the hospital's website as a family medicine physician, wrote: 'First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse.'

On Friday evening it was revealed that Bello had been forced to resign over sexual harassment accusations.

However, in the email that was sent at 12.46pm, Bello said he was told his termination stemmed from him threatening a colleague.

He said he then sent an email to that colleague 'congratulating her for my termination after she sent out an email to everybody telling them to file complaints against me so I can be terminated for being rude to her'.

'I only said in the email, it remains to be seen if my life is meaningless or disposable,' Bello wrote.

Bello then blamed another doctor for ruining his career, adding that the doctor 'blocked' him from getting his medical permit despite him pouring $400,000 of his money into the hospital and the family medicine department.

The 45-year-old sent the email to the newspaper blaming the hospital for terminating 'my road to a licensure to practice medicine'. Pictured are first responders at the scene

According to the Daily News, an editor at the newspaper didn't make the connection to Bello until after the shooting.

The newspaper is also withholding the names of the two doctors whom Bello said caused his termination. Bello shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at around 2.45pm on Friday.

He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, police said.

The gunman (pictured) shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at around 2.45pm on Friday. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, police said

Police Commissioner James O'Neill confirmed Bello died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee, and said he was 'aggressive' and 'threatened people'.

However, in the email he sent to the Daily News, Bello didn't threaten violence against anyone.

The attack on Friday left several doctors fighting for their lives, and witnesses described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted and spread terror throughout the medical facility. Employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.

'I thought I was going to die,' said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

In 2015, he was allowed to resign from the hospital after being accused of sexual harassment, according to two law enforcement officials. They did not know the details of the allegations, and agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.

However, Dr Maureen Kwankam, 50, told the New York Daily News he was fired from the hospital 'because he was kind of crazy'.

'He promised to come back and kill us then,' she said.

Ultimately, one female doctor was killed and six others wounded - five seriously, according to O'Neill. The patients were treated in the emergency room at Bronx Lebanon.

He also tried to set fire to the nurses station on the 16th floor, but the hospital's sprinkler system put it out before the blaze could grow.

'This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere,' New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said. He also said terrorism did not play a role.

Bello used an AR-15 assault rifle, (pictured at the hospital) to carry out his attacks on the 16th and 17th floors of the facility, according to police

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident a 'horrible situation' and said it was not related to terrorism but instead just a workplace incident

Bello, who was described on the hospital's website as a family medicine physician, wrote in the email that he was told he was terminated because of 'altercation with a nurse'. A woman was escorted by officers in plainclothes near the Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York Friday after fleeing the scene

On Friday evening it was revealed that Bello had been forced to resign over sexual harassment accusations. However, in the email that was sent at 12.46pm, Bello said he was told his termination stemmed from him threatening a colleague. Another woman was seen escorted by officers near the hospital after Bello opened fire there

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee, and said he was 'aggressive' and 'threatened people'. The incident unfolded at around 2.45pm at the medical center on Grand Concourse in the Morris Heights section of The Bronx

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

Bello 'was very aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people all the time. He was a problem,' said Dr David Lazala, a family medicine doctor who said he trained Bello at Bronx Lebanon.

He said Bello, who worked at night as a doctor, sent him a threatening email after Bello was fired.

In unrelated cases, the doctor had been arrested in 2004 on a charge of sexual abuse, according to a police report, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying: 'You're coming with me.'

He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror.

Heavily armed police patroled the scene outside the hospital after the gunman opened fire on Friday afternoon

Police sources said the gunman was hiding the high-powered weapon under his lab coat before the attack on the 16th floor of the hospital

Hospital employees barricaded themselves in hospital rooms by stacking furniture up against the doors during the lockdown

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called him from inside the hospital to tell him about the gunman.

'She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebody's out there shooting people,' Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. 'I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry.'

Gonzalo Carazo described the scary scene to WCBS-TV: 'I saw one of the doctors and he had a gunshot wound to his hand,' Carazo said.

'All I heard was a doctor saying, "Help, help!"' Carazo locked himself in a room for about 15 minutes until police came and led him out of the facility.

In unrelated cases, the doctor had been arrested in 2004 on a charge of sexual abuse, according to a police report, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying: 'You're coming with me.' Police rushed to the scene as it unfolded on Friday afternoon

Witness Dione Morales, who has been a patient at the hospital for 17 years, also said Bello had threatened to kill people back when he was fired. Officers were seen carrying assault-style rifles outside the Bronx Lebanon Hospital

Bello is believed to have lived in this New York City apartment building. He was forced to resign from his position at the hospital in 2015 after sexual assault allegations became public

Police cars surrounded the area outside the hospital on Grand Concourse on Friday

Witness Dione Morales, who has been a patient at the hospital for 17 years, told CBS New York the shooter had threatened to kill people back when he was fired.

'He was let go because I guess they figured he was unstable. He said he was going to do this,' she said. 'He said he was going to kill people, two years ago when he was let go - two years... and now look what happened.'

Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center describes itself as the largest voluntary, not-for-profit health care system in the south and central Bronx.

The 120-year-old hospital claims nearly 1,000 beds spread across multiple units. Its emergency room is among the busiest in New York City.

The hospital is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.

Fire Department rescue workers head towards the scene after the inside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has said he is not optimistic his party will be able to strike a new deal with the DUP on Monday to re-establish the Northern Ireland executive.

The British government extended a deadline to agree a deal from 4pm on Thursday to Monday.

The last Northern Ireland Executive collapsed in January when the late Martin McGuinness walked out of government as a result of a scandal involving the Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster.

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Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams pictured addressing a marriage equality march in Belfast today, pictured, said he was not optimistic about the success of talks on Monday between his party and the DUP about re-establishing the power sharing executive in Stormont

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire, pictured beside Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, right, will address Parliament on Monday about the government's options in the event the power sharing talks break up without success

The last Northern Ireland Executive collapsed January when the late Martin McGuinness, right, walked out of government in protest over the DUP's handling of the 490 million cash for ash scheme which saw participants rewarded for installing a wood pellet boiler

Sinn Fein criticised the DUP's handling of the so-called Cash for Ash scheme which left the Northern Ireland executive facing a cost overspend of 490 million.

The British government extended a deadline on the talks over the weekend to allow both parties extra time to form an administration.

Under rules implemented as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Executive must be formed by parties representing both Catholics and Protestants, with the largest party nominating a First Minister and the smaller party proposing a Deputy First Minister.

Decisions in the Stormont parliament must receive cross-community support in order to pass.

Assembly elections in March saw Sinn Fein come within one seat of replacing the DUP as the largest party in Northern Ireland.

Speaking earlier today, Mr Adams said he was not optimistic.

He said: 'I don't believe that there is going to be a deal by Monday.

'The DUP are showing no urgency or no real inclination to deal with the rights-based issues which are at the crux and the heart of these difficulties which we are talking here about.'

Mr Adams said his party wanted an Irish Language Act providing statutory recognition for Gaelic.

The DUP have secured a 1 billion deal to prop up Prime Minister Theresa May's minority government which has called into question the administration's impartiality when dealing with talks about re-establishing the Executive in Stormont

His party also wants action on marriage equality as well as a Bill of Rights. Mr Adams said further work was necessary for dealing the the legacy of the troubles.

He added: 'Unless they step-change I just cannot see, here we are on Saturday afternoon, I just cannot see how, and we told them this directly, how a deal can be put together by then.'

Addressing a marriage equality rally in Belfast, Mr Adams said: 'If there is a step change, part of that step change is for everybody to understand that equality and respect has to be at the heart of the institutions.

'They have to deliver for everybody, not just the Sinn Fein vote, not just the DUP vote, but for everybody including those people who don't vote, those people who are vulnerable, who are in poverty, who want their rights.

'There will be no return to the status quo, that is the only basis in which these institutions are going to be put together.'

The likelihood of a deal between Sinn Fein and the DUP is further diminished by the upcoming marching season which inflames sectarian tensions across the country.

Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire said he will address Parliament on Monday to discuss what steps will be necessary in the absence of an agreement.

He told BBC radio: 'I remain of the view that (an agreement) continues to be possible but ... we've had an extended period where Northern Ireland has not had politicians making decisions. That cannot continue for much longer.'

If the talks fail, the British government could reintroduce direct rule from Westminster, but Theresa May's confidence and supply agreement with the DUP could undermine this option.

Mr Brokenshire could also further extend the talks deadline if there is any sign of movement.

Otherwise, he could call another Assembly election to see if this would provide a different result.

Senior DUP negotiator Edwin Poots said if a deal did not materialise in the near future he would prefer direct rule ministers to take over running Stormont departments.

GLASGOW TURNS ORANGE AS PROTESTANTS MARCH THROUGH SCOTTISH CITY



Pictured: Participants taking part in Orange Walks across the city of Glasgow today

In Glasgow, meanwhile, thousands of people have taken to the streets for the annual Orange Walks.

The official participants - estimated by police before the event to be around 4,500 people in 63 bands - paraded through the city centre as thousands of spectators looked on.

The main County Grand Orange Order parade began at George Square and followed a route taking in St Vincent Street, Blythswood Square, Nelson Mandela Place, George Street, High Street and Saltmarket.

The marchers were bound for Glasgow Green, where an afternoon rally is being held.

The main County Grand Orange Order parade began at George Square and followed a route taking in St Vincent Street, Blythswood Square, Nelson Mandela Place, George Street, High Street and Saltmarket. Pictured: Women marching

There were estimated to be around 4,500 people in 63 bands. Pictured: An aerial shot of the march

Earlier, a number of smaller 'feeder' marches took place in various districts of the city, before participants assembled for the main parade.

Police had warned of the possibility of considerable traffic disruption in and around the city with a number of key thoroughfares closed off for the march.

A number of side roads leading to the parade route were also shut.

Speaking ahead of the event, Police Scotland Superintendent Alan Murray, the officer in charge of policing the event, said public safety was his priority.

Pictured: Participants in the march today

Pictured left and right: Marchers taking part in the Orange Walks across the city

Pictured: Band players take a break from marching

He said: 'As everyone should be aware by now, drinking alcohol in the street or in any public place is illegal and officers will be ensuring that people comply with this legislation.

'Previous experience shows that it is the unwelcome minority who use the event to drink too much and cause offence. However, be assured we will not tolerate and sectarian or antisocial behaviour.'

Jim McHarg, Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, said the parade comes after more than 4,000 Orangemen from Edinburgh and the east of Scotland recently rallied at Prestonpans in an 'entirely trouble-free' event viewed by hundreds of spectators.
A terrified mother trapped who was trapped with her young son on the 27th floor of a burning high-rise said she feared another Grenfell Tower-style disaster.

Kimberley Matthews frantically banged on doors to alert residents to the thick smoke filling corridors at Cleveland Tower in Birmingham city centre after a suspected arson attack at about 11.30am this morning.

After dialling 999, she and her son Riley, five, were told to stay inside her father David Gourlay's flat and not to use the lifts to escape.

Kimberley Matthews and her son Riley, five, were told to stay inside a flat in the Birmingham tower block

But she said women were crying on stairwells as fear gripped residents stuck inside the 300ft tower block, off Holloway Head, during the fire.

Ms Matthews shared a dramatic video on Facebook showing the extent of the smoke.

WM Housing Group, which owns the tower block, said the fire was being treated as suspected arson

'There was loads of smoke and we couldn't see anything. 'I was phoning everybody panicking. There was smoke in the lift,' she said.

'I dialled 999 and we were told to stay indoors. 'But after what happened in London I was frightened for Riley.

'I left my son with my dad on his balcony because smoke was starting to get into his flat. 'I was banging people's doors as the firefighters were coming up and women were on the stairwells crying.

'We were 27 floors up - we would have had no chance.'

Ms Matthews, a 27-year-old maintenance firm worker, lives in Yardley and was visting her father, 54, when the fire broke out on a 22nd floor lobby.

Ms Matthews hailed the bravery of the firefighters after they extinguished the blaze.

No-one is believed to have been hurt in the fire.

Ms Matthews hailed the bravery of the firefighters after they extinguished the blaze

Two of the crew members even posed for a picture with Riley to cheer him up after the scare

Writing on Facebook, she said she was 'in pieces' and added: 'I thank God we are all OK.

'The firefighters just came. The government needs to salute these HEROES and give them the pay rise they deserve!'

Two of the crew members even posed for a picture with Riley to cheer him up after the scare.

The cause of the blaze was not clear but the WM Housing Group, which owns the tower block, said it was being treated as suspected arson.
The Prince of Wales has held informal talks with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of national celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of modern Canada's formation.

Charles met the leader in the capital Ottawa as hundreds of thousands of Canadians gathered in the city centre for the extravaganza, that included speeches from both Mr Trudeau and Charles.

Bono and The Edge, from the band U2, and Shania Twain also played in an afternoon of celebrations.

The Prince of Wales has held informal talks with Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau ahead of national celebrations

When Charles met the premier Mr Trudeau apologised for the weather and the prince replied, saying: 'It's unbelievable'

Prince Charles, left to right, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, Hadrien Trudeau, Ella-Grace Trudeau and Xavier Trudeau take part in Canada 150 celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday

Thousands streamed onto Parliament Hill, ignoring torrential rain which has turned roads into rivers.

When Charles met the premier Mr Trudeau apologised for the weather and the prince replied, saying: 'It's unbelievable.'

The prince, who will one day be king of Canada, told the thousands gathered on Parliament Hill in the capital Ottawa for the open-air celebration: 'We should be clear and proud that we are celebrating a country that others look to for example.

'An example of fairness and inclusion; of always striving to be better.

'Around the word Canada is recognised as a champion of human rights, as a peace-keeper, a responsible steward of the environment and natural resources, and as a powerful and consistent example of diversity and the power of inclusion.'

Justin Trudeau (left) and Prince Charles (right) during Canada Day Celebrations on Parliament Hill

Bono performs in front of cheering crowds on Canada Day in Ottawa with The Edge from U2

The heir to the throne ended by telling the crowds 'happy birthday Canada'.

Mr Trudeau gave a speech to the roaring masses in which he highlighted the diversity and kinship across the country.

However the leader comically forgot to include the state of Alberta in his rundown of the country's territories.

'We may live in British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Terrirtoes, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland or Laboradorbut we embrace that diversity while knowing in our hearts we are all Canadians,' he said to during his speech at Rideau Hall.

Bono of the band U2 praised Canada's attitude towards immigration when he took the stage.

The Irish rock star told the crowd: 'Whether you've just arrived from Syria or your roots go back thousands of years, this is your home and we are grateful guests in it.

'Where others build walls you open doors, when others divide you arms are open wide, where you lead others follow - that's the real reason The Edge and myself are here.'

After the meeting with the Prime Minister, Gov. Gen. David Johnston presented Charles with the insignia of companion of the Order of Canada, kicking off a jam-packed day of events to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

Charles, who was being recognized for his global philanthropy, was at Rideau Hall with his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, to kick off the final day of their royal visit, which culminates in Canada Day.

Prince Charles and Camilla also visited the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec before the prince moved on to a peacekeeping monument in Ottawa for a ceremonial guard inspection.

Prince Charles, left, receives the Extraordinary Companion to the Order of Canada medal from Governor General David Johnston at Rideau Hall in Ottawa

Prince Charles inspects the Ceremonial Guard in Ottawa, Ontario, on Saturday

Camilla, Prince Charles, Sharon Johnston and Governor General David Johnston ride in a carriage during Canada 150 celebrations in Ottawa

On the trip Charles tried his hand at a computer game, that responded to the gamer's movements, during a visit to Shopify, a tech company in the Canadian capital.

Designed by computer science undergraduate Anna Malchow-Perryman it challenged users to move a marble around a maze, and she made it look easy when she gave a demonstration.

When the heir to the throne took on the challenge he moved forward, swayed, then stepped backwards and forwards again and exasperated said "come on" as the virtual marble refused to move.

Charles plays a virtual reality maze game during a visit to Shopify to meet staff, intern students and pop-up shop owners on day three of his visit to Canada

But, like a man trying to keep his balance on a frozen lake, Charles eventually got the hang of it and was given a round of applause.

On Friday, the royal couple met veterans and serving members of the armed forces, before taking part in a minute's silence to pay tribute to those who lost their lives.

Camilla met Edward Rose, 92, a former lieutenant with the British Army's Green Jackets regiment who was captured after D-Day and incarcerated in Spangenberg Castle with Major Bruce Shand and hundreds of fellow officers.

The pair chatted over a glass of wine when the Duchess and the Prince of Wales visited a vineyard near Toronto to meet food and wine producers.

Camilla, pictuerd left, met Edward Rose, 92, pictured right, a former lieutenant with the Green Jackets, who was captured after D-Day and incarcerated in Spangenberg Castle

Mr Rose, retired stockbroker who emigrated to Canada after marrying a local woman, said: 'I was in the second wave that went in after D-Day in 1944 and I was a prisoner for about six or seven months.

'Spangenberg was supposed to be a place where you couldn't escape from, there were a lot of people from my regiment who had been captured at Calais and spent five years there.'

'Where did they get you?' Camilla asked with a smile when she was introduced to the former officer who described how he was captured on the French-Belgium border at a racecourse.

Months later, with the war coming to an end, they were marched from their jail and a fellow prisoner encouraged them to escape.

When they spent the night in a barn, a soldier who spoke German told the guards - who wanted to return to their families - they were leaving and the men met no resistance.

Camilla's father served with the 12th Lancers during the Second World War.

He was awarded the Military Cross in 1940 and again in 1942 for his efforts in France and was later wounded and taken prisoner while fighting in North Africa.
A group of veterinary students from Oregon State University will travel to Nicaragua this summer to conduct six days of free clinics on a rural island that has no regular veterinary care.

The contingent, members of the OSU chapter of the International Veterinary Students Association, will pay their own way to spend the first week of August on Ometepe Island, home to an estimated 10,000 people and 50,000 animals.

The clinics include physical exams, deworming, vaccinations, spays, neuters and public health education.

The Ometepe residents rely on pigs, cows, donkeys, horses and chickens for food, transport and work. In addition, there is a large population of stray dogs and cats that can spread disease.

OSU students, under the supervision of volunteer veterinarians, spay and neuter hundreds of dogs and cats on Ometepe every summer. This is the 10th year of the program, and its made a difference, Sue Tornquist, the Lois Bates Acheson Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and a longtime volunteer on the trip, said in a press release from OSU.

We now see many dogs that come to the clinic and only need preventive care, since so many have been spayed and neutered already, she said.

In addition to funding their own travel costs, students raise money to purchase veterinary supplies such as vaccines, needles, syringes, gauze and sutures. The total averages about $1,500 per student.

Anyone interested in helping to support the students can adopt a Nicaraguan animal for $20.

In exchange, you will receive a photo and story about the animal that was in our care, including a description of the type of care provided for the animal, said Kristin Wineinger, co-chair of Oregon States IVSA chapter.

For more information or to donate, visit http://stuorgs.oregonstate.edu/ivsa/donate.
A man was arrested on suspicion of murder after another was stabbed to death and heard screaming: 'I am going to die'.

Murder detectives were today questioning a 26-year-old man after the tragic victim died in hospital.

Emergency services were called at 10.40pm after neighbours yesterday heard the stab victim after screaming for help in a quiet residential street in Cambridge, Cambs.

One said: 'I heard a chap shouting last night at about twenty to eleven, 'I've been stabbed, I'm bleeding, I'm going to die.'

Murder detectives were today questioning a 26-year-old man after the tragic victim died in hospital

Neighbours yesterday heard the stab victim after screaming for help in a quiet residential street in Cambridge

One neighbour said: 'I heard a chap shouting last night at about twenty to eleven, 'I've been stabbed, I'm bleeding, I'm going to die'

'There was obviously somebody in distress and lots of people around him.'

The grandmother, who wished not to be named, saw half a dozen neighbours rush to the aid of the injured man.

She watched from her window as one called for an ambulance as others tried to calm the injured man as he lay on a path.

'I thought he said he was bleeding from the leg,' she said.

'I heard somebody call for an ambulance.

The grandmother added: 'There was obviously somebody in distress and lots of people around him.

The neighbour watched from her window as one called for an ambulance as others tried to calm the injured man as he lay on a path

She added: 'I thought he said he was bleeding from the leg. 'I heard somebody call for an ambulance'

'The next I knew the police were erecting a (forensic) tent in the middle of the road in the early hours of this morning,' said the grandmother

'The ambulance was there within minutes.

'The next I knew the police were erecting a (forensic) tent in the middle of the road in the early hours of this morning.'

The neighbour, who lived close to the crime scene, added: 'It is shocking. We've been here 30 years and there's never been anything like this.'

The street was cordoned off with officers standing guard while forensic teams scoured the scene for evidence today.

The street was cordoned off with officers standing guard while forensic teams scoured the scene for evidence today

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police said: 'We were called at around 10.40pm yesterday to reports of violence in Stretten Avenue, Cambridge

The spokesman said a man in his 20s was taken to hospital with stab wounds and sadly died of his injuries

Investigations are ongoing and police are urging anyone with information to get in touch on 101 quoting incident number 704 of June 30 2017

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police said: 'We were called at around 10.40pm yesterday to reports of violence in Stretten Avenue, Cambridge.

'A man in his 20s was taken to hospital with stab wounds and sadly died of his injuries.

'A 26-year-old man from Cambridge has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.

'Investigations are ongoing. Anyone with information about the incident should contact police on 101 quoting incident number 704 of yesterday [June 30 2017]'
A new report has revealed that Tommy Le, 20, was holding a pen - not a 'knife or sharp object' - when he was shot and killed on June 13, the night before his high school graduation

A student shot and killed by police in Washington this month, thought to be wielding a knife or a 'sharp object,' was actually holding only a pen, according to a new report.

Tommy Le, 20, was just hours away from his high school graduation from Career Link, an alternative high school program at South Seattle College, the night he was fatally shot.

The King's County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that it received 'multiple calls' on June 13 about gunshots in a neighborhood in the city of Burien.

Deputies who arrived on the scene discovered that a homeowner had fired a 'warning shot' at a man later identified as Le, who was approaching with what the homeowner believed to be a 'knife or sharp object'.

At the time of the event, the Sheriff's office said the homeowner ran inside his house and Le began stabbing his door with the 'sharp object', yelling that he was 'The Creator'.

Officers added that Le did not comply with deputy orders, did not drop the object, and that tasers 'were not effective.'

That is when Deputy Cesar Molina shot Le three times. Le later died from his injuries at the hospital.

Sheriff's Office spokesperson Cindi West told Seattle Weekly that Molina had undergone the 40-hour Crisis Intervention Training, which has been cited as a way to better train law enforcement in how to handle mental health situations without resorting to violence.

West also said that Molina is currently on administrative leave as is standard procedure.

According to a statement from the King County Sheriff's Office, Le (pictured) was pounding on the door of a homeowner with the object, yelling that he was 'The Creator'. After failing to comply with deputy orders and ineffective tasers, Deputy Cesar Molina shot Le three times

Molina is currently on administrative leave as is standard procedure, according to a spokeswoman for the King County Sheriff's Office (pictured). However, descriptions of Le as an aggressive assailant don't match up with the person his teachers and classmates knew.

Le's family and community are still grappling with questions about his death and the narrative provided by law enforcement.

'I'm so angry,' his father, Sunny, told The Seattle Times this week. 'I want to know what happened to my son.' The outlet notes that Le weighed only about 100 pounds.

Descriptions of Le as an aggressive assailant don't appear to match up with the person his teachers and classmates knew.

'I could tell you 100 people I would have imagined this happening to before him,' Career Link director and teacher Curt Peterson told the Times.

'If we had a discipline file on Tommy it would be completely empty. He was the sweetest kid in the world. He didn't have an aggressive bone in his body.'

The King County Medical Examiner's Office is conducting toxicology reports to see if Le was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
First there was Sangatte. Then the Jungle. Now they hide out in the woods. Migrant men, women, boys and girls living like wild animals in a forest on the fringe of Calais, relying on handouts for food, bedding and clothes to keep them alive.

At night this human pack sleeps in stinking squalor: I wandered along paths in the trees littered with T-shirts, toilet paper, underpants, plastic bags and tin cans. A few ripped jackets and blankets festooned branches. Migrants pointed out where they slept on dank mud clearings between bushes.

They play a desperate game of cat-and-mouse as they duck and dive to avoid the squads of police who hunt and harass them.

As the holiday season approaches, hundreds of desperate refugees and determined migrants are hiding in forests around Calais in the hope of outwitting police. Pictured is an armed French policeman confronting migrants in the woods outside the port city

Shortly before midnight I watched as five police vehicles swooped in while volunteers tried to dole out food and clothes.

Two migrants were seized, followed by a tense stand-off between dozens of young men and officers armed with tear gas.

An hour later I was prevented from watching another police operation near the woods. An officer said it was for my own safety.

The migrants told me they were woken repeatedly through the night and routinely pepper-sprayed as they slept, which a lawyer from Human Rights Watch observing events told me was illegal use of force. Bedding and clothes are also doused with the spray, making them unusable.

A week ago I was sleeping and the police sprayed me. It was like I could not breathe and it hurt my eyes a lot, said 16-year-old Ajmal, from Afghanistan.

Another teenager, with a plaster on his cheek, said officers had chased him that afternoon, spraying and kicking him in the face after he fell. It is suddenly getting much worse with the police, he said.

Welcome to Calais, which finds itself again on the front line of Europes migration crisis despite the dismantling of the infamous Jungle camp and dispersal of 8,000 people around France last autumn.

As the holiday season approaches, hundreds of desperate refugees and determined migrants are hiding in forests around the historic port in the hope of outwitting police, slipping through fences and reaching Britain.

Tensions are rising after French President Emmanuel Macron sent in extra squads of armed riot police. Pictured is an armed policewoman guarding a refugee

And tensions are rising after French President Emmanuel Macron sent in extra squads of armed riot police. This followed the death of a van driver two weeks ago after migrants put tree trunks on roads to slow traffic and sneak on to lorries.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal:

There are at least 600 migrants back in the town, mostly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. Many of them minors;

Paramilitary-style police are creating a hostile climate by disrupting charity relief efforts, destroying bedding and pepper-spraying even teenage girls in their sleep;

British haulage firms are telling drivers not to stop within 150 miles of the coast for fear of attack by migrants and trafficking gangs;

Fears are increasing of fresh trouble as families flood the ferries and pour through the Channel Tunnel during school holidays.

These events in Calais show how, for all the tough talk and promises of politicians, this has become a never-ending war against human beings on the move. It is a war with no winners.

The same problems flare up again and again in a struggle everyone is losing: the migrants, the town, the police, the border forces and the lorry drivers bound for Britain, who find themselves once more in a combat zone.

Lorry drivers like Radut Gigu. The Romanian was on his first run to Britain, taking a truckload of pharmaceutical goods. He stopped late at night to fill up with petrol in Calais. He had already thwarted one migrant trying to hide under his huge vehicle. Several more were watching from the shadows.

The diminutive driver begged me to stay with him until he finished. Please dont leave me, he said. I am scared. This is a dangerous place for people like me.

Refugee Ajmal, 16, from Afghanistan (pictured left, with friend Lutfullah, 15) says he was pepper-sprayed while he slept

Even as we talked, one young man wearing a white turban split off from a group ambling along the road to duck around the back of the Irish-registered lorry.

Why do you stop us? asked his friends. You are not police and we mean no harm.

Young men in hoods, swarming around trucks, stop at nothing to get on board. That is the abiding image of the Calais migrant crisis. But many are people like Fanus, a shy 16-year-old girl in a pink hooded top I found perched on a rock beside the forest on Thursday evening. As she told me her pitiful tale, tears starting falling and at one point she had to stop talking.

She had fled Eritrea when faced with indefinite national service, which has been likened to slavery in the savagely repressive and secretive state dubbed Africas North Korea. Her father and uncle had already been called up for more than seven years.

Fanus spent eight months travelling through Ethiopia and Sudan before reaching Libya, where, like every one of the others I spoke with, she had seen people die and been kidnapped, beaten and forced to make her family send money to escape. Gunmen put her in a room with hundreds of prisoners, providing food just once a day and no showers despite the heat.

It is especially difficult for women, she said. Sometimes the smugglers were high on hashish and would take women to abuse.

Migrants are made to phone relatives to get ransoms, then threatened and attacked with metal bars while speaking. Fanuss family scraped together $3,600 (about 2,700) demanded by her captors, only to be ordered to make another similar payment to win freedom.

Smugglers high on hash would take the women and abuse them

She was beaten so badly that after the smugglers put her on a boat to Italy, she spent four months in hospital with a shattered leg. Now she aims to join her aunt and cousins in Britain. I will try to get on a lorry. I am scared but I have no choice, she said.

Several other Eritreans, all fleeing the draft, told me similar horror stories.

One said he had seen 17 young men poisoned in the Sahara after complaining of thirst. Another saw dozens drown when his boat went down in the Mediterranean.

Most are male, many with crosses hanging around their necks  and an estimated 200 are minors.

I met migrants as young as 15 from both Eritrea and Afghanistan. I also heard of a 13-year-old rumoured to have reached Britain last week on a lorry.

Earlier, I saw policemen sitting in fields beside the roads fortified with razor wire that ring Calais. Britain spends about 70 million a year towards security and other costs. French interior minister Gerard Collomb sent in two extra police units  about 150 officers  after visiting Calais nine days ago. We need extra security measures in Calais for the port, the railways, around the motorways, he said.

Nine Eritreans face manslaughter charges following the incident where they allegedly blocked a motorway with tree trunks, causing a Polish van drivers death.

Mr Collomb said he aims to stop similar incidents on the Calais approach roads.

It is thought there are about 1,000 security personnel in the port area. But relief workers argue the strategy is failing. Britain is paying for France to create a climate of hostility that just drives these people to Britain, said Michael McHugh, a child protection nurse from London working with Refugee Youth Service.

A report jointly authored by the group found lack of safety in France was the primary reason for not seeking asylum there. The countrys main human rights official, Jacques Toubon, has also hit out over unprecedented violations of human rights.

French police deny using excessive force. Our orders are very strict ones  there can be no more migrant camps in Calais, said a senior police union official.

All of us deny any brutality or violence of any kind.

Help Refugees, a UK-based organisation, told me it tries to persuade people not to make illegal efforts to enter Britain, even bringing in migrants who have made their home in France to promote life in the country.

But they say they have been frustrated by huge delays to the processing of applications for family reunification.

The group has also launched a High Court challenge against the British Governments decision to severely restrict numbers of unaccompanied child refugees.

One Eritrean laughed as he told me tales of refugees hiding on lorries ending up in Amsterdam rather than London. Others claimed some East European drivers offer to take them over the Channel hidden in their cabs for thousands of pounds. British lorry drivers are furious that this problem has erupted again, complaining of constant attacks on vehicles. The Road Haulage Association tells members not to stop within 150 miles of Calais and is calling for troops to be deployed in the area.

Yorkshire-based haulage firm Brian Yeardley Continental diverted its fleet of 50 lorries to ports in Belgium and Holland last year after one cab was speared by a scaffolding pole in Calais. This cost the family-owned firm 300,000 in lost profits.

After two more incidents this month, the firm may make similar moves again, despite extra costs of up to 1,200 a trip. I feel desperately sorry for these people but my drivers are being frightened to death, said managing director Kevin Hopper.

It is hard not to feel sympathy for the people of Calais, living with waves of migrants, menacing fences and screeching police vehicles. We are so fed up with all this  we just want our town and the tourists back, said one hotelier.

Natacha Bouchart, the Right-wing mayor of Calais, said the town was traumatised by the renewed influx. She is refusing to follow a court order last week for officials to set up standpipes, showers and toilets and to allow food distribution.
Joe Scarborough lied when he said that the White House threatened to have a nasty article about him and co-host Mika Brzezinski printed in the National Enquirer, it has been alleged.

On Friday, Scarborough and Brzezinski, who are also engaged, said Donald Trump's staff demanded they apologize to him for their unfavorable coverage or face an Enquirer story about their relationship.

But both the White House and Trump have denied that - and say that Scarborough went to Jared Kushner begging for help with the expose, Fox News reported.

On Friday Joe Scarborough (right) claimed that the White House had threatened him and co-host/fiancee Mika Brzezinski (left) with a National Enquirer story; now sources say that's a lie

Morning Joe host Scarborough, who is friendly with the president's close aide, approached Kushner because he hoped the president would be able to help, sources claimed.

Trump is a long-time friend of David Pecker, who is the chief executive of American Media, which owns the tabloid.

Insiders say Scarborough called Jared Kushner asking if he could ask Donald Trump to squash the story because Trump is mad at negative coverage; they say Kushner told him to apologize rather than act as a go-between

Kushner said Scarborough should talk to the president directly, at which point the host said he couldn't because Trump was mad at his coverage on Morning Joe.

'Well then, maybe you should apologize,' Kushner reportedly told Scarborough.

That story was agreed upon by two White Hosue sources who told the Daily Beast that Scarborough had 'calmly sought' advice from Kushner, who 'recommended he speak with the president.'

'This is getting blown up on Twitter and elsewhere as some kind of blackmail operation,' one of the sources said.

'The truth is far more mundane. In this case, Joe was talking to Jared about his [bad] relationship with the president and a Enquirer hit piece he was uneasy about.'

Trump had made a similar claim an hour after Scarborough and Brzezinski accused his staff of blackmail on Friday.

'Watched low rated @Morning Joe for first time in long time,' he tweeted. 'FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show.'

Trump is friends with David Pecker (pictured with wife Karen and three Playboy bunnies), who is chief executive of the Enquirer's parent company. Scarborough hoped that connection might stop the story, sources said

After the president's tweet, Scarborough replied: 'Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months.'

'Why do you keep lying about things that are so easily disproven? What is wrong with you?' he asked.

Trump, who made the tweets just before going into an Oval Office meeting with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, did not reply.

Scarborough said on Friday's program that three senior White House officials told him: 'If you call the president up and you apologize for your coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike this story.

'The response was like, are you kidding me?' he said.

The Morning Joe hosts had claimed that the White House was demanding an apologetic call in exchange for killing the Enquirer's story, which ran early in June

Trump responded with outrage on Twitter more than an hour after they made their on-air claims, saying Scarborough had called him

Brzezinski said that their home had been staked out and that they had received multiple calls from the White House trying to blackmail them into apologizing to Trump.

She said they then decided: 'Screw it, let them run it... Were not calling.'

The National Enquirer did run a story about their relationship on June 5, 2017, almost a month after they confirmed their engagement and dished about their love story to Vanity Fair.

It claimed that the couple 'started hooking up while married to other people' and 'used ironclad divorce deals to keep their dirty secret!'

Brzezinski also claimed the tabloid called her children, her ex-husband and her close friends.

Scarborough tweeted back at Trump, furthering the feud on public display. The Enquirer story claimed that Scarborough and Brzezinski had cheated on their former spouses

The news anchor couple claimed their home had been staked out and that they had been contacted multiple times by people telling them to apologize

The Enquirer said in a statement after the Trump-Scarborough dispute on Twitter that the 'truth' of its report is not and never was in dispute.

'At no time did we threaten either Joe or Mika or their children,' the statement said, refuting a key complaint of the couple in their on-air telling of the White House's alleged harassment.

'We have no knowledge of any discussions between the White House and Joe and Mika about our story.'

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told a New York Magazine reporter that he was 'not aware' that anyone working for the president had threatened the MSNBC hosts.

'That would be news to me,' he said of Scarborough and Brzezinski's claims.

Enquirer Editor in Chief Dylan Howard also told the reporter that Pecker never spoke to him about burying the story and does not have control over the tabloid's contents.

'No one controls the editorial decision making process at the National Enquirer other than me,' he said.
Pope Francis has replaced the Catholic Church's top theologian in a major shake up of the Vatican.

It emerged today that Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller - the Church's hardline doctrinal watchdog who has publicly clashed with the pope over divorce reforms - will not have his five-year mandate renewed.

The position will instead be filled by his deputy, Jesuit Archbishop Luis Ladaria.

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Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller has been the Catholic Church's top doctrinal watchdog for the past five years

Mueller, 69, from Mainz in Germany, was appointed by the former Pope Benedict in 2012 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

He has been in charge of keeping the church's orthodoxy and presiding over sexual abuse allegations.

His conservative ideology has led to him clashing publicly with Pope Francis several times, as the pontiff forges ahead with his vision of a more inclusive church.

In 2015 Mueller was one of 13 cardinals who signed a secret letter complaining that a meeting of bishops discussing family issues was biased in favour of liberals.

Mueller will now be replaced by his deputy, Jesuit Archbishop Luis Ladaria

In 2016 he criticised the papal treatise called 'The Joy of Love', which was an attempt by Pope Francis to make the Catholic Church more inclusive and less condemning.

In the document the pontiff sided with progressive proposal to allow some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion.

This horrified traditionalists, who believed divorcing and remarrying was adultery and therefore a sin.

Mueller, who was appointed by Pope Benedict (pictured left) has publicly clashed with Pope Francis several times of ideology

Mueller then became a conservative hero by saying there should be no exceptions to the rule, because in the eyes of the Church their first marriage is still valid.

During a trip to Philadelphia in September 2015, he said 'it's not possible' for violators of doctrine on divorce, homosexuality and abortion to be welcomed completely back into the church.

Mueller is an ardent traditionalist, and has argued that it is 'not possible' for violators of doctrine to be welcomed back into the church

Mueller's resignation is seen as a chance for the pontiff to reorganise the Catholic church in his vision.

Reverend James Martin told the New York Times: 'This gives the pope the chance to finally place his own man in a very important spot.

'For many admirers of Benedict, Cardinal Mueller was the last link to Benedict's way of doing things.'

However not all within the Vatican were fans of new appointment Luis Ladaria.

Mueller's resignation is seen as the chance for the pope to build a more progressive church

One priest who knows both men said: 'They [Francis and Ladaria] speak the same language and Ladaria is someone who is meek. He does not agitate the pope and does not threaten him.'

In March, a prominent church reform group called for Mueller's resignation after accusations that senior officials had willfully ignored Pope Francis' decision to create a new tribunal to judge bishops who cover up sexual abuse.
Just five days after CNN laid off three journalists amid a 'fake news' scandal, the channel reportedly made another slip-up on Jake Tapper's show.

On Friday Tapper reported on claims that the White House had told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to apologize for his negative coverage or suffer a National Enquirer 'expose' on their lives.

Unfortunately, the National Enquirer cover that was picked to illustrate the magazine's often salacious content was completely fake, Page Six reported.

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Tapped out: Jake Tapper (pictured) screened a fabricated National Enquirer cover on his show on Friday while covering the Donald Trump-Joe Scarborough blackmail allegations

Fake news: The cover (pictured) was never actually printed. Its origins are unclear. CNN said it is taking the error seriously and has escalated the matter

The cover - which may have been created as clickbait according to Page Six - promises a 'Presidential shocker!'

Dated April 16, 2016, it has the cover line 'Heidi Cruz betrayed by cheating husband!' and claims 'sensational photo proof' of a 'sordid threesome' and 'sleazy love letters.'

It also claimed that Ted Cruz was 'named in madam's black book' and promises 'the most explosive tell-all interview ever.'

Unfortunately for Tapper, the cover is literally fake news: It was never an actual cover of the newspaper, according to insiders at the National Enquirer.

It's not known where it originated, but it was shared to Ted Cruz's Twitter feed by 'DeplorableTrumpEagle' in April 2016.

CNN declined to comment to Page Six, but is reportedly taking the matter seriously and has escalated the incident to networks standards and practices department.

It's especially embarrassing for the channel as it comes less than five days after it laid off three journalists in the wake of a retracted story about Trump and Russia.

'Blackmail': Scarborough (right) and fiancee and co-host Mika Brzezinski (left) say the White House offered to pull an expose in the National Enquirer if they would apologize to Trump

The network's website broke its own protocol by printing a story with only one source about possible ties between Russia and Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump's transition team.

Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris were all involved in CNN's new investigative unit and left the company on Monday.

Frank wrote the deleted story, Lichtblau was an editor in the unit and Haris oversaw the unit.

Tapper's piece had been looking at claims made by Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski

On Friday Scarborough and Brzezinski claimed that they had been contacted repeatedly by White House staff who demanded they apologize to Trump for their negative coverage of his administration.

They claimed the staff offered to squash a National Enquirer expose on the couple - who are now engaged - in exchange.

That story alleged that the pair had cheated on their previous partners, and was denied by the couple.

But both Trump and White House insiders have not only denied those claims, but said that Scarborough had approached them about stopping the story.

On Friday, an hour after the claims aired, Trump tweeted: 'FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show.'

And inside sources told Fox News that Scarborough had called Jared Kushner and asked him to get Trump to shut down the story.

Trump is friends with David Pecker, who runs the National Enquirer's parent company.

Denial: The White House said Scarborough had in fact contacted them to ask for Trump to speak to his friend David Pecker (pictured with wife Karen and Playboy bunnies), who is chief executive of the National Enquirer's parent company

Scarborough said he couldn't call the president directly because Trump was upset with the negative coverage, the sources said.

Kushner refused to act as a go-between and told him he would have to apologize to Trump, the sources claimed.

Scarborough furiously told Trump that he was a liar online after the tweeted denials.

These latest twists came after Trump lashed out at Brzezinski on Twitter, claiming she had showed up at Mar-a-Lago on New Year's Eve still bleeding from plastic surgery.

She said she'd had a neck tuck but said that she was all healed up - and that Trump had been eager to get the contact info of her plastic surgeon; many derided the president's tweet as sexist.

On Saturday morning Trump reignited the controversy when he tweeted about the pair again, saying: 'Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!'
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Friends of the doctor who shot seven people, killing one woman, before turning the gun on himself at a Bronx hospital, say they are not surprised he went on a rampage because of his mental health issues.

Dr Henry Bello, 45, used an AR-15 assault rifle in the attack on the 16th and 17th floors of the Bronx Lebanon Hospital on Friday around 2.45pm.

New details have emerged about what may have motivated the doctor to go on a shooting spree. Bello lived as a mental health occupant at a homeless shelter, his friends say, and felt 'antagonized' by his co-workers after he was fired following a sexual harassment allegation, according to a New York Post article.

'He was a mental health occupant, so I mean, it's not surprising,' a 31-year-old resident at the 30th Street Men's Shelter, who asked to remain anonymous, told the New York newspaper.

'You're going through things. You have mental health issues and then peopleantagonize you and you lose your job.

'It felt like he was being picked on by his co-workers and stuff like that. People were being manipulative to him.'

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Friends of Dr Henry Bello, 45, who used an AR-15 assault rifle to kill one doctor and wound six others at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital on Friday at 2.45pm, say they are not surprised he went on a shooting spree

Just two hours the incident, the 45-year-old sent an email to a New York newspaper blaming the hospital for terminating 'my road to a licensure to practice medicine'. Pictured are first responders at the scene

As Bello shot at his co-workers he yelled, 'Why didnt you help me out when I was getting in trouble?'

About two hours before the deadly shooting, he also sent an email to the New York Daily News blaming two doctors for terminating 'my road to a licensure to practice medicine'.

Bello, who was described on the hospital's website as a family medicine physician, wrote: 'First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse.'

On Friday evening it was revealed that Bello had been forced to resign over sexual harassment accusations.

However, in the email that was sent at 12.46pm, Bello said he was told his termination stemmed from him threatening a colleague.

He said he then sent an email to that colleague 'congratulating her for my termination after she sent out an email to everybody telling them to file complaints against me so I can be terminated for being rude to her'.

The gunman (pictured) shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at around 2.45pm on Friday. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, police said

'I only said in the email, it remains to be seen if my life is meaningless or disposable,' Bello wrote.

Bello then blamed another doctor for ruining his career, adding that the doctor 'blocked' him from getting his medical permit despite him pouring $400,000 of his money into the hospital and the family medicine department.

According to the Daily News, an editor at the newspaper didn't make the connection to Bello until after the shooting.

The newspaper is also withholding the names of the two doctors whom Bello said caused his termination. Bello shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at around 2.45pm on Friday.

He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, police said.

Police Commissioner James O'Neill confirmed Bello died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee, and said he was 'aggressive' and 'threatened people'.

However, in the email he sent to the Daily News, Bello didn't threaten violence against anyone.

The attack on Friday left several doctors fighting for their lives, and witnesses described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted and spread terror throughout the medical facility. Employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.

'I thought I was going to die,' said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

In 2015, he was allowed to resign from the hospital after being accused of sexual harassment, according to two law enforcement officials. They did not know the details of the allegations, and agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.

However, Dr Maureen Kwankam, 50, told the New York Daily News he was fired from the hospital 'because he was kind of crazy'.

'He promised to come back and kill us then,' she said.

Ultimately, one female doctor was killed and six others wounded - five seriously, according to O'Neill. The patients were treated in the emergency room at Bronx Lebanon.

He also tried to set fire to the nurses station on the 16th floor, but the hospital's sprinkler system put it out before the blaze could grow.

'This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere,' New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said. He also said terrorism did not play a role.

Bello used an AR-15 assault rifle, (pictured at the hospital) to carry out his attacks on the 16th and 17th floors of the facility, according to police

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident a 'horrible situation' and said it was not related to terrorism but instead just a workplace incident

Bello, who was described on the hospital's website as a family medicine physician, wrote in the email that he was told he was terminated because of 'altercation with a nurse'. A woman was escorted by officers in plainclothes near the Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York Friday after fleeing the scene

On Friday evening it was revealed that Bello had been forced to resign over sexual harassment accusations. However, in the email that was sent at 12.46pm, Bello said he was told his termination stemmed from him threatening a colleague. Another woman was seen escorted by officers near the hospital after Bello opened fire there

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee, and said he was 'aggressive' and 'threatened people'. The incident unfolded at around 2.45pm at the medical center on Grand Concourse in the Morris Heights section of The Bronx

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

Bello 'was very aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people all the time. He was a problem,' said Dr David Lazala, a family medicine doctor who said he trained Bello at Bronx Lebanon.

He said Bello, who worked at night as a doctor, sent him a threatening email after Bello was fired.

In unrelated cases, the doctor had been arrested in 2004 on a charge of sexual abuse, according to a police report, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying: 'You're coming with me.'

He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror.

Heavily armed police patroled the scene outside the hospital after the gunman opened fire on Friday afternoon

Police sources said the gunman was hiding the high-powered weapon under his lab coat before the attack on the 16th floor of the hospital

Hospital employees barricaded themselves in hospital rooms by stacking furniture up against the doors during the lockdown

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called him from inside the hospital to tell him about the gunman.

'She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebody's out there shooting people,' Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. 'I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry.'

Gonzalo Carazo described the scary scene to WCBS-TV: 'I saw one of the doctors and he had a gunshot wound to his hand,' Carazo said.

'All I heard was a doctor saying, 'Help, help!'' Carazo locked himself in a room for about 15 minutes until police came and led him out of the facility.

In unrelated cases, the doctor had been arrested in 2004 on a charge of sexual abuse, according to a police report, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying: 'You're coming with me.' Police rushed to the scene as it unfolded on Friday afternoon

Witness Dione Morales, who has been a patient at the hospital for 17 years, also said Bello had threatened to kill people back when he was fired. Officers were seen carrying assault-style rifles outside the Bronx Lebanon Hospital

Bello is believed to have lived in this New York City apartment building. He was forced to resign from his position at the hospital in 2015 after sexual assault allegations became public

Police cars surrounded the area outside the hospital on Grand Concourse on Friday

Witness Dione Morales, who has been a patient at the hospital for 17 years, told CBS New York the shooter had threatened to kill people back when he was fired.

'He was let go because I guess they figured he was unstable. He said he was going to do this,' she said. 'He said he was going to kill people, two years ago when he was let go - two years... and now look what happened.'

Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center describes itself as the largest voluntary, not-for-profit health care system in the south and central Bronx.

The 120-year-old hospital claims nearly 1,000 beds spread across multiple units. Its emergency room is among the busiest in New York City.

The hospital is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.

Fire Department rescue workers head towards the scene after the inside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City
Justin Welby is seen as too liberal on homosexuality to traditionalists

Traditionalist archbishops are planning to boycott a summit of Anglican leaders chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury because he is seen as too liberal over homosexuality.

It is understood at least two African archbishops will not attend the October gathering as Archbishop Justin Welby has also invited their liberal counterparts from the US and Scotland, who already conduct gay marriages in church.

Insiders said four or five other conservative archbishops from Africa and Asia could also boycott the Canterbury summit of the leaders of the 70 million-strong Anglican Communion, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury is nominal leader. The snub would be a fresh blow to Archbishop Welbys efforts to prevent a permanent split in global Anglicanism.

It also comes after conservatives provocatively consecrated a missionary bishop on Friday to minister to traditionalists in the UK. At the US service, the Archbishop of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh, urged the new bishop, former British tank commander Canon Andy Lines, to avoid fruitless controversies... and meetings.

However, Archbishop Welby is also coming under fresh pressure from Church of England liberals to lift the ban on same-sex marriages in English churches. The Dean of Westminster Abbey, John Hall, broke his silence last week to urge the reform.

Archbishop Welby is also coming under fresh pressure from Church of England liberals to lift the ban on same-sex marriages in English churches

A source close to the conservative archbishops said that some had decided not to go to the summit and some were still making up their minds.

He added: If the Archbishop of Canterbury wants to be certain of having the majority of the Anglican Communion in attendance, it isnt complicated. He can choose not to invite those few, small provinces who have unrepentantly torn the fabric of the Communion.
Several FBI employees reportedly wore T-shirts reading 'Comey is my homey' at a recent FBI Family Day event.

The shirts supporting fired FBI Director Jim Comey appeared at the Friday event in Washington, DC, according to a report in the Huffington Post that could not be independently confirmed.

The report cited social media postings saying that about a dozen employees wore the T-shirts to the event, though those postings couldn't be located by DailyMail.com.

Hey Homey: The shirts supporting fired FBI Director Jim Comey (pictured) appeared at the Friday event in Washington, DC, according to a report in the Huffington Post

The FBI regularly holds Family Day events at its various field offices, where employees and their families join together for recreational activities.

The FBI's national press office did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment on Saturday.

President Donald Trump fired Comey in May, as the FBI pursued an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the US election.

The firing sparking a firestorm of controversy and led to Comey's closely watched Congressional testimony.

Trump's opponents have championed Comey and hope his testimony may implicate the president in some untoward or even criminal activity.
As far as legal dramas go, it must surely rank as one of the most bizarre ever to grace Londons Central Family Court.

Rarely can a judge have been asked to preside over a preliminary divorce hearing  let alone one involving 5.5 billion in assets  in which one of the main parties made a crude gun gesture at his billionaire father-in-law, referring to him as a c*** in the process.

But while the events may have been extraordinary, they were not entirely surprising. Because to many close to this case, it is merely the culmination of what has long been suspected: that something very strange has been going on in the marriage of one of Britains wealthiest couples.

Throughout it all, former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has kept his feelings to himself, saying little about the mounting tensions within his family.

In a moving interview with The Mail on Sunday, Bernie Ecclestone lifts the lid on the dramatic collapse of the six-year marriage between his youngest daughter Petra and her erratic playboy husband James Stunt. The couple are pictured arriving for their engagement party

But today, in a moving interview with The Mail on Sunday, he lifts the lid on the dramatic collapse of the six-year marriage between his youngest daughter Petra and her erratic playboy husband James Stunt.

Shedding new light on claims heard in court last week that Stunt could be abusive and violent, a clearly worried Bernie describes his son-in-law as a man who seems impressed by gangsters  and makes the astonishing claim that Stunt once threatened to blow [Petras] head off during a heated argument.

The 35-year-old is alleged to have threatened his wife as the couple enjoyed dinner at The Rib Room in the five-star Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel in Londons Belgravia, in October 2015.

Bernie describes his son-in-law as a man who seems impressed by gangsters  and makes the astonishing claim that Stunt once threatened to blow [Petras] head off during a heated argument. Bernie and Petra are pictured leaving the Central Family Court in London on Wednesday

Recalling the distressing episode, Bernie said: He was going to blow her head off, he threatened her with something'

The 35-year-old is alleged to have threatened his wife as the couple enjoyed dinner at The Rib Room (pictured) in the five-star Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel in Londons Belgravia, in October 2015

Recalling the distressing episode, Bernie said: He was going to blow her head off, he threatened her with something.

He was going to threaten her. It wasnt very nice and thats why she went to the police.

He was being a bit abusive and a little bit silly. [But] when you say something, youve probably been thinking along those lines or else you wouldnt say it.

It is a disturbing claim, even if the precise details of what took place that night remain unclear. Yet it is supported not only by Mr Ecclestone, but by a number of sources.

In a separate account, someone close to the family explained how an enraged Stunt had become so angry during the meal that he told Petra: Im going to put a bullet in your head.

Bernie himself was involved in a public altercation with his son-in-law just last week when it was reported that Stunt made a gun gesture at his father-in-law before barging into him and calling him a c***. James Stunt is pictured leaving his home in a convoy of Rolls Royces and a Lamborghini

A terrified Petra is then said to have hidden in a cupboard when the couple returned to their 68 million Chelsea mansion, and made a series of frantic calls to her mother, Slavica, and older sister Tamara.

The same source said that although Petra reported the incident to police the following morning and Stunt was arrested, charges were never brought.

Stunt himself strongly denied making any such threat.

The police later confirmed the arrest to The Mail on Sunday. Today, Bernie, 86, speaks of his regret that he wasnt able to help unhappy Petra at an earlier stage, as her relationship with Stunt foundered.

I wish it had never happened, obviously  the fact she left, he said. Because she wouldnt have left if everything had been all right, would she? Petra is so quiet and sweet and not aggressive in any way, and thats the problem.

Stunt was accused by Petra of being 'violent and abusive' during their marriage in a dramatic court appearance in London on Wednesday

Bitter battle: Stunt, who is currently embroiled in a nasty divorce battle with his estranged wife Petra Ecclestone, was seen leaving Central Family Court in London on Wednesday

Troubled, he said his daughters unhappiness was the most difficult thing to deal with and reveals that Petra kept much of her distress private, even from her parents, until she filed for divorce.

Shes very private, like I am, he said. She doesnt go round explaining her problems. If shes got problems, she keeps them to herself and deals with them on her own. Its a great shame that she didnt speak to me earlier.

However, he then admitted: If she ever had come to me and said hed done something, it wouldnt be good for him.

Bernie himself was involved in a public altercation with his son-in-law just last week when, during the one-day preliminary hearing on Wednesday, it was reported that Stunt made a gun gesture at his father-in-law before barging into him and calling him a c***.

The 35-year-old then stormed out of the building, greeting photographers with an obscene gesture. Playing down the incident, Bernie insisted: No, no, he didnt punch me, just banged me on the shoulder.

But he agreed that it was, in fact, an aggressive gesture, adding: Yeah, a gesture of something.

To most people, such behaviour might come as a shock.

James Stunt also owns a fleet of distinctive supercars, including a 600,000 Mansory Conquistador Rolls-Royce, Range Rovers and a Lamborghini

He said Petra is now back in her home, while Stunt has apparently been prevented from contacting any of the family. Pictured is the home the couple had shared.

But Bernie has suggested Stunt was interested in gangsters and others have said he compared himself to the late New York-based Mafia boss John Gotti, also known as The Dapper Don.

Hes impressed with those sort of people  I think he watches all those gangster films and had a big respect for them, Mr Ecclestone said. People have said to me, He thinks hes John Gotti.

Certainly, Mr Stunt is well-known for surrounding himself with bodyguards and travelling in a fleet of blacked-out limousines.

He also owns a fleet of distinctive supercars, including a 600,000 Mansory Conquistador Rolls-Royce, Range Rovers and a Lamborghini. The strange courtroom confrontation was by no means the first between Mr Ecclestone and his son-in-law.

I think he watches all those gangster films and had a big respect for them

Bernie also described another extraordinary tussle which descended into near-farce during a childrens tea party, which was thrown to celebrate the second birthday of Petra and Jamess daughter Lavinia in February 2015.

The event, at the exclusive One Marylebone venue, was attended by around 20 guests, including Mr Ecclestones ex-wife Slavica Radic, Tamara, and other young children.

The altercation involved Tamara and even Stunts father Geoffrey, 67, who stepped in to defuse the row when it threatened to erupt into violence.

Bernie insisted that he didnt remember in detail how the row began. But he recalled: I think [James] came and said something and Tamara said something and he was a bit rude to her. And he was getting a bit stroppy. I told him: You better come outside.

The billionaire has previously referred to Stunt as a flash bastard and an idiot, and has voiced his disapproval of his son-in-laws conspicuous displays of wealth

And I was walking out with him and his father came along and he said, You two shouldnt make a big fuss, this is a party, come on, come back inside together which we did.

So we walked back inside together. Like most of these things when they happen, its forgotten. It was forgotten.

However, another guest recalled the dispute as being physical. The guest told this newspaper: James started shoving and pushing Mr Ecclestone around  the daughters tried to break it up.

The families all have their own bodyguards who were not sure if they should step in.

It was a public place so people all stopped and started watching. Eventually James stormed off and the party came to an abrupt end.

For Bernie, the behaviour came as little surprise. The billionaire has previously referred to Stunt as a flash bastard and an idiot, and has voiced his disapproval of his son-in-laws conspicuous displays of wealth.

Billionaire Petra Stunt Ecclestone was seen talking on her mobile phone (left and right) as she walked to her car in Knightsbridge earlier earlier this week

But the source explained that, at the time, the argument had caused a huge wedge between Petra and the rest of the family, adding: Its like EastEnders for billionaires.

It is not known whether the divide was bridged, but Tamara, 33, is said to have not spoken to Stunt for years.

Despite their obvious differences, it is clear Bernie remains disappointed at the breakdown of the relationship. Petra and Stunt met on a blind date in 2006 and married in 2011, in a lavish Italian ceremony which reportedly cost 12 million.

The couple then moved to a 123-room LA home, before relocating last year to Belgravia.

Last night, Bernie admitted he had been concerned at the marked change in Stunts character over the past few years.

I used to like him, he said. He used to be a very nice guy. He changed  hes very quiet and a little bit unruly. What happened, I really dont know.

Mr Stunt and Petra, pictured left and second left respectively with her sister Tamara, second right, and her ex-boyfriend Robert Montague in 2009, were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend in 2006

The couple married at the Castello Odescalchi castle in Bracciano, near Rome, in 2011. They are pictured here in the Italian capital just days before the nuptials

When asked how he would describe his son-in-law, he added: A bit erratic, you could say. The trouble is, hes got a short fuse and it doesnt take much to light it.

If the fuse goes off, you dont know what hes going to do or whats going to happen.

Silly little things fire him up, things which probably wouldnt disturb you or disturb me, but they disturb him. Its very easy for him to get upset over things he shouldnt be upset about.

You wouldnt want to live with that because you wouldnt know when its going to happen. Thats what the problem is.

Tellingly, Bernie revealed that it was never possible to confront Stunt about his behaviour towards Petra. No, he said, firmly. You dont have conversations with James. You listen.

They also have a 65million property in Los Angeles, called The Manor, pictured, which was said to have been put up for sale last year for 150million

Certainly there is unlikely to be a more civil conversation any time soon. The court hearing last week was brought by Petra to try to evict Stunt from the home the couple shared with their three young children.

Stunt left on a judges orders on Friday afternoon in the back of a Rolls-Royce, puffing on a cigarette and  bizarrely  clutching two porcelain cats. Divorce proceedings are due to begin next month in the High Court, and whether Stunts erratic behaviour will continue remains to be seen.

Surrey-born Stunt is known as being rather eccentric and, arguably, paranoid, and has cultivated an air of mystery around his wealth.

Idiosyncrasies include being resolutely teetotal, despite owning a vast collection of fine wines, and worrying about germs  and potential assassins  to the extent he carries an Evian bottle everywhere he goes filled with his own soft drink.

When asked about it last year, he confessed: Someone might try and poison me. He spends a lot of time in Aspinalls casino in Mayfair, where the security is said to make him feel safe.

Mr Stunt left earlier proceedings in a black Rolls Royce via a back door at the London court after the hearing concluded

Accused of trading off the Ecclestone name, he has encouraged suggestions that he is independently rich to the tune of several billion pounds. Friends say he is enormously generous and loyal, and will shower those close to him with expensive wines, cars and even properties.

But quite how his wealth has been amassed is unclear and Bernie himself has confided to friends in the past that he couldnt make head nor tail of Stunts business claims.

For Bernie, the court date has come as something of a relief. Its clear Stunts apparent instability has affected the whole family.

He said Petra is now back in her home, while Stunt has apparently been prevented from contacting any of the family.

Shes happy now that she can get back into her house with the children and shes tidying it up a bit, Bernie said. He has been ordered not to bother her or any of her family  thats her sister or me. If he comes and bothers us hes going to be in trouble for that.

Last night, police confirmed Stunt was arrested in 2015 over the incident at The Rib Room.

A spokesman for the Met told The Mail on Sunday: A 33-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence (sec 4 Public Order Act) at approximately 10.20am on Monday, October 19.

He was subsequently informed that this matter would not be proceeded with.
We use various terms for the changes and chances of life. Yet the troubles of this world pass, and what we have left is what we have made of our souls. How can we become more spiritual and draw nearer to God, no matter what our human minds and bodies experience and endure? All are welcome to join the sharing of Baha'i texts and general discussion. Information: 541-745-7916.

HU Song: A Community HU Song will take place at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Eckankar Center of Corvallis, 425 SW Madison Ave., Suite N, downstairs in Madison Plaza.

This opportunity to learn and sing the HU, a love song to God, is open to people of all faiths. For more information about Eckankar and local events, visit www.miraclesinyourlife.org or www.eckankar.org.

Discussion: A spiritual discussion of life after death is set for 10:45 a.m. Sunday at the Eckankar Center of Corvallis.

This open discussion is offered as an opportunity to explore questions and share experiences and concerns about near-death experiences, as well as death, dying and the afterlife. Love is stronger than fear and even death, wrote Harold Klemp, the spiritual leader of Eckankar, in "Spiritual Wisdom on Life After Death."

This booklet offers techniques to experience heaven in this lifetime, practical spiritual guidance in times of grief, and new insights on reuniting with departed loved ones. The discussion will be based on the booklet, and all attending will receive a copy as a gift.

Quartet performs: The Craguns Gospel Quartet will perform at 6 p.m. Sunday at Hope Church, 2817 Santiam Highway in Albany.

An offering will be received.

Festival: The annual St. Benedict Festival is set for noon to 4 p.m. July 8 at Mount Angel Abbey, 1 Abbey Drive in St. Benedict.

Join the monks for a farm-to-fork picnic featuring Swiss-German cuisine, local wines and Benedictine Brewery craft beers. Tickets include the catered picnic, beer, wine, a festival logo glass and all activities. Tickets have sold out the last two years; advance purchase is recommended. Free parking with shuttle service to the abbey lawn is provided; carpooling is recommended; call ahead for tour bus parking information. This is an adults-only, 21-and-over event.

Admission is $50 per person. Tickets are available at www.mountangelabbey.org/sbf-2017. Information: 503-845-3030 or info@mtangel.edu.

Creativity celebrated: "Messy Church" will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. July 8 at First United Methodist Church in Corvallis.

The event is a time for adults and children to reflect a God of creativity through interactive activities.

Day camp: "Come Dive In with Us!" is set for July 10 through 14 at Grace Lutheran Church, 435 NW 21st St. in Corvallis.

This is a day camp for all children. Information: https://lutherwooddaycampcorv.wordpress.com.

VBS: Calvary Baptist Church, 800 34th Ave. SE in Albany, will offer a Vacation Bible School, "Galactic Starveyors," from 9 a.m. to noon July 10 through 14.

The week will feature stories, songs, games, crafts, refreshments, fun and adventure for children from age 4 through those who have just completed fifth grade.

Information is available at 541-926-5662.
A number of Republicans claim they have concerns about a growing rift between aides working for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

Half a dozen Republicans told McClatchy anonymously on Friday that the two staffs were 'walled off' from each other in the White House and that tensions are rising between them.

The White House has since come out and slammed the report as false.

The sources claim Trump and Pence's aides are disagreeing more often and sometimes bad mouth each other's bosses.

'There is clearly tension between the two staffs,' a former Trump adviser, who is still in contact with his ex-colleagues, said.

'There's so much internet chatter. That's going to fuel the animosity.'

Sources claim aides for Donald Trump and Mike Pence (pictured above on Friday) are disagreeing more often and sometimes bad mouth each other's bosses

Republican strategist Doug Heye speculated that Pence's staff might be frustrated about Trump's recent behavior.

'Trump does something and Mike Pence has to do cleanup,' Heye said. 'That can be very frustrating for staff.'

But the White House shot down the claims on Saturday, saying the report was false.

'It's just simply not true,' Marc Lotter, Pence's press secretary, told the Washington Examiner.

'None of these 'observations' come from people who actually work inside either office.'

The McClathy report said Trump and Pence were still allies.

'I think the relationship at the top is solid,' a campaign aide said.

It was announced this week that Pence's chief of staff will leave the White House and be replaced by a senior Pence campaign adviser who has been helping lead a pro-Trump group.

The White House shot down the claims on Saturday, saying reports of a rift between Trump and Pence's aide was 'simply not true'

Pence's office said Thursday that chief of staff Josh Pitcock will be succeeded in August by Nick Ayers, a longtime political operative from Georgia. The changes were first reported by The New York Times.

The move is the first big shake-up of the vice president's team since he took office.

Pitcock has served as a top aide to Pence for more than a decade, including during the vice president's time in Congress and as Indiana governor. Ayers advised Pence during the 2016 campaign and while Pence served as governor.

Ayers has been a leader of America First Policies, a pro-Trump outside group. The organization had prepared ads targeting Republican holdouts on the Senate's health care bill, and aired ads pressuring Nevada Sen. Dean Heller to support the plan.

Pence said Pitcock has 'played an invaluable role throughout my public career' and credited Ayers' 'friendship, keen intellect and integrity.'
Rookie police officers could be handed Tasers under an urgent review ordered in the wake of the London Bridge terror attacks.

Currently, only those with two years experience are allowed to carry the powerful electric stun guns. The rule meant brave PC Wayne Marques was forced to confront the three knife-wielding terrorists with just a baton during the atrocity last month that left eight dead and dozens wounded.

Now, as a result of his ordeal, chief constables are urgently reconsidering the restriction and it will be discussed at a top-level meeting next week. Some police leaders say the change is desperately needed because younger officers are usually those in harms way on the front line.

A file photo of the new Taser X2 ECD with tasercam HD - which features backup shot capability, video camera to record its use and dual lazer targetting to make shooting more accurate

Chiefs will also look at whether volunteer Special Constables should be allowed to carry Tasers for the first time. Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council, said: Issuing Tasers to officers with less than two years service was last discussed about six months ago. There was a very vigorous discussion with chiefs and I think its fair to say there were differing views about whether it was appropriate.

We will discuss it again because I think the fact that that officer [PC Marques] had less than two years illustrates the issue profoundly. It was under review six months ago but its back on the table.

But she added: The converse, of course, which was argued at the time, is that the public are often very concerned about Tasers and there have been cases where people have been harmed inappropriately.

About one in six  20,000  police officers in England and Wales is currently trained to use Tasers, a less-lethal weapon that allows suspects to be subdued at a distance.

PC WHO HAD ONLY A BATON DEFENCE PC Wayne Marques, 38, who was blinded in the London Bridge attack, had to fight off the three terrorists with a baton because he could not carry a Taser. Advertisement

Last year, they were used 11,294 times, although in most cases the officers only had to draw or aim the gun rather than fire it. The numbers are already set to rise as two of the countrys biggest forces seek to protect officers from assaults and the growing terrorism threat.

In recent weeks, Scotland Yard has said it will give the devices to almost 2,000 more officers, while Greater Manchester Police is doubling its Taser-trained ranks to 1,100 in the wake of Mays suicide bomb attack at the Manchester Arena which killed 22 people.

The issue was discussed by chief constables in January 2016, and the College of Policing produced a review last summer which led to the standards being kept as they were, despite pressure from rank-and-file officers. It will now be on the agenda for the Chief Constables Council meeting next week.

British Transport Police's Wayne Marques who fought off London Bridge attackers in June speaks to the press (left) and after one of the attackers had been shot

In an extraordinary interview last week, British Transport Police officer PC Marques told how he was forced to tackle the London Bridge terrorists armed only with his baton.

He said: I remember grabbing my baton with my right hand and I racked [extended] it. I took a deep breath and I just charged the first one.

The officer said the terrorist gave a yelp of pain but then the wolf pack descended on him and he was blinded in one eye after being stabbed in the face.

The trio then ran off but were later shot dead by armed officers.
One of the armed policemen who tackled the London Bridge terrorists was on his first call-out as a marksman, it can be revealed. The officer had only just completed his training and had been in the role for two weeks when he had to confront the three killers.

He was part of an Armed Response Vehicle (ARV) team from City of London Police that sped to the scene on June 3 with two units from Scotland Yard.

They cornered Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba in Borough Market after the extremists mowed down pedestrians in a hired van before stabbing revellers in pubs and restaurants, killing eight and injuring dozens more.

In this image taken from video which emerged on social media, shows police as they surround an attacker on ground at right, during the attack in Borough Market in southeast London Saturday June 3

The eight armed police officers  three from the City and five from the Met  shot all three Islamists dead in what chiefs said was an unprecedented hail of 46 bullets, because they feared the trio were about to detonate suicide belts.

Although the Independent Police Complaints Commission is looking into the shootings, it has stressed that no individual police officers are under investigation.

Last night, Mark Williams, chairman of the Police Firearms Officers Association, told The Mail on Sunday: We are incredibly proud of them and all the work they do to protect all of us.

Three men on the ground after they were shot by police. Minutes before they had killed eight and injured 48 others

Assistant Commissioner Alistair Sutherland, from City of London Police, added: We are proud of the actions of all of our officers and staff, and those of the Metropolitan Police and BTP, and how they all responded to the London Bridge terrorist attack, and want to particularly pay tribute to the actions taken by our firearms officers.

I believe the incident also demonstrated the fantastic training that our firearms officers receive, which enabled them to go forward automatically to mitigate the threat to the public.

These officers went towards danger without any thought for their own safety, and their quick and decisive actions undoubtedly saved further loss of life.

A 143 million uplift of armed police was ordered nationwide in the wake of the Paris terror attacks of late 2015. In total there will be about 10,500 armed police in England and Wales by next year, including specialist counter-terrorism units carrying powerful assault rifles, as well as the high-speed ARV patrols.
A five-year-old boy died after he accidentally shot himself in the face on Saturday morning.

Jayden Pempleton, 5, shot himself in his Jackson, Mississippi, home on accident, according to police.

Officers were called to the boy's home around 10.55am Saturday to investigate a shooting.

Pempleton had suffered a gunshot wound to the face and he was taken to the Blair E Batson Children's Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

Jackson Police Department Commander Tyree Jones, pictured, said Jayden Pempleton, 5, accidentally shot himself in the face Saturday morning in Jackson, Mississippi

After investigating the scene, officers determined the shooting was an accident.

'We've questioned the father of this individual and other people at the house at the time of the shooting,' Jackson Police Department Commander Tyree Jones said, according to The Clarion-Ledger.

'At this time it appears to be an accidental shooting and our hearts go out to the family.'

Police are still investigating, though they do not expect to file any charges, Jones said.

More details have not been released about the incident.

'We're still investigating. We have evidence we need to submit to the crime lab and we've taken statements from people on scene,' Jones said.

Pempleton had suffered a gunshot wound to the face and he was taken to the Blair E Batson Children's Hospital, pictured, where he was pronounced dead
Advertisement

The doors swung open at the stroke of midnight and the first of thousands of customers poured in  all eager to be part of history.

At 12.01am Saturday, Nevada became the fifth state in the US to make selling recreational marijuana legal and fans of the drug came out in force.

Party town Las Vegas will be the biggest winner from the new legislation with a huge tax windfall of up to $60million predicted for the first two years.

Millions of tourists visiting Sin City are expected to make nearly two of every three purchases from marijuana retailers.

Some in the industry have said Vegas  which attracts more than 42 million tourists annually - will become the mecca for marijuana overtaking the likes of Amsterdam in Holland as the world capital of cannabis.

Jim Ferrence from The Euphoria Wellness center in Las Vegas is seen at midnight on July 1, when Nevada became the fifth state in the US to legalize marijuana

More than 500 people lined up outside the Euphoria Wellness dispensary in Enterprise, on the outskirts of Las Vegas, and cheers erupted as the doors opened

Excitement: A man who declined to give his name smells marijuana for sale at The Source dispensary while Lucio Ortiz (right) takes his sweet time in making up his mind

Decisions: A man shops for marijuana at The Source dispensary shortly after it opened on the stroke of midnight on Saturday

Dank nuggets are seen in a display case at Euphoria Wellness. Nevada became the fifth state to legalize marijuana at 12.01am on Saturday

Staff at Euphoria make the final preparations before opening the doors at midnight

A cashier rings up a marijuana sale as Nevada becomes the fifth state to legally sell weed for recreational purposes

Edible cannabis products are displayed at Essence Vegas Cannabis Dispensary before the midnight start of recreational marijuana sales on June 30, 2017 in Las Vegas

Anyone aged 21 or over can now buy up to an ounce of pot at a time in Nevada  joining Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in changing the law.

Customers can only use the marijuana they buy in the privacy of their own home though, with a $600 fine still in place for those caught smoking pot in public or while driving a vehicle.

More than 500 people lined up outside the Euphoria Wellness dispensary in Enterprise, on the outskirts of Las Vegas, and cheers erupted as the doors opened.

First in line was Zachary Miyasato and his wife Denise who had waited for three hours to buy some pot.

Zachary, 38, a medical marijuana agent, admitted he had driven by the dispensary at 9am and again at 12.30pm, just in case the line had already started.

He said: I love to smoke cannabis and relax. This is great for the city, itll bring a lot of money, its definitely good for me.

People wait in line Friday night at the Essence cannabis dispensary in Las Vegas, excited to buy legal marijuana for the first time in Nevada

Customers flooded into the Essence dispensary to examine the wares and buy up to an ounce of marijuana legally

A person buys marijuana at the Essence dispensary. Las Vegas is expected to reap a huge tax windfall of up to $60million for the first two years of legalized sales

Where the crop is grown: Marijuana plants receive light at the Desert Grown Farms cultivation facility in Las Vegas on June 28 - just prior to going on sale across Nevada

Zachary had his eye on varieties of marijuana flower sold at Euphoria called Pineapple Express, Superman OG and Gorilla Glue and he and his wife walked out of the store with around a gram each.

The line to Euphoria snaked around the block and spilled out into the parking lot as more than 500 people tried to get served within the three hour window.

Kyle and Christian Flint were also near the front of the high-spirited line.

The pair, who live locally in Enterprise and have two children, said the change in the law was great news and they planned to buy a lot more.

Kyle, a 27-year-old fire inspector, said: Cannabis takes care of the pain, Im 6ft 8ins, I grew fast. Seriously, it helps with the bones, helps me relax after work. Ive always supported a change in the law, I grew up doing it illegally, always looking over my shoulder, feeling like a criminal, when all I was doing was relaxing at home smoking some stuff and eating Cheetos.

The smiling couple came out of the store with their marijuana in tightly sealed bags, as is required by law.

Zachary Miyasato and his wife Denise were first in line at Euphoria Wellness when the doors opened, and had waited for three hours to buy some pot once it became legal

Kyle and Christian Flint were also near the front of the line. Cannabis takes care of the pain, Im 6ft 8ins, I grew fast. Seriously, it helps with the bones, helps me relax after work,' said Kyle

Retired gaming worker Dennis Ford, 62, has been smoking pot for 40 years and finally, he says, he doesnt have to stress about where his next batch comes from.

I dont have to drive to Colorado to get my pot any more, he joked.

Ive been smoking pot for about 40 years just because I enjoy it. Im very supportive of it, it means a tax break for the schools, more revenue for the state fund, were excited, I think its fun, even if it is only in the home.

Youre getting a quality, lab tested product and they give you all the information about what youre buying. It doesnt get better than that.

Dennis said he planned to buy an eighth of an ounce of the DTK variety and some hard candy edibles.

Outside Euphoria  which is neighbored by a Japanese restaurant and a dental practice - a heavy-set armed security guard shepherded the crowd into the well lit shop ten people at a time.

Excited Marketing Director Jim Ferrence said the company had doubled its cultivating team and shop staff to cope with demand since the change in law was announced last November.

He says the modern store, which hands all customers an iPad when they walk in so they can view the menu options, sells flowers, concentrates, edibles and topicals with their house brand Summa selling for $160 an ounce.

You can tell by the line outside the kind of numbers were looking at and well be busy all weekend, he said.

Different strains of marijuana are seen on display at Euphoria Wellness, including Golden Pineapple, OG Kush, and Girl Scout Cookies

The overall market will explode, 20-30 times bigger with all the tourists and all the adults here for a reason.

Jim says hes always seen Vegas as a better version of Amsterdam and says the new law is a natural extension of Sin Citys reputation as party capital of the world.

Its an adult playground so this is a perfect fit, Las Vegas will become the mecca for marijuana, he said.

They (the Government) have also projected $60million in tax revenue in the first two years which is a huge win.

A huge chunk of that goes towards kids' education which is a huge problem in this state.

Overnight it will kill the black market, kill the illegal grow houses and bring it into the open and allow it to be regulated.

It will keep it out of the hands of children and make it safer all round.

To entice people into their store owners Larry Doyle and Joe Lamarca decided to give the first 100 customers one gram of marijuana as a gift.

This change in law will make our business profitable, because the margins in medical marijuana arent that great, said Larry, who started out with a chain of hair salons told DailyMail.com. Were looking forward to what happens next.

Euphoria isnt the only shop cashing in of course.

Bryce Tallitsch hangs up a sign for recreational marijuana at the NuLeaf dispensary in Las Vegas on Friday night

Of the 48 dispensaries in Nevada 15 opened at midnight, including a larger dispensary called Essence on the Las Vegas Strip.

All dispensaries had worked furiously for eight months to prepare for the launch.

Extra stock had to be cultivated and packed on the shelves and security and extra check-out staff drafted in.

Desert Grown Farms hired around 60 extra staff.

It would be a good problem to have if I couldn't meet my demand, said CEO Armen Yemenidjian, whose Desert Grown Farms owns the only dispensary selling pot on the famous Las Vegas Strip.

Voters approved the new legalisation eight months ago, making this the quickest turnaround from the ballot box to sales in the US.

While anyone who is 21 with a valid ID can snap up an ounce of pot or one-eighth of an ounce of edibles or concentrates, they'll have to bring cash.

Virtually no banks will take on accounts from marijuana companies, which means the industry is entirely cash-based.

Industry experts predict Nevada will boast the nation's biggest market, at least until California plans to begin recreational sales in January.
Hayden Cross, the first British female-to-male transsexual to become pregnant, is due to give birth

Transgender women who were born male should be given womb transplants so that they can have children, leading NHS doctors have told The Mail on Sunday.

And fertility experts say taxpayers should fund such transplants for those who identify as women, on the basis of equality enshrined in law.

Leading the debate on the controversial procedure is medical ethics lawyer Dr Amel Alghrani, who is pressing for a talks on whether womb transplants for trans-women should be publicly funded.

Dr Alghrani, of Liverpool University, also predicts that a successful programme would lead to others demanding wombs  including gay and straight men who wanted to experience the joys of carrying a child.

But critics say the NHS should not waste precious resources merely to allow trans-women to pursue an authentic female experience.

Womens campaigner Laura Perrins said: Most taxpayers will not think this is a good use of resources. It raises profound ethical and moral issues that will have an impact on womens rights. It will impinge on the meaning of motherhood and womanhood.

However, gynaecologists are increasingly convinced that implanting a donor womb into a person born with male organs is possible, with one top doctor saying it is just a decade away. They believe the recent success of uterine transplantation in women born without wombs has drawn it a step closer.

Since 2014, at least five babies have been born to womb-less women after receiving donor wombs in a series of pioneering operations at Gothenburg University in Sweden.

Later this year British doctors hope to start their own charity-funded programme to give donor wombs to at least three UK women.

It is the remarkable success of the Swedish team that has triggered calls by transgender women for them to receive womb transplants too.

And now some NHS doctors are backing their demands.Consultant gynaecologist Dr Arianna DAngelo, of the NHSs Wales Fertility Institute, said it was right from an ethical point of view.

Mr Cross, 21, from Gloucester, who was born Paige, put his sex-change on hold last year so he could have a baby

We already have fertility preservation for transgender people, to give them the possibility to have their own genetic child, she said.

So I dont see much of a difference between that and actually delivering their own child. Dr Francoise Shelfield, a clinical lecturer in obstetrics and gynaecology at University College London, who has treated infertile NHS patients for 30 years, added her support.

If we are saying we should have equality and we have legislation [defending the rights of transgender people], I do not see why not, she said.

Their rights to equal treatment, she noted, were actually enshrined in legislation.

WOMBS FOR MEN: COMMENT FROM FEMINIST CAMPAIGNER JULIE BINDEL The prospect of wombs being transplanted into transgender women so they can have babies may seem perfectly reasonable to those who see procreation as a right for all women. But those born male who are dosed with female hormones and undergo cosmetic surgery in order to present as female will never be women. Trans-women pushing for womb transplants on the NHS are driven by a desire to experience childbirth, because it is considered to be an authentic female experience. But this is not about transgender rights  its about a twisted notion as to what constitutes a real woman. This procedure suggests that you can create a woman in a test tube or through a surgeons knife. All of the oppression women have been through because of lack of childcare and issues over maternity leave will be pushed aside over whether celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner should have a womb transplant. Lets be clear: this is a lifestyle choice, not a health issue. And quite frankly, Im not sure if men will make good mothers. Advertisement

The doctors calls come as Hayden Cross, the first British female-to-male transsexual to become pregnant, is due to give birth. Mr Cross, 21, from Gloucester, who was born Paige, put his sex-change on hold last year so he could have a baby  doing so with sperm from an online donor.

Professor Steven Weyers, of Ghent University Hospital, in Belgium, is starting a womb transplant programme involving 20 women later this year. He said he believed transplants for trans-women would happen in maybe a decade.

Dr Alghrani, director of Liverpool Universitys Health Law & Regulation Unit and a trained barrister, makes her case in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, saying that once women started being offered womb transplants, questions will arise as to whether this should be publicly funded for trans-women too. She says this would revolutionise reproduction.

It could lead others to demand transplants, including straight men, allowing for couples to jointly share the reproductive burdens and joys of pregnancy. And she says: Homosexual couples may also wish to procreate in this fashion, while single men may opt for it to avoid surrogacy.
Barack Obama has taken a swipe at his successor, saying President Donald Trump had caused a 'temporary absence of American leadership' when it comes to climate change policy.

The former US president was addressing a crowd in Jakarta, which is his childhood home, to open the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora on Saturday at the end of his 10-day family vacation.

'In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change, an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance,' Obama said.

Trump shocked many countries last month by announcing he was pulling out of the Paris climate agreement.

Barack Obama took a swipe at his successor Donald Trump about climate change policy during a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia on Saturday

'The challenges of our times, whether it's economic inequality, changing climate, terrorism, mass migration; these are really challenges and we're going to have to confront them together,' Obama said.

Obama also shared some wisdom about tolerance and taking the daily news cycle in stride, following another week of dust-ups between the media and Trump.

Trump was condemned by both Democrats and Republicans for a tweet that attacked female MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski.

In his remarks on Saturday, Obama stressed the importance of stepping away from news sites where only like-minded views are shared, and warned about social media giving rise to resentment of minorities and bad treatment of people.

Obama's speech came on the final leg of his 10-day vacation in Indonesia with wife Michelle and their daughters Malia and Sasha. It marked his first trip to Asia since leaving office.

Obama's speech came on the final leg of his 10-day vacation in Indonesia with wife Michelle (right) and their daughters Malia (center) and Sasha (linking arms with her mother)

Barack Obama took a golf-cart tour of Bogor Palace in West Java on Friday, where he and his family are staying as guests of Indonesian President Joko Widodo (right)

Obama and Widodo were pictured later sitting down in the grounds of the palace

The family visited two of the most treasured ancient temples - Borobudur, a Buddhist complex, and the Hindu compound of Prambanan - in the world's most populous Muslim country.

They also went river rafting and toured the resort island of Bali.

On Friday, Obama met Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the grand Bogor Palace in West Java, just outside Jakarta.

In his speech on Saturday, Obama reminisced about moving to Jakarta in 1967 when he was just six years old, shouting: 'Indonesia bagian dari diri saya!' or 'Indonesia is part of me!'

Obama is wildly popular in Indonesia, where many view him as an adopted son. A statue of the boy still remembered as 'Barry' stands outside his old elementary school.

The Obamas went whitewater rafting down the Ayung River during their 10-day visit to Indonesia

Former US President Barack Obama waves to a crowd of gathered tourists just as he enters the Prambanan Temple in Java on Thursday

He lived in the country with his mother and his Indonesian stepfather. The couple split up after having his half-sister and Obama moved back to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his grandparents.

But he said he has never forgotten the years he spent in Indonesia.

'My time here made me cherish respect for people's differences,' he said.

He urged the country to be a light of democracy and to never stop embracing differences. Indonesia has faced a rise in Islamic radicalism and anti-gay attacks, and was recently condemned by rights groups for jailing Jakarta's former governor, an ethnic Chinese Christian, for blasphemy.

'The spirit of this country has to be one of tolerance. It's enshrined in Indonesia's constitution, it's symbolized by mosques and temples and churches beside each other,' Obama said.

'That spirit is one of the defining things about Indonesia. It is one of the most important characteristics to set as an example for other Muslim countries around the world.'
A tense siege in North Strathfield came to an end just before midnight on Saturday, nearly 20 hours after it began.

Police reportedly used rubber bullets and tasers to subdue the man who had barricaded himself in his apartment after hurling bricks from his balcony.

The man was taken to Royal Prince Alfred hospital but suffered no injuries. He will speak with police following his release.

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A tense siege in North Strathfield came to an end just before midnight on Saturday, nearly 18 hours after it began

Police reportedly used rubber bullets and tasers to subdue the man who had barricaded himself in his apartment after hurling bricks from his balcony

Dramatic helicopter vision from George St in North Strathfield captured heavily armed police attending the scene.

The road was fenced off as police attempted to subdue the man.

The man was alone throughout the barricade, and police were not concerned of his risk to the public, Seven News reported.

It began shortly before 5am am and lasted nearly 20 hours until his arrest.

The dramatic siege has entered its 15th hour as police continue to surround the man (pictured)
Theresa May is ready to consider a dramatic U-turn on university tuition fees to woo young voters back to the Tory Party.

The bombshell move was signalled yesterday by her most senior Minister, Damian Green, who said a national debate may well be needed on this huge issue.

He said the Tories were doomed unless they reacted to the surge in support for Labour, especially among the young, and called on the party to change hard. Millions of students voted Labour following Jeremy Corbyns vow to scrap tuition fees, slashing the Tory lead.

Prime Minister Theresa May attends a press conference at the end of a two-day EU Summit in Brussels late month

Mr Green also hinted at a fundamental rethink in the Conservatives approach to capitalism amid criticism of its austerity policies, saying:

The discontent with capitalism since the 2008 crash, which is vaguely expressed as being anti-austerity, needs to be tackled head-on.

The Tories must adapt to the changed political landscape or risk serious long-term damage to the partys electoral prospects, he said, adding that his party had to be ready to recast our core beliefs in a manner that captures the prevailing mood of the era.

And he took a sideswipe at Mrs Mays predecessor David Cameron, saying renewing Tory support among the young was about more than hugging huskies, cuddling hoodie-wearing teenagers and PR stunts.

Mr Greens comments are believed to have been sanctioned by Mrs May. She promoted him to First Secretary after the Election, effectively making him her deputy. The two have been close friends since they met at university.

However, even Mrs May did not escape criticism as Mr Green said the language she used in a hard-hitting attack on the anti-Brexit metropolitan elite last year was too tough.

His speech in London reflects the scale of Tory alarm at the growing popularity of Mr Corbyn, but it will spark concern among traditionalists who have warned against a panic reaction to Labour gains at the Election. Mrs May could face claims that such major changes could further undermine her claim to be strong and stable.

Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green appearing on the BBC One current affairs programme

Less than two months ago, she scorned Mr Corbyns pledge to axe tuition fees, saying: Tuition fees will remain. You have to ask Labour how they would pay for all they are proposing? Weve seen how Labour governments wreck the economy. If you wreck the economy then you cant support students.

Experts say axing tuition fees would cost 8 billion a year.

Mr Greens remarks come after claims Mrs May is ready to scrap the one per cent pay cap on public sector workers. Michael Gove last night became the latest Cabinet Minsister to call for the cap to be lifted.

A further indication of the tensions inside the party came yesterday with a fierce attack on Mrs May by anti-Brexit Tory MP Anna Soubry. She said David Cameron had spent ten years making us electable which we almost trashed in ten weeks.

And ex-Chancellor George Osborne said: If the Party doesnt move towards the centre this will be its last spell of government, warning that a more moderate, Labour leader would have won the Election.

Prime Minister Theresa May (2L) sits with Britain's First Secretary of State Damian Green (L), and Britain's Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, and Chief Whip, Gavin Williamson (3L) as they talk with Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster (2R), DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds (3R), and DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, inside 10 Downing Street

After delivering his speech to the Bright Blue think-tank, which campaigns for the Conservative Party to adopt liberal policies, Mr Green was asked about his message for students who backed Labour in anger about tuition fees. He replied: This is clearly a huge issue. He added that the only way to cut fees and maintain standards and student numbers would be by raising taxes, and it may well be that this is a national debate that we need to have.

The Tories are 30 points behind Labour among 18 to 35-year-olds, and Mr Green said. If young people feel the world isnt giving them an even break they look for radical change, even if what is being promised, by populists, is just a better yesterday. Ukip hankers after the 1950s, Corbyns Labour the 1970s, with both hoping that nobody under 40 reads a history book and sees the glaring faults in those eras.

Mr Green also said the Tories  including Mrs May  had to tone down their rhetoric, warning: You can deliver a hard-nosed message without using the wrong language.

Last night, there were no signs that Mr Green was being disowned by No 10. Asked about his remarks, a Government source merely said there were no immediate plans to scrap tuition fees.
Pablo Neruda is a hero in Chile.

He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971 for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continents destiny and dreams.

His funeral in 1973, where people came out onto the streets to follow the cortege, was the first mass movement against the Pinochet regime. And a new film about his life is now in cinemas.

Chapter and verse: Pablo Neruda is fondly remembered in his three eclectic homes in Chile - in the capital Santiago, in the port city of Valparaiso (pictured), and on Isla Negra

If you go to Chile, you can really get a feel for his flair.

Because the poet is fondly remembered in his three, eclectic homes in the capital Santiago, the port city Valparaiso and on Isla Negra, on the coast south of Valparaiso, where he is buried.

I dont manage the latter, but imagine it to be as full of surprises as his two city retreats.

They tell of a man who loved to party and delighted in collecting.

My real profession is a builder he once said. I built my house as a toy and I play with it from morning to night.

After his death, the houses were looted and destroyed by Pinochets supporters, but Nerudas wife Matilda made it her mission to restore them to their former glory.

Respected: Neruda (left) with French publisher Lucien Seve in 1972, just a year before his death

She even succeeded in returning treasured objects.

Neruda adored the sea and nautical nods abound. There are portholes all over the place and in his Valparaiso home the bar (he had one in every house) wouldnt look out of place on a vessel.

The glasses that line the shelves are said to have belonged to Tsar Nicholas.

Neruda only ever served water in coloured glass because he believed it tasted better that way.

And, when friends gathered in his lofty Valparaiso dining room to watch the New Years Eve fireworks in the bay below, cocktails were served from a ceramic cow. Ever the gregarious host, Neruda believed that eating alone was like eating in a tomb.

Neruda only ever served water in coloured glass because he believed it tasted better that way

No chance of that here. Above, a corcoro bird from Venezuela is suspended in a Perspex bubble.

Works of art include a peaceful painting by Rousseau and several designs by Fornasetti.

In his Santiago home, called La Chascona (meaning ruffled) after Matildas wild hair, there are flicks to amuse guests  a salt and pepper set labelled as morphine and marijuana, a golden apple cooler, a miniature door through which Neruda would pop out, unexpectedly. And a summer bar complete with tables from a Parisian bistro and a giant shoe.

Enough to surprise even Alice in Wonderland.
The Albany School Board voted unanimously this week to approve a new contract for the superintendent, adopt next year's budget and establish a new bell schedule for schools this fall.

Superintendent Jim Golden's new three-year contract includes a raise from $148,625 to $156,145. It also adds a 2 percent cost of living allocation on top of a 3-percent step in the first year of the contract. Contract language includes a cell phone/internet contribution of $150 per month and a car allowance of $450 per month.

Golden is in his second year with Greater Albany Public Schools. Board members thanked him at Monday's meeting for his service, and outgoing board member Sandi Gordon added, "This (hiring) is the best decision we ever had, that I've ever been a part of."

The 2017-18 budget as adopted by the board includes a few small appropriations transfers to cover projects that were costlier than expected, Business Director Russell Allen said. Those included $75,000 to the Enterprise and Community Services fund for the new after-school Rebels Rising Program and $500,000 to Facilities Acquisition and Construction for a six-classroom modular building at Lafayette Elementary School.

The changes also included $150,000 to instruction to cover the cost of additional computers and $50,000 to Facilities to help cover a new play structure at South Shore Elementary School.

Next year's budget spends down its fund balance by $6.4 million to stay on top of expenses and hire more staff. It assumes a 1.3 percent cost of living raise, with an increase in insurance of $50 per month, for all employees.

The district will hire 12.9 additional full-time-equivalent teachers to handle enrollment growth or large class sizes. Another four FTE will be hired as elementary reading specialists.

Albany is also looking to strengthen its behavior program and its dual language/biliteracy efforts. The budget adds one FTE to a behavior program at the middle school level, another for dual language/biliteracy work at South Albany High School, and one additional teacher and two classified employees to expand English Language Learner services at Clover Ridge and Timber Ridge schools.

Another $4 million has been set aside to address rising PERS costs, to be split between the two years of the biennium, Allen said.

Board members also approved a plan to change start and end times at all Albany schools this fall to expand instruction time for younger students and let older ones sleep a little later.

The new schedule drew criticism from families worried about driving students to multiple schools or figuring out supervision. One kindergarten teacher, Kandace Galvan of Liberty, said she was concerned the longer days might be too much for younger students who can't work productively for extended periods.

"I'm concerned that educationally, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't really work," she said.

But board members said the change fits their goal of making sure students are in school as much as possible. "Ultimately, it's doing what's best for kids," Chairman Micah Smith said.

In a statement from the teachers association, President Sue McGrory agreed, saying research backs up this schedule change.

"Oregon ranks second to last in the U.S. for student instructional time, so the Association is definitely supportive of creating optimum times for our students to learn," she wrote. "We are always interested in having our teachers in the best position to help our students grow in knowledge and skills. As teachers we work hard to balance time to prepare for instruction with maximizing time with our students."
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We were not going anywhere fast.

A giant elephant  its trunk painted in swirls of green, pink and blue  had stopped right in front of our bus, along with a wedding party so huge that it stretched far into the distance.

There were two brass bands, a troupe of brilliantly clad dancers, and a family entourage that could have dropped straight from Bollywood. Perhaps they had.

During Giles' expedition through the lively Indian city of Jaipur, stops included a visit to the breathtaking Amer fort (pictured)

When driving in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan in northern India, it pays to allow extra time for your journey. The streets are a chaotic mix of fume-belching cars, brightly painted lorries, and motorised rickshaws, all of them hooting and jostling for position.

Incredibly, the traffic almost never comes to a complete halt. Its as if some invisible hand is gently shunting the whole lot forwards, oblivious to red lights, ragged street urchins and the fact that half the rickshaws are driving on the wrong side of the road.

Our stand-off with the elephant didnt last long. After 20 minutes or so, the beast trumpeted, the band blew their brass, and the bride and groom exhorted everyone to get under way. They did  even the elephant  allowing us to once again get on the move.

Jaipur is one of Indias most beguiling cities, one in which nothing is quite as it seems. Founded in the late 1700s by the local ruler, Jai Singh, it was deliberately designed to look different from every other place in India. The streets were laid out in a grid and adorned with flamboyant palaces and temples. Every door opens on to a new wonder.

When driving in Jaipur, it pays to allow extra time for your journey, remarks Giles, since the streets are a chaotic mix of fume-belching cars, brightly painted lorries, motorised rickshaws and even elephants

The entire city was painted pink in 1876 as a welcoming gesture to the visiting Prince of Wales (later crowned King Edward VII). History has not recorded who, at the time, owned the concession for pink paint, but I wouldnt be surprised if the maharaja had a vested interest. Ever since, Jaipur has been known as the Pink City.

The central sights of Jaipur are best reached by tuk-tuk or motorised rickshaw: 100 rupees (1.25) will get you just about anywhere in the city centre. Hold on tight, look at your feet and not at the maelstrom of vehicles zooming towards you, and dont inhale the exhaust. Its like a fairground ride, with a large dollop of added danger.

My first stop was Jaipurs most photographed facade, the stunning Hawa Mahal or Palace of Winds. Id seen scores of pictures of the place, all breathtaking, yet nothing prepares you for the real thing: a giant pink beehive of a building thats decorated with 1,000 latticed windows.

When built in 1799, each window-niche would have been occupied by a lady of the court, every one of whom lived in purdah. Forbidden from wandering about town, or even being seen in public, these imprisoned princesses could catch a glimpse of the bustling street life below if they twisted their necks downwards and pressed their faces tight against the lattice-work.

The Hawa Mahal, or Palace of Winds, is a giant pink beehive of a building dating back to 1799 thats decorated with 1,000 latticed windows - and is Jaipurs most photographed facade

From the Hawa Mahal, its a five-minute walk to the fabled City Palace, principal residence of the citys once-mighty maharajas. That five-minute walk along the edge of the bazaar was one to remember. Suddenly, everyone was my friend.

Carpet-sellers, gem-dealers, weavers and stone-carvers  with every step, yet another hawker or peddler joined the merry band trying to sell me their wares. One claimed to have family in Bradford. Another said improbably that hed spent a weekend in Manchester United.

Spurning their offers of antique caskets and Moghul miniatures, I pressed on towards the City Palace, still inhabited by descendants of the ruling dynasty who lavished their fortune on embellishing the place. Much of it can be visited: sun-splashed courtyards, mosaic-covered gateways and ornamental audience chambers dripping with opulence and decadence.

Pause for a moment on the marble steps, close your eyes, and its not hard to imagine yourself back in the citys heyday, when the ruling Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II, a veritable man-mountain, struggled to ease his vast frame into the voluminous clothes on display. (For the record, he was 4ft wide, weighed 40st and had 108 wives.)

Jaipur is one of those fabled cities that promise much and offer even more, says Giles - just dont expect to go anywhere in a hurry

Excess is everywhere on display in the City Palace. Dont miss the Hall of Public Audience, which houses two of the largest silver vessels in the world, each one made from 14,000 molten silver coins.

They were made for Sawai Madho Singh so that he could transport enough holy drinking water from the Ganges to last him the duration of his visit to England in 1901. Each held 8,500 pints  enough to ensure he wouldnt have to consume unholy water from the London mains.

The oddest monument in Jaipur is the curiously named Jantar Mantar, a collection of gigantic sun-measuring instruments invented by the same maharaja who founded Jaipur. The scale and accuracy of the Jantar Mantars sundials and observatories are staggering, especially as they were built almost three centuries ago.

The largest sundial is the height of a three-storey house, yet its intricately calibrated scale, used to compute the suns shadow, is correct to half a second.

You could easily fill a week seeing the sights of Jaipur. The Amer Fort is another highlight thats not to be missed. And then theres the Jai Mahal (or Water Palace), which is even more impressive.

Jaipur has more to offer than mere monuments. The local cuisine (largely vegetarian, since seven out of ten Rajasthanis dont eat meat) is infinitely superior to anything youll get in your local Indian restaurant. Kadhi is one of the more unusual dishes  a thick and spicy yogurt sauce dotted with succulent, deep-fried pastries.

Id come here for the Jaipur Literature Festival. This is the Glastonbury of the book world, gathering writers from across the planet, and up to half a million visitors. Jaipur hosts other festivals too, including the ever-popular elephant festival each March.

The highlight of the event is the beauty contest, with stunningly bedecked elephants (along with decorated camels and horses) competing for the title of Miss Indian Elephant.

Jaipur is one of those fabled cities that promise much and offer even more. Just dont expect to go anywhere in a hurry  especially if you get stuck behind an elephant.
The Belgian city of Bruges is a medieval masterpiece just a short hop across the Channel.

Just 75 miles from the Eurotunnel terminal at Calais, it is close enough to visit at any time of year.

Gareth Huw Davies tours the historic sights  and cant resist its famous chocolate, chips and beer

The Groenerei canal, seen here with the illuminated Church of Our Lady, attracts big crowds, so try looking for the gaps between the tour parties

1. Close call

Bruges is one of the nearest historic cities on the Continent. Just 75 miles from the Eurotunnel terminal at Calais, it is close enough to visit at any time of year.

I prefer travelling on the Eurostar to Brussels, then taking a quick, direct connection (free for Eurostar passengers) to Bruges.

It was British tourists, en route to the Waterloo battlefield in the 19th Century, who rediscovered a city in slumber, unchanged since its glory days in the 14th and 15th Centuries.

The enduring feature over the centuries has been the 272ft Belfry on Markt. Climb the 366 steps for some stupendous views.

The enduring feature in Bruges over the centuries has been the 272ft Belfry on Markt (pictured). Climb the 366 steps for some stupendous views.

2. High-tech history

Venice of the North is meant as a compliment, but it doesnt do Bruges justice. Until its sudden decline in the 1400s, this was the beating heart of northern Europe.

It housed the Hanseatic League, which controlled Baltic trade. Florences Medici family ran a bank for Italian traders from Hof Bladelin mansion, still there on Naaldenstraat. Now we can reimagine that history.

Bruges is one of the first cities to offer visitors new virtual-reality technology. The Historium Museum issues people who take its city-centre tour with Google Cardboard headsets. You can see buildings, some of them long gone, in their medieval setting.

3. Beat the crowds

The main sites  the Beguinage, Minnewater, St Saviours Cathedral and waterways such as the beautiful Groenerei canal  attract big crowds. Try looking for the gaps between the tour parties.

Theres a deep calm in the citys fine museums. The Groeninge charts 600 years of Flemish art, and the Church of Our Lady has an unexpected wonder  Michelangelos marble Madonna And Child. It was the masters only work to leave Italy in his lifetime.

About a mile out of the city is St Janshuis windmill (pictured). Built in 1770, it still grinds grain, and it is open to visitors

4. Go for a spin

Even in high season, few tourists venture beyond the centre to the outskirts of the city. Using a map on my smartphone, I headed through quiet, cobbled streets full of houses painted a delicate wash of cream or pink, and windowsills crammed with flower boxes.

About a mile out of the city is St Janshuis windmill. Built in 1770, it still grinds grain, and it is open to visitors.

5. Drink up

The De Halve Maan brewery devised a radical plan to combat the traffic congestion slowing up its deliveries. It sank a two-mile polyethylene pipe under the streets to send its beer to a bottling plant. The brewery offers daily tours.

One of the cosiest havens is De Garre, near the Belfry. It serves De Garre Triple, so strong (11 per cent) that customers are limited to three glasses.

Bruges other speciality is chocolate, with plenty to tempt you in the windows of independent shops. For waffles, try Tearoom Carpe Diem. Chips are celebrated at the Frietmuseum.

6. Art with soul

Frank Brangwyn was an artist honoured in his native Bruges, but let down by the British Establishment. The Arentshuis Gallery holds 400 works he donated to the city. Brangwyns father was from Buckinghamshire and his mother was Welsh but they later moved to Bruges, where Frank was born.

Frank received two commissions from the Lords, but the peers rejected both. His wartime scenes were too grim; his British Empire Panels too colourful. Today they hang, respectively, in Cardiffs National Museum of Wales and Swanseas Brangwyn Hall.
She juggles modelling and motherhood seamlessly.

And Lily Aldridge, 32, spent quality time with daughter Dixie, five, as well as putting on a stylish display as the pair took to a gondola for a spot of sightseeing in Venice on Friday.

The supermodel lavished affection on her only child as she held the angelic little girl close and excitedly pointed out landmarks as they enjoyed their boat ride.

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Precious time: Lily Aldridge, 32, spent quality time with daughter Dixie, five, as well as putting on a stylish display as the pair took to a gondola for a spot of sightseeing in Venice on Friday

Venetian vibes: Victoria's Secret Angel Lily couldn't have looked happier to be spending the day with the curly haired youngster, and rocked a casually chic ensemble

Victoria's Secret Angel Lily couldn't have looked happier to be spending the day with the curly haired youngster, and rocked a casually chic ensemble.

She donned an all-cream outfit of a vest top and baggy cargo trousers which covered up her toned frame.

Keeping with the theme, the multi-tasker carried a cream strappy bag as she gently lifted her precious cargo out of the boat.

The star appeared to go make-up free for the occasion, covering her sparkling eyes with reflective shades.

Look at that: Her little girl looked on in awe as Lily excitedly gestured at the city's stunning sights

Sight-seeing: Dixie, who was born in June 2012, looked adorable in a pink, green and yellow striped dress as she hugged her mum

Picturesque: Dixie smiled as Lily pointed something out in the distance

Her little girl looked on in awe as Lily excitedly gestured at the city's stunning sights.

Dixie, who was born in June 2012, looked adorable in a pink, green and yellow striped dress.

She paired this with cream sandals.

Dixie looked cherubic with her cute brown curls as she held on tightly to her mother and looked on with awe.

Devoted mum: Dixie cuddled her mum as the pair prepared to disembark

Easy does it: Lily got a helping hand as she got back onto dry land with Dixie on her hip

Lily is in Venice to attend a Bulgari party, which she is a spokesmodel for.

Not seen was Lily's husband of six years, Kings of Leon rocker Caleb Followill, 35

Lily met future husband Caleb in 2007 and the couple welcomed Dixie in 2012, one year after tying the knot.
Ryan Lochte's fiancee Kayla Rae Reid has been struck down with painful mastitis, branding herself a 'sick puppy' on Friday.

But she also revealed she has a little help in the parenting game thanks to the coveted SNOO Smart Sleeper.

The 25-year-old shared a Snapchat video of her newborn son Caiden Zane sleeping soundly in the high-tech bassinet, which works to soothe a baby by rocking it gently in the crib.

Mommy's little helper: Ryan Lochte's fiancee Kayla Rae Reid shared a video of son Caiden Zane sleeping in the coveted SNOO Smart Sleeper

Sleepy time: The 25-year-old took to Snapchat to rave about the high-tech crib

The model, who gave birth to the couple's first child on June 8, captioned the Snap: 'Best invention ever!'

Kayla joins a list of celebrity moms who use the product including Teresa Palmer and Molly Sims.

Dr Harvey Karp, a pediatrician and child development expert behind The Happiest Baby on the Block book, created the bed in collaboration with MIT industrial design experts.

The product, dubbed the 'personal night nurse' by the manufacturer Happiest Baby, retails for around $1,160 and promises to 'reduce crying' and 'boost sleep'.

Snuggles: The model welcomed her first child on June 8

It features microphones which detect movement and rocks the baby back to sleep in a built in swaddle with the help of white noise.

The SNOO, which can be used until a baby is six months old, launched in the US last year and is also available in Australia from July 6.

Kayla regularly documents the highs and lows of first-time motherhood on social media.

She was candid about her difficult 26-hour labor and has also shared her struggle with breastfeeding, including her current bout of 'painful' mastitis, which is an infection of the breast tissue.

Baby makes three: Kayla and Ryan Lochte with little Caiden earlier this month

But there have been plenty of magical moments too, with the blonde telling her fans recently: 'I could lay in bed with him all day and just watch him sleep.'

Ryan, 32, is equally smitten with their new arrival, telling fans earlier this month: 'His face melts my heart'.

The Olympic gold medal swimmer proposed to Kayla in October last year on top of Malibu Canyon in Los Angeles. The pair announced they were expecting their first child last December.
She's the veteran TV presenter that always seems to appear cool, calm and collected during live TV broadcasts.

But Sonia Kruger has revealed she was secretly freaking out during last Sunday's live semi-finals of The Voice Australia.

The 51-year-old told News.com.au: 'There was an awkwardly long pause and I think people thought it was for dramatic effect, but it wasnt.'

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'The director was yelling at me through my earpiece': Sonia Kruger reveals she narrowly avoided a live TV disaster on The Voice... but did you spot it?

Sonia told the publication the hiccup occurred moment before announcing which contestants would be proceeding to the finals.

'Last week when I got to the first elimination, two of my cards had stuck together,... I said, "the person going through to the grand finale is..." but I couldnt find the card with the results on it. I was shuffling the cards and I just couldnt find the one I needed,' the blonde media personality said.

While the pause lasted less than a minute on air, Sonia reveals she began to panic as her producers and director encouraged her to go on with the show.

'People thought it was for dramatic effect, but it wasnt': Live reality show crosses often have dramatic pauses, but Sonia claims it was entirely accidental

'The director was yelling at me through my earpiece, "read on, read on!" But I couldnt read on because I couldnt find the card,' she admitted.

Sonia was eventually fed the information through her earpiece without needing to discuss the mistake live on air.

During the episode, the four finalists were revealed as Judah Kelly, Fasika Ayallew, Hoseah Partsch and Lucy Sugerman.

Lucky! Sonia was eventually fed the information through her earpiece without needing to discuss the mistake live on air

They will battle it out this weekend for a Universal Music Australia recording contract and the $100,000 cash prize.

Sundays Grand Final will also include an appearance by Katy Perry, Niall Horan & Noah Cyrus.

The live finale airs on Channel Nine at 7pm on Sunday
Heartbroken Zoe Ball confided in fans that she was 'doing good' following the sudden death of her boyfriend Billy Yates in May.

The BBC Radio presenter, 46, was a guest at the BST Hyde Park concert headlined by Phil Collins on Friday and was spotted sitting with a pal enjoying the music.

When approached, Zoe told a fan: 'I'm having a great time, I'm doing good thanks.'

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Brave: Heartbroken Zoe Ball confided in fans that she was 'doing good' following the sudden death of her boyfriend Billy Yates in May.

Zoe attended the gig with friends and stayed with them for the duration.

During Phils performance Zoe waved her hands and cheered, jumping around with her friends clearly in a positive place at that moment.

However when Phil sang Take Me Home, Zoe was seen becoming emotional and cried, resting her head on her mystery friend's shoulder.

An onlooker told the Mirror: 'Zoe was having the time of her life, she looked really happy. But Phils final song clearly struck a chord and she got pretty teary.'

Zoe's boyfriend Billy Yates, 40, was found hanged in his flat in Putney in May, with sources saying he had been struggling with money and depression.

Upbeat: During Phils performance Zoe waved her hands and cheered, jumping around with her friends clearly in a positive place at that moment

Heartbroken: The Radio 2 DJ admitted previously it had been 'pretty tough' since Antiques Roadshow cameraman, Billy was found dead

The Radio 2 DJ admitted previously it had been 'pretty tough' since Antiques Roadshow cameraman, Billy was found dead.

But taking in the London festival, Zoe looked in better spirits, dressed in a blak leather biker jacket with black jeans and pink trainers.

Meanwhile, Zoe took to her social media accounts earlier this month to share some good news amid her heartbreak, as she revealed she is now one year sober.

One year sober: Earlier this month, Zoe took to her social media pages to mark her sobriety anniversary after giving up alcohol a year ago

The radio DJ, marked her achievement with a celebratory post and made sure to thank her family and friends for their support over the last year - which has seen her deal with her split from ex-husband Norman Cook and the death of her beau Billy.

Zoe shared a photo that read: 'Congrats on making it 1 year sober,' to both her Twitter and Instagram pages.

She had tagged her late beau in the caption to her post, as she wrote: 'Love & thanks to my gorgeous family & brilliant friends & some very special ones who have helped me this year @billwahweewoo.'

Heartbreaking: She has managed to continue with her recovery despite having to face the death of her boyfriend Billy at the beginning of May

Zoe added the hashtags: '#recovery #lifeworks #aa #boozefree #homegroup #gratitude.'

The Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two presenter has openly spoken about her battle with alcohol in the past and her struggles to remain sober.

In an interview with Grazia magazine several years ago, Zoe confessed: 'I tried to straighten myself out several times, but I'd always go back - it's so hard when everyone around you is drinking.'

She had previously managed six years of sobriety, after giving up alcohol in 2009, but had broken her vow to rid herself completely of booze several years later.

'Thank you to all the special ones': Zoe reflected on her sobriety milestone as she shared the achievement with her social media followers

Choosing to get back on track, Zoe has spent the past year getting sober, after realising the 'key to her stopping' is giving alcohol up for good.

She had told Essentials magazine: 'I tried to straighten myself out several times, but I'd always go back - it's so hard when everyone around you is drinking.'

Zoe has previously admitted that she found it 'painful' to quit drinking 'on her own' and the support of her family and friends, including boyfriend Billy, had been essential to her overcoming her battle with alcohol.

'Huge congrats': Many fans rushed to praise Zoe on her efforts, with many commending her for steering clear of alcohol, given the difficult year she has had

Fans were quick to praise the TV presenter for her efforts and commended her for steering clear of alcohol, despite the tough times she has had to face of late.

Her followers on Twitter had penned: 'Brilliant girl, well done for doing what you've done and sticking to it especially given everything life has thrown at you recently.

'Huge congrats Zoe. One day at a time, step by step on your way to your next milestone. We're all behind you.

'Well done, must have been so hard especially this year.'

Zoe's fans on Instagram shared the same sentiment, as they sent their well wishes to the star.

They wrote: 'Well done Zoe, in a difficult year that takes strength! Proud of you!

'In a difficult year that takes strength': Zoe has had to deal with her split from ex-husband Norman Cook and the passing of her beau Billy Yates all in one year

'Amazing. Look how far you have come. Brilliant. Be so proud of yourself.

'So good to see you back on track @zeebeezoobee sending love and light to you each and every day.'

It was confirmed at the beginning of May that Zoe's partner had tragically passed away at his home.

Billy was pronounced dead after paramedics were unable to revive him, having arrived minutes after he was discovered in his flat. He reportedly hanged himself after struggling with depression and financial issues.

Initially Zoe had decided to lie low after her loss, but she has since responded to supportive messages sent by fans and returned to work at Radio 2.

Paying tribute: Zoe was spotted sporting a t-shirt with Billy's name printed across it, as she headed into BBC Studios to continue with her Radio 2 show

'Goodnight my beautiful boy': The star had shared a touching Instagram post about Billy in the wake of his death, as she penned she will be 'loving him always'

She, herself, had paid tribute to Billy following his passing in a sweet Instagram post that saw her upload a sun-kissed photo of him.

Zoe captioned her post: 'Goodnight my beautiful Boy. I'll be loving you always.'

She had met the 40-year-old Antiques Roadshow cameraman through mutual friends at the BBC, and the pair appeared to confirm their romance when they were seen kissing in London in January.

Billy was said to have given Zoe a new lease of life following her split from husband of 18 years Norman Cook - also known as DJ Fatboy Slim - in September.

Over: Billy was said to have given Zoe a new lease of life following her split from husband of 18 years Norman Cook - also known as DJ Fatboy Slim - in September

The pair had announced 'with great sadness ' the end of their marriage via Twitter, telling fans that they had 'come to the end of our rainbow'.

The ex-couple's statement read: 'After many exciting adventures we have come to the end of our rainbow.

'We're still great friends and will continue to support each other and raise our beautiful children together living next door but one.'

Happier times: The pair had announced 'with great sadness ' the end of their 18 year marriage via Twitter, telling fans that they had 'come to the end of our rainbow'

Zoe and Norman share son Woody, 16, and daughter Nelly, seven, together.

Her latest Instagram post celebrating her sobriety comes after Zoe had attended this year's Glastonbury Festival.

She had planned to attend with Billy and in a touching tribute to her partner, Zoe revealed she had brought his ticket along with her to the annual music event held at Worthy Farm in Somerset.

Wanting her beau to be close to her, Zoe penned alongside her post: 'Taking you with me in my pocket @billwahweewoo #healingfields #glastonbury @glastofest.'
It's only rock n roll  but a new Rolling Stones studio album is set to make the band a whopping 2million.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both 73, have been in recording studios in London and New York recently, and label Universal has renewed their contract for a new album.

Along with Ronnie Wood, 70, and Charlie Watts, 76, they will release a live compilation album around Christmas.

Then next year the band will bring out a new studio record to coincide with the end of their forthcoming European tour.

Yesterday a music insider said: Both Mick and Keith would rather be carried off stage in a coffin than give up their great love  writing and making music. The band are pictured in April last year

Yesterday a music insider said: Both Mick and Keith would rather be carried off stage in a coffin than give up their great love  writing and making music.

They were experimenting in the studio earlier this year, and everything just gelled. They ended up with around 15 tracks which they have cut down to album-length, and when the label execs heard it they were thrilled.

Age is no barrier to brilliant music, and there is no doubt the new stuff will sell. Richards was spotted in the studio in Manhattan on Thursday tinkering with the latest sound, while Jagger had been spotted making music a few weeks earlier.

'Age is no barrier to brilliant music': next year the band will bring out a new studio record to coincide with the end of their forthcoming European tour

The Stones last album Blue & Lonesome  their first studio record for more than a decade  went straight to number one on its release in December last year. And their latest tour, which begins in Hamburg in September, sold out in minutes.

Earlier this week Sir Paul McCartney seemed to take a dig at the Stones, suggesting audiences were not interested in new material.

The former Beatle said fans only wanted to hear Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Woman  dont just do the new stuff.
Her recent woes from the illegal use of famous musicians' faces on her clothing line are not going away.

But Kendall Jenner seemed carefree as she was spotted with a huge grin on her face stepping out in West Hollywood on Friday.

The 21-year-old model wore an all black ensemble as she constantly checked her phone during the outdoor excursion.

Bounce back: Despite legal woes, Kendall Jenner, 21, seemed carefree as she was spotted with a huge grin on her face stepping out in West Hollywood on Friday

Daring to impress, the Adidas spokesperson cut a sophisticated chic figure in the dark wardrobe.

Her perfect skin tone was revealed as the skimpy shoulder-less top provided a peek at her decolletage.

She kept a jacket wrapped up in her arms as if she couldn't decide to wear it or not in the sunny California weather.

The second youngest of the Kardashian clan put her gorgeous gams on display as she rocked tight black denim.

Text me back: The model wore an all black ensemble as she constantly checked her phone during the outdoor excursion

Fashion fit: Daring to impress, the Adidas spokesperson cut a sophisticated chic figure in the dark wardrobe

Throwing caution to the wind, the current It girl went virtually makeup free and let her natural beauty shine.

In an unlikely turn of events, the starlet braided her hair with two separate rows down the back of her head.

Kendall told all the haters to keep hating for hate sake as she need no accessories to perfect her amazing style.

Smile for days: Her perfect skin tone was revealed as the skimpy shoulder-less top provided a peek at her decolletage

Decisions: She kept a jacket wrapped up in her arms as if she couldn't decide to wear it or not in the sunny California weather

Daredevil: Throwing caution to the wind, the current It girl went virtually makeup free and let her natural beauty shine

The lithe Vogue cover girl bounced around in a pair of black and grey sneakers while she carried a red pocket book.

Her destination was indeterminable as she pranced back and forth throughout the parking lot.

Meanwhile, Kendall and sister Kylie are feeling the heat after they lauched a T-shirt line and used the faces of famous musicians without permission.

Leggy lady: The second youngest of the Kardashian clan put her gorgeous gams on display as she rocked tight black denim

Hair surprise: In an unlikely turn of events, the starlet braided her hair with two separate rows down the back of her head

And even after a perfunctory apology, Kendall and Kylie Jenner aren't getting off easy with the Notorious B.I.G estate for their line of shirts featuring their faces superimposed over music legends like Biggie, Pink Floyd, Metallica and many more.

After issuing a cease and desist notice to the social media starlets, the estate of Christopher Wallace - aka Biggie Smalls - issued a response to the girls.

The statement read, 'While we appreciate that the Jenners have made an apology and pulled the unlawful and unauthorized items, this matter has yet to be resolved.'

Take that: Kendall told all the haters to keep hating for hate sake as she need no accessories to perfect her amazing style

Lost lamb: Her destination was indeterminable as she pranced back and forth throughout the parking lot

The incident began on Wednesday, when the sisters announced their new merchandise via their joint kendallandkylie Instagram.

Priced at $125 per tee, the tops almost instantly ignited public outcry from fans of the original artists.

The sisters issued an apology not long after the designs went live, telling fans 'These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologize to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists.'

Think it through: After the Jenner sister's release of their ill-thought out 'vintage' tee shirt line, they faced harsh criticism from both fans and the music icons they featured on their shirts. Above the late star is seen at the 1997 Soul Train Awards

Not done yet: Biggie's mom Violetta Wallace spoke for her son's estate, telling the siblings 'While we appreciate that the Jenners have made an apology and pulled e unlawful and unauthorized items, this matter has yet to be resolved'

I didn't mean it! Kendall and Kylie pulled the $125 shirts from their site quickly and issued a lukewarm apology which explained it wasn't their 'intention to disrespect these cultural icons.'

Equal opportunity offenders! In addition to their unauthorized Biggie shirts, the girls were also selling tees that featured KISS, Metallica, Pink Floyd and other rock 'n roll legends

They continued, 'We are huge fans of their music and it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in anyway.'

After their mea culpa, the designs were removed from the sisters' IG account and online shop.

Biggie's mom Voletta Wallace was one of the first people to call out the Jenners for their unauthorized tee shirts, using her own Instagram to put the facts forward.

Bootleg Biggie: The rapper's mom Voletta was one of the first to call out the social media starlets. Above Voletta is seen with Jay-Z at the 2009 premiere of Notorious

I said sorry! Kendall and Kylie posted the same apology note on their Twitters, telling people they didn't intend to offend while acknowledging the shirts were 'not well thought out'

Posting a photo of the now notorious tees covered in a huge red X and next to text reading 'THIS PRODUCT HAS NO AFFILIATION TO THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. ESTATE', the mother of the rap legend didn't mask her frustration in the caption.

The mother of slain rapper started frankly, writing 'I am not sure who told @kyliejenner and @kendalljenner that they had the right to do this.

'The disrespect of these girls to not even reach out to me or anyone connected to the estate baffles me.

No right: Voletta didn't pull punches while calling out the Jenners on Instagram, writing 'THIS PRODUCT HAS NO AFFILIATION TO THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. ESTATE.' She also told followers 'I am not sure who told @kyliejenner and @kendalljenner that they had the right to do this'

Biggie's mom went on to defend the honor of both her son and his late rival Tupac Shakur (also featured on one of the ill-thought tees), writing 'I have no idea why they feel they can exploit the deaths of 2pac and my Son Christopher to sell a t-shirt'

She continued, defending the honor of both her son and his late rival Tupac Shakur, who was also featured on one of the Jenner's ill-thought designs.

'I have no idea why they feel they can exploit the deaths of 2pac and my Son Christopher to sell a t-shirt. This is disrespectful , disgusting, and exploitation at its worst!!!'

And today's statement from Ms. Wallace made it apparent that the ladies are not out of the clear yet.

Don't mess with the Queen of Darkness! Biggie's camp weren't the only ones to speak their mind. Sharon Osbourne also used Instagram to voice her opinion about shirts featuring her hubby Ozzy. Above Sharon is seen in June of this year

'Stick with what you know': Sharon didn't hold back in her criticism regarding their Ozzy shirt (above), telling the sisters they 'havent earned the right to put your face with musical icons' before having the final word by telling them to 'Stick to what you knowlip gloss'

Biggie's camp was far from the only one to speak their mind about the poorly thought out fashion.

Sharon Osbourne also used Instagram to voice her opinion, making a cutting remark telling the fashionistas to 'stick with what you know.'

The hostess-manager-talent judge used her typically blunt approach, telling the KUWTK ladies bluntly, 'Girls, you havent earned the right to put your face with musical icons.'

In their own bubble: Many were confused that the fashionistas would make such an obvious faux pas, especially in the wake of Kendall's almost universally ridiculed Pepsi commercial from April.

She finished her comment with attitude, telling the Jenners to 'Stick to what you knowlip gloss.'

Many were confused that the fashionistas would make such an obvious faux pas, especially in the wake of Kendall's almost universally ridiculed Pepsi commercial from April.

The ad featured the reality star offering a can of soda to a police officer as cops and protesters faced each other down.

Not the first backlash: In April, Kendall starred in a Pepsi TV commercial that was widely criticized for seeming to co-opt the Black Lives Matter movement to sell soda

No apology from her: While Pepsi apologized and pulled the ad in the wake of the backlash, Kendall did not say anything publicly

She and the beverage giant were accused of co-opting the Black Lives Matter movement to market the fizzy drink.

Pepsi moved quickly to issue an apology and pulled the commercial. There was no word from Kendall.

The model was also seen in a promotional video for the doomed Fyre music festival daring fans to purchase $250,000 tickets to attend the weekend event in the Caribbean.

She also failed to issue an apology after that fiasco.
Mischa Barton told a Los Angeles court Friday that she's scared of her ex-boyfriend Adam Spaw.

The 31-year-old actress also claims that he possesses 'doctored' sex tapes of her, as she successfully sought for a temporary restraining order extension.

She told LA County Superior Court Judge James Blancarte that Spaw violated a temporary restraining order the court issued against him two months ago when he popped up at the home of a friend she was staying with, according to the New York Daily News.

Standing her ground: Mischa Barton told an LA court Friday that an ex-boyfriend has been stalking her and possesses 'doctored' sex tapes. She was snapped at an LA premiere June 1

She said he tried to get into her vehicle, and that he's been calling and texting her against the court order.

'I definitely feel he's been stalking me,' she said, according to the paper, adding that Spaw 'doesn't seem to understand the TRO.

'I look over my shoulder all the time when I'm walking. He's intimidating. Hes 6ft4. I would be terrified to see him.'

Pensive: Barton, seen here in an Instagram shot last week, said she's been 'terrified' of her ex-boyfriend Adam Spaw

She said that Shaw - who was not in attendance due to family issues - took flash drives from the home they shared when he left, TMZ reported. Barton told the judge that Shaw's media of their encounters were not original versions.

'He left behind multiple copies that had been doctored and changed - it could only be by him,' she said.

The judge set a follow-up date for July 21 - at which time Spaw will have his last chance to answer to Barton's accusations - while continuing the temporary restraining order Barton previously obtained against her ex.

New man: Barton was seen with her current beau, Australian model James Abercrombie, at Craig's in LA earlier this month

Spaw remains banned from releasing the sex tapes the actress says another ex-boyfriend, Jon Zacharias, filmed without her consent.

The 5ft9 beauty said outside the courthouse that she was 'very happy' with the judge's ruling, adding, 'We're going to continue to fight this for justice in this case.'

Her lawyer Lisa Bloom added: 'Every woman has the right to control which images of her own body and face should be distributed. We have the right to make that choice.'
They stepped out for a cosy family brunch outing in Sydney last week, following Oliver Curtis' jail release.

And Roxy Jacenko was spotted shopping in North Bondi with her newly released husband and their two kids Pixie, five, and Hunter, three on Saturday.

The glamorous PR queen cut a chic figure in a $10,000 outfit - including a classic black Chanel flap purse, that retails for upwards of $7,860.

Family first: Roxy Jacenko was spotted shopping in North Bondi with her newly released husband Oliver Curtis and their two kids Pixie, five, and Hunter, three on Saturday

The 37-year-old also wore a black Adidas hoodie dress, that retails for $120 paired with $1,050 Louis Vuitton sneakers and $500 Belstaff aviator shades.

Disgraced investment banker Oliver, 31, wore ripped jeans paired with a fitted navy jersey and sneakers.

Little Pixie and Hunter looked adorable and both matched their father's style in jeans, tiny sweaters and sneakers.

Dressed to impress! The glamorous PR queen cut a chic figure in a $10,000 outfit - including a classic black Chanel flap purse, that retails for upwards of $7,860

Chic: The 37-year-old also wore a black Adidas hoodie dress, that retails for $120 paired with $1,050 Louis Vuitton sneakers and $500 Belstaff aviator shades

Just like daddy! Little Pixie and Hunter looked adorable and both matched their father's style in jeans, tiny sweaters and sneakers

Where's the ring? Roxy opted to leave her wedding ring at home days after she remained coy about the future of their marriage

The family-of-four enjoyed breakfast at Cafe Trio at Bondi Beach, with Roxy tagging an Instagram snap at the eatery, before heading out for a spot of shopping.

Both Roxy and Oliver were spotted without their wedding rings days after the savvy businesswoman refused to confirm whether they are still together.

On Monday, she finally addressed Oliver's return when a photographer asked her, 'Roxy, is it good to have Oliver home?'

Still no wedding band: Oliver also stepped out without his wedding band

Family fun! Hunter could be seen laughing as sister Pixie skipped ahead of dad Oliver

Picking up treats? Hunter appeared excited while dad Oliver carried a shopping bag containing kids' items

Roxy replied: 'Yes the children are very happy.'

'Are you happy?' they asked again. She responded: 'Yes, of course.'

Earlier this week, The Daily Telegraph reported that Oliver told an inmate while behind bars that he would forgive his wife for her 'indiscretions' over the past year if she would look past his 'mistakes that put him in jail.'

Juggling act: Roxy clutched coffee and bottled milk while also holding an iPad

Spill: She appeared to spill her hot coffee on her hands as Oliver helped clean up the mess

Enjoying the sun: As Roxy stepped away to browse some shops, Oliver and the kids waited patiently nearby

Family time: The family enjoyed some much-needed quality time together one week after Oliver's jail release

It comes just weeks after Roxy was photographed kissing her ex-boyfriend Nabil Gazal.

The Sweaty Betty PR founder was pictured wrapping her arms around her ex's neck whilst the pair kissed during celebrations at the millionaire's lavish apartment in May.

Roxy declined to comment on the images when approached by Daily Mail Australia at the time.

Say cheese! Roxy posed alongside her precious children in a snap shared to Instagram

Too cute! Little Huntter donned a backwards cap as he chatted to mum Roxy

Glamour: Roxy looked chic during the outing, wearing some of her favourite labels Chanel and Louis Vuitton

And they're off! They made their way back to the family car before driving home

It was previously reported that Nabil, who dated Roxy before her relationship with Oliver began, had been enjoying intimate dinner dates with his former flame.

Meanwhile, Oliver walked out of the gates of Cooma prison in NSW just before 9am last week.

The father-of-two was released from prison 12 months early on a good behaviour bond.
The last time they fought, the city was the real loser.

And it looked like Hulk and Iron Man were set to go toe-to-toe for round two on the set of Avengers: Infinity War on Friday.

The scene appeared to be a continuation from an earlier one that saw Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange, Benedict Wong's Wong and Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner facing down their supposed ally Iron Man.

Don't make him angry! Mark Ruffalo prepared to Hulk out against Iron Man on the set of Avengers: Infinity War on Friday

And it looked like Tony Stark somehow got the upper hand, with Strange no nowhere to be seen.

Ruffalo's clothes were also no noticeably tattered, although not quite to the asunder stage Hulking out would have rendered them.

While still in human form, and wearing none of the CGI add-ons required for filming him as his massive green alter-ego, the 49-year-old adopted a fighting stance, while Wong looked ready to cast another spell.

Also absent for the scene was Robert Downey Jr, who portrays Tony Stark in the franchise, but obviously decided there was no need for him to be there while Iron Man had his mask on.

Iron meh: Absent for the scene was Robert Downey Jr, who portrays Tony Stark in the franchise, but obviously decided there was no need for him to be there while Iron Man had his mask on

Instead, a stand-in donned the top half of the iconic armor; from the waist below he wore 'CGI pants', suggesting Iron Man's booster equipped legs would be digitally added to the scene.

Stark is no stranger to fighting his friends; the plot of the precursor film Civil War centered on a split between him and Captain America, with almost all the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe taking one side or the other.

In the film preceding that - Avengers: Age Of Ultron - Hulk and Ion Man duked it out. although the former was blindly enraged and the latter needed his much burlier Hulkbuster armor.

This time round the calm form of Bruce Banner uniting with presumably good guys Strange and Wong suggests Iron Man will be corrupted in the film, possibly by the Soul Stone, the final Infinity Gem to be introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In bits: Ruffalo's clothes were also no noticeably tattered, although not quite to the asunder stage Hulking out would have rendered them

Infinity War is the first of a two-part coming together of the entire MCU.

Characters from The Avengers, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Spider-Man will come together to do battle with super-villain Thanos, played by Josh Brolin.

Thanos will seek to construct his Infinity Gauntlet with the six Infinity Stones, which have been progressively introduced by producer and Marvel President Kevin Feige across the film series to date.

They include the blue Space Stone, which Loki weaponized in The Avengers; The yellow Mind Stone that is set in Vision's forehead; the red Reality Stone used by the Dark Elves and eventually entrusted to The Collector in Thor: The Dark World; the purple Power Stone used by Ronan The Accuser in Guardians Of The Galaxy; the green Time Stone inside Dr Strange's Eye of Agamotto; and the orange Soul Stone that will likely be the McGuffin for Thor: Ragnarok.
They're the best pals who recently returned from their boys getaway in New Zealand.

And Kris Smith and Sasha Mielczarek have enjoyed the Pelicano's Boozy Brunch event with some of Sydney's elite, in Double Bay.

The 38-year-old model and the 31-year-old former winner of The Bachelorette was all smiles at the event as they posed with a third mystery male friend.

The bromance is back! Kris Smith and Sasha Mielczarek enjoyed brunch with some of Sydney's elite, at the Pelicano in Double Bay

Kris looked ruggedly handsome in his all black ensemble of a coat, jeans, and dress shoes.

He accessorised his look with a silver watch and a light brown scarf.

Meanwhile, Sasha rocked a long grey coat and scarf paired with blank denim pants and a white T-Shirt.

Inside the event, the two sat next to each other and beamed as they posed for a photo together.

Brunch with mates: The 38-year-old model and the 31-year-old former winner of The Bachelorette was all smiles at the event as they posed with a third mystery male friend (pictured)

Layering up: Kris looked ruggedly handsome in his all black ensemble of a coat, jeans and dress shoes. He accessorised his look with a silver watch and a light brown scarf

Cool and casual: Sasha rocked a long grey coat and scarf paired with blank denim pants and a white T-Shirt

Kris and Sasha were certainly in high spirits inside the eastern suburb's venue.

The Myer model garnered attention for a series of playful snaps, at one stage raising both arms in the air in a dramatic gesture.

Kris was then seen working his best angles for the camera, for a number of selfies.

Centre of attention: Kris garnered attention for a series of playful snaps, at one stage raising both arms in the air in a dramatic gesture

Antics: The Myer model was then seen working his best angles for the camera, for a number of selfies

Kris made sure to mingle with the fashionable crowd, including a slender blonde.

The two appeared deep in conversation, with Kris beaming at the petite personality.

Sasha was close behind, enjoying conversation with a stunning brunette.

She's got his attention: Kris made sure to mingle with the fashionable crowd, including a slender blonde

All smiles: The two appeared deep in conversation, with Kris beaming at the petite personality

Picture of content: The boozy brunch appeared to be a hit with its guests

Also at the event was Renae Ayris, the 2012 Miss Universe Australia representative.

The 26-year-old looked in her khaki green jumpsuit with ruffle detailing around her waist and decolletage.

Her younger, look-a-like sister Rachel Ayris, 24, also posed alongside her in a matching green wrap dress.

Moving and grooving: Kris and Sasha appeared to show off their signature dance moves

Feeling percussive? The inseparable pals were then seen clapping in unison

Kris and Sasha have been keen to share their outings together on their Instagram accounts, in particular their vacation to New Zealand's Queenstown.

Sasha posted a photo that showed him, Kris and a third male pal about to take on a luge course adding that it was the first time the pair had 'left the pub'.

All three look pleased as punch, smiling widely as they get set to push off down the mountain.

Entertainment: Kris was seen chatting with one of the female performers

Getting in on the fun: He later posed for a snap with the entertainer as well as a stunning blonde

Stunning sisters: Also at the event was Renae Ayris, the 2012 Miss Universe Australia representative and her younger sister, look-a-like sister Rachel Ayris (left)

Despite being in such a picturesque locale, Sasha joked that the trip was the first time the boys had stepped outside.

'Luge with the lads... first time we've left the 'rubbery dub' (pub) since we got here,' he captioned the post.

The pair also sported matching attire including a brown suede cowboy hat.

Having fun! The Ayris sisters matched in khaki green outfits for the Boozy Brunch event (pictured with a female friend)

Men only: Earlier in June, Kris, Sasha and a third mate took to Instagram to share snaps from their boys trip to New Zealand trip
He mesmerised the world with his jaw-dropping good looks, rocketing to fame when snaps of his mugshot went viral in 2014.

And three years on, Jeremy Meeks continued to send tongues wagging after pictures emerged of him kissing British Topshop heiress Chloe Green on a yacht in Turkey on Friday.

The hunky former felon turned model, 33, looked to be enjoying a luxurious cruise in the Mediterranean with 26-year-old, just days after his wife Melissa Meeks shared an emotional Instagram post.

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Life of luxury: Jeremy Meeks continued to send tongues wagging after pictures emerged of him kissing British Topshop heiress Chloe Green on a yacht in Turkey on Friday

The pictures, which appear to show him kissing the former Made In Chelsea star, come as a source told The Sun: 'Chloe seems quite taken with Jeremy, and who can blame her?

'He's seen as one of the sexiest guys on the celebrity social circuit and has a story or two to tell about his colourful past.'

But the source added that her billionaire father Sir Phillip Green, who owns retail umbrella Arcadia Group, may not be quite as impressed, as he is 'very protective'.

'Quite what Chloe's dad and Jeremy's wife will make of their fling is another matter,' they added.

New flame? The hunky former felon turned model, 33, looked to be enjoying a luxurious cruise in the Mediterranean with 26-year-old Chloe (pictured), just days after his wife Melissa Meeks shared an emotional Instagram post

MailOnline has contacted Jeremy's representative for comment

Both Jeremy and Chloe have separately been sharing sun-soaked snaps from the same location, both tagged with his manager, Jim Jordan photography.

And the snaps have garnered a mixed reaction, with one follower commenting: 'He's dating Sir Philip Greens daughter Chloe. There are pictures of them making out on a yacht. One word dude, Karma.'

But another defended him, adding: 'Maybe they have broken up. Haven't seen neither of them post each other up on their pages for awhile. I doubt he would do anything in public if they were still together'.

Pastures new: Both Jeremy and Melissa have separately been sharing sun-soaked snaps from the same location, both tagged with his manager, Jim Jordan photography

'Chloe seems quite taken with Jeremy, and who can blame her?' The pictures, which appear to show him kissing the former Made In Chelsea star, come as a source told The Sun Chloe is besotted

The display came just a day after his wife of eight years, Melissa Meeks, shared an emotional Instagram post.

The mother-of-three, who he shares a son with, shared a meme of legendary rapper Tupac, which reads: 'Never apologise for how much love you have to give. Just feel sorry for those who didn't want any of it'.

And somewhat tellingly, a day before that the brunette shared a snap of Tupac holding his middle finger up, with the caption: 'It's just me against the world baby,' with the hashtag 'Still I rise'.

It looks to have been a bumpy ride for the dedicated mum, who last month shared a lengthy post admitting that 'Love isn't always a fairtytale'.

'One word dude, Karma': The snaps have garnered a mixed reaction on social media

And tellingly, she replied '100' to a follower, who wrote: 'But the other person has to take value in you as well,why as woman we have to endure all the bullsh**?!You was with this n***a through jail time,broke times and all!How about you make him fight and endure some sh** like you have but nooo you you obviously bout to endure more pain for money!!Remember sister it's not worth it now you gotta deal with famous th*ts it will only get worse!'.

The display comes after he mingled at an array of star-studded events during the Cannes Film Festival last month.

The hunk, whose smouldering looks have earned him a huge fanbase, made his first official modelling appearance at New York fashion week this year, and has certainly turned his life around in an impressive way since his release from prison.

'Never apologise for how much love you have to give': The display came just a day after his wife of eight years, Melissa Meeks, shared an emotional Instagram post'

'It's just me against the world baby': Melissa has been sharing telling posts this week

'Love isn't always perfect': As Jeremy mingled with models at Cannes Film Festival in May, Melissa responded to a follower who told her 'he should fight for her'

However his journey to stardom hasn't been all smooth-sailing, after he was recently barred from entry to the UK after arriving at London's Heathrow airport from New York.

Speaking to DailyMail.com about the incident which prevented him from attending a work-related photoshoot, he said: 'I'm very, very saddened and confused. I went down there [London] with high hopes for the experience and the UK.

'I really wanted to go there. I still don't understand quite what happened but I know there's no ill will. They're [Border Force] doing their job.'

Sending pulses racing: The handsome hunk firmly secured his place with the A-list, as he mingled with the likes of superstar rapper Nicki Minaj in Cannes in May

Famous friends: Jeremy mingled with socialite Paris Hilton as he modelled for Philip Plein

Asked what had happened to him, Jeremy, who described the incident as 'a little mix up', said: 'They just detained me and interrogated me and searched me.'

But he also said he doesn't believe the episode will put an end to his fledgling modelling career, saying he planned to travel again: 'Oh of course [I'll come back from this]. Of course. God is good.'

The California native shot to fame in 2014 when the Stockton Police Department posted his mugshot on their website, following his arrest for gang activity and a misdemeanour charge of resisting/obstructing justice.

The photo promptly went viral, with internet users dubbing him 'the hottest convict ever'.

Valentine's message: In February Jeremy shared a sweet tribute to Melissa, writing that he would 'love her forever'
He's a proud family man who just welcomed his second child with wife Rochelle.

And Marvin Humes shared his happiness over his brood, as he took to Instagram on Saturday.

Sharing a snap of his daughters Alaia, 4, and baby Valentina, the the former JLS star, 32, admitted that he felt truly 'blessed'.

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'Truly blessed!' Marvin Humes revealed he's still overwhelmed to be blessed with his brood, as he took to Instagram on Saturday

Sporting pink flowery shorts, he held up little Valentina who was dressed in an adorable matching ensemble.

Hugging him was little Alaia, also twinning in a coordinating dress.

'Blessed is an over used word however I'm gonna say it with pride and shout it! I'm truly blessed to have two beautiful daughters and an incredible wife..and yes I have matching shorts. Love my family too much', he proudly captioned the snap.

And Rochelle shared a similar picture, she joked: 'Poor guy doesn't stand a chance in a house with 3 women...When you moan that you're not involved I'll buy you matching shorts, be careful what you wish for'.

'Poor guy doesn't stand a chance!' Sharing a snap of his daughters Alaia, 4, and baby Valentina, the the former JLS star, 32, admitted that he felt truly 'blessed'

Speaking at Capital FM's Summertime Ball with Vodafone recently, Marvin exclusively told MailOnline: 'It's amazing, it's beautiful. Honestly I have to pinch myself.'

He added: 'This morning I was lying in bed with Rochelle and the two girls & they're just chilling out. I looked at them & thought "that's my family"'.

Marvin and Rochelle wed in 2012 and welcomed their first child, Alaia-Mai, a year later. In March 2017 the couple had their second daughter, Valentina Raine.

Three's company! Marvin and Rochelle wed in 2012 and welcomed their first child, a daughter named Alaia-Mai, a year later

The pair are rarely apart or without their little ones, and Marvin admitted: 'Alaia is coming down today with Rochelle. She loves Little Mix, she's obsessed with them. She's here today.'

Talking about being the only man in a family of four, he quipped: 'I always say it was payback for when I was a teenager being a little naughty. I always wanted to be surrounded by women, now I am.'

However, he admitted that whilst he loves his little brood, he doesn't think they'll be expanding their family further.

He admitted: 'I always feel like, if we were to have anymore children which I don't think we will. I think we're going to stay at two but if we were I'd only have girls that's it!'

Family of four: In March 2017 the couple had their second daughter, Valentina Raine

Marvin also discussed another celebrity father as he offered an insight into Liam Payne's family life with new mum Cheryl.

'Liam is a great guy and I'm sure Cheryl is an incredible mum so they're doing great,' he admitted. 'He's just really excited and really happy how baby Bear is coming along.'

Marvin will no doubt be able to offer advice not just on fatherhood to Liam but maintaining a successful relationship, as he will celebrate his fifth anniversary with wife Rochelle next month.

Doting daddies: Marvin also discussed another celebrity father as he offered an insight into Liam Payne's family life with new mum Cheryl, saying the star was 'really excited and happy'

'It's amazing. It's flown by and it's mad to think we've been married for five years and together for seven!' he revealed.

'I remember being at the summertime ball, first time JLS played it and The Saturdays [Rochelle's former band] were on it. I remember passing them in the corridor and thinking "she's alright". That was probably 8 years ago now. It's mad how time flies.'

Revealing the big plans they have for their impending anniversary he said: 'We're going to Ibiza next month with a few other couples.

'A bit of partying, a bit of chilling, bit of fun on a boat, relaxing. That's how we'll ultimately celebrate our anniversary.'
They are in a complete state of bliss as the Made In Chelsea power couple are enjoying their ninth sun-soaked holiday of the year in Ibiza.

And Louise Thompson ensured all eyes were well and truly on her in the cosy couple's snap her beau Ryan Libbey shared on Instagram on Saturday morning.

The London beauty, 27, put her peachy derriere on full display in skimpy patterned bikini bottoms which showed off her bronze tan as she cosied up to Ryan.

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Cosy! Louise Thompson showed off her pert derriere in tiny bikini bottoms as she cosied up to Ryan Libbey in Ibiza in a post her beau shared on Instagram on Saturday morning

Letting her glossy tumble down her back, the fitness guru kept her look casual as she teamed the beachwear with a fitted white tee.

Ryan also showed he was ready to hit the beach with his baggy stripy T-shirt and skimpy brief bottoms.

Madly in love, the E4 reality show's power couple proved their romance is stronger than ever as they couldn't take their eyes off of each other.

Abs-olutely ripped! The personal trainer showed off his incredible body when he went shirtless on their sunny holiday on a yacht

They showed they complimented each other when they posed in the same mirrored sexy shades for the snap.



Ryan captioned the shot, 'my fave.'

The couple have been sharing a string of sun-soaked photographs from their holiday abroad.

Earlier on Friday, the personal trainer had showed off his incredible body when he went shirtless on their sunny holiday.

Meanwhile, his Made in Chelsea girlfriend went topless in a raunchy snap, posing in the very same bikini bottoms on Wednesday.

Jeez, Louise! Louise flashed her perky behind as she posed in nothing but a pair of tiny bikini bottoms while picking lemons in Ibiza on Wednesday

The reality star turned fitness enthusiast reiterated her body confidence as she flashed her perky behind in patterned monochromatic bikini bottoms - and nothing else.

Using nature to her advantage, Louise smouldered as her brunette tresses, which have been noticeably lightened by the sun, blew away from her face.

The ex Jump contestant then turned and flashed a coy smile for the camera.

Copping a feel: Louise's boyfriend Ryan Libbey couldn't resist grabbing the Made in Chelsea star's as they posed in the sun-soaked location

Smitten kittens: The couple - who have been dating since last summer - have shared a series of loved-up snaps on the social networking site

'Picking lemons in our juicy orchard (dodging the sprinkler system: ugly black cable),' she captioned the raunchy snap.

The saucy shot came mere hours after Louise shared an image of boyfriend Ryan copping a feel of her peachy behind.

This time concealing her torso beneath a white T-shirt, the TV personality smiles for the camera while leaning against the muscle-bound trainer's chest.

'A whole lotta luv (& tan),' she wrote alongside the loved-up post.

While they are regulars on the London party scene as cast members of Made In Chelsea, it seems the couple are keen to be anywhere but the capital this year.

Cheeky: Louise looks to be having the time of her life during her seemingly never-ending holiday run

Breakfast in bed! The reality star posted a cheeky bedroom photo last week, holding up a pair of doughnuts to hide her bare chest

Their trip to Ibiza marks their ninth holiday in 2017 alone, having already enjoyed luxurious trips to Mykonos, Dubai, Sri Lanka and the Maldives in just six months.

Louise has been dating personal trainer Ryan since last summer, and recently revealed he was part of the reason she decided to embark on her fitness journey.

Admitting to Women's Health she has ditched alcohol since finding love, she said: Getting in shape has been a combination of being with Ryan, the timing and changing my outlook.

'Im done drinking. Before, I would go wild once a week. But I mean wild.

'Then I realised that I dont actually enjoy drinking and its taken me the past few months to see how much better my life is without it.'
Her modelling career has seen her step out in a daring design or two.

And Emily Ratajkowski wasn't afraid to run the risk of a wardrobe mishap all in the name of fashion as she stepped out in London on Friday to stop by Chiltern Firehouse.

The brunette beauty, 26, looked sensational in her double denim attire that brazenly saw her wear a jacket off her shoulders, fastening it with just one button below her bust.

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Brazen design: Emily Ratajkowski, 26, looked sensational as she stepped out in a double denim ensemble while stopping by Chiltern Firehouse in London on Friday

Appearing to go braless underneath, Emily didn't appear fazed by her denim jacket hanging perilously around her frame.

She stole a look at her cleavage underneath, keeping her modesty covered by pulling the garment down past her shoulders to sit on her upper arm.

Turning up the sleeves, Emily teamed her jacket with a pair of complementing form-fitting jeans that buttoned at her hips.

They featured a frayed hem and left the model's incredibly toned abs on full display, as she proudly flaunted her enviable frame while arriving at the Marylebone venue.

Emily accessorised with a layered gold pendant around her neck and sashayed her way through the capital in a pair of barely-there printed heels.

Daring: She wasn't afraid to run the risk of a wardrobe mishap, as her denim jacket appeared to hang perilously around her frame, stealing a look at her cleavage underneath

Risque: She did well not to reveal more than she had hoped a she struck up a sultry pose in her latest attire to share with her Instagram followers

She added a burst of colour to her getup with a scarlet red handbag that she no doubt toted her day's essentials in.

The actress left her chestnut-hued tresses down in a sleek and straight style and sported a subtle make-up, complete with a nude lipstick across her lips.

Her appearance in London comes after Emily revealed her aspirations to become a more 'versatile' actor.

Wanting to move away from the 'bathing suit girl' role in films, in an interview with Glamour magazine for their August issue, she explained: 'You really have to prove yourself in this industry and I'm very much up for the challenge.

Aspirations: The model's appearance in London comes after she revealed her desire to become a more 'versatile' actor

Acting: Emily explained she wants to move away from the 'bathing suit girl' role in films

'It takes a really long time to not only prove yourself, but also prove that you're more dynamic than just this one part of you that they see.'

Although, the starlet, who was catapulted to fame after starring in Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines video in 2013, added that she believes a women's sexuality is a 'wonderful thing'.

'I think it's a wonderful thing and, if anything, I want women to understand their own sexuality outside of a patriarchal male gaze.

'We're the core of sexual beings, and I think that's something that should be celebrated rather than attacked.'
They have enjoyed four and a half years of blissful marriage together.

Completely smitten, Martine McCutcheon, 41, and Jack McManus, 32, put on a cosy display at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park, London on Friday.

Cosying up to her lover, the Love Actually star showed off her slender figure in a fitted blouse as the lovebirds headed out to enjoy Phil Collins' performance.

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Under the influence of love! Martine McCutcheon, 41, and Jack McManus, 32, put on a cosy display at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park, London on Friday

Adding a touch of glamour, the EastEnders actress accessorised with long silver tassel earrings which caught the eyes as it glimmered in the sunlight.

The Laurence Olivier Award winner made her way across the park in towering shiny ankle boots.

Under the influence of love, Jack couldn't take his hands off his stunning wife as he affectionately stroked her brunette tresses while she sat down during the concert.

The musician pulled off a smart casual look as he dressed up his jeans and plain tee with a simple blazer.

Smitten! Jack couldn't take his hands off his stunning wife as he affectionately stroked her brunette tresses while she sat down during the concert

They were utterly relaxed in each other's charming company as they enjoyed the festival where Phil Collins was headlining.

As for romance, sparks flew when the lovebirds first started seeing each other in 2007.

Head-over-heels in love, Martine and Jack got married in a romantic ceremony in Lake Como in September 2012.

The couple first welcomed their little boy Rafferty Jack McManus, now two, into the world in February 2014.

Blast from the blast! Martine (pictured in June 2017) released her first track in 14 years

Earlier in June, the songstress released her first album in 14 years as she geared up to make a sensational comeback in 2017.

Martine shot to fame aged 18 playing Tiffany Mitchell in EastEnders after she landed the role in 1994.

She launched a music career in 1998 and she collected an impressive five Top 10 singles.

Regular: She appears as a guest panelist on Loose Women (pictured on the show in November 2016) and recently took up a role as ambassador for a weight loss charity

Her debut track, Perfect moment, went straight to number one in 1999, putting more well-known artists like Eminem in the shade.

This success was propelled by the sale of more than 200,000 copies of the album in just seven days.

After returning to acting, she played Natalie in Love Actually and won a Laurence Olivier Award for her stage portrayal of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

She regularly appears as a guest panelist on Loose Women and recently took up a role as ambassador for a weight loss charity.
They've spent the last few weeks flaunting their luxurious action-packed Eurotrip all over social media.

And on Saturday, Anna Heinrich, 30, posted a selfie of herself and her fiance Tim Robards, 34, laying on a beach in France.

Soaking up the summer sun, the pair appeared to be all loved as Anna cuddled up to her man flashing her engagement ring.

Loved up: On Saturday, Anna Heinrich, 30, posted a selfie of herself and her fiance Tim Robards, 34, laying on a beach in France

'Found this hidden gem along our travels,' she captioned tagging Tim.

Covering her chest with her arms, Anna wore a blue bikini and RayBan sunglasses.

The pair used matching beach towels that featured the French flag colours of blue, red and white.

Trip of a lifetime: Soaking up the summer sun, the pair appeared to be all loved as Anna cuddled up to her man flashing her engagement ring

Taking control, Tim reached out for the selfie using an A7Rii Sony camera that retails at $4500.

The couple who got engaged earlier this year have spent the last few weeks sharing snaps of their lavish summer getaway.

Known for her enviable toned physique, Anna hasn't been shy showing off her beautiful holiday wardrobe.

Barefoot beauty: The couple who got engaged earlier this year have spent the last few weeks sharing snaps of their lavish summer getaway

Stunner: Wearing a designer Rebecca Vallance little black dress earlier in the week, the former lawyer looked a vision on a romantic night out with Tim

Wearing a designer Rebecca Vallance little black dress earlier in the week, the former lawyer looked a vision on a romantic night out with Tim.

'Date night in #Monaco #MonteCarlo #France,' she captioned.

Showcasing her lean frame, the reality star posed against the city's sunset for the stunning snap.

The party continues: Tim and Anna are currently celebrating their engagement, which was announced on Instagram back in May

Tim and Anna are currently celebrating their engagement, which was announced on Instagram back in May.

So far they have visited Italy, France and Monaco.

Prior to touching down in Europe, they stopped off in Phuket, Thailand, where they wined and dined in style.
It wasn't too long ago that Lisa Clark stripped off for a provocative topless pictorial in broad daylight on a Sydney beach.

But over the weekend, the former Big Brother babe put on an uncharacteristically conservative display by covering up her curves in ski gear during a snowy holiday in Thredbo.

The 32-year-old strip club manager-turned-Instagram model appeared to be on a sponsored trip to promote the tourist destination with Lisa Clark from The Bachelor.

Is that you Lisa? Big Brother's Lisa Clark put on an uncharacteristically conservative display by covering her curves in ski gear during a snowy holiday in Thredbo

Posting a selfie to her thousands of followers, Lisa wrote: 'Red means go fast, thanks for the epic outfit.'

She then tagged the clothing brand that had covered up her famous curves in their attire.

After previously working as the manager of a strip club, the Penrith-born beauty now leads a glamorous life after shooting to fame on Big Brother three years ago.

Working hard? The 32-year-old strip club manager-turned-Instagram model appeared to be on a sponsored trip to promote the tourist destination with Lisa Clark from The Bachelor

Since starring on the now-canceled reality show, the busty blonde has earned a reputation for her scantily-clad displays.

She made headlines two years ago when she flaunted a jaw-dropping wardrobe malfunction on the red carpet of the Sydney Film Festival.

The infamous incident saw Lisa posing for the camera in a barely-there dress that showed off an eye-popping amount of sideboob for all to see.

My fifteen minutes aren't up yet! Lisa previously made headlines two years ago when she flaunted a jaw-dropping wardrobe malfunction on the red carpet of the Sydney Film Festival

From the strip club to the small screen! The self-proclaimed social media 'influencer' famously left her job as a strip club manager to find fame on Big Brother in 2014

The social media socialite clearly isn't shy, as she stripped down in May of this year for an empowering topless shoot on a public beach in Sydney.

Lisa, who occasionally works as a blogger, has previously written to her young fans about how finding a career you love is more important than getting good grades in school.

'I think while wrapping ourselves up in caring to much about good grades we are missing the point of education [sic],' she wrote for Skills Road.

Confident! The Penrith-born beauty clearly isn't shy, as she stripped down in May of this year for a topless shoot on a public beach in Sydney

'Education should be about finding what you love, knowing yourself better, striving for success and getting yourself ready for adulthood.'

She went on to note that while school marks 'have their place', they can be detrimental to the student's self esteem.

'While Im by no means under valuing the importance of University and getting a degree I do think that good grades are not the be all and end all of life [sic],' she explained.
They were said to have called it quits on their on-off relationship last year.

But it looks like Gerard Butler has once again rekindled his relationship with girlfriend Morgan Brown, as the couple looked as in love as ever while getting cosy on the beach in Tulum, Mexico on Friday.

The 47-year-old actor rocked a pair of trunks as he cosied up to his girlfriend, who looked incredible in an orange bikini.

On again! It looks like Gerard Butler has once again rekindled his relationship with girlfriend Morgan Brown, as the couple looked as in love as ever while getting cosy on the beach in Tulum, Mexico on Friday

Morgan looked in a state of bliss as she snuggled up to her boyfriend while soaking up the sun.

She looked amazing in her bright bathing suit, which left very little of her toned figure to the imagination.

Standing alongside the ocean, the couple were clearly enjoying every moment of their getaway to paradise.

Aside from their cuddle session, the twosome ventured out into the waves together for a refreshing dip.

The look of love: Morgan looked in a state of bliss as she snuggled up to her boyfriend while soaking up the sun

Making a splash: Aside from their cuddle session, the twosome ventured out into the waves together for a refreshing dip

Romantic getaway: Standing alongside the ocean, the couple were clearly enjoying every moment of their trip to paradise

Gerard and his leading lady smiled broadly as they splashed around in the surf.

And Morgan was clearly having the time of her life, as she looked to be laughing while waist-deep in the water.

The couple have been making headlines lately with the state of their relationship.

Mellow in yellow: She looked amazing in her bright bathing suit, which left very little of her toned figure to the imagination

Care-free: Gerard and his lady love couldn't stop smiling as they splashed around in the surf

Time of their life! Brown grinned broadly as a wave crashed beside them

On and off: The couple had been dating on and off since 2014 and were said to be broken up for good in 2016 before being spotted together again earlier this year

Gerard and Morgan had been dating on and off since 2014 and were said to be broken up for good in 2016 before being spotted together again earlier this year.

Morgan, an interior designer and former model, was spotted out on a coffee date with actor Liev Schreiber in May.

She was also spotted jetting into Baltimore, Maryland with Gerard on June 15, a little over a month after her coffee date with Liev.

Meanwhile, Gerard has been busy filming the upcoming action film Den Of Thieves.

The film, slated for release in 2018, also stars Pablo Schreiber and 50 Cent.

Cuddle time: The couple cosied up in the water

If you've got it! Morgan looked absolutely incredible in her two piece

Surf's up! Gerard enjoyed a break from work to hit the waves
Aaron Carter, the singer-rapper who began performing as a child and had hit albums starting in his teen years, was found dead at his home in Southern California. He was 34. Representatives for Carters family confirmed the singers death Saturday. They did not provide any immediate further comment. A sheriff's official says deputies responding to reports of a medical emergency found a person deceased at the home in Lancaster. Aaron Carter, the younger brother of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys, performed as an opening act for Britney Spears as well as his brothers boy band, and appeared on the familys reality series, House of Carters.
She was devastated when her four-year romance with 45-year-old property tycoon Niccolo Barattieri di San Pietro came to an abrupt end just weeks ago.

But now Lady Kitty Spencer, 26, has been dealt more heartbreak  because Niccolo has his heart set on Liz Hurley who, at 52, is twice Kittys age.

Kitty, daughter of the Earl Spencer and niece of Diana, Princess of Wales, split with divorced father-of-three Mr Barattieri amid reports that they had fallen out over her hopes to marry and have children.

Lady Kitty Spencer's romance with property tycoon Niccolo Barattieri came to an abrupt end just weeks ago

She moved out of his home in Chelsea in early May.

Now Mr Barattieri has set his sights on Ms Hurley, who has a 15-year-old son, Damian, but who has put her child-bearing days behind her.

Sources say Mr Barattieri has been pursuing Ms Hurley  who is currently busy filming the TV drama The Royals  since May 5, and the evidence of his quest is clear on social media.

Having never interacted with her before, Mr Barattieri set about bombarding Ms Hurleys Instagram page with likes  clicking a red love heart underneath 35 different pictures. She has sent him several likes in return. What is more telling is the recent regular appearance of his white Maserati  a gift from his ex-wife Sofia  outside Ms Hurleys Chelsea home.

A source told The Mail on Sunday last night: He has been chasing after Liz, courting her attentions and it is the talk of Chelsea.

Unfortunately, Kitty has got wind and is pretty upset. Ironically, Niccolo and Liz are acting like a pair of twentysomethings by using social media.

The courtship between Mr Barattieri and Elizabeth Hurley is now the talk of Chelsea

Lady Kitty and Mr Barattieri had an unfortunate date clash last week when they both attended the Serpentine summer party in Londons Hyde Park.

The prestigious art and fashion-world event was packed with Lady Kittys friends, but she spent the night avoiding an awkward encounter with her ex.

The source said: Kitty has been telling lots of friends that she thinks Niccolo and Liz are an item, and are keeping it quiet because it was so soon after the break-up that they got together.

Shes feeling hurt, but friends are trying to make her feel better by telling her they might just have become close friends.

Lady Kitty Spencer alongside her mother, Victoria Aitken, and brother Louis Spencer. Friends report that Kitty has been left 'hurt' by the breakup

Ms Hurley shot into the public gaze in 1994 when she appeared at a film premiere with then-boyfriend Hugh Grant in a stunning black Versace dress held together with safety pins. Damians father is multi-millionaire film producer Steve Bing, and she enjoyed a four-year marriage to textiles heir Arun Nayar until their divorce in 2011.

Asked whether he was in a relationship with Ms Hurley, Mr Barattieri said yesterday: We are not seeing each other. He refused to comment on whether they had been in contact or on any dates. Spokesmen for Ms Hurley and Lady Kitty were unavailable for comment.
Barry Norman became a household name in the 1970s

Barry Norman, who died in his sleep on Friday aged 83, received many epithets over the years but the thinking womans crumpet was the one that tickled him most.

With his distinctive manner, he became a household name in the 1970s, breezily presenting BBC1s innovative review of the latest cinema releases.

Self-deprecating to a fault, he was the first to note that his lived-in appearance made him an unlikely sex symbol.

But sitting back comfortably in his chair, legs crossed, hands interlaced as he presented the Film programme, there was often a twinkle in his baggy eyes  baggy because he once estimated he had sat through 15,000 films.

He famously flirted with Michelle Pfeiffer and was once kissed by Elizabeth Taylor.

Ive met some extremely beautiful women, he once recalled. Im quite sure I came back from interviewing Sophia Loren or Brigitte Bardot raving about how good looking they were. But thats as far as it went.

In truth, he was devoted to his wife Diana, his soulmate who died in 2011. The couple were married for 53 years.

It wasnt just women who liked Norman. Erudite, witty, insightful, understated, he was, it seemed, everyones favourite film buff. Well, not quite everyones. For along with a fireside manner, he also possessed a temper  and was not afraid of cutting Hollywood royalty down to size.

There were quite a few people who were terrified of me, he once admitted.

He almost came to blows with Robert De Niro after he asked a question the actor didnt like  and he refused to interview Madonna when she turned up an hour and 40 minutes late.

Barry Norman with Meryl Streep. The critic was held in enormously high regard by the film industry

He called Arnold Schwarzenegger an ass and a humourless, self-satisfied clod, and dismissed the late Robin Williams as an actor with an addiction to saccharine, tooth-rotting sentimentality whose talent was spread so thinly as to be almost invisible.

But the film industry held Norman in enormously high regard, and most stars found being interviewed by him a rare pleasure.

Yesterday, his daughters Samantha and Emma called him remarkable, adding: He had a great life, a wonderful marriage and an enviable career.

Barry Norman his wife Diana. They were married for 53 years until she passed away in 2011

He leaves behind a family who adore him and a great roster of friends who love him too. We will miss him more than we can say.

Norman was a newspaper journalist who was showbusiness editor of the Daily Mail before taking the chair of the BBCs new cinema show, Film 72.

Proving unexpectedly popular, further series were commissioned with the name of the show changing to reflect the year.

Norman became a fixture, hosting it for 26 years, although he nearly made an early exit when Paul Fox, then controller of BBC1, accused Norman of wearing a wig and shouted: I wont have wigs on my channel  get rid of him.

Barry Norman, seen with Italian Actress Luciana Paluzzi (left) and his daughters Emma and Samantha (right) started out as a showbusiness editor for the Daily Mail

He wasnt wearing a wig, but he immediately went off to get his bouffant hair trimmed. After that, there was no stopping him.

At the height of his fame he became a puppet on the satirical TV series Spitting Image, which created a catchphrase for him  And why not?  that he later used for the title of his autobiography.

Barry Norman pictured with beloved English actor Sir John Mills

When his wife died six years ago, Norman, who was also a prolific author, paid a moving tribute: Two weeks ago I lost my wife and the best friend a man could ever hope for. She was beautiful, witty, highly intelligent, quirky, stubborn and always immense fun to be with.

She was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother and she was also  this is not just my opinion  one of the most gifted historical novelists around We will cope without her because we have to. But it wont be the same. And I find it impossible to describe the agony in that thought.

Barry Norman is pictured with the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival

He later wrote about reaching 80. Ive had a great innings, a blessed and happy life, able to earn my living and support my loved ones by doing things I thoroughly enjoyed. I fear the possibility of a long, lingering and painful illness and I fear becoming decrepit, senile and a burden on my family.

But I have no fear of death, whether or not there is an afterlife, and neither should any other octogenarian.
A Israeli soldier on patrol near the border with Syria after projectiles fired from the war-torn country hit the Israeli occupied Golan Heights on June 24

An Israeli warplane struck a Syrian army post on Friday, hours after stray fire from Syria's civil war hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Israeli military said.

"In response to the projectile launched earlier today at Israel from Syria, an Israel Air Force aircraft targeted the Syrian army position that fired the mortar," the English-language Israeli statement said.

"The errant projectile was a result of internal fighting in Syria."

It was the fourth such exchange in a week as Syrian troops battle rebels, including hardline Islamists, on the other side.

There have been no casualties but Israel responded to the previous three incidents by striking Syrian government positions.

Rebels recently launched an offensive against government forces in Quneitra on the Syrian side of the armistice line.

During a speech on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not tolerate any spillover from the fighting.

"We will respond to every firing," he said. "Whoever attacks us, we will attack him. This is our policy and we will continue with it."

He was speaking at the Israeli settlement of Katzrin on the Golan, when a Syrian mortar shell hit further north and Israeli warplanes retaliated.

"During my speech, shells from the Syrian side landed in our territory and the Israel Defence Forces have already struck back," he said.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

Around 510 square kilometres of the Golan are under Syrian control.
Walid Amri, brother of alleged Berlin Christmas market attacker Anis Amri, holds a portrait of his brother outside the family house in Oueslatia on December 23, 2016

The body of Anis Amri, the Tunisian blamed for the deadly truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market, was repatriated to the North African country on Friday for burial.

The remains of the 24-year-old, who was shot dead by Italian police on December 23 while on the run in Milan, arrived at Tunis-Carthage airport and were handed over to his family, an airport source said.

He is due to be buried in his hometown of Oueslatia in central Tunisia, one of his brothers, Abdelkader, told AFP by telephone.

Amri, a rejected asylum seeker, is believed to have hijacked a truck and rammed it into a crowd at the Berlin Christmas market on December 19, killing 12 people.

The rampage was claimed by the Islamic State group in a video showing Amri pledging allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
A British businessman diverted funds invested in a phony Bitcoin site as well as from a flexible workspace firm Bar Works into accounts in Mauritius and Morocco, totaling $5 million

US authorities on Friday charged a British businessman with a checkered history with securities fraud for bilking investors in what turned out to be a fake trading platform for virtual currency Bitcoin.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said "the clandestine" Renwick Haddow, a UK citizen living in New York, diverted funds invested in the phony Bitcoin site as well as from a flexible workspace firm Bar Works into accounts in Mauritius and Morocco, totaling $5 million.

He touted experienced senior executives as running the operations, who turned out to be phantoms, and misrepresented the details and success of both companies.

"Haddow created two trendy companies and misled investors into believing that highly-qualified executives were leading them to quick profitability," said Andrew M. Calamari, director of the SECs New York Regional Office.

"In reality, Haddow controlled the companies from behind the scenes and they were far from profitable."

Bitcoin Store claimed to be "an easy-to-use and secure way of holding and trading Bitcoin" and had generated several million dollars in gross sales.

The SEC alleges that in fact it never had any operations nor generated the gross sales it touted.

In 2015, Bitcoin Store's bank accounts allegedly received less than $250,000 in incoming transfers, none of which appear to reflect revenue from customers, the SEC said.

Haddow's investors pumped more than $37 million into Bar Works, which claimed to provide workspaces in old bars and restaurants, but in fact "primarily sold leases coupled with sub-leases that together functioned like investment notes," the SEC said in a statement.

And the SEC said throughout he was "hiding his connection" to the companies "given his checkered past with regulators in the UK," where he has faced similar charges for investment schemes.

According to a report in Crain's, 27 investors from China filed suit in the State Supreme Court June 16 seeking repayment of more than $3 million invested in Bar Works, which they called a Ponzi scheme.

Another investment group filed a similar case against Bar Works in Florida in recent weeks.
Some million slaves from Africa took their first steps in Brazil on Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro which is being considered for UNESCO status

The worn paving stones discovered under a thick layer of modern concrete in Rio de Janeiro don't look like much at first. But it was here that some million slaves from Africa took their first steps in Brazil.

"It's a unique memorial, containing the last remaining vestiges of the slaves' arrival," said anthropologist Milton Guran.

Next week, the UN cultural body UNESCO will consider whether to award what's known as Valongo Wharf world heritage status, winning protection as a site of global importance.

The wharf, or what remains of it, would join sites like the Taj Mahal in India and the ruined Inca city of Machu Picchu. UNESCO, which is meeting between July 2-12 in Krakow, Poland, already chose Rio de Janeiro as a heritage site in 2012, recognizing the city's unique combination of landscapes between mountains and the sea.

For Valongo, the honor would make it a twin with Ile de Goree, a small island in Dakar harbor that was chosen in 1978 as the emblem of the departure points for slaves from west Africa on their way to the Americas.

Now on the other side of the Atlantic from Senegal, across the grim route known as the "middle passage," the stones of Valongo Wharf commemorate the slaves' arrival.

- Buried past -

Valongo Wharf is now well inland in Rio, following expansion of the original city. The remains were only discovered by accident in 2011 during massive works to refurbish the port area for the 2016 Olympics

Today the Valongo site is not on the water, but well inland, following expansion of the original city. The remains were only discovered by accident in 2011 during massive works to refurbish the port area for the 2016 Olympics.

Historians had known that this was the area where the biggest slave trade in the Americas was centered, but few Brazilians were aware. Nearby, a couple discovered by chance that their house was sitting on a mass grave of what could be tens of thousands of slaves.

Valongo is where the slaves, often emaciated and sick after the voyage, were taken to be quarantined, sorted and sold.

"Those who survived the crossing were taken straight to the slave market," historian Claudio Honorato said.

"The whole neighborhood lived on this business. There were even manufacturers of the chains and iron collars," Honorato, a researcher at the Institute of New Blacks, which curates the mass grave site, said.

An estimated four million or so Africans were shipped to Brazil, far more than to the United States and amounting to about 40 percent of all trans-Atlantic slaves.

With slavery only being abolished in 1888, the echoes of that traumatic history continue to sound today in a country where racism is deeply embedded.

Valongo Wharf, which was active between the end of the 18th century and the mid-19th century, can now help to shed light on that buried history.

"We knew that the Valongo Wharf was in the area, but we were surprised to find it so well preserved, even after it had been underground for so long," said archeologist Tania Andrade Lima.

- 'Crime against humanity' -

Fragments of a mid-19th century refurbishment can still be seen at the wharf when it was made to look more palatable for the arrival of Princess Teresa Cristina Maria de Bourbon, who had come to marry Emperor Pedro II.

"That work is extremely symbolic because it represents the contrast between two extremes of society: it's as if the princess was trampling over the slaves," Lima said.

Brazilian researcher Claudio Honorato says UNESCO world heritage status for Valongo Wharf would be a sort of reparation for a 'crime against humanity that is still being paid for by the descendants of the victims today.'

Honorato calls that makeover of the otherwise functional, massive stone dock "the first attempt to bury the memory."

If UNESCO recognizes Valongo's world heritage status, that would be a sort of reparation for a "crime against humanity that is still being paid for by the descendants of the victims today."

Guran also sees a far reaching consequence to the UNESCO label: "It will oblige Brazil to recognize its African roots" and will also encourage educational tourism.

For the neighborhood really to take off as a tourist destination, however, Rio's authorities will have to deal with more modern problems -- crime and the presence of crack addicts in the little visited area.
The repatriation of the Chosun dynasty antiques, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, comes after years of campaigning by the South Korean government, which said they were stolen during the turbulent 1950-53 war

South Korean President Moon Jae-In is returning from an official visit to Washington with two ancient royal seals looted during the Korean War, reports said Saturday.

The repatriation of the Chosun dynasty antiques, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, comes after years of campaigning by the South Korean government, which said they were stolen during the turbulent 1950-53 war.

Moon received the seals during a ceremony in Washington during a visit to the US Friday and was due to arrive in South Korea with them on Sunday, Yonhap news agency said.

The Chosun dynasty, who cultivated a ruling philosophy drawn from Confucianism, governed from 1392 to 1910, when Japan colonized the country.

One of the seals was made in 1547 to honor Queen Munjeong (1501-1565), the third wife of Chosun Dynasty's 11th king, Jungjong.

The other is a jade block created in 1651 to commemorate the installation of the crown prince of King Hyojong.

They were seized by US authorities in 2013 after Seoul clarified these were stolen items.

It marked the third time that Washington has returned South Korean treasures.

In 2013 the United States sent back Korea's first money printing block made in late 19th century and the following year, it handed back nine royal seals.

Tens of thousands of old Korean cultural items were spirited abroad during Japan's colonization of Korea from 1910-45 and the Korean War.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a special midnight session of parliament to launch the new goods and services tax (GST) which he called "good and simple"

India on Saturday launched its biggest ever fiscal reform with the government promising a stronger, less corrupt economy while businesses are nervous about the new tax.

The goods and services tax (GST) replaces more than a dozen levies imposed nationally and by the 29 states. It aims to transform the nation of 1.3 billion people and its $2 trillion economy into a single market.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a special midnight session of parliament to launch GST which he called "a good and simple tax."

"With GST, the dream of one India, great India, will come true," the prime minister said.

"GST is a simple, transparent system which prevents generation of black money and curbs corruption," said Modi who jolted the country last year by withdrawing more than 85 percent of India's bank notes from circulation in a clampdown on under-the-table dealings.

"The system gives opportunity to honesty and people who do honest business."

But the prime minister, who has put huge efforts into the economy as he targets re-election in 2019, acknowledged that it would have teething problems.

Jammu and Kashmir state has refused to sign onto the one tax regime. And GST has sparked protests by traders, while the main opposition Congress Party boycotted the launch ceremony.

- Tax rules confound -

Businesses are nervous about the imposition of GST, which sets out four different rates of between five and 28 per cent instead of the one originally envisioned.

The GST rule book runs to more than 200 pages and last-minute changes were still being made late Friday.

Textile traders and other sectors went on strike ahead of the launch and many businesses say they are unclear about what to charge.

The Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal, a national traders association that claims 60 million members, called a one-day strike Friday to protest the GST.

Many are worried because while returns have to be filed by computer, they do not have or do not understand computers.

"Since August last year we have put forward our demands on GST but the government has never responded," national secretary general Vijay Prakash Jain told AFP. "We told the government, either fix this, or we will strike."

Most economists agree the reform -- first proposed in 2006 -- is long overdue, but warn the initial shock to the economy is likely to drag, rather than stoke growth, as businesses adjust.

Credit Suisse managing director Neelkanth Mishra warned that "the next few months will be a period of uncertainty in which no company would want to invest, that slows down the investment cycle and acts as a drag on the economy."

Rating agency ICRA said that while GST would lead to an increase in compliance in some sectors, it would also reduce the competitiveness of the informal businesses who are expected to lose out to the formal and organised players.

"Although it is still far from perfect, we realise how much better it is than the myriad taxes we've been subjected to over the last several decades," said Pratik Jain, Partner and Leader Indirect Tax, PwC India.

"The old India was economically fragmented. The new India will create one tax, one market for one nation," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
Proenza Schuler will join the elite of haute couture on the Paris catwalks on Sunday

Two high-end American labels will make their Paris haute couture debuts Sunday in a week when the French capital pays tribute to two of fashion's legends.

New York-based Proenza Schouler and Californian house Rodarte -- who normally present their collections at New York fashion week -- have been invited into the elite haute couture fold, which shows only in Paris.

Their debut as guest members comes as Chanel's veteran maestro Karl Lagerfeld will be given the Grand Vermeil medal, the highest honour the city of Paris can bestow, and a major new exhibition opens about Christian Dior.

The Belgium label A.F. Vandevorst and Holland's Ronald van der Kemp have also been invited to show on the haute couture catwalks for first time alongside French brand Azzaro.

Only 15 fashion houses including Chanel, Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Maison Margiela and Giambattista Valli have the right to call their work haute couture.

Their entirely handmade creations, which can cost tens of thousands of euros (dollars) for a single piece, are worn by some of the richest and most powerful women in the world.

French haute couture designer Julien Fournie -- whose clients include royalty -- said he welcomed the inclusion of the American brands, which are best known for dressing Hollywood stars.

"Everyone has the right to come to Paris to measure themselves against the greats. All the better (that) the Americans come and we will see what they can do," he added.

- Karl Lagerfeld honoured -

Ethereal: Rodarte's show at last September's New York Fashion Week

Los Angeles-based Rodarte, run by sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, have dressed pop star Katy Perry and made headlines with their 2014 "Star Wars" dresses which carried images of Luke Skywalker and robot R2-D2.

They designed the costumes for the ballet movie "Black Swan", and its star Natalie Portman wore one of their gowns to pick up her Oscar for best actress in 2011.

Her husband French choreographer Benjamin Millepied has worked with the sisters on a number of his ballet productions.

Proenza Schouler designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough will show their spring summer ready to wear line they would have shown in New York in September, allowing them to deliver it to shops two months ahead of the competition.

The haute couture shows will also see newly appointed French designer Maxime Simoens take his first bow at Azzaro, which was founded half a century ago by the Italian Loris Azzaro.

But the big set-piece events of the week will as ever be the often spectacular Dior and Chanel shows.

Maria Grazia Chiuri will present her second couture collection for Dior on Monday which will be followed by the opening of a new exhibition dedicated to the house's founder Christian Dior at the city's museum of decorative arts.

The show, "Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams", which will run until January 2018, traces the history of the brand from Dior's invention of the "New Look" after World War II right up to Chiuri, who became its first female artistic director last July.

And 83-year-old Lagerfeld, known as the "kaiser" for his mastery of the fashion world, will be presented with the Grand Vermeil medal on Tuesday after Chanel's show at the Grand Palais by the mayor of the French capital, Anne Hidalgo.
The government of the Bahamas, where tourism is the largest industry, apologized over the disastrous Fyre festival and assisted in evacuations but stressed it was not involved directly in the event

The tech entrepreneur behind a music festival in the Bahamas that was billed as a luxury getaway but collapsed in chaos in April has been arrested and charged with wire fraud, prosecutors said.

William McFarland, 25, is due for a hearing before US Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox in New York on Saturday. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The Fyre Festival was scrapped on its first day, April 28, after hundreds of partygoers -- some paying more than $100,000 each -- arrived only to find relief-camp style tents and rudimentary sandwiches rather than the promised lavish experience.

The festival, led by McFarland and New York rapper Ja Rule, was billed as "the cultural experience of the decade." The organizers eventually apologized, announcing that all festivalgoers would be refunded.

"William McFarland promised a 'life changing' music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster," US Attorney Joon Kim said in a statement.

"McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes."

In seeking to drive up his business, McFarland "truly put on a show, misrepresenting the financial status of his businesses in order to rake in lucrative investment deals," said William Sweeney, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York Field Office.

"In the end, the very public failure of the Fyre Festival signaled that something just wasn't right, as we allege in detail today."

Prosecutors say McFarland's fraudulent scheme sought to get at least two people to invest about $1.2 million in his Fyre Media and a related entity by lying about Fyre Media's revenue and income.

A $100 million class action lawsuit on behalf of those who purchased tickets was filed in May in California federal court.

Numerous festivalgoers posted pictures of shambolic scenes as they arrived and quickly turned around -- setting off mockery in corners of the internet over the high prices many had paid.

Organizers admitted they were "simply in over our heads," saying they were overwhelmed by the numbers arriving as transport jammed up and high winds knocked down half of the original tents.

Ja Rule apologized but insisted he was not to blame.

The government of the Bahamas, a country of more than 700 islands and cays where tourism is the largest industry, also apologized and assisted in evacuations -- but stressed it was not involved directly in the event.
A cardboard cut-out of China's President Xi Jinping holding a yellow umbrella, a symbol of the 2014 'Umbrella Movement' is carried during a protest in Hong Kong on July 1 -- the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule

Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters marched through summer rain brandishing colourful art and props in Hong Kong Saturday, expressing their fears the city and its freedoms are being eaten up by China.

The march came hours after President Xi Jinping flew out after a three-day trip to mark 20 years since Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain.

There were sporadic arrests and scuffles during his landmark stay but protesters were given little space to make their voices heard in the midst of an unprecedented security lockdown.

On Saturday afternoon, they were free to express themselves once more as they marched through central Hong Kong from Victoria Park to government offices.

One protester carried a cardboard cutout of Xi holding a yellow umbrella -- symbol of the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement which brought parts of the city to a standstill.

People attend a protest march in Hong Kong on July 1, 2017, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule

Others waved pro-independence and colonial British flags, which have become an anti-China emblem.

Rows of punch bags were mounted with the head of Hong Kong's unpopular ex-leader Leung Chun-ying, who was replaced by incoming chief executive Carrie Lam Saturday.

Some protesters carried a cardboard model of a toilet picturing Leung's face on the lid and Lam's face in the bowl, covered with excrement.

"It's not straightforward to get what we want by just protesting, especially from this heartless government," said teacher Charlton Cheung, in his 40s.

"But we need to persist to show our fellow citizens we have a shared vision. Maybe one day we will be in big enough numbers that the government can't ignore," he added.

Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee, one of five publishers of salacious titles about Beijing leaders who went missing in 2015 and resurfaced in detention on the mainland, joined the rally.

Lam has been in Hong Kong since ducking bail last year and revealing how he had been seized, blindfolded and detained for eight months without a lawyer.

The booksellers' case tapped into deep seated fears over how far China is reaching into Hong Kong and curbing freedoms.

A banner which reads 'Democracy' is carried during a protest march in Hong Kong on July 1, 2017, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule

"We are seeing the power of the police getting bigger, while the rights of the people are only getting smaller," legislator and activist Nathan Law told AFP.

A prominent theme in this year's march was the call for the release of cancer-stricken Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was given medical parole earlier this week but is still on the mainland.

Social worker Ceci Chan, in her 30s, said life was "difficult" for Hong Kongers and that Xi should not have hidden behind security barricades if he wanted to connect with residents.

"Hong Kong is a very great city. It's not good for anyone for it to just become any Chinese city," she said.
A relative of a victim reacts as he pays tribute to the victims of the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe deadly siege to commemorate the first anniversary of the attack carried out by Islamist militants, in Dhaka on July 1, 2017

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday at the site of one of the worst Islamist attacks in Bangladesh's history to mark the first anniversary of the deadly attack on an upscale Dhaka cafe.

Weeping mourners laid flowers outside the old premises of the Holey Artisan Bakery, the cafe which five young men armed with guns and knives stormed into on July 1, 2016, taking dozens hostage and killing 22 people.

Most of the victims were foreigners -- mostly Italian and Japanese national -- and many were brutally hacked to death.

Since then, the lakeside property has been cordoned off first by police and then by the owners -- the bakery itself has reopened at a new, more secure, location.

Bangladeshi women lay flowers to pay tribute to the victims of the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe deadly siege to commemorate the first anniversary of the attack carried out by Islamist militants, in Dhaka on July 1, 2017

Amid heavy police security, the two-storey white-painted house was opened up for four hours on Saturday, as top political leaders, the Italian and Japanese ambassadors, and scores of tearful mourners paid tribute to the victims of the siege.

"The memories are painful and awful," Monica Chowdhury, the aunt of one of the victims, Faraaz Hossain, told AFP.

"This is not the true face of Bangladesh. We've lost friends. I've lost my nephew. It hurts deep inside my heart," she said.

Bangladesh's cultural affairs minister Asaduzzaman Nur told reporters that the government had never imagined this kind of attack could occur in the country.

"Bangladesh has a long history of rich culture and liberal practises. This attack was also an attack on our heritage," he said.

Bangladesh is gradually "overcoming the threat" posed by Islamic extremism, he added.

A Bangladeshi policeman stands guard at the old location of the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe a year after a deadly siege carried out by Islamist militants, in Dhaka on July 1, 2017

Mourner Husne Ara said that while she had not lost any friends or relatives during the attack, it had shaken her deeply and changed her life.

"The anxiety I feel nowadays when my children go out cant be expressed in words. I pray this kind of incident never repeats," she told AFP.

The Islamic State group immediately claimed the attack but the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly denied that IS has any presence in the country, instead pinning the blame on homegrown Islamist outfits.

Since the attack, the law enforcement officers have gunned down nearly 70 Islamist extremists across the country including the Bangladeshi-origin Canadian "mastermind" of the cafe siege.
A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces holds a weapon in the Al-Senaa neighbourhood of Raqa on June 21, 2017

US-backed fighters have launched a renewed attack on Islamic State group jihadists inside their Syrian bastion Raqa, seeking to retake a key eastern neighbourhood, a monitor said on Saturday.

"The Syrian Democratic Forces started a counter-offensive on Friday night to retake Al-Senaa," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The SDF first ousted IS from Al-Senaa on June 12, less than a week after they first entered Raqa.

But IS pushed back, unleashing a slew of car bombs and attacks from weaponised drones and taking back control of the neighbourhood on Friday.

"It was Daesh's most intense attack yet," a military source from the US-backed fighters told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

The source said IS had surrounded about 50 members of the Elite Forces -- US-backed Arab fighters allied with the SDF -- before heavy coalition air strikes broke the siege.

Al-Senaa is key for both the SDF and IS because it is adjacent to the city centre, where most IS fighters defending Raqa are thought to be holed up.

Around 2,500 jihadists are fighting inside Raqa, according to British Major General Rupert Jones, a deputy commander of the US-led coalition backing the SDF.

"At this point, the SDF has retaken about 30 percent of Al-Senaa. There are clashes and coalition air strikes in that neighbourhood and across the city," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The US-led coalition has provided key support to the SDF's offensive, with air strikes, on-the-ground advisors, weapons, and equipment.

The Observatory said on Saturday that 193 civilians, including 33 children, had been killed in Raqa since the US-backed SDF entered the city.

The Britain-based monitor said 219 IS fighters had been killed in air strikes and clashes in the same period, but he had no immediate toll for the SDF's losses.

The United Nations estimates some 100,000 civilians remain in Raqa, with the jihadists accused of using them as human shields.

The city became infamous as the scene of some of the worst IS atrocities, including public beheadings, and is thought to have been a hub for planning attacks overseas.
US President Donald Trump speaks during the "Celebrate Freedom" concert at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington on July 1, 2017

President Donald Trump defended his aggressive use of Twitter on Saturday just hours after firing off his latest volley in his escalating feud with US media.

Following an early morning Twitter tirade at CNN, NBC and a morning show host he taunted as "dumb as a rock," the president then went on the defensive, touting his electoral accomplishments as justification for his increasingly hostile rhetoric.

"The FAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA is working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media - but remember, I won the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media," Trump said on Twitter.

"I had to beat #FakeNews, and did. We will continue to WIN!" he posted, before ending the day at a rally in Washington that included a similar anti-media barrage.

In recent days, the US leader has railed against major news organizations as "fake news," and launched a crude personal attack on Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who headline the "Morning Joe" program on the left-leaning MSNBC cable network.

"Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!" he wrote Saturday, seemingly trying to get in the final word in his clash with the journalists.

Apparently stung by critical coverage on the show, Trump on Thursday had tweeted: "I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore).

"Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"

- Backlash -

Trump launched nasty Twitter tirades this week against Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who headline the "Morning Joe" program on the left-leaning MSNBC cable television network

The comments sparked a major backlash, as well as condemnation from within Trump's own Republican Party.

The TV hosts responded on Friday with an opinion piece in The Washington Post titled "Donald Trump is not well," questioning his "unmoored behavior" and fitness to serve.

Trump also targeted CNN, a frequent punching bag for the president.

"I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It's about time!" he tweeted, referring to an article that the cable news channel retracted, that claimed Congress was investigating links between Trump's administration and a Russian investment fund.

Three CNN journalists resigned over the article, which was posted on the network's website on June 22 before being yanked the next day.

"I am thinking about changing the name #FakeNews CNN to #FraudNewsCNN!" Trump posted.

He also suggested in a tweet that veteran ex-Fox journalist Greta Van Susteren, who left MSNBC this week, "was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ 'Trump hate!'"

- 'Fight fire with fire' -

Trump's deputy spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump's attacks on Brzezinski, Scarborough and other media were part of his natural instinct to "fight fire with fire."

On Saturday, those instincts seemed to be on display.

"My use of social media is not Presidential - it's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL," Trump posted on Twitter, before adding his classic tagline "Make America Great Again!"

Capping his day of derision, Trump lambasted the press at a Fourth of July "Freedom Rally" in Washington, stating that "the fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but I'm president and they're not."

"The dishonest media will never keep us from accomplishing our objectives on behalf of our great American people," he added.

"The fact is, the press has destroyed themselves because they went too far."
Anti-austerity protestors took their message to Parliament Square, Britain's political heart

Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday to protest at austerity and demand Prime Minister Theresa May's government resign after its disastrous showing in last month's election.

Demonstrators converged in front of the BBC headquarters in central London to demand an end to belt-tightening that has led to cuts in spending for public services.

Signs read "No More Austerity", "Cuts Cost Lives" and "Tories Out."

After holding a minute's silence in honour of the victims of a deadly fire in London, which killed at least 80 people, and staging a round of applause for the emergency services, protesters headed towards Parliament Square.

Main opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn was expected to address the rally.

The union-backed march was organised a day after the June 14 Grenfell Tower inferno in west London.

An investigation into the fire is underway, but critics blame lax standards and cost-cutting, which they say is a consequence of austerity.

The prime minister, who lost her parliamentary majority in last month's snap election, narrowly survived a confidence vote on Thursday thanks to the support of Northern Ireland's ultra-conservative DUP party.

Their deal has been attacked by both Labour and some of May's own Conservative MPs, in part because the DUP secured an extra billion pounds (1.1 billion euros, $1.3 billion) in state aid for Northern Ireland.

A day earlier, the government had also narrowly voted down a Labour party amendment to its legislative programme -- known as the Queen's Speech -- calling for an end to a six-year cap on public sector pay.

Funding for public services -- from the National Health Service (NHS) to police and fire personnel -- has taken an increasingly emotive tone in the UK after the country was struck by three terror attacks, followed by the deadly tower blaze.

Government officials have indicated they may review spending policies, reflecting concern among Conservative MPs about continued austerity.
Former US President Barack Obama waves to the audience alongside Indonesian media figure Eddy Kusnadi Sariaatmadja (C) and former Indonesian Ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal during the 4th Congress of Indonesian Diaspora in Jakarta

Barack Obama called for tolerance and respect in his childhood home of Indonesia Saturday, amid rising religious tensions in the country where the former US president spent four years as a boy.

At the end of a 10-day family holiday, Obama spoke to a packed crowd in the capital Jakarta, where he praised the spirit of tolerance in Indonesia, saying you could see mosques, temple and churches alongside each other.

"That spirit is one of the defining things about Indonesia, the most important characteristics to set as an example for other Muslim countries around the world," Obama said.

The 44th president of the United State then said: "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika," -- Indonesia's motto, which means unity in diversity, prompting huge cheers from the crowd of thousands of leaders, business people and students at the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora.

Obama lived in Indonesia when he was a six-year-old boy with his mother, an anthropologist, and his Indonesian stepfather and half-sister.

His mother later divorced and Obama moved back to Hawaii at the age of 10 to live with his grandparents.

The Muslim-majority country has recently seen a rise in Islamic radicalism.

Its track record as a tolerant nation is being tested after former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama -- an ethnic Chinese Christian -- lost Jakarta's mayoral election in April against a prominent Muslim candidate.

Purnama was later sentenced to two years prison in May for blasphemy over comments he made about the Koran which divided the nation and stirred up issues of religion and ethnicity in the archipelago, which was long hailed by other countries for it's ability to tolerate different religious.

Prior to Jakarta, Obama and his family visited the resort island of Bali and the ancient city of Yogyakarta which is known for its temples.

The Obamas will leave Indonesia for South Korea on Sunday.
Mora is a town in Cameroon's Far North which is home to a large artillery unit of the Cameroonian army

One civilian was killed and two others injured Saturday when four female bombers blew themselves up in Cameroon's Far North, an area regularly targeted by Boko Haram jihadists, local sources told AFP.

The incident took place in Mora, near the northwestern border with Nigeria, during the early hours of Saturday morning, when four female bombers set off the deadly blasts near the edge of town, a source close to the security services said.

Mora is home to the headquarters of the first sector of the Mixed Multinational Force, an anti-insurgent regional force, as well as a large artillery unit of the Cameroonian army.

"There was one civilian victim and two injured," the source said, adding that all four bombers also died.

The attackers were trying to reach the centre of town when they were spotted by members of the vigilance committee and troops, the source said.

They then detonated the bombs.

Details of the attack were confirmed to AFP by a source close to the local authorities.

Vigilance committees are made up of local residents and aim to inform security forces of any suspicious activity in a bid to prevent attacks by Boko Haram, which has been waging an insurgency since 2009.

Though Boko Haram was born in Nigeria, the Islamic State-affiliated group has carried out frequent attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, prompting the formation of the regional force to fight back.

The Far North region, which borders Nigeria, has seen a resurgence in attacks blamed on Boko Haram after months of relative calm.

Six civilians were killed nearly two weeks ago in a double suicide attack in Kolofata, and two others died in Limani in early June when a female bomber blew herself up near the town's public school.

Some 200,000 Cameroonians from the Far North region have fled their villages in fear of the violence.
EU and Japanese top officials pose before their working dinner as a part of the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations at Iikura guest house in Tokyo on June 30

The European Union's top trade official said Saturday that a Japan-EU free trade deal was "almost there", as the two sides look to ink an agreement seen as a push back against rising protectionism.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom was in Tokyo with agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan for two days of talks with Japanese officials.

After four years of negotiations the two sides are working toward signing a deal at the G20 in Hamburg next week.

"We are almost there," Malmstrom told reporters in the Japanese capital Saturday evening, saying a finalised deal could happen by the "end of autumn".

"We have sufficient convergence so that our officials can discuss in the coming days and iron out the remaining details.

"I am quite confident that our leaders can agree on their summit decided for next week on a package and give their blessing when they meet on the 6th" of July.

Japan's foreign minister Fumio Kishida, however, described the talks as "very tough".

"There was some meaningful progress but important issues still remain that both sides need to iron out," Kishida said, adding that he may go to Brussels in a bid to find an agreement.

Clinching a deal would be a victory for free-trade advocates after US president Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year, dealing a possibly fatal blow to the mooted 12-nation deal.

"The package which we hope to conclude next week will tear down almost all customs duties between us that are worth a lot of money, billions actually," Malmstrom said.

"EU exports to Japan overall, according to our calculations, could be boosted by one third and that of course means many more possibilities and many jobs.

She added that a deal would send a "strong signal to the rest of the world that the EU and Japan believe in free trade."

Tariffs on European cheese have been a key sticking point in the talks.

Brussels wants Japan to eliminate its 30 percent tariffs on some EU-made cheese, while Tokyo wants duties cut on cars which it exports to the 28-member bloc.

The EU and Japanese economies combined account for some 28 percent of global GDP.
South Korean ships patrol the disputed waters of the Yellow Sea

Five North Koreans in a small boat crossed the sea border into South Korean waters Saturday, a Coast Guard official said, in an apparent bid to defect to the South.

The five people, including four men and one woman, have expressed their wish to live in the South as defectors, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"Coast guards guided the boat to safety at (the eastern port of) Mukho," a South Korean coast guard official told AFP.

Government authorities were questioning the five North Koreans, he added.

The incident came after a North Korean fishing boat with eight people on board developed an engine trouble and drifted into South Korean waters off the country's eastern coast late last month.

Days later, South Korea repatriated all the eight, as they had requested.

Early last month, two people out of four crew members on another North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle in the South.

There has also been a spate of overland border crossings in June.

Two North Korean soldiers walked across the heavily fortified border and a civilian swam across a river to defect to the South.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.
Japan's Yuichi Sugita returns the ball during the ATP Tennis matach against Switzerland's Roger Federer in Halle, eastern Germany on June 20, 2017

Japan's Yuichi Sugita lifted his first ATP title after winning the grass-court tournament at Antalya on Saturday.

The 66th-ranked Sugita battled past France's Adrian Mannarino, ranked four places above him, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).

The 28-year-old from Sendai had earned a berth in his first final after Marcos Baghdatis retired in Friday's semi-final with heat exhaustion. Sugita had been leading 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 4-1 when the Cypriot player retired.

Mannarino, 29, was playing the third final of his career after Bogota and Auckland in 2015, as he searches for his maiden title.
Protestors believe the proposed changes that are being put to a referendum will hand Mali's president too much power

About 2,000 people rallied Saturday in conflict-torn Mali against a constitutional referendum over concerns the proposed changes hand the president too much power, an AFP correspondent said.

During the demonstration in the capital Bamako, which organisers say attracted 10,000 people, protesters held signs reading "Don't touch my Constitution", "No, means no" and "No to the referendum".

The protest, which authorities said was not authorised under the state of emergency, took place on the eve of the so-called "G5 Sahel" summit aimed at consolidating Western backing for a regional anti-jihadist force.

French President Emmanuel Macron is due to fly in Sunday for the summit, joining leaders from the "G5 Sahel" countries just south of the Sahara -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Wearing red caps and t-shirts, many protesters also held up red cards as a symbol of their opposition.

"A large part of Mali is occupied," local activist Moussa Keita told AFP, referring to jihadists in the north and centre of the country.

"It is more urgent to liberate the country than to organise a referendum," he said.

- 'Cancel the referendum' -

The referendum, which was due to be held on July 9 but has since been delayed because of fierce opposition, would enshrine elements of a 2015 peace deal in the charter and establish a senate in parliament.

Tuareg-led rebels led an uprising in 2012 that was hijacked by jihadists, throwing Mali into chaos and triggering a UN-French military intervention the following year.

The rebels later signed the peace deal but the jihadists did not -- and are still wreaking havoc.

The referendum is opposed by those who say it gives President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita excessive powers and claim that a vote cannot be held safely in the troubled north, which remains wracked by jihadist violence and a near absence of state authority.

"We came once again to call for the withdrawal of the referendum," former minister Sy Kadiatou Sow, known as the "Iron Lady" of Malian politics, told AFP.

The demonstration in Mali's capital, Bamako, took place peacefully without the presence of any police

Sow is part of the "Don't touch my constitution" group, which wants to see the referendum retracted and a national consultation held to rewrite it.

High-ranking opposition figures, including former prime ministers Modibo Sidibe and Soumana Sacko, and local unions also took part in the peaceful demonstration, which happened without incident or the presence of police forces.
The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is seen moored in the Mediterranean Sea off the Israeli port of Haifa on July 1, 2017

A US Navy supercarrier anchored off the Israeli port of Haifa Saturday on a break from operations supporting the US-led coalition's fight against the Islamic State group.

It is the vessel's first visit to Israel in 17 years, according to the Israeli military.

An AFP photographer said that the USS George H.W. Bush dropped anchor around five kilometres (three miles) offshore.

Israeli public radio said it did not enter the port due to its 333 metre (1,000 foot) length.

"The carrier is a part of the coalition's effort against the Islamic State," the Israeli military said in a brief statement.

It said that in a joint excercise at sea earlier in the week an Israel Air Force helicopter landed on the vessel.

The massive, nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier has 4,800 personnel aboard, according to its Facebook page.

It rises 20 storeys above the waterline and typically carries around 80 warplanes.

Israeli radio said that it was expected to remain until Wednesday and that crew would celebrate 4th July onshore in Israel.

Other media reports said it was on its way to patrol off the Syrian coast and would be the first US carrier deployed there since April, when warships in the Mediterranean fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Syrian air force's Shayrat base.

The April strikes were ordered by US President Donald Trump in retaliation for what he said was a "barbaric" chemical attack by the Damascus regime on a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria.

On Monday the White House said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be preparing "another mass murder attack using chemical weapons" and warned that the regime would pay a "heavy price" if it went ahead.
A view of the Qatari side of the Abu Samrah border crossing with Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has closed its airspace to Qatari carriers and blocked the emirate's only land border, a vital route for its food imports

Qatar said Saturday a series of demands made by several Arab states to lift a crippling blockade were designed to be spurned and clearly aimed at infringing its sovereignty.

"This list of demands is made to be rejected," Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said, referring to 13 demands placed on Doha by Saudi Arabia and its allies as the price for lifting an almost month-long "blockade" on Qatar.

Qatar said it had received the demands on June 22 with just 10 days to meet them, which would mean they would have until Sunday to comply. However, the deadline has not been confirmed.

"Everyone is aware that these demands are meant to infringe the sovereignty of the state of Qatar," Al-Thani said at a press conference in Rome after meeting his Italian counterpart.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt announced earlier this month the suspension of all ties to Qatar. They accused it of state support for extremist groups and denounced its political proximity to Shiite Iran.

Qatar denies the allegations.

Saudia Arabia closed the airspace to Qatari carriers and blocked the emirate's only land border, a vital route for its food imports.

Qatar has said the effects are more devastating than the Berlin Wall.

Riyadh's demands include ending Doha's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the closure of Al-Jazeera television, a downgrade of diplomatic ties with Iran and the shutdown of a Turkish military base in the emirate.

The United Arab Emirates has warned Qatar should take the demands seriously or face "divorce" from its Gulf neighbours.

Turkey and Iraq have backed Qatar in the crisis.

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said the government was ready "to contribute to any initiative aimed primarily at restoring dialogue and easing tensions between those involved."

Rome also pleaded for the five countries "to refrain from any further action that could aggravate the situation".

Kuwait is the official arbitrator for seeking a settlement, though the United States is also attempting to mediate.

Washington has cautioned that some of the demands would be difficult for Qatar to accept, asking the Saudis for a clear list of grievances that are "reasonable and actionable".
A clerk at a marijuana dispensary serves a customer Saturday, the first day that recreational marijuana became legal in the state of Nevada

Long lines snaked out of marijuana dispensaries in Nevada on Saturday, as the western US state became the latest to legalize recreational pot.

Nevada joins Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska as states where recreational marijuana sales are permitted. While pot is legal in several other states, it is governed by complicated local laws and still illegal according to federal law.

Legal marijuana sales are sure to be a boon to the economy of Nevada's largest city, Las Vegas, bolstering its reputation as an "anything goes" party town for millions of visitors from around the world.

"I'll bet the state makes a cool million $ this weekend," tweeted Democratic state Senator Tick Segerblom, a longtime advocate for legalization of marijuana.

"This is a game-changer for Las Vegas and tourism here as far as I'm concerned," he told the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, adding, "Amsterdam on steroids."

Destiny Diaz was in line for nearly three hours at the Jardin Premium Cannabis dispensary in Las Vegas, waiting for the law to go into effect at midnight on Saturday.

Edible cannabis products, like these ones displayed at Essence Vegas Cannabis Dispensary, were in high demand as recreational marijuana became legal in the state of Nevada on Saturday

"It's a great day and something people have been waiting a long time for," she told the Sun. "We weren't going to miss this.

Under Nevada's new law, adults 21 and older can purchase up to one ounce (28 grams) of marijuana or up to one-eighth ounce of marijuana concentrates per day.

Las Vegas police posted a list of dos and don'ts in the newly marijuana-friendly state.

"Know the law! Here's a few things to remember," it said, pointing out that it is illegal to smoke or consume pot in public, to drive while high, or to give or sell it to those under age 21.
ADEL, Iowa (AP) - On a scorching day 86 years ago, a dropped sparkler ignited an inferno that roared through much of the small city of Spencer, Iowa, and led to a statewide fireworks ban that endured for generations.

Fireworks have since become legal in most of the country and Iowa legislators voted this year to end the bans. But with the Fourth of July approaching, officials in many cities are resisting fireworks sales and prohibiting people from setting off newly legal bottle rockets, firecrackers and roman candles.

"They've made it really tough," said Todd Wallace, who gave up on plans to sell fireworks from a tent in a grassy field on the edge of Des Moines. "There would be no impact on anybody, but the city said, 'no can do.'"

In this Thursday, June 15, 2017 photo, a no smoking sign is seen in an Iowa Fireworks Company tent, in Adel, Iowa. Decades after a devastating fire caused by a dropped sparkler led Iowa to ban fireworks, the explosives are now legal in the state. But fireworks retailers and people eager to set off the explosives are finding that many local officials remain keenly aware of that fire so many years ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Many Iowa officials remain keenly aware of the blaze that engulfed about 100 buildings in Spencer on a 97-degree (36-degrees-Celsius), windy June day in 1931, when a fire started by a sparkler at Bjornstad's drugstore quickly spread.

Iowa lawmakers were prodded to end the ban by polls showing support for legalizing fireworks, the prospect of $1.5 million annually in sales tax revenue and the conclusion that if 43 other states allowed consumer fireworks, Iowa should join in.

Cities are supposed to allow the sale of consumer fireworks, comprised of products with more pop and sizzle than sparklers but much smaller than professional displays. Some communities have passed restrictive zoning rules, outlawed fireworks use or limited the crackles and bangs to just a few hours on the Fourth.

Des Moines technically abided by the new law's sale requirement, but limited retailers to industrial areas and required that temporary tents be broken down and the inventory removed for six hours each day.

"It's virtually impossible in Des Moines," said Zach Terhark, co-owner of the newly created Iowa Fireworks Company, which has started selling fireworks from tents in more than a dozen spots across the state.

Among Terhark's locations is a tent in the small community of Adel, which is 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Des Moines but still one of the closest spots to the state's largest city.

The sales restrictions and limits on setting off fireworks have left state Sen. Jake Chapman exasperated.

"If you listen to the opponents of this law, you'd think everyone is going to die and the whole state is going to burn down," said Chapman, who was among the strongest supporters of the legislation.

Chapman doesn't begrudge cities from outlawing the use of fireworks, but he argues local officials are violating state law by creating barriers to selling the explosives. If cities persist, Chapman said the Legislature might take up the issue next year to specifically outlaw such restrictions.

Some vendors also are taking action. The nation's largest fireworks wholesaler asked a judge to block the sales restrictions in Des Moines.

"The city's pretty dramatic action left us little option" said Tim Coonan, a Des Moines lawyer who is presenting Alabama-based American Promotional Events.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger denied the company's motion for a temporary injunction which would have forced the city to allow fireworks sales in locations other than industrial areas on the city's outskirts.

But in another lawsuit brought by Nebraska-based Bellino Fireworks against several Des Moines suburbs, the judge said those cities cannot require Bellino to get a special permit to sell fireworks and two other cities cannot ban fireworks sales from temporary structures. The judge also stopped a Des Moines suburb from requiring additional insurance coverage.

Some cities have been more accommodating than Des Moines.

In Waterloo, several businesses are selling fireworks and residents can set off the explosives for five days around the Fourth. It's the same in Sioux City, where sales are allowed and people can light fireworks for more than a week. And in Cedar Rapids, the state's second-largest city, residents can set off fireworks for all of June and part of July.

At a fireworks stand in Adel, customers welcomed a chance to buy locally instead of traveling to neighboring states. While acknowledging the dangers of fireworks, some said local officials are overstating the risks.

"Everything has its dangers," said Don Paulsen of Ames.

Deb Crowl, who lives in the country, west of Des Moines, said she's ready to stop making the 90-minute drive to Missouri to buy fireworks.

"We've been going to Missouri for years," she said. "You see so many Iowa license plates down there."

One community that won't legalize the use of fireworks is Spencer, which long ago rebuilt its downtown but never forgot the devastation of its sparkler-caused fire.

"You don't ever forget your history, especially when that history is the destruction of your downtown," said Mayor Reynold Peterson.

In this Friday, June 16, 2017 photo, Julian Gibson, of Dallas Center, Iowa, holds packages of fireworks before buying them in a tent owned by the Iowa Fireworks Company, in Adel, Iowa. Decades after a devastating fire caused by a dropped sparkler led Iowa to ban fireworks, the explosives are now legal in the state. But fireworks retailers and people eager to set off the explosives are finding that many local officials remain keenly aware of that fire so many years ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

This June 27, 1931, aerial photo provided by Clay County Heritage shows a fire in Spencer, Iowa, after a dropped sparkler ignited an inferno that roared through much of the small city. The fire led to a statewide fireworks ban that endured for generations. Decades later, with fireworks legal in most of the country and amid calls by lawmakers for "fun, freedom and fireworks," the Iowa Legislature this year ended one of the nation's oldest bans. (Clay County Heritage via AP)

In this Friday, June 16, 2017 photo, Julian Gibson, of Dallas Center, Iowa, looks at fireworks for sale in a tent owned by the Iowa Fireworks Company, in Adel, Iowa. Decades after a devastating fire caused by a dropped sparkler led Iowa to ban fireworks, the explosives are now legal in the state. But fireworks retailers and people eager to set off the explosives are finding that many local officials remain keenly aware of that fire so many years ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this Thursday, June 15, 2017 photo, Bryce Walter, of Ankeny, Iowa, talks with customer Deb Crowl, right, about fireworks for sale in a tent owned by the Iowa Fireworks Company, in Adel, Iowa. Decades after a devastating fire caused by a dropped sparkler led Iowa to ban fireworks, the explosives are now legal in the state. But fireworks retailers and people eager to set off the explosives are finding that many local officials remain keenly aware of that fire so many years ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this Friday, June 16, 2017 photo, fireworks for sale are seen on display in an Iowa Fireworks Company tent, in Adel, Iowa. Decades after a devastating fire caused by a dropped sparkler led Iowa to ban fireworks, the explosives are now legal in the state. But fireworks retailers and people eager to set off the explosives are finding that many local officials remain keenly aware of that fire so many years ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

This June 27, 1931, photo provided by Clay County Heritage shows a fire in Spencer, Iowa, after a dropped sparkler ignited an inferno that roared through much of the small city. The fire led to a statewide fireworks ban that endured for generations. Decades later, with fireworks legal in most of the country and amid calls by lawmakers for "fun, freedom and fireworks," the Iowa Legislature this year ended one of the nation's oldest bans. (Clay County Heritage via AP)

In this Friday, June 16, 2017 photo, customer Tyler Bandy, of Adel, Iowa, enters a tent owned by the Iowa Fireworks Company, in Adel, Iowa. Decades after a devastating fire caused by a dropped sparkler led Iowa to ban fireworks, the explosives are now legal in the state. But fireworks retailers and people eager to set off the explosives are finding that many local officials remain keenly aware of that fire so many years ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this Friday, June 16, 2017 file photo, Julian Gibson, of Dallas Center, Iowa, walks out of an Iowa Fireworks Company tent after buying fireworks, in Adel, Iowa. Decades after a devastating fire caused by a dropped sparkler led Iowa to ban fireworks, the explosives are now legal in the state. But fireworks retailers and people eager to set off the explosives are finding that many local officials remain keenly aware of that fire so many years ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest developments involving President Donald Trump and MSNBC (all times local):

9:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump is again blasting MSNBC's "Morning Joe," saying on Twitter he watched the "low rated" show "for the first time in long time." He calls the show, "FAKE NEWS."

In this Nov. 29, 2016 file photo Mika Brzezinski waits for an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, in New York. President Donald Trump has used a series of tweets to go after Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who've criticized Trump on their MSNBC show "Morning Joe." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump says in a tweet that host Joe Scarborough called him "to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no!" He calls it a "Bad show."

In a column posted on The Washington Post website, Scarborough and his co-host Mika Brzezinski say White House staff warned them the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about them "unless we begged the president to have the story spiked. We ignored their desperate pleas."

Trump on Thursday attacked the show's hosts, saying host Brzezinski was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" in a December encounter.

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9 a.m.

Kellyanne Conway says the president had the right to fight back against critics, but she isn't endorsing his attack on the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Conway is a senior adviser to Trump. She said on ABC's "Good Morning America," ''I didn't say I endorsed his attacks; I never said that. Bottom line, I endorse his ability to connect on social media with Americans."

In a separate interview on Fox News, Conway said she's "very pleased with how he treats women in the White House," but notes that women in the public eye are often targets of vicious comments. She says: "I have kept my mouth shut on a never-ending assault based on my gender," later adding, "But I'm here for a bigger purpose."

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6:30 a.m.

Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have postponed a vacation in order to respond to President Donald Trump's Twitter attack, saying Trump's claim that Brzezinski was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" in a December encounter was a lie.

MSNBC's Willie Geist said Scarborough and Brzezinski skipped a Red Sox game Thursday because they didn't want to become a public spectacle. They planned to be on their show Friday an hour after its 6 a.m. ET start.

But in a column posted on The Washington Post website, the MSNBC hosts said Trump's "unhealthy obsession" with their show doesn't serve either his mental state or the country well.

They said Trump was lying about Brzezinski having a face-lift, although "she did have a little skin under her chin tweaked."

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6:00 a.m.

The co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program have struck back against harsh tweets sent out by President Donald Trump.

In an op-ed in Friday's Washington Post co-signed by anchors Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, the cable television talk show hosts acknowledged making critical statements about Trump's presidency, but said that "our concerns about his unmoored behavior go far beyond the personal."

They added, "America's leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president."

"We have our doubts," they wrote, "but we are both certain that the man is not mentally equipped to continue watching our show."

Trump on Thursday sent a Twitter post calling the pair "low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe.:

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3:20 a.m.

President Donald Trump launched a crude Twitter attack on the brains, looks and temperament of a female TV personality Thursday, drawing bipartisan howls of outrage and leaving fellow Republicans beseeching him: Stop, please just stop.

Trump's tweets aimed at MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski revived concerns about his views of women in a city where civility already is in short supply and he is struggling for any support he can get for his proposals on health care, immigration and other controversial issues.

"I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore)," Trump tweeted to his nearly 33 million followers Thursday morning. "Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"

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Associated Press writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this story.
LONDON (AP) - The Latest on the London high-rise fire tragedy (all times local):

11:50 a.m.

The British prime minister's office has rebuked a local government council for aborting a meeting about the London high-rise fire tragedy because journalists were present.

Retired Court of Appeal judge Martin Moore-Bick views flower tributes left near to the Grenfell Tower apartment building in London, Thursday June 29, 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday appointed Martin Moore-Bick to chair a public inquiry into the deadly west London fire on June 14, that killed some dozens of people. (Philip Toscano/PA via AP)

Prime Minister Theresa May's Downing Street office has criticized the Kensington and Chelsea council's decision to shut down its first meeting since the Grenfell Tower inferno that killed at least 80 people.

Downing Street says in a statement that "the High Court ruled that the meeting should be open and we would have expected the council to respect that."

The local government council was at the center of controversy after it ended the meeting and then faced reports that it used more flammable materials in renovating the building to save money. The report was published Friday in the Times of London.

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11 a.m.

A published report says a London local government council chose to use flammable aluminum cladding as a money-saver on the tower bloc where an inferno killed at least 80 people.

A report Friday in the Times cited documents showing that Kensington and Chelsea Council, which owns the building, chose aluminum composite panels for the renovation project rather than a non-combustible zinc alternative. The Times says the decision saved the council some 300,000 pounds ($390,000).

The report comes after the council on Thursday abruptly ended its first meeting since the disaster because reporters were present. The decision came after council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown apologized for the authority's response to the fire.
A bride who lost her wedding dress while traveling through Ohio has found it, thanks to social media.

Jennifer Contini, 45, and fiance Steven Cunningham were driving from Southampton, New York, to their shared hometown of Dover, Ohio, on June 21.

When Contini stopped to rearrange their car, an unfortunate incident occurred.

Scroll down for video

Jennifer Contini, 45 (right), and fiance Steven Cunningham (left) were driving from Southampton, New York, to their shared hometown of Dover, Ohio, on June 21. When Contini stopped to rearrange the car, she put her wedding dress on the roof and drove off without it

Contini decide to make a Facebook post about the wedding dress in case somebody came across it, and it quickly went viral. As it turns out, a couple in Southampton found the dress near their home and hung it near the road (pictured) in hopes someone would claim it.

'I remembered I stopped because I couldn't see out the back of my car. So, I rearranged my Mini Cooper,' she told Fox 8.

'And I must have put the dress on top and then I pulled away.'

It was a custom-made, empire waist dress made by a friend.

Contini decide to make a Facebook post about the wedding dress in case somebody came across it. The post quickly went viral.

'One of my friend's friends was driving and saw a wedding dress. It was hanging at the end of a driveway on a fence,' she said.

As it turns out, a couple in Southampton found the dress near their home and hung it near the road in hopes someone would claim it.

'I thought it was gone,' Steven said.

'You know, it's one of those things like it could be in a ditch. It could be on the side of the road. Somebody could have saw it and said: "You know what? This is really interesting, I'm gonna take it back home".'

The couple sent the wedding dress to Dover, which Contini received on Friday, in time for her July 7 wedding. She has decided to make the dress special by having hearts painted on it during her rehearsal dinner (Pictured, one of Contini's paintings)

They sent the wedding dress to Dover, which Contini received on Friday, in time for her July 7 wedding.

And she's made special plan for it.

'I paint hearts everyday [and] I am going to have all my bridesmaids paint my dress at rehearsal dinner with hearts,' Contini said.
CLEVELAND (AP) - A man charged with killing five people in Ohio has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges in the deaths of three of them, a mother and her two college-age daughters.

A judge ordered George Brinkman Jr. held without bond after he pleaded not guilty Friday in the deaths of 45-year-old Suzanne Taylor, 21-year-old Taylor Pifer and 18-year-old Kylie Pifer. Their bodies were found June 11 at their home in North Royalton, a Cleveland suburb.

Brinkman also was indicted on charges including aggravated burglary, kidnapping and offenses against a human corpse.

FILE - This undated file photo provided by North Royalton Police Department shows George Brinkman Jr. Brinkman, charged with killing five people in Ohio, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges in the deaths of three of them, a mother and her two college-age daughters. A judge ordered Brinkman held without bond after he pleaded not guilty Friday, June 30, 2017, in the deaths of 45-year-old Suzanne Taylor, 21-year-old Taylor Pifer and 18-year-old Kylie Pifer. Their bodies were found June 11 at their home in North Royalton, a Cleveland suburb. (North Royalton Police Department via AP)

He also faces murder charges in Stark County in the deaths of 71-year-old Rogell Eugene John and 64-year-old Roberta Ray John.

Brinkman's attorney, Thomas Conway, declined to comment Friday.
DENVER (AP) - Colorado police shot and killed one woman and injured another after a carjacking and high-speed chase that ended in Denver.

Denver Police Commander Barb Archer says one woman was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was taken to a hospital where she was in critical condition. Their names weren't immediately released.

Archer says the officers at the scene when the shooting occurred were from the metro area communities of Littleton and Englewood.

No officers were hurt in the incident that began with a carjacking around midnight Thursday in Littleton.

The chase went on for about 6 miles and ended when the car crashed.

Police were looking for two others who may have been involved in the carjacking.

No other details were immediately released, and the incident was under investigation.
NEW YORK (AP) - Paul Gottinger, who applied nearly a year ago to bring his Iranian fiancee to the United States so they could be married, went to bed feeling hopeless.

The Trump administration's travel ban, as first outlined on Wednesday, required people from six mostly Muslim countries to have a business or close family relationship with someone in the U.S. to get a visa. Siblings, parents or spouses made the list; fiances didn't.

But then government officials abruptly changed course, just hours before the new rules went into effect Thursday evening. The travel ban would not keep engaged couples apart after all.

Protestors of a travel ban gather in Union Square, Thursday, June 29, 2017, in New York. A scaled-back version of President Donald Trump's travel ban takes effect Thursday evening, stripped of provisions that brought protests and chaos at airports worldwide in January yet still likely to generate a new round of court fights.(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

"This one more crazy twist on the roller coaster," Gottinger, a 34-year-old journalist from Minnesota said by telephone Friday from Istanbul, Turkey, where the couple go to spend time with each other. "We're relieved, but we have a long way to go."

Before the State Department relented, immigration lawyers said it made no sense to exclude fiances because there is already rigorous vetting aimed at rooting out marriage fraud.

Foreigners engaged to marry a U.S. citizen have long had to provide detailed documentation of the relationship's authenticity and undergo background checks to get a fiance visa, known as a K-1.

Scrutiny of such visas increased after the 2015 San Bernardino, California, massacre that left 14 people dead. Tashfeen Malik, who carried out the attack with her U.S.-born husband, came to this country in 2014 on a fiancee visa. (She was from Pakistan, a country not covered by the travel ban.)

The K-1 program is one of the smallest visa programs managed by the government. Out of the more than 10.3 million non-immigrant visas issued in fiscal 2016, just 38,403 - roughly 0.3 percent - were fiancee visas.

Government officials gave no explanation for why fiances were omitted in the first place but said the decision to allow engaged couples to be together was based in part on language in the Immigration and Nationality Act, the law long used to determine what constitutes a close relationship.

Gottinger said he met his 32-year-old fiance, who is a food engineer, online. He said the pair traveled to Istanbul to meet in person in 2016 and decided to marry a month later. The couple applied for the visa nearly a year ago but are still waiting on a decision from the U.S. government.

"It's a very unconventional and trying process," he said. "But for us, we're in love and we're going to do this."

He said they have talked about moving to Iran, but there are concerns for his safety as an American.

"We're really just kind of trapped between both of our countries," Gottinger said. "We're not going to give up and just stop loving someone."

Shukri Abdul, a 34-year-old medical interpreter from St. Paul, Minnesota, who has been planning to fly to Malaysia on Monday to meet her fiance ahead of his interview for a K-1 visa. After hours of uncertainty and anguish, she is still planning to go.

The pair have known each other since they were young children growing up in Somalia. While Abdul later moved to the United States and became a citizen, they reconnected last year on Facebook. She went to see him in Somalia, and they got engaged, but Abdul said she didn't want to run off and get married without her five children there to support them.

"That is why we were doing the wedding here, not there," she said. "They were excited for me to get happiness."

___

Associated Press Writers Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, and Deepti Hajela in New York contributed to this report. Lee reported from Washington.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A town hall meeting held by U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy to talk about flood recovery in Louisiana's capital city was at times derailed Friday by people trying to pressure the Republican to vote against the Senate GOP's proposed rewrite of the national health care bill.

Cassidy, a doctor who worked for years in Louisiana's charity hospital system, remained noncommittal about the Senate version of the health bill, though he's criticized similar legislation passed by the House.

He told those assembled at a north Baton Rouge church that he wasn't sure what the final draft of the legislation might look like, as negotiations continue behind closed doors by Senate Republican leaders trying to rally votes.

"I am doing my best to make sure that we continue coverage, care for those with pre-existing conditions, eliminate mandates and lower premiums," Cassidy said.

Asked about the secrecy with which the bill was pieced together, the senator replied directly: "I do not defend the process. I don't. I just don't."

His answers dissatisfied several people assembled in the church who spoke against repealing the federal health law on the books and described Republican proposals as an effort to give large tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of poor people's coverage. At times, audience members chanted over Cassidy's answers and shouted that he was evading the health questions.

Cassidy bristled, telling the audience: "If you wish to chant and keep others from being able to speak or to be heard, that is actually not civil, and I ask you, respect the right of others both to speak and to be heard. Please."

At one point, one man told Cassidy to loud applause: "I'll tell you what's rude: Kicking 22 million people off their health care in this country," referencing a Congressional Budget Office finding that the Senate GOP leadership's draft bill would result in that many people losing health insurance over the next decade.

Most of the meeting centered on flood recovery, but as Cassidy wrapped up the hourlong town hall, a group chanted about the health bill, "Vote no! Vote no!"

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, opposes the Senate draft proposal and has urged Cassidy and Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy to vote against the measure. Kennedy also hasn't said how he'll vote, but Cassidy has faced more pressure from outside groups because he's shown more reticence to the House-approved version.

Edwards' heaviest criticisms center on the plan to significantly shrink spending on the traditional Medicaid program for low-income, disabled and elderly people and to phase out extra money given to states that expanded their Medicaid programs to cover the working poor.

Louisiana expanded its Medicaid program when Edwards took office last year, and 430,000 people have enrolled in the coverage. On Friday, Cassidy described the current Medicaid expansion structure as unsustainable for taxpayers and states. He suggested more people should be moved to private insurance.

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Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte
HONG KONG (AP) - Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Saturday that any activities in Hong Kong seen as threatening China's sovereignty and stability would be "absolutely impermissible," employing some of his harshest language yet against burgeoning separatist sentiment in the territory.

In a speech marking 20 years since the city became a semi-autonomous Chinese region after its handover from Britain, Xi pledged Beijing's support for the "one country, two systems" blueprint, under which Hong Kong controls many of its own affairs and retains civil liberties including free speech.

However, he said Hong Kong had to do more to shore up security and boost patriotic education, in a veiled reference to legislation long-delayed by popular opposition.

Pro-independence activists chant slogans after being stopped by police officers during a march in Hong Kong, China, Saturday, July 1, 2017. In a speech marking 20 years since the city became a semi-autonomous Chinese region after its handover from Britain, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that any activities in Hong Kong seen as threatening China's sovereignty and stability would be "absolutely impermissible," employing some of his harshest language yet against burgeoning separatist sentiment in the territory. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

And he appeared to put on notice a new wave of activists pushing for more autonomy or even independence, saying challenges to the power of China's central government and Hong Kong's leaders wouldn't be tolerated.

Any attempt to challenge China's sovereignty, security and government authority or use Hong Kong to "carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible," Xi said, moments after presiding over the inauguration of Hong Kong's new leader, Carrie Lam.

Hong Kong has been roiled by political turmoil that brought tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets in 2014 demanding democratic reforms. Those calls were ignored by Beijing and Xi indicated there would be no giving ground in the future, frustrating many young people and deepening divisions.

"Making everything political or deliberately creating differences and provoking confrontations will not resolve the problems," Xi said, adding that Hong Kong "cannot afford to be torn apart by reckless moves or internal rifts."

Hours after Xi flew home to Beijing, thousands of pro-democracy supporters gathered for a march through the city's shopping and financial districts to demand greater political openness and oppose China's creeping influence in their city.

Young activists have formed new groups promoting independence or a local Hong Kong identity separate from the mainland, alarming Beijing.

Meanwhile, incidents such as the secret detentions of five Hong Kong booksellers on the mainland have stirred fears that Beijing is undermining the "one country, two systems" blueprint.

Xi's speech "was a mixture of reassurance and warning," as he signaled that the system in place since 1997 won't change, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, an expert on Chinese politics at Hong Kong Baptist University. "At the same time, there was a strong warning to the localists and the pro-independence people."

Cabestan said it was clear that Xi's priority is for Lam, to revive efforts to bring in long-delayed national security legislation, which pro-democracy activists fear will be used to suppress dissent, and patriotic national education in schools, which parents fear is a cover for pro-Communist "brainwashing."

They're two polarizing issues that have the potential to mobilize big crowds to take to the streets.

"We are heading towards troubled times," said Cabestan. "I don't think he's going to give up. If he doesn't give up it means there will be more problems."

While former colonial master Britain and other Western democracies have expressed concerns about Beijing's actions in Hong Kong, China has increasingly made clear that it brooks no outside criticism or attempts at intervention.

Xi said China had made it "categorically clear" in talks with Britain in the 1980s that "sovereignty is not for negotiation."

"Now that Hong Kong has returned to China, it is all the more important for us to firmly uphold China's sovereignty, security and development interests," he said.

Activists scoffed at Xi's remarks.

The idea that there's a force in Hong Kong sabotaging China or challenging its sovereignty is "ludicrous," said Avery Ng of the League of Social Democrats, a small pro-democracy party. He said Xi used nationalist pride "to alienate any opposition voices that call for democracy and universal suffrage both inside China and in Hong Kong."

Members of Ng's group attempted to march to the speech venue with a mock coffin symbolizing the death of the city's civil liberties, but were met by police and pro-China flag-waving counter-protesters in a brief standoff.

Lam became Hong Kong's fifth chief executive since 1997 and the first female to hold the post. The career civil servant and her Cabinet swore to serve China and Hong Kong and to uphold the Basic Law, the territory's mini-constitution.

In a speech that ran a fraction of Xi's 32-minute address, Lam reviewed the dynamic financial center's achievements and challenges, pledged to support central government initiatives and declared that "the future is bright."

There was other symbolism hinting at the balance of power.

Lam took her oath of office and delivered her address in Mandarin, China's official language, save for a few lines at the end in Hong Kong's Cantonese dialect. The official transcript of Xi's speech was printed in the mainland's simplified characters instead of Hong Kong's traditional complex characters.

Even the Chinese flag displayed behind Xi as he spoke was noticeably larger than Hong Kong's beside it.

"It speaks volumes to me who is the boss, who is calling the shots," said Cabestan.

Lam prevailed over a much more popular rival in a selection process decried by many as "fake democracy," with only 777 votes from a 1,200-seat panel of mostly pro-Beijing elites. Hong Kong has more than 3 million registered voters.

Participants in the pro-democracy march largely dismissed Lam as a loyal bureaucrat, but said the change in leadership introduced a new measure of uncertainty.

That, combined with Xi's visit, had sharpened the mood for this year's march, said one veteran participant, retiree David Tse. "Things are much more tense. It's much more uncertain," he said.

Organizers estimated the number of participants at 60,000, about half of last year's figure. The pro-democracy movement lost considerable momentum after Beijing turned a cold shoulder to the 2014 protests. Police estimated that 14,500 took part, down about 5,000 from their estimate last year.

Many participants said they were marching in support of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who has been diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer. Liu's face featured on countless signs held aloft by marchers who called on China to release him to seek treatment abroad.

University student Sean Law said Liu's fate showed what the party was capable of in suppressing its foes.

Commenting on Xi's speech, Law said it showed the president's "ignorance" about Hong Kong.

"He wants to spread China's ideas, but he doesn't understand Hong Kong and has little contact with the people of Hong Kong. His visit is meaningless," Law said.

A protester shouts slogans against Chinese President Xi Jinping as pro-democracy protesters march in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 1, 2017. Thousands joined an annual protest march in Hong Kong, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his visit to the city by warning against challenges to Beijing's sovereignty. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Pro-independence activists chant slogans after being stopped by police officers during a march Hong Kong, China, Saturday, July 1, 2017. In a speech marking 20 years since the city became a semi-autonomous Chinese region after its handover from Britain, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that any activities in Hong Kong seen as threatening China's sovereignty and stability would be "absolutely impermissible," employing some of his harshest language yet against burgeoning separatist sentiment in the territory. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

An elderly woman in a wheelchair watches pro-independence activists chanting slogans as they take shelter from the rain in Hong Kong Saturday, July 1, 2017. In a speech marking 20 years since the city became a semi-autonomous Chinese region after its handover from Britain, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned earlier in the day that any activities in Hong Kong seen as threatening China's sovereignty and stability would be "absolutely impermissible," employing some of his harshest language yet against burgeoning separatist sentiment in the territory. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A protester carries a poster with an illustration of former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Chinese words reading: "Defend one country two systems, Fight corruption. Catch CY" as protesters march along a street during a pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong Saturday, July 1, 2017. Thousands of protesters joined the annual protest march in Hong Kong, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his visit to the city by warning against challenges to Beijing's sovereignty. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A protester carries a poster with former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's picture and Chinese text reading "Defend one country two systems, Fight corruption. Catch CY" as protesters march along a downtown street during the annual pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 1, 2017. Thousands joined an annual protest march in Hong Kong, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his visit to the city by warning against challenges to Beijing's sovereignty. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with Hong Kong's new Chief Executive Carrie Lam after Xi administered the oath for a five-year term in office at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Pro-democracy lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung and other activists carry a replica of a casket with the word meaning "Respect for the dead" as they try to march to the venue where official ceremonies are held to mark the 20th anniversary of Chinese rule over Hong Kong in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 1, 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping's three-day visit aimed at stirring Chinese patriotism in the former British colony people has promoted a massive police presence. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Hong Kong Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam, right, walks with her husband Lam Siu-por as she waves to guests before attending the flag raising ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to China in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A pro-democracy activist is taken way by police after the group's march clashed with pro-China counter protesters blocked their way to where official ceremonies are held to mark the 20th anniversary of Chinese rule over Hong Kong in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 1, 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping's three-day visit aimed at stirring Chinese patriotism in the former British colony people has promoted a massive police presence. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Pro-democracy activists try to get past a security barricade to deliver their demands to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hong Kong, Friday, June 30, 2017. Xi landed in Hong Kong Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of Beijing taking control of the former British colony, accompanied by a formidable layer of security as authorities showed little patience for pro-democracy protests. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Pro-democracy activists hold photos of detained Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo during a protest in Hong Kong, Friday, June 30, 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in Hong Kong Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of Beijing taking control of the former British colony, accompanied by a formidable layer of security as authorities showed little patience for pro-democracy protests. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks after administering the oath for the Hong Kong's new Chief Executive Carrie Lam at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong Saturday, July 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam, center in red, and other Hong Kong officials attend the flag raising ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to China in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
NEW DELHI (AP) - India's Parliament held a special midnight session Friday to introduce a new single nationwide tax, replacing a complicated mix of state and federal taxes that will change the cost of nearly everything people buy.

India's president and the prime minister pressed a button heralding the major overhaul of the taxation system - known as the single Goods and Services Tax - from July 1.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a speech that the new system would eliminate 500 types of taxes in favor of one tax across the country, a catalyst that would remove trade imbalance and promote exports.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, center right, and Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari, right, walk in a procession for a midnight session of parliament to launch the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in New Delhi, India, Friday, June 30, 2017. The single, nationwide tax starting Saturday replaces a complicated mix of state and federal taxes and will change the cost of nearly everything people buy. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

"GST is a simple, transparent system which prevents generation of blackmoney and curbs corruption. The system gives opportunity to honesty and people who do honest business," he said.

The main opposition Congress and some other parties boycotted the midnight ceremony, arguing that nearly 7 million traders needed more time to prepare for the new system as they would be required to file tax returns every month. The opposition, however, supported the new tax system.

India's Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian was confident of resolving teething problems of the implementation in a month or two.

"There will be some hurdles initially. But we will be able to remove them in 1-2 months," Subramanian told reporters.

The government published lists last month showing almost every item for sale in India, from shampoo to tea to automobiles, should be taxed within four broad categories - at rates of 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent or 28 percent. It had already ordered all businesses in January to adopt or upgrade cash registers and computer systems so they are able to file tax returns that comply with the new tax regime.

Most of India's 29 states have passed local laws to implement the new tax regime, but some have pleaded for more time. The government dismissed that idea, but at least one industry grouping - the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India - urged a delay, saying the government's own computer networks are not yet ready for the change.

First proposed in 2003, the idea was bogged down for years in bipartisan debate, with various governments trying to push it forward while opposition politicians dragged it back. Before Modi and his Bharatya Janata Party came to power three years ago, they were staunchly against the move.

Some opposition parties asked the government to delay implementation of the new system until October as Indian businesses were still recovering from the government's snap decision to remove 86 percent of its currency from circulation overnight on Nov. 8. In the months that followed, India replaced the old currency notes with newly designed bills. But the move caused chaos within the country's cash-dependent economy, hurting industries like construction and tourism, and hitting poor people the hardest.

On Friday, at a crowded New Delhi market plastered with posters announcing massive sales, shoppers were vacuuming up household gadgets and high-end electronics in the last days before the new sales tax took effect.

Nafees Ahmad scoured the stores for a new air-conditioner and LED television set with his wife and teenage son in tow.

"Our TV is fine. We did want to buy a new one, just not this soon," he said with a smile as he checked prices at the Electronics Paradise store. "But when the GST is applied everything will cost more so we decided to just go ahead and buy it now."

He may even splurge on a new oven and a few other items if the prices were low enough, he added.

India has debated such a tax for over a decade. While economists mostly agree a single, nationwide tax will streamline business, there are concerns about how an economy as unwieldy as India's will transition to a system that involves filing monthly tax returns online.

It was hard for Indian shoppers to know what the cost of almost anything will become Saturday because prices vary by brand and the current taxes varied from state to state. Refrigerators and air conditioners were among items likely to cost much more; they'll be taxed at the top rate of 28 percent while the highest tax applied in any of India's states now is 23 percent.

Even at large multi-brand retail stores like Electronics Paradise store managers are uncertain about how things will unfold as they transition to the completely untested system.

The massive sales preceding the deadline benefit both buyers and sellers. Shoppers get bargains, and retailers avoid incurring fresh taxes on old inventories.

"We want to clear our stocks and bring our inventories to zero so that we don't have to pay new taxes on existing goods," said Anuranjan Thakur, manager of the Electronics Paradise store in the Lajpat Nagar market.

He said that over the last week sales at his store had increased five-fold.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, third right, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, second left, right, Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari, second right, with other leaders walk in a procession for a midnight session of parliament to launch the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in New Delhi, India, Friday, June 30, 2017. The single, nationwide tax starting Saturday replaces a complicated mix of state and federal taxes and will change the cost of nearly everything people buy. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Documents related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for distribution to lawmakers before a midnight session of parliament to launch the GST are ready to be loaded in a vehicle in New Delhi, India, Friday, June 30, 2017. The single, nationwide tax starting Saturday replaces a complicated mix of state and federal taxes and will change the cost of nearly everything people buy. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

India's parliament building is illuminated for a midnight session to launch the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in New Delhi, India, Friday, June 30, 2017. The single, nationwide tax starting Saturday replaces a complicated mix of state and federal taxes and will change the cost of nearly everything people buy. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A statue of Mahatma Gandhi stands n the foreground of the parliament building, illuminated for a midnight session to launch the Goods and Services Tax (GST), in New Delhi, India, Friday, June 30, 2017. The single, nationwide tax starting Saturday replaces a complicated mix of state and federal taxes and will change the cost of nearly everything people buy. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Gov. John Kasich once again stood against fellow Republicans in the Ohio Legislature on Friday to support Medicaid expansion, which now provides health insurance to 700,000 low-income Ohioans.

The 2016 presidential contender vetoed a proposed freeze of the expansion and 46 other items from Ohio's state budget before signing it just ahead of a midnight deadline Friday.

"I understand the fiscal concerns that we have, but we've been able to manage it," Kasich said. "I wouldn't do anything that's going to put the state in a position of where we couldn't have fiscal stability."

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, right, joined by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Tuesday, June 27, 2017, about Republican legislation overhauling the Obama health care law. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Conservatives had called on the outspoken Kasich to set a national example by leaving in place state budget provisions calling for freezing new expansion enrollment starting July 1, 2018, and preventing those who drop off from re-enrolling. Exemptions were written into the bill for those undergoing mental health or drug addiction treatment, but the administration said they had no legal force.

Kasich said he believes the state and nation "can deal with the fact that people have needs and at the same time we can be fiscally responsible." He noted the expansion has yielded Ohio nearly $300 million for opiate addiction, double what the Legislature had allotted in the budget.

He is one of the Republican Party's staunchest defenders of the expansion made possible under the federal health care law now targeted for replacement by his party. He was forced to make an end-run around GOP lawmakers in 2013 to become one of the first Republican governors to take advantage of the option.

This time, they have the option to defy him.

The Republican-led Legislature already has scheduled sessions Thursday where they'll attempt an override vote. Ohio's Republican legislators face potential pushback from their constituents in the politically divided battleground state for not acting to curb government health care spending.

Ohio's expansion population is larger than originally expected, costing almost $5 billion - though most of that is picked up by the federal government. Many of those on the program are the working poor, mentally ill or drug addicted.

The Kasich administration has estimated that 500,000 Ohioans could lose coverage under a freeze within the first 18 months.

Anticipating his veto, Republican budget writers made sure not to count on savings from the freeze to make the budget balance, as the state constitution requires.
NEW YORK (AP) - The promoter behind a failed music festival that was in the Bahamas was arrested Friday in New York on a wire fraud charge.

Billy McFarland was charged with scheming to defraud investors in his company, Fyre Media, and Fyre Festival that was supposed to take place on the island of Exuma over two weekends in April and May.

The Fyre Festival was billed as an ultra-luxurious event with headliners including rockers Blink-182 and the hip-hop act Migos. But performers bowed out and organizers were forced to cancel the show.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said McFarland presented fake documents to induce investors to put more than $1 million into his company and the failed festival.

Kim said McFarland "promised a 'life changing' music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster."

An attorney who has represented McFarland did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

McFarland and his partner, the rapper Ja Rule, already face more than a dozen lawsuits filed by ticket buyers and investors in the festival.

A lawsuit filed in May in Los Angeles said the festival was "nothing more than a get-rich-quick scam" akin to a Ponzi scheme.

Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, has not been arrested.

McFarland, 25, is expected to appear before a federal magistrate judge on Saturday.

He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.
CINCINNATI (AP) - Scott Feldman held the Chicago Cubs' depleted lineup to two singles over seven innings Friday night and Adam Duvall hit a three-run homer, powering the Cincinnati Reds to a 5-0 victory.

The Reds won for only the sixth time in their last 29 games against their NL Central rival.

Feldman (7-5) didn't allow a hit until Ian Happ singled with two outs in the sixth. Addison Russell singled in the seventh. Feldman walked two, struck out seven and threw 108 pitches.

Cincinnati Reds' Joey Votto (19) runs home to score after stealing third against Chicago Cubs third baseman Tommy La Stella, left, in the eighth inning of a baseball game, Friday, June 30, 2017, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Michael Lorenzen and Wandy Peralta each pitched an inning, completing a combined three-hitter.

Duvall connected for his third homer in four games off left-hander Mike Montgomery (1-5) in the fourth inning. The Reds also scored on Jose Peraza's squeeze bunt for a single in the sixth, and again on catcher Victor Caratini's throwing error in the eighth.

The defending World Series champions were missing third baseman Kris Bryant for the second straight game, sidelined by a sprained right ankle. Jayson Heyward and Ben Zobrist remain on the disabled list.

METS 2, PHILLIES 1

NEW YORK (AP) - Jacob deGrom struck out 12 in seven dominant innings to win his fourth consecutive start, leading New York past Philadelphia.

Curtis Granderson and Travis d'Arnaud each had an RBI single for the Mets, who have won six of seven since getting swept in four games at Dodger Stadium. They returned from a 5-5 trip and managed just enough offense against the worst team in the majors to earn their third consecutive victory.

DeGrom (8-3) has permitted only three earned runs over 32 innings for a 0.84 ERA in his last four outings. He held the Phillies hitless until Granderson lost a routine fly in the darkening sky at dusk, giving catcher Andrew Knapp his first career triple with two outs in the fifth.

Jerry Blevins and Paul Sewald combined on a scoreless eighth, and Addison Reed got three quick outs for his 13th save. Philadelphia rookie Ben Lively (1-3) was the loser.

RAYS 6, ORIOLES 4, 10 INNINGS

BALTIMORE (AP) - Adeiny Hechavarria hit a tying single in the ninth inning and Steven Souza followed with a three-run homer in the 10th to carry Tampa Bay past Baltimore.

Hechavarria went 4 for 4 and Wilson Ramos hit his first homer with the Rays. They had nobody on with two outs in the ninth before rallying from a 3-2 deficit against closer Brad Brach.

After issuing a two-out walk to pinch-hitter Shane Peterson, Brach committed a balk and threw a wild pitch Hechavarria singled to left. It was the fourth blown save for Brach, who's filling in for the injured Zach Britton.

In the 10th, Darren O'Day (1-2) issued two walks, the second one intentionally, before Souza homered.

Jumbo Diaz (1-3) worked the ninth and Alex Colome gave up a homer to Mark Trumbo in the 10th but got three outs for his 21st save.

Baltimore's Joey Rickard hit an RBI double in the third inning and made it 2-all with a solo shot in the sixth.

ROYALS 8, TWINS 1

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) - Jason Vargas picked up his American League-leading 12th victory and Eric Hosmer hit a three-run homer to help Kansas City beat Minnesota.

Vargas (12-3) tied Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers for the major league lead in wins and lowered his ERA to 2.22, which tops the American League. He allowed two hits and one run over seven innings.

Ervin Santana (10-5) took the loss, yielding seven runs, five earned, and eight hits.

It was the second time since 1990 that two pitchers with at least 10 wins and an ERA of less than 3.00 matched up. The previous was June 16, 2002, with Boston's Derek Lowe (10 wins, 1.89 ERA) and Atlanta's Tom Glavine (11 wins, 1.53 ERA) squared off in an interleague game.

Santana's throwing error in the fourth opened the floodgates for a five-run inning. After Jorge Bonifacio opened the inning with a single, Lorenzo Cain hit a sharp grounder to Santana for a probable double play. Santana's throw sailed wide right of second baseman Brian Dozier and into center field.

Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Wandy Peralta throws in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Friday, June 30, 2017, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Pat Neshek delivers against the New York Mets during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Friday, June 30, 2017, in New York. The Mets won 2-1. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

New York Mets' Travis d'Arnaud follows through on an RBI base hit against the Philadelphia Phillies during the fourth inning of a baseball game, Friday, June 30, 2017, in New York. Jose Reyes scored. The Mets won 2-1. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Tampa Bay Rays' Adeiny Hechavarria flips his bat on an RBI single during the ninth inning of the team's baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore, Friday, June 30, 2017. Peter Bourjos scored on the play. Tampa Bay won 6-4 in 10 innings. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - Weddings have been moved and family visits delayed.

The Trump administration's travel ban, while a shadow of its original self, has dealt a harsh blow to the Iranian-American community, where family ties run strong and friends and loved ones regularly shuttle between Los Angeles and Tehran.

But it isn't the only immigration hurdle facing the community. Iranians allowed to seek visas to visit family in the United States may still have a hard time getting them with a screening process that can take months or longer, immigration lawyers said.

This August, 2015 self-portrait provided by Hesam Mostafavi shows him and his fiancee Mina Jafari on vacation in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Jafari, a 28-year-old graphic designer in Washington, said that during Trump's initial travel ban in Jan. 2017, her fiancee's Iranian mother was in the process of obtaining a visa to travel to the couple's wedding, but it was revoked because of the ban. That prompted Jafari to move the wedding to Iran so her soon-to-be mother-in-law could attend, but now her elder sister can't go due to her political activism. (Hesam Mostafavi via AP)

In the meantime, families are being kept apart. Iranian-American homemaker Mina Thrani, 38, had hoped to invite her aunt to visit her in Irvine over the Christmas holiday but can't because of the ban.

Xena Amirani, an 18-year-old college student from Los Angeles, said her family has been grieving since her grandmother died after being struck by a car while crossing the street. They traveled to Iran to bury her. Now, her uncle and his wife want to travel together to visit the family in California to help console them, but the travel ban is in the way.

"It is pointless," Amirani said.

The scaled-back version of President Donald Trump's policy that took effect this week places new limits on visa policies for citizens of six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran. The temporary ban requires people who want new visas to prove a close family relationship in the U.S. or an existing relationship with an entity like a school or business.

The U.S. has nearly 370,000 Iranian immigrants, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, far more than the other countries targeted by the order - Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.

Despite a lengthy history of friction between Tehran and Washington, personal ties between residents of the two countries have held strong.

"Everyone is being hit by this because everyone has a relative in Iran, and there is quite a lot of travel in between," said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council.

But travel isn't always easy, and the challenge predates the Trump administration. Because there is no U.S. embassy in Iran, Iranians must go to other countries for visa interviews, requiring time and money.

And it can take longer to get visas approved for Iranians than for citizens of many other countries, immigration attorneys said, while U.S. officials conduct screenings.

"Even under Obama, it was very hard to get these visas and get the background checks cleared. But now, it is official policy," said Ally Bolour, an immigration attorney in Los Angeles.

The Department of Homeland Security said this week that the Supreme Court's decision to allow a partial reinstatement of the ban will help protect the U.S.

But that rings hollow to some Iranian-Americans who note that many in their community came to the U.S. seeking freedom following Iran's Islamic revolution of the 1970s and that the hijackers who carried out the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States were from other countries not limited by the ban.

Trump's initial travel ban in January was broader, affecting current and new visas, which sparked chaos at airports around the world.

Mina Jafari, a 28-year-old graphic designer in Washington, said that during that time, her fiancee's Iranian mother was in the process of obtaining a visa to travel to the couple's wedding, but it was revoked because of the ban.

That prompted Jafari to move the wedding to Iran so her soon-to-be mother-in-law could attend. The only problem is her elder sister can't go with her due to concerns about her political activism.

"I have family who is banned from Iran, family banned here," Jafari said. "It is a really crazy situation."
Trump doesn't seem to be heeding calls to tone down tweets

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) - President Donald Trump escalated an intensely personal feud with two high-profile talk show hosts Saturday, suggesting without evidence that their network is biased against him.

The president's stream of insults has pained politicians from both parties who have appealed to him, without apparent success, to stop the 140-character bursts of character attacks and focus on running the country.

Trump lashed out at Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," on Twitter on Saturday. From his New Jersey golf club, he said: "Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses."

Trump also said that Greta Van Susteren lost her nightly show on MSNBC because she "refused to go along w/ 'Trump hate!'" MSNBC confirmed this week that Van Susteren, previously a longtime anchor at Fox News, was being replaced.

NBC declined comment on all the tweets Saturday from the president. "Morning Joe" just finished the highest-rated quarter in the show's history. MSNBC never officially gave a reason for replacing Van Susteren's show; it did, however, lag in the ratings compared with the network's other shows.

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Trump upset states not fully cooperating with voting panel

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - President Donald Trump is upset that all states aren't fully cooperating with his voting commission's request for detailed information about every voter in the United States.

Some of the most populous ones, including California and New York, are refusing to comply. But even some conservative states that voted for Trump, such as Texas, say they can provide only partial responses based on what is legally allowed under state law.

"Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?" Trump said in a tweet Saturday.

Given the mishmash of information Trump's commission will receive, it's unclear how useful it will be or what the commission will do with it. Trump established the commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2016 elections, but Democrats have blasted it as a biased panel that is merely looking for ways to suppress the vote.

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, a Democrat who is a member of Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, defended the request Friday. He said the commission expected that many states would only partially comply because open records laws differ from state to state.

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Police: Doc hunted ex-colleague before shooting rampage

NEW YORK (AP) - A doctor angry that his career was derailed at a New York City hospital toted an assault rifle past security in search of a colleague he was going to hold responsible. When that person wasn't there, he opened fire anyway, killing a doctor who was only there covering a shift as a favor, authorities said Saturday.

The new details of Dr. Henry Bello's rampage emerged along with an email rant against colleagues he blamed for forcing him to resign from Bronx Lebanon Hospital amid sexual harassment allegations two years earlier. The email was sent to the New York Daily News just two hours before the shooting Friday afternoon that left six other people wounded and Bello dead from a self-inflicted shot.

"This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine," the email said. "First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse."

He also blamed a doctor for blocking his chances at practicing medicine.

Bello had warned his former colleagues when he was forced out in 2015 that he would return someday to kill them.

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Police: Club shooting that injured 28 may be gang-related

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Clubgoers screamed and scrambled for cover as dozens of gunshots rang out during a rap concert in downtown Little Rock early Saturday, leaving 28 people injured from an 11-second melee that police said may be gang-related.

Police Chief Kenton Buckner said investigators believe multiple people fired shots and that the shooting could be connected other violence in the city in recent days. All of the victims were expected to survive the shooting at the Power Ultra Lounge, and Buckner credited the work of first responders for that.

Twenty-five people between the ages of 16 and 35 suffered gunshot wounds, and three others were injured while fleeing the club. Two people were in critical condition Saturday afternoon, Buckner said. Police said they did not have any suspects in custody, and did not know how many shooters there were.

Courtney Swanigan, 23, told The Associated Press that when the gunfire rang out, "I just closed my eyes, got down on the ground and put my hands on my head."

City officials said they would move Monday to shut down the club under a "criminal abatement" program. State regulators suspended the club's liquor license earlier Saturday and Stodola said the property's manager was delivering an eviction notice.

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AP FACT CHECK: When a swoopy line on a chart misleads

WASHINGTON (AP) - Oh, those charts.

President Donald Trump passed one around on Twitter in recent days, and it showing spending on Medicaid rising for years in the future under the stalled Republican health care bill. You'd never know from his chart's mountain-climbing line , or his rhetoric, that the bill would inflict deep cuts in the program.

A drawing can be made to show what the person making the display wants people to see, even using correct numbers, but in a way that obscures reality. Similarly, Vice President Mike Pence had a chart onstage weeks ago showing how enrollment under the Obama-era health law fell far short of predictions. That's only because Pence and his chart ignored the estimated 12 million low-income people covered under the overhaul's Medicaid expansion.

Trump's tweet came during a week of tussling over the Senate Republican health bill, a White House cheerleading session for U.S. energy and assertions by the president on trade - subjects producing a variety of statements that call for scrutiny.

A sampling:

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In final stages of Mosul fight, US plays larger role

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - The day after Iraq's prime minister declared an end to the Islamic State group's caliphate, U.S. Army Col. Pat Work and a small team of about a dozen soldiers drove through western Mosul in two unmarked armored vehicles to warn Iraqi forces of a pressing threat: friendly fire.

The American colonel had a series of urgent face-to-face meetings with generals from the Iraqi Army, the federal police and the Iraqi special forces ahead of a major offensive Saturday morning to drive out the remaining IS positions in Mosul.

American troops are taking on an increasingly prominent role in the fight. Once largely restricted to working within highly fortified Iraqi bases, U.S. commanders now travel in and around Mosul with small teams of soldiers, sharing intelligence and advising plans of attack, revealing how the U.S. role in Iraq has steadily deepened throughout the operation to retake the country's second largest city.

The gains in the Old City bringing Iraqi troops closer to victory against IS in Mosul have also meant the three branches of the country's security forces are now fighting in closer quarters than ever before.

Weaving in and out of civilian traffic along the city's main thoroughfares, thick plumes of black smoke from airstrikes and artillery were just visible on the horizon from Work's convoy. He explained that the new battle space and lingering communication shortcomings mean Iraqi ground troops are at increased risk of being hit by non-precision fire like mortars and artillery launched by their partner Iraqi forces

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Prices rise, partitions fall under new Utah liquor law

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A trendy downtown Salt Lake City seafood restaurant started business Saturday with glass-smashing and champagne, a symbolic gesture in its emancipation from Utah's so-called "Zion Curtains" alcohol law.

"It feels fabulous and liberating. It's a hallelujah moment," said Joel LaSalle, owner of Current Fish & Oyster. "It'll make our restaurant twice as beautiful because you can actually see the $100,000 bar and wall."

The new liquor law went into effect Saturday, making wine, liquor and higher-alcohol beer more expensive while also allowing some restaurants to take down walls and partitions that were meant to prevent customers from seeing their alcoholic drinks being mixed and poured.

The broad liquor law passed in March eased a longtime requirement that drinks be prepared behind barriers known as "Zion Curtains," typically glass walls or back rooms. It's based on the premise that the barriers shield children from alcohol culture and what some perceive as the glamour of bartending, and prevents underage drinking.

The Zion Curtain nickname is a reference to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which teaches its members to avoid alcohol and plays an influential role in state liquor policy.

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Spanish speakers are all but ignored by Trump's White House

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump White House no habla espanol. Well, un poquito.

After a succession of administrations that embraced Spanish-language content, President Donald Trump's White House is all but ignoring Spanish speakers even though he has a robust online presence in English.

His administration has yet to offer a Spanish White House website. It has eliminated the position of director of Hispanic media outreach. And its Spanish-language Twitter account is heavy with English text and features sloppy translations.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in January that the administration had its "IT folks working overtime" to roll out a new Spanish language site after WhiteHouse.gov/espanol went dark in the hours after Trump took office.

"Trust me, it's going to take a little bit more time, but we're working piece by piece to get that done," Spicer said at the time. More than five months later, the site still urges readers to "STAY TUNED."

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Tourists, locals buy Nevada's legal recreational marijuana

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Cheers and long lines of tourists and locals alike greeted the first day of sales of recreational marijuana on Saturday as Nevada became the fifth state with stores selling pot to the public in a market that is expected to outpace all others in the U.S. thanks to the millions of visitors who flock to Las Vegas each year.

Veteran consumers, first-timers, twenty-somethings and retirees were among those who defied triple-digit temperatures before they made it into stores across the Las Vegas area, some of which opened shortly after midnight and later provided free water, live music, valet parking and coveted promotions on their valuable product. Eager employees guided customers and answered questions from product potency to Nevada's consumption regulations.

Minnesota resident Edgar Rosas Lorenzo on Saturday flew with his family to Sin City for his sister's wedding. But even before he checked in to his hotel, he stopped at a dispensary on the Las Vegas Strip.

Lorenzo, 21, said he learned of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Nevada while he was at the airport waiting for his flight to depart. He drove with his sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law from the rental car facility in Las Vegas straight to the dispensary. They waited in line about 40 minutes before he could buy one-eighth of an ounce of marijuana and hemp wraps.

"It was worth the wait. I'm going to come get some more tomorrow," Lorenzo said after paying about $60 in cash at Essence dispensary. "It helps me sleep. I get back pain. I have a slipped disk."

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Hundreds of thousands rally for LGBTI rights in Madrid

MADRID (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people marched Saturday in a global gay pride demonstration in Madrid under tight security, and a parade of 52 floats took the festivities through the Spanish capital and into the night.

The rally was led by all of Spain's major political parties, both left and right, who carried a large banner that read "For LGBTI Rights All Over the World." Behind them came a slow-moving mass of people decked out in rainbow flags and colorful outfits, dancing to music under the southern European sun.

The march included several groups from other countries, including the United States and Britain, as well as groups ranging from rural lesbians to gay and lesbian police officers.

"For all the people in countries who are suffering persecution, we have to celebrate and make visible our pride," Jesus Generelo, the head of the Spanish federation of LGBT people, told a large crowd from an outdoor stage after the march.

Four activists read a manifesto that urged the European Union to help export LGBTI rights around the world, with particular emphasis on Chechnya, Russia, and other countries that discriminate, criminalize or torture gay people. It also demanded that the World Health Organization stop categorizing transgender identity as a mental illness.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Less than three months after President Donald Trump and China's leader strolled the manicured lawns at Mar-a-Lago, the White House is suddenly engaged in a multipronged pressure campaign against Beijing, born of frustration with the limited results of their much-touted cooperation on ending North Korea's nuclear threat.

Delivering a one-two punch to China on Thursday, the Trump administration approved a $1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan and blacklisted a small Chinese bank over its business ties with North Korea. The State Department earlier in the week gave Beijing a dismal grade in a new human trafficking report that was endorsed by Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and senior adviser.

The actions culminated days of increased irritation among the president and his top aides over China's reluctance to tighten the economic screws on Pyongyang. Until recently, American officials had been hailing the improved coordination with China and describing it as the centerpiece of their strategy for preventing North Korea's isolated totalitarian government from being able to strike the U.S. homeland with nuclear weapons.

FILE - In this April 7, 2017, file photo President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk together after their meetings at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. The White House is suddenly engaged in a multipronged pressure campaign against Beijing, borne of frustration with the limited results of their much-touted cooperation on ending North Korea's nuclear threat. On June 29, the Trump administration approved a $1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan and blacklisted a small Chinese bank over its business ties with North Korea. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Trump hinted at his loss of patience last week, tweeting that his bid to secure a tougher Chinese approach "has not worked out." China represents about 90 percent of North Korea's trade. After a meeting Friday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that focused heavily on North Korea, Trump made no reference to Beijing.

The shifts in Trump's China policy in some way reflect the natural ebbs and flows that are to be expected in great power relations. The U.S. and China have the world's two biggest economies, with all the commercial opportunities and headaches such a dynamic entails. While America's military is by far the strongest, the gap with China is rapidly narrowing. On security, diplomacy, foreign investment and other matters, it's only natural that U.S. and Chinese interests will collide.

But Trump's rapid flip-flops on China are a departure from the practice of past U.S. presidents, who found persistent behind-the-scenes pressure and engagement of Beijing more likely than headline-grabbing confrontations to produce deals on everything from carbon emissions to currency exchange rates.

Trump was blisteringly critical of China as a candidate, saying he would not allow the Chinese "to rape our country." He also fielded a call from Taiwan's president weeks after his election victory. Trump's tone drastically shifted in the run-up to the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida. He toned down threats to upend the U.S. "One China" policy, which acknowledges Beijing's claim to Taiwan. And he said China doesn't manipulate its currency.

Amid the unpredictability, China's government has relied heavily on a close relationship that has developed between its U.S. ambassador, Cui Tiankai, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. Kushner, who is heavily involved in foreign policy, speaks frequently with the ambassador.

"I think that channel has not provided them with the correct understanding with what they need to do on a range of issues," said Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "On North Korea, they just didn't hit the mark."

The White House insisted that its actions this week were not aimed at punishing China for its reluctance to ramp up pressure on North Korea. The State Department said the arms sale to Taiwan was approved under a long-standing U.S. policy to help the self-governing island's self-defense. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who announced the sanctions on the Chinese bank, said that "we are in no way targeting China."

But officials, particularly at the White House, have voiced increased exasperation in recent days.

Dennis Wilder, who spent four years as President George W. Bush's top East Asia adviser and six years as senior editor of President Barack Obama's daily intelligence briefing, pointed to what he heard was a disappointing U.S.-China security dialogue last week in Washington. Instead of engaging in an open back-and-forth on North Korea strategy, he said, Chinese officials including foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi presented Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis with well-recited policy positions.

"The Trump administration was looking for a candid dialogue, not talking points," said Wilder, now a Georgetown University professor, adding that Mattis and Tillerson left with the impression that China was "very reluctant" to take on its banks doing illicit business with North Korea. "The body language was clear: China is still not willing to see North Korea as a strategic problem."

Briefing foreign policy experts this week on China and other matters, a senior U.S. official noted that Tillerson has raised the problem of North Korea and China in every one of his meetings with top foreign diplomats. The U.S. has made clear to China that Chinese banks and companies conducting business with Pyongyang will face sanctions, if there is no movement on North Korea's nuclear activities, said the official, according to a participant in the meeting. The individual wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and asked that his name and that of the senior official be withheld.

The Trump administration may not have harbored lofty expectations for its diplomacy with Beijing. Several administrations have wearied with diplomatic efforts to change China's thinking on everything from environmental and economic policy to stopping a North Korean nuclear program that will soon be able to threaten America's West Coast.

For Trump, the desire for a quick breakthrough runs head-on into China's focus on long-term objectives. As frustrating a partner as Pyongyang has been for the Chinese, experts see Beijing still preferring Kim Jong Un's totalitarian regime over a unified Korean peninsula on its border, solidified by a U.S. alliance. Trump and Xi's personal bond, however strong, is unlikely to change such thinking.

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Follow Bradley Klapper at http://twitter.com/bklapperAP and Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
BEIRUT (AP) - Lebanon's military on Saturday dismissed allegations of abuse against hundreds of Syrian detainees caught up in a security sweep in a refugee settlement, saying the mass detentions were needed to combat terrorism.

The official said the detention of 355 Syrians "is not a directed aggression against anyone," and that not all of them will be charged with terrorism. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Five suicide bombers blew themselves up Friday during military raids in two refugee settlements in Arsal, near the border with Syria. One of the bombers detonated his payload among a Syrian refugee family, killing a girl. Another wounded three soldiers, leaving two of them in critical condition, the official said. During the early Friday raid, attackers also tossed explosives at the troops.

The subsequent security sweep sparked accusations of abuse, particularly after pictures surfaced of detainees flat on the ground with their hands bound as Lebanese soldiers stood over them.

"The reaction should be to question how a refugee camp turned into a refuge for terrorists," the official said, rebuffing accusations of abuse. He said no women or children are detained and no detainee was deprived of food or drink. The official said interrogations of the detainees are underway and those who have no relation to the attacks will be released.

The official said the raids on the two settlements in Arsal came after tips about the presence of explosives and a plot to carry out attacks in Lebanon.

Lebanese troops have clashed with militants near the Syrian border on a number of occasions in recent years. Lebanon has also taken in well over a million refugees, who now account for around a quarter of the tiny country's population.

Arsal and the surrounding area was the scene of a major cross-border attack in 2014, when a number of Lebanese soldiers were abducted.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - If any one witness led to a sweeping court order demanding that Alabama improve psychiatric care in state prisons, it was Jamie Wallace.

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and imprisoned in Alabama for killing his mother, Michelle Franklin Wallace, the inmate said he sometimes heard the voice of the dead woman and others telling him to harm himself.

He did, with fatal consequences, just 10 days after testifying as the first witness in a trial over mental health care in state prisons.

This undated photograph released by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows inmate Jamie Wallace, who authorities say killed himself on Dec. 15, 2016, just days after testifying in an ongoing federal trial over a lawsuit alleging the state provides inadequate psychiatric care to inmates. A federal judge cited Wallace's case in a decision ordering drastic changes in Alabama's system of providing psychiatric care for inmates. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)

The story of Wallace's hanging while in state custody served as the backdrop for a federal judge's ruling on Tuesday that Alabama's psychiatric care for inmates is "horrendously inadequate" and violates constitutional standards.

U.S. District Myron Thompson, in a 302-page decision outlining multiple deficiencies in the state system, wrote of being "extremely concerned" after Wallace showed him scars from past suicide attempts and testified about a lack of psychiatric treatment while in state custody.

"Without question, Wallace's testimony and the tragic event that followed darkly draped all the subsequent testimony like a pall," said the judge, who repeatedly cited Wallace's treatment to depict a system that locks away troubled inmates with only sporadic psychiatric care.

It's unclear exactly what sort of changes will occur because of the decision: Rather than mandating specific actions, Thompson ordered the state to meet with inmates' lawyers to work on reforms. A special legislative session, additional funding and more hiring are possible.

Whatever the solution, Thompson made clear he doesn't want a repeat of what happened to the 24-year-old Wallace.

Already suffering from psychiatric problems as a teenager, Wallace was released from a mental facility only weeks before shooting his mother and trying to kill his grandfather in 2009. He pleaded guilty in 2011, rejecting a defense lawyer's suggestions that he plead not guilty by reason of mental illness.

Sentenced to 25 years, Wallace entered an Alabama Department of Corrections wracked by longstanding problems of inmate overcrowding, understaffing and funding that critics say is inadequate. Wallace talked about being suicidal and made multiple attempts on his life, the judge said, but received inconsistent, insufficient care in prison.

In December, Thompson began a non-jury trial to air claims in a class action filed by inmates who say the state's mental health care is so bad, it's unconstitutional. State attorneys didn't deny problems, but said the troubles weren't bad enough to violate the Constitution.

Wallace took the stand as the first witness. Less than two months earlier, Thompson's order said, the state had ignored recommendations from prison psychiatric contractors to transfer Wallace to a hospital. Rather than receive treatment, sometimes Wallace was punished for suicide attempts by being placed in a sparse, one-person cell, Thompson said.

Wallace testified that voices in his head told him to kill himself, and he became so agitated the judge recessed temporarily and let him continue in a quiet chambers library after Wallace was coaxed, "as if he were a fearful child," Thompson wrote.

Wallace's condition remained poor after his court appearance, the judge said, yet he was allowed to languish with little care.

"His medical records for his final 10 days reflected no group activities, one cell-side treatment plan note, and two psychiatric progress notes," Thompson wrote. Five days before the suicide, a worker wrote that Wallace was using threats "to get what he wants," the judge noted.

The Bullock County prison where Wallace was incarcerated has suicide prevention cells called "stabilization units," evidence showed, but Thompson said the rooms had sprinkler heads directly above sinks and toilets that make it easy for a suicidal prisoner to climb atop a fixture and hang himself.

"In fact, that is how Jamie Wallace committed suicide," the judge said. Wallace died on Dec. 15.

With nearly 20,000 state inmates, about 3,400 of whom are supposed to be receiving mental care, Alabama now faces a court order to provide better psychiatric care in its prisons.

The state agreed to some new suicide prevention measures during the trial after Wallace's death, including additional medical staff and more observation of troubled inmates, but Thompson said sweeping reforms are required.

"The case of Jamie Wallace is powerful evidence of the real, concrete and terribly permanent harms that woefully inadequate mental-health care inflicts on mentally ill prisoners in Alabama," Thompson wrote.
SAO PAULO (AP) - A former Brazilian lawmaker arrested last month in a corruption case has been released from prison and placed under house arrest.

Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin ordered the release of Rodrigo Rocha Loures Friday night. The former congressman left the prison Saturday after being fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet.

A police video released in May shows Loures carrying a bag holding the equivalent of $154,000. Prosecutors have said it was bribe money from the owners of meatpacking giant JBS.

JBS is at the center of the political crisis engulfing President Michel Temer. In a secret recording made in March by JBS executive Joesley Batista, Temer appears to condone the payment of hush money to the imprisoned former Speaker of the House Eduardo Cunha.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Homicide detectives have found the body of a missing 5-year-old boy whose father is charged with his murder, authorities announced Saturday.

Based on additional leads, detectives returned Friday to an area near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County and found the remains of Aramazd Andressian Jr., according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

No other details were released.

This May 17, 2017 photo shows a special bulletin wanted poster of Aramazd Andressian Jr., a 5-year-old boy who had been missing for several weeks from South Pasadena, Calif., being displayed at a news conference outside the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles. Homicide detectives have found the body of the 5-year-old boy whose father is charged with his murder, authorities announced Saturday, July 1, 2017. Based on "additional leads," detectives returned Friday to an area near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County and found the remains of Aramazd Andressian Jr., according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The body was flown to the Los Angeles County coroner's office on Saturday. It will be examined to confirm the boy's identity, coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter said.

Dental records and X-rays may be used because "the child was up there for the last two (months)," and an autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death, Winter said.

KABC-TV contacted the boy's mother, and she responded "with three broken heart emojis," the station reported (http://bit.ly/2twdqdY ).

The boy was found on the same day that his father, Aramazd Andressian Sr., 35, of South Pasadena, was returned to Southern California from Las Vegas, where he was arrested last week.

His new attorney, Ambrosio Rodriguez, said he met with Andressian for the first time on Saturday in jail. "My client is heartbroken, like anybody else," he said.

Andressian has adamantly denied harming the boy. Rodriguez said his client intends to plead not guilty.

Contending there has been "a rush to judgment," the attorney said he will appear in court Monday and ask to have the case continued for 30 days in order to prepare a defense.

Andressian's former attorney, Daniel Nardoni, called the discovery of the boy heartbreaking news and expressed his condolences to the family. "I hope that your beautiful memories of little Ara bring you some comfort and peace," he said in a statement.

Investigators have been searching for the boy since his father was found passed out in a large park in South Pasadena on April 22. Andressian had taken prescription pills and was found in a car doused in gasoline in an apparent suicide attempt, sheriff's officials said.

Andressian told authorities that he drove that day about 145 miles (233 kilometers) to Lake Cachuma. Authorities had twice searched the lake unsuccessfully in the past few months, using dogs and a dive team.

Although initially arrested, Andressian was released but later charged with murder. Prosecutors contend that Andressian killed the boy to get back at his estranged wife. He and the boy's mother, Ana Estevez, were sharing custody as they went through a divorce.

He was arrested in Las Vegas on June 23 because authorities believed he was at risk of fleeing the country.

Andressian had shaved his beard, lightened his hair and had been socializing while living out of a Las Vegas hotel for 47 days - conduct characterized as inconsistent with that of a grieving parent, sheriff's officials said.

Aramazd Andressian Sr., center, a suspect in killing of his missing 5-year-old son, is escorted off a plane in shackles after landing at the Long Beach Airport, Friday, June 30, 2017, in Long Beach, Calif. Andressian Sr. has been extradited to Los Angeles to face a murder charge in the disappearance of his 5-year-old son. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

FILE - In this May. 17, 2017, file photo, Ana Estevez, center, the mother of Aramazd Andressian Jr., a 5-year-old boy who has been missing for several weeks from South Pasadena, Calif., is helped by an unidentified family friend, left, with South Pasadena Police Chief Arthur Miller, right, as they join Sheriff's officials at a news conference outside the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles. Homicide detectives have found the body of a missing 5-year-old boy whose father is charged with his murder, authorities announced Saturday, July 1, 2017. Based on "additional leads," detectives returned Friday to an area near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County and found the remains of Aramazd Andressian Jr., according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Aramazd Andressian Sr., top, a suspect in killing of his missing 5-year-old son, is escorted off a plane in shackles after landing at the Long Beach Airport, Friday, June 30, 2017, in Long Beach, Calif. Andressian Sr. has been extradited to Los Angeles to face a murder charge in the disappearance of his 5-year-old son. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Aramazd Andressian Sr., center, a suspect in killing of his missing 5-year-old son, is escorted off a plane in shackles after landing at the Long Beach Airport, Friday, June 30, 2017, in Long Beach, Calif. Andressian Sr. has been extradited to Los Angeles to face a murder charge in the disappearance of his 5-year-old son. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) - A female fin whale has been found dead on a beach on eastern Long Island.

The Atlantic Marine Conservation Society says the fin whale beached about 7:30 a.m. Saturday in Southampton.

There is evidence of shark bites, but no other signs of injury have been found.

In this photo provided by the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, a deceased whale lies on the shore in Southhampton, N.Y., Saturday, July 1, 2017. The female fin whale has evidence of shark bites, but there were no other signs of injury have been found. A team of biologists plans to conduct a necropsy on Saturday. (Atlantic Marine Conservation Society via AP)

The whale appeared to be between 40 and 50 feet (12 and 15 meters) in length. Fin whales are common in the waters off New York.

The whale had been seen floating 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of Shinnecock Inlet on Tuesday. It appears to be fairly decomposed.

A team of biologists plans to conduct a necropsy.
ROME (AP) - Qatar said Saturday it doesn't fear any military retaliation for refusing to meet a Monday deadline to comply with a list of demands from four Arab states that have imposed a de-facto blockade on the Gulf nation.

During a visit to Rome, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani again rejected the demands as an infringement on Qatar's sovereignty. He said any country is free to raise grievances with Qatar, provided they have proof, but said any such conflicts should be worked out through negotiation, not by imposing ultimatums.

"We believe that the world is governed by international laws, that don't allow big countries to bully small countries," he told a press conference. "No one has the right to issue to a sovereign country an ultimatum."

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties with Qatar earlier this month and shut down land, sea and air links. They issued a 13-point list of demands, including curbing diplomatic ties to Iran, severing ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and shuttering the Al-Jazeera news network. They accuse Qatar of supporting regional terror groups, a charge Qatar denies.

Al Thani rejected the demands and said they were never meant to be accepted.

"There is no fear from whatever action would be taken; Qatar is prepared to face whatever consequences," he said. "But as I have mentioned... there is an international law that should not be violated and there is a border that should not be crossed."

While in Rome, Al Thani met with Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who backed the Kuwait-led mediation effort and urged the countries involved in the standoff to "abstain from further actions that could aggravate the situation."

He added that he hoped Italian companies could further consolidate their presence in Qatar.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The Latest on the New Jersey government shutdown (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is ordering lawmakers back into session amid a budget impasse.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a joint session of the Democrat-led Legislature at the statehouse, Saturday, July 1, 2017, in Trenton, N.J. Christie said the issue with the state's government shutdown is Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto's failure to hold a vote on legislation overhauling the state's largest health insurer. Prieto says the bill could raise ratepayers' premiums. Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close beginning Saturday. Remaining open under the shutdown will be New Jersey Transit, state prisons, the state police, state hospitals and treatment centers as well as casinos, race tracks and the lottery. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Christie, a Republican, sent a letter Saturday to Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney and Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto ordering the Legislature to meet on Sunday.

Christie ordered a government shutdown of nonessential services on Friday after he and the legislature failed to enact a budget.

At issue is Christie's demand to overhaul the state's largest health insurer. Sweeney is his ally, but Prieto disagrees with the proposal.

State prisons, the state police, casinos, the lottery and New Jersey Transit remain open. But motor vehicle agencies and state parks are closed and state workers have been furloughed.

___

4:30 p.m.

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie intensified the case for overhauling the state's largest health insurance company during the first day of a government shutdown since he and lawmakers missed the budget deadline.

Christie delivered an address Saturday to the Legislature and lashed Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, whom he blamed for the shutdown.

Christie ordered the state's nonessential services, like state parks and motor vehicle agencies, to close down late Friday.

On Saturday, he called on Prieto to support legislation to make Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey more transparent and accountable.

Prieto opposes the legislation because he says it could lead to higher rates.

Neither the Assembly nor the Senate has passed the $34.7 billion that both chambers agree on.

The Democrat-led Senate agrees with Christie on the Horizon legislation.

___

3:25 p.m.

New Jersey Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto is standing firm in his standoff with Gov. Chris Christie, a dispute that has led to the state's first government shutdown since 2006.

The Republican governor and Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney agree on legislation to make over Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield.

But Prieto, also a Democrat, opposes the plan, saying that the legislation could lead to rate hikes.

Prieto reiterated Saturday that he won't consider the plan as part of the budget process. But he says he will consider it once a budget is signed.

Prieto says he has made compromises that led to the budget now before the Legislature. He says "others now must now do their part and fulfill their responsibilities."

___

1:20 p.m.

Gov. Chris Christie says the standoff that resulted in the state's first government shutdown since 2006 is "embarrassing and pointless."

The Republican said Saturday at a news conference that he was ready to sign a budget. He also planned to address the full legislature.

Christie has ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close until the dispute is settled. New Jersey Transit, state prisons, state police, hospitals and treatment centers as well as casinos and the lottery remain open.

Christie and Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney agree on legislation to make over Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield.

But Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto opposes the plan, saying that the legislation could lead to rate hikes.

Christie repeatedly referred to the government closure as "the speaker's shutdown."

____

12:25 p.m.

People in New Jersey are feeling the impact as a state government shutdown took place, closing parks and other public sites.

A Cub Scouts group was among the campers told to leave Cheesequake State Park on Saturday morning, disrupting their weekend plans. Island Beach State Park is also closed.

Ferry service to Liberty and Ellis islands is closed.

The shutdown also means nonessential state agencies have been closed just ahead of the Fourth of July weekend.

But prisons, the state police, the lottery and casinos remain open and operational.

The shutdown is the state's first since 2006 and the first under Christie. It came about after leaders failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by the deadline late Friday night.

Christie called for a special session Saturday.

_____

2:15 a.m.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the Democrat-led Legislature are set to return to work to try to resolve the state's first government shutdown since 2006 and the first under Christie.

Christie has called a special session for Saturday, a day after he and lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a new budget.

Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close beginning Saturday. He and lawmakers remain in a stalemate over whether to include legislation affecting the state's largest health insurer in the budget.

Christie and Senate President Steve Sweeney agree on legislation to make over Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield

But Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto opposes the plan, saying that the legislation could lead to rate hikes on the insurer's 3.8 million subscribers.

A sign hangs from a barricade at the entrance to Liberty State Park, which remains closed due to the New Jersey government shutdown, Saturday, July 1, 2017, in Jersey City., N.J. Gov. Chris Christie and the Democrat-led Legislature are set to return to work to try to resolve the state's first government shutdown since 2006 and the first under Christie. The Republican governor and the Democrat-led Legislature failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by the deadline at midnight Friday. Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close beginning Saturday. Remaining open under the shutdown will be New Jersey Transit, state prisons, the state police, state hospitals and treatment centers as well as casinos, race tracks and the lottery. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A group of beachgoers take camp at Leonardo Beach near the Leonardo State Marina, which remains closed due to the New Jersey government shutdown, Saturday, July 1, 2017, in Leonardo, N.J. Republican Gov. Chris Christie and the Democrat-led legislature failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by the deadline at midnight Friday. Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close beginning Saturday. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A man stands in a boat as it is pulled off at the Leonardo State Marina boat launch, which remains closed due to the New Jersey government shutdown, Saturday, July 1, 2017, in Leonardo, N.J. Republican Gov. Chris Christie and the Democrat-led legislature failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by the deadline at midnight Friday. Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close beginning Saturday. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a joint session of the Democrat-led Legislature at the statehouse, Saturday, July 1, 2017, in Trenton, N.J. Christie said the issue with the state's government shutdown is Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto's failure to hold a vote on legislation overhauling the state's largest health insurer. Prieto says the bill could raise ratepayers' premiums. Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close beginning Saturday. Remaining open under the shutdown will be New Jersey Transit, state prisons, the state police, state hospitals and treatment centers as well as casinos, race tracks and the lottery. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A sign is seen outside of Cheesequake State Park, which remains closed due to the New Jersey government shutdown, Saturday, July 1, 2017, in Matawan, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie and the Democrat-led Legislature are set to return to work to try to resolve the state's first government shutdown since 2006 and the first under Christie. The Republican governor and the Democrat-led Legislature failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by the deadline at midnight Friday. Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close beginning Saturday. Remaining open under the shutdown will be New Jersey Transit, state prisons, the state police, state hospitals and treatment centers as well as casinos, race tracks and the lottery. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney, left, and Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto speak on the floor of the Assembly shortly before the deadline to pass a budget Friday, June 30, 2017, in Trenton, N.J. Sweeney and Prieto are at odds over whether to support Gov. Chris Christie's proposal to overhaul the state's largest health insurer. Sweeney backs the plan, while Prieto doesn't. (AP Photo/Michael Catalini)

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie speaks Friday, June 30, 2017, in Trenton, N.J. Christie said that a state government shutdown is likely if he doesn't get an agreement by midnight with Democratic lawmakers on the budget. A stalemate over his proposal to overhaul the state's largest health insurance company was at issue. (AP Photo/Michael Catalini)
German legislators have voted to legalise same-sex marriage after a short but emotional debate, bringing the country in line with many of its Western peers.

Chancellor Angela Merkel voted against the measure, but she paved the way for its passage by freeing other members of her party to vote with their conscience.

Legislators voted 393 for legalising marriage for everybody and 226 against, with four abstentions.

Mrs Merkel said on Monday that MPs could take up the issue as a question of conscience, allowing members of her conservative coalition, which has opposed same-sex marriage, to vote individually for it.

That prompted her centre-left rivals to quickly call for a snap vote, adding it to Fridays agenda in parliaments last regular session before elections on September 24.

While some in Mrs Merkels conservative bloc spoke against the measure, Berlin Christian Democrat Jan-Marco Luczak urged his fellow party members to back it.

Green party's faction leader Katrin Goering-Eckardt speaks in a debate of the German parliament Bundestag on the gay marriage in Berlin (Markus Schreiber/AP)

It would be absurd to try and protect marriage by preventing people to marry, he said.

Many applauded Mrs Merkels move that opened the way for the vote, but Social Democrat Johannes Kahrs noted in the debate that the chancellor had been a long-time opponent of gay marriage.

Many thanks for nothing, he said bluntly.

Countries where same-sex marriage is legal.

Germany has allowed same-sex couples to enter civil partnerships since 2001, but has not granted them full marital rights, which include the possibility to jointly adopt children.

The new law will not take effect for several months because it needs to pass the upper house of parliament and be approved by the president, although those are formalities. It is also expected to face legal challenges.

Mrs Merkel told reporters after the ballot that her vote against the measure was based on her reading of the countrys law concerning marriage and that she did think gay couples should be able to adopt.

Germanys basic law is vague, saying only that marriage and the family shall enjoy the protection of the state, but Mrs Merkel said that for her marriage as defined by the law is the marriage of a man and a woman.

She added, however, that she stood by her contention that the interpretation was a question of conscience and urged all views to be respected.

It was a long, intensive, and for many, also emotional discussion  that goes for me personally, too  and Im hopeful not only that there will be respect for either sides opinions, but that it will also bring about more peace and cohesion in society, she said.
Italy international Angelo Ogbonna has signed a new five-year deal at West Ham, the Premier League side announced on Friday.

The 29-year-old missed almost the entire second half of last season having undergone knee surgery in January, returning only for the Hammers final Premier League game of the campaign in a 2-1 win at Burnley.

Ogbonna has now penned a fresh contract to keep him at the London Stadium until 2022, having originally signed for Slaven Bilics side from Juventus in 2015.

Angelo Ogbonna in action for West Ham

The ex-Torino defender is expected to be fit enough to play for West Ham on their pre-season tour and will then battle with the likes of James Collins and Jose Fonte for a place in Bilics side.

Im really grateful for this new deal, Ogbonna told the clubs official website. Our position last year was quite high and we are looking forward to improving next season.

My target is that I cant wait to get back playing. I think we have a long season ahead and for me my target is to be better than last season. We finished in 11th position but very close to 8th position and we know we can do better than what we did last year.

Our Italian defender has committed his future to the Club until 2022 https://t.co/CC7wn1kgKS  West Ham United (@WestHam) June 30, 2017

I am excited to show my quality on the pitch and the support is always amazing, even when I had my injury. We have got lots of experience in the team at the moment, which is very good.

West Ham will be hoping to add to their squad ahead of the new campaign, with the free transfer signing of former Manchester City full-back Pablo Zabaleta their only summer recruit to date.

They have been linked with Arsenal striker Oliver Giroud and former Manchester United forward Javier Hernandez, who is currently plying his trade at Bayer Leverkusen.
Chris Froome has reaffirmed his commitment to Team Sky by signing a new three-year contract to stay with the team until the end of 2020.

The three-time Tour winners previous deal was due to expire at the end of next season.

The 32-year-old will launch his bid for a third successive Tour de France crown and fourth overall when the race begins in Dusseldorf on Saturday.

Chris Froome

We're delighted to confirm that @chrisfroome has signed a new contract with @TeamSky! pic.twitter.com/JrGpEkgVtC  INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) June 30, 2017

Froome said in a statement released by the team: Ive been at Team Sky since we began in 2010 and for me its home.

Im really happy here and excited that Ill be with Team Sky for at least the next three years.

Its been a really successful partnership and I think one of the big reasons for that is the stability of the team.

Incredibly grateful to have the support of such an amazing team & sponsors!  https://t.co/rnOIL6YkQs  Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) June 30, 2017

As a rider that is really important as it means you can just get on with your job and focus on winning bike races.

The Tour de France wins we have achieved together have been a big part of the teams history. Now Im looking forward to being part of Team Skys future.

Froome had indicated a new contract was imminent during Team Skys pre-Tour press conference on Wednesday.

It's nearly time! We're excited to reveal our team for the 2017 Tour de France. Bring on @LeTour! #GoTeamSky pic.twitter.com/GsqMF74gKQ  INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) June 22, 2017

His commitment will come as a major boost for embattled team principal Sir Dave Brailsford amid an ongoing UK Anti-Doping investigation into alleged wrongdoing by Team Sky. Those allegations have been denied.

Froome said on Wednesday he had absolutely no qualms about committing to the team.

Ive been here since the beginning and Ive never seen anything untoward, he said. I dont have any trust issues. I cant make it any more plain.

Froome won the Tour de France with Team Sky in 2013, 2015 and 2016. The 2017 Tour begins on Saturday with a 14-kilometre time trial in Dusseldorf.
Chelsea have accused Fiorentina of seeking to extort money from them and former player Mohamed Salah.

The new Liverpool signing and the Blues have been cleared of wrongdoing after the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed a complaint brought by the Italian club.

Salah, who moved to Anfield from Roma, joined Fiorentina on loan from Chelsea in January 2015 for the remainder of the 2014-15 season.

Mohamed Salah joined Fiorentina on loan from Chelsea for the remainer of the 2014-15 season (John Walton/Empics)

But Fiorentina alleged breach of contract when the Egpyt winger instead moved to Roma on loan for the 2015-16 season in a deal which later became permanent.

FIFA threw out the complaint in May 2016 and, 13 months on, CAS has come to the same conclusion.

A CAS statement read: CAS has dismissed the appeal and confirmed the decision issued by the FIFA dispute resolution chamber on May 26, 2016 (FIFA DRC) in which Fiorentinas claim for compensation of Euros 32 million was rejected.

The CAS panel found that the player did not breach the employment agreement by returning to Chelsea FC after June 30, 2015 and that Chelsea FC did not induce the player to terminate the employment agreement without just cause.

Salah joined Roma in a permanent deal, but Fiorentina claimed breach of contract (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

Accordingly, it dismissed the appeal and confirmed the FIFA DRC decision.

Chelsea fiercely criticised Fiorentina for their conduct.

A spokesman for the Premier League champions said: Chelseas position throughout this case was that Fiorentina had acted in bad faith in bringing a claim which was totally unfounded.

We are pleased that the CAS panel came to the same conclusion, with Fiorentinas case rejected in full and costs awarded to Chelsea and the player.

We look forward to the full decision being published so that everyone can see the lengths that Fiorentina were prepared to go to in order to extort large sums of money from Chelsea and the player.

Salah, who joined Chelsea from Basle in January 2014, joined Liverpool for 39million euros (34.3million) on June 22.
US president Donald Trumps daughter Ivanka has stayed silent on the matter of her fathers controversial attack on a female TV host.

The presidents daughter has been using her role as a White House adviser to advocate for womens rights  however, she has not weighed in on her fathers tweets disparaging MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski.

Ms Trump has discussed issues such as family leave with politicians, travelled to promote job-training efforts and spoken out against human trafficking.

Ivanka Trump. (Jacquelyn Martin,/AP)

She also said she was surprised by the level of viciousness in Washington politics.

Today I joined Secretary Tillerson & policy leaders at the State Department in the global fight against human trafficking. #EndTrafficking pic.twitter.com/Ho8JNotG1a  Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 27, 2017

In the wake of the Twitter attack, Ms Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough called on women close to Mr Trump to condemn him for the remarks.

In the past, Ivanka Trump has defended her father as a supporter of women despite his history of offensive comments about women.
Southampton have signed Poland Under-21 defender Jan Bednarek from Lech Poznan on a five-year deal.

The 21-year-old becomes new manager Mauricio Pellegrinos first addition and will link up with the Saints later this month due to his involvement at Euro 2017.

Centre-back Bednarek, who reportedly cost 5million, told the clubs official website: I am so happy that I could join a club like Southampton.

Jack Stephens applauds the Southampton fans

 #SaintBednarek



We've been speaking to Jan Bednarek following his move to #SaintsFC: pic.twitter.com/mjUHI6DMIz  Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) July 1, 2017

This is the moment I have worked for that makes my dreams come true. It only gives me motivation to work hard, to show my skills and to help Southampton to get better and better.

I think its a good step for me, because I have heard Southampton is such a good club for young players, so I can improve here.

Fellow defender Jack Stephens has also signed a new five-year deal at St Marys.

The 23-year-old impressed after nailing down a first-team place following Virgil van Dijks season-ending injury in January.

England Under-21 international Stephens, who has been with Southampton since he was 17, is highly rated by the club.

Executive director Les Reed said: Our philosophy at Southampton is to turn potential into excellence, and Jack is somebody who very much embodies this.

#SaintsFC is delighted to announce that defender @jackstephens_18 has signed a new five-year contract with the club!  pic.twitter.com/nooc4V7JCa  Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) July 1, 2017

His progression, and the level of his performances, was one of the real highlights of last season, and we have been delighted with his development ever since he joined the club.

Stephens said: I am absolutely delighted to extend my stay. It feels like home to me. I have really enjoyed my time here and am now looking forward to the next five years.

Its a massive platform for me now because it just shows how much faith the club have put in me.

Southampton also announced striker Sam Gallagher has put pen to paper on a new four-year contract.





Look back on some of @SamGallagher40's best moments, after the striker signed a new four-year deal with #SaintsFC: pic.twitter.com/6Vlj4yZUoC  Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) July 1, 2017

The 21-year-old spent last season on loan at Blackburn, but made an impression with 12 goals despite their relegation from the Championship.

Gallagher said: This contract shows the belief that the club have in me and I need to prove that now, which is what I am hoping to do in pre-season.

I definitely thank Blackburn a lot for last season. It has helped me grow both as a person and a player. Its a club that I have massive respect for.
The brutal British and Irish Lions turned Warren Gatlands white flag into a massive red herring to square the Test series with New Zealand in Wellington.

The Lions turned their flimsy first Test tight game on its head to triumph 24-21 at the Westpac Stadium, and send the three-match series into a decider at Aucklands Eden Park next weekend.

The tourists buckled 30-15 in the opening All Blacks clash, wilting under intense New Zealand pack pressure. Steve Hansen then poked the Lions once too often with his taunts about physicality after New Zealands first Test victory.

The All Blacks boss rubbed opposite number Gatlands nose in it after his sides win. New Zealands gritty tight game had been so imperious that Hansen felt fully confident in turning the screw.

The former policeman shot out: I always find it amusing when teams say they are going to beat us up in the tight-five, in lording it over old rival and fellow Kiwi Gatland.

Steve Hansen

The tourists boss then appeared to wave the white flag in the mind games, not least when responding to the New Zealand Herald depicting him as a clown - for the second time in six months.

Gatland looked circumspect in admitting the Lions were not only well beaten in the first Test, but also at being mocked in his homeland.

The ruse fooled everyone - even the All Blacks. Because the Lions boss was not shell-shocked, and his men not beaten and bested. Battered yes, but not cowed - and the tourists then spent the week bashing lumps out of each other in a bid to restore their physical acumen.

Yes, Sonny Bill Williams first-half red card left the All Blacks with a mountain to climb in the second Test, a man light for the best part of an hour. Yes, the Lions only won by three points despite that glaring advantage. And yes Beauden Barrett missed three regulation penalty shots at goal.

"A direct charge on the head, I think it's deliberate" says referee Jerome Garces when sending off Sonny Bill Williams for head high shot  Nick Purewal (@NickPurewal) July 1, 2017

But Taulupe Faletau and Conor Murray snared tries to turn the tide for the punchy Lions, who so nearly blew it through flummoxing indiscipline.

Former All Blacks number eight Zinzan Brooke had hit out at Faletau for lacking the mongrel edge to succeed in this series. But the Wales back-rower again mocked that statement with another stunning showing.

The Lions first win in New Zealand since 1993 not only keeps this series alive, it also acts as a huge boon to an organisation that remains constantly forced to justify its very existence in the professional era.
Twenty-five people have been shot at a downtown nightclub in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The shooting at Power Ultra Lounge arose from a dispute among club-goers and not from an active gunman or a terror-related incident, said police.

Officers said 25 people were shot and three others suffered unrelated injuries but all are expected to survive.

We do NOT believe this incident was an active shooter or terror related incident. It appears to have been a dispute at a concert.  Little Rock Police (@LRpolice) July 1, 2017

A video posted online showed several bursts of gunfire  more than 24 shots in 11 seconds  about half a minute into a break in the raucous concert in the packed house for Finese 2Tymes, a performer from Memphis.

Club patron Darryl Rankin said he was recording the show on Facebook Live when gunfire erupted and that one of his friends is now at a hospital with a bullet stuck in his spine.

Police cordoned off the block as crime-scene technicians gathered evidence from inside and outside the club. Glass from the clubs second story windows littered the ground, along with empty drink cups.

A police officer collects evidence outside the club in Little Rock (Andrew DeMillo/AP)

Police chief Kenton Buckner said some sort of dispute broke out between people inside and there are probably multiple shooting suspects.

The shooting follows a week in which there have been about a dozen drive-by shootings in Little Rock, though there is no indication the events are linked.

Little Rock mayor Mark Stodola said: My heart is broken this morning  my prayers are with the victims of this tragedy. 

We are committed to doing everything possible to bring safety to our city. We need everyone to help.

My thoughts are w/ the victims & their families this morning after last night's shooting. Full statement: https://t.co/jiTCAW9F6K #arleg pic.twitter.com/BNSz06OvOA  Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) July 1, 2017

The clubs Facebook page promoted Friday nights show with a poster depicting a man pointing what appears to be a gun at the camera. A call to a number listed for Finese 2Tymes booking agent wasnt immediately returned Saturday.

One person was killed and six people were hurt in a mass shooting in May at a downtown concert in Jonesboro, Arkansas, about 115 miles north-east of Little Rock. In that case, two men were charged with first-degree murder and six counts of first-degree battery.
Two men have been arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences after landing on a flight from Turkey.

The men, both aged 21, from Leicester and Birmingham, were detained by West Midlands counter-terrorism detectives just after 10am on Saturday.

ARRESTS: Our Counter Terrorism detectives have arrested 2 men at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences https://t.co/OD8ZnCfGBm pic.twitter.com/2WRyECBVtB  West Midlands Police (@WMPolice) July 1, 2017

They are being transported back to the West Midlands for questioning on suspicion of preparing for terrorist acts.

(Steve Parsons/PA)

The arrests were intelligence-led and there was no immediate threat to the public.
Johanna Konta is hoping to return to the court on Sunday following her fall at Eastbourne.

The British number one and potential Wimbledon title contender withdrew from her semi-final at the Aegon International against Karolina Pliskova on Friday with a thoracic spine injury.

Konta had fallen heavily the previous evening on the brink of victory over world number one Angelique Kerber.

Johanna Konta receives treatment for an injury at Eastbourne

She was able to continue and won the match but the back injury she suffered put her Wimbledon campaign in doubt.

A statement from Kontas representative said: We are seeking medical advice and monitoring the situation closely. Johanna is hoping to return to practice on Sunday and will assess the situation further at that point.

Konta, who is due to begin her campaign at the All England Club on Monday against Hsieh Su-wei, is seeded sixth, the highest for a British woman at Wimbledon since Virginia Wade.
Marriage equality campaigners have predicted victory in Northern Ireland as they called for action from the countrys deadlocked politicians.

It is the only part of the UK or Ireland where same-sex marriage is banned.

Demonstrators on Saturday said any new government must be for all the countrys people as thousands thronged Belfast city centre on Saturday in a colourful and noisy parade.

20,000 people march for #equalmarriage in Northern Ireland. Our message: any new NI government MUST be a government for ALL the people. pic.twitter.com/0u88xCuBe3  Amnesty Int'l NI (@AmnestyNI) July 1, 2017

Gay rights activists, trade unionists, civil servants, firemen, drag queens and same-sex couples turned out for a procession to the City Hall bedecked with rainbow flags and banners.

The Lord Mayor of Belfast Nuala McAllister, Northern Ireland-born The Fall actor Bronagh Waugh and Rainbow Project director John ODoherty led demonstrators.

Mr ODoherty told political leaders nice words at election time were not enough, saying: We need action.

Action to make communities safe, action to make schools safe, an over-arching commitment from all the public institutions to addressing the historical and current inequalities which prevent Northern Ireland from being the society that we all want it to be.

Campaigners gathered outside St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast (Niall Carson/PA)

It is one sticking point delaying the formation of a new devolved powersharing government at Stormont.

Mr ODoherty alluded to the shift in public opinion, as on Friday Germany became the latest country to vote for gay marriage.

He said: Together we are the future of Northern Ireland. We are the progressive majority and those who oppose us will lose, just like they did every time before.

When we win this battle do not think that we are done. This campaign is not just about changing the law, we are about changing the world.

.@GerryAdamsSF and @moneillsf supporting the demand for marriage equality at a huge march and rally in Belfast today #EqualityMarch pic.twitter.com/q2MJhs6rcM  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) July 1, 2017

A Unitarian minister, the Rev Chris Hudson from All Souls Church in South Belfast, clutched a banner in support of same-sex marriage on the steps of St Annes Church of Ireland Cathedral.

The main Christian churches in Northern Ireland believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

Rev Hudson said some ministers strongly favoured equal marriage and the status quo harshly discriminated against him because he could not marry a same sex couple. He appealed to the DUP not to block any bid to legalise it.

I hope the next time round that the Holy Spirit will descend upon them and we will see that it is fair, that it functions well in every other part of the UK, why should Northern Ireland be any different?
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has said he does not expect a deal to restore powersharing to be struck by Monday.

He said the door was still open but there had been no sense of urgency around piecing together an agreement.

A series of deadlines have been missed to restore multi-party devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Gerry Adams has said he does not expect a deal restoring power sharing to be struck by Monday.  michael mchugh (@mmchugh02) July 1, 2017

Mr Adams said: I dont believe that there is going to be a deal by Monday.

The DUP are showing no urgency or no real inclination to deal with the rights-based issues which are at the crux and the heart of these difficulties which we are talking here about.

He said those included republican demands for an Irish Language Act, a Bill of Rights, marriage equality and dealing with the legacy of decades of past violence.

Unless they step-change I just cannot see, here we are on Saturday afternoon, I just cannot see how, and we told them this directly, how a deal can be put together by then.

Sinn Fein's Northern Ireland leader Michelle O'Neill (left) and party president Gerry Adams join campaigners calling for the introduction of same sex marriage in Northern Ireland (Niall Carson/PA)

The UK Government has extended the talks process until Monday, despite Stormont parties missing Thursdays deadline set in law.

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire will make a statement to the House of Commons on Monday outlining the Governments intentions going forward.

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire will make a statement to the House of Commons on Monday (Niall Carson/PA)

In the absence of agreement, the options open to Mr Brokenshire include setting another deadline for the talks process, calling a second snap Assembly election or re-imposing some form of direct rule from London.

The institutions imploded in January when DUP leader Arlene Foster was forced from office after Sinn Feins then deputy first minister, the late Martin McGuinness, quit.

That was in protest at the DUPs handling of the renewable heat incentive (RHI), a scheme that left the administration facing a 490 million overspend.

One of the main sticking points is over Sinn Feins call for an act officially protecting the Irish language.

Republicans argue bestowing the status on the minority tongue would represent a major step towards respect and equality for all in Northern Ireland.

The DUP has said it already supported Irish medium school education during years of devolved government and has accused Sinn Fein of politicising its use.

Mr Adams attended a noisy and colourful equal marriage rally in Belfast city centre on Saturday afternoon which attracted thousands of trade unionists, gay rights activists, students and supporters.

.@GerryAdamsSF and @moneillsf supporting the demand for marriage equality at a huge march and rally in Belfast today #EqualityMarch pic.twitter.com/q2MJhs6rcM  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) July 1, 2017

He added: If there is a step change, part of that step change is for everybody to understand that equality and respect has to be at the heart of the institutions.

They have to deliver for everybody, not just the Sinn Fein vote, not just the DUP vote, but for everybody including those people who dont vote, those people who are vulnerable, who are in poverty, who want their rights.

There will be no return to the status quo, that is the only basis in which these institutions are going to be put together.

Mr Brokenshire told Q Radio he could see where areas of compromise may lie.

But we are not there yet and time is running short, he said.

There are no deadlines that I have set, I am simply making a statement to Parliament on Monday afternoon to update the House of Commons and to update on what the next steps might look like.
Geraint Thomas was in shock after winning his first career Tour de France stage and taking the yellow jersey as Team Sky enjoyed a dream start to the 2017 edition on the soaking streets of Dusseldorf.

Thomas completed the opening 14 kilometre time trial in 16 minutes and four seconds to win by five seconds from BMC Racings Stefan Kung.

I didnt really expect it, Thomas said. I didnt know what to expect. To win the stage is incredible and the yellow on top is amazing. Im still in shock to be honest.

.@GeraintThomas86 remporte l'etape 1 et sera en jaune ce soir / wins stage 1 and will wear the Yellow Jersey tonight! #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/ibj6bfenA4  Tour de France (@LeTour) July 1, 2017

It was pretty much the ideal start for Team Sky as Chris Froome finished sixth, 12 seconds behind Thomas, to take a significant early lead over his general classification rivals as he seeks a third straight Tour crown and fourth overall.

Its really great for the team that Geraint has won, Froome said. The time trial is something Ive worked on during the past three weeks and weve taken time on rivals too, which is a great start.

Burys Simon Yates of Orica-Scott was the second best of the general classification hopefuls, giving up 25 seconds to Froome, while Richie Porte of BMC conceded 35 seconds and Movistars Nairo Quintana 36 seconds.

He's (almost!) lost for words! Here's a very happy @GeraintThomas86 with a message for @TeamSky fans pic.twitter.com/23ddwCDLYR  INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 1, 2017

Thomas becomes the first Welshman and eighth Briton to wear the yellow jersey after Tom Simpson, Chris Boardman, Sean Yates, David Millar, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Froome and Mark Cavendish.

The victory will be extra sweet for Thomas, who was given the chance to lead Sky in the first grand tour of the year but saw his dream of winning the Giro dItalia end in a freak crash caused by a police motorbike at the end of the first week.

The Giro was a massive disappointment and in the Tirreno-Adriatico we had our fair share of bad luck to be honest, so its nice not to have any bad luck, he said.

Almost immediately (after leaving the Giro) I set the goal to come here and do the best job I could.

If I didnt do that I would be three or four kilos heavier now and going pretty slow. I still cant quite believe it. Its certainly a great day and makes up for that disappointment.

For all the pre-race talk of a weakened Team Sky, they finished with four riders in the top eight as Vasil Kiriyenka was third, seven seconds back, and Michal Kwaitkowski eighth, 15 seconds down on Thomas.

1er Maillot Jaune pour Geraint Thomas! / 1st Yellow Jersey for @GeraintThomas86! #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/vIpuNqKmcN  Tour de France (@LeTour) July 1, 2017

After months of facing questions about ethics and the ongoing UK Anti-Doping investigation into alleged wrong-doing, the results provided tonic to a clearly emotional team principal Sir Dave Brailsford.

At the end of the day were involved in a sport with wheels and the thing about a wheel is it always turns, he said.

At one minute youre in the depth of despair and before you know it its turned around and here we on cloud nine again. Thats part of our sport. What a day.

REPORT: An amazing time trial performance sees Geraint Thomas ride into the yellow jersey at #TDF2017



 > https://t.co/J32HAF2MTP pic.twitter.com/wr11qQmx4P  INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 1, 2017

While Thomas and Sky celebrate, others were left to lick their wounds  many quite literally.

Porte took it steady after seeing his team-mate Nicolas Roche hit the deck earlier in the afternoon.

Ive been cautious, the Australian said. It was slippery. It wasnt the best time trial for me. I was nervous. It was better to take no risk.

Quintana also conceded time but suffered an even greater loss as key team-mate Alejandro Valverde crashed badly on a corner and was taken to hospital, putting him out of the race.

Valverde was far from the only man to go down as steady drizzle fell over Dusseldorf throughout the afternoon.

Bahrain-Meridas leader Jon Izaguirre crashed out while the likes of Tour debutant Scott Thwaites (Team Dimension Data) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) also hit the deck.

A series of probable sprint stages begin with Sundays 203.5km run to Liege, and Sky said that having the yellow jersey at such an early stage would do nothing to change their tactics.

Im sure our goal doesnt change, Thomas said. Its all about Froomey and if that means I lose the jersey so be it.
Julien Bosquet scored a last-minute try as Catalans Dragons came from behind to beat Super Leagues bottom side Leigh Centurions 40-36 to give Steve McNamara his first win in charge.

Ben Reynolds scored 20 points for the visitors in Perpignan, including a penalty which restored their lead with five minutes remaining, but Leigh were unable to convert a 16-point half-time advantage into victory.

Matt Dawson, Danny Tickle and Reynolds went over as Leigh dominated the opening stages, only for Jodie Broughton and Mickael Simon to reduce the deficit before a Sam Hopkins double restored Leighs dominance before the interval.

Ben Reynolds

La Remuntada des Dragons qui reviennent de nulle part pour simposer face a Leigh a la derniere seconde pic.twitter.com/0FM7wcBAfK  Dragons Catalans (@DragonsOfficiel) July 1, 2017

Simon and Vincent Duport went over to give Catalans two tries in as many minutes after the break, and after Reynolds crossed again, tries from Sam Moa and Justin Horo levelled the scores and set up a tense last 10 minutes.

A Reynolds penalty put Leigh ahead before Bosquet powered over in the dying seconds.
ANKARA, June 29 (Reuters) - Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is "definitely dead", Iran's state news agency quoted a representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying on Thursday.

"Terrorist Baghdadi is definitely dead," cleric Ali Shirazi, who is representative to the Quds Force, told IRNA without elaborating.

The Quds Force is in charge of operations outside Iran's borders by the country's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranian Foreign Ministry officials were not available to comment on the report of Baghdadi's death.

The secretive Islamic State leader has frequently been reported killed or wounded since he declared a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from a mosque in Mosul in 2014, after his fighters seized large areas of northern Iraq.

Russia said on June 17 its forces might have killed Baghdadi in an air strike in Syria. Washington said on Thursday it had no information to corroborate such reports. Iraqi officials have also been sceptical in recent weeks. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; editing by Andrew Roche)
By John Lloyd

June 30 (Reuters) - Londons Grenfell Tower fire victims arent furious just with local authorities for ignoring safety concerns raised before this months blaze killed at least 79 residents. Theyre angry with journalists too.

As reporters covered the fire at the apartment block last week, some residents turned on Jon Snow of Channel Four News, the most senior of Britains news presenters, and accused journalists of being vultures attracted to death and tragedy. "You didnt come here when people were telling you that the building was unsafe!" one man told Snow. "That is not newsworthy. You come here when people die. Why?"

The Grenfell residents are hardly alone in accusing the media of not serving their needs. Its no secret that trust in the media has declined. But the latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report, published this week, provides sobering insights into how the digital revolution has disrupted the way we gather the information we believe we need to orient ourselves in the world, or in our neighborhood.

The report shows that trust in the media varies from country to country, from over 60 percent in the Scandinavian countries to the low 20s in Greece and South Korea.

In the United States, trust in the media has risen from 33 percent during last years election campaign to 38 percent this year.

That may be because, as the Reuters report notes, "concern about the spread of false news online" increased the perception of the value of professional journalism.

Most sobering is the reports comment that "the economic outlook for most media companies remains extremely difficult." That statement doesnt include the communications giants like Twitter, Facebook and Google, the latter two of which garner more than 80 percent of the advertising that used to go to traditional media.

But two issues are likely larger. One is what Janine Gibson, the chief editor of Buzzfeed UK, calls "representation without judgment." Speaking at a seminar in London this week, Gibson said that the digital and social media world implicitly equates what news organizations spend time and money verifying, with "the guy in an attic" who puts out a piece of opinion masquerading as news, without having had to exercise his judgment on the veracity of his narrative.

The latter, said Gibson, "is of course much quicker than the news which checks, because checking takes time." The result, too, can be duller. The more careful is the reporter, the more complex becomes the story. But the guy in the attic can be simple, dramatic - and attract the eyeballs.

At an extreme, the attic-writer is putting out "fake news" - a commodity popularized by President Trump, who seems to see all news which does not praise him as "fake." Fake news may have won Trump the presidency. Even if not, his use of it gives credence to a tendency to distrust news we dont like.

Its also becoming clearer that measurements of "trust" in the news media dont really measure trust in the news media. They measure pleasure gained from the media. The Digital News Report says that there exists "a strong connection between trust in the media and perceived political bias." That is, people trust the reports which flatter and further their views.

This isnt new: people have chosen publications which line up with their political choices throughout the history of news. But for most of that history, those who consumed journalism did so passively. There was no comeback, except through a letter to the editor (probably unpublished) or a cancelled subscription.

Now readers are empowered by technology, often aggressive in their distrust and disgust, to intervene in stories. James Harding, director of news at the BBC, speaking at the same event as Buzzfeeds Gibson, said that "we at the BBC are very careful to make clear what we dont know as well as what we know. But people now can fill the space of dont know themselves".

We still live in the first phase of a revolution, not just of journalism but also in the ways in which we seek and use information, and in what we place our trust. As printing disrupted the late medieval world, so the replacement of print by digits has disrupted the 21st century. It is presently calling into question the nature of truth, and the trust we can place in it.

Truth is hard to get right, especially at times of tragedies like that at Grenfell Tower. Finding and publishing it wont always avoid anger directed at the messenger, but journalists need to show they are truth seekers rather than vultures feeding on tragedy.

That will give substance to journalism's necessary democratic role - and perhaps answer the "why" asked by the man who confronted Jon Snow. (Reporting by John Lloyd)
TOKYO, July 1 (Reuters) - Japanese lender Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc will make Frankfurt its new European headquarters as it prepares for Britain's exit from the European Union in 2019, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

SMFG, Japan's third largest lender, will move to Frankfurt as its current EU base in London will likely become unable to lead the bank's business in the bloc after Brexit, the Nikkei said, without citing the source of its information.

Financial services firms need "passporting" rights through a regulated subsidiary in an EU country to sell products across the bloc. A British exit from the EU single market almost certainly means UK-based banks will lose those rights.

The move would see SMFG follow Nomura Holdings Inc and Daiwa Securities Group Inc, respectively Japan's No.1 and No.2 brokerage groups, in setting up bases in the German city ahead of Brexit.

Several other banks are also preparing to shift their EU base to Frankfurt from London.

SMFG's banking and investment banking arms, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and SMBC Nikko respectively, will both set up subsidiaries in Frankfurt, the report said, adding that some employees would move to the German city from London.

It did not say how many employees would be affected, or detail the date of any move. SMFG's London office employs around 1,000 people.

SMFG could not be reached for comment outside business hours.

Frankfurt, the financial capital of Europe's biggest economy, has been promoting itself as a stable city for banks looking to move because of Brexit, with German politicians discreetly welcoming those looking to relocate.

SMFG's Japanese rivals, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group, have EU passporting rights through their banking units in Amsterdam. (Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By Brendan O'Brien

July 1 (Reuters) - An Illinois man was charged on Friday with abducting a Chinese student who investigators believe is now dead, a court document showed.

Brendt Christensen, 28, was arrested by FBI agents in Champaign on Friday. He will remain in custody until he appears in federal court on Monday to face a charge of kidnapping in the disappearance of Yingying Zhang, 26, on June 9, the University of Illinois Police Department said in a statement.

The arrest came a day after hundreds marched in support of Zhang, a scholar in photosynthesis and crop productivity who came to study at University of Illinois two months ago, according to local media.

Her father and other family members traveled from China to Champaign to join in the search for Zhang.

"There are no words that can explain why or how such a terrible thing should happen nor is there anything I might say that will ease the grief of any of you who knew her," university Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement.

On June 9, Zhang went to sign a lease for an apartment in Urbana, but missed a connecting mass transit bus. As she waited for the next bus, a motorist in a black Saturn Astra pulled up and she got in the vehicle, according to an affidavit.

Authorities matched the vehicle with Christensen's car, the document showed.

Christensen told investigators on June 15 that he picked up an "Asian" woman who appeared to be in distress. He also said he let her out of his vehicle a few blocks later after she panicked when he made a wrong turn, the affidavit said.

Investigators found Christensen visited a forum on a fetish website entitled "Abduction 101" with sub-threads "Perfect adbuctin fantasy" and "planning a kidnapping".

Investigators also found the passenger's door of Christensen's car had been recently cleaned, and that Christensen had been heard on an audio recording explaining he had kidnapped Zhang and had held her in his apartment.

"Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement does not believe (Zhang) is still alive," the document said. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Stephen Coates)
WARSAW, July 1 (Reuters) - Poland has a moral right to say 'no' to refugees, the country's most powerful politician said on Saturday.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), gave his views on immigration at a party convention in Przysucha, 100 km (60 miles) south of Warsaw.

"We have not exploited the countries from which these refugees are coming to Europe these days, we have not used their labour force and finally we have not invited them to Europe. We have a full moral right to say 'no'," Kaczynski said in a speech broadcast on television.

Last month the European Commission launched a legal case against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for refusing to take in asylum seekers, highlighting the feud within the 28-nation bloc over how to deal with migration.

Kaczynski, who has criticised the European Union's relocation schemes for migrants on many occasions, also said that the PiS could not be accused of being anti-European, as it backed Poland's joining the block in 2004 and now appreciates the inflow of EU funds.

"The fact that we appreciate them (the funds), does not mean that we have lost the right to various assessments, including those regarding the historical context," Kaczynski said, adding that Poland has never received any compensation for the losses it suffered during the Second World War.

During his 70-minute speech, the PiS leader suggested the government increase social spending if the economic situation allows. He also said there was a need to reduce the share of foreign capital in the media sector.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Pawel Sobczak; Editing by Stephen Powell)
ROME, July 1 (Reuters) - Demands made of Qatar by four other Arab states were designed to be rejected, Doha's foreign minister said on Saturday, explaining that their ultimatum was aimed not at tackling terrorism but at curtailing his country's sovereignty.

However Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, speaking to reporters in Rome, added Doha was still ready to sit down and discuss the grievances raised by its Arab neighbours.

"This list of demands is made to be rejected. It's not meant to be accepted or ... to be negotiated," Sheikh Mohammed said, adding that Qatar was willing to engage in further dialogue given "the proper conditions".

He said Qatar would not close down a Turkish military base in his country or shut the Doha-based satellite channel Al Jazeera as demanded by the Arab countries. (Reporting by Philip Pullella and Mostafa Hashem, writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Received lots of sympathy and empathy from the long suffering Tamil people of Sri Lanka.

After becoming a Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan chartered an independent course in politics that often fell afoul of the TNA hierarchy position.

Ananthy stated that she had personally witnessed his surrender to the armed forces at a point near Vattavaahal in the Mullaitheevu District. She was a Govt. employee at the Kilinochchi District Secretariat at the time she deposed before the LLRC.

Nevertheless a wife trying to trace her missing husband was very justifiable and few found fault with her for that. The sight of a single mother with three young daughters seeking the truth about a husband and father aroused much sympathy.

A movement claiming to fight for the liberation of the Tamil people was holding its most vulnerable component in bondage and exposing it to danger and hardship.

There is no evidence of Ananthy colluding with Ezhilan in these acts of conscription, but she does not seem to have objected to them either.

Ananthy had much interaction with them. Some NGOs found her useful in helping to mobilise women with disappeared families and utilise them for demonstrations. Other organisations had hopes of manipulating her and controlling her. A few wanted to display her as their trophy.

A new window of opportunity opened out as elections to the Northern Provincial Council became a distinct certainty. ITAK General Secretary and TNA strongman Somasundaram Senathirajah alias Maavai approached her and asked her to contest on the TNA ticket. She readily agreed. Subsequently Maavai began having second thoughts about his overture as TNA leader Rajavarothayam Sampanthan raised objections.

Then came Shritharans intervention on Ananthys behalf. Strengthened by Shritharans endorsement Senathirajah ignored Sampanthans objections and granted nomination to Ananthy - wife of Ezhilan-as TNA candidate from Jaffna.

Volunteers working for Ananthy were reportedly provided with food, refreshments, transport and an allowance of 500 rupees per day. Obviously hidden hands were financing the campaign. Ananthy herself told people that relatives from abroad were helping her.

In the recent No Confidence Motion crisis in the Northern Provincial Council Ananthy took a stand against her fellow ITAK Northern Councillors by extending support to Northern Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran.

Subsequently she has been appointed a Provincial Minister. Whatever the backdrop against which this has been done, there is no denying that Ananthy Sasitharan has made history as the first woman Northern Provincial Minister.

By D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Ananthy remains at the interface of two contradictory positions-as the wife of senior LTTE leader Ezhilan, who was reportedly involved in several Human Rights violations and crimes against humanity. At the same time it is a fact that her husband who surrendered himself to the Army in May 2009 is now missing.

45-year-old Ananthy Sasitharan made history when she was sworn in before Northern Province Governor Reginald Cooray in Jaffna as Northern Provincial Minister of Womens Affairs, Rehabilitation, Social Services, Food Supply and Distribution and Industries on June 29th 2017.

Ananthy, who will celebrate her birthday on September 10th has set a record of sorts by becoming the first woman to be appointed as a Northern Provincial Minister. She was elected from the Jaffna District in the first Northern provincial election with the second highest number of preferential votes polling 87,770. (Incidentally her name is spelled in the media in different ways such as Anandhi, Ananthi, Ananty and Ananthy. The official Northern Province council website spells her name as Ananthy. Therefore I am also using the same).



It is a well known fact that Ananthy Sasitharan is the wife of Sinnathurai Sasitharan alias Major Ezhilan who was a senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). She herself refers to him frequently in public. Ezhilan (also spelled as Ellilan) had reportedly surrendered - along with a number of fellow tiger leaders  to the armed forces in the Mullaitheevu District in May 2009. There is no information about their fate and all of them, including Ananthys husband are regarded as missing or disappeared.

The political wing dealt out inhuman punishment on the civilians apprehended while trying to flee. Ezhilan played a significant role in all these. Even though Ezhilan was involved in such barbaric conduct, civilised norms stipulate that even persons who commit heinous crimes against humanity at one level are entitled to protection under the law at another level



Ananthy captured national and international attention by a determined campaign demanding information about her husbands situation. This resulted in her receiving lots of sympathy and empathy from the long suffering Tamil people of Sri Lanka. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) cashed in on this by fielding her as a candidate of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) in the September 2013 Northern provincial elections. She won handsomely with the second highest tally of preference votes in Jaffna.



After becoming a Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan chartered an independent course in politics that often fell afoul of the TNA hierarchy position. Later she was suspended from the ITAK on disciplinary grounds pending inquiry.



This has not deterred the irrepressible Ananthy, who continues with her particular brand of controversial politics.



In an earlier article about Ananthy Sasitharan, I described her as vibrant and wrote thus - Ananthy Sasitharans political ambition is not a factor that can be dismissed lightly. Even her critics acknowledge that she is a tenacious woman who pursues her objectives with single minded determination.



Recent events have proven me correct. Ananthy achieved political success as an elected Provincial Councillor in 2013. Four years later she has reached a significant milepost in 2017 after being appointed provincial minister.



The circumstances of Ananthys romance with Sasitharan alias Ezhilan and her marriage to him serve as testimony to the first woman northern Provincial Ministers steely resolve.



People who are aware of what happened in those days say in lighter vein that Ezhilan had no chance whatsoever once Ananthy had set her sights on him. Those events and other matters concerning Ananthy Sasitharan such as her politics, have been related earlier in these columns but are still worthy of being re-visited in the present context.



Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission

It was in the aftermath of the war that Ananthy Sasitharan first grabbed attention as the wife of Ezhilan. She presented herself before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in 2010 when it held sittings in Kilinochchi and testified that her husband had gone missing after May 2009. Ananthy stated that she had personally witnessed his surrender to the armed forces at a point near Vattavaahal in the Mullaitheevu District. She was a Govt. employee at the Kilinochchi District Secretariat at the time she deposed before the LLRC.



That disclosure made her a sensational figure then. This was the first time after the war that the spouse of a senior LTTE leader had been bold enough to come before a Commission and testify that her husband had surrendered and was now reported missing.

When Ananthy conveyed her feelings to him through intermediaries he rejected them immediately. Ananthy however persisted and finally met him face to face and proffered her love. Again Ezhilan turned it down saying he was wedded to the ideal of Tamil Eelam and advised her to concentrate on her studies.



Speaking to the BBC Tamil Service after her testimony Ananthy related her version of what had happened then. Ananthy said that when her husband Ezhilan went with other senior LTTE leaders to surrender, she and the three children had walked behind.



She said that she saw her husband being identified as Maavilaaru Ezhilan.



According to Ananthy an Army officer had asked her to turn back and surrender along with other Tamil civilians as she was a Govt. employee and assured her that Ezhilan would be released later. Whether true or false Ananthys testimony before the LLRC and her subsequent media interviews did make a powerful impact.



LTTE media organs amidst the Tamil Diaspora derived maximum mileage out of her testimony. It later came to light that Ananthy had been encouraged and supported by TNA Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan to go public and testify before the LLRC.



Nevertheless a wife trying to trace her missing husband was very justifiable and few found fault with her for that. The sight of a single mother with three young daughters seeking the truth about a husband and father aroused much sympathy.



Besides there was a romantic touch as the Sasitharan-Ananthy union had been a love story of sorts.

Ananthy was born on September 10, 1971 to parents hailing from the Kankesanthurai and Chulipuram areas in Jaffna. She was the fifth in a family of six children. Her elder sister Vasanthi who joined the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) had been killed by the LTTE at Kurumbasitty in 1989. Some years later Ananthys younger brother had joined the LTTE. He went missing after a while and is presumed to have been killed in combat.



Victoria College in Chulipuram

Ananthy was a student at Victoria College in Chulipuram, when she first saw Ezhilan who was then in the LTTE. He was from the Atchuvely area in Jaffna. Ezhilan was then active in the political wing of the LTTE. He had come to Victoria College to deliver a lecture to the students. It was customary in LTTE-controlled areas then for LTTE cadres to address students in their respective schools.



Ezhilan with his dashing looks made a positive impression on young starry-eyed Ananthy. Also, the progressive views he expressed in his lecture on matters such as caste, dowry and womens rights impacted greatly on her. It was a case of love at first sight for Ananthy. But that was not so for Ezhilan. When Ananthy conveyed her feelings to him through intermediaries he rejected them immediately. Ananthy however persisted and finally met him face to face and proffered her love. Again Ezhilan turned it down saying he was wedded to the ideal of Tamil Eelam and advised her to concentrate on her studies.



Ananthy was not one who gave up easily. She kept on trying to win Ezhilans heart. In the meantime, she finished her secondary schooling and began pursuing accountancy studies. She gave up studies after getting a Government job. Ananthy started working as a clerk at the Jaffna Kachcheri from June 10, 1992. She worked at the Valigamam West AGA office in Chankanai from 1993 to 1996.



During these years her passionate ardour for Ezhilan did not diminish. Determined to win her hearts desire Ananthy kept on persevering. Finally Ezhilan melted. But soon there was another problem. The Sri Lankan armed forces regained control of Jaffna through Operation Riviresa in 1995-96. The LTTE, including Ezhilan relocated to the Northern mainland of the Wanni. Ananthy too followed soon after. She worked at the Mullaitheevu District Secretariat as a clerk from 1997 to 2003.Thereafter she began working at the Kilinochchi District Secretariat as a Management Assistant from 2003 onwards. She continued to retain that job until obtaining a release in 2013 to contest the Northern Provincial poll.



Ezhilan too began rising up in LTTE ranks as a political wing member. He was a particular favourite of the LTTE political wing chief Suppiah Paramu Thamilselvan. Ezhilan was made Political Commissar of the Vavuniya district by Thamilselvan with the approval of LTTE supremo Prabhakaran. After the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) came into force in 2002 Ezhilan was transferred to the politically sensitive Trincomalee area as LTTE Political Commissar.



Maavilaaru river blockade

The Oslo-facilitated Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) had begun crumbling after 2004. The decisive turning point was in the Trincomalee District when the LTTE blocked the Maavilaaru River in the Moothoor region and prevented water from flowing into Sinhala inhabited areas.



This was in July 2006. Ezhilan played a prominent role in justifying this decision and gave many media interviews about the river Maavilaaru and the importance of the blockade.



Hence he came to be known as Maavilaaru Ezhilan. The war escalated due to the Maavilaaru episode ultimately resulting in the Mullivaaikkaal debacle.



Ezhilan and Ananthy got married on June 6, 1998 at Mulliyavalai in the Mullaitheevu District. LTTE political chief Thamilchelvan presided over the ceremony.



Ananthy continued to work in Mullaitheevu and Kilinochchi during the time Ezhilan was stationed in the Vavuniya and Trincomalee Districts.



After being driven away from Trincomalee, Ezhilan and other tiger cadres relocated to the Northern Wanni. Ezhilan began working in the LTTE secretariat in Kilinochchi. Ananthy working at Kilinochchi Kachcheri, stayed together with her husband.



The LTTE political wing members were at the forefront in conscripting youths based on the dictum Veetukku oru veeran allathu veeranganai (A hero or heroine from each home).Excessive force and sheer cruelty was shown in this conscription drive. These acts have been publicised by this columnist in earlier articles. After Thamilselvans death in November 2007, Ezhilan was placed in overall charge of recruitment which was in reality conscription.

Ezhilan and Thamilini the woman political wing chief, acquired a notorious reputation for forcibly recruiting young men, women and children in the years 2008- 2009.



The LTTE escalated its conscription to very high levels after being restricted to the Puthukkudiyiruppu and Karaithuraipattu AGA Divisions in the Mullaitheevu District. Ezhilan continued to play a terrible role in this along with other senior LTTE political wingers.



As the war continued to intensify along the Mullaitheevu coast the trapped civilian population was in a tragic hostage situation.



A movement claiming to fight for the liberation of the Tamil people was holding its most vulnerable component in bondage and exposing it to danger and hardship. It was during this time of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that this writer appealed repeatedly through these Daily Mirror columns to Let my people go.



Those pleas however fell on the deaf ears of the LTTE and what happened thereafter is now history.

During this tragic phase of war when the Tamils of LTTE-controlled areas were regarded as the wretched of the Wanni earth that the political wing of the LTTE descended into despicable levels.

The LTTE political wing was involved in three tasks even during those perilous times.



Firstly the political wing continued to forcibly recruit youths and children in huge numbers.

They were thrown into war as cannon fodder without adequate training or experience. Secondly the LTTE political wing acted repressively to prevent civilians from trying to escape from LTTE controlled areas to SLA controlled areas for reasons of safety and security.



Thirdly the political wing dealt out inhuman punishment on the civilians apprehended while trying to flee. Ezhilan played a significant role in all these.



Involved in barbaric conduct

Even though Ezhilan was involved in such barbaric conduct, civilised norms stipulate that even persons who commit heinous crimes against humanity at one level are entitled to protection under the law at another level.



Even a notorious violator of human rights is eligible to have basic human rights such as the right to life and can be penalised for alleged crimes only after due process of the law.



What then was the role of LTTE spouses like Ananthy, when their dearly beloved life partners embarked on sprees of mass Human Rights violations and crimes against humanity against the very people on whose behalf they claimed to wage war?



There is no evidence of Ananthy colluding with Ezhilan in these acts of conscription, but she does not seem to have objected to them either.



When a newspaper asked her during the election campaign about conscription by the LTTE she avoided a direct answer but sought to condone or justify it indirectly by stating that one segment of the population cannot distance itself from fighting when another segment was in the thick of war.



Ananthy Sasitharan remains at the interface of two contradictory positions. As the wife of senior LTTE leader Ezhilan, who was reportedly involved in several Human Rights violations and crimes against humanity, she is at one end of the spectrum. At the same time it is a fact that her husband who surrendered himself to the Army in May 2009 is now missing.



In that sense Ezhilan is a victim, and so are his wife and family. Thus Ananthys current situation is complicated, being the wife of a person who is both a perpetrator of human rights violations as well as a victim.



The Ananthy-Ezhilan couple have three children; all of them girls. The eldest Nalvizhi was born on May 23, 1999.The second Ezhilvizhi was born on 22 November 2001.The youngest Kayalvizhi was born on July 15 2003.



The family left Kilinochchi when the SL Army advanced and moved to the Mullaitheevu District. After the war ended in 2009, Ananthy and the children stayed in an IDP camp for a while and relocated to Kilinochchi where she resumed working as Management Assistant in the Samurdhi Department at the District Secretariat.



The children were sent to Chulipuram in Jaffna while the mother shuttled between both places. It was in Kilinochchi that Ananthy came under the sway of Shritharan MP who encouraged her to testify before the LLRC.



Apart from the media, the LLRC exercise also attracted the attention of several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and International NGOs concerned with issues such as disappearances and womens rights.



Ananthy had much interaction with them. Some NGOs found her useful in helping to mobilise women with disappeared families and utilise them for demonstrations. Other organisations had hopes of manipulating her and controlling her. A few wanted to display her as their trophy.



Initially she went along with these organisations but soon it became apparent that Ananthy had an independent agenda and would not play second fiddle to another. The interaction with these organisations resulted in writs of habeas corpus being filed in courts by Ananthy along with some other women for their respective family members who had allegedly disappeared.



Champion of Human Rights

Ananthy now began involving herself with NGO activities concerning women and families of disappeared and/or missing persons. She was a fixture at demonstrations often enjoying huge media attention. This resulted in some ill-will between grassroots activists and Ananthy who was accused of gaining publicity without any constructive input while they who did the spadework were ignored. There was also resentment in some circles about the wife of an LTTE leader posturing as a champion of Human Rights.



A new window of opportunity opened out as elections to the Northern Provincial Council became a distinct certainty. ITAK General Secretary and TNA strongman Somasundaram Senathirajah alias Maavai approached her and asked her to contest on the TNA ticket. She readily agreed.

Subsequently Maavai began having second thoughts about his overture as TNA leader Rajavarothayam Sampanthan raised objections. Then came Shritharans intervention on Ananthys behalf. Strengthened by Shritharans endorsement Senathirajah ignored Sampanthans objections and granted nomination to Ananthy - wife of Ezhilan-as TNA candidate from Jaffna.



It was felt then that being a mother of three children whose husband had gone missing, Ananthy would strike a responsive chord among women.



Besides, the phenomenon of a wife fighting for the life of her husband or seeking justice on his behalf was sure to evoke sympathetic feelings in the Tamil psyche.



Hindu mythology relates the tale of Savithri who locked horns with Yaman, the god of death, and won a reprieve for her husband Sathiyavaan.



The Tamil epic Silappathikaaram narrates the saga of Kannaki (Pathini Deiyyo), who sought justice for her husband Kovalans death from the Pandya King and in its absence, burnt down Madurai city.

Ananthy in that context could be depicted as a latter day combination of Savithri and Kannaki.



If one school of thought opted to project Ananthy as a figure eliciting sympathy, another school of thought, comprising die-hard tiger elements, opted to support her for another reason. As the wife of Ezhilan she was identified with the LTTE. If she won with a huge preference poll then that victory could be portrayed as a triumph of the LTTE and justification of the LTTE.



A third school of thought threw in their lot with Ananthy because they though her success would strengthen the hands of international forces, who were seeking an indictment of the then Rajapaksa regime in the tribunal of world opinion.



Well-endowed campaign to boost Ananthy

Thus the stage was set for a well-endowed campaign to boost Ananthy Sasitharans capacity to harvest the maximum number of preferential votes. Abundant advertisements in the newspapers, colourfully attractive posters, proliferation of pro-Ananthy leaflets and flyers became the order of the day.



Vehicles with loudspeakers went about the streets of Jaffna blaring forth ultra-nationalistic Tamil songs and slogans in support of Ananthy. A battalion of youths wearing tee-shirts with Ananthys name, face and candidate list number rode around on motor cycles. Volunteers working for Ananthy were reportedly provided with food, refreshments, transport and an allowance of 500 rupees per day. Obviously hidden hands were financing the campaign. Ananthy herself told people that relatives from abroad were helping her.



Four other developments relating to Ananthy Sasitharan during the polls campaign also helped boost her campaign. The first was a public protest demonstration by some rehabilitated ex-LTTE members, who carried placards and shouted slogans critical of Ananthy Sasitharan. She was the only TNA candidate against whom a demonstration of such a nature was conducted.



The second development was a reported incident near Chunnakam in Jaffna. Ananthy was returning home after in the night after intense canvassing when a VIP motorcade passed her vehicle. A person on a motor cycle following the VIP vehicle tried to attack Ananthys vehicle. A heavy object was thrown at the vehicle, damaging it. Apparently the damage was minimal and no further mishap occurred.



The third development was reportedly far more serious. A gang of armed men some in uniform - attacked her residence in Chulipuram and damaged the house, furniture and parked vehicles. At least eight of her campaign staff were assaulted severely and had to undergo hospital treatment.

Fortunately, Ananthy and her three daughters had jumped over a rear wall and escaped to a safe place shortly before the attack began. Fearful of an impending attack Ananthys campaign staff had compelled her to leave with the children as a precaution.



This incident received much publicity as there were many media personnel in Jaffna then to cover the historic provincial poll. Ananthy Sasitharan was the focal point of local, national and international media attention and became famous overnight. Ananthy accused the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) of being responsible for the attack. This was hotly denied by that party. Interestingly the TNA hierarchy then did not conduct an official party press conference featuring Ananthy Sasitharan, which could have resulted in deriving much political mileage.



A fake Uthayan newspaper

The dawning of polling day on September 21 2013 saw the fourth Anandhi-related election development occur. This was not one of a violent nature. It was an exercise in duplicity. A fake Uthayan newspaper with the same format as the original newspaper was printed with the sensational news that Ananthy Sasitharan had deserted the TNA and crossed over to the Government. The fake Uthayan news aroused much interest but was dismissed with disbelief and contempt. The Jaffna voter was not to be conned so easily, as the forces responsible for the counterfeit edition had naively expected.



The duplicitous exercise however did churn a wave of sympathy towards Ananthy Sasitharan. Why was this woman alone being singled out as a target among the many TNA candidates? Was it a case of the Tamil saying Kaaitha maram thaan kalladi padum? (Only fruit-bearing trees are stoned).Whatever the motives behind the attacks on Ananthy, the cumulative effect was the formation of a massive sympathy wave. So huge was the perceptible sympathy that Ananthy Sasitharan came second with 87,770 votes. C.V. Wigneswaran polled the highest number of preferences from Jaffna.

Ananthys victory had a stunning effect on many people, particularly some Western diplomats. One woman envoy from a powerful nation was particularly impressed and had a meeting with Ananthy, who had acquired a larger than life image after her victory.



This enhanced image has resulted in Ananthy being a highly sought-after trophy at Tamil Diaspora gatherings.



After being elected she has visited the USA, Germany, Denmark and Norway. In Germany she testified before the Permanent Peoples Tribunal at Bremen. In Sri Lanka she had a meeting in Jaffna with Stephen Rapp former US Ambassador-at-Large for War crimes Issues and the ex- US Ambassador in Colombo Michele J. Sison. All three posed for the camera after the meeting. Ananthy also testified in Kilinochchi at the Presidential Commission to probe disappearances.



In recent times Ananthy Sasitharan has been a constant visitor to Geneva, where she has been engaging in propaganda efforts against the Sri Lankan State. Domestically she has fallen foul of the ITAK hierarchy. She has been a fellow traveller of elements antagonistic towards the leadership of the ITAK which is the chief constituent of the Tamil National Alliance.



No Confidence Motion crisis

In the recent No Confidence Motion crisis in the Northern Provincial Council Ananthy took a stand against her fellow ITAK Northern Councillors by extending support to Northern Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran. Subsequently she has been appointed a Provincial Minister. Whatever the backdrop against which this has been done, there is no denying that Ananthy Sasitharan has made history as the first woman Northern Provincial Minister.



Ends

D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com
The World Capital Centre (WCC) signed a US$ 2 billion investment agreement with the Board Of Investment (BOI) yesterday, for the much hyped and long awaited tallest building in the Asian region and the 9th tallest to be in the world.

The World Capital Centre also known as WCC is a globally renowned chain with its operations spread across the world and will be the centre of multiple trading and service providing establishments, having an astonishing twin tower with modern amenities of 117 floors, gracing a height of 625 metres to be built in the heart of Colombos commercial area. It will include 1,200 residential units, 2,000 hotel rooms, 3,000 retail outlets, 5,000 car-parking spaces, the WCC 7-star hotel, 20 luxurious swimming pools, gold presidential suites with gold-plated interiors, worlds fastest double-decker elevators, first Michelin starred restaurant in Sri Lanka, stunning observation deck and a helipad on the topmost floor.

The signing ceremony was represented by the Chairman of BOI - Upul Jayasooriya and the other senior officials of the BOI while WCC was represented by its key figure heads, the Chairman of WCC - Ahmed Moulana, Deputy Chairman of WCC - Vivekanandarajah A. Moorthy, Director of WCC - Dr. Senaka Silva, Director of WCC - Dr. Arosha Fernando, Director of WCC - R. Sadesh Kumar, Director of WCC - Wijendran Balakrishnan, MD of WCC - Imran Saleem, CEO of WCC Media - Shafraz Jalaldeen, and the Secretary of WCC - Waruni V. Ranasinghe.

This proposed building would be the tallest in Asia and the 9th in the world as accepted by the Skyscraper Centre of U.S.A., and will be the largest tower in the world having a total built up area of 800,000 square metres first of its kind in Sri Lanka, which would be an ultimate tribute to Sri Lanka as well as in the Asian economy, expected to be completed by end of year 2022. Sri Lanka being centrally located in South Asia is perfectly poised to be the launch pad for the Capital Centre owing to all the bilateral trade agreements, close ties with the developing nations and the long trade history with the rest of the world.

While many international banks have been operating in Sri Lanka for decades, the ending of the war has seen the expat community blooming together with large multinational companies looking to invest in new businesses or to open up branches. Within the region, Sri Lanka is very easy to do business with and eventually has the potential to become what Dubai is to the Middle East, what London is to Europe, what Singapore is to South-East Asia or what New York is to the Americas.

WCC intends to be the first financial centre to offer an innovative vehicle for investment companies to have their South Asian base here in Sri Lanka giving an extraordinary boost to the economic development of the country.(Mirrorbusiness)
The late Dr. Saman Kelegama was a highly regarded intellectual and professional who was closely associated with the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) almost from the inception and rendered yeoman services to the chamber over the years in support of efforts to provide services to Sri Lankan exporters to develop exports.

He was particularly committed and passionate to the efforts of the chamber to recognize and reward the achievements of exporters by being closely associated with the Annual Export Awards conducted by the chamber by making a worthy contribution to develop the event into its current high professional standing as a national event of the exporter community.

He assisted the chamber initially in designing the application forms related to the event by providing his professional inputs and later by assisting to refine the documents. In subsequent years he also served as Chairman of the professional panel of judges to select award winners by contributing with his valuable knowledge and time.

It is sad that he has not been able to be among the living to witness the 25th anniversary of the event to be conducted in September this year, which he would have undoubtedly been proud to witness, since he has never failed to attend the event as a special invitee over the years in spite of his many engagements.

As Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) he never failed to respond to requests made by the chamber from time to time by contributing research papers and insights related to the field of exports, based on the work carried out by the IPS.

Further, he responded without hesitation on many an occasion by participating as a resource person in seminars and workshops conducted by the chamber on export- related subjects, imparting his insights and valuable knowledge on the various topics related to exports.

In this regard, in addition to participation as a panellist at export-related forums, he contributed by making presentations to enhance the knowledge of exporters on subjects related to the export trade. His style of presentation of rather complex topics in a simple and lucid manner as a well-known economist was indeed admirable, which displayed his skills as a born teacher and academic as well.

He was also instrumental in providing valuable articles to the quarterly Sri Lanka Exporter Magazine of the chamber by utilizing the services of the professional staff of the IPS, which service continues to be provided to date.

During the immediate past before his untimely demise, he has been chairing the main discussions at the Strategy Development and International Trade Ministry, in his capacity as an advisor to the government, related the negotiations being carried out on the proposed free trade agreements with India, China and Singapore and also the important discussions related to the formulation of the national trade policy.

In this context, the chamber has been fortunate to benefit from his knowledge and insights related to these subjects and also for his ability to listen patiently and assimilate for consideration the suggestions made by the chamber related to these subjects. The chamber wishes to particularly record the admirable manner in which he was able to field the criticisms directed on the work carried out related to these subjects, with equanimity and tolerance which are undoubtedly high traits of a truly intellectual and a good human being with wisdom.

His departure from our midst at this unexpected time is a great and irreparable loss not only to the exporter community but to the entire country, at a time the efforts of the government and all those who love our country, are focused to accelerate the development of exports for the betterment of the economy and the well-being of Sri Lanka.

May his sojourn in samsara be ever so short and may he attain the supreme bliss

of nibbana!
The secular atmosphere in the country is steadily worsening. The Hindutva forces have for at least a century made the protection of cows a benchmark, of not only Hinduism, but also Indian-ness.

If you eat cow meat (beef), and now any cattle meat, you are allegedly transgressing Hindu religious law, which is overwhelmingly more basic and spiritually pure, than any Indian law.

In other words, Hindutva religion as understood by religious politicians is the one great law, clearly distinct from secular laws emanating from the Constitution, and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) overseen by Lord Macaulay in the mid-19th century. After all, God (and Hinduism has many) is above all earthly laws. The real problem is who has the right to interpret and wield divine law.

It is well known that various critical Hindu religious texts like the Rigveda had a lively discussion on beef eating, and allowed it as scholars have documented. Others like the Shankaracharya questioned the Rigveda principles and doctrines, not taking on some of several other Hindu texts which did not bar beef eating. So, there is plenty of evidence of alternate discourses in the Hindu texts, of which the Sangh Parivar has only cited those to its ideological-political benefit.

The Bhakti poets, Kabir, Mirabai and Tulsidas, accepted no such boundaries; nor did the Urdu poet saints like Ghalib, Baba Fareed and others.

But from the beginning of the Modi regime the Hindutva gauntlet was thrown down in an extraordinary statement by MoS (Food Processing Industries) Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti who clearly demarcated Indians as "Ramzadas" and "Haramzadas". No action was taken against her by the Modi government. So the attacks and lynchings of Muslims by self-styled cow vigilantes and "gau rakshaks", are a continuation of the same hate politics, especially in north India.

Since the Modi government took over, there have been at least 32 incidents of attacks on Muslims linked to cow slaughter or illegal transport of cows/buffaloes. As many as 23 people have been killed, from Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri to teenager Hafiz Junaid Khan travelling on a train. According to this news report, "this is a conservative estimate because many attacks may not have been covered in national media".

Prime Ministers from Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi and VP Singh used to visit troubled areas, including places of communal tensions and riots. Indira Gandhi rode to Belchi on an elephant. Where has Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened like this? His powerful voice has not been heard at the spots where innocents have been lynched.

As is well known, the Directive Principles Article 48 bans the slaughter of cows, milch and draught cattle. It is an indicative power unlike the Fundamental Rights. The suggested, non-binding ban under Article 48 is intended to preserve and promote the breeds of all milch and draught cattle, including the buffalo, mithun and yak. Are the gaushalas or cow shelters preserving or promoting the breeds of all cattle?

Anyone travelling or living in India must have seen thousands, if not more cattle, eating plastic bags and other rubbish without any care, much less provision of necessary fodder.

So, the main issue is not about the legal basis of cow (and cattle) slaughter, but justifying and endorsing Hindutva on the basis of a deliberate misreading of the Constitution, on which the media has tended to avoid debates on Article 48 and other laws. The ban on cow slaughter was originally introduced in several states by successive Congress governments in order to garner Hindu votes.

There is an object lesson in Indian politics  a secular party flirting with communalism can never defeat an organised communal campaign by a communal party.

But there is an object lesson in Indian politics  a secular party flirting with communalism can never defeat an organised communal campaign by a communal party.

But once the Hindu communal frenzy is unleashed, with secular forces divided and civil society showing increasing urgency to combat communal ideology and attacks, the political temperature is rising.

What about other burning issues facing the people? Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and development economist Jean Dreze in their book, An Uncertain Glory, in 2013, estimated that 68.7 per cent of the people were below the poverty line. To put it mildly, little action has been taken on this front.

The MGNREGA supposed to provide each rural labour dependent family 100 days of official minimum wages is in the doldrums. Earlier, there was some talk of increasing the wages from 100 days to 150 days per family. This did not happen. PM Modi initially called the MGNREGA a monumental blunder, making his own imperatives clear.

In the last year, only 47.5 per cent of the rural households received their wages in time. The others had to seek work at lower market wages. With the linking up of the Aadhar card and PAN card etc., the process of the rural families opening and maintaining accounts will become more difficult and time consuming.

Why not concentrate on empowering the rural poor to be followed soon by the urban poor? Why use the cow issue to sideline the problems of rural and urban poverty?

The Modi government seems to have got its priorities wrong despite its claims of economic growth belied by its failed demonetisation fiasco. Surely it can, and should, be more aware of pressing realities instead of divisive politics.
I am a retired newspaperman. I am 69 and live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 45 years, Lou Ann. We grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather.

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Jacquelyn Brownlee says she is going on nine years of teaching.

Its been 10, her husband chimes in.

She thinks about it, as the two go back and forth for a minute on a Wednesday afternoon, sitting in a coffee shop. Eventually, they come to the conclusion that, yes, next school year will mark a decade of teaching.

And Brownlee loves what she does, having been a language arts teacher at Albemarle High School for almost four years now.

But like all teachers, Brownlee faces challenges such as long hours, additional responsibilities and trying to balance a work life and home life.

Those challenges, she said, are compounded by paychecks that do not keep up with her bills.

To keep pace with payments and the areas high cost of living, Brownlee works a second job to help provide for her family of four.

The Charlottesville areas cost of living is 4 percent higher than the national average, according to Forbes. And CNN Moneys cost of living calculator shows that the only other major metropolitan area in Virginia with a higher cost of living is Northern Virginia  Charlottesville comes in a distant second.

The median home price in the county for the first quarter of 2017 was $367,000, according to a report from the Charlottesville Area Associations of Realtors. The median price in the city was $280,000.

But even with the list of negatives, Brownlee said she loves her job, and there are little reminders of why she got into teaching along the way.

But when the paychecks come and go  deductions and all  and the bills keep piling up, Brownlee said she is forced to consider changing careers.

I still love it, obviously, and I think that Im really good at it, and every year its kind of confirmed through the students and that all the stress is worth it, she said. But its hard to think that this is going to have to continue year, after year, after year, after year until I am able to retire.

* * *

Stories like Brownlees are not uncommon among Albemarle County teachers, and theyve been made known to the county school division.

Last year, the division contracted an outside consultant to study teacher compensation. The School Board received the results in June.

In the past year, the School Board has received hundreds of letters from teachers sharing stories about the high cost of living and how teacher pay should be increased to keep up, said board Chairwoman Kate Acuff.

The consulting firm, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., recently presented its findings to the board. After a series of surveys and studying feedback, the firm completely revised the divisions competitive market, a selection of school divisions that Albemarle uses to guide decisions on teacher compensation.

The study created a new competitive market for the school division. Its localities were not considered for proximity  as many of the surrounding counties have lower costs of living than Albemarle  instead, it was compared to other counties and cities based on academic performance.

Another aspect of both the study and conversations about teacher pay in the county is actual take-home pay. County employees have seen gradual increases in the amount taken out of their paychecks for health insurance, taxes and contributions to the Virginia Retirement System.

So even though their yearly pay might increase because of progressions in experience and raises included in the county budget, teachers still could take home less money, which Brownlee said is disheartening.

Gallagher & Co., which was paid $32,325 for its efforts, found that Albemarle offers competitive pay for new teachers but lags behind its peers in compensation for veteran educators. The report also said that the countys compensation for teachers who take on responsibilities outside the classroom also lags.

A first-year teacher in Albemarle County in the 2017-18 school year will make $46,000 in gross income with no prior experience and a bachelors degree, while a teacher with a masters degree will make $48,215 with the same level of prior experience, according to county data.

After 31 years or more of experience, the teacher with a bachelors can make $68,400, or $70,615 with a masters degree.

For some teachers, the studys findings are an encouraging sign that they could see a pay hike in coming budget cycles.

But even with a modest raise, teachers said they would still face difficult financial straits and a constant battle to balance finances and passion for the work.

* * *

In the current competitive market, the county compares itself to 26 other localities and tries to stay in the 75th percentile of salaries in that market.

The list of divisions includes Charlottesville and surrounding counties such as Fluvanna, Greene and Louisa. Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties also are in the competitive market.

The consultants recommended keeping Albemarle teacher pay in the median range of the new, smaller market.

The study uses Niche, an education rankings website, to determine the new market.

The ratings are weighted in different categories, with the most  50 percent  going to academics.

The academics category considers standardized test scores, as well as SAT and ACT scores and survey results from parents and teachers, according to Niches website.

The localities in the new market are the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Goochland, Loudoun, Roanoke and York, and the cities of Salem and Virginia Beach. Falls Church, which is No. 2 in the state according to Niche ratings, was left out of the study because of the citys size and a lack of data, according to the study.

Albemarle comes in at No. 5 based on Niches ratings. Charlottesville did not make the list because it is ranked No. 17.

The study compares the salaries of teachers by years of experience, as well as the cost of living and labor.

The study found that the county was generally on par with the rest of the market up to the 15-year mark, while showing that veteran teachers in the county arent paid as much as teachers with similar experience in comparable school divisions. The difference was greater for teachers in the county with masters degrees.

The study also showed that Albemarles stipends and compensation for additional roles were not as high as the rest of the market.

Acuff sent an open letter to teachers addressing the findings.

The letter suggests that the board will discuss the study in more detail in the future, using it to help inform decisions in the upcoming budget cycle.

Acuff said that the board has not had a chance to discuss the study in more detail since its June 8 meeting.

The board also must wrestle with how to adopt the smaller market over the current list, which was developed by county staff.

* * *

Gallagher & Co. surveyed more than 700 educators for the compensation study.

Almost every respondent said that their compensation is not adequate for the amount of work that they do. And 65 percent of respondents said they work an outside job to supplement their income.

In the written portion of the survey, common themes from the nearly 100 pages of compiled responses included frustrations with extra hours worked outside the classroom, few pay increases and the need to work additional jobs to supplement income to afford to live in Albemarle County.

Many of the responses indicated a hesitance to live in the county because of the high cost of living, but at the same time showing a desire to raise their families in Albemarle and send their kids to the same school division where they work.

Some respondents expressed the same concern that Brownlee and Nikki Shrader, a U.S. history teacher at Albemarle High, had about whether a new line of work would be better off for their familys financial stability.

Shrader said she and her husband, who is also a teacher, got by much easier on their pay when it was just them. But now they have a child, and she said theyre thinking of having more children and maybe moving to another house in Albemarle.

But considering the income and cost of living, its a difficult decision between sticking with teaching or finding a better-paying career.

I don't want to do that; I would love to stay a teacher, she said. When I'm in the classroom, I genuinely enjoy what I do. But it has been difficult to try and find that balance between the joy of teaching and sort of the altruistic nature of taking this public service profession, and the reality of having to live and pay bills every single day and not be so stressed out about money all the time.

Some teachers said they understood how the results came to be, and they hope the study will help to inform budgetary decisions down the road.

I think, overall, Im kind of pleased, said Susan Scofield, a language arts teacher at Burley Middle School with almost a decade of experience. Im tickled that they seem to be giving weight to what this company came up with, and I feel like they already have some directives where they have a couple of shortfalls.

Although the study found teacher pay is in line with the local cost of living for the most part, some teachers still think pay doesnt match up.

I do think the cost of living needs to be taken into consideration, and I would hope that the School Board, as well as the Board of Supervisors, would want to encourage people who are teachers to be able to buy a home and then pay taxes in Albemarle County, Shrader said.

Some are hopeful that the School Board can find a way to increase pay  or at least re-examine teachers extra roles to help to take some of the pressure off.

Its obvious that theres an issue that needs to be fixed and we have to think of, like, some real alternatives for helping out teachers and families of teachers, Brownlee said.
Hyundai registered highest-ever half-year domestic sales on account of strong acceptance brands Grand i10, Elite i20 and Creta in pre-GST business environment.

New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) today reported a 5.6 per cent decline in domestic sales at 37,562 units in June.

The company had sold 39,807 units in June 2016, HMIL said in a statement. In January-June, the domestic sales figure for the automaker stood at 2,53,428 units, up 4.1 per cent from 2,43,442 in the year-ago period.

HMIL Director Sales and Marketing Rakesh Srivastava said: "In a challenging market fuelled with speculations on the GST tax structure, Hyundai registered highest-ever half-year domestic sales on account of strong acceptance brands Grand i10, Elite i20 and Creta in pre-GST business environment."

The company expects a positive demand pull, post successful implementation of GST, in coming months as the industry will witness heightened level of customer interest in a seamless and unified single market, he added.
The duty differential earlier was about 11.5 per cent in favour of local manufacturing. phone manufacturing, customs duty, mobile phones. (Photo: Representational Image)

New Delhi: 'Make in India' will get a push with the government's latest move to impose a 10 per cent basic customs duty on mobile phones imported into the country.

The levy is also applicable on parts like chargers, headsets, battery and USB cable, with immediate effect. "The duty differential earlier was about 11.5 per cent in favour of local manufacturing. But with GST subsuming SAD and countervailing duties, that benefit was taken away.

The 10 per cent customs duty will help push local manufacturing once again," Intex Chief Financial Officer and Director, Rajeev Jain told PTI. With this, status quo will be maintained (in favour of domestic manufacturing), he added.

The announcement on the duty came in simultaneously with the midnight roll-out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the intervening night of June 30 and July 1. Many phone makers, who assemble their devices at facilities in the country, also import small quantities of phones from countries like China.

"The (import) quantities, at least for us, is very small and therefore, the customs duty will not make much difference. For the end-customer, there is no impact as he/she pays 12 per cent GST for the handset," Jain explained.

The government, however, has kept certain parts like printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), camera module, touch panel, cover glass assembly, vibrator motor and ringer, out of the levy of basic customs duty.

Echoing a similar view, BMR Advisors Partner, Mahesh Jaising said till yesterday, companies importing handsets were of the view they would have benefited under GST, given the manufacturing duty differential scheme going away.

"Consequently, consumers were expecting (prices of) imported phones (typically the high end phones which are usually imported) to have come down. However, with the 10 per cent customs duty last night, the tax structure is again in favour of local manufacturing," he added.

Incidentally, telephone bills of consumers will go up under GST regime, while prepaid customers are getting lesser talktime than before. This is because, under GST, telecom services are being taxed at 18 per cent compared to 15 per cent, earlier.

Users are now getting talktime of about Rs 80 on a recharge of Rs 100, compared to about Rs 83 earlier. Similarly, costs for postpaid users will also go up to the extent of three percentage points, starting this month.

So, for a monthly usage of Rs 1,000, users will have to pay Rs 1,180 instead of Rs 1,150 earlier. With the GST rolling out at midnight, some consumers faced issues getting recharges in early hours today. Some retailers complained of slow recharge processing initially but these issues seemed to be ironed out as the day progressed.
Alappuzha: The coir industry, which was so far tax-free, has been placed in the five percent tax category under the GST, according to Mr Sajan B. Nair, secretary- general, Federation of Indian Coir Exporters Association. We are told the tax is refundable. But there will be delay in the reimbursement. If the taxes are levied at each point in the value chain and the exporter has to pay all this and wait long for refund, it will put a huge burden on the cash flow. The industry will come to a standstill. There should be a provision for fast-track refund of taxes to the coir industry with the advent of GST, he said.

He asked the state and central governments to purchase their entire production through PSUs at agreed prices. Currently, more than 85 percent of requirements in the industry come from Tamil Nadu. The last state budget had proposed a subsidy to set up coir fibre mills (75 percent for co-operatives and SHGs and 50 percent for private enterprises). But in Kerala with small and distributed land holdings, the challenge is the collection of husk. In the GST regime, there should be realistic schemes to work out the collection of husks. Otherwise, production of coir fibre in Kerala will remain a distant dream, he said.
Panaji: Hailing the Goods and Services Tax(GST), BJP chief Amit Shah today said that the new tax regime would accelerate the country's economic growth and end the 'inspector raj'.

The GST was formally launched in Delhi in a midnight function in Parliament.

"The launch of GST has dissolved over 17 different taxes, converting them into a single tax, which will help traders, businessmen and small entrepreneurs. The BJP government, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, has provided relief to them from 'inspector raj'," Shah said.

The BJP national president, who arrived at Dabolim airport near here around 11.30 am for his two-day state visit, was addressing a gathering there. Shah said there might be some teething problems with the implementation of the GST, but they could be worked out.

"But this tax reform will accelerate the economic growth of the country making it a global leader...it will end several tax-related legislations," Shah said. Praising President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Modi for the GST launch, he said the midnight witnessed India's biggest tax reform since Independence.

"We have achieved the dream of 'one country, one tax' under the leadership of President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since the time Modiji has taken over, he has been introducing new things in every sector. "But I would like to tell the country that what happened last night is the biggest tax reform step taken since the time of Independence," he said.

At Dabolim airport, Shah was given a warm welcome by over 2,500 party workers. Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, BJP Goa unit chief Vinay Tendulkar, party's national joint general secretary Santoshji, Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik, South Goa Member of Parliament Narendra Sawaikar and other leaders were among those present.

During his visit, Shah would interact with the coalition partners, professionals and elected representatives affiliated with his party. From the airport, Shah was driven to Panaji, where he would address the party's elected representatives around 4.30 pm.

After that, he will address professionals including industrialists, hotel owners, chartered accountants and doctors at 6.30 pm.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the special ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament for the launch of 'Goods and Services Tax (GST)', in New Delhi on Saturday. The GST comes into effect on Saturday after the midnight. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today termed the GST as a 'good and simple tax' which will end harassment of traders and small businesses while integrating India into one market with one tax rate.

At a gala event to launch the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the historic Central Hall of Parliament, Modi said the indirect tax reform is a result of combined efforts of various political parties at different points of time.

GST, he said, is an example of cooperative federalism as the centre and states together thrashed out the new law with consensus.

Besides being a transparent and fair system that will end generation of black money and corruption, GST will promote new governance culture that will end harassment at the hand of tax officials.

Touching upon initial teething troubles that may be witnessed because of unification of more than a dozen central and state levies into one and switching over to a new online return filing system, Prime Minister said even eyes have to adjust for a couple of days when a sight corrective spectacles are worn.

Modi said GST will eliminate the compounding effects of multi-layered tax system.
Kochi: The trade and commerce sector in the state is apprehensive even as Finance Minister Dr. Thomas Isaac is beaming with confidence about the benefits accruing to the state on account of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) becoming effective from Saturday. The trade and commerce, particularly the lower end of the supply chain, feels a likely supply disruption in consumer goods in the next few days as most retailers are having the bare minimum of inventory levels.

Mr Giridhar Jayant of Fridge House, dealers in refrigerators and other white goods, told DC that it would take at least two weeks to establish a normal supply mechanism.

Mr Raja Sethunath, president of Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said traders in the state did not have a clear idea of the issues that may crop up with the implementation of GST. Everything looks fine in theory, but the practical difficulties will be clear only when we actually deal with the issue, he said. The small-scale traders would find it difficult to employ or avail of the services of a professional accountant to handle the filing of returns on a regular basis, he said.

A cross section of the merchants and traders is weighing the burden caused by the technology-driven taxation system while Dr. Isaac is banking on expected gains in tax following the implementation of the GST.

The tax authorities are confident of engineering a smooth transition to the new regime bringing a sea change in the tax system in the country with the focus of tax administration shifting to the destination of transaction from the earlier system of origin.

Mr Pullela Nageswara Rao, chief commissioner of central excise, customs and services tax, Kochi zone, told reporters that the department was fully geared for the rollout of the system. We have set up helplines and people with any difficulty can avail of the services, he said.

Apart from this, GST Seva Kendras have been set up in all commissionerates, division offices and ranges as a one-stop solution for tax payers, he added.

Automobile dealers in the state have a mixed feeling towards the GST while potential buyers hope that the prices of some vehicles may come down with the new tax system.





Mr Manoj Pathalath, manager of the Kozhikode-based APCO Motors, feels that the overall impact of the GST will be positive for the consumers. The cost of small cars is unlikely to change, but the SUV and luxury segment may see changes, he said. People looking for SUVs range of cars can go ahead as prices are expected to come down, he said.

He also ruled out any pre-GST discount sales. In the two-wheeler segment, vehicles above 500CC segment are likely to be more expensive as they come under a higher tax bracket. Mr P. Ratheesh, a dealer of Royal Enfield in Kozhikode, said Royal Enfield Classic 500 and other vehicles under that category will be expensive from Saturday onwards. The new pricing, however, will be known only after a couple of days.

Coir industry, a traditional sector in the state, is apprehensive of the five percent GST for coir products. Mr Sajan B. Nair, secretary-general, Federation of Indian Coir Exporters Association, feels that the five percent tax can be set off as input credit. We are told tax is effectively refundable. But there is no clarity on the delay in the process. If the taxes are levied at each point in the value chain and the exporter has to pay all this and wait for months or years for refund, that will put a huge burden on the cash flow. The industry will come to a standstill, he said. A major challenge faced by the industry in Kerala is the collection of husk. In GST regime realistic schemes should be worked out for collection of husks, he said.

Mr M.A. Yousuf Ali, UAE-based businessman and promoter of Lulu brand of retail chains, sees compliance as a challenge for implementing GST. Expressing confidence in the success of the system, he said the problems will ease over a period of time as the government has promised ample support to adapt to the new tax regime.
Hyderabad: With the Goods and Services Tax (GST) coming into force from July 1, industries will not get any tax exemptions from the state government under its industrial policy.

GST bans tax exemptions to industries and other sectors. Under GST no exemptions are permitted by state governments to any sector.

In the industrial policy, Telangana government has extended incentives and exemptions, including VAT to major, medium enterprises including from 2014 to 2019.

The State government has announced reimbursement of 75% net VAT/ CST or state Goods and Service tax (SGST) for medium enterprises and 50% to large scale enterprises for a period of 7 years.

After July 1, any new industry or any project, tax exemption given by the state government has to pay from its own revenue.

Already existing enterprises which are enjoying tax exemption benefit have to pay GST from July 1, Later, the state government will reimburse from its own funds.

Principal Secretary of Revenue (Commercial Taxes and Excise) G. Somesh Kumar said under GST, state governments are not allowed any tax exemption for any project or industry.

He said if any exemption is given, the state government has to pay from its own revenue.

Meanwhile, the finance officials said state government is spending about Rs 400 crore to Rs 500 crore per year under various incentives such as subsidy to power, investment subsidy.

In this, the VAT portion is about Rs 100 crore to Rs 150 crore. After GST arrives, all industries and others which are enjoying tax benefits have to pay GST and later have to get reimbursement from the state government.
They engaged IT professionals with expertise in accounting and chartered accountants to deal with the new GST regime.

Hyderabad: On Day 1 of GST only big retail chains, supermarkets, hotels and restaurants etc could roll out GST-compliant bills.

There were delays in the billing process and some products taken by consumers had to be returned with software not displaying GST rates. In some cases, the software displayed higher MRP rates than those printed on the product, which annoyed consumers.

However, consumers expressed happiness to see only tax on their bills in the GST regime against multiple taxes in the VAT regime. There was clear demarcation of tax revenue sharing between Centre and state government on GST bills in the ratio of 50:50. The earlier VAT bills were so confusing but GST bills are very clear with single tax. In VAT, they used to levy taxes on taxes but in GST, the tax is levied only once on the overall bill, said P. Bhavana, a consumer.

Traders said the billing turned most complicated with multiple tax slabs for different commodities. They engaged IT professionals with expertise in accounting and chartered accountants to deal with the new GST regime.

But majority of the kirana stores and others have not installed the online billing system to issue GST bills. Some of them which had an online billing system said they could not afford to hire technical and accounting experts to get their work done.

We cannot afford to pay Rs 20,000 salary per month to technical and accounting experts to comply with GST norms. We also need to do paper work to file online returns every month which only experts can do. This has only increased our operational expenditure, said P.Laxminarayana, a kirana shop owner in Ramanthapur. Confusion prevailed among grocery, garment and food outlets as many have not yet prepared for GST. Outlets say, the system would take a week to 10 days to compile and includes the goods and service tax. A few malls, have not included the revised tax slabs in their billing.

A large chunk of groceries stores, for instance Ratnadeep at Marredpally, had no GST slab in the bills, informed Sravan Reddy, a customer. Also, GST implementation on services sector seemed to be a big challenge. The ground check on the first day of GST, has revealed that establishments offering services like beauty salons, medical, photo developing laboratories, unregistered cab services, mechanics, repair stores, that make big money on bills, can evade the revised service tax slabs by seeking payment in cash and not online transactions.

Service sectors that have minimal or zero raw product exchange or no online transaction or no billing system in place, there is a high scope of evading tax.

While in the case of goods industries, the goods tax can be tracked through transportation, production, depots, physical inspection and more. But in the service sector, those registered and unregistered, will be difficult to track, if the service provider and service taker, decide to make payment in cash and not online.
New Delhi: As many as one crore traders and businessmen are expected to come under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a tax reform that will also help in economic integration, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said today.

The Minister of State for Civil Aviation said that multiple rates were needed under the GST in efforts to ensure price stability and revenue neutrality. The GST, a unified regime for indirect taxes, is to be rolled out at midnight tonight.

There are four tax slabs under the GST -- 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. Speaking at the conclave on the GST organised by television channel Aaj Tak, Sinha said the tax reform would make things easier.

Around one crore traders, businessmen and others are expected to come under the GST ambit. Currently, there are 80 lakh individuals and entities paying various central and state taxes, Sinha said here.

To a query on the Opposition deciding not to attend the GST launch function at midnight, Sinha, who had earlier served as the Minister of State for Finance, said the GST is not a political issue but a tax reform that would bring in revolution.

Sinha also said that tax collection has gone up post demonetisation while the cash to GDP ratio has come down to around 10 per cent from 12 per cent earlier. He was responding to a question on how much money has come into the system after demonetisation.
Mumbai: Karan Johar, the head of Bollywood's one of the most successful production houses Dharma Productions, is now proud parents to babies Yash and Roohi through surrogacy.

Talking about his children, the director-producer said, I am just blessed by their presence every morning. They are the finest Dharma Productions, literally and otherwise. I am playing (the role of) mother and father, I have to the play double role, so it's even more daunting for me.

While sharing his experience of being a father and a mother so far, Karan said that he does not wish to be like leading actresses of Bollywood, who turn paranoid once they become mothers. He said, I have decided that I am not going to be a hysterical, hyper parent because I see so many of them around me. And especially the leading actresses who become mothers, I think something happens to them, they become from leading actresses to paranoid parent. And I feel I don't want to be like them.

Karan, however, has found a partner-in-crime in young mother Mira Rajput- Shahid Kapoors wife. They have, in fact, decided on the kind of equation their little munchkins are going to share in the future.

I have a 23-year-old to call for parental advice and I feel amazing. Mira and I have chatted a lot. I have told her we have planned the best friendship of our children. Like my daughter and her daughter are going to be best friends and we are going to keep the option open with the son, Karan said.

Johar is the co-producer of Sidharth Malhotra- Sonakshi Sinha starrer film Ittefaq- It Happened One Night), which is a remake of 1969 thriller by the same name. The film is set to release on November 3.
Mumbai: In a rare feat, two of the Indian filmmakers have walked home with the Hollywood International CineFest 2017 awards.

Rakesh Kumar's 'After Ever After' won the Best Feature (English) category, while Bidyut Kotoky's 'Rainbow Fields' won the Best Feature (Foreign) category.

The festival, held at AMC Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles from June 24-25, received over 400 submissions and films from the U.S., the U.K., France, China, South Korea, Cambodia and Hong Kong besides India.

The official selection included World Premieres of 'Easy Money' and the North America Premieres of 'Before The Fall' (Cambodia's entry to 2017 Oscars) & Sam Heughan's 'Emulsion.'

"While very different from each other, there are some striking similarities between 'After Ever After' and ' Rainbow Fields'," said Zack Zublena, Festival Director.

"Both the films have a particular emotional appeal, both have a child as one of the leads and both used colours in a very cinematic way. We are very proud of these two film-makers whose art truly transcends geographical limits," Zublena added.

To decide the winner, the festival looked to the audience and ballots were given out at each film's screening and five audience members per screening were asked to rate the film on a scale of one to ten.

In Rakesh Kumar's debut feature, the protagonist, Nik Patel struggles to cope with the terminal illness of his nine-year-old daughter.

Based on his personal experiences, the film is a story of human endurance against insurmountable odds.
Several actors and industry personalities were verbal over the Cauvery water issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and the Tamil film fraternity went on a hunger strike a few years ago with big stars like Rajini, Kamal, and Vijay participating in it. All these were well within their comfort zone  in Chennai. But in a bold move, Tamil Nadu Film Producers Councils (TFPC) president and Nadigar Sangams secretary Vishal has aired the issues in Bengaluru at the audio launch of Kannada film Raghuveera.

Vishal started his speech in Tamil stating Udal mannukku Uyir Tamzhikku (The body for the soil and the soul for Tamil). He then said that he is proud to speak in Tamil and nobody can stop him. It is our right to ask for water and nobody can deny that. He said that since all are Indians, it is the duty of the Kannada people to protect the Tamils in the state and vice versa in Tamil Nadu. He added, If Kannada producers come to Tamil Nadu to make any film, we would extend all the support and help from TFPC. After the event, Vishal headed to Puneeth Rajkumars house to pay his respects to the latters late mother.
Washington DC: Turns out, even perfectly clean hands can lead to a superbug transmission among babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Drexel University researcher Neal D. Goldstein and his team decided to look at how the complex patient care environment of an NICU may lead to Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) transmission.

Focusing on hand hygiene, a top indicator of whether infections might spread in hospitals, the researchers examined transmission from baby to baby, with the hospital workers that come into contact with newborns standing as the link.

And as it turns out, even theoretically perfect compliance with hand hygiene won't completely eliminate the chance for MRSA to spread: the averaged risk reduction was 86 percent.

Goldstein said that the biggest implication is that hospitals should not just rely upon hand hygiene alone for protecting patients from becoming colonized and possibility infected with a difficult-to-treat organism. Rather, infection control is a multi-pronged strategy. It can incorporate early detection and measures to mitigate spread that include possible decolonization or using an antibiotic to treat a patient even before infection.

The study used MRSA, a difficult to treat pathogen that can be deadly for people with weak or underdeveloped immune systems, as its subject.

Goldstein discovered that even if health workers had absolutely perfect hand hygiene, just under one in every 100 contacts between a baby and a hospital worker could still result in a MRSA transmission. During the average nine day stay, an infant is likely to have about 250 contacts with NICU workers that carry risk for MRSA transmission. While each contact is an opportunity for hygiene compliance, it is also potential for hygienic practices to break down.

"This sheds light on just how complex the patient care environment of a NICU is," Goldstein said. "There are so many opportunities to potentially pass an organism between healthcare workers and their patients."

Although it seemed that MRSA could not be completely wiped out through perfect hand hygiene, the study did show that the better hand hygiene was, the more it cut down on the spread of MRSA. The effect never quite levelled off, but continued to get better as hygiene levels improved.

"We can follow hygiene procedures, use gowns or gloves as needed, keep a clean environment, not bring in possible fomites such as cell phones, watches, or jewellery, and be a watchdog for the hospital, requesting that healthcare workers do hand hygiene if we don't see it being done," Goldstein said. "Outside the hospital, patients and parents can be more vigilant in requesting and using antibiotics appropriately so as not to give rise to antimicrobial resistant organisms. We're all participants in infection control, not just the clinicians."

The study is published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
If anyone can remember the quiet little backwater that Bangalore was, right through the slumbering eighties when you could literally count the number of restaurants on the back of your hand and contrast it with the happening city that it's become today, a magnet for every world class chef, restaurateur, gastro-pubber and micro-brewer, it would be Ashok Sadhwani, the mover and shaker behind the pub culture that has given the city its much vaunted moniker of Pub City! Or Bar'galore As the countdown begins in the Central Business District on Friday night, and at least half the 3,000 pubs and bars close off the taps on the artisanal beer and mocktails - and of course, the hard stuff - or face the wrath of the courts for being in violation of the 500 metre from the highway rule, Aksheev Thakur revisits the good times.

Thirty years ago, the unexpected happened. Bangalore's first pub opened its doors for business in 1986. Owned by Mr Hari Khoday, Ramda on Church Street's target audience were the trickle of tourists that came into the deeply conservative city. But when overnight, Ramda became 'the' place to go to, with residents, young and old, clamouring to get in, long queues snaking all the way down Church Street, a young Ashok Sadhwani whose family owns the eponymous Sadhwanis on the junction, had that 'Aha' moment.

He knew from his frequent trips to London of pubs that seamlessly became part of the Londoner's daily life. From there to the launch of The Pub, on Church Street in September of 1986, was easy. And when a young Vijay Mallya of United Breweries came on the scene, wanting to launch his brand of draught beer, the bottle was literally, uncorked.

UB Kingfisher was looking to launch draught beer. So history was created with Mr Vijay Mallya showing a lot of interest in us opening a unit and finally, not only did he inaugurate our citys first pub, he also launched Kingfisher draught beer, says Mr Sadhwani, reminiscing about the good ol' days.

In the years that followed, the city that went to sleep at 9 pm, was buzzing, staying awake till well past midnight, earning the tag of pub capital that would be overridden only when the IT boom exploded from 2000 on.

The Pub's USP was simple, says Mr Sadhwani. At a time when the city had nowhere affordable where the young could hang out, The Pub became the place to go to. The only place where liquor was served until then were in fancy five star hotels. The Pub offered five star facilities and drinks at 1-star hotel prices.

Who doesn't want to spend their afternoons - and nights - guzzling beer with smoke in your eyes and the blues? Bengaluru did not have the plethora of small eatery outlets and bars that it has today. The pubs not only filled the gap, beer was made eminently affordable. We introduced the concept of serving draught beer in a glass. At six rupees a glass! Soon, it even drew the corporate, becoming a hub for corporate meetings. Unlike, the bars that existed which were dingy and dark and had a creepy ambience, we had bright lighting, and that's one of the many reasons it attracted a good crowd, says Sadhwani.

The Pub may have even re-invented the word 'night life.' Non-existent before, Mr Sadhwani says that unlike abroad where life begins at 9 pm, in India the night ended at 11 pm; until, bar owners pushed the government into extending opening hours till 1 am. Successive governments playing politics on timings and taxes notwithstanding, the citys pub culture became a huge attraction."

Changing with the times, and facing competition from new entrants like Pecos and Guzzler's Inn and of course, Downtown among others, The Pub went through a major revamp and was reborn as NASA in 1993, designed on the lines of an international space centre with a porthole for an entrance and a capsule for the main area, with the staff, all dressed as astronauts. In 1991, Mr Sadhwani set up The Pub World on Residency Road.

By midnight, Friday though, the sale of alcohol within 500 metres of the highway will be disallowed as per the Supreme Court ruling that goes into effect on the night of June 30. With nine highways criss-crossing the heart of the city, the Central Business District that includes MG Road, Brigade Road and Church Street will see at least 731 pubs stop serving the good stuff including Pecos, WYT and Hard Rock Cafe, as will pubs like T.O.I.T off Old Madras Road, and Social off Hosur Road, to name just a few.

Saddened and exasperated, Mr Sadhwani says, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) is working on the petition in order to save the livelihood of thousands of people once the ban is implemented.

If liquor shops are asked to stay away from the NH, why are other establishments not being asked to do the same thing, he asks. The only ray of sunshine? All the pubs, bars and wine outlets facing a drop in business have raised their glasses in unison against the ruling. Bottoms up, bar owners, says all of Bengaluru!
Hyderabad: A 24-year-old daily wage labourer who raped a five year old girl in Jubilee Hills was convicted on Friday.

The I Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge sentenced Dommathi to 10 years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on him.

Ravi, a resident of Karmikanagar in Jubilee Hills, raped a five-year old girl, who was the daughter of his neighbour. Police said that he took her into his house and raped her when her parents were away.

A case of rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was registered against him on September 27, 2013. He was arrested and remanded. During the trial, the magistrate after hearing arguments and verifying the evidence produced, found Domathi guilty and convicted him.
The cops recovered 100 grams of gold and remanded them. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: Vikarabad police busted an interstate chain snatching racket and arrested three persons involved in snatchings in the district and in Maharashtra.

The gang used to rob jewellery and sell them in Maharashtra at low prices.

Vikarabad SP T. Annapurna said this is the first time a chain snatching gang was arrested in the district.

The suspects are kingpin Mohammed Javeed and receivers Jahangir Sheikh and Poddar Vishwambhar. Another suspect Rasheed Patel is absconding.

The SP said Javeed runs a tea stall in Chandrayanagutta. He was also involved in gudumba selling, bike thefts and other crimes.

Javeed was involved in 34 bike thefts. Sixteen of them were in Chandrayanagutta, 13 in Kacheguda, three in Kalapather and two in Shahlibanda. He was arrested by the Hyderabad police and detained under the PD Act in March 2016, Ms Annapurna said.

After coming out from prison in April 2016 he started snatching gold chains. From April 2016 to June 2017 he committed 18 chain snatchings in Hyderabad, Sangareddy and Vikarabad districts, the SP added.

Jahangir Sheikh and Vishambhar hailing from Maharashtra purchased the stolen jewellery from Javeed.

On Friday, while Mominpet police were conducting vehicle checks they found Javeed and Rasheed moving suspiciously on a bike.

When cops asked them for documents Rasheed ran away and police nabbed Javeed. Police found that there were 14 NBWs pending against him in Hyderabad.

The cops recovered 100 grams of gold and remanded them.
Mumbai: The first child to ever be born on board an Indian airline has been named Jetson by his mother, who flew back to Kochi with her new born on Sunday. The baby was born on board the Jet Airways Dammam-Kochi flight on June 18 and rushed to Holy Spirit hospital in the city after the aircraft was diverted to Mumbai.

The 29-year-old Mrs C. Jose and her baby, who weighed 2kg at the time of birth, were discharged on Sunday and flew back to their hometown. Expressing her gratitude to the crew members who were present at the airport to see her off, Mrs Jose believes her son is special and was delivered safely only because of the care and prompt action of the onboard crew and so decided to name him Jetson.

Recalling the incident, one of the passengers on the same flight, said that within two hours of being airborne, the pregnant passenger started complaining of uneasiness and was unable to sit. She alerted the crew who swung into action and made an announcement for a doctor to attend to the emergency. Only a paramedic, who was on board came forward to help and the baby was delivered near a washroom, said the passenger. The baby was delivered within six to eight minutes.

The crew on board the flight, included two males and three females, was headed by in-flight supervisor Mohammad Taj Hayat. The other members of the crew included Tejas Chavan, Catherine Lepcha, Sushmita, David, Isha Jayakar and Deborah Tavares were all freshers and have experience of less than a year in the airline. They were felicitated by the airline for their care and prompt action.

After the pilot requested a medical emergency landing from the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC), it landed within 30 minutes. Such type of medical emergencies need extreme alertness and a lot of team effort to ensure the passenger is given best possible treatment. Co-ordination between the pilot, the ground staff, the airline staff and medical authorities is very important, said an aviation expert.

According to rules, any women who is more than 30 weeks pregnant needs a permission letter from her doctors, stating that she is eligible to fly. Once the pregnancy is more than 35 weeks, women are not allowed to fly in the international sector.
Provision stores will continue to sell consumer goods at the old MRP rates printed on the products until the existing stocks get exhausted.

Hyderabad: You can expect general provisions at your neighbourhood kirana store to cost the same on Saturday when the new Goods and Services Tax makes its debut.

Provision stores will continue to sell consumer goods at the old MRP rates printed on the products until the existing stocks get exhausted.

Food items and groceries have been placed in the lowest tax slab of 0 to 5 per cent, which should result in significant decrease in the price, but there will be no change in pricing at least till August-end.

This is because the government has exempted traders from filing online returns for July and August so that they have time to get ready for the new tax system.

Supermarkets and shopping malls are, however, prepared and will charge bills as per the new GST tax rates from July 1.

Major retail chains have advertised GST Muhurat Shopping on day one of the GST launch with discounts ranging from two to 22 per cent.

Electronics showrooms have announced GST clearance sales offering up to 50 per cent off on TVs, mobiles, laptops, air conditioners etc.

The distributor of a major FMCG company said, Consumer goods companies are not for having two price tags of pre-GST and post-GST. They have inventories on which old MRP rates are already printed, which will last for at least three to six weeks. Moreover, they are not sure of the exact impact of GST on the raw materials they purchase. So they want to wait till mid-August to assess the exact impact and revise MRP rates and supply new stocks from September.

Secretary of commercial taxes Somesh Kumar said, Our initial focus will be on establishing and streamlining the GST system. The Centre too has given relaxation for traders to file online returns for two months. If we suddenly tighten the norms during the transition period, it may lead to unnecessary trouble. We will give time for traders to adapt to the GST regime. But from September, the GST norms will be tightened and any deviation will not be accepted.
Rampur/Meerut: Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has been booked for sedition for his alleged derogatory comments against the Army, even as right-wing bodies offered monetary rewards for his head and tongue.

FIRs were registered against Khan at Chandpur and Civil Lines police stations. While in Meerut, local Bajrang Dal leaders on Saturday filed a complaint against the controversial former Uttar Pradesh minister.

An FIR was registered against Khan under IPC sections 124 A (sedition), 131 (abetting mutiny) and 505 (public mischief) at Chandpur police station on Friday, Station Officer Ajay Kumar Singh told media.

The case was registered following a complaint by VHP leader Anil Pandey.

"The second FIR was registered at Civil Lines police station in Rampur on a complaint filed by Akash Saxena, president of District Industries Association and son of former

BJP minister Shiv Bahadur Saxena," Rampur station incharge Rajesh Kumar Solanki said.

The SP leader had kicked up a row recently with his comments that "excesses by security forces had led women in some places chopping off the private parts of Army men."

Meanwhile, VHP's district secretary in Shahajahanpur, Rajesh Kumar Awasthi offered a cash reward of Rs 50 lakh to one who would severe the tongue of the SP leader and present it to him.

Goraksha chief Mukesh Patel termed Khan a "terrorist" and offered Rs 51 lakh to the person who will bring "Khan's head".

Even as the SP leader was cornered, his supporters lodged a complaint against saffronites in Ganj police station in Rampur for issuing such threatening rewards against their leader, which they termed as "rude and uncivilised."

UP minister Buldev Singh Aulakh said the state government has taken cognisance of Khan's remarks and action will be taken soon.

"Azam has lost his mind. His remarks amount to lowering the morale of army personnel which is an insult to the entire country as well," he said in Rampur.
Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday asked the state government to submit a fresh affidavit in the case connected with the appointment of ADGP Tomin J. Thachankary at the police headquarters. The court stated that it was not fully satisfied with the affidavit filed by the government in the case. The officer concerned has been facing a prosecution in the Muvattupuzha Vigilance court for amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Although the Vigilance special court had filed a chargesheet against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act and served several notices asking him to appear before the court, he failed to do so and no charge could be framed by the court.

A report by the then Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau director recommending suspension of Mr Thachankary from service has also been pending.

The petition filed by Jose Thomas of Alappuzha challenging the appointment of Mr Thachankary has also pointed out that the government has been keeping silent on the charges that the officer then working as the transport commissioner had directed the Palakkad RTO to collect Rs 1 lakh each from officers under him. He was also accused of collecting Rs 3 lakh from the said RTO in May 2016. The petitioner stated that despite these allegations and cases, the government had promoted Mr Thachankary and given him charge of the sensitive T-section. The court observed that the position could be used to interfere with the investigation of the case. The petitioner also produced reports in the media regarding the missing of 20 files relating to Mr Thachankary from the T-section of the police headquarters.
India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty of Jadhav. (Photo: File)

New Delhi/Islamabad: India, on Saturday again asked Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court as the two countries exchanged a list of prisoners lodged in each other's jails.

According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.

"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement in Delhi.

Jadhav was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage activities. India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.

Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.

In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".

The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access which was signed on May 21, 2008. As per the pact, lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said.

It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," it said.

The Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
The search operation turned into an encounter after the militants opened fire on security forces. (Photo: DC/H U Naqash)

Srinagar: Top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari and another militant Azad Malik were killed on Saturday in a fire fight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's southern Anantnag district.

During the fire fight which erupted in Anantnag's Brenti, Dialgam village, about 65-km from here, shortly after dawn following a cordon-and-search operations was launched by the security forces were also killed.

The police said that all the 17 civilians who were trapped in cluster of residential house where the militants took up positions were earlier "rescued."

Bashir Lashkari, allegedly involved in the killing of six policemen in the districts Acchabal area on June 16, was among the two gunmen trapped in a private house at Brenti. Earlier reports had put the number of militants present in the house at four.

The security forces including Army, the J&K Polices counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the CRPF laid siege to the village following receiving information about the presence of militants, the police sources said.

The security forces had tightened the noose around Bashir Lashkari after the killing of six policemen including Station House Officer Feroz Ahmed Dar in an ambush at Tajwah, Acchabal.

The deadly attack at a vehicle in which the policemen were travelling through the area on the evening of June 16 had come hours after the security forces had eliminated the LeTs district commander Junaid Matto along with another militant in a fire fight in neighbouring Arwani area. The security forces officials had termed the killing of policemen a "revenge act" and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice soon.

During Saturdays cordon-and-search operation by the security forces a fire fight erupted between the two sides.

A 21-year-old local youth identified as Shadaab Ahmed, a resident of neighbouring Kulgam, was critically injured in the security forces action against surging crowds which while chanting pro-freedom slogans relocated to the encounter site in an attempt to help the holed up militants to escape.

Ahmed was rushed to Srinagars Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Over a dozen people were injured in the clashes which were going on as reports last came in. According to reports, three protesters sustained bullet and two others pellet wounds whereas the rest were injured in teargas shelling and cane-charge by the security forces.

Earlier a 44-year-old woman resident Tahira was critically injured after she was caught in the crossfire between the militants and the security forces. She was rushed to Anantnags district hospital where she succumbed, the police sources said.

The locals had alleged that the security forces were using some families as human shield and that they were not allowing the one in whose house the militants have been holed up to leave.

But the police officials strongly denied it and said that it were actually the militants who were using the civilians as human shield.

"All the 17 civilians who were trapped inside the premises where terrorists have been holed up have been rescued," said a security force official. He added that the operation against the militants was suspended briefly to enable the civilians to come out of the houses. "It has been resumed now," he said.

The authorities have snapped mobile internet services in Anantnag whereas strict security restrictions are being enforced in a 3-km radius area of the encounter site. The officials said that the mobile internet services were withdrawn to prevent the spreading of rumours by anti social elements through social media. The roads to Brenti-Dialgam have been sealed by the security forces, reports said.

Curfew-like restrictions are being enforced also in central Srinagar on the second consecutive day as a precautionary measure whereas life elsewhere in the Valley has been disrupted following a call by a traders body against the impending implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

A statement issued by the police here in the evening said that the second militant who was killed during the encounter was a Pakistani national Abu Maz.

The statement confirmed that Shadaab was among five civilians injured in the security forces' action against a stone-pelting crowd near the encounter site and that he died later.
President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi press buttons for the launch of 'Goods and Services Tax (GST)' at midnight, at the special ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Terming the Goods and Service Tax (GST) a 'good and simple tax', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said it will put an end to harassment of honest traders and small businesses while integrating country into one market with one tax.

At a gala event to launch the GST at the historic Central Hall of Parliament, the Prime Minister said the new tax is simple and transparent and would end corruption and check black money.

The GST will eliminate 500 types of taxes and there will be one tax from Ganganagar to Itanagar and Leh to Lakshadweep, he said, adding it is a catalyst which will remove trade imbalance and promote exports.

"GST is a simple, transparent system which prevents generation of black money and curbs corruption. The system gives opportunity to honesty and people who do honest business," he said, terming GST as an economic integrator just like the integration of the nation that Sardar Vallabhai Patel had done after the independence.

Acknowledging that there may be some initial hiccups, the Prime Minister said even an eye takes time to adjust to sight corrective spectacles. He went on to urge people not to pay attention to rumours and not create apprehensions about the new tax.

Modi said that the GST is just not a tax reform but an important economic reform. "The law says that GST stands for Goods and Services Tax but according to me it stands for good and simple tax," he added.

The tax is good because it will eliminate tax on tax and simple because there will be just one rate and one system for the entire country, he said, adding even a student of 10th standard can use technology to file GST returns.

Modi said GST is an effort of successive political parties and an example of cooperative federalism where centre and states have worked as equals in deciding on the new system and the tax rate.

The GST is a reflection of team India and the Central Hall is the most appropriate place for launch of the new tax regime as Constituent assembly met here and also Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the Independence Day speech, he said.

The new tax regime will benefit poor by reducing cost and saving money by removing barriers like checkposts between states, he said, asking traders to pass on the benefit of reduced taxes to consumers.

Observing the GST Council met for 18 times on Saturday, he said that interestingly there are 18 chapters in Gita, the holy book of Hindus.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who recently completed 100 days in office, described Triple Talaq as a social problem and it would be good if Muslim society resolves it on its own.

"Triple Talaq is a social problem, it would be good if Muslim society itself resolves it," Adityanath said in an interview with ZEE CEO Jagdish Chandra.

He also said that the gap in male - female sex ratio has to be reduced. Muslim women have to come forward for their rights, he added.

He further said that there were some recommendations of the Central Waqf Board which have to be, are being implemented.

"There were some recommendations of the Central Waqf Board which were implemented," he said.

Adityanath said he was satisfied with the work done by his government in the first 100 days.

He said his government would continue to work for all sections of society without discrimination.

"We are satisfied with the work we have done in the first 100 days of our government, but 100 days is little for change or development in any state. We want to assure people that the government has started initiatives to take Uttar Pradesh forward on path of development," Adityanath said.

He accepted Uttar Pradesh was ravaged by nepotism and casteism and expressed the hope that his government would change the dynamics in the state.

He praised for government's initiatives to start the anti-Romeo squads for better women security and for waiving off farmers loans as one of significance.

He said around 86 lakh farmers have benefited with the waiver.

"Waving off farmer loans will not affect developmental works in the state. Loans worth Rs. 22,000 crore were waived off for sugarcane farmers. It's our aim to protect farmers. We're buying five times more wheat from them," he said.

Pledging to achieve open defecation free status in the state, he said that every household in the state would have a toilet by 2018.

Adityanath further said that his government has asked the Centre to provide 24-hour power supply all villages in the state.

The 44-year-old chief minister had taken oath with two deputies and 44 other ministers on March 19 after the BJP won 325 out of 403 state assembly seats.
Coimbatore: All dream for a big package job after the completion of their post graduation, but a 25-year-old student from Coimbatore, belonging to a poor family, is getting all the limelight for setting an example to his peers.

A postgraduate student of Tamil literature, this boy ride an auto-rickshaw to fund his M.Phil course.

What makes him stand out from the rest?

The Tamil literature postgraduate student offers free rides to pregnant women and school children.

The boy completed his graduation and post graduation in Tamil literature with the help of a government scholarship.

With the aim of becoming a scholar of the language, he purchased a second hand auto with the help of his friend and learnt to drive.
The projects exempted from these provisions include Dindi project, Sitarama lift irrigation project, Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation scheme, Pranahita project and Kaleshwaram project.

Hyderabad: The state government on Friday issued orders exempting five major irrigation projects from the application of the provisions of Chapter II and III of the Centre's Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

The exemptions were made as per the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Telangana Amendment) Act, 2016 passed by the TS Legislature in April this year.

The irrigation projects were exempted from the provisions of social impact assessment and special provision to safeguard food security.

The projects exempted from these provisions include Dindi project, Sitarama lift irrigation project, Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation scheme, Pranahita project and Kaleshwaram project.

With this, there will be no need for TS government to prepare and conduct public hearing and publication of social impact assessment study.
Hyderabad: The Telangana government has stayed the hike in cinema ticket prices across the state, which it had increased substantially in orders issued on June 23.

Not surprisingly, the move had come in for sharp criticism from several quarters. On Friday, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao directed officials to put the order in cold storage until the government assesses the impact of the new Goods and Services Tax on the film industry.

Minister for cinematography, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, said, The orders have been kept in abeyance following the directions given by the Chief Minister. We will hold a meeting with representatives of the film industry and exhibitors to discuss the quantum of the hike. Since GST is coming into force from July 1, we will assess the exact impact of the new tax on the movie business and revise the ticket rates accordingly.

The Chief Minister returned to the city on Thursday night after a 10 day stay in New Delhi, and reviewed the ticket price issue with officials on Friday.
President Pranab Mukherjee addressing the audience after the release of commemorative publication of National Herald at a function in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned violence in the name of gau raksha, President Pranab Mukherjee spoke out on the need to quell the vigilantism that has been on the rise in the last few weeks.

Mr Mukherjee said that the country needed to fight forces of darkness. When mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough? I am not talking of vigilantism, I am talking of (if we) are vigilant enough, proactively, to save the basic tenets of our country.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi attacked the Centre, saying, If we do not speak up, our silence would be taken as consent. Mob violence has become order of the day.

Priyanka Gandhi also condemned the lynching staying, I am furious, what I see on TV and on the internet makes my blood boil. Infact this should make every Indians blood boil.
Closed shops of Textile market in Chennai during the third day of the traders' protest against the Goods and Services Tax (GST). (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: After the historic launch of GST, protests erupted in many parts of the country against the new tax regime. Around 1,100 cinema owners across Tamil Nadu called for an indefinite strike from Monday.

In Kashmir, most of the shops and other business establishments were shut on Saturday to protest against GST in the state, prompting authorities to impose restrictions on the assembly of people in parts of Srinagar as a precautionary measure.

Majority of cloth shops in Gujarat remained shut while those open said they did not carry out any transaction.

BJP chief Amit Shah, however, said that the new tax regime would accelerate the country's economic growth and end the inspector raj.

The GST was formally launched in Delhi in at midnight in Parliament.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley wondered why certain traders are complaining about the GST rates when the ultimate burden of taxation will fall on consumers. He said the consumers are not complaining about (GST) because the government has kept the rates at reasonable levels.

Meanwhile the government claimed that sugar supplies and prices in the retail and wholesale markets will not be affected due to teething problems that traders may face.

Slamming the Modi government over the GST roll out, senior Trinamul leader Partha Chatterjee said GST will prove to be a bane for lakhs of small traders nation-wide.

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram too hit out at the Centre saying the GST has many defects and its implications will be known only in due course.
The Peace Now and Forever campaign is organised by Confederation of Voluntary Organisation (COVA) and other organisation, where signatures from over 200 cities and towns in Pakistan and India would be collected and handed over to the respective governments.

Hyderabad: For three consecutive days, ceasefire at the border was violated, resulting in the death of one Indian jawan and a civilian. A signature campaign was launched in the city on Saturday with the people of Hyderabad coming together and demanding peace between the two countries.

Speaking at the launch of a signature campaign, Peace Now and Forever, former Chief of Naval staff and war veteran, Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas said another war would bring nothing positive for both countries. We must become a collective and resist the war mongering, said Admiral Ramdas.

He also spoke of how both countries were in-vesting more on defence than on public governance. The war will benefit only the global arms dealers, observed Admiral Ramdas.

According to MHA, 37 were killed last year in 437 ceasefire violations between the two countries. The Peace Now and Forever campaign is organised by Confederation of Voluntary Organisation (COVA) and other organisation, where signatures from over 200 cities and towns in Pakistan and India would be collected and handed over to the respective governments.
Kashmiri villagers shout slogans as they wait for the body of Bashir Lashkari (insert), a local rebel commander killed in a gun battle, in his native village of Souf, about 75 Kilometers south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. (Photo: AP)

Srinagar: Top Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari and another militant Azad Ahmed Malik were killed on Saturday in a fire fight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmirs southern Anantnag district.

The police said that all the 17 civilians who were trapped in a cluster of residential houses in the area were rescued. These civilians included a family in whose house the militants took up positions. The officials alleged that the civilians were being used as human shields by the holed up militants.

Bashir Ahmed Wani alias Bashir Lashkari, allegedly involved in the killing of six policemen in the districts Acchabal area on June 16, was among the two gunmen trapped in a two-storey house at Brenti. Earlier reports had put the number of militants present in the house at four.

The security forces including Army, the J&K Polices counterinsurgency Special Operations Group and the CRPF laid siege to the village after receiving information about the presence of Lashkari and his accomplices, the police sources said.

The security forces had tightened the noose around Lashkari after the killing of six policemen including station house officer Feroz Ahmed Dar in an ambush at Tajwah, Acchabal. He carried a bounty of `1 million on his head.

The deadly attack at a police vehicle in which the policemen were travelling through the area on the evening of June 16 had come hours after the security forces had eliminated the LeTs district commander Junaid Matto along with another militant in a fire fight in neighbouring Arwani area.

The security forces officials had termed the killing of policemen a revenge act and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice soon.

As per the police records, Bashir Lashkari who was known in the LeT as Abu Akasha (father of spider) had crossed over to Pakistan for receiving arms training in 1999. He got stuck in PoK and could return only in 2012 after seizing Surrender and Rehabilitation policy of the J&K government.

He was released in 2014 but was recycled into militancy in October 2015.

He soon became the district (Anantnag) commander of the LeT and then its divisional commander. Besides the June 16 attack on the policemen, he was involved in a number of incidents, said the police terming his killing a major success.
Despite GST that left all shopping hubs deserted, Ranganathan Street at T. Nagar remains a crowd-puller as goods are still priced low due to non-issue of bills (Photo: DC)

Chennai/Coimbatore: The weekend was dampened for Chennaiites as the capital city was completely under the siege of Goods and Services Tax (GST), which came into force on Saturday.

Public visiting supermarkets and restaurants came out with huge bills as CGST and SGST were added to each and every item. Restaurant bills and revised menu cards with increased rates also went viral with social media. When DC visited commercial hubs like T Nagar, Purasawalkam and Parrys, bustling shopping hubs, jewellery shops and eateries were deserted confirming the decrease in footfall.



Restaurants and eateries

With the tax levied on air-conditioned restaurants having escalated to 18 percent, non-AC restaurants to 12 per cent and petty eateries with an annual income of Rs 20 to Rs 75 lakh to 5 per cent, the footfall was considerably low on Saturday, rued hoteliers.

On a weekend, usually 150-200 people have breakfast here. On Saturday only 92 people had tiffin and almost all of them complained about the rise in prices. Idly, which is the cheapest item in the menu now costs Rs 42 as opposed to the previous amount of Rs 35, said branch manager of A2B - T Nagar.

Most of the petty hotels that do not issue bills in the city were shut down. With 5 per cent GST imposed on the eateries, hoteliers are also working on a change in the menu card.



Departmental stores and supermarkets

With different slabs for pulses, jam, butter and other goods, the bill raised in supermarkets was more elaborate to help the public understand the new tax system. Initially, a customer would put some unwanted items or excess goods in his cart. But the customers purchase behaviour was different due to GST. Most of them have limited the items and this will affect our daily revenue, said V. Praveen, VS Mart, a supermarket in Nungambakkam.

However, the provision stores, that deliver provisions without bills functioned normally. GST is a major blow to us and we do not know the repercussions, said Mohammed Khan, a shopkeeper at Nanganallur.



Jewellery shops and shopping malls

Jewellery shops that worked past midnight on Friday remained deserted on Saturday with minimal shoppers. Under GST, jewellery attracts 3 per cent tax from the previous slab of 2.5 per cent and this makes a difference in the final bill.

As anticipated the footfall in all the showrooms including our branch reduced on the first day of GST implementation, opined a branch manager with GRT Jewellers in South Chennai.

Shopping malls also lacked the weekend josh despite the pre-GST and post GST offers. There were stores working through manual billings as computers were not configured with the new tax system.

Website crashes

On the day one of the implementation of Goods and Service tax, the traders in the city experienced problems in downloading the excel template from the websites. As there is a heavy traffic due to mounting number of traders getting registered for GST, the GST Network (GSTN) and GST websites had crashed.

Federation of Tamil Nadu Traders AssociationPresident A.M. Vikrama Raja told Deccan Chronicle, Many of us could not download the excel template as the website was either very slow or non functional. We are using manual bills.

Those registered for GST are required to download Excel template from the websites to upload sales data on to the GST portal. Over 65 lakh traders have registered for GST so far across the country and there is still a backlog of nearly 20 lakh.

Textile Industries not so happy

M. Senthilkumar, Chairman, The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) has said the implementation of GST, all indirect taxes would be merged. Tamil Nadu accounts for 1/3rd of the nations textile business and that state governments, especially the TN government should come forward and remove certain taxes and levies that are not subsumed in GST like Market Committee Fee and various other municipal taxes.

SIMA Chairman, however, is disappointed for not considering the genuine demand of reducing 18% GST on (man-made fibres) MMF and blended spun yarn to 12% which will avoid huge inverted duty accumulation at grey fabric stage.

The decision of considering any rate revision only after three months would seriously affect the synthetic spinning and grey fabric manufacturing sectors.

The GST Council had presumed that the total duty levied on MMF and its blended spun yarn was 17.5% with 12.5% Central excise and 5% VAT which is true only for filament yarn. In the case MMF spun yarn over 97% sales was inter-State with 2% CST and almost all the yarn sale was at zero rate optional route with regard to central excise.

He has stated that the inverted duty would steeply increase the fabric price and make Indian textile uncompetitive as the imports would loom large with a reduction of duty on imports, to the tune of 12%.
An illuminated Parliament ahead of midinight launch of 'Goods and Services Tax (GST)' in New Delhi on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

Hyderabad: The rollout of GST on Saturday was marred by technical glitches in the GST Network (GSTN) on Day-1, the IT infrastructure and service backbone of the new tax regime which enables capture, processing and exchange of data between Centre, States, RBI and tax officials.

The websites of GST Network (GSTN) and GST crashed due to heavy traffic. All those who registered for GST were required to download Excel template from these websites and upload sales data on the GST portal.

However, traders and businesses faced a tough time while downloading Excel sheets as websites crashed. Over 65 lakh traders have registered for GST so far across the country and there is still a backlog of nearly 20 lakh.

The websites failed to cater to the huge rush on Day-1 as a large number of traders tried but couldnt log on to the websites to download data and to gather information.

In fact traders tried to log on to the websites multiple times, in vain. The officials of state government, especially in the finance, commercial taxes departments too tried to log on to GSTN to track the transactions on Day-1. The websites encountered frequent problems due to heavy traffic. However, the technical glitch was rectified by evening. With the rollout of GST from Saturday, there was also a huge rush to register for GST from traders who failed to engage in registration so far.

In TS alone, there is still a backlog of nearly 14 per cent amounting to nearly 65,000 traders, while it is nearly 20 lakh across the country.

With GSTN being the only platform to register for GST, it witnessed a huge rush on Day-1. The GSTN website has been facing technical problems since April, unable to cope with the huge demand. The registration window was closed for some days in May and June and recently opened again on June 25. However, with the rollout of GST on July 1, it witnessed unprecedented rush from lakhs of traders across the country who registered for GST and tried to log on to the website to download Excel sheets and seek other details, said an official of the finance department.

The state government too interlinked treasuries and commercial taxes department with RBI and GSTN to track the transactions on a day-to-day basis.
Chennai: Incidents of mobile phone snatching in and around Chennai touched a new alarming high on Saturday when A 61-year-old Japanese national working as a resident director of a private firm in Sipcot industrial estate in Irungattukottai near Chennai was hacked by a duo on a bike to rob his iPhone mobile.

The victim was on a walk inside the Sipcot estate when the incident happened.

The victim, Kuwaoka, working with Japanese joint venture firm Sankar JP Sealing Technology private Ltd, who suffered a deep cut injury on his hand, has been admitted to a private hospital.

Sriperumbadur police registered a case and started the hunt for the assailants. We are looking into the incident of mobile phone snatching, said Santhosh Hadimani, superintendent of police, Kancheepuram, when contacted.

Kuwaoka who is under medical care told his colleagues that he was followed by the assailants for some distance before he was attacked.

He noticed a weapon in their hands when the bike reached near him and even tried to run from the scene when he was attacked. He tried to block the attack aimed at his head and suffered deep cut injury on his hand, said Jaishankar Unnithan, director of the same firm, when this newspaper contacted him.

After Kuwaoka fell on the ground, the duo kicked and hit him on his head before taking away his mobile phone and speeding away on their bike. Kuwaoka has been in Chennai for the last one year and was mainly looking after sales and marketing duties of the firm.
Around 300 Chennaiites gather at Valluvar Kottam on Saturday to protest against the increasing cases of mob violence and lynching in the country. (Photo: DC)

Chennai: Calling upon the government and citizens to break silence on the culture of mob violence and lynching by cow vigilantes, more than 300 Chennaiites gathered at Valluvar Kottam on Saturday to protest against the issue.

Having placards that read: Break the Silence, Coward Regime and No more violence among others, they protested against the victimisation of Dalits and Muslims.

The nation-wide #Notinmyname protests, as they are called, are triggered by the latest case of lynching where 16-year-old Hafiz Junaid was publicly murdered in a crowded train when he was returning after Ramzan shopping.

The state has to act on the issue and provide public with a right to choice of food. It is imagined illegality as there is fear and prejudice here, said 70-year-old Tara Murali, one of the protesters.

The organisers said that silence on the issue will usher an authoritarian rule with its embedded patriarchy. Also, the Indian Constitution views the act of encroaching on human rights as crime against the legal body.

Dalits are the worst affected as the Muslim community know how to defend themselves as they have been facing hassles right from Independence. Lately, even Christians are being victimised. In a country where different social groups and religions exist, democratic values need to be upheld, Mohammad Ibrahim, an agitator said.

The campaign asked the governments in power to condemn those indulged in vigilante acts of violence and lynching, a legal and punitive action against those going against law and democratically confront the politics of hatred.
Belagavi: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah got personal in his attacks against BJP leaders, D.V. Sadananda Gowda, B.S. Yeddyurappa, and K.S. Eshwarappa, while lambasting them on Friday on the issue of concern for Dalits families, and breaking bread with them in their houses.

Addressing a rally of Congress workers at Athani, Mr Siddaramaiah, who so far dubbed the visit of BJP leaders to homes of Dalits as a gimmick, said Mr Yeddyurappa is enacting a drama by sharing a meal with members of Dalit families. If he wants to follow the principles of saint-reformer Basavanna and really show concern for problems faced by Dalits, he should marry his children into Dalit families, and accused the state BJP president with playing the Dalit card on the eve of next years elections to the Legislative Assembly. How come Mr Yeddyurappa did not show any concern for Dalits over the last four years but woke up to meet them for their votes. The gap between Dalits and those belonging to upper castes cannot be bridged by sharing a meal but through marriage. Dalits, however, are wiser and could not be taken for a ride by these leaders, he added.

Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, K C Venugopal, too, trained his guns on BJP leaders, posing a challenge to them to impress upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi the need to waive farm loans released by public sector banks. All BJP leaders, including Union ministers Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu, were resorting to double standards on the issue of waiver of farm loans, he added.

Mr Venugopal queried why Mr Yeddyurappa was visiting homes of Dalits now and not when he was the Chief Minister. He is visiting them and eating in their homes because elections are only ten months away, he added.

Mr Siddaramaiah also attacked Mr Modi on the issue of retrieving black money from abroad. He said of Rs 62,000 crores released by public sector banks, the state government was prepared to pay Rs 20,000 crores provided the Union government agreed to write off Rs 62,000 crores.

Rubbishing claims of BJP leaders about early Assembly in Karnataka, Mr Siddaramaiah said his party was voted to power by people to rule for five complete years, and that the government would complete its term.

Earlier, launching Basaveshwar lift irrigation project in Athani, Mr Siddaramaiah said the project which cost Rs 1300 crores would help irrigate 68,000 acres in several parts of Athani region. The irrigation project would benefit people living in 22 villages around Athani and Kagwad.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami shakes hands with the NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind who was in the city on Saturday to seek the support of the ruling AIADMK and other parties for his candidature. Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan also seen. (Photo: DC)

Chennai: NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind went around the city on Saturday seeking the support of AIADMK groups and other parties.

While the AIADMK (Amma) group under Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami including the T. T. V. Dhinakaran supporters pledged their support to Mr Kovind, the AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma group led by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam extended unconditional support to him.

Mr Kovind who was on a whistle stop tour first met Puducherry legislators and the lone Lok Sabha member from the Union Territory, who assured support for his candidature. All India N R Congress chief N. Rangasamy and his party legislators met Kovind at a hotel here. Puducherrys lone Lok Sabha MP R. Radhakrishnan, who belongs to the main opposition party in the Assembly (AINRC), was also present.

Also, BJPs lone legislator from Kerala and veteran party leader O. Rajagopal took part in the meeting to garner support for Kovind, 71, who arrived here this morning from New Delhi as part of his nation-wide campaign. He was accorded a warm reception by Tamil Nadu BJP leaders under Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan at the airport here. He later drove to a city hotel where he met the legislators.

The NDA Presidential nominee met Mr Panneerselvam and his supporters and canvassed for votes. Mr Panneerselvam presented Mr. Kovind a bouquet and shawl and welcomed him.

Later, talking to reporters Mr Panneerselvam said his party MPs and legislators have unanimously agreed to support the candidature of Mr Ram Nath Kovind for the top constitutional post. "We extend our unconditional support to the NDA's Presidential candidate," Mr Panneerselvam declared.

At the Kalaivanar auditorium here in the evening, Chief Minister K Palaniswami, who is the AIADMK headquarters secretary, received the Presidential candidate with a bouquet and a shawl. About 122 legislators who had voted for Mr. Palaniswami during the trust vote and 31 MPs were present on the occasion.

"He thanked us for taking the decision to support him. The Presidential candidate also expressed that he was sad in the passing away of late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who rose to national stature," Cooperation Minister Sellur K. Raju said.
Is gau rakshak violence, meaning the killing of Indians over beef, a problem in India? If so, what can be done to solve it?

The non-profit data journalism website, IndiaSpend, has reported that 97 per cent of gau raksha violence has happened after Narendra Modis government came to power. Once the Union and state governments run by the BJP in Maharashtra, Haryana and other states began to push for a beef ban, the murders started. The facts are quite clear and to illustrate them, lets have a look just at the last few weeks and what has happened across India.

June 29, Jharkhand: Alimuddin Ansari, a trader, was killed after being assaulted by a mob in Ramgarh, near Ranchi. This happened hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he opposed violence.

June 27, Jharkhand: Usman Ansari, a dairy farmer, was beaten up by a mob of about 100 people and part of his house set on fire, reportedly after a dead cow was seen outside his house. Police officials told journalists that the attackers had also thrown stones at them, injuring 50 police personnel.

June 24, West Bengal: Nasirul Haque, Mohammed Samiruddin and Mohammed Nasir, three construction workers, were beaten to death by a mob, allegedly for stealing cows, in north Dinajpur, West Bengal. Three people have been arrested so far, and a murder case registered.

June 22, Haryana: 16-year-old Junaid Khan was stabbed to death inside a train in Haryana. Junaid was called a beef-eater, and his skullcap thrown away, before he was stabbed. His brother was severely injured. Survivors accounts in some media reports say that at least 20 people were involved in the attack. The state police have arrested one person.

May 26, Maharashtra: Two Muslim meat traders were attacked by a cow vigilante squad in Malegaon, Maharashtra, on suspicion of possessing beef. Video footage of the incident appeared to show the men being slapped and abused, and told to say Jai Sri Ram (Hail Lord Ram). Nine men have been arrested. However, the two meat traders also face criminal charges for outraging religious feelings.

April 30, Assam: Abu Hanifa and Riazuddin Ali were lynched by a mob in Nagaon, Assam, on suspicion of cow theft. The police have registered a murder case, but have not yet made any arrests.

April 1, Rajasthan: 55-year-old farmer Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer, and four other Muslim men were assaulted by a mob near a highway in Alwar, Rajasthan. Khan died two days later. The mob falsely accused the men of being cow smugglers. Following the killing, the home minister of Rajasthan, in a statement that appeared to justify the killing, said that Khan belonged to a family of cow smugglers. Three people have been arrested.

On June 28, after the murder of Junaid still fresh on their minds, Indians rallied across the country to say that these killings were happening under government protection and they must be stopped. Their rallying cry was Not In My Name. The governments silence and inaction meant that it was being tolerated, and this tolerance to the violence was being opposed.

The international media also took up the story of the lynchings and this nudged the government to react. Mr Modi tweeted a couple of days later: There is no place for violence in India. Let us create an India that would make Gandhiji proud. The tweet has a video attached that is two minutes and 16 seconds long. It is of a speech that Mr Modi gave in Gujarat on June 29, where he spoke on cow slaughter. For one minute and 45 seconds in that clip, Mr Modi is praising gau raksha. He talks about how Gandhi had wanted the protection of cows. In the last 30 seconds, he speaks about violence but only says that killing is unacceptable. Of course it is, we dont need the Prime Minister to tell us that. We need him to tell us why the killing is happening and what he will do to stop it. On that there was nothing from Mr Modi and though the media portrayed it as being a change from what had gone before, it was nothing of the sort. The government is not committed to stopping the violence and the gau rakshaks understand it perfectly well.

In fact, Mr Modis real position, priorities are quite clearly revealed in those two minutes and 16 seconds. So long as Mr Modi and the BJP push gau raksha, India will produce gau rakshaks. This should not be difficult to understand. The linkage with previous Hindutva projects can be pointed out, such as the movement against the Babri Masjid. Once the mosque was torn down and the emotions were taken to fever pitch, the violence began and 2,000 Indians, mainly Muslims, died.

The state in India does not have the capacity to prevent mob violence and lynchings. That is demonstrable. Given that fact, it becomes the responsibility of the government to not promote issues that produce violence. Either the Prime Minister does not know that, and that would reveal naivete of a magnitude that I am unwilling to give him, or he understood very well what would happen once the gau raksha issue was pushed by the Centre and state governments starting in 2014.

There is a second problem and that is the refusal of Mr Modi and the BJP to accept that their actions have a communal angle. Meat and leather are the occupations of Muslims and dalits. These are the communities that have become vulnerable because of gau raksha and to deny that is hypocrisy. Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said after the latest killing in Jharkhand that it should not be linked to religion. The problem is that the data shows Mr Naidu to be wrong. It is linked to religion if it is only, or mainly, Muslims that are getting assaulted and murdered by the gau raksha programme.

The Congress does not have a real position on this and in Gujarat it has spoken out in favour of gau raksha. Individuals in the party have attacked the government. Former Union minister P. Chidambaram said after Mr Modis speech that on a day when PM warned gau rakshaks, Mohammed Alimuddun was lynched by a mob in Jharkhand. Obviously, lynch mobs dont fear PM. He added that PM warned gau rakshaks and lynch mobs. Good. Let him tell the country how he will enforce his writ.

IndiaSpend says that 25 attacks happened in 2016. In 2017, in only six months, already 21 attacks have taken place. The problem is escalating and it is obvious. The whole world is waiting to see how Mr Modi will put an end to it.
While the presidential candidates of the National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition are busy travelling to various states to canvass support from members of the electoral college, President Pranab Mukherjee is preparing to move to his new residence. Mr Mukherjee has firmed up travel plans to a few state capitals in the coming days, which will be followed by a series of farewell dinners at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Last week, Mr Mukherjee visited Kolkata for the last time as President where a special farewell banquet was hosted in his honour at the Raj Bhavan. The event demonstrated that Mr Mukherjees reputation as a trouble-shooter still holds.

Like in the old days when Mr Mukherjee would bring together warring parties to hammer out a consensus on any contentious issue, he succeeded in doing the same in West Bengal. Arch political rivals, who never tire of abusing each other in public, put aside their differences and chatted amiably with each other over the farewell dinner. It made for a pleasant change for the other guests to see the fiery West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee exchange pleasantries with the state Congress leader Abdul Manan, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and Surjya Kanta Mishra of the CPI.

It is no secret that the Oppositions presidential candidate Meira Kumar is all set to lose the July 17 election, but that has neither dimmed the excitement in her camp nor deterred the supporting parties from planning her campaign. Apparently, soon after Ms Kumars name was announced the former Lok Sabha Speakers family took on the task of contacting the media. However, the Congress did not take kindly to this display of enthusiasm. It was conveyed to Ms Kumars family that media management is a complex matter and that it is best if this task is left to her election managers in the Congress.

The Madhya Pradesh state executive committee of the BJP was recast recently. Among those whose names figured in the list included the sons of Union rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and party MP Prabhat Jha. This development raised eyebrows, specially since the BJP never tires of underlining that, unlike the Congress, it does not give tickets or party posts to sons and daughters of its leaders. In this case, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has his reasons for accommodating the sons of his detractors in the state executive. Finding himself on shaky ground after his governments handling of the recent farmers protests, Mr Chouhan obviously wants to buy peace with his critics. More importantly, the chief minister also wants his son to join politics.

When the Darjeeling hills were hit by angry protests by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha following the death of its members in police firing, the West Bengal state leaders made a spate of contradictory statements on the GJMs demand for Gorkhaland. This infuriated BJP president Amit Shah as the party finds itself in a dilemma on the statehood issue. If it endorses Gorkhaland, the BJP stands to lose in West Bengal. And, if it rejects the statehood demand, it will alienate its ally, the GJM. Mr Shah, therefore, summoned the state leaders to Delhi last week. He issued strict instructions that the partys state unit should focus on hitting out at Ms Banerjee. Mr Shah is reported to have underlined that when the presidential election is round the corner, the BJP could ill-afford to upset an ally. But Mr Shah had no reason to worry as the GJM has also concentrated on attacking the West Bengal chief minister while letting the BJP off the hook even though it is the Centre which has to take the initiate in the creation of a separate state.
The Lower House of the German Parliament voted to legalise same-sex marriage on Friday. Only last week, the German Parliament had voted to render void the convictions of 50,000 gay men who were punished under old laws prior to 1994. The world is changing fast with regard to openness about sexual preferences with Germany now joining Ireland, France and Spain in granting equal marriage rights in Europe as well as the right of such couples to adopt children. German Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democratic Party (CDU) may have been compelled by the dictates of coalition politics to agree to relax opposition to same-sex marriage. Ms Merkel, daughter of a Protestant pastor, voted against the bill after calling for a conscience vote although she is seen today as an exponent of a very liberal Western vision despite being the leader of a conservative party. The Chancellors personal dilemma aside, the move represents equality, even if it questions the very tenets of marriage, which for centuries has been defined as a union between a man and woman.

As a democratic society, India also has to look back to see what little progress has been made on gay rights. The fierce debate that raged on Section 377 existing on the Indian criminal code tended to die out once the matter was referred to a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court four years ago after a landmark judgment in the Delhi high court was struck down. Technically, the 2.5 million or so openly gay people of India can be harassed, although it must be said that the law is not enforced these days, thanks to a social awakening on the freedom of choice of the LGBTQ. And yet, we have miles to go yet towards attaining equality.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi added a touch of glamour to the rollout of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) when he said that even Einstein (who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921) would have been confused at the state of taxes in India. But judging from the reaction of traders and other sectors, confusion is the order of the day over GST. One storekeeper who keeps over 2,000 products was up to his neck in confusion as he pointed out to the numerous items on his shelves that invited various slabs of GST. Perhaps most of the worries are really genuine, like in the amusing example of asses and mules being taxed differently from horses with the latter being considered the possessions of the rich and the latter belonging to the poor man, like your dhobi. Looks like there will be a spate of litigation which will benefit only lawyers.

People cannot be blamed for being sceptical over resolution of the situation by this government as the dark days of demonetisation and the untold hardships caused, particularly in rural India, are still fresh in peoples mind. West Bengals finance minister Amit Mitras prediction that GST will fall flat on its face as it was introduced in a hurry does seem a little far-fetched. Similarly, traders who are not computer literate and those in areas where there are repeated power blackouts will find it difficult to deal with GST.

Meanwhile, it is quite curious that GST should be given a star-studded midnight welcome reminiscent of the ushering in of Independence with Parliament all lit up. It is the most significant tax reform that will do away with 17 taxes and 23 cesses by the Centre and states, but as the Kerala finance minister who boycotted the ceremony said all the pomp and show was unwarranted when people were being lynched. He has a valid point and it is an interesting subject of a debate. Most of the Opposition parties, which supported and helped in the creation of the GST, boycotted the function for this reason. The Prime Minister, however, paid tribute to federalism which got the GST through Parliament. While the various parties felt that the show was unnecessary, the Congress hit the nail on the head pointing out that the GSTs highest tax slab of 28 per cent was the highest in the world. The way forward now will be to see that the implementation of GST is done efficiently and will reduce the scope for corruption and really put an end to the inspector raj which terrorised traders. Simplicity is the leitmotif of the GST and it is hoped that it remains so during implementation and is not perverted by bureaucratic procedures.
The change of seasons  from winter to the short-lived spring of north India, to the monsoons, to the clear autumnal nights of October and November, and then the winter again  tug at your heart strings, a curious mix of elation and nostalgia, for one such year that passes by means one year less to witness this great pageantry of nature.

Would Chanakya have paused for a moment from his relentless pursuit of politics and political theory, when the first raindrops of the monsoon drenched the parched earth, and the irresistible smell of wet earth filled his nostrils? I would think yes, for human beings as talented as he was cannot  and indeed should not  be monochromatic. The change of seasons  from winter to the short-lived spring of north India, to the monsoons, to the clear autumnal nights of October and November, and then the winter again  tug at your heart strings, a curious mix of elation and nostalgia, for one such year that passes by means one year less to witness this great pageantry of nature.

I recall one year when the monsoons were delayed, but later came with a vengeance. I was then a bureaucrat, entombed in one of the rooms of ministry of external affairs in South Block. Suddenly, the light outside my window darkened, and the first big drop hit the pane. I was dictating a note to my private secretary, but I left my work to run to the corridor from where I could see the sky open up in all its splendour. When I returned, my secretary, otherwise a quiet, even reticent man who hardly made conversation, sought my permission to narrate two lines of poet Bihari Lal:

Lage saawan maas bidesh piya

More ang pe boond pare sarsi

Shath kaam ne jor kiyo sajani

Bandh toot gaye chatiya darsi

(The monsoons are here but my beloved is away

A raindrop touches my body suddenly

Cruel Kama wrought his effect O friend

The strings of my garment snapped abruptly)

Frankly, I was left quite stunned. I took my colleague to be someone who was entirely a prisoner of the humdrum routine of office, weighed down with the pedestrian burdens of life, far removed from poetry and the magical seductions of the monsoons. But, here he was, shyly reciting to me the sublime poetry of Bihari, as much  if not more  a participant in joyously welcoming the rains.

After the intense heat of summer, the monsoons in India have always stood for release, relief and romance. So much of our folklore and classical poetry are linked to the rains. Such poetry is not only about the fulfilment of love but also of birha, the pangs of separation if the beloved is away when the skies become grey and the moist winds of saawan blow. If, in the West, a beautiful day has to be sunny, for us a romantic day is when the clouds have hidden the sun, and there is the promise of rain. In fifth century CE, Kalidasa, in his play Meghdoot, immortalised such a cloud by making him the bearer of the exiled Yakshas message to his wife, Alaka in the Himalayas.

In more recent times, who can ever erase from memory the song Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi ye barsaat ki raat, from the eponymous film Barsaat Ki Raat, where the ethereal Madhubala meets Bharat Bhushan in a rain-filled night? Or, Raj Kapoor and Nargis, singing Pyaar hua ikrar hua, in the 1955 film Shree 420, the rain cascading around them as they come closer to share an umbrella?

Perhaps, for the younger generation, these films are much too old, and there are as many rain-drenched songs from more contemporary films. But these black and white tributes to the romance of the monsoons are, in my view, quite unmatched. The monsoons are also a time for hot cups of tea and garam-garam pakoras and the whiff of bhuttas being roasted on a makeshift fire along the roadside. If it is possible, this is the time to take a short break, and while sipping a cup of tea, listen to the raga Malhar. Every time I listen to Malhar during the monsoons I wonder at the genius of our musical legacy. How can a raga so wonderfully correspond to the mood of the monsoons? As the sky begins to darken, listen first to the slow elaboration of the raga, and reach the fast-paced drut, as it begins to pour. It is quite an unforgettable experience. Or, if you are inclined to poetry, recall the lines of the poet:

Yun barastin hai tasawwur pe purani yaadein

Jaise barsaat mein rimjhin ka sama hota hai

(Like a drizzle in the monsoons

Old memories rain down on me)

There is, alas, the ugly underbelly of the monsoons too. Floods are a recurring experience. People are rendered homeless, crops are destroyed, landslides occur and lives are lost. In cities, roads become rivers, traffic jams last for hours and electrical lines snap. In Bihar, for instance, floods are an annual occurrence, given the silt depositions in the Ganga, and the rivers coming in from Nepal.

The problems created by the monsoons need institutional and enduring responses as urgently as possible. But whatever the downsides, the monsoons are awaited with great anticipation by all Indians, and most of all by the farmer. So, as the skies darken, and a sheet of water surrounds you quenching the thirst of the land, pause for a moment, and salute the miracle of nature.

Chanakya would readily agree that while politics may be a 24x7 preoccupation, there must also be a little time kept aside for poetry and music and a hot cup of tea with pakoras on the side as a humble offering to the Rain Gods.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, known as the BJPs rising young turk, admits that he came under pressure to waive farmers' loans after the UP government took the first step. In a conversation with Shashi Bhushan, he also says that he is ready for snap polls and that the Shiv Sena must learn to accept the BJP as a bigger partner.

The agrarian crisis has hit most of the BJP-ruled states, including yours. What are your views regarding this?

Agrarian crisis has not happened in a year or two. As for our state, it existed in Maharashtra for the past 20 years and continues to remain the biggest problem for the government. The main reason is our dependence on rain. One must understand that 52 per cent of areas are drought-prone and 80 per cent farming is dry, which means it is fully dependent on rain. To resolve the problem permanently, we have provided a short-term solution  loan waiver to farmers and for a long-term solution our government is working to provide assured irrigation to all the regions through water conservation. We have fixed target of making all the 22,000 villages drought-free with a target of 5,000 villages per year. By the end of June, water conservation started in 11,000 villages, and it will cover all the 22,000 villages by 2019-20.

Did your government announce the loan waiver for farmers under pressure from other political parties?

The farmers agitation was strong only in two- and- a half districts of the state, and I believe that it would not have turned violent. I sensed that some political parties were trying to instigate violence from behind-the-scenes. The government should not have an ego and it must be responsive towards its people. We held talks and decided that Jo kal karna hai vo aaj karo aur khatam karo (When we have to do it tomorrow, lets do it today and end the issue).

But didnt you act under pressure?

We did come under a lot of pressure when Andhra Pradesh and Telangana took steps to waive loans for farmers. The pressure increased when the Uttar Pradesh government, led by Yogi Adityanath, did the same. I feel that other state governments might find it difficult to resist the pressure.

You apprehend that there were attempts by other political outfits to give a violent turn to the farmers protests in your state. Were they your rivals or allies?

Mostly they were our political opponents, but in some instances our allies were involved. If you see the FIRs lodged in connection with farmer protests, most of the accused are not farmers but political leaders. Farmers were protesting peacefully but some people tried to give it a violent turn.

Your troubles with the Shiv Sena persist...

We want to have a good relation with the Shiv Sena and work together. But it seems that the Shiv Sena is not being able to accept the BJP as a bigger partner. Therein lies the problem. They must learn to accept the reality and work for the overall development of the state with us. They must also learn from the Assembly election results from across the country.

There has been speculation of a mid-term poll in Maharashtra. Is it true?

Yes, people have been talking about such a possibility. They are trying to flex muscles by threatening to withdraw support and pushing the state towards snap polls. But I have made it clear that we are ready for any eventuality. To be honest, I am the one who had talked of a mid-term poll. We are ready and confident of winning. We won the civic elections in which all our rivals were wiped out.

Will the loan waiver solve the farm crisis for good?

No, but it will provide a much needed relief to the needy farmers. Our government will ensure that the benefits reach the real beneficiary, unlike before. The CAG has pointed that the 2008-loan waiver turned into a big scam and benefited only big farmers. This time we will ensure that the benefits reach the poor and small farmers. To plug leakage in providing benefits, we will put digital filters in place, like N. Chandrababu Naidu has done in Andhra Pradesh. For a permanent solution, our government will invest more funds in strengthening the agriculture sector in the state. We are making capital investment of Rs 25,000 crore in the agriculture sector.

How will you handle the burden of over Rs 30,000 crore on the Maharashtra exchequer when the Centre has already clarified that the state has to bear the cost of the loan waivers?

It will be a stress on our finances, but we will manage by making some financial adjustments. Payment of waiver will be made in the next couple of years and, in-between we will find a solution on how to pay the amount. One thing one should understand is that the Centre had helped Maharashtra a lot by investing in projects worth Rs 26,000 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKYS). We are hopeful that more investments will come from the Centre for a permanent solution to the problem under the PMKYS.
The award is the first for United Launch Alliance since the Air Force certified rival SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets for flight and opened bidding for launch contracts in 2015. (Representational image/SpaceX)

United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co , for the first time beat Elon Musk's SpaceX in competition for an Air Force satellite launch, both launch companies said on Friday.

The contact covers launch services for multiple satellites aboard an Atlas 5 rocket in June 2019. The contract value is just over $191 million, the Air Force said.

The award is the first for United Launch Alliance since the Air Force certified rival SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets for flight and opened bidding for launch contracts in 2015. ULA, which previously had a monopoly on the militarys launch business, sat out the Air Forces first solicitation and lost the second. Both were awarded to SpaceX.

A SpaceX official told Reuters it did not expect to win this bidding competition because the mission required a heavy-lift launcher and its Falcon Heavy booster has not yet flown.

The mission performance required that we bid Falcon Heavy, SpaceX spokesman John Taylor wrote in a email.

We did submit a bid, but with the knowledge that our first Falcon Heavy flight might occur after the time of the award. Given we have not flown Falcon Heavy, we did not anticipate winning this mission, he said.

SpaceXs Falcon Heavy is expected to debut this year.

The new booster would need to fly successfully at least once before the Air Force would award SpaceX a Falcon Heavy launch contract, three times before any high-priority military satellites would fly on it, Claire Leon, the launch enterprise director for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, told reporters during a conference call.

Typically, the Air Force awards contracts two years ahead of a launch. Another branch of the Air Force that handles experimental programs bought a Falcon Heavy rocket ride in 2012. That mission is currently targeted to fly early next year, Leon said.

SpaceX also won Falcon 9 contracts to fly a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite, which launched in April, and is scheduled to launch the X-37B robotic space plane for the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office later this year.

SpaceX is preparing for its 39th launch -- and third in nine days -- on Sunday.

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On Feb. 2, the Treasury Department created an exception to the sanction, about two weeks after Trump took office, to allow tech companies to continue to obtain approvals from the FSB. (Representational image/AP)

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - As US officials investigated in January the FSB's alleged role in election cyber attacks, US technology firms were quietly lobbying the government to soften a ban on dealing with the Russian spy agency, people with direct knowledge of the effort told Reuters.

New US sanctions put in place by former President Barack Obama last December - part of a broad suite of actions taken in response to Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election - had made it a crime for American companies to have any business relationship with the FSB, or Federal Security Service.

US authorities had accused the FSB, along with the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, of orchestrating cyber attacks on the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, a charge Moscow denies.

But the sanctions also threatened to imperil the Russian sales operations of Western tech companies. Under a little-understood arrangement, the FSB doubles as a regulator charged with approving the import to Russia of almost all technology that contains encryption, which is used in both sophisticated hardware as well as products like cellphones and laptops.

Worried about the sales impact, business industry groups, including the US-Russia Business Council and the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, contacted US officials at the American embassy in Moscow and the Treasury, State and Commerce departments, according to five people with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort.

The campaign, which began in January and proved successful in a matter of weeks, has not been previously reported.

In recent years, Western technology companies have acceded to increasing demands by Moscow for access to closely guarded product security secrets, including source code, Reuters reported last week. Russia's information technology market is expected to reach $18.4 billion this year, according to market researcher International Data Corporation.

The sanctions would have meant the Russian market was "dead for US electronics said Alexis Rodzianko, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, who argued against the new restrictions. Every second Russian has an iPhone, iPad, so they would all switch to Samsungs," he said.

A spokesman for the US Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security declined to comment. A State Department official said Washington considered a range of factors before amending the FSB sanction and regularly works with US companies to assess the impact of such policies.

The lobbyists argued the sanction could have stopped the sale of cars, medical devices and heavy equipment, all of which also often contain encrypted software, according to a person involved in the lobbying effort. The goal of the sanctions was to sever US business dealings with the FSB - not end American technology exports to Russia entirely, the industry groups argued.

The sanction was against a government agency that has many functions, only one of them being hacking the US elections, said Rodzianko.

The lobbyists assembled representatives from the tech, automotive and manufacturing sectors to make the case to the US Treasury Department, said the person involved in the lobbying effort.

The industry groups did not argue against the intent of the sanction but asked for a narrow exception that would allow them to continue to seek regulatory approvals from the FSB while still keeping in place the broader ban on doing business with the spy agency.

"Punishment for Very Bad Acts"

The industry groups represent a number of technology firms with a large presence in Russia, including Cisco and Microsoft.

Reuters was unable to determine which companies were directly involved in the lobbying. Microsoft said it did not ask for changes to the sanctions. In a statement, Cisco said it also did not seek any changes to the sanction but had asked the Treasury Department for clarification on how it applied.

In order to get encrypted technology into Russia, companies need to obtain the blessing of the FSB, a process that can sometimes take months or even years of negotiation. Before granting that approval, the agency can demand sensitive security data about the product, including source code - instructions that control the basic operations of computer equipment.

The United States has accused Russia of a growing number of cyber attacks against the West. US officials say they are concerned that Moscows reviews of product secrets could be used to find vulnerabilities to hack into the products.

Some US government officials rejected the industry groups' arguments. They openly embraced the prospect of any ripple effect that cut further trade with Russia.

Kevin Wolf was assistant secretary at the Commerce Department and oversaw export control policy when the FSB sanction was put in place. Wolf said within days of the sanction taking effect, Commerce received numerous calls from industry groups and companies warning of the unintended consequences.

But for Wolf, who was "furious" with Moscow over the alleged cyber attacks, any additional curbs on trade with Russia was a bonus rather than an unintended downside.

"I said, 'Great, terrific, fuck 'em ... The whole point is to interfere with trade'," recounted Wolf. The sanction was meant to impose pain (on Russia) and send a signal as punishment for very bad acts."

Wolf left the Commerce Department when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.

Other officials felt that the impact on legitimate trade was too great. The intention of the sanction was not to cut off tech trade with Russia, said a US official with direct knowledge of the process.

The lobbyists had also argued that since the sanctions only applied to US technology makers, it would put them at a disadvantage to European and Asian companies who would still be able to interact with the FSB and sell products in Russia.

"We were asking for a narrow technical fix that would give a fair deal for American companies," Dan Russell, CEO of the US-Russia Business Council, said in an interview.

The advocacy worked. State and Treasury officials began working to tweak the sanction in January before Obama left office, according to people involved in the process.

On Feb. 2, the Treasury Department created an exception to the sanction, about two weeks after Trump took office, to allow tech companies to continue to obtain approvals from the FSB.

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The change would affect only links shared by those people, not their photos or other posts, the company said. (Representational image)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Friday it was changing the computer algorithm behind its News Feed to limit the reach of people known to frequently blast out links to clickbait stories, sensationalist websites and misinformation.

The move is another step by the world's largest social network to weed out spam, a battle Facebook has fought for years but that gained urgency after hoax news stories spread widely during last year's U.S. presidential campaign.

Facebook said the change would reduce the influence of a "tiny group" of people it has identified who share vast amounts of low-quality public posts daily. Only about 0.1 percent of people who share more than 50 posts a day fall into that category, the company said.

The change would affect only links shared by those people, not their photos or other posts, the company said.

"Our research shows that there is a tiny group of people on Facebook who routinely share vast amounts of public posts per day, effectively spamming people's feeds," said Adam Mosseri, Facebook's vice president for the News Feed, in a blog post.

Ahead of the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, Facebook users saw false news reports saying Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump and that a federal agent who had been investigating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was found dead.

The algorithm behind the News Feed determines which posts people see from friends, advertisers and other sources, and the order in which they appear depending on how users responded to previous posts.

Facebook, which has 2 billion monthly active users, frequently tweaks the computer code behind the News Feed.

The latest tweak will have a negligible effect, said Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor who monitors social media, in a telephone interview, adding that Facebook needs to hire more content moderators.

"Communications platforms used to employ a whole lot more humans, but what we've been led to believe now is that technology will solve everything," Grygiel said.

In May, Facebook announced a change that would give lower prominence to links that lead to pages full of deceptive or annoying ads.

A change in August was designed to deemphasize stories with clickbait-style headlines.

Friday's change will de-prioritize links from specific spammers, Mosseri said.

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Google is aiming to help users save their data by using the app. (Photo: TechCrunch)

Google is working on a new Android mobile application named 'Google Triangle' to let users "manage" and "block unwanted" data used by their smartphone. By keeping record on data usage, Google is aiming to help users save their data by using the app.

The app is currently in a testing stage and has been made available in Philippines.

Triangle is a new app being tried out in the Philippines that helps you better manage your data usage and block unwanted background data, Google said.

This isnt Googles first attempt at offering data usage controls for mobile consumers, TechCrunch reported.

A year ago, Google added a 'Data Saver' mode to its mobile chrome browser in its Pixel devices. But, according to report, Triangle provided fine-grained control over applications compared to what 'Data Saver' offered.

Google has not officially made any announcement regarding its work on 'Triangle' app, not since it was discussed in online forums last month. It is yet not sure when the app would be launched or come to other emerging markets. We have nothing further to announce at this time, Google told TechCrunch in a statement.

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Googles Project-Fi essentially depends on other mobile virtual network operators (instead of itself) including T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular to deliver maximum signal availability to its users. (Representational image)

Search-giant Google on 29th June, Thursday made an announcement, stating that a non-Google, Project-Fi compatible mid-budget device is scheduled to launch soon. Soon aftet VentureBeat published a report, claiming that the device-in-question is Motorolas upcoming Moto X4 smartphone. If this turns out to be true then the Moto X4 smartphone will be the first non-Google smartphone to receive Googles Project-Fi.

Google's Twitter announcement. (Image: Twitter)

Googles Project-Fi essentially depends on other mobile virtual network operators (instead of itself) including T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular to deliver maximum signal availability to its users. What makes things better is Project-Fis pricing structure. Its extremely affordable in comparison to other packs. Starting at a base price of $20 per line (plus $10 for gig of data), users can avail higher network speeds without spending a lot. The unused data is credited back to the customers account.

The VentureBeat report suggested that sources close to the matter claimed that the upcoming Moto X4 smartphone is scheduled to launch in Q4, 2017. Nothing else is known about the device-in-question as yet.

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Irvine (California): Weddings have been moved and family visits delayed.

The Trump administration's travel ban, while a shadow of its original self, has dealt a harsh blow to the Iranian-American community, where family ties run strong and friends and loved ones regularly shuttle between Los Angeles and Tehran.

But it isn't the only immigration hurdle facing the community. Iranians allowed to seek visas to visit family in the United States may still have a hard time getting them with a screening process that can take months or longer, immigration lawyers said.

In the meantime, families are being kept apart. Iranian-American homemaker Mina Thrani, 38, had hoped to invite her aunt to visit her in Irvine over the Christmas holiday but can't because of the ban.

Xena Amirani, an 18-year-old college student from Los Angeles, said her family has been grieving since her grandmother died after being struck by a car while crossing the street. They traveled to Iran to bury her. Now, her uncle and his wife want to travel together to visit the family in California to help console them, but the travel ban is in the way. "It is pointless," Amirani said.

The scaled-back version of President Donald Trump's policy that took effect this week places new limits on visa policies for citizens of six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.

The temporary ban requires people who want new visas to prove a close family relationship in the US or an existing relationship with an entity like a school or business.

The US has nearly 370,000 Iranian immigrants, according to US Census Bureau estimates, far more than the other countries targeted by the order - Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.

Despite a lengthy history of friction between Tehran and Washington, personal ties between residents of the two countries have held strong. "Everyone is being hit by this because everyone has a relative in Iran, and there is quite a lot of travel in between," said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council. But travel isn't always easy, and the challenge predates the Trump administration.

Because there is no US embassy in Iran, Iranians must go to other countries for visa interviews, requiring time and money. And it can take longer to get visas approved for Iranians than for citizens of many other countries, immigration attorneys said, while US officials conduct screenings.

"Even under Obama, it was very hard to get these visas and get the background checks cleared. But now, it is official policy," said Ally Bolour, an immigration attorney in Los Angeles.

The Department of Homeland Security said this week that the Supreme Court's decision to allow a partial reinstatement of the ban will help protect the US

But that rings hollow to some Iranian-Americans who note that many in their community came to the US seeking freedom following Iran's Islamic revolution of the 1970s and that the hijackers who carried out the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States were from other countries not limited by the ban.

Trump's initial travel ban in January was broader, affecting current and new visas, which sparked chaos at airports around the world.

Mina Jafari, a 28-year-old graphic designer in Washington, said that during that time, her fiance's Iranian mother was in the process of obtaining a visa to travel to the couple's wedding, but it was revoked because of the ban.

That prompted Jafari to move the wedding to Iran so her soon-to-be mother-in-law could attend. The only problem is her elder sister can't go with her due to concerns about her political activism.

"I have family who is banned from Iran, family banned here," Jafari said. "It is a really crazy situation."
Police gather outside Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York after a gunman opened fire and then took his own life there on Friday. (Photo: AP)

New York: A doctor forced from a New York hospital because of sexual harassment accusations returned Friday with an assault rifle hidden under a lab coat and shot seven people, killing one woman and leaving several doctors fighting for their lives, authorities said.

The gunman, Dr. Henry Bello, fatally shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, they said. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, officials said.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted, spreading terror throughout the medical facility as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.

"I thought I was going to die," said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as the 45-year-old Bello, who was described on the hospital website as a family medicine physician. Officials said Bello used an AR-15 in the attack on the 16th and 17th floors.

Bello was allowed to resign from the hospital in 2015 amid sexual harassment allegations, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials didn't know the details of the allegations.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

In unrelated cases, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, in 2004 after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, "You're coming with me."

He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror.

On Friday, one female doctor was killed and six other people were wounded, five of them seriously, according to Police Commissioner James O'Neill. The patients were treated in the emergency room at Bronx Lebanon.

Two surgeons at the hospital told the AP that all six victims were in critical condition, but they were expected to survive. The victims largely suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen, they said.

The most seriously wounded was shot in the liver, said the surgeons, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak publicly.

"This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere," Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that terrorism was not involved in the attack.

Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. They later learned he was dead inside the building. De Blasio confirmed that Bello killed himself.

Bello may have doused himself with an accelerant like gasoline and tried to set himself on fire before shooting himself, officials said. Sprinklers extinguished the fire.

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee.

Bello "was very aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people. All the time he was a problem," said Dr. David Lazala, a family medicine doctor who said he trained Bello at Bronx Lebanon.

He said Bello, who worked at night as a doctor, sent him a threatening email after Bello was fired.

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called from inside to tell him about the gunman.

"She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebody's out there shooting people," Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. "I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry."

Gonzalo Carazo told WCBS-TV that he saw a doctor with a gunshot wound on his hand.

"All I heard was a doctor saying, "Help, help!" Carazo locked himself in a room for about 15 minutes until police came and led him out of the hospital.

The 120-year-old hospital has one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York City. The campus where Friday's attack took place has 415 beds. It is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.
Washington: Pakistan knows it is supporting terrorism, as does the United States and Afghanistan, and therefore, must face the consequences, financial or otherwise for doing so, a member of the United States Congress has said.

In a recent address before the US Congress, Congressman Ted Poe of the Second District, Texas, squarely accused Pakistan of "playing the United States" and insisted that it is high time for Washington to act firmly and put a stop to giving any kind of aid to the former.

Listing three immediate steps to be taken, Poe said, "The United States does not, and should not, continue to give Pakistan money, because the money we give them goes to ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), and that money goes to support terrorist activity in Afghanistan that kills Americans. Why are we doing this?"

"But we continue to do it, for some reason that I think is absurd. So, the first thing we need to do is cut off the aid to Pakistan. We don't need to pay them to kill us; they will support killing Americans on their own. Cut off the aid," he said.

"The second thing we do is to label Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. That is what they are: a state sponsor of terrorism. Congress needs to label them and make that designation so they suffer the consequences for their terrorist mischief throughout the world," he added.

"And, the third thing we do is we need to remove and revoke their major non-NATO ally status. That is a fancy word for: because Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally, they get certain benefits, militarily, that other countries don't get. Revoke that. Quit giving them military aid. Quit giving them money. Designate them as a state sponsor of terrorism, and remove the major non-NATO ally status against Pakistan," Congressman Poe said.

Describing Islamabad as having a long history of supporting extremist elements and terror activity, that most Americans were not aware of, Congressman Poe said, "Those consequences need to come down to get attention. The longest war in American history continues today, and it is a war supposedly against terrorism."

"But Afghanistan still is a hotbed because of what takes place and supported from Pakistan. The Afghan Government knows it, we know it, and the Pakistan Government knows it. So, there must be consequences. I think Pakistan is found guilty of supporting terrorism, and there should be action by the United States immediately to do these three things," he said.

During his address, Congressman Poe gave a detailed rundown of terror-linked incidents since 2001 when the United States had been made the target, and chose specifically to centre his argument on the role that Pakistan has played in destabilizing the region.

Mention was made of the Taliban and al-Qaida and their goal of not only staging terror attacks, but wanting to seize territory.

Specific mention was made of the Haqqani Network, which he said "is responsible for more American deaths in the region than any of the other terrorist groups that I have already mentioned."

He added, "The Haqqani Network attacks inside Afghanistan, and they have been directly traced back to Pakistan. All roads to terror lead to Pakistan."

He recalled the words of Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2011, when told the US Senate, "The Haqqani Network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.''

He described the ISI as the "military arm of the Pakistan Government working with terrorist groups throughout the world."

"The truth is, Pakistan has ties to about every terrorist group in Afghanistan, and we know that the Taliban terrorist group is based out of Pakistan. There is a laundry list of evidence of Pakistan's support for terrorist groups," he said.
Police officers stand guard at a roadblock near the mosque where a suspected Islamic militant stabbed two policemen in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo: AP)

Jakarta: Indonesian police shot dead a suspected militant after he stabbed two policemen inside a mosque near the national police headquarters in Jakarta, less than a week after an Islamist attack on security forces.

The attacker had just finished praying with several policemen and other worshippers Friday night when he stabbed the two officers and screamed 'infidel', said national police spokesman Rikwanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

The perpetrator immediately ran to a nearby crowded bus terminal and refused to surrender. "He instead threatened to attack (us) with a bayonet. After warning shots were fired, he was killed on the spot," Rikwanto said.

The two police officers were stabbed in the neck and face and are being treated at a local hospital. The motive and identity of the attacker are still being examined, police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said.

Indonesia has seen a string of low level attacks since January last year carried out by Islamic State sympathisers mostly targeting the police.

The attack is just the second attack on the police this week. Last Sunday, two alleged Islamic State group militants attacked the police headquarters in North Sumatra province leaving a policeman dead. In May three police officers were killed in twin suicide bombings at a Jakarta bus station.
Islamabad: At least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in Pakistani jails, according to a list the Pakistan government handed over to the Indian envoy on Saturday.

The list was given to High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale under the Consular Access Agreement signed between the two countries on May 21, 2008.

The foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen". It said the "step is consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement", under which both countries were required to exchange lists of prisoners in each others custody twice a year - on January 1 and July 1.

The foreign office said the Indian government will also hand over a list of its prisoners in India to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. According to the list Islamabad shared with India on January 1 this year, there were 351 Indian prisoners held in Pakistan, including 54 civilians and 297 fishermen.

The foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 this year and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
Hafiz Saeed is the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack (File Photo)

Islamabad: Pakistan has quietly banned Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir, a new front for Hafiz Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa, as international pressure on the country grew, including from a global watchdog, to combat terror and its funding.

TAJK gained prominence as a JuD front when it held pro- Kashmir freedom rallies and displayed banners and streamers across Pakistan on "Kashmir Day" on February 5, days after Saeed was put under "house arrest" for 90 days in Lahore.

The mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people died had indicated about a week before his house arrest he might launch TAJK to "expedite the freedom of Kashmir".

The re-branding of JuD as TAJK showed that Saeed had got a wind of the government plans and had worked out how to resurface and survive after the clampdown on his ostensible network of JuD and its affiliate Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

The JuD front was put on the list of "proscribed organisations" on June 8 - a fortnight before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force in Spain, according to a list available on the website of Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has called a meeting on Monday to discuss the ban on its affiliate, The Nation reported.

There are 64 other outfits in the proscribed organisation category, including Jaish-e-Mohammad, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e- Taliban, and JuD's armed wing Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for 26/11 and several other terror attacks in India.

According to a report in Dawn newspaper today, Pakistan continues to remain on the radar of the FATF over concerns that it is not fully complying with curbs against entities listed with the United Nations.

India had raised the terror financing issue at the FATF in February this year.

The FATF last week referred Pakistan to its regional affiliate - the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering - for further analysis and a follow-up report on actions the country has taken against entities designated under UN sanctions list.

Pakistan government has been under mounting international pressure to crackdown on terrorist networks and their fronts.

However, according to the report, Pakistani officials expect that Pakistan would be cleared of the concerns.

The United Nations placed both JuD and FIF on its watch list in December 2008 and March 2012, respectively.

The ban on TAJK on June 8 happened a day before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakh capital Astana. India had pushed the SCO members at the summit to curb the financing of terrorist organisations and their fronts.

The Astana Declaration of the Heads of State of the SCO said that the "member states will continue to cooperate in order to counteract the activities of individuals and legal entities related to the recruitment, training and utilisation of terrorists, public calls for terrorist activities or the justification of acts of terrorism, and financing terrorist activities."

Last week, the US declared Pakistan-based Hizb-ul- Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist. The announcement had come hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had their first bilateral meeting.
China had mentioned that Donglang is being considered in their territory since ancient times. (Photo: China's Foreign Ministry)

Beijing: Amid standoff in Sikkim, China on Tuesday released a map to support its claim that Indian troops entered their territory; only to reveal that the territory quoted is actually under contention.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the picture released by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ku Lang showing India troopers incursion in China, is basically a territory claimed by both India and Bhutan. The map which China has posted on their foreign ministry website is also far different from the Indian perception of Line of Actual Control (LoAC) between India, China and Bhutan.

Of the trespassed area quoted by China, India has claims on land till Batang La, whereas China asserted that their territory is till Mount Gipmochi. The situation becomes more intricate with Bhutans claims. Historically, Bhutan and China have a dispute over the area, Donglang or Doklam. However, China had mentioned that Donglang is being considered in their territory since ancient times.

The situation worsened when China started constructing a road near Sikkim Sector. India reacted by saying that any such move to unilaterally determine tri-junction points violates a 2012 India-China agreement. It further said that the boundary in the region should be finalised after consulting with all concerned countries.

New Delhi, maintaining its stance over border dispute, noted that Indian troops in co-ordination with Bhutan had asked Chinese government to desist from changing the status quo by building a road in Donglang area.

Reiterating their claims, Chinese state media earlier had said that there is solid legal evidence to prove that Indian troops trespassed in their territory.

It is stated in Article one of the Convention Between Great Britain and China relating Sikkim and Tibet (1890) that the boundary of Sikkim and Tibet shall be the crest of the mountain range separating the waters flowing into the Sikkim Teesta and its affluents from the waters flowing into the Tibetan Mochu and northwards into other rivers of Tibet, said Chinese state media quoting a report.

The HT report further added that the Chinese state media claimed that the line commences at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier, and follows the above-mentioned water-parting to the point where it meets Nepal territory.

China had asked Indian soldiers to leave their territory for dialogue to ensue. It had also asked India to learn from history referring to 1962 Sino-India war over Arunachal Pradesh.

However, this is not the first time China has claimed Indias portion to be their territory as, in 2013, China carried out an incursion on Indo-China border near Arunachal Pradesh.
Hindus of Haroonabad area in Pakistans Bahwalnagar district have been asked to vacate their colony by the local authorities. Assistant commissioner of district Haroonabad, Anjum Zehra, issued notices to dozens of Hindu families living in Haroonabad to vacate their houses immediately. According to a notification, the residents of Chak 72/4R have been told ...you people have been living here at Jarnali Sarak (The Grand Trunk Road) illegally for a long time and it has been notified on June 13, 2017 that these houses will be vacated because you are illegal occupants of this property. In other case the government property will be vacated with governments force, the notification said.

Daas Ram a resident of Chak 72/R said: We are facing the wrath of housing society owners who want to demolish our houses. The administration with an underhand agreement with housing society wants to demolish the houses.
In a major setback to terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), its top commander Bashir Lashkari was killed in an encounter with security forces along with his associate in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Saturday.



Lashkari, according to police, was involved in the killing of six cops, including a station house officer, in Achabal area of the same district last month.



Two civilians, 44-year-old Tahira Begum and 21-year-old Shadab Ahmad Chopan, were also killed and dozens of others injured after security forces fired to disperse protesters marching towards the encounter site in Brinthi-Batpora near Dailgam of Anantnag district, about 60 km south of Srinagar.



Police said that following specific information about the presence of Lashkari in Brinthi-Batpora, security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation early Saturday morning. "While the cordon was being laid some militants fired upon security personnel, which was retaliated. In the crossfire, one woman was wounded, who later on succumbed to her wounds," Inspector General Police (IGP) Kashmir, Muneer Khan told reporters.



After a brief exchange of fire, militants took refuge inside a cluster of residential houses, where 17 civilians, including women, were trapped, he said. However, locals said that people rushed to the houses to help the militants escape from the cordon. A police statement in the afternoon accused militants of holding civilians as human shields.



However, later all the civilians were evacuated and the troops made a fresh assault on the house where the militants were hiding, police said. "Two LeT militants, including Lashkari were neutralised in the gun fight which lasted for several hours," the IGP said and added Lashkari was behind the killing of six cops including SHO in Achabal Feroz Dar area of Anantnag on June 16.



Lashkari, a resident of neighbouring Kokernag area, was an A++ category militant who carried Rs 10 lakh bounty on his head. He had crossed over to Pakistan occuped Kashmir for arms training in 1999 and returned under state government amnesty scheme announced by Omar Abdullah government in 2012. Lashkari was jailed till 2014 and got recycled into militancy in 2015. He was also involved in many rifle snatching incidents in south Kashmir.



Eyewitnesses told Deccan Herald over phone that Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were used by the forces to blast the house in which militants were trapped. They said as the encounter was going on hundreds of people, mostly youth, marched to the spot hurling stones and brickbats in a bid to help militants break through the siege. Security forces fired tear gas shells and bullets to disperse the protesters in which one more protester was killed while more than a dozen were injured.



The authorities blocked access to internet and cellphone services in some parts of south Kashmir after the incident. Lashkari's killing is the second blow to LeT in last two weeks as another senior commander of the outfit Junaid Mattoo was neutralised in a gunfight at neighbouring Arwani village on June 16. Earlier in May, police had killed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Bhat.
Congress' one-upmanship is being attributed as the reason for some parties breaking ranks with the Opposition, which was latest witnessed at the GST launch.



While JD(U) chose a separate way in the Presidential polls itself, more parties -- NCP, SP, BSP, JD(S) and Kerala Congress (Mani) -- chose to ignore Congress call to boycott the midnight launch of the new tax regime at Parliament's Central Hall, which has symbolism attached to independence.



These parties said Congress first delayed its decision and then even did not bother about a consultation on the issue. The Congress leaders approached other party leaders only after announcing its decision in a press conference, they said.



Sources said the parties do not want to send a message that they are blindly toeing Congress line. JD(U) had already gone public that Congress forced them to take a contrary stand on Presidential polls by delaying the announcement to ensure that their candidate is named.



For the GST function, Congress leaders worked their phones with former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda, an invitee to the function along with another former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and NCP chief Sharad Pawar among others but it could not influence their decisions.



Pawar, who stood with Opposition after it over ruled his appeal for delaying announcement of a joint candidate by a day and was present at the filing of nomination by Meira Kumar, had the other day walked out of a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Land Bill along with Congress MPs protesting against government stand.



His close confidante and NCP MP Praful Patel even went public asking why there is "so much fuss" about the function when GST was passed unanimously.



JD(S) too were upset with Congress approach. A senior JD(S) leader said they approached Gowda for boycotting the function after they announced their decision. "There should be some decorum. If they want unity, then there should be deliberation before and one cannot expect that every body will toe their line," the leader said.



The SP, BSP and Kerala Congress, who attended the joint opposition meetings in the past, also did not find merit in the Congress argument.



Though Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior MP Sharad Yadav did not attend the function, JD(U) sent a delegation led by a senior minister. JD(U), which has smoked the peace pipe with ally RJD, is still seething with anger at Congress for their attack on Nitish over Presidential polls.



However, it has made it clear it will be part of opposition deliberations to find a common candidate for Vice Presidential polls.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah today questioned the strategic security policy of the Centre in the wake of comments made by former defence minister Manohar Parrikar that surgical strikes in PoK were triggered by an "insulting question" by a TV anchor.



"The #SurgicalStrike had nothing to do with #Uri. It was planned because a minister was asked 'an insulting question'. What does one say!" Omar wrote on Twitter.



Omar was reacting to Parrikar's statement that the surgical strikes against militants in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were planned 15 months in advance.



"One question (from media) hurt me. (Union minister) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an ex-Armyman, was on TV and he was explaining about all kinds of search operations.



"An anchor asked him would you have the courage and capability of doing the same on the western front," Parrikar had said yesterday.



"I listened very intensely but decided to answer when the time came. The starting of September 29 (2016) surgical strike on the western border was 9th of June, 2015 ... We planned 15 months in advance. Additional troops were trained. Equipment was procured on priority basis," he had said.



Omar said a news anchor's question could have provoked a wider conflict with Pakistan. "We are supposed to feel safer with this sort of decision making," he added.
India today again asked Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court as the two countries exchanged a list of prisoners lodged in each other's jails.



According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.



"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement in Delhi.



Jadhav was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage activities. India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.



Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.



In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".



The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access which was signed on May 21, 2008. As per the pact, lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.



"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said.



It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.



"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," it said.



The Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
Meira Kumar, the opposition's presidential nominee, today asserted that she was not a "scapegoat" in the upcoming election to the country's top constitutional post as she was fighting for an ideology.



"Anybody fighting for an ideology and appealing to the voice of conscience cannot be a scapegoat. I am a fighter and I will fight and I am sure that many will join me in this fight," she said in response to a question whether she was being made a scapegoat in the presidential election.



Union minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale had yesterday took a jibe at the Congress saying it was using Kumar as a "scapegoat" by fielding her as the opposition candidate in the July 17 presidential election.



Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker and the daughter of iconic Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram, was speaking to reporters after meeting the Congress MPs and MLAs at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office here.



Seventeen opposition parties have fielded Kumar as their joint candidate in the presidential election against NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.



To a question on her not having the support of enough lawmakers, Kumar said she was fighting the poll on values and principles which were "sacred" to the people of the country.



"Wherever I go, people tell me that I do not have the numbers. If I do not have the numbers, why don't you round up the figures and declare the results? Why have the elections?," she wondered.



Pointing out that she launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, Kumar said, "I am carrying forward those values and principles which are sacred to most of my countrymen and women.



"Someone has to take them up. I am taking up your fight also....you want me to withdraw? Do you want me to get defeated? I am simply fighting."



Kumar also met former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H D Deve Gowda and sought his party's support to her candidature.



Asked about the presidential poll turning into a "Dalit contest", she said it was "shameful" that a supreme election to the post of president was being painted in this manner.



"We have to come out of this mentality....even in 2017, people with high qualifications are talking about castes. When both the sides had fielded candidates from higher castes in the past, no one discussed about it. We were not even aware of their castes. We were only aware of their accomplishments, experience and capabilities and only those things were discussed.



"When the contest is between me and Kovind, our caste is being discussed and there is no other talk. Where are we today? Where are we heading?," she wondered.



Noting that in today's era, everyone craved for quality, Kumar said, "Our thinking needs to become good as well."



Asked if she would meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the run-up to the election, Kumar said she had written a letter to him and would decide on meeting him when she visited the eastern state.



Going against the decision of its alliance partners, the RJD and the Congress, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) has decided to back the candidature of former Bihar governor Kovind. Kumar, the opposition's presidential nominee, also hails from Bihar.



When pointed out that like her, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also been speaking about development based on Mahatma Gandhi's ideologies, Kumar said Gandhiji's ideology was that of "secularism".



"We do not just have to be tolerant towards the other religions, but be respectful towards them. That was Gandhiji's ideology and we have always carried that forward," she said.
Over 4,400 pilgrims today left the winter capital for the twin base camps of 3,888 metre high Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva in south Kashmir Himalayas, amid tight security.



The yatra was suspended from Jammu base camp after multiple landslides triggered by heavy rains blocked the Jammu-Srinagar national highway yesterday.



Over 15,000 pilgrims have paid obeisance to the Ice Lingam of Lord shrine at Amarnath in South Kashmir hills.



Amid chanting of "Jai Bholay Nath" and "Bum Bum Bholay", the pilgrims comprising 3,298 males, 986 females and 193 sages and transgenders left in a convoy of 142 vehicles for Amarnath this morning and were escorted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a police officer said.



With today's batch, 9,238 pilgrims and sadhus have left Jammu for Amarnath since the yatra began from Jammu on June 28. Today's was the third batch of pilgrims.



The annual yatra in Kashmir had begun amid terror threats, according to an Intelligence warning, prompting the authorities to mobilise the "highest level" of security measures, including satellite tracking system.



The Intelligence reports had claimed that militants were planning to target 100 policemen and as many pilgrims participating in the yatra.



"The Intelligence input received from SSP Anantnag revealed that terrorists had been directed to eliminate 100 to 150 pilgrims and about 100 police officers and officials," said a letter by Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Zone) Muneer Khan to the Army, CRPF, and range DIGs in the state last week.



"The input is assessed to be a HUMINT (human intelligence) and needs further corroboration," the IGP had said in the letter, adding the possibility of a sensational attack by a terrorist outfit could not be ruled out.



"The attack may be in the form of stand-off fire on the yatra convoy which the militants believe would result in flaring of communal tensions throughout the nation," the IGP had said in the letter which is being circulated on WhatsApp.



The government has mobilised a heavy security blanket of over 35,000 to 40,000 troops including the police, Army, BSF and CRPF as part of the multi-tier security for the pilgrimage.



In addition to the existing strength of the CRPF in Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre has provided over 250 companies (25,000 personnel) of paramilitary forces to the state government.



The BSF has deployed over 2,000 troops for the yatra, while the Army has provided 5 battalions (about 5,000 personnel) and additional 54 companies (5,400 personnel) of the police have also been mobilised.



The yatra will be eight days shorter this year against last year's 48 days and conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on August 7.



Situated in a narrow gorge at the farther end of Lidder Valley, Amarnath shrine stands at 3,888 metres, 46 km from Pahalgam and 14 km from Baltal.
Amid a stand-off in the Sikkim sector with Chinese troops, India has attended an SCO meeting in China to enhance anti-terrorism and border control mechanisms among member nations, the first plenary meeting after India and Pakistan became full members of the China- dominated security grouping.



Seven Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states including China, India and Russia participated in the organisation's meeting of heads of border control departments on Thursday in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province.



Officials from the Indian Embassy attended the Dalian meeting of the SCO.



This is the first plenary meeting since India and Pakistan joined the grouping in June. The other members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.



India and Pakistan last month became full members of the SCO that is increasingly seen as a counterweight to NATO.



India's membership was strongly pushed by Russia while Pakistan's entry into the grouping was backed by China.



Member states discussed how to cooperate on combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, state-run Global Times reported.



The members also talked about a joint operation along the border to prevent trans-border crimes and to improve the organisation's cooperation on safeguarding border security at the SCO meeting, the report said.



Border enforcement cooperation is an important part of cooperation between China and other SCO member states, Chen Dingwu, a senior official at China's Ministry of Public Security's Border Control Department, said.



He said China values the collaboration with border control departments of other countries, and has already built cooperation mechanisms with 11 neighbouring countries, including SCO members.



SCO member states are willing to discuss issues of common interest based on equality as provided by the Shanghai Spirit, SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov said.



Alimov said the SCO will create a positive political atmosphere to comprehensively consolidate and develop trust, respect and friendship.



The Chinese daily said the Indian delegation attended the meeting "despite border rift with China in the Sikkim sector".



"Observers believed that relations between China and India were unaffected by the stand-off between Chinese army and Indian troops along the Sino-India border," the daily said.



There is an ongoing stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim sector after the Indian Army blocked construction of a road by China in Doklam, a disputed territory between China and Bhutan.
President Pranab Mukherjee joined Congress president Sonia Gandhi in expressing serious concern over growing number of mob lynching cases in India, wondering whether the society is vigilant enough to save the basic tenets of the country.



When mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough?, Mukherjee said at the release of commemorative publication of relaunched National Herald here.



Sonia Gandhi, who spoke at the function, said, "It is being encouraged by a culture of vigilante violence, actively supported by those who are supposed to enforce the law."



Later, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of the Congress president, told reporters that "It (incident of lynching) makes my blood boil. It should make blood of every Indian boil."



Mukherjee's comment and Sonia Gandhi's criticism came in the wake of reports about the spiralling violence over beef.



Mukherjee, who retires later this month, said, "When mob frenzy becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect. I am not talking of vigilantism, I am talking of are we vigilant enough, proactively to save the basic tenets of our country.



He said, "I do believe that citizens' and media vigilance can act as the biggest deterrent to forces of darkness and backwardness."



Congress president Sonia Gandhi said India is being marked by increasing threats of 'authoritarianism.'



She said, "Today the tried and tested idea of India has been thrown fundamentally into question by rising intolerance, by malevolent forces. It is being encouraged by a culture of vigilantive violence, actively supported by those who are supposed to enforce the law."



Gandhi further said that National Herald newspaper, which has been revived, is a testament to unity and justice and "not the division and hate that the present times are witnessing.



She said, "We are in a war of ideas, we have reached this war to preserve our ideas, which have built India as a model of democracy diversity and coexistence.if we don't raise our voices, if we do not speak up, our voices will be taken as consent."



A day after nationwide protests against lynchings spilt onto the streets, Modi had on Thursday broke his silence at Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat and said killing people in the name of gau bhakti (devotion to the cow) is not acceptable.



The PM also said Mahatma Gandhi would not have approved of it and that no person in the country has the right to take the law into his own hands.



However, Modi's warning seemed to have had a little effect as just hours after his speech, Alimuddin, a meat trader, was lynched in Jharkhands Ramgarh.



Many cities witnessed protests across various locations under the tagline Not in My Name to protest against the lynching of 15-year-old Junaid Khan in a Mathura-bound train last week.


Triumph Motorcycles has announced plans to increase its completely knocked-down (CKD) assembly capability at its Manesar facility, even as it prepares to export its luxurious bikes from India.



In FY17, the British companys portfolio in India comprised 80% of vehicles imported through a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) from Thailand, with the remaining 20% being CKD units. Starting this month onwards (FY17 July to FY18 June), a massive 90% of its portfolio will comprise CKD units, with the remaining being through FTA.



Overall, what we have done is a strategic change. Last year, we would use our FTA with Thailand, where we have a factory, to get bikes immediately after launch. Now, we think India needs more flexibility and investment, so we have increased CKD assembly in India, Triumph Motorcycle India Managing Director Vimal Sumbly told DH.



It must be noted that globally, Triumph has two manufacturing bases  the UK (two plants) and Thailand (three plants), besides two assembly plants  one in Brazil and the other at Manesar in India.



This move, apart from drastically reducing the time needed for delivery, will also help regularise prices much to the glee of discerning customers. It has also come in tandem with the launch of the GST.



Reflecting about the new tax regime, Sumbly said, A little challenge that has happened for motorcycles of over 350 cc engine capacities is the introduction of a 3% cess, over a tax of 28%, taking the total levy to 31%. Hence, prices have gone up in the premium motorcycle segment, but this is bound to be a short-term hit.



Meanwhile, Triumph is eyeing to export motorcycles from India to Nepal, during the first half of this year. The motorcycle segment in India, consisting of models of above 500 cc, stands at 10,000 units a year. We operate in the segment involving motorcycles of over 500 cc and priced over Rs 5 lakh, where we dominate a third of the market at 30%, selling about 1,200-1,300 units a year, Sumbly said.


A 23-year-old woman from Bengaluru nabbed a chain-snatcher after a chase in Srirangapatna on Saturday.



Navya, wife of Suresh Kumar, a resident of Mahalakshmipuram Layout in Bengaluru, nabbed Naveen Kumar, 25, a resident of Sanaba village in Pandavapura taluk, when he was fleeing after snatching her 60-gram gold chain.



The incident occurred near Nimishamba Temple in Ganjam near here. Navya, along with her family members, had came to the town to visit the temple.



When all the family members were in the temple, Navya was sitting in the car. Naveen, who approached Navya, asking her about some address, snatched the chain.



Navya, who came out of the car, chased him for nearly 10 to 12 metres and caught him. Soon, people, who were nearby, handed him over to the police.



Naveen, an MA degree holder, married just six months ago, indulged in crime to make easy money, said the police.


The Rs 800-crore project on a grade separator from Ragigudda to Silk Board, which will also include the ambitious multi-level flyover and elevated Metro tracks, will be completed by 2020 along with other Phase 2 projects, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd officials said.



Bengaluru Development Minister K J George said on Friday that the cost of construction of the grade separator from Ragigudda to Silk Board under Namma Metro project would be shared between Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and BMRCL.



A BBMP official said the Palike will pay Rs 100 crore to BMRCL. The project, announced in the state budget, includes a four-lane flyover of more than 3.5 km connecting two points on the outer ring road.



BMRCL officials said the junction is crucial since it connects multiple lines in Namma Metro Phase 2. The RV Road-Bommasandra line goes through Silk Board junction. Later, the Gottigere-Nagawara line crosses the section at Jayadeva Hospital. Also, Phase 2As Silk Board-KR Puram line work can be taken up only after the junction is completed. We want to complete the work by 2020, he said.
As the clock ticks on the three-year deadline for Namma Metro's Phase 2, officials are setting things in motion by inviting bids for the toughest part of the project, the 13.7-km underground section.



The underground section is part of the 21.5-km Gottigere-Nagawara line, the north-south line that runs parallel to Phase 1s Nagasandra-Yelachenahalli track.



The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has divided the project into four packages and set a deadline of 36 months. Considering that the tender will be opened on August 28, those who bag the project have to complete the work by the third quarter of 2020. In Phase 1 works, elevated stretches were built almost on time compared to the eight-km underground section, which delayed the project by three to four years.



The underground section tender has come after it was evaluated by the European Investment Bank, which is providing a Rs 3,700-crore loan for the Rs 5,047.56-crore project.



BMRCL floated tenders for 7.5 km of the elevated stretch between Gottigere and Swagath Road Cross in March this year. The elevated line with five stations  Gottigere, Hulimavu, IIMB, JP Nagar 4th Phase, Swagath Road Cross  is estimated to cost Rs 575.52 crore. Though there is a 27-month deadline, the tender is yet to be awarded.



BMRCL managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola said the cost of the entire line may touch Rs 11,000 crore including cost of land acquisition, shifting of utilities as well as the Kothnur depot.



Kharola said the corporation was confident of meeting the 2020 deadline set by the state government. The idea behind splitting the underground project into four packages is to speed up the construction process.



We have also increased the number of tunnel boring machines to 13, with at least three TBMs for each package. The documents for the elevated projects are being evaluated by EIB and we should be able to secure funding soon, he said.


Five men from Uttar Pradesh living as tenants in an adjoining house are suspected to have carried out the daring burglary at a jewellery store in Bommanahalli, south Bengaluru, on the intervening night of June 28 and 29.



The gang managed to take away 350 grams of jewellery from Pawan Jewellers located on Hongasandra Main Road. The burglary came to light when the shopkeeper, Vinod, opened the store on the morning of June 29. Vinod has been running the store for the past 20 years. The store shares a wall with a house owned by one Obesh.



DCP (Southeast) M B Boralingaiah said the gang members could be from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar or Jharkhand. There are certain leads to establish the involvement of the gang. It may take sometime to crack the case, he added. On June 26, two men from Uttar Pradesh met Obesh seeking to rent his house. They introduced themselves as fruits sellers from Madiwala market and said they were presently put up in RT Nagar. They told him they wanted to move to a locality close to Madiwala market as RT Nagar was far away, police said.



Obesh agreed to rent the house and took Rs 25,000 as security deposit. Surprisingly, he didnt collect any other details of the men except their phone numbers. Two days later, on June 28, three other men joined the duo. Obesh grew suspicious and asked the tenants about the three men. They told him they were their friends from Uttar Pradesh and would return the next day.



The men removed the windowpanes and came out of the house through the window on the night of June 28. They locked the house from outside and re-entered the house through the window.



They dug up a tunnel and entered the jewellery store. They tried to break open a cupboard using a gas cutter but in vain. They later collected the jewellery and fled from the house through the window. But before that, they damaged the CCTV cameras and took away the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) box that contained the CCTV footage.



Held for usury



A private moneylender from Nagasandra, north Bengaluru, has been arrested for charging borrowers high rates of interest. The suspect, Anand V, was lending to people without having the requisite licence. Police arrested him following complaints that he was exploiting and harassing his borrowers.


A software engineers seemingly innocuous attempt to enter the passenger terminal of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) by showing a forged air ticket so that he could see off his wife and four-month-old daughter has cost him dear.



Amit Kumar entered the terminal around 6.40 am on Friday by presenting a forged air ticket that showed he was travelling to Kolkata, his hometown. Airline staff caught him when he tried to leave the terminal, and turned him over to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is responsible for the airports security, a police source said.



When CISF officials questioned him, he said his wife and child were heading to Kolkata and he had come to see them off. He said his wife was carrying too much luggage and he came to help her.



In order to get into the passenger terminal, he edited his wifes ticket and kept a copy with himself. He showed it at the departure gate and entered the passenger terminal to see his wife and daughter off, the source said.



CISF officials lodged a complaint at the Kempegowda International Airport police station. Police registered a case under IPC Sections 420, 465 and 471. A court has remanded him in judicial custody, the source added. Kumar had moved to Bengaluru just six months ago to work for a software technology company.


Huge queues along the Octroi check 'nakas' in Mumbai would be a thing of the past as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has come into force.



The five Octroi nakas were a sort of landmarks for the financial capital of India. Besides, they have been the biggest revenue earners for the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), one of the biggest civic bodies in the country.



Octroi has also been a political issue for Mumbai and whosoever in power in the corporation ensured that it generated more revenue. Besides, there were also reports of rampant corruption.



For BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta it is now a major challenge on how to utilise the infrastructure that gave close to Rs 7,000 crore annually and employed more than 2,000 people. These employees would be absorbed in other departments of the BMC, but there are others who are indirectly employed  loaders and nearly 3,000 licensed and unlicensed agents. Octroi has been in force in Mumbai since April 1, 1964.



The five octroi nakas  Mumbai-Panvel Highway (Mankhurd), Eastern Express Highway (Mulund East), Western Express Highway (Dahisar), Mulund-Airoli Link Road Naka (Airoli) and Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg Naka (Mulund)  would now be used for some other purposes.



As soon as President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressed the button heralding GST, we stopped collecting Octroi, a top source involved in Mumbais Octroi collection, told DH. The department, however, will remain operational for some time as they have to clear pending cases and disputes.



As far as the use of these nakasare concerned, the assistant municipal commissioners of 24 wards have been asked to give their inputs. What the BMC has in mind is to create bus terminus, parking plazas or small business hubs, BMC officials said.



Liquor and dining



For the hotel and restaurant sector, the last eight months have been tumultuous - starting with demonetisation that came out of the blue, then the Supreme Court ban on the sale of liquor within 500 metres of National Highways and State Highways, and now the changeover to the Goods and Service Tax regime.



With people relying more on unverified social media messages than what has appeared in newspapers and TV channels, it is adding to the confusion. However, the scenario that has emerged is that liquor prices remain stable but food is going to cost a little more.



Petrol, diesel, liquor, tobacco and aviation fuel is out of the purview of GST, said Mankoskar Surendrakumar Chandrakant Rao, Additional Commissioner, Central Excise & Service Tax, Pune. There should not be any confusion on this and the rates were announced earlier, quite in advance, he said, adding there would be State Excise on liquor as it used to be earlier. For dining it would be 12% in non-AC restaurant and 18 % in an AC restaurant.



We hope that in the next 15 days things would in order, Rishi Puri, vice president, Lords Hotels & Resorts, told DH.


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BJP workers in the state have embarked on their reach-out programme Vistarak from Saturday, wherein they will have to spend 15 days at places assigned to them and work towards strengthening the party base. They will have to file a report on the political, economic and social scenario of the place where they worked.



BJP state general secretary N Ravikumar said workers are being dispatched in batches and the process will be on till July 8. The aim is to cover all the 54,000-plus electoral booths in the state.



Ravikumar said they will have to interact with voters, create awareness about the NDA governments progra-mmes and expose the misdeeds of the state government among others.


The Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) demanded that the state government withdraw the Karnataka Education Act Second Amendment Bill, 2017, at a state-level symposium at Palace Grounds on Saturday.



General secretary Shashi Kumar D, said, ICSE and CBSE schools cannot come under the Act, the government should withdraw all related circulars. Let schools focus on academics.



They addressed several demands to the principal secretary for education and commissioner for public instruction. They demanded that the process of admission through RTE should be completed by March every year. School managements also expressed their concerns over several RTE activist groups which target certain schools and stir trouble. They also said that the revised state syllabus textbooks were not up to the expectations.



Principal secretary Ajay Seth, said, Around 40% of the children in rural areas and 80% in urban areas in Karnataka attend private schools. The government and managements of these schools need to work together.
The High Court of Karnataka on Saturday expressed displeasure over non-compliance of the court orders by the principal secretary (Revenue department) over taking action against two erring officials.



Justice Ravi Malimath, who was hearing the petition, asked, Why cant he (IAS officer) also be suspended for not following the court order? The judge on June 14 had directed principal secretary, Revenue Department to suspend D B Natesh, assistant commissioner (AC) and Shivakumar, tahsildar of the Bengaluru South division and hold an enquiry against them.



Justice Malimath in his order said: There has been disobedience of the orders of the court. The directions of the court have been deliberately flouted by the principal secretary...It would prima facie appear that the reasons for placing the AC and the tahsildar under suspension would also stand applicable to the principal secretary based on his conduct.



Petitioner S C Gokarna, a land owner in Kothnur village in JP Nagar 7th Phase, had moved the high court challenging the action of the AC and the tahsildar who had issued notices to land owners. The notice stated that the government is acquiring his land under provisions of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, alleging the land owner had encroached upon government land.



The notice was issued to land owners on May 26, 2017 and without giving a chance to them to reply to the notices, the tahsildar and the AC demolished the compound wall around the land the next day. Gokarna challenged the action of the officials without giving time to reply.



The judge, in his previous order, had directed the AC and the tahsildar to construct the compound wall that was demolished.



However, the petitioners advocate informed the court that the government had filed a false affidavit in the court that there was no construction put up by them. During the hearing, Additional Advocate General A G Shivanna submitted an application to the court to modify the directions. However, when the judge said that there was no clarity in the application, Shivanna sought more time to explain to the court with regard to the compliance of the order. The judge granted time and adjourned the next hearing to July 3.


India has once again asked Pakistan to grant consular access to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, whom a military court in the neighbouring country has put on a death row.



New Delhi and Islamabad on Saturday exchanged lists of Pakistani and Indian prisoners in each others jails, in accordance with the provisions of the 2008 bilateral agreement on consular access. India used the opportunity to once again request Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to Jadhav, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.



The MEA added that India reiterated to Pakistan its request for consular access to Hamid Nehal Ansari, who hails from Mumbai, but had been arrested in Pakistan in 2012 after he had illegally entered the country from Afghanistan.



India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav, Gopal Baglay, spokesperson of the MEA, said.



India once again requested Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats, whose nationality has been confirmed by India, said Baglay.



Islamabad in March 2016 had announced the arrest of Jadhav from Balochistan in Pakistan. He has since been in the custody of the Pakistan Army. New Delhis repeated requests to grant consular access to him was turned down by Islamabad.



A military court in Pakistan in April awarded him death sentence after convicting him of being involved in espionage and sabotage in that country. India moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) challenging Pakistan's decision to decline its requests for consular access to him. The ICJ had passed an interim order asking Pakistan not to execute Jadhav till the court decided on the plea by India.



Ansari purportedly entered Pakistan to meet a woman he had met on social media. He was convicted of espionage by a court in Pakistan and sent to prison for three years. He was attacked by inmates of the Peshawar Central Prison and was injured at least thrice.
Students of Bangalore University (BU) and its affiliated colleges will no longer have to queue up on the Jnanabharathi campus to submit challans as the university on Saturday launched a software for online payment of fees.



As of now, all fees, except examination fee, convocation fee and affiliation fee, can be paid using the system. The universitys finance officer has promised that within 10 days, online payment of the remaining fees will also be facilitated.



The software has been developed by InHawk IT solutions Pvt Ltd with State Bank of India (SBI) and Axis Bank payment gateways.



To pay the fees online, students should visit buofc.inhawk.com and log in. The system is integrated with the student database and will automatically display the students fee details and the amount to be paid. Payment can be made with debit/credit cards and internet banking. Offline payments can be made at the branches of SBI and Axis Bank using the challans generated online. The present method of fee collection through demand draft (DD) will continue for the next three months to allow for a smooth transition. Affiliated colleges will be provided training on the use of software to make the payments.



A fee of Rs 13 will be collected by the service provider for each transaction. According to university officials, the online payment will be beneficial to students and colleges as the DD charges are higher. For a transaction of Rs 10 lakh, colleges incur demand draft charges of up to Rs 2,000. With the software, they will be charged just Rs 13 even if they are transferring the fees collected from 1,500 students, a university official said.


Meira Kumar, the Oppositions Presidential candidate, asserted on Saturday that she was not being made a scapegoat in the election as she was fighting for an ideology.



I am a fighter and I will fight. Anyone who fights for an ideology and is appealing to the conscience cannot be a scapegoat, she said when journalists asked her whether she was being made a scapegoat in the presidential polls as the NDA has a clear majority in the electoral college.



Meira visited the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office in Bengaluru where she interacted with the partys MLAs as part of her electoral campaign.



Wherever I go, people tell me that I do not have the numbers. If we come to a conclusion even before the elections, there is no point in conducting the polls. Why dont you just round up the numbers and declare the results, she said. She said she stood for democratic values, social justice and destruction of the caste hierarchy.



Meira said she had written to the MPs and MLAs of all states (who form the electoral college for the presidential polls) irrespective of their party affiliation, asserting that they were becoming part of a historic decision and calling on them to vote according to their conscience.



The former Speaker of the Lok Sabha said it was unfortunate and shameful that the presidential election was being given a caste colour and portrayed as a Dalit vs Dalit fight. When both the sides fielded candidates from upper castes in the past, no one discussed it. We were not even aware of their caste. We were only aware of their accomplishments, experience and capabilities. When the contest is between me and Kovind (the NDA candidate), our caste is being discussed and there is no other talk... We have to come out of this mindset, she said.



To another question, Meira said she planned to visit all states in the coming days as part of her campaign. I will seek the support of the JD(U) from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar when I visit that state, she said.



Meira also interacted with Congress MLAs at the legislature party meeting. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC president G Parameshwara and several senior leaders were present.



In Karnataka, the Congress has 124 MLAs, including the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and 14 MPs (both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha).



Earlier in the day, Meira met JD(S) leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda in the VIP lounge of the Kempegowda International Airport. The JD(S) has announced its support for her. The party has 40 MLAs and three MPs. It has, however, disqualified eight of its MLAs on the grounds of carrying out anti-party activities during elections to the Rajya Sabha last year.



Presidential polls are scheduled for July 17. The NDA candidate is former Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind.


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Barburrito, the UK's first burrito bar chain, has announced when it expects to be opening in Intu Derby.

The Derby outlet will be the Mexican food chain's 22 store, and its second "island style" - which means standalone in a building, rather than an actual restaurant.

The exact location for the new eatery, which will be within the Intu Derby food court, has yet to be revealed but bosses have confirmed it'll be open in "mid-Autumn".

The Mexican-style fast food restaurant chain focuses primarily on selling burritos and burrito bowls (the filling of the burrito minus wrap). It also offers tacos and nachos covered in cheese sauce, with ingredients that are made on-site.

The company's tagline is: "You design it, we'll build it ..." It offers fully-loaded, vegetarian, vegan and halal options.

Barburrito prices start at 5.50 for a small classic burrito - a tortilla filled with your choice of rice, beans, onions and peppers, salsa and cheese or sour cream plus grilled chicken, pulled pork or flash fried vegetables with guacamole. Other fillings include spicy shredded beef or grilled steak, with extras such as chorizo or crunchy slaw.

(Image: Huw John)

Barburrito CEO and founder Morgan Davies said: "We are passionate about serving high-quality food at an affordable price and we aim to offer a fresh alternative at Intu Derby. Our mission is to be the UK's most loved burrito chain."

The company was founded in 2005, opening its first bar in Manchester, and currently employs over 350 people. Its 21 existing stores are spread across 11 cities. Currently, the firm's nearest outlet is in Nottingham.

Development manager at Barburrito, Scott Hale, said: "The store will be a self-contained unit within a very busy food court.

"With our branding and slick operations we're confident it'll be a success and can't wait to bring the taste of Mexico to Derby."

Adam Tamsett, general manager Intu Derby "We are really excited to be giving Intu Derby customers yet another reason to smile by welcoming Barburrito to the centre. Our food court is the perfect location for Barburrito to attract shoppers in Derby with a fresh choice for lunch or food on the go."

The Barburrito outlet will be the second Mexican eatery to arrive at Intu Derby after the Mexico restaurant opened directly opposite the food court in July 2016.
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Armed police officers will be on patrol for tonight's Little Mix concert in Castle Donington.

Extra security measures will be in place for the show at Donington Park following recent terror attacks in Manchester and London.

The open-air gig is part of the quartet's Summer Shout Out Tour and thousands of people are expected to be there. Supporting the former X Factor winners are Ella Eyre and Sheppard.

A spokesman for Leicestershire Police said: "We are working with the organisers of the Little Mix 'Summer Shout Out' to make sure everyone has a safe and enjoyable time this Saturday (July 1).

"In the light of recent events in Manchester and London the security at the event has been reviewed and additional security is being put in place to ensure everyone's safety. Armed officers will be patrolling with their unarmed colleagues. They are there to keep everyone safe and make sure everyone has a good time. All police officers are very happy to talk to Little Mix fans so please go and say hello."

In May, 22 people were killed when a suicide bomb exploded after an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena.

At the start of the year the Derby Telegraph reported how thousands of tickets were snapped up following the announcement of the concert.

The chart-topping group will perform their signature hits, including Shout Out to My Ex, Black Magic, Hair and Wings, alongside tracks from their new album Glory Days.

Little Mix had a successful 2016 with another No1 single Shout Out To My Ex and the album Glory Days shooting straight to the top of the Official Albums Chart.

This story first appeared on the Nottingham Post website.
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A care home worker says she was horrified to see a gang of teenagers savagely attack a cat in Alvaston.

Selina Willsher, who works at the Kiwi House care home at the bottom of Coleman Street , where the attack happened, said she was told by the RPSCA not to try and help the cat for her own safety.

The Derby Telegraph previously reported how one of the eleven teenagers repeatedly kicked the 19-year-old cat in the head and another rode a skateboard over it. The RSPCA said called the actions of the group as "sickening" and has made an appeal for witnesses.

It was Miss Willsher that first rang the RSPCA about the shocking incident which happened at 4.20pm on Thursday.

Miss Willsher has worked at the care home for nine years and is currently an activities co-ordinator. She said: "At first, I thought she was somebody's bag. But then I could see she was a cat. I saw her move very slowly and it was at that point I thought something was horribly wrong - she wasn't acting in the normal way.

"Then I saw a group of boys and girls attack the cat - one of them rode a skateboard over her and another boy took his foot to her while another one pulled her tail. I didn't know what else to do but call the RSPCA who did help us.

"It was an horrific experience and I don't want to see it ever again."

Miss Willsher said she contacted the police, as well as the RSPCA, about the attack.

People have told of their anger at what happened on the Derby Telegraph Facebook page.

Natalie Worsfold said: "Hope this brave old cat can pull through after this. Why do people have such a lack of respect for animals? Animal cruelty charges should be upped. Somebody who can torture an innocent cat is clearly dangerous and not fit to be part of our society."

And Janis Page said: "What is wrong with people, how can it be fun to hurt a defenceless animal. It makes me sick!"

The Tortoiseshell-coloured cat is currently being cared for at a vets. She was microchipped but the contact details stored on the chip were out of date.

Anyone with information about the attack or who believes the cat might be theirs is asked to contact the RSPCA on 0300 123 8018.
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A popular bar in Sadler Gate has announced its closure following what it called an "arduous legal battle" with the building's landlord.

Hop Gate specialised in high-end craft beers and was well-liked by specialist drinkers for the staff's product knowledge and the bar's trendy decor.

It opened in July last year to positive reviews from customers and the Derby Telegraph's Beerhunter but yesterday bosses revealed its permanent closure.

In a statement on the bar's Facebook page it said a wrangle between Hop Gate, which opened in the old Saddlers Bar premises, and the landlord ultimately brought the bar down.

It said: "It is with regret that we inform you that Hop Gate has ceased trading at its current location.

"After an arduous legal battle regarding the premises, the decision was made to allow the landlord to gain possession.

"We are truly gutted that a better compromise for all parties involved could not have been met. We have truly loved being part of the beer scene and community in Derby and have had such a fun time doing so."

Bosses asked its Facebook followers in a light-hearted aside if "anyone knows anyone who wants to buy a bar full of equipment".

They also hinted that the bar may make a return to Derby in another location.

The statement said: "Keep an eye out, you never know where our 'post-apocalyptic Berlin wine bar' may pop up once again."

The Derby Telegraph contacted the Hop Gate bosses who said they were unable to comment today but would be willing to do so in the future.
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A Derbyshire van driver who caused a head-on smash which left three people, including himself, seriously injured has been jailed for two years.

Builder Mark Heeley broke the speed limit when he overtook illegally across solid white lines while driving through bends and up a hill before colliding with a Nissan being driven in the opposite direction.

The force of the impact caused damage to five vehicles in total and the driver of the Nissan suffered multiple broken bones, as well as head injuries. A female motorist who was also involved "thought she and her four-month-old son who was in the car "were going to die" in the impact.

And another motorist who was involved described the force of the impact as "like a bomb going off with pieces of car going everywhere". The photos of the incident were taken by Derbyshire police.

Jailing the 32-year-old at Derby Crown Court , Judge Nirmal Shant QC said: "You pulled out over solid white lines and you had the opportunity to pull in after you overtook the first vehicle but you did not.

"You attempted to overtake a second vehicle and that had disastrous consequences which was catastrophic for all involved."

Sarah Slater, prosecuting, said the offence happened on a stretch of the A623 at Tideswell known locally as the "Manchester bends" on March 1.

Heeley was driving a Ford Transit van and chose to overtake two vehicles, going over solid white lines in the centre of the road which was an illegal manoeuvre. Miss Slater said the first vehicle he overtook slowed down to create a gap for him to pull into but instead he tried to overtake the second vehicle.

Miss Slater said: "It was a seriously dangerous manoeuvre which had disastrous consequences. One witness said the noise of the impact was like a bomb going off with pieces of car going everywhere.

"A woman who had her four-month old son in the car said she believes she passed out briefly and when she came round she heard her son crying and felt lucky because she thought they were both going to die."

Miss Slater said the most seriously injured person, the driver of the Nissan who was involved in the head-on crash with Heeley, suffered a broken leg, pelvis, foot, frontal head trauma and an aneurysm on the back of his head.

She said he spent seven weeks in hospital and needed numerous operations. Heeley pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious injury through dangerous driving.

One count relates to the Nissan driver and the second to a friend who was in the Ford Transit he was driving.

Will Bennett, for Heely, of Compass Crescent, Chesterfield, said his client was a "hard-working, decent, committed family man" who had spent eight days himself in a high dependency unit in hospital after receiving his own injuries in the crash.

Mr Bennett said: "This dangerous manoeuvre, horrible as it was, was completely out of character for him. He has pulled out (to overtake) and he should have pulled back in but he did not.

"No-one in this room knows better than the defendant how lucky it is that no-one was killed. He shows genuine horror at the harm he has caused."
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These pictures reveal how a "lovely public green space" in Derby was found peppered with trash and fire damage after travellers left and moved on to another spot.

The snaps show mountains of rubbish and overflowing bin bags scattered with toilet tissue and even soiled nappies.

And some bizarre items were uncovered among the detritus including a mains plug socket and a single brown brogue.

The catalogue of photographs was captured by a resident in her late 60s, who did not want to be named, after she went to inspect land called the Big Dipper in Oakwood.

Travellers left the Big Dipper on Wednesday, one day before bailiffs were due to evict them, and have now moved to Chaddesden Park.

Two brothers who told the Derby Telegraph that they were part of the traveller group who stayed in Oakwood denied on Wednesday that they were responsible for any rubbish left behind.

The outraged resident said: "I'm very open-minded. I thought I should give them the benefit of the doubt to start with  they looked like a well-to-do sort of people with nice new motorhomes and so on.



"But, unfortunately, once they settled in there was a lot of anti-social behaviour, and residents were kept awake until 3am by noise, music and shouting.

"I'm upset with what they have left behind. They denied that it's theirs, but that's a blatant lie because they wouldn't let anyone who wasn't a traveller come on their site."

The resident said she was unable to use the public park, while travellers were on the site, due to intimidation.

She said her arthritis meant she finds it difficult to travel long distances and while the Big Dipper was occupied by travellers she could not easily take her dog for a walk.

She called for laws on travellers to be tightened. She said: "If they are to be taken to court then you need the name and identity of the people, but you can't do that if you don't know them.

"The law should be changed. There are places elsewhere in the UK that are quicker to act.

"The only good thing that will come out of this is the formation of a really strong residents' association."
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China on Friday strongly protested the proposed US sale of $1.4-billion worth of arms to Taiwan, and demanded that the deal be cancelled. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the sale would severely damage China's sovereignty and security interests and run counter to Washington's commitment to a ''One China'' policy. ''We stress that nobody could sway our determination to uphold our territorial integrity and sovereignty,'' Lu said at a regular daily briefing. ''We oppose any external interference in our internal affairs.'' The US State Department approved the arms sale on Thursday, the first such deal with Taiwan since President Donald Trump took office, and also announced steps to penalise a Chinese bank, a Chinese shipping company and two Chinese citizens over dealings with North Korea (See: Trump sanctions on Chinese bank, others with N Korea ties). The sale was broadly welcomed in Taiwan as a show of US support, despite concerns about the strain on finances and Beijing's angry response. Taiwan's defence department said the sale would enhance the island's self-defence capability. China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and has long opposed any arms sales to the self-governing island by foreign entities. It insists there will be eventual reunification, through force if necessary. The US State Department's approval of the sale, the first since December 2015, follows a tense year between China and Taiwan. Beijing cut ties with the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen shortly after she took office in May last year and has been steadily ratcheting up diplomatic and economic pressure. Her ruling Democratic Progressive Party says it wants stable relations with Beijing, but hasn't followed her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, in endorsing the ''one-China'' principle. ''We can't disregard the importance of strengthening our military capabilities just because we are at peace now,'' Tsai said on Friday. ''The best way to stop battle is to always be well prepared for battle. We will continue to enhance our strength and maintain peace. '' China's hostility toward Tsai is a big concern, Lee Chun-yi, a ruling party legislator, told AP. ''Most people will support this arms sale because we need to strengthen our defence'' amid strained relations between the sides, he said. The party favours a stronger Taiwanese identity. About 66 per cent of Taiwanese oppose unification with Beijing, a Taiwan Indicators Survey Research poll found in May 2016. Many in Taiwan had been wondering whether. Trump was sidelining Taiwan to form stronger relations with Beijing, in part to seek its help in pressuring North Korea to end its nuclear weapons programme. Trump had raised hopes on the island when he broke with diplomatic precedent in December by taking a phone call from Tsai, but in February he assured Beijing he supported its ''One China'' policy. The arms approved by the US government for sale to Taiwan include torpedoes, technical support for early warning radar, anti-radiation missiles and missile components, officials from the two governments said. ''President Trump has been in office for five months and just approved the first arms package for Taiwan,'' the foreign ministry in Taipei said. ''That amply shows Taiwan's security is a priority.''








India has asked China to desist from changing the ground position in the Doklam plateau, where Beijing is seeking to build a road. For the first time on Friday, New Delhi admitted that its troops had blocked People's Liberation Army road works inside Bhutan territory claimed by China. In a statement, the Indian government said, "India is deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese Government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India." Meanwhile, PLA troops continue to deploy construction equipment in an effort to drive a dirt track through the strategic Doklam plateau despite a three-week stand-off with the Indian Army and the Royal Bhutan Army, senior Indian government reportedly officials said on Friday. The PLA's road works, the officials said, are aimed at bringing a road close to Doka La, India's last military post on the junction of its boundary with Bhutan and China. Both sides have reinforced their positions amidst a continuing war of words between Beijing and New Delhi. But Indian military officials rejected claims that there were signs of imminent conflict in the region - the site of intense skirmishes in 1967, provoked by similar disputes over border works. India and Bhutan, the government statement said, have been in ''continuous contact'' over the Doklam developments. ''In coordination with the Bhutanese government, Indian personnel, who were present at general area Doka La, approached the Chinese construction party and urged them to desist from changing the status quo these efforts continue,'' the statement said. So far the situation remains "tense but civil" among the troops on both sides. But there seems a determination at the top levels of the Indian government not to let China alter the determination of the tri-junction. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra from Nathu La has been stopped by China. However, border trade continues and the Lipulekh route to Kailash remains open. National security adviser Ajit Doval cut short his visit to the UK where he was conducting a strategic dialogue, while foreign secretary S Jaishankar is leading the diplomatic exchange with China and Bhutan. Officials in Beijing and New Delhi are in "constant contact" to defuse the situation. Indian Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat has also landed in the border state of Sikkim, closest to the standoff site. (See: Army chief Rawat visits Sikkim amid Chinese tensions). Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Chinese president Xi Jinping in a BRICS group interaction on the sidelines of the G-20 in Hamburg next week. The Indian side is reportedly irate at China's modus operandi - Chinese troops regularly creep forward, changing the status quo, and later use it to alter the terms of negotiation, often taking recourse to "ancient times" to justify their actions. India has asked "all parties concerned display utmost restraint and abide by their respective bilateral understandings not to change the status quo unilaterally". In 2012, the special representatives of India and China had worked out a written understanding that "tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalised in consultation with the concerned countries. Any attempt, therefore, to unilaterally determine tri-junction points is in violation of this understanding," India has said. On 16 June, a PLA construction party came in with earth movers and other heavy equipment to build a road in the Doklam area. A Bhutanese post nearby came to object, but the numerically superior Chinese drove them away. Indian soldiers then came to support the Bhutanese effort, and successfully stopped the road building activity. Indian troops don't plan to leave, because any sign that India condones the Chinese construction activity would endanger India's own security on the Siliguri Corridor, popularly known as the "Chicken's neck", and could cut off India's northeast. On 20 June, Bhutan lodged a formal complaint with the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, saying this incursion was "direct violation of the 1988 and 1998 agreements between Bhutan and China and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between these two countries''. They have urged a ''return to the status quo as before 16 June 2017".








Auto sales drop as buyers wait for GST rollout

Auto sales declined ahead of the rollout of GST despite companies offering big discounts and showrooms of most leading auto brands wore a deserted look as companies delayed shipments and buyers decided to wait and watch.

With the GST rollout expected to make smaller cars cheaper by about 2.4 per cent and two-wheelers by almost 2 per cent, consumers decided to postpone purchase to gain the benefit of GST. Prices of bigger sedans and SUVs are expected to go down by almost 9 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.

With the GST subsuming at least five taxes  excise, NCCD, CST, VAT and infra cess - small cars will now carry a total tax of 29 per cent (28 per cent GST + 1 per cent cess) compared to 31.2 per cent earlier.

Effective GST rates indicate the highest tax savings for sport utility vehicles (SUVs) for which the rate is down to 43 per cent from the present 55.3 per cent. Depending on state-level taxes, prices of SUVs are expected to fall by 3-4 per cent.

Most showrooms also closed early on Friday to close the monthly and quarterly accounts as they switch over to the new GST regime.

Passenger vehicle makers are adopting diverse distribution and sales strategies ahead of the 1 July roll-out of goods and services tax (GST).

Hyundai Motor India Ltd and Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd have chosen to only marginally curtail dispatches to dealers and offer steep discounts to ensure buyers do not postpone purchases until GST is implemented while others such as market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd have cut shipments to ensure dealerships are able to liquidate stock.

Auto firms sure to benefit from the GST roll-out were too willing to offer discounts and liquidate stocks rather than keep inventories piling up.

However since road tax, insurance, logistic cess and registration charges will be separate and would still have to be borne by the vehicle buyer, these may nullify gains from GST.
The primary target of a crippling computer virus that spread from Ukraine across the world this week was like to have been the country's computer infrastructure, a top Ukrainian police official told Reuters on Thursday (See: Major firms hit as Petya virus sweeps from Ukraine to US).

Cyber security firms were trying to identify the source of the computer worm, dubbed NotPetya by some experts, which has paralysed thousands of machines worldwide. The worm had shut down ports, factories and offices as it spread through internal organisational networks to an estimated 60 countries.

Though Ukrainian politicians pointed to Russia, a Kremlin spokesman dismissed "unfounded blanket accusations''. The worm had shut down ports, factories and offices as it spread through internal organisational networks to an estimated 60 countries.

Moscow had faced similar accusations over two previous cyber strikes on the Ukrainian power grid and other attacks since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

According to a growing consensus among security researchers, armed with technical evidence, the main purpose of the attack was to install new malware on computers at government and commercial organisations in Ukraine.

According to experts, the attack might have been motivated by a desire to plant the seeds of a future sabotage.

Global businesses appeared to have suffered through their operations in the country.

According to statistics released on Thursday by Slovakian security software firm ESET, 75 per cent of the infections detected among its global customer base were in Ukraine, and that all of the top 10 countries hit were located in central, eastern or southern Europe.
Three finalists have emerged from the field of candidates for the Enterprise city clerk position.

According to information released at Thursdays Enterprise City Council work session at City Hall, the final three candidates are Brian C. Free of Elba, Barry G. Brooks of Tallahassee, Florida, and Brenda Pree of Fairfax, Virginia.

There were 26 applicants for the position, which has been open since October. The next steps are interviews of the finalists.

In other discussion Thursday, District 5 Councilman Turner Townsend expressed his interest in moving the tourism-director position to under the citys Economic Development division. The position recently opened up with the departure of Meredith Brunson, who left the director spot for a job with the Dothan Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Townsend said the time was right to examine the tourism departments budget and what its money is being used for, and if there are other approaches to the department can be considered.

Mayor Bill Cooper said the tourism directors job description is in the process of being considered for adjustment and expansion, and wants to address the issue further next month.

Communication Director Jason Wright said the average annual budget for the tourism department is about $150,000 starting in 2010, which comes from part of the citys lodging tax.

Also at Thursdays work session:

 It was announced that city offices will be closed Monday and Tuesday for the Fourth of July holiday

 Sean Gilder of Gilder Creative Agency in Enterprise presented his proposals for branding strategies for the College Street Elementary School project

 District 3 Councilman Perry Vickers brought up looking into making a Miracle Field, a ballpark for special-education children.

We do a lot of things for all kinds of segments for our town, but doggone it, they are left out a lot of times, Vickers said.

 District 2 Councilman Eugene Goolsby said he has been receiving a lot of calls from residents concerned about the condition of Moates Road, of which a little more than half a mile belongs to the city, with the rest belonging to the county. Goolsby said the road is full of patches.
Home Four wheelers Toyota India Sales For June Decline oi-Kennedy Paul

Toyota Kirloskar Motor's sales for the month of June 2017 fell to 1,973 units, thanks to the new GST slab for SUVs and vehicle which are more than 4 metres and carry engine capacity of more than 1500cc.

Large cars, such as SUVs, will attract 28 percent tax and 15 percent additional cess taking the total to 43 percent. The current tax for these vehicle stands at 55 percent, so comparatively, you'll end up paying 12 percent less post-July 1, 2017.

Toyota's biggest selling models such as the Innova Crysta and Fortuner fall under the category we are reading here. And customers seemed to be postponing their plan of buying the vehicle post-GST roll-out.

Commenting on the monthly sales, Mr N. Raja, Director & Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, "The uncertainty surrounding the GST implementation with regard to the passenger vehicles has impacted the retails as the customers are postponing their plan of purchasing the vehicle post-GST roll out."

"Thus, in line with our "Customer First" philosophy, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has taken a conscious decision to lower the volumes of vehicles sold to dealers this month. We believe that our dealers are our first customer who caters to the requirements of our end customers."

He further said, "This strategy has been undertaken to ensure that there is a minimum burden on our dealer partners and they can focus on clearing the existing stocks at the dealerships. Our dealers are our allies and play a vital role in our sustained business. We at Toyota always strive to support them through any business challenges."

"Thus, closely monitoring the customer sentiments we have taken this step to lessen any impact of the differential tax post-GST roll out effective 1st July '17. Putting the dealers' needs ahead of everything else has been our first priority to ensure quality products and provide good service."

DriveSpark Thinks!

The GST might have had customers abstaining from buying a Toyota, but once the GST slab and subsequent price calibration, there sure will be a surge in sales given that there will be a price reduction.
Home Four wheelers Volkswagen Manipulates Sales Figures In France oi-Sukesh

German auto major Volkswagen is in trouble again. This time for manipulating the sales figures in France. The automaker produced an unrealistic positive picture to the Government.

Since 2010, Volkswagen stated that around 8,00,000 cars from its brands had been delivered before it was registered to drive on French roads.

Some of the cars have not been registered even after months and years after they were said to be delivered to the customers. A Volkswagen spokeswoman refused to comment on the issue.

After receiving the internal investigation report, Volkswagen Chief, Matthias Mueller has accepted the resignation of its French head, Jacques Rivoal. But the automaker said that he departed due to differences in opinion.

Volkswagen is the world's biggest automaker in the world with 12 brands under its belt. It is the largest importer of the new cars into France. The automaker had a 13 percent market share in France in 2016.

DriveSpark Thinks!

Being one of the world's largest automobile company, Volkswagen had been hit by the diesel gate scandal. Now the sales manipulation has hit the automaker. We have to wait and watch, how Volkswagen reacts to this mishap.
Amazon has set its third annual Prime Day promotion for July 11, promising its biggest-ever promotion with 30 hours of deals starting at 6:00 p.m. PT on July 10.

The company has expanded the event to China, India and Mexico, to reach a total of 13 international markets. Amazon will go head-to-head with some of its most important international rivals, including Chinese e-commerce player Alibaba, as overseas sales have become an increasingly important share of the e-commerce mix.

Every part of our business is working to deliver more deals to a record number of shoppers, said Greg Greeley, vice president, Amazon Prime.

Amazon is offering the lowest prices in 365 days on hundreds of thousands of deals, with millions of items in stock, according to spokesperson Julie Lawson.

Although the company has increased the number of deals from last year and increased the available inventory, its likely that some items will sell out during the promotion, she told the E-Commerce Times.

Prime Directive

The promotion is considered a critical part of Amazons strategy to grow its Prime membership, which has doubled over the past two years to 80 million members, according to Michael Levin, a partner at Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Prime members spend an average of US$1,300 per year, compared with the average $700 that non-members spend.

The merchandise bump, while nice, is barely material to their quarterly results, Levin told the E-Commerce Times. The Prime member bump is much more important, given how sticky Prime membership can be.

Amazon last summer announced that its second annual Prime Day was the biggest single sales day ever, with sales up 60 percent globally compared with the prior year promotion.

Despite those strong results, Prime Day has its critics.

Im not a big fan of Prime Day, said Paula Rosenblum, a partner in RSR Research.

I tend to view it as an age-old retail tradition, which is to drive traffic at a time when people would otherwise be at the beach. But its rather grand just for that, she told the E-Commerce Times.

The promotion has done a good job in generating new Prime membership, Rosenblum conceded.

It may generate a great deal of momentary buzz, but the deals that Amazon offers are generally pretty nominal  and interestingly, pretty hard to find, Michael Jude, a research manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan, told the E-Commerce Times.

It remains unclear how rivals like Walmart plan to respond to this years event. Walmart last year offered five days of free shipping and its own series of discounted merchandise, and it since has acquired rival Jet.com and taken other steps to challenge Amazon in the e-commerce space. A Walmart spokesperson was not immediately available to comment for this story.

Amazon intends to emphasize its small business partnerships during the event; 40 percent of the lightning deals will come from small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Partner businesses tripled their year-over-year orders during last years Prime Day promotion, according to Amazon.

Amazon Exclusives

Amazon plans a series of special incentives for its most loyal customers:
Interest in forming teachers unions is bubbling up at charter schools in big cities, and the national unions are pitching in to helpbut that doesnt mean theyve shed their wariness about the charter movement as a whole.

The organizing landscape is still relatively small and diffuse, but union advocates say even more charter teachers are starting to view organizing as an option.

Theres a real appetite for this work, said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. What youre seeing is charters where people have decided to make these schools their homes, and they want a voice.

A Washington charter school in June became the first in that city to successfully organize a union . Another New Orleans charter school organized in May , bringing that citys number of union-organized charter schools to five. As of this spring, Cleveland now has five organized charter schools as well.

Of the 6,900 charter schools nationally, only about 1 in 10 have unions. That percentage has stayed steady in recent years even while charter enrollment has risen. While largely symbolic for now, the recent big-city union victories could energize similar campaigns in other nearby charter schools, experts say. Chicago , Philadelphia, and Sacramento have also seen upticks in organizing efforts among charter school teachers.

On July 4, the National Education Association will hold a vote at its annual convening on a new policy statement that denounces privately managed charter schools as a failed and damaging experiment, but also says state affiliates that seek to organize charter schools, whether such schools are privately managed schools or public charter schools, may continue to seek NEAs assistance in those organizing efforts.

Its a sharper denunciation of charters than the union held previously and a reiteration of support for charter unions. The policy, many say, is likely to pass.

Update: The NEAs policy denouncing privately managed charter schools, but supporting affiliates who decide to organize charters, did pass. Read more.

Our goal is to promote voice for educators, said Secky Fascione, the director of local union organizing for the NEA. It makes sense we would try to promote that voice for educators in all learning environments.

See Also Visit the Teacher Beat blog for coverage from National Education Associations 2017 convention.

But charter school advocates say unionization can cause schools to lose flexibility in how they do scheduling, professional development, teacher evaluations, pay, and dismissalsall of which help them serve students.

When you take away that flexibility, theyre really not a chartertheyre another unionized district school that has to pay everyone that has been there three years and has a masters degree the same way whether theyre performing well or not, said Todd Ziebarth, the senior vice president for state advocacy and support at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The Basic Trade-Off

While funded with public dollars, charter schools have more autonomy than traditional public schools. Many require teachers to work longer hours than most union contracts allow. And teachers there generally are at-will employees, meaning they can be dismissed for any cause.

The trade-off, charter advocates say, is that the schools can make budget and staffing choices that they believe are best for their students, free from the constraints of a district bureaucracy. And many charters pride themselves on having a strong school culture, which is ideally a product of the leadership and staff working together closely with a common vision.

But in some of those charter schools, the teachers end up feeling disenfranchised anyway.

Christian Herr, a science teacher who helped lead the recent organizing effort at Chavez Prep Middle School, part of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School network in Washington, explained that his school had been suffering from high teacher and administrator turnover. Herr had worked under four principals in four years. The teachers there were looking for some policies to count on regardless of who was in chargeand to have a say in creating them.

When he began organizing, some of the teachers at his school didnt even know they could unionize.

What we heard a lot from teachers was we thought the whole thing with charter schools is were not allowed to form unions, he said. That was eye-opening for me.

Ultimately, teachers at Chavez are looking for a contract that includes a salary scale built with teacher input and due process for teachers who are struggling, Herr said.

We think a contract where teachers and staff are better able to advocate for themselves and really meaningfully sit at the table will create conditions and an environment where teachers are more comfortable sticking around and building a long-term career here, he added.

What charter teachers are fighting for differs from place to place. Sometimes, the contracts end up looking like those at traditional public schools and sometimes they are unique to an individual charter, said Nathan Barrett, the associate director and senior research fellow at the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, a research organization at Tulane University that studies post-Katrina schools.

Oftentimes, teachers just want more transparencythey want to know whats going on in a school, he said.

In some cases, the leadership comes to the table willingly and the organizing process goes smoothly. But often, the discussions turn acrimoniousthreats are made, lawyers are hired, the parties entrench.

And that can have consequences whether or not the union comes to fruition.

Once you set up this labor-management adversarial relationship, it can be very hard to preserve that management-teacher bond thats good for the school and students, said Andrew Broy, the head of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools.

People Come to Us

Many agree that interest in charter organizing has swelled recently, but different camps have different ideas about whos leading the charge.

According to Ziebarth, the unions have been trying to organize charters for a very long time.  Its a significant priority for the AFT, and theyve focused on a handful of urban areas to push on this.

But Weingarten of the AFT said the union never pushes organizing, because a tried-and-failed attempt can potentially put teachers jobs in jeopardy. We dont recruit teachers, she said. People come to us.

The AFT represents 234 of the nations charter schools. The NEA did not provide numbers but has long represented the majority of unionized charters. (Some charter unions are affiliated with both organizations.)

In the District of Columbia, Herr said he reached out to the AFT after efforts to negotiate with school leadership through committees and petitions had fallen flat. The AFT advised and supported us but they never pushed anything on us, he said.

Both the national organizations and local affiliates have people on staff assigned to help organize charter school teachers. After unsuccessfully trying to unionize at the charter school where he taught, Nathan Walker was hired by AFT Michigan in 2009 to help with that work.

Pushback from charter management companies has been particularly severe in that state. Last year, the National Labor Relations board accused a Detroit charter management company of pulling out of a school to scuttle staff efforts to unionize , the Detroit Metro Times, an alternative weekly, reported, only to then re-form as a new company.

In general, most folks are very much interested in participating in an organization at their workplace that is helping collectively solve problems to better the learning and working environment, Walker said. When the staff starts to get divided, my experience is its usually the result of the employer intentionally introducing conflict and diversion tactics.

Only a handful of Detroits charters are organized.

Chicagoa labor organizing stronghold, broadly speakinghas seen quite a few successful organizing efforts and is, many say, the epicenter of charter-organizing activity. About a quarter of the 130 charter schools there are unionized, and teachers at the 18-school Noble charter network the largest network in the cityrecently announced their intention to form a union as well.

More teachers are seeing this as a realistic optionsomething they can do and win, said Chris Baehrend, the president of the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, which represents teachers at the unionized charters and is an AFT affiliate.

Chicago ACTS members recently voted to merge with the 32,000-member Chicago Teachers Union. The CTU is expected to approve that measure this fall, which would mean charter teachers will make up about 4 percent of the larger AFT affiliates membership.

Together we can bring more attention and put more pressure on our bosses to do the right thing, said Baehrend.

But Broy, of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, argued that this is a political play to undermine charters.

There are an increasing number of schools caught up in labor negotiations that are taking a lot of time and energy away from classrooms and what were trying to do, he said.

Charter school teachers are paid less on average than their district counterparts nationally (though they are also on average less experienced). And yet the CTU has consistently opposed giving charter schools equitable funds, said Broy. Its evidence theyre playing both sides in this case, he said.

Growth Strategy?

Teachers unions have good reason to want to add more members these days. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering hearing the Janus v. AFSCME case , out of Illinois, which could potentially make it illegal for the unions to charge fees to nonmembers. That could lead to a drop in both revenue and membership.

But experts say organizing charter schools is not really a viable tactic for boosting numbers.

Candidly, numerically, it doesnt add up to a membership growth strategy, said Fascione.

Organizing efforts can easily crumble at individual schools because of higher teacher turnover and fear of retaliation. If youre a teacher working in these schools, you have to think, is it worth the effort for me to organize if I know Im only going be here another two to three years? said Barrett.

And contracts need to be negotiated separately for each individual charter school, which can drain resources from the larger unions supporting these efforts.

Its expensive to organize in charters. There are lots of different employers, lots of different contracts, said Baehrend of Chicago ACTS. I dont know that organizing charters is going to save the labor movement, but we need to be organizing everywhere.
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IoM tops medal table at Island Games

The Isle of Man finished at the top of the medal table at the Island Games.

The Manx team finished the event with 39 golds, 36 silver and 26 bronze after a run of medals on the final day of competition in Gotland.

The haul is the Island's largest ever at an away games, only beaten by the 2001 total when the Isle of Man hosted the event.

13 golds and 29 medals in total came in gymnastics, while the swimming team secured 25 medals.
The first of February was just another mundane day in the remote tribal settlement of Satgawan. Neha Birhor and her friends were busy with their morning breakfast, sattu ka laddu (gram flour cakes), and the Sevika Didi (anganwadi worker) was setting about preparing the khichdi (rice and pulses) for their lunch at the government-run anganwadi for children.

A few hundred kilometres away from this village in Kodarma district of Jharkhand, an upbeat Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was about to enter Parliament to table the budget proposal for 201718. By the end of the budget speech it was clear that the honourable finance minister had chosen to be oblivious to the needs of Neha and millions of other children like her.
Legislation that seeks to regulate technology must be up for scrutiny by judges and lawyers. And since the inner workings of a technology will be familiar only to specialists and expert practitioners, the phrasing of such laws must avoid technical details where possible. When the uses and products of technology can be specified closely, one feels such details can well be ignored and the requirement that the writing of law should be technology-neutral, in this way, seems innocuous enough. But the uses and products of technology will seldom be full of technical details; with an emergent or a changeable technology the neutrality required of the law might concede too much discretionary power to the specialists. But it is in such circumstances, precisely, that neutrality is a desideratum: for technical details would necessitate frequent revisions in law that seeks to regulate a mutating technethe frequent revision of a law would not be a good thing.

To consider the matter generally would be difficult, and we shall only look at a particular example in this article. The Government of India is proposing a Human DNA (Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid) Profiling Act, the preamble to which declares that its coordinate purposes are to, one, regulate the use of analysis of human body substance profiles for human identification; two, establish a DNA Profiling Board that would lay down appropriate standards for laboratories in terms of collecting human body substances and managing the custody trail from collection to reporting; and three, establish a National DNA Data Bank.
Hi there



My husband works on hourly basis and has been with the same employee for over 12 months, and for the last two months he's been working part-time for another company aside his full-time job, his annual income has reached 18,600 combing two income sources (12 months full-time income + 2 months part-time income), both non-salaried.



However, one of his full-time income payslips shows a very low number below 100 pounds, since he went on holiday on that month thus didn't work much. Also the rest of the monthly income fluctuates between 1000 to 2000 pounds.



My questions:

1. Is there a requirement of minimum monthly income?

2. Should we apply for Category B non-salaried variable income?

3. One of his payslips shows a gross salary around 2000 pounds but it includes the profit share. Does it matter? Do we need to reduce the profit share of the gross income of that month?



Thank you for reading it, I really hope someone can help because I am going to submit my application very soon.
Hi all

I'm sure you would have maybe covered this before but looking for any recommendations for solar panel heating companies in and around Paphos or Tala region.



Anyone had any dealing with installing a system to heat pool.

Thanks

Martyn
thanks all, I called my insurer and he said no problem at all as long as it is not the habitual thing.. in other words an exceptional lend for a day or two.

Some conditions though:

1- Driver has to have a valid license with date at least 3 years (my friend has the license issued recently but on the back it has the date when he started to drive which is the important date as it is more than 3 years ago)

2- If the driver is young, the franchise in case of an accident would be higher.

3- in some contracts, if the driver is not the primary driver mentioned in the contract, franchise can be higher as well but it depends on the contract. In my case I was told this was not the case.



Thanks again

M
I have a SA Retirement visa issued for the standard 4 years, 3 years remaining.

What are the main advantages to getting a PR visa, if I can just renew the retirement visa every 4 years?



It seems it takes 2 years for the PR, and then I may be subject to income taxes?

I know with the PR I can get a SA ID and driver's license, but why do I really need those?

With my current visa, I had no problems getting a bank account, leasing a flat, and purchasing a car. I don't intend to work in SA or start a business.



Thoughts?
AUSTIN  Capping a 10-month search, University of Texas System regents voted Friday to name T. Taylor Eighmy, vice chancellor for research and engagement at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, as the sole finalist to be the next president of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Eighmy, 60, is also a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Tennessee university. His strength and focus on research will greatly benefit UTSA, considering the systemwide effort to push the university toward Tier One status, said Steve Leslie, the UT System vice chancellor of academic affairs.

He comes in with a deep and broad experience in higher education, Leslie said. What we want for the new president and what the new president wants is what San Antonio expects, and that is to have a visionary new president who will advance the institution in relation to being a partner with San Antonio.

Eighmy was vice president for research at Texas Tech University when a doctoral student was injured in a laboratory explosion in 2010 and the university found multiple violations of its own safety protocols, leading to a crackdown. Two accidental nitric acid explosions on the Lubbock campus caused evacuations but no injuries in 2011.

Four years later, as vice chancellor in Knoxville, Eighmy led a national task force to enhance safety in college and university laboratories, producing a guide to best practices that led the Campus Safety, Health and Environmental Association to give him its annual leadership award in 2016.

Regents interviewed candidates in a closed session starting at 8 a.m. at the systems offices in downtown Austin and emerged after lunch to vote. Eighmy left before the vote and could not be reached for comment.

The action to name him the finalist triggered a state-mandated 21-day waiting period before regents can make it final with another vote. Pedro Reyes is currently UTSAs interim president. Leslie said Eighmys start date has not yet been determined; Reyes was hired until the end of August.

Reyes became the interim leader after longtime UTSA president Ricardo Romo was put on leave and later resigned in March after an internal investigation concluded that he likely engaged in sexual harassment and sexual misconduct against some of his employees.

Romo had announced in September that he planned to retire at the end of the spring semester this year. After almost 18 years at the helm, he was the universitys first Hispanic president and its longest-serving one, helping transform UTSA from a suburban commuter campus into a bustling university working toward Tier One recognition.

It currently enrolls 24,423 undergraduate students, 3,392 working toward masters degrees, 741 doctoral students and 403 post-baccalaureate students.

Female complainants had described Romos hugs as disgusting and even physically hurtful, according to a report of the investigation obtained by the San Antonio Express-News through an open records request.

The chancellor is correct in establishing there is no abrazo exception for a 73-year-old retiring university president. I accept that this is the world we live in, Romo said in a statement the day he resigned.

Asked if the resignation affected the search process for a new president, Leslie, who chaired the search committee, said it had not.

Our total focus, he said, was looking forward, and there were no discussions of anything in regard to the past or circumstances there. We were strictly focused on recruiting the next president.

Eighmy received his Bachelor of Science in biology from Tufts University in 1980. He earned his Master of Science in civil engineering and doctorate in the same field from the University of New Hampshire.

Richard Perez, president of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, released a statement after the vote welcoming Eighmy, calling UTSAs contributions to the community vast and looking forward to more under his leadership.

Sara Martinez Tucker, who chairs the boards academic affairs committee, said in a statement that it has been gratifying to watch UT-San Antonios ascent over the years, and my fellow regents and I believe that Dr. Eighmy is the right person to elevate the premium placed on student success and research prowess.

Ernest Aliseda, a regent who served on the search committee, said the selection of Eighmy proves that UT-San Antonio is a destination for our nations top leaders in higher education.

Eighmy will be unrelenting in his efforts to increase student success, faculty engagement and the national stature of UTSA, Aliseda said in a prepared statement. And his leadership style will be an ideal fit for a national leading city like San Antonio.

sfosterfrau@express-news.net

News researcher Mike Knoop contributed to this report.
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The blast from the pretend improvised explosive device shook the air, prompting several soldiers to jump out of their trucks and return fire at three men wearing dishdashas and brandishing AK-47 rifles.

The insurgents quickly went down during the mock firefight on Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houstons MacArthur Parade Field, and a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from Fort Hood soon circled overhead in Fridays muggy and increasingly uncomfortable late morning air.

Sgt. 1st Class Roberta Lowe and Staff Sgt. Charity Oliver played the role of soldiers seriously wounded, with injuries requiring the Black Hawk to fly them to a field hospital.

All went well in the demonstration, put on to mark the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, with everyone involved avoiding the most likely injury given the 85 degree temperature and 72 percent humidity  heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Both women, following a few simple rules, broke a sweat but otherwise fared well on a day when the high was projected to hit 97.

More Information How to beat the heat Wear loose-fitting, lightweight clothes Use sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher Drink lots of fluids Be extra careful if you take medications that affect your ability to stay hydrated or dissipate heat Take it easy during the hottest parts of the day If you work outside, take water breaks every 30 minutes Limit your exposure if you aren't used to the heat. On really hot days, those with a WetBulb Globe Temperature index of 90 or more, drink 1 quart of water an hour and rest every 20 minutes for every 40 minutes of work Never leave anyone in a parked car SOURCE: Mayo Clinic, U.S. Army, Air Force Instruction 48-151 See More Collapse

When Oliver, 36, of San Antonio, removed her moulage  a latex molding of a fake injury, in her case a broken arm  it was like water coming down.

Thats what happens on black flag days, when troops are wary of the subtle but lethal threat outdoors when temperatures approach the century mark. The big symptoms of trouble: confusion, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and dark-colored urine.

The precautions start with alerting the troops with a set of flag conditions based on a complex heat- and cold-stress index system that includes green, yellow, red and black. The WetBulb Globe Temperature measures heat stress in direct sunlight, and includes temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover. A WBGT index greater than 90 is so dangerous an Air Force instruction limits outdoor exposure and mandates increased water consumption.

The troops dont start drinking water once they start training. They do it ahead of time. Some, like Sgt. 1st Class Alexander Anderson, one of the insurgents, tank up days in advance. If routine, he said, the decision to train in hot weather requires a benefit-risk analysis.

Obviously, if it is mission-essential or mission critical, something that has to get done, its going to happen. But when it comes to training environments, allowing your soldiers to train in the heat is good, added Anderson, a 10-year Army veteran who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You cant cool the weather down in combat, said Sgt. 1st Class Jalidi Thomas, 38, an Iraq veteran originally from Brooklyn, New York.

Training happens on the hottest days of the year and sometimes things go wrong. Airman 1st Class Kenneth Sturgill, 21, of Livermore, California, was close to finishing a Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Course last July when found unconscious at Camp Bullis. He had seemed well during a safety check on a day when temperatures hit 101. His heat-caused death was the SERE programs first at Camp Bullis since 1992.

The military instructs troops on how to avoid falling ill and controls outdoor instruction. That the flag guidelines are in place is no accident.

If you go back to the mid-1800s, when the Army started recording weather, it was the surgeon who recorded the weather, retired Maj. Gen. David Rubenstein, a former Army Medical Service Corps chief, said. He noted the military medical system has long focused on weather.

The three bases in San Antonio and Camp Bullis are mainly in the training business  combat medics at Fort Sam, basic and technical instruction at JBSA-Lackland, instructor pilot indoctrination at JBSA-Randolph and the 149th Fighter Wing on what once was Kelly AFB. Commanders at all the bases use daily weather reports to plan for training, and Air Force Col. Sean McKenna said the black flag rises on most days this time of the year.

Anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 basic and tech school Air Force trainees are on Lackland every day.

Here, the good news is everybody is closely watched in basic training and tech training, so when black flag conditions exist, there are very precise procedures followed to make sure nobody is put into peril, said McKenna, chief spokesman for the Air Forces training command.

Five airmen in San Antonio were diagnosed or reported to have suffered from heat exposure so far this year, but none required hospitalization. In all of last year, there were 16, four of whom went to a hospital. The Medical Education & Training Campus, which has more than 5,500 students on any day, reported no heat-related illnesses this year or in 2016.

The most important planning considerations are time-proven control measures such as uniform modification, supervised hydration, proper rest, proper nutrition and heeding the warnings of heat mitigation devices, METC spokeswoman Lisa Braun said in a statement.

Anderson follows guidelines that call for hydration well before training. Sweating after spending a good half-hour on the field as the summer sun broke through a thick cloud cover, he said he drinks at least a gallon of water a day.

Neither he nor the other soldiers on the Fort Sam parade field minded being outside.

Its an honor to be part of the 100th celebration of the Medical Service Corps, said Oliver, a veteran of Afghanistan, where temperatures are expected to hit 100 degrees on Saturday at Bagram Airfield.

Said Lowe: You train as you fight.

sigc@express-news.net
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Few residents have lived at the trendy Tobin Lofts apartments longer than Sebastian Sanchez, and hes never felt unsafe in the bustling neighborhood near downtown that draws an eclectic mix of college students, bar hoppers and occasionally people begging for money.

But the sound of gunshots last week and the sight of a fallen police officer, bleeding on the street mere feet from Sanchezs doorstep, left him shaken and asking how such a tragedy could happen.

Im still in shock, said Sanchez, who moved to the Tobin Lofts near San Antonio College four years ago and heard the gunfire outside. I cant wrap my head around it.

What began as a random police encounter Thursday with two men walking in the 200 block of West Evergreen Street near North Main Avenue suddenly turned deadly when one of the men pulled a handgun and opened fire on officers Miguel Moreno and Julio Cavazos, who had pulled over in their patrol car to talk to the pair.

Theyre up there patrolling specifically for vehicle burglaries and that type of crime, Chief William McManus said at a news conference last week. And they happened across a vehicle that looked like it had been broken into. So the next thing they did was see the two individuals, who they stopped.

Moreno was shot in the head and died Friday. Another bullet struck Cavazos in the chin and lodged in his chest, but he was wearing body armor. The injured officer managed to pull his partner out of the line of fire and shoot back at the gunman, McManus said. Cavazos is expected to undergo multiple surgeries, McManus said, but doctors say hell survive his injuries.

The gunman was identified as Andrew Bice, 34, who had faced past criminal charges that included kidnapping, burglary, resisting arrest and family violence. Bice was struck in the buttocks by Cavazos as he ran from the officer. Officials say Bice made it to a street corner and shot himself in the head, killing himself. Police said the second man wasnt armed and cooperated with officers.

The deadly shootout occurred in a neighborhood thats changed dramatically over the years.

The intersection of Evergreen and Main used to be a collection of boarded up businesses, a parking lot and Luthers, a burger joint.

Then San Antonio College opened Tobin Lofts, a three-story apartment complex, in fall 2013. The boarded-up buildings across the street from the lofts now are shops and a bar. Luthers still is there  only now its in the first floor of the complex in a new bar and restaurant.

Officers from SAPD and campus police officers from SAC both respond to emergencies in the area. On Thursday, McManus said Cavazos and Moreno were patrolling the area after SAPD received complaints about crime in the neighborhood.

But a day later, McManus said the shooting was completely random and bristled at a San Antonio Express-News article that quoted residents and local workers expressing concerns about vagrants, drug users and prostitutes.

There is one media outlet, not an electronic one, that thinks this may have happened because that area is dangerous and there is a lot of crime in that area, McManus said. And that is simply not the case. That horrible, tragic incident could have happened anywhere in the city, depending upon where those two individuals may have been. They just happened to have been up there.

The article didnt blame the shooting on high crime rates near the Tobin Lofts. But some residents and employees of local businesses told the newspaper they dont always feel safe in the neighborhood.

Campus alerts

In the past, campus police have alerted students and SAC employees about crimes that included a nearby off-campus shooting, a disturbance with a gun and robberies that occurred in or near the lofts.

One of the most disturbing crimes sparked no public warnings to SAC students.

On Nov. 11, 2014, a man identified by police as Zachary Gonzalez boarded a VIA bus traveling on North Main Avenue and appeared eager to start a fight.

Police said none of the passengers engaged him, but Gonzalez finally approached a man and asked, What are you looking at? He pulled out a handgun and fired several shots, killing the passenger. Gonzalez exited the bus at Main and Cyprus, two blocks south of the Tobin Lofts. Police arrested him a day later after a manhunt.

Most recently, campus police sent a community alert about a robbery at the Tobin Lofts on April 14. A man visiting a friend at the apartments told police that he was sitting outside when a robber attacked him and stole his laptop.

The robbery happened at the first-floor apartment of college student Micaela Mize, who said in an interview with the Express-News that the robber had attacked her friend with pepper spray. After a struggle that left her friend with a black eye, the robber fled in a getaway car.

Last weeks shooting happened right outside her apartment. Mize was driving home at the time, she said, and saw the aftermath.

After my friend was mugged, I felt a little more uncomfortable living over here, Mize said. My cars been broken into, my cars been hit while parked. Its a lot of stuff to happen in just nine months.

Im moving out in 21/2 weeks.

At a nearby apartment, Jordan Satterfield said he and his girlfriend had been sitting outside when Bice and the other man walked by on Evergreen, which usually is busy with pedestrian traffic.

Satterfield said he didnt take a hard look at them because they seemed like the type that might hit them up for money. Then he saw a police cruiser stop alongside the pair.

I figured these guys must have done something, Satterfield said.

Then he and his girlfriend heard gunshots and they took cover inside the apartment. They later learned they had been sitting in the line of fire when they discovered a bullet hole in a metal hand rail nearby.

Its not a bad area, Satterfield said later. Theres crime everywhere.

Until last week, the worst thing he had heard about was the robbery at his neighbors apartment, and petty property crimes that at times left him scratching his head in wonderment.

We had a whole iron bench stolen, he said, gesturing to an empty, landscaped area outside the apartments. A heavy, heavy bench, and now its gone. That takes some planning and some teamwork.

Don Adams, chief of police for the Alamo Colleges district that oversees SAC, did not respond to interview requests last week.

SAPD spokesman Sgt. Jesse Salame said Friday that the department hadnt received any complaints or concerns in the area before the shooting. He said its possible McManus misspoke about the department receiving a complaint.

That is generally a very, very safe area, said Salame, who emphasized that officers usually respond to nonviolent offenses and property crimes.

High number of police calls

Records show the Tobin Hill neighborhood near SAC is a busy area for police. SAPD received 654 calls for service in May, the most recent month crime statistics were available, from the area within the Tobin Hill Community Association, which includes Tobin Lofts, SAC, the neighborhood of Tobin Hill, the Pearl Brewery and the St. Marys strip of clubs and restaurants. Disturbances, traffic crashes, thefts and assaults were the most frequent complaints.

Compared to the other 230 San Antonio neighborhood associations that had reports of crime in May, Tobin Hill ranked ninth in the total number of police calls that month, according to data published on SAPDs website. The number of calls for police in the Tobin Hill community was five times higher than the overall neighborhood average of 134 calls in May.

The busiest area for police in San Antonio was downtown, with more than 2,800 calls in May. Each community in SAPDs crime reports varies in size and demographics, but SAPD doesnt publish per-capita crime statistics for individual neighborhoods.

Calls for service are a reliable indicator of how often people summon police, but sometimes the information detailing the nature of each crime is inaccurate. A concerned citizens initial report of a robbery might actually turn out to be a burglary when police officers arrive and investigate what happened. But the call for service report remains unchanged as a robbery.

SAPD keeps more accurate crime data internally, but Salame said he couldnt immediately provide a copy of that data, which might help pinpoint criminal activity near Tobin Lofts and whether its increasing.

Across a longer time frame, people in the Tobin Hill community called SAPD 3,116 times from January to May this year. Compared to previous years for that same January-to-May time period, thats slightly below average. From 2011 to 2017, police officers were called to the Tobin Hill area an average of 3,251 times.

Cody Doege, president of the Tobin Hill Community Association, said he lives about six blocks away from the site of the shooting and hes witnessed vast improvements over the years in the area where Tobin Lofts was built.

But there are still rough areas nearby that havent changed.

We live in an eclectic neighborhood, Doege said. Certainly its in transition with urban renewal. But a lot of bad stuff still lingers.

Sebastian Sanchez was one of the first tenants to move into Tobin Lofts and until last week the worst problem hes dealt with was noisy college students.

But on Friday afternoon, he sat outside his apartment a few feet from where the gunbattle occurred, quietly grappling with what happened.

Sanchez had been watching TV when he heard the gunshots. He dialed 911 and went outside.

There was blood everywhere, he said. Sanchez saw an officer lying motionless in the street. Another officer  Cavazos  was yelling at residents to get inside and to get help.

Sanchez complied. But he said the sight of Cavazos cradling the head of his fallen partner always will haunt him.

jtedesco@express-news.net
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The Texas Supreme Court held Friday that same-sex couples are not necessarily entitled to government employment benefits, opening the door to a renewed legal battle over whether marriage equality has limits in the Lone Star State.

The unanimous opinion does not prevent the city of Houston  at the center of this case  or the state from continuing to offer employment benefits to employees same-sex spouses.

Rather, it says the U.S. Supreme Courts landmark 2015 decision Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized a right to gay marriage, did not resolve whether same-sex spouses have a right to benefits, and sends the case back to trial court.

The Supreme Court held in Obergefell that the Constitution requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriages to the same extent that they license and recognize opposite-sex marriages, but it did not hold that states must provide the same publicly funded benefits to all married persons, Justice Jeffrey S. Boyd wrote. Of course, that does not mean  that the city may constitutionally deny benefits to its employees same-sex spouses. Those are the issues that this case now presents.

The high court initially declined last fall to hear the case, but relented in January after top Republican officials urged justices to reconsider.

While Obergefell obligates the State to grant and recognize same-sex marriages, it does not bind state courts to resolve all other claims in favor of the right to same-sex marriage, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in an October amicus brief.

Fridays decision steers clear of the merits of the case, focusing instead on more technical issues with the appeal.

The thought that the opinion is earth-shattering is much ado about nothing, University of Houston Law Center Professor Peter Linzer said, adding that theres very little doubt the court ultimately will decide same-sex spouses are entitled to the same benefits afforded those of the opposite sex.

Nevertheless, Linzer said, the city attorneys office is going to be busy with this thing, wasting some taxpayers money on it.

In the meantime, Houston plans to continue providing spousal benefits to same-sex couples while it reviews the decision.

Marriage equality is the law of the land, and everyone is entitled to the full benefits of marriage, regardless of the gender of their spouse, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement.

Plaintiffs attorney Jared Woodfill, on the other hand, cheered the decision as a huge win.

The court has limited Obergefell in terms of how broadly it should be interpreted, Woodfill said, adding, It recognized that theres an argument to be made at the trial court that taxpayer dollars should not be used in violation of ones deeply held religious beliefs.

Paxton echoed Woodfill, saying he was extremely pleased with the ruling.

While the U.S. Supreme Court declared a right to same-sex marriage, that ruling did not resolve all legal issues related to marriage, Paxton said in a statement.

The state of Texas has been offering benefits to same-sex spouses of its employees since 2015, just after the Obergefell decision.

Houston began providing benefits two years earlier, after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Plaintiffs Jack Pidgeon and Larry Hicks quickly sued, alleging the payments were an illegal use of taxpayer money.

A year later, a trial court temporarily blocked the city from providing same-sex benefits, a ruling that held until July 2015, when the states 14th Court of Appeals removed the temporary injunction in light of Obergefell.

The state Supreme Courts ruling essentially wipes that slate clean and instructs the trial court to reconsider the case.

Woodfill said he intends to ask for another injunction preventing the city from providing same-sex benefits and requiring Houston to claw back benefits paid to employees same-sex spouses before Obergefell.

The city did not respond to questions about the monetary value of benefits paid during that period or the number of same-sex spouses currently receiving employment benefits.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organizations condemned the decision as undercutting marriage equality.

The Texas Supreme Courts decision this morning is a warning shot to all LGBTQ Americans that the war on marriage equality is ever-evolving, and anti-LGBTQ activists will do anything possible to discriminate against our families, Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO and president of the New York-based group GLAAD said in a statement.

Lambda Legal, which co-authored an amicus brief backing the city, said it would work with Houston attorneys on the case.

This absurd contortion of the Obergefell ruling defies all logic and reason, Dallas-based Lambda Legal attorney Kenneth D. Upton, Jr. said in a statement. Marriage is marriage and equal is equal.
SALEM, Ohio  Gov. John Kasich signed the state operating budget late Friday night, which includes the changes to the state farmland tax program that Ohio farmers and farm groups have requested for the past three years.

The reforms are intended to more closely tie farmland taxes to actual farm income, and address a formula issue that allowed farmers Current Agricultural Use Value taxes to spike 300 percent and higher in recent years.

Specifically, the reforms will remove certain non-agricultural factors, such as equity buildup in the capitalization rate, and will tax qualifying conservation ground at the lowest taxable value for soil types.

The Ohio House had previously approved the changes in its version of the budget bill, and the Senate gave unanimous approval in May, a separate bill known as S.B. 36.

Its taken three years of grassroots action to fix the flaws in the CAUV formula, and our members should be proud of this significant accomplishment, said Ohio Farm Bureau Executive Vice President Adam Sharp, in a released statement. We also want to thank the legislators who listened to our Farm Bureau members, he said.

The Farm Bureau estimates that these changes, coupled with previous reforms, will result in average savings of 30 percent for 2017 reassessments.

Farmers have testified over the past three years that these reforms will help them stay on the land and continue contributing to their local economies. Some have also said that lower taxes might increase their chances of supporting local government and school levies in the future.

School funding

The loss of funding to schools and local governments was the biggest concern with making the changes in the CAUV formula. The Ohio Legislative Service Commission determined the bill could cost school districts about $18 million, and the same to local governments.

The Buckeye Association of School Administrators and the Ohio Association of School Business Officials both testified about the losses  and the likely tax shift that would result in higher property taxes for residential property owners.

The reforms will be phased-in over two reassessment cycles (six years), which will give schools and local communities more time to adjust.

Local governments

The other big budget issue farmers were watching is the way counties receive funding from a Medicaid-related sales tax that was set to expire. This potential loss of funding could impact OSU Extension, Soil and Water Conservation districts, and other county-level services.

The County Commissioners Association of Ohio had sought a six-year replacement for counties and transit authorities, valued at $207 million a year.

According to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kasich has vetoed that item, in favor of some one-time money for local governments. The paper reports that the GOP-controlled House and Senate could return next week to override any of the vetoes.

Related coverage:
Whether it was fate or just pure luck, at the time the little butcher shop in Gingin was up for lease and dad basically said if you want to do this this, this is our opportunity, she said.
Wed also like to tell some of the stories of the farmers behind the product as well, which is of strong interest to the export markets.
According to Michael, who crops nearly 2100 hectares of canola, wheat and serradellas, while retaining stubbles is an upside, handling it dictates so much of what he does on the farm and consumes a lot of labour and resources.
Stephen Belafonte has accused Mel B of squandering her Spice Girls fortune.

Stephen Belafonte and Mel B

The 42-year-old producer and his estranged wife appeared in court in Los Angeles on Friday (30.06.17) - to battle over finances and custody of their five-year-old daughter Madison - where Stephen's lawyer made the astonishing claims.

According to Daily Mail Online, Grace Jamra said: "Their lifestyle was extravagant and affluent.

"She wiped out all her Spice Girls money, approximately $50 million if not more."

The couple have outstanding tax debts and Mel's lawyer Jacalyn Davis, admitted the debts were "sustained through improvident lifestyle choices".

She said: "They never had money at the end of the year to pay their taxes.

"All their community income was being spent and then some.

"In this marriage that would be Miss Brown's income from the Spice Girls.

"Prickly things happen when the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) doesn't get paid."

Mel was previously granted a restraining order against her estranged husband, after she accused him of abusing her, getting their nanny pregnant and forcing her to take part in threesomes.

She alleged the abuse started within the first year of their marriage in 2007 and became a "pattern" for the then-couple with Stephen allegedly choosing to "beat her down to let her know he was in charge" whenever she saw a spike in her career.
Companies and global unions have agreed on a second Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord). The agreement will enter into effect when the current Accord expires in May 2018. The Accord is an unprecedented, legally binding agreement between companies and trade unions to make factories in Bangladesh safe and produce sustainable garments.

Companies and global unions have agreed on a second Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord). The agreement will enter into effect when the current Accord expires in May 2018. The Accord is an unprecedented, legally binding agreement between companies and trade unions to make factories in Bangladesh safe and produce sustainable garments.#

Several companies have now signed the renewed agreement with IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union. Many more companies are expected to sign in the coming days.

Companies and global unions have agreed on a second Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord). The agreement will enter into effect when the current Accord expires in May 2018. The Accord is an unprecedented, legally binding agreement between companies and trade unions to make factories in Bangladesh safe and produce sustainable garments.#

The Accord will continue its independent safety inspections and remediation programme at existing and new factories covered under the agreement, said Accord in a press release. The Safety Committee and safety training programme will be extended to all factories. The renewed agreement includes additional commitments to ensure that workers rights to Freedom of Association are respected to protect their own safety.

Companies and global unions have agreed on a second Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord). The agreement will enter into effect when the current Accord expires in May 2018. The Accord is an unprecedented, legally binding agreement between companies and trade unions to make factories in Bangladesh safe and produce sustainable garments.#

The renewed agreement builds on the fundamental elements that have made the Accord successful include independent inspections, bi-partite governance, commitment to transparency, provisions to ensure remediation is financially feasible, Safety Committee training and a credible complaints mechanism.

Companies and global unions have agreed on a second Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord). The agreement will enter into effect when the current Accord expires in May 2018. The Accord is an unprecedented, legally binding agreement between companies and trade unions to make factories in Bangladesh safe and produce sustainable garments.#

"The new agreement demonstrates that international brands and global trade unions recognise the positive impact of the Accord and the need for the Accord to continue its work in Bangladesh to ensure that factories are made safe and stay safe," said Rob Wayss, executive director and acting chief safety inspector of the Accord.

Companies and global unions have agreed on a second Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord). The agreement will enter into effect when the current Accord expires in May 2018. The Accord is an unprecedented, legally binding agreement between companies and trade unions to make factories in Bangladesh safe and produce sustainable garments.#

The ready-made garment (RMG) factories covered under the current Accord have made significant progress with safety remediation over the past four years. In this final year of the current Accord, the focus is on completing all outstanding key safety measures such as structural retrofitting, installation of fire alarm and fire protection systems and protected fire exits, and the continued delivery of the Safety Committee training programme.

Companies and global unions have agreed on a second Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord). The agreement will enter into effect when the current Accord expires in May 2018. The Accord is an unprecedented, legally binding agreement between companies and trade unions to make factories in Bangladesh safe and produce sustainable garments.#

The Accord and its trade union, company, and NGO witness signatories will intensify our constructive work with factory owners, the Government of Bangladesh, BMGEA and BKMEA, the International Labour Organisation and donor governments and their relevant programmes and initiatives. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

Speaking at the inauguration of the 3-day mega textile event Textiles India 2017, where more than 100 countries have registered their participation, Modi described India as a bright spot in the global economy. It has emerged as one of the most attractive global investment destinations. This has been made possible by a series of sustained policy initiatives, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

During its 3-year tenure, the NDA government has implemented more than seven thousand reforms to improve the ease of doing business. Citing examples, Modi said, Processes have been simplified and made transparent. Government has repealed over twelve hundred outdated laws.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

The Prime Minister informed the international audience that as a result of his governments reformist policies, India has moved up by thirty two places in the last two years in the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum, which is the highest for any country. India moved up nineteen places on the World Bank Logistics Performance Index of 2016. India also moved up sixteen places on the Global Innovation Index of the World Intellectual Property Organisation in 2016. And, the country is third among the top ten FDI destinations listed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

Based on the Make in India initiative, the organised textiles industry is being infused with the mantras of skill, scale, speed and zero-defect, zero-effect for scaling up employment, production and exports, Modi said. The textile sector offers significant employment opportunities. It is today, our second largest employer after agriculture. Over forty five million people are employed directly in the sector, and over sixty million people are employed in allied activities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

Driven by the rising middle class, Modi said, Indias domestic market for apparel and lifestyle products, currently estimated at $85 billion, is expected to reach $160 billion by 2025.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

Listing the various policy measures implemented by his government, he said the government has decided to provide financial help to companies in the apparel and madeups sector that hire new workers. The 12 per cent amount that an employer has to contribute to the employee provident fund would be borne by the Central government. This will enable more workers to join the formal sector.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

The government has also found a way for fixed term employment in the apparel sector. Any worker who joins for a specific time period would get all the benefits that are available to any permanent employee. This will also help in improving condition of the workers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

Under the Income Tax Act too, manufacturing units in this sector that employ at least 100 people and give employment to any new worker for up to 150 days, would get tax relief. (RKS)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today given a clarion call to global investors to Come, invest and make textiles in India. He said India has one of the most liberal investment policies for foreign investment in the textiles and apparel sector, and the government allows 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the textiles and apparel sector.#

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
There is cotton and textile production in the state, and the government now wants to promote apparel manufacturing, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has said. He was speaking at the inauguration of the 3-day Textiles India 2017. Around 2,500 international buyers, 1,000 exhibitors and 15,000 visitors are participating in the mega event.

Naidu said khadi has become a fashion brand today, and this is entirely attributable to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who globe trots and promotes khadi. Citing an example that a weaver has bagged order for the next 10 years, Naidu said, there will be a premium price for all (Indian) skills in future.

Speaking on the occasion, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani said that the spindles capacity in the state has now risen to 33 lakh. He said Gujarat contributes 38 per cent to Indias total man-made fibre production. The state also manufactures 25 per cent of the countrys technical textiles.

There is cotton and textile production in the state, and the government now wants to promote apparel manufacturing, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has said. He was speaking at the inauguration of the 3-day Textiles India 2017. Around 2,500 international buyers, 1,000 exhibitors and 15,000 visitors are participating in the mega event.#

The representative of the Korean Federation of Textile Industry said there are numerous Korean textile projects in China, Vietnam, and other countries, and that the Korean companies look forward to invest in India. He said Korea recently became net importer of textiles, and there is plenty of room for improving Korea-India bilateral textile trade.

Thanking Prime Minister Modi for making GST a reality, Arvind CMD Sanjay Lalbhai said Progressive and simple GST for entire textile value chain will provide level playing field, especially for those who are compliant. This will push Indian textile industry to be more competitive. This is expected to create 20 million jobs in the country. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Deepika Had A Major Crush On 'Titanic' Star Leonardo DiCaprio

Same pinch, Dippy! Who didn't ever fell for Leonardo DiCaprio's charm? His droolworthy looks in Titanic had millions of girls swooning over him.

The actress shared a throwback picture on her official Instagram account where a 12-year-old Deepika can be seen sitting on a sofa with her younger sister and the entire walls of her room are filled with the posters of Leonardo DiCaprio. She captioned the picture as, "#flashbackfriday #MAJORflashbackfriday."

Boyfriend Ranveer Singh Approves Him Too

Check out Ranveer Singh's adorable reaction to Deepika's picture!

Deepika Is Busy With Padmavati

After Ram Leela and Bajirao Mastani, Dippy is teaming up once again with beau Ranveer Singh for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati. But this time, the duo won't be romancing each other on-screen. Shahid Kapoor plays Deepika's husband in the film.

Deepika To Play Sapna Didi

Recently she also signed Honey Trehan's next where she will be reuniting with her 'Piku' co-star Irrfan Khan. Buzz is that she will apparently play the role of Sapna Didi (Rahima Khan), the mafia queen.

Hollywood Calling

Meanwhile, filmmaker D.J Caruso recently confirmed that Deepika will return back as Serena Unger in xXx4 alongside Vin Diesel.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 06/30/17 -- Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd (TSX: OR)(NYSE: OR) ("Osisko" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has filed a management information circular (the "Circular") and related proxy materials with the Canadian securities regulators and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in advance of its special meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting").

BACKGROUND

On June 5, 2017, Osisko announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Orion Mine Finance Group ("Orion") to acquire a high-quality precious metals portfolio of assets consisting of 74 royalties, streams and precious metal offtakes for total consideration of C$1.125 billion, creating a growth-oriented, world class and gold-focused royalty and streaming company (the "Transaction").

The combination of Osisko's and Orion's portfolios will result in Osisko holding a total of 131 royalties, streams and precious metal offtakes, including 16 revenue-generating assets. The Company's cornerstone assets remain the 5% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty on the world class and long-life Canadian Malartic gold mine (Canada's largest producing gold mine) and its 2.0% to 3.5% sliding scale NSR royalty on the world class Eleonore gold mine. Through the Transaction, Osisko will gain a 9.6% diamond stream on the Renard diamond mine and a 4% gold and silver stream on the Brucejack gold and silver mine, all of which are new high-quality mines in Canada, in addition to a 100% silver stream on the substantial Mantos Blancos copper mine in Chile. Certain assets in the Orion portfolio are subject to buyback and buydown provisions.

Sean Roosen, Chair and CEO of Osisko, commented: "We are very pleased to file our management information circular in connection with Osisko's acquisition of the Orion portfolio. Osisko's Board of Directors and management team invites all shareholders to vote IN FAVOUR of this transformational transaction".

Shareholders of record on June 19, 2017, being the record date for the Meeting, will receive notice of and be entitled to vote at the Meeting. The Circular, which provides important information about the Transaction as well as information concerning Osisko and Orion, is now being mailed to shareholders of Osisko.

OSISKO SPECIAL MEETING

The special meeting of shareholders of Osisko is scheduled to be held at 9:00 a.m. (Montreal time) on Monday, July 31, 2017 at the offices of Lavery, de Billy, L.L.P. located at 1 Place Ville Marie, Suite 4000, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3B 4M4.

Your vote is important regardless of the number of shares you own. Osisko encourages shareholders to read the meeting materials in detail. An electronic copy of the Circular is available on Osisko's website at www.osiskogr.com. It will also be available under Osisko's issuer profiles on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT. VOTE TODAY. Osisko's Board of Directors and Management UNANIMOUSLY recommend that Shareholders vote IN FAVOUR of the Transaction. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOW TO VOTE

Due to essence of time, shareholders are encouraged to vote today using the internet, telephone or facsimile.

Registered shareholders of Osisko

Registered shareholders may vote by:

-- Internet: www.cstvotemyproxy.com -- Telephone: 1-888-489-7352 (North American Toll Free) -- Facsimile: 1-866-781-3111 (North American Toll Free) or 416-368-2502 (outside North America) -- Mail: 2001 Robert-Bourassa Blvd., Suite 1600, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2A6, or by courier at 2001 Robert-Bourassa Blvd., Suite 1600, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2A6 -- Attending the meeting in person: 1 Place Ville Marie, Suite 4000, Montreal, Quebec

Non-registered shareholders of Osisko

Shareholders who hold shares of Osisko through a bank or other intermediary will have different voting instructions. In most cases, non-registered shareholders will receive a voting instruction form as part of the meeting materials. Non-registered shareholders are encouraged to carefully follow the instructions found therein, on how to submit their votes.

SHAREHOLDERS QUESTIONS

Shareholders of Osisko who have questions regarding the Transaction or require assistance with voting may contact Laurel Hill Advisory Group, the proxy solicitation agent, by telephone or email as set forth below.

Laurel Hill Advisory Group

By telephone (North American Toll Free) at: 1-877-452-7184

By telephone (Collect Outside North America) at: +1-416-304-0211

By email at: assistance@laurelhill.com

About Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd

Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd is an intermediate precious metal royalty company focused on the Americas that commenced activities in June 2014. Prior to the Transaction announced on June 5, 2017, it held over 50 royalties and one stream, including a 5% NSR royalty on the Canadian Malartic Mine (Canada), a 2.0% to 3.5% sliding scale NSR royalty on the Eleonore Mine (Canada) and a silver stream on the Gibraltar mine (Canada). It maintains a strong financial position with cash resources of C$423.6 million at March 31, 2017 and has distributed C$35.1 million in dividends to its shareholders during the past ten consecutive quarters. Osisko also owns a portfolio of publicly held resource companies, including a 15.4% interest in Osisko Mining Inc., 13.3% in Falco Resources Ltd. and 33.4% in Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.

Osisko's head office is located at 1100 Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montreal, Suite 300, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 2S2. For more information, visit www.osiskogr.com.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may be considered "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, that address future events, developments or performance that Osisko expects to occur including management's expectations regarding the benefits of the proposed Transaction, if any, the timing and ability of Osisko to complete the proposed Transaction, if at all, Osisko's growth, results of operations, estimated future revenues, requirements for additional capital, mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, production estimates, gold equivalent ounces, production costs and revenue, future demand for and prices of commodities, business prospects and opportunities are forward looking statements based on certain estimates and assumptions, and no assurance can be given that the estimates and assumptions will be realized. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "scheduled" and similar expressions or variations (including negative variations), or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur including, without limitation, the completion of the Transaction and related private placement, the performance of the assets of Osisko, the realization of the anticipated benefits deriving from Osisko's investments and the Transaction, including future net present value and cash flow measures, and the estimate of gold equivalent ounces to be acquired in connection with the Transaction.

Although Osisko believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors and are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may accordingly differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, without limitation: acceptance of the Transaction by Osisko's shareholders; the completion of the related private placement; the ability of the parties to receive, in a timely manner, the necessary regulatory and other third party approvals; the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner, the conditions to the closing of the Transaction; the ability of Osisko to realize the assumed benefits of the Transaction; fluctuations in the prices of the commodities that drive royalties held by Osisko; fluctuations in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar; regulatory changes in national and local government, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies; regulations and political or economic developments in any of the countries where properties in which Osisko holds a royalty, stream or other interest are located or through which they are held; risks related to the operators of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty, stream or other interests, influence of macroeconomic developments; business opportunities that become available to, or are pursued by Osisko; continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty, stream or other interest; development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty, stream or other interest; rate and timing of production differences from mineral resource estimates or production forecasts by operators of properties in which Osisko holds a royalty, stream or other interest; risks and hazards associated with the business of exploring, development and mining on any of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty, stream or other interest, including, but not limited to unusual or unexpected geological and metallurgical conditions, slope failures or cave-ins, flooding and other natural disasters or civil unrest or other uninsured risks.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including, without limitation: the ongoing operation of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty, stream or other interest by the owners or operators of such properties in a manner consistent with past practice; the accuracy of public statements and disclosures made by the owners or operators of such underlying properties; no material adverse change in the market price of the commodities that underlie the asset portfolio; no adverse development in respect of any significant property in which Osisko holds a royalty, stream or other interest; the accuracy of publicly disclosed expectations for the development of underlying properties that are not yet in production; and the absence of any other factors that could cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements made in this press release, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the most recent Annual Information Form of Osisko which is filed with the Canadian securities commissions and available electronically under Osisko's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available electronically under Osisko's issuer profile on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects Osisko's expectations as at the date of this press release and is subject to change after such date. Osisko disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

Contacts:

Osisko Gold Royalties

Joseph de la Plante

Vice President, Corporate Development

(514) 940-0670

jdelaplante@osiskogr.com



Vincent Metcalfe

Vice President, Investor Relations

(514) 940-0670

vmetcalfe@osiskogr.com




With goods and services tax becoming a reality in India after long wait, tax experts, who have time and again stressed the need for such a system, are hailing the move.

However, they have also raised the concern that this is not the perfect structure for the GST and expressed hope that the government will refine it to bring down tax slabs going forward.

MS Mani - Senior Director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP

The launch of GST will truly unite the country as far as taxation of goods and services is concerned; we now hope that that the government moves to a considerate and empathetic implementation regime with a focus on making the reform acceptable to all sectors of the economy. The introduction of GST signifies the completion of all processes necessary to launch the most eagerly awaited tax reform in the country and will significantly improve the ease of doing business in India; this is a defining moment in the country's economic landscape whose benefits will accrue over the next few years.

This is a defining moment for the country as the introduction of GST is a business reform intended to harmonize the indirect tax structure across the country with significant benefits for all sections of society - the focus now shifts to smooth implementation of GST.

Anita Rastogi, Partner - Indirect Tax and GST, PwC

The mega reform of GST should be a mixed bag for the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. Clearly the GST rate structure looks positive for some products such as soap, toothpaste and hair oil are likely to be cheaper, while tea and coffee may be neutral. On the other side aerated beverages and some consumer durables, could be more expensive. Detergents, baby foods and sanitary napkins may be at a higher price. The rates for Ayurvedic products is not as per expectation. For most other FMCG majors, the GST rate structure is likely to be neutral or marginally positive, as their broad portfolios would see a mixed impact.

Saloni Roy, Senior Director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP

The historic tax reform is finally here after a long wait. India has moved to a global system of taxation which has been intricately developed and formulated in close partnership and coordination with the central and state governments. India has awakened to GST and to a new era of taxation policies.

Gautam Khattar, Partner - Indirect Tax, PwC

Overall a positive for auto industry, exception being bikes over 350 cc which is negatively impacted. The local state VAT which leads to variations in prices across State will no longer be there and may provide single price across India. However, the existing leases will be impacted upto 30 percent. New lease will reap the benefit of additional credit available under GST.

Gyanendra Tripathi, Tax Partner, EY India

Some of the immediate challenges for the manufacturing sector from a GST legislation perspective are clarity on the mechanism for excise exempt units set up under the area based exemption, while the existing credits are permitted to transition to the GST regime. Clarity is required on the balances lying in Account Current (such as PLA, Advance Octroi deposit, etc.). The per day exemption granted for purchase from unregistered dealers is impractical from a tracking and monitoring perspective and could perhaps be simplified to provide an overall monthly limit and GST payable beyond such limit.

Muralidharan - Senior Director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP

GST is now a reality! Though the version of GST being implemented may not be the best considering that it was tweaked many times to accommodate the conflicting interests of different stakeholders, it is still significantly better than the current tax regime.

GST has put behind both the multiplicity and the cascading impact of taxes besides bringing in transparency in the tax regime. Tax reform is a process and not a destination. One would eagerly look forward to refinement of the GST in the next one or two years to reduce the number of tax slabs, broad base GST to include the petroleum products and simplify the procedures relating to reverse charge, credit availment, etc. The government needs to continuously engage with the trade and industry to remove the pain points in implementation to ensure a smooth transition.

Rajeev Dimri, Leader, Indirect Tax, BMR & Associates LLP.

With more than 80 percent of Indias existing taxpayers having successfully migrated to GST, it may be overly critical to say that the country is not ready. However, few sections of the society are not equipped with sufficient resources and are still struggling to gear themselves with the fresh regime. The industry, at large, seems to be in a welcoming mode for GST, even though one would agree that the overarching public opinion with regards to GST is that contrary to the declared intent, GST would make things more complex rather than simplifying them.

In the initial few months of GST implementation, companies do expect significant challenges with respect to effective delivery by various re-aligned IT systems and continuous changes required in processes and systems on account of the law evolving each day. It is also highly expected that many sections of the industry may not be fully compliant with various requirements of GST law from Day 1 itself and would require a transitioning period of few months post go-live date. This struggle is aggravated on account of the fact that for certain period of time, the companies will have to run parallel systems to account for existing tax transactions as well to meet the requirements of the GST regime. Lack of clarity with respect to taxability of transactions with Jammu and Kashmir is also leaving many companies unnerved. It would also be of utmost importance to carefully book all expenses and sales and map all the credits accurately in initial days of GST implementation for successful transition of all such credits to GST.
Now in its sixth edition, day-long metal festival Bangalore Open Air was clearly styled on founder Salman U Syeds love for one of Europes largest gatherings of the metal brotherhood  Germanys Wacken Open Air. He even got support from the festival to bring down bands once in a while and send an Indian band to Wacken.

At a press conference in Bengaluru venue The Humming Tree, on Friday, 30 June, Salman  seated alongside chief sponsors Zippo and Casio India  joked to their headliner, American death metal veterans Nile, that he had visited Wacken a total of eight times. Ive been to Wacken more than Nile, Salman said with a laugh, as Niles frontman Karl Sanders joined in the ribbing.

What started out in 2012 with about 700 people in attendance to a handful of bands including German thrash metal veterans Kreator, Bangalore Open Air has always been hosted to mixed reviews. Despite a heavy-hitter lineup in 2013 that comprised the likes of heavy metallers Iced Earth, Norwegian black metal virtuoso Ihsahn, Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity and tech metallers Animals As Leaders, the audience grew frustrated about the cancelation of German thrash band Sodom, and other event-related faux pas.

Bangalore Open Air scaled down in 2014, hosting a somewhat intimate, intense gig featuring the likes Rotting Christ and German thrash metallers Destruction, among others. And in 2015, they hosted a formidable lineup that included grind/death metal pioneers Napalm Death, death metallers Inquisition and Belphegor. They faced a somewhat underwhelming turnout, but surprisingly, BOA has never showed signs of slowing down. Most metal festivals (and even a few bands) have come and gone in the span that BOA has survived. Salman said at the conference, The vision is to have people from all over South East Asia come to Bangalore Open Air, to make it a must-attend event.

Despite that good intention, whats held the festival back is constant uncertainty. Nearly every year, theres been at least one band  international or local  dropping off the lineup at the very last minute. If you thought Sodom in 2013 was a one-off, Salman has had to explain to fans each year, through some misfortune, how one of the booked bands wont be making it and the show must go on. The carry-on spirit is definitely laudable when most Indian metal festivals (even rock and multi-genre ones, in fact) lose faith after the first edition, probably after looking at an Excel sheet that just isnt making any numerical sense in terms of expenditure and revenue. But even then, when BOA announced just two days ago that their co-headliner  Swedish black metal band Marduk  were off the lineup for being unprofessional, it seemed like there was still fault to find with the organisers when clearly, the band was in the wrong.

Back at the press conference, with just Niles Sanders and guitarist Brian Kingsland repping as headliners, the band fielded questions about what they thought about metal in India with a long-term view. Sanders said, The whole ball game has changed. This feels like were on the ground floor right now and we see it (metal scene) building (in India).

One of the things that has helped the structure of a festival like BOA somewhat stable is sponsors and investors who have come back year on year, including Casio India, whose AGM Marketing Sachin Sharma mentioned that they share a very symbiotic relationship with the festival and saw the support continue for the coming years  a rarity for anything metal-related in the country. Salman, of course, turned to ask if the continued support also meant a chance to scale up and bring down metals biggest names like Metallica, Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Casios rep was quick to say, It totally depends on you.

In the middle of it all, Nile sat a bit bemused by the whole ordeal, where organisers and bands have to sit at the same table and pose for photos with products, a deal like few others in the world. Despite Marduks cancellation, BOA also includes Swiss thrash metal veterans Coroner, prog/thrash band Galaxy Crusher, Bengalurus very own old school metallers Kryptos and heavy metallers Speedtrip. Theyve had to face angry comments and a few ticket refunds/resellers since then, but the gathering at BOA will be  for lack of a better word  the metal faithful.
Anurag Basu is one of those people who has the habit of finishing his sentences very fast while communicating. This only means you have to be extra cautious while listening to him, lest you miss out on words.

When I meet him at the Disney office, he seems relaxed in a blue floral half-sleeved shirt and loose trousers. Along with Ranbir, he has just delivered a succession of TV interviews and is still raring to go. The relaxed vibe could also be attributed to a different technique that he has been employing for his films.

For both Barfi and Jagga Jasoos, I went ahead and shot the climax first. It gives you a sort of confidence and the entire film is clear in your head. I do this only because the climax of a film is the most difficult portion to shoot and if you are able to finish the most difficult portion first, then it's like catching the bull by its horn, explains Basu.

The germ of his latest venture Jagga Jasoos lies in his own daughter. After he showed Barfi to her and met with a disapproval, he was on the lookout for a subject that could appeal to his daughter and replace the Hollywood flicks synonymous with Disney and Pixar. Jagga Jasoos was thus born, a musical with a tinge of thriller.

The film also marks the second collaboration of Anurag with his muse Ranbir Kapoor. Ranbir is a great person and thats why he makes a great actor" says Basu.

For the filmmaker, it was a task explaining the genre of the film to his investors. It was very tough to explain, as there was no reference for this musical thriller. It was more like walking a completely dark path but then slowly as you move ahead, the vision became clear, he says. Basu is a sucker for musicals and counts Mary Poppins, Sound of Music and the more recent La La Land as his favorites. He also cites a film that was made in his mother tongue Satyajit Rays Heerak Rajar Deshe, as one of his favourites.

To borrow words from Ranbir Kapoor, chaos is what best describes Basu's sets. He reportedly never carries a physical screenplay, as its all there in his head. Ranbir has admitted that when he was given the first narration of Jagga Jasoos, the entire movie was in his head but nothing on paper. Its just not possible to shoot a film without a screenplay. You have to have a graph with a beginning, middle and the end. You just cannot land on the sets and start shooting scenes. Its just not possible. The script is definitely there somewhere, its either in the head, or in some drawer or in the back pocket of the director, says the director, without revealing where he kept his script.

While the initial days of the film were marred with casting issues, there were also reports of some early scenes of the film being scrapped. As per Basu, only two small scenes were scrapped and nothing was reshot. The build-up to all this also resulted in negative publicity for the film.

"It's difficult for both Ranbir and I to keep explaining and justifying. Ranbir is not on social media and I am hardly active. The film should speak for itself and there is no point giving justifications," he clarifies.

Rumours related to Katrina Kaifs commitment towards the film after her alleged split with Ranbir also did the rounds. Quiz Basu about it and he talks more about her professional commitments: She has been amazing actually, and Ranbir and her compliment each other. They gave each other lots of space when on the sets. Both of them have behaved in a professional manner throughout the film. Its also very difficult for actors to give consistency when a film is in making for long. It was tough for them and they could have easily lost their interest.

Basu also clarifies about the image of Govinda thats been floating on social media these days. He clarifies that he did shoot with Govinda for a special appearance in the film, but because of some changes it could not find a place in the final cut.

Right at the helm of the film, I wonder what occupies the director's mind. He jokingly reveals a grudge he has towards Ranbir. I really want to work with most actors from the industry, but he is just not allowing me to. Kamina, karne hi nahi deta hai. There was a film planned with Shah Rukh Khan but something happened at the end moment, I am hopeful that after Jagga Jasoos it might just happen," reveals Basu.

Well, we cant wait.
What's more fun than passing off stalking celebrities on social media as work?

Very little, right?

And so, we scanned the Instagram and Twitter accounts of celebs from India and abroad, to bring to you weekly updates from the interwebz. Who tweeted to whom? Who reposted last night's party pics? Who went on a rant about what. Whatever it is, don't worry, we've got you covered.

We stalk, you read. Deal?

Shilpa Shetty Kundra's cover for Femina

Yaaaay ,Thankyou @feminaindia @tanyachaitanya27 @sandipandalal for all the love. #covergirl #feminazi #feminaindia #health #lifestylemodification #swasthrahomastraho A post shared by Shilpa Shetty Kundra (@theshilpashetty) on Jul 1, 2017 at 1:13am PDT

Shilpa Shetty took to Instagram to share her latest cover for Femina magazine. Even after being relatively absent from the Bollywood acting scene, Shetty continues to routinely slay anything and everything that she touches.

Shah Rukh Khan behind the scenes of Jab Harry Met Sejal's song

Shah Rukh Khan shared a fun little snippet with co-actor Anushka Sharma with whom he has previously appeared in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (Sharma's debut) and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. The short video shows the two actors behind the scenes during their shoot for the song 'Radha' from their upcoming movie Jab Harry Met Sejal with director Imtiaz Ali.

Alia Bhatt's Girls Night Out

thick fries before guys  A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Jun 29, 2017 at 7:24pm PDT

Alia Bhatt has been living out her Bollywood hiatus to the fullest. Whether it's her dance classes or her bonding sessions with her cat, Bhatt seems to be making the most of her time off. In the latest photo that Bhatt shared with her followers, she is seen on a girl's night out with her friends (most of whom we see frequently appearing on her Instagram). The photograph comes with the hilarious caption 'thick fries before guys', reminding us all about what's truly important in life.

Sushant Singh Rajput on Femina Miss India 2017

The only true voyage of discovery (is) to behold the universe through the eyes of another... #Marcel #feminamissindia2017 A post shared by Sushant Singh Rajput (@sushantsinghrajput) on Jun 30, 2017 at 1:50am PDT

Sushant Singh Rajput gave us a glimpse of what he is up to these days as he shared a photo of himself on the stage of the recently concluded Femina Miss India 2017. Singh delivered a thoroughly enjoyable performance, and the event saw a strong support from the Bollywood community, with a bevy of stars in attendance.

Sushmita Sen reminds us that 'Love is enough'

Sushmita Sen has always been goals, and she refuses to stop giving us reasons. The actress recently took to Instagram to share a photograph of herself from her recent trip to Dubai. The picture sees a buoyant Sen, standing in front of a hand drawn sign that reads 'Love is enough'. The actress put up a supporting caption that reminds everyone to stay childish and remember the power of love.
Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party will launch a nationwide movement is support of farmers grappling with an "agrarian crisis" and the killing of cultivators in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district.

The AAP will organise 'Kisan Nyay Sammelan' and signature campaigns in all states, AAP Punjab co-president Aman Arora said here.

Citing reports and surveys, he said farmer suicides in the country are on the rise and their income has reduced.

The BJP government at the Centre reneged on its promise to implement the Swaminathan Commission report, he alleged and demanded that farmers' loans should be waived in all states.

On 6 June, Madhya Pradesh police opened fire on farmers protesting in Mandsaur, killing six of them. This sparked protests in neighbouring districts including Neemuch, Dewas, Bhopal, Indore, Shajapur and Ratlam.
Ludhiana: An alert railway gangman averted a possible train accident by spotting two persons who were allegedly removing fish plates from a track near the Ladoowal railway station, about 15 kms from Ludhiana in Punjab, the police said on Saturday.

Gangman Shatrughan spotted the two persons who were tampering with the railway track under Ladoowal GT railway over bridge last evening, the police said.

This happened just about 15 minutes before Amritsar-bound New Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi Express was scheduled to pass through the spot, railway officials said.

Shatrughan immediately informed the station superintendent of the Ladoowal railway station, who informed the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Railway police.

Meanwhile, the people around nabbed the miscreants and handed them over to the RPF when the force arrived at the spot.

GS Dhillon, Inspector General of Railway Police, said over phone from Patiala on Saturday that the miscreants have been identified as Hansraj Singh (40) of Ludhiana and Pardeep Singh (56) of Mansa.

Investigations are being carried out jointly by the RPF and GRP, he said.

Preliminary investigations suggest that it was only a case of theft and as of now, there is no evidence to show that it was a case of sabotage, the IG said.

Dhillon said the antecedents of both the persons were being verified. One of them was stated to be having an ununsound mind.

A major rail tragedy had been averted due to the alertness the railway gangman, a rail official said.

A case has been registered by the Ludhiana RPF in connection with the incident.
Jammu: A fresh batch of 4,477 pilgrims on Saturday left winter capital Jammu to perform the Amarnath Yatra after the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was restored for traffic.

"Comprising 3,298 males, 986 females and 193 sadhus, the yatris left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in 136 vehicles escorted by the security forces", officials said.

The convoy of vehicles carrying the pilgrims left Jammu at 4.15 am as no vehicle carrying the yatris is being allowed to cross the Jawahar Tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar highway after 3.30 pm due to security reasons.

No pilgrim was allowed to move to the Valley yesterday due to blockade of Jammu-Srinagar highway due to landslides in Ramban district.

The 40-day yatra started on 29 June and will end on 7 August on Shravan Purnima coinciding with Raksha Bandhan festival.

So far, over 10,000 pilgrims have had Darshan inside the cave shrine situated in Kashmir Himalayas at an altitude of nearly 14,000 ft. in south Kashmir's Anantnag district.
Mumbai Police on Saturday arrested six accused in the Manjula Shetye alleged murder case at Byculla jail.

Manjula Shete Byculla jail murder case: Mumbai police arrested all 6 accused named in the FIR.  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

In an earlier tweet, ANI mentioned that only a prison guard had been arrested:

Manjula Shete Byculla jail murder case: Mumbai police arrested prison guard, produced before court, remanded to police custody till July 7.  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

The Indian Express reported that the Nagpada police had filed a FIR against staff members over the alleged murder. A FIR was filed against the inmates as well for rioting.

After Shetye's death, the situation in the jail premises went out of hand as other inmates started destroying property in protest, as reported by Hindustan Times. Shetye's family has alleged foul play and said that Manjula was healthy. Her death was not a natural death, according to Hindustan Times.

Shetye, a woman prisoner, died on 23 June after being beaten up for five hours in jail. She was pronounced dead upon arrival at JJ Hospital. A mystery has surrounded the inmate's death since several media reports suggest that she was dead 30 minutes before being admitted to the hospital, as mentioned in a previous Firstpost article.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) demanded a judicial inquiry into Shetye's alleged torture and death. The human rights body also sought a commission to review the state of India's prisons.

Sanjoy Hazarika, CHRI director, said that Shetye's death on 23 June is a stunning indictment of the "internal rot and impunity" that characterises India's penal system.

The inmate was serving the last few months of her 14-year jail term for murdering her sister-in-law in 1996. Shetye acquired a transfer from Pune's Yerawada Central Jail. She was then made a jail warden for her good conduct and made in-charge of one of the barracks in Byculla jail.
Jaipur: A couple having an extra-marital affair were allegedly tied to a tree and beaten up by the family of the woman in Udaipur, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place in Ladia Ki Khedi village on Friday wherein the parents of the 20-year-old woman called her lover (22) to their village on some pretext. They later tied the lovers to a tree near their house and beat them up, they said.

The villagers came to their rescue following which the couple fled the area.

The man and the woman were married separately. They were allegedly having an extra-marital affair for some time, police said.

Meanwhile, the man's father, Babuta Gameti, lodged an FIR against the woman's parents over the incident, they said, adding no arrests have been made so far.
Darjeeling: A panchayat office was set ablaze in the Darjeeling hills, where the GJM on Saturday took out processions in support of its demand for a separate Gorkhaland.

Normal life remained crippled in the hills as the indefinite shutdown entered its 17th day.

Suspected Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) supporters set ablaze a panchayat office on Friday night, but security forces moved in quickly and prevented it from getting completely gutted, the police said.

GJM supporters took out processions in various parts of the hills demanding a separate state and a large gathering was held at the Chowkbazar area.

The security personnel maintained a close vigil in the disturbed areas even as Internet services remained suspended.

Shops and business establishments were shut and transport was off the roads.

The state government had on Friday sought 10 companies (around 1,000 personnel) of the CRPF to deal with the situation in the hills.

"We had earlier asked for 10 CRPF companies from the Centre. But they had sent only four companies of women police personnel and three companies of the Sashastra Seema Bal," West Bengal Director General of Police Surajit Kar Purkayastha had told reporters at the state secretariat in Kolkata.

"We have again sought 10 companies of the CRPF," he had said.
New Delhi: Disabled people on Friday organised a candle light vigil against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on their helping aids and appliances and demanded subsidies, concessions and incentives.

The protest, organised by the Disability Rights Group (DRG) along with other organisations  National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), National Disability Network (NDN), Disabled Peoples' International (DPI), saw participation of around 50 people from the community.

"We are demanding a vast disability goods market for India where aids and appliances for all types of people with disabilities are both, available and affordable. That's our midnight hour dream," DRG Convenor Javed Abidi told IANS.

"It was before 2006 that simple and much necessary aids and appliances meant for the use of people with disabilities were taxed but after a big battle with the government, these taxes were brought down to zero percent," he said.

"Now that the new GST regime is kicking in, a lot of items are at 12 percent, some at 18 percent, and quite a few at 5 percent of GST, he added.

"Which decent society would tax crutches, wheelchairs, Braille typewriters and hearing aids?" he questioned.

Abidi emphasised that there is a deep connect between poverty and disability and hence their demand for their zero tax regime is "very important".

"We are here protesting not just for the people living in big cities but also the ones from very small villages who afford the basic amenities with great difficulty," he said.

He questioned why the items such as 'kajal' (kohl) are being taxed at zero percent and rough precious and semi-precious stones are being taxed at a mere 0.25 percent. "It's completely insane," he said.

"It is not clear why the GST Council is taxing disabled citizens of India. This decision of the Council blatantly violates the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act 2016, he added.

He explained that chapter 8 of the law categorically talks about concessions, subsidies, incentives.

"The government took a lot of credit for passing the new law of RPWD that talks about the affordability of aids and appliances but the opposite is happening, Abidi said.

"Instead of making them affordable, you are rather imposing a regime that will further make it out of the reach of people, he added.

DRG has written letters to finance minister Arun Jaitley, social justice minister Thawar Chand Gehlot and also Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the same.

"There hasn't been any response as of now but we won't give up," he said.

He also mentioned that Gehlot has written to the finance minister in support of our demands.

"Hence, we are hopeful that the government will respond to our needs and demands," he concluded.
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Chairman of the ruling Peoples Action Party (PAP) of Singapore Khaw Boon Wan (Source: VNA)



Party leader Trong lauded the valuable assistance the PAP and Singaporean government have provided for the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in personnel training.

He proposed that the two countries continue implementing their strategic partnership and collaborate closely at regional and global forums, especially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the United Nations.

Khaw, also Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister of Transport, informed the host of the outcomes of his talks with Politburo member and head of the Party Central Committees Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh, affirming that the PAP wants to develop multi-faceted ties with Vietnam.

He stressed the PAP will strive to promote the strategic partnership with Vietnam, share experience with the CPV in various areas and cooperate with Vietnam to successfully host APEC meetings and implement the ASEAN Community.

Meeting the PAP leader the same day, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on the two countries to fully tap the mutually supplementary strengths of the two economies via the Framework Agreement on Vietnam-Singapore Connectivity.

Vietnam needs Singapores assistance to join global supply chains and attract investment in infrastructure and environment, he said.

Khaw said Singapore attaches importance to ties with Vietnam, particularly in investment and the building of hi-tech zones, software parks and aviation.

Singapore will continue partnering with Vietnam at regional and global forums and support Vietnams hosting of the APEC Summit, he said, adding that as Chair of ASEAN in 2018, Singapore will join hands with Vietnam and other ASEAN members to build a strong, united and prosperous ASEAN Community.

During the stay, the PAP delegation held a working session with Transport Minister Truong Quang Nghia, visited the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in the northern province of Bac Ninh and met representatives from the Party Central Committees Organisation Commission, the Vietnam Womens Union and the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union./.
Chandigarh: The Election Commission of India will launch a special drive from Saturday for maximisation of registration of eligible voters in Punjab and to update the electoral rolls.

V K Singh, the Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab, said that in tune with the theme of 'No voters to be left behind', the ECI has decided to update the electoral rolls and maximise enrolment of young voters, particularly in the age group of 18 to 19 years, by launching a special drive.

He said during the drive, which will end on 31 July, eligible people can submit Form 6 at Election Electoral Registration Office or sent it by post or even submit the form online at National Voters' Service Portal (NVSP).

Singh said the form can also be filled by using the 'Voter Services mobile application'.

The Chief Electoral Officer said that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) shall visit door-to-door visits to collect Form 6 from the applicants, particularly 18-19 age group (extendable to 21 years of age) from 1-31 July

Singh said that special camps will be organised on 9 July and 23 July in the state at each polling station to distribute and collect Form 6 from the applicants.
Dehradun: Uttarakhand police has lodged a case against Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee CEO BD Singh and ex-chief priest VD Namburi after a Sadhvi accused them of molestation.

Uttarakhand: A Sadhvi has accused Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee CEO BD Singh & ex Chief Priest VD Namburi of molestation. Case filed  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

In a similar incident in 2014, the then chief priest of the Badrinath shrine, Keshavan Namboodiri, was arrested for allegedly molesting a pregnant woman in a hotel in News Delhi, PTI had reported.

According to the woman, Namboodiri had called her, whose father knows him, to the hotel. After refusing initially, she went there with her driver. The priests associate Vishnu Prasad was present there.

Namboodiri asked Prasad to go out and shut the door. When the woman sat on a chair, he tried to inappropriately touch her, following which she came out and reached the police station with her driver, an officer was quoted as saying.

Later, Prasad was also arrested. The duo was sent to 14 days judicial custody. The police had said that the men were drunk at the time of arrest. They were charged with wrongful confinement and outraging the modesty of a woman.

The Badrinath-Kedarnath temple committee had suspended Namboodiri.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Swaraj Abhiyan chief Yogendra Yadav on Saturday criticised the Centre for its stand against farm loan waivers and said an attitude of "double standards" has been meted out towards farmers.

"Morale of loan waivers are not discussed when it comes to bailouts to telecom industry and also when the previous government bailed out Indian industry in 2009. I find double standards when it comes to farmers," Yadav said.

Addressing a press conference of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), he said the country owed debt to farmers as the prices of their produce have been kept artificially low.

"The country owes debt to farmers. For the last 50 years, the prices of farm products have been artificially kept low because of which farmers faced losses," he said.

Accumulated debt of farmers is nothing short of Rs 50 lakh crore, and farmers are demanding just a fraction of it, he added.

Set up last month, AIKSCC, a body of 140 farmers' organisations across the country, will launch a march from Mandsaur on 6 July under the name Kisan Mukti Yatra.

The farmers will march in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and will reach Delhi on 18 July  the day when winter session of parliament begins  to launch an indefinite sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar.

"During the journey the campaign will spread awareness about the plight of farmers and through the agitation we raise two main demands loan waivers and remunerative prices for the produce of farmers," said VM Singh, convener of AIKSCC.

Yadav said just like "One Nation One Tax", we are launching a "One Nation One Farmers Movement" in Mandsaur.
A year ago, the prime minister had admonished the gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) in no uncertain terms. He did so again last Thursday, but even as he was speaking a mob was killing a man suspected of carrying beef in Jharkhand, which is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It will obviously take much more than an occasional condemnation to bring under control the murderous fanatics of the Hindu Right. The reason is the ingrained animosity of these groups towards Muslims who are mostly associated with eating beef. Since this bias has been instilled in them over decades by the Sangh Parivar led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), it will be futile to expect an overnight change of heart.

Nevertheless, Narendra Modi should be complimented for taking up cudgels against them. No one else either inside or outside the BJP could have done so. It is not impossible that his castigation of the gau rakshaks will turn a not inconsiderable section of the parivar against him, thereby damaging the BJP's electoral prospects.

But Modi doesn't seem to have any hesitation in following a path different from the one favoured by the hardliners in the saffron brotherhood. While the latter wants the establishment of a Hindu 'rashtra' (nation) now that 1,200 years of "slavery" under the Muslims and the British have come to an end, Modi wants to take India forward as a modern country with a vibrant economy.

But this objective cannot be achieved if the country remains in the grip of lawless groups bent on lynching those who do not share their reverence for the cow.

Considering that Modi has succeeded in checking some of the excesses of the Hindu fundamentalists like arranging for 'ghar wapsi' - or the return of Muslims to their "original" faith of Hinduism  or opposing inter-faith marriages via their 'love jihad' propaganda, it is possible that he will be able to rein in the gau rakshaks as well.

But, unlike the two other "programmes" of the fanatics, controlling the cow vigilantes will be much more difficult because their rampages relate to the cow, a longstanding emblem of Hinduism in the eyes of the animal's worshippers who believe that it exhales oxygen and that its urine has therapeutic value.

An effort to restrain them, therefore, will be a real test for Modi, much more than the rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) or inviting foreign investment or popularising genetically modified food.

If he fails, there is little doubt that the halo surrounding his persona will be vastly diminished not only among the "not in my name" hashtag brigade of the urban middle class but also among the less privileged communities.

These include the Dalits, who have been alienated by the suicide of a bright young scholar in Hyderabad, the lynching of a group skinning a cow in Gujarat, and the clashes with high-caste Thakurs in Saharanpur, UP.

On the other hand, if the Prime Minister succeeds  if only because the police will now be far more active in apprehending the Hindu zealots  Modi's image will receive a tremendous boost. But even as he gains among the people at large, the impact of restraining the gau rakshaks  one of whom was compared with Bhagat Singh by a saffron sadhvi in Rajasthan  on the Parivar diehards remains unclear.

Although the RSS has warned the Hindutva activists against taking the law into their own hands, the reactions of the more belligerent Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal and other groups like the Ram Sene, the Hindu Sena and the Hindu Mahasabha cannot but be less restrained.

For them, any administrative action against the gau rakshaks will be a betrayal of the Hindutva cause, which will bring the BJP in line with the "sickular", anti-Hindu, anti-national Congress and the left-liberals.

It is too early to say whether the saffron camp will split, but it goes without saying that for outfits like the VHP, it will be virtually meaningless to remain a part of the Parivar when their cherished hopes are receding further into the distance.

In India, another regimented group, the communists, splintered into many factions because they could not establish their beloved dictatorship of the proletariat via an armed revolution. Does a similar fate await the votaries of Hindu rashtra?

The country will, however, see a major transformation of the political scene if no more lynchings or murders take place in the name of the cow. The BJP can then look forward to any easy victory in 2019.

On the other hand, more venomous targeting of Muslims will be ruinous for Modi's reputation as a strong leader and energise his opponents as never before. Either way, the holy cow will be playing a seminal role in the country's social and political scene to the amazement of the rest of the world.
The army ought to beef up deployment in the Kishtwar area, to guard an arc from the Keylong pass on the Manali-Leh road to Padar and beyond. As things stand, most of the army deployment under the Northern Command is oriented to the Pakistan threat.

To be sure, the current government has upped the deployment on the eastern front in the area controlled by the Northern Command from one brigade to three. Tripling deployment sounds good, but even that barely adds up to a division  not the sort of force that would deter China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The reason I point to Kishtwar is that the real 'great game' over Jammu and Kashmir is not over human rights or religious solidarity. Pakistani analysts have long acknowledged that water is the most vital geostrategic objective. And, of the three major rivers that flow through the state, the most strategically vital is the Chenab, which flows from Kishtwar.

On the one hand, whichever force were firmly entrenched in the mountainous and forested Kishtwar area would be tough to pry out. On the other hand, Kishtwar is an extraordinarily strategic location. It connects with Himachal, the Kashmir Valley, and Ladakh.

Of course, at this juncture, the priority that weighs heavy on China and Pakistan is to secure the Economic Corridor project, which passes through the state of Jammu and Kashmir. They would want to secure a legal title by placing India under maximum duress. In the bargain, both would wish to secure as much of the states abundant water resources.

Extraordinary source

The Chenab is formed by the confluence of the Chandra and the Bhaga tributaries. The two rivulets are already quite strong by the time they meet a little above Kishtwar to form the powerful channel of the mighty Chenab.

It is over the various projects on the Chenab, mainly between Kishtwar and Ramban, that Pakistan has complained repeatedly. Pakistan views these projects as violating the Indus Water Treaty. More pertinent is the fact that the area around Kishtwar would offer intruders far safer hideouts and billets, and it would be tougher to expel intruders from there than from the environs of the states other two major rivers  the Jhelum and the Indus.

The Chandra and the Bhaga meander through beautiful and thickly-forested mountains. Whichever power controls that neck of the woods holds great strategic advantage.

Those forests would provide extraordinary cover to any force that dug in. They also connect to Ladakh on the one hand, to the Kashmir Valley on another, and to Himachal in a third direction.

That last direction takes one to the lifeline of Ladakh, the Manali-Leh highway. It has become a far more vital link for the Leh district to connect with the rest of the country than the route through the Kashmir Valley.

On the other hand, it is through Kishtwar that the renowned Dogra general Zorawar Singh led his troops on through Padar and over the main Himalayan range to Ladakh. He conquered the vast areas beyond by leading his army from Padar to Padam and then on to Kargil and then Leh on the one hand and Skardu on another.

Less exposed

The states other two major rivers are less strategically exposed than the Chenab. The source of the Indus is in any case in China, and there isnt much that India does with the water of the Indus as it flows through Ladakh until it crosses the Line of Control beyond Batalik.

The Jhelum rises gently at Verinag in the south of the Kashmir Valley and flows majestically north through the Valley. For the most part, it is placid until it passes Baramulla. For most of its course until then, it is flanked by relatively flat plains which do not pose a challenge for a defending army.

In any case, the Chenab is the southernmost of these three major rivers of the state. A foreign power would seek to control the Chenab if it wished to cut Indian forces off from the rest of the state  the Kashmir Valley and the vast expanses of Ladakh.

Kishtwar district itself is a vast area, the countrys third largest district in area  after Leh and Kargil districts. The area of Kishtwar district alone is half that of the entire Kashmir Valley.
Indore: Wholesale markets across Madhya Pradesh saw a thin footfall on Saturday following confusion over the duty structure under the goods and services tax (GST) regime.

"The wholesales traders and customers in Madhya Pradesh are confused over GST as they don't have any knowledge about how GST is levied on different goods," Ahilya Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ramesh Khandelwal told PTI.

As a result, he said wholesale markets wore a deserted look on Saturday.

He anticipated the slump to continue for a week or so as wholesale businessmen are new to GST. Besides, Khandelwal added rural wholesale markets too are not abreast with the new taxing regime.

Madhya Pradesh Dal Udyog Mahasangh president Suresh Agrawal said pulses attract 5 percent levies under GST. This has hit the sale of branded pulses.

After Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh is the biggest producer of pulses in the country.

However, Commercial Tax Department deputy commissioner D Sharma claimed that 2.72 lakh business establishments out of the 3.10 lakh registered units have already been linked to GST.
New Delhi: Top leaders, industrialists, economists and celebrities on Saturday descended to witness the launch of landmark GST at the historic Central Hall of Parliament which opened for a midnight ceremony for the first time in two decades.

President Pranab Mukherjee, who piloted the first constitutional amendment for unifying more than a dozen central and state taxes, shared a specially erected dais in the circular hall with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice-President Hamid Ansari.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda too were on the dais with finance minister Arun Jaitley.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh too was supposed to be on the dais but he on Friday sent a regret letter to the prime minister's office apparently owing to his Congress' party's decision to boycott the "tamasha" (gimmick) launch ceremony.

The Parliament building complex was illuminated just like it is done on national festivals such as the Independence Day and the Republic Day.

At the stroke of midnight, Mukherjee and Modi pressed two buttons on a glass box decorated with orchids and GST inscribed on it.

The pressing of buttons launched the GST and a two-minute video showcasing India's diverse culture and tradition. Mukherjee and Modi warmly shook hands after the launch.

Industry doyen Ratan Tata, RBI Governor Urjit Patel, MP cum cine star Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha hogged much limelight with many of the participants greeting them.

Haseeb Drabu, finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir the only state which has not passed the SGST Bill  was also present.

When finance minister Arun Jaitley entered the hall, Patel walked up to him to exchange pleasantries.

Thereafter, the minister walked up to Tata, former empowered committee chairman Asim Dasgupta and former economic affairs secretary Vijay Kelkar to greet them.

Almost the entire council of ministers and MPs from ruling alliance sat in the circular hall along with opposition leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the BJD, the NCP and the JD-U.

The Congress, the Left, the TMC and the RJD boycotted the ceremony.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar was seated with BJP president Amit Shah in the front row.

As soon as former deputy prime minister and senior BJP leader L K Advani arrived, Shah gestured him to take a seat on the front row. Advani then sat between Pawar and Shah.

SP's Ramgopal Yadav was seated in the front row, so were Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD and AIADMK's A Navaneethakrishnan.

Subramanian Swamy, a bitter critic of GST-Network  the IT backbone provider for the new indirect tax regime was also present at the launch.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha as also Vijay Kelkar, who had first mooted the concept of GST in a report to finance ministry way back in 2003, were also present at the launch.

Tata, who sat on the eighth row initially, was requested by S S Ahluwalia to walk up to the initial rows. Tata then went to sit in the fourth row along with Dasgupta and Kelkar.

Media tycoon and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra, SP leader Amar Singh and Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule were also present at the launch.

Among the bureaucrats, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, DEA Secretary Tapan Ray, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, apart from CBEC chairperson Vanaja Sarna and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia were present.

Recently retired DEA secretary Shaktikanta Das too was present.

Unlike the last midnight event held in 1997 on the occasion of golden jubilee of the independence at a special session of Parliament, it was a gala event at its circular -shaped hall that had been loaned for the launch of the historic reform.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda too was present on the dais to launch the new taxation system that is set to dramatically re-shape over USD 2 trillion Indian economy.

As if giving representation to regional political parties, former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and National Conference leader Abdul Rahim Rather were invited for the event.

Former GST Council chairman Sushil Kumar Modi, former finance ministers of West Bengal and Kerala Asim Dasgupta and K M Mani, who played crucial role in negotiations for GST, were also present.

CEC Nasim Zaidi, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy and chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian were also present.

The GST Bill was originally piloted by Mukherjee when he was finance minister in the previous UPA regime in 2011.

The GST Council, that brings together the central and state governments, has met 18 times to thrash out how the tax will work.

Originally, the launch of GST which had been in the works for over a decade, was to be done from Vigyan Bhawan  the largest convention centre in the national capital that has hosted majority of the meetings of the GST Council.

But the historic Central Hall was thought to be a better choice considering the importance of the new indirect tax code that unifies more than a dozen separate levies to create a single market with a population greater than the US, Europe, Brazil, Mexico and Japan put together.

GST will simplify a web of taxes, regulations and border levies by subsuming an array of central and state levies including excise duty, service tax and VAT.

It is expected to gradually re-shape India's business landscape, making the world's fastest-growing major economy an easier place to do business.

GST has been dubbed as the most significant economic reform since the BJP government came to power in 2014 and is expected to add as much as 2 percentage points to the GDP growth rate besides raising government revenues by widening the tax net.

A four-rate structure that exempts or imposes a low rate of tax of 5 per cent on essential items and top rate of 28 per cent on cars and consumer durables has been finalised. The other slabs of tax are 12 and 18 percent.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday warned that tough action is being taken against companies indulging in tax evasion. He addressed chartered accountants across the nation while attending the foundation day event of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in New Delhi.

This was the prime minister's first public speech after the country embarked upon a new tax regime with the inauguration of the Goods and Services Tax, or GST through a special midnight session in Parliament on Friday.

The prime minister said that while the media and society were focusing on GST, over 37,000 shell firms had been already detected and registrations of more than 3 lakh others had been cancelled. The government found these companies through data mining efforts implemented to tackle the black money menace in India. He asserted that strict measures will be taken against those who come in the way of the nation's economic growth and that the punishments will keep getting stricter. "A country where a select few loot, such a nation cannot scale new heights. These select few never want the nation to grow...our Government has taken a tough stand against those who have looted the nation," he said.

On black money

With regards to measures related to black money, Modi said that a Swiss Bank report from last year revealed that there has been a 45 percent decrease in money deposited in the banks from India. He said that there was a 42 percent increase in this same figure in 2013, a year before he took office. The prime minister said that the government will now get real-time data from Swiss banks, which will make it much harder to circulate black money abroad.

Swiss Bank has stated that there has been a 45% drop in the deposit by Indians, the lowest ever in years: PM Narendra Modi  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

Modi also said, "On one hand, there is a Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and there is a movement to clean the nation from the menace of corruption."

Demonetisation

He also spoke of demonetisation, telling the audience of CAs that they surely must remember 8 November. "I have heard, after that (demonetisation) you had a lot of work...Now I don't now what work you did, whether you did the right thing or wrong, whether you did it for the client or the country, but you sure did work." He said, "Those who have looted the poor will have to give back what they have looted."

According to PTI, Modi said his government is committed to taking even tougher action against those helping hide black money and he is not at all concerned about any political implications of strong moves.

Strong message to CA community

In his speech, Modi harkened back to his 'good and simple tax' comment, saying it was a historic day for India. He compared CA's to 'sage monks of the economy' who will show the Indian economy the way to success.

The CA community looks after the economic health of society : PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/BrZgJ9X8QX  BJP (@BJP4India) July 1, 2017

He addressed 2,75,000 chartered accountants across the nation when he asked why it was that despite having "crores" of professionals in high-end fields, there are just 32 lakh people in this nation who say that their income is more than 10 lakh. He also questioned why, in the past 11 years, there have just been cases against 25 CAs. He said that it is an issue that 1,400 cases are still pending amidst the accountants, all of which would take years to resolve.

"Like doctors who take care of a person's physical and mental health, it is your (chartered accountants) responsibility to take care of society's financial health," Modi said at the 68th Chartered Accountants' Day event in the National Capital. He urged that in 2017, when the one nation, one tax, one market dream has come true, chartered accountants need to safeguard society's economic health.

He also highlighted the importance of CAs in bringing in the economic changes under GST, saying that, "We will always remember how the community of professionals took a lead during the freedom struggle of India. I urge the CAs to take the lead in the journey towards India's economic growth." He added that it was up to the accountants to end corruption and the circulation of black money through their designations. "Your signature carries immense faith, please do not break that trust that is placed on you."

Concluding the event, Modi spoke of the 'Big 4' accounting firms. He urged the audience that by 2022, which also marks 75 years of Indian independence, that there should be an Indian firm on this prestigious list. "People talk of the Big 4 accounting firms. Sadly, there is no Indian firm there. By 2022, let us have a Big 8, where 4 firms are Indian," he said. PTI reports that the top global accountancy firms include PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG.

Watch the full speech here:

With inputs from agencies.
New Delhi: All praise for the GST, Union ministers Saturday night said the tax reform measure will transform the country into a "New India" with uniform tax regime.

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the new transparent, effective and progressive indirect tax regime will fulfill the dream of "New India".

"As the Prime minister said, GST is much more than an economic reform. It will take shape of social reform," Pradhan said after attending a midnight function in Parliament organised for rollout of the GST.

On the absence of some opposition parties, Pradhan said, "If they didnt come, may Almighty give them some sense".

Power minister Piyush Goyal said barring a few, the entire nation has come together in "one stream and one necklace" to celebrate the launch of the "game-changing" reform that India always wished for.

"The GST will not cause distress or difficulty to common man, but it will make tax evasion harder," he said.

Minister of state in PMO Jitendra Singh said the Congress, which chose to boycott the launch event, will regret its decision later.

He said the Congress took the decision to keep away from the function despite the Modi government acknowledging the contribution of the previous governments by inviting former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda.

Food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said GST will make India free of black money.

"I am confident that this will act like a boon for the common man as it will bring down prices. This landmark legislation will convert India into economic union with uniform rules, laws, tariff and procedures across the nation," she said.

Rail minister Suresh Prabhu said in the coming days, tax compliance and tax collection will improve and the common mans problem in paying taxes will go.

Minister of state for finance Santosh Gangwar said the GST council will come together again whenever it will be required.
New Delhi: India on Saturday again sought consular access to its nationals Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on alleged espionage charges, and Hamid Nehal Ansari, an Indian engineer and businessman who was sentenced to three years in jail for entering Pakistan.

"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav," the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," it stated.

Jadhav was allegedly arrested from Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on 3 March, 2016. Pakistan claimed that the former Indian Navy officer confessed in a video that he was involved in spying and terror activities in Balochistan, a charge rejected by India. He was convicted in April by a Pakistani military court and sentenced to death.

India has maintained that Jadhav was abducted from Iran, where he was pursuing his business, and passed off as a spy.

In May this year, India moved the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which then stayed the execution pending a final decision by the court.

Ansari, an engineer and business professional, had gone to Kabul in Afghanistan on 4 November, 2012, on a tourist visa for a job in aviation. He entered Pakistan on 12 November.

From his e-mail accounts, it was revealed that he was in touch with a Pakistani girl on Facebook and had gone to Pakistan, where he was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail.

According to the ministry statement, in line with an agreement signed in 2008, India and Pakistan on Saturday exchanged, through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, the lists of nationals  including civil prisoners and fishermen  of each country lodged in the jails of the other country.

The Agreement on Consular Access between India and Pakistan, which was signed on 21 May, 2008, provides that a comprehensive list of nationals of each country lodged in the other country's jails has to be exchanged twice each year, on 1 January and 1 July.

"India remains committed to addressing on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen," the statement said.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation."




During a meeting with the RoK top legislator in Seoul on June 30th, NA Vice Chairman Luu reiterated Vietnam's external policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification and multilateralisation, and expressed his hope that the two countries will continue working to improve the effectiveness of multifaceted cooperation.

He suggested the two nations increase the exchange of high-level visits and meetings to enhance political trust and expand bilateral cooperation, especially in the fields of economy, trade, tourism, culture, education and people-to-people exchanges.

Vietnam and the RoK should intensify coordination in regional and international issues of common concern, especially in maintaining peace, stability in the Asia Pacific region, Luu said.

Vietnam welcomed and proposed the RoK continue supporting the stance of Vietnam and ASEAN on the East Sea issue, he said, expecting that the RoK to show stronger attitude towards actions that increase tensions in the waters and call on involved parties to promote dialogues in order to maintain peace, stability and denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula and fully implement the UN resolutions.

For his part, Speaker Chung Sye-kyun emphasised the role played by the two legislatures in general and parliamentarians in particular in removing difficulties and acting as intermediaries to settle differences.

He asked the Vietnamese Government to pay heed to education for RoK children living with their parents in Vietnam, and expanding the teaching of Korean language in the country.

Later on the same day, NA Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu visited the Vietnamese Embassy and met with representatives of the Vietnamese community in the RoK, during which he urged Vietnamese expatriates to continue making active contributions to the homeland./.
New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir, the only state which failed to meet the 30 June timeline for the GST rollout, is likely to clear the legislation on the indirect tax regime by 6 July, its finance minister Haseeb Drabu said in New Delhi on Friday.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had on Monday written a letter to chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, saying that failure of the state to implement the GST would lead to "adverse impact" of price rise and put the local industry at a disadvantage.

Jammu and Kashmir is the only state which has not taken a call yet on the implementation of the new tax regime which came into force in the country from midnight tonight.

"Jammu and Kashmir (assembly) is likely to pass the GST bill by 6 July in the state," said Drabhu, who was in New Delhi to attend the midnight launch of the GST in the central hall of Parliament.

Earlier this evening, the Jammu and Kashmir finance minister attended the meeting of GST Council convened by Jaitley.

In view of differences among the political parties, the state government had set up an all-party consultative group to find a common ground.

The consultative group held its second meeting on Thursday after which the government claimed that the parties were in agreement on extension of the new tax regime but with safeguards to protect the fiscal autonomy of the state.

"There was a general consensus in the meeting that non-implementation of the GST regime would trigger economic and financial chaos in the state with the inter-state trade vis-a-vis Jammu and Kashmir taking a big hit," an official spokesman said in New Delhi.

A few days back, Drabu had said the Mehbooba Mufti government is "genuinely interested" in building a consensus because the GST is a regime that would last for the next 30-40 years.

"We will take a final call on the GST implementation once we get the full sense of the all-party meeting. I do not want to preempt anybody. Let us understand what their views are," he had said.

Drabu said the state government has reached out to the opposition parties of the state and sent them all the relevant documents.

He said a perception has been created that the GST would impact the special status and the fiscal autonomy of the state, but there is no compromise on Article 370.

"The government is trying to build a consensus. This is a very fragile society. We are going through difficult times.... the way things are happening around us, the way things have been dehumanised, anything can spark off. You do not want to create social chaos.

"So, it is in the interest of the society of Jammu and Kashmir, not just the economy, to build a certain political as well as legislative consensus," he said.

The consultative committee meeting held threadbare discussions over the legal, legislative, financial, economic and administrative aspects of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime with the chairman explaining in detail the nuances of the new tax regime.

Making a U-turn, the Jammu and Kashmir Congress had said on Thursday that it was not against the implementation of the GST in the state, nearly two weeks after terming it as "unacceptable".

The party accused the government for the "current chaos, confusion and uncertainty" and said a "proper mode" should be adopted for implementation of the GST in the state in view of its special status.

"As far as the Congress is concerned, it has never been against implementation of GST, which is its brain child. But it is the government which had to adopt the proper mode and manner of implementation of the same in Jammu and Kashmir," state Congress Committee spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said in News Delhi on Friday.

A statement issued after a meeting of the JKPCC executive panel under the chairmanship of party unit chief G A Mir said, "It is the duty of the government to take steps to ensure the timely implementation of the GST, if they are sincere."
A civilian woman was killed when security forces on Saturday launched search operations at Dailgam village in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, following information that two militants were hiding in the area, ANI reported.

J&K: Cordon and search operations started by security forces in Dailgam village in Anantnag district. Two militants believed to be hiding  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

Some officials said they laid a cordon after receiving specific information and while the cordon was being laid, some militants opened fire.

The official statement read, "Forces received specific information about the presence of two or three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants at Brinthi Batpora, Dialgam district Anantnag, south Kashmir. While laying cordon, militants were found holed up in a house. As forces were trying to open the house, the militants fired and army retaliated and in the crossfire, a lady namely Tahira got killed." Police said that terrorists are using human shields at the encounter site. Efforts are on to rescue the civilians.

"Additional forces have been rushed to the spot, including paramilitary troops and a helicopter, to secure the safe release of the civilians trapped in the house," the police added.

However, witnesses disputed the police account and said neighbours went to the house where the militants were holed up to help them as the soldiers arrived in the area.

"They (the civilians) told the soldiers from inside the house that either let the militants go or kill us as well," said a resident of Dialgam, who declined to give his name.

As gunshots were heard in the area, hundreds of villagers came out on to the streets shouting anti-India slogans and throwing stones at soldiers in their attempts to break the cordon and help the militants escape.

A top Lashkar-e-Taiba militant, involved in the killing of six policemen last month, was among the four ultras trapped in the security forces' cordon, police said. "Bashir Lakshari and three terrorists are trapped in the security forces cordon in village Brenti in Anantnag. The trapped ultras were involved in the killing of an SHO and five other policemen in Achabal area of south Kashmir on 16 June," a police spokesman said.

With inputs from agencies
Pune: The Maharashtra Congress Saturday claimed that less than 15 lakh farmers will get the benefit of the farm loan waiver scheme announced by the state government.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the state government figures on the number of farmers who will be benefitted by the farm loan waiver are misleading.

"With this farm loan waiver scheme, the state government is trying to mislead the farmers by claiming that 89 lakh farmers will get benefit from the farm loan waiver of Rs 34,000 crore. "However, in reality, less than 15 lakh farmers are going to be benefitted from it," claimed Sawant at a press conference here.

"There will be a loan waiver worth Rs 5,000 crore and not of Rs 34,000 crore as has been claimed by the state government," said Sawant.

As per the state government's resolution, farm loans taken between 1 April, 2012 and 30 June, 2016 will be waived. "So the farmers who had taken farm loan between 2008 (after UPA government's loan waiver) and 2012 will not get the benefit," he said.

Alleging that the government is inflating the statistics as far as the number of farmers is concerned, Sawant said the government had sought a report from state level bankers committee (SLBC) and as per their report, till 31 March, 2016, there are 1.36 crore farmers who are account holders and out of that 89.75 lakh have loan liability on them.

On one hand the government will be extending the farm loan waiver only to farmers who have taken loan from 1 April, 2012 to 03 June, 2016 and on the other hand it is showing farmers who have availed loan between 2008 (after UPA government's loan waiver) to 2012 too as beneficiaries, said Sawant.

"The government is showing all these figures (89 lakh farmers) between 2012 and 2016, whereas this figure is of farmers between 2008 and 2016," said Sawant.

He added that with this trick, 7/12 extract of only three to four lakh farmers will be cleared and not of 40 lakh farmers. Sawant said that their party is pressing for complete loan waiver for all the farmers and will seek explanation on the statistics from the state government.

Talking about the GST, Sawant said these are the same people who had opposed the GST move, proposed by UPA government and now these people are taking credit.

"This is not the same GST UPA wanted to bring as everything is done in haste and common man is going to suffer," he said. He added that positive change in the implementation of GST is needed.
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday sought the CBI's status report on its probe into the Narada sting operation under which many TMC leaders had been caught on camera while purportedly accepting cash to favour a fake firm.

Justice Jaymalya Bagchi asked the CBI to submit its probe status report by 27 July while hearing a plea by TMC MP Aparupa Poddar for quashing of the proceedings against her.

Seeking the CBI report, Justice Bagchi adjourned the matter to by 27 July for the next hearing.

Appearing for Poddar, counsel S Luthra argued that there was no justification to continue with the probe without any material against his client.

He contended that the Editor of the news portal Mathew Samuel had stated that the original video recordings had been deleted from his iPhone which was used to in the sting operation.

Lutra argued that one can certify a document to be a copy of the original one if and only if he has the original with himself.

But with one having deleted the original document and not having it in his possession, how can he certify another document to be a copy of the original one.

Justice Bagchi earlier had directed the investigating agency to obtain certificate of originality of the videos from the portal's editor, who allegedly conducted the sting operation.

Samuel had claimed he had recorded the video in a sting operation using an iPhone and had transferred the data to a laptop and then to a pendrive.
Thiruvananthapuram: National Commission for Scheduled Castes Saturday said atrocities against Dalits were increasing in Kerala, and the state government has failed to ensure them adequate safety.

L Murugan, Vice Chairman of the Commission said here that the agency has been receiving lots of complaints of atrocities especially against Dalit women and also regarding the diversion of SC funds for other purposes.

He was in the city after visiting SC (Scheduled Caste) colonies in Govindapuram village in Palakkad district, where Dalit residents had been reportedly suffering from untouchability and some villages in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district.

"According to the figures of the Crime Records Bureau, as many as 883 cases of atrocities have been reported against Scheduled Caste people in the state during the period between June 2016 to April 2017," he told reporters here. "Of them, 12 were murder cases and 155 were rape. The state government has failed to ensure Dalits especially SC women protection. The state government should take necessary steps to ensure protection for SC people," he said.

Lack of timely action by the government may lead to instill insecurity in the minds of Dalit people, he said.

Murugan also asked the state government to ensure basic amenities in Dalit colonies across the state.

"The condition of SC colonies in the state is very worse. I visited some of such places including the Ambedkar colony in Govindapuram and similar ones in Muvattupuzha," he said.

Basic amenities including proper housing and drinking water are lacking in SC colonies, he said adding that there was not even burial grounds to cremate Dalits in many places.
Bhubaneshwar: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik hailed the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), saying its implementation should be smooth and benefit the common man, trade and industry.

"With GST rollout, India transforms into 'One Nation One Tax One Market'. Congratulations to all. Glad that Odisha played an important role in it," Patnaik tweeted.

"The implementation should be smooth and take care of all doubts and concerns to benefit the common man, trade, commerce and industry," the chief minister said in the post.

Odisha government had earlier supported the new tax regime. Addressing a workshop of MLAs held before state assembly's special session in May, Patnaik had said the GST would bring comprehensive reform of the indirect tax regime and a major financial reform to make India a single market.

The state government has maintained that all sections of the population will benefit from the GST. The rules have also been notified in the state.

State finance minister Sashi Bhushan Behera had attended the midnight launch event of GST's rollout ceremony in Parliament.
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday held a meeting with officials here and told them to be ready with relief and rehabilitation plan.

The chief minister held the review meeting on probability of flood and drought in different parts of the state by talking to senior officials at division and district level through video-conferencing, officials said.

Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, Health minister Tej Pratap Yadav, Energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav and a host of other ministers and chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh among others joined the Chief Minister in the day-long review meeting.

The meeting discussed point-by-point details about preparations to meet such an eventuality.

The meeting was told that rain in the month of June was less than the average recorded in the state over last 30 years and hence there is threat of many regions coming under grip of drought like situation.

They also discussed steps to provide succour to people in the event of flood which is a recurring phenomenon in many parts.

Principal Secretary Disaster Management Pratyay Amrit with the help of power point presentation discussed about readying resources in the event of flood.

The Chief Minister emphasised on compulsory training of boat drivers.

Information was provided at the meeting by Health, Animal Husbandry departments among others about providing medicines to probable victims and to animals in the event of flood as well drought situation.

Agriculture department gave presentation regarding providing diesel subsidy and accidental crop insurance in such a situation.
The media's coverage of last week's nationwide 'Not In My Name' protests candidly exposes the divide that exists between Hindi and Urdu press in the country. It also shows that the chasm between the two is deep and profound, and too difficult to be bridged, even in significant times when mainstream Indians stand out in unity against the mindless violence and religious extremism.

The Hindi and Urdu media had diametrically opposite news coverage while dealing with violence in Muzaffarnagar and Kairana, and the two differed again when it came to covering 'Not In My Name' protests.

While the major Urdu dailies like Inquilab, Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, Sahafat, Siyasat, Qaumi Tanzim and Jadid Khabar carried the event on their front pages, as can be accessed online at akhbarurdu.com, a prominent section of the Hindi media appeared to belittle the significance of the protests. Most leading Hindi newspapers showed a shrinking space for this churn in the country, while some others placed it in the inside city pages. It seems as if editors of Hindi newspapers assumed that #NotInMyName was a pretty hashtag, but not a newsworthy event of national significance.

For instance, the leading Urdu daily in India Inquilab published front page reports from Delhi's Jantar Mantar protests, where scores of journalists and intellectuals took out processions decrying mob lynchings, as well as from the gathering in Mumbai where over 200 citizens and celebrities shouted 'Not In My Name' protesting the hate crimes. Inquilab dedicated more than half its first and second pages to the protests, and also carried an editorial and several opinion pieces on 29 June.

A day later, on 30 June, Inquilab continued to cover the event. Shakeel Shamsi, the north regional editor of the publication, had a signed column, in which he wrote: "Saba Diwan's call that emerged on social media and inevitably birthed the nationwide secular movement (tahreek) on Wednesday has left a lasting impact on the entire country. The sincerity that this protest has shown has not only earned the media's attention but also inspired the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who categorically denounced the cow-vigilantes."

Tellingly, Shamsi has some notable and substantial points to make in this context. He adds, "The communalist forces are not aware of the fact that India's people may well be 'religious' (mazhabi), by professing different faith traditions, but they are not 'extremists' or 'fundamentalists' (intiha pasand). True Hindus in India never willed to enforce their religious convictions on the religious minorities. Rather, they invite and happily dine with the Muslims in Iftar gatherings and befriend them in their religious festivals. Most Hindus even today believe that they seek blessings in visiting the Sufi shrines. They show reverence for Sai Baba even after he was rejected by Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, as he called him a 'beef-eating Muslim'."

In the 1 July edition of Inquilab, Shahid Lateef, who is the current editor of the publication in Mumbai, has also penned down an editorial entitled 'Not in My Name'. "Many (Urdu-speaking people) including me could not fathom, at the very outset of the 'Not in My Name' event, as to why the protests against cow-vigilantism were named this. It seemed as if the cow was saying that "hate crimes and killings should not be perpetrated in my name". But research tells us that 'Not In My Name' was a slogan raised by the conscious Americans who stood out to protest against the US government's war on Vietnam."

But the Dainik Jagran group, which owns the Urdu daily, has a shown a different editorial choice when it comes to its Hindi language publications. In contrast to Inquilab's patently clear, detailed and wide coverage of the events, the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran had a very restricted reportage on the event. It gave a very constrained news of the event, that too on the seventh page. Simply titled 'Protests against communal incidents' (Sampradayik ghatnaon ka virodh), Jagran's report purports to only tell the readers that a number of social activists, students and Left-wing workers took part in the Jantar Mantar protest against the against communal incidents. The report particularly named CPI's D Raja, KC Tyagi of JDU, deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia, and JNU's missing student Najeeb Ahmed's sister as the key participants. The two-column story, which seemed nothing short of a small news snippet in the print edition of the Hindi daily, now runs only in one paragraph and hardly in 100 words on the Jagran website.

Similarly, the other leading Hindi-language daily Hindustan also sufficed to inform that scholars, students and artists took out a protest in Delhi. Doesn't this reveal that the revolutionary significance of the 'Not In My Name' for a large chunk of the Hindi readers was undermined by the Hindi-language editors?

Another interesting contrast was seen in the editorial choices of Urdu-language daily Roznama Rashtriya Sahara and its Hindi edition. While the Sahara Urdu edition's editorials, along with the national news pages, gave prominence to the Jantar Mantar protests, the Hindi editorials decided to skip commenting on the protest altogether. Even today on 1 July, Rashtriya Sahara Urdu carried a lead column on this incident penned by Prof Akhtarul Wasey. He has noted a very pertinent aspect of this issue which has gone largely overlooked in other Urdu newspapers. Wasey, an expert on Muslim affairs and a close community watcher, writes in Rashtriya Sahara Urdu in his article dated 1 July. "In India, we land very few opportunities when all people, regardless of faith and creed, take out such joint protests. However, (it has to be noted) that those seeking justice for Muslims and confronting the cruelties being inflicted on them, are not Muslims. This is a reminder for Muslims to stand up for the justice for all. But we regret that Muslim outfits like Muslim Personal Law Board, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Jamat-e-Islami and several others which organise large-scale Islamic gatherings, were not seen in this joint protest. Neither their towering leaders had the guts to participate in protests being held in the scorching heat on roads. We salute Saba Dewan who has created a movement of humane understanding from Jantar Mantar to other parts of the country."

While Amar Ujala reported the 'Not In My Name' on its sixth page much like Dainik Jagran, it also highlighted the political angle of the event, by particularly naming the politicians, including Manish Sisodia of the Aam Aadmi Party.

However, for the 'Not In My Name' protesters, it was gratifying to note that there was no dearth of reports on the event in the English press. The major English dailies particularly The Indian Express, Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle and Deccan Herald all carried full reports and also put forth objective analysis from a spectrum of thinkers. They did not succumb to the idea that 'Not In My Name' was a just an initiative of the Indian citizens mobilised by a call from a filmmaker. Since it was not seen as an initiative of a particular outfit or a political ploy of any party, it drew an unprecedented participation as well as media attention.
Islamabad: At least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in Pakistani jails, according to a list the Pakistan government handed over to the Indian envoy in Islamabad on Saturday.

The list was given to Indian ambassador to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale under the Consular Access Agreement signed between the two countries on 21 May, 2008.

The foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".

It said the "step is consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement", under which both countries were required to exchange lists of prisoners in each other's custody twice a year  on 1 January and 1 July.

The foreign office said the Indian government will also hand over a list of its prisoners in India to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

According to the list Islamabad shared with India on 1 January this year, there were 351 Indian prisoners held in Pakistan, including 54 civilians and 297 fishermen.

The foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on 6 January this year and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on 10 July.
Chandigarh: The Border Security Force (BSF) has handed over a Pakistani woman who had inadvertently crossed into Indian territory in the Amritsar sector in Punjab, a BSF official said on Saturday.

The Pakistani woman, Nimmo, hailing from Kila Da Jawar in Pakistan, was apprehended by the BSF troopers on Friday evening in the operation area of Border Out Post (BoP) Pulmoran in Amritsar sector.

"She had crossed the international boundary inadvertently and entered Indian territory. The Pakistan Rangers were contacted (late on Friday) and the apprehended lady was handed over to them at about 11.50 pm on humanitarian grounds," BSF deputy inspector general RS Kataria said.

This year, the BSF has handed over nine Pakistani inadvertent border crossers to the Pakistan Rangers.

Security along the 553-kilometre long international border in Punjab with Pakistan is always on high alert.

Security agencies have been extra cautious following the terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot in January, 2016 and the terror attack in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district in July, 2015.




The joint statement noted that during their talks on June 29th, the two presidents evaluated the current situation and prospects of the Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership, while giving measures to strengthen bilateral cooperation in prioritised areas and discussing international and regional matters of shared concern.





The two sides agreed to maintain regular and practical political consultation at all levels, as well as effective meetings through the channels of Party, parliament, ministries, sectors, localities and social organisations.

The two leaders stressed the need to seek new growth momentums to ensure dynamic development of economic-trade cooperation, and meet the urgent demands of the tasks on improving two-way trade and completing bilateral trade structure.

Therefore, the two sides concurred to work for the efficient implementation of the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) that was signed on May 29th, 2015 and related documents.

President Tran Dai Quang and his Russian counterpart agreed to continue working closely in building the Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology in Vietnam, and affirmed their support of the cooperation program between Vietnam and Russia on the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, which was signed on May 23rd, 2017 in Hanoi.

Both sides agreed on positive progress of joint projects in oil and gas, affirming that they will continue creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese and Russian enterprises, including the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, Gazprom Group, Zarubezhneft, and Rosneft, to carry out activities in the field in the territories of both countries.

The two sides will foster collaboration in promising areas, including oil refinery and petrochemistry, supplying liquefied petroleum gas for Vietnam, producing and selling fuel for gas-fuelled vehicles in Vietnam.

The two sides agreed to strengthen partnership and expand oil and gas exploration area in Vietnams continental shelf in line with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

They also consented to the extension of cooperation in electricity, while sharing the hope for effective affiliation in machinery manufacturing, shipbuilding, aviation, chemicals and light industry, and acknowledging the need to diversify bilateral ties in finance-credit.

The two Presidents underscored the importance of cooperation in defence and military technology, as well as coordination of actions in defence-security without harming any third party.

They showed delight at the sustainable increase in the number of Russian tourists to Vietnam, while sharing support of bilateral partnership in tourism.

President Tran Dai Quang and President Putin concurred to increase coordination among authorised agencies in preventing illegal migration, initially within the Vietnam-Russia Working Group in the field.

Following the talks, the two sides signed a number of cooperation documents in prioritised areas as well as partnership deals among economic organisations of both countries.

Regarding regional and international issues, the two Presidents affirmed efforts to build an equal international relations and order, based on multilateral principles in settling urgent issues and the supremacy of international law, including the United Nations Charter, which includes the principles of respecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity and legitimate interests of countries, not using or threatening to use force, and expanding cooperation among nations and linkage mechanisms on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and respect for the goal of consolidating global security, peace, stability, and development.

Vietnam and Russia held that international security is comprehensive and integral, and no nation is allowed to ensure its security by harming others security, including the expansion of regional and global political-military alliances.

The two countries resolutely rejected every attempt to revisit the history of the second World War as well as any doubt about the decisive role of the Soviet Union in the victory over fascism and militarism.

The two leaders condemned terrorism in all forms and manifestations, stressing that no terrorist act can be justified be they motivated by political, religious, racial or any other reasons.

The unprecedented spreading of terrorism can only be stopped with the joint efforts made by the international community on the basis of widely-accepted principles and stipulations of international law, first of all the UN Charter, and the respect for sovereignty of nations affected by terrorist acts, they added.

The two leaders applauded Russias efforts to fight terrorism and seek political solutions to the crisis in Syria on the basis of international law and the UN Charter, as well as its efforts at Astana and Geneva negotiation mechanisms.

Vietnam and Russia agreed to boost collective efforts to build a fair, integral, open, comprehensive and transparent security structure n the Asia-Pacific region on the basis of adherence to international law and the principles of mutual respect, peaceful settlement of disputes, non-interference into countries internal affairs, no use or threat to use force, including maintaining dialogue within the framework of the East Asia Summit and other regional forums with ASEAN playing the central role.

They shared the view that border and territorial disputes and other conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region should be settled by peaceful means without the use of or threat to use force and on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in order to ensure peace, stability and security and in the region.

The two countries back the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea as well as the early formation of a Code of Conduction in the East Sea.

The Presidents also stressed the necessity to further deepen the dialogue partnership between ASEAN and Russia.

They expressed support of international economic connectivity and trade liberalisation in a fair, sustainable and transparent manner and in accordance with the World Trade Organisations regulations, while affirming the importance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Both leaders agreed that the official visit to Russia by the Vietnamese President will create a strong driving force for the Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership./.

CPV/VNA
Vatican City: Pope Francis has dismissed the church's chief of doctrine Cardinal Gerhard Mueller  one of the most powerful cardinals at the Vatican  and appointed a Spanish Archbishop to the role, the Vatican said on Saturday.

German conservative Mueller, 69, who served a five-year posting as head of the powerful department responsible for church doctrine, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), had clashed with the pope over key reform issues.

He was one of several cardinals who questioned Francis's determination for the Catholic Church to take a softer line on people traditionally seen as "sinners", including remarried divorced people who want to take Communion.

Mueller had also been caught up in the controversy surrounding the Church's response to the clerical sex abuse scandal after his department was accused earlier this year of obstructing Francis's efforts to stop internal cover-ups of abuse.

The Vatican said Mueller's five-year term would not be renewed and he would be replaced by CDF Secretary Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, a 73-year-old Spaniard.
Chennai: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate for the President's post Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday arrived in Chennai and sought the political parties' support in the 17 July presidential polls.

Kovind was received at the airport by BJP leaders. He met former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam and sought the support of the legislators belonging to his faction. He would also meet Chief Minister K Palaniswami and seek his faction's support.

The presidential nominee also met former Puducherry chief minister N Rangasamy.

The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu is divided into three factions led by Palaniswami, Panneerselvam and the party's Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran.
Mumbai: After a brief spell of drizzle in the last two days, heavy rains lashed the city and adjoining areas this morning affecting suburban rail services on both routes of the Central Railway.

According to an official in BMC's disaster management control room, despite incessant rains there have been no reports of any untoward incident in the metropolis in the last 24 hours. Though heavy rains resulted in water logging in few areas of Sion and Hindmata area in Dadar in the city, it did not affect vehicular traffic majorly, they said.

However, local trains on Harbour and Central line of CR were running late this morning. Central Railway PRO AK Singh said, "Suburban services on Central Railway are running late by 10 minutes. But since locals are running on regular intervals, no major inconvenience was caused to commuters."

In the last 24 hours, suburban Mumbai and adjoining areas received more rainfall than the island city. "Between 8.30 am Friday to 8.30 am Saturday, weather stations at Colaba and Santacruz observatory recorded 7 mm and 93.2 mm rainfall respectively," officials said.

Another official from the civic body said the city has received average rainfall this month, easing water woes. He said that stock in seven reservoirs which supplies water to the city has touched their highest level this time as compared to the last three years.

"It means that catchment areas have received decent rainfall over the last few days," he said adding that the water stock in lakes were 4.5 lakh million litre on 30 June this year, while it was 1.09 lakh million litre in 2016 and 3.5 lakh million litre in 2015 respectively.

Meanwhile, few Mumbaikars enjoyed the weekend rain and took to social media to express their joy.

While some of them posted pictures of greenery around them, some went ahead with pics of morning cup of hot tea and coffee in the lovely weather.
With all the brouhaha about GST and the Aadhar card and the plunder of human life by gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes), there is not much seriousness being attached to the spike in Chinas hostility to India.

It would be at our peril if we continue to blithely assume China will belch a few flames and then docilely return to her cave. One cannot be so sure.

Besides creating tension on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and playing a dangerous game of footsies in the Sikkim region, Beijing is clearly sending out some sort of aggressive message in the aftermath of the Donald Trump-Narendra Modi cosying-up. Exactly what the Chinese have found so offensive as to start exchanging fire is not clear. Things have been edgy ever since Prime Minister Modi opened India's longest bridge Bhupen Hazarika Setu, linking Assam with Arunachal Pradesh, an area the Chinese call South Tibet.

Not that it did not know the bridge was in the making for five years but by lodging a protest, it has become an issue.

Again, the presence of an inordinately large number of troops on the northern side of Sikkim and a fairly impressive Indian presence on the south makes it the largest confrontational impasse in the past 30 years.

And the statement by the Peoples Liberation Army spokesperson Col Wu Qian about India being advised to recall 'historical lessons' with reference to the 1962 war is ominous.

It was ostensibly made in response to Indian army chief General Bipin Rawats statement that India is ready to go to war with Pakistan and China and also maintain internal security (the two-and-a-half front stance) if necessary. This is scarcely provocative enough to warrant this fierce a reply. All chiefs of armies say they are ready. They would hardly be worth their salt if they said otherwise.

So, what is the problem besides what we have just mentioned? Keeping in mind Indias annoyance over the China-Pakistan corridor and Chinas irritation over the Indo-Afghan trade corridor bypassing Pakistan and the current tension between us in the Dolam sector on the Bhutan border, we need to place the issues with this giant neighbour on the front burner and start waking up to reality.

Granted that 1962 was a different ball game. We had rusty .303 rifles and our soldiers were ill-equipped, besides which this was supposed to be a gentle choreographed war until the Indians pushed a bridge too far in misplaced enthusiasm.

Historians often overlook the element of it being an arrangement between Nehru, Lt Gen BM Kaul, General Thapar, Krishna Menon and Chinese premier Chou En Lai in which India would gain a moral victory and this would lift the armed forces to a fresh eminence. When we blundered, we paid a huge price for that adventurism.

Chinas slap back still smarts and we have had a certain psychological reservation since then. Even today, despite knowing that we are pretty much on the cutting edge of military technology on this inhospitable border and taking us on will be costly, the disturbing part is the ostrich-in-the-sand attitude we seem to be showing to an intensifying threatening commentary from Beijing.

This is hugely short-sighted on our part as a nation, even as we reluctantly recognise the pressure tactics being used on us. It is as if we have developed a sort of insouciance about China in that she will cock the rifle but not fire the gun.

That could well be fatal because there is a certain difference to the texture of the Chinese threat. Between its hassles in the South China Sea, its cantankerous relationship with the US, its wobbly nexus with North Korea, a lukewarm affection with the Far East bloc, its foreign relations are suspect. Add to that its internal problems of water shortage, an ageing population, pollution, corruption, public health bottlenecks and it has got its back against the wall.

If it is looking for a diversion, we dont really want to be that and it is in our interests to stop with the braggadocio and let China know that even though we can stand up to them in battle, we would rather sit and talk. Not from fear but because this is not 1962 but from a place of common sense. There would be no winners. Which side would feed a billion prisoners?

Our risk at this moment is our preoccupation with relative trivia. Lets not be unready again.
Panaji: Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar said the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' will not only help in keeping our surroundings clean but will have a positive impact on the economy of the country.

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan will serve a dual purpose, as it will not only help keep the surroundings clean but will also boost the economy, said Parrikar.

"Swacch Bharat is prime minister's dream. Swacch Bharat has good impact on health and tourism sector. When tourists find Goa clean, will come again to the state," Parrikar said while addressing local body representatives in the presence of party president Amit Shah.

"Swacch Bharat does not only serve the purpose of having a good surrounding but it will also help in putting in place the economy of the country," the chief minister added.

Parrikar said the state government has planned several activities with municipalities and panchayat bodies which will make Goa a model state.

He also said that the recently held elections for panchayat bodies have proved that BJP's strength is at the grassroot level. "We are the government which thinks about the local self governance. Even when I was in Centre, I remember the prime minister had allotted 42 percent of the funds to the panchayat bodies, state government and local bodies," he said.

The grants are being given to the local bodies in a big way. He said Goa can become a model state if local bodies and the state government start working together.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu finance minister D Jayakumar Friday requested External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take steps for the release of Indian fishermen along with their boats from Sri Lankan authorities.

He said Sri Lanka's "policy" of abduction of Tamil Nadu fishermen and their boats and their non-release, indicated its "intolerant attitude" and scant respect for diplomatic efforts taken by the Centre.

He said the government of Tamil Nadu along with the Centre has progressed substantially in implementing various measures towards achieving a "permanent solution" over the apprehending of fishermen by the island nation.

"The scheme of diversification of trawl fishing from Palk Bay into deep sea fishing, construction of fishing harbour at Mookaiyur in Ramanathapuram district and banning of new registration of trawling boats in Palk Bay are some of the salient recent initiatives aimed at resolving this vexatious issue," Jayakumar said in his letter to Swaraj.

He also recalled various letters written by Chief Minister K Palaniswami to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention for releasing of fishermen and boats.

Jayakumar requested Swaraj to ensure the release of 141 fishing boats impounded by the Sri Lankan authorities along with the 42 fishermen hailing from the State. "I am hopeful that your interventions and efforts can definitely bring permanent solution that our fishermen and people of Tamil Nadu are looking forward to," he said.
On 28 June 2017, across cities in India, hundreds of people gathered to protest the orchestrated violence against a select few minority groups across the country. The public lynching of 16-year-old Junaid, on a train from Delhi to Mathura, drew people out onto the streets. A Facebook post by filmmaker Saba Dewan catapulted mass protests across India.

'Not In My Name' (#NotInMyName) as these protests were called, is a moniker borrowed from similar protests held by US citizens against its involvement in the Vietnam war. While the protests in most cities gathered quite a crowd, the turnout in Delhi was the biggest. A day after the protests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first public comment on the lynchings in a year and condemned the violence being perpetrated in the name of cow worship. Whether it was a reaction to the Not In My Name protests remains a matter of perspective.

So what does a protest like Not In My Name accomplish? A common reaction to the protests was its failure to mobilise, in large enough numbers, those who are feeling the direct heat of the politics and violence of our time. However, Shabnam Hashmi  who returned her National Minority Rights Award only a day before the protests  said, this is a process that takes time and it has to start somewhere.

What the protests proved to the political parties most importantly, is that people could be mobilised. That they could come out on the streets and they could demand something that was not happening... Whatever the Prime Ministers eventual response counts for, it does at least show that you can be heard, Shabnam told Firstpost.

Social media is an enabler in the modern age. Not In My Name is an example of how it centralised an idea that took root organically. But a majority of the people who did show up at the protests have been speaking out on media and social platforms against the killings for a year now. So what does a protest on the street change?

There are two ways that political discourse is channeled in the country today. Either it is the media, or social media. Pretty much everyone has tried focusing attention towards the two mediums. Consequently, there is mass absence of people coming out on the streets. The campaign clicked because people were waiting to come out. You know, even though social media can help in networking and everything, it carries with it a little self-doubt... Out on the street, the sense of presence, of touch-and-feel, restores your faith  probably even strengthens you, Rahul Roy, co-organiser of the Delhi protest says.

Another sidebar to the narrative has been the mechanics of it all. Were the protests held in the right way, from language used to the people involved? Also, is there a right way at all? The majority of those gathered, one could say, were the already-mobilised, the English-speaking elite of the cityscape. Is that problematic? Roy says that just because  and let us accept we are that elite group  someone belongs to the elite class does not mean they shouldnt come out on the streets and say something. We are not running a political organisation. We can only give a call. Who comes, how many in number, is not in our control. Our idea was to centralise citizenship. The rest has to be organic, he says.

The natural progression for a movement, wherever it takes root, has to be the masses. For a movement to have any real impact beyond the conciliatory messages of those in power there has to be mass acknowledgment. Is that possible given our class, caste and cultural differences? I think there is too much emphasis on electoral politics. Politics in this country has become locked with elections... It is a kind of polarisation of the whole consensus. I think it is a trap that we regularly fall in. What something like this gives you hope for, is that you or anyone can contribute in upholding democracy and protecting your own constitution, Roy says.

The atomic nature of this protest was best embodied, in this case, by Hashmi. There is of course impulse involved in it and it is meant to be symbolic, but the reason why I did it was to say to the government that I was not okay with what was happening, and that nobody wanted to address the problem," she says. "What has happened through the countrywide protests that followed, is that it has given people who are scared, the hope that other people will stand for them and that things will change."
Panaji: BJP chief Amit Shah arrived in Goa on Saturday on a two-day visit where he is scheduled to meet senior party officials to draw up a strategy for the 2019 general elections.

Shah, who landed at the Dabolim airport around 11.15 am, was received by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, state party president Vinay Tendulkar, among others.

The Bharatiya Janata Party National President paid tributes to Goan freedom fighters at the Martyr's Memorial here.

Shah is expected to have lunch with members of the ruling BJP-led coalition cabinet, as well as meet his party's MLAs.

He is also slated to address various elected representatives of the BJP at a city hotel, before meeting local industrialists, hotel owners, chartered accountants, doctors and builders.

"He is in Goa to plan the strategy for the 2019 general elections. He will be seeking inputs from our MLAs and party leaders on how to plan for the poll", Tendulkar told IANS on Saturday.

On Sunday, Shah will inaugurate a party office in South Goa, before heading back to New Delhi.
Panaji: BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday met coalition partners in the Manohar Parrikar-led Goa government and party legislators over lunch in Panaji.

"There was no discussion on any issue. It was just a courtesy meeting with the BJP president over lunch," state revenue minister and independent MLA Rohan Khaunte told

reporters after the meeting.

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party's MLAs led by Sudin Dhavalikar, two Goa Forward Party ministers Vinod Palyekar and Jayesh Salgaoncar, and art and culture minister Govind Gaude met Shah over the lunch.

However, Goa Forward Party leader and state agriculture minister Vijai Sardesai could not attend the meeting as he was out of station.

The BJP chief is on two-day visit to the coastal state from Saturday.

He would be addressing two different events during which he would meet various professionals in the city.

Shah would be inaugurating the party's South Goa office in Margao on Sunday.
Bhopal: Questioning Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's silence over the closure of Sardar Sarovar dam gates by the Gujarat government, Congress leader Ajay Singh on Saturday said the move would displace around 40,000 people in MP.

He alleged that although the poll-bound Gujarat will benefit from the closure of the dam gates, the BJP-led government in Madhya Pradesh was ignoring the interests of its own people out of "political compulsions".

"The closure of Sardar Sarovar dam gates will displace over 40,000 people in 192 villages (in MP). There is no plan for their rehabilitation and in order to benefit that state (Gujarat), the interests of MP are being overlooked and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is silent on the matter because of political compulsions," Singh told reporters here.

"I myself visited a number of affected villages and found that an old woman was allotted just 12x12 room in the name of rehabilitation. She is a farmer, where will she keep her domestic animals and other basic necessities," the leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly asked.

Singh further said, "As polls are due in Gujarat later this year and they anyhow want to ensure that water reaches Bhuj, they are closing the gates of the dam without bothering about the rehabilitation of the people in MP."

Fifty six years after the foundation stone for the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river was laid, the Gujarat government finally shut the gates of the controversy-hit dam on 17 June after it got permission from the Centre.

Referring to the farmers suicides in the state, Singh claimed that as many as 53 cultivators have killed themselves in the last 24 days in the state, and raised a big question mark over the Krishi Karman awards that the state has been getting.

Singh said he has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting the plight of farmers and demanding that a probe should be conducted to find out how the state has been getting the Krishi Karman award since the last few years.

Krishi Karman awards are being given to states for achieving maximum food grain production in the country.

The Congress leader also alleged that in order to register its name in the Guinness Book of World Records, the BJP-led state government is spending a huge amount by claiming to plant over six crore saplings on the banks of Narmada river as part of the Namami Devi Narmade programme on Sunday.

Singh said the government should give records of the 50.63 crore saplings planted from 2005-06 to 2016-17 in the state.

"Instead of providing relief to farmers, the state government is spending crores of rupees in ensuring that its name is registered in the Guinness Book," Singh alleged.

Referring to Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra, whose election from Datia seat was declared void by the Election Commission in a paid news case last week, Singh said the ruling BJP was unnecessarily protecting him.

"Mishra won't get any relief from any court, including the Supreme Court, on the issue as the law is very clear on the matter," he added.
Kolkata: Slamming the Modi government over the GST roll out, senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee on Saturday said GST will prove to be a bane for lakhs of small traders across the country.

"It was at the stroke of midnight that India got freedom and again at the stroke of midnight the trading community of our country lost their independence to license raj. It will be a bane for the trading community," Chatterjee, TMC general secretary and state parliamentary affairs minister, said.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Friday it will bring back the dreaded "Inspector Raj".

CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra too lashed out at the BJP government for trying to implement GST in a hurried manner.

"There are a number of problems arising from the Goods and Services Tax, which has being hastily implemented from 1 July. The Modi government has put in place GST in great haste and this is causing a number of problems for small entrepreneurs, traders and shopkeepers. Enough time should be given for implementation of the new tax structure," Mishra said while addressing a programme in Kolkata.
New Delhi: Raising the issue of lynchings in the country in the name of vigilantism, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said when mob frenzy becomes so "irrational and uncontrollable", people have to be "vigilant" to save the basic tenets of the society.

He also said that vigilance on the part of citizens, intellectuals and media can act as the biggest deterrent to the forces of darkness and backwardness.

"When mob frenzy becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect. Are you vigilant enough?" he said at a function to celebrate 70 years of India's independence.

Launching the commemorative publication of the Congress party's organ National Herald, Mukherjee also reminded the journalists that their job will never come to an end and their motto should be "freedom first, freedom now, freedom forever".

Mukherjee also said that one cannot obliterate one's duty towards the issue, saying, "Posterity will demand an explanation from us about what we have done. I raise this question within myself."

Mukherjee, who steps down later this month, also spoke about colonialism and the various forms it can take in the present context: "Today, I am not going to suggest that there is any apprehension of the old type of colonialism to come back. But colonialism has always taken its different face with the change of history, exploitation, dominance by one power to another power.

"I will appeal to the media persons that your duty, your job has never come to an end, and it will never come to an end," he said reminding journalists.

"You must rise to preserve and ensure human dignity is maintained, slavery is kept away. You will have to maintain your vigilance," Mukherjee said.

The President said that "our achievements in the last 70 years are not just about building dams or power plants etc".

"It is not just about economic independence or regional prosperity but our unity, which is our greatest strength," Mukherjee said.

"Our national unity and nationalism is exhibited when more than 1.3 billion people, speaking more than 200 languages in their daily lives, practicing seven major religions and belonging to three different ethnic groups - Caucasians, Mongoloids and Dravidians, come together to constitute One India, under one flag and one Constitution and live in peace and harmony," he added.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi, besides a host of dignitaries, former ministers, MPs and Congress leaders were present at the event.

With inputs from agencies
Chennai: Opposition's presidential hopeful Meira Kumar on Saturday appealed to "all the MLAs and MPs" from Tamil Nadu to extend support to her in "this ideological war."

"I have to come to this state to personally appeal to all MLAs and MPs of Tamil Nadu to support me in this ideological war," Kumar told reporters at the airport on her arrival in Chennai.

The former Lok Sabha Speaker, the Opposition's pick to take on BJP-led NDA's Ram Nath Kovind in the Presidential election, also described Tamil Nadu as a "culturally very superior" and "politically very aware" state.

Extending her wishes to the people of the state, who she said were "very close to her heart," Kumar also wished success to all - "Dalits, tribals, women and people cutting across all castes and religion."

The Presidential aspirant greeted people with the traditional salutation in Tamil, saying "vanakkam."

She was later scheduled to seek support of MPs and MLAs of DMK, Congress and IUML at a star hotel in Chennai, besides calling on DMK chief M Karunanidhi, who is recuperating from an illness, at his Gopalapuram residence.

TNCC president S Thirunavukkarasar and senior Congress functionaries accorded a grand welcome to Kumar.
Chennai: NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday met Puducherry legislators and the lone Lok Sabha member from the union territory, who assured support for his candidature.

Puducherry-based All India NR Congress chief N Rangasamy and his party legislators met Kovind at a hotel in Chennai.

Puducherry's lone Lok Sabha MP R Radhakrishnan, who belongs to the main opposition party in the Assembly (AINRC), was also present, according to Tamil Nadu BJP.

Also, BJP's lone legislator from Kerala and veteran party leader O Rajagopal took part in the meeting to drum up support for Kovind.

Kovind, 71, arrived in Chennai this morning from New Delhi and was accorded a warm reception by Tamil Nadu BJP leaders at the airport. Later, he drove to a city hotel where he met the legislators.

The NDA presidential nominee has also sought support from the AIADMK factions led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam and Chief Minister K Palaniswami.
New Delhi: Making a veiled attack on the government, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the "inclusive conception" of the country is "under attack" and the nation was facing a great challenge in the form "domestic misrule".

She said the press was being "pressured to obey and applaud" rather than to question and speaking the truth was the imperative of the present age.

She was speaking at a function in Delhi President Pranab Mukherjee released a commemorative publication of the National Herald newspaper on '70 years of India's Independence'.

"The National Herald evokes a time when nationalism fought foreign rule. But domestic misrule is as great a challenge for our country," Gandhi said.

"At a time when the inclusive conception of our nation is under attack, and the press is pressured to obey and applaud rather than to question, speaking truth to power is the imperative of our age," she said.

She said the 'National Herald' newspaper, which was run by the Congress, was a reminder of "what is precious about the India which its founders fought to free".

The Congress chief called for working together "to safeguard an India in which each person's voice can be raised and heard  most of all the voices of those who question and disagree."
Jakarta: Following another week of dust-ups between the media and President Donald Trump, his predecessor shared a bit of wisdom from the other side of the world about tolerance and taking the daily news cycle in stride.

"I wasn't worried about what was in the newspapers," former president Barack Obama said during a nostalgic visit to Indonesia's capital, his childhood home. "What I was worried about was, 'What are they going to write about me 20 years from now when I look back?'"

Obama was greeted by a crowd of thousands, including leaders, students and business people, in Jakarta, where he opened the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora. He is wildly popular in Indonesia, where many view him as an adopted son. A statue of the boy still remembered as "Barry" stands outside his old elementary school.

He reminisced about moving to Jakarta in 1967 when he was just six years old, shouting, "Indonesia bagian dari diri!" (Indonesia is part of me!)

He said he had been gorging on the local food since arriving. "If the rainy season came, the floods were coming and we had to clean out the floors in our house and then chase the chickens because they had gone someplace else," he said to roaring laughter. "Today, Jakarta is a thriving center of commerce marked by highways and high-rises. So much has changed, so much progress has been made."

Obama lived in the country with his mother, an anthropologist, and his Indonesian stepfather. The couple split up after having his half-sister, and Obama moved back to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his grandparents. But he said he has never forgotten the years he spent in Indonesia. "My time here made me cherish respect for people's differences," he said, noting how he and his family had just visited two of the most treasured ancient temples Borobudur, a Buddhist complex, and the Hindu compound of Prambanan in the world's most populous Muslim country.

The speech came on the final leg of Obama's 10-day vacation in Indonesia. In addition to visiting the temples in the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java, he and his wife Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia, also went rafting and toured the resort island of Bali.

On Friday, he met Indonesian president Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo at the grand Bogor Palace in West Java, just outside Jakarta.

Obama largely stayed away from US politics and the Trump administration, but he did tout one of his accomplishments while in office. "In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change, an agreement that

even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance" he said.

Trump shocked many countries last month by announcing he was pulling out of the accord. He has also had a difficult relationship with members of the press and was recently condemned by Democrats and Republicans for a tweet that attacked a female MSNBC host.

Obama stressed the importance of stepping away from news sites where only like-minded views are shared, and warned about social media giving rise to resentment of minorities and bad treatment of people.
Kinshasa: Democratic Republic of Congo declared its two-month Ebola outbreak officially over on Saturday after 42 days without recording a new case of the disease.

The outbreak in Congo's remote northeastern forests, a record eighth for the country where the disease was first discovered in 1976, killed four out of the eight people infected, Health Minister Oly Ilunga said in a statement.

"I declare on this day, at midnight, the end of the outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever of the Ebola virus in DRC," Ilunga said.

Congolese health authorities approved the use of a new experimental vaccine but ultimately declined to deploy it due to the small scale of the outbreak and logistical challenges.

The latest outbreak came a year after the end of the virus' deadliest episode in West Africa, which killed more than 11,300 people and infected some 28,600 as it swept through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and caused alarm around the world.

Health officials say northeastern Congo's remote geography combined with the country's experience fighting the disease allowed them to gain the upper hand quickly.

"The government of DRC has been very transparent in declaring that there is the outbreak and that really facilitated ... communication and information sharing and rapid action," Ibrahima Soce Fall, a senior World Health Organis

ation official in Africa, told Reuters last week.
Today (1 July) Dhaka commemorates one year of the lethal Islamic State-inspired terror strike which rocked Bangladesh when the terrorists took several hostages in Holy Artisan Bakery in a posh residential area of Dhaka and eventually killed 22 captives including two cops before being slain by the anti-terror force.

It's been one year since the ghastly incident but Bangladesh continues to smoulder under Islamic terror threats as there have been sporadic terror strikes at various places signalling the reality that the hostile forces are still active and they are likely to hit at an opportune time, the moment guard is lowered.

Security experts analysing the 1 July attack assessed that it was IS sponsored as there were hallmarks of typical IS modus operandi.

However, prime minister Sheikh Hasina maintained that it was the handiwork of the homegrown terrorists. Her denial of any IS complicity is possibly because she felt that Bangladesh should not be seen as a country caving

into any IS ideology or radicalisation.

But such a well-crafted and precise operation could not have been launched without any influence and involvement of the IS. Also, subsequently, it was known that messages to target installations in Bangladesh had emanated from the IS headquarters and they were in Bangla just before terror struck.

Further, the terrorists involved in the 1 July strike, were all from well to do homes, were in their 20's, educated in convents and expensive institutions and highly indoctrinated as part of the IS pursuits. Sadly, their parents were oblivious of their indoctrination despite the fact that the IS recruits were not seen by the family for several months and some of them were in Syria and Iraq either fighting with the IS cadres or camping in the theatre of IS activities. Also, they were professionally apt to deal with the hostage situation and ready to die for a 'cause' which is thought to be deeply indoctrinated by the IS propaganda.

Coincidentally, within days of this incident, the Islamic terrorists had the gumption and audacity to strike (7 July) again and that too at an Eid congregation in a neighbouring district. It shows the IS resolve and the fact that despite the decisive neutralising action by the counter-terror forces, the terrorists were not deterred at all.

It also underlines the fact that the intelligence agencies were caught off guard in the second attempt too by the terrorists.

Interestingly, 2016 saw as many as six deadly attacks in Bangladesh and even in 2017, according to one survey, there were occurrences of eight (upto 11 May) devastating attacks. Statistics speak all though 1 July attack was the most lethal sending out shockwaves in the country about the chilling presence of terrorists whether home grown or otherwise.

Bangladesh has had a long history of terror even before IS or Al Qaeda were born. Indian high commissioner to Dhaka, Samar Sen, was shot at inside the chancery premises by the Islamic ultras way back in 1979.

The country was only eight-year-old then and relations with India were thought to be good if not at its best.

Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh was inherited from Pakistan and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) was a collaborator with pro-Pakistani forces to target Indian facilities which was also part of a greater blueprint to impair Indo- Bangladesh relations. Thus the spiralling rise in fundamentalism, with the monetary support from middle eastern

countries and Pakistan, bred terror and led to formation of several perilous terror outfits.

Today, Jamaat-ul-Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB) is a force to reckon with posing serious security challenge to the country as this 29-year-old terror organisation has strong links with Pakistan.

Intelligence officials of Bangladesh reckon that JMB maintains close links with undercover operatives working in the Pakistani High Commission, Dhaka and there had been many instances when Pakistan staffers were declared persona non grata for their undesirable activities. JMB is well trained in handling of sophisticated weapons

including bomb making as amply demonstrated in a series of explosions carried out by JMB particularly in

2005. It also enjoys support from the JeI (now banned) which is also affiliated with some Arab nations and Pakistan. Importantly, it was nourished with the state patronage of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which is openly pro-Pakistan, anti-Hasina and anti-India.

To illustrate the argument further, it's most pertinent to point out that Hasina providentially escaped a deadly grenade attack on 21 August, 2004 at a public rally which killed many. In a startling disclosure to a court hearing few years ago, the then chief of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) stated that attempt on Hasina's life was very much in the knowledge of the then prime minister Khaleda Zia (now in opposition). Attempt to eliminate her political adversary with grenades is a sad reflection of the political statecraft practised in a democratic set up, where a prime minister is stooping that low. Perhaps they follow the dictum that in love and war, all is fair.

Judging by the 2004 incident, Hasina, though in power, continues to be vulnerable specially when Islamic forces like Hefazat-e-Islam, JMB and other affiliates including external hostile entities are waiting for an opportunity to wreak havoc with Hasina as the prime target. It clearly calls for an abundant caution.

The first anniversary of the Dhaka attack, therefore, merits a fresh evaluation of Bangladesh and Hasina's security lest it loses focus and proves costly, also in terms of country's ties with India.

The writer is a security analyst, served in Bangladesh for more than three years and has been following developments in Bangladesh. He is also the Senior Fellow with the India Police Foundation.
Dhaka: One year after the worst terror attack in Bangladesh, a popular cafe which was the site of the horror reopened on Saturday, even as the country was grappling to rein in radical Islamists and searching for the five remaining terrorists behind the gruesome incident.

The Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen restaurant in the upmarket Gulshan area was opened for the relatives and public to pay respects to the 22 people, including an Indian girl, killed in the attack.

Representatives of various political parties including the ruling Awami League, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and various civil society groups and police personnel paid their respects and laid flowers at the site.

On the evening of 1 July, 2016, five operatives of Islamic State-inclined Neo-Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB) stormed into the eatery and started firing indiscriminately. They turned off all the lights and held the diners hostage. They then brutally killed the hostages with guns and machetes. An Indian woman was among the 22 victims.

Around 12 hours later, para commandos stormed the restaurant. Two police officers were killed in the attack claimed by the Islamic State.

Eight suspects who were involved in its planning died in several anti-terror raids that followed. Four have been captured alive, while five more remain at large.

"We are trying to track down the five fugitives as we identified all those involved in the attack," a police spokesman said.

Officials familiar with the investigations said they found evidence that 21 people were involved in the attack. "Some 70 militants were gunned down or blew themselves up during encounters with police in the past one year. We have also arrested 128 suspected militants," police spokesman Quamrul Islam said.

However, several analysts said that despite intensified security clampdowns after the attack, no visible progress has been made in investigations. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan earlier this week said despite being late, the investigating agency would submit a "flawless charge-sheet in the Holey Artisan attack case.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that the prosecutors await the completion of the investigation process to "take a

special initiative to ensure quick hearing of the (Holey Artisan attack) case".

"We will take the case very seriously so that the trial proceedings are completed within the shortest possible time," Alam added.

The Bangladeshi government has arrested several militants after the cafe siege, but denies the existence of the Islamic State in the country and blames home-grown groups for the attack.

Analysts believe that the Islamic State may not be physically present in the country, but is involved in propagating jihadist ideologies and contributing to radicalisation and the recruitment of jihadists by domestic extremist groups.
Washington: President Donald Trump on Saturday fired off another volley in his escalating feud with the US media, aiming a Twitter tirade at CNN, NBC and a morning show host he taunted as "dumb as a rock."

The outburst came at the end of a week during which the US leader railed against major news organizations as "fake news," before launching a crude personal attack on Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who headline the Morning Joe program on the left-leaning MSNBC cable network.

"Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!" he wrote, seemingly trying to get in the final word in his clash with the journalists.

Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

Apparently stung by critical coverage on the show, Trump on Thursday had tweeted: "I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). "Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"

The comments sparked a major backlash, as well as condemnation from within Trump's own Republican party.

The TV hosts responded on Friday with an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled "Donald Trump is not well", questioning his "unmoored behavior" and fitness to serve.

Trump on Saturday also targeted CNN, a frequent punching bag for the president. "I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It's about time!" he tweeted, referring to an article that the cable news channel retracted, which claimed Congress was investigating links between Trump's administration and a Russian investment fund.

I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It's about time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

Three CNN journalists resigned over the article, which was posted on the network's website on 22 June before being yanked the next day.

He also suggested in a third tweet that veteran ex-Fox journalist Greta Van Susteren, who left MSNBC this week, "was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ 'Trump hate!'"

Word is that @Greta Van Susteren was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ 'Trump hate!'  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said earlier this week that his attacks on Brzezinski, Scarborough and other media was part of his natural instinct to "fight fire with fire."
Bamako: France's president meets Sunday in Mali with heads of state from five nations across Africa's vast Sahel region to support a new 5,000-strong multinational force meant to counter a growing threat from extremists who have targeted tourist resorts and other high-profile areas.

The recently elected President Emmanuel Macron's second visit to Mali in a month and a half emphasizes France's interest in countering al-Qaida-linked groups and other jihadists who have alarmed the international community with deadly attacks in countries once considered relatively safe.

In mid-June, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution welcoming the deployment of the new force with troops contributed by Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Chad. The approval came days after at least five people were killed in an attack on a Mali resort popular with foreigners, with the recently merged extremist group Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen claiming responsibility.

A major goal at Sunday's meeting is finding money to support the new force, which will operate in the region along with a 12,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, which has become the deadliest in the world, and France's own 5,000-strong Barkhane military operation, its largest overseas mission. The new force is meant to be operational in the next few months.

If financing for the G5 Sahel force is left to the five regional countries that will not bode well, said Sidi Ali Bagna, the youth leader for the G5 in Mali.

France had sought some form of United Nations financing, but the United States objected. So far, the European Union has pledged 50 million euros ($57 million). The overall cost for the force is not yet known.

Macron on Sunday is expected to announce significant support, both financial and in terms of equipment. There are hopes that more European countries, including Germany, will contribute, said an official in the French president's office who spoke on condition of anonymity because such officials are not authorized to be named publicly.

The United States is France's principal partner in the Sahel region, and there are hopes it will contribute as well, the French official said.

The new force, made up of five battalions that will be sent to 150 zones across the region, is meant to tackle blind spots that other forces aren't able to cover, the French official said.

It is too soon to envision the new force taking over for the French military mission, the official added, saying a French pullout can happen only when the extremist threat recedes.

While the multiple anti-terror forces in the region are meant to complement each other, some are openly worrying that the participating countries will be stretched too thin.

Chad President Idriss Deby already has said it will be difficult to contribute some 2,000 soldiers to the G5 force while also contributing to the United Nations peacekeeping mission. France's Operation Barkhane is headquartered in Chad.

"A summit like this is essentially a moment of political mobilization around the new force," said a West African analyst, Gilles Yabi with the Senegal-based Wathi think tank. "Efforts to mobilise resources will continue well after the summit, and the actual implementation will take several months."

The extremist threat in the region has been growing for years. A French-led intervention drove out Islamic extremists from strongholds in northern Mali in 2013, but the extremists have continued targeting peacekeepers and other forces. On Thursday, the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders announced it was suspending its activities in northern Mali's Kidal region because of security concerns.

Religious extremism has spread south, and attacks across the region have become more brazen.

In March, the extremist groups Ansar Dine, Al-Mourabitoun and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb declared that they had merged into Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen.
Hong Kong: Chinese president Xi Jinping on Saturday warned that any activities in Hong Kong seen as threatening China's sovereignty and stability would be "absolutely impermissible," employing some of his harshest language yet against burgeoning separatist sentiment in the territory.

In a speech marking 20 years since the city became a semi-autonomous Chinese region after its handover from Britain, Xi pledged Beijing's support for the "one country, two systems" blueprint, under which Hong Kong controls many of its own affairs and retains civil liberties including free speech.

However, he said Hong Kong had to do more to shore up security and boost patriotic education, in a veiled reference to legislation long-delayed by popular Opposition.

And he appeared to put on notice a new wave of activists pushing for more autonomy or even independence, saying challenges to the power of China's Central government and Hong Kong's leaders wouldn't be tolerated.

Any attempt to challenge China's sovereignty, security and government authority or use Hong Kong to "carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible," Xi said, moments after presiding over the inauguration of Hong Kong's new leader, Carrie Lam.

Hong Kong has been roiled by political turmoil that brought tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets in 2014 demanding democratic reforms. Those calls were ignored by Beijing and Xi indicated there would be no giving ground in the future, frustrating many young people and deepening divisions.

"Making everything political or deliberately creating differences and provoking confrontations will not resolve the problems," Xi said. Hong Kong "cannot afford to be torn apart by reckless moves or internal rifts."

Young activists have formed new groups promoting independence or a local Hong Kong identity separate from the mainland, alarming Beijing.

Meanwhile, incidents such as the secret detentions of five Hong Kong booksellers on the mainland have stirred fears that Beijing is undermining the "one country, two systems" blueprint.

Xi's speech "was a mixture of reassurance and warning," as he signaled that the system in place since 1997 won't change, said Jean Pierre Cabestan, an expert on Chinese politics at Hong Kong Baptist University. "At the same time, there was a strong warning to the localists and the pro-independence people."

He said it was clear Xi's priority is to bring in long-delayed national security legislation, which pro-democacy activists fear will be used to suppress dissent, and patriotic national education in schools, which parents fear is a cover for pro-Communist "brainwashing."

While former colonial master Britain and other Western democracies have expressed concerns about Beijing's actions in Hong Kong, China has increasingly made clear it brooks no outside criticism or attempts at intervention.

Xi said China had made it "categorically clear" in talks with Britain in the 1980s that "sovereignty is not for negotiation."

"Now that Hong Kong has returned to China, it is all the more important for us to firmly uphold China's sovereignty, security and development interests," he said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang sent a similar message in Beijing on Friday, saying Hong Kong was strictly China's domestic affair.

The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration laying out terms for Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule is "no longer relevant today, and has no binding force on the Chinese Central government's governance over Hong Kong," Lu said.

"The UK has no sovereignty, governance right or the right of supervision over today's Hong Kong," Lu said.

Xi oversaw a swearing-in ceremony for Lam, Hong Kong's fifth chief executive since 1997 and first female in the job. The career civil servant and her Cabinet swore to serve China and Hong Kong and to uphold the Basic Law, the territory's mini-constitution.

In a speech that ran a fraction of Xi's 32-minute address, Lam reviewed the dynamic financial center's achievements and challenges, pledged to support central government initiatives and declared "the future is bright."

There was other symbolism hinting at the balance of power.

Lam took her oath of office and delivered her address in Mandarin, China's official language, save for a few lines at the end in Hong Kong's Cantonese dialect. The official transcript of Xi's speech was printed in the mainland's simplified characters instead of Hong Kong's traditional complex characters.

Even the Chinese flag displayed behind Xi as he spoke was noticeably larger than Hong Kong's beside it.

"It speaks volumes to me who is the boss, who is calling the shots," said Cabestan.

Lam prevailed over a much more popular rival in selection process decried by many as fundamentally undemocratic, with only 777 votes from a 1,200-seat panel of mostly pro-Beijing elites. Hong Kong has more than 3 million registered voters.

Xi later departed for Beijing, ending a three-day visit under heavy security aimed at stirring Chinese patriotism.

Ahead of a flag raising ceremony Sunday, a small group of activists linked to the pro-democracy Opposition sought to march on the inauguration venue carrying a replica coffin symbolising the death of the territory's civil liberties. They were swiftly stopped by police and pro-China flag-waving counter protesters in an hour-long standoff.

Other protests were planned later Saturday, including an annual march that often draws tens of thousands.
Jakarta: A leader of Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organisation has called for a boycott of Starbucks, saying that the international coffee chain's pro-gay stand risks ruining the "religious and cultured" core of the Southeast Asian nation.

With the exception of the ultra-conservative Aceh province, homosexuality is legal in Indonesia. But police raids on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have risen in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Anwar Abbas of Muhammadiyah, an organisation that has around 30 million members, said the government should revoke Starbucks' operating licence as the company's support for the LGBT community is "not in line" with the nation's ideology.

"If Starbucks only does business, then fine. But don't bring ideology here," Abbas told Reuters by phone on Saturday.

PT Sari Coffee Indonesia, which holds the licence to run the Starbucks chain, is a legal entity that "always obeys the prevailing regulations and appreciates the cultural values in Indonesia", an executive at its parent company said.

"We also value the religious background of our customers and employees," Fetty Kwartati, a director at PT MAP Boga Adiperkasa Tbk, said in a text message.

Indonesia's reputation for tolerance and pluralism is already under scrutiny after Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic-Chinese Christian, was sentenced in May to two years in prison for blasphemy in a trial that came after mass Islamist-led rallies in 2016.

Asked why he had taken a stand against Starbucks, Abbas said he was informed in a chat group about a pro-LGBT comment made by the company's senior executive, Howard Schultz.

Schultz is now chairman of Starbucks after stepping down from his previous role as chief executive.

Forbes reported that when a Starbucks shareholder complained in 2013 that the company had lost customers because of its support for gay marriage, Schultz said it embraces diversity and that "not every decision is an economic decision".

"If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it's a free country. You can sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in another company," Schultz was reported as saying at that time.

A video of the comment was also posted on YouTube.

Starbucks customer Annisa Meidiana, who is a Muslim, said she would not stop buying coffee there because of the call for the boycott.

"Islam condemns LGBT. It's a sin," the 22-year-old university student said outside Jakarta. "But it doesn't matter to me. For me, being an LGBT is a human right."
Jakarta: Indonesian police shot dead a suspected militant after he stabbed two policemen inside a mosque near the national police headquarters in Jakarta, less than a week after an Islamist attack on security forces.

The attacker had just finished praying with several policemen and other worshippers on Friday night when he stabbed the two officers and screamed 'infidel', said national police spokesman Rikwanto.

The perpetrator immediately ran to a nearby crowded bus terminal and refused to surrender.

"He instead threatened to attack (us) with a bayonet. After warning shots were fired, he was killed on the spot...," Rikwanto said.

The two police officers were stabbed in the neck and face and are being treated at a local hospital.

The motive and identity of the attacker are still being examined, police spokesman Setyo Wasisto told AFP on Saturday.

Indonesia has seen a string of low level attacks since January 2016 carried out by Islamic State sympathisers mostly targeting the police.

The attack is just the second attack on the police this week.

Last Sunday, two alleged Islamic State group militants attacked the police headquarters in North Sumatra province leaving a policeman dead. In May three police officers were killed in twin suicide bombings at a Jakarta bus station.
Narendra Modi is a man with a deep sense of history. Anyone who listened to his GST-eve midnight speech at the Parliament's Central Hall during the special session on Friday would notice his effort to place himself at the crossroads of history as a change-agent authoring a new chapter in the nation-building process. This is not an isolated effort but another reinforcement of the narrative that he is a milestone man bent on building a 'new India'. Whether or not that narrative is justified is a debate not central to this argument.

We note that foreign policy lies at the centre of the structural changes he is trying to initiate. Old axioms are being questioned, tested for efficacy in a rapidly changing global order and cast aside if found to be incompatible. His upcoming Israel visit  the first by an Indian prime minister since 25 years of full bilateral diplomatic relations  is one such epochal event that may trigger further intuitive changes.

As India grows strategically closer to the US, its foreign policy too is aligning slowly but surely with the American axis. A reorientation is under way as India shakes off its non-alignment stance to strike a multi-alignment pose but with a tilt towards US sphere of influence.

This is evident from the way Modi is courting European middle powers Germany, France and Spain as a hedge against the uncertainty of Donald Trump-era but simultaneously striving for greater synergy with the US and its key allies like Israel.

It would be a mistake, however, to see these changes as the imprimatur of a man trying to replace the Nehruvian order just because he is in a position to do so. The visit to Israel, for instance, isn't context free. It is the natural culmination of the gradual shift in India's Israel policy and an inevitable response to realities that confront us.

While India had voted against Israel in July 2014 when Modi was yet to warm up to his seat, exactly a year later we notice the first pronounced deviation. New Delhi was one among only five countries to abstain from voting against Tel Aviv in Geneva on a UNHRC resolution seeking action against Israel for "committing alleged war crimes" in Gaza. As The Hindu had noted in a report, "41 countries voted in favour of the resolution against Israel, while only the US voted against it."

This was repeated in March 2016 when India again abstained from voting against Israel at the UN, though, as The Wire had noted then, "at the same time, New Delhi voted in favour of four other resolutions criticising Israel".

We see here a gradual, calibrated shift  not a sudden one  necessitated by several factors such as a more realistic approach towards foreign policy, an understanding of India and Israel's growing interdependence, New Delhi's strategic anxieties arising out of China's rise, the coagulating Sino-Russian-Pakistan axis and a refusal to view bilateral ties solely through the spectrum of Palestinian cause.

Modi, viewed from this perspective, is interjecting oodles of realism into our foreign policy. In some ways, it is also a honest trajectory. Often in the past India's geopolitical moves  guided by a moralist, idealist tradition  were marked by blatant hypocrisy. For four long decades, India paid lip service to the Palestinian cause while pursuing ties with Israel under the hood. It is not just the moral hypocrisy of identifying with the cause of an undivided Palestine ignoring Jewish nationalism when it had seen a partition along communal lines in its own territory (which the Congress had accepted) but also a false binary that even recognition of ties with Israel will upset our ties in Arab world. International ties are never guided by idealism.

This flawed, hypocritical approach was called out by former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, who in 1992 took the first step by normalising ties with Israel in 1992. But if geostrategic challenges at the end of Cold War prompted Rao to author the first radical change, Modi  who faces an uncertain global order due to a retreating US and the rise of a revanchist China  has responded by growing closer to Israel, a country with which India has strong defence and counterterrorism ties.

There are bound to be repercussions and there has been. Pakistan is growing restive as Modi and Trump speak in unison about Islamabad's rent-seeking strategy using terrorism as bargaining chip and China is growing aggressive as a closer Indo-US synergy threatens its expansionism.

Once again, though, this is not an isolationist change. If Modi is seeking to dehyphenate Israel and Palestine by not paying a trip to Ramallah, he has done it after an arduous courting of Arab world and carefully reinforcing India's security and trade interests in West Asia.

As JNU professor PR Kumaraswamy writes in The Indian Express, "PM has actively engaged with the Middle East, beginning with his visit to the UAE in August 2015 and following on with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Qatar the following year. A G-20 meeting took him to Turkey in November 2014 and he hosted Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi twice. He has met Saudi and Emirati leaders often. Only last month, he hosted Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. By keeping Israel as a last major West Asia destination, Modi has neutralized many negative voices both within the country and in the region."

It is time we move out the false binaries in our foreign policy. Modi's upcoming trip, that has already generated huge interest in Israel's public, political and strategic circles  with one newspaper calling him "world's most important PM", has the chance to take the relationship out of closet and build a mature partnership based on shared interests and realpolitik  one that is rooted in history. We have a 2,000-year-old tie to nurture.
Jerusalem: An Israeli warplane struck a Syrian Army post on Friday, the Israeli military said, hours after stray fire from Syria's civil war hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"In response to the projectile launched earlier on Friday at Israel from Syria, an Israel air force aircraft targeted the Syrian Army position that fired the mortar," the English-language Israeli statement said.

"The errant projectile was a result of internal fighting in Syria."

It was the fourth such exchange in a week as Syrian troops battle rebels, including hardline Islamists, on the other side, leading to occasional stray fire.

There have been no casualties on the Israeli side but the Jewish state also responded to the previous three incidents by striking Syrian government positions.

Rebels recently launched an offensive against government forces in Quneitra on the Syrian side of the armistice line.

Israel has conducted several air strikes in Syria since that country's civil war erupted in 2011, most of which it has said had been against arms convoys or warehouses of its Lebanese arch-foe Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed movement is a key supporter of the Syrian regime and is fighting alongside government forces.

In April, Israel shot down what it identified only as "a target" over the Golan, hours after Syria accused it of hitting a military position near Damascus airport.

Israel did not confirm or deny the reported Damascus attack.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he would not tolerate any spillover from the fighting in Syria.

"We will respond to every firing," he said. "Whoever attacks us, we will attack him. This is our policy and we will continue with it."

Determined to respond

Netanyahu was speaking at the Israeli settlement of Katzrin in the Golan, when a Syrian mortar shell hit further north and the Israeli military retaliated.

"During my speech, shells from the Syrian side landed in our territory and the Israel Defence Forces have already struck back," he said.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

Around 510 square kilometres of the Golan are under Syrian control.

"Our line is clear," Netanyahu said in his Hebrew-language speech on Wednesday.

"We are not interfering in the bloody conflict in Syria, which has been going on for more than six years, but we are determined to respond firmly and forcefully to any violation of our sovereignty."

"We shall not permit radical Islam, led by Iran or Daesh, to open a terrorist front against the State of Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights," he added using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State Jihadist group.
Muzaffarabad: A prominent Kashmir rebel leader recently blacklisted as a terrorist by the United States vowed on Saturday to continue fighting until India relinquishes control of the disputed Himalayan region.

"We will not end this fight without liberating Kashmir from India," Syed Salahuddin, who heads the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group, said amid tight security in a news conference in Muzaffarabad, the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir.

The US State Department classified 71-year-old Salahuddin as a "global terrorist" on the eve of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington last month, a decision the militant leader said was only made to appease India. He said Hizbul Mujahideen only targets Indian forces and that the Islamic State group and al-Qaida have no presence in Kashmir.

"Donald Trump's decision will be thrown out if anyone challenges it in American courts," he said. "No other Western nation has endorsed what this crazy Donald Trump has done," he said.

Salahuddin called on the United Nations to implement its resolutions and give Kashmir's people the right to vote on independence or merging with Pakistan. He said Hizbul Mujahideen may consider peace talks with India if Russia or China can guarantee that such talks would produce results.

Salahuddin later led a rally in the city and praised Pakistan for continued support in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of backing Kashmir insurgents in the region split between the two nations, a charge Islamabad denies. The nuclear-armed South Asian rivals claim the territory in its entirety, having fought two of their three wars over it since 1947.

Salahuddin is based in Pakistan's part of Kashmir and often addresses public rallies there.

On Monday, Salahuddin had called for a "Week of Resistance," including two days of strikes starting 8 July. That's the anniversary of last year's killing of Burhan Wani, a young protest leader whose death enraged people across Kashmir.

Islamabad on Saturday handed over to New Delhi a list of 546 Indian prisoners being held in Pakistan, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. Under an accord, Pakistan and India routinely exchange lists of each other's prisoners on July 1.
London: Prime Minister Theresa May is facing demands from the mayor of London that she appoint commissioners to run the local government blamed for mishandling the response to a high-rise apartment fire that killed at least 80 people.

London mayor Sadiq Khan asked May late on Friday to take the unusual step because he says the elected Kensington and Chelsea Council has "lost the trust of local residents".

Khan said in a letter to May that while the borough council's leader and deputy leader have resigned, choosing new leadership from the existing members may aggravate the situation.

Khan says the government must appoint "untainted" commissioners with "a genuine empathy for local people".

The appointments would be unusual. Commissioners were brought in to run the Tower Hamlets Council in 2014, but that was because of concerns about how it handled public money.

The deaths of 79 people in a London apartment tower on 14 June triggered emergency inspections, evacuations and soul searching among British officials who failed to prevent the tragedy.
Manila: The United States and Philippine navies held a joint naval patrol on Saturday in dangerous southern Philippine waters, amid rising international concern about Islamist militancy and piracy in the region.

United States Navy littoral combat ship USS Coronado joined a Philippine Navy frigate, BRP Alcaraz, in patrolling the Sulu Sea where numerous pirate attacks on commercial shipping have been made since 2015.

Our at-sea operations with the Philippine Navy demonstrate our commitment to the alliance and deter piracy and illegal activities, United States Rear Admiral Don Gabrielson said in a statement issued by the United States embassy in Manila.

There are international fears fighters sympathetic to Islamic State will cross maritime borders between Malaysia and Indonesia to join Muslim rebels who seized Marawi City in the southern Philippines five weeks ago.

About 300 militants, 82 security forces and 44 civilians have been killed in the fighting.

The naval patrols were held at the invitation of the Philippine government, the United States embassy said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte does not allow joint patrols with the United States in the disputed South China Sea to avoid damaging its relations with China, which claims the sea as its own.

But he welcomes cooperation in the south due to increased militant activity. Two weeks ago, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines held joint naval patrols in southern waters.
Islamabad: Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed satisfaction over the status of strategic partnership with Beijing, the launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Islamabad's membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Speaking at the Foreign Ministry, Sharif appreciated China's role for improving Pak-Afghan relations, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

Sharif visited the ministry to undertake a comprehensive review of Pakistan's foreign policy priorities in the wake of the latest developments in and around the country. reports Xinhua news agency.

"The Prime Minister appreciated China's role for improving Pakistan-Afghanistan relations and also recalled his recent meeting with President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of SCO Summit and their agreement to evolve a bilateral and quadrilateral mechanism for controlling cross-border terrorism," the statement said.

He directed the ministry to prepare initiatives on Afghanistan and also on building economic and trade linkages to promote Pakistan's development.

Sharif underscored the importance of securing peace and stability in the region through sustained dialogue and the high importance that Pakistan attached to its continued partnership with the US.

He reiterated his priority for a peaceful neighbourhood and resolution of disputes through dialogue.
Las Vegas: Nevada became the fifth state in the U.S. with stores selling marijuana for recreational purposes, opening a market early Saturday that is eventually expected to outpace any other in the nation thanks to the millions of tourists who flock to Las Vegas.

People began purchasing marijuana shortly after midnight, just months after voters approved legalisation in November and marking the fastest turnaround from the ballot box to retail sales in the country.

Hundreds of people lined up at Essence Cannabis Dispensary on the Las Vegas Strip. People were excited and well-behaved as a lone security guard looked on. A valet was available to park the cars of customers.

A cheer erupted when the doors opened.

Those 21 and older with a valid ID can buy up to an ounce of pot. Tourists are expected to make nearly two of every three recreational pot purchases in Nevada, but people can only use the drug in a private home.

It remains illegal to light up in public areas, including the Las Vegas Strip, casinos, bars, restaurants, parks, convention centers and concert halls  places frequently visited by tourists. Violators face a $600 fine.

And driving under the influence of marijuana is still illegal.

Despite the limits on where people can get high and restrictions on where the industry can advertise, dispensaries worked furiously to prepare for the launch. They stamped labels on pot products, stocked up their shelves, added security and checkout stations, and announced specials.

Desert Grown Farms hired about 60 additional employees. Workers in scrubs, hair nets and surgical masks slapped stickers on sealed jars this week as others checked on marijuana plants or carefully weighed buds.

"It would be a good problem to have if I couldn't meet my demand," said CEO Armen Yemenidjian, whose Desert Grown Farms owns the only dispensary that is selling recreational pot on the Las Vegas Strip, across the street from the Stratosphere hotel.

Some dispensaries took to social media to spread the word or tried to draw in buyers with special events. Some planned to give away free marijuana to their first 100 customers or throw parties with barbecues and food trucks later in the afternoon.

Some facilities are in strip malls, while others, in stereotypical Las Vegas fashion, are in neighborhoods shared by strip clubs.

Nevada joins Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in allowing adults to buy the drug that's still banned by the federal government.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday ordered an inquiry into the killings of four civilians by the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) at a recent protest rally in a restive northwestern town.

The civilians were demanding greater protection for minority Shiites amid a recent spate of attacks, including the twin blasts in Parachinar on 23 June in which more than 70 people were killed.

Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa ordered the probe during his visit to Parachinar where Shiite parties had organised sit-ins - against the attacks - for eight straight days.

In a meeting with a delegation of protesters, Bajwa promised to ramp up the security of the Khurram tribal region and announced several measures to this end.

"Parachinar is part of Pakistan. Its every inch, every individual is as important as anyone else," Bajwa told the local leaders.

"Every Pakistani is our brother. You are our strength. For me every Pakistani is equally important, even non-Muslims," he said.

He also announced upgradation of the local school and hospital and promised to set up a trauma center.

The military's media wing said the government had already announced compensation for Parachinar victims at par with other such victims elsewhere in the country.

Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said Pakistan had already begun building a fence along its border with Afghanistan to combat cross-border movements of militants.

"The fencing of Afghan border is going on and will be completed in two phases," said Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor.

"In the first phase, sensitive locations on the border will be fenced; whereas in the second phase the rest of the border will be fenced," he said.

Parachinar, the headquarter of Kurram tribal district, is sensitive due to large Shiite Muslim population, living alongside Sunnis, who are in majority in Pakistan
Islamabad: Pakistan has quietly banned Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir (TAJK), a new front for Hafiz Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa, as international pressure on the country grew, including from a global watchdog, to combat terror and its funding. TAJK gained prominence as a JuD front when it held pro-Kashmir freedom rallies and displayed banners and streamers across Pakistan on "Kashmir Day" on 5 February, days after Saeed was put under "house arrest" for 90 days in Lahore.

The mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people died had indicated about a week before his house arrest he might launch TAJK to "expedite the freedom of Kashmir". The re-branding of JuD as TAJK showed that Saeed had got a wind of the government plans and had worked out how to resurface and survive after the clampdown on his ostensible network of JuD and its affiliate Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

The JuD front was put on the list of "proscribed organisations" on 8 June  a fortnight before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force in Spain, according to a list available on the website of Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has called a meeting on Monday to discuss the ban on its affiliate, The Nation reported. There are 64 other outfits in the proscribed organisation category, including Jaish-e-Mohammad, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban, and JuD's armed wing Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for 26/11 and several other terror attacks in India. According to a report in Dawn newspaper on Saturday, Pakistan continues to remain on the radar of the FATF over concerns that it is not fully complying with curbs against entities listed with the United Nations.

India had raised the terror financing issue at the FATF in February this year. The FATF last week referred Pakistan to its regional affiliate  the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering  for

further analysis and a follow-up report on actions the country has taken against entities designated under UN sanctions list. Pakistan government has been under mounting international pressure to crackdown on terrorist networks and their fronts.

However, according to the report, Pakistani officials expect that Pakistan would be cleared of the concerns. The United Nations placed both JuD and FIF on its watch list in December 2008 and March 2012, respectively. The ban on TAJK on 8 June happened a day before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakh capital Astana. India had pushed the SCO members at the summit to curb the financing of terrorist organisations and their fronts.

The Astana Declaration of the Heads of State of the SCO said that the "member states will continue to cooperate in order to counteract the activities of individuals and legal entities related to the recruitment, training and utilisation of terrorists, public calls for terrorist activities or the justification of acts of terrorism, and financing terrorist activities."

Last week, the US declared Pakistan-based Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist. The announcement had come hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US president Donald Trump had their first bilateral meeting.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday ordered an inquiry into the killings of four civilians by the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) at a recent protest rally in a restive northwestern town.

The civilians were demanding greater protection for minority Shiites amid a recent spate of attacks, including the twin blasts in Parachinar on 23 June in which more than 70 people were killed.

Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa ordered the probe during his visit to Parachinar where Shiite parties had organised sit-ins against the attacks  for eight straight days.

In a meeting with a delegation of protesters, Bajwa promised to ramp up the security of the Khurram tribal region and announced several measures to this end.

"Parachinar is part of Pakistan. Its every inch, every individual is as important as anyone else," Bajwa told the local leaders.

"Every Pakistani is our brother. You are our strength. For me every Pakistani is equally important, even non-Muslims," he said.

He also announced upgradation of the local school and hospital and promised to set up a trauma center.

The military's media wing said the government had already announced compensation for Parachinar victims at par with other such victims elsewhere in the country.

Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said Pakistan had already begun building a fence along its border with Afghanistan to combat cross-border movements of militants.

"The fencing of Afghan border is going on and will be completed in two phases," said Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor.

"In the first phase, sensitive locations on the border will be fenced; whereas in the second phase the rest of the border will be fenced," he said.

Parachinar, the headquarter of Kurram tribal district, is sensitive due to large Shiite Muslim population, living alongside Sunnis, who are in majority in Pakistan.
Beijing: China has released a map showing the Donglong region in the Sikkim sector as its territory and to back its claims of Indian troops "trespassing" the Chinese boundary.

The map, released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry late on Friday evening, shows the Chinese territory far south of the Donglong region, the ownership of which is yet to be agreed between Bhutan and China.

The blue arrow shows Doka La pass where Indian troops "crossed the border".

China alleges Indian troops crossed the border on 18 June.

The map shows Doka La  called Donglong by China  as part of Chinese territory.

Donglong is at a tri-junction border of Bhutan, China, and India, where People's Liberation Army troops and the Indian Army faced off.

Bhutan has accused China of building a road in Donglong, which Thimphu says is part of its area.

China has rejected the claims and asked New Delhi to withdraw troops from the region.

India has said Beijing's action to "unilaterally determine tri-junction points" is in violation of a 2012 India-China agreement.

According to the agreement, the boundary will be decided by consulting all the concerned parties.

The release of the map comes as China has maintained that locals have been traditionally herding cattle in Donglong area, which it said is fact enough to prove that the region belongs to Beijing.

China was responding to the Bhutanese government's accusations against China of not respecting border agreements and constructing a road on the disputed territory located between the two countries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said in Beijing on Friday: "We are exercising complete and comprehensive administration over the Doklam (Donglong) region and our border troops and the residents around the border are herding their cattle along this."

"This evidence is recognised by the Bhutan side," Lu added.

"From historical evidence, we can see that Doklam has been a traditional pasture for the Tibetan residents and we have exercised good administration over the area.

"Before the 1960s, if Bhutan residents around the border wanted to put their cattle they had to get the approval from China," Lu said citing Chinese history.

Beijing has asked New Delhi to withdraw troops, reiterating it as a precondition to settle an ongoing stand-off in India's Sikkim sector, where the two countries share a little over 200 km of border.

Following the face-off, China has suspended the pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet where Indians travel via Nathu La Pass, which is shut now.

In response, India on Friday said it has told China that the building of a road by Chinese troops in the Donglong region will have "serious security implications for India" and urged Beijing "not to change the status quo unilaterally".

"India is deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India," an External Affairs Ministry statement said in New Delhi.
Madrid: Spain said on Saturday it has arrested a Danish man on suspicion of fighting with Islamic State jihadists in Syria, as officials are on high alert for the huge World Pride parade.

The 29-year-old, born in Syria, was arrested Friday in Malaga in southern Spain, suspected of having fought in the ranks of Islamic State for at least two years in Syria, said the Spanish interior ministry.

Officials are searching seized equipment in order to shed light on the man's intentions and find out who he has been in contact with, the ministry also said.

The arrest was overseen by officials from the anti-terrorist section of the country's highest court.

Security is tight across the country, as Saturday's march in Madrid for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights is expected to draw crowds that could reach two million people.

Three Moroccans were arrested in the capital in June, including one suspected of belonging to IS and studying terrorist manuals.

No references to World Pride were found in documents and hard drives searched following those arrests, operations chief for Madrid police German Castineira had said Thursday.

"There is no specific terrorist threat but a generalised threat," he said.

Spain is on high alert for terrorism  level four out of five  but has been spared the type of attacks seen in London, Paris, Brussels and Berlin in recent years.

In 2004, 191 people died after bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid in an attack claimed by Qaeda-inspired militants.
Beirut: As the US-led coalition tightens the noose around the Islamic State group in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad's Iranian-backed troops are also seizing back territory from the militants with little protest from Washington, a sign of how American options are limited without a powerful ally on the ground.

Washington is loath to cooperate with Assad's internationally ostracised government. But it will be difficult to uproot Islamic State militants and keep them out with only the Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the US  and a coalition spokesman pointed out that Assad's gains ease the burden on those forces.

Letting Assad grab Islamic State territory, however, risks being seen as the US legitimising his continued rule and would likely strengthen his hand in his war against the already struggling rebellion. It also threatens to further empower Assad's allies, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, which both have forces alongside his troops in the assault into Islamic State-held territory.

Within the Trump administration, there is a split over whether to aggressively try to stem Assad's advances, said a senior US official, who wasn't authorised to speak to reporters and requested anonymity.

Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the anti-Islamic State coalition, said Syrian government forces are welcome to reclaim Islamic State-held territory and fill the vacuum once the extremist group is gone.

The statement was startling  even more so because soon after President Donald Trump this week warned Assad he would pay "a heavy price," claiming "potential" evidence that Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack.

The mixed messages reveal a discomfiting fact that most policy makers would rather not spell out: Assad is a pariah but he is also a convenient tool to secure and govern territory in majority-Arab cities in a complex terrain.

The situation in Syria is a contrast to Iraq, where the coalition and the Iraqi government, working hand in glove, appear to be on the verge of retaking the main Islamic State redoubt in city of Mosul.

The Syrian government has repeatedly suggested that everyone is welcome to work with it to defeat Islamic State.

Mohammad Kheir Akkam, a Syrian lawmaker, questioned US support for the Kurdish-led forces "despite the fact that the Syrian-Russian cooperation has achieved more results in combating terrorism," while US efforts have "had the opposite result."

The US so far has shunned any cooperation with the Syrian leader, whom Trump described as an "animal." Instead, it has partnered with local Kurdish and Arab forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.

Those fighters are currently spearheading the assault on the Islamic State group's self-declared capital, Raqqa in northern Syria, and then face the prospect of assaulting the group's final major stronghold to the southeast, in Deir el-Zour.

But US support for the Kurdish-led group has angered Turkey, which views it as an extension of a Kurdish insurgency within its own territory. The SDF is also viewed with suspicion by the predominantly Arab residents of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour.

Furthermore, the SDF, numbering around 50,000 fighters, is already risking overstretch and is in no way ready for the more challenging battle in Deir el-Zour.

Assad and his Iranian allies, on the other hand, have steadily positioned themselves in key areas on the flanks of the US-led war against Islamic State, grabbing territory on several fronts, including on the outskirts of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour. With Russian and Iranian support, Assad has made steady gains and now controls almost all of Syria's major cities except those held by Islamic State.

The symbolism was striking this week as a smiling Assad paid a visit to central Hama, driving his own car, and to a Russian air base in western Syria, where he posed alongside Russian generals and inside the cockpit of a Russian SU-35 fighter jet.

Syrian troops have positioned themselves on Raqqa's southwestern flanks, and officials have vowed to retake the city eventually.

The US has insisted that the city should be handed over to a local council that would handle its administration post-liberation  and it has made clear it will not tolerate the Syrian government and its allies cashing in on the fight. US forces recently shot down a Syrian aircraft as well as drones believed to be connected to Iranian-supported forces as tensions escalated near a base where the coalition trains Syrian rebels.

But the senior American official said there was significant disagreement about how aggressively the US should try to prevent Assad from reclaiming the territory Islamic State vacates, with some in the White House pushing a more forceful approach while the State Department and the Pentagon warn of the risks.

Keeping Assad's territory to a minimum would ensure his hand isn't strengthened in an eventual political deal to end the conflict, making it more likely the US could deliver on its longstanding desire to see him leave power. Limiting his control in eastern Syria would also prevent Iranian-backed forces from securing a wide corridor through Iraq to Syria and all the way into Lebanon.

The more risk-averse voices in Trump's administration are wary about letting the US slip into a more direct fight with Assad, the official said.

Dillon, the coalition spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon that the US goal is to defeat Islamic State wherever it exists. If others, including the Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian allies, want to fight the extremists, "we absolutely have no problem with that."

Frederic C Hof, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said the comments reflect the narrow US view of the Syria war, focused very specifically on the neutralisation of Islamic State.

In the coalition view, "it is all about killing Islamic State in Raqqa." Hof wrote in an article this week. "Creating conditions that would keep it dead? That, presumably, would be someone else's job."
Hong Kong: An annual protest march has begun in Hong Kong, hours after Chinese president Xi Jinping wrapped up his visit to the city by warning against challenges to Beijing's sovereignty.

Thousands of protesters joined the rally organised by a pro-democracy coalition at its starting point in downtown Victoria Park.

They marched in sweltering heat through streets blocked off for the event by police, with thousands of officers deployed along a route ending at city government headquarters.

Protesters waved placards denouncing Hong Kong and Beijing leaders and banners in support of a wide range of causes. One marcher carried a poster depicting Xi wearing a Mao Zedong-style cap that read "Overthrow the Communist Party" and "Overthrow Xi Jinping."
London: Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday to protest austerity measures and to demand Prime Minister Theresa May's government resign after its disastrous showing in last month's election.

Demonstrators converged in front of the BBC headquarters in central London to demand an end to belt-tightening that has led to cuts in spending for public services. Signs read 'No More Austerity', 'Cuts Cost Lives' and 'Tories Out'.

After holding a minute's silence in honour of the victims of a deadly fire in London, which killed at least 80 people, and staging a round of applause for the emergency services, protesters headed towards Parliament Square.

Main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was expected to address the rally.

The union-backed march was organised a day after the 14 June Grenfell Tower inferno in west London. An investigation into the fire is underway, but critics blame lax standards and cost-cutting, which they say is a consequence of austerity.

The prime minister, who lost her parliamentary majority in last month's snap election, narrowly survived a confidence vote on Thursday thanks to the support of Northern Ireland's ultra-conservative DUP party.

Their deal has been attacked by both Labour and some of May's own Conservative MPs, in part because the DUP secured an

extra billion pounds (1.1 billion euros, $1.3 billion) in state aid for Northern Ireland.

A day earlier, the government had also narrowly voted down a Labour party amendment to its legislative programme  known as the Queen's Speech  calling for an end to a six-year cap on public sector pay.

Funding for public services  from the National Health Service (NHS) to police and fire personnel  has taken an increasingly emotive tone in the UK after the country was struck by three terror attacks, followed by the deadly tower blaze.

Government officials have indicated they may review spending policies, reflecting concern among Conservative MPs about continued austerity.
Kabul: A key Taliban commander was killed during a special security operation in Afghanistan's Wardak province, the Interior Ministry said in on Saturday.

"Mullah Bashir, the key Taliban commander in Wardak and who also served as shadow district governor for Nurkh district was killed during the operation on Friday," Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

Two of his bodyguards were injured, it added.

Mullah Bashir was in charge of organising attacks on security forces and conducting subversive activities.
Kabul: Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says a Taliban shadow district chief was killed in fighting with security forces in eastern Wardak province.

According to a statement released on Saturday, Mullah Bashir, the Taliban-appointed governor of Nirkh district, was killed and two militants were wounded late on Friday night.

In a separate statement, the ministry said at least 13 militants, including five Islamic State fighters, were killed after Afghan warplanes targeted their hideouts in eastern Paktika, northern Sar-e Pul and Jawzjan provinces.

The attacks were carried out overnight, destroying some of the militants' weapons and vehicles.

The Taliban hasn't commented on the fighting.
Ankara: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused Turkey's main opposition party of siding with terrorism, as a three-week "march for justice" led by its chief neared its ending point of Istanbul.

Some analysts have seen the 450-kilometre trek from Ankara to Istanbul led by Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu as a significant challenge to Erdogan but the Turkish strongman has regarded it with disdain.

Kilicdaroglu began the march on 15 June after former journalist-turned-CHP-lawmaker Enis Berberoglu was sentenced to 25 years in jail for leaking classified information to a newspaper.

Marching without party insignia and simply a sign with the word "justice" in Turkish, he has been followed by thousands every day and plans to end the march on 9 July with a mass rally outside Berberoglu's prison in the Istanbul district of Maltepe.

"If you start protests to protect terrorists and those who support terrorism  when it did not occur to you to take part in anti-terror demonstrations  then you cannot convince anyone that your objective is justice," Erdogan said.

The president told a meeting of his ruling party that the line represented by the CHP "had gone beyond being a political opposition and taken on a different proportion."

Accusing the CHP of sympathising with Kurdish militants and the alleged mastermind of the 15 July failed coup, he said the road taken by Kilicdaroglu was "the way to Qandil and Pennsylvania".

The leadership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is based in the Qandil mountain of northern Iraq while the alleged coup mastermind, the preacher Fethullah Gulen, is based in Pennsylvania. He denies the allegations.

The march by Kilicdaroglu has rallied supporters concerned by the extent of the crackdown after the coup which has seen tens of thousands arrested and even more lose their jobs.

The opposition leader was on Saturday walking through the Akyazi district of Sakarya province on day 17 of the march, heading towards the town of Sakarya from where he will have a walk of around 150 kilometres to Istanbul.
Islamabad: Two climbers missing on a treacherous peak in northern Pakistan known as "Killer Mountain" are now presumed dead and the rescue operation has been called off, officials said on Saturday.

The two climbers, Alberto Zerain, a Spanish alpinist, and Mariano Galvan, an Argentinian national, went missing while attempting to summit the 8,125 meter peak, Nanga Parbat.

"The search and rescue operation for the two missing alpinists has been called off as a rescue team failed to locate them this morning," Muhammad Iqbal, owner of Summit Karakorum, the tour operating company that had arranged the climb told AFP.

"A rescue helicopter hovered around the mountain this morning and the team failed to spot any signs of life," he said.

Karrar Haidri, spokesman of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, confirmed that the search and rescue operation had been called off and that the alpinists were presumed dead.

A total of 14 foreign climbers were attempting to summit Nanga Parbat this year when bad weather forced them to return to base camp last week.

The two missing climbers left base camp on June 19 but were holed up in their tent for three days at an altitude of 6,100 metres (20,000 feet) due to bad weather. They tried to summit again but lost contact with fellow climbers last on Friday.

The "Killer Mountain" Nanga Parbat earned its grisly nickname after more than 30 climbers died trying to conquer it before the first successful summit in 1953.

In 2013, gunmen shot dead 10 foreign climbers and their Pakistani guide at the Nanga Parbat base camp.

Northern Pakistan is a magnet for mountaineers and is home to some of the tallest mountains in the world, including K2  at 8,611 metres, the world's second highest peak, but often deemed a more challenging climb than the highest, Mount Everest.

Nestled between the western end of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush mountains and the Karakoram range, the Gilgit-Baltistan region houses 18 of the worlds 50 highest peaks.

It is also home to three of the worlds seven longest glaciers outside the polar regions. Hundreds of its mountains have never been climbed.
London: The UK government is planning to install high-tech digital force fields around iconic buildings and bridges to block terror attacks using vehicles in the country.

The UK's Department for Transport (DfT) is investigating the use of internet-based solutions to counter a recent spate of terror attacks using cars and vans to plough down pedestrians in busy areas, according to The Times.

London has witnessed three such attacks this year, including an attack on the Parliament in March, and at London Bridge and a mosque in Finsbury Park in June.

According to the report, UK ministers are interested in the development of technology such as "geo-fencing" systems that employ satellites to create electronic boundaries around specific sites.

It would connect with on-board computers in cars to prevent unauthorised vehicles gaining access or slowing them to walking pace.

DfT confirmed that the government was also looking at the use of technology to prevent attacks using vehicles as weapons.

A DfT spokesperson said: "Departments across government have been working together with the police and the security service to explore what more can be done to prevent the malicious use of vehicles as a weapon."

"As part of this, the Department for Transport is exploring what role potential vehicle safety technologies can play in mitigating this. This work is at an early stage."

Sweden is already adapting the technology to vehicles in response to an attack in Stockholm in April when a truck was driven into pedestrians on a busy shopping street, killing four people.

Vehicle manufacturers including Scania and Volvo are involved in trials of the technology.

The Swedish government said that geo-fencing was a "technical solution to enable only authorised vehicles to be driven within a geographically defined area".

It could also be used to limit vehicle speeds, officials said, with demonstrations of the system planned for next year.

A British company is also reportedly working on similar technology by using telematics  black box-style devices  to shut down a car or lorry when it has been hijacked.

Trak Global Group, based in Cheshire, is working on a driver ID mechanism that links the black box with the owners smartphone, disabling the vehicle if the phone is not present.

A separate system could also send out an alert to emergency services in the event of a hijacking or vehicle theft.

Andrew Brown-Allan, director of Trak Global's research division, said: "It is now possible to immobilise a vehicle remotely, using the technology that goes into a telematics black box We need to harness this relatively new technology to stop terrorists turning vehicles into weapons of mass destruction."
Kiev: Ukraine said on Saturday that the Russian security services were involved in a recent cyber attack that hit Ukraine, saying the aim was to destroy important data and spread panic.

The SBU, Ukraine's state security service, said the attack, which started in Ukraine and spread around the world on Tuesday, was by the same hackers who attacked the Ukrainian power grid in December 2016. Ukrainian politicians were quick to blame Russia for Tuesday's attack, but a Kremlin spokesman dismissed "unfounded blanket accusations".

Cyber security firms are trying to piece together who was behind the computer worm, dubbed NotPetya by some experts, which conked out computers, disrupted shipping and shut down a chocolate factory in Australia across an estimated 60 countries.

"The available data, including those obtained in cooperation with international antivirus companies, give us reason to believe that the same hacking groups are involved in the attacks, which in December 2016 attacked the financial system, transport and energy facilities of Ukraine using TeleBots and BlackEnergy," the SBU said.

"This testifies to the involvement of the special services of Russian Federation in this attack."

Russia and Ukraine have been at loggerheads since 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea.

The SBU in an earlier statement on Friday said it had seized equipment it said belonged to Russian agents in May and June to launch cyber attacks against Ukraine and other countries.

"The main purpose of the virus was the destruction of important data, disrupting the work of public and private institutions in Ukraine and spreading panic among the people," the SBU said of the recent attack.

A cyber attack in December on a Ukrainian state energy computer caused a power cut in the northern part of the capital Kiev.

The Russian foreign ministry and Federal Security Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest allegations.
Geneva: Italy needs more international support to cope with a wave of migrants that has flooded its shores since the start of the year, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Saturday.

"What is happening in front of our eyes in Italy is an unfolding tragedy," Grandi said in a statement.

"In the course of last weekend, 12,600 migrants and refugees arrived on its shores, and an estimated 2,030 have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year." He added: "Italy is playing its part in receiving those rescued and providing asylum to those in need of protection. These efforts must be continued and strengthened. But this cannot be an Italian problem alone."

Separately, a source in Paris said the interior ministers of France, Germany, and Italy will meet in the French capital on Saturday to discuss a "coordinated approach" to help Italy.

Faced with rising numbers of migrants risking the perilous sea crossing to reach Europe, Italy last week threatened to close its doors to people arriving on boats with foreign flags. Europe had to get fully involved through an "urgent distribution system" of migrants and should widen legal channels so that migrants can be admitted, Grandi added.

He also called for greater international efforts to tackle the causes of the migration, protect people and fight trafficking.

Since the beginning of the year, 83,650 people have reached Italy by sea, an increase of nearly 20 percent compared to the same period last year, according to UN figures.

Nearly all of Italy's 200,000 places for accommodating migrants have been filled. Many of the migrants need health care and support, with a large percentage of them non-accompanied children and victims of sexual violence, says the UN. The number of migrant children arriving on their own rose two-fold between 2015 and 2016, reaching 25,846 at the end of last year.
Seoul: South Korean president Moon Jae-In is returning from an official visit to Washington with two ancient royal seals looted during the Korean War, reports said Saturday.

The repatriation of the Chosun dynasty antiques, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, comes after years of campaigning by the South Korean government, which said they were stolen during the turbulent 1950-53 war.

Moon received the seals during a ceremony in Washington during a visit to the United States on Friday and was due to arrive in South Korea with them on Sunday, Yonhap news agency said.

The Chosun dynasty, who cultivated a ruling philosophy drawn from Confucianism, governed from 1392 to 1910, when Japan colonised the country.

One of the seals was made in 1547 to honor Queen Munjeong (1501-1565), the third wife of Chosun Dynasty's 11th king, Jungjong.

The other is a jade block created in 1651 to commemorate the installation of the crown prince of King Hyojong.

They were seized by United States authorities in 2013 after Seoul clarified these were stolen items.

It marked the third time that Washington has returned South Korean treasures.

In 2013 the United States sent back Korea's first money printing block made in late 19th century and the following year, it handed back nine royal seals.

Tens of thousands of old Korean cultural items were spirited abroad during Japan's colonisation of Korea from 1910-45 and the Korean War.
New York: Two top Indian-American former executives of a Chicago-area information technology company have been charged by the US federal regulator in an accounting fraud scheme in which they misled investors and siphoned millions of dollars from the firm for their personal benefit.

Nandu Thondavadi, 63, of Illinois was the CEO of Schaumburg-based Quadrant 4 System Corporation (QFOR) while Dhru Desai, 55, was its chief financial officer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged the duo as well as Quadrant 4 System in the accounting fraud scheme.

The SEC's complaint, filed on Thursday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that Thondavadi and Desai siphoned off more than $4 million from the company over a nearly five-year period.

The former executives are also alleged to have caused the company to understate its liabilities and inflate its revenues and assets, evading scrutiny by lying to the company's auditors and providing them with forged and doctored documents. Both were earlier arrested on 1 December 2016 in the US for allegedly misrepresenting their company's finances to inflate its stock price.

According to the SEC's complaint, the alleged scheme continued until November 2016, when Thondavadi and Desai were arrested and criminally charged with fraud. QFOR announced their resignations in December 2016 and disclosed that the company's financial reports could no longer be relied upon and required a restatement.

"As alleged in our complaint, Thondavadi and Desai perpetrated a multi-faceted scheme to mislead investors about QFOR's financial condition and secretly enrich themselves," said David Glockner, Director of the SEC's Chicago regional office.

The SEC's complaint charges QFOR with filing false and misleading quarterly, annual, and other reports, failing to keep accurate books and records, and internal accounting control failures.

Subject to court approval, and without admitting or denying the allegations, QFOR consented to an order to permanently enjoin the company from further anti-fraud, reporting, books and records, and internal control violations.

Thondavadi and Desai are charged with multiple violations, including fraud, falsifying books and records, lying to auditors, falsely certifying QFOR's filings, and aiding and abetting QFOR's alleged violations.

In a parallel action, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois also announced additional criminal charges against Thondavadi and Desai, including charges that Thondavadi and Desai attempted to obstruct the SEC's investigation, lied to the SEC under oath, and paid two individuals to lie to the SEC in the course of its investigation.

The SEC's complaint seeks injunctions and return of allegedly ill-gotten gains plus interest and penalties against the company and the former executives as well as officer-and-director bars against Thondavadi and Desai.
Normandy Four leaders meeting to be scheduled after progress in security in Donbas is reached, prisoners released

The date of a meeting of the leaders of the Normandy Four countries (Germany, France, Ukraine, Russia) will be determined when there is progress in security issues in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the hostages are released, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"Two key dimensions are very important for us: real security... and second, the release of hostages and political prisoners... If we can move forward in these two areas, then we will prepare a meeting," he said on Inter TV channel on Friday evening.

In his opinion, the meeting of the leaders of the Normandy format should be preceded by a telephone conversation, during which it is necessary to discuss the results that can be agreed upon at the meeting.

"And I very much hope that all the contacts I'm talking about, which will take place next week, or in a week, should give us a new dynamics," the Ukrainian foreign minister said.

As reported, the G20 summit will be held in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7-8.
Washington: Ivanka Trump has been vocal in using her White House role to advocate for women. But when President Donald Trump lobbed a demeaning attack on a female TV host on Twitter this week, his daughter and senior adviser kept quiet.

It was a moment of silence that spoke to the challenges and calculations Ivanka Trump faces as she tries to promote family-friendly policies in an administration led by a man whose comments about women have made women cringe and drawn bipartisan rebuke.

In recent weeks, the younger Trump has discussed family leave with lawmakers, traveled to promote job-training efforts and spoken out against human trafficking. She's also tried to position herself as above the political fray, saying in one interview that she tries to "stay out of politics" and in another that she's been surprised by the "level of viciousness" in Washington politics.

The tussle between her father and "Morning Joe" co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough offered a pointed reminder to Ivanka Trump that this is a city where it's impossible to separate policy and politics.

The MSNBC hosts, in a Washington Post column on Friday, called on women close to the president to condemn him for questioning Brzezinski's intelligence and saying that she was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" in a December encounter.

"It would be the height of hypocrisy to claim the mantle of women's empowerment while allowing a family member to continue such abusive conduct," Brzezinski and Scarborough wrote.

Ivanka Trump did not respond to questions about the president's tweet or how it affects her policy efforts. While she has won some praise for trying to tackle complex issues that are not traditionally high on the Republican agenda, such as paid family leave and child care expenses, liberal advocates said her recent evasion tactics were not helpful in building bipartisan bridges.

"Moments like this make it much harder for advocates that have spent decades fighting gender stereotypes and discrimination and advancing women's equality to view her as a potential ally," said Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
Chinese president Xi Jinping sternly warned that any attempt to "endanger" China's sovereignty in Hong Kong in the name of democracy would cross a "red line" and was "absolutely impermissible" as the former British colony marked 20 years of Chinese rule.

The high-profile visit by Xi, also the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, is his first to the gleaming city since becoming the top leader in 2013. It also comes three years after mass pro-democracy rallies crippled parts of the Asian financial hub for months.

Xi's warning came at a gathering to mark two decades of years of Chinese rule in Hong Kong and swearing-in of pro-Beijing new chief executive Carry Lam and her Cabinet. Many Hong Kong citizens are upset over what they call increasing Chinese encroachment on the city's autonomy  guaranteed during Britain's handover of the territory to China in 1997 under a framework known as "one country, two systems".

"Any attempt to endanger national sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the Basic Law of the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administration Region) or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible," Xi said.

Xi arrived on a three-day visit on 29 June amid an unprecedented security to keep the pro-democracy protesters at bay.

Hong Kong has been simmering for the past few years with massive demonstrations, including prolonged "occupy protests" against China screening candidates to contest elections. Sounding exasperated over the recurring protests, Xi said people in Hong Kong was freer than ever.

"The people of Hong Kong, now masters of their own house, run their local affairs within the purview of autonomy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)," he said in a nationalistic speech which emphasised Beijing's control over the city, now a special administrative region of China.

Several pro-democracy groups protested against Xi's visit and scuffled with pro-China organisations and police. Scores of them were arrested.

Xi stressed the importance of having a correct understanding of the relationship between "one country" and "two systems", saying that the system was advanced to realise and uphold national unity. "We must both adhere to the 'one country' principle and respect the differences of the 'two systems'," he said.

Beijing will unswervingly implement the policy of "one country, two systems" and make sure that it is fully applied in Hong Kong without being bent or distorted, he said. Hong Kong cannot afford to be torn apart by reckless moves or internal rift amid the intense global competition, he cautioned.

Hong Kong is a plural society with "different views and even major differences on some specific issues," he acknowledged.

However, "making everything political or deliberately creating differences and provoking confrontation will not resolve the problems", Xi said. "On the contrary, it can only severely hinder Hong Kong's economic and social development."

"Hong Kong is an affluent society, but it also faces enormous challenges posed by profound changes in the global economic environment and the increasingly intense international competition," he said.

The concept of "one country, two systems" gives expression to the vision of peace and harmony in the Chinese culture, and it embodies a very important tenet, namely, seeking broad common ground while setting aside major differences, Xi said. "On the part of the central government, we are ready to talk to anyone who loves the country, loves Hong Kong and genuinely supports the principle of 'one country, two systems' and the Basic Law of the HKSAR, no matter what political views or position he or she may hold."

Xi said Hong Kong should always focus on development as the top priority. "I am convinced that the practice of 'one country, two systems' in Hong Kong will write a new chapter," he said.

As Xi spoke, thousands of pro-democracy protesters set off from Victoria Park. The key themes of the protests were reclaim Hong Kong and release of Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace prize winner who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Ron Wong, 17, who was marching with his parents, said Xi's visit had been a "show of power of who's in charge". "China has barricaded itself off (from criticism)," he said.

Another protester said more and more people were getting frustrated by the increasing influence of Beijing on the city, which is supposed to enjoy a high degree of autonomy. He said that growing concerns over Liu and Beijing's recent claim that the Sino-British Joint Declaration "no longer has any realistic meaning" could spark more people to take to the streets.
Hong Kong: President Xi Jinping swore in new Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Saturday as the politically divided city marked 20 years since it was handed back to China by Britain, with clashes between pro and anti-Beijing protesters close to the ceremony. Lam was selected by a pro-Beijing committee, as were her predecessors, and is already being cast by critics as a China stooge in a city where many are angry at Beijing's tightening grip on the freedoms of nearly eight million people.

She took her oath of office under China's national flag at the city's harbourfront convention centre, before shaking hands with Xi. Lam's inauguration comes a day after Beijing's foreign ministry declared that the document signed by Britain and China which initiated the handover "is no longer relevant."

The Sino-British Joint Declaration gave Hong Kong rights unseen on the mainland through a semi-autonomous "one country, two systems" agreement, lasting 50 years. There are growing fears that those freedoms are now under threat from an assertive Beijing, with Chinese authorities accused of interfering in a range of areas in Hong Kong, from politics to media and education.

Pro-China protesters targeted a small march by activists in memory of the victims of Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown this morning as officials gathered for the swearing in. As the pro-democracy campaigners prepared to carry a makeshift coffin towards the convention centre, as they do each year, a man ran across the street and kicked it.

Flag-waving pro-China protesters then blocked the march as police struggled to separate the two sides. Democracy campaigners were taken away in police vans and released soon after. Lam's swearing in by Xi is deeply symbolic for frustrated activists who have been pushing for fully free leadership elections for the city, with mass pro-democracy "Umbrella Movement" rallies bringing parts of the city to a standstill in 2014.

Those protests were sparked by a Beijing-backed political reform package which said Hong Kong could have a public vote for leader, but that candidates must be vetted first. The proposal was voted down in parliament by pro-democracy lawmakers and the reform process has now stalled. Lam has made no commitment to revisit it soon.

The failure of the democracy movement to win concessions has led some young campaigners to call for self-determination or even independence for the mainland, which has infuriated Beijing.
With the stock market seemingly bumping up against a new all-time high every few days, it's getting harder for value investors to find good stocks to buy. In fact, the S&P 500 currently trades at a gaudy price-to-earnings ratio of 25.6, well above the mid-teens average throughout its history. That said, there are some values out there, especially in the energy sector given oil's recent plunge back into bear-market territory.

Two companies that caught my eye are pipeline giants Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) and Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD). Despite generating exceptionally steady cash flow over the past year, both companies' stocks are down double digits from their 52-week highs, making them compelling buys for long-term investors. That said, for investors who are hunting for value, Kinder Morgan is the clear top choice for two reasons.

1. It's ridiculously cheap on a cash-flow basis

Typically, the easiest way to value a stock is to look at it price-to-earnings ratio. However, that number isn't helpful when evaluating pipeline companies because they often take large depreciation charges and other writedowns that can wipe out earnings. For example, Kinder Morgan only reported $552 million (or $0.25 per share) in net income last year after booking a $610 million loss on an equity investment and recording $2.3 billion of depreciation and amortization. Because of that, the stock looks quite pricey at nearly 75 times earnings given its current $19 share price, especially when Enterprise Products Partners trades around 21 times earnings.

That said, both companies are much cheaper when we look at cash flow, which is why that metric is more important when valuing pipeline companies. In Kinder Morgan's case, it generated $4.5 billion of distributable cash flow last year, or about $2.02 per share. At its current price, shares are trading at just 9.4 times cash flow. Contrast that with Enterprise Products Partners, which currently trades at 13.3 times its distributable cash flow. While that is a more reasonable valuation multiple for a pipeline company, it's toward the lower end of the value range.

Another way to frame how cheap Kinder Morgan is at the moment is to look at its cash flow yield, meaning what the stock would yield if the company paid out 100% of its cash flow to investors. When dividing cash flow per share by the current stock price, we get a free cash flow yield of nearly 11%. For comparison's sake, Enterprise Products Partners trades at a 7.6% free cash flow yield.

2. It's even cheaper when factoring in future growth

Investors currently value Kinder Morgan as if it will never grow cash flow again, which couldn't be further from the truth. That's because the company has $11.7 billion of growth projects in development that should enter service through the end of 2019. The company plans to invest 88% of that capital into fee-based pipeline and terminal projects, which it anticipates will supply it with $1.5 billion of annual adjusted EBITDA by 2020, assuming its controversial Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion comes online as expected. That forecast suggests adjusted EBITDA will increase about 20% over the next three years, without factoring in any benefit from its oil business. If the company completes its $1.5 billion in high-return oil projects over the next five years, the carbon dioxide segment's distributable cash flow will increase from around $750 million to more than $1 billion annually by 2019, assuming crude prices cooperate and hit $60 a barrel in two years. These projections imply robust cash flow growth for a company of Kinder Morgan's size over the next few years if everything goes according to plan.

Enterprise Products Partners also expects to grow cash flow at a brisk pace over the next few years because it has $8.4 billion of capital projects in its backlog. For a company that has the same $80 billion enterprise value as Kinder Morgan, these growth initiatives have the potential to supply similar needle-moving growth. Furthermore, about a third of those projects should enter service this year, with the balance split between 2018 and 2019. It's also worth noting that long-term fee-based contracts underpin all those projects, which face minimal risk of getting delayed due to permitting issues or environmental concerns since most run through the pro-energy state of Texas.

That lower-risk growth is one reason Enterprise Products Partners trades at a higher valuation than Kinder Morgan. In a sense, investors are discounting Kinder Morgan's growth because of increasing worries that its Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion will face long delays due to recent elections in Canada and intense opposition. Given that this project represents 46% of its total backlog, delays could have a significant impact on its growth assumptions. That said, the higher risk could lead to greater future rewards because investors can buy Kinder Morgan's growing cash flow stream for such a low price these days.

Investor takeaway

Given the sell-off in the energy market this year due to tumbling crude prices, both Kinder Morgan and Enterprise Products Partners are compelling value stocks right now, especially compared to the rest of the market. That said, Kinder Morgan is the better choice for investors looking for a deep value stock since it sells for a much cheaper cash flow multiple than Enterprise Products Partners, despite having equally impressive growth potential.

Find out why Kinder Morgan is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now

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Matt DiLallo owns shares of Enterprise Products Partners and Kinder Morgan and has the following options: short January 2018 $30 puts on Kinder Morgan, long January 2018 $30 calls on Kinder Morgan, and short December 2017 $19 puts on Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool recommends Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Militants of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republics threatened monitors of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission because the latter allegedly greeted locals on the Constitution Day

Two male militants, aged 25-30 years old, armed with assault rifles, wearing grey camouflaged clothing without insignia or badges and with black balaclavas covering their faces approached the SMM vehicles in the 'LPR'-controlled village of Vesela Hora, according to a report posted on the OSCE SMM website.

They asked the SMM patrol members in both vehicles if they had been in the same settlement the day before and alleged that SMM members had congratulated residents on the day of the Ukrainian constitution. The armed men told the SMM members that they would shoot the SMM members if such a message was repeated.

The SMM left the area and informed the JCCC about the incident.
New Jersey's state government has shut down for the first time under Republican Gov. Chris Christie after he and the Democrat-led Legislature failed to reach an agreement on a budget by the deadline at midnight Friday.

Prieto held a vote Friday on the budget that remained deadlocked with only 26 yes votes out of 41 needed to prevail.

Christie said at a news conference on Friday that he and Senate Democrats, who have agreed with the governor, still had not reached a deal with Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, who refuses to consider the Horizon legislation.

Christie, who is deeply unpopular in the state as he heads into his final six months in office, made supporting a $34.7 billion budget that includes 73 Democratic priorities contingent on a proposal to overhaul the nonprofit Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, aiming to tap into their surplus to finance drug treatment.

The shutdown means state parks and nonessential services such as the Motor Vehicle Commission are shutting down just ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Prisons, the state police and casinos will remain open.

Christie, a former GOP presidential candidate and adviser to President Donald Trump who is leading the White House's anti-opioid commission, announced the shutdown of the state's nonessential services in an executive order.

Christie has called the Legislature into session for Saturday.

Christie was once viewed as the future of his party  a Republican who could compromise with Democrats to produce results and win in a Democratic state. He was praised for his handling of Superstorm Sandy and won re-election in 2013 by double digits.

But Christie's second and final term is wrapping up with his approval ratings at 15 percent. Christie's Horizon proposal has perplexed some conservatives, who have rallied to oppose the legislation. Labor groups that typically align with Democrats, like the state's largest teachers union, also oppose the idea.

Christie has cast Horizon, which opposes the measure and has parked a mobile video billboard displaying anti-Christie videos near his office this week, as a giant, greedy company that is abandoning the charitable mission the state had in mind when the state designated it as a health services corporation. Horizon has four board members appointed by the governor.

Christie referred to the video as "a carnival" and attacked Horizon for spending money on lobbyists.

Businessman and publisher Steve Forbes called Christie's plan political "extortion." Americans for Prosperity has come out against the proposal. The pro-business New Jersey Business and Industry Association, typically a reliable Republican ally, has abandoned Christie on this issue.

Christie said during a news conference Friday that he's not concerned about how he'd be perceived during a shutdown.

"I'm upset because this will inconvenience the people of New Jersey," he said. "That's the only reason I'm upset. Otherwise legacy all that other stuff, please. There will be a long list of things pro and con on my legacy."

The issue comes down to compromise, he said, adding that his willingness to agree to Democratic spending preferences despite having the ability to line-item veto them shows he's bending.

He called himself "Mr. Reasonable."

But Prieto said it's he who has already compromised by accepting the bill to transfer the state's lottery to the pension to reduce its unfunded liability.

He says that he's not budging on the Horizon bill and that it's the wrong time to consider legislation that could affect ratepayers at a time when congressional Republicans are debating "Trumpcare," a clear reference to the delayed GOP efforts to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Christie on Friday presented a 2006 bill that Prieto co-sponsored that proposed using Horizon's surplus as a sign that Prieto was acting hypocritically.

Prieto responded "things change and things evolve."

Invoking Trump could resonate on another level in New Jersey, where Christie enthusiastically backed the president and now leads an anti-opioid addiction panel for the White House. Trump lost New Jersey to Hillary Clinton last year.

The Senate approved a different version of Christie's initial proposal on Horizon.

Rather than tapping directly into Horizon's surplus, it requires that the state insurance commissioner set a range for Horizon's surplus. When the top limit is exceeded, then the excess cash would go toward programs to benefit the public and policyholders under the Senate bill.

___

Contact Catalini at https://twitter.com/mikecatalini

___

This story has been corrected to show that Christie is seeking to shore up the pension by dedicating lottery revenue to it, not transferring the pension to the lottery.
Behind on your retirement savings? You're not alone. According to a 2016 survey by GOBankingRates, 23% of respondents said they have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and roughly one-third said they have no savings at all.

People face plenty of obstacles when it comes to saving for retirement, making it easy to put it off until tomorrow -- until a few thousand "tomorrows" have passed, and suddenly you're just a few years away from retirement with next to nothing in your savings fund.

Even more disheartening is the fact that it costs more than ever to retire comfortably. Thirty-seven percent of workers say they believe they'll need at least $1 million to survive once they retire, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey.

So what can you do if you're reaching the middle of your life with little to no retirement savings stashed away? Fortunately, with some smart investing tactics, it's still possible to reach your retirement goals -- and maybe even save $1 million -- if you've gotten off to a late start.

Going big

Make no mistake: If you hope to have $1 million by the time you retire and you're just starting to save at age 50, you'll have to do some serious saving. You'll likely need to make sacrifices, such as cutting back on vacations, picking up a side job for extra income, or even downsizing to a less expensive home. Even then, saving up $1 million in such a short amount of time may not be possible if your household income is below six figures.

All that said, achieving a $1 million nest egg is attainable for disciplined savers with higher-than-average earnings. Even better, it doesn't involve investing in the next billion-dollar start-up or taking up day trading and hoping to make it big. Instead, all you need is a 401(k) and a willingness to invest in stocks, which carry higher risk than cash and bonds but offer much higher reward.

For 2017, the IRS allows investors aged 50 or older to contribute $24,000 to their 401(k) plans. Assuming that you contribute the full $24,000 each year, that you have no savings whatsoever to begin with at age 50, and that you'll see an average annual return of about 8%, here's where you'll end up in 10, 15, and 20 years:

So it is possible to save $1 million if you're willing to work until age 70 and contribute at least $24,000 to your 401(k) each year. However, it's also important to keep in mind that these numbers are based on favorable market conditions, and if the market crashes or sees returns of less than 8%, it will be more difficult to reach that $1 million goal.

Other paths you can take

If you can't contribute $24,000 a year to your retirement fund, you're in good company. But that doesn't mean you can't push yourself to save more and grow your nest egg substantially.

Say, for instance, you can only save an extra $1,000 per month. Assuming, again, that you have no savings to begin with, your investments earn 8% per year, and you retire after 20 years of saving, you'll end up with about $572,700.

Perhaps even $1,000 a month is stretching you too thin. Say you instead choose to max out your IRA and contribute the full $6,500 allowed each year for individuals age 50 or older (which amounts to about $542 each month). That will leave with $310,400 after 20 years. While it's nowhere near $1 million, it's enough to make a huge difference in your financial security in retirement.

Those numbers also look pretty good in comparison to what other people are saving. According to a survey by the Government Accountability Office, among households aged 55 to 64, the median retirement account balance is $104,000, while the median for households aged 65 to 74 is $148,000. Over the course of a 25-year retirement, that won't even provide five figures' worth of annual income.

So even if you only manage to save $300,000 or so, you're still far ahead of the curve. To see whether that amount will last you through retirement, though, plug your numbers into a retirement calculator to see whether you've saved enough to afford your lifestyle.

Saving for retirement is hard, and it's far easier to put it off for another day. But it's always a good time to start saving, and you're never too old to start stashing money away for your golden years.

The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies.

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The promoter behind the Fyre Festival debacle in the Bahamas was arrested on a federal fraud charge that he bilked business investors.

Billy McFarland, 25, was arrested Friday in New York City and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, if convicted.

He is alleged to have cheated investors who backed the festival and his media company out of more than $1 million.

He drew FBI scrutiny after the demise of the Fyre Festival, billed as an ultra-luxurious event with headliners including rockers Blink-182 and the hip-hop act Migos.

After performers bowed out, the festival was canceled. The shows were slated to take place on the island of Exuma over two weekends in April and May.

Angry would-be party goers posted pictures on Facebook and YouTube showing rows of white tents that look like "Stormtrooper helmets," blue port-a-potties near half-constructed plywood structures and limp, lifeless cheese sandwiches.

"As alleged, William McFarland promised a 'life-changing' music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster," acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said.

McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival, Kim said. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes.

An attorney who has represented McFarland did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press requesting comment.

McFarland and his partner, the rapper Ja Rule, already face more than a dozen lawsuits filed by ticket buyers and investors in the festival.

A lawsuit filed in May in Los Angeles said the festival was "nothing more than a get-rich-quick scam" akin to a Ponzi scheme.

Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, has not been arrested.

McFarland faces arraignment on the charge Saturday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The mother and father of a brain-damaged 11-month-old baby on Friday were sitting bedside with the boy after losing a legal battle that would have kept the boy on life support.

The Wall Street Journal reported that doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, who are caring for Charlie Gard received permission from a court to discontinue life support.

The boys parents objected to the decision and wanted to take him to the U.S. for an unproven, experimental therapy.

Charlie suffers from a rare genetic condition and brain damage. He is unable to breathe unaided. Earlier in the day, parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates said they had expected the hospital to end life support for Charlie on Friday.

But hours later, the hospital said in a statement that "together with Charlie's parents we are putting plans in place for his care and to give them more time together as a family."

Hospital officials also asked that the family and hospital staff be given "space and privacy at this distressing time."

It's not clear how long life support will be continued for Charlie.

On Tuesday, the parents lost a bid to take Charlie to the U.S. for trial therapy when the European Court of Human Rights sided with earlier rulings that continued treatment would cause "significant harm" and that life support should end. Specialists have said the proposed therapy wouldn't help Charlie.

Charlie was born in August. The Journal reported that he was diagnosed with infantile-onset encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

His brain, muscle and ability to breathe are all severely affected. In addition, he has congenital deafness and a severe epilepsy disorder, a professor who specializes in mitochondrial diseases told the U.K. High Court that heard the case.

The appeal was the last legal option in the couple's four-month battle. After the final ruling, the hospital said there would be "no rush" to make any changes in Charlie's medical care.

His parents had complained that the hospital wouldn't allow Charlie to be brought home to die. The boy's parents have released a video saying "we're not allowed to choose if our son lives and we're not allowed to choose when or where Charlie dies."

Charlie's case has gained attention online, raising nearly $1.8 million on GoFundMe to send him to the U.S.

Yates has said previously that the funds will be used to support other children with similar genetic disorders should they lose their case.

We are utterly heartbroken, the parents wrote in a post on Facebook . We and most importantly Charlie have been massively let down throughout this whole process.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Two Hollywood greats, James Jimmy Stewart and Henry Hank Fonda, offer a valuable lesson for todays polarized America.

The two, Hank and Jim, were best friends. (Only Fonda called Stewart Jim.) Stewart died twenty years ago this Sunday, July 2some 15 years after, Fonda, who died on August 12, 1982.

I talked to Fonda once about Jimmy, how they got along so well, considering that they were polar opposites politically, Peter Bogdnovich, director, actor and writer, told me. And Hank said, We just dont talk about politics. We just dont talk about it.

Thomas Jefferson, whose Declaration of Independence birthed America on July 4, 1776, the 241st anniversary of which we celebrate this Independence Day, said of such politeness that giving a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions will conciliate others and make them pleased with us as well as themselves.something that Stewart and Fondas generation understood and practiced. Indeed, when I commented, It seems like the manners were better then, Bogdanovich said, A lot better.

They were delightful together, he said. Both had such a good time together in their bachelor years and then later joined by their wives, about which Bogdanovich writes in his book, Who the Hells in it?: Conversations with Hollywoods Legendary Actors.

Fonda and Stewart met at the University Players in Falmouth, Massachusetts in the summer of 1932 when both were starting their acting careers. (Albeit Stewart, ostensibly there to play his accordion in the tea room, was reassigned to the stage, setup and acting, to preserve patrons nerves.) The two went to New York together when the show Carrie Nation debuted on Broadway, and then stayed on, suffering through some lean times. Then Fonda, who had studied acting, watched incredulously as his roommate Stewart, a Princeton graduate, class of 32, kind of fell into Broadway roles.

Stewart followed Fonda to Hollywood in 1935, where they also roomed together. Greta Garbo moved next door and put up a huge stone wall, and they dug a hole under the wall, said Bogdanovich. Or at least tried to.

Garbos wall notwithstanding, they both rose quicklyFonda again looking on in amazement at Stewarts great fortune in getting bit parts; then, in 1938, being plucked from relative obscurity to co-star in Frank Capras You Cant Take It With You followed by his iconic performance the next year as Jefferson Smith in Capras "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Hollywood at the time, considering the latter film too radical, passed over Stewart for a well-deserved Oscar, giving it to him instead for his performance in The Philadelphia Story (1940). Soon thereafter he was drafted and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, commanding some 11 of 20 bombing missions he flew.

Fonda also served in the U.S. Navy during the warfor three years, initially enlisting as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer USS Satterlee because, he said, I dont want to be in a fake war in a studio. Previously, he and Stewart had raised funds for the defense of Britain.

Whereas their politics were different, Fonda and Stewart had the same sensibilities vis-a-vis sharing their war experiences. Most of the (Hollywood) people in the war wouldnt talk about it, said Bogdanovich. John Ford wouldnt talk about it. Neither did Jimmy. And, I asked Fonda about it. But he didnt answer. None of them volunteered anything. Asked why, he said, It was too painful. Too much. They didnt want to appear to be trying to be heroic, bragging on themselves They didnt do that. It was just too serious of a situation to deal with it frivolously or in a casual way.

Stewart remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and was promoted to Brigadier General on July 23, 1959, retiring on May 31, 1968, and then supporting the presidential bids of his other good Hollywood friend, Ronald Reaganfrequently visiting Ron at the White House during his presidency.

After Fonda died and Stewart aced a scene in Right of Way (1983), co-starring Bette Davis, he looked heavenward and said Thanks, Hank.

And, thanks to both for their example in keeping politics in its place for the sake of friendship and civility.
President Trump on Friday declared that the era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed, thankfully turning the page on the Obama Administration's disastrous policies towards Pyongyang.

But Americas woes in Asia dont stop with North Korea. In fact, the challenge Washington faces in that vital part of the world are much bigger. The good news is that the Trump Administration does have a narrow window to do something about itbefore it's too late.

Now is the time for Washington to end the era of strategic patience with another rogue regime, one that is not only aiding North Koreas military rise but is also on a crash course to dominate the Asia-Pacific.

That country is none other than the Peoples Republic of China.

To be fair, the challenge China has posed to U.S. national security always seems to be get placed on the backburner, to be dealt with another daysomething both Democrat and Republican administrations are guilty of.

The reasons are obvious. Years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, a great recession like no other, a Syrian civil war that seems never ending, tensions with Russia and now an epic struggle to ensure ISIS is simply no more have all ensured Beijing gets a pass for its actions -- time and time again.

As Washington cast its focus everywhere else, China has decided to shed the notion of a so-called peaceful rise," and instead pursue a dangerous course of action that is only leading to rising tensions with America, and if successful, will turn Asia into Beijings own private sphere of influence.

How China has worked to achieve its goals is clear, and in fact, is very much out in the open.

First, Beijing has done all it can to create an arc of instability, from the East China Sea all the way to the very ends of the South China Sea to advance its agenda. China prods and pushes its claims of indisputable sovereignty in all directions along this track, using civilian ships like fishing vessels, a dangerous maritime militia, and coast guard vessels that are many times nothing more than redesigned Chinese naval vessels, to ensure its mastery of the seas around them. Its goal is to turn such vital waterways into extensions of its territory, or what it calls blue national soil."

Indeed, Beijings actions in the hotly disputed South China Sea deserve special attention. The beating heart of Asias economic miracle, China has literally drawn borders around this critical part of the global ocean commons. Called the nine-dash-line, China has done what no other nation has dared to do in centuries: place outlandish claims over vast waterways, that if enforced, would destroy the notion that oceans and seas can be claimed by no one. Beijing has even gone so far as to build island military bases out of small rocks and reefs in the area, tipping the strategic balance in its favor.

Next, to ensure the region takes Chinas claims seriously, Beijings military might has advanced by leaps and bounds. Experts inside the Pentagon have privately told me that they fear America may now lack the ability to protect its interests and allies against China if conflict did break outunless Washington was willing to accept casualties not seen since the Vietnam War, or worse.

Beijings strategy to dominate Washington in a conflict is also quite clear. Knowing that it still cant match America ship for ship or plane for plane, Beijing has developed countless classes of deadly missiles. In the event of a conflict over Taiwan, the South or East China Seas or in Korea, China would shower U.S. bases, warships or allies with potentially thousands of missiles. And worst of all, thanks to treaty commitments agreed to with the now defunct Soviet Union, Washington is unable to legally build land-based missiles in the ranges needed to respond in kind.

But for Beijing this is simply not enough. China has even decided that it must begin to match America in as many possible areas of traditional military might as possible. Through cyber espionage, it has stolen classified data involving some of Americas most advanced military platforms. Such theft has included data on the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters, the THAAD missile defense system and many others. Take a look at Chinas latest stealth fighter, the J-20. See a resemblance to Americas stealth weapons? The reason is obvious.

For Washington and its allies, the accumulation of Chinese economic, military and diplomatic muscle means the international community can no longer ignore this threat.

Considering all of this, now is the time for America to push back against Chinese acts of aggressionand not through failed foreign policy slogans like a pivot or rebalancebut through actual deeds.

The Trump administration must develop a comprehensive strategy to ensure that Beijing does not dominate the Asia-Pacific, bully our allies or partners in region, or is able to defeat Washington in a military conflict.

Let there be no doubt, the growing threat of a nuclear North Korea compounded with the rise of China and its aggressive acts to ensure it dominates Asia are the two biggest foreign policy challenge America faces today. There can be only one response: when it comes to Trumps foreign policy strategy, America First must mean Asia is the top priority above all else.

It's well past time that Washington make Asia First a slogan it will put steel behind. There simply is no other choice.
President Donald Trump was elected our nations 45th president not beholden to Washington or any special interest in its swamp. President Trump is a change agent unlike any President the American people have ever seen. Hes the first non-politician to be elected president since General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. President Trump was elected as a successful businessman to break up Washingtons failed status quo. What we are witnessing is the ultimate political outsider enacting real change.

So all the sound and fury emanating from Washington? Thats what it sounds like when an entrenched political class that is radically averse to change is forced to confront it, head-on. And all the noise is obscuring one very important fact, and that is that 161 days into the Trump Presidency  once you cut through the permanent obstruction campaign being waged by the Democrats and all the noise emanating from the liberal media  genuine progress is being made on the Trump agenda.

All the noise emanating from Washington is obscuring one very important fact, and that is that 161 days into the Trump Presidency, genuine progress is being made on the Trump agenda.

This weeks unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court ordering that the Presidents executive order on immigration can largely take effect is an enormous victory for the White House and our national security. The Supreme Court put its stamp of approval on the fact that the President of the United States has the power to secure our country and that our immigration vetting system needs major improvement.

This major step on immigration reform creates momentum for the great strides Senate Republicans are already making to fix our nations broken health care system. Its widely accepted that ObamaCare is failing and has been failing for a long time. Americans want better health care and more affordable health care. This is the essence of what President Trump and Congressional Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are working non-stop to accomplish. The Democrats by contrast hold the position that it is acceptable to let ObamaCare falter completely. Make no mistake; the choice on the future of health care is simple. Republicans are pushing for common sense reform and the Democrats are holding on to a failed system that is going to crash.

Through President Trumps America First leadership, much progress has already been made. The nomination and confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch for example is a promise made and a promise kept by our president. This widely praised decision sent a signal to the American people that this president will appoint only supremely qualified defenders of the Constitution to our nations highest court. Similarly, President Trumps consequential decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord makes clear he is prioritizing the economic interests of the United States of America and the American worker first and foremost.

Additionally, last week President Trump continued to make good on his pledge to prioritize the men and women who have heroically served our country by signing into law the Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act. This law is a key part of the Presidents reform agenda that will hold employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs more accountable and help to make sure the federal government is giving our veterans the unparalleled respect that they deserve.

Going forward, it is critically important that the U.S. Senate continue to improve their health care reform legislation and get it to President Trumps desk for his signature. This landmark accomplishment will enable our country to finally move on from the divisive ObamaCare years and onto policy measures such as tax reform which will make dramatic economic gains and job creation become a reality. Job creators at businesses both large and small are craving for some economic certainty from our federal government. They want the certainty that taxes and regulations are going to be cut and that our tax code will be streamlined for the hardworking taxpayers that they employ. These optimistic pro-growth reforms are something that the American people will rally around. Hopefully some Senate Democrats from states President Trump carried will feel the same way.

Yes, getting the Washington establishment to change its ways is hard, but President Trump is achieving positive results for the American people that he represents each and every day.
With time further expiring on House Republicans long list of legislative goals, members have again asked Speaker Paul Ryan to cancel the chambers August recess.

During the 2016 elections, President Trump and Republican candidates running for the House and Senate promised the American people that with unified Republican government we could achieve many of the policy priorities that have been mere wishes for the last several years, Arizona GOP Rep. Andy Biggs wrote in his letter to Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican.

Biggs and the 11 other House Republicans who signed the letter Friday cited a long list of pressing issues on our docket including the repeal of ObamaCare, passing a tax reform plan, reign in federal spending and working toward balancing the budget.

The American people put their faith in us and are counting on us to carry out these goals, they also wrote.

Congress on Friday broke for a roughly two-week Fourth of July recess and will return to Washington for about 14 legislative working days before their month-long August break.

The letter also cited the need to pass a federal budget and appropriate federal funding by Sept. 30, when the U.S. government technically runs out of money.

And it cited the need to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, the Childrens Health Insurance Program, the National Flood Insurance Program and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The House Freedom Caucus -- roughly 30 of the chambers most conservative members including Biggs -- was among the first to support the effort to cancel the August recess.

The group said in early June that Congress must remain in session this summer to continue working to accomplish the priorities of the American people.

White House budget Director Mick Mulvaney recently said that he supports Congress staying in session through at least part of August.

And White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway has made clear that President Trump, a businessman and real estate mogul by trade, wants faster results.

When he says drain the swamp, its not just about getting rid of all the crocodiles in the water that we dont need. Its about moving at a different pace, she recently told Fox News Fox & Friends.

The GOP-led Senate is perhaps under an even tighter deadline, after leaving for July break without passing their ObamaCare overhaul bill.

Still, getting Republican congressional leaders to cancel or shorten the August recess, practically a perennial request, is unlikely.

Capitol Hill lawmakers historically use August to travel in delegations to foreign countries.

This year, a trip to China is scheduled through the U.S. Asia Institute, and a trip to Israel is being led by the American Israel Education Foundation, according to a high-ranking congressional aide.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is rejecting President Trump's suggestion on how the Senate could promptly pass its ObamaCare overhaul measure -- by immediately repealing the 2010 heath care law and replacing it later.

The Kentucky Republican said Friday night that the bill, which includes significant and complex changes to ObamaCare, remains challenging but "we are going to stick with that path."

He also riffed on Trumps winning campaign slogan, saying, "It's not easy making America great again, is it?"

McConnell, the leader of GOP-controlled Senate, responded to Trump tweeting earlier in the day: If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!

Trump is trying to revive an approach that GOP leaders and the president himself considered but dismissed months ago as impractical and politically unwise.

The Senate introduced its bill about two weeks ago but left Washington for July 4 recess without enough support from the chambers 52 GOP senators to pass the measure. McConnell will need support from at least 50 of them because the bill has no support among Senate Democrats.

The GOP-controlled House passed its ObamaCare overhaul bill earlier this month.

McConnell's is struggling to bridge the divide between moderates and conservatives.

The president also tweeted his message shortly after Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse appeared on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" to talk about a letter he had sent to Trump making that exact suggestion: a vote on repealing former President Barack Obama's health law followed by a new effort at a working out a replacement.

Trump is a known "Fox & Friends" viewer, but Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also claimed credit for recommending the tactic to the president in a conversation earlier in the week.

"Sen. Rand Paul suggested this very idea to the president," said Paul spokesman Sergio Gor. "The senator fully agrees that we must immediately repeal Obamacare and then work on replacing it right away."

Either way, Trump's suggestion has the potential to harden divisions within the GOP as conservatives like Paul and Sasse complain that McConnell's bill does not go far enough in repealing former President Barack Obama's health care law while moderates criticize it as overly harsh in kicking people off insurance rolls, shrinking the Medicaid safety net and increasing premiums for older Americans.

McConnell has been trying to strike deals with members of both factions in order to finalize a rewritten bill lawmakers can vote on when they return to the Capitol the second week of July.

Even before Trump was inaugurated in January, Republicans had debated and ultimately discarded the idea of repealing the overhaul before replacing it, concluding that both must happen simultaneously. Doing otherwise would invite accusations that Republicans were simply tossing people off coverage and would roil insurance markets by raising the question of whether, when and how Congress might replace Obama's law once it was gone.

The idea also would leave unresolved the quandary lawmakers are struggling with now, about how to replace Obama's system of online insurance markets, tax subsidies and an expanded Medicaid with something that could get enough Republican votes to pass Congress. House Republicans barely passed their version of a replacement bill in May, and the task is proving even tougher in the Senate, where McConnell has almost no margin for error.

Moderates were spooked as the week began with a Congressional Budget Office finding that McConnell's draft bill would result in 22 million people losing insurance over the next decade, only 1 million fewer than under the House-passed legislation which Trump privately told senators was "mean." But conservatives continue to insist that the bill must go further than just repealing some of the mandates and taxes in Obama's law.

Underscoring the fissures within the GOP, conservative group leaders on that call welcomed Trump's suggestion but said it didn't go far enough because it could open the door to a subsequent bipartisan compromise to replace Obama's law. At the same time, a key House Republican, Rep. Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, rejected Trump's suggestion, contending that it "doesn't achieve what President Trump set out to do."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Repeal and replace prevailed as the GOP mantra on health care reform dating back to the Pleistocene Epoch, wedged somewhere between the Pliocene and Holocene periods.

Repeal had never been much of an issue for Republicans. However, the devil burrowed into the details of replace. Still, Republicans clamped the alliteration together in a binary conjunction.

That was until President Trump attempted to decouple them Friday with a breakfast-time tweet.

If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date! the president tweeted.

If it were only that easy.

A December 5, 2016, memo from Heritage Action outlined a potential path for Republicans to ditch ObamaCare and concoct another health care plan down the road.

Some will argue that we have a replacement plan at the same time as repeal, but they make this argument hoping to kill the momentum for repeal under the guise of repeal and replace.

However, until we fully repeal ObamaCare, Republicans will have a difficult time agreement on a combination of replacement packages, read the memo for Heritage Act, the conservative Heritage Foundations political arm.

This wasnt a desire to dissolve ObamaCare in an instant. There could be sunsets and other caveats to avoid chaos in the shift. Instead, isolating repeal from replace could serve as a fulcrum against which to accomplish the second goal. It would pressure Republicans to find a health care solution that has eluded them for years.

Back in December, Heritage Action hoped Congress would finish the replacement bill by the end of this year and begin implementing the new health care law in 2018 and 2019.

This would ensure that individuals who have purchased plans through the Obamacare exchanges have ample time to transition into the private sector or employer provided coverage, Heritage Action wrote.

The missive concluded with this gem:

There are no procedural excuses for not moving forward. The only reason for delay and inaction would be an unwillingness to deliver on a six-year-old promise to fully repeal ObamaCare. There are no more excuses.

And here we are.

Theres no obvious breakthrough on health care coming right away, even though some thought a deal might emerge magically at 5 p.m. Friday.

David Popp, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says, discussions continue within the conference. Im sure well be having lots of back and forth with CBO (Congressional Budget Office in the coming weeks. But no announcements for you yet.

Underscore the coming weeks part of Popps quote as McConnell dispatches retooled proposals to the CBO in an effort to court recalcitrant Republicans.

But if that fails, a senior White House source tells Fox News colleague John Roberts that President Trump wants to bifurcate repeal from replace. The assertion is that the House and Senate previously voted to repeal. So why not just cleave the two -- perhaps to turn up the heat on Republicans -- and get somewhere.

But this ploy imposes problems.

Many on Capitol Hill suggest that a full-blown repeal without an immediate fallback would infuse fear and confusion into the marketplace among insurers and consumers.

Thats to say nothing of the financial markets. If theres anything people want, its stability. Not knowing if anything comes next is an issue. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said long ago that the system cannot just revert to the pre-ObamaCare age.

Secondly, a stand-alone ObamaCare repeal would presumably include a sunset -- most likely after the 2018 midterms or even the 2020 presidential election. Its hard to pivot quickly. Plus, a grace period allows lawmakers and Trump to dodge political fallout.

However, would a solitary ObamaCare repeal impose some sort of an enforcement mechanism to compel lawmakers to enact a replacement before the clock ran out? Maybe. But previous efforts to coerce lawmakers to settle other issues failed spectacularly in recent years.

To wit: The federal government is now into its sixth year of budgetary sequestration -- a set of mandatory spending cuts imposed on Congress, by Congress.

Sequestration is the consequence of an aborted endeavor to slash $1 trillion in spending in accordance with the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) that raised the debt ceiling. Sequestration was an onerous penalty Congress would pay should a select cohort of lawmakers -- appellated as the supercommittee -- stumble to forge an agreement. Nobody wanted sequestration. Most people were convinced the super-committee would succeed.

It didnt.

Sequestration remains in place today, running until at least the mid-2020s.

Its unclear if the House and Senate could now pass a detached ObamaCare repeal bill like Republicans did in 2015.

One issue could be the Senate. The chamber would likely mimic its 2015 repeal effort through a process called budget reconciliation.

The process shuts off Senate filibusters. Otherwise, Democrats would inevitably block the bill, stifling Republicans. So budget reconciliation is the way to go.

But the process has its own issues. An ObamaCare repeal lifts all sorts of taxes. Federal revenue could drop, hiking the federal deficit. That could run afoul of strict budget reconciliation rules that require bills be budget neutral. The lost revenue could be trouble. But Republicans crafted the 2105 ObamaCare replacement bill in a way that met budget reconciliation strictures.

The bigger issue may not lie in how the GOP replicates its 2015 tactic. The circumstances are different this time. Unlike two years ago, a vote to repeal ObamaCare would be real.

The 2015 ObamaCare repeal votes in the House and Senate were artifice. Republicans finally got to deposit an ObamaCare repeal bill on the presidents desk because it marked the first time the GOP held the House and Senate since the legislation became law.

But there was a fait accompli. Naturally, then-President Barack Obama would have vetoed the repeal measure. And he did just that.

Everyone knew the endgame -- just as they know the endgame now.

The difference now is that Trump would sign the bill.

Thats good news for cngressional Republicans. But it scares the dickens out of many others. They fret theyll never reach an agreement on an adequate ObamaCare replacement bill.

Some lawmakers may simply refuse to vote yes unless GOP leaders buckle repeal to replace. That could imperil the chances for passage.

Certainly the president and GOP congressional leaders could remind Republicans they already voted to repeal.

In the Senate, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is the only sitting GOPer who voted nay. But things are different this time. Under Trump, an ObamaCare repeal would be real -- regardless of the ramifications.

Speaking on Friday night in Elizabethtown, K.Y, McConnell rejected the presidents Twitter entreaty. The leader said, We are going to stick with (the current) path.

Republicans used talk of repealing ObamaCare as a powerful political weapon with which to bludgeon Democrats. Now Republicans are trying to make good on their own promise. The GOP always viewed repealing Obamacare as the easy part. But now, a simple repeal is more challenging.
One Ukrainian soldier killed, nine injured in 35 shelling by militants in Donbas on Friday

Militants have shelled the positions of the Ukrainian military in Donbas 35 times over the past day, the ATO press center said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

"Last day, one soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine unfortunately was killed in hostilities. Three soldiers were wounded, six more were injured," the report said.
President Trump on Saturday questioned why some states wont comply with a request from his voting commission for information about voters, asking, What are they trying to hide?

Populous and liberal-leaning states such as California and New York are refusing to comply. But even some conservative ones that voted for Trump, including Texas, say they can provide only partial responses based on what is legally allowed under state law.

"Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL, Trump tweeted Saturday morning. What are they trying to hide?"

Trump established the commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2016 elections, but Democrats have blasted it as a biased panel that is merely looking for ways to suppress the vote.

The disagreement in the latest incident in an ongoing argument between Democrats and Republicans about the extent of voter fraud across the country.

On Friday, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, a Democrat who is a member of Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, defended the request.

He said the commission expected that many states would only partially comply because open records laws differ from state to state.

"If only half the states agree, we'll have to talk about that. I think, whatever they do, we'll work with that," said Gardner, adding that the commission will discuss the survey at its July 19 meeting.

He said he has received calls from unhappy constituents who said they didn't want Trump to see their personal information.

"But this is not private, and a lot of people don't know that," he said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday blasted the decision by some governors and secretaries of state not to comply.

"I think that that's mostly about a political stunt," she told reporters at a White House briefing.

It's not just Democrats bristling at the requested information.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican serving his third term, said he has yet to receive the commission's request.

However, Hosemann said his response would be: They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from.  Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state's right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes."

In a federal court case after a contentious U.S. Senate primary in Mississippi in 2014, a group called True the Vote sued Mississippi seeking similar information about voters. Hosemann fought that request and won.

No state election official planned to provide the commission with all of the information requested -- even Kansas, where commission vice chairman Kris Kobach is secretary of state.

He sent the letter asking for the names, party affiliations, addresses, voting histories, felony convictions, military service and the last four digits of Social Security numbers for all voters.

A spokeswoman for Kobach's office said the last four digits of Social Security numbers are not publicly available under Kansas law and would not be handed over. That was the case in many other states, noted in statements from top election officials and responses to queries from reporters for The Associated Press.

Officials in 10 states and the District of Columbia said they would not comply at all with the request. Those states are California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia.

Oklahoma, where nearly two-thirds of the vote in the November presidential election went to Trump, will provide nearly all the commission's request, save for one bit of information: Social Security numbers.

"That's not publicly available under the laws of our state," said Bryan Dean, spokesman for the Oklahoma State Election Board.

Dean said the commission's request will be treated like any other from the general public. The election board will tell the panel to fill out an online form asking for the information. Oklahoma's voter roll is routinely provided to political campaigns, the press and other groups that ask for it.

The letter from the presidential commission gives secretaries of state about two weeks to provide the voter data and other information, including any evidence of fraud and election-related crimes in their states. It also asks for suggestions on improving election security.

Some Democratic officials have refused to comply with the data request, saying it invades privacy and is based on false claims of fraud. Trump, who created the commission through executive order in May, lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton but has alleged without evidence that up to 5 million people voted illegally.

The Associated Pres contributed to this report.
The Latest on the Illinois disappearance of a Chinese scholar (all times local):

11:30 p.m.

A criminal complaint says the smartphone of Brendt Christensen, who is charged in the kidnapping of a visiting Chinese scholar, was used to visit an online forum in April called "Abduction 101," months before the abduction.

The federal charging document released Friday says that among the threads on the forum was one entitled, "Perfect abduction fantasy."

Authorities said in a statement they believe Yingying Zhang to be dead. She disappeared on June 9, just weeks after arriving at the University of Illinois.

The charging paper only briefly mentions the online forum. It doesn't provide details about the content of the forum.

___

9 p.m.

Authorities say a man has been charged in Illinois with kidnapping a visiting Chinese scholar who was last seen three weeks ago.

Federal authorities say a criminal complaint charges 28-year-old Brendt Christensen of Champaign, Illinois, with kidnapping Yingying Zhang on June 9.

In its federal court filing, the FBI alleges Christensen was driving the black car observed on security camera video as it stopped next to Zhang at a corner near the University of Illinois.

Zhang is observed on video entering the front passenger side of the vehicle.

The affidavit filed in support of the complaint says Christensen was under surveillance Thursday when agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang. Authorities say based on this and other facts uncovered during the investigation, agents believe Zhang is no longer alive.

___

This update has been corrected to show that Christensen's age is 28, not 27.

___

10 a.m.

Hundreds of people gathered at the University of Illinois to show support for a Chinese scholar who disappeared three weeks ago.

Students and other community members participated in events Thursday night at the Urbana-Champaign campus, including a walk and concert.

Twenty-six-year-old Yingying Zhang was last seen the afternoon of June 9 getting into a black car. The FBI announced this week that the car had been found, but it provided no detail.

Zhang's father, Ronggao Zhang, carried a banner during the walk.

The Chinese Students and Scholars Association as among the events' organizers. Some 5,600 Chinese are enrolled at the University of Illinois. Yingying Zhang had been conducting research in the agricultural sciences.
A married health teacher is accused of repeatedly having sex with a 17-year-old student in court papers filed by his mother after he tried to commit suicide.

The claims against Jill Lamontagne, 29, from Maine, only came to light in mid-June after the alleged victim tried to take his own life.

Details of the alleged relationship between the mother of two and her student were disclosed in the protection-order form filled out by the alleged victims mother, reports the Journal Tribune of York County.

Its claimed the teen boy was admitted to the hospital on June 9 after taking a cocktail of drugs.

He later told a nurse he had tried to kill himself because of a girl, before admitting to his aunt that rumors about the relationship with the teacher were true.

SEXUAL MISCONDUCT REVISITS ELITE PREP SCHOOL ALREADY UNDER FIRE

He said he loved her, he said it happened numerous times, in the classroom, at her house, in her car, the boys mother wrote in the complaint.

She told him she hadnt had a sexual relationship in two years.

According to the complaint, the student said he felt used by his teacher but wanted to continue the relationship.

He claimed that Lamontagne performed oral sex on him, and that other stuff happened between them as well.

According to the court filing, one sexual encounter took place when Lamontagne instructed him to come over to her home, and that the two of them fooled around. A lawyer representing Lamontagne in court Monday denied all the allegations.

She has worked at the school  where she was also a student  for five years and is the lead health teacher.

She has been placed on leave from Kennebunk High School and had a civil protection order issued against her.

SAN ANTONIO POLICE OFFICER DIES AFTER DOWNTOWN SHOOTING

Regional Schools superintendent Katie Hawes said the school is working with the appropriate agencies to ensure the safety of our students and our staff.

Hawes also said the district would consider firing Lamontagne if she is charged.

Lamontagne has not been criminally charged in this case. She remains on administrative leave while the school district investigates the claims against her.

According to her personal blog, she earned her bachelors degree in health sciences from the University of Southern Maine in 2010, followed by a masters degree in inclusion education from the University of New England in 2013.

Her Mission Statement reads: My mission is to be an exceptional role model for my students. As a health teacher, I educate students about many aspects of their lives/lifestyles and I believe that I need to practice what I preach.

To be successful in teaching students about these very sensitive topics, I am trustworthy, honest and reliable.

I strive to be all of these things, along with kind, healthy and responsible so that I am a great role model and mentor for my students.

Story first appeared in The Sun.
New York City investigators have identified a female torso that was found in a Brooklyn bay from a tattoo on the body.

The torso, which was floating in the Gowanus Bay, was identified after the mother of the woman recognized the marking.

'ALARMING' RAT LUNGWORM PARASITE SPREADING THROUGH FLORIDA, RESEARCHERS WARN

The unnamed victim had been missing from New Jersey since Sunday, NYPD Chief Robert Boyce said in a news conference Friday, according to PIX 11.

A day after the womans remains were discovered in the Gowanus Bay, authorities released a picture of the tattoo in question, hoping it could identify the woman.

The mother of the victim notified police Thursday that the tattooed torso was her daughters, explaining that the tattoo was a tribute to the womans deceased aunt.

The medical examiner will determine the womans cause of death, PIX 11 reported.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered state flags to be lowered to half-staff in San Antonio to honor Officer Miguel Moreno who died Friday.

The police officer was shot Thursday afternoon after he and his partner approached two men and one immediately pulled out a handgun and opened fire.

Morenos partner, Officer Julio Cavazos, who was also shot, underwent surgery and is expected to survive.

BRONX-LEBANON HOSPITAL SHOOTING: GUNMAN DEAD, MULTIPLE SHOT IN NYC, POLICE SAY

A San Antonio police department spokesman identified 34-year-old Andrew Bice as the man who shot both officers before being killed in the shootout.

The other man the officers approached did not know that his companion was going to pull out a weapon and is cooperating with authorities.

After being shot, Moreno was dragged out of the line of fire by Cavazos, Fox 29 San Antonio reported.

Cavazos was shot in the chin but still managed to return fire, striking the assailant in the buttocks, the station reported.

Doctors found a bullet fragment lodged in his lung, according to the station. The bullet first struck his bullet-proof vest, the station reported.

CHICAGO, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAVE DRAFT POLICE REFORM DEAL

The gunman was later found dead with a bullet wound to the head. Police aren't sure if the bullet came from his own gun in an apparent suicide, or from an officer's.

The shooting happened in the vicinity of San Antonio's downtown, near San Antonio College.

Moreno and his partner had been San Antonio cops for nine years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Clubgoers screamed and scrambled for cover as dozens of gunshots rang out during a rap concert in downtown Little Rock early Saturday, leaving 28 people injured from an 11-second melee that police said may be gang-related.

The volley of gunfire inside the Power Ultra Lounge came so fast that investigators believe multiple people had to have been involved. Police Chief Kenton Buckner credited quick work by first responders for there being no fatalities.

Twenty-five people between the ages of 16 and 35 suffered gunshot wounds, and three others were hurt, perhaps while fleeing, Buckner said. Two people were in critical condition Saturday afternoon. Police said officers did not have any suspects in custody.

Courtney Swanigan, 23, told The Associated Press that when the gunfire rang out, "I just closed my eyes, got down on the ground and put my hands on my head."

City officials said they would move Monday to shut down the club under a "criminal abatement" program. State regulators suspended the club's liquor license earlier Saturday and Mayor Mark Stodola said the property's manager was delivering an eviction notice.

"We know we've got to use a hammer, we've got to use a big hammer on the people who would do violence with guns and hurt people," Stodola said at an afternoon news conference.

He said the city must "keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people" and suggested that people refuse to patronize clubs that seem to promote violence. Material advertising the concert by Tennessee rapper Finese 2Tymes showed a man pointing a gun at a camera.

"A promotional video with a gun on the front cover inviting people to a concert ... should also be totally unacceptable in our community," the mayor said.

The shooting capped a violent week in Arkansas' largest city. Police had responded to a dozen drive-by shootings over the previous nine days.

"This does appear to be a continuation of disputes from some of our local groups," Buckner said. "You've seen some of the things playing out in our streets that has resulted in drive-by shootings."

The shooting occurred around 2:30 a.m. about 1 mile (1.61 kilometers) east of the state Capitol building. First-responders are stationed through the central part of the city and hospitals are a quick ride away.

"We had professional people responding to that incident and they did what they were trained to do, and I know they probably had something to do with the fact we didn't have any fatalities," Buckner said. He also credited divine intervention.

Top state officials offered to help the city respond to an increasing number of incidents.

"Little Rock's crime problem appears to be intensifying," Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement. "Every few days it seems a high-profile shooting dominates the news, culminating with this morning's event. I have spoken this morning with Mayor (Mark) Stodola and I have offered both my heart felt concern over this senseless violent tragedy and state assets as needed to address the continued threat of violence in our community."

A Facebook video posted from inside the club included audio of at least 24 rounds fired in about 11 seconds. Darryl Rankin, who posted the video, said a friend of his who attended the concert with him had a bullet "stuck in his spine." Buckner said police had not yet spoken with the rapper, who he said has outstanding warrants in the state.

Calls to a number listed for Finese 2Tymes' booking agent weren't returned Saturday, but a message was posted on the artist's Facebook page offering thoughts and prayers for those injured: "THE VIOLENCE IS NOT FOR THE CLUB PEOPLE. WE ALL COME WITH 1 MOTIVE AT THE END OF THE DAY, AND THATS TO HAVE FUN."

Police cordoned off the area as technicians collected evidence from the scene, which is near a Roman Catholic cathedral and a First United Methodist Church center. A number of worshippers gathered for a funeral at St. Andrew's while police continued their work.

Glass from the Power Ultra Lounge's second-story windows littered the ground, along with empty drink cups. In the parking lot, a silver Toyota had what appeared to be a streak of blood on the front passenger-side door.

"I'm sick of all the killing and I'm tired of all the shooting. The kids getting hurt," said Raida Bunche, who was waiting outside the club after hearing from a friend that her son had been inside. She found out later that he had run from the club when the shooting started and was not hurt.

Before Stodola announced that the city would shutter the club, officials at the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control office suspended the club's liquor license and set a July 10 hearing on three potential charges: disorderly conduct, allowing possession of weapons on the premises and "failure to be a good neighbor."

The club's license has been suspended 11 times for failing to pay taxes, and it has been cited seven times for 14 various violations including unknowingly furnishing alcohol to minors and allowing alcohol to leave the premises since 2012, ABC Director of Enforcement Boyce Hamlet said.

Arkansas lawmakers this year passed a law allowing concealed handguns in bars, with permission of the businesses' owners and if the gun permit holder completes additional training. The law takes effect Sept. 1, but the training likely won't be available until next year.
An Illinois man accused of kidnapping a visiting Chinese scholar weeks after visiting a bondage and sadomasochism fetish website forum called Abduction 101.

Yingying Zhang, the daughter of a working-class factory driver from China, disappeared on June 9, just weeks after arriving at the University of Illinois where she was pursuing studies in agriculture sciences.

Authorities now believe Zhang was murdered.

Brendt Christensen, a University of Illinois PhD physics student frm Champaign, was charged in a criminal complaint with abducting Zhang shortly after she stepped off a bus near the university campus. Video show her getting into the front seat of a black Saturn Astra.

The complaint unsealed Friday alleges that Christensen, who turned 28 on Friday, used his cellphone to visit the Abduction 101 forum on the FetLife website prior to Zhangs disappearance on April 19.

The complaint also alleges that one of the threads on the forum that Christensen visited was entitled Perfect abduction fantasy. Another was about planning a kidnapping.

Authorities learned of the FetLife visit after obtaining a search warrant and seizing the phone, according to the complaint posted on The Chicago Tribune website.

Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement the campus community is saddened by the news Zhang is believed dead.

"This is a senseless and devastating loss of a promising young woman and a member of our community," Jones said. "There is nothing we can do to ease the sadness or grief for her family and friends, but we can and we will come together to support them in any way we can in these difficult days ahead."

Investigators interviewed Christensen twice in connection with Zhangs disappearance, the complaint says.

During the second interview he admitted to driving around the University of Illinois campus and giving a ride to an Asian woman who said she was late for an appointment, according to the court papers.

Christensen told investigators the woman panicked after he apparently made a wrong turn and he let her out in a residential area, the complaint says.

He was placed under continuous surveillance on June 16, and on June 29 he was captured on an audio recording explaining how he took Zhang to his apartment and held her against her will, the compalints says.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Two of the Confederate Army's best-known leaders have streets named for them in a place not normally associated with the Southern side of the Civil War  New York City. Now some elected officials are trying to undo it.

They say it's high time Stonewall Jackson Drive and General Lee Avenue in Brooklyn are renamed, pushing to join a number of Southern cities that have removed or are considering taking down Confederate statues and other memorials in public places.

"To honor these men who believed in the ideology of white supremacy and fought to maintain the institution of slavery constitutes a grievous insult to the many thousands of people in Brooklyn who are descendants of the slaves held in bondage," says a letter sent to Army Secretary Robert Speer recently by Reps. Yvette Clarke, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez and Hakeem Jeffries, members of Congress who all represent parts of the borough.

The roads aren't readily accessible by the general public; they run through Fort Hamilton, an active military base in southwestern Brooklyn next to the Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights neighborhoods. As part of their U.S. Army careers, both Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson spent time at the fort  Lee in the early part of the 1840s and Jackson toward the end of that decade, well before the Civil War started in 1861.

They aren't the only military figures with street names at the fort  other roads are named for figures including World War I Gen. John Pershing and World War II Gen. George Marshall.

Army spokesman Major General Malcolm Frost issued a statement to The Associated Press reiterating the stance that "every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history. Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies. It should be noted that the naming occurred in the spirit of reconciliation, not division."

The Army made that same point in 2015, after a deadly church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, of black worshippers by a white man increased the volume of debate over Confederate symbols. A number of U.S. military installations are named after Confederate figures, such as Forts Lee, Hood, Benning, Gordon, Bragg, Polk, Picket, A.P. Hill and Rucker, as well as Camp Beauregard.

But the Army has also made changes, as it did in 2000, when it renamed a road at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, from Forrest Road to Cassidy Road. The first name was after Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Civil War commander and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. At the time, an Army official said complaints about the name didn't drive the change but didn't rule out that they were a consideration.

The issue has come up elsewhere. In Florida, five people were recently arrested when a city council meeting in Hollywood ended with a clash over three streets named for Confederate generals.

Throughout the South, state and city governments are weighing what to do with the statues. New Orleans recently removed three Confederate statues and a monument to white supremacy, something the Brooklyn legislators referenced in their letter.

"We have evolved beyond the Confederacy in the United States, and for people of color who have to utilize that base, it's a constant reminder of a very painful period of time," Rep. Clarke told the AP.

Bay Ridge resident Joe Conly said he doesn't see a change as necessary, stressing that Lee was a loyal soldier during the time he was at Fort Hamilton. "He served his country, the United States, well when he was in New York," said Conly, 75, who is white.

But Marva Harris Small, 58, a black woman who works in the neighborhood near Fort Hamilton, said that whatever good the men might have done while at the base was subsumed by their serving as Confederate generals.

"The end product is what counts," she said.

___

Follow Deepti Hajela on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dhajela. For more of her work, search for her name at https://apnews.com
The doctor killed in a shooting rampage at a New York City hospital was working a colleagues shift, the New York Post reported Saturday.

Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, 32, had been a doctor for two years.

She was at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx Friday working a shift for another doctor, the paper reported.

She didnt have to be there. She doesnt work in the hospital, she works in the clinic, a neighbor, 58-year-old Mahmudur Rahman told the paper.

Tam was killed in an afternoon bloodbath that left six others wounded.

Cops say the gunman Dr. Henry Bello went to the hospital with an assault rifle under a doctors white lab coat.

Bello ultimately turned the gun on himself before he could be captured.

The Post reported that Bello resigned from Bronx-Lebanon in 2015 amid a sexual harassment scandal and vowed to return and kill a coworker.

That coworker was a hospital resident who wasnt working Friday, the paper reported.

HOSPITAL SHOOTING: DOCTOR KILLED, MULTIPLE PEOPLE INJURED, POLICE SAY

Meantime, only one of the six wounded victims, a doctor, remained in critical condition Saturday.

Three victims were upgraded from critical to stable condition, a fourth remained in stable condition and a fifth, who had been in stable condition, was transferred to another hospital for specialized surgery.

Bronx Lebanon vice president Errol C. Schneer said the fact that five victims were in stable condtion Saturday was testament to how "heroically" staff responded to the shooting.

"Many of our staff risked their own lives to save patients," Schneer told reporters.

The Daily News reported Saturday that it had received an email purportedly from Bello about two hours before the rampage.

"This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine," the email said. "First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse."

He also blamed a doctor for blocking his chances at getting a chance to practice medicine.

His former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud and threatening. After he was forced to resign amid sexual harassment allegations, Bello told colleagues he would be back to kill them.

"All the time he was a problem," said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello as a family medicine doctor. When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the dismissal.

"We fired him because he was kind of crazy," Dr. Maureen Kwankam told the Daily News. "He promised to come back and kill us then."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click here for more from the New York Post.
Weddings have been moved and family visits delayed.

The Trump administration's travel ban, while a shadow of its original self, has dealt a harsh blow to the Iranian-American community, where family ties run strong and friends and loved ones regularly shuttle between Los Angeles and Tehran.

But it isn't the only immigration hurdle facing the community. Iranians allowed to seek visas to visit family in the United States may still have a hard time getting them with a screening process that can take months or longer, immigration lawyers said.

In the meantime, families are being kept apart. Iranian-American homemaker Mina Thrani, 38, had hoped to invite her aunt to visit her in Irvine over the Christmas holiday but can't because of the ban.

Xena Amirani, an 18-year-old college student from Los Angeles, said her family has been grieving since her grandmother died after being struck by a car while crossing the street. They traveled to Iran to bury her. Now, her uncle and his wife want to travel together to visit the family in California to help console them, but the travel ban is in the way.

"It is pointless," Amirani said.

The scaled-back version of President Donald Trump's policy that took effect this week places new limits on visa policies for citizens of six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran. The temporary ban requires people who want new visas to prove a close family relationship in the U.S. or an existing relationship with an entity like a school or business.

The U.S. has nearly 370,000 Iranian immigrants, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, far more than the other countries targeted by the order  Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.

Despite a lengthy history of friction between Tehran and Washington, personal ties between residents of the two countries have held strong.

"Everyone is being hit by this because everyone has a relative in Iran, and there is quite a lot of travel in between," said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council.

But travel isn't always easy, and the challenge predates the Trump administration. Because there is no U.S. embassy in Iran, Iranians must go to other countries for visa interviews, requiring time and money.

And it can take longer to get visas approved for Iranians than for citizens of many other countries, immigration attorneys said, while U.S. officials conduct screenings.

"Even under Obama, it was very hard to get these visas and get the background checks cleared. But now, it is official policy," said Ally Bolour, an immigration attorney in Los Angeles.

The Department of Homeland Security said this week that the Supreme Court's decision to allow a partial reinstatement of the ban will help protect the U.S.

But that rings hollow to some Iranian-Americans who note that many in their community came to the U.S. seeking freedom following Iran's Islamic revolution of the 1970s and that the hijackers who carried out the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States were from other countries not limited by the ban.

Trump's initial travel ban in January was broader, affecting current and new visas, which sparked chaos at airports around the world.

Mina Jafari, a 28-year-old graphic designer in Washington, said that during that time, her fiancee's Iranian mother was in the process of obtaining a visa to travel to the couple's wedding, but it was revoked because of the ban.

That prompted Jafari to move the wedding to Iran so her soon-to-be mother-in-law could attend. The only problem is her elder sister can't go with her due to concerns about her political activism.

"I have family who is banned from Iran, family banned here," Jafari said. "It is a really crazy situation."
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has congratulated Malta on the completion of the successful presidency of the EU and Estonia on the start of its presidency on July 1, Poroshenko's press service reported.

Poroshenko sent a letter of gratitude and congratulations to Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro on the occasion of the successful completion of Malta's presidency of the Council of the European Union.

"Despite many challenges that the European project is facing, thanks to Malta's active participation and our close practical cooperation, we have managed to reach a historic milestone in the Ukrainian-European partnership and to strengthen the EU's firm support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine over the Russian armed aggression," Poroshenko said.

The head of state thanked Malta for the support of the visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens. Another common success story during the presidency of Malta in the EU Council was the ratification of the Association Agreement, which is a key step in deepening the political association and economic integration of Ukraine with the EU.

The head of state also congratulated President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid on Estonia's taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1, 2017.

"The head of state expressed the hope that the Estonian presidency will contribute to the fulfillment of the Ukrainian people's aspirations to become a full member of the European family, which in turn meets the aspirations of Estonia as the presiding country to maintain Europe's openness," the report said.
Despite rampant rumors of violence, protests and counter-protests planned this weekend at Gettysburg that prompted heightened security, there were few flare-ups by midday Saturday.

Reports surfaced that a Confederate supporter, whose identity has not been disclosed, brought a revolver to Gettysburg National Park and accidentally shot himself in the leg. The incident took place around 1 pm.

Earlier Saturday, a handful of pro-Confederate supporters had stationed themselves at various monuments at Gettysburg.

Patrick Werner, wearing a white USA t-shirt, arrived at the site holding a sign that read, "The soldiers who fought here did not wear masks."

Werner told Fox News he came to Gettysburg because he had heard rumors of anti-Confederate protesters  with their faces covered  coming to the historic grounds for the 154th anniversary of the pivotal Civil War battle, though none were around as of mid-morning.

"We heard they were going to deface the monuments," said James Bibb, wearing a t-shirt with the rebel flag that read, "Heritage not hate." "I have six known ancestors that fought in this war. I'm here to defend the monuments."

Reports of possible disruptions and even violence have the National Park Service acting with an abundance of caution.

Officials at the park have been bracing for protests this weekend. As of Friday night, four groups had applied for permits to demonstrate in the battlefield, Katie Lawhon, a spokeswoman for Gettysburg National Military Park, said.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Real 3% Risen applied and received special use permits for 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday in a special section north of Gen. George G. Meades headquarters, Lawhon told Fox News. The permits say each group could bring between 50-500 people.

The groups came to Gettysburg amid rumors that a fifth group  the alt-left Antifa  was planning to burn Confederate flags and desecrate graves at Gettysburg.

Seth Harrold, a member of 3% Risen, told Fox he was there to "take a stand" and "protect the battlefield."

Harrold said he personally heard Antifa would be there to burn Confederate symbols.

"We're not standing for that," he said.

Antifa has strongly pushed back on those unsubstantiated claims and said they had no plans to be at Gettysburg but instead are focusing their efforts on a massive anti-Trump rally in Philadelphia.

In an added twist, the Central PA Antifa claims the rumors of Gettysburg protests generated from a fake Facebook page called Harrisburg Antifa  which they told The Evening Sun is run by alt-right trolls attempting to discredit Antifa, create confusion and attempt to stir violence.

No Antifa group has requested or been issued a permit, Lawhon said.

Regardless, park security isnt taking any chances following a heated face-off last year.

The 2016 event was initially billed as a rally but later morphed into a shouting match between 200 Confederate flag supporters and a separate group of 100 people opposed to it. The groups were divided by steel barriers.

This year, the United States Park Police are on hand as are NPS personnel from other parks to help with security.

If individuals or groups decide to act unlawfully, plans have been put in place to efficiently address them while allowing other members of the public to enjoy the democratic process, Lawhon said.

Locals told Fox News Friday night they saw a major jump in security, not only around the park but also at nearby restaurants and hotels.

At the Wyndham Hotel in Gettysburg, a long line of park police cars were lined up in the parking lot as officers chatted and took pictures with Civil War reenactors.

The recent push to remove statues of several Confederate generals across the South has triggered massive protests, on both sides of the issue, in numerous states.

Most recently, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu faced brutal backlash and was forced to have heavy police presence in place when the nighttime removals began.

The campaign to scale back Confederate symbols began with South Carolinas decision to pull the Stars and Bars from the state capitol.

At least 60 public Confederate symbols have been removed since the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, S.C., according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A northwestern Indiana man said he was showing a handgun to his sons and telling them to never play with it "because it can kill someone" when he accidentally shot and killed his 9-year-old daughter, according to court records.

Eric Hummel sobbed while reporting the shooting during a 911 call on June 10, telling the dispatcher, "This can't be real," the Post-Tribune reported. His daughter, Olivia, died about 30 minutes later at a hospital.

Authorities said the 33-year-old father was showing his sons a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun when he inadvertently shot Olivia as she walked into the room. Hummel told the 911 dispatcher he didn't realize the gun was loaded when he pulled the trigger.

The dispatcher instructed Hummel to perform CPR on his daughter until emergency responders arrived. An autopsy showed the girl was shot in the forehead at close range.

The newspaper obtained the 911 call recording through a public records request.

"I had my gun, and I pulled the trigger. I didn't realize there was a bullet in there, and I shot my daughter," Hummel told the dispatcher.

The call continued and the dispatcher asked if he could perform CPR.

"Should I press on her chest?" he asked

"Yes.

"She's got blood, man, everywhere," he replied.

The paper reported that he could be heard whispering, Please dont go.

Hummel reportedly called the girls mother from the police station and told her to go to the hospital because their daughter was dead. One of the responding officers reportedly overheard Hummel say, I shot her. Im so sorry.

One of Hummels sonsthe 9-year-oldsaid his father pointed the gun at him probably like two times and a few times at the other brother, the police report alleged.

Hobart Police Chief Richard W. Zormier said at a press conference, I believe this was a series of heinous and depraved acts committed by the suspect on June 10. His actions that day endangered the lives of all three children and ultimately stole the life of Olivia, an innocent 9-year-old girl.

He continued, His actions caused the death of Olivia and likely scarred the boys emotionally for life.

Hummel faces multiple charges, including reckless homicide and child neglect. He plans to plead not guilty, according to his attorney, Paul Stracci.

Stracci said the idea that Hummel knowingly endangered his children was "ridiculous."

"Anyone who knows him knows he loves his kids more than anything in the world and would never do anything to hurt them," Stracci said.

Hummel's next court date is scheduled for Aug. 24.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
A man living in Arizona for more than 40 years after allegedly jumping bail during his rape trial on Long Island was captured after he applied for Social Security benefits using the name of an acquaintance who had died in 2005, New York authorities said.

Todd Matus was convicted in absentia of rape and sodomy in 1976 and will now be sentenced to five to 15 years in a New York state prison for that crime, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini said at a news conference Friday.

According to court documents, a then-21-year-old Matus attacked an 18-year-old woman in a wooded area on Long Island in 1975. A spokesman for the district attorney's office said that woman has expressed interest in giving a victim's impact statement when Matus is sentenced July 7.

Matus was arraigned Thursday in Suffolk County Court on a charge of bail-jumping and was remanded, pending sentencing. He was represented by an attorney from Legal Aid, which has a policy of not commenting on pending cases.

Matus, 62, was returned to New York this week after being arrested last fall while living in Flagstaff, Arizona. He served about nine months in jail there on forgery and identity theft charges after being caught applying for Social Security benefits under an assumed name. Authorities there turned him over to New York law enforcement when he completed his sentence.

Sini said circumstances of how Matus was able to elude capture for so long are still being investigated. He said authorities believe he spent some time in Vermont, Nevada and Hawaii, but had lived in Arizona for much of the past 40 years. He was believed to have worked in the real estate field, Sini said.

"What's amazing about this story is the fact that he was a fugitive living under an assumed name for more than 40 years and then he had the gall to apply for Social Security benefits," Sini said. "I don't know what type of individual it takes to make that decision  obviously the type of individual who raped and sodomized an 18-year-old in the woods and beat that person."
DeMarlo Antwin Berry no longer can recognize Las Vegas.

The 42-year-old Nevada man was freed from prison after 23 years behind bars for a crime he didnt commit. He felt a little overwhelmed by changes in the city where he was arrested when he was 19.

On Friday he sat flanked by his wife of seven years and lawyers who fought to get him exonerated and released from his sentence of life without parole. He looks forward to a steak-and-fries dinner and said he just wants to go to barber school and live a normal life.

It was a surreal moment, just taking it all in, Berry told reporters, noting the unfamiliar buildings, homes and freeways he saw.

He had with him only his release papers and a debit card for his prison commissary account. His lifelong girlfriend-turned-wife, Odilia, was there.

It means everything to me, said Odilia Berry, wearing a necklace bearing the word Amazin and offering her thanks to God that her husband was free.

The dismissal of Berrys conviction came after Steven Jackson, now 45 and serving life without parole in California for his conviction in a separate murder in 1996, confessed to Samantha Wilcox, a lawyer from Salt Lake City working on Berrys case for free with the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center.

Berrys legal team also found a former jailhouse informant, Richard Iden, who recanted his trial testimony that Berry told him hed killed Carls Jr. restaurant manager Charles Burkes.

They really did the job. They did the footwork. If they werent as thorough as they were, we wouldnt be here, Berry said as he sat in a posh Las Vegas law office. Id just be another number in prison.

Nevada is one of 18 states in the nation that doesnt provide compensation funds for wrongfully convicted and newly released inmates, said Jensie Anderson, Rocky Mountain Innocence Center legal director. She estimated that 4 percent of the 13,500 inmates in Nevada prisons, or more than 500, may be wrongfully convicted.

DeMarlo Berry shed his shackles in what once was familiar territory. Before he was arrested in April 1994, he used to sell drugs and hang out at a bar several blocks away, according to testimony at his trial in 1995. That bar is gone now, closed as a nuisance by the City Council in 1996.

Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County doubled in population during Berrys time away. Downtown hotels like the Lady Luck closed; Fitzgeralds changed names; and a canopy was built over the Fremont Street corridor that most knew back then as Glitter Gulch.

Berry termed his feeling of freedom sensory overload. He said hed heard people describe his prison time as his entire adult life, but he said he still has a lot adult life in me.

Hell learn in coming days how to use a cellphone, a computer and the internet.

One thing hell keep from behind bars is work ethic, he said.

I figured that in order to be a better person than I was when I came in, you have to learn to do something different, Berry said, so I took it upon myself to learn a trade. Barbering.

Attorney Lynn Davies said it was too soon to say whether Berry would sue over his wrongful conviction and incarceration.

Berry said he wasnt angry.

Forgiving is, I guess, a large word, he said. I just want to continue with life. I have a second chance at life, and Ill take the opportunity.
The Pentagon has delayed enlistment of transgender people into the armed services for another six months.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is giving military leaders the additional time to insure the change wont affect the readiness and lethality of the force. Thats according to a memo Mattis wrote that was obtained by The Associated Press.

PENTAGON BAN ON TRANSGENDER TROOPS 'LIKELY' TO BE LIFTED NEXT MONTH

Mattis decision endorses an agreement created last week by military service leaders. That new deal rejects Air Force and Army requests for a two-year wait and reflected the broader worry that a longer delay would trigger criticism on Capitol Hill.

Under former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, the military branches had six months -- with July 1 as the deadline -- to come up with a new policy for new transgender recruits.

The new deadline is January 1, 2018.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since 2016, but have not been allowed to enlist as new recruits.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A new law in Virginia will permit health departments to provide clean needles to drug addicts in order to help decrease the spread of disease.

The new legislation, signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, D-Va., is meant to prevent drug addicts from spreading infections and disease by sharing needles with other people, according to Laura Kornegay, the health director at Central Shenandoah Health District.

PREGNANT WOMAN WHO OVERDOSED ON HEROIN CHARGED WITH ASSAULT

A lot of that is driven by an increase in IV heroin use. So we have concerns from a public health aspect about transmission of hepatitis B and hepatitis C with reuse of needles," Dr. Kornegay told WHSV.

Dr. Kornegay said that drug addicts visiting the health department looking for clean needles will give health officials the opportunity to test the addicts for diseases or push them toward drug therapy.

2 NEW STRAINS OF FENTANYL MAY BE RESISTANT TO NARCAN, GEORGIA AUTHORITIES WARN

At least 1,420 people died in Virginia in 2016 from drug overdoses, according to The Washington Post.

The controversial bill will become law July 1.
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Thai customs officials said Friday they have seized 15 of 42 luxury cars that British authorities said were stolen and sent to Thailand.

A request from British authorities to find stolen cars believed to have been transported to Thailand has led to the seizure of 122 vehicles imported by Thai dealerships. Of those, 15 were found to be stolen in the U.K. Thai customs officials say they are investigating about 300 other vehicles suspected to have been illegally imported.

Customs officials displayed a Mercedes GLE 350 and a Nissan GTR at a news briefing Friday, part of the batch sought by Britain. The customs bureau said the cars were seized when their Thai importer attempted to ship them out of Thailand to evade officials.

Kulit Sombatsiri, director-general of Thai customs, said the vehicles that British authorities are seeking were partially paid for in monthly installments by U.K. buyers before being sold on the black market.

"The buyers only paid around 5 or 10 percent of the car's cost and they would then sell it," he said. "In the United Kingdom, they classify these cars as stolen."

Police raids on May 18 and 22 resulted in the seizure of 122 cars that included luxury brands such as Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, McClaren and Lotus.

Of the 122 cars seized, 31 Lamborghinis and a Lexus were declared to Thai customs as cheaper models than they actually were, which amounted to around 650 million baht ($19 million) worth of losses in tax collection, police said.

Further investigations revealed that eight of 11 Lamborghini Aventadors imported from the U.K. were registered with Thai customs as the cheaper Gallardo model.

Two other Lamborghinis were registered as being shipped partially assembled from the U.K. and later assembled in Thailand. Police suspect the cars were fully assembled before they were shipped.

Cars that are delivered in parts to be assembled in Thailand can be taxed up to 80 percent of their value while authorities can tax fully assembled imports up to 328 percent.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday said any activities in Hong Kong seen as threatening China's sovereignty and stability would be "absolutely impermissible," employing some of his harshest language yet toward pro-democracy activities in the territory.

In a speech marking 20 years since the city became a semi-autonomous Chinese region after its handover from Britain, Xi pledged Beijing's support for the "one country, two systems" blueprint, under which Hong Kong controls many of its own affairs and retains civil liberties including free speech.

Any attempt to challenge China's sovereignty, security and government authority or use Hong Kong to "carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible," Xi said.

Xi rode in an open-top jeep past rows of soldiers lined up on an airstrip on his visit to the People's Liberation Army garrison. He called out "Salute all the comrades" and "Salute to your dedication" as he passed 3,100 soldiers arranged in 20 formations.

It was a rare display of the Chinese military's might in Hong Kong, where it normally maintains a low-key presence. China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, is expected to make a port call next month.

Pro-democracy supporters fear Beijing is tightening its grip on Hong Kong and undermining guarantees of wide autonomy under "one country, two systems."

Nathan Law, a former student protest leader elected to Hong Kong's semi-democratic legislature last year, was among those arrested.

U.S. officials said they were concerned that China's Communist leaders weren't sticking to their promises.

"Looking ahead to the remaining 30 years of 'one country, two systems,' we cannot allow Hong Kong to go the way of Beijing's failed authoritarianism," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement.

Xi said Hong Kong had to do more to shore up security and boost patriotic education, in a veiled reference to legislation long-delayed by popular opposition.

And he appeared to put on notice a new wave of activists pushing for more autonomy or even independence, saying challenges to the power of China's central government and Hong Kong's leaders wouldn't be tolerated.

"Making everything political or deliberately creating differences and provoking confrontations will not resolve the problems," he said. Hong Kong "cannot afford to be torn apart by reckless moves or internal rifts."

While former colonial master Britain and other Western democracies have expressed concerns about Beijing's actions in Hong Kong, China has increasingly made clear it brooks no outside criticism or attempts at intervention.

Xi said China had made it "categorically clear" in talks with Britain in the 1980s that "sovereignty is not for negotiation."

"Now that Hong Kong has returned to China, it is all the more important for us to firmly uphold China's sovereignty, security and development interests," he said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang sent a similar message in Beijing on Friday, saying Hong Kong was strictly China's domestic affair.

Earlier, Xi presided over a swearing-in ceremony for Carlie Lam, Hong Kong's fifth chief executive since 1997. The life-long bureaucrat and her Cabinet swore to serve China and Hong Kong and to uphold the Basic Law, the territory's mini-constitution.

In a speech that ran far shorter than Xi's 32-minute address, Lam reviewed the dynamic financial center's achievements and challenges, pledged to support central government initiatives and declared that "the future is bright."

Lam prevailed over a much more popular rival in an election decried by many as fundamentally undemocratic, with only a sliver of a percent of Hong Kong's more than 3 million registered voters taking part.

Xi was due to return to Beijing midday Saturday. His three-day visit aimed at stirring Chinese patriotism had prompted a massive police presence and also included a visit to the People's Liberation Army garrison, which usually maintains a low profile in the territory.

Ahead of a flag raising ceremony Sunday, a small group of activists linked to the pro-democracy opposition sought to march on the venue carrying a replica coffin symbolizing the death of the territory's civil liberties. They were swiftly stopped by police and Chinese flag-waving counter protesters, with the action ending about an hour later.

Xi's remarks will likely fuel fears among critics that Beijing's ruling Communist Party is tightening its grip over the city's political and civil affairs following a string of recent incidents.

Those include the abductions of five Hong Kong booksellers to the mainland starting in late 2015 for selling gossipy titles about elite Chinese politics to Chinese readers. One of the men, Gui Minhai, is still being held.

In a similar case, a Chinese-born tycoon with a Canadian passport went missing earlier this year from his hotel suite. News reports indicated mainland Chinese security agents operating in Hong Kong abducted him -- a step that would violate the Basic Law.

A plan to station Chinese immigration officers in a high-speed rail terminal under construction has also raised hackles, along with the establishment of a local branch of Beijing's Palace Museum without public consultation.

Concerns are also high over the two long-delayed policies Xi referenced in his speech: the so-called patriotic national education in schools that many parents fear is a cover for pro-Communist brainwashing, and the anti-subversion national security legislation.

Inflows of "red capital" from mainland property investors and businesses are also seen as leaving indigenous tycoons at a disadvantage, while further inflating housing prices that make Hong Kong one of the world's most unequal places.

Zhang graduated last year with a master's degree in environmental engineering from one of China's elite schools, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. She had been doing research on crop photosynthesis, which included using drones to study fields, the university's communications office has said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
As thousands of supporters of the largest Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, gathered outside Paris today, there is new confidence that pressure on the Iranian regime could finally lead to change.

Recent reports say the Trump administration is potentially considering seeking a strategy to try to topple the regime, and last week the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, put Iran on notice during a speech at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Iran.

Iran's destructive and destabilizing role in the Middle East goes far beyond its illicit missile launches. From Syria to Yemen and Iraq to Lebanon, Iran's support for terrorism continues unabated, she said.

A SYRIAN CONUNDRUM: CAN IS BE OUSTED WITHOUT ASSAD'S HELP?

The continuance of the Iranian regime's destructive destabilizing behavior will prevent it from ever having a normal relationship with the United States and rest of the world, and the regime's continual oppression of its own people speaks volumes of its true nature, Ambassador Haley said.

The new tougher stance from the administration is a welcome move for the leader of the opposition group, Maryam Rajavi.

The United States and the international community must respect the desire of the Iranian people for regime change and recognize this right, she told Fox News in an exclusive interview from her groups headquarters outside of Paris.

"The overthrow of this regime, the mullahs' regime, is the responsibility of the Iranian people and resistance. Nevertheless, we want the international community to stand with the Iranian people.

Rajavi tells Fox News that her groups activists inside Iran have stepped up their opposition to the government, and says a revolution against the theocratic regime could come from within.

"The Iranian resistance movement is in a new position and on the offensive in its showdown with the regime. Our resistance is an organized movement. The potential for an uprising exists within Iranian society, she said.

Rajavi and others fear that without a stronger policy from the international community, Irans influence in the Middle East could only grow.

Tehran is said to be trying to create a so-called Iranian Shiite crescent, grabbing territory from its border through Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to obtain a foothold on the Mediterranean.

Observers say the moves are intended to create a Shiite land mass that could give Iran, and its proxies a border with Israel.

Mrs. Rajavi says the U.S. and its Arab allies need to push that back.

From the outset we have rejected this reactionary and bellicose policy and seek amicable relations with the rest of our neighbors to confront this regime, the Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps must be designated as a foreign terrorist group and evicted from the region. More sanctions need to be imposed on the regime.

Mrs. Rajavi said she is confident that the forces of democracy and freedom will eventually prevail.

The Iranian people long for freedom and democracy, equality, and an advanced society. Moreover the Iranian people demand an overthrow of this regime," she said.

Rajavi has called on international organizations to expel Iran because of its support of terrorism, restore sanctions on some officials and start war crimes prosecutions for those that she says are responsible for massacring civilians.

Iran, however considers the N.C.R.I a terrorist organization, a claim the group rejects. The N.C.R.I says the regime has executed more than 120,000 of its followers who oppose the regime.

Mrs. Rajavi alluded to Americas July 4th Independence Day, and the rights secured in the Declaration of Independence.

This is stipulated in the American Declaration (of) Independence, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the peoples rights, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and institute a government of their liking. Regrettably, so far, the western governments policy of appeasement has prevented the realization of this demand, Mrs. Rajavi told Fox News.
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Current and former world leaders gathered Saturday to bid farewell to former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, recalling him as a man who was instrumental in uniting Europe and bringing about reconciliation between former adversaries on the continent.

Kohl, who died June 16 at age 87, is the first person to be honored with an official memorial event by the European Union.

The ceremony at the European Parliament's seat in the French city of Strasbourg, close to the border with Germany, was the choice of Kohl himself, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said. Juncker describing Kohl as "a German patriot and at the same time a European patriot."

During his 16-year term as Germany's leader, from 1982 to 1998, Kohl spearheaded his country's reunification in 1990 and was an architect of the continent's common currency, the euro.

"Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves," former U.S. President Bill Clinton said, citing Kohl's willingness to put international cooperation before national interests.

EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Kohl deserved "a place of honor in the European pantheon" for unhesitatingly extending the hand of friendship to fledgling democracies in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Others scheduled to speak at the event are French President Emmanuel Macron and current German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Following the ceremony in Strasbourg, which was attended by over 800 guests, Kohl's coffin was to be taken to the German city of Speyer for a requiem Mass and military honors.
Former Ukrainian serviceman Vitaliy Markiv, who is suspected of killing Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli near the city of Sloviansk, Donetsk region, in May 2014, was arrested in Italy, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Yevhen Yenin said on Saturday.

"The Prosecutor General's Office was astounded with arrest of Ukrainian serviceman Vitaliy Markiv in Italy on suspicion put forward by the Prosecutor Office of the city of Pavia of killing photojournalist Anrea Rocchelli near the city of Sloviansk in May 2014," Yenin said on Facebook.

He recalled that an investigation into the death of Italian citizen Rocchelli and his Russian partner Andrei Mironov is underway in Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian side, journalists were killed in a shelling conducted by the troops of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Yenin said.

"The Prosecutor General's Office actively cooperates with the Italian counterparts in this investigation, provides them with the outcomes of questioning of witnesses, the results of examinations, and so forth," he said.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has already requested the Italian authorities to provide substantiated proof of Markiv's guilt or release him immediately, he said.
FREDERICKSBURG

Christ Lutheran Church, 1300 Augustine Ave., is accepting registration for the 2017-2018 school year. For more information or to schedule a tour, contact Martha Coleman at 540/373-5087 or preschool@christ-lutheran-church.org; or visit christ-lutheran-church.org/ministries/preschool.

First Christian Church, 1501 Washington Ave. On Wednesdays the church offers Drive-Thru Prayer and Dial-A-Prayer from 6-7 p.m. The Drive-Thru Prayer is held under the carport in the parking lot. To reach Dial-A-Prayer, call 540/373-7716. 1stchristianchurchfredva.org.

Mars Hill Acts 17 Youth Program will hold a free event for all youth ages 12 years and older on July 15, 5-9 p.m., at Living Word Fellowship, 1500 Stafford Ave., Fredericksburg. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. for registration. The evening includes a Christian concert with light show featuring 3D Salvation, dinner, games and youth presentations. Ben SeseKhalid will speak on the Bible theme, Identity in Christ. Youth leaders are encouraged to chaperone their groups. Coordinate youth presentations or adult support by emailing MarsHill@va.metrocast.net.

Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 309 Wolfe St., The Rev. Jack Mangrum of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Triangle, will be the guest speaker at 11 a.m. Sunday.

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY

Christ Episcopal Church, 8951 Courthouse Road, will hold Vacation Bible School July 31-Aug. 4. This years theme is The Miracles of Jesus. Classes for ages 4 through grade 5 will be held from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Classes for grades 6-12 will run from noon to 3 p.m., beginning with a brown bag lunch. Register by July 26. 540/582-5508; christchurchspotsy.com/vbs.

Goshen Baptist Church, 9800 Gordon Road, holds meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month for American Heritage Girls or Trail Life. 540/786-7500.

Historic Zion United Methodist Church, 8700 Courthouse Road. Revival, History of Methodism, will be held on Tuesday evenings. Contact pastorkim10@gmail.com.

Hope Aglow Empowerment Church, 125 Olde Greenwich Drive, will provide food assistance to those in need every first and third Saturday 9-10 a.m. 540/899-2191; hopeaglow.org.

New Life Outreach International Church, 4716 Harrison Road. The legendary Phil Keaggy will join The Key of David in concert at The Stars and Stripes Spectacular at Spotsylvania Courthouse Village, today at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at the church. Both concerts are free.

Trinity Bible Church, 6331 Campus Drive, holds a midweek Bible study Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the Book of Revelation. The church will also continue to host Sunday evening AWANA ministry from 5-7 p.m. admin@tbc.me.

World Harvest Cathedral Church, formerly at 56 Joseph Mills Drive, has moved to a new location at 9241 Courthouse Road. Worship services are from 10 a.m. to noon. 703/312-3091.

STAFFORD county

Berea Baptist Church, 28 Fleet Road. The 11 a.m. Sunday worship service will be held outside under a tent and led by Pleasant Valley South Baptist Church from Rome, Ga. Fellowship meal will follow the service. Free summer camp led by youth from Georgia will be held Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., for ages K to fifth grade. Wednesday night activities are suspended until July 19, when there will be Summer Family Fun Nights at 6:30 p.m. each Wednesday through August. Everyone is asked to bring side dishes and desserts and gather for hot dogs, games and fellowship. Friends and neighbors are invited. 540/752-4406; berea-baptist.org.

Hulls Memorial Baptist Church, 420 Enon Road, presents Indivisible, the eighth annual patriotic celebration, July 8 at 7 p.m. and July 9 at 4 p.m. The music of the choir will be accompanied by poignant images reflecting the meaning of the words being sung. Donations will be collected for Homes for Our Troops. There is no admission charge. Refreshments follow each program. Everyone is invited. Maker Fun Factory Vacation Bible School will be held July 16-21, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Dinner, music, Bible adventures, recreation, crafts, missions and more for ages 3 to 12th grade. Free. Register at hullsbaptistorg or call 540/371-4124. Registration will be open during the week of VBS.

Mount Ararat Church, 1112 Garrisonville Road. Kars for Kevin 2.0 will be held Sept. 30, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and includes a car show, raffles, food trucks and more. Proceeds benefit MADD Justice for Kevin.

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg, 25 Chalice Circle, will host Should Healthcare Be a Non-profit? presented by Patrick Neustatter, MD on Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

KING GEORGE COUNTY

Salem Baptist Church, 12262 Salem Church Road, Jersey, will celebrate its annual Family Day service on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Rev. Leonard G. Bland, will preach at the 11:30 a.m. service. Dinner will be served following the morning service. The Rev. Frank Brooks, Lively Hope Baptist Church, Callao, and his congregation and singing group will be the guests for the evening service. 540/775-2350.

The Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, 9294 James Madison Pkwy., has a bus going to Bishop James Flowers, Shining Star Freewill Baptist Church, Seat Pleasant, Md., tomorrow to celebrate his anniversary. If you wish to attend, be at Mt. Carmel by noon. There is no charge. For more information, call 540/273-6716.

CAROLINE county

County Line Baptist Church, 3461 Ladysmith Road, Ruther Glen, will perform a patriotic musical, The Spirit of America, today at 4 p.m. All branches of the Armed Forces will be recognized.

First Baptist Church, 9262 Guinea Station Road, Woodford, will hold a Homecoming Prayer Breakfast today at 8:30 a.m. The guest speaker will be Minister Josh Griffin, associate minister at St. James Baptist Church, Milford.

Full Gospel Church, 8488 Paige Road, Woodford, has tentatively scheduled a trip to Sight and Sound, Lancaster, Pa., to see Jonah for August 29. Sponsors are needed to help pay for the bus. Donations are tax-deductible.

Jericho Baptist Church, 8435 Jericho Road, Ruther Glen, will celebrate its 140th anniversary on July 9 at 3 p.m. Pastor Butler, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Fredericksburg will be the speaker for this special occasion.

St. John Baptist Church, 17080 S. River Road, Woodford, will celebrate the 37th anniversary of Pastor and People on July 9. The Rev. Otis Kay Sr. will speak at the 10 a.m. service. The Rev. Dr. Alonza Lawrence, Moore St. Missionary Baptist Church, Richmond, will speak at the 2 p.m. service. 804/448-3866.

Third Mount Zion Baptist Church, 9132 Fredericksburg Turnpike, will host The Wilson Family in concert on Sunday at 4 p.m. 804/632-6039.

CULPEPER COUNTY

Beulah Baptist Church, 9297 Eggbornsville Road, Rixeyville, Dr. Kenneth Pitts, pastor, hosts a conference call Bible study every Wednesday from 7-7:30 p.m. Free dial-in 302/202-1118; access code 862090. 540/937-5563; bbc9297@gmail.com.

Reformation Lutheran Church, 601 Madison Road, will begin Drive Thru Prayer on Thursday from 5:30-7 p.m. Prayer teams are available for personal prayer and anointing with oil.

St. Stephens Episcopal Church, 115 N. East St. (parking at 120 N. Commerce St.) The men and boys of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew meet for breakfast each Tuesday at 7 a.m. Newcomers are welcome. A blood drive will be held July 11 from 12:30-5:30 p.m. To reserve a time, call 800/733-2767 or visit redcrossblood.org. 540/825-8786; ststephensculpeper.net.
A Ukrainian military serviceman, Vitaliy Markiv, detained in Italy on suspicion of killing an Italian photojournalist is deputy platoon commander in the battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine named after General Serhiy Kulchytsky, member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction and coordinator of the Kulchytsky battalion Andriy Antonyschak has said.

"I want to clarify. He was not in the Kulchytsky battalion, he serves in the Kulchytsky battalion as deputy platoon commander. As for Markiv's detention, it's illegal," the lawmaker said on 112.ua TV channel on Saturday.

According to him, Markiv was detained on Friday, June 30. The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine immediately reacted and informed the Italian counterparts that criminal proceedings had been opened in Ukraine into the murder of an Italian journalist, as well as a Russian journalist and a Russian human rights activist.

"An investigation is underway. Witnesses are being questioned, the Ukrainian and Italian sides cooperate fully, and only when he (Markiv) entered Italy, he was arrested... At present, he is being held in prison in the town of Pavia... Ukrainian diplomats are not allowed to him, motivating it that Vitaliy has Italian citizenship," the lawmaker said.

Antonyschak noted that Markiv has "both Italian citizenship and Ukrainian citizenship", because at a young age he and his mother left Italy for Ukraine.

According to the MP, Markiv took part in the Revolution of Dignity and at the same time he "restored his passport and his Ukrainian status."

Antonyschak said that the Italian side provided Markiv with a lawyer, but the Ukrainian side will turn him down... and will hire their own lawyer.

He noted that now, together with the Ukrainian Consulate General in Italy, they are working to ensure that Markiv is released from prison before trial and in court they will be proving his innocence.

He noted that on May 2, 2014, at 04:00, Sloviansk was stormed by the Kulchytsky battalion, with the participation of the 95th Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Markiv was in one of the special groups that were on the Mount Karachun. And when the column was blocked, representatives of Russia Today and Italian journalists appeared on the bridge. According to the MP, the photojournalist could not have been killed from the Karachun Mountain, and in addition, the Ukrainian military did not have mortars, but only small arms.

Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Yevhen Yenin reported earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian serviceman Vitaliy Markiv, who is suspected of killing Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli near the city of Sloviansk, Donetsk region, in May 2014, was arrested in Italy.
THOSE Fourth of July holiday feasts are always better when fresh, local produce is on the menu. Now that area farmers markets are offering up the best of the local bounty, its easier than ever to buy fresh and support local agriculture.

The money that farmers market shoppers spend stays in the community and keeps jobs here. It also buys food that didnt have to be trucked in, which means less pollution spewed and less energy used.

Whats more, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants can get up to $20 worth of fresh fruits and vegetables for free at the locality-backed markets each week through Virginia Fresh Match when using their SNAP EBT card.

Along with this years farmers market season, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is rolling out an incentive card-punch program called Farm. Fresh. Pledge! Each time you spend at least $10 at these farmers market, your card gets punched. After its filled with 14 punches, you can enter to win a Virginia Grown/Virginias Finest prize pack worth between $100 and $200.

Shopping frequently at farmers markets helps people get into the fresh-food habit. And when fresh fruits and veggies are served often at home, kids learn to appreciate it and get into that good nutrition habit as well.

Its also getting easier to find these farmers market around here. If you clip out this list, youll know where the closest one is and when its open.

Fredericksburg MARKETS

Hurkamp Park: 7 a.m.2 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays.

Mayfield: 3:306:30 p.m., Thursdays.

Mary Washington Health Care: 15 p.m., Thursdays.

Spotsylvania markets

Gordon Road: 8 a.m.1 p.m., Saturdays.

Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center: 26 p.m., Wednesdays.

King George market

King George Middle School: 8 a.m.noon, Saturdays.

Stafford County has several farmers markets and stands, but because they are privately owned, they dont offer state programs that other markets do.

Of course, no discussion of local farmers markets would be complete without an update on the Fredericksburg Food Co-op, which aims to be a member-owned, full-service grocery store with a focus on locally grown and locally sourced products.

The co-op continues its drive for memberships, with 430 residents contributing $200 by the end of May to become lifetime members. Theyll get discounts and other benefits when the co-op opens. When the 800-member plateau is reached, space for the store will be acquired, and at 1,000 members the store will open.

These initiatives are designed to make fresh, local food more accessible to area residents. The opportunities here are just too delicious to ignore.
Free Freightnet Membership

List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours.
There currently are 93 Fisher Houses in the United States and in Europe with plans for more.
A Corvallis restaurant owner is apologizing a week after opening up a Tiki bar downtown and being accused of cultural appropriation and insensitivity.

I unintentionally made a mistake and Im very sorry, said Cloud Davidson, in an interview on Friday.

The Hapuna Kahuna Tiki Bar & Kitchen  until recently, the location was Cloud & Kellys Public House, an Irish pub  will close Sunday and reopen Sunday night as an extension of the Downward Dog, an adjacent bar that Davidson owns. Hapuna Kahuna started its short run on June 22.

Davidson said that residents of Polynesian ancestry, including those with the Oregon State University Asian and Pacific Cultural Center, complained about a combination of factors such as the use of a Hawaiian name, traditional iconography displayed in a cartoonish way, and how plastic leis were handed off to customers.

Im very sympathetic to the issues that were brought up to me. And Im not for a moment going to tell a person of color that theyre wrong for how they feel, Davidson said.

There also were grumbles, however, that Davidson wasnt selling authentic Hawaiian fare.

In a Facebook post apology to the community in general, Davidson said he will remove the culturally significant items from the space, and reopen by 7:30 p.m. Sunday, when live music is scheduled to begin. The Downward Dog extension will continue to serve tropical drinks that were offered at the Tiki bar.

The controversy ended up spurring an interesting  and sometimes confusing  community discussion, Davidson acknowledged.

Some Hawaiians and other Polynesians liked the Tiki-themed bar and didnt want him to change it, Davidson said.

A local Facebook forum also had numerous comments about the situation, including questions of whether it was appropriate for chefs to cook ethnic food that wasnt from their ancestry, such as a Korean chef running a sushi joint, since the cuisine is Japanese; discussion on the origins of Tiki culture as an inauthentic fantasy mashup of tropical influences, and how there are Tiki bars in Hawaii; and comments on the evolution of Hawaiian cuisine to include items from numerous cultures, including those of Asian and Western countries.

In an interview this week originally intended for a Monday business page feature on Hapuna Kahuna, Davidson said that he spent much time in Hawaii as a youth, visiting every summer as his uncle, aunt and cousins lived on the Kona side of the Big Island.

Hapuna Beach was just down the street.

A lot of this has to do with family. That was a big part of my childhood, said Davidson, who also owns DeMaggios New York Pizza and Bombs Away Cafe, a Southwestern restaurant.

Davidson has lived in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, so the Tiki theme made sense as, despite its origins in the mainland United States, it drew from a wide region of the Pacific, Davidson said. His chef Ko Atteberry is half-Japanese, with a deep background in the cuisine that plays a major role in Hawaiian fare.

The Tiki bar also made more financial sense than Cloud & Kellys, Davidson said, as the price of Irish cheddar, heavy creams, butters and lamb was rising. There also are rather obvious limitations to Irish cuisine, he added.

It all came down to the cost.  I know it had a good reputation but I felt I was at a crossroads and I was willing to try something new, he added.

That something new included a heavy emphasis on cocktails, his favorite part of the restaurant business.
Crime Analyst Patricia Neet began her career with the Corvallis Police Department when the force had only one computer, used Polaroid cameras and didnt have cellphones or portable radios.

Thirty-seven years later, Neet has helped the department solve 30 murder cases. Shes assisted in apprehending a serial killer and aided in large drug busts.

One time Neet returned from lunch to find a plastic bag filled with severed human fingers on her desk.

She is as tough as nails, Police Chief Jon Sassaman told a crowd of people celebrating Neets retirement Friday at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library.

Neet and six other police employees retired from the force. Three were longtime dispatchers. Eric Baxter spent 25 years with the dispatch center. Peggy Walch and John Steeves each worked 28 years in the emergency call center.

Two of the departments records specialists also retired. Linda Doig worked for the agency for 14 years. Lois Struble spent a combined 36 years serving the Benton County Sheriffs Office and the Police Department.

Patrol Lt. Todd Bailey, who previously served in other roles including detective and weapons instructor, retired after 27 years with the force.

That is an impressive list of employees who have served Corvallis for a long time, Sassaman said. Were very proud of them.

He said all the positions will be filled. Though not easily, he admitted.

For example: You cant make it up just by hiring someone new when you have someone of your caliber walking out the door, Sassaman told Baxter after presenting him with a certificate from the city thanking him for his service.

Sassaman invited each retiree onto the stage to thank them and their families for the sacrifices theyve made for the job, such as missed holidays.

About 100 people, including family, friends, police, emergency medical service workers, deputies and local officials, attended the ceremony at the library.
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was sworn in as the new chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Saturday in front of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Lam becomes the first female chief executive of HKSAR and will have a five-year term.

President Xi administered the oath of office at the ceremony, which was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center as part of celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kongs return to China.

The 60-year-old has served in the Hong Kong government since 1980. Starting out as an administrative officer, she occupied over 20 different posts in a host of sectors, from health to finance and social welfare.

On March 26, Lam was elected as new chief executive of the Hong Kong SAR, receiving 777 votes from the 1,194-strong committee.

"When I received the appointment, I felt the heavy burden on my shoulders and we still have a long way to go," said the veteran politician.

"My expectation for Hong Kong's future is to offer its citizens a place where they can live with satisfaction," Lam told CGTN in a recent interview.
International Masters of Science : 26 graduates from twelve countries

Proud alumni: The first Masters of Science received their certificates during a ceremony on the UN campus, pictured here with the professors. Foto: Barbara Frommann

Bonn The degree course Geography of Environmental Risk and Human Security is an international academic cooperation of the United Nations University and the University Bonn.

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The first alumni of a unique pioneer project have now received their Master of Science (M. Sc.) certificates during a graduation ceremony of the Joint Masters Course on the UN campus last Friday. The degree course Geography of Environmental Risk and Human Security is an international academic cooperation of the United Nations University and the University Bonn. A project that began in 2013, and which is the first of its kind.

The course takes place at both universities simultaneously, explained Professor Klaus Greve of the Geographical Institute at the Bonn University. Normally, a degree course with the addendum joint ties two universities at two different locations together. This is different. Professors from both houses are involved.

The courses takes place more in the Geographical Institute than at our premises, said Professor Joerg Szarzynski of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University (UNU-EHS). Together with Professor Greve he initiated the program in 2009. During the graduation ceremony, they were thus introduced as the parents of the program. We did not want to be just a research institute anymore, explains Joerg Szarzynski to the international graduates and their families. After years of planning and structuring, this year is finally a sign that our idea is working.

People finished the course, he added happily. The English-language degree course takes two years and comprises three academic semesters and one during which the students do an internship in a UN institution or another international organization. Afterwards the students write a master thesis. The keyword is internationality: The program is designed to overcome borders. Many students are from Ghana, Cameroon, the USA or Australia. About two thirds of the students are international, one third is from Germany, estimates Professor Julia Verne, also from the Geographical Institute at the Bonn University.

With 500 applicants, the masters course is very popular, but only very few are chosen to take part. Currently, we have 98 students in four years and 24 new students confirmed to start in October. From the start we had a high number of applicants, said Szarzynski. A cooperation with the German Academic Exchange program (DAAD), that facilitates grants for six to eight students increased the number of applicants as well. There is a good reason for only taking 24 students out of 500 applicants: We set value on being interactive and teaching in small groups, said Szarzynski.

An expansion of the number of places is not envisaged. If something gets expanded, it will be the topics, said Greve. After the 26 graduates received their certificates from Professor Verne, a special thank you was given to Karen Hattenbach from the UNU-EHS, who coordinated the course as a link between the institutions and as a mother to all. Afterwards, there was a party at the restaurant of the UN building Langer Eugen. And of course, the obligatory hat throwing wasnt missing.
Science Slam for female academics : From lab to stage

Nathalie Marcinkowska knows a lot about happiness and luck, but wasnt lucky herself at the Science Slam: She went away empty-handed. Foto: Barbara Frommann

Bonn Seven young female scientists took to the stage to talk about their research projects, with wit and passion. The winner of the audience vote was Lydia Mocklinghoff, two of the participants are from Oman and Iraq.

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The anteater, an endangered species, actually eats ants with its 60 centimeter long tongue, and the robes of women in ancient Rome was up to four meters long: Seven female scientists left their labs, the museum and the lecture hall to present their findings and research projects to an audience outside the subject area a bit differently - on a stage, with wit and passion.

At the end, the representatives of the Bonn Women Service Club, who organized the evening, handed the winner, Lydia Mocklinghoff, the prize money of 500 Euro for her work with anteaters in Brazil. The proceeds of the evening are going to the help fund Helene Achterwerk-Hewelcke, which supports female artists when threatened by old age poverty. I like talking about what I do. As a scientist it is difficult to get public attention, emphasized Eva Barmann, curator at the Museum Koenig. Thus, I love bones was her avowal on stage. The participating women had ten minutes each to convince the audience, then their presentation was judged by applause.

The female scientists from Cologne, Bonn and Duisburg work in the fields of astrophysics, biology, law, psychology and history. Their subjects are just as diversified: personal luck strategies, black holes, skulls of gazelles and womens fashion through the ages. New at this second Science Slam is the opportunity for entrants from the field of the arts to participate. We started a request on social media and then chose a selection, explained Lydia Niewerth, spokesperson for Liona Bonn. Of course, the international aspect was not missing.

Two of the participating scientists were women from Oman and Iraq. The Bonn Women Service Club supports women and wishes to get public attention particularly for female scientists. During first-year the gender ratio is still level, 45 per cent of graduates are female, Isabell Lisberg-Haag pointed out. At habilitation its 30 per cent, but in executive positions only 15 per cent are women. The Science Slam was designed from women for women.
International womens meeting : Making contacts

Bruser Berg The international women's meeting in the Nachbarschaftszentrum Bruser Berg (NBB) is thought to offer a place for conversations and exchange of experiences for German women and women from other countries alike.

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The international women's meeting in the Nachbarschaftszentrum (NBB) Bruser Berg is thought to offer a place for conversations and exchange of experiences for German women and women from other countries alike. The next meeting takes place on Friday, July 7, from 3.30pm until 5pm, in the Fahrenheitstrae. Barbara Beyer organises the meeting.
The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived. And yet they feed almost exclusively on tiny crustaceans known as krill. The secret is in the baleen, a complex filter-feeding system that allows the enormous whales to strain huge volumes of saltwater, leaving only krill and other small organisms behind. Now, researchers who have described an extinct relative of baleen whales in Current Biology on June 29 offer new insight into how baleen first evolved.

The findings shed light on a long-standing debate about whether the first baleen whales were toothless suction feeders or toothed whales that used their teeth like a sieve to filter prey out of water, the researchers say. The teeth of the newly discovered species of mysticete, called Coronodon havensteini, lend support to the latter view.

We know from the fossil record that the ancestors of baleen whales had teeth, says Jonathan Geisler of the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. However, the transition from teeth to baleen is controversial. Our study indicates that early toothed whales used spaces between their large complex teeth for filtering and that baleen gradually replaced teeth over millions of years.

The new whale species was found in the early 2000s by a scuba diver in South Carolinas Wando River. He was looking for shark teeth and found the fossilized whale instead. The whale, which lived some 30 million years ago, was later recognized as a representative of a new transitional species.

The skull of this species indicates that it split off very early in mysticete whale evolution, and our analyses confirm that evolutionary position, Geisler says.

Geisler and his colleagues realized that meant the whale could offer important clues about the teeth to baleen transition. The whale under study also had other interesting features. It was larger than other toothed mysticetes, with a skull nearly one meter long. Its large molars in comparison to other whales further suggested an unusual feeding behavior.

Closer examination of the shape and wear on the whales teeth led the researchers to conclude that the whale used its front teeth to snag prey. But the whales large, back molars were used in filter feeding, by expelling water through open slots between the closed teeth.

The wear on the molars of this specimen indicates they were not used for shearing food or for biting off chunks of prey, he says. It took us quite some time to come to the realization that these large teeth were framing narrow slots for filter feeding.

As confirmation, the researchers found wear on the hidden cusps bordering those slots between the teeth.

The findings offer another example of a broader evolutionary pattern in which body parts (in this case teeth) that evolved for one function are later co-opted for another function. The researchers say they are now examining closely related species from the Charleston, SC, area in search of additional evidence.

Reference:

Jonathan H. Geisler, Robert W. Boessenecker, Mace Brown, Brian L. Beatty. The Origin of Filter Feeding in Whales. Current Biology, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.003

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Cell Press.
LG G6+ and LG G6 (32GB) price and availability details revealed officially News oi -Samden Sherpa LG has now officially announced that LG G6+ and LG G6 (32GB) variant is available for purchase in South Korea.

And yes it is now official. LG has just announced the LG G6+ and a 32GB variant of LG G6 is now available for purchase in South Korea.

While we had reported the price in our previous article but it was somewhat not confirmed. Now the company has officially disclosed it. As expected the LG G6+ will retail at KRW 957,000 (approximately Rs. 54,100) while the LG G6 32GB storage variant will be available at KRW 819,500 (approximately Rs. 46,300).

Both LG G6 (32GB) and LG G6+ have been made available by the company through three carriers in the country.

Talking about the smartphones, G6+ with 128GB inbuilt storage comes with wireless charging feature which was present only in the US variant of the initial G6. In addition, LG G6+ also comes packed with wireless charging support as well as high-fidelity quad-DAC feature in all markets.

About the LG G6 32GB variant, this smartphone comes with no further specification enhancements. It all remains the same as the standard G6.

Moreover, the company has introduced new colors with the released models. The LG G6 32GB comes in a non-optical Terra Gold, non-optical Marine Blue, along with the already available Mystic White model. LG G6+ is available in Optical Astro Black, Optical Marine Blue, and Optical Terra Gold, color options.

Talking about the key features of LG G6+ and LG G6 both of these smartphones come with a 5.7-inch QHD+ FullVision display with a resolution of 1440x2880 pixels and aspect ratio of 18:9. The smartphones are powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 821 processor which is coupled with 4GB of RAM. As for the cameras, both smartphones come with a 13-megapixel sensor at the back and a 5-megapixel sensor at front.

However, it is still a mystery as to when or where the two new models will be landing apart from Korea.

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Samsung Galaxy C7 (2017) might feature Snapdragon 660/Snapdragon 630 SoC News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Key specs of Galaxy C7 (2017) come to light.

Earlier today, we told you that the Galaxy C7 (2017)'s launch could be imminent as the smartphone cleared the Wi-Fi Alliance certification. Previously, it received the Bluetooth SIG certification too.

Until now, the specifications of the Galaxy C7 (2017) remained unknown but a recent information revealed by the Twitter user @mmddj_china has changed the situation. Going by the tweet, the Galaxy C7 (2017) will be launched with either the Snapdragon 660 SoC or the Snapdragon 630 SoC.

Another rumor that surfaced online previously tipped at the presence of an in-house Exynos 7872 SoC under the hood of this smartphone. If this turns out to be true, the Galaxy C7 (2017) will be the first smartphone to be launched with the Exynos 7872 chipset.

The original Galaxy C7 that was launched in the last year came with the Snapdragon 625 SoC. Having said that, it is likely that the company will make use of the upgraded Snapdragon 630 SoC in the upcoming one instead of the Snapdragon 660 SoC. However, none of these details are concrete for now and we need to take them with a pinch of salt.

The upcoming smartphones in the Galaxy C series are expected to arrive with a dual camera setup at their rear. The lineup comprises of the Galaxy C5 (2017), Galaxy C7 (2017), and Galaxy C9 (2017). Besides these phones, there are claims that the Galaxy C10 will be the first dual camera smartphone to be launched by Samsung. Eventually, we can expect these smartphones to be launched ahead of the Galaxy Note 8 in August.

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A couple is seen kissing as people celebrate Germany's parliament legalising the same-sex marriage in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany June 30, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

BERLIN - Germany's parliament backed the legalisation of same-sex marriage on Friday in a historic vote hailed by gay activists and leftist parties but criticised by some in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling conservative bloc and by the Catholic Church.

The move brings Germany into line with many other European nations including France, Britain and Spain and follows Merkel's surprise decision this week to allow her lawmakers to follow their own conscience rather than the party line on the issue. Merkel, daughter of a Protestant pastor, voted against the bill.

Hundreds of gay activists, some with painted faces, celebrated outside the Bundestag lower house of parliament after the vote, waving rainbow flags and placards that read "Marriage for all - make love for all".

"This is simply a historic day for Germany," said Soeren Landmann, a marriage equality activist.

"Today, thousands of same-sex couples were given equality, and the two-class society in matters of love was abolished. Germany can really rejoice today."

The vote has particular resonance in Germany as it unwinds a legacy of virulent homophobia. Earlier this year parliament agreed to grant compensation to thousands of gay men jailed under a 19th century law that was strengthened by the Nazis and only dropped in 1969 when homosexuality was decriminalised in West Germany.

Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term in a national election on Sept. 24, said she had voted against the bill because she believed that marriage as defined under German law was between a man and a woman.

But she said her decision was a personal one, adding that she had become convinced in recent years that same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children.

"I hope that the vote today not only promotes respect between the different opinions but also brings more social cohesion and peace," she said.

A survey by pollster INSA for daily Bild showed this week that three quarters of Germans favoured the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

Lawmakers voted by 393 votes in favour of same-sex marriage to 226 against, with four abstentions.

The landmark vote came about almost by chance after Merkel announced on Monday she would allow lawmakers to vote on same-sex marriage according to their individual conscience, drawing the ire of some in her traditionally Catholic conservative bloc.
UN agency 'alarmed' by forced refugee returns to Nigeria from Cameroon

29 June 2017  The United Nations refugee agency is alarmed by a fresh incident of forced returns of refugees from Cameroon into northeast Nigeria amid an absence of conditions to make such movements safe and sustainable.

"The involuntary return of refugees must be avoided under any circumstances," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi in a press release issued today by his Office (UNHCR).

"In addition, returns to Nigeria put a strain on the few existing services and are not sustainable at this time. A new emergency, just as the rainy season is starting, has to be avoided at all costs," he added.

In March, UNHCR raised concerns over incidents of forced return from the border areas. More recently, the agency warned that large numbers of refugees were returning from Minawao camp to conditions dangerously unprepared to receive them.

In the latest incident, which happened on 27 June, some 887 Nigerian refugees, most of them children, were rounded up and forcibly removed to Banki in Nigeria in desperate conditions. They were repatriated in six trucks provided by the Nigerian military and Cameroonian police from the Kolofata border site. This happened after Cameroon gave the refugees seven days' notice on June 19 to return.

Inside Nigeria, insecurity is preventing refugees from returning to their places of origin. UNHCR has repeated its appeal to the authorities in Cameroon to allow newly arrived Nigerian refugees to reach Minawao camp, where some 58,000 are currently being hosted, with another 33,000 living in nearby villages.

UNHCR has renewed its call on Cameroon and Nigeria to refrain from further forced returns, urging both to take urgent steps to convene a meeting of the Tripartite Commission, established under a recent agreement with UNHCR to ensure a facilitated voluntary return process in line with international standards.

Northeast Nigeria has been plagued by violent attacks carried out by the Boko Haram terrorist group.

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Security Council renews steps against illicit Libyan oil exports; renews missions in Golan, Mali, Darfur

29 June 2017  The Security Council today adopted a series of resolutions by which it extended the mandates of United Nations missions in the Golan, the Darfur region of Sudan and Mali, and renewed measures against illicit oil exports in Libya.

In resolution 2361, which extends the mandate of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the Council condemned the use of heavy weapons by both the Syrian armed forces and armed groups in the ongoing Syrian conflict in the area of separation between Israel and Syria, and underlined that there should be no military activity of the armed opposition groups in that area.

It also urged Member States to convey strongly to the Syrian armed opposition groups in UNDOF's area of operations to halt all activities that endanger UN peacekeepers and to accord them the freedom to carry out their mandate safely and securely.

UNDOF was established by the Council in May 1974 to maintain the ceasefire between Israel and Syria, to supervise the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces, and to supervise the areas of separation and limitation.

Mandate of UNAMID extended until 30 June next year

Similarly, the Council adopted resolution 2363, in which it extended the mandate of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) until 30 June 2018.

Among other things, the Council also decided that from 31 January next year, UNAMID's troop and police ceiling shall be reduced to consist of up to 8,735 military personnel and 2,500 police personnel, including individual police officers and members of formed police units.

Mandate of UN mission in Mali extended until 30 June 2018

Also today, the Council extended the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, known by its French acronym MINUSMA, through June 2018.

In adopting resolution 2364, the Council also decided that MINUSMA shall continue to comprise up to 13,289 military personnel and 1,920 police personnel and that its strategic priority shall remain to support the implementation by the Government, the Plateforme and Coordination armed groups, as well as by other relevant Malian stakeholders, of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali.

Furthermore, the Council authorized French forces, within the limits of their capacities and areas of deployment, "to use all necessary means" until the end of MINUSMA's mandate, "to intervene in support of elements of MINUSMA when under imminent and serious threat upon request of the Secretary-General."

Measures renewed against illicit oil exports in Libya

The Council also today renewed the measures against illicit oil exports from Libya as well as the mandate of the expert panel assisting the sanctions committee through November this year.

In adopting resolution 2362, the Council condemned attempts to illicitly export petroleum, including crude oil and refined petroleum products, from Libya, including by parallel institutions which are not acting under the authority of the Government of National Accord.

The Council also raised concerns about activities which could damage the integrity and unity of Libyan State financial institutions and the National Oil Corporation, and stressed the need for the Government of National Accord "to exercise sole and effective oversight" over the National Oil Corporation, the Central Bank of Libya and the Libyan Investment Authority.

In the same resolution, the Council decided that the Panel of Experts on the issue shall provide an interim report on its work no later than 28 February 2018, and a final report, with findings and recommendations, by 15 September of next year.

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Ending occupation only way to lay foundations for lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace - UN officials

29 June 2017  Top United Nations officials today declared that ending the occupation is the only way to lay the foundations for enduring peace that meets Israeli security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty.

"It is the only way to achieve the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message to a forum held at UN Headquarters to mark 50 years since the start of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, which resulted in Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan.

In the message, read out by Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, Mr. Guterres said that it is time to return to direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, agreements and international law. It is also time to end the conflict by establishing an independent Palestinian State, side by side in peace and security with the State of Israel, he added.

The occupation, he noted, has imposed a heavy humanitarian and development burden on the Palestinian people. "Generations of Palestinians have grown up in crowded refugee camps, many in abject poverty, and with little or no prospect of a better life for their children."

Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will remove a driver of violent extremism and terrorism in the Middle East, the Secretary-General added, and "open the doors to cooperation, security, prosperity and human rights for all."

Ms. Mohammed, in her own remarks, said today is an occasion not only to reflect on the costs and consequences of 50 years of occupation, but also to look ahead at what must be done to end this situation.

"I understand the deep sense of despair of the Palestinian people. For far too long, the international community has failed to find a just and lasting solution to their displacement," she told the forum, which is convened by the General Assembly's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

"The lives of generations of Palestinians and Israelis have been confined by a conflict that has shaped the physical and human landscape with concrete walls, checkpoints, and watch towers, all under a heavy atmosphere of fear, mutual distrust and despair," she continued.

"Some think that the situation can be managed. They are all wrong. It must be resolved." Real peace, Ms. Mohammed stressed, cannot be achieved without a just and lasting resolution, adding that the two-State solution is the only path to ensure that Palestinians and Israelis can realize their national and historic aspirations and live in peace, security and dignity.

The two-day forum brings together international experts, including from the State of Palestine and Israel, representatives of the diplomatic community, civil society, as well as academics and students to discuss the ongoing occupation in a series of interactive panels.

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New Triton Hangar Coming to Naval Station Mayport

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170630-18

Release Date: 6/30/2017 1:12:00 PM

By Sue Brink, NAVFAC Southeast Public Affairs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast awarded a nearly $36 million contract June 29, to Hensel Phelps Construction Company of Orlando, Florida, for the construction of a Triton Forward Operating Base Hangar at Naval Station (NS) Mayport, Florida.

"Awarding this contract marks another significant step in supporting the new Triton mission at NS Mayport," said Capt. David Yoder, commanding officer, NS Mayport. "The Triton program is a key element of our future Navy and we fully support the development of critical infrastructure that will ensure NS Mayport's ability to effectively and efficiently support the fleet well into the future."

The Triton program will base platforms at five strategically selected sites around the world. Naval Station Mayport's selection, as the first basing site, will be used to establish and meet threshold requirements for Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for the Triton Unmanned Aerial System in 2019. IOC is defined as one base unit with sufficient assets, technical data, training systems, and enough spares and support equipment to operationally support one persistent orbit.

The project calls for the design and construction of a multi-story, steel-framed, concrete masonry aircraft maintenance hangar, storage facility and aircraft apron to accommodate the Triton program forward operating base requirements and associated facilities.

The facility will provide Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection (AT/FP) features and comply with

AT/FP regulations and physical security mitigation in accordance with DoD minimum anti-terrorism standards for buildings. Built-in equipment includes power service points, aqueous film-forming foam fire suppression system, a five-ton overhead bridge crane, passenger elevator, emergency generator, aircraft cooling units, power units, compressed air system and wash racks.

Site improvements include grading, paved parking for approximately 160 vehicles, access roads, curbs, sidewalks, landscaping, fencing and signs, jet blast field fencing, box culverts, concrete access apron, concrete taxiway, wash rack and launch and recovery paving.

The new facility is expected to be completed by September 2019.

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U.S. 4th Fleet Kicks off Teamwork South 2017

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170630-01

Release Date: 6/30/2017 10:32:00 AM

From U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/ U.S. Fourth Fleet Public Affairs

MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) -- U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet (USNAVSO/FOURTHFLT) kicks off Teamwork South 2017 (TWS-17) exercise off the coast of Chile, July 1.

TWS-17 is a bi-annual Chilean naval exercise that focuses on conducting training scenarios in intermediate and advanced anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare operations. This year's exercise will be commanded by Chilean Rear Adm. Ignacio Mardones Costa.

In addition to the Teamwork South exercise, U.S. and Chilean forces will also commemorate the 100th anniversary of the inception of the Chilean submarine force.

U.S. forces participating in TWS-17 will be commanded by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet, Rear Adm. Sean Buck, and include USS Chafee (DDG 90) with two embarked MH-60R helicopters from HSM-37, a fast attack submarine, two P-8A Orion aircraft, and staff personnel from USNAVSO/FOURTHFLT, Destroyer Squadron 40 and Combined Task Force 46.

This exercise provides unique training opportunities at-sea in challenging and uncertain environments which incorporate scripted, event-driven scenarios to maximize opportunities to improve interoperability, including scenarios that address anti-surface and anti-submarine operations.

TWS-17 builds upon established relationships between our navies and improves our joint capabilities to conduct bilateral engagements. This exercise strengthens international maritime partnerships and improves the readiness of participating forces for a wide range of potential operations.

USNAVSO/FOURTHFLT supports U.S. Southern Command's joint and combined military operations by employing maritime forces in cooperative maritime security operations to maintain access, enhance interoperability and build enduring partnerships in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions.

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Lebanese army arrests 350 in Arsal raids, including Daesh members

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 30, 2017 4:32PM

The Lebanese army has detained some 350 people, including members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, during raids on Syrian refugee camps in the northeastern border town of Arsal, a security source says.

Early on Friday, Lebanese troops raided two Syrian refugee camps in the area. During the raids, five bombers attacked the soldiers while a sixth militant threw a hand grenade at a patrol.

The Lebanese military said seven soldiers were injured and a girl was killed as one of the assailants blew himself up in the midst of a family of refugees.

An explosive device also went off during a manhunt for suspected militants in one of the refugee camps, the army said, adding four others were defused.

The security source said the raids were part of a major security sweep in an area that has been a flash point.

The army reportedly conducted the raids after intelligence reports said that militants were preparing to carry out a series of assaults inside Lebanon.

The Hezbollah resistance movement hailed the Friday operation, adding that the raids complemented its own fighters' campaign to ban the terrorists from entering Lebanon via Syria.

"What is needed today is to unify efforts more and more to fill all the gaps that terrorists can infiltrate from to protect Lebanon and its people from the big dangers that target it," the group said in a statement.

Lebanon is suffering from the spillover of militancy in neighboring Syria.

Takfiri terrorists have been active on the Lebanese areas located close to the Syrian border.

Over the past few years, Hezbollah fighters have been offering a helping hand to the Syrian army in its fight against terrorists.

The resistance movement has also thwarted several terror attacks on the Lebanese side of the border.

Besides Daesh, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as Nusra Front, is also active around Arsal. Hezbollah and Lebanon's army carry out joint operations against them on an almost daily basis.

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China builds new military facilities on reef in disputed South China Sea: Group

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 30, 2017 10:9AM

A US think tank says satellite images show China has recently built new military facilities on artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said on Thursday that new images showed missile shelters and radar and communications facilities had been built on Yongshu Reef (known in the West as Fiery Cross), and two other reefs  Meiji (known as Mischief in the West) and Subi  in the Spratly Islands.

The think tank claimed that over the past three months, China had built four new missile shelters on Yongshu Reef to go with the eight already there.

The think tank said a very large antennae array was also being installed on Meiji Reef, a move that would presumably boost China's ability to monitor surrounding areas.

A large dome was also installed on Yongshu and another was under construction, indicating a sizeable communications or radar system, the report said.

The AMTI said China was building two more domes on Meiji Reef. It said a smaller dome that had been installed near the missile shelters on Meiji indicated that "it could be connected to radars for any missile systems that might be housed there."

"Beijing can now deploy military assets, including combat aircraft and mobile missile launchers, to the Spratly Islands at any time," the think tank said.

The South China Sea is the subject of a territorial dispute between China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei.

China claims most of the strategic waterway and has been building artificial islands and installing military equipment on them, including on some reefs in the Spratly chain, which are also claimed by the Philippines.

The US has for long accused Beijing of undertaking what it calls a land reclamation program in the South China Sea for military purposes. It also routinely interferes in territorial disputes between China and the other claimants.

Washington also sends warships and aircraft to the area to challenge China's sovereignty claims.

Chinese president inspects military parade in Hong Kong

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a visit to Hong Kong on Friday on the 20th anniversary of the city's return to China.

Xi inspected the largest display of Chinese troops based in Hong Kong as he rode on an open-top jeep.

He inspected some 3,100 soldiers arranged in 20 formations, with armored personnel carriers, combat vehicles, helicopters, and other pieces of military hardware displayed behind them.

Xi called out "Salute all the comrades" and "Salute to your dedication" as he inspected the troops.

Hong Kong is governed under a "one country, two systems" rule since Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997. Under the law, it was granted the freedom to run most of its affairs, but Beijing is in charge of the city's defense and foreign affairs.

Anti-China activists and politicians accuse Beijing of interfering in the city's affairs and demand "full democracy." China has, however, ruled out the idea of independence for Hong Kong, saying it "would lead nowhere."

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More Than 90 Indicted In Macedonia Over Wiretap Scandal

RFE/RL June 30, 2017

A special prosecutor in Macedonia has charged more than 90 people, including former senior officials, in connection with a 2-year-old wiretap scandal that brought down the previous government.

Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva told reporters at a news conference in Skopje on June 29 that her office had filed charges against 94 people and seven legal entities in 17 cases.

She said the evidence would be handed to a court that would decide on filing indictments.

The small Balkan nation plunged into political turmoil in 2015, when opposition parties accused former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his counterintelligence chief of masterminding the wiretapping of more than 20,000 people.

The European Union brokered a deal to end the crisis, which included early elections and the appointment of a special prosecutor to probe the content of the wiretaps.

The crisis was the worst since Western diplomacy helped drag the country of 2.1 million people back from the brink of civil war during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001, promising it a path to membership in the European Union and NATO.

Janeva did not disclose the names of any of those charged, but said she was considering asking authorities to detain 18 people including a party leader.

Among those 18, according to Macedonian media, are Gruevski and former Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska.

Gruevski, leader of the main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, dismissed the prosecutor's allegations and accused the ruling Social Democrats of trying to destroy his party and Macedonia.

"This is a political, not a legal process," Gruevski said at a news conference on June 29. "If they think the VMRO-DPMNE will take this lightly, they are deeply mistaken," he warned.

Gruevski stepped down last year as part of the EU-brokered deal to allow early elections to take place, ending 10 years of VMRO-DPMNE rule.

In those snap elections in December 2016, the VMRO-DPMNE won 51 seats to the Social Democratic Union's 49.

Neither party was able to form a government without including parties representing ethnic Albanians, who make up about one-quarter of the population.

The VMRO-DPMNE tried but failed to form a coalition with Albanian parties. The Social Democrats, however, succeeded.

In February, Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev submitted to President Gjorge Ivanov the signatures of 18 deputies from ethnic Albanian parties, saying he had enough support to form a new government.

Nationalists, including VMRO-DPMNE, charge the coalition deal could divide the country along ethnic lines if more autonomy is given to ethnic Albanians.

The ethnic Albanian parties had made their support for Zaev's coalition government conditional on the enactment of a law backing broader use of their language in Macedonia.

Albanian is currently an official language only in areas where Albanians account for more than 20 percent of the population.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Macedonian Unit, AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/macedonia-special -prosecutor-janeva-charge-94-illegal-wiretapping- scandal-abuse-of-power-gruevski-zaev/28587330.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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China Tells India to 'Stop Clamoring for War' and 'Learn Lessons' of 1962 Defeat

Sputnik News

18:40 30.06.2017

China has warned India to stop 'clamoring for war' and has reminded them of the thrashing they received from the People's Liberation Army in 1962. The Indian Army has opened new helicopter bases in Sikkim, where tensions are rising.

Chinese troops reportedly crossed the Line of Actual Control at Doka La in Sikkim earlier this week and destroyed Indian Army bunkers.

The entire border is disputed, with a salient of Chinese territory  the Donglang region  jutted out between Sikkim and Bhutan.

"Donglang Region is part of China's territory. China's road-building activities in Donglang on its own territory are totally reasonable and understandable," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Thursday (June 29).

Indian troops reportedly formed a human wall to prevent any further incursions by the PLA.

Sikkim is a tiny state which is wedged between Nepal and Bhutan. It was an independent Buddhist kingdom until 1975, until it was swallowed up by India.

General Bipin Rawat was appointed as chief of the Indian Army in December and has ordered the building of movable modern bunkers along the border shared with China.

But the construction work has been seen as provocative by the Chinese military, which is particularly sensitive about the border with Tibet, which it annexed in 1950.

General Rawat arrived in Sikkim on Thursday to take stock of operations and talk to his top commanders.

Earlier he had said India was ready for a war on "two and a half fronts," suggesting India could take on Pakistan, China and rebels in Kashmir.

China has warned India and described General Rawat's comments as "irresponsible."

"Such rhetoric is extremely irresponsible. We hope that the particular person in the Indian Army could learn from history lessons and stop such clamoring for war," said Colonel Wu Qian, a PLA spokesman, on Thursday.

Colonel Wu's remarks have been taken as a reference to the 1962 Sino-Indian War when India's then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, urged on by the jingoistic Indian press, received a bloody nose when the PLA inflicted a heavy defeat in the Aksai Chin region.

"There are not many instances in history where one country, that is India, had gone out of her way to be friendly and cooperative with the Chinese government and people, and to plead their cause in the councils of the world, and then for the Chinese government to return evil for good and even go to the extent of committing aggression and invading our sacred land," he said.

But the Indian Army learned a lot of lessons from the war and three years later it put in a considerably better performance in the war with Pakistan.

 Sputnik

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Parmigiani Fleurier first joined forces with the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2007, building an alliance between the worlds of watchmaking and music. A decade has since passed, and Parmigiani Fleurier is now more firmly committed to the values it shares with the Montreux Jazz Festival than ever before: a spirit of curiosity and openness to the cultures of the world; a dedication to craftsmanship, and a quest for harmony; the desire to continue the work of their founders, who wanted above all to share their passion with as many people as possible, beyond all borders.

As a Global Partner to the event, Parmigiani Fleurier will welcome its customers, partners and friends to its newly redecorated space for sixteen days of unforgettable concerts.

On the occasion, the manufacture unveils an MJF Special Edition watch which echoes the black and white theme of the 2017 poster. This year, the MJF has called on the extraordinary talents of French graphic designer Malika Favre, who has created a bold monochrome representation of women dancing. Hiding between the energetic lines of their bodies are six musical instruments, which start to emerge upon closer inspection. Parmigiani Fleurier has chosen to play with this contrast on its new Tonda Metrographe, which features a white date window against a black dial, and a black strap with white topstitching. The back of each watch in this limited edition of 20 numbered pieces is engraved with "Montreux Jazz Festival". These pieces will be presented at the end of the concerts, in line with tradition, to both established artists and rising stars of the music scene.

Every year since the advent of the partnership with the Montreux Jazz Festival, Parmigiani Fleurier has created an MJF special edition watch with a dial which reflects the theme of that year. The principle consists of selecting the most striking element from the Festival poster, whether this is a central theme, a musical symbol or a motif, then reproducing it on a unique dial, calling on the technical expertise of the master dialmakers working at the manufacture's watchmaking centre.

Often, the technique used to showcase this motif is "epargnage". It consists of placing a custom-made protective piece, the "epargne", featuring the chosen motif, on the dial before a decorative treatment is applied. It is then removed, and the poster's theme is revealed by the contrasting surfaces and the play of textures and light.

In 2016, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Parmigiani Fleurier unveiled a Special Edition with a snailed dial, evoking the grooves of a 33 rpm vinyl record. This timepiece paid tribute to music, in the format available to listeners 50 years ago, and underscored the longevity of the festival and the genius of its founder Claude Nobs, a huge collector of 33s.
Congo Denies 'Security Concerns' Caused Cancellation of Military Parade

By VOA News June 30, 2017

Democratic Republic of Congo officials are denying a report that security concerns led them to cancel the annual military parade.

Congo celebrated 57 years of independence Friday, but the country is grappling with militia violence in the central Kasai region, a Kinshasa prison break that freed 4,000 inmates last month and political tension over the delay in the presidential election.

President Joseph Kabila's deputy chief of staff said there would be no parade Friday because of "security reasons," according to the report from the Reuters news agency.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende and Congo's deputy interior and security minister, Basile Olongo, denied that report in separate interviews with VOA.

Olongo, talking to VOA's French to Africa Service, noted the parade has been cancelled before and implied that dominance by foreign powers played a role in this year's decision. "When you are no longer considered a sovereign country, it is high time to stop and think," he said, without elaborating.

Mende, speaking to VOA English to Africa, denied allegations from opposition parties that Kabila is procrastinating on holding the election. The president's second term expired in December 2016, but he has remained in office. The government says the delay is due to slow voter registration and a lack of funding.

Mende said the electoral commission has now registered 30 million of 42 million prospective voters.

A December 2016 political deal between Kabila and opponents calls for elections to be held by the end of this year.

VOA's James Butty and Eddie Isango contributed to this report.

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UN Agrees To $570 Million Cut In Peacekeeping Missions Under U.S. Pressure

RFE/RL July 01, 2017

The United Nations General Assembly on June 30 agreed to a nearly $600 million cut in the UN's budget for peacekeeping under pressure from the United States, which proposed to slash the program.

After days of negotiations, the assembly's powerful budget committee agreed to a $7.3 billion budget for 14 peacekeeping missions for the year starting July 1, a $570 million cut from the current budget of $7.87 billion.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley hailed the decision as an achievement.

"Just five months into our time here, we've already been able to cut over half a billion dollars from the UN peacekeeping budget, and we're only getting started," she said.

Washington pays 28.5 percent of the peacekeeping budget and 22 percent of the UN's core budget of $5.4 billion. The UN has about 95,000 peacekeepers serving in its missions worldwide.

The United States has been closely reviewing every peacekeeping mission as its mandate comes up for renewal with an eye toward pruning spending.

'Satisfactory Solution'

The UN has been carrying out its own reviews. Those led to the closing of the peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast on June 30, while the mission in Liberia is wrapping up its operations next year and the Haiti mission will come mostly to an end in October.

The UN is also slashing the number of peacekeepers in Darfur by 44 percent and the number of international police there by about 27 percent.

When negotiations over the peacekeeping budget began, the United Nations was seeking an increase to nearly $8 billion while the United States wanted to cut it to just below $7 billion.

Italy's UN ambassador, Sebastiano Cardi, said the $7.3 billion agreement ended up close to where the European Union said the budget should be.

"It's been a satisfactory solution," he said, adding that the cuts didn't jeopardize the operation of UN missions and are going "to make peacekeeping better."

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said "the overall level is meaningfully smaller than what we had last year, but we will make every effort to ensure that the mandates are implemented."

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres spent three days in Washington this week lobbying lawmakers to allocate more funding to the UN than President Donald Trump requested in his budget.

"We cannot overstate the value of peacekeeping to achieve peace and stability," Dujarric said. "It remains the most cost-effective instrument at the disposal of the international community to prevent conflicts and foster conditions for lasting peace."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un-general-assembly- agrees-600-million-cut-peacekeeping-missions-us- pressure-nikki-haley/28589356.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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India Has Changed Since 1962 War: Indian Defense Minister on China's Warning

Sputnik News

11:16 01.07.2017

A day after China referred to the 1962 war and that Indian Army should learn "historical lessons", India's Defense Minister Arun Jaitley asserted the "India of today is different from what it was in 1962". Jaitley said the Sikkim stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops was triggered by Beijing.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  Jaitley's remarks have come after China asked India to withdraw its troops from the Donglang area as a precondition for "meaningful dialogue" to settle the boundary issue.

While doing so, it also referred to the 1962 war that was fought between the two countries more than five decades ago wherein China captured a substantial chunk of territory in three sectors. India received support from the erstwhile Soviet Union as well as the US against China at that time.

"The situation in 1962 was different and India of 2017 is different. Bhutan government had issued a statement yesterday in which it made it clear that the land in question belonged to Bhutan. It is located near India's land. There is an arrangement between India and Bhutan for giving security," PTI quoted Jaitley as saying.

Indian media reports maintain that China's attempts to build a road in the strategically key Donglang area started the latest round of skirmishes. The area is strategically located at the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction and could give China a major military advantage over India.

The Indian Army had reportedly blocked the construction of a road by China in Donglang, a disputed territory between China and Bhutan.

India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release on Friday that it was "deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India".

 Sputnik

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India Concerned Over Chinese Construction In Sikkim Sector

Sputnik News

08:45 01.07.2017

India has expressed concern at the construction activities by China in Donglang area as it will have serious security implications.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Ministry of External Affairs statement came after the Chinese had alleged that Indian forces had intruded into their territory and asked India to withdraw troops so as to maintain peace and harmony along the border.

"India is deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said in a statement on Friday.

The ministry stated that it was the Chinese PLA that entered that area and attempted to construct a road in the disputed area at the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China over which the Bhutanese army attempted to dissuade them from this unilateral activity.

"In coordination with the Royal Government of Bhutan Army, Indian personnel, who were present at Doka La, approached the Chinese construction party and urged them to desist from changing the status quo. These efforts continue," the Ministry of External Affairs statement said.

"The Royal Government of Bhutan and Government of India have been in continuous contact through the unfolding of these developments," the statement said.

In view of the continuing face-off between Indian and Chinese troops along the border in Sikkim, India has urged that all the parties concerned should maintain utmost restraint and abide by their respective bilateral understandings not to change the status quo unilaterally.

 Sputnik

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'Clear understanding' in ongoing talks between Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot sides - UN

1 July 2017  Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has met with the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities and their backers at the Conference on Cyprus in Switzerland, saying there is now an understanding of what is needed for a possible settlement on the Mediterranean island.

In a statement from his spokesperson, the Secretary-General said he held a "positive, results-oriented meeting" last night with the heads of the delegation, including Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.

"A clear understanding emerged of the essential elements of a package that might lead to a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus," the spokesperson said, adding that the talks are continuing today at the political level.

"The Secretary-General remains fully engaged in these efforts to deliver a comprehensive settlement to the people of Cyprus," said the spokesperson.

Also attending the UN backed Conference, which began on 28 June in the Swiss town of Crans-Montana, are the three guarantor powers  Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom  and a European Union representative, as an observer.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974. The negotiations have come down to six main areas, which include new territorial boundaries, power-sharing and the economy.

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Albania - Politics

The governing Socialist Party ended up winning a landslide of 74 of parliaments 140 seats in the 23 April 2021 election, winning their third four-year term. A group of 49 governing Socialist lawmakers accused President Ilir Meta of inciting instability and violence in the Balkan nation and siding with the political opposition ahead of the election. They say Meta should be impeached for failing in his constitutional duty to guarantee national unity. Meta was previously a member of the Socialist Party, but founded his own social democratic party, the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), in 2004. Meta previously served as Albania's prime minister from 1999 to 2002.

The Albanian parliament on 09 June 2021 impeached President Meta for violating the constitution and discharged him from the post. In an extraordinary session, the parliament voted 104-7 to discharge the president. Three abstained. The final approval will come from Albanias Constitutional Court within three months. A report of a parliamentary investigation concluded that Meta had violated the constitution with his biased approach against the ruling Socialists during the April 25 parliamentary electoral campaign. The report said Meta violated 16 articles and also incited violence. Ilir Meta has betrayed the mission of the president of Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama said in his speech before the vote. Ilir Meta has humiliated the constitution. Meta denounced the investigation and impeachment attempt, arguing they are illegal. If he were not impeached, Meta's term as president would have ended in July 2022.

Albanias presidency is largely ceremonial but carries some authority over the judiciary and the armed forces. The role is also generally understood to be apolitical, but Meta regularly clashed with Prime Minister Edi Ramas Socialist government. Since assuming the office of president in 2017 with the support of the ruling Socialists, Meta has opposed their agenda, blocking the nominations of ministers and vetoing legislation. Meta accused Rama of running a kleptocratic regime and concentrating all legislative, administrative and judiciary powers in his hands.

The ruling Socialist Party emerged as the winner of Albanias 25 June 2017 parliamentary election. Preliminary resuls showed a small majority for the Socialists in parliament. Prime Minister Edi Rama's Socialists garnered almost half the votes. The opposition Democratic Party, meanwhile, appeared to have secured 28 percent of the votes. Rama was keen to gain a majority so he can push through reforms aimed at smoothing the path for entry into the European Union - primarily a reform of the country's corrupt judicial system. Election officials said the initial results pointed to 75 seats for the Socialists in the 140-seat parliament. Rama's current junior coalition partner, the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), gathered about 19 percent of the vote. The party had been a kingmaker in Albanian politics for the past 10 years.

The opposition Democratic Party, led by Lulzim Basha, had threatened to boycott the vote until it was given assurances of greater oversight on election transparency and a postponement of the poll. The Democrats were also given key ministries ahead of the vote, and campaigning has been relatively low-key in a country where elections are usually bitterly contested. Although the two party leaders have indulged in vitriolic personal attacks on each other, both agree on the need to prioritize EU accession.

Prior to 2013, Albania, a member of NATO, had yet to hold an election deemed free and fair by international monitors in more than two decades since its transition to democracy from the Stalinist rule of late dictator Enver Hoxha. Polarization between the two mainstream political parties, concerns about lapses in Albanian democracy and the slow pace of reform have stalled the country's quest to join the EU. Albania remains prone to violence and instability. Despite a highly polarized political atmosphere, elections had been mainly peaceful and political violence had usually, but not always, been avoided.

Pervasive corruption in all branches of government, and particularly within the judicial system, remains a serious problem. Highly partisan state institutions, including the Central Election Commission, undermined citizens rights to challenge laws directly and to participate fully in their government. The ruling partys steady consolidation of power during this period further eroded public confidence in the independence of the countrys institutions.

The main political parties are the Democratic Party of Albania (DP); Albanian Socialist Party (PS); Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI). Others include the Albanian Republican Party (PR); Demo-Christian Party (PDK); Union for Human Rights Party (PBDNJ); New Democracy Party (PDR); Social Democratic Party (PSD); and Social Democracy Party (PDS). But in all there seem to be about 60 political "parties" that participate in elections.

The right-leaning Democratic Party of Albania (DP) is a member of the electoral Alliance for Employment, Prosperity and Integration / Aleanca per Punesim, Mireqenie dhe Integrim, which consists of 25 parties, led by the center-right PD party. The coalition also includes the Republican Party of Albania / Partia Republikane and the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity / Partia Bashkimi per te Drejtat e Njeriut.

The left-leaning Albanian Socialist Party (PS) joined the Alliance for a European Albania / Aleanca per Shqiperine Evropiane which is a broad tent coalition consisting of 37 opposition parties, led by the center-left PS party. Other coalition partners include the Socialist Movement for Integration / Levizja Socialiste per Integrim and the Unity for Human Rights Party / Partia per Drejtesi Integrim dhe Unitet.

In the language of Albanian politics, "left" and "right" do not really correlate with the general understanding of these terms. There are hardly any obvious ideological differences between the two parties that could justify positioning them in the right or left camp. Both are in favor of the country's political integration into Europe, and of strengthening ties across the Atlantic. Cronyism is normal in Albania, and after an election it is usual for representatives of the winning party to take over most of the posts in the public administration system, many of which enjoy Constitutional immunity from prosecution for all criminal offenses. Because of this, there is great incentive for criminal figures to obtain positions of power in government.

Background

Albania spent the majority of World War II under Italian and German control. However, as their grip on Albania loosened towards the end of the war, increasing swathes of the country fell to Albanian partisans. With support from Tito's Yugoslav Communist Party, Enver Hoxha and his communist supporters entered the liberation struggle, defeated their rivals and gained effective control of the country. In 1961 relations between Albania and the Soviet Union became strained following improved relations between the Khruschev regime and the Yugoslavs. Hoxha taking advantage of worsening Sino-Soviet relations succeeded in building an alliance with China, securing continued economic support for Albania which lasted until 1978 when Mao's death prompted a change in Chinese policies. From this point until his death in 1985, Hoxha pursued an isolationist policy for Albania, keeping international commitments to a minimum, and stressing the need for self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

After Hoxha's death in 1985 his chosen successor, Ramiz Alia, gradually opened up the country both diplomatically and economically. Against the backdrop of the events in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s he was forced to increase the rate of reform. By 1990, changes elsewhere in the communist bloc began to influence thinking in Albania. The government began to seek closer ties with the West in order to improve the economic conditions in the country. In 1990, following student demonstrations, the formation of alternative political parties was allowed for the first time.

The Democratic Party (DP) was the first to emerge and was quickly followed by several other parties. Significant progress towards democratisation was made, leading to multi-party elections in March 1991. The Communists managed to hold on to power but a third of the parliamentary seats went to the DP. The People's Assembly approved an interim basic law in April 1991. Short-lived governments introduced initial democratic reforms throughout 1991. Demonstrations continued, and in June 1991 the Communists were forced to include the DP in a coalition government.

In March 1992, new elections were held in which the DP, led by Dr Sali Berisha, won an overwhelming victory, signalling the final collapse of communism. The victorious Democratic Party government under President Sali Berisha began a more deliberate program of market economic and democratic reform. In the years that followed, Albania enjoyed a period of economic growth in which democratic changes were introduced, civic institutions were created and laws on human and minority rights were passed. However, by the mid-90s the DP led by Sali Berisha started to adopt increasingly non-democratic and even authoritarian policies.

Progress stalled in 1995, resulting in declining public confidence in government institutions. In the 1996 parliamentary elections the DP won two thirds of the seats but, according to international observers, there were serious irregularities in the vote. The opposition boycotted parliament and took to the streets to demonstrate. These demonstrations were brutally broken up. An economic crisis was spurred on by the proliferation and collapse of several pyramid financial schemes. The implosion of authority in early 1997 alarmed the world and prompted intense international mediation and pressure.

After the deep political and economic crisis struck Albania at the beginning of 1997, a Government of National Reconciliation was formed with the participation of all major political parties of Albania. One of the main points of the platform of the Government of National Reconciliation, signed on March 9 1997, was the organisation of new Parliamentary elections, no later than June 1997, under full international monitoring.

At the end of the conflict, power transferred from the Democratic Party to the Socialist Party. Early elections held on 29 June 1997 led to the victory of a socialist-led coalition of parties. The OSCE concluded that the Albanian Parliamentary Elections of 1997 can be deemed as acceptable, given the prevailing circumstances in the country. The Parliament that emerged from elections in June 1997 was led by the Socialist Party, which took 101 of the 155 seats. The Democratic Party won 27 seats. The Social Democrats won eight seats (including the Speaker's), and the Unity for Human Rights party won four. Among the remaining seats, the Democratic Alliance, Republican, and Legality and Unity of the Right parties won two each; Balli Kombetar, the Agrarian, Christian Democrat, and National Unity Party won one each.

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On June 26, 1801, or rather on 7 Messidor, year IX, since the Republican calendar was still in force in France1, Abraham-Louis Breguet earned the rights for a patent which would last for a ten year period for a new type of regulator called the Tourbillon. Several months earlier, on December 24, 1800 (3 Nivose, year IX), the watchmaker had submitted the complete technical file accompanied by a watercolor technical drawing, stemming from his in-depth research and meticulous experimentation.

This was the second time that Breguet had requested and earned a patent. Three years earlier, on March 9, 1798 (19 Ventose, year VI), he had taken out a patent for a constant- force escapement applicable to both watches and clocks. There would be no third time, since Breguet did not deem useful to register other patents after the Tourbillon. Did he find the procedure too cumbersome or pointless in his case? One could speculate endlessly about the reasons.

The French invention patent, stipulated by the law on January 7, 1791, was  and still is  a property title conferring upon its holder a temporary monopoly on industrial and commercial exploitation of his invention, as well as its legal protection, particularly against counterfeits, in exchange for its publication.

The Tourbillon case file, which is stored in Paris in the archives of the French National Industrial Property Institute (INPI), contains the accompanying letter addressed to the Minister of the Interior, who was responsible for the patent department. In these few lines, Breguet strove to sum up his thoughts and attempted to render an original, new and complex procedure intelligible for those not familiar with the ins and outs of horology. This letter, which is typical of Breguets writing style, deserves to be cited in its entirety.

Breguet, to the Minister of the Interior.

Citizen Minister,

I have the honour of presenting to you a memoir containing the description

of a new invention applicable to the time-measurement machines

that I call Tourbillon Regulator, and request the privilege of building

these Regulators for a ten-year period.

By means of this invention, I have succeeded in cancelling out by

compensation the anomalies due to the different positions of the centres

of gravity of the Regulator movement ; in distributing the friction over

all parts of the circumference of the pivots of this regulator and the holes

in which these pivots move, in such a way as to ensure that the lubrication

of the parts that rub together should remain constant despite the

coagulation of oils; and finally in eliminating many other sources of

error that influence the precision of the movement to varying degrees,

which the art (of horology) could only so far attain with a great deal of

trial and error and even often with uncertainty of success.

It is after duly considering all these advantages, the advanced means of

production that I have at my disposal, and the considerable expenditures

I have made in order to procure these means, that I have decided to lay

claim to a privilege of establishing the date of invention and thus

ensuring due compensation for my sacrifices.

Respectfully yours

BREGUET

Quai de lHorloge No 5.

Tourbillon No. 2567 Gold hunter case with an engine-turned silvered dial, Roman numerals, small seconds at 6 o'clock and Breguet hands in blued steel. Breguet Museum collection.

Six months later, the official answer came from the Minister of the Interior, Jean-Antoine Chaptal granting Breguets request. This was shortly followed by the publication of the decision in the Bulletin des Lois de la Republique. It is amusing to note that the same Chaptal had purchased from Breguet on November 21, 1800 (13 Brumaire year IX) a repeater watch bearing N 621.

With the Tourbillon, Breguet introduced a device that would cement his fame. After a long list of inventions: the perpetuelle watch, the gong-spring, the pare-chute, and more recently the sympathique clock and the tact watch, he again demonstrated his towering genius.

Once more, as an authentic pioneer, he created a word and the object  and the word, like the invention itself, did not occur by chance. What is the actual meaning of the word Tourbillon, now so renowned in its horological sense, so frequently used and perhaps so little understood? What were the reasons that led him to choose it as the most appropriate term?

Official document granting Abraham-Louis Breguet the patent for the tourbillon.

The most common meanings of the word tourbillon (literally whirlwind in English) are indeed perplexing: violent rotation, unpredictable and impetuous displacement, uncontrollable storm, or even, in the figurative sense, agitated behaviour. All of these appear little suited to the calm and regularity of an horological movement. Trees uprooted by a tourbillon; there are some very dangerous tourbillons (whirlpools) in this river; the tourbillon of business and pleasure are all examples often given by dictionaries. The analogy with horology must therefore be sought elsewhere, and enlightenment can be found in consulting two monuments of the French language: the Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siecle by Pierre Larousse and the Dictionnaire de la langue francaise by Emile Littre.

We learn there that another meaning of the word tourbillon, and one that is almost forgotten today, is the one defined by Descartes in his Principles of Philosophy: Planets turn around the sun, carried by their vortex (tourbillon), quotes Larousse, while Littre is more explicit in speaking of Name that the Cartesians use to give to the revolution of a planet, or a star, around its centre, and to the movement of the surrounding material that follows them. This meaning was picked up and explained a century later by dAlembert, again quoted by Littre: This great philosopher (Descartes), in an age when astronomical observations, mechanics and geometry were still very imperfect, imagined, in order to explain the movements of the planets, the ingenious and famous hypothesis of vortices (tourbillons).

Clearly on the borderline between astronomy and philosophy, the word tourbillon (vortex) refers to a planetary system and to its rotation around a single axis. This places us within a context of regularity and clear definition, far removed from the field of capricious weather, and is clearly the source of the analogy with horology, a science in which 18th century philosophers liked to see a miniaturized transposition of the cosmos.

It is clearly to this meaning that Breguet, a figure from the Age of Enlightenment who had read Descartes and the Encylopaedia, was alluding in choosing this term, drawing upon the knowledge acquired during his years of study with the Abbe Marie, an ecclesiastic passionately interested in mathematics and astronomy. He had already borrowed from the vocabulary of philosophy in referring to the perpetual motion of his perpetuelle or self-winding watches and from the vocabulary of physiology with his sympathique clock and his tact watches.

His tourbillon is thus a new construct which by constant rotation cancels out the effects of earthly gravity.

Breguet Tourbillon No. 1188 Sold in 1808. Breguet Museum collection

Abraham-Louis Breguet based his work on the observation that gravity is the enemy of the regularity of horological movements, in that it provokes variations in timing adjustment with each change of position of a watch when worn.

To solve this problem of gravity that is inherent to all human activity, the maestro had the idea of installing the entire escapement (meaning the balance and spring, the lever and the escape-wheel, the parts the most sensitive to gravity) inside a mobile carriage that performs a complete rotation each minute. Thus, since all the flaws are regularly repeated, they are engaged in a process of mutual compensation. Moreover, the constant change of point of contact undergone by the balance pivots in their bearings ensures enhanced lubrication.

Based on a principle that was brilliant and yet extremely complex to actually produce, the Tourbillon was far from operational in the summer of 1801. After two experimental models (the watch n 169 gifted to the son of London-based horologer John Arnold in 1809, and watch N 282 completed in 1800 and sold much later by Breguets son), the first Tourbillon would not be commercialized until 1805. The following year, the invention was presented to the public at the National Exhibition of Industrial Products that was held in Paris on the Esplanade des Invalides in September and October 1806. Described as a mechanism by which timepieces maintain the same accuracy, whatever the vertical or inclined position of the watch, the tourbillon regulator was a constant source of fascination thereafter. The greatest devotees of horology were unable to resist its appeal: the famous patron and Italian collector Sommariva, Monsignor Belmas, Bishop of Cambrai, the Bourbons of Spain who were to own up to three Tourbillons acquired between 1808 and 1814, or the Prince-Regent of England who acquired a large-sized Tourbillon in 1814, mounted on the top of a gilt bronze cone.

Bulletin des lois de la Republique

Somewhat mysterious and reserved for initiates, only 35 examples of the Tourbillon were sold between 1805 and 1823, the year of the maestros death, but his successors through to the present day have held it as their duty to perpetuate this exceptional expertise, while enriching it with fresh feats. Simple Tourbillons or models equipped with additional complications, no watchmaking enthusiast anywhere in the world can fail to be acquainted with Breguets marvellous invention, which was given a second lease on life in wristwatch form in the 1980s. Not to mention the many watch manufacturers that currently produce countless Tourbillons

Even through the progress of watchmaking has made it possible to considerably improve regularity by more classic means, the Tourbillon, patented in 1801, remains a great invention, a legendary milestone in Breguets career. Moreover, through its discreet ties with astronomy and social sciences, it also emerged at a pivotal moment of European thought.
With dates slipping for the completion of technical studies on the impact of Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam on downstream countries, Egypt is expressing concern

Cairo is the main party that could be affected by the construction of Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) if Egypt's concerns are not taken into consideration, Egypts foreign minister Sameh Shoukry told his Ethiopian counterpart, Workneh Gebeyehu, Saturday on the sidelines of African Union preparatory meetings.

In an official statement by Egypts foreign ministry, spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Shoukry reiterated to Gebeyehu a request by Egypts water and irrigation minister to his Ethiopian and Sudanese counterparts on holding an urgent meeting of the tripartite committee to follow up on an initial report delivered by foreign consultancy firms, that the committee did not settle on till now.

Earlier in June, Egypt said it was still discussing with Ethiopia a report issued by two firms, Arterlia and BRL, tasked with assessing the impact of GERD on downstream countries, with talks being held since April.

The request to ensure a move forward with studies and preparations within the agreed timeframe, the statement read, with Shoukry calling on his Ethiopian counterpart to respond to the Egyptian demand promptly.

The studies by the French firms, expected to take 11 months from their start date in late 2016, will include the managing of water and hydroelectric resources as well as an assessment of the cross-border environmental, social and economic impact of the mega project.

Shoukry stressed that March 2015s declaration of principles signed between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia affirms clearly the necessity of committing to the outcomes of studies on the possible effects of the dam on downstream countries.

A loss of more time without the conducting of such studies at their specified dates would put the three countries in front of major challenges, the statement added, with Abu Zeid saying that Shoukry inferred that political intervention would become necessary to put things in order and ensure the completion of ongoing cooperation.

From his side, Gebeheyu affirmed his countrys commitment to cooperation with Egypt to complete the tripartite technical path and finalise studies on time, as well as Addis Ababas commitment to the 2015 declaration of principles.

Cairo has expressed concerns that the construction of the dam, which is more than half-way complete, could negatively affect Egypt's share of Nile water.

Addis Ababa, however, has maintained that the dam project, which Ethiopia says is vital for generating electricity, will not harm downstream countries, with Gebeyehu assuring Egyptians in April during a first-time Cairo visit that Ethiopia will never harm the Egyptian people and their interests.

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Egypt is to experience a continued heat wave Sunday, with experts predicting 40 degrees Celsius in the capital.

In official statements to the state owned MENA news agency, Egypts Meteorological Authority said that Cairo is expected to see a high of 40 degrees and a low of 26, while temperatures in the coastal city of Alexandria will range from 34 to 26.

High temperatures are expected nationwide Sunday, including in northern coastal areas, reaching extremes in the southern and eastern parts of the country

The Red Sea resort city of Hurghada will see a high of 40 and a low of 29, while Sharm El-Sheikh in South Sinai seeing a high of 39 and low of 29.

On the Mediterranean Sea, there will be moderate waves, reaching 1-1.5 metres in height, while the Red Sea will experience moderate waves of 1.5-2 metres.

The Meteorological Authority advised citizens Thursday to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun, especially between 12pm and 3pm. It also advised people to drink lots of liquids and if swimming to do so in the early morning hours or a little before sunset, to avoid intense sun rays.

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Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is set to fly on Sunday to Budapest, Hungary to participate in the Visegrad Group summit on Monday, the first participation by a Middle Eastern and African country.

The Visegrad Group  which constitutes Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic  was formed in 1991 with the aim of having member countries work together in a number of fields of common interest within the all-European integration, according to the groups website.

Presidency spokesman Alaa Youssef said in a statement that Egypt is the third non-member state to be invited to participate in a Visegrad Group summit  after Japan and Germany.

El-Sisi is set to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to discuss bolstering relations in economic, political, and cultural fields in the upcoming period.

Talks about cooperation in the field of transportation, especially in relation to supporting and developing Egyptian railways, are also to take place. Egypts transport minister Hisham Arafat will be part of the Egyptian delegation accompanying the president.

Youssef said that Egypt aims to benefit from the large industrial base of the four Visegrad Group countries, as well as attract new investments and tourists from Central Europe.

El-Sisi will discuss with the leaders of the four countries Egypts vision on combating terrorism and drying out its resources, as well as stopping irregular migration to Europe.

This is the second visit by the Egyptian president to Hungary since 2015.

Orban visited Cairo last year, where he and El-Sisi discussed bolstering ties in all fields and promoting economic cooperation and investment.

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Kashmiri Rebel Chief Rejects US Terror Sanctions

By Ayaz Gul July 01, 2017

The leader of a prominent Kashmir rebel group has rejected U.S. sanctions and vowed to continue fighting until the disputed Himalayan region is "liberated from India."

Syed Salahuddin, who operates from the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, said at a news conference Saturday that Washington's decision will not impact activities of his Hizbul Mujahideen, the main militant organization fighting New Delhi's rule in the divided territory.

The State Department on Monday (June 26) designated the 71-year-old militant commander as a "global terrorist." The action came hours before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his official U.S. visit.

"This announcement has been made in violation of international laws and [United Nations] resolutions. This is an attempt by the Trump administration to appease Narendra Modi," Salahuddin said.

He went on to say that "freedom fighters" only target Indian security forces and have not conducted any operations outside Kashmir.

"This [U.S. decision], God willing, has strengthened our resolve and we will continue our struggle with more energy," Salahuddin asserted.

He added that American representatives, in their speeches at U.N. meetings, repeatedly acknowledged Kashmiris' struggle for "freedom" and did not endorse what President Donald Trump has done.

The rebel chief vowed to legally counter the U.S. decision and urged Pakistan to declare a diplomatic offensive against "nefarious Indian designs" of trying to link the freedom movement in Kashmir to terrorism. He added that terrorist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida do not exist in Kashmir nor will they have any place there.

The State Department, in its announcement, said that the militant commander committed, or poses "a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States."

It went on to say that in September 2016, Salahuddin vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir valley "into a graveyard for Indian forces."

Saturday Salahuddin again called for the United Nations to implement its longstanding resolutions to allow Kashmiris to exercise their right to vote on independence or merging with Pakistan.

Islamabad also has criticized the United States for declaring Salahuddin a global terrorist and defended militants fighting New Delhi's rule in Kashmir as a "legitimate" struggle for freedom.

"The 70-year-old indigenous struggle of Kashmiris in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir remains legitimate. The designation of individuals supporting the Kashmiri right to self-determination as terrorists is completely unjustified," according to the Pakistani foreign ministry.

New Delhi, which hailed Monday's decision by Washington, accuses Islamabad of fueling the 28-year-old armed rebellion in the Muslim-majority Kashmir, accusations Pakistan rejects.

India controls two-thirds of Kashmir while Pakistan controls the rest. The nuclear-armed rivals claim the Himalayan region in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over it.

Salahuddin on Monday called for a week of resistance, including two days of strikes starting July 8, the anniversary of last year's killing of young rebel leader Burhan Wani by Indian security forces.

Wani's death provoked violent anti-India protests across the region, prompting Indian security forces to use force to suppress the uprising. The slain commander was a key member of Salahuddin's group and is credited with reinvigorating the recent wave of militancy in Kashmir.

Ekram Shinwari in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.

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China rebuts doubts on aircraft carrier Liaoning's capabilities

People's Daily Online

(People's Daily Online) 11:56, June 30, 2017

A spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense (MOD) has rebutted doubts about the combat capability of China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.

MOD spokesperson Senior Colonel Wu Qian called the claim "idiotic nonsense" at a regular press conference on Thursday when asked to comment on the remark made by some Japanese military experts. The experts claimed that the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's Izumo-class helicopter destroyer can sink the Liaoning in half an hour.

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Thousands Protest as Xi Warns Hong Kong Against Challenging China

By William Ide, Joyce Huang July 01, 2017

Chinese President Xi Jinping gave Hong Kong a stern warning Saturday as he oversaw the swearing in ceremony for the city's new leader, telling its residents that Beijing will not tolerate attempts to challenge its authority. The warning came even as Xi tried to adopt a softer tone in a speech at the gathering to mark 20 years since the former British colony's return to China.

"Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible," Xi said.

He did not say what actions might constitute a challenge to Beijing's authority, but in recent years there has been growing frustration with what many see is China's stalling on promises to allow its leader to be directly elected. That has led to growing calls for democracy and even independence.

In his speech, Xi said that he was looking to the new administration in Hong Kong to heal the divide in society, create new opportunities and address economic and livelihood issues.

He acknowledged that the implementation of the "one country, two systems" model is facing challenges and that Hong Kong has yet to build a consensus on what he called "some major political and legal issues."

Preempting consensus

For those who rallied in the streets on Saturday, it is not Hong Kong that lacks a consensus, but Beijing that is stopping that from happening.

Among those at the rally was one high school student, surnamed Hong. Marching together with others, both young and old, and holding a large black banner that read "I want real universal suffrage," she said Xi Jinping knows what the Hong Kong citizens want, but he pretends to not understand.

"The people of Hong Kong want freedom, we want [true] one country, two systems, but he has not kept his promises," she said.

At the rally, protesters had a wide range of demands from direct elections, to the rights of the handicapped and foreign immigrants. Many carried pictures or wore stickers calling for the unconditional release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Earlier this week, it was learned that Liu, who was serving an 11-year sentence for voicing his views about democracy and political reform, was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. He has been released on medical parole, but is still under tight control.

Under the "one country, two systems" model, that was key in negotiating Hong Kong's handover, the city was given the guarantee that it would continue to enjoy its already established freedoms of the press and speech as well as rule of law. Norms where China still lags far behind.

Growing divide

But some have grown frustrated with what they see is Beijing's increasing meddling in Hong Kong's affairs. A massive influx of capital and workers from the mainland to the port city has had an impact on society from jobs and opportunities to skyrocketing housing prices.

Since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, the port city's economy has seen tremendous growth, but not all have benefited from the boom. Hong Kong has one of the world's biggest gaps between rich and poor.

Hong Kong's new leader, Carrie Lam, who was pre-approved by Beijing, has been tasked with healing the city's divide and mistrust between the public and the government, both in China and at home. In a speech following her swearing in ceremony, Lam talked about bolstering education, even as she highlighted achievement's Hong Kong has already made.

Lam said that plans are underway to give priority to nearly $700 million a year in extra funds for education. She also said that Hong Kong would promote the development of innovation technology and creative industries, something that several people we spoke with this week tell us is sorely needed.

Chinese education

Xi's speech also touched on what he said was the need to enhance education and raise public awareness of the history and culture of the Chinese nation. He also talked about the need for the patriotic education of Hong Kong's young people.

Of those we spoke with at the rally, all were highly skeptical about the effort to teach Hong Kong residents Chinese history. Some also wondered how it was that China could be suggesting that Hong Kong learn more about history, given that many topics are still taboo to discuss on the mainland.

"We have already overcome the [challenge] of discussing taboo subjects about Chinese history and now today they are talking about putting more Chinese history into our modules, but I don't believe what they are saying," said one protester named Job. "They are just doing some brainwashing and want to spread their ideas."

One father, who joined the rally with his wife and was pushing his daughter in a stroller, said that China's calls for more Chinese education is a big concern, especially as his child would soon be going to primary school.

"China's government is trying to control the education methods. They want to change our language. They prefer that we speak Mandarin, but from when we are born, we speak Cantonese and we are very uncomfortable about this," he said.

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US sanctions Chinese bank over alleged illicit ties with North Korea

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 30, 2017 3:54AM

The United States has imposed sanctions on a Chinese bank, accusing it of laundering money for North Korean companies.

Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin announced the sanctions Thursday, cutting China's Bank of Dandong off from accessing the US financial system.

The US claims the Chinese bank acts a pipeline to support alleged illicit financial activity by North Korea.

"This bank has served as a gateway for North Korea to access the U.S. and international financial systems, facilitating millions of dollars of transactions for companies involved in North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs," Mnuchin said.

The secretary did not rule out the possibility that other Chinese banks could be targeted by the US and other international partners.

"It's the first bank that we've cut off," he said. "We will continue to look at these actions and we will continue to roll out sanctions. We are committed to cutting off all illegal funds going to North Korea."

In addition, Mnuchin said the US had also sanctioned two individuals from China over ties to North Korean banks, as well as a Chinese company, Dalian Global Unity Shipping Co. Ltd.

The White House has been hoping that China would use its influence to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile ballistic programs.

However, President Donald Trump has expressed signs of frustrations with China's efforts to rein in is ally.

"I wish we would have a little more help with respect to North Korea from China, but that doesn't seem to be working out," Trump said last week.

Thursday's action was the first time the US has taken punitive measures against a Chinese bank. In March, the US took similar steps against several Chinese businesses and individuals.

The sanctions were announced just hours before South Korea's new president, Moon Jae-in, arrived at the White House for a two-day summit with Trump.

Moon, who had campaigned on a platform of greater engagement with Pyongyang, said the US and South Korea should offer concessions to the North in return for a halt to its nuclear program.

The North, currently under a raft of crippling United Nations sanctions over its military programs, says it will continue them until the US ends its hostility toward the country.

Meanwhile, US officials said Thursday that the Pentagon had finished revising its options against North Korea and would soon present them to President Trump.

The package includes a military response in case of a new missile or nuclear warhead test that would indicate Pyongyang has made significant progress in developing weapons capable of hitting the US.

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Pakistan expresses concern on US' sale of advanced military to India

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, June 29, IRNA -- Pakistan in reaction to visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington expressed deep concern over Washington's sale of advanced military technologies and equipment to India.

Taking note of US-India joint statement issued from the White House, Pakistan foreign ministry in a statement said such sales are not helpful to enduring peace and strategic stability of South Asia region.

"Such sales accentuate military imbalances in the region and undermine strategic stability in South Asia," it said.

The statement said this deal would further encourage India to adopt aggressive military doctrines and even contemplate military adventurism.

"Transfers of modern military hardware and technologies as well as repeated exceptions made for India have dis-incentivized India to engage in efforts to establish a strategic restraint regime and durable security architecture in the region," it said.

Meanwhile, the US aircraft maker Lockheed Martin and the Indian defense firm Tata Advanced Systems Limited have signed an agreement affirming the companies' intent to set up a joint production facility for F-16 Block 70 fighter jets in India.

The Trump administration has also authorised the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer of the drones. India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year.

The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. The offer is still subject to congressional approval.

Former US President Barack Obama in his visit to India had also renewed a nuclear deal with New Delhi allowing American companies to supply India with civilian nuclear technology.

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UN calls for full implementation of JCPOA by all sides

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New York, June 30, IRNA -- The United Nations and the European Union in a Security Council meeting called for full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by all sides.

The UN Security Council member states and the EU underlined protecting the JCPOA as a multilateral agreement and a historic achievement.

In the Security Council meeting held on Thursday, the third UN secretary general report on implementation of resolution 2231 was reviewed.

The 15-member UN body discussed also the latest IAEA report on Iran nuclear activities as well as the report of JCPOA Joint Commission.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman in its briefing to the Security Council meeting called on the participants of the plan of action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the wider international community to continue to support the full and effective implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached between Iran and G5+1.

"The secretary general believes that the comprehensive and sustained implementation of the JCPOA will guarantee that Iran's nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful, while allowing for transparency, monitoring and verification," said Feltman.

Concluding his briefing, Feltman also highlighted that as the JCPOA implementation enters its third year, the secretary general has highlighted the particular responsibilities of the agreement's participants towards its full and effective implementation.

"The secretary general is hopeful that all participants will continue to make progress in the implementation of the agreement, and in the process secure its durability," he said.

In the meantime, the International Atomic Energy Agency report confirmed Iran's commitment to its obligations enshrined in the JCPOA.

The European Union representatives including the EU envoy, Germany, France and the UK referred to JCPOA economic benefits and highlighted its effect on mutual ties between Tehran and the European capitals.

Most of UN Security Council member states, Germany and head of the delegation of the European Union to the UN praised Iran's commitment to its obligations and called for international community support for JCPOA.

In spite of international community support for JCPOA, the US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley continued to allegedly question Iran's constructive role in the region but she underlined that Washington is reviewing the deal and will be bound to its obligations enshrined in the JCPOA till the review is finished.

Russia representative in the UN Security Council criticized some parts of the UN report on Iran and called them unconstructive.

The Russian envoy underlined that regional issues and Iran's missile defense program are not included in the resolution 2231 and proposing undocumented accusations can disturb implementation of JCPOA.

Some other countries, including China, Kazakhstan, Uruguay and Bolivia also declared support for full implementation of JCPOA.

Iran has conveyed its view on the UN report in particular the US breach of its obligations towards the JCPOA to the secretary general and the UN Security Council member-states.

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Russian Shipyard to Launch New Corvette on Friday

Sputnik News

02:01 30.06.2017

The local Severnaya Verf shipyard said that a new stealth corvette for the Russian Navy will be launched in St. Petersburg on Friday.

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik)  A new stealth corvette for the Russian Navy will be launched in St. Petersburg on Friday, the local Severnaya Verf shipyard said in a statement.

"The float-out of the Project 20385 Gremyashchy corvette will take place on June 30," the shipyard said Thursday, adding Russian Defense Ministry officials were expected to attend.

The multipurpose corvette, which is a fast warship smaller than a destroyer, will be equipped with anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons and will be able to provide naval gunfire support for shore operations.

Gremyaschy class corvettes have a displacement of over 2,000 metric tons, a speed of up to 27 knots, an operating range of 4,000 nautical miles and a crew of 99.

 Sputnik

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Russia Needs Thaw With West To Achieve Strong Growth, Putin Adviser Says

RFE/RL July 01, 2017

Russia will not be able to achieve strong economic growth unless ties with the West, which have been frozen by economic sanctions, begin to thaw, a top Kremlin economic adviser said on June 30.

"Domestic demand will not push our economic growth to 3 percent-4 percent," said Aleksei Kudrin, a former Kremlin economic minister who now heads the Center for Strategic Research in Moscow and informally advises the Kremlin.

Speaking before the Primakov Reading Forum, Kudrin said Russia must develop export markets for goods other than oil and gas if it hopes to emerge from what he calls a "lost decade" of economic growth and return to the world's list of top 10 economies.

"These tasks cannot be solved without an improvement of relations with the Western countries," which have the technology and financial resources that Russia needs to succeed, he said.

"It is necessary to find steps toward each other from both sides and put one's ambitions and insults aside. I am sure this is possible," he said.

Kudrin is credited with having helped engineer robust growth of over 7 percent a year during Russian President Vladimir Putin's first two terms in office. But growth has averaged only 1 percent in the past decade, and the deep recession in 2015 and 2016 caused Russia to drop off the list of the 10 largest economies, World Bank data show.

'Serious Shortfall'

While Putin recently asked Kudrin to help devise a new economic plan to achieve growth of around 3 percent, which he delivered at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum last month, so far the president has not heeded Kudrin's advice.

A report released by Kudrin's research center this week said Russia is losing from its confrontation with the West, which will continue to be the main engine for world economic growth in the near future.

"The conflict [between Russia and the United States] serves to marginalize the Russian Federation in international institutions and projects, and is causing a serious shortfall in economic benefits," the report said.

Moscow's recent focus on building up military strength is distracting from the economic reform and modernization efforts needed to improve the economy's performance, the report said.

The Kudrin think-tank said Russia should try to minimize the risks of armed conflicts, work to secure a step-by-step settlement to conflicts in former Soviet states, particularly in eastern Ukraine, and seek a gradual lifting of reciprocal sanctions with the West, returning to full-fledged economic cooperation.

While Putin has not seized on any of Kudrin's proposals, he has conceded recently that the economic sanctions imposed by the European Union and United States after Russia illegally seized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014 have been holding down Russia's economy.

'Losing Time'

Moreover, Bloomberg reported that Kudrin has privately told Putin that Russia's economic slide puts at risk the geopolitical heft that the president values.

"Russia, catastrophically, is losing time," Kudrin said last month at the St. Petersburg Forum. "Unfortunately, authorities are only slowly understanding that structural changes are necessary."

Yevgeny Yasin, a former economy minister and one of the driving forces behind Russia's transition from communism to capitalism, told Bloomberg that he doubts the Kremlin will embrace Kudrin's plan for a stronger economy.

Some of the pressure for change is off because the economy is now recovering modestly from the recession thanks to the rise in oil prices in the past year.

"The authorities won't risk fundamental changes now because there are too many people around Putin who have no interest in them," Yasin said. "Reforms would deprive the ruling elites of all the privileges and benefits they currently enjoy."

With reporting by Bloomberg, TASS, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-needs-thaw-with- west-achieve-strong-growth-putin-adviser -kudrin-says/28589355.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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A US congressional delegation, headed by Republican Senator Roger Wicker, arrived in Egypt on Saturday for talks with top officials on means of fighting terrorism as well as issues of common interest, state news agency MENA reported.

Wicker is the chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, which is one of seven subcommittees within the Armed Services Committee, the legislative committee overseeing the US military, including the Department of Defense.

In mid-June, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi held talks with CIA Director Mike Pompeo in Cairo.

Egypt and Washington have witnessed improved relations under the administration of US President Donald Trump, who has praised and vowed support for El-Sisi in a number of meetings and phone calls.

El-Sisi was the first world leader to congratulate Trump on his election victory.

Egypt has long been one of Washington's closest allies in the region, although relations have been strained since the Arab Spring in 2011.

The US has been providing Egypt with $1.3 billion in military aid yearly since Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

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Without the French Accent: Russia Creating an Assault Ship Superior to Mistral

Sputnik News

20:23 01.07.2017(updated 20:27 01.07.2017)

Russian Navy Deputy Commander-in-Chief Adm. Viktor Bursuk has confirmed that the Navy expects to receive two helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ships before the year 2025. RIA Novosti military observer Alexander Khrolenko offers new details on the prospective ships' design, and the challenges shipbuilders will face during their construction.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the International Maritime Defense Show 2017 in St. Petersburg this week, Bursuk said that the Navy was looking to take delivery of two new, domestically designed and built helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ships before the middle of the next decade.

The Navy had revealed the existence of a technical project for a new class of amphibious assault ship last year. The project is meant to replace the two French Mistral-class amphibious assault ships which Moscow ordered but never received.

Commenting on Bursuk's remarks, military observer Alexander Khrolenko wrote that the Russian Navy's need for a new class of large, helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ships was obvious. The intense interest shown to the Krylov State Research Center's Priboy-class* landing ship concept at IMDS 2017 was proof of this, according to the journalist.

*The Priboy ('Surf')-class amphibious assault ship is also known as the Lavina ('Avalanche')-class.

The need for the new ship, according to Khrolenko, stems from the Navy's demand for a large vessel which can transport and land troops and heavy equipment on an unprepared shore, carry out amphibious assault operations backed by the ship's air group, and deploy defensive mine and net barriers and sonar buoys for underwater observation in friendly territory.

The Priboy's design "is anything but simple," the analyst stressed. "Along with its dozen helicopters, it is designed to carry six assault boats and six landing craft with a capacity of 45 tons apiece. "Its air defenses include four combat modules, including the Pantsir-ME. Artillery is represented with the 76 mm universal naval gun."

Furthermore, the ship will have "an integrated command and control system at the tactical and tactical-operational levels, 3D radar, navigation system, an integrated electronic warfare subsystem and a system to detect underwater diversionary forces and assets."

In Khrolenko's view, the conceptual design of the Priboy project, with its 6,000 mile cruising range, "looks solid and harmonious."

"The story of the project's appearance is also interesting," he noted, "and has less to do with the disruption to the delivery of the French Mistrals than with the scientific and technical foresight of Russian specialists and the self-affirmation of Russian shipbuilding."

Valentin Belonenko, the head of prospective warship designs at the Krylov State Research Center, told RIA Novosti that even after the Defense Ministry made the decision to purchase the French ships, Russian engineers did not give up on the creation of new designs.

"When discussions began on the purchase of Mistrals in 2005, we clarified the purpose of the helicopter-carrying landing ship, analyzed global trends in shipbuilding, and, on our own initiative and using our own resources, began to create our own universal landing ship project. If we compare it to the Mistrals, our effort was from the start meant to create a ship with a larger capacity, a larger air group, and with a strong means of self-defense. We independently worked out several projects, conducted model-based testing, and examined new concepts. In this way, the conceptual design of the Priboy universal amphibious assault ship was born," Belonenko explained.

"Any ship is a compromise between dozens of different parameters," Khrolenko noted. "The Priboy is conceived as transport for about 500 assault troops and equipment, including tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, with the possibility for deboarding [directly onto] the shore. On board, it must have helicopters for combat and landing support. These functions demand an almost aircraft carrier-like deck, and architecture for helicopter hangers of two types" (on the deck itself and in the hull below deck).

"Cranes take landing craft not to a docking chamber, as is customary, but to a dry dock located above the waterline. The lack of docking sections ensures greater safety of operation. In the stern and bow are ramps for the intake of equipment from the shore or the water, as well access points on either side of the ship."

Priboy's self-defense weaponry is minimal, but effective, and includes maritime versions of the Tor and Pantsir systems. The amphibious helicopter carrier is designed for operation in coordination with other ships, and accordingly features advanced radio-electronic and hydroacoustic equipment for monitoring the surrounding air and sea space.

Priboy is expected to have an estimated displacement of 23,000 tons, a 20 m-wide deck, and a 34 m hull width at the waterline. The prospective ship's length is estimated at about 200 meters.

Khrolenko noted that the Navy's bid for a new amphibious assault ship, and the Krylov Design Center's Priboy project could not come at a more optimal time. The Navy's previous generation of landing ships  the Project 1174 Nosorog ('Rhino'), was developed in the 1970s, and has since been retired.

Today, the observer stressed, "Russian shipbuilders have the scientific and technical potential, the production base, and the experience to create ships of any complexity.

Valentin Belonenko explained that "after a decision is made at the state level, the ship can be built in five years. The rational organization of the technological process of design and construction will significantly shorten the time necessary to lower the hull into the water. The ship should not be built from individual components, but from assembly units or modules."

Ultimately, Khrolenko emphasized that "today, our shipbuilders and sailors are reluctant to recall the 'French story'. The Mistral is a serious piece of equipment, developed by taking into account the experiences and traditions of [French] shipbuilding. However, the French classify the Mistral as a command ship  that is, simultaneously a transport, command center for heterogeneous forces, and even a hospital. It may be that such a functional load is excessive for one ship, given that it reduces combat survivability. Let the Mistrals serve our Egyptian friends. Meanwhile, Russian shipbuilders are determined to surpass the French project."

 Sputnik

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Labour leader calls for end to UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Iran Press TV

Sat Jul 1, 2017 3:38PM

Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has denounced the use of UK-made weapons in Saudi Arabia's war against Yemen, calling on the government to block further arms sales to the kingdom.

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, Corbyn said his opposition party had previously called on the government to suspend its arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and would continue to do so in the next.

"We have constantly condemned the use of these weapons by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and called for the suspension of the arms sales to Saudi Arabia to show that we are wanting a peace process in Yemen, not an invasion by Saudi Arabia," he told the news network..

"And arms sales policy has to reflect that we do not believe those countries that commit abuses of human rights or kill civilians with the use of those weapons should continue to receive British arms," he added.

Corbyn said his fellow lawmakers "have already put that resolution to parliament in the last parliament."

"We'll continue to do that when there's a new parliament formed after this general election. Our policy of the Labour Party is unchanged," he added.

Since Saudi Arabia launched its brutal campaign against Yemen in March 2015, the UK government has approved arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia worth $4.1 billion, according to London-based Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

Riyadh launched the aggression against Yemen in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi movement and reinstall the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh. The war has so far killed over 12,000 Yemenis and wounded thousands more, according to the latest tallies.

Saudi Arabia's airstrikes and subsequent blockade has also created a humanitarian disaster in Yemen. Cholera is on the rise while almost 3.3 million Yemeni people, including 2.1 million children, are currently suffering from acute malnutrition. Since April, more than 1,300 Yemenis have died of cholera.

Corbyn told Al Jazeera that he was "totally shocked by the war in Yemen."

"Totally shocked, by the bombardment that's taken place, by the killings that have happened, by the cholera outbreak that's now rife. And the numbers who are affected, the numbers who have already died," he added.

Last week a rights group also called on the UK government to end arms sales to Riyadh and its allies.

The Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR) called on "the UK government to review its role in the sale of arms to a number of Arab governments that are known for gross human rights violation."

"A Saudi-led coalition has killed hundreds of Yemenis, destroyed scores of homes in addition to obliterating most of Yemen's core infrastructure," the rights group said.

Despite the calls for a halt on the arms sales to Riyadh, the UK government continues to provide the kingdom with weapons.

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UNHCR: 500,000 Syrians back home

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 1, IRNA -- The United Nations refugee agency announced on Friday that some half a million of Syrian refugees have returned to their homes in the first six months of the current year.

Aid agencies estimate that more than 440,000 internally displaced people (IDP) have returned to their homes in Syria during the first six months of this year, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), according to Reuters.

In parallel, UNHCR has monitored over 31,000 Syrian refugees returning from neighboring countries so far in 2017, Reuters said.

According to the report, the refugees have mostly returned to Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Damascus to seek out family members, check on their property.

"Since 2015, some 260,000 refugees have spontaneously returned to Syria, primarily from Turkey into northern Syria," said the report.

UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic says that given the returns witnessed so far this year and in light of a progressively increased number of returns of internally displaced people and, in time, refugees, UNHCR has started scaling up its operational capacity inside Syria.

Since the beginning of the war in 2011, about 500,000 have been killed and 13 million have been displaced inside and outside Syria.

9417**2044

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Syria harshly criticizes OPCW report on Khan Sheikhun gas attack

Iran Press TV

Sat Jul 1, 2017 5:6PM

Damascus has censured the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for issuing a "false" report on a chemical weapons attack in the province of Idlib two months ago, saying it has been based on testimonies provided by terrorists.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said the OPCW had better avoid using biased and flawed information in preparing its reports on Syria, saying findings of the organization on the April 4 attack in Khan Sheikhun were in fact "the creation of a sick mind."

It called on the OPCW to prepare "impartial and credible reports that have not been subjected to extortions by countries and parties that prevent it from reaching the truth."

The OPCW report, issued on Friday, said that sarin nerve gas was used in the controversial attack in Khan Sheikhun that left over 90 people killed. The organization, however, did not blame any party to the conflict for the attack.

The United States and allies in the Middle East swiftly accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of having ordered the attack, saying Russian fighter jets also contributed to the bombardment. Syria and Russia denied any involvement. Moscow said at the time that militants supported by the West could have stored chemicals in a depot that was targeted by Russian and Syrian planes.

The incident, not a first of its kind in Syria's six-year conflict, sparked fresh concerns of a Western military intervention in Syria and even a full-scale confrontation between the United States and Russia. In an apparent response to the Idlib attack, the US military even fired missiles from a warship in the Mediterranean on an airfield in western Syria, killing several Syrian troops.



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U.S. arms sale to Taiwan a sign of stable relations: think tank

ROC Central News Agency

2017/06/30 19:12:17

Taipei, June 30 (CNA) The U.S. announcement of arms sales worth US$1.42 billion to Taiwan should ease doubts about the stability of relations between Taiwan and the United States, Lai I-chung (), an executive board member of Taiwan Thinktank, said Friday.

The package -- covering MK-48 torpedoes, high-speed anti-radiation missiles, and standoff precision-guided missiles -- will enhance Taiwan's anti-air, anti-sea and early warning capabilities, according to Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense.

It was the first arms sale to Taiwan announced by Washington since Donald Trump took office as U.S. president on Jan. 20.

Lai, whose think tank is closely aligned with the governing Democratic Progressive Party, said the deal reflected the stable relations between Taiwan and the U.S. but should not be seen as representing an upgrade of the relationship because it was based on Taiwan's needs.

The announcement, however, "does quash a lot of speculation" over the stability of bilateral relations amid concerns of horse trading between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping () in the wake of the U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue in Washington held earlier this month in Washington, Lai argued.

Other signs that Taiwan-U.S. relations are on track, he said, include a clause in the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act passed last December calling for senior military exchanges with Taiwan and recent approval by a U.S. House subcommittee of the Taiwan Travel Act calling for visits between the two sides at all levels.

At the very least, Lai said, Taiwan has strong support from the U.S. Congress, especially with the Republican Party as the majority party, he said.

Meanwhile, a senior researcher at the National Policy Foundation, argued that the U.S. chose to announce the arms deal at this time to create a stronger bargaining position and pressure China.

Chieh Chung (), a research fellow at the think tank, noted that the deal came shortly after the U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue and Xi's ongoing visit in Hong Kong.

The move showed that Trump intends to use the move to tell China and other nations that "I'm still the boss," he said.

The United States wants to let China know that although it has improved relations with China, Washington will and is willing to pressure China on certain issues, Chieh argued.

Chieh also noted that many of the weapons systems included in the package were discussed during the previous Ma Ying-jeou () administration.

He said that when the U.S. agreed in September 2011 to upgrade the capacity of F-16 A/B fighters it sold to Taiwan, Taipei asked to buy four precision guided missiles -- AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation missiles, AGM-154 joint standoff weapons, AGM-158 joint air-to-surface standoff missiles, and the AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER cruise missile.

Now that Washington has agreed to sell Taiwan AGM88 and AGM 154 missiles, they can be installed on the upgraded F-16 A/B fighters, he said.

(By Sophia Yeh, Claudia Liu and Lilian Wu)

Enditem/

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US approves arms sales to Taiwan worth $1.4 bln

People's Daily Online

(CNTV) 08:24, June 30, 2017

The US Department of State on Thursday approved seven deals of weapon sales to Taiwan valued at about 1.4 billion US dollars.

The deals, the first arms sales to Taiwan under the Trump administration, include sales of early warning radar surveillance systems, the joint stand-off weapon, torpedoes, missiles, electronic upgrades, and related parts.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the sales has yet to get the required congressional approval.

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US Arms Sales to Taiwan Violate International Rights  Chinese Foreign Ministry

Sputnik News

15:02 30.06.2017(updated 15:06 30.06.2017)

By selling weapons to China, the United States violates international rights, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Friday, adding Beijing has already officially protested the new US arms sales deal.

BEIJING (Sputnik)  On Thursday, US President Donald Trump's administration approved a $1.42 billion arms sale to Taiwan. The deal includes deliveries of anti-radiation missiles, heavyweight torpedoes, components for SM-2 missiles and air-to-ground missiles.

"China has already lodged protests with the US side here in Beijing and in Washington. Taiwan is an inseparable part of China. By selling arms to Taiwan, the Unites States gravely violates the international rights and fundamental principles of foreign relations," Lu said at the press briefing.

The spokesman urged Washington to immediately stop such activities, as it negatively impacts the cooperation between the two countries in a number of important spheres.

Since 1949, after Chinese Nationalist forces were defeated by Mao Zedong's Communist and the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan, Beijing has viewed the self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province. The United States, along with many other countries, does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation and sticks officially to the "One China" policy, but has kept informal relations with the island after severing diplomatic ties with it in 1979.

Nevertheless, the issue of Taiwan in US-Chinese relations was raised again in December 2016 after then President-elect Trump had a phone call with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, becoming the first US president or president-elect to speak with a Taiwanese leader in an official capacity since the United States severed ties with the island nation.

 Sputnik

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U.S., Ukraine Near Agreement On Increasing Military Equipment Sales, Ties

RFE/RL July 01, 2017

Ukraine and the United States are close to signing new defense agreements enabling Kyiv to purchase more defensive U.S. military equipment and play a role in manufacturing such equipment, a Ukrainian defense executive said on June 30.

The agreements were announced during Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's June 20 visit to Washington, but details are still being negotiated. They are aimed at facilitating military sales and promoting joint research and development, and will be signed soon, said Denys Hurak, an executive at Ukroboronprom, a Ukrainian defense conglomerate.

Ukraine needs equipment such as radar systems, drones, and secure communications as it battles Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.

The first agreement aims to free up Ukraine's access to the U.S. defense market as well as make it easier for Ukraine to sell its own defense equipment to the United States.

'Strategic Partner'

The agreements do not contemplate the sale of U.S.-made lethal weapons to Ukraine. But Ukraine anticipates receiving U.S. funding to develop new military technologies under the second joint research agreement, which would also pave the way for some U.S. Army equipment to be partly manufactured in Ukraine, Hurak said.

The agreements "will show that we are a strategic partner for America in the defense complex," Hurak told Reuters.

"We are asking for help, but we are also ready to be America's partner and we have something to offer -- namely, production capacity, outsourcing production, [and] cheaper production of components for them."

Hurak told Reuters that he has negotiated with U.S. companies about setting up facilities in Ukraine to manufacture, for example, radio and communications gear.

He told Interfax that the agreements are intended to "implement the initiatives the U.S. announced in 2014 to compensate for losses to the Ukrainian defense-industrial complex from the break-off of its military-technical cooperation with Russia."

Ukrainian factories were once an integral part of Russia's military-industrial complex, but Moscow recently announced that it has found replacement sources for most weapons parts formerly manufactured in Ukraine.

Poroshenko earlier said that U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis is expected to visit Ukraine in the coming months to sign the defense agreements.

"These are absolutely clear and concrete agreements, unprecedented ones. Ukraine has never had such agreements in its relations with the United States," Poroshenko said.

With reporting by Reuters and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-ukraine-near-agreement- increasing-military-equipment-sales-manufacturing -ties-ukroboronprom-gurak/28589362.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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SAN ANTONIO, June 28, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- bioAffinity Technologies, a privately held company advancing early stage cancer diagnostics and precision cancer therapeutics, today announced four scientists have joined the company to advance development and commercialization of its breakthrough technologies.



bioAffinity Technologies expansion reflects its progress toward commercialization in 2018 of the Companys initial diagnostic product, a non-invasive, early-stage lung cancer test called CyPath Lung to detect lung cancer in its earliest stages when it is most treatable. The porphyrin-based CyPath preferentially binds to cancer cells and labels them with distinct fluorescence for detection by flow cytometry.

Our new team members are exceptional scientists dedicated to advancing our platform technologies, said bioAffinity President and CEO Maria Zannes. Their experience, skills and innovative spirit align perfectly with bioAffinitys mission to bring to market safer, more effective cancer treatments and patient-friendly tests that accurately diagnose early-stage cancer.

Mr. Xavier Reveles, MS, CG(ASCP)CM joins bioAffinity as its Director of Operations, where he will manage commercialization of the Companys diagnostic and therapeutic products including CyPath Lung. He brings more than 25 years of experience as a clinical geneticist skilled in the creation and management of CLIA clinical laboratories, coding and CPT reimbursement valuations. Mr. Reveles is board certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathology as a clinical specialist in cytogenetics. He was Laboratory Director for OncoPath Laboratory  START Cancer Center in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Reveles is (co)author of 15 publications and three abstracts in peer-reviewed journals. He earned his Masters Degree in biology/genetics from the University of The Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

Patricia Araujo, Ph.D., joins bioAffinity Technologies as a staff scientist where she is working to commercialize CyPath Lung. She completed her post-doctoral training as a molecular biologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas, where she investigated the networks formed by RNA binding proteins and miRNAs and their connection to biological processes and cancer. She received her Doctorate from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil and is an (co)author on more than 15 publications and a contributor to eight abstracts.

Lydia Bederka, Ph.D., also joins the team commercializing CyPath Lung as a staff scientist. She is a molecular virologist with an emphasis on viruses that cause hemorrhagic fever. Dr. Bederka most recently worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute where she performed high containment laboratory (BSL-4) studies for advancing the development of Ebola virus diagnostic assays. She received her Doctorate in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of California, in Irvine.

Shao-Chiang (Michael) Lai, Ph.D. joins bioAffinity Technologies in the Basic Science division as a staff scientist. Dr. Lai completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, where he focused on non-small cell lung carcinomas. He earned his Doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Lai has presented several projects at scientific events such as the Cold Spring Harbor Lab Symposium, Targeting Cancer, including presentation of the poster TTF-1 (NKX2.1) modulates cholesterol metabolism and biosynthesis in lung cancer. He has published eight peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter in Thyroid Hormone.

About bioAffinity Technologies

bioAffinity Technologies, Inc. (www.bioaffinitytech.com) is a privately held development-stage company addressing the significant unmet need for non-invasive, early-stage cancer diagnosis and treatment. The Company develops proprietary in-vitro diagnostic tests and targeted cancer therapeutics using breakthrough technology that preferentially targets cancer cells. Research and optimization of its platform technology are conducted in bioAffinity Technologies laboratories and at the University of Texas Health Center at San Antonio through a collaborative research agreement. The Companys platform technology will be developed to diagnose, monitor and treat many cancers.
Egypts navy foiled on Saturday an attempt at irregular migration by 97 people in a boat off the Alexandrian coast, the state-owned MENA news agency reported.

According to a statement by the Armed Forces, the migrants included Egyptians, Eritreans, Somalis, Sudanese, Syrians, Yemenis, and Chadians.

The migrants were detained and transferred to Ras El-Tin naval base, where they received medical care, according to the statement.

The statement did not include information about the destination of the boat, though it was presumably heading for Europe.

In September 2016, Egypt passed a law to combat irregular migration after a boat sank off the countrys Mediterranean coast, killing hundreds of migrants.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has spoken on multiple occasions about Egypt's ongoing efforts to curb irregular migration from its shores to Europe  a key concern for European countries facing a growing migrant crisis.

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VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - June 30, 2017) - Anfield Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: ARY) (FRANKFURT: 0AD) (OTCQB: ANLDF) ("Anfield" or "the Company") is pleased to announce a fully-subscribed, non-brokered private placement for 50,000,000 Units at $0.06, for a total equity raise of $3.0 million. The Unit consists of one common share and a one share purchase warrant, with each warrant exercisable at $0.10 for a five-year term. Finders' fees may be paid in certain instances.

Corey Dias, Anfield's CEO, stated, "We are excited to announce the closing of this financing. These funds will allow us to both meet obligations related to Anfield's current projects and seek out further acquisition opportunities. We remain very optimistic about the uranium market. With Kazatomprom establishing a marketing arm in Europe in order to position itself as a swing uranium seller, we would expect to see less pressure on the spot price going forward. In addition, the reduction in the number of tons of uranium to be sold per year by the US DOE should also have a positive effect on the uranium spot price. Finally, we believe that the continued pace in the building of nuclear reactors in places such as China, India and the UAE will spur a continuing rally in uranium prices and entice both current and new producers to either maintain or expand their production efforts. Anfield aims to be a supply contributor once the uranium price reflects this reality".

The foregoing is subject to regulatory approval.

The proceeds of $3,000,000 will be used for project acquisition and development and general working capital purposes.

About Anfield

Anfield is an energy metals development and near-term production company that is committed to becoming a top-tier energy-related fuels supplier by creating value through sustainable, efficient growth in its energy metals assets. Anfield is a publicly-traded corporation listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (ARY-V), the OTCQB Marketplace (ANLDF) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (0AD). Anfield is focused on two production centers, as summarized below:

Arizona/Colorado/Utah - Shootaring Canyon Mill

The key asset in Anfield's conventional uranium portfolio is the Shootaring Canyon Mill in Garfield County, Utah. The Shootaring Canyon Mill is strategically located within one of the historically most prolific uranium production areas in the United States, and is one of only three licensed uranium mills in the United States.

Anfield's uranium assets consist of conventional mining claims and state leases in southeastern Utah, Colorado and Arizona, targeting areas where past uranium mining or prospecting occurred. Anfield's conventional uranium assets include the Velvet-Wood Project, the Frank M Uranium Project, as well as the Findlay Tank breccia pipe. All conventional uranium assets are situated within a 125-mile radius of the Shootaring Mill.

Wyoming Properties - Irigaray ISR Processing Plant (Resin Processing Agreement)

Anfield's ISR mining projects are located in the Black Hills, Powder River Basin, Great Divide Basin, Laramie Basin, Shirley Basin and Wind River Basin areas in Wyoming, and comprise 2,667 federal mining claims, 56 Wyoming State leases and 15 private leases acquired from Uranium One in September 2016.

Anfield has agreed to enter into a Resin Processing Agreement with Uranium One wherein Anfield would process up to 500,000 pounds per annum of its mined material at Uranium One's Irigaray Central Processing Plant in Wyoming.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

ANFIELD RESOURCES INC.

Corey Dias,

Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

www.anfieldresources.com

Safe Harbor Statement

THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAINS "FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS". STATEMENTS IN THIS NEWS RELEASE THAT ARE NOT PURELY HISTORICAL ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INCLUDE ANY STATEMENTS REGARDING BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE.

EXCEPT FOR THE HISTORICAL INFORMATION PRESENTED HEREIN, MATTERS DISCUSSED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAIN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES THAT COULD CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM ANY FUTURE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED BY SUCH STATEMENTS. STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT HISTORICAL FACTS, INCLUDING STATEMENTS THAT ARE PRECEDED BY, FOLLOWED BY, OR THAT INCLUDE SUCH WORDS AS "ESTIMATE," "ANTICIPATE," "BELIEVE," "PLAN" OR "EXPECT" OR SIMILAR STATEMENTS ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES FOR THE COMPANY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH MINERAL EXPLORATION AND FUNDING AS WELL AS THE RISKS SHOWN IN THE COMPANY'S MOST RECENT ANNUAL AND QUARTERLY REPORTS AND FROM TIME-TO-TIME IN OTHER PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COMPANY. OTHER RISKS INCLUDE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE REGULATORY APPROVAL PROCESS, COMPETITIVE COMPANIES, FUTURE CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS AND THE COMPANY'S ABILITY AND LEVEL OF SUPPORT FOR ITS EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES. THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THAT THE COMPANY'S EXPLORATION EFFORTS WILL SUCCEED AND THE COMPANY WILL ULTIMATELY ACHIEVE COMMERCIAL SUCCESS. THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE MADE AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, AND THE COMPANY ASSUMES NO OBLIGATION TO UPDATE THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS, OR TO UPDATE THE REASONS WHY ACTUAL RESULTS COULD DIFFER FROM THOSE PROJECTED IN THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. ALTHOUGH THE COMPANY BELIEVES THAT THE BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS AND INTENTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE ARE REASONABLE, THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THOSE BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS WILL PROVE TO BE ACCURATE. INVESTORS SHOULD CONSIDER ALL OF THE INFORMATION SET FORTH HEREIN AND SHOULD ALSO REFER TO THE RISK FACTORS DISCLOSED IN THE COMPANY'S PERIODIC REPORTS FILED FROM TIME-TO-TIME.

THIS NEWS RELEASE HAS BEEN PREPARED BY MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY WHO TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENTS. THIS NEWS RELEASE SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY SALE OF THESE SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SOLICITATION OR SALE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL PRIOR TO REGISTRATION OR QUALIFICATION UNDER THE SECURITIES LAWS OF ANY SUCH JURISDICTION.
Egyptian parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal said on Saturday that five MPs will be referred to investigation after they traveled to France to attend the Annual Gathering of Iranian Resistance Conference without obtaining prior approval.

Parliament's secretary-general Ahmed Saaeddin told reporters that the invitation to attend the conference was extended on a personal level, not an official one.

Saadeddin stressed that "Egypt's parliament does not have official representation in the Iranian Resistance Conference in Paris."

Four of the MPs, who are affiliated with the liberal Free Egyptians Party, belong to the Upper Egyptian governorate of Assiut, while one represents the New Valley governorate.

The MPs are Gamal Abbas, El-Badri Dief, Numan El-Badari, Mortada El-Arabi, and Dawoud Suleiman.

While in Paris on Friday, El-Arabi said he would resign from parliament in protest of the government's decision on Thursday to raise fuel prices.

In 2016 and 2017, two Egyptian MPs  Tawfik Okasha and Anwar El-Sadat  were stripped of parliamentary membership after travelling abroad and holding meetings with foreign diplomats without getting prior approval from parliament.

Okasha was removed after holding a dinner meeting with Israel's ambassador in Egypt without permission, while Sadat was removed for attending a human rights conference in Switzerland without approval.

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(TNS) -- WASHINGTON  One in three people enrolled in a government-subsidized phone program might not qualify for the service, with thousands of accounts belonging to either fake or dead people, according to a government audit released Thursday.The oversight is costing taxpayers more than $100 million worth of improper payments per year, according to the audit by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal watchdog.Created in the 1980s, the Federal Communications Commissions Lifeline program helps low-income people pay for phone and internet service.The federal government reimburses telecommunication companies that offer discounts to eligible subscribers through a fund made up of fees collected from consumers telephone bills.Lifeline paid $1.5 billion in subsidies last year to more than 12 million households. But an estimated 36 percent of the programs subscribers might be ineligible for enrollment, according to the audit.The GAO reviewed 3.5 million Lifeline accounts during its three-year probe and was unable to confirm eligibility for 1.2 million.Investigators also found that thousands of active Lifeline accounts belong to non-existent or dead people, and that the FCC has provided little to no substantive review of the program during its 30 years of existence.As of December 2016, Lifeline program subscribers were eligible to receive $9.25 per month toward their voice telecom services, or $9.25 toward broadband costs.Eligibility is determined through participation in other federal benefit programs, such as food stamps, Medicaid, public housing assistance, Supplemental Security Income and veteran pension and survivor programs. People who make at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty line also qualify.A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer  everything that could go wrong is going wrong, said Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who requested the GAO investigation.McCaskill, a former Missouri state auditor, has been pushing for stronger scrutiny of Lifeline for years. She asked the GAO to look into the program in 2013 in her role as chairwoman on a Senate panel on financial and contracting oversight.Were currently letting phone companies cash a government check every month with little more than the honor system to hold them accountable, McCaskill said.The GAOs findings are in line with the results of an investigation FCC Chairman Ajit Pai conducted last year that revealed serious weaknesses in the Lifeline programs federal safeguards, said Brian Hart, an FCC spokesman.Todays GAO report confirms that waste, fraud and abuse are all too prevalent in the program, Hart said in an email.Chairman Pai looks forward to working with his colleagues to crack down on the unscrupulous providers that abuse the program because every dollar that is spent on subsidizing somebody who doesnt need the help by definition does not go to someone who does, Hart said.During the GAOs three-year probe, undercover investigators applied to work for a company that contracts with Lifeline providers to verify applicants eligibility. The company, which the audit does not name, hired them without background checks or interviews and then paid them as they enrolled fake applicants in the program using fabricated eligibility documentation.Auditors said they plan to refer this company for appropriate action to the FCC and to the private nonprofit corporation that administers the Lifeline program, the Universal Service Administrative Company, or USAC.USAC is supposed to audit telecom providers to make sure theyre paying their share of contributions into a fund for the Lifeline program. In its audit, the GAO reported that the corporation never audited more than one half of 1 percent of providers.USAC also keeps $9 billion in taxpayer funds for the Lifeline program in a private bank account rather than the U.S. Treasury, against the GAOs longstanding recommendation, auditors reported.The FCC has a preliminary plan to move the funds from the private bank account to the U.S. Treasury, but until that happens, they do not enjoy the same rigorous management practices and regulatory safeguards as other federal programs, according to the GAO.Chris Henderson, resigned in May as USACs CEO after Pai sent him a scathing letter criticizing the corporations administration of another FCC program, E-rate, which subsidizes internet connections for schools and libraries.
A Palestinian Islamist militant wanted for planning bomb attacks in Lebanon was detained by the army on Saturday at a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Islamist sources in the camp and a security source said.

Islamist factions in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp handed Khaled al-Sayyid over to the Lebanese army at dawn at a check point outside the camp, on the outskirts of the city of Sidon, the Islamist sources said.

Sayyid had previously traveled to Syria to fight with jihadist groups in the civil war there, the security source said.

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Sudan insisted on Saturday that it respected media and religious freedoms after the United States said it was "very concerned" about Khartoum's human rights record.

Washington raised its concerns just two weeks before President Donald Trump is due to decide whether to permanently lift a 20-year-old US trade embargo on Khartoum.

"Sudan enjoys freedom of press with more than 30 newspapers supporting government as well as opposition views published daily," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Sudan also enjoys religious freedom, which is exemplified with several churches existing adjacent to mosques."

The ministry said the fact that Sudan hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees showed there was "no religious discrimination" in the country.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR says about 400,000 South Sudanese refugees, most of them Christian, have taken refuge in Sudan since a brutal civil war erupted in their country in late 2013.

"The government of Sudan is further ready for positive engagement over human rights issues which are internal and sovereign," the ministry said.

Some think tanks have urged the Trump administration to delay permanently lifting the trade embargo, accusing Khartoum of widespread human rights violations.

Sudan regularly ranks near the bottom of international press freedom rankings.

The National Intelligence and Security Service often confiscates the entire print runs of newspapers without giving any reason.

The US embassy raised its concerns in a statement on Thursday.

"The United States remains very concerned about Sudan's human rights record, including the continued closing of political space, and restrictions on religious freedom, freedom of expression, including press freedom," it said.

Washington imposed sanctions on Khartoum in 1997 for its alleged support for Islamist militant groups. Now slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was based in Khartoum from 1992 to 1996.

Although Washington believes Khartoum's terror ties have ebbed, it has kept sanctions in place because of the scorched-earth tactics it has used against ethnic minority rebels in Darfur.

The United Nations says at least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in the western region since the conflict erupted in 2003.

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Naidu plans to split oppn vote in Nandyal!

With the chances of getting Telugu Desam Party candidate Bhuma Brahmanand Reddy getting elected unanimously in the ensuing Nandyal by-elections disappearing following the announcement of Shila Mohan Reddy as the YSR Congress party candidate, TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is back to his wily political strategies.

Naidu has realised that the contest has become tough with the entry of Shilpa Mohan Reddy as the rival candidate, he is now contemplating making Nandyal bypoll a multi-cornered contest, so as to split the opposition votes which would make things easy for the Bhuma family.

As part of Naidus strategy, Jana Sena Party headed by power star Pawan Kalyan is said to be contemplating fielding a candidate in Nandyal by-elections.

Since Pawan has considerable clout among the youth in Nandyal, he would definitely split a good percentage of votes. This would hit the YSRC rather than the TDP.

At the same time, the Congress party, which was absolutely no stakes in Nandyal in the present scenario, is also planning to field a candidate.

In all probability, the Congress might field Rakesh Reddy, nephew of former minister Gangula Pratap Reddy. Rakesh had lost in 2014 elections in the same constituency.

On the other hand, Rayalaseema Parirakshana Samithi (RPS) floated by former MLA Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy also announced that he would field his own candidate in the Nandyal bypoll.

It would mean there would be a multi-cornered contest in Nandyal and if the opposition votes split, it would ultimately benefit the TDP!
US-backed fighters have launched a renewed attack on Islamic State group militants inside their Syrian bastion Raqa, seeking to retake a key eastern neighbourhood, a monitor said on Saturday.

"The Syrian Democratic Forces started a counter-offensive on Friday night to retake Al-Senaa," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The SDF first ousted IS from Al-Senaa on June 12, less than a week after they first entered Raqa.

But IS pushed back, unleashing a slew of car bombs and attacks from weaponised drones and taking back control of the neighbourhood on Friday.

"It was Daesh's most intense attack yet," a military source from the US-backed fighters told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

The source said IS had surrounded about 50 members of the Elite Forces -- US-backed Arab fighters allied with the SDF -- before heavy coalition air strikes broke the siege.

Al-Senaa is key for both the SDF and IS because it is adjacent to the city centre, where most IS fighters defending Raqa are thought to be holed up.

Around 2,500 militants are fighting inside Raqa, according to British Major General Rupert Jones, a deputy commander of the US-led coalition backing the SDF.

"At this point, the SDF has retaken about 30 percent of Al-Senaa. There are clashes and coalition air strikes in that neighbourhood and across the city," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The US-led coalition has provided key support to the SDF's offensive, with air strikes, on-the-ground advisors, weapons, and equipment.

The Observatory said on Saturday that 193 civilians, including 33 children, had been killed in Raqa since the US-backed SDF entered the city.

The Britain-based monitor said 219 IS fighters had been killed in air strikes and clashes in the same period, but he had no immediate toll for the SDF's losses.

The United Nations estimates some 100,000 civilians remain in Raqa, with the militants accused of using them as human shields.

The city became infamous as the scene of some of the worst IS atrocities, including public beheadings, and is thought to have been a hub for planning attacks overseas.

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July 1, 1916

During World War I, France and Britain launched the Somme Offensive against the German army. This 41/2-month battle resulted in heavy casualties and produced no clear winner. Britain deployed about 100,000 soldiers, of which about 20,000 were killed and 40,000 wounded on the first day. History.com reports that after the long siege, the Allies gained just 125 square miles, with more than 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in the action. German casualties were more than 650,000. The battle was memorialized in literature and film.
The Israeli army on Saturday warned Syria after stray fire from its civil war hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in the latest of a string of incidents across the armistice line.

Military statements said that two "projectiles", which the army did not identify, fell on open ground in the northern Golan -- territory seized from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967.

Both were the "result of internal fighting in Syria," the army said, adding that there were no reports of casualties.

"Israel holds the Syrian regime responsible for any breach of its borders and will act accordingly," chief military spokesman, Brigadier General Ronen Manelis said in a statement.

"Israel maintains a policy of non-involvement in the Syrian civil war. However, we will not tolerate any breach of Israel's sovereignty."

There has been repeated stray fire across the armistice line for the past week as Syrian troops battle rebels, including hardline Islamists, on the other side.

There have been no casualties but Israel responded to the previous incidents by striking Syrian army positions.

Rebels recently launched an offensive against government forces in Quneitra on the Syrian side of the armistice line.

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Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday to protest over austerity and demand Prime Minister Theresa May's government resign after its disastrous showing in last month's election.

Demonstrators converged in front of the BBC headquarters in central London to demand an end to belt-tightening that has led to cuts in spending for public services.

Many brandished signs and placards reading: "No More Austerity", "Cuts Cost Lives" and "Tories Out."

After holding a minute's silence in honour of the victims of a deadly fire in London, which killed at least 80 people, and staging a round of applause for the emergency services, protesters headed towards Parliament Square.

Main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was expected to address the rally.

The union-backed march was organised a day after the June 14 Grenfell Tower inferno in west London.

An investigation into the fire is under way, but critics blame lax standards and cost-cutting, which they say is a consequence of austerity.

The prime minister, who lost her parliamentary majority in last month's snap election, narrowly survived a confidence vote on Thursday thanks to the support of Northern Ireland's small DUP party.

Their deal has been attacked by both Labour and some of May's own Conservative MPs, in part because the DUP secured an extra billion pounds (1.1 billion euros/$1.3 billion) in state aid for Northern Ireland.

A day earlier, the government had also narrowly voted down a Labour Party amendment to its legislative programme -- known as the Queen's Speech -- calling for an end to a six-year cap on public sector pay.

Funding for public services -- from the National Health Service (NHS) to police and fire personnel -- has taken an increasingly emotive tone in the UK after the country was struck by three terror attacks, followed by the deadly tower blaze.

Government officials have indicated they may review spending policies, reflecting concern among Conservative MPs about continued austerity.

May's alliance with the ultra-conservative DUP has also raised concerns across the UK because of the party's stance on same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

The DUP's opposition to same-sex marriage makes Northern Ireland the only part of the UK and Ireland where homosexual marriage is not allowed by law, despite widespread public support.

According to a June 2016 survey by pollster Ipsos Mori, 70 percent of adults in Northern Ireland believe homosexual couples should be allowed to marry each other.

Thousands of people descended on Belfast on Saturday to protest the DUP's stance and demand the law be changed to be in line with the rest of the union.

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Photo: hiddeninplainsight

New York Citys street food would be a bunch of overly chewy pretzels and meh-tasting hot dogs if not for the vibrant community of immigrant vendors running the carts. Sadly, these hardworking individuals are generally underappreciated for their role in creating one of the citys most iconic cultures.

To rectify this, artist Michelle Hessel, a research resident in NYUs Interactive Telecommunications Program, made a mixed-media installation called Hidden in Plain Sight that shares the stories of three vendors using a wild mix of hi-fi 3-D scanning, audio tracks, and trippy neon illustrations:

One vendor she follows is Thiru Kumar  hes a Sri Lankan who used to give diving lessons, but is now better known as Washington Square Parks Dosa Man. Another is Ana Herrera, an Ecuadorian in her 17th year of running a tamale cart out in Corona, Queens. The third is a Moroccan bagel-stand operator named Dany Hassan. Hes at Broadway and Waverly Place, but is newly married and planning a return to school to study biology.

Her related project Meet Adam is an even cooler tour, also in 3-D, of a fourth vendors cart. Adam has been her go-to coffee source for over two years, she says:

She also does interviews with all of the vendors, which you can check out, along with more pictures, on the Hidden in Plain Sight website.
Sharp did the whole 'nearly bezelless' thing in the smartphone world way before the Xiaomi Mi Mix made it cool last year. And now the Japanese company is getting ready to take things to the next level, if a new rumor out of China is accurate.

An unnamed source has revealed that Sharp will launch two devices that will be very close to the Mi Mix in terms of design, just with a much smaller chin. The FS8010 and FS8016 will be identical in all respects but one - the chipset chosen to power them.

While the FS8016 will go with the Snapdragon 660, the FS8010 will settle for the Snapdragon 630. Both of these chips were made official last month.

The other specs for the new FS phones are as follows: a 5.5-inch 2,048x1,080 display, at least a 91.3% screen-to-body ratio, dual 12 MP rear cameras, and 4 or 6GB of RAM. They will run Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

All of the above specs have basically been confirmed by an AnTuTu benchmark run performed by the FS8010, except for a slight discrepancy in screen resolution - the benchmark says it's 2,040x1,080. AnTuTu also adds new elements to the puzzle, revealing that the selfie camera is an 8 MP unit and internal storage will be 64GB.

The Sharp FS8010 and FS8016 are expected to become official at an event on July 17.

Source 1 (in Chinese) | Source 2 (in Chinese) | Via 1 | Via 2
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The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) has landed in Europe, over a month after it was made official. The dual-SIM model is now listed on the South Korean company's Austrian website. The listing reveals color options including gold, black, and blue.

The device is available in the US since mid-May. It was expected to land in Europe sometime in August, but looks like the market has got the handset a bit earlier. While there's currently no official information on the phone's pricing in Europe, it's expected to cost around 220.

Source | Via
Riot police stepped in to break up clashes among some 100 African migrants armed with sticks and rocks in the northern French city of Calais on Saturday, local police said, following similar brawls the night before.

The fighting pitting Eritreans against Ethiopians left 16 migrants injured and around 10 have been arrested, police official Etienne Desplanques told AFP.

"In all, there are 16 migrants hospitalised, 15 for minor injuries and one with a more serious head injury," Desplanques said.

Riot police had been deployed to separate the fighting between Eritreans and Ethiopians in an industrial zone of Calais, and the situation was brought under control by mid-afternoon, he said.

The port city of Calais has for years been a magnet for migrants and refugees hoping to cross the Channel to Britain and last year France broke up the camp known as "the Jungle" transferring thousands of migrants to centres around the country.

But there are currently believed to be between 400 and 600 migrants in the Calais area.

Violence also broke out Friday night between Eritreans and Ethiopians while meals were being distributed by charity groups, lightly wounding nine people, Desplanques said.

Security forces used tear gas to break up Friday's brawls, according to deputy mayor of Calais Philippe Mignonet.

"In the past 12 hours, in terms of violence, there's been an escalation," Mignonet told AFP.

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Haiti - FLASH : State Examinations of 9th A.F (Schedule and subject)





The Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) reminds the general public, candidates and educational agents in particular, that the 9th fundamental year exams will be held as scheduled from Monday 3 to Wednesday 5 July 2017 in the 10 school departments.



A total of 227,062 candidates are expected to take part in these examinations. The West has the highest number of candidates, with 106,689 candidates, followed by Artibonite and North with 26,298 candidates and 22,074 candidates, respectively. The lowest figure comes from the Nippes with 6,411 candidates.



Exam Schedule :



Monday 3 July 2017 :



French Communication

9h00 - 12h00 a.m.



Experimental science

1h3030 -3h30 p.m.



Tuesday 4 July 2017 :



Creole Communication

9h00 a.m. - 11h00 a.m.



Social Sciences

1h00 a.m. - 3h00 p.m.



Wednesday 5 July 2017 :



Mathematics

9h00 a.m. - 12h00 a.m.



English / Spanish

1h30 p.m. - 3h30 p.m.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21368-haiti-education-d-5-of-the-state-examinations.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Security : Mafia networks act with impunity





In a note, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of West (CCIO) strongly condemns the private property attacks that are constantly taking place in the West Department.



"The CCIO is alarmed by the violence and the repetition of this phenomenon of illegal monopoly, despite multiple denunciations and calls for help from victims of mafia networks act with impunity



The Chamber is outraged at the lack of a response from the public authorities and urges them to recover as soon as possible and to assume their responsibilities and measures: Identify, prosecute and punish the perpetrators and co-perpetrators of criminal acts aimed at depriving their rights of legitimate and legally recognized owners.



The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of West reiterates its support for the victims and remains determined more than ever to promote respect for and protection of private property and the rule of law as a condition 'sine qua non' to restore the Confidence in the business sector."



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : Tabling in Parliament of the draft budget 2017-2018





On Friday 30 June, in accordance with the Constitution, Patrick Salomon, the Minister of the Economy and Finance tabled in the office of the Chamber of Deputies his draft budget law 2017-2018. Cholzer Chancy, President of the Lower House, took note of the deposit and promised to follow up with the Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and do his best to bring the parliamentarians to hold a meeting next week to allow Minister Salomon to present the explanatory memorandum to this draft budget. Let us recall that constitutionally, Parliament has until the second Monday of September to sanction this draft budget.



Public works, agriculture and education are the three main beneficiaries of this budget, followed by Public Health, Defense and its plan to rebuild the Haitian Armed Forces and the environment.



This budget estimate of 144 billion Gourdes is up by 18% compared to the budget of the current year of 121.9 billion. Note that the government's operating budget amounts to 86 billion (60%) of the budget, well above the 58 billion (40%) devoted to investments.



Parliamentarians are called upon to work on this document in order to deepen it further. Minister Salomon said he was open and ready to answer all questions from deputies on all the headings of the 2017-2018 Budget.



To achieve this budget increase, Minister Salomon does not hide that he is going to get some of these extra revenues from taxpayers who do not meet their tax obligations. To compel them, among other things, he intends to generalize the presentation of a tax receipt in order to obtain from now any document from the State, which will oblige citizens and companies to make their final declaration of tax and to pay taxes. Other sources of revenue evoked, the Vehicle Inspection Service and generalized license plates to motorcycles across the country pending more details in the presentation of the Minister.



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





The earth trembled at Les Cayes

The Directorate of Civil Protection informs us that Friday "Several members of the population of the city of Les Cayes testified to have experienced a seismic shake around 3:20 p.m."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21290-haiti-flash-shake-4-5-in-haiti-update.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21262-haiti-flash-weather-alert-call-for-caution.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21252-haiti-news-zapping.html



Closure of Consulates

The Consulate General of Haiti in Miami and that of Georgia inform that they will be closed on Tuesday 4 July 2017 on the occasion of the anniversary of the "Independence of the United States of America". The activities of these two Consulates will normally resume on Wednesday 5 July 2017 from 8.00 a.m.



The Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti in Montreal informs the public in general and the community in particular that its offices will be closed on July 3, 2017 for National Day of Canada. Services will normally resume on Tuesday, July 4, 2017 at 9:00 AM.



Minustah : Handing of Military base

Friday the Minustah officially handed over the Fort-Liberte military base to the Haitians.



Voodoo practitioners' Rights

The leaders of the National Confederation of Haitian Vodouists (KNVA) held a working meeting with West Senator Antonio Cheramy to discuss a draft bill guaranteeing the rights of voodoo practitioners.



Community Health Worker Graduation

On Friday in the Northeast Department, a graduation ceremony was held for 55 multi-purpose community health workers trained as part of the Strengthening Health Outcomes for Women (SHOW) project.



The PNH is getting closer to the population

Thursday was launched the Phase III of the project aiming at getting closer the National Police of Haiti (PNH) with the population. A joint initiative of the NGO Vivario, the Minustah and the community police.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















By Lily Lee | Published on 2017/06/30

As the summer sunlight shine brightly on our face this June, some of the celebrities decided to have a little getaway vacation! Be it a rest-only vacation, or the time you can bond with your family, vacation is always righteous when you have been working so hard all this time. You deserve this break! (:

Gong Hyo-jin

Actress Gong Hyo-jin took an early summer vacation to Bali with her squad including her stylist, photographer and her fashion designer best friend. While being on the beautiful island of Bali, she took this time to rejuvenate herself and also spent a great time with a sheltered dog, Molly who was struggling with an illness. While being on this vacation, Molly improved in health tremendously!



Ji Hyun-jung

A famous model and a yoga trainer, Ji Hyun-jung also took a 2 weeks vacation to Bali for her some healing time. She spent her vacation in Yoga Barn in Bali, experiencing many different yoga classes in nature.



Bang Minah

An actress and a member of the K-pop girl group, Girlsday, Bang Minah took a birthday vacation! From New York to Boston for 10 days, Bang Minah enjoyed her 25th birthday in USA. As she rested and had fun in this huge city, she was able to treat herself for her birthday.



Chae Seo-jin

Actress Chae Seo-jin, who took a 50-days backpacking to India, got on the plane once again to get to France! This time, it was to support her sister, actress Kim Ok-vin as they attended the Cannes Film Festival for Kim Ok-vin's new movie, "The Villainess".

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As she cheered on her sister, after the event, she departed with her sister and enjoyed her little vacation in the beautiful southern France.

By. Lily Lee
Turkey could emerge as the top export destination for Russian wheat in the 2017/18 marketing year, which starts on July 1, overtaking Egypt where Russia appears to be losing ground to rivals such as Ukraine and Romania, traders and suppliers said.

The resolution of a trade dispute with Turkey last month has led to a step up in wheat sales from Russia. At the same time, Russia is losing lucrative business to Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, to cheaper rivals.

Turkey is widely expected to increase its wheat imports this year despite an expected large harvest.

"The huge Turkish flour exports are likely to continue in the new year, generating more wheat imports, with Turkey continuing as a major flour supplier in problem regions including Syria, Iraq and Sudan," a European trader said.

Igor Pavensky, the head of marketing at rail operator Rusagrotrans, said competition for the Egyptian market would be stronger in the new season, and Turkey might become the largest market for Russian wheat in 2017/18.

Russia was undercut by Ukraine and Romania at the most recent Egyptian tender on June 22, when its exporters felt compelled to add price premiums to cover a series of possible risks.

These included risks related to a delayed start of wheat harvesting and the latest volatility of the rouble currency, as well as Russia's new rules on strict value added tax (VAT) accounting for the agriculture sector, Pavensky said.

Another major concern is the possible return in Egypt of a dispute over wheat fungus ergot. Egypt's wheat imports were almost brought to a stop last year when the country imposed a ban on wheat imports with any ergot content, generating losses for traders as Egypt repeatedly rejected shiploads of wheat.

An Egyptian court in June made a ruling against the government's current food inspection system, raising fears of a new crackdown on the fungus.

"I think it is impossible to take into account the risk of the ergot problem in the price because in the case of restoration of the zero ergot (policy) there will not be any offers in the tender at all," Pavensky said.

Prices for Russian wheat need to fall by $3-5 per tonne before the origin becomes competitive again, he added.

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Published on 2017/06/30 | Source

Added new stills for the upcoming Korean movie "The Day After - 2017" (2017)

Advertisement

Directed by Hong Sang-soo

With Kwon Hae-hyo, Kim Min-hee, Kim Sae-byuk, Jo Yoon-hee-I, Ki Joo-bong, Park Ye-ju,...

Synopsis

It is Areum's first day of work at a small publisher. Her boss Bongwan loved and recently broke up with the woman who previously worked there.

Today too, the married Bongwan leaves home in the dark morning and sets off to work.

The memories of the woman who left weigh down on him.

That day Bongwan's wife finds a love note, bursts into the office, and mistakes Areum for the woman who left.

Festival

Cannes 2017 - Official Selection

Release date in Korea : 2017/07/06
Published on 2017/07/01 | Source

Added episodes 31 and 32 captures for the Korean drama "Suspicious Partner" (2017)

Advertisement

Directed by Park Seon-ho-I

Written by Kwon Ki-yeong

Network : SBS

With Ji Chang-wook, Nam Ji-hyun, Choi Tae-joon, Kwon Nara, Lee Deok-hwa, Nam Gi-ae,...

Formerly known as "Watch out for this Woman" (  , i yeo-ja-leul jo-sim-ha-se-yo)

40 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00

Synopsis

"Suspicious Partner" will be a romantic comedy in a judicial setting with a killer thrown into the mix. A Taekwondo practitioner turned judicial trainee turned murder suspect.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/05/10

More
The deadliest form of skin cancer in known as melanoma

Related Scientists rehash evidence on sunscreen and skin cancer

Experts tasked with identifying skin cancer in laboratories often disagree over diagnoses, according to a new study.

Nearly one in five suspected cases of skin cancer are likely diagnosed as more advanced than they really are, researchers found. Similarly, nearly one in five are likely diagnosed as less severe when they're actually more severe.

"The diagnosis is made by a human," said lead author Dr. Joann Elmore, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. "There is no molecular marker or machine that will tell us what the diagnosis is."

Doctors who analyze and interpret biopsy samples are called pathologists. Elmore said pathologists are not to blame for inconsistent results, however. The cases tend to be difficult to interpret.

"I had my own skin biopsy about a decade ago," she said. "I ended up getting three different interpretations from three different people."

"I realized this was an area I wanted to study and quantify," she said.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The deadliest form of skin cancer in known as melanoma.

Skin cancer is diagnosed after doctors take a sample of suspicious-looking skin from a patient. The sample is then sent to a lab where a pathologist looks at thin slices of the skin under a microscope to see if there are any signs of cancer. If cancer is found, the pathologists assigns it a stage, ranging from 1 to 5, with stage 5 being a cancer that has likely spread throughout the body.

For the new study, the researchers used 240 skin samples broken into sets of 36 or 48. The sets were then sent to 187 pathologists in 10 states for diagnoses. The same pathologists were asked to review the same set of slides at least eight months later.

For the earliest melanoma, known as stage 1, about 77 percent of pathologists issued the same diagnoses in both phases of the study. Similarly, about 83 percent of pathologists issued the same diagnoses twice for the most advanced melanoma cases.

Pathologists were less likely to confirm their diagnoses during the study's second phase for melanomas in stage 2 through 4, according to the results in The BMJ.

The researchers also assembled a panel of three experienced pathologists to review the cases. The proportion of diagnoses the panel agreed with varied from 25 percent for stage 2 to 92 percent for stage 1.

Overall, the researchers say, if real-world melanoma diagnoses were reviewed by such an expert panel, only about 83 percent would be confirmed.

They estimate that 8 percent of real-life cases are likely assigned too high a stage. About 9 percent of cases are assigned too low a stage.

"Thankfully most of the biopsies are not of invasive melanoma," said Elmore.

Dr. Ashfaq Marghoob, a dermatologist with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said the results show that pathologists have high certainty when diagnosing biopsies that fall on the extremes of the stages.

"All the in-between cases, there is a potential you may waver," said Marghoob, who wasn't involved with the new study.

"This subjectivity has long been understood and recognized by both dermatologists and pathologists and has been demonstrated in previous studies," said Dr. Jennifer DeFazio, who is also a dermatologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and was also not involved with the new study.

Marghoob said the pathologist may diagnose a skin sample differently based on how they're feeling that day or any number of factors.

"For me, its a study to (remind doctors that) pathology is not an exact science," said Marghoob

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Welcome to semi-finals day, Saturday 1st July 2017, at Henley Royal Regatta.

We bring you all the the highs and lows of the 43 races today, as Shiplake College go up against Radley College at 6:30pm in the Princess Elizabeth, Henley Rowing Club race Isle of Ely at 6:10pm in the Diamond Jubilee, Leander race Edinburgh Univerity in the Prince of Wales at 11:40, California R.C. at 12:00pm in the Visitors, and Thames at 7:00pm in the Thames cup , and Leander athletes race in composite crews throughout the day.

43 7:30 Britannia ............... St. Andrew B.C. v. U.T.S. Haberfield R.C., Australia

Last race of the day and quiet determination from these mens coxed fours.

A big draw from the St Andrews crew as the Australians power down with a more controlled consistent technique.

St Andrews are trying to grab the initiative off the start as it might get jumpy down the course, whilst the Australians settle into a consistent rhythm.

The UTS crew are quieter than St Andrews at Remenham Church and though they are quarter length behind will this steady performance hold off?

This is a real one on one race late on this Saturday evening and a real difference between the crews in the facial expressions. Is this giving away the mental side of the race?

At the 1000m mark St Andrews are hanging on with a quarter length lead. UTS make a move at Upper Thames and have drawn level with St Andrews. This is a real flag to the St Andrews who start to build and react. They moved again against UTS and it will be a race to the line.

Coming into the enclosure St Andrews have their bow ball in front. What will UTS do to keep the push on.

Through Stewards they are level. St Andrews hold back a canvas UTS take it up Both crews are going to sprint to the line. What a finish to the last race of the Saturday of 2017. St Andrews need to build and drive  its going to be last surge that decides. The last five strokes. St Andrews need to hold their nerve. A photograph. A really brave race from St Andrews over UTS as they went for it.

St Andrews beat U.T.S. Haberfield Australia by three feet. A stunning race to conclude racing this Saturday.

42 7:20 Diamonds................ J. H. Graves v. J. B. Stimpson

Second to last race as Stimpson who was 7th in GB trials against Graves a strong American.

Stimpson is giving Graves a race, as he uses his weight advantage to stay in touch.

At Remenham Chruch they are still side by side as Graves cant shake Stimpson.

A real dynasty behind the American sculler against the less experienced Stimpson. Graves is sculling well and through the 1000m mark is just putting in a big front end push. The water looks a little bit quieter at this time in the evening. Graves starts to scull away from Stimpson. In front of Upper Thames the efficiency of Graves is giving him clear water.

Graves is lifting the water with a great catch and into the enclosures he looks really comfortable with a big lead over Stimpson.

The American takes the applause in front of the grandstand as Stimpson builds for the finish. Graves calmly sculls over the line to take the win.

41 7:10 Diamond Jubilee .... Gloucester R.C. v. Headington Sch. A

The second semi-final of the girls quads. This is going to be a tough race, as Gloucester had to come through qualifiers. Matthew Pinsent umpiring.

A clean start with Headington having a slight advantage. Headington is a smaller crew. But at the start of the booms and Gloucester have small advantage, this crew being a heavier crew into the head wind. Both crews are proving to be quiet and efficient through the stroke and the Headington girls are really racing this against Gloucester. At Remenham they put in a push and take a canvas lead. A slightly higher rate from Headington.

This is a real tussle in front of the Barn Bar enclosure as the Gloucester crew relentlessly move on the Headington . Gloucester almost touch the booms and the rudder comes on swinging them back into the course. They need to make sure they stay off the right scull.

At the 1000m mark they are staying in touch with Headington and really pushing them down the course.

Headington build a lead in front of Upper Thames and really take an advantage over Gloucester into the quiet patch of the course before the roar of enclosures. There could be a big upset at that point.

Will Gloucester claw back the distance Headington has. Headington desperately hanging on as Gloucester move. This is going to be a race to the line. Its going to be decided in the last 25 strokes of the race. The Headington crew are hanging on to the lead. Gloucester are really taking this to the wire can Headington hang on? It looks like Gloucester but this is a photo finish. An amazing race from these two quads.

Gloucester R.C. beat Headington Sch. A

40 7:00 Thames ................... Leander Club v. Thames R.C. A

Thames looking focused as their B crew is already in the final. Will Leander stand in their way?

Both coxes have their hands up. As soon as they put their hands down the umpire calls the start. A great start from Thames who move out from the first stroke. This is going to be a tough race as they come into the booms. Thames have a slight advantage but Leander are not letting them go. The Leander crew is a slightly heavier crew, leaning into the headwind.

At Remenham Church Leander are still attacking the Thames crew., though a little bit of pitch in the Leander boat. Thames are warned by the umpire to move back to their station. Thames have the advantage at the half way mark. They are looking to make a decisive mark on the race here.

At Upper Thames Thames make a big move to gain half a length and they are really pushing up to Remenham where the noise of the club will lift them. Thames coming down a little bit sharper, with a slightly higher rate, more focus and a length lead.

Thames look unshakeable.

There is pain on the Leander faces as the Thames crew move into the public enclosures. Thames are quiet and smooth, creating better cover. Into the last 100m and Thames are taking this race despite the weight advantage in Leander. It wont feel easy but it will feel great as Thames beat Leander.

Thames A will race Thames B in the Thames Cup final tomorrow.

39 6:50 Womens Pairs ........ Kalmoe & Eisser v. Lanz & Rustenburg

The Dutch against the Americans. Slightly different styles from these two international crews, with some pedigree at world championships.

The Dutch are rowing very upright compared to the Americans. Can they not lose any more ground as the water is not very comfortable. The Americans are starting to drift off their station, but looking very strong, with a dynamic stroke.

The Dutch are keeping the rhythm high looking to stay in the race.

This is a strong American crew and they open their lead at the 1000m mark. This pair has opened a gap having held their poise and composure.

Through Remenham the Americans are rating 31 and are quiet around the finish which helps deal with the rough water. They open up the distance away from the Dutch and are efficiently sculling into the enclosures.

A very experienced campaign from the Americans as the Dutch hit some geese.

The Dutch take it up but wont be able to catch the NYAC crew.

Kalmoe & Eisser beat Lanz & Rustenburg

38 6:40 Diamonds................ C. N. Girdlestone v. M. R. G. Dunham

A Rio silver medallist from Australia against the lightweight New Zealander Dunham. Friendly rivalry between these two countries and weights.

Girdlestone leads at the end of the Island as the lightweight rates quite high still. The head wind will affect Dunham more than Girdlestone.

Girdlestone has a little more distance per stoke than Dunham and work his lead to clear water in front of the Barn Bar.

The Australian leads in front of the New Zealander at the 1000m as he continues to be quiet around the front.

Girdlestone has stopped in front of Upper Thames as Dunham pushes through to take the lead. Has Girdlestone had an issue with wash that has resulted in injury? The Australian is making heavy weather of this.

Richard Stanhope is umpiring and is watching the sculler intently as Dunham races to the finish taking the applause from the Stewards. 7th two weeks ago in Poznan and he maintains a steady rate to find out what has happened his opposition.

37 6:30 Princess Elizabeth.... Shiplake Coll. v. Radley Coll.

Another race that will receive a large amount of local support. This under 18s school boys eights. Both coxes have their arms in the air on the start. Big first strokes from both crews.

Shiplake seem to have the better start as Radley are warned for their steering.

Radley are sill wandering off their station into the booms as Shiplake find their pace and ease up to a canvas lead.

Shiplake like to keep their rate up as Radley keep their cool.

Shiplake have a length lead through Remenham and past the Barn Bar. They need to keep their flow and rhythm and power through to the 1000m mark.

Can the Radley boat claw back man for man? Shiplake won the schools head earlier in the year and arent fazed by the rough water. Radley have gained half a length. Shiplake need to react as Radley gain another man in front of Upper Thames. IN front of Remenham they are still moving and they take the bow ball of Shiplake.

Can Shiplake stop the rot and power back?

This is a real tit for tat race and this is about focus and determination. Radley bow moves through Shiplake. Shiplake can sprint  can they do this here? Radley move again but Shiplake respond into the last 100m but this is a race to the line. Radley are holding off the Shiplake challenge Radley delivered where it mattered and it looks like they will take this semi-final over Shiplake. This is going to be a great final in the Princess Elizabeth.

Radley Coll beat Shiplake Coll.

About 100 people gathered to cheer the Shiplake eight from the riverbank following their defeat in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup.

Headmaster Gregg Davies said: "I think the race was tremendous. I think Radley were really good.

"I think our legs were tired after Wednesday and yesterday.

"When questions were asked of us we couldn't do it, and all credit to Radley.

"I had a word with my boys after the race and I'm so proud of them. I said to them 'if you had asked me at the beginning of the regatta, where do you want us to be, I would have said Friday would be great, Saturday would be amazing'.

"They have done Shiplake and their parents proud. If there's a better word than pride, I'd say it.

"Of course we're disappointed. That will last with them for a couple of hours but what they have done is tremendous for a small school."

Mr Davies paid tribute to the Shiplake's director of rowing Dave Currie and first eight coach Hugh Mackworth-Praed and their work over the last two years.

"We went out on the Thursday three years ago," he explained.

"As a team they have worked so hard - they couldn't have done any better, they raced as hard as they possibly could. No-one in that boat could have pulled any harder, and that's a fantastic thing to know."

36 6:20 Britannia ............... Thames R.C. v. N.S.R. Oslo, Norway

A fascinating race, with the crew from Oslo only having one week of holiday and are using it to race this event. A coxed four Thames get a good squeeze on and god steering from both crews.

It will be interesting to see who comes out of the Island first. Thames have the advantage as they move into the booms, as the group from Oslo settle into a strong rhythm. The rate is a lot higher in the Thames crew and they are still holding the length lead, but at the 500m mark the Norwegians rhythm seems to have paid off as they claw back overlap.

The Thames crew are wandering on their station, trying to hold off the Oslo opposition. At the 1000m mark Thames are still in front but the Norwegians have used their quiet efficiency to keep the overlap on Thames.

The coxes are working hard in this race as Thames are hanging on to the lead as they move through Upper Thames. There will be a load shout from Remenham as the Oslo crew inch back on the lead. The Oslo crew are eating the distance back and draw level at Remenham.

This next minute is really important for the Thames crew.

Thames need to lift as the Oslo crew move up and through to move their bow in front.

Coming to competitors enclosure and this is going to be head to head into Stewards. Thames need to lift again.

The Oslo crew are a canvas in front at the hole in the wall  about 2m inutes left. The noise from the grandstand is huge. Oslo increase the lead in the last 25 strokes. They have the advantage. Have they cracked Thames?

Oslo are upping the rate to the line winning by half a length ahead of Thames rowing club.

35 6:10 Diamond .... Henley R.C. A v. Isle of Ely R.C.

The semi-final of the womens junior quads and local crew Henley Rowing Club will be receiving a lot of local support. Both crews get away cleanly and want to have an impact on the race. This is Henleys water but they had a little wobble and veered off to stroke side. They had an issue with the blade depth at the start.

Isle of Ely are trying to break Henley and push to clear water at the 500m mark  have they blown early or can they maintain this distance up the course.

The Henley crew need to hang in as they come up to the 1000m . Ely lost to Gloucester in the final of womens Henley and are aiming for a rematch. Can they execute the plan and get to that final?

The Isle of Ely are still inching the distance each stroke despite a steering wobble. The Henley crew have remained straight through out. Coming past Fawley and the gap is being maintained. Ely need to keep the rhythm and power.

Henley lose contact with the race at Upper Thames as Ely put in a big push. This is too big a distance to make up, up the enclosures in the last two minutes of the race. Henley are still fighting however, but this is an impossible ask, given the efficiency of the Isle of Ely. A strong delivery from Ely has put paid to the Henley dream.

A win for the Isle of Ely over Henley Rowing Club

34 6:00 Womens Pairs ........ Goodger & Gowler v. Prendergast & Gowler

This is a race of sisters as the two New Zealand crews both have a sibling in the stroke seat of the boat. The crews are neck and neck at the top of the Island as the sisters look across at each other.

At the 500m mark the Bucks pair, the more experienced pair ease out to a length lead. The Berks crew are still pushing but the Bucks crew have settled in to their rhythm. Could the Bucks pair be the pair that dominates through to the next Olympics? This pair move out to two lengths clear water at the 1000m mark.

The Berks crew put in a push at Remenham but havent dented the Bucks lead as this crew under-rates the other. Coming in front of Stewards the crowds applaud the quiet strong row from the Bucks crew. The Berks crew race to the line, off their station, but at the end it was bit of a procession so no umpire call required.

Prendergast & Gowler beat Goodger & Gowler

33 5:50 Thames ................... Thames R.C. B v. Agecroft R.C.

Two club eights and this is a big race for these athletes. The Agecroft crew make a steering correction and at the end of the Island the crews are level. Into the booms and Tames are pushing the nose of their boat in front.

At the barrier Thames get into their rhythm and ease away , though Agecroft hang in. Thames are working very hard coming up to the 1000m mark Thames are having to make a positive push. Can this be Thames in the final of the Thames cup ?

Agecroft are going to have to work very hard to make a dent in the Thames lead who raise their game as the crowsds shout from Remenham. They move to two lengths clear from Agecroft, rating 35.

At the public enclosures they lift the rate and push Agecroft away again, rating 37. Agecroft are really building for the line but thats a lot of distance to make up as Thames take the shouts from the crowds.

Thames are ecstatic theyve made the final.

Thames B beat Agecroft R.C.

32 5:40 Princess Royal ...... A. K. Thiele v. I. Janssen

A heat of the womens single scull and who will race Vicky Thornley tomorrow?

This is Germany versus Holland, both athletes competing in the Rio Olympics, both in quad sculls. Richard Phelps umpiring.

A little wait and then the roll over . The German gets a better first stroke. Along the Island Thiele gets a small lead. At the start of the booms the German has a boat length lead over the Dutch sculler.

Janssen is still in contact with the Thiele at the 500m mark. They are both rating quite high still  will Thiele carry on going and maintain control of the race. This is definitely a marathon not a sprint race.

Thiele doesnt move further maintaining the distance and her rate. This is composed strong sculling. Will the Dutch girl come back at the 1000m mark?

Thiele has a higher stroke rate and despite sculling close to the booms she has a long strong explosive stroke. At the marker she puts in a leg push and looks over to Janssen to check the distance.

Janssen has kept in contact and at Upper Thames its bow ball to stern between the scullers. She makes another move at Remenham and is still in contact with Thiele but hasnt meant a real dent with overlap. Thiele takes it up at the public enclosures maintaining her closeness to the booms. Can Janssen claw back the distance?

Janssen seems to have more of the course width.

In to the last 100m and Janssen is really going for the line. Is Thiele going to need to respond, given her consistency through the middle of the race?

Thiele beats Janssen

31 5:30 Double Sculls ....... Steinhubel & Rommelmann v. Storey & Harris

New Zealand against the German team. This looks to be a fast race as we enter the Saturday evening at Henley Royal Regatta 2017. The calm before the storm as they line up in the shelter of the Island. Two very close doubles.

A long hold on the start and the Germans get a very good start where the Kiwis seem a little distracted  the Kiwis wander off their station and are warned by the Umpire.

At the start of the boom the Germans have an advantage but the New Zealanders pull it back and push through at the 500m mark.

This is all about composure and the Kiwis are starting ot move to clear water at Remenham Church. This is tricky racing because of the distractions and the river wash. The New Zealanders are warned again by John Hedger umpiring.

The stroke of the New Zealand is a double Olympian and is keeping his cool. Two weeks ago this crew raced at Poznan and are world class.

The New Zeland crew are showing the dynamic and well drilled sculling stroke moving away again from the Germans at Upper Thames to a very comfortable lead, despite wandering back to the middle of the course. At the start of the public enclosures the race has become a bit of a procession as the Germans are outclassed by the New Zealanders, the stroke of the German crew also racing at Poznan as a lightweight.

Tomorrow the New Zealanders will race the lightweight French double. That will be an interesting race.

Storey & Harris beat Steinhubel & Rommelmann

30 4:20 Ladies .................... RTHC Bayer Leverkusen, Germany v. Oxf. Brookes Un. & Taurus B.C.

Final race of the afternoon and Oxford Brookes have gone out like an absolute bullet the Brookes boys have a canvas lead over the German crew. The fastest University crew of the regatta (5:30), against the best club crew. This is a real fight.

The Brookes boat is not letting go of the rate as they pass Remenham Church and they are powering it down the Barn Bar enclosures as Bayer make a move to stay in touch.

The Germans are still in this race and are moving at the 1000m mark, being three quarters of a length down. In front of Upper Thames Brookes make another push and move back to a length up. If they can get clear water they really take control.

Coming into the public enclosures and the Brookes experience level is showing as they move to stamp on this race. They move to two lengths clear and are being lifted by the noise from the enclosures.

An aggressive finish for the Brookes crew who feel the pressure from Bayer and are not letting them take an centimetre. A class act from Brookes as they take the line. They'll race the Under 23's tomorrow.

Oxf. Brookes Un. & Taurus B.C. RTHC Bayer Leverkusen, Germany

29 4:10 Womens Fours ....... Hollandia Roeiclub, Netherlands v. Vesper B.C. & Princeton N.R.A., USA

The Dutch crew are warned by the umpire Matthew Pinsent, as they move towards the Americans. Very difficult steering s they come back on track. The Americans move to a half length lead as the Dutch meander unsettling the balance of the boat. The Dutch have to hang on to the Americans.

At Remenham Church the Dutch are still only half a length down from the Americans having settled into their race rhythm. The American crew has a crew member from the gold from Rio, in the eight, and a member of the US Rio quad scull.

The Dutch are still in touch and are settling into a rhythm and have been stalking the American down the course with the boats level. The Americans put in a push coming through Upper Thames and they need to build on that.

The Dutch crew are not afraid of the Americans and make a move on the Americans to take back the lead as they come up to the public enclosures. They move the nose of the boat in front of the Americans. The Under 23 Dutch crew are really putting down a marker againstthe Americans moving back and racing to the finish line after the initial steering issues. The Americans race for the line but the technique of the Dutch has taken them over the line first.

Hollandia Roeiclub, Netherlands beat Vesper B.C. & Princeton N.R.A., USA

28 4:00 Princess Elizabeth Eton Coll. v. Scotch Coll., Melbourne, Australia

Can Eton upset the huge boys from Australia? Both crews have high ambitions. Richard Phelps umpiring. Coxes have their hands up for a long time. A very quick call over and a very aggressive start from Australia.

At the end of the Island and the crews are level as both crew3s have gone flat out. A lot of pride at stake.

The crews are rating the same and are rowing stroke for stroke at the 500m mark. Eton are aiming to break that rhythm of the Australians.

Eton College are very smooth in front of Remenham Church and are a bow ball ahead. The Australians have had a harder route to this race- will it count against them? This is going to go all the way and the fitness is going to be tested in these crews.

At the 1000m the Australians make a push and have an advantage. They just upped it as the power comes off the Eton crew. The advantage moves to half a length at Upper Thames. Very fluid, locked and powerful in the Australians, this is a psychological test for Eton. How will they respond to the push?

This is going to take a very big sprint finish from Eton. Eton keep coming back and move back to half a length and then start taking the three man. They are really throwing everything at the finish. There is a massive roar from the enclosures. Can they find that extra gear  theyve got to go again. They dont have that big lift in the las ten strokes. A great effort but Scotch College beat Eton College.

27 3:50 Stewards ............... Un. of Pretoria, South Africa v. Leander Club & Molesey B.C.

Will Satch at stroke in the Leander/Molesey/Brookes boat, with a significant beard, and a tandem rig in the middle of the boat.

This is a terrible start from the British crew who clash in the first 250 m, a heart in the mouth moment as the umpire waves his flag. They really went out and were a canvas up but lost it and need to move back on the South Africans.

The British start to move but this is still an advantage to South Africa. This is going to be a claw back from the GB crew, who dont seem to settle or get the cohesion they are should have had off of the start.

The GB crew are still fighting to get the rhythm as they approach the 1000m mark but despite that the South Africans are slowly rowed through by the GB crew.

This is a very close race as the South Africans race like terriers and hang on to the British crew. They are not letting them have this race on a plate.

At Upper Thames the GB crew make their move and the South Africans cant react and come back.

The GB crew move to two lengths clear water at the start of the public enclosures with the Olympic gold medallist steering the crew from the two seat. The GB crew are taking the applause from Stewards as they finish fully in control of the race. They will face Italy tomorrow in the final.

Leander Club & Molesey B.C. beat Un. of Pretoria, South Africa

Will Satch said: " it's nice to come back to your own patch, being at Caversham is a bit samey every day.

"There's all sorts of stuff to deal with on the river though, as Caversham is locked off to pleasure boats.

"It's still early days but I think there's a lot of potential in the boat. We can go fast, we just need consistency and we're not quite there yet.

"I've been in the eight for four years on the trot so it's a challenge but sometimes that's good."

26 3:40 Princess Royal ...... H. R. Osborne v. V. L. Thornley

Vicky Thornley current European Champion and Leander Club member races the New Zealander Hannah Osborne. Umpired by Sarah Winckless, this is Thornleys home ground.

A very dominant start from Thornley, who moves close to her opponent along the island, but isnt warned for her steering. She starts to move away from the New Zealander showing her ability in the single scull, in the first 250m, settling into a strong rhythm. The New Zealander is still in contact with only a half length lead by Thornley. The New Zealander is really pushing the Leander athlete down her home water.

Osborne is not letting Thornley pull away, still with overlap at the 1000m mark and is over-rating Thornley. This is a real head to head race for Thornley.

At the start of the Upper Thames enclosures Osborne is level with Thornley. Thornley reacts with a big push and takes the rate up with a big, big push that the New Zealander cant respond to, taking a length out of Osborne. She builds on that to move to clear water and really starts to command the second half of the race.

She takes the rate up again at the start of the public enclosures as Osborne moves to challenge her. 300m to go and Thornley keeps her composure as Osborne takes it up again.

Osborne didnt have that extra gear and Thornley takes the race comfortably with efficient sculling from Osborne.

V. L. Thornley beat H. R. Osborne

25 3:30 Womens Fours ....... Oxf. Brookes & Melbourne, Australia v. New York Athletic Club, USA

World class athletes in both boats with Olympic Champions in both crews. A very impressive line-up.

From nothing to everything at the start as they explode into the first 250m The Umpire has to warn NYAC off of the start. These crews are stroke for stroke into the booms with the NYAAC crew pulling a canvas ahead. Very powerful strokes from both crews as they press these boats into the 500m mark. This is proving to be a real tussle with the Oxford Brookes boat rating slightly higher and putting in a big push at the Remenham Church.

This is a really exciting race as both crews are having to cope with the bouncy conditions and use their skill and power to race the middle the thousand, not shaking their opponent. There is nothing in it  it is completely toe to toe.

Past Remenham the NYAC crew make a push and take the lead, stealing a length from the Brookes crew. How can they react?

Brookes take it up a pop and move back in contact. NYAC react and both crews are pushing it all the way to the finish. This is a text book race on the steering after the initial wobble and NYAC maintain their lead. Into the Stewards enclosure theres a burst from the Brookes crew who have overlap and are racing for the line. Can NYAC hang on? Fifteen strokes left and NYAC take it up. NYAC win over Brookes.

New York Athletic Club beat Oxf. Brookes & Melbourne, Australia

24 3:20 Ladies .................... Molesey B.C. & London R.C. v. Brown Univ., USA

The British Under 23 eight versus Brown University from Providence Island. The latter have been together all season, whilst the U23s have come together for this race.

These eights are fast and furious and Brown are over-rating as they come into the track. The U23 crew are more rhythmical against the aggressive front end drive of the American crew at the 500m mark they are still side by side and Brown are making some interesting pushes to stay level through Remenham. This is a real head to head race.

The under 23s creep out ahead again as Brown rate slightly higher, coming into the 1000m mark. The Brown boat is very close to the booms which can be a little unsettling. Brown have thrown their all at the race early on, as the GB crew gain half a length at Upper Thames. Brown push again at Remenham and are pulling back alongside.

This is still half a length to the GB eight at the public enclosures, having been unable to break clear of Brown. They need to hold together under pressure. This is set up for a grandstand finish. The voices rise from the enclosures.

The GB eight take it up and pull out a length as Brown scrabble to match it.

Molesey B.C. & London R.C. beat Brown Univ., USA

23 3:10 Fawley .................... Claires Court Sch. v. Maidenhead R.C. A

A local derby as two Maidenhead clubs race each other in this school boys quad race. These are both class crews so it should be an impressive race.

They get away cleanly and both are getting pushing like steam trains, despite a contrast in styles.

Maidenhead have an advantage into the booms by half a length, with an aggressive style compared to the Claires Court rhythmically style. At the 500m mark Claires Court move back on the Maidenhead crew into Remenham. They pull back to a level position.

Claires Court are not letting the Maidenhead quad have it their way and they are still side by side at the 1000m mark.

Claires Crew put in a push and take a small lead on the Maidenhead crew. The fluid efficient style is letting them dominate the race and they move to clear water at Upper Thames despite Maidenhead putting in a push.

Claires Court have the advantage as they push past Remenham up to the public enclosures with Maidenhead struggling to respond. Claires Court push again and are a length clear water as the crowds start yelling and they move into the Stewards enclosure.

Claires court start the build for the finish as they power it up two pips and move to three lengths over Maidenhead. A commanding advantage. They look really good for tomorrow. They cruise over the line as Maidenhead drive for it.

Claires Court Sch. beat Maidenhead R.C. A

22 3:00 Grand ..................... Waiariki R.C., New Zealand v. Passau & Treviris Trier, Germany

The fastest eight the world has ever seen with a 5.18 for 2000meters at Poznan from Germany against the New Zealand eight.

A very deliberate first stroke as they power into the first 250m. The crews are stroke for stroke as Germany is warned for its steering into the middle of the course. That was a big correction from Germany.

The Germans move away at the 500m marker but the New Zealanders are struggling to keep alongside. The Germans are rowing as a machine  smooth and well drilled  moving away through to the 1000m marker. There is more to come in the second half of the race.

The New Zealanders put in an Upper Thames push but arent making a dent on the Germans advantage. No wasted effort from that crew.

Everyone on their feet in the Stewards enclosure as the Germans take the line with great style and power. The New Zealanders did themselves great credit staying on terms with this phenomenal German crew.

Passau & Treviris Trier, Germany beat Waiariki R.C., New Zealand

21 2.50 Stewards ............... Team Italia, Italy v. Leander Club & Griffen B.C.

All Olympic medallists in the Italian team racing the crew from Leander and Yale. A big match.

The Italians are really intense off the start with a very high rate contrasting to the heavier longer Leander crew. Both crews are level at the end of the Island.

These crews are truly stroke for stroke even catching and finishing identically. Two very contrasting styles but both moving the boat.

At Remenham Church the Italians put in a big push and take a quarter of a length. They are really trying to go early and make a move with the rate.

At the 100m mark the Leander crew are warned to steer away from the middle by Boris Rankov. The Italians are making headway and are also moving to the middle of the track, getting a warning from Boris Rankov.

The flag is still up and the Italians are warned again. The Italians have a length over the British at Upper Thames and are moving again.

The British crew need to get back on terms with a big push now.

Into the public enclosures the British arent losing contact and are taking the rate up but the Italian team has the advantage of seeing whats going on. The British team havent been thrown off. Who has the better sprint finish?

The Italians havent managed to break into clear water as the noise rises from the Stewards enclosure. They need to really go for it if they are to catch the Italians.

The Italians win over Leander by two thirds of a length. That was a hard race for the Italians and solid performance from the Leander crew.

Team Italia, Italy beat Leander Club & Griffen B.C.

20 2:40 Princess Grace ...... Nottingham R.C. & Warrington R.C. v. Reading Univ.

A family affair in these senior womens quads being umpired by Richard Phelps, with some well know rowing parents watching their off spring race.

Reading really fought to get here beating Calgary yesterday. A very aggressive start from Reading who veer slightly into the middle of the course. They are racing the GB under 23s.

At the start of the booms the U23s are a length ahead and are cruising though to the 500m mark. The U23 are showing their class as they walk away from Reading who arent slouching or giving up but are just being out-powered.

The under 23s are cruising through the 1000m and are showing class sculling with a very smooth finish.

The stroke of the U23s is one year out of juniors and looks set to be a name of the future, as her crew pulls away from the Reading girls. This is very efficient sculling as they lower the rate into the public enclosures.

Hanging on to the finish they are letting the Reading girls race their races as they lever it over the line.

Nottingham R.C. & Warrington R.C. beat Reading Univ.

19 2:30 Visitors ................. Edinburgh Univ. v. Cambridge Univ.

Two very strong crews with lots of competition and lots of drama. Two big universities with a strong training base in coxless fours.

Cambridge have a very small veer off the first stroke but straighten up quickly. This is a very aggressive start. Both crews rowing stroke for stroke into the booms. Edinburgh are not letting the Cambridge crew go. A little bit of stiffness in the Edinburgh crew as Cambridge get into their rhythm and getting into the middle part of the race with  of a length advantage. In front of the Barn Bar the crews are still rating high with some explosive power.

The Cambridge crew have clear water advantage at the half way mark, with some meandering as they are warned by the Umpire. The Cambridge boat is tandem rigged with heavier guys than in the Edinburgh boat. Edinburgh still attacking and start to push at the 1000m mark. That was a big attack from Edinburgh and Cambridge reacted and went again to gain back the clear water.

Cambridge have really put themselves out there as both crews are racing hard. Cambridge are warned again to get straight having to steer against their bow siders.

Edinburgh still in touch and still in contact. Do Edinburgh have the skill to race it to the line? Cambridge catch a crab and recover but that cost them a quarter of a length. Cambridge panic a little and Edinburgh are coming back. The noise from the crowds is deafening Can Cambridge hang on to the line. Half a length to Cambridge. That was a real miss-step at the Phyllis Court flag,

Edinburgh are protesting impediment, having been washed down by the Cambridge crew after that crab, but the Umpire does not accept the protest and the result was not affected.

Cambridge Univ. beat Edinburgh Univ.

18 2:20 Remenham .............. Hollandia Roeiclub, Netherlands v. Waiariki R.C., New Zealand

A composed but slower start from the Kiwis as the Dutch crew create noise straight away. Side by side at the end of the Island, but the Kiwi eight moves to a half length lead as they move into the booms. The Kiwi eight won at Poznan, beating the Americans and have a lot of class.

Another push at the 500m and the Kiwis push to a length lead over the Dutch squad.

The Dutch crew have suffered a tough blow early on in the race and will have to make some big pushes to stay in touch with the Kiwis. Both crews showing the quality of their rowing as the waves hit at the cross over point on the course.

The Kiwis are not taking the rate down and are really powering down the course. At the 1000m mark they sit up and stretch out to increase the distance away from the Dutch crew, to two lengths.

The Dutch are losing contact with the Kiwis into the public enclosures, despite racing a strong race and not letting the rate drop. The Kiwis are keeping the movement in the boat with no momentum loss.

The Kiwis take the Stewards applause and the cruise into the finish line, having dominated this race.

Waiariki R.C., New Zealand beat Hollandia Roeiclub, Netherlands im 6min 46.

17 2:10 Fawley .................... Leander Club v. The Windsor Boys Sch.

Boys quads and Matthew Pinsent is umpiring. Both crews away cleanly.

Windsor have a gold at National Schools whilst this is Leanders home water. Leander are a little close to the booms at the start but have an advantage over Windsor on the first 250m. Windsor arent rolling over and at the 500m Leander have only managed to get a canvas in front. Leander are slightly heavier than Windsor, both crews showing high standards of sculling.

At Remenham Windsor are a length down under rating Leander about a pip. This could be a power battle between the two crews later in the race.

At the 1000m Leander retain the advantage, pumping the boat along with the slightly higher rate, but very disciplined.

Windsor pull back the advantage at Upper Thames encroaching on Leanders lead and taking on the 2 man  can they take the bow of Leander?

Leander react and put in a push just before public enclosures but arent shaking the Windsor Boys.

Can Windsor keep the confidence and power through? Really close racing as they come to Stewards and both crews are taking the rate up. Windsor clawing back the distance but then Leander push, with about 200m to go. Leander lift as the noise rises and so do Windsor.

A little look across and Windsor go Massive determination this is going to be called on the line. A race that depended on the last surge of the boat. No immediate announcement.

Windsor Boys School beat Leander by two feet. An amazing race.

16 2:00 Double Sculls ....... Oppo & Ruta v. Houin & Azou

France take on Italy in the first race of the afternoon. Some of the best Scullers in the world here with the French Olympic champions from Rio 2016.

The French seem slightly more explosive than the Italians, both crews out cleanly but the French move into the middle of the course and are warned, then Italy are warned. All before the 500m mark.

France dropped a fraction on the Italians but the French claw it back  two top lightweight international boats.

Theses lightweights have beaten have heavyweight crews, with the Italians beating their own heavyweight team mates earlier in the regatta.

The French lightweights are pulling back and still very much stroke for stroke. The Italians have three Olympic experiences under their belt and as they look across at the French they put in a big push, gritting their teeth. At Upper Thames the French are going and take half a length.

Both crews trying to break the other, they are still overlapping at the public enclosures. The French go again but the Italians respond. This is a real all-star race.

The French look like they are rowing through the Italians, moving to a length advantage. Real power and aggression in these crews.

Coming through the last 250m and they are both taking the rate up and are coming back under pressure. Can the finish line come in time?

The Italians took it all the way to the line but the French win. That looks like a very fast race and very fierce.

Houin & Azou beat Oppo & Ruta

A very good morning of racing boding well for tomorrow's finals.

15 12:20 Temple .................... Un. of California, Berkeley, USA v. Oxford Brookes Un. A

Last race before lunch. Two mens eights and the favoured Brookes boat against California. Brookes have the better start and pull away immediately with a slightly sharper start.

Brookes are a bow ball ahead but California respond. Both crews are making a lot of noise and are really charging down the first 500m, not letting the rate drop and neither conceding the advantage.

Brookes push through at the 500m mark and take the rate down to a good solid rate at Remenham church .

Through the Barn Bar California are a length down. What will the Californians be able to pull back?

Brookes settle at 1000m to as they react to any pushes California put in. At Upper Thames they have clear water on California and have put together a solid middle part of the race. This crew have beaten both Oxford and Cambridge this year so they are not afraid on taking on challengers. At the public enclosures the clear water advantage is maintained, as the Brookes cox checks to see the distance between the boats. Brookes will face Yale in the final if they dont have a disaster in the last 250m California take it up but Brookes can comfortably hold this off as they put in a good technical finish.

Oxford Brookes Un. A beat Un. of California, Berkeley, USA

14 12:10 Goblets .................. Dunkley-Smith & Booth v. Juhasz & Simon

The Hungarians in distinctive red and green against Mercantile, Australia. The Hungarians won the Euro champs last year but came 9th this year.

This is going to be an interesting race as both pairs move together off the start. The Hungarians have rowed together for 8 years but the Australians have an early lead.

The Australians have two stone weight advantage over the Hungarians and are using that to push to a commanding lead at the 500m mark.

Mercantile move to two lengths lead over the Hungarians and drift a little on their steering at the 1000m mark despite the umpire not raising the flag.

The Australians have along fluid stroke, using the weight advantage to power through the middle of the course. A smooth stroke from some big guys.

The Hungarians make a big push abut dont dent the Australians distance lead. The Hungarians dont cause any discomfort. They never stop racing hard but the power difference and four Olympic silver medals shows couldnt be rowed down.

Dunkley-Smith & Booth beat Juhasz & Simon

13 12:00 Visitors ................. Leander Club v. California R.C., USA

The umpire starts to call and then says as you were as theres a timing issue. They start cleanly despite that. This is going to be a big race for Leander, as the Californian crew has three Henley medals.

Leander have one of the best starts of the regatta as they push out to a length lead over the Californian crew. This might unsettle the race plan of the Californians.

The Leander crew are into a solid rhythm and push to two lengths lead at Fawley.

The Leander crew have a lot of local experience on this stretch and are powering it down past Upper Thames as California put in a big push and veer to the centre of the course a little. Leander have been as straight as an arrow down the course and it looks like, bar any issues, that this will be a solid win for Leander.

Leander stretch ahead to three lengths at Remenham. This is an extremely solid row.

California take it up at the enclosures as Leander remain error free, in command of the race. In front of the grandstands Leander take the applause having been in total control of this race from the first stroke. A brilliant row.

Leander Club beat California R.C., USA

F Stevenson said  I think we had a good race we had a decent start. The last of couple days we havent really been happy with our start and its been a bit messy but today we showed what we could do.

Were excited for tomorrow he went on to say.

We tried to stay loose and not let the wash push us around. Were used to this water.

Obviously the win feels good but the job is no-way near done and its just on to tomorrow. Were looking forward to the final. We have a good atmosphere in the boat. Were having fun and want to go out and enjoy ourselves.

12 11:50 Remenham .............. Un. of Lon. & Imp. Coll. v. Leander Club & Un. of Lon.

A heat of the womens eights and Guin Batten umpiring. A long pause in the start but they are away cleanly.

The Leander composite veer a little off the Island and are really using all of the width of their station. The Leander/UL eight is the current British eight who raced in Poznan, Poland and recently beat the Americans.

The Leander/UL composite push to a length lead at the 500m over the Imperial/UL boat who are effectively the GB under 23 eight. The Imperial boat is staying in the race as the GB boat have a rhythm change at the 1000m mark.

This is a good row from the U23 who are still chasing the senior GB boat at the public enclosures. Coming through Stewards, the GB womens eight have this race under control but the Imperial boat is sitting on their tail just in case theres an error. The GB boat take the the line as the U23 race to the line, with only half a length in it at the finish. A competitive race but experience won out.

Leander Club & Un. of Lon. beat Un. of Lon. & Imp. Coll

Fiona Gammon, from the Leander/UL composite said: It was a good race. We were happy with it. We are just taking steps and improvements every race, ready for the final tomorrow. We stuck to our race plan.

"We stuck to our race plan. 

11 11:40 Prince of Wales ..... Edinburgh Univ. v. Leander Club B

Both boats predictably work very hard off the start. Leander Club B just nose ahead with a much higher rate from them. As they go into the booms its stroke for stroke. Edinburgh are not letting them have this race and it looks like a very even contest. Edinburgh are really pushing Leander in this race. Leander still overrating Edinburgh at the 500m mark. Who is going to make the mark at Remenham?

This is stroke for stroke through to the Barn Bar and Edinburgh put in a push to move in front. Leander will have to react in the middle of the race. Both crews stay focused with very straight steering. Edinburgh push again at the 1000m with a canvas lead over Leander

Leander build at Upper Thames. No crew can relax in this race as Edinburgh grind it out maintaining the advantage at Remenham. The Edinburgh crew are 2 pips higher in the rate and are lightweights chipping it along but Leander are using the weight advantage and power through at the start of the public enclosures. Leander know this course and have hung on to the last section knowing where the finish line is. This last 250 m and 2 minutes are going to be a big tussle.

A marginal lead from Leander as Edinburgh take it up. Leander take it to the line and are powering the last 20 strokes, in a race that could have gone either way. Its going to be an all Leander Club final tomorrow in the Prince of Wales.

Leander Club B beat Edinburgh University

Charles Waite-Roberts, stroke of the Leander crew who lives in West Street, Henley, said: "In our heads we stuck to our plan, they went out really hard but we stuck with them and had a big push in the second half. That's our strength.

"They stopped moving and we turned the screw. With 750m to go that's when we started to put the nails in the coffin.

"Rowing on a course like this you have to have the confidence, fitness, crewmates and a plan for the whole season."

10 11:30 Princess Grace ...... Wallingford & Agecroft v. Hollandia Roeiclub, Netherlands

Womens quads with local women from Wallingford against the Dutch crew. Matthew Pinsent umpiring. Both crews away cleanly with a slightly more powerful start from the Dutch crew who seize an early initiative and settle into their rhythm early to have a very fluid start, resulting in clear water at the 500m mark. Two lengths at the Barrier and the Dutch crew have walked away as the weight advantage shows, the Wallingford crew being a lot lighter than the Dutch crew.

The Dutch crew contains three Rio Olympians so this will be a real challenge for the Wallingford crew.

The Dutch reduce their rate of striking at the 1000m mark as they command the race. Wallingford power on through their race plan and put in a push at Upper Thames, possibly being lifted by the shouts from the crowd.

In front of Remenham, the Dutch have a very smooth rhythm as the Wallingford crew put the closing race tactics in place. Wallingford take it up as they push through the public enclosures.

The Dutch crew take the applause past the grandstands as they drop the rate of and paddle to the finish line.

Wallingford continue to race their race taking it to the line and closing the gap.

A great performance, having come through qualification, for Wallingford but they were up against Olympians.

Hollandia Roeiclub, Netherlands beat Wallingford & Agecroft

9 11:20 Goblets .................. Lodo & Vicino v. Onfroy & Onfroy

Italys top boat against the French brothers. The French have to work to make their mark on the Italians because of previous race pedigree. This should be a great match up  with silver for the French in the European Championships.

Through the Barn Bar they are stroke for stroke though the Italians are warned for their steering. The umpire is getting busy and the Italians are not responding. Another wave of the flag and the Italians finally move over as they come to the 1000m mark as the French are warned to move away from the middle of the track.

This is stroke for stroke as the Italians edge ahead at Upper Thames. Absolutely nothing in it. Steering costs the Italians some speed as the French take the advantage and respond to a quarter length lead in front of Remenham. The French put on another surge to move to a three quarter length lead.

The French move away to clear water and the Italians have a problem at the start of the public enclosures as they seized the initiative and out psyching the Italians. The older brother is in the stroke seat of the French pair and coming into the enclosures and the Italians are running out of time in this race. The French stretch their lead and in the last 100m they have this race. They put together a very good race.

Onfroy & Onfroy (France) beat Lodo & Vicino (Italy)

8 11:10 Womens Double Sculls .........Francis & Carmichael v. Donoghue & Loe

The second semi-final between New Zealand on the Bucks station against the British double, made up of Leander and Imperial College athletes.

The British crew are out off the first stroke but the New Zealanders are punching out and are showing why they were the world cup champions two weeks ago. The Kiwis have a slight lead at the end of the island showing the mechanical advantage in their stroke. The British crew are not letting them walk away. At the 500m mark the kiwis put in another push and move to clear water, with comfortable sculling.

The pedigree of the New Zealand crew shows past the Barn Bar as they comfortably lead from the British double, who are racing still but are not denting the distance between the boats.

The water is quite tricky this morning with the wash coming down, but this is very smooth sculling from the Kiwis, who have a commanding lead at Upper Thames. Richard Phelps is umpiring with yet another blazer and a Cambridge cap.

The British double are still powering down considering they are a new combination.

The crowd in Stewards applaud the New Zealand as they comfortably cross the finish line, rating 26.

Donoghue & Loe (New Zealand) beat Francis & Carmichael (Leander and Imperial College) 7min 46 sec

Fastest time to Fawley in this new event.

7 11:00 Wyfold ................... Sport Imperial B.C. v. Thames R.C.

Both crews have a wobble with the steering off the start to the Berks station as Thames are warned by the umpire, having made too big a correction away from the Island. Steering in these coxless fours is dominating the early part of the race and Sport Imperial are using that to their advantage to take an early lead.

At the 500m mark Imperial are a length up despite Thames calling for a second start push. Thames are staying in contact but do seem to wander back to the middle of the track.

Imperial react at Remenham Church and push to clear water. Two brothers in the Imperial crew so a good cohesion there.

Imperial are committing to the middle of the course putting in another length of clear water as Thames are meandering a little, sitting in the wash of Sport Imperial. Imperial dont need to over think this and can put the power down as they cruise past Upper Thames.

Thames put in a Remenham push but are denting the Imperial lead as they come up to the public enclosure. Thames still steering to the middle a little, not helping sitting in the wash.

Through in front of the Grandstand and Sport Imperial are looking very relaxed as Thames paid for that early correction and veer over to the Berks station on the finish line.

Sport Imperial B.C. beat Thames R.C.

6 10:50 Temple .................... Yale Univ., USA v. Univ. of London A

This is an awesome start from these very well matched eights. Yale move out at the 500m mark to a canvas over UL, as Yale are trying to stamp their mark on the race.

Yale are here to show Brookes A they are here to win so they are hoping to break the UL boat early. Yale are still half a length up on UL through the Barn Bar. Both eights are racing every stroke.

At the 100m mark UL are hanging on to Yale and fighting. Yale are rating 36 as UL rate 37. Which team will hang on?

UL put in a big push at Upper Thames as Yale have to respond by taking the pip up. Ul move through Yale with a defining move and some confidence in the UL crew as they push to a canvas in front a the start of the public enclosures. Can they take it man for man to a length?

UL are really taking this to the line early and has the momentum. It doesnt look like Yale can turn the lead over depite going for it. UL took this race by the scruff of the neck. Yale are really pushing for the line but they lose by half a length to UL. This was a brilliant run around by UL.

5 10:40 Prince Albert ........ Imperial Coll. London v. Durham Univ. A

The winner of this race will race the crew from the second race of the day.

Matthew Pinset umpiring and a very nice start with an explosive start from Durham. Imperial will have to work hard to claw back the canvas lead Durham have created at the end of the Island. Durham are punching it away on the Bucks station whilst the Imperial boat with a slightly longer rhythm are keeping in contact. There is still overlap at the 500m mark and through to the Barn Bar.

Through to the mid-race and Durham have settled into a powerful rhythm but they only have a very small margin over Imperial. At the 1000m mark Imperial make a move and push the nose of the boat in front of Durham. They dug deep for that one. This is quite a psychological race.

At Upper Thames Imperial are still a canvas in front. Durham are not giving this away. This could change again  have Imperial got another gear to hold off Durham

At the public enclosures Imperial take the rate up and are powering it down.

The noise is really loud from the enclosures and Imperial have a length. Imperial kept their nerve as they take it up in the last 250m, pushing to clear water and on course for the final tomorrow. Durham race for the line but Imperial have the ine.

Imperial Coll. London beat Durham Univ. A and will race Newcastle tomorrow.

4 10:30 Prince of Wales ..... Nottingham R.C. & Agecroft R.C. v. Leander Club A

Richard Phelps is umpiring this race, a well known face on the regatta circuit. In the call over you can feel the nerves.

Leander put in a BIG start and blast out of the blocks, with some really big strokes. Nottingham are not letting them get away though.

At the end of the Island Leander put in another big push but Nottingham keep in touch and are not getting fazed by the Leander blast.

Nottingham are in a settled rhythm with a little look over to their opposition. How will they react to the length lead that Leander have created?

Nottingham put in a push at the Barn Bar, and are clearly competitive, giving Leander a good run for their money.

Leander are focusing are on the under 23s and are showing they are well drilled crew. Can Nottingham react to the big push at Upper Thames which seems a race defining move, from Leander?

Leander put in another push coming up to the public enclosures and pen up the clear water gap theyve developed. They are now in control of the race. Nottingham are pushing back but this looks like Leander have this race. Nottingham take it up but its Leander who are taking the applause past the grandstands.

Leander dont have to race to the line as they maintain the rate in the last 20 strokes.

Leander Club A beat Nottingham R.C. & Agecroft R.C

Harry Lesk from Leander said: "We have the plan set out that we wanted to do and I think we executed it well. We had a good start and got them where we a wanted them.We got in control of the race."

"There was some big wash coming through in the middle of the race. But we dealt with that pretty well. We're really looking forward to the final."

"We'll execute the same plan we've had all year and hopefully get the job done!"

3 10:20 Womens Double Sculls....... Oldenburg & de Jong v. Tarantola & Bove

France versus Holland in this race with the Dutch closest to the bank. A very young French double, the stroke being 19 years old.

A good start and both show an aggressive start from the French compared to the Dutch composure. They are side by side at the end of the Island and the French have a slight lead on the Dutch but the Dutch are not letting them walk away. The French crew are showing a dynamic lightweight stroke punching away down the course and at the 500m mark the French are in front by two third s of a length. The Dutch are showing a solid composed stroke and surge back into the lead developed by the French through the Barn Bar. This is a real tussle of a race as both team are reacting to the race tactics of the other.

In the middle of the course the Dutch use their weight advantage to get the edge on the French and at the 1000m mark the Dutch crew take the rate again with a big leg push. The French dont break and react with a press finish ten and its still side by side.

At Upper Thames the French put in a big build and take the lead again from the Dutch, stepping up to almost a length lead. This is a critical part of their race plan as both crews power up to the start of the public enclosures. This is going to be a real race to the line between these two crews.

It is a race to the line  more rate out of the French crew with both crews level. At the start of Stewards as the crowd gets excited the Dutch start to move for the line. The French react but have they got the power the Dutch crew has?

The rhythm of the Dutch has given them the sneak on the French who take it up again. This is a race decided in the last 250m of the race

Oldenburg & de Jong (Netherlands) beat Tarantola & Bove (France)

2 10:10 Prince Albert ........ Durham Univ. B v. Newcastle Univ.

An aggressive start and Durham are really going for Newcastle, after the cox was warned which hand to put up at the start by the Umpire. Newcastle are pushing to half a length lead at the 500m mark.

Coxed fours are tough races and the momentum in the boat is important. Newcastle have kept the momentum up to move to a length and clear water at the Barn Bar.

Newcastle have a slightly higher rate than Durham as Durham veer to the middle slightly. Newcastle move out to a comfortable lead but are still powering it down, not letting it up as they pass the 1000m marker. A strong rhythm, doing the job to keep Durham at bay.

At Upper Thames they are really stamping their mark and have a big lead over Durham who seem to have slightly lost the power and length they had at the start. The pain is showing on the Durham faces, in their tandem rigged boat. Have they had one too many hard races over the last three days?

Newcastle have a comfortable strong rhythm coming through to the public enclosures and are keeping the rate steady. They look very relaxed as they take the applause from Stewards. This is going to be a big show down tomorrow in the final  a north south match perhaps?

Newcastle take the line.

Newcastle University beat Durham University B

Race 1 - 10:00 Wyfold ................... U.T.S. Haberfield R.C., Australia v. The Tideway Sc.Sch.

The first race of the morning is coxless mens fours at club level and there has been some interesting steering from these boats earlier in the week, with a couple of boom crashes, notably coming out of the Island, as the buoys change to booms. Those solid bits of wood are unforgiving.

Rain overnight but still not a great deal of stream on the river, though the wind is getting up  great as its clearing the clouds away but with the addition of wash from river traffic the course will be bumpy later in the morning.

Scullers are on the Bucks station with the Austrlians closes to the bank on the Berks station. The Australian crew is bucket rigged, with two tandem rowers in the centre of the boat.

The Australians are warned for yelling from the boat as the Umpire starts the call over. A good squeeze on the first stroke from both crews but Scullers swing to the middle of the river and are warned by the umpire. They straighten easily and are stroke for stroke with the Australians into the booms. A cracking start for the first race.

Tideway drop half a length at the 500m mark as Australia try to stamp on the race but they put a push and claw the distance back. The Australian crew are lightweights and have a very springy rhythm. Scullers are not letting them have it all their way and are fighting all the way down the course. Both crews are steering well and keeping to their stations.

A push at Upper Thames and pulling back always staying in touch with the Australians, clawing cms off of the lead theyve developed. Scullers move through UTS at Remenham and are really putting in a big push to draw level. That was a good move.

Another step in the rating in the quiet patch of the course just before the public enclosures. A really fatal blow despite scullers getting a warning from Boris Rankov umpiring. Scullers have had some shockers in the past with disqualification. There is everything to play for.

This is a cracking first race  do the lightweights have a gear change. Both are sprinting for the line at the start off Stewards and the Scullers crew are really piling the pressure on as UTS are hanging in. It ooks like scullers have the better sprint as they power it to the finish. UTS drift off their station just before the line but it doesnt affect Scullers. Scullers take the winas UTS hit the commentary box. They seem to be attached to commentary box but are OK

Maybe the yoga on Tuesday night was just what the Scullers crew needed?

Tideway Scullers beat U.T.S. Haberfield R.C., Australia
The seizure of drugs was part of a month-long investigation

A massive 3.8m drug seizure has been linked to one of the capital's most dangerous drugs gangs.

The huge bust, near Ashbourne, Co Meath, was part of a month-long investigation by specialist detectives.

In total, 160kg of suspected cannabis herb, around 30kg of pure MDMA powder, and 2.5kg of cannabis resin were seized in the operation, which was carried out by Ashborne gardai.

A 31-year-old Co Meath man remained in garda custody last night at Kells Garda Station.

He was being questioned about the massive haul, which was allegedly found in a shed.

The gang being targeted by gardai are believed to have set up a massive criminal operation importing cannabis from the Netherlands into Ireland via the postal system.

The organiser has barely any previous convictions, despite being one of the main targets of the international police investigation, codenamed Operation Majesty, which was revealed in September 2013.

At that time, gardai released details that 2.5m in cash and 2.5m of cannabis herb, along with firearms, ammunition, grenades and luxury cars, had been seized in Ireland and across Europe in connection with the operation.

Robber

The gangster in control of the intricate criminal operation is a 39-year-old.

He works very closely with his younger brother in Liverpool.

They were both very close associates of Sean Dunne, a well-known armed robber and drug dealer who disappeared in Spain in 2004.

He is presumed to have been murdered.

Operation Majesty was revealed after gardai targeted the gang boss in separate raids that led to the seizure of 4.4m of drugs and thousands of euro of contraband cigarettes.
The Court of Appeal has upheld the convictions of two former bank executives, jailed last year for a 7.2bn conspiracy to defraud the public about the true health of Anglo Irish Bank in 2008.

Former head of capital markets with Anglo Irish Bank, John Bowe (53), from Glasnevin, and former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent, Denis Casey (57), from Raheny, had pleaded not guilty to a single count of conspiring to mislead investors by using inter- bank loans to make Anglo appear 7.2bn more valuable between March 1 and September 30, 2008.

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A jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court found them guilty following one of the longest criminal trials in the history of the State. Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Bowe to two years and Casey to two years and nine months' imprisonment on July 29, 2016.

The men had brought appeals against their convictions, which were heard over a week in March.

Publication of the appeal hearing was restricted for legal reasons but yesterday the three-judge Court of Appeal dismissed the men's appeals and upheld their convictions.

In a 138-page judgment, President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Sean Ryan said the court had taken into account the "extensive" grounds of appeal advanced on the men's behalf and the arguments concerning their convictions.

Mr Justice Ryan said the "lengthy and complex trial" ultimately turned on issues for the jury that were properly identified by the trial judge, who had exercised his function "carefully and correctly".

The Court of Appeal found no fault with the trial judge's rulings and directions and the jury had come to conclusions that were open to them to find, Mr Justice Ryan said.

Satisfied

The men's grounds of appeal included arguments about the role of the State authorities; objections to the admissibility of the evidence of the prosecution's expert witness; and submissions on rulings and directions to the jury by the trial judge.

Despite "Herculean" efforts by the men's barristers the three-judge court was satisfied that the men's trial was satisfactory and their convictions safe.

Mr Justice Ryan, who sat with Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the appeal must accordingly be dismissed.
Dylan OFlanagan, from Lusk, is charged with arson

A young man who allegedly set fire to a neighbour's fence and decking has been sent for trial.

Dylan O'Flanagan (23) was served with the book of evidence when he appeared on bail before Swords District Court.

As part of his bail conditions, Mr O'Flanagan has been ordered to keep away from the alleged injured party.

The accused, of Chapel Farm Row in Lusk, Co Dublin, is charged with arson at a neighbour's house in Lusk on June 3 last year.

It is alleged that Mr O'Flanagan damaged by fire wooden decking and fencing.

He is further charged with producing a glass of petrol while committing arson.

He is alleged to have caused hundreds of euro of damage to the neighbour's property in the incident.

State solicitor Michael Durkan said that the book of evidence was ready and had been served on the accused.

He goes forward for trial to the present sittings of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Inherited

Defence lawyer Patrick Jackson made an application for legal aid, saying the accused was unemployed and on social welfare.

Garda Ross Rowan objected to legal aid, saying Mr O'Flanagan was the sole beneficiary of his late mother's estate, and inherited more than 200,000 in 2014.

Gda Rowan said he believed that the accused had "more than enough to discharge the fees in the circuit court".

Gda Rowan also said he believed the case would be "a short matter" in the circuit court.

Mr Jackson said Mr O'Flanagan will not have access to the money for another two years, when he turns 25.

Judge Conal Gibbons said he would leave the decision on legal aid to the circuit court judge.

The accused was remanded on bail in his own bond of 300.

As part of his bail conditions, Mr O'Flanagan is to have no contact, either directly or indirectly, with the alleged injured party.

Mr O'Flanagan replied "no problem, yeah" when he was ordered by Judge Gibbons to stay away from his neighbour.

Judge Gibbons ordered that a video copy of an interview that gardai conducted with the accused be given to his legal team.

Mr O'Flanagan has yet to indicate how he is pleading to the charges.
Thousands of breast cancer survivors face financial hardship and stress following a HSE decision to cut vital support.

Under the new scheme women will now only be provided with an allowance of 68.50 for one breast prosthesis every two years.

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However, a prosthesis can cost between 110 and 200, two major suppliers warned last night.

Women will no longer be provided with surgical bras, other than those supplied when they are leaving hospital.

It follows the decision to ration the supply of post-mastectomy bras and prosthetics - in order to extend the service countrywide.

The unpopular changes were due to come into effect today, but last night the Health Service Executive (HSE) was forced to postpone the introduction for a month.

The HSE attempted to defend the overhaul, saying that the new scheme would give every woman in the country the same service.

It also said it will end the problem of some health areas having limited or no support, adding: "The policies were introduced to ensure standard guidelines and equal and consistent access based on a patient's need and not their geographic location."

A spokeswoman said: "The new policy now extends access on an ongoing basis to all women for post-mastectomy products. Previously these products were only accessible to medical card holders."

However, Marybeth Shiell, who runs the Everywoman service at Murray's Pharmacy in Talbot Street, Dublin, said: "This seems to have blindsided everyone."

Kate Conway, who runs the Bravelle service in Ballyneety in Limerick, said the special bras can cost on average 50 to 60.

Devastating

She called on Health Minister Simon Harris to intervene, and said it appeared that the changes were "slipped in under the radar".

Dr Janice Walshe, a medical oncologist at St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, said: "While a diagnosis of breast cancer is difficult, the knowledge that a mastectomy is needed rather than a lumpectomy is doubly devastating.

"Patients will often suffer low self-esteem due to altered body image, so the importance for a woman to have a proper, well-fitting good prosthesis cannot be overstated.

"Personally, I think it is inconceivable to think that women may not be wearing an essential garment due to inability to pay."

Previously, women in several areas were entitled to two surgical bras to hold the prosthesis in place.

If the woman had a medical card, she may then have been fitted and supplied with two surgical bras every year and a new breast prosthesis every two years.
Swimming has been banned at three locations in South Dublin after seawater was found to be contaminated with high levels of the harmful bacteria E coli and Enterococci.

The temporary prohibition on swimming at Killiney Beach and Blackrock and Seapoint bathing areas will remain in force until Monday.

The prohibition warning was issued yesterday by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council after test results revealed the presence of the dangerous bacteria at the popular swimming areas.

Warnings

Officials also issued warnings to pet owners to be aware that the poor quality of the water is not suitable for animals and that dogs should be kept out of the water at the three bathing areas until Monday.

The council initially issued warnings for Killiney and Blackrock and followed up with a second warning extending the swim ban to Seapoint.

Water quality in areas of Dublin Bay has been known to deteriorate after very heavy rain and the high level of rainfall in recent days is a suspected link to the problem.

However, a cause for the current contamination has not yet been announced.

Councillor Cormac Devlin, a Fianna Fail member of the council and former cathaoirleach, told RTE it was "alarming" that the ban was needed following the last prohibition notice issued in January.

He called for council staff to identify the cause of this latest contamination so that it can be addressed "once and for all".

"We are fortunate, in one way, that the weather is not forecast to be as warm and sunny as it has been," he said.

"However, the fact that this has happened yet again, for another summer, is alarming.

"Daily and regular swimming is common along our coast and I have asked the officials of the council to try investigate the root cause of this recurring problem."

Each local authority in Ireland is obliged to identify official swimming areas in their regions and ensure that their water quality is monitored for health and safety reasons.
Nearly 80 PA people have been charged for Jan. 6 riot. Three are dead.
CATAWBA COUNTY  Two billboards on Interstate 40 West represent differing Christian perspectives on broad national questions relating to Islam, refugees and immigration.

In May, the N.C. Pastors Network purchased a billboard with the message, Why support President Trumps Travel Ban? 19 Muslim immigrants killed 2,977 Americans September 11, 2001.

Within the past few weeks, the N.C. Council of Churches responded with its own billboard quoting Leviticus 19:34: Welcome the stranger, for you were once a stranger.

Jennifer Copeland, executive director of the council, said in a phone interview the organization decided to put up the billboard to counter what they felt was antithetical to the Christian message that we wanted portrayed for the people of North Carolina.

The billboard also is intended to show that not all Christians have negative views of Muslims, Copeland said.

Im happy to help Christians think more deeply about their holy text, but I also am interested in helping non-Christians understand that all Christians are not people that are narrow-minded and hate-filled, Copeland said.

Fear and ignorance are the roots of the antipathy toward Muslims and other outsiders, Copeland said.

I think people are afraid, and most the time, were most afraid of what we dont know, Copeland said. So find out what you dont know and then form an opinion.

The Hickory Daily Record attempted to contact Dave Kistler, the president of the N.C. Pastors Network, to discuss the billboard, but he was unavailable for comment.

The N.C. Pastors website included a post around the time the billboard was purchased describing the groups motivations.

We understand that the challenge we face today is not primarily political, but rather spiritual, according to the post. The dilemma we face with Islamic terrorism is one of the religion itself. Plain and simple, Islamic ideology/theology is the problem.

The latest post about the billboard on the N.C. Pastors website was written by the Rev. Joseph Alghrary, who said he was the son of an Iraqi immigrant, and he had traveled to Iraq himself on a number of occasions.

Alghrary defended the billboard and said it was not about hate.

The message of the billboard is not one of hate, but of love, Alghrary said. Who will tell the Muslim terrorist that he doesnt have to die in the process of trying to murder the infidel to go to heaven because someone has already died in his place and that is the true God, Jesus Christ, that Muslims desperately need to know.

The billboards placement comes at a time of national controversy about President Donald Trump's travel ban on six Muslim-majority nations.

A modified version of the travel ban is now in effect following a United States Supreme Court decision.
NEWTON  The Newton Parks and Recreation Department is sponsoring the annual Motorcycle, Truck & Car Show Classic at Southside Park on Saturday, July 22.

The gates will open at 11 a.m. and will close at 5 p.m. General admission is $2. Children 12 and younger will be admitted free. Concessions will be available. Southside Park is on U.S. 321 Business behind the National Guard Armory.

For show participants, the preregistration deadline by mail is Friday, July 14, with a $12 entry fee. Registration the day of the show will be allowed until 3 p.m. with a $15 entry fee.

Judging will begin at 3:30 p.m. for all classes. Trophies will be awarded in each class for winner, runner-up, and best of show.

Special club participation trophies will be awarded for farthest distance traveled, best dressed, and most members. All motorcycle or car clubs must have six or more members present to be considered for club participation awards.

A variety of special activities are planned for the event from noon to 3 p.m.

A Horsepower Shoot-Out featuring dyno testing courtesy of Max Power Mobil Dyno Service of Concord will be a special highlight. Dyno testing will be free until 3 p.m. A $10 fee will be charged for dyno testing after 3 p.m.

In addition, the Christian Motorcyclists Association will sponsor motorcycle games with the Harley-Davidson Riders vs. Sport Bike Riders.

Show exhibitions will include: Kawasaki/Yamaha/Suzuki of Hickory, Blue Ridge Harley Davidson & Buell of Hickory, Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki of Statesville, Bensons Cycle Salvage of Newton, AutoZone Auto Parts of Newton, OReilly Auto Parts of Newton, NAPA Auto Parts of Newton, Advance Auto Parts of Newton, Subway of Newton, and Amalfis Pizza of Conover.

For more information, contact Newton Recreation Program Coordinator Charles James at 828-695-4317 or 828-217-4446.
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Bollywood filmmakers opt for all possible strategies to create hype around their film, ahead of its release. While some go for over-the-top promotions, others create buzz with the teaser, or the poster of the film. However, recent instances point towards a new trend to get the audience talking about a filmchanging the title of the film. For example the Shraddha Kapoor-starrer biopic on Dawood Ibrahims sister that was initially called Haseena: The Queen of Mumbai and the poster created quite a buzz. Later, the makers announced a fresh release date for the film and fans were taken by surprise with a new title as willHaseena Parkar.

The reason we changed the title of the film was because ours is a biography, and we felt that it would be better for people outside Mumbai to get familiar with Haseena Parkar, as she was very well know in this city [Mumbai] but not outside of it, says Haseena Parkars director Apoorva Lakhia, adding that he doesnt feel the new poster will make audience wonder why the title was changed.

A biopic on Haseena Parkar, the film stars Shraddha Kapoor and her brother Siddhanth Kapoor in the main roles.

More recently, Huma Qureshis international debut, Viceroys House, which released in the UK in March this year, changed its title to Partition 1947 ahead of its India release in August 2017. British filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, director of the film, explains, There are certain things that appeal to an Indian audience and appeal to the Indian side of me, just as there are to the English side of me. So Partition 1947 is a great title and in fact, that was the working title of the film for many years. All early scripts are called partition. In England, they chose Viceroys House. But for India, this new title has a better connect.

Also, filmmaker Imtiaz Alis much-touted project Jab Harry Met Sejal, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma was originally titled The Ring, while the movie was being shot in parts of Europe.

Filmmaker Gurinder Chadhas film was released as Viceroys House in UK.

Filmmaker Homi Adajania, laughs as he shares how his first film was Being Cyrus was earlier called Akoori (parsi scrambled eggs). Sometimes a project starts with a non-title like, say Production no. 9 or some such and later, in the process of a final screenplay materialising, it gets a working title and the film starts getting identified with this. Once the film is ready, from a marketing perspective everyone starts to look for a suitable replacement to the working title. The problem is that the audience get so used to the working title that its tough to find a new one that resonates owing to your familiarity with the old one.

Whether this altering of title affects the popularity of a film in any way after it has created the hype with its original title, film critic Omar Qureshi opines, A lot of makers are superstitious about giving out their titles early on. Or simply dont have a title before filming begins. So they opt for a working title. And now even the title selection has become a marketing gimmick with other stars and producers pitching in to suggest titles on social media, which creates a buzz. Otherwise, its just that a title they are excited about initially doesnt really belong to them or is registered by someone else who are not giving it up. So its too many tugs and pulls. But at the end the product is the same and the content matters above any title.

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Abhishek Bachchans earring in his debut film Refugee is hard to forget. And as the film completed 17 years recently [June 30], filmmaker JP Dutta reveals that the actor still blames that the earring bent his ear permanently. The film, which also marked the debut of actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, was a love story of two refugees.

Abhishek wore an earring in the movie, which, till date, he maintains, has bent his ear, says Dutta, adding, I remember spotting Abhishek at his sisters wedding. His face, and the way he carried himself caught my attention. Some time later, when I thought of making Refugee, I immediately thought of him. So I went and met Abhishek and Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan), and the rest is history.

Going down memory lane, Dutta also recalls stopping his lead actors from eating way too much. There was a Gujarati thali restaurant in the hotel where we stayed, and I had to stop all the actors from eating it everyday, so they would not put on weight, he says.

A still from the film Refugee with Abhishek Bachchan with the earring in his left ear.

As for Kareenas character, the filmmaker says that no other actor could have essayed the role better. Dutta, who had worked as an assistant for Kareenas father, Randhir Kapoor, says that luckily Kareena was free [at that time] and could make her debut with this film.

Kareena is my gurus daughter. She was to do another movie, which did not happen. I needed a young, innocent face for the role, so she became the natural choice for the film, adds Dutta.

The filmmaker also shares that it took him quite a while to get Abhishek comfortable in front of the camera. In an attempt to make him feel free on screen, he shot all the running sequences first.

I remember the initial days of shooting with Abhishek... I wanted him to be comfortable in front of the camera. So, I did all his running shots in the Rann of Kutch, where we were shooting first. I am sure he must have wondered why, at that time (smiles). We still laugh about it today, signs off Dutta.

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Did you read about the politician who called for a ban on Chinese momos? And did you giggle a little? I know I did. And I chuckled more when I read further. It turns out that his primary objection to momos is that they contain monosodium glutamate (MSG or Ajinomoto).

Nobody has told the poor man that MSG is not an integral component of momos. Or that 99 per cent of all Chinese restaurants in India also use MSG in their cooking. As do street stalls and thela wallahs and more and more Indian restaurants.

I have written about MSG at length  most recently during the fuss over Maggi noodles. So I dont want to go over old ground again. But here are the facts:

Glutamates are naturally occurring substances in the body. About a century ago, a Japanese scientist figured out a way to extract glutamates from seaweed. The extracted substance contained concentrated umami flavour (umami is now widely regarded as a basic taste) and had the ability to make all food taste sharper and meatier once it had been added.

Commercial production of MSG (the extract) began, originally by the Ajinomoto company, and then by hundreds of outfits all over the world. Eventually, raw materials other than seaweed began to be used (in Japan, I once tried MSG made from tomato) and MSG spread to every corner of the Far East.

In the Seventies, American doctors began reporting what came to be called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, a condition where people reported headaches or a tingling sensation after consuming MSG. This led to a massive anti-MSG backlash and a fall in the consumption of MSG in the West (but not in Asia). Eventually Chinese Restaurant Syndrome was identified as MSG intolerance, which affects a small proportion of the population. (My wife has it, for instance.)

But most of the population can tolerate MSG and it is approved by the American Food and Drug Administration and continues to be widely used, even by non-Chinese restaurants in India and by the packaged food industry. (That is what the Maggi fuss was all about.)

In North India, tandoori momos, like those at QDs in New Delhi, are a common variation (Getty Images)

It is possible that some people who make momos use MSG but you can make them just as easily without any added glutamates. And while there may be grounds for concern about MSG overuse, only a not-very-bright person would call for a ban on momos on those grounds.

But, as much as I shook my head at the foolishness of Indias politicians, I was glad that the controversy had put momos in the headlines. Momos are now ubiquitous all over India. In big cities (such as Delhi) there are momo factories, which make thousands of momos in bulk and then supply them to local street side momo-sellers who, naturally enough, pretend that they made them all by themselves, early that morning. And in Punjab, momos take on unusual forms: tandoori momos are a common variation!

But heres the thing: there seems to be no agreement over a) where the momo came from and b) what the difference is between a momo and a Chinese dim sum.

Many people think that momos originated in the Northeast. But, as my former HT colleague Hoihnu Hauzel pointed out in a masterful recent piece, they have nothing to do with Northeastern cuisine. Hoihnu says that there are traditional dumplings in the Northeast. For instance, the hyontoen of Sikkim, is a millet dumpling filled with cheese. But, says Hoihnu, such is the popularity of the momo that the Sikkimese, like the residents of many other Eastern states, have abandoned their own dumplings and switched to making momos.

With Indias Northeast out of the running, there are only two other contenders for the invention of the momo. The first are the Newaris of Nepal who say that they invented the momo and took it around India. They may have a valid claim but in the public imagination, at least, they have lost out to a second contender.

Food experts argue that the classic dim sum are probably Cantonese in origin (Shutterstock)

Thats the Tibetans. Can it be a complete coincidence that there are no stories about momos from before the 1960s? That is when Tibetans, fleeing from the Chinese invasion of their homeland, sought shelter in India. If you examine the progress of Tibetans around India, you will find that the momo arrived in each city shortly after the Tibetans did. For instance, the Northeast really discovered momos only in the 1970s when Tibetans arrived (and flourished: they are a commercially savvy community) in the region. Even in Kathmandu, the momo only took off as a popular snack after the Tibetans moved there. Its the same story in Sikkim.

So what should an authentic momo taste like? Well, there seems to be no standard flavour for the modern momo. I have eaten bland, almost Chinese-tasting momos in Kolkata and I have eaten palate-burning, chilli-hot momos in Kathmandu. And that is in the era before they invented the paneer momo or the tandoori momo. The Tibetan momo may be bland but the Indian palate now demands spice.

If the momo is a Tibetan dish, then is it wrong to call it Chinese as our momo-banning politico did? Well, yes and no.

We forget that, as far as the Chinese are concerned, Tibet has always been a part of China and that even before the Peoples Liberation Army marched in and took charge, there were frequent contacts between Tibet and China.

The Chinese have no difficulty in regarding the momo as a dim sum. They point out that the term dian xian, (meaning a little something to eat) was used over a thousand years ago when the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) ruled and during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) many of the dim sum we know today (baozi buns, for example) had already been invented.

British writer Fuchsia Dunlop, an authority on Chinese food, inclines to the view that over a thousand years ago, the Chinese were already taking dim sum to every corner of their empire. The classic dim sum, she suggests, are probably Cantonese in origin but each region has its own versions of dim sum.

The soup dumpling or Xiao Long Bao, which is now trendy and popular all over the world, comes from Shanghai. The tradition of a dim sum breakfast or lunch, she argues, comes not from any mainland practice but from Hong Kong, where it became popular in the post-war years when many people lived in crowded accommodation and needed places to do business and entertain.

Dim sum, dumpling, momo  the dish comes in many names and many flavours (Shutterstock)

So is the momo just a not-very-fancy dim sum? Sadly, the answer is probably yes. There are many dumplings in the East including Japans gyoza and Vietnams banh bot loc, but almost all can be traced back to China. There are even those who argue that the Italian tortellini, which is pretty much the same dish as the (older) Chinese wonton, has its origins on the Silk Route that connected Europe with China.

To say that the momo is a dim sum is not to belittle its origins. The Chinese dim sum is a catch-all term for all kinds of dumplings and the momo is as much a free-standing variety as say, the har-gow. Certainly, in terms of technique, there is very little to distinguish the momo from the dim sum family.

I asked Saurabh Udinia, who has travelled extensively through the Northeast, what the difference between a dim sum and a momo was. Saurabh is a chef at the Masala Library, the one upmarket Indian restaurant where the food of say, Nagaland or Mizoram is given as much respect as the food of Karnataka or Awadh. His view is that Chinese dim sum can be incredibly complicated to make. The momo, on the other hand, needs no special dough and is easy to cook. And as for the differences: well, thats about it.

At Masala Library, the food of Nagaland or Mizoram is given as much respect as the food of Karnataka or Awadh

To me, that makes sense. Tibet may not have been part of Greater China (no matter what Beijing says) but it was always in the Chinese sphere of influence. So its momos were more homely versions of the Chinese dumplings. They were usually made of minced yak meat and the flour was coarser.

When the Tibetans fled to India, they rebuilt their steamers, substituted goat, pork and chicken for yak, and gave Indians a taste for momos. The parallels with the Punjabis, who came over after Partition and fell back on their tandoors to sell tandoori chicken are startling. In many ways it is the same story.

So, only a man with no understanding of history (or of the MSG issue) would call for a ban on the momo. Instead we should celebrate the symbolism of the momo. India not only accepts all foods but within three decades, we transform them into Pan-Indian dishes  so successfully that their origins no longer matter!

From HT Brunch, July 2, 2017

Follow us on twitter.com/HTBrunch

Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch

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The work on Goods and Services Tax (GST) began in India almost 17 years back, with a focus on simplifying a complicated maze of state and central indirect taxes. As many as 175 officials worked tirelessly for more than 18,000 man hours in the past six months to ensure the four GST bills were placed and passed by the Parliament in the budget session. Subsequently the GST Council ensured that rates are fixed and rules formalised.

HT identifies four people without whom Indias biggest tax reform would not have been possible.

Asim Dasgupta

Asim Dasgupta Ex Finance Minister of West Bengal at press meet at party head office in Alimuddin Street. photo by Indranil Bhoumik/mint on 19 may, 2011

In 2000, the government set up an expert committee to begin discussions on GST, it was headed by then West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta. A few years later, Dasgupta returned as the head of the empowered committee of state finance ministers to thrash out the new indirect tax. The MIT professor-turned Marxist leader held long discussions with other states, industry bodies and other stakeholders to carve a GST model.

Vijay Kelkar

Former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar (HT file photo)

The Kelkar Task Force on the implementation of the FRBM Act, 2003, pointed out problems of a cascading indirect tax regime. It suggested a comprehensive GST based on a value-added tax principle. As chairman of the 13th finance commission, Vijay Kelkar again pitched for GST. He was also the first to propose the formation of a national GST Council.

P Chidambaram

Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram during the 2013-14 Union budget in New Delhi. (Reuters file photo)

P Chidambaram was the first finance minister to include the proposal for an indirect tax reform in the Union budget of 2006. After his return to North Block that houses the finance ministry in 2012, Chidambaram worked tirelessly, created committees and sub-committees to ensure all state grievances are noted and resolutions found. He set a deadline of December 2012 to resolve all issues raised by states. But with Lok Sabha elections approaching in 2014, it was difficult for him to get to the finish line.

Arun Jaitley

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley leaves after the launch of 'Goods and Services Tax (GST)' at Parliament in New Delhi. (PTI file photo)

Finally, its the BJP government which will be credited for ushering in one of the biggest tax reforms of India. But bulk of the credit has to go to finance minister Arun Jaitley, whose efforts since 2014 made the impossible possible by getting all states to put aside their political agenda and support GST. Even during moments of hopelessness, Jaitley batted for consensus. His friendly overtures towards Congress in the Rajya Sabha ensured the passage of a constitutional amendment in August 2016, paving the way for GST.

Watch | The journey of GST: From Proposal to Implementation

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Some years ago, I was at a literary meeting in Bhubaneshwar. Odia had just been declared the sixth classical language in India, after Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. My scholarly hosts were naturally delighted; one taking particular pleasure in imagining how President Pranab Mukherjee felt when he signed the relevant file, since his mother tongue, Bengali, would never remotely be considered a classical language.

That conversation came back to me when, last week, the senior Cabinet minister, Venkaiah Naidu, said that Hindi was our rashtra bhasha, adding that it was impossible for India to progress without Hindi spreading. The remarks created a storm on social media, where among the most energetic participants was a senior journalist known to be a passionate BJP supporter. His tweets spoke of the total falsehoods of Hindi chauvinists, of their jingoistic chauvinism, of their having a sick, twisted, racist mind. When someone contested his views, the journalist asked him to keep croaking in your fetid well.

The language was entirely in character; what was surprising was whom it was aimed at. For the journalist was here unexpectedly criticising those on his side of the political spectrum, who fetishize the Cult of the Great Leader and the Cult of the Perfect Nation, who regularly and routinely vilify Indians who are not Hindus. What had caused him to now break ranks was that his mother tongue was Bengali, which  notwithstanding its lack of antiquity vis-a-vis Odia  was possessed of a modern literary tradition that was unparalleled. A writer reared on Bankim, Tagore, and the like would surely be deeply offended at being asked to accept the supremacy of Hindi.

Notably, shortly after Naidus remarks, Sushma Swaraj said that passports would henceforth be in Hindi as well as in English. Existing passports already print text in Hindi; did the external affairs minister mean that the personal details of the passport holder would now be printed in Hindi as well?

The BJPs predecessor, the Jan Sangh, held that a nation could be united and strong only when its citizens adhered to the same religion and spoke the same language. Ironically, the best  rather, worst  exemplar of this outdated model of nationalism is Pakistan, which the Jan Sangh hated and the BJP hates even more. The Jan Sanghs slogan of Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan was a direct adaptation to Indian conditions of Jinnahs idea that only one who is a Muslim and speaks Urdu can be a true Pakistani.

When, in the 1990s, the BJP sought to expand its footprint in the south, it retained its religious majoritarianism while downplaying its Hindi chauvinism. The party now controls Parliament and controls many state governments as well. Why then have some BJP leaders chosen to revive the claim that Hindi is the glue that must bind the nation? Perhaps this is merely a return to origins. The man who made the RSS a national force, M S Golwalkar, wanted Sanskrit to be made the national language. But he knew that vision could not be realised immediately. So, he wrote that till the time Sanskrit takes that place, we shall have to give priority to Hindi on the score of convenience. Naturally we have to prefer that form of Hindi which, like all other Bharatiya languages, stems from Sanskrit and gets sustenance from Sanskrit for its future growth in all fields of modern knowledge like science and technology.

Pakistan broke up and Sri Lanka experienced civil war because its leaders sought to impose a single language on the nations citizens. On the other hand, enabling each major language group to have its own province safeguarded the unity of India. Golwalkar, however, was totally opposed to the creation of linguistic states, which he saw as a barrier to the spread of Hindi. We have, he insisted, to take to Hindi in the interests of national unity and self-respect and not allow ourselves to be swept off our feet by slogans like Hindi imperialism or domination of the North, etc.

The BJPs leaders consider themselves Golwalkars devotees; Narendra Modi himself once wrote an entirely adulatory book on him. So is this promotion of Hindi an act of Golwalkar-worship, or is it rather a calculated move to further polarise the citizenry, and consolidate the core vote-bank of the BJP? Like the invocation of the National Flag, the ban on beef and the ban on trade in cattle, this talk of Hindi being necessary to our national advance may be designed to produce outrage among liberals, which in turn will produce greater and more politically productive outrage among Hindus who love the cow, love Hindi, love the Flag and love the Leader, and who will vote for the BJP as a result.

Back in the 1950s, when Golwalkar was demanding that all Indians learn Sanskritised Hindi, that wisest of Indians, C Rajagopalachari, termed the greatest fallacy of all the notion that unity is brought about by the adoption of Hindi as the official language of the Union. What is brought about is protest, dissatisfaction and discord, not unity.

The next decade, Rajajis fellow Tamils protested successfully against Hindi being made the sole official language. Surely some BJP leaders know something about this history. Surely they appreciate that many other Indian languages have a far richer literary heritage than Hindi, and that the hundreds of millions of Indians who speak, read, and write in those languages are extremely proud of that history. It will be interesting to see whether these remarks of Naidu, Swaraj, et al are merely straws in the wind, or whether they presage a wider assertion of Hindi chauvinism by the ruling party.

Ramachandra Guhas books include Gandhi Before India

Twitter: @Ram_Guha

The views expressed are personal

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Students who could not make the cut at Delhi University in the first cutoff list should not lose hope.

Admissions to popular honours courses such as Economics, BCom, English, Mathematics, Physics, and BA Programme are still open in most colleges with a dip of 0.25-3 percentage points in the second list released by Delhi University.

Commerce

Out of the 38 colleges that offer Economics (hons), admissions have been closed at five colleges  Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Lady Shri Ram (LSR), BR Ambedkar, PGDAV, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. The highest cutoff for the subject is 97.25% at Hindu College.

For Economics (hons) cutoffs have dropped by up to 2 percentage points with the highest dip from 97.50% to 95.50% at Gargi College.

For BCom (hons) out of the 54 colleges that offer the course only two  LSR and Shaheed Bhagat Singh College (Evening)  have closed admissions. The highest cutoff is 97.5% at SRCC with about 25-30 seats left.

Similarly, BCom, which is offered at 43 colleges, was closed for admission only at two colleges Aditi Mahavidyala and Kamla Nehru College. SGTB Khalsa had the highest cutoff for the course at 96.5%.

BCom and BCom (hons) have both seen a drop of up to four and three percentage points, respectively, with Mata Sundri College recording the highest dip for both courses.

Humanities

Admissions are open at 44 colleges for English (hons) as only two colleges have closed admission for the course. Kirori Mal College and Mata Sundri College have closed admission for English (hons), which has the highest cutoff at 97.5% at LSR.

The highest cut-off for a course in the second list is 98.25% for BA (Hons) Psychology in LSR.

BA (hons) English has seen a drop of up to four percentage points. At Dyal Singh Evening College the cutoff went down from 96% to 92%.

BA Programme, which received the maximum number of applications this year, is still available for admission at 46 colleges after four colleges closed admission for the course. Gargi College, Kamla Nehru College, Hindu College and LSR have closed admission for BA Programme, which has the highest cutoff at 96.5% at SGTB Khalsa.

BA programme reported a dip of six percentage points at Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College.

History (hons) and Political Science (hons) have been closed for admission at seven colleges each. Both the courses have seen dip of up to four percent points. For History, the highest dip is at Sri Guru Nanak Dev College where it went from 95% to 91%.

Sciences

Out of the 38 colleges that offer Mathematics (hons), admission is closed at seven colleges, including LSR. The highest cutoff for the subject was at Hindu College at 96.75%.

Physics (hons) is closed for admission at five colleges out of the 24 that offer the course and has the highest cutoff at Hans Raj and SGTB Khalsa at 96.33%.

In Science courses, both Chemistry (hons) and Mathematics (hons) have recorded an up to three percentage point drop. Colleges such as Maitreyi have the highest dip in cutoff for Chemistry, and Shivaji and SGND Khalsa have seen the highest dip for Mathematics.

Physics (hons) saw the highest dip in cutoff at Shivaji College, where it dropped by 2.67 percentage points from 96% to 93.33%.

College principals said the first priority of students should be to secure admission. Students should take admission in whichever college they are getting into. They should not wait for the next cutoff. First secure a seat and then even if you want to change, you can if you meet the later cutoffs at other colleges, said RP Rustagi, officiating principal SRCC.

The cutoff for courses such as Hindi and Punjabi (hons) saw a sharp drop of 5-10 percentage points.
The much-awaited DDA housing scheme 2017 offering 12,072 flats in the Capital was launched by union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday.

Forms and brochures are now available at Vikas Sadan and can be bought from banks starting Saturday till August 11 for Rs 200. The draw of lots will be in the first week of November, 2017 and the possession of flats will start from last week of November to the successful bidders.

There are 87 three-bedroom high income group (HIG) flats, 404 two-bedroom middle income group (MIG) flats. The rest 11,197 are one-bedroom lower income group flats (LIG) flats and 384 janata flats.

The flats are located in Vasant Kunj, Sukhdev Vihar, Rohini, Dwarka, Narela, Jasola Vihar, Pitampura, Paschim Vihar and Jahangirpuri. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) said the cost of the flats will range between Rs 53.52 lakh and Rs 1.2 crore for HIG, Rs 31.32 lakh and Rs 93.95 lakh for MIG. And for LIG one has to pay between Rs 14.50 lakh and 30.30 lakh and for janata flats one has to shell out between Rs 7.07 lakh and Rs 12.76 lakh.

Addressing a gathering at the Nirman Bhavan, Naidu said the scheme was linked with the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna to provide affordable housing to people of Delhi.

Successful applicants will get a subsidy on the interest charged by banks if they avail loans.

DDAs housing commissioner JP Agarwal said: For a person to be eligible to get the benefits of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, one should not have a concrete house in Delhi, their income should be under Rs 3 lakh annually if they are applying for houses under EWS category. There are other riders too, he said.

The urban body has tied up with eight banks for the sale of application forms and scheme-related transactions. The banks are Axis Bank, Yes Bank, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank, SBI, Kotak Mahindra, HDFC, ICICI and DDA counter at Vikas Sadan in INA.

Seeking to deter buyers who are not serious and check market speculation, the DDA this time has proposed multi-tiered penal measures. If a prospective buyer surrenders his application before the date of draw, no money will be deducted from his or her registration fee. If a buyer does so after the draw but before the issue of a demand letter, 25% of the registration fee will be forfeited, an official had earlier said.

If the flat is surrendered within 90 days of the issue of the demand letter, 50% of the fee would be cut. Beyond this period, the entire registration fee will be forfeited, he said.

Under the rules, a husband and a wife can apply for the scheme but if both get an allotment, one of them will have to give it up.

Also, the five-year lock in period clause has been removed, which means one can sell it whenever s/he wants to, he said.

All the flats up for grabs this time are the ones that were surrendered because the applicants found them too small or the neighbourhood was underdeveloped.

The DDA claimed that it will be able to sell all the flats this time as the adequate public transport connectivity and other necessary basic infrastructure were put in place before the launch of the new scheme.

Application forms will be available both online and offline, an official said.

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The implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) would generate 10 lakh jobs in the country, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said.

The chief minister was speaking at a felicitation function organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India on the occasion of 68th Chartered Accountants Day in Gurgaon on Saturday.

Khattar called upon the chartered accountants to remove all doubts concerning the GST from the peoples mind in the next three months and take the country ahead.

He described the GST as the biggest transformation since the country got its freedom 70 years ago. He said the single tax regime was heralded after convening a midnight session of Parliament.

This was the fourth programme in free India to be organised at midnight. Prior to this, such programmes were organised on the occasion of the countrys Independence at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, and on the completion of 25 and 50 years of freedom of the country, Khattar said.

The chief minister said the GST was the result of the strong political will of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The country would take rapid strides towards development if there was a transparency in the system, he said.

He described the GST as yet another big step after Aadhaar, Jan Dhan Yojna, NITI Ayog and demonetisation of high value currency notes in November last year.

Khattar said GST would ensure transparency and enable India to compete with other countries. In 1947, the value of one rupee was equal to one dollar, but now we are lagging behind. Through better economic management, we could take the common man ahead on the path of progress, Khattar claimed.

On the occasion, the chief minister also announced that Institute of Chartered Accountant of India will be given a plot in Gurgaon.

Earlier, Union minister for water resources Uma Bharti said in foreign countries, the tax system of India was termed tax terrorism but after the implementation of GST, people would get relief which would be visible gradually.

Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi exhorted the chartered accountants to educate people about the GST and assured them of the governments full support and cooperation.

Union steel minister Birender Singh described GST as the biggest step towards transformation, post Independence.

Haryana finance minister Captain Abhimanyu said the new tax regime is a revolutionary step which would bring about a positive change in the tax system.

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The new director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, officially took charge as the head of the UN health agency on Saturday, July 1.

The 52-year-old, Ghebreyesus, who is from Ethiopia, is the first African to head WHO, and will take office for a five-year term.

He succeeds Chinas Dr Margaret Chan, who headed the organization for two terms spanning a decade.

Election of the new WHO Director-General took place through a secret ballot on May 23 this year at the World Health Assembly that opened in Geneva on May 22.

Nearly 3,500 delegates from WHOs 194 member states, including a large proportion of the worlds health ministers, participated in the health assembly.

Ghebreyesus was selected among the three final nominees for the position, including Dr David Nabarro of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Dr Sania Nishtar of Pakistan.

It was the first time that WHO director-general was chosen by the World Health Assembly from among multiple candidates. Previously a single nominee had been chosen by the executive board.

Ghebreyesus served as Ethiopias minister of health from 2005-2012 and also as the minister of foreign affairs from 2012-2016. He was also chair of the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board, and co-chair of the board of the partnership for maternal, newborn and child health.

Ghebreyesus as the minister of health led a comprehensive reform effort of the countrys health system, including the expansion of the countrys health infrastructure and initiated financing mechanisms to expand health insurance coverage.

As the Ethiopian foreign minister, he was also involved in the negotiations for the Addis Ababa Action Agenda in which 193 countries committed to the financing necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals spearheaded by the UN.

He secured record funding for the 2 organisations as the chair of the Global Fund and of RBM and created the Global Malaria Action Plan that expanded RBMs reach beyond Africa to Asia and Latin America.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the government has identified over 3 lakh companies for indulging in dubious transactions after last years demonetisation drive.

An additional 37,000 plus shell companies involved in converting black money into white have also been traced, he said.

Hailing the note ban as a move against black money and corruption, he said data mining process to scan the record of money deposited after demonetisation was under way and promised action against defaulters with out thinking about its political implication. Initial probe has put three lakh companies under scanner, Modi said at an event of chartered accountants.

More revelations are expected, he added. Modi also launched a course on Goods and Services Tax for the CAs, which came into force on Saturday.

Last year on November 8, the Modi government had recalled currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, a move that triggered a major upheaval in the Indian market, prompting negative impact on the economy.

While the government is yet to reveal the value of the high currency notes deposited in the banks, the revelation by the Prime Minister was an effort to silence those who questioned the note ban decision.

While everyone was awaiting the fate of GST, the government in a stroke deregistered 1 lakh companies, Modi said. Those who have looted the poor, will have to return to them.

The PM rued that a section of the CAs helped their clients in a wrong way after demonetisation and asked the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the apex body of CAs in India, to take action against them. Someone must have helped these looting companies. Its your duty to identity and punish them, he said.

In the last 11 years, he said action has been taken against only 25 CAs. Do you believe only 25 CAs have done something wrong in last 11 years?There are 1,400 cases pending against the CAs. Isnt this a matter of concern? Modi asked.

Modi also said CAs should take a pledge to bring people in the tax bracket rather than boasting about the number of clients they have saved from paying taxes. The Prime Minister said only 32 lakh Indians declare an income of Rs 10 lakh and above. Can you believe that there are only 32 lakh people with an income above 10 lakh? Modi asked.

Modi termed the roll out of the GST as historic decision that will usher in a transparent and corruption-free government. Reiterating his commitment to fight against black money and corruption, the Prime Minister said the 45% decline in deposits by Indians in Swiss bank last year was the outcome of the steps taken by his government. Surprisingly, the amount had risen sharply in 2013, Modi said, referring to a period when the Congress-led UPA regime was in power.

Visitors denied entry At PMs event

A commotion broke out on the premises of Delhis Indira Gandhi indoor stadium when PM Narendra Modi was addressing the members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and CA students on Saturday evening. The ruckus started after over 3,000 visitors with valid entry passes were denied entry to the stadium as it was packed to capacity. Following this, the visitors staged a protest against the police.

Sources said the police used force to disperse the crowd but senior police officers denied the claim saying the visitors left as it started raining. The seating capacity of the stadium was reduced after a revised security measure.

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At the stroke of midnight, India might be switching to one-nation-one-tax, but in Nagaland, many would be forced to continue paying an array of levies to underground governments run by rebel groups.

Now, locals in the northeastern state want the militant groups to standardise rates and usher in a common tax collection system, on the lines of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that replaces a host of state levies to stitch together a common national market.

Read  GST rollout: A look at tax rates and how it will impact your basic expenses

The GST-like one rebel government mechanism, locals in Nagaland say, would kill two birds with one stone  ease the fiscal burden on the common man who ends up paying half his earnings as taxes to non-legitimate governments and unify all rebel outfits for the Naga political cause of uniting all Naga-inhabited areas under one administrative umbrella.

We are insisting on one tax, and an end to multiple taxes will make the Naga political groups unify, said Khekaghu Meru, co-chairman of Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT), a citizens group formed in 2014 to protest extortion and multiple levies. The groups advocacy has previously forced rebel groups to slash rates and reduce exorbitant levies for shopkeepers and small traders.

Most communities in Nagaland, including the Nagas, are listed as scheduled tribes and are thus exempt from income tax under section 10(26) of the Income Tax Act. But almost everyone  police officers too  pays income tax to several underground governments, the rate varying from 12-24% of a months salary or income.

Nagaland has at least nine extremist groups that impose an array of donations  income, shop, commercial and house tax  to generate revenue for their governments. The rebels say it is their right to collect such taxes but do not specify if they spend the taxpayers money for civic projects.

Four of these groups are factions of National Socialist Council of Nagaland. The Isak-Muivah faction is the most systematic of the tax collectors followed by Khaplang, Unification (also called Niangpao Konyak-Kitovi Zhimomi group) and Reformation factions. The older Naga National Council has five tax collection groups.

Fed up of being overtaxed by multiple governments, taxpayers in Nagaland formed ACAUT in January 2014, a month after a mass rally in Dimapur town to protest random taxation.

ACAUT has been speaking up against multiple taxation and extortion by rebels affecting projects such as widening of Dimapur-Kohima highway. Rebels have responded by banning ACAUT and threatening its members.

Meru made it clear that ACAUT isnt against paying taxes to parallel governments but demand a common structure.

Multiple taxes have not stopped, but the mass movement has brought in some changes. The underground governments no longer do things in a blatant manner, they are more cautious now. And we have a platform to take up issues with the government, in the state and at the Centre, though they have not been of much help, Imlimar of Business Association of Nagaland, an ACAUT constituent, told HT.

The campaign against unabated taxation also made NSCN-IM reduce the income tax from 24% to 12% this year. Annual tax for big shops has also come down from Rs 10-lakh to Rs 1 lakh, so has the limits of other taxes.

Many blame Delhi for legitimising the rebels tax collection by giving them a free hand after inking peace deals, with NSCN-IM in July 1997 and the other groups later. Factors such as alleged nexus between the state government and the extremist groups and sympathy with the Naga political issue make policing difficult.

We do take action against illegal taxation drives if there are specific complaints. But the problem is, people express resentment on the streets or through the media without coming forward to lodge a complaint, a senior police officer said, declining to be quoted.

We are 100 years behind the rest of the country. One can keep on fighting, but at the end of the day, individual issues take the sting out of public movements. Everyone from all walks of life, including the UGs, have to come together to thrash out a simplified, unified tax structure, Khekiye K Sema, retired IAS officer and ACAUT advisor, said.

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A new tribe-specific extremist group in Assam has waged a war against what is believed to be an ethnic form of love jihad, prescribing a hefty fine and physical punishment for men and women who marry outside the community.

The Peoples Democratic Council of Karbi-Longri (PDCK), which claims to fight for the rights of Karbi tribal people in central Assams Karbi Anglong district and beyond, on Saturday banned intermarriage.

It has warned young members of the tribe against courting or marrying those from other tribal and non-tribal communities. The outcome of defying the diktat: A fine of Rs 500,000 in cash and severe physical punishment.

In olden times, the Karbis never mixed with people of alien culture talking to and sharing food with others used to be seen as an offence. If the Karbi do not follow the path of our forefathers, a day will come when our rich culture and tradition is distorted, a statement for PDCKs military chief David Mukrong said.

He insisted intermarriage would bring in evil practices such as dowry system, rape, molestation and murder from other cultures.

The PDCK also prescribed death sentence for rapists and molesters, and promised dire consequences for those who sell alcohol, tobacco products, pornographic content and other forms of intoxicants near educational institutions, clubs and churches.

The upper limit of fine for offenders of this diktat is Rs 1,00,000.

It has been a trend for new outfits in the Northeast to garner support by taking up social causes with a violent twist. But PDCK probably got the idea of anti-love jihad activism elsewhere in India to issue the diktat against intermarriage, a senior Assam police officer said.

The hostile-again National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang and the Paresh Baruah-led United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent had helped Karbi tribal militants to form PDCK in Myanmar in October 2016.

PDCK is headed by Ingti Kathar Songbijit, the former head of the anti-talks faction of National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB). This faction had under Songbijit earned notoriety for massacring more than 80 Adivasis in Assam in 2014.

Songbijit quit the NDFB more than a year ago to fight for his own community, the Karbis, instead of the Boros.

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Ramgarh police have arrested a BJP leader, Nityanand Mahto on Saturday in connection with the lynching of a Muslim trader Alimuddin by a mob in Jharkhands Ramgarh two days back.

The main accused Chottu Rana, who was seen beating Alimuddin with a stick repeatedly in a video, surrendered before the court, Ramgarh superintendent of police, Kaushal Kishore said.

55-year-old Alimuddin alias Asgar Ali was lynched by a frenzied mob of about 100 people for allegedly carrying beef in his car. The incident happened at the Bazartand market of the district on Thursday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he disapproved killing people in the name of protecting cows.

A video of the brutal incident also went viral following which police have arrested eight of the 13 people named in the FIR. The other five have been identified and would be arrested soon, officials said.

Mahto, who is the BJPs Ramgarh district media- in-charge, claimed innocence, saying he had visited the spot after the police arrived to take stock of the incident, and demanded a fair investigation into the matter.

The police had also detained a member of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) of Ramgarh district for interrogation but released him later due to lack of evidence, police sources said.

On the arrest of saffron activists, state BJPs media in-charge Shivpujan Pathak said the party will not defend anybody, but added that all the accused had the right to a fair trial.

He also reiterated chief minister Raghubar Dass assurance to not spare anyone involved in the case, whatever his/her socio-political stature was. He (CM) has also instructed the police in this regard.

On Friday, police had formed a special investigation team (SIT) under deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and constituted four teams to nab the accused.

The criminal investigation department (CID), headquarters, also formed a special team to assist the SIT in Ramgarh.

We have sought arrest warrants against seven other accused named in the FIR, said Ramgarh deputy development commissioner (DDC) Sunil Kumar.

Inspector General (IG) ML Meena, also in-charge of law and order in north Chhotanagpur region, took stock of the situation in Ramgarh district along with other officials on Friday.

Meena had said that the prohibitory orders in Ramgarh will not be withdrawn until the situation returns to normal.

Thursdays lynching was the second attack in June by cow vigilantes in Jharkhand as a 200-strong mob thrashed a 55-year-old Muslim dairy owner and set his house ablaze after a cow carcass was found near his home in Giridih district on Tuesday.

In May, a mob lynched four Muslim cattle traders at a village in Saraikelka Kharswan district after accusing them of being child traffickers.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is looking into the assets of at least three Haryana IAS officers to find out whether real estate players were favoured in the Manesar land release case.

The CBI, which is probing the Manesar land release effected under the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in the state, has sought the immoveable property records of the three IAS officers.

Last month, the enforcement directorate (ED) had conducted raids at premises of several serving and retired officers after registering a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the same matter.

Though the property records of IAS officers are in public domain, the central agency has written to Haryana chief secretary DS Dhesi, seeking records in an official manner. The CBI has also sought a set of documents from the industries department pertaining to the release of the land.

The CBI is seeking to find out whether there was a quid pro quo. Two officials who held key positions during the reign of the Congress government had entered into real estate deals with a realtor, Aditya Buildwell Pvt Ltd, who was granted colonisation licences after the land was released from acquisition. The realty bought by the officers was way below the prevalent price, thus raising a suspicion, said an official privy to the CBI investigations.

The agency had in 2015 registered a case against builders and Haryana officials for their alleged role in the fraudulent purchase of 400 acres, worth Rs 1,600 crore (as per then market rates) from gullible farmers of Manesar in Gurgaon district for a mere Rs 100 crore. The case was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The purchases allegedly occurred under the threat of acquisition by the state government between August 27, 2004 and August 24, 2007, as part of an upcoming project to acquire 912 acres for setting up an Industrial Model Township (IMT) across Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages.

The land, which was once being acquired for creating residential and recreational utilities in IMT, Manesar, was released from acquisition by the previous Congress government.

The 912 acres were sought to be acquired by the state government and notifications under Sections 4 (preliminary notification) and 6 (declaration that land is required for public purpose) of the Land Acquisition Act were issued on August 27, 2004 and August 25, 2005, respectively.

It was contended that the subsequent decision to drop proceedings after having issued notices under Section 9 (sending notices to persons that the government intends to take possession of the land and claims of compensation be made to collector) compelled petitioners to sell their land at throwaway prices under the threat of acquisition

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Two civilians were killed on Saturday near an encounter site in Jammu and Kashmirs Anantnag, with police saying that they were caught in the cross-fire, as the restive state of late witnessed a spike in civilian killings after army talked tough.

Eyewitnesses said that hundreds of protesters had moved towards the encounter site to save cornered militants, triggering clashes, and forces allegedly opened fire.

So far 22 civilians  mostly protesters  were killed ostensibly in firing by forces since February 15 when army chief General Bipin Rawat warned of stern action against civilians who would try to disrupt counter-insurgency operations.

Spot media reports of the 22 deaths, corroborated by rights activists in Kashmir, say that the deaths were caused either by alleged firing by forces to quell protests or in some cases, as authorities said, by a stray bullet in cross-firing between militants and security forces.

In some cases, eyewitnesses claimed, the victims were not even stone-pelters and were simply caught in the chaos.

The number of deaths is a steep rise from the figures of the corresponding period of February 14 to July 1 last year which saw the killing of seven protesters  two near an encounter site in Pulwama district (February 14) and five in north Kashmirs Handwara town after protests erupted over allegations of a soldier molesting a minor girl (mid-April).

From July 8, however, the Valley slipped into a state of unrest for over five months, registering a civilian death toll of over 90, as forces fired bullets and pellets on protesters.

The first protester killed after the generals warning was a 14-year-old boy, Amir Nazir, of Pulwama district, whose family says he was among hundreds who rushed to an encounter site at Padgampora on March 9 to pelt stones at security forces engaged in the gun-battle, in a bid to distract them and help the militants escape.

Three more protesters were gunned down in Budgam districts Chadoora area on March 28 as forces fired to disperse stone-pelters during an encounter.

April saw a major spike in civilian killings in forces firing with 10 protesters  including eight on the day of Lok Sabha bypoll for Srinagar constituency in Budgam district  being killed. Two other protesters, including a 15-year-old boy in Srinagar, were killed in separate incidents in Kupwara and Srinagar.

In May, one protester was killed as protests erupted near the site of the gun-battle in which popular Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sabzar Bhat was killed, while June saw the killing of five protesters in separate incidents in Shopian, Rangreth, Pulwama and Arwani.

The first day of July saw the killing of two civilians near the Anantnag encounter site.

After the killing of Tawseef Wani near an encounter site in Pulwama last month, the Valleys joint separatist leadership, comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, in a statement said the forces were provided with a license to kill at will.

After Indian army chief Bipin Rawats threat, the graph of civilian killings has increased in Jammu and Kashmir, and the forces have been provided a license to kill at will, a joint statement by them said.

Police had said Wani was a habitual stonepelter.

Data from the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) shows that there has been a spike in civilian deaths in the January-June period in conflict-related incidents this year. While 17 civilians were killed during the period in 2016, this year the toll has crossed 55.

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Unidentified assailants killed a sub-inspector of police by slitting his throat in Uttar Pradeshs Bijnor district on Friday night in a latest attack against cops in the state.

SI Sahjor Singh Malik was posted as Baliwala police chowki in-charge.

Police suspect mining mafias could be behind the murder as of late they launched a crackdown against sand mafias active in the area. Ganges passes through the area.

Villagers spotted police officers body lying near his motorcycle in a field near a closed glass factory located between Gopalpur and Balawali villages.

Malik was attacked when he was returning to his chowki from Mandawar, where he had gone for some works.

His service revolver is missing.

Bijnor district magistrate Jagatram and SP Atul Sharma rushed to the spot as police started an investigations into the incident.

In Saharanpur, Agra and other places Hindu hardliners and local BJP leaders targeted police officers, prompting the IPS association in Uttar Pradesh to take up the matter with chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

The latest attack on police comes at a time when the new BJP government is struggling to control law and order situations in the state which witnessed several incidents of violence in the past 100 days.
A father-son duo was shot dead by their relatives at Gorad village in Sonepat district on Saturday after a scuffle over distribution of irrigation water in fields.

The deceased have been identified as 55-year-old Ishwar Kumar and his 26-year-old son Parvinder Kumar, who was employed as a constable with the Delhi Police.

The police said the victims had gone to their agriculture fields in the village, when a scuffle broke out with their relatives.

Kharkhoda police station in-charge Virendra Singh said they have registered a case in this connection and started investigations. He said four bullets were pumped into the bodies of the two victims.
President Pranab Mukherjee described the GST as a disruptive change that is bound to have some teething troubles which will have to be resolved quickly to ensure growth momentum in the economy is not impacted.

When a change of this magnitude is undertaken, however positive it may be, there are bound to be some teething troubles and difficulties in the initial stages, he said minutes before the GST rollout in his speech at a special function in the Central Hall of Parliament.

We will have to solve these with understanding and speed to ensure that it does not impact the growth momentum of the economy. Success of such major changes always depends on their effective implementation, he said.

He also said the GST Council should continuously review the implementation and suggest suitable improvements to the new indirect taxation regime.

The new era in taxation, which we are about to initiate in a few minutes, is the result of a broad consensus arrived at between the Centre and states, Mukherjee said.

This consensus took not only time but also effort to build. The effort came from persons across the political spectrum who set aside narrow partisan considerations and put the nations interests first. It is a tribute to the maturity and wisdom of Indias democracy, he said.

Watch | India enters GST era: Whats in it for you

Recalling his days as Finance Minister, Mukherjee said he introduced Constitution Amendment Bill in 2011.

It is also a moment of some satisfaction for me because, as the Finance Minister, I had introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill on March 22, 2011, he said.

I was closely involved in the design and implementation and had the occasion to meet the Empowered Committee of state finance ministers, formally and informally, as many as 16 times.

I also met the chief ministers of Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra a number of times. I have a vivid recollection of those meetings and the various matters that were raised, he said.

Yet, I found both in those meetings and in my many interactions with Chief Ministers, Finance Ministers and officers of states, that most of them had a constructive approach and an underlying commitment to the introduction of GST, he added.

Mukherjee recalled the proposal to introduce GST was first mooted in the Budget Speech for the financial year 2006 -07.

The President said his confidence stood justified when on September 8, 2016, after the Bill was passed by both Houses of Parliament and more than 50 per cent of State Legislatures, he had the privilege of giving assent to the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act.

The President called upon every Indian to extend cooperation in the successful implementation of the new system.

On implementation issue, Mukherjee said GST is similar to the introduction of VAT (Value Added Tax) when there was initial resistance.

In the months to come, based on the experience of actual implementation, the GST Council and the Central and state governments should continuously review the design and make improvements, in the same constructive spirit as has been displayed till now, he said.

Observing that the GST will be administered through a modern world-class information technology system, he also recalled that in July 2010, he had set up an Empowered Group for development of IT systems required for the GST regime under the chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani.

He observed that given the magnitude of the task, it was not a surprise that there were many contentious issues.

Under GST, Mukherjee said the tax incidence will be transparent, enabling full removal of tax burden on exports and full incidence of domestic taxes on imports.

By creating a unified common national market, the GST will act as a major boost to economic efficiency, tax compliance and domestic and foreign investment, the President said.

He said the GST will also make our exports more competitive and also provide a level playing field to domestic industry to compete with imports.

Currently due to cascading, exports still carry some embedded taxes, making them less competitive, he said, adding, the hidden effect of cascading means that the total tax incidence on domestic industry is not transparent.
Publication of five Haryana government magazines, including the publication in which a photo caption describing of ghoonghat (veil) as the identity of the state sparked controversy, have been temporarily suspended over complaints pertaining to their delayed circulation.

The magazines, published and distributed free of cost by the state government, include Krishi Samvad, Haryana Samvad, Haryana Review (English), Ubharda Haryana (Punjabi) and Tamir-e-Haryana (Urdu).

There were complaints of delayed distribution and non-distribution of these magazines. A senior official in the chief ministers office (CMO) told HT that there were allegations that even MLAs were getting the issues of these magazines.

It was also alleged that the March issue of Haryana Samvad was circulated in June which had reports on Haryana tableaus at the Republic Day in Delhi and even the governors address during the budget session held in March, he added.

The government clarified that decision to suspend the Krishi Samvad, in which the photo caption appeared, was not linked to the controversy.

The decision to temporarily suspend the publication had been taken before the veil issue made headlines. The decision was because of the complaints, mainly pertaining to quality of the matter these magazines published, a senior functionary at the CMO said.

State cultural affairs minister Kavita Jain also stated that it was not in the wake of the picture of the veiled woman that publications have been suspended for the time being.

It is because of the many complaints pertaining to their circulation and I would like to streamline the entire process, she said.

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BJP president Amit Shah said on Friday the historic launch of the GST was an outcome of commitment to the countrys federal structure under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Congratulating the Prime Minister, finance minister Arun Jaitley and the state governments, he said the GST will not just bring in one tax across the country, but also give a big boost to the economy, reduce burden on citizens and help the poor.

The important tax reform which the country has been waiting for a decade-and-a-half is beginning today, he said after attending the midnight function in Parliament organised for the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Congratulations to PM Narendra Modi and FM Arun Jaitley for implementing the historic, long pending and much needed tax reform - GST.

One Nation-One Tax is today a reality, an outcome of commitment to Indias federal structure under leadership of PM Narendra Modi, he tweeted.

He also congratulated all chief ministers and governments along with Modi and Jaitley.

With this, India has become one market of 125 crore people now. With the help of the GST, the backward states, the poor and the oppressed will help get uplifted. I hope the people of the country will welcome it open heartedly, he said.

"One Nation-One Tax" is today a reality, an outcome of commitment to India's federal structure under leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi.  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) June 30, 2017

The GST, the biggest tax reform of the country since independence, was ushered in at midnight, marked by a programme in Parliament which was attended by President Pranab Mukherjee, vice-president Hamid Ansari, Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and a host of ministers, and MPs.
Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, declared a global terrorist by the US this week, vowed on Saturday to continue his armed struggle against Indian forces to liberate Jammu and Kashmir.

We will not end this fight without liberating Kashmir from India, Salahuddin, 71, told a news conference in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The United States declared Salahuddin, who also heads the Pakistan-based United Jihad Council, a global terrorist hours ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis maiden meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington on June 26, a decision the militant leader said was only made to appease India.

He said the Hizbul Mujahideen only targets Indian forces and the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda have no presence in Kashmir.

Donald Trumps decision will be thrown out if anyone challenges it in American courts, Salahiuddin said. No other Western nation has endorsed what this crazy Donald Trump has done.

He asked the UN to implement its resolutions and give the Kashmiri people the right to vote on independence or a merger with Pakistan. He said Hizbul Mujahideen may consider peace talks with India if Russia or China can guarantee that such parleys would produce results.

Salahuddin also led a rally in Muzaffarabad and praised Pakistan for continued support in Kashmir.

Pakistan had described as completely unjustified the US designation of Salahuddin and reiterated its political and diplomatic support for the Kashmiri peoples right to self-determination.

India welcomed the US designation, saying it vindicated its long-standing position that cross-border terrorism perpetrated by groups based in Pakistan was behind disturbances in Kashmir.

The US decision came on a day Salahuddin issued a video message calling for a week-long protest to mark the first death anniversary of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, who was killed by Indian security forces on July 8 last year.

Read | Pakistan says global terrorist tag on Syed Salahuddin unjustified, will continue to back Kashmir struggle

Before taking to militancy, Salahuddin contested assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir in 1987. He lost in the polls that were widely believed to be rigged.

The US designation of terrorist individuals and groups expose and isolate them and result in denial of access to the US financial system.
The unhappiest Koreans are men in their 50s, who are often weighed down by complex obligations and encroaching age, a survey suggests.

Insurance company LINA Korea polled 480 people from their 30s to 60s in Seoul and asked them to grade five categories on a scale of one to seven. Unlike several international studies, the poll found income directly linked to quality of life. The highest possible score was 35.

Satisfaction with life tended to be high among people in their 30s at 19.35 points but dropped among those in their 40s (18.29 points) and 50s (18.24 points) only to rise again among those in their 60s (19.85 points).


Meira Kumar, the oppositions presidential nominee, on Saturday asserted that she was not a scapegoat in the upcoming election to the countrys top constitutional post as she was fighting for an ideology.

Anybody fighting for an ideology and appealing to the voice of conscience cannot be a scapegoat. I am a fighter and I will fight and I am sure that many will join me in this fight, she said in response to a question whether she was being made a scapegoat in the presidential election.

Union minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale had on Friday took a jibe at the Congress saying it was using Kumar as a scapegoat by fielding her as the opposition candidate in the July 17 presidential election.

Anybody fighting for an ideology and appealing to the voice of conscience cannot be a scapegoat. I am a fighter and I will fight and I am sure that many will join me in this fight, Kumar said.

Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker and the daughter of iconic Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram, was speaking to reporters after meeting the Congress MPs and MLAs at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office in Bengaluru.

Seventeen opposition parties have fielded Kumar as their joint candidate in the presidential election against NDAs nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

To a question on her not having the support of enough lawmakers, Kumar said she was fighting the poll on values and principles which were sacred to the people of the country.

Wherever I go, people tell me that I do not have the numbers. If I do not have the numbers, why dont you round up the figures and declare the results? Why have the elections?, she wondered.

Pointing out that she launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, Kumar said, I am carrying forward those values and principles which are sacred to most of my countrymen and women.

Someone has to take them up. I am taking up your fight also....you want me to withdraw? Do you want me to get defeated? I am simply fighting.

Kumar also met former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H D Deve Gowda and sought his partys support to her candidature.

Asked about the presidential poll turning into a Dalit contest, she said it was shameful that a supreme election to the post of president was being painted in this manner.

We have to come out of this mentality....even in 2017, people with high qualifications are talking about castes. When both the sides had fielded candidates from higher castes in the past, no one discussed about it. We were not even aware of their castes. We were only aware of their accomplishments, experience and capabilities and only those things were discussed.

When the contest is between me and Kovind, our caste is being discussed and there is no other talk. Where are we today? Where are we heading?, she wondered.

Noting that in todays era, everyone craved for quality, Kumar said, Our thinking needs to become good as well.

Asked if she would meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the run-up to the election, Kumar said she had written a letter to him and would decide on meeting him when she visited the eastern state.

Going against the decision of its alliance partners, the RJD and the Congress, Nitish Kumars JD(U) has decided to back the candidature of former Bihar governor Kovind. Kumar, the oppositions presidential nominee, also hails from Bihar.

When pointed out that like her, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also been speaking about development based on Mahatma Gandhis ideologies, Kumar said Gandhijis ideology was that of secularism.

We do not just have to be tolerant towards the other religions, but be respectful towards them. That was Gandhijis ideology and we have always carried that forward, she said.
India on Saturday again asked Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court as the two countries exchanged a list of prisoners lodged in each others jails.

According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.

India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav, the external affairs ministry said in a statement in Delhi.

Jadhav was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage activities. India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.

Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.

In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included 52 civilians and 494 fishermen.

The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access which was signed on May 21, 2008. As per the pact, lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India, the MEA said.

It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.

In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in Indias custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation, it said.

The Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
Amid a standoff in the Sikkim sector with Chinese troops, India has attended an SCO meeting in China to enhance anti-terrorism and border control mechanisms among member nations, the first plenary meeting after India and Pakistan became full members of the China- dominated security grouping.

Seven Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states including China, India and Russia participated in the organisations meeting of heads of border control departments on Thursday in Dalian, Northeast Chinas Liaoning Province.

Officials from the Indian Embassy attended the Dalian meeting of the SCO.

This is the first plenary meeting since India and Pakistan joined the grouping in June. The other members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India and Pakistan last month became full members of the SCO that is increasingly seen as a counterweight to NATO.

Indias membership was strongly pushed by Russia while Pakistans entry into the grouping was backed by China.

Member states discussed how to cooperate on combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, state-run Global Times reported.

The members also talked about a joint operation along the border to prevent trans-border crimes and to improve the organisations cooperation on safeguarding border security at the SCO meeting, the report said.

Border enforcement cooperation is an important part of cooperation between China and other SCO member states, Chen Dingwu, a senior official at Chinas ministry of Public Securitys Border Control Department, said.

He said China values the collaboration with border control departments of other countries, and has already built cooperation mechanisms with 11 neighbouring countries, including SCO members.

SCO member states are willing to discuss issues of common interest based on equality as provided by the Shanghai Spirit, SCO secretary-general Rashid Alimov said.

Alimov said the SCO will create a positive political atmosphere to comprehensively consolidate and develop trust, respect and friendship.

The Chinese daily said the Indian delegation attended the meeting despite border rift with China in the Sikkim sector.

Observers believed that relations between China and India were unaffected by the stand-off between Chinese army and Indian troops along the Sino-India border, the daily said.

There is an ongoing standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim sector after the Indian Army blocked construction of a road by China in Doklam, a disputed territory between China and Bhutan.
The body of Indian priest Martin Xavier Vazhachira, who was found dead on a beach in Scotland on June 23, is likely to be sent to Kerala early next week after an autopsy and other formalities are completed in Edinburgh.

Official sources told HT on Saturday that the cause of the death remained unknown. He was found on the beach in West Barns, near Dunbar town, nearly 28 miles east of Edinburgh.

The Consulate General of India in Edinburgh is in touch with the authorities on the issue.

Several priests from Kerala, Nagaland, Mizoram and other states have moved to Britain in recent years to serve in parishes.

A Scotland police spokeswoman said Vazhachiras family has been informed about his death.

Vazhachira, 33, was ordained as a priest of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate in Kerala in 2013, and arrived in Scotland in July 2016 for post-graduate studies in the University of Edinburgh. He served in Catholic parishes in Falkirk and others places in Scotland.

Reports from Scotland said an alarm was raised last Tuesday after he failed to show up to celebrate Mass with the parish community of St John the Baptist, Corstorphine, where he was the administrator.

The news of Fr Martin Xaviers death comes as a great shock and a great sadness to all those who knew him and loved him, Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh told the Scottish Catholic Observer (SCO).

Our thoughts and, more importantly, our prayers are with him and with all his loved ones in both Scotland and India. May he rest in peace.

The Syro-Malabar community in Scotland has been especially in grief: Its a big shock for them, because first of all hes a priest belonging to that community and also the same area, Sebastian Thuruthippillil, parish priest of St Josephs Church in Whitburn and a chaplain to Scotlands Syro-Malabar community, told the SCO.

Its (also) big news there in India; people are really shocked, he added.

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Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar has said the planning for the September 2016 surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir started in June 2015 after the NSCN-K ambushed an army convoy in Manipur.

Recapping events that led to the surgical strike in September last year, Parrikar told a gathering of industrialists on Friday that he felt insulted when he heard about the June 4, 2015 incident in which 18 jawans were killed.

The starting of September 29 (2016) surgical strike on the western border was 9th of June, 2015....We planned 15 months in advance. Additional troops were trained. Equipment was procured on priority basis, he said.

The Swathi Weapon Locating Radar, developed by the DRDO, was used first in September 2016 to locate firing units of Pakistani Army, though the system was inducted officially three months later, Parrikar said.

It was thanks to the Swathi Radar that 40 firing units of Pakistani Army were destroyed, he added.

Disclosing that the surgical strikes against PoK militants were planned 15 months in advance after the Manipur killings, he said, I felt insulted....A small terrorist organisation of 200 people killing 18 Dogra soldiers was an insult to the Indian Army and we sat in the afternoon and sat in the evening and worked out the (plan of) first surgical strike which was conducted on 8th June morning in which about 70-80 terrorists were killed (along the India-Myanmar border).

It was a very successful strike, he said. On the armys side, the only injury was a leech attaching itself to a soldiers leg.

Contrary to some reports, no helicopters were used. I had placed helicopters (on stand-by) only in case of emergency evacuation, he said.

He also listened intently to a TV discussion with his ministerial colleague Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

... one question (from media) hurt me. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an ex-Armyman, was on TV and he was explaining about all kinds of search operations. An anchor asked him would you have the courage and capability of doing the same on the western front, Parrikar recalled.

I listened very intensely but decided to answer when the time came.

This story has been corrected by news agency PTI. The error is regretted.
A civilian woman was killed on Saturday morning, allegedly in a crossfire between security personnel and militants in south Kashmir Anantnag.

Police said gun battle is still on at Birnhi Batpora in the states Dailgam district as some militants are holed up in a house. Many civilian too are inside the house.

According to a police spokesman security forces cordoned off the area in the wee hours after receiving specific information about presence of militants there.

Sensing the security presence, the militants opened fire at the security personnel, prompting the latter to retaliate.

In the cross fire one lady was hit and later she succumbed to her bullet injuries, the police spokesman said.

Efforts are on to take out the civilians, the spokesperson added.

Some unconfirmed reports suggest presence of a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant in the house.

Last week suspected LeT activists fought a pitched battle with security forces for 14 hours after they took shelter in a school after ambushing a CRPF convoy on the outskirt of Srinagar.

Two militants were killed and two security personnel sustained injuries in the counter-insurgency operation to clear the school complex.

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The mob lynching of a Muslim trader in Jharkhands Ramgarh two days ago has sent ripples of anger through the local population with women of the community saying they would pick up arms against self-styled cow protectors.

The women say they are disillusioned with the police and believe the government is in cahoots with cow vigilantes. A mob of 100 people on Thursday thrashed trader Alimuddin, also known as Asgar Ali, and set his car on fire on the suspicion that he was transporting beef  the latest in a string of similar incidents of cow-related violence.

Mob justice would be meted with mob-justice, said Mariam Khatun, the wife of the dead trader, as scores of people flooded her modest home to console her. Around her, 70-odd women, many of them associated with local organisations, nodded in agreement.

The village has erupted in anger and grief as many say Muslim men are becoming soft targets in the name of beef trade. Earlier in June, a 200-strong mob thrashed a 55-year-old Muslim dairy owner and set his house ablaze after a cow carcass was found near his home in Giridih.

We are scared of rising incidents of lynching targeting only Muslim men in the state. These are not accidents but a deliberate act of few groups supported by the administration, said Mamina Khatun. She said that women were living in fear every day, worried that the male members of the family might not return home.

If government cant act, we will pick up arms against them to save our men, she said.

There is also anger against the administration that is seen as complicit in the violence.

Why do people of a particular community have so much interest in our eating habit, when we do not peep into their kitchen? Asked Abida Khatun, another resident of the village.

But others advise calm and dont want communal tensions flaring in the Muslim-majority village of 350 households. Whenever younger men appeared restless, the elders were seen convincing them out to understand the situation. We are peace-loving people. A mere incident cannot instigate us to take law in hands, said Bhola Khan, who played a role of mediator between the villagers and the administration.

Sahjad Ahmad, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia, of a neighbouring village said, Our anger is that police did not take action against the culprit even after passing more than 30 hours. The villagers have simple demand to nab the culprits and punish them.

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The Ramgarh police in Jharkhand on Friday set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged murder of a Muslim trader Alimuddin also known as Asgar Ali and announced Rs 2 lakh compensation for his family.

The administration also doled out Rs 20,000 for the burial of Alimuddin, who was lynched on Thursday by a frenzied mob for allegedly carrying beef in his car at Bazartand market of the district.

Ramgarh superintendent of police Kaushal Kishor said an SIT has been constituted under deputy superintendent of police (DSP) to investigate the alleged murder and four teams were set up to nab the accused.

The criminal investigation department (CID), Headquarters, has separately formed a special team to assist the SIT in Ramgarh.

The police have so far arrested eight of the 13 people named in the FIR. The other five accused have been identified and would be arrested soon, administration officials said.

Read more: Man accused of carrying beef beaten to death by 100-strong mob in Jharkhand

One has been sent to jail. We have sought arrest warrants against seven others, said Ramgarh deputy development commissioner (DDC) Sunil Kumar.

Inspector General (IG) ML Meena, also in-charge of law and order situation in north Chhotanagpur region, took stock of the situation in Ramgarh district along with other officials. Deputy inspector general (DIG), Hazaribag, Bhim Sen Tuti and senior officers of district administration were present in the meeting.

Meena said, The prohibitory order in Ramgarh will not be withdrawn until the situation returns to normal.

The incident happened on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned against mob attacks on cattle traders, beef-eaters and dairy farmers, saying killing people in the name of protecting cows is unacceptable.

Thursdays lynching was the second attack in June by cow vigilantes in Jharkhand as a 200-strong mob thrashed a 55-year-old Muslim dairy owner and set his house ablaze after a cow carcass was found near his home in Giridih district on Tuesday.

In May, a mob lynched four Muslim cattle traders at a village in Saraikelka Kharswan district after accusing them of being child traffickers.

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Hours after the midnight launch of Indias biggest tax reform, the Good and Services Tax (GST), Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be headed to Delhis Indira Gandhi stadium on Saturday where he will address members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

At a glittering function Friday night in Parliaments Central Hall, President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Modi, cheered on by some of the countrys top names in politics, business and law, pressed a button to launch GST.

GST is simple, transparent and will end corruption and black money,said Modi.

At the Indira Gandhi stadium, Modi is expected to talk about the benefits of the GST and how it impact the Indian economy. He will also roll out a new chartered accountancy course on GST.

Below are the live updates:

7.57pm: People talk of the big 4 accounting firms. Sadly, there is no Indian firm there. By 2022, let us have a big 8, where 4 firms are Indian: PM Modi.

7.55pm: Tax return is something that ultimately benefits the citizens of the country. This is the money that helps the elderly, the poor, and our jawans: PM Modi.

7.45pm: Your signature is more powerful than PMs and government also believes the accounts signed by you: PM Modi to CAs.

7.42pm: CAs must give the right advice to their clients to ensure black money and corruption are kept in check: PM Modi.

7.40pm: Today, the country begins a new economic journey, the principle of one nation, one market, one tax is a reality now.

7.39pm: PM Modi asks CAs why action has been taken against only 25 of them for irregularities, while over 1,400 cases are pending for many years.

7.37pm: Govt committed to more tough action against firms helping in hiding black money; we are not concerned about political implications: PM Modi

7.35pm: According to IT returns, only 32 lakh people earn more than Rs 10 lakh. Is this believable? asks PM Modi.

7.30pm: If you know anyone with black money, warn them that they will not be spared: PM Narendra Modi to CAs

7.28pm: People with black money will face more difficulties when Switzerland begins automatic information exchange with India in 2 yrs: PM Modi

Those who have looted the poor will have to give back what they have looted: Modi

7.25pm: Govt has identified more than 47,000 shell companies: PM Modi

7.22pm: Data mining after demonetisation has been going on. Transactions of over 3 lakh registered companies have come under scrutiny, this number could increase: PM Modi

48 hours before GST roll out, 1 lakh companies were struck off from the registrar of companies: PM Modi

Updates: https://t.co/kHlCdYVoCO pic.twitter.com/kWaAKmfMNB  Hindustan Times (@htTweets) July 1, 2017

7.20pm: Swach Bharat and operation clean money to go hand in hand: PM Modi.

7.18pm: November 8 was a day that everybody remembers. The work load of CAs increased manifold after that: Modi.

7.15pm: If some people in the society have the habit of stealing, then the country cant move ahead, says PM Modi.

7.10pm: Swiss Bank has stated that there has been a 45% drop in the deposit by Indians, the lowest ever in years: PM Narendra Modi

Two years from now when Swiss Banks start giving real time data, people who deposited money in foreign banks will face tough time: Modi.

7.08pm:

India's Chartered Accountants are recognised in the world for their understanding and exceptional financial skills: PM Modi  Hindustan Times (@htTweets) July 1, 2017

7.05pm: A doctor prescribes what is good for you..similarly economy must also be healthy and to ensure that chartered accountants have a big role to play: PM Modi.

CAs are known for their financial skills and the new CA course will strengthen that skillset even more, says PM while launching the new syllabus.

7pm: From today the journey of GST which is good and simple tax has begun in India: PM Modi.

The foundation day of ICAI also marks the beginning of a new economic chapter in Indias history: Modi

6.50pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the gathering shortly on GST implementation.

6pm: India should have a new normal with citizens ready to pay the taxes they need to pay and a new mindset to move from a developing nation to a developed one: finance minister Arun Jaitley.

5.35pm: Even the media persons, who had come to cover the function, were stranded as they could not enter the venue, reported PTI.

5.30pm: Narendra Modi is expected to arrive at 6pm. He will then launch a new syllabus for ICAI.

5.20pm: Chaos and confusion reigned supreme at the Chartered Accountants Day celebrations organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in Delhi.

Several chartered accountants (CAs) shouted slogans against the government as they were not allowed to enter the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, the venue of the event.

5pm: Besides Modi, the other invitees include finance minister Arun Jaitley and revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia.
A remote village in Himachal Pradeshs Kinnaur district is gearing up to honour Shyam Saran Negi, independent Indias first voter, when he turns 100 on Saturday.

Negi was the first to cast his vote in the countrys first-ever general elections held in October 1951. In 2010, Indias then election commissioner Navin Chawla travelled to Kinnaur to felicitate Negi and in 2014, he was appointed the brand ambassador by the Himachal Pradesh state election commission to sensitise voters ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

I still remember the day when I cast my vote for the first time. The country then and now  many things have changed, Negi told the Hindustan Times over the phone.

He has voted 16 times in Lok Sabha polls and 12 times in state assembly elections, an election commission report stated.

The region of Chini which is within present day Kinnaur district held elections before other parts of the state in 1951, anticipating heavy snowfall in higher altitude areas.

Decades later, Negi, who was born on July 1, 1917, remains a strong advocate of the electoral process, saying everyone must vote to write their own destiny.

The birthday celebrations for Negi have already begun at his home. On Friday, traditional prayers were held at his house in Kalpa. His 96-year-old wife Hiramani participated in the prayers.

I have called nine lamas (Buddhist monks) from the local monastery to pray for my fathers good health as he doesnt keep too well now ... He can hardly walk as he has problems in his leg joints, Chander Prakash, the youngest of Negis nine children, told HT. The celebrations will peak on Saturday, relatives said.

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Three staff members of a private school in Mumbai including a teacher and a director have been arrested for forcibly chopping off the hair of 25 students so as to punish them for not following the prescribed dress code, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place at suburban Vikhroli on Friday after the morning prayers following which accused were arrested late on Friday night on a complaint lodged by the parents of some students.

These 25 boys (from Class V-VIII) were punished for not keeping a short hair cut as per the school orders, they said.

The school had allegedly asked children a few days ago to maintain a cropped hairstyle but some of them failed to do so following which school director Ganesh Bata (40), physical training teacher Milind Zanke (33) and office assistant Tushar Gore (32) decided to teach them a lesson, police said.

During the mass hair cut session, two boys were injured by the scissors, allegedly used by the trio to hand out the punishment, they said.

Mumbai: Physical Ed. teacher & his asst chopped students' hair as punishment. Students say they were humiliated, some suffered minor cuts. pic.twitter.com/o0XlTUXslm  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

We registered an offence against the three accused under sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 335 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt on provocation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, and section of 75 (cruelty to child meted out by the custodian) of the Juvenile Justice Act and arrests were made subsequently, Sridhar Hanchate, senior police inspector of Vikroli Police Station told PTI.

All the accused were produced before a local court on Saturday and further probe is on, he said.
The fragile unity of the opposition was shattered for the second time in a week when three parties broke ranks with the Congress and joined a government function to roll out the goods and services tax (GST).

The Nationalist Congress Party, Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal (United) attended the glittering event that began on Friday night and stretched past midnight at Parliaments central hall.

The Congress, Left parties, DMK, Trinamool Congress and some others boycotted the event, calling it a self-promotion exercise of the government.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressed a button to implement Indias biggest tax reform since Independence that will unify the country with a single tax, though with different slabs.

NCPs Sharad Pawar and SPs Ram Gopal Yadav were seated in the front row, along with BJP chief Amit Shah. Shah was seen talking to Pawar through most of the event.

CPMs Asim Dasgupta, a former West Bengals finance minister who headed the GST committee in 2000, was also present.

Watch | The politics of GST: Who wins, who loses

The government requested the Congress and other opposition parties to attend the event, but it did not cut much ice with them.

A reform that holds great potential is being rushed through in a half-baked way with a self-promotional spectacle #GSTTamasha, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

The Congress position, however, did not impress its ally, the NCP.

Pawar was present when UPA nominee Meira Kumar filed nomination papers on June 28, but went along with the JD(U) to take an independent line on GST.

The JD(U) of Nitish Kumar had broken ranks with the opposition earlier this week to support NDAs presidential candidate Ramanath Kovind.

Even the Samajawadi Party, which lost Uttar Pradesh to the BJP in this years assembly election, dropped its initial reluctance and attended the GST event.

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At least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in Pakistani jails, according to a list the Pakistan government handed over to the Indian envoy on Saturday.

The list was given to High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale under the Consular Access Agreement signed between the two countries on May 21, 2008.

The foreign office said the Indian prisoners included 52 civilians and 494 fishermen.

It said the step is consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement, under which both countries were required to exchange lists of prisoners in each others custody twice a year - on January 1 and July 1.

The foreign office said the Indian government will also hand over a list of its prisoners in India to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

According to the list Islamabad shared with India on January 1 this year, there were 351 Indian prisoners held in Pakistan, including 54 civilians and 297 fishermen.

The foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 this year and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
Two French missionaries, who were murdered in Arunachal Pradesh over 160 years ago, while on their way to Tibet, could become the first Catholic saints from northeast India.

Their cause is being actively promoted by Bishop George Pallipparambil of the diocese at Miao in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Nicholas-Michel Krick and Augustin-Etienne Bourry have already been conferred the title of Servant of God by the Vatican and long rigorous process of their beatification and canonization is underway.

After the beatification process is complete, they would be called Blessed and once canonization is done Krick and Bourry would become saints, informed Father Felix Anthony, parish priest at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Miao, nearly 360 km east from Itanagar.

The French missionaries were members of the Societe des Missions Etrangeres de Paris, or the Society of the Paris Foreign Missions, an institute of diocesan priests who spread out across the globe to promote Christianity.

Krick and Bourry wanted to reach Tibet, but in the 1800s the only way there was through northeast Indiapresent Arunachal Pradesh. Both travelled from Chennai to Kolkata and to Arunachal Pradesh becoming the first Christian missionaries to reach the region.

But while they were on the final leg of their journey, they were killed by a village chief of the Mishmi tribe on August 2, 1854 at Somme village in Lohit district, barely an hour away from the Tibetan border.

Their bodies were buried by local residents and it is believed a spring started flowing from near the site. Some say chief Kaisha killed them because the missionaries resembled the British rulers. But that account doesnt appear to be true, said Anthony.

It is said 35-year-old Krick was sick and 28-year-old Bourry was praying when Kaisha killed them using his machete. While they have maintained the burial site, villagers at Somme havent embraced Christianity yet.

Interest about Krick and Bourry began nearly 20 years ago when the French mission started inquiries and Bishop George began gathering details about the duos death, said Anthony who conducted research on the missionaries.

There is almost no documentary detail about the duo in Arunachal Pradesh. But lot about them is known from the letters they sent back to Paris. They mention of their arduous journey and how their guide robbed them.

Two medical miracles are needed for canonization. But since Krick and Bourry were martyred they wont be required. We expect the process to be over in the next 18 months said Bishop George.

Graces like students passing their exams or children recovering from minor illnesses after praying to the two missionaries have been reported.

Last year, the Miao Diocese opened its first hospital in Arunachal Pradesh at Injan and named it Krick and Bourry Memorial (KBM) Hospital.

Locals at Somme village are also eagerly hoping that the canonization process will get over soon. It could bring global recognition to the area, Anthony said.

Besides Mother Teresa, who was declared a saint last year others Catholic saints from India are Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara, Sister Euphrasia and Sister Alphonsa.

Gonsalo Garcia, though of Portuguese parentage, was born in India and is considered an Indian saint. Joseph Vaz, Sri Lankas first saint, was born in Goa and was educated and ordained as a priest in India.

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Chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi has said that he would have retired with more satisfaction had the government agreed to make political funding more transparent, reflecting upon the five years he spent heading one of Indian democracys most important institutions.

Every commission would have liked many more reforms to come. Some minor changes in rules have taken place, but the bulk of reforms remains. I would have been more satisfied to see these reforms take place, like the transparency in political funding. It is the biggest concern for the people, said Zaidi, who retires on July 5.

Indias electoral system has historically been blighted by malpractices such as voter coercion, voter bribery, use of funds obtained by dishonest or criminal means, candidates concealing criminal backgrounds.

The Election Commission, a constitutional authority, has attempted to tackle these problems by making policy suggestions, and, during elections, implementing laws to keep the polling process clean.

In an interview to Hindustan Times, Zaidi said he has largely been satisfied with his tenure. The entire vision of the commission has been voter centric. Whenever we planned anything, we would see how the voter will be impacted, he said, adding that under him, the panel had been strengthened.

In the last Union budget, the government introduced electoral bonds ostensibly to keep donors identity secret.

This, according to Zaidi, is among issues that need addressing.

We are demanding making bribery a cognisable offence, criminalisation of paid news and countermanding power (to put off elections on grounds of bribery). Another area refers to the use of totalisers, he said.

The commission, Zaidi said, has been in touch with the Union law ministry, but the reform initiatives have not reached a logical conclusion.

The 20th CEC recounted a controversy over voting machines  which certain political parties accused of being vulnerable to rigging  as one of the more surprising episodes.

EC remains apolitical, neutral and independent. To say it is biased or soft on the government is not true. So, the controversy over the electronic voting machines was a surprise. It was not expected. Our mechanism is non-tamperable, he said.

We will employ VVPATs (machines with a paper trail) at all polling stations going forward. We have the money, over Rs 3,000 crore, he said, adding that the process will put to rest misgivings about voting machines.

Zaidi said the EC couldnt have handled the EVM controversy in a better way. As for the challenge, we were going by the allegations that the result stored in the machines can be altered by using mobile, wifi or activating a secret code by pressing a combination of keys.

So, we asked them to come and prove these allegations by using the same techniques. Nobody came forward, two parties came, but said we have come to learn more about the EVMs, he said.

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The ruling NDAs presidential candidate, former Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind said in Chennai on Saturday that he would function as non-party man and everyones president, if elected. He spoke briefly after meeting AIADMK Purtatchi Thalavi Amma faction led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam.

Earlier he arrived in the morning by special chartered flight to canvass for his candidature and seek the support of political parties.

Senior state BJP leaders including state unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan and Union minister of state Pon Radhakrishnan were among those who received Kovind.

Incidentally, the two warring factions of the AIADMK, one of which heads the government in Tamil Nadu have already extended support to the BJP leaders choice as the Presidential candidate. Former Puducherry chief minister N Rangasamy, who has had an alliance with the BJP in previous elections, also called on the visiting presidential candidate at the hotel where he checked into after his arrival. Rangasamy later told media persons that our party is giving unconditional support to the NDA candidate. Rangasamy had broken away from the Congress to form NR Congress and became the chief minister in the 2011 assembly elections. He subsequently lost general elections to pave the way for chief minister V Narayansamy of the Congress.

Kovind them met the MLAs belonging to the group led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam. OPS, as the former CM is referred to, told media persons that we had announced our support to Sri Kovind the moment his name was announced.

The NDA presidential candidate later met chief chief minister Edapaddi Palanisami, who also pledged his partys MLAs and MPs to Kovind when prime minister Narendra Modi requested him to over phone from Delhi. Incidentally, all the 122 MLAs, including the 30 odd MLAs reported to be close to TTV Dhinakaran who is itching to force a showdown were also in the hall that received the BJP presidential candidate and pledged their support to him. After the meeting, Kovind left the Tamil Nadu capital by a special chartered flight.

A little before his departure, his opponent and UPA candidate and former speaker Meira Kumar arrived in Chennai to seek support of TN MLAs and MPs. Speaking to media persons at the airport on her arrival, she said that she had come to Chennai to personally appeal to the MLAs and MPs to vote for her in the battle of ideology.

She later called on DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi and also met DMK working president MK Stalin and senior party leaders. Senior state Congress leaders had welcomed her and took her to the party headquarters where she met the state leaders. She will stay in Chennai tonight and leave for Purucherry Sunday morning.

In Puducherry, chief minister V Narayamsamy heads a Congress government after the partys victory in 2016 assembly elections.

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Jab raja apna kaam nahin karega, toh praja ko karna padega (When the ruler fails to do his duty, then the public will have to step in), Acharya Yogendra Arya, the head of Haryanas Gau Raksha Dal, said on Friday.

His remark, a day after a Muslim man was lynched in Jharkhand on the suspicion of carrying beef, betrayed regret but little remorse. It is unfortunate that people are being killed by mobs in the name of cows. But what can people do when the government, police and administration dont do their jobs? 

No one has the right to kill. Hindus are a tolerant people by nature, but you tell me: when soldiers are killed on the border, doesnt the public react with anger? Why should it be different for the murder of cows? he asked.

Aryas justification for mob justice - lynchings in particular  is what is fuelling cow vigilantism across states despite Prime Minister Narendra Modis condemnation of killings in the name of cow protection.

A week before the incident in Jharkhard, a Muslim boy was stabbed to death on a Mathura-bound train for being a beef eater. There were several such incidents even earlier, including the murder of Pehlu Khan, a cattle trader, at the hands of vigilantes in Rajasthans Alwar.

Cows are only one of a range of triggers for the rising mob violence. People have also been lynched for being suspected thieves, rapists, and child lifters.

But sociologists and political commentators interpret the recent trend as an expression of majoritarianism as most of the victims are Muslims or Dalits.

For centuries, emotional or ideological issues have acted as a vehicle for violent behaviour that individuals wont resort to themselves, says Nimesh Desai, psychiatrist and director of the Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences in Delhi, who insists his analysis should be seen as sociological and not political. Acts of lynching, he says, are neither new or exclusive to India. Conflict between majorities and minorities or tension between social groups have historically been the ground for most mob violence across the globe.

Experts say lynchings are not new to India. As many as 482 incidents of mob lynching were reported from the CPI(M)-ruled West Bengal between 1982 and 1984. Neither is it the first time that minorities find themselves a target. In 2006, a family of Dalits in Maharashtras Kherlanji was murdered by an upper-caste mob in one of Indias most brutal acts of caste violence.

The only people who remember a lynching after 15 days are the family members of the victim. State silence becomes a chorus for the mob.

However, according to sociologist Shiv Vishwanathan, there is something particularly worrying about the current spate of lynchings. According to him, the reason they should be seen as different from riots is that the crowd inflicting the violence sees itself as restoring law and order instead of disrupting it.

There is something wrong about the Indian society itself, a result of social mobility without any social cohesion. People are living in cities, but without any sense of community.

The silence of the state, says Vishwanathan, makes it worse. You will notice there is never any investigation, no follow up. Silence is bought with monetary compensation. The only people who remember a lynching after 15 days are the family members of the victim. State silence becomes a chorus for the mob.

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Top leaders, industrialists, economists and celebrities descended on Friday night to witness the launch of the landmark GST at the historic Central Hall of Parliament which opened for a midnight ceremony for the first time in two decades.

President Pranab Mukherjee, who piloted the first constitutional amendment for unifying more than a dozen central and state taxes, shared a specially erected dais in the circular hall with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice- President Hamid Ansari.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda too were on the dais with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too was supposed to be on the dais but he sent a letter expressing regret to the Prime Ministers Office apparently owing to his Congress partys decision to boycott the tamasha (gimmick) launch ceremony.

The Parliament building complex was illuminated just like it is done on national festivals such as the Independence Day and the Republic Day.

At the stroke of midnight, Mukherjee and Modi pressed two buttons on a glass box decorated with orchids and GST inscribed on it.

The pressing of buttons launched the GST and a two-minute video showcasing Indias diverse culture and tradition. Mukherjee and Modi warmly shook hands after the launch.

Industry doyen Ratan Tata, RBI governor Urjit Patel, Member of Parliament cum cine star Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha hogged much limelight with many of the participants greeting them.

Haseeb Drabu, finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir -- the only state which has not passed the SGST Bill -- was also present.

When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley entered the hall, Patel walked up to him to exchange pleasantries.

Thereafter, the minister walked up to Tata, former Empowered Committee chairman Asim Dasgupta and former economic affairs secretary Vijay Kelkar to greet them.

Almost the entire council of ministers and MPs from ruling alliance sat in the circular hall along with opposition leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the BJD, the NCP and the JD-U.

The Congress, the Left, the TMC and the RJD boycotted the ceremony.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar was seated with BJP president Amit Shah in the front row.

As soon as former deputy prime minister and senior BJP leader LK Advani arrived, Shah gestured him to take a seat on the front row. Advani then sat between Pawar and Shah.

SPs Ramgopal Yadav was seated in the front row, so were Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD and AIADMKs A Navaneethakrishnan.

Subramanian Swamy, a bitter critic of GST-Network -- the IT backbone provider for the new indirect tax regime-- was also present at the launch.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha as also Vijay Kelkar, who had first mooted the concept of GST in a report to finance ministry way back in 2003, were also present at the launch.

Tata, who sat on the eighth row initially, was requested by SS Ahluwalia to walk up to the initial rows. Tata then went to sit in the fourth row along with Dasgupta and Kelkar.

Media tycoon and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra, SP leader Amar Singh and Pawars daughter Supriya Sule were also present at the launch.

Among the bureaucrats, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, DEA Secretary Tapan Ray, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, apart from CBEC chairperson Vanaja Sarna and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia were present.

Recently retired DEA secretary Shaktikanta Das too was present.

Unlike the last midnight event held in 1997 on the occasion of golden jubilee of the independence at a special session of Parliament, it was a gala event at its circular - shaped hall that had been loaned for the launch of the historic reform.

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda too was present on the dais to launch the new taxation system that is set to dramatically re-shape over USD 2 trillion Indian economy.

As if giving representation to regional political parties, former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and National Conference leader Abdul Rahim Rather were invited for the event.

Former GST Council chairman Sushil Kumar Modi, former finance ministers of West Bengal and Kerala Asim Dasgupta and K M Mani, who played crucial role in negotiations for GST, were also present.

CEC Nasim Zaidi, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy and chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian were also present.

The GST Bill was originally piloted by Mukherjee when he was finance minister in the previous UPA regime in 2011.

The GST Council, that brings together the central and state governments, has met 18 times to thrash out how the tax will work.

Originally, the launch of GST which had been in the works for over a decade, was to be done from Vigyan Bhawan -- the largest convention centre in the national capital that has hosted majority of the meetings of the GST Council.

But the historic Central Hall was thought to be a better choice considering the importance of the new indirect tax code that unifies more than a dozen separate levies to create a single market with a population greater than the US, Europe, Brazil, Mexico and Japan put together.

GST will simplify a web of taxes, regulations and border levies by subsuming an array of central and state levies including excise duty, service tax and VAT.

It is expected to gradually re-shape Indias business landscape, making the worlds fastest-growing major economy an easier place to do business.

GST has been dubbed as the most significant economic reform since the BJP government came to power in 2014 and is expected to add as much as 2 percentage points to the GDP growth rate besides raising government revenues by widening the tax net.

A four-rate structure that exempts or imposes a low rate of tax of 5 per cent on essential items and top rate of 28 per cent on cars and consumer durables has been finalised. The other slabs of tax are 12 and 18 per cent.
Most state governments are optimistic about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which was launched on Saturday midnight, but for tax officials a punishing schedule is looming to put into practice the new law while traders in many parts of the country are unhappy.

In Maharashtra many traders have been complaining of not having got their GST registration. Though the administration has claimed that 95% of 8 lakh traders have registered themselves in the new regime, thousands of new tax assessees are yet to do it.

We are all set to roll out GST from Saturday. It is difficult to say that all compliances have been done as its a massive task. But I can day that Maharashtra is much ahead in preparations that other states, said Sudhir Mungantiwar, state finance minister.

Meanwhile, the finance department has been receiving about 300 letters a day raising doubts and concerns over about the new tax regime.

In Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma said this is a time to celebrate GST and not give in to cynicism.

But not everybody shares his optimism.

Common service centres (CSC) will play an important role to play in implementation of GST in rural areas where people are not that computer savvy. The CSC in-charges will have to be trained well to understand their role and help the small traders in defining the GST rules to them and help them in official work, said an official of commercial tax department on the condition of anonymity.

The state has more than 50 lakh small, medium standard traders so reaching out to everyone individually was not possible thats why despite hundreds of workshops the switch over work has not been that swift, admitted an official and added, It would take around three months more for the things to settle down.

Read more: GST, Indias biggest tax reform, launched at midnight; PM Modi says Good and Simple Tax will help poor

The AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu which is preoccupied with its own survival cautiously welcomed the GST roll out leaving the task of expressing opposition to the move to trade bodies.

State finance minister D Jayakumar said the state was fully prepared for roll out of GST and said that prices would not rise due to it.

The only hint of unhappiness came from Lok Sabah deputy speaker M Thambi Durai who said Tamil Nadu had supported the GST out of compulsion. In fact, former chief minister J Jayalalithaa was vehemently opposed to the GST as some of its provisions went against a manufacturing state like Tamil Nadu. She had contended that Tamil Nadu would lose revenue because of GST.

Traders bodies in Tamil Nadu are nervous and angry.

We have been opposing GST from the very beginning as it would cripple trade and business - from the petty shops to large establishments. It will destroy us, yet the Centre has gone ahead and decided to force it upon us. We will fight it tooth and nail, said T Vellaiyan, president of TN Vanigar Sanga Peravai.

The Telengana government highlighted its loss of revenue while welcoming GST.

The GST would impose an additional tax burden of Rs 19,500 crore on the ongoing infrastructure projects in the state like lift irrigation schemes, Mission Kakatiya (restoration of tanks) and Mission Bhagiratha (provision of drinking water supply to every household) and double bedroom housing schemes because majority of the goods and services used in the projects fall in the higher tax brackets, said Kalvakuntla Kavitha, Nizamabad MP and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Raos daughter.

The states finance minister Etela Rajender said Telangana would lose around Rs 3,000 crore as the Centre has fixed the average growth rate of 14% as cut-off limit for the states to compensate for the loss of revenue on account of GST implementation.

Watch |India enters GST era: Whats in it for you

Though the Madhya Pradesh government has welcomed GST and commercial tax department is working almost round the clock to implement the new tax regime, the department officials are apprehensive about the problems they are going to face.

The dual control over collection of the tax under GST i.e. of the Centre and state is something which will be a new phenomenon for the department officials and personnel.

The Bihar government is all geared up to roll out the GST. Altogether 22 notifications related to the new law has been issued to pave the way for implementation of the new tax. All stakeholders, especially those engaged in business and trade, have been informed of changes.

We have set up a round the clock helpdesk to be functional on all seven days of the week to provide clarifications to people from all walks of life, including businessmen and the common man about any GST related query. The government is fully geared to implement the new law, said joint commissioner, Markandey Ojha.

The three helpdesk numbers are 0612-22335-13-14 and 15, open 24 X7.

The commercial tax department is closely monitoring migration of traders registered under VAT to GST.

A leading manufacturing state, Gujarat is all set to roll out the GST regime from July 1, amidst protest from sections of major industries including textiles and diamond.

The Gujarat assembly in this regard had passed three bills in a special session held earlier this month. Being a manufacturing state, Gujarat is set to lose some revenue but hopes to recover from the Centres compensation scheme.

Gujarat finance minister Nitin Patel had said: After implementation of GST, the state will lose some tax income but the central government is agreed to provide 14% compensation for five years.
Collapsing 17 federal and state indirect taxes into a single goods and services tax (GST) across the country from midnight of June 30 is set to change the lives of individuals and businesses in many ways, some of them in a disruptive way.

1) Transparency

For the first time, consumers will get to know the actual amount of taxes they are paying for goods and services in the form of a single GST rate that will be split between central and state governments. At present, what is shown in an invoice is the state-level value added tax (VAT) and in certain cases, the service tax levied by the central government. This does not cover parts of taxes borne by raw materials and services used by various intermediaries which get added to the final price of the item purchased but are not visible in the invoice. The efficiency of GST is expected to bring down the tax burden and improve transparency.

2) Shift in tax burden

While the effort has been to keep GST rates as close as possible to the current tax burden on goods and services and make the transition revenue neutral, the effective tax on individual items is likely to move up or down. Tax on services like telecom is likely to go up. Actual changes will depend on the pricing strategies businesses adopt.

3) Turning point for unorganized sector

Businesses with annual sales less than Rs 20 lakh are exempt from the rigours of registering for GST and filing returns. But this exemption poses a real and immediate risk of bigger businesses turning away from the unorganized sector for sourcing materials and services to larger suppliers that are within the GST system so that taxes paid by their suppliers are available as credit. Small businesses have to voluntarily sign up for GST to not lose their customers. Big procurers wanting to keep ties with the unorganized sector, however, have the option of paying taxes on their behalf under a system called reverse charge. Small players becoming a part of the GST system could improve tax compliance not only of indirect taxes, but also of income tax.

4) Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) take a hit

The tax burden for SMEs is set to go up. So far, this segment of the economy with annual sales up to Rs1.5 crore enjoyed exemption from central excise duty and were paying only state-level taxes such as VAT. With the threshold for GST registration for businesses being much lower at Rs20 lakh annual sales, SMEs will come under GST and have to pay taxes at the federal level toothe central GST. This could mean a doubling of the tax rate for them, although the actual increase in tax burden may not be equally high because of the tax credits passed on to them from their material and service suppliers. GST is designed to have a larger taxpayer base with the idea of lowering the overall tax rate.

5) Vanishing tax breaks

There is no more excise duty exemption for setting up production units in the north east or hill states. Businesses will have to make investment decisions based on sound economics rather than tax arbitrage. This gives a reason for businesses to set up new production units closer to their market or closer to ports rather than expanding existing facilities in places that enjoy area based exemption, explained R. Muralidharan, senior director, Deloitte in India. Units that have already come up on the promise of excise exemption for a specified period will have to pay tax first and claim refunds in the remaining period. Drug makers, cement companies and automobile producers have units in hill states.

Read | GST launched in India, businesses brace for chaos

6) Revamping supply chain

GST will make businesses take another look at the location of their warehouses and movement of goods from state to state till the final consumer. Since GST is applicable on transfer of stock within a group companys warehouses in different states, businesses may try to optimize their supply chain, said Bipin Sapra, partner, EY.

7) Keeping on the right side of law

Companies and traders have to think hard on their pricing strategy during the transition period to avoid getting caught for not passing on any reduction in effective tax burden to the consumer. An anti-profiteering body being set up will keep a watch on how businesses recalibrate the tax inclusive price charged from consumers.

8) Training vendors, workforce

Businesses have to not only update their business, accounting and tax payment software, but also train their workforce. Training vendors and business partners is also important as the invoices they file are relevant for the taxes to be paid by a business. People in the entire business ecosystem of a company needs to be trained, said Prashant Deshpande, partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells Llp.

9) Return filing

While suppliers have to upload details of transactions and invoices, the tax return of buyers of goods and services will be auto-generated based on suppliers data, minimizing human discretion. Buyers can either accept auto-generated return or modify it.

Read | GST: A game changer for the Indian Economy

10) Liquor and fuel

Liquor and five hydrocarbons  crude oil, petrol, diesel, jet fuel and natural gas  may see some increase in tax burden as they continue to remain in the existing tax system, while the GST paid on all equipment and services used in their production become an added cost.

(Published in arrangement with Livemint)
Small change has become a big problem in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur with several government offices and traders refusing to accept coins.

They attribute their refusal to banks reluctance to take deposits in coins due to lack of chests to keep them.

Gyanesh Mishra, general secretary Akhil Bhartiya Vyapar Mandal, said non-acceptance of coins by banks is posing serious problem for the traders in Kanpur.

Many in the wholesale kirana business are left with coins worth about Rs 2 lakh each, while the retailers on an average have a stock of coins worth Rs 6-7 lakh each, Mishra said.

According to him stockists and agents were the worst sufferer of the unofficial coin ban with each of them sitting with coins worth at least Rs 6-7 lakh.

Sources said there are about Rs 100 crore of coins currently in circulation in Kanpur.

The bizarre situation has forced the traders to pay salaries to their employees in coins, Ashok Kesarwani, senior leader of SP Vyapar Sabha said.

This again is creating problem for the employees who are now unable to use the money as banks and shopkeepers are not accepting coins.

After the demonetisation of high value currency notes in November last year, the RBI had issued coins worth crores of rupees to meet the scarcity of currency notes. However, now many traders, banks and even government offices like Kanpur Electricity Supply Company (KESCo) are refusing to accept payment made through coins.

According to KESCo MD Ashutosh Niranjan the company itself is finding difficult to deposit coins worth Rs 9 lakh it received from power consumers as banks are not depositing them.

We are unable to utilise this money. As such, it is not possible for us to accept bills paid through coins, he said.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)s communication manager Dipesh Tiwari, No one can refuse to accept Indian currency. In case anyone refuses to do so, people should complain to the competent authority.

On its part, the RBI however cannot take the surplus coins because as per rules it can only exchange soiled/ damaged currency notes and coins.

According to sources, the State Bank of India has coins worth Rs 7 crore, Punjab National Bank Rs 3 crore, Bank of Baroda Rs 2.5 crore, Union Bank Rs 2 crore, Central Bank of India Rs 2 crore and Allahabad Bank Rs 1 crore.

We dont have enough space to keep such a huge amount of coins. Unless the chests are cleared, it will be difficult for us to accept fresh deposits in coins, said SK Singh, DGM, Punjab National Bank.

Sanjay Katiyar of Vijay Nagar alleges that he went to Allahabad Banks local branch to deposit Rs 10,000 in cash. I had coins of Rs 800. The clerk took the notes but refused to accept the coins. He did not give any reason for that, Katiyar said.

In Allahabad, some banks make part payments in coins due to which the flow of small change in markets has suddenly increased.

As banks dont have enough paper currency stock, it is making some small payments in coins of Rs 10, Rs 5 and Rs 2 denominations, said a senior bank officer not wanting to be named.

He, however, claimed they were not refusing deposits in coins.

In the city power department, nagar nigam and jal sansthan are not accepting payments in coins.

In Varanasi, businessman Rajkumar Sharma said the market is flooded with coins.

He said banks generally refuse to accept coins as it takes a lot of time to count them.

To alleviate the problem, which is snowballing into a major crisis, some banks in Kanpur said they are working out plans to deal with the situation.

As per the plan being worked out, sources said, an individual might be allowed to deposit Rs 1,000 in Rs 10 rupee coins.

(With inputs from HTC Allahabad & Varanasi)
Uttarakhand on Saturday joined the league of 20 other states and two union territories that have banned begging, one of the most serious social issues in the country.

The state adopted UP Beggary Prevention Act, 1975 that has a provision to arrest a beggar.

However, there was hardly any action visible on the ground against the beggars who were seen roaming as usual in Dehradun and elsewhere.

There are nearly 3,000 beggars, including 274 children, in the state as per 2011 census.

Sharing a copy of the notification on begging ban, additional secretary (social welfare) Manoj Chandran pointed out earlier the Act was only applicable in the temple town of Haridwar, but now it has been extended to rest of the state.

The Act gives the police right to arrest people begging on the streets.

Though many states in the country have banned begging, number of beggars has increased in India over the years despite its economic growth.

The hilly state issued the notification banning begging after the Uttarakhand high court directed it earlier this year to prohibit begging.

Following the court order, the BJP government asked district magistrates to check the beggars and prohibit their activities.

Social scientists say implementation of the ban would be a big challenge for the authorities. They point out that in Haridwar, where the ban was already in place, numerous beggars are seen daily pestering pilgrims and tourists for the alms.

Over the last few years, numbers of beggars have swelled in the state, particularly in Dehradun, Haridwar, Rishikesh and Nainital.

Being a tourist hub, Uttarakhand is apparently a lucrative state for the beggars.

Earlier on June 29, chairman of the states child rights panel wrote a letter to the chief secretary, in which he raised the issue of numerous child beggars and toddlers roaming on the Char Dham pilgrimage route seeking alms from the visitors.

According to an official estimate about 17 lakh tourists visited the Char Dham circuit this season.

Social activists for long have been demanding a ban on begging saying it is creating a negative impact on tourists.

We are happy that the state has finally banned begging. We would like to see if child beggars are identified at the earliest and sent to their homes said Yogendra Khanduri, chairman of the child rights panel.

Earlier, he had raised concern that the child beggars in the state could be abducted children from other states.

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In an apparent reference to a rise in lynching incidents in the name of cow protection, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said when mob frenzy becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable, the people have to be vigilant to save the basic tenets of the country.

His remarks came two days after a man was allegedly beaten to death and his vehicle set on fire in Jharkhand as he was believed to be carrying beef.

Surely, we shall have to ponder over, pause and reflect when we read in the newspaper or see on the television screen that an individual is being lynched because of some alleged violation of law or not, Mukherjee said.

When mob frenzy becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, the President said after releasing a commemorative issue of National Herald, a newspaper founded by former PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938. Surely, we shall have to ponder over, pause and reflect when we read in the newspaper or see on the television screen that an individual is being lynched because of some alleged violation of law or not, said Mukherjee.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi too raised the issue of rising intolerance in her hard-hitting speech and launched a veiled attack on the BJP-led government, claiming that the culture of vigilante violence is being encouraged and actively supported by those who are supposed to enforce the law. Today, the tried and tested idea of India has been thrown fundamentally into question by rising intolerance, by malevolent forces that tell Indians what they cannot eat, who they cannot love, what they cannot sayindeed, what thoughts they cannot hold, she said.

Such examples assault our consciousness almost daily India has reached a crossroads marked by increasing threats of authoritarianism and bigotry. Where we choose to stand today is where our country will head tomorrow, Gandhi said.

Following nationwide protests against lynching, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condemned mob attacks on cattle traders, beef eaters and dairy farmers, saying killing people in the name of protecting cows is unacceptable.

Such examples assault our consciousness almost daily India has reached a crossroads marked by increasing threats of authoritarianism and bigotry, Sonia Gandhi said .

But the Congress chief said, We are in a war of ideas. We wage this war to preserve our ideals, which have built India up as a model of democracy, diversity and co-existence. When these ideals are threatened, India is in danger. And if we do not raise our voices, if we do not speak up, our silence will be taken as consent.

Mukherjee urged the intellectual class to rise and be vigilant as it could act as the biggest deterrent to forces of darkness and backwardness. Are we vigilant enough I am not talking about vigilantism I am talking of are we vigilant enough proactively to save the basic tenets of our country? Because we cannot afford it, posterity will demand an explanation from us that what have you done? I raise this question within myself, he said. Former PM Manmohan Singh, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were among those present.

The President also spoke about the religious and cultural diversity in the country. In a country of 1.3 billion people, 200 Indian languages and dialects are being used in daily life, all major seven religions are practised and all three major ethnic groups  Dravidians, Caucasians and Mongoloids  are living under one Constitution and one flag in peace and harmony, he said.

The commemorative issue has interviews by the former PM and Rahul Gandhi. Singh rebutted the propaganda that nothing much has happened in India in the past 70 years. In 1947, more than three quarters of Indians lived in poverty. Today, less than a quarter of them live in poverty. Nearly half a billion Indians have been lifted out of poverty in the last seven decades. In 1947, more than 80% of Indians were illiterate. Today, there are just 25%. The average income of an Indian has increased nearly 500 times since Independence, he said.

For his part, the Congress V-P listed growing unemployment and steady exodus of people from rural areas to cities as the biggest challenge faced by India today.
Over a thousand members of the Rajput community gathered at the Shree Rajput Sabha Bhawan in Jaipur, amidst heavy police deployment on Saturday, to protest against the encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh in Churu on June 24. They were demanding an enquiry into the encounter.

Anandpal, who belonged to the Ravana Rajput community, was on the run since September 2015 after escaping from police custody on the way from Nagaur to Ajmer. With more than three dozen criminal cases against him, including six of murder, he was allegedly the most wanted criminal in the state.

Mahipal Singh Makrana, state president of Shree Rajput Karni Sena, said that Anandpal became a criminal due to circumstances. Another speaker and lawyer by profession, Harsh Vardhan, said that Anandpal wanted to redeem himself but was not given a chance by this government.

The governments refusal to have a CBI investigation into the case proves that there are lapses in his encounter, said the lawyer. He also mentioned the encounter of Chatur Singh last year and alleged that lapses would have emerged had a CBI enquiry been conducted in the encounter.

Ranjit Singh Sodala, of the Ravana Rajput Seva Sansthan, called the governments policy repressive towards Rajputs. He added that Anandpal has sacrificed his life for the Rajput community.

Rajput community leaders threatened the government and said that the community will give a befitting reply to the ruling party at the time of the elections. If Anandpals family does not get justice, thousands of other Anandpals will be born, said Makrana.

Makrana had earlier said that thousands of Rajputs will march to the CMs residence on Saturday to submit a memorandum regarding CBI enquiry but due to heavy police presence, the rally couldnt reach the residence.

Rajput groups had earlier this week protested in different parts of Rajasthan, indulging in vandalism and blocking roads. Authorities suspended mobile internet services in Churu on Friday by following disruptions by the groups.
A non-government organisation (NGO) has taken the help of a doctor settled in the United States to cure people addicted to doda post (opium husk).

I was planning to do something for these addicts to help them deal with withdrawal symptoms. I met psychiatrist Dr Dilip Karan Rathore, who hails from Jalore in Rajasthan but is settled in America, during his visit to India, said Mal Singh Jamara, secretary of Jaisalmer-based NGO Godawan Sanrakshan Sanstha. Dr Rathore agreed to treat the addicts.

During Dr Rathores visit in March this year, detoxification camps were organised at Jaisalmer, Mohangarh, Ramgarh, Chandhan, Nachana and Narsighon ki Dhani (NKD), and about 300 addicts were identified.

After the Rajasthan government banned doda post sale from April 1 last year, the addicts faced psychological problems because of non-availability of the intoxicant; some youths started consuming capsules and medicines to get intoxicated.

Through Skype video calling from America, Dr Rathore treats addicts thrice a week -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- from 3pm to 8pm. After knowing about blood sugar, blood pressure and other details, he prescribes medicines to patients, said Jamara. We bear the cost of medicines as the addicts are poor.

He said, Dr Rathore wanted to serve his country; now he is happy that he is trying to help out addicts.

According to the health department data, the state has 19,000 registered doda post addicts. The department had organised camps under the Naya Savera campaign from January to March in 2015 to help addicts deal with withdrawal symptoms.

The number of doda post addicts in the state, Jamara said, could be two lakh as many are not registered.

In Jaisalmer district, youths aged between 20 and 30 years are addicted to opium and capsules, and people aged 40 years and above consume doda post, Jamara said. People consume these things because according to them the drugs energise them and they are able to do heavy work for a long time without feeling tired.

Sawai Singh (42), a resident of Sipla village in Jaisalmer district, said, I was consuming opium for last eight years and also started drinking liquor in the last two years. After taking medication, I gave up consuming these things and am feeling better.

Anop Singh (40) of NKD village said, I got into the habit of taking capsules. I take 4-5 capsules a day and without them, I feel tired and am not able to sleep. After taking treatment from Dr Rathore, he brought it down to 2-3 capsules a day. Anop did not go for follow-up treatment and again he has started consuming 4-5 capsules a day, Jamara said.

He said, Of the 300 addicts identified, many have stopped taking drugs. One should have strong will power to quit addiction and the success rate is 30% only.

The NGO works for conservation of Great Indian Bustard, child education, environment and drug de-addiction in Jaisalmer.

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Two days after Azam Khan allegedly accused the Indian Army of excesses, members of Bajrang Dal in Rampur announced on Friday a cash reward of Rs 51 lakh for beheading the senior Samajwadi Party leader.

Anyone who will paint his face black and feed him pork will be awarded Rs 1 crore, also reads the statements released by the group.

Consumption of pork is forbidden in Islam. Not just stopping here, the group in its statement also demanded a DNA test to confirm Khans paternal origin.

A true Muslim can never speak against the country and Khans statements against Indian Army prove that he is not a true Muslim. There must be a DNA test, said Sarvesh Gangwar, regional head, Bajrang Dal.

Earlier, district president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Shahjahanpur Rajesh Awasthi had announced Rs 50 lakh reward for the person cutting Khans tongue.

Awasthi, who runs a small general store in the district, has promised to sell his house and shop to pay the award money out of his pocket. There is nothing bigger than the country and I am ready to pay any price to protect it from people like Khan, he said.

The controversy erupted when Khan, while addressing SP supporters at an Eid Milan function on Tuesday, said, At some places women militants took away private parts of soldiers. They didnt take their head or limbs but their private parts. The act has such a big message to it

Read more: Azam Khan kicks up another row

By Wednesday, the video of his statement was widely circulated and Khan was at the receiving end from people all over the country.

The outcry forced him to come out with an explanation.In a written explanation, he said the statement was in reference to a Maoist attack in Jharkhand earlier this year. It was widely reported in newspapers and television that women terrorists of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha mutilated the dead bodies of (CRPF) soldiers and took away their private parts, read the statement.

Several people across UP have filed police complaint against him regarding the statement. In Rampur, a local Congress leader has accused him of sedition while a group of advocates has demanded his arrest on the ground of national security in Budaun.
The call for an all India bandh to protest the introduction of goods and services tax (GST) regime evoked a mixed response in the state capital on Friday. The markets in Janpath, Nazirabad, Eveready crossing, Moulviganj and the Chowk sarrafa remained closed.

However, other markets like Hazratganj, Aminabad, Yahiyaganj, Rakabganj, Naka, Charbagh, Alambagh, Sadar, Nishatganj, Gomti Nagar, Indira Nagar, Bhootnath, Ashiana and Rajajipuram remained open.

Read more: GST, Indias biggest tax reform, launched at midnight; PM Modi says Good and Simple Tax will help poor

Some traders organisations like Lucknow Vyapar Mandal and Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal (Kanchhal group) decided to not participate in the closure. Uttar Pradesh Adarsh Vyapar Mandal led by Sanjay Gupta decided to welcome the GST by bursting crackers at midnight in Udaiganj Diamond Dairy area.

There was tension in Hazratganj and Charbagh when some shopkeepers refused to down shutters because they did not agree with the bandh call despite the hardships arising out of GST. Despite pressure, they kept their establishments open.

Traders have already suffered huge losses after demonetisation and now they have imposed GST without any preparation, said Sandeep Bansal, president, Akhil Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal.

Read more| GST launched: All you need to know about Indias biggest tax reform

Banwari Lal Kanchhal, another prominent trader leader and president of Akhil Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal said, I want to keep politics at bay. I welcome the GST but the way of imposing it is not good. Traders should not be penalised if they commit any mistake in the first two years of GST implementation. Besides that, officials should play the role of a guide and not act as a punishing authority if the traders are not able to understand the clauses of GST.

Traders organisations say that 90 % of traders do not use computers and do not hire any chartered accountant or even an accountant for their trade but now they will have to hire qualified people for running their establishments..

However, Sanjay Gupta, president of Uttar Pradesh Adarsh Vyapar Mandal said, Those opposing the GST dont know its benefits and some trader organisations are opposing it just to score brownie points for themselves. There is no option but to adopt GST so traders must try to welcome the new tax regime.

Read more| Nitish Kumar, then Sharad Pawar: GST politics exposes cracks in Opposition unity twice within a week

Amarnath Mishra, general secretary of Lucknow Vyapar Mandal, said,  Let the traders get ready to get the best out of GST. Now trader leaders must try to get the rules made flexible and clauses of punishment removed instead of organising bandhs.
Aadhaar-based mobile payment application - BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) - and other similar unified payment interfaces (UPI), all of which were launched to make digital transactions easier for people, are not as safe as most people think them to be.

The UP Special Task Force (STF) on Friday busted a gang of online fraudsters who have been cheating people through gaps in the UPI and banking systems.

The two arrested on Friday include a former employee of Axis Bank in Lucknow.

Multiple people are involved in this racket, but the key operatives are operating from Mumbai, Delhi and the National Capital Region, said an STF official.

How the scam worked Customer information like account number, registered mobile number, debit card number and its expiry date were passed on by the bank employee to his contact. A duplicate SIM of the customers phone number was applied for, citing cell phone upgrade or other reasons. On receiving the new SIM, a fake unified payment interface app (like BHIM) was downloaded and an account created using stolen customer details. Money was transferred to these fake UPI accounts. The scam worked as bank accounts are linked to mobile numbers.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP) - STF, Triveni Singh told HT that 13 cases have been detected in UP.

These are from Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Siddarthnagar, Mahoba and Behraich. At least  45 lakh was withdrawn fraudulently, using BHIM and other UPIs between November 5, 2016 and March 6, 2017, in over 240 online transactions. The modus operandi has exposed banks vulnerability to frauds. Theres a possibility of more cases surfacing.

He said only four people lodged FIRs. The local police filed the final report in all cases after the banks concerned refunded their clients. But the fraudsters were untraceable.

However, the STF cyber cell working on these cases discovered a common link in all 13 cases -- the involvement of Vijay Pandey, a customer support officer of Axis Bank branch.

When quizzed, Pandey said that one Dharmendra Pathak of Ghazipur used to pay him for leaking customer information.

Pathak, in turn, was associated to another person, who was linked to key operatives in Mumbai, Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon. The key operatives were using the leaked information to download BHIM and other UPIs in the clueless customers names, and transferring money to different fake banks accounts, explained Singh.

MODUS OPERANDI

For this sort of a fraud, four key pieces of customer information are needed  account number, registered mobile number, debit card number and its expiry date. The fraudsters got this through a bank employee, who took screenshots of customer details and passed it on to his contact through whatsapp.

Then, duplicate SIMs were applied for by blocking the customers phone numbers, and applying for new connections on the pretext of cell phone upgrades to 4G connection and other such reasons.

As soon as the new SIMs were procured, money was transferred to fake UPI accounts. The scam worked as bank accounts are linked to mobile numbers. All notifications are received on ones registered phone number.

LOOPHOLES

Some key loopholes that have emerged from these cases is that sensitive information of customers was made available to a third party banking partner. The third party banking employees has access to details like customer name, address, account number, card number and expiry, PAN and mobile phone details.

The second big gap is the ease with which duplicate SIMs were arranged - without a thorough document verification. A re-verification of customer documents before issuing of a duplicate SIM should be made mandatory.

STF SECURITY SUGGESTIONS

ASP Triveni Singh said a letter will be sent to the authorities of the National Payment Corporation of India, the Reserve Bank of India, and other banking agencies, recommending additional security measures to safeguard customer details. We will recommended that all customer details should not be available on a common platform. Also that only responsible people should be allowed access to such information.
The Bombay HC refused relief to a Mumbai resident who insisted on not getting an Aadhaar card for himself and his son for college admissions.

The court first suggested the petitioner, an Andheri resident, gets enrolled for Aadhaar and in the meanwhile, it would ask his sons college to keep a seat vacant. But the petitioner refused, citing a 2015 Supreme Court order that said Aadhaar is a voluntary decision.

The SC order had said authorities cannot deny benefits to a citizen only because he does not have an Aadhaar card.

The HC bench of justice BR Gavai and justice Riyaz Chagla, however, said the petitioner was being adamant merely for the sake of argument. We fail to understand the instance of not obtaining the Aadhaar card. It appears the petitioner is adamant and wants to take a stand only for the purpose of adamancy. We are therefore not inclined to grant interim relief, the bench said.

The man, in his plea filed through senior counsel Mihir Desai and advocate Swaraj Jadhav, said his 17-year-old son completed Class 11 from St Xaviers College. But although he had secured the requisite marks and met all other requirements for readmission to Class 12, the college refused it as he and his parents could not give them their Aadhaar details.

READ: Those without Aadhaar wont be deprived of social benefits till next hearing: SC

When the petitioner cited the SC order to the college authorities, they pointed to an April 2015 Maharashtra government resolution making Aadhaar mandatory for college admissions. But the petitioner said while the state resolution directed educational institutes to conduct Aadhaar registration drives for students, it did not make Aadhaar a binding requirement for admission or readmission.

The petitioner argued that the colleges decision to make Aadhaar mandatory went against the SC order.

The petitioner argued that his son, who otherwise was meritorious and eligible, was being refused an opportunity of being educated.

He said the college authorities were breaching his sons fundamental right to lead his life with respect and dignity. With no relief from the HC, the petitioner is likely to challenge the decision in the SC.

.

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The six jail officials accused of fatally assaulting murder convict Manjula Shetye inside the Byculla jail last week were arrested on Saturday, just as they were about to talk to an advocate about anticipatory bail pleas.

Unit 3 of the Crime branch, which is investigating Shetyes death, said the six arrested officials include jail officer Manisha Pokharkar, and constables Bindu Naikade, Waseema Shaikh, Shital Shegaonkar, Surekha Gulve and Aarti Shingne.

We have arrested the six jail staffers. We decided to arrest them based on our investigations and the post mortem report, said a senior IPS officer, not wishing to be named.

Shetye was grievously assaulted by prison staff last week for complaining about missing food rations.

The jailors had held Shetyes legs apart and inserted a lathi in her private parts, the police report had said, quoting a witness. Her death sparked a violent protest by other inmates.

Police have booked the six officials under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intension) of the IPC.

One of the constables, Naikade, was produced in court on Saturday and remanded in police custody till July 7. The others will be produced in a holiday court on Sunday.

READ: Shetyes kin request transfer of witnesses to another jail

Investigators, piecing together how the assault took place, have so far found that after Shetye and the jail staff argued over eggs and bread, she accompanied another inmate whose family had come to visit her  this was Shetyes duty as warden.

In five minutes, Shetye is said to have asked the inmate to return to jail. This angered the inmate, who complained to the jailer Pokharkar, said an officer. The officer said other inmates had also complained about Shetye being bossy.

The officer said this angered Pokharkar, who asked her constables to bring Shetye to her cabin. She was assaulted here, and then around noon, they took her to barrack number 5 and assaulted her again, the officer said. At 7.20pm, Shetye was taken to JJ hospital, where she was declared dead.

Meanwhile, in her statement to the police, Naikade alleged that former media executive Indrani Mukerjea  in jail accused of her daughters murder  conspired against her and the other jail officials.

Naikade said Mukerjea wasnt allowed to move inside the jail and was always being watched, which made her angry with the jail staff.

So taking the opportunity, she made the whole story and asked another inmate, the complainant and witness in the Shetye assault case, to give a statement against us, Naikade said.

The complainant had descibed to the police how Shetye was brutally assaulted, stripped inside a barrack and assaulted again with a lathi for complaining about the morning rations.

The death triggered a violent protests by other prisoners and some 200 of them, including Mukerjea, were booked for rioting.

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Day 1 of Indias new tax system saw Mumbais traders confused and chartered accountants flooded with queries, but it was business as usual for buyers.

The Centre launched the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at midnight. The single-tax system, called by many as Indias biggest tax reform, seeks to unify multiple taxes across the country and boost economic growth. But the launch came with its troubles.

Traders said they were unclear of how the system would work. As it is just the beginning, there was a lot of confusion among traders. We are taking up the issue with the government, said Mohan Gurnani, the chairman, Maharashtra Industry and Trade (CAMIT).

READ: Mumbaiites beware, heres how shopkeepers may take advantage of your confusion over GST

While hotels and restaurants switched to the new billing system on Friday night, owners said the new tax did not impact footfall on Saturday. We may feel the impact from Monday, as this is a weekend, said Arvind Shetty, the owner of Utsav Hotel at Juhu.

Wholesale cloth markets opened with little fanfare. Places like Mangaldas market and Swadeshi, whose traders went to strike recently to protest against GST, said the new tax will not help them. There is tremendous unhappiness among the textile traders as this will spell doom to the sector, said Raichand Binakiya, convenor, Joint Action Committee of Textile trade association. Under GST, textile prices are expected to rise by 8%-10 % .

Stainless steel and utensils markets saw sales go down. There is no sale and even we are confused about this new tax, said Sunil Parmar who owns S Kantilal and Sons.

READ: GST effect: Malls lure Mumbai shoppers with lucrative discounts, movie tickets cheaper

Accountants were a bus lot on Saturday. Our clients wanted to know how to change the billing pattern, traders complained their software was not been updated, said Mukesh Panchal, the owner of a accountancy firm.

But, malls did brisk business as many of them stayed open past midnight.

The state acknowledged that there was confusion but said it was equipped to face the situation. Rajiv Jalota, the sales tax commissioner, who will no be Maharashtras GST commissioner, said, We are setting up helpline numbers and organising seminars to make basic and technical details available.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is set to meet chartered accountants and traders, in an event organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), at Matunga on Saturday evening.

GET HELP

Sales tax departments helpline:1800225900

The helpline has received 710 calls from across the state since Saturday morning.

Help desks at all cities. In Mumbai, there are two helpdesks  one at Mazagaon and the second at Bandra

Videos: The sales tax department will upload videos on its website to guide traders through technical issues

Email: maharashtragst@gmail.com
Most medicines and drugs will cost the same under the new single-tax system, but the pharmaceutical sector is bracing for losses in the short-term.

On Friday, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) tweeted: Prices of approximately 78% of all actively used and traded drugs in the country are going to remain unaffected post GST.

Prices of approximately 78% of all actively used and traded drugs in the country are going to remain unaffected post GST  NPPAindia (@nppa_india) June 30, 2017

But the sector is expecting a mixed impact. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) will increase the ease of doing business for the pharmaceutical industry, but they will have to deal with short-term losses.

Distributors of medical devices said they were looking forward to GST, as it would abolish a number of taxes and improve distribution channels.

In spite of paying 5% to 12% Central Sales Tax (CST) and 6.5% Value Added Tax (VAT), we were also paying 5 to 5.5% Octroi every time products came into Thane, Navi Mumbai and Mumbai,said Sudhir Subgule, a medical device distributor .

To evade taxes, many distributors were forced to transport products though hidden channels, he said.

Sabgule said paying just one tax, between 5% and 12%, would make it easier to do business.

The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) said it was in talks with manufacturers to make sure profit margins were unaffected. AIOCD has been opposing GST.

The reason?

We also deal in non-emergency medicines, such as dermatological products, diabetic medicines and body-building products, all of which fall into a higher tax bracket of 28%, said Prasad Danve, an AIOCD member.

We have to incur losses as we have already paid taxes on these products in the previous tax regime, Danve said.

Another issue that those in the sector pointed out was the lack of clarity over the input tax return system. Under this, a wholesaler or retailer can claim taxes paid on purchases of a product from the government.

But chemists claim there is too much ambiguity in the system and the conditions to avail this benefit were not clear. We have to file the input tax return every month and the system has proved inefficient in the past, Danve said.
With the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Saturday proved a very busy day for the state sales tax department. The departments helpline number  1800225900, was flooded with hundreds of queries from people confused by GST.

According to officials, the department received 710-odd calls about GST only .

At a function where he addressed chartered accountants, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said Maharashtra will need a year or two to achieve financial stability after GST.

He also said the state would not need compensation.

The helpline was busy throughout the day as we have got 710-odd calls on queries only related to GST. Most of the queries were related to its registration, said a senior officer. requesting anonymity.

The sales tax department is also coming up with frequently asked questions (FAQ) to help address queries related to GST. By organising so many seminars on GST, we are now aware of the common queries and are coming out with FAQs in the coming days. It will be based on subjects such as registration, returns, transition etc., said Rajiv Jalota, sales tax commissioner

The department has already shot videos of its training sessions organised for officers as part of its preparations for GST rollout, which will be uploaded on the website.

The same videos will also be sent to 8 lakh dealers who have registered with us for GST, Jalota told HT.

Meanwhile, Fadnavis on Saturday said the state may need a year or two to stabilise with introduction of GST, but reiterated that the state will not need compensation from the Centre after two years. Though Maharashtra is a manufacturing state, it will still benefit because of GST. With GST,state can now tax the services. GST could take a year or two to stabilise, but I feel that Maharashtra will not need compensation after two years as we will create a huge base for tax, Fadnavis said at an event organised by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in Matunga.

The Centre has agreed to compensate the state for its possible losses with the introduction of GST.

Tickets for Marathi films set to cost more

Even though the prices of tickets for Bollywood movies in multiplexes may fall, state education and culture minister Vinod Tawde on Saturday said the ticket prices for Marathi movies and plays were bound to increase under GST.

The cap on ticket prices of Marathi movies and plays will be removed under GST, he added.

The earlier 16% service tax will now be increased to 18% with the implementation of the GST system.

He said that this will benefit Marathi producers, but film lovers will have to pay more

Tawade was in Thane on the occasion of his nephews wedding when he spoke to the media.

The government had been trying to promoting Marathi cinema and plays by reducing ticket prices , so as to bring in more audiences.

For this ,there was a specific cap imposed on the ticket rates of Marathi cinema and plays.

However, sources say this led to losses to the producers and there was a demand to remove this cap.

Read

Mumbaiites beware, heres how shopkeepers may take advantage of your confusion over GST
As the final hours ticked by before the national rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on Friday, businesses and establishments across the city readied for change.

Restaurant owners were particularly anxious.

Most customers are confused about restaurant taxes, says Aditya Agrawal, owner of AKA Bistro at Kala Ghoda, referring to bills that until today included a service tax, value-added tax (VAT), educational cess and Swachh Bharat cess. We expect confusion to increase further with GST, he added.

Pramod Thakur/HT (Totos Garage , a Bandra-based restaurant and pub, opened at midnight after GST was announced.)

Like many restaurants, the bistro shut early on Friday night  at 10.30pm instead of the usual midnight  so their payment systems could be updated to reflect the new tax. Diners will have to pay more.

A meal at AKA Bistro that cost Rs1,000 with taxes before GST will now cost Rs1,160.

The restaurant has also been in talks with food suppliers for weeks to get their GST codes and upgrade their transaction processes. We will have fewer cash transactions with vegetable and fruit vendors now, says Agrawal. All the buying will be done through bank accounts and invoices.Agrawal has trained his staff to handle customers queries. The most common question he expects is: Why dont you reduce prices?

Families take advantage of the midnight discount offered by supermarkets to stock up on groceries. (Praful Gangurde)

Supermarkets are on standby too. Big Bazaars sale  from midnight to 2am on July 1  offered discounts and deals on groceries and staples, though helpline executives were unsure about which items would be cheaper or more expensive the following day. It didnt stop Vikhroli businessman Kaushal Jain, 26, from deciding to shop at midnight. I plan to stock up either way.

E-commerce companies are especially optimistic. We expect a lot more orders after GST, says Bhuman Dani, co-founder of The Good Life Company, an online luxury tea brand. Portals will be able to deliver faster with only one common tax to pay. He expects a 10% to 15% rise in customers from July.

Online retailer Amazon India has been preparing for weeks. The company organised 16 GST support centres in 11 cities to help sellers understand implications of GST for merchants and pricing.

We helped them understand procedural formalities and addressed GST queries, says Gopal Pillai, director and general manager of seller services. In Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, CAs have been roped in to address sellers queries.

The furniture industry, however, is in some confusion. GST does not specify anything about metal furniture, so there will be confusion, says Ashish Gupta, director of furniture company InLiving. He expects prices to rise by 15%, meaning low sales for around a month and many questions from customers.

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The Kasarwadavli police on Friday arrested a journalist and five of his friends for allegedly trying to exchange Rs1 crore in demonetised currency in Thane.

The police suspect that the journalist, Suresh Tukaram Zhondgeh who works for a weekly newspaper, is the main accused.

Apart from Zhondgeh, the other accused were Malkan Nathu Pawar, Uttam Kashinath Patil, Naresh Anil Kulkarni, Mil Surendra Lubhana and Amol Ashok Shinde. All are residents of Badlapur.

The police seized 30 notes of Rs500 and 9,985 of Rs1,000.

Sunil Lokhande, deputy commissioner of police (Zone 5), said, We got a tip-off that a few people were coming to Harey City Mall to exchange banned notes. We laid a trap and caught the men.

The arrested men hid the notes in a sack, he said.

They had collected the scrapped notes from many people and charged a 20% premium.

We are trying to nab a man from Thane who was supposed to exchange the scrapped notes, added Lokhande.

The five men have been sent to police custody.

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The state school education department is set to investigate a recent incident in which a Vikhroli school cut off their students hair as punishment.

Parents of KVV English Medium School complained to the police on Friday that their wards were punished by the school for having long hair. The school allegedly cut students hair in a haphazard manner leaving them with bald spots and injuries.

On Saturday, the education department said they would investigate the incident. The schools actions were wrong so we will send a ward officer to the school and investigate what happened. The officer will submit a report to the education department, said Anil Sable, education inspector, North Zone.

The school refused to comment on the incident stating that it is sub-judice. The police and the court will decide, I have nothing to say on the matter, said the school director.

In 2015, a 15-year-old boy approached the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR) after authorities at Peddar Road school brought in a barber and forcibly cut his hair.

Similarly, in 2014, parents of wards at an Andheri school complained that a teacher had tonsured some students from Classes 8 and 9, claiming their hair were overgrown and unkempt.

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The BJP-led state government wants to expand the scope of the Centres flagship housing for all scheme to cover urban Maharashtra entirely.

The state housing department is in the process of sending a proposal to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, requesting it to expand the scheme to 385 cities and towns in the state. It is limited to 142 now.

An official said, If the central government accepts our proposal, the scheme will cover all of urban Maharashtra, right from municipal corporations to councils to the nagar panchayats.

Maharashtra has 27 municipal corporations, 234 municipal councils and 124 nagar panchayats.

The Maharashtra government adopted the scheme, formulated as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), in December 2015. At that time, it was launched in just 51 cities and towns in the state.

The number of towns in Maharashtra that can avail of the scheme were gradually increased to 91 in November 2016, and later to 142 earlier this year, the official said.

The housing for all mission is one of Prime Minister Narendra Modis pet projects. The Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government has set an ambitious target of constructing 19 lakh low-cost houses under the scheme by 2022. It has, however, been lagging behind, and has approved 45 projects so far that will yield 1,11,687 houses for the economically weaker sections. Forty three more such projects are under scrutiny.

The government has charted out four ways to provide low-cost housing under PMAY  slum redevelopment on the existing plot, creation of housing stock by public authorities through a developer, beneficiary-led individual housing, and an interest subsidy scheme. Most of the projects in the pipeline are being implemented by public authorities for the creation of housing stock through developers, while a small handful are beneficiary-led individual housing projects.

The Union government provides Rs1.5 lakh for every tenement created under the scheme, while the state government funds another lakh.

READ

Budget 2017 wish list: Should priority housing be redefined?

Railways to help build homes for slum dwellers on its land in Mumbai

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The Maharashtra government announced on Saturday that it would create a new law to ban doctors from taking kickbacks from other doctors and hospitals to refer patients for advanced - and expensive - medical tests. Known as cut practice in the medical community, it was the target of a recent billboard campaign by the Asian Heart Institute, Bandra-Kurla Complex.

The government has appointed a nine-member committee under Pravin Dixit, former director general of police, to study laws against kickbacks in developed and developing countries and put together guidelines for the state. A number of eminent doctors, and administrators of the Maharashtra Medical Council and Indian Medical Association are on the committee.

The law will be called the Cut practices in Medical Services Act, 2017. We are at the initial stage of forming the guidelines. Our core job is to hold primary discussions and advise the state government on exploring ways to structure the law, said Dr Avinash Supe, director, medical education and major hospitals, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, who is on the committee.

The act will make referring patients without any specific medical needs to doctors and hospitals a cognisable offence. If a certain doctor is violates the norms for more than three times, he or she will face punitive action. This will include fines between Rs 5,000 and Rs25,000, based on the number of violations.

However, experts said implemention, not legislation, would be the biggest hurdle. A committee member said, Pinning down a medical practitioner will be tough. Every doctor has the right to use every diagnostic test, according to his medical notion about a certain patient. But with society resorting the violence and holding doctors responsible for medical complications, doctors nowadays take utmost care that nothing goes wrong while treating a patient.

Another member said many doctors believe that after spending lacks on studying medicine and setting up hospitals or clinics, there is nothing wrong in earning money through referrals for unnecessary tests. Its not the view of the majority, and extremely wrong, ethically. Any law that seeks to restricts doctors from doing so needs to have the power of implementation to be successful, said the member.

A source confirmed that the state government had taken notice of Asian Heart Institutes campaign. Honest opinions, say no to commissions, read one of the 10 billboards the hospital put up across the city.

Dr Ramakant Panda, managing director of Asian Heart Institute, also wrote a letter signed by 50 in-house doctors to the MMC, the state health minister and medical education minster on June 14. He wrote that cut practice was prevalent and that it had become difficult for doctors and hospitals to pursue the profession honestly.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had critised the campaign, calling its message an insult to the medical community. It lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council of India on June 13, saying the advertisements were in poor taste and offensive to the medical profession.

The hoarding suggested that all hospitals except the Asian Heart Institute accepted commissions and indulged in cut practice, said Dr Jayesh Lele, an IMA member.
Hours before the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime was set to roll out at midnight, traders and trader groups in Mumbai said they were facing numerous administrative difficulties and technical glitches.

Above all, there was confusion about the tax brackets of various goods. The confusion extended to input/output credits and setoffs in the next chain of trading, among other issues, and left many traders angry and frustrated. Having admitted to the technical and administrative glitches, the government said it expected there to be some confusion over the next few days.

Many traders said they had not received their GST number, while others said they had difficulty registering with the GST Network. Though the government claims that 95% of the citys eight lakh traders have registered under the new tax regime, thousands of new assesses are yet to do so. For many, the registration process was blighted by slow servers and crashes.

Smaller traders also had questions about their old stock and which tax or taxes would apply.

Ajit Joshi, a chartered accountant who works with traders, said, The government uploaded the complete HSN code list for goods just yesterday. Last night alone, 51 new notifications were uploaded. How are we expected to read, understand and interpret these documents in such a short time?

Many small traders said they were worried about the high tax rates on goods they sell. Viren Shah, president, Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association, said, It is unbelievable that school bags, compass boxes and water colours will attract 28% GST, from a previous tax of 6%.

Maharashtras sales tax department has established its compatibility with the GST Network. But it has been forced to keep the old format for filing returns as the centre has not yet finalised GST return formats.

Rajiv Jalota, Maharashtra Sales Tax commissioner, said, The problem with the GST numbers was due to the duplication of provisional ID numbers and multiple PAN numbers. There are only 1,200-1,500 such cases left and we are sure these technical problems will be sorted out in eight days. He said issues related to old stock and tax rates were being discussed.

Sudhir Mungantiwar, state finance minister, said, We are all set to roll out GST from Saturday. It is difficult to say all compliances have been done as its a massive task. But I can day Maharashtra is ahead of other states.
Colleges are not waiting for the University of Mumbai (MU) to declare results to start with the next academic year. Instead, many have decided to start holding lectures for the next semester, especially for law and postgraduate courses.

Churchgates Government Law College put up a circular inviting students who want to take admissions to the third and fifth semesters of three-year law courses and seventh and ninth semesters of five-year law courses to start attending lectures from July 7.

It seems like the results for various law exams will not be announced soon. Considering this we decided to start the teaching schedule of next semesters from July 7, stated the circular signed by principal of the institute Ajay Nathani.

Colleges are worried that the slow pace of assessments, which are being done through the new on-screen marking system, will affect their teaching schedule for the next year. The university authorities announced at a meeting in mid-June that less than 10% answer sheets had been assessed and not all 20 lakh answer booklets had been scanned. Answer booklets are being checked at a slow pace as teachers have started attending lectures and many dont find time to visit the CAP centres for assessment, said an official from the examination department.

While most final-year degree college students must need their results to apply for higher education, some colleges in the city are trying to make sure that students dont lose out on a semester altogether. Some colleges are providing provisional admissions to first-year postgraduate students and starting regular classes form next week. We cannot waste any more time so we have taken an undertaking from our students that if they fail to clear second semester their admission will be cancelled. Classes will begin in time so that teachers can complete the syllabus, said Anju Kapoor, principal of UPG College, Vile Parle.

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Indias new tax regime may help ease Mumbais traffic trouble.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which came into effect today, abolishes Maharashtras Octroi. For motorists, this means fewer jams at the citys entry and exit points, as the five check nakas where vehicles were stopped to pay Octroi will be dismantled.

Under the Octroi regime, all goods vehicles entering the city had to stop at these check posts, declare the goods they were carrying into the city and pay Octroi.

The Octroi staff would physically examine vehicles if they suspected a driver was misleading them. This resulted in serpentine queues of goods vehicles at Mulund and Mankhurd, affecting the flow of traffic for kilometres into the city.

With the GST roll-out, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will stop collecting Octroi, which means there will be no waiting at the check posts. Octroi check posts in the city currently occupy a little more than 10 hectares of land.

Civic chief Ajoy Mehta has now asked deputy municipal commissioners of the seven zones where these check posts are to send ideas on how these nakas can be used.

There are five nakas in the city  three in Mulund (T ward), two in Dahisar (R North ward) and one in Mankhurd (M/East ward).

While the BMC had planned to turn these nakas into Central Business Districts (CBD), and marked them in the Development Plan (DP) 2034, it is yet to make progress.

With Octroi gone, checking of vehicles may come down. The Mumbai police said it will step up security at the toll nakas to ensure unwanted goods dont make their way into the city.

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A habeas corpus plea filed in the Bombay high court by a couple from the city seeking the custody of their adopted son, who was taken away by the state and kept in a childrens home on the ground that they had not followed statutory rules for the adoption, has opened a crucial debate.

A bench of justices Ranjit More and SV Kotwal, who were hearing the plea, asked the government on Friday why must it intercede in such a case where the biological parent, the adoptive parents, and the child are all happy and have no objections.

The bench also noted that in the present case, all parties were Hindus and thus, fell within the ambit of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act that permits a consenting biological mother to relinquish the rights over her child towards a third party.

It questioned whether the Juvenile Justice Act, and provisions of CARA regulating intra-country adoptions should have any jurisdiction in the case.

According to the petitioner, Laxman Betkekar, he and his wife have a 21-year-old daughter and they had been unsuccessfully trying to have a second child for years, when in September 2016, they learnt of a destitute woman wanting to give up her newborn son for adoption.

They approached the woman through a third person known to them all. The woman claimed she was too poor and not in proper health to take care of and provide for her son. The Betkekars offered to adopt the 12 day-old-child, the woman consented to the same, and gave them the child by signing an adoption deed declaring her consent. They also gave the woman some money to "express their gratitude, and help her live."

However, in December 2016, someone made an anonymous complaint to the police alleging the petitioners had illegally "bought the child." Since then, the child has been kept at a state-run home in Chembur. The state has argued that even if all parties had consented to the adoption, a mere adoption deed wasn't enough and that they could not surpass all rules under the Juvenile Justice Act and CARA, all meant for the welfare of the child.

It also said that there were several couples waiting in line on the state-approved list of prospective adoptive parents.

HC has now directed the state to take further instructions and will decide in the subsequent hearings, whether or not CARA's adoption rules supersede the Hindu Adoption Act. Meanwhile, the state informed the petitioners that the child is "healthy and doing well" in the home. HC is likely to hear the matter on July 4 this year.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led governments promise to waive loans worth Rs34,000 crore for farmers in Maharashtra will come at the cost of public spending on development schemes, projects and capital assets.On Friday, the state announced that revenue expenditure across all departments would be slashed by 30%. It also announced a 20% cut in capital expenditure.

Heres a look at five things that will be hit as the state struggles to provide for the waiver:

1. The governments development schemes and projects: The 30% slash in revenue expenditure across departments will have an impact on ongoing schemes and will impact new policies. The amount spent on social welfare, health and education will come down.

2. Infrastructure projects: Capital spending proposed for new bridges, roads, irrigation projects will be slashed by 20%. The government has asked the public works department and water resources officials to complete ongoing projects and not take up new ones.

3. Schools, colleges: The state will not grants permissions for new schools and colleges. Instead, it is likely to review existing aided institutions and cut back on the number of classrooms and teaching faculty where the demand has fallen.

4. Government employees perks: The state has asked its employees to cut back on air travel and use video conferencing instead. This involves a stay on business air travel earlier permitted for principal secretaries and high-ranking officials. Buying new vehicles across departments has been banned. The state has also asked government employees to reduce fuel expenses. Departments have been asked to cut back on expenses ranging from stationery to air conditioning.

5. New loans by state departments: When it comes to state grants, central schemes will be prioritised, and not much else. The finance department has asked departments to route back funds that were unspent during the last fiscal year, and diverted to various public sector units, back to its kitty. It has banned individual departments from raising funds or applying for loans.

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The third merit list for admission to degree courses failed to bring down the cut-offs at the city's institutes. Some colleges didn't even release a list, indicating that all the students who were allotted seats in the first and second merit lists have secured admissions.

For example, St Xavier's College in Dhobi Talao didn't issue a third merit list for any of the courses. Similarly, there were no BA and BSc lists at Mithibai College in Vile Parle. ML Dahanukar College, Vile Parle exhausted its BCom Financial Markets (BFM), BCom Banking and Insurance (BBI) and Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) lists. Vaze College, Mulund, also didn't display any list for BMS, BBI and BA courses.

We have exhausted all the merit lists we had issued last time," said Agnelo Menezes, principal, Xavier's College.

The students and parents were disappointed by the absence of merit lists at the top colleges. "I was expecting my daughter to figure in the Gujarati quota lists at two colleges in the city. But both these colleges didn't issue any lists. I am really concerned for my daughter," said Rupa Vaghela, parent of a student.

At the most popular colleges in the city, the cut-offs for other courses dropped by a few percentage points. The drop in cut-offs for science courses, such as BSc, BSc (IT) and BSc (Computer Science), continue to be steeper compared to other courses. The trend points to the relatively low popularity of these courses among high scorers.

On the other hand, the cut-offs for Commerce courses such as BCom Accounting and Finance (BAF) and BFM hardly changed at most of these colleges.

With most of their seats filled, the colleges are likely to start the first year classes within a week. "We will begin the college on July 6," said Parag Thakkar, in-charge principal, HR College.

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A ward officer from Kalyan Dombivli Municipal corporation ( KDMC) was arrested for accepting a bribe of Rs25,000 from a man for not conducting an inquiry into the construction of an illegal structure.

The complainant had gave an application to the J-ward officer, identified as Swati Sanjay Garud, for which Garud demanded a bribe of Rs30,000, but settled the deal at on Rs25,000.

The complainant was building an additional structure in his house, and he did not want the corporation to conduct an inquiry. That is when Garud demanded a bribe, and on Saturday we laid a trap and caught her accepting Rs25,000 near the corporation office , said police officer from the Thane anti-corruption bureau.

A police case has been lodged with the nearby police station under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

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The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said on Friday it would attend the governments Goods and Services Tax (GST) midnight launch event at Parliaments Central Hall  even with ally Congress and other opposition parties boycotting it.

NCP Rajya Sabha MP Majeed Memon said, The NCP has decided to attend the GST rollout event in Delhi. We are not boycotting the launch.

In another boost to the BJP-led government at the Centre, its warring ally Shiv Sena also said it supported the single-tax regime.

Opposition parties said earlier this week they would boycott the GST rollout event, and said the country was not prepared for its implementation.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was the first to announce she wont attend the midnight function. The Congress, DMK and Left parties followed.

But senior NCP leader and former civil aviation minister Praful Patel said in a series of tweets: All parties unanimously passed the GST in Parliament. The state governments of different parties approved the rates. Now, why is there so much fuss over the launch function?

The NCPs spokesperson Nawab Malik said his party too was concerned about how the new regime will be implemented, but added, Boycotting the launch doesnt make sense when all parties unanimously approved the GST bill. NCP chief Pawar enjoys a good rapport with the BJPs leadership, including PM Narendra Modi, and has extended support to the government earlier too.

The Sena had issues with the new tax regime, fearing it will hit the revenue of the Sena-controlled Mumbai civic body.

The BMC relies on the octroi tax that will be replaced now by the GST.

On Friday, Senas Sanjay Raut, said, The government has the Senas backing. All our issues were addressed and there is no reason to oppose. Our party MPs may attend the launch.

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The anti-human trafficking cell of the Thane police on Friday arrested a 50-year-old woman for allegedly trying to sell a five-year-old girl for Rs20,000 at Bhiwandi. The girl has been sent to observation home.

The woman, Shobha Bansi Gaikwad, allegedly forged documents to show that she had adopted the girl from a friend in Gujarat three months ago. The woman from Gujarat was divorced and wanted to remarry, but the girl was a hindrance. A few months ago, she decided to remarry a man from Gujarat and gave away the girl to Gaikwad who brought her to Bhiwandi three months ago, said Ravindra Daundkar, a senior inspector of the anti-human trafficking cell.

Later, she told her acquaintances that she was ready to sell the girl for Rs30,000, but later hewed it down to Rs20,000, said Daundkar.

We got a tip-off a week ago and arrested her on Friday, he said. The police said that Gaikwad neglected the childs care and did not even send her to school. We will talk to the girl to know more about her condition. As of now, she is in observation home where she will be taken care of, said Daundkar. Gaikwad has been remanded in police custody till July 6.

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PURNIA: Saat phere (seven circumambulations) is one of the most important rituals in a Hindu wedding. But a couple, set to tie the nuptial knot on July 3 in Purnia district of northeast Bihar, will take eight rounds around the pious fire, instead of seven, to promote cleanliness and support the drive against open defecation.

Ours will be a swachh shadi (clean wedding). The eighth phera will a big step forward towards cleanliness, said Ravi Ranjan, 29, the would-be groom.

Even the invitation cards we have got printed carries the Swach Bharat Abhiyan logo with slogans: Ek kadam swachhta ki aur (a step towards cleanliness) and Sauchalaya bin dulhan ka shringar adhoora hai (the makeover of a bride is incomplete without toilet), said Ranjan, who works as senior manager at a hotel in New Delhi.

The wedding card with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan logo . (HT photo)

A resident of Banwarinagar locality in Purnia town, 368 km east of Patna, Ranjan said, My fiancee Gudiya Kumari, 26, is a software engineer at Gurgaon in the national capital region. She has happily agreed to my proposal for an additional phera during the wedding.

The marriage would be solemnised at Jalsa Bhawan, Purnia, on Monday, he added.

Marriage is pious institution and its sanctity must be maintained. There must be purity of mind and clean surroundings around. Our collective commitment to cleanliness drive in marriage will give a boost to this campaign, he said.

Ranjan said he was inspired by one of his friends to take the eight phera. While working in Gujarat, I had attended the marriage of my friend in which the couple took a vow for cleanliness. I was so impressed that that I decided to emulate the couple, he added.

Ravi Ranjan who will marry Gudiya Kumari on July 3.

Ranjans father Arun Kumar Yadav, 55, a small businessman, and mother Rita Devi, 47, a homemaker, said, We have requested the brides family not to spend money lavishly on wedding arrangements and keep it a simple affair.

Would-be bride Gudiya Kumari of Bhalni village in neighbouring Madhepura district could not be reached for her comments. But her family members said they were quite enthusiastic about the unusual marriage.
PATNA The morning after the July 1 zero hour switch to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) saw traders in Patna grapple with requirements for making a transition from the phased out Value Added Tax structure to the online GST platform.

The absence of a declared format for issuing an invoice is the first stumbling block for the vast majority of traders, given to carrying trade with hand written receipts, complained a businessman who runs a shop in the busy New Market of Patna.

The GST mandates for certain entries like separate tax incidence under SGST, CGST, IGST (if goods are to be sold outside the state) and product code, to be made, along with mention of the new GSTIN (the GST tax registration number).

All this is proving to be a long haul for the uniniatiated.

Finding the correct code of a particular product from the huge list of Harmonized System of Nomenclature (HSN) is a nightmare and cannot be done without a proper software or expert assistance, says Sumeet Jain, a grocery shop owner, who deals in a vast variety of products, including cosmetics and toiletries.

With news coming in that the centre had deferred e-way bill, those dealing in inter-state businesses are worried about how to ensure the continuation of the supply chain without a break.

Though the cap for the need for e-way bill for inter-state trade has been raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 and for sale-purchase of goods within the state, at Rs 2 lakh, we will still require it, said Sanjiv Jha, a leading businessman.

However, Udayan Mishra, deputy commissioner in the commerial taxes department, tasked with heading the control room-cum-facilitation centre for resolving migration issues, said there was no cause for concern.

There is no problem as the commercial taxes department has converted the existing Suvidha form (a kind of road permit under VAT) into e-way bill, which can be downloaded from departments official website with old user ID and password, he explained.

About the traders anxiety about finding the correct HSN codes, Mishra said there was absolutely no need for businessmen having an annual turnover of less than Rs 1.5 crore to file specific product codes.

For those falling in the Rs 1.5 to Rs 5 crore slab, only two digit code is required, while those with more than Rs 5 crore turnover are required to provide 4-digit code. Such people will, in any case,be having a set-up for meeting compliance requirements, he explained.

With the biggest tax reform becoming the only way forward for carrying out legal trade and mandating registration of all businesses with annual turnover in excess of Rs 20 lakh, those operating in the unorganized sector were the most worried lot for seeking answers for queries related to transitional issues.

The fear of unknown, on Saturday, remained the key cause for anxiety. What needs to be done with existing stocks? When will returns have to be filed? are few common questions, said PK Agrawal, president of apex trade body, Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries, while sharing members concerns.

Mishra, on the other hand, said businessmen had 90 days time for declaration of unsold inventory, while the date for filing first return for existing registered dealers had been extended by two months.

But the introduction of provisions like reverse charge for goods purchased from unregistered dealers continues to baffle traders, who also want clarity on the fate of unsold stock within the stipulated time frame of six months.

Gold traders are particularly peeved at the provision that calls for declaration of the name and vehicle description in invoices for inter-state and intra-state movement of goods. This is risky and dangerous for trade involving precious items, says Bharat Mehta, general secretary, Patliputra Sarafa Sangh, the representative body of jewellers.

Yet, there is a brighter side to all this, too. Jewellers dealing in business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) trades will have to issue tax invoice only, unlike the earlier requirement for both tax and retail invoices, said Abhik Avtans, assistant commissioner, commercial taxes.

STUMBLING BLOCK Absence of a declared format for issuing an invoice is a major problem for the vast majority of traders, given to carrying trade with hand written receipts

QUOTE

What needs to be done with existing stocks? When will returns have to be filed? These are a few common questions bogging the traders

PK Agrawal, president, Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries

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A Panchkula man and his uncle had a close shave after a speeding Jaguar rammed into their vehicle, causing it to go up in flames on the Zirakpur-Panchkula highway on Friday night.

In his statement to the police, Vikas Kumar, 30, a resident of Sector 26, Panchkula, said he and his uncle, Thomas, 50, were on their way to Mohali in a Toyota Innova. As they reached the Dhakoli railway overbridge, a speeding Jaguar XE (HR99-AAM-TEMP 0090) coming from Zirakpur crashed into their vehicle.

Damaged interiors of the Innova car ( left), and Jaguar. (Gagandeep Singh/HT Photos)

The impact caused their car to catch fire, while the Jaguar was severely damaged. A fire tender from Panchkula extinguished the fire.

Police said while Vikas and his uncle were rushed to the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, two unidentified occupants of the Jaguar were admitted to a private hospital in Panchkula.

The luxury sedan was at a high speed that led its driver to lose control and hit a divider before ramming into the Innova, they said.

A case under Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 427 (mischief causing damage) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the unidentified Jaguar driver.
The political activist said the need of the hour was to bring together different energies in the country.
In a goodwill gesture, the Border Security Force (BSF) handed over a Pakistani woman, to Pakistan Rangers, who had inadvertently crossed into Indian territory in the Amritsar sector in Punjab, a BSF spokesperson said on Saturday.

The Pakistani women identified as Nimmoo, hailing from Kila Da Jawar in Pakistan, was apprehended by the BSF troopers on Friday evening in the operation area of border out post (BoP) Pulmoran in Amritsar sector.

The BSF spokesperson said that the woman, aged around 60-year-old, was handed over to Pakistan Rangers on humanitarian grounds. He said, this is the ninth case of inadvertent crossing this year.

She had crossed the international boundary inadvertently and entered Indian territory. The Pakistan Rangers were contacted (late on Friday) and the apprehended lady was handed over to them at about 11.50 p.m. being an inadvertent border crosser on humanitarian grounds, BSF deputy inspector general (DIG) RS Kataria said.

Security along the 553-km long international border in Punjab with Pakistan is always on high alert.

Security agencies have been extra cautious following the terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot in January 2016 and the terror attack in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district in July 2015.

(With IANS inputs)
He is now in jail for allegedly being involved in drug smuggling, but this Punjab police inspector sure made high scores in recovery of illegal drugs out in the field. Kartarpur, a town 17 km from Jalandhar on the national highway to Amritsar, saw huge seizure of poppy husk when the police station here was headed by Inderjit Singh.

From May 20, 2012, to March 24, 2013, now-dismissed inspector Inderjit led recovery of 10,400 kg of poppy husk in the town, otherwise famous for its furniture and for its founder being Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Sikh master. After he was shifted from the rural police unit, the recovery witnessed a sharp decline. His successor in the next 10 months confiscated only 46 kg of poppy husk.

One case thats still under investigation saw seizure of 4,025 kg of poppy husk on October 7, 2012; five persons were booked. Another major recovery was of 3,007 kg two months before that. Also, when Inderjit was head of the crime investigation agency (CIA) of Kartarpur, there was a seizure of 1,925 kg on May 18, 2013, and 220 kg on May 9.

But, after his transfer from Kartarpur, the biggest recovery was of 10kg poppy husk, in March 2014, and 5kg in July 2014. Since then, there has been no major recovery.

In Phagwara, on the Jalandhar-Delhi NH, similar major recoveries come to the fore in months when he was CIA head there. Prominently, his team seized 56,050 intoxicant capsules and tablets from a self-styled Shiv Sena leader on April 8 this year.

As per senior officials, Kartarpur and Phagwara had turned into transit points for drugs and other forms of narcotics; and that coincided when Inderjit reportedly became a blue-eyed boy of senior officials in the police department. Inderjit is in jail at present.
Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal will on July 6 start work on a portrait gallery in the complex of Golden Temple in memory of those killed by the army during Operation Bluestar at the most prominent Sikh shrine in Amritsar in 1984.

On a demand by the Taksal, the executive of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had decided to establish the gallery two weeks ago in the basement of the existing Bluestar memorial. The portraits will include those of radical preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who once headed the Taksal, and Maj Gen Shabeg Singh, who had been dismissed by the army and joined the militant Khalistani movement.

SGPC chief secretary Harcharan Singh said president Kirpal Singh Badungar will be among those present at the starting of the sewa (voluntary service). The Taksal has not yet given a final list of persons whose portraits will to be installed, he added.

Taksal chief Harnam Singh Dhumma also issued a poster to appeal to the masses to attend the ceremony for the Shaheedi Gallery. The seminary has also made a booking to conduct akhand path (chain prayers) at the memorial.

Additionally, on the Taksals demand again, a portrait of Bhindranwales successor and the Taksals 15th chief, Thakur Singh, was also installed at the Central Sikh Museum in the shrine complex.

Shifting stance?

For the memorial gurdwara, which is near the temporal seat Akal Takht, too, construction was executed under Dhummas supervision in 2013. At the time, the SGPC, which is ruled by the Shiromani Akali Dal that was in power in Punjab then, had expressed unease at a plaque and two slabs with Bhindranwales name installed at its entrance. Certain leaders of the SADs alliance partner BJP and the then opposition Congress had opposed it, terming it anti-national.

A few days later, on the instructions of the then SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar, a clock with Bhindranwales name had been removed from the memorial. This had led to confrontation between the SGPC and the Taksal.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad accused BJP ruled Jharkhand government of ignoring the Election Commission of India (ECI) order and shielding chief minister Raghubar Das two close associates charged with adopting corrupt practices to influence 2016 Rajya Sabha biennial polls.

The ECI had asked Jharkhand chief secretary to immediately initiate criminal proceedings against Das political adviser, Ajay Kumar and an additional director general (ADG) rank police officer Anurag Gupta for their alleged role in horse trading to influence the 2016 RS polls, Prasad said, adding, It happens in every BJP ruled state where the guilty enjoy government protection.

Prasad, who appeared before a special CBI court in Ranchi on Thursday to face the trial in a fodder scam case, replied to media query as to why the Jharkhand government was sitting tight over the ECIs directive. He said, FIR must be lodged against the duo.

BJP candidates Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar bagged the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand, election for which was held on June 11 last year. Out of total 81 MLAs, 79 cast their votes while JMM legislator Chamra Linda and Congress legislator Devendra Singh failed to exercise their franchise.

Soon after the elections, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Progressive) chief Babulal Marandi brought horse trading charges against the ruling BJP, alleging that some people at the helm of power adopted corrupt practices to influence the legislators to secure their votes in favour of BJP candidates.

He also filed a complaint with the ECI annexing with it a compact disc (CD) that contained telephonic conversations between ADG Anurag Gupta, CMs political adviser, Ajay Kumar and a former Congress minister Yogendra Sao, whose wife Nirmala Devi is a sitting legislator.

Finding the allegations prima facie true, the ECI had issued a letter to the state chief secretary on June 13, 2017, asking her to immediately initiate criminal proceedings and departmental disciplinary action against the accused persons for misuse of official position, interference in elections, breach of conduct/service rules and other relevant offences.

Jharkhand hit the headlines in 2010 and 2012 Rajya Sabha biennial polls, which saw victory of some independent candidates amid allegations of horse trading. The ECI had to countermand the polls held on March 30, 2012.

The CBI which probed it filed charge sheets against five former legislators Simon Marandi (JMM), Yogendra Sao (Congress), Sawna Lakra (Congress), Rakesh Ranjan (Congress) and Uma Shankar Akela (BJP), allegedly for demanding Rs 1 to 2 crore bribe to cast their votes in the manner desired by the payer in 2010 election.

In 2012 countermanded polls, the CBI filed charge sheet against JMM legislator Sita Soren, daughter-in-law of party chief Sibu Soren, alleging that she took Rs 1.5 crore bribe from an independent contestant and Jamshedpur based industrialist, RK Agarwal, to cast her vote in his favour.

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The pro-European Union protests in the UK following last years shock Brexit vote may have surprised even the EU officials.

Led by a labyrinthine bureaucracy, EU was never a perfect union. At best, it was a work in progress. Just look at how member state economies crashed after the 2008 US meltdown. But it also led to EU coming together to help sustain struggling members like Greece. From the embers of that crisiswhich contributed to Brexit, the rise of the Right and ascent of President Donald Trump in the USa more united EU is emerging, with some of its leaders ready to lead the free world.



Karan Bilimoria, a member of UKs House of Lords, says Brexit was a protest vote in many ways.



But the political upheavals in opposition to austerity measures introduced at the instance of EU leadership are waning, and Germany, along with France, is determined to make the EU a stronger union.



German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the de facto leader of the free world now, is expected to do some plain talking at the G20 summit, where she will face Trump for the first time since he pulled US out of the Paris climate accord.



Brexit may not have immediately strengthened and united the EU, but it has brought much-needed introspection and possible clarity on how to keep the European integration process going, says Constantino Xavier, fellow, Carnegie India.



Britain, on the other hand, has had an unnecessary snap election that saw Prime Minister Theresa May lose her majority, and is on a tortuous path towards exit from EU that may incur it heavy financial losses if the divorce bill of upwards of 50bn is paid.



In a way, UKs experience precludes other exits: Grexit, Frexit or Spexit. Political and economic difficulties associated with the Brexit negotiations and its possible economic implications have certainly an impact on any other exit talk, says Gulshan Sachdeva, Jean Monnet Chair and director of Europe Area Studies Programme at Jawaharlal Nehru University.



Xavier agrees: The complexity and protracted nature of the Brexit negotiation and the volatility of the British electorate on the issue as reflected in the parliamentary elections has soothed any separatist impulses, especially in southern Europe.



The anti-refugee, anti-Muslim rhetoric that Europes right wing parties employed in the hopes of Trump-like electoral victories fizzled out. See what happened to Norbert Hofer of Austria, Geert Wilders of the Netherlands and Marine Le Pen of France.

The Austrian and Dutch elections did not go far right and protectionist. In France, in (Emmanuel) Macron, there is a charismatic young leader who is pro-European and centrist and has the willingness to reform. Now, a figure like Trump seems isolated in the world. Theresa May has lost all her credibility and its only a matter of time before she is replaced, Bilimoria says.



With the election of Macron, and the probable re-election of Merkel later this year, the conditions are right for a European revival, freed from Britains skepticism, says Xavier.



Bilimoria even thinks Brexit may be reversed, citing a recent poll by Survation and the Mail on Sunday that showed 69% of the British public oppose Hard Brexit and 53 per cent now back a second referendum.



Brexit might never happen. The hardline Brexiteers are a minority in the Commons, where a 44-seat majority backs Remain. The countrymay even decide its better just to stay in.



Xavier says it speaks to the strength of the EU that several peripheral regions such as Scotland and others in southern Europe remain deeply committed to the European integration process.



That process is moving forward, albeit slowly. Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey are official candidates for membership. For various reasons, Turkeys membership is almost ruled out at the moment. Serbia and Montenegro may be ready in a few years. Bosnia and Herzegovia and Kosovo are potential candidate countries for the coming years, says Sachdeva.



A further integrated, united, stable and stronger EU is in the best interest of India.



UKs visa restrictions on Indian professionals and students will lead them to see other EU countries as possible destinations. Several European governments have been pitching their economies quite blatantly as alternative destinations for any Indians who may be affected by Brexit, Xavier points out, adding that Indias outreach is not just to the larger countries in EU but even the smaller ones such as Portugal, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited.

And during his visit to Germany, Modi and Merkel also committed to reviving the stalled India-EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations.



EUs regulations and public policies have appeal for India, especially for key development programmes such as clean Ganga, Skill India and Smart Cities, Xavier says. Cooperation is growing in the maritime sector, especially in rights of navigation, piracy and maritime security.



But does the united front being put forth by EU leaders mean that the advocates of insularity are suddenly obsolete?



Sachdeva offers words of caution: Many populist leaders are in control in Central and eastern Europe. Even if they have not been able to form governments, right wing populism is very much alive in Europe. As a result of economic difficulties, influx of refugees, along with regular incidents of terrorism, these parties will continue to find sufficient support to survive for some time.



Parties like UKIP in the UK, the Front National in France, or the AfD in Germany have now been facing some setbacks but will be tactically revived as new challenges arise, whether economic recession or a rise in refugees and immigrants, avers Xavier.



But according to Sachdeva, the overall situation is not alarming. He expects reasonable political stability in major countries in the EU.



Xavier also points out the disruptive potential of China, which has been investing massively in the EU region in strategic infrastructure sectors, including transportation, energy and telecommunications.



The recent Belt and Road Initiative meeting in Beijing showed how this has given Beijing political leverage over smaller countries, including Hungary, Greece and Portugal. In the long run, this will create a tremendous challenge for the EU to adopt common positions on regional and global issues, whether in trade negotiations or joint positions on democracy and human rights.

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The death toll from an oil tanker explosion in central Pakistan has risen to 190, hospital and government officials said Friday as 16 more people succumbed to their injuries.

The tanker overturned early Sunday on a main highway from Karachi to Lahore while carrying some 40,000 litres of fuel.

It exploded minutes later as crowds from a nearby village gathered to scavenge for fuel, despite warnings by the driver as well as motorway police to stay away.

The death toll from the tanker fire incident is now 190 after expiry of more injured people, Tahira Parveen, medical superintendent of Bahawalpur Victoria hospital, told AFP.

A senior local administration official confirmed the toll.

Motorway police spokesman Imran Shah has said that a government inquiry into the incident had found at least five police officials guilty of hiding information.

The tragedy marked a grim start to Eid, the celebrations closing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Pakistan has a poor record of fatal traffic accidents due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.
Thousands of Singaporeans dressed in pink packed a city park on Saturday for a gay-rights rally under tight security after the government banned foreign participants.

Singapores Pink Dot rally started in 2009 and has historically attracted crowds of up to 28,000 despite a backlash from conservative groups in a state where protests are strictly controlled.

But those taking part in this years rally had to show identity cards to prove they were citizens or permanent residents before being allowed into a barricaded zone.

They included both gay and straight Singaporeans, families with small children and Muslim women in veils, with many sitting on picnic mats under the scorching sun.

Adeline Yeo, an art director whose Polish partner was unable to attend and had to follow developments from a nearby bar, lamented the new regulations.

Its disappointing because we went from marching in London Pride last year right behind (London mayor) Sadiq Khan to having to celebrate separately, she told AFP.

Apart from a ban on foreigners attending this years rally, overseas companies were also banned from providing sponsorship.

Singapore has long taken a hard line on what it considers foreign interference in domestic politics and has often been criticised by human rights groups for clamping down on political freedoms.

Multinationals like Facebook, Google and Goldman Sachs had funded previous editions as part of their equal- opportunity initiatives.

Under a law dating back to British colonial rule, sex between men is technically still a criminal act in Singapore but the statute is not being actively enforced.

Open support for gay rights has meanwhile grown in recent years, aided by changing social norms among the younger generation and a large influx of tourists and expatriates.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Friday thanked Iraqs top Shia cleric for his role in the war against jihadists, crediting him with saving the country and setting the stage for victory.

Three days after Mosul fell to the Islamic State group in 2014, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on Iraqis to volunteer to fight the jihadists, a step that helped to halt their sweeping offensive.

But the call also leaves a complicated legacy, leading to a resurgence of Shiite militias that have carried out abuses and the establishment of new paramilitary groups, both of which could be a source of future instability.

Abadi issued a statement expressing his deep thanks and gratitude to Sistani for his great and continuing support to the heroic fighters.

The clerics 2014 call for volunteers saved Iraq and paved the way for victory over IS, Abadi said

Abadis message comes as the battle to retake second city Mosul nears its conclusion -- a redemption for forces that performed poorly there three years before.

Sistani made the call via a representative speaking at Friday prayers on June 13, 2014, days after multiple Iraqi divisions collapsed in the face of the IS assault in the north.

Citizens who are able to bear arms and fight terrorists, defending their country and their people and their holy places, should volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose, he said.

It sparked a flood of volunteers who were organised under what became known as the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation forces -- an umbrella group for pro-government paramilitaries that is officially under the command of the countrys premier.

But pre-existing Shiite militias that took part in the brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian bloodshed that plagued Iraq in past years were also placed under the Hashed al-Shaabi banner and have played a major role in operations against IS.

These groups provided a pool of capable fighters that Baghdad could rely on to combat IS.

But they have also carried out abuses including kidnappings and summary executions in Sunni Arab areas that ultimately undermine Iraqs efforts to counter the jihadists.

The Hashed al-Shaabis role after the war against IS ends is a key question, and the forces could be a source of instability.

Rivalries could lead to violence between units, and Hashed fighters have already clashed with Iraqi Kurdish forces in the countrys north.

The Hashed may also have a political impact, with some commanders potentially seeking to translate military success into political capital in the 2018 parliamentary elections.
When leaders of G20 states gather in Hamburg this week, the world will be watching closely to see if they step up to the plate to fill the space ceded by the US under President Donald Trump.

The rise of Trump with his America First credo had boosted the fortunes of nationalist forces across Europe but recent elections in the UK and France have shown the tide has been stemmed, if not reversed.

With the success of French President Emmanuel Macron and his centrist party, La Republique en Marche in elections and with Chancellor Angela Merkel on course for a fourth term as Germanys leader, albeit with reduced backing, many around the world are looking to Europes key powers to set the global agenda.

Others have pointed to the rise of the Labour Party in the UK and its leader Jeremy Corbyns ability to tap into the backing of the youth, despite the Conservative Partys victory in the June 8 snap election, as a reflection of the rejection of populist policies that appeared to have spread after Trumps win in the US.



The right-wing UK Independence Party imploded in the recent poll, its vote share of 12.6 per cent in the 2015 polls falling to just 2.1 per cent.



In March, Geert Wilders populist Party for Freedom was defeated in the election in the Netherlands. More recently, Finlands ruling coalition parted ways with the rightwing True Finns party earlier this month. These developments too have been perceived as a dip in support for populist and hardline forces across the continent.



Altogether, these national developments seem to signal that the wave of right-wing populism, which swept the US and UK last year, is receding. While reformist politics appear on the upswing, Germany and France are seizing new opportunities for global leadership, said Antoine Levesques, research associate for South Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.



But there are also signs that people across Europe want change, Levesques explained.



What the French and British elections had in common, he told Hindustan Times, is the revelation of a profound sense of ill-ease among sizeable segments of their electorates with business-as-usual policies supporting ever-freer movement of labour across Europe (and) the model of financial globalisation which failed in 2007 and is blamed for austerity and widening inequality.



Levesques said turnout in the German election in September, which will partly be a referendum on Merkels pro-immigration and pro-EU policies, will be closely watched for signs that the respite from populism could only be temporary.



Political commentator Jasdev Rai, also director of the Britain-based Sikh Human Rights Group, believes Trumps politics  which he describes as tweetomatic and impulsive  have shaken up the world order to an extraordinary degree with threats of wars, xenophobia, protectionist economics, racial violence and attacks on established international institutions.



As the US goes into internal tensions, there will be sigh of relief if Angela Merkel wins the forthcoming German election and takes leadership of the democratic liberal world order, he said.

And in the face of Trump dismissing climate change and global warming, pushing NATO to pay more for the defence of Europe, firming up protectionist trade policies and acting unilaterally on a raft of issues that impact the world community, leaders such as Merkel and Macron have shown their willingness to do more to provide the lead.

CHECKMATE USA

Merkel has pledged to take up climate change and free trade at the G20 Summit. Addressing the German Parliament, Merkel said, without naming Trump, that global problems couldnt be solved with isolation and protectionism.



Merkel, who met European allies last week to firm up a strategy to take on Trump, also spoke of France and Germany taking on a greater role in the EU. She said she had spoken with Macron about plans for deepening the EU and the euro zone.



Even as Trump kept up his attacks on Germanys very bad trade policies, Merkel made it clear that Europe could no longer see the US as a reliable partner. And both Merkel and Macron have taken on Trumps skepticism about climate change  the French president responded to his US counterparts Make America great again slogan with Make our planet great again.



After Trumps constant hectoring of NATO members for not spending enough on defence, European countries are set to increase their military budgets at the fastest pace since 2015. This years increase  at 4.3 per cent, compared to 1.8 per cent in 2015  also represents the fastest growth since a decade of cuts ended in 2014. The European Union also has plans to create a multi-billion euro defence fund.



The added military clout, experts say, could provide essential backing for a Europe that is expected to play a larger role in world affairs, especially to counter a perceived threat from Russia, cyber attacks and terror groups such as the Islamic State.

JUMPING THE GUN?

But there are also sceptics who question whether too much is being read into the rise of leaders such as Macron and the defeat of Marine Le Pen in France and the humbling of Prime Minister Theresa May in the UK.



The problem with political pundits is that they tend to try to draw ambitious conclusions from single events. Thus, the victory of Macron in the French presidential election has been widely portrayed as a triumph of liberalism, said Professor Anand Menon of Kings College., London.

This may turn out to be true. Equally, there are good reasons to be sceptical.



Macrons victory, Menon said, is not evidence of some pan-European liberal revival. The conditions for his victory were specific to France and his success can be judged only on the basis of his record in power and not his success in achieving this, he added.



Karan Bilimoria, the founder of Cobra Beer and a member of Britains House of Lords, argued that the financial crisis of 2008-09 and subsequent years of austerity and lack of growth were part of the reason for the protest votes in the Brexit referendum and the US election.



Since then, the greatest threat with Trumps rhetoric has been his protectionism and the possibility of trade barriers coming up all over the world once moreThe previous peak in globalisation at the start of 19th century led to World War 1, a state of complete protectionism and barriers to trade, he said.



Now, we have had the highest level of globalisation for over a century and the worry about protectionism is that it would potentially lead to conflict throughout the world, starting nowhere other than the US, the worlds only real superpower  that is seriously worrying.



Europe will also have to contend with divisions between its wealthy west and less privileged east, where there are more takers for Trumps rhetoric, especially his anti-immigration stance.



Euractiv, an online media outlet specialising in EU policy, said in a piece titled Will Trump divide Europe that the US president still has friends in Europe. But as some EU countries shun him and others welcome him with open arms, Trump could become the wedge that drives the Union apart, it noted.
A 36-year-old man has been jailed for over six months for attacking a woman and her teenage daughter with a packet of bacon on the streets of north London.

Alex Chivers had made abusive comments and shouted ISIL scum in a reference to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist network before slapping the teenager in the face with an open packet of bacon, which is haram or forbidden in Islam.

The incident happened when the victim was walking down a road in Enfield, with her mother on June 8.

The victim was not injured, but was very distressed, the Scotland Yard said in a statement.

Chivers was videoed by a friend as he hurled verbal abuse on the two women, telling them you deserve this.

He used a ski mask and a motorbike helmet to cover his face during the attack and also covered his mouth, chin and neck with black clothing, but the Metropolitan Police was able to track him down using CCTV footage.

He was arrested six days later and charged with one count of racially or religiously aggravated common assault and one count of causing racially or religiously aggravated alarm or distress.

After pleading guilty at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court, Chivers was sentenced this week to 26 weeks imprisonment for the assault and 12 weeks imprisonment for a public order offence  to run concurrently.

He was also ordered to pay a 115 pounds victim surcharge and will complete a 12-month supervision order when he is released from jail.

Met Police Detective Constable James Payne from Enfield Community Safety Unit (CSU) said: This was a truly shocking incident. The victim was out with her mother and getting on with her day when Chivers abused her and then set upon her with something he knew would both upset and offend her.

We know other people were present during this attack, including an associate of Chivers who filmed the incident.

Enquiries are ongoing to trace these people and if you have any information that may assist in identifying them please contact the Community Safety Unit at Enfield via 101.

The Community Safety Unit here in Enfield would encourage all victims of hate crime to contact police so that the culprits can be identified and brought to justice, police said.

Police figures released in March had showed a considerable rise in hate crimes in London over the previous year.

The number of victims of religious and racist hate crime has risen by almost 20 per cent, from 14,004 to 16,618, and victims of faith hate have seen an 18 per cent increase from 1,699 to 2,000.
A doctor forced from a New York hospital because of sexual harassment accusations returned Friday with an assault rifle hidden under a lab coat and shot seven people, killing one woman and leaving several doctors fighting for their lives, authorities said.

The gunman, Dr. Henry Bello, fatally shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, they said. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, officials said.

People in the hospital described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted. Employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives after an announcement that an armed intruder was loose in the building.

I thought I was going to die, said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as the 45-year-old Bello, who was described on the hospital website as a family medicine physician. Officials said Bello used an AR-15 in the attack on the 16th and 17th floors.

Bello was allowed to resign from the hospital in 2015 amid sexual harassment allegations, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials didnt know the details of the allegations.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

In unrelated cases, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, in 2004 after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, Youre coming with me. He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror.

On Friday, one female doctor was killed and six other people were wounded, five of them seriously, according to Police Commissioner James ONeill. The patients were treated in the emergency room at Bronx Lebanon.

Two surgeons at the hospital told the AP that all six victims were in critical condition, but they were expected to survive. The victims largely suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen, they said. The most seriously wounded was shot in the liver, said the surgeons, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly.

This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that terrorism was not involved in the attack.

Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. They later learned he was dead inside the building. De Blasio confirmed that Bello killed himself.

Bello may have doused himself with an accelerant like gasoline and tried to set himself on fire before shooting himself, officials said. Sprinklers extinguished the fire.

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee.

Bello was very aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people. All the time he was a problem, said Dr. David Lazala, a family medicine doctor who said he trained Bello at Bronx Lebanon.

He said Bello, who worked at night as a doctor, sent him a threatening email after Bello was fired.

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called from inside to tell him about the gunman.

She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebodys out there shooting people, Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry.

Gonzalo Carazo told WCBS-TV that he saw a doctor with a gunshot wound on his hand.

All I heard was a doctor saying, Help, help! Carazo locked himself in a room for about 15 minutes until police came and led him out of the hospital.

The 120-year-old hospital has nearly 1,000 beds and one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York City. It is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.
The borders depicted in a map released by China to buttress its allegation that Indian troops trespassed into its territory in Sikkim sector are in dispute with India and Bhutans perception of the frontiers in the region.

The map, posted on the Chinese section of the foreign ministrys website on Friday, is especially different from the Indian perception of the Line of Actual Control in the depiction of the strategic tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China.

The Chinese have claimed areas far south of what both India and Bhutan claim  New Delhis claim is till Batang La, while Beijing has laid claim to the territory till Mount Gipmochi.

The situation is further complicated by Bhutans claims. China and Bhutan have a territorial dispute over the location  Donglang or Doklam  where the current standoff began on June 16.

India acknowledged on Friday its troops had worked in coordination with the Bhutan government to ask a Chinese construction party to desist from changing the status quo by building a road in Donglang area. India and Bhutan have asked China to maintain status quo, with New Delhi saying the construction activity has serious security implications.

New Delhi has also said any move to unilaterally determine tri-junction points violates a 2012 India-China agreement to finalise the boundary in this region in consultation with all concerned countries.

China, of course, has claimed the Donglang area has been with it since ancient times.

There is solid legal evidence to support the delimitation of the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary. It is stated in article one of the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet (1890) that the boundary of Sikkim and Tibet shall be the crest of the mountain range separating the waters flowing into the Sikkim Teesta and its affluents from the waters flowing into the Tibetan Mochu and northwards into other rivers of Tibet, Chinese state media reported after the standoff began.

The line commences at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier, and follows the above-mentioned water-parting to the point where it meets Nepal territory, the report added.

The foreign ministry has repeatedly said the spot where Indian border troops trespassed is Chinese territory.

The state media also reported that China and successive Indian governments had recognised that the Sikkim section of the boundary has been delimited. This, the report said, had been confirmed by Indian leaders, the relevant Indian government document and the Indian delegation at the special representatives meeting with China on the boundary question that India and China share common view on the 1890 conventions stipulation on the boundary alignment at the Sikkim section.
There were no Tibetan or Bhutanese representatives in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on March 17, 1890, when top officials from British India and China signed a treaty to demarcate the boundary between Tibet and Sikkim.

That treaty, called the Convention between Great Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet, essentially paved the way for the colonial power to annex the small state of Sikkim.

In the process, it demarcated the borders between Tibet and Sikkim, which India and China have largely adhered to pending the settlement of the dispute over their 3,488-km boundary.

The treaty - signed by British viceroy HCKP Fitzmaurice, also known as Lord Lansdowne, and lieutenant governor Sheng Tai, who was the imperial associate resident in Tibet - has been repeatedly cited by the Chinese government in reference to the ongoing military standoff near Nathu La in Sikkim.

The treays first article has been particularly highlighted by Chinese officials.

The boundary of Sikkim and Tibet shall be the crest of the mountain range separating the waters flowing into the Sikkim Teesta and its affluents from the waters flowing into the Tibetan Mochu and northwards into other rivers of Tibet. The line commences at Mount Gipmochi, on the Bhutan frontier, and follows the above-mentioned water-parting to the point where it meets Nepal territory, Article 1 said.

The second article recognised the British governments control over Sikkim.

It is admitted that the British Government, whose Protectorate over the Sikkim State is hereby recognised, has direct and exclusive control over the internal administration and foreign relations of that State, and except through and with the permission of the British Government, neither the Ruler of the State nor any of its officers shall have official relations of any kind, formal or informal, with any other country, the treaty said.

Both China and post-independence India followed the treaty and its boundary demarcation. It continued after Sikkim became a state of the Indian in 1975.

But Chinas boundary issues with Bhutan, and Thimpus close ties with New Delhi, have played their parts in the current standoff, which has unfolded in Donglang or Doklam area, which is under Chinese control but claimed by Bhutan.

For India, it is important to have strategic access to the area and keep watch on whether China is engaged in illegal constructions in the region  the vulnerable Siliguri Corridor or chickens neck, Indias thin geographic link to the northeastern states, is located a short distance from the area.

Where the boundary in the Sikkim sector is concerned, India and China had reached an understanding also in 2012 reconfirming their mutual agreement on the basis of the alignment. Further discussions regarding finalisation of the boundary have been taking place under the Special Representatives framework, the external affairs ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The statement makes it amply clear India and Bhutan have coordinated their moves on the latest developments. The governments of the two countries have been in continuous contact and Indian military personnel played a key role in opposing the construction of a road by Chinese troops to ensure the status quo is maintained. These efforts continue, the statement said.
US President Donald Trump on Friday called the North Korean government reckless and brutal and said America was running out of patience with Pyongyang, promising a determined response to its threats.

The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed, Trump said at joint appearance with visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House. And, frankly, that patience is over.

The US has been dialling up pressure on North Korea in recent days. on Thursday, it sanctioned a Chinese bank and several Chinese nationals dealing with Pyongyang, effectively signalling the end of Trumps efforts to persuade Beijing to use its influence on North Korea.

He did not mention China in his remarks on Friday when he called other regional powers and all responsible nations to join the United States, South Korea and Japan to enforce sanctions put in place to force North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons programme.

At a similar joint appearance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, Trump had said, The North Korean regime is causing tremendous problems and is something that has to be dealt with, and probably dealt with rapidly.

This April, India, which has diplomatic ties with Pyongyang unlike the US, joined a UN-led sanctions regime that prohibits signatory countries from selling or supplying North Korea equipment, tools or material that could be used in the production of nuclear weapons, missiles or other weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea has been a top foreign policy concern for the Trump, who has found himself tested from early days of his presidency by Pyongyangs threats of attacks on the American mainland and a series of missile tests that have alarmed US allies in the region.

The death of American student Otto Warmbier, who succumbed to injuries he is suspected of having suffered during his imprisonment in North Korea, has added to the growing frustration.

Trump spoke on Friday of the threat of the reckless and brutal regime in North Korea, which said, has no regard for the safety and security of its people or its neighbours.

Our goal is peace, stability and prosperity for the region, Trump said, in a prepared statement. But the United States will defend itself, always will defend itself  always. And we will always defend our allies.

Moon, who ran for the presidency on a plank of advocating dialogue with North Korea, said he agreed with Trump that only strong security can bring peace to the region. We concurred to strengthen our overwhelming deterrence, that threats and provocations from the North will be met with a stern response.
Turkey on Friday said the rights of Qatar must be respected as it hosted the defence minister of Ankaras main Gulf ally which has been left isolated by Saudi-led sanctions.

Khaled bin Mohammed al-Attiyah met with Turkish defence minister Fikri Isik at the defence ministry in Ankara, the state-run news agency Anadolu said on Thursday.

The meeting came as Ankara, which has stood by Doha throughout the crisis, resists pressure to shutter a Turkish military base on the emirate that Qatars neighbours want to see closed.

In the talks, Isik said that the current issues between the (Gulf) countries, who are brothers, must be resolved soon on the basis of a sincere dialogue and respect for Qatars rights.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain announced on June 5 the suspension of political, economic and diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting extremist groups.

Doha denies the claims. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the allegations are baseless and offered Ankaras full support.

Turkey has provided food and other aid through hundreds of planes and a cargo ship, although Ankaras attempts to mediate between the sides have so far come to nothing.

Crucially, Ankara is also setting up a military base on the emirate that is set to give Turkey a new foothold in the Gulf, sending in a first deployment of two dozen troops.

Last week Riyadh and its allies issued 13 demands to Qatar for resolving the crisis, including the closure of the Turkish military base and the Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

Erdogan hit back at the Saudi-led demands, saying the sweeping demands were against international law and saying that asking for the withdrawal of Turkish troops was a disrespect to Turkey.

Yet Ankara has also been careful not to directly criticise Riyadh and previously urged the kingdom to lead attempts to solve the crisis.

US President Donald Trump spoke with Erdogan on Friday by telephone on the crisis, the White House and Turkish presidency said.
Nearly a half-million people who were displaced within Syria by the war have returned to their homes, the UN refugee agency said on Friday, pointing to a notable trend of spontaneous returns this year.

UNHCR says aid agencies estimate that more than 440,000 internally displaced people and another 31,000 refugees who had fled abroad have returned home.

The agencys spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, says this is a significant trend, and a significant number but cautioned that this was only a fraction of an estimated 5 million Syrian refugees abroad.

Mahecic said those returning have gone back mostly to Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Damascus and other governorates, mainly to seek out family members, check on property or benefit from a real or perceived improvement in security conditions.

In comments to the UN Security Council this week, the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, noted a recent decline in overall violence in Syria.

Mahecic said international diplomatic efforts in Geneva and Astana, Kazakhstan, to help bring peace to Syria after more than 6 years of war had provided hope to some displaced Syrians, but added it would be premature to link the peace efforts to the recent returns.

The decisions are very individual and based on peoples own perceptions of the situation in their areas of origin, he said in an email.

Kevin Kennedy, the UN regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, stressed that the Syrian people remain in grave difficulty, with just under 14 million of the 18 million people in the country in need of some form of humanitarian assistance.

Thats 70-75 per cent of the population, he said.

Over one-third of Syrias people are displaced within the country, some forced to move many times, while about 5 million Syrians have fled mainly to Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, Kennedy told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

He said 4.5 million people in besieged or hard-to-reach areas are in the most desperate need of aid.

Both Kennedy and UN humanitarian chief Stephen OBrien criticized the difficulty in getting food and especially medicine to the needy. OBrien told the UN Security Council on Thursday that although the most egregious bureaucratic restrictions are from the government of Syria, we are increasingly seeing other groups operating in non-government controlled areas also implementing procedures that slow or impinge upon humanitarian principles.

OBrien said local agreements have led to two besieged areas being removed from the UN list Madaya and the al-Waer district of Homs.

There are now 11 besieged locations with a total population of 540,000 compared to almost 975,000 besieged people last November, he said.
Indian-Americans, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen and former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, are among 38 immigrants to be honoured this year for their role in helping advance the countrys society, culture and economy.

Narayen and Murthy will be honoured with the prestigious Great Immigrants annual award on USs independence day on July 4.

Murthy, 39, born in the UK and a Harvard and Yale alumnus, was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, becoming the first-ever Indian-American to occupy the post and also the youngest ever surgeon general of the country.

However, Murthy was dismissed this year in April by the Trump administration.

Narayen, 54, a native of Hyderabad has an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering, a masters degree in computer science, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is a board member of Pfizer and US-India Business Council (USIBC). He was among a select group of CEOs who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington for a roundtable during the leaders visit for first bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump this week.

Among other honorees include Canadian-origin social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, who has been awarded the 2017 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, PayPal cofounder of Ukrainian origin Max Levchin, Iranian-origin philanthropist and entrepreneur Hushang Ansary.

Each year since 2006, the corporation has recognised the contributions of naturalised citizens, and for 2017, the honorees represent more than 30 different countries of origin, a wide range of personal immigration stories, and a high-level of professional leadership in numerous fields.

Our annual tribute to Great Immigrants demonstrates the richness of talent, skills, and achievements that immigrants from around the world bring to every sphere of American society, said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This campaign reminds us of the debt the United States owes to generations of immigrants who become citizens and contribute to the progress of this country. Today, we celebrate and thank them, he said.

The honorees will be recognised with a full-page public service announcement in The New York Times and an online public awareness initiative.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York was established in 1911 by Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.

In keeping with this mandate, the corporations agenda focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and a strong democracy.
It looks like Drake was just excited as everyone else to hear Jay-Zs new album 4:44. On Thursday night, the 6 God was in Baltimore eating dinner at Azumi in East Harbor with five of his friends when he reportedly asked management to put the new Jay Z album on minutes after it was released on Tidal the Baltimore Sun reports.

While we normally have our own DJs music playing through the speakers, we were able to accommodate him and they listened to Jay Zs 4:44 album in its entirety, Joe Sweeney, spokesman for the Atlas Restaurant Group which owns the Japanese restaurant, told the Sun. Several people walking along the Harbor East promenade approached him for photos and he was more than happy to take pictures with them.

For whats worth, the crew scarfed down grilled octopus, rock shrimp tempura and lobster tempura, while Drake ordered the lychee martini, the Maryland signature roll, and the A-5 wagyu ribeye. Quite the appropriate & lavish meal to digest 4:44 to.

Drake
The era of Watch The Throne are long behind us, and the idyllic Parisian landscape has frozen over, leaving naught but a barren, frozen wasteland in its stead. Gone are the glory days of Heart Of The City and Lucifer, when Jay-Z would absolutely demolish some of the finest Kanye beats, developing a consistent and unfuckwitable chemistry. Gone are the days of Big Brother, where a vulnerable West would bare it all on wax, leveling with the Jay like one might level with their one blood.

Watch The Throne 2? Not likely. What was once a friendship and musical camaraderie has become something darker. Idols become rivals, as it were. And for what? Where did it all go wrong?

Well, for starters, Drakes Pop Style seemed to be one of the inciting incidents. While Hov was originally supposed to have a larger role, Kanye claimed that his Throne compatriot opted out over some Tidal/Apple bullshit. The politics behind the scenes ultimately led to Ye having a bit of a frustrated meltdown, where he proceeded to address the issue mid-show.





https://twitter.com/_/status/789016082497409025



No doubt theres more to the story, but its clear that Ye had some serious pent up anger toward Jigga. He later proceeded to put him on blast over neglecting to reach out to him after Kim got robbed.

https://twitter.com/_/status/788991242377891840



What followed was a stream of gossip and ambiguous media fodder, essentially creating a narrative that the Kardashian-West clan was in direct competition with the Carters, as if it were the finale of some power couple battle royale. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter remained out of reach, shrouded by subliminal shots and erratic, cryptic Kanye rants. Eventually, West was hospitalized, and upon recovery, retreated into the Wyoming wilderness to seek inspiration.

Fast forward to now, the day after Jays 4:44 album dropped. Fans know that Jay has a history of pulling no punches on record, and it would appear he has had enough of Kanyes shade-heavy antics. On the albums opening track, Jay unleashes the following stanza, clearly aimed at his former partner in rhyme:

You walkin around like you invincible

You dropped outta school, you lost your principles

I know people backstab you, I felt bad too

But this fuck everybody attitude aint natural

But you aint a Saint, this aint KumbaYe

But you got hurt because you did cool by Ye

You gave him 20 million without blinkin

He gave you 20 minutes on stage, fuck was he thinkin?

Fuck wrong with everybody? is what you sayin

But if everybodys crazy, youre the one thats insane

And again, on BAM:

Uh, n***s is skippin leg day just to run they mouth (referencing one of Yes rhymes on TLOPs 30 Hours)

Theres no denying that it was Jiggas turn to air out some frustration, and its clear from some of those references that Ye was heavy on his mind. Still, its interesting that Jay didnt exactly unleash hell, opting instead to go the subliminal route. Perhaps there is hope for reconciliation. Its sad to see the two at odds like this, and hopefully Hovs message can knock some sense into Kanyes head. Both artists are far too talented to squander their skill over some petty, business-related beef.

Heres hoping the former brothers can put aside their differences, and one day return to blessing us with some dope music.

The Throne
Chief Keef has been declared the father of Zinc Clark, a baby boy born last July to former adult film actress Aareon Slim Danger Clark, reports TMZ. A judge made the ruling as part of a case that the rapper never responded or objected to, leaving the court no choice but to rule in Clarks favor. Due to Keefs lack of cooperation, a paternity test was not performed. Zinc would be Chief Keefs fourth child. No further information is available at this time.

The L.A.-based, Chicago-born rapper has released two projects this year: the straight-ahead Lex Luger-assisted Two Zero One Seven and the long-teased, R&B-leaning opus Thot Breaker. Keef was arrested in Sioux Falls for marijuana possession in June. He was released on bail shortly thereafter.

Chief Keef
The U.S. Bureau of Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement was created in the aftermath of 2010's Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill to police offshore drilling rigs and their operators.

But since President Donald Trump took office in January, the agency has put a new priority on "economic development," Lars Herbst, Gulf of Mexico region director at BSEE, said in an interview last week.

"Our mission has not changed. I don't want folks to think we're just looking at the economic development," he said. "We always had a conservation mission as well, which was not very well understood, about the effective and efficient development of offshore resources. This administration is looking at it as it's not 'either/or,' it's 'and.' "

The driver, Herbst said, is that oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico stands to go into decline over the next decade if investment in offshore fields does not increase quickly,

"Right now what may surprise some people is we're at a record level of oil production offshore," he said. "That's only because of past investments companies have made."

The agency is reviewing federal policies to increase offshore drilling, following an executive order from the White House in April. Among polices under scrutiny is the Obama administration's well control rule, which placed strict requirements on how oil companies drill offshore wells and the equipment they use in trying to prevent another Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 people and caused billions in environmental damage.

"We're still working those recommendations," Herbst said. "We're looking to what degree safety is improved versus the economic impact. The fact industry has already implemented some of the rule, we're probably not going back on those."
SINTON - The 14 grain traders from across China stood under a shade tent on Charles Ring's farm outside of town, listening with interest as Ring shared how his land came into the family three generations ago and how planting decisions were made each year according to a balance of anticipated soil moisture and market demand.

It was when Ring touched on price that interest piqued into engagement, with calculators whipped out of pockets and murmurings in Mandarin coming to the translator in rapid fire. What did the hundredweight price mean per bushel? Where did trucking and freight costs come in? What were the input costs, and when were they subtracted? How much of the current crop had Ring sold? How much profit came back to Ring?

Five years ago, Ring wouldn't have imagined his wife and mother-in-law cooking up pounds of potatoes and green beans, his son loading up the giant backyard smoker with beef brisket and sausages, their daughter packaging gift bags of locally made pecan pralines - all to entertain Chinese guests on a mission to buy grain sorghum.

But since around 2011, when Texas growers made forays to China to show how sorghum could be used instead of corn to feed swine and poultry, sales of sorghum to one of the world's largest markets have skyrocketed. U.S. sorghum exports to China went from nothing in 2011-12 to nearly $1.5 billion for 2015-16. Corn exports to China during the same period plunged, from more than $1.5 billion in 2011-12 to $69.4 million now.

Corn at the time was trading at record highs, and with the Chinese reluctant to buy a product that was genetically modified, there was an urgency to find livestock feed. Unlike corn, sorghum is non-GMO, and it grows well in the Raymondville clay soil that characterizes Texas' Coastal Bend, as well as in the heat of the Rio Grande Valley and in plains areas up through Kansas.

"You have to move quickly once you get the opening," said Bobby Nedbalek, a Sinton grower and board director for the National Sorghum Producers. "And that's exactly what happened with grain sorghum organizations. We were prepared when the opportunity came, and that's what has made things come together so quickly."

The U.S. last year exported about 339 million bushels of sorghum to 11 foreign countries, for about $1.6 billion in export value. China was the No. 1 buyer.

The Chinese now import more sorghum than any other grain, about half of the U.S. crop. They use it to feed swine, the nation's most popular protein, as well as ducks and chickens. It's also used to make a sorghum flour for human consumption, as well as to make a clear grain alcohol known as baiju.

As he waited his turn to ride in the cab of a John Deere harvester, Mingyu Chan, a sorghum buyer from the southern China city of Xiamen, said he was struck by how much uncertainty the U.S. farmers grappled with.

"Before coming to the U.S., I had a little bit of understanding about how the U.S. farmer is different from the Chinese farmer because they own the land, use a lot of machinery. So in my mind, I think it's going to be easier," he said through a translator. "But once you come here, after talking to farmers about their profitability, the amount of time they work throughout the year  the profitability is not as high as what you would expect. The farmers are trying so hard to earn a little bit from every little bushel."

For farmers like Nedbalek, Chinese demand is helping buffer prices driven down by a global glut of grain.

"If they were not in the market, we would have a train wreck for our market prices," he said.

San Patricio and Nueces counties, which are the top sorghum-producing counties in Texas, have the added advantage of being near the port of Corpus Christi and ships that can carry the product across the world.

Most Coastal Bend farmers plant about even amounts of cotton and sorghum on dry land, saving what small amounts of irrigated land they have for corn.

The cotton and sorghum are perfect partners to rotate, Nedbalek explained, which allows for a better blend of herbicides and keeps the soil from wearing out.

Price swings have to be drastic for them to change the planting balance, Nedbalek said, and with the bumper global grain supply and high dollar against other currencies, neither commodity is trading particularly high. Futures for Texas grain sorghum, which is tied to the price of corn, were trading at $3.77 recently, according to Nedbalek, about half of what it was in 2011.

Even with the harvest underway, growers are reluctant to oversell, wary that a sudden storm could wipe out most of their yields and leave them overcommitted.

Grower Clarence Chopelas told the visitors he was holding out to the last minute before selling this year's crop.

"I haven't sold a cent," he said. "I'm waiting for the price to go up."
MILWAUKEE - A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from candy maker Mars against a Wisconsin woman the company claimed violated a company trademark with chocolates she makes.

The McLean, Va.-based company filed the lawsuit in its home state in April, but the woman argued the lawsuit lacked jurisdiction because she conducts no business outside of Wisconsin. Eastern District of Virginia Judge Liam O'Grady granted Syovata Edari's motion to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds, but the lawsuit's merits were not weighed.

The chocolate maker accused Mars of "trademark bullying" and said her chocolates are distinctly different than the product in question that Mars sells.

Mars sued Edari in April, saying her chocolates, branded as CocoVaa, are "confusingly similar" in name to the company's cocoa extract supplements, called CocoaVia. Mars said Edari's chocolates would likely "confuse and deceive consumers."

The company still has the option of refiling the lawsuit in Wisconsin.

Edari said she picked her brand name because "Vaa" was her father's nickname for her as a child. Edari is a former federal public defender and represented herself with the help of attorney Cary Citronberg.
The debate last Tuesday at City Council, which led to Wednesday's 10-6 decision to join the lawsuit to stop the implementation of Senate Bill 4, was more than a legal matter  it was an existential question of what the City of Houston wishes to be: Silent on the sidelines? Or vocal and in the fight for social justice?

As the discourse around the bill spread throughout the state, Mayor Turner actively rejected the politically potent terminology of "sanctuary city," opting instead to say that Houston is a "welcoming city."

In January, he even assembled a Welcoming Houston Task Force, which in turn provided a comprehensive list of actions the city could take to protect immigrant residents.

What's telling is that the contents of this proposal have not been formally published by the city or taken up for public debate.

"Sanctuary city" is a known concept that speaks to a clear vision of morality. Though it's a legally nebulous term, it invites images of an expressive and diverse city with a population free to participate in public life. It speaks to a moral value that all residents should be able to feel safe and comfortable as part of the fabric of a city.

By coining "welcoming city," Mayor Turner started building a new rhetoric, one both undefined and unconstrained by preconceptions.

It sounds pleasant, but what exactly is a "welcoming city"?

Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle

If we welcome every person and every idea, how do we treat ideas that are malevolent to some people?

By welcoming a Muslim family into our city, does it mean we must also welcome those who carry assault rifles while protesting their existence?

Or does it mean we welcome this family into our city by taking the stance that discrimination and intimidation is unacceptable?

Do we welcome the immigrant family asking for protection from the federal government, or do we welcome those who shout "illegal" at them?

The tensions between the two have become unsustainable in today's political climate. Without a structure to define our concept of welcoming, we end up confining the already-marginalized and bolstering the power of the unwelcoming force in each scenario. As we define the welcoming city, we must ask: Is welcoming intended as a passive activity or an active value?

AS ANY lifelong Houstonian will tell you, this city is a litany of contradictions. We are never just one thing, though "no zoning" would certainly be on the short list of our defining qualities. No zoning is a policy that sets the basic geography of the city  and maybe the ethos of the city, as well. We don't like to get involved. We don't like to interfere. We like to let the market make our decisions for us.

We are a city where an adult superstore is located next to a high-end shopping district. We build concrete-batch plants next to single-family homes, and we hold outdoor concerts for millennials next to working-class apartment buildings.

Is this Houston's version of being "welcoming"? Anything goes, as long as it doesn't cost us anything?

Steve Gonzales/Houston Chronicle

The debate on Tuesday was not just one thing either, of course. But, at its core, it was a debate about civil rights for our vast immigrant communities. And that debate has a lot of inherent pressure. Historically, civil rights isn't something Houston has been good at discussing. We often repeat the (questionable) narrative that our civil rights movement happened peacefully behind closed doors.

Mayor Turner said himself during the council vote on Wednesday: "This is not an issue of our choosing, but when it ends up on your plate, you have to address it."

Is this what we mean by "welcoming city"? In Houston, we tend to avoid difficult conversations until we can no longer avoid them.

Nevertheless, thanks to the relentless activism of many Houstonians, the issue could no longer be avoided. In joining the lawsuit, we started to welcome the challenges that come from taking a moral stand. We started to welcome our immigrant communities by moving beyond rhetoric and taking official steps to demonstrate our welcoming spirit.

And we showed what it looks like to be a city that is not merely passively welcoming but actively leading.

Evan O'Neil is a co-founder of PGPI, a design organization for the public interest.







Bookmark Gray Matters. It sets the basic geography of the city  and maybe the ethos of the city, as well.


Jeff Wagner was sworn in as Pasadena's new mayor Saturday alongside several other City Council members.

Wagner beat community college trustee John Moon Jr. in a runoff earlier this month. He succeeds longtime mayor Johnny Isbell, whose administration became embroiled in controversy regarding a redistricting plan found in federal court to violate Latino voting rights.
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Precinct 4 deputies raided a five-bedroom home Thursday in the 8600 block of Arcola Ridge Drive in Houston, where they found more than $200,000 in merchandise  Dewalt drills, vacuums, assorted electronics  stacked, some ceiling-high, throughout the house.

Deputies also confiscated two cars including a black Jaguar, which are suspected to have been used to transport the property, as well as two U-Haul trucks which were also filled with merchandise from boxes cookware to leaf blowers.



Earlier this year, deputies chased after two individuals who had robbed a department store along Kuykendahl Road, off the Grand Parkway. The suspects had stolen an assortment of items, such as power tools.



The pair, investigators later found, were just one branch of a theft operation that extended throughout Harris County and as far as Lufkin, nearly 120 miles northeast of Houston, said, Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman.



"The two suspects had people stealing items from stores in Lufkin, Houston, and all over Harris County," Herman said. "With this operation we cut the head off the snake."



Andre Tan Nguyen, 42, and Julie Van Nguyen, 41, are suspected of organizing the crime ring and are each being held in the Harris County Jail on $500,000 bond.



Herman said the two would list items they wanted from individuals who would then steal from various stores  most often Target, Home Depot, and Lowes  before meeting them in a parking lot to exchange the items for payment. Undercover officers infiltrated the ring, supplying bugged merchandise so they could track them to the home.



More than $200,000 in merchandise was stolen during the operation, which started at least five months ago, Herman said.



The constables office is in the process of returning the items to their respective stores. Herman said his department is working with other agencies in the state to apprehend others involved.



It's been five to eight years, when a glut of lawn equipment was stolen, since an operation of similar scope was uncovered, he said.



"It had an impact on local retailers' sales," Herman said, "but I feel even better since we got these criminals off the street."
WASHINGTON - To President Donald Trump, no place is more comfortable than the middle of a fight.

This week had it all: Vicious tweets, nasty nicknames, an entrenched foe in the mainstream media and the reprisal by Trump of one of his favorite roles - the victim.

Sure, Trump's health-care push stalled on Capitol Hill, his "energy week" went largely unnoticed and the president faced almost universal condemnation for an unpresidential attack on MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski.

But to many inside the White House, as well as outside allies, what looked like a public relations debacle amounted to an abundance of "winning" - a Trumpian catchphrase playfully repeated Friday by some West Wing officials, even as they were discomfited by the Brzezinski broadside.

Trump spent the week at war with what he calls the "fake news media," attacking some of the news organizations reporting most aggressively on Russian interference in the 2016 election. CNN gave him fresh ammunition with the resignations of three investigative journalists over a retracted story connected to the Russia probe.

For Trump and his legions of loyalists, the media has become a shared enemy.

"They like him, they believe in him, they have not to any large degree been shaken from him, and the more the media attacks him, the more it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy on the side of the Trump supporters who fervently believe the media treat him unfairly," said Tony Fabrizio, the chief pollster for Trump's campaign. "It's like, 'Beat me with that sword some more!' "

Stoking the base was hardly a preplanned strategy. Instead, some White House officials described it as an inadvertent upside of the president's impulse to punch back at critics in the media.

West Wing aides showed little support for Trump's Thursday morning tweet about Brzezinski's appearance. Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended it forcefully, but other top officials privately voiced disapproval and dismay at what they saw as a gratuitous and unnecessary swipe by their boss.

Trump labeled Brzezinski "low I.Q. Crazy Mika," and called her co-host and fiance, Joe Scarborough, "Psycho Joe." The president charged that Brzezinski and Scarborough visited "Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"

Trump's attack was roundly condemned by more than three dozen congressional Republicans and Democrats, as well as by Brzezinski and Scarborough, who responded to the president on their show Friday and in a column in The Washington Post.

"President Trump launched personal attacks against us Thursday, but our concerns about his unmoored behavior go far beyond the personal," the couple wrote in The Post. "America's leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president. We have our doubts, but we are both certain that the man is not mentally equipped to continue watching our show, 'Morning Joe.' "

Fabrizio estimated that just a quarter of Americans know who Brzezinski is and predicted that conservatives would instinctively side with Trump, as they did when he attacked then-Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly and other media personalities during last year's campaign.

"Everybody inside the Beltway knows who she is, but the average working guy doesn't know who she is," Fabrizio said of Brzezinski.

Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign adviser who is close to the White House, said, "It does energize the base. . . Certainly a big part of the success the president had last year was this sweeping, counterculture pushback against information being dictated to the American people."

Roger Stone, a former Trump adviser and longtime confidant, likened Trump's attacks on the media to the strategy employed by former president Richard M. Nixon to discredit organizations such as The Post that were breaking stories on the Watergate investigation.

"The difference is Nixon had no Internet-based alternative media [that] would aggressively cover his side of the argument," Stone said. He added that "the Trump constituency has deep distrust for the media as well as all political institutions," arguing that "lopsided coverage" of the president causes his voters to become angrier and more distrustful.

The media can serve as an easy scapegoat, although that tactic is ultimately unlikely to pay long-term dividends, said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief who is now the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.

"The White House appears to have decided that one of its key talking points is going to be its war with the media, and this is an ongoing campaign that explains the president's misfortunes, rallies the base and gives some kind of meaning to the narrative of this presidency," Sesno said. "It may resonate with the base or at least some of the base, but it is utterly misguided. It will prove to be counterproductive, and I think it shows both the shallowness and the fundamental disrespect the White House has for the media and a free press."

In a White House where the special counsel Robert Mueller III's widening Russia probe seems to have infused everything from the daily rhythms to the president's mood, the news about the three CNN journalists who had exited the network drew cheers.

CNN came under fire after publishing a story alleging ties between Russia and Trump transition official Anthony Scaramucci that was retracted because the network said it did not meet CNN's editorial standards.

West Wing officials viewed CNN's mistake as a public vindication that the Russia investigation - and its ensuing media coverage - is simply a "witch hunt," as Trump has labeled it. Trump and his aides also sought to publicize undercover videos released this week by a conservative group showing CNN employees saying disparaging things about the president and his supporters.

Some White House advisers said they were frustrated that the Brzezinski feud - which continued to unfurl throughout the day Friday with accusations and counteraccusations - overtook the president's fight with CNN, which seemed in their eyes to have clearer villains and heroes.

One senior White House official said Trump would prefer not to battle with the media but has grown exasperated by what he considers to be gross negligence and near-constant disparagement by The Post and the New York Times, as well as five of the six major television news channels: ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and NBC. By contrast, Trump lavishes praise on Fox News, especially its popular morning show, "Fox & Friends," which reliably trumpets the president's point of view.

"Everyone would much prefer not to be at war," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly address the president's mind-set. "I think we would much rather be getting covered fairly and not be in this constant, very hostile environment where things escalate very quickly between both sides."

The official disputed the notion that the White House's hostility toward the news media has been an intentional strategy to rally Trump supporters.

"This isn't just us looking to be at war because it's appealing to our base," the White House official said. "I would much rather appeal to our base with positive news stories about all the things he's doing. I don't think he'll ever be treated fairly. I don't think he ever was treated fairly."

But Trump has been short on major political wins and remains mired at historically low levels in public opinion polls. Health-care legislation, for instance, is stalled in the Senate, with senators heading home for the July 4 recess without holding a vote as originally expected. The administration has yet to unveil detailed proposals for tax reform or infrastructure, two other domestic priorities.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said on Friday that the media discussion about Trump has become "a one-way conversation of toxicity."

"It's incredible to watch people play armchair psychologist, outright ridiculing the president's physicality, his mental state, calling him names that you won't want your children to call people on a playground," Conway said on "Fox & Friends." "You would punish them for doing that, and then all of a sudden feigning shock when he wants to fight back and defend himself and hopefully change the conversation."

- - -

Video: Women respond to President Trump's 'Morning Joe' tweets

Women respond to President Trump's tweets attacking cable TV hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. (Elyse Samuels / The Washington Post)

Short URL: http://wapo.st/2th49WQ

Embed code: <iframe width="480" height="290" scrolling="no" src="//www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/fe655de0-5b50-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>

- - -

Video: 'Morning Joe' hosts respond to Trump's barrage of tweets

MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski said President Trump's attacks "worry me about the country," on June 30. She and "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough pointed to Trump's "alarming" pattern of especially vicious attacks on women as Trump tweeted out more insults. (Jenny Starrs / The Washington Post)

Short URL: http://wapo.st/2tsnLYb

Embed code: <iframe width="480" height="290" scrolling="no" src="//www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/27899f28-5da0-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Staying alive has not left 10-year-old Zechariah much time to be a kid.

At least 16 times a day, his grandmother injects him with life-saving medications. Eighteen of each day's 24 hours are spent with a nutritional formula dripping into the plastic feeding tube affixed to the upper left corner of his abdomen. Then there are the doctors' appointments, physical therapies and daily pricks and prods to help manage his rare genetic condition.

But there's one time each day that the soon-to-be third-grader always looks forward to: When Donna Shanklin-Henderson throws open the door and lugs in her crate full of fun. Even though the Houston ISD teacher's lessons are pared down in summer months, Zechariah's grandmother Raine said her family would be lost without them.

"It keeps the children who are medically dependent on the ball; it keeps their minds moving forward. They're not forgetting what they've already learned and are moving forward to learn more," Raine said. "That's so important because he's already behind - he's been in the hospital so much."

Visit hospitals, hotels

More Information How to help To donate to Team TEACH, visit paypal.me/TEAMTEACHHouston See More Collapse

Shanklin-Henderson and a handful of teachers fan out across Houston-area hospitals, homes and hotel rooms during the school year to provide education to children who are too sick to attend regular classes. While her students improve academically during the school year, Shanklin-Henderson said, they tend to fall farther behind their classmates each summer.

The lagging performance inspired her to form Team TEACH - a summer program aimed at bridging the gap between medically fragile students and their healthy counterparts. This summer, she and her teachers are working on their ownwith 17 medically fragile students whom they've identified as needing the most help. Team TEACH's educators are working to raise money to keep their summer classes going.

Shanklin-Henderson, who has been in education for 28 years and started teaching medically fragile students in 2012, said chronically ill students need to catch up during the summer months because many have missed weeks of school battling sometimes life-threatening illnesses.

"They can't go to summer schools - parents in some cases don't have the funds to help them with tutoring," Shanklin-Henderson said. "We don't want them getting to middle school and high school to find out they're still reading on a second- or third-grade level."

Houston is a magnet for the families of sick children, with state-of-the art medical facilities and a track record of pioneering groundbreaking procedures. Many, like Zechariah, come from smaller towns and relocate to Houston for months, eventually enrolling in Houston ISD.

Zechariah is from Kirbyville, a small town about an hour north of Beaumont near the Louisiana state line - or as the boy says, "on the border between Houston and Texas."

He struggled in Kirbyville ISD. His parents said teachers could not always relate to his pain, often punishing him for being distracted in class or for acting out on bad days.

They say Shanklin-Henderson changed that.

Personality grew

On days when the boy would just stare at the hospital room's TV, Shanklin-Henderson would lift books up to his face and pepper him with questions about the text. She tried nudging without being overbearing. After a few months, Zechariah began to give his undivided attention to the teacher and soon developed a love for science and learning.

Zechariah's personality grew, as well.

In the lobby of an Extended Stay inn near the Texas Medical Center, the boy rambled excitedly about the virtual plants he was caring for through Shanklin-Henderson's classes. He yelled into a voice recorder, thrilled to watch the line that measures sound spike with each exclamation.

When a photographer prepared to take a picture of Zechariah, he turned and demanded, "Get my good side."

He paused, twisting one of his curly locks of blonde hair.

"Oh wait, I don't have a bad side," he quipped.

When asked about being sick, though, Zechariah grows uncharacteristically silent, burying his head in his arms.

His grandparents describe what he cannot: the rare chromosomal defect resulting in cystinosis, which affects his growth and organs. There was his diagnosis at 14 months, scores of medical appointments, the botched kidney transplant, the feeding tube, the ongoing recovery, the pain, the fear, the uncertainty.

The one constant and bright spot in his life, they say, has been Shanklin-Henderson.

Raine said that with extra help during the summer, she hopes Zechariah will be able to lead a happy and healthy life as he continues to battle his illness.

"They're willing to learn, they want to learn, they really want to," Raine said. "It keeps their spirits up, keeps their attitude towards themselves positive."
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There was a sense of presence in Betty Mohr's eyes.

She batted them flirtatiously at the photographer and smiled, as if she had done this many times before.

Maybe she remembered what it felt like to be in front of the camera. It was hard to tell.

Alzheimer's had robbed much of Mohr's memory, but there was something familiar as she slipped on a trench coat, similar to one she wore at age 17 for a Boston Store advertisement. The ad ran in Seventeen magazine in 1945. It was her 15 minutes of fame.

Through the years, she would share the story of her fashion shoot and the tattered clipping from the magazine with her seven children, 20 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.

Now at age 88, Mohr was in the spotlight again, thanks to the staff of Silverado Kingwood Memory Care.

They had gone to great lengths to reenact Mohr's glamour-shot moment.

They hired a photographer and video crew, brought in a makeup artist and even found a version of the Boston Store paratrooper trench coat online. It was only a few dollars more than the $12.98 it retailed for in 1945.

Recreating a special memory like Mohr's is a way to celebrate a life when the memory fades, said Sabrina Pegross, Silverado administrator and dementia-care specialist.

"These are people who have lived such rich and wonderful lives. Now, to suffer with a memory impairment, dignity is a big deal for them. So we want to celebrate all of the good things that have happened in their lives, and we want to create those memories continuously today," she said.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 5 million Americans are living with the disease, and two-thirds of those are women.

While connecting residents to their past is a goal, Pegross said it's also about creating joy in the moment.

"Even if they've lost their memory, they can still experience joy. She might not remember the event, but she can remember the feeling and the sense of value."

Silverado residents have varying degrees of memory impairment. Many of them have moments of clarity, though fleeting.

Mohr knew this was a big deal, as her daughter, Lynn Lucas, and Pegross helped her into a pair of black rain boots. Her left foot was the hardest to get in, but Mohr continued to smile as she pushed as much as she could when prompted.

She spoke only with her eyes that widen with childlike excitement.

"Mom loves the camera," Lucas said. "It's really neat to see her like this. It was always a point of pride being in Seventeen magazine."

Mohr was a stay-at-home mother most of her life and later worked in administration at the Houston Police Department. She and her late husband, Tom Mohr, who died in January, lived in Wisconsin and Arkansas before settling in Kingwood. He worked as a plant manager in operations for much of his career. She was active in women's clubs and community events, and even recreated her Seventeen ad for several fashion shows.

Lucas said she loved dressing up, fixing her hair and putting on her earrings because "it made her feel good."

The magazine ad reenactment was a surprise for Lucas, who was only told that her mother was being photographed for a company newsletter.

Mohr is in the facility's hospice care for breast cancer; she was diagnosed in 2004. But she's flourished since becoming a resident at the center earlier this year.

"It helps having her in the appropriate environment," Lucas said. "When she was home she wasn't able to be herself. Here she's come back to life again. I've seen parts of my mom I hadn't seen in a long time."

Watching her mother's memory fade, though, has been hard. Patience has been the key.

"You have to understand this is the disease, and you just have to let them have as much joy in the moment as they can. The blessing is that she lives in the moment. There are no grudges, no regrets."

In front of the camera, Mohr balanced herself with a cane in one hand, an umbrella - like the one from ad - in the other.

She posed and posed.

"Every time her face lights up is a moment of joy. It's wonderful to see. Right, mom, every day is a new day?" said Lucas, gently holding her mother's hand.

Mohr smiled and batted her eyes.
A woman died Friday night after crashing her car into a tree in northeast Houston, according to the Houston Police Department.

The 21-year-old woman was driving north on Wayside near Safebuy around 11:30 p.m. when she attempted to drive around another car, according to HPD Sgt. Thomas Fendia.
AUSTIN - With the highly anticipated court fights over Texas' sanctuary cities ban officially underway - and decisions not expected for months - concerns continue over the potential for major national boycotts of the state.

To date, fallout directly related to the law, Senate Bill 4, has come from groups that are not traditional political allies of the state's Republican leaders, who have brushed off concerns that the law will prompt boycotts that could hurt Texas cities' economies in the long term as the court battles play out. Despite the lack of widespread action so far, some of the nation's largest immigrant and civil rights groups say they are still considering organizing a nationwide boycott of Texas, which could pressure companies to pull their business from the state.

Senate Bill 4 will take effect Sept. 1 and will allow local police officers to inquire about the immigration status of people they legally detain or arrest. It also would punish elected officials who do not honor every request from federal immigration authorities to hold people until their statuses can be investigated. Officials who do not comply, from police chiefs to county sheriffs, can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a $1,000 fine for a first offense and up to $25,000 for each infraction that follows. They could be removed from office as well.

The American Civil Liberties Union, a frequent foe of Gov. Greg Abbott's in court, issued a travel advisory last month that warned visitors to Texas of potential constitutional rights violations after SB 4 went into effect. It is not an official boycott, the group said, but a broad alert to travelers that "it is simply a matter of time before illegal arrests occur." Echoing an argument Democrats in the state Legislature used as they unsuccessfully tried to defeat the measure, the ACLU's warning said the law will give some police officers license to racially profile people and to find a reason to detain them in to inquire about their immigration statuses.

"Until we defeat it, everyone traveling in or to Texas needs to be aware of what's in store for them," said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. "Local law enforcement will have to decide between violating a person's rights and being severely fined, thrown in jail, or even being removed from office for choosing not to do so."

Public safety debate

Abbott and other supporters of the law have maintained that it will boost public safety and mandate that local law enforcement agencies cannot enforce patchwork policies on whether their officers will ask people they stop to prove they are in the country illegally. Police chiefs in the state's largest cities have disputed the Republicans' public safety argument, saying the law strips considerable power from local officials to run their departments as they see fit.

Texas' urban centers are not the only areas seeing early negative fallout from SB 4.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association pulled its 2018 conference from Grapevine, a Dallas-area suburb in Tarrant County, in part because organizers feared the law would dissuade non-citizen members and racial minorities from attending and, in some cases, bringing their families.

"Our members are U.S. citizens and green card holders, but many of them come from ethnic communities where they felt that they would be unfairly targeted," said Bill Stock, the president of the association, which has yet to announce where it will hold next year's meeting. "(The members) expressed their desire not to spend money in the state."

The 2018 convention, which AILA scheduled in Texas years before SB 4's passage, usually draws upwards of 3,000 attendees each year, constituting the country's largest gathering of immigration attorneys and law professors.

Impact on Texas events

From the conservative-voting Tarrant County to the state's progressive capital city, even organizations that do not fully pull out of Texas could be forced to change their events after the law is scheduled to take effect in September.

South by Southwest is still scheduled for March 9-18, 2018, in Austin, but the internationally-renowned music and film festival was caught in the middle of the SB 4 fight as well. Earlier this month, two Latino Democrats in the U.S. Senate asked SXSW organizers to consider relocating the multi-day event in protest of the sanctuary cities ban.

"For 31 years, @sxsw stood w/ artists & participants re: equality & tolerance. SXSW should use its platform to stand up against hate & fear," Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, tweeted June 7. She was joined by Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who said the law could expose thousands of SXSW attendees to racial profiling by police.

Moving SXSW out of Austin, the event's home since its inception in 1987, was not a option organizers are willing to consider, but they agreed with the senators' criticism of the law.

"Austin is our home and an integral part of who we are," said Roland Swenson, the festival's CEO, in a statement. "We will stay here and continue to make our event inclusive while fighting for the rights of all."
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Todd Blue, a former real estate developer and executive at a family business, started collecting classic cars about 15 years ago, which soon sparked loftier automotive ambitions.

On Saturday, he opened the doors on a new company headquarters for his 14-store, Houston-based group of luxury car dealerships - a two-story Porsche store designated by the German brand as one of six U.S. flagship locations.

"This is literally like the Disneyland of Porsche," he said recently, strolling the 60,000-square-foot facility in a blue Italian suit as work crews attended to finishing touches. Blue built his new wonderland next to the Lamborghini dealership he also owns, the top-selling Lamborghini dealership in the country, according to a ranking of 47 dealerships by the brand. And Blue, the 48-year-old CEO of indiGO Auto Group, envisions greater growth ahead.

Even the incessant oil slump hasn't taken the edge off Houston's market for high-end toys - and the new Porsche North Houston comes amid several high-profile, high-dollar luxury car projects emerging across town.

The national dealership empire Sonic Automotive plans to build a midrise, multibrand luxury showroom on U.S. 59, across the street from its seven-story Audi dealership. The Post Oak Hotel, under construction near the Galleria, also plans to feature a glass-cased two-story showroom with Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands. Houston's Helfman Auto Group recently finished a new Maserati dealership on the Katy Freeway and is preparing for a total renovation of its Sugar Land Fiat location to incorporate the Maserati brand.

More Information Top-selling luxury cars for 2017 in the area Lexus 4,496 Mercedes 3,675 Audi 2,729 BMW 2,261 Infiniti 1,866 Cadillac 1,227 Lincoln 1,098 Land Rover 567 Porsche 528 Jaguar 234 Maserati 170 Tesla 142 Alfa Romeo 85 Bentley 31 Ferrari 22 Aston Martin 18 Lamborghini 13 Rolls-Royce 12 McLaren 11 Source: TexAuto Facts Report published by InfoNation See More Collapse

"That's a pretty good indicator of what the luxury car market has been and what we anticipate it will be," said Steven Wolf, vice president of Helfman and chairman of the Houston Auto Dealers Association. "Seems like everything is moving in the right directions."

It's a market for the top tier of spenders in Houston, a city noted for America's fastest-growing population of multimillionaires in 2014 at the height of the shale boom. Boom gone, wealth remains, and the highest level of income earners has seen disproportionate growth in recent years.

In Harris County, 7.3 percent of households took home more than $200,000 per year in 2015, the latest year with available data, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That was more than double the rate of 10 years prior, 3.5 percent in 2005.

Over that same period, Houston's median household income grew 30 percent to just $56,629, and the largest single income block remained those earning between $50,000 and $75,000, constituting about 17.5 percent of county earners in both 2005 and 2015.

The median earner probably aren't the ones fueling the market for luxury cars.

"We have services for the customer where budget is not a factor," Blue said. "It's Houston businesspeople. You take care of them and they'll take care of you."

Blue beginnings

Blue's affinity for automobiles sprouted far from the luxury sector, at a family-owned Kentucky steel mill, in constant company of heavy metal and industrial machines. As a kid, he watched as auto plants sold scrap steel to be melted down at his family mill.

The family business was sold in 1998 while Blue was executive vice president, so he took the money he made and bought some classic cars. It started with a 1976 limited edition Bicentennial Cadillac El Dorado and a 1969 Maserati Ghibli Spyder, and Blue paid a variety of specialty shops to restore the engines, the bodies and the interiors.

"I said to myself, 'To afford this hobby, I better make it a business,' " Blue said.

He auctioned off the restored Maserati for a profit, and the business was born.

Blue founded indiGO Classic Cars in 2006, buying rides and even importing them from Europe, then selling them at auction. But he set his sights on a storefront.

So Blue posted a classified ad on the online forum of the Young Presidents Organization, a club for chief executives. He was looking for a high-line dealership in a big-city market, he wrote. A member from Atlanta, who had recently bought a portfolio of stores, answered his ad. He offered a store he'd acquired in Houston but did not want. So Blue bought it.

In 2010 Blue moved into a 13,000-square-foot Porsche store on the North Freeway, about 2 miles south of the budding Grand Parkway.

"Houston happened by accident, and I'm grateful it did," Blue said. "There's something in the water that is celebratory of the entrepreneur and of businesspeople that take a risk. Other cities are not like that."

Upon arrival, Blue called Kelly Wolf, a member of the tight-knit luxury automotive clique in Houston whom Blue had met at a Porsche brand meeting in Germany. The two got together, and Blue outlined his vision to expand his newly acquired dealership into a national group.

"I thought, clearly he's a dreamer. I had a lot of questions about his plan," said Wolf, 39, and now the chief operating officer of indiGO. "If I hadn't taken that chance, I'd have regretted it forever."

In 2011, indiGO Classic Cars became the indiGO Auto Group with the purchase of the Lamborghini dealership just down the highway. Blue tapped another local luxury auto insider, Zack Lawrence, as general manager. He shook up the staff and brought annual sales there to 78 vehicles in 2016, up from 12 in his first year.

Never say no

Today, Lawrence, now 37, is looking for a spike in sales next year after Lamborghini releases its first SUV in two decades. At the dealership, cars go for between $200,000 and $600,000.

"We don't just sell cars - we sell a lifestyle," Lawrence said.

IndiGO applied that philosophy onward, turning its stores into a customer experience where no buyer is told no.

In 2013, indiGO bought a nine-store group in Rancho Mirage, a suburb of Palm Springs, Calif., which included Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Maserati and more. In 2015, the company bought and consolidated both Porsche dealerships in St. Louis, and in 2016 bought BMW of Palm Springs.

The company sticks with Porsche as an anchor tenant when it starts in a new city, Blue said, because Porsche "has found the perfect equilibrium between supply and demand. Porsche always builds one less car than there is demand."

That enthusiasm in part earned indiGO a designation as a rare Porsche flagship, a store with extra-close factory ties, access to premium limited lines like the Porsche Manufaktur division and extra options for customization.

"The all-new Porsche North Houston will be one of the largest Porsche dealerships in the U.S.," Porsche Cars North America said in a statement. It will "be a prototypical dealership, which showcases Porsche's latest design scheme."

Construction of a flagship dealership required meticulous detail aimed at consistency of the German company's self-professed corporate image. Specifications detailed down to the tile, paint and the Alucobond aluminum exterior panels.

The facility will include two stories of showrooms, a Porsche simulator, a clothing and accessory boutique and a customer waiting room with glass windows overlooking an air-conditioned, 26-station service shop that more resembles a hospital than a garage. Blue hopes to build a stand-alone car wash on site, too.

"It's just another great sign of really positive economic development in the area," said Greg Simpson, president of the North Houston District, who put the dealership second in terms of scope only to Amazon's new North Houston fulfillment center among recent business projects in his district.

Blue said he aims to continue buying dealerships around Houston and the nation and will remain "disciplined and focused on staying in the luxury segment."
FORT BELKNAP - During my time in D.C. a few years ago, I spent a day at the Library of Congress trying to confirm a Texas tale that had long intrigued me. It involved a man named Robert Simpson Neighbors, a frontiersman well known among Texas historians, not that well known generally. A Virginian who got to Texas in 1836 at age 20 and a friend of Sam Houston's, Neighbors was a big, red-haired fellow whose belief in the basic humanity of Native Americans cost him his life. A genuine Texas hero, he ought to have streets and counties named after him, instead of being a mere historical footnote.

The Neighbors story that prompted my library search is in a book called "Lambshead Before Interwoven," a 1982 history of early settlements in northwest Texas by the late Frances Mayhugh Holden of Lubbock. Neighbors, working as a federal Indian agent in the mid-1840s, was trying to persuade various Texas tribes to, in Houston's words, "walk the path of peace" and retreat to newly established "reserves." He had learned to speak Comanche and had earned the tribes' trust.

In 1846, according to Holden, Neighbors escorted a group of Indian leaders, including Santa Anna and Old Owl of the Comanches and Jose Maria of the Anadarkos, on a visit to Washington. The party rode the 1,500 miles on horseback.

The purpose of the visit was to expose the chiefs to the power and wealth of the United States, to demonstrate to them what they were up against if they continued to resist the relentless wave of white settlement. They stayed in the nation's capital a month.

Imagine that scene - proud, self-possessed Indian leaders riding their horses along loud and busy Pennsylvania Avenue, the thoroughfare lined with buildings and crowded with carriages, buggies, horses and people. Imagine these dark-skinned men in their tribal regalia walking through the majestic Capitol, meeting with Houston in the marble halls of the Senate. The larger-than-life Texan no doubt was wearing his own Indian regalia when he welcomed the delegation. Neighbors stayed in the Globe Hotel but found a place for the chiefs "in the suburbs." The noise and bustle of downtown D.C. disturbed them.

Neither I nor a couple of Library of Congress librarians who also got interested in the chiefs' D.C. visit could find any documentation, but, of course, that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Holden's source was apparently the late Kenneth Neighbours, a historian at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls and the author of the definitive Neighbors biography.

"If Neighbours wrote it, you could take it to the bank," Ty Cashion, a historian at Sam Houston State University, told me earlier this week.

However awed and impressed the chiefs were by Washington, D.C., a number of tribes in the early 1850s did agree, reluctantly, to move onto three reservations established in northwest Texas, two known collectively as the Brazos Reservation near present-day Graham and the third, called the Clear Fork Reservation, in Throckmorton and Shackelford counties. Several smaller tribes settled on the Brazos Reservation in 1855, while three sizeable Comanche bands - "skittish, aloof and skeptical," Holden writes - arrived shortly afterward.

Roving life gone

Two years later the Houston Republic newspaper printed the following: "From Major Neighbors we learn that there are now in the 'reserve' in Texas about 1500 Indians. ... The Indians cultivate the soil, and have made a good crop this year. ... They also learn to work at the black-smith's trade. The people live very near to each other, and appear to be weaned from their roving life."

Neighbors, who in Cashion's words, "appreciated the First Nations on their own terms, which most people did not," soon realized that "their roving life" was not the problem. His most urgent challenge was protecting the Indians from white settlers who wanted them eradicated. Renegade whites inspired by an Indian agent and former Texas legislator named John R. Baylor - "a rabble rouser of the first order," in Holden's words - worked to undercut Neighbors, by then a federal Indian superintendent for the Texas tribes. Agitators across north Texas stole Indian horses and cattle. They murdered both white men and red while masquerading as Indians.

Vowing to destroy the Indians in revenge for their depredations, Baylor raised an "army" of about 250 farmers and stockmen and attacked the Brazos Reservation. His motley group killed an old man and scalped him before being driven off by federal troops and the Indians. Baylor lost five of his men.

It wasn't just the renegades who resented Neighbors' efforts. He was "immensely courageous," historian T.R. Fehrenbach has written, but he "was more successful at winning friends and influencing people among the Indians than in getting the cooperation or sympathy of his own kind."

In the spring of 1857, Neighbors and his wife Elizabeth Ann journeyed to Washington to confer with President James Buchanan and Sen. Sam Houston about moving the Texas Indians into Indian Territory (Oklahoma) for their own protection. He received the permission he sought in 1859.

Exodus to Oklahoma

Early on the morning of Aug. 1, Neighbors set in motion an exodus of more than 1,400 Indians, under military escort and accompanied by carts, wagons, cattle, oxen, mules, horses and dogs. In the shimmering heat of summer the strange cavalcade, at once magnificent and sad, stretched across the prairie for nearly three miles.

Neighbors wrote to his wife about the departure: "If you want to hear a full description of our Exodus out of Texas, read the 'Bible' where the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. We have had about the same show, only our enemies did not follow us to the Red River. If they had - the Indians would have in all probability sent them back without the interposition of Divine Providence."

The combined tribes arrived at the Red River on Aug. 8. Neighbors and the military escort accompanied them for another seven days, until they reached the valley of the Washita River, a place he described as "truly a splendid country," with excellent grass and good water. Bidding the Indians farewell, one by one, he left for Texas on Sept. 6.

On the morning of Sept. 14, Neighbors stopped at Belknap, in Young County, to write up his report. As he stepped out of the courthouse a couple of hours later, a man named Edward Cornett emerged from behind a chimney and shot him in the back.

Neighbors, 43, died on the street, the local sheriff cradling his head. His killer, known as a "drinking, blustering, dissolute desperado," was a Baylor sympathizer. He was never arrested, although a band of Texas Rangers administered their own brand of justice months after the murder.
NASA

July 4 is an important date not just for Americans celebrating their independence day, but for NASA too.

As Space.com pointed out, on July 4, NASA will officially hit 20 years of continuous broadcasting from Mars.
As a health-care provider, I find it an honor every time a parent allows me to play a part in their child's care, even for something as simple as a check-up. This may sound like an exaggeration, but there is truly something sacred in parents bringing a child to a hospital or health clinic. This act is fundamentally an expression of faith in the system, of trust that the team will do everything possible to help their child.

But imagine having to choose between providing your child with essential health care and protecting the integrity of your family. This is the dilemma now facing thousands of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Given the increasingly anti- immigrant rhetoric from our federal government - including bills passed Thursday in the House targeting undocumented immigrants and so-called sanctuary cities - and increasingly aggressive actions by agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, parents who are undocumented have to ask themselves whether bringing their children for even routine health care could trigger an alert and arrest.

Hospitals have long been among the "sensitive locations" generally protected from ICE actions. But there is no guarantee, in the current political climate, that this policy will continue. Even under the Obama administration, the country experienced newly aggressive immigration enforcement. This included arrests of children on their way to school, also traditionally considered sensitivelocations.

The concept of sensitivelocations was eroding even before the current heating-up. It comes as no surprise, then, that children's hospitals and other pediatric health-care providers across the country have been reporting a decrease in use of health-care resources by undocumented immigrants in recent months. Actual numbers are difficult to obtain; most medical centers do not document parental immigration status. But within the field, there have been widespread anecdotal reportsof reduced emergency department use, along with a drop in regular well-child visits.

This of course puts these individual children at risk, which should concern all of us for what it says about how we, as a society, care for the most vulnerable among us. But if that doesn't move you, consider the broader public-health implications of such a trend. Fewer children brought in for routine health care means fewer children receiving the routine vaccinations of childhood, such as measles and meningitis. Fewer children brought in for treatment of illnesses means more children out in the community with untreated communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis. This reservoir of potential vectors of infectious disease affects everyone. Germs have no interest in immigration status.

This problem urgently needs to be addressed on two levels. First, we need ironclad assurances from elected officials and law enforcement that, barring true extenuating circumstances such as a serious criminal violation, health-care sites will remain sacred, safe spaces. Health-care workers should not have to worry about what they will do if an ICE agent shows up at their workplace demanding access to a family seeking treatment. Parents should not have to worry about being arrested while seeking proper care for their child.

Second, hospitals and clinics also need to take a stand, now, loudly and publicly. This is an issue that transcends politics; health care is a human right. Medical centers should educate patients and families. Hospitals should distribute materials informing families of their rights, as some have already started doing. We must reassure patients and families that they are in a safe space when they come to us - that they will be protected and nurtured while seeking care for their children, and have no need to fear being reported.

At the moment, thankfully, ICE raids on hospitals and medical clinics remain only a theoretical possibility. One hopes that the designation of such sites as sensitive locations will continue to be honored. For vulnerable communities, however, the threat feels all too real, and it is already affecting their health-care choices. For the children in those communities, and for the sake of the health and safety of all of us, health-care providers, officeholders and lawenforcement must join to draw a clear line: In America, the sacred trust placed by parents in their child's health-care provider is inviolate - now and forever.

- - -

Waldman is incoming associate chief of the division of palliative care at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
Quaintly fading

Regarding "What can keep a small town alive? In Texas, it's community and capital" (Page A3, Saturday), Joe Holley wrote kindly of the charming small towns in Texas. He refrained from pointing out that small towns and country life would be like a theme park or retirement village without real ranchers, farmers, hardware stores, groceries, cafes and, importantly, children in public schools.

Rural public education affects people of many races and economic groups across Texas, and it is currently being gutted by forces in the state Legislature, namely Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Senate Education Chair Larry Taylor. They insist that schools do get enough money, and they had no plan to rework a fair and equitable school finance bill in the 2017 session.

School boards across the state are scrambling. Fort Davis ISD was recently cited in the Austin-American Statesman by Lonn Taylor: "The Fort Davis ISD has 226 students," Hicks wrote. "It has no cafeteria, has no bus routes, has dropped our band program, has eliminated (or not filled) 15 staff positions, has cut stipends for extracurricular activities, has frozen (or reduced) staff pay for one year, has cut extracurricular programs, has no debt, and has increased our local tax rate to the maximum allowed by the law.

"We have nothing left to cut."

State fairs and livestock shows could soon become quaint historical events if the purge of public education continues at this pace. Before it's too late, Texas can bolster its rural public schools and small towns by educating the next generation of shop owners, agriculture workers, doctors and auto mechanics. Let's get behind the representatives who want strong schools and insist that the July special session of the Legislature address the needs of our public schools for every Texan.

Marie Michnovicz, Houston

Reminiscing

Columnist Joe Holley and "Texas Fred," HoustonChronicle.com commenter, brought back fond memories of the old Houston Heights. The main drag back in the 1940s and '50s was 19th Street, just a few blocks away from Helms Elementary School, Hamilton Junior High and Reagan High School. There were dozens of small businesses doing quite well, thank you, a saddlery full of good-smelling leather goods, and a block away, the Heights Theatre with confectionary adjacent. The trolley line along brick-paved Heights Boulevard was history, although the tracks still led toward downtown Houston. Harold's of the Heights opened a small clothing store. When Harold came back from the Korean conflict, he and brother Milton developed the store into an upscale haberdashery where the city's elite politicians and athletes stood in line to pay big bucks for fancy duds. Next door was Sammy's Diner, open 24 hours a day. A stretch of Heights Boulevard was served the old Houston Press by a skinny kid, me, on a rickety bicycle.

In later years, the Heights was subject to the vagaries described by Holley, "a small Texas town hanging on like a withered peach," but happy to say, in the past 15 or so years, the region has become a mecca for young professionals and top-notch restaurants.

Sam Caldwell via HoustonChronicle.com
Political whims

Regarding "Off limits" (page A11, Tuesday), an editorial about travel to North Korea, just last month, President Donald Trump announced more restrictive travel to Cuba. When is the last time you can recall an American tourist being detained and tortured in Cuba?

Now, regarding North Korea, an American can travel to that country on independent travel, but it is discouraged, not restricted, by the U.S. State Department. Both countries have human rights issues, as we all know, but North Korea keeps launching missiles hoping to develop one capable of reaching the U.S. with a nuclear warhead. Cuba wants to sell us more cigars and rum.

The only reason travel restrictions to Cuba are more restrictive is because of the large conservative Cuban voting bloc in Florida. Another example when politics just don't make a whole lot of sense.

Jose Rodriquez, Huntsville

Ike Dike overkill

Regarding "Let's move aggressively on surge protection" (Page A17, Friday), I am in favor of localized earthen levies being built specifically around chemical plants and refineries to protect those industrial complexes from a damaging storm surge. But a huge "Ike Dike" running down the coastline is overkill, and the massive floodgates would create numerous significant issues.

Coastal residents themselves should be responsible for their own property by building properly and insuring adequately. The Ike Dike is simply too much.

Matt Pace, Houston
CHICAGO - Thank you, thank you, thank you, President Trump.

I offer my gratitude because after years of being the last of my immigrant family members to undertake the naturalization process, my mother just took the oath to become a U.S. citizen.

It finally happened after 10 years of prodding and needling and of painting doomsday scenarios about crazy, obscure ways that legal permanent residents can accidentally become deportable. For instance, paperwork mishaps like failing to file a change of address form to the Department of Homeland Security within 10 days of a move could put a green card holder at risk of fines, jail or even deportation.

But, ultimately, all it took was a new president promising to do his best to rid the country of immigrants to get her to undertake the long, arduous process.

She started her application process less than a month after the November election and now I can sleep easy knowing that no bureaucratic slip-up will send my mom back to the country where she spent only the first third of her life.

My mom was hardly alone in hesitating to make the leap. Though Mexicans represent the largest group of legal permanent residents, their rate of naturalization is only about half that of green card holders from all other countries combined, according to the most recent tally by the Pew Research Center. There are many reasons for this: Many of the immigrants surveyed indicated that they weren't engaging in the process because they felt their English skills were not good enough or were scared that the citizenship test would be too difficult.

In my mom's case, neither of those was an issue. What had been keeping her from taking the plunge was a combination of comfort with her legal status and the hassle of undertaking a complex administrative process. However, once mere legal permanent residence status stopped feeling like the most secure way to ensure her future in the United States, it was an easy decision.

People who tsk-tsk that more eligible immigrants don't naturalize rarely realize that it takes money and time that many people don't have. The process for my mom took six months from filing the initial forms to completing the interviews and taking the test. But it was, effectively, a walk in the park since she's an educated professional who has been a fluent English speaker for more than 40 years. And she had time to manage the process because she recently retired. Plus, the $800 that it cost to pay for the application, get photos taken, travel to multiple appointments, and so on, was of little consequence to her budget.

For someone without all those resources, a task that could take up to a year or more is far less attainable. According to Pew, 94 percent of those who say they have not naturalized cite the cost of the application.

There are nonprofit groups out there like The New Americans Campaign, a nonpartisan national network of organizations helping immigrants navigate and pay for the citizenship process. Since its inception in 2011, the Campaign has helped more than 250,000 applicants and saved them more than $206 million in legal and application fees, but the group is hardly a household name.

Still, the latest data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says that 752,800 people were naturalized in fiscal year 2016 - a little higher than the average of 740,000 per year over the last decade, an increase that's almost surely due to people who wanted to be eligible to vote in the 2016 election. But it will be some time before statisticians can determine whether, or how many, new U.S. citizens resulted directly from fears prompted by Trump's election.

No matter.

What counts is that last week in Chicago my mother and 114 other men and women from 33 countries spanning Armenia to the United Kingdom closed their journeys as immigrants and took the oath to be upstanding and honorable citizens.

They joyously swore to support our Constitution, renounce allegiance to all other countries, and also vowed to bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law.

That's right, America, my mom's got your back!

Hopefully, President Trump will inspire an unprecedented number of immigrants to become new Americans. And may they be energized to help others attain the safety of citizenship.

Cepeda's email address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com..
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Artist Wesley Sambruce, among crocheted 'stalactites,' said he hopes not only children can glean something from the exhibit, but adults as well. The mountain and tunnel recreated in Kidspace. PreviousNext

Artist Creates Explorative Sculpture Based on Hoosac Tunnel



The mountain peaks are made from connected triangles. Sambruce began assembling the pieces in April for the mid-June opening. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Artist Wesley Sambruce brings his reflections on the Hoosac Tunnel to life in Kidspace with an interactive sculpture that asks children and adults alike to explore courage.

Lofted in Kidspace in the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Sambruce built a portal into another world. Flipping back the tunnel's heavy veil opens to meandering pathways paved with poetry, crawlways dropping off into unexplored caverns and open vestibules with hanging tendrils  all inspired by the 4.75-mile Hoosac Tunnel.

"I tried to make something that could be explorative and immersive that you could physically enter," Sambruce said recently about his installation "Cavernous: The Inner Life of Courage." "The feeling that you get when you step up to the mountain with this giant gaping hole with this unknowable darkness has a strong physical feeling for me. ...

"It's a feeling that is kind of scary but it is exciting and I wanted to try to recreate that."

"Cavernous" is the third installment of Kidspace's Art 4 Change program, a four-year project for local students that explores problem-solving through empathy, optimism and courage.

With "Cavernous," Sambruce meditated on courage, the theme of the Kidspace project. He said he thought about the Latin root of the word courage  "core." With this insight, he found the center of his mountain and dug out a core that only can be discovered by those willing to plunge into the darkness.

"Core is the heart or center of something so I wanted to have that in the installment. Here you have to explore to find this center room and enter into this space," he said. "It is sort of this poetic fluid metaphor where you are exploring a physical space but you are also metaphorically going into the center of yourself."

He said in this way, the art is more than the actual structure  an experience that lives within the mountain and outside of the walls of Kidspace.

"You are inside of this geode and it becomes this really rich metaphor because a geode is this rock that has this crystal inside that forms in the dark for hundreds of millions of years just waiting in the dark quietly and patiently," he said. "Then in one second that stone can be split open and it is illuminated. ...

"Same for us. Parts of ourselves wait and grow in the dark and at any moment can be opened."

Sambruce's stream of consciousness poetry hangs from the ceiling, lines the floor and winds through the entire exhibit. It coils around in the core of the mountain and ends. He said the poetry is his own reflections on courage and North Adams. He said he hopes it reads differently than it would on the page.

"If you were just reading it on a page it would be a different experience then walking through it," he said. "This is all language that I want to hand off and if this were in a book people may not read it but like this the language can enter you."

He said a lot of his art focuses on found art or poetry and he was inspired by what Hoosac means in Algonquin: a place of stones.

This line is hidden in a special font in the core of the exhibit that can only be seen when light is shined on it.

The inner walls of the cavern are dense with objects. Textured colored tiles begged to be touched and grooved wheels spin freely with a quick flick as explorers weave through.

Light enters the mountain differently. Some rooms allow slivers of light to streak through the geode canopy while darker spaces are only lit by small glowing lights.

Sambruce said he enlisted the help of local high school students to help sand down the tiles and wooden geodes that help create this atmosphere. He said if you look hard enough you can make out the signatures of these students on the tiles.

Sambruce said his art always reflects the place in which it is located and he makes it a point to absorb what surrounds his work and make it authentic. He said it was important to glean what he could from the locals and the high school students.

"I was asking them what they knew about the Hoosac Tunnel and I was looking for any story about them sneaking in or camping on the mountain," he said. "Knowing this long history of the tunnel and all the engineering that was needed to keep it straight and ... knowing ebbs in flows of that history of North Adams I tried to make this specific to the place. The things that I make gain their value from trying to genuinely participate in the place where they are made."

Sambruce said he can connect with North Adams and is from a similar community in northern California.

"I grew up in an underdog town in the mountains and everyone worked in construction or plumbing," he said. "We relied on money coming up from the [San Francisco] Bay area so there is a lot of overlap."

He said place also can be heard in the sounds  the looping ambient recordings of birds, trees rustling and sounds from inside of the tunnel. He said the recordings come from Colorado, California and North Adams.

With physicality of the tiles, light and sound within the piece it creates a multisensory experience unlike other pieces Kidspace has hosted in the past, Director of Education Laura Thompson said.



Sambruce's poetry hangs from the installation's ceiling. "We try at all of our levels of programming to get people to react to the art and he is using all of these sensory experiences. It is tactile, you can hear it, the light changes and even the temperature seems to change," she said. "You have a holistic experience in here which is much like exploring a tunnel ... finding the courage to go into a dark space or an unknown space to explore."

She added that although this is the first installation in Kidspace specifically designed for children, adults seem to be getting just as much out of it.

"That's the thing about Kidspace there is something for everybody in hereadults are coming in here and loving it," she said. "They think about their own childhood and bring back their own experiences of having a fort and exploring."

The free exhibit opened June 17 and will be at Kidspace until next Memorial Day, but Sambruce said he hopes it lasts much longer than that.

"The piece as it's being made, as it is finished and as it being taken down still lives and I hope it allows people to act from that center space or core to make them feel more in tune with themselves," he said. "I want to empower them to be themselves because that takes courage."
United Cerebral Palsy Expected To Take Over WTBR Management

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Taconic High School's radio station, WTBR, is expected to be under new management within the next year.

The station's license is owned by Pittsfield Public Schools and operates out of Taconic. But the new building does not include space for it and the tower will have to be removed. For years school administrators have been trying to figure out what to do with the state.

Superintendent Jason McCandless said on Wednesday that he is working on a management agreement with United Cerebral Palsy of Berkshire County, which uses the Taconic tower to simultaneously broadcast the Berkshire Talking Chronicle, to take over operations. The school will still retain ownership of the license, but UCP will manage the station and a new studio will be built in the Clocktower Building on South Church Street.

"We are hopeful that by the middle of the school year next year we are ready to begin executing that agreement. That's driven by the practicality that there is some equipment we have to move over the remaining four or five months," McCandless said.

McCandless envisions the station becoming much more of a community station than it is now. There are few shows on WTBR, but the few that are tend to be very community focused.

"We want to see WTBR really become a community radio station," McCandless said, envisioning new management being able to open up the station for more groups  from the NAACP to Hancock Shaker Village.

"We really see this as an opportunity to have a form and a function of getting people's messages and conversations out."

The build out of a new studio is currently unknown, McCandless said, as he is relying on the expertise of UCP. In fact, the administration's lack of knowledge about the station is why officials have been trying to get away from it for years.

"We can't be in the radio businesses. We have no expertise in the area and we're not particularly wanting to spend money on consultants to advise us as a school district," he said. "We will be working with UCP collaboratively with what we need to do."

"The talk is becoming very, very real," McCandless said.

The station has had its ups and downs, with most recently being a down. In 2006, radio veteran Larry Kratka had taken over on a mostly volunteer basis and it turned into a successful and well-known station . But when he retired in 2014, students began to lose interest.

A group of dedicated individuals are keeping the station alive, from those who have shows to Brad Lorenz overseeing the station's $6,000 budget. But they don't have the professional expertise and experience that Kratka brought to the table.

McCandless praised the work of Lorenz and the others for keeping the station on air but said it is time for a new chapter. UCP is seen as a way to alleviate the school's responsibilities and bring in the professional management it needs. That, in turn, will help transition WTBR into more of a community, rather than school, radio station. UCP will also continue to operate WRRS-LPFM, Pittsfield 104.3, one of four community radio stations that broadcasts Berkshire Talking Chronicle for the reading impaired.

"We can continue to broadcast both of these radio o stations and really perhaps ramp up the quality of WTBR," McCandless said.
Williamstown Rural Lands to Host Second in 'Ring Hike' Series Saturday

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The second of five "Ring Hikes" sponsored by the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation will be held Saturday at 9 a.m.

Hikers completing all sections of the series of hikes will have completed a loop around the town on public hiking trails.

The first segment, completed June 17, took nine hikers from the summit of Mount Greylock down the Roaring Brook Trailhead.

Section two on Saturday will cover the Phelps Trail from its trailhead on Oblong Road, up to the Taconic Crest Trail and along it over Berlin Mountain and down the Petersburg Pass.

WRLF Board member Dustin Griffin said that as far as he knows, this is the first time someone has organized a ring hike around the entire town.

Previous guided hikes have included hikers aged 10 to 70, and all ability levels are welcome on Saturday, he said.

"The first 45 minutes, on the Phelps Trail, are steadily uphill, but the trail is well established and clear, and there is no scrambling involved," Griffin said. "So I'd say that part is moderate-to-strenuous, posing difficulty only if you're out of shape.

"Once you get to the Taconic Crest Trail, you are walking along the ridge line of an old woods road."

The hike will be guided by an experienced leader and a "sweeper" to bring up the rear.

Hikers should gather at Petersburg Pass at 9 a.m. Saturday. They will then carpool over to the Phelps Trail trailhead.




iciHaiti - Digicel : Professional Orientation Day





This week, the Digicel Foundation, which is very involved in the socio-educational development of Haiti, organized a professional orientation day for 130 students of the College Classique d'Haiti, located in Turgeau.



The students were divided into 7 groups, to facilitate the assimilation of knowledge. In turn, they followed presentations on various possible career choices in Haiti and generating income. Numerous Digicel professionals as well as partners transformed themselves into trainers for this day in order to explain to students the content of the fields of study such as :



Education (education system, family education);

Construction (civil engineering, development through town planning);

Health (anesthesia and resuscitation, clinical research and biology, medical team, pharmaceutical, radiology, therapy);

Hospitality and Tourism (hotels, tourism and catering);

Legal sciences (criminal and private law);

Management (finance, sales, marketing);

Technology and Telecommunication.



Presentations focused on the advantages and disadvantages of fields of study and different types of careers, the different opportunities in each field, the greatest challenges they will face and the preparations to be made now to ensure a profession in one of these areas in the future. The students were also given a small demonstration of the materials used in certain professions. "We believe that this activity has been beneficial for all those students who must make more informed choices about their careers in the near future," says Mr. Occil Leonel, School principal.



The Digicel Foundation took the opportunity to announce the inauguration of its 173rd school, located in Cholette, Mirebalais, which benefits from 7 new classrooms as well as a sanitary block and an administrative block.



IH/ iciHaiti


















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James Cromwell has been sentenced to seven days in jail after refusing to pay a fine related to his role in a protest in New York.

The Emmy Award-winning actor, who appeared in Babe and L.A. Confidential, was sentenced to a week in Orange County Jail after refusing to pay the $375 fine.

Cromwell, who starred as Farmer Hoggett in the 1995 adaptation of Dick King Smith's book Babe, the Sheep-Pig, was one of six environmental protestors found guilty of obstructing traffic when they staged a sit-in on the site of Competitive Power Ventures prospective natural gas-fired power plant.

They were protesting over claims that carbon emissions from the CPV power plant would pose an imminent threat to the local environment and accelerate climate change.

Three of the six protestors paid their fine on time, but Variety reports that Cromwell refused and now face jail time.

Cromwell said: If we dont stay together, nothing will change. Power to the people.

Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Show all 14 1 /14 Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for A Series of Unfortunate Events: season 1 Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Malina Wiessman, Will Arnett, Cobie Smulders, Patrick Warburton Release date: Out now Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Riverdale: season 1 Starring:KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Srpuse, Madchen Amick Release date: New episodes every Friday Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for iBoy Starring: Bill Milner, Maisie Williams, Miranda Richardson Release date: Out now Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Santa Clarita Diet: season 1 Starring: Drew Barrymore, Timothy Olyphant, Nathan Fillion, Patton Oswalt Release date: 3 February Netflix Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Ultimate Beastmaster Hosted by: Terry Crews Release date: 24 February Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Love: season 2 Starring: Gillian Jacobs, Paul Rust, Claudia O'Doherty Release date: 10 March Netflix Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Iron Fist: season 1 Starring: Finn Jones, Jessica Henwick, David Wenham, Rosario Dawson Release date: 17 March Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Sense8: season 2 Starring: Toby Onwumere, Doona Bae, Jamie Clayton, Tuppence Middleton Release date: 5 May Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for House of Cards: season 5 Starring: Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Neve Campbell, Joel Kinnaman Release date: 31 May Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Dear White People: season 1 Starring: Antoinette Robertson, Brandon P Bell, Logan Browning Release date: TBC Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Okja Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, Lily Collins, Steven Yeun, Giancarlo Esposito Release date: TBC Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Paul Rudd, Janeane Garofalo, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Alyssa Milano, Jai Courtney Release date: TBC Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Master of None: season 2 Starring: Aziz Ansari Release date: TBC Netflix Originals 2017: All the films and TV shows to look out for Stranger Things: season 2 Starring: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown Release date: TBC

Following an appeal, the three defendants now have a new deadline of 14 July to pay the fine.

Cromwell is set to star in Fallen Kingdom, the sequel to 2015s Jurassic World, alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
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Glastonbury Festival hired hundreds of workers from across Europe on zero hours contracts and then fired them after just two days, The Independent can reveal.

Organisers were accused of taking advantage of some 700 people who were signed up as litter pickers expecting two weeks of paid employment after the acts and festival-goers had gone home, only to leave some three quarters stranded and out of pocket in the Somerset countryside.

It comes one week after Jeremy Corbyn's high-profile appearance on the festival's Pyramid Stage with organiser Michael Eavis, in which the Labour leader received rapturous applause for saying young people need not "accept low wages and insecurity as just part of life".

Workers had travelled to Somerset from countries including Czech Republic, Spain, Poland and Latvia after being handed zero hours contracts to help with the large-scale clean-up operation on Worthy Farm.

Jeremy Corbyn and Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis (right) on the Pyramid Stage (Getty)

However it appears that this years good weather, as well as the use of charity workers and on-site litter crews during the festival, meant that there was less rubbish after the event had finished. Up to 600 workers are understood to have now been laid off.

Video footage obtained by The Independent shows the sacked workers asking at least to be fed before they will leave the campsite. In the video, a man understood to be a litter-picking supervisor manhandles workers as they obstruct vehicles in protest, telling them they should be grateful for the two days' work.

Simon Kadlcak, from Czech Republic, told The Independent that he had arrived at Worthy Farm on Monday 26 June and started working the next day. He had heard about the opportunity from friends who also signed up to work via an online form.

"We found out quite soon that there was not as much garbage as usual, so there was less work, he said. Rumours were being spread about what would happen and there was no proper information.

After two days of work, Mr Kadlcak said many people were told there was not enough work for them, with only about 100 people being kept on.

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"There are people without work still sleeping in tents here because they have nowhere to go, they were expecting two weeks of work, he said. One person tried to find us other jobs in the area and get food for us for the weekend.

"The organisers have to have known that there was not enough work for that amount of people. No one spoke to us before, there were these rumours and people are quite nervous about it. No one let us know until yesterday afternoon, they just put up a list of the 100 people who were able to keep working.

He added that some people had booked return flights and were being forced to stay in the UK until they could go home. Many of the workers have left the farm and are attempting to find work elsewhere in order to recoup their losses from travel, food and accommodation.

Workers on site at Worthy Farm after Glastonbury Festival (The Independent/Cheryl Roberts)

The situation is particularly unfortunate for organisers given Mr Eavis's appearance on stage with Mr Corbyn during the festival.

As well as calling for better treatment of workers, the Labour leader asked whether it is right that "European nationals living in this country" face uncertainty about their future.

"I say they all must stay, and they all must be part of our world, and be part of our community," he said. "Because what festivals, what this festival is about, is about coming together. This festival was envisaged as being for music yes, but also for the environment, and for peace."

Cheryl Roberts, a British woman working on the site, said she was "ashamed" of how the labourers were being treated.

"Corbyn was the headliner of Glastonbury, really, he attracted the largest crowd with his speech, she said. "So for Glastonbury not to have the decency to feed a group of workers that have travelled thousands of miles to be here, after supporting his speech about immigration and foreign workers it just reeks of hypocrisy and is quite frankly embarrassing."

Litter-pickers asked to be fed after they were left disappointed by the amount of work on offer (The Independent/Cheryl Roberts)

Two small protests have been held over two days outside an office on site.

Video of one of them, on Saturday afternoon, shows a supervisor telling a worker: Everyone is on a zero hours contract. We have no commitment to feed these people, theyre on paid jobs, their job is over.

I dont think it is the responsibility of Glastonbury or anyone else to feed these people. They are responsible adults who can feed themselves no one is stopping them from leaving the farm to get food.

Gonzalo Gomez, a 24-year-old from Spain, said he and eight friends had arrived at the site expecting a weeks work. He said that they had stayed in London for three days before the festival and were hoping to make their money back by working on-site afterwards.

We thought wed have about a weeks work, he said. On the first day we were working a lot with no rest. Now theres not enough work for everyone - there are about 550 people leaving, and they dont have the money to get a hotel or change their flights. Its very hard.

Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Show all 10 1 /10 Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Revellers and detritus are seen near the Pyramid Stage at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival in Britain REUTERS Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Litter-picking staff collect discarded rubbish from the area in front of the Pyramid Stage at the end of the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Discarded nitrous oxide canisters are scattered on the ground in front of the Pyramid Stage at the end of the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 clean-up A man rests as festival goers leave the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 26, 2017 near Glastonbury, England. Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is the largest greenfield festival in the world. It was started by Michael Eavis in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just A1, and now attracts more than 175,000 people Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Rubbish is collected in front of the Pyramid Stage as festival goers leave the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 26, 2017 near Glastonbury, England. Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is the largest greenfield festival in the world. It was started by Michael Eavis in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just A1, and now attracts more than 175,000 peopl Getty Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Rubbish is collected in front of the Pyramid Stage as festival goers leave the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 26, 2017 near Glastonbury, England. Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is the largest greenfield festival in the world. It was started by Michael Eavis in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just A1, and now attracts more than 175,000 peopl Getty Glastonbury 2017 clean-up A man looks out the window of a bus as festival goers leave the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 26, 2017 near Glastonbury, England. Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is the largest greenfield festival in the world. It was started by Michael Eavis in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just A1, and now attracts more than 175,000 people Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Seagulls fight over food scraps left in front of the Pyramid Stage as festival goers leave the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 26, 2017 near Glastonbury, England. Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is the largest greenfield festival in the world. It was started by Michael Eavis in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just A1, and now attracts more than 175,000 people Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Festival goers leave following the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Glastonbury 2017 clean-up Litter pickers collect rubbish in front of the Pyramid Stage as festival goers leave the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 26, 2017 near Glastonbury, England. Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is the largest greenfield festival in the world. It was started by Michael Eavis in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just A1, and now attracts more than 175,000 people Getty Images

Robin Denton, 53, from South Africa, told The Independent that he had been coming to the festival to help pick up rubbish every year since 1997 and had never seen the people treated so badly.

Ive seen how things have changed and I think the main problem is the zero hour contract, he said. It says if we dont need you, goodbye.

In 1997 Michael Eavis would put 20 in our hands and say thank you for helping us. Over the years its regressed, and this particular year is the worst Ive seen. I cant understand the hypocrisy of it all.

Theyve come up with the clever idea to use volunteers during the festival to pick up rubbish, so what took up to 14 days after the festival now doesn't take as long. People spend a lot of money to get here expecting up to two weeks work, and after two and a half days theyve been told to go home."

The Independent has contacted Glastonbury organisers and put the workers' accusations and concerns to a spokesperson. Representatives for the festival declined to comment on the record.

A spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn said: "Labour is committed to ending zero hour contracts, which was included in our manifesto, and the next Labour government will end zero hour contracts."
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"Pears can really bite you in the arse," says Tom Oliver, turning around in the drivers seat to address the bevy of chefs and restaurateurs assembled in the back of his mini bus. We're parked in the middle of a pear orchard and Tom is commenting on just how hard it is to make decent perry compared to cider. For a start, pears dont roll evenly along the ground when collected by machines; theyre not spherical you see. Obvious really, when you think about it.

Still, the efforts worth it, as we find when we tumble out of the bus to try some of his perry in the Herefordshire sunshine. It's a drink thats light, effervescent, gently sweet, redolent of pear and perfect summer drinking.

Perry, fortunately, is not a product that is easily industrialised, apart from of course Babycham. Despite its challenges, Tom believes in perry with enthusiasm, creating small batches of artisan perry fermented for the most part in wooden barrels using natural wild yeasts. "We dont use any sulphur in our barrels," he explains. "We take chances in order to get a better product." Although, as he admits, this means he occasionally may get 'bitten' and be left with something undrinkable.

Recommended 10 best Somerset ciders

The chefs standing around drink steadily include Fergus Henderson from St John, Tom Harris and Jon Rotheram from The Marksman, James Lowe from Lyle's and Jackson Boxer from Brunswick House. They've come here looking for unusual, artisan drinks to serve customers and they're finding them.

Tom's barrel room, an old barn where spiders cavort merrily in the shafts of light that beam through the gaps in the walls, is the perfect playground for the wild yeasts. Here his perry and cider slowly ferment at an ambient temperature over many months. He explains that as each barrel slowly matures he decides which is destined for a single varietal, a blend, a vintage or a naturally conditioned beverage. It's true craftsmanship and thus never entirely the same twice. We sup up and move on.

Over at Greggs Pit, named for the pit in the orchard where lime for mortar was dug for hundreds of years, we meet James Marsden, who bought the dilapidated farm in 1992. "I had a 'proper' job and bought this for somewhere to live and then it all changed," he tells me as we drink by his ancient stone press. Restoring the orchard where the 200-year-old mother tree of the Gregg's Pit Perry pear variety still lives, he found other ancient varieties of cider apple and perry pear trees hidden under tons of scrap metal and planted new trees in the gaps. Soon he was a full-time cider and perry maker.

"We won't scale up," he says firmly. "We want to stay hands-on for everything we do," which includes, he laughs, regularly going down in the middle of the night wearing a head torch to see if fermentation has reached the optimum point.

Making cider with a stone press is a tradition that some can't let go of

In autumn they hand collect the apples and pears and the fruit is chopped and left as a pulp to soften overnight. Then it's packed into cloth to form a parcel known as a 'cheese' and slowly pressed out by two people working an enormous eighteenth century stone press. Once the juice for fermentation has been extracted the pulp (known as pomace) goes off to feed Hereford cattle.

James makes single varietal ciders and perry, some from Gregg's Pit perry pear trees, their own unique variety. The drinks come in both bottles and draught, a fact that pleases Jon and Tom from The Marksman, Michelins Pub of the Year 2017. They serve resolutely British dishes and like to instil that ethos into their drinks offering.

Rather like Neal's Yard recuperated English farmhouse cheeses in the 1980s, these guys are keeping alive a profound natural food tradition. Its such a radically different product to the mass-produced one. And it's important to me to find producers like these who are making really amazing things to serve to our guests.

As we meet the cider and perry makers and taste their products over a lunch of excellent locally-sourced charcuterie, meat pies and cheeses, I talk to Felix Nash  the man perhaps most responsible for bringing cider to restaurateurs' attentions with his company The Fine Cider Company. "It's a testament I suppose to the fine ciders themselves that chefs like these here today, those who shift the boundaries, are so interested," he says, munching on a pie. "The best cider makers are more like wine makers. Each season is different and each apple variety has its own characteristic flavours, just like wine grapes. My role as a cider merchant is to find the very best bottles each season; those that are good enough to sit on the tables of some of the best restaurants in the country."

As we eat, the cider and perry makers get up to tell their stories as we drink their drinks. A common theme is how most of them never intended to be drinks makers; they just came to the countryside for various other reasons and simply morphed into their new roles. Another theme is how there is no rivalry between them; each tells of how the others have helped and reassured them when theyve encountered challenges. They are even nice about the big industrial cider giants who, they say, are decent people who may be making a cider on a massive scale but always have time to encourage the small artisans and share knowledge.

Later on the train back to London, standing and swaying in the crowded carriages (some of the swaying being down to the alcohol taken), Jackson Boxer tells me how grateful he is to Felix for introducing him to the makers. "Rather like Neal's Yard recuperated English farmhouse cheeses in the 1980s, these guys are keeping alive a profound natural food tradition," he points out. "Its such a radically different product to the mass-produced one. And its important to me to find producers like these who are making really amazing things to serve to our guests."

I go to ask Fergus Henderson what he thinks, but he seems to have disappeared. Possibly even missed the train, as he was right with us ten minutes ago on the platform but no one saw him get on. Maybe he's gone back for some more cider; itd be hard to blame him.

This feature originally appeared on greatbritishchefs.com
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The number of smokers in Britain has fallen by 1.9 million since the smoking ban was introduced in England a decade ago, according to Cancer Research UK.

Health campaigners are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the legislation prohibiting smoking from almost all enclosed public spaces, including offices, factories, pubs, restaurants and railway stations.

Smoking rates are now at their lowest ever recorded and the ban has been an enormous success with a significant impact on public health, said the charitys chief executive.

Recommended Eight changes to our way of life 10 years on from the smoking ban

As well as protecting people from the deadly effects of passive smoking, we've also seen big changes in public attitudes towards smoking, said Sir Harpal Kumar.

It's now far less socially acceptable and we hope this means fewer young people will fall into such a potentially lethal addiction.

Cancer Research UKs statistical information calculated the number of adult cigarette smokers in Great Britain had dropped nearly 20 per cent from an estimated 10.2 million in 2007 to 8.3 million in 2016.

The proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds who smoke had fallen to 17 per cent from 26 per cent in 2007, a record low and the biggest drop among all age groups.

 Impact of smoking on lungs

A poll of more than 4,300 people for the charity found that just 12 per cent favoured reversing the laws.

But Sir Harpal warned the job is far from done as there are still more than 8 million smokers in Britain and tens of thousands of children taking up the deadly addiction every year.

We need this Government to continue focusing on tobacco and we urge it to publish the Tobacco Control Plan for England as soon as possible.

An Action on Smoking and Heath (Ash) report released to coincide with the anniversary said there was increasing public support for further measures such as a licencing scheme for tobacco retailers and a levy on the tobacco industry to pay for measures to reduce smoking.

A long-running Ash/YouGov survey showed support for the smoke-free legislation in England had increased from 78 per cent of all respondents when it came into effect in 2007 to 83 per cent now, primarily due to an increase in support among smokers from 40 per cent to 55 per cent.

Ash chief executive Deborah Arnott said: Over the last decade the Ash/YouGov survey is evidence of high, and growing, public appetite for government action to reduce smoking prevalence.

It's especially telling that one of the most important factors in this growth is support by smokers  and this is happening at the same time as the numbers of people smoking have fallen to the lowest on record.

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The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. 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The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. 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Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. 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The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. 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Public Health England chief executive Duncan Selbie said: The smoke-free legislation has been extraordinary in the way we now experience and enjoy pubs, clubs, restaurants and so many other public places.

Young people have not had to experience the smoke-filled bars and clubs that once choked their parents and workers. They've grown up in a world where smoking is no longer socially acceptable.

The law has played a key part in the huge cultural change we have seen in the past decade, especially among younger people, a change that has literally saved thousands from disabling chronic diseases and premature death.

A spokesman for smokers' group Forest said: It's disingenuous to suggest the smoking ban has been a significant factor in reducing smoking rates.

For five years after 2007 smoking rates fell in line with the pre-ban trend. The most substantial fall in smoking rates happened after 2012, a period that coincided with the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes.

Attempts to force people to quit are invariably counter-productive. Education and support for less harmful products is the way to go, not prohibition and other restrictive practices.
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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is backing Boris Nemtsovs family in their demands for a more complete investigation into his killing.

Responsibility for his murder goes further than those already convicted, and we call on the Russian government to bring the perpetrators to account, a Foreign Office spokesperson said.

On 27 February 2015, Nemtsov was shot and killed crossing the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge while walking home with Anna Duritskaya, his girlfriend, a 23-year-old Ukrainian model.

Five Chechen men were found guilty of the murder on 29 June and are due for sentencing next week.

Zaur Dadayev, a former Chechen soldier, was charged with shooting Nemtsov, while four other men acted as accomplices for supplying surveillance. All five have denied the charges and are appealing the verdict.

According to Reuters, the group were offered 15 million rubles (195,000) for carrying out the assassination.

Those who organised the killing are still at large, said Nemtsovs lawyers, who claim that "the masterminds are high-ranking people".

Vadim Prokhorov added: "It's the biggest crime of the century and yet they haven't identified the real organisers or those who ordered it."

Zhanna Nemtsova, the 55-year-old assassinated politicians daughter, has called for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, to be questioned.

In Russia and the world people are convinced the murder that was committed had a political subtext, but our investigators and court deny the obvious, she wrote on Facebook. At the same time, they havent been able to establish any sort of motive for the murder.

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Kadyrov has denied any connection with the killing but posted on his Instagram account that the gunman Dadayev as a "true patriot of Russia".

Nemtsov himself feared for his life in the days before his death, pointing the finger at the Russian president. 'I'm afraid Putin will kill me. I believe that he was the one who unleashed the war in the Ukraine. I couldn't dislike him more,' he said in an interview with Russia's Sobesednik news website.

On the second anniversary of Boris Nemtsovs death in 2015, Sir Alan Duncan, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: Boris Nemtsov was a man of great stature, who was admired in the UK for his essential and courageous work in promoting democracy.

I urge the Russian government to ensure that all those responsible for this appalling crime are brought to justice. Like many in Russia and the international community, the UK government is continuing to follow developments closely."
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Digital force fields that slow vehicles to a walking pace could be used to prevent terrorists from ploughing into pedestrians following the attacks at Westminster, London Bridge, and Finsbury Park.

The government is looking at the development of "geo-fencing" systems which would rely on satellites to block unauthorised vehicles from security sensitive areas.

If a driver crossed the electronic boundary, the system would connect with their on-board computer and limit the vehicle's speed to a safe level.

 Met police officer describes taking on the London Bridge terrorists

A British company is also developing a system which would link vehicles to the owner's smartphone and stop the engine if they weren't present.

The Department for Transport (DfT) is investigating the potential of the high-tech solutions, which could be installed in cars and around bridges and buildings that are soft targets for extremists, according to The Times.

Sweden began to adapt the "geo-fencing" technology to vehicles after four people were killed in a truck rampage in Stockholm in April.

Swedish vehicle manufacturers Volvo and Scania are working on trials of the systems, with demonstrations expected to take place as early as next year.

If successful, the Swedish government told the said it could "enable only authorised vehicles to be driven within a geographically defined area.

Similar technology has already been used in drones to stop them from flying into restricted air space.

Finsbury Park attack Show all 14 1 /14 Finsbury Park attack Finsbury Park attack Police officers attend to the scene after a vehicle collided with pedestrians in the Finsbury Park, killing one person and injuring eight Reuters Finsbury Park attack The incident is being treated as a potential terror attack Reuters Finsbury Park attack A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder Reuters Finsbury Park attack Police cordon off a street in Finsbury Park AFP/Getty Images Finsbury Park attack A man prays in the street after the attack Reuters Finsbury Park attack Men gather and pray together in the street in the aftermath of the attack AFP/Getty Finsbury Park attack Reuters Finsbury Park attack PA Finsbury Park attack Onlookers gather near a police cordon EPA Finsbury Park attack Forensic investigators arrive at the scene PA Finsbury Park attack A forensic tent stands next to a van PA Finsbury Park attack A police officer talks with residents AFP/Getty Images Finsbury Park attack Onlookers watch proceedings at the security cordon AFP/Getty Finsbury Park attack Local residents react at the scene AFP/Getty Images

Cheshire-based tech firm Trak Global Group have been developing black box-style equipment that would create IDs linked to drivers' smartphones.

The telematic tool could prevent hijackings by disabling vehicles when the driver isn't nearby and logged in.

Trak Global's research director Andrew Brown-Allan told The Times: It is now possible to immobilise a vehicle remotely, using the technology that goes into a telematics black box... We need to harness this relatively new technology to stop terrorists turning vehicles into weapons of mass destruction.

A DfT spokesman said: Departments across government have been working together with the police and the security service to explore what more can be done to prevent the malicious use of vehicles as a weapon.

As part of this the Department for Transport is exploring what role potential vehicle safety technologies can play in mitigating this. This work is at an early stage.

Four people were killed and more than 50 injured when Khalid Masood rammed a rented car into pedestrians along Westminster Bridge before crashing the vehicle and fatally stabbing PC Keith Palmer in March.

 Theresa May: We do need to have international regulations in cyber space to stop terrorism

Three months later Rachid Redouane, Khuram Shazad Butt and Youssef Zaghba ran over innocent victims in a white hire van on London Bridge before launching a knife rampage that left eight people dead and 48 injured.

Both attacks were brought to an end when the men were shot dead by police.

In June Darren Osborne, 47, drove a rented van into worshippers gathered near Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, leaving one man dead and another eight injured.

He was arrested and is due to face terrorism-related murder and attempted murder charges at the Old Bailey this month.
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An oil tanker and cargo ship have collided in the English Channel.

The Seafrontier tanker, carrying 38,000 tonnes of petrol to Guatemala, collided with the Huayan Endeavor, which was on its way from the Netherlands to Nigeria.

Both ships are Hong King-flagged and were carrying 49 crew members from China and India at the time.

The Dover RNLI lifeboat stands off the Huayang Endeavour after a collision in the English Channel on 1 July 2017 (RNLI/Dan Keen)

The collision happed shortly after 2am in the Dover Strait, around 15 miles from Dover and 20 miles from Dunkirk.

Although both vessels have been damaged, there is no water ingress and no pollution, a spokesperson for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said.

A French tug is on scene with the vessels. There are no injuries and all of the crew are accounted for.

A British Coastguard helicopter and lifeboats from Dover and Ramsgate were sent to the scene, in case of a possible evacuation, but have since left.

A spokesperson for the RNLI said the Seafrontier suffered "a hole above the water line and damage to the superstructure", with photos showing extensive damage to the outside of the ship.

An RNLI lifeboat from Ramsgate attending the Seafrontier oil tanker after a collision in the English Channel on 1 July 2017 (RNLI)

"It was fortunate there were no casualties," he added.

The UKs Channel Navigation Information Service is working to ensure safe passage of vessels through the Dover Strait, which is the busiest shipping lane in the world.

The MCAs counter-pollution team and surveyors are working on the incident and a Government representative is monitoring the situation.

The Seafrontier is expected be towed to a Belgian or Dutch port to make repairs, while the Huayan Endeavor could dock in the UK.

An investigation into the incident, which came during favourable conditions with moderate winds and calm seas, is underway.
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Jeremy Corbyn has reiterated his call for the Government to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia.

In an interview with the Al Jazeera English news channel the Labour leader branded the autocratic petro-states military operation in the country an invasion.

We have constantly condemned the use of these weapons by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and called for the suspension of the arms sales to Saudi Arabia to show that we are wanting a peace process in Yemen, not an invasion by Saudi Arabia, he told the channel.

Recommended Saudi religious police return to streets of Riyadh

Saudi Arabia is intervening on behalf of Yemens internationally recognised Government, which does not control the capital and has lost vast swathes of territory to Shia-aligned Houthi fighters.

But the Saudi-led coalition has been blamed by the United Nations for causing the vast majority of civilian casualties in the conflict, including reports of the bombings of schools, international hospitals, and wedding parties.

The country is also on the verge of starvation with almost on the verge of famine as of the most recent reports. Saudi forces have been accused of bombing food factories and infrastructure.

Britain continues to sell arms  including bombs and missiles  to the autocratic monarchy despite calls by from international bodies and British parliamentary committees to stop supplying the regime.

Labour's 2017 election manifesto pledged to stop such arms sales, a policy first revealed by The Independent before the document's official publication.

A court challenge to block the sales is currently pending after months of deliberation. Documents made public in the trial show the civil servant in charge of the Governments export control organisation recommended that sales be suspended.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

But Theresa May and Boris Johnson have repeatedly backed the Saudi regime and said that remaining close to it is good for the UKs security.

The Government says Britain has among the most strict arms export control criteria in the world.
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The Conservatives have fallen below 40 per cent in the polls for the first time since the start of the general election campaign.

A new poll from Opinium conducted between 27 and 29 June shows Labour on 45 per cent and the Conservatives on 39 per cent.

In line with recent surveys, different polling companies are painting a different picture, however.

Survation  one of the two more accurate pollsters at the general election  also has a poll out, showing Labour down 4 per cent and trailing the Conservatives by 1 point.

Recommended Tory MPs cheer after refusing to lift public sector pay cap

If the result of the Opinium poll was repeated at an election it would be Labours highest percentage of the vote since 1966 under Harold Wilson, surpassing the 43 per cent won by Tony Blair in 1997.

On a uniform national swing Labour would be the largest party but six seats short of an overall majority in the House of Commons, according to the methodology used by the Electoral Calculus website.

But the Survation poll would put the Tories as the largest party, but short of a majority by 19 seats.

Opinium's top line figures are Labour 45 per cent, Tories 39 per cent, Lib Dems 5 per cent, Ukip 5 per cent, Greens 2 per cent.

Survation's top line figures are Labour 40 per cent, Tories 41 per cent, Lib Dems 7 per cent, Ukip 2 per cent, Greens 1 per cent.

Both polls were conducted partly after and partly before the passage of the Queens Speech and the rebellion of 49 Labour MPs over what the partys policy on Brexit should be.

The threat of a second general election appears to have receded since the passage of the Queens Speech this week, however.

General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Show all 7 1 /7 General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Nick Clegg Darren O'Brien General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Gavin Barwell Getty General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Angus Robertson General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Nicola Blackwood PA General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Alex Salmond PA General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Rob Wilson Rex Features General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Ben Gummer PA

The Conservatives have formed a minority government with the supply and confidence support of the Democratic Unionist Party, a right-leaning protestant unionist party from Northern Ireland.

It may be difficult for the Government to pass legislation with such a narrow majority, however, a reality reflected by the slimmed-down content of the Queen's Speech, which omitted large swathes of the Tories manifesto.

Under the Fixed Term Parliament Act the next general election is officially scheduled for 2022, though in practice it is easily possible for a government to call an early general election at any point despite the legislation.
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"Are corporations going to rule the future, or will people rise up and say no?"

This is the question an 98-year-old American longtime peace and environmental activist asked outside a court room as she faced charges of trespassing on state-owned land while protesting against the construction of a gas pipeline.

Frances Crowe was among eight anti-pipeline activists arrested during the protest.

Tennesse Gas Pipeline Co was given the go ahead in April to begin cutting down trees in the Otis State Forest in Massachusetts to start the construction of a natural gas storage loop.

But the controversial plans in the Berkshire County has seen mass opposition from environmental activists, who argue the state-owned land is protected by state constitution and that the construction site borders a treasured old forest and a lake.

Speaking from her wheelchair outside the courtroom to The Berkshire Eagle, Ms Crowe said: "This is a serious business we're involved in. This is the future life of the planet. Are corporations going to rule the future, or will people rise up and say no?".

Ms Crowe and her peers were told that the state had decriminalised their charges and that a civil hearing will go ahead later this month.

The activists had crossed into the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co's site and temporarily stopped the pipe-laying work, which is part of the company's 13-mile Connecticut Expansion Project which expands across three states.

The project is well under way but activists and residents have not given up the fight.

Although the land is protected by Article 97 of the state constitution which protects the right of citizens to "clean air and water... and the natural... qualities of their environment", a judge ruled that the federal Natural Gas Act held sway over state laws.

Ms Crowe told the Berkshire County newspaper: "Corporations come and go, but life is in jeopardy."

She suggested that modern complacency was similar to the one during the Second World War, which allowed Adolf Hitler to carry out the atrocities he did.

Ms Crowe said she has been arrested numerous times in her life, including three time since she turned 90.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. 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Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The activist believes she has not yet been arrested enough in her protest against the 93m (71m) pipeline but she admitted that the day in court had not been easy.

She said the money invested in the project would have been better spent on developing solar and wind energy and she added that corporate profit was fine as long as it was not at the expense of health and the planet.

Work on the pipeline is expected to take another four months to complete but activists said they have new and more creative ideas to escalate their non-violent protest.

Meanwhile, Ms Crowe said she would devote the rest of her life to the planet.

"I'm fortunate to be here," she said.
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The sinister discovery of a tower of human skulls in Mexico City has cast doubt on traditional readings of Aztec history.

More than 675 skulls of men, women and children have been unearthed by archaeologists following an investigation of one and a half years.

The structure is believed to be part of the Huey Tzompantli, a rack of bones which became the stuff of legend among Spanish conquistadores as they colonised Mexico. Their writings mentioned a tower of skulls.

Andres de Tapia, a Spanish soldier who fought with Cortes in the 1521 conquest of Mexico, almost certainly recorded the structure, archaeologist Raul Barrera told Reuters. De Tapia wrote that there were thousands of skulls, and researchers believe they will find more as the excavation continues.

Archaeologist Lorena Vazquez works at the site (REUTERS/Henry Romero)

But they have always believed the skulls belonged to male warriors killed in inter-tribal combat before the arrival of the Spanish.

The discovery of younger and female skulls has perplexed archaeologists.

"We were expecting just men, obviously young men, as warriors would be, and the thing about the women and children is that you'd think they wouldn't be going to war," said Rodrigo Bolanos, a biological anthropologist investigating the find.

"Something is happening that we have no record of, and this is really new, a first in the Huey Tzompantli," he added.

The structure lies close to the Templo Mayor, one of the main Aztec temples in their capital Tenochtitlan, which developed into Mexico City. Templo Mayor was used for human sacrifices as part of the ancient Mesoamerican religion.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The find is the second major discovery in Mexico City in less than a month.

In June, an Aztec ball game court was found nearby underneath a hotel. Thirty-two neck bones were also discovered, believed to have been from players who were sacrificed.

Reuters contributed to this report.
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Six teenage girls from Afghanistan have been denied visas to travel to the US for an international robotics competition, but they will be permitted to send their ball-sorting contraption to compete without them.

The aspiring inventors wept when they heard they couldn't escort their machine to Washington DC for the First Global Challenge, an annual contest for high school students from across the world.

Team Afghanistan work on their project (FIRST Global Media)

They had twice trekked around 500 miles from Herat, a western city in Afghanistan, to the American embassy in Kabul to apply for the one-week travel visas.

But their efforts proved to be in vain as US officials rejected their applications following a series of interviews.

Afghanistan's first female tech boss Roya Mahboob, who founded software firm Citadel, organised the all-girl team and said they were "crying all day" after they were turned down.

She told Forbes: It's a very important message for our people. Robotics is very, very new in Afghanistan.

The girls are still working on a ball-sorting robot which they will send to compete against 163 other machines at the First challenge in July, and they will appear at the event via video link from Herat.

Graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania helped the students to programme their robot, but the team had to wait for months while customs officials inspected the raw materials of their contraption amid fears that Isis could use robots to wage terror across the region.

Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Show all 16 1 /16 Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2001 Afghans at the Killi Faizo refugee camp desperately reach for bags of rice being handed out to the thousands who escaped the bombardment in southern Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. (Chaman, Pakistan, December 4, 2001) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2002 Mahbooba stands against a bullet-ridden wall, waiting to be seen at a medical clinic. The seven-year-old girl suffers from leishmaniasis, a parasitical infection. (Kabul, March 1, 2002) All photos Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2003 A mother and her two children look out from their cave dwelling. Many families who, fleeing the Taliban, took refuge inside caves adjacent to Bamiyans destroyed ancient Buddha statues now have nowhere else to live. (Bamiyan, November 19, 2003) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Students recite prayers in a makeshift outdoor classroom in the Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous region in northeastern Afghanistan that extends to China and separates Tajikistan from India and Pakistan. (Northeastern Afghanistan, September 2, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Bodybuilders in the 55-60 kg category square off during a regional bodybuilding competition. Many Afghan men, like others around the world, feel that a macho image of physical strength is important. (Kabul, August 6, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2008 A woman in a white burqa enjoys an afternoon with her family feeding the white pigeons at the Blue Mosque. (Mazar-e-Sharif, March 8, 2008) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Addicts inject heroin while trying to keep warm inside the abandoned Russian Cultural Center, which the capital citys addicts use as a common gathering point. Heroin is readily available, costing about one dollar a hit. (Kabul, February 9, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 An elderly man holds his granddaughter in their tent at a refugee camp after they were forced to flee their village, which US and NATO forces had bombed because, they claimed, it was a Taliban hideout. (Surobi, Nangarhar Province, February 7, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Seven-year-old Attiullah, a patient at Mirwais Hospital, stands alongside an X ray showing the bullet that entered his back, nearly killing him. Attiullah was shot by US forces when he was caught in a crossfire as he was herding sheep. (Kandahar, October 13, 2009). Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 US Army Sargeant Jay Kenney (right), with Task Force Destiny, helps wounded Afghan National Army soldiers exit a Blackhawk helicopter after they have been rescued in an air mission. (Kandahar, December 12, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 An Afghan National Army battalion marches back to barracks at the Kabul Military Training Center. (Kabul, October 4, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Eid Muhammad, seventy, lives in a house with a view overlooking the hills of Kabul. He and millions of other Afghans occupy land and housing without possessing formal deeds to them. (Kabul, November 21, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Razima holds her two-year-old son, Malik, while waiting for medical attention at the Boost Hospital emergency room. (Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, June 23, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Young women cheer as they attend a rally for the Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. (Kabul, April 1, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Burqa-clad women wait to vote after a polling station runs out of ballots. (Kabul, April 5, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2015 Relatives, friends, and womens rights activists grieve at the home of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was killed by a mob in the center of Kabul. Farkhunda was violently beaten and set on fire after a local cleric accused her of burning a Quran. (Kabul, March 22, 2015) Paula Bronstein

Team Afghanistan's robot now has permission to travel.

One of the team members, Fatemah, 14, told Forbes: "We want to show the world we can do it, we just need a chance."

First Global President Joe Sestak said the girls were extraordinarily brave young women and told Forbes he was disappointed they weren't allowed to travel to the US.

Recommended UK urged to stop deporting asylum seekers to Afghanistan

Only the teams from Afghanistan and Gambia have been denied travel visas, while students from Iran, Iraq, and Sudan are able to attend.

US State Department records state that just 32 business travel visas were granted for Afghans in April, far fewer than the 138 issued to Iraqis or the 1,492 applications accepted in Pakistan during the same month.

Jonathan Blanks, a media commentator and researcher at the Cato Institute, tweeted: "I feel safer now that we've denied a once in a lifetime opportunity to a group of girls whose country we've been bombing since their birth."

Verizon's former vice president of communications Anthony Citrano called the decision "infuriating".

The State Department has not commented on the visa denials because they are confidential records.
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Barack Obama has urged the world to continue to stand against aggressive nationalism.

The former president made the comments while talking to a crowd in Indonesia, where he lived as a child. Mr Obama also spoke of how much Jakarta, the capital, had improved since he had moved back to the United States.

He was greeted by a crowd of thousands, including leaders, students and businesspeople as he opened the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora.

Mr Obama raised the issue that although the country has seen increased prosperity, there are also new global problems and many nations across the world have adopted a more aggressive and isolationist stance.

If we dont stand up for tolerance and moderation and respect for others, if we begin to doubt ourselves and all that we have accomplished, then much of the progress that we have made will not continue, Mr Obama said.

What we will see is more and more people arguing against democracy, we will see more and more people who are looking to restrict freedom of the press, and well see more intolerance, more tribal divisions, more ethnic divisions, and religious divisions and more violence.

Mr Obama lived in Indonesia with his mother, an anthropologist, and his Indonesian stepfather. The couple split up after having his half-sister, and Mr Obama moved back to Hawaii when he was ten to live with his grandparents.

The former president has taken a step back from US politics and chosen not to comment extensively on the Trump administration. He was however keen to speak up one of his own accomplishments.

"In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change, an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance" he told the crowd in Jakarta.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Trump shocked the world by announcing he was pulling out of the accord.

He has also had a difficult relationship with members of the press and was recently condemned by Democrats and Republicans for a tweet that attacked a female MSNBC host.

Mr Obama stressed the importance of stepping away from news sites where only like-minded views are shared and warned about social media giving rise to resentment of minorities and bad treatment of people.
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Donald Trump has doubled down on his attack on Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski, calling the television journalist dumb as a rock, and her show low rated.

Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad! the President tweeted.

The tweet comes just one day after Mr Trump drew widespread criticism for attacking Ms Brzezinskis appearance. In a Thursday morning Twitter storm, the President alleged she and co-host Joe Scarborough had insisted on visiting his south Florida estate. He also claimed Ms Brzezinski was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time.

Democrats and Republicans alike decried the tweet as sexist and inappropriate.

This is not ok, tweeted Republican Senator Lynn Jenkins. As a female in politics I am often criticised for my looks. We should be working to empower women.

The hosts themselves responded with an op-ed in The Washington Post, accusing Mr Trump of being unwell. They also claimed the President was the instigator of the Mar-a-Lago visit, and that the White House had attempted to blackmail them with a negative National Enquirer story.

Mr Trump says the hosts called him in an attempt to stop the story.

In an appearance on Morning Joe the next day, Ms Brzezinski said she was fine, and that my family brought me up really tough.

This is absolutely nothing for me personally, she added. But Im very concerned about what this once again reveals about the President of the United States.

The TV host expanded on her comments in an interview with InStyle, insinuating that First Lady Melania Trump  who is said to be working on an anti-cyberbullying campaign  wanted out of her marriage.

I know Melania. I havent talked to her in months, but if my gut is right, I dont think shes going to put up with it much longer, Ms Brzezinski said. I know nothing. Thats just my instinct and I go with my gut and my guts always right.

Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad

Ms Trump responded with a short statement, saying simply: It is sad when people try to further their own agenda by commenting on me and my family, especially when they dont know me.

The comments are part of a long and tumultuous relationship between Mr Trump and the hosts, who frequently welcomed the businessman as a guest on their programme during his presidential bid.

When the Morning Joe commentary turned negative toward Mr Trump, however, he lashed out, calling Ms Brzezinski crazy and very dumb and accusing her of having a mental breakdown.

I dont watch or do @Morning_Joe anymore, he tweeted in August. Small audience, low ratings! I hear Mika has gone wild with hate.
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Contrary to the advice of the majority of his top aides and Cabinet members, Donald Trump is planning to impose steep tariffs on steel, reports say.

At a recent White House meeting of more than 20 top officials, the President pushed for a plan to institute tariffs of up to 20 per cent on steel imports, according to Axios.

The majority of those gathered, however, did not support the plan, fearing it could set off a trade war with disastrous consequences for the US economy. At one point, Mr Trump was reportedly informed that the majority of his Cabinet opposed the plan. He was undeterred.

The plan is reportedly being crafted by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, chief strategist Steve Bannon, trade policy director Peter Navarro and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. They propose implementing tariffs of up to 20 per cent on major steel exporters like China, in an attempt to incentivise American-made products.

Mr Trump has taken a tough line on Chinese trade in the past, accusing the country of dumping vast amounts of steel all over the United States, and killing our steelworkers and our steel companies. But the current plan could also have negative impacts on US allies like Canada, Mexico, Japan, Germany and the UK.

Theres also no guarantee it will work. When former President George W Bush implemented similar tariffs in 2002, the resulting spike in steel prices put 200,000 workers out of a job, according to a study financed by steel-buying companies. The tariffs ended when the World Trade Organisation ruled them illegal.

The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Back in December, when Mr Trump was reportedly considering a five per cent tariff on some imports, experts cautioned that these America first trade policies could trigger a global trade war.

A team from Deutsche Bank cautioned that "the biggest threat to growth is a possible protectionist turn, which could depress global trade and even trigger trade wars". Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citi, told clients that this war could easily trigger a global recession."

Because of this, Mr Trump has been discouraged by many from pursuing these protectionist policies. But in a recent meeting with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, Mr Trump charged ahead, bemoaning the trade deficits that he feels are hampering the US economy.

The fact is that the United States has trade deficits with many, many countries, and we cannot allow that to continue, he said. And well start with South Korea right now. But we cannot allow that to continue.

The results of a study on foreign steel shipments, which Mr Trump ordered two months ago, are expected any day.

In April, Mr Trump started an international row by proposing tariffs on Canadian lumber and dairy. The tariffs have yet to be imposed.
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Donald Trump faced fresh calls for his removal from the White House after his sexist Twitter rant about a TV host.

The US President's opponents suggested an often-overlooked section of the US constitution could provide grounds for removing him from office following his personal attack on TV host Mika Brzezinski.

Mr Trump has endured calls for his impeachment since his election, but the latest outburst prompted critics to turn to an alternative means of stripping him of power amid questions over his fitness to govern.

The fourth clause of the constitution's 25th amendment allows a President who is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" to be removed.

 MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski responds to Donald Trump's attack

Conceived during the Cold War, the section was intended to provide a safeguard if the President fell ill, died or became incapacitated. Its introduction came after President Eisenhower was stricken with serious illnesses and President Kennedy was assassinated.

But some have speculated the 25th amendment could allow Congress evaluate the Presidents fitness for office without impeaching him.

The clause reads: "Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide... their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President".

Two students at a top US law school argued in March that the little-known amendment allows Congress to form its own body to evaluate the Presidents fitness for office without impeaching him.

And the prospect reared its head again amid outrage at Trump's personal attack on Morning Joe presenter Ms Brzezinski, who he claimed he had seen "bleeding badly from a face-lift".

Bill Burton, deputy press secretary at the White House under Barack Obama, tweeted: "In any other presidency this would be cause to trigger the 25th amendment. But in 2017, this is normal."

Other Trump critics cited the 25th amendment on social media.

Keith Olbermann, special correspondent at GQ, said Mr Trump's "irresponsible speech" was "destroying this country" and suggested the President was mentally "self-destructing".

He called on Republican senators to "help invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment and remove Trump," adding: "Do it today."

But lawyers said the fourth section of the 25th amendment, which has never been used before, was unlikely to prise Mr Trump from his seat at the White House.

Joel K. Goldstein, writing in the Washington Post, said: "The bar for Congress declaring the President disabled is high. The president resumes power unless two-thirds in each chamber conclude he or she 'is unable' to handle the office."

Mr Trump's tweets about the Morning Joe host have been widely condemned both by his opponents and members of the Republican party.

Ms Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough also responded with a joint op-ed article in which they wrote: "President Trump launched personal attacks against us Thursday, but our concerns about his unmoored behaviour go far beyond the personal.

"Americas leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president."
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President Donald Trump has attacked the various US states refusing to turn over voter roll information to his new commission on election integrity, insinuating that they may be hiding information from the federal government.

"Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL," he tweeted. "What are they trying to hide?"

Officials from at least 21 states have refused to comply with a federal request for voters' names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, and their voting records from 2006 until today.

Recommended State officials refuse to give sensitive voter data to Trump

The commission is the latest in Mr Trump's attempts to investigate what he calls "widespread voter fraud". The President previously said that he would have won the popular vote if not for the "millions of people who voted illegally"  a claim for which he has yet to provide evidence.

States such as Virginia, California, New York, and Kentucky have refused to comply with the commission's request for information, claiming it would only serve to legitimise Mr Trump's unproven claims.

At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trumps alternative election facts, and at worst it is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla concurred, arguing that Californias participation "would only serve to legitimise the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud by the President, Vice President, and [Kansas Secretary of State Kris] Kobach.

The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed the refusals as a "political stunt".

"This is a commission thats asking for publicly available data," she said at a press briefing. "This is something thats been part of the commissions discussion, which has bipartisan support, and none of the members raised any concern whatsoever."

The requests for information were sent by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is heading up the President's commission. Mr Kobach has been accused of voter suppression in his own state, and some activists fear the new commission will have a similar effect.

"The letter [Mr Kobach] is sending to states confirms: Pence and Kobach are laying the groundwork for voter suppression, plain & simple," tweeted Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin have all refused to comply with the request.
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Police believe multiple shooters were involved in a gunfight that left at least 28 people injured at a nightclub in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Officers said via Twitter that all those injured at the Power Ultra Lounge are alive and one who was previously listed in critical condition is now stable.

Police initially said 17 people were wounded during the attack, but they have since announced that 25 people were shot.

Three people who weren't hit are said to have received unrelated injuries. All 28 are expected to survive.

A video posted online by Instagram user themelaninpot showed that a packed house showed up to hear Finese 2Tymes, a performer from Memphis, Tennessee.

About a half-minute into a break in the raucous concert, several bursts of gunfire rang out  more than 24 shots in an 11-second period.

Themelaninpot said: Shooting in #littlerock #arkansas this is outrageous. Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone there.

If you know of anyone there please check on them. We have to save our state because this is getting out of hand.

Footage from inside Power Ultra Lounge in Little Rock, Arkansas (themelaninpot Instagram)

A number of people were trampled as people rushed away from the shooter, according to officers.

Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner told reporters the incident was very alarming and certainly disturbing.

He said there was some sort of dispute broke out between people inside the club and that there are probably multiple shooting suspects.

Police are continuing to investigate but say they do not believe this incident was an active shooter or terror related incident.

The club's Facebook page promoted Friday night's show with a poster depicting a man pointing what appears to be a gun at the camera. A call to a number listed for Finese 2Tymes' booking agent wasn't immediately returned early Saturday.

The shootings happened after a week of multiple drive-by shootings in Little Rock, though there's no indication they are connected.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Chinas President Xi Jinping marked the 20th anniversary of Hong Kongs handover from British rule Saturday with a stern warning to the territorys people: You can have autonomy, but dont do anything that challenges the authority of the central government or undermines national sovereignty.

Under the terms of the 1997 handover, China promised to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy for at least 50 years, but Xi said it was important to have a correct understanding of the relationship between one country and two systems.

One country is like the roots of a tree, he told Hong Kongs elite after swearing in a new chief executive to govern the territory, Carrie Lam. For a tree to grow and flourish, its roots must run deep and strong. The concept of one country, two systems was advanced first and foremost to realise and uphold national sovereignty.

Many people in Hong Kong accused China of violating the territorys autonomy in 2015 by seizing five publishers who were putting out gossipy books about the Chinese leadership and allegedly distributing them on the mainland.

They are also angry that Beijing intervened to disqualify newly elected pro-independence lawmakers who failed to correctly administer the oath of office last year. Many people are worried that China is increasingly determined to call the shots.

But Xi made it clear that challenges to Beijings authority would not be allowed.

Any attempt to endanger Chinas sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or use Hong Kong for infiltration or sabotage activities against the mainland, is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible, he said.

Chinas leader also said that the concept of one country, two systems was a great success, and should be implemented unswervingly and not be bent or distorted.

While his words made it clear that sovereignty took precedence over autonomy, he said neither aspect should be neglected. Only in this way will the ship of one country, two systems break the waves, sail steadily and last the distance, he said.

Yet many people here say Hong Kongs autonomy was again badly distorted in March, with Lams election as chief executive. Although the former bureaucrat trailed well behind rival candidate John Tsang in opinion polls, she was chosen by a panel of 1,200 members of the territorys elite that was packed with pro-Beijing loyalists.

Although Tsang was also an establishment figure, political experts say Beijing seemed to want someone in the chief executives chair who would not challenge its authority.

Xi did not shy away from raising two controversial demands that have previously brought Hongkongers out on the streets in the hundreds of thousands.

Chinas leader said the territory needed to improve its systems to defend national security, sovereignty and development interests, as well as enhance education and raise public awareness of the history and culture of the Chinese nation.

Chinas demand that the territory pass a national security law caused massive street protests 14 years ago, while plans to implement a program of patriotic education brought more people onto the streets in 2012 and helped politicise the territorys youth.

Both plans were subsequently shelved, but Lam has indicated she aims to them back on the table. But she also argues the time isnt right to satisfy a popular demand for greater democracy by allowing a future chief executive to be chosen by universal suffrage.

Thousands of Hongkongers are expected to take to the streets later Saturday in an annual march to demand greater democracy.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. 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Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. 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Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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Martin Lee, Hong Kongs veteran pro-democracy political leader, said China was deliberately confusing patriotism with obedience.

When they say you must love the country, what they mean is you must obey the Communist Party, he said. We have no problem with the Communist Party as long as it adheres to the promises made to us.

Lee said China had not fulfilled its promise to grant Hong Kong greater democracy.

They kept on postponing democracy, he said. Thats why young people are losing their patience.

On Saturday morning, a small group of pro-democracy protesters said they were attacked by hired thugs when they tried to stage a demonstration, and subsequently were briefly detained and beaten by police.

Joshua Wong, who led protests against patriotic education in 2012 and called for democracy in 2014, was among the group, and called the incident another violation of the promise to maintain Hong Kongs values, including the right to free speech. One country, two systems has given way to one country, one-and-a-half systems, he told The Washington Post.

Why would Hong Kong people want to accept patriotic education from a country that is ruled by a single party dictatorship? he said. This is the core question. If the government is not elected by the people, how can we have a sense of belonging?

(C) Washington Post
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China criticised Boris Johnson's "incorrect" stance after he called for Hong Kong to make more progress towards democracy ahead of the 20th anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese authority.

The Foreign Secretary sparked anger in Beijing after saying it was crucial for Hong Kong to retain a "high degree of autonomy and rule of law" in a statement to mark the handover of power from the UK to China on 1 July 1997.

Mr Johnson made no direct criticism of China's communist regime, but called on all Hong Kong parties to "progress towards a more democratic and accountable system of government" on Thursday.

Hong Kong activists preserve the past Show all 22 1 /22 Hong Kong activists preserve the past Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members, inspect the interior of an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members are seen through a hole in the fence at an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An abandoned British army barracks is seen through thick fog in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member, stands at an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member looks through a window at an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member walks through an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member looks around an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members walk towards an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member climbs a ladder at an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member inspects the interior of an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member, looks at a newspaper from 1982, inside an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A tag is seen inside an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An external view of an abandoned mansion called Yu Yuen, built the 1920's colonial era, is seen in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members look around an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A soft toy is seen inside an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An interior view of an abandoned mansion called Yu Yuen, built during the colonial era of the 1920's, in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An interior view of an abandoned mansion called Yu Yuen, built during the colonial era in the 1920's, is seen in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past People walk past the abandoned historic Central Market, which was built in the 1930's during the colonial era, in Hong Kong, China, June 10, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members inspect an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An external view of the now closed Wing Woo Grocery Shop on Wellington Street, which was built during the colonial era in the 1870's, in Hong Kong, China, June 10, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past Colonial era buildings (front to back), St John's Cathedral, former Central Government Offices and Government House are seen in Hong Kong, China, June 3, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A man stands outside the abandoned historic Central Market, which was built in the 1930's during the colonial era in Hong Kong, China, June 10, 2017 Reuters

Chinese officials responded to the statement by chastising the Conservative front bencher for speaking about their "internal affairs".

"Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, and therefore Hong Kong affairs are Chinas internal affairs," said foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang.

Mr Lu made clear he was responding to Mr Johnson's statement and said "outsiders should not make incorrect remarks" about China's policies towards Hong Kong, according China's state news agency Xinhua.

Fight breaks out in Hong Kong parliament

The minister also claimed that the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration, which guaranteed that Hong Kong's capitalist system would remain unchanged for 50 years, doesn't have any "binding force" - a comment sure to worry pro democracy activists in the region.

Mr Lu insisted that the treaty "no longer has any practical significance", despite it being the key agreement which paved the way for Britain to transfer sovereignty to China.

The British foreign office quickly issued a reply, telling Reuters: "The Sino-British joint declaration remains as valid today as it did when it was signed over 30 years ago.

It is a legally binding treaty, registered with the UN and continues to be in force. As a co-signatory, the UK government is committed to monitoring its implementation closely.

Democracy activists in Hong Kong have criticised the British government for not defending their rights against the Chinese government, according to the Guardian.

In 2015 five Hong Kong booksellers were kidnapped by Chinese agents for peddling works making salacious claims about top Communist Party officials.

Hong Kong's last governor, Chris Patten, told the Guardian the UK had been "kowtowing" to Beijing over human rights issues, adding: Unless you bow low enough you will never do any business in China."

Mr Johnson said in his statement that the UK exports more than 8bn worth of goods and services to Hong Kong every year, making it Britain's second biggest export market in Asia.

Liu Xiaoming, Beijing's ambassador to London, suggested that Britain's relationship with China could face difficulties if the UK challenges the Communist party over Hong Kong.

Mr Liu told Xinhua: I hope that all sectors in Britain will respect the fact that Hong Kong has returned to China.

Hong Kong-related issues must be handled properly. I hope that by recognising and respecting the above we will continue to make Hong Kong a positive factor in China-UK relations.

"By recognising and respecting the above we will make sure that Hong Kong will continue to contribute positive energy to the golden era of China UK relations."
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Storm clouds loomed over Hong Kong as tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets, giving way to a downpour as the day wore on that deterred many from joining the throngs of dissent.

With last years protest at 110,000, as estimated by organisers Civil Rights Fronts, this year saw a reported 60,000 take to the streets, on a day that coincided with the end of the contentious three-day visit of Chinas state leader Xi Jinping. Police calculate the number as being significantly lower, at a paltry 14,500.

The protest, which saw participants of all ages march through the bustling streets of a city campaigning for universal suffrage and against the degradation of civil liberties, comes as Hong Kong marks its 20th anniversary since it was returned to China from British colonial rule.

Recommended China attack Boris Johnson over Hong Kong comments

It has also coincided with the inauguration of new chief executive Carrie Lam, who is seen by detractors as a puppet to Beijing. The news that Nobel prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is terminally ill and has only recently been granted medical parole has been another source of discontent.

The bad weather, and  according to organisers  anxiety around safety in an increasingly fraught political climate, meant turnout here on Saturday was much lower than the hundreds of thousands in previous years.

Small congregations of pro-China groups were present, but were far outnumbered by the pro-democracy contingent.

Reports of clashes between protesters and local gangsters, alongside allegations of attacks from police, marked an otherwise subdued and non-violent affair in which placards borrowing the symbols of 2014s Umbrella Movement were wielded throughout.

The now iconic image of Chinas contentious strongman leader Xi Jinping brandishing a yellow umbrella were seen among the crowds, where high profile activists, politicians, artists, and pop stars were making their presence felt.

The handover is not a time for celebration, but a time for demonstration, activist and founder of political party Demosisto Joshua Wong said from a booth where he and his party campaigned and solicited donations from the public.

Alleging that members of the police had manhandled members of Demosisto and another political group, the League of Social Democrats, when taking part in a rally on Saturday morning, Wong decried this treatment as an insult to Hong Kongs enshrined right to peaceful protest.

A fellow Demosisto campaigner and Hongkonger Helena Wu, who flew in from overseas to attend the protest, said that fears of violence had impacted crowd numbers.

The third and final day of President Xi's first state visit to Hong Kong coincided with Saturday's landmark anniversary, and in a speech earlier on the Chinese leader issued a stark warning that Beijing will not tolerate any challenge to its authority in the port city.

Police blocked roads, preventing pro-democracy protesters from getting near to the harbour-front venue where Mr Xi swore in the new chief executive, not far from where the last colonial governor Chris Patten tearfully handed back Hong Kong  again in the pouring rain  in 1997.

Mr Xi said Hong Kong should crack down on moves towards Hong Kong independence.

Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government ... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible, Xi said.

China said this week that it views the handover deal of 1997, which was scripted to set out a pathway towards universal suffrage for Hong Kongers, as a historical document with no relevance in the present day.

And Beijing reacted bitterly to comments from UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson ahead of Saturdays anniversary, who called on all parties with an interest in the city to progress towards a more democratic and accountable system of government.

Chinese officials responded to the statement by chastising the Conservative front bencher for speaking about their internal affairs.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, and therefore Hong Kong affairs are Chinas internal affairs, said foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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Mining currently only makes up 14 per cent of North Korea's economy  but the dictatorship may in fact be sitting on vast reserves of mineral wealth.

International sanctions imposed on the hermit kingdom in response to its nuclear tests should, in theory, be crippling its trade in minerals.

A March 2016 UN resolution banned the export of gold, vanadium, titanium, and rare earth metals from North Korea.

Another resolution in November capped production of coal and banned shipments of nickel, copper, zinc and silver.

But a UN report published at the start of the year found that North Korea was covertly exporting banned minerals and finding new ways to evade sanctions.

Egyptian authorities intercepted a ship carrying 2,300 tons of iron ore from North Korea to the Suez Canal, with 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades beneath the ore, according to the report from February.

This showed the countrys use of concealment techniques, as well as an emerging nexus between entities trading in arms and minerals, it said.

North Korea's economy is roughly forty times smaller than that of the South, according to estimates by The Economist published last year.

The North is however far richer in minerals. In 2014 it produced 3.4 million tonnes of iron-ore to the Souths 0.6 million.

And North Korea's mineral wealth was estimated at $10 trillion (7.5 trillion) in 2012 by a South Korean research institute.

In pictures: North Korea military drill Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: North Korea military drill In pictures: North Korea military drill North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video

The mountainous country has sizeable deposits of more than 200 different underground minerals, according to a recent report by Lloyd Vasey, founder of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

These include coal, iron ore, magnesite, gold ore, zinc ore, copper ore, limestone, molybdenite, graphite and tungsten, all with potential for the development of large-scale mines.

The country's magnesite reserves are the second largest in the world after China, and its tungsten deposits the planet's sixth largest, according to the report.

South Koreas state-run Korea Development Institute last September described mineral trade between North Korea and China as a cash cow for Pyongyang.

The institute said that mineral trade accounted for 54 per cent of the Norths total trade volume to China in the first half of 2016.

Its reserves have up until now remained underdeveloped, with the average operational rate of mine facilities below 30 percent.

This is in part due to antiquated infrastructure, with just 3 per cent of roads paved, and in part due to the fact that private mining remains illegal.
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Schoolchildren in France are being taught that the EU only has 27 member states, in an indication that the country has already begun to purge the UK from the bloc.

Britain has been removed from maps of the union in a popular educational guide, the Aedis petit guide, which shows all of the other 27 member states shaded in a different colour with each of their national flags  while Britain is left blank with no flag.

The guide to the EU, which is aimed at schoolchildren, was first published in January 2007 but was updated in May 2017, apparently to reflect Britains departure, according to the publishers website.

It states: The European Union brings together 27 countries of Europe in economic and political terms, in order to avoid wars and to defend democracy, human rights, prosperity and peace more effectively.

The guide also claims that numerous other countries in Europe want to join and observes that institutions and treaties must be adapted in view of this enlargement.

It continues: Every day, the European Union allows all its nationals to study, travel, live and work in the country of their choice amongst the member states, all this without the need for passports or borders.

It comes as a number of French politicians and officials indicated that France is taking advantage of Brexit, by launching a charm offensive to attract British banks and business and encouraging French workers who have previously moved to London to return to Paris.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced earlier this week that France would set up a special court to handle English law cases for financial contracts after Britain leaves the EU, in a bid to attract banks.

Valerie Pecresse, chairwoman of the Paris regional council, meanwhile told The Times: Boris Johnson and David Cameron said to anyone prepared to listen they were rolling out the red carpet for the French.

Now we are rolling out the tricolour carpet. Our first aim is to get back the French people who moved to London.

French President Emmanuel Macron's government is said to be keen to convince Wall Street banks to dump London for Paris, hoping to override concerns about its rigid labour laws and high taxes with plans to push through reforms to make doing business easier.
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World leaders have gathered to pay tribute to the architect of the world order Helmut Kohl at the first ever memorial of its kind for a European politician.

Draped in an EU flag, the former German Chancellors coffin sat in the centre of the European Parliament as more than 800 dignitaries including Bill Clinton, Dmitry Medvedev and Angela Merkel paid emotional tributes.

Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our terms in office and bigger than our fleeting careers, Mr Clinton said, fondly remembering their frequent visits to each other during his time as US President.

He wanted to create a world where nobody dominated over anybody else.

Bill Clinton salutes towards the coffin of late former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl after speaking at a memorial at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on 1 July 2017 (Getty Images)

You did well to achieve that during your lifetime and those of us who experienced it love you for it.

Mr Kohl, who served as Chancellor from 1982 to 1998, oversaw the end of the Cold War and is widely regarded as the mastermind of German reunification.

He skillfully negotiated the dissolution communist East Germany with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and relocated the capital to Berlin.

Together with French counterpart Francois Mitterand, he was the architect of the 1992 Maastrict Treaty, which established the euro and EU, which he ardently supported.

Medvedev, the Russian Prime Minister, described Mr Kohl as the the architect of the world order, adding: In Russia, we'll remember him as our friend  a wise and sincere person.

German soldiers carry the coffin of late former Chancellor Helmut Kohl during of a memorial ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 1 July (Reuters)

Helmut Kohl was a German patriot and a European patriot, said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a close friend. We've lost a giant of the post-war era.

Ms Merkel, who served as a minister under Mr Kohl in the 1990s but later had a falling out over his role in receiving $1 million in illegal campaign cash donations, remembered her predecessor as a sometimes controversial figure with numerous enemies.

I could tell you stories as well, she said. But all that paled in comparison to his life's achievements.

Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, said Mr Kohl deserved a place of honour in the European pantheon for unhesitatingly extending the hand of friendship to fledgling democracies in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The two-hour ceremony was attended by leaders including Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Tusk and Petro Poroshenko, in a show of unity amid continuing divisions over Brexit and the Ukrainian war.

Theresa May signing the book of condolences at the European Parliament as world leaders gather for a memorial to late German chancellor Helmut Kohl in Strasbourg, France, on 1 July (EPA)

It concluded with the German national anthem and excerpts from Beethoven's 9th symphony Ode to Joy, which is used as the EU anthem.

Mr Kohl, who died on 16 June at the age of 87, was to be buried at a funeral in Germany later on Saturday.

His coffin had been transported from the home he shared with his second wife Maike in Oggersheim to Strasbourg for the memorial service.

It was taken by helicopter on to his birthplace in Ludwigshafen, being carried in a procession and then transported to Speyer Cathedral along the Rhine for a Catholic requiem to be attended by 1,500 mourners.

The resting place of many rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, the cathedral was seen by Mr Kohl as a symbol of European unity  a place he showed to contemporary leaders including Mr Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher.

But the mass will be boycotted by Mr Kohls sons, since their father will not be laid to rest alongside his first wife and their mother, Hannelore Kohl.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Austrias constitutional court has upheld the governments compulsory purchase of the apartment complex where Adolf Hitler was born, amid anxiety about its symbolic appeal to neo-nazis.

The government took control of the three-storey house in Braunau am Inn at Austria's border with Germany last December.

A battle for ownership of the building has been raging since authorities first offered to buy out its former owner Gerlinde Pommer-Angloher in 1984.

The court said on Friday that government ownership would prevent the house being used to glorify Nazi ideology.

It ruled that the law passed last year to allow the expropriation was in the public interest, commensurate and not without compensation, and therefore not unconstitutional.

Ms Pommer-Angloher, who could not attend the hearing due to health reasons, first challenged the expropriation in the constitutional court in January.

Now her lawyer Gerhard Lebitsch says she is likely to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

In the hearing, the lawyer argued that the homes symbolic appeal would not be diminished by a change in ownership.

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Mr Lebitsch said that negotiations with the interior ministry over the compensation payment would start on July 26, after his client declined the governments offer of 300,000 (260,129).

The Austrian government has been the buildings main lease-holder since 1972, and appointed a historical commission in 2015 to decide its fate.

The commission recommended that a thorough architectural remodelling is necessary to permanently prevent the recognition and the symbolism of the building.

Recommended Historians have uncovered what happened to lesbians under Nazi rule

Hitlers parents were renting the flat above a tavern at the time of his birth on 20 April 1889, though he only ended up living there for a few months.

The Pommer familys ownership of the building dates back to 1913, interrupted only by a period during the war when it was made into a touristic shrine to the dictator.

Promoting Nazi ideology, displaying swastikas and Holocaust denial are all illegal in Austria.

Hermann Feiner of the Interior Ministry said at the constitutional hearing that "far-reaching architectural transformations can only be made by the owner, according to the Austria Press Agency.

The government will entrust the building to Lebenshilfe, a charity which plans to convert it into a centre for people with learning disabilities.

Welcoming the top courts decision, Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said: We will make sure that this building will never fall into the wrong hands to become a site of pilgrimage for those stuck in the past."
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Gay people in Russia have been asked to compete for a one-way plane ticket out of the country by an Orthodox Christian television channel.

If you are gay and wish to emigrate from Russia, channel Constantinople will buy you a one way ticket with great pleasure, Tsargrad TV writes in the video's description, complete with emojis of a plane and a sick face.

The channel said anyone interested should have a "medical certificate" confirming sodomy or other forms of perversion.

The homophobic video message was posted earlier this week on Saint Petersburg-based social network VK, Russias most popular website, and has since gained over 34,000 views.

It features clips of LGBT marches abroad as well as a Russian plane taking off, and suggests those interested should make contact with the TV host Andrey Afanasyev.

Mr Afanasyev says California is a sympathetic home to Russian LGBT people.

This is not a joke, he says. We really want you to return there, where you can openly submit to your sins.

Russia's highest cleric openly compared marriage equality to Nazism just over a month ago, and legislation encouraging homophobia and banning gay propaganda exists throughout Russia.

Reports of the systematic imprisonment and purge of gay men in the southern republic of Chechnya emerged in May.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Tsargrad TV was set up to promote Christian Orthodox values and also calls itself Constantinople, after the ancient centre of Eastern Christianity and capital of the Byzantine Empire .

Founder Konstantin Malofeev is a businessman and prominent supporter of President Vladimir Putin.

He says the channel was designed to be a platform and voice of the Russian Orthodox majority and compares it to a Russian equivalent of Fox News.

It claims to have reached 42 million viewers since August 2016, and discusses the most sensitive issues in the global economy, geopolitics, culture and religion.
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America led by Donald Trump is the greatest menace facing the world today, Sir John Sawers, a former head of MI6, has declared, warning the policies being pursued by the divisive US President are going to have a major disruptive effect globally.

Sir John was speaking at the annual Herzliya security conference in Israel where senior public figures from the field of politics, military, and intelligence were asked who, in their view, presented the greatest threat to international security.

Some said it was Isis, others Islamist terrorists and North Korea with its nuclear capabilities. Others, perhaps mindful of where they were, talked of Iran and the Lebanese Shia militia, Hezbollah, both considered mortal enemies by the Jewish state.

But Sir John, who was the last chief of Britains Secret Intelligence Service, stated: I have got serious reservations about Donald Trump as President of the United States.

He continued: The biggest threat the world faces is how we all adjust to the progressive withdrawal of responsible American leadership and the network of alliances that America maintained with Europe, with Asian countries and the partnerships they had across the region.

The chaotic presidency of Mr Trump has been mired in controversy with investigations into his secret links with Russia; his attempts to ban travel to the US from a number of Muslim countries; fractious relations with Nato and EU; the US pulling out of the Paris climate agreement; threats of a trade war; threats to dismantle the Iran nuclear accord and contradictory and confusing positions in the current confrontation between Qatar and the Saudi led Gulf Sunni states.

The coming to power of Mr Trump was, Sir John acknowledged, a manifestation of the populist and isolationist mood in America exacerbated by military failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the consequences said Sir John, were now having a major impact in the security world, the behaviour of countries trying to take advantage of it, and I think how we adjust to that, the behaviour of other countries trying to take advantage of it, which poses the biggest threat in the world.

During an arms-selling trip to Saudi Arabia, Mr Trump had accused Iran of fermenting terrorism, and, going on to Israel, he has called for an alliance of Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states against Shia Iran.

But Sir John, who had also served as the UKs ambassador to the UN, pointed out that Iran is an emerging country that is becoming the most powerful in the region and enjoys better prospects than Saudi Arabia.

The US and the West, he argued, needed to be careful to form an alliance with Riyadh, which has failed to carry out essential reforms, against Iran.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The issue of alliances was also crucial for post-Brexit Britain, Sir John maintained after his appearance at the conference forum.

There was a danger that Britain would be an outsider with nose pressed to the window of the EU while international decisions are being made.

We will be part of Nato, yes. But as the US withdraws from global leadership, he asked, can we rely on the alliance for anything more than territorial defence? The regions the US has protected since 1945 have to determine their own defence and security: that includes Europe.

He welcomed Emmanuel Macrons offer to keep the EU door open for Britain, but I sadly doubt that our current leaders will countenance a strategic rethink. So, as we exit the EU, we need to remain joined to our continental partners, not just through Nato, but in the painstaking work of building a common foreign and security policy.

But, Sir John concluded: I see little effort to find a solution that enables Britain and the whole of Europe to benefit from our talents. If we can no longer help shape the world, others will do it for us, and Britain will have to lump the consequences.
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Mini autonomous police cars paired with companion drones and facial recognition technology will begin patrolling the streets of Dubai by the end of the year to help the city identify and track down criminal suspects.

This week's announcement by city officials comes as Dubai races to reshape the future of its law enforcement.

But don't expect a high-speed chase from the little cars. In demonstrations, the robot never appears to move beyond a strolling pace. But the four-wheeled security vehicle comes with a built-in aerial drone that can survey areas and people that the robot can't reach.

Named the O-R3, the patrol car can navigate on its own using machine-learning algorithms and can be controlled remotely from behind a computer dashboard. The vehicle also comes equipped with thermal imaging, and licence plate readers. The manufacturer, Singapore-based company OTSAW Digital, claims that the car and drone duo is the first of its kind.

The Dubai police force and OTSAW say that the robots aren't intended to replace human officers but to better manage resources and manpower, with OTSAW claiming that the vehicles can recharge themselves and operate around the clock.

"We seek to augment operations with the help of technology such as robots. Essentially, we aim for streets to be safe and peaceful without heavy police patrol," said a statement from Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, the head of the Dubai police.

Last month, Dubai recruited the world's first police bot, tasked with the modest assignment of monitoring tourist attractions. The robot, dubbed Robocop, already speaks English and Arabic and will soon speak four languages according to officials.

The electronic officer is the first of many to come. Within the next few years, the city will introduce a model which is nearly ten-feet-tall and capable of speeds of up to almost 50 mph, which can also be controlled by a human officer from inside its frame and is capable of carrying heavy equipment.

By 2030, Dubai plans for robots to make up 25 percent of its police force.

Copyright Washington Post
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Saudi Arabia has no intention whatsoever to bombard or kill civilians in Yemen, according to the head of the countrys foreign aid agency.

Dr Abdullah al-Rabeeah, supervisor general of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KS Relief) says he sees no conflict between bombing a country while claiming to be its biggest aid donor.

The United Nations and humanitarian groups have accused Saudi Arabia of possible war crimes in its air campaign supporting President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadis government.

The Saudi-led coalitions air strikes are responsible for more than half of 13,000 civilian casualties, according to UN figures, as well as worsening hunger crisis and the worlds worst cholera outbreak.

But Dr al-Rabeeah insists Saudi Arabia is the number one donor for aid and development in Yemen, adding: Were here to help.

More than 1bn (202.4m) Saudi riyals have already been allocated for KS Reliefs operations in Yemen, where it is distributing food and humanitarian aid.

Yemenis inspect damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa (Getty)

Asked whether he sees any tension between the efforts and Saudi Arabias ongoing bombing campaign, Dr al-Rabeeah said he did not.

Saudi Arabia is not the only country in a conflict and providing aid, he told The Independent, pointing to Western programmes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

When there is a conflict there will be mistakes, but we account for our mistakes and apologise for them, and try to compensate those who have been hurt.

But there is no intention whatsoever to bombard or kill civilians.

Dr al-Rabeeah claimed the aim of the Saudi-led coalition is to regain the will of the Yemeni people, which he said had been taken by force by Houthi rebels, jihadi groups and troops loyal to the former President.

He described Yemen as the bulk of KS Reliefs work since it was founded by King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in 2015, as well as Syria.

It also runs projects in Iraq, Djibouti, Somalia and provides aid to more than 37 countries on four continents.

Dr al-Rabeeah said the organisation had been directed from day one to work according to the principles of international humanitarian law.

KS Relief runs provides aid to more than 37 countries on four continents (KS Relief)

KS Relief is not driven by any motive related to race, colour, religion or any political or military motive, he added. We work only for the sake of humanity.

But the organisations own website describes its mission as ensuring the provision of foreign aid in line with unspecified national interests.

Recommended More than half of British people unaware of Yemen war

In Yemen, those interests sit against the Iranian-backed Houthis, while in Syria they lie behind rebels including Islamist groups seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

In both countries, there have been allegations of aid by KS Relief being distributed either exclusively in areas controlled by pro-Saudi forces, or handed over to humanitarian groups with conditions attached.

Dr al-Rabeeah denied the accusations, saying it was working through partner NGOs in Houthi strongholds in Yemen, including Sanaa and Hajjah.

We work in zones we can access, he added. We want to help the poor communities and the areas of highest need as prioritised by the UN needs assessment.

The top of our partners in both Syria and Yemen are UN organisations and international NGOs.

They are unbiased and impartial and we respect that and abide by that.

Dr al-Rabeeah, who was previously the Saudi health minister and is a surgeon specialising in separating conjoined twins, said his medical background had left him with an ingrained respect for life, adding: We certainly hope there will be a peaceful solution for Syria and Yemen in line with UN resolutions and agreements by the international community.

He acknowledged that some were uneasy about Saudi Arabias resurgence on the international aid scene two years ago, adding: It took time for partners in the international community to know us but Im confident that centre has now managed to develop very strong links.

Even within international development circles, few have heard of KS Relief, but that may soon change as it mounts a PR offensive seeing it hire a prominent British communications firm and sponsor a recent aid conference in London, giving out souvenirs including branded pens and coffee cups.

Dr al-Rabeeah said KS Reliefs work in Yemen had proven that we are truly impartial, and believes trust in the organisation is building globally.

The UN certainly has no qualms using funding from the organisation to fight the cholera epidemic that has affected more than 240,000 people in the country, many of them children.

Saudi Arabia has pledged $66.7m (7.16) from KS Relief to Unicef and the World Health Organisation for their response, but while thanking the government for its donation the UN stressed that the worsening humanitarian crisis was man-made.

Russell Geekie, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Independent: More than anything, we need to see sustained political commitment to resolution of conflict, which is driving the crises in Yemen, Syria and in some many other places throughout the world today the only lasting solution to horrors like cholera and famine in Yemen is to end the conflict.

 Michael Fallon claims Saudi Arabia is only 'defending itself' when attacking Yemen

Britain is among the countries supporting Riyadhs intervention in Yemen, training Saudi pilots to improve their targeting processes and selling arms including cluster munitions to be used in air strikes.

The UNs humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, warned that civilians and infrastructure was continuing to be targeted in possible violations of international law.

Recent attacks have hit a market near the Saudi border, killing six children, and seen more than 40 Somali refugees killed while attempting to flee the war-torn country on a boat.

Wars have laws and I implore that all parties to the conflict uphold their responsibilities to comply with international humanitarian and human rights laws, Mr McGoldrick said.

I urge those influencing and arming the parties to use their position to end the conflict and to stop fuelling the violence.

The conflict started in March 2015 after an opposition offensive drove the government out of the capital Sanaa, sparking an intervention by Saudi Arabia and its allies to support the internationally recognised government.

Critics have accused Riyadh, along with Western allies, of hypocrisy in supporting rebels in one current conflict and the legitimate government in the other.

Peter Salisbury, a senior research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, said Britain was the principal sponsor of a UN Security Council resolution used by Saudi Arabia to justify its intervention in Yemen.

The situation in Yemen Show all 14 1 /14 The situation in Yemen The situation in Yemen Houthi supporters trample on a US flag during a gathering mobilizing more fighters into several Yemeni battlefronts, in Sana'a, Yemen EPA The situation in Yemen People carry the coffins of men, who were killed in the recent Saudi-led airstrikes during their funeral, in the Old City of Sanaa, Yemen AP The situation in Yemen Pro-government fighters give food to Yemeni children on the road leading to the southwestern port city of Mokha. Yemeni rebels are putting up fierce resistance in a key Red Sea port city where they are encircled by pro-government force Getty Images The situation in Yemen A Yemeni stands in front of a graffiti protesting US military operations in war-affected Yemen, in Sana'a, Yemen. According to reports, US Special Forces troops allegedly disembarked from US helicopters in the Yemeni town of Yakla and attacked several houses belonging to members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, killing three high-ranking Al-Qaeda members and nine civilians, six women and three children. One American serviceman has been killed and three injured in the attack EPA The situation in Yemen US Special Forces troops allegedly disembarked from US helicopters in the Yemeni town of Yakla and attacked several houses belonging to members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, killing three high-ranking Al-Qaeda members and nine civilians, six women and three children. One American serviceman has been killed and three injured in the attack EPA The situation in Yemen A Yemeni female fighter supporting the Shiite Huthi rebels, and carrying weapons used for ceremonial purposes, takes part in an anti-Saudi rally in the capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen Yemeni female fighters supporting the Shiite Huthi rebels, and carrying weapons used for ceremonial purposes, take part in an anti-Saudi rally in the capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen A boy shouts slogans next to pro-Houthi fighters, who have been injured during recent fighting, during a rally held to honour those injured or maimed while fighting in Houthi ranks in Sanaa, Yemen Reuters The situation in Yemen Balls of fire and smoke rise from a Houthi-held military camp following alleged Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sana'a, Yemen EPA The situation in Yemen Yemenis search under the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen A Yemeni boy looks on as Yemenis search under the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa Getty The situation in Yemen A Yemeni boy sits amidst the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa AFP/Getty The situation in Yemen Marine One with US President Donald Trump flies with a decoy and support helicopters to Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, for the dignified transfer of Navy Seal Chief Petty Officer William 'Ryan' Owens who was killed in Yemen Getty Images The situation in Yemen US President Donald Trump aboard the Marine One to greet the remains of a US military commando killed during a raid on the al Qaeda militant group in southern Yemen on Sunday, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, US Reuters

The UK is also a huge arms supplier and provides a great deal of logistical support to Saudi forces, he told The Independent.

Arguably the UK has also given political coverage to the Saudis by preventing various resolutions and investigations from happening.

Dr al-Rabeeah described Saudi Arabias relationship with the UK as very strong, describing KS Relief as a partner from day one of the Department for International Development.

They have helped us build capacity and make sure we work in line with the international level, he added.

The Government department is understood to be expanding collaboration with King Salmans foundation but not working jointly on any projects.

Since the bombing of Yemen began, the UK has licensed 3.3bn worth of arms to the Saudi regime, including for aircraft, helicopter, drones and missiles, according to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).

The group is waging a legal battle to prevent the sales with a judicial review in the High Court.

Representative Andrew Smith accused the British Government and others of being totally complicit in the destruction and humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.

He told The Independent: Any aid that is helping people is to be welcomed, but the best thing that the Saudi regime can do for the people of Yemen is to stop the brutal bombing campaign than has killed thousands and brought millions to the edge of starvation.
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Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have returned to the country so far this year amid fresh hope for lasting ceasefires in some cities.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it was seeing a notable trend of spontaneous returns from outside and inside the country.

Around 31,000 refugees returned from neighbouring countries in the first six months of 2017, while more than 440,000 internally displaced people went back to their homes  a combined total of almost half a million people.

A Syrian man walks his dog in the once rebel-held al-Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo (AFP/Getty Images)

Andrej Mahecic, a spokesperson for the UNHCR, said the main destinations were Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus  all of which are partly or wholly controlled by the Syrian government after devastating battles against rebel groups.

Mr Mahecic said Syrians were seeking out family members, checking on property, and in some cases responding to a real or perceived improvement in security conditions in parts of the country.

But he warned that although there is fresh hope over recent peace talks in Astana and Geneva, the UNHCR believes conditions for refugees to return in safety and dignity are not yet in place in Syria.

The sustainability of security improvements in many return areas is uncertain, and there remain significant risks of protection thresholds for voluntary, safe and dignified returns not being met in parts of the country, he added.

Access to the displaced population inside Syria remains a key challenge, with aid convoys still unable to access regularly even the recently newly accessible areas.

Limited progress has been made in the UN-backed peace talks in Geneva, while the West is wary of ceasefires brokered by Bashar al-Assads allies Russia and Iran, and rebel-supporting Turkey in Astana.

 Michael Fallon says UK will support further action in Syria to stop chemical attacks

Isis and al-Qaeda linked alliance Tahrir al-Sham are barred from all talks and continue to hold swathes of territory.

The UNHCR is scaling up its operations inside Syria for the new arrivals, providing protection services and shelter and improving damaged infrastructure and basic services.

It warned that mass returns will not be sustainable without employment opportunities, adequate food and water, health care and education  all of which have been severely damaged by the six-year civil war, seeing the illegal targeting of infrastructure and widespread destruction of hospitals and schools.

At this stage and while UNHCR will be investing to help, with other partners to improve conditions in accessible areas inside Syria, refugee returns from host countries can neither be promoted nor facilitated by UNHCR, Mr Mahecic said.

He emphasised that access to asylum for Syrians and allowing them to stay in host countries remained critical, reiterating an appeal for $304m (230m) in funding for displaced people.

Kevin Kennedy, the UN regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said almost 14 million of the 18 million people currently living in the country in need of some form of humanitarian assistance.

Of those, 4.5 million are trapped in besieged or hard to reach areas in desperate need of aid, which is being blocked by both the Syrian government and rebel groups.

Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Show all 12 1 /12 Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A man crosses a street in Aleppo, December 12, 2009 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A vendor sits inside an antique shop in al-Jdeideh neighbourhood, in the Old City of Aleppo, December 12, 2009 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A view shows part of Aleppo's historic citadel, overlooking Aleppo city, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A view shows part of Aleppo's historic citadel, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Visitors walk inside Aleppo's Umayyad mosque, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War People walk inside the Khan al-Shounah market, in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A man walks past shops in al-Jdeideh neighbourhood, in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War People walk along an alley in al-Jdeideh neighbourhood, in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Visitors tour Aleppo's historic citadel, Syria December 11, 2009 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A general view shows the Old City of Aleppo as seen from Aleppo's historic citadel, Syria December 11, 2009 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War People walk near Aleppo's Bab al-Faraj Clock Tower, Syria October 6, 2010 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A man stands inside Aleppo's historic citadel, overlooking Aleppo city, Syria December 11, 2009 Reuters

Over one third of Syrians are displaced within the country, while about 5 million more have fled, mainly to Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

Since 2015, at least 260,000 refugees have spontaneously returned to Syria, primarily from neighbouring Turkey.

European countries including Germany, Austria and Norway have been offering financial incentives for asylum seekers to voluntarily return to their home nations as borders have hardened throughout the EU.

The vast majority of Syrians arrived on treacherous boat crossings to Greek islands but arrivals have slowed to a trickle since the controversial EU-Turkey deal was imposed in March last year, seeing anyone arriving over the Aegean Sea detained under threat of deportation.

The main sea route to Europe became the Central Mediterranean  now the deadliest sea passage in the world  claiming more than 2,000 lives so far this year.

Around 92,000 migrants have arrived on European shores since January  83,600 to Italy and 9,000 to Greece  mostly from sub-Saharan African nations, Bangladesh and Morocco.

Syrians, who once made up the largest group of asylum seekers making the journey, account for only 8 per cent of those arriving in 2017.
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Eight minutes would be too long, we cannot afford eight minutes Chief Inspector Micky Rosenfeld shook his head. Too many could be killed and injured in that time, I am afraid, we need to move and counter attacks here much faster.

The terrorist atrocity at London Bridge, using a van and knives, ended after eight minutes when the three killers were shot dead by police. There would, undoubtedly, have been more casualties than the eight killed and 48 injured, had the vicious assault continued longer, and the prompt action of the armed officers was widely lauded.

But in Israel, where there has been an upsurge of such attacks for more than two years, with 45 killed, a time gap of eight minutes before those responsible were neutralised would not be acceptable, stressed Chief Inspector Rosenfeld as well as a number of other security officials. The reaction to an attack, they stated, must be quick as well as decisive.

The rise in the number of Islamist attacks by lone wolves in Europe has led to increased liaison on the issue between a number of foreign security agencies and the Israelis. A British team, according to Whitehall sources, is due to travel to Israel to look at the methods used there in the near future.

There are, of course, significant differences between political violence in the UK and Israel. The murders and maiming in the streets of Britain are in pursuit of a murderous Islamist jihad with a variety of justifications offered including retaliation for the war against Isis in Iraq and Syria. In Israel and the occupied territories it is justified as part of the struggle for Palestinian nationhood against Israel.

There is also a key difference when it comes to responding to attacks in the two countries. Unlike Israel, Britains unarmed police force with a small number of specialised firearms units.

This week in London, PC Wayne Marques, of British Transport Police, described how he had fought off the three London Bridge terrorists, Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Raghba, slashing with butchers knives with just a baton. The 38-year-old officer was blinded, temporarily, by a blade thrust close to his eye and suffered injuries to his hands and leg.

Chief Inspector Rosenfeld, who was born in North London, at Finchley, before his family emigrated to Israel reflected I must admit that if I was walking around as a police officer in London at a time like this, with just a baton for protection, then I would be worried.

I know, of course, the arguments why the police are traditionally unarmed in Britain and this is obviously the policy governments have decided to follow. But having armed officers mean that not only can they protect themselves better, they are in a better position to protect the public.

Speaking at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, where there have been a dozen attacks in the last 18 months, he continued: Of course when it comes to timing of response, we need to take into account how big a city London is, and how shorter the distances are here in Israel. You can cross central Jerusalem by motorbike in around ten minutes. But we have mobile armed patrols , including on motorbike, here 24/7, extensive surveillance and intelligence, and the ability to get to scenes of emergencies very quickly.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. 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Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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There is another important difference in the circumstances in the two countries. Civilians can keep firearms in Israel, something they are permitted to do after national service. There has been a number of cases where those taking part attacks have been shot dead by passers-by carrying guns.

The Israeli Defence Forces Counter Terrorism Training Centre have numerous recordings of this type of lethal public intervention. The Centres commander, who did not want his identity publicised, was also of the view that eight minutes was too long a time before an attack is stopped.

But he acknowledged We have more than 30,000 members of the public who can carry firearms, they are trained during national service, and obviously that is a very useful resource to have when dealing with street attacks since we have started facing this threat.

Isis claimed credit for its first operation in Israel two weeks ago after a policewoman was stabbed to death in east Jerusalem. Hamas has also been accused of being behind some of the attacks, but, according to security officials, most have been carried out, as in the West, by individuals, or small groups, often accessing jihadist material on the Internet.

The security apparatus of Fatah provides valuable information which has led to assaults being prevented and suspects arrested, say security officials. Israeli security agencies have persuaded prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to carry out sweeping punitive action in the occupied territories in retaliation for the attacks  something advocated by hardline members of his cabinet. But talks towards a Palestinian state have stalled: Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has received little leeway from the Netanyahu government and cooperation with Israel may become more unpopular.

But even if human intelligence begins to dry up, Israeli officials point out that they built up wide ranging communication and surveillance system. In addition, no fewer than a thousand members of the police force 29,000 strong are involved in monitoring the Internet and social media sites.

Israel has rapidly expanding export sales in surveillance. The countrys leading defence electronic contractor, Elbit, showcases a nationwide database system called "WIT" (Wise Intelligence Technology) which can be used in conjunction with cameras, "Skyeye", mounted on drones or helicopters. It draws in information from signals intelligence as well as open sources such as Facebook and Twitter and can automatically alert emergency services if a terrorist attack is underway. It offers technology which can integrate multiple communications channels to smartphones and walkie-talkies of security officials.

Nir Mariash, Elbits director of homeland security unit, a former police brigadier, promotes WIT as a system of systems. It is an end-to-end solution to counter terrorism which can also be used to combat crime, it is something which can obviously be used abroad.

The UK, however, does not have some of the basic tools needed for the system, such as identity cards. Parts of it may also fall foul of privacy and data protection laws. The system can be adjusted for different needs, said Mr Mariash, the security agencies need to be agile, to adjust: after all that is what the terrorists are doing. The problem of terrorism, as we know, isnt going to go away.
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At 6.49am this morning, around 100 passengers who had booked on British Airways from Heathrow to Brussels departed from Terminal 5 on a much more luxurious aircraft than they expected.

Rather than one of BAs Airbus A320 jets, seating 177, they were aboard a Qatar Airways plane of the same type  but with one-quarter fewer seats.

Economy passengers were able to enjoy extra legroom and on-demand audio entertainment. Passengers reported that free catering had returned to the cheap seats, in the shape of yoghurt or a cereal bar. Earlier this year British Airways replaced complementary drinks and snacks with a "buy on board" policy.

On the Qatar Airways plane, a dozen passengers who paid the BA Club Europe fare, anticipating the usual high-density seating, could instead lounge around in deep reclining seats for the 45-minute flight.

Change gear: a Qatar Airways Airbus A320 in Brussels, preparing to fly to Heathrow for British Airways (Hazel Gulliver)

Hazel Gulliver flew from Brussels to Heathrow on the return leg, as the first stage of a journey to Vancouver. She said her short flight had been "a pleasant experience really, with very friendly cabin crew."

Ms Gulliver said she had heard "absolutely nothing from BA" about the likely impact of the strike. She describing the lack of information as "not fun when you can't look forward to a trip of a lifetime for fear of not getting there".

The plane she flew on is one of nine that British Airways has borrowed from its part-owner in Doha. The aircraft and crews have been idle since Qatar Airways was banned from flying to a number of its Gulf neighbours.

Passengers to Nice, Munich and Tallinn also experienced the Qatar Airways service on the first day of a 16-day strike by mixed fleet cabin crew working for BA at Heathrow.

Neil Taylor, who was aboard the flight to the Estonian capital, said: "There was amusement at the start, when the pilot announced that we were heading for Tallinn in Ukraine, but he was quickly corrected.

"We at the back got free catering: a wide range of drinks, a hot pasty and some chocolate cake. Those who had planned to buy their snacks on board therefore saved considerably."

After 26 previous strike days so far this year, British Airways and Unite have reached agreement on pay. But this 16-day strike is over what the union says are punitive sanctions  the removal of bonus payments and staff travel concessions  against 1,400 members who took part in previous strikes.

The Unite union objects to the deal with Doha on safety and human rights grounds, but for British Airways the unexpected availability of aircraft is ideal.

With Qatar Airways flying around 30 services a day, the arrangement allows BA to guarantee that no short-haul flights will be affected.

Two long-haul round trips will be cancelled today, both flights to the Gulf and back: one to Muscat in Oman, the other to Doha. The Doha flight is cancelled all week, with passengers transferred to Qatar Airways. Abuja is another cancellation tomorrow.

Even though BA says 99.5 per cent of flights will operate, the strike will affect the airlines earnings. While the total number of cancellations is likely to amount to an average of only five flights a day, some passengers will book on different airlines at the first sign of uncertainty. In particular business travellers, who are so important to BA, may move to rivals services.
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Britains biggest budget airline has been accused of failing to observe European passengers rights rules at its home airport. But easyJet insists it offered 158 stranded passengers flights on other airlines when a Luton-Geneva service was cancelled at short notice.

Thursday evenings flight EZY2061 was initially shown as being delayed by 45 minutes, but was then abruptly cancelled. According to easyJet, the cause was the knock-on effects of thunderstorm activity on previous sectors. The crew were not able to operate the service because of flight time limitations. After a shuttle to Pisa and back, the crew scheduled to operate the flight had arrived at Luton almost an hour late.

One passenger tweeted: Thanks @easyJet @easyJet_press  18:10 Luton to Geneva cancelled last minute and 10th wedding anniversary plans ruined. Chaos at Luton.

In the event of a cancellation, European legislation stipulates that passengers who want to continue with their journey must be offered re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity.

British Airways and Swiss had plenty of empty seats on services to Geneva on Friday.

But some easyJet passengers say they were told that they would not be able to fly until Sunday. Susan Griffith from Cambridge was travelling to Annecy in the French Alps for a wedding on Saturday. But after queuing for four hours at the customer service desk at Luton airport, she said: They offered to put us on the first easyJet flight, which was on Sunday.

They said: We have no access to any flights apart from easyJet flights'.

As a result, Ms Griffith paid 265 for a one-way Eurostar rail ticket from London to Paris on Friday, with an onward train to Annecy. She was due to arrive 24 hours after the expected arrival at Geneva.

The airline insists every passenger was offered the chance to travel to Geneva on an alternative airline.

An easyJet spokesperson said: While the situation is outside of our control, we would like to apologise to passengers for any inconvenience.

The airline says it will not pay cash compensation under European rules, as the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstance. However, Coby Benson of the law firm Bott & Co said: The courts have ruled on countless occasions that in order for bad weather to be extraordinary it must affect the flight concerned.

The inbound leg of the service, flight EZY2062 from Geneva to Luton, was also cancelled.

In April, The Independent revealed that easyJet had removed a London couple from a flight from Luton to Sicily, then failed to inform them of their entitlements. Even though the easyJet headquarters is adjacent to the terminal at Luton airport, the couple were told to talk to a call centre in South Africa, whose staff repeatedly misled them about their rights and options.

Two weeks ago an easyJet flight from Glasgow to Luton took off with empty seats, even though passengers who had been denied boarding pleaded with gate staff to be able to travel.
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Picture the scene: a lively Wednesday morning at Scotlands busiest airport, Edinburgh. The power suddenly goes off. All the check-in systems fail, the security checkpoints lose the electricity on which they depend to process and assess passengers and their possessions.

Planes are still able to land, but arriving passengers are impeded because barriers and doors cant open, while passport and customs staff are unable to work normally.

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The power-supply failure, involving a high-voltage cable failure that regrettably also disabled a back-up system, started at around 9am and lasted only 50 minutes  a lot less than the notorious Christmas Eve power failure at Gatwick in 2013. But aviation is such a complex organism that people and systems cant simply pick up as though nothing has happened.

Edinburgh airport tells me there were no actual cancellations or diversions. But ripples from the failure had the power to cause immense disruption.

The lucky passengers were those on point-to-point trips; the 10.40am Ryanair flight to Stansted touched down over two hours late.

Another London-bound flight, the British Airways plane to Heathrow at 10.05am, was also two hours behind schedule, but unlike Ryanairs was full of people hoping to connect with worldwide destinations. Connections at BAs Terminal Five are as short as one hour.

Likewise, the KLM flight to Amsterdam due out at 11am was almost 90 minutes behind schedule. For a few on board, that meant nothing more disagreeable than a very late lunch in the Dutch capital; but most of the travellers were hoping to get a lot further that day than the Rijksmuseum.

Passengers who found themselves a day late in Denver or Denpasar will not be in line for compensation, because EU Passengers Rights rules allow airlines to dodge payments of up to 600 (525) if they can plead extraordinary circumstances  which they certainly will.

For the airlines, the extra expenses incurred by missed connections are quite painful enough; whatever the cause of the delay, airlines must look after heavily delayed passengers, providing hotel stays and meals, until they can get where they need to be.

By Thursday, the place not to be was gate 16 at Luton airport. The crew for the easyJet flight to Geneva had begun their working day at 12.35pm, shuttling to Pisa and back. They arrived back in Bedfordshire almost an hour behind schedule. Too late, easyJet decided, for them to perform the second part of their duties in the shape of a round-trip to Geneva  so more than 300 people, who were in England or Switzerland and wished to be vice-versa, had their travel plans shredded by staff shortage.

These are, if you will, fairly ordinary reasons for flying to fail. More exotic causes include a mouse that delayed a British Airways flight from Heathrow to San Francisco in March by several hours. And passengers who are much more important than you and I can also slow things down: I have circled over Delhi while dignitaries disembarked, and been aboard an Ecuadorian domestic flight that returned to the terminal to pick up three tardy military officers who needed to be in Quito, quick. Thats what I call pulling rank.

Add in air-traffic control overloads, technical problems and plain old vile weather, and frankly it looks more and more of a miracle that aircraft occasionally get off the ground and reach roughly the intended destination on approximately the correct day.

Everything has to go right for an on-time flight  with dozens of staff in the right places at the right times. To maximise that prospect, the system needs resilience. But as aviation expands in Edinburgh and beyond, wriggle room is in increasingly short supply. We want to be on time, but even more than that we want more choice and lower fares. Contemplate that conflict next time you find yourself scuppered in Scotland.
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Jameel Muhktar and his cousin Resham Khan will never forget what happened at 9.15am on June 21. They were victims of a horrific acid attack by a white male in east London. Jameel went into an induced coma and Reshams career as an aspiring model is now over. The pair firmly believe this was an Islamophobic hate crime.

As shocking as the attack was, most mainstream media has either failed to cover it or at best relegated it to a minor story. One cant help but feel that if Jameel and Resham were James and Rebecca, and white rather than Asian, then their images would have made headline news for at least a day.

This is not the first time tragedy befalling British Muslims has been treated differently from non-Muslims. Cast your mind back to the brutal murders of Mohammed Saleem and Mushin Ahmed, who were knifed and kicked to death respectively. Compare and contrast the coverage of their murders to the rightful attention received by Jo Coxs vicious murder and fusilier Lee Rigbys. The latter names are now rightly permanently etched into our minds, whereas Mohamed Saleem and Muhsin Ahmed are virtually unknown outside the Muslim community.

The lack of reporting is not the only problem; a dual reluctance to brand attacks against Muslims as terrorism, while attacks by white men are reported as anything but terror, just smacks of sheer media double-standards in the eyes of British Muslims. When Jo Cox was murdered by a right-wing terrorist, The Sun preferred to report it as mental illness of a loner while the Daily Mail was fiercely criticised for not even reporting the guilty verdict against Thomas Mair on its front page. No surprise then that in the immediate aftermath of the Finsbury Park tragedy, Ashish Joshi of Sky News was hounded by Muslims filled with rage outside the mosque who demanded that the mowing down of Muslims be called out for what it is: a terrorist attack.

 Jeremy Corbyn highlights link between foreign wars and 'terrorism at home'

The simple, underlying, and inconvenient truth is that Islamophobia is now institutionalised within parts of our society. This week I wrote an open letter to the Home Secretary challenging her to come good on the full protection she promised British Muslims and revealing some troubling statistics. Figures show there are nearly 7,000 anti-Muslim hate crimes a year. Between March 2016 and March 2017, there were 143,920 anti-Muslim or anti-Islamic Tweets sent from the UK  this amounts to 393 a day.

The National Equality Panel found Muslims are paid 13-21 per cent less than others with equal qualifications. BBC research showed Muslim job applicants were three times less likely to be offered an interview.

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For every one occasion a positive or neutral reference is used to describe Muslims in the print press, there are no fewer than twenty-one occasions of negative or extremist references. ChildLine showed that Muslim children seem to be bearing the brunt of a 69 per cent increase in playground racism with bomber and terrorist being used all too frequently.

The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 10: Greece AP The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 9: Denmark Shutterstock The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 8: Austalia Getty Images The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 7: Sweden Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 6: Mexico Reuters The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 5: Germany Anthony Faiola/The Washington Post The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 4: Israel AP The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 3: US Getty The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 2: France Getty The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism 1: Turkey AP

To add insult to injury, since 2010 successive Tory governments which could have tackled Islamophobic hate crimes have effectively boycotted mainstream Muslim organisations and instead dealt with a tiny number of government stooges lacking any credibility in the Muslim community. Worse still, if media reports are to be believed then Mak Chishty, the former Met officer roundly criticised by over 100 Muslim organisations may well land the job of the new countering extremism commission  more evidence that the Government is just not listening.

Only when we treat Muslims like equals will things finally improve.
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Even by the flat-footed, if not downright arrogant, standards of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, this week has been a poor one for its political leadership, culminating in the resignation of the leader of the council, Nicholas Paget-Brown. The surprise was that he staggered on for as long as he did.

Now that RBKC has lost its chief executive and its leader, and suffered the worst reputational damage to any public body in many years, we must ask: what next? Of course it is too early to issue any definitive judgements about the events that led to the Grenfell Tower fire  and the truth will inevitably be more perplexing than the conspiracy theories now circulating. But right now the burghers of Chelsea are giving a good impression of having something to hide. Why else would they seek to exclude the press and even backbench councillors from their cabinet meeting?

The defence offered is that they were to discuss matters that will be germane to the public inquiry and did not wish to prejudice it. Yet the councils legal officers, in attendance, could have prevented any such discussions straying into those sensitive areas.

As things turned out there was neither a discussion nor any reporting of it because the council simply called their meeting off. Even No 10 thought that the council had gone too far, briefing that "the High Court ruled that the meeting should be open and we would have expected the council to respect that". That was the heavy hint about his future that Mr Paget-Brown eventually took.

The questions, of course, do not end there. Why was the council's initial response to the Grenfell Tower fire so slow and weak, leaving so much to the emergency services and voluntary organisations? Why was there no visible RBKC presence at the site of the disaster? Why even now is the situation so confused, and the offers of accommodation not always suitable? If these matters are not to be addressed in the pending public Inquiry to be chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick  and he has warned that his investigations will be narrower in scope than some would wish  then they need to be thoroughly looked at by somebody else.

Of course, a disaster of this magnitude could stretch any local authority beyond its capabilities. That is a perfectly fair counter to the allegations of RBKC complacency. Its also true that the political leaders of the council are not heartless monsters who gazed on the scenes of people being burnt alive with equanimity. What is also plain, however, is that they were too slow in mobilising what resources that they did have; and RBKC has more money than most local authorities. There are important questions about how to deal with disasters such as this  including the aftermath of terror attacks  and since the end of the Cold War British civil defence measures have been neglected. Now is the moment to revisit them.

There is still a huge task to be undertaken to care for the people who lived in that now ruined tower block, to arrange for their future housing and to cooperate with all the inquires now being undertaken, as well as to run the day to day operations of Kensington and Chelsea Council. There is a case for the Government to use its reserve powers and direct at least these aspects of the councils work until the crisis passes. Whitehall has intervened in local government a number of times before, albeit in different circumstances of financial mismanagement and corruption, and can, in any case, legislate to ensure that people are protected when a council fails, for whatever reasons, to undertake its duties effectively.

There may be some deep irony in the fact that the landmark legislation that opened up local council meetings to the press was a private members bill introduced to Parliament in January 1960 by a young Tory backbencher by the name of Margaret Thatcher. In fact she used her maiden speech to move her Public Bodies (Access of the Press to Meetings) Bill in the Commons, declaring that the paramount function of this distinguished House is to safeguard civil liberties rather than to think that administrative convenience should take first place in law.

Her error was to allow a loophole whereby a majority could declare a meeting closed on grounds of confidentiality. It is time, too, for that shortcoming in legislation to be corrected and for the public and the media to have all but automatic access to meetings that decide so much in our name.
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There is a need for a new centre-ground party in Britain, said 45 per cent of voters before the election, in a ComRes poll for The Independent. Funnily enough, and without a British Emmanuel Macron to lead it, that is what they got. The result of the election was a centrist compromise: a Conservative government with moderate Labour policies.

The effect of the election was to strip out the policies seen as right wing from the Conservative programme: the dementia tax; the squeeze on the state pension; the creation of new secondary moderns; and the return of fox hunting.

There has been much throwing-up of hands in liberal horror at the socially conservative views of the DUP, which reflect those of many people in Northern Ireland, and which, it turns out, are shared by Angela Merkel, who thinks that marriage is between a man and a woman. But the deal between the Conservative Government and the DUP confirmed the Corbynite universal principle of winter fuel payments for pensioners, and increased spending on the NHS  including mental health  and schools in one of the most deprived regions of the country.

No wonder Labour was torn between condemning the grubby bribe to Northern Ireland and demanding that equivalent sums be found for the NHS and schools in the rest of the UK.

 Chuka Umunna proposes rebel backbench motion that would keep Britian in EU if May failed to get deal

Theresa May prepared to announce the most important policy of the new, centrist Government at Prime Ministers Questions this week, but Jeremy Corbyn failed to ask a question about public sector pay. Quite properly and effectively, he devoted all six questions to the Grenfell Tower fire. That meant it was left to one of Mays spokespeople to say, in a briefing for journalists afterwards: Weve heard the message at the election, that people are weary after years of hard work to rebuild the economy, and that the public sector pay cap would be reviewed in the autumn Budget.

The message was muddied by a later briefing that the Government policy has not changed, but it is clearly changing. It may not be the end of austerity but there is certainly an adjustment coming.

Which is, I think, what the voters want. The annual British Social Attitudes survey, published this week, confirmed the rule laid down by Professor John Curtice, keeper of the election truths, that views of taxing and spending are counter-cyclical. After years of public spending restraint, support for public spending increases. The willingness to pay more taxes never keeps up, but it has risen too.

The Law of Finkelsteins Friend has been confirmed again. This is the law, set out by an anonymous friend of Daniel Finkelstein, the Times columnist and Conservative peer: In every contest since universal suffrage in 1928 the party that was more fit to govern has been victorious. This time, it was the centre party. It doesnt actually exist, so the voters elected a hung parliament that, in effect, created it.

In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images

My esteemed colleague Ben Chu, Economics Editor of The Independent, thinks this is quack mysticism. But I think there is a truth in it. The voters dont like falling real incomes, they are suspicious of undiluted Toryism, but they dont want unbridled Corbynism either. They couldnt vote for a hung parliament, but the election result was a reasonable aggregate of what people did want: a tweak on the austerity-meter, rather than the vast tax and spending increases promised in the Labour manifesto.

And, for the throwers-up of hands, an actual advance in the reproductive rights of women in Northern Ireland was legislated for by Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow who was this week as powerful as any Secretary of State. By tabling a well-worded amendment to the Queens Speech motion, she forced the centrist government to fund abortions for Northern Irish women on the English NHS.

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The arithmetic of a hung parliament means that an informal coalition of centrist Conservatives and centrist Labour MPs holds power, with May as a mere figurehead. One problem is that this centrist party doesnt have a policy on Brexit. It doesnt want to stay in the EU single market  Chuka Umunnas Queens Speech amendment to that effect was heavily defeated this week. But I see trouble ahead between the centre party and the hard Brexiteers over prioritising trade with the EU or with the rest of the world.

Nor does the centre party have a leader. But perhaps one emerged this week. She voted for Labours amendment to give emergency workers a pay rise, and for Umunnas single market amendment. But then, having recently declared, There are no circumstances in which I would be supporting a Labour government led by Mr Corbyn, she voted to support the Governments programme as set out in the Queens Speech. Here is our new Macron: Sylvia Hermon is the independent unionist MP for North Down. She is the only MP from Northern Ireland apart from the DUP, given that Sinn Fein MPs do not take their seats. She usually votes with Labour, but has no truck with Corbyns views on security.

Perhaps Lady Hermon should be prime minister.
DAIRY farmers will be happy to note that the judges at the EU Court in Luxembourg have banned terms like almond milk. The court took the very sensible view that plant-based foods cannot use terms like milk, butter and cheese in their titles.

But what did Taoiseach Leo Varadkar get for dessert at his first EU leaders summit dinner the other day? Well, a thing called almond milk ice-cream.

It reminds me of an incident from the early 1980s, and a minor controversy when the sandwiches provided at a dairy-product promotion were found to have been buttered with margarine. Such is the unpredictability of human behaviour at times.

Similarly, Brexit was not specifically on the agenda for our new Taoiseachs first summit at the end of last week. But it was in the very air around Brussels and provides the backdrop for absolutely everything that is happening in the European Union right now.

For everyone in Irish farming and agribusiness, Brexit is all about avoiding a return of the border with the North and the imposition of tariffs on Irelands exports to all parts of the United Kingdom jurisdiction. But Theresa May has again insisted that Brexit means the UK will leave both the EU single market and the customs union.

When you ask people who know about international trade and the EU, there is unanimity that this has to mean a return of a hard border. The people leading both sides of the EU-UK Brexit negotiations, now in their second week, have recognised the issue is so crucial, key people on both sides have been put in charge.

On the British side, there is Oliver Robbins, the most senior official in the UKs dedicated Brexit Department. On the EU side, Sabine Weyand, a German-born official who is deputy to the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

Everyone is agreed that an outcome on the future of the border is not possible until a deal is struck on the terms under which the UK exits the single market and customs union. Best estimate by Brussels diplomats right now is that may not be until autumn 2018 at earliest.

Britains Finance Minister, Philip Hammond, has already suggested that some sort of temporary deal is a likely result. History teaches us that temporary solutions can persist for a very long time. But even that haphazard air about the matter suggests solutions are not evident right now.

There has been much talk about using new technology to do the work previously done from those shabby customs huts, stuffed full of tedious declaration forms, dotted all along the border until the early 1990s. There are many models to ensure checks and controls are done more efficiently.

But lets keep in mind that a high-tech border is just a border by any other name. It still leaves big issues around the prospect of tariffs and increased costs to do business on this island and with the adjoining island.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has, very hearteningly, strongly stated that this electronic border is not what the Irish Government wants. He says the North must be given some kind of special status, possibly maintaining a link into the EU customs union.

That in itself opens other cans of worms. It could for example mean that Northern traders might face tariffs on trade with the rest of the UK.

For now, the post-Brexit border has a problem for every imaginable solution. But Dublin has to maximise pressure in London, Brussels and other key EU capitals.

Well keep you posted...

John Downing is an Irish Independent political correspondent
The two Irish pilots who flew Norwegian's first Boeing 737 Max aircraft from Seattle to Oslo yesterday have said the airline continues to push boundaries, changing the face of transatlantic travel.

Godfrey Higgins, director of flight operations for Norwegian Air International (NAI) Norwegian's Ireland-based subsidiary, and Pat Campbell, NAI's chief pilot for 737s, flew the new jet to Oslo in advance of it being used on Irish routes.

The jet will undergo some final certification before flying passengers from airports including Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Belfast to the US.

"It's a good product," said Mr Campbell of the groundbreaking aircraft. "We hope the Irish like it."

Mr Campbell joined the airline in 2015. He flew with Aer Lingus for over 30 years, and was on transatlantic services before he took redundancy at 50. This was after former Aer Lingus CEO Christoph Mueller set about cutting headcount soon after he took over in 2010.

Mr Higgins worked for Ryanair for more than 20 years before joining Norwegian three years ago.

"I'm enjoying it. It's a new lease of life," said Mr Campbell. Both pilots now fly about once a month to maintain their rating.
#NZ murder suspect Court OKs extradition of 'suitcase' murder suspect to New Zealand A Seoul court on Friday approved the extradition of a woman believed to be the mother of two children whose bodies were found in suitcases in New Zealand in August. The Seoul H...

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Olivia Creegan, whose parents died owing a large sum of money on their house to Bank of Ireland though a Life Loan

Olivia Creegan, whose parents died owing a large sum of money on their house through a loan product, said she has decided now the best thing to do would be to sell the house and clear the loan.

Equity release schemes, such as Life Loans, were brought in by banks between 2001 and 2010, and they enabled older people to retain the use of a house while also getting a lump sum, using the value of the house as collateral.

While no repayments were made during the term of the equity release loan, what this meant was that compounded interest was then added to the capital throughout the term of the loan.

Those left with a parents' estate often then discovered that the asset or capital was actually considerably in debt.

In 2016, Michael McGrath, finance spokesman for Fianna Fail, requested figures from the Central Bank of Ireland in respect of life loans or equity release loans.

Deputy McGrath was told by the CBI that 300m was owed on these products by just over 3,000 customers.

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Olivia has spent three years dealing with Bank of Ireland on behalf of her deceased parents.

The regulation on equity release schemes, she says, was not there to provide safely for consumers who partook in the scheme.

Olivia said that many people may not be aware of the liability that they were accumulating, she said that her mother certainly was not aware of just how much money was owed on the family home before she got dementia.

Olivia also highlights the fact that the law society from the beginning were very critical of the schemes, especially the Bank of Ireland Life Loan product.

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The Law Society, she says, felt the conditions, and the information that the banks were expecting was an intrusion of privacy, including the naming beneficiaries and executors on wills.

"The schemes were putting elderly in a very vulnerable position," she says.

It was 2011 when Olivia and her family discovered that her parents had partaken in an equity release scheme with Bank of Ireland, and despite the bank stating that all adult children would be aware of a loan like this, Olivia states that in her case only one adult knew about it.

"To discover this was devastating, you like to think your parents are secure, that they own their own home, and then to find out otherwise  I was devastated by it all," Olivia says.

In the case of Olivias parents, she says that she and her family have concerns that her parents did not understand the terms and conditions of the loan.

In 2001 the loan was worth 50k, now 16 years on the bank is owed nearly 200k.

Olivia tried approaching Bank of Ireland, asking that they freeze the interest on the loan. She also attempted to make a settlement with the bank, both requests have been refused by Bank of Ireland.

Read more: Elderly caught in debt trap by home loans from boom

Speaking to Independent.ie, Olivia says she has left no stone unturned in her efforts to save her childhood home, however she said that it is costing the family 30 per day to pay back the loan and that they have made the decision to sell the house.

She is however keen to highlight that both the Law Society and the Ombudsman have provided excellent advice.

At the time, the Law Society had called for the need for regulation of these products which did not happen.

The society has since said that they "recommend that the products be more tightly regulated, regrettably no consumer protection was put in place."

Meanwhile the Ombudsman was limited in what it could do to assist due to the time lapse that has occurred from the time the loan was taken out till Olivia approached them.

When asked about her decision to put her familys struggle with Bank of Ireland into the public domain, Olivia says that she hopes that products, like the one used by her parents, are never allowed on the market place again and that other families will not have to go through what her family has been through over the past three years.

"In some cases the loan and interest has become greater than the value of the home, in these cases there has been nothing left for families and families might not become aware of something like this until a parent needs nursing home care or passes away," she comments.

A spokesperson for Bank of Ireland said that they cannot comment on individual customer accounts, however in respect of the specific product, the Life Loan enabled people to raise finance without having to trade down or move home, with no repayments until the property was sold.
The daughter of East Derry MLA John Dallat is suing his former party colleague for alleged discrimination after she failed to clinch a job in the SDLP constituency office which she had been "promised".

Helena Dallat O'Driscoll alleges that former East Derry MLA Gerry Mullan discriminated against her on the basis of her gender and marital status by refusing to employ her as his constituency manager.

But an employment tribunal in Belfast was told yesterday that Mrs O'Driscoll's anger relates to her belief, whether "rightly or wrongly" held, that she had been promised the job in the constituency office in Derry.

She was denied the post after giving up her job in a Westminster constituency office in Scotland to return to Northern Ireland and alleges that she was told by the then MLA that "a part-time role is more suitable".

The married mother claims Mr Mullan made the comment following a "significantly detrimental" Skype interview that took place last July, shortly before she was offered the part-time position of constituency adviser.

The more senior post was given to Catherine Goligher, who Mrs O'Driscoll claims lacked the "proper credentials".

Mrs O'Driscoll's legal consultant, Patrick Moore, told the tribunal that his client was "railroaded" into accepting the job in September 2016 due to her financial commitments and was subjected to bullying and harassment which left her isolated in the workplace, before she was sacked in November.

He claimed employees were encouraged to manufacture false grounds of complaint against his client and that she was subjected to a barrage of false allegations and innuendo. Mr Moore alleged that Mrs Goligher - also a married mother - was only appointed "on the realisation that he (Gerry Mullan) had made a significant error".

But Mr Mullan's solicitor, Colin Foote, argued that his client "wouldn't have offered the claimant any role if he had an issue with married mothers" and would not have appointed Mrs Goligher to the senior role.

He also warned the case was fraught with difficulty as the claimant is unable to establish when she was treated "less favourably than a man", as there is no opportunity for comparison. Mr Foote was critical of Mrs O'Driscoll for failing to make a claim within the normal three-month statute of limitations period, and said her concerns were "only crystalised after she lost her job".

Mr Moore said his client didn't complain prior to her dismissal to avoid "worsening" her situation.

Mr Foote dismissed the entire claim, saying it is based "solely on her own speculation" and the real source of anger was that she felt she had lost out on a job she was promised.

He said the material suggesting it was discrimination "simply isn't there".

In total, three alleged acts of discrimination were identified by vice president Mr N Kelly, but he advised there was "little or no reasonable chance" of success.

He said the first two acts relate to the interview process and job offer and the third act relates to Mrs O'Driscoll's dismissal, with no suggestion that anything else occurred in between.

"The fact that both individuals were married with young children raises serious questions about the likelihood of success," said Mr Kelly.

The suggestion that Mr Mullan made the remark "seems inherently unlikely to succeed" because Mrs O'Driscoll "must at least put in place the building blocks to provide a case to answer" and the undisputed fact of Mrs Goligher's appointment stands as a "major hurdle against any claim of discrimination".

Mr Kelly said the argument that Mr Mullan suddenly developed a prejudice against such people "doesn't make sense".

Addressing the timing of the complaint, he asserted that the three alleged acts were "intrinsically linked" and any argument seeking to explain why the claim was only made in December - outside the normal statutory limit of three months - was also unlikely to succeed.

The vice president said that due to Mrs O'Driscoll's line of work she "must be assumed to have known her rights", and would have submitted a claim at the time.

"It seems much more likely that the reason for termination, whether it is right or wrong, relates to the claimants performance and conduct."

The tribunal was told that Mrs O'Driscoll recently found a job working in her father's constituency office and receives a salary of 14,500.

She must pay a 200 fee in order to progress the case, which is listed for hearing in September, but Mr Kelly warned that Mr Mullan has a "reasonable argument" to pursue costs if she loses.
The Court of Appeal has upheld the convictions of two former bank executives, jailed last year for a 7.2bn conspiracy to defraud the public about the true health of Anglo Irish Bank in 2008.

The former head of capital markets with Anglo Irish Bank John Bowe (53), from Glasnevin in Dublin, and the former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent, Denis Casey (57), from Raheny in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to a single count of conspiring to mislead investors by using interbank loans to make Anglo appear 7.2bn more valuable between March 1 and September 30, 2008.

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A jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court found them guilty following one of the longest criminal trials in the history of the State. Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Bowe to two years and Casey to two years and nine months imprisonment on July 29, 2016.

The men had brought appeals against their convictions which were heard over a week in March. Publication of the appeal hearing was restricted for legal reasons but yesterday, the three-judge Court of Appeal dismissed the men's appeals. In a 138-page judgment, President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Sean Ryan said the court had taken into account the "extensive" grounds of appeal advanced on the men's behalf and the arguments concerning their convictions".

Mr Justice Ryan said the "lengthy and complex trial" turned on issues for the jury that were properly identified by the trial judge and the trial judge had exercised his function "carefully and correctly".

The Court of Appeal found no fault with the trial judge's rulings and directions and the jury had come to conclusions that were open to them to find, the judge said.

Despite "herculean" efforts by the men's barristers and the "myriad of issues" raised on their behalf, the three-judge court was satisfied that the men's trial was satisfactory and their convictions safe.

Mr Justice Ryan, who sat with Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the appeal must accordingly be dismissed.

Giving background, Mr Justice Ryan said the case had its origins in the "global banking catastrophe" of 2007/2008 and its impact on the Irish financial sector. More specifically it related to the existential crisis that befell Anglo Irish Bank Corporation PLC that ultimately resulted in its demise.

Between September 25 and 30, 2008, and prior to Anglo's financial year-end, a series of back-to-back transactions took place between Anglo and Irish Life Assurance Limited (ILA) in the total amount of 7.2bn. They had the effect of significantly increasing Anglo's accounts in regards to deposits as at September 30, 2008.

The prosecution submitted that these transactions were circular in nature and had no commercial substance, that the purpose was to deceive the market by giving the false impression that Anglo had received customer deposits to that amount and that therefore the state of Anglo was better than it actually was.
A man who robbed a convenience shop with an airgun and was in the process of burning the cash when gardai arrived to arrest him will be sentenced later.

Derek Cooling (29) and another man entered the More For Less store and pointed the air gun at a female employee standing behind the counter, shouting Open the till or I'll blow your head off.

Cooling of Old Church Crescent, Clondalkin, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of the shop in Bawnogue Shopping Centre, Dublin 22 on July 18, 2016.

Garda Barry O'Shea told Diarmuid Collins BL, prosecuting, the cashier opened the till and handed over the cash in the drawer.

The court heard the raiders then kicked in the door of an office at the rear of the store where the shop manager was watching the events unfold on CCTV.

Gda O'Shea said the manager was hit on the head with the air gun and was ordered to empty the contents of the safe into a bag. Both employees feared for their lives during the robbery.

Gda O'Shea said gardai followed a blood trail left by one of the raiders who injured himself during the robbery.

We observed smoke coming from the chimney of a nearby house which struck us as very strange as it was a warm summer's day, he said.

The court heard that gardai entered the house and found Cooling and another man burning items of clothing and money.

In a victim impact statement the cashier said she was unable to return to work in the store following the robbery. She was too afraid to leave her home for weeks and had to take medication to help her sleep.

Mr Collins said the manager of the store suffered from paranoia and anxiety in the aftermath of the robbery.

Kitty Perle BL, defending, said Cooling was heavily intoxicated when he carried out the robbery, to such an extent that his behaviour was bizzare.

The fact that the men were burning the cash when gardai arrived at the house defies all logic, she said.

Ms Perle said Cooling, who has 26 previous convictions, was from a good and decent family and had had substance abuse problems since he was a teenager.

Judge Patricia Ryan ordered a psychiatric report, and adjourned the matter until October.
'Bill Bennett, who was 18 months old, was killed in a farm tragedy at around 3pm on Thursday when he was struck by the vehicle' (stock photo)

The driver of a front loader vehicle that accidentally hit and killed a baby boy did not know the tragedy had happened until after leaving the farm.

Bill Bennett, who was 18 months old, was killed in a farm tragedy at around 3pm on Thursday when he was struck by the vehicle, which was working the family's land in the Johnswell area of Co Kilkenny.

It is understood the person controlling the front loader left the farm before it was discovered the baby had been struck in the tragic accident.

"This person didn't even realise what had happened, that the young lad had been hit.

"It's a terrible accident and an awful tragedy," a source said.

The baby was the fourth child of Elaine and Johnny Bennett, a family who are said to be very popular in the local area.

The family are known to be extremely safety conscious and have specific play areas for the children away from the farmyard.

Locals said the family had been left "absolutely devastated".

"The whole place is in mourning at what has happened," local councillor Patrick Millea told the Irish Independent.

"They would be a very well-known family in the area. I would have known the grandfather of the little boy quite well.

"Everyone is just in complete shock," he said.

Gardai and the Health and Safety Authority are investigating the incident which has caused devastation in the community, located a few kilometres east of Kilkenny city.

The victim has two older brothers and a sister, while many members of Mr and Mrs Bennett's extended family also live in the area.

Tragedy

"This is an unimaginable tragedy," local priest Fr Frank Purcell said, after spending several hours consoling the family on Thursday.

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"The whole place is devastated. It's unbelievable."

Funeral arrangements have been put in place for baby Bill.

Prayers were being said last night at the family home with funeral mass to take place today at 3.30pm at The Church of St John the Baptist, in Johnswell.

"Deeply regretted by his heartbroken parents John and Elaine, brothers Eoghan and Cathal, sister Caoimhe, grandparents Ted, Sean and Monica, aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends," the funeral notice said.

Local councillor Pat Fitzpatrick appealed for privacy for the family.
Fresh from their month-long honeymoon around the world, Pippa Middleton and her new husband, James Matthews, have landed up on these shores for her best friend's wedding.

The couple are staying at the Eccles Hotel in Glengarriff, Co Cork, along with a dozen friends who have travelled over for the wedding of Camilla Campion-Awwad (33) and her long-term partner Oliver Jenkinson.

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The low-key wedding will take place today at Bantry House, a 17th-century stately home in West Cork.

Camilla met Pippa while they were both studying English Literature at Edinburgh University and is known to be a regular visitor to the Middletons' home in Berkshire.

She now works in investor relations at Investcorp in the City in London.

She is the daughter of a Jordanian plastic surgeon Awwad Awwad and his Irish wife, a consultant practice nurse, Constance Campion-Awwad - who run a plastic surgery practice together in London.

Camilla and Oliver last year led a fundraising campaign for the British Heart Foundation in memory of their friend Miles Frost, who passed away suddenly.The couple quipped that if they beat their target, they would "complete the 54-mile journey on a tandem bike..and in fancy dress; which could be permanently damaging to both our relationship and self-esteem."

Pippa and James made their first public appearance after their wedding at another fundraising party for the Miles Frost Fund in London on Wednesday.
Health Minister Simon Harris has deferred at the last minute a plan to ration vital post-operation products for breast cancer survivors.

Thousands of breast cancer survivors who have had radical surgery could face added financial strain following the HSE decision to cut vital supports.

It follows the decision to ration the supply of post mastectomy bras and prostheses in areas where the scheme is working well in order to extend the service countrywide.

The unpopular changes were due to come into effect today, but last night the HSE was forced to postpone the introduction for a month.

Health Minister Simon Harris said in a statement released this morning; "Yesterday I heard of planned changes to supports for patients with breast cancer. This was the first I heard of these changes.

"When I became aware of the proposed changes, I intervened and their introduction is now deferred.

"Whilst I understand that the health service is working with a range of stakeholders, most importantly patients, to try to improve the supports throughout the country, this cannot take place before plans are put in place to ensure there is no hardship or reduction of supports for patients who are already receiving a particular level of service."

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The minister said he has asked the HSE to get back to him with an "enhanced plan that doesn't adversely affect women who are already coping with cancer."

He continued; "I want to ensure that they are not subjected to additional stress and worry about losing services.

"It is essential that every woman in this country in receipt of post-operative and cancer treatment supports continues to receive them. I want to be very clear that there cannot be any cuts in this area."

Under the new scheme, women may only be provided with an allowance of 68.50 for one breast prosthesis every two years.

However, a prosthesis can cost between 110 and 200, two major suppliers warned last night.

Women will no longer be provided with surgical bras, other than those supplied when leaving the hospital.

The new scheme also means changes are also being made to the provision of wigs or hairpieces to patients. These will be provided on a once-off basis for cancer-related hair loss, and cancer-related alopecia. Patients will be provided with a maximum 440 voucher to purchase the wig or hairpiece.

The HSE attempted to defend the overhaul - saying the new scheme will give every woman the same service countrywide, and end the problem of some health areas having limited or no supports.

"The policies were introduced to ensure standard guidelines and equal and consistent access based on a patients' need and not their geographic location.

"The new policy now extends access on an ongoing basis to all women for post-mastectomy products - previously these products were only accessible to medical card holders," said a spokeswoman.

Dr Janice Walshe, a medical oncologist at St Vincent's Hospital Dublin, said: "While a diagnosis of breast cancer is difficult, the knowledge that a mastectomy is needed rather than a lumpectomy is doubly devastating.

"Patients will often suffer low self-esteem due to altered body image, so the importance for a woman to have a proper well-fitting good prosthesis cannot be overstated.

"Personally, I think it is inconceivable to think that women may not be wearing an essential garment due to inability to pay."

Dr David Fennelly, another oncologist in St Vincent's Hospital, said women who are recovering from breast cancer surgery are anxious to get back to a normal life and should have access to the best supports.

Marybeth Shiell, who runs the Everywoman service at Murray's pharmacy in Talbot Street, Dublin, said: "This seems to have blindsided everyone."

Kate Conway, who runs the Bravelle service in Ballyneety in Limerick, said the specialised bras can cost on average 50 to 60 each.

She called on Health Minister Simon Harris to intervene today and said it appeared the changes were "slipped in under the radar".

Around one in nine women will develop breast cancer. It is the most common malignant tumour diagnosed in Irish women, with 2,883 new cases each year on average.

This represents almost one-third of all major malignancies diagnosed in women.

Previously, cancer survivors in several parts of the country were entitled to two surgical bras.

If she had a medical card she may then be fitted and supplied with two surgical bras every year, and a new breast prosthesis every two years if required.

Under the new system, the HSE will issue the private patient with a voucher worth 135.50 post mastectomy. This will cover one prosthesis at 68.50 and two bras at 33.50 each. For double mastectomies, the voucher will be valued at 204 - further vouchers will be issued at two-yearly intervals.

'This is a pittance just to allow women to feel normal again'

"Come at me when I'm healthy and I'll fight you - but not when I'm sick when I can't," said Sandra O'Rourke-Glynn.

Diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of July 2015, the 48-year-old mother from Athy, Co Kildare, is still in the middle of chemotherapy and will shortly undergo a second mastectomy.

Afterwards, she hopes to undergo a breast reconstruction - but in the meantime says she "wouldn't go without" her prosthesis.

"Some people say it wouldn't worry them, but everybody is different and it's a must have piece of equipment for me."

When diagnosed, Ms O'Rourke-Glynn was told she was entitled to a wig up to the value of 750 and said there were members of her family who had never seen her without it.

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"It's a time in your life when self-esteem is crucial and a good prosthesis and a decent wig really helps," she said.

Now women like Ms O'Rourke-Glynn are facing a cut of about 50pc in their entitlements - and she said this would be devastating for women who were just about managing financially. Women in her breast cancer support group were very upset, she said.

"There are so many women out there who won't be able to come up with the extra money.

"If you are entitled to a medical card, funds are tight," she pointed out.

She claimed that if it was a male issue, these cutbacks simply would not happen. "It just seems to be easier to attack women and women's causes," she said.

"This is a pittance to allow women to feel 'normal' enough to go to the shops so they feel people aren't staring at them."

By Nicola Anderson
A mother has told of her agony as she learned her teenage daughter had sent a malicious message to another young girl.

The concerned parent, who wishes to remain anonymous, described the moment she received a phone call from the police to say they were coming to her house to discuss the incident.

The Northern Ireland mother wants to raise awareness in a bid to encourage other parents and young people to be aware of what can be happening behind their children's screens.

Incredibly, she said she was happy that the victim's mother had gone to the police, as it opened her eyes to what was happening.

She told the Belfast Telegraph: "I got a phone call from the PSNI. I came home and I knew myself that something had happened.

"The police came out and they were very professional. We sat at the table and they said she was the perpetrator, she is the person that has made this problem happen. The police officer said if this happens again we will arrest her and take her phone."

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The worried mum said her life "changed" from that moment on and she was in a "state of shock".

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She described how she was "glad" that the victim's mum went to the police and encouraged others to speak up if this is happening to them.

"I am very glad because it's opened my eyes," she added.

The mother has since penned a letter, which details the problem that she feels comes from the ease of access that children have to phones, the internet and technology.

She has since restricted the amount of time and when her children are allowed their phones.

She added: "When I read the papers at the weekend, and I see a young face that has been bullied - there are hundreds of texts from so-called friends.

"The reality of the situation is intense."

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She continued: "Children are not developing into normal human beings.

"We are providing their wifi and phones at 600 - because that is what parents do.

"They are not old enough to understand that not everything on the internet is good. And at this stage it needs to be controlled, what they have access to.

"They take their phones into classrooms in school and they can send a hundred texts while sitting in English class.

"We need to have some control over our kids. That harsh reality is so close to every one of us. It's on the touch of a mobile phone.

"We need to protect our kids. They haven't the opportunity to grow up."

"It scares me, I'm frightened for every parent. I'm scared for every child.

"They need access to the internet but it needs to be controlled."
A heartbroken daughter has paid tribute to her "very loyal" postman father who died suddenly during his rounds last week.

There was widespread shock after the sudden death of Tommy Cribbin on June 20, less than two months after his own mother passed away.

Mr Cribbin (52) was chatting to workers in Webb's Butchers in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo after delivering letters when he collapsed, he was attended by a doctor and ambulance crew before he was airlifted to Galway University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

He is mourned by his wife Mary, daughter Lorraine, son PJ and wider group of family and friends.

Devastated Lorraine fondly remembered her father, telling Independent.ie how he was a devoted family man.

She said: "My dad was a very loyal man who had so much time for his family and friends.

"He was especially close to his mother, who only died seven weeks prior. The two of them would always be each side of the stove having 40 winks.

"They were the best of friends, despite the daily arguments they had. He used to say 'never go to bed angry'. His family were his priority."

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She added that Tommy was known for his playful ways, saying: "He had a great sense of humour and was always messing and winding people up!

"He was an animal lover too and was completely obsessed with his cattle and our kitten.

"He used to bring her in the car to collect me from my horse."

An Post workers formed a guard of honour at Tommy's funeral and Lorraine said that he loved his role with the organisation.

She said: "He has been a postman for eleven years and not once did I hear him complain about it or his early starts.

"His boss John-Joe told us last week he would always tell him that he's late again, even though he would be half an hour early each day without a doubt.

"He loved his job and his work colleagues and had great time for them. He never had a bad word to say about them or his job."

Lorraine said that her family is still coming to terms with their loss and thanked the local community in Claremorris and Knockbrack, Co Mayo for their kindness and support.

She said: "The last week has been crazy. There has been mixed emotions.

"I think we are all still in shock and still haven't come to terms with it all.

"We have cried, broke down, laughed and cried again but with the support of our fantastic neighbours friends and family they have made is as easy as possible for us.

"We've had loads of visitors each day and people ringing us to make sure we are okay, it's so nice to see how much they care about us and we love them all dearly."

She continued to say: "The support of the community has been top class and we genuinely cannot thank them enough.

"Both neighbours from Claremorris and Knockbrack have been outstanding.

"We have had people bring us over dinner, flowers, cards and hugs. I can't say it made things easy but it sure has made it a lot easier."
Two of the crew of Rescue 116: (left to right) Dara Fitzpatrick and Ciaran Smith

A woman whose brother is missing at sea described the "utter devastation" at the thought of never finding his body.

Orla Smith is the sister of Irish Coast Guard wincher Ciaran Smith, whose body was never recovered following a tragic helicopter accident earlier this year. Four crew members were killed when their helicopter plunged into the sea off the coast of Mayo, in a rescue attempt that went horribly wrong.

Ms Smith said that while she will "have hope" of finding him for "as long as I live", she has been forced to accept that his body may never be found.

Speaking to Marian Finucane on RTE Radio One, she said: "When we went out to look for Ciaran, we were mounting the single biggest sea search in the history of the Irish state. It helped me to realise that maybe we wont get him home, maybe (the sea) would be his final resting place. And Im okay with that.

"He is in no way not with us, hes all around us. Hes in his three girls, most definitely. And that gives us such strength and it keeps us going but there is still the motivation in me to get his body and put him in a place that we can visit and say our thoughts. I want him home for him. Ciaran was a homebody, he loved being at home."



She was joined on air by Niamh Fitzpatrick, the sister of Dara Fitzpatrick, who was also killed when the Rescue 116 helicopter crash landed. She described the terror of learning that her sister was missing.

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"My phone went and it was my sister and she just said two guys are at the house from CHC and they say the helicopter has gone down.

"The only way I can describe it is that it was fear with a capital F. You know when you see somebodys face and not only their face but every cell of their body screams terror. And I just kept asking them do you know because there was the fear was that they were trying to protect us. But they honestly didnt know."

Ms Fitzpatrick discovered that her sister was dead just a few hours later. Captain Dara Fitzpatrick was the first crew member to be recovered from the sea, followed by co-pilot Mark Duffy. Ciaran Smith and Paul Ormsby remain missing.

Ms Fitzpatrick said an "eerie sense of the unreal" came over her when she heard the devastating news.

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"Its as if youre on a railway crossing in a car thats stuck across the crossing, it wont move, and were looking down the track. And down the track I can see a train coming.

"That moment when the two guys from CHC landed in the kitchen... In that kitchen they stood there and told us that the body was Daras. Thats when the train hit," she said.

Ms Smith said she experienced similar feelings of disbelief, as time slipped away and her brother's safe return became less likely.

"As the day went on, I realised that he had been in the water for quite some time and I realised that no, even my big brother wasnt going to get through this

"Your head goes through so many different things. Youre thinking about the accident, youre thinking about whether or not theyre going to find him, youre thinking about whether or not hes going to be alive, youre thinking about if hes not alive, what do we do. And its difficult," she said.

While the tragedy gripped the country as it unfolded in March, it was also subject to royal attention.

"Rescue 116 was in RAF Valley after a mission and they were at the base at the time. They were just sitting in the crew room hanging out and Prince William walked in, because he was based there at the time. And he looked at them all and said 'what are you doing here?'" Ms Fitzpatrick said.

"So Paul Ormsby, quick as you like, said 'we're invading you' and Prince William said 'you can have it.' So great camaraderie. Also the families got a letter from Prince William, just from one search and rescue professional to another to express condolences."

A preliminary report into the accident was published by the Air Accident Investigation Unit in April, which stated that the navigational route used by the crew may have been lacking important information. The helicopter reportedly "pitched up" as it started its descent, before plunging into the sea.

The reason for the crew's travel has also been called into question, as the fisherman they were supposed to be winching to safety had not suffered life-threatening injuries.

Both women said they avoided focusing on such details.

"We say about the dead that they must rest in peace, but my feeling is with living, we have to live in peace as well. They all fought for their lives and we have our lives and we must live in peace. Is it useful to focus on blame?" Ms Fitzpatrick said.

"Our job is not to blame, but to learn to live without our loved ones."

Ms Smith added that no burden should be placed upon the fisherman, who called for assistance before the accident took place.

The sisters also took the opportunity to thank members of the local community for their support.
Thousands of people took part in the annual 'Rally for Life' march but were met by pro-choice groups campaigning to repeal the Eighth Amendment

Thousands of people took part in the annual Rally for Life march today, which called for the Eight Amendment to be saved.

The event was organised by the Life Institute, who do not want our abortion laws to be changed.

Over two hours people marched from Parnell Square through Dublin City Centre before reaching Merrion Square.

As they made their way up O'Connell Street they were met by around 200 pro-choice groups, who lined either side of the road as they passed.

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The All Ireland Rally For Life Facebook page has also shared messages of support from people in places including Boston, New York, Malta and Madrid.

Among those who attended in support of retaining the Eight Amendment were TD Mattie McGrath and Bishop Denis Nulty.

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The Eight Amendment prohibits abortion here by giving equal rights to the mother and the foetus.

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The Citizen's Assembly has recommended that a vote on the Eight Amendment is held and Health Minister Simon Harris has said that he hopes this will happen in 2018.
Bin charges are set to rise by at least 30 a year for the average family, but that's just the beginning under the new regime.

Half of all families are expected to be hit with the initial rise, with warnings of more price hikes to come.

Meanwhile, anti-water- charge campaigners warned they will now turn their attention to bins, in a move that is likely to see a wave of protests across the country.

Groups who led the successful movement that forced a government U-turn on water bills are preparing to launch a similar crusade against changes to how householders pay for rubbish collection.

Under the new pricing regime coming into force in September, experts suggest that customers who currently pay a flat-rate fee, around half of all households, can expect to be hit.

Initial increases were likely to be in "single-digit percentages", one source said. But the end of below-cost bin collections means that rising fuel and labour costs are also set to drive up prices in the coming years.

People Before Profit TD Brid Smith, who went to jail for her opposition to bin charges in 2003, said Fine Gael was "terrified" of the backlash coming its way. Sinn Fein is beginning a series of nationwide protests this weekend aimed at stalling Environment Minister Denis Naughten's pay-by-use regime, which is effectively a ban on flat-fee bin charges.

"We are calling on all those opposed to the new waste charge increases to come out and stand with struggling families this weekend," housing spokesman Eoin O Broin said.

Government sources admit they are concerned about the potential for protests in the wake of the Jobstown trial which saw TD Paul Murphy and six others cleared.

Ms Smith said the Government had given private waste collectors "a huge amount of leeway over the years" and allowed rubbish to become a "lucrative business".

"They are now campaigning to be let do what they want. That's what the announcement amounted to," Ms Smith said, adding the minister's message about households needing to recycle more was "a ruse" as Ireland already had a good record.

People Before Profit would campaign to bring waste collection back under the control of local authorities, she said.

But Mr Naughten told the Irish Independent the new regime "is most certainly not about imposing financial hardship on families".

He added: "As minister and a public representative, it would be inexcusable for me to stand by, do nothing and allow a situation to develop where household bins will be left on our streets uncollected because there is nowhere to bring the waste to. This is where the country is headed if I don't act now."

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail's Timmy Dooley said his party needed reassurance that prices wouldn't rise in an unfair manner. It wants a regulator for the waste industry to be appointed.

The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA), which represents the major collectors, is refusing to comment on the new charging regime, saying it has not been provided with details.

Some of the biggest operators including Panda, Greyhound and City Bin have indicated they don't expect prices to rise for customers who are already on pay-by-weight systems. But half of all households nationally pay an annual fee, regardless of how much waste they produce, meaning they face hikes.

Plans for a regulator to set maximum prices could also backfire, with more price hikes down the line, one source said. "In regulated industries, prices don't come down. If you have the cost of a tonne of recyclates falling from 150 to 75, and labour costs are up 10pc, the regulator would have to say yes [to price increases]."

But the source added: "I would be amazed if anyone increases prices beyond single-digit percentages, because they'll lose customers. There will be winners and losers [under the new regime]."
The deadline has come and gone, and the Government's target to have no family living in emergency accommodation has not been met.

Close to 650 families with children are still living in commercial hotels in Dublin alone - despite former housing minister Simon Coveney's deadline of July 1 to have all families out of hotels and B&Bs.

And the homeless crisis shows no sign of being resolved any time soon. In fact, it's getting worse month-on-month.

The latest data from the Department of Housing shows that 647 homeless families are living in commercial hotels and B&Bs in Dublin. Some 1,312 families are homeless across the country, 10 more than last month.

An astonishing 2,777 children are homeless, up from 2,708 in April. At the same time, some 4,922 adults have nowhere to call home.

The most recent figures - dated up until May 31 - were provided by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) which said that the figures fluctuate daily.

Mr Coveney had intended moving a large proportion of these families into 15 family hubs across the capital by today, although new Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy admitted in recent weeks that the deadline would not be met.

It is understood that at least 10 of these hubs are in the process of being readied. Just one is in operation. It is home to 40 families. A spokeswoman for the DRHE said another location was due to be ready in the coming days.

"There were 647 families with children experiencing homelessness in hotels in the Dublin region on May 31," the spokeswoman said. "This figure changes daily, as some families will move on from emergency accommodation. However, new families are presenting as homeless on a weekly basis.

"At present, there is just one family hub in operation, the facility in High Park, Drumcondra, operated by Respond. This facility provides accommodation for about 42 families. We hope the facility on Clonliffe Road, to be operated by Crosscare, will be open in the coming days. This facility will provide accommodation for about 50 families."

City councillors have been invited to view the Clonliffe Road facility next week in preparation for the opening. A letter to elected members said these would only be a temporary solution.

"Family hubs are an important first response for families who become homeless," it read. "They are not the long-term housing solution, as families will move into houses and apartments that will be provided under social housing supports, once supply becomes available."

At the end of March, 871 families were in emergency accommodation. That has dropped by more than 220, but it's worth noting that in the same period, around 600 families presented as homeless. Around half avoided hotel rooms. Money is being spent - 25m on the homeless hubs alone. But only new homes coming on to the market will ultimately resolve this crisis.

On that point, there are some green shoots. The number of units granted planning permission and under construction is on the increase. Government funding to provide essential infrastructure on sites will help increase delivery of houses and apartments.

But the figures of completions remain stubbornly below what is required. Experts suggest at least 25,000 a year are needed to keep pace with demand. Given the lack of construction in recent years, that's probably closer to 40,000. Last year, just under 15,000 were completed.

Not until new units come on stream will homeless families finally have a place to call home. And there's no deadline for that.
In the light of Shane Ross's attempt to introduce lay people into the system of judicial selection, might I proffer my services?

I believe that I would be eminently suitable for a position on the putative board. My late brother was clerk of the court for Meath, my son has a law degree and my husband assures me, quite regularly, that I am forensic in disputation and nit picking.

Further, I have read 'To Kill a Mockingbird', my favourite film is '...And Justice for All' and I have watched every episode of 'The Good Wife', 'Boston Legal', 'Law and Order' (New York and UK), 'The Practice', 'Ally McBeal', 'Perry Mason' and 'Rumpole of the Bailey'. While I await Deputy Ross's response I will watch another episode of 'Judge Judy' just to keep my expertise honed in readiness.

Eileen Casey

Dublin 15

Trial an error with Jobstown

In the 21st century, to witness the recently completed court trial of those involved in a political protest - a protest bearing similarities to trials of protesters in the days of British rule - is indeed surreal.

Despite all the protests from Government ministers that they played no role whatsoever in the prosecutions, there is now a perception that this was political payback. Perception does far more damage than fact.

That the case came to trial is beyond belief. While we must respect the independence of the DPP, the DPP should have taken into account the fact the case would be turned into a political trial.

There are times when democracy and separation of powers are best served by inaction, rather than action, particularly legal action. Historically it's called 'giving a fool's pardon'. Enormous video evidence was available. The prosecution had one senior counsel, the defendants had seven. Surely someone could have foreseen the shambles that one versus seven legal minds could create. There were far worse political protests in the 1970-80s, yet no charges were ever laid.

There are no winners in the Jobstown trial. The Labour Party has suffered enormous damage, as has Fine Gael, not to mention An Garda Siochana. In effect the biggest loser is democracy, because it now places An Garda Siochana in an invidious position when it comes to policing future political protest. Frances Fitzgerald did no one any favours when she said in the Dail "as in many court cases there is always the possibility of appeal".

Judge Melanie Greally is to be congratulated for her decision to allow the jury to do its duty, albeit with proper judicial advice.

Some will say Judge Greally should have thrown the case out in the beginning or even part way through. We should be thankful she allowed the case to run its course, and to allow the jury to make the decision. By doing so, Judge Greally removed any perception of "political interference".

Declan Foley

Berwick, Australia

Corbyn steals a march on May

It seems to me that Theresa May didn't have to offer her friends and allies in the DUP any inducements to keep the Conservatives in power other than to point out what would certainly be the alternative government.

I cannot imagine any circumstance under which the DUP would permit or facilitate the accession to power of the Labour Party led by the ideologically pure anti-monarchist Jeremy Corbyn, despite him being one of the last truly honest men left in politics who has held fast to his socialist principles as his party moved right under the careerist Tony Blair.

The campaign to elect Mrs May into office by a landslide vote was rejected by the electorate, which took exception to being regarded by much of the British media and big business as political illiterates. Joe Soap Public was expected to comply as dictated and vote as ordained by his 'betters'. However, it took a 'confidence and supply' deal with the homophobic DUP for Mrs May to form a government. Coughs were well and truly softened as Mr Corbyn's principles and ethics appear to have rubbed off on the British electorate. It seems Mrs May has been DUPed.

Tom Cooper

Templeogue, Dublin

Time to give Trump his cards

Each day we are made more aware of Donald Trump's need to be seen as someone who is important, someone who is respected for his business acumen. In short, a wise figurehead who can manipulate the establishment to his financial advantage, giving hope to those working class Americans whom he has exploited for the whole of his life, and those middle class Americans who need justification for their self-centred well being, and absolution for their disregard of the needs of so many of their fellow citizens.

This week, 'Time' magazine has insisted that Mr Trump takes down forged front page photographs with a large headline praising him from the walls of his various business establishments.

How long will Congress allow the people of the USA to suffer the humiliation and ignominy of this sociopath?

Harry Spillane

Mount Merrion, Co Dublin

Lost in translation

It's interesting that an Irish Language Act is now centre stage in the negotiations to restore power-sharing in the North ('Deadline looms for Northern Ireland parties to strike Stormont power-sharing deal', Irish Independent, June 29). The sticking point we're told is that while Sinn Fein wants this as a stand-alone measure, the DUP insists on linking it with similar provision for Ulster Scots. Part of the problem has been the linkage between Irish and Ulster Scots which was made in previous agreements, and at least implicitly accepted by the nationalist parties.

Ulster Scots is a regional dialect of Scots, itself an old dialect of English. Irish by contrast is a language. The difference is obvious if we think about it. While there is a large Irish-medium education sector in the North, there isn't a single school there operating through Ulster Scots. This is not to belittle the cultural importance of Ulster Scots to those who regard it as their tongue, but it is important to recognise the difference between it and Irish. Blurring this distinction, no doubt for good reasons, in previous agreements is part of the problem politicians have to unravel.

John Glennon

Co Wicklow

Orwell's school of thought

George Orwell becomes more and more relevant in our misnamed "Liberal Age".

One is reminded of his quote in 'Animal Farm' where some animals are "more equal than others". This is true now where in Ireland it is proposed that some schools will have control over admission policy whereas in Catholic schools this freedom will no longer exist. Orwell, you should be living now.

William Shepherd

Glenageary, Co Dublin
Pupils of Bay Estate enjoyed a trip to the beach at Shelling Hill for their end of year project

Pupils got a chance to learn about marine wildlife during the beach clean up

Young pupils of Scoil Mhuire na nGael Bay Estate rounded off their school year with a trip to the beach for the 'Operation beach clean at Shelling Hill' project.

A fascinating day for all the sixth class students, they hosted by John Shepherd from the company Xylem Watermark.

Teacher Jonathan Lyons said it was an exciting educational visit for the class, who along with learning about marine biology and water conservation also took part in a clean up of the beach.

He explained that the company - Xylem watermark - run specific school based programmes under their corporate citizenship program to provide and protect safe water resources in communities around the world and educate people about water issues.

'John Shepherd from Xylem also has a qualification in Marine Biology, and as well as educating the children of 6th class on the importance of keeping our beaches clean for future generations, he provided some fantastic knowledge on Irish sea life.'

'The pupils of Scoil Mhuire thoroughly enjoyed the hands on experience and were learning and experiencing new things throughout the day.'

After an eye-opening day along the north Louth coastline, the class were then transported back to Carlingford Sailing club where host John had a presentation prepared to discuss the finds of the day.

'A fantastic day really was had by all, the children learned so much about marine life and the importance of water conservation,' added Mr. Lyons.

Watermark was launched in 2008 as a three-year, commitment by the company to 'promote the stewardship of water resources for the next generation.'

They are currently working across the globe through partnerships with leading nonprofit organisations and the participation of employees, to improve the lives of more than 500,000 people. Through programmes such as the collaboration with Bay Estate school, the company have pledged to help students understand water challenges around the world.
Junior Achievement Ireland were joined by Louth businesses, teachers, students and special guest Stephen Kenny, Manager, Dundalk FC to celebrate twenty years of industry-education partnerships in Louth last week.

The Dundalk manager commented on how 'Junior Achievement programmes instil a drive and determination in students, assisting them in maximising their potential and being the best they can be. This is something I am extremely passionate about and I am delighted to celebrate Junior Achievement Ireland's 20th anniversary and recognise the important work they are doing in the Louth area.'

Audrey Flood, TY Coordinator, O'Fiaich College added that, 'The Junior Achievement programmes are an essential learning experience for the students in O'Fiaich College by 'inspiring young minds'. They establish an essential link for our school with local businesses and provide our students with an opportunity to hear first-hand about the world of work and entrepreneurship.

The programmes reinforce the work we are doing in the school and help to equip the students with the skills they need going forward into further education and employment, including financial literacy skills, entrepreneurial skills, decision making skills, communication skills etc.

Fifth class students, Chloe Durnin O'Brien, Justine Carroll, Oisin Coleman and Tadhg Dowdall (all aged 11) from Scoil Mhuire na nGael National School shared their experience of the 'Our World' programme, which was delivered by business volunteer Amy Clinton from Prometric.

Hosting the event, Brendan Gallagher, Director, Prometric said 'In terms of staff development, JAI is a fantastic mechanism for our organisation's training and development goals as not only are the students left feeling inspired and motivated to achieve their full potential, it also enhances the skill-set of our workforce - from presentation skills to time management.'
A flotilla event is set to be held on Carlingford Lough next month in honour of the fallen crew of Coastguard 'Rescue 116.'

Captain Mark Duffy, Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, winch operator Ciaran Smith and winchman Paul Ormsby (53) died when their Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 11 crashed twelve kilometres off the County Mayo coast on March 14th.

Captain Fitzpatrick was recovered from the sea but tragically died a short while later, while the remains of Captain Duffy, who was piloting the rescue helicopter, were only found after the vessel was recovered from the sea.

Captain Duffy lived in Blackrock with his wife Hermione and two children. His tragic loss is still felt deeply in the community.

Sadly, winchmen Orsmby and Smith have not been recovered.

A series of events are being planned across the country to honour the bravery and courage of the entire crew, and it is set to be a poignant scene on Sunday July 30th in Carlingford Lough as a tribute to the fallen coastguard. Although details are still being finalised the event will involve a flotilla of boats leaving Warrenpoint Harbour area around 4.30pm sailing down towards Rostrevor Bay and over to Carlingford Marina.

The RNLI will provide a display on shore at Victoria Square, and on the water focused on their current 'Respect the Water' campaign, and it is hoped there will be a fly past by one of the Coast Guard Search and Rescue helicopters.

In what is expected to be a truly unique event, it will be a salute to the bravery and sacrifice of the rescue crew and all who help to protect lives on the water. There will also be a voluntary collection for participation in the event and all proceeds will go to RNLI in Dublin.
The burial site of a Dundalk soldier who fought and died on a World War One battlefield in France has been found.

Dundalk councillor, Maria Doyle was among the first people to visit the grave of Private Patrick Collins, who was originally from the Castletown Road.

She explained how her interest in his life, and tragic death - began when she came across a story in the Argus in November 2014 about a WW1 medal which had been found belong to a Pte.P Collins.

A teacher at the CBS primary, she included the story of Private Collins in a project with her class, which went on to win the 'Decade of Centenaries' competition run by the Department of Education.

'I was really intrigued after I read about his medal having been found after it was in storage for sixty years. So I went to find out a little bit more about this Dundalk man who died on a battlefield in France over 100 years ago.'

She discovered that Peter Collins was believed to have joined the Louth Militia, otherwise known as the 6 Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, when he was just aged 15 in 1899.

'He was transferred to the 4th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (North down Militia) in 1905, and is thought to have been called up in August 1914, before landing in France 18 March 1915.'

The Dundalk man, who wasn't married, and wasn't believed to have had any children, found himself on the front line at the Battle of Aubers Ridge which started 8 May 1915.

Tragically he was killed May 9th 1915, and until recently very little was known about where he had been buried.

'I went on a tour recently of the WW1 battlefields, having done some of this research about Private Collins beforehand.'

She discovered that he was buried in the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery in Belgium. 'The cemetery is about thirty miles away from where the battle took place. But his name is listed on the grave stone. Within the same row there were so many unidentified soldiers buried.'

She was humbled she said to be able to take photographs as a record of where he was buried.

'I think there were probably a lot more men from Dundalk, and across Louth who went out to fight in WW1, many of whom never came back home.'

'We don't know if Patrick Collins still has family living in Dundalk,' added Cllr. Doyle, who said she wanted to acknowledge the sacrifice that he and so many others had made.

'I still have his medal, which we used in the class project, and will continue to use it in whenever we do projects on World War 1 again.'

She added that the Dundalk soldiers story inspired her young pupils, and having a chance to hold the 100 year old medal 'gave them a tangible link to the story.'
'Writing Home', the 90-minute feature film that recently completed filming in Carlingford and around Cooley will premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on Wednesday July 12. The film has been allocated the prestigious 10pm slot in the Fleadh's main venue, the Town Hall Theatre.

The film, a romantic comedy, starring stand-up comedian Tony Kelly and actors Caoimhe O'Malley and Geraldine McAlinden, is in contention for three awards: Best Irish Feature, Best First Irish Feature, and the Audience Award.

Producer Mark Coffey, son of local retired RTE journalist Nick Coffey, said: 'It's a fantastic honour for all the cast and crew to have been selected to premiere Writing Home at such a prestigious festival. And everyone is really excited that we have been put forward for these awards'.

More than 20 members of the cast, along with technicians and production team spent two weeks in the Carlingford and Greenore area before moving on to Dublin and London. Mark said: 'Writing Home could not have been made without the beautiful locations and the generosity of the people of the area'. He hopes to screen the film in Carlingford soon after the Galway Fleadh as a thank all those who helped to make the film in Cooley.

A further link to Carlingford is the music provided by local composer and now resident of Chicago, Gareth Woods. 'Gareth got in touch when he heard about the film being made and offered us some of his original music. Once we heard his songs that were influenced by growing up in Carlingford, we knew his music would be perfect for the film'.

An interesting angle to the film was the use of drone cameras which flew over Carlingford and Whitestown just a couple of weeks ago. The drone footage was captured by Emmy award winning operator Theo Jebb. Mark said 'You'll see Carlingford from a bird's eye view that you'll never have seen before'.

Writing Home tells the story of Daniel Doran, the writer of a string of international bestsellers of dubious literary merit. He returns reluctantly to a small rural village in Ireland where he has to deal with family politics, the old flame he walked out on and the daughter he's never met.

Mark said: 'Tony Kelly, who plays the part of Daniel Doran, is absolutely hilarious in the role. I'd like to encourage everybody to make the trip to Galway for the premiere on July 12. Not only will you have a great time watching Writing Home but you can also help us win the Audience Award'.

Tickets for the Writing Home premiere are available from the Galway Film Fleadh website www.galwayfilmfleadh.com. The filmmakers are still seeking sponsors to help with post-production costs.

There is still time for potential sponsors, whose logo will be credited at the end of the film, to contact Mark for further information at coffeymn@tcd.ie or 0838326603.
As part of their 'Summer Blast' week from July 10 - 14, Connect Bray Neighbourhood Youth Project will be holding a family friendly Professional Wrestling Show in Ballywaltrim Community Centre with all proceeds going to Pieta House, who they have been raising funds for throughout the year.

All Summer Blast members will be attending the show through their registration fee for the week-long event, but all are welcome to attend. Tickets can be purchased now from the youth office at Ballywaltrim Community Centre and are just 5.

Limited tickets may be available on the door on the night but pre-purchasing tickets in advisable to avoid disappointment. Belltime is 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6.45. The past shows the youth project has run have been very well supported and they are hoping for another good turnout to support a good cause.

The event will feature an all Irish line up with wrestlers many of who have competed in Ireland, Europe, North America and Japan. All support for the event is greatly appreciated.
Labour party leader Brendan Howlin visited County Wicklow last week as part of his drive to rebuild the party across Ireland.

He visited Wicklow Town and Bray and was accompanied on visits by Paul O'Brien, Labour Party Wicklow Representative and Ian McGahon and Tracy O'Brien, area representatives for Bray. 'He was given a tour of Bray Institute of Further Education by Ray Tedders the Principal and was very impressed with our educational facilities in the town,' said Tracy.

He also got to see one of Brays proudest assets and institutions and indeed a strong legacy of Michael D Higgins Arts Ministry to this town, the Mermaid Arts Centre.''Brendan highlighted the strong Labour history and traditions and the vast work done in the past on housing by Liam Kavanagh and Liz McManus and equality by Anne Ferris,' said Ian.
The community of Greystones is shocked and saddened at the death of Laura Dempsey (15) last Sunday in Stalida, Crete.

Laura, a pupil of Temple Carrig Secondary School, was on holidays there with her parents Noel Dempsey and Nicky Smith.

'Along with the whole Greystones Community, we were shocked and devastated to hear of the sudden passing of one of our students, Laura Dempsey,' said Temple Carrig school principal Alan Cox in a statement.

'Laura had just completed her Junior Certificate exams and was a model student - bright, full of fun and involved in many school activities. She was extremely popular in the school and will be greatly missed by many because she was such a good, kind and loyal friend. We are liaising with her family and they ask for privacy at this very difficult time.

'Our love, condolences, thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends at this awfully sad time.'

Canon David Mungavin of St Patrick's Church said that Laura was 'a caring, popular girl, who is known and loved in our community of Greystones.'

'We are devastated to hear the news of the sudden, tragic death of Laura Dempsey,' he said. He said that a large gathering of staff, students and friends gathered at Temple Carrig school on Monday evening to pray, comfort each other, and share a great sense of grief and loss.

'A time of prayer and support was also shared in the classes of St Patrick's National School, where Laura was a former pupil, as we try to come to terms with this very sad news,' said Canon Mungavin.

'Our hearts go out to Laura's parents Nicky and John, her grandparents Canon Raymond and Audrey and all the family. No words can express the sadness we feel - in God we trust.'

Laura was a junior member of Greystones Sailing Club. 'Everyone is shocked, it's not the kind of news anyone expects' said club commander Daragh Cafferky. 'She was a keen sailor and an active and valued member of our junior community.'

Mr Cafferky said that this was particularly upsetting for the children in the club.

'Laura was a lovely girl who was so warm and a popular member of our community.'

The club will go ahead with sailing today (Wednesday), 'to both recognise the great pleasure Laura got from sailing and to allow the membership to gather as a community and support each other in such sad times.'

'A bright light has been extinguished ant it's beyond words to express the grief we all feel for our friends Nicky and John,' said the club in a message to its members. 'I know you all share with us in expressing our deep, deep sympathy to all her family and friends.'

Family members have travelled to Greece to support Laura's parents.

'It's an absolutely tragic event,' said Catahoirleach of Greystones Municipal District, Cllr Jennifer Whitmore.

'My thoughts are with Laura's family and friends. It's a shock to the community and a very, very sad time for them. When Laura's parents come home they will need support, and Greystones is a great community for that.'

According to local media outlet Cretapost, Laura was found in a hotel pool at around 2.30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Paramedics and a doctor tried in vain to revive her.

Her remains were removed to hospital with a post-mortem examination to be carried out.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is providing consular assistance to her family.
Much has been happening by way of Creative Ireland over the past few months, with a number of information sessions held throughout the county; the running of a most successful Criunniu na Casca and the undertaking of a Culture and Creativity Plan (2017) for the County of Cork, which will be officially launched in the coming weeks and shortly available on www.corkcoco.ie/arts-heritage/creative-ireland.

The ambitious Creative Ireland Programme offers 'an invitation to the entire country to get involved in something truly inspirational. At its heart is collaboration - between central and local government, between culture and industry, between artists and policy makers - to facilitate an ecosystem of creativity'.

The Programme has five key strands, which are: 1: Enabling the Creative Potential of Every Child; 2: Enabling Creativity in Every Community; 3: Investing in our Creative and Cultural Infrastructure; 4: Ireland as a Centre of Excellence in Media Production and 5: Unifying our Global Reputation.

The Community Participation Strand (Strand 2) is being led by local authorities across the country. In support of the Cork County Culture and Creativity Plan 2017 and the Creative Ireland Programme as a whole, a grant scheme has been put in place.

The Creative Ireland County Cork Grant Scheme 2017 is being financed through monies from the Department of Culture and the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. The Scheme recognises the importance of the community sector to the county's culture and well-being and aims to support people and communities in undertaking projects and events that are in keeping with any one or many of the Creative Ireland Programme Strands as well as the County Cork Culture and Creativity Plan 2017, in addition to initiatives that will generate awareness of the Creative Ireland Programme as a whole.

Full details and the application form are available online via www.corkcoco.ie/arts-heritage/creative-ireland or by requesting same via creativeireland@corkcoco.ie. The closing date for proposals and application forms is 16:00 on Tuesday 18th July 2017, and for further information email creative.ireland@corkcoco.ie.

Culture and heritage in County Cork is faring well and hopefully the Creative Ireland County Cork Grant Scheme 2017 will be supportive of a number of fascinating projects, events and developments. One development of significant cultural and heritage significance to Cork County is Spike Island, which has been nominated for Europe's Leading Tourist Attraction 2017 at the World Travel Awards, taking place later in September of this year. People's votes really count as part of the competition and those from County Cork and further afield are being encouraged to log on to www.worldtravelawards.com to vote for Spike Island.

In only six years, Spike Island has become such an important attraction in County Cork, and indeed Ireland, seeing upwards of 30,000 people each year, with that number expected to grow considerably this year and in the many years to come. Other developments such as the community led Camden Fort Meagher, and fantastic heritage led work in North Cork towns such as Buttevant and Mallow, is really increasing the draw of tourists.

With regard to tourism in our historic towns, the Heritage Council has recently brought out a very useful document that sets out to help residents in towns across Ireland develop a sustainable tourism sector. Developing a a viable tourism sector that provides employment and improves the liveability of a place is a long process requiring operation, careful planning and targeted actions. The document, which is available to view on the Raising Awareness Section of www.corkcoco.ie/arts-heritage, provides guidance on how people can get together and devise an appropriate way forward. There are short descriptions of inspirational projects that have successfully used the cultural heritage of their town and information is also provided on likely funding sources and useful reading.

As we take a look ahead to this week's events there are a few that will be of interest from a heritage perspective. Both Friday 30th June and Saturday 1st July from 10:00 to 16:00 both days, will see 'Leave No Trace' workshops take place in Fota. Organised by South and East Area Development, the workshop on Friday is oriented around community groups and individuals (employees and volunteers) while Saturday's workshop will be oriented around families. The location for both will be Fota House Frameyard and Orchard as well as the Fota Scout Centre.

It is likely that there will be considerable interest in this event, particularly by local community Councils and Tidy Town landscapers, as well as farmers and people who might want to know more about the seven Leave No Trace codes as they apply to the Irish countryside. The family-oriented workshop will be geared towards casual recreation and enjoying the Great Outdoors in a manner that has no-impact on the environment.

The venue will be both indoors and outdoors and there will be a walk of a little over a kilometre between Fota House and the Scouts' area so wellies and other appropriate outdoor clothing is recommended, as well as a packed lunch. For more information visit www.leavenotraceireland.org and www.ringofcork.ie/birdtrail and to book a place email biodiversity@secad.ie.

Also on Saturday 1st July will be the opening celebration for Greywood Arts commencing at 6pm and followed by food, stunning art and spectacular music. Housed in an historic 18th century building, along Main Street, Killeagh, Greywood Arts will be a multi-disciplinary artists' residence and on the evening those present will get to meet artist-in-residence Naomi Litvack, who will share her paintings-in-progress, as well as a concert by Cork's own Anna Mitchell. Paintings by local artists Belinda Walsh and Sinead Ni Chionaola will also be on display and a concert will also be provided by Natasha Bourke.

Greywood Arts is like a guesthouse for artists, where they can stay in self-catering accommodation and have access to workspace. They visit for a week, a month or even longer to delve into a project and explore their artistic process. The three-story Georgian building offers a light filled visual arts studio and a movement studio with a vaulted ceiling for performing artists. A desk for writers overlooks the Dissour River, and the library holds a piano for musicians. The large rustic stone walled dining room doubles as a space for meetings. The adjacent Glenblower Wood is the perfect spot for long walks, and the character filled house invites reflection and inspires creativity. With four guest rooms, Greywood Arts can accommodate up to eight visitors at a time. Artists are encouraged to engage with the community in the form of work-in-progress showings, demonstrations, readings, or concerts. It's a brilliant addition to Killeagh, and a great amenity for East Cork. For more information email create@greywoodarts.org.

Lastly, and as an important note, Cork County Council, supported by the Heritage Council and in conjunction with Research and Dig and Acadamh Fodhla, has been undertaking a conservation, management and interpretation plan to look at the importance of the Muscrai Gaeltacht and how its heritage can be safeguarded and promoted long into the future.

The project, which has had extensive consultation to date has examined in a holistic manner, the wonderful heritage that the area possesses and has also identified a number of actions that could be implemented for the further protection and indeed promotion of heritage in Muscrai.

The document is now nearing completion and next week there will be two public consultation meetings to discuss the content of the Draft Plan and to take on board any suggestions and comments. The first discussion evening takes place in the Mills, Baile Bhuirne, on Wednesday 5th July commencing at 18:30 and the second evening takes place at the same time on Thursday 6th July in the G.A.A. Clubhouse in Beal Atha'n Ghaorthaidh. All are welcome to attend and any comments/suggestions and recommendations on the plan as a whole can be emailed to conor.nelligan@corkcoco.ie up to Monday 24th July 2017. The Draft Plan to date is available to view by visiting www.corkcoco.ie/arts-heritage/raising-awareness.

Next week's column will take a look ahead to the many events taking place in July.
The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) - whose members work with over 380,000 young people nationwide - has highlighted concerns at the number of young people across County Cork who are unemployed for six months or more.

New data from the Department of Social Protection show that 1,348 young people aged under 26 in Cork have been in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance or Benefit for six months or more.

Commenting on the figures James Doorley, NYCI Deputy Director said: "We are concerned at the number of young people who are unemployed in Cork, particularly those unemployed for six months or more. This disappointing figure is mirrored at the national level, where we have over 11,711 young people long-term unemployed.

"The EU Youth Guarantee Programme guarantees a work, education or training opportunity to any young person unemployed for four months or more. In 2013, the Government committed to the implementation of the Youth Guarantee in Ireland. Yet four years on, despite the improving economy and labour market, we still have too many young people out of work," explained Mr Doorley.

The NYCI is calling on Government to develop an action plan under this scheme in order to reduce the number of young long term unemployed to 5,000 - more than halving long term youth unemployment by the end of 2018.

"It is vital we support young jobseekers into education, training and work experience and prevent the drift into long-term joblessness. This will require a renewed focus on the implementation of the Youth Guarantee and the provision of additional education and training places," continued Mr Doorley.

"We recommend an additional investment of 47.4m in Budget 2018 to reduce the number of young people long term unemployed by the end of 2018. This investment would lead to reduced social welfare payments as more young people move into employment - saving 33.4m per annum. While the net financial cost would be 15m, the social, economic and community benefit of having over 6,000 more young people in gainful employment is incalculable.

"As the economy recovers we should be much more ambitious in tackling long term unemployment in particular among young people. Our proposals are achievable," Mr Doorley said.
Cork North West TD Michael Moynihan has harshly criticised the Government's failure to deliver on successive broadband promises, and highlighted the difficulties faced by rural Ireland as a result of this inaction.

"In April 2015, Minister Alex White claimed that the construction of a universal broadband network would commence in 2016 and be completed by 2021 at the very latest. It's now mid 2017, and the contract for the National Broadband network has not even been awarded yet. The current minister, Denis Naughten must know that he is in serious trouble as he is point blank refusing to even provide a deadline by which the contract will be finalised. As a result, at least 542,000 premises across the country have no clue when they might be able to access broadband services," Deputy Moynihan said.

"This is absolutely appalling. High speed broadband is not a luxury, it is necessary for everyday life."

Currently, there are over 7,800 areas in Cork that receive high speed broadband from private commercial providers. However, there are over 19,788 premises which will need government assistance in order to receive high speed broadband, with most of these being in rural areas.

"There are areas of North Cork that have little to no access to quality broadband. Why is Minister Naughten continuing to deprive rural business owners of the ability to expand and potentially employ new people. Also, does he not realise that broadband is crucial for school children to access online educational content?," Deputy Moynihan said.
New funding has been announced for female entrepreneurs living in Cork and Limerick. The Women's Rural Entrepreneurial Network (WREN) project will see more than 330,000 in funding, provided by the Department of Justice and Equality and the European Social Fund, allocated to promote entrepreneurial skills amongst women in these regions through a tailored and focused approach.

SECAD (South & East Cork Area Development) will lead the project, working in partnership with Ballyhoura Development in Limerick and Cork Institute of Technology's Rubicon Centre and Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence.

Speaking at the launch of WREN, Minister of State for Justice and Equality David Stanton said, "I am delighted to announce this important funding for Cork and Limerick and know it will provide valuable support to women considering self-employment or those with a good business idea that want to create a business. SECAD and Ballyhoura Development, in partnership with CIT, will deliver a targeted, focused programme of training, mentoring and support infrastructure for women in the region."

Under the WREN project, training programmes will include personal development and business skills training, one to one and group mentoring, female 'role model' sharing of experience and support, themed networking and experiential learning events, formation and facilitation of the facilitated networking sessions and a networking / business pitching event.

"This funding will support women across Cork and Limerick who have a concrete business idea and wish to become self-employed or who are already in the early stages of business development," said Suzanne Kearney, Assistant CEO of SECAD. "The programme will provide the option of accredited training as well as business and employment supports. We believe this will be a hugely valuable project for both economic development in these regions, as well as for equality of opportunity."

The WREN Project is co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Social Fund.
Cast in the same mould as Richard Curtis' rom com Notting Hill, Hampstead is a twee tale of star-crossed lovers across the social divide, who find common ground in a court case over squatters' rights in verdant and des-res London NW3.

Robert Festinger's script is loosely inspired by the true story of a homeless Irishman called Harry Hallowes, who won title deeds worth two million pounds after living in a tumbledown wooden shack on Hampstead Heath for two decades.

Jaw-dropping truth is interwoven with sugar-coated fiction in Joel Hopkins' rose-tinted picture, which engineers romance between a socially awkward hermit and an American expat widow.

It's a chocolate box laden with first world problems and impeccably tailored strife.

We are supposed to muster sympathy for the heroine because she has been left in dire financial straits by her philandering husband. How does she cope with the stress of possible eviction?

By window shopping a designer grey beret with an eye-watering 120 price tag. Oh woe is her.

Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson catalyse only the faintest flickers of sexual chemistry as the plot meanders towards its life-affirming resolution.

En route there are flashes of earthy humour like when a rival for Keaton's affections feebly brandishes a ukulele as a weapon and Gleeson barks: 'What are you going to do? Strum me to death?.'

A terribly polite plucking is more likely.

It has been a year since Emily Walters (Keaton) lost her no-good husband Charles and she has channelled her grief and rage into volunteer work at a local charity shop.

Other female residents of her apartment block, led by busy body Fiona (Lesley Manville), include Emily in their social gatherings and offer withering advice on remarrying at the earliest opportunity.

'If you wait too long, you shrivel up like some imported apricot sitting on the shelf in Waitrose,' chirps Fiona.

She sets up Emily with creepy accountant James Smythe (Jason Watkins), who promises to clear the mounting debts 'no strings attached'.

After one uncomfortable date, Emily stares through her binoculars and spies Donald Horner (Gleeson) in his woodland retreat.

She becomes fascinated by the foul-tempered misfit and worms her way into his simple existence to the surprise of her well-to-do son, Philip (James Norton).

When greedy property developers serve Donald with an eviction notice, Emily coordinates the Save the Shack campaign with other do-gooder residents.

Hampstead is like a glass of expensive champagne that has lost most of its fizz, yet still slips down pleasantly.

Keaton and Gleeson are an attractive odd couple, who are more convinced of their characters' suitability than us.

Watkins is skin-crawling as a bean counter with ulterior motives and an ensemble of British character actors fill out the largely forgettable supporting roles.
Ardee Floral Art Club would like to extend a sincere thank you to Louth County Council and traders of Ardee and the wider Co. Louth area for their sponsorship of the recent National Flower Festival. They are delighted that Irish Cancer Research will benefit from it's success.

BFRRS barn dance

The Boyne Fishermen's Rescue and Recovery Service will be hosting a barn dance in the Westcourt on July 1st from 8pm.Tickets are 12 euro.

There will be live music and a D.J on the night with spot prizes

Colpe boot sale

Drogheda Presbyterian Church, Colpe Road, Drogheda host their next Car Boot Sale is on Saturday the 1st July from 10 am - 3 pm.

Shoppers free entry, refreshments available. It is in aid of Special Olympic's Drogheda and our Kambui Kenyan Project. Further details text 086 1712112.

Ughtyneill ceili

Preparations are well underway for the 34th Annual Crossroads Fior-Cheili which will take place in Ughtyneill, Co. Meath (on the main Kells-Kingscourt Road) on Wednesday 5th July commencing at 9 p.m. Music will be supplied by the Tara Ceili Band. The event always attracts ceili dancers from all over Ireland as well as locals and tourists. Admission is free, refreshments will be on sale. It the weather is bad the ceili will be held in the nearby St Patrick's Hall. Organised by Cairde Rince Ceili na hEireann.
The Drogheda Hospice Homecare has benefitted to the tune of 500 thanks to a book by the late Jim Brady.

Jim was a real livewire when it came to wit and his letters often appeared in the Drogheda Independent, signed City of Drogheda.

Jim's very entertaining and memorable book was published after his death and the proceeds went to the hospice group locally.

A proud Ballsgrove man and a proud son of the Boyneside, he was the very first person to declare Drogheda a city many years ago. Often a spark of inspiration would drive him to put pen to paper and off to Shop Street he'd go, the letters page often graced by his words, no matter the subject.

He very much loved his trips to Kos in Greece and it became his second home - 'a little glimpse of heaven on earth' as he put it.
A group of Drogheda girls have helped to launch Irish Girl Guides' new cookie programme with Dragon's Den star Alison Cowzer.

The girls, who are members of Cu Chulainn Ladybirds, St Anthony's Brownies, Millmount Girl Guides and Drogheda Senior Branch, were delighted to be chosen for the launch and enjoyed spending a morning posing for shots at the East Coast Bakehouse, Donore Road, Drogheda. Over 110,000 biscuits will be produced by the Bakehouse for Guides to sell over the next three years.

The girls, along with thousands of other members of Irish Girl Guides (IGG), are set to sell Girl Guide cookies in the autumn. As well as raising funds for their units, the girls will develop business, teamwork and entrepreneurial skills. They will have a say in how the funds for their unit are spent - perhaps on a special day out or new equipment.

"This initiative fits in with our aim of helping girls and young women develop important life-skills," says IGG Chief Commissioner Helen Concannon. "We also want to change the imbalance of the number of women in decision-making positions across the various sectors of society such as business, companies and boardrooms around Ireland."

IGG is delighted to have the support of Alison Cowzer, whose daughters were members of IGG. She has given generously of her time and expertise to help IGG develop the cookie programme. "It could take centuries to achieve equality without serious efforts to bring women into male-dominated spheres such as business and politics," says Cowzer.

The project will take place under the tag of #FutureCEOs, which stands for Creating Entrepreneur Opportunities. By taking part in the initiative and striving to do their best, girls will earn a merit badge.

Irish Girl Guides welcomes new members from age 5+ and adult volunteers from age 18+. To find out more, see www.irishgirlguides.ie or tel: 01 6683898.
A classic Ford V8 car has been fully restored and is now set for a 'dream drive' - up to the gates of Kilsharvin House where its remarkable story almost ended many years ago.

At one stage, it was a battered, old wreck, sold off some decades ago in an estate sale and lying idle in a shed in Tallanstown, seemingly worth nothing more than scrap. But then Jonesborough man Thomas Morgan came across it, bought it, and got it back to his home. That was three years ago and last week, he put the final piece of chrome onto the car - its total restoration complete. 'It's been a long three years,' he told the Drogheda Independent this week.

He managed to get his hands on the original log book and that's where the story really begins. It appears while stationed in Dorset in England in 1936, the car was bought by Lt Robert Edward McDonnell of Kilsharvin House. But within five years, Robert, who was a member of the famed 'Desert Rats' - fighting in Libya in WWII - was dead, killed in action. He was just 25. Trying to trace the journey of his car, from Dorset to Kilsharvin in the years hence, has become a labour of love for Thomas. 'I believe it has a fascinating history, if I can oncover it,' he states.

'The car was registered new to Robert and he is the first name on the log book with an address AFV School, Bulworth Camp, Dorset. the next name on the book is "The COFF-O-ERA COY with an address of 31/33 Amiens St, Dublin and it says underneath that "deceased probate".

'I am trying to figure out did the car go into the army after his death. The car was originally black but somewhere along the line it was painted a military green colour, that is what is leading me to believe the car may have went into service.' The next owner on the book it returns to is Mrs Senta Woods, firstly at Milverton, Skerries and then Kilsharvan, in 1955. The McDonnell family had a great military history with Robert Edward following in the footsteps of his father, Lieutenant Colonel John McDonnell, who was killed in action in September 1918 during the First World War. Robert was just three at the time.

He went to school in Winchester, England, going on to Sandhurst in 1933 and joined the 8th King's (Royal Irish) Hussars in 1935, when he was 20. He went on to serve in Palestine. In 1936, he returned home for a memorable 21st, as the Drogheda Independent, reported. 'On Saturday night, the staffs at Kilsharvin and Milverton Hall, Skerries, where his mother, Mrs. Woods, resides, were entertained to a sumptuous dinner and dance at the former place.

In addition to the staff a large crowd of local people were invited, and after great jubilation around a huge bonfire erected in the grounds they retired indoors to the spacious dining rooms where a delightful dinner was served up by Messrs. Mills, the well-known Dublin caterers. After, the repast the large gathering thoroughly enjoyed themselves till the small hours of the morning, the music being supplied by a Skerries Band.'

He saw active service in North Africa from 1939, and attached to the headquarters of 7th Armoured Division, the famous 'Desert Rats' he was present during the successful campaign in Cyrenaica (Libya) of early 1941. The 7th Armoured Division pressed onwards south-west towards Tripoli and Tunisia. On February 11th, Robert McDonnell was severely wounded in a bombing attack in Benghazi, struck in the legs by a blast from an aerial mine. He died five days later and is buried in Benghazi War Cemetery.

Eva Margaret Senta Woods, his mother, died on May 9 1969.

'The car is fully restored now and it would be great to get the chance to bring it back to Kilsharvin and drive it up to the front door,' Thomas states. 'It has such a great story and I'd love to know more about it.' It has a top speed of 25 miles an hour and 'drinks petrol' and has the original body and engine. 'It has about 50,000 miles on the clock and has been off the road since the 60s,' Thomas added.
Drogheda's strongman showed he has a big heart too after a supreme test of strength yielded over 5,000 for local charities.

Liam O'Keeffe marked his 64th birthday by taking on a crossover chest challenge, setting himself the goal of making 2,017 reps in under an hour at Integral gym.

Not only did he complete the task in 30 minutes, but he added 134 for good measure inside the hour mark.

He did it for three charities close to his big heart, namely the Boomerang Youth Cafe and service, SOSAD and the 5th Floor at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.

Last week, representatives came along to Integral to share in the 5,100 fund.

'My record was 2,000 reps in 50 minutes but I managed to beat that,' he stated.

He went on to do the extra ones to give a grand total inside an hour, with the top prize, a hamper, which was won by Paul Assoua, who happens to be part of the SOSAD team!

'The support I received was incredible,' he stated. The likes of Glanbia supplied products, Integral Gym, Eurospar, Anglo Printers (who printed posters and cards free of charge), and Dublin Meats on the North Road were all backers.

'My family, including Suzanne, friends and the public who helped raise the money were all key to this,' he continued.

In the past, he's taken part in a number of events, including a truck pull across West Street and roller skating from Tralee to Limerick, all for charity.

He began his gym work in 1980, at a time when he was serving in the army, based in Cork, Sarsfield Barracks in Limerick, and then Tralee.
A large volume of complaints from the public about dog fouling is causing a stink with members of Enniscorthy Municipal District Council.

Cllr Paddy Kavanagh said he was embarrassed when 12 Americans tourists on a visit to Vinegar Hill were greeted with large amounts of pungent dog excrement, much of it hidden beneath overgrown bushes.

Cllr Kavanagh said: 'The caretaker use to keep everything cut back but now he is not allowed, according to some new law. You can't see if you are going to step into any dog foul and it just looks and smells terrible. I felt ashamed when I went up there to see them.

'One day I was on my way to a funeral here in St Aidan's Cathedral. I decided to park near the Presentation Centre and when I walked down I came across six fouls, and two had been stepped in.'

Cllr John O'Rourke spoke of angry residents who have complained to him about dog fouling in the graveyard. He said it needs to be dealt with straight away as the crisis is only getting worse if people are allowing their dogs to foul where people are buried.

Despite the existence of dog litter bins, people do not seem to be using them. Cllr Keith Doyle suggested they try to encourage witnesses to come forward to report an incident.

Meanwhile, both Cllr Kathleen-Codd Nolan and Cllr Willie Kavanagh commented on how the town and the promenade are a disgrace.

Cllr O'Rourke suggested the litter warden view CCTV in areas that have a high percentage of dog foul to catch the offenders.

Director of Services John Carley said it is something that needs to be dealt with but he is not sure how, as many signs have already been put in places around Enniscorthy.

He said: 'The problem I find is no one can seem to read the signs that we have placed around. It is absolutely disgusting as it causes many diseases and is a hazard for children. The only thing we can hope for now is if people start to report it.'
The relocation of Syrian refugees has commenced, with six families who arrived in Wexford May 29 moving into their homes.

The designated refugee support worker will work closely with them providing support and assistance to help them integrate into the Irish community.

The relocation of refugee families to Enniscorthy will commence this month.
Dedicated and regular blood donors from around Fingal have been honoured for their continued commitment to the worth cause.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service held its annual Gold Drop and Porcelain Pelican awards ceremony at the Headford Arms Hotel in Kells.

One hundred and twelve 50 time Donors received their Gold Drop and eight 100 time Donors received their Porcelain Pelicans at the ceremony. Donors and their guests attended from counties Meath, Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Westmeath, Longford, and North County Dublin.

Among them were Eamon Quinn from Skerries, Terry McMachon from Skerries and Timothy Woods from Gormanston, who were all presented with the Gold Drop awards.

Finbar Gethins, Area Manager for the Ardee Centre was MC for the ceremony and welcomed everyone and congratulated all the donors on their significant achievements.

Prof. Anthony Staines, Chairperson of the IBTS Board, thanked donors from the bottom of his heart stating that donating 50 times was quite an achievement but donating 100 times is awe inspiring

'It is lovely to personally meet the donors who without their help could not benefit the many people in our hospitals every day in Ireland'.

Andy Kelly, Chief Executive IBTS National Blood Centre paid tribute to the donor's fantastic achievement of donating 50 and 100 times. He also thanked the local voluntary organisers, the Red Cross, the Order of Malta, Na Cailini in Ballybay, Civil Defence, ICA, Scouts, GAA and the many individuals who organise, promote and assist the work of the IBTS in the community.
It was another historic day at Kettle's Park recently when the legendary locals that were Tom and Andrew Kettle were commemorated with a plaque, less than a year after the park was opened.

Cloghran Historical Society welcomed the outgoing Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Darragh Butler to perform one of his final duties in the post, by unveiling the plaque to Tom and Andrew who were steeped in nationalist politics and lived at Drynam House.

With other local dignitaries present, the plaque was unveiled, cementing the two men's place in history at the park.

Tom Kettle was a poet, a politician, a barrister and a soldier who was killed in action on the Western Front in the First World War.

This part of Fingal has intimate ties with the Kettle family going back a couple of centuries as the family established itself in the area as tenant farmers at Drynam House.

Andrew was born in 1833 and under his leadership, the family improved their fortunes to becoming the large land owners and employers in the area until he died in 1916. His sons, Laurence and Tom also became important figures in politics, culture, education and business. When the Irish Volunteers split, the family followed Redmond with Tom signing up to fight in WW1. Laurence became City Engineer and was responsible for the electrification of the City.
Fitness fanatics in Balbriggan have gone to WAR against Motor Neurone disease this month as WAR fitness took an energetic approach to charity fundraising at Flemington Community Centre.

WAR Fitness is an exhilarating and high tempo, full body workout that regularly meets at the community centre.

WAR Fitness is a mixture of different exercises using high intensity interval training with some combat and self-defence techniques thrown in for good measure.

The ladies who work out at WAR Fitness Balbriggan are called Warriors and they went to battle with Motor Neurone this month, with a fundraising effort to combat the disease.

The Warriors strive to be 'healthy and fierce' but have a social conscience too and each month, they hold an event for charity and this month's chose charity was Motor Neurone Disease Ireland.

The Warriors went into battle by selling raffle tickets for some fantastic spot prizes sponsored by local businesses as well as the Warriors themselves.

The morning session devoted to charity fundraising at Flemington Community centre, consisted of a WAR class with some fun bits thrown in, as well as the raffle and also some tea and coffee and little treats at the end of class.

Kids were welcome to go along and enjoy the fun too and every month a different charity will be chosen by WAR Fitness Balbriggan to benefit in a similar way.

WAR classes take place on Mondays and Thursdays at 7pm and Saturdays at 10am at Flemington community Centre and beginners are always welcome with the group's motto: 'Don't be afraid, be fierce!'
'Let's make Metro North happen quicker' was the parting shot of the retiring CEO of Fingal Dublin Chamber as he retired after 23 years saying the fact this crucial project for the region could be still 10 years away, is his one regret on leaving the job.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Fingal Independent, retiring chamber CEO, Tony Lambert said that he would always continue to be an advocate for the project which he sees as vital for the economic development of Fingal.

Mr Lambert told the Fingal Independent: 'The project for me that was closest to our heart and is still there, is Metro North. Metro North is something from the very early days of the Chamber, in 1996, we started talking about a rail link to Swords.'

He added: 'It took some time to looking at the Metro and when that became what was suggested, we were delighted with it as a concept. There were twists and turns along the way but in the early 2000s, we put tremendous effort and resources into promoting it at local authority level which was easy enough, at Government level we met from everyone from the Taoiseach down to talk about it and we met companies and visited board rooms of banks and other organisations to talk about the economic impact of it and the actual need for it. You were never going to be able to transport more and more people in and out of the city by motor car.'

Explaining the importance of the project for the region's economy, he said: 'It is not only a major economic engine for the region but a necessary part of the continued growth and economic development not only of Fingal but for Dublin.'

Mr Lambert told the Fingal Independent: 'The fact I'm leaving and that is still 10 years away and that would be one disappointment I would have. We would also want to see the Dart extend to Balbriggan. That would be a major plus for the area and I'm not quite sure why that has been so delayed.

'The Metro is something where it is hard to understand why the Government is not making more of a priority of it. If we don't start transporting our people around correctly, things will get worse. It is not rocket science to understand that.'

The retiring Fingal Dublin Chamber chief said: 'Our understanding of it now is that it is not the lack of finance that is the problem, it's the fact that they have to create a whole new Rail Order for it and that, they say, will take two years and then you have to build and there's tunnels to be dug and physical work to be done but that could be done day and night if the right mood is set to get it done.

'For Dublin as a city not to have this connectivity is madness. It is bogged down in a bit of bureaucracy and everyone is saying it will take this long but I think it's time our Government started to say we don't want to wait and if we've got everything else in line, then let's make it happen quicker. That's the only call I would make to the Government - let's make it happen as quickly as possible'
The challenge of a lifetime begins on June 30 for a Rush man who aims to the oldest man to cycle around the world as he retires from teaching in the most spectacular way possible.

Inspired by childhood tales of Phileas Fogg and his around the world trip, Rush man, Dermot Higgins (55) is to spend the first few months of his retirement from teaching at Rush Lusk Educate Together NS, completing his own circumnavigation of the globe by pedalling all 40,000km of the trip on his bicycle.

Earlier this year, Dermot explained his motivation for the challenge to the Fingal Independent, saying: 'Part of it is that this is something I've always wanted to do. I've always been fascinated by long distance travel. I remember, when I was a kid, I read Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne and I was fascinated by the movie too. The whole concept of going around the world has always been fascinating to me. Even when I go on short trips it's always in circles so this notion of circuitry appeals to me.'

He added: 'I'm retiring this year from teaching and I wanted to do it when I'm still fresh and fit enough to do it and just give it a shot.

The Rush man also has some bigger motivations in mind in taking the challenge on too, namely to raise awareness for the so-called 'Global Goals' for sustainable development and to raise money for Irish aid organisation, Trocaire who are wholeheartedly behind his efforts.

The epic challenge begins on the morning of June 30 at Rush Lusk Educate Together when about 400 schoolchildren will wave their teacher off for the first few miles on his around the world trip.

Dermot will link with schools across the country along the way, using the journey to educate children about the Global Goals and the countries he will visit along the way and proving that once you are a teacher, you are always a teacher.

You can find out more about Dermot's huge challenge at gogodermo.com
Mick Kelly, John Baird and Stephen Mimnagh at the new Men's Shed in Swords

Anthony Dunne, John Cox and Sean OConnor at the new Mens Shed in Swords

Members of Swords Men's Shed have moved another step closer to moving to its new permanent location on Seatown Road.

The dream of a new building could not have happened with Paul and Anthony Dunne from Knife Edge Fencing Ltd, who offered the voluntary organisation their own premises the site, adjacent to the new Aldi store.

And last week Ben Mullen, on behalf of Swords Men's Shed accepted the lease on the building from Paul and Anthony Dunne of Knife Edge Fencing Ltd in the presence of Cllr Darragh Butler, the outgoing, Mayor of Fingal.

'I congratulate both parties and in particular thank Anthony and Paul for their generous support for our very important local Shed project,' said Cllr. Butler who went on to wish Swords Men's Shed continued success in the months and years ahead.

Founded in July 2014 Swords Men's Shed has more than 30 members and is open every Monday and Wednesday between 10am and 4.00pm.

As well as its workshop and social activities Swords Men's Shed has organised courses on computers, digital photography and men's health for its members.

The idea for the Men's Shed came about when Tim Burns, a member of staff at the Riasc Centre felt there was a need to do something to support unemployed and retired or just those who had spare time.

Together Tim and Mick Kelly met with the Community Department of Fingal County Council and invited men to a 'Men's Space' meeting in March 2014.

A total of 25 men turned up to the initial meeting which was hosted by The Riasc Centre.

Several months later, a number of the men attending the meetings decided that a Men's Shed should be set up. Swords Men's Shed came into existence and was registered with the Irish Men's Shed Association.

The major benefits of having their own premises means the group can meet five days a week and handle between 100 and 120 members.

Paul Dunne told the Fingal Independent how supportive he and Anthony are of the work of Men's Shed around the country.

'We are very supportive of Men's Sheds and we are delighted to support it in Swords,' said Paul. 'On the back of the planning permission for Aldi we were able to get commercially involved in this project because ultimately if you don't have the commercial benefits we actually can't deliver something like this.' He hopes the example they are setting will prompt other developers to give something similar back to communities.

For further information email smshed@outlook.com
He's seen boom, he's seen bust and as he leaves his 23-year career at the helm of Fingal Dublin Chamber, Tony Lambert is seeing recovery in the local economy and is full of optimism for the future of Fingal which he says is 'rich with opportunities'.

Some 23 years ago Tony was a founding member of what was then the Swords and District Chamber of Commerce. He explained how the whole project came about, saying: '23 years ago I was part of a team developing Swords Business Park and one of the things we realised then, was that Swords just wasn't being promoted correctly. I started looking at that and talked to a few people about starting a Chamber of Commerce and we talked to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce president at the time to talk about a format for doing it and we called a meeting in 1994 and there was about 20 or 30 people there and out of nowhere, I ended up the president.'

The organisation has been through a number of reincarnations and one merger since then to become the Fingal Dublin Chamber with Mr Lambert as its CEO.

This week is his final week in the job and he sat down with the Fingal Independent to look back of two decades of economic development in the county and reflect on where the county lies now and how it's shaping up to deal with the challenges the future has to throw at it, including the uncertainties of Brexit.

Tony has witnessed what he called 'enormous changes' in the economic and business landscape in his own home town of Swords and across the Fingal region in that 23 years and said the county has now found its collective identity and is ready to face the future with optimism.

He said: 'I think we have found our identity and I think that every so often that identity has to be renewed. Our real asset is our young people and educating them is what will give greater value and greater return when they start to work and the companies we have coming in are looking for these people.'

Talking about the role his organisation has etched out for itself in that time, he said: 'The Chamber has been to the forefront in representing the business community, first and foremost. We obviously see jobs as key to economic growth but the jobs can only occur when there is business, and business people take the risks, invest the money and make it work. All of those things have to stick together and we, as a chamber, have always been to the fore in promoting that. We promote the business community, not to the exclusion of everything else but business needs a voice and we have provided that voice.'

The outgoing Chamber CEO added: 'Government and local government need to know there is somebody they can talk to who has the confidence to speak on behalf of the business community and I think that is what the Chamber provides because we do have a very wide variety of members and we are constantly talking and networking with them and hearing their views and therefore, we are in a position to say we are the voice for business in Fingal.'

Looking forward, Mr Lambert believes that transport infrastructure are the big ticket items that need to be addressed in Fingal if it is to prosper in the years ahead. That infrastructure includes the early deliver of Metro North, an improved road network and the delivery of a new runway at Dublin Airport.

Most people are agreed on the first two points but the third has proven more controversial with Dublin Airport and some of its neighbours still debating the pros and cons of developing the new runway. However, Tony Lambert and Fingal Dublin Chamber are in no doubt which side of the argument they come down on.

He explained: 'Dublin Airport represent 4% of the GDP of the whole country so it's a major, significant economic unit not only for Fingal but obviously for the Greater Dublin region and as a gateway for the country.

'When you start looking at the passenger numbers, 20% are business passengers and 80% are ourselves and visitors using it to get in and out. If we stop the growth of that we are in trouble and it is very hard to grow without additional resources.

'The terminals have the capacity to grow to probably around 35M passengers with smart use but when you start looking at the planes, the biggest problem at the moment is space for planes to land and pull in and offload and on-load.

'The need for a new runway has always been recognised - 20 years ago, I knew it would be needed. Having creating the capacity by building T2 and expanding T1, we now need to make sure we can land the planes and let them take off so a new runway, particularly at peak times.'

Mr Lambert acknowledged that not everyone agrees and said: 'The issues that need to be addressed are the environmental ones. Obviously noise is an issue for some people and there's other environmental issues that people have concerns about and they all have to be addressed and Dublin Airport is working to address those issues.

'From the Chamber point of view, we fully support the new runway and the economic benefits it will bring for the entire region, with jobs and the economic benefits will be ongoing.

'There are 16,000 people employed at Dublin Airport currently, if passenger numbers go up to 35 million, that will hit 20,000 - that's the reality of it. That creates a whole new vibe around Dublin Airport and then within five or ten years, we have to start looking at Terminal 3.'

One of the challenges on the horizon for whoever succeeds Mr Lambert in the job, is the spectre of Brexit but when the retiring CEO is asked whether he is optimistic or pessimistic about Fingal's post-Brexit prospects, he said he is 'realistic'.

Tony said: 'I prefer to use the word realistic. If you realistically look at, if Britain is exiting the customs union and the single market then a border or border controls will happen. There are opportunities in that and there are challenges as well.

'Obviously, Britain is a huge market for us but I think there will be much more opportunity in it than there will be challenges. Some of the challenges in it is how to get our goods to Europe without having two borders to get through - that will be challenging but hopefully that can be worked out as well.

'Generally speaking, yes we are going to have a challenge with our economy and if Britain declines as an economy because of what's happening that will damage our market. So we are going to have to look at it and see where the challenges are, particularly here in Fingal where we have such a high fresh food production.

'It's vital we look at the key areas were support can be given and then look at new markets. And certainly, the local companies I talk to are looking at all of that very carefully and seeing where they can take advantage of the opportunities.'

He has a positive view of the region's future, saying: 'The Chamber has worked very hard to help create an environment where businesses can prosper and also be a great place to work, live and enjoy. We have the lowest unemployment rate, we have the youngest population, we have lots of jobs and the challenge is to make sure we can provide people for those jobs.

'That's all going to continue for the foreseeable future and we have a big house building programme underway so people who want to buy their own homes can settle here. All of the facilities and schooling that comes with that has to be very well managed but at least we can provide that basic infrastructure and that means it looks good for Fingal, going forward. We are rich with opportunities is the way I would like to put it.'

Looking back on his 23 years in leadership roles within this dynamic Chamber, Tony said: 'I can honestly say I've enormously enjoyed my time developing the chamber. It's always been challenging but so enjoyable. It's given me great satisfaction because on a daily basis you get to see the good things that are happening out there. Yes, you do hear about the challenges too but most of the stories that are there are wonderful stories about what's going on and I think that's going to continue in Fingal.'
Outgoing chairman of Wexford County Council Paddy Kavanagh said he made no apologies for being an Enniscorthy man during his time in the chair.

Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of Wexford County Council Cllr Kavanagh said that he had been very proud to see a number of projects come on stream during his time in the chair including the Hatch Lab in Gorey.

'I'm very much an Enniscorthy man and I make no apologies for that. I will always put my own first. The technology park in Enniscorthy is very much in hand and may even be ahead of schedule.

'Templeshannon is very much part of me, one side more than the other and I would like to assure people that it is very much in hand but we can't do things until there is a traffic management plan in place.

'When people see you in the chair they always say to you about going on junkets. I've been on three trips this year, one to London, one to Savannah, Georgia and one to Belgium.'

In respect of his London trip he said that it had been a very worthwhile trip and wished Michael Sills well for the future saying he was the man behind the London Wexford Association.

Speaking about his trip to Savannah Cllr Kavanagh said he had been delighted to get the opportunity to travel to Georgia saying it was 'somewhere I've only read about'.

He said the experience had been very positive and said that there is a lot of shared common ground between Wexford and Savannah and hopefully trade will pick up on this.

'This is the start of a very bright future for Wexford and Savannah', he said.

Cllr Kavanagh said that his final trip had been a trip to Belgium earlier this month. The trip was to commemorate the life of Willie Redmond who died on June 7, 1917.

'It was very moving at his graveside', said Cllr Kavanagh before speaking about the 800 Wexford people who lost their lives in World War 1.

Cllr Kavanagh said that his own grandfather had fought in the war but had been lucky enough to come home.

'The commemoration was very good for what in hindsight looks like a senseless war.'

He also thanked all the staff in the county council for their help. 'There are good and bad staff in every organisation; people who do and people who don't but the courtesy and respect shown to me by all members of staff particularly during my time in the chair has been second to none. I'd like to thank everyone for their courtesy and goodwill.'

He thanked staff members in the chairman's office, Barbara and Pat, whom he said, organise everything adding they had been a pleasure to work with.

Cllr Kavanagh thanked all the Director of Services for their help and CEO Tom Enright saying he was 'always only a phone call away'.

He finished by thanking his family, his colleagues, his vice chairman Cllr Michael Whelan and members of the press paying special thanks to the local press photographers.

Cllr Jim Moore paid tribute to Cllr Kavanagh saying he had carried out his duties as chairman with 'aplomb and great dignity. Your year was characterised by your openness and fairness, by your ability to handle debate and the odd conflict all underpinned by your well developed sense of humour and leadership.'

Cllr Kavanagh's vice chairman Cllr Michael Whelan also extended his congratulations saying that they had worked well together over the course of the year and thanked him 'for your fairness in meetings over the year'.

Sinn Fein's Cllr Johnny Mythen said Cllr Kavanagh represented Enniscorthy and the county very well during his tenure as chairman. 'It's not an easy role', he said adding 'it is often very thankless.'

Cllr Mary Farrell said Cllr Kavanagh had shown 'great leadership and great professionalism' while Cllr George Lawlor congratulated him on 'an excellent year and your candid manner was most welcome. Congratulations on the way you represented Wexford.'

Cllr Ger Carthy commended Cllr Kavanagh on 'a very successful year. You are a very proud Enniscorthy man and you spoke very passionately about your parents'.

Cllr Pip Breen said Cllr Kavanagh had been 'inspirational' while Cllr Davy Hynes said that 'although we didn't see eye to eye politically you have always been very fair to me'.

Cllr Kavanagh's successor, Cllr John Hegarty said Cllr Kavanagh 'showed great pride when representing Wexford' adding he 'hopes to build on the work you started'.

CEO of Wexford County Council, Tom Enright, said Cllr Kavanagh had 'had a tremendous year which comes off the back of being chair of Enniscorthy Municipal District. It's been a very busy two years for you with a huge workload. You were often working on the farm and had to shower and change to come into county buildings.

'You put in a huge effort and a huge amount of time. You spoke with great passion, authenticity and humour. You spoke very well on behalf of the county.'
At the unveiling of the plaque on the Tom Wrenn Memorial Stand with the late Mr Wrenn's wife and daughter, Breda and Brid were: Maurice Costello, Pat Ahern, Charlie Farrelly, Richard O'Donoghue, Sean Kelly, MEP; Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin; Brid Wrenn, Tim Murphy, Kerry County Board chairman and Breda Wrenn. Photo courtesy of Nora Fealey

Kerry County Board chairman and Brosna native, Tim Murphy unveiled a memorial, plaque at Cordal GAA Club grounds on Saturday evening.

The unveiling of the plaque has dedicated the stand there as 'The Tom Wrenn Memorial Stand' forever more.

The ceremony took place after the Cordal v Knocknagoshel county league game which started at 6pm.

Along with members of the Wrenn family, the huge attendance included MEP, Sean Kelly and Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin,TD.

The newly appointed Minister Griffin wasn't letting the grass grow under his feet as he had visited this side of the country earlier that day. He has already dropped into An Riocht AC for the Denny Kerry Community Games Finals in the company of party colleague, Cllr. Bobby O'Connell.

The Cordal GAA Club plaque, of black Indian granite and the work of O'Connor Memorials, Castleisland, features a photograph of the late Mr. Wrenn taken by club photographer, Nora Fealey in 2014 after Tom announced his retirement from countywide refereeing duties.

The late Tom Wrenn died in March 2016 and his loss to family, friends and club and community is still felt - and, evidently, remembered.

If you ever needed to epitomise or personify the oft used phrase A Community Man - then, Tom Wrenn fitted every imaginable category of that broad sweep.

Every baptised child, every holy communion, confirmation, wedding - Tom was there as parish clerk at all the important points in the circle of life of so many people.

With Saturday's unveiling, Cordal GAA Club members honoured and remembered their chairman, inspirational leader, referee, worker and East Kerry Board servant.

Tom was also honoured by the East Kerry Board shortly before his untimely death.

His really proud moment came in the midst of his own community, on his own GAA field in Cordal. This was on the occasion in June 2015 of the visit of Uachtarain Cumann Luthchleas Gael, Aogan O Fearghail to re-open the pitch after an exhausting and intensive fundraising campaign and a programme of drainage and resurfacing work.

Long and loyal service was a hallmark of Tom Wrenn's life and that extended to his career as a mechanic.

As boy and man he worked with Ahern's Garage for over 45 years. Ahern's director, Pat Ahern paid tribute to Tom on hearing the news of his death.

"Tom was one of the main men in the Ahern's set up. He has been here a lot longer that most of us and he's known throughout the county and beyond by people who have had vehicles tested here over the years. He's a huge loss to us and another link with the origins of the firm lost, God rest him," said Mr. Ahern.

It is appropriate then that Ahern's are associated with the memorial plaque on the wall of the stand.

There was a lot more written about the late Tom Wrenn at the time of his death and, no doubt, stories of the boundless dedication and energy he put into his local GAA club will be recalled in the years ahead with a glance at the plaque on The Tom Wrenn Memorial Stand.
Tidy Towns groups across North Kerry, from Listowel and Knockanure to Ballybunion and Tarbert, are calling on everyone in their communities to ensure all is looking as rosy as could possibly be on their doorsteps as the first round of national judging gets underway.

This is the crunch time for communities. Just like the Leaving Cert, months of hard work come down to just a few hours in a make-or-break burst - one that is, in the case of the Tidy Towns, entirely dependant on how an individual judge perceives a place.

That's why it has never been more important to ensure no wrapper, fag-butt, lump of dog dirt or what have you is left anywhere other than deep inside a bin.

The Tidy Towns 'buzz' is possibly being more keenly felt in Listowel than in any other part of the county at present, in a town that comes to the competition with a lot at stake - as the tidiest small town in the country for two years running.

But you don't have to live in a town to take part. Just look at Knockanure this week where volunteers were out in force cleaning every square inch of the village ahead of the judging.

"There's a buzz in the air as we find ourselves in the middle of the competition season," Listowel PRO Jackie Barrett-Madigan told The Kerryman.

"Following our achievement in the national competitions these last two years as Ireland's Tidiest Small Town and our continual increase in points year-after-year with Listowel, finishing just one point behind the overall winner, the pressure is on to do even better in this year's competition as they aim for the big one - Ireland's Tidiest Town."

But perhaps more important that ensuring a town or village is looking its very best, is the sense of togetherness the competition engenders: "The true meaning of Tidy Towns comes to light, when communities come together and take pride in where they live, creating a cleaner, healthier environment. This is what Tidy Towns is all about - working together for the better of the community and Listowel is a prime example of this."

The committee is thanking everyone for the Trojan work carried out in recent months by everyone in town. They are also in the running, of course, for an international event of even greater significance.

Listowel is this year representing Ireland in the International 2017 Communities in Bloom; the country's sole representative in the hugely prestigious competition.

"To date the communities already involved in enhancing Listowel can be proud of their efforts and inpu...It is important to have Listowel in tip-top shape as they come unannounced and unidentified," Jackie added in guidance that is being adopted everywhere at present.
The return of Tralee and Killarney town councils, and possibly even Listowel, could be on the cards if the Dail votes in support of a new bill from Fianna Fail.

Kerry Fianna Fail TD John Brassil described the Fine Gael/Labour government's disbandment of the old urban council system as 'short-sighted and destructive'.

"Our bill will create a Commission under the Local Government Act to review the geographical distribution of proposed town councils. This Commission will examine their powers and how they are financed. The purpose of this is to provide a fair basis to further legislative for the re-establishment of town councils."
Following its official opening on July 4, the restored Killarney House will host a mini summer-school exploring local and national connections to the White House and the US Presidency, a unique event organised by the James Hoban Societies.

The 'Green Hills, White Houses' school takes place on July 9 from 10am to 1pm in honour of John McShain, fitting given that Killarney House was once home to the McShain family.

"He was known as the man who built Washington because of his involvement in projects like the Pentagon, the Jefferson Memorial, the Kennedy Centre and the massive second rebuilding of The White House completed in the 1950s,' programme director Denis Bergin said.

"This school has been organised by the James Hoban Societies of Ireland and the US in association with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), and over the course of the event we'll address a series of intriguing questions: Did Ireland give the world its first taste of constitutional democracy? Could Leinster House hold the key to an Irishman's design for the presidential mansion? And how did a Kerry woman know there was a world crisis brewing in the Oval Office?"

The morning will feature presentations by five speakers, Denis - a writer and editor of repute - included. Established American author Robert Klara will share his extensive interviews with McShain's daughter with the gathering, during which he will address aspects like her memories of her father's involvement with Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, as well as her parents' connections to the Killarney House estate.

Local historian Conor Doolan will address the McShains' lives and times against the background of the town and its heritage, and Listowel's Vincent Carmody will share his knowledge of his neighbour and relative Kathy Buckley, who was a White House cook for many years.

The final presentation will be made by architect and conservation consultant Brian O'Connell, who has studied how civilisations organised their executive facilities and parliamentary gathering places. In his talk, he will address, amongst many other matters of interest, an exact full-scale replica of The White House as it was when James Hoban completed his work there in 1830.

Admission to the event is free of charge, but early booking is recommended. Further information is available from Pat Dawson at 064 667 0142 or Denis at 086 156 8916.
Head of Horse Racing Ireland Brian Kavanagh attended a special function for the Listowel party - alongside former Kerry CEO Denis Brosnan, Listowel Race Company Chairman David Fitzmaurice, Noel Murphy, Kevin Kenny and John Fitzgerald, pictured in the Royal Enclosure Lodge at Ascot

Horse racing in North Kerry just got a royal seal of approval this week in a new partnership between Listowel and one of the world's most prestigious race courses.

Royal Ascot is set to promote the Listowel Races into the future in an incredible coup for the local race company worth untold riches for the industry in North Kerry.

The partnership was flagged in style last week as Royal Ascot rolled out the red carpet for directors and friends of Listowel Race Company, including former Kerry CEO Denis Brosnan and Listowel Race Company Chairman David Fitzmaurice.

Head of Horse Racing Ireland Brian Kavanagh attended a special function for the Listowel party - alongside Brosnan, Fitzmaurice, Noel Murphy, Kevin Kenny and John Fitzgerald - in the Royal Enclosure Lodge at Ascot (pictured).

The British racing bigwigs spared no expense as they treated the Irish to a afternoon's racing in a space considered the inner sanctum of the Ascot experience.

"It was an incredible experience as they reciprocated the hospitality we've shown them at Listowel over the past two or three years," Mr Fitzmaurice told The Kerryman.

"Now, as part of our new partnership, Ascot is to help promote Listowel and vice versa. Royal Ascot will facilitate a Listowel winner in the Ascot National Hunt which is set to create even more excitement and interest in the Listowel Races," he added.

It comes as manna from heaven at a time of resurgent fortunes for racing in North Kerry and nationally, following a number of key developments at the track in Listowel which have made the Harvest an even more attractive prospect for punters.
A young woman from west of Dingle is bringing her revolutionary farm-safety product to the next level having claimed one of just 20 spots in the final of the Nissan Generation Next Competition.

Marie Martin, 22, was one of nearly 1,000 entrants for the competition. Her top-selling Safe Scrub Sprayer, which she invented as a Transition Year student at Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne, earned her the title of 2011 Young Entrepreneur of the Year and might now secure another significant honour.

The sprayer is mounted on the front loader of a tractor and allows users to spray pesticides from the safety of the cab, saving time and money in the process by halving the amount of pesticides required.

"I am thrilled to make it through to the public vote," Marie said. "Every vote counts and I hope that the people of Kerry will support me and my business by voting online. I have big ambitions, and securing the keys to a brand new Nissan would really help my business realise its potential."

Marie says the device is the first in a long line of products she hopes to produce as part of her aim to build an international farm safety-focused company.

"We are now onto the third generation of the Safe Scrub Sprayer, and we're selling the product internationally," she said. "We have created new jobs in Dingle, and we intend to build on that as we expand and develop our product range.

"Entrepreneurship has become an integral part of my life. As a woman who has built a successful company in a male-dominated sector, I also want to inspire other women to be involved in entrepreneurship and agriculture, proving they can achieve success if they show initiative," said Marie.

Local Nissan dealer Randles Brothers is backing Marie and has called for the public to vote for her online at www.nissangenerationext.ie before July 14.

"Marie exemplifies what Nissan Generation Next is all about. She is providing farmers with innovative new products to protect their health and she has been fearless in bringing her dreams and ambitions to life," David Randles said
Of separate faiths but the one community: Cahersiveen native Pat Murphy with Imam Mohammed Mahmoud whose heroic handling of the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Finsbury was lauded

Kerry man Pat Murphy enjoyed a meeting last week showing the real effects of the slew of vicious terrorism incidents on the people of London.

Far from dividing the community as they were conceived to, the terrorists' actions - Islamist and anti-Islamic - is having a galvanising effect on the entire population.

Take it from Cahersiveen man Pat Murphy who met a real hero last week in Muslim cleric Mohammed Mahmoud.

Mahmoud is credited as the man whose appeal to reason prevented the hideous van attack on the Finsbury Park mosque from getting even uglier.

Pat lives opposite the mosque and was on the scene within minutes of an attack that left one man dead and many others injured in the early hours of Monday, June 19. It came as the latest of a series of terrorist attacks - including Westminster and London Bridges - that left the UK capital shaken to its core combined with the horror of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

"It was about 1.30am in the morning when I woke to the sound of a police helicopter overhead and looked out my window to see a police line set up at the mosque and activity all around it," Pat told The Kerryman.

"Finsbury Park can be a volatile area, but when I got to the police line and asked what was going on I was told it had been a terrorist attack." The attack left 51-year-old Makram Ali dead and 11 injured - when a van allegedly driven by Darren Osborne ploughed into people outside the mosque. Osborne has since been charged with terrorism-related offences.

That he was in a position to be charged at all was in no small way down to the Imam. "But for Imam Mahmoud it could have turned very ugly indeed. The way he appealed for calm in the immediate aftermath of the attack brought things under control quickly."

Osborne had been dragged from the cab of his van while trying to make his escape and was being kicked and punched by an understandably hostile mob until the cleric stepped in.

One eyewitness said they believed Osborne would have died but for Mahmoud weighing-in, directing the mob to stop punching and to hold Osborne until the police arrived.

"It was a tragic and barbaric terrorist attack. All life is sacred," the imam was reported saying afterwards.

"I pass the imam regularly but was moved to make him off just to tell him how incredible I think his actions were," said Pat.

"These attacks are bringing us together more strongly as a community, even though we may be of separate faiths. He's a real hero who protected a man who was a direct threat to him and his people and we all can learn a lot from his response" Pat said.
The Wednesday Night Seisiun at the Coleman Music Centre, Gurteen, commences on Wednesday June 28th and continue each Wednesday through July and August.

This stage show features our resident group showcasing traditional music at its best as enjoyed by generations over many years.

One of the longest - running shows of its kind, Seisiun still gets comments from its visitors that 'this is what we came to Ireland to experience'.

Their seisiun experience is often the highlight of their holiday.

These shows entertains Audiences with a variety of traditional music, song and dance. Visitors are encouraged to participate and there is an opportunity to learn a step of a dance such as 'The Stack of Barley' or 'Shoe the Donkey'.

Complimentary tea/coffee is served during the interval.

Junior Music Session will commence from Saturday July 1st and continue each Saturday through July and August.

Fiona Doherty along with Coleman Centre musicians invite young musicians to showcase their talent in music, song and dance.

This show will entertain audiences with a wide variety of Irish traditional music, song and dance. Audience participation is welcome.

Visitors from home and abroad can get a taste of the real Ireland!

All shows commence at 8.30pm. Booking and enquiries 071 9182599 or www.colemanirishmusic.com.
District Court heard how the driver went missing for three days after being involved in a collision

A man was found in a hay shed in a disorientated and dehydrated state three days after fleeing the scene of a head-on collision he had caused in West Sligo.

As a result of the crash at Camphill, Culleens on March 22nd, Brian Rutledge of 5 The Inlet, Castlecove, Enniscrone admitted a charge of careless driving at Sligo District Court last Thursday.

Inspector Paul Kilcoyne told the court that the defendant had veered across the road to its incorrect side causing a collision with an oncoming car.

The defendant subsequently left the scene and was missing for a number of days afterwards.

Following a search involving a wide range of resources the defendant was found in a disorientated condition.

Mr Gerard McGovern, solicitor (defending) said Rutledge had been missing for three days and was found in a bad state in a hay shed.

"He could have died from exposure," said Mr McGovern.

He said the defendant was in good health now. He was a "hardworking, decent man" who had returned from the US in 2011 and was operating his own business in Enniscrone as a floorer.

Mr McGovern said the defendant had no recollection of the accident or what went on for the three days after the crash.

In reply to Judge Kevin Kilrane, Mr McGovern said the defendant was in perfect health prior to the accident.

Mr McGovern said there was no explanation as to why the defendant had been on his incorrect side of the road.

The solicitor said Rutledge was found by a search party in the shed.

He had no shoes or socks on and was dishevelled, dehydrated and was trapped there.

He was brought to Sligo University Hospital and was released after a day.

Asked what he thought of the incident, Inspector Kilcoyne said he had a certain view of it.

Judge Kilrane said he would reduce the charge of dangerous driving to careless driving and impose a fine of 500 with witness expenses of 230.

When this was done, Judge Kilrane told the defendant: "I'm very suspicious re the circumstances of this accident.

"You were driving on the wrong side of the road and you go missing with no real explanation afterwards other than that you were in some form of a state. I've suspicions why you went missing."
O'Connell Street in Sligo will be closed to traffic once more in September as Irish Water works begin again in the city's main street.

Sewer rehabilitation works that were suspended last November due to what were termed "unforeseen circumstances" will start up once more.

The works will improve the condition of the existing combined sewer culvert that runs north to south along the street.

The majority of the project was completed last year with 510 metres of water main rehabilitated as well as the replacement of water main customer connections.

The remaining works include for the installation of the sewer liner on O'Connell Street. These final works have an expected completion date in November.

Working in consultation with Sligo County Council Irish Water agreed to wait until the autumn to recommence these works so as not to disrupt the main shopping thoroughfare during the busy summer months.

Further details including traffic and pedestrian management plans for these works will be issued to the local community and the media once available in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Sligo City Water Main Rehabilitation and Pearse Road Sewer Network is progressing on target for completion of all pipelines and temporary reinstatement works by May 2018.

Final reinstatement will be due for completion by December of next year.

The project involves the replacement and rehabilitation of approximately 8.7km of ageing water mains, the installation of 1.5km of foul and storm sewers in the Pearse Road area and the replacement of all service connections including any lead services encountered.

Working in partnership with Sligo County Council, Irish Water appointed Ward and Burke Construction Limited to carry out the project.

Works are currently progressing along Teeling Street and John Street with southbound and northbound diversions in place. The upgrading of four wastewater treatment plants in Tubbercurry, Grange, Strandhill and Ballinafad which will be carried out as part of one contract, is also progressing.

The main objective of the scheme is to provide immediate and long term improvement and expansion of the existing treatment plants.

The design, surveying, planning and complex tendering phase has been completed and is going through internal processes before it proceeds to contract award and build stage. Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) were advertised and an oral hearing with An Bord Pleanala was completed at the start of June.

Irish Water is currently waiting for An Bord Pleanala to confirm the CPO and expects to award a contract thereafter.

The project is a priority scheme for Irish Water and is included in Irish Water's Business Plan for funding and completion.
William Hudson, Fr Martin Cosgrove, Cllr Pat Fitzgerald, Mary OBrien and pharmacy manager Niamh Kinch at the Arklow Cancer Support mens health check up on St Marys Road, Arklow

Arklow Cancer Support held a very successful men's health check morning in conjunction with International Men's Health Week recently.

The group welcomed Niamh Kinch Pharmacy Manager from Adrian Dunne Pharmacy, Main Street, Arklow to their office to assist with the health checks.

The event helped to raise awareness of the importance of men keeping a close eye on their health and Arklow Cancer Support Group very encouraged with the attendance at the event.

The office ran a local event as part of the international awareness campaign.

Last year Arklow Cancer Support's volunteer to drive covered almost 500 therapies to Dublin hospitals.

Eighty per cent of these treatments were for men, also 40 per cent of clients attending counselling were male.

'We welcome men who find their cancer journey challenging in a private and confidential manner at Arklow Cancer Support. If you or anybody you know are facing a difficult time, please call or drop in to see us at our office at 8 St Mary's Road,' said Director of Services Mary O'Brien.
Archaeological illustrator Liz Gardner and Deirdre Burns, Heritage Officer with Wicklow County Council, with committee members Harry Farrington and Mark Wright at the exhibition

Vallymount Community Centre played host to an exhibition over the weekend focusing on the creation of the Blessington Lakes through the construction of the Poulaphouca Reservoir in the 1940s.

The exhibition was held as part of the annual Hillbilly Tractor Run, with assistance from the Heritage Office of Wicklow County Council.

The exhibition was launched on Saturday night and continued into Sunday, generating a great deal of interest both locally and from further afield.

The construction of the Poulaphouca Reservoir was one of the largest infrastructural projects ever undertaken by the Irish State and necessitated huge upheaval in the area with hundreds of people forced to relocate as 76 homes, 300 farms, over 6,000 acres of land and the village of Ballinahown were submerged by water.

Large maps were on display at the exhibition which identified the exact location of each house submerged under water and the names of the family members who used to live in them.

While plenty of local residents paid the exhibition a visit, other guests came from all across the country, many of whom had moved out of the valley as young children and could recall the flooding taking place in the 1940s.

The Hillbilly Tractor run took place on Sunday and took on a different route than previous years, with a large turnout for the street festival taking place in Valleymount.
Regina, Tony and Gordon Clarke cut the ribbon on their new funeral home in Blessington

The Clarke family in Blessington welcomed neighbours and friends to their business premises at Burgage More recently as they officially opened their new funeral home.

Just a short distance from their former premises, Clarke's Funeral Home is now situated in a brand new and purpose built building.

Owners Tony, Regina and Gordon Clarke welcomed many guests including local seanchai Mattie Lennon who entertained visitors with a tale or two.

Fr Kevin Lyon was on hand to bless the premises and was joined by fellow clergy members Fr Gerry Foley, Rev Leonard Ruddock, Monsignor John Wilson and Fr Noel Campbell.

The Clarke family has been in business since 1980 when they opened their former premises and before that, Tony's father was the local funeral director.
The full line-up has been announced for this year's Bray Air Display on July 22 and 23.

The display will include some of the most skilled aerobatic performers from across the world with 22 aircraft and 12 jets.

The line-up includes the Royal Jordanian Falcons flying five Extra-300 L aerobatic aircraft.

The national aerobatic team was formed in 1976 with the mission of promoting peace and friendship to the world through the art and science of aviation.

The Spanish Airforce will bring the F-18 jet to Bray, piloted by Captains Herrero and Agullo, who are both based at Zaragoza air base in Spain.

The catalina flying boat G-PBYA will make a return to Irish skies, marking the 80th anniversary of the first transatlantic flight, when flying boat G-ADHM Caledonia made the historic crossing from Foynes to Botwood in Newfoundland on July 5, 1937.

Former Red Arrow pilots The Blades and Brittany's Patrouille Tranchant will also perform, as well as the Norwegian MIG and Vampires.

Vintage glamour will be on show as a spitfire and mustang take to the skies over Bray.

The Irish Air Corp and the Irish Defence Forces parachute team the Black Knights will once again participate in the display.

The Ravens, The Fireflies and the Strikemasters are some of the display teams set to participate, as well as the Irish Parachute Club and the Irish Historic Flight Foundation.

Aer Lingus will display their new passenger aircraft, the 321, as well as the iconic Aer Lingus DC-3 which revolutionised air transport in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Irish Coast Guard will demonstrate a safe water rescue.

Around 140,000 people came to the show last year, with huge numbers expected again. Spectators are advised to use public transport or get to the seafront on foot.

'It's all systems go as we work to get everything in place,' said display director Se Pardy. 'We have a wonderful line-up of some of the most talented aerobatic display teams from across the world.'

The weekend will include a food and craft village and the funfair as well as helicopter pleasure flights. The Flight Deck hospitality area is available at a cost of 75 per person. For more information go to brayairdisplay.com.
Greystones man Brendan Bell is calling on the Government to expedite legislation which would allow missing persons to be declared dead after three years.

Mr Bell, along with Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke, has written to the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan asking him to allow the Civil Law (Missing persons) Bill to proceed through the Oireachtas, four years after it was first drafted.

Mr Bell, whose daughter Clodagh has been presumed dead since her disappearance on December 31, 2014, said that the status quo is that in such cases families must wait seven years for a death certificate.

Mr Bell said that this legislation has passed the second stage of the bill. He is appealing to Minister Flanagan to expedite the process and back up what Senator Burke is proposing.

'A very small number of people are affected by this,' said Mr Bell.

He said that the families of the two remaining missing crew members of rescue 116, Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith, are among those affected.

In Scotland, the law provides for a three-year period, where a person is presumed dead beyond all reasonable doubt, before a death certificate can be issued.

'My objective is that the Irish Government follow Scottish legislation. Scotland is a seafaring nation with a lot of people lost at sea. Their legislation is superior to ours,' said Mr Bell.

That law has been in place in Scotland since 1977.

Mr Bell said that in the absence of a death certificate, everything is frozen in terms of finances. Therefore families, particularly the wife or husband of the deceased, are left in limbo with difficulties relating to, for example, mortgages, pensions, legal status, insurance, Revenue and so forth.

'Without a death certificate you can do zero,' he said.

In Mr Bell's case, he is facing difficulties winding up Clodagh's accountancy business, without proof of death.

'There is a country just a few miles away from us that can have appropriate legislation and we don't,' he said. 'I want action. I want someone to make a decision.'

Senator Burke drafted a bill in 2013 which lapsed when an election was called in 2016. Another bill last year was frozen by former justice minister Frances Fitzgerald so that officials could draw up their own legislation.

The Law Reform Commission recommended in 2013 that where death was 'virtually certain' there should be no minimum waiting period before an application for a declaration could be made.
They hoped for good weather and it certainly proved to be paw-right as the sun shone down on the Wicklow SPCA dog show at Sharpeshill Animal Sanctuary outside Rathdrum.

From the start of the show at 2 p.m., judge Pat O'Gorman had the difficult task of picking the top entrants in each of the categories.

In addition to the show, there were a number of stalls and demonstrations in place during the event on Sunday, June 18. Among them were Pet Bliss and its lovely pet accessories, Black Sheep Crafts with its wonderful knitted toys, Paula Humby from Paw-la's Dog Grooming Salon who gave grooming tips and a demo, Mairead from Avondale Veterinary who carried out pet health checks and dog microchipping and Audrey Dalton of Pawtraits by Audrey Dalton Photography who took photos of the beautiful dogs.

Emmaline Duffy Fallon from Citizen Canine Ireland gave some free children's dog training classes which proved incredibly popular and she'll be back at Wicklow SPCA to hold a four weeks of children's dog training classes starting on July 8 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. For further information contact Emmaline at 085 7697274 or the Wicklow SPCA office at 0404 44783.

Wicklow SPCA has extended a huge 'thank you' to everyone who attended, helped with and supported the dog show.
Pippa Middleton taking a stroll with husband James Matthews through the village of Glengarriff

Pippa Middleton and her husband James Matthews have been spotted looking loved-up as they strolled through an Irish village.

Fresh from their lavish one-month honeymoon, the pair are in Co Cork for her best friend's wedding.

The newlyweds smiled as they strolled through the village of Glengarriff hand-in-hand.

Pippa (33) looked stylish in a white blouse and jeans, teamed with a brown jacket and matching shoes.

Expand Close Pippa Middleton taking a stroll with husband James Matthews through the village of Glengarriff where the wedding of Camilla Campion-Awwad will take place. Pic: Steve Humphreys / Facebook

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James dressed for the elements as he wrapped up in a navy bodywarmer.

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The couple are staying at the Eccles Hotel in Glengarriff, Co Cork, along with a dozen friends who have travelled over for the wedding of Camilla Campion-Awwad (33) and her long-term partner Oliver Jenkinson.

The low-key wedding will take place today at Bantry House, a 17th-century stately home in West Cork.
Online retailer ASOS is being praised for not airbrushing images of models promoting swimwear and lingerie on the site.

Shoppers have taken to social media to thank the brand for helping to make 'natural' to be seen as 'normal' and to share the 'beautiful' images.

In the shots, stretch marks can be seen on both slimmer and curvy models.

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So impressed with ASOS for not airbrushing the model's stretchmarks. She looks amazing! one Twitter user said in a post which has since been liked more than 158,000 times, with nearly 48,000 retweets.

'ASOS not editing out girl's stretch marks on their swimwear photos is giving me so much life, look how beautiful they all are," wrote another.

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It's a popular move at a time when consumers are tired of unnatural images which have been airbrushed and filtered.

However, ASOS are not the first to use untouched images. New Zealand brand Lonely, Aerie and Rheya swimwear have all used natural images of women in their ads.

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Crime-scene technicians investigate the shooting at the Power Ultra Lounge nightclub in Little Rock (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo)

A police vehicle outside the cordoned-off entrance of the Little Rock nightclub where police say multiple people were hurt in a shooting (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo)

An investigator collects evidence near the Arkansas nightclub where police say multiple people were shot (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo)

Twenty-five people have been shot at a downtown nightclub in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The shooting at Power Ultra Lounge arose from a dispute among club-goers and not from an active gunman or a terror-related incident, said police.

Officers said 25 people were shot and three others suffered unrelated injuries but all are expected to survive.

A video posted online showed several bursts of gunfire - more than 24 shots in 11 seconds - about half a minute into a break in the raucous concert in the packed house for Finese 2Tymes, a performer from Memphis.

Club patron Darryl Rankin said he was recording the show on Facebook Live when gunfire erupted and that one of his friends is now at a hospital with a bullet "stuck in his spine."

Police cordoned off the block as crime-scene technicians gathered evidence from inside and outside the club. Glass from the club's second story windows littered the ground, along with empty drink cups.

Police chief Kenton Buckner said "some sort of dispute broke out between people inside" and there are "probably multiple shooting suspects."

The shooting follows a week in which there have been about a dozen drive-by shootings in Little Rock, though there is no indication the events are linked.

Little Rock mayor Mark Stodola said: "My heart is broken this morning - my prayers are with the victims of this tragedy. "

"We are committed to doing everything possible to bring safety to our city. We need everyone to help."

"Little Rock's crime problem appears to be intensifying," said Govenor Asa Hutchinson.

"Every few days it seems a high profile shooting dominates the news, culminating with this morning's event. I have spoken this morning with Mayor Stodola and I have offered both my heartfelt concern over this senseless violent tragedy and state assets as needed to address the continued threat of violence in our community."

Raida Bunche waited outside the club after she had heard from a friend that her son had been at the club. Later, she said she discovered her son ran out once the shooting began and was unharmed.

"I'm sick of all the killing and I'm tired of all the shooting, the kids getting hurt," said Ms Bunche.

The club's Facebook page promoted Friday night's show with a poster depicting a man pointing what appears to be a gun at the camera. A call to a number listed for Finese 2Tymes' booking agent wasn't immediately returned Saturday.

One person was killed and six people were hurt in a mass shooting in May at a downtown concert in Jonesboro, Arkansas, about 115 miles north-east of Little Rock. In that case, two men were charged with first-degree murder and six counts of first-degree battery.

AP

Power Ultra Lounge's alcohol license was suspended by Arkansas Alcohol Beverage Control officials who set a hearing for July 10.

Potential violations include allowing possession of weapons on the premises, disorderly conduct and failure to be a good neighbour, said the alcohol agency.

AP
Thousands of campaigners marched through Belfast towards the City Hall (Niall Carson/PA)

Thousands of people marched for equality in the streets of Northern Ireland, the only part of the UK and Ireland where same-sex marriage is banned.

Gay rights activists, trade unionists, civil servants, firemen, drag queens and same-sex couples turned up at Belfast city centre, waving rainbow flags and banners.

Campaigners called for any new government to support marriage equality in a march that was led by the Lord Mayor of Belfast Nuala McAllister, Northern Ireland-born The Fall actor Bronagh Waugh and Rainbow Project director John ODoherty.

ODoherty told political leaders nice words at election time were not enough, saying: We need action.

Action to make communities safe, action to make schools safe, an over-arching commitment from all the public institutions to addressing the historical and current inequalities which prevent Northern Ireland from being the society that we all want it to be, he said.

Together we are the future of Northern Ireland. We are the progressive majority and those who oppose us will lose, just like they did every time before.

When we win this battle do not think that we are done. This campaign is not just about changing the law, we are about changing the world.
Chinese President Xi Jinping walks after giving his speech during the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks on the podium during the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Chinese President Xi Jinping walks after giving his speech during the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his speech during the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Chinese President Xi Jinping swore in Hong Kong's new leader on Saturday with a stark warning that Beijing will not tolerate any challenge to its authority in the divided city as it marked the 20th anniversary of its return from Britain to China.

A massive deployment of police blocked roads and prevented protesters from getting to the harbour-front venue close to where two decades earlier, the last colonial governor, Chris Patten, tearfully handed back Hong Kong to Beijing at a rain-soaked ceremony.

"Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government ... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible," Xi said in a sweeping speech that touched upon the "humiliation and sorrow" China suffered during the first Opium War in the early 1840s that led to the ceding of Hong Kong to the British.

Hong Kong has been racked by demands for full democracy and, more recently, by calls by some pockets of protesters for independence, a subject that is anathema to Beijing.

Expand Close Chinese President Xi Jinping walks after giving his speech during the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip / Facebook

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Xi's words were his strongest yet to the city at a time of heightened social and political tensions and concerns over what some in Hong Kong perceive as increased meddling by Beijing in the city's affairs.

"It's a more frank and pointed way of dealing with the problems (in Hong Kong)," said former senior Hong Kong government adviser Lau Siu-kai on Hong Kong's Cable Television.

"The central government's power hasn't been sufficiently respected... theyre concerned about this."

Under Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, the financial hub is guaranteed wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms for "at least 50 years" after 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula praised by Xi.

Expand Close Chinese President Xi Jinping walks after giving his speech during the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip / Facebook

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But Beijing's refusal to grant universal suffrage to Hong Kong triggered nearly three months of street protests in 2014 that at times erupted into violent clashes and posed one of the greatest populist challenges to the central government in decades.

Xi, dressed in a dark suit and striped red tie, was addressing a packed hall of dignitaries and mostly pro-Beijing establishment figures, speaking for more than 30 minutes, after swearing in Hong Kong's first female leader, Carrie Lam.

Expand Close China's President Xi Jinping stands ahead of a meeting with Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's incoming chief executive (not pictured) in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Billy H.C. Kwok/Pool / Facebook

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"I will, as I always have ... firmly take actions in accordance with the law against any acts that will undermine the country's sovereignty, security and development interests," Lam said after she was sworn in along with her cabinet.

Xi hinted that the central government was in favour of Hong Kong introducing "national security" legislation, a controversial issue that brought nearly half a million people to the streets in protest in 2003 and ultimately forced former leader Tung Chee-hwa to step down.

"Hong Kong needs to improve its systems to uphold national sovereignty, security and development interests. It needs to enhance education and raise public awareness of history and culture of the Chinese nation," he said.

A small group of pro-democracy activists near the venue were roughed up by a group of men who smashed up some props in ugly scuffles while surrounded by more than 100 police. Nine democracy protesters, including Joshua Wong and lawmaker "long hair" Leung Kwok-hung, were bundled into police vans while several pro-China groups remained, cheering loudly and waving red China flags.

Expand Close China's President Xi Jinping meets with Hong Kong's Incoming Chief Executive Carrie Lam in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Billy H.C. Kwok/Pool / Facebook

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The activists, in a later statement, said the assailants had been "pro-Beijing triad members".

Other protesters unfurled a massive yellow banner, with the words "I want real universal suffrage", on the waterfront of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, but were later taken away by police.

Beijing-backed civil servant Lam was chosen to be Hong Kong's next leader in March by a 1,200-person "election committee" stacked with pro-China and pro-establishment loyalists.

Lam, speaking in Mandarin instead of the Cantonese dialect widely used in Hong Kong and elsewhere in southern China, said she wanted to create a harmonious society and explore new land supply in a city where the sky-high cost of housing has also triggered discontent.

Xi acknowledged housing was a significant issue for the new government.

"Hong Kong's traditional strengths start to lose the edge while new drivers of growth are yet to emerge. Housing and other issues that affect the daily life of the people have become more serious," he said.

Upwards of 100,000 thousand protesters are expected to hit the streets for an annual march in the afternoon whose theme is to "retake Hong Kong for a real and fully fledged democracy".
China's President Xi Jinping poses with Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam, but the smiles were followed by a stern warning (Pool Photo/AP)

China's president Xi Jinping has said there will be no tolerance for any acts seen as jeopardising stability and security.

The president employed some of his harshest language yet towarsd pro-democracy activities in the former British territory.

In his address during a swearing-in ceremony for Carlie Lam as Hong Kong's chief executive, Mr Xi pledged Beijing's support for the "one country, two systems" blueprint under which the territory was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

But he said Hong Kong had to do more to shore up security and boost patriotic education, apparently referring to pieces of legislation long delayed by popular opposition.

And he warned that anyone threatening China or Hong Kong's political stability would be crossing a red line and their actions would be considered "absolutely impermissible" - words certain to concern those already wary of tightening restrictions on political life in the city.

Any attempt to challenge China's sovereignty, security and government authority or use Hong Kong to "carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible", he said.

Mr Xi's three-day visit aimed at stirring Chinese patriotism prompted a massive police presence.

Protesters fear Beijing's ruling Communist Party is increasing its control over Hong Kong's political and civil affairs, undermining a pledge to allow it to retain its own legal and other institutions for 50 years.

Ms Lam was sworn in as Hong Kong's new leader on the city's 20th anniversary of its handover from British to Chinese rule in a ceremony presided over by Mr Xi.

She and her cabinet swore to serve China and Hong Kong and to uphold the Basic Law, the territory's mini-constitution.

In a short speech, she reviewed the dynamic financial centre's achievements and challenges, pledged to support central government initiatives and declared that "the future is bright".

The career bureaucrat was selected through a process decried by critics as fundamentally undemocratic, involving just a sliver of a per cent of Hong Kong's three million-plus voters.

A little over a mile away, a small group of activists linked to the pro-democracy opposition clashed with police and counter-protesters.

AP
A man was arrested after allegedly attacking his wife at a bar in London.

CCTV footage of the incident appeared afterwards on his Facebook page with the caption, 'Wife sorted lol'.

Footage appears to show the man grabbing the woman and dragging her around to the front of the bar.

Met Police confirmed to Independent.ie that a 42-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault.

"Police are investigating an allegation of assault at licensed premises on Neasden Lane, NW10 on the morning of Sunday, 18 June," a spokesperson said.

"A 42-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and taken to a north London police station. He was released under investigation pending further enquiries.

"The incident is believed to be domestic-related."
A couple kissing as people celebrate Germanys parliament legalising samesex marriage in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Photo: Reuters

A clear majority of German MPs have voted to legalise same-sex marriage, days after Chancellor Angela Merkel dropped her opposition to a vote.

The reform grants couples now limited to civil unions full marital rights, and allows them to adopt children.

Ms Merkel's political opponents were strongly in favour. But the chancellor, who signalled her backing for a free vote only on Monday, voted against.

The bill was backed by 393 lawmakers, 226 voted against and four abstained.

The German legal code will now read: "Marriage is entered into for life by two people of different or the same sex", AFP news agency reported.

Following yesterday's vote, Ms Merkel said that for her, marriage was between a man and a woman. But she said she hoped the passing of the bill would lead to more "social cohesion and peace".

During her 2013 election campaign, Ms Merkel argued against gay marriage on the grounds of "children's welfare" and admitted that she had a "hard time" with the issue.

But in an on-stage interview with the women's magazine 'Brigitte' on Monday she shocked the German media by saying, in response to an audience member's question, that she had noted other parties' support for gay marriage, and would allow a free vote at an unspecified time in the future.

The usually-cautious chancellor said she had had a "life-changing experience" in her home constituency, where she had dinner with a lesbian couple who cared for eight foster children together.

As the news spread on Twitter, supporters rallied under the hashtag #EheFuerAlle (MarriageForAll) - and started calling for a vote as soon as possible. Mrs Merkel's current coalition partners - the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), which is trailing Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) in opinion polls - then seized the political initiative.

It called for a vote by the time parliament went into summer recess at the end of the week - prompting Ms Merkel to complain she'd been "ambushed".

A recent survey by the government's anti-discrimination agency found that 83pc of Germans were in favour of marriage equality.

The day after Ireland voted to legalise gay marriage in May 2015, almost every German newspaper splashed a rainbow across its front page.

"It's time, Ms Merkel," Green party leader Katrin Goering-Eckhart said then.

"The Merkel faction cannot just sit out the debate on marriage for everyone." ( Daily Telegraph, London)
Ukraine security services have claimed that Russian security services were involved in the recent virus attack on Ukraine.

The international cyber attack caused disruption for major organisations including advertising firm WPP, European bank BNP Paribas and parts of the Ukrainian government's computer systems.

Europol, which helps EU member states fight international crime, said the latest attack, the second in as many months, is more sophisticated than one in May that affected the NHS among others.

The group is monitoring the spread of the virus.

Europol executive director Rob Wainwright said: "This is another serious ransomware attack with global impact, although the number of victims is not yet known.

"There are clear similarities with the WannaCry attack, but also indications of a more sophisticated attack capability, intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities.

"It is a demonstration of how cybercrime evolves."

In the attack, the virus encrypted computer files and then demanded payment of 300 dollars (235) ransom in the online currency bitcoin in exchange for the captured data.

Ukraine was the worst affected by the ransom-demanding virus.
Participants walk past police before a Gay Pride demo and parade in Madrid (AP Photo/Paul White)

Armed police block a street for security reasons before the Gay Pride demonstration and parade (AP Photo/Paul White)

Hundreds of thousands of people have been marching in a global gay pride demonstration in Madrid under tight security measures.

Authorities reduced the traffic flow in the Spanish capital, banned heavy trucks and deployed 3,500 police in the city centre.

However, there were no indications of planned attacks by extremist groups that have hit several European cities, said Spanish police.

The rally, calling for LGTBI rights to be extended across the world, featured a parade of 52 floats taking the festivities through the city and into the night.

The march in the Spanish capital is the highlight of the 10-day World Pride 2017 festival, which concludes on Sunday.

AP
Vian Dakhil is the only Yazidi female politician in Iraqi parliament

A baby was fed to its own unwitting mother by Isis, who also raped a ten-year-old girl to death in front of her own family, an Iraqi MP has claimed.

Vian Dakhil is a prominent Yazidi politician and has served as an important mouthpiece for the horrors perpetrated by Isis against her people.

The extremist group believe the Yazidi minority  who follow their own religion and customs  are devil worshippers and have waged genocide against them.

The latest horrific claims were made by Ms Dakhil in a recent interview with Egyptian channel Extra News. It was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Talking about some Yazidis she had rescued, she said: One of the women whom we managed to retrieve from Isis said that she was held in a cellar for three days without food or water.

Afterwards, they brought her a plate of rice and meat. She ate the food because she was very hungry.

Yazidi Iraqi MP Vian Dakhil Breaks Down in Tears Recounting Atrocities Committed by ISIS against Her People pic.twitter.com/T69GXmfLn8  MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 26, 2017

When she was finished they said to her: We cooked your one-year-old son that we took from you, and this is what you just ate.

The remark reduced her interviewer to tears.

Ms Dakhil also told of the fate of another Yazidi woman. She said: One of the girls said that they took six of her sisters.

Her younger sister, a ten-year-old girl, was raped to death in front of her father and sisters. She was ten-years-old.

Nearly 10,000 Yazidis are believed to have been killed or captured by Isis during the extremists offensive in August 2014 across Iraq.

Isis reserve particular contempt for the minority group. Many women have been kept as sex slaves. Others have been discovered in mass graves.

In May, journal PLOS Medicine estimated that of the 9,900 Yazidis captured by Isis two years ago, 3,100 were killed, some by brutal methods such as decapitation.

Many of those who were captured remain missing.

It was during this period Ms Dakhil made an impassioned speech to the Iraqi Parliament, begging the world to come to the aid of her people at Mount Sinjar, where they were besieged.
Patients and hospital staff walk past police outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

NYPD officers stand guard outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

NYPD officers stand guard outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

FDNY members walk outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

NYPD officers walk outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

NYPD officers speak outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

Patients exit the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

NYC police commisioner James O'Neill speaks during a press conference next to NYC mayor Bill de Blasio (R) outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

A doctor who had lost his job at a New York City hospital opened fire with an assault rifle inside the building on Friday, killing another physician and wounding six other people before taking his own life in a burst of apparent workplace-related violence, officials said.

The gunman, wearing a white medical lab coat, stalked two floors of the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, in the New York borough of the Bronx, and tried to set himself on fire before police searching the building found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot, Police Commissioner James O'Neill said.

One female physician was shot to death, and six other people were wounded, five seriously, including one who was shot in the leg, O'Neill said at a news conference.

Mayor Bill de Blasio characterized the shooting as an "isolated incident" that appeared to be "a workplace-related matter." He said that it was "not an act of terrorism."

Expand Close NYPD officers speak outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp NYPD officers speak outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

"One doctor is dead, and there are several doctors who are fighting for their lives right now amongst those who are wounded," de Blasio told reporters. "This is a horrific situation unfolding in the middle of a place that people associate with care and comfort."

O'Neill said the gunman was armed with an assault rifle.

Expand Close FDNY members walk outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp FDNY members walk outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

Neither the mayor nor police immediately identified the suspect or any of the victims. O'Neill said the gunman was a former employee of the 972-bed hospital.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, in an interview with WABC News, identified the gunman as Dr. Henry Bello and said he had been fired by the hospital. Other media reports said Bello was 45 years of age.

The New York Times and the New York Daily News reported, citing unnamed sources, that Bello had resigned from the hospital rather than face termination over accusations of sexual harassment.

Bello had received a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate in order to gain experience so he could be fully licensed, but that permit expired a year ago, the Times reported. It said he also had a pharmacy technician license from California. The Daily News said he had been a pharmacy tech at the hospital before he quit in 2015.

Expand Close NYPD officers walk outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp NYPD officers walk outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

A native of Nigeria, Bello earned a medical degree from Ross University on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica and later worked briefly as a pharmacy technician for Metropolitan Hospital Center in Manhattan in 2012, according to David Wims, a lawyer who represented Bello in an unemployment insurance claim against that hospital.

In a telephone interview, Wims told Reuters Bello was injured on the job at Metropolitan a few months after being hired, then went on leave and never returned. In a decision upheld by the state's appellate court division, Bello ultimately was denied unemployment benefits on grounds he quit without good cause.

Expand Close Patients and hospital staff walk past police outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Patients and hospital staff walk past police outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZEDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

Wims said he remembered Bello as "an even-keeled, respectful, humble person" and knew nothing of his history at the Bronx hospital.

Details about the shooting were still sketchy.

Authorities said the rampage unfolded shortly before 3 p.m. when the gunman went on a rampage on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital. He and the slain physician both were found on the 17th floor, while the six other victims were found on the 16th floor, O'Neill said.

The incident sent waves of panic throughout the hospital, and police swarmed the building searching for the gunman.

"People were running. People were afraid," said Jane Vachara, 50, a clerical associate on the ninth floor, who said she huddled with colleagues in a locker room for about an hour.

Adding to the pandemonium was the gunman's attempt to set himself ablaze, which apparently triggered the hospital's fire alarm system and halted elevator service, hampering efforts by first responders to reach victims and evacuate the building.

One ambulance worker, Robert Maldonado, told WCBS television that he and his partner had to carry a bleeding patient down nine flights of stairs to safety, applying pressure to the man's wound on the way down.

Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, located about one mile (1.6 km) north of Yankee Stadium, is the largest voluntary, non-profit health care system serving the South and Central Bronx, as well as one of the city's biggest providers of outpatient services.
U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump wave as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves the White House after a visit, in Washington, U.S., June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

U.S. President Donald Trump with First Lady Melania Trump and their son Barron arrive at Morristown municipal airport, New Jersey, U.S., to spend a weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he with first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron board Air force One to depart Washington at Joint Base Andrews Maryland, U.S., to spend a weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Donald Trump has renewed his feud with two morning television hosts calling them "crazy and dumb as a rock".

Mr Trump first sparked outrage from Democrats and Republicans on Thursday when he suggested that presenter Mika Brzezinski had been bleeding badly from a face-lift when he saw her six months ago. She co-hosts MSNBC's "Morning Joe" news programme with her fiance Joe Scarborough.

On Saturday morning Mr Trump offered something of an olive branch, calling the pair "good people," while also attacking them and their bosses at the NBC network.

Mr Trump wrote on Twitter: "Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!"

Expand Close Mika Brzezinski / Facebook

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He also attacked NBC for letting go high profile anchor Greta Van Susteren. Mr Trump said: "Word is that Greta Van Susteren was let go by her out of control bosses at NBC because she refused to go along with 'Trump hate'!"

Mr Tump also blasted the two dozen US states that have refused to provide voter details to a panel he set up to investigate what he has claimed were millions of people voting illegally for Hillary Clinton in last year's election.

Expand Close MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski arrive for the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington. Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo / Facebook

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Whatsapp MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski arrive for the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington. Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

The president said: "Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?"

Mr Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity sent a letter to all 50 states on Wednesday asking them to turn over voter information including names, dates of birth, voting histories, criminal convictions, and the last four digits of social security numbers.

Delbert Hosemann, Mississippi's Republican Secretary of State, said: "They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi."

It came as Melania Trump, the First Lady, issued a scathing rebuttal to claims by Miss Brzezinski that she was only staying in the White House for the sake of her 11-year-old son Barron.

Miss Brzezinski told InStyle magazine: "I know Melania. I haven't talked to her in months but, if my gut is right, I don't think she's going to put up with it much longer.

"Melanias got the worst job in the country and I dont think she wants do it a lot longer. I think she will do it for as long as she has to for her son, and thats it."

The First Lady responded with a furious statement in which she denied Miss Brzezinski knew her, and said it was "sad when people try to further their own agenda by commenting on me and my family".

In May, a video emerged which appeared to show the First Lady refusing to take the president's hand as they disembarked from Air Force One. They seemed to have a similar incident during a trip to Tel Aviv.

Expand Close U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump wave as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves the White House after a visit, in Washington, U.S., June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria / Facebook

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Whatsapp U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump wave as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves the White House after a visit, in Washington, U.S., June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Mr Trump has had a tortured relationship with the Morning Joe programme.

Mr Scarborough and Miss Brzezinski have alleged that senior White House staff put pressure on them to tone down their negative coverage.

Expand Close U.S. President Donald Trump with First Lady Melania Trump and their son Barron arrive at Morristown municipal airport, New Jersey, U.S., to spend a weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas / Facebook

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Whatsapp U.S. President Donald Trump with First Lady Melania Trump and their son Barron arrive at Morristown municipal airport, New Jersey, U.S., to spend a weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

They claim Mr Trump's staff threatened that the National Enquirer tabloid would publish a salacious story about them unless they personally apologised to the president, which has been denied by the White House.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
US TV hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (pictured) have questioned the mental state of the President Donald Trump, describing him as "thin-skinned" and saying that his "fragile, childlike, impetuous temper" is deeply troubling to America.

Mr Trump issued a series of deeply personal and offensive tweets on Thursday, describing Ms Brzezinski as begging to attend his Mar-a-Lago estate when she was "bleeding badly from a face lift".

The tweets were condemned across the political spectrum, with Republicans including speaker of the house Paul Ryan, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush all expressing dismay at the "undignified, unpresidential" message. Ben Sasse, senator for Nebraska, simply said: "Please stop."

Yesterday morning the co-hosts returned to the show - despite originally planning to be on holiday - to deliver their verdict.

Ms Brzezinski said that she was not affected personally - noting that the recent death of her father, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, and her daughter's loss of a friend were real issues that worried her.

But she worried for the country. "He appears to have a fragile, childlike, impetuous temper," she said. "It is unbelievably alarming that this president is so easily played. By a cable news host. What is that saying to our allies?"

She also marvelled at how the president managed "to fit so many lies" into his tweets.

Rather than begging to attend his Florida estate, she said that she only went because the president repeatedly asked Mr Scarborough, her fiance, where she was. She said she spent less than 15 minutes there in December, chatting pleasantly with Melania Trump - who she praised - and turned down his invitation to spend New Year's Eve at the resort.

She had recently had a tightening of her chin, she said, adding: "But that's no state secret."

In an article in the 'Washington Post', published yesterday, the couple wrote: "Putting aside Mr Trump's never-ending obsession with women's blood, Mika and her face were perfectly intact, as pictures from that night reveal.

"And though it is no one's business, the president's petulant personal attack against yet another woman's looks compels us to report that Mika has never had a face-lift.

"If she had, it would be evident to anyone watching 'Morning Joe' on their high-definition TV.

"She did have a little skin under her chin tweaked, but this was hardly a state secret. Her mother suggested she do so, and all those around her were aware of this mundane fact."

Mr Scarborough, a former congressman for Florida, then told a story about how they had been contacted by someone who warned them that 'The National Enquirer' was about to publish a story attacking them.

He said that three senior White House officials then contacted him.

"They said if you call the president up and apologise for your coverage, he will pick up the phone and spike their coverage. I had three people at the top of the administration calling me. I was like - are you kidding?"

Ms Brzezinski, who has two teenage daughters with her ex-husband, said that reporters from 'The National Enquirer' were hounding her children and sitting outside her house.

"I talked to my ex-husband, and Joe, and my kids," she said. "And our response was just run it."

Mr Trump then took to Twitter to disagree with Mr Scarborough's story.

The presenters told how they had a decade-long friendship with Mr Trump, but were growing increasingly concerned about his mental state.

"The guy in the White House is not the Donald Trump we know," said Mr Scarborough.

"The guy we knew 10 years ago was always in on the joke.

"Without getting into great detail, I'd just say that someone at the top of the campaign said we're really worried about the state of his mind." ( Daily Telegraph, London)
Fighting has taken place between security forces and the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan (AP)

A Taliban shadow district chief has been killed in fighting with security forces in Afghanistan's eastern Wardak province, officials said.

Mullah Bashir, the Taliban-appointed governor of the Nirkh district, was killed and two militants were wounded late on Friday night, the interior ministry said.

In a separate statement, the ministry said at least 13 militants, including five Islamic State fighters, were killed after Afghan warplanes targeted their hideouts in the eastern Paktika, northern Sar-e Pul and Jawzjan provinces.

The attacks were carried out overnight, destroying some of the militants' weapons and vehicles.

The Taliban has not yet commented on the fighting.
The ruler of the United Arab Emirates has left the country on a private trip three years after suffering a stroke.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who underwent emergency surgery following his stroke in January 2014, was reported to have travelled abroad by the state-run WAM news agency.

He was born in 1948 and became president after his father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, died in 2004. He is also the ruler of Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the seven UAE sheikhdoms.

Sheikh Khalifa has taken several private trips abroad since his stroke.

He made a rare public appearance on state media in late June to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The video showed him speaking, but carried no sound.

AP
Germany bid farewell on Saturday to Helmut Kohl, the former chancellor who steered his country toward reunification in 1990 and whose tireless efforts to ensure peace and stability in Europe shape the continent to this day.

Hundreds of dignitaries attended a requiem mass at Speyer Cathedral in Mr Kohl's home region of Rhineland-Palatinate in southwest Germany.

Earlier in the day, past and present leaders from around the world paid tribute to Mr Kohl at the European Parliament's seat in the French city of Strasbourg.

Mr Kohl, who died June 16 at the age of 87, is the first person to be honoured with an official memorial event by the European Union.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the ceremony in Strasbourg, close to the border with Germany, was Mr Kohl's own choice.

"Helmut Kohl was a German patriot but at the same time a European patriot," said Mr Juncker, recalling how Mr Kohl had wept tears of joy when the bloc agreed in December 1997 to begin accepting members from the formerly Communist countries in Eastern Europe.

During his 16-year term as Germany's leader, stretching from 1982 to 1998, not only did Mr Kohl oversee his country's reunification but also spearheaded the creation of the euro currency, which is now used by 19 nations.

"Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves," said former US president Bill Clinton, citing Mr Kohl's willingness to put international cooperation before national interests at key moments in history.

Mr Kohl is widely regarded as having skilfully overcome the fears of Germany's neighbours when an end to the country's decades-long division into a communist east and a democratic west first became a realistic possibility in the late 1980s.

Drawing on his friendships with several world leaders, often forged over hearty meals, Mr Kohl assured the Allied nations that had beaten Nazi Germany in the Second World War that his country no longer aspired to dominate others.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Mr Kohl's vision and persistence had paid a historic dividend.

"Without Helmut Kohl, the lives of millions of people who lived behind the (Berlin) Wall until 1990 would have taken a completely different course, including mine," said Mrs Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany. "Thank you for the opportunities you gave me."

EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Mr Kohl deserved "a place of honour in the European pantheon" for unhesitatingly extending the hand of friendship to fledgling democracies in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain.

French president Emmanuel Macron noted that it was one of his predecessors, Francois Mitterrand, and Mr Kohl, two men who had experienced the suffering of the Second World War on opposing sides, who were able to "overcome the terrible memories of their generation."

Mr Macron pledged to continue their work in forging a united Europe, working together with Mr Merkel.

Several speakers recalled the poignant gesture of reconciliation in 1984, when Mr Mitterrand and Mr Kohl held hands during a ceremony at a First World War cemetery in Verdun, France.

Following Saturday's ceremony in Strasbourg, Mr Kohl's coffin was transported by helicopter to Germany and then taken down the Rhine river to Speyer, with thousands of people lining the roads and riverbanks to bid their farewell.

The requiem mass in Speyer ended with a rare funeral toll from the Cathedral's Emperor Bell, named after the eight Holy Roman Emperors buried in the city, after which his flag-draped coffin was carried out into the open for military honours.

Mr Kohl was to be laid to rest in a private ceremony at a cemetery in Speyer.

AP
Despite predictions of a "red wave" rolling throughout the country  one in which Republican political candidates would cruise to victory up and down the ballot on the strength of nationwide frustration with crime, inflation and dissatisfaction with the Biden administration  Tuesday's midterm election delivered more of the same for many Rhode Islanders. In addition to Democratic victories in all the major statewide races, voters in North Kingstown, Narragansett and South Kingstown skewed overwhelmingly blue in General Assembly races and all local school boards and town council races. With the results of Tuesday's midterm election all but finalized pending a few outstanding mail-in ballots and certification, it appears local boards of government in Southern Rhode Island towns will see a large number of familiar faces. With that in mind, do you believe your local town and school committee seats are held by the best representatives available in your town? Why or why not? Let us know in this week's poll question below.

You voted:
As we had reporter earlier, the shooting of actor Ajith Kumar's grand 57th film 'Vivegam' has been wrapped up in Serbia on Thursday (June 29) and the team has returned to India.

Ajith reached Chennai Airport today and the people who were in the airport were excited to see him. As usual the star was flooded by fans with requests for a selfie within the few minutes he walked towards the entrance and alighted into his car. Ajith also posed for selfies and photos with fans and we could see a lot of delighted faces posing with their matinee idol.

Clad in a black round neck t-shirt and blue jean, the effervescent Thala was at his usual simple and smart looks.



Directed by Siva and produced by Sathya Jyothi Films, 'Vivegam' is an international espionage thriller which is scheduled to hit the screens on August 10, 2017.
The US will honour a total of 38 immigrants, including Indian-Americans, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen and former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, this year by bestowing the Great Immigrants Award on July 4, the US independence day.

Narayen, a native of Hyderabad and a UC Berkeley alumnus, is a board member of US-India Business Council (USIBC)and Pfizer.

Murthy, born in the UK, is a Harvard and Yale alumnus. Former President Barack Obama appointed him as the US Surgeon General in 2014, making him the youngest person to hold that post. The True administration dismissed him in April this year.

Naturalised citizens are recognised for their contribution to the American society, culture and economy with this award. The New York Times will carry a full-page public announcement on the honourees, who will also be recognised with an online public awareness initiative.
Thala Ajith's constant director Siruthai Siva is busy shooting the final schedule of 'Vivegam' in Bulgaria with Ajith, Vivekh Oberoi, Kajal Agarwal and Akshara Haasan. In a recent interview he has stated that he will soon direct a film with Vijay as the hero.

Siruthai Siva has revealed that he knows Thalapathy Vijay since childhood and has spoken to him many times and the latter has always been cordial towards him. He said that Thala and Thalapathy are similar in their dedication towards their jobs and that is what has taken them to these great heights.
Courage is a strong word. Uttering the word itself gives us immense strength, fills our chest with pride and motivates us to push ourselves. The idea of courage is different for every individual. Some find it in changing cities, whereas some find it in accepting failures. Some think it comes from within, whereas some derive it from others.

We spoke to nine people and asked them what courage means to them. Here are nine people who tell us what the word means to them.

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In 2003, during the unfortunate Assam-Bihar unrest, I fell in love for the first time. Since the girl lived in Guwahati (my hometown) and I was in Bangalore for studies, we were in a long-distance relationship. I was so deeply in love with her, that I had to meet her. Despite the danger of travelling during the riots, I did book a ticket and travelled all the way, just to see her on her birthday. That was a very courageous of me as love conquered my fear. - Noyon Jyoti Parasara, Media Professional

For me, courage is changing cities. I took a courageous step by moving from Ichalkaranji, Kolhapur to Mumbai. Initially, it was such a big change for me as I was so new to the chaos and crowd that I found it tough to move along with it. Being a very shy person, it was really difficult for me to converse with Mumbaikars (I was so shy that when I used to get lost, I did not even ask strangers for directions!). However, with right friends and good company, I overcame my fear and today I have blended well with the city and its chaos.  Vinayak Yesane, Graphic Designer

Prior to working with Goonj in Nepal, I had gone to assess the situation of this village on the tip I had got from a local friend. Namdu is a cluster of 9 VDCs in Dholakia district of Nepal. It was one of the worst affected districts. When I reached this village, I hardly saw any houses that were intact. They needed almost everything to start their life again. So I went back and decided that we needed a huge amount of relief. I did not know how I would do that but I was determined and confident I could. There was a little fear as it was an international shore and the relief had to be got via truck from Delhi to Kathmandu and then to Namdu.Goonj had organised for a whole truckload of basic ration and all the essentials. It was a 9-tonne truck and goods worth lakhs that travelled from Delhi to Namdu over 4 or 5 days and all the while it was in transit, during that time, I kept my confidence up and fear away. It was my courage that stood me through all this. And finally, we were able to give out relief to almost over 1000 families. Doing relief work in Nepal was totally different from what I had done in India. My courage taught me only one thing that, if you are determined to act then nothing can stop you from doing so. -Anusha Subramanian, trained mountaineer and relief worker

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Accepting failure is also a huge courageous step in life. I had started a start-up after quitting my job. However, since it wasnt working as per the plan, closing it down was a very courageous decision for me. To accept the failure and to move on is not an easy decision. Therefore, accepting failure is courage. Ayush Jain, Product Manager

Travelling alone can get very lonely at times. To take that first step itself is super important. When you're travelling alone, you're a different person and when you travel with others, you are completely different. When you're travelling solo, you require courage to face yourself as introspection comes your way. I have taken a million flights alone and when a flight takes off or descends, I am in a different zone altogether. I have no worries. It is infinity, it is that moment. - Batul Kapasi, Solo Traveler

The beauty of stand up for me is that no matter how long I've been doing this, the nervousness before shows never goes away. 10 minutes before I get on stage I'm a nervous wreck. There's butterflies in my stomach! 10 minutes before everyshow it still feels like the first time I got on stage. I feel this is important though. There have been times when I've not felt nervous before the show and those have mostly been the shows I haven't performed as well as I could. So I know I'm in trouble if I don't feel nervous! In a strange way, being nervous is how I feel courageous about my act. I know, I will be fine, as soon as I get on - Amogh Ranadive, Standup Comedian

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Courage for me is to push my clients to experience new makeover and looks. Its not because it would benefit for me, but to show my client that its necessary to try out new things rather than the same, old haircut or the same old beauty treatment. It makes a lot of difference in the confidence and makes you feel good from within  Nilima Singh, Beautician

According to me, courage is living life according to your terms. Not many people live the way they want to. They stick to a job and forget to do what they love. I was in an IT industry for 18 years and despite getting a fat paycheck, I decided to leave the routine and do what I like to do.  Mazhar Asif, Wildlife trekker

Doing things which nobody expects you to do is courage. When I won a medal, people thought that I wont be able to make it because of my disability. But, I proved them wrong. This is what courage means to me  doing things which you feel are impossible.  Rahul Ramugade, para-athlete, swimming champion
In protest against the Municipal tax that has now been levied by the state government in addition to the Goods and Service Tax, Tamil Nadu Theatre Association has announced an indefinite strike from Monday. As a result, about 1,100 will shut from Monday onwards.

livetoday.online

While the president of the association Abirami Ramanathan has confirmed the same, it has been reported that a section of the film fraternity is unhappy with the decision. They say the filmmakers whose movies are screened currently will bear loses because of this.

G Dhananjayan, producer and distributor, tweeted:

TN theatres have announced indefinite shut down of theatres from Monday as Govt.of TN has not come out with a clear support 2 film industry.  Dhananjayan Govind (@Dhananjayang) June 30, 2017

We delivered a good film in #IvanThanthiran but sadly Govt.of TN's lack of clarification on both GST&Local Tax is killing our film's success  Dhananjayan Govind (@Dhananjayang) June 30, 2017

Edappadi Palaniswami government has introduced a 30 percent municipal tax on cinemas for tickets that cost over Rs. 100., and this is in addition to the 28 percent tax that is levied under GST.

The Federation is appealing to the government to roll back the the Municipal tax.

Twitter

"We welcome GST. We are not happy with the corporation tax which is 30 per cent. It is coming into effect from tomorrow. Kerala government has withdrawn it. We want the Tamil Nadu government to withdraw it too," Tamil Nadu Cinema Theatre Owners' Federation, President Abirami Ramanathan said.

However, as of now, the strike has been declared and the theatres will remain shut on Monday.
As the nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) is set to come into effect on Saturday, there has been criticism regarding its implementation in India. But the country's biggest tax reform since independence is promising to bring millions of firms like Sachdeva's into the tax net, boosting government revenues and India's sovereign credit profile.

The new tax will require firms to upload their invoices every month to a portal that will match them with those of their suppliers or vendors.

Because a tax number is needed for a firm to claim a credit on the cost of its inputs, many companies are refusing to buy from unregistered businesses. Those who don't sign up risk losing any customer who has.

Reuters/Representational Image

Boosting The Coffers

Improved tax compliance should shore up public finances, augmenting resources for welfare and development spending and giving a lift to the $2 trillion economy.

India currently has one of the worst tax-to-GDP ratios among major economies at 16.6 percent, less the half the 34 percent average for the members of the OECD and also below many emerging economies.

Reuters/Representational Image

While there is no official estimate of the potential fiscal gain, some tax experts say the measure, after the initial teething trouble, would lift the tax-to-GDP ratio by as much as 4 percentage points as the number of tax filers is estimated to more than treble to 30 million.

"In future, compliance is going to be extremely crucial," Rajiv Nair, chief executive officer at Kaya Ltd., told Reuters. "Since we are also responsible for compliance across the supply chain, we have to ensure that the suppliers we have are in a position to work with us in a compliant manner."

Reuters/Representational Image

Nair's company, which makes beauty and personal care products, has just streamlined its supply chain, dropping vendors that were not going to be GST-compliant.

Other companies are doing the same. Elior Group, a French catering and food service company, said it has mandated GST-compliance as one of the eligibility criteria for its orders.

Winners And Losers

The unorganised sector of India's economy is vast, employing an estimated nine out of 10 workers.

Reuters/Representational Image

While staying outside the GST regime risks losing business, joining it will necessitate an overhaul of firms' accounting systems and an investment in technology.

The new tax system requires three filing a month plus an annual return - a total of 37 filings - for each of India's 29 states in which a firm operates. For smaller companies operating on wafer thin margins, hiring accountants and technical staff could substantially dent their bottom line.

Sanjiv Mehra, head of a traders' body in Delhi, reckons a "prohibitive" cost could prove to be counterproductive.

"Compliance is needed for input tax credit," he said. "But what if you are in a business where margins are strong and allows you to forsake credit?"

But despite its flaws, many analysts think the new tax will be good news for bigger established businesses, because it will sweep away an array of federal and state sales taxes, levied at different stages of the supply chain, that often result in double taxation.

Reuters/Representational Image

The government estimates the GST will save companies around $14 billion because it will allow them to organise their warehouses and supply chains more efficiently.

Firms can now move to demand-based "hub-and-spoke" models used globally, rather than operating state-by-state.

"Those companies which can wring out the maximum cost efficiency are the ones investors should bet on," said Ajay Bodke, head of portfolio management services at financial firm Prabhudas Lilladher in Mumbai. "All consumer-facing industries will be big beneficiaries of the GST."
16-year-old Junaid Khan was stabbed to death on a train last week by a mob who accused him and his three companions of carrying beef in their bags.

Junaid along with his brother Haseeb were on their way back to Haryana from Delhi after Eid shopping, when a fight erupted over seats in the train they were travelling. The frivolous fight over train seats soon escalated, religious slurs were hurled at the brothers, and Junaid was later thrown off the train.

The incident sent shock waves across the nation. Junaid Khan's murder is the latest in a string of violence perpetrated by self-styled cow protection vigilantes on Muslims.

Twitter/TOI

In the wake of the crime against the innocent teen, protest marches called Not In My Name are being held across the country.

Bollywood actress Renuka Shahane, who is known for using social media to comment on socially and politically important issues, voiced her opinion on the entire episode.

In the emotional post, Shahane writes, "Junaid was 16. My elder son will turn 16 next year. My heart breaks for Junaid's mother."

She talked about how she did not want the 'blood of innocents' on her hands and at end reminded us to 'respect' and 'protect' the tenets of the Constitution of India.

Read the full post below:

NOT IN MY NAME

Junaid was lynched by a mob of cruel human beings. I dont care what religion those lynchers belonged to. Nor do I care what religion Junaid belonged to. I only care about one thing. A group of mean, cruel human beings killed a teenager and assaulted three other young men brutally!

Junaid was 16.

My elder son will turn 16 next year.

My heart breaks for Junaids mother.

Not only did a group of cruel human beings kill Junaid, another group of cruel human beings egged them on. Junaid was also killed by those cruel people who witnessed the insanity & chose to remain silent.

There are some cruel people who justify this lynching.

Yes! Hate allows for all sorts of justification.

There has been a long list of these lynchings. It has become so common that no one talks about it. Nobody asks questions about what happened to the perpetrators. Whether they were caught & given the strictest punishment or whether they were released to unleash more violence!

I cannot fathom how anyone can kill unarmed, innocent human beings!

I cannot fathom how people can justify this horrific violence!

Instead of taking law into their own hands why are police complaints not made?

Is it because the lynch mob knows that there is no reason behind what they have done?

All they want to do is to kill in the name of hate.

Whichever religion, ideology, language, ethnicity you belong to, lynching done in any name cannot be condoned!

Weve suffered so many riots, terrorist attacks, pogroms, lynchings but we havent learnt anything.

The bottom line is that innocent human beings become the target of that hate. They are usually poor. They are usually those who are incapable of fighting back. It is really too, too disheartening.

Innocence dies when hate rules!

I cannot be a part of those who encourage hate.

I was with the Ekta Manch marching from Parel to Azad Maidan singing  Hum hongey kaamyaab. to promote brotherhood between fellow citizens of all faiths in 1993 after the horrendous riots followed by the heinous bomb blasts in Mumbai.

I marched to the Gateway of India to protest the utter failure & crass mishandling of 26/11 by the then Congress Govt in the State and the Centre in 2008.

I supported the Anna Hazare anti corruption movement when he waged the civil battle against the UPA 2 Govt at the Centre.

I was vocal about womens safety after the horrendous rape & murder of Jyoti Singh as well as Pallavi Purkayastha as well as the sickening hacking of Swathi.

Today I stand firmly against the lynch mentality that has an active political patronage in our country.

I do not belong to any political party. I am a citizen of one of the finest democracies in the World. That is why it is so important for all of us to respect & protect the tenets of our Constitution.

I, as a proud citizen of India, do not conform to the views of anyone who actively or passively supports this lynching.

My allegiance lies with the Constitution of India.

If the Govt or any other body does anything to undermine the basic tenets of democracy in our country, I will vocally oppose it.

I so wanted to be a part of the peaceful civil protest at Carter Road today but I cant. But I will not be a part of this hate!

I do not want my children to inherit this hate.

I will not have the blood of innocents on my hands.

NOT IN MY NAME!
BCCL/Representational Image

India has launched Goods and Services Tax, the biggest tax reform since its Independence. Here's a comprehensive list of goods and services which have become cheaper and costlier starting today. Read more

Here are five more stories that may interest you:

1. Top Lashkar Commander Killed By Forces In Anantnag Today, Two Civilians Die In The Crossfire

The security forces today killed two terrorists including Lashkar commander Bashir Lashkari after the hours-long gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag area.

Two civilians have also lost their lives in the operation while two other got injured in the crossfire between security forces and the militants, Jammu and Kashmir Inspector General Munir Khan has confirmed this.

"17 people have been evacuated from the house," he said. Arms and ammunition have been recovered from their possession.

The police said the security forces were attacked when they launched a search operation in Batpora village after a tip-off that at least two terrorists were hiding the house. Read more.

2. She Got A Transplant To Keep Her Alive, But She Died Just Hours After Delivering A Child

Life works in mysterious ways. You think that you know what would happen, but whatever it has in store you never see it coming.
Home Lawmakers Approves Language Revoking War Authority



By Ellen Mitchell June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved an amendment that would revoke a 2001 law giving the president authority to undertake war against al Qaeda and its affiliates unless a replacement provision is created.



Lawmakers applauded when the amendment was added by voice vote to the defense spending bill, highlighting the frustration many members of Congress feel about the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which was initially approved to authorize the response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.



It has since been used to justify the Iraq War and the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Despite the applause, it is unclear whether it will make it past the Senate and be included in a final version of a defense spending bill. The amendment would revoke the 2001 AUMF after 240 days following the passing of the act, forcing Congress to vote on a new AUMF in the interim.



The House Foreign Affairs Committee said the AUMF amendment "should have been ruled out of order" because the Appropriations panel does not have jurisdiction.



House Rules state that a provision changing existing law may not be reported in a general appropriation bill. The Foreign Affairs Committee has sole jurisdiction over Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, said Cory Fritz, the Foreign Affairs panel's deputy staff director for communications.



Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the only member of Congress to vote against the initial AUMF, introduced the amendment. No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter It would repeal the overly broad 2001 Authorization of Use of Military Force, after a period of 8 months after the enactment of this act, giving the administration and Congress sufficient time to decide what measures should replace it, according to Lee.



That would give Congress a narrow window to approve a new AUMF, something lawmakers have struggled with for years. Efforts to move forward with a new AUMF have teetered with some members of Congress wanting to constrain the president's actions and others wanting to give the executive branch more leeway.



Lee said she initially voted against the AUMF because I knew then it would provide a blank check to wage war anywhere, anytime, for any length by any president.



House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas) was the lone lawmaker to oppose the amendment, arguing that its a policy issue that doesnt belong in an appropriations bill.



The AUMF is necessary to fight the global war on terrorism, she said. The amendment is a deal breaker and would tie the hands of the U.S. to act unilaterally or with partner nations with regard to al Qaeda and ... affiliated terrorism. It cripples our ability to conduct counterterrorism operations.



Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) noted that Lee's argument had changed his mind.



I was going to vote no, but were debating right now. Im going to be with you on this and your tenacity has come through, he said.



Youre making converts all over the place, Mrs. Lee, joked House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.).



The Congressional Research Service has found that the 2001 AUMF has been used more than 37 times in 14 countries to justify military action.



Lee last year offered a failed amendment that would have declared that no funds in the House bill could be used for the 2001 AUMF. Whoa. My amdt to sunset 2001 AUMF was adopted in DOD Approps markup! GOP & Dems agree: a floor debate & vote on endless war is long overdue. pic.twitter.com/FS8LfYWo5J  Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) June 29, 2017 The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. What's your response? - Scroll down to add / read comments Please read our Comment Policy before posting - It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section. Click here to comment on our Facebook page
U.S. Retreats From Al-Tanf - Gives Up On Occupying South East Syria

By Moon Of Alabama



June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The U.S. is giving up its hopeless position at the Syrian-Iraq border crossing near al-Tanf in south east Syria. The U.S. military had earlier bombed Syrian forces when they came near that position but it then found itself outmaneuvered, cut off from the north and enclosed in a useless area.



Al-Tanf is in the blue area with the two blue arrows at the bottom of the map. It will soon be painted red as liberated and under Syrian government control.



Source: Al Watan Online

A more expressive version of the map:



Source: Doloroso

To recap:

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The U.S. plan was to move from al-Tanf north towards the Euphrates river and to thereby capture and control the whole south-east of Syria. But Syria and its allies made an unexpected move and prevented that plan. The invaders are now cut off from the Euphrates by a Syrian west-to-east line that ends at the Iraqi border. On the Iraqi side elements of the Popular Military Unites under the command of the Iraqi government are moving to meet the Syrian forces at the border. The U.S. invaders are now sitting in the mid of a piece of rather useless desert around al-Tanf where their only option is to die of boredom or to move back to Jordan from where they came.

Syria Summary - The End Of The War Is Now In Sight - June 13

The U.S. military even moved a HIMARS missile launcher with 300 km reach from nearby Jordan to al-Tanf. That was a laughable stunt. It made no difference in capabilities from the earlier launcher position in Jordan just a few miles west. But someone the U.S. military believed that showing off such weapons in a doomed area would impress Syrian or Russian forces and change the facts of life. It didn't. It was clear that the U.S. would have to move out.

That now seems to happen. A knowledgeable source just posted:

TM CT @TomtheBasedCat - 3:38 PM - 29 Jun 2017

Lol Evidently Tanf FSA really are being flown to Shaddadi. Plan C is in effect.

There were several rumors to this regard since yesterday and the above now confirms them. Lol indeed.

About 150 or so U.S. trained Arab fighters will be flown from al-Tanf to north-east Syria where they will join the (hated) Kurdish forces. They may later try to reach the ISIS besieged Deir Ezzor from the north or get pushed into some suicide mission against another ISIS position. The Syrian army will approach and liberate Deir Ezzor most likely from the south and east. It is unlikely that it will let U,S. proxy forces take part in that. The U.S. contingent will move west out of al-Tanf and back into Jordan. The Syrian and Iraqi forces will take over the Al Waleed border crossing at al-Tanf and the regular commercial traffic on the Damascus-Baghdad road will resume.

The various propagandists who argued for a big U.S. mission to occupy the whole Iraqi-Syrian border and all of east Syria have lost. The "Shia crescent" between Iran and Lebanon they claimed to prevent with such a move was never a physical road connection and certainly nothing the U.S could fight by any physical means. Their pushing for a U.S. occupation of east Syria and incitement of a larger conflict has for now failed.

This article was first published by Moon Of Alabama -

White House Encouraged After Elephants Abstain From Climbing Trees

Trump administration officials are walking back the White House announcement of its plans to fake another "chemical weapon attack" in Syria.

There are plenty of reasons why the U.S. would want to accuse the Syrian government of using chemical weapons but zero sane reasons for the Syrian government to use such. Russia and Syria have long insisted on sending chemical weapon inspectors to the airbase the Trump administration claims is at the center of its "chemical" fairy tale. The U.S. has held the inspectors back. The claims make thereby zero sense to any objective observer.

The walk back, as well as the statement itself, may not be serious at all. This White House seems unpredictable and the U.S. military, the intelligence services and the White House itself have no common view or policy. One day they claim the U.S. will leave Syria after ISIS is defeated, the next day they announce new bases and eternal support for the Syrian Kurds.

The way the White House statement came out, without knowledge of the relevant agencies and little involvement of the agency principals, was not cynical but just dumb . It sounds like the idea was dropped by Natanyahoo to his schoolboy Jared Kushner who then convinced his father in law to issue the crazy statement. Now officials are send out with the worst argument ever to claim that the White House "warning" made sense.

"The elephants did not climb up the trees. Warning them off was successful," they say. "The trees were saved!"

" It appears that they took the warning seriously," Mattis said. "They didn't do it," he told reporters flying with him to Brussels for a meeting of NATO defense ministers. He offered no evidence other than the fact that an attack had not taken place.

---

" I can tell you that due to the president's actions, we did not see an incident," [U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki] Haley told the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing Tuesday.[..]

[...]

"I would like to think that the president saved many innocent men, women and children," Haley continued.

Haley "would like to think" a lot of stuff - unfortunately she is not capable of such. A bit later she issued an egocentric tweet about UN peacekeeping that will surely increase U.S. political standing in the world (not):

I can even agree with Haley that UN peacekeeping has gotten way out of hand. To have UN mandated troops spreading Cholera in Haiti and raping their way through various countries does not help anyone. But the way to end this is to stop handing out mandates for such missions. To (re-)mandate undertrained/underpaid peacekeeping forces in the UN Security Council while cutting the budget for them is irresponsible. It will corrupt the troops and their behavior even more.

UN peacekeepers are often an instrument of U.S. foreign policy. By cutting them down the U.S. and Haley are limiting their own political options. The White House "warning", which had to be defused within a day, has a similar effect. People will become less inclined to believe any U.S. claims or to follow up on U.S. demands. Both statements have limited future policy options.
June 30, 2017 "

Information Clearing House

" - Donald Trump is the very embodiment of why the undeserving rich must no longer be allowed to reproduce themselves, as a class. They are the fuse that, if not removed, will ignite a fiery doom for the species. Decisively kettled in the White House by a bipartisan War Party that feared he might weaken the momentum of the Obama-Clinton military offensive in Syria, Trump appears to have opted to outdo his tormentors in mad brinksmanship.

On Monday, seemingly out of the blue, the White House announced that the U.S. had identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children. Press secretary Sean Spicer provided no substantive details, only a warning that if Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price."

Amazingly, nobody seemed to have broken the potentially apocalyptic news to the Pentagon, and even the White House National Security Council behaved as if it were out of the loop. The New York Times, a ferocious proponent of regime change, ever ready to amplify and embellish the wildest fictions about Syrian government use of chemical weapons against its own people -- and they have all been fictions -- spent the whole day in fruitless search for authoritative voices to flesh out the story. Not until Tuesday did the Pentagon release a statement, weakly claiming that the U.S. had observed what looked like active preparations for a chemical attack at the Syrian air base that Trump bombed on April 6, in supposed retaliation for the non-existent Syrian sarin gas attack on an al-Qaida-controlled town in Idlib province. But even the warmongering Times could see that the Pentagon was ad-libbing, attempting to shore up the surprise White House statement of the day before. That statement, wrote the Times , appeared to take defense officials off guard. An official with the United States Central Command, which oversees combat operations in the Middle East, said Monday night that he had no idea what the White House statement was referring to.

The play-crazy gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor.

In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone play-crazy -- acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon. However, the play-crazy gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That aint Donald Trump -- a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a puppet and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.

Psycho-babble masquerading as political analysis is usually useless, but Trump is a babbler who is acting psycho. Hillary Clinton gives the impression of being more disciplined than Trump, but is nevertheless criminally insane, a howling homicidal fiend who would have issued an unacceptable ultimatum to the leaders of Syria and Russia long before hitting the 100-day mark in her presidency. The world might have been a cold cinder by now, had Hillary been allowed to return to the White House. The planets epitaph would read: Humans evolved, Clinton became president, everybody died.

There is no good way out of terminal crisis for U.S. imperialism, other than to surrender to the verdict of history  which, for the imperialist, is an unthinkable horror that drives them to risk suicide while routinely murdering millions. Better dead than Red remains the imperialist maxim, even though their antagonists are mainly capitalists, these days. It is actually quite logical that the heads of both imperial parties are bonkers, and that the politician considered by millions to be the progressive alternative is also an imperialist pig -- the only kind of animal that is allowed on this farm.

Hillary Clinton is a howling homicidal fiend who would have issued an unacceptable ultimatum to the leaders of Syria and Russia long before hitting the 100-day mark in her presidency.

Donald Trump was always pretty dumb, but there was a time less than a year ago when he was sufficiently in control of his meager faculties to understand, in a twisted cracker kind of way, that Barack Obama was  the founder of ISIS  and his co-founder is Hillary Clinton. Thats an essentially correct statement, in that President Obama and his secretary of state unleashed such a torrent of weapons and money to favored jihadists that the emergence of ISIS, impatient to establish a caliphate on captured territory, was both inevitable and predicted. The Defense Intelligence Agency tried to set off the alarms in 2012, in cables that were declassified years later. The DIA analysts reported that the security situation in Iraq, in particular, was deteriorating:

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This creates the ideal situation for AQI [al Qaida in Iraq, which became ISIS] to return to its old pockets in Mosul and Ramadi, and will provide a renewed momentum under the presumption of unifying the jihad among Sunni Iraq and Syria, and the rest of the Sunnis in the Arab world against what it considers one enemy, the dissenters [meaning, Shia Muslims]. ISI could also declare an Islamic State through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory.

Thus, in an article titled  Yes, Obama and Clinton Created ISIS  Too Bad Trump Cant Explain How It Happened, we wrote: a year after Obama and his European and Arab friends brought down Libyas Gaddafi and shifted their proxy war of regime change to Syria, U.S. military intelligence saw clearly the imminent rise of ISIS -- and that this is exactly what the West, Gulf countries and Turkey...want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.

Last summer, Trump perceived the basic outlines of the U.S.-sponsored jihadist wars in Libya and Syria. But, the not-so-tough-little-rich-boy finally recanted under the relentless assault of the War Party, and is now all in with every lie about Russia and the Syrian state. Trump joins the War Party with the fervor of a convert, guaranteeing an even bloodier mess than usual.

President Obama and his secretary of state unleashed such a torrent of weapons and money to favored jihadists that the emergence of ISIS, impatient to establish a caliphate on captured territory, was both inevitable and predicted.

Trump hopes that his dramatic conversion will compel the Democrats and corporate media to release him from purgatory. At this point, he craves normality  which, under imperialist terms, requires that he wage endless warfare abroad. (Trump is far more comfortable waging domestic wars against Blacks, Mexican immigrants and Moslems.)

Most of the world knows full well that the U.S. and western Europe have grown dependent on Islamic jihadists to buttress imperial interests in the Muslim world. In 2015, a BBC-commissioned poll found that 81 percent of Syrians believe the U.S. created the Islamic State. An even higher percentage of Iraqis think so.

The people of Syria and Iraq are intimately familiar with the political-theological movements that have emerged from the madness imposed on their societies by the United States. The people of the United States have easy access to the truth of their countrys criminal role in the world -- the evidence is everywhere, and not really hidden -- but choose to believe in U.S. exceptionalism because it infers that they, the citizens of empire, are also exceptional creatures.

Black folks used to be largely immune to such essentially race-based delusions, but the Obama presidency altered many Black peoples perceptions of their relationship to imperial power. Only three Black congresspersons (Barbara Lee-CA, John Conyers-MI, and Bobby Rush-IL) are among the five Democrats and eight Republicans that have co-sponsored Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbards Stop Arming Terrorists Act (H.R. 608). The bill prohibits the use of federal funds to assist Al Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or any individual or group that is affiliated with, associated with, cooperating with, or adherents to such groups, and would halt all U.S. assistance to governments that aid such groups.

Gabbards bill would outlaw Washingtons policy in Syria and render U.S. arms sales and aid to the Sunni Gulf monarchies and Israel illegal.

It is too fine and elegant a bill to ever become law in the belly of the beast  which is why the genuine Left should make support for Gabbards legislation a litmus test for politicians, to weed out the beasties.
China Tech: Interesting Bits and Pieces

By Fred Reed

June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - To one watching the advance of Chinese science and technology, or to me anyway, several things stand out. First, the headlong pace. Second, the amount of it that appears aimed at making China independent of the West technologically and getting the United States off Beijings back. Third, the apparent calculated focus. It looks like intelligent design, as distinct from Americas competitive scrabbling for profit by special interests, the hope being that this might inadvertently benefit the country as a whole.

In short, the Chinese seem to Have Something In Mind.

As I have mentioned before, China came out of nowhere to become the world leader in supercomputers. Also in high-speed rail, of strategic importance in its plan to united Europe and Asia economically. Heavy investment in solar power offers to ameliorate its dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf, vulnerable to blockage by the US Navy. Then there is DF21D terminally guided ballistic missile, specifically intended as a carrier-killer in what China regards as its home waters. The list could go on at length.

In much of America, the Chinese are dismissed as being unable to innovate, inventiveness being thought of as unique to white men. Thinner ice has perhaps never been trod.

The Chinese are smart. They are certainly capable of high-grade engineering and scientific research. (Eg., Beijing Genomics Institute ) The line between imaginative engineering and invention is blurry. Note that on the numbers China can potentially bring to bear five times as many engineers as America can and, while they are well short of this, twice as many would beis?the beginning of a new world.

While Beijing works to benefit China, rapidly increasing its techno-industrial clout, Washington spends insanely on weaponry. It is trying to apply a military solution to a commercial problem. America crumbles economically, politically, culturally, but has the very best bombers.

Example of non-inventiveness:

Step One, From a while back,  China Activates Worlds Longest Ultra Secure Quantum Communication Network.. Beijing to Shanghai.

Quantum communications is based on the behavior of entangled photons. Said behavior is obviously impossible, but apparently nobody has told the photons, so they do it anyway. (Unless all the worlds physicists are smoking Drano. This possibility is worth considering. If interested, quantum entanglement . Also Quantum Key Distribution. ) The point is that if anyone tries to intercept the transmission, it becomes obvious. A weakness is that you need repeaters every sixty miles, which reduces security.

Unless you do it in space:

Step Two: China launches worlds first quantum satellite. Having done the landline, they move to orbital experimentation.

Step Three, Bingo! China Just Took the Lead in the Quantum Space Race

This being a big deal, I clip from Asia Times :

On Thursday, a team of Chinese scientists released findings from a breakthrough study that makes China the indisputable leader in the field of quantum communication, an achievement that could be of immense strategic importance.

The study, led by Pan Jianwei and published in Science magazine, successfully demonstrated the ability to distribute entangled photons across unprecedented distances, from space to earth, opening the door for the practical application of cutting-edge, ultra-secure communication.

The unprecedented distance was 1200 kilometers. Beijing might be regarded as trying to establish world-wide communications secure against NSA and, eventually, a whole internet proof against Fort Meade. Whether one regards this as engineering development or innovation doesnt seem to make much difference.

 Chinese Solar-Powered Plane Flies at 65,000 feet

It apparently could stay aloft for months. The stories dealing with it suggest that the purpose might be long-term surveillance of countries, meaning spying. In any event, it is a neat technological trick, especially from people who cant innovate.

Then we have, from Phys.org ,

China launched its most powerful rocket ever on Thursday, state media said, as the country presses on with a program which has seen it become a major space power.



The point here is not that China is ahead of America in spaceit isntbut that it is coming on fast. Engineering, engineering, engineering. Dismissive Americans point out that the US was on the Moon in 1969 and that China is piggybacking of American technology. True. And Irrelevant.

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From the National Interest : The Worlds New Leader in Super Deadly Hypersonic Weapons: China?

Chinese Quantum Radar

Quantum radar is another application of entangled photons. The link gives a semi-technical overview. The important point is that in principle it allows detection of stealth aircraft.

The Chinese assert that they can now detect stealth aircraft at 62 miles with enough accuracy to compute a fire-control solution. This means that radar stations with slightly overlapping fields of detection, say a hundred miles apart, could detect incoming aircraft with easily enough time to shoot them down.

If this report is true, it is potentially devastating for the US Air Force. So far as I am aware, Chinese claims of technical results have heretofore been accurate.

The Air Force has invested very, very heavily in stealth. In bombers, the hugely expensive B2 and the planned hugelier expensiver B21 are dead meat if detached. In fighters, the F22 and the F35 BankruperLightning II, I meant to saywill lose their main selling point if detectable. The F35 in particular has made compromises in performance to make it stealthy and, if detectable, is just a so-so fighter.

Next:  Enter the Nimble Dragon: China sees nuclear future in small reactors

 SMRs (small modular reactors) have capacity of less than 300 megawatts (MW)  enough to power around 200,000 homes  compared to at least 1 gigawatt (GW) for standard reactors.

 China is aiming to lift domestic nuclear capacity to 200 GW by 2030, up from 35 GW at the end of March, but its ambitions are global.

Small reactors (a bit larger than a bus) are important if you want to electrify a remote city without the overkill of a standard plant or the expense of long transmission lines. China is not the only country working on mini-nukes (or on anything else mentioned in this column), but it can now play with the big boys. Again, small reactors are an abrupt entrance into a major technical field. Note global ambitions. A Reuters piece describes an ambitious plan to wrest control of the global nuclear market. Planning and doing are not the same thing, but if I were a nuclear market, I would be uneasy.

For whatever reasons, the American media do not much cover technological advance in China. Ignorance? Arrogance? Is it just the American tendency to regard the rest of the world as unimportant? Maybe a little attention would be a good idea. A steady stream of advances comes out of the Middle Kingdom. In some fields, the Chinese lead the world. In others, they are behind but not be much, and gaining. Could be important. Especially if they learn to innovate.
Home Washington Has Been At War For 16 Years: Why?



By Paul Craig Roberts



June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - For sixteen years the US has been at war in the Middle East and North Africa, running up trillions of dollars in expenses, committing untold war crimes, and sending millions of war refugees to burden Europe, while simultaneously claiming that Washington cannot afford its Social Security and Medicare obligations or to fund a national health service like every civilized country has.



Considering the enormous social needs that cannot be met because of the massive cost of these orchestrated wars, one would think that the American people would be asking questions about the purpose of these wars. What is being achieved at such enormous costs? Domestic needs are neglected so that the military/security complex can grow fat on war profits.



The lack of curiousity on the part of the American people, the media, and Congress about the purpose of these wars, which have been proven to be based entirely on lies, is extraordinary. What explains this conspiracy of silence, this amazing disinterest in the squandering of money and lives?



Most Americans seem to vaguely accept these orchestrated wars as the governments response to 9/11. This adds to the mystery as it is a fact that Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Iran (Iran not yet attacked except with threats and sanctions) had nothing to do with 9/11. But these countries have Muslim populations, and the Bush regime and presstitute media succeeded in associating 9/11 with Muslims in general.



Perhaps if Americans and their representatives in Congress understood what the wars are about, they would rouse themselves to make objections. So, I will tell you what Washingtons war on Syria and Washingtons intended war on Iran are about. Ready?



There are three reasons for Washingtons war, not Americas war as Washington is not America, on Syria. The first reason has to do with the profits of the military/security complex.



The military/security complex is a combination of powerful private and governmental interests that need a threat to justify an annual budget that exceeds the GDP of many countries. War gives this combination of private and governmental interests a justification for its massive budget, a budget whose burden falls on American taxpayers whose real median family income has not risen for a couple of decades while their debt burden to support their living standard has risen.



The second reason has to do with the Neoconservative ideology of American world hegemony. According to the Neoconservatives, who most certainly are not conservative of any description, the collapse of communism and socialism means that History has chosen Democratic Capitalism, which is neither democratic nor capitalist, as the Worlds Socio-Economic-Political system and it is Washingtons responsibility to impose Americanism on the entire world. Countries such as Russia, China, Syria, and Iran, who reject American hegemony must be destabilized and desroyed as they stand in the way of American unilateralism.



The Third reason has to do with Israels need for the water resources of Southern Lebanon. Twice Israel has sent the vaunted Israeli Army to occupy Southern Lebanon, and twice the vaunted Israeli Army was driven out by Hezbollah, a militia supported by Syria and Iran.



To be frank, Israel is using America to eliminate the Syrian and Iranian governments that provide military and economic support to Hezbollah. If Hezbollahs suppliers can be eliminated by the Americans, Israels army can steal Southern Lebanon, just as it has stolen Palestine and parts of Syria.



Here are the facts: For 16 years the insouciant American population has permitted a corrupt government in Washington to squander trillions of dollars needed domestically but instead allocated to the profits of the military/security complex, to the service of the Neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony, and to the service of Israel.



Clearly, Amerian democracy is a fraud. It serves everyone but Americans.



What is the likely consequence of the US government serving non-American interests?



The best positive outcome is poverty for the 99 percent. The worst outcome is nuclear armageddon.



Washingtons service to the military/security complex, to the Neoconservative ideology, and to Israel completely neglects over-powering facts.



Israels interest to overthrow Syria and Iran is totally inconsistant with Russias interest to prevent the import of jihadism into the Russian Federation and Central Asia. Therefore, Israel has put the US into direct military conflict with Russia.



The US military/security complexs financial interests to surround Russia with missile sites is inconsistent with Russian sovereignty as is the Neoconservatives emphasis on US world hegemony.



President Trump does not control Washington. Washington is controlled by the military/security complex (watch on youtube President Eisenhowers description of the military/security complex as a threat to American democracy), by the Israel Lobby, and by the Neoconservatives. These three organized interest groups have pre-empted the Amercan people, who are powerless and are uninvolved in the decisions about their future.



Every US Representative and US Senator who stood up to Israel was defeated by Israel in their re-election campaign. This is the reason that when Israel wants something it passes both houses of Congress unanimously. As Admiral Tom Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations and Chariman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said publicly, No American President can stand up to Israel. Israel gets what it wants no matter what the consequences are for America.



Adm. Moorer was right. The US gives Israel every year enough money to purchase our government. And Israel does purchase our government. The US government is far more accountable to Israel than to the American people. The votes of the House and Senate prove this.



Unable to stand up to tiny Israel, Washington thinks it can buffalo Russia and China. For Washington to continue to provoke Russia and China is a sign of insanity. In the place of intelligence we see hubris and arrogance, the hallmarks of fools.



What Planet Earth, and the creatures thereon, need more than anything is leaders in the West who are intelligent, who have a moral conscience, who respect truth, and who are are capable of understanding the limits to their power.



But the Western World has no such people. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order . The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. What's your response? - Scroll down to add / read comments Please read our Comment Policy before posting - It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section. Click here to comment on our Facebook page
U.S. Should Ratify Convention on Childrens Rights





By Cesar Chelala

June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an internationally recognized agreement among nations which establishes a comprehensive set of goals for individual nations to improve the lives of their children. Although it has worldwide recognition and support, the U.S. is the only country in the world that hasnt ratified it.

Ratification of the CRC requires the States to submit reports outlining its implementation on the domestic level to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, a panel of child rights experts from around the world. Parties must report initially two years after ratification of the Convention and then every five years. The sole enforcing mechanism within the Convention is the issuing of this report.

Both the Ronald Reagan and the George H.W. Bush administrations played an important role in drafting the treaty, which was signed by the U.S. government in 1995, indicating the nations intent to consider its ratification. The CRC is considered the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. Even North Korea, widely considered a rogue State, has ratified the CRC in 1990.

The Convention calls for all children, including those with disabilities, to be free from violence and abuse, and compels governments to provide them with adequate nutrition and health care. At the same time, the Convention demands that children have equal treatment regardless of gender, race or cultural background and have the right to express their opinions and have freedom of thought in matters affecting them.

In addition, the CRC emphasizes the primacy and importance of the role, authority and responsibility of parents and family, and is consistent with the principles contained in the U.S. Bill of Rights. The ratification of the convention has been endorsed by about a hundred organizations in the U.S., among them the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Baptist Churches, the American Bar Association, the National Education Association and the Child Welfare League of America.

Given this level of endorsements, why hasnt the CRC been ratified by the U.S.? The CRC has found a notable degree of opposition within the Senate and in the public at large. Opposition to this Convention by some religious groups some of which claim it conflicts with the U.S. Constitution- have played an important role in the non-ratification of the treaty so far.

Several among these groups have portrayed the Convention as a threat to national sovereignty, states rights, the child-parent relationship and parental rights. However, as Lawrence S. Wittner, a Professor of History emeritus at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany has said, Although some current U.S. laws clash with the Conventions child protection features, most U.S. laws are in line with the Convention.

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The Supremacy Law of the U.S. Constitution establishes that no treaty can override the Constitution, lying to rest this argument. In addition, the Convention does not grant any international body enforcement authority over the U.S. or its citizens, but only obligates the parties to the Convention to submit periodic reports regarding how the provisions of the treaty are progressing.

Some parents have expressed concern that the Convention will eliminate parents rights to discipline their children. Rather than doing that, however, the Convention states that children should be protected from all forms of mental or physical violence and maltreatment.

The U.S. refusal to ratify the CRC must be related to one of the provisions of the Convention that establishes that States must provide special protection to children in vulnerable conditions, such as those seeking asylum (Article 22). The U.S. government often brutal detention of migrant children may conflict with this provision.
BRUSSELS - A freight train carrying 123 brand new Volvo cars made in northeast China arrived in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge Friday afternoon, marking a milestone in the history of cargo transport between the two countries.

The train was welcomed by government officials, diplomats, business representatives and journalists from both countries after a journey of 9,832 kilometers, which took some 20 days, passing through Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.

The shipment carried the S90L, Volvo's flagship model, manufactured in the company's Daqing plant in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

A staff member from the car manufacturer at the site told Xinhua that all the cars have been reserved and will soon be distributed across Europe from the port.

"If we ship the cars by sea it will take up to 60 days, now we can save over 40 days. We also managed to find a balance between saving time and controlling shipping costs," said Yuan Xiaolin, senior vice president of Volvo Car Group attending the welcome ceremony.

Following the arrival of the first train, the Volvo rail cargo service will continue to run at least once a week, and eventually reach the goal of four to five weekly round trips.

Every year the trains are expected to bring 30,000 to 40,000 new Volvo vehicles to Zeebrugge, an open seaport handling over 40 million tons of cargo annually, and ferry Belgian products to China on their return journeys.

Belgian deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters, who visited the Volvo Daqing plant during his visit to China in May, hailed the arrival of the train as an example of "concrete results of the Belt and Road Initiative".

The initiative aims to build a trade, investment and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road.

Peeters stressed that Belgium is demonstrating strong willingness to participate in the Belt and Road initiative as a partner.

"The 21st Century Silk Road marks a new era for trade and cooperation between Belgium and China. As we see today it provides great opportunities for countries to deepen cooperation," said Peeters.

"We firmly believe that strengthening train connectivity and investing in excellent infrastructural links will be a crucial aspect of Europe's future relations with Asia," he added.

Qu Xing, Chinese ambassador to Belgium, believes that the potential of this new train service is tremendous.

"Belgium has great advantages in carrying out cooperation with China under the framework of the Belt and Road initiative," said the ambassador, underlining that Belgium boasts three of the 10 biggest ports in Europe.

As of early June, over 4,000 cargo train trips have been made between Chinese and European cities since the start of the direct rail freight services six years ago, according to Chinese national operator China Railway Corporation.
War As Foreign Policy By Lois Danks

June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Trump started his presidency off with an explosion! Several of them in fact  bombing Syria with 59 Tomahawk missiles costing $93 million taxpayer dollars; using the Mother of all Bombs in Afghanistan; striking homes with drones in Yemen; bombing civilians and aid workers in Iraq; sending more troops to Somalia; and threatening to nuke North Korea! Some have actually said it makes him more presidential.

Actually, this is not abnormal behavior for the USA. Trump inherited at least seven ongoing conflicts from Presidents Obama and G.W. Bush. The United States has been fighting in Afghanistan for 15 years, ever since 9/11, under both Democratic and Republican rule. Over 660,000 Afghans have been displaced. Nearly 12,000 civilians died in 2016. The U.S. pours close to $611 billion a year into its budget for weapons, equipment, soldiers and contractors, far more than any other country. It amounts to 36 percent of all global spending on defense.

Economic distress. The worn-out, 500-year-old system of capitalism is everywhere scrambling to revive disappearing markets and hang on to threatened wealth of the very few. This creates fierce competition between major and minor imperialist powers and their pet regimes  competition that means nothing less than war. For war is the ultimate profit machine, creator of very few winners and masses of losers.

Capitalisms best solution is the self-perpetuating armaments industry. The weapon makers, think tanks and contractors that service the Pentagon and spy agencies, together with the Wall Street banks who make high-interest loans to fund wars, thrive under a foreign policy of deadly conflict. They produce things that are immediately destroyed when used, and that creates demand for more of the same.

Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly called this the madness of militarization. Instead of spending on infrastructure and human services for the populace, our rulers promote war  to sound patriotic as they pocket the profits.

The underlying reason for economic and political instability, especially in the Middle East but also in the U.S. and everywhere else, is that capitalism no longer works and cannot survive on egalitarian principles. Revolutionary impulses against massive poverty, austerity, and repression are not going to go away. So it makes sense that militarism is top of the agenda for todays rulers.

Pentagon handed power. Trump has appointed many war generals to top positions in government and the National Security Council. Gen. James Mad Dog Mattis, Marine Gen. John Kelly, and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster have been heavily involved in nonstop, unsuccessful military conflicts for decades.

Yet Trump has authorized them to bomb whomever, wherever, and however they please, no matter the civilian casualties and chilling nuclear aspects. He has removed executive and legislative branch constraints on his favorite generals, in violation of a fundamental tenet of the Constitution  civilian control of the military.

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As more and more troops are sent to Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and other unnamed countries, and Trump threatens North Korea, he is expanding the war machine. North Korea has been asking for a peace treaty with Washington and Seoul for 64 years but has been flatly refused. Now U.S. bases, ships and missile sites surround the area and provocative war games take place off the Korean coast every year. And the North Koreans continue to build weapons to defend themselves.

The new presidents war strikes are no different from those of other presidents since 9/11. But his practice of allowing the Pentagon to decide troop deployments, while keeping the White House, Congress and the public in the dark about military actions and civilian casualty numbers, is an escalation of the unchecked, undemocratic use of executive power.

The threat of peace. The presumption of endless war by many is not surprising, because its what this country has settled into. Trumps so-called foreign policy has no intention of ending conflicts and gaining peace. An end to hostilities would drastically damage U.S. capitalism.

Permanent conflict between those who exploit and those who rise up against repression and poverty will only be solved when the profit system is widely condemned and overturned.

Send feedback to the author at: lfdanks@yahoo.com .

This article was first published by FSP -

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
NYT Finally Retracts Russia-gate Canard



A founding Russia-gate myth is that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies agreed that Russia hacked into and distributed Democratic emails, a falsehood that The New York Times has belatedly retracted, reports Robert Parry.



By Robert Parry

June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The New York Times has finally admitted that one of the favorite Russia-gate canards  that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies concurred on the assessment of Russian hacking of Democratic emails  is false.

On Thursday, the Times appended a correction to a June 25 article that had repeated the false claim, which has been used by Democrats and the mainstream media for months to brush aside any doubts about the foundation of the Russia-gate scandal and portray President Trump as delusional for doubting what all 17 intelligence agencies supposedly knew to be true.

In the Times White House Memo of June 25, correspondent Maggie Haberman mocked Trump for still refus[ing] to acknowledge a basic fact agreed upon by 17 American intelligence agencies that he now oversees: Russia orchestrated the attacks, and did it to help get him elected.

However, on Thursday, the Times  while leaving most of Habermans ridicule of Trump in place  noted in a correction that the relevant intelligence assessment was made by four intelligence agencies  the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency. The assessment was not approved by all 17 organizations in the American intelligence community.

The Times grudging correction was vindication for some Russia-gate skeptics who had questioned the claim of a full-scale intelligence assessment, which would usually take the form of a National Intelligence Estimate (or NIE), a product that seeks out the views of the entire Intelligence Community and includes dissents.

The reality of a more narrowly based Russia-gate assessment was admitted in May by President Obamas Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Obamas CIA Director John Brennan in sworn congressional testimony.

Clapper testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on May 8 that the Russia-hacking claim came from a special intelligence community assessment (or ICA) produced by selected analysts from the CIA, NSA and FBI, a coordinated product from three agencies  CIA, NSA, and the FBI  not all 17 components of the intelligence community, the former DNI said.

Clapper further acknowledged that the analysts who produced the Jan. 6 assessment on alleged Russian hacking were hand-picked from the CIA, FBI and NSA.

Yet, as any intelligence expert will tell you, if you hand-pick the analysts, you are really hand-picking the conclusion. For instance, if the analysts were known to be hard-liners on Russia or supporters of Hillary Clinton, they could be expected to deliver the one-sided report that they did.

Politicized Intelligence

In the history of U.S. intelligence, we have seen how this selective approach has worked, such as the phony determination of the Reagan administration pinning the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II and other acts of terror on the Soviet Union.

CIA Director William Casey and Deputy Director Robert Gates shepherded the desired findings through the process by putting the assessment under the control of pliable analysts and sidelining those who objected to this politicization of intelligence.

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The point of enlisting the broader intelligence community  and incorporating dissents into a final report  is to guard against such stove-piping of intelligence that delivers the politically desired result but ultimately distorts reality.

Another painful example of politicized intelligence was President George W. Bushs 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraqs WMD that removed State Department and other dissents from the declassified version that was given to the public.

Since Clappers and Brennans testimony in May, the Times and other mainstream news outlets have avoided a direct contradiction of their earlier acceptance of the 17-intelligence-agencies canard by simply referring to a judgment by the intelligence community.

That finessing of their earlier errors has allowed Hillary Clinton and other senior Democrats to continue referencing this fictional consensus without challenge, at least in the mainstream media.

For instance, on May 31 at a technology conference in California, Clinton referred to the Jan. 6 report , asserting that Seventeen agencies, all in agreement, which I know from my experience as a Senator and Secretary of State, is hard to get. They concluded with high confidence that the Russians ran an extensive information war campaign against my campaign, to influence voters in the election.

The failure of the major news organizations to clarify this point about the 17 agencies may have contributed to Habermans mistake on June 25 as she simply repeated the groupthink that nearly all the Important People in Washington just knew to be true.

But the Times belated correction also underscores the growing sense that the U.S. mainstream media has joined in a political vendetta against Trump and has cast aside professional standards to the point of repeating false claims designed to denigrate him.

That, in turn, plays into Trumps Twitter complaints that he and his administration are the targets of a witch hunt led by the fake news media, a grievance that appears to be energizing his supporters and could discredit whatever ongoing investigations eventually conclude.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, Americas Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com ).
Deposed Saudi Crown Prince Confined To Palace



Saudi officials deny claims Mohammed bin Nayef is under house arrest while power transition takes effect



By Martin Chulov

June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The deposed Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, has been confined to his palace in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, as his young successor seeks to consolidate his newfound power, two sources close to the royal family have confirmed.



The movements of the former heir to the throne have been restricted since Mohammed bin Salman, 31, replaced his cousin as crown prince last week , ensuring that he, instead of the 57-year-old security tsar whom he ousted, would eventually succeed his father as ruler.



Senior Saudi officials denied Bin Nayef was under house arrest, with one describing the claim  first reported in the New York Times  as not true at all. Another official, however, said: Its just in the changeover period. MBS [bin Salman] does not want to take any risks. It is not house arrest. Nothing like that at all.



Bin Nayef had been the kingdoms most influential security official over the past 15 years. He had maintained close intelligence connections with the US and UK and was seen by Saudi allies as an assured and trusted hand.

His ties to Saudi allies are far more extensive than those of his successor, a possible factor in the decision to keep him isolated while the power transition takes effect. The House of Saud had been determined to convey the image of a seamless handover, with a government video showing Bin Salman bowing and kissing the hand of his cousin after being named crown prince.

In the lead up to the change, however, a mutual rivalry has eroded trust. It was never daggers drawn, said the Saudi official. It was that a younger man wanted the job and the older man didnt like it. Things never broke down, but it became clear that the kings son had the profile and status that the crown prince should have had. Everyone could see that.

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The New York Times reported that guards loyal to Bin Salman had replaced those of his predecessor outside the Jeddah palace to where the ousted royal had returned. It is understood that Bin Nayef and his close family members have been prevented from leaving the kingdom.



If he is seen as benign, this will change quite quickly, the official said. I suspect they dont want him jetting off to Washington in a bad mood and telling anyone, even our allies, the state secrets.

There is too much risk in letting a disgruntled figure talk at a time like this.

Bin Nayefs insights into his own exit as well as political machinations within the opaque Saudi inner circle would be keenly sought by Riyadhs allies and rivals and he would likely be welcomed in western capitals, should he leave the country.

The upheaval follows a dizzying series of moves from the usually cautious kingdom, which in recent weeks has recalibrated relations with Washington and opened a diplomatic offensive against Qatar , led by Bin Salmans office, while pressing ahead with a war in Yemen and an ambitious economic and cultural overhaul at home.

Bin Salman has been central to the changes, which have helped his profile and powers grow rapidly under the tutelage of an 81-year-old monarch who has given him an almost free hand over most aspects of society. Central to his mandate is a plan to use capital from the partial privatisation of the worlds largest company, Aramco, to revitalise the Saudi economy.

However, cultural and societal reforms have also been flagged as paramount  in particular introducing a work ethic into a state where a large migrant labour force plays a disproportionate role in productivity. A senior official in Riyadh said that what is being envisaged is cultural revolution, more than economic reform.

Bin Nayef had not opposed the reform programme, but had been considered by the Royal Court  and Saudi allies  as a measured voice who had urged a more painstaking process, which had characterised past overhauls.



He played the bad cop role, said the Saudi official. But that did not contribute to his downfall. He had to go because he was in the way. Thats all.

This article was first published by The Guardian -

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

See also
Netanyahu Fostering Extremism And Fascistization; Israel's Former Defense Minister

BBC HardTalk

Posted June 30, 2017

Stephen Sackur speaks to the former Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya'alon, who has become a harsh critic of prime minister Netanyahu.

On the face of it, Israel has achieved a form of stability - led by the same man for eight years, locked in a state of hostile non-communication with the Palestinians, confident of strong support from Washington.
The Growing Danger of War With Iran By Paul R. Pillar

June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - A combination of circumstances has increased the risk that armed conflict will break out between the United States and Iran. Such a war is no certainty, but the chance that one will occur is greater today than it has been in years. Some of the relevant circumstances, such as the first two mentioned below, have been around in some form for a substantial amount of time, while others are more recent.

Anti-Iranism in American discourse . The vocabulary has become so repetitive and widely used that it rolls off tongues automatically: Iran is a theocratic autocracy and the largest state sponsor of terrorism that engages in nefarious, malign and destabilizing behavior as part of its drive for regional hegemony, etc. The verbiage has become a substitute for thought and for any careful examination of exactly what Iran is and is not doing and how it does and does not affect U.S. interests. Such a commonly accepted mantra means that anyone making a focused attempt to stir up trouble with Iran starts with a built-in advantage in mustering public and political support.

The lobby pushing hostility against Iran . There indeed have been, and still are, focused attempts to stir up trouble. Politically potent interests have their own narrow reasons to keep U.S.-Iranian relations bad and to keep Iran isolated. Foremost among those interests is the right-wing government of Israel, for which Iran as chief bete noire serves to cripple a competitor for regional influence, to explain all regional trouble in terms that do not relate to Israel, to distract attention from matters (especially the occupation of Palestinian territory) the Israeli government would rather not discuss, and to keep the United States wedded to Israel as supposedly its only reliable regional partner. Given the obvious impact of the Israeli governments preferences on American politics, this factor weighs greatly on the current administrations policies toward Iran. Donald Trump has tilted heavily to those Israeli preferences, as reflected in his appointments and in his rhetoric since midway through the presidential campaign. Trump still aspires to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, which would require sharp breaks with the Netanyahu governments current course. But that might make aggressiveness and confrontation with Iran seem all the more necessary, as a form of compensation to Netanyahu while pressing him for concessions toward the Palestinians.

Anti-Obamaism and the nuclear agreement . The preceding factor was one of two major reasons for opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the multilateral agreement that severely restricts Irans nuclear program and closes any possible path to a nuclear weapon. The other major, and very partisan, reason was that the accord was probably Barack Obamas biggest single achievement in foreign policy. Trump, who scathingly denounced the accord during the campaign and whose administration only grudgingly acknowledges that Iran is complying with its obligations under the agreement, still shows a strong inclination to do the opposite of whatever Obama did. Now that the Republican effort to undo Obamas signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, has run aground on the realities of health care, the urge may be stronger than ever to undo Obamas signature foreign policy achievement. If it can be undone not through direct U.S. renunciation but as a casualty of some other confrontation with Iran, then so much the better from Trumps point of view.

Weak voices of restraint in the administration . There are press reports of debate within the Trump administration on aspects of policy toward Iran, and real debate is much better than policy made through wee-hours tweets. But it is doubtful whether the sober reasons why armed conflict with Iran would be folly are getting adequate attention. This is not only a matter of the dominance of non-sober voices, such as that of self-declared Leninist destroyer-of-worlds Stephen Bannon, who demonstrated his clout with Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement. The problem also is that visceral anti-Iranism infects even some of those looked to as adults in the room, most notably Secretary of Defense James Mattis .

Respectability given to regime change . Another of the adults, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, recently told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that regime change is part of U.S. policy on Iran. This comment resurrects a malevolent concept that amply deserves a place on the trash heap of U.S. foreign policy history, especially given the disastrous results under the previous two administrations of regime change in Iraq and Libya. The concept is no more suitable to Iran, where there is not some political movement in our own image that is just waiting to be freed from the yoke of theocratic autocrats through a new revolution. Those with other reasons for promoting hostility toward Iran also have been promoting the regime change idea. The Sheldon Adelson-funded Foundation for Defense of Democracies, for example, shortly after the inauguration was pushing a paper at the National Security Council centered on regime change. The specific notion usually being pushed is that forms of subversion short of armed conflict would do the job, but the fantasy outcome of a new and attractive regime in Tehran can easily become an objective of military operations initiated, or ostensibly initiated, for other reasons. Meanwhile, the rhetoric of regime change adds to tension and distrust between Tehran and Washington that make destabilizing incidents increasingly likely.

Mission creep in Syria . The crushing of the so-called Islamic States caliphate is close enough to completion that the difficult and deferred question of what becomes of the Syrian territory that had been part of the caliphate now must be faced directly. Much commentary on this question in the United States is advocating what amounts to a significant expansion of U.S. objectives in Syria by confronting the Damascus regime and its Russian and Iranian backers. U.S. actions on the ground and in the air already have moved in this direction. Incidents have included shooting down Iranian drones and a manned Syrian aircraft, as well as U.S. attacks on what were described as Iranian-supported militias. It is remarkable how much the mission in Syria already has creeped and evolved. As Josh Wood puts it, Over the course of his short tenure, Mr. Trump and his administration went from talking about potentially partnering with Damascus and Moscow against [Islamic State], to appearing absolutely disinterested in the civil war, to bombing Syrian government targets. The evolution of objectives in the next five months could be just as rapid as in the last five. Given Irans significant role in Syria, and the expanding U.S. role there, Syria is one of the places most likely to spark direct warfare between the United States and Iran. .

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Displacement from Russia . Incidents with the Syrian regimes other major backer, Russia, certainly are worth worrying about along with incidents involving Iran. But some of the very reasons for special worry about direct armed conflict with Russiaa nuclear-armed ex-superpowerare also reasons to expect special restraint, along lines similar to what the United States and the USSR displayed throughout the Cold War. Moreover, under the Trump administration Russia does not play the sort of automatic, take-for-granted-as-an-adversary role that Iran plays. We have yet to fathom the full reasons for Trumps more qualified and even benign posture toward Russia, but there clearly are such reasons. If the administration needs to strike at one of the beasts involved in the Syrian war, that beast will be Iran, even though Russian support probably has been at least as important as Iranian support in shoring up the Assad regime.

Delegation to the military . Trumps practice of delegating to the Pentagon major decisions, even of a more strategic than tactical nature, involving deployment or use of military forces could in some circumstances be an encouragement of restraint, given the disinclination of experienced military officers to be thrust into new conflicts in which the United States is not already involved. But the United States is already involved in places such as Syria and the Persian Gulf where confrontation with the Iranians is possible, and with such involvement the military bias is in the direction of doing more rather than doing less. The bias is toward being more aggressive to accomplish presumed objectives and especially to protect American forces. At least one U.S. attack so far in Syria has been justified in terms of protection of U.S. forces. Military decisions taken for military reasons may spark an expanded conflict.

Heightened bellicosity in Arabia . The tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran is especially high right now, and most of the initiative for making it so has come from the Saudi side. The ascent to power of the Saudi kings inexperienced son, Mohammed bin Salman, has something to do with this. The young crown prince has talked about how we will work so the battle is there, in Iran. He has used the relatively minor link between a Yemeni group and Iran as the excuse for prosecuting a war that has turned Yemen into a humanitarian disaster. His most recent destabilizing move has been the fracturing of the Gulf Cooperation Council for the sake of bashing Qatar, one of whose listed offenses is to have more-or-less normal, peaceful relations with Iran. The potential for the United States being dragged into an escalation of this mess is significant, especially given Trumps inclination so far to go all in with the Saudis.

Brinksmanship in the Persian Gulf . Even without the added recklessness of young princes, the Gulf is the other most likely place, besides Syria, for an incident involving U.S. and Iranian forces to escalate out of control. The U.S. forward presence in what the Iranians regard as their maritime backyard is more than matched by the sometimes reckless and unsafe maneuvers by small craft of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The recent fatal collision of a U.S. Navy destroyer with a merchant ship in Japanese waters shows what can happen in crowded sea lanes even when there is no international conflict or animosity involved. Imagine something similar happening in the Persian Gulf amid the current hostility in U.S.-Iranian relations, with no apparent interest by the Trump administration in restoring a diplomatic channel for defusing incidents.

The nature of the person in the White House . In his Congressional testimony, James Comey mentioned the nature of the person as a reason for meticulously documenting his conversations with President Trump, meaning that Trump is a serial liar. The first five months of Trumps administration is sufficient to see that the lying extends not just to individual falsehoods but to large segments of his policies. On domestic and economic policy, the populism he voiced and that won him decisive votes last year has been revealed to be fraudulent, with health care being only one of the indications of this. There is no reason to suppose that what Trump has said about foreign and security policy, including vote-winning rhetoric about aversion to more foreign wars, is any less fraudulent. With the rhetoric being next to meaningless, other aspects of the nature of the person will be influential, including Trumps impetuosity, his dwelling on the immediate at the expense of longer-term consequences, and his insatiable appetite for personal approbation at the expanse of broader national interests. None of these qualities augurs well for avoiding conflagration with Iran.

Diversion from difficulty . These personal qualities of Trump make him a prime candidate to turn to the time-honored tactic of using foreign conflict to divert attention from domestic troubles and to win flag-rally popular support. His current support, according to the latest poll on the subject, continues to fall.

Armed conflict with Iran would be an enormously negative event for U.S. interests on several grounds, beginning with whatever expenditure of American blood and treasure was involved. Other consequences would include giving a gift to the most hardline elements in Iranian politics, possibly leading to renunciation of the nuclear agreement and the opening of a path to an Iranian nuclear weapon, as well as collateral damage to U.S. good will and relations with many others, beyond some hardliners in other places who would welcome the spilling of American blood as long as it was done in the service of attacking Iran. One can hope that that there will be enough thinking about such consequences to prevent such an armed conflict from coming to pass.

But war is a possibility, with a likelihood that is somewhere above trivial levels. It is an uncertainty. Also uncertain is the extent to which any conflict that did break out would be fully intended, as distinct from an unintended consequence of aggressive and confrontational policies and postures.

Citizens and members of Congress need to be fully aware of the possibilities and the associated dangers. They should be alert to any new signs that the United States may be headed toward such a war, and they should ask the toughest of questions every step of the way as to whether this path is in U.S. interests.

Paul R. Pillar is Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University and Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. He is a contributing editor to The National Interest , where he writes a blog

This article was first published by The National Interest -

See also

Escalation against Qatar and Iran may follow Muhammad Bin-Salmans appointment as crown prince
Latest Venezuelan Opposition Coup Attempt Against Maduro Linked to DEA, CIA



More than 80 people miraculously avoided injury or death in a helicopter attack that targeted Venezuelan government buildings this week. The attack may have been part of an attempted coup supported by the U.S. as it seeks to topple Venezuelas government to gain access to its massive oil reserves.



By Whitney Webb

June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - CARACAS Opposition efforts to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduros government are rapidly heating up, as months upon months of opposition protests have failed to make the inroads desired by the more extremist elements of the opposition and their foreign backers, particularly the United States.

With the current regime still hanging on to power despite years of economic sabotage and the funneling of millions from the U.S. to right-wing Venezuelan opposition parties, those determined to see Maduro removed from power have now turned to more drastic, violent measures in order to spark a coup.

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On Tuesday, one of the more dramatic incidents of the most recent phase of the Venezuelan crisis took place when a stolen police helicopter opened fire on the Supreme Court and the Interior Ministry. At the time the attack occurred  about 5 p.m. local time  there were an estimated 80 people still inside the Interior Ministry and the Supreme Court was in session. No deaths or injuries were reported, a fact that the Venezuelan government attributed to a quick response by national guard forces, who repelled the attacking helicopter before it could do more damage.

#Venezuela | Oscar Perez declares war after attacking supreme court. says theres union bet citizens police & soldiers to topple Maduro #OOTT pic.twitter.com/Ba2BOn3XGt  Lee Saks (@Lee_Saks) June 28, 2017

Maduro condemned the attack soon after it occurred, calling it a terrorist attack that could have caused dozens of deaths. Ernesto Villegas, Venezuelas Communications and Information Minister, stated that the attack was intended to be part of an attempted coup led by extremist groups within the opposition, with full U.S. government support said to be behind them.

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Villegas assertion that the U.S. was involved in this attack is not based on mere speculation. Perez has been known to work for Miguel Rodriguez Torres, a former general and former minister of Venezuelas Department of Interior Relations, Justice and Peace who is currently being investigated for his ties to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the CIA. The charges first surfaced when the Venezuelan news agency Ultimas Noticias obtained an official DEA document that described Rodriguez Torres as a key information provider for the agency and recommended that he be secured as a protected source for the DEA and U.S. government. It also noted that 40 percent of his assets and wealth are held in the U.S. under his wifes name.

The U.S. has long sought to oust the left-wing regime that was brought to power in Venezuela by Hugo Chavez in the late 1990s. Since Chavezs election, the U.S. is believed to have spent between $50 to $60 million to strengthen the countrys right-wing opposition in the hope that they would win elections. Former U.S. President Barack Obama alone dedicated $5 million to support political competition-building efforts in Venezuela.

More recently, the U.S. Senate has been mulling over new legislation that would provide an additional $20 million for democracy promotion efforts in Venezuela. However, some of these efforts in the past have led to right-wing politicians and their affiliates paying protesters in cash to violently escalate opposition rallies.

Such rallies have turned increasingly violent in recent weeks, with three people burned alive by opposition protesters just in the last week. Journalists have also been targeted, with some being directly shot at and others threatened with being lynched or set aflame. Despite the violence, the Venezuelan opposition is likely to continue receiving funding from the U.S., which is eager to gain control of Venezuelas oil reserves  the largest in the world  no matter the cost.

Whitney Webb is a MintPress contributor who has written for several news organizations in both English and Spanish; her stories have been featured on ZeroHedge, the Anti-Media, 21st Century Wire, and True Activist among others - she currently resides in Southern Chile.
Make No Mistake, We Are Already at War in Syria





Trump's anti-war promises were just glib campaign rhetoric.



By Philip Giraldi

June 30, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Something peculiar happens to American presidents after they take office on January 20.

Campaign promises to right the easily perceived misdirections in foreign policy are abandoned, and the new program for dealing with the rest of the world winds up looking very much like the old one. Bill Clinton was an anti-Vietnam War draft dodger who preached the moral high ground for going to war before he turned around and got involved in the Balkans while also bombing Sudan and Afghanistan. George W. Bush promised non-interference and no nation-building overseas, but 9/11 converted him into an exemplar of how to do everything wrong as he sank into the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Barack Obamas margin of victory in 2008 was likely due to the perception that he was the peace candidate, particularly in contrast to his opponent Senator John McCain, but he wound up deeper in Afghanistan, out of, and then back into Iraq, interfering in Syria, and bringing about disastrous regime change in Libya while also allowing relations with Moscow to deteriorate. Donald Trump has surrounded himself with generals after promising no deeper involvement in foreign wars and the generals are telling him that winning wars only requires more soldiers on the ground and just a little more time and effort to stabilize things, all of which are self-serving formulae for policies that have already failed.

And then there are the perennial enemies, with Iran at the top of the list while Russia and China play supporting roles. Some would blame the foreign policy orientation on the Deep State, which certainly is suggestive, but I rather suspect that the flip-flops of recent presidents are also based on some other elements. First, none of them has been a veteran who experienced active duty, which makes war an abstraction observed second hand on PowerPoint in a briefing room rather than a reality. And second, the shaping of their views can be directly attributed to the pervasiveness of the establishment view on the appropriate role for the United States in the world.

Sometimes referred to as Americas civil religion, one can also call it American exceptionalism or the leadership of the free world or even responsibility to protect but the reality is that a broad consensus has developed in the United States that enables serial interventionism with hardly a squeak of protest coming from the American people.

Donald Trump has been in office for five months and it would appear that at least some of the outlines of his foreign policy are beginning to take shape, though that may be exaggeration as no one seems to be in charge. The America First slogan seemingly does not apply to what is developing, as actual U.S. interests do not appear to be driving what takes place, and there does not seem to be any overriding principle that shapes the responses to the many challenges confronting Washington worldwide.

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The two most important observations that one might make are both quite negative. First, lamentably, the promised detente with Russia has actually gone into reverse, with the relationship between the two countries at the lowest point since the time of the late, lamented Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State. Second, we are already at war with Syria even though the media and Congress seem blissfully unaware of that fact. We are also making aggressive moves intended to create a casus belli for going to war with Iran , and are doubling down in Afghanistan with more troops on the way, so Donald Trumps pledge to avoid pointless wars and nation-building were apparently little more than glib talking points intended to make Barack Obama look bad.

The situation with Russia can be repaired as Vladimir Putin is a realist head of state of a country that is vulnerable and willing to work with Washington, but it will require an end to the constant vituperation being directed against Moscow by the media and the Democratic Party. That process could easily spin out for another year with all parties now agreeing that Russia intervened in our election even though no one has yet presented any evidence that Russia did anything at all.

Syria is more complicated. Senators Tim Kaine and Rand Paul have raised the alarm over American involvement in that country, declaring the U.S. military intervention to be illegal . Indeed it is, as it is a violation of the United Nations Charter and the American Constitution. No one has argued that Syria in any way threatens the United States, and the current policy is also an affront to common sense: like it or not Syria is a sovereign country in which we Americans have set up military bases and are supporting rebels (including jihadis and terrorists) who are seeking to overthrow the legitimate government. We have also established a so-called de-confliction zone in the southeast of the country to protect our proxies without the consent of the government in Damascus. All of that adds up to what is unambiguously unprovoked aggression, an act of war.

The war began in earnest when the Obama administration began building bases and sending Special Ops into Syria in the late summer of 2015, after the White House announced that it would allow airstrikes to defend Syrian rebels trained by the U.S. military from any attackers, even if the enemies hail from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

That policy guaranteed escalation and direct American involvement in the conflict. In the last month, for the first time since the civil war in Syria began in 2011, the United States has directly attacked Syrian government forces or proxies four times, including two air attacks against Iranian militiamen allied to Damascus. Those moves were preceded by the April U.S. Navy launch of 59 cruise missiles in an attack directed against a Syrian air base. The recent escalation has produced a response from Russia, which decried in the strongest terms the latest of these incidents, in which a U.S. F-18 Hornet shot down a Syrian SU-22 fighter-bomber.

Moscow has now threatened to act against any U.S.-led coalition aircraft flying over western Syria, a step that could in short order lead to a Russian-U.S. war in the Middle East.

Syria is currently under attack from the air forces of sixteen nations operating within its airspace loosely affiliated with the U.S. effort to bring about regime change. When Syria resists, it is routinely accused of using forbidden weapons by the mouthpieces of the terrorist groups operating inside the country under the American umbrella. Currently, the White House is warning that it has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley elaborated in a tweet, further attacks will be blamed on Assad but also on Russia and Iran who support him

Syria will pay a very heavy price if a chemical attack takes place, according to the White House statement. The U.S. warning will inevitably motivate the so-called rebels to stage an attack themselves and blame it on Damascus, as they have done in the past. It also dangerously escalates the conflict by directly targeting both Russia and Iran as Syrian accomplices in war crimes. It is a very dangerous move by the Trump Administration and one that apparently was not coordinated with the Defense and State Departments, which were caught flat footed by the White House announcement. The nature and credibility of the information implicating Syria has not been revealed and is being regarded as an intelligence matter.

Much of this acting against actual U.S. interests has come about due to the worthless ally syndrome which has been prevalent in Washington for several decades. In the Middle East, where many of the problems begin, there is no coherent policy that has evolved beyond unconditional support for local allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and Israel. This has meant in practical terms that the U.S. defers to Riyadh, Ankara, Cairo, and Tel Aviv in nearly all regional matters while it is also the guarantor of a feckless Afghan government.

So in spite of pledges to disengage from the cycle of warfare in the Middle East, the United States seems to be on course for direct involvement in a series of local conflicts with no clear victory and exit policy in place. Remove al-Assad and what comes next? What will the Russians do? Will Americas so-called allies Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia be satisfied with dismemberment of the Syrian state or will they insist on pushing on to Tehran? Who would fill that vacuum?

There are certainly other foreign policy black holes, to include the awful decision to rollback normalization with Cuba and the hot-then-cold moves against North Korea. Venezuela, a major U.S. oil supplier, is about to implode and it is not clear if the State Department has any contingency plan in place to deal with the crisis. But Russia and Syria are in a class by themselves as they have the potential to turn into Class A disasters, like Iraq or possibly even worse. And then there is Iran lurking, apparently hated by all the talking heads in Washington and inextricably linked to what is happening in Syria. It is more than capable of becoming the next catastrophe for a White House that is apparently staggering from crisis to crisis. What will Trump do? I am afraid that the lesson learned from the cruise missile attack on a Syrian base in April was that using force is popular, repeat as necessary. That would be a major mistake, but there is every sign that some of the people around Trump have their eyes on escalating and doing something in Syria and also against Iran for starters, and if Russia gets in the way we can deal with them too.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest.
When Terry Gobanga  then Terry Apudo  didnt show up to her wedding, nobody could have guessed that she had been abducted, r*ped and left for dead by the roadside. It was the first of two tragedies to hit the young Nairobi pastor in quick succession. But she is a survivor.

Read her story below;

***********************************

It was going to be a very big wedding. I was a pastor, so all our church members were coming, as well as all our relatives. My fiance, Harry, and I were very excited  we were getting married in All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi and I had rented a beautiful dress.

But the night before the wedding I realised that I had some of Harrys clothes, including his cravat. He couldnt show up without a tie, so a friend who had stayed the night offered to take it to him first thing in the morning. We got up at dawn and I walked her to the bus station.

As I was making my way back home, I walked past a guy sitting on the bonnet of a car  suddenly he grabbed me from behind and dumped me in the back seat. There were two more men inside, and they drove off. It all happened in a fraction of a second.

A piece of cloth was stuffed in my mouth. I was kicking and hitting out and trying to scream. When I managed to push the gag out, I screamed: Its my wedding day! That was when I got the first blow. One of the men told me to co-operate or you will die.

The men took turns to r*pe me. I felt sure I was going to die, but I was still fighting for my life, so when one of the men took the gag out of my mouth I bit his manhood. He screamed in pain and one of them stabbed me in the stomach. Then they opened the door and threw me out of the moving car.

I was miles from home, outside Nairobi. More than six hours had passed since I had been abducted.

A child saw me being thrown out and called her grandmother. People came running. When the police came they tried to get a pulse, but no-one could. Thinking I was dead, they wrapped me in a blanket and started to take me to the mortuary. But on the way there, I choked on the blanket and coughed.

The policeman said: Shes alive? And he turned the car around and drove me to the biggest government hospital in Kenya.

I arrived in great shock, murmuring incoherently. I was half-naked and covered in blood, and my face was swollen from being punched. But something must have alerted the matron, because she guessed I was a bride. Lets go around the churches to see if theyre missing a bride, she told the nurses.

By coincidence, the first church they called at was All Saints Cathedral. Are you missing a bride? the nurse asked.

The minister said: Yes, there was a wedding at 10 oclock and she didnt come.

When I didnt show up to the church, my parents were panicking. People were sent out to search for me. Rumours flew. Some wondered: Did she change her mind? Others said: No, its so unlike her, what happened?

After a few hours, they had to take down the decorations to make room for the next ceremony. Harry had been put in the vestry to wait.

When they heard where I was, my parents came to the hospital with the whole entourage. Harry was actually carrying my wedding gown. But the media had also got wind of the story so there were reporters too.

I was moved to another hospital where Id have more privacy. That was where the doctors stitched me up and gave me some devastating news: The stab wound went deep into your womb, so you wont be able to carry any children.

I was given the morning-after pill, as well as antiretroviral drugs to protect me from HIV and Aids. My mind shut down, it refused to accept what had happened.

Harry kept saying he still wanted to marry me. I want to take care of her and make sure she comes back to good health in my arms, in our house, he said. Truth be told, I wasnt in a position to say Yes or No because my mind was so jammed with the faces of the three men, and with everything that had happened.

Harry Olwande and Terry on their wedding day in July 2005

A few days later, when I was less sedated, I was able to look him in the eye. I kept saying sorry. I felt like I had let him down. Some people said it was my own fault for leaving the house in the morning. It was really hurtful, but my family and Harry supported me.

The police never caught the rapists. I went to line-up after line-up but I didnt recognise any of the men, and it hurt me each time I went. It set back my recovery  it was 10 steps forward, 20 back. In the end I went back to the police station and said: You know what, Im done. I just want to leave it.

Three months after the attack I was told I was HIV-negative and got really excited, but they told me I had to wait three more months to be sure. Still, Harry and I began to plan our second wedding.

Although I had been very angry at the press intrusion, somebody read my story and asked to meet me. Her name was Vip Ogolla, and she was also a rape survivor. We spoke, and she told me she and her friends wanted to give me a free wedding. Go wild, have whatever you want, she said.

I was ecstatic. I went for a different type of cake, much more expensive. Instead of a rented gown, now I could have one that was totally mine.

In July 2005, seven months after our first planned wedding, Harry and I got married and went on a honeymoon.

Twenty-nine days later, we were at home on a very cold night. Harry lit a charcoal burner and took it to the bedroom. After dinner, he removed it because the room was really warm. I got under the covers as he locked up the house. When he came to bed he said he was feeling dizzy, but we thought nothing of it.

It was so cold we couldnt sleep, so I suggested getting another duvet. But Harry said he couldnt get it as he didnt have enough strength. Strangely, I couldnt stand up either. We realised something was very wrong. He passed out. I passed out. I remember coming to. I would call him.

At times he would respond, at other times he wouldnt. I pushed myself out of bed and threw up, which gave me some strength. I started crawling to the phone. I called my neighbour and said: Something is wrong, Harry is not responding.

She came over immediately but it took me ages to crawl to the front door to let her in as I kept passing out. I saw an avalanche of people coming in, screaming. And I passed out again.

I woke up in hospital and asked where my husband was. They said they were working on him in the next room. I said: Im a pastor, Ive seen quite a lot in my life, I need you to be very straight with me. The doctor looked at me and said: Im sorry, your husband did not make it.

I couldnt believe it.

Going back to church for the funeral was terrible. Just a month earlier I had been there in my white dress, with Harry standing at the front looking handsome in his suit. Now, I was in black and he was being wheeled in, in a casket.

People thought I was cursed and held back their children from me. Theres a bad omen hanging over her, they said. At one point, I actually believed it myself.

Others accused me of killing my husband. That really got me down  I was grieving.

The post-mortem showed what really happened: as the carbon monoxide filled his system, he started choking and suffocated.

I had a terrible breakdown. I felt let down by God, I felt let down by everybody. I couldnt believe that people could be laughing, going out and just going about life. I crashed.

One day I was sitting on the balcony looking at the birds chirping away and I said: God, how can you take care of the birds and not me? In that instant I remembered there are 24 hours a day  sitting in depression with your curtains closed, no-ones going to give you back those 24 hours. Before you know, its a week, a month, a year wasted away. That was a tough reality.

I told everybody I would never ever get married again. God took my husband, and the thought of ever going through such a loss again was too much. Its something I wouldnt wish on anybody. The pain is so intense, you feel it in your nails.

But there was one man  Tonny Gobanga  who kept visiting. He would encourage me to talk about my husband and think about the good times. One time he didnt call for three days and I was so angry. Thats when it hit me that I had fallen for him.

Tonny proposed marriage but I told him to buy a magazine, read my story and tell me if he still loved me. He came back and said he still wanted to marry me.

But I said: Listen, theres another thing  I cant have children, so I cannot get married to you.

Children are a gift from God, he said. If we get them, Amen. If not, I will have more time to love you.

I thought: Wow, what a line! So I said Yes.

Tonny went home to tell his parents, who were very excited, until they heard my story. You cant marry her  she is cursed, they said. My father-in-law refused to attend the wedding, but we went ahead anyway. We had 800 guests  many came out of curiosity.

It was three years after my first wedding, and I was very scared. When we were exchanging vows, I thought: Here I am again Father, please dont let him die. As the congregation prayed for us I cried uncontrollably.

A year into our marriage, I felt unwell and went to the doctor  and to my great surprise he told me that I was pregnant.

As the months progressed I was put on total bed rest, because of the stab wound to my womb. But all went well, and we had a baby girl who we called Tehille. Four years later, we had another baby girl named Towdah.

Today, I am the best of friends with my father-in-law.

I wrote a book, Crawling out of Darkness, about my ordeal, to give people hope of rising again. I also started an organisation called Kara Olmurani. We work with rape survivors, as I call them  not rape victims. We offer counselling and support. We are looking to start a halfway house for them where they can come and find their footing before going back to face the world.

I have forgiven my attackers. It wasnt easy but I realised I was getting a raw deal by being upset with people who probably dont care. My faith also encourages me to forgive and not repay evil with evil but with good.

The most important thing is to mourn. Go through every step of it. Get upset until you are willing to do something about your situation. You have to keep moving, crawl if you have to. But move towards your destiny because its waiting, and you have to go and get it.
Two youths have been confirmed dead by the Niger State Police Command in a clash between vigilance and youth groups in Angwan Yaman in Kontagora LGA of the state.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Bala Elkana, who confirmed the incident to newsmen in Minna on Friday, said it occurred on Thursday.

Only two people died while five others sustained injuries, with one of the youths a female, critically injured, he said.

Elkana said that the clash was caused by the death of a 17-old boy who was allegedly tortured by members of the vigilance group.

He added that death of the boy led to violent demonstration by the youths in the area against the vigilance group which led to the death of the second victim.

Elkanah said that the second victim, a 20- year old man, was killed when members of the vigilance group used firearms to disperse the protesting youths.

He said that anti-riot police were drafted to the area to restore peace and bring the demonstration under control.

He said that the protesting youths attempted to burn the head office of the vigilance group in Kontagora.

He said that two personnel of the vigilance group had been arrested by the police for arresting and torturing the 17-year old boy.

He added that investigation was on to arrest other people connected with the incident.

Elkanah said: we have ordered the arrest of members of the vigilance group who were alleged to have arrested, kept and tortured the young man as they have no power to do so.

There is no law authorising them to detain anybody talkless of torturing the person.

They only have the power to arrest anyone who commit an offence in their presence and hand him over to the police.

For keeping the deceased youth in their detention camp and torturing him, they will face the wrath of the law.

If his death is linked to the torture, then they will be charged with culpable homicide which is punishable with death.

So far, two persons have been arrested and we are still investigating to get the rest involved.

He said that the youths would also face the wrath of the law for taking law into their hands by attempting to burn down the office and vehicle of the vigilance group.

The youths should have reported the incident to the police instead of taking the law into their hands, he said.

Source: ( PM News )
A 60-year-old secondary school principal in Ekiti State, is to spend the rest of life in jail for raping a 12-year-old girl, an Ado Ekiti High Court ruled on Thursday.

According to reports, the accused, Taiwo Ajayi, reportedly lured the girl into his office, locked the door and raped her on the table while covering her mouth with cloth.

Justice Oluwatoyin Abodunde, who gave the verdict, said the principal was guilty as charged.

Abodunde rejected the convicts counsels plea for leniency on grounds that he was a first offender, father and breadwinner of an aged mother.

The judge said;

The prosecution has proved its case beyond every reasonable doubt on the strength of evidence placed before the court. The cases of child defilement has been on the increase lately and to serve as a deterrent to others, my view is that the punishment stipulated by the lawmakers was deliberate to deter the offense and protect the right to dignity of the child. The defence counsel is pleading for leniency and praying for fine instead of the due punishment. My question is: who pays the victim for the life-time scar or the trauma and torture of rape ? `I am unable to deviate from the provisions of the law in this instance; the defendant is found guilty as charged and sentenced to life imprisonment,

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that the rapist, who is in his 60s was at the time of committing the crime, the Vice- Principal (Academics) at St. Marys Girls Grammar School, Ikole-Ekiti.

Ajayi, who was suspended from the civil service to face the consequences of his action, committed the offence on March 18, 2014.

Two teachers had stormed the vice-principals office but could not gain entry until after about 30 minutes and caught him red-handed.

NAN also reports that the prosecution was led by Mr A.E. Arogundade of the Ministry of Justice, while the defence team was led by Mr Sule Longe.

At the arraignment on Oct. 14, 2016, Ajayi had pleaded not guilty.

The offence contravened Section 31 (2) of the Child Rights Law of Ekiti State 2012. (NAN)

The prosecution called eight witnesses including a medical practitioner from the State University Teaching Hospital, police officers who investigated the case, two other pupils and a teacher in the school.

Exhibits tendered include a medical report, statement of the accused, report of the panels set up by the school authorities and Teaching Service Commission, medical report from the police clinic, statement of the victim, among others.

The two panels set up to investigate the case indicted Ajayi which led to his suspension from service after which he was arrested and prosecuted.

Source: Naijaloaded
A 63-year-old lawyer, Mr. Vincent Ogbungbada, was on Thursday arraigned before a High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, for alleged kidnapping and attempted murder.

Ogbungbada was accused of kidnapping one Mr. Fortune Ogbungbada, who was held hostage for four days with the aim of demanding for ransom.

The suspect was also accused of attempting to kill one Agnes Ogbungbada by shooting her with a gun.

When the charges were read to the suspect, he pleaded not guilty to all of them.

The charges read, That you, Vincent E. Ogbungbada, M, with others now at large, sometimes between the month of October 2016-January 2017 at Rumuologu, Port Harcourt within the Port Harcourt Judicial Division, did conspire amongst yourselves to commit felony to wit: kidnapping and attempted murder, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act Cap C 38 Law of the Federation 2004.

That you, Vincent E. Ogbungbada M, with others at large on the same date and place, in the aforesaid Judicial Division, did kidnap one Mr. Fortune Ogbungbada and kept him for four days in your custody with an intent to demand for ransom, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 1 (1) of the Rivers State Kidnap (Prohibition) Amendment Law No. 5 of 2015.

That you, Vincent E. Ogbungbada M, with others now at large, on the same date and place, in the aforesaid Judicial Division, did attempt to unlawfully kill one Agnes Fortune Ogbungbada by shooting her with a gun, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 320 of the Criminal Code Act Cap C 38 Laws of the Federation 2004.

Having pleaded not guilty to all the counts, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Essien Edet and counsel for the accused, Mr. D.I. Akwakpam, argued on a date to be fixed for Vincents bail application.

The presiding judge, Justice Margaret Opara, however, adjourned the matter till Tuesday, July 4, 2017 for bail application and hearing.

Justice Opara ordered that the accused be remanded in police custody pending the resumption of hearing on Tuesday.

It will be recalled Vincent, who is a relative to the paramount ruler of Rumualogu, His Royal Highness Eze Ignatius Ogbungbada, was arrested after the abduction of the monarchs son.

Fortune Ogbungbada, who is the son of the traditional ruler, was kidnapped on January 22, 2017 within a church premises in Rumualogu, Obio/Akpor LGA of Rivers State.

It was also within the same period that the monarchs daughter-in-law (Agnes) who was carrying a six-month-old baby was shot in the mouth and right hand.

The police, after their investigation, decided to arrest and arraign the monarchs half-brother, Vincent Ogbungbada in connection with the crime.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing headquarters in Lagos has reached an agreement with Stakeholders to take necessary measures in Apapa to ensure commencement of reconstruction of Wharf Road leading to the nations major port on July 7.

The stakeholders agreed on several issues at a meeting held at the office complex of the

Those in attendance include representatives of traffic regulatory and traffic management agencies, law enforcement agencies, transport unions, petroleum products unions, port terminal operators and the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA).

Others are telecommunication service providers, the Apapa Local Government, representatives of Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, AG Dangote Construction Company Ltd, contractors on the project, among others.

The stakeholders, rising from the meeting, presented a communique read by Mr Godwin Eke, Federal Controller Works, Lagos and a consultant of AG Dangote Construction Company Ltd, Mr Kayode Opeifa.

They agreed that the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and NPA should collaborate to repair all bad roads and diversion routes, including Tin Can Island Road, Creek Road and Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, which will receive heavy traffic.

The stakeholders resolved that a meeting be held between traffic regulatory agencies, law enforcement agencies and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) on July 3 to fashion out a traffic management plan.

After the meeting and the discussions and approval, it will be communicated to all stakeholders. Then, we can ask the contractors to mobilise and begin the reconstruction of Apapa Wharf Road.

We all resolve to ensure that parked trucks be removed from Apapa Wharf Road for construction works to commence in phases on 7th July; it will never be a total closure of all the roads, but only on sections of the road where work will be done, the communique stated.

They agreed that stakeholders will corporate with any changes in time line of traffic management which will be communicated to all parties by both the NPA and the contractor through LASTMA, for effective traffic diversions during the period.

The stakeholders also resolved that traffic management agencies would come up with a periodic traffic management plan backed by security provided by the security agencies.

They agreed that the Sole Administrator of Apapa Local Government, Mr Luqman Alao, would work with all traffic management agencies, security agencies and the NPA, and coordinate activities between them and the military.

The stakeholders commended the NPA, AG Dangote, Flour Mills of Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Power, Work and Housing for coming together to execute the project.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, on June 17, handed over the Apapa Wharf Road to AG Dangote Construction Company Ltd. for reconstruction.

The site was handed over after the minister signed a N4.34 billion Memorandum of Understanding with stakeholders who were to fund the project.

The project is to be funded by AG Dangote Construction Company Ltd, an arm of the Dangote Group, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Flour Mills of Nigeria.

The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, on July 22, held the first stakeholders meeting with some concerned parties on how to achieve success and speed on the project.

The ministry held another meeting with telecommunication service providers and others on Wednesday on how to relocate service cables and pipes in the Right of Way of the project.

The two kilometre road has a completion period of one year.

Source:( PM News )
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has told Nigerians that only doctors of President Muhammadu Buhari in the United Kingdom can decide when he will be fit to return to the country and return to work.

Addressing journalists after a closed door meeting of the National Working Committee of the party, including governors elected on the partys platform, which held in Abuja late on Thursday, Odigie-Oyegun explained that the President was fast recovering from his ailment.

While dismissing claims by Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State that the President was on life support, Odigie-Oyegun said, If I respond, I will be dignifying him. At the appropriate time, people will answer him; at the appropriate level; at the appropriate time. He (Fayose) is in a different world altogether.

We are glad to inform you that President Muhammadu Buhari is recovering in a very robust manner. We hope he takes it easy and when he comes back, I have no doubt at all that we will have a new and active period of activities.

Meanwhile, Saturday PUNCH gathered that one of the highlights of the meeting was to ensure that the forthcoming Anambra State governorship election holds, against the threat by the Indigenous People of Biafra that the election would not hold.

A source privy to the meeting said, It is a simple case of whether or not we have a government in place. We just cannot afford to allow an individual hold the rest of this great country to ransom.

We agreed that as a party, we will do all within the limit of our powers to support the Federal Government to work with the states in the zone to ensure that elections hold as scheduled.

Apart from reviewing the crisis rocking some state chapters of the party, it was also agreed that preparations for the various state congresses for the selection of delegates for the inaugural bi-annual national convention should commence.

However, on the issue of the national convention, most members expressed the view that pre-convention activities can commence with the hope that President Muhammadu Buhari will return before it holds.

Odigie-Oyegun told journalists that the meeting also x-rayed the current situation in Nigeria especially the ongoing agitations for restructuring and inciting statements emanating from individuals and groups across the country.

He said the party maintained its earlier position on the restructuring of the country as clearly stated in its manifesto, adding that the partys leadership would do all it could at all times to ensure that Nigerias unity was preserved.

The APC chairman added, Such inciting statements are not good for the nation`s health and have to be stopped.

He maintained that the leadership of the party was prepared to listen to whatever grievances any group in the country might have while working assiduously to fulfill its electoral promises to Nigerians.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
An Armed robber has expressed regret after His having been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command for armed robbery, 26-year-old Sikiru Lawal told Saturday PUNCH that if he knew he would be caught, he would have thought twice before going out to steal that very day.

His regret was not only that he was arrested, he told our correspondent that he was sad that his mother died when she heard of his arrest.

He said, She had been sick and had been on hospital bed for some time. We were praying she would get better. Im one of the three children she had. I was told that when she heard I was arrested for a criminal offence, she gasped and died. I regret my action.

Lawal, during a parade of suspects by the Acting Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dasuki Galadanchi, recently, explained that he went into crime to raise funds so he could travel out of Nigeria.

When asked the country he was planning to relocate to, he said, I just wanted to leave Nigeria.

Arrested for stealing a green Peugeot 206 saloon car in Badagry area of Lagos, he explained that he had always observed the house of his victims from the distance and he was able to establish that they sometimes left their kitchen door open.

One night, he said he jumped the fence to try his luck, and that was it.

He said, I went to steal the car around 11.30pm. They were sleeping when I pushed the kitchen door to enter. Fortunately, it wasnt locked. I had monitored them for five days. I didnt use a gun. When I entered the house, I went to the sitting room and I saw the car key on the table. I took the key and drove the car away. I stole the car at Mowo in Badagry.

Sometimes, I jumped peoples fence to check if people did not lock their doors because I know many people dont lock their doors all the time. I would then enter and look around to see if I could find anything useful. This was my first independent operation, but now Im regretting my action.

Police source also told our correspondent that Lawal had just returned from prison in March where he was held for conspiracy and stealing.

Lawal said, The first time I was arrested, some persons who dealt in vehicles used to give the stolen vehicles to me to deliver to other people. I never knew the cars were stolen. I was arrested in Ibadan. They used to give me N50,000 per car.

Galadanchi noted that Lawal and four others  Lanre Bello, Olusegun Sheda, Azeez Mustapha and Lawal Mayowa  were specialists in snatching handbags and vehicles but were arrested on June 10. He added that they would all be charged to court for conspiracy and armed robbery.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The Nigerian Army has confirmed that it will provide free medical treatment to about 300 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Chibok, Borno, as part of activities marking this years Nigerian Army Day Celebration.

Col. Samuel Kingsley the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations said this in a statement on Saturday in Maiduguri.

As part of their contribution to the host community and also activities marking the Nigerian Army Day Celebration,

Troops of 28 Task Force Brigade Nigerian Army were at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camp, Chibok, rendering free medical service to the community, Samuel said.

He added that the task force had so far attended to more than 300 persons since morning and still counting.

Source: ( PM News )
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission recorded 113 convictions nationwide between January and June 2017.

The Commissions Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, made the disclosure on Friday, June 30 at an interactive meeting with stakeholders in Ikoyi, Lagos

According to Mr. Magu, the feat was made possible by the contributions and support of stakeholders. He vowed not to spare the corrupt despite the prevailing encumbrances.

We will not fail to bring to book those who have corruptly stolen our commonwealth and thereafter organize to destabilise the anti-corruption initiatives.

I will not relent, I will fight for the interest of our citizens and our childrens future, he declared.

The EFCC boss who observed that corruption was at the root of recent separatist agitations in parts of the country, urged for the joining of forces by all patriots to defeat these tendencies, adding that we all have a stake in the peaceful co-existence of this nation.

Civil society leaders who spoke at the forum called on the Commission to improve its prevention awareness campaign by creating communication strategies that will motivate the masses to join the anti-corruption crusade.

Malachy Ugwumadu, president Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, described the anti-corruption fight not only as a class struggle, but a war that must be won by the people.

This is a class struggle between the political elites and those of us fighting to rescue the soul of our society. The battle may be lost if we dont reorganize and focus on the people who seem confused due to manipulation by the corrupt few.

Jiti Ogunye, lawyer and human rights activist, acknowledged the challenges confronting the anti-corruption agencies especially the dangerous environment in which their personnel operate.

He sued for encouragement for all anti-corruption agencies in order to reduce the pressure on EFCC.

While calling for committment and synergy among civil society groups, Joe Odumakin of Women Arise, said this is not a day to agonise but to organise and put our strategies in focus.

Enough of the diversionary tactics employed by those who hate the commission.

We must put our house in order, and create more awareness in the communities on the dangers of corruption and how we can mobilize the common people for support.

Other speakers who lent their voices to the campaign include Wahab Shittu, university lecturer and human rights lawyer; Foluke Michael, project coordinator, Creative Youth Initiative Against Corruption; Liborous Oshomah, human rights activist among others.

Source: ( NAN )
The traditional rulers in Ikorodu has decided to take laws into their hands to end the attack by Badoo Cult group since the law enforcement agencies remain helpless in putting a stop to killings in Ikorodu, Lagos.

The cult group is known for wiping out whole families and using objects such as pestles and rocks to smash their victims heads.

On Wednesday, about a hundred native doctors garbed in white attire gathered at the palace of the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabiru Shotobi, to express their readiness to combat the group.

Many of them were armed with fetish objects like cow horns tied with red ribbons, chanting war songs.

To kickstart this phase of the war, the palace carried out some rituals while residents were advised to stay indoors between 11.30pm on Thursday, June 29 to 5.30am on June 30.

The Oluwo Osugbo of Ikorodu, Chief Adegboyega Adeyeri, who is one of the leaders of the traditionalists in the town, toldSaturday PUNCH that they have kick-started the defeat of the Badoo group.

Even though he did not reveal specifics of measures taken, Adeyeri called on all members of the Badoo group to give themselves up as soon as possible.

He said, We will not give a specific ultimatum to them like our fore-fathers did in the past but there are no two ways about it, all the evil doers would be caught.

If the spirit of our fore-fathers are still with us, every member of the group or any other person responsible for killings in Ikorodu would all meet a deadly end soon unless they surrender.

The steps we have taken would ensure that none of them escapes. When things become as worse as this, the steps we have taken become necessary.

The killers have done their part by carrying out the killings, now we have taken our own steps and it is time for them to start feeling the sting.

According to Adeyeri, the members of the group have taken oaths of secrecy, which was why those caught never confessed.

Part of what we have done is to ensure that anytime one of them is caught, the suspect would surely confess by the power of our fore-fathers. All traditionalists have come together as one on this and this alone is an assurance that we cannot fail. No matter how smart or how devilish they are, we will catch them all, Adeyeri said.

Meanwhile, the Lagos chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, on the other hand, said it was holding prayer sessions over the matter even though it had not publicised it.

The Lagos Chairman of CAN, Apostle Alexander Bamgbola, told Saturday PUNCH,We are praying and we are always praying even though we dont have to publicise the matter. Anything that prayers cannot handle is not an issue.

We are also praying for the state generally and our nation. And that is all I can say about the matter at this moment.

One of the leaders of the vigilance groups in Ikorodu, Chief Kamorudeen Bombata, told Saturday PUNCH that vigilantes across Ikorodu now embark on patrol side by side with policemen.

Nobody is happy about what is going on in Ikorodu at this time. This is why we no longer sleep because of constant patrol in the night, he said. This is coming on the heels of the latest killing suspected to have been carried out by the group when a couple  Ike David, 50 and Margret David, 28; and two of their three children Ike David (Jnr.), 5 and Matthew David, 4  were killed at Olopomeji, Odogunyan around 1am on Wednesday.

The traditional ruler of Igbogbo, one of the suburbs of Ikorodu, Oba Semiu Kasali, told Saturday PUNCH that there had been series of meetings with community development associations, security agencies and vigilance organisations in the community, adding that religious houses have also been involved to ensure prayers are offered to help combat the Badoo cult.

He said, We have already tasked our traditionalists to do the needful in terms of appeasements needed to forestall more violence. We have also continued to sensitise our people to be vigilant. Last week, we saw an evidence of this when a suspect was caught and was nearly lynched on allegations that he belonged to the Badoo group. The divisional police officer and some of his men were almost attacked. We had to call the Army to prevent the suspect from being lynched and also helped to safeguard the police officers.

We will continue to sensitise our people not to take the laws into their hands. But the police have a lot to do too because we have realised they are not adequately prepared to handle this situation. We urge the government to give the police formation around here the necessary support to do their job well.

However, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, said the police are currently working with the military and private security outfits to ensure the safety of residents of Ikorodu and apprehend the criminals behind the killings.

Source:(Punch Newspaper )
The Indigenous People of Biafra, has told security agencies in the country that its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, cant be re-arrested because he has not flouted his bail conditions.

It added that Kanu had neither held any rally nor protested as instructed by the court, thus, he had not gone beyond the limit set by the court.

Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, had, while granting Kanu bail on April 25, 2017, ordered him not to grant press interviews, he should not participate in any rally and should stay away from any gathering of more than 10 persons.

But the IPOB leader had in recent days met and addressed large gatherings, and reportedly granted interviews to some foreign news organisations.

The development had led to calls, from some quarters, for security agencies to re-arrest Kanu on the grounds of violation of bail conditions.

In addition, Saturday PUNCH had exclusively reported on June 3, 2017 that the Federal Government might ask the court to revoke his bail on grounds of alleged breach of the bail conditions granted him in April. Top sources in the Federal Ministry of Justice had said that alleged breaches of the bail conditions by Kanu were being noted and might be used to ask the court to revoke his bail.

But IPOB, in response to enquiries by Saturday PUNCH on Friday, said Kanu had not violated the bail conditions given to him by the court.

IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, told our correspondent that those who had been converging in thousands on Kanus fathers house in Umuahia, Abia State, came to see the IPOB leader on their own volition and that he could not send his visitors away, neither would he decide not to receive them.

Powerful said, Nnamdi Kanu never flouted his bail conditions because the court said he should not go for rallies or protests and he has never done that since his release. But citizens of Biafra and other parts of Nigeria want to see him, that is why you see him with people and these people come to his fathers house. He cannot chase those who want to see him away. Since his release he never called for any rally or protest or press conference.

Dont you know that if he wants to call the press he will call both local and international media? The court did not bar people from visiting him in his fathers compound. The court did not say he should not visit anyone in the society. Therefore, the security operatives have no justification to re-arrest him because he has never gone beyond their limit or held any rally or protest.

We are aware that anywhere he visited, people just gather to see who he is in person and he did not put himself in the position he is today  it is by the making of the Most High in Heaven. We wonder why people who fear his electrifying popularity are calling for his arrest  we know that the Nigerian government and her security agencies always like to intimidate people.

The IPOB spokesman said the secessionists were not calling for war but it would only advance its demand for Biafra through civil disobedience and peaceful rallies and protests.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The Nigeria Police says it has concluded plans to put an end to car theft in the country.

This was made known by the assistant Commissioner of Police, Ayotunde Omodeinde, who represented the force at the launching of a new automated car monitoring device, PoliceBCMR, said he hoped the device would also prevent the public from buying stolen vehicles.

The PoliceBCMR is an initiative introduced by the Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria in partnership with Media Concepts International Limited, to prevent the theft and purchase of stolen vehicles.

Omodeinde said at the official signing of an agreement for the use of PoliceBCMR in Lagos, that stolen vehicles always found their way to car dealers and the dealers end up selling these vehicles without their knowledge.

In the course of our investigation, when we trace stolen cars to dealers, they usually end up losing their money because they would have already paid for them. The car dealers also suffer a lot of inconveniences so the police working with AMDON will ensure that when vehicles are brought to them, they will be checked to see if they are stolen or not.

He added that whenever a stolen vehicle is brought to a member of AMDON, he or she has a duty of informing them discretely so that the police will be able to recover the vehicle.

This is a very wonderful initiative by the Inspector-General of Police to ensure the integration of AMDON system with the PoliceBCMR. It will enable us to track stolen vehicles and make it easy for the members of the public to buy vehicles without trouble, he added.

The National President of AMDON, Ajibade Adedoyin, described the innovation as historic in the Nigerian auto industry. According to him, the association has been working on its development for the past four years.

He said, It would be of benefit to auto dealers and members of the public because we are the ones that service majority of those that use cars in Nigeria. Our members, through buying or selling of cars that they didnt know were stolen have been run out of business. When we look at all these, we came up with this concept and decided to partner with the police so that we can look for a way to reduce the money and resources wasted on stolen cars.

We all know that a vehicle could be brought to you with original documents and still be a stolen vehicle. If the police get to know that a car is stolen, the dealer will be made to refund the money but they will not tell the armed robbers to refund money to the dealer. So, we are at the receiving end. I think this concept is a win-win situation both for the buyers, sellers and the Nigerian Police Force.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The single mother made this assertion in a recent interview with Vanguardngr.

When asked why there are many single mothers in the Yoruba sector of the industry, she said:

I think it has to do with making the wrong choices. I will say they havent gotten to their final destination that is why they are single mothers. I think every single mother you see made a wrong choice..

Speaking further, she had this to say on her relationship with the father of her child?

I will keep saying that the father of my daughter is the best. He is kindhearted and he is a very good person. Forget whatever he might have said about me out of annoyance, we have a very good relationship.

When probed further on her plans of going back to him, she said;

If God says so, why not! Is there any man in the picture right now? No, there is none.
Eight persons suspected to be the killers of the late Ukanafun Local Government Council Secretary, Mr Ime Atakpa have been arrested by the Akwa Ibom Police Command.

This was confirmed by the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Donald Awunah, made this known to newsmen in Uyo on Saturday.

Awunah disclosed that all the suspects had confessed that they were sponsored by the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Ukanafun Local Government Council, Mr Abasiono Udomfu.

He said that the alleged suspects have been charged to court for conspiracy and murder of late Atakpa.

Four armed men namely: Godwin Daniel Ikpe alias One man chop `m; Aniefiok Eseme Etukudo alias Barbeach  archor m;

Saturday Etim Isong alias Saty m, and Englishmen were arrested at different locations in Port Harcourt on 22/5/2017, 23/5/2017 and 24/5/2017, respectively,

They all confessed to the crime mentioning the caretaker committee chairman of Ukanafun local government area, Barrister Abasiono Jackson Udomfu m as their sponsor.

Other suspects arrested in connection with this crime include Akaninyene Sunday Iwok m, 34 years; Aniedi Okon Udosen m, 32 years, and Ekere Friday Joseph m.

Items recovered from the suspects include one handset belonging to the deceased secretary, Obong Ime Willie Atakpa, and one red coloured Qlink 125 motorcycle, Awunah said.

Atakpa was killed on April 16, 2017, by four gunmen with three motorcycles in his poultry farm at Ikot Udo Obodo village, Ukanafun.

Awunah said the people of Ukanafun, Etim-Ekpo and Oruk-Anam local government areas are likely to be free of constant serial killings, kidnap for ransom and receiving threat messages as the perpetrator have been arrested by the police.

He explained that the police traced and arrested the person responsible for the threat messages through the phone number used for the act.

The police commissioner said that prominent citizens of Ukanafun and environs had received threats of death and kidnap for ransom through GSM No: 08150657348.

However, he said that some persons had become victims by making payment.

He said that diligent detectives traced the phone number to Utom Ekponudim Uyo of Ikot Oku Usung village, who was arrested on June 26, at about 5.50 a.m with two Nokia phones and an Airtel SIM card.

The commissioner added that on June 26, at about 1500hrs following an intelligence report, the Divisional Police Officer of Okobo raided a criminal hideout leading to recovery of 75 rounds of 9mm live ammunition, 2 locally made single barrel guns and an Army camouflage uniform.

He said that the hoodlums on sighting the police fled.

Awunah said that efforts are currently being made to arrest the fleeing hoodlums whose identities have been established.

The commissioner reassured Akwa Ibom people of the commands commitment to continue partnering with other security agencies and all law abiding citizens of the state to eliminate all forms of crime and their perpetrators.

Source:( PM News )
Nigerian security operatives are jittery over the ability of notorious kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka, Evans, to organise an escape if remanded in prison custody.

According to Vanguard, Evans pose a security threat to Nigeria if he is remanded.

The operatives believe that the sophisticated kidnapper could use his high profile network to obtain some respite in prison and organise a break-out eventually.

It was also learnt that all the monies and properties criminally obtained by the kidnapper during his 20-year reign have not been traced and in such a situation where he has access to such vast sums of money, he could use his money while in prison to reoganise his network and set up a new gang.

The police have obtained a court order and as such, are legally backed to detain the high profile kidnapper for the next three months before his prosecution.

The security source claimed that top criminals with access to huge sums of money when arrested are treated with respect by prison officials and consequently given access to social amenities like cell phones and internet connections.

The source said: High-profile criminals enjoy VIP treatments in prison custody because they have money. We have learned that these suspects usually pay the warders to be detained in cells that are classified as VIP, and they would have access to their phones as well as the internet. These suspects dont usually feel like they are in prison custody because they enjoy unlimited access to visitors anytime.

Since his money has not been recovered completely because we had information that he has hotels in Ghana and South Africa, it will be wrong to send him to prison. He is also said to have auto spare parts outlets in Ghana and some other Africa countries. People working for him are numerous and the Police are yet to arrest all of them. If he is remanded in prison with these assets unrecovered, Evans could rule any prison. Evans, can be in prison and easily recruit men outside, radicalise them, buy them arms and send them out for operations. Evans can organise a jailbreak

Evans could enjoy the security of the prison and unleash terror on the society. We have seen a lot of criminals like him and they have done same

We have had several cases like that in the past. We had the case of Henry Chibueze, alias Vampire, who kidnapped and killed several persons and was arrested in 2015 by the Department of State Security Service, DSS. While in prison, Vampire sponsored several groups, who carried out kidnappings on his behalf. Having raised enough money he staged an escape from the prison while he was being taken to court. Luckily for us, he was gunned down, a few weeks after his escape. There were also other cases in Abuja and Port Harcourt Rivers state, recently.

Backing his claim that criminals in prisons could still orchestrate crime in the free society, the source highligeted the escapades a suspect in Kuje and Port Harcourt prisons.

He said the suspect masterminded several fraudulent acts while locked up in the prison.

When members of the syndicate were arrested, they confessed that their leader was serving in Kuje Prison. One of the cases in Port Harcourt saw a detainee operating a massive kidnap gang. The kidnapper had organized several kidnappings before members of his gang were apprehended and he was exposed.

In the new suit filed on Thursday, June 29, Evans is claiming N300 million as general and exemplary damages against the police for alleged illegal detention and unconstitutional media trial.

Source: Naijaloaded
According to the police, the 27-year-old allegedly shot Bruce in the head as the two drove through a Northwest Philadelphia neighbourhood after he told her the relationship was over. According to the police, the 27-year-old allegedly shot Bruce in the head as the two drove through a Northwest Philadelphia neighbourhood after he told her the relationship was over.

It was reported that Bruce immediately lost control of the car he was driving and crashed into another car before it flipped onto its side.

Westcott allegedly fled from the scene of the accident, to her mothers house. Her mother then convinced her to turn herself in to the police.
Tottenham Hotspur, striker Harry Kane has proposed to girlfriend Katie Goodland , according to the Mirror, the pair have been together for five years and had their first child, Ivy, in January.

And during their family holiday in the Bahamas, the England star got down on one knee.

He revealed the good news on social media with fans sending their congratulations to the happy couple.

Earlier this week, Kane posted a snap from their luxurious yacht alongside Katie and little Ivy.

Spurs players return to pre-season training on Monday, although Kane may be afforded an extra few days rest after playing for England over the summer.

The striker also starred in Spurs kit launch on Saturday.

Mauricio Pochettinos men have joined forces with American giants Nike, after their five-season-deal with Under Armour came to an end.

Its understood the deal is worth around 30 million-per-year to the north London club.

Kane, who captained England earlier this summer, has attracted interest from Manchester United.

He has won back-to-back golden boots in the Premier League, with Spurs demanding over 100m for their talisman.
A Jonesboro, Ark., woman has been sentenced to five years probation, court costs and restitution after pleading guilty to her role in a staged automobile accident in 2014 involving a U-Haul rental.

Jennifer Haggins, 31, entered a plea of guilty to one count of Fraudulent Insurance Acts (D felony) and one count of Criminal Mischief (D felony) on June 29 in Craighead County Circuit Court.

On May 24, 2014, Haggins rented a truck from the U-Haul store located at 1700 Red Wolf Drive in Jonesboro, purchasing the extra insurance offered on the U-Haul during the rental process, according to the Arkansas Insurance Department.

Haggins was involved in an automobile accident with another vehicle. The accident resulted in damage to both vehicles in the combined amount of $4,554.35.

On the same day, she filed an insurance claim alleging bodily injury as a result of the accident. Upon investigation, it was found that the accident was staged.

According to Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr, using a commercial rental vehicle to stage an accident is becoming more common. It may seem like a victimless crime, but it puts all Arkansas motorists in danger and penalizes all of us through higher insurance premiums. The Arkansas Insurance Department will continue to crackdown on this type of fraud, Kerr said in a statement released by the insurance department.

Haggins was sentenced to five years of probation, court costs of $540, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $4,554.35 at the rate of $100 per month.

Kerr reminds Arkansans that Act 695 of 2017 extends the statute of limitations for insurance fraud (Class D felony) involving a motor vehicle purposely used to cause and accident to five years from the previous three years.

Source: Arkansas Insurance Department

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Un ottobre da sogno per Antonio Conte: lex ct della Nazionale italiana, attualmente alla guida del Chelsea, nelle ultime quattro gare di Premier League ha collezionato solo successi, conditi da 11 reti segnate e addirittura nessuna incassata. Numeri da record che non sono certo passati inosservati alla Federazione inglese, la quale ha conferito al tecnico leccese lambito premio di Manager del mese.

Unavventura oltremanica iniziata in sordina, quella di Conte, pur a fronte di tre vittorie nelle prime tre gare di campionato. A far vacillare, anche se solo per un momento, le certezze del patron del club londinese, Roman Abramovich, i risultati conseguiti tra la 4a e la 6a giornata, coincisi con un pareggio sul campo dello Swansea City e, soprattutto, con le due pesanti sconfitte subite dal Liverpool, sul terreno casalingo di Stamford Bridge, e dallArsenal. In particolare, la debacle interna coi Reds, aveva irritato non poco il numero uno russo, poiche occorsa proprio nel giorno della sua 250esima partita da presidente della societa.

Come detto, solo un momento. Dopo lincontro dellEmirates, il tecnico salentino cambia modulo, adottando un piu equilibrato 3-4-3 e inserendo elementi di corsa come lo spagnolo Pedro. Una svolta totale perche, di li in poi, il Chelsea inanellera solo e soltanto vittorie: 2 gol allHull City e al Southampton in trasferta, 3 ai campioni dInghilterra del Leicester e 4 allo United in casa, con un meraviglioso numero zero nella casella delle reti subite. Un fantastico poker, ottenuto tra l1 e il 29 ottobre. Un cambio di marcia sbalorditivo, confermato dal 5 a 0 rifilato ai toffees dellEverton nel primo match di novembre, e una scalata che, man mano, ha portato i blues al secondo posto in classifica, a soli 2 punti dal Liverpool capolista.

E allora, non poteva mancare il riconoscimento di migliore allenatore del mese, ottenuto surclassando tecnici del calibro di Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) e Mark Hughes (Southampton). Tanta, ovviamente, la soddisfazione: E un grande onore e voglio condividerlo con i giocatori e con la societa  ha dichiarato Conte sul sito ufficiale della Premier League -. E la prima volta che lavoro in un altro Paese, con una cultura diversa, e portare la propria filosofia non e facile, ma ora sono contento di questa scelta.

A completare la festa, la premiazione del fantasista belga, Eden Hazard, come miglior giocatore di ottobre. Due risultati importanti per il club, ottimo incentivo per la rincorsa al trono dei campioni, occupato dal Leicester di Ranieri. Il prossimo appuntamento per l11 di Conte sara al Riverside Stadium, tana del Middlesborough neopromosso. Il tempo di festeggiare e gia finito.
After eight month long warfare, Iraqi government troops on Thursday captured the ruined mosque at the heart of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant groups de facto capital Mosul. With this Iraqs prime minister has declared ISILs self-styled caliphate at an end.



Iraqi authorities expect the long battle for Mosul to end in coming days as remaining Islamic State fighters are bottled up in just a handful of neighborhoods of the Old City. The seizure of the nearly 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque  from where ISIL proclaimed the caliphate nearly three years ago to the day  is a huge symbolic victory.

In a statement, Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, The return of al-Nuri Mosque and al-Hadba minaret to the fold of the nation marks the end of the Daesh state of falsehood.



The fall of Mosul would in effect mark the end of the Iraqi half of the ISIL caliphate, although the group still controls territory west and south of the city, ruling over hundreds of thousands of people. Its stronghold in Syria, Raqqa, is also close to falling.



Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said that a U.S.-backed Kurdish-led coalition besieging Raqqa on Thursday fully encircled it after closing the militants last way out from the south. These setbacks have reduced ISILs territory by 60 percent from its peak two years ago and its revenue by 80 percent, to just $16 million a month, said IHS Markit.



Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, Iraqi military spokesperson, said, Their fictitious state has fallen.



However, it still occupies an area as big as Belgium, across Iraq and Syria, according to IHS Markit, an analytics firm. ISIL fighters blew up the medieval mosque and its famed leaning minaret a week ago as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces started a push in its direction. Their black flag had been flying from al-Hadba (The Hunchback) minaret since June 2014.



Prime Minister of Iraq has issued instructions to bring the battle to its conclusion, capturing the remaining portion of the Old City of Mosul.

The cost of the fighting has been enormous. In addition to military casualties, thousands of civilians are estimated to have been killed. About 900,000 people, nearly half the pre-war population of the northern city, have fled, mostly taking refuge in camps or with relatives and friends.

Those trapped in the city suffered hunger, deprivation and ISIL oppression as well as death or injury, and many buildings have been ruined.

Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) troops captured the al-Nuri Mosques ground in a lightning operation on Thursday, a commander of the U.S.-trained elite units told.



A military statement mentioned that CTS units are now in control of the mosque area and the al-Hadba and Sirjkhana neighborhoods and they are still advancing. Other government units, from the army and police, were closing in from other directions.

An elite Interior Ministry unit said it freed about 20 children believed to belong to Yazidi and other minorities persecuted by the jihadists in a quarter north of the Old City which houses Mosuls main hospitals. A U.S.-led international coalition is providing air and ground support to the Iraqi forces fighting through the Old Citys maze of narrow alleyways.



But the advance remains arduous as ISIL fighters are dug in the middle of civilians, using mortar fire, snipers, booby traps and suicide bombers to defend their last redoubt.



| Soruce: Japan News | By S.Seal
Militants of Islamic States (IS) have admitted that defeat in the city of Mosul during sermons that also revived suspicions regarding the death of the groups supreme leader.



Abu Baraa al-Mawseli, one of Islamic States top leaders and the assistant ruler of Tal Afar town, west of the province, delivered a sermon during the Friday prayer in which he surprisingly admitted defeat in Mosul, as the source put it.



Abu Baraa also declared Tal Afar as a temporary headquarter for the Caliphate.



At another sermon in the same town, Abu Qutaiba, another senior aide to IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, broke into tears when he came to mention the latter during the speech.



Source said, He mumbled a few words afterwards that suggested Baghdadis death.

Iraqi security officials have not verified the two incidents, but have confirmed the collapse of the groups rule in Iraq by losing Mosul.



Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared on Thursday Islamic States defeat in western Mosul Old City, the groups last bastion in the city from where it first declared its establishment in 2014.



Baghdadis only appearance was in a video clip showing him making the sermon proclaiming the establishment of an Islamist caliphate in the Old Citys Grand Nuri Mosque, and never showed up again. Speculations and clashing reports about his whereabouts and survival have been plenteous. Recently, Russia confirmed his death profoundly.



| Soruce: Iraqi News | By S.Seal
About three years earlier, 800 jihadist fighters in northern Iraq were poised to become new global threats. Having taken over Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, the extremists proclaimed the birth of their so-called "Islamic State".

As their self-styled caliphate marks its third anniversary, Iraqi forces are getting ready to pronounce its death - at least on their soil. In Mosul, which was the largest city under IS control, the remaining militants are corralled in the narrow alleyways of the Old City.



Elite counter-terrorism units are hunting them down, house-to-house and room-to-room, in an area of about one square mile (2.6 sq km). Troops escorted us through the battle zone, where little stands except mounds of rubble.

Here and there we spotted matted piles of human hair. Locals say militants left their beards behind as they fled. In the streets where they dispensed terror, the corpses of "Islamic State" (IS) fighters now lie rotting in the sun.

Ilham, a gaunt woman in a black headscarf, who was escaping the fighting with her family, said, "We couldn't move, we couldn't do anything."

She added, "They were completely in control of everything. We were afraid to go anywhere."



Sebham Jassem, another civilian, said, "We had no clean water for two months," he said. "Five mortars landed on our house and it was destroyed. We were hungry and scared. Our lives were a disaster."

Major General Maan al-Saadi said, "It depends on the politicians. It's complicated in Iraq. What I can tell you is that this country is now cleaned of IS."

The militants who once controlled a third of Iraq may now be reduced to a few pockets of resistance, but Mosul bears many new scars. Mohammed Abdul Karim had an IS headquarters right beside his house, and a makeshift IS prison behind it. From his living room, the 30-year-old could hear the screams of those inside. A few months ago he joined them. IS detained him at work angry that he was repairing mobile phones, which they had banned.

After Mosul is fully liberated more accounts like this may emerge, and new tensions may come to light - between those who opposed the extremists and those who backed them.

Lt Col Mohammed Diab al-Tamimi said, "We lost many martyrs here, all of them young."



He added, "I miss them. Their families miss them and the country misses them. But they did not die for nothing. They died for this country. May God take them to paradise."

Col Tamimi and his men have been fighting for days to clear a hospital complex where about 200 IS militants are believed to be holed up in a basement.



| Soruce: BBC | By S.Seal
Political leaders from three US states have said they will refuse to hand over extensive voter records requested by President Donald Trumps Commission on alleged voter fraud.

Time Magazine has reported that Kris Kobach, vice chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, has asked for names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security information, voting history and military status, among other information dating back to 2006. States are to submit the data by July 14.

New York, California and Virginia have said they will refuse to comply, and Connecticut has stated that it intends to withhold protected data.

The electoral process is sacred and New York law has strong safeguards in place to prevent sharing of sensitive voter data and harassment against those who exercise their right to vote, said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a statement.

"New York refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not be complying with this request and I encourage the Election Commission to work on issues of vital importance to voters, including ballot access, rather than focus on debunked theories of voter fraud."

NY refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not comply with this request.https://t.co/eQC6ORV0v1  Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 30, 2017

Californias Secretary of State Alex Padilla said: I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally.

California's participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the President, the Vice President, and Mr. Kobach.

The President's Commission is a waste of taxpayer money and a distraction from the real threats to the integrity of our elections today: aging voting systems and documented Russian interference in our elections.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe also refused to co-operate with the request, stating: This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November.

At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trumps alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression.
The new stores could deliver an additional 300 jobs to Avoca, which currently employs 970 people across a network of shops, food markets and cafes in 12 locations across the country.

Mr Pratt revealed the plans for further expansion when commenting on new accounts for Avoca Handweavers Ltd, which show restructuring costs of 4m - ahead of its 65m sale to US company, Aramark - resulted in the business recording a 1.7m pre-tax loss in the 11 months to early January last year. The bulk of the restructuring costs were made up of additional pension contributions to directors, who last year shared total contributions of 3.5m. The accounts show the business increased its revenues by 3% to 60m. EBITDA grew by 3.7% to 4.4m. Mr Pratt said the business has continued to trade well and the new ownership has put it in a strong position to grow at home and abroad.
GfKs consumer confidence index dropped to minus 10 this month, the weakest since the minus 12 recorded in July of last year, the first full survey after the EU referendum, the market-research firm said. Its survey of 2,000 people, carried out before and after the June 8 election, found their attitude toward the economy, and toward their personal finances, had deteriorated. A gauge of their inclination to make major purchases also plunged to the lowest in a year. The findings point to continuing pressure on consumer spending, the engine of the British economy.

The survey reveals a sharp drop in confidence among consumers across all measures, said Joe Staton, head of market dynamics at GfK. The twin pressures of higher prices and sluggish wage growth are squeezing household finances and adding to widespread fears of a Brexit-induced economic slowdown.
In a with-profits policy, the insurers costs are deducted from the investment profits of the fund and the remainder returned to investors.

The policies typically have guarantees and are no longer offered widely by insurers.

The Financial Conduct Authority said the last full review that focused on with-profits business was in 2010.

The forthcoming review into the fair treatment of with-profits customers will allow us to understand further the range of practices that are now being adopted by firms, the authority said in a statement.

One practice in particular that is likely to be a focus is smoothing, which aims to even out the ups and downs of markets. The inclusion of guarantees will also be looked at. The announcement of a review may raise expectations that potential enforcement action or changes in practices will follow.

We do not have pre-determined views about whether any particular practices are unfair or are leading to unfair outcomes and have not drawn any conclusions about whether with-profits customers are being unfairly treated, the watchdog said.

The 2010 review found that the majority of firms did not satisfactorily demonstrate that their practices were consistent with well-run with-profits businesses in one or more areas assessed.

Dutch insurers Aegon and NN were this month told to compensate some customers for inadequacies when the firms sold investment-linked policies in the 1990s and 2000s. One of our priorities is firms treatment of existing customers. This review into the fair treatment of with-profits customers, included in our 2017-2018 business plan, is a key part of this programme of work, the authority said.

With-profits policies are an investment type offered by some life insurance companies. Money from each investor is pooled with that of other investors in a companys with-profits fund.

A with-profits fund usually invests in a range of different assets including shares, fixed interest securities, cash and property, it said.

It said that the review would begin in the first quarter next year at the latest. n Reuters
One of the countrys leading developers says he fears Cork will stagnate while the citys proposed boundary extension is implemented and the only solution for sustained growth lies in the creation of one unified local authority.

Developer Michael OFlynn made his comments at a county council Planning Policy SPC (Special Purposes Committee) meeting held behind closed doors in County Hall earlier this week and some county councillors have backed his stance.

Mr OFlynn reiterated his views when contacted by Irish Examiner.

He said he anticipated that the McKinnon report would recommend the expansion of the city boundary, but not to the extent it did.

The report recommends the city councils boundary is expanded to include Ballincollig, Blarney, Glanmire, Little Island, Carrigtwohill and Cork Airport  all areas with a high rates base.

I cant see how the city (council) could service such a structure. I favour an overall local authority. I dont want to see one weakened by the other, Mr OFlynn said.

He said he is concerned that if the Government presses ahead with the reforms outlined in the report the implementation, be it in 2019 or 2014, will not be easy to carry out and will lead in the interim to stagnation of development.

I would be fearful of this in the short to medium term. This is happening at a time when Cork has fallen behind the Greater Dublin area and we dont want to fall even further behind.

The Cork region needs to work together as a whole. I cant see how the region can hold its own with this indecision (surrounding the McKinnon report implementation), the developer added.

Cllr Michael Hegarty, who is chairman of the county councils Planning Policy SPC, said he was also concerned about a possible stagnation of development.

I have serious reservations about this report. The big worry is that there will be prolonged stagnation of development. Are we (the county council) going to invest in areas now where we might have no jurisdiction in the coming years? If we have to take out loans for development who is going to pay them back? Cllr Hegarty said.

My preference would be for one super council rather than have this report implemented. We have put an amount of investment into forward planning and is that now all going to go to waste?

Cllr Hegarty said that when hes abroad on county council delegations he always promotes the whole Cork region. Thats why I think there should be one (local) authority governing the region, he said.

Cllr Marcia DAlton, an environmental engineer who is also a member of the county councils Planning Policy SPC, said she also agreed with Mr OFlynn and Cllr Hegarty.

Everyone wants to see a vibrant city, thriving businesses, taxes rewarded with well-executed services and a reasonable quality of life.

McKinnons recommendations are for a 35 kilometre-wide city giving annual financial donations to its adjacent county with democratic planning decisions for both overlaid by a new metropolitan authority.

Will this deliver a shinny new-look, investment-rich Cork? As a county resident who grew up in the city, frankly, I dont think so, Cllr DAlton said.

I dont see any other option but a one local authority concept, because whats promised with the McKinnon report will be a complete fiasco, she added.
Solidarity TD Paul Murphy and his colleagues are demanding the justice minister set up an independent inquiry into what they claim was a conspiracy to prosecute them.

He said the not-guilty verdict in the trial against him and five others, over claims of falsely imprisoning former tanaiste Joan Burton and her adviser, Karen OConnell, is a defeat for the established parties.

At a press conference in Dublin in the wake of the jury verdict, the group claimed gardai conspired to pervert the course of justice.

The group outlined how  despite 180 mainly garda statements during their trial  video evidence of the November 2014 anti-water protest in Jobstown, Tallaght, had contradicted evidence from the force and ultimately helped seal their acquittal.

Mr Murphy said: Statements in general were obliterated by the video [evidence].

Another of the Jobstown Six, Ciaran Mahon, said that politically motivated charges had been levelled against the group in an attempt to attack the anti-water charges movement.

The group said gardai had identical statements; had interviewed local residents but not protesters; and that Ms Burton had immediately given a statement to Garda headquarters after the protest.

Language used by other politicians at the time, including claims the protest was thuggery and involved false imprisonment, proved the whole investigation was a stitch up, the group alleged.

This was and still is a political trial, said Mr Murphy, adding that there was a politically driven investigation to try to split up the anti-water charges movement.

At the time of the Jobs-town protest, the Labour Party had experienced a massive backlash over water charges and cutbacks  the defendants during the trial had argued their protest peacefully reflected this.

False garda statements had led the DPP to take the case, said Mr Murphy, but it could not be stood over in court.

Mr Murphy and fellow Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger could not say yesterday how the investigation into the Jobstown protest was a conspiracy theory.

We dont know the back channels that were there, said Mr Murphy.

The group wants the justice minister to initiate an independent inquiry into the garda investigation of the Jobstown protest and the prosecution of others to be dropped.

The inquiry should be public and look at who gardai interviewed as well as their own statements.

Mr Murphy said he did not have much faith in a complaint being made to the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission after having made previous complaints about issues.

The Department of Justice did not reply to queries from the Irish Examiner about the Jobstown trial yesterday while gardai said it would not be appropriate to comment on the outcome of the trial.
The jury in the trial of Christopher McDonald viewed footage that gardai say shows 36-year-old Keith Walker suffering the gunshot wounds that killed him.

Mr McDonald, aged 34, from the East Wall area of Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to Mr Walkers murder on June 12, 2015, in the car park of the Blanchardstown Pigeon Racing Club on Shelerin Road, Clonsilla. The trial has previously heard from State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy that the deceased suffered 18 bullet wounds to the head and body.
Following a three-year licensing battle, Norwegian Airlines will finally launch the first of 19 weekly flights to the US east coast from Cork, Dublin, and Shannon  the Cork to Boston/Providence service launching today is the airports first direct transatlantic service.

Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy said it will mark the start of a new chapter in the airports history. This will bring jobs, revenue, and tourism growth directly to businesses and towns throughout the south of Ireland and grow our regional economy, he said.
Denis Kelly, the organisations development officer, said the board of Cork County Federation Muintir na Tire has expressed serious concerns about the impact on rural communities, especially as the county council would lose an estimated 40m-plus annually in rates, which are used to prop up services in such areas.

The ability of the city council to pay the annual compensation has also been brought into question and the Mackinnon report suggests only a 10-year compensation package, to be reviewed after five years.

We are very worried because any loss of income to the county council will have an impact on rural services, Mr Kelly said.

He said the national voluntary organisation would use its weight to try and get a number of questions answered, such as the legal status of the Mackinnon report, given that the statutory Smiddy report is in place since 2015.

Muintir na Tires board said the implementation of the large-scale boundary extension has the potential to create a mortally-weakened county council which may be unable to keep rural services at current levels.

Mr Kelly said that the first Muinitir na Tire meeting will be held in Carrigtwohill next month and will be followed by more in August.

He said they will take place in all areas of the county, both within the proposed boundary extension and outside it because everybody will be affected. Carrigtwohill has a rural hinterland and there are no suggestions about where the proposed (city/county boundary) will be drawn there and who will draw it, Mr Kelly said.

How can this report not be seen as an attack on rural Cork if it will have a severe impact on development in rural communities?

Mr Kelly said Muintir na Tire in Cork will be organising town and village hall meetings in conjunction with local community groups, to get answers to some of these and other questions about the report.
Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald announced the move yesterday as part of a series of changes to the laws governing the States Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) scheme, after a lengthy review by Oireachtas officials.

While a large number of cases are resolved under the existing PIAB scheme, the significant costs involved in insurance cases and the fact that many of the claims lead to legal stand-offs with companies and insurance firms have led to questions over whether it is working properly for the public.

The Enterprise and Innovation Minister has published new plans seeking to address alleged problems in the system.

Under the new personal injuries assessment board rules, which will come into effect in the coming weeks, any claimant must now attend medical examinations organised by the board so as to ensure independent diagnoses can be made about their health conditions.

A book of quantum must also be produced by the PIAB every three years to ensure transparency, while there will be a broadening of the boards discretion to release claims when an assessment cannot proceed.

Announcing the changes yesterday, Ms Fitzgerald said the intention is to modernise the powers of the PIAB and help more people to submit their claims to the organisation.

Describing the reforms as another important step in our efforts to address the increasing cost of insurance,  a key reason why the PIAB exists  she said: The cost of settling personal injury claims is recognised as being a major factor in contributing to those costs. The objective of this bill is to further strengthen the low-cost claims settlement model which the personal injuries assessment board provides.

By encouraging more claims to be settled at an earlier stage, we can take many costs out of the settlement process. These savings should ultimately benefit the consumer through lower insurance costs.

The legal changes are in response to the Cost of Insurance Working Group report at the start of this year, which stated that personal injury claims are significantly cheaper through the PIAB system than by traditional court action.

The issue of legal costs in compensation cases has been the subject of concern, with State bodies criticised for failing to settle quickly.
After then-MEP Joe Higgins won his Dail seat back, Murphy was the fifth choice on his substitute list to replace him.

After being dumped by the people of Dublin as an MEP in May 2014, Murphy had little to do, so he pulled pints in a bar as he plotted his political comeback.

He didnt have to wait long.

Just five months on, the 31-year-old socialist from south Dublin became the Dails newest TD after he caused a shock upset in Dublin South West that October.

Murphy billed himself as the young fee-paying-school-educated, middle-class defender of the working poor. His abolitionist stance on water charges allowed him to upset Sinn Fein, who themselves had done so much to upset the Labour Party.

When you speak to him, he insists his well-to-do accent is not a factor for his supporters in Dublin South West, who just want someone who will work hard for them.

Freely admitting he grew up in privilege in Goatstown, the Solidarity TD is a young radical with a twist.

His posh accent suggests he might be more at home beside the likes of Fine Gael gentry, but his politics tell a very different story.

"Theres not much question that there was a conspiracy here... The only question is how high did it go." @paulmurphy_TD pic.twitter.com/Svma0e9WyA  Solidarity (@solidarityie) June 30, 2017

Since his college days in UCD, Murphy has railed and protested against the war in Iraq, the introduction of college fees, the Shell to Sea project, bin charges, the ongoing blockade of Gaza by Israel, property tax, and of course water charges.

He has been arrested more than half a dozen times and was thrown into an Israeli prison for a week after being captured on a flotilla to Gaza in 2011 while he was an MEP. He was slapped with a 10-year ban from entering Israel.

He learned to deal with tragedy from a young age when his father Kieran died at the young age of just 42. My dad died when I was 10 or 11 from cancer. My mother is distrustful of politicians  but no, they werent hugely political.

Kieran Ki Murphy was a native of The Mall in Castlebar. At the time of his death, he was CEO of Mars Ireland.

One of Mr Murphys uncles is Michael Murphy, the renowned broadcaster, psychoanalyst, and author.

It was a very middle-class childhood, which is privileged compared to many people in this country. The kind of system we have is unjust and wrong and it needs to be changed. And the power which can change that is ordinary working-class people, he said.

His journey to radical socialism began when at the age of 15 he became captivated by the anti -capitalism movement. The 1999 Battle of Seattle, a series of protests surrounding the World Trade Organisations ministerial conference, was a seminal event for the aspiring politician.

I had pictures on my wall from the Battle of Seattle. I was reading Marx, Trotsky, and Chomsky while listening to bands like the Manic Street Preachers and Rage against the Machine.

He joined the Socialist Party before arriving in UCD in 2001. There wasnt much of a left movement in UCD when I arrived. But a few of us developed it and achieved some real success during our time.

In his first year, he single- handedly defeated the incumbent Students Union on a referendum to commercialise itself. He has been the director of elections for the Socialists in Dublin South West for most of the last decade and was co-opted to replace Joe Higgins as MEP in 2011 when the Socialist leader was elected to the Dail. The last of five people on Higgins substitute list, Murphy had worked with Higgins in Brussels when he was first elected in 2009.

As a TD, like his time as an MEP, Murphy claims he will only take a net salary of under 20,000 a year out of the 96,000 TD salary.

The balance, he says, will go towards campaigning and other socialist activities.

This was part of his successful claim for legal aid in the trial which has just concluded.

It was a controversial decision at the time, given that it is his decision to donate the balance of his salary, rather than it being imposed on him by any authority.

Unapologetic and defiant, Murphy has set out his stall to be as troublesome as possible to those opponents he feels need to be defeated.

His no-nonsense approach is certainly open to criticism, as politics is often described as the art of compromise.

Such a refusal to bend on his principles has not seemed to hurt him so far in his Dail career, but would appear to rule him out of ever entering office.

Given that he loves causing trouble so much, why would he ever want to grow up?
Judge Tom ODonnell described the damage caused by former Christian Brother James Treacy as being like a nuclear fallout.

During his years as a religious order teacher, James, also known as Seamus, Treacy, now with an address at Ashton Close, Swords, Co Dublin, ruled by fear and sexual violence. Yesterday, he came face to face with some of his victims in a crowded courtroom.

Treacy had been found guilty by a jury of indecently assaulting four boys.

One attack involved a violent anal rape in a school toilet.

The other assaults were carried out as Treacy moved around the classroom, moving his hands from under his cassock to fondle boys.

State prosecutor John OSullivan told the court, Treacy, a brother of former international soccer player Ray Treacy, had previous convictions for indecent assault, which meant that, in all, he indecently assaulted 11 boys a total of 47 times during the time he taught them in fourth class in the years from 1978 to 1981.

One victim, addressing the court in the witness box, said: From the first day you saw fit to treat me like a piece of meat and a pawn in your sick fantasies, my family lost me. I lost myself. You destroyed my relationship with all my family because, as a 10-year-old, I believed you when you said it was my fault. I was dirty. It was God punishing me for smoking.

You knew my mammy was ill and you used to frighten me into keeping your dirty, perverted secret. You told me that my mammy would die if I told anyone because it was my fault.

"I have a vivid memory of coming home from school and I saw an ambulance outside my house. I wet my pants in fear thinking that my mum had died and someone had found out that I had sinned like you said and knew what happened to me. I was a child. I believed if my mammy died it was going to be my fault.

My mother died when I was 14.

Another former victim of Treacys told the court: I have no close friends and I have never trusted anyone. I am still afraid to sleep in the dark and I wet the bed until I was in my early 20s. I have thought about taking my own life over the years.

He said the memories of Treacys abuse would stay with him to the grave.

Another told of counselling he has been getting for years, adding: My emotions were stunted and, after keeping dark secrets for many years, I felt it hard to share my feelings with others.

A fourth victim said his life started to change in 2006 when Det Garda Dave Nolan contacted him about an investigation they were carrying out into Treacy.

He said: I was able then to tell my wife about the abuse and that was the first day in my recovery process, which continues to this day.

He recalled how he started drinking as a teenager to deal with the pain of the abuse.

He has shown no remorse or emotion for the crimes he has inflicted on me, he said.

Judge ODonnell said: This is extremely emotive and the victim impact statements were extremely profound.

He said he hoped that the opportunity for the victims to address the court on the impact of the abuse by Treacy would help them.

Judge ODonnell said it was clear from one of the victims that as a result of Treacys abuse, relationships within the victims family had been fatally affected with a nuclear affect. He expressed the hope that the conviction of Treacy may help this victim restore trust and that his family could come together again.

He remanded Treacy in custody for sentence on July 28.
Over the last few months we have been waxing lyrical here at Examiner Motoring about this near-miracle achievement and lauding new product from the Sino-Swedish alliance such as the brilliant XC90, the pretty impressive S90 executive saloon, as well as the V90 estate derivative.

A new XC60 is shortly set to further add widespread appeal to the marques offerings as the whole Volvo model line-up now procreates at a ferocious rate  particularly so with the S90 where new and interesting options are being pushed out at an unbelievable rate and this week we get to try two of them.

First up we had the model with one of the most long-winded names Ive ever come across  the S90 D5 PowerPulse AWD Inscription Auto. Following that, we had the more modestly named S90 D4 R-Design.

The former is pretty much a niche model in terms of its sales prospects and a list price which is nearly twenty grand more than the entry model, while the latter is a mildly muscled-up version of the standard car with quite a lot of extras on it, but is ten grand cheaper [than the D5 Power Pulse].

Without doubt, the D5 PowerPulse is a very impressive and substantial piece of kit. Essentially the D5 engine is a beefed up version of the standard four cylinder turbodiesel which forms the cornerstone of the engine on offer. Throw in the eight speed auto box and the all wheel drive system and you get the picture of just how considerable this whole package is.

The facts and figures of the D5  with the benefit of Volvos PowerPulse turbocharging technology  give it an output of 235 bhp, a seven second 0-100 kph time, a top speed of 240 kph, a 127 g/km emission level (for an annual tax bill of 270 and a consumption rate of 4.7 l/100 km (58.9 mpg).

It is a strong and willing companion and one which merely shrugs at the burden it is asked to carry. Acceleration is positive and effective and while the AWD system undoubtedly adds greatly to the overall traction on B-roads, it has to be said that the overall poise of this car is not quite at the same level of some of its German rivals.

The gap is relatively small, but noticeable nonetheless and while the overall impression you get is one of composed sophistication, this is not quite the drivers car that rivals offer. Undoubtedly this will suit people for whom driving on the door handles is not a pre-requisite, and thats fine too.

On the other hand, the less powerful R-Design engine curiously seems to be more sporty and engaging than the D5 unit. This one will output some 187 bhp and is good for a top speed of 230 kph and a 0-100 kph time which is 1.2 seconds slower than the other engine.

On the other hand the emission figures are lower (116 g/km, for a 200 annual tax bill) and the consumption figures better at 4.3 l/100 km (64.2 mpg), so there are positives and negatives to be assessed if you were in the market for either of these models.

You would have to say though that the almost eight grand price differential between the two would swing a lot of punters towards the D4 rather than the D5.

Sure there are specification differences between the two, but I have to say I never got the impression that the lesser performance of the R-Design made it lesser of a car and if anything I preferred it on the basis that as a driving experience it was every bit as accomplished as its more expensive sibling.

I will qualify that by saying that the Volvo S90, while being a revelation in so many ways, still trails BMWs 5-Series and Mercedes E Class by a couple of percentage points in terms of driving dynamism.

Certainly, these cars have a lot of chops when it comes to highway driving, thanks to stuff like a very intuitive adaptive cruise control system which is as good if not better than what is on offer elsewhere. For composed  and quick  A to B driving on the open road, you will struggle to find a better partner.

Where it does not lag behind is in the overall comfort and classiness and, really, you have to experience the quality of the interior to fully appreciate just what a good job the Swedes have done here to make the S90  in whatever guise you choose  such a wonderful example of the modern executive luxobarge.

From the top drawer seating through the wood inlays and on to the excellently user-friendly infotainment and connectivity systems, they really have nailed this one and I suspect the on-looking German will be a little dismayed by the manner in which Volvo has executed the design.

While the Teutons will console themselves with the thought that Volvo are still lagging a little behind with the overall driving dynamics, they will nevertheless be very concerned that their newly re-emerged rivals have come so far so fast.

There is no doubting that Volvo is in a really good place right now and is closing the quality gap on its rivals at a terrific rate. On this evidence it will not be long before the Swedes are kicking down a German door or two.

Of the two cars tried here, I must say I probably preferred the cheaper R-Design option as, for a majority of drivers, the performance gap will not mean anything on a daily basis and there is little to distinguish the two in overall quality.

Sure the D5 version has a lot more in its cupboard than the R- Design, but Im not sure the differences would mean a lot to most people and especially so when weighed up from a purely financial point of view.

These are both really good cars which can be judged at the highest level. They might not yet be quite where Volvo wants them to be, but they have fully restored the brands position at the top table.

Colleys Verdict

The Cost: From 43,990  56,915 for the R-Design and 64,744 for the D5 AWD.

The Engines: Variants of a basic but very decent four pot turbodiesel.

The Specification: At a truly high level.

The Overall Verdict: Scandinavian solidity.
WOULD our society be arranged differently if men had babies?

If they did, breastfeeding in parliament might be considered the norm, rather than an international news story, as it was a couple of months ago, when an Australian senator made history by becoming the first politician to speak in the senate chamber while breastfeeding.

Made history! How staggering is that, in a world where babies are born and breastfed every day?

You could argue, as many have done, that parliament is no place for that sort of thing, but if men were the ones having the babies, those arguments might be less vehement and less tolerated. Every parliament  and not just the Australian one  might introduce rules to allow new parents to briefly care for their newborns in the chamber.

What about the squawking and squealing? Well, what about the braying and whinnying that goes on there now? If men gave birth, the barrier between work and home might begin to look a little more porous. We might realise that the elusive thing we call work/life balance is a myth and stop beating ourselves up for never achieving it. The social construct that has built a concrete wall between home and work might start to come tumbling down, and we might stop trying to carve ourselves into office machines by day and domestic gods by night.

Everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that we could put on our business suits without casting off the mammy or daddy hat. What a comfort that might be for those who rush to drop off their charges at creche and then keep an anxious eye on the clock as pick-up approaches.

That pressure has turned some women into alpha mums, who insist that child-bearing has made them super-efficient at work. That kind of talk serves neither mums nor non-mums, although anybody with a shred of empathy can understand why it is so.

Consider this weeks compensation payout to a beauty therapist. She was told that her pregnancy was her own problem. Some 4,000 of the 5,179 awarded by the Workplace Relations Commission related to the discrimination of being dismissed while pregnant. Employment law expert and solicitor Richard Grogan said the award was extremely low and would not, in a month of Sundays, act as a deterrent to employers who sacked pregnant employees.

He said pregnancy-related dismissals were so common that employees were terrified of telling their bosses they were pregnant. That might sound like scaremongering or exaggeration, but the figures bear it out, not just here, but also in the UK and the US.

Recent studies in the UK show that pregnant women are in danger of being dismissed, made redundant, or mistreated. The last time a comprehensive study was conducted here was in 2011, when the Pregnancy at Work national survey, conducted by the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme and the then Equality Authority, found that 71% of women said their employer was supportive of their pregnancy.

If were talking about exam results or support for a political party, that sounds like an amazing result, but what about the three in 10 women who reported unfair treatment, including the 5% of women who were dismissed for being pregnant?

Others reported loss of salary or bonuses, unsuitable workloads or hours, lack of promotion opportunities, and sarcastic remarks. That report is six years old. Its time for a new one, so that we can see what is happening in the Irish workplace. We might also start to reimagine how a workplace would look if its male boss could get pregnant. I suspect employees would no longer be afraid to announce their pregnancies. In fact, expecting a baby might even be considered a positive, something to be celebrated, rather than a reason to lose your job.

If a male boss was told his pregnancy was his own problem, it would be a scandal. There might even be an outcry among the general population who, quite rightly, would take to the streets in large numbers to point out that the future of our world was at stake. I love it when women are asked to say what they think would happen if men could get pregnant. They say everything from the pill would have been invented by the Ancient Greeks to our species would be extinct to special leave would be granted for morning sickness.

The question always allows for an amusing venture into the world of make-believe, but it nearly always becomes deadly serious, too.

If men had babies, women say, there would be better maternity/paternity leave; breastfeeding would not be so controversial; the workplace would be more flexible; giving birth might be venerated; medical staff would listen more to their patients; society might start to recognise that you can be a parent and a valuable member of staff.

That list could go on and on, and maybe its time to give it a proper airing.

Much has been said about the lack of women in Taoiseach Leo Varadkars new cabinet. Whatever way you twist the figures, just 11 of the 50 elected TDs in Fine Gael are women.

Maybe one of them might consider the question of facilitating mothers of newborns in the Dail chamber.

Its not as implausible as you think. Earlier this week, Social Democrat councillor Jennifer Whitmore, a mother of four, said Wicklow County Council had been very supportive when she was a new mother. She was able to feed her baby at meetings, while discussing the pros and cons of local property tax.

But women shouldnt have to depend on the goodwill of colleagues to be able to juggle motherhood and work.

If only we could inhabit the kind of world that would evolve if men had to juggle fatherhood and work.
On May 28 last, Eleanor Twomey picked up a copy of the Irish Examiner and the headline hit her like a hammer.

Desperate for the Truth: Family seek answers after daughter, 20, died in hospital A&E, it read.

I read the story and I was right back there with that poor girls mother, Eleanor says.

The article related to the death of Denisse Kyle Dasco (right) , a third year forensic science student at University College Cork (UCC) who died within 12 hours of presenting at the emergency department (ED) of the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) on April 21.

She had gone in that morning by ambulance with a severe pain in her back and was dead by the time her mother arrived from Limerick just before 10pm that night.

Her family, who await an inquest into their daughters death, have no idea why she died. The hospital has not supplied answers and the Dascos have been advised they must address any queries to the coroner.

This is the procedure, but the family is devastated. More than nine weeks have passed. Their solicitor, Denis OSullivan, has told the Irish Examiner that where the death of a child occurs, the hospital has an ethical and moral duty to inform the childs parents of what it knows concerning the death of their child while in its care.

Eleanor Twomey, from Blackrock, Cork, says she can relate fully to the Dasco family experience.

On March 19, 2016, her beloved husband Tony Twomey passed away, also in the ED at MUH. While his death has since been explained via inquest, the trauma that Eleanor and her family felt in the immediate aftermath of his passing was considerably magnified by a sense of abandonment.

Tony Twomey with daughter Maria at Cheltenham the week that he died.

Aileen Twomey, Tonys eldest daughter, says the legacy they are left with is a sense that the hospital failed them on the night, not because staff couldnt save their Dad, but because of the information vacuum and general lack of support.

It felt like we were shut out and they shut down, Aileen says.

Just days before he died, Tony was walking the course in Cheltenham.

In his hat and coat, youd mistake him for an owner, Aileen says.

Hed travelled over with his youngest daughter, Maria. Her husbands family has a racehorse and they had owners passes. Tony was in his element.

He returned from Cheltenham the day before St Patricks Day. Two days later, he felt unwell. He woke feeling nauseous. He started vomiting and had diarrhoea. His family thought maybe hed eaten something in Cheltenham that hadnt agreed with him.

Later in the morning, Eleanor rang the doctor and the winter vomiting bug was thought the likely cause of Tonys illness. Motilium and Dioralyte followed.

Tony didnt improve. Aileen came to the family home shortly after 5pm. Her father had begun to complain of shallow breathing.

I cant catch my breath, he said.

SouthDoc was called. The winter vomiting bug was reaffirmed and a referral letter for the MUH was supplied in the event the family felt it necessary to bring him to the ED.

Later in the evening, Tony had a fall in the bathroom. An ambulance was called. The ambulance crew assessed Tonys head injury and had no concerns about it. However, his blood pressure was low and they advised taking him to MUH.

At MUH, Eleanor, Maria, and Aileen waited more than an hour in the ambulance bay with Tony on a gurney before he was handed over to a nurse and put on another trolley in a corridor of the ED. The Twomeys were moved to a waiting room.

Nobody had approached us at that point, Eleanor says.

Aileen says they were not worried: Because you have handed him over and I suppose you expect or you assume that they know what they are doing and that they are actively doing something.

And I think at that stage, I was annoyed with the wait, but it was more like for God sake, can you not just make him better and we can go home.

When Eleanor next saw her husband, he was in a bay near the nurses station. A doctor asked about the head injury. Aileen explained she felt his stomach was the problem but she felt the doctor was more focused on her fathers head.

She went to speak with her father, who was by now crying with the pain in his stomach. A nurse came to turn him on his side in an effort to alleviate the pain. Tonys colour seemed to improve.

I breathed a sigh of relief, Aileen says, but it was short lived. Everything started beeping and people started moving. And thats when I started panicking.

The decision was taken to bring Tony for a CAT scan. A doctor started asking questions about Tonys medical history. Maria went with the nurse and porter who were taking her father to another building for the CAT scan.

We left the ED, into a lift, across a big corridor, into another lift in the older building and down a hall. They took Dad into the CAT scan room and I waited outside, Maria says.

Back at the ED, a doctor, having listened to Aileen and Eleanors description of Tonys condition, mentioned the word ischemia.

Meanwhile, Maria could overhear the nurse in the CAT scan room calling her fathers name.

I was thinking Whats after happening? And then she came out the door and said We need to go back to the ED and we started off with Dad on the trolley and she said run and we started running, and another nurse ran ahead to hold the lifts and we went into the lift and I just went mute and held Dads hand.

His eyes were dilated and there was no movement. He had crashed inside in the CAT scan room.

Maria says the journey back to the ED felt like a lifetime, another nurse holding the second lift while the nurse pushing the trolley called Code Red, Code Red.

And I just kept saying Dad, Dad, Dad, Im here. And I just held his hand even though I knew he was dead. I just knew it. They never said one word to me. Not one word, Maria says.

I suppose you sort of expect something like ER or Greys Anatomy where they are with you, but I was just mute holding his hand.

And then on the way back to the ED, we were trying to get through the corridors, but Dads trolley kept getting stuck in between the other trolleys that were in the way.

The corridors werent wide enough, so they were trying to get wheels off, trying to get people to move and they ran into the resus [resuscitation] room  which was in the corridor where wed been waiting earlier with the ambulance lads.

During this dash, the trolley was pushed past Aileen and Eleanor, hitting one of them in the thigh. They followed to the resus room and one of the medical staff told them he would be put on a ventilator and they were doing all they could. She said the situation was not good. More staff came. They saw a priest go in. Aileen started to cry.

That was the moment that I realised Oh Jesus, this is not good. This is bad, says Aileen. I think I looked at Marias eyes and I thought Oh ya, this is bad. And I didnt know what bad was but I knew we mightnt be coming back from this.

Shortly afterwards, at approximately 12.30am, two staff members came out of the resus room and broke the bad news. Their father had gone into cardiac arrest and despite their best efforts to save him, Tony, husband and father, had died.

Tony Twomey with granddaughter Mia.

Eleanor recalls the scene after that news was broken.

All I remember is standing there and a battalion of medical staff came out. And they all veered left. And we were standing there. No one came over. I can remember us looking at each other going  are any of them going to talk to us? Thinking in my head: Theyll be back in a minute. Theyre giving us a minute to get it together. 

Aileen continues: And I know it must be a horrible experience for the medical profession to have to deal with that, but they dont have to face us exactly, but somebody from the hospital should.

A porter brought them to a family room in the old hospital building where they waited while their father was taken to the mortuary.

We were left in that room on our own for I dont know how long, an hour, Im not sure, Aileen says. It was five or six in the morning when we left, we had to wait for Conor, our brother, who was travelling down from Dublin.

In the aftermath, the quest for answers began. They were told to get in contact with the coroner.

We just needed to know what happened, roughly even, Aileen says. Our biggest fear going into the inquest was if they said had he been there earlier, had he been treated earlier, had we not slipped up, he could have been saved, but that was not the case.

Their questions to the coroner had to be in writing. Aileen says she almost earned a mini PhD in inquests and coroners given the level of research she engaged in. They had their day. The coroner, they say, pulled all the strands together beautifully.

People said to me: Youll get nothing from the inquest. But they were wrong. The coroner answered all of our questions, Aileen says.

At the inquest, their father was described by a representative of MUH as elderly and confused. This was the ultimate insult, Eleanor says.

He was 74 and he was not confused. He was dying, she says.

The inquest found that Tony Twomey died from acute congestive failure due to a dilated cardiomyopathy associated with ischemic colitis on a background of hypertension.

Aileen says that, in laymans terms, the blood supply in a part of his bowel got blocked and became necrotic and basically died.

It allowed leakage out of the bowel which, once it gets into your system, it becomes toxic  that would have then presented as vomiting, diarrhoea. And as the sepsis goes through the system, the organs begin to shut down, Aileen says.

The Twomeys are grateful to the coroner but feel badly let down by the hospital. They rang the MUH risk manager after the inquest and were invited to meet with the hospital and to submit their questions in advance.

They had our questions from the coroner and we came to the point where we felt we could not sit across the table from these people now. Its too late, Aileen says.

We were in a state of trauma the night Dad died. We were nearly patients ourselves at the end of it. Everyone who was involved, who could have just given us a minute or two, left.

And it was like once the event happened, they are programmed to reset. Thats what it felt like.

I felt looking back that there is nobody to liaise with the family. And I know things can go wrong really really quickly, which they did.

But surely there is a role for someone who steps in to be that kind of bridge between a family and the medical staff? I appreciate the medical staff are going through a trauma as well, they dont want patients to die, but you cant leave a family, just give them the bad news and then turn away and leave.

Thats not a First World approach. You cant blame resources on that. Thats just humanity, thats just people.

I think the trauma could have been lessened if theyd looked after us a little bit more. Just a little bit more care.
Born Simone Jacob in Nice, Veil was deported to Auschwitz at 17 with her entire family. Her father and brother were last seen on a train sent to Lithuania. Her mother, Yvonne, died in Belsen in 1945. Veil and her two sisters were among only 11 survivors of 400 Jewish children deported from her region. This ordeal  far too feeble a word  made her a life-long champion of European unity and secular principles.

In 1973, she pushed through laws to liberalise contraception and a year later she led the campaign in Frances national assembly for the legalisation of abortion. She was elected to the European parliament in 1979, becoming the first president of the assembly.
Google is working hard to make phones obsolete.

The company wouldn't admit this. And they don't want me to say it. They still have to make nice with mobile phone carriers who support and sell Android phones.

In getting rid of the phone as we know it, Google is both on the right side of history and also on your company's side. The post-phone world is a world with higher-quality voice communication, better security and telephony services that work better than today's communication apps.

What's a smartphone, anyway?

Everybody's talking about the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, which first shipped on June 29, 2007. That's as good a place as any to dissect the smartphone and what it really is.

When the late Apple CEO and founder, Steve Jobs, introduced the iPhone on stage, he said it was really three revolutionary products: iPod, mobile phone and internet communications device.

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Jobs' weird description of the iPhone is comprehensible only if you recall that at the time Apple had never mentioned the coming App Store. (Jobs also made other less-than-accurate claims, such as that iPhone ran on OS X.)

Now we see smartphones clearly. Jobs' "iPod" and "internet communicator" are just apps. Currently there are thousands of apps on the Apple App Store that play music and enable communications over the internet. Overall, there are more than 2.2 million apps on the app store that do all kinds of things.

A smartphone isn't three things, it's two things: a "phone" and a "computer." The "phone" part uses mobile carriers' voice networks to handle calls and text messages. The "computer" part has an operating system, apps and the ability to connect to the internet via either a mobile broadband data network or via Wi-Fi.

Just as the "computer" part of smartphones has consumed the digital camera, media player, radio, ebook reader, calculator, voice recorder, scanner, GPS, compass, flashlight, portable game player, alarm clock, timer, address book and dozens of other things, it will also devour the "phone" part of your smartphone.

The supremacy of the "computer" part of the phone over the "phone" part is most easily seen in the world of messaging apps, which are in most respects vastly better than text messaging. And, in any event, SMS and MMS messages now travel easily over Wi-Fi and don't need the voice network anymore.

The sole remaining justification for the continued existence of the "phone" part of a smartphone is that the voice network is generally more reliable and higher quality than internet-based phone options.

But it's only a matter of time before Internet-based calls are better than voice network calls. Google is trying to accelerate this process.

Project Fi is Google's gateway drug to the post-phone world

Google this week announced G Suite compatibility with Project Fi. (To sign up, your G Suite administrator needs to enable Project Fi in the C-Panel.)

While great for small businesses or small departments, the feature isn't ready for enterprises -- yet. The plan is limited to six users. But it does indicate likely future enterprise-scale support for Fi on G Suite. More on that below.

Project Fi, if you recall, is Google's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which uses the T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular networks. (It's not clear how a possible Sprint, T-Mobile merger might affect Fi users.)

Google Fi represents a revolutionary idea: phones that automatically switch both voice calls and data connections between different carriers, and between voice networks and VoIP over WiFi. It does this using a purpose-built antenna structure and custom SIM card, plus special software. That special hardware is why you can fully use Google Fi only on Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Pixel and Pixel XL phones, although that lineup is about to change.

Google's Project Fi Twitter account this week promised a "new Fi-compatible device at a mid-tier price from one of our partners later this year." Google no longer sells the Nexus 6, and intends to phase out support for the Nexus 6P and 5X next year.

When Google Fi launched two years ago, it gained a reputation for offering clear, flexible, low pricing ($10 per GB) and easy, inexpensive international roaming (via T-Mobile). Fi enabled users to "pause" and "resume" both service and payment. Users like the power and flexibility of its multiple carriers and seamless Wi-Fi support. As a bonus, Wi-Fi calls are automatically routed through a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Since that time, however, the world has changed. Nowadays all carriers offer unlimited and lower-cost plans, so consumers are souring on Project Fi.

Google's launch of Project Fi raised the obvious question: Why would Google want to be a carrier? After all, Google is all about the internet, not the phone system.

The answer is clear: Google's mission is to transition communication to a post-phone world.

Google offers a data-only Project Fi SIM card for free, as long as you're a Fi customer. That means you can order more SIM cards (up to nine free cards), and put them into your laptop, iPad, iPhone or any device, and use it just for data, with the cost charged against the main account. These devices are by definition in the post-phone world, because with the free data from the Fi SIM, they can only make calls and send texts over the Internet; there's no access to the cellular phone system.

The free extra SIM project enables Google to see how customers use phones and tablets without access to a mobile voice network.

Part of Google's mission is transitioning mobile phones off SMS and MMS and onto Rich Communication Services, or RCS. (Google's communications chief, Nick Fox, tweeted last month that Google is working to bring RCS to Project Fi.)

The second part is to midwife the birth of the post-phone world, starting with Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE).

These transitions might be inevitable, even without Google's involvement. But they also might not.

Everything about telephony is complicated. Project Fi enables Google to try and test and experiment, easing Fi users gently and slowly through the touch-and-go transition to a world that doesn't use the mobile voice networks.

The biggest event in the post-phone transition is VoLTE.

VoLTE is a gateway drug to the post-phone world

In January, some Project Fi users noticed that their calls were being handled by VoLTE. So in February, Google quietly announced that it had started to test VoLTE "with a subset of Project Fi users."

VoLTE is a highly optimized and much better performing approach than regular VoIP over LTE. And, for that matter, it offers better quality calls than today's voice network calls.

Another huge benefit is that VoLTE enables video streaming, file transfer and other features directly from a phone's native dialer. VoLTE is also the solution to the current divide among US carriers between CDMA and GSM networks.

Let's be clear about what VoLTE on Fi represents. Right now, VoIP over Wi-Fi is the alternative to using the wireless voice phone networks. VoLTE is becoming another alternative, using the carriers' data networks instead of phone networks. (Note: Google is not charging users for data used via VoLTE.)

With Project Fi, Google can tweak and experiment to figure out the best way to gradually get more users making and taking calls via Wi-Fi and VoLTE, and fewer via the wireless voice networks.

Interestingly, the whole Google Fi handoff scheme works much better with VoLTE than with the voice network. The reason is that while Fi can hand-off a call from WiFi to cellular, it can't hand it back from cellular to WiFi. So if you're on a call and enter a building with strong WiFi but weak cellular, the call will drop.

However, with data, the hand-off works in both directions. And since VoLTE is on the data network, you can go from WiFi to mobile broadband and back again without dropping the call.

The Future of Fi is IP telephony for enterprises

Within two years, I believe Project Fi will be available to companies of all sizes, including enterprises, as a core part of G Suite.

It will give customers bleeding edge telephony, including high-quality VoLTE calls provisioned by multiple carriers; WiFi-based calls  and the ability to seamlessly switch back-and-forth between them; and RCS, unlimited data plans, global roaming and more.

Eventually, Project Fi phones will lack only one thing -- the ability to connect to a mobile voice network.

Smartphones won't be "phones" and "computers." They will only be "computers." And all communication between them will travel over the internet.

The implications are vast -- improved quality, security and programmability for all business communication.

Yes, Google is out to kill the phone -- and replace it with something much better.
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CARY  Learning to breast-feed her newborn son Max brought Amy Hambright to tears - and they weren't happy tears.

The experience was frustrating and painful for both mother and child. Max had a shallow latch in which the nipple didn't get to the back of his palate, and Hambright would grit her teeth when it was time to feed him.

"I didn't think I could go on another day," said Hambright, who lives in Cary. "I was at the end of my rope."

Hambright joined a support group, and breast-feeding became rewarding but still challenging. When she had her second son last year, Hambright began donating her extra breast milk to the WakeMed Mother's Milk Bank in Cary to help moms struggling to breast-feed.

"It's really important to be able to give back, especially to babies who really need it," Hambright said.

One of only 23 nonprofit milk banks in the United States, the WakeMed project depends on mothers to donate breast milk. It sends about 200,000 ounces of breast milk each year to neonatal intensive care units at up to 50 hospitals along the East Coast. The milk is fed to babies born prematurely and infants with severe illnesses.

In the past, milk that wasn't sent to hospitals was sold to families who had a prescription from a pediatrician, including couples who recently adopted a baby. But the hospital had to stop the service last year because it didn't have enough milk from donors.

WakeMed's milk bank has about 150 active donors, and it's looking for more. Donations have declined in the past year, said manager Montana Wagner-Gillespie.

"People don't realize this stuff is liquid gold," she said.

Many parents in the Triangle likely don't know about the Mother's Milk Bank, Wagner-Gillespie said. Some moms might worry that if they donate their milk, they won't have enough for their child.

But babies born prematurely have a higher risk of some health issues, and breast milk can be life-saving. The milk is filled with antibodies, vitamins and proteins that protect against infection and disease.

Giving birth prematurely can be stressful for mothers, and stress can affect the hormones involved in producing breast milk, Wagner-Gillespie said. So some mothers of premature babies have trouble producing enough milk.

More than 200 babies are born prematurely, or before the 37th week of pregnancy, in an average week in North Carolina, according to the March of Dimes.

The cost

Access to breast milk is also important for families with prescriptions.

Hospitals that receive donations from milk banks can provide it free to babies who need it. But that's not the case when the baby leaves the hospital, or when a family adopts a baby.

Most private insurance companies and Medicaid do not cover breast milk in North Carolina, leaving families to foot the bill.

When WakeMed sold breast milk, it cost $5 per ounce. Feeding a 1-month-old baby two to four ounces six to eight times a day, as recommended by Johns Hopkins Medicine, would cost $60 to $160 every day.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and World Health Organization recommend that babies be exclusively breast-fed for the first six months.

Some families supplement formula feedings with breast milk, but few can afford a regular supply, Wagner-Gillespie said.

"Any amount of human milk is better than none," she said.

To avoid hefty costs, some mothers turn to milk-sharing, where other moms give away their breast milk for free. Many ask friends or family members or find other mothers on social media who are willing to share, said Dr. Aunchalee Palmquist, a professor at Elon University who has spent much of her career researching milk-sharing and the practice of selling breast milk.

Some may sell their milk to companies like Prolacta Bioscience, which uses it to make fortifier products. Others use unregulated milk-sharing websites like Eats on Feets to find milk mothers want to donate or Only the Breast to buy or sell milk.

More than 2,700 people have liked North Carolina's Eats on Feets Facebook page, which shares requests for milk from mothers across the state.

While the milk can be beneficial to mothers and infants, it raises ethical questions: Should mothers freely donate or be paid for their milk? What if they are depriving their own infants? Should there be more safeguards in place to ensure that the milk is safe for babies?

"There's definitely a debate," Palmquist said.

Rates rise

Breast-feeding rates in the United States are on the rise, but some advocates say there's still a long way to go.

The percentage of infants in the U.S. who were breast-fed at some point rose from 70 percent in 2000 to 81 percent in 2013, according to the CDC. In North Carolina, the rate rose by 8 percent during that time.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic that began in the 1970s posed risks for mothers breast-feeding their children, contributing to a decline in breast-feeding rates before widespread testing became available.

At WakeMed, mothers who donate their milk must be screened and undergo a blood test, and their milk goes through a lengthy process to ensure it is safe for infants.

At its facility in Cary, the bank pasteurizes, homogenizes, tests and re-freezes the milk, which is labeled and tracked in case of a recall. About 20,000 ounces of processed milk from donors and 40,000 ounces of raw milk can be stored at the facility.

Wagner-Gillespie said breast-feeding is becoming more accepted by society, but there's room for improvement.

"There's also the sexualization of breasts, which needs to stop," she said. "As breast-feeding becomes more common, I'm hopeful that all this will change."

Hambright plans to continue donating breast milk as long as she's able.

"I want to do anything I can to help," she said.
Today

Rain likely. High 71F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.

Tonight

Rain ending this evening. Partial clearing overnight. Low 53F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.

Tomorrow

Partly cloudy in the morning. Increasing clouds with periods of showers later in the day. High 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Triggered in Ankara by the arrest of the main Turkish opposition deputy Berberoglu, the march for Adalet (justice) is now heading towards Istanbul and growing each day.

On June 14, Kemal Klcdaroglu, the leader of Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), announced that he and his supporters were to embark on a march from Ankara to Istanbul, a distance of 450 kilometres. What is now known as a Justice March has been organized to protest the arrest of a former journalist and CHP deputy Enis Berberoglu, who was sentenced to 25 years in jail on spying charges.

Holding a single banner bearing the word adalet (justice), Klcdaroglu said that Turkey was facing a dictatorial regime that puts parliamentarians, journalists and academics in prison. We do not want to live in a country where there is no justice, he added. The march is expected to last 24 days and will end at Maltepe Prison in Istanbul, where Berberoglu is now being held.

Klcdaroglu has often been criticized for his passivity and inability to exercise an influential opposition against the anti-democratic moves of the Erdogan government, especially after the controversial constitutional referendum of April 16, which turned the Turkish parliamentary democracy into an authoritarian presidential system. The referendum was won by a narrow margin and, due to the scandal of unstamped ballots, half of the population in the No camp has trouble believing in the veracity of the referendum results.

In fact, Turkeys recent adventures with justice are not specifically related to the controversial referendum results. On July 20, 2017 it will be the first anniversary of the State of Emergency Rule that was declared following last years dramatic coup attempt on July 15. This past year under the State of Emergency Rule has been marked by injustices, human rights abuses and freedom violations on an unprecedented scale. According to official figures, nearly 50.000 people, thereof 15 members of parliament, have been arrested, at least 150.000 civil servants have been dismissed and more than 170 journalists are in prison.

Klcdaroglu has been calling July 20 a civilian coup staged by the government with the declaration of the State of Emergency Rule.

Justice March marks the first instance in the history of the Republic, where the leader of the main opposition party embarks on a protest march of such a long distance. For many Turks, who believe that they were treated unjustly by the State of Emergency and who cannot take any legal action because of it, the adalet march has become an event of unique significance.

The pursuit of justice was able to unite larger segments of the society, which feel excluded and exposed to injustice both in front of the law even in their everyday life. Additionally, the Justice March seems to bring many opposition groups together, including the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), other political parties, labour unions, bar associations along with the half of the Turkish population who voted No in the referendum.

CHP announced that it would no longer restrict its democratic struggle to the parliamentary opposition and is determined to have more presence in the streets. In this respect, the march may help consolidate the CHPs role as the main opposition force against Erdogans tightening grip on Turkey.
LINCOLN  Nebraska feedlots with capacities of 1,000 or more head contained 2.35 million cattle on feed on June 1, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The inventory was up slightly from June 1, 2016.

May placements, at 445,000 head, were up 10 percent from 2016 and fed cattle marketings, at 530,000 head, were up 14 percent.
HOLDREGE  CHS Holdrege employees raised $33,669.25 during their 2017 Harvest for Hunger food, funds and grain drive earlier this year.

CHS Holdrege employees from locations in Holdrege, Alma, Loomis, Bertrand, Smithfield, Overton, Elm Creek, Minden, Bladen, Blue Hill and Roseland and in Oberlin, Kan., came up with various activities to raise money for the annual CHS Harvest for Hunger campaign. Local food pantries in each of those communities, as well as the Backpack Blessings program in Holdrege, will receive a portion of the funds raised.

Community members gathered at fundraising breakfasts and lunches, purchased tickets for drawings, attended a fundraising gala and participated in trap shoots and other events hosted by CHS Holdrege employees.

The Harvest for Hunger fundraising drive, organized by the Country Operations division of CHS, has raised more than $4.7 million and 3.4 million pounds of food since the programs launch in 2011.
KEARNEY  Emily Baughman has joined the Buffalo County Community Partners staff as the data coordinator.

Baughman will manage the data collection process for Community Partners. Data collection is key role within the organization to assist the community in identifying emerging health issues and tracking community driven outcomes. She will work with coalitions in developing community based strategic plans, track objectives and evaluate efforts.

Baughman was most recently with the Nebraska Crime Commission where she processed and analyzed crime data for the FBIs Uniform Crime Report. Prior to that, she worked with child and family services and at CEDARS as a juvenile diversion officer. She graduated from UNK in 2009 with a degree in psychology and criminal justice.

Buffalo County Community Partners is a non-profit organization that seeks to assess, strengthen and promote the health of Buffalo County through the promotion of the Buffalo County 2020 Vision. The 2020 Vision introduces five strategic directions and targets for attainment by the year 2020.

For more information on how you can assist in building a healthier Buffalo County, visit bcchp.org.
Have you ever been in a really tight spot where you needed to make a tough decision, but no matter how hard you tried, no workable solution could be found? Where do you find that true wisdom to enable you to make the right call?

Daniel, a high official in the government of Persia (modern day Iran), found himself trapped in an impossible predicament, because of the jealousy of his co-workers. Because of Daniels great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire. Then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldnt find anything to criticize or condemn. He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. So they concluded, Our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion. (Daniel 6:1-5).

Somehow they managed to convince the king to order that everyone in his reign would be required to pray to the king alone for the next 30 days or face death at the hand of starving lions. Freedom of worship was definitely not an option for this Jewish prophet and expatriate or for any citizens of this kingdom, as a result of this punitive legislation.

Daniel now faced a lose-lose proposition. Either he could continue to faithfully practice his faith, and lose his life, or he could practice the new religious regulations, and turn his back on his faith and his core beliefs. What should he do? Daniel went home and in clear defiance of the new regulations, prayed in his room upstairs anyway, as was his custom, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. (Daniel 6:10) What a bold move!

On another occasion, Daniel and his associates were required to do the impossible: reveal a special dream that the king of Babylon has had. They would face execution if they failed to deliver (Daniel 2:17-18). Once again, his life was at stake and once again he resorted to prayer. Although this time, he is not alone as he invited three of his companions and co-workers to join him in prayer for divine wisdom to be revealed. This wise move on Daniels part illustrates the importance of pursuing wisdom in community.

Daniel seemed to understand that true wisdom is available for the asking and that God alone will place a person on the right path, no matter how difficult or how impossible the situation may appear to be. Elsewhere, Gods Word speaks to mans quest and hunger to obtain true wisdom:

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. (James 1:5-6)

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Dont be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil. (Proverbs 3:5-7)

The older I get, the less I trust and the less impressed I am by my own so-called wisdom. Personally, I am so very thankful that God is ever so generous when it comes to my MANY, MANY requests for wisdom!

The next time you find yourself in a tough spot and needing to make a difficult decision, consider the wise example of Daniel, a man of unshakeable faith, who models for us how true wisdom may be obtained.

The Rev. John W. Watson is pastor of LifeGroups and Care Ministries at Kearney eFree Church.
How many signers of the Declaration of Independence named their cats after King George? Which member of the Continental Congress knew how to juggle? Why couldnt George Washington wiggle this finger?

As Independence Day approaches, I considered creating a test for todays youths, who are absorbed with Facebook, texting and microwave popcorn, and fail to grasp the importance of questions featured in the first paragraph of this essay.

Spoiler alert: George Washington couldnt wiggle this finger, the one Im holding up, because its mine. I learned that joke in second grade, a pivotal time when I learned many jokes along with a few limericks unworthy of this newspaper.

Around this time of year, when we unfurl flags and ignite a warehouse worth of explosives, history quizzes randomly appear in national publications suggesting that knowing trivia equals an appreciation of our freedoms. These quizzes also suggest that only a certain class of people have the right to question government. If you cant remember what word the Flag Act used to describe the flags stars, you have no right to a speedy trial. Just in case you dont know, the word was constellation.

Throughout our nations history we have struggled with power. We write laws to tip the balance of power one way or the other. We tweak the scales with concepts like a free press, the right to vote, the right to peaceably assemble to express our concerns, the right to a fair trial, the right to own guns. The number of stripes on our flag means little compared to the right to practice your own religion.

I normally keep these essays breezy because so much in the newspaper is serious and thought provoking, but I must admit that I resent anyone who defines my patriotism based on my knowledge of Star Spangled Banner trivia. Freedom allows me the right to define my own patriotism, as long as I stay within the law.

I came of age in the 1960s when wearing hair that touched your collar carried a significant meaning. Your skin color could determine where you sat on the bus. Singing a certain song, holding hands with the wrong person, attending a certain church or speaking the wrong language earned you the scorn of society. As Boomers, we fought real battles for our rights, battles that divided our nation in many ways.

Each Independence Day I remind myself that those battles must constantly be fought because someone always hopes to tip the scales of power in his direction. Knowledge of history is handy when, as a people, we try to decide if that tipping is warranted and justified. Sometimes we use public opinion to adjust that balance, sometimes we use laws and other times we call in a battleship.

Next time you see someone refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or kneel during the national anthem, take a deep breath and let that person express patriotism in their own way.

When I see someone with a revolver strapped to his hip, I must remind myself that we allow guns in this country as a fundamental right.

In turn, I hope that I will be afforded the right to my freedoms. I recall what Carl Sagan said, Real patriots ask questions. And not questions with multiple choice answers.

Rick Brown is a Hub staff writer who hopes to remember to wiggle the correct finger.
I would like to get the word out to the people of Kearney and surrounding areas about a scam that was tried on me.

Earlier this week I received a statement from Express Information Systems in Phoenix, Ariz., supposedly for the Guidepost Magazine renewal for three years at $54.

I was surprised for several reasons, and a bit suspicious: 1) Guidepost always has a P.O. box address in Harlan, Iowa; 2) I didnt think it was time for my renewal; 3) I didnt remember the price being that high.

I had not saved the cover with the renewal date. We moved this winter and, at this point, I couldnt put my hands on the renewal information I have.

The unknown company on the envelope bothered me, so I called Guidepost. The renewal notice was not from them. They said that sometimes companies will try to do that. My statement was for $54. Guideposts price for three years is $36. I am certainly glad I checked.

Beware about sending money to Express Information Systems.

Shelly Lundell, Kearney
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

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Amanada Lemay of Kelowna and her kids, Makaylee, 3, left and Levi, 6, play in the sand at City Park on Thursday. Some parks with beaches are still closed due to high lake levels.
SEOUL, July 1 (Reuters) - South Korea's crude oil imports rose 1.0 percent in June from a year earlier to 84.8 million barrels, preliminary data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy showed on Saturday.

Final data will be released later this month by state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC).

Details of preliminary imports and previous actual figures are as follows:

(In millions of barrels)

June 2017 May 2017* June 2016* Crude Oil 84.8 92.7 84.0

* Actual import figures

Note: The ministry did not break down imports by country of origin. South Korea's total crude imports in May edged down 0.1 percent to 92.7 million barrels year-on-year, according to KNOC data. (Reporting by Heekyong Yang)
By Cynthia Kim

SEOUL, July 1 (Reuters) - South Korea's exports posted double digit-growth for a sixth month in a row in June, overriding tepid manufacturing activity as normalizing global demand continued to boost sales of memory chips and petrochemical products.

Shipments surged 13.7 percent to $51.41 billion from a year earlier, while imports jumped a faster 18 percent to $40.01 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $11.40 billion, government data showed on Saturday.

Although June exports growth slightly missed a 17.1 percent expansion seen in a Reuters survey, double-digit growth for a sixth month in a row marks the longest stretch of expansion at such a pace since September 2011, an indication that the economy is gathering momentum. "South Korea's foreign trade is boosting the overall performance of the economy, thanks to increasing prices of memory chips and demand for petrochemical goods," Park Sang-hyun, chief economist at HI Investment & Securities, said after the release.

"Risks ahead include sliding oil prices, which may slow shipment growth in the second half. We still need to see some stronger demand for consumer goods to be able to say that the overall growth is strong."

The trade ministry expects exports to jump 10 percent this year, although uncertainties related to global oil prices and protectionist measures by the U.S. could limit trade expansion.

Policymakers are cautiously watching Washington's next move on the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, after President Donald Trump told Reuters on April 28 that he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a "horrible" deal. Trump told South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Washington on Friday the United States was renegotiating a "rough" trade deal with South Korea. In June, exports to the U.S. slipped 1.1 percent on-year, while shipments to China and the EU rose by 5.1 percent and 21.1 percent respectively, the trade ministry data showed. Of the nation's 13 major exports items, 10 items, including semiconductors, shipbuilding and petrochemical goods, surged. Exports of semiconductors soared 52 percent in June on-year, while shipbuilding and petrochemical goods were up 43.2 percent and 15.6 percent each.

Imports surged for an eighth straight month, the longest stretch of growth since September 2014, signalling a rebound in domestic demand.

Imports of consumer goods posted mere 1.5 percent growth in June, lagging behind a 41.8 percent surge in imports of capital goods, including components needed in production of memory chips.

"Private consumption is improving, but at a much slower pace than external demand," Park at HI Investment & Securities said.

South Korea's industrial output barely gained in May after posting unexpected declines in April despite surging exports, as demand for consumer goods remained weak. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Nick Macfie)
ISTANBUL, July 1 (Reuters) - Turkish exports rose 1.8 percent year-on-year in June to $12.07 billion, the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM) said on Saturday. The assembly releases its figures almost a month before official data from the Turkish Statistics Institute. TIM Chairman Mehmet Buyukeksi said in a statement there was a year-on-year rise in exports despite there being two working days less in June because of the end of Ramadan holiday.

(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu; Editing by Daren Butler)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
By Yoon Ja-young



The number of babies born in April fell to the lowest level ever, with few signs of a rebound in the future, according to Statistics Korea. The statistics office said that a decrease in marriages is leading to fewer births.



It tallied the number of babies born at 30,400, down 13.6 percent from the previous year, and the lowest April figure since 2000 when the office started compiling data.



The figure has been falling for 17 consecutive months since November 2015. It has been marking double-digit drops since last December when it plunged by 14.7 percent.



The number of newborns stood at 406,300 last year, the lowest ever, but analysts expect it to fall further this year, to below 400,000. As of April, 129,200 babies have been born so far this year, down 12.6 percent from the same period in 2016. When applying the decreasing rate, the total births this year will likely be around 350,000, the first time the annual number of births has fallen below 400,000.



The steep decline is partly due to fewer marriages.



"As people don't get married, childbirths as well as divorces are decreasing," said Lee Ji-yeon, director in charge of demographic trends at Statistics Korea.



The number of couples who got married in April stood at 20,100, down 11.8 percent from the previous year, and the lowest April figure since the statistics office started compiling data. The number of marriages is directly related with the number of newborns.



The plunge in marriages means childbirths are not likely to pick up in the near future. Divorces totaled 7,900, down 4.8 percent from a year ago and the lowest April figure ever.



The number of deaths, meanwhile, recorded 23,100, up 1.3 percent from a year ago, reflecting the aging population.



The low birthrate is expected to bring about major social and economic changes, most of which are feared to be negative. The statistics office said that the number of the school age population between six and 21 will plunge to 7.82 million in 2020 from 8.92 million in 2015; and further to 6.12 million by 2045.



This means schools and universities will have to go through restructuring, and that Korea will lack young males to perform mandatory military service.



Tackling the low birthrate has been a top priority for the administration, though the measures taken so far don't seem to have been notably effective. President Moon Jae-in pledged the government's full support for childcare services, more financial support for parents taking childcare leave, and expansion of state-run daycare centers during the election campaign.



The statistics office also released data on demographic mobility. It showed that Koreans are leaving Seoul, probably due to high housing expenses. Seoul marked a 6,590 net outflow of population, and Busan saw a 2,360 net outflow. Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, meanwhile, marked a 7,106 net inflow of population.




By Jhoo Dong-chan



Major Korean companies will invest $12.8 billion (14.6 trillion won) in the United States through 2021, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said Thursday.



They have also decided to buy $22.4 billion worth of U.S. products, including liquefied natural and petroleum gas as well as passenger aircraft for additional air routes over the next five years.



According to the KCCI, representatives of the nation's 52 major firms that joined President Moon Jae-in's visit to the United States decided to make big investments.



"The mega investment plan includes building and expanding their production plants, and investing in R&D and M&A with companies in the U.S.," a KCCI official said.



"The decision was made to ease any trade pressures including a renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and heavy antidumping tariffs on Korean exporters. It is expected to help ease the tension."



They are also expected to carry out various R&D operations with U.S. companies in appliances, finance and energy.



Samsung Electronics said it will build a home appliances manufacturing facility in Newberry, South Carolina.



Samsung plans to spend $380 million on the project, for which Samsung and the U.S. State of South Carolina signed a letter of intent this week.



It will be Samsung's first home appliances manufacturing facility in the U.S.



Samsung also decided to invest $1.5 billion in its semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas.



Hyundai Motor Group and its affiliates announced earlier this year they will invest $3.1 billion in the U.S. over the next five years. The nation's largest carmaker said it will develop eco-friendly and self-driving car technologies with the investment.



LG Electronics also said in February that it will channel $250 million to build a home appliances production facility on 770,000 square meters of land in Tennessee. It will annually produce 1 million washing machines.



Separate from its Tennessee plant, it will also invest another $300 million to build a new office building to accommodate its affiliates such as LG CNS and LG Household & Health Care. About 1,000 workers are expected to work there once it is completed.



"By building plants in the U.S., Samsung and LG are expected to accelerate their localization strategy," the official said. "The decision will contribute greatly to enhancing their competitiveness in North America."



SK said it will invest $4.4 billion in its energy business in the U.S. It develops shale gas-related technologies while producing liquefied natural gas in Oklahoma and Texas.



SK also recently signed an MOU with Continental Resources, the largest gas producer in the U.S., to jointly undertake shale gas projects.




President Moon Jae-in looks at the memorial commemorating the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. / Yonhap



By Kim Rahn

WASHINGTON, D.C.  President Moon Jae-in has expressed his gratitude to former American and U.N. troops who fought at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, one of the fiercest battles during the Korean War (1950-53), for their heroic fighting and sacrifices.

The battle delayed Chinese troops penetration into the Hamhung region of North Korea for about two weeks in late 1950, enabling the Hungnam Evacuation, the largest U.S. military evacuation of civilians among whom were Moon's parents.

Moon offered flowers to the memorial commemorating the battle which was recently set up at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, Thursday.

Other participants included General Robert Neller, the 37th commandant of the Marine Corps; General Glenn Walters, assistant commandant; veterans who participated in the battle, including Steven Olmstead and Warren Wiedhahn; and the families of some late veterans including Ned Forney, grandson of the late Colonel Edward H. Forney, the evacuation control officer.

"South Korea remembers the sacrifice you and your ancestors made. We will forever remember the memory of gratitude and respect," the President said in a commemorative speech. "The South Korea-U.S. alliance was formed through blood, not through signatures on papers. It is also strongly linked to the life of the citizens of the two nations."
President Donald J. Trump hosted Republic of Korea (ROK) President Moon Jae-in at the White House June 29-30 to advance the comprehensive strategic Alliance between the United States and the ROK and deepen the two countries' friendship. Since its founding, the Alliance has served as a linchpin for security, stability, and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, in the Asia Pacific, and increasingly around the world. As we mark the 67th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, the U.S. commitment to the ROK's defense remains ironclad. President Trump reaffirmed that the United States will defend the ROK against any attack and both presidents remain committed to jointly addressing the threat posed by North Korea. Built on mutual trust and shared values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and rule of law, the U.S.-ROK partnership has never been stronger, and the two leaders pledged to build an even greater Alliance.

Strengthening the U.S.-ROK Alliance

The two leaders affirmed the Alliance's fundamental mission to defend the ROK through a robust combined defense posture and the enhancement of mutual security based on the U.S.-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty. President Trump reiterated the U.S. commitment to provide extended deterrence to the ROK, drawing on the full range of U.S. military capabilities, both conventional and nuclear. Regular dialogue channels such as the Security Consultative Meeting and the Military Committee Meeting are instrumental in deepening our Alliance. The two leaders decided to continue the Alliance's work to expeditiously enable the conditions-based transfer of wartime operational control of ROK forces. The ROK will continue to acquire the critical military capabilities necessary to lead the combined defense, and detect, disrupt, destroy, and defend against North Korean nuclear and missile threats, including through interoperable Kill-Chain, Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD), and other Alliance systems.

The two leaders reaffirmed the U.S.-ROK Alliance commitment to counter the growing threat to peace and security posed by North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. To increase coordination on Alliance issues, the Leaders committed our foreign affairs and defense agencies to regularize a "2+2" Ministerial meeting, as well as a high-level Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group to employ all elements of national power to strengthen extended deterrence.



Maintaining lock-step coordination on our North Korea policy

President Trump and President Moon pledged to continue to coordinate closely to achieve our shared goal of complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner. The two leaders called on North Korea to refrain from provocative, destabilizing actions and rhetoric, and to make the strategic choice to fulfill its international obligations and commitments. The two leaders affirmed that North Korea's nuclear tests and unprecedented number of ballistic missile tests constitute direct violations of multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) and highlight the accelerating threat its programs pose to international peace and security. They affirmed their commitment to fully implement existing sanctions and impose new measures designed to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to compel Pyongyang to cease its provocative actions and return to sincere and constructive talks. The two leaders also urged all UN member states to swiftly and fully implement UNSCR obligations and took note with appreciation of constructive actions by some countries around the world to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to return to credible negotiations on denuclearization. They noted the important role China could play to this end. In addition, the two sides committed to enhance cooperation to combat North Korea's dangerous and destabilizing malicious cyber activity.

Noting that sanctions are a tool of diplomacy, the two leaders emphasized that the door to dialogue with North Korea remains open under the right circumstances. In reaffirming our two sides' shared top priority to resolve the nuclear issue, the two leaders emphasized that the United States and the ROK do not maintain a hostile policy toward North Korea and, together with the rest of the international community, stand ready to offer a brighter future for North Korea if it chooses the right path. The two sides decided to closely coordinate on our joint North Korea policy, including how to create conditions necessary for denuclearization talks, through a high-level strategic consultation mechanism.

President Trump supported the ROK's leading role in fostering an environment for peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.












South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump give speeches after their summit at the White House in Washington, D.C., Friday. In a joint statement, they said they would open dialogue with North Korea to resolve the nuclear issue under right conditions. / Yonhap



By Kim Rahn

WASHINGTON, D.C.  South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump said Seoul and Washington could open dialogue with North Korea to resolve the nuclear program issue under the right circumstances, Friday.

During their first summit at the White House in Washington, D.C., President Trump supported South Korea's leading role in making an environment for peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula and Moon's aspiration to restart inter-Korean dialogue on issues including humanitarian affairs.

In a joint statement announced more than seven hours after the summit, the two leaders agreed that sanctions are a tool of diplomacy and the door to dialogue with Pyongyang will be opened if the right conditions are met.

"In reaffirming our two sides' shared top priority to resolve the nuclear issue, the two leaders emphasized that the United States and South Korea do not maintain a hostile policy toward North Korea and, together with the rest of the international community, stand ready to offer a brighter future for North Korea if it chooses the right path," the statement said.

"The two sides decided to closely coordinate on our joint North Korea policy, including how to create conditions necessary for denuclearization talks, through a high-level strategic consultation mechanism."

Washington also showed support for Seoul's leading role in establishing an environment for unification and restarting inter-Korean talks.
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Melania and I are honored to welcome President Moon of South Korea and his lovely wife Madam Kim to the White House.

Mr. President, let me be the first to congratulate you on your election, tremendous election people, and also people of South Korea for providing such an incredible example of democracy for the world to see. It was very exciting I must see and congratulations.

This morning President Moon and Vice President Pence laid a wreath at the Korean War Veterans Memorial to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the Korean War. It's a beautiful ceremony.

We will never forget that Americans and Koreans bravely fought and died together for a free Korea. To the Korean and American veterans of that war, great people, we are eternally grateful for your service and for your sacrifice.

More than six decades after our partnership was forged in the fires of war, the alliance between the US and South Korea is the cornerstone of peace and security of a very very dangerous part of the world. The link between our countries cemented in battle is now also tied together by culture commerce and common values.

Together we are facing the reckless and brutal regime of North Korea

The nuclear and ballistic missile programs of that regime require a determined response.

The North Korean dictatorship has no regard for the safety and security of its people or its neighbors and has no respect for human life -- and that's been proven over and over again. Millions of North Korea's own citizens have suffered and starved to death.

And the entire world just witnessed what the regime did to our wonderful Otto Warmbier. I thank President Moon for expressing his condolenes

on the travesty of Otto's death. Our thoughts and our prayers remain with his wonderful family.

The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed.

Many years and it has failed. And frankly, that patience is over.

We're working closely with South Korea and Japan as well as partners around the world on a range of diplomatic security and economic measures to protect our allies and our own citizens from this menace known as North Korea.

The US calls on other regional powers and all responsible nations to join us in implementing sanctions and demanding that the North Korean regime choose a better path and do it quickly and a different future for its long-suffering people.

Our goal is peace, stability, and prosperity for the region. But the US will defend itself. Always will defend itself. Always.

And we will always defend our allies. As part of that commitment, we are working together to ensure fair burden sharing in support of the US military presence in South Korea.

Burden sharing is a very important factor. A factor that is becoming more and more prevalent, certainly in this administration.

We are also working to create a fair and reciprocal economic relationship.

For when the U.S.-Korea trade deal was signed in 2011 to 2016, you know who signed it, you know who wanted it, our trade deficit with South Korea has increased by more than 11 billion dollars. Not exactly great deal.

I was gratified to learn about the new investments South Korean companies are making in the US. This month, Cheniere is sending its first shipment of American liquefied natural gas to South Korea in a deal worth more than 25 billion dollars.

It's great. We will do more to remove barriers to reciprocal trade and market access.

We talked last night and today about some tough trade issues. Like autos and steel.

And I'm encouraged by President Moon's assurances that he will work to create a level playing field so that American workers and business and especially automakers can have a fair shake at dealing with South Korea.

South Korean companies sell cars in America.

American companies should have that same exact privilege on a reciprocal basis, and I'm sure we'll be able to work that out.

In addition, I've called on South Korea to stop enabling the export of dumped steel.

These would be important steps forward in our trading relationship. Very important steps. They have to be made. Not fair to the American workers if they're not and they will be.

Our team are going to get to work on these issues. And they're going to sign a deal that's great to South Korea and great to the US.

Mr. President' I'm thrilled that you're here today and deeply honored you choose to go to the U.S. us as your first foreign trip as President.

I greatly enjoyed dinner and the many producitive discussions we've already started having today had today. I look forward to working with you for many years to come to strengthen our alliance, protect our citizens from common threats, and deepen the enduring bonds of friendship, between Americans and the great people of South Korea.

Thank you very much President Moon. Thank you.

###########################################################



Moon Jae-in: First of all, I would like to extend my deep appreciation to President Trump for inviting me to the White House and warmly welcoming me.












By Kim Rahn

In their first meeting and summit in Washington, D.C., from Thursday to Friday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to prioritize North Korea's nuclear issue among their diplomacy agendas, with Trump supporting Moon's approach to reopen dialogue with Pyongyang.

But the two showed a wide gap on the trade issue, implying possible future conflict over trade deals including the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) which Trump has long criticized for causing a deficit with his country.

The two leaders seem to have built personal trust and friendship, which is important for them in seeking cooperation on various issues during what will almost be their whole terms in office. Trump said his relationship with Moon is "very very very good" and described it as "great chemistry," according to a senior Cheong Wa Dae official.

Moon also invited Trump to visit South Korea within the year, and Trump accepted without hesitation.

However, on practical issues, it seems that the two nations had a diplomatic "war of nerves" to carry each other's points. A joint statement, which was expected to be made before the two leaders make comments in front of the press, came out about seven hours after the event.

In addressing the North Korea issue, Seoul gained Washington's support as the two leaders agreed they could open dialogue with Pyongyang under the right conditions and that Seoul take the leading role in inter-Korean talks.

Previously, Trump said that any negotiation with Pyongyang is possible only after denuclearization. But he and Moon agreed not to maintain a hostile policy toward the North and to "stand ready to offer a brighter future for North Korea if it chooses the right path," according to the statement.

Although the statement did not say whether Trump agreed with Moon's idea of a two-step solution for the nuclear issue _ first, a nuclear freeze and second, complete disarmament _ the statement implies that the two leaders had a general consensus on the need for a phased approach using both sanctions and dialogue.












By Kim Rahn

WASHINGTON, D.C.  President Moon Jae-in called for North Korea to make the "right decision" for denuclearization and take a chance for peace and prosperity, Friday.

In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., on the sidelines of his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, Moon said he and Trump will not take a hostile policy toward Pyongyang, saying they do not intend to attack the North and do not want the regime's collapse.

"But we clearly demand of North Korea that denuclearization is the only way it can secure both its security and economic development," he said. "The door to dialogue is wide open. At the crossroads of this important decision, I urge the North to make the right choice and seize this chance for peace and prosperity. If it wants to go this way, I'm ready to walk with them on the path toward peace and prosperity for the Korean Peninsula."

He also said Seoul and Washington would resume talks with Pyongyang under the right circumstances, adding it is to be discussed what those circumstances are and when they will come.












/ Captured from the Bangkok Post



By Park Si-soo



Thai police are investigating the death of a South Korean man at an apartment building in the beach resort of Pattaya early Wednesday.

The man, whose name remains unknown, is said to have fallen to his death from the building's 37th floor about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. His body was reportedly found on the walkway to the swimming pool of the 42-story condominium in Soi Wong Amat, in Bang Lamung, according to the Bangkok Post, a local English daily.

A condominium employee reportedly told police she heard what sounded like "something hitting the ground."

According to police, the man, 40, checked in to the hotel on June 20 and was waiting for his wife from South Korea. He reportedly returned drunk to the condominium before the accident.












By Tong Kim

WASHINGTON, D.C.  A group of six high-profile American experts recommended in a letter to President Donald Trump on June 28 that he send a high-level presidential envoy to North Korea to jump-start talks in good faith and begin informal bilateral talks  with no preconditions  to explore options for more formal negotiations.

The prominent group included former secretary of defense William Perry (the author of the Perry Report on North Korea in 1999), former secretary of state George Shultz (during the Reagan administration), Robert Gallucci (the negotiator of the Agreed Frameworks in 1994), Siegfried Hecker (a world-renowned nuclear expert now with Stanford University), Richard Lugar (a retired chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) and Bill Richardson (a former U.N. ambassador and governor of New Mexico).

"Talking is not a reward or a concession to Pyongyang and should not be construed as signaling acceptance of a nuclear-armed North Korea," their joint letter to the President said. The authors also wrote: "Kim Jong-un is not irrational  the primary danger is a miscalculation or mistake that could lead to war."

According to the authors, the U.S. should make clear that it does not have hostile intentions toward North Korea and it wants to explore a peaceful path forward. They were hoping that Pyongyang then would announce a freeze on tests of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. The initial goal of the talks would be limited to "reduce tensions and cap North Korea's arsenal."












This is the first in a two-part series about ROK-U.S. relations by Park Jin, former chairman of the National Assembly's foreign affairs, trade and unification committee.



By Park Jin





U.S. President Donald Trump said Korea is a "not just a good ally, but a great ally" in his first telephone conversation with newly elected President Moon Jae-in last month. The upcoming ROK-US summit will be an important testament to how the two new leaders will work together to make each other "great allies," and to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

The success of the summit will depend on how the two presidents build a personal rapport first and collaborate on countering the escalating nuclear and missile threats from the North. President Moon, while supporting UN sanctions on Pyongyang, wishes to bring the Kim Jong-un regime to the negotiating table by the end of the year.

On the other hand, President Trump has put North Korea's nuclear and missile threats at the top of his diplomacy and national security agenda. His perception is no doubt shaped by an acute awareness that North Korea's ICBMs currently being developed are capable of attacking the mainland of the United States in the near future. Moreover, the tragic death of Otto Warmbier, a young American student, who was reluctantly released by North Korea from prolonged captivity in an unexplained coma, has sent shockwaves throughout the United States and many countries in the world. Amid such unfavorable circumstances, the two leaders must demonstrate a combined resolve to put a full stop to North Korea's brinksmanship tactics and further provocations, formulate a common strategy to achieve a substantive progress towards denuclearization, and reach an agreement as to how Korea and the United States can exert concerted efforts to accomplish those ends.

The thorny issue of the THAAD deployment should also be settled in a manner which honors the alliance's decision; any procedural uncertainties caused by an environmental impact assessment should be removed as soon as possible.

In the areas of economy and trade, Presidents Moon and Trump should discuss ways to capitalize on the merits of the KORUS FTA so that the agreement continues to generate mutual benefits. President Trump's "America First" policy does not necessarily contradict the KORUS FTA; to the contrary, the KORUS FTA, in the medium and long term, will certainly contribute to reducing the United States' trade deficits and create good jobs. Furthermore the burden-sharing for the cost of stationing US troops in Korea should not be approached as a zero-sum game; the profound strategic value of the ROK-US Alliance must guide any reasonable discussion on equitable and efficient arrangements.

The Washington summit offers a precious opportunity to set the alliance on course to reassure shared security and prosperity between the two nations and the Asia-Pacific region. To make the most of that opportunity, the two leaders would do well to bear in mind the following points.

Above all, Korea is a "miracle" story buttressed by the ROK-US Alliance. Korea's success, as one of the most dynamic economies and the most vigorous political democracy in Asia, is nothing short of a miracle, considering the fact that the country was devastated by the Korean War but rose from the ashes and created the 13th largest economy in the world. This miraculous achievement was made possible by the strong support of the ROK-US alliance as well as the tears and sweat of the Korean people. That blood alliance, forged through the Pacific War, Korean War, Vietnam War and Iraq War by standing shoulder to shoulder, now extends its influence to the rest of the world to promote global peace and prosperity in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The tremendous strategic value of this truly global partnership transcends merely monetary and business transactions.

North Korea's revolutionary strategy remains unchanged. As was graphically evidenced in the case of Otto Warmbier, the Kim dynasty in Pyongyang continues to keep North Korea as a totalitarian garrison-state in flagrant violation of even the most basic human rights. The greatest threat to the ROK-US Alliance is not just North Korea's nuclear arsenal; it is Pyongyang's longstanding revolutionary strategy which seeks to leverage nuclear blackmail to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington. Sixty-seven years ago, it was the same revolutionary strategy of the North coupled with the misconceived disengagement of the U.S. from the Korean peninsula that precipitated a bloody war of devastation which should never be repeated.





Park Jin is chairman Korean-American Association. He can be reached by koreaparkjin@gmail.com.
By Oh Young-jin





If U.S. President Donald Trump is as narcissistic as reported, President Moon Jae-in's pre-summit media strategy might qualify as a success.

If Trump has any sense of reality, it could backfire, meaning a loss of face for President Moon and a big dent to the national prestige.

Moon had interviews with three foreign media outlets in as many days last week ahead of his June 29-30 summit.

His core message boils down to "I love the Donald." That message wasn't lost on Korean newspapers, which reported the liberal head of state going out of his way to "synchronize with Trump's wavelength."

During the interview with CBS TV, the first of the three, Moon said, "I have the same view as President Trump," when asked whether their North Korea policies are at odds with each other.

A week earlier, Moon told the nation that he would have a dialogue with no strings attached with the North. In the interview, however, he claimed he has never mentioned dialogue with the North without preconditions. He also moderated his eagerness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by adopting Trump's "under right conditions" caveat. He looked as if he customized his message depending who the audience was.

Then, Moon also "disowned" his top adviser Moon Chung-in. Adviser Moon is the architect of the late President Roh Moo-hyun's policy of equidistance diplomacy that Moon vowed to inherit.

The professor suggested the scaling-down ROK-U.S. joint exercises, the delay of the controversial U.S. missile interceptor deployment and replacing the current truce with peace regime. This triggered uproar in Washington. The presidential office called Moon's views personal but it was reported before Moon left Washington, he met Moon's top national security adviser Chung Ei-yong.

With the Washington Post, Moon went a step further by declaring, "Trump and I have a common goal."

Again Moon expressed his willingness to get adjusted to whatever conditions Trump sets about engaging the North.

"The engagement that I am talking about is actually very similar to the engagement that President Trump is talking about," Moon said. Really? It is well known that Moon and Trump are poles apart in method _ the first for dialogue first and the second for sanctions first.
Clockwise from top left are Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun; Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun; SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won; GM Korea CEO James Kim; Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business Chairman Park Sung-taek and LG Group Vice Chairman Koo Bon-joon. On the sidelines of the summit between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump, the business leaders are scheduled to hold meetings with U.S. officials. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo

Fifty-two business leaders are set to defend the free trade agreement (FTA) between Korea and the United States as the bilateral deal's days seem to be numbered under U.S. President Donald Trump.

As Trump seems keen to kill the "horrible" agreement due to his nation's growing trade deficit with Seoul under the FTA, the Korean companies, beneficiaries of the trade deal, are stepping up efforts with massive investment plans to encourage the real estate mogul-turned-president to change his mind.

On the sidelines of the summit between President Moon Jae-in and Trump, Thursday, the business leaders are scheduled to hold meetings with U.S. officials. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won are among those who will attend the event.

"President Trump has publicly complained of the Korea-U.S. FTA since he took office in January," an official of the business industry said. "In addition, there are lingering volatile trade issues between the two nations, including massive tariffs, so we are placed in a situation where we need to propose something to help ease the U.S. government's trade pressure."

Hours before President Moon arrives in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Samsung Electronics announced an agreement with the U.S state of South Carolina to build a new plant for home appliances in Newberry County.

According to Samsung, it will invest $380 million to create 950 full-time jobs there.

SK Group is expected to propose cooperation with U.S. partners in the energy sector in line with the Moon administration's focus on new renewable energy and LNG.

SK Innovation relocated its exploration and production business from Seoul to Houston in January, while SK E&S, another SK affiliate, has produced shale gas in Oklahoma with a plan to import 2.2 million tons a year of U.S.-originated LNG from 2019 to 2039.












The late former Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up an iPhone at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco in this Jan. 9, 2007, file photo. Since his death in 2011, Tim Cook has been leading the company. / AP-Yonhap





Apple opened smart era,' but remains stuck with weak innovation

By Lee Min-hyung

Ten years ago today, Apple founder Steve Jobs took the world by storm with a new device that redefined the mobile communications industry.

The iPhone, the first mobile phone offering internet features, paved the way for a new era of smartphones, which has since become a decade-long catch-phrase dominating global tech even today.

Apple's achievement was noteworthy, as the company has not been hit hard by rivalry from latecomers. The company is not monopolizing the handset market, but not a single rival player has so far succeeded in beating it in terms of brand power and profit ratio.

The strong brand identity  backed by its security-featured iOS software  made the company the world's largest listed firm by market capitalization. Last month, the iPhone maker set a record $800 billion (913.76 trillion won) market value, raising expectations to top $1 trillion this year.

The following year after the iPhone hit the market, Google introduced its Android operating system (OS), starting up a rivalry with Apple.

With the arrival of the open source platform, electronics companies such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony belatedly jumped on the smartphone bandwagon. Samsung has particularly grown huge enough to pose a threat to Apple by launching diverse lineups from low-end to high-end devices to meet the diverse needs of customers.

But as of last year, Apple proved to remain strong as the first mover into the industry, with its iPhone 6S flagship model topping the list of 2016 smartphone shipments, according to market researcher IHS Markit, which analyzed data for more than 350 smartphone models.

"Apple again has demonstrated that its new iPhones integrate enough innovations and new features to drive sales and remain successful in the market," the industry tracker said. "The company is also capable of selling older devices for an extended period of time. For instance, the year-old iPhone 6S and 6S Plus were both among the most-shipped models in 2016."

For some years since the first iPhone made its debut, critics praised Apple for leading innovation with new models each year. The iPhone 4 is particularly cited as the best-ever innovation of all the iPhones, with Apple adding a series of eye-catching features into the device. They included the FaceTime video and audio calling service and its much-hyped Retina high-resolution display. The glass sandwich design was also a main driver for the monstrous success of the device.

However, with the legendary CEO passing away in 2011, the company has started to face setbacks over criticism that its innovation stopped for new models  the iPhone 5, 6 and the latest 7. Of course, Apple added a series of new features to new models, but many customers and critics said the new models came with "little innovation" compared to their predecessors, raising concerns that the company may yield the top spot to emerging vendors.

In September 2014, Apple launched the iPhone 6 by completely revamping hardware designs from its years-long sandwich outfit. The new model came with a 4.7-inch screen size, with the iPhone 6 Plus equipped with a 5.5-inch display.

But aside from the design shift and screen size, the device did not come with any outstanding futuristic or innovative functions.

The year 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, and Apple is expected to unveil a new model, tentatively named iPhone 8, no later than the end of this September.

This comes at a time when its arch-rival Samsung Electronics is seeking to lead innovation in the Android smartphone industry. In March, the Seoul-based company launched its flagship Galaxy S8 series by equipping the device with artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant Bixby and enhanced security features  including iris scanning.

Nothing has been confirmed over the specifications or launch dates for the new iPhone this year. The upcoming device is drawing keen attention on the market over whether the company can revive its innovative spirit again.
A forest in Hadong. / Korea Times file



The town of Hadong in southeastern South Korea will sell canned fresh mountain air in a tie-up with a Canadian company amid growing concerns about air pollution, municipality officials said Wednesday.

The municipality said it will hold a ceremony on Friday to mark the dedication of a plant on a site of 99 square meters in the town's Uisin Village to produce canned air coming from Mount Jiri in the region.

According to them, the can of pure air with the trademark of Jiri Air, which carries eight liters of fresh air from the mountain, will be sold at a price of 15,000 won (around $13) each at drugstores across the country. The amount of the air in one can is equivalent to 160 lungfuls that a customer takes for a second.

Inhaling the air through a built-in mask makes customers feel like they are in a forest of cypresses as it has a cypress aroma.

The air comes from a forest 700 to 800 meters above sea level where no people live. A study on the air's quality conducted by Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology showed that the air captured in the forest over 24 hours has an average 0.006 parts per million of sulfur dioxide, 0.3 ppm of carbon monoxide, 0.030 ppm of ozone and 0.010 ppm of nitrogen dioxide -- way below the standard for air environment.

The average density of the hazardous particulate matter PM-10, measuring below 10 microns in diameter, or 10 thousandths of a millimeter, and PM2.5, harmful particles that are smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, reached 22 micrograms and 9 micrograms, respectively, per 1 cubic meter. The figures fail to exceed half the standard limit of 50 micrograms and 25 micrograms, respectively.

The dedication of the plant will come after the municipality signed an investment deal in March with the Canadian firm Vitality Air to establish a joint venture to implement the project.

The joint venture, Hadong Vitality Air, is 50 percent owned by the Canadian firm, 40 percent by the municipality and 10 percent by the distributor SL Biotech.

Vitality Air exports canned fresh air captured from the Rocky Mountains to China, a country plagued by pollution problems.

The plant of Hadong Vitality Air has a production capacity of 1,000 to 2,000 air cans per day.

If the domestic sales of the air product turn out to be successful, the municipality will move to export the product to China, India and the Middle East.

Yoon Sang-ki, chief of the municipality, expressed hope that "the commercialization of the pure nature in the region will enhance the image of Hadong around the world." (Yonhap)
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A dedicated anime fan, Josh Mayer of San Jose enjoys watching some of his favorite series on the streaming services CrunchyRoll and Hulu because of the wide selection of Japanese cartoons that both platforms provide.

Among his favorite titles is My Hero Academia, a superhero series about a shy middle-school boy who dreams of one day possessing a Quirk, a genetic twist that gives extraordinary powers.

His friends, who are in their twenties and are joining him for the annual Anime Expo running at the Los Angeles Convention Center through Tuesday, said they enjoy watching other titles that are only available on competing services. Scums Wish, a series about unrequited high school love, is available for streaming exclusively on Amazon, while Little Witch Academia is only on Netflix.

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In the end, none of them has everything, said Alonzo Zavala of Concord, Calif.

Anime devotees have more content than ever at their fingertips thanks to the abundance of digital streaming options that make thousands of series and movies from Japan accessible with the click of a remote or tap of a game controller.

But the streaming revolution isnt necessarily good news for anime consumers, who face an increasingly fragmented set of choices, or for domestic distributors that specialize in the genre. With competition for streaming dollars heating up, the anime industry is dealing with rapid change as Netflix and Amazon muscle their way into the once niche market.

The two giants are stepping up their anime game in significant ways. Amazon launched its own subscription service, Anime Strike, earlier this year, while Netflix is starting to produce its own original anime content.

Its gotten more competitive, said Lisa Holme, vice president of content acquisitions at Hulu. There are more folks at the table in terms of licensing the best anime series.

Hulu, which is based in Santa Monica, has long been a major player in the field, outpacing its larger competitors by offering an extensive library of anime series that it licenses from smaller, U.S.-based distributors.

There are more folks at the table in terms of licensing the best anime series.  Lisa Holme, vice president of content acquisitions at Hulu

As they play catch-up, Amazon and Netflix are betting that their market clout will enable them to cut out the middleman and negotiate their own deals with Japanese producers, according to industry insiders.

An Amazon spokeswoman said it licenses anime content directly from Japan and from U.S. companies. She declined to say if Amazon plans on producing original anime shows. Netflix declined to comment.

Their growing presence has created uncertainty for smaller, domestic distributors that have long dominated the space.

What has become challenging for us is acquiring content from Japan, said Brian Ige, vice president of animation at Viz Media, a San Francisco-based anime distributor. Now these major players are going directly to Japan. Netflix and Amazon are doing deals. That has been increasingly difficult for us.

Small distributors still have an advantage over these goliaths when it comes to other areas of the American anime market, especially the lucrative field of merchandising. Viz partners with local manufacturers to create anime-themed toys, snacks and other consumer products.

The streaming giants are looking to gain subscribers. Were a brand-building company, he said.

For fans, the plethora of streaming options can create a headache since services frequently negotiate exclusive deals for the most popular shows, resulting in a highly segmented market.

Normally, competition is good for consumers, said Christopher Macdonald, publisher and CEO of the Anime News Network, an industry news site. But anime buffs  many of whom are young with limited disposable income  are now forced to make hard choices or shell out more money in order to catch all of their favorite titles.

The loser is the consumer, unfortunately.

Its a phenomenon that also affects the general viewing population as more Americans cut the cord to save money on hefty cable bills, only to face mounting monthly charges as they shop for streaming alternatives a la carte.

Anime fans can take advantage of a handful of free, ad-supported streaming services, but Netflix and Amazon dont provide free options.

Distributors that once held a lock on the domestic anime market are trying to figure out how to compete in a more crowded landscape.

One way is by joining forces. Two former competitors  CrunchyRoll and Funimation  embarked last year on a distribution partnership in which their streaming subscribers will have access to shows from both services. The former specializes in subtitled shows while the latter focuses on dubbed content.

The unusual deal is seen by industry experts as a sign that anime distributors wont be able to survive alone against Amazon and Netflix.

Fans attending last years Anime Expo in L.A. enjoyed dressing up as their favorite characters, or cosplay. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

CrunchyRoll, based in San Francisco, is the most popular dedicated anime streaming service in the U.S., according to a 2016 ranking by Parks Associates, a market research firm. The platform even ranks in the top 10 overall subscription services, just below HBO Now and ahead of Showtime.

Theres no question that consumption is changing, said Colin Decker, chief operating officer at CrunchyRoll. The company differentiates itself by building online fan communities and hosting its own anime convention  initiatives that bigger streaming companies dont do.

They dont wake up in the morning asking, how do I be everything to an anime fan? Its an expertise. Its a commitment to the community.

Netflix is also causing anxiety for home video distribution, which is still an important market segment in the anime industry. Netflix negotiates anime streaming windows for up to two years, which can prevent distributors that hold the DVD and Blu-ray rights from releasing the titles during peak fan interest.

It creates a negative effect downstream, said Kelly Fay, senior marketing manager at Sentai Filmworks, a U.S. anime distributor that licenses titles to streaming services like Amazon and puts out DVDs and Blu-rays.

Amazon is attempting to attract more fans by rolling out download capabilities for Anime Strike that would allow subscribers to view content off-line. CrunchyRoll currently doesnt offer this functionality.

The often overwhelming array of choices has created a siloing effect for customers, with their favorite shows hidden behind multiple paywalls. CrunchyRoll costs $6.95 per month for premium access while a Funimation subscription is $5.99 per month. Anime Strike will set you back $5 per month but requires an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $99 a year. Daisuki, another popular service, charges $5 per month.

This has driven many fans to piracy and torrent sites, which they use as a centralized place that meets all of their anime needs. Companies like Funimation have sought to shut down these illegal sites, but they remain popular among fans.

As the fight for subscribers continues to escalate, anime companies are trying to reduce the window of time between a titles release in Japan and the rest of the world. Simulcasts on CrunchyRoll and other anime services currently allow U.S. viewers access to subtitled shows within hours of their initial release.

But Netflix and Amazon once again have the competitive advantage with their ability to release entire seasons simultaneously across multiple territories. One of Netflixs most eagerly awaited anime titles is B: The Beginning, an original series it is producing with Production I.G., the Japanese studio behind the popular Ghost in the Shell franchise.

The new series, about a group of scientists who create a race of new humans, is scheduled to be released next year in 190 countries.

david.ng@latimes.com

@DavidNgLAT

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SAG-AFTRA has extended negotiations for a new three-year contract as Fridays deadline passed without an agreement with the major Hollywood studios.

The actors union has been in talks since May 31 with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the bargaining organization that represents studios, broadcast networks and major cable networks.

In a statement released late Friday, the two sides said that they will continue to bargain and that the current contract has been extended on a day-to-day basis.

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SAG-AFTRA said this week that it was planning to seek a strike authorization from its members after the two sides failed to make sufficient progress on our most critical issues.

It remains unclear if the union has sent the referendum to members. A strike authorization is a common tactic used by unions to gain leverage in a negotiation, and it doesnt necessarily mean that a strike will happen.

SAG-AFTRA ratified its last contract in 2014. The three-year deal included wage hikes as well as a small increase to the unions health and pension plans.

Both the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America ratified new three-year contracts this year.

SAG-AFTRA has about 160,000 members, including actors, announcers and broadcast journalists. The union is several months into a strike against several prominent video game companies over issues including compensation and workplace safety for motion-capture and voice performers.

david.ng@latimes.com

@DavidNgLAT

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Question: Over the past decade, our association has suffered from increased criminal activity. Some residents have criminal records, and although there is no evidence that these residents are committing any crimes, the board wants to make a rule that owners cannot rent or sell their homes to criminals.

Management has devised a form that all owners will have to fill out before renting or selling their units that requests information regarding the buyers or renters criminal record.

Can you please provide us with the language to accomplish this so we can amend our governing documents?

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Answer: There is no legally acceptable language that would allow you to amend your governing documents so that the HOA can discriminate against people renting or buying homes. Although a persons status as a criminal is not a protected class under the Fair Housing Act, there is evidence that protected classes of minorities would be disproportionately harmed by such a policy.

In April 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments Office of General Counsel released its guidance on Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transactions.

In it, HUD recognized that as many as 100 million U.S. adults, or nearly one-third of the population, have a criminal record of some sort. Recognizing that there are significant barriers to securing housing because of their criminal history, HUD stated that when individuals are released from prisons and jails, their ability to access safe, secure and affordable housing is critical to their successful reentry to society.

The guidance explains that a housing provider violates the Fair Housing Act when the providers policy or practice has an unjustified discriminatory effect, even when the provider had no intent to discriminate. The guidance includes a three-step analysis to determine whether a housing providers use of criminal history to deny housing opportunities is discriminatory and a violation of the act.

First, a plaintiff must prove that the policy results in a disparate impact on a group of people because of their race or national origin.

There is abundant statistical evidence that would support a plaintiff making this claim. The NAACP, for example, cites statistics on its website that say African Americans and Hispanics comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though the two groups make up roughly one-quarter of the U.S. population.

Second, the housing provider must prove that the challenged policy or practice is justified  in other words, that it is necessary to achieve a substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest of the provider.

Bald assertions based on generalizations or stereotypes that any individual with an arrest or conviction record poses a greater risk than an individual without such a record are not sufficient to satisfy this burden.

A homeowners association that would bar individuals because of one or more prior arrests without any conviction is especially problematic because many arrestees are not convicted of any crime.

A record of conviction will serve as sufficient evidence to prove that an individual engaged in criminal conduct, but a policy or practice that fails to take into account the nature and severity of a conviction is unlikely to satisfy this standard. There is an incredibly broad spectrum of criminal behavior.

The third step of the analysis is applicable only if a housing provider successfully proves that its criminal history policy or practice is necessary to achieve its substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest. But even if a homeowners association could show that, the final step allows the plaintiff to prove that such an interest could be served by another practice that has a less discriminatory effect.

The bottom line is this: The association should not try to prevent criminals from living or owning property in a common interest development. Should the board pass a rule that owners cannot rent or sell their homes to criminals, they do so at their peril.

In fact, there is a growing ban the box movement by civil rights groups that is advocating a prohibition on employment applications of check boxes that ask whether a person has a criminal record.

Indeed, a homeowners association should have a nondiscriminatory policy in place if not for any reason other than to prevent prospective buyers and renters with criminal records from suing over a claim that no such policy exists.

Zachary Levine, a partner at Wolk & Levine, a business and intellectual property law firm, co-wrote this column. Vanitzian is an arbitrator and mediator. Send questions to Donie Vanitzian, JD, P.O. Box 10490, Marina del Rey, CA 90295 or noexit@mindspring.com.
More than half a million Angelenos stand to get a raise this weekend, making the city the latest testing ground in the drive to boost incomes of bottom-rung workers.

Some businesses, facing a labor crunch, didnt even wait for the new, $12 minimum wage to officially kick in.

Josh Loeb started doling out pay bumps among the 400 employees of his six mostly upscale restaurants about a month ago. He paid for it by inching up prices at those Santa Monica haunts, adding a dollar to an organic chicken, and 50 cents to a sandwich or salad.

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Its got to come from somewhere, said Loeb.

When the minimum wage in Los Angeles climbed from $10.50 to $12 an hour for large businesses on July 1, it marked the fourth such increase in three years, and the single largest year-over-year jump in the citys scheduled climb to $15 for all employees by 2021.

The increase affects companies with 26 or more employees; smaller businesses follow suit in January. Santa Monica, Pasadena and unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County also went to $12 on Saturday. The state is also headed to $15, but on a slower schedule.

The citys pay raise will add more than a billion dollars to local payrolls, according to estimates by the Economic Roundtable, a Los Angeles research group.

It is a very important step toward these workers being able to afford to live in Los Angeles and to be able to afford the basic necessities for their families, said Dan Flaming, the president of the Roundtable, who conducted the analysis.

But even before restaurant and other low-wage workers began protesting five years ago for higher pay  a movement that coalesced into the union-led Fight for $15  economists were arguing about who benefits from raising the minimum wage, and at what cost. The latest round of debate was sparked Tuesday by a new study of jobs and pay in Seattle.

That research, published by the University of Washington, suggests that after Seattle went to a $13 floor, businesses cut hours and jobs for their lowest-paid workers, but higher-wage employment rose. Prior studies of minimum wage hikes elsewhere found little effect on hiring.

What happens in Los Angeles may be more relevant for urban America.

It is a large metropolis, and it is closer to being a regular big city than Seattle and San Francisco, which everyone recognizes are unique in certain ways, said Jeffrey Clemens, an economist at UC San Diego.

Half of the more than 566,000 people who were eligible for a raise in L.A. worked in restaurants and hotels, retail stores, healthcare and non-durable manufacturing  such as in apparel or food  according to the Economic Roundtable analysis of census data.

That count doesnt include people who earn slightly more than the minimum wage, but will move up the ladder as the floor rises.

Anggie Godoy, 21, will see her pay increase from $10.60 to $12.10 Saturday. Shes been working at a McDonalds in downtown Los Angeles for three and a half years, and occasionally chips in to help her mom and two siblings with bills.

Godoy is mainly working to support herself, to pay for community college tuition and car expenses.

Im just really happy to see it going up, she said. Any increase in what I take home means I get to worry a little less. Shes applying to universities now, and said an increase in pay will help cover application fees.

Its one step closer to $15, Godoy said.

Of course, businesses that spend most of their money on workers will try to find ways to cut costs. Loeb, the restaurateur, has already been trimming fat.

Cassia, one of the six establishments on the Westside that he co-owns, started serving lunch in the summer of 2016, right before the last minimum-wage hike. That foray ended after three months as Loeb realized the crowds were too thin and the tabs too small to cover his payroll. He had to lay off about 15 people.

Then, in the fall, Loeb changed the hours at Huckleberry, a more casual eatery, so that it closed at 5 p.m. rather than 8. Breakfast and lunch are the busiest times at the cafe, and dinner wasnt delivering huge crowds.

Labor is such a big consideration now that if you arent getting the most out of a service, it is very hard to justify it, Loeb said.

Each time the wage rose since 2014, Loeb found a way to moderately increase his menu prices. Thats a privilege he can afford because his Santa Monica haunts attract a loyal clientele who generally wont flinch at a gourmet price tag.

Someone coming in and spending $200 for five people isnt going to worry much about whether they are spending $209 now, Loeb said.

Survey data collected by the University of Washington researchers suggested that restaurants in the city were choosing between two models: fine dining, where the money flows more freely, or cheap food served at a counter, so that few waiters or busboys are needed.

At risk, say restaurant owners, are restaurants that aim to serve sit-down meals that working-class people can afford.

Monica May, the chef and co-owner of the Nickel Diner near the edge of skid row in downtown Los Angeles, said a $12 minimum wage makes it hard to keep up the business.

At my price point, Im paralleling Dennys, said May, wiping her brow as she emerged from a hot kitchen on a recent Wednesday. The difference, May added, is that Dennys customers dont meet the chef. She then turned to give a regular a hug.

May and her business partner, general manager Kristen Trattner, employ fewer than 26 people, so they count as a small business and wont have to pay $12 until 2018. But when that happens, Trattner said, theyll face an existential crisis.

Basically, our clock is ticking, said Trattner.

The majority of the diners servers make more than the minimum wage. But when she has to hire new people at $12 an hour, it could make her longtime employees feel undervalued.

She knows she could start charging $13 for the cheeseburger with fries, which goes for $10.75 now. She could move to a fancier neighborhood, to pull in people who would see that price point as a steal.

But Trattner has no interest in going that way.

Right now, her customers include families that travel from neighborhoods in Watts or South Gate to get a home-cooked meal, police officers, public defenders and the occasional street-dweller.

I like who I feed and as soon as I raise the prices, I change my clientele, Trattner said.

At the table behind May sat a drifter who was making her way through a small mountain of Cobb salad with homemade blue cheese dressing.

This is our revolution. At this price point we can turn people onto chef-driven and affordable food, May said.

Adding pressure for restaurant owners, Los Angeles chose not to push wages up more slowly for businesses where workers get tips, as Seattle did.

A server at the Nickel can earn $30 extra per hour in tips on a typical weekend shift. At Loebs more upscale places, servers can rake in up to $50 an hour on top of their base wage during dinner.

Some restaurants feel they have to even the score for cooks, who dont get gratuities.

Other businesses, however, see an upside in the higher wage rates.

Mark Rampolla, the CEO of the Los Angeles-based Beanfields Snacks, ran a paper packaging business in El Salvador for four years. He says his workers became more efficient and productive when he started handing out raises.

He is also counting on a trickle-down effect.

We need people to have disposable income, and hopefully they will spend a little of that on chips and beverages or whatever we sell, Rampolla said.

Rampolla admits, though, that the market for his products  gluten-free bean chips  gives him more breathing room.

We are serving a higher-end consumer; think Whole Foods and Ralphs, not Walmart, Rampolla said. We definitely have a little bit of a luxury where others dont.

Staff writer Alexa DAngelo contributed to this report.

Natalie.Kitroeff@latimes.com

Follow me @NatalieKitro on Twitter

ALSO

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That new Seattle study is a big problem for fans of a higher minimum wage  or is it?

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It used to take months from the day a company filed its paperwork to go public to the day it sold shares, giving potential investors loads of time to decide whether to buy in.

But under a new Securities and Exchange Commission rule set to take effect next month, big private companies such as Uber and Airbnb will be able to file financial documents with the agency confidentially  then release them publicly as little as 15 days before an initial public offering of stock.

Companies with less than $1 billion in revenue have been able to do this since 2012 under the JOBS Act, a federal law aimed at making it easier for companies to raise capital.

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Now, the SEC will allow even the largest of companies to go public this way, part of an ongoing push by the agency to encourage more IPOs.

We hope that the next American success story will look to our public markets when they need access to affordable capital, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, who was appointed to that post by President Trump, said in a statement.

Under the act, smaller companies have also been allowed to delay the introduction of costly accounting and auditing policies, but those breaks are not being extended to larger companies.

Allowing companies to file offering documents confidentially gives them a chance to fix shortcomings in their disclosures before releasing them to the public, or perhaps to decide not to go public after all. In either case, confidential filings prevent lengthy scrutiny from investors, the media and competitors.

If you have sensitive information, or youre not sure youre going to pass muster with the SEC, it allows you to not publicly debut yourself until youre ready to go, said Peter Wardle, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn who specializes in IPOs.

The vast majority of IPOs over the last few years have taken advantage of confidential filings. Wardle said 80% of the companies that went public in 2016 filed confidential statements with the SEC.

Companies to go this route include Snap Inc., the Venice-based parent of Snapchat, which went public in March and raised $3.4 billion, making it the largest IPO ever of a Los Angeles company. Ventura ad software firm Trade Desk also made a confidential filing, as did New York meal delivery company Blue Apron, which went public this week.

One potential downside is that the new rule could give investors less time to analyze a company in advance of its IPO.

Companies will have to publicly file their registration statements  lengthy documents outlining years of financial reports, risk factors, executive compensation and corporate strategy  just 15 days before selling shares or before pitching investors during a pre-IPO road show. In the past, that time period often stretched to six months.

Still, Dennis Kelleher, chief executive of Better Markets, an advocacy group that pushes for tighter Wall Street regulation, said two weeks or so is probably enough time for the big institutions and wealthy investors who get the first shot at buying shares in an IPO to make informed decisions.

Lloyd Greif, chief executive of downtown Los Angeles investment bank Greif & Co., noted that because many companies do an investor road show, investors will still have time to kick the tires. Blue Apron and Snap, for instance, both priced their IPOs about a month after their first public filings.

I dont see any downside here other than if you snooze, you lose, Greif said.

Wardle and others say the new rule isnt likely to result in a rush of additional IPOs as the universe of companies contemplating a public offering that already have more than $1 billion in revenue is small.

The most immediate potential beneficiaries include ride-hailing service Uber, short-term home rental app Airbnb and data analysis software maker Palantir. Other companies reportedly nearing the $1-billion mark include fashion start-up Stitch Fix, file-sharing app Dropbox, bookmarking app Pinterest and Uber rival Lyft.

Start-ups have been able to hold off on IPOs because theres been an ample supply of private money from hedge funds, mutual funds and sovereign wealth funds seeking higher returns  though such deals carry higher risks. Companies not going public typically release less financial information and may have less rigorous accounting standards.

Kate Mitchell, co-founder of Scale Venture Partners, said the change could reflect the SECs concern about the increased exchange of company shares on the private market without much financial data available.

It might be the SEC saying it would like this to be in the sunlight, said Mitchell, part of an industry group involved in crafting the JOBS Act.

She said the $1-billion cap was an arbitrary number used to define a large company that ought to be able to afford the several million dollars in fees associated with standard regulatory compliance. With few hitches with smaller companies, she said, its time for the cap came off.

Its within the spirit of what we intended from the beginning, Mitchell said.

james.koren@latimes.com

paresh.dave@latimes.com
Celebrating #HarryPotter20: How Harry Potter and his blockbuster films came of age on screen

The Boy Who Lived has cast his spell on the box office since Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, the first film in Warner Bros. blockbuster franchise, hit theaters in 2001.

The bestselling, seven-book series was adapted into eight record-breaking films -- and a two-part play -- as the boy wizard ventured through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the wizarding world with his pals Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, taking on the enigmatic Lord Voldemort and his magical henchmen each school year.

As J.K. Rowlings debut novel Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone -- the first of the books from which the decade-spanning films were adapted -- marks its 20th anniversary, heres a reminder of how Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviewed the Harry Potter films. (Spoiler alert: He didnt always like them.)

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone film is imaginative and faithful but shuns any risk-taking (2001)

As his 11th birthday approaches, orphan Harry Potter learns that hes a wizard and enrolls at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where his reputation as the Boy Who Lived precedes him during his magical training.

The result is a remarkably faithful copy of the book that treats the text like holy writ (hence its 2-hour-and-33-minute length), wrote The Times film critic Kenneth Turan. From the gold in Gringotts, the safe-as-houses goblin-run bank, to the centaur lurking in the forbidden forest that adjoins Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so much is presented just as written that Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone starts to resemble one of those fiendishly exact replicas of great works of art that Sunday painters can be seen working on in galleries of museums.

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets doesnt capture the well-balanced tone of the book (2002)

In their second year at Hogwarts, Harry and his pals Ron and Hermione contend with a celebrity author professor and a well-meaning house elf named Dobby who thwart the trio in unexpected ways.

The darkness that invades Chamber of Secrets underlines how well the books managed to exactly balance good and evil, dark and light, so that within their pages you seemed to be experiencing both at the same time. Not so here, Turan wrote. Because Chamber of Secrets cant seem to get the balance right, it ends up broadly overdoing things on both ends of the spectrum. The films scary moments are too monstrous and its happy times have too much idiotic beaming, making the film feel like the illegitimate offspring of Alien and The Absent-Minded Professor.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban film comes close to capturing the essence of the books (2004)

The wizarding world gets markedly darker as convicted murderer Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who is believed to have killed Harrys parents, escapes from the Azkaban prison and the soul-sucking Dementors are loosed to chase him down. Director Alfonso Cuaron takes the helm from Chris Columbus, who directed the two previous films.

"[T]he final hour of the two-hour-and-21-minute Azkaban is the closest any of the films has gotten to capturing the enormously pleasing essence of the Potter books, wrote Turan, adding, Those three leads (Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione, Rupert Grint as Ron) play characters who are now 13, an age when anger and frustration are more publicly expressed. One of the benefits of Cuarons direction, his expertise with younger actors, means that the constant determination and occasional fury exhibited by the characters, especially Harry and Hermione, are completely convincing.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire finally gets Harry Potter right (2005)

Harrys surprising inclusion in the prestigious Triwizard Tournament, as a fourth-year student, raises concerns and brings danger to the Hogwarts castle.

Its taken them long enough, but the movies have finally gotten Harry Potter right, wrote Turan. It has fallen to the veteran [director] Mike Newell, eager, in his own words, to break out of this goody-two-shoes feel, to make the first Harry Potter film to be wire-to-wire satisfying.

Though memorable acting is neither called for nor delivered on the part of Goblets collection of juveniles, Radcliffes Harry does get one thing exactly right. Watching him face myriad challenges, were convinced that Harrys heart will lead him to do the right thing. He does good in the most natural way and, like so much of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, thats just how it should be.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix cant shake an episodic feeling (2007)

With the Ministry of Magic refusing to acknowledge Lord Voldemorts (Ralph Fiennes) return, fifth-year Harry is brooding at school as he contends with spooky visions and Ministry transplant Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton). His knowledge of the dark magic-fighting organization, the Order of the Phoenix, and a prophecy further complicate matters.

"[Director David] Yates and his team handle the films visuals well, including the impressive sets for the atrium of the Ministry of Magic and its Hall of Prophecy, as well as fine flying sequences involving either broomsticks or equine creatures called Thestrals, Turan wrote. The director also works well with the films juvenile leads, which is important, because these are the raging hormone years at Hogwarts School, and that is especially true where Harry is concerned. Looking so disgruntled in his gray hoodie that you fear he might start rapping, Harry comes off as more Grumpy Potter than the bright light of the wizarding world.

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is well-crafted but sometimes hard to endure (2009)

As dark magic spills into the Muggle world, Harrys mentor, Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), tasks him with bringing down Lord Voldemort. But Harrys discovery of an old textbook teaches him more than he expected about his past.

Now in its sixth episode shot over an eight-year span, with two more features still to come, this one-of-a-kind film cycle has become as comfortable and reliable as an old shoe, providing a degree of dependability thats becoming increasingly rare, Turan wrote. As directed by David Yates, who did the previous film and is on tap for the final two, Half-Blood Prince demonstrates the ways that the Potter pictures have become the modern exemplars of establishment moviemaking. We dont turn to these films for thrilling or original cinema, we look for a level of craft, consistency and, most of all, fidelity to the originals -- all of which we get.

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1" (2010)

The penultimate film sees Harry, Hermione and Ron venturing out into the real world to locate and destroy Lord Voldemorts soul-encapsulating Horcruxes as Hogwarts and the wizarding world fall to He Who Must Not Be Named.

Much of the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows involves the attempt to find and destroy a series of Horcruxes, and if you havent a clue about what they are or why theyre important, you might as well stay home, Turan wrote. There is something different, however, about this Potter movie, and that is the words Part 1' that end the title. Understandably distraught about Hallows being the last of the phenomenally popular J.K. Rowling novels, Warner Bros. has split the final effort into two films and is likely kicking itself for not having thought of that with the earlier books.

(It should be noted that the studio reboots the wizarding world with the forthcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series. The first film hit theaters in 2016.)

8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2" (2011)

Harry goes wand-to-wand with Lord Voldemort, concluding Harrys final year at the wizarding school with the epic Battle of Hogwarts.

In a classic storybook finish, however, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2' turns out to be more than the last of its kind. Almost magically, it ends up being one of the best of the series as well, Turan wrote. The Harry Potter films, like the boy wizard himself, have had their creative ups and downs, so its especially satisfying that this final film, ungainly title and all, has been worth the wait. Though no expense has been spared in its production, it succeeds because it brings us back to the combination of magic, adventure and emotion that created the books popularity in the first place.

For more of The Times Harry Potter anniversary coverage, go here.
In the most harrowing scene in Sami Blood, the first feature by Swedish-Sami writer-director Amanda Kernell, Elle-Marja, an indigenous teenager from the Lapland region of northern Sweden, is examined by a racial biologist in full view of her boarding-school classmates.

He measures the circumference of her head and the length of her nose. He takes nude photographs of her front and back side, as Swedish boys giggle from outside the window.

This is what passes for science in the 1930s, though Elle-Marja already knows what the data will conclude. At a school where shes forbidden to speak her native Sami language yet cordoned off from Swedish society, her acute sense of racial inequality is reinforced every day.

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Not long after, Elle-Marja makes the wrenching decision to leave Lapland and pass herself off as a Swede, which means abandoning her little sister Njenna and any connection she has to her people. Her shame blankets Sami Blood like the damp cold and slate-gray skies that hover over the Sulitjelma mountain range, and Kernell presents it with a bone-deep authenticity that makes sense of her extreme actions.

As the daughter of a Sami father and a Swedish mother, Elle-Marjas story is a personal one for Kernell, rooted in her extended familys efforts to reckon with their heritage and come to terms with their identity.

I dont know who I would be if I had grown up in a different family, says Kernell, 30, from her home in Copenhagen. I guess that was one of the questions that I asked myself in making the film. How much does it define you  the family you were born into, the body you were born into, the place you were born? And how much can you free yourself from that?

I wanted to find the Katniss Everdeen of Sapmi, the Sami region, and I think she is.  Amanda Kernell

To set about answering those questions, Kernell put a premium on authenticity, from the language and the casting to the minutiae of reindeer-marking knives, the real implements used by racial biologists and even the dryness of the soil around Sami tepees. Only about 500 people speak Southern Sami, her native language, which made the roles of Elle-Marja and Njenna the narrowest of casting targets. After a long search, she was eventually led to Lene Cecilia Sparrok and Mia Sparrok, respectively.

I wanted to find two sisters who had grown up with reindeer herding because I wanted them to be able to use a knife and handle big reindeer as [Lene Cecilia] does by the end, says Kernell. We had to pick girls who were not afraid. I wanted to find the Katniss Everdeen of Sapmi, the Sami region, and I think she is.

I really thought about my grandparents generation and all these women in my family because theyre so strong, she continues. They never break. My father always said that theyre made out of titanium. Theyre such fighters but they have this quiet integrity too. The film is about shame, but I wanted someone [as Elle-Marja] who also had this strength and dignity at the same time.

For Kernell, the making of Sami Blood was close to home, drawn from the experiences of the older generation in her family, as well as those within the Sami community, some of whom participated as extras. She confesses that some elders in her family strongly reject the Sami people and speak quite badly about them, and believes such divisions are common in a lot of Sami families.

REVIEW: The cost of denying identity on display in powerful Swedish drama Sami Blood 

When she screened the film for an all-Sami audience, the tension was palpable. Its such an open wound that some people had to take breaks and go out and have a smoke in the middle of the film because it was so difficult to watch, says Kernell.

Yet for all the films cultural specificity, Kernell insists that Elle-Marjas struggle to find herself and make her way in the world isnt as insular as it sounds. Sami Blood earned Kernell the FEDEORA award for best directorial debut in the Venice Days section of last years Venice International Film Festival. From there she embarked on an international festival tour that took her from Hamburg to Sydney and Santa Barbara to Seattle.

When Ive been traveling with the film  and I have now for a year, Kernell says, a lot of people come up and say This film is really about me, and they can be from anywhere. They can be from Japan or Denmark.

Its a coming of age film about growing up and trying to fit in, she adds. And if you change yourself to fit in, do people really like you or do they like someone they think is you but is not really you? Then what do you do with the shame, the secrets, and the lies? Thats very universal.

calendar@latimes.com
The collapse of the Fyre Festival is one of the years most dramatic music stories, and the saga continued Friday with the arrest of the failed events organizer, Billy McFarland.

McFarland, the 25-year-old entrepreneur who co-founded the festival with rapper Ja Rule, was arrested by federal agents in Manhattan. He is being charged with one count of wire fraud in a scheme to defraud investors.

The U.S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of New York said McFarland induced at least two individuals to invest $1.2 million in two companies associated with the festival.

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McFarland promised a life changing music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster, acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said in a statement. McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes.

If convicted, McFarland could face up to 20 years in prison.

Hyped as the cultural experience of the decade, the inaugural Fyre Festival  set for the weekends of April 28 and May 5  aimed to bring a level of luxury unseen by any destination music event by staging the action on a remote island in Fyre Cay in the Exumas, a string of islands in the Bahamas.

What happened instead was a debacle, one that saw McFarland, Rule and festival staffers canceling the event at the last minute. Poor planning by organizers left Fyre in shambles during its first hours as guests arrived to find unbuilt tents, trash-filled grounds and food better suited for sleep-away camp.

Amenities for patrons at the Fyre Fest on Exuma included tents and a portable toilet. (Jake Strang / Associated Press)

More than a dozen lawsuits alleging fraud, breach of contract and other claims have been filed as ticket-holders await refunds that have yet to arrive.

A representative for Rule said the rapper is not perceived to be a subject of the investigation.

Attempts to reach McFarlands representatives were unsuccessful Friday evening.

Details of the case were provided via a criminal complaint that was unsealed on Friday. Among the allegations was that McFarland, who had established the firm Fyre Media and its subsidiary Fyre Festival LLC, told investors Fyre Media had earned millions of dollars of revenue from thousands of artist bookings from at least July 2016 until April 2017, according to the complaint.

Fyre Medias main source of business was an app designed to make it easier to book artists and celebrities for special events. In the time period specified, Fyre Media, according to the complaint, had actually earned $57,443 in revenue.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that McFarland supplied one investor with an altered Scottrade statement that grossly overstated his ownership of stock. The complaint says that McFarland claimed to own more than $2.5 million in shares, when the figure actually was closer to $1,500.

Fyres plans were ambitious for any first-time festival, let alone one on a remote island with no infrastructure.

Blink-182, Disclosure, Kaytranada, Migos, Rae Sremmurd, Tyga, Desiigner, Pusha T., Major Lazer and two dozen other artists and surprise-guest headliners spanning a myriad of genres were promised.

Additionally, more than $1 million in jewelry, cash and other goodies were to be up for grabs both weekends in a festival-wide treasure hunt. Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and a bevy of supermodels promoted the event.

Its location  once home to Pablo Escobar and Blackbeard  was an Instagram-ready paradise. Marketed as a high-end event, some ticket packages cost upward of $250,000.

We kept giving them the benefit of the doubt, said would-be attendee William Finley, whose real-time documentation of the chaos went viral when guests began to arrive for the fest, which was expecting 6,000 to 7,000 people.

Finley, a writer based in Raleigh, N.C., shelled out $8,999 with a group of his friends for the lodge package, which was to include four king-size beds and all-inclusive meals. After upgrading to all-access artist passes, their total cost was about $3,000 a piece.

Upon arrival, guests discovered unfinished grounds, mass disorganization and missing luggage. The plush villas that had been promised were actually tents on par with those used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency when bringing relief to disaster-stricken areas.

It looked like the set of Outbreak. There were hundreds of tents. Beds everywhere. Nothing was finished, Finley said. We figured it was for [general-admission ticket holders]. It would be crazy to treat people who paid the most like this.

McFarland blamed problems on bad weather and poor infrastructure.

We were a little bit ambitious, he wrote in a lengthy mea culpa.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

gerrick.kennedy@latimes.com

For more music news follow me on Twitter:@GerrickKennedy

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Let freedom ring on Independence Day with quick and easy red, white and blue wreaths designed to show off spirit and style.

Hang the star-spangled wreaths on doors or windows, or pair them with hurricane candles and parade them as centerpieces down a table or buffet.

When the partys over, tuck the wreaths into boxes with tissue paper and save for next year. Heres how to do it:

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A finished flag wreath. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Fourth of July flag wreath

Supplies

12-inch Styrofoam ring ($6.99 at Michaels)

American flag picks ($2.99 per pack at Party City. We used seven packs.)

Directions

The most challenging part of this wreath was figuring out the best way to angle the picks so that, when finished, you couldnt see the ring underneath. Some experimentation may be needed for your particular ring size. Heres how we did it:

Start along the inside edge of the ring, inserting picks about a quarter of an inch, so each flag is facing the same direction. Continue to layer the flags in overlapping rows by poking them in at a slight angle, with flags leaning toward the center.

Layer the flags in overlapping rows by poking them in at a slight angle. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Eventually, your rows will begin to stand upright and then lean outward to cover the edge and side.

You can expect the project to take a couple of hours depending on how quickly you work and how meticulous you want your rows to be. Although its easy work, it may test the patience and dexterity of young kids  or those looking for more immediate gratification.

In those cases, weve got:

A finished Fourth of July umbrella wreath. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Fourth of July umbrella wreath

Supplies

12-inch Styrofoam ring ($6.99 at Michaels)

Patriotic American flag umbrella picks ($3.99 per pack at Party City. We used two packs of 24.)

Tape

Heavy-duty scissors or garden pruners

Directions

We wanted this wreath to have a 3-D effect, so we varied the height of the picks, as well as how widely we unfurled the paper umbrellas. Heres how we did it:

Take the first pack of umbrella picks and cut the shafts in half. These will be your short umbrellas. Set aside the second package for later  do not cut.

Gently open the short picks and wrap a piece of tape around the base of the umbrella canopy to hold it in place. We varied the fullness so that some umbrellas were fully open and others less so.

Tape, scissors, flags and a Styrofoam ring are the items needed for the Fourth of July umbrella wreath. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

For the wreath shown, we used partially closed umbrellas closer to the center of the ring, and more open umbrellas toward the outside edges. However, there really is no wrong way.

Once the ring is largely covered, use the umbrellas with uncut sticks to create a 3-D effect  and fill in any white space. Open the tall umbrellas to the desired fullness, tape in place, and stick them around the covered wreath for added visual interest.

With supervision and a little help (cutting and taping), this could be a fun craft for kids and done within 30 minutes.

Hang wreaths on a door or window using tape or hooks  just make sure youre not leaving any lasting marks. Wreaths can also be used as table decorations or as candle holders, as long as you keep them protected from open flames. (We used a glass pillar candle holder and never left it unsupervised.)

After the festivities, wreaths can be gently tucked into a clean garbage bag and stored for next year.

Bonnie McCarthy contributes to the Los Angeles Times as a home and lifestyle design writer. She enjoys scouting for directional trends and reporting on whats new and next. Follow her on Twitter @ThsAmericanHome

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From the beginning, the idea that capitalist Hong Kong could remain a thriving, prosperous city under Communist China may have been a tale doomed to an unhappy ending.

But as this city marks the 20th anniversary of its return to Chinas control after 156 years of rule by Britain, it is beset by a host of problems that suggest its once-boundless promise could instead turn out to be a slow slide downhill.

And the surprise is that the threat to Hong Kongs future stems less from heavy-handed meddling by Beijing than from a host of largely unrelated factors that are turning a once-unique economy into just another victim of globalization and the march of time.

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Beijing has certainly made it clear that it wont allow Hong Kong to become another Taiwan, a functionally independent state that Chinese leaders consider a renegade territory.

Lest there be any doubt, Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking Friday in Hong Kong even as pro-democracy protesters were kept far away, suggested he was rethinking the one country, two systems agreement with Britain that promised broad autonomy to Hong Kong for 50 years.

Chinese President Xi Jinping raises a toast during a banquet in Hong Kong on Friday. (Dale de la Rey / Associated Press)

Yet Hong Kongs challenges run much deeper than threats of greater domination by Beijing. For one thing, Chinas economy has grown so big over the last two decades  and its place among the nations of the world has become so accepted  that the citys importance in the overall scheme of things has faded dramatically.

Gone are the days when Cold War politics required many developed nations to do business in Chinas potentially huge but still backward markets only through Hong Kong middlemen, although many foreign firms still find it easier to set up in Hong Kong.

Today, China is moving to adopt more universally accepted practices and standards in the global economy, which raises questions about how long Hong Kongs special services will be needed.

Similarly, Hong Kongs overall importance in the Chinese economy has withered. In the year of the handover, Hong Kong accounted for just 0.5% of the mainlands population but an enormous 16% of the countrys gross domestic product.

Now, that share of GDP is a mere 3%.

In 1997 and even through 2004, Hong Kong operated the busiest container port in the world. Today Shanghais port handles almost double the volume of Hong Kongs, and two other Chinese cities, including Shenzhen  once a sleepy fishing village bordering Hong Kong  have bigger populations and busier ports.

China is about size [and] Hong Kong is not that big, said Andy Xie, an MIT-trained economist who has worked in Hong Kong and China since 1995. Hong Kongs population is 7.4 million, making it about one-quarter the size of Shanghai.

Xie remembers when he arrived in Hong Kong for work at an Australian bank, fresh from a stint at the World Bank in Washington, a PhD in hand. The Shanghai native could hardly believe the euphoria in the financial community as it counted down to July 1, 1997, the day that Britain sailed out of Victoria Harbor and the Union Jack flag was replaced with a red Chinese banner.

People were lining up for red-chip stocks, Xie recalled of the hot demand for mainland companies. Money was flowing freely. People were partying day and night.

Twenty years on, Chinese mainland businesses now account for more than half of the companies listed on Hong Kongs stock exchanges, but the mood is decidedly less buoyant inside the gleaming offices in Hong Kongs financial district or on the gritty streets of the city.

Life is getting tougher and tougher. We dont feel optimistic, said Au Yueng Chi Sang, 56, whose family has run a tiny shop in a communal market near Causeway Bay for two generations.

Instead of bustling crowds flowing by, few people were walking past the long rows of eggplants, squash and empty fruit bins at his stand. Au looked up at the Chinese and Hong Kong flags he had strung up above him. At least were trying to create a celebratory atmosphere, he said with a shrug.

To be sure, Hong Kong remains an important financial hub for Asia, thanks to its openness, rule of law, transparency and intolerance for corruption  a notch above Singapore, analysts say, and far above Shanghai, its closest China rival as a financial center.

Hong Kongs waterfront vista overlooking the South China Sea and its prevalence of English draws a steady supply of talent. The citys central district is a global hodgepodge of food and accents. Its glass towers give way to lush green hillsides, a welcome escape from Beijing and Shanghais sooty gray air.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has ranked Hong Kong the worlds freest economy for more than two decades. Taxes are low.

I wouldnt be surprised if 10 years down the line, Hong Kong is still the key conduit for foreign investment into China, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics in Singapore.

In more recent years, Hong Kong has also been a place for Chinas increasingly large wealthy class to funnel its money out of the mainland, partly to hedge against political risk. But that has been a double-edged sword. Chinese mainland investors have accounted for an increasing share of Hong Kongs property purchases, contributing to soaring prices and a stifling housing shortage that has added to the discontent among young and old alike.

The citys economy is the strongest its been in nearly six years, but that is largely thanks to a steadying of Chinas economy, to which Hong Kong, like Taiwan, is now tightly connected  a source of opportunities and social tension in the city.

Richard C. Bush, a Brookings Institution scholar and author of Hong Kong in the Shadow of China, says young, talented university graduates from mainland China are coming into Hong Kong seeking jobs, providing competition for locals. Hong Kong attracts millions of Chinese mainland tourists as well, who come to visit sites such as Hong Kong Disneyland, but theres now a much bigger Disneyland in Shanghai, and Tokyo, with its cheaper currency, has become a rival for Chinese shoppers.

Hong Kongs mainstay banking and financial sector has withstood crises and cutbacks, and is still a big draw for global talent, but the heyday of Chinese stock offerings in Hong Kong bourses appears to be over. And Shanghai, while today far behind Hong Kong as a financial center, is a vastly bigger city and has vastly narrowed the pay gap with Hong Kong, from about one-twentieth in 1997 to one-half today, Xie said.

Amid these shifting economic forces, many worry that political troubles will only make things harder for Hong Kong.

Student protest leader Joshua Wong, left; pro-democracy lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, also known as Long Hair; and pro-democracy lawmaker Nathan Law protest against their recent arrests and detention in Hong Kong on Friday. (Jayne Russell / AFP/Getty Images)

The direct impact of political, social unrest is increasing uncertainty and diminishing confidence, which could challenge Hong Kongs standing as an Asian global financial center, said Tianjie He, an economist at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong.

That hasnt reached a point yet where it has effected Hong Kongs financial stability. For now, there is still no Chinese city like it  and there wont be until Beijing liberalizes its capital markets and currency. That unique financial role may even serve as a layer of protection, preventing Beijing from going too far in its quest to bind Hong Kong closer to the mainland.

Beijing supporters point to how economically well Hong Kong has done, said Anson Chan, the former No. 2 official under both the British and Hong Kong governments. They forget, and even seasoned economists point out, that economic vitality rests on the rule of law.

Xi, who arrived Thursday for his first visit to the territory as president, vowed Beijing will continue to support the development of Hong Kong. The next day, however, he also spoke about new challenges in the one country, two systems formula, which gives Hong Kong its special status and greater freedoms than on the mainland. The Chinese Foreign Ministry was more blunt, stating that it no longer has any practical significance.

That will certainly add to worries among many in Hong Kong about Beijings creeping encroachment on civil liberties. Five booksellers who sold salacious material about top Chinese officials disappeared in 2015 and reappeared in custody on the mainland. In January, Chinese secret police abducted a sleeping billionaire with ties to Chinas elites from Hong Kongs Four Seasons Hotel.

Chinas parliament has started issuing unprecedented interpretations of Hong Kong laws. And on Saturday, Xi will inaugurate the citys new chief executive, who had little public support but was selected by a small group of largely pro-Beijing elites.

If you want to stay in business, if you want to enjoy social freedoms, thats probably OK, said Ding Xueliang, a social science professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. But you cant cross into core politics.

The tension in Hong Kong is palpable. Many refuse to celebrate Saturdays anniversary. Thousands may protest. Pro-democracy advocates feel Beijing reneged on its promise of universal suffrage and is now trampling on its one country, two systems vow, which has profound political and economic implications for the city.

I think Hong Kong is still the reigning financial center in Asia, said David Loevinger, a former China specialist at the U.S. Treasury Department and now a top Asia strategist for the Los Angeles investment firm TCW.

The fear in Hong Kong is that what makes Hong Kong special is eroded over time, then Hong Kong becomes just another Chinese city, he said.

Times staff writer Lee reported from Washington and special correspondent Meyers from Hong Kong.

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Sorry to disappoint, but reliable science tells us there there is no such thing as earthquake weather. And although animals may pick up on a seismic wave that most humans dont sense, the dog on your sofa and the cow in the pasture cant predict earthquakes.

But I can.

I predict theres going to be a big one.

Ive never been more sure of it, thanks to a spring tour of the San Andreas fault with seismologist Lucy Jones, Southern Californias very own queen of quakes. Thats when I became aware of the unsettling fact that in a major temblor  for which we are statistically overdue  anyone standing where I was standing would be jolted about 30 feet as the ground shattered and shifted.

A house in Fillmore sits askew six months after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, having slid off its foundation. (Joe Pugliese / Los Angeles Times)

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Bracing for the Big One

On that tour, Jones was trying to get city officials from various locales to upgrade seismic safety requirements and get better prepared for the inevitable Big One. In California, we all live in earthquake country, and in addition to death and injuries, transportation disruption and the possible cutoff of water and power services for months, the structural damage caused by a mega-jolt could force us out of our own homes.

Jones told me that the 1988 Pasadena earthquake, a 5.0, knocked her out of bed. I dont live far from where she did at the time, so we got to talking about bracing and bolting.

My house was bolted, I told her, according to the general inspection report I got when I bought the place. But the structure is more than 70 years old, and I had no idea how securely it was fastened.

Related: The Times earthquake safety guide 

Jones suggested I call Seismic Safety, a retrofitting company in Pasadena. Over the years, shes had Seismic inspect four houses she has lived in, and upgrades were done on three of them. Jones knows more about our vulnerability than just about anyone, and currently, she is bolted and braced, and she has earthquake insurance on top of that, as do I. So I did what I was told. I made the phone call.

Seismic Safety, which started as a foundation repair company in the 1950s, has focused on residential earthquake retrofitting since the 1970s. The owner, Ed Sylvis, is 87 years old and still goes to the office every weekday. He sent an inspector to my house and the verdict was soon rendered.

My house was indeed bolted to the foundation, but it wasnt as earthquake-safe as it should have been. Like so many thousands of houses in California, mine was built when bolts were smaller, farther apart, and not well-placed for maximum security.

Making your house safer

To say a house is bolted can mean any number of things, and people can get the wrong impression, said Tom Pelletier, owner of The Foundation Works. Since 1936 in L.A., everything had to be bolted, but there were major differences  and bolts can be few and far between.

Seismic Safety also pointed out that I didnt have any foundation plates, which are now in common use. Theyre like metal claws, and theyre used to secure the wood to the concrete in places where theres not enough room to use the more common anchor bolts.

A home in Napa after suffering earthquake damage. (Evan Wagstaff / Los Angeles Times)

But I had an even bigger problem, which is also very common.

The wooden studs in the crawl space of a house, between the top of the concrete foundation and the floor, form what are called cripple walls. Imagine a picket fence of 2x4s. In a strong earthquake, that fence can sway and give out, and the whole house could collapse right down to the dirt. Its like kicking someone who falls to his knees.

We saw damage like this in Napa, Janiele Maffei, a civil engineer with the California Earthquake Authority, said of the 2014 earthquake that knocked people out of their homes for months. That kind of vulnerability can be catastrophic, where the building comes off the foundation or falls whatever the height of the crawl space is. And it costs tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to shore up the foundation.

In his office, Sylvis and one of his longtime inspectors, Ken Compton, showed me a model of a house and explained how they brace cripple walls by fortifying them with sheets of plywood.

Each earthquake offers up a clinic on seismic engineering, said Sylvis and Compton, particularly big ones such as Sylmar in 1971 and Northridge in 1994. After the Northridge quake, they surveyed a Hancock Park house they had braced and bolted just before the quake, and it suffered far less damage than other homes on the same street. But by studying the location of surface cracks on the house, they refined the science of where exactly to get the most protection from bolting.

Bracing and bolting is the best insurance you can get, said Sylvis, who told me he doesnt have earthquake insurance. Hes betting that his own work on his house is solid, and that the cost of earthquake damage repairs wont be higher than the deductible on an insurance policy.

Nothing provides total protection

Not that you can make any structure completely earthquake-safe. Itzcik Weinstein of Weinstein Construction said his Sherman Oaks home was retrofitted by his own company but still absorbed nearly $250,000 worth of damage in the Northridge quake. He had earthquake insurance, so his loss was minimal.

And by the way, if youre properly retrofitted, you may qualify for a discount on earthquake insurance.

Based on what I learned about my own house, Id recommend having a seismic contractor do an inspection of any house before you buy. Bracing and bolting isnt cheap  the tab generally runs from $3,000 to $7,000. But the state has been awarding thousands of grants to homeowners in certain ZIP Codes, and if you register and hit the jackpot, you could get $3,000 toward the cost of your retrofit.

Youll have to wait until January for the next round of grants, but you should go to earthquakebracebolt.com, scroll to the bottom of the page, and sign up for updates and details about the next grant registration. (You should also go to latimes.com/quaketips for great information from our own earthquake guru, Rong-Gong Lin II, on how to make your house quake-safer and put a kit together).

If you want to brace and bolt now, without waiting for the next round of state grants, go online and find retrofitting companies that service your area, and ask for referrals. Id recommend asking the contractor to show you before and after photos from under your house to make sure the work was completed. City inspectors have to sign off on the jobs, but you should make sure they crawl under the house and get dirty. Ive heard accounts of inspectors, and contractors, cutting corners on occasion.

I got my hopes up that a lost treasure, or something of interest, might be found under my house. Pelletier said he once discovered some long-lost jewelry that apparently had been hidden by the family matriarch.

Can you really sleep easier?

One of the busiest companies out there is Alpha Structural, which specializes in the soft-story commercial and apartment building retrofits now mandated in Los Angeles. Senior Vice president Max Oliva said his crews have found animals of all kinds burrowing in crawl spaces, and once turned up some guns and knives.

The crew that did my house once found a bear cub living under a house in Sierra Madre. Sylvis said he crawled under a house in the Silver Lake area many years ago and made a startling discovery.

There were people under there, he said.

Doing what?

Eating breakfast, he said. And the owners didnt even know it.

So what did he say to them?

I said Get the hell out. Weve got work to do in here.

After my upgrade was completed, I dropped by Sylvis office to deliver the check.

Youll sleep better now, he told me.

Yes, maybe just a little.

Get more of Steve Lopezs work and follow him on Twitter @LATstevelopez
When Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti flew to Wisconsin for a Democratic Party gathering in the presidential swing state last month, he went well-rehearsed for questions about his career plans.

A Milwaukee news anchor asked him, predictably, whether a big-city mayor might capture the White House.

No mayors been president since Grover Cleveland, Garcetti responded, casting doubt on his insistence back home that he spends no time thinking about such things.

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As Garcetti prepares to be sworn in Saturday for his second term as mayor, speculation about whether he might soon run for governor or U.S. Senate has given way to a new question: Could he be seriously considering a campaign for president?

The election of President Trump has scrambled the political calculus for many would-be White House contenders in 2020. As far-fetched as a Garcetti candidacy might sound to those who have followed his career at City Hall, its the mayor himself who has stoked the chatter about his prospects, not least with his jaunt to Wisconsin.

I think all the rules are off, Garcetti, 46, told the Milwaukee television station. No African American could be president until one was. No reality star could be president until one is.

In an email to supporters last week, Garcetti shared a link to the Wisconsin interview, along with news stories on his recent visits to Washington and Sacramento.

Ive had the chance to travel around the state and country over the past few weeks, and everywhere I go, I hear the same things  people are anxious about our nations politics and they are anxious about our nations economy, Garcetti wrote.

History suggests his odds for reaching the White House would be daunting. In 1972, Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty was trounced in his run for the Democratic presidential nomination, scoring zero delegates. Tom Bradley bounced Yorty from office a year later.

Let me tell you, its a long jump from being mayor to being president, said Steven P. Erie, a political scientist at UC San Diego.

No mayor has ever vaulted directly to the presidency. Contrary to Garcettis statement in Wisconsin, Grover Cleveland was actually the second of three mayors to become president  and all of them served first as governors.

The first was Andrew Johnson (onetime mayor of Greeneville, Tenn.) in 1865, followed by Cleveland (Buffalo, N.Y.) in 1885 and Calvin Coolidge (Northampton, Mass.) in 1923.

In 1972, New York City Mayor John Lindsay fared slightly better than Yorty in the Democratic presidential contest, but still won not a single primary. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made elaborate plans to run last year as an independent, but in the end backed Hillary Clinton.

Big-city mayors often jockey to raise their national political profile. On occasion, they win Cabinet appointments. Julian Castro, for instance, was mayor of San Antonio when President Obama named him housing and urban development secretary. Mayors can also emerge as vice presidential contenders, as Garcetti did briefly when Clinton advisers were scouting last year for a running mate.

Beyond the customary cable news interviews, Garcettis visibility is rising as Los Angeles competes with Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics.Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty has left an opening for Democrats in California to seize leadership of the nations fight against global warming. So far, Gov. Jerry Brown has eclipsed all the others, but its not for lack of effort by the L.A. mayor.

At a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting last month in Miami Beach, Garcetti was one of the most outspoken on climate change. He leads a group of mayors working to cut carbon emissions in their cities.

On Wednesday, Garcetti joined former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on a panel at Creative Artists Agency in Century City to highlight steps that California is taking to stop global warming. Garcetti urged Trumps critics to stop yelling at cable television and take action.

Why are our skies clearer in Los Angeles today? Because mothers went to City Hall in the 50s with gas masks and said that the smog was killing them and their children, he said.

A shift in the citys election calendar means Garcettis second term will last an unusually long 5 years, giving him plenty of time to ponder options for his future. He can run for governor or U.S. Senate next year or president in 2020 without risking his job.

But he would have relatively little time to raise millions of dollars for a 2018 campaign. The governors race is already crowded, and its not yet clear whether U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein will retire next year and clear the way for a competitive contest to succeed her.

Garcetti told The Times editorial board Thursday he was focused solely on the city.

Im not running for president, he said. Ive got a great new job that starts on Saturday: mayor. Im not running for governor. Im not running for Senate. Now, I dont make promises that I wont.

People come to me all the time and want to talk to me about it, but I dont, he continued. I will  at the right moments in my career, of course.

On paper, Garcetti is well-positioned for whatever the next campaign might be. He won re-election in March with a record 81% of the vote after promoting his successes in securing billions of dollars for public transit and homelessness relief. But he faced no viable opponent. And four out of five city residents who were eligible to cast ballots didnt bother.

In a hard-fought race for higher office, however, rivals would no doubt offer an alternate version of the L.A. that Garcetti says is in the midst of an historic rebirth: A traffic-clogged, smog-choked, crime-ridden metropolis with homeless encampments turning neighborhoods into Brazilian-style shantytowns.

L.A. is the epicenter of many of the countrys problems, said Erie, the author of three books on Southern California politics. What happens when he has serious challengers?

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

Twitter: @finneganLAT

dakota.smith@latimes.com

Twitter: @dakotacdsmith

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Updates on California politics
A judge who is facing a recall effort over the sexual-assault sentence he gave a former Stanford University swimmer is publicly defending himself for the first time, saying that its his job to consider lighter sentences for first offenders and that he cannot allow public opinion to factor in his decisions.

California law requires every judge to consider rehabilitation and probation for first-time offenders, Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky wrote in the statement filed with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

The statement makes no direct reference to Brock Turner. The six-month sentence Persky gave Turner last year spurred outrage and brought on the recall effort.

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It cites a review of Perskys rulings by the Associated Press that found that he followed the recommendations of the parole board in every similar case, suggesting that Turner did not receive special treatment for his status as a white collegiate athlete, as many critics have suggested.

As a judge, my role is to consider both sides, Persky says in the statement. Its not always popular, but its the law and I took an oath to follow it without regard to public opinion or my opinions as a former prosecutor.

Persky add that he fought vigorously for victims when he was a prosecutor.

If approved by the county, Perskys statement will appear on the petitions for his recall, along with a statement filed by his opponents.

Those opponents, a group led by Stanford University law professor Michele Dauber, filed paperwork Monday with the registrar in the first formal step toward removing Persky.

The group will have 160 days to gather the nearly 59,000 signatures of registered voters needed to qualify the measure for the ballot next year.

Turner could have faced up to 14 years behind bars for sexually assaulting the woman who had passed out behind a trash bin near a fraternity house.

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Los Angeles lawmakers voted Friday to allow a pair of Beverly Grove apartment buildings to be converted into condominiums, overriding the objections of tenant activists who argue that flawed data is fueling the elimination of sorely needed rental units.

The furor over the buildings comes as activists and lawmakers have raised concerns about how the city gauges the vacancy rate  a crucial figure for deciding whether apartments can be converted into condos.

When you use bad data, it leads to more condo conversions, which leads to the loss of more rental housing, said John Henning, a land use attorney and neighbor opposed to the plan.

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But City Councilman Paul Koretz, who represents the area where the apartments are located, said he had reluctantly decided to back the plan because there was no basis to turn down the developer under the existing rules. The council ultimately voted 11-2 to reject the appeals against the project, with Koretz vowing to reexamine those rules.

If were going to move city policy towards preserving affordable housing  and we must  were not going to accomplish it on a case-by-case basis, Koretz said.

The two buildings, known as the Mendel and Mabel Meyer Courtyard Apartments, have long been a focus of tenant activists worried about the loss of rent-stabilized apartments. Nearly two years ago, they successfully pushed the city to recognize the buildings as a historic property, in an effort to protect them from being demolished.

But activists were unable to prevent renters from being ejected through the Ellis Act, which allows tenants to be evicted from rent-controlled buildings if the owner is tearing down a building or getting out of the rental business. Instead of demolishing the buildings, real estate developer Guy Penini sought to turn them into an eight-unit condominium project.

Henning and the Los Angeles Tenants Union fought the plan, charging that it would worsen the housing crisis. They also complained that L.A. was relying on faulty information: The city is supposed to turn down condo conversions if the vacancy rate in the surrounding area has fallen below 5% and the rental housing market has been significantly affected over time by apartments being turned into condos, shops or factories, in addition to other factors.

Planning officials pegged the vacancy rate in the area surrounding the Flores Street apartment buildings at around 6%, using information about idle Department of Water and Power meters. At the Friday hearing, senior planner Jane Choi said that meter data has been valuable because it provides a unit-by-unit measure.

But critics point out that information now dates back more than a year and a half. The Department of Water and Power can no longer provide current data about idle meters to the planning department: City planner Claire Bowin said that after overhauling its computer systems, the utility could only give them a snapshot of how many meters were idle on a particular day, instead of showing how many had remained idle for 10 months or longer, data the department needed. Bowin said the planning department discovered that discrepancy only earlier this year.

Critics of the condo conversion have also questioned whether the idle meter information was a reliable way to gauge vacancies at all. Tenant activists pointed to an analysis of Census Bureau data, undertaken by a UCLA researcher, that showed the vacancy rate in the area surrounding the Flores Street apartments for multifamily rentals was under 5%.

Sylvie Shain, a member of the tenants union, said there was also evidence of a significant cumulative impact on rentals, including a 17% drop in the number of rent-controlled units in the immediate area since 2005.

We need to do everything in our power to make sure that we retain rent-stabilized housing, Lincoln Heights resident Adam Overton said.

Attorneys representing Penini said the city data on vacancies was timely when the application was turned in. They pointed out that planning officials said in five years, there had been only six applications for condo conversions in the 14-square-mile area surrounding the project  not enough to cause a significant effect on the rental market, they argued. And Elisa Paster, who is representing Penini, said that after the buildings were deemed historic, a condo conversion was the only way for the project to pencil.

We should not be singled out and made out to be villains when we are allowed and in fact encouraged to do this, Paster said in an email.

The two lawmakers who voted against the condo conversion were Gil Cedillo and Mike Bonin. Cedillo said if there is uncertainty over the vacancy rate, the city should side with the tenants, especially as the city faces a shortage of affordable units. When youre in a hole, its time to stop digging ... Are we going to make the choice to stop digging? Cedillo asked.

Koretz has called for L.A. to bar developers from turning apartments into condos unless the area vacancy rate has been updated in the past year. Planning officials are also reexamining how they determine whether condo conversions will have a significant effect on the rental housing market. And Bowin said planning staffers are now crafting a new method to gauge the vacancy rate in each area, since it can no longer rely on information about idle meters.

Condo conversions boomed before the last recession, but only 19 applications were turned in for condo conversions citywide in the past five years, according to Choi.

emily.alpert@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATimesEmily
The guns were seized during roughly 125 narcotic investigations throughout Los Angeles County over the last two years, but authorities still had an important question about them: How many other crimes were the weapons connected to?

On Friday, federal agents took a key step toward an answer.

Agents test-fired the firearms at the Glendale Police Departments gun range to catch the shell casings. The agents plan to analyze and upload information about them to a national database of ballistic evidence managed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The weapons numbered more than 150 and included semi-automatic pistols, long rifles and shotguns. A match to evidence detailed in the database could give investigators a key piece of evidence in an unsolved shooting somewhere.

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Each firearm leaves a very distinct marking on the back of a shell casing, its like a fingerprint, said Chris Bombardiere, who supervises the ATF Crime Gun Intelligence Center in Los Angeles. Once they start going in we have a 24- to 48-hour turnaround to where we start linking these firearms to other crimes that occurred where shell casings were picked up.

Brian Rose, a supervisor with the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, fills in information cards on weapons seized from crimes. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Nationwide in fiscal year 2015, federal authorities entered into the database 76,534 casings that were recovered from crime scenes and 130,004 casings that came from test-fires of retrieved weapons. That led investigators to 7,866 matches, according to the ATF.

The handguns and the long rifles, they tend to be transient between the criminals. So not one criminal holds on to a gun for very long, said Brian Rose, a special agent who supervises the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, which seized the guns that were test-fired on Friday. So theres a good possibility that one of these guns has been used in a previous crime.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @AleneTchek

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Oscar Goodman has dealt with his share of complicated local issues  a mixture of gambling, prostitution and a lot of public drinking. But the former Las Vegas mayor never imagined the newest vice to arrive in the city: legal marijuana. He never imagined it, but he likes it.

We in Las Vegas have always been on the cutting edge of all things necessary to make us the adult wonderland, Goodman said, moments after becoming the first customer to make a purchase at Las Vegas ReLeaf, a dispensary owned by his son. This is all a part of a lifestyle.

On Saturday, Nevada officially joined four other states  Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington  that allow people to purchase cannabis for recreational use. Goodmans purchase was a $21 box of marijuana-infused coffee grounds.

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Some in Nevada are skeptical about legalized pot. But supporters say the states booming year-round tourism industry will see even more of a boost. And legal pot sales will draw sizable tax revenue.

What were experiencing right here and now is history, Ross Goodman, Oscars son, said Saturday morning.

From his spot behind the glass counter, he watched his staff shuffle shoppers in and out of his slick gray, magenta and teal building tucked in a shopping plaza near the Strip. As patrons arrived  by the hundreds, on foot, in party buses and Uber rides  merchandise started flying off the shelf: Snake Eyes OG, double chocolate chunk brownie bites.

This is the future, the younger Goodman said, and were a part of ending prohibition.

In November, voters in Nevada, California, Maine and Massachusetts approved pot for legal sales, but the Silver State is the first of the group to put it into action. (Pot remains illegal under federal law, but more and more states are considering bills or ballot initiatives to legalize it.)

Although marijuana is now legal here, smoking pot in public spaces, such as along Las Vegas Boulevard, in casinos or at festivals, is illegal, carrying a potential $600 fine.

In Clark County  where Las Vegas is located  more than two dozen dispensaries have received permits from the state to sell recreational marijuana. But there are some still-off-limits zones. In February, officials in Henderson, the next most-populous city in the state, placed a six-month moratorium on legal sales in order to have more preparation time.

Last year, a record 43 million people visited Las Vegas, generating nearly $52 billion, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Marijuana supporters believe legalization means even bigger bucks for the state and are quick to point out that cash from a 15% cultivation tax and 10% sales tax will go toward schools and the states reserve fund.

Nevertheless, not everyone is pleased.

State Assembly Minority Leader Paul Anderson, a Republican whose district spans a portion of Las Vegas, opposed marijuana legalization. So did Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval and Nevada Atty. Gen. Adam Laxalt.

For me, its just an experiment thats too risky, Anderson said Saturday. Theres too much unknown.

But, Anderson said, now that the law has taken effect hell work to make sure authorities enforce the laws regulating sales and consumption.

Early Saturday morning, Oasis Medical Cannabis had a festive atmosphere with few signs of concern about implementation.

A strobe light directed customers to the location. Patrons lined up in a sweltering parking lot  temperatures hovered around 90 degrees at 2 a.m.  dancing to reggae blaring from a DJs speakers. Some munched on hot dogs and empanadas from a nearby food truck.

Kristen Salisbury, 36, a receptionist at a local law firm, was among the customers.

Legalization just adds to Vegas charm, she said after purchasing a handful of marijuana candy bars. Its a natural fit.

Salisbury and a friend were considering hopping in an Uber and heading over to Las Vegas ReLeaf or another dispensary.

Its like New Years Eve, she said.

An employee lines up cannabis products at Essence Vegas Cannabis Dispensary after recreational marijuana sales began. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Back at Las Vegas ReLeaf, Amanda Hill, 26, on vacation from her home in suburban Chicago, was checking out the merchandise.

Yummy, she said, taking a whiff of a Grape Valley Kush bud inside a tiny glass container.

Its really good stuff, said an employee, also known as a budtender, before showing Hill a different strain of pot.

Hill says that she doesnt consume marijuana regularly, but that legalization is now another reason to visit Las Vegas.

The shows, the gambling, the drinks  now legal pot, she said. Who wouldnt want to come visit?

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisalee

ALSO

Heres whats driving lawmakers working to legalize recreational pot in 17 more states

Following the example of voters, legislatures are trying to legalize marijuana  with mixed results

UPDATES:

6:05 p.m.: This article was updated with additional background and with comments from Oscar Goodman, Paul Anderson and Kristen Salisbury.

This story was originally published at 8:55 a.m.
Die Kitties Die! screamed the headline in the New York Daily News when, in 2013, former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Joe Lhota criticized a decision to pause trains in a Brooklyn subway station to rescue a pair of kittens lost on the tracks.

These days, New York so badly needs to get the trains to run on time that Lhota, whose unfortunate anti-cat comments caused a minor scandal, has been brought back as chairman of the transit agency.

Extreme measures are in order to fix the 112-year-old subway system, and nothing  not budget cuts, political infighting, or cats  can stand in the way.

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Delays have doubled over the last five years, and accidents are on the rise. A subway derailed last week, crashing into a wall and igniting a trash fire after hitting equipment left on a track near 125th Street in Harlem. Nobody was seriously injured, but hundreds of terrified passengers had to evacuate through a smoky underground passage lighted only by their cellphones.

On the heels of the derailment, Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency on the subways, making official what many New Yorkers in their gut already know. The governor also allocated an additional $1 billion for improvements.

Few think it will make much impact for the largest subway system in the United States, with 665 miles of track and 472 stations.

A woman with a baby stroller waits to get on a train at Grand Central Terminal. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Its a good start, but where will the other billions come from? asked John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance, a grass-roots passenger advocacy group.

The alliance has been holding impromptu protests demanding improvements in service and has even published a book, Subway Horror Stories, with first-person accounts of mishaps on the subway.

Recent months have brought plenty of fresh anecdotes. Passengers improvised a graduation ceremony May 31 on a stalled E train from Queens to Manhattan for Jericho Marco Alcantara, who missed the real thing at Hunter College because of the delays.

When a rush-hour train stalled for 45 minutes last month without power or air conditioning, doors and windows locked, turning the cars into a virtual steam bath. Passengers stripped nearly naked and someone scrawled on the steamy window, I will survive. Two weeks ago, passengers escaped from a similarly stalled train by walking along the subway tracks, in peril of electrocution.

Subway riders are tired of risking their lives, their jobs, their sanity, yelled one of the protesters, Jackie Cohen.

To be sure, the system isnt as bad as it was in the 1980s, when cars were covered with graffiti and riders had to look over their shoulders for fear of being mugged.

Today the subways are in some ways victims of their own success. The citys economy is booming and so is public transit ridership. Nearly 6 million people a day use the subway, up from 4 million in the 1990s, and they are packed into a system that has barely grown at all.

Passengers wait for the A train, the line that was most affected by the recent derailment. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A sign warns of delays on the C and E trains due to signal problems. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

The Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys own data show that about one-third of the 58,651 delays reported in April, the most recent month available, were caused by overcrowding.

Many of the subway systems cars date back to the time of the 1964 New York Worlds Fair. And the system cannot ease overcrowding by simply ordering new cars because the 70-year-old switching system is too antiquated to manage more cars on the same tracks without a risk of collisions.

There have been no upgrades over the years. With champagne toasts and a live jazz band, a black-tie crowd of dignitaries hosted by the governor attended the New Years Eve opening of the long-delayed Second Avenue subway, built at a cost of $4.5 billion. Many subways now have WiFi and a link to free downloads from the New York Public Library. Buses are adding USB charging stations.

But upgrades that dont lend themselves to photo opportunities have gone neglected.

What we need is the unsexy, behind-the-scenes maintenance and equipment that actually keeps the subway running, said Raskin.

The tracks are not well-maintained. When something goes wrong, they do a quick fix on them, said John Ferretti, a subway conductor and shop steward for the Transport Workers Union. We work on cars that are almost 60 years old where the power and the air conditioning is not working. People yell at us because we are wearing an MTA uniform. When that train is stuck, its up to us to keep 2,000 customers from freaking out.

Passengers wait during a delay on the express No. 4 train as it goes uptown on June 28. Train delays can often lead to overcrowding. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Politically speaking, the New York City subway system is something of an orphan. Contrary to expectations, it falls under the jurisdiction of the state, not the city, a situation that has allowed the mayor and the governor  in this case Bill de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo, Democrats who dont particularly get along  to blame each other when something goes wrong.

The governor has been indifferent to issues surrounding the subways. He feels he can take the votes of urban Democrats for granted and that he has to spend his time wooing swing voters in the suburbs, said David Bragdon, executive director of TransitCenter, a foundation dedicated to public transportation.

New York City also gets the short shrift because, unlike Paris, London, Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow, which also have large subway systems, it is not a national capital.

The London subway system is older. So is the Paris subway system. But they are national capitals. New York is not, and we have a federal government that is hostile to urban areas, said Bragdon.

The rising chorus of complaints about the subways prompted Cuomo last month to bring Lhota back. A respected administrator, Lhota is credited with getting the transit system up and running quickly after the devastating flooding in 2012 from Superstorm Sandy  after which he resigned to make an unsuccessful bid for the Republican mayoral nomination. (It was during that mayoral campaign that he became famous for his comments about the kittens.)

His reappointment has raised expectations.

Lhota has been given 30 days to conduct an audit that he calls the subway recovery and transformation plan. At a conference of transportation experts this week, he said his priority is to upgrade the technology to current standards.

The system opened in 1904. It was designed in the 19th century. For the most part, it is still running on concepts that were developed by folks in the late 1800s, and thats problematic in this, the 21st century, Lhota said at the conference.

The promised improvements may come just in time for subway riders who say they are losing patience. This year for the first time in decades, subway use dipped slightly  a phenomenon attributed to commuters switching to ride-sharing apps and bicycles.

I havent had anything terrible happen to me, but honestly Im worried. Im old now. What if I have to climb out of a train? said 82-year-old Marilyn Savetsky, a retiree clutching her Chihuahua who attended a protest last week. She has now switched to the bus.

Jason Hanes, 35, a recruiter for an insurance company, said he got so fed up with the subways that he changed his lifestyle entirely.

The subways are just too erratic, said Hanes. I moved to New Jersey and bought a car.

barbara.demick@latimes.com

Twitter: @BarbaraDemick

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Welcome to what, for many people, is a long holiday weekend. The Fourth of July is traditionally time, of course, for outdoor cooking, and thus we conveniently have stories about rib cookery. We give pointers on how to grill your own spare ribs, where to go if you prefer others to cook them for you, a great dish of heirloom beans to pair with all of that, as well as cool red wines to have on hand.

As for where to book a table (or try) before you hit the patio, Jonathan Gold visits Rossoblu, the new Italian restaurant from chef Steve Samson. And yes, we seem to be in the middle of an Italian renaissance in Los Angeles at the moment. Lucky us.

As for what else is going on, plums are hitting the farmers markets; we have news about Surfas, the great SoCal cooking shop; news about whats happening with two restaurants and their tacos; a list of great sangria recipes; and yes, pie recipes. Because its pie season  and because some of us need to roll out pie dough whenever Clayton Kershaw pitches.

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 Amy Scattergood

GRANDMOTHER COOKING

Vegetables and rib-eye steaks are cooked over the coals at Rossoblu. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

This week, Jonathan heads downtown to chef Steve Samsons new Italian restaurant, Rossoblu, a paean to Bolognese cooking in a huge, loft-y, mural-painted location on San Julian Street. Samson, who opened Sotto with chef Zach Pollack, is cooking on live fire in the gorgeous open kitchen, serving plates of salumi, and making excellent pasta in the form of tagliatelle Bolognese, tortellini in brodo, tortelloni stuffed with chard and ricotta  and minestra nel sacco, Bolognese grandmother cooking introduced into a city where few Bolognese grandmothers exist.

RIBS 101

Hickory-smoked spare ribs sliced and ready to serve. (Christian K. Lee / Los Angeles Times)

Sure, you can grill burgers and hot dogs on Tuesday (If Thanksgiving is turkey day, the Fourth of July should be rib day, says Meathead Goldwyn), but why not do it up with a rack of ribs? Test Kitchen Director Noelle Carter gives a tutorial on rib cookery, including tips on what kind of meat to buy, recipes  a basic rib rub, Kentucky bourbon barbecue sauce, hickory-smoked spare ribs  sauce wisdom and a tool kit for essential barbecue gadgets.

AND MORE RIBS

Full rack of pork spare ribs and side orders at Maple Block Meat Co. in Culver City. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

If your idea of fun is ordering your ribs rather than cooking them yourself, then Deputy Food Editor Jenn Harris has four great rib places to check out. This is not a story about how barbecue is a religion, or how it should adhere to a certain region, method or ideology, she writes, since in L.A. chefs tend to do their own thing when it comes to barbecue. Thus she visits a Filipino-style rib joint in DTLA and a Texas-style place in Van Nuys, as well as two others well worth the trek.

AND BEANS TO PAIR WITH ALL THOSE RIBS

(Christian K. Lee/ Los Angeles Times)

What to make to go with your ribs? Food writer Margy Rochlin suggests a batch of pinquito beans, a staple of Santa Maria barbecue. These are lovely pink heirloom beans from the Central Coast, which are cooked many ways, of course, but particularly famous in Nipomo, Calif., for the long lines they provoke outside of Jockos steakhouse, where folks can get them to go. And yes, we have a recipe.

AND WINE TO DRINK

That would be chilled red wine, according to wine writer Patrick Comiskey  which you may or may not pair with your barbecue. Because when it gets to be summertime, not only beer and white wine, but the right reds taste pretty good pulled out of the fridge too. He picks a few bottles, from Provence, Piedmont and Napa. Theyll be more substantial than rose, but no less refreshing, and have the added benefit of more tannin to counterbalance whatevers coming off the grill.

Goldbot: You can now talk to Jonathan Gold any time you want  or at least the robot version of him that now lives on Facebook Messenger. You can ask Goldbot for a personal restaurant recommendation based on location, type of food or price. The bot will also deliver Jonathan Golds latest reviews straight to your device.

The Daily Meal, the food and drink website under the editorial direction of Colman Andrews, is now one of our partners. Check out their 101 best pizzas in America and other stories, recipes and videos.

Jonathan Golds 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers and now features his 2016 Best Restaurants. If you didnt get a copy of the booklet, you can order one online here.

Check us out on Instagram @latimesfood

Check out the thousands of recipes in our Recipe Database.

Feedback? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at food@latimes.com.
At first, it seemed mildly amusing. On June 14, three teenage cadets in an LAPD youth program stole a couple of police cruisers and ended up on the wrong end of a car chase. It was like something out of a bad Police Academy sequel.

Of course car chases are dangerous and besides, how is it that a program that is supposed to instill a respect for the law in young volunteers instead produced cadets who stole police equipment? The chases ended in crashes, and although no one was seriously hurt, they could have been. On apprehending the cadets, it was discovered that they or someone else had stolen not just the cars but police radios, stun guns and bulletproof vests.

Each day, reports in The Times brought new and increasingly alarming information. One of the cars had apparently been driven more than 1,000 miles, powered by city-supplied fuel. One had been missing for weeks. Then it turned out that a third police car had been stolen, but it was quickly recovered.

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Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters that the cadets may have been impersonating officers. They pulled over at least one driver. They apparently made fake LAPD uniforms.

Then four more cadets were arrested. Now others have been suspected of participating, if only as joy-riders in the stolen cruisers.

LAPD has a long and storied history of leadership and excellence in policing, but it has an equally well-documented history of corruption and mismanagement.

And then on June 22, Beck himself arrested LAPD Officer Robert Cain on charges that he had sex with a 15-year-old cadet who is among those suspected in the misconduct. The chief said Cain may have taken part in the thefts. A search of Cains home revealed an enormous collection of firearms, including at least 35 weapons that had been illegally modified.

So no, this isnt funny.

The Los Angeles Police Department has a long and storied history of leadership and excellence in policing, but it has an equally well-documented history of corruption and mismanagement. We do not want to make more out of the still-unfolding cadet episode than it is, but we cannot help but remember that the Rampart corruption scandal of the 1990s came to public attention when an officer was caught stealing cocaine from a department property room. At the time, it struck some as rather amusing that an officer would steal evidence from the department  after all, cant the LAPD keep its lockers locked? But the ensuing investigation uncovered crimes by LAPD officers, including framing and attempted murder of suspects. Rampart outdid most novels or movies about corrupt cops. So forgive us if we get a little nervous about lax controls over cruisers, equipment and kit rooms, a suspected mastermind within LAPD ranks who was allegedly involved sexually with a minor, and the apparent corruption of a highly regarded cadet program.

Becks response has been good. He suspended the cadet programs at the two divisions in which the misconduct occurred while defending the program at large. He spoke frankly and emotionally to graduates of the 18-week cadet program about responsibility and integrity. He ordered an investigation into how and why the thefts and other misconduct took place.

The LAPDs inspector general, who reports to the civilian Police Commission, is also reviewing the cadet program and the departments procedures for tracking its equipment.

Separately, Councilman Mitchell Englander called for a city audit of all of the LAPDs other youth programs and the procedures used to monitor the interactions between underage participants and officers.

These responses are all fine, as far as they go  but they dont go far enough. The problem here is not merely that one LAPD officer may have had sex illegally with a participant in a youth program. Nor is it merely that the cadet program did a lackadaisical job keeping track of its property. Nor is it merely that there was something about the cadet program  its selection of participants, its oversight, its culture  that somehow permitted or enabled a chain of behavior that put the public at risk.

When at least seven teenagers and young adults with access to LAPD stations and equipment can don fake LAPD uniforms, steal bullet-proof vests and stun guns, and commandeer, gas up and drive police cruisers for weeks without being discovered or stopped, a more thorough and department-wide review of LAPD procedures and oversight is needed. Even if the cadet actions were just a really bad prank aided by a sex-offender police officer, the public is owed some assurance that its police department will do a better job in all of its divisions and all of its programs of monitoring its equipment and its officers.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: Bravo to Adam H. Johnson for reminding us of the human cost when our countrys leaders spend big bucks for military adventurism while they complain that America is running out of money when it comes to helping the poor, people of color, the disabled and elderly. He notes also the failure of the media to report the true cost of our wars. (Why dont deficit hawks care about the cost of military adventurism? Opinion, June 26)

The rationale of national security to justify out-of-control military spending overlooks the most important source of true national security: human security. Martin Luther King, Jr.s warning at the time of the Vietnam War rings true today: A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Cecil Hoffman, Pasadena

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..

To the editor: The last time the accumulated national debt decreased was in fiscal years 1956 and 57, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.

Many times during Ikes presidency, his advisers urged him to dispatch the Marines to numerous places, but he resolutely resisted in his hunt for a better way. In retirement, he wrote about his resistance to taking military action:

The United States never lost a soldier or a foot of ground in my administration. We kept the peace. People asked how it happened. By God, it didnt just happen, Ill tell you that.

Writing after the Korean War, Ike stated there must be a balance between minimum requirements in the costly implements of war and the health of economy.

Norman G. Axe, Santa Monica

..

To the editor: Weapons of war and their capabilities are keeping some of our influential leaders starry-eyed and willing to spend billions on them with a disregard similar to that of purchasing 4th of July fireworks.

Meanwhile, the parts of government that serve the poor and the middle class are effectively shut down. This should break the hearts of everyone and compel us to revolt at the ballot box.

Mary Leah Plante, Los Angeles

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
President Trump opened his meeting Friday with newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in with tough trade talk, announcing he is renegotiating a 5-year-old trade deal between their two countries that was a joint legacy of Presidents George W. Bush and Obama.

Yet it was unclear from his and administration aides remarks how significant a break Trump was making with a free-trade agreement that had broad support when it was approved in Congress. Trumps announcement could be seen as a provocation of an ally during a delicate time, when the administration is looking to South Korea to help contain North Koreas nuclear program.

Its been a rough deal for the United States, but I think that it will be much different and it will be good for both parties, Trump said during a joint appearance with Moon in the Oval Office.

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We want something thats going to be good for the American worker, Trump added.

Moon said nothing publicly to confirm that a full-scale renegotiation was underway. He said that the agreement benefits both countries, and they can address specific concerns if necessary. Trumps public criticism of South Koreas trade surplus with the United States could cause Moon embarrassment at home, and stoke pressure against U.S. demands for a harder line against North Korea.

Congressional approval would likely be required for major changes. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the U.S. trade representative, Robert E. Lighthizer, is calling a joint committee meeting with his Korean counterparts that would start an amendment process.

She dismissed questions about the impact on the U.S. security relationship with South Korea. Its embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

It sounds like the president got ahead of himself, said Wendy Cutler, a former career trade official who served as the lead negotiator on the deal for Bush and Obama.

Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Trump does not appear to have gotten buy-in from South Korea and would need close consultation with Congress.

It seems to me this was kind of a one-sided announcement, Cutler said in a phone interview from Tokyo before a scheduled visit to South Korea on Monday.

Trump has complained bitterly about the trade deficit with South Korea, which was $17 billion for goods and services in 2016, according to the U.S. trade office. In April, he told the Washington Post that he would consider ending or amending the trade agreement with Seoul.

But the trade relationship is an important one. South Korea is Americas sixth-largest goods trading partner, with $112.2 billion exchanged between the two countries last year.

The U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement was negotiated and signed by Bush in 2007 and then renegotiated and finally implemented under Obama in 2012.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the trade imbalance between the countries has doubled since the agreement, and he blamed South Korea for restricting imports of U.S. cars through strict regulations.

Obama, during a meeting with Moons predecessor, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, in 2015, praised the deal, pointing to increased overall trade between the countries, including exports of American cars, in the first three years.

We do still have work to do, Obama said then about compliance with the agreement. When issues arise, he added: We need to resolve them quickly.

Myron Brilliant, the U.S. Chamber of Commerces executive vice president and head of international affairs, said in a column published this week in Business Insider that even as American exports to South Korea have not risen as much as expected, scrapping the deal completely would be a rash move and a mistake.

The deal, he wrote, puts American exporters on a level playing field against competitors from Europe, China and Australia, which also have free trade agreements with Korea.

But Trumps sharp trade rhetoric, arguing that America was getting a raw deal on the world stage, helped win him the election.

The United States has many, many trade deficits with many countries and we cannot allow that, Trump told Moon during a public moment in the cabinet room. We will start with South Korea right now.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman
Trump promotes sons Justice with Judge Jeanine interview President Trump promoted via Twitter an interview with his son Eric Trump just before it aired Saturday night on Fox News Justice with Judge Jeanine. Eric Trump on @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews now!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 Eric Trump called into the show to defend his father from criticism prompted by the first government shutdown in more than four years, as well as a series of Womens March events that saw protesters in dozens of cities take to the streets to oppose the presidents policies. .@EricTrump joined me over the phone from Mar-a-Lago ! pic.twitter.com/Hro3TzUW52  Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) January 21, 2018 Speaking to host Jeannine Piro  who is reportedly an old friend of the presidents  Eric Trump offered effusive praise for his father, ticking off glowing statistics to illustrate the strength of the U.S. economy and gains against Islamic State fighters overseas. My fathers working like no ones ever worked before to bring back this country and to fulfill his promise to make America great again, said the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He also repeated a sentiment recently expressed on Twitter by his father: That Democratic lawmakers forced a government shutdown on the anniversary of the presidents inauguration in a bid to distract from his achievements. You look at this whole government shutdown, and the only reason they want to shut down government is to distract and to stop his momentum, Eric Trump said. I mean, my father has had incredible momentum. Hes gotten more done in one year than arguably any president in history. Facebook

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Trump tweets: a perfect day for all Women to March President Trump hailed the nationwide Womens March gatherings Saturday. On Twitter, the president called it a perfect day for all Women to March, seeming to imply that those taking part were celebrating his administrations accomplishments: Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Participants in the marches across the United States were actually seeking to deliver a powerful rebuke to Trumps policies and mount a crucial mobilization for this years midterm elections. But Trump continued to tout his administrations unprecedented success in tweets sent later in the day: Unprecedented success for our Country, in so many ways, since the Election. Record Stock Market, Strong on Military, Crime, Borders, & ISIS, Judicial Strength & Numbers, Lowest Unemployment for Women & ALL, Massive Tax Cuts, end of Individual Mandate - and so much more. Big 2018!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The Trump Administration has terminated more UNNECESSARY Regulation, in just twelve months, than any other Administration has terminated during their full term in office, no matter what the length. The good news is, THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 In addition to the roll call of major American cities where womens marches took place  including New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta  protesters also raised their voices in suburbs and small towns, reflecting the aim of coalescing a broad-based movement on the anniversary of Trumps inauguration to oppose the presidents stance on immigration, healthcare, racial divides and an array of other issues. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Trump calls shutdown a present from Democrats By Associated Press President Trump is blaming Democrats for the government shutdown  tweeting that they wanted to give him a nice present to mark the one-year anniversary of his inauguration: This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 That comes after Senate Democrats late Friday killed a GOP-written House-passed measure that would have kept agencies functioning for four weeks. Democrats were seeking a stopgap bill of just a few days in hopes that would build pressure on Republicans, and they were opposing a three-week alternative offered by GOP leaders. Democrats have insisted they would back legislation reopening the government once theres a bipartisan agreement to preserve protections against deporting about 700,000 immigrants  known as Dreamers  who arrived in the United States illegally as children. Trump on Saturday accused Democrats of holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration: Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Cant let that happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Democrats are laying fault for the shutdown on Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have struggled with building internal consensus. In a series of tweets hours after the shutdown began, the president tried to make the case for Americans to elect more Republicans to Congress in November in order to power through this mess: Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 He noted that there are 51 Republicans in the 100-member Senate, and it often takes 60 votes to advance legislation: For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 #AMERICA FIRST!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The stopgap spending measure won 50 votes in the Senate, including five from Democrats. Although the House and Senate were in session Saturday, it was unclear whether lawmakers would take any votes of consequence. Trump had been set to leave Friday afternoon for a fundraiser at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where he intended to mark the inauguration anniversary. But he remained in Washington and ended up scrapping his plans to attend the Saturday fundraiser. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet casts doubt on likelihood of averting shutdown President Trump appeared to cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown Friday night in a tweet. Trump also sought to blame Democrats for what would be the first shutdown since 2013. His message came just hours before the midnight deadline by which lawmakers must pass a measure to fund government agencies, or some operations will cease. Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Despite last-minute negotiations Friday between Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Congress remained deadlocked over a spending bill and the federal government was headed toward a shutdown at midnight. Senate Democrats  joined by some GOP deficit hawks and immigration allies  were set to filibuster a stopgap funding bill approved by the House on Thursday. A Senate vote was planned for 10 p.m. Eastern, and even White House officials predicted it would fail. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Lisa Mascaro. Facebook

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Trump signs surveillance law after confusing tweets By Associated Press President Trump on Friday signed a bill into law to renew a foreign intelligence surveillance program, announcing his action in the latest in a series of confusing tweets about the spy program: Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection. This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2018 Trumps tweet on Jan. 11 created chaos in the House just before it voted to reauthorize what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He linked the intelligence program to a dossier that alleges his presidential campaign had ties to Russia. That caused people to wonder if he didnt support the program that allows U.S. spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad. Trump and other Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials improperly shared the identities of Trump presidential transition team members mentioned in intelligence reports. Democrats say there is no evidence that happened. Shortly before the House vote, and after conferring with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump did an apparent about-face. This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land, he tweeted. We need it! Get smart! In his tweet announcing that he had just signed the bill, Trump wrote: This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first! There are no obvious links between the dossier Trump spoke of, which includes salacious but unsubstantiated allegations against him, and the reauthorization of the spying program, or between the program and Trumps oft-repeated claims that the Obama administration conducted surveillance on Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests that Pennsylvania trip is a political one The White House press office was once again forced to walk back a tweet from President Trump on Thursday morning after he described a trip to Pennsylvania later in the day as a political one  a statement that would force the Republican Party, not taxpayers, to pay for the journey. The White House had said Trump was going to an industrial equipment company outside of Pittsburgh to highlight the good economy and new tax cuts, making it an official, policy-oriented event. It was widely assumed that the trip had a political cast  the area is holding a special election to fill a congressional seat vacated by a Republican who resigned. Trump, by his tweet, seemed to confirm that politics was the whole purpose: Will be going to Pennsylvania today in order to give my total support to RICK SACCONE, running for Congress in a Special Election (March 13). Rick is a great guy. We need more Republicans to continue our already successful agenda!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 Trump later shared via Twitter a pair of video clips of his speech at H&K Equipment, in which he touted the tax cuts he signed into law just before Christmas and tried to turn the conversation back to his accomplishments after weeks dominated by distractions, including questions about his mental health and comments about immigration that some considered racist: Departing Pittsburgh now, where it was my great honor to stand with our incredible workers, and to show the world that AMERICA is back - and we are coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before! pic.twitter.com/kWPgylqFzj  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 AMERICA will once again be a NATION that thinks big, dreams bigger, and always reaches for the stars. YOU are the ones who will shape Americas destiny. YOU are the ones who will restore our prosperity. And YOU are the ones who are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/f2abNK47II  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 The Republican National Committee, rather than the White House, is supposed to pay for political travel so that taxpayers are not financing party activities; for trips that combine policy and politics, parties have split the cost under past presidents. Neither the RNC nor the White House responded to emails sent Thursday asking who would pay. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement later Thursday suggesting that taxpayers would foot the bill. She insisted that Trump would be conducting government business while in Pennsylvania. Read More This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump tweets praise of Bob Dole after awarding him Congressional Gold Medal By Associated Press Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole knew the art of the deal before President Trump published the 1987 book of the same name. The two shared a stage under the Capitol dome Wednesday as Dole, 94, accepted Congress highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, for his World War II service and decades of work in the House and Senate. Trump later praised Dole in a tweet, attaching to his message a video composed of clips from the ceremony: Today, we witnessed an incredible moment in history  the presentation of Congress highest civilian honor to our friend, and true AMERICAN HERO, Bob Dole. #CongressionalGoldMedal pic.twitter.com/qNQqDLRmCk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2018 At the ceremony, the president saluted Dole as a patriot and gave tribute to Doles struggle as a veteran who worked his way back from a grievous shoulder wound he suffered in Italy. He knows about grit, said Trump. But it was Doles penchant for working across the aisle that earned him his latest award, according to the legislation. Bob Dole was known for his ability to work across the aisle and embrace practical bipartisanship, reads the legislation Trump signed in September. Some of the awards 300 recipients include George Washington and Mother Teresa, according to the Congressional Research Service. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts report that seeks to link terrorism cases with immigration By Joseph Tanfani The Trump administration on Tuesday released a report attempting to link terrorism with migration, arguing that it was evidence of the need to dramatically reshape the nations immigration system. New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 ....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based. https://t.co/7PtoSFK1n2  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The report, ordered by President Trump in an executive order last year, said that 75% of the 549 people convicted of terrorism charges since 9/11 were born outside the U.S. Administration officials called that a sign that the U.S. needs to scrap its policy of family preferences for visas, which they call chain migration, and a diversity visa lottery program. But the report did not specify how many  if any  of the convicted terrorists entered the country through those means. It also did not detail how many of the convictions were related to attacks or plans in the U.S. versus overseas and how many involved people who went to fight overseas for the Islamic State or another terrorist group. Those details were not available, officials said. The report, due last year, is being released in a highly charged moment in the immigration debate, as Trump and some Republicans in Congress seek tough new border and immigration measures in return for a deal protecting the 690,000 people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump also fired off a pair of tweets on the topic earlier Tuesday: We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security. The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding Military, at a time we need it more than ever. We need a merit based system of immigration, and we need it now! No more dangerous Lottery.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The focus of our immigration system should be assimilation, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition that his name not be used. He said the nation should give priority to potential immigrants who speak English, who have an education and those who are committed to supporting our values  not family members of people already here. The official said the timing of the report was coincidental. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets welcome to president of Kazakhstan By Associated Press President Trump said Tuesday that he and the president of Kazakhstan are united in a shared determination to prevent North Korea from threatening the world with nuclear devastation. Trump and President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed North Korea along with other issues during meetings at the White House. Today, it was my honor to welcome President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the @WhiteHouse! pic.twitter.com/TerYFZViax  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 Trump said Kazakhstan, once part of the Soviet Union, is a valued partner in our efforts to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. Together we are determined to prevent the North Korean regime from threatening the world with nuclear devastation, he said, as both presidents addressed journalists between meetings. Nazarbayev noted that his country once had one of the worlds largest nuclear arsenals but voluntarily gave it up after the Soviet Union collapsed. He said his country is in talks with Iran, which was the focus of a global deal that lifted some economic sanctions in exchange for Irans curbing its nuclear program. Trump has sharply criticized the Iran nuclear deal and threatened last week to pull out soon unless other countries fix what he says are terrible flaws. Read More Facebook

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Trump falsely claims his approval rating among black Americans has doubled By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump lashed out at the news media Tuesday morning in a tweet denouncing the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion among members of his campaign team. Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative. The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the presidents tweet, but it appeared as though he was watching Fox & Friends. A short time later, Trump tweeted a headline from a report that aired during that mornings episode: 90% of Trump 2017 news coverage was negative -and much of it contrived!@foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The segment focused on the latest survey results from conservative watchdog Media Research Center, which purportedly analyzed the evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31 and found that 90% of the statements made about Trump were negative. Study: 90% of Trump media coverage in 2017 was negative pic.twitter.com/vbrwup4Drg  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 16, 2018 But believe it or not, through all this negative coverage, they did a survey of 600,000 people about how black America views this president, co-host Brian Kilmeade said. His numbers have actually doubled in approval. Trump highlighted the statement in another tweet: Unemployment for Black Americans is the lowest ever recorded. Trump approval ratings with Black Americans has doubled. Thank you, and it will get even (much) better! @FoxNews  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 But its not true. The claim appears to have originated from a misreading of data from the online polling firm SurveyMonkey, according to factcheck.org. The firm polled 600,000 Americans in 2017 and found that Trumps approval rating among blacks actually dropped from 23% early in his presidency to about 17%, as of the week ending Jan. 3. Some conservative outlets, including Breitbart, produced an average from those and other SurveyMonkey figures and compared them to the scores Trump received from black voters in the 2016 exit polls. That methodology is not sound. And since the statistics measure different things, the comparison is misleading. Facebook

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Trump goes after senator who surfaced his immigration remark By Associated Press President Trump turned his Twitter torment Monday on the Democrat in the room where immigration talks with lawmakers took a famously coarse turn, saying Sen. Richard J. Durbin misrepresented what he had said about African nations and Haiti and, in the process, undermined the trust needed to make a deal. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting, Trump tweeted, using a nickname to needle the Illinois senator. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 Trump was referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young people who came to the United States illegally as children. Members of Congress from both parties are trying to strike a deal that Trump would support to extend that protection. Trump also cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching an agreement in tweets sent earlier Monday: Statement by me last night in Florida: Honestly, I dont think the Democrats want to make a deal. They talk about DACA, but they dont want to help..We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they dont want to. They dont want security at the border, they dont want.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 ...to stop drugs, they want to take money away from our military which we cannot do. My standard is very simple, AMERICA FIRST & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 On a day of remembrance for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump spent time at his golf course with no public events, bypassing the acts of service that his predecessors staged in honor of the civil rights leader. Instead, Trump dedicated his weekly address to Kings memory, saying Kings dream and Americas are the same: A world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from. That message was a distinct counterpoint to words attributed to Trump by Durbin and others at a meeting last week, when the question of where immigrants come from seemed at the forefront of Trumps concerns. Some participants and others familiar with the conversation said Trump challenged immigration from shithole countries of Africa and disparaged Haiti as well. Without explicitly denying using that word, Trump lashed out at the Democratic senator, who said Trump uttered it on several occasions. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks pundit for laudatory Fox & Friends spot By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump thanked Fox News personality Stuart Varney after Varney praised Trump during an appearance on Fox & Friends. In a pair of tweets early Sunday, Trump quoted from Varneys commentary, in which he argued that Trump deserves more credit for the booming economy. The pundit, who also hosts a show on Fox Business Network, cited moves by some corporations to raise workers minimum wage or pay out one-time bonuses in response to the GOP tax cuts. President Trump is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that weve seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 ...big unnecessary regulation cuts made it all possible (among many other things). President Trump reversed the policies of President Obama, and reversed our economic decline. Thank you Stuart Varney. @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 Varney was reacting to a quote from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who on Thursday called the bonuses handed down to workers pathetic in comparison to the gains corporations are expected to see from the tax cuts. In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic, Pelosi told reporters. Its pathetic. Varney shot back Sunday that the bonuses, along with explosive stock market growth, are enriching all Americans. This is a huge shot in the arm, its the result of this tax cut deal and I think President Trump should get the credit for it, he said. .@Varneyco Sets the economic record straight after Nancy Pelosi calls U.S. mass bonuses crumbs pic.twitter.com/BvjIHGm3HE  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 14, 2018 The sweeping tax plan passed last month lowers the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and cuts personal income taxes. Analysts say the benefits will largely flow to corporations and the wealthy, as theyre more likely to be in positions to share in corporate profits. For instance, Wells Fargo & Co., which responded to news of the tax overhaul by announcing it will raise workers pay to at least $15 an hour, also reported that it expects to pay an effective tax rate of 19% this year, down from about 31% in previous years. That should amount to tax savings of more than $3 billion annually. On average, middle-class Americans are expected to see a very small tax cut in the near term and a tax increase after 2025, when all of the tax cuts for individuals expire. The tax cuts for corporations, however, are permanent.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer James Rufus Koren. Facebook

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Trump touts MLK proclamation in tweet, but ceremony is overshadowed by reports of racist remarks By Associated Press President Trump signed a proclamation Friday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, noting the contributions of a great American hero. Today, it was my great honor to proclaim January 15, 2018, as Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service activities in honor of Dr. King's life and legacy. pic.twitter.com/samlJsz1Nt  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Overshadowing the event was mounting backlash from Trumps comments during a private meeting with lawmakers the day before. A short time after the meeting, which was called to discuss a possible immigration deal, reports emerged that Trump had asked participants why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senates second-ranking Democrat, appeared to confirm those reports on Friday. Trump did not respond Friday to several questions about the incident, including whether he actually used vulgar language to describe African nations, or if he is racist. The president said at the White House that love was central to the slain civil rights leader. Trump said the nation celebrates King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or place of our birth, we are all created equal by God.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump criticizes Democrats in tweet calling for stricter immigration rules President Trump hit out at Democrats on Thursday night in a tweet calling for stricter immigration rules. Trump wrote that members of the party seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the border with Mexico: The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process. It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the tweet. Earlier Thursday, Trump rejected a bipartisan compromise to resolve the standoff over so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children but have temporary permits to work, attend school or serve in the military. The president drew widespread condemnation after reports emerged that he had asked participants in an Oval Office meeting about the proposal why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts bill aimed at improving border screening for fentanyl By Associated Press President Trump signed legislation Wednesday aimed at giving Customs and Border Protection agents additional screening devices and other tools to stop the flow of illicit drugs. Speaking at a surprise bill-signing ceremony while flanked by members of Congress from both parties in the Oval Office, Trump described the bill as a significant step forward in the fight against powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which he called our new big scourge. He echoed that language Thursday in a tweet: Yesterday, I signed the #INTERDICTAct (H.R. 2142) with bipartisan members of Congress to help end the flow of drugs into our country. Together, we are committed to doing everything we can to combat the deadly scourge of drug addiction and overdose in the United States! pic.twitter.com/ELZvFol5Lo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 The legislation will pay for new portable and fixed chemical screening devices to detect and intercept fentanyl at ports of entry and in the mail, along with other laboratory equipment and personnel, including scientists. Trump has made fighting the opioid epidemic a centerpiece of his administration, though critics say he hasnt dedicated nearly enough money or resources to make a difference. Trump suggested during his remarks on Wednesday that hed like to take a more aggressive approach to the drug crisis  but the countrys not ready for what he has in mind. So were going to sign this. And its a step. And it feels like a very giant step, but unfortunately, its not going to be a giant step, because no matter what you do, this is something that keeps pouring in, he said. And were going to find the answer. There is an answer. I think I actually know the answer, but Im not sure the countrys ready for it yet, he added. Does anybody know what I mean? I think so. Facebook

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Trump applauds news that Toyota-Mazda plant is slated for Alabama By Associated Press Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda on Wednesday announced plans to build a mammoth, $1.6-billion joint-venture plant in Alabama that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. President Trump lauded the news in a tweet: Cutting taxes and simplifying regulations makes America the place to invest! Great news as Toyota and Mazda announce they are bringing 4,000 JOBS and investing $1.6 BILLION in Alabama, helping to further grow our economy! pic.twitter.com/Kcg8IVH6iA  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Good news: Toyota and Mazda announce giant new Huntsville, Alabama, plant which will produce over 300,000 cars and SUVs a year and employ 4000 people. Companies are coming back to the U.S. in a very big way. Congratulations Alabama!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 Several states had competed for the project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and company executives held a news conference to announce that the facility is coming to the Huntsville area not far from the Tennessee line. Production is expected to begin by 2021. The decision to pick Alabama is another example of foreign-based automakers building U.S. factories in the South. To entice manufacturers, Southern states have used a combination of lucrative incentive packages, low-cost labor and a pro-business labor environment, because the United Auto Workers union is stronger in Northern states. Read More Facebook

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Trump highlights call for border wall in tweets on visit with Norways prime minister By Associated Press President Trump praised Norways prime minister in a tweet on Wednesday after Erna Solberg became the first foreign leader to visit with the president in 2018. Today, it was my great honor to welcome Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway to the @WhiteHouse - a great friend and ally of the United States! Joint press conference: https://t.co/qWR1BhfQZI pic.twitter.com/PJvwznjRCO  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Trump also shared via Twitter a video clip of a joint news conference he held with Solberg on Wednesday afternoon. In the clip, Trump responds to a question from a reporter by saying there can be no bipartisan immigration deal absent funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been seeking a solution for hundreds of thousands of so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the United States as children and are living here illegally. The United States needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval. The safety and security of our country is #1! pic.twitter.com/4CFzQXb5aS  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 We need the wall for security, we need the wall for safety, we need the wall for stopping the drugs from pouring in, Trump said Wednesday.  Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesnt work. On Tuesday, Trump drew widespread attention when he said during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers that he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. That contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill in subsequent tweets and public comments. Read More This post contains reporting from Los Angeles Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump praises Cabinet in tweet touting meeting By Associated Press President Trump promoted a meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday, sharing via Twitter a link to a video of the session posted on the White House YouTube account. In his tweet, Trump thanked his Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country and wrote that the last year has been one of monumental achievement. I want to thank my @Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country. 2017 was a year of monumental achievement and we look forward to the year ahead. Together, we are delivering results and MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! https://t.co/ptXa1hAPwW pic.twitter.com/yv6RALkQf3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The former reality television star continued to dispense accolades at the meeting Wednesday, greeting reporters in the Cabinet Room by saying: Welcome back to the studio. Then he proceeded to relive a Cabinet Room session from the prior day, when he had allowed reporters and TV cameras to stick around for much of his meeting with a bipartisan group of legislators on the thorny issue of immigration. It was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good. And my performance  you know, some of them called it a performance  I consider it work, Trump said. Trump went on to say he had received letters from news anchors calling it one of the greatest meetings theyve ever witnessed. He added that the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because theyre going to say, if Trump doesnt win in three years, theyre all out of business. Asked for examples of letters received from news anchors, the White House said it had received private communications. It also offered a series of positive on-air comments and tweets from journalists about the unusual access to the meeting. During his remarks, Trump swung from praising his own meeting coverage to telling journalists that they were dependent on his presidency for ratings to threatening a strong look at libel laws. Still, Trump thanked the journalists in front of him, joking: Youve gotten very familiar with this room. I appreciate your nice comments yesterday. Facebook

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Trump blasts DACA ruling in tweet calling courts broken and unfair By Lisa Mascaro President Trump denounced the federal courts Wednesday as broken and unfair after a district judge in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction keeping protections in place for so-called Dreamers. Trump tweeted: It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 On Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administrations decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which has protected from deportation some 700,000 people who came to the country illegally as children. Alsup granted a request by the state of California, the University of California and other plaintiffs to stop Trump from ending DACA on March 5. The administrations decision to end DACA, which was announced in September, was based on a flawed legal analysis, Alsup wrote in his decision. Dreamers would be irreparably harmed if their DACA protections, which allow them to live and work legally in the U.S., were stripped away before the courts had a chance to fully consider their claims, he ruled. The action is the mirror image of a ruling in 2015 by a federal judge in Texas who ruled in favor of that state when it sought to block President Obama from expanding DACA to include the parents of Dreamers. Trump administration officials praised that judicial ruling. By contrast, they sharply criticized Alsups decision. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks lawmakers for productive immigration meeting, says deal must include border wall President Trump thanked a bipartisan group of lawmakers for participating in a meeting on immigration legislation on Tuesday. Much of the discussion involved so-called Dreamers, an estimated 700,000 young people who were brought to the country illegally as children and are now facing deportation. In a tweet, Trump wrote that there was strong agreement to negotiate a bill to protect Dreamers, as well as put into place some of the reforms favored by Republicans. Thanks to all of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers for todays very productive meeting on immigration reform. There was strong agreement to negotiate a bill that deals with border security, chain migration, lottery and DACA. https://t.co/SdqAQ3aL3z pic.twitter.com/8DYHZHspAy  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 The most notable exchange of the meeting came when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the San Francisco Democrat, asked Trump whether he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. Yeah, I would like to do it, Trump responded. The statement drew widespread attention because it contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump later backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill, tweeting that a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico must be part of any deal: As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Pressure has been mounting for Congress to broker an immigration deal by Jan. 19 as part of a must-pass budget package to fund the government. This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump thanks officers and veterans in tweets President Trump doled out a slew of accolades Tuesday via Twitter. He thanked the nations law enforcement officers, including in his message a hashtag denoting a day of appreciation organized by a national support group for law enforcement families. On behalf of the American people, THANK YOU to our incredible law enforcement officers. As President of the United States - I will fight for you, and I will never, ever let you down. Now, more than ever, we must support the men and women in blue! #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/Qb4uxB4JRm  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trump later expressed gratitude for federal immigration agents, in particular: .@ICEgov HSI agents and ERO officers, on behalf of an entire Nation, THANK YOU for what you are doing 24/7/365 to keep fellow Americans SAFE. Everyone is so grateful!#LawEnforcementAppreciationDay

President @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/HXCpTlruVo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The president thanked veterans as he cited his administrations efforts to curb the number of veteran suicides by improving mental health treatment for the high-risk group: Today, it was my great honor to sign a new Executive Order to ensure Veterans have the resources they need as they transition back to civilian life. We must ensure that our HEROES are given the care and support they so richly deserve! https://t.co/0MdP9DDIAS pic.twitter.com/LP2a8KCBAp  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trumps tweet included photos of the president signing an executive order Tuesday directing the secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to develop a plan to provide seamless access to mental health and suicide prevention resources for 12 months for members leaving the armed forces. Also on Tuesday, Trump touted a law he signed the day before designating the birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a national historic park: It was my great honor to sign H.R. 267, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act, which redesignates the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site in the State of Georgia as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. https://t.co/Qe0b6HBFTY pic.twitter.com/QTgaqTawPT  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 And he thanked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) for sharing a video compilation comprised of clips of politicians and commentators praising the GOPs tax cut bill: Thank you @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy! Couldnt agree w/you more. TOGETHER, we are #MAGA https://t.co/QaxtqpyXTR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018  This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump hails tax bill in tweets recapping speech to farmers By Associated Press Connecting with rural Americans, President Trump on Monday hailed his tax overhaul as a victory for family farmers. Farm country is Gods country, Trump told the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Trump became the first president in a quarter-century to address the federations convention. His Southern swing also included a stop in Atlanta for the national college football championship game. Cant wait to be back in the amazing state of Tennessee to address the 99th American @FarmBureau Federations Annual Convention in Nashville! #AFBF18



On my way now - join me LIVE at 4:00pmE: https://t.co/QaljAqekdD. pic.twitter.com/Wm7Io0hYT8  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and a group of Tennessee lawmakers, Trump said most of the benefits of the tax legislation are going to working families, small businesses, and who  the family farmer. The package Trump signed into law last month provides generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families. In every decision we make, we are honoring Americas PROUD FARMING LEGACY. Years of crushing taxes, crippling regs, & corrupt politics left our communities hurting, our economy stagnant, & millions of hardworking Americans COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN. But they are not forgotten ANYMORE! pic.twitter.com/MdYS7xnukQ  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The president vastly inflated the value of the package in his speech, citing a total of $5.5 trillion in tax cuts, with most of those benefits going to working families, small businesses and who? The family farmer. The estimated value of the tax cuts is actually $1.5 trillion for families and businesses because of cuts in deductions and the use of other steps to generate offsetting tax revenue. We have been working every day to DELIVER for Americas Farmers just as they work every day to deliver FOR US. #AFBF18 pic.twitter.com/QDH7fvFkZ7  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 From Nashville, Trump traveled to Atlanta to watch Alabamas Crimson Tide and Georgias Bulldogs face off Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship. We are fighting for our farmers, for our country, and for our GREAT AMERICAN FLAG. We want our flag respected - and we want our NATIONAL ANTHEM respected also! pic.twitter.com/16eOLXg6Fi  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Before departing for the game, Trump referenced his ongoing defense of the American flag and the national anthem, saying there was enough space for people to express their views. We love our flag and we love our anthem, and we want to keep it that way, he said. Facebook

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Trump tweet hails drop in unemployment rate for African Americans By Associated Press President Trump touted a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans on Monday in a tweet. African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! #NeverForget @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The rate fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Trump also hailed the development via Twitter on Saturday. His latest tweet on the topic came about an hour after it was discussed during an episode of Fox & Friends, according to Mediaite. Facebook

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Trump talks up the economy and dresses down the media in Sunday tweets With President Trump cheering from the sidelines, the White House on Sunday pressed its defense of the presidents fitness to govern, as fired former aide Stephen K. Bannon reversed course and apologized for his role in a new books explosive portrait of Trump. The presidents critics, meanwhile, said Trumps stream of taunts and insults in response to the book  Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, released last week  served only to underscore the authors unsettling portrayal of Trumps year-old presidency, depicting a leader whose own aides consider him childish, ignorant and dangerously erratic. Trump provided more ammunition Sunday morning, as he continued to attack the book via Twitter while preparing to depart Camp David for the White House: Leaving Camp David for the White House. Great meetings with the Cabinet and Military on many very important subjects including Border Security & the desperately needed Wall, the ever increasing Drug and Opioid Problem, Infrastructure, Military, Budget, Trade and DACA.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Ive had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 The most vehement defense of Trump on Sunday came from senior advisor Stephen Miller, a onetime Bannon acolyte who distanced himself from his former mentor. In a combative appearance Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, Miller called the book grotesque and writer Michael Wolff the garbage author of a garbage book. Trump is known to closely monitor aides televised performances in putting forth his case, and he gleefully weighed in within moments of Millers televised clash with host Jake Tapper. CNN has long been a particular target of Trumps ire. Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trumps reaction, however, seemed to bolster Tappers on-air depiction of Miller as using his appearance on the show to play to the president rather than addressing questions put to him. I get it  theres one viewer that you care about, the host said exasperatedly after Miller turned the discussion repeatedly to negative news coverage of the president while deflecting specific queries. Later on Twitter, Trump took up two themes that have been prevalent on his social media feeds recently. The president again went after the news media, tweeting that the recipients of his self-proclaimed most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year, which he promised earlier in the week to announce on Monday, would actually be revealed the following Wednesday: The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trump later lauded a New York Post opinion piece that compared him favorably with his predecessor, President Obama, as well as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In quoting the op-ed, Trump initally misspelled consequential as consensual, but he deleted those tweets and re-sent the messages. His is turning out to be an enormously consequential presidency. So much so that, despite my own frustration over his missteps, there has never been a day when I wished Hillary Clinton were president. Not one. Indeed, as Trumps accomplishments accumulate, the mere thought of...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 ...Clinton in the WH, doubling down on Barack Obamas failed policies, washes away any doubts that America made the right choice. This was truly a change election  and the changes Trump is bringing are far-reaching & necessary. Thank you Michael Goodwin! https://t.co/4fHNcx2Ydg  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Trump also continued talking up the economy, which has been enjoying a period of strong gains. The Stock Market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country in the form of not only Record Setting Stock Prices, but present and future Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Seven TRILLION dollars of value created since our big election win!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 In addition to Miller, other senior administration officials made the rounds of Sunday news talk shows to decry the claims made in Wolffs book. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Wolffs characterization of Trump as averse to digesting classified briefing material was ludicrous, and the ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, insisted that that those around Trump love their country and respect their president. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Responding to book that mocks his intelligence, Trump tweets hes like, really smart By Tracy Wilkinson President Trump declared himself a very stable genius on Twitter on Saturday and later in a televised news conference called the author of a book that questioned his mental fitness a fraud. His comments came on a bone-cold day at Camp David during a weekend retreat with top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders strategizing on the years legislative agenda, including matters such as infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and national security. Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Still, Trumps explosive rebuttal to author Michael Wolffs claims not only opened the day, but it also ensured the presidents capability to fill the highest office in the land was a topic that would not go away. In his early-morning tweets, Trump said two of his greatest assets have been mental stability, and being, like, really smart. He noted that his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, played these cards [about competence] very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). Read More Facebook

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In morning tweets, Trump touts job numbers and takes digs at news media By Associated Press President Trump used Twitter on Saturday morning to tout a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans. He also used the tweets as an opportunity to take digs at media outlets whose past coverage he has found to be critical. The African American unemployment rate fell to 6.8%, the lowest rate in 45 years. I am so happy about this News! And, in the Washington Post (of all places), headline states, Trumps first year jobs numbers were very, very good.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The unemployment rate for African Americans fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Still, the rate for black workers remains well above those for whites and some other groups, something experts attribute in large part to decades of discrimination and disadvantages. Robust job creation has lowered unemployment for all Americans. U.S. employers added nearly 2.1 million jobs in 2017  the seventh straight year that hiring has topped 2 million. In his tweet, Trump praised a report that noted the numbers, touting the fact that it appeared in the Washington Post (of all places). Minutes later, Trump renewed his attack on an ABC News reporter who was suspended last month after filing an erroneous report on Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security advisor. Brian Ross, the reporter who made a fraudulent live newscast about me that drove the Stock Market down 350 points (billions of dollars), was suspended for a month but is now back at ABC NEWS in a lower capacity. He is no longer allowed to report on Trump. Should have been fired!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The reporter, Brian Ross, was reportedly reassigned within ABC News upon returning from his unpaid suspension. But on Saturday, Trump wrote that he should have been fired. Trumps tweets came hours before he was set to host congressional Republicans and administration officials at Camp David. The meeting scheduled to begin at midmorning Saturday was expected to touch on the budget, infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and the shape of the midterm election this fall. Facebook

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Trump commends Sen. Rand Paul after he proposes eliminating all U.S. aid to Pakistan President Trump commended Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican announced plans to introduce legislation that would eliminate all U.S. aid to Pakistan. Trump tweeted Friday night: Good idea Rand! https://t.co/55sqUDiC0s  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was suspending security assistance to Islamabad until the country moves aggressively against local militants who have attacked U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration at the apparent inability of Pakistani authorities to rein in militants who cross out of the countrys rugged tribal areas to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson. Facebook

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Trump continues to lash out at Sloppy Steve Bannon in tweets on tell-all book By Associated Press President Trump is praising a major Republican donor family for distancing themselves from his former advisor Steve Bannon. Trump tweeted Friday: The Mercer Family recently dumped the leaker known as Sloppy Steve Bannon. Smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trump has continued to lash out at Bannon over an explosive new book that quoted his former aide as questioning Trumps competence and describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower among Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as treasonous and unpatriotic. On Thursday, billionaire GOP donor Rebekah Mercer issued a statement distancing her family from Bannon. Mercer is a co-owner of Breitbart, the populist website Bannon helps run. I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected, Mercer said. My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements. The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, quickly shot atop Amazons best-seller list, and the publisher moved up its release date by four days, to Friday. Trump took up the topic again on Twitter on Friday night, denouncing both Bannon and the books author, Michael Wolff, in starkly personal terms: Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://t.co/mEeUhk5ZV9  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Trumps message linked to a meme depicting a parody book cover titled, Liar and Phony, that featured a photo of Wolff and disparaging quotes about the author. In a tweet sent earlier Friday morning, Trump suggested the book was intended to serve as a distraction from the FBIs investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which Trump wrote is proving to be a total hoax. Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try winning an election. Sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 That came amid reports that Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Departments Russia investigation. Trumps effort to keep Sessions, a vocal and loyal supporter of his election bid, in charge of an investigation into his campaign offers special counsel Robert Mueller yet another avenue to explore as his prosecutors work to untangle potential evidence of obstruction. Read More Facebook

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Trump praises the economy ahead of meetings at Camp David By Associated Press President Trump is praising the strength of the U.S. economy ahead of meetings at Camp David with congressional Republicans. Trump tweeted early Friday: Dow goes from 18,589 on November 9, 2016, to 25,075 today, for a new all-time Record. Jumped 1000 points in last 5 weeks, Record fastest 1000 point move in history. This is all about the Make America Great Again agenda! Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Six trillion dollars in value created!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The president also told reporters on the South Lawn that the tax cuts are really kicking in after Congress passed a package of tax cuts at the end of 2017. And the president praised the December jobs report, which found U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, the lowest level since 2000. The modest but steady pace of hiring is a reassuring sign for investors who have been buoyed by the just-passed Republican tax plan and have been sending stock market indexes roaring to uncharted heights. The president is meeting with Republican congressional leaders and members of his Cabinet on Friday and Saturday to discuss the 2018 agenda. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets as Dow crashes through 25,000 By Associated Press President Trump dispatched a congratulatory tweet as the Dow Jones industrial average rose above the 25,000-point mark Thursday, just five weeks after its first close above 24,000. Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 After the Dow closed above 25,000, Trump shared a graphic depicting the stock indexs record-setting rise. MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/iONbr1DkVk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Later in the day, the president was back on Twitter, complaining that news outlets had barely covered the stock market milestone. He suggested that the strength of the economy would be the biggest story on earth, had it unfolded during the presidency of his predecessor. The Fake News Media barely mentions the fact that the Stock Market just hit another New Record and that business in the U.S. is booming...but the people know! Can you imagine if O was president and had these numbers - would be biggest story on earth! Dow now over 25,000.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The Dow broke past 1,000-point barriers in 2017 on its way to a 25% gain for the year, as an eight-year rally since the Great Recession continued to confound skeptics. Strong global economic growth and good prospects for higher company earnings have analysts predicting more gains, although the market may not stay as calm as it has been recently. The Dow has made a rapid trip since it reached 24,000 points Nov. 30, partly on enthusiasm over passage of the Republican-backed tax package, which could boost company profits this year with across-the-board cuts to corporate taxes. Read More Facebook

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Trump reacts to Fire and Fury book in tweet lashing out at author and Sloppy Steve President Trump lashed out at the author of a soon-to-be-released book about the chaotic first year of his presidency Thursday night. In a tweet, Trump called Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a phony book and claimed that hed never spoken to its author, Michael Wolff. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve! Trump wrote. He appeared to be referring to former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, whose stunning criticisms of Trump and his circle figure prominently in the title. I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that dont exist. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trumps tweet came hours after he had his lawyer demand that Henry Holt & Co. and Wolff stop publication the book. Instead, the publisher expedited the books release to Friday, four days before it was slated to hit bookstore shelves, in response to unprecedented demand. Published excerpts on Wednesday and Thursday whetted that appetite and roiled Washington. Bannons comments, including that it was treasonous and unpatriotic for Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met in 2016 with Russians said to have dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, prompted Trump on Wednesday to rebuke his former advisor, saying Bannon had lost his mind. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Brian Bennett and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump thanks senators who attended meeting on immigration President Trump tweeted thanks to Republican senators who attended a meeting about possible immigration legislation on Thursday. In his message, Trump also listed his top priorities when it comes to any type of overhaul of the nations immigration system. Thank you to the great Republican Senators who showed up to our mtg on immigration reform. We must BUILD THE WALL, stop illegal immigration, end chain migration & cancel the visa lottery. The current system is unsafe & unfair to the great people of our country - time for change!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Trumps tweet echoed his remarks at the beginning of Thursdays meeting, when he insisted again that constructing a border wall and overhauling two legal immigration programs must be part of any deal with Democrats to protect the so-called Dreamers from deportation. Two-year deportation protections and work permits given under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program begin to expire March 6 under an executive order. Trump announced in September that he was ending the Obama-era program, but told Congress to draft a law to continue protections for people brought to the country illegally as children  a group that has widespread public support. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Brian Bennett. Facebook

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Trump resumes Twitter war against kneeling NFL players President Trump has resumed his Twitter war against NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest social injustice and racial inequality. In a tweet early Thursday, Trump replied to a supporter who shared a meme that appears to depict family members lying on the grave of a fallen soldier with the caption: This is why we stand. Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! Trump wrote. So beautiful....Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! https://t.co/tJLM1tvbvb  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The president has denounced players who kneel during the anthem in previous tweets. Hes also called for the firing of players who do so. His latest message came amid news that the NFL finished the regular season with TV ratings that fell nearly 10% below the previous season. Analysts attribute the drop to controversies facing the league, as well as changing viewing habits and a possible saturation point in the number of games available. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Stephen Battaglio and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump credits himself with facilitating talks between North and South Korea By Associated Press President Trump says his tough stance on nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula is helping push North Korea and South Korea to talk. Trump tweeted early Thursday: With all of the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 That assertion is in conflict with some of the presidents own statements. Last year, he ridiculed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for talking about negotiations with the North. This week, Trump seemed open to the possibility of an inter-Korean dialogue after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare overture toward South Korea in a New Years Day address. But Trumps ambassador to the United Nations insisted that talks wont be meaningful unless the North is getting rid of its nuclear weapons. The overture about talks came after Trump and Kim traded more bellicose claims about their nuclear weapons. In his New Years Day address, Kim repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Kim said he has a nuclear button on his office desk and warned that the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike. Trump mocked that assertion Tuesday evening in a tweet. Facebook

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After disbanding his vote fraud panel, Trump still says voting system is rigged By Brian Bennett One day after disbanding his troubled voter fraud commission without any findings of fraud, President Trump continued to call the U.S. voting system rigged and said states should require that Americans have voter-identification cards. In two tweets on Thursday morning, Trump blamed the commissions failure on the lack of cooperation from mostly Democrat States that refused to hand over voter rolls because they know that many people are voting illegally. However, voting supervisors in Republican-led states refused as well, objecting on privacy and other grounds. Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Despite Trumps assertions, analysts have not found evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May after alleging, without proof, that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump was elected after winning a majority in the electoral college, but the nationwide count showed Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes. The commission sought personal data on voters across the country and faced mounting lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts another good day for stocks, credits tax cut By Associated Press President Trump touted another good day for the stock market Wednesday in a tweet. Stock Market had another good day but, now that the Tax Cut Bill has passed, we have tremendous upward potential. Dow just short of 25,000, a number that few thought would be possible this soon into my administration. Also, unemployment went down to 4.1%. Only getting better!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Big gains for technology and healthcare stocks helped U.S. indexes set records again Wednesday. Some analysts attributed the surge to investor enthusiasm for Trumps $1.5-trillion tax cut. All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard & Poors 500 index by roughly 8% this year. Thats much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6% that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26% in support. Still, as Trump also noted on Twitter, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, dozens of companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees. Some 40 U.S. companies have responded to President Trumps tax cut and reform victory in Congress last year by handing out bonuses up to $2,000, increases in 401k matches and spending on charity, a much higher number than previously known. https://t.co/bmWrwWzxMR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economys long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees. Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the United States and overseas, havent always led to higher wages. For Wall Street, its all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Facebook

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Trump reacts to death of Mormon Church president By Associated Press President Trump mourned the death of Mormon Church leader Thomas S. Monson on Wednesday evening. Trump tweeted a link to a statement in which he said that Monson demonstrated wisdom, inspired leadership, and great compassion and delivered a message of optimism, forgiveness, and faith. Melania and I are deeply saddened by the death of Thomas S. Monson, a beloved President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...https://t.co/ETD3fWtfU3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 A church bishop at the age of 22, Monson became the youngest church apostle ever in 1963 at the age of 36. He served as a counselor for three church presidents before assuming the role of the top leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008. After a life of church service, Monson died Tuesday at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. He was 90. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets that Iranian protesters will see great U.S. support at the appropriate time By Associated Press President Trump continued to express support for Irans anti-government protesters on Wednesday. In a tweet, Trump commended the protesters and pledged that the United States will support them at the appropriate time. Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Trumps tweet Wednesday morning came as Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo sent a letter to United Nations officials complaining that Washington was intervening in a grotesque way in Irans internal affairs. The President and Vice-President of the United States, in their numerous absurd tweets, incited Iranians to engage in disruptive acts, the ambassador wrote to the U.N. Security Council president and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The U.S. didnt immediately respond to the letter, which maintains that Washington has crossed every limit in flouting rules and principles of international law governing the civilized conduct of international relations. At least 21 people have been killed and hundreds arrested in Iran during a week of anti-government protests and unrest over economic woes and official corruption. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people took part in counter-demonstrations Wednesday backing the clerically overseen government, which has said enemies of Iran are fomenting the protests. Trump has unleashed a series of tweets in recent days backing the protesters, saying Iran is failing at every level and declaring that it is time for change in the Islamic Republic. Facebook

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Trump congratulates Sen. Orrin Hatch upon news of his retirement By Associated Press President Trump congratulated Sen. Orrin Hatch for an absolutely incredible career upon news of Hatchs impending retirement. In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Trump called Hatch a tremendous supporter and wrote that he will be greatly missed in the Senate. Congratulations to Senator Orrin Hatch on an absolutely incredible career. He has been a tremendous supporter, and I will never forget the (beyond kind) statements he has made about me as President. He is my friend and he will be greatly missed in the U.S. Senate! pic.twitter.com/0VjzLEeHTl  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Hatchs decision to retire from the Senate after four decades lets the Utah Republican walk away at the height of his power after helping to push through an overhaul of the tax code and persuading Trump to downsize two national monuments. Retirement also preserves the 83-year-olds legacy by allowing him to avoid a bruising reelection battle that would have broken his promise not to seek an eighth term. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet exaggerates progress in improving veterans care By Associated Press President Trump played up tremendous progress in improving care for veterans in his first year on Tuesday in a tweet. His message linked to an Instagram video describing eight accomplishments that show Trump is fighting for our veterans. But it overstates the impact of these steps. We will not rest until all of Americas GREAT VETERANS can receive the care they so richly deserve. Tremendous progress has been made in a short period of time. Keep up the great work @SecShulkin @DeptVetAffairs! https://t.co/ir25vW15hx pic.twitter.com/OtuzIgxMn6  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Of the eight achievements cited, two are ceremonial proclamations recognizing National Veterans and Military Families Month and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Two are pieces of legislation that extended the troubled Veterans Choice program on a temporary basis. This became necessary because the Trump administration repeatedly miscalculated the amount of taxpayer dollars available to pay for care from private doctors outside the Veterans Affairs system when veterans had to endure long waits for treatment at VA medical centers. The departments poor budget planning caught lawmakers off guard. A fifth claim involves telehealth, a step letting doctors practice medicine across state lines using digital technology. Announced in August, it has yet to take full effect because a proposed VA regulation hasnt been completed. The VA wants authority to practice across state lines to come from legislation, not a regulation. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a telehealth measure that now goes to the House. A sixth claim refers to legislation that streamlines the appeals process for disability compensation claims within the VA. This step has had limited effect so far because it applies to new disability claims, not the 470,000 pending claims. The last two initiatives make it easier for the VA to discipline employees. The department has pointed to more than 1,300 employees who have been fired under Trumps watch. Because their infractions are not detailed in public documents, the effect on veterans care is not fully known. Facebook

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Trump unleashes his first tweetstorm of 2018 By Noah Bierman President Trump clearly didnt resolve to change his Twitter habits this year. With nine disparate tweets over three hours on Tuesday morning, the first working day of 2018, Trump continued to exploit social media to be the most aggressive commentator in chief in American history. For any other president, his posts would have made for a monumental day of (mis-)statements. Yet for Trump, the series  attacks on political foes and media, provocations of foreign leaders and self-praise for events he had nothing to do with  was all but unremarkable. His Twitter barrage  sent between 7:09 a.m. and 10:16 a.m.  reflected a familiar gamut after nearly a year in office: Attacks on political foes: Nearly 14 months after his election, Trump called for the jailing of Huma Abedin, Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid (his misspelling, another occasional feature of Trump tweets). Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 In the same tweet, he disparaged the Deep State Justice Dept, headed of course by his appointees, calling on it to act against James B. Comey, the FBI director he fired for investigating the Russia thing. Diplomatic provocations: Trump again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Rocket man, ridiculed the volatile nuclear-armed foe for recent military defections and openly speculated about potential talks between North and South Korea. Sanctions and other pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not  we will see! Trump wrote. Later Tuesday, Trump tweeted: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Also later Tuesday, Trump tweeted an attack on Pakistan, his second in as many days, and added a new one against Palestinians: It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They dont even want to negotiate a long overdue...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Undermining media: Trump offered Congratulations! to A.G. Sulzberger, who took over as publisher of the New York Times this week. The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved. Get...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent sources, and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you wont have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the two-part post was really yet another slam against a perceived media foe: Trump said the paper had a last chance to fulfill its journalistic mission, and accused it of relying on phony sources and substandard reporters  just days after he granted another exclusive interview to the paper. As a bonus, the tweet contained a recycled falsehood, that the paper apologized after the election for reporting on him unfairly. It didnt. Trump later said on Twitter that he would soon announce the most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year. Stay tuned! I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 oclock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 The president also tweeted a quote from Fox Business Networks Lou Dobbs Tonight, which aired a segment praising Trumps first-year accomplishments. Dobbs reportedly joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday for a gala to celebrate New Years Eve. President Trump has something now he didnt have a year ago, that is a set of accomplishments that nobody can deny. The accomplishments are there, look at his record, he has had a very significant first year. @LouDobbs Show,David Asman & Ed Rollins  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Taking credit: Trump congratulated himself for policing the border with Mexico, an area where his policies and anti-immigration rhetoric are believed to have had some effect on reducing illegal crossings. Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL! @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 He took credit for employee bonuses by companies after he signed Republican tax cuts into law last month. Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the jaw-dropper was Trump congratulating himself for planes not crashing. Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 It was the safest year on record worldwide, but the American streak without commercial jet passenger deaths goes back to 2009. Trump, who has promoted deregulation as one of his top accomplishments, has not signed off on any new airline safety regulations. The White House pointed to new security screening of passengers, to electronic devices to prevent terrorist attacks and to Trumps support for privatizing air traffic control  a proposal that has gotten nowhere in Congress. Falsehoods: Trump said President Obama, in brokering the 2015 nuclear arms limitation deal with Iran, foolishly gave money to the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. He didnt. The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 The nuclear deal, which included major U.S. allies as signators, released Irans own funds that had long been frozen. Trumps art of the deal: When Trump sees a big deal looming, he often blasts the other side  to gain leverage, as hes written. This week he resumes a showdown with Democratic lawmakers over funding the government and immigration protections for so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats are doing nothing for DACA - just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start falling in love with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Trump, who in September ordered a gradual end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sought to shift blame for the resulting controversy, saying Democrats are doing nothing for DACA and are just interested in politics. Trump has insisted that any help for Dreamers be paired with funding for a border wall and a crackdown on legal immigration. Democrats, and some Republicans, are opposed. Read More Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests U.S. will withdraw financial assistance to Pakistan By Shashank Bengali Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of lies & deceit and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism. It was the presidents latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018 U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the presidents statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest and asked for clarification about Trumps comments, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistans prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trumps New Years Day tweet. Read More Facebook

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Trump continues to tweet in support of Iranian protesters By Laura King President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday  and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size  were a signal that Iranians will not take it any longer. Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Trump has tweeted about the protests for three days straight as Iranians took to the streets despite a heavy police presence, tear gas and scores of arrests. The defiance gained urgency after two people were reported shot to death in the city of Dorud, about 200 miles southwest of Tehran. As the conflict escalated, Iranian authorities on Sunday slapped a temporary ban on Instagram and the messaging app Telegram, which were widely used to fan protest fervor. Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Irans leaders already are casting Trumps increasingly effusive expressions of support for the demonstrators as opportunistic meddling and are painting the demonstrators as foreign pawns, adopting a strategy that some analysts say could jeopardize the legitimacy of the nascent antigovernment protests. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets condolences after Colorado deputies are shot in ambush, one fatally By Associated Press A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriffs deputies in Colorado early Sunday, killing one and injuring four others, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Two civilians were also injured. President Trump expressed sorrow, writing on Twitter: My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @DCSheriff, and their families. We love our police and law enforcement - God Bless them all! #LESM  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said deputies came under fire almost
Marijuana growing, dispensaries and delivery will likely become illegal in Newport Beach if an ordinance passes a second reading later this month.

The Newport Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve the first reading of an ordinance banning the cultivation, processing, distribution and delivery of medical cannabis in the city.

Councilman Keith Curry commended law enforcements work in crafting the ordinance, saying, Its something Ive been asking for.

Newport Beachs municipal code previously did not address medical marijuana, though dispensaries have not been allowed to operate in the city, according to City Manager Dave Kiff. Though there are no brick-and-mortar pot dispensaries operating in Newport Beach, several online services say they deliver marijuana to people in the city.

The ban is in response to the states Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Oct. 9. The act, which becomes effective Jan. 1, will create Californias first statewide licensing and operating rules for pot growers, manufacturers of cannabis products and retail outlets since state voters legalized medical marijuana nearly 20 years ago.

The act also states that unless cities take immediate action to enact rules or bans for medical marijuana in their areas, the state will become the sole authority for licensing and regulation, according to Newport Beach Mayor Ed Selich.

In 1996, voters approved Proposition 215, which enabled seriously ill Californians under the care of a doctor to legally possess, use and cultivate marijuana for medical use. In 2003, the state Legislature adopted the Medical Marijuana Program, which allowed patients to associate collectively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes.

Several neighboring cities have struggled for years with the notion of whether to allow pot shops.

In Costa Mesa, where medical marijuana dispensaries have been banned since 2005, two certified petitions sought to send the question to voters, but the City Council declined to put them on a special election ballot this year because of a technicality in state tax law. Instead, the petitions will be on the citys next general election ballot in November 2016.

According to a Newport Beach staff report, several California cities have reported offensive odors, illegal sales and distribution, trespassing, theft, violent robberies, fire hazards and other problems related to the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana.

In a letter to the City Council, Joseph Stack wrote about the benefits of medical marijuana on an ill family member living in another city.

She has been able to get off a number of medications that had much worse side effects, he wrote. He cautioned the council to keep those people in mind when you consider our ordinances.

I am all in favor of protecting the community from drug abuse and I wouldnt advocate opening up a dispensary on every corner, but I am pretty sure there are residents in our city that cant get out of the house and have their prescription medications delivered to their home, Stack wrote. It seems like there should be some way for legitimate patients who benefit from medical marijuana to obtain and use it in our city in a medically responsible way.

The council will vote on the ordinance again on Nov. 24 before it can be enacted.
The Triangle in Costa Mesa is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a weekly music series called Sizzling Summer Sounds.

Performances will be held Wednesday evenings from July 12 through Aug. 23 in the centers upper-level courtyard. Music will include surf classics, reggae and calypso steel drums, classic country, Latin pop, classics from the 80s and 90s, a 70s troubadour guitarist and a romantic Latin duo.

Contests will also be held throughout the music series with winners receiving gift cards from shops and restaurants in The Triangle, which is located where Newport Boulevard, Harbor Boulevard and 19th Street intersect.

For more information, or for a detailed schedule of performances, visit go2triangle.com.

Lindora names Newport Beach resident as new CEO

Lindora has named Newport Beach resident William J. Righeimer as the companys new chief executive.

Righeimer, 47, comes to the medically supervised wellness, weight loss and consumer products company after serving as chief executive of Kuantum Brands  a clinical hydration beverage company. He also previously worked as president and global general manager for Mars, Inc., according to a press release.

Lindora is a powerful brand, in the right space, at the right time and Im excited to join the team at this transformational growth stage, said Righeimer, in a statement.

Costa Mesa business property sells for $33.4 million

Sovereign Capital Management Group, a private equity real estate firm headquartered in San Diego, recently sold a 112,000-square-foot Costa Mesa property to Santa Monica-based BLT Enterprises for $33.4 million.

FedEx currently occupies the property, 1650 Sunflower Ave. As part of the sale, the company will be allowed to remain at the property until 2028.

The sale was executed by Colliers Institutional Investment Services Group  Western Region.

Sanmina announces expansion of technology center in Costa Mesa

The Sanmina Corporation  an optical, electronic and mechanical product company headquartered in San Jose  announced plans this week to expand its technology center in Costa Mesa.

For years, Sanmina has produced printed circuit boards and flex circuits for industrial, medical and military applications at the Costa Mesa center, 2945 Airway Ave.

With the expansion, Sanmina has added system assembly, surface mount technology and advanced microelectronic packaging, according to a press release.

New development opens in Eastside Costa Mesa

Matt White Custom Homes and Warmington Residential announced this week that homes are now officially for sale in a new Eastside Costa Mesa development called Tablelands.

A model home is also now open at the eight-home tract at 133 E. 21st St.

Homes will be two stories and about 1,900 square feet. Different floor plans are available. Visit tablelands8.com for more information.
The longtime unofficial Dog Beach between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach probably wont be getting legal status anytime soon following strong opposition from government agencies, environmentalists and neighbors.

Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel, whose district includes Newport and Huntington, introduced an ordinance last year to allow dogs to roam off-leash along the county-controlled sandbar at the mouth of the Santa Ana River, straddling the cities boundaries.

The ordinance received initial support, but never received the second vote it needed to become official, and Michelle Cook, a spokeswoman for Steels office, said she doesnt foresee that vote coming back to a supervisors agenda.

Cook said Steel continues to support the idea of an off-leash dog beach, but critical feedback to an environmental study released last fall made the supervisor consider it infeasible at this time.

Supervisors tentatively voted for the beach in April 2016. But they delayed the second vote in May over concerns that unleashed canines could harm two at-risk bird species; Cook said this was to await results of the environmental study, which came back in November supportive of the dog beach.

The California Coastal Commission, which would need to issue a coastal development permit for the dog beach, along with the State Parks department, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, pushed back, stressing the area being habitat for the federally endangered California least tern and the threatened Western snowy plover.

Gail Sevrens, environmental program manager for the state fish and wildlife department, wrote that the state and federal wildlife agencies recommend that a dog beach at the mouth of the Santa Ana be permanently abandoned so that the project avoids significant impacts to biological resources.

Orange County chapters of the Sierra Club, the Audubon and California Native Plant societies, along with local groups Still Protecting Our Newport and the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, also mentioned the bird habitats. A nearby homeowner gathered petition signatures citing the bird protections and quality of life issues for the neighborhood. And a lawyer representing nearby residents suggested that the county did not properly notify government agencies or community members about the environmental review.

Attorney Mark Massara said notice of the environmental documents was unprotected from the elements and ended up rumpled near the ground where only a dog would find it, while notice of a since-completed county dredging project was placed only a few feet away in a plastic box.

Please note the only noticing that was located in the vicinity of the project site is a wad of rain-soaked papers at the base of a trash receptacle  immediately adjacent to piles of dog waste, he wrote. Obviously, no reasonable person would take that pile of refuse on the ground to be formal notice of a public review of important new coastal development.

Beach visitors must cross a strip of land within Newport Beach to access the county-controlled portion. Newport Beach City Councilwoman Diane Dixon, whose district includes that region, said the city will continue to enforce its leash and time of use laws in the area.

We will routinely enforce as needed, she said.

Mike Glenn, a vocal Dog Beach supporter, said the beach is physically back  as of this week, swells had pushed enough sand back for the dogs to romp  and he wants Newport to allow dogs and their owners to cross the city patch of land to get to the county side. He was optimistic that matter would come to a City Council agenda, as Councilman Scott Peotter had recently suggested.

Official or not, its been used as a dog beach for 100 years, and thats not changing anytime soon, Glenn said.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
George Emerson was riding in the back of a B-17 bomber in the tailgunner position when one of the other aircraft in his squadron was hit by German anti-aircraft fire and collided with his plane, severing the tail.

It was Feb. 9, 1945, and the United States was embroiled in war against Germany and its allies.

Emerson, 92, who now lives in Huntington Beach, fell out of the broken tail but his parachute deployed and he landed in German territory.

He was instantly taken and imprisoned for the night.

Next morning, I was taken downstairs to police headquarters, interrogated and shown scorched parts of my aircraft, including oxygen tanks and other miscellaneous parts, Emerson wrote in an online post. I was also shown scorched I.D. tags of some of my crew members. Although I suppressed my emotions, this confirmed my suspicions. I might be the only survivor of my aircraft.

He was.

What followed was almost three months of German imprisonment, with much of it spent on the move. Emerson said he spent time in four different camps.

He wasnt tortured, but hunger became his greatest foe.

We were always hungry, he said during a phone interview.

A favorite pastime among the prisoners was discussing the food they enjoyed back home: steaks, baked potatoes and hotcakes smothered with syrup, Emerson wrote.

The uncertainty of his captivity also played with his mind.

You didnt know from one day to the next what might happen, he said.

To keep informed of the progress of the war, the prisoners would listen to BBC broadcasts most nights from a radio cobbled together from stray parts.

On April 28, 1945, Emerson heard artillery nearby, he wrote. He was liberated a day later.

I can honestly say this is the happiest day I ever remember of, Emerson wrote on a piece of paper the day his freedom was restored. What a beautiful sight.

A few days later, Emersons and the rest of the POWs hunger was finally sated.

We are getting our first white bread this evening since being POWs, Emerson wrote. It looks like angel food cake.

Piloting to victory in Asia

Huntington Beach resident David Hayward still remembers the relief he felt when World War II was declared over.

We lost a lot of good men in that war, he said.

Hayward, now 95, piloted a B-25 in 54 combat missions during the war. Much of his service was spent in the China Burma India Theater.

He spent many missions attacking Japanese supply lines, including railroads, bridges, airfields, anything being used to move materials around. As a pilot, Haywards job was to get the plane to the target, which took an ample amount of fortitude.

Fragments from anti-aircraft shells battered against the exterior of the planes and black puffs of smoke would appear in the flight path, suggesting an impending doom. Still, Hayward would continue to his target.

He remembers his first mission, when the squadron was tasked with flying into central Burma to drop bombs on an enemy airfield.

Just as they arrived, the enemy fighters and bombers had taken off and were heading their way.

First thing I knew there was a Japanese fighter right alongside our airplane, he said. Boy, I was really scared. It was kind of an eerie feeling. He was out of range for our gunners to get a shot at him. He sort of teased us for a while. Finally, he went away.

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter:@benbrazilpilot
Federal agents and local law-enforcement officers spent the better part of Friday morning shooting roughly 200 guns, collecting and cataloging every spent shell casing in the hopes that one of them will lead to a break in an unsolved criminal case.

Held at the Glendale Police Departments shooting range, the day was a joint effort between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, known as ATF, Glendale Police and the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force. Each gun was confiscated in Los Angeles County by the crime task force, which goes by the acronym L.A. IMPACT, either at crime scenes or from arrestees.

The seized weapons ranged from simple handguns to rifles and shotguns.

During the course of many of our investigations, we come across illegal weapons or weapons that shouldnt be in the possession of the people we detain, L.A. IMPACT group supervisor Brian Rose said. When we compile a certain amount of guns, we like to bring them out and test them.

Rose said not all guns are stockpiled. If a weapon is already suspected of being used in a specific crime, its tested immediately, he said.

Testing involves firing off a gun several times and collecting the shell casings. Rose said each shell has a distinctive marking from the gun it was fired from, much like a fingerprint.

If a gun is fired in one place during a crime and then used again elsewhere, police are able to link that specific weapon to the two crimes based on the markings found on the shell casings left behind.

The shells collected on Friday will be sent to the Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory at the Glendale Police Departments headquarters, where a 3-D image of each one will be scanned, markings and all. The images will then be uploaded to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, known as NIBIN, which is a database maintained by the ATF that collects similar images of casings recovered from crime scenes across the United States.

When a shell is entered into the system, its crosschecked with other casings that have similar markings.

Chris Bombardiere, a group supervisor with the ATFs Los Angeles field division, said the database is a way for police departments to better share information with one another and help establish links to unrelated crimes.

You might have a suspect in your homicide case or shooting, while I dont have anything in mine, he said. [With NIBIN], I now have a lead I didnt before.

With guns recovered across the county, one weapon could theoretically have links connected with crimes committed in several cities from Torrance to Burbank. Finding these links is important for the good of the whole county, not just any one city, according to Glendale Police Sgt. Robert William.

[This testing] definitely has an impact on unsolved cases in our community, William said. Thats what were doing here, trying to find leads to unsolved cases.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc
Glendale Police are investigating the death of a man in his 50s found early Friday evening with apparent stab wounds on his body.

Officers were called to the 1200 block of East Harvard Street after receiving word of a man down in the driveway of an apartment complex sometime around 6 p.m.

According to Sgt. Robert William, a spokesman with the Glendale Police Department, the man was found covered in stab wounds. They attempted to administer first-aid but the man subsequently died.

East Harvard Street at South Chevy Chase Drive was then cordoned off by officers as they processed the scene and canvassed the area.

The mans body remained on the driveway for several hours before a representative from the Los Angeles County coroners office arrived.

The coroners office was able to confirm that the man was in his 50s and that he was black. A name has not been released, pending notification of next of kin.

A neighbor who lives across the street from the apartment complex described hearing a commotion earlier in the evening and seeing the man on the ground.

The neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said he heard very weird screaming around 5:50 p.m.

I didnt think much of it, then I heard people outside making a little scene and [walked over], he said. I walked close up to the guy and hes literally bleeding his lungs out  he was unconscious.

The neighbor said the deceased man lived in the neighborhood and described him as a nice guy, older guy, never any problems.

Its unknown what led to the stabbing or who stabbed the man.

An autopsy has yet to be conducted and there is no official cause of death, according to the coroners office.

The incident remains under investigation.

Anyone with information can call Glendale police at (818) 548-4911.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc

UPDATES:

July 1, 2017; 11:09 a.m.: This article was updated with information provided by the Los Angeles County coroners office.

June 30, 2017; 11:45 p.m.: This article was updated with information from a neighbor who was familiar with the deceased.

This article was originally published at 8:50 p.m. on June 30, 2017.
Jun 30, 2017, 4:17pm ET

Lexus finally ready to launch three-row RX in October?

More than a decade without a direct competitor to the Audi Q7, Toyota\'s luxury brand may have missed out on 35,000 sales annually.

Lexus may finally be ready to introduce its long-rumored three-row RX crossover, according to Japanese magazine Mag-X.

The report, spotted by Autoguide, claims the so-called RX 350L will be unveiled in October at the Tokyo Motor Show. If true, the timing aligns with an executive's previous hint at a late-2017 or early-2018 arrival in US showrooms.

Despite the seemingly protracted development efforts, the stretched RX is expected to share the same wheelbase with the current five-seat edition. Its rear end is also said to maintain the same styling, aside from the necessary roofline adjustment to fit two more souls above the rear axle.

The RX first debuted in the '90s and maintained a leading role in the luxury crossover segment, however the company was reluctant to follow rivals into the nascent seven-seat subcategory. Parent Toyota has admitted that, in hindsight, its decision to place a higher priority on the RC coupe was likely a strategic blunder.

Now a decade without a direct rival to the Audi Q7 and Mercedes-Benz GL-Class, Toyota believes its luxury brand may have missed out on 35,000 sales annually as big SUVs continue to grow in popularity.

Image via Mag-X.
An 18-year-old literally left his friends holding the bag as he sped away from police early Friday, running over an officer's foot in the process, according to a news release from Lower Saucon Township police.

Police said in a news release that they found three teens -- the 18-year-old and two 17-year-old girls -- trespassing after 2 a.m. Friday morning at South Mountain Park. One of the girls, who would not turn around to face the officer, had a container of marijuana, the release said.

The other girl started having an anxiety attack and as officers helped her, the 18-year-old, identified as Dylan Karba of the 1900 block of 6th Street in Bethlehem, allegedly got into a blue Chevrolet Camaro, locked the door and started it up.

An officer tried to open the door but Karba ran over his foot, police allege. The officers protected the girls as Karba allegedly spun the vehicle around, hopped a curb and drove off.

Police said a warrant for Karba will be obtained in the coming days on charges including aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and corruption of minors. One of the girls will also be charged with possession of marijuana.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Out of the blue, Crayola has released the top five names for its new crayon color.

From almost 90,000 submissions, Crayola selected the following finalists for the new blue hue: Dreams Come Blue, Bluetiful, Blue Moon Bliss, Reach for the Stars and Star Spangled Blue.

The top five names for Crayola's new color.

Now, the Forks Township-based company wants your help to pick the winner. From now until Thursday, Aug. 31, people in the United States and Canada can vote on these five names at Crayola.com/NewColor. You'll be able to track the daily voting results in real-time on the site.

The champion will be announced in early September, and the freshly christened crayon is expected to first show up in boxes later this year or early 2018.

The new color is replacing Dandelion, the color that Crayola retired in dramatic fashion earlier this year. Unveiled to the public in May, the replacement is based on a based on a pigment discovered in 2009 by a chemistry team at Oregon State University, believed to be the first new blue pigment discovered in 200 years. Crayola apparently didn't want to stick with the pigment's name of YInMn Blue, after its chemical makeup of yttrium, indium and manganese oxides.

The Forks Township-based company picked the five contenders for the color's name based on three categories: creativity, uniqueness, and capturing the innovation in the new blue pigment.

Everyone who votes in the poll to decide the name will be entered for a chance to win an all-expense paid trip for four to the Orlando Crayola Experience -- six winners will be named. A daily prize of the award-winning Crayola Air Marker Sprayer will also be given out.

Which name do you think fits the color best?

Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook.
Fifty overdoses over 48 hours in three central Pennsylvania counties shows the potentially lethal risks of heroin mixed with fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, state health officials have warned.

The cluster of overdoses were recorded in Tioga, Lycoming and Clinton counties -- and sent 36 people to the Williamsport hospital in 24 hours alone, according to PennLive.com.

Pennsylvanians warned of cluster of more than 50 overdoses in a 48-hour period in Tioga, Lycoming and Clinton Counties  bit.ly/2tvh33t Posted by Pennsylvania Department of Health on Friday, June 30, 2017

State officials specifically cautioned fentanyl and carfentanil, two synthetic opioids that are up to 50 times stronger than heroin and can kill with "just a pinpoint amount ingested."

"It is critical that individuals who suffer from opioid use disorder (OUD) be aware of the deadly influx of opioids causing overdoses," said Acting Secretary of Drug and Alcohol Programs Jennifer Smith. "Fentanyl and carfentanil ... are many times more lethal than heroin, and often added to heroin without the knowledge of the user."

State officials offered a reminder that naloxone, which can block the effects of opiods on the brain, is available at pharmacies in Pennsylvania without a prescription.

According to the state, more than 4,800 Pennsylvanians died from a drug overdose in 2016, a 37 percent increase over the 2015 count. Heroin and opioid overdose are the leading cause of accidental death in Pennsylvania.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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Leicester City are reportedly close to signing the French striker Gregoire Defrel in a deal worth more than 15million.

The 26-year-old plays in Serie A with Sassuolo and has attracted plenty of interest after scoring 16 times and contributing five assists in 38 competitive games.#

The former Cesena player can operate as a centre-forward, in a supporting role or as a right-sided winger.

Several media organisations in Italy are reporting that a deal could be done with Leicester City as early as next week for 18 million euros, around 15.5mi.

They report that City were interested in the striker during the January transfer window and talks reached an advanced level, but no deal could be done.

Manager Craig Shakespeare is known to want to sign a striker during this transfer window to give goal-scoring support to Jamie Vardy.

It is understood that City's top target is the 20-year-old Manchester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho, who is expected to leave the Eithad Stadium this summer.

Unless hopes of that deal are fading, it would seem unlikely that the signing of Defrel is as advanced as is being claimed in Italy. It is extremely doubtful that City would want to do deals for both players in this transfer windows.
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Sonny Bill Williams was sent off as the British and Irish Lions claimed a thrilling Test series-levelling 24-21 victory over world champions New Zealand at Westpac Stadium.

Williams, one of the biggest names in world rugby, received his marching orders from French referee Jerome Garces after just 25 minutes of a titanic tussle for a dangerous shoulder charge to the head of Lions wing Anthony Watson.

He was the first All Blacks player to be sent off in a Test match since Colin Meads against Scotland 50 years ago, only the third All Black of all-time and the first in New Zealand, and the home side were eventually floored by a 77th-minute Owen Farrell penalty to set up a series decider in Auckland next Saturday.

It was New Zealand's first home defeat since South Africa beat them in 2009, and their first against the Lions for 24 years.

Despite their one-man advantage, though, the Lions were almost made to pay for poor discipline, with All Blacks fly-half Beauden Barrett kicking seven penalties from 10 attempts, but second-half tries by number eight Taulupe Faletau and scrum-half Conor Murray - plus 14 points from Farrell - saw them home.

Lions prop Mako Vunipola was sin-binned for a poor challenge on Barrett during the third quarter, and at one stage, the Lions conceded five kickable penalties during a 14-minute spell.

New Zealand's 46-Test unbeaten record on home soil was eventually ended by the Lions amid wild scenes of celebration from their travelling fans.

The rain that arrived in Wellington from mid-afternoon swept down as the Lions made a purposeful start, with lock Alun Wyn Jones making an immediate impression with a crunching tackle, before a promising position inside New Zealand's 22 was ruined by a Maro Itoje knock-on.

But the Lions kept probing for space, not being afraid to keep ball in hand despite the conditions, and they dominated a scoreless opening 10 minutes in terms of possession and territory.

When New Zealand belatedly moved into the Lions' half, a sense of urgency surfaced as they moved forward at a rapid pace. An opening Barrett penalty strike, though, hit the post and it remained all square.

The Lions forwards were far more cohesive and physical than they had been seven days ago, yet they handed Barrett another penalty chance by collapsing a scrum, and this time Barrett made no mistake.

Farrell landed a superb kick from just inside New Zealand's half to level the match, and then came a huge moment as Williams was dramatically sent off.

Television replays showed what Garces described as "a direct charge on the head" and he had no hesitation in brandishing red to Williams, while Watson departed for a head injury assessment and was temporarily replaced by his fellow England wing Jack Nowell.

It meant the All Blacks faced a Herculean task for more than an hour, and they immediately began to change things as flanker Jerome Kaino was taken off and replaced by debutant back Ngani Laumape, before Watson returned.

Barrett and Farrell exchanged penalties in quick succession, before Barrett completed his hat-trick, but there was still time for Farrell to follow suit, making it 9-9 at half-time.

New Zealand began the second period in determined fashion, only for Barrett to miss an easy penalty chance after Itoje drifted offside, which allowed the Lions a considerable let-off.

The Lions, though, were their own worst enemies, and when Murray was penalised for a high tackle, Barrett stepped up and this time made no mistake from 35 metres out.

Seemingly gripped by indiscipline, the Lions then gave Barrett another opportunity - his third in seven minutes - but he sent it wide, before Vunipola's reckless late lunge on Barrett afforded him another kick, and he took New Zealand six points clear.

Owen Farrell kicks one of his penalties against the All Blacks

Vunipola was then yellow-carded, and Barrett kicked three more points, before a sweeping Lions move ended in Wales star Faletau touching down wide out to set up a thrilling final 20 minutes.

A seventh Barrett penalty arrived after the Lions fell offside inside their own 22, only for Murray to storm through a gap, touch down and see Farrell boot a match-levelling conversion.

And then came his winning strike with three minutes left after replacement All Blacks prop Charlie Faumuina was punished for an illegal challenge on Kyle Sinckler, and the Lions went wild.
Naas is full of racing anoraks. However, in former Irish Independent Racing Correspondent Damien McElroy, the town has got one of the sports most respected judges  and when it comes to racing yarns, youll do well to find a man who tells them better.

My first memory of the Irish Derby was Santa Claus in 1964 because it was our first year living in Naas. Scobie Breasley had ridden the horse at Epsom but Willie Burke was the groom in the yard and he rode him at the Curragh because he was literally a steering job.

READ MORE: Full Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby festival coverage here

Nobody other than the legendary Mick Rogers would have trusted a lad in the yard to ride the Derby winner and after the race, the horse was paraded in the town and whole of Naas went crazy. says Damien of his earliest Irish Derby memory.

Anybody who knows Damien will realise hes in full flow now and hes not long in remembering the start of the Lester years.

I remember Lester winning on two full brothers, Ribocco and Ribero, one year after another and that was unprecedented at the time. That was after Lester had ridden Meadow Court two years prior for Darkie Prendergast and Meadow Court was co-owned by Bing Crosby.

Bing was there the day he won with the pipe and the raincoat, smoking it contentedly, as the horse won. It was a bit like Alex Ferguson and Rock Of Gibraltar as he was invited into the horse for fame and glory.

Bing Crosby with Meadow Court at the Irish Derby in 1965

He then moves on to one of the greatest horses to ever grace the Curragh turf.

Then there was Nijinsky. Liam Ward, who as the Irish champion at the time, was on him at the Curragh after Lester had ridden him at Epsom. And Liam was told to basically dont fall off.

I think Nijinsky had the greatest turn of speed Ive ever seen in a horse. Its him and Sir Ivor which live in the memory of literally kicking into turbo, but Nijinsky was the one, theres no doubt about that.

Everybody was just crazy about him. He was the Arkle of flat racing at the time. Nijinsky was owned by Charles W Englehart and he was a multimillionaire who he lived on Coca Cola. He was a big fat overweight man, who died before his time.

Many will remember The Minstrel, partly because of the never-say-die ride given to him by Lester Piggott in the 1977 Epsom Derby. Damien remembers him for other reasons, however.

The Minstrel with the ear plugs in. Piggott had beaten the lard out of him at Epsom but he wore ear plugs that day because he was so hyper. It was the first time ear plugs were used at that level and that was down to Vincent of course. The horse would have gone ballistic in the preliminaries at Epsom and he wore them at the Curragh as well.

Four years later, and its Shergars turn to get Damiens vote of approval.

Talk about another steering job.

He had won at Epsom and then went on to win the King George before getting beaten in the St Leger. What happened afterwards, of course, was disgraceful.

Damien McElroy pictured with Derby winning jockey Christy Roche and Tracy Piggott

For the majority of trainers based on the Curragh, and further beyond, the presence of the Old Vic gallop has been pivotal in their day-to-day operations.

Damien recalls of how the Old Vic gallop came about. Old Vics legacy is the gallop up the Curragh. Hed won the French Derby and after he won the Irish Derby under Steve Cauthen, Sheikh Mohammad donated the prize money to build a proper gallop in the Curragh and gave the rest to local charities. Old Vic was so popular because of what the Sheikh did.

Dermot Weld had to wait longer than he would have wanted to win his home Derby. Hes now won three and Damien has fond memories of his first two winners in Zagreb and Grey Swallow.

Pat Shanahan had been a wonderful work rider for years and was on board Zagreb and he had his day in the sun but he was basically a flukey winner.

Grey Swallow was a different story, however, because he was reputedly prepped for the Irish Derby in a gallop up the Old Vic. Pat Shanahan rode him and Pat Smullen rode Vinnie Roe and they pulled up at the top of the Curragh and Dermot said to Pat Shanahan, Well, what do you think of that? He replied, Hell win the Derby, Boss. I dont think Dermot would deny that.

The Irish Derby has been dominated in recent years by the home team but it wasnt that long ago when we struggled to land a blow in our biggest Classic.

For years, we were the poor boy in the Curragh and then suddenly we started to monopolise it. England won six in a row from 1986 and we were in therapy.

One of those winners was Sir Harry Lewis in 1987. And that day, you wouldnt put out a milk bottle. It teemed rain all day and Sir Harry Lewis ploughed through the mud to win it impressively.

That day was one of the worst days you could go out.

Its safe to say that Budweiser is probably the most renowned sponsor of the Irish Derby.

Damien remembers, though, why the huge American-owned company isnt associated with the great race anymore.

The story with Budweiser was that the Americans thought the Irish Derby was being run in a field in Ireland because the camera was on the near side of the track. It looked like they were in a field and there was no crowd because everything was being filmed from the stand, unlike the Kentucky Derby, where there was 120,000 in the stand and they film it from the infield.

That was one of the reasons why Budweiser gave up on it. The year Camelot won the Irish Derby, I watched it from the infield and it looked completely different with the crowd in the background.

Damien has been reminiscing for 15 minutes now and were only getting around to the Aidan OBrien years.

A total of 11 different Irish Derby winners to choose from, but Damien is in no doubt as to which was his best.

Galileo was the one. High Chaparral was hard as nails, tough as teeth, but Galileo was probably the best balanced racehorse Ive ever seen. He went around Epsom like it was a billiard table. He was just the perfect racehorse. Aidans best was Galileo for sure.

Theres something very special about going down memory lane with somebody with such an exceptional sporting brain.

In Damien McElroy, Naas have got somebody extremely unique.

And if he ever publishes a book on his racing stories, it would undoubtedly be a best seller.
The price of the average three-bed semi in Co Leitrim has risen 4% to 96,750 in the last three months, according to the Q2 Real Estate Alliance Average House Price Index.

The REA Average House Price Survey concentrates on the actual sale price of Ireland's typical stock home, the three-bed semi, giving an up-to-date picture of the property market in towns and cities countrywide.

In Carrick-on-Shannon a three-bed semi will now cost 128,500, a 2% increase this quarter.

However, prices in Carrigallen have risen 8.3% this quarter to 65,000  an increase of over 18% annually.

Joe Brady reports that there is continued strong demand for homes in Carrick-on-Shannon with most demand in the 100,000 to 250,000 price bracket. In this sector prices continue to rise at between 10% & 12% per annum. Having sold a lot of houses in this price bracket in April, May and June they are eager to take on more to satisfy the demand from buyers on their books.

According to James Spring from REA Peter Donohoe in Carrigallen, demand is being driven by limited stock in the area.

The average semi-detached house nationally now costs 215,269, the Q2 REA Average House Price Survey has found  a rise of 2.5% on the Q1 figure of 209,944.

Overall, the average house price across the country has risen by 11.2% over the past 12 months  in contrast to the 4.5% increase registered to the full year to June 2016.

While new building is still in its infancy, new developments on sale in small pockets of the country have had an impact on the price and demand for second-hand properties locally.

Most of our national housing stock is over a decade old, and house purchasers  especially first-time buyers  will opt for new builds at a higher spec, even if there is a marked difference in price.

Our agents are also reporting that both purchasers and three-bed semi vendors are looking for larger homes, which is having an adverse effect on the supply chain, with the result that time taken to sell is now four weeks on average in Dublin and the major cities, and as low as three in some parts of the capital."

The price of an average house in Dublin rose by 2.6% in the second quarter of this year with three-bed semis in the capital now taking as little as three weeks to sell.

The average three-bed semi-detached in Dublin city now costs 414,500, a rise of 10,000 (2.6%) over the last three months and an increase of 14.1% over the past year.
It now appears that Vince Cable will be unopposed in the upcoming party leadership election, and so party members will not receive the opportunity to quiz him at hustings on his record and policy views>

Many of us within the party are concerned by this. We believe that in a democratic party, it is imperative that the leader receive proper scrutiny. We need to know that the candidate is up to the job. The leader of the party must be able to deal with uncomfortable questions. As weve seen in the recent election campaign, the inability to give a straight answer to a simple question can be fatal to a leader.

The party leader must also be able to speak for the party and to defend party policy, especially when it comes to the most important issues of the day. In particular, many people have expressed concern about Vinces statements to the New Statesman calling for an end to single market membership and freedom of movement, which appear to go against both party policy and the partys constitution.

>For that reason, a number of us have put together an open letter to Vince Cable, the full text of which can be found here. This letter has been signed so far by hundreds of party members, including a substantial number of parliamentary candidates, councillors, and local party exec members. These are the people on whose support a new leader will need to rely, and so those people in turn need to know that the new leader is worthy of such support.

The core of the letter is a set of five questions. We believe that Sir Vince needs to answer these questions, clearly and unambiguously, before becoming leader, so we know what kind of leader, and what kind of party, we will have over this current Parliamentary session.

The questions are:

Do you agree with the statement in the Preamble to the Liberal Democrat constitution that Our responsibility for justice and liberty cannot be confined by national boundaries; we are committed to [] promote the free movement of ideas, people, goods and services? Do you want the UK to only have single market access in the event of Brexit  as the Conservatives and Labour are advocating  or do you want full British membership of the single market? Do you still think that customs union status with the EU would be an acceptable trade-off for the UK in exchange for greater restrictions on immigration than EU membership currently allows? If you are elected party leader, will you respect and champion our existing party policy to protect freedom of movement with the EU as a positive in its own right in addition to it being an essential requirement for UK membership of the European single market? Do you agree that our national interest is best served by full UK membership of the EU and will you commit to ensuring that that belief remains integral to Liberal Democrat party policy?

We hope Vince will give swift and comprehensive answers to these questions, and we are inviting our fellow party members to join us in signing the letter to emphasise the strength of feeling that these questions need and deserve to be answered.

* Andrew Hickey is a Liberal Democrat member from Manchester.
A DOCTOR who received a settlement of 209,600 after accusations of bullying at the University of Limerick has been refused access to files relating to his case by UL under the Freedom of Information Act.

Dr Niall Cahill, who is seeking to comply with a new investigation into allegations of misconduct at UL, said it is scandalous that he has been denied access to his case history.

Dr Cahill said that he believes that UL has grossly violated the letter and spirit of the Freedom of Information Act in an endeavour to prevent the truth from coming out.

The GP in Limerick city, who was formerly medical director of the student health centre in UL for 15 years, has now brought the issue to the attention of the information commissioner, which has agreed to review his case.

To deny me access to FOI requests constitutes an attempted subversion of the constitutional rights of the citizen, and must not be allowed to prevail, Dr Cahill told the Limerick Leader.

I dont believe my request if frivolous or vexatious. This is the furthest thing from frivolity. I feel that its a balanced, reasonable and extremely legitimate request in light of my case and in view of all the allegations that have been made against UL, he said.

The information commissioner contacted UL to confirm whether it would still be refusing to release this information in light of the university's change of position on the question of an independent inquiry into various allegations.

UL confirmed to the authority that it is not granting this request under Section 15 (g) of the FOI Act (2014), which states, in part, that such a request could be deemed as frivolous or vexatious or forms part of a pattern of manifestly unreasonable requests from the same requester or from different requesters who, in the opinion of the head, appear to have made the requests acting in concert.

Dr Cahill requested correspondence concerning his employment between a number of different university staff, including the director of human resources, the director of student affairs, the vice president, and correspondence between UL and Arthur Cox solicitors. In correspondence, seen by the Limerick Leader, and sent by Arthur Cox on behalf of UL, it states that his FOI request will not be granted, given that all matters between our clients have been resolved by the settlement agreement, the university does not intend to respond to your clients request.

Dr Des Fitzgerald, the recently appointed new president of UL, reversed ULs position in agreeing to an independent review of all the allegations, and in allowing others to come forward.

Dr Richard Thorn, former president of Sligo Institute of Technology, who is leading the review, confirmed that they have now received over 20 submissions concerning a wide range of allegations at UL.

Dr Cahill received a total of 209,600 from UL in August 2015, including a confidential severance payment of 185,000, plus his legal costs of 24,600, and a letter of reference from the university in August 2015.

The settlement agreement was made without any admission of liability on the part of the university. It outlined that Dr Cahill  who has made a protected disclosure to the Higher Education Authority concerning his case  waive all claims in respect of alleged occupational stress, bullying or harassment. Dr Cahill, who denied the allegations of bullying, claims that he had been raising concerns around governance and employment matters in UL since 2010, when a number of complaints were made against him by one employee, and a package to leave UL was foisted upon him.
LIMERICK women are not just making Miss Ireland waves within their own county, as a Treaty City native has also been crowned Miss Kilkenny.

Niamh de Brun, from the Ennis Road, will represent the cats at the national Miss Ireland competition in October, but is adamant that shes a true Limerick woman.

Im a HR specialist in an engineering company, and Ive been living in Kilkenny for just over a year. I was in Australia, and prior to that I was studying in UL - business and I majored in HR, said Niamh.

The daughter of former Ardscoil Ris principal Brid de Brun, and Sean de Brun, the head of Irish, Literacy, and Maths Education in Mary Immaculate College, Niamh has three siblings: Caoimhe, Brid and Padraig.

She was educated at Laurel Hill Colaiste FCJ, before completing her studies at UL.

The people of Kilkenny have been very supportive. I think how they saw it was that I can promote everything thats good about Kilkenny and be an ambassador for the city, said Niamh.

I tell everybody that Im a Limerick girl. Ill promote Limerick where I can. But theyve been great in Kilkenny, theyve claimed me as their own, she added.

Niamh will be heading to Dublin in October to compete in the overall Miss Ireland competition  no mean feat, but thankfully she has no fear of public speaking.

Because of my role as a HR specialist, Im always doing presentations and proposals to directors, so Im well versed in speaking in front of people. Im also going to be working with An Garda Siochana come September going around to secondary schools in Kilkenny, talking about cyberbullying, she added.

As well as promoting Kilkenny and Limerick in her role, Niamh also hopes to raise the profile of Breast Cancer Ireland, a cause close to her heart due to family bereavements.

And she is in good company  CEO of Breast Cancer Ireland, Aisling Hurley, is another Laurel Hill Colaiste past pupil.
EVEN the poor flowers came in for a lash at Monday's meeting of Limerick City and County Council when they gathered to elect a new Mayor.

They were a reminder, Cllr Seighin O'Ceallaigh SF said, of the flowers the council sent on the occasion of Franco's death.

And he had other, scalding remarks in his arsenal.

In the chamber, we have previously complained about the racist views of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage. Well now as Mayor of Limerick, we have our very own, Donald Farage, he said.

Aah, get away with you, Seighin. Poor Stephen is no Trump. He came to Limerick on a bus a long time ago to build houses in Moyross, not hotels. He is a true son of our Republic of Opportunity.

But that was not to be the end of Stephen's day of purgatory. Solidarity's Cllr Cian Prendiville called on Stephen to retract the comments he made at a meeting of the Adare Rathkeale Municipal District which had offended so many non-nationals and which were unfounded and untrue. No half-hearted apology would do this young man. Retract, he demanded.

Oh yes. It was strong stuff on a warm day when it looked as if half of Croagh had turned out in their best suits and summer frocks to support and celebrate with their man and instead found themselves caught in the crossfire of comments.

"I know what discrimination is," Cllr John Loftus began.

Growing up in Scotland, he knew what it was to up set upon simply because his parents were from Ireland. Now, he said, "I am an immigrant to Ireland and to this wonderful city."

His wonderful, caring wife, he added, was Hungarian. "I hope what you said today in your apology that you mean it. It really offended my wife and it offended me, he said.

Cllr Elena Secas quoted John F Kennedy who said: 'Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country'. "This is the principle I share," Cllr Secas said and she had found Cllr Kearys remarks unhelpful.

By then, of course, it was all too late anyway. The votes had been counted and Stephen Keary, backed by a combination of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and a few Independents, had won by an Irish mile with 27 votes. The pact had held and in any case, the opposition was divided. Sinn Fein's candidate Cllr John Costello clocked up eight votes; Solidarity's Cllr John Keller just two.

By then too, the new Mayor had set out his stall for the year and had delivered his much-criticised apology before calmly going on to chair the meeting as good and bad were thrown at him.

You have apologised not once but twice. What more can you expect? Even that is not enough for some councillors in this room, declared Cllr Emmett O'Brien, Ind, sympathetically.

Let us draw a line in the sand, declared Cllr Michael Collins, Fianna Fail leader.

"I have no doubt you will do a good job," declared Fine Gael leader in the council, Cllr John Sheahan, who had nominated Cllr Keary for Mayor.

"There are three different types of apology," he said. "Apology by demand, apology by expedience and apology that would be heartfelt. Stephen Keary's apology was heartfelt."

And, in any case, he added, whatever about apologies, "you will be judged by actions"."I have no doubt his actions will tell what sort of man he is.

In the midst of all of this, Cllr Marian Hurley's elevation to Deputy Mayor got a bit lost.

But she delivered her acceptance speech with a great dollop of optimism and enthusiasm, mentioning in passing that she and former councillor Mary Jackman had taken part in the wonderful Limerick Sings choral festival over the weekend.

Sing to us, Marian, we begged silently. Sing to us.

It was not to be. Or not then anyway. The singing, we understand, came much later and went on very late into the night in Croagh.

Looking on from the public gallery, Derek ODwyer whose online petition against Stephen Kearys election clocked up over 2000 signatures said it was more coronation than election. He was clearly sad that a dinosaur would now represent Limerick, whose best feature, he argued, was its very diversity.

By teatime, the roadside signs had gone up in Croagh, proclaiming it was home to the new Mayor. Happily for him, the days events have, we understand, been immortalised on DVD. Were not sure about the bad bits, though.
ON MAY 23, 2015, an overjoyed Kate Stoica said Yes when her long-term girlfriend Billie proposed to her with a sapphire engagement ring  on the same day Ireland said Yes to marriage equality.

Kate, we make a great team. I love you inside and out, head to toe, I don't want to waste another minute of my life without you as my wife, Billie said to her bride-to-be at the count centre at University of Limerick, surrounded by friends, family, and flashing cameras capturing the special moment.

They quickly became Limericks iconic LGBT duo, after the sensational moment was given the spotlight by numerous newspapers, radio stations and TV networks across the country.

And the Cappamore couple have now tied the rainbow knot, following their special wedding ceremony at Hotel Doolin, in Clare, last Sunday.

But Billie, 44, who doesnt use a surname, admits that she watched a layer of dust cover the sapphire stone over four years, doubting that the prospect of a proposal would ever become a reality.

That day was important because we had spoken about getting married for a long time. Kate was very clear that I had to be the one that proposed. And I had a ring made, and we were four years waiting to use this ring, because we had agreed that we wouldnt get engaged until we could get married.

The ring was dusty. The box was dusty. It was like a forgotten dream, and then suddenly it was real.

Billie and Kate, 29, first met in 2008, and it was later a friendship that had blossomed into romance.

Billie is a community support worker with GOSHH on Davis Street, while Kate is an art psychotherapist.

The wedding, attended by 120 guests, was festival-themed, with a marquee adorned with colourful decor from floor to ceiling, designed by Grace Events.

On their special day, Kate wore a soft cream vintage dress with chantilly lace and a matching headpiece, from Lilac Rose. Billie brought about her Scottish ancestry with the family tartan, a kilt designed by Stephen Lynch of Bowman Lynch Designs. Including her family heritage was extremely important because my mother died in 2004, and that was the only way she could be with me.

The bridesmaids navy dresses, from Be Fabulous, matched Kates sapphire engagement ring.

It was overwhelming, the amount of joy that was in the room, it was just mind-blowing. I spent the day watching Kate moving around, looking absolutely stunning, feeling quite breathless and not being able to get hold of her! an elated Billie said.

Still relaxing in Doolin this Tuesday, Kate said: It was so special. We designed the ceremony ourselves with Marry Me Ireland, so it was really personal. And so many family and friends wouldnt be used to a wedding outside of a church, and they thought it was better than any other wedding that they had been to, in terms of how personal and touching it was. I was overwhelmed by that.

A unique feature of the wedding, they said, was the knotting of colourful ribbons for the handfasting ceremony.

So we ended up with a rainbow flag of ribbons tying our hands together. And that was really special.

The newly-weds will celebrate their honeymoon in Crete.
Reading the Bible along the Ganges John Chamberlain, the missionary who distributed the Bible at the Ardh Kumbh Mela /news/talking-point/reading-the-bible-along-the-ganges-111646993666630.html 111646993666630 story

It is 200 years ago, the month of May in 1817. The Doab burns under a sizzling midsummer sun. Some villagers are gathered under a tree, just outside Delhi. They have a book with them. Or do they have books? Word reaches a young man named Anund Messeh, a Christian convert, recently baptized. He rushes to the tree and is astonished to find that the books are copies of the New Testament. He engages the villagers in a conversation about baptism and sacrament.

He then reports to his superiors and there is much excitement in missionary circles about this seemingly miraculous encounter. Then, gradually, holes begin to appear in Messehs overenthusiastic narrative. But thats another story.

How did the books get there? We turn the pages of history. It is now April 1814. An Ardh Kumbh Mela is taking place in Haridwar. Among the millions camped in the temple town for the fortnight is a Protestant missionary named John Chamberlain, who is giving away books.

He would later write: I took all the books I had for distribution: but amongst the immense multitudes assembled there, all were very few indeed; ten times the number might have been sent abroad with ease: for days we had but one Gospel of Matthew in Hindee, and not one in Bengalee left.  Had I had some Pushtoo and Persian Gospels, I should have been able to have sent some into Persia and Candahar."

Who was John Chamberlain? He was something of a loose cannon, having arrived at the legendary mission of Serampore in 1802, full of good intentions. Chamberlain had a facility with languages and a gift for music. But this did not impress his superior William Carey, who found him not amenable to mission discipline. He was frequently dispatched on punishment postings, such as in Behrampore in 1808, where he got into trouble for preaching among European soldiers.

We turn the pages again. It is now the winter of 1810-11. Chamberlain, along with an alcoholic fellow missionary, is on a boat. They sail up the river to Patna, then to Munger, where upwards of thirty books and one hundred tracts were given away".

On 25 April 1811 in Allahabad, Chamberlain stood by the side of the river, and preached to hundreds of people, giving away tracts and parts of the New Testament". By the time the group reached Agra, the tracts had been exhausted and Chamberlain sent for more: I hope you will send me the remainder of the Hindoostanee New Testament; and if you could get a few more of the Persian Gospels, they would be very acceptable, as the Mussulmans and many Hindoos read nothing but Persian."

The rustle of more pages turning. It is March 1813. Chamberlain has reached Sirdhana variously by horse, elephant, buggy and palanquin. Sirdhana is the seat of the colourful Begum Sumroo, an ally of the British, a former nautch girl who married a European mercenary and became a Roman Catholic. It is during his sojourn in Sirdhana that Chamberlain meets a keen young man named Paramanand, who is eager to be initiated into Christianity. They instantly take to each other and work on translating the Pentateuch and New Testament into Braj Bhasha.

The following year, Chamberlain finds himself in Haridwar and the Bibles he distributes resurface three years later under a tree outside Delhi. But what language were they in? From the evidence we have, they may have been part of a Hindi edition of the New Testament of which 4,000 copies were printed in 1812 in Serampore. Or they might have been the Punjabi edition printed the previous year. In June 1813, he had specifically asked for some copies of the Punjabi Gospel: (S)hould I live till next February, I shall probably attend her Highness to Hurdwar, where multitudes of those people assemble ... Multitudes of the Sikhs attend there. I hope you will send me a supply of Punjabee testaments to distribute among them."

A last turn of the pagesAnund Messeh, formerly Parmanand, stands under a tree talking excitedly with the villagers, at least some of whom were at Haridwar, accepting the gift of books. They themselves were Sadhs, a Satnami sect, and received much ethnographic attention in the following decades. They lived in five nearby villages and met every year at a general assembly. Their 1817 meeting has since passed into history, with reams written about the significance of their encounter with Messeh. But such writing is often untroubled by the question of what the books were and how they fell into the hands of the Sadhs.

And with that we come to the end of the natural life of this column, or if you like, its endpapers. Endpapers wishes its readers envoi (which originally was a short stanza ending a long poem or ballad). But dont worry, we are not about to break into song!

This is the last of the Endpapers series on obscure books and forgotten writers.

Abhijit Gupta teaches English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and is director, Jadavpur University Press.
Outside my tent, in the mornings first light, the haunting, but fascinating calls of hyenas helped awaken me to a new day.

I peered out the door and tried to spot them, but darkness still covered most of the valley floor below.

After hearing and talking about Kidepo National Park in northern Uganda for years, I was finally here. Its the most isolated and rarely visited park in Uganda.

Kidepo National Park sits on the border with South Sudan, in the northeastern section of Uganda. For several years, this part of Uganda was unsafe because of a rebel group called the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony.

A large section of northern Uganda, which one needed to pass through to get to the park, was under LRA control. This instability effectively isolated the park from visitors, except those who could pay for expensive private flights.

Peace has landed in the region and new roads are being built, allowing easier access to the once isolated location.

Ringed by mountains, this short-grass, savannah-filled valley in the far northeast part of the country is one of the loveliest places in East Africa and one of the least disturbed of Africas wildernesses.

I believe it to be the closest experience of what it must have been like when the first explorers came to Africa. Ironically, the instability of the region kept it somewhat preserved in time.

The African vibe here is something special.

We were the first guests ever to visit a new lodge called Kidepo Savannah Lodge. Located on the top of a ridge overlooking the park, the views of the valley are breathtaking and beautiful.

Kidepo Valley National park offered something I craved for: a remoteness and wild vibe hard to find in other locations. There is something special to look across the savannah and be the only ones to be viewing such a moment.

Often on game drives, you share the experience with several other vehicles, giving it at times, a circus feeling. Not here. We watched elephants, zebras, antelope and lions as their only guests.

On one such occasion, we spotted a lioness sitting next to a recent kill of a buffalo. On the horizon, a male lion and female lion strolled slowly toward our location. Other creatures interested in dinner, vultures and jackals also surrounded the area. If either got too close, the lion would sit up and remind them of the risk involved when cutting in line.

The lions in Kidepo are good hunters, explained our guide and park ranger. They rarely go hungry here.

Just as the park ranger finished his story, he pointed to a lion in the tall grass.

Look, even though they have this buffalo to eat, this lion is stalking a warthog, he said.

The lion crouched and moved slowly through the tall grass toward the warthog. The animal was oblivious it was about to be on the menu.

Just at the last moment, the warthog woke up to the fact that it was not alone, dashed away, and left the lion in its dust.

If she were really hungry, the lion would have given a stronger chase, the park ranger explained.

My favorite moments were the sunrises. I must confess I have witnessed more sunsets than sunrises in my journeys. But our camp faced east, so each morning we were offered a spectacular view for the start of the day.

To make sure I never missed the colorful dawn, I left the east door of my tent open. The dry and dusty air helped turn the sky a brilliant red each morning as the first light spilled into my dark tent.

And if the light couldnt shake me from my slumber, the calls of hyenas finished the job, an invitation just too enchanting to miss.
A cache of drugs discovered inside a cabinet during a cleaning at the Oakland Police Department has prompted a criminal investigation into how the narcotics got there and why, a police spokesman said Friday.

The drugs were found Sunday inside a locked cabinet encased in evidence-sealed packaging, said Officer Marco Marquez, the department spokesman. Marquez said police were conducting both a criminal investigation and an internal affairs investigation into the incident. He did not say who found the narcotics.

All evidence, including narcotics, are supposed to be kept in certain, regulated areas, and police employees must be cleared to remove them.

The narcotics that were found were in their original amounts, he said.

It was not immediately clear how long the drugs had been locked in the cabinet. Marquez, citing the departments ongoing investigation, declined to specify the type of drugs involved, as well as their approximate street value and quantity.

The spokesman also would not specify how long the drugs were in the cabinet, and he did not say who was involved in placing them there.

In another blow to the troubled department  which was recently slammed by court-appointed investigators for its poor handling of the sex scandal that involved a Bay Area teenager  Marquez said internal investigators were also probing an allegation of sexual misconduct from May 27.

He would not detail the nature of the sexual misconduct, citing the ongoing investigation, but he said it occurred in the workplace after-hours, adding that there is no indication that laws were broken.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley
Peter T. White was a National Geographic writer and editor who slogged through tropical rain forests, hiked the Tyrolean Alps, examined the addictive and therapeutic uses of the opium poppy and wrote about cannibalistic tribes in the Brazilian jungle who ate their dead as a gesture of respect.

White died May 22 at his home in Washington. He was 92. The cause was respiratory failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said a son, Norbert White.

White's 38 years with National Geographic included lengthy visits to Southeast Asia, which he described as a place "of hope and terror," known for bloodshed and the beauty of its temples.

From Laos in 1961, White wrote, "The first rattle of machine guns, at 7:10 in the evening, roused around me the varied voices and faces of fear." Vientiane, the administrative capital, became known as the "city of bullet holes," he wrote.

He was among the early corps of American journalists to report on the region's protracted conflicts that morphed into a Vietnamese war that would engulf the military might of the United States and rend the fabric of the American soul.

For three decades, White was in and out of the region. In 1989, 14 years after Vietnam had been reunited under Communist rule, he returned for the National Geographic story, "Vietnam: Hard Road to Peace," finding that the Hanoi-based government was making overtures to a capitalist world and groping for ways to invigorate a sluggish economy. Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, had officially become Ho Chi Minh City. But to the man in the street, it was still Saigon.

In 1986, White wrote about the painstaking search for clues and information from the debris at the Laotian site of a U.S. Air Force plane crash in 1972, with the loss of a 14-man crew. For nine days, investigators combed the newly discovered wreckage, finding "some 5,000 bone fragments, many of them no larger than a rice kernel," White wrote.

Not all of his stories were exotic. In April 1983, he wrote "The Fascinating World of Trash," storing his notes in boxes piled from floor to ceiling in his office. He carefully labeled each box "trash."

Peter Theodor Futterweit was born May 11, 1925, in Vienna. His father was a Jewish World War I veteran of the Austro-Hungarian army who had been decorated for bravery. In civilian life, he ran a jewelry shop. The family lived in an upscale neighborhood of Vienna and took regular vacations in Italy and the Austrian Alps.

In June 1933, when Peter was 8, his father was killed by a bomb tossed into his shop during an anti-Semitic outburst of violence that followed Adolf Hitler's ascent to power in neighboring Germany.

In September 1937, Peter and all other Jewish students were expelled from his public school. Six months later, the German army marched into Vienna, and Austria was absorbed into Germany.

Within days, his family's jewelry shop - run by his mother after his father's murder - was plundered by Nazi soldiers. What remained was confiscated by the puppet Austrian government.

Peter Futterweit, 13 at the time, left Austria via what came to be known as the "kindertransport," an organized pre-World War II evacuation of children from areas under threat by Hitler's regime. He went first to England and then, on his 15th birthday, arrived in New York, where he met his mother who also had fled their homeland.

He became a copyboy at what then was International News Service and went to high school at night. When he turned 18, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in military intelligence in England, France and Germany during World War II.

He graduated from Columbia University in 1948, then became New York correspondent for newspapers in Australia and New Zealand and contributed freelance articles to the New York Times Sunday magazine. In 1956, he joined the staff of National Geographic in Washington.

For a 1985 story on the opium poppy, White and photographer Steve Raymer visited 30 countries over 18 months. They interviewed and photographed drug addicts and dealers, doctors, scientists, police officers and government officials for a story that examined the medicinal value and destructive power of the poppy plant.

White retired from National Geographic in 1994.

His wife of 52 years, the former Carol Henderson, died in 2014.

Survivors include their son, Norbert White of New York, and two grandchildren.

While serving in the Army during World War II, White became a U.S. citizen. At that time he changed his surname to White.

Colleagues said he retained his Old World courtliness and was almost frantically meticulous in his reporting and research - and never seemed to throw anything away.

White was questioned once by an editorial researcher about the accuracy of a statement in one of his stories that a remote stream deep in a jungle had become heavily polluted. Back to his office he went, rummaging about until he produced the proof - a bottle of dark, thick liquid from the offending stream, which he'd brought back from the jungle.
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The gunman who shot two San Antonio Police Department officers, killing one and critically wounding another, before killing himself on Thursday had an extensive criminal history in Texas and Louisiana, according to court records and law enforcement authorities.

Andrew C. Bice, 34, was identified as the shooter Friday by San Antonio Police Department officials. Police say he opened fire on Officer Miguel Moreno and Officer Julio Cavazos around 3:15 p.m. near Evergreen and Howard Streets after the officers stopped him and another man on the street.

RELATED: 'Last night, there was no laughing': SAPD officer describes grim mood at roll call after shooting

Bice shot Moreno in the head and Cavazos in the chin, though the bullet eventually lodged itself in his chest cavity. Cavazos was able to move Moreno to safety and return fire on Bice, striking him in the buttocks. Bice then hobbled to the corner of Evergreen and Howard, where he shot himself in the head. He died shortly after 5 p.m. at University Hospital.

Moreno was kept on life-support until 11:11 a.m. on Friday when he was pronounced dead. Cavazos has had one successful surgery and faces many more, but doctors expect him to survive.

According to court records and law enforcement officials, Bice had numerous run ins with the law dating back more than a decade from his death. He was convicted of three charges in Bexar County from 2003 to 2006 and was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail nine times on more than 30 charges, including multiple counts of kidnapping and burglary, over a 9-year period.

Bice pleaded guilty to three charges originating out of Bexar County, according to online court records. His first guilty plea came in October 2003 to an assault causing bodily injury to a family member charge. About two years later in August 2005, he pleaded guilty to a charge of evading arrest. Lastly, in January 2007, Bice pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a controlled substance between 1 and 4 grams.

RELATED: McManus releases names of SAPD officers shot, provides additional details on shootout

Bice's lengthy criminal history in St. Tammany Parish, which sits on Lake Pontchartrain and borders Mississippi, was confirmed Meredith Timberlake, a spokeswoman for the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office.

Timberlake was not able to confirm Friday evening whether Bice was convicted of any of the charges on which he was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail.

The dates he was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail and the charges on which he was booked are listed below beginning with the most recent instance.

Jan. 20, 2017, on a charge of cruelty to a juvenile

Nov. 21, 2016, on a charge of hit and run

Sept. 13, 2016, on charges of improper lane use, no driver's license on person and aggravated flight from an officer

Dec. 28, 2015, on charges of second-degree kidnapping, aggravated criminal damage and simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling

Oct. 9, 2015, on a probation violation charge

March 15, 2015, on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, improper lane use, driving under suspension, no proof of insurance and expired license plate.

July 1, 2009, on charges of aggravated criminal damage, contempt of court, simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling, second-degree kidnapping, simple criminal damage to property and unauthorized entry to an inhabited dwelling

March 23, 2009, on charges of contempt of court and simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling

August 7, 2008, on charges of disturbing the peace, resisting an officer, two charges of simple criminal damage to property, second-degree kidnapping, aggravated criminal damage, simple burglary and contempt of court.

Police have said Bice's attack on the officers appears to be random. Cavazos and Moreno had stopped him and another man to check their identification while on a directed patrol focused on car burglary prevention.

"I'm at a loss for words to describe what a tragedy this is," said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, flanked by fellow SAPD officers at a Friday morning press conference. "Imagine one of your relatives was shot and killed on the street for apparently no reason."

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While on the campaign trail in West Virginia last year, Donald Trump donned a hardhat and pantomimed digging coal with a shovel. The coal miners in the audience would soon be back to work, he promised: "Get ready, because you are going to be working your asses off."

The only problem: Coal miners no longer swing a pickax or wield a shovel. While coal companies are hiring again, executives are starting to search for workers who can crunch gigabytes of data or use a joystick to maneuver mining vehicles hundreds of miles away.

"If you do PlayStation, you can run a 300-ton truck," said Douglas Blackburn, a fourth-generation miner himself who runs the industry consultancy Blackacre LLC. For an industry once notorious for its risks, "the worst that can happen is you sprain a thumb."

The trend toward fewer workers, of course, is nothing new. The heyday of coal employment came in 1923, when the U.S. industry -- then reliant on laborers with hand tools, blast powder and oil lamps -- had a record 863,000 miners, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Ever since, that number has fallen thanks to increasingly sophisticated machinery. The technological change took a leap forward in the 1980s with the expansion of large-scale mining in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, where the coal can be scooped out of the ground from above. The miners no longer had to tunnel underground.

In the Powder River Basin's giant open-pit mines, large haul trucks now crisscross the sites day and night, collecting up to 400 tons of coal at a time from towering seams. High-school graduates with little experience often drive the trucks, taking home salaries that can be $30 an hour. Trains that can stretch more than 100 cars long are loaded up mechanically with the coal and sent off to plants as far away as Georgia.

"Whether coal comes back or not is not necessarily directly related to jobs," Heath Lovell, a spokesman for coal producer Alliance Resource Partners, said in an interview on NPR's "On Point." "We should be becoming more and more efficient, which would mean we could produce the same amount of coal with less employees."

In Illinois, underground miners including Alliance Resource and Foresight Energy have a collection of longwall machines -- computerized devices that cut coal from the earth in slices that can extend for miles -- ready to ramp up production with minimal manpower if demand allows.

To be sure, Trump's pledge has come true for some workers. Coal companies added 2,400 jobs since September, bringing the total to 51,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Coal companies are advertising for licensed mechanics and electricians, warehouse clerks and security guards.

Coal's future, however, is likely to involve a new set of skills. It won't be long before a miner is working out of an office in, say, Denver, where she'll stare at computer screens and maneuver equipment in Wyoming, according to Blackburn. The miner -- earning, perhaps, $15 an hour -- will monitor several massive trucks that largely steer themselves, he said.

Just as electric locomotives once replaced the pit ponies and mules in the mines, Caterpillar Inc. is already selling fleets of its "autonomous" haul trucks to Australian mining companies. One customer, iron-ore giant Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, has increased productivity by up to 30 percent thanks to the vehicles' better-than-human consistency and precision, Denise Johnson, Caterpillar's head of resource industries, said at a Deutsche Bank summit on June 8.

"You can keep those trucks running 24/7,'' Johnson said. "You don't have to take bathroom breaks.''

That sort of savings will be hard for U.S. coal companies to resist as they struggle to stay competitive against the onslaught of cheap natural gas, solar and wind power. Caterpillar's autonomous-mining technology is already being adopted by U.S. customers and it's expanding its offerings, a company spokesman said by email. The company declined to identify its customers.

And such technology won't be limited to Wyoming. When talking to coal executives, Rick Honaker, chairman of the University of Kentucky's mining program for the past decade, keeps hearing how they want young engineers who can automate a piece of equipment, managing gigabytes of data so the machinery can be used most efficiently.

"The way to compete is being more automated," Honaker said in an interview. "And unfortunately, that means less jobs -- more skilled labor but less overall employment."

Against that backdrop, Trump is capitalizing on the sense of nostalgia for coal's bygone days and anxiety about the future, said Patrick Hickey, a political science professor at West Virginia University. In Appalachia, people are well aware that miners stopped heaving coal with shovels generations ago, but Trump's air-shoveling still resonated in a state whose flag bears the image of a 19th century miner holding a pickax.

"Coal mining jobs were hard jobs -- people had serious health problems as a result of them -- but an honest effort was rewarded well," Hickey said. By trading politically on an antiquated image of a miner, Trump is appealing not just to displaced coal workers but to those in manufacturing and other sectors threatened by automation and foreign competition.

"As we see this disruption all over the economy in the public and private sector, I think it's really powerful to hearken back to these touchstones of an economy that had more certainty," he said.

One irony for the industry now is that in some areas the coal companies say they can't find the high-skilled workers they need. In West Virginia, companies are resorting to offering signing bonuses and fully paid healthcare to poach experienced shift foremen, mechanics and electricians from rivals. Many of those workers left the coal industry during the last decade's collapse and found more stable employment in other sectors. They aren't anxious to switch back.

"The scars are still fresh," said George Dethlefsen, CEO of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Corsa Coal Corp., which opened a mine in Pennsylvania this month. "Those guys are not fully trusting that this market is back and here to stay.''

Finding young talent is especially hard. During the bust, companies were laying off people rather than training a new generation of miners. That created a dearth of high-skilled workers in their 20s and 30s.

"Youth might be the most looked-for qualification," Matt Preston, a coal analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd., said in an email. Finding young workers "willing to get into a shrinking industry is an uphill climb."

---

Bloomberg's Jennifer A. Dlouhy contributed.
Outside a supermarket in Riyadh, a long-bearded police officer peers at a driver, glances at his female passenger and issues an order: "You should stay away from women."

The trouble for the young man is that women are banned from driving in Saudi Arabia. He works for a ride-sharing company and the vast majority of his customers are female. "What am I supposed to do?" he protested before shrugging and taking off. "Leave them?"

The exchange highlights the paradox that the Saudi religious police have come to embody since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, elevated to the heir to the throne, unveiled a transformation plan called "Vision 2030" just over a year ago.

That blueprint for life after oil means the country is attempting to modernize the economy and create jobs to bring down youth unemployment by replacing foreigners with Saudis, including drivers for Uber and local competitor Careem. What's harder is to reconcile the inevitable social change with an ultra-conservative strain of Islam like nowhere else on earth.

The foot-soldiers in short, white robes and unadorned headdresses seemed to have all but vanished from Riyadh last year after the government barred them from making arrests or questioning people. But recently, as some Saudis complain of creeping immorality, they're back in many areas of the capital, rebuking men and women for mixing in public and clamping down on uncovered hair, albeit a little more politely.

It's because they often serve as a counterweight when Saudi Arabia moves toward more social lenience, said Crispin Hawes, managing director at Teneo Intelligence. Their return is a kind of natural "pendulum swing," he said. "The system is navigating itself through slightly uncharted waters."

After Mohammed bin Salman's anointment on Wednesday, Saudis used Twitter to list their hopes for the "new age." The return of the religious police was among the demands, along with jobs, affordable housing, women's rights, ejecting foreigners and "holding the liberals accountable."

The officers have retreated and come back before. For instance, in 2002, the Interior Ministry told them to go easy on enforcing strict moral codes on youth. That came as Saudi Arabia sought to project a less extreme image following the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. the year before and after a fatal school fire in which eyewitnesses said the religious police stopped girls from fleeing because they weren't properly covered.

The police, formally the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and just known locally as the "hay'ah," didn't respond to a request for comment. It said in a statement last month it was starting a project "to develop and strengthen fieldwork." That will mean more presence from officers during "occasions that require it," such as school holidays, the statement said.

Charged with enforcing rules like gender segregation and business closures for prayer, the commission is an embarrassment to some Saudis and a beloved symbol of the country's Islamic identity to others."The majority of the people are calling for the return of the religious police," said Mohammed Al Subaie, 27, a Saudi who advocates reinstating their powers. "There's a void now and it's led to rebellious behaviors." He complained about "women displaying their beauty."

Waiting on a bench in an upscale mall, Haya Al Otaibi, 50, was certainly not one of those women. Draped in black with only her eyes showing, she said she missed the religious police and also believed they're necessary to protect youth morality.

It's still a far cry from years ago. Officers will now be given iPads to file reports, rather than the sticks they once carried to whack violators, Saudi newspapers have reported. Legally, they can't do much more than rebuke people, and when they cruise the streets droning "prayer, prayer" into megaphones, many Saudis simply ignore them.

Unable to enforce their edicts without the assistance of regular police, the commission has been trying to cultivate a warmer, fuzzier image. On official social media accounts, they share photographs of officers handing out candy to children alongside posts about busting illegal alcohol stills.

An officer who stopped a Bloomberg reporter for wearing a colorful abaya, the robe that women must wear in public, was courteous. "The abaya should not attract the attention of men," he said, calling out "God bless you" as she walked away.

Sitting with her children in a Riyadh mall food court, Umm Ziyad, a 40-year-old mother, said the power curbs were necessary to avoid abuse. "If they overstep their boundaries I'm not with them," she said. "Sometimes they really went too far."
President Xi Jinping warned a divided Hong Kong that challenges to China's rule wouldn't be tolerated and said the city's leaders must find new ways to profit from Chinese economic clout.

Xi's stern speech Saturday -- at a ceremony in which he swore in Carrie Lam, 60, as Hong Kong's first female chief executive -- capped a three-day trip to mark the 20th anniversary of the former British colony's return to China. The president said the city's leaders must build political consensus, devise new economic drivers and address soaring home prices.

"It is imperative to always focus on development as the top priority," Xi told the gathering of the city's political and business leaders, saying that growth held "the golden key to resolving various issues in Hong Kong." Any attempts to challenge the Chinese government "or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible," he said.

Since the last Chinese president visited five years ago, Hong Kong has been racked by doubts about the city's growth model, protests for greater democracy and the emergence of a small independence movement. The trip demonstrated Xi's intolerance for challenges to Chinese sovereignty while showcasing the confidence he has displayed abroad as growing clout gives his country less reason to hide its strength and abide international pressure.

"Xi sent a clear sovereign message: 'You belong to us, and your future is with us,' " said David Zweig, a political science professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. "Maybe it will finally put to sleep the democrats' unfailing belief that somehow Xi is going to offer a package that will solve the political problems of Hong Kong."

Thousands of police officers were deployed to keep protesters far away from Xi, and those lining nearby streets during the ceremony appeared largely supportive of Chinese rule, waving red national flags. Scuffles broke out when several pro-democracy demonstrators tried to carry a mock coffin to venue. Joshua Wong, 20, a leader of the mass Occupy protests in 2014 who now runs his own political party, said he was detained by police and released.

After Xi's departure Saturday, thousands joined an annual pro-democracy march through the streets. Attendees carried banners calling for the downfall of the Communist Party and the arrest of city's former chief executive Leung Chun-ying.

Many were unconvinced by Xi's promise of prosperity, which they said would probably benefit the wealthy most. The city, long lauded by economists for its business freedom, has the biggest wealth disparity in Asia. Apartments the size of parking spots cost $500,000 and median wage earners would have to save for 80 years to buy a home.

"Xi always stresses that they bring us economic opportunities," social worker Ruth Wong, 29, said. "But can you say it benefits most of the Hong Kong people? I think those who benefit are those who have vested interests, like the property developers."

During Xi's visit, the Hong Kong stock exchange announced that foreign investors would from Monday gain access to China's $10 trillion debt market through a local bond connect. He also oversaw the signing of an agreement to develop innovation as well as closer economic links among Hong Kong, neighboring Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province.

Earlier Saturday, Lam presided over a reenactment of the flag-raising first performed in 1997 when the British ended their 156-year rule. After taking her oath as chief executive, the one-time colonial civil servant pledged to strengthen the public's faith in the government and include younger people in political discussions.

"There has been a tendency to make cynical accusations, and to put personal grudges before objective facts," Lam said. "This has hurt the executive-legislature relationship, hindered governing effectiveness and directly dragged down our economic and social progress."

Many residents have also grown skeptical of China's promise to maintain Hong Kong's autonomy -- including free speech and independent courts -- under a framework called "one country, two systems." The failure to hold direct elections for the city's leader and recent Chinese interventions in the Hong Kong's legal affairs have energized young activists who led mass democracy protests almost three years ago and now advocate "self-determination."

Both Xi and Lam stressed the need to improve opportunities, as young people face increased competition from Mandarin-speaking mainlanders. Xi called for policies to "enhance education and raise public awareness of the history and culture of the Chinese nation," in a possible nod to a national education proposal shelved in 2012 amid student protests.

"Integration with China will be very good for Hong Kong's economy, but Xi Jinping must realize that many of us have never known true Communist rule," said Mike Lee, 20, who works as a waiter at a coffee shop near where the president spoke. "We have been born into freedom. China has to be indulgent of Hong Kong's aspirations."

--With assistance from Richard Macauley Robin Ganguly and Daniela Wei
More than 80 years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued an executive order called the Rural Electrification and Telephone Service Act of 1936. It provided federal loans to bring utilities to expensive-to-serve and hard-to-reach rural areas.

One of the acts chief proponents was a senator from Nebraska named George Norris, who recognized the importance of electricity and phone service to the economic and social well-being of rural communities. Without service, rural America couldnt compete in a changing world.

Well, the ensuing eight decades have brought more changes. Broadband internet and cell service are todays equivalent to electricity and phone. The hurdles to bringing faster internet to rural America are almost identical to the ones in the 1930  expense and logistics. The solutions will require equal creativity and, most likely, a little federal oomph. And Nebraskans stand to benefit if this gets figured out sooner rather than later.

President Trumps recent pledge to ford the digital divide as part of an infrastructure plan is heartening, but its certainly not a straight line from a presidents lips to a Logan County farmers laptop. Ultimately it will require action on lots of governmental levels and partnerships with providers.

The need, however, is unquestionable. And its a need that should be felt by all Nebraskans, not just those who want to stream a two hour movie in something close to two hours. All Nebraskans have a vested interest in a thriving rural lifestyle. Some want a place to go home to. Some want a place of peace. Some simply want affordable food, made possible by farmers and ranchers having access to better technology. And all will benefit by creating more places in the state where innovation and new business ideas can take root.

The Journal Stars Nick Bergin talked with rural residents who need access to faster internet for work. And what parent hasnt wanted to simply download a movie and plop the kids in front of it for a couple hour break. Slow internet seeps into so many aspects of life that many of us take our relatively reliable and speedier service for granted. Solutions in rural areas, Bergin found, are expensive or nonexistent.

Right now it may not seem that access to faster internet is a matter of life and death like electricity is. But electricity may have seemed more luxury than necessity in the 1930s. If we want a thriving rural lifestyle in Nebraska, we need to take steps now, creative ones, to fix this digital divide.
WASHINGTON  Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchisons selection as President Donald Trumps ambassador to NATO continues a run of high-profile Texans in the Trump administration, and one that may soften the edges of the presidents prickly relations with the outside world.

She will be joining former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now Trumps energy secretary, and former Exxon Mobil chief Rex Tillerson, now Trumps secretary of state. At the White House, she also will recognize former Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri, now deputy director of the office of public liaison in the Trump administration.

For Hutchison, 73, coming out of political retirement after three terms in the Senate will put her in a whole new partisan sphere than the one she left when she decided not to run in 2012.

Political observers will be watching to see how Hutchison, the most senior female Republican senator by the end of her tenure, will navigate Trumps well-known insistence on absolute loyalty, the more so since his messy twitter attack Thursday on MSNBC morning show host Mika Brzezinski.

In an MSNBC interview in April last year, Hutchison said Trump was wrong to attack Hillary Clinton on gender and needed to stay more focused on issues and experience.

The context that hes using, personal attacks on his opponents, both Republicans as well as Democrats, is just the wrong attack right now, Hutchison said. It is time for him to start talking substance, and I thought his foreign policy speech was a step in the right direction. And I think we dont need any more of these personal, little slights.

Hutchison, originally a backer of Jeb Bush for president in 2016, also said she wasnt sure at the time if she could support Trump if he won the GOP nomination.

As ambassador to NATO, Hutchison will become the face of Trumps uneasy relationship with the 28-nation military alliance, which he once called obsolete.

The president has pressed European members of the alliance to spend more money on defense, saying the U.S. was being shortchanged. It presumably will be up to Hutchison now to drive a harder bargain.

As a senator, Hutchison served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Defense and Military Construction appropriations subcommittees.

As she faces the Senate confirmation process, she has received the thumbs-up of both current Texas senators. With a proven track record of getting results, she has always done what she thought was in the best interest of Texas and our country, said Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.

Sen. Ted Cruz also weighed in on Friday, saying her past Senate committee posts give her an incredible insight into the issues facing Europe, her allies and the importance of NATO to serve in opposition to Russian aggression.
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Leaders at the Texas Capitol love to bash what they call out-of-control bureaucrats at city halls and in Washington, D.C., but a recent case pitting the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission against Specs Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods looks like state regulatory overreach on steroids.

After an investigation of the states largest liquor retailer, the TABC sought to yank permits for all 164 of the companys stores  which would effectively shut it down  or hit Spec's with fines of up to $713 million, according to court documents filed last week.

The agency also put the companys expansion plans on ice by freezing Specs new permit applications during the three-year probe, records show.

What did Specs, a family-run company based in Houston, do to deserve the business equivalent of the death penalty? Thats what a couple of Texas administrative law judges wondered last week.

They poured out the TABC like stale beer in a blunt 151-page ruling. The judges said TABC failed to prove dozens of allegations, rebuked agency lawyers for failing to disclose evidence to their own witness (and the court) and called out the agency for stacking charges, a tactic commonly used to pressure defendants into a settlement.

(Story continues below)

In the end, the multi-year prosecution and an eight-day March administrative law hearing  similar to a trial  turned up evidence that Specs may have paid a $778 invoice from a wine supplier a day or two late in 2011 under the complicated liquor credit law spelling out when payments for booze must be made.

The sum total of the sanctions recommended by the judges: a warning, and no fines.

TABC spokesman Chris Porter said the penalties described by the judges "are the maximum available penalties for the alleged violations under the Alcoholic Beverage Code," and added that "TABC never seriously pursued the listed sanctions and did not seek to levy such heavy fines or cancel all the permits for all 164 Specs stores."

The judges have given Spec's the green light to start expanding in Texas again.

Specs, meanwhile, is on the hook for north of a million dollars in legal fees, court fees and other costs, said Al Van Huff, the company's attorney. That doesnt count the scrapped plans to expand and grow at a time when out-of-state chains like Total Wines are adding outlets in Texas.

Its an abuse of power, Van Huff said. How did you waste all this agencys time and the taxpayers money by prosecuting a case of this magnitude against somebody and the end result is the guy gets a warning for a late payment that happened five years ago? They should have to explain their behavior to somebody.

Specs is expecting the TABC to ask the State Office of Administrative Hearings to reconsider at least some of the judges' findings. If that doesnt happen, the regulatory agency has some discretion to change the proposed decision. But that would likely trigger more legal wrangling  this time in state district court.

Porter, the TABC spokesman, said because the case remained open, the agency could not comment on the specific allegations or disclose what steps it would take next.

But he said the TABC is required under law to "issue citations if an investigation uncovers evidence of an alleged violation" and that whatever the outcome, "the agency believes in the ideals of due process and rule of law."

Van Huff said Specs is considering its own legal options, which could include a lawsuit against an agency already in the hot seat at the Legislature after a series of spending controversies and reports of abusive treatment of companies it regulates.

Last week, newly-appointed TABC Chairman Kevin Lilly, tapped by Gov. Greg Abbott to help clean up the embattled agency, visited the TABCs Austin headquarters, where he reviewed the personnel files of senior staff and conducted a series of closed-door meetings with them.

Abbotts office expressed concern about TABCs handling of the Specs case and other matters.

"The governor continues to be deeply concerned about the pattern of practice at TABC, said Abbott spokeswoman Ciara Matthews. The governor's office is actively working with newly-appointed Chairman Lilly, who has been conducting a top-to-bottom review of all personnel and operations to reform TABC."

Specs lawyer was particularly critical of the TABC's auditing and investigations chief, Dexter Jones, who oversaw the Specs investigation, and TABC General Counsel Emily Helm.

Van Huff alleged Helm abused her power in early 2016 by offering to get three new permit applications approved for Specs President John Rydman if the company would agree to settle the existing cases.

According to court documents, the TABC said denying the new permits was justified because Specs threatened the general welfare, health, peace, morals and safety of Texans due to the concerns raised in the agencys probe.

Van Huff said he told Helm that the allegations against Spec's were "hyper-technical violations of the code" that had nothing to do with health and safety. Helm's response, he said, was: If Specs could be our real friend instead of our fake friend and settle these cases then we can let (Rydman) have his permits.

An email seeking comment from Helm went unanswered. Porter, the agency spokesman, said Helm "disputes the wording of this quote" and "any assertion of unlawful conduct."

"Such settlements are offered (often multiple times) during the course of any administrative case in which TABC is involved," Porter said. "This is a common, lawful practice for any administrative or civil court case."

Flimsy charges fell apart

The case against Specs started with an audit of the retailers operations that began in February 2013.

Two years later, Van Huff and Rydman, Spec's president and owner, were summoned to TABC headquarters and given a settlement agreement proposing to fine the retailer $8.6 million, cancel 16 of its liquor store permits and agree to enhanced oversight for two years.

Once Rydman and Van Huff started looking through the allegations, Van Huff said they knew there was no way they were going to settle.

The TABC claimed Specs had illegally accepted millions of dollars in payments from both a wholesaler and a competing liquor store. A liquor retailer such as Spec's generally cant receive money from those entities under the state's byzantine alcohol regulations, adopted after Prohibition was lifted in the 1930s, that strictly control who can own what piece of the alcohol business.

In both cases, Specs said it could easily explain the payments TABC auditors discovered. In the case of the wholesaler, Specs had accidentally paid an invoice twice, so the money coming back into its account from a wholesaler was merely a refund of an overpayment; in the case of the competing liquor store, Specs was legally purchasing the store and using its merchant accounts during the transition process, Van Huff said. A phone call could have cleared up those supposed infractions, he said.

Instead of the auditor who was doing the investigation seeing something questionable and then asking us to explain it, they just made it an allegation in this settlement agreement as the basis for us to agree to write a check and to agree to all these settlement terms, Van Huff said.

A turning point in hearing

The same dynamic  scandalous-sounding charges that didnt survive a cursory check of the evidence  played out repeatedly during the March hearing.

During the proceedings, TABC officials attempted to convince the court that Specs engaged in a pattern of behavior so egregious that it deserved to have all of its liquor permits canceled, the court said.

But one allegation after another crumbled before the judges. TABCs star in-house witness, Houston-based auditor Kathy Anderson, alleged Specs engaged in illegal price negotiations for wine. Her proof? Emails between a wholesaler and a wine maker discussing what price Specs might want to charge. But Specs didn't participate in that email exchange.

She agreed that there was no evidence Specs accepted the terms, the judges noted in tossing the allegation. She also admitted that there was no documentary evidence that Specs actually purchased any of the products.

Even more damaging to TABC was Andersons claim that one of Specs wholesalers, United Wine & Spirits, had admitted to violations that implicated Specs in a scheme to skirt liquor laws designed to keep alcohol manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers all in separate lanes. The supposed proof: an agreed-to waiver order  basically an acceptance of punishment  that United Wine & Spirits signed.

That order was cited like a Kings X over and over in TABCs case against Specs. A long string of allegations relying on that document collapsed when Van Huff asked Anderson if she had read the settlement agreement attached to the waiver order  which stated that United agreed to pay a fine to resolve the contested allegations but did not admit guilt.

She said she was not aware of that stipulation. This was the gotcha moment of the trial.

Van Huff asked Anderson: We now see that the TABC agreed ... that this wouldn't be construed as an admission by United, correct?

Anderson: Correct.

Van Huff: So each and every time you refer to the waiver order and say it was United Wines & Spirits admission of wrongdoing that reflects poorly on Specs, that was all incorrect, wasn't it?"

Anderson: It appears so.

Van Huff: Thank you. We'll take that as a yes, right?"

Anderson: Yes.

Andersons admission came within the first few hours of the proceedings. It went downhill from there.

When the TABC called United Wine & Spirits executives to the stand, the executives quickly threw TABC under the bus, testifying that although they disputed the agency's charges, they agreed to pay the TABC $100,000 to make the case go away. They calculated it would be cheaper and easier than fighting it out.

Not all witnesses called by (TABC) Staff provided testimony helpful to Staffs case, the judges said in a footnote. In fact, when called to testify for the Commission, the testimony of the witnesses from United Wine directly contravened Staffs case.

The judges also ruled that the TABC failed to reveal the contents of United Wine & Sprits settlement agreement to its own witness and to the (administrative court)."

And they determined that  contrary to (TABCs) contention that the charges are not stacked  the agency piled one allegation on top of another in a controversial practice that uses the same evidence for multiple charges.

This is what they do. They intimidate people, said Dick Wills, a former TABC licensing supervisor for the Gulf Coast region who is now a liquor industry consultant. He served as an expert witness for Specs during the proceedings.

People should be fired over this. This is the most egregious case Ive ever seen filed by the TABC. The most, bar none.

Case takes its toll

The TABC's legal Waterloo is helping to lift the cloud that has been hanging for three years over Specs, launched with a single store in 1962 by Rydmans father-in-law, Spec Jackson.

After the company branched out into upscale wines and gourmet food, it went on to become the largest liquor retailer in Texas and the second-largest family owned alcohol retailer in the nation, according to Rydman.

Rydman, who began working at Specs in 1972, took the stand during the trial and recounted how the probe has taken a toll on his business. He said the company hasnt been able to expand for three years, and earlier this year a landlord threatened to cancel a lease because he was unable to renew a permit.

This whole process has cost my company a tremendous amount of money, Rydman told a TABC lawyer during the proceedings. And people throughout the industry chuckling at us, laughing at us, and afraid to do things with us, afraid to talk to us because they don't want to get tainted and have y'all come after them.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Nearly 60 years ago, Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman, had to leave their home state of Virginia and travel about 100 miles to Washington, D.C., to get married. At the time, Virginia and 15 other Southern states had laws barring black-white marriages. The newlyweds returned to Central Point, Virginia, to set up their home. About a month later, they were arrested for violating Virginias miscegenation law.

The couple faced prison terms of one to five years. They were spared, provided they leave Virginia and not return for at least 25 years. The Lovings moved to Washington, D.C.

In 1964, the Lovings filed a lawsuit against the state of Virginia. Fifty years ago, on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court in Loving vs. Virginia found that Virginias miscegenation law violated the 14th Amendment. This monumental case gave the right to people to marry regardless of race, thus repealing the miscegenation laws of Virginia and the 15 other states.

That was then. During the past five decades, the prevalence of matrimony across the black-white color line has increased. But how much has racial and ethnic intermarriage changed in the United States since the pre-Loving era?

Lets look at census data to analyze the race and ethnicity of spouses in 1960 and 2015.

One commonality that is true then and now is that aside from small racial and ethnic groups, such as Native Americans, most people tend to marry persons from their own group  individuals who are like them.

Larger groups, such as whites, are particularly likely to marry within the group. This is not so puzzling. Members of larger groups are much more likely to come into contact with each other than with members of other groups.

The number of U.S. black-white couples increased almost tenfold from nearly 50,000 in 1960 to close to 489,000 in 2015. Black-white marriages accounted for 0.8 percent of all marriages in the nation in 2015. Simply, such marriages are not as rare as they were before the Loving case.

In 2015, only 1 in 333 white husbands was married to a black woman, while 1 in 125 white wives was wed to a black man. Blacks are more likely to have a white spouse: 1 in 11 black husbands had a white wife, while 1 in 26 black wives had a white husband in 2015.

A half-century ago, the Latino and Asian populations were relatively small. These groups have grown significantly and have contributed significantly to intermarriage as well.

There were approximately five times as many Latino-white couples and nearly twice as many Asian-white couples than there were black-white couples in 2015. Approximately 1 in 33 white husbands was married to a Latina woman and 1 in 63 had an Asian bride in 2015. About 1 in 38 white wives was married to a Latino man, although marriages between white women and Asian men are less common.

Latinos and Asians born in the United States are much more likely to have a white spouse compared to their foreign-born counterparts. Close to 30 percent of U.S.-born Latinos have a white spouse, as is the case for one-third of native-born Asian wives and more than one-fifth of native-born Asian husbands.

Texas was one of the 16 Southern states with an anti-miscegenation law. To what extent has intermarriage changed in Texas since then?

There are some similarities to patterns found in the United States. While the number of black-white marriages increased almost nineteenfold from 1960 to 2015, very few whites were married to blacks in 2015  1 in 227 white husbands and 1 in 102 white wives. Yet, across the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Texas ranked seventh on the percentage of white husbands married to black women in 2015 and 10th on the percentage of white wives wed to black men.

Texas has other intermarriage patterns particular to its unique demography. Whites are a smaller share of the Texas population than of the U.S. population, while Latinos are a larger segment than that of the nation. White spouses accounted for about 71 percent of all married people in the country, but only 52 percent of those in Texas. Latinos comprised nearly 14 percent of wedded individuals in the United States but one-third of those in Texas.

The result of this demographic situation is that compared to the country, Texas whites are somewhat more likely to marry Latinos, but Latinos are less likely to marry whites. In 2015, across the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Texas ranked third in the percentage of white husbands married to Latina women (7.1 percent) and fourth in the share of white wives married to Latino men (5.6 percent). In contrast, Texas ranked last (51st) in the percentages of Latinos (8.9 percent) and Latinas (11.5 percent) married to whites.

Even U.S.-born Latinos in Texas were not as likely to marry whites as is the case nationally. While about 30 percent of native-born Latinos in the country were married to a white person in 2015, only around 16 percent of Latinos were wed to a white individual in Texas.

The pace at which whites marry Latinos has risen particularly fast, from about 2 percent of all white marriages in 1980 to more than 6 percent in 2015. This trend will undoubtedly increase. Todays growing population of Latino children in Texas represents future brides and grooms. Half of all children in Texas are Latino, with less than one-third being white.

In the San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area, this trend is already underway. One in 7 white husbands was married to a Latina woman in the 2011-2015 period and 1 in 9 white wives was married to a Latino man.

The color line that thwarted Richard and Mildred Loving from marrying and living as a couple in Virginia has faded somewhat since the 1967 Supreme Court ruling. Still, black-white marriages continue to be relatively rare, especially from the perspective of whites, as even today very few white women and even fewer white men have a black spouse.

The black-white color line remains tangible.

When whites marry outside of the group, they are more likely to marry nonblacks. Love is a major part of the marriage equation, but demography also plays a role in structuring the opportunity for marriage.

In Texas, as the white population gets older and begins to decline in the coming decades, whites are likely to increasingly marry outside their group.

These changes will certainly expand the multiracial population and likely alter the meaning of race.

Whites who have children and grandchildren who are partially of color may become more aware of racism when their loved ones are targets of bigotry.

Rogelio Saenz is dean of the College of Public Policy and holds the Mark G. Yudof Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is co-author of the book Latinos in the United States: Diversity and Change.
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The event will be held on the lands of the Plunket Family, Sunnyside - Brian and Anna Mai; their son Oliver and his wife Elaine.

This year, the committee has pulled out all the stops to ensure that a great day out for all the family is had by all.

And with the competitive edge thrown in for good measure, all show goers need now, is for the sun to shine down on Sunnyside, Lisnamuck on Sunday next.

Speaking to the Leader, Brian Plunkett said the family was delighted to host the event this year.

It will be a great day, Mr Plunkett added, before pointing out that the entrance to the site sits along the Main N4 on the outskirts of Longford town.

At the moment the weather is good and land is dry; land dried out well over the last few months and the ground has firmed up nicely.

The Longford agricultural show was established way back in 1902, and has gone from strength to strength in the intervening years.

This, says Mr Plunkett is testament to the hard working committee members and the support they receives from the wider community.

The show is a wonderful tradition, he continued.

It is also a shop window for farmers, breeders and producers; they get to showcase what they have on offer.

Alongside the usual agricultural classes for horses, ponies, cattle, sheep, poultry, show jumping and craft exhibits, this year's show will also provide a wide range of trade stands with exhibitions and demonstrations from a diverse range of people.

There will be something for everyone at this years Co Longford Show & Country Fair, Mr Plunkett said, before pointing out that he was approached by the events chairman, Charlie Murphy, last winter inquiring if the family would be interested in hosting the 2017 agricultural show.

I discussed it with my son Oliver and we decided that it would be a honour for us to host it.

We would be hoping for a big crowd on the day; it is a fine site for an event like this.

Agricultural shows play an important role in our heritage and are very much at the heart of rural communities throughout the country.

Co Longford Show & Country Fair takes place at 12 noon on Sunday, July 2 next and fingers crossed the sun will shine!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, June 30, 2017

Contact: Kristen Muszynski

Work: 626-8404/Cell: 441-7638



Secretary Dunlap assures citizens of protections for voter registration information

AUGUSTA  In response to voter concerns regarding a high-profile request for voter registration information, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap is reminding voters that Maine law protects their information in multiple ways.

On Wednesday, June 28, 2017, Secretary Dunlap received a letter from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, on behalf of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Secretary Kobach serves as vice chairman on the commission, of which Secretary Dunlap is also a member.

In his letter, Secretary Kobach states:

 in order for the Commission to fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting, I am requesting that you provide to the Commission the publicly available voter roll data for Maine, including, if publicly available under the laws of your state, the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.  We would appreciate a response by July 14, 2017. Please be aware that any documents that are submitted to the full Commission will also be made available to the public.

Secretary Dunlap, in consultation with legal counsel at the Office of the Attorney General, is currently reviewing this request for access to Maines Central Voter Registration (CVR) information. If the commission is determined to be eligible for access to the CVR information under Maine law, that access would be limited in both scope and use based on Maines CVR statute.

Maine citizens can be confident that our office will not release any data that is protected under Maine law, to the commission or any other requesting entity, said Secretary Dunlap.

For government use, Maine law allows the release of the voter's name, year of birth, residence address, mailing address, electoral districts, voter status (active or inactive), date of registration or date of change of the voter record if applicable, voter record number and any special designations indicating uniformed service voters, overseas voters or township voters. (Please note that the voter record number is a unique number created in the voter registration system and is not inclusive or reflective of a persons driver license number or Social Security number.)

A CVR report provided to a government entity does not include the voters party affiliation, full date of birth (only the year), voter participation history, social security number, or felony conviction information (as Maine does not restrict voting based on felony convictions).

The CVR statute is clear that the recipient of voter data is not allowed to share it or make it public. Additionally, data made available to requesters may not be used for solicitation or for purposes other than their own activities and may not be redistributed.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Nikhil Chakravarttys nineteenth death anniversary: Tributes to N.C. from (...)

Nikhil Chakravarttys nineteenth death anniversary fell on June 27, 2017. On this occasion we are reproducing some write-ups on him by three leading journalists who knew him quite closely and a well-known administrator-cum-parliamentarian with whom N.C. was associated for sometime. These tributes to N.C. appeared in the Mainstream issue of June 29, 2013 that marked N.C.s fifteenth death anniversary.

Journalists Journalist

S. Nihal Singh

Evoking the memory of Nikhilda, as he was universally known, is to return to a different world of Indian journalism. It was in large part before the era of 24-hour television, internet news and social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In a sense, media, with print as the king, was less encumbered. And the levels of tolerance of dissent were higher.

There is no point in idealising the past. There was too much of armchair comment, less of on-the-spot reporting and investigation. Yet the commentaries in major Indian newspapers and periodicals in English and in Hindi and some regional languages were deeper and better thought-out and argued than similar efforts today. There has, indeed, been much progress in investigative reporting and analyses even after weeding out sensationalist and ill-researched and biased pieces. But by the same token, distractions such as TRP ratings for TV programmes now being called into question tend to distort news and feature stories.

Perhaps Nikhildas unique contribution was that before the age of television anchors and presenters, he was an icon in journalismthe journalists journalist: clear-headed, Left by inclination, but more importantly eminently rational in his opinions. He was no rabble-rouser. During the Emergency of the mid-seventies he made his dissent known in subtle ways by sending out New Year cards quoting apposite words on freedom of the Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore.

Perhaps the age he lived in (partly shared by me) was a gentler time in spite of bouts of blood-letting the nation was subject to. There was more time for reason and argument, a greater regard for opposing views and an ability to differ while remaining friends.

My last recollection of Nikhilda is in the closing days of 1993 as I was preparing to go to Dubai to edit the Khaleej Times. I had asked friends to a party on the lawns of the India International Centre to say goodbye. Nikhilda came armed with a present, a book on the worlds famous interviews. He had not forgotten that I began my career in The Statesman, which I ended up editing, as a staff reporter with an assignment six days of the week to interview a visiting person of interest or note under the rubric of Yesterday in Delhi.

The author edited The Statesman and The Indian Express besides being the founding editor of The Indian Post and the editor of the Khaleej Times in Dubai.

o o o

Nikhilda and his Concerns

H.K. Dua

Nikhil Chakravarttys journalism came out of his concern for the country. He would have been worried about both if he was around. Both the nation as well as the media are losing a sense of direction, values and character, required to retain the peoples confidence.

He was certainly one of the most respected journalists of his time, admired by peers of different persuasions, intellectuals, political leaders of different political parties, and NGOs, not only of India, but the entire South Asia.

As a young journalist, I did not know much about him until 1975 when the Emergency was clamped on the country, personal liberties and the press brought under censorship. Nikhil Chakravartty took a bold step by resigning from the CPI, of which he was a member, protesting his partys choosing to support the Emergency raj. This single act, rare in those days for a Communist, made him a national figure among the journalistsfor those who had yielded to the rigours of the Emergency and others who were opposed to it. He was the author of the phrase: Extra-Constitutional Authority that unfortunately became a part of Indias pejorative political lexicon applicable to many political parties.

He was always thinking about the country and the people, evolving beyond his early Communist leanings, and turning out to be a liberal humanist, democrat at heart and in practice, and with it concern for the disadvan-taged and with malice towards none. Essentially, he was a Nehruite, believing in parliamentary democracy, independent judiciary, responsible and accountable bureaucracy and a free press. He would have felt sad if he had lived to see how these institutions are behaving now, within 65 years of independence.

During the last few years his concerns were peace with Pakistan and China, and better relations between India and its other neighbours so that the one-fifth of humanity that lives in South Asia should have better future for its children.

He travelled to the neighbouring countries in search of peace and harmony among the people of South Asia. In a sense, he was one of the earlier Track Two persons who wandered around carrying the message of goodwill and friendship and at times suggesting remedies for compli-cated problems involving history, territories, waters, and immediate national interests that decided many a frozen policy. No one would doubt Nikhil Chakravarttys intentions. And the friendly spirit he always exuded.

For quite some time he was worried about the Babri Masjid issue and the Ayodhya movement and the way the issue was communalising the entire atmosphere in the country. He often shared his views with his friends in the profession, and leaders of different political parties and stressed that if unchecked the communal divide in the country would get further sharpened, weakening the secular fabric of the nation. He started making his own efforts, meeting political leaders, and some open-minded leaders of different communities to look for an amicable solution of the Ayodhya dispute. He did not succeed, thanks to the hardened position that had fouled up the climate. Unfortunately, what he feared happened.

During the Ayodhya movement when kar sevaks were supposed to carry bricks to Ayodhya from different parts of northern India to build the temple, polarisation of the entire atmosphere was taking place. Nikhilda, I asked, what is the way out of this impasse? Unchecked, this can lead to trouble in the country. How would have Mahatma Gandhi tackled this situation?

Gandhi would have asked every kar sevak to carry two bricks, one to build the temple and one for building the mosque, he said. Obviously Nikhil Chakravartty and the Communists had travelled a long way from the times when the believers in Marx used to condemn Mahatma Gandhi.

Nikhil Chakravartty loved freedom of the press and was always in the forefront to condemn any steps taken by the government and any outside authority that would tend to curb the freedom of the press which he thought was preserving democracy in the country. Not only had he opposed censorship during the Emergency, he also saw the dangers the Bihar Press Bill and the Defamation Bill would pose to the freedom of the press. When the Defamation Bill was suddenly offloaded in an ill-advised move in the Lok Sabha by the government of the day to prevent exposures, the Editors Guild took a united stand against the Bill. Later on other organisations of journalists from across the country joined the Anti-Defamation Bill movement. It had wide support of the people. The government was forced to withdraw the measure without the journalists even agreeing to talk to it.

It was Nikhil Chakravartty who along with some of the senior editors who sat on dharna in front of Bal Thackerays house when the Shiv Sena threatened inconvenient sections of the press in Mumbai. There are many other small and big violations of the freedom of the press where the Editors Guild made use of his services to rush to the spot.

He would have been shocked to see how the press is functioning now. The phenomenon of paid news, which has hit the press in many parts of the country and many newspapers and TV channels, would have been totally unaccep-table to him, as it is to many senior journalists and editors today.

He had foreseen the commercialisation of the press and had come to believe that press freedom was threatened not only by the Centre and State governments but also the commercial interests of the proprietors of the newspapers and TV channels. The country is not able to find any remedy for the serious threat that is coming from the owners of the newspapers and TV channels, the flawed ownership pattern of the Indian newspapers and TV industries. Neither Nikhil Chakravartty nor his successors in the profession knew or know of a remedy to tackle it.

He was appreciative of the journalists in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries who were trying to widen the area of press freedom in their countries despite formidable odds stacked against them. He was particularly worried of the Indian proprietors tendency to denigrate the position of the editors in the newspapers so that owners could have greater control over the news content and the editorial opinion of newspapers and supported the efforts of those editors who stood up for the highest values and professional standards of an editor.

H.K. Dua is a former editor of Hindustan Times,The Indian Express and The Tribune. He was also the Editorial Adviser to The Times of India. An erstwhile ambassador of India to Denmark, he was a Member of the Rajya Sabha for sometime.

o o o

Journalisms Finest Hour

T.J.S. George

Remembering departed polestars like Nikhil Chakravartty is not a part of the rather tiresome old-is-gold syndrome. Much of the new is also goldthe net that puts knowledge at ones fingertip, the mobile that turns ones pocket into an office, the incredible universe of apps. Yet we need to cherish the old because it provides what technology still cannot: a sense of values without which humans lose their humanity. The age of Nikhil Chakravarttyand of Frank Moraes and Chalapathi Rao, of Shamlal and V.K. Narasimhan, of N.J. Nanporia and S. Mulgaokarwas notable for the professional proprieties that guided journalism. That distinction stands out in sharper relief against todays twin realities: the defeat of journalism by marketing, and the craving among journalists for personal fame and fortune.

Moraes unashamedly aligned himself with the American lobby which was how the forces opposed to Nehruvian socialism were known then. But he did so out of conviction and therefore lost none of the respect of those he criticised editorially. The famous Open House he ran in his apartment attracted noted Socialists and the occasional card-carrying Communist as well. Chalapathi Rao never used his closeness to Jawaharlal Nehru for personal gain. Drawing meagre salaries, he stuck with the poorly managed, cash-strapped National Herald until a post-Nehru factotum evicted him in a show of boorish ego. Shamlal was the countrys most authoritative voice in the realm of books. Such was the veneration he commanded that The Times of India requested him to stay on despite his retirement in 1978. But such was his adherence to principles that, when the paper switched to policies he considered improper, he severed all connections with it in 1994 and shifted his landmark column Life and Letters to The Telegraph in Calcutta. Narasimhan, erudite an affable, became an overnight hero when he devised ways to fight the Emergency while most other journalists chose to crawl. Nanporias reticent nature concealed his unmatched knowledge of oriental antiques, but when occasions arose to defend journalism from commerce, he was not found wanting. Mulgaokar, the ultimate technician of print journalism, was often a partner and sometimes the inspiration of Ramnath Goenkas epic battles on behalf of the press.

They were a bunch of Gods good men and they were by no means alone. Lined up alongside were armies of assistant editors, news editors, sub-editors and reporters, all proud of their profession and finding their lives fulfilment when they wrote a comprehensive report, or embellished a story with a telling headline, or composed an editorial that influenced public opinion. There were of course a black sheep here and a deviant there who would now cash in on his ties with, say, Sanjay Gandhi and his family, and now simply use his clout to partake of the Good Life. But they were exceptions. By and large pre-Emergency India was privileged ground where values mattered and journalism found its finest hour.

It did not take Nikhil Chakravartty long to discover his calling. As an Oxford graduate, the options before him were both numerous and glamorous. But he was a man of ideals. Ideals and intellectual curiosity. His interests ranged over history and philosophy, science and environment, politics and trade unionism, wealth and poverty. He personified the definition of the ideal journalist as one who knew something about everything and everything about some things. He developed his own style to pursue his interests. His purposefulness, dedication and impartiality quickly became the talk of the town and he emerged as the journalists journalist. No one was a more admired role model for other journalists, seniors as well as newcomers, as Nikhil Chakravartty was in his prime.

And no one had wider contacts in a Capital city where journalists counted their contacts in the thousands. Nikhil was a talker, a soft and soothing talker, who conversed with Presidents and Prime Ministers like others talked to their childhood friends. His morning walks were famous though not as famous as that of Pothan Joseph in an earlier era. PJ, friend of Gandhi and Jinnah, would set out before 5 in the morning, enjoy coffee and company with a dozen politicians and social bigwigs, take a dip in a favourite swimming pool, then walk and walk again, now calling on loiterers in railway stations, now discussing race horses with wayside drunks until he reached a club or a restaurant, and occasionally his office, where he would seat himself and start brewing his legendary column, Over A Cup of Tea. Nikhil was too genteel to be that colourful, but his walks were just as productive.

A distinguishing feature of Nikhils persona was that his contacts cherished his friendship as much as he did theirs. From President K.R. Narayanan to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to diplomats and bureaucrats and professors and generals and even difficult customers like V.K. Krishna Menon, all looked forward to Nikhils visitsand all opened up to him, even Krishna Menon. He instilled in them the confidence that he would keep their confidence and would never ask for anything for himself. Nikhil could have become the Indian Ambassador to a country of his choice, or a Governor or Rajya Sabha member. Yet, he did not even accept a Padma award that was offered to him.

To appreciate a man with that kind of mind, we must look at modern stars who revel as surrogates of business houses and as facilitators of lobbyists, who rejoice in turning journalism into a paid proposition and who roll in wealth. These attributes of five-star journalism as well as the increase in newspaper circulations in India when they are falling in the West are seen as benefits of competition. Successive Royal Commissions on the Press in England made the point that competition in fact gave undue advantages to the bigger players. The 1962 Commission specifically said that the economies of scale and larger advertising revenue enabled strong papers to spend more on staff and promotion and thereby increase their sales while weaker papers were forced to spend moreand consequently lose morein an attempt to stay competitive. The 1962 and 1977 Commissions actually concluded that the process of competition reduced competition. Thats another way of acknowledging that in journalism, nothing is more important than journalism. The Chakravartty Age understood it, and thats why we need to recall it from time to time for our own good.

A veteran journalist, the author is now with The New Indian Express, Bangalore.

o o o

A Gentle Colossus!

D. Bandyopadhyay

There is no contradiction in terms in describing a gentleman as a gentle colossus. Colossus only indicates the stature. It does not refer to any quality of refinement or rudeness. Nikhil Chakravartty, who was born a year before World War I started, lived through the tumultous events of the twentieth century imbibing both its froth and the essence of its refinement. He was quintessentially a twentieth century intellectual.

Son of a well-off family of the then Calcutta, the second largest city of the British empire, he went to England to pursue higher education as was the custom among the upper classes. The intellectual life of universities of the United Kingdom was then in ferment. Left intellectualism was sweeping the educational campuses in the thirties of the last century. No one could remain neutral and unaffected if one wasnt a moron. Almost all the Left leaders of India since independence were products of that all-embracing radical intellectual movement. Nikhil Chakravartty was no exception.

I was introduced to Shri Chakravartty in the early seventies of the last century by another giant of the Left movement, Dr Z.A. Ahmed. Coming as he did from a landowning family of UP, he could, like a true Communist, declass himself and could be one among the deprived whom he represented politically. There was no affectation in his bonhomie with the have-nots. Though he was not a have-not himself, he could effectively and genuinely erase his class character while he represented the poor. Sincerity and genuineness were the hallmarks of the Left leadership of those days. Nikhilda (as he was popularly called) was the embodiment of that genuinely declassed leadership group.

A characteristic of Nikhilda which charmed anyone who came in contact with him was the unaffected ease with which he could mix with the person concerned. When I was first introduced to him, Dr Ahmed asked him very casually: how did his interview go? I had no idea what that was all about. With a twinkle in his eyes he said it went off very well as both of us kept our aces close to our chest. Later on, I came to know that he had rushed back to his Lal Kothi (35 Kakanagar) to keep his appointment with me. He had gone to Mrs Gandhi and rushed back to keep his appointment with a non-entity (that is, me). High or low, mighty or powerless, rich or pauperall were equal to him. He inhaled and absorbed the gentle wind of egalitarianism of the thirties in the campuses of higher learning in the United Kingdom. He was an unbranded genuine Communistwho believed that so long as there would be inequality there would be ceaseless struggle for equality and as a thinking person one would have no option but to join the conflict in favour of the have-nots. To him this option required no logic. It was axiomatic. It was natural.

There is no point in sighing about the century that has just gone by. Each century would have its own problems and each its own solutions. There had never been any golden age for the have-nots of the world. There may not be any such golden age for them in the future. But the effort for securing it should go on. Otherwise the world would lapse back into the mire of inequality, exploitation and oppression. Bengal of the last century produced, among others, a Nikhil Chakravartty. India of this century will surely produce its own variety of Nikhil Chakravartty to redeem the pledge.

Architect of Operation Barga during the Left Front Government in West Bengal, the author was Secretary (Rural Development) and Secretary (Revenue) in the Union Government. Now retired, he is currently a Member of the Rajya Sabha representing the Trinamul Congress.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > CowMetamorphosis from being a Divine Anmal to a Political Animal!

Though many Biblical stories are associated with many animals, it is rare to see an animal elevated to the status of the divine in the Western societies. Why divinity of the cow is unique to India? Cow is not only the main source of nutrition after land and vegetation, it is also the principal means of production in the agricultural village communities in India from time immemorial. The approach of the peasants towards cow was, however, mixed. On the one hand, as a key source of their livelihood these beast of burden would be worshipped on auspicious days but it is impossible to see a farmer holding the reins of two bullocks dragging his plough without a small whip in the other hand. Just because cow or bullocks are considered divine, the farmer would not refrain from making them toil or put them to economic use.

Among Tamils, the day after Pongal (the Sankranti day), they would deck their cows and bullocks with kumkum (sindhoor) and turmeric paste and worship them by showing aarti and after the festivities are over, they would promptly sell the old among the same cattle to the agents of butchers the next week, may be with a heavy heart. Without selling them, they cannot pay for the new cattle they will have to purchase before the next sowing season starts after three months. This apparent duality in the farmers approach to cattle is also an inseparable part of the bovine economy which is an integral part of the farm economy. It would be perverse to interpret it in such a manner that farmers are maniacs who kill the same goddesses they worship! Some may not sell the cows and let them die a natural death but they would definitely sell the old bullocks. Does the BJP/RSS do a service to the farmers by depriving him of his meagre income by imposing a cattle-slaughter ban?

The Indian peasantry used to worship cattle but they never used to go and kill people in the name of cattle. In Andhra, they would even send for Dalits to take away the dead cattle. Or, they would exchange old cattle for forest produce with tribals.

Literary allusions and historical evidence amply prove that not only Dalits, tribals, Muslims and Christians, but even Hindus of the upper varna layers were in the habit of eating beef from ancient times onwards. It was only in the early post-independence days, when the Hindu ultra-Right forces wanted to use cow protection to rehabilitate themselves from the stain of Gandhi killing, the holy cow turned into a political animal. Cow came in handy to construct a political identity. The Hindu conser-vative lot in the Constituent Assembly first started making cow a religious symbol only to subsequently make it a political symbol, resulting in some measure of constitutional ambiguity. Madhya Pradesh, the conservative bastion of Hindu orthodoxy, saw one of the first early legislations on cow protection. Cow became inseparable from communal politics from then onwards.

But cow politics assumed different political overtones at different stages. It might appeal to the upper castes and be directed against Dalits as in Una. It might become a majoritarian political symbol as Yogi is using it in UP against Muslims. In Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, the saffron hordes used to denigrate tribals for eating beef and tell them that they can come under the Hindu fold only by giving up eating beef. This is also one of their propaganda weapons against Christians when they used to propagate among peasants that the majority Christians would take away all their cows and eat them! Dalits can be dubbed sub-human only if they can be culturally distinguished from the rest of Hindus. They eat beef, so they are inferior!

In the era of proto-fascismthe stage of emerging fascism or fascistic transitionand crypto-fascismdisguised fascismcow also becomes a powerful cultural symbol, for Hindutvas cultural politics.

Any civilised human being would shudder at the idea of killing human beings in the name of protecting cows and call it banal. And theorist Hannah Arendt was quite right in describing the shallowness of fascism as the banality of the evil. The Sangh Parivar is out to create an aura of superiority over their politics of banality, a religious aura just as Hitler cultivated a racist Aryan aura. Fascist clouds in India hence float with the aura of religious superiority. The poor cow meows through these clouds and acquires a cultural-religious symbolism!

For fascism, populism need not be based only on economic issues alone. It can foremost be a populism on cultural-religious issues, too. Populism essentially means momentary or short-term deception of the masses by flaunting something dear to them and their aspirations.

Cow, thanks to its quasi religious imagery, is a potent symbol for wielding fascistic power. The tribals and Dalits might claim that they have been eating beef from time immemorial. But the Hindu communal-fascists tell them: We are the self-appointed leaders of Hindus. We will dictate to you what to eat and what not to eat. All fascisms are authoritarian and all authoritaria-nisms have fascistic streaks.

Fascism is always a mass phenomenon. Simultaneously, it is also a mass deception. What better way to deceive the upper-caste Hindu youth than to tell them that the cows are more important to them than affordable education or jobs? What bizarre way to empower hapless and jobless youth by making them cow vigilantes? The peasant boys may be powerless against the landgrabbing corporates but they can wield their swords against the neighbourhood Dalits.

Chauvinism is the life-line of fascism. There is no fascism sans atrocities. And there are no fascists without their soft targets. Whipping up chauvinism against some or the other minority is what sustains fascists politically. That is why fascism is always a parochial politics. Digital India and cow vigilantes, going hand in hand in Modis India! Wholesale eviction of urban poor in the name of smart cities is not possible without blind mass support of the majority. So make the minority the targets of hate. Fascism is politics of hate.

Why not even a fraction of the concern for saving cows is not to be seen for saving the girls from rapists? The fascist fraternities in the academia/universities and the media owe an answerwho are more threatened in Modis India? Cows or our girls?

How long can cow remain a political Kama-dhenu? Even the promise of building a temple for Ram in his alleged birthplace and perversely criminal demolition of a Masjid could not sustain the fascistic aura of the saffron political forces for long in the 1990s. Can the religious aura of the cow successfully substitute for Ram now? Can cow worship really save the Indians, including Hindus, from the evils of Modis brand of modernity? Let us see.

K.P.

[This is the English translation of what appeared in the Hindi website, JanChowk, in a slightly abridged form.]
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Why RSS pushes for the Cattle-slaughter Ban

by Kumudini Pati

On May 30, 2017, newspapers reported that the BJP chief, Amit Shah, had rushed to the Nagpur RSS headquarters and was closeted with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in an in-camera meeting for the whole day on May 29. Naturally, speculation was rife among journalists that the BJP had developed cold-feet in the face of the massive opposition to its cattle-slaughter ban, especially in the southern States, which even threatened to precipitate a constitutional crisis of sorts with Kerala and West Bengal defying the Centres ban and declaring that they would not implement it. They even threatened to pass their own laws to nullify the Centres order or go to court.

So a section of the media concluded that Amit Shah had rushed to Nagpur to plead with the RSS boss the case for a rollback and there was open speculation in several newspapers that after Modi returns from his European sojourn, a decision would be taken on the rollback and Amit Shah would get the clearance for that from the Nagpur high-command.

Some were opining that there could be partial lifting of the ban and buffalos might be exempted from the slaughter ban, as India is emerging as one of the top beef-exporting countries as slaughter and export of buffalo meat was legal until the recent ban.

The media reading of the complicated relationship between the RSS and BJP falls broadly into two shades. One section thinks that the RSS is dictating to the BJP and the other section thinks that though Modi is in command, he is trying to keep the RSS in good humour. Both are one-sided.

In other words, one view is that the RSS is setting the agenda and dictating to the BJP and the slavishly obedient BJP, having no other option, falls in line due to its political dependence.

The other view is that Modis vision is building India as a modern economic super-power with specific agendas like Digital India, Smart Cities, Start-Up India and Make-in-India and so on and, despite having these as priorities, more out of political filial loyalties and as he needs the Sanghs continued political support and blessings, he reluctantly tries to keep the Sangh in good humour and concedes to its own petty priorities. In other words, in the view of these liberals, Modi is a reluctant saffronite trying to carry along the Sangh by obliging them on their otherwise petty concerns more as a political compromise. Some of them see the RSS agenda as the fringe issues and look upon the RSS at best as detractors and even rationalise their intervention as an extra-constitutional authority in government affairs as a necessary evil. A section of them harbour fond hopes that Modi would soon show the RSS its place.

Both these apparently conflicting views miss the crucial alternative possibility that the RSS/Bhagwat and BJP/Modi might be working in tandem with perfect mutual understanding as per an integral master plan for an ideological-social consolidation of their stint in power and protect it against anti-incumbency and the routine electoral swings of parliamentary politics. As a senior pracharak, Modis standing in the RSS takes him to the core of its policy leadership despite his posturing that he is disinterested in Hindutva issues. Of course, even while working in tandem there are bound to be minor variations in emphases and nuances and it is futile to read too much into these. The Modi-Shah duo cannot be contrasted against the RSS. After all, they are a single Parivar in sangh(am)/confluence! The RSS should not be misunderstood as a group of some kind of non-political, frenzied blokes. Even if they were to rollback cattle slaughter, the RSS would rather propose it to Modi than the contrary.

When political-ideological battles threaten to reach a peak and head for a showdown, the judiciary, as the foremost establishment insti-tution, steps in to defuse the conflict. In fact, the Madras High Courts temporary ban for a month on this order and the Kerala High Courts interpretation that this order doesnt ban private sale and eating of beef has poured some cold water on this issue which was snowballing into a major mass political protest, especially in the southern States and West Bengal. Mass protests have been witnessed in places like Agra too and it is expected that this cattle-slaughter ban, if it had continued, would have caused job losses to more than a lakh leather and leather goods workers, especially in Chennai, Bangalore and West Bengal. It will be established clearly that Modis Shreshtha Bharat is nothing but the RSS Hindu Rashtra! The whole of India would be made into a cow belt!

Where does the cattle-slaughter fit in into the overall saffron scheme? Now that they are in power already, their main agenda is to consolidate their power and make it long term and even relatively permanent by ideologically and socially reinforcing it as Hindutva Raj through communal mobilisation from the top. Cow politics is nothing but a means for such ideological-social reinfor-cement for relative permanence in power, for deepening the foundations of their rule. It is also a convenient instrument of diverting the nations attention from the key challenges facing the country and the abject failures of the Modi Government on many fronts as seen in the loss of nearly half- -a-million IT jobs, virtual absence of new job creation and Modis foreign policy failures with the USA, China and Pakistan and what not.

In fact, the Sangh always looks for such diversionary soft issues like cow slaughter because they have the potential to polarise opinion and earn the support of a section of Hindus whose religious sentiments are asso-ciated with cows.

Likewise, they would rake up triple talaaq, where the Muslim minorities are on a weak wicket and where even a section of Muslim women might welcome Modi on this.

They desperately hope that such communal mobilisation of Hindus and consolidating their support on a deeper Hindutva ideological basis would bring them back to power in 2019 and give them a second stint till 2024.

For the same reason, they would maintain a low-intensity tension at the borders and boast of unproven surgical strikes to whip up ultra-nationalism.

Above all, power can be asserted only by periodically exercising/wielding it. It is common in Indian households to see the head of the family shouting at others that he would not allow watching of TV in his house, or eating of pizzas under his roof or womenfolk of his household going out independently for shopping or watching a movie. Somewhat akin to such household authoritarianism, at a larger social level, the saffron power wants to reassure itself. We will dictate what you can eat and what you can wear. We will decide what you can say in public and what you can watch.

If they are threatened by Dalit alienation due to Saharanpurs, they wave the banner of Hindu unity in the name of the cow.

However, the power wielded on soft issues is of course hard powera combination of state power (legal ban) combined with street power (vigilantism). If some Dalits or Muslims walk with some cattle, no matter for what reason, they would be whipped or even lynched. If an IIT research scholar participates in a beef-eating festival organised by the Madras IITs Dalit students, he would be pinned to the ground and pounded with a rock and his left eye would be crushed by the ABVP animals. They can do it within the IIT Madras campus but not in Madras Law College, where Dalit and Dravidian student groups are quite strong. They cannot dare to do such a thing in Kerala where they would be paid back in a more befitting manner and so they are challenging the Left to do it in Delhi forgetting the fact that not long ago, last year itself, the radical students orgisation in JNU held a similar beef-eating festival.

Can the saffron forces dare to impose a visa ban on foreign diplomats who eat beef? Can they direct the Foreign Office to boycott all official diplomatic functions where beef is eaten? Can they break trade relations with all those economic entities dealing in business with beef-associated products? No, they would never do that. They would only go for soft targets to create terror.

After all, beef or no beef, they want to keep the communal pot boiling.

And the RSS wants to remind the nation day in and day out that they are in command!

The author is a freelance journalist and independent researcher in womens studies. She is also a former General Secretary, All India Progressive Womens Association (AIPWA), and was a leader of the CPI-ML (Liberation).
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > The New Idea of India

by M.A. Sofi

How does one describe a political formation, a party, an outfit whose single most purpose of being in politics is to win elections, never mind the tools and methods being employed in fulfilment of this goal as its raison detre? With its gaze now firmly fixed on 2019, the party at the helm seems to be pulling no punches in ensuring a repeat of the UP miracle at the hustings, using all the tricks in the trade to that end. The effortless ease with which it has been using the communal card ever since its initial forays into electoral politics decades ago redounds to its credit as a cabal of politicians who have perfected themselves in the art of duplicity and chicanery.

Its uncommon ability to exploit and milk the faultlines in the matrix of social/religious/caste-based groups in India to advance its divisive agenda is already beginning to find expression in the manner the largest religious minority in the country is being sidelined, demonised and subjected to persecution, both at the physical as well as the economic front. The latest tool in its kitty, as conceived by its spin doctors, is the ever-on-the-boil Kashmir which is now being presented by them to the country and rest of the world as a place being inhabited by uncouth, uncivilised brutes who have no use for good sense, education, development etc. and who are merely being used by the neighbour next door as pawns in fulfilment of the latters holy mission of bleeding India with a thousand cuts.

In propagating and perpetuating what is out and out a myth about Kashmir as the divine truth, the credit must surely go to the assorted TV channels who have meekly acquiesced in to the strong arm tactics by the ruling establish-ment. How else would one account for the fate of those celebrated TV anchors who had the temerity to also bring in a modicum of hard reality of the Kashmir problem to the table involving its historical context, with the latest act of witch-hunt involving the CBI raid at the house and office premises of Prannoy Roy of the NDTV? Now with the arrival of the institution of Army on the political chessboard of India, the nation bids fair to be in for a long haul of internal strife which is going to be witnessed in the form of inter-religious and inter-caste tensions on the one hand and an escalation of violence in Kashmir on the other. That may not be dismissed as the prediction of prophets of doom, but ought to be located in the subtext of an open and candid interaction the Chief of Army Staff had recently with the press. The dangerous portends lurking behind these public pronouncements should be unmistakably clear.

The Army Chiefs utterances involving the situation in Kashmir betray the understanding of one who has come to occupy this most coveted position in the Indian military establish-ment for none of his faults, literally! The chief merit that has caused the political establishment to supersede him over others is obviously his proximity to the Sangh Parivar and its divisive ideology-inspired government at the Centre. Out of a whole lot of things, a couple of noises he has made during this interaction on the situation in Kashmir merit a brief mention. While on the one hand, he says that it is dirty war in Kashmir which has to be fought by employing innovative methods, in the same breath he goes on to say that the Army has to conduct itself in a manner that should inspire fear of its fire-power in the people.

He doesnt seem to understand the far-reaching implications of these utterances whichit doesnt take rocket science to understandcan and will lead to a further escalation of tension and mayhem in the Valley, much of course to the comfort of those who wish the present situation to continue to remain on the boil, till at least they harvest it at the hustings in 2019, and even after. As I have said in these columns on a few occasions in the past, whipping up communal frenzy and raising the pitch on Kashmir have been among the most dependable ploys being employed by the saffron brigade and its avatars in the present ruling establishment to garner votes in the name of religion which unfortunately continues to sell in the country called India.

Back to what are doomed to turn out to be foot-in-the-mouth comments by the Army Chief as stated above. Firstly, the dirty war that he is talking about, he must understand, has been made that much dirtier by the dirty tricks he and his men have been playing in Kashmir over a long period of time without remorse or compunction. He doesnt seem to understand that war is always dirty, regardless of whether it is fought on the borders or against the hapless civilians living in civilian areas, what he and his masters would never tire of claiming being part of its own territory. He may not know it but those who are on the receiving end of this gratuitous state-aided violence know it better that there cannot be anything dirtier, more vicious and loathsome than war. Secondly, he is being extremely disingenuous while claiming that the Army should inspire awe and fear in the camp of the adversaries and at the same time people should be afraid of you. He goes on to say that the common man, who is not indulging in violence, should be protected and left out of the harms way while the Army is on its awe-inspiring mission.

Come on Gen Sahb, tell me who is this Farooq Ahmed Dar who you had volubly endorsed to be strapped to a jeep as a human shield by rewarding his tormentor, this Army Major Gogoi, who has, in the process, committed the most heinous violation of all norms of decency and civilised behaviour as guaranteed under law? You know it full well that in the midst of an over-the-board unwillingness of the people to stay away from the sham of polls which were being conducted at that point in time, this boy had taken the risk of going all the way to cast his vote which you and your masters would have tom-tomed as a will of the people of Kashmir to restore credibility to the farce that you call elections. More pertinently, your own sources should have informed you that he was not part of a mob of stone-throwers who, according to credible sources, were too few to have caused serious threat to the law and order in the area and thus to have warranted such an unconscionable and abominable treatment being meted out to this man.

Truth, you know, has only one version whereas falsehood, which gets lost in the maze of cooked-up versions, finds no legs to stand upon. Which is why you have a litany of theories being invented by your lackeys, including your subordinate news channels, justifying this dastardly act by variously quoting the number of blood-thirsty stone-pelters varying from 200 to 1200 in that area. As another example of your fancy for falsehood, you aver that the turmoil in the Valley is restricted to five districts only while in the same breath you say you are face to face with a war-like situation in Kashmir. How do you reconcile these two dichotomous possibilities in your assessment of the situation in Kashmir?

You are getting it completely wrong, Gen Sahb, as is the President of the political party you are representing in the Army, who now pins it down to a fractionthree-and-a-half districts, to be precise! You and your comrades-in-arms are acting not necessarily like actors, but as jokers in what has been turned into a theatre of the absurd. When falsehood is the chief asset to be preserved, propagated and promoted, why bother with such inanities as to check on facts and figures before airing them to the unsuspecting viewers?

As if all that you have said is not enough, you make no bones of your visceral hatred for a certain section of your society when you make the most outrageous pronouncement yet: I wish the stone-pelters were using weapons instead of stones! The obvious implication of this very pernicious streak of thought is that you wish to have reasons to immortalise yourself by doing a Gen Dyer of the Jallianwala Bagh infamy in Kashmir and thus seal your name in the annals of history as.. I dont know what. These are the standards the chief cop of a country sets for himself, for the Army he is towering over and for the country that is supposed to take pride in such a great army.

Let me emphasise it one more time that it is possible and even probable that such ploys may indeed yield short-term gains for you, in terms of those who look up to you to boost their morale and for the country whose rulers look upon you to do the dirty work that you have now set yourself upon doing at their behest in Kashmir. But that in the long run the country stands to lose every which way is beyond a shred of doubt, what with resorting to tactics which are divisive and solely aimed at teaching certain sections of the society a lesson for the sin of asking for something as routine as the right to live their lives peacefully. These are the ineluctable lessons of history which just cant be wished away, however one might wish otherwise.

The way politics is being conducted and the institutions run in the country bespeak the small-mindedness of small-time politicians and their cohorts for whom performance at the ballot has been the Holy Grail to get to at any cost. This is their idea of a new India where the shortest path to the ballot is being charted through the trajectory of the bullet. If their performance over the last three years in office is anything to go by, there is precious little to show for growth in the economy, employment and development on various fronts in the country. Hence the need for keeping the minorities on a tight leash and for the Kashmir pot boiling as the strategies which sadly have been workingand shall continue to workin a country which incidentally boasts of its citizens being among the most intelligent races on the planet.

Why cant these educated Indians raise their voice and see through this plot of the politicians dividing the country on caste/communal consi-derations that would only push the country into chaos and anarchy?

Finally, and more importantly, let those who are being tormented and persecuted for their religious/political beliefs not spoil their cause by bringing in religious extremism on the table which is not only bad but also politically incorrect to espouse, even as their tormentor would use that as a ruse to justify its brutalities upon them. Thats why their aggressor is doing everything in its power to ensure that the ongoing struggle in Kashmir is seen as a sort of jehad for the establishment of a caliphate in the region.

Let them beware and focus solely on the restoration of civil liberty, human rights and dignity through peaceful means which have been squarely denied to them over the past seven long decades and which alone ought to be the motivation for their struggle against injustice and oppression.

M.A. Sofi is an Emeritus Professor, Department of Mathematics, Kashmir University, Srinagar. He can be contacted at e-mail: aminsofi[at]gmail.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Emergency Should Never Be Forgotten

Strange, in the process of selecting who should be the next President of India, the nation has forgotten the Emergency which was imposed some fortytwo years ago. More than one lakh people were detained without trial. The media, which could have reported the conditions prevailing then, was muzzled. Civil servants obediently issued the orders, which came from Sanjay Gandhi, the extra-constitutional autho-rity that ruled the country in the name of his mother, the then Prime Minster.

The judiciary caved in and upheld that Parliament could suspend the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. Even the imposition of the Emergency was justified. Only one judge, Justice H.R. Khanna, gave the dissenting judgment. He was superseded. It is another matter that the country punished the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, when she was ousted from power, lock, stock and barrel in the elections held in 1977. Similar was the fate of her son, Sanjay Gandhi.

What disappoints me is that the Supreme Court never passed a resolution or did anything to register its criticism against the judgment which had given the judiciary a bad name. Even now it is not too late. The Supreme Court has liberal judges on the Bench. They can make up by passing a resolution that their predecessor Bench was wrong in having endorsed the Emergency.

At least the Prime Minister, Narendra Modis Cabinet should say sorry on behalf of the Centre for the excesses committed by the earlier government during the Emergency. The then Attorney General, Niren De, had even argued in the Court that the right to live was forfeited during the Emergency.

There was so much fear among Delhi lawyers when Soli Sorabjee from Mumbai and V.M. Tarkunde from Delhi argued the habeas corpus petitions filed by my wife. Still I spent three months in jail.

The two judges, Justice S. Rangarajan and Justice R.N. Aggarwal, who gave the judgment, were punished. The first one was transferred to Guwahati where people still remember him for his impartiality. The second was demoted and sent back to the Sessions Court. This did not, however, deter them and they carried on with their work boldly and independently.

Probably the pressure on the judges has lessened in recent years because of a vigilant media. But worse is happening in appointments to the Benches. They are being made according to the whims and wishes of the rulers. This began with the Congress Government and has continued when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power.

I recall that the process started when Indira Gandhi had superseded three judgesJustices J.M. Shelat, K.S. Hegde and A.N. Groverto appoint Justice A.N. Ray as the Chief Justice. She had been unseated from Parliament and disquali-fied for poll malpractices for six years. Instead of accepting the verdict with grace, she imposed the Emergency and amended the election law itself.

The excesses which Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi committed during the Emergency may be part of history to me; however, they are recalled by not only those who suffered but also those who supported democracy. It was the Janata Party, which came to power after defeating Mrs Gandhi, that changed the Constitution to make the imposition of the Emergency impossible. And Justice Khannas dissenting judgment that the basic structure of the Constitution could not be changed was accepted as the norm. This has ensured the parliamentary system of governance and deterred every ruler since then not to tinker with the judiciary.

Ultimately, the independence of the judiciary depends upon the quality of judges. In the US, the biggest democracy, the Supreme Court is divided between the Republican judges and those of Democrats. Since the tenure of the judges is for a lifetime, the appointees of one party have risen above their old loyalties and become indepen-dent and impartial.

In India, we had the best of judges when the government appointed them. But now party politics has crept in. At least it has been seen in High Courts that the party in power has not appointed the best of lawyers but those who owed allegiance to a particular political party. Even in the Supreme Court, some appointments come under the shadow of doubt.

Some examples of the past are worthy of praise. Take the case of former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium whose appointment to the Supreme Court was stalled by the Narendra Modi Government. Blaming the government for blocking his appointment, Subramanium said his indepen-dence as a lawyer is causing apprehensions that I will not toe the line of the government. This factor has been decisive in refusing to appoint me. He withdrew from the race.

In fact, it was at his instance that the Gujarat Police was forced to book a murder case in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter matter. When the prime witness, Tulsiram Prajapati, was liqui-dated under suspicious circumstances, Subra-manium had recommended the transfer of the case to the CBI. Significantly, Subramanium also admitted that it was on his suggestion that the Supreme Court, while granting bail to accused Amit Shah, now the BJP President, had barred him from entering Gujarat.

Most pathetic was the role of the media. I recall that when the Emergency was imposed there was anger and more than a hundred journalists assembled at the Press Club at my bidding to criticise the Emergency. But when I tried to pick up the thread after my detention, there was hardly anyone to support. Mrs Gandhi had created so much fear in the minds of journalists that they were more worried about their jobs than the freedom of the press, which they otherwise cherished.

The author is a veteran journalist renowned not only in this country but also in our neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh where his columns are widely read. His website is www.kuldipnayar.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > What was Gandhis Caste and what did Congress Represent?

by Ram Puniyani

Volumes have been written on Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. There are diverse views about both. The views on them depend on the ideology of the person giving these views. To add to the prevailing views, recently (June 2017) the BJP President, Amit Shah, described Gandhi as a chatur (shrewd) baniya (trader caste). With this characterisation of Gandhi, Amit Shah joins the illustrious company of Jinnah who also called Gandhi a baniya, the caste of his birth. As such Gandhi had overcome the caste of his birth through his thinking and actions. When asked by a Magistrate in court in 1922 as to what was his caste, Gandhi said he was a farmer and a weaver. While theoretically he stuck to the Varnashram Dharma, the ideological foundation of the caste system, in practice he overcame it by violating all the caste taboos, by relating to people of all castes, by insisting on an untouchable family staying in his Sabarmati Ashram, by himself staying in the Bhangi (untouchable) Colony in Delhi and by himself taking up manual scavenging.

The other point Amit Shah made was about the nature of the Congress. According to him, The Congress party... was constituted as a club by a British man. It was later converted into an organisation engaged in the freedom struggle... He also presented the Congress as a loose body bereft of any ideological commitment except that of anti-colonialism. Both these formulations are superficial and a distorted presentation of the complexity of the origin and struggles of this party which led the national movement.

With the British introducing modern trans-port, modern education and industrialisation the society started transforming quickly and newer social classes, industrialists, industrial workers and modern educated classes started coming up. These groups gradually could see that British policies were aimed at enriching England at the cost of this land; they also could see that adequate facilities, capable of enhancing the potential of this land, were not being promoted. This led to the formation of many organisations, like Dadabhoy Naorojis East India Association (1866), Anand Mohan and Surendra Mohan Boses Indian Association (1876), Justice Ranades Pune Sarvajanik Sabha (1870), and Viraraghavacharis Madras Mahajan Sabha (1884). It is these organisations which felt the need for an all-India organisation. At the same time Lord O.A. Hume, who was a British officer, also thought of an all-India organisation for Indians. Many feel that he was keen to provide a safety-valve for letting off the anger of Indians. These emerging organisations, repre-senting the interests of emerging India, cooperated with Hume in the formation of the Congress with a clear calculation of avoiding the hostility of the British and at the same time to generate a platform which could intensify Indian national consciousness for political and economic enhancement. As per the historian of modern India, Bipan Chandra, Indian nationa-lists in a way used Hume as a lightning conductor by employing this as a platform for emerging India.

The national movement was based on the aspirations of the rising classes while the roots of communal organisations lay in the declining sections of landlords and Raja-Nawabs. So rather than just being the fantasy of the British officer as Shah will make us believe; Humes initiative was the best option for Indian nationalists to express their political ambitions. The national movement, in practice, was being founded on the grounds of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. In the process we see people of all religions, castes and regions overwhelmingly associating with this organisation. Rather than an organisation bereft of principles, as Amit Shah states, the national movement and Congress were firmly rooted in Indian nationalism, secularism and democracy. It is true that Hindu communalists (the predecessors of Shah) and Muslim communalists (Jinnah and company) were allowed in the party till 1934, but after that the Congress did take a decision to keep out the likes of Shahs and Jinnahs. It is also true that some mild communal elements continued to be in the Congress but their predominant ideology was Indian nationalism.

The national movement focused on the arousal of national feeling. This was in contrast to the sectarian feeling aroused by the Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS. The national movement was strongly critical of the British economic policies, which were keeping the country poor. The proactive part of this movement, led by the INC, was to unite the nation, cutting across the boundaries of religion, region and caste. It is interesting that while the INC united most of the Hindus and Muslims bringing them into the national movement, the Muslim League associated only with Muslims and the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS united a section of Hindus. It is another matter that a majority of Hindus and Muslims became part of the national movement, bypassing the communal organisations.

The national movement also addressed the major issues of social reforms. Gandhis cam-paign against untouchability shook the very foundations of caste-based practices in a sense. While the struggles for these issues were within the framework of the colonial system to begin with, later these assumed the form of an anti-colonial movement. The national movement was led by Gandhi and the Congress; so the orocess was called India is a nation in the making. This was in contrast to the Muslim Leagues assertion that we are a Muslim nation since the time of Mohammad bin Kasim and assertion of Hindu Mahasabha-RSS that we are a Hindu nation since times immemorial.

As such what Amit Shah is saying is a continuation of the Hindu nationalists hatred for Gandhi and the Indian nationalist movement. They hold Gandhi responsible for emboldening the Muslims and weakening the Hindu nation and partition of the country. It was their formulation and hatred for the Mahatma, which led one of them, Nathuram Godse, to murder him. This hatred was expressed in the RSS distributing sweets after Gandhis murder. (Letter of Sardar Patel, September 11, 1948) Today for electoral reasons they cannot speak the language of Godse so openly; still to oppose Indian nationalism, they have been giving pinpricks like this one to undermine Indian nationalism and the process of caste transformation which accompanied the freedom movement.

The author, a retired Professor at the IIT-Bombay, is currently associated with the Centre for the Study of Secularism and Society, Mumbai.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Why I think Ramnath Kovind is not the Right Candidate to be President of (...)

That the UPA and NDA have chosen Dalits to be candidates for the office of the President is an expression of the importance of the Dalit constituency in the politics of India. As a person with a public conscience, however, I tend to hold that the NDA candidate, Sri Ramnath Kovind, is a big disappointment. Though a Dalit, he has not served the Dalit cause all through the years of his politics. It is true, the BJP has an ideology of its own. One did not expect them to nominate someone beyond and above their ideology. Any person the BJP nominates has to serve the partys political end. As a party, the BJP has been anti-Dalit and anti-minority. In choosing a Dalit in the person of Ramnath Kovind, the party has found someone who would further the cause of the party than the Dalit cause.

Context of Nomination

The fact is that Dalits are alienated from the BJP as a community. Ever since it assumed power, the BJP has lost further ground with the Dalit constituency across the country. It all began with the suicide of Rohith Vemula of the Hyderabad University where the ABVP caused much of the damage. In the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in New Delhi there was an outpouring of anger against the BJP on several issues from the suicide of a Dalit to the cutting down of research seats, increase of hostel fees to other kinds of institutional discrimination against them. In UP, in spite of sizeable support to the party from the Dalits during the State Assembly elections, caste clashes have jeopardised the communitys support for the saffron party. With Adityanath at the helm, Dalits in the State of Uttar Pradesh have experienced the wrath of the upper caste. Saharanpur has witnessed violent clashes between Rajputs and Dalits with the latters houses burnt down, their men beaten. When the Bhim Army under Chandrasekhar Azad protested, fiery young Dalit men were picked up with multiple cases filed against some of them.

There are other instances of Dalit atrocities like the flogging of Dalits in Una in 2016 for skinning a dead cow. In more and more States one watches the Dalits as a constituency moving out of the BJP fold. Besides, allocation to primary education, health care and Dalit empowerment programmes have considerably declined since the BJP took over power. Reserved seats and jobs have not been filled up. There has been a ruling now to stop the advancement of Dalits at the level of promotions where the community was able to occupy proportionate percentage of jobs. With the collapse of the agricultural sector, Dalits remain further pauperised. It is in this context that one should look at the appointment of Ramnath Kovind as the presidential candidate of the NDA for the party to gain mileage.

Credentials of Ramnath Kovind

The most important credential of Ramnath Kovind to be a presidential candidate is that he has toed the RSS/BJP line. Though a Dalit, he has had no revolutionary agenda for their transformation. As a party, the BJP is committed to maintain the hierarchical caste order and in many circles the party is known as a Brahmin Jati Party. The party has no programme to annihilate caste or treat Dalits as equals. Though academically competent and politically experienced with a legal degree, all through the years of his public life Kovind has served the BJP as a Member of Parliament and all his statements and pro-nouncements were in keeping with the ideology of the party. As a Dalit face of the BJP, he has been the head of the Dalit morcha of the party. There are no instances of his standing up either for Dalit rights or fighting against atrocities perpetuated against them.

He has not been a critique against Indias caste order which has caused damage to the Dalit psyche. Instead, he has supported the diabolical ideology of the BJP against the community. The objective of the BJP in selecting Kovind is to turn him into a model of what a good Dalit should be. For the BJP, Dalits should be Hindus and accept their position in the caste hierarchy. This is the political line of the Sangh Parivar. Any protest against caste and as a result moving into another religious identity is considered as anti-national.

Kovind prefers reforms in the caste hierarchy as entrenched in the Hindu puranic system, instead of a complete annihilation of caste as advocated by Indian leaders like B.R. Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar. In other words, the Hindu-ness of a Dalit for Kovind must subsume the Dalit-ness of her/his identity. Much of what Kovind has said and done exposes what he is and how he has served the RSS/BJP.

Dalits should accept Primacy of Education over Reservation

In his understanding, Dalits should accept the primacy of education over reservations. Dalits are backward because they have no education. Once educated, Dalits will not be excluded, according to him. However, in a caste society even if Dalits are educated, the Hindu society is still unwilling to accept them as equals. Though he has said reservation has to a large degree been successful in protecting Dalit rights, he had advocated primary education as a place to start the end of discrimination.

No one disagrees that primary education is the place to begin but primary education cannot end discrimination. The Sangh Parivar sees primary education as replacement for the reservation policy. He has said Dalits should not demand reservations in the private sector.1 What Kovind does not understand is that democracies are all about representation. If Dalits or for that matter any community is not represented in all sectors of the economy and polity, they are likely to remain excluded.

Discrimination is because of Poverty

Economics underlie the discrimination against Dalits, not caste, a view to which Kovind has subscribed while Dalit intellectuals and others have strongly disagreed with his assertion. The true basis of discrimination is economic in nature rather than caste-based, as the haves discriminate against the have-nots and use the caste system to perpetuate differences between economic groups. Comparing the caste system to the trade guilds in feudal Europe, he had said that under the caste system, persons acquire their trade at birth, while the guilds allowed job mobility. Caste factors are now used to protect jobs and livelihoods more than anything else.

Kovinds arguments clearly mirror those of the Sangh Parivar. Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS Sarsanghchalak, in 2010 had stirred a political controversy when he had advocated that economic background, and not caste, should be the basis of the reservation system.2

There is Decreasing Violence on Dalits

In spite of the increasing atrocities and violence on the Dalits, Kovind has held that the practice has decreased considerably and even hiring personnel is usually free of caste prejudices. Open discrimination against Dalits has decreased dramatically over the last decade, while the number of persons who genuinely care about helping Dalits has increased. He maintained that while discrimination persists in the housing sector, employment decisions are usually free from bias.

While Kovind in an interview agreed with many others that the Hindu religion condones caste and therefore it will take longer for the Government of India to end caste discrimination, he also predicted that caste-based discrimination will exist for at least 50-100 years in India.

Kovind had desisted from demanding equal opportunity legislation in the private sector.3

His views on Dalit Christians and Muslims:

As a BJP spokesperson, he had objected to the proposed inclusion of Dalit Christians and Muslims in the Scheduled Caste category and had opposed the recommendations of the National Religious and Linguistic Minorities Commission (Ranganath Mishra Commission) to include Dalit Christians and Muslims in the SC list. Keeping with the ideology of the party he had expressed his reservation against the quota for religious minorities. If the government accepts the Ranganath Mishra Commissions recommendations, the convert Christians and Muslims would become eligible to contest on seats reserved for Scheduled Castes. Thus the people of Scheduled Castes would have to share their reservations in government jobs and political fields with convert Christians and Muslims.

He had argued that Christians and Muslims had been getting reservations in government jobs under the backward class categories; so the demand to put them under the SC category was just to make them eligible for contesting elections in reserved seats. Their special interest is not in getting reservations in government jobs, they want Scheduled Caste category reservation to contest elections from village panchayats to the Lok Sabha. As they know, they cannot be eligible to contest elections on reserved seats under backward class reservation, he said.4

BJP Alone can Save Dalits

However, when it came to his party allegiance, Kovind was quite vehement about projecting the BJP as the only party that will help Dalits. Kovind had asserted: The BJP is determined to help Dalits and shed the image that it is only an upper caste party. He had argued that only a nationalist party like the BJP will succeed in fighting discrimination against Dalits, as India cannot become a world power until Dalits and low-caste persons are brought up to the level of the rest of society.5

Conclusion

In the person of Kovind, the BJP has a Dalit who would conform to the Hindu world-view without fighting for the cause of social justice and empowerment of the SCs. Kovinds entry into the Rashtrapati Bhavan is therefore no symbol of Dalit assertion or pride. In fact, he may even turn into an obstacle for the Dalit cause as he would provide support for the Hindutva politics which is essentially anti-Dalit.

Parties, if interested in the Dalits, may have to first create an autonomous Dalit leadership with men and women who are more committed to the Dalit cause of annihilation of caste and fighting for justice than to political parties. In the person of Kovind the BJP has found a Dalit who would not prove an obstacle for the construction of a Hindu Rashtra but an active collaborator.

Footnotes

1. https://scroll.in/article/841342/not-a-masterstroke-bjp-picked-kalam-for-president-after-2002-riots-kovind-after-attacks-on-dalits

2. https://thewire.in/149571/wikileaks-ram-nath-kovind-discrimination-dalits-sangh-parivar/

3. https://thewire.in/149571/wikileaks-ram-nath-kovind-discrimination-dalits-sangh-parivar/

4. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/ram-nath-kovind-had-opposed-sc-status-for-dalit-christians-muslims-4712492/

5. https://thewire.in/149571/wikileaks-ram-nath-kovind-discrimination-dalits-sangh-parivar/

Dr Ambrose Pinto SJ in the Principal, St Aloysius Degree College, Bangalore.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Indo-US Summit, Lynch-Mobs on the Rise

EDITORIAL

PM Narendra Modi has returned to the Capital after his visit to the US and talks with President Donald Trump, both of which have been termed as broadly successful. The success of the trip has been measured in terms of the far more positive vibes that one witnessed in the Modi-Trump summit than several other recent summits involving Trump like the one with Angela Merkel, the German President, as has been underlined by our former Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, now a senior fellow and member of the Governing Body of the Centre for Policy Research.

Saran has, like other foreign policy experts, under-scored the importance of the two countries decision to reinforce their cooperation in counter-terrorism and welcomed the designation of Syed Salahuddin, the chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, as an international terrorist. He has also welcomed the ratcheting up of pressure on Pakistan on the issue of cross-border terrorism and opined that the formulations are more explicit than before. Yet he aptly pointed out that neither the US nor the international community in general would go beyond rhetoric in punishing Pakistan for its addiction to terrorism.

The former Foreign Secretary then observed:

India needs to reassess its options in this changing world. China remains an economic and security challenge and this challenge is likely to grow. Getting rhetorical support on issues such as Pakistans resort to terrorism, Chinas pursuit of geopolitical advantage through its One Belt One Road initiative and substantive support through technology and defence partnerships which build up Indian capabilities, should be on the agenda of our relations with the US and other friendly countries. At the end of the day, however, we will need to rely upon our own resources and capabilities to overcome the challenges we confront such as the current stand-off with China on the Sikkim sector of the India-China border.

That is most pertinent in the present context.

Meanwhile the country at large has seen yesterday civil society coming out on the streets in different partsNew Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluruto condemn the growing culture of lynch-mobs attacking and killing minorities and Dalits, something associated with the Right-wing majoritarian offensive across India since the advent to power of the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-led BJP in mid-2014. As a consequence of this pressure from wide sections of the public the PM was compelled to decry the gaurakshaks in particular while speaking at Mahatma Gandhis Sabarmati Ashram today. This is doubtless a positive development. However, unless such statements are followed by concrete action on the ground, these will not carry any meaning whatsoevera point highlighted by Opposition leaders, representing the Congress, Left and Trinamul Congress.

That is precisely the pointdespite yesterdays spirited protest and the PMs latest statement, the gaurakshaks have killed another person in Jharkhand today.

June 29 s.c.
The next person to be appointed will be the thirteenth to hold the role in 12 years  and the third in just two months
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday midnight launched the Goods and Services Tax (GST), India' biggest tax reform in its 70-year-old history. GST was formally ushered in at the late night session of parliament, reminiscing the midnight meeting presided over by India's fist Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the eve of the country's independence in 1947.

Just before the historical roll out, some salient reforms were changed in the GST. The GST launch took place with much fanfare at the central Hall of Parliament which was decked up with flowers and lights to celebrate the momentous occasion.

Dignitaries from all quarters attended the historic function. Meanwhile, opposition parties including Trinamool congress, DMK, and left front boycotted the joint session from both the houses. Though Finance Minister Thomas Issac attended council meeting, he also boycotted the midnight session.
Kochi: Prominenet advocate BA Aloor will appear in the court for Puslar Suni, the main accused in the attack on actress case. Pointing that a huge amount of money was offered to him as fee, Aloor said that he will not reveal the name the person who hired him.

Aloor went to the Kakkaand district jail on Wednesday and got the 'vakkalat' signed from Suni and will represent Suni in all further hearing related to the case. Aloor hogged to limelight by representing the vagabond Govindachamy in the sensational soumya murder case.
CHICOPEE - The City Council is once again planning to consider a ban on single-use plastic bags after an attempt to do the same thing a year ago failed to make it to a vote.

"It is time," Councilor Timothy S. McLellan said as he proposed creating an ordinance.

Single-use plastic bags are those typically given to customers at the checkout. They do not include bags used for produce, McLellan said.

McLellan proposed a ban on plastic bags about a year ago and then-Councilor Adam Lamontagne added a ban on plastic foam to the idea. The Council held a public meeting and studied the issue but never made a formal decision on a ban.

Residents in McLellan's ward have aired multiple complaints about plastic bags from nearby big box stores on Memorial Drive blowing onto residents' property, covering trees and polluting brooks, he said.

"We already debated this so we have information on this," Councilor William Courchesne said.

The City Council voted 12-0 to send the proposal to city lawyers to write a preliminary ordinance. It would then be sent to the council's ordinance subcommittee to be discussed and modified before it reached the full council for a final vote.

Councilor Robert Zygarowski asked that the local merchants also be notified that the Council is again considering a ban on plastic bags.

A public hearing held about a year ago attracted people with a mix of opinions, some said the proposal would be more expensive and inconvenient while others argued it is good for the environment because plastic does not degrade for decades.

More than 35 communities across the state already prohibit plastic bags. South Hadley Town Meeting voted in May to ban common retail plastic bags by July 1, 2018 and Springfield officials are beginning conversations about eliminating the bags. Earlier bans were passed in Amherst and Northampton.
SPRINGFIELD - A Springfield man charged with heroin trafficking is being held on $250,000 bail following his arrest for allegedly having more than 21,000 packets of heroin hidden in his car.

Joel Pacheco, 28, pleaded not guilty Friday in Springfield District Court to multiple drug offenses, including heroin trafficking and possession of cocaine and heroin, both with intent to distribute. He also pleaded not guilty to a related drug conspiracy charge.

At a prosecutor's request, Judge William Rota set bail at $250,000 on the drug charges and $5,000 in the conspiracy case.

Assistant District Attorney Cary Szafranski said Pacheco and four other defendants were arrested Thursday by investigators targeting a sophisticated, multistate drug operation that supplied heroin to Greater Springfield.

In addition to 21,500 packets of heroin from Pacheco, investigators also confiscated $13,000 in cash, seven firearms and multiple high-end automobiles used in the drug trade, Szafranski said.

The arrests followed the execution Thursday of 19 search warrants at seven locations in Springfield and West Springfield. The operation involved Springfield police narcotics officers and state police detectives assigned to the Hampden district attorney's office, Szafranski said.

Four other defendants -- Emmanuel Soto, 30, Luis David Ramirez-Perez, 29, John Shukes, 26, and Jose Cedeno, 26 -- also pleaded not guilty to related drug charges Friday, and were released on bails ranging from $2,500 to $5,000.

In an application for a search warrant, Springfield police Detective Thomas Kakley identified Pacheco as an alleged member of a "large scale narcotics trafficking organization with access to large sums of money and connections all over the country."

During a six-month investigation, officers tracked members of the organization to Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Florida, Kakley wrote.

Locally, the defendants were conducting business from Restless Towing Inc. and U Name It Storage, both in West Springfield, Kakley said. Several suspects were arrested after allegedly purchasing heroin from unit WS21 at the storage facility, located on Circuit Avenue, Kakley said.

In March, police pulled over a motorist leaving the unit and seized 2,000 bags of heroin; in May, 1,500 bags were confiscated after a similar traffic stop, Kakley said.

During trips to New York, Soto and Pacheco would purchase large amounts of heroin and then sell it in Greater Springfield, Kakley said.

Soto is charged with trafficking heroin between 36 and 100 grams and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

Pacheco is charged with trafficking heroin in excess of 200 grams, possession of a class B substance with intent to distribute, conspiracy and possession of ammunition without an FID card.

Ramirez-Perez, Shukes and Cedeno were each charged with trafficking heroin between 18 and 36 grams, trafficking cocaine between 18 and 36 grams and conspiracy.
SPRINGFIELD -- A raid of a Bancroft Street apartment has resulted in two arrests and led to the recovery of crack cocaine, two firearms and more than $2,000, Springfield Police reported Saturday.

Strategic impact detectives and officers with the North End C-3 Unit raided 46 Bancroft St. based on an investigation by lead Detective Eddie Kalish, according to Springfield Police Sgt. John Delaney.

Officers recovered 25 rocks of crack cocaine, $2,309 in cash, several rounds of ammunition, a Smith & Wesson 9mm M&P9, which was reported stolen from Springfield on May 5, 2015, and a Torino bolt action rifle during the raid, Delaney said.

Police arrested Abimael Figeroa and Jessica Gonzalez, who both reportedly reside at the residence.

Figeroa and Gonzalez have both been charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, two counts of possession of a firearm without a license, two counts of possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, two counts of improper storage of a firearm, possession of ammunition and receiving a stolen handgun over $250, according to police.

They will be held over the weekend on bail pending arraignment in Springfield District Court on Monday.
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Despite being a very poisonous plant, people have used belladonna in many different ways throughout history. While it has been used as a poison in the past, scientists today extract chemicals from belladonna for use in medicine. These chemicals, when used under a doctors supervision, can treat a range of afflictions, from excessive urination at night to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

What is belladonna? Share on Pinterest The belladonna plant may also be called deadly nightshade. Belladonna (Atropa belladonna) is a poisonous plant, native to parts of Asia and Europe. It is sometimes known as deadly nightshade. Belladonna produces small, black berries that must not be eaten. Eating the berries or leaves can be deadly. Similar to poison ivy, a person whose skin comes into direct contact with the leaves may develop a rash. In ancient times, people used belladonna for its toxic properties, as an oral poison or on the tips of arrows. Some scholars believe that Shakespeare referenced belladonna in his play, Romeo and Juliet. It is possible that belladonna was the poison that Juliet drank to fake her death. As time progressed, people used belladonna for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. For example, doctors used it as an antiseptic before surgery in medieval Europe. During the Italian Renaissance, which lasted from the 14th to 16th century, fashionable women drank the juice of belladonna berries to dilate their pupils. Belladonna owes its name to this practice, as it means beautiful woman in Italian. In modern times, optometrists often use belladonna to help dilate pupils when examining a persons eyes. Other recent uses of belladonna include over-the-counter creams and other herbal supplements. Despite its commercial availability, people are strongly advised to use belladonna with caution and under a doctors care.

Medicinal uses When used correctly in appropriate doses, belladonna is safe to use as part of regular medicinal practices. It is important to note that ingesting even small amounts of the leaves or berries can be deadly. Small children and infants are particularly at risk. Be sure to use caution when storing medicines that contain belladonna. Scopolamine and atropine Share on Pinterest Belladonna contains chemicals used to treat conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome. Belladonna contains two chemicals used for medicinal purposes. The first chemical is scopolamine, which is used primarily for reducing body discharges. It is also helpful in reducing stomach acid, which can help with both nausea and acid reflux. Scopolamine is also used for controlling the heart rate and relaxing muscles. The second compound extracted from belladonna is atropine. Similar to scopolamine, atropine can be used to help reduce bodily discharge, but it is not as effective as scopolamine when used as a muscle relaxant and in heart rate control. Also, atropine can be used to dilate the eyes. In some cases, atropine works as an antidote to insect poison and chemical warfare agents. Once extracted, one or both chemicals are combined with other medications to help treat some diseases and conditions. Some of the treatments target: motion sickness

irritable bowel syndrome

stomach ulcers

excessive nighttime urination

diverticulitis

Parkinsons disease

pink eye When taken as part of a prescribed medication, belladonna is considered mostly safe. Like all medicines, it can have side effects, and people should consider its use very carefully. As with any potentially harmful medication, it is best to speak to a doctor before using a product containing belladonna.

Alternative medication Like many well-known plants and extracts, belladonna is available in some over-the-counter alternative medications and supplements. Unlike traditional medicines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) do not regulate supplements, which means they are often not tested for safety or the effectiveness of their claimed outcomes. Companies that have made products containing belladonna state that it can improve various conditions. These include: the common cold

fever

whooping cough

hay fever

earache

asthma

motion sickness

flu

a cough and sore throat

joint and back pain

arthritis pain

spasms, or colic-like pain in the stomach or bile ducts

nerve problems

gout

inflammation

Parkinsons disease

hemorrhoids Belladonna is an ingredient in creams, some liquids, ointments, and, in some cases, suppositories. There is little research into belladonnas effectiveness at treating any of the above conditions. It is important to consider the potential side effects before taking belladonna as a supplement.

Risks and side effects Share on Pinterest Blurred vision and hallucinations are potential side effects of belladonna. Belladonna is considered a toxic plant with historical uses as a poison. Despite being sold as an over-the-counter supplement, it is likely not safe to consume. It is also important to be aware that the FDA do not monitor the quality and purity of belladonna supplements. There are some side effects to consider before using belladonna. These side effects include: dry mouth

red, dry skin

inability to sweat

muscle spasms

blurred vision

enlarged pupils

hallucinations

inability to urinate

convulsions

seizures

coma Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding may be at additional risk, as some of belladonnas side effects may appear in the unborn child, and it might dry up milk production. In addition to the side effects, belladonna may make some conditions worse. These include disorders that some manufacturers claim belladonna helps. Conditions that belladonna can make worse include: acid reflux

fever

rapid heartbeat

gastrointestinal (GI) tract infections

high blood pressure

constipation

urination problems Belladonna has negative interactions with certain medications as well, such as those for allergies and depression. Side effects of the interaction include a rapid heartbeat and rashes.
Lead aprons have been in use for many years by lab technicians who need to protect themselves from the frequent exposure to X-rays. These heavy aprons, however, are expensive and could wear out, leading to unwanted lead exposure. An assistant professor from the Radiology Department at Madurai Medical College, Dr. Senthil Kumar, has designed an indigenous apron which is creating a significant impact in the field of medicine.

Radiology professor, Dr. Senthil Kumar, designed an X ray apron using Antimony, Bismuth and Barium Sulphate to make them lighter and safer.

Award Winning Design

Best Fellowship Award - 2016 awarded by Best Medical International at the AAPM conference, Washington, DC. USA (2016), the UICC (Union for International Cancer Control) International Cancer Technology Transfer (ICRETT) Fellowship Award - 2013 awarded by the UICC, Queens Hospital, Romford, London, UK. And the UICC (ICRETT) Fellowship Award - 2012 awarded by the UICC, Mount Vernon Cancer Center, Middlesex, London, UK. He also won the Young Investigator award - 2010 awarded by the Association of Medical Physicists of India (AMPI) at their 31st Annual conference.

Reaching Markets Soon The young researcher cum radiologist plans to present the paper at International conferences, hoping to create greater awareness. 5 years of constant research and repeated efforts has gone behind developing this new design and hopefully, it would soon become accessible to many. "I am going to market with my product in collaboration with reliable companies so as to reach the users." This is expected to be Dr. Senthil's next step forward, as there is a lot of market research and preferences that need to be addressed. However, he remains hopeful. "It will take 1 month to 3 months for my product to be available in market.

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This apron has numerous benefits over the traditional lead apron, one of them being less expensive. The apron costs only 10,000 when compared to Rs 80,000 for the lead aprons. Moreover, the lead aprons need to be tested once every year to ensure that there is no leakage but the newly designed aprons need to be tested only after 3 years. This makes them far more durable, easier on the pocket and would, hopefully, encourage X-ray technicians to keep it on.



The novel design developed by this radiology professor is a considerable step towards safeguarding the safety of technicians, working across many imaging centers, bringing to the fore the importance of constantly innovating to improve designs. The quest for improving healthcare is not limited to a few, but lies in the hands of people who understand the needs. Dr. Senthil Kumar's achievement lies not only in the newly designed apron but also in his strong resolve to find a solution for lab technicians, who risk their lives to help others. When asked what message he has for people who wish to innovate, he says, matter of factly, "Keep trying till the goal is achieved."



Source: Medindia Some of his previous awards includeawarded by Best Medical International at the AAPM conference, Washington, DC. USA (2016), the(Union for International Cancer Control) International Cancer Technology Transferawarded by the UICC, Queens Hospital, Romford, London, UK. And theawarded by the UICC, Mount Vernon Cancer Center, Middlesex, London, UK. He also won theawarded by the Association of Medical Physicists of India (AMPI) at their 31st Annual conference.The young researcher cum radiologist plans to present the paper at International conferences, hoping to create greater awareness. 5 years of constant research and repeated efforts has gone behind developing this new design and hopefully, it would soon become accessible to many. "I am going to market with my product in collaboration with reliable companies so as to reach the users." This is expected to be Dr. Senthil's next step forward, as there is a lot of market research and preferences that need to be addressed. However, he remains hopeful. "It will take 1 month to 3 months for my product to be available in market.This apron has numerous benefits over the traditional lead apron, one of them being less expensive. The apron costs only 10,000 when compared to Rs 80,000 for the lead aprons. Moreover, the lead aprons need to be tested once every year to ensure that there is no leakage but the newly designed aprons need to be tested only after 3 years. This makes them far more durable, easier on the pocket and would, hopefully, encourage X-ray technicians to keep it on.The novel design developed by this radiology professor is a considerable step towards safeguarding the safety of technicians, working across many imaging centers, bringing to the fore the importance of constantly innovating to improve designs. The quest for improving healthcare is not limited to a few, but lies in the hands of people who understand the needs. Dr. Senthil Kumar's achievement lies not only in the newly designed apron but also in his strong resolve to find a solution for lab technicians, who risk their lives to help others. When asked what message he has for people who wish to innovate, he says, matter of factly, "Keep trying till the goal is achieved."Source: Medindia

Citations Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: APA Amrita Surendranath. (2017, July 01). Madurai Professor Designs New Age Apron For X Ray Technicians . Medindia. Retrieved on Nov 11, 2022 from https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/madurai-professor-designs-new-age-apron-for-x-ray-technicians-171332-1.htm.

MLA Amrita Surendranath. "Madurai Professor Designs New Age Apron For X Ray Technicians". Medindia. Nov 11, 2022. <https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/madurai-professor-designs-new-age-apron-for-x-ray-technicians-171332-1.htm>.

Chicago Amrita Surendranath. "Madurai Professor Designs New Age Apron For X Ray Technicians". Medindia. https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/madurai-professor-designs-new-age-apron-for-x-ray-technicians-171332-1.htm. (accessed Nov 11, 2022).

Harvard Amrita Surendranath. 2021. Madurai Professor Designs New Age Apron For X Ray Technicians. Medindia, viewed Nov 11, 2022, https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/madurai-professor-designs-new-age-apron-for-x-ray-technicians-171332-1.htm.

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Moving from being a little known professor, to one who has shot to fame across various social media channels, Dr. Senthil Kumar seems humbled by the attention showered on his design. The newly designed apron is a mixture ofalong with an elastic polymer that could be fabricated into thin sheets, which makes the garment light and easy to wear. When asked what motivated the professor to design the new apron, Dr. Senthil said "The personnel working with X rays find it difficult to wear the conventional lead apron and sometimes they are comfortable to work with x rays without wearing lead aprons because of its heavy weight. This motivated me to make a new lighter lead equivalent apron and to provide more attenuation of radiation The design came to light during the National Symposium on Medical Physicals, conducted by the Association of Medical Physicists of India at Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital in Pune (2017) where Dr. Senthil won the 'Best Innovation Award'. "The newly designed apron isattenuation when compared with the conventional lead apron," he said as he went on to point out how he will be applying for a patent soon with the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
What would you say to a visit to a cafe that is lit up with all things neonfrom the wall decor to the lights? Far-fetched? Fantastical? I'm sure it does. You know what else it sounds like? It sounds like a trip down to the brightest, or the darkest parts of our mindsthat's where you either find all the light, or you need all the light. It depends on how you look at it, really. No, I'm not talking about a psychological experience. I'm talking about a fulfilling experience in one of London's most cult cafes that has become a thing of popularity over the past 60 years, courtesy of its neon-ness.

Flickr

God's Own Junkyard is one of the most popular little neon cafes in grey and moody London; adding just the right amount of pop colour and light into the lives of all those who visit the cafe-cum-gallery. Owned by 43-year-old Marcus Bracey, the cafe was the brainchild of Chris Bracy, who was one of the most renowned neon artists in modern times. Before Bracey senior became a revered and frequently-mentioned name in art galleries and Hollywoodhaving worked with the likes of Jack Nicholson in 'Batman', Tom Cruise in 'Mission Impossible', as well as 'Eyes Wide Shut', Johnny Depp in 'Charlie and The Chocolate Factory', Chris used to make neon signs for fairgrounds and sex shops in the early years of new-age London.

Chris Bracey for Guardian UK

It is Chris Bracey's legacy that remains in the neon cafe and is being carried on by Marcus. The cafe is a collection of four generations of the Marcus family, all of whom were involved in the creation and sale of neon signs and artworks. All of their pieces are on display at the cafe. Through the years, Marcus has managed to collect memorabilia from sales on film sets and in car boots, once these creations were no longer required. God's Own Junkyard has a narrow winding aisle with each of these pieces carefully showcased for visitors to feast their eyes on. Some of the earliest neon pieces displayed at the cafe date as far back as the 1950s when Marcus' grandfather used to work in the mines, in Wales and decided to quit his job to join a lighting company and eventually, make neon signages for carnivals across the country. You also find a few pieces made by Chris before his hay-Hollywood-days; sex shop signs in fluorescents, dating back to the 1980s, can be found in certain areas of the cafe

Vimeo

The newer works by Marcus sit along with the ones produced by his teenage daughter, Amber Bracey, who is a graffiti artist in the city. Their neon signs have become a legacy they carry on from the days of the generations of Bracey's preceding them. In an interview with Reuters, Bracey said, This is my neon emporium, my museum of light, my Aladdin's cave. The cafe is said to run up an electricity bill of approximately $900 on a per month basis, owing to the usage of electricity to power the neon signs and artwork in the cafe. Some of the art by Chris Bracey even decked the upmarket stores of London's Selfridges and were bought by the iconic supermodel, Kate Moss.

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He recently sold a huge God Save The Queen' signage plastered in front of a heart-shaped, British Union Jack for an enormous $74,700 to a bidder at an auction in Dubai. Bracey's neon artworks have become iconic through the ages and have become a collector's item across the world. What started out as a small job, became a thriving business and went on to establish itself as a legacy of art that lights up the city of London.

Pinterest

I'll rephrase a popular quote by Edward St. Aubyn, a renowned contemporary author and journalist. We may be entering the Dark Ages, my friend. But, at least this time there will be lots of neon, and screen savers, and street lighting. That's what God's Own Junkyard is doing for thousands of Londoners everydaybringing them into the light, no matter how dark it may be.

Amazon
When the list of Academy memberships came out, it surprised many. From Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Salman Khan to Irrfan Khan, Deepika Padukone, and even filmmakers like Goutam Ghose, almost everyone was invited to join the Academy and vote in on the Oscars. However, it was King Khan whose name did not make it to the list.

The announcement was made when Cheryl Boone Isaacs, President of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences officially told the Oscars' website, We're proud to invite our newest class to the Academy. The entire motion picture community is what we make of it. It's up to all of us to ensure that new faces and voices are seen and heard, and to take a shot on the next generation the way someone took a shot on each of us.

Hollywood biggies like Gal Gadot, Adam Driver, Riz Ahmed, Domhnall Gleeson, Warwick David, Adam Driver, Riz Ahmed, Domhnall Gleeson, Chris Pratt, Anna Faris, Margot Robbie, Channing Tatum, Shailene Woodley, Ruth Negga, Rupert Grint, Warwick David and others have been invited as well. While Betty White, 95, is the oldest member, Elle Fanning, 19 is the youngest.

Despite the fact that 774 invitations were sent out, we wondered why SRK wasn't qualified for the same? It goes without saying that SRK rules millions of hearts and him not being invited will create a ruckus on social media. After receiving tons of criticism, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally released a statement to an online portal which will palpably shoot people's BP up!

Here's what the statement said, The basic requirement is that a candidate must have demonstrated exceptional achievement in the field of theatrical motion pictures."

Can you believe something like this being said for a man who changed the wave of Indian cinema? The Badshah of Bollywood is popular all around the globe. He is one of the most respected Bollywood actors and was recently invited to attend the TED Talk.

This statement just makes us say, Are you kidding us?' When Deepika Padukone and Salman Khan can make it to the list, why isn't a global star like Shah Rukh not on the list.

Well, all we can say is that this won't go well with his fans. Expect some backlash soon enough.
There's no denying that smartwatches are taking over our daily lives. In fact, there are more smartwatch manufacturers springing up every day thanks to the available technology in the market. There is, however, one company that is on top of that list and its none other than Apple. The sudden growth of smart watches has likely given traditional watch manufacturers a reason to worry and a report by UBS suggests exactly that.

(c) Youtube

The Apple Watch is bigger than every other Swiss watch company with the exception being Rolex. One brand that is probably going to face extinction in the near future is Swatch which is at its most vulnerable period. Swiss watchmakers like Swatch will have to start making smartwatches like the rest if they want to survive in the near future. Traditional companies are generally reluctant to explore the idea of developing their own smartwatches because they would then rely on tech companies that manufacture components that would replace mechanical parts.

(c) Youtube

Most of the traditional high-end companies rely on their status and if they decide to start selling wearables at a cheaper price, it would drastically destroy their status as a luxury watchmaker. A report by UBS shows the gradual decline in traditional watch sales and how smartwatches, in general, have taken over the throne.

Luxury watchmakers have flirted with the idea of releasing their own smartwatches such as the Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45 which is nothing but a hilarious attempt at making a smartwatch. However, some traditional watchmakers such as Fossil have already started manufacturing smartwatches for their customers and it seems like many others will follow suit.

(c) UBS

(c) UBS

Having said that, smartwatches can never be a piece of jewellery that holds value in people's lives. A smartwatch will become obsolete in a few years which means that a user would have to replace it with a new one. Swiss watches are timeless and hold emotional value due to their timeless status. It can be a gift that can last a lifetime and can have many memories attached to them. These timepieces can be restored or fixed anywhere in the world, however, a smartwatch is useless if the battery dies or lose support from the manufacturer when it comes to updating the operating system.

The smartwatch is becoming an integral part of many people's lives around the globe but there also remains the question of a traditional watchmaker's survival. With the way things are going and the pace at which wearable are selling, we can only speculate that future looks dire for Swiss watchmakers if they don't start selling smartwatches soon.
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N. KOTZIAS: Good morning. Yesterday we had an extremely interesting discussion. The UN Secretary-General set out his views on key issues. I think the views he set out move in a positive direction.



JOURNALIST: Are you optimistic?



N. KOTZIAS: I am always optimistic. That's the way I think. It's my philosophy.



JOURNALIST: So we are continuing, Mr. Minister?



N. KOTZIAS: Yes, probably for all of the coming week.
UPPER THUMB -- Huron County's dry bean crop was hit the hardest by recent heavy rains and flooding, but not all is lost.

In a 300-mile tour Wednesday of flooded fields that spanned several counties ravaged by floods, officials from the Michigan Agri-Business Association assessed the damage to crops.

Michigan State University Extension has said that the state's crop losses as a result of the floods could total $21 million.

"Severe damage is limited," said Jim Byrum, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association. "We will still have beans to sell."

Dry beans are the most recently planted crop, and therefore, the most fragile, and some farmers may be flirting with the idea of replanting.

But crop advisors say surviving plants could make up for those lost.

Tim Boring, vice president of Michigan Agri-Business Association, said that although yields will depend on the weather over the rest of the summer, dry beans that survived the floods are expected to meet or exceed 90 percent of yield expectations.

"Good beans have got great potential yet. Well-drained fields can do well," added Joe Cramer, executive director of the Michigan Bean Commission.

"Every field and every farm is different," Byrum said.

Farm management methods -- including drainage, weed control and aeration -- could make a big difference in this year's dry bean crop.

The difference between this flood and the ones that struck in 1986 and 1996, he said, is improved drainage and tiling, which have eliminated the "widespread devastation" seen previously.

Cooler temperatures have also helped fields dry out, Byrum said.

The wheat crop, which will soon be harvested, will not be affected by flooding.

Byrum added that corn, sugar beets and soybeans are okay, except for those in the hardest hit areas, like Isabella, Midland and Bay counties.

"This is agriculture, and it's very difficult to assess what's going to happen," he said.

"Michigan is known for producing high quality of dry beans," Cramer said. "Our concern is impact to supply and quality."

Weed control and aeration must be a major focus for famers, he said.

In the Thumb, Byrum said, hand weeding may be necessary.

Crop advisors and crop management will play a big role in the fate of dry beans, he added.

In the next five to 10 days, the full brunt of the damage will be better known. But the financial fallout will not entirely be determined until Jan. 1.

The most harm done by the flooding was to not to crops, Byrum said, but to rural infrastructure in the form of washed out roads.

Officials said that in the overall picture of Michigan's $1 billion agricultural economy, a $21 million loss would not devastate it, but could have a significant impact.

"We do have some pretty god crop out there yet," Byrum said. "Tile and crop management are paying off."

Drain commissioners deserve kudos as well, he added.

It will be up to growers and dealers to work together and have a game plan, Cramer said.

He added that if farmers replant and there is a late frost, "Who knows what we could produce?"

But dry beans that are planted late could result in crop insurance penalties.

The deadline for bean planting was June 25, and the deadline for replanting is July 20.

The Michigan Bean Commission and Michigan Bean Shippers recently made the following recommendations to farmers:

 Carefully evaluate timing and consider frost risk.

 Replants should be the same type of dry beans, even if they use the shorter-season varieties.

 Farmers with questions about Risk Management Agency (RMA) requirements should call the RMA's Regional Office at 217-241-6600.
SEBEWAING -- Village and state officials gathered for a ribbon cutting this week at the newly-constructed Main Park restrooms.

The project was made possible through a $100,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Representatives from the village, DNR, Spicer Group and Sakon Builders gathered for the ceremony. Spicer Group assisted the village in applying for the Land and Water Conservation Fund grant and handled the architecture services. The project was estimated to cost between $100,000 and $200,000, and Sebewaing Department of Public Works Superintendent Duane Dressler said the total cost was $187,000.

Sakon Builders constructed the restrooms, which include a family restroom that mothers or fathers can use with their children. The restrooms also meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. S&W Concrete, B's Electric, Dyer Plumbing, Sebewaing DPW and Sebewaing Light and Water Department also were involved in the project. Construction began April 5 and ended June 9, just in time for the Michigan Sugar Festival.

The reason behind the construction of the restrooms is a simple one.

"It's what the residents wanted," Dressler said.

Two years ago, the village updated its recreation plan. As part of this process, the village surveyed residents, asking what they would like to see regarding parks and recreation resources. The No. 1 priority was improving the Main Park restrooms, which were built in the 1950s and were in need of an upgrade. The old restrooms did not meet ADA requirements.

Dressler said the restrooms are designed very well and feature motion-sensitive lights to save energy.

"Spicer architect Dave Borsma did the design for the restrooms -- I give him all the credit," he said.

The men's bathroom has one stall and two urinals. The women's restroom has three stalls.

Dressler said if it wasn't for the grant, the restroom project would've have been possible.

Jon Mayes, of the DNR Finance and Operations Division, said Sebewaing's restroom project was selected for the grant because it scored high enough in a competitive scoring process. According to the DNR website, grant applications are scored in the following categories: need for project, site and project quality, applicant history, financial need of applicant, quality of the overall park design, project facilities/scope items and universal access design. Scores are given within each category, and the total possible points are 380. Applicants that get a score at or closest to this amount are the ones most likely to get funded, Mayes said.

"Sebewaing competed with communities from around the state," he said.

Mayes said DNR Director Keith Creagh makes the final decisions on the grants. He also noted the grants are not paid with taxpayer dollars. Funds are derived primarily from federal leasing of the Outer Continental shelf for oil and gas production.

"We are quite pleased with the project and with the quality of the planning and construction," Mayes said. "It's definitely built to last."

As part of the grant, the village needed to contribute 50 percent of the cost. The village is taking donations from residents and organizations for this project. So far, about $47,000 has been raised, Dressler said. To donate, call the village office at 989-883-2150 or mail/drop off donations to the Village of Sebewaing Office, 222 N. Center St., Sebewaing, MI, 48759 (there is a drop box).

Now that the restrooms have been completed, the next priority on the list from the recreation plan survey is a walking path from the Main Park to the South Park.

"That's in the talking stages in committees," Dressler said.
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BAD AXE -- A familiar face will be taking over as the new editor of the Huron Daily Tribune.

Kate Hessling, an 11-year veteran at the paper, was named the next editor of the Thumb's top daily news source.

Hessling was recruited to work at the Tribune while still in college at Central Michigan University. Upon graduation in May 2006, she moved back to the Thumb and served as a government reporter for about five years, and was then then promoted to assistant news editor, a position she has held for the past six years.

"I have had the privilege to work with some fantastic editors during my time at the Huron Daily Tribune, and I'm very excited and humbled to be able to carry that torch into the future," Hessling said.

Prior to coming to the Tribune, Hessling interned at the Washington Times in Washington D.C., and served as managing editor of CM Life, the student newspaper at Central Michigan University.

During her tenure at the Huron Daily Tribune, Hessling has earned many honors, including numerous awards from the Michigan Press Association and Associated Press, and a legislative tribute from the Michigan Legislature.

A graduate of Caseville High School, Hessling has roots to this area, which she calls home. In addition to her love of the local area, Hessling is very passionate about community journalism and a free press.

"Unlike many other areas around the state and around our country, the Upper Thumb -- and Huron County, in particular -- supports a daily newspaper," Hessling said. "It's a true blessing to be able to be editor of this area's newspaper."

In addition to continuing the proud tradition of serving as the area's best source for local print news, Hessling's future plans for the Huron Daily Tribune include advancing the newspaper's website, www.michigansthumb.com.

"We are very fortunate to have someone of Kate's caliber moving into the lead editor role," said Jeff Bergin, Vice President Vertical Strategies and Michigan Group Publisher for Hearst Newspapers. "She has years of journalistic experience combined with in depth knowledge of the local market. Kate has come up through the ranks, giving her a unique perspective on how our print and digital platforms interact with the Huron County community. I personally look forward to working with her to grow our local footprint and audience."

Hearst also announced Advertising Director Rebecca Watson will assume the role of general manager of the Tribune.

"Rebecca Watson has proven to be a successful and dynamic leader during her time in Bad Axe," Bergin said. "She has transformed our sales organization, improved our customer service and has been innovative in new product development. Rebecca's passion and drive to produce a better local product for readers and advertisers is what makes her stand out as a leader in the industry."

Hessling and Watson will now be tasked with successfully guiding the Tribune through the ever-changing landscape of the industry.

Watson said she looks forward to working with Hessling as she assumes the role of editor.

"I don't believe there is anyone more deserving of this role than Kate," Watson said. "Her dedication, hard work and persistence to continue to improve the Huron Daily Tribune not only in print, but online, is what will make her a great editor. I could not be more proud of her and look forward to what she will accomplish."
Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go.

Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
New Branch Office of Kansas Overseas Careers Started in Chennai

Kansas Overseas Careers is Indias one of the fastest growing visa & immigration consultants. Kansas Overseas Careers currently renders services to India and abroad aspirants through its operation centers located in Hyderabad, Bangalore & Vizag. The company announces to have its operation center in Chennai, very soon.

Kansas Overseas Careers has a good record in processing PR visas, student visas & study visas. The new operation center & branch office of Kansas Overseas Careers will primarily be open for people who are looking for Permanent Residency visa services. Spectacular service staff has been hired for this branch; who have expert knowledge in immigration procedures & hold good experience in visa guidance & processing. Evaluation Experts will assist the immigration consultants of the branch to provide authentic & legal PR visa evaluation. By this, aspirants looking for a PR visa will help whether their chances for the visa are possible or not.

Followed by this, there would be a full immigration service. All services like orientation, producing customized document checklist, visa application guidance, visa application on clients behalf, assistance in job search & job posting, documentation etc. will be provided by the visa consultants of Kansas Overseas Careers, Chennai.

The immigration consultants of Kansas overseas Careers, Chennai branch will also help students in applying for international University application & visa application. Services like University selection guidance, preparation of cover letters, drafting LORs, SOPs, visa filing on students behalf, visa interview preparation, IELTS preparation help etc. will be provided. Similarly, for those who want to visit any country in the world for business, tour or medical purposes, Kansas Overseas Careers helps in processing timely visit visas.

Kansas Overseas Careers has a success rate of 97% in PR visa processing. The company has helped many number of aspirants in the past few years with PR visa process for countries like Canada, Australia & Hong Kong. In the years to come, the company aspires to provide similar authentic, legal and budget friendly visa process through its upcoming Chennai branch.

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ANN ARBOR, MI - A 28-year-old man is charged with four felonies after allegedly taking money from a tip jar at a downtown cafe and resisting arrest, causing police to deploy a stun gun to subdue him.

Zachary Michael DeGeorge, 28, of Ann Arbor was arraigned Thursday, June 29 in Washtenaw County 15th District Court on charges of larceny in a building and three counts of resisting, obstructing and assaulting a police officer.

Resisting arrest is punishable by up to two years in prison, and larceny in a building carries a punishment of up to four years in prison.

Ann Arbor Police say DeGeorge stole money Wednesday from a tip jar at Sweetwater Cafe, 123 W. Washington St., and then resisted officers when they tried to arrest him.

DeGeorge ran into Pretzel Bell restaurant on Main Street, and screamed at and attempted to kick arresting officers, police say. Officers deployed a stun gun to subdue him, but he removed the probes and continued to resist arrest, according to Ann Arbor Police.

Officers then took him into custody, and he was treated for minor injuries at the University of Michigan hospital.

DeGeorge is scheduled to appear in court July 6 for a probable conference cause.
LANSING, MI - An Ann Arbor high school student who founded a nonprofit, sisters from Manchester who advocate for people with disabilities, a philanthropic Ypsilanti residents with ties to Chelsea Milling Company and an Ann Arbor man who has dedicated his life to helping those in need are among the 2017 recipients of the Governor's Service Awards.

Gov. Rick Snyder announced this year's 49 award recipients on Thursday, June 29, and the winners will be recognized at a ceremony in August at the Detroit Opera House.

"These individuals and organizations are role models for other people to follow. The impact they have on other people's lives is incredible," Snyder said, in a press release. "They show us how to overcome obstacles and do good things for other people. They demonstrate tremendous spirit and we are thrilled to recognize them."

Bill Holmes, of Ypsilanti, and John Barfield, of Ann Arbor, are two of four recipients of lifetime humanitarian awards. Skyline High School student Neha Seshadri and sisters Lilly Diuble and Abby Diuble, of Manchester, are among six recipients of Youth Volunteer of the Year awards.

The University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University also received an Education Service Leader award for their partnership on a "Books for a Benefit" program that promotes literacy in metro Detroit.

Below is a look at the contributions of the Washtenaw County residents who received Governor's Service Awards:

Holmes is part of the ninth-generation family business called Chelsea Milling Company, which produces Jiffy Mix. He served as chair of the St. Joseph Mercy Development Council from 2005 to 2012, during which time he helped raise more than $90 million for the Ann Arbor hospital. In 2011, Holmes joined the St. Joseph Board of Directors. He was involved in the hospital's partnership to help reduce homelessness in Washtenaw County, which included a $1 million gift to the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation to create an endowment for permanent housing services.

Bill Holmes

Holmes also has served on the board of directors for the Ann Arbor YMCA for the past 20 years, and he was involved in the campaign to raise $15 million for the new building. He has helped with fundraising for Arbor Hospice and supports the Purple Rose Theater. Currently, Holmes serves as board chair for Girls on the Run of Southeastern Michigan, a nonprofit that empowers girls and teaches them about healthy lifestyles through running.

"It makes me tear up thinking about what he has done for the organization," said Girls on the Run executive director Danielle Plunkett, in a press release. "We all adore him."

Barfield has been involved with numerous nonprofits over the course of his life. He served on the Spaulding for Children board for 17 years and led efforts to create a $4 million endowment for the nonprofit that provides assistance to children without families who wait the longest for a permanent home. Barfield also served as chairman of the United Negro College Fund for 10 years, helping raise $1.1 million in scholarships for black students.

John Barfield

John and his wife Betty formed Share Products in 1991, a company that sold consumer products and donated profits to the Salvation Army. Barfield also provided aid to African and Caribbean nations, and he has been a member of Ypsilanti Rotary International since early 1960s.

Barfield has been active in preserving the ParkRidge Community Center, an institution in the Ypsilanti community for more than 70 years. He led efforts in a partnership between the City of Ypsilanti and Washtenaw Community College to keep the center open.

He founded numerous businesses, including the Bartech Group, a global workforce management and staffing solutions provider based in Livonia. The Bartech Group, supports several local and global organizations, including Children's Miracle Network, Susan G. Komen, Wreaths Across America, and P.A.W.S. of Michigan.

"As an African American, I believe it's my responsibility to be an example to our young people," Barfield said. "The secret to a long and healthy life is caring for people and doing as much as you possibly can for others, especially those less fortunate. That's what I'd like to be remembered for."

Seshadri, who will be a senior at Skyline High School this fall, founded Helping Hands Going Global, a nonprofit that has helped more than 500 children around the world access better education, nutrition and basic necessities. Seshadri also coaches swimming for children with special needs. She volunteers at the Children's Hospital of Michigan.

"Neha is extremely dedicated to making a difference. When she doesn't see something being done, she steps up and does it herself," said Erin Dougherty, executive director of The Heart of a Child.

Lilly Diuble has hearing and visual impairments, which has prompted her to help raise more than $150,000 to support research through the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Her younger sister, Abby Diuble, also has become an advocate for people with disabilities.

Lilly Diuble

In 2015, a tornado struck the Diuble family's home in the middle of the night. Lilly was difficult to wake and barely made it to safety. Abby realized that people like her sister are vulnerable in emergency situations, so she did some research on options to help keep them safe. Abby has raised awareness of a bed shaking alarm that could wake a person with hearing impairments in the event of severe weather, fire or carbon monoxide. To help fund the project, family created Diuble Family Vision, a nonprofit that has raised more than $11,000.

"In my 26 years of public service, I have never encountered individuals who, at such a young age, had the dedication for volunteering and willingness to serve for the betterment and protection of others," said Madison Township Fire Chief Ryan Rank.

See the complete list of 2017 Governor's Service Award recipients.
MOUNT FOREST TWP, MI- No one was injured when a large logging vehicle started on fire in Bay County's Mount Forest Township on Friday afternoon.

Russell Sperry, an employee of TR Timber, was using a John Deere de-limbing machine, similar to an excavator, on a plot of land along West Mount Forest Road between Bay-Gladwin County Line Road and Flajole Road when the machinery started on fire.

"I was operating it and I was de-limbing the trees off and next thing I know I seen a puff of smoke coming out on that side of it," Sperry said. "I hurried up and got out and I grabbed my fire extinguisher,"

Sperry's co-worker came with another extinguisher and by the time they got a third, it was too late.

"She just started roaring and we called the fire department," Sperry said.

Mount Forest Township and Billings volunteer fire departments responded to the call and were able to extinguish the fire using water and foam.
A Michigan State policeman searches a youth on Detroit's 12th Street, July 24, 1967, where looting was still in progress after rioting. His companions lean against the wall waiting their turn. (AP Photo | Pat Sullivan)

The Detroit Historical Society opened the 'Detroit 67: Perspectives' exhibition to the public in June 2017 at the Detroit Historical Museum with the 50th anniversary of the July 23- August 1, 1967 riots approaching.

By Ben Solis | bsolis@mlive.com

There's a lot to see at the Detroit 67: Perspectives exhibit, open now at the Detroit Historical Museum's Booth-Wilkinson Gallery.

Admission is free, but the elaborate, in-depth array of immersive material on Detroit in 1967 is worth its weight in gold.

Here are five important gallery pieces that might change a visitor's label of what happened during that week of unrest from "riot" to "rebellion," or maybe the other way around.

More: Detroit 1967 - riot or rebellion? Exhibit explores perspectives 50 years later

Don't Edit

Ben Solis | bsolis@mlive.com

The 'perspectives' research station

Curators admit that the gallery has a lot to wade through. Between multimedia presentations and recreated scenery, the exhibit's heart lies with the people who made it possible -- the residents and civil servants of Detroit who shared their memories of 1967.

The presentation is the culmination of two years worth of research and 450 testimonials from those who witnessed the riot first-hand. That includes police officers, firefighters, laypeople and protesters.

Visitors can listen to the testimonials at a research station tucked away in a corner of the first section of the gallery.

The station is controlled by a touchscreen tablet projected onto a high definition monitor. Each of the testimonials offers a unique perspective on a week 50 years ago that still affects life in the city.

Take a seat. Watch a few clips. This is where the raw data is.

Don't Edit

Ben Solis | bsolis@mlive.com

Make your own 'riot' headlines

From the first TV reports of fires on WDIV to the headlines written in bold, black ink, the "Detroit 67: Perspectives" exhibit pays keen attention to how the media shaped people's perceptions of the riot-rebellion.

Words like "assaulting police" or "resisting arrest" were all carefully chosen for tone and effect -- decisions made by producers and editors that still have a lasting impact.

Visitors can play newspaper editor at the exhibit with the "make-your-own-headline" activity near the beginning of the gallery.

The station includes a platform with a painted-on stock headline. Certain modifiers are cut out of the text, and visitors can fill in the blanks with italicized words on wooden blocks.

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Tanya Moutzalias

Telephone to the past

Many Metro Detroiters learned about the riot through TV reports, sitting in their homes watching as parts of the city burned or as angry protesters cried out for justice.

That removed sense of participation and fear is best exemplified by the exhibit's "TV Room." This section transports visitors to a modest 1960s suburban Detroit home where three TV screens play back WDIV's introductory reportage.

Aside from the vintage screens and a multi-media map of the fires, the real interactive piece is the ringing telephone in the left corner.

Pick it up. Visitors can hear messages from city workers, police and commuters who were all stuck on highways or downtown at the onset of the chaos.

Don't Edit

Ben Solis | bsolis@mlive.com

Looted history

No museum exhibit would be complete without artifacts.

The "Detroit 67: Perspectives" gallery is chock full of them, from vintage shoes at the first looted store to post-riot pieces of city memorabilia.

Among the coolest artifacts in their possession is an unopened bottle of booze, completely preserved in its original condition. The bottle was looted during the first day of the uprising.

While unopened, the alcohol appears three-quarters full. Museum staff say they checked the bottle for authenticity, and cannot explain why the bottle isn't full.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Ben Solis | bsolis@mlive.com

"Reflection" room

The exhibit, while informative and meant for people of all ages, does not shy away from the violence and turmoil caused by the riot.

Its heavy nature was not lost on museum staff. For that reason, museum the installed a "reflection room" at the end of the exhibit. Visitors can use the space -- complete with comfortable chairs and bottled water -- to soak in what they've seen.

Museum staff also call it a "conversation room." The hope is visitors will talk with one another about the impact that the exhibit -- or the riot itself -- had on their lives. It's a fitting end to display that plays on many different emotions at once.
As Detroit attracts new entrepreneurs and tries to foster new ways of doing business, one new downtown collaborative workspace brings people together from across the world.

Adam Neuman and Miguel McKelvey established WeWork in 2010 in New York as a global network of workspaces spread across 15 countries.

The $17-billion company opened two Downtown Detroit locations earlier this year at Campus Martius, 1001 Woodward Ave., and Merchants Row, 1449 Woodward Ave., gathering an array of users including small start-ups, advertising agencies and nationwide brands such as Pinterest and Discovery.

"It's a collaborative workspace meant to bring people together, whether you're a start-up or large business" said Kyle Steiner, WeWork Detroit community manager.

The city is becoming a hub for co-working spaces, with Bamboo Detroit and SpaceLab Detroit among the other unique office plans available downtown.

WeWork says it offers more than just space.

The company has a mobile application designed to connect members across the world, or to reserve offices and conference rooms in other cities while traveling.

The company also puts on events for socializing, networking, health and wellness, and provides members with various drinks and snacks, including beer on tap.

One startup operating out of Detroit's WeWork space, Warmilu, has traveled across the world to sell its product, a heat pack for infants.

The brand was established in 2012 by Grace Shaw, who was challenged to solve a warming problem in parts of the world in a University of Michigan class, according to Warmilu Chief Operating Officer Larrea Young.

Shaw created a patented warming solution for infants across the world without access to heating systems.

The packs are filled with a "phase-change solution" with a tiny steel disk that, when pinched, activates the warming solution.

"That process creates micro fissures in the steel and that harbors crystals into the phase-change solution," Young said. "When you're cracking it, you're releasing crystals back into that solution."

Warmilu's pilot customers were in Kenya, Rawanda and Uganda, and the company has since shifted to Latin America. Young said Warmilu plans to soon make its way to Tel-Aviv, where there is also a WeWork space, to pitch the product.

The first WeWork Detroit member to launch a brand new company from the space is Ryan Landau, founder of Repurpose, an online recruiting platform that matches start-up and tech companies with talent.

"The environment here is great," Landau said, adding that relationships build more frequently than when people work from coffee shops.

"Detroit has gotten a lot of momentum recently."

The company works with 60 clients in Ann Arbor and Detroit and finds a plethora of opportunities in tech, engineering, sales and marketing.

"We only work with companies that have raised at least $1 million in venture funding or more," Landau said. "There's real high-paying jobs in Michigan."

He added the company's focus is on Southeast Michigan, but aims to bring more tech talent to Michigan from other states down the line.

"I think, fast forward to ... another five years, the conversation is shifting and it's 'How can I be part of Detroit?'"

The two WeWork Detroit locations have a total capacity of 1,565 members. The Merchants Row space can hold up to 760 while the Campus Martius office can hold 805.

Memberships range from $45 to $400 per month, per person.
A Canadian who admitted to helping more than 100 immigrants enter the U.S. illegally from Canada was sentenced to three years in prison Friday.

U.S. District Judge Laurie J. Michelson also ordered Iram Jafri, 38, of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, to pay a $200,000 fine. She was convicted of alien smuggling for financial gain.

The U.S. Attorney's Office claims Jafri sold her services, which included transport and creation of forged immigration documents for "well over 100 illegal aliens," between 2011 and 2016.

"As part of the scheme, Jafri instructed the aliens to travel to a company she operated in Canada, A.J & Associates, and then transported the illegal aliens from Windsor to the U.S. port of entry in Detroit where she assisted the illegal aliens in entering the U.S. based on the visas she had fraudulently obtained," the government said in a statement Friday.

Jafri was arrested Sept. 14. and pleaded guilty in February. She is the vice president of A.J. & Associated Immigration Firm, a company that investigators say marketed itself to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

The company is owned and operated by Jafri and her husband, Ken Aboutaam, according to court documents.

The immigration firm has offices in Kansas, Texas, Canada, Lebanon, Syria, India, Mexico and Bolivia, according to court documents.

Jafri allegedly demanded cash payment for services escorting families to the U.S. border and to talking to U.S. officials on their behalf.

"The United States has a strong tradition of welcoming lawful immigrants," Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch said, "However, illegal immigration presents a threat to our

economy and our national security.

"We are pleased that Ms. Jafri's illegal operation has been put out of commission."
ADA, MI --Saburba shut its doors this week, and owners of the Ada restaurant blame construction that has made navigating the village streets difficult.

The primarily take-out restaurant was opened by Chef Peter Davidson and Sarah Andro in 2012.

The eatery, at 7277 Thornapple River Dr SE next to a Blimpie's, was popular for its choices of grab-and-go foods and boxed lunches.

"The rumors are true people, after lunch today we will be closed forever," wrote the owners on a Facebook post on Wednesday, June 28. "We started to lose money the day the construction started and Thornapple River Drive became a side street."

The rumors are true people, after lunch today we will be closed forever. We started to lose money the day the... Posted by Saburba on Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Andro told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press that the timing of closure was tied to their property lease, which expires July 1. Because of the construction, they decided not to renew the lease.

More than 200 people lamented the closure on Saburba's Facebook page.

"I am seriously GRIEVING! I was JUST in last Tuesday, I ONLY came to Ada for Saburba. Please keep us informed on your next adventure or how we can bring you BACK!? So much love to you all, and now a lackluster future in my foodie endeavors," wrote one customer.

The construction work is part of a $13 million redevelopment of Ada village that includes new infrastructure, housing, storefronts, public amenities, parking and improved public access to the Thornapple River.

The project was made possible with financial support from Amway, the Grand Rapids suburb's biggest employer.

The second phase of reconstruction began in June to raise the second half of Ada Drive between Fulton and Headley streets. It is supposed to be completed by the end of August.
ZEELAND, MI --- Herman Miller is once again going after a competitor selling knock-offs of its famous mid-century modern designs by Charles and Ray Eames that have a place in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The latest lawsuit is against Otis Holdings, a New York firm that does business as Maxwell Blake.

Citing patent infringement and unfair competition, the Zeeland furniture maker is suing the company for lost profits and damages. It is also asking the court to halt any further sales of the look-alike furniture.

Sebastian Perez, the president and founder of MB, didn't immediately returned call from MLive/The Grand Rapids Press seeking comment.

Nick Butterfield, a Herman Miller spokesman, declined to comment on the suit.

Maxwell Blake, or MB, owns and operates the website, maxwellblake.com that sells Mid-century modern furniture.

The suit says MB sells a version of the Eames lounge chair and ottoman as the Baxter Lounger chair and ottoman; The Eames Aluminum Group and Eames soft pad chairs under the Lennox and Bond names, the Herman Miller SETU chair as Situ and Situ 2 chair and the Herman Miller Bubble Lamp as the Catherine Ceiling Lamp.

MB's products sell for a fraction of the price of the Herman Miller furniture.

"MB's website offers for sale, or has offered for sale, products that copy the distinct features of Herman Miller's trade dress protected designs online throughout the United States and the world, including in the State of Michigan," according to the suit.

The legal action comes after Herman Miller sent three "cease and desist" letters that went unanswered.

Herman Miller says MB's website describes its Baxter Lounge chair as "virtually part-for-part, and measurement-by-measurement identical to the original to the original lounge chair by Charles and Ray Eames."

MB also describes its Lennox and Bond chairs as "replicas" and "reproductions" of Eames office chairs.

"MB has knowingly made false and misleading representations as to the source of its goods or services and has knowingly made false representations as to it affiliation with Herman Miller," the company said in the suit.

Earlier this year, Herman Miller sued California competitor Office Star for copying its popular Caper and Mirra chairs. The legal action came months after Herman Miller won a $8.4 million judgment against the company.

In 2015, the company took New York firm, Madison Seating, to court for giving the impression its re-furbished Herman Miller furniture is new. The case was later settled.

In 2012, Herman Miller sued Toronto-based New American Inc. for Herman Miller's Eames lounge chairs and ottomans, Eames Aluminium Group and soft pad chairs, and other Eames Herman Miller products. It's unclear how the suit was resolved.
The government has deregistered and shuttered more than 1 lakh companies with doctored accounts in the last 48 hours, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday, in a stern message that the government will come down heavily on tax dodgers who refuse to come clean despite repeated warnings.

Just 48 hours back, more than 1 Lakh companies have been shut with the single stroke of a pen, Modi told a gathering of chartered accountants, less than 24 hours after he signalled the switchover to a goods and services tax (GST) in a glittering midnight event in Parliaments Central Hall.

More than three lakh companies have been identified so far, based on data mined after demonetisation, whose books haves been found to be suspicious and irregular books of accounts.

In addition, more than 37,000 shell or paper companies have been identified found to be funneling black money through obscure routes such as hawala.

Nobody will have the courage to evade taxes, Modi said that the foundation day function of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) attended by hundreds of students, professional CAs, traders, union and state ministers in a packed Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium

Those who have looted the poor, will have to return money to the poor, he said. Strict action will be taken against law-breaking companies in the coming days.

The government has been collating data on bank deposits and other transactions after November 8, 2017, when Modi announced demonetisation that outlawed Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes as part of a broader strategy to clamp down on corruption and black money.

Data mining is going on in banks of about how funds have moved after November 8, the Prime Minister said.

Modi directly attacked some chartered accountants for helping clients in evading taxes and under-report incomes.

After demonetisation, there must be somebody who have helped these companies. These thieves, these companies, must have gone to some financial doctor. Isnt it your responsibility to identity and separate these people, the Prime Minister said.

The Parliament has handed down a pious responsibility to the CA community. To tell what is the truth and false through audit, he said.

The government has been collating data on concealed assets of people who are suspected to have under-reported their incomes. The income tax department has also been collating data on property deals, a source of rampant black money transactions.

There are big houses that number in crores in India. Last year more than 2.18 crore people travelled overseas. Despite this, it is hard to believe that only 32 lakh people say their annual income is more than Rs 10 lakh, Modi said.

The Prime Minister warned that the government would not hesitate to launch a probe against CAs found to have advised clients on how to conceal income and dodge taxes.

Investigation against wrong suggestion givers is also necessary. In the last 11 years only 25 CAs have been probed. Is it the case that only 25 CAs have been found to be indulging in irregular practices, he asked. Dont allow the trust to falter on your (CAs) signature.

Amid looming question marks over GSTs impact in Asias third largest economy buffeted by opposing pulls and pressures from a multitude of sectors, Modi urged professional chartered accountants to hand-hold traders and businessmen to usher in GST, billed as Indias biggest ever reforms initiative.

Sharp fall in money parked by Indians in Switzerland's banks last year also how the noose is tightening around those to who salt away millions in overseas havens to evade taxes.

Indians funds nearly halved to 676 Swiss francs (about Rs 4,500 crore) in 2016 to hit a record low, a fall of 45 percent, marking the biggest ever yearly decline in such funds.

Since 2014, the fall has accelerated. After two years, when real time data starts flowing from Swiss banks, people will face even more difficulties in stashing away wealth in foreign banks. Please give this message to your clients, Modi said.

You are the saints of the financial world. Saints show the road towards mokhsa. You have the same role for financial world for showing the right path, he said.
Top leaders, industrialists, economists and celebrities tonight descended to witness the launch of landmark GST at the historic Central Hall of Parliament which opened for a midnight ceremony for the first time in two decades.

President Pranab Mukherjee, who piloted the first constitutional amendment for unifying more than a dozen central and state taxes, shared a specially erected dais in the circular hall with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice- President Hamid Ansari.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda too were on the dais with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh too was supposed to be on the dais but he yesterday sent a regret letter to the Prime Minister's Office apparently owing to his Congress' party's decision to boycott the "tamasha" (gimmick) launch ceremony. The Parliament building complex was illuminated just like it is done on national festivals such as the Independence Day and the Republic Day. At the stroke of midnight, Mukherjee and Modi pressed two buttons on a glass box decorated with orchids and GST inscribed on it. The pressing of buttons launched the GST and a two-minute video showcasing India's diverse culture and tradition. Mukherjee and Modi warmly shook hands after the launch.

Industry doyen Ratan Tata, RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Member of Parliament cum cine star Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha hogged much limelight with many of the participants greeting them. When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley entered the hall, Patel walked up to him to exchange pleasantries. Thereafter, the minister walked up to Tata, former Empowered Committee chairman Asim Dasgupta and former economic affairs secretary Vijay Kelkar to greet them.

Almost the entire council of ministers and MPs from ruling alliance sat in the circular hall along with opposition leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the BJD, the NCP and the JD-U.

The Congress, the Left, the TMC and the RJD boycotted the ceremony.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar was seated with BJP president Amit Shah in the front row. As soon as former deputy prime minister and senior BJP leader L K Advani arrived, Shah gestured him to take a seat on the front row. Advani then sat between Pawar and Shah.

SP's Ramgopal Yadav was seated in the front row, so were Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD and AIADMK's A Navaneethakrishnan. Subramanian Swamy, a bitter critic of GST-Network -- the IT backbone provider for the new indirect tax regime-- was also present at the launch.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha as also Vijay Kelkar, who had first mooted the concept of GST in a report to finance ministry way back in 2003, were also present at the launch. Tata, who sat on the eighth row initially, was requested by S S Ahluwalia to walk up to the initial rows. Tata then went to sit in the fourth row along with Dasgupta and Kelkar.

Media tycoon and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra, SP leader Amar Singh and Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule were also present at the launch. Among the bureaucrats, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, DEA Secretary Tapan Ray, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, apart from CBEC chairperson Vanaja Sarna and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia were present. Recently retired DEA secretary Shaktikanta Das too was present.

Unlike the last midnight event held in 1997 on the occasion of golden jubilee of the independence at a special session of Parliament, it was a gala event at its circular - shaped hall that had been loaned for the launch of the historic reform.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda too was present on the dais to launch the new taxation system that is set to dramatically re-shape over USD 2 trillion Indian economy. As if giving representation to regional political parties, former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and National Conference leader Abdul Rahim Rather were invited for the event.

Former GST Council chairman Sushil Kumar Modi, former finance ministers of West Bengal and Kerala Asim Dasgupta and K M Mani, who played crucial role in negotiations for GST, were also present. CEC Nasim Zaidi, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy and chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian were also present. The GST Bill was originally piloted by Mukherjee when he was finance minister in the previous UPA regime in 2011. The GST Council, that brings together the central and state governments, has met 18 times to thrash out how the tax will work. Originally, the launch of GST which had been in the works for over a decade, was to be done from Vigyan Bhawan -- the largest convention centre in the national capital that has hosted majority of the meetings of the GST Council.

But the historic Central Hall was thought to be a better choice considering the importance of the new indirect tax code that unifies more than a dozen separate levies to create a single market with a population greater than the US, Europe, Brazil, Mexico and Japan put together.

GST will simplify a web of taxes, regulations and border levies by subsuming an array of central and state levies including excise duty, service tax and VAT.

It is expected to gradually re-shape India's business landscape, making the world's fastest-growing major economy an easier place to do business. GST has been dubbed as the most significant economic reform since the BJP government came to power in 2014 and is expected to add as much as 2 percentage points to the GDP growth rate besides raising government revenues by widening the tax net.

A four-rate structure that exempts or imposes a low rate of tax of 5 per cent on essential items and top rate of 28 per cent on cars and consumer durables has been finalised. The other slabs of tax are 12 and 18 per cent.
Former Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax

The Centaur, till recently portrayed on the logo of Air India, is a mythical creature; half horse and half human. The Centaur aptly describes Air India which is one half Government and one half business entity; looks beautiful but is not of much use to anyone.

There was a time in the fifties and sixties when Air India and its country cousin, Indian Airlines were the pride of the nation; AI was our own airline which was giving tough competition to first world airlines. Though few Indians could afford to fly but all Indians took immense pleasure in the antics of the mustachioed Maharaja.

Air India hostesses were justly famed for their beauty and poise; at least some of them married industrialists whom they had met on flight. When it was flying high, Air India helped a number of airlines of Asian countries like Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines to come up.

Airlines of Gulf nations were set up by the expertise of Air India personnel hired privately. Alas, the golden days are gone now. Dubai airport not Delhi or Mumbai is the hub for Indian flyers.

The reasons for the downfall of Air India are myriad  too many to be enumerated in a mere newspaper article. Suffice it to say that the top people always looked upon Air India as a milch cow. In a famous incident, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took two Air India jets to Vancouver for the Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting; the Sultan of Brunei was the only other Head to come by his personal jet. Till today, Air Indias jets are requisitioned at short notice by the Government and bills are not paid for years.

After the opening up of Indian skies, the leadership of Air India took hugely innovative steps to hobble Air India. The top bosses completely abandoned Indian interests while signing bilateral agreements which have ensured that foreign carriers dominate Indian skies and the share of Air India is steadily falling in overseas travel.

Then there was the hair brained scheme to add aircraft without any specific plan for deployment. In 2006-07, Indian Airlines placed orders for more than 40 Airbus aircraft while Air India ordered 50 aircraft from Boeing. No passenger survey was done prior to this massive purchase. There was no staff or other infrastructure for flying these aircraft.

According to a CAG report, five Boeing 777s and five Boeing 737s were kept on the ground from 2007 to 2009 resulting in a loss of Rs 840 crore. More than 150 foreign pilots were hired at exorbitant salaries to fly these aircraft. It was sheer good luck that the delivery of B 787 Dreamliners was delayed; otherwise there would have been more losses for Air India.

The interest on the advance money paid for the purchase of these aircraft accounts for the major share of the losses for Air India. Interestingly, there was no penalty clause for late delivery in the agreements Air India signed with Airbus or Boeing.

The merger of Air India and Indian Airlines (initiated in 2007 and completed in 2011) was the last nail in the coffin of the national carrier. No specific reason was given for the decision to merge the two airlines. It was probably felt that the merger of the two airlines would reduce redundancies with fewer staff and space being required to run the merged airline. However, this did not happen.

Scratch the surface and even today you will find Air India and Indian Airlines very much alive; one is Air India (International) and the other is Air India (Domestic). Prior to merger, Indian Airlines was making modest profits while Air India was making modest losses.

Post-merger losses started ballooning and even after infusion of Rs.25,000 crores by the Government, as of today Air India has a net worth of Rs.25,000 crores but has liabilities of Rs.46,000 crores.

This should not have been the case. Air India was established in 1932 as Tata Air Mail, far earlier than any of its competitors. Tata Air Mail made a modest profit even in its first year of operation. Even today, Air India has a vast captive passenger population of Government employees.

On domestic routes Air India gives a free baggage allowance of 25 kilograms compared to an allowance of 15 kilograms on other airlines; it does not charge for your seat or for payment made by card or net banking. Air India flies better aircraft; it also gives proper training to its crew and pilots. Fares on Air India are often lower than other airlines. Despite all these obvious pluses Air India is the airline of last choice for passengers.

Even a layman can see that bad management negates all the natural advantages Air India has. To recount: AI has the worst time slots, their counter staff takes the maximum time to check you in and you are likely to miss the flight if you are just in time, checked-in luggage takes ages to reach the belt and flights are often delayed or cancelled without reason.

The unhelpful I dont care attitude of the staff completes the AI flight experience. There are myriad passenger complaints on the Air India page on Facebook, to which Air India has not bothered to reply.

There is an abundance of everyday examples of the self destructive attitude of Air India. While availing LTC, Government servants are obliged to fly Air India on special LTC fares, which are much more expensive than normal fares. From November to January, the Delhi  Port Blair flight is booked months in advance.

A rational approach would have been to deploy the best aircraft on the route and if possible increase the number of flights. However, till recently a very small airplane was deployed on this route which often would not fly because of strong winds in December and January. Invariably, Air India would announce the cancellation of the flight only at the last minute. The amount of goodwill and revenue lost could only be imagined.

In 2015, after heavy losses, Air India started to rent out its headquarters at Nariman Point at a mind boggling rent of approximately Rs. 300 per square foot per month. The rent of each floor came to crores of rupees. Despite the clamour of prospective tenants for quick possession, on the pretext of taking out some condemned furniture, Air India took months to move out. Thus unnecessary loss of crores of rupees was caused to Air India by the lackadaisical attitude of its employees.

Many a time flights are delayed because of Air India employees not turning up in time; sometimes staff does not report at all leading to the flights being cancelled. This impunity arises from the fact that the entire workforce of Air India is heavily unionised.

Pilots, drawing astronomical salaries, are known to strike work at the drop of a hat without any adverse consequence because pilots are classified as workmen under the Workmen's Compensation Act.

With good leadership, the technical and financial aspects of Air Indias working can be slightly improved but there are serious doubts if the attitude of the employees of Air India, can be changed. Trying to rejuvenate Air India, without a fundamental change in its corporate culture, would only be throwing good money after bad

The question then is; should this state of affairs continue? A number of solutions have been suggested: privatisation, part privatisation, outright sale etc. I would like to suggest for Air India what Mr. Subramaniam Swamy has suggested for Kashmir - depopulation.

Mr. Swamys solution would not work for Kashmir because the entire comity of nations would not allow Kashmir to be depopulated but we can easily give severance pay to all Air India employees and get rid of the whole contentious lot at a cost of a few hundred crore rupees.

After de-population the assets of Air India can be put on sale. Air India has office buildings and residential colonies at prime locations in all metro cities mainly Mumbai. The market value of the real estate and aircraft owned by Air India far exceeds the accumulated liabilities of the concern.

This solution would take care of the perennial problem that is Air India and gladden the hearts of all  mostly of passengers who would not have to fly Air India again.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author on moneycontrol.com are his/her own and not that of the website or its management.)
Telecom companies could get a breather if the Department of Telecom accepts the recommendations of sector regulator TRAI. In a letter to Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan, TRAI has suggested measures to give relief to the telecom industry, which is currently sitting on debt of Rs 4.6 lakh crore.

The letter reiterated some of the key measures suggested by the telecom chiefs to improve the financial health of the industry. Among other points, TRAI has said that the GST rate of 18 percent for the telecom sector should be reduced as it would benefit the end consumer and help achieve the Digital India vision.

The letter stated that telecom companies have sought reduction in licence fees and the Universal Service Obligation levy, relaxation in spectrum payment terms, ease of doing business and promotion of wireline infrastructure.

The letter to the DoT secretary said that while the regulator was engaged with the operators on all issues, the the authority reiterates that DoT may favourably consider these recommendations as they would help in minimizing the financial stress of the telecom companies and enable them to offer quality service to consumers at affordable prices.

A key ask of the sector has been to lower the licence fees, which currently stands at 8 percent of revenues. TRAIs letter recommended that the Universal Service Obligation Fund levy be reduced from 5 percent to 3 percent of adjusted gross revenue for all licences effective from April 1, 2015.

The industry had stated that it would like the licence fee to be reduced from the present 8 percent (which includes 5 percent USO levy) of revenue share, as it is considered to be very high. The regulator also recommended that with this reduction in USO, the applicable licence fee would become 6 percent from the present 8 percent of AGR. The 3 percent licence fee that directly accrues to the government would not change.

The regulator has recommended that spectrum usage charges (SUC) for all auctioned spectrum should be at a flat rate of 3 percent of AGR (adjusted gross revenue) as well as for the BWA spectrum should also be fixed at 3 percent where services are offered under CMTS/UASL/UL (AS)/UL.

The telecom regulator also recommended a relaxation in payout for spectrum that telecom operators acquired at auctions. Currently, telecom operators pay 25 percent or 33 percent upfront of total spectrum price and the remaining is paid over a ten-year period after a moratorium of two years. For spectrum payments in 700/800/900/2100/2300/2500 MHz bands, TRAI suggested payment spread over 18 years (18 equal installments with interest).

On the issue of interconnect charges, which the industry has sought to be made cost-based, the authority said that a consultation paper had been issued for it and that it would come up with recommendations based on the consultation process.

The regulator also proposed that the DoT may take up with the Ministry of Finance the issue of reduction of GST rate from the existing 18 percent to five percent by declaring the telecom sector as a core infrastructure industry and economy enabler in India.
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With little headway in talks the Indo-German partnership of Tata Motors and Volkswagen has hurtling towards a break up. That news was out in open when reports started emerging about a likely break up. GST, meanwhile has brought good news to vehicle buyers with a lower tax translating to cheaper price tag. This and much more in the weekly review of the top automotive news of the week gone by.

*GST leads to cheaper cars and bikes

The roll out of the much awaited tax reform Goods and Services Tax (GST) has led to a reduction in prices of cars, SUVs, bikes and scooters in the range of 1.8-14 percent. GST, which has replaced at least five older taxes, is in force from July 1.

Just few days before the onset of GST automotive dealers were forced to give hefty discounts to clear their old stocks which will get negatively impacted by the GST.

*Tata Motors-Volkswagen partnership on the rocks

The ambitious partnership that looked to address future mobility needs and challenges is believed to have hit a dead-end with both Tata Motors and Volkswagen finding little synergies in the proposed tie-up.

Both companies which have been struggling against market leader Maruti Suzuki for the past several years were keen on developing cost-effective solutions as well as future technologies like electric powertrains and driverless cars.

*Bajaj launches Pulsar NS160

Bajaj Auto, Indias third largest two-wheeler maker, has launched the Pulsar NS160, a younger sibling to the original Pulsar NS200, at Rs 80,648 (ex-showroom, Mumbai). The bike has a single cylinder 160cc engine that generates 15.5bhp of peak power.

It will compete in the premium segment of the below Rs 1 lakh category against Honda CBR 150, Yamaha FZ, Hero Xtreme Sport, Suzuki Gixxer and the Pulsar 150.

*Chinas SAIC announces India plans

One of Chinas biggest automobile companies SAIC announced its plans to enter the Indian market through a full-fledged manufacturing facility that will go on stream in 2019.

The company is in the process of finalising its manufacturing facility and is firming up its product strategy for the Indian market, details of which will be announced at a later stage. It will debut the British brand MG (Morris Garages), which it had bought some years ago.

*GM dealers on stage dharna

Unhappy over the compensation package offered to them around 140 dealers and their employees of General Motors (GM) India staged a peaceful protest at the Jantar Mantar early in the week.

The US-based GM exited the domestic market after several years of unfruitful operation. Its business remained in the red despite multiple launches and several efforts of reviving it.

General Motors Logo

*BMW launches 5 Series

BMW India, the countrys second largest luxury car maker, launched the new avatar of its most successful model 5 Series priced at Rs 49.9 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The 5 Series is one of the best-selling executive luxury sedans in the country.

The all-new BMW 5 Series will compete against the Mercedes-Benz E-class, Audi A6, Volvo S90 and the Jaguar XF. BMW claims that the 5 Series is the market leader in its segment. The car will come in four variants, three diesel and one petrol. It will be available post July 1.
A gunman who opened fire inside a hospital in the Bronx borough of New York today, injuring several people, is dead, a police spokesman told AFP.

The spokesman did not specify how many people had been hurt in the incident at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, north of Manhattan, nor the seriousness of their injuries.

New York media reported that at least two people had been injured.
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba

Pakistan has quietly banned Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir, a new front for Hafiz Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa, as international pressure on the country grew, including from a global watchdog, to combat terror and its funding.

TAJK gained prominence as a JuD front when it held pro- Kashmir freedom rallies and displayed banners and streamers across Pakistan on "Kashmir Day" on February 5, days after Saeed was put under "house arrest" for 90 days in Lahore. The militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba is JuD's armed wing.

The mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people died had indicated about a week before his house arrest he might launch TAJK to "expedite the freedom of Kashmir".

The re-branding of JuD as TAJK showed that Saeed had got a wind of the government plans and had worked out how to resurface and survive after the clampdown on his ostensible network of JuD and its affiliate Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

The JuD front was put on the list of "proscribed organisations" on June 8 - a fortnight before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force in Spain, according to a list available on the website of Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has called a meeting on Monday to discuss the ban on its affiliate, The Nation reported.

There are 64 other outfits in the proscribed organisation category, including Jaish-e-Mohammad, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e- Taliban, and JuD's armed wing Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for 26/11 and several other terror attacks in India.

According to a report in Dawn newspaper today, Pakistan continues to remain on the radar of the FATF over concerns that it is not fully complying with curbs against entities listed with the United Nations.

India had raised the terror financing issue at the FATF in February this year.

The FATF last week referred Pakistan to its regional affiliate - the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering - for further analysis and a follow-up report on actions the country has taken against entities designated under UN sanctions list.

Pakistan government has been under mounting international pressure to crackdown on terrorist networks and their fronts.

However, according to the report, Pakistani officials expect that Pakistan would be cleared of the concerns.

The United Nations placed both JuD and FIF on its watch list in December 2008 and March 2012, respectively.

The ban on TAJK on June 8 happened a day before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakh capital Astana. India had pushed the SCO members at the summit to curb the financing of terrorist organisations and their fronts.

The Astana Declaration of the Heads of State of the SCO said that the "member states will continue to cooperate in order to counteract the activities of individuals and legal entities related to the recruitment, training and utilisation of terrorists, public calls for terrorist activities or the justification of acts of terrorism, and financing terrorist activities."

Last week, the US declared Pakistan-based Hizb-ul- Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist. The announcement had come hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had their first bilateral meeting.
Top leaders, industrialists, economists and celebrities on Friday night descended to witness the launch of landmark GST at the historic Central Hall of Parliament which opened for a midnight ceremony for the first time in two decades.

President Pranab Mukherjee, who piloted the first constitutional amendment for unifying more than a dozen central and state taxes, shared a specially erected dais in the circular hall with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice- President Hamid Ansari.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda too were on the dais with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh too was supposed to be on the dais but he yesterday sent a regret letter to the Prime Minister's Office apparently owing to his Congress' party's decision to boycott the "tamasha" (gimmick) launch ceremony. The Parliament building complex was illuminated just like it is done on national festivals such as the Independence Day and the Republic Day. At the stroke of midnight, Mukherjee and Modi pressed two buttons on a glass box decorated with orchids and GST inscribed on it. The pressing of buttons launched the GST and a two-minute video showcasing India's diverse culture and tradition. Mukherjee and Modi warmly shook hands after the launch.

Industry doyen Ratan Tata, RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Member of Parliament cum cine star Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha hogged much limelight with many of the participants greeting them.

Haseeb Drabu, finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir -- the only state which has not passed the SGST Bill -- was also present.

When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley entered the hall, Patel walked up to him to exchange pleasantries.

Thereafter, the minister walked up to Tata, former Empowered Committee chairman Asim Dasgupta and former economic affairs secretary Vijay Kelkar to greet them.

Almost the entire council of ministers and MPs from ruling alliance sat in the circular hall along with opposition leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the BJD, the NCP and the JD-U.

The Congress, the Left, the TMC and the RJD boycotted the ceremony.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar was seated with BJP president Amit Shah in the front row. As soon as former deputy prime minister and senior BJP leader L K Advani arrived, Shah gestured him to take a seat on the front row. Advani then sat between Pawar and Shah.

SP's Ramgopal Yadav was seated in the front row, so were Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD and AIADMK's A Navaneethakrishnan. Subramanian Swamy, a bitter critic of GST-Network -- the IT backbone provider for the new indirect tax regime-- was also present at the launch.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha as also Vijay Kelkar, who had first mooted the concept of GST in a report to finance ministry way back in 2003, were also present at the launch. Tata, who sat on the eighth row initially, was requested by S S Ahluwalia to walk up to the initial rows. Tata then went to sit in the fourth row along with Dasgupta and Kelkar.

Media tycoon and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra, SP leader Amar Singh and Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule were also present at the launch. Among the bureaucrats, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, DEA Secretary Tapan Ray, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, apart from CBEC chairperson Vanaja Sarna and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia were present. Recently retired DEA secretary Shaktikanta Das too was present.

Unlike the last midnight event held in 1997 on the occasion of golden jubilee of the independence at a special session of Parliament, it was a gala event at its circular - shaped hall that had been loaned for the launch of the historic reform.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda too was present on the dais to launch the new taxation system that is set to dramatically re-shape over USD 2 trillion Indian economy. As if giving representation to regional political parties, former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and National Conference leader Abdul Rahim Rather were invited for the event.

Former GST Council chairman Sushil Kumar Modi, former finance ministers of West Bengal and Kerala Asim Dasgupta and K M Mani, who played crucial role in negotiations for GST, were also present. CEC Nasim Zaidi, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy and chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian were also present. The GST Bill was originally piloted by Mukherjee when he was finance minister in the previous UPA regime in 2011. The GST Council, that brings together the central and state governments, has met 18 times to thrash out how the tax will work. Originally, the launch of GST which had been in the works for over a decade, was to be done from Vigyan Bhawan -- the largest convention centre in the national capital that has hosted majority of the meetings of the GST Council.

But the historic Central Hall was thought to be a better choice considering the importance of the new indirect tax code that unifies more than a dozen separate levies to create a single market with a population greater than the US, Europe, Brazil, Mexico and Japan put together.

GST will simplify a web of taxes, regulations and border levies by subsuming an array of central and state levies including excise duty, service tax and VAT.

It is expected to gradually re-shape India's business landscape, making the world's fastest-growing major economy an easier place to do business. GST has been dubbed as the most significant economic reform since the BJP government came to power in 2014 and is expected to add as much as 2 percentage points to the GDP growth rate besides raising government revenues by widening the tax net.

A four-rate structure that exempts or imposes a low rate of tax of 5 per cent on essential items and top rate of 28 per cent on cars and consumer durables has been finalised. The other slabs of tax are 12 and 18 per cent.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during an election campaign event in Bradford, Britain, June 5, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble - RTX39625

Theresa May won her first confidence vote by a narrow margin in the House of Commons on her parliamentary agenda set out in the Queen's Speech, her first major test as the prime minister of a minority government in the UK.

The MPs voted in favour of the Queen's Speech by 323 votes to 309 with a majority of 14.

May was expected to sail through with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) voting with the Conservatives as part of a "confidence and supply" arrangement after the Tories lost their overall majority in the June 8 snap general election.

Votes on the Queen's Speech establish whether a government commands the confidence of the House of Commons.

If the Conservatives were to lose, it could trigger another general election and therefore the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP )support was crucial to ensure the vote goes through.

Under the deal with the DUP, May has a working majority of 13, which also helped her win her first vote in the Commons on Wednesday 323 votes to 309 on Opposition Labours proposal to scrap a cap imposed on public sector pay.

In what is being hailed as a new kind of politics in Westminster circles, backbench MPs won their fight to allow women from Northern Ireland to access abortions on the UKs state-funded National Health Service (NHS).

More than 50 MPs from the major political parties had backed a call for Northern Irish women to have the same rights as women in England because in Northern Ireland abortions are only allowed if a woman's life is at risk or there is a permanent or serious risk to her physical or mental health.

What does the election mean for Brexit and what does Brexit mean for the election? It is unlikely that the result will affect Brexit, with both Tories and Labour saying they will enact the referendum result, though if Labour wins we might be more likely to see a soft Brexit as opposed to a hard one

Small

Large

An amendment on the issue which had cross-party backing, had been selected for inclusion in the Queen's Speech debate.

During the debate in the Commons on Thursday, UK Chancellor Philip Hammond was asked by the Conservative Sir Peter Bottomley, why, in the case of women from Northern Ireland, "only the poor should be denied lawful abortions".

Sir Peter was among MPs from various parties to sign the amendment, co-ordinated by Labour's Stella Creasy.

Hammond told him that Justine Greening, the UKs minister for women and equalities, "either has made or is just about to make an announcement by way of a letter to members of this house explaining that she intends to intervene to fund abortions in England for women arriving here from Northern Ireland".

Following the concession from the UK government, the other amendments to be debated and voted on included a call for several of Labour's manifesto pledges to be adopted, plus one to ensure that Brexit delivers the "exact same benefits" of the current European Union (EU) single market and customs union membership.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hoped to highlight apparent divisions within the Conservative ranks over whether to put jobs and the economy first in Brexit talks.

The party tabled the amendment criticising what it says is the absence of measures to "reverse falling living standards" such as action on energy bills and wages.

Corbyn claims that May has no mandate for continued austerity measures after she failed to win an outright majority at the last election.

"The Conservative programme is in tatters following the public verdict at the general election. Theresa May does not have a mandate for continued cuts to our schools, hospitals, police and other vital public services or for a race-to-the- bottom Brexit. Labour will fight these policies every step of the way," he said.

Another amendment was tabled by Labour MP Chuka Umunna, which calls for the UK to remain in the single market and customs union after Brexit  which is not in line with the Labour's official stand.

May faced a hectic schedule on Thursday as she rushed back from a summit in Germany in time for the parliamentary proceedings in the UK.

In Berlin, May joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders to discuss plans for the G20 summit in Hamburg next week and how to put pressure on US President Donald Trump over his refusal to sign up to the Paris Agreement on climate change, as well as the stalled trade deal between America and the European Union (EU).
Rabbis installation at Keneseth Israel will get a boost of student creativity
July 01, 2017

Syria - These Maps Show A Year Of Progress

Three maps of Syria show the immense progress the Syrian government forces and their allies have made over the last few month.

During the last half year the Syrian Arab Army not only liberated al-Qaeda held parts of east-Aleppo city, but also the Islamic State held eastern part of Aleppo governate. The closing move happened yesterday when the last ISIS held area in the governate was cut off and the enemy retreated. The area north of the arrows is now free of ISIS fighters. Mines, IEDs and sleeper agents still need to be searched for.



via IslamicWorldUpdate - bigger

In a next step the Syrian Army will move simultaneously from north and south to connect the red areas between (roughly) south of Al-Thawrah and Palmyra. This will enclose and clean the ISIS bulge in the west and secure Homs governate as well as the supply line to Aleppo city.

The Russian rearming, retraining and reorganizing of the Syrian Army has really helped. Russian air support delivers the necessary protection and interdiction capabilities for large movements. De-conflicting zones in the western part of the country as well as the cleanup of several pockets of "rebels" near the big cities freed up ten-thousands of Syrian soldiers. The reinforcements provided through Iran created the additional temporary manpower needed to regain and clean the liberated areas. A total of 40,000 men are engaged in the eastern campaign. When the local Syrian government structures are re-established in the liberated areas the additional forces will no longer be needed.

On a larger scale the immense progress of the Syrian government during the last six month becomes even more obvious. The (red) government held areas were enlarged considerably:

January 1, 2017



via Chelsea4Life - bigger

July 1, 2017



via Chelsea4Life - bigger

Note that most of the (grey) ISIS area in the east is uninhabited steppe or desert. ISIS is concentrated in a few villages and cities along the Euphrates river. The south-eastern green area, currently held by U.S. supported "rebels", is also mostly empty space. To liberate these areas still requires some diligence and time to prevent ambushes and to remove the few enemy strongholds along the way.

The above maps put to rest the often repeated propaganda about a presumed "unwillingness" of the SAA to fight ISIS. According to IHS Janes the forces of the Syrian government coalition, not the U.S. supported "rebels", are the most engaged in defeating ISIS in Syria:

Between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017, 43 percent of all Islamic State fighting in Syria was directed against President Assads forces, 17 against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the remaining 40 percent involved fighting rival Sunni opposition groups -- in particular, those who formed part of the Turkey-backed Euphrates Shield coalition.

Without external hostile interference the legitimate Syrian government will be back in control of all significant parts of its country by the end of this year.

Posted by b on July 1, 2017 at 4:44 UTC | Permalink

Comments
CHARLOTTE, N.C.  A Charlotte-based hospital group has agreed to a settlement after allegations that the company knowingly overbilled the federal government.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority  Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS)  has agreed pay the Government $6.5 million to resolve allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act, by up-coding claims for urine drug tests in order to receive higher payment than allowed for the tests, U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose announced Friday.

From 2011-15, CHS conducted urine drug tests, categorized as moderate complexity tests by the Food and Drug Administration, but submitted claims that indicated the company had conducted high complexity tests, according to court documents. Claims submitted to federal health care programs include a code that identifies the services provided and that triggers a certain payment.

The government alleged that CHS engaged in a practice referred to as up-coding, by submitting claims using code G0431, which should be used only for tests classified as high complexity by the FDA, instead of using code G0434, which is the code for moderately complexity tests, which triggers a payment of approximately $20. As a result of CHSs up-coding practices, the government alleges that federal health care programs paid CHS, and certain facilities under contract with CHS, approximately $80 more per test for the claims submitted with the higher paying code.

Medical service providers must respect public resources in government health care programs, said Rose. As more Americans struggle with healthcare costs, we must ensure that our programs are efficient and compliant. For those medical providers who seek to unlawfully and unfairly take advantage of government health care programs, this case resolution should serve as fair warning.

Rose was joined by North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, and Derrick L. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations - Atlanta Region, in making the announcement.

Healthcare providers must accurately represent the services they are providing, said Stein. Up-coding is an unacceptable waste of taxpayer dollars, and my office will not allow it.

When health care companies try to boost their profits by billing federal health care programs for more expensive services than they actually provided, the Office of Inspector General will ensure they are held accountable for their deceptive schemes, said Jackson.

The allegations arose from a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower, Mark McGuire (the Relator), a former laboratory director for CHS, under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can bring suit on behalf of the government for false claims and share in any recovery. The act also allows the government to intervene and take over the action. The government conducted the investigation and intervened in this action to effectuate the settlement. McGuire will receive $1,365,000 from the settlement.

The settlement is the result of the coordinated effort between the United States Attorneys Office for the Western District of North Carolina, the State of North Carolinas Medicaid Investigations Division and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.

This case is captioned United States ex rel. Mark McGuire v. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority.

The claims resolved in this settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.
Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.
Mount Pleasant, SC (29464)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High 76F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 64F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Caldwell Joins Netquest to Head New UK Operation

Consumer panels firm Netquest has appointed Johnny Caldwell as MD of a new company, Netquest UK.



Headquartered in Barcelona and part of GfK since February 2016, Netquest combines panel and survey technology, an advanced incentive system and digital behavior-tracking software to provide integrated information about consumers in 23 countries across the globe, including the EU, USA and Latin America. Its subsidiary company Wakoopa is focused on behavioral tracking.



Caldwell joins with 25 years' market research industry experience. He spent four years at Stockholm-based Voice of the Customer specialist Nepa, joining its London office in 2012 and becoming UK MD a year later. He parted company with Nepa late last year. Before Nepa he worked at Research Now for eight years, initially as Director of Client Services and then as Director of Knowledge and Strategy; and earlier in his career he was European Director for Research at Red Sheriff/Nielsen/Net Ratings; Research Manager at The Research Business International (TRBi); and Research Manager at ORC International.



Netquest CEO and founder German Loewe comments: 'As a company we are organically outgrowing our traditional markets and our current product offer is extremely successful among existing clients, so there really is tremendous opportunity out there. Appointing Johnny is a real coup for us, his vision and expertise are inspiring, as is his acumen for always knowing what clients really crave'.



Web site: www.netquest.com .




'The big truck is still on ...
Just hours after the latest version of President Trump's travel ban took effect, Muslims in Central Florida met with immigration attorneys to talk about their rights to travel.

Citizens of 6 countries are temporarily restricted in coming to U.S.

Have to already have visas, prove close relationship with family, school or business

Muslims spent Friday learning what the new ban meant for them

Under the temporary rules, citizens of Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen who already have visas will be allowed into the United States.

But people from those countries who want new visas will now have to prove a close family relationship or an existing relationship with an entity like a school or business in the U.S.

It's unclear how significantly the new rules will affect travel. In most of the countries singled out, few people have the means for leisure travel. Those that do already face intensive screenings before being issued visas.

For Longwood resident Ibtihal Ibrahim-Mcelroy, who was born in Sudan, the travel ban is disconcerting.

"To know that someone can say, no you aren't allowed to see your family. That hurts," Ibrahim-Mcelroy said.

On Friday, Ibrahim-Mcelroy, along with hundreds of others, met for prayers at the American Muslim Community Center in Longwood. Following afternoon prayers, immigration attorneys offered to meet with individuals and talk about the travel ban.

"It's really important to clarify or provide some guidance when people aren't really sure of what's happening about what this decision actually means," immigration attorney Nayef Mubarak said Friday.

Ibrahim-Mcelroy has called the U.S. her home since she was four, but her uncles, aunts and cousins all still live in Sudan.

That's why she met with immigration attorneys. She found out her immediate family can visit relatives in Sudan and come back, but her family there will not be able to come visit her in the U.S.

"So right now, individuals with visas are prohibited from entering the United States for 90 days. Unless they meet the exemption," Mubarak said.
Florida officials are still trying to decide whether to send the state's voter information to a White House commission on voter fraud.

Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity wants voter data from all 50 states

Includes names, party affiliation, voter history, last four digits of SSNs, military status

Florida has yet to decide if it will turn the data over

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity is asking all 50 states to supply voter information, including names, political party affiliation and voter history. The request also asked for the last four digits of the voters' Social Security numbers and military status.

Gov. Scott said Friday that he had not seen the letter sent to Florida's secretary of state, Ken Detzner. A spokesperson for Detzner said his office was still reviewing the request.

The commission is investigating the president's claim that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally last year.

Multiple studies show no evidence of widespread voter fraud, although it is not uncommon to find discrepancies in the voting rolls, including deceased voters and voters registered in multiple states.

The information was requested by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, vice-chair of the commission. Kobach has has been embroiled in voter disenfranchisement lawsuits in Kansas. He also runs a program called Crosscheck which is supposed to help states to better maintain voter rolls. However, a Stanford study found the program to be ineffective.

Voting experts believe the real plan is to create a national voting list using the data.

A bipartisan group of election officials in almost 20 states are critical of the data request. Some are only willing to turn over voter data that is already public, questioning why the commission needs any of the non-public data. Some are refusing to turn any data over to the commission.

One state -- Wisconsin -- told the commission that it will turn over the public data -- if the commission pays the standard $12,500 voting fee.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
President Trump is now calling on Congressional Republicans to just repeal the Affordable Care Act -- without anything to replace it.

The president tweeted his support for the plan after Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said on Fox News Friday morning that he would request the president's support for such a move.

If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017

Doing so would revive an approach GOP leaders considered initially but dismissed, because it was considered impractical and politically unwise.

The move could harden divisions between conservatives who are against the Senate's health care bill because it does not go far enough in ending ObamaCare, and moderates who are against the bill because it would be painful for their states.

All the while health care policy experts are left to sort out what this will mean for the average American.

I think they really need to bring more experts into the room," said Meredith Robertson, who helped to develop health care policy and now teaches at University of Central Florida. "And unfortunately, I think theres a lot of politics involved.

Robertson said the Republican plans get rid of individual and employer mandates, which require people or large companies to buy or provide insurance.

I think the idea of getting rid of this is a real concern," said Robertson. Without healthy people buying insurance, it makes the whole risk pool that the insurance company is managing risky."

The plans, she said, also leave older, pre-retirement age Americans paying more.



Theyre going to reduce premiums for the younger, to get them to buy, and increase premiums for the older, because theyre more likely to have health issues," she explained. Kaiser Family Foundation put out some numbers, it would increase by about 100 percent.

The Congressional Budget Office released a forecast to 2036 on Thursday, projecting the Senate bill would decrease Medicaid funding by 35 percent.

CBOs initial report said that the bill would slash the deficit by billions, but leave 22 more million Americans uninsured in 2026.

KFF created an interactive map from the CBO projections, which can be found on the Kaiser website. You can set age, income and even state to find out how different premiums will be in 2020 under the Senate's health care bill.

Robertson noted that the Senate health care plan does appear to tackle a problem Florida maintains: an uninsured group of people who fall into a gap, not poor enough for Medicaid, but dont make enough to pay for regular coverage.

I noticed the Senate bill would actually fix that. We will have some people in Florida who will gain coverage that were previously uninsured because they didnt expand Medicaid," she said.

Still, Robertson admitted much will depend on power given to states over healthcare exchanges.



If we see that its giving states flexibility, then we really need to pay attention whats going on in Tallahassee. I think thats the real message, especially in Florida," she said.
Six law enforcement members honored for their dedication to young people were recognized Friday as the type of public servants fit to carry on the legacy of fallen officer Lt. Debra Clayton.

Honoring Our Heroes luncheon paid tribute to Lt. Debra Clayton

Law enforcement members who make a difference with youth recognized

Florida Gov. Rick Scott attended event at Orlando Police headquarters

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The Honoring Our Heroes luncheon, which was renamed in Clayton's memory, was held at Orlando Police headquarters.

With Gov. Rick Scott in attendance, Clayton was remembered for positively impacting young people in Parramore and Pine Hills.

"We have the Lt. Debra Clayton Memorial Highway," Scott said, as he handed a replica of the highway sign to Clayton's husband, Seth.

Glen Gilzean, the president and CEO of the Central Florida Urban League, presented the awards. Clayton received an award from the Urban League in 2016, only a few months before she was shot and killed in the line of duty in January.

It was only one year ago at this very ceremony that we honored one of your colleagues for making a difference in the lives of at-risk youth," Gilzean said. "For Lt. Debra Clayton, she humbly accepted her award for the work in the community but truly, she meant so much more," he said.

Here's a look at six members of @OrlandoPolice / @OrangeCoSheriff being honored as heroes by Central Florida Urban League and @FLGovScott. pic.twitter.com/Buwb6MMXER  John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) June 30, 2017

She taught us that mentoring the youth of our neighborhoods is the key to bridging the gap between them and the police," Deputy Police Chief Eric Smith said.

Brenda March, who runs the Parramore Kidz Zone, where Clayton was a frequent volunteer, remembered her fondly.

Whenever we called her, she was there," March said. She spent a lot of time with us... probably one of the best programs that honor our heroes while theyre still here."

"Her legacy lives forever," March said.

The 2018 deputies and officers who were honored were: Orlando Police Officer Marty McClain, Officer Richard Patterson, Cpl. Kenneth Pinkston, Sheriff's Office Sgt. Lee Vayn Oliver, Lt. Tonjali Frost-Daniley and Deputy Sherry Simpson.

We dont do this for awards, we do this for the children," Frost-Daniley said. Be a role model, service your community and do it from the heart."



Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton, who was slain in January, was a frequent volunteer at Parramore Kidz Zone. (John W. Davis, staff)
BERLIN  Social media companies operating in Germany face fines of as much as $57 million if they do not delete illegal, racist or slanderous comments and posts within 24 hours, under a law passed Friday.

The law reinforces Germanys position as one of the most aggressive countries in the Western world at forcing companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter to crack down on hate speech and other extremist messaging on their digital platforms.

But the new rules have also raised questions about freedom of expression. Digital and human rights groups, as well as the companies themselves, opposed the law on the grounds that it placed limits on individuals right to free expression. Critics also said the legislation shifted the burden of responsibility to the providers from the courts, leading to last-minute changes in its wording.

Technology companies and free speech advocates argue that there is a fine line between policymakers views on hate speech and what is considered legitimate freedom of expression, and social networks say they do not want to be forced to censor those who use their services. Silicon Valley companies also deny they are failing to meet countries demands to remove suspected hate speech online.

Still, German authorities pressed ahead with the legislation. Germany witnessed an increase in racist comments and anti-immigrant language after the arrival of more than 1 million migrants, predominantly from Muslim countries, since 2015, and Heiko Maas, the justice minister who drew up the draft legislation, said Friday that it ensured that rules that currently apply offline would be equally enforceable in the digital sphere.

With this law, we put an end to the verbal law of the jungle on the internet and protect the freedom of expression for all, Maas said. We are ensuring that everyone can express their opinion freely, without being insulted or threatened.

That is not a limitation, but a prerequisite for freedom of expression, he continued.

The law will take effect in October, less than a month after nationwide elections, and will apply to social media sites with more than 2 million users in Germany.

It will require companies including Facebook, Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube, to remove any content that is illegal in Germany  such as Nazi symbols or Holocaust denial  within 24 hours of it being brought to their attention.

The law allows for up to seven days for the companies to decide on content that has been flagged as offensive but that may not be clearly defamatory or inciting violence. Companies that persistently fail to address complaints by taking too long to delete illegal content face fines that start at 5 million euros, or $5.7 million, and could rise to as much as 50 million euros.

Every six months, companies will have to publicly report the number of complaints they have received and how they have handled them.

In Germany, which has some of the most stringent anti-hate speech laws in the Western world, a study published this year found that Facebook and Twitter had failed to meet a national target of removing 70 percent of online hate speech within 24 hours of being alerted to its presence.

The report noted that while the two companies eventually erased almost all of the illegal hate speech, Facebook managed to remove only 39 percent within 24 hours, as demanded by the German authorities. Twitter met that deadline in 1 percent of instances. YouTube fared significantly better, removing 90 percent of flagged content within a day of being notified.

Facebook said Friday that the company shared the German governments goal of fighting hate speech and had been working hard to resolve the issue of illegal content. The company announced in May that it would nearly double, to 7,500, the number of employees worldwide devoted to clearing its site of flagged postings. It was also trying to improve the processes by which users could report problems, a spokesman said.

Twitter declined to comment, while Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The standoff between tech companies and politicians is most acute in Europe, where freedom of expression rights are less comprehensive than in the United States, and where policymakers have often bristled at Silicon Valleys dominance of peoples digital lives.

But advocacy groups in Europe have raised concerns over the new German law.

Mirko Hohmann and Alexander Pirant of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin criticized the legislation as misguided for placing too much responsibility for deciding what constitutes unlawful content in the hands of social media providers.

Setting the rules of the digital public square, including the identification of what is lawful and what is not, should not be left to private companies, they wrote.

Even in the United States, Facebook and Google also have taken steps to limit the spread of extremist messaging online, and to prevent fake news from circulating. That includes using artificial intelligence to remove potentially extremist material automatically and banning news sites believed to spread fake or misleading reports from making money through the companies digital advertising platforms.
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Despite efforts to rid its premises of creepy crawlers, a San Antonio restaurant's attempt backfired when an inspector found a live mouse caught in a trap during a random health inspection.

Las Minas Cafe on Blanco Road is among the 31 restaurants that landed on this week's list of dirtiest restaurants in the Alamo City.

An inspector also observed rodent droppings in a food storage area and outside the restroom, as well as gnats and garbage cans that emitted a "very bad odor" in the kitchen.

To make the Express-News' list of dirtiest restaurants, an establishment must earn a score of 89 or below  or anything less than an "A"  during a random city health inspection.

See the violations at other San Antonio restaurants in the gallery above.

One spot, El Manatial Mexican Restaurant, was told that more ventilation in the kitchen was needed so that "food handlers may not excessively sweat."

At J. Anthony's Seafood Cafe on South Presa Street, an inspector saw a purple knife with purple paint coming off it and sauces labeled as salad dressing in the walk-in cooler.

SEE LAST WEEK'S INSPECTION SCORES: San Antonio restaurant inspections: June 23, 2017

The San Antonio Express-News examines hundreds of restaurant inspections each week conducted by the San Antonio Food and Environmental Health Services division to bring you the eateries with scores of 89 or below.

Restaurants are graded on a 100-point system, where "100" is a perfect score, and demerits are based upon the number of violations found during a regular food establishment inspection. There are three categories of demerits and each are assigned a demerit score of 3, 2 or 1 points, according to the health division.

Scores and demerits listed are only representative of the state of the restaurant at the time of inspection and are surveyed at random.

erobinson@mysa.com

Twitter: @eeelizzzabeth
LAKE CONROE -- Officials have released the name of a Conroe senior citizen found floating in Lake Conroe Saturday morning.

Gerald Belk, 89, has been confirmed as the man whose bloated body was discovered between two docks behind the Bay Pointe Landing town home where he lived alone, according to Precinct 1 Constable's Office Lt. Tim Cade.

Tools were found on the dock where Belk is believed to have been submerged for several days before a neighbor discovered him while walking across the canal.

While the case is still under investigation, Cade said the tools, health factors related to the man's age and the fact he lived alone are being considered. Officials are looking into the possibility that the man was working on his dock and fell into the water.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Meagan Ellsworth / Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Meagan Ellsworth / Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Show More Show Less 5 of 5









"That (the tools) shows us with actual facts that he was working on this dock at one point in time," Cade said. "He may have been and he may not have been (working on the dock). That gives us a better indication as to why was he there."

An autopsy has been ordered and will be able to examine whether or not a health issue may have prompted Belk's fall into the water, according to Cade and Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack.

Precinct 1 Constable's Office, Conroe Police Department, Fire Department and EMS crews responded to the scene Saturday, alerting neighbors of trouble on the water.

Fire trucks alerted Home Owner Association President Robert Estes that something was wrong.

"I know something happened," he said. "We just don't know the facts. We are a close neighborhood. A backyard neighborhood."

No further information was available.

As the community hits the water to celebrate the Fourth of July weekend, Cade urged education on boating laws and designated drivers. "My best piece of advice is to have a designated captain not just a designated driver, " he said.

Cade also emphasized the need to have a responsible adult to watch children on the lake to prevent another drowning from happening this weekend.

"Especially with small children, these accidents like the one we are working right here don't take 7 minutes -- they happen in seconds."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Guiseppe Barranco/Photo Editor Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Guiseppe Barranco/Photo Editor Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Guiseppe Barranco/Photo Editor Show More Show Less 5 of 5









More than two months after a silo at the Port of Port Arthur began smoldering and almost a month after its collapse, the city of Port Arthur has filed suit to force the facility's owners to comply with city ordinances.

German Pellets Texas, LLC and Texas Pellets, Inc. (GPTX) are owners of five silos at the port, which hold thousands of tons of wooden pellets. One of the silos began smoking on April 15 from internal combustion, emitting smoke throughout the surrounding neighborhood before collapsing on June 4.
Plainview firefighters and airport personnel inspect a 1960s-era military jet trainer after it made an emergency gear-up landing about 1:40 p.m. Saturday at the Plainview-Hale County Airport. There were no injuries. The craft, an Aero L-29 Delfin jet trainer, was making a refueling stop at Plainview when the pilot reported that the landing gear would not drop. The pilot, Scott Farnsworth, was able to bring the plane safely to a stop on the main runway. The plane was en route to California. According to Wikipedia, Aero L-29 Delfin was designed and built in Czechoslovakia and served as the standard air force jet trainer in the Warsaw Pact.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's ceremony Friday to bring back the National Space Council began to confuse people even before it took place.

It was, Trump would say, a big deal: an executive order to resurrect an advisory council that kick-started the first moon missions 60 years ago, went dormant in the 1990s, and could now lead astronauts into deep space -- even Mars.

"At some point in the future, we're going to look back and say how did we do it without space?" is how the president put it.

Yet the signing surprised many: The White House had not listed the ceremony on the president's calendar, no one from NASA headquarters came, and the only female astronaut in attendance was left off the thank-you list.

Not to mention the president's sometimes baffling remarks about the cosmos.

Vice President Mike Pence, who will chair the new space council, introduced the president and others gathered in the Roosevelt Room.

"Especially the three American astronauts," he said, listing NASA's Alvin Drew, former astronaut David Wolf, and "the second man on the moon: the legendary Buzz Aldrin."

"Welcome to the White House," Pence said.

But he didn't mention the former astronaut standing about five feet away -- Sandy Magnus.

Trump would also name the three male astronauts without mentioning Magnus, an omission quickly noticed in the wider space community.

Magnus didn't seem put out, though. She wrote Saturday on Twitter that she had attended the ceremony as executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and hadn't been wearing a NASA uniform like two of the men.

After Pence finished his introduction, it was on to the president -- a known space aficionado who once phoned astronauts in orbit and asked them to hurry up and get to Mars.

"Our travels beyond the Earth propel scientific discoveries that improve our lives in countless ways here," Trump said, listing new industry, technology and "space security" among the benefits.

"At some point in the future, we're going to look back and say how did we do it without space?" Trump then said, causing Buzz Aldrin's eyebrows to shoot up.

Eyebrows across the Internet would do likewise as Trump proceeded through his speech, a mix of eloquence and questionable ad-libs.

"The human soul yearns for discovery," Trump said, for example. "Our journey into space will not only make us stronger and more prosperous, but will unite us behind grand ambitions and bring us all closer together.

"Wouldn't that be nice? Can you believe that space is going to do that?"

Some who learned that Pence will chair the new council remembered that when he was a congressman, he chaired a Republican study group that recommended canceling NASA's space exploration program -- no moon or Mars trips -- to save money.

But Pence's 2005 plan didn't go anywhere, and Friday on Twitter he said he was "honored and frankly enthusiastic" about leading the National Space Council.

Trump assured those gathered that "Mike is very much into space."

The advisory group will also include Cabinet secretaries, the head of NASA and other administrators -- almost none of whom were at the ceremony.

"The only member of the Council other than Pence who was there was Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross," Space Policy Online reported.

And as Sarah Kaplan noted for The Washington Post, Trump has not even named a NASA administrator, who will sit on the council. Likewise for the director of Office of Science and Technology Policy, which was entirely unstaffed as of Friday, according to CBS News.

Heavyweights of the "new space" industry such as Elon Musk of SpaceX and Jeffrey Bezos of Blue Origin, and who also owns The Post, were nowhere to be seen, Kaplan wrote.

Bezos and Musk had been invited, Ars Technica reported, but couldn't make it on short notice.

"This is going to launch a whole new chapter for our great country," Trump said near the end of his speech.

Then he sat down at a table and opened the executive order.

"I know what this is," he said. "Space!"

Beside him, Aldrin chimed in with a quote from the astronaut character Buzz Lightyear from the movie "Toy Story."

"Infinity and beyond!" Aldrin said.

Everyone laughed.

Then Trump added some lines of his own.

"This is infinity here," he said. "It could be infinity. We don't really don't know. But it could be. It has to be something -- but it could be infinity, right?"

Trump then signed the order and revived the National Space Council, leaving his final words on the subject a mystery.

_ _ _ _
Police nationwide shot and killed 492 people in the first six months of this year, a number nearly identical to the count for the same period in each of the prior two years.

Fatal shootings by police in 2017 have so closely tracked last year's numbers that on June 16, the tally was the same. While the number of unarmed people killed by police dropped slightly, the overall pace for 2017 through Friday was on track to approach 1,000 killed for a third year in row.

The Washington Post began tracking all fatal shootings by on-duty police in 2015 in the aftermath of the 2014 shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, of Michael Brown, who was unarmed and had an altercation with the officer who shot him. The ongoing Post project has documented twice as many shootings by police in 2015 and 2016 as ever recorded in a single year by the FBI's tracking of such shootings, a pattern that is emerging again in 2017.

Since Brown's killing in Ferguson, other fatal shootings by police, many captured on video, have fueled protests and calls for reform. Some police chiefs have taken steps in their departments to reduce the number of fatal encounters, yet the overall numbers remain unchanged.

Academics who study shootings give weight to The Post's accounting.

"These numbers show us that officer-involved shootings are constant over time," said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina who has studied police use of force. "Some places go up, some go down, but its averaging out. This is our society in the 21st century."

As in previous years, the data gathered by The Post showed that police most frequently killed white males who were armed with guns or other kinds of weapons. One in four people killed this year were mentally ill. And police have continued to shoot and kill a disproportionately large number of black males, who account for nearly a quarter of the deaths, yet are only 6 percent of the nation's population.

This year, fatal shootings of unarmed people have declined, continuing a trend over the past two years. In the first six months of this year, 27 unarmed people had been fatally shot, compared with 34 for the same period in 2016 and 50 in the first six months of 2015.

Black males continued to represent a disproportionately large share of unarmed people killed, although their share has dropped slightly: from 32 percent of all unarmed killings during the first six months of last year to 26 percent so far this year.

One of those seven unarmed black males killed was Jordan Edwards, 15, a high school freshman who was shot in April by a police officer in a Dallas suburb. An officer in Balch Springs opened fire with an AR-15 rifle on Edwards and his friends as they drove away from a party, according to news reports. The department initially said the teens tried to back over the officer but retracted the statement after officials reviewed a video of the shooting. The officer, who is white, has been fired and now faces a charge of murder.

Mental illness has remained a factor in fatal police shootings, as a quarter of those killed were struggling with a mental-health issue. Last month, Seattle police shot and killed Charleena Lyles, 30, a pregnant woman suffering from mental illness, after she called 911 to report an attempted burglary at her home. Police said Lyles pulled a knife on two officers, who both shot her. The Seattle Times reported that one of the officers trained to use a Taser, was not carrying it, a violation of the department's policy.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which develops training programs and advises police chiefs around the country on policy, said some fatal shootings can be eliminated.

"We know we can make a difference in cases where the person is mentally ill and in cases where someone is not armed with a gun," Wexler said.

The study by The Post has found that about 8 percent of the nation's police departments have had at least one fatal shooting since 2015. Of those, most had only one.

"All deadly force scenarios are different, and you could have five in a week and then not have any for a year," said Rodolfo Llanes, chief of the Miami Police Department.

Llanes noted that his department of 1,250 officers has gone as long as a year without firing a single bullet. "There will be that situation where there is a confrontation and deadly force is used. Police work is inherently ugly."

The pace at which officers have been killed in the line of duty has held steady over the past two years.

According to the FBI, 21 police officers were killed from January to June 29, two fewer than in the same period last year. The 2016 year ended with 66 officers killed, not including accidental deaths. Since January 2015, according to the FBI, 128 police officers have been killed in the line of duty.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, police shot and killed one person in an 18-month stretch, and then, in the second half of 2016, officers shot and killed six, including Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man whose death led to criminal charges against an officer. Last month, that officer was acquitted of a charge of first-degree manslaughter.

This year, Tulsa officers have fatally shot four people.

Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said that his agency reviewed its use-of-force policy after the surge in shootings in 2016 but that there was not much the department could change.

"We're a reflection of the society we live in," Jordan said.

In Los Angeles from January 2015 to June 2017, city police officers shot and killed 47 people, the most for any U.S. police department in the period.

Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department said they have been working to reduce the number of deadly encounters. In the past two years, the department extensively tracked use of force, added training and updated its use-of-force policy, which now requires officers to "de-escalate" confrontations before firing their guns.

This year in Los Angeles, fatal shootings are down to seven, which Matthew Johnson, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, considers a small victory.

"All these things in concert are going to have an impact on the need to use deadly force, but that's not to say we're not going to have a bad quarter or a bad year," said Johnson, who made reducing the number of fatal shootings a priority when he took over as president of the commission in 2015.

About 360 miles away, Phoenix police have emphasized reforms but are leading the nation in fatal shootings in 2017. Officers there have fatally shot eight people, more than any other department.

The reforms began in 2014, after a year in which the Phoenix Police Department said it experienced an unusually high number of fatal and nonfatal shootings by its officers. The agency began an unprecedented review of those violent confrontations, modeling some reforms on those used in Las Vegas, where police reduced shootings from 11 in 2015 to three in 2016. This year, Las Vegas has had five fatal shootings by police.

Phoenix police were retrained in tactics to de-escalate encounters and avoid resorting to deadly force.

On June 23, a Phoenix police officer fatally shot a motorist when the driver accelerated toward him as the officer approached the car on foot. Two days later, police killed a man who fired a rifle at a police helicopter and pointed it toward officers.

In February, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams defended her officers in an op-ed for the Arizona Republic: "None of our officers wanted to be put into a position where they felt they had no other choice but to use deadly force." She said that in each shooting, her officers had exhausted other options. "It was their last resort."

There is no comprehensive government data source that tracks fatal shootings by police officers. The Post database relies on local news coverage, public records and social-media reports to identify fatal shootings by police.

Academics caution that fatal shootings are rare events in the universe of police-civilian interactions and say that more-complete data is needed about all police use of force.

"What we really need to know is how many times police shoot people, not just how many of those people die," said David A. Klinger, a criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri in St. Louis who studies police use of force.

The FBI gathers information on fatal police shootings, but that program is based on voluntary reporting by police agencies and covers only cases inwhich police fatally shoot someone who is committing a felony. The Post's data has revealed a dramatic undercount by the FBI.

The Post's project, and a similar counting effort by the Guardian newspaper in 2015, prompted now-fired FBI director James B. Comey to call his own agency's system"embarrassing and ridiculous." In October 2016, the Justice Department announced that it would move forward with plans to collect better data about officer-involved shootings.

The FBI said it would launch Saturday a pilot study of that data collection program that will gather a broad range of information on use of force from about 50 local and federal law enforcement agencies. The FBI said it intends to begin nationwide collection of the data in 2018.

"When a police officer takes a life, that's a significant event," said Darrel Stephens, the executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. The group, which includes 80 police chiefs and sheriffs, helped advise the FBI on the pilot program. "We should know on a national basis how many times that happens and under what circumstances."

Samuel Walker, an expert on police accountability and a professor at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, said that because of the large number of U.S. police agencies, years of reforms may be required before the number of shootings declines.

"There is no single quick fix," Walker said. "You have to have a really systemic approach."

- Ted Mellnik, Steven Rich, Jerrel Floyd and Catherine York contributed to this report. This article was produced in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, where Thebault, York and Floyd are students.
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Korean War veteran Herbert Freeman was worn out Thursday afternoon from cutting the grass at his family's property on South Frazier.

While his childhood home his late parents built in 1933 is abandoned, for him, the inherited 3-acre property where he lives with nine homes is full of memories.

"I've been whooped twice (growing up) on this property," Freeman said with a laugh as he wiped sweat off his face. "I guess I still am."

The 88-year-old Freeman was born in Milltown in 1929. His father, Britt Freeman, cut up and sold old wood slabs from the sawmill. The family moved to the property in Conroe and built the dark-yellow brick home with a red roof they moved into when Herbert was 4 years old.

His father went into real estate and bought land rich in timber throughout Montgomery County, including with Gerry Creighton's father. Meanwhile, his mother Julia had her hands full with his brother Bruce, a girl chaser, and Herbert, who all the local law enforcement knew by name.

"Back then, kids didn't have enough to do," said Herbert, who would sneak through the roof of the Crighton Theater to watch movies, like Outlaw, underage. "We didn't have TV and cell phones. ... I lived on the (San Jacinto River), fishing and hunting. A couple of buddies and I did some crazy things in the summertime. We'd sneak into the watermelon patch and go and steal some watermelons."

While he worked hard with the family, who also had a farm down the road with cattle and chickens, he also remembers his Uncle John visiting to join the family for a backyard barbecue, where a large Chinaberry tree once stood, to celebrate Fourth of July.

"Back then, there were no laws against fireworks," he said. "We would just get after it. I guess kids just got too dangerous. We would get out there in the yard, take a tin can and it would blow way up in the air."

While he had countless good and bad experiences on the property, the Davy Crockett High School graduate of 1947 felt eager to see the world beyond Conroe and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1948.

"When I went to serve, they asked my name and I said 'Freeman,'" Herbert recalled with humor. "They said while you might have been a Freeman before but you work for Uncle Sam now."

He recalls spending Independence Day as an engine man on board the Valley Forge aircraft carrier during the Korean War.

"We didn't celebrate nothing on the ship," he said. "I didn't pay any mind to it. We traveled all over. It was a different way of life. We'd go three to four months at a time and see nothing but water. But it was a good experience."

The Korean War, which Herbert feels is often overlooked, claimed more than 54,000 lives in three years. Many of the fallen were kept frozen aboard his aircraft carrier.

"We'd clean everything up," Freeman said. "I have a couple of my friends that were in there. We'd freeze them until we could bring them back."

Upon completing his four years of service, Freeman returned to Conroe to help his family. Today, he lives in the house next door, where he would have celebrated his 55-year anniversary with his late wife Jo Ann in four months. His son, who had a medical condition, also lives in one of the homes surrounded by the growth of businesses and infrastructure throughout the years.

Fourth of July is significant to the veteran, who takes care of the property on his own.

"I think a lot of people don't even appreciate it," said Freeman, referring to the country and Independence Day.

It took three to four days to mow the property with a manual push mower during his childhood, but today the veteran enjoys escaping the worries about the changing country on a 21-horsepower riding lawn mower.

"I put everything out of my mind," he said. "I enjoy mowing yards. ... My mother loved to smell that fresh cut grass."
More than two dozen states have refused to fully comply with a sweeping and unprecedented White House request to turn over voter registration data, including sensitive information like partial Social Security numbers, party affiliation and military status.

Overall, the states that have said they will not be complying at all with the Kobach commission's request represent over 30 percent of the nation's population. That could complicate any efforts to build a truly national voter file, although it remains unclear what the commission's ultimate goal is in collecting the data.

Those states found themselves the targets of the President Donald Trump's ire on Twitter on Saturday morning: "Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?"

As it turns out, the bipartisan group of state officials withholding information from the commission have been very forthcoming about their reasons for not complying. Here's what a number of them have said.

"I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally," said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat.

"California's participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the President, the Vice President, and Mr. Kobach," he added. "[Kobach's] role as vice chair is proof that the ultimate goal of the commission is to enact policies that will result in the disenfranchisement of American citizens."

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, another Democrat, struck a similar note.

"The president created his election commission based on the false notion that 'voter fraud' is a widespread issue - it is not," Grimes said. "Kentucky will not aid a commission that is at best a waste of taxpayer money and at worst an attempt to legitimize voter suppression efforts across the country."

A number of states said they would only provide limited, publicly available information, as required by state law.

Vermont Secretary of State James Condos, a Democrat, said "I am bound by law to provide our publicly available voter file, but will provide no more information than is available to any individual requesting the file."

North Carolina will comply with the request by handing over "publicly available data as already required under state law," said Kim Westbrook Strach, the executive director of the bipartisan North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics enforcement.

Mississippi rejected the request on privacy and states' rights grounds. "They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico," Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said on Friday. "Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our State's right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral process."

In Alabama, another GOP stronghold, Secretary of State John Merrill told the Montgomery Advertiser he will not comply with the request until he learns more about how the Kobach commission will keep the data secure. "We're going to get answers to our questions before we move on this," Merrill said.

Perhaps most strikingly, at least two of the holdouts were members of the commission, including commission co-chairman Kris Kobach himself, who said that state law prevented them from fully complying with the request.

The Kansas secretary of state, a Republican, told the Kansas City Star on Friday that he would not be providing any parts of Kansas voters' Social Security numbers because that data is not publicly available under state law. "In Kansas, the Social Security number is not publicly available," he said. "Every state receives the same letter, but we're not asking for it if it's not publicly available."

Similarly, Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said in a statement that "Indiana law doesn't permit the Secretary of State to provide the personal information requested by Secretary Kobach." Lawson, another Republican, is also a member of the commission.

Trump's tweet suggests the commission's work remains a top priority for him. That's going to cause concern for elections experts and voting rights activists, many of whom are concerned that Kobach will use the state voter registration data to manufacture "evidence" of widespread voter fraud.

"We're concerned about unlawful voter purging, which has been something that Kris Kobach has been leading the charge," said Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, in an interview Friday.

Gupta and others argue that Kobach doesn't exactly have a reputation for being honest about his work on voter fraud. Just a week ago, a federal judge fined Kobach $1,000 for "presenting misleading arguments in a voting-related lawsuit."
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump boasted during the election that his real estate background could help him succeed where other U.S. presidents have failed in making what he calls the "ultimate" land deal - a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Once he took office, he dove into the seemingly intractable conflict immediately and personally, and named his son-in-law and a trusted family lawyer as would-be peace envoys.

"There is no reason there's not peace between Israel and the Palestinians - none whatsoever," Trump said in April.

But five months into the job, Trump is seeing that enthusiasm, business acumen and family connections only go so far, and that a strong pro-Israel stance doesn't mean Israeli leaders will see things his way.

The peace effort he launched is at a pivot point. But the negotiating team is reckoning with the limits of the goodwill extended to the new administration and the hardened positions on both sides that helped sink previous U.S. peace efforts.

At times, the small U.S. negotiating team has appeared buffeted by dueling leaks to Israeli and Palestinian media outlets, each painting the other side as the obstacle. Some commentary cast senior adviser Jared Kushner as a babe in the Mideast woods.

In separate meetings with Israelis and Palestinians in late June, Kushner used none of his father-in-law's hyperbole about a grand bargain, and left some of his audience with the impression that the United States is reconsidering the fast start.

"They are reaching the realization pretty early that neither side is serious about moving forward with the peace process," said Frank Lowenstein, who led the last U.S. effort in 2013 and 2014.

U.S. officials deny Palestinian media reports that they are slowing down their efforts or lowering their sights, and they stress that no one around Trump thought that the task would be easy. The effort is not only continuing but expanding, U.S. officials said, adding that high-level discussions described as "productive" have continued since Kushner's return to Washington.

"We spent the past few months renewing each side's commitment to trying to achieve peace and to begin conversations without preconditions," said one U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. "We are going to continue our steady engagement with each side, and conversations will get more in-depth as we go along."

Trump got firsthand exposure to the maneuvering and pressure tactics that have been used by both sides in the six-decade impasse during his recent trip to Israel and the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used an intimate May 22 meeting with Trump to show him an Israeli-compiled video of what Netanyahu called anti-Israel incitement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel's would-be partner in any peace deal.

Trump met with Abbas the next day and surprised him with a fusillade of accusations about terrorism and Palestinian attitudes toward Israel that Trump said would thwart a deal, U.S. and other officials familiar with the meeting said.

Trump bellowed, "You tricked me!" at a shaken Abbas, a U.S. official told Israel's Channel 2.

Afterward, Abbas thanked Trump for attempting negotiations, but made a point of publicly reiterating Palestinian demands for a settlement that include the hardest elements for Israeli leaders to swallow.

"Our commitment is to cooperate with you in order to make peace and forge a historic peace deal with the Israelis," Abbas said woodenly.

Some U.S. officials concluded that by showing Trump the video, which included snippets of Abbas appearing to incite Palestinians to violence, Netanyahu was intent on killing any possibility of peace talks before they even began. Trump's viewing of the video has not been previously reported.

The effort may have backfired, however. On later reflection, Trump appeared to recognize that the Israelis had tried to skew the Abbas meeting, one person who spoke with him said. Others close to the fledgling peace effort denied that Trump felt misused or misled by Netanyahu.

Either way, the episode gave Trump a taste of how difficult any future shuttle diplomacy might be, and a glimpse into how both Israel and the Palestinians can attempt to manipulate American intermediaries.

The Abbas video is similar to others produced by Israel and shown to U.S. officials in the past, U.S. and Israeli officials said. But this one appeared aimed to discredit Abbas personally and to trigger an "emotional response" from Trump on the eve of his meeting with the aging Palestinian leader, said a senior U.S. official briefed on the meeting.

Israel has been pressing American officials on the issue of Palestinian incitement for years, and it was a focus of Abbas's first meeting with Trump earlier in May.

An Israeli official confirmed that Netanyahu played a video about incitement, and said it was an attempt to set the record straight after what Israeli leaders viewed as Abbas's duplicity during that White House visit.

"Abbas lied to POTUS at a joint press conference about 'educating Palestinians for peace,' - a ridiculous assertion - and Israel simply showed why it is not true," the official said, using the acronym for president of the United States.

"The prime minister has full confidence in President Trump and will continue working closely with the administration in order to advance the political process," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

Abbas, meanwhile, felt betrayed by both Trump and Netanyahu, the senior U.S. official briefed on the meetings said. That first White House meeting had gone well, Abbas told supporters afterward, and he was optimistic despite Trump's frequent statements in support of Israel.

"We want to create peace between Israel and the Palestinians," Trump told Abbas during their White House press conference May 3. "We will get it done. We will be working so hard to get it done."

The optimism has faded, and the jockeying has begun, said David Makovsky, an adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry during the last peace push, who is now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"We are at the end of Act 1, where everybody behaves, mainly because they want to give President Trump a chance," said Makovsky, who came away from a visit to Israel and the West Bank this week dispirited.

"It's back to the blame game," he said.

Trump has been strongly supportive of Israel, and has said frequently that his administration would be a better friend to the Jewish state than was President Obama. But Trump has also said that he expects both sides to make sacrifices and compromises if they want peace, and he used his first presidential meeting with Netanyahu to publicly ask for Israeli restraint in settlement-building.

Trump is inexperienced even if he's not naive, veterans of past peace efforts said. He is now having a "health-care moment," in which he realizes that something that looked doable on paper turns out to be far more complicated than he first imagined, said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator.

"Who knew it would be so hard and complicated?" Levy joked.

"Netanyahu's game plan is not new - he attempts to shift the focus onto diversions and distractions that he hopes will make the Palestinians look bad and will keep the pressure off him when it comes to offering something on the substance of a peace deal," Levy said.

Hence the Israeli focus on incitement and Palestinian payments to the families of prisoners accused of violence against Israelis, Levy said.

Palestinian officials claim many of the arrests are the result of opposition to illegal occupation and they have a duty to support the families of those jailed. The issue may soon be out of the Trump administration's hands. Congress is moving toward passing legislation suspending all U.S. assistance to the Palestinians until the prisoner-payment issue is resolved.

The U.S. team led by Kushner and former Trump lawyer Jason Greenblatt claims some success in helping prepare the ground for eventual talks, but U.S. officials are tight-lipped about what form such talks could take. Likewise, they have sketched no timeline for their effort. Kerry set a deadline at the outset of the last effort, only to extend it.

The peace effort, led out of Greenblatt's office in the Old Executive Office Building, is exploring ways to expand and hire additional staff. Lowenstein's comparatively large operation, which was housed at the State Department, was dismantled after talks collapsed in acrimony.

U.S. officials point to Israel's decision to allow 24-hour travel for Palestinians on the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge crossing to Jordan. The trial expansion of travel hours this summer is seen as a way to build confidence ahead of potential talks.

U.S. officials also suggest that Israel has cut back on at least some settlement activity in apparent deference to Trump's request for restraint.

Trump has made a break with previous efforts by dropping U.S. insistence on a separate, sovereign Palestinian state as the goal of negotiations, although he says he is open to that idea if both parties want it.

- - -

The Washington Post's Greg Jaffe contributed to this report.
On Dec. 16, 2014, the U.S. Congress finally recognized Spanish Gen. Bernardo de Galvez for his heroic service to our nation during the U.S. War of Independence (1775-1783).

With appropriate pomp and circumstance, Gen. Galvez belatedly received honorary U.S. citizenship on that special day. Its a most worthy homage because only eight other foreign individuals have been so privileged.

The rationale for the honor may surprise many. His singularly distinctive bravery helped herald the sound of liberty throughout the young United States.

With the Fourth of July nearly upon us, lets reflect on this iconic dates lesser known aspects. They help to remind us that our Spanish-Mexican ancestors gave substantial blood and treasure during the U.S. war for independence.

Its not that weve learned the wrong U.S. history. Its just that weve been taught it incompletely, with historians typically rejecting Spains (and New Spains) support.

Despite the 2014 tribute, Gen. Galvezs crucial role in the U.S. gaining its independence from England is not fully understood, recognized or taught in mainstream U.S. history books. Without Spains alliance, theres no doubt freedom for the Colonies would have been hindered for years.

The early days of the struggle made the outcome unclear. There were factions embracing the status quo under England, and there were those wanting change. Among the various military principals leading the fight for independence, the coordinated efforts of an unlikely threesome stand out. They were Spanish Gen. Bernardo de Galvez, George Rogers Clark, and most important, the revolutions commander in chief, Gen. George Washington.

Their energy covered the Colonies with a triangular-shaped blanket, with Gen. Galvez operating in the south, George Rogers Clark in the west and Gen. Washington to the east. Note that two of those fronts (south and west) were under Spains jurisdiction.

The superb three-prong attack discouraged, delayed and eventually defeated the English forces in America.

By the time the U.S. fight against England began, Spanish King Charles III had ordered Gen. Galvez to remove the British presence in the Gulf of Mexico. The general didnt disappoint his king.

As Spains governor of Louisiana, he oversaw the Gulf of Mexico land mass from the Texas-Louisiana border to Florida. Through capable Spanish officers, he controlled access to the entire Mississippi River. Gen. Galvez had ample resources at his disposal, consisting of an impressive force of Spanish officers and men ready, willing and able to defeat England.

He operated his part of the war strategy in two phases.

Phase 1. He expelled the British from the Gulf of Mexico.

In his book The Hispanic Presence in North America, author Carlos M. Fernandez-Shaw cites historian Buchanan Parker Thomson to describe Gen. Galvezs impact, saying that this young Spaniard had given the most vital aid contributed by any one man to the struggling American colonies. In winning this triumphant victory  he had not only served his king to the limit of his strength, but had made to the United States the most important gift an ally could offer: the security of their southeastern and western frontiers.

Phase 2. Personally leading battles in the Gulf of Mexico area, he entrusted Don Fernando de Leyba, Upper Louisiana governor, and his staff to work with and assist the U.S. colonists in Missouri.

Its in this theater of operations where we meet the second member of the trio.

George Rogers Clark was from all indications highly admired among his contemporaries, such as Daniel Boone. Aided by substantial Spanish financing, Rogers Clark led his army in Missouri and helped end the British threat in the region. Had the British been allowed access to the river, they would have outflanked Gen. Washingtons army from the west. For his courageous efforts during these military engagements, he was nicknamed Conqueror of the Old Northwest.

Yet, even though he was promoted by President Thomas Jefferson to general, Clarks early military feats were forgotten after the Revolution. He was heavily criticized by political enemies, and his life spiraled downward from one controversy to another. That may be why he is not embraced by mainstream U.S. historians.

As for the third member of the heroic triangle, Gen. George Washington has truly earned the distinction Father of Our Country. He deserves the credit for binding all the elements of war against England. His is an impressive military resume, beginning in 1776 with leading several battles, among them Boston, New York City and Trenton.

Valley Forge, just outside Philadelphia, deserves special mention. Here, the Continental Army camped for the 1777-78 winter. The men suffered greatly due to bitter cold and disease, resulting in the death of thousands of patriots.

Yet they endured throughout the war and finally achieved victory over the British at the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, ending in October 1781.

There is much that mainstream historians choose to ignore in rendering U.S. history. Among the items, the specific aid by civilian Spanish subjects who lived faraway in New Spain (Mexico). Their help was crucial in the financing and equipping of the Continental Army.

President George Washington never forgot it. He often mentioned his deepest gratitude to Spain through his ample correspondence and personal contact with Diego de Gardoqui, Spains chief minister, Gen. Galvez and other high-ranking Spanish government officials.

It was no accident that Gen. Washington placed Gen. Galvez on his right as they stood in review of the troops during the first July 4 parade in Washington, D.C. He meant to show his personal gratitude to his brother in arms, and officially recognize Spain for its vital financial and war materiel support.

Spanish-surnamed U.S. citizens should learn to value the fact that U.S. independence had a distinctive Spanish component. They might find comfort knowing that Gen. Galvezs army included recruits from New Spain (Mexico).

Thats why citizens of Spanish Mexican-descent should view U.S. Independence Day celebrations in this light. Their ancestors helped create the young nation, years before many other European immigrant families reached Americas Ellis Island.

Jose Joe Antonio Lopez was born and raised in Laredo and is a U.S. Air Force veteran. He lives in Universal City and is the author of four books. His latest is Preserving Early Texas History (Essays of an Eighth-Generation South Texan). Lopez is also the founder of the Tejano Learning Center and www.tejanosunidos.org, a website dedicated to Spanish and Mexican people and events in U.S. history that are mostly overlooked in mainstream history books. A version of this article was first published in the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service.
TWO yet to be identified people who shot Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) officers, killing one and seriously injuring another in Chivhu on Saturday were yesterday gunned down by security forces in a dramatic exchange of fire.

In what movie scriptwriters may read with envy, the two suspects were brought to their knees following a sustained shootout with security forces, as they tried to flee. Investigators blew their cover right out at a mountain in Waterbury Farm where they were hiding. The dramatic shootout left one security officer nursing injuries.

After allegedly shooting and killing one soldier and seriously injuring another, the criminals disarmed them and ran away with the soldiers rifles and four magazines with 30 bullets each.

Security services responded by mounting a large-scale operation in and around Chivhu in an effort to bring them to book.

Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga last night visited the two soldiers who are admitted at West End Hospital in Harare, following the shootout with two assailants in separate incidents in Chivhu.

Corporal Peter Zvirevo and Corporal Stanalious Chiunye were transferred to Harare for further management. Corporal Zvirevo is critical and is admitted in the intensive care unit after undergoing an operation.

He was in the company of Lance Corporal Mupanganyama enforcing lockdown regulations in Chivhu when they were shot at a police post.

Lance Corporal Mupanganyama died on admission at Chivhu General Hospital, while Zvirevo suffered multiple injuries.

Corporal Stanalious Chiunye was part of the army and police crack-team on an operation to arrest the two assailants when he was injured in a shootout with the duo that was eventually killed.

VP Chiwenga, who is also the Health and Child Care Minister, was accompanied by his deputy, Dr John Mangwiro to West End Hospital.

Speaking to journalists after interacting with the injured, VP Chiwenga expressed confidence that the two would recover quickly.

He commended the doctors for working round the clock to ensure the two were in a stable condition.

I am satisfied that the doctors have done the best they can, said VP Chiwenga. The operation on Zvirevo went on well.

VP Chiwenga hailed the security forces crack team that accounted for the assailants in less than 24 hours after the shootout. It is a great lesson to everyone in the country that such acts should not be done, he said.

Anyone daring to do such evil acts would be accounted for.

The Vice-President expressed his heartfelt condolences to the family of Corporal Mupanganyama following his death. We are really sorry about what happened, he said.

We lost a fine young man dedicated to his duty. We lost a soldier who was doing his job, protecting people at a time we are fighting this invisible enemy, Covid-19. He was not suspecting anything at all. What is good is that the two fugitives have been accounted for.

In a tweet, Information Secretary Mr Nick Mangwana said, ZNAs Lorance Mupanganyama was murdered in cold blood while Peter Zvirevo sustained serious injuries in a Chivhu attack. Just like when Lee Rigby was killed in a similar attack in Britain or when Michael Zehaf-Bibeau attacked servicemen in Canada, we stand with our soldiers.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the death of the two assailants.

Following the tragic shooting of two security service members in a murder, attempted murder and robbery incident at Chicken Inn Police Base, Chivhu, on 5th September 2020 and the subsequent deployment of investigation teams, the security services inform the public that the two suspects have been accounted for after an exchange of fire at Waterbury Farm, Ward 8 Chivhu, off Chivhu-Gutu Road, said Asst Comm Nyathi.

He said the suspects who were hiding in a mountain observed a security service team approaching and tried to run away.

Asst Comm Nyathi said they hid in a trench and exchanged fire with the security services and in the process one security service member was shot on the leg. The suspects were then shot and seriously injured.

They were taken to Chivhu Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival, he said.

Asst Comm Nyathi said the two service rifles and four magazines, which had been stolen by the criminals and the pistol they used to commit the murder, attempted murder and armed robbery were recovered from the scene.

The security services, he said, applaud the public for swiftly supplying information and co-operating with the investigation teams leading to the location of the two robbers.

The security service reiterates that criminal elements who want to cause alarm and disturb the peace currently existing in the country will be decisively dealt with in terms of the countrys laws, he said.

 Chronicle

Breaking News via Email
ZIMBABWEANS will do justice to Grace Mugabe when her husband dies, a Catholic cleric and confidant of former President Robert Mugabe has ominously indicated.

Father Fidelis Mukonori is understood to be one of the few people close to Mugabe, a famed loner, who was forced to resign last month after a revolt by the military and his own Zanu PF party.

The Catholic cleric mediated between the military Generals and Mugabe who, as part of his resignation deal, was allowed to remain in the country, enjoying the perks due a former president as well as immunity over the outrages of his 37-year reign.

The security and material guarantees reportedly also apply to Mugabes divisive wife Grace who is widely blamed for his inglorious exit from power.

However, what will happen after the death of her 93-year-old husband remains uncertain.

Asked about that in an interview with an international Catholic magazine last week, Father Mukonori was not reassuring for the former first lady.

When asked about her future after her husband dies, (Fr Mukonori) says calmly, Im sure that people would do justice to her, reports the American Jesuit Review magazine.

He speaks fondly about Mr Mugabes first wife, Sally, but his demeanour changes when he speaks about Grace, said the publication adding,

One cannot but help feel that Father Mukonori attributes Grace Mugabes greed for power as a serious contributing factor to her husbands political demise.

Grace was the nuclear weapon deployed by Zanu PFs G40 faction in the succession war against the rival Lacoste group which backed Mugabes then deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.

With the aid of allies such as former cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao and ex-vice president Phelekezela Mphoko, Grace staged rallies around the country where she savagely attacked Mnangagwa and military Generals.

At the height of her power and influence, Grace was widely seen as de facto State president, as she and her G40 allies allegedly exploited her husbands age-induced near infirmity.

But alarm within the ruling party and the military spiked as it became clear that, beyond crushing Mnangagwa and his Lacoste group, Grace was now determined to succeed her husband as leader of the party and country.

However, the scheme ironically collapsed with G40s success against Mnangagwa. After the Lacoste god-father was fired from the party and government by Mugabe, the military intervened resulting in the latters resignation.

Mnangagwa has since taken over as President, with G40 drivers such as Prof Moyo, Kasukuwere and Zhuwao escaping into exile.

Describing, what led to Mugabes fall, Fr Mukonori chose very strong language. The problem, the cleric explained, was Political debauchery political division slicing each others character trying to position each other for power.

Breaking News via Email
Policy experts, diplomats and military representatives met on Friday (30 June 2017) to discuss maritime cooperation between NATO and the European Union. The meeting, hosted at Norway House in Brussels, was designed to draw lessons for future cooperation at sea, building on NATO-EU experience in countering piracy in the Indian Ocean and working side-by-side in the Mediterranean. Participants discussed all aspects of maritime cooperation: from planning through execution and post-crisis management, as well as legal considerations and the contributions of industry.

NATO and the European Union have built a solid track record of effective cooperation in the maritime domain. NATOs Operation Ocean Shield and the EUs Operation Atalanta worked side-by-side for several years, fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia. NATO and the EU have also worked together in the Mediterranean. Since February 2016, NATO ships have been supporting the EU in tackling illegal migration in the Aegean Sea. In July 2016, NATO launched a new maritime operation, Sea Guardian, which supports some of EU Operation Sophias activities in the Mediterranean Sea.

The seminar is part of 42 cooperation measures which NATO and the EU agreed in December 2016. The event is organised with the support of the Mission to Norway to the EU and the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU.

NATO and the European Union reinforce each other in a wide range of areas, from cooperation at sea, through resilience to hybrid threats, to helping build the defence capacities of partner countries. In a joint report, presented yesterday to NATO Ministers of Defence, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg and EU High Representative / Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini confirmed that this cooperation is developing well and will continue, potentially expanding to new areas.
(Natural News) The anything-goes gender madness gospel that says theres no such thing as men or women anymore is aggressively encroaching on gender-exclusive businesses that specifically cater to one or the other sex. A women-only therapy spa in Toronto, for instance, is now being accused of embracing transphobic policies simply because it refuses to allow individuals who identify as females, but who have male genitalia, to use the all-nude facility.

The issue arose after a spa regular by the name of Shelley Marshall tried to bring along her transgender friend for a day of pampering at the Body Blitz Spa but was turned away. Marshalls friend has apparently not undergone gender reassignment surgery, and therefore was not allowed to enter the facility due to the companys policy.

Another LGBT activist by the name of Jia Qing Wilson-Yan, also a transgender, says she was turned away as well after learning that male genitalia isnt welcome at the Body Blitz Spa. Angered that they werent given the red carpet treatment and told to just come on in, the duo apparently started a witch hunt against the business, falsely accusing it of discrimination for simply upholding a policy that respects the other 99.99999 percent of its clientele that expects to see only women when using the spa.

In typical selfish fashion, these two transgenders arent at all concerned about protecting the safety of the actual women who use the Body Blitz Spa, as allowing male genitalia inside the facility in order to cater to fake women opens the door to potential sexual assault by men who might try to take advantage of this more inclusive policy. No, the only thing these two transgender individuals care about is themselves.

Canadian gender studies professor: Some women have male sexual parts

Sadly, theyre not alone in their delusions of entitlement. In support of their little crusade is York University Gender Studies professor Sheila Cavanagh, who told the media that she believes transgenders should be welcomed at single-sex facilities. In her world, its also perfectly normal for women to have male sexual parts, and everyone else should just accept this.

There are many ways of being trans and there are many ways of being a woman, Cavanagh told the National Post. What is between our legs is our own business.

Except that its not when youre in the presence of other people, all of whom are naked just like yourself. Apparently, Cavanagh needs a quick primer in biology to understand that a penis looks different than a vagina, and that the two simply cant coexist in full glory and still be considered single-sex.

What Cavanagh and people like her are demanding is nothing short of social tyranny, in which the interests of a very small minority are given preference over the majority. Theres nothing to stop transgenders from using single-sex facilities that match their genitalia, after all. Its not rocket science, and expecting anything more, as Cavanagh and her social justice allies are insisting, borders on mental derangement.

The good news is that Body Blitz Spa is sticking to its policy, refusing to be railroaded by militant, gender-confused liberals with an ax to grind. Many of the clubs members agree, including a woman by the name of Rachel Ralison who had this to say to the facility via social media:

Thank you for standing up for women. Private spaces for naked female bodies. Identity irrelevant.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government appears to be joining the other side in considering a non-discrimination policy that, if enacted, would eliminate all gender-exclusive spaces and force them to accept anyone.

Sources:

HeatSt.com

NationalPost.com
Authorities say they are investigating the death of a toddler found under some blankets in the back of an SUV parked the wrong way on a Northern California street.

Sacramento County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tony Turnbull says the child was found unresponsive Wednesday in the backseat by Rancho Cordova police officers and pronounced dead at the scene.

He says a man and a woman found near the car were detained for questioning.

Turnbull says the couple owns the car and that a records check revealed the man had an outstanding warrant out of Arkansas.

Turnbull says the child did not have obvious signs of trauma and that the Sacramento Coroner's office will determine a cause of death.

Police did not immediately release the names, ages or relationship of the child or the adults.
The Surfrider Foundation and two San Francisco District Supervisors began a six-month pilot program Friday to reduce the volume of cigarette butts on beaches, sidewalks and roadways in San Francisco.

"The Hold on to Your Butt" campaign entails installing 40 cigarette butt ash cans along Ocean Beach and on commercial corridors in the Sunset and Richmond districts. The San Francisco Department of Public Works will empty the cans during the campaign to determine the effectiveness of the litter reduction effort.

Supervisors Katy Tang and Sandra Lee announced the pilot program Friday morning at Ocean Beach Stairwell 17.

Twenty cigarette ash cans will be installed on Irving Street between 19th and 21st avenues, on Noriega Street between 19th and 25th avenues and 28th and 33rd avenues and along the Ocean Beach Promenade between Noriega and Rivera streets.

In the Richmond District, look for the ash cans on Geary Boulevard from Arguello Boulevard to Seventh Avenue and from 18th Avenue to 22nd Avenue. The cans will be in the Ocean Beach parking lot from JFK Drive to Stairwell 18.

The collection cans also will have educational material about the toxicity of the butts that frequently end up in sewer systems and coastal waters. Free pocket ashtrays will be available for smokers to use when they are not near a collection can.

The SF Surfrider Butt Brigade will coordinate cleanups and cigarette butt counts in each area before, at midway and at the end of the pilot program to see if the Hold on to Your Butt campaign was successful.

Cigarette butts and tobacco-related products are the top most littered item in San Francisco.

During a two-hour cleanup in San Francisco this year, more than 4,200 butts were collected at Ocean Beach and Noriega Street, 4,615 at 19th Avenue from Lincoln Way to Taraval Street and 6,000 butts were collected along Balboa Street, according to the San Francisco Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

Supervisor Katy Tang said the Sunset and Richmond districts adjacent to Ocean Beach "should lead the way to encourage everyone to recognize that we should all be stewards of the environment and the water even when we are not on the beach."

Ash can installations in the Richmond District began as a community-based effort, Supervisor Sandra Lee said.

"This pilot complements cleanup efforts initiated by residents; this is what happens when a community comes together. In Richmond, we take care of Richmond," Lee said.
The homeless situation in the South Bay appears to be getting worse.

Numbers released Friday show the overall homeless population in Santa Clara County jumped 13 percent to 7,394.

The overall number of homeless youth, which covers unaccompanied youth and slightly older transitional youth, jumped 286 percent to 3,530.

Part of the increase in numbers may be due to better tracking, but either way advocates said it is clear more needs to be done to address the county's homeless issue.

San Jose recently decided it will begin warning and fining unpermitted groups who feed the homeless at St. James Park. Many of those who showed up for a Friday protest food giveaway at the park were not necessarily there to demonstrate, but were simply hungry.

One recipient said the rising number of homeless shows it can happen to anyone.

"What if you get laid off or fired? And you can't pay your house off or your apartment?" homeless Donna Wright said.

Homeless advocates said they hope the new, bigger homeless population will lead San Jose to look for solutions, rather than just track the problem.

"The No. 1 reason people can't end homelessness is the high cost of housing," said Shaunn Cartwright with Rise Up For Justice.

Cartwright said 70 percent of the homeless population are saying they can't find a place to rent.

"They can't afford rent," Cartwright said.

Ryan Nunez, a 14-year-old volunteer, said the 286-percent increase in homeless youth should scare everyone.

"It's kind of hard for them to survive out here because they have no resources," Nunez said. "They're just stuck here with nothing to eat, nothing to drink."

Wright said the numbers do not lie.

"Deal with it," she said. "Yes, try to deal with it."

Santa Clara County has seen progress in some categories. The count showed a drop in homeless veterans and the chronically homeless.
Cheers and long lines of tourists and locals alike greeted the first day of sales of recreational marijuana on Saturday as Nevada became the fifth state with stores selling pot to the public in a market that is expected to outpace all others in the U.S. thanks to the millions of visitors who flock to Las Vegas each year.

Veteran consumers, first-timers, twenty-somethings and retirees were among those who defied triple-digit temperatures before they made it into stores across the Las Vegas area, some of which opened shortly after midnight and later provided free water, live music, valet parking and coveted promotions on their valuable product. Eager employees guided customers and answered questions from product potency to Nevada's consumption regulations.

Minnesota resident Edgar Rosas Lorenzo on Saturday flew with his family to Sin City for his sister's wedding. But even before he checked in to his hotel, he stopped at a dispensary on the Las Vegas Strip.

Lorenzo, 21, said he learned of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Nevada while he was at the airport waiting for his flight to depart. He drove with his sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law from the rental car facility in Las Vegas straight to the dispensary. They waited in line about 40 minutes before he could buy one-eighth of an ounce of marijuana and hemp wraps.

"It was worth the wait. I'm going to come get some more tomorrow," Lorenzo said after paying about $60 in cash at Essence dispensary. "It helps me sleep. I get back pain. I have a slipped disk."

Some dispensaries took to social media to spread the word or tried to draw in buyers with special events. Some gave away free marijuana to their first 100 customers, and at least one entered buyers into a raffle for free pot for a year.

Those 21 and older with a valid ID can buy up to an ounce of pot. Tourists are expected to make nearly two of every three recreational pot purchases in Nevada. But people can only use the drug in a private home as it remains illegal to consume it in public, including the Las Vegas Strip, hotels and casino floors. Violators face a $600 fine.

"I have yet to figure that out," Lorenzo said of where he will smoke the weed he got at the Essence dispensary, which along with others had stacks of pamphlets stating the regulations in every checkout station.

Meanwhile, Kristin Deneal got in line outside a pot shop at 5:45 a.m., after a different store that opened at midnight closed before she could make a purchase. She brought a folding chair and sat by the door, striking conversations with the security guard and others as the line continued to grow before doors opened at 9 a.m.

Deneal, a Las Vegas resident, said she is elated at being able to legally buy the drug that for decades she has had to buy through acquaintances. Smoking marijuana helps her cope with health conditions while also working a stressful job at a bank, she said.

"It looks like they have enough stuff for everyone, it's just a question of getting through the door," Deneal, 57, said.

State Sen. Tick Segerblom, one of the main proponents of marijuana legalization in Nevada, made the first purchase at The Source dispensary at a strip mall. Deneal and others followed. An hour after the door opened, at least 80 transactions had been recorded.

Some facilities are in strip malls, while others, in stereotypical Las Vegas fashion, are in neighborhoods shared by strip clubs. Some dispensaries have ATMs inside because they only accept cash transactions for marijuana.

Lorenzo immediately posted photos of his stash on Snapchat. His friends have said they're jealous and asked where he bought the products, he said. Lorenzo said he will plan another trip to Vegas specifically to be able to legally purchase marijuana, not to visit the city's world famous casinos.

"We just got here ... Instead of looking around in Vegas, I'm in a dispensary," he said.

Recreational marijuana sales began shortly after midnight, just months after voters approved legalization in November, marking the fastest turnaround from the ballot box to retail sales in the country.

Hundreds of people lined up outside dispensaries that opened from 12 a.m. to 3 a.m. and had to turn away customers like Deneal. At Essence on the Strip, people were excited and well-behaved as a lone security guard looked on. A cheer erupted when the doors opened.

Despite the limits on where people can get high and restrictions on where the industry can advertise, dispensaries worked furiously to prepare for the launch. They stamped labels on pot products, stocked up their shelves, added security and installed extra checkout stations.

Nevada joins Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in allowing adults to buy the drug that's still banned by the federal government.

"I've been living in Vegas for 15 years, and I keep missing the cities that legalize marijuana and edibles. So I'm happy that it's here now," said Babs Daitch, who was waiting in line.
An American Airlines plane's wing clipped another aircraft at O'Hare International Airport while taxiing on the runway Friday night, American Airlines confirmed.

The wingtip of American Airlines flight 1162, an Airbus A321, "came in contact" with SkyWest Airlines American Eagle aircraft 3047, according to statements from American Airlines and the Chicago Department of Aviation. The American Airlines flight was headed to Los Angeles and the SkyWest flight was landing at O'Hare from Rochester, Minnesota.

The Chicago Fire Department and police responded to the scene.

We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience, and will be rebooking them on a new aircraft to Los Angeles, American Airlines said.

The American Airlines flight was pushed back to the gate about 8:22 p.m.

The SkyWest flight landed at O'Hare about 8:16 p.m.

A passenger on the American Airlines flight send video footage and photos to NBC 5.

The passenger said no one was hurt but multiple emergency response vehicles could be seen responding to the tarmac.

The passenger said the SkyWest flight was nearly knocked on its side and its wings were touching the ground.

In a short video clip, passengers can be heard talking to one another.

"Oh my God," one of them cries out.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said there was little to no impact to flight operations.
A man was charged Friday with the kidnapping of a visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois, the Department of Justice announced.

Brendt Christensen, 27, was arrested on a criminal complaint for the kidnapping of Yingying Zhang on June 9, authorities said. Lawyer information for Christensen was not immediately available.

Zhang, 26, was about a month into a yearlong appointment at the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus when she vanished June 9, the Associated Press reported at the time. Her friends told police she had gone out to sign an apartment lease.

Since Zhang was last seen in surveillance video entering a car, the FBI, the University of Illinois Police Department and the Illinois State Police and local law enforcement have investigated her disappearance.

The FBI said it located the black Saturn Astra Zhang was last seen getting into on Tuesday.

According to an affidavit filed in federal court by the FBI, on June 29, while Christensen was under law enforcement surveillance, agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang.

"Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement agents believe that Ms. Zhang is no longer alive," the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Members of Zhangs family, the Chinese consulate, and University of Illinois officials have been advised of Christensens arrest and the evidence in the possession of the FBI, authorities said.

Christensen will remain in law enforcement custody pending his initial federal court appearance in Urbana scheduled on Monday, July 3, at 10 a.m., authorities said.

A prayer vigil planned for Saturday was canceled in the wake of the alleged kidnapper's arrest and news of Zhangs possible death.

"We hope they are wrong, but trust they have creditable information to make this statement," organizers Kim Tee and Randy Tom said in a joint email late Friday night. "Please keep Ying Ying's family in your thought and prayers, and may God watch over them."



Zhang, from Jianyang, China, was working in the university's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, researching photosynthesis and crop productivity, the AP reported.
Crews continued to work Saturday at containing and cleaning an oil spill after a freight train derailed in suburban Plainfield.

The derailment occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m. Friday near 143rd St. east of Van Dyke Rd., authorities said.

Twenty cars of the 115-car Canadian National Railway train derailed and two, possibly three, were punctured in the crash, according to a spokesman for the agency.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that around 45,000 gallons of crude oil leaked into the surrounding area, though officials said there it did not impact nearby waterways, including the DuPage River.

The EPA maintained the spill has not impacted air quality and there is no threat to the public, though they continued to monitor the situation.

Crews have foam on the oil and said it is all contained, but were exercising caution to prevent it from spreading or causing a fire.

No injuries were reported in the incident, which occurred on a freight line with no passenger trains.

Authorities said Saturday that while the derailment was significant, it could have been much worse.

"There was a lot of things that were in our favor," said Plainfield Police Chief John Konopek. "If this had to happen in Plainfield  maybe the businesses nearby dont think this - but its very fortunate that that was where it happened."

"It was an unpopulated area per se, it wasnt near any residential properties," he continued. "There's no people necessarily in harm's way when the actual derailment happened."

Police asked residents of the community both to avoid the area, and for their patience as clean-up is expected to take several days.

The cause of the derailment remains under investigation.
A freight train carrying 40,000 gallons of crude oil derailed in the southwest suburbs of Illinois Friday evening, according to authorities.

Three of the tanks were leaking after the train derailed in Plainfield shortly after 6:30 p.m. near 143rd Street east of Van Dyke Road, according to the Plainfield Police Department and a Canadian National Railway spokesman. Twenty-five cars detailed, authorities said.

Patrick Waldron, a spokesman for the rail agency, said the company had activated its emergency hazmat and environmental response teams to evaluate the situation.

He said the line the derailment occurred on is a freight line with no passenger trains traveling on it.

The dark liquid could be seen from helicopter footage of the scene seeping into the surrounding greenery.

There were no reported injuries or fire.

Police warned residents to avoid the area until further notice.
Federal law enforcement officials believe a major heroin and fentanyl bust in Hartford likely saved hundreds of lives.

Twenty kilos of heroin, mixed with fentanyl was confiscated and on the streets, that amount translates to anywhere from $5 to $8 million value, according to federal sources.

Raids overseen by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were conducted in Hartford, East Hartford, New Britain and Meriden. Locations in Massachusetts and New Jersey were also searched.

Thirteen people, including ten from Connecticut, two from Springfield, Massachusetts, and one in New Jersey, were arrested and face federal drug charges.

NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters poured through the 87-page federal affidavit.

Federal officials said some of the suspects have ties to unidentified distributors in multiple states. Court papers also show they had nicknames for the heroin, including "peso" and other terms, and even changed out cell phone numbers on a monthly basis to arrange drug deals.

The three apartments raided on Collins Street in Hartford, according to those same federal court documents, were used to store, process and package the drugs. This drug trafficking organization, federal agents said was getting the bulk of its heroin, fentanyl and other drugs from New York and New Jersey, arriving in Connecticut where federal agents said they were being mixed with dangerous fentanyl.

This is a conversation about fentanyl between two suspects that was outlined in the affidavit:

Suspect 1: It numbed one of my sides (face) completely, crazy. I'ma have to start using a mask and all. The complete side along with the hand, man.

Suspect 2: that's what I'm telling you, so it hit you hard, then.

Suspect 1: yeah, it hit me hard, it hit me hard. Law enforcement agents used hazmat suits for safety.

The drugs were then sold to dealers in Connecticut and the Springfield and Holyoke areas of Massachusetts, the documents said.

Some of the defendants were living in these raided units. Also, according to the affidavit the "Neighborhood Supermarket" in Hartford on Farmington Avenue, where some of the defendants worked, would sell drugs there. On Friday, the business appeared closed.

"That's very shocking, that's very shocking that would be a connection. I go there every day, it's hard to believe, customer Calivn Wilson told NBC Connecticut.

Two homes in East Hartford were raided as well, neighbors said they noticed a lot of activity.
A judge has sentenced a former U.S. Postal Service worker in South Texas to 1 1/2 years in federal prison for accepting bribes to provide addresses of some mail-in ballot recipients in 2014 races.

Noe Olvera of Mission was sentenced Friday in McAllen after pleading guilty last March, in a plea deal, to soliciting bribes during an election. He could have received up to 15 years in prison.

Olvera admitted to accepting more than $1,000 in October 2014 in return for providing a political worker with names and addresses of people on his route related to a Hidalgo County sheriff's race.

Sheriff Eddie Guerra has denied any knowledge of the incident and says he never engaged in any criminal mail-in ballot scheme.
Gay spouses may not be entitled to government-subsidized workplace benefits, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday in a unanimous decision that was quickly condemned by gay-rights groups.



The court overturned a lower court's decision that favored same-sex marriage benefits, ordering the issue back to trial. Social conservatives hope the case will help them chip away at the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage.



Gay rights groups denounced the ruling as an "absurd distortion" of established law regarding marriage equality.



"Marriage is marriage and equal is equal. We will take steps to protect these families," said Kenneth Upton Jr., Dallas-based attorney for Lambda Legal.



Friday's decision was a major reversal for the all-Republican Texas high court, which previously refused to even consider the benefits case after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution grants gay couples who want to marry "equal dignity in the eyes of the."



The Texas court only agreed to hear it after coming under intense pressure from Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as dozens of other conservative elected officials, church leaders and grassroots activists.



They filed a flurry of briefs saying the case may help Texas limit the scope of the Supreme Court ruling -- especially in how it's applied to states.



The decision didn't block same-sex spousal benefits but said the U.S. Supreme Court decision did not decide the issue. The U.S. Supreme Court "did not hold that states must provide the same publicly funded benefits to all married persons," the Texas Supreme Court wrote in its opinion.



The case came from Houston, where a coalition of religious and socially conservative groups sued America's fourth-largest city in 2013 to block a move to offer same-sex spousal benefits to municipal employees.



The groups argued that the U.S. Supreme Court didn't declare spousal benefits a fundamental right of marriage, and that it should be up to states to decide. The city argued that the gay marriage ruling meant all marriages are equal, so anything offered to opposite-sex couples must be offered to same-sex ones.



The groups suing also called the case a chance for Texas to defend religious liberty. Texas voters approved a gay marriage ban in 2005.



Jared Woodfill, a conservative activist at the center of the case, called the decision a big victory for states' rights and religious rights. He said he hopes the case will eventually help push the U.S. Supreme Court to someday overturn its gay marriage ruling.



"Courts can change their mind," Woodfill said. "From time immemorial, family law has been left to the states."



Conservative activists will argue to the trial court that the decision to offer same-sex benefits was an overreach by the Houston mayor's office that violated state law, and that benefits shouldn't be supported by taxpayers who would consider it a violation of sincerely held religious beliefs, Woodfill said.



Houston has been paying the benefits and Friday's decision doesn't stop them, but Woodfill said opponents will use the ruling to ask a judge to block them pending a trial on the issue.



Gay rights groups noted that the Texas decision came just days after the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly ruled that states may not treat married same-sex couples differently when issuing birth certificates. That decision overturned an Arkansas court ruling that said married lesbian couples were not entitled to have both spouses listed on their children's birth certificates.



Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive of GLAAD, an LGBT rights group, called the Texas ruling a "warning shot to all LGBTQ Americans that the war on marriage equality is ever-evolving, and anti-LGBTQ activists will do anything possible to discriminate against our families."


A U.S. Marine veteran who just returned to Philadelphia from a stint in the Middle East was gunned down overnight Thursday while trying to stop an attempted robbery, police said.

Howard Robert White, 47, was shot in the head and torso by a man who apparently attempted to hold up a bar at 5th and Spencer streets in Philadelphia's Olney neighborhood, police said.

It was just before 1 a.m. when the suspect, a yet to be identified 25-year-old man from North Philadelphia, pulled up to the Green Parrot Tavern along N. 5th Street.



Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said the man then opened fire on White and a friend who were standing on the sidewalk. Only White was hit. He died in the street, Small said.

"I heard six or seven times," Yu Choi, who lives near where the shooting took place, told NBC10. "Boom, boom, boom, boom."



The gunman fled following the shooting. White's friend and police, who were patrolling nearby and heard the shooting, gave chase to the 6100 block of N. 6th Street where the suspect broke through a back door of a home.

NBC10

Javier Vasquez Sr. was sleeping in a bedroom with his wife inside the home when the suspect went inside.

"She screamed, 'Somebody is in the house!'" Vasquez Sr. said.

Vasquez Sr. chased the man and confronted him in the kitchen.

"I started struggling with him," Vasquez Sr. said. "Grabbed the gun. I grabbed his wrist. I grabbed his hair and I tried to hold him."

Vasquez Sr.'s son, 23-year-old Javier Vasquez Jr., wasn't far behind.

"I can't really see without my glasses," Vasquez Jr. said. "I'm pretty blind so I saw them struggling. I didn't know what was in his hand. I saw my dad struggling so the first thing I can do is get him off my dad."

Vasquez Jr. bodyslammed the suspect and pinned him down until police arrived.



Vasquez Sr. and the suspect suffered injuries to their heads and faces. Paramedics took both to Albert Einstein Medical Center for treatment.

Homicide detectives spent the morning questioning witnesses at police headquarters.



White lived about a block from the bar where he was killed. His family tells NBC10 he was injured while overseas when his military vehicle was hit, but he survived. They are in disbelief he came back to Philadelphia only to be gunned down so close to home.

Before his death, White talked about returning overseas. White's cousin Harold Holland called him a "father figure."

"He was a good dude. He ain't mess with nobody....peaceful man."

White's other cousin, Melinda Gordon, called him a hero.

"He died a hero," she said. "He served his country and he continued to serve up until the day that he went to heaven."
What to Know A gunman shot seven people inside Bronx Lebanon Hospital, killing one; sources say a female doctor died

The gunman has been identified as Dr. Henry Michael Bello, who resigned from the hospital in 2015

People in the hospital described panic and terror as they either fled or barricaded themselves in rooms in the hospital

A doctor angry that his career was derailed at a New York City hospital toted an assault rifle past security in search of a colleague he was going to hold responsible. When that person wasn't there, he opened fire anyway, killing a doctor who was only there covering a shift as a favor, authorities said Saturday.

The new details of Dr. Henry Bello's rampage emerged along with an email rant against colleagues he blamed for forcing him to resign from Bronx Lebanon Hospital amid sexual harassment allegations two years earlier. The email was sent to the New York Daily News just two hours before the shooting Friday afternoon that left six other people wounded and Bello dead from a self-inflicted shot.

"This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine," the email said. "First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse."

He also blamed a doctor for blocking his chances at practicing medicine.

Bello had warned his former colleagues when he was forced out in 2015 that he would return someday to kill them.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Bello arrived at the hospital with the assault rifle hidden under his lab coat and asked for a specific doctor whom he blamed for his having to resign, but the physician wasn't there at the time. The official spoke on anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

It was not clear if Bello knew Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, 32, who was killed in the shooting on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital and was, like him, a family medicine doctor. Hospital officials said that Tam normally worked in one of the hospital's satellite clinics and was covering a shift in the main hospital as a favor to someone else.

"It makes you think that anything can happen to anybody," said Tam's neighbor, Alena Khaim, 23, who saw Tam's sister outside the home Friday night overcome with grief, shaking and unable to walk. "She was such a sweet girl. You would never think something like that would happen but it happened."

Judy Beckles-Ross, 46, said she's not surprised Tam volunteered to cover the shift.

"She never said no," said Beckles-Ross, a friend from medical school who knew her for 11 years. "She had a good heart. Anybody that needed help, she would help them."

The six others who were injured  a patient, two medical students and three physicians  largely suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen. One physician remained in critical condition and the rest were stable, officials said Saturday.

Hospital vice president Errol C. Schneer said his staff responded heroically.

"Many of our staff risked their own lives to save patients," Schneer told reporters at the hospital where the 16th and 17th floors remained closed, and staffers were still recovering from the rampage that sent people diving for cover and huddling in patients' rooms while the gunman was on the loose. Adding to the chaos, authorities said, was a fire alarm that went off when Bello attempted to set himself ablaze, the flames extinguished by sprinklers, shortly before he shot himself.

Detectives searched the Bronx home where Bello was most recently living and found the box where the gun came from. Investigators were checking serial numbers and trying to determine where it was purchased.

His former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud and threatening.

"All the time he was a problem," said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello as a family medicine doctor. When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the dismissal.

Dr. Maureen Kwankam told the New York Daily News that "he promised to come back and kill us then."

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello graduated from Ross University and had a permit to practice as an international medical graduate that was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

In 2004, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her. He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror. That case was eventually sealed.

Schneer told the New York Times that the hospital did not know about Bello's criminal history when he was hired.

"At that time, and as a result of a human resources and security department background check, which includes fingerprinting, there was no record of any conviction for sexual abuse," he said.
What to Know New Jersey's state government shut down at midnight when lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a health insurance bill in the budget

Gov. Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission, to close beginning Saturday.

Lawmakers will reconvene at 11 a.m. to try to reach a resolution.

New Jerseyans were feeling the impact as a state government shutdown took effect Saturday, shuttering parks and other public sites and disrupting ferry service to Liberty and Ellis islands.

Among those affected were a group of Cub Scouts forced to leave a state park campsite and people trying to obtain or renew documents from the state motor vehicle commission, among the agencies closed by the shutdown.

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Chris Christie and the Democrat-led Legislature planned to return to work Saturday to try to resolve the shutdown, the state's first since 2006 and the first under Christie. It came about after leaders failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by Friday night's deadline.

Andrew Spears, a leader with Cub Scout Pack 124 in Tinton Falls, said his group was told to leave Cheesequake State Park on Saturday morning. His group of roughly 45  including about 25 children  had planned to camp all weekend.

"We knew this was probably coming, but it's still a shame we have to head out," Spears said.

Police were turning away vehicles and bicyclists at Island Beach state park in Ocean County. A sign posted at the park entrance featured a photo of Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and the phone number of his district office in Secaucus, along with the caption: "This facility is CLOSED because of this man."

When asked about the sign, Christie spokesman Jeremy Rosen said the governor wanted to make sure people knew why the site was shuttered.

"Speaker Prieto single-handedly closed state government," Rosen said, adding that the governor wanted to make sure families "knew that the facilities were closed and who is responsible."

Prieto's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

Remaining open under the shutdown will be New Jersey Transit, state prisons, the state police, state hospitals and treatment centers as well as casinos, race tracks and the lottery.

Liberty State Park was closed, forcing the suspension of ticket sales and ferry service from the site to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. But the latter two sites remain open.

Christie and the lawmakers are in a stalemate over whether to include legislation affecting the state's largest health insurer into the state budget. He and Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney agree on legislation to make over Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, including allowing the state insurance commissioner to determine a range for the company's surplus that if exceeded must be put to use benefiting the public and policyholders.

But Prieto opposes the plan, saying that the legislation could lead to rate hikes on the insurer's 3.8 million subscribers and that the legislation is separate from the budget.

Christie reiterated his stance during a news conference Saturday. Prieto planned to hold a news conference later Saturday.

Prieto has said he will leave open a vote on the $34.7 billion budget that remains deadlocked 26-25, with 24 abstentions, until those 24 abstentions change their mind.

Democratic Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, of Northfield, was among those abstaining. He reasoned that if the governor did not get the Horizon bill, then nearly $150 million in school funding  $9.6 million of which would go to his district  would be line-item vetoed out of the budget.

And indeed, Christie said Friday he would slash the Democratic spending priorities if he did not get the Horizon bill as part of a package deal on the budget.

"It seems like he's just being stubborn," Mazzeo said of Prieto. "With all due respect to the speaker, then there should be some type of negotiations."

But Prieto said it's lawmakers  fellow Democrats  like Mazzeo who are to blame for the shutdown. He said he is willing to discuss the Horizon legislation but after the budget is resolved.

Christie has balked at the proposal because he says lawmakers plan to leave town to campaign for re-election and he will be a lame duck.
What to Know A gunman shot six staff members inside Bronx Lebanon Hospital, one of them fatally, before taking his own life.

The gunman has been identified as Dr. Henry Michael Bello, a former family doctor at the hospital who resigned in 2015.

The victims include a female doctor who was killed, five people in critical condition, and one person shot in the leg.

Police have identified the doctor who was killed Friday in a workplace shooting at a hospital that left five other staff members and a patient injured.

Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, 32, was killed when she was shot on the 17th floor of Bronx Lebanon Hospital, the NYPD said. Her body was later found by police.

Tam normally works in the clinic but was asked to cover a shift on Friday for one of the physicians who was out, hospital officials said. She had worked at Bronx Lebanon for about a year.

Bello was looking to kill the doctor he blamed for forcing him to resign amid sexual harassment allegations two years earlier, but Tam was there instead.

Five other staff members were shot by the gunman, identified as 45-year-old Henry Michael Bello, a former employee at the hospital. Their injuries were described as chest and abdomen wounds. One physician remained in critical condition Saturday.

The five injured staff members were said to be doctors, residents and medical students. A patient who was also shot was in stable condition.

The worst of them, a doctor, underwent brain surgery for a gunshot wound to the head.

There is one doctor dead, several doctors who are fighting for their lives right now, Mayor de Blasio said at a press conference Friday.

NYPD Commissioner ONeill said police got a 911 call shortly before 3 p.m. that several people were shot with an assault rifle on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital.

Responders found the gunman dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the 17th floor, officials said. His AR-15 assault rifle and the body of Sin-Yee were found nearby.

According to senior law enforcement officials, Bello had his old hospital credentials and wore a white medical coat to blend in and sneak past hospital security.

After his two-story shooting rampage, sources say he tried to set himself on fire before taking his own life.
What to Know A passenger on a Delta flight to Florida said a sudden ceiling leak soaked at least a half-dozen people with water

Video showed the good-natured man chuckling as he fruitlessly tried to divert the liquid away from his body using a magazine

Delta reached out to the man's son on Twitter and said it would escalate the matter; the traveler was also offered a voucher

A plane passenger sat helplessly in his seat as water steadily trickled onto him from the ceiling during a flight to Florida Friday, despite his best efforts to shield himself using a magazine, video shows.

The soaked but apparently good-natured passenger chuckled as he fruitlessly tried to divert the liquid away from his body using the magazine, video posted by his son shows.

"Hey @Delta, be glad my father is such a good sport about sitting in water for a whole flight," tweeted Tommy McCullough. "Water falling from ceiling onto passengers."

McCullough told NBC 4 New York his family was flying from Atlanta on the Delta flight when the ceiling started leaking. He said at least a half-dozen people were soaked by flight's end.

Flight attendants didn't address the leak until the flight was in its final descent, McCullough said: "They eventually realized how stupid the situation was and just stuffed napkins into the ceiling."

"It eventually stopped but I mean, we were basically in Fort Myers at that point," he said.

After McCullough tweeted the video to Delta, the company responded, "That is not OK," asking for the flight confirmation number so that it could "get this taken care of and escalated."

Delta eventually offered the customer a $100 travel voucher, McCullough said.

Meanwhile, Rome-bound passengers on a Delta partner flight operated by Alitalia out of JFK had to be deplaned Friday after sitting for two hours on a "steaming hot plane" with no air conditioning, traveler Adam Fertmann tweeted.



Video posted to social media showed passengers desperately fanning themselves with brochures, safety manuals and anything else they could find.



Fertmann tweeted the video @Delta, asking what was going on. Delta responded, "We have little control over the procedures of our partner airlines."



Fertmann said he booked the flight through Delta and said the airline should share responsibility.



"We absolutely share responsibility," Delta replied. "However, since the flight is operated by Alitalia, we cannot address this concern."

Another traveler, Meghan Alexander, tweeted a similar video of the sweltering cabin @Alitalia, saying, "How can @alitalia board a flight with no AC? It is 100 degrees on this flight and everyone is going to pass out! Not right."



Alitalia replied to Alexander's tweet apologizing and asking if she received assistance from the crew.
A request for detailed information about every voter in the U.S. from President Donald Trump's voting commission is getting a rocky reception from states  and he's not happy about it.

Some of the most populous states, including California and New York, are refusing to comply. But even some conservative states that voted for Trump, such as Texas, say they can provide only partial responses based on what is legally allowed under state law.

"Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?," Trump said in a tweet Saturday.

Given the mishmash of information Trump's commission will receive, it's unclear how useful it will be or what the commission will do with it. Trump established the commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2016 elections, but Democrats have blasted it as a biased panel that is merely looking for ways to suppress the vote.

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, a Democrat who is a member of Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, defended the request Friday. He said the commission expected that many states would only partially comply because open records laws differ from state to state.

"If only half the states agree, we'll have to talk about that. I think, whatever they do, we'll work with that," said Gardner, adding that the commission will discuss the survey at its July 19 meeting.

He said he has received calls from unhappy constituents who said they didn't want Trump to see their personal information.

"But this is not private, and a lot of people don't know that," he said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders blasted the decision by some governors and secretaries of state not to comply.

"I think that that's mostly about a political stunt," she told reporters at a White House briefing Friday

It's not just Democrats bristling at the requested information.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican serving his third term, said in a statement he had not received the commission's request.

If he does receive it?

"My reply would be: They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from," he said. "Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state's right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes."

In a federal court case after a contentious U.S. Senate primary in Mississippi in 2014, a group called True the Vote sued Mississippi seeking similar information about voters. Hosemann fought that request and won.

No state election official planned to provide the commission with all of the information requested  even Kansas, where commission vice chairman Kris Kobach is secretary of state. He sent the letter asking for the names, party affiliations, addresses, voting histories, felony convictions, military service and the last four digits of Social Security numbers for all voters.

A spokeswoman for Kobach's office said the last four digits of Social Security numbers are not publicly available under Kansas law and would not be handed over. That was the case in many other states, noted in statements from top election officials and responses to queries from reporters for The Associated Press.

Officials in 10 states and the District of Columbia said they would not comply at all with the request. Those states are California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia.

Oklahoma, where nearly two-thirds of the vote in the November presidential election went to Trump, will provide nearly all the commission's request, save for one bit of information: Social Security numbers.

"That's not publicly available under the laws of our state," said Bryan Dean, spokesman for the Oklahoma State Election Board.

Dean said the commission's request will be treated like any other from the general public. The election board will tell the panel to fill out an online form asking for the information. Oklahoma's voter roll is routinely provided to political campaigns, the press and other groups that ask for it.

The letter from the presidential commission gives secretaries of state about two weeks to provide the voter data and other information, including any evidence of fraud and election-related crimes in their states. It also asks for suggestions on improving election security.

Some Democratic officials have refused to comply with the data request, saying it invades privacy and is based on false claims of fraud. Trump, who created the commission through executive order in May, lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton but has alleged without evidence that up to 5 million people voted illegally.

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Washington, D.C.; Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kansas; Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, North Dakota; and Kyle Potter in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.
New Jerseyans were feeling the impact as a state government shutdown took effect Saturday, shuttering parks and other public sites and disrupting ferry service to Liberty and Ellis islands.

Among those affected were a group of Cub Scouts forced to leave a state park campsite and people trying to obtain or renew documents from the state motor vehicle commission, among the agencies closed by the shutdown.



planned to return to work Saturday to try to resolve the shutdown, the state's first since 2006 and the first under Christie. It came about after leaders failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by Friday night's deadline.

Andrew Spears, a leader with Cub Scout Pack 124 in Tinton Falls, said his group was told to leave Cheesequake State Park on Saturday morning. His group of roughly 45  including about 25 children  had planned to camp all weekend.

"We knew this was probably coming, but it's still a shame we have to head out," Spears said.

Remaining open under the shutdown will be New Jersey Transit, state prisons, the state police, state hospitals and treatment centers as well as casinos, race tracks and the lottery.

Liberty State Park was closed, forcing the suspension of ticket sales and ferry service from the site to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. But the latter two sites remain open.

Christie and the lawmakers are in a stalemate over whether to include legislation affecting the state's largest health insurer into the state budget. He and Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney agree on legislation to make over Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, including allowing the state insurance commissioner to determine a range for the company's surplus that if exceeded must be put to use benefiting the public and policyholders.

But Prieto opposes the plan, saying that the legislation could lead to rate hikes on the insurer's 3.8 million subscribers and that the legislation is separate from the budget.

Christie reiterated his stance during a news conference Saturday, calling the standoff "embarrassing and pointless." He also repeatedly referred to the government closure as "the speaker's shutdown." He later addressed a joint session of the Legislature, focusing mainly on the Horizon issue during a speech that lasted about 30 minutes.

"Government is closed over a transparency and accountability fight," he told the lawmakers. "Let's do it today and then go home."

Prieto remained steadfast Saturday in his opposition, reiterating that he won't consider the plan as part of the budget process but would consider it once a budget is signed.

Referring to the shutdown as "Gov. Christie's Hostage Crisis Day One," Prieto said he has made compromises that led to the budget now before the Legislature.

"I am also ready to consider reasonable alternatives that protect ratepayers, but others must come to the table ready to be equally reasonable," Prieto said. "Gov. Christie and the legislators who won't vote 'yes' on the budget are responsible for this unacceptable shutdown. I compromised. I put up a budget bill for a vote. Others now must now do their part and fulfill their responsibilities."

Prieto said a vote on the $34.7 billion budget that remains deadlocked 26-25, with 24 abstentions, will remain open until those 24 abstentions change their minds.

Democratic Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo was among those abstaining. He reasoned that if the governor did not get the Horizon bill, then nearly $150 million in school funding would be line-item vetoed out of the budget.

And indeed, Christie said Friday he would slash the Democratic spending priorities if he did not get the Horizon bill as part of a package deal on the budget.

"It seems like he's just being stubborn," Mazzeo said of Prieto. "With all due respect to the speaker, then there should be some type of negotiations."

But Prieto said it's lawmakers  fellow Democrats  like Mazzeo who are to blame for the shutdown. He said he is willing to discuss the Horizon legislation but after the budget is resolved.

Christie has balked at the proposal because he says lawmakers plan to leave town to campaign for re-election and he will be a lame duck.

New Jersey residents arrived at a DMV in Cherry Hill to have their registrations and licenses renewed, but could not get in due to the furlough.

A brief description of services impacted are provided below:

Department of Environmental Protection: All state parks, recreation areas, forests, and historic sites, including Island Beach State Park and Liberty State Park, will be closed; all public events within state parks and historic sites will be cancelled. The following will also be closed: permitting offices for Air, Historic Preservation, Land Use, Site Remediation, Solid Waste, and Water Supply; Green Acres and Blue Acres offices; Office of Dispute Resolution; Office of Permit Coordination; most of the Division of Fish & Wildlife (Wildlife Management Areas and on-line services will not be impacted); NJ Geologic Survey; and Rebuild by Design projects.

Department of Transportation: Construction will continue, as will emergency repairs and some roadside safety services. The rest areas on I-295 in Deepwater, Salem County and on I-80 in Knowlton, Warren County, will be closed.

New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission: All MVC agencies and inspection stations will be closed. Online services will still be available.

Department of Law & Public Safety: Juvenile Justice Commission operations, State Medical Examiner Offices, and other public safety operations will continue, but some administrative offices will be closed.

Department of Health: The public will not be able to obtain copies of birth and marriage certificates, or copies of adoptees original birth certificates. No new certifications or renewals will be issued for EMTs, paramedics or Certified Nursing Assistants.

New Jersey Department of Labor: Unemployment Insurance and disability determination services will remain operational. Temporary Disability Insurance claims, Wage and Hour claims, and Family Leave Insurance claims may be filed, but they will not be processed. One Stop Career Centers (state not county services) will be closed; Workers Compensation Courts will be closed. Division of Vocational and Rehabilitation Services will be closed.

Department of Children and Families: Child abuse hotlines, protection services and response teams will continue to operate. Schools for children with special needs will remain open.

Department of Military and Veterans Affairs: Veterans Haven North and South will remain in operation and National Guard will remain on call.

Department of Banking and Insurance: All offices will be closed except the IURO (health insurance internal appeals program).

Department of Community Affairs: Inspections related to construction codes, fire safety, fairs and fireworks displays will continue, however some public services will not be available.

Department of Corrections: Prisons and halfway houses will remain operational, although some inmate services will be impacted.

Department of Education: Katzenbach School will remain open. Phone help desks, customer service, and all other related staff-based assistance functions will be unavailable and all core public functions will be closed.

Economic Development Authority: EDA will not process any payments to businesses from any program (such as the Business Employment Incentive Program) which funding source needs to be authorized by the FY 2018 Appropriations Act.

Department of State: The travel and tourism welcome centers will be closed.

Department of the Treasury: July 1 pension checks have been processed and mailed. Taxation call centers and walk-in facilities will be closed. The Division of Risk Management will be closed, however the scheduling of medical appointments, treatments and services for injured workers will remain ongoing. The Division of Pensions and Benefits will be closed, although it will continue payment of health provider claims and life claims, and continue to process changes to family status for health benefits.
A 4-year-old boy who was found chained, malnourished and beaten in an apartment may be a U.S. citizen, Mexico City's prosecutor's office said.

The office said in a statement Thursday that it has asked the U.S. Embassy for help in determining the boy's citizenship.

Authorities rescued the boy Tuesday and arrested two people identified as an aunt and uncle in a neighborhood north of downtown. The child was admitted to a hospital with multiple injuries.

A photograph released by authorities showed a silver chain binding his thin legs.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Mexico City said in a statement that staff had seen reports of a hospitalized U.S. minor, but due to privacy considerations would have nothing more to add. The embassy typically visits and aids U.S. citizens who require hospitalization.
The body of a San Diego-based U.S. Navy sailor killed in the deadly USS Fitzgerald collision off the coast of Japan was returned home in an emotional ceremony Friday.

Shingo Douglass, 25, was one of seven sailors killed when USS Fitzgerald collided with a merchant ship off the coast of Japan two weeks ago.

On Friday night, hundreds of Patriot Guard Riders escorted the remains of Douglass to El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley.

For the group, it was an honor.

"What makes it special is the fact that we get the privilege to come out here and honor our heroes," said Lorenzo Lizarraga, captain of the Patriot Guard Riders.

The groups mission is to attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes to pay respect to their families.

Gunny Donor, the Southern California state captain of the Patriot Guard Riders, has been part of the organization since 2002. He told NBC 7 the group remembers every single family they have served.

Douglass will not be any different.

The fallen sailor was born at the U.S. Naval Hospital on Okinawa and went back to Japan every year. He learned to speak Japanese fluently.

His father, a decorated U.S. Marine, was proud to have his son report for duty aboard the USS Fitzgerald.

Shingo is described as a beloved son, brother, grandson and friend who loved the U.S. Navy. His burial is scheduled for July 7 at Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego.
Rhode Island's Department of Children, Youth and Families says school officials in Providence failed to notify the department that a gym teacher had been accused of molesting students.

James Duffy, of Warwick, was arraigned Thursday on five counts of child molestation and has been placed on administrative leave.

Duffy is accused of groping and rubbing against the girls during gym class and in a cafeteria over the past year at Harry Kizirian Elementary School.

Kerri White, a DCYF spokeswoman tells the Providence Journal the department was never notified of the investigation, as required by law, by the Providence School Department.

The president of the Providence School Board has called for an emergency meeting for next Wednesday to discuss the situation.

A phone call seeking comment Friday at a home number listed for Duffy rang unanswered.
The Rhode Island General Assembly has passed a bill demanding the release of records related to the investigation of the state's failed $75 million deal with ex-Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's now-bankrupt video game company.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate approved concurrent legislation Thursday. It now goes to the governor's office.

The bill would require the release of "any investigatory records generated or obtained" by Rhode Island State Police or the attorney general as part of their investigation.

Sen. Frank Lombardi, a Cranston Democrat, said "the people of Rhode Island deserve to have access to all the information regarding the 38 Studios debacle."

Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo has argued for the records to be released.

Attorney General Peter Kilmartin previously said he would be "greatly concerned"about setting such a precedent.
Maine's government has partially shut down after the governor and lawmakers failed to agree on a state budget.

Gov. Paul LePage and lawmakers battled over the budget Friday, hoping to avert a crisis by reaching a deal before the midnight deadline. The fiscal year, however, ended without a budget in place, leading to the state's first government shutdown since 1991.

Saturday morning, dozens of union members and state employees marched and chanted outside the Maine State House saying the government shutdown is the fault of LePage and Republican lawmakers.

Marchers carried signs saying "Shame" and "Do your job so I can do mine."

The shutdown will continue until the state agrees on a spending plan. Lawmakers say they will work through the weekend to try to make that happen.

The full effects of the shutdown haven't been felt by many yet because it's the weekend. Essential services such as law enforcement will remain in place while lawmakers work on the budget.

The Republican LePage had blamed Democratic lawmakers for forcing the shutdown.

Legislative leaders were able to come to a bi-partisan, $7.1 billion, two-year deal Thursday night, and worked to pass it through the House and Senate Friday. But LePage said he needed time to review that budget, and even if it arrived on his desk before the deadline, he said he didn't plan to sign or veto it before the deadline.

"This budget that they have, has no prayer," said LePage. "If theyre hell-bent on bringing this budget down, then we will shut down."

Instead, LePage signed a proclamation declaring a civil emergency, as well as an executive order that directs state officials on the necessary steps to shut down the government, effective at 12:01 a.m. on June 1.

According to the governor's office, the order keeps state parks, law enforcement, jails and psychiatric hospitals running. But everything from courthouses to DMVs would likely close, leaving thousands of state workers without pay.

"It means I struggle to pay my bills," said state worker Rebecca Burns, one of several protesters lining state house hallways Friday morning.

The budget talks went to the deadline because of conflicts over education funding. Republicans and Democrats were at odds over a 3 percent tax surcharge on top income earners to support schools, as passed in a ballot initiative last November.

A budget compromise added education funding, got rid of the 3 percent tax, and raised the lodging tax.

"There will not be a signature on anything that increases taxes," said Gov. LePage. "You cant come down here and put a gun to my head and say you sign it, or you take the shut down."
The Maine Marine Patrol is going to be focusing on drunken operators this weekend as the boating season gets underway in earnest.

Maj. Rene Cloutier says coastal patrols from Kittery to the Canadian border will focus on boaters who may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They'll also be raising awareness of boating safety, and the importance of wearing a lifejacket.

The effort is part of Operation Dry Water, which is coordinated by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators.

Nationally, alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents. The law for operating a boat is the same as operating a car, and the law is the same for operators of rowboats to the largest ships on the water.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Private firms providing software support for account maintenance and tax filing are gearing up with updated technology to facilitate migration from VAT to GST.

Tally Solutions has come out with Tally. ERP 9, a GST-ready software that can be used for billing, accounting, inventory management, and purchases.

The product, which will be free for its existing users, will provide tech support for business owners, the company said. Bharat Goenka, MD, Tally Solutions, said, Tally.ERP 9 Release 6 is our first offering for businesses, which will solve their immediate requirements regarding the implications of this revolutionary tax regime. As laws and procedures mature, and GSTN makes their APIs available, we will continue to deliver solutions which will make GST compliance simple and convenient for them.

Companies like ClearTax, which are actively participating in enabling easy tax filing under GST, have launched new software, too. ClearTax has brought out its cloud-based software called ClearTax GST. This software can be downloaded as an offline software on system, mobile app, mobile website or desktop website.

All India ITR, a company that provides tax filing solutions, is also working towards launching its GST software. Going forward well provide self-filing software so that taxpayers can file for GST returns on their own, said Vikas Dahiya, founder and CEO, All India ITR.

BENGALURU: Private firms providing software support for account maintenance and tax filing are gearing up with updated technology to facilitate migration from VAT to GST. Tally Solutions has come out with Tally. ERP 9, a GST-ready software that can be used for billing, accounting, inventory management, and purchases. The product, which will be free for its existing users, will provide tech support for business owners, the company said. Bharat Goenka, MD, Tally Solutions, said, Tally.ERP 9 Release 6 is our first offering for businesses, which will solve their immediate requirements regarding the implications of this revolutionary tax regime. As laws and procedures mature, and GSTN makes their APIs available, we will continue to deliver solutions which will make GST compliance simple and convenient for them. Companies like ClearTax, which are actively participating in enabling easy tax filing under GST, have launched new software, too. ClearTax has brought out its cloud-based software called ClearTax GST. This software can be downloaded as an offline software on system, mobile app, mobile website or desktop website. All India ITR, a company that provides tax filing solutions, is also working towards launching its GST software. Going forward well provide self-filing software so that taxpayers can file for GST returns on their own, said Vikas Dahiya, founder and CEO, All India ITR.
Express News Service

CHENNAI: One thing that consumers will have to live with in the GST era is the length of bills in restaurants, supermarkets and homegrown hotel chains. In contrast, the bills you run up in eateries run by multi-national brands like Pizza Hut have come down a little. Thats just day one of GST.

Under the new regime, five-star hotels come under the 28 per cent bracket, while three-star hotels attract 18 per cent.

With different food items placed under different slabs, restaurants are calculating tax for each item separately before computing the grand total. As a result there will definitely be more folding to do before you stuff your bill into your wallet. For example, if you want to buy juice, sweets and a dosa from a restaurant, each commodity will have to be taxed separately under its respective tax slab. The onus is on the customer to check if the right tax slabs have been applied.

Price increase, decrease

As expected, prices of food in eateries like A2B, Hot Chips, Vasantha Bhavan and Buhari have increased while Pizza Hut, Dominos and Tovo, known for their huge taxes, will be cheaper to eat at. This is because the GST slab for all air-conditioned restaurants has been set at 18 per cent. With brands like Pizza Hut hitherto charging around 30 per cent pre-GST, bill amounts at such brands have dipped now. But for homegrown brands, which earlier were charging lower tax, the bills risen.

We used to charge only 2.5 per VAT. But now since we have started following GST, the prices of our food items will increase, said a manager at A2B Anna Nagar.

A dry run conducted by Pizza Hut in June confirmed that there is a price benefit to their customers as a result of GST. According to Rakesh, a manager at Pizza Hut Anna Nagar, reducing their taxation from 30 per cent (VAT 14.5%, service tax 4.5 %, service charge 10%) to 20 per cent in June (which was much closer to the 18% slab it now comes under) resulted in a loss of only Rs 35,000.

A medium pan-crust Chicken Pepperoni Pizza now costs Rs 578 compared to Rs 637 before GST, while chicken biryani at Buhari went from Rs 130 to Rs 150 post-GST.

Confusion

While larger food chains such as Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Hot Chips and Pizza Hut prepared in advance to implement the GST rollout, smaller eateries used manual billing to tax customers Monday, causing some confusion.

It will take us a few days to update our billing system but we are taxing customers according to GST, said a manager at Parvati Bhavan in Anna Nagar.

As some restaurants in Ampa Skywalk hadnt updated their billing systems, the management provided the food court common bills with a GST update to avoid confusion.

CHENNAI: One thing that consumers will have to live with in the GST era is the length of bills in restaurants, supermarkets and homegrown hotel chains. In contrast, the bills you run up in eateries run by multi-national brands like Pizza Hut have come down a little. Thats just day one of GST. Under the new regime, five-star hotels come under the 28 per cent bracket, while three-star hotels attract 18 per cent. With different food items placed under different slabs, restaurants are calculating tax for each item separately before computing the grand total. As a result there will definitely be more folding to do before you stuff your bill into your wallet. For example, if you want to buy juice, sweets and a dosa from a restaurant, each commodity will have to be taxed separately under its respective tax slab. The onus is on the customer to check if the right tax slabs have been applied. Price increase, decrease As expected, prices of food in eateries like A2B, Hot Chips, Vasantha Bhavan and Buhari have increased while Pizza Hut, Dominos and Tovo, known for their huge taxes, will be cheaper to eat at. This is because the GST slab for all air-conditioned restaurants has been set at 18 per cent. With brands like Pizza Hut hitherto charging around 30 per cent pre-GST, bill amounts at such brands have dipped now. But for homegrown brands, which earlier were charging lower tax, the bills risen. We used to charge only 2.5 per VAT. But now since we have started following GST, the prices of our food items will increase, said a manager at A2B Anna Nagar. A dry run conducted by Pizza Hut in June confirmed that there is a price benefit to their customers as a result of GST. According to Rakesh, a manager at Pizza Hut Anna Nagar, reducing their taxation from 30 per cent (VAT 14.5%, service tax 4.5 %, service charge 10%) to 20 per cent in June (which was much closer to the 18% slab it now comes under) resulted in a loss of only Rs 35,000. A medium pan-crust Chicken Pepperoni Pizza now costs Rs 578 compared to Rs 637 before GST, while chicken biryani at Buhari went from Rs 130 to Rs 150 post-GST. Confusion While larger food chains such as Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Hot Chips and Pizza Hut prepared in advance to implement the GST rollout, smaller eateries used manual billing to tax customers Monday, causing some confusion. It will take us a few days to update our billing system but we are taxing customers according to GST, said a manager at Parvati Bhavan in Anna Nagar. As some restaurants in Ampa Skywalk hadnt updated their billing systems, the management provided the food court common bills with a GST update to avoid confusion.
Siva Sekaran By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: A woman homeopathy doctor, who was harassed by the management of a medical college for years under one pretext or the other and forced her to approach the High Court every time, has been awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh. A division bench of Justices K K Sasidharan and M V Muralidharan on Friday directed the management of Venkateshwara Homeopathy College in Mount-Poonamallee to shell out Rs 5 lakh for harassing the woman doctor.

Dr. V Kamalam joined the 5-1/2 year Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery course (BHMS). She passed her final examination in August 2008 and received her provisional certificate on October 20, 2008. During her internship, the college introduced a dress code stating that the students should wear only sarees. Her request to wear Salwar Kameez was not considered favourably. Since the appellant attended duty with Salwar Kameez, she was denied training from November 11, 2008. She moved the High Court with a writ petition for a direction to forbear the college from imposing the dress code and the court on June 30, 2009, allowed her plea.

The college, thereafter, permitted her to attend the internship. She continued her internship from July 16, 2009. Even after completion, she was not given the provisional certificate and other necessary certificates and hence, she could not apply for registration for commencing practice. She moved the High Court with another writ petition for a direction to issue a provisional certificate and to grant her seniority in the registration of BHMS with effect from the date of completion of the internship.

During the pendency of the writ petition, the college issued the provisional certificate and Compulsory Rotatory Internship Certificate, nine months after completion of the course. Thereafter, the appellant met the Principal for the issuance of her Transfer Certificate.

The TC was issued after much persuasion. But the college authorities deliberately omitted to mention the conduct and character and other particulars in the certificate. Kamalam approached the court again for the third time with a writ petition in 2012.



And a single judge, disbelieving the submission of the college, pointed out that against column No.14, in respect of students conduct and character, it was not left blank, but on the contrary, a dash was found. Drawing an adverse inference against the college management, the judge awarded Rs 25,000/  as cost, as against the claim of Rs 30 lakh.

Even though a prayer was made to direct the University and the Medical Council to conduct an enquiry into the matter, no such direction was given by the judge. Hence, the present appeal. Allowing it, the bench observed that Kamalam was forced to engage in a series of litigation against the mighty management of the medical college. The management tried its level best to delay the internship and issuance of necessary certificates.

CHENNAI: A woman homeopathy doctor, who was harassed by the management of a medical college for years under one pretext or the other and forced her to approach the High Court every time, has been awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh. A division bench of Justices K K Sasidharan and M V Muralidharan on Friday directed the management of Venkateshwara Homeopathy College in Mount-Poonamallee to shell out Rs 5 lakh for harassing the woman doctor. Dr. V Kamalam joined the 5-1/2 year Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery course (BHMS). She passed her final examination in August 2008 and received her provisional certificate on October 20, 2008. During her internship, the college introduced a dress code stating that the students should wear only sarees. Her request to wear Salwar Kameez was not considered favourably. Since the appellant attended duty with Salwar Kameez, she was denied training from November 11, 2008. She moved the High Court with a writ petition for a direction to forbear the college from imposing the dress code and the court on June 30, 2009, allowed her plea. The college, thereafter, permitted her to attend the internship. She continued her internship from July 16, 2009. Even after completion, she was not given the provisional certificate and other necessary certificates and hence, she could not apply for registration for commencing practice. She moved the High Court with another writ petition for a direction to issue a provisional certificate and to grant her seniority in the registration of BHMS with effect from the date of completion of the internship. During the pendency of the writ petition, the college issued the provisional certificate and Compulsory Rotatory Internship Certificate, nine months after completion of the course. Thereafter, the appellant met the Principal for the issuance of her Transfer Certificate. The TC was issued after much persuasion. But the college authorities deliberately omitted to mention the conduct and character and other particulars in the certificate. Kamalam approached the court again for the third time with a writ petition in 2012. And a single judge, disbelieving the submission of the college, pointed out that against column No.14, in respect of students conduct and character, it was not left blank, but on the contrary, a dash was found. Drawing an adverse inference against the college management, the judge awarded Rs 25,000/  as cost, as against the claim of Rs 30 lakh. Even though a prayer was made to direct the University and the Medical Council to conduct an enquiry into the matter, no such direction was given by the judge. Hence, the present appeal. Allowing it, the bench observed that Kamalam was forced to engage in a series of litigation against the mighty management of the medical college. The management tried its level best to delay the internship and issuance of necessary certificates.
By Express News Service

Prabhas, who is working on Sujeeth Reddys action-entertainer Saaho, will work with Prabhudheva next, according to rumours.

The actor-choreographer had earlier said that hed love to direct the Baahubali-fame actor sometime soon. He was quoted saying that Prabhas was his dear friend, and that theyve known each other quite well from the time he started making films in Telugu and Tamil.

It isnt clear if their collaboration will be a Telugu-only project or Telugu-Hindi bilingual. One may recall that Prabhas did a cameo in Prabhudhevas Hindi film, Action Jackson.

Prabhas, who is working on Sujeeth Reddys action-entertainer Saaho, will work with Prabhudheva next, according to rumours. The actor-choreographer had earlier said that hed love to direct the Baahubali-fame actor sometime soon. He was quoted saying that Prabhas was his dear friend, and that theyve known each other quite well from the time he started making films in Telugu and Tamil. It isnt clear if their collaboration will be a Telugu-only project or Telugu-Hindi bilingual. One may recall that Prabhas did a cameo in Prabhudhevas Hindi film, Action Jackson.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: Radical Sikh organization Dal Khalsa has urged the Punjab and Haryana High Court to set up a judicial commission to probe into the possession of illegal weapons with a few serving policemen and the use of extra-constitutional force by security forces in the name of fighting militancy in the state.

The fresh demand by the Sikh group comes in the wake of the police investigation of Inspector Inderjeet Singh not progressing beyond his arrest. Inderjeet Singh was arrested in a drug related case and with an AK-47 rifle in possession on June 12.

Party leader Kanwar Pal Singh said there were far too many skeletons in the cupboard of the Punjab police. The chief justice should take suo motto notice and hold a full-scale impartial public inquiry to reinforce people's faith in democracy and rule of law."

Our plea to the judiciary is part of our renewed attempt to revitalize respect for human rights in Punjab, he said.

Defining the extra-constitutional force as cats, Kanwar Pal Singh said "cats" were raised by a select group of IPS officers to counter militancy by operating outside the ambit of law. Since they were immune to the law, most of them engaged in crimes ranging from land grabbing to smuggling of narcotics, he said.

Terming the recent recovery of illegal arms from the lower-ranked officer Inderjeet Singh as the tip of the iceberg, Kanwar Pal Singh said during the militancy period in Punjab, a huge cache of AK-47 rifles, besides ammunition and explosive materials, were reported to be seized from the arrested militants. A section of the policemen, however, concealed the weapons and never brought them on record, he alleged.

He said that two AK-47 were missing from Kartarpur police station. The officer revealed that the weapons were from cases filed in 1991 and 1993 and further said that they do not have records of such recoveries after 1997.

Kanwar Pal Singh alleged, since the political leadership had been patronizing the illegal acts of the police, the only hope left was the judiciary, and added that Dal Khalsa would write to the Chief Justice on the matter once the court reopened in July.

He recalled how the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and court did not act on the matter after former deputy general of police S S Virk admitted the prevalence of the cat culture in Punjab.

CHANDIGARH: Radical Sikh organization Dal Khalsa has urged the Punjab and Haryana High Court to set up a judicial commission to probe into the possession of illegal weapons with a few serving policemen and the use of extra-constitutional force by security forces in the name of fighting militancy in the state. The fresh demand by the Sikh group comes in the wake of the police investigation of Inspector Inderjeet Singh not progressing beyond his arrest. Inderjeet Singh was arrested in a drug related case and with an AK-47 rifle in possession on June 12. Party leader Kanwar Pal Singh said there were far too many skeletons in the cupboard of the Punjab police. The chief justice should take suo motto notice and hold a full-scale impartial public inquiry to reinforce people's faith in democracy and rule of law." Our plea to the judiciary is part of our renewed attempt to revitalize respect for human rights in Punjab, he said. Defining the extra-constitutional force as cats, Kanwar Pal Singh said "cats" were raised by a select group of IPS officers to counter militancy by operating outside the ambit of law. Since they were immune to the law, most of them engaged in crimes ranging from land grabbing to smuggling of narcotics, he said. Terming the recent recovery of illegal arms from the lower-ranked officer Inderjeet Singh as the tip of the iceberg, Kanwar Pal Singh said during the militancy period in Punjab, a huge cache of AK-47 rifles, besides ammunition and explosive materials, were reported to be seized from the arrested militants. A section of the policemen, however, concealed the weapons and never brought them on record, he alleged. He said that two AK-47 were missing from Kartarpur police station. The officer revealed that the weapons were from cases filed in 1991 and 1993 and further said that they do not have records of such recoveries after 1997. Kanwar Pal Singh alleged, since the political leadership had been patronizing the illegal acts of the police, the only hope left was the judiciary, and added that Dal Khalsa would write to the Chief Justice on the matter once the court reopened in July. He recalled how the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and court did not act on the matter after former deputy general of police S S Virk admitted the prevalence of the cat culture in Punjab.
By PTI

DEHRADUN: A woman from Maharashtra has accused a former priest of Badrinath temple and the CEO of Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee of molestation.

Chamoli Superintendent of Police (SP) Tripti Bhatt told PTI that the woman, a sadhvi from Mumbai, alleged that priest Vishnu Prasad Namboodiri and CEO B D Singh made undue advances towards her when she had visited Badrinath to pay obeisance at the famed temple in June.

A case has been registered against the duo under relevant sections of the IPC and investigations are on, the SP has said.

The sadhvi accused the duo of threatening her and trying to usurp her property in Mumbai and alleged their involvement in the mysterious disappearance of five members of her family over the past few years, the police officer said.

A team is being sent to Mumbai to probe charges about the duo trying to usurp the sadhvi's property there, the SP added.

Such allegations have been levelled against a Badrinath priest in the past also.

Former head priest of Badrinath Keshav Prasad Namboodiri was arrested in February, 2014 after he was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a Delhi hotel in an inebriated state.

DEHRADUN: A woman from Maharashtra has accused a former priest of Badrinath temple and the CEO of Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee of molestation. Chamoli Superintendent of Police (SP) Tripti Bhatt told PTI that the woman, a sadhvi from Mumbai, alleged that priest Vishnu Prasad Namboodiri and CEO B D Singh made undue advances towards her when she had visited Badrinath to pay obeisance at the famed temple in June. A case has been registered against the duo under relevant sections of the IPC and investigations are on, the SP has said. The sadhvi accused the duo of threatening her and trying to usurp her property in Mumbai and alleged their involvement in the mysterious disappearance of five members of her family over the past few years, the police officer said. A team is being sent to Mumbai to probe charges about the duo trying to usurp the sadhvi's property there, the SP added. Such allegations have been levelled against a Badrinath priest in the past also. Former head priest of Badrinath Keshav Prasad Namboodiri was arrested in February, 2014 after he was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a Delhi hotel in an inebriated state.
Express News Service

Government launches goods and services tax amid high fanfare but lack of clarity among small traders; experts warn prolonged disruption would hurt not just public but also the party; oppositionn unity goes for toss as NCP JD(U), JD(S) attend the function

CHENNAI / NEW DELHI: At the stroke of midnight on June 30, as the world slept, India  or at least the government stayed awake to usher in a new tax regime. The countrys most ambitious economic reform since liberalisation  or maybe since Independence  is now a reality.

Launching the reform, Prime Minister Narendra Modi coined yet another of his famous phrases  Good and Simple Tax, and the term Cooperative federalism was mentioned at least thrice in his 30-minute-long speech. Just like Sardar Vallabhai Patel unified the country politically, GST will unify it economically, he announced late on Friday night, adding that a wider tax base would help provide additional resources to poorer states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar.

The poor will benefit the most from GST, which is a work of Team India.

Detail updates of GST lauch event here: India's biggest tax reform Goods and Services Tax launched by President Pranab Mukherjee, PM Modi

It will also put an end to black money and corruption, Modi said. President Pranab Mukherjee lauded the political consensus which allowed the long-pending reform to go through. It is remarkable that 18 meetings have been held so far and all decisions were by consensus. GST is a tribute to the maturity and wisdom of Indias democracy.

The saffron party is, however, wary that the new tax regime could end up being a double-edged sword  capable of injuring the master if glitches sustain or pain persists. The other edge, they hope, will slay political opponents who risk being branded as obstacles to reforms.

The trick did work. Hours ahead of the launch, the so-called Opposition unity was knocked out of the park by the Nationalist Congress by deciding to turn up for the midnight mela. JD(S) and JD(U) were also present for the launch ceremony.

Read more: Rates on fertiliser, exclusive tractor parts lowered



The ruling party, however, was not hassled over attendance. The larger the size of Opposition that boycotts, the grander the launch function would be, a senior BJP functionary said ahead of the event. The whole ownership of GST would then be with our party. Pain or gain, it will all be for the BJP.

Brand Modi will soar by several notches, said another leader close to party chief. We are taking calculated risks and deserve credit for pushing a reform that has been lying in the cold-storage for decades.

Read More: GST impact: More jobs in accounting, taxation

Though its being lauded for several reasons, small traders and businessmen are apprehensive about the short-term disruptions the government had warned about. Their dissatisfaction reflected in mass strikes organised a day before the launch. For instance, the textile sector is facing a triple whammy  increased taxation, unpreparedness and lack of awareness.

Interview- GST: Expect disruption says economic affairs commentator Gurumurthy

Experts verdict is almost unanimous on the course of events  disruption in the short-term followed by normalisation, and tangible benefits in the long-term. The benefits include streamlined supply chains, no cascading taxation, an increased tax base and a unified market.

However, even large corporates are critical of dilution of the last outcome. GST panel has failed to deliver our PM @narendramodi s One Nation One Tax message. GST has been made into a multiple and complex tax regime, said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD of Biocon, in a tweet.

The complexity of the final tax structure  with four bands  and a completely computerised filing system are the primary impediments to compliance by small business houses. Ive asked so many people about the new system, but I still do not understand how it works and how I have to file taxes, pointed out G Selvaraghavan, a small scale tools manufacturer.

Opinion: Unified tax divides the nation

This is very important, because input tax credit will not be available for purchases made from non-compliant businesses, pointed out Suresh Nandlal Rohira, partner, Grant Thornton. Input Tax Credit, a provision which allows businesses to deduct GST paid on input material purchases, is a vital pivot around which the new system will operate. Because the cost benefits from GST are set to accrue through Input Tax Credit, much of the disruption to the economy is expected to rise from this unpreparedness among MSMEs  many of whom do not have the IT infrastructure and skilled manpower to comply.

According to Confederation of All India Traders, nearly 60 percent of small businesses in the country are yet to adopt computerisation in their existing business format. Therefore, though traders want to comply under GST, perhaps they may not be able to do so for want of technology, it said.

The costs of being compliant is also set to eat into small businesses margins, especially ones which have managed to stay out of the tax net so far  which is no longer a choice, if annual turnover is over `20 lakh. Even the expected boost to GDP is being revised down. According to HSBC, GST will only add 0.40 per cent to GDP, because the multiple tax rates and exemptions announced under it are far from an ideal structure. It also added that a big list of excluded items will result in incomplete input tax offsets, resulting in continued tax cascading which an ideal GST (with minimal exemptions) would have eliminated.

Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of the Retailers Association of India (RAI) put it differently. Reactions to GST has three phases: Uninformed optimism, informed pessimism and finally informed optimism. The first phase existed till the mid-May 2017; and we are now in the second phase of informed pessimism that may peak by end August 2017. Informed optimism is a long way off and we hope will come soon.

Well aware of troubles small traders could face, BJP has activated machineries at its disposal to minimise inconvenience. The point is being made abundantly clear  projecting this reform as Indias second Independence.

Government launches goods and services tax amid high fanfare but lack of clarity among small traders; experts warn prolonged disruption would hurt not just public but also the party; oppositionn unity goes for toss as NCP JD(U), JD(S) attend the function CHENNAI / NEW DELHI: At the stroke of midnight on June 30, as the world slept, India  or at least the government stayed awake to usher in a new tax regime. The countrys most ambitious economic reform since liberalisation  or maybe since Independence  is now a reality. Launching the reform, Prime Minister Narendra Modi coined yet another of his famous phrases  Good and Simple Tax, and the term Cooperative federalism was mentioned at least thrice in his 30-minute-long speech. Just like Sardar Vallabhai Patel unified the country politically, GST will unify it economically, he announced late on Friday night, adding that a wider tax base would help provide additional resources to poorer states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar. The poor will benefit the most from GST, which is a work of Team India. Detail updates of GST lauch event here: India's biggest tax reform Goods and Services Tax launched by President Pranab Mukherjee, PM Modi It will also put an end to black money and corruption, Modi said. President Pranab Mukherjee lauded the political consensus which allowed the long-pending reform to go through. It is remarkable that 18 meetings have been held so far and all decisions were by consensus. GST is a tribute to the maturity and wisdom of Indias democracy. The saffron party is, however, wary that the new tax regime could end up being a double-edged sword  capable of injuring the master if glitches sustain or pain persists. The other edge, they hope, will slay political opponents who risk being branded as obstacles to reforms. The trick did work. Hours ahead of the launch, the so-called Opposition unity was knocked out of the park by the Nationalist Congress by deciding to turn up for the midnight mela. JD(S) and JD(U) were also present for the launch ceremony. Read more: Rates on fertiliser, exclusive tractor parts lowered The ruling party, however, was not hassled over attendance. The larger the size of Opposition that boycotts, the grander the launch function would be, a senior BJP functionary said ahead of the event. The whole ownership of GST would then be with our party. Pain or gain, it will all be for the BJP. Brand Modi will soar by several notches, said another leader close to party chief. We are taking calculated risks and deserve credit for pushing a reform that has been lying in the cold-storage for decades. Read More: GST impact: More jobs in accounting, taxation Though its being lauded for several reasons, small traders and businessmen are apprehensive about the short-term disruptions the government had warned about. Their dissatisfaction reflected in mass strikes organised a day before the launch. For instance, the textile sector is facing a triple whammy  increased taxation, unpreparedness and lack of awareness. Interview- GST: Expect disruption says economic affairs commentator Gurumurthy Experts verdict is almost unanimous on the course of events  disruption in the short-term followed by normalisation, and tangible benefits in the long-term. The benefits include streamlined supply chains, no cascading taxation, an increased tax base and a unified market. However, even large corporates are critical of dilution of the last outcome. GST panel has failed to deliver our PM @narendramodi s One Nation One Tax message. GST has been made into a multiple and complex tax regime, said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD of Biocon, in a tweet. The complexity of the final tax structure  with four bands  and a completely computerised filing system are the primary impediments to compliance by small business houses. Ive asked so many people about the new system, but I still do not understand how it works and how I have to file taxes, pointed out G Selvaraghavan, a small scale tools manufacturer. Opinion: Unified tax divides the nation This is very important, because input tax credit will not be available for purchases made from non-compliant businesses, pointed out Suresh Nandlal Rohira, partner, Grant Thornton. Input Tax Credit, a provision which allows businesses to deduct GST paid on input material purchases, is a vital pivot around which the new system will operate. Because the cost benefits from GST are set to accrue through Input Tax Credit, much of the disruption to the economy is expected to rise from this unpreparedness among MSMEs  many of whom do not have the IT infrastructure and skilled manpower to comply. According to Confederation of All India Traders, nearly 60 percent of small businesses in the country are yet to adopt computerisation in their existing business format. Therefore, though traders want to comply under GST, perhaps they may not be able to do so for want of technology, it said. The costs of being compliant is also set to eat into small businesses margins, especially ones which have managed to stay out of the tax net so far  which is no longer a choice, if annual turnover is over `20 lakh. Even the expected boost to GDP is being revised down. According to HSBC, GST will only add 0.40 per cent to GDP, because the multiple tax rates and exemptions announced under it are far from an ideal structure. It also added that a big list of excluded items will result in incomplete input tax offsets, resulting in continued tax cascading which an ideal GST (with minimal exemptions) would have eliminated. Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of the Retailers Association of India (RAI) put it differently. Reactions to GST has three phases: Uninformed optimism, informed pessimism and finally informed optimism. The first phase existed till the mid-May 2017; and we are now in the second phase of informed pessimism that may peak by end August 2017. Informed optimism is a long way off and we hope will come soon. Well aware of troubles small traders could face, BJP has activated machineries at its disposal to minimise inconvenience. The point is being made abundantly clear  projecting this reform as Indias second Independence.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Reiterating its stand, New Delhi has on Saturday once again asked Islamabad to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadav, who is facing death sentence by a Pakistani military court in connection with an alleged spying case.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, both countries also exchanged a list of prisoners and fishermen lodged in each others jails.

MEA in a statement issued from New Delhi stated "India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadav."

As per list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.

MEA statement maintained that the agreement, which was signed on 21 May 2008, provides that a comprehensive list of nationals of each country lodged in other countrys jails has to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

Former Navy officer, Jadhav has been languishing in a Pakistani jail for alleged spying and espionage case and was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage. And in response to Pakistan military court judgement, India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav. India has been denying councilor access to Jadhave despite repeated requests at multiple diplomatic levels.

And Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said.

It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.

In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".

According to the Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," MEA stated added.

NEW DELHI: Reiterating its stand, New Delhi has on Saturday once again asked Islamabad to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadav, who is facing death sentence by a Pakistani military court in connection with an alleged spying case. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, both countries also exchanged a list of prisoners and fishermen lodged in each others jails. MEA in a statement issued from New Delhi stated "India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadav." As per list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country. MEA statement maintained that the agreement, which was signed on 21 May 2008, provides that a comprehensive list of nationals of each country lodged in other countrys jails has to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1. Former Navy officer, Jadhav has been languishing in a Pakistani jail for alleged spying and espionage case and was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage. And in response to Pakistan military court judgement, India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav. India has been denying councilor access to Jadhave despite repeated requests at multiple diplomatic levels. And Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage. "India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said. It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen. In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen". According to the Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10. "In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," MEA stated added.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: In a major jolt to militancy in Kashmir, security forces on Saturday killed top commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba Bashir Lashkari, who was mastermind of June 16 attack on police vehicle in which five policemen and SHO were killed, and his associate in a gunfight in south Kashmirs Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.

A 44-year-old woman was killed in the cross fire while 21-year-old youth died in security forces firing on protestors during clashes near the encounter site.

Top Lashkar militant Bashir Lashkari and a Pakistani militant Abu Maaz were killed in an 8-hour long encounter with security forces at Brenti-Batpora village in Dialgam area of south Kashmirs Anantnag district today, J&K Director General of Police, S P Vaid told New Indian Express.

He said Lashkari was top LeT commander and was the mastermind of June 16 attack on police vehicle in Achabal area of Anantnag district in which five policemen and Station House Officer (SHO) Feroz Ahmed were killed.

The DGP said 17 civilians, who were used as human shield by militants, were rescued from the houses by the security personnel before launching final assault on the militants.

Lashkari was categorized A++ militant and carried a bounty of Rs 12 lakhs.

A CRPF officer, part of the operation, said police, army and CRPF men launched joint combing and search operation in Dialgam area early this morning after receiving specific information about presence of Lashkari and his associates in the area.

He said after sealing all the exit and escape routes, the security personnel zeroed-in on two residential houses, where the militants were hiding.

Some civilians were also present in the houses

The militants started firing towards the security personnel after finding themselves trapped. The fire was returned by troops and a 44-year-old woman Tahira Begum was killed after being caught in the cross firing, a police official said.

After the initial gunfight, he said, security force made announcements and called on civilians trapped in the houses to come out.

The official said 17 civilians holed-up in the houses were rescued.

As the operation was on, locals, especially the youth, took to roads and attempted to march towards the encounter site to pave way for militants to escape.

Chanting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, the protestors pelted stones on the security personnel, who resorted to tear gas shelling and fired towards the mob to disperse them. Six people sustained injuries and some of them were hit by bullets.

A 21-year-old youth identified as Shadab Ahmad Chopan sustained bullet injuries in face and was evacuated to a Srinagar hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.

After the civilian killings and protests, security forces tightened the siege to prevent militants from escaping.

The troops engaged both militants in the gunfight. They fired explosive material towards the houses, where from militants were firing on them. It caused loud explosions and extensively damaged the houses, sources said.

They said Lashkari and his associate were killed in the eight-hour long gunfight.

The State police chief S P Vaid termed Lashkaris killing as a major jolt to LeT and militancy.

He said Lashkari was a wanted militant and a massive manhunt was launched for him after his involvement in killing of five policemen and SHO in militants attack at Achabal area on June 16.

He said concerted effort were made by security forces to corner Lashkari and finally he was trapped and killed today.

On stone pelting near encounter site, he said enemies of peace instigate people to reach the encounter site and create law and order problem.

Whatsapp groups are activated and audios are sent from the mischievous elements to instigate youth to reach the encounter site during the encounters, he added.

Hundreds of people marched towards Sopshali village in Kokernag area in Anantnag district, where from slain LeT commander Bashir Lashkari hailed, to attend his funeral prayers.

The body of Lashkari was not handed over to his family members till filing of this report.

The body will be handed to family members by the evening after completion of all legal formalities, DGP said

Meanwhile, separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik have called for shutdown tomorrow against killing of two civilians and two LeT militants during encounter at Dialgam.

SRINAGAR: In a major jolt to militancy in Kashmir, security forces on Saturday killed top commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba Bashir Lashkari, who was mastermind of June 16 attack on police vehicle in which five policemen and SHO were killed, and his associate in a gunfight in south Kashmirs Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. A 44-year-old woman was killed in the cross fire while 21-year-old youth died in security forces firing on protestors during clashes near the encounter site. Top Lashkar militant Bashir Lashkari and a Pakistani militant Abu Maaz were killed in an 8-hour long encounter with security forces at Brenti-Batpora village in Dialgam area of south Kashmirs Anantnag district today, J&K Director General of Police, S P Vaid told New Indian Express. He said Lashkari was top LeT commander and was the mastermind of June 16 attack on police vehicle in Achabal area of Anantnag district in which five policemen and Station House Officer (SHO) Feroz Ahmed were killed. The DGP said 17 civilians, who were used as human shield by militants, were rescued from the houses by the security personnel before launching final assault on the militants. Lashkari was categorized A++ militant and carried a bounty of Rs 12 lakhs. A CRPF officer, part of the operation, said police, army and CRPF men launched joint combing and search operation in Dialgam area early this morning after receiving specific information about presence of Lashkari and his associates in the area. He said after sealing all the exit and escape routes, the security personnel zeroed-in on two residential houses, where the militants were hiding. Some civilians were also present in the houses The militants started firing towards the security personnel after finding themselves trapped. The fire was returned by troops and a 44-year-old woman Tahira Begum was killed after being caught in the cross firing, a police official said. After the initial gunfight, he said, security force made announcements and called on civilians trapped in the houses to come out. The official said 17 civilians holed-up in the houses were rescued. As the operation was on, locals, especially the youth, took to roads and attempted to march towards the encounter site to pave way for militants to escape. Chanting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, the protestors pelted stones on the security personnel, who resorted to tear gas shelling and fired towards the mob to disperse them. Six people sustained injuries and some of them were hit by bullets. A 21-year-old youth identified as Shadab Ahmad Chopan sustained bullet injuries in face and was evacuated to a Srinagar hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. After the civilian killings and protests, security forces tightened the siege to prevent militants from escaping. The troops engaged both militants in the gunfight. They fired explosive material towards the houses, where from militants were firing on them. It caused loud explosions and extensively damaged the houses, sources said. They said Lashkari and his associate were killed in the eight-hour long gunfight. The State police chief S P Vaid termed Lashkaris killing as a major jolt to LeT and militancy. He said Lashkari was a wanted militant and a massive manhunt was launched for him after his involvement in killing of five policemen and SHO in militants attack at Achabal area on June 16. He said concerted effort were made by security forces to corner Lashkari and finally he was trapped and killed today. On stone pelting near encounter site, he said enemies of peace instigate people to reach the encounter site and create law and order problem. Whatsapp groups are activated and audios are sent from the mischievous elements to instigate youth to reach the encounter site during the encounters, he added. Hundreds of people marched towards Sopshali village in Kokernag area in Anantnag district, where from slain LeT commander Bashir Lashkari hailed, to attend his funeral prayers. The body of Lashkari was not handed over to his family members till filing of this report. The body will be handed to family members by the evening after completion of all legal formalities, DGP said Meanwhile, separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik have called for shutdown tomorrow against killing of two civilians and two LeT militants during encounter at Dialgam.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: As the crime graph soars with each passing day, even policemen are not safe in the wild west of UP. In a macabre exhibition of brutality, assailants killed a senior sub-inspector (SSI) of police by slitting his throat and chopping off his fingers in Bijnor district, 450 km from Lucknow, late Friday night.

After killing Sahjor Singh Malik, the officer in charge of the Balawali police chowki, the miscreants threw his body in a field by the roadside and decamped with his service revolver.

Sources in the district police said they suspect the hand of the mining mafia in the gruesome killing.

Sub-inspector Malik had been at the Balawali police chowki, 20 km from Mandawar police station on the UP-Uttarkhand border along the Ganga, for the past one year. He was returning to Balawali chowki from Mandawar police station on a motorcycle when he was intercepted near a deserted glass factory.

Police were tipped off by local villagers about his bike parked outside Gopalpur village. As per one bystander account, the inspectors body was lying in a field by the roadside with his throat slit and fingers chopped off. There were injury marks all over the body, indicating that the SSI had a scuffle with his killers.

Upon receiving information of the killing, district magistrate Jagatraj and superintendent of police Atul Sharma rushed to the spot with a heavy contingent of police. Malik's body was sent for a post-mortm examination, and an FIR was lodged against unknown miscreants. Detective teams were set up and a massive manhunt was launched in Bijnor and adjoining districts to nab the culprits.

According to sources, Sahjor Singh, who hailed from Lisad village of Shamli district in western UP, used to stay in his official residence on the chowki premises while his family was away in Kankarkheda locality of Meerut.

The area where the gruesome killing took place is along the Ganga, and illegal sand mining is common in this place.

LUCKNOW: As the crime graph soars with each passing day, even policemen are not safe in the wild west of UP. In a macabre exhibition of brutality, assailants killed a senior sub-inspector (SSI) of police by slitting his throat and chopping off his fingers in Bijnor district, 450 km from Lucknow, late Friday night. After killing Sahjor Singh Malik, the officer in charge of the Balawali police chowki, the miscreants threw his body in a field by the roadside and decamped with his service revolver. Sources in the district police said they suspect the hand of the mining mafia in the gruesome killing. Sub-inspector Malik had been at the Balawali police chowki, 20 km from Mandawar police station on the UP-Uttarkhand border along the Ganga, for the past one year. He was returning to Balawali chowki from Mandawar police station on a motorcycle when he was intercepted near a deserted glass factory. Police were tipped off by local villagers about his bike parked outside Gopalpur village. As per one bystander account, the inspectors body was lying in a field by the roadside with his throat slit and fingers chopped off. There were injury marks all over the body, indicating that the SSI had a scuffle with his killers. Upon receiving information of the killing, district magistrate Jagatraj and superintendent of police Atul Sharma rushed to the spot with a heavy contingent of police. Malik's body was sent for a post-mortm examination, and an FIR was lodged against unknown miscreants. Detective teams were set up and a massive manhunt was launched in Bijnor and adjoining districts to nab the culprits. According to sources, Sahjor Singh, who hailed from Lisad village of Shamli district in western UP, used to stay in his official residence on the chowki premises while his family was away in Kankarkheda locality of Meerut. The area where the gruesome killing took place is along the Ganga, and illegal sand mining is common in this place.
Isaac Manayath By

Express News Service

Did a TV anchor's "hurting" question to a Union minister in June 2015 lead to the surgical strikes against Pakistan-supported terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in September 2016?

Manohar Parrikar, the then defence minister, has said so. In remarks to industrialists in Goa on Friday, he said his ministry began to plan surgical strikes against Pakistan sometime after the successful completion of a counter-insurgency operation against insurgents on the India-Myanmar border in June 2015, a full 15 months before Indian forces carried out raids across the LoC on the western frontier.

Parrikar also said his plans were substantially spurred by a "hurting" query by a TV anchor to minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore whether the Indian government had the "same courage and capability" to replicate the operation across the India-Pakistan border.

"One question (from the media) hurt me. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an ex-Armyman, was on TV and he was explaining about all kinds of search operations. An anchor asked him would you have the courage and capability of doing the same on the western front," Parrikar said.

"After a successful surgical strike, this was another insult to me. I listened very intensely but decided to answer when the time came. The starting of the September 29 (2016) surgical strikes on the western border was 9th of June, 2015."

However, a review of Rajyavardhan Rathore's interviews during the period in question showed that no questions were asked that could be seen as insulting or challenging.

Records show that Rathore did not face any such 'hurting' question in the two TV interviews he gave on June 9 and 10. On June 9, NDTV's Nidhi Razdan asked Rathore if the government was contemplating extending cross-border anti-terror operations to other frontiers. She also asked if the operation on the Myanmar border is a message to Pakistan.

The following day, Rathore gave an interview to Arnab Goswami, then of Times Now, who in fact praised New Delhi's decision to go after the militants across the India-Myanmar border.

Neither of the two anchors asked Rathore if New Delhi has the "courage and capability" to carry out a Myanmar-style operation on the western front.

Parrikar's disclosure of how the surgical strikes were planned provoked a strong reaction from former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Twitter on Saturday.

"A news anchor's question could have provoked a wider conflict with Pakistan & we are supposed to feel safer with this sort of decision making?" the National Conference leader tweeted.

Other Twitter users slammed Parrikar for seemingly letting his ego influence him on critical issues. One of them posted, "Shows how our ministers value ego more than real purpose."

Another tweeted, "#SurgicalStrike was nothing to do with our Martyrs. It was done as journalist insulted Minister so @manoharparrikar planned to satisfy his EGO."

Rathore's interviews

June 9, 2015 with NDTV 24/7

Nidhi Razdan: Is there a possibility at all that the government would look at the option of extending this (cross-border strikes) to other frontiers? Is this a message that you are sending to other countries like Pakistan?

Rathore: It is undoubtedly a message to all countries that harbour any (terror) intentions be it on the west or the specific country we went in now.

June 10, 2015, Times Now

Arnab Goswami: What about the men who target India from the Pakistani side?

Rathore: I think this is a message for any nation that harbours terror intentions against our country. Be it on our soil or our citizens anywhere in the world, they will be protected. And we will always be friendly with countries. But if required, we will carry out strikes. If required, we will strike at the heart of the enemy.

Arnab Goswami: There are training centres and there are terror launch pads in Pakistan. Are you saying that this should be a message for Pakistan?

Rathore: This is a message for everyone who needs to get this message. If they ask a question, we will give them a message.

Arnab Goswami: I'm talking specifically of Pakistan. Now that we have a political leadership that has given a go-ahead for hot pursuits, should the government of Pakistan get a message from the Myanmar hot pursuit?

Rathore: We have a very capable army. We needed a very capable leader. We have them both now. And if that satisfies you that I be very specific about my neighbours, then of course if Pakistan attempts such strikes into India, we will strike back at the time and place of our own choosing.

Did a TV anchor's "hurting" question to a Union minister in June 2015 lead to the surgical strikes against Pakistan-supported terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in September 2016? Manohar Parrikar, the then defence minister, has said so. In remarks to industrialists in Goa on Friday, he said his ministry began to plan surgical strikes against Pakistan sometime after the successful completion of a counter-insurgency operation against insurgents on the India-Myanmar border in June 2015, a full 15 months before Indian forces carried out raids across the LoC on the western frontier. Parrikar also said his plans were substantially spurred by a "hurting" query by a TV anchor to minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore whether the Indian government had the "same courage and capability" to replicate the operation across the India-Pakistan border. "One question (from the media) hurt me. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an ex-Armyman, was on TV and he was explaining about all kinds of search operations. An anchor asked him would you have the courage and capability of doing the same on the western front," Parrikar said. "After a successful surgical strike, this was another insult to me. I listened very intensely but decided to answer when the time came. The starting of the September 29 (2016) surgical strikes on the western border was 9th of June, 2015." However, a review of Rajyavardhan Rathore's interviews during the period in question showed that no questions were asked that could be seen as insulting or challenging. Records show that Rathore did not face any such 'hurting' question in the two TV interviews he gave on June 9 and 10. On June 9, NDTV's Nidhi Razdan asked Rathore if the government was contemplating extending cross-border anti-terror operations to other frontiers. She also asked if the operation on the Myanmar border is a message to Pakistan. The following day, Rathore gave an interview to Arnab Goswami, then of Times Now, who in fact praised New Delhi's decision to go after the militants across the India-Myanmar border. Neither of the two anchors asked Rathore if New Delhi has the "courage and capability" to carry out a Myanmar-style operation on the western front. Parrikar's disclosure of how the surgical strikes were planned provoked a strong reaction from former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Twitter on Saturday. "A news anchor's question could have provoked a wider conflict with Pakistan & we are supposed to feel safer with this sort of decision making?" the National Conference leader tweeted. Other Twitter users slammed Parrikar for seemingly letting his ego influence him on critical issues. One of them posted, "Shows how our ministers value ego more than real purpose." Another tweeted, "#SurgicalStrike was nothing to do with our Martyrs. It was done as journalist insulted Minister so @manoharparrikar planned to satisfy his EGO." Rathore's interviews June 9, 2015 with NDTV 24/7 Nidhi Razdan: Is there a possibility at all that the government would look at the option of extending this (cross-border strikes) to other frontiers? Is this a message that you are sending to other countries like Pakistan? Rathore: It is undoubtedly a message to all countries that harbour any (terror) intentions be it on the west or the specific country we went in now. June 10, 2015, Times Now Arnab Goswami: What about the men who target India from the Pakistani side? Rathore: I think this is a message for any nation that harbours terror intentions against our country. Be it on our soil or our citizens anywhere in the world, they will be protected. And we will always be friendly with countries. But if required, we will carry out strikes. If required, we will strike at the heart of the enemy. Arnab Goswami: There are training centres and there are terror launch pads in Pakistan. Are you saying that this should be a message for Pakistan? Rathore: This is a message for everyone who needs to get this message. If they ask a question, we will give them a message. Arnab Goswami: I'm talking specifically of Pakistan. Now that we have a political leadership that has given a go-ahead for hot pursuits, should the government of Pakistan get a message from the Myanmar hot pursuit? Rathore: We have a very capable army. We needed a very capable leader. We have them both now. And if that satisfies you that I be very specific about my neighbours, then of course if Pakistan attempts such strikes into India, we will strike back at the time and place of our own choosing.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The State government on Friday appointed T K Rajendran as chief of the state police just on the day he was scheduled to retire.

By virtue of a Supreme Courts verdict that guarantees two-year fixed tenure for the police chiefs, Rajendran would be the second officer to serve as the head of the state police force until he turns 62.

Rajendran was already holding the post of DGP (L&O) as an additional charge since last September when he was appointed as DGP (Intelligence).

Sources said the note signed by the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami pointed out to Rajendrans long service in law and order wing to justify his selection among the six other DGP cadre officers empanelled by Union Public Service Commission.



Sources said Rajendran took charge as DGP (Head of police force) late in the night.

Rajendran, a native of Olaipadi village in Tiruvannamalai district, belongs to the 1984 batch IPS. He began his IPS career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police in Tiruchy in 1987, before being posted as SP of Sivaganga district. He had been DIG in Tirunelveli, IG (South Zone) and Additional Commissioner in Chennai before being appointed the Commissioner.

Rajendran was appointed DGP (Intelligence) last September and was holding additional responsibility as DGP(L&O) for last nearly 10 months.

As he had completed 60 years this month, he was supposed to retire on June 30, Friday. But the last minute order of the State government would mean Rajendran was the second such DGP appointed to the police force on the verge of their retirement.

Former DGP K Ramanujam was also similarly appointed as head of the police force with just 25 more days left for his retirement and thus served almost two additional years in police.

Meanwhile, a statement from Opposition leader M K Stalin criticised the appointment of Rajendran as DGP since he is believed to have been indicted by the Income Tax department for allegedly receiving bribes from Chennai-based cartels selling gutka during his tenure as city police commissioner last year.

CHENNAI: The State government on Friday appointed T K Rajendran as chief of the state police just on the day he was scheduled to retire. By virtue of a Supreme Courts verdict that guarantees two-year fixed tenure for the police chiefs, Rajendran would be the second officer to serve as the head of the state police force until he turns 62. Rajendran was already holding the post of DGP (L&O) as an additional charge since last September when he was appointed as DGP (Intelligence). Sources said the note signed by the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami pointed out to Rajendrans long service in law and order wing to justify his selection among the six other DGP cadre officers empanelled by Union Public Service Commission. Sources said Rajendran took charge as DGP (Head of police force) late in the night. Rajendran, a native of Olaipadi village in Tiruvannamalai district, belongs to the 1984 batch IPS. He began his IPS career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police in Tiruchy in 1987, before being posted as SP of Sivaganga district. He had been DIG in Tirunelveli, IG (South Zone) and Additional Commissioner in Chennai before being appointed the Commissioner. Rajendran was appointed DGP (Intelligence) last September and was holding additional responsibility as DGP(L&O) for last nearly 10 months. As he had completed 60 years this month, he was supposed to retire on June 30, Friday. But the last minute order of the State government would mean Rajendran was the second such DGP appointed to the police force on the verge of their retirement. Former DGP K Ramanujam was also similarly appointed as head of the police force with just 25 more days left for his retirement and thus served almost two additional years in police. Meanwhile, a statement from Opposition leader M K Stalin criticised the appointment of Rajendran as DGP since he is believed to have been indicted by the Income Tax department for allegedly receiving bribes from Chennai-based cartels selling gutka during his tenure as city police commissioner last year.
Vinodh Arulappan By

Express News Service

MADURAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has urged the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party cadre to maintain unity among themselves and work with tolerance.



In his speech on the occasion of Bharat Ratna Dr. MGR Centenary function that started on Friday, EPS said, the party cadre should keep the advice rendered in the past by MGR and Jayalalithaa close to their heart. The Chief Minister elucidated his point with a short story of Akbar and Birbal.

Palaniswami stressed that one should keep his tongue (words) in his control.

Both good and bad things will come out from ones tongue. The party men should keep low while speaking. They should start working for the upliftment of the party, he said.

EPS pointed out, it was the wish of their partys supremo Jayalalithaa to celebrate the centenary function of her mentor MGR in a grand style throughout the State.

Chief Minster Edappadi Palaniswami, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai, TN Assembly Speaker Dhanapal and 30 ministers participated in the function held at Amma Thidal near Pandi Kovil Ring Road.

Hailing the late leaders MGR and Jayalalithaa, CM Palaniswami said, the schemes introduced by them were always focussed on laymen.



Speaking at the function, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai and State Assembly Speaker Dhanapal recalled their days with MGR.

Prizes were distributed to college as well as school students who participated in various cultural programmes as part of the centenary celebrations.



Die-hard TTV supporter participates in celebrations

TTV Dhinakarans loyalist Thanga Tamilselvan, MLA of Aundipatti participated in the centenary celebrations.

Talking to media persons, he said, the centenary celebrations did not seem like a government function. Further, he said, he was not aware whether the invitation was sent to TTV Dhinakaran.

MADURAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has urged the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party cadre to maintain unity among themselves and work with tolerance. In his speech on the occasion of Bharat Ratna Dr. MGR Centenary function that started on Friday, EPS said, the party cadre should keep the advice rendered in the past by MGR and Jayalalithaa close to their heart. The Chief Minister elucidated his point with a short story of Akbar and Birbal. Palaniswami stressed that one should keep his tongue (words) in his control. Both good and bad things will come out from ones tongue. The party men should keep low while speaking. They should start working for the upliftment of the party, he said. EPS pointed out, it was the wish of their partys supremo Jayalalithaa to celebrate the centenary function of her mentor MGR in a grand style throughout the State. Chief Minster Edappadi Palaniswami, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai, TN Assembly Speaker Dhanapal and 30 ministers participated in the function held at Amma Thidal near Pandi Kovil Ring Road. Hailing the late leaders MGR and Jayalalithaa, CM Palaniswami said, the schemes introduced by them were always focussed on laymen. Speaking at the function, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai and State Assembly Speaker Dhanapal recalled their days with MGR. Prizes were distributed to college as well as school students who participated in various cultural programmes as part of the centenary celebrations. Die-hard TTV supporter participates in celebrations TTV Dhinakarans loyalist Thanga Tamilselvan, MLA of Aundipatti participated in the centenary celebrations. Talking to media persons, he said, the centenary celebrations did not seem like a government function. Further, he said, he was not aware whether the invitation was sent to TTV Dhinakaran.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The incident of pregnant women protesting in front of Nagarkurnool government hospital against the denial of performing deliveries at the hospital is a sporadic one, according to health minister Dr C Laxma Reddy.

It is a sporadic one and the local doctor has to be blamed for it, the minister reacted to the recent incident where women protested at Nagarkurnool hospital after being asked to go to Mahbubnagar government hospital for delivery.

We have asked collectors to recruit medical staff locally to meet the extra rush, he added.

Laxma Reddy was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of online drugs licensing system portal as part of ease of doing business. The portal odls.telangana.gov.in will allow submission of applications, payment, verification, issue of licenses, tracking and monitoring for issue of drug manufacturing and sale licenses.

Meanwhile, Laxma Reddy said, We have no control over surrogacy rules. We are waiting for the Centres bill on surrogacy.

HYDERABAD: The incident of pregnant women protesting in front of Nagarkurnool government hospital against the denial of performing deliveries at the hospital is a sporadic one, according to health minister Dr C Laxma Reddy. It is a sporadic one and the local doctor has to be blamed for it, the minister reacted to the recent incident where women protested at Nagarkurnool hospital after being asked to go to Mahbubnagar government hospital for delivery. We have asked collectors to recruit medical staff locally to meet the extra rush, he added. Laxma Reddy was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of online drugs licensing system portal as part of ease of doing business. The portal odls.telangana.gov.in will allow submission of applications, payment, verification, issue of licenses, tracking and monitoring for issue of drug manufacturing and sale licenses. Meanwhile, Laxma Reddy said, We have no control over surrogacy rules. We are waiting for the Centres bill on surrogacy.
By Associated Press

NEW YORK: A doctor forced from a New York hospital because of sexual harassment accusations returned Friday with an assault rifle hidden under a lab coat and shot seven people, killing one woman and leaving several doctors fighting for their lives, authorities said.

After he was forced to resign as a family medicine doctor amid sexual harassment allegations, he threatened his colleagues. He said he would kill them.

On Friday, Bello returned to Bronx Lebanon Hospital with an AR-15 assault rifle tucked under his white lab coat and opened fire in his old department, killing one doctor and critically wounding six other people at the hospital, according to law enforcement officials.

Bello then shot himself, and staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, officials said. A photo showed the doctor on a blood-spattered floor as police stood over him.

Now, detectives are trying to piece together what prompted Bello to snap two years after he was forced out, and whether he was hunting for someone in particular when he went to the 16th floor and started shooting.

"There are many, many details that we're still putting together," said Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that terrorism was not involved in the attack. "This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere."

His former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud, and threatening.

"All the time he was a problem," said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello as a family medicine doctor. When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the dismissal.

"We fired him because he was kind of crazy," Dr. Maureen Kwankam told the Daily News. "He promised to come back and kill us then."

People described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted, spreading terror throughout the medical facility as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives after hearing an announcement warning of someone in the building with a weapon.

"I thought I was going to die," said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. Fifteen minutes later they confirmed he was dead in the building.

Bello may have doused himself with an accelerant like gasoline and tried to set himself on fire before shooting himself, officials said. Sprinklers extinguished the fire.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello graduated from Ross University and had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day. Family medicine doctors handle more routine cases, such as coughs and sprained ankles.

Bello also worked as a pharmacy technician at Metropolitan hospital in Manhattan because he was having a hard time getting licensed as a physician, but quit the job in 2012 and filed for unemployment, according to the lawyer who represented him on appeal in 2014. He lost his case. One former colleague at Metropolitan said he would frequently argue with nurses and bristled at being told what to do, but his attorney in the unemployment action said that's not the man he knew.

"I'm absolutely shocked," attorney David Wim said. "He was such a nice gentleman. He was very humble, very polite, very respectful."

Wim said he even jokingly suggested to his assistant that she date the doctor, who was unmarried.

But Bello had a history of aggressive behavior. In unrelated cases, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, in 2004 after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, "You're coming with me." He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror. That case was eventually sealed.

It was not immediately clear if the hospital was aware of his criminal history when he was hired.

Two surgeons at the hospital told the AP that all six victims were in critical condition, but they were expected to survive. Medical staff at the hospital immediately treated all the patients in its emergency department. The victims largely suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen, they said. The most seriously wounded was shot in the liver, said the surgeons, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly.

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called from inside to tell him about the gunman.

"She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebody's out there shooting people," Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. "I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry."

Brown, 53, emerged around 6 p.m.  hours after the initial report of a shooter at about 2:50 p.m.  and said employees had only recently been freed to leave their secure areas.

"I was scared," said Brown, a Bronx resident who described herself as the hospital's patient ambassador. "Very scary. It was like something you'd see on TV. I just thank God to be alive."

The 120-year-old hospital has one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York City. It is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.

NEW YORK: A doctor forced from a New York hospital because of sexual harassment accusations returned Friday with an assault rifle hidden under a lab coat and shot seven people, killing one woman and leaving several doctors fighting for their lives, authorities said. After he was forced to resign as a family medicine doctor amid sexual harassment allegations, he threatened his colleagues. He said he would kill them. On Friday, Bello returned to Bronx Lebanon Hospital with an AR-15 assault rifle tucked under his white lab coat and opened fire in his old department, killing one doctor and critically wounding six other people at the hospital, according to law enforcement officials. Bello then shot himself, and staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, officials said. A photo showed the doctor on a blood-spattered floor as police stood over him. Now, detectives are trying to piece together what prompted Bello to snap two years after he was forced out, and whether he was hunting for someone in particular when he went to the 16th floor and started shooting. "There are many, many details that we're still putting together," said Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that terrorism was not involved in the attack. "This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere." His former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud, and threatening. "All the time he was a problem," said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello as a family medicine doctor. When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the dismissal. "We fired him because he was kind of crazy," Dr. Maureen Kwankam told the Daily News. "He promised to come back and kill us then." People described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted, spreading terror throughout the medical facility as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives after hearing an announcement warning of someone in the building with a weapon. "I thought I was going to die," said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury. Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. Fifteen minutes later they confirmed he was dead in the building. Bello may have doused himself with an accelerant like gasoline and tried to set himself on fire before shooting himself, officials said. Sprinklers extinguished the fire. The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. According to New York State Education Department records, Bello graduated from Ross University and had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day. Family medicine doctors handle more routine cases, such as coughs and sprained ankles. Bello also worked as a pharmacy technician at Metropolitan hospital in Manhattan because he was having a hard time getting licensed as a physician, but quit the job in 2012 and filed for unemployment, according to the lawyer who represented him on appeal in 2014. He lost his case. One former colleague at Metropolitan said he would frequently argue with nurses and bristled at being told what to do, but his attorney in the unemployment action said that's not the man he knew. "I'm absolutely shocked," attorney David Wim said. "He was such a nice gentleman. He was very humble, very polite, very respectful." Wim said he even jokingly suggested to his assistant that she date the doctor, who was unmarried. But Bello had a history of aggressive behavior. In unrelated cases, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, in 2004 after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, "You're coming with me." He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror. That case was eventually sealed. It was not immediately clear if the hospital was aware of his criminal history when he was hired. Two surgeons at the hospital told the AP that all six victims were in critical condition, but they were expected to survive. Medical staff at the hospital immediately treated all the patients in its emergency department. The victims largely suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen, they said. The most seriously wounded was shot in the liver, said the surgeons, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly. Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information. Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called from inside to tell him about the gunman. "She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebody's out there shooting people," Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. "I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry." Brown, 53, emerged around 6 p.m.  hours after the initial report of a shooter at about 2:50 p.m.  and said employees had only recently been freed to leave their secure areas. "I was scared," said Brown, a Bronx resident who described herself as the hospital's patient ambassador. "Very scary. It was like something you'd see on TV. I just thank God to be alive." The 120-year-old hospital has one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York City. It is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium. In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.
By IANS

KABUL: A key Taliban commander was killed during a special security operation in Afghanistan's Wardak province, the Interior Ministry said in on Saturday.

"Mullah Bashir, the key Taliban commander in Wardak and who also served as shadow district governor for Nurkh district was killed during the operation on Friday," Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

Two of his bodyguards were injured, it added.

Mullah Bashir was in charge of organising attacks on security forces and conducting subversive activities.

KABUL: A key Taliban commander was killed during a special security operation in Afghanistan's Wardak province, the Interior Ministry said in on Saturday. "Mullah Bashir, the key Taliban commander in Wardak and who also served as shadow district governor for Nurkh district was killed during the operation on Friday," Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying. Two of his bodyguards were injured, it added. Mullah Bashir was in charge of organising attacks on security forces and conducting subversive activities.
By Associated Press

JAKARTA: Following another week of dust-ups between the media and President Donald Trump, his predecessor shared a bit of wisdom today from the other side of the world about tolerance and taking the daily news cycle in stride.

"I wasn't worried about what was in the newspapers today," former President Barack Obama said during a nostalgic visit to Indonesia's capital, his childhood home. "What I was worried about was, 'What are they going to write about me 20 years from now when I look back?'"

Obama was greeted by a crowd of thousands, including leaders, students and businesspeople, in Jakarta, where he opened the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora. He is wildly popular in Indonesia, where many view him as an adopted son. A statue of the boy still remembered as "Barry" stands outside his old elementary school.

He reminisced about moving to Jakarta in 1967 when he was just 6 years old, shouting, "Indonesia bagian dari diri!" or "Indonesia is part of me!" He said he had been gorging on the local food since arriving.

"If the rainy season came, the floods were coming and we had to clean out the floors in our house and then chase the chickens because they had gone someplace else," he said to roaring laughter.

"Today, Jakarta is a thriving center of commerce marked by highways and high-rises. So much has changed, so much progress has been made."

Obama lived in the country with his mother, an anthropologist, and his Indonesian stepfather. The couple split up after having his half-sister, and Obama moved back to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his grandparents. But he said he has never forgotten the years he spent in Indonesia.

"My time here made me cherish respect for people's differences," he said, noting how he and his family had just visited two of the most treasured ancient temples Borobudur, a Buddhist complex, and the Hindu compound of Prambanan in the world's most populous Muslim country.

The speech came on the final leg of Obama's 10-day vacation in Indonesia. In addition to visiting the temples in the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java, he and his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Sasha and Malia, also went rafting and toured the resort island of Bali.

On Friday, he met Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi"

Widodo at the grand Bogor Palace in West Java, just outside Jakarta.

Obama largely stayed away from U.S. politics and the Trump administration, but he did tout one of his accomplishments while in office.



JAKARTA: Following another week of dust-ups between the media and President Donald Trump, his predecessor shared a bit of wisdom today from the other side of the world about tolerance and taking the daily news cycle in stride. "I wasn't worried about what was in the newspapers today," former President Barack Obama said during a nostalgic visit to Indonesia's capital, his childhood home. "What I was worried about was, 'What are they going to write about me 20 years from now when I look back?'" Obama was greeted by a crowd of thousands, including leaders, students and businesspeople, in Jakarta, where he opened the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora. He is wildly popular in Indonesia, where many view him as an adopted son. A statue of the boy still remembered as "Barry" stands outside his old elementary school. He reminisced about moving to Jakarta in 1967 when he was just 6 years old, shouting, "Indonesia bagian dari diri!" or "Indonesia is part of me!" He said he had been gorging on the local food since arriving. "If the rainy season came, the floods were coming and we had to clean out the floors in our house and then chase the chickens because they had gone someplace else," he said to roaring laughter. "Today, Jakarta is a thriving center of commerce marked by highways and high-rises. So much has changed, so much progress has been made." Obama lived in the country with his mother, an anthropologist, and his Indonesian stepfather. The couple split up after having his half-sister, and Obama moved back to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his grandparents. But he said he has never forgotten the years he spent in Indonesia. "My time here made me cherish respect for people's differences," he said, noting how he and his family had just visited two of the most treasured ancient temples Borobudur, a Buddhist complex, and the Hindu compound of Prambanan in the world's most populous Muslim country. The speech came on the final leg of Obama's 10-day vacation in Indonesia. In addition to visiting the temples in the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java, he and his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Sasha and Malia, also went rafting and toured the resort island of Bali. On Friday, he met Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo at the grand Bogor Palace in West Java, just outside Jakarta. Obama largely stayed away from U.S. politics and the Trump administration, but he did tout one of his accomplishments while in office.
By AFP

GENEVA: Italy needs more international support to cope with a wave of migrants that has flooded its shores since the start of the year, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Saturday.

"What is happening in front of our eyes in Italy is an unfolding tragedy," Grandi said in a statement.

"In the course of last weekend, 12,600 migrants and refugees arrived on its shores, and an estimated 2,030 have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year."

He added: "Italy is playing its part in receiving those rescued and providing asylum to those in need of protection. These efforts must be continued and strengthened. But this cannot be an Italian problem alone."

Separately, a source in Paris said the interior ministers of France, Germany and Italy will meet in the French capital on Sunday to discuss a "coordinated approach" to help Italy.

Faced with rising numbers of migrants risking the perilous sea crossing to reach Europe, Italy last week threatened to close its doors to people arriving on boats with foreign flags.

Europe had to get fully involved through an "urgent distribution system" of migrants and should widen legal channels so that migrants can be admitted, Grandi added.

He also called for greater international efforts to tackle the causes of the migration, protect people and fight trafficking.

Since the beginning of the year, 83,650 people have reached Italy by sea, an increase of nearly 20 percent compared to the same period last year, according to UN figures.

Nearly all of Italy's 200,000 places for accommodating migrants have been filled.

Many of the migrants need health care and support, with a large percentage of them non-accompanied children and victims of sexual violence, says the UN.

The number of migrant children arriving on their own rose two-fold between 2015 and 2016, reaching 25,846 at the end of last year.

GENEVA: Italy needs more international support to cope with a wave of migrants that has flooded its shores since the start of the year, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Saturday. "What is happening in front of our eyes in Italy is an unfolding tragedy," Grandi said in a statement. "In the course of last weekend, 12,600 migrants and refugees arrived on its shores, and an estimated 2,030 have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year." He added: "Italy is playing its part in receiving those rescued and providing asylum to those in need of protection. These efforts must be continued and strengthened. But this cannot be an Italian problem alone." Separately, a source in Paris said the interior ministers of France, Germany and Italy will meet in the French capital on Sunday to discuss a "coordinated approach" to help Italy. Faced with rising numbers of migrants risking the perilous sea crossing to reach Europe, Italy last week threatened to close its doors to people arriving on boats with foreign flags. Europe had to get fully involved through an "urgent distribution system" of migrants and should widen legal channels so that migrants can be admitted, Grandi added. He also called for greater international efforts to tackle the causes of the migration, protect people and fight trafficking. Since the beginning of the year, 83,650 people have reached Italy by sea, an increase of nearly 20 percent compared to the same period last year, according to UN figures. Nearly all of Italy's 200,000 places for accommodating migrants have been filled. Many of the migrants need health care and support, with a large percentage of them non-accompanied children and victims of sexual violence, says the UN. The number of migrant children arriving on their own rose two-fold between 2015 and 2016, reaching 25,846 at the end of last year.
Union Home Secretary meets J-K Guv to discuss security situation

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) , June 29 : Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi called on Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday to discuss about the security situation in the Valley.





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Vohra and Mehrishi discussed enhancing enforcement particularly keeping in view the continuing attempts at infiltration, cease-fire violations and recurring incidents aimed to cause unrest.Mehrishi, who visited the Shri Amarnathji Shrine earlier in the day, informed the Governor about the security arrangements observed by him.Mehrishi's visit comes a day after first batch of pilgrims left for Amarnath Yatra. Around 2,280 pilgrims left Jammu base camp yesterday.Earlier in the day, around 14 pilgrims suffered injuries after a bus from Uttar Pradesh to the Kashmir Valley collided with a truck at Lakhanpur on the Pathankot-Jammu highway in Kathua district.
Pakistan violates ceasefire in Poonch, India retaliates

Poonch (Jammu and Kashmir) , June 30 : Pakistan on Friday again resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Balakote sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.





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The Indian Army retaliating strongly and effectively to the ceasefire violation.Yesterday, the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars in the wee hours in the Poonch Sector along the LoC.In the cross firing, two soldiers sustained minor injuries and were evacuated to the nearest Military Hospital.The Pakistan Army also violated the ceasefire along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Bhimber Gali sector yesterday.Earlier this week, the Pakistan Army had initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars in the same sector of the state.Earlier on June 5, Indian Army Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMO) Lieutenant General A.K. Bhatt had warned the Pakistani counterpart in connection with the unprovoked attacks which India has been witnessing for last few months.
Beijing urges India to abide by existing bilateral boundary conventions

Beijing [China], June 30 : China has once again urged India to abide by existing boundary conventions between both nations and respect the former's territorial sovereignty.





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"We once again urge the Indian side to abide by the existing boundary convention, respect China's territorial sovereignty, and immediately bring the border troops that have crossed into China back to the Indian side of the boundary, so as not to worsen the situation and land itself in a more passive position," The Global Times quoted China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, as saying at his daily press conference on Thursday.A rift seems to be emerging between India and China after it was reported that the Indian border troops had overstepped the China-India boundary at the Sikkim section and there was an ensuing standoff with the Chinese border troops.A state-run Chinese daily has said that India cannot afford a showdown with China on border issues.An opinion piece published in the Global Times warned India saying that "usually China avoids making an issue of border disputes."It said that Beijing has "indulged India's unruly provocations, but this time the Indian side needs to be taught the rules."The daily said that India lags far behind China in terms of national strength and the so-called strategic support for it from the U.S. is superficial.However, the state media asserted that China has no desire to confront India.Emphasizing that maintaining friendly ties with New Delhi is Beijing's basic policy, the state media stressed that these ties must be based on mutual respect.The Global Times said that it's not time for India to display arrogance toward China and pointed that India's GDP is only one-quarter of China's.It also highlighted that India's annual defense budget is just one-third of China's.The daily advised India that having a friendly relationship and cautiously handling border issues with China is its best choice.Chinese and Indian soldiers are locked in a face-off at the Sikkim section of the China-India border.The state media said that allegations of intrusions along the western section of the China-India border often emerge but face-offs in the Sikkim section are rare.It added that the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim was reopened in 2006 as there is no border dispute between China and India over this area."It remains unclear whether this flare-up is the fault of low-level Indian troops or a tentative strategic move made by the Indian government. Whatever the motive, China must stick to its bottom line. It must force the Indian troops to retreat to the Indian side by all means necessary, and China's road construction mustn't be stopped," the Global Times said.The daily further said that India's national confidence has been greatly boosted with its GDP rising to fifth in the world and the U.S. and West are willing to woo India to counterbalance China has particularly added to Indians' sense of strategic superiority."Some Indians believe the US and Japan are building a circle to contain China, and India has an advantage over China by choosing whether to join this circle. Therefore, they can indulge themselves on issues, including border disputes, while China has no choice but to make concessions.," it said.As the China-India borderline hasn't been demarcated completely and the two countries have a different understanding about the Line of Actual Control, troops from both sides often stray across in some areas.China on Tuesday asked Indian border troops, who were alleged to have crossed the Indo-China border along Sikkim region, to withdraw and safeguard peace and tranquillity in the area."The Chinese side requires the Indian side to respect the boundary convention and China's territorial sovereignty, immediately withdraw their border troops that have crossed the boundary, conduct thorough investigation into this and safeguard peace and tranquility of the Sikkim section," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said.China also clarified that the entry to the first batch of around 50 Indian pilgrims who were scheduled to travel to Kailash Mansarovar through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim were stopped due to security concerns."The Chinese side has to put off arranging for Indian officially-organized pilgrims' entry through Nathu-la mountain pass in the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary out of security concerns. The Indian side has been informed through the diplomatic channel," Geng said.He further said that the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary was defined by the Convention between Great Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet in 1890."The Indian government has repeatedly confirmed that in written forms since India's independence, recognizing that it concur with China on the boundary alignment at the Sikkim section," he said.
Talks on North Korea dominates Trump's dinner diplomacy with South Korean counterpart

New York [U.S.], June 30 :U.S. President Donald Trump hosted South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a White House dinner on Thursday and held extensive discussions on a wide range of subjects, including North Korea and a new trade deal.





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Trump told Moon that he would have 'tremendous discussions" about how to deal with Kim Jong-un in denuclearizing North Korea and establish peace on the peninsula. Their summit talks will be held at the White House early Friday.After their first ever talks, Trump tweeted"Just finished a very good meeting with the President of South Korea. Many subjects discussed, including North Korea and new trade.""I know you've been discussing with our people some of the complexities of North Korea and trade and other things, and we'll be discussing them all as we progress - and it could be very well late into the evening," The Washington Times quoted Trump as saying.He added, "We very much respect you and we very much respect the people of South Korea."Congratulating the South Korean President for his election victory, Trump said, "I'd like to also congratulate you upon your election victory. It was a great victory, and you did a fantastic job."On the other hand, Trump administration officials have warned publicly and privately that the US is nearing an inflection point in its efforts to pressure North Korea into abandoning its bellicose behavior, suggesting that Trump might seek to crank up diplomatic and economic pressure on China which accounts for nearly 90% of North Korea's foreign trade, CNN reported.President Donald Trump has abandoned its plan of relying on China to pressure North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons, the U.S. has finalized a $1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, labeled China one of the world's worst human traffickers and imposed sanctions on a Chinese bank for doing business with North Korea.
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Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra shoots film inside Delhi-bound train

New Delhi , June 30 : Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has got the camera rolling in a Delhi-bound train for his upcoming film 'Mere Pyare Prime Minister'.





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The filmmaker, who has been shooting in real locations, recently took to a running train to shoot a sequence of the film.In order to effectively capture the reality of the train journey, the entire cast and crew embarked on a train journey to Delhi.The team reached Delhi via Firozpur Janta Express on June 29, 2017.Spokesperson of the film said, "There is a sequence in the film where the kids embark on a journey to meet the Prime Minister. We have shot this particular scene in a train enroute Delhi."'Mere Pyare Prime Minister' revolves around the true friendship and life journey of four kids who live in the slums of Mumbai.The 'Rang De Basanti' director and his team were earlier filming in the slums of Ghatkopar followed by the slums of Powai.
Patna-Delhi flight scare: IndiGo rejects 'tyre burst' reports

Patna (Bihar) , June 30 : All passengers have been safely evacuated from an IndiGo flight at Patna, after smoke was observed in cabin.





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All 174 passengers are safe.The IndiGo flight 6E-415 (Patna-Delhi) was involved in a low speed reject due to suspected engine stall.As smoke was observed in cabin by the cabin crew, the captain decided to evacuate due to precautionary reasons.All standard operating procedure (SOPs) were carried out efficiently and the evacuation was completed in 60 seconds.There was no tyre burst or engine fire.The matter has been reported to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) proactively.An internal enquiry has also been initiated. There was no technical snag reported when aircraft arrived at Patna.
What's next for Chase Marina? RIDEM has received plenty of proposals

Bob Ballou, assistant to the director of RIDEM, spoke about the goal of establishing a state port in Tiverton similar to Newports State Pier #9.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High around 45F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Mostly clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 28F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
A new study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology reports that in Baltimore, Maryland, neighborhoods with high levels of residential abandonment are hotspots for tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus). This environmental injustice may leave low-income urban residents more vulnerable to mosquito-borne disease.

Shannon LaDeau, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and senior author on the paper, explains, "We are interested in how land cover, microclimate, and socioeconomics influence the distribution of tiger mosquitoes. In Baltimore and other temperate cities, the interplay of these factors determines when and where mosquitoes emerge and the extent to which they pose a risk to people."

Native to Asia, tiger mosquitoes arrived in the US in the 1980s, likely as stowaways on imported tires. They have quickly spread throughout the South and Northeast, where they thrive in cities. Unlike native mosquitoes, they feed during daylight hours and are known for living in close association with people.

Lead author Eliza Little, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University, explains, "Tiger mosquitoes are highly tolerant and can reproduce in very small pools of water; a cap of water will suffice. They are known to transmit diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, with documented cases in Asia and Europe. They also have the potential to spread Zika."

The research team, which included scientists from the University of Maryland and Rutgers University, spent three years monitoring mosquito activity in five west Baltimore neighborhoods. Study sites spanned a gradient of low, medium, and high socioeconomic status neighborhoods. At each site, 33 blocks were identified as predominantly residential, excluding businesses, schools, and large apartment complexes.

Block-scale surveillance of mosquito breeding habitat was conducted three times during each season (in June, July, and September). Every three weeks, from May to September, adult mosquitoes were also sampled. Climate data from a NOAA station at the Maryland Science Center was used to track how rainfall influenced the development of larval mosquitoes.

To reveal how landscape features and vegetation influence mosquito prevalence, target neighborhoods were mapped using block-by-block surveys and Landsat satellite imagery. During ground surveys, researchers counted trees, abandoned buildings (officially condemned or with 148 boarded-up entry), parks, vacant lots, grassy areas, and trash with the potential to serve as breeding habitat.

High vegetation cover was found in both low and high-income neighborhoods, but its impact on mosquito abundance differed. More mosquitoes were found in lower socioeconomic areas because vacant lots and abandoned buildings provide more breeding sites. Infrequent garbage removal is another issue, giving rise to semi-permanent dumping sites that attract mosquitoes.

The correlation between a neighborhood's socioeconomic status and mosquito abundance wasn't static. In low-income areas, rain-filled trash, abandoned and decaying properties, and overgrown lots create mosquito breeding habitat. In higher socioeconomic areas, mosquitoes are supported by residents who water their plants and lawns during the summer.

LaDeau explains, "In a city like Baltimore, hot, dry conditions should cause mosquito populations to decline. Instead, in higher income neighborhoods, residents water their yards and enable mosquito populations to survive. That said, overall, our surveys found much larger mosquito populations in lower-income neighborhoods."

"This study highlights the dual needs for personalized mosquito control on a lot-by-lot basis and public education across different socioeconomic neighborhoods to implement effective control strategies," Little notes. Adding, "Our work can also inform urban greening strategies. There can be unintended consequences when green spaces are added to cities without first removing mosquito-sustaining containers."

By understanding the environmental conditions that give rise to mosquito populations, researchers can better predict and manage mosquitoes in urban areas, reducing environmental injustices and protecting public health.

LaDeau concludes, "This summer, if you want to reduce mosquito numbers, one the best things you can do is reduce water-holding containers in your community. After a rainfall, do a quick survey of your yard or neighborhood and address sites where water pools. Planters, clogged gutters, neglected pet dishes and bird baths, and trash all provide great tiger mosquito breeding grounds."

This study was made possible, in part, by support from the National Science Foundation, the Parks & People Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture, and the National Institutes of Health. It is a contribution to the Baltimore Ecosystem Study Long-Term Ecological Research (BES LTER) Program.

Source: Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
People with Alzheimer's disease who experience psychosis--including delusions and hallucinations--are five times more likely to be misdiagnosed with dementia with Lewy bodies compared to patients who do not, new research suggests.

Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia characterized by protein deposits in the brain including twisted fibers found inside brain cells. Dementia with Lewy bodies is believed to be caused by the buildup of a different abnormal protein aggregate found in nerve cells in the brain. Effective treatments for these conditions are still under development, but will almost certainly be different, according to the authors.

Researchers also found that Alzheimer's disease was misdiagnosed in 24 percent of all cases, with false positive and false negative rates both being 12 per cent. Previous research suggested that the rate of misdiagnosis in Alzheimer's disease ranged from 12-23 percent.

The findings, published online today in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, raise concern that there may be an under-appreciation of how common psychotic symptoms are in Alzheimer's disease, said Dr. Corinne Fischer, director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and lead author of the study.

"Psychosis can be a symptom of Alzheimer's disease, but it is a defining clinical feature in other types of dementia, including Parkinson's disease related dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies," she said. "Consequently, clinicians are more reluctant to diagnose a patient with Alzheimer's disease when they present with delusions or hallucinations."

About 36 percent of people with Alzheimer's are thought to have delusions and 18 percent have hallucinations. Psychotic symptoms are significant in Alzheimer's patients because they have been shown to be associated with increased burden on caregivers, increased functional decline and more rapid progression of the disease.

Neuroscience eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Researchers examined 961 people using data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Centre database, collected from 29 Alzheimer's disease centers in the United States between 2005 and 2012. They included participants who had been clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's while they were alive, as well as those whose autopsies showed they the signature physical signs of Alzheimer's in their brains.

Patients who experienced psychosis had a higher rate of false negative diagnosis and a lower rate of false positive diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease compared to those who did not. Whether patients experienced delusions, hallucinations, or a combination of both did not affect the rate of misdiagnosis, according to the authors.

The Alzheimer's Society of Canada estimates there are 564,000 people living with dementia in Canada, and that number is expected to almost double over the next 15 years, thus reinforcing the relevance of the study's findings according to Winnie Qian, a Master's student in the Neuroscience Research Program at St. Michael's and an author on the study.

"An advantage of our study is that we used the final clinical diagnosis after years of follow-up, so the rate of misdiagnosis we described is the rate under ideal conditions," she said.

"This means that it should be considered a minimum. If you extrapolate that and apply it to the general population, the magnitude of the problem could be much greater."

Dr. Fischer said when patients do not present with psychosis, clinicians should be more careful when considering alternative diagnoses to Alzheimer's disease.

"Many dementia patients never receive a definitive clinical diagnosis while they're alive, so the hope is that by understanding what factors can lead to a misdiagnosis, we can be more accurate and provide patients with the best possible care," she said.
: Sellers at Sadar Bazaar, North India's largest wholesale market are waiting idly for customers to do their 'bohoni' (first purchase) for the day. Gloom, confusion and anger are just a few of the words that describe the mood among traders here after the ambitious Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at midnight.From wholesalers of fabric, plastic, artificial flowers, electronic goods to spices and toys, traders are anxious about business."There has been a drastic fall in footfall. Dhande ke baara baj gaye hain (The business has gone for a toss). On any other weekend, you wouldn't find space to stand in my shop. But today, it's just me, my helpers and a few customers who just glanced at the material without really buying anything. How much can we tolerate? First demonetisation and now this," JK Gupta, owner of JK Traders, a fabric wholesale shop toldThe entire cloth wholesale market had observed a three-day shutdown to protest the GST roll out. Under the GST, man-made fiber yarn will be taxed at 18% and the end product, the fabric, at 5%. This differential taxing strategy is set to seriously affect manufacturers who purchases yarn to make fabric. Sellers are also worried as many in the Sadar area deal with imported fabric, which now attracts a tax rate of 15%.Dilawar Ashraf, owner of Sonal Fabrics, put the hike into perspective for the consumer. "This industry attracted no duty and now suddenly, customers find everything expensive. There is a big distinction between showrooms and our shops. This is the Mecca of wholesale goods. If something is expensive here then it will be double in your neighborhood shops. Plus, the way government has taxed the imported fabric is absurd. Now the markets will be flooded with Chinese fabrics, which could start a dangerous trend," he said.A short walk from the fabric shops are glittery wholesale electronic stores. Here, too, empty shops during a weekend are an odd sight. Mahesh Mehta, at MM Traders, said, "All the items that you see in my shop come under the 28% tax slab. Obviously, the prices have gone up. Since all these malls had run mega discounts and clearance sales, there are no customers here on a weekend. A TV that previously was priced at Rs 15,000 will now cost about Rs 19,000 and the customers are not taking it well."Mehta added that there has been a steady decline of 25% in sales since high-value currency notes were demonetised back in November.The situation in the crockery market was no different on Saturday."We did not shut down our shop, even though everyone protested. But today I am left crying. I still do not have the invoice. However, an invoice would be useless. There are no customers here, so what is the use of an invoice? We were told this will replace multiple taxes, but this new tax regime is creating more confusion," said Alim K, who runs a wholesale home decoration shop consisting of paintings and handicrafts.Alim also told News18 that he has not availed the services of a Chartered accountant yet since he has asked his friends to help him out. "This is not a very big shop. Just because it comes under a big tax slab does not mean we are a huge business house. These CA's are expensive. Can't the government create a pool of CAs or associations to voluntary help us?" he wondered.
New Delhi: Automobile major Tata Motors on Saturday reported that its total sales including exports during June declined by nine percent to 40,358 units from 44,525 vehicles sold during the same month last year.



The automobile major said its domestic sales for last month fell by five percent to 36,854 units from 38,718 units sold in June 2016.



"Mixed consumer sentiments in June 2017 towards the implications of GST have impacted the passenger vehicles business sales, while the commercial vehicles business grew on month-on month basis, due to BS4 production ramp-up," the company said in a statement.



According to the company, its domestic passenger vehicles sales declined by 10 percent to 11,176 units compared to 12,482 units sold in June last year.



The domestic sale of its commercial vehicles stood at 25,678 units, down by two percent over the corresponding period of 2016.



The company's exports declined by 40 percent to 3,504 units in June 2017 owing to supply constraints.
Young Finns are less able to face hardships in life than previous generations, research by the Academy of Finland and the Institute for Occupational Safety have shown. The conclusions published by the institutions this week were reported by Finnish media on Thursday and Friday, reports Xinhua news agency.







Researcher Anna Kuokkanen wrote on the website of the Occupational Safety Institute that young employees may choose to stay at home because of a broken relationship or the death of a cat. "Medical doctors who have had a long career said that at least in the 70s it would have been unthinkable that an employee would have reported sick due to the death of a pet," she said.







Kuokkanen noted the change reflects the new attitude towards work among younger generations, saying "They demand more from work and from work-related well-being."







On the other hand, young employees were also more prone to seek help in mental symptoms, before the problems turn serious. "This is a positive change, but it places new demands to the employers," she noted. In Finland, an employee can usually take sick leave based on his or her own decision, for at least a day or even three days. Acceptance by a medical professional is obtained afterwards.
Muzaffarabad: Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Salahhudin on Saturday denounced his designation as a global terrorist by the United States and vowed to continue his armed fight for the Kashmir struggle.



Syed Salahuddin called the decision by US President Donald Trump's administration "idiotic", saying it was a gift to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was visiting Washington on Monday, the day Salahuddin was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.



"They cannot quote a single incident to prove that we are terrorists," Salahuddin told a news conference in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), where he has been based for some 25 years as leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest of the anti-Indian Kashmiri militant groups.



"This idiocy can neither weaken our courage, nor stop the freedom struggle and the target-oriented actions of freedom fighters," he added, saying his fighters' attacks were on legitimate military targets as opposed to civilians.



Gun-wielding Hizbul Mujahideen members wearing fatigues escorted his vehicle to the news conference venue.



Pakistan denies giving material help to Kashmiri separatists but reiterated earlier this week that it would continue to provide diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.



India blames Pakistan for stoking the 28-year-old revolt in Muslim-majority Kashmir and has stepped up efforts to put pressure on Pakistan under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



In Monday's announcement, the U.S. State Department said that in September 2016, Salahuddinhad threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers and vowed to turn the Kashmir valley into a graveyard for Indian forces.



As a consequence of the designation, U.S. individuals are banned from engaging in financial transactions with Salahuddin and all his property in the United States is blocked.



Salahuddin, who is from Badgam town in Kashmir, was an Islamist politician who turned to militancy after he lost an election for the Kashmir legislative assembly in 1987, which he says was "massively rigged" by India.
New Delhi: In a speech that mirrored Jawaharlal Nehrus Tryst With Destiny speech when India gained Independence, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley thanked political parties across the board for their unanimous support in making the Goods and Services Tax (GST) a reality.



We have all assembled here today for an important moment in the journey of our great nation. We are in the process of making history with the launch of the Goods and Services Tax. At the midnight hour, we will be launching one of Indias biggest and most ambitious tax and economic reforms in history," the Finance Minister said.



Jaitley said the GST may be a destination tax, but for India it will begin altogether a new journey. "Its a journey where India wills awake to limitless possibilities to expand its economic horizons and lofty political ambitions, Jaitely said in the Central Hall of Parliament.



Lauding the unanimity of support for the Constitutional amendment that brought in GST, he said, The consensus shows that India can rise above politics in the interest of the nation. This is a high point for Indian politics when the world is witnessing slow growth.



The GST Council met 18 times and some meetings lasted for the entire day. Yet, every decision was unanimous, despite all parties being present. The taxes for 1,211 commodities were decided. We maintained the two principles of not wanting to burden the poor and maintaining revenue neutrality, the FM said.



The Finance Minister hailed the GST and said it would ensure single flow of goods and services across the country by replacing 17 indirect taxes.



While appreciating the efforts of the opposition, Jaitely reserved a special mention for veteran communist and former West Bengal Finance Minister Dr. Asim Dasgupta. The first head of the Empowered Committee (of State Finance Ministers) is present amongst us today. For carried out the great task of building consensus in the country. I personally must thank him because my first lesson on GST came from him during a meeting.
: Striking a personal note while announcing the launch of Goods and Services Tax (GST) , President Pranab Mukherjee claimed that the GST was a momentous occasion and one in which he had a special role to play."The idea was first formally mooted in the Budget speech for the financial year 2006-07. The introduction of the GST is a momentous occasion for the country. But it is also a momentous occasion for me personally. I had introduced the Constitutional Amendment Bill in 2009 as the Finance Minister."Mukherjee went to on to state that he remembered meeting the chief ministers of Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra a number of times to hold meetings over "many contentious issues". He added, "I found both in those meetings and in my many interactions with Chief Ministers, Finance Ministers and officers of states, that most of them had a constructive approach and an underlying commitment to the introduction of GST ."Mukherjee's reference to the Chief Ministers with whom he discussed "contentious issues" was not lost on the audience. Not certainly on Prime Minister Narendra Modi , who was the chief minister of Gujarat at the time.The President went on to hail the new regime as a tribute to the maturity of Indias democracy.There were many contentious issues and yet I found that most of them had a constructive approach. I, therefore, remained confident that the GST was a matter of time and would eventually be implemented. In December 2016, after both Houses of Parliament passed the GST Bill, I had the privilege to assent to the 101st amendment as President, Mukherjee said.Lauding the unanimous all-party support for the tax reforms, he said, It is a unique framework where Centre and states cannot take a decision without the support of each other. Even after 18 meetings of the GST Council, all decisions were taken by consensus. The Council has pleasantly surprised us all by completing its task. This is a tribute to the maturity of Indias democracy.Admitting the anxieties that the new law may trigger, the President said, GST is a disruptive change, no doubt, as VAT was before it. But such big changes are always uncomfortable. I thank all those who were part of making this path breaking legislation.
Bengaluru: The two journalists, who face one year in jail for attracting the wrath of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for writing defamatory articles against three MLAs, got some relief from the Karnataka High court on Saturday.



The HC told the Karnataka Assembly Speaker, K B Koliwad, to convene a session and reconsider the arrest order and also suggested acceptance of an apology.



Additional advocate general A S Ponnana, however, told the court that the two journalists would have to appear before the Speaker on Monday at 3pm and submit a formal appeal for any reconsideration. They have been assured they will not be arrested if they do so.



The judge made the suggestion during the hearing of a joint petition filed by journalists Ravi Belagere, editor of the weekly tabloid Hi Bangalore, and Anil Raj, editor of a local publication titled Yelahanka Voice.



The court also observed that if the legislators still need to pursue this in court, they can opt for a defamation case. With the decision at an impasse, the HC adjourned the hearing on Saturday.



The court told the journalists they can approach the court again if they fear being arrested.



The Karnataka Assembly had on June 21 convicted the two editors of breach of privilege for writing defamatory articles that made personal attacks against three MLAs. They were sentenced to one year in jail and a fine of Rs 10,000 was also imposed on them.



Two days after the Legislatures order was passed, the ruling Congress was worried whether this would be seen as a serious infringement on the freedom of the press. This is the first time that the Karnataka Assembly has ordered a jail term for journalists.
New Delhi/Islamabad: India on Saturday again asked Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court, as the two countries exchanged a list of prisoners lodged in each other's jails.



According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.



"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement in Delhi.



Jadhav was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage activities. India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.



Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.



In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".



The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access which was signed on May 21, 2008. As per the pact, lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.



"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said.



It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.



"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," it said.



The Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
Thiruvananthapuram: With the implementation of the new liquor policy of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala, 73 3-star and 4-star bars will reopen. However, the bars will open on Sunday since the first day of every month is a dry day.



The bars will remain open from 11 am to 11 pm. In tourism zones, they will function from 10 am to 11 am.



Excise Commissioner IPS Rishi Raj Singh said that about 80 bars had applied for a license. "We have given the license to 73 of them to reopen. Seven are pending with us as we are in the process of checking their star status," Singh said.



The previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government, under the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, had executed a liquor police which allowed only 5-star hotels to run a bar. The 3-star and 4-star could only function as beer and wine parlours.



The new Left government in Kerala, however, had other plans. It decided to overturn the UDF policy, aimed at phased prohibition of liquor in the next 10 years.



The UDF policy created quite an uproar in political circles, even causing former finance minister K M Mani his job after a bar owner levelled bribe allegations against him. There were allegations against Excise Minister K Babu as well.



The new policy comes as a breather to the guzzlers who were forced to stand in long queues outside the state-run bevco outlets.



The Opposition UDF, led by the Congress party, has protested against the new liquor policy, with Congress leader V M Sudheeran even knocking the doors of the Kerala High Court.



The KCBC (Kerala Catholic Bishop Council ) has also mounted the criticism of this move and the Left government in Kerala.
More than 500 people gathered at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai on Saturday to condemn the attacks on minority communities across India. Holding aloft placards as part of Break the Silence protest, they demanded an end to lynchings by cow vigilantes.Several people all over the country have taken to the streets to raise their voice against violence, saying #NotInMyName. From raising slogans to poetry and singing and dancing, the protesters spoke out against mob violence and victimization of Muslims and Dalits in the name of cow protection.A few prominent faces, including poet Salma, activist Nityanand Jayaraman and art editor Sadanand Menon participated in the demonstration. Sadanand Menon said: This is a national level movement and is going to snowball into something big.Students from Loyola and Madras School of Social Work also joined the protest. They said wanted to covey a strong message that everyone is our brother and there should be no violence against people.People from all walks of life, including students and activists, participated in the protest.Thousands of people had also protested against the lynchings in Delhi and four other cities as part of #NotInMyName protests on Wednesday. A day later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that killing in the name of cow protection is unacceptable, but the chorus for strict action has only grown since then.On Saturday, President Pranab Mukherjee also condemned vigilante violence and hit out at those killing in the name of Gau Raksha.The issue of cow-protection has come to the centre stage as a number of people, many of them Muslims, have been lynched, beaten and intimidated for transporting cows and other cattle. Even government rules regarding cattle slaughter have added to the atmosphere of fear and confusion.One of the most high-profile case was of Junaid, a 15-year-old who was stabbed to death by a mob on a train over suspicions that he was carrying beef. Pehlu Khan, a farmer from Haryana, was also murdered in April by so-called cow protectors in Rajasthan while transporting cows legally purchased from a market in Jaipur.Other communities have also suffered violence at the hands of the cow protectors. Banjara villagers in Rajasthan, whose traditional occupation is buying cattle and selling it for agricultural purposes, were assaulted in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan.Gau rakshaks have become so brazen that earlier this month they assaulted a team of animal husbandry officials from Tamil Nadu who were transporting cattle in Barmer.
BLOOMINGTON  A beacon of hope has been showing the way  from its location southwest of downtown Bloomington  for 125 years.

Union Missionary Baptist Church, which organized in 1892, recently celebrated its 125th anniversary with prayer, regard for the past and optimism for the future.

"We're kind of a guiding light," the Rev. Sylvester Johnson, the church's interim pastor, said in the church sanctuary before Bible study last month.

"We get out into the community," Johnson said. "We feed the spirit, the soul and the body."

Renee Thompson Fletcher of Bloomington, a church member for four years and co-chair of Union Missionary's 125th anniversary committee, agreed.

"African-Americans especially looked to the church for guidance," Thompson Fletcher said. "The church stood up for social justice and equality. The church is a safe haven."

Union Missionary, 509 W. Jackson St., has 125 members and has been based throughout its history within a block of its current location.

The church began as an offshoot of Mount Pisgah Baptist Church. For many years until 1983, Union Missionary was at 508 W. Jackson St., across the street from its present location.

Longtime church member Henry Gay Sr., 92, of Bloomington, began attending Union Missionary with this wife in the late 1940s and joined the church on May 25, 1953.

"Monday night was the (Sunday school) teachers' meeting, Tuesday night was the laymen's meeting, Wednesday night was prayer meeting, Thursday night was choir rehearsal and Friday night was dinner," Gay recalled. Of course, worship service and Sunday school were Sunday morning.

"That's the way the church was set up," Gay said. "Everything was segregated in the 40s and 50s. We couldn't get nowhere else, so we stayed in church.

"The church was all we had to lean on," said Gay, a longtime member of the Bloomington-Normal chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Johnson, who joined the church in 1963 and became a Baptist minister in 1980, was assistant to longtime pastor Phenues Bush until Johnson became interim pastor last year. He recalled when the church moved to its new sanctuary on Christmas Day 1983.

"It was 20 degrees below zero," Johnson recalled with a smile. "We had Sunday school across the street in the old sanctuary and the furnace went out."

In 1991, a food pantry opened to the east of the sanctuary. The pantry, which is open by appointment, serves on average 45 families each month.

In addition, people appear at the church, from time to time, in need of money for rent, utility payments or gasoline or because their kids are in trouble, Johnson and Thompson Fletcher said. The church tries to help.

Furthermore, Johnson, who was diagnosed in 2015 with lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes), likes to remind people to get their yearly physicals and health screenings.

"When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, one thing that helped me  besides my faith  was the people in this church," Johnson said. Johnson, whose cancer is in remission, returns the favor by getting out messages of hope and wellness.

"Sometimes, you need to meet a person's (physical) needs first before you can reach them spiritually," Thompson Fletcher said.

In 2001, the 1983 sanctuary became the church's educational center and a larger sanctuary opened at 509 W. Jackson St.

When Thompson Fletcher relocated to Bloomington from Seattle four years ago, she searched for a church home.

"I was looking for a Bible teaching, preaching and believing church that had a family atmosphere," she said.

"Before I came here, it was my prayer that God would lead me to the right church home," Thompson Fletcher said.

"When I came here, I felt immediately that this was where I needed to join," Thompson Fletcher said. "I felt welcomed and felt that this was a place where I could grow spiritually and could get to work.

"This is a multi-generational church where everyone has a role," she said. "The children have a voice and the elders are honored and looked to for guidance. I felt there was a place for me here."

"For us, the church is that one sure thing you can always count on, where you can find hope and encouragement and be renewed. That's why this church has been around for 125 years and will be here 125 years from now," Thompson Fletcher said.

"People need that (hope and encouragement)  especially today," Thompson Fletcher said.

Union Missionary's weeks remain busy with worship service and Sunday school on Sundays; Sunday school teachers' meeting on Monday nights; laymen and laywomen meetings on Tuesday nights; prayer service noon Wednesdays; Bible study Wednesday nights and choir rehearsal Saturday.

"We have come by faith," Thompson Fletcher said.

"If people would accept Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior, it would mean a better society," Johnson said. "If we follow His teachings, it would mean more love and less hate, more cooperation and no wars, and people would seek His counsel before they made decisions that would affect somebody else."

"We still have a lot of work to do," Johnson said.
New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday hit out at those killing in the name of "Gau Raksha", saying, "When mob frenzy becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect."



In the light of several incidents of lynching over the past couple of years, the President asked: "Are we vigilant enough to save the basic tenets of our time?"



"I believe that vigilance by citizens and the media can act as the biggest deterrent to forces of darkness and backwardness," he added.



Mukherjee also said that one cannot obliterate one's duty towards the issue, saying, "Posterity will demand an explanation from us about what we have done. I raise this question within myself."



The president also appealed to the media to remain constantly vigilant saying it is because of it that democracy survives.



"You must rise to preserve and ensure human dignity is maintained, slavery is kept away. You will have to maintain your vigilance," Mukherjee said.



"I do believe that citizen's vigilance, intellectual vigilance and media vigilance can act as the biggest deterrent to the forces of darkness and backwardness," he said.



President Mukherjee's comments on the spiralling violence against the minorities came two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took the "cow vigilantes" to task while speaking in Gujarat.



Killing people in the name of gau bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve of, Modi had said on Thursday.



The issue of cow-protection has come to the centre stage as a number of people, many of them Muslims, have been lynched, beaten and intimidated for transporting cows and other cattle. Even government rules regarding cattle slaughter have added to the atmosphere of fear and confusion.



However, the Prime Ministers warning seemed to have had a little effect as just hours after his speech, Alimuddin, a meat trader, was lynched in Jharkhands Ramgarh.



Junaid, a 15-year-old boy from Haryana, was stabbed to death by a mob on a train over the suspicion that he was carrying beef.



In April 2017, Pehlu Khan, a 55-year-old farmer from Haryana, was also murdered by cow protectors in Rajasthan while transporting cows legally purchased from a market in Jaipur.



Mohammad Akhlaque, a resident of Bisara village in Greater Noida was lynched in 2015 on suspicion of storing beef in his fridge.



Other communities have also suffered violence at the hands of the cow protectors.



Banjara villagers in Rajasthan, whose traditional occupation is buying cattle and selling it for agricultural purposes, were assaulted in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan.



Gau rakshaks have become so brazen that earlier this month they assaulted a team of animal husbandry officials from Tamil Nadu who were transporting cattle in Barmer.



(With inputs from PTI)


: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for creating four big Indian accounting firms that are counted among the world's Big-8 even as he cautioned CAs against misuse of their all-powerful signature.He said the signature of a chartered accountant is more powerful than even that of a prime minister and the government also believes the accounts signed by them."Your signature carries immense faith, please do not break that trust that is placed in you," Modi told the CA community while talking about old women and other people investing in mutual funds and other schemes on the basis of their faith in the reports signed by the auditors.Referring to the 'Big 4' -- a term used for the world's four biggest audit firms -- the prime minister said there are so many accounting firms in India but none of them has managed to find a place among the top global players."People talk of the Big 4 accounting firms. Sadly, there is no Indian firm there. By 2022, let us have a Big 8, where 4 firms are Indian," Modi said while addressing the CAs on the Foundation Day of the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants in India).The top global accountancy firms include PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG.Modi said CAs also have a big role to play post the GST rollout and also in the context of the new insolvency and bankruptcy law.He said a new India is waiting and the CAs have a big responsibility as they form a key pillar of the Indian economy.Modi also exhorted CAs to work towards bringing their clients to the path of honesty, rather than helping them avoid paying taxes."Like the lawyers did during the freedom struggle, I urge the CAs to take the lead in the journey towards India's economic growth," he said."We will always remember how the community of professionals took a lead during the freedom struggle of India," he added."The CA community looks after the economic health of the society," he said, while equating their role to that of the doctors."Parliament has given you a big responsibility of certifying and auditing the accounts... You are tasked to ensure that the economic health of the society remains fine. You form a big pillar of the country's economy," he said.
Bengaluru: Meira Kumar, the oppositions presidential nominee, on Saturday asserted that she was not a "scapegoat" in the upcoming presidential election 2017, as she was fighting for an ideology.



Anybody fighting for an ideology and appealing to the voice of conscience cannot be a scapegoat. I am a fighter and I will fight and I am sure that many will join me in this fight," she said in response to a question whether she was being made a scapegoat in the presidential election.



Union minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale had on Friday taken a jibe at the Congress saying it was using Kumar as a "scapegoat" by fielding her as the opposition candidate in the July 17 presidential election.



Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker and the daughter of iconic Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram, was speaking to reporters after meeting the Congress MPs and MLAs at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office here.



Seventeen opposition parties have fielded Kumar as their joint candidate in the presidential election against NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.



To a question on her not having the support of enough lawmakers, Kumar said she was fighting the poll on values and principles which were "sacred" to the people of the country.



Wherever I go, people tell me that I do not have the numbers. If I do not have the numbers, why don't you round up the figures and declare the results? Why have the elections?" she wondered.



Pointing out that she launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, Kumar said, "I am carrying forward those values and principles which are sacred to most of my countrymen and women.



"Someone has to take them up. I am taking up your fight also....you want me to withdraw? Do you want me to get defeated? I am simply fighting."



Kumar also met former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H D Deve Gowda and sought his party's support to her candidature.



Asked about the presidential poll turning into a "Dalit contest", she said it was "shameful" that a supreme election to the post of President was being painted in this manner.



"We have to come out of this mentality....even in 2017, people with high qualifications are talking about castes. When both the sides had fielded candidates from higher castes in the past, no one discussed about it. We were not even aware of their castes. We were only aware of their accomplishments, experience and capabilities and only those things were discussed.



"When the contest is between me and Kovind, our caste is being discussed and there is no other talk. Where are we today? Where are we heading?" she wondered.



Noting that in today's era, everyone craved for quality, Kumar said, "Our thinking needs to become good as well." Asked if she would meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the run-up to the election, Kumar said she had written a letter to him and would decide on meeting him when she visited the state.



Going against the decision of its alliance partners, the RJD and the Congress, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) has decided to back the candidature of former Bihar governor Kovind. Kumar, the opposition's presidential nominee, also hails from Bihar.



When pointed out that like her, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also been speaking about development based on Mahatma Gandhi's ideologies, Kumar said Gandhiji's ideology was that of "secularism".



"We do not just have to be tolerant towards the other religions, but be respectful towards them. That was Gandhiji's ideology and we have always carried that forward," she said.
Beijing: China has released a map to back its claim that Indian troops transgressed into the disputed Doklam area of the Sikkim sector, days after releasing photographs of alleged Indian incursion into the area, which it claims as part of Chinese territory.



In the map, released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, a blue arrow with markings in Chinese, points Indian troops alleged "transgression" into the area to prevent the PLA troops from building a road.



The map shows Doklam, a disputed territory between China and Bhutan, as part of Chinese territory. In an unprecedented move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Thursday displayed two photographs of the alleged Indian "incursion" into the area during a media briefing.



Later, the ministry uploaded two photographs on its website. One photo showed two bulldozers stated to be that of the Indian military while another showed one bulldozer. A red line in the photos was showed as "Chinese side of the border".



A standoff erupted between the two militaries after the Indian Army blocked construction of the road by China in the disputed Doklam area.



Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.



China alleged that the Indian troops "trespassed" the recognised delineated boundary between China and India on June 18.



India on Friday had expressed deep concern over China constructing the road in the disputed area and said it had conveyed to Beijing that such an action would represent a significant change of status quo with "serious" security implications for India.



India's reaction follows a face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the area, prompting Beijing to take a tough stance and demand withdrawal of Indian troops from the Sikkim sector as a precondition for "meaningful dialogue" to resolve the situation.



The stand-off between the Indian and Chinese troops led to the cancellation of the Kailash Mansarovar yatra through Nathu La in Sikkim.
: Complaining of a busy Saturday? Then you don't even know about the schedule of Chartered Accountants who are dealing with hundreds of queries on Goods and Services Tax (GST) since it was launched in a midnight function at the central hall of Parliament.Hours after describing GST as 'Good and Simple Tax' in his speech at Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was headed to meet hundreds of CAs at an event to mark the 68th Chartered Accountants Day. CAs, on the other hand, have been busy clearing doubts of people around the new taxation regime.News18 spoke to a number of CAs to find about the first query or assignment they received after the GST launch.While some received post-midnight panic calls, others were 'forcefully' added to WhatsApp groups to listen to the complaints and questions on invoicing, pricing or compensating the loss over an old stock.CA Tanmay Gupta said there is a sense of confusion among businesses. "We have been busy for the past three months, but after the roll out I have been getting calls since early morning. Most of the calls are about the format of invoice," he said."Also, we are being dragged into various WhatsApp groups to clear the air about registration, billing etc," Gupta added.There are two kinds of social media groups, he explained, "One that you voluntarily join to be able to professionally give time to the questions, and the other is involuntary, when someone else adds you without your consent. There are tens of such groups on GST. I woke up being added to some of them. In the second category, I choose between ignoring and replying, depending upon the severity of a question."ALSO READ: GST Launch: President Pranab Mukherjee Recalls 'Contentious Issues' Raised by PM Narendra Modi as Gujarat CM There are many other WhatsApp groups named 'One Nation One Tax', 'Confusion Over GST' etc.CA Shashank Agarwal said he has not slept since last night. There is so much confusion about some rules and regulations. My first call came at 12:30am, right after the GST launch, he said."How will we export on the first day of July?" was my first query. This is because some of the exports related provisions are not clear. There is confusion about aspects like registration. The law says, 'no registration is needed for the companies with under Rs 20 lakh turnover, but the interpretation does not say this."CA Aman Agarwal got his first call while he was watching the GST launch function live on TV. How should we prepare the invoice tomorrow morning?"I know the business of this HR consulting firm well and was able to guide them instantly. But there are many others who are calling me after getting my number from various references. They are looking for a quick and simple answer. But things are more complicated than that. I am struggling to respond to my clients, how will I managed all these new calls," Agarwal said.CA Mayank Goel is focusing on anti-profiteering clause within GST framework. "For the past two months this is what we are doing. After the launch, there have been multiple queries on anti-profiteering law, which requires understanding and calculation," he said. "I am working on the pricing and clearing air around it. Wholesalers and distributors are calling to find ways to compensate for the loss incurred on their old stock." The SME segment has quite a good number of problems, he added.Another CA, Puneet Agarwal, was travelling and landed in Delhi on Saturday morning. As soon as he landed at 9 am, he got a call from a builder who was trying to figure out various GST slabs that affect him."There is ambiguity in the sector, and different rules apply in different scenarios. This is being discussed in great deal," he said.Another CA working on weekend is Varun Goel. "We are working on GST registration with our clients. There is confusion about maintaining accounts, format of the invoice, its impact and reconciliation. Since early morning all of us are busy interpreting the law and answering WhatsApp group messages related to GST," he said.
New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday slammed the culture of vigilante violence and said it was being actively supported by those who are supposed to enforce the law and that the nation was facing a great challenge in the form of domestic misrule.



She said India has reached a crossroads marked by increasing threats of authoritarianism and bigotry and the inclusive conception of the country was "under attack".



We are in a war of ideas. We wage this war to preserve our ideals, which have built India up as a model of democracy, diversity and co-existence. When these ideals are threatened, India itself is in danger. And if we do not raise our voices, if we do not speak up, our silence will be taken as consent, Gandhi said.



She said the press was being pressured to obey and applaud rather than to question and speaking the truth was the imperative of the present age.



Gandhi was speaking at a function here where President Pranab Mukherjee released a commemorative publication of the National Herald newspaper, which was run by the Congress, on 70 years of Indias Independence.



"The National Herald evokes a time when nationalism fought foreign rule. But domestic misrule is as great a challenge for our country," she said.



At a time when the inclusive conception of our nation is under attack, and the press is pressured to obey and applaud rather than to question, speaking truth to power is the imperative of our age, she said.



Gandhi said "the tried and tested idea of India has been thrown fundamentally into question by rising intolerance, by malevolent forces that tell Indians what they cannot eat, who they cannot love, what they cannot say-indeed, what thoughts they cannot hold".



All this, she said, was "being encouraged by a culture of vigilante violence actively supported by those who are supposed to enforce the law. Such examples assault our consciousness almost daily."



The Congress chief said the 'National Herald' was a reminder of "what is precious about the India which its founders fought to free".



The Congress chief called for working together "to safeguard an India in which each person's voice can be raised and heard -- most of all the voices of those who question and disagree."



She recalled the rich legacy left behind by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and B R Ambedkar, saying it has stood the test of time.

It is the irony of present times that their work is now sought to be either obliterated or in some cases appropriated by individuals and groups who are in direct opposition to their beliefs and principles.



"Those who stood aside when history was painfully made by sacrifice and struggle, those who, indeed, had little faith in the Constitution adopted by our country, are now seeking to create an India completely at odds with the one that saw the light of Independence on August 15, 1947," Gandhi said.



In remarks apparently aimed at the BJP, she said, Let us not forget that they made no sacrifices to shape India's destiny.



She said though their language is modern, they seek to take India backward, to further their narrow sectarian vision.



"Their modern jargon conceals pre-modern beliefs, concepts that are at odds with progressive and inclusive thought... It is our duty to pull away the hypocrisy and reveal the reality lurking beneath," the Congress chief said.



Calling for "preserving the flame of our national ideals", she said, "If we accept without scrutiny, without question, without a challenge the fallacies and follies we are witness to today, we will leave for our children a land of injustice, a legacy of trauma, and a country divided and broken."



Gandhi said one has to fight the daunting battle against injustice, against poverty, against prejudice, against patriarchy, against malnutrition, against illiteracy, against communalism, but we must also prevail in this greater war for the soul of our nation.



Ours is a mission to preserve the credibility and sanctity of our institutions in their democratic design", she said, adding "we must fight for Mahatma Gandhi's ideas of truth, Jawaharlal Nehru's celebration of pluralism, Sardar Patel's vision of unity, Dr Ambedkar's legacy of social justice."



Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and a host of Congress leaders, former Ministers and chief ministers, besides former and sitting MPs were present at the function.
New Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday came down heavily on those raising questions over the current spate of lynchings, saying "there were lynchings in 2011, 2012, 2013 as well, but nobody posed a question".



I do not want to undermine lynching incidents, by presenting a comparison. But in 2011, 2012, 13, there were more lynchings each year than in these three years (of NDA rule). But questions were not asked then. How are questions being asked now? IANS quoted him as saying.



Shah was addressing a party programme in Goa capital Panaji. Questioning journalists who are raising their voice, BJP President asked: "What is this fashion? I can understand about the citizens but why are journalists getting caught in such a flow?"



Shah said that Mohammad Akhlaq - who was killed by a frenzied mob for allegedly storing beef in his refrigerator - died in Uttar Pradesh when Samajwadi Party was in power. "It was their responsibility and yet there is a protest against Modi government," Shah added.



Assuaging the apprehensions of the minority community, Shah asserted that his party was committed to governance and treated all the communities equally.



"As far as the issue of beef ban is concerned, it is not the BJP which has imposed that. There is already a prohibition on the slaughter of cows in Goa (gau hatya bandi)," he said.



Responding to a query on the minorities under the BJP rule, Shah said the party has been in power in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where the population of minorities was more than the overall population of Goa.



"Gujarat, MP, Rajasthan have minorities more than the overall population of Goa. There has been no problems in those states," he said.



Shah also raised the pitch against the separatists in Kashmir, saying for the first time they were facing the heat and added that the security forces would soon take control of the situation in the Valley.



"You can't assess the situation in Kashmir in the backdrop of the happenings of the last 4-5 months. Kashmir has been witnessing these issues since 1989," he said.



"If you look at the scenario there since 1989, you will see certain phases running for months, which will make you feel that Kashmir has gone out of our hands. But Kashmir has not gone till now and will never go," he said.




Apple recently celebrated 10 years of iPhone. And this is also one of the biggest years for Apple iPhone and everyone is eagerly waiting what Apple plans to do with this years iPhone. While many are suggesting that Apple will name it iPhone 8, there are plenty of speculations that also suggest that it will just be called the New iPhone or iPhone 10th Anniversary Edition. As usual, like every year a couple of months before the new iPhone is unveiled, there are plenty of leaks rumours and speculations as to what Apple will do in terms of design, firepower and camera of their phones. Samsung is also making a big OLED factory to meet the demand that's expected to rise for this year's iPhone. So, one thing is for sure, Display on this year's iPhone is something that we'll all be looking forward to. Samsung with its Samsung Galaxy S8 has already shown the world that displays's can be way more than just a flat top that lights up. On this year's Apple iPhone 8 we expect Apple to take that a notch up. Now if the past is taken as a benchmark, then between 80-90% of-of these rumours and leaks are usually present in the end product. Many leaks also suggest that there will be a bezel-less design on this year's iPhone 8.At this year's Apple developer conference, WWDC, Apple has shown their interest in Augmented Reality and AI. The iOS 11 will fuel these new possibilities on your next iPhone, but what irks us a little is the placement of the dual-camera on the new iPhone. It's vertical and whatever leaks we have seen so far, in our opinion look horrible. It's also a bit unbelievable as Apple is known for making beautiful looking simple design language phones. Something this abrupt in terms of back camera design is unheard of, remember we were all led to believe that the OnePlus 5 will come with a vertical camera? Horizontal placement for Dual-camera modules on a smartphone really works great as there can be a seamless eye-level that's maintained for the software to render two images or create that seamless bokeh effect.While many leaksters have posted a picture or two of the iPhone 8, a recent YouTube video is displaying the Apple flagship in all its glory. A video posted by Tiger Mobiles on June 28 displays a black Apple iPhone 8 from all angles. As per the description provided in the video, the model used in the video was manufactured using CNC process based upon the 3D CAD which came directly from the new iPhones manufacturing facility. Apart from a vertical Dual-Camera setup, the video shows dimensions of the smartphone through a Vernier calliper as well, measuring it at 143.05 x 71.03 x 7.50 mm. The camera bump showed a thickness of 9.10 mm, meaning a 1.60 mm protrusion for the iPhone 8 dual camera. A length comparison towards the end of the video shows the iPhone 8 to be slightly bigger than iPhone 7 and smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus. However, the video description clearly mentions that some details of the smartphone may change by the times of it is launched officially.
Beijing: China's President Xi Jinping warned Saturday that any challenge to Beijing's control over Hong Kong crossed a "red line", as thousands calling for more democracy marched through the city 20 years since it was handed back by Britain.Xi spoke in a televised address after swearing in new Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, who is already being cast by critics as a China stooge in a city where many are angry at Beijing's tightening grip on the freedoms of its nearly eight million people.A huge security operation shut down large parts of Hong Kong for Xi's three-day visit, reflecting Beijing's concern that there should be no embarrassment ahead of a key Communist Party congress later this year which is expected to cement his position as the most powerful Chinese leader in a generation.Xi said Saturday that any threat to China's sovereignty and security or to the power of the central government "crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible".He also warned against anyone endangering Hong Kong's constitution or using the city "to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland".The message comes as young activists have emerged calling for self-determination or even full independence for Hong Kong, which has infuriated Beijing.Just hours after Xi left the city Saturday afternoon, thousands marched from Victoria Park to government offices in central Hong Kong in an annual pro-democracy protest which also called for the release of cancer-stricken Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was given medical parole earlier this week but remains on the mainland."Suppression by the regime has never let up and I don't see any end in sight," said activist Nathan Law, Hong Kong's youngest legislator, who was arrested Wednesday over an anti-China sit-in and attended the protest after being released Friday.Xi insisted that Hong Kong had "more extensive democratic rights and freedoms than at any other time in its history" in his speech and pledged to uphold its semi-autonomous status.But Beijing's foreign ministry declared Friday that the document signed by Britain and China which initiated the handover "is no longer relevant".The Sino-British Joint Declaration gave Hong Kong rights unseen on the mainland through a "one country, two systems" agreement, lasting 50 years.There are growing fears that freedoms guaranteed by the handover deal are now under threat, with Chinese authorities accused of abductions and interfering in a range of areas, from politics to media and education.Xi cautioned that political conflict would "severely hinder" Hong Kong's economic and social development and called for education measures to promote China's national culture and history.A proposal to include patriotic education in Hong Kong schools met with huge protests in 2012 and has since been shelved.Pro-China supporters jeered and booed Saturday's democracy march, shouting: "Long live the communist party! This is China's soil!"Earlier in the day, loyalists had also targeted a small peaceful march by activists in memory of the victims of Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Leading activist Joshua Wong accused "pro-China gangsters and mobs" for instigating the attack.Democracy campaigners including Wong were taken away in police vans, with two of them saying they had been hit by officers inside, before all were released. Activists said they had been repeatedly targeted during Xi's visit."What we've experienced this weekend was a whole new level of intimidation and direct violence that's unprecedented," said campaigner Avery Ng of League of Social Democrats.Lam's swearing in by Xi was deeply symbolic for frustrated activists who pushed for fully free leadership elections during the 2014 Umbrella Movement rallies but failed to win concessions.Those protests were sparked by a Beijing-backed political reform package which said Hong Kong could have a public vote for leader, but that candidates must be vetted first.The plan was voted down by pro-democracy lawmakers and the reform process has since stalled, with Lam making no commitment to revisit it any time soon. Lam was selected by a pro-China committee, as were her predecessors.
: The leaning minaret of Mosul's Grand al-Nuri Mosque survived conquests by the Mongols and the Ottomans, neglect under Saddam Hussein, and air raids during the Iran-Iraq War and the US invasion in 2003.But after three years of Islamic State rule, it is now little more than a pile of stones at the centre of a shattered city.By all accounts except their own, the jihadists rigged the mosque and its 850-year-old tower with explosives and blew them up last week as advancing Iraqi forces came within steps of the complex.A Reuters visit to the site on Friday, a day after Iraq's military recaptured it, confirmed the extent of destruction: the 45-metre (148 ft) al-Hadba minaret had been reduced to a stump while the mint green dome was the only part of the prayer hall still standing.Fighting raged on a few blocks away. Bullets whizzed past the main gate, which is largely intact, and a mortar fell on an adjacent building.Below the mosque's dome in July 2014, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered a Friday sermon presenting himself at the head of a modern-day caliphate spanning swathes of territory which the al Qaeda offshoot group had just seized in Iraq and neighbouring Syria."I am your leader, though I am not the best of you," he said, wearing the black turban and robes denoting a claim to descend from the Prophet Mohammad.Within months, Islamic State was carrying out and inspiring militant attacks in places as far abreast as Paris, London and California. An international military coalition led by the United States quickly coalesced to confront the group.Three years on, the inscribed pulpit where he spoke lies in ruins. The mosque grounds are covered in stone and concrete, and a segment of a secondary minaret is one of the only discernable objects in the rubble. The risk of unexploded ordnance or mines prevented a thorough inspection of the site's interior.Baghdadi's appearance at the Nuri mosque was the first time he revealed himself to the world, and the footage broadcast then is to this day the only video recording of him as "caliph".The Nuri mosque was built in 1172-73. (He long ago left the fighting in Mosul and Syria's Raqqa to local commanders and is believed to be hiding in the border area between the two countries, according to U.S. and Iraqi military sources. He has frequently been reported killed, including last month by Russia and Iran.After his speech in 2014, Baghdadi descended from the pulpit to lead his followers in worship, standing in a prayer niche which is now just barely recognizable amid the wreckage.Baghdadi's project, to revive the Islamic caliphate which mostly disappeared with the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, is also crumbling.The group still rules over an area which by one estimate is equivalent to the size of Belgium. But experts say its territorial losses undermine its legitimacy and attractiveness to potential recruits who once flocked from across the world in the tens of thousands.The Nuri mosque was named after Nuruddin al-Zanki, a noble who fought the early crusaders from a fiefdom that covered territory in modern-day Turkey, Syria and Iraq. It was built in 1172-73, shortly before his death, and housed an Islamic school.By the time renowned medieval traveller and scholar Ibn Battuta visited two centuries later, the minaret was leaning. The tilt gave the landmark its popular name: the hunchback.The mosque's military and religious history embodied the spirit of Mosul, a diverse but predominately Sunni Muslim city which supplied Iraq's armed forces with officers for much of the 20th century.The Hadba minaret, whose tilt begs comparisons to Italy's Tower of Pisa, was built with seven bands of decorative brickwork in complex geometric patterns also found in Persia and Central Asia.Only slivers of that design are now visible among the rubble. The eight-month-old U.S.-backed battle for Mosul has also destroyed homes and basic infrastructure across the city and displaced nearly a million residents.Civilians, mostly women and children, rushed past the demolished mosque as they crossed the frontline towards Iraqi forces. They were thirsty and tired, and some were injured.Across the street, among the detritus of war, laid the partial remains of an Islamic State fighter dressed in red clothing.
DECATUR  Shanell Oldham glanced in her rearview mirror, then peered left to see how much more train blocked the railroad crossing on 27th Street, near Kile Street.

I might just turn around and go home, Shanell said to her husband Sercey Oldham, sitting in the passenger seat. This is an everyday thing. Im going to have to change my route.

The Oldhams experience is a common one in Decatur, where a high concentration of rail is crucial to the city's economy. Waiting on trains might be annoying, but without them, Decatur and Macon County would never have grown from a mudhole in the prairie to a major hub of industry.

The railroad was Decaturs largest employer for nearly a century and was the reason Augustus Staley brought his company, A.E. Staley Manufacturing, here in 1912. Today the railroad brings fuel to Decaturs main industries, including Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) and Tate & Lyle, which bought Staley's company in 1988, and leaves with millions of dollars of products being shipped all over the country. Its a major facet in developing Decaturs Midwest Inland Port, the shipping center for both domestic and international goods that has been touted by city leaders as key to the area's growth.

Because of Decatur's central location and proximity to larger areas of population, the city has long been and remains a nationally relevant railroad city. Not many, if any, communities the size of Decatur have three Class 1 railroads, three rail yards near each other and several large multinational industrial and manufacturing companies operating in an urban setting, according to the Decatur Area Transportation Efficiency Study (DATES), performed in 2013.

With the benefits of trains come irritations, too. In the 2013 study, nearly all Decatur residents  97 percent  said they had been stopped or delayed by a train in the last 30 days.

Drivers learn ways both legal and illegal to circumvent the trains, and those careless around railroad crossings put their lives at risk. But most people accept the trains as part of living in Decatur.

Oh yeah, I understand it, Sercey Oldham said. Its ADM. We have to have trains.

Should I stay or should I go?

Unlike many towns, in which the trains are just passing through, Decatur is a destination point for trains.

Decatur Public Works director Rick Marley said trains stop and back up at crossings because the containers have been unloaded, and the cars carrying them are being switched out. Trains have to back up and pull onto different rails to be switched, and some of them are large, reaching as many as 100 cars.

The sheer size of the trains adds to the delay, Marley said.

The switches can be especially infuriating for drivers. Danny and Kim Roberts sat in their car staring straight ahead on 27th near Kile. The train in front of them wasnt long, 20 cars or so, and it had almost passed the crossing, but then stopped with the last car blocking their path. It began backing up, gaining speed until again stopping again, this time with the front of the train blocking the Roberts' car.

I see this all the time, said Danny Roberts, who has lived with Kim in the area of the crossing for 14 years. This one is the worst."

The intersection on 27th near Kile has 33 train crossings per week, with 3.4 hours of delay per week, according to DATES.

Everyone has a different strategy on how to get around the train. Danny Roberts said he waits. Shanell Oldham does not.

I usually pull up and sit there for a minute contemplating about it: Should I turn around or should I wait?, she said. I usually do a U-turn and try to find another way.

No way out

Nowhere in Decatur is there as much train traffic as the intersection of Faries Parkway and Brush College Road. East Faries has four tracks as it leads up to Brush College, then one that runs parallel to Brush College. It rates as the busiest crossing in Decatur, with an average of more than 200 crossings a week and 17.5 hours of delays per week. Like at 27th, near Kile, theres a lot of stopping, backing up and pulling forward before the trains finally move.

For any newcomers to Decatur, some of the key bits of information they need to learn are where are the underpasses and ways around the trains, Marley said. There are really only a couple spots that you cant find a way out of. Brush College and Faries is one of them. Theres just no good way to avoid it.

Shelby Perez knows that well. She, along with her husband, Chriss, and 2-year-old daughter Liliana have lived on 32nd Street between Faries and Division for three years. Shelby said dealing with Faries/Brush College train traffic is a constant battle.

Every Sunday, we go to gtChurch, so we have to go that way, and two or three weeks ago we got stopped for 45 minutes, Shelby Perez said. I kept saying to myself that I was going to turn around, then I would think, oh, its about past, then it would stop and back up again.

The Perezes also have to deal with the crossing on 27th, near Kile, because thats where Chriss works.

We have to leave early if were going to be taking Brush College or Im taking him to work  its just what we do now, Shelby Perez said.

Shelby Perez said she knows her way around the train crossings in Decatur, but much of the time chooses to wait rather than drive an extra five minutes to get around the train.

I just take a little break from my day  listen to the radio and play on my phone, she said. Its a nice little break from my toddler before we get home and go inside.

Besides, Ill probably just run into another train. Around here, about any direction you go, you can get stopped by a train.

Calling all cars

For local emergency personnel, for whom every second counts, navigating the trains is a concern.

Getting blocked by trains happens more than we would like for it to happen, said Ed Aukamp, paramedic field supervisor for Decatur Ambulance Service.

Emergency services in Decatur make every effort to avoid blocked crossings. The ambulance service and fire department have several stations around Decatur, and can call in help from another station if a train is blocking the way to a call.

Any crew on the streets that notices a train at a high-traffic intersection like 22nd and Eldorado will get on the radio and notify the other rigs out on the street that a train is there not moving, Aukamp said. Sometimes well even go ahead and dispatch a second unit, and whoever gets there the quickest handles the call. Its all about getting to the patient as quick as we can.

Aukamp, Decatur Fire Chief Jeff Abbott and Macon County sheriff's Lt. Jamie Belcher all said their employees are trained on alternate routes to avoid high-traffic railroad tracks.

We teach the new deputies coming in, whether theyre from Decatur or not, the hot spot areas with a lot of train traffic and tell them to avoid those, Belcher said. And we teach them to look a few cars ahead and anticipate where tracks are and look to see if the lights are on, then take an alternate route rather than get all the way up to the tracks and be stuck.

Aukamp said the ability to find alternate routes to avoid trains is part of the paramedics driving test. Abbott said avoiding routes with heavy traffic is part of the fire departments strategy.

The trains are an issue, but we account for them and do everything we can to avoid the crossings in high-traffic areas in the first place, Abbott said.

Safety dance

In the last month, a van/train collision near Nokomis resulted in four deaths and a Bement 14-year-old was killed when his bicycle was struck a train.

But Belcher said deaths on railroads aren't spiking. Statewide in 2015, 31 were killed and 80 injured in 140 crossing collisions. In Macon County, there have been a total of 14 collisions between 2011 and 2016, according to the Illinois Commerce Commission.

The number of train accidents has leveled off and even gone down, said Belcher, who participates every year in National Rail Safety Week.

Belcher said Brush College and Faries, along with some of the intersections on Illinois 48 headed south out of Decatur, are historically the most dangerous.

The trains arent moving fast (at Brush College and Faries), but if the lights are red and theres no train visible, people will try to blow through there and a train crosses right when they do and they get hit, Belcher said. A lot of times people will get distracted inside their vehicles and dont see or hear the trains.

To stay safe around trains, drive slow near railroad crossing, especially at night, look both ways before crossing and dont try to beat the train.

A common Decatur practice is racing to the next intersection ahead of a train to try cross ahead of it. Even Shelby Perez, who said shes careful to be safe around trains, has done that.

Belcher said hes also seen people do it, and said its not dangerous as long as the driver doesnt speed and obeys the law at the crossing.

Once the lights start flashing, you have to treat it like a stop sign at an intersection, Belcher said. You have to come to a complete stop and look both ways. If its safe to go across, you can go. But you have to make sure its safe. If that train is getting close or moving fast, wait.

Railroad days

Theres a good reason why there are so many railroad crossings in Decatur, and many other cities and towns across the state.

In 1834, Gov. Joseph Duncan proposed a network of highways, canals and railroads in Illinois that included a railroad line running through Decatur. At that time, Decatur had 300 to 400 people.

Decatur was an agricultural community in its early years, with grain and livestock farmers looking for a way to get their products to market. Original settlers thought the Sangamon River would be the path, but it wasnt wide enough. Grain farmers hauled their product by horse or oxen, and livestock farmers drove livestock overland to St. Louis or Chicago.

After a wait that lasted more than a decade and included a heated race between the Great Western Railroad and Illinois Central, the first train arrived in Decatur courtesy of the Great Western on April 15, 1854.

The population had grown to 1,500 by then, and boomed following the railroads arrival. As the number of tracks and routes increased in the second half of the 1800s, so did Decaturs population. By 1907, it had swelled to more than 20,000.

The June 9, 1907, Decatur Herald reported: The coming of the railroads in 1853 had much to do with making Decatur a possibility. Being an inland town, away from the arteries of trade, there was nothing to materially assist its growth. The crossing of the Illinois Central and the Wabash lines within the limits of this city made the place of some importance.

By 1925, Decaturs population had grown to more than 50,000, with 3,500 employed at Wabash Railroad Co.  formerly the Great Western Railroad. Decatur was the hub of the Wabash, which was the single largest business in Decatur. In 1926, an estimated 13,000 of the 50,000 in Decatur directly depended on Wabash.

But the rise of the automobile caused noncommuter rail passenger travel to decline sharply in the 1940s and 50s, finally slowing the growth of the rail industry. By 1953, Wabashs number of Decatur employees had declined to 2,450. In 1964, when Norfolk & Western absorbed Wabash, there were 1,425 employees.

Today, the two original rail companies that raced to Decatur are still here, under different names. The Wabash is now Norfolk Southern Corp., and the Illinois Central is Canadian National. Norfolk Southern remains one of Decaturs largest companies, with 500 employees  the 10th-most in the city.

The railroad in Decatur wasnt built in the middle of the city  the city hadnt expanded out to where ADM and Tate & Lyle are now, said Nicole Bateman, executive director of the Midwest Inland Port. The airport was way out of town, even in the 1960s and '70s. There were rails going through the city. But the places where theyre starting and stopping, there wasnt any city out there at that time. The railroad was there first.

Money train

While railroads will never reach the amount of trains on tracks it had in the early 1900s, the industry stabilized and has growth potential in Decatur.

In fact, rail traffic is a key aspect of the Economic Development Corporation of Decatur & Macon Countys plan to grow the Midwest Inland Port in Decatur.

The railroad is one of the largest economic drivers we have in the community, Bateman said. Companies locating here can ship their goods domestically and globally, which is something you cant do from a lot of places.

Trains going through Decatur service a variety of companies, though ADM and Tate & Lyle are the largest. They carry everything from raw materials, like wood, grain and limestone, to finished food products like high fructose corn syrup, vegetable oil and sucralose, to fuel like ethanol.

All three railroad lines that go through Decatur  Norfolk Southern, Canadian National and CSX  support the Midwest Inland Port. Together, the three railroads employ around 610 employees at their Decatur operations.

The railroad is an economic engine in Decatur, CN spokesperson Patrick Waldron said. It connects ADM and other customers in Decatur around the country and world.

Its a reason were a charter board member with Midwest Inland Port. Were always looking for more business opportunities in the Macon County area, so we want to do what we can to bring businesses there.

Waiting is the hardest part

More rail traffic in Decatur will mean more money, but also more waiting.

The Midwest Inland Port has already increased train traffic, though Bateman said because of the infrastructure already established, the public likely wouldnt notice any increase unless another major company came to Decatur and used the rails.

If you do get stopped for a long period of time, dont call the EDC, or the city, or the police or the sheriffs department. Unlike what is commonly believed in Decatur, there is no law or ordinance on how long a train can stop traffic.

The city may have had authority at one time  there was a provision in the city code that said trains couldnt block a crossing for more than 15 minutes, Marley said. But upon research, we had no authority and we removed that section. The city cant do a single thing about the railroad crossings. The Illinois Commerce Commission is the only body that has the authority to regulate the railroad.

Belcher said its common for the sheriffs department to get calls reporting trains blocking intersections.

All we can tell them is, Sorry, but theres not a lot we can do for you,  Belcher said. Trust me, the guy sitting at that engine isnt getting a kick out of holding up traffic.

CSX spokesperson Gail Lobin said no railroad wants to block intersections.

We strive to move our freight safely and efficiently through the communities where we operate, Lobin said. We try to be respectful at all times and do our best not to inconvenience the communities we operate in. Sometimes there are operational or mechanical issues, but were always trying to do our best to move things through as quickly as possible.

Marley said for anyone who feels theyve been egregiously inconvenienced, the ICCs website has a section for complaints.

Citizens can file complaints about delays or the roughness of a crossing, Marley said. Theyre more responsive than most people would anticipate.

While waiting for trains will always be a part of living in Decatur, the city of Decatur does have plans to help relieve the worst offender on the list of crossings with long waits  Faries and Brush College. The plan is an overpass that would take traffic over the tracks, which Marley estimated would be a $40 million project.

Thats our No. 1 priority, Marley said. Its a large and expensive project, but its one that needs done.

Until then, drivers will continue to either wait or find alternative routes at Faries and Brush College, as well as the rest of the 243 rail crossings in Macon County.

I think whether we get irritated by the trains or not, we all have an understanding of why theyre here, and why theyre important, Shelby Perez said.


LRPD on scene of reported shooting on 6th at music venue between Louisiana and Center. #ARNews pic.twitter.com/K4mRw5S5fH

 John Kushmaul (@JohnKushmaul) July 1, 2017



We do NOT believe this incident was an active shooter or terror related incident. It appears to have been a dispute at a concert.



 Little Rock Police (@LRpolice) July 1, 2017



Multiple people were shot and several were trampled upon while trying to flee after a shooting inside a nightclub in Arkansas, United States, following a dispute at a concert on Friday night. Cops say that the incident is not terror-related.Police sources said 28 people were shot in the incident at the Power Ultra Lounge in Little Rock.According to media reports, one person was in a critical condition. The other injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. The youngest victim was a 16-year-old.In a tweet police said they did not believe the incident was an active shooting or terror related. They said it appears to have been a dispute at the concert and gunfire was exchanged.More details awaited
Geneva: Nearly half a million Syrians have returned to their homes so far this year, including 440,000 internally displaced people and more than 31,000 returning from neighbouring countries, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.



Most returned to Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus, it said, on the view that security had improved in parts of the country.



"This is a significant trend and a significant number," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a Geneva news briefing.



"Most of these people are returning to check on properties, to find out about family members ... They have their own perceptions about the security situation, real or perceived improvements in areas they are returning to."



He said it was premature to say whether de-escalation zones set up via talks held by Russia, Iran and Turkey in Astana or U.N.-led peace talks in Geneva had accelerated the return trend.



An estimated 6.3 million people remain internally displaced across Syria after more than six years of war, Mahecic said.



A further 5 million are refugees in neighbouring countries.



A survey conducted by the UNHCR in recent weeks showed that more than 80 percent of Syrian refugees expressed their wish to return home, he said.



"Of those, only about 6 percent were considering that to be a possibility in the near future," he said



UNHCR believes that conditions for refugees to return in safety and dignity "are not yet in place in Syria", he added.
Rome: Qatar will reject a series of demands made by several other Arab states, its foreign minister said on Saturday, adding that their ultimatum was aimed not at tackling terrorism but at curtailing his countrys sovereignty.



But Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, speaking to reporters in Rome, said Doha remained ready to sit down and discuss the grievances raised by its Arab neighbours.



The comments came ahead of a deadline set by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt for Doha to accept 13 demands. Officials say they are aimed at ending a rift that erupted last month over accusations that Qatar supports terrorism, charges it denies.



This list of demands is to be rejected, not to be accepted. We are willing to engage in dialogue but under proper conditions, he said.



The demands included severing ties with terrorist groups, closing down the pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite channel, downgrading ties with arch-rival Iran and closing a Turkish air base in Qatar.



Arab states have said the demands are not negotiable and warned that further unspecified measures will follow if Qatar does not comply.



Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar would not close down the Turkish base in his country or shut Al Jazeera as demanded by the Arab countries.



He spoke after arriving in Rome from the United States. Washington is helping Kuwait, which has retained ties with Qatar, to mediate in the dispute.



Earlier on Saturday, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had separate telephone discussions with the leaders of Qatar and Bahrain about the rift and stressed the need for a diplomatic solution.
): Sprawled on the boarded-up balcony of a two-storey house, the barrel of his rifle poked into a hole cut in the wood, the Philippine army sniper calls for quiet before taking his shot."Firing," he says evenly, before the .50 calibre shot rings out, sending tremors through the house. He was firing at a home less than a kilometre (a half mile) away, believed to be a stronghold of Islamist terrorists who have been holed up in Marawi City for over five weeks.A spotter sat next to him, with his scope set into another hole. The two spoke quietly to each other as the sniper took three more shots across the Agus river into the militant-held commercial district of Marawi, now a battleground strewn with debris from ruined buildings. Scores of bodies are rotting in the area, and the stench mixes with the smell of gunpowder.Thousands of soldiers are battling to retake the southern Philippine city, where terrorists loyal to Islamic State launched a lightning strike on May 23.The southern Philippines has been marred for decades by insurgency and banditry. But the intensity of the battle in Marawi and the presence of foreign fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen and Chechnya fighting alongside local terrorists has raised concerns that the region may be becoming a Southeast Asian hub for Islamic State as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria.As troops poured in to contain the siege, few were expecting a slow, difficult and unfamiliar urban war."We are used to insurgencies...but a deployment of this magnitude, this kind of conflict is a challenge for our troops," said Lt Col Christopher Tampus, one of the officers commanding ground operations in Marawi.He said progress in clearing the city has been hindered by militant fire and booby traps like gas tanks rigged with grenades.After weeks of military airstrikes and shelling, Marawi, a lakeside city of around 200,000 is now a ghost town, the centre of which has been reduced to charred rubble and hollow structures. Buildings in the military-controlled areas of the city are still standing but deserted after residents fled.Authorities estimate around 100 to 120 fighters, some of them as young as 16 years, remain holed up in the commercial district of the city, down from around 500 at the beginning of the siege.The fighters are holding around 100 hostages, according to the military, who have been forced to act as human shields, take up arms or become sex slaves.Filipino soldiers rides on a vehicle as government troops continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group in Marawi city, Philippines on July 1, 2017. (Military aircraft drop bombs on the militant zone almost every day. From the outskirts of the city, mortar teams take aim at what they call "ground zero", the heart of the conflict."Mortars are designed to target people and smaller areas than the airstrikes." said mortar specialist Sgt. Jeffery Baybayan, as he jotted down coordinates that come crackling over a radio from an observer closer to the conflict area."Hitting targets accurately can be difficult and we're expending rounds without hitting targets. We are concerned about our own troops that are very close to the enemy area," he added, as the mortars exploded in the city, sending up plumes of thick black smoke.During the day's battle, Tampus received reports that three civilians, trapped for weeks near the fighting, were trying to escape. Several soldiers responded to help rescue them - moving to the area in two lines along the sides of streets to avoid sniper fire.Three civilians - two men and a woman using a walking stick - came out and sat by the side of the street once they were in the military zone."The bombs were so frequent coming from both sides," said Jose Locanas, a 53-year-old Christian man trapped with his wife and friend in his house. "We were caught in the middle."Troops said they received word from their relatives that the three were trapped and managed to escort them out.More than 400 people, including over 300 terrorists, 82 security forces and 44 civilians are known to have died in Marawi.Some of the bodies of civilians were found decapitated and the military has warned the number of residents killed by rebel "atrocities" could rise sharply as troops retake more ground.Every day, troops make announcements through loudspeakers for the terrorists to "surrender now or die". To the trapped civilians, they offer help to get out of the conflict area.Authorities say they believe the terrorists are running out of supplies and ammunition, but they say there is no deadline to retake the city.Tampus, the officer, said when troops reinforcements come into Marawi, they are initially apprehensive because of the high death toll."But once they are here, the discipline kicks in and they are focused," he said.
Sunday, June 25

Arson investigated in house fire case

Decatur authorities are investigating a house fire as a possible arson.

The fire was at 2 a.m. in the 300 block of West Division Street, near North Union Street.

Witnesses told police a black sport-utility vehicle was seen speeding away from the home before an explosion.

A large glass bottle with flammable liquid inside was found, police said. A burn on the front porch rug also was found, according to authorities.

Monday, June 26

Underwood in Decatur

New Illini head basketball coach Brad Underwood arrived in Decatur to meet fans.

Underwood, who was at Oklahoma State and replaces John Groce in Champaign, spoke with donors at The Beach House and to the Illini Club of Decatur at the Knights of Columbus Hall on East Eldorado Street.

Monday was the start of the third day of an eight-week summer semester at the university.

Tuesday, June 27

Wind farm to proceed

A Macon County judge denied a motion to grant summary judgment for three dozen landowners suing to halt a wind turbine project in northwestern Macon County.

Radfords Run Wind Farm is being built north of Warrensburg and west of Maroa.

Tuesdays hearing was about claims that Macon County did not follow due process for notifying landowners near the project.

Wednesday, June 28

Officer-involved shooting report expected

Illinois State Police said a report into an officer-involved shooting on South Webster Street in Decatur is expected within days.

Donald Redmon, 33, of Decatur, was shot in the lower back following a chase May 31. Detective Jeffrey Hockaday is on administrative leave as state authorities determine whether the shooting was justified, which is standard procedure.

Redmon pleaded not guilty to charges.

Thursday, June 29

Habitat expands

The Habitat for Humanity ReStore is growing at 932 E. Wood St. in Decatur.

The organization obtained the building in January 2016. Proceeds fund home projects in the area.

The store sells plumbing, hardware, doors, windows, toilets, vanities, appliances, trim, furniture, housewares and small appliances.

We are able to reach more people and provide more low-cost building materials and furniture, said manager Trina Atterberry.

Friday, June 30

This is the end

Well, that ended with a whimper.

Illinois lawmakers failed to hit a midnight deadline to pass a budget, for the third year in a row.

The state has a $6.2 billion annual deficit now and cant pay basic services, road projects and various other costs.

Without a deal, the United Way reports that 36 percent of all human services agencies in Illinois face closure by year's end.

Lawmakers expect to return to Springfield to work out a spending plan.
DECATUR  For a few hours on Friday, the Masonic Temple served as a forum for young black men to open up about the things that weigh heaviest on them.

That was the primary focus of the "You Men of Judah" conference, an event hosted by Lebanon Seventh Day Adventist Church. More than 50 attendees freely discussed a variety of issues with a panel of community leaders and law enforcement officials at the three-hour event.

Carmen Thomas, a member of Lebanon Church, said that her experience as both a retired social services caseworker and a mother of three sons gave her insight on what many young black men go through in today's society.

Thomas felt compelled to address these issues, and with the help of the church, she organized the event as a way to create a positive dialogue to help foster change in the community.

"We want this to be impactful, informative and inspiring," Thomas said. "At Lebanon SDA Church, we really do care about what's going on in our society."

Topics covered at the event included "Building positive black families and communities" and "What to do when you are stopped by the police?"  an issue which has received nationwide attention over the past few years after the police-involved shootings of Michael Brown in suburban St. Louis, Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, and others.

The event's panel featured the Rev. Courtney Carson, Macon County Sheriff's Deputy Elgin Hawthorne Jr., sheriff's Lt. Antonio Brown, Decatur Police Chief Jim Getz and Lebanon SDA Church Elder Dr. Gordon Gurley.

The event also featured a keynote address from motivational speaker Samuel Acoff, who explained the history behind the Tribe of Judah, the conference's namesake. In the Bible, Judah is one of the 12 tribes of Israel, and is the bloodline of Jesus.

Daniel Lathop of Clinton, 16, said that he feels that many people look down on the black community due to negative stereotypes. He wants to use what he learned at the conference to fight those perceptions.

"We can prove that we are all equal," he said. "You've just got to have some self-respect for yourself."

Thomas said that she and Lebanon Church will consider hosting more community events in the future. While she hoped the "You Men of Judah" conference would be a success, Thomas was pleasantly surprised at how it grew from an idea to reality.

"I had no idea that it would evolve into this," Thomas said.
He Lost 30 Years of Memories.

His Wife Came Up With a Plan
Looks like someone's been playing too much Monopoly. That someone, per CBS News, is a man in Minnesota who was arrested on a controlled-substance warrant in his name during an unrelated traffic stop. As Deputy Mike Vai of the Dakota County Sheriff's Office asked the man to come out of the car, the unidentified "smirking" suspect told Vai to dig into his front pocket. While Vai pondered over what he would find, the actual item was a surprise: a Monopoly Chance "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

"I've been carrying it on me ever since I found out there was a warrant, just in case," the man told Vai, who was still obligated to carry out the arrest. He did give the card back to the man, though. "Who knows? God forbid you might find a cooler cop," Vai says he told the guy, who let Vai snap a pic of the card. The sheriff's office posted the photo on its Facebook page Monday, giving the man an "'A' for effort." (How a New Hampshire Monopoly game ended with an arrest.)
At least 12 greyhound racing dogs in Florida have tested positive for cocaine, and their trainer has had his license suspended, the AP reports. It's at least the second instance this year of racing greyhounds testing positive for cocaine. The dogs raced at Bestbet Orange Park near Jacksonville. The state is home to 12 of the 19 dog tracks in the US, where 40 states have outlawed the sport. Although supporters say the dogs are treated well, the industry faces intense scrutiny. Records show Florida's greyhound industry has had 62 cocaine positives since 2008.

In the Jacksonville area case, the dogs tested positive in March and April for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, according to documents from the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The documents are dated June 9 and say that trainer Charles McClellan "is a threat to animals in his control, custody, and care." In a statement to news outlets, Bestbet Orange Park said it supports the swift action taken by the state in suspending the trainer's license. Regulators don't typically investigate how the dogs got cocaine in their systems, and it's unclear in the latest case how that happened. The likely scenarios are someone trying to fix races, or the trainer using the drug and the dogs coming in contact by accident. (Read more Greyhound racing stories.)
More states are pushing back against a Trump administration request for personal voter information, with Mississippi's secretary of state saying the voting-fraud commission can "go jump in the Gulf of Mexico," Mediaite reports. Delbert Hosemann said on Friday that his office had not yet received a letter from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who with VP Mike Pence is leading the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Noting that Mississippi has previously fought in federal court to protect voters' privacy, Hosemann used colorful language to signal his reply, adding, "Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our States right to protect the privacy of our citizens." At least 27 states have refused or expressed reservations about turning over what Kobach calls "publicly available voter roll data," per CNN.

They include Pence's home state of Indiana, where Secretary of State Connie Lawson tweeted that state law prevents the release of anything more than a voter's name, address, and congressional delegation. Kobach's letter asked for information that could include registered voters' birth dates, party registration, voting history, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Even Kobach backtracked on Friday, saying he won't share his voters' Social Security numbers "at this time," per the Kansas City Star. Other states were adamantly opposed. "I have no intention of honoring this request," said Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, per the Washington Post. He said the commission was based on "the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November." Trump has cast doubt on Hillary Clinton's popular-vote victory by citing massive fraud, without evidence. (Read more voter fraud stories.)
The disgruntled doctor who opened fire in a Bronx hospital had vowed to seek revenge on his ex-colleagues, the New York Daily News reports. Dr. Henry Bello, 45, worked at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital for six months, ending in February 2015, when he was let go after being accused of sexual harassment. "We fired him because he was kind of crazy, Dr. Maureen Kwankam, told the News. He promised to come back and kill us then. Bello made good on that threat on Friday afternoon, opening fire with an AR-15 assault rifle in crowded corridors as terrified patients and staff screamed and sought cover. When the rampage was over, one female doctor lay dead and five hospital staffers were seriously wounded. A patient shot in the leg was in stable condition.

Bello, who sneaked in the rifle under his lab coat, tried to set fire to a nurse's station before setting himself on fire and fatally shooting himself in the head, per the New York Times. Kwankam says Bello was hunting for a specific staffer, whom she didn't name. When the shots rang out, Kwankam raced from the 16th floor, where Bello began shooting, to the 9th floor, hid in a room, and locked the door. Bello, moving between floors, was soon "jiggling the handle," she says. When Bello was hired, administrators didn't know that he had been charged with sex abuse after attacking a woman on a Manhattan street in 2004. Bello was also busted in October 2009, but records in that case are sealed, per the New York Post. (Read more Henry Bello stories.)
Failed Fyre Festival co-founder William McFarland was set to appear before a federal judge on Saturday, one day after his arrest for wire fraud. CNN reports McFarland faces charges he defrauded at least two investors who put up $1.2 million to back his ultra-luxe Bahamas music festival that crashed and burned in April. McFarland and his partner, rapper Ja Rule, face more than a dozen lawsuits in connection with the scheme, per the New York Times. A lawyer for Ja Rule tells the paper he hadn't been arrested and is not believed to be "a subject of this investigation." Acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim says in a statement that beginning in late 2016, McFarland used "fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company," Fyre Media, "and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival."

If convicted, McFarland faces up to 20 years in prison. Festival-goers who paid $12K for ticketsand up to $400K for packagesto the festival pitched by celebrities like Kendall Jenner were "promised a 'life-changing'" event, Kim says. But instead of gourmet eats and top-flight bands, they got a "disaster." When guests arrived at the private island of Exumas, they found partially built disaster tents, little food or waterand no beer, per CNN. One lawsuit likened the scene, complete with feral dogs, to "The Hunger Games or Lord of the Flies." Bands like Blink-182 cancelled, and people were left to fend for themselves. Twitter posts showed people crowding into the airport in an attempt to flee. (German music festival plans underground pipeline for beer.)
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has granted 10 petitions for clemency and denied 104 others.

According to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, the cases granted Friday involve people convicted of theft, burglary, drug crimes, forgery and misdemeanor assault. The crimes occurred between 1981 and 2000.

People whose clemency petitions are granted may go to court to try to have their criminal record expunged. All have undergone a recent criminal background check.

Rauner's office announced last year the Republican had eliminated a backlog of thousands of clemency requests he inherited from previous governors.
NASA says child sex slaves have notwe repeat: have notbeen kidnapped and taken to Mars. NASA issued the ridiculous denial to the Daily Beast after a guest Thursday on The Alex Jones Show claimed otherwise. Robert David Steelewho Space.com notes was listed as a "CIA insider"told Jones children are being kidnapped, forced into a 20-year mission in space, and ending up on Mars, where they are used as slave labor and killed for their blood and bone marrow. Steele claimed the children are sexually assaulted before being killed to "adrenalize their blood." Jones chimed in, calling such a process "the original growth hormone." He also claimed 90% of NASA missions are secret, adding, "Clearly they don't want us looking into what is happening."

NASA spokesperson Guy Webster explained to the Daily Beast that while there are rovers on Mars, there aren't any people. He says he's shocked there's "only one stupid rumor on the Internet" he has to debunk this week. This isn't the first outlandish conspiracy theory Jones has given credence to. The Washington Post reports Jones, who has millions of listeners nationwide, claims the Sandy Hook massacre is a hoax and promoted "Pizzagate," which tied Hillary Clinton to a pedophile ring being run out of a pizza restaurant. During the campaign, President Trump said Jones' "reputation is amazing" and promised not to let him down. (Read more Alex Jones stories.)
A commercial fisherman's story about his wife disappearing into the depths of Lake Erie on a boating trip isn't adding up, and Pennsylvania authorities believe they know why. They say he's the one who put her there. The AP reports Christopher Leclair, 48, is jailed on a charge of criminal homicide in the presumed death of his wife of nearly 26 years, Karen, whose body has not been found. Leclair told authorities he and his wife were on a trip June 11 on his 52-foot craft when she got a queasy stomach and decided to sit on a bucket perched on the side. He said when he glanced over to check on her 15 minutes later, she was gone, having apparently fallen overboard. He then contacted the Coast Guard.

Two days later, a review of surveillance video led state police to arrest Leclair. The video showed he got on the boat alone that Sunday. The same dock cameras, however, showed Leclair getting on the boat with his wife the day beforeand returning hours later without her. Investigators believe her body is still in the lake, possibly "weighted ... down with nets." "If he dropped her off on another dock or whatever, he surely would be more cooperative," Lt. Wayne Kline said. Leclair acknowledged he's been having an affair with a 44-year-old woman for several months. Leclair's girlfriend told police he mentioned a $30,000 life insurance policy on his wife about two months ago and talked to her about moving in with him the day his wife supposedly disappeared. Authorities are still searching for Karen Leclair's body. (Read more homicide stories.)
Authorities believe a Chinese grad student missing in Illinois is dead, abducted by a man who researched kidnappings on a fetish website, CNN reports. Yingying Zhang, 26, was last seen on surveillance video June 9 getting into a black Saturn Astra on the University of Illinois campus. According to the Chicago Tribune, investigators focused on the Astra, which video showed appeared to be circling the area at the time. The Astra led them to 28-year-old Brendt Christensen, who drove a matching car. In his first interview, authorities say Christensen said he was sleeping or playing video games around the time Zhang was picked up, the Washington Post reports. But during the second interview, he admitted to picking up an Asian woman around that time because she looked "distressed." He said he dropped her off a few blocks away.

Investigators say the passenger door of Christensen's Astra was cleaned to a "more diligent extent" than the rest of the car. They set up surveillance on Christensen, and allegedly recorded him Thursday saying he kidnapped Zhang and held her against her will in his apartment. He's been charged with kidnapping, though no murder charges have been filed. Authorities haven't said what leads them to believe Zhang is dead. Investigators say Christensen's phone shows he visited forums with names like "Abduction 101" and "planning a kidnapping" on a social networking site focused on fetishes. Zhang graduated from China's Peking University last year with a master's degree in environmental engineering and was continuing her education in Illinois. (Read more kidnapping stories.)
Now China releases 'map' to prove its claim over Donglong in Sikkim

New Delhi : China has released a map showing the Donglong region in the Sikkim sector as its territory and to back its claims of Indian troops "trespassing" the Chinese boundary.

The map, released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry late on Friday evening, shows the Chinese territory far south of the Donglong region, the ownership of which is yet to be agreed between Bhutan and China.

The blue arrow shows Doka La pass where Indian troops "crossed the border". China alleges Indian troops crossed the border on June 18.

The map shows Doka La - called Donglong by China - as part of Chinese territory. Donglong is at a tri-junction border of Bhutan, China, and India, where People's Liberation Army troops and the Indian Army faced off.

Bhutan has accused China of building a road in Donglong, which Thimphu says is part of its area. China has rejected the claims and asked New Delhi to withdraw troops from the region.

India has said Beijing's action to "unilaterally determine tri-junction points" is in violation of a 2012 India-China agreement. According to the agreement, the boundary will be decided by consulting all the concerned parties.

The release of the map comes as China has maintained that locals have been traditionally herding cattle in Donglong area, which it said is fact enough to prove that the region belongs to Beijing.

China was responding to the Bhutanese government's accusations against China of not respecting border agreements and constructing a road on the disputed territory located between the two countries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said here on Friday: "We are exercising complete and comprehensive administration over the Doklam (Donglong) region and our border troops and the residents around the border are herding their cattle along this."

"This evidence is recognised by the Bhutan side," Lu added.

"From historical evidence, we can see that Doklam has been a traditional pasture for the Tibetan residents and we have exercised good administration over the area.

"Before the 1960s, if Bhutan residents around the border wanted to put their cattle they had to get the approval from China," Lu said citing Chinese history.

Beijing has asked New Delhi to withdraw troops, reiterating it as a precondition to settle an ongoing stand-off in India's Sikkim sector, where the two countries share a little over 200 km of border.

Following the face-off, China has suspended the pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet where Indians travel via Nathu La Pass, which is shut now.

In response, India on Friday said it has told China that the building of a road by Chinese troops in the Donglong region will have "serious security implications for India" and urged Beijing "not to change the status quo unilaterally".

"India is deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India," an External Affairs Ministry statement said in New Delhi.
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Paris:

The EU on Saturday slapped record fine of 2.4-billion-euro on Google for abusing its market dominance. Will find its way back to European citizens, Europes competition chief said on Saturday.



Although the US tech giant has said it expects to appeal, if the European Commission wins, this fine will return to European citizens via the governments of the 13 member states involved, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said on French radio.



She said each of these countries would see its contribution to the EU budget reduced in the following year, pro rata, based on this fine. Brussels has accused the worlds most popular internet search engine of giving an advantage to its Google Shopping service.

ALSO READ: Google hires Intels former VP of Diversity as reports reveal overwhelmingly 'white and male' workforce



Google Shopping shows the images and prices of products in response to shopping-related searches when someone uses the search engine. The EU says that Google is giving its own service too much priority in search results to the detriment of other price comparison services, such as TripAdvisor and Expedia.



The case, launched in 2010, is one of three against Google and of several against blockbuster US companies including Starbucks, Apple, Amazon and McDonalds. Vestager has said preliminary conclusions in the Android and AdSense cases against Google also showed it breached EU rules.



The cases have stoked tensions with Washington and could face the wrath of President Donald Trump, the tycoon who won office on his America First slogan and has previously hit out against the EU.

ALSO READ: Google News gets new design, now looks clutter-free and simplistic

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FRANKFURT AM MAIN:

German car giant Volkswagen's French subsidiary manipulated sales figures for years to present an unrealistically positive picture to central management, news weekly Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

From 2010 onwards, around 800,000 cars from the Volkswagen brand as well as its Audi, Seat, Skoda and commercial vehicles subsidiaries were listed as having been delivered before they were even registered to drive on Frenchroads, an auditors' report seen by the magazine recorded.

Some cars were not registered until months or years after they had been supposedly been handed over to customers. Since receiving the results of the internal investigation in April, VW chief Matthias Mueller has accepted the resignation of France head Jacques Rivoal -- although the group put his departure down to 'differences of opinion' at the time.

Also Read: BMW plans to invest Rs 130 crore in India to enhance operations

A Volkswagen spokeswoman refused to comment on 'internal documents' when contacted by AFP. As the world's most prolific carmaker with some 12brands, VW is the biggest importer of new privately-owned carsinto France, with a 13-percent market share in 2016 or around 260,000 registrations.

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

In a gruesome act, 2008 gang rape and acid attack victim was on Saturday again attacked with acid at her home in Lucknows Aliganj. 35-year-old woman was at her home when some unidentified men attacked her with acid.

Earlier in March, She was forced to drink acid throat down and was admitted to the ICU at Lucknows King George Medical College. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had also gone to meet her in the Hospital and assured the accused will be punished. But Saturdays attack poses serious questions of her safety even after CMs assurance.

Adityanath has also declared Rs 1 lakh compensation for her and ordered the police force to look into the case and nab the attackers.

Watch: UP CM Adityanath meets 2008 gangrape and acid attack victim in KGMU

She was allegedly raped in December 2008 by a man Bhondu Singh. After knowing that she has reported the case in Police, Bhondu Singh and his brother Guddu allegedly stabbed her in the stomach. In 2011, acid was thrown on her thrice. In 2012, she was again gang rapped in 2012.

In March 2017, she was for the 4th time attacked with acid. On Saturday she was again attacked with acid for the 5th time.

Also Read: UP CM Yogi Adityanath tightens rules for storage and sale of acid

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

In a tragic incident, a guard of a ATM cash van was shot dead by three unidentified men in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh after trying to loot cash. The matter is still being investigated by the police.

Madhya Pradesh has witnessed various incidents regarding security guards. A security guard at an HDFC bank branch opened fire from his licensed rifle in the month of May killing three people in Ashok Nagar district of Madhya Pradesh.

ALSO READ: Security guard shot at in Ghaziabad, accused held

He shot himself dead after firing indiscriminately.SP Ashok Nagar Santosh Singh Gaur had said that four people died including the security guard. The incident had triggered a panic in Housing colony of Ashok Nagar town.

READ: Toll plaza cashier, guard shot dead in Delhi's Badarpur

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Lucknow:

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday marked his birthday with blood donation camps, special pujas and tree plantation drives.



The party workers held various programmes all over Uttar Pradesh to celebrate Yadavs birthday. They also distributed fruits among the patients in various hospitals, said SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.



The partymen cut cakes, distributed sweets and food among the poor, he said, adding that 45 SP workers each donated blood in various districts.

ALSO READ: Mulayam skips Ramgopal's birthday bash, Akhilesh says 'he is angry with me'



The leaders and workers of the party gathered at the SP headquarters here on Saturday morning and took the resolve to work dedicatedly under the guidance of Yadav and continue their fight against the communal forces. A havan and a bhandara were also organised at a temple here, where the SP workers prayed for the long life of their leader.



Besides the celebrations in Rampur, Gautam Budh Nagar, Sitapur and Meerut districts, there were reports of functions being organised in Odisha, Goa, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh by the leaders and workers of of the SP state units, said Chaudhary.



Yadav, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, is currently on a trip abroad along with his family members, SP sources said.

ALSO READ | Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav questions UP CM Yogi Adityanaths absence at Eidgah

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khans recent statement against the Indian army has landed him into trouble as an FIR has been registered against him for promoting enmity, reports said on Saturday. The FIR has been lodged in his home district Rampur.



Azam Khans recently made a remark that suggested sexual harassment of common people by army soldiers in different parts of the country.



An FIR against Azam Khan under section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups) and section 505 of the IPC (statement conducing to public mischief) has been registered at civil lines police station. A police team is investigating the matter, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Rampur, Vipin Tada said.



Police are collecting videos of Azams statement which has been shared widely on social media. One Akash Saxena, son of Shiv Bahadur Saxena, a former BJP politician has registered the FIR on Friday evening, reports said.

ALSO READ | Azam Khan: 'Women chop off private parts of army personnel in revenge for rape'

His statement is an act of sedition for which he must receive the strictest punishment, reads the complaint.

Azam Khan while addressing SP supporters at an Eid Milan function on Tuesday had said, At some places female militants took away private parts of soldiers. They didnt take away their head or limbs but their private parts. The act has such a big message to it which should have the entire country ashamed.

ALSO READ | I am BJP's 'item girl', they don't have anyone else to talk about, says Azam Khan

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Ghaziabad:

The Hindon bridge was closed for vehicular traffic after big cracks were noticed on it.

The cracks were detected on Thursday at two points on the bridge following which District Magistrate Ministhy S set up a committee to assess the possibility of repairing the 60-year-old bridge.

The panel, comprising engineers from the Uttar Pradesh Public Works Department, State Bridge Corporation Limited and PWD National Highway division, will prepare a report, which will be sent to the chief ministers office for its nod to build a new bridge, the district magistrate said.

Different departments have declared the bridge irreparable and unfit for vehicular movement.

Also read: J&K: National highway closes for traffic due to blockade triggered by landslides

Also read: Heavy Rains in Mumbai affect Harbour Line services, lead to traffic delay

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

An event was launched in New Delhi on Saturday on the commemorative edition of the National Herald which completed 70 years. Congress President Sonia Gandhi and President Pranab Mukherjee spoke on various issues on the occasion. National Herald Editor-in-Chief Neelabh Mishra also delivered the vote of thanks during the edition.

National Herald commemorative edition Updates

# Media's, intellectuals' & citizen's vigilance are the most potent force against the forces of darkness

# India must be on the right side of countries trying to be free from colonial rule: President Pranab Mukherjee

ALSO READ: Are we vigilant enough, asks prez Mukherjee on increasing mob lynching

# The Battle of Plassey was lost due to traitors and India fell to colonial rule: President Pranab Mukherjee

# National Herald always represented the cause of freedom: President Pranab Mukherjee

# I am not taking of vigilantism, I am taking of are we vigilant enough, proactively to save the basic tenets of our country: President Pranab Mukherjee

# When mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilante enough?: President Pranab Mukherjee

When mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough?: President Pranab Mukherjee pic.twitter.com/TC4Bi97WvQ  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

# National Herald always represented the cause of freedom: President Pranab Mukherjee India

READ: National Herald case: Delhi court seeks reply from Sonia, Rahul Gandhi

# Domestic misrule as big a challenge as foreign misrule: Sonia Gandhi

# If we do not speak up, our silence would be taken as consent: Sonia Gandhi

#Even in the darkest of hours, we must keep alive the idea of India: Sonia Gandhi

# NH is a testament to unity & justice, not the division and hate that the present times are witnessing: Sonia Gandhi

Priyanka Gandhi at an event in Delhi to launch National Herald's Commemorative Edition India@70 pic.twitter.com/Dl5FRChyLA  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

# National Herald is testimony to those great leaders who rose beyond individual ambitions to project&protect very soul of this land: Sonia Gandhi

Unity, peace & justice, not division & conflict where the lights that guided them in thought as well as in action: Sonia Gandhi pic.twitter.com/AU8BUY39qF  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

# While today we find ourselves increasingly divided on the basis of caste & class, religion & region: Sonia Gandhi

National Herald is testimony to those great leaders who rose beyond individual ambitions to project&protect very soul of this land: S Gandhi pic.twitter.com/nSumI1jotJ  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

# Story of National Herald is like the story of India: Sonia Gandhi

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New Delhi:

Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Saturday said that his govt is being unfairly blamed for increasing mob lynching incidents and these incidents were higher in numbers under previous UPA govt rule.

The BJP led Centre govt has been under all-round attack from the opposition over the increasing incidents of mob lynching.

"In 2011, 2012 and 2013, lynching cases were much more than three years of our government, but no one raised questions then. Even when Akhlaq was lynched, the Samajwadi Party (SP) was in the government. The law and order comes under the state subject, hence the responsibility fell on the SP, but they instead took out dharnas against Prime Minister Modi," Shah said.

Earlier in the day, President Pranab Mukherjee, expressing his concern on increasing lynching said, "when mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough?"

Suggested Read: President Pranab Mukherjee speaks on increasing mob lynching, asks 'are we vigilant enough'

President asked people to think carefully about the nation when some is being lynched.

He said, "We should ponder about this country when we see someone being lynched.

Earlier this week, a nation-wide protest erupted against the lynching of a 17-year-old Junaid, who was stabbed to death for allegedly carrying beef on June 22 onboard a train, which he had taken with his two brothers after Eid shopping in Delhi.

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Islamabad:

Pakistan government on Saturday handed over the list of prisoners to Indian envoy on Saturday. The list includes at least 546 Indian nationals out of which nearly 500 are fishermen, who are languishing in Pakistani jails.



The list was handed over the Gautam Bambawale, Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, under the Consular Access Agreement signed between the India and Pakistan on May 21, 2008.



The Indian prisoners included 52 civilians and 494 fishermen, the foreign office said.



It said the step is consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement, under which both countries were required to exchange lists of prisoners in each others custody twice a year - on January 1 and July 1.

ALSO READ | Pakistan summons India's acting Deputy High Commissioner over alleged ceasefire violation



The foreign office said the Indian government will also hand over a list of its prisoners in India to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.



According to the list Islamabad shared with India on January 1 this year, there were 351 Indian prisoners held in Pakistan, including 54 civilians and 297 fishermen.



The foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 this year and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.

ALSO READ | Pakistan violates ceasefire along LoC in Uri sector of Kashmir, one woman injured



(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed Chartered Accountants (CAs) on on the Foundation Day of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) regarding the launch of the historic Goods and Services Tax (GST) at Delhis Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium.

Moreover, he called for creating four big Indian accounting firms that are counted among the world's Big-8 even as he cautioned CAs against misuse of their all-powerful signature. He said the signature of a chartered accountant is more powerful than even that of a prime minister and the government also believes the accounts signed by them.

Ek baar aap thhaan lenge to main vishwas se keh sakta hun ki tax chori karne ki himmat koi nahi kar paayega: PM Modi to the CA community pic.twitter.com/5JVYa8w0lo  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

"Your signature carries immense faith, please do not break that trust that is placed in you," Modi told the CA community while talking about old women and other peopleinvesting in mutual funds and other schemes on the basis of their faith in the reports signed by the auditors. Referring to the 'Big 4' -- a term used for the world's four biggest audit firms -- the prime minister said there are so many accounting firms in India but none of them has managed to find a place among the top global players.

ALSO READ: GST will help promote economic growth, end 'inspector raj': Amit Shah

Let's contribute towards India in making it what we want it to be, by the 75th year of independence in 2022: PM Modi pic.twitter.com/qjTTrdkkDJ  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

"People talk of the Big 4 accounting firms. Sadly, there is no Indian firm there. By 2022, let us have a Big 8, where 4 firms are Indian," Modi said. The top global accountancy firms include PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG. Modi said CAs also have a big role to play post the GST rollout and also in the context of the new in solvency and bankruptcy law.

READ: GST: 'Shameful for govt to term GST rollout as second freedom'

Your signature carries immense faith, please do not break that trust that is placed on you: PM Narendra Modi to the CA community pic.twitter.com/TgwqiyPZtt  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

He said a new India is waiting and the CAs have a big responsibility as they form a key pillar of the Indian economy. Modi also exhorted CAs to work towards bringing their clients to the path of honesty, rather than helping them avoidpaying taxes.

2 years from now when Swiss Banks start giving real time data, people who deposited money in foreign banks will face tough time: PM Modi pic.twitter.com/PIDMw3nskX  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

"Like the lawyers did during the freedom struggle, I urge the CAs to take the lead in the journey towards India's economic growth," he said. "We will always remember how the community of professionals took a lead during the freedom struggle ofIndia," he added.

Like the lawyers did during the freedom struggle, I urge the CAs to take the lead in the journey towards India's economic growth: PM Modi pic.twitter.com/hR8dgvuYGg  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

"The CA community looks after the economic health of the society," he said, while equating their role to that of the doctors. "Parliament has given you a big responsibility of certifying and auditing the accounts. You are tasked to ensure that the economic health of the society remains fine.You form a big pillar of the country's economy," he said.

With PTI inputs

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New Delhi:

The Goods and Services Tax came into force at the stroke of midnight on Friday. GST was in reckoning for last 17 years but it became reality on Friday. GST unified more than a dozen central and state levies but doubts remained if the transition to a national sales tax will be without any glitch.

The new tax regime was ushered in at a late night event in the historic Central Hall of Parliament, reminiscent of the midnight tryst with destiny in 1947.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressed a button in a specially crafted box at the stroke of midnight to launch the new tax regime which overnight replaced the messy mix of more than a dozen state and central levies built up over seven decades.

The one national GST unifies the countrys USD 2 trillion economy and 1.3 billion people into a common market, an exercise that took 17 tumultuous years.

PM Narendra Modi at GST launch

Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the new levy as good and simple tax that marks economic integration of India.

There are 500 types of taxes that play their roles. Today we are getting rid of them, Modi said. From Ganganagar to Itanagar and Leh to Lakshadweep, it is one nation, one tax.

The day marks a decisive turning point in determining the future course of the country, he said, adding GST would ensure one nation, one tax.

The GST, he said, is simple and transparent tax that will help curb corruption and check generation of black money.

Modi said GST will eliminate the compounding effect of the current multi-layered tax system as well as the cross-state tax heterogeneity by fixing the final tax rate.

It will reduce cost and save money, he said.

President Pranab Mukherjee at GST launch

President Pranab Mukherjee, who had as finance minister in the UPA government in 2011 piloted a constitutional amendment bill to bring in the GST, said the new indirect tax regime is a disruptive change.

It is similar to the introduction of VAT when there was initial resistance. When a change of this magnitude is undertaken, however positive it may be, there are bound to be some teething troubles and difficulties in the initial stages.

We will have to solve these with understanding and speed to ensure that it does not impact the growth momentum of the economy. Such of such major changes always depend on their effective implementation, he said.

The launch was however boycotted by principal opposition parties like the Congress which termed it as tamasha (gimmick) saying it was being rushed in a half-baked manner as a self-promotional spectacle.

GST launch was a starry midnight

Besides Modi and Mukherjee, the starry midnight launch was attended by Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

Top leaders, industrialists, economists and celebrities tonight descended to witness the launch of landmark GST at the historic Central Hall of Parliament which opened for a midnight ceremony for the first time in two decades.

The Parliament building complex was illuminated just like it is done on national festivals such as the Independence Day and the Republic Day.

Industry doyen Ratan Tata, RBI Governor Urjit Patel,

Member of Parliament cum cine star Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha hogged much limelight with many of the participants greeting them.

When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley entered the hall, Patel walked up to him to exchange pleasantries.

Thereafter, the minister walked up to Tata, former Empowered Committee chairman Asim Dasgupta and former economic affairs secretary Vijay Kelkar to greet them.

Almost the entire council of ministers and MPs from ruling alliance sat in the circular hall along with opposition leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the BJD, the NCP and the JD-U.

The Congress, the Left, the TMC and the RJD boycotted the ceremony.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar was seated with BJP president Amit Shah in the front row.

As soon as former deputy prime minister and senior BJP leader L K Advani arrived, Shah gestured him to take a seat on the front row. Advani then sat between Pawar and Shah.

SPs Ramgopal Yadav was seated in the front row, so were Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD and AIADMKs A Navaneethakrishnan.

Subramanian Swamy, a bitter critic of GST-Networkthe IT backbone provider for the new indirect tax regimewas also present at the launch.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha as also Vijay Kelkar, who had first mooted the concept of GST in a report to finance ministry way back in 2003, were also present at the launch.

Tata, who sat on the eighth row initially, was requested by S S Ahluwalia to walk up to the initial rows. Tata then went to sit in the fourth row along with Dasgupta and Kelkar.

Media tycoon and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra, SP leader Amar Singh and Pawars daughter Supriya Sule were also present at the launch.

Among the bureaucrats, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, DEA Secretary Tapan Ray, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, apart from CBEC chairperson Vanaja Sarna and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia were present.

Opposition looked divided at GST launch

The Opposition tonight stood a divided house as NCP, JD(U), BSP, BJD, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal(S) participated in the midnight launch of the GST, which was boycotted by the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left and some other parties.

Ruptures in the opposition unity emerged barely a week after 17 parties joined hands to put up a joint candidate against the ruling NDA nominee for the July 17 presidential election.

The Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left, the DMK, the NC and the RJD and some other parties boycotted the event, dubbing it as a tamasha (drama).

The NCP, a key constituent of the Congress-led UPA, broke away from the Opposition ranks, with its chief Sharad Pawar along with Praful Patel and Tariq Anwar attending the event in the Central Hall of Parliament.

On behalf of JD(U), its Bihar unit chief and Rajya Sabha member Vashisht Narain Singh attended the event.

JD(S) supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda also attended the programme, sharing the dais with President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The BSP, which stood with opposition unity, was represented by two of their MPs - Veer Singh and Raja Ram.

The SP, which had initially announced the boycott, did a somersault by attending the event, saying it found no problem when the party had supported the GST bill in Parliament.

Leaders of the BJD and the AIADMK also attended the function.

The Congress, however, downplayed the cracks within the opposition ranks, terming it as a one-off development.

A senior Congress leader claimed that the opposition unity will remain intact during the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Small traders nervous on GST launch

While the measure is billed as making doing business easier by simplifying the tax structure and ensuring greater compliance, businesses particularly small traders have been a bit nervous about the new tax filing system.

A train was stopped by traders in Uttar Pradesh and commercial establishments and wholesale commodity markets in some cities remained closed today in protest against the hasty rollout of GST.

While a general strike by traders in Kashmir has been called on Saturday, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh witnessed sporadic bandhs. West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana also witnessed protests.

TMCs Mamata Banerjee feared it would bring back the dreaded Inspector Raj.

For some businesses, the GST is complex with four broad tax categories of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, and myriad exceptions, as opposed to a simpler, flatter and broader sales taxes in other countries.

Switchover to the GST has added to the worries of businesses that are still recovering from the November 8 shock decision to remove 86 per cent of currency from circulation.

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New Delhi:

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may back Opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar, while the party has ruled out support to NDAs candidate Ram Nath Kovind, party sources said on Saturday. The AAP has been holding parleys with the Left parties, and Trinamool Congress to arrive at a decision.



There is no question of supporting (Narendra) Modis candidate. We may support Meira Kumar but we are yet to take a decision, said an AAP leader, on condition of anonymity.



However, the leader downplayed Congress not inviting the AAP to the discussions that were held with many opposition parties before Kumars candidature was announced.



He said the AAP was happy to maintain a distance from the Congress. AAP is the principal opposition party in Punjab, where Congress is in power.



In the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls, the AAP defeated Congress and ended its 15-year rule in the national capital.



As Delhis ruling party and Punjabs principal opposition, the AAP has four MPs in the Lok Sabha, and 85 MLAs, which translates to around 9,000 votes in the electoral college.

ALSO READ | Presidential election: Meira Kumar says she is not scapegoat, fighting for an ideology

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Dear Dr. Roach: Several months ago, I was just relaxing, watching a movie at home, when suddenly I got a tremendous pain in my inner left thigh. I tried to walk, thinking it was a bad cramp, but the pain was so intense that I almost passed out. This lasted for only a few minutes (but it felt like an hour). The next day, the area was very sore and tender to the touch. By afternoon, discoloration had begun. I saw my physician two days later, and by that time it had a bruise larger than my hand. I was immediately directed to a radiology center, where they determined that there were no blood clots. My doctor advised that, apparently, a blood vessel had burst. I am wondering how common this is, and if I should expect a recurrence? I would not wish such pain on anyone!

-- Anon.

A: I see this occasionally. It's possible that the initial pain was the blood vessel, but I suspect that the muscle cramp came first, and the muscle fibers pulled so hard that they literally tore the tissue, allowing for bleeding into the muscle. Bleeding into a muscle can be very painful, but the blood will eventually find its way out of the muscle, at which point it will show up as a bruise. I suspect that the damage was somewhat higher on the leg than where the bruise was initially, as gravity pulls the blood downward. The bruise will gradually change colors (from dark red to green to yellow to brown) as the blood is digested and absorbed by the tissue macrophages (cells that eat what doesn't belong).

I seldom see recurrences of this. Stretching and regular exercise are the best ways to prevent severe muscle cramps.

Shingles Vaccine

Dear Dr. Roach: I have been on Valtrex to prevent outbreaks of genital herpes. I went to get the shingles vaccine, but they told me that the Valtrex would kill the vaccine immediately. They wanted me to stay off the Valtrex for at least three months and then get the vaccine; I couldn't take that chance, for fear of a herpes outbreak. My own doctor told me I need only three weeks, but I still didn't get the vaccine. I know the vaccine will not prevent shingles, but it would make it less severe. What do you recommend?

-- C.B.V.

A: The shingles vaccine contains a weakened form of the varicella-zoster virus, which causes both chickenpox and its recurrence, shingles. Acyclovir and the related drugs valacyclovir (Valtrex) and famciclovir (Famvir) prevent the virus from replicating, and are likely to render the vaccine ineffective. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these drugs should not be taken for 24 hours before the vaccine or for two weeks afterward. I would recommend getting the shingles vaccine, as an outbreak of genital herpes is unlikely in that short period of time for most people. Plus, the reduction in risk of getting shingles in the first place (it does have some benefit) and the reduction in severity, but also -- and most importantly -- the reduction in the risk of painful neuropathy after shingles is worth this risk of an outbreak, in my opinion.

Donating blood

Dear Dr. Roach: Can a smoker donate blood in the U.S.? In my country, those who smoke more than three cigarettes per day cannot donate blood.

-- A.T.

A: Yes, in the U.S. and Canada, most blood banks, such as the American Red Cross, allow smokers to donate blood. The full list of eligibility criteria can be found at tinyurl.com/blood-donation-criteria.
New Delhi:

To support its claim that Indian troops trespassed into its territory in Sikkim sector, China on Friday posted a map showing the territory claimed by India and Bhutan as its own land.

The map posted on Chinas foreign ministry website differs from Indian perception of Line of Actual Control. China has have claimed areas far south of what both India and Bhutan claim  New Delhis claim is till Batang La, while Beijing has laid claim to the territory till Mount Gipmochi, reported the Hindustan Times.

The entire controversy surrounds near the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China. The Bhutan has long been claiming the Donglang or Doklam region in the Sikkim sector and the similar claims are made by China as well.

The territorial dispute between China and Bhutan over Donglang has further complicated the situation. The current standoff between India and China began on June 16 after China claimed that Indian troops entered into its territory.

India defended its move and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said that the construction work near the tri-junction in Sikkim centre has serious security implications and Indian troops had worked in coordination with Bhutan government to ask Chinese construction party to desist from changing the status quo.

Suggested Read: Sikkim Standoff: Arun Jaitley throws it back to China, says India of 2017 different from 1962

India also has also said any move to unilaterally determine tri-junction points violates the India-China agreement signed in 2012 to finalise the boundary in this region in consultation with all concerned countries.

There is solid legal evidence to support the delimitation of the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary. It is stated in article one of the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet (1890) that the boundary of Sikkim and Tibet shall be the crest of the mountain range separating the waters flowing into the Sikkim Teesta and its affluents from the waters flowing into the Tibetan Mochu and northwards into other rivers of Tibet, Chinese state media reported after the standoff began.

The line commences at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier, and follows the above-mentioned water-parting to the point where it meets Nepal territory, the report added.

China had also snubbed India in an oblique reference to the war the two countries had fought 55 years ago and said India should "learn from historical lessons" and stop clamouring for war. In reply, Indian defence minister said the India of 2017 is different from 1962 and current standoff between Indian and Chinese troops was triggered by Beijing.

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New Delhi:

Notorious alt-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' radio show has created a new buzz in the world of space as a guest on the show recently accused NASA of running a slave colony on Mars.

The space administration has denied the bizarre accusation after Robert Steele, a former CIA officer made such a strange remark.

Previously, Mr. Jones had promoted falsehoods about several terrorists attacks in United States and appeared everytime to agree with most of Steele's strange claims.

"We actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20-year ride, so that once they get to Mars they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony," said Robert, the failed US presidential candidate.

Moreover, Mr. Jones has strong believe in existence of "different types of chimeras that are alien lifeforms on this earth now" though has no in depth knowledge about 'Mars bases'.

"Clearly they don't want us looking into what is happening," he further stated.

Also Read: NASA organises checks to ensure ISS is free from bad bugs

Though NASA do not respond to such illogical comments in general, Jone's InfoWars website's rising popularity and his intimacy with US president Donald Trump probably forced NASA to response to such absurd remarks.

"There are no humans on Mars, "There are active rovers on Mars. There was a rumour going around last week that there weren't. There are, but there are no humans." NASA's Guy Webster told US new site The Daily Beast.

Speculations were also high that NASA was all set to share something new on the existence of aliens which the the space administration had denied a couple of days back.

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New York:

For their role in helping advance the US society, culture and economy, Indian-Americans, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen and former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, are among 38 immigrants to be honoured this year.

Narayen and Murthy will be honoured with the prestigious Great Immigrants annual award on USs independence day on July 4.

Murthy, 39, born in the UK and a Harvard and Yale alumnus, was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, becoming the first-ever Indian-American to occupy the post and also the youngest ever surgeon general of the country.

However, Murthy was dismissed this year in April by the Trump administration.

Narayen, 54, a native of Hyderabad has an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering, a masters degree in computer science, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is a board member of Pfizer and US-India Business Council (USIBC). He was among a select group of CEOs who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington for a roundtable during the leaders visit for first bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump this week.

Among other honorees include Canadian-origin social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, who has been awarded the 2017 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, PayPal cofounder of Ukrainian origin Max Levchin, Iranian-origin philanthropist and entrepreneur Hushang Ansary.

Each year since 2006, the corporation has recognised the contributions of naturalised citizens, and for 2017, the honorees represent more than 30 different countries of origin, a wide range of personal immigration stories, and a high-level of professional leadership in numerous fields.

Our annual tribute to Great Immigrants demonstrates the richness of talent, skills, and achievements that immigrants from around the world bring to every sphere of American society, said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This campaign reminds us of the debt the United States owes to generations of immigrants who become citizens and contribute to the progress of this country. Today, we celebrate and thank them, he said.

The honorees will be recognised with a full-page public service announcement in The New York Times and an online public awareness initiative.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York was established in 1911 by Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.

In keeping with this mandate, the corporations agenda focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and a strong democracy.

Also read: US: Kansas allows college students, teachers to carry guns

Also read: Linking Aadhaar with PAN mandatory from today: Here's how to do it



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Beijing:

Amid a stand-off in the Sikkim sector with Chinese troops, India has attended an SCO meeting in China to enhance anti-terrorism and border control mechanisms among member nations, the first plenary meeting after India and Pakistan became full members of the China-dominated security grouping.

Seven Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states including China, India and Russia participated in the organisations meeting of heads of border control departments on Thursday in Dalian, Northeast Chinas Liaoning Province.

Officials from the Indian Embassy attended the Dalian meeting of the SCO.

This is the first plenary meeting since India and Pakistan joined the grouping in June. The other members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India and Pakistan last month became full members of the SCO that is increasingly seen as a counterweight to NATO.

Indias membership was strongly pushed by Russia while Pakistans entry into the grouping was backed by China.

Member states discussed how to cooperate on combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, state-run Global Times reported.

The members also talked about a joint operation along the border to prevent trans-border crimes and to improve the organisations cooperation on safeguarding border security at the SCO meeting, the report said.

Suggested Read: Sikkim standoff intensifies; China posts map showing India, Bhutan territory as its own part of land

Border enforcement cooperation is an important part of cooperation between China and other SCO member states, Chen Dingwu, a senior official at Chinas Ministry of Public Securitys Border Control Department, said.

He said China values the collaboration with border control departments of other countries, and has already built cooperation mechanisms with 11 neighbouring countries, including SCO members.

SCO member states are willing to discuss issues of common interest based on equality as provided by the Shanghai Spirit, SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov said.

Alimov said the SCO will create a positive political atmosphere to comprehensively consolidate and develop trust, respect and friendship.

The Chinese daily said the Indian delegation attended the meeting despite border rift with China in the Sikkim sector.

Observers believed that relations between China and India were unaffected by the stand-off between Chinese army and Indian troops along the Sino-India border, the daily said.

There is an ongoing stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim sector after the Indian Army blocked construction of a road by China in Doklam, a disputed territory between China and Bhutan.

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New Delhi:

Militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin criticised United States on Saturday for designating him as a global terrorist, and lamented that Washington gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a red carpet welcome despite denying him entry into U.S. earlier over the Gujarat riots.

He also vowed to continue the struggle for "liberation" of Kashmir from India, days after the US blacklisted him as a "global terrorist". Addressing the media amid tight security at the CentrePress Club in Muzaffarabad for the first time since the US declared him a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" on June27, Salahuddin rejected the US decision and said he was a freedom fighter and not a terrorist.

ALSO READ: US designates Syed Salahuddin as global terrorist

"We are not terrorists. Our struggle is for freedom fromIndia and it will continue till liberation of Kashmir," saidthe 71-year-old Kashmiri separatist leader who is based in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

"The US cannot provide a single example of when I and other Kashmiri fighters committed any act of terrorism," hesaid. "Kashmiri freedom fighters have a code of conduct to notharm minorities, the elderly, children and women, and if sometimes the enemy offers a peace deal, we accept it."

Salahuddin also claimed that his group has the capabilityto launch attacks inside India. He offered conditional talks with India if Russia orChina guaranteed that peace talks would be result oriented. He also announced to observe a "Week of Resistance" from Monday to commemorate the first death anniversary of BurhanWani, the Hizbul commander who was killed on July 8, 2016 in an encounter in Kashmir. Salahuddidn also led a protest rally in Muzaffarabad.

READ: Syed Salahuddin wanted in more than 50 terror cases in India

In a notification, the State Department said Salahuddin,who hails from Kashmir and is based in Pakistan for the last 28 years, "has committed, or poses a significant risk ofcommitting, acts of terrorism." The US took the step against Salahuddin, whose original name is Mohammed Yusuf Shah, as he had "vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir Valley into a graveyard for Indian forces".

With PTI inputs

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Beirut:

The Islamic State group no longer has a presence in Syrias Aleppo province after withdrawing from a series of villages where regime forces were advancing, a monitor said on Friday.

"IS withdrew from 17 towns and villages and is now effectively outside of Aleppo province after having a presence there for four years," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Regime forces had been advancing on a sliver of southeastern Aleppo province around a key highway linking Hama province to the southwest and Raqa province further east.

Abdel Rahman said regime forces seized control of the road late Thursday night, prompting the remaining IS fighters to flee.

A Syrian military source in rural Aleppo confirmed the withdrawal.

"The military operation is ongoing and Daesh withdrew from the Aleppan countryside towards rural territory in Hama and Raqa," the source told AFP, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

"The Syrian army is clearing out the last few metres," the source added.

Also Read: What is Lone Wolf attack?

A second military source, quoted by Syrian state news agency SANA, also confirmed that IS had pulled out of territory along the Ithraya-Rasafa highway.

Since early 2015, multi-front offensives against IS have eaten away at territory the group held in Aleppo province.

US-backed Kurdish and allied Arab fighters ousted the jihadists from Kobane on the Turkish border in 2015 and from the key city of Manbij last year.

Rebels backed by Turkey seized the town of Al-Bab in February, and Syrian government troops have steadily chipped away at IS towns in the south of the province.

In neighbouring Raqa province, a US-backed offensive is bearing down on the provincial capital of the same name, which has served as the jihadists de facto Syrian capital.

Abdel Rahman described Fridays withdrawal as "a new loss for IS that decreases its influence and demonstrates that we are watching its collapse as an organisation that can manage geographical territory".

Syrias conflict broke out in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad, before turning into a complex, bloody war.

Also Read: Canadian sniper hits ISIS militant with record-setting shot

World powers including Russia, Turkey, and a US-led global coalition have all been drawn into the war, which has left more than 320,000 people dead.

Talks aimed at reaching a lasting ceasefire will resume in the Kazakh capital Astana next week, before another round of UN-backed peace negotiations in Geneva in mid-July.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Islamabad:

As international pressure on the country grew to combat terror and its funding, Pakistan had banned Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir, a new front for Hafiz Saeeds Jamaat-ud-Dawa.



TAJK gained prominence as a JuD front when it held pro-Kashmir freedom rallies and displayed banners and streamers across Pakistan on Kashmir Day on February 5, days after Saeed was put under house arrest for 90 days in Lahore.



The mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people died had indicated about a week before his house arrest he might launch TAJK to expedite the freedom of Kashmir.



The re-branding of JuD as TAJK showed that Saeed had got a wind of the government plans and had worked out how to resurface and survive after the clampdown on his ostensible network of JuD and its affiliate Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

ALSO READ | Hafiz Saeed detention case: Pakistan's Lahore High Court defers verdict by July 3



The JuD front was put on the list of proscribed organisations on June 8 - a fortnight before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force in Spain, according to a list available on the website of Pakistans National Counter Terrorism Authority.



Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has called a meeting on Monday to discuss the ban on its affiliate, The Nation reported. There are 64 other outfits in the proscribed organisation category, including Jaish-e-Mohammad, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban, and JuDs armed wing Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for 26/11 and several other terror attacks in India.



According to a report in Dawn newspaper on Saturday, Pakistan continues to remain on the radar of the FATF over concerns that it is not fully complying with curbs against entities listed with the United Nations.



India had raised the terror financing issue at the FATF in February this year. The FATF last week referred Pakistan to its regional affiliate - the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering - for further analysis and a follow-up report on actions the country has taken against entities designated under UN sanctions list.



Pakistan government has been under mounting international pressure to crackdown on terrorist networks and their fronts. However, according to the report, Pakistani officials expect that Pakistan would be cleared of the concerns.



The United Nations placed both JuD and FIF on its watch list in December 2008 and March 2012, respectively.



The ban on TAJK on June 8 happened a day before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakh capital Astana. India had pushed the SCO members at the summit to curb the financing of terrorist organisations and their fronts.



The Astana Declaration of the Heads of State of the SCO said that the member states will continue to cooperate in order to counteract the activities of individuals and legal entities related to the recruitment, training and utilisation of terrorists, public calls for terrorist activities or the justification of acts of terrorism, and financing terrorist activities.



Last week, the US declared Pakistan-based Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist. The announcement had come hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had their first bilateral meeting.

ALSO READ: Lahore High Court to announce verdict in Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed's detention case on June 19

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Four persons including two security personnel were killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast on Saturday near a security check post in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, officials said.



The security personnel spotted an unattended bag at Aka Khel Check Post in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, where a routine check-up was underway, they further added.



The bag exploded when the security personnel was searching the bag. It killed four people on the sport, the official said. Those killed were identified as Naik Mehmud Shah, Levies Naik Bagh Mir, and two civilians.



No group has taken the responsibility of the attack yet. The area was sealed immediately after the attack and the security forces started search operation to nab the culprits.



With PTI inputs.

ALSO READ | Manipur IED Blast: One Assam Rifles jawan killed, 3 injured in Ukhrul district

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

US Congressman Ted Poe on Saturday labelled Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. He also said that Congress needs to do this so that the latter suffers consequences.

Earlier, on June 28, Poe, a top American lawmaker of the Trump administration had said that US should cut off military aid to Pakistan, declare it a "state sponsor of terrorism" and revoke its non-NATO ally status.

Poe alleged that since 1990, Pakistan has been supporting terrorist groups in Kashmir like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in its proxy war with India.These terror groups, he had said, have carried out attacks inside India, such as the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.

ALSO READ: PM Modi meets President Trump: 5 things to know about | Video

Pakistan must be labelled a state sponsor of terrorism.Congress needs to do this so that latter suffers consequences: US Congressman Ted Poe  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

"Since the 1990s, Pakistan has allowed these terrorist groups to openly raise funds in the country", he said. Beginning in the 1990s, Pakistan provided training, advisers, intelligence, and material support for the Afghan Taliban, a specific terrorist group that operates in Afghanistan based in Pakistan, he said.

READ: Modi-Trump bilateral meet: Strategic issues likely to be discussed

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Ankara:

Turkey on Saturday said that it remained hopeful to find a solution to the Gulf crisis that has seen its ally Qatar diplomatically and economically isolated, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with the emirate's defence minister.



In Ankara's latest show of support for Qatar, Erdogan hosted Defence Minister Khaled bin Mohammed al-Attiyah for talks at the headquarters of the ruling party in Ankara.



The meeting came as Ankara, which has stood by Doha throughout the crisis, resists pressure to shutter a Turkish military base on the emirate that Qatar's neighbours want to see closed.



Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain announced on June 5 the suspension of political, economic and diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting extremist groups.



Doha denies the claims, a stance backed by Turkey which has sent hundreds of aid flights and even a cargo ship to bring food for its embattled ally.



Ankara's attempts to mediate between the sides have so far come to nothing but after the talks in the Turkish capital presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said he was hopeful of a resolution.



"There are some indications that a solution is possible. This is our general impression. We need to continue efforts to take measures that go in the right direction," he said.



Crucially, Ankara is also setting up a military base on the emirate that is set to give Turkey a new foothold in the Gulf, sending in a first deployment of two dozen troops.



Kalin defended the base, saying its aim was ensuring 'defence and security' in the region.



Riyadh and its allies issued 13 demands to Qatar for resolving the crisis, including the closure of the Turkish military base and the Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera.



Turkey criticised the ultimatum but has also taken care not to directly target Saudi Arabia, the key protagonist in the crisis.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Washington:

Amid frustration with Beijing's reluctance to deal with North Korea's nuclear threat, the Trump administration is putting renewed pressure on China.

In recent days the Trump administration has approved a USD 1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan and blacklisted a small Chinese bank over its business ties with North Korea.

In addition, the State Department has given Beijing a dismal grade in a new human trafficking report.

Read more: Xi Jinping warns against challenge to Beijings authority in Hong Kong

American officials had been describing improved coordination with China as the centerpiece of their North Korea strategy. They seek to prevent the North from being ableto strike the US homeland with nuclear weapons.

President Donald Trump and top aides are irritated over China's reluctance to tighten the economic screws on North Korea. Yet the White House insists it's not out to punish Beijing.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Businesses honored for beautification efforts

More than 90 businesses took part in the Let's Keep Decatur Bee-utiful effort, which honors businesses that spruce up surroundings.

Other winners were:

Small Business

 First: Fairview Hospital for Animals

 Second: Carriage House Apartments

 Third: Melanie Schelling State Farm

Medium Business

 First: Land of Lincoln Credit Union, East Prospect

 Second: Lindy Lu's

 Third: Wildflour Artisan Bakery

Large Business

 First: Millikin University

 Second: Skeff Distributing

 Third: Northgate Pet Clinic

Speed Lube Continued Excellence

 The Reserve at Lakeview apartments

Lowe's Best in Show

 Millikin University

Official: Truck stop on drawing board

Up to 80 jobs could be created by a Loves Truck Stop in Decatur under discussion for Decatur.

Chad Bruner, real estate project manager at Love's Travel Stops, in June unveiled the plan during a city council meeting as the board discussed a plan to allow for interstate signs to increase to a maximum area to 900 square feet and increase the maximum height to 170 feet.

Bruner said his company suggested the change in signage as they look into building a new location off of Interstate 72.

We are talking about an investment here between $12 to $15 million that would employ up to 80 employees, Bruner said.

Businesses honored at chamber event

The MetroDecatur Black Chamber of Commerce on June 9 held its Community Awards Gala.

Gail Evans, who oversaw the Decatur-Macon County Opportunities Corp., received the first Lifetime Achievement Award.

Also receiving awards were Ameren Illinois for Outstanding Corporate Leadership; Alpha & Omega Transit Network for New Business of the Year; Walker Funeral Services for Outstanding Minority Business; and the city of Decatur for Outstanding Leadership.

The keynote speaker was J. Alexander Martin, co-founder of the FUBU (For Us By Us) clothing line.

The MetroDecatur Black Chamber of Commerce was founded two years ago.

Hundreds attend prayer breakfast

Sonya Jones, a finalist on The Biggest Loser, spoke to about 400 faith and business leaders for the ninth annual Community Prayer Breakfast on June 14.

Jones spoke about how she transformed physically and spiritually to improve her life.

The Greater Decatur of Chamber of Commerce held the event at the Decatur Center & Hotel.

The event, sponsored by HSHS St. Marys and Investment Planners Inc., also included readings by the Rev. Courtney Carson.

Washington lobbying focuses on infrastructure

Business and labor leaders joined elected officials to lobby lawmakers in Washington for transportation money.

The delegation was in Washington in mid-June to generate support for infrastructure projects that would establish Decatur as a major Midwest trade hub.

"It's a pretty powerful message when you have business and labor, city and county together with one purpose and one goal, all on the same page," said Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe

The Obama administration extended a grant program for such projects. Decatur became a finalist last year, but ultimately did not win out.

The Decatur City Council last month approved an extension of an engineering study regarding improvements for the Midwest Inland Port.

Millikin students market in the real world

Students in Millikin University's Tabor School of Business recently worked with the government of Ecuador to develop a U.S. market entry strategy for Ecuadorian handicrafts. The project was part of Millikin's International Business Consulting course led by Dr. J. Mark Munoz, professor of international management at Millikin.

The course provides an opportunity for students to take part in real life projects for companies, and sometimes governments, in various parts of the world. Haley Hogenkamp, who recently earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Millikin, was one of the 11 students that worked on the project.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Partly cloudy and windy with isolated thunderstorms possible. High around 75F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Gusty winds during the evening. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 39F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph.
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DANBURY  The Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce stepped up its state lobbying efforts last year, fighting against legislation it deemed anti-business, such as tolls on the borders, a hospital tax, and paid family and medical leave.

Its efforts in Hartford were among the highlights of the past year for the business organization, said board chairman Jim Arconti as he addressed a crowd of about 200 people at the groups Annual Meeting held Friday at Amber Room Colonnade.

We are especially proud of our efforts this legislative session to help turn back recently proposed budget changes, Arconti said. We are encouraged that the governor heard the states business community and has begun to make some necessary changes to state government operation, which has been spending above its means.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal was the featured speaker and addressed topics such as health care, immigration, education, college debt and keeping young people in Connecticut. He spoke passionately of a broken immigration system and the need to fix it.

We are the greatest nation in history because we are a nation of immigrants, Blumenthal said. We are a less effective and less fair nation when we are polarized, like we are now.

Blumenthal said Connecticut is in danger of losing one of its most valuable resources: young, skilled workers.

We dont have a Grand Canyon and were not a big state. What we do have is really smart, able people, he said. Im not talking only about businesspeople. Im talking about our welders and pipe fitters  the guys and gals at Electric Boat. That quality workforce is what we are in danger of losing.

He pointed to General Electrics move to Boston and Aetnas announcement that it is moving its headquarters to New York City as examples of larger cities attracting businesses that will hire young professionals.

We need to find a way to get them back here, he said. Thats our challenge.

Arconti said another highlight of the past year was supporting the efforts of Danburys Main Street Partnership, which seeks to attract and retain business in downtown.

Another significant partnership is with the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, Arconti said. The board promotes job and incumbent worker training and has doled out more than $6 million to area companies over the last six years. Local corporations such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Belimo, MannKind, Danbury Hospital, Cartus, and Eaton have utilized the program.

Arconti said the Danbury regions economy continues to outperform the rest of the state with low unemployment, high manufacturing wages, and strong retail sales.

Stephen Bull, president of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce, said the region thrives economically because of its diversity, strong workforce and pro-business leadership.

The state of Connecticut can learn a lot from greater Danbury, Bull said. We are fortunate to live in an area with extremely pro-business public officials. Its not by accident that we continue to be successful.

cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338
NEW FAIRFIELD  Schools Superintendent Alicia Roys decision last week to leave her position when her contract expires next year comes after years of mounting criticism against her leadership.

Roy surprised many board members Wednesday when she revealed to Hearst Connecticut Media she would not ask for renewal of her contract, which expires June 30, 2018. The announcement came a day before the board was scheduled to resume a discussion of her annual evaluation and the future of her contract.

Four of the boards nine members had said the district needed a change of leadership, and two of them explicitly said they would not vote to renew her contract.

Roy, who worked in the district 15 years, including seven as superintendent, said Friday the decision was difficult.

I truly appreciate those who continue to support me and recognize the good work that has occurred while I have been a school and district leader, she said. Over the course of the next year, my focus will remain the same: providing the best education possible for the students of New Fairfield.

Simmering controversy

The first public rumblings against the superintendent began with a petition in summer 2015 demanding improvements to the districts special education program, which petitioners characterized as broken and callous.

The New Fairfield Schools Superintendent has constructed a Special Education Department run by an administration that is unprofessional, unresponsive and downright hostile to the needs of our children and our families, the petition read.

Parents of special education students, many of whom signed the 227-signature petition, began speaking out regularly at school board meetings, often complaining about the administrations management of the program.

Another petition, which expressed a vote of no confidence in Roy, started in early 2016, gained 537 signatures.

School board meetings began drawing even bigger crowds, at times so large they had to be moved from the senior center community room to the cafeteria at Meeting House Hill School. Attendees, now including teachers as well as partents, often carried protest signs or wore red to show a unified front.

The New Fairfield Education Association, which represents the districts more than 200 teachers, announced in May 2016 a motion of no confidence in Roy had been approved by 70 percent of members voting.

At a school board meeting two weeks later, Roy promised to improve, holding up what she called a magical personified olive branch  a stick with paper ears and mouth attached  as a peace offering to her critics.

I know I need some magic, Roy said. I know that I also need to listen.

Roy announced her resolve to attend more community meetings and improve communication with parents, teachers and other parties. She created two committees, one focused on employee health insurance and another on climate and culture, in an attempt to address teachers concerns.

The board hired a consulting firm to help Roy and board members improve communication with the public.

The New Fairfield Education Association maintained, however, the committees would not solve the districts problems, and the consulting firm suspended its work in September until conditions improve in the community.

In July 2016, the district hired a new director of Pupil Personnel Services, the deparment which oversees special education. Many parents and teachers have said that, as the new director finishes her first year, the department has changed largely for the better.

Roy fared moderately well in her June 2016 evaluation, scoring between 6.85 and 8.57 out of 10 in six categories. But the comments and goals sections of the document were left blank, which some board members and parents said would have been helpful to Roy in making improvements.

School board meetings, for the most part, calmed down this school year, but in May, the teachers association told the board it stands behind its earlier vote of no confidence in Roy. The associations vice president added the teachers stopped coming to meetings not because they no longer cared, but because they felt their voices werent being heard.

Roy has always had some strong supporters, however. Sarah McLain, who retired last week after 23 years as principal of Meeting House Hill School, was full of praise Friday for her former boss.

Dr. Roy has received many well-deserved honors at both the state and district level through the years, McLain said. She is a true leader, willing to take on the hard jobs, to recognize and applaud our successes, to maintain an open-door policy, and most importantly to make decisions based on what is best for our students. She has been a wonderful mentor for me for which I will always be grateful.

But as the board began its 2017 evaluation process last month, parents once again spoke out, some asking for a change in leadership and others requesting a more comprehensive evaluation than in previous years. After the first round of closed-door discussions about Roys evaluation on June 15, two board members said publicly they would not support renewing her contract.

A numerical version of the evaluation was approved by the board during that meeting, but some members submitted written comments separately. This week, after Roys surprise announcement, the board met again to finalize the evaluation, which Roy said she has 30 days to respond to.

Latest scores

Written comments used in the numerical evaluation by four board members  Amy Tozzo, Samantha Mannion, Doug DeRito and Dominic Cipollone  have been released in response to a Freedom of Information request by Hearst Connecticut Media. Each of the four have said, either in their written evaluations or in public comments, that the district needs new leadership.

The written evaluations reveal that all four members gave Roy the lowest scores in four of the six categories: relationship with the board, community relationships, personnel relationships and personel/professional qualities. Aside from DeRito, who gave Roy a score of 5 for personnel relationships, all scored Roy with 3 or less in each of the four categories.

They all criticized Roy for not keeping the board informed of serious incidents, including the DUI arrest of a school nurse while students were in her car and when a teacher used a zip-tie on a student. Tozzo and Mannion also accused Roy of playing favorites and using scare tactics to induce compliance among board members.

(Roy) does not answer questions posed to her with clarity, deflects and becomes defensive when questioned, Mannion wrote. I have been contacted several times this year by parents and reporters requesting clarification to issues I am not privy to.

Tozzo, Mannion and DeRito also said Roy failed to improve her relationship with the public and staff since she promised to do so last year. Cipollone and DeRito noted that Roy has developed a positive relationship with other administrators but still struggles to work with teachers.

Teachers do not feel valued and their ideas and opinions do not appear to be taken seriously, Cipollone wrote. There appears to be a disconnect from what teachers see as important and necessary for improved student outcomes and the vision the Superintendent has for the school district.

Tozzo revealed the consultant hired by the district, who later left, told her, You dont have a board problem, but a superintendent problem.

All four board members scored Roy highest in categories concerning educational programs and business/finance. Tozzo, Mannion and Cipollone gave her a 4 and 5 and DeRito scored her 7 and 5, respectively.

But all four maintained they still have concerns in the areas. Tozzo, DeRito and Mannion noted a lack of financial transparency and that many curriculum improvements have occurred because of others in the district.

Overall, curriculum planning has improved, but it is the result of public outcry, BOE members, teacher and administration initiative, Tozzo wrote.

But two other board members, Kevin Hearty and Susan Starr, maintained in emails to the News-Times that Roy has been dedicated to both the schools and community during her 16 years with the district.

From the very beginning, she has been completely committed to our children and our community, like no other, Starr told Hearst Connecticut Media. I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with her as a Board of Ed member, and wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors."

Hearty said he looks forward to continuing to work with Roy next year.

I am proud to work with Dr. Roy, he said. I have never met anyone more committed to the children of this town and their educational opportunities and aspirations. A professional in every way and a better person.

Other board members did not respond to requests for comment.

aquinn@newstimes.com
NEW MILFORD  The senior center will soon have more space to accommodate its popular programs, including meal service.

This week, Town Council approved spending $450,000 from the Waste Management Fund to supplement a $498,000 state grant the town received two years ago for the expansion at the Richmond Center, where the senior center is based.

The project will double the size of the meeting room, add handicap-accessible bathrooms and improve accessibility.

Its very exciting, said council member Mary Jane Lundgren, who also serves on the Commission of Aging. They desperately need the room.

Mayor David Gronbach said the work is expected to start later this month or in early August and should last four months.

Because of space limitations, Senior Center staff members have had to cap programs at 60 participants or hold events at other places in town such as Trinity Lutheran Church.

Lundgren said the aging commission has discussed what to do with the senior center for two to three years. She said she would eventually like to see the center move to a one-level space, but the renovations will help in the meantime.

This is the best of both worlds, Lungren said. This isnt the end-all solution.

The Richmond Center was built as a school in 1912 but was re-purposed as town office space in the 1980s. Besides the Senior Center, it still houses town offices and Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit organization that operates a soup kitchen. Lundgren said the seniors will have more space, however, once social services moves to the former John Pettibone School.

Lundgren said the $498,000 Small Town Economic Assistance Program grant secured by former Mayor Patricia Murphy wasnt enough to cover the renovations needed for the senior center.

Once the bids started coming in, it confirmed $500,000 was not enough to extend that building, Lundgren said.

Most bids came in around $1 million, according to the discussion at Mondays council meeting.

Plans presented to the Zoning Commission last year showed the expansion would add about 1,500 square feet to the recreation room by expanding onto the grassy area behind the building. The parking spaces would also be reconfigured for 93 parking spaces, three more than at present. The expansion would use the same brick and architecture styles as the existing building.

The plans were designed by Hamden-based Silver/ Petrucelli & Associates.

During the council meeting, Councilman Katy Francis said the expansion was needed to accommodate the growing senior population in town.

According to the 2015 American Community Survey, 4,834 people 62 years or older were living in New Milford, 17.5 percent of the towns population.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345
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The Trump administrations implementation of the so-called travel ban could prevent scores of refugees from coming to Connecticut as planned, although they have been fully vetted and await only a date to resettle in the country, advocates said late last week.

Local Muslims, meanwhile, worried that last weeks Supreme Court decision partly approving the 90-day travel ban for visitors from six mostly Muslim countries, and Trumps restrictive refugee policies, will increase anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

Zarina Mohamed, a Bethel resident born in Yemen, one of the six designated countries, never thought the ban would be reinstated after two federal appeals courts blocked it.

I always thought that America was a free country, and that everyones rights would be protected, but the travel ban is restricting one specific group, regardless of who the people actually are, said Mohamed, a U.S. citizen. Its saying that Yemen is a country to be afraid of, which means that Yemeni people should be feared.

I find that very wrong, because it puts us in a category and separates us from everyone else, Mohamed said.

The Supreme Court partly lifted the lower-court injunctions against Trumps executive order that had temporarily banned visas for all refugees and for citizens of Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen. The justices ruling exempted visa applicants and refugees from the ban if they could prove a bona fide relationship with a U.S. person or entity.

Late last week, the Trump administration set criteria for visa applicants from the six countries requiring them to demonstrate a close family or business tie to the United States. The same requirement, with some exceptions, applies for the next 120 days to refugees from all nations who are still awaiting visa approval.

The Trump administration also has set a cap of 50,000 refugees this year, a limit that is likely to be reached soon. The cap was much smaller than the 110,000 set by the outgoing Obama administration.

Chris George, executive director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), a refugee resettlement agency in New Haven, said these rules will make it extremely difficult for refugees to come to the United States because many have no immediate family in the country.

George had hoped that administration rules would characterize a resettlement agency as an entity with a bona fide relationship for purposes of admitting refugees, but the rules seemingly do not.

George said the agency has 200 refugees already vetted and awaiting for approved travel dates to come to Connecticut, but he expects only a fraction of the 200 will be allowed in.

This is going to lead to increasing despair and desperate measures, George said. More families are going to be risking their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean.

The United States has historically been the leader in refugee resettlement, he added. This sends the message that we are dismantling the Statue of Liberty and what it stands for.

IRIS has resettled 311 of the nearly 50,000 refugees that have come to the United States so far this federal fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The guidelines set by the administration last week said visa and refugee applicants must prove a relationship with a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sibling or fiance. Grandparents and grandchildren, as well as other extended family, were excluded.

Is there anything that can be more confusing than this? asked Eman Beshtawii, co-founder of the Al Hedaya Islamic Center in Newtown. Is this how America treats its own citizens? Are grandparents of the American citizens, who are originally from these countries, considered a threat to our nation?

Why are we targeting countries whose own people are suffering wars, fleeing death, riding the tide, risking their own and their childrens lives, looking for a chance of better life? Beshtawii said. I hope the administration acts wisely and stops treating its own citizens with suspicion. I am for and with what makes our country safe, but I am not sure if these kind of bans and policies will help.

Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order imposing the refugee ban and travel restrictions affecting the six countries, plus Iraq, saying they were needed to allow time for an internal review of screening procedures to protect the U.S. from terrorists. In March, after initial court setbacks, he issued a revised version of the ban that dropped Iraq from the list of proscribed countries.

Trump has denied that the measures target Muslims.

The revised bans took effect Thursday night and will likely remain in place until the Supreme Court hears arguments for and against the measures in the fall. Under the temporary rules, citizens of the six nations who already have visas will be allowed into the United States.

People have been confused because we felt that the first time it came around, we fought it and it went away, said Imam Usman Akhtar of the Danbury Masjid on Main Street. Then it snuck up on us again.

We feel better about the whole situation since its not a general ban, but Muslim leaders are really taking a stand by saying its un-American and immoral and that we can protect our country without undermining our values and morals, Akhtar said. Overall its disappointing and still targets Muslims.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
The growing threat of cyber crime is having a massive impact on the way people do business on the internet. A Herjavec Group study shows cyber crime damages are expected to hit $6 trillion per year by 2021, which is double the amount from just a year ago. Cyber crime is changing the way consumers behave online, and it causes enterprise-wide security issues and concerns for all B2B operations.

And with so many of our devices being connected to the web, today the stakes are higher than ever. Tech companies are getting it. They are investing effectively, notes Neustars Deborah Clark-McGinn. They are figuring it out because they have felt the pain and they are investing to the right level to mitigate these attacks. Tech firms are always going to be [targeted], but it is important to note they are investing more and seeing positive results.

Related: Phishing in All Its Forms Is a Menace to Small Businesses

Security consultancy KPMGs Michael Daughton agrees. We are seeing a shift among clients in relation to this in so far as, even just a couple of years ago, cybersecurity was seen as an IT issue, now it is very much moving centre stage as a business issue and one that is receiving more emphasis from board level down, he says.

Lets take a closer look at five ways that cyber crime is impacting B2B companies -- and how to overcome them, without compromising data safety or visitor security.

1. Identity theft paranoia is hampering lead capture.

For B2B sales and marketing pros, lead generation is vital to the bottom line. Data from VPN Mentor show that over 95 percent of Americans are concerned about how companies use their data.

Due to the threat of identity theft, along with long-standing concerns about spam, prospects are increasingly reluctant to hand over their contact information. This means that traditional lead capture forms arent performing like they used to.

Traffic intelligence software like Leadfeeder can help you mine your anonymous traffic for usable leads. This tool uses your Google Analytics data to reveal the companies that have visited your website, and then pushes that information to your CRM and email tools for non-invasive sales follow-up.

Related: What Happens When Your Small Business Is Hacked

2. Concern over credit card data hacks impacts sales.

With data breaches on the rise, credit card leaks are becoming more common, and they impact both B2B and B2C ecommerce websites. Consumers are increasingly warned about posting credit card information, and that is likely preventing some of your sales. Recent massive data breaches have been all over the news, including the Target hack of 2014, which compromised some 70 million customers.

Shopping cart abandonment rates vary considerably, but theyre often shockingly high, ranging from 55 percent to 75 percent. According to Statista, 17 percent of abandoners bounce because of concerns over payment security.

Improve customer confidence two ways. Make sure your site has updated SSL certificates and strong HTTPS encryption. Of course, this doesn't mean that your information will be 100 percent safe 100 percent of the time, but it does make it more difficult for hackers to access any data transmitted. Secondly, use trust badges to ease user concerns and improve conversion rates. Badges like those offered by Verisign, PayPal and McAfee demonstrate that your business meets stringent security guidelines, which helps people feel like their data is safer with you.

Related: Just Being Proactive Isn't Enough: What Entrepreneurs Should Do During a Cyber Attack

3. Protecting your assets from ransomware is now a must.

Ransomware is increasingly cited as one of the years biggest security threats. "The days of single-target ransomware will soon be a thing of the past, Stephen Gates, the chief research intelligence analyst at NSFCOUS, tells Tech Republic. The new generation of attacks, he notes, will carry ransomware payloads capable of infecting hundreds of machines in an incredibly short timespan."

With ransomware, its not if but when, as the recent wave demonstrates. Waiting for government or law enforcement to fix this is wishful thinking. The legal system moves slowly, so the time it would take to get any legislation passed for punishments leaves room for attacks to occur rapidly. And besides, its not always possible to track down the culprit.

Protect your business from ransomware via team training and vigilant backups. Automate regular data backups using a tool like Code42, so you can always have something to roll back to when ransomware rears its head. Educate your employees regarding suspicious emails, and instruct them not to click links that just don't seem right. And if think you may have been infected, disconnect all of your networked devices immediately, to prevent the threat from spreading further.

Related: Is Your Data Safe? Here Are 10 Countries With the Most Data Stolen.

4. Cookie consent is spreading beyond the EU.

Six years ago, all EU countries adopted privacy legislation to protect consumers from having their personal information tracked unknowingly. The law requires that websites let users know if they are using cookies -- and get consent from site visitors to track them. Websites must also explain what data is being collected via the cookies and how it is going to be used.

While there is no comparable law in the U.S., any company that targets audiences in the EU must follow these guidelines. If you don't handle this cookie request correctly, it can backfire, especially when it comes to ecommerce sites.

I recommend that you use third-party cookie consent management tools like The Cookie Collective or Cookiebot. They'll automatically add cookie consent compliance to your website for you.

Related: How to Protect Yourself and Your Business From Online Criminals

5. Connected devices are extra vulnerable.

The internet of things (IoT) has made things more convenient for many, but as many as 200 billion devices will need securing by 2020. Without extra protection, its possible for hackers to hijack those devices to wreak havoc on computer systems. Consider, for instance, the smart refrigerator that sent spam to thousands of email addresses.

Until we start protecting our smart devices with antivirus software in the same way we protect our computers, tablets and smartphones, we're inviting increased risk. A recent study from TripWire found that 96 percent of IT security professionals are bracing for an increase in cyber attacks on the industrial IoT.

Make sure to protect your network with IoT encryption. Use a secure boot, digital signatures and protect software with key-based signatures. Symantec, for example, offers turnkey solutions to help secure IoT.

Protect yourself and your customers.

With the rapid growth of cyber crime, businesses are presented with a number of challenges. They must demonstrate trust to consumers, while taking steps to protect data. These solutions can be put in place now to minimize future disruption.

Related:

5 Ripple Effects of Cyber Crime and How B2B Firms Can Overcome Them

To Understand Today's Cyber War Study Cold War Spycraft

Phishing In All Its Forms Is a Menace to Small Businesses



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


MONTREAL, June 30, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - With the departure of Air Canada Rouge flight AC1920 to Algiers tomorrow evening, Air Canada marks the launch of non-stop service to Algeria's capital city, its second destination in North Africa from its Montreal hub.

"Air Canada is excited to introduce non-stop service from Montreal to Algiers a new enticing destination that further expands our global reach from Montreal, reinforcing Montreal-Trudeau as a strategic hub for all of Eastern Canada and the North-Eastern U.S.," said Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines at Air Canada. "Building on Air Canada's successful Montreal-Casablanca flights now operating on a year-round basis, the service to Algiers will be the only non-stop flight by a Canadian carrier between Montreal and the North African city, establishing Air Canada as an important player in the large and growing market between Canada and Algeria. It will be our second destination in Africa, which makes Air Canada one of only a small number of global carriers flying to all six inhabited continents."

"With this new seasonal flight, it will now be possible to travel to Algiers and onwards non-stop providing more opportunities for travellers and help promote Quebec abroad. I am convinced that this return flight will make the beautiful city of Montreal more attractive to tourists. This flight is also good news for the business community, as it will foster commercial relationships between Quebec and Algeria," said Lise Theriault, Deputy Premier, Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Minister responsible for Small and Medium Enterprises, Regulatory Streamlining and Regional Economic Development, and Minister responsible for the Lanaudiere region.

"The addition of Algiers to Air Canada's Montreal network once again demonstrates how MontrealTrudeau is becoming a strategic hub and enhances services offered from Montreal," said Philippe Rainville, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aeroports de Montreal. "The rapid growth of our airline services confirms our position as an international traffic hub, especially with the emerging niche markets of North Africa and the Middle East."

This new seasonal route will be operated by Air Canada Rouge with a 282-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, featuring a choice of three customer comfort options: Economy; Preferred seating offering additional legroom; and Premium Rouge with additional personal space and enhanced service.

Flights are timed to optimize connectivity to and from Air Canada's Montreal hub. All flights provide for Aeroplan accumulation and redemption and, for eligible customers, priority check-in, Maple Leaf Lounge access, priority boarding and other benefits.

Flight Departs Arrives Day of Week AC1920 Montreal 18:50 Algiers 07:40 +1 day Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday AC1921 Algiers 10:10 Montreal 13:40 Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge and its regional airline partners flying under the Air Canada Express banner operate on average approximately 2,100 flights per week between Montreal and 87 destinations: 23 in Canada including nine in Quebec, 20 in the United States, 26 in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, 12 in Europe, and stating in 2017 one in China, two in North Africa, one in the Middle East, and one in South America, representing a 146% increase in international long-haul capacity since 2009. Air Canada also offers service to Munich and Zurich through codeshare flights with Star Alliance partners Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines.

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 200 airports on six continents. Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2016 served close to 45 million customers. Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 64 airports in Canada, 57 in the United States and 95 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,300 airports in 191 countries. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax. For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.

Internet: aircanada.com

SOURCE Air Canada

For further information: Isabelle Arthur (Montreal), [email protected], 514 422-5788; Peter Fitzpatrick (Toronto), [email protected], 416 263-5576; Angela Mah, (Vancouver), [email protected], 604 270-5741

Related Links

www.aircanada.com


New service marks Hong Kong Airline's first route to North America

RICHMOND, BC, June 30, 2017 /CNW/ - Today, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) celebrated the arrival of Hong Kong Airlines (HX) and its new, non-stop daily service between Vancouver and Hong Kong. This new service, which marks the airline's North American debut, will provide passengers with more choice and will encourage growth in one of YVR's key markets.

"We are thrilled to welcome Hong Kong Airlines, an award-winning company with a great growth story," said Craig Richmond, President & CEO of Vancouver Airport Authority. "Hong Kong Airlines' new year-round service will further link Vancouver and Canada with one of the world's most dynamic cities. This service presents more options for passengers and businesses, while spurring economic growth and trade."

To celebrate the new service, inaugural celebrations at YVR included speeches from airline and government officialsas well as a guest appearance from well-known celebrity and Hong Kong Airlines Brand Ambassador Jackie Chan.

"The launch of this new route from Vancouver represents an exciting new chapter for Hong Kong Airlines as we expand our services into Canada with the intention of cultivating a global audience," says George Liu, Chief Marketing Officer, Hong Kong Airlines. "To commemorate our official entry into the North American market, we are thrilled to have renowned Hong Kong-born martial artist, Academy Award-winning Hollywood actor and world traveler Jackie Chan on board the inaugural flight as our Hong Kong Airlines brand ambassador. He offers an opportunity to further establish an East-meets-West, cross-cultural connection for our new customers, and complements our truly Hong Kong brand that bridge our new routes into Western gateways."

The new service will help YVR achieve its vision of connecting Asia to the Americas through an Interline Agreement between Hong Kong Airlines and WestJet. Under this Agreement, passengers can connect through both airlines en route to their destinations. In addition, this new service will have a direct economic benefit on the region. It will generate $25.2 million in GDP for B.C. and will create 445 jobsat the airport and in key sectors including tourism. Hong Kong Airlines will initially operate the route using an Airbus 330-200 with 264 seats, 18 of which are business class.

ABOUT VANCOUVER AIRPORT AUTHORITY

Vancouver Airport Authority is a community-based, not-for-profit organization that manages Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Canada's second busiest airport, YVR served 22.3 million passengers in 2016. Fifty-five airlines serve YVR, connecting people and businesses to more than 125 non-stop destinations worldwide. In 2016, YVR received CAPA Centre for Aviation's prestigious Airport of the Year Award and was voted Best Airport in North America for the eighth consecutive year in the Skytrax World Airport Awards in 2017. Vancouver Airport Authority is a dedicated community partner and in 2016 donated more than $1,000,000 to local organizations. We are committed to creating an airport that British Columbia can be proud of: a premier global gateway, local economic generator and community contributor.

SOURCE Vancouver Airport Authority

For further information: YVR Media Relations, [email protected], 604-880-9815, @yvrairport
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday announced New York will not comply with a request for voter data from a commission President Donald Trump created in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity through executive order in May with the aim of promoting "fair and honest Federal elections."

Trump has alleged without evidence that several million voters in 2016 cast fraudulent ballots.

The commission is now seeking data from all 50 states that includes voters' first and last names, dates of birth, political parties (if available) and the last four digits of their Social Security number.

In New York, some of that data is already public record. The Social Security digits are not.

Cuomo announced Friday that he would not comply with the commission's request.

"New York refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election," Cuomo said in a statement. "We will not be complying with this request and I encourage the Election Commission to work on issues of vital importance to voters, including ballot access, rather than focus on debunked theories of voter fraud."

California Gov. Jerry Brown and Virgina Gov. Terry McAuliffe, both Democrats, also announced Friday they would not comply with the request.
In September 2004, he was arrested and charged with sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment after a 23-year-old woman told officers he had grabbed her crotch area outside a building on Bleecker Street in Manhattan and tried to penetrate her through her underwear, reports said.

Court records indicated that in September 2004, Bello pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, a misdemeanour, and was sentenced to community service, while the felony sexual abuse charge was dismissed, according to reports.

He was going to be fired by the hospital, after reports of sexual harassments, but instead chose to resign in February 2015 in lieu of termination, reports further said.

Reports from the New York State Education Department said Bello had received a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate in order to gain experience so he could be licensed.

The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired on July 1, 2016, while he also had a pharmacy technician license that had been issued in California in 2006.

Dr Henry Michael Bello, the gunman who shot six people at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Centre in New York on Friday, has been identified as a Nigerian.Some Nigerians in New York, who knew Bello, confirmed to the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday.And the NYPD has also identified him to be a Nigerian-born doctor.Bello, 45, shot dead a woman, on the 17floor and injured at least six others on the 16floor, before killing himself the New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner James ONeil, said.Five of his victims were seriously injured and fighting for their lives,Bello went into his former workplace wearing a white lab coat with an AR-15 machine gun hidden underneath with the intention of targeting the same individual.NYPD officials said Bello asked for a specific doctor on the 16th floor but when he was told the doctor was not there, he became angry and started shooting at everyone.Officials said Bello tried to set himself on fire before committing suicide.Reports said Bello, who was hired at the hospital in August 2014 as a house physician, had past arrests for sex abuse, turnstile jumping, burglary and public urination.He went to medical school at Ross University on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica and later worked briefly as a pharmacy technician for Metropolitan Hospital Centre in Manhattan in 2012,A photo provided by authorities showed him dead on the floor of the hospital, wearing a bloodied doctors coat.Law enforcement officials described Bello as transient recently, with at least five different addresses since he left the hospital.
Police in the Midwestern U.S. state of Arkansas say 25 people were shot Saturday night at a hip hop concert at a night club in the states capital, Little Rock.The shooting came as a result of an argument between two concert attendees, police said, and was not terror-related. All 25 of those shot in the incident are expected to survive.Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner said a dispute broke out among several people inside the club and there are probably multiple shooting suspects.Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson linked the night club shooting to other shootings in the city this week and said Little Rocks crime problem appears to be intensifying.Every few days it seems a high profile shooting dominates the news, culminating with this morning's event. I have spoken this morning with (Little Rock Mayor) Mark Stodola and I have offered both my heartfelt concern over this senseless, violent tragedy and state assets as needed to address the continued threat of violence in our community.''




The Chairman of the South East Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, on Friday insisted that the Igbos would not leave the northern part of the country, because every Nigerian is free to live and do legitimate business in any part of the country he wishes.Eze Ilomuanya stated this while speaking in Owerri, Imo State, at two different events while receiving Ohaneze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC), Imo State branch and Association for Media Communication Development.He was conferred with the title of Distinguished Royal Father-Award at the event.Nigerians are one irrespective of our ethnic-religious, linguistic and tribal diversities. We must preach peace and unity as a way out of any serious problem or challenge facing us as a nation, he said.The socio-economic and political setback associated with disintegration is too enormous to be ignored.Eze Ilomuanya added that Igbos had contributed to the socio-economic and political development of Nigeria and cannot be treated as second class citizens anywhere in the country.
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Evans An Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, said on Friday the police has the courts backing to detain the kidnap kingpin...

Evans

An Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, said on Friday the police has the courts backing to detain the kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike a.k.a Evans, for 90 days, contrary to insinuations in some quarters that he is being held illegally.Kyari, who led the special squad of policemen that smashed Evans gang, said the detention is to allow for thorough investigation of the suspect.He said: All those who want Evans released did not know that the police had obtained a 90 -day warrant to detain him.He said the detention warrant was obtained on June 21.Evans had challenged his continued detention in court, describing it as illegal.He is praying the court to order his immediate release if they cannot arraign him in court immediately.He is also asking for N300million damages from the police for his illegal detention.However, Kyari said: We envisaged that they would do that hence we beat them to it.In a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed on his behalf by a Lagos lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, the kidnapper said his continued detention without trial was illegal.He is praying the court for an order directing the respondents to immediately charge him to court if there is any case against him in accordance with Sections 35{1}{c} {3} {4} {5} {a} {6} and 36 of the 1999 Constitution.
There was tension at Ikorodu, Lagos, on Friday following the murder of three suspected members of ritual gang, Badoo, and an alleged culti...

FILE PHOTO: Jungle justice in Nigeria

There was tension at Ikorodu, Lagos, on Friday following the murder of three suspected members of ritual gang, Badoo, and an alleged cultist.The suspected Badoo members were hacked to death at Ogijo, Igbo-Oluwo area of Ikorodu.It was gathered that the suspected cultist was caught by angry residents after his gang stormed a community and shot sporadically.While the cultists who rode in a bus fled at the sight of a mob, one of their members was caught and hacked to death.According to residents, the Igbo-Oluwo Badoo suspects were caught around 1:00 a.m. on Friday, while trying to break into an apartment near a gas station.It was gathered that the suspects applied engine oil on their body.An eyewitness, Fatai Odulana, said some of the residents, who kept vigil, raised alarm when they noticed strange movements in the area.
A former Minister of Health and Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, would be buried in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Friday, July 21.A statement issued on Saturday by his son, Babajide, obtained by our correspondent in Jos, said the final funeral service the Under-Secretary-General of the UN, would take place at All Souls Church, Ibadan by 11:00am.Osotimehin, who also served as the pioneer Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, died in New York on Sunday, June 4 at the age of 68.Other events slated for the funeral include the Babatunde Osotimehin lecture to be held in London by the UNFPA, during the world Family Planning Summit.There will also be a Service of Songs by NACA scheduled for Abuja.THE United Nations System in Nigeria will host a memorial service on July 14, 2017, at UN House, Abuja.Meanwhile, the UNFPA has condoled with Nigeria over Osotimehins death, saying the world has lost one of the strongest voices for women and young people.The UN agency in a statement on Saturday, said Osotimehin would be remembered for his years of service to Nigeria and humanity as a whole.
Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex-Igbo socio-cultural organization Thursday took a swipe on the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra ( IP...

Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex-Igbo socio-cultural organization Thursday took a swipe on the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB) for allegedly ordering that the November 18, 2017 governorship election in Anambra State should not be conducted.Presidential-general of the Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo who led other national leaders of the organization to the Anambra State House of Assembly warned leaders of groups championing self rule for the Igbo nation not to arrogate to themselves the supreme leadership of Igboland . He said though it was obvious that Ndigbo were suffering marginalization in the affairs of the country, Igbo was still part and parcel of Nigeria, adding that in seeking mitigation of the injustices being meted to Ndigbo, civilized approach should be adopted.He lashed out at the leader of IPOB for, according to him, making unguarded utterances that Anambra State governorship election slated for November would not hold, explaining that such utterance had already drawn the attention of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) who, he stated, had deployed more police personnel to patrol Anambra State.Kanus utterance, Nwodo stated, had breached the undertaking he took before him (Nwodo) when he was released from detention. He said, Im just being paternal. The way I commended them as my children; is the way I have the right to chastised them when they go wrong. We dont need this heat up. His address read: News that reached us in the past few days that Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB, has declared that there will be no election in Anambra in November is shocking and disturbing. I hereby countermand that declaration as President General of Ohaneze.Whereas Ohanaeze understands the marginalization and unfair treatment of Igbo which have given rise to self-determination movements in Igboland, leaders of these movements must not arrogate to themselves the supreme leadership of Igboland. Statements of the kind credited to Nnamdi Kanu are provocative, misleading and unproductive. Why should Anambra people be denied the opportunity to choose their own leader? Why should any of us who is not from Anambra, no matter how highly placed, descend to the arena and dictate for Anambra people when to vote, whether to vote or who to vote for? Anambra, nay Igbo, are still part and parcel of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Yes, we are not happy with our treatment in Nigeria. Yes, some of us want Biafra. Yes, some of us prefer a restructured Federal Republic of Nigeria.But the fact remains that we are still part and parcel of the present Federal Republic of Nigeria, bound by its laws, no matter how repressive or unjust. Our approach to reforms of our laws even if it leads to self-determination or restructuring must be lawful. We must convince other Nigerians of our point of view, we must strive to make others share our convictions.Our language must be civil, respectful and lead to consensus building. We must resist any attempt to turn division amongst us, as to which way we must go, become a source of altercations between us. As we speak very many of our people living in Northern Nigeria are in complete awe and consternation regarding how safe they will be after October 1st. Other Northerners living amongst us are also worried.The Inspector General of Police has taken public notice of Nnamdis comments, which may amount to inviting a possible invasion of Anambra by the Nigerian Police, increasing the already existing siege on our people, which may lead to daily extortion on our highways. All these developments have arisen out of unguarded utterances. I find no venue more suited for the statements I make here. Every constituent part of Anambra is represented here.I believe that the honourable members here are competent enough to carry the Ohaneze message to every nook and cranny of Anambra State.Nwodo explained further that Ohaneze leadership would visit other houses of assembly in Igbo- speaking states, to acquaint them on the stand of the Ohaneze on issues concerning the people. He expressed happiness with the peace that exists in Anambra State and the steady progress being made over the years, noting that the November election could only improve and not retard the progress.
Former Super Eagles striker, Kanu Nwankwo, has urged Africans to become more aware of heart-related diseases, following the untimely death of Ivory Coast international, Cheick Tiote.Tiote collapsed and died last month while training with his Chinese club, Beijing Enterprises.Kanu recalled how Cameroons Marc-Vivien Foe slumped and passed away, while playing at the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup.The 40-year-old who established the Kanu Heart Foundation, also revealed his plans to build five specialist hospitals across five African nations including Nigeria.Im talking to friends so we can do something to create awareness to try to help children in Africa, Kanu told BBCSport.Tiotes death was not good news. Its not the first time it is happening.We lost Marc-Vivien Foe. He died and nothing was done. Tiote is gone and nothing is being done.One man can not do everything. What happened to Tiote is a lesson to us all. We cant let it go on like this.We should talk more about it, information needs to get out there because the problem is huge.Our dream is to build a hospital in Nigeria and four other countries in Africa.The funds have been the issue but if we can make it happen its going to help a lot because right now we are taking the kids to India and it cost a lot.
Authorities arrested four men and seized $9.6 million in heroin following a month-long investigation into drug distribution, New Jersey State Police announced.

Investigators seized 120 kilos of heroin, as well as methamphetamine, fentanyl and a huge haul of Percocet tablets in raids in Bergen and Burlington counties.

State police and members of the North Bergen Police Department arrested three men in the parking lot of a North Bergen business Wednesday after observing an alleged drug deal, police said.

Arrested were Jesus Carrillo-Pineda, 30, of Sierra Mojada, Coahulia, Mexico, Daniel Vasquez, 27, of Somerton, Arizona, and Jesus Yanez-Martinez, 21, also of Somerton. Police also seized 40 kilos of heroin.

Each man was charged with possession of heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute, and conspiracy. All were placed in Hudson County Jail pending a detention hearing.

The next day, the investigation continued in South Jersey, where state police detectives working with local police searched a home on Berkshire Lane in Willingboro. They seized 80 kilos of heroin, three kilograms of methamphetamine, three kilos of fentanyl and 50,000 Percocet tablets.

Omar Rodriguez, 37, of Willingboro, was arrested in this raid and charged with possession of heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute and possession of paraphernalia. He was placed in Burlington County Jail.

"There's no question that multiple lives were saved by this record-level seizure of heroin and fentanyl," Attorney General Christopher Porrino said in a statement. "The 120 kilos of heroin seized by this team over the past two days would have been cut into millions upon millions of individual doses of heroin, made even deadlier if laced with the lethal fentanyl that was also seized."

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- A steady stream of joggers, cyclists and cars were turned away from Liberty State park this morning because of a government shutdown from the state budget stalemate last night.

Gov. Chris Christie at midnight on Friday ordered a government shutdown after the state Legislature failed to pass a budget by the midnight deadline last night.

Christie, at a news conference on Friday, said that he and Senate Democrats still had not reached a deal with Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, who refused to consider Christie's Horizon legislation, according to the Associated Press.

As a result, all of the state's parks have been closed until the government can pass a budget.

For Liberty State Park, that means the ferry service to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island will not be operating until a budget is passed.

"Many of you have already heard about the shameful abomination that (Liberty State Park), and all of state government, is closed until the Governor and the legislature ends the budget deadlock," the Friends of Liberty State Park said in a release, posting a picture of the empty park "as it would sadly look today with no people."

State Park Services and State Troopers were stationed outside of the fenced off entrance to the park, turning people away and informing people heading to the ferry to Ellis Island that they would have to head to Battery Park in Manhattan.

Posted on the fencing was a photo of Prieto that read, "This facility is CLOSED Because of this Man."

A number of residents and would be park-goers huddled under the shade this morning as they tried to figure out why the park was closed.

"This is just sad," said Francis, who declined to give his last name. Francis and his family were dropped off to spend the day at the park, but were stranded upon arriving at the entrance.

Another pedestrian who declined to give his name, upon learning of the governments state budget impasse, commented: "well that about sums it up, doesn't it?"

The government shutdown also adds uncertainty to the July 4 celebration that was planned at Liberty State Park next week.

Mayor Steven Fulop, in a number of Facebook and Twitter posts, said that the event would continue despite a government shutdown at a different location.

shut down or no govt shut down in NJ, the #JerseyCity 4th or July fireworks/Kool+gang will go on. Just as big we have back up plans in place  Steven Fulop (@StevenFulop) June 30, 2017

"We have a back up location at Exchange Place for concerts, use of parking lots for festival, and moving barges for fireworks if need be," Fulop said in a Facebook post. "We will celebrate Independence Day as it should be."
Confusion and frustration hit Motor Vehicle Commissions across New Jersey following an early-morning government shutdown stemming from the state budget impasse.

At midnight on Friday, Gov. Chris Christie ordered the closure of all non-essential services after the state Legislature failed to pass a budget by the deadline. MVC agencies and state parks were among the shuttered services.

Those looking to register cars, renew licenses and return plates were locked out of offices and registration stations around the state.

In Edison, "closed" signs were posted on the MVC agency's glass doors with a photo of Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) that read "This Facility is CLOSED Because of this Man" along with the speaker's office phone number beneath the text. A handful of people surrounded the posters, snapping photos on cellphones.

The state shut down after Prieto declined to put a bill to vote in the Assembly that would restructure Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) refuses to pass a budget in the upper chamber unless the Assembly passes the Horizon bill.

"How are we supposed to function?" said Edison resident Claudia Charles. "We should be able to depend on this place opening up when we need it."

Charles woke early Saturday to renew her expired driver's license but was immediately thrown by the closed signs and unusually empty parking lot. No MVC staff members were on scene to explain why the building wasn't open.

The 52-year-old says she is worried about being pulled over by police with her license not updated.

Irritated and puzzled, Charles added: "This was a mishap with the government, but what about the people? It's affecting the people."

And it wasn't only individuals affected. Hishm Mafarja, an employee for a small trucking company, Jerusalem Express, said he was unable register three vehicles he needs for work. The paperwork, he said, is due Monday.

The state Legislature was scheduled for an emergency session Saturday morning to try to resolve the standoff, but there's no sign yet when these services will resume.

"Now I have to wait," Mafarja said.

Those who drove to the agency were unaware of the shutdown and wished the state had better publicized it leading up to the weekend.

"I didn't even know this was happening," said 28-year-old Edison resident Dariana Cortez.

Friday evening, Christie held a press conference demanding the Legislature send him a budget and placing blame squarely on the Assembly speaker.

Sweeney and Christie cut a deal in late June, agreeing to pass a $34.7 billion Democratic spending plan if the state Legislature sent Christie two pieces of legislation, including the controversial Horizon bill.

At least one scorned driver, Michael Dimare of Edison, backed Christie and said the shutdown would be "worth it" if the spending plan passes.

"I just really hope the government spending goes down at the end of this," he said. "Then it would be worth it."

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AvalonZoppo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Welcome to Independence Day weekend, New Jersey.

It's a time to cast aside all the aspersions brought on by the Turnpike's industrial corridor and celebrate our proud Revolutionary War history. Simply put, New Jersey, more than any other state, was the place where the battle was fought, nearly lost, and ultimately won.

With a four-day holiday weekend, it's a chance to make a historic scavenger hunt to put New Jersey's legacy in perspective. That is, if the state lawmakers can play nice on the budget impasse and get the parks they're supposed to run reopen.

Here are some stops along the way:

Fort Lee Historic Park

A visitor's center and a re-created encampment are perched on the high cliffs of the Palisades. But if nothing else, go for the views, especially the incredible girder-scape of the George Washington Bridge.

The history isn't as glorious. The Continental Army abandoned the fort without a fight in November 1776, beginning the retreat across New Jersey.

Military and Washington parks, Newark

The first stop in the retreat, this is where Thomas Paine wrote "These are the times that try men's souls," those famous opening words of the pamphlet "The American Crisis," as he traveled with Washington's army.

Gutzon Borglum's massive sculpture "The Wars of America" is at Military Park. It is one of his signature works, along with "Seated Lincoln" in front of the Historic Essex County Courthouse, before he undertook Mount Rushmore.

Morristown National Historic Park, Jockey Hollow and the Ford Mansion

The winter of 1779-80 was brutal; 28 winter storms marred the Continental Army's encampment. There was a smallpox epidemic, and the men were starving. Washington ordered the horses removed so the men wouldn't slaughter them for meat.

There is a fine museum at the Ford Mansion, where Washington stayed. The re-created soldier huts at Jockey Hollow show how the regulars lived.

The Washington Association bought the Ford Mansion in 1873 and turned it into a museum, accounting for its pristine condition. If not, the property might have been developed like so many other critical New Jersey historic sites. Deeded to the U.S. Park Service in 1933, it became America's first historic national park.

MORE: Recent Mark Di Ionno columns

Morristown's reputation as the Military Capital of the Revolution is warranted. The army spent three winters near there. It was in Morristown where Washington won support from the French, groomed Alexander Hamilton and had access to the munitions and gunpowder industries of New Jersey's Iron Hills. The army was also among political allies and safe behind the Watchung Mountains. Unlike other parts of New Jersey, Morris County was staunchly Patriot, beginning with Chatham, where the first liberty pole in the state was erected. It was a gutsy move. The towering poles signaled to British and Loyalists they were in Patriot country.

If the state had the forethought of the Washington Association, Morristown could have been a national tourism site. Maybe even home to a Smithsonian-level exhibit hall. Instead, it is Philadelphia that opened the Museum of the American Revolution in April.

Washington Crossing State Park

The Pennsylvania side is much more ambitious, but New Jersey's visitor center holds the lifetime passion of Kels Swan, the park's former historian and curator, who amassed one of the largest privately owned collections of Revolutionary War artifacts. It is now under the care of the state.

The hardship theme continues here. A stormy Christmas Eve night in 1776. A daring river crossing. A 10-mile overnight trudge to Trenton. You know the rest. The war was turning.

Old Barracks Museum in Trenton

In the shadow of the Statehouse, the Old Barracks Museum is almost all that's left of Colonial Trenton, with a few scattered houses and churches that were part of the running battle between the Continental Army and England's Hessian mercenaries. Too bad. With better stewardship at the state level, Trenton, like Morristown, could have reaped the benefits of much more heritage tourism.

Princeton Battlefield

Several days after the fighting in Trenton, Washington's army pulled out of camp at Assunpink Creek and headed north to Morristown. At Princeton, Washington added to his legend of being bulletproof as he charged to the front on horseback to rally his troops, who were falling back in disarray under British fire.

Gen. Hugh Mercer wasn't as lucky. He was mortally wounded during the fight. Still, the Continental Army was able to drive the British from Princeton for the second decisive victory in 10 days.

Old Queens, New Brunswick

Rutgers hooked into the Revolutionary theme for its 250th anniversary last year, with good reason. Not only did Col. Henry Rutgers, the university's first major benefactor, fight in the war, but the hilltop at Old Queens, overlooking the Raritan River, was the site of an impressive defensive assault during the retreat. Young Alexander Hamilton led a cannon strike on advancing British, gaining the attention of Washington.

Unfortunately, much of Colonial New Brunswick, including Washington's headquarters at Cochrane's Tavern at the corner of Albany and Neilson streets, fell to redevelopment.

New Brunswick was also the site of America's first official July 4th celebration. In 1778, fresh off the victory at Monmouth, Washington ordered a feu-de-joie (fire of joy) exhibition by the troops. For 2 miles along the Raritan, the army lined up with muskets and cannons, and fired in succession, for a long-lasting salute to the new country.

Monmouth Battlefield

This was the biggest troop-on-troop battle of the war as Washington's army basically ran into the back of the slow-moving British, who were evacuating Philadelphia. The battle stretched for miles, but most of the action took place in the preserved meadows of the state park in Freehold Township.

Downtown Springfield and Morris Avenue in Union

The Battle of Springfield is perhaps the most unheralded conflict of the war. It was England's last-ditch effort to rout Washington from out behind the Watchung Mountains and cut the Colonies in half. It was the last battle in the north. It failed due mostly to the response of the New Jersey Militia, angered by the death of Hannah Caldwell during fighting at Connecticut Farms (now the town of Union).

Rev. James Caldwell, her grieving husband, known as the Fighting Parson, rallied the troops at the Springfield Presbyterian Church the next day. As they tore up hymnals to use the paper to pack their muskets, legend has it that Caldwell said, "Now give 'em Watts, boys," as the enemy approached. Issac Watts was a famous hymnist of the day.

The enemy at Springfield was a force made up of British, Hessians and American Loyalists, a reminder that the Revolution was also a civil war.

Of course, there's much, much more. I know, I wrote a book about it.

Still, learning about the Revolution in New Jersey isn't really about sites. It's about perspective, especially in these times of political animosity. All those talking heads who scream about a nation divided should know better: It is simply the course of two-party democracy.

At the time of the Revolution, the Colonies were divided. Some of the fiercest fighting, especially in Union and Monmouth counties, pitted Patriots against Loyalists -- Americans against Americans.

Eventually, they came together as one nation -- yes, divisible by politics, then, as now.

But we survive, based on the bedrock of individual rights guaranteed by those first few constitutional amendments. They are called the Bill of Rights, and were first ratified by New Jersey.

Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.
Most of the New Jersey's government functions -- including the operation of state parks and beaches -- shuttered Saturday after Gov. Chris Christie and the New Jersey State Legislature failed to agree on a budget before the midnight deadline.

New Jersey requires a budget to be signed by June 30 every year. At midnight, Christie ordered a shutdown of non-essential government services, leaving beach and park-goers scrambling at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Correctional facilities, state police, NJ Transit and casinos remain open.

Who do you blame for the government shutdown? Vote in our poll below and comment with your thoughts.

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.
Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
In military terms, it was a well-executed flanking maneuver. In chess terms, it was a threatened check.

Facing the prospect of getting the blame for a government shutdown, Gov. Chris Christie made a quick change in tactics Friday. He shifted the pressure to his Democratic opponent, Assembly Speaker Vince Prieto, in the showdown over the budget for fiscal 2018, which began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

For the past few weeks, Christie had been emphasizing his opposition to any budget deal that did not contain his pet bill. That's a measure permitting the state to control what Christie termed the "excessive" reserves of Horizon Blue Cross.

He kept calling for Prieto to compromise on the bill in return for Christie's endorsement of a budget that's generous to Democratic districts.

But the Hudson County Democrat surprised everyone by refusing to do what Trenton pols seem born to do: compromise.

In a press conference Friday afternoon, Prieto once again repeated his unalterable opposition to passing - or even discussing - any bill regarding Horizon.

That put Christie in a tough spot. He wriggled out of it nicely at his own press conference.

Christie began by terming himself "Mr. Reasonable" - so reasonable that he would sign any budget that came to his desk, Horizon bill or no Horizon bill.

But there was a catch. The state constitution gives the governor of New Jersey the power to veto any line item in the budget after he signs it.

Mr. Reasonable said that if Prieto would send him a budget deal that included the Horizon bill, he would sign it and decline to exercise the line-item veto.

But what if Prieto sent him a budget with no Horizon bill? Then Mr. Reasonable would still sign the budget and avert a government shutdown.

But after that he'd stop being so reasonable, Christie said, citing 73 line items he could cut from the $35.7 billion budget, for a total of $325 million in savings.

"If they send me a budget without Horizon, then many of these 73 items will go," Christie said.

Either way, he was off the hook for any shutdown, he said.

"This is saying you have two choices, both of which will result in no government shutdown," Christie said. "Different budgets, but no government shutdown."

But if the Democrats didn't send him a budget, "the New Jersey government will shut down and it will be the fault of Prieto," he said.

History was on his side in that regard. During the last shutdown, in 2006, Gov. Jon Corzine refused to sign the budget unless he got a one-cent increase in the sales tax.

But you can't sign a budget unless it reaches your desk. And Christie made clear that it was up to Prieto to deliver one.

But could he? On Thursday, Prieto could muster a mere 24 votes from the 52-member Democratic majority. That was far short of the 41-vote majority needed to get a bill through the Assembly.

But Prieto was having a hard time getting the votes, particularly among the South Jersey Democrats allied with state Senate President Steve Sweeney.

Sweeney, who comes from Gloucester County, has his own pet cause, a change in the school-funding formula that would send more money to growing districts.

To get that, he was willing to push through the Horizon bill for the governor.

But the $150 million increase in school funding Sweeney sought was among the items Christie put on the chopping block for Mr. Reasonable's ax.

After Christie's press conference, Prieto spent a couple of hours trying to win votes for his Horizon-free budget. Then at 7:30, the Speaker opened the machine for a vote. After 10 minutes he had accrued a grant total of two more votes over the prior day's total.

As the final hours of fiscal 2017 ticked away, the board remained stuck at 26 yes votes. There were 24 abstentions, mostly from Democrats.

After a half-hour, Prieto held another press conference, this time to do some blame-shifting of his own.

Earlier in the week, he had said, "If somebody wants to shut government it's not going to be me."

Now he said, "I am trying to keep the government open."

He said he was doing so by keeping the voting board open until midnight, if necessary. If his fellow legislators didn't want to pass the budget, then "that will be up to those people voting," he said.

As the hours ticked on, those people were still abstaining.

Let the blame game begin.
TRENTON -- In 2006, the tens of thousands of state employees furloughed during the first-ever state government shutdown received back pay for the days they were out of work.

In all, some 45,000 workers in courthouses and motor vehicle facilities and offices across the state were taken off the job as lawmakers and Gov. Jon Corzine disagreed on raising New Jersey's 6 percent sales tax.

As a state budget standoff replays itself in Trenton and a government shutdown looms, Gov. Chris Christie suggested workers this time won't be so lucky.

"Don't count on it," Christie said at a news conference Friday, fewer than 12 hours before the midnight budget deadline. "That was Jon 'I'll fight for a good contract for you' Corzine. I ain't him."

UPDATE: Everything that's now open & closed during shutdown

In the budget adopted eight days after the deadline in 2006, Corzine and the Democratic leaders in the state Senate and Assembly agreed to include retroactive pay for furloughed workers.

Public workers welcomed the news. But one Democratic senator, now Senate President Stephen Sweeney and a key player in these budget talks, did not.

"I've got guys who are working on road projects that were shut down and they were laid off," Sweeney, an iron worker, said at the time. "Are they being paid, too? Where's the fairness in that? What about all the other workers, the casino workers, who aren't getting paid? I think it's wrong."

Tens of thousands of casino workers, private employees, lost pay when Atlantic City's 12 casinos were forced to close without the oversight of casino inspectors.

But Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communications Workers of America, which represents about 35,000 state workers, said they're "ready, willing and able" to work, and they expect to be paid if a shutdown keeps them off the job.

It's no different than a lockout, she said. Her members will report to work each day to sign in and indicate their readiness to work.

She estimated 30,000 or so of her members could be furloughed.

"If you lock us out, we're going to come to work and we're going to show up wherever we have to show up in order to make it clear that we're ready, able and willing to work," Rosenstein said.

Just which workers have to report to work is, to some extent, up to Christie.

"Some things are defined statutorily as essential services. And so those do not close. But the rest that are not defined in the statute as essential can be considered nonessential," Christie said. "But, in essence, the running of the executive branch is left to the chief executive."

Prisons and New Jersey State Police would be exempt from a shutdown. But without a budget in place and a mechanism to pay employees, Christie could shutter such nonessential state services as state parkers and beaches.

Without a budget in place, Christie can shutter nonessential state services, like state parks and beaches. Prisons and psychiatric institutions would remain open.

But this time, casinos would be spared thanks to a law passed in the wake of the 2006 shutdown.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
TRENTON -- Fewer than 12 hours after gridlock in the state Assembly sparked a New Jersey government shutdown, Gov. Chris Christie rattled off a list of state services and operations that have ceased as result of "the speaker's shutdown."

Christie, speaking at a holiday weekend news conference Saturday, called the shutdown "embarrassing" and "pointless." The Republican governor assailed Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), whose refusal to post a controversial bill for a vote led to a revolt among his own party and ground nonessential state services to a halt.

"The speaker's shutdown was completely unnecessary and completely avoidable," Christie said.

"I'm ready to sign a budget and, quite frankly, I don't care what budget comes to me," he said. "He's not acting rationally."

Legislators in Prieto's own party stopped the budget from getting enough votes to pass late Friday night over the speaker's refusal to allow a vote on a Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey bill. The legislation was bundled with the budget negotiations that the Democratic-controlled state Legislature had with Christie.

The measure has bipartisan support and has already passed in the state Senate.

Prieto has called the proposal bad policy and said he's refused to negotiate on the proposal because it would amount to a tax on New Jerseyans.

But Christie dismissed the speaker's criticisms.

"He hasn't read the bill," the governor said. "The bill says ... it cannot contribute to any policy increase."

The legislation would add more oversight to Horizon, which, unlike any other insurers in the state, is a hybrid public-private company. It's a not-for-profit insurer with a charitable mission.

The bill would also allow the state to pull Horizon's excess reservers to fund health care services for New Jerseyans. That provision would not go into effect until Christie leaves office in January.

Christie accused Prieto of pulling "a temper tantrum" and again blasted the lawmaker for co-sponsoring legislation in 2006 that's very similar to the bill he's opposed to today.

The 2006 bill, which was never voted on, would have given the state authority to steer Horizon's excess reserves to cover charity care payments at hospitals. Prieto was one of three co-sponsors.

Posters announcing the closure of state parks and buildings because of the shutdown had Prieto's photo on them. Christie said he approved them.

"They're our advice to people about why the buildings are closed," he said. "They are official government advice as to why the buildings are closed. And yes, they were approved by the governor."

These signs are taped to the N.J. Statehouse front doors. "Who's that?" a young boy asked his mom as they walked up to the building. pic.twitter.com/pjxcNrmFf9  Brent Johnson (@johnsb01) July 1, 2017

But not all share Christie's view that it's all Prieto's fault.

Dozens of protestors gathered outside Christie's news conference to speak out against the governor and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who has agreed to a deal with Christie on the budget.

"Stop the Christie-Sweeney shutdown," one protest sign read.

The crowd also shouted a chant that suggested the shutdown was a sequel to the George Washington Bridge scandal that has haunted Christie the last few years.

"Bridgegate 2!" they chanted.

Protestors outside @GovChristie's news conference in Trenton are chanting "Bridgegate 2!" pic.twitter.com/H6HbtZW2LL  Brent Johnson (@johnsb01) July 1, 2017

Christie is slated to deliver remarks to the Legislature at 2:30 p.m.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook.
Morning briefing: Wisconsin election commission to Trump panel: You want voter data? Pay for it.
'No one is immune:' Survivors of gun violence share their stories at book panel
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Extra security measures will be in place for tonight's Little Mix concert at Donington Park following recent terror attacks in Manchester and London.

Leicestershire Police has confirmed that armed police officers will be on patrol at the event.

The open-air gig at Donington Park tonight (Saturday, July 1) is part of the quartet's Summer Shout Out Tour.

A spokesman for Leicestershire Police said: "We are working with the organisers of the Little Mix 'Summer Shout Out' to make sure everyone has a safe and enjoyable time this Saturday (July 1).

"Little Mix are performing at Donington Park on Saturday evening supported by Ella Eyre and Sheppard.

"In the light of recent events in Manchester and London the security at the event has been reviewed and additional security is being put in place to ensure everyone's safety.

Armed officers will be patrolling with their unarmed colleagues. They are there to keep everyone safe and make sure everyone has a good time. All police officers are very happy to talk to Little Mix fans so please go and say hello."

More information about the concert:

What are the opening times?

15:00  Car park opens

16:00  Gates open

17:30  Sheppard

18:30 - Ella Eyre

20:00 - Little Mix

21:30  Approx. finish

What's the address for Donington Park?

Donington Park, Castle Donington, Derby, DE74 2RP
JUNEAU  A former nurse at Fox Lake Correctional Institution was sentenced Thursday after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a prisoner.

Jennifer M. Stehling pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree sexual assault by correctional staff. Two other felony charges against her were dismissed and were read into the court record.

Judge Steven Bauer sentenced Stehling to 30 months probation including seven months in the Dodge County Jail to begin no later than Aug. 28. She must pay $538 in court costs, register as a sex offender and undergo counseling as recommended.

According to the criminal complaint, officers were notified June 12, 2016, of a staff investigation that was being conducted at Fox Lake Correctional. According to prison officials a 30-year-old inmate had attempted approximately 650 phone calls to a member of the correctional staff. Officials began to monitor the phone calls and discovered that the conversations were regarding whether the inmate had any sexually transmitted diseases.

Officials believed that based on the circumstances of the phone calls, the staff member, identified as Stehling, had engaged in sexual contact with the inmate.

When Stehling was interviewed by investigators, she initially denied having a relationship with the inmate, but later allegedly admitted to having sex with the inmate in a room in the health services unit. Stehling said the sex was consensual.

Officers searched the inmates cell and located a calendar with handwritten notations on days that Stehling worked. Officers also located photos of Stehling and of her residence.
There was just one thing missing earlier this month when 14 new car-seat technicians were certified at North Platte Community College. The class was full of health-care and child-care professionals but had no law enforcement personnel.

Instructor Scott Eveland, who works with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and lives in Ogallala, said he reached out to the North Platte Police Department, Lincoln County Sheriffs Office and Nebraska State Patrol Troop D, stationed in North Platte.

Many within those law enforcement agencies point out that there is already one car-seat technician among Lincoln County law enforcement. State Trooper Carolyn OBrien has been certified since 1999.

OBrien, who has worked in law enforcement since 1990, said she became certified after a presentation about the course reminded her of her own young child at the time.

On an almost daily basis on traffic stops, I encounter children not properly restrained, she said.

OBrien added that spotting car-seat violations goes beyond just knowing the law. Thats why certified technicians are required to become recertified every two years, receive continued education and perform car-seat checks.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that all children ride in a rear-facing seat until theyre 2 years old or reach the highest weight allowed by the car-seat manufacturer.

In the past, OBrien said, it was 1 year and 20 pounds.

State law requires children up to age 6 to be secured in a federally approved child safety seat.

Some of the violations OBrien encounters are smaller problems that she notices because of her certification, and she helps parents readjust their childs safety seat before sending them on their way. Whether OBrien cites a driver for car-seat violations depends on the case, she said.

How many other kids are being encountered by officers that dont have that knowledge? she said.

At the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center in Grand Island, officials have phased out car-seat training.

Our curriculum is based on specific job paths that incumbent officers have said they need to do to do their job, said Brenda Urbanek, the academys deputy director. Installing and inspecting car seats wasnt one they felt they needed to receive at the academy.

Today, students at the academy learn the current law, guidelines and size requirements.

Urbanek said the lack of training at the academy shouldnt stop law enforcement officers from becoming independently certified. But OBrien said she suspects many dont because of the amount of required training as well as staffing shortages.

Her suspicions were confirmed by every Lincoln County law enforcement agency. Troop D Capt. Martin Denton cited those exact reasons why more state troopers arent certified. Lincoln County Sheriffs Chief Deputy Roland Kramer said that while deputies are always welcome to attend certification classes, they havent shown interest.

If theyre not willing to do it, were not going to make them, he said. We dont force people to go to them, because they wont do a good job.

Kramer also mentioned time constraints and staff shortages, adding that parents should educate themselves on car-seat guidelines.

Not that its not important, he said, but frankly theres instructions, and theyre pretty clear.

At the North Platte Police Department, its not a lack of interest, said Officer Jeremiah Johnson, and I would not say its a matter of carelessness.

However, Johnson said the same staff shortages and time constraints that others mentioned make it difficult to obtain  and maintain  proper certifications.

Johnson, Kramer and Denton all said they appreciate having OBriens certification, as well as that of other car-seat technicians. Denton said he also appreciates another state trooper who is certified in Holdrege.

But OBrien said she wonders what the lack of training means for area children: Is law enforcement making it a priority to make kids safe?
Lack of internet access making life complicated in rural communities

GLADBROOK (AP)  On the wide-open plains of central Nebraska, a little more than a mile north of the Logan County line along Avenue 70, Pam Schaeffer can go days without functional internet.

On those days, her husband Rodney will walk around the house grumbling about technology as he holds up his cellphone hoping to catch a good signal so he can turn on his center-pivot irrigation system, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. Pam will drive 30 minutes to eat lunch in North Platte (she likes Taco Johns) so she can use the free Wi-Fi to send pictures to her grandchildren.

They pay for service through a cellular company that beams internet to their house from an antenna tower, but reception can be imperfect.

When it does work, itll let her upload snapshots, do online banking or research business plans for the new Stapleton Cooperative Market & Deli. But forget watching old Law & Order episodes on a computer, or video-conferencing.

It cant keep up, she said. We live on a hill, so you think it would work. But it doesnt.

While the web of internet connectivity continues to spread to rural communities, there are still many places, like the Schaeffer farm, where it lags in access, speed, price and reliability. Federal data shows there isnt a single fixed-broadband connection in Logan County capable of 25 megabits per second, a measurement of data speed known as Mbps for short.

Nearly 40 percent of rural Americans  23 million people  lack access to broadband capable of 25 Mbps downloads and 3 Mbps uploads, according to the Federal Communications Commission. In contrast, only 4 percent of urban Americans cant get those speeds.

Its a digital divide with real-world implications for attracting new businesses and encouraging the growth of existing enterprises, from online auctions of land and cattle to banking to software company startups.

For rural businesses, 25 Mbps connection means being able to make flawless video calls with clients on more than one device and download large files quickly. Itll also let you stream Netflixs 4K Ultra HD movies.

A 2015 study by researchers at Oklahoma State University, Mississippi State University and University of Texas showed rural counties with good access to broadband attracted more new businesses, had better household income growth and better employment figures than their counterparts without.

President Donald Trump pledged to bridge the digital divide last week in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I will be including a provision in our infrastructure proposal  $1 trillion proposal, youll be seeing it very shortly  to promote and foster enhanced broadband access for rural America, Trump said, according to a transcript of his comments. We will rebuild rural America.

The pledge is music to the ears of Craig Softley, economic development coordinator for Hayes County. Softley says broadband is an infrastructure of necessity in the 21st century and the federal government should help spread it to rural areas just like telephone, electric and water projects of the past.

Softley grew up on a Perkins County farm but left the state after graduating from Grant High School in 1997. He studied mechanical engineering at Colorado School of Mines, then moved around the country doing logistics work for a variety of industries, including mining, grain processing, food manufacturing and bio-refining.

A little more than a year ago, Softley and his wife Rhea moved back home. They have five children and dreams of ranching.

Softley started a software company and his wife got a job as a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher for the Hayes Center Public Schools district.

Internet out here is extremely expensive and extremely slow, Craig said. Weve lived all over the country. This is the most Ive ever paid for the internet and its the slowest speed Ive ever had.

He pays $112 for 15 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload.

If I lived in Ogallala today, I could get a gigabyte download speed for $40 a month, he said.

Its expensive to get internet to rural communities. Industry estimates are about $30,000 per mile for fiber-optic cable, Softley said. At that cost, broadband companies need help from the government to make it worth connecting rural homes.

When they do build it, Softley said, jobs, quality of life and innovation follows.

Fiber-optic broadband connections that have pushed into rolling hills and Nebraska plains have helped attract software companies such as Atlanta-based Xpanxion Technologies, founded by Loup City native Paul Eurek, which now employs people in Kearney, Loup City and Lincoln, as well as Pune, India.

One survey of Nebraska businesses reported in a 2014 edition of the University of Nebraska-Lincolns Cornhusker Economics found more than half of the firms that responded rated the availability of broadband as either essential or important in selecting their location, and 64 percent called a fast connection essential for staying where theyre at.

A 2016 poll of rural Nebraskans found 82 percent report subscribing to internet service at home, 6 percent use only a cellphone data plan, 9 percent have neither internet nor cellphone plan and 2 percent have only dial-up internet service. The poll, which had 1,746 responses, was done by the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
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Wisconsin may house one of the biggest electronic health records companies in the country  Epic Systems Corp. in Verona  but the state Department of Health Services has chosen a major Epic competitor to provide the digital health info for its seven care and treatment facilities.

Cerner, of Kansas City, Missouri, has been selected for the 10-year, $33 million contract. As it turns out, Epic was not among the five bidders that submitted proposals for the project, DHS spokeswoman Jennifer Miller said.

No immediate comment was available as to why Epic did not participate.

The contract will cover records for Central Wisconsin Center and Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison; Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, Mauston; Southern Wisconsin Center, Union Grove; Northern Wisconsin Center, Chippewa Falls; and Winnebago Mental Health Institute and the Wisconsin Resource Center, both near Oshkosh.

This is an investment in more coordinated, efficient services, DHS Secretary Linda Seemeyer said. This system is designed to enhance the health and safety of patients and residents and improve staff productivity.

It is the first time the state-operated mental health treatment centers will be served by a coordinated electronic health records system, Miller said. Currently, they create and maintain paper records that are supplemented with various facility-specific electronic applications, she said.

Funds for the project were approved in the states 2013-15 budget, DHS said.

Epic branching out

to billing

What Epic is doing, though, is starting a new service: medical billing.

With a billing presence across all 50 states, Epic is well-positioned and excited to share our best practices and take on some of the billing work and associated IT functions, spokeswoman Meghan Roh said. The billing service is aimed at clients who use an Epic product that tracks patient accounting for outpatient clinics, she said.

Epic is advertising on its website for employees to staff the medical billing department.

Our goal is to simplify the payment process by helping Epic organizations with the complexities of submitting claims and posting payments, the ad says.

Roh said its not clear yet how many employees will be added to staff the program. Were not only hiring externally, but also have a number of current Epic staff that will be involved. Just like other Epic programs, well evaluate the demand for increased staffing needs as the effort grows, she said.

The billing service could help Epic pick up smaller clients than the large hospital groups and health organizations that have been the companys primary focus, according to an article this week on the Healthcare IT News website.

The ability to offer billing could be a boon for Epics efforts to grow its business with resource-strapped small hospitals and physician practices, the article says.

In February, Epic founder and CEO Judy Faulkner told Healthcare IT News that Epic is developing two less elaborate  and less expensive  versions of its electronic health records system for organizations that dont need the whole shebang.

The smallest one, called Sonnet, is designed for small hospitals and smaller physician practices, Roh told the State Journal on Friday.

Founded in 1979, Epics software is used in health records for 190 million people worldwide, including nearly 60 percent of U.S. patients. The company has more than 9,600 employees and had 2016 revenue of $2.5 billion.
EAST CHICAGO  The federal government is recommending eight months of home detention for a 28-year-old man accused of selling drugs to a confidential informant last summer to help make money for his uncle, according to U.S. District court records.

Thomas Delacruz, of East Chicago, allegedly met with a confidential informant on May 10, 2016, to sell narcotics in the 4900 block of Aster Avenue in the West Calumet Housing Complex, according to a federal government sentencing memorandum filed this week.

The informant purchased $250 worth of cocaine from Delacruz, court records show.

In suggesting home detention for Delacruz, the government noted he played only a minor role in the investigation into his uncle and co-defendant, Joshua Delacruz-Urra, 39, of East Chicago.

Delacruz-Urra was arrested Tuesday, records show.

At his arraignment hearing on Friday, he entered a not guilty plea and was ordered to be held without bond on charges of cocaine distribution.

Jennifer Johnson, age and town unknown, has also been charged in the same investigation, records show. A federal grand jury indicted Delacruz, Johnson and Delacruz-Urra on drug charges in July 2016.

Johnson allegedly sold $2,500 in cocaine to a confidential informant on June 23, 2016, records show. She told police she was involved in the narcotics trafficking business decades ago but allegedly started again at the request of co-defendant Delacruz-Urra, records show.

Johnson's long history of drug sales include an arrest and conviction in 2002 for distribution of more than 100 pounds of marijuana in New Mexico and a 2004 conviction for Ecstasy possession, records show.

The federal government is recommending 37 months in prison for Johnson.

She pleaded guilty in January to count five of the indictment which charged her with cocaine distribution, records show.
MICHIGAN CITY  Two people were arrested Thursday for alleged narcotics dealing following separate search warrants executed by the LaPorte County Drug Task Force, police announced Friday.

The two cases are unrelated, police said in a news release.

Mazell C. Risper Jr., 54, of Michigan City, was arrested Thursday after police say they executed a search warrant in a room at ABC Motel, 3948 Franklin St., in Michigan City.

Police were investigating narcotics sales at the motel room, where they seized cocaine, meth, weighing scales, and U.S. currency, according to the release.

Risper faces three counts of dealing cocaine, a level 5 felony, and one count of dealing cocaine, a level 4 felony, and dealing methamphetamine, a level 5 felony, according to a news release.

He is being held at the LaPorte County Jail on a $15,000 bond. His next court appearance is Thursday.

Second search warrant

Andrea M. Weatherbee, 40, of Michigan City, is being held without bond after police executed a search warrant in the 100 block of North Porter Street, where they seized several controlled substances, drug paraphernalia, and a handgun, according to police.

Police had investigated the residence following citizen complaints about alleged narcotics dealing.

Weatherbee is charged with four counts of dealing a controlled substance, a level 6 felony.

She is being held without bond as Weatherbee was previously out of jail on bond, police said.
The St John Police Department in Lake County Indiana is investigating the disappearance of an adult from St John.

Gioacchino Rizzo is a 87-year-old white male, 5 feet 4 inches tall, 165 pounds, with gray balding hair and hazel eyes with glasses.

Rizzo was last seen today at 7:30 a.m. in St John, and was heading to Calumet City and never arrived. Rizzo is believed to be in danger.

He was last seen wearing a yellow Polo shirt and unknown colored pants. Rizzo may be disoriented and require medical assistance.

Rizzo was driving a 2011 maroon 4-door Ford Fusion with Indiana license plate 665GBI.

If you have any information on Rizzo, contact the Lake County Consolidated Dispatch center at 219-660-0001 or 911.
CPD, feds

team up to

curb violence

CHICAGO  Chicago police, federal agents and prosecutors launched an initiative Friday aimed at stemming the flow of illegal firearms in the city as part of efforts to curb rampant gun violence that President Donald Trump says is at "epidemic proportions."

Trump's remark on Twitter came ahead of an announcement by Chicago police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about the formation of the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office said an additional 20 ATF agents have been sent to Chicago. Tim Jones, the ATF's special agent in charge of the strike force, said the agents will be assigned permanently to the city.

State police, intelligence analysts and state and federal prosecutors will target illegal guns and repeat gun offenders, Chicago police said. Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement that "we are foundationally changing the way we fight crime in Chicago."

Trump tweeted Friday morning that "Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help." In January, he warned Chicago about its high number of homicides, saying on Twitter that he is ready to "send in the Feds."

Adam Collins, spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said the city wants the assistance.
As the United States marks its 241th anniversary, a Hindu temple in Queens is marking its 40th. NY1's Josh Robin filed the following report.

The chants are in Sanskrit. But they speak to universal questions that have long confounded us.

"Why is God the way he is, and larger questions," said Gokulanand Iyer of the Hindu Temple Society of North America. "My parents, whenever I have questions about that, they try their best to answer, but that's something they themselves are still trying to figure out."

Answers arent easy. But amid the smoke, and offerings, you may find that your existential anguish eases. And it comes just by sitting still.

"No human being is complete until the mind and the body and the spirit are all in sync, and you're happy feeding all three of those. And this temple feeds all three," said Ramaswamy Mohan of the Hindu Temple Society of North America.

This is the Hindu Temple Society of North America. Forty years ago on July 4, the first prayers echoed through this Flushing neighborhood.

They dedicated the congregation to Lord Ganesha, an ancient Hindu deity said to have created obstacles in order to overcome them. Fitting for the improbable feats of the temple founders, emigrants from Southern India, arriving in a continent at a time when no one looked the same.

Uma Mysorekar came here for training as an obstetrician and gynecologist at what was then Long Island Jewish Hospital.

"Basically, we came to better ourselves. Financially to do well, and also in our different fields, we wanted to do better," Mysorekar said. "We never thought of religion at all. But after you've come here, and you began to realize, 'Yes, I have done well in my practice in medicine,' likewise, my colleagues did well in their own professions, there was something terribly missing."

What was missing was a place for community and worship.

"As I approach the temple, there's some burst of energy that comes. And then I am able to function perfectly well, and even more with energy the rest of the day," Mysorekar said.

It is energy that still fuels one of the founding trustees into her eighth decade and the president since 1994.

Pediatrician Gaddam Reddy is another founding trustee.

"It was originally a Russian Orthodox church, a small one here. And a group of people like me and others joined and took it," Reddy said.

The Russian Church of the Holy Annunciation, 7,000 square feet, bought for $60,000.

Though of a different faith, the spot was seen as sanctified from churchgoers' prayers.

"We were kind of confident that this would be the right place to begin a temple," Mysorekar said.

The street's namesake also brought some hope of security. It was named long ago for John Bowne, a 17th-century English advocate for religious freedom in the colony of New Netherland.

When then-Governor Peter Stuyvesant prohibited religions other than the Dutch Reformed Church, Bowne defied him, inviting Quakers to his own home.

Centuries later, another religious group bought the land.

"And then opening of the temple, consecration, was July 4, 1977, Independence Day of the United States," Mysorekar said.

It was the first Hindu temple in North America, modeled after the temples of Southern India, with imported stone.

The familiarity brought comfort.

Still, in a city then with few from South Asia, there was trouble.

"We look different, we dressed different, we have this bindi in the center. Lots of problems, we went through," Mysorekar said.

Cults were in the news after a murder-suicide left hundreds dead in the Jonestown commune in Guyana.

Locals thought another mysterious cult had moved in. They threw eggs and rotten tomatoes and stones.

Temple leaders didn't call the police, and they didn't turn inward either. Mysorekar instead wrote letters and invited neighbors to visit, which they did.

"This country will do very well if all faiths can come together," she said. "For me, religion is very important. And I think people who are religious-minded will have a better understanding, will have a closer association with other people, and maybe can resolve some of the existing hardline problems."

Hundreds of congregants turned to thousands. The 7,000 square feet of that Russian Orthodox church became 120,000 square feet.

And as she tried to dispel myths, Dr. Mysorekar turned into a minor celebrity.

Meanwhile, the campus serves many more than Hindus. On one day we visited, a 700-seat auditorium was to host a Chinese group. Below it, a hall was set for an interfaith wedding.

"The only thing that's different is, we tell them no alcohol and no smoking. If they can abide by this, no problem," Mysorekar said. "And no non-vegetarian food, of course."

On that, they're strict.

There is also weekend school for Indian culture and language in an adjacent house it bought.

The temple now owns four more nearby houses, and the plan is for more expansion, including a yoga center, a library, and a school, all in one building.

And on another side of the temple, four homes are already knocked down and construction ready to start. The plan is for staff homes for as many as 15 families.

There are no members, per se. There are no dues. But thousands come. And the change hasnt pleased everyone.

In 2001, members upset at temple governance sued to remove its board of trustees. After years of contentious litigation, the matter went to New York's highest court, which ruled in the temple's favor in 2008.

Then, traffic, and a small parking lot, can be overwhelming, says one neighbor who didn't want to give her name.

"It's not enough to accommodate that congregation, and because of that, there's nowhere to park on this block," the neighbor said.

It's much more serene inside the complex. First, break a coconut, symbolically smashing your ego.

Inside, a trance can take hold as a recorded ohm repeats.

Around are idols of deities. Prayer is to them. They are conduits to a supreme god too complicated for the mind to directly consider.

On another visit, Lord Vishnu is bathed in milk.

Outside, the deity Maha Lakshmi is presented offerings through a fragrant fire.

"Definitely, that gives the atmosphere for you to reach higher levels in your thinking. And then you start to tune out all the other day to day mundane materialistic stuff," Mohan said.

They chanted vedas, those searching questions that cut to the core of our being.

"They ask questions about the origin of the universe," Iyer said. "They ask who was it that came from nothing, came to everything."

At the end, no answers emerge, really, other than the comfort in the asking.
Two people remain in critical condition Saturday morning, according to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital officials, after a former employee opened fire inside his old workplace Friday afternoon.

Hospital officials said a doctor and medical student are in critical condition, while three people  a mixture of medical students and doctors  are in stable condition.



One hospital patient suffered minor injuries, according to hospital officials.

32-year-old doctor Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, who police identified Saturday, was killed in the shooting.

The 16th and 17th floors remain closed while investigators work to determine what exactly led Dr. Henry Bello to open fire inside the hospital.

Bello used to work at the hospital as a family medicine physician, but he was forced to resign two years ago.

Sources told NY1 that Bello was known by past co-workers as aggressive and getting into conflicts.

Sources said he graduated from medical school in Dominica, and during his performance as a fourth-year medical student at another New York hospital, he showed below average ability compared to his peers.

Investigators said Bello entered around 2:55 p.m. Friday, wearing a white coat with an AM-15 rifle and three clips hidden underneath.

Hospital officials said they were able to treat the injured immediately, preventing additional casualties.

"The staff started moving who were seriously injured, floor after floor, wherever we could get doctors to pick them up, we pulled them off the elevators," said Sridhar Chilimuri, the hospital's physician-in-chief.

Investigators believe Bello tried to set himself on fire, causing the sprinkler system to turn on. He then turned the gun on himself, using this rifle.

Records show he spent only about six months on the job because the hospital found him to be argumentative and problematic.

Sources said he had prior sexual harassment cases.

The hospital is back up and running and accepting patients.
A $2 million grant the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services received from the federal government is intended to help the state take the next steps in its response to the nations opioid drug abuse crisis.

The grant, which comes from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, can be renewed in 2018 for the same amount. The grant is part of the $1 billion included in the 21st Century Cures Act to address the crisis. States and territories were awarded funds based on rates of overdose deaths and unmet need for opioid addiction treatment.

The opioid epidemic is taking hold across the country, but we have an opportunity to be proactive, focus on prevention and treatment and raise awareness now to help stop opioid abuse from reaching crisis levels here, Gov. Pete Ricketts said in a statement.

Nebraska so far has not seen as big a problem with opioid abuse as many states, officials have said. However, opioid overdoses killed 54 people in Nebraska in 2015, and the rate of drug overdose deaths increased more than 20 percent over the past decade.

State officials havent publicly drawn conclusions about why Nebraska appears to have steered clear of the worst of the crisis.

But a new report from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association indicates that prescription opioid use in Nebraska is much lower than in other parts of the country  especially the South. Blue Cross plans in the southern U.S. have a 78 percent higher prescription opioid use than among those covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska. The study is based on medical claims from across the country.

Nebraska does have a lesser prescribing rate for these opioids than other states do, so that is part of the reason we dont have such a problem, said Dr. Deborah Esser, the Nebraska insurers chief medical officer. Our doctors are really careful about the number of prescriptions they write and the number of long-acting opioids they write.

The long-acting versions of the drugs, she said, are the ones that tend to lead to addiction.

Nebraska does, however, have a problem with alcohol. That seems to be the drug of choice in Nebraska, Esser said.

In an effort to ensure that opioids dont become a bigger problem, state officials held an opioid summit in October to begin forming a strategy.

In January officials launched a monitoring program to track prescriptions for narcotics written and filled in the state and make it more difficult for people to doctor- and pharmacy-shop to feed their addictions. All prescriptions will be reported to the system as of Jan. 1.

Officials followed in February with a public information campaign aimed at educating people about the dangers of prescription painkillers and how they can reduce those risks.

The grant will be targeted toward increasing access to treatment and to preventing opioid-related deaths by improving health care providers capacity to serve people with opioid disorders. A training program will provide general practitioners and others access to experts on opioid treatment.

This grant provides critical funding to provide targeted training on the complexities of opioid use and to invest in evidence-based prevention and treatment interventions, Sheri Dawson, director of the division of behavioral health, said in a statement.

Overdose prevention initiatives also include increasing awareness about expanded access to naloxone, a drug that blocks or reverses the effects of opioid medications. A 2015 law made it easier for families and friends of drug users to get naloxone. It also authorized emergency responders and law enforcement to give it to people experiencing an overdose.

Among other efforts, the state health agency will work with pharmacists, physicians and emergency responders to provide education about the legislation, a spokeswoman said.

The agency already is working with the Nebraska State Patrol to help provide naloxone to its drug investigators, evidence technicians and crime lab staff.

Lt. Jason Scott, a patrol investigator, said naloxone has been issued to investigators who are most likely to come into contact with fentanyl. The synthetic opioid can be deadly to those exposed to even minute amounts.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration warned last year about the risks fentanyl can pose to human and canine officers. As the patrol gets funding, Scott said, it will issue naloxone to other officers. State officials said some fire and rescue services and ambulance services in the state already are carrying and administering the drug.

Omaha police soon will have 300 units of naloxone spray, said Officer Gregory ONeil, a spokesman. Officers will carry it primarily for their own protection. However, the department will explore using it with patients as it rolls out training. The Omaha Fire Department already carries it for use on patients, he said.

The drug also is becoming more available to the public. Hy-Vee Supermarkets and CHI Health announced last week that they were partnering to make the drug available without a prescription at Hy-Vee pharmacies in Nebraska under a physician-signed protocol CHI provided to Hy-Vee. It soon will be available at all CHI Health pharmacies.

Hy-Vee pharmacists also will ensure that patients and their family members know how to recognize signs of an opioid overdose and how to administer the medication.

Nebraska is the fifth state in Hy-Vees eight-state region, including Iowa, where the grocery chain is making the medication available without a prescription. CVS Health has made similar arrangements in Iowa and 40 other states, not including Nebraska.
On Thursday morning, 6-year-old William Kautter was a salmon.

He was pretending, of course, splashing up a shallow stream that flowed gently downhill in what was once a parking lot at the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium. When William reached the mouth of the stream, he tried his hand at building castles in a nearby sandpit, later greeting visitors with a sandy handshake or high-five.

Friday, the zoo cuts the ribbon on its new Childrens Adventure Trails exhibit, part of a $27.5 million expansion project that includes a new Education Center and an amphitheater. The zoo previewed the adventure trails Thursday, giving a sneak peak to William and his classmates, kindergartners in the zoos summer camp program.

The trail exhibit, north of the Desert Dome, is the kind of fairytale zoo playground your 6-year-old would sketch in crayon, plus some. Theres a treehouse with a wrecked pirate ship and nearby netted tubes crawling with squirrel monkeys. Theres a walk-behind waterfall that feeds into the bubbling creek meandering down the hillside.

At the bottom, scores of kids tug on a rope to pull a rustic wooden skiff across the stream.

Elsewhere, children mimic goats on matching balance beams. Others tunnel through tubes and pop up in clear plastic domes overlooking a colony of prairie dogs. Budgies flutter in an aviary, and a zookeeper walks around with an owl to pet.

Theres a climbable spider web. A bees honeycomb. And some genius invention called a stroller coaster.

If you dont want to spoil the fun, dont tell your little ones this: For all the fun it seems to be, its designed to be educational.

We thought if kids could have fun here while theyre playing, it would really facilitate learning about wildlife even more, said CEO and Executive Director Dennis Pate.

The new exhibit is designed for kids to explore and discover on their own. Parents are encouraged to do the difficult thing and to let go of their kids when they enter.

Theres only one way in and out: Right by a comfort station with tables, chairs, a food truck and an expansive nursing station. So when you tell your kid to go off and play, the idea is that you wont lose them.

Parents are afraid to let go and to let their kids really explore, said Elizabeth Mulkerrin, the zoos director of education. Theyre afraid of germs or theyre afraid of somebody snagging their child.

That part of childhood is disappearing. Its adult-driven, all the worries parents have because they want to protect their young. We just want to create a very safe environment where the kids are safe to play and explore and do all kinds of things.

To do that, the zoo is placing about a dozen play leaders throughout the area to not only watch over the kids, but also to facilitate play.

When creating the exhibit, the zoo consulted with childhood development and play experts, and they crafted panels of parents and children to determine what features should go in the final plan.

One kid said theres a creek in his backyard, and he would love to go down there and stomp in it and play, Mulkerrin said, but he wasnt allowed to go into it, just to stay on the edge.

So, the zoo designed a shallow creek, with just a couple of inches of water. And officials commissioned larger-than-life animal sculptures, including a grasshopper, three ants, a Salt Creek tiger beetle and a bumblebee.

In a jungle-gym-like treehouse, designed to resemble a shipwreck, kids can climb alongside live squirrel monkeys, in their own parallel play zone. A similar exhibit challenges kids to test their agility against San Clemente Island goats.

To help kids and parents digest all the possibilities, the zoo has included Choose Your Adventure signs throughout the area.

Each one displays three panels, some phrased for kids (low on the post) and some for parents (high on the post). The panels describe activities or challenges that stimulate the kids physically, cognitively or socially.

We design animal spaces, pretty much, so to design something for little kids from 3 to 8 or 9, that was hard for us, Pate said. So we really relied on our education department and outside experts to help us understand play.

The zoo also leaned on parents to complete the experience for families.

Pate said the zoo assembled a panel of mothers, some zoo staffers and some from outside, to advise on what to include in a comfort station near the entrance/exit. The zoos initial plan called for diaper changing stations, family restrooms with potty training toilets, diaper dispensers, nursing stations, sinks, a TV, furniture and other comforts for families with young kids.

Frankly, they were so happy we were doing something like this that they really didnt have much to add, Pate said.

The idea came from a similar facility Pate saw at a zoo in Australia.

I thought Wow, this makes so much sense,  he said. Why havent zoos or, for that matter, lots of other places done something more like this in the States?

The new play area is part of a 2017 addition that includes the recently-opened Holland Meadowlark Amphitheater and the Education Center.

The new Education Center, attached to the south side of the Adventure Trails, will house the zoos full-time high school, kindergarten and after-school programs. Classrooms have adjacent huddle rooms where educators can meet with students privately while still keeping an eye on the class through a window.

The windows on the new education center are etched with silhouettes of Nebraska animals  white-tail deer, sandhill cranes, bullsnakes  to prevent birds from flying into them.

Pate said the new center will allow the zoo to expand its Zoo Academy, an advanced high school zoology program, from 80 students to about 120.

To make budget, Pate said the zoo shrunk the 40,000 square-foot Education Center by about two feet on each side, managing to avoid cutting any features.

Students will use the Adventure Trails as a playground and learning campus.

As for the Adventure Trails, Pate hopes the new area will challenge parents to loosen their grip on their kids a little, and to let them learn and explore for themselves.

We want to try and have kids come together, here at the zoo, and interact with one another and not necessarily just in a managed play date, he said. We need to say Its OK to play in the water, not to the kids, but to the parents.

Children's Adventure Trails

What: A 5-acre Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium exhibit focused on learning by exploring

Where: Northwest of the Desert Dome, site of a former parking lot

Opens: Friday, June 30

Cost: Part of a $27.5 million expansion, including the Education Center and Holland Meadowlark Amphitheater

Animals: Goats, prairie dogs, budgies, squirrel monkeys and a variety of handleable critters brought out by zoo staff

Features: Tree house, walk-behind waterfall, creek with skiff crossing, goat agility course, prairie dog tunnels, budgie aviary, larger-than-life insects, stroller coaster, food truck, comfort station and more
Around Memorial Day, Lisa Charmin pleaded with police to take her son to a hospital.

Kydale Lindsays state of mind had deteriorated in the previous few weeks  he wasnt the same fun, happy guy relatives knew him as.

Following policy, officers couldnt take him because he wasnt a threat to himself or others and it would infringe upon his civil rights. Lindsay, 21, told his mother after the meeting that he wanted to buy a gun.

On Thursday, he walked into the Irvington Walmart and showed the shotgun to four former co-workers in the break room. He later told police that he brought the gun to protect him from the government thats given everyone AIDS, a prosecutor said Friday.

His mind is not right, Charmin said. I asked for help ... so that it doesnt escalate and get to this point.

Lindsay has been charged with four counts of terroristic threats and four counts of use of a gun to commit a felony. He was ordered held in jail on $250,000 bail, and must pay 10 percent to be released.

A Lyft driver took Lindsay and another man to the Walmart near 99th Street and Blair High Road. She noticed that Lindsay was carrying a shotgun wrapped in a coat, according to a police report, and told an officer that she was afraid to stop the vehicle and force the men out.

After dropping the men off at Walmart, she called the police. Officers went to the store about 11:45 a.m.

Lindsay went into the stores break room and displayed the gun to four workers who were there, a prosecutor said Friday.

One co-worker told police that seeing the gun put her in fear, according to a report. A manager also said she was fearful.

Officers evacuated the store and surrounded the break room.

Lindsay quickly surrendered without incident, police said.

His sister, Ginger Charmin, said he had recorded a live video of himself during the ordeal. He also tweeted at 10:53 a.m.: GOING TO GET MY LAST PAY STUB FROM WALMART!

His mother and sister said he had quit his job at Walmart, where he had worked his way up.

Ginger Charmin said her younger brother used to always tell jokes, smile and laugh. He won a talent show at North High School because of his singing chops  he belted out notes like a male version of Whitney Houston, his mom said. He also attended Midland University and was on the wrestling team, she said, but quit to be closer to his grandmother.

But things had changed in the past few weeks.

Ginger Charmin said she tried to call Immanuel Medical Center on Monday to get him committed, but he would have had to go voluntarily.

His jail booking photo  with drooping eyelids and a blank gaze  doesnt accurately represent him, his mother said.

That looks crazy, Lisa Charmin said. Hes not a walking zombie.

Charmin said she hopes her son gets the help she has wanted for him for weeks.

Instead of an evaluation, what he got is a charge. What does that solve? He still needs help, she said. I hope that now that hes here in jail, that its official, that they can understand and see that he has a mental problem.
An entrance screening officer at the Douglas County Courthouse violated procedures when his service weapon discharged in the courthouse, a Sheriffs Office official said Friday.

Sheriffs Capt. Wayne Hudson, who oversees courthouse security, said Terry Hobelman was attempting to clear his weapon Thursday morning after noticing the slide was a little sluggish.

He was checking to make sure the slide was working correctly, Hudson said.

Hobelman did not clear the chamber, Hudson said, resulting in the accidental discharge.

The gun went off at a closed exit on the east side of the building near the Douglas County Attorneys Office.

The exit isnt used except as an emergency exit, and no employees were in the hall. Hobelman had gone to the exit area to make sure he was away from the public and employees, Hudson said.

The bullet went through the X-ray machine, piercing the fabric flaps on both ends of the machine.

Fragments of the bullet put a dent in the drywall that covers a concrete wall near the machine.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Friday that had it not been for the concrete wall, the bullet likely would have gone through a conference room and into his office.

Kleine was not in the office at the time the gun went off.

Brenda Beadle, chief deputy county attorney, heard the gunshot from her office.

She first thought it sounded like a shot but assumed it was just something heavy that someone had dropped.

But Jeff Lux, a deputy county attorney who served in the Army, recognized it as a gunshot. He walked out of his office, looked down the hall and saw Hobelman.

Lux asked if everything was OK, and Hobelman assured him it was.

Hudson said an internal investigation showed that some procedures were violated. Corrective action will be taken, he said.

Officials havent decided what action will be taken, he said, but because its a personnel matter, any discipline wont be disclosed.

Beadle said Hobelman was working in the courthouse Friday.

Were just glad nobody got hurt, Kleine said.
It never hurts to have a backup plan, especially for outdoor activities over part of this weekend into Tuesdays Fourth of July holiday.

The Omaha-area forecast for today and tonight looks good: sunny skies with a high temperature around 85 and an overnight low around 65.

The National Weather Service office in Valley said Sunday will start three straight days of precipitation chances.

Sunday is expected to be mostly sunny with a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1 p.m., and a high around 90. There is a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a low in the mid- to upper 60s on Sunday night.

Mondays forecast for the Omaha area calls for mostly cloudy skies with a chance of showers and thunderstorms and a high around 85, the weather service said. The shower and thunderstorm chances continue Monday night, when a low in the upper 60s is likely.

Tuesday, here we go again. Look for sunny skies and another chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a high around 85. Tuesday night, expect a low in the upper 60s.

Sunny skies and dry conditions are to return to the Omaha area on Wednesday and Thursday, when highs in the upper 80s are forecast, according to the weather service.

Rainfall totals in inches for the 24 hours ending at 7:40 p.m. Friday: Blair, .38; Falls City, .23; Fremont, .16; Lincoln, .42; Nebraska City, trace; Norfolk, trace; Offutt Air Force Base, .90; Eppley Airfield, .74; Florence, .92; Millard, .63; Plattsmouth, .09; Tekamah, .42; Valley, .34; Wayne, .04; Council Bluffs, .95; Clarinda, .15; Harlan, .62.
As the showers started at the 27th Bank of the West Celebrates America concert, people made a choice: Pack up or pop open an umbrella.

The free event in Memorial Park has served as the kickoff to many Omahans Fourth of July celebrations throughout the years.

A sea of blankets started spreading out before the stage Friday morning as people arrived as early as 5 a.m. to pick out their spots.

Defense contractor Tim Fowler, 53, took it a step further. He marked the spot where his family and friends blankets would go with caution tape during Thursday nights hailstorm.

At one point I said, it already wrecked the car, Im going to go down and complete the mission, Fowler said. I looked like a wet puppy when I got back to the car.

His daughter, Rachel Sullivan, was listening to the show next to him on blankets held down with cans of corn.

Sullivan and her twin sisters 24th birthday is today, and the concert has been part of their family celebrations since they were babies.

When she started seeing her now-husband, the event also became the place where he was truly introduced to her family, Sullivan said.

Even though she lives in California now, she made it back to Omaha for the event.

I wouldnt miss this for anything, she said.

Around 7 p.m., skies began to darken and an announcement was made on stage that event organizers were watching the weather.

In the case of severe storms, the show would have been canceled. And when the rain started pouring, many of the estimated 65,000 attendees packed up and left. But just as many others created makeshift rain shelters out of pizza boxes and foldout chairs or opened umbrellas.

Omahan Steve Schindler, 62, dealt with the rain by dancing.

Were going to get a little wet, but were here for music and a good time, he said.

Decked out in red and blue star necklaces, he was joined in his merriment by a few friends.

University of Nebraska Medical Center post-doctoral scientist Katey Wilson also grooved with Schindler for a while.

How can you not? she said. Funk just gets me out of my seat and makes my feet start.

Wilson, 34, said she screamed when her friend told her the headliner was Grammy-winning funk, R&B and disco group Kool & the Gang.

Five friends from Millard North High School were less interested in the music and more interested in just hanging out.

They came late to the park, about 5:45 p.m., and landed a spot for their blankets where the stage was blocked by a pair of trees. They couldnt see the concert, but most of them didnt recognize the headliner anyway. The main event for them was the fireworks and spending time together, they said.

We shouldve gotten matching shirts, said 17-year-old Emily Juno.

Next year, said 17-year-old Alex Nervig.

Lincolns Emmet Bower Band kicked off the concert at 6 p.m. with alternative country music.

Next came the Omaha-based reggae, jazz and funk-influenced group The Confidentials. They got the crowd moving with covers of songs like Aint No Mountain High Enough and Boogie Wonderland.

Around 8, the storm began petering out, and Kool & the Gang took the stage about 40 minutes later to clear skies.

In 2008, the band also was set to headline, but it didnt have the chance to play when the concert was rained out.

This year, the hits Celebration, Fresh, and other tunes echoed across the park to the applause of the crowd.

And as the music faded out around 10 p.m., fireworks lit up the night sky.

Seeing the show got Schindler talking about how much he loved everything and everyone in Omaha. The concert is a good way to see why, he said.

Its one of the greatest parties Omaha puts on, he said.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  Little Rock Police say 28 people were hurt early Saturday after a shooting at a downtown night club.

Police said on Twitter that 25 people suffered gunshot wounds and three had unrelated injuries. Police said all were expected to survive.

Authorities say the shooting appears to be the result of a dispute among clubgoers and was not terror-related.

The shooting happened at the Power Ultra Lounge, a club in a two-story building downtown about 1 mile east of the state Capitol. Police cordoned off the block as crime-scene technicians gathered evidence from inside and outside the club. Glass from the club's second story windows littered the ground, along with empty drink cups.

"We do NOT believe this incident was an active shooter or terror related incident. It appears to have been a dispute at a concert," the city police posted on its Twitter account overnight.

"One is too many," Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner told reporters. He said there was "some sort of dispute broke out between people inside" the club and that there are "probably multiple shooting suspects."

A video posted online by a club patron showed that a packed house for Finese 2Tymes, a performer from Memphis, Tennessee. About a half-minute into a break in the raucous concert, several bursts of gunfire rang out  more than 24 shots in an 11-second period.

The shooting follows a week in which there have been about a dozen drive-by shootings in the capital city, though there's no indication the events are linked.

Early Saturday, Rada Bunch waited outside the club after she had heard from a friend that her son had been at the club and may have been shot. She had received little information about the incident

"I'm sick of all the killing and I'm tired of all the shooting, the kids getting hurt," Bunch said.

The club's Facebook page promoted Friday night's show with a poster depicting a man pointing what appears to be a gun at the camera. A call to a number listed for Finese 2Tymes' booking agent wasn't immediately returned Saturday.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said on Facebook that more information would be released at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

"My heart is broken this morning  my prayers are with the victims of this tragedy," he wrote. He went on to add, " We are committed to doing everything possible to bring safety to our city. We need everyone to help."

In May, one person was killed and six people were hurt in a mass shooting at a downtown concert in Jonesboro, Arkansas, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock. In that case, two men were charged with first-degree murder and six counts of first-degree battery.
LINCOLN  The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state cannot be held liable for a foster childs sexual assault of a Gage County boy.

But the boys parents, who brought the case, say they plan to take their fight for changes in the child welfare system to the Legislature.

Were not done because we lost this, said the boys mother. I dont want any other family to go through what we went through.

The couples next step will be talking with state senators about making changes in state law, she said.

They already have started talking about options with their attorney, Jeff Wagner of Papillion, after getting Fridays court decision.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the boys parents against the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

As summarized in the decision, the couple sought damages after HHS placed a 10-year-old boy with them for potential adoption in 2010 and did not tell them about his history of being sexually abused and of acting out sexually.

About five months after the placement  and one month before the adoption was to be completed  the couple found out the boy had sexually assaulted their son, then 7 years old.

We had no clue. We had no safeguards put in place, the mother said.

The couple dropped their adoption efforts and the boy was returned to the foster care system.

They then filed suit, alleging that HHS was negligent for failing to disclose the boys history and failing to properly supervise the child welfare caseworker.

Attorneys for the state argued that it was protected by sovereign immunity, meaning it cannot be held liable in such a case. The states attorneys said that the State Tort Claims Act, which allows some types of lawsuits against the state, does not apply when there is misrepresentation or deceit.

According to the decision, the caseworker knew the boys history but did not reveal it despite being asked at least three times by the mother.

The lower court sided with the state, as did the states highest court.

In the Friday decision, the Supreme Court said the State Tort Claims Act is similar to the federal law. Neither allows lawsuits in cases where employees act deliberately or recklessly.

The court cited several decisions and articles explaining the rationale for the law.

It said such cases would be difficult to defend against. It also said current law promotes higher standards of performance by employees, because they cannot act unlawfully and let the state pick up liability.

But the ruling, written by Judge William Cassel, suggested the Nebraska Legislature may want to consider changing the section of law that protects the state in this case.

From the perspective of the parents, the court said, immunity adds insult to injury. 

Wagner, the couples attorney, said he hopes state lawmakers will pursue some remedy for situations like that of his clients. He said the couples experience with the child welfare system is far from unique.

The perpetrator in my case is the department, he said. Its a systemic problem.

Wagner said making the state legally liable in such situations would force changes in practice that could prevent future families from encountering similar problems.

The mother, meanwhile, said the experience changed her family. The couple had once thought to adopt several children, but are sticking with the one they have now.

Her son is doing well after getting therapy, but could encounter issues again as he hits adolescence and other key points in his life. She said she doesnt have hard feelings toward the child welfare worker, who had been overloaded with cases.

She also said she still loves the boy they had once hoped to adopt. She said she kept in touch with him for about a year but doesnt know how he is doing now.

I dont know what they did for therapy for him, she said. Thats what I pray for, is that he got help.
A list of whats important to many people this July 4 holiday time would no doubt include having fun with family and friends.

Equally important: Keeping children safe. Avoiding severe burns. Preserving fingers and eyes.

Improper use of fireworks risks such dangers. Mishaps happen, sometimes with tragic results.

Last year, 204 people in Nebraska suffered fireworks-related injuries from late June through July 5. Thats up from 176 in 2015 and 128 in 2014.

Iowans should be particularly attentive to fireworks safety needs this year, since the state has legalized fireworks for the first time in decades.

Nationwide, about 10,000 fireworks-related injuries occur every year. Those at greatest risk of burns are children, especially those between the ages of 10 and 14. Sparklers, for example, can burn at a remarkably high temperature  2,000 degrees.

A study published this year in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine reported that fireworks injuries requiring hospital treatment most frequently involve mortar-style fireworks by which a projectile is fired from a casing.

The study, by the University of Washington School of Medicine, looked at 294 patients treated for fireworks-related injuries at a Seattle hospital during 2005-15. Seventy-eight percent suffered burns; 59 percent had soft-tissue injuries; 43 percent had fractures; and 21 percent had eye injuries.

Of the 294 patents, 67 had a hand injury requiring amputation of at least one finger. Fireworks indeed are serious business.

Sensible precautions make great sense. Follow all instructions. Never hold lighted fireworks or lean over them. Dont relight fireworks. Be careful when picking up spent fireworks. And be especially attentive to keeping children safe.

Having fun is important this July 4 holiday season. So is staying safe.
Irresponsible attacks on the use of a longtime beef additive, dubbed pink slime by critics, fueled needless hysteria in 2012.

Beef Products Inc. recently reached an out-of-court settlement with ABC News over the networks reporting on the issue that year, with both sides expressing satisfaction.

For years, processors converted beef scraps into lean, finely textured beef that was added to ground beef as a way to reduce the fat content. That way, the industry could use more beef components safely and efficiently, and consumers paid lower prices.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture examined the production process and said the additive was safe. The additive became commonly used in school lunches, as schools liked the lower costs and the beefs reduced fat content.

Then in 2012, activists and social media campaigns launched an effort against the beef product, claiming it was unsafe  despite conclusions to the contrary by the USDA and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Purchases plummeted. BPI had to close plants in Iowa, Kansas and Texas. Hundreds of jobs were lost. The situation provides a lesson about the harm when people succumb to needless hysteria.
Draupadi Murmu is India's first tribal and youngest President ever

Draupadi Murmu becomes 15th President of India with 64% votes against Yashwant Sinhas 36%

AAP likely to support Opposition candidate Meira Kumar

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Aam Aadmi Party is most likely to support the Opposition's nominee Meira Kumar even after Congress left out AAP during opposition's meet during the selection of the presidential nominee.

Sources from AAP told MailToday that the party will 'absolutely not vote for the NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

However, AAP is yet to formally announce its support after the meeting of its highest decision-making body. The Political Affairs Committee will formally decide who the party will vote for and thereafter communicate to its representatives.

AAP doesn't have sizeable vote share in the presidential poll. With 9000 votes, the party commands a little under 1% of votes.

Meanwhile, Presidential candidate Meira Kumar met former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in Bengaluru seeking his party's support in the upcoming presidential election. The election is scheduled for July 17 and the votes will be counted on July 20.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 11:24 [IST]
Byculla jail violence: All six accused prison staff arrested

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

All the six staff members of the Byculla prison accused in a case of death of a jail inmate were arrested on Saturday.

Earlier, a Mumbai court sent a prison guard of the Byculla jail to police custody till July 7 in connection with the death of an inmate Manjula Shetye.

45-year-old Manjula Shetye was allegedly beaten to death by a sub-inspector and five prison guards. Six prison officers have been suspended in connection with Shetye's death; one of them has been charged with murder.

Sheena Bora murder case accused Indrani Mukerjea is also lodged in the same jail and she had earlier appeared before the court to testify about the death of Shetye. There was a protest in the prison after Shetye's death.

Mukerjea, accused of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, has been in the Byculla prison since 2015 and was accused by jail officials of instigating a riot along with other women inmates.

Mukherjea's lawyer on Tuesday claimed she has been assaulted Mumbai's Byculla jail staff and that there were bruise marks on her body. Following the application filed by her lawyer in CBI Special Court, the court had ordered prison authorities to present Indrani before it.

OneIndia News
UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case

Cop killed by unknown persons in Uttar Pradesh

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

A Uttar Pradesh cop was brutally killed by unidentified assailants on Friday late night.

The cop identified as, Sub Inspector Sehroj Singh, was posted in Balawali of Bijnor district. Assailants have slit the throat of Sehroj Singh, reports ANI.

DM Jagatraj and SP Atul Sharma arrived at the spot with other police officers after being informed about the incident. They found the body of the officer lying at the roadside. There were many traces of injuries on the body.

The body has been sent for the post-mortem. An FIR has been registered regarding the incident. The police have launched a massive search operation to nab the accused even as they are on the run.

No arrests have been made yet.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 9:53 [IST]
Darjeeling unrest: 1 driver dead, security personnel injured in attack

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Darjeeling, July 1: The hills of Darjeeling remained in the grip of violence and unrest on the 16th day of the indefinite bandh on Friday. The bandh called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is to press its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.

On Friday, reports said that five security force personnel were seriously injured in an attack by the suspected GJM activists in the Darjeeling hills. Moreover, a truck driver, who was injured a couple of days ago in a violence-related incident, succumbed to his injuries on Friday.

Aniket Chetri, the truck driver who had received 70 per cent burns when his truck was set afire on June 20 by GJM activists, on Friday succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Kolkata.

His body was taken to Siliguri for conducting the last rites. With this, the state police said that the toll in the violence in the hills has risen to two. On June 17, a man was killed during clashes. The GJM, however, said two more of its supporters were killed on June 17.

GJM activists set afire several houses and offices across the hills on the 16th day of the indefinite bandh. Life remained crippled due to the bandh in Darjeeling where internet services were shut.

Security forces patrolled the trouble-torn areas. The attack on the security personnel took place on Thursday when they had gone to a village near Teesta Valley, 40 km from Darjeeling, to conduct a search operation. A mob targeted the security personnel with stones and 'khukri' (traditional Nepali dagger), injuring five of them seriously.

The injured police and CRPF personnel were later rescued and admitted to a hospital, the police said. In another incident, the house of Mirik Municipality vice-chairman M Zimba was set afire by the protesters this morning.

The supporters also ransacked Rangli Rangliat police outpost on Thursday and snatched a self-loading rifle and a pistol. Two police vehicles were set ablaze in the incident, the police said.

The building of Tung Gram panchayat was also set on fire last night, it said. A meeting of political outfits including the GJM had on Thursday decided to carry on with the indefinite shutdown.

Meanwhile, the police and security forces on Friday recovered a revolver and a self-loading rifle, taken away by the agitators from the team Teesta Valley on Thursday.

Two police vehicles were also damaged by the mob in Teesta Valley area. The GJM activists took out several rallies in various parts of Darjeeling hills, including Chowkbazar, demanding a separate Gorkhaland state.

GJM activists organised signature campaigns in favour of Gorkhaland at some places in the hills. Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has sought 10 companies of the CRPF from the Centre to deal with the situation in the hills, the request having come just two days after the Army contingents were withdrawn at the state's request.

"We had asked for 10 companies of the CRPF for the hills earlier. But four companies of women police force and three companies of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel were sent," Director General of Police Surajit Kar Purkayastha told reporters at the secretariat in Kolkata.

"We have again asked for 10 companies of the CRPF for the hills. At present, there is no Army in the hills," he said.

Describing the ongoing unrest in the hills as "destructive activities by some extremist elements", the DGP said that the state government would not tolerate this and would take strong action.

Meanwhile, the state government told the Calcutta High Court that it urgently needed additional Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel to deal with the situation in Darjeeling.

The court directed the additional solicitor general, representing the Union government, to take instructions from the Centre on its position over the deployment of more CAPF personnel in Darjeeling.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 10:59 [IST]
Thick layer of smog with 'very poor' air continues to choke Delhi

Curbs under stage 3 of anti-pollution plan to continue in Delhi-NCR: CAQM

GST, a major step to check tax evasion: Modi

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Asserting that the BJP-led Central government has taken a tough stand against the corrupt, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said GST is a major step towards checking tax evasion.

Speaking on the Foundation Day of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Modi described the GST implementation as dawn of a new era in India.

On one hand, there is a Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and there is a movement to clean the nation from the menace of corruption: PM Modi pic.twitter.com/6nievR9cIl  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

"GST is a new beginning, new path for our economy...Our Government has taken a tough stand against those who have looted the nation," he said.

Lashing out at black money hoarders and tax evaders, the PM said, "A country where a select few loot, such a nation cannot scale new heights. These select few never want the nation to grow."

Modi said that the Chartered Accountants were crucial for Indian economy and that the Indian CAs were known around the world.

"Overwhelmed to see your response to GST. With GST, no one can evade tax," he said.

Terming the government's Demonetisation move as a major step against the black money, he said Swiss bank deposits of the Indians has dipped in the recent past.

"People with black money will face more difficulties when Switzerland begins automatic information exchange with India in 2 years," he added.

"Government is committed to more tough actions against firms helping in hiding black money," he said.

He urged the CAs to the lead in India's journey towards economic growth.

The Goods and Services Tax, the biggest tax reform since Independence, was rolled out on Friday midnight at a special ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, ministers and a host of dignitaries.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 20:00 [IST]
GST roll out: Council review to meet in August first week

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, July1: The all-powerful GST Council will review the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax as also levies on some of the items on August 5. "The review meeting of the GST Council would be on the first Saturday of August," Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairperson Vanaja N Sarna told PTI.

The meeting will take stock of the implementation of the biggest tax reform since independence and also review tax rate with regard to any commodity highlighted by members in the meeting, she said.

She ruled out any glitches in the roll out and said various steps have been taken to spread awareness about the new taxation system. "It is good and simple tax and it is good from all aspects. So, many taxes, 17 taxes going into one is definitely going to get simple," she said.

Talking about the GST rollout, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Gangwar said it is a big economic reform for the country. "This is a historic moment. Consumer will benefit under the GST regime. Depending on the need, we will review the taxes," he told PTI after the GST launch.

PTI

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 10:47 [IST]
Who is Mukul Goel sacked by UP government as DGP for neglecting work

Hour before retirement, TN DGP Rajendran gets top post

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Chennai, July 1: Incumbent Director General of Police (Intelligence) T K Rajendran has been named head of the State police force by the Tamil Nadu government.

Rajendran, holding additional charge as DGP (law and order) was due to retire on June 30 and the Government Order appointing him to the top post came on Friday night.

Police sources told The Hindu that the Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami signed the file recommending TK Rajendran for the top post, and sent it to the Governor.

The appointment came around 11.30pm. Rajendran was supposed to retire on Friday, but now, he will continue to hold office until June 2019. It is reported that the Governor of Tamil Nadu Vidyasagar Rao has raised questions about the extension of tenure of TK Rajendran.

This comes two days after DMK working president MK Stalin had raised the issue of gutka scam in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, and named former city police commissioner George, DGP TK Rajendran and Health Minister Vijayabhaskar for allegedly allowing sales of gutka products in the state.

On July 8 in 2016, raids were conducted at the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who was facing charges of evading tax to the tune of Rs 250 crore. Seized during the raid was a diary containing names of those who were believed to have been paid off by the gutka manufacturers, which allegedly included the names of the Health Minister and other top officials including S George and TK Rajendran.

After former DGPs K. Ramanujam and Ashok Kumar, Rajendran would be the third senior IPS officer in the State to get the benefit of the Supreme Court order in the Prakash Singh case. The panel of DGPs approved by the UPSC included Archana Ramasundaram (1980 batch), K.P. Maghendran (1984 batch) and Mr. Rajendran.

Oneindia News (With agency inputs)
India again seeks consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, Hamid Nehal Ansari

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, July 1: India on Saturday again sought consular access to its nationals Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on alleged espionage charges, and Hamid Nehal Ansari, an Indian engineer and businessman who was sentenced to three years in jail for entering Pakistan.

"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," it stated.

Jadhav was allegedly arrested from Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016. Pakistan claimed that the former Indian Navy officer confessed in a video that he was involved in spying and terror activities in Balochistan, a charge rejected by India. He was convicted in April by a Pakistani military court and sentenced to death.

India has maintained that Jadhav was abducted from Iran, where he was pursuing his business, and passed off as a spy.

In May this year, India moved the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which then stayed the execution pending a final decision by the court.

Ansari, an engineer and business professional, had gone to Kabul in Afghanistan on November 4, 2012, on a tourist visa for a job in aviation. He entered Pakistan on November 12.

From his e-mail accounts, it was revealed that he was in touch with a Pakistani girl on Facebook and had gone to Pakistan, where he was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail.

According to the ministry statement, in line with an agreement signed in 2008, India and Pakistan on Saturday exchanged, through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, the lists of nationals - including civil prisoners and fishermen - of each country lodged in the jails of the other country.

The Agreement on Consular Access between India and Pakistan, which was signed on May 21, 2008, provides that a comprehensive list of nationals of each country lodged in the other country's jails has to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

"India remains committed to addressing on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen," the statement said.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation."

IANS

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 16:29 [IST]
India reacts to GST: Confusion, apprehension and handwritten bills on day one

India

oi-Anusha

'One Nation One Tax' regime is here and India is yet to get its head around the Goods and Services Tax. While retail supermarket chains were quick to rollout GST-compliant bills, cafes and hotels are making do with handwritten bills. While cinema ticket prices have seen a dip in some cities, few theatres have raised base price to make do for the 'loss'. Here is what citizens have to say about GST.

New Delhi

Small and medium traders continue to be apprehensive about GST. Most affected seen to be the unorganised and informal sector. While traders are confused, consumers are divided. "

The prices of vegetables are the same but monthly grocery bill that includes packaged food are going to be expensive. If it is good for the country then it is fine," said Srikanth who had visited a grocery store on day one of GST regime. The bill, however, had the handwritten computation of GST and the store was yet to rollout GST compliant bill.

Another consumer was of the opinion that the new tax regime will streamline taxes and won't burden the consumers.

"Let us see what the effects of GST are since we don't know how it will pan out. We will wait and watch. Essential items are beyond it and I don't think it affects consumers a lot. Any tax implementation has a time of gestation and we need to give time. I don't think the government hurried into anything. Everybody was given six months and it is not a short time. It is a fair enough time," said Prakash, a trader himself.

Mumbai

Small eateries, roadside snack carts and shops on Khau Gali are unaffected by GST. Prices of movie tickets in Mumbai have come down marginally. It is the hotels that Mumbaikars are worried about. "Most people in Mumbai eat out at places that currently fall under the 12 percent or 18 percent slab. That basically means that I have to pay at least Rs 20 more on my cup of coffee from Starbucks. Imagine spending Rs 100 more on food on a daily basis, especially for someone like me who lives alone and depend on hotels," said Nimisha, a resident of South Mumbai.

Small traders are concerned about making the transition to the online taxation system. Each trader under the current regime is given a GST number that is to be quoted in every bill. While some have found the transition cumbersome, others believe that it is the only way forward.

"Our country has to move forward and it is a step to put everything online. It will reduce the burden on salaried personnel in the long run but at least for the first few months, it will be difficult. As traders, we have to clear out inventory. We have to move on to the online system," said Krishna Kumar, a retailer from Mumbai.

Ritu, a homemaker believes that the tension around GST is a manufactured one and that honest tax payers have nothing to worry about. "There is nothing to worry. It (GST) is good and we are happy. I think the hullabaloo is unnecessary. Give it a chance."

Kolkata

For a state that politically opposed the GST, West Bengal is being forced to implement it. Traders have gone on strikes in protest. While the common man wants to wait and watch, traders are a worried lot. Bengali sweets that were tax-free now come under all slabs of the GST. "Something as simple as Sandesh will be taxed at 5 percent, canned sweets all cost more since it will fall under 18 percent slab and chocolate sweets will come under 28 percent slab. Sweets under the GST regime as surely going to be bitter," said Vivek who owns a sweet and savoury shop in Kolkata. Traders are worried that increased prices will affect business adversely.

Most unorganised sectors including small eateries are confused about the tax regime. Their finance consultants are yet to get clarity as well. All that they want is for the GST council to consider every genuine concern.

Chennai

Theatre owners are a worried lot in Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the only state to impose a state tax apart from GST on movie tickets. While prices of tickets are capped, theatre owners claim that dual taxation will make business tough. The association has called for an indefinite strike starting Monday. While prices of movie tickets are expected to go down for customers, owners fear that they may have to pay up from their own pockets.

Retail shops, especially grocery stores have decided not to revise rates until their stocks with marked MRP are sold out. For the next one month or two consumers will continue to pay MRP on all pre-stocked products. "Primary concern is essential commodities and that is unaffected. Everything else will fall into place," said Gayatri who went shopping out of curiosity on day one of GST.

Bengaluru

Wholesale traders at APMC yard are a worried lot. All transactions here are paperless, not digital but no receipt or billing either. "We have welcomed GST but preparedness is as good as how it was during demonetisation. Each genuine concern has to be addressed by the council on a war footing. It takes time for small enterprises to come online. Who buys loose atta? Everything these days is packed. By levying higher taxes on packed goods the government is hoodwinking us. People of India are going to pay more for food items but gold is cheaper. It will have a cascading effect. Inflation is going to up and regular food is going to go up," said Ramesh, a trader at the APMC yard.

Supermarket chains have already started rollout of GST compliant bills. Dozens visited supermarkets on Friday night to stock up. "I bought wheat, biscuits and some more household items. The bill shows GST too. It is much better than confusing bills that displayed different taxes. But now there is just one GST and it is a clean bill. State GST 6 percent and Central GST 6 percent is what the bill says. I came here to see how GST works and what the tax structure is like," said Kishore, a resident of Bengaluru.

All in all apprehensions, confusions prevail over GST. While some are planning protests against it others are willing to give it time and chance.

OneIndia News
NEET 2017: TN students will continue to enjoy 85 per cent reservation

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Following the announcement of the NEET 2017 results, there is good news for the Tamil Nadu board students. The Madras High Court refused to stay to stay a state government order to save 85 per cent of medical seats for students of the state board and only 15 per cent for students of other boards.

The June 22 order which aimed to protect the interest of 4.2 lakh medical aspirants from the Tamil Nadu board, pointing out that there were 4,685 students who had studied in the state under the CBSE.

A plea was submitted at the high court challenging this move stating that there should be no discrimination should be made on the basis on the boards to which the students' schools are affiliated when all students have equally appeared for NEET 2017.

The petitioner, Darnish Kumar, also submitted that reservations should only been permissible with regard to the schools' location within state borders after the common merit list has been released. The petitioner noted that discrimination on the basis of the board under which the students have studied will lead to further discrimination among peers. The results for NEET 2017 were published last week and about 6,11,539 cleared the paper.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 11:20 [IST]
Morbi Bridge is not the only Incident - Quality of Bridges, roads and Highways in BJPs government!

Power cut in Chennai on Nov 10: These areas will be affected

TNPSC Group 1 Hall Ticket For Prelims 2022 out: Check steps to download

Next President of India: Kovind meets AIADMK factions to seek support

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Chennai, July 1: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate for the President's post Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday arrived in Chennai and sought support of the political parties for the July 17 presidential polls.

Kovind was received at the airport by the BJP leaders. He met former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and sought the support of the legislators belonging to his faction. He would also meet Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and seek his faction's support.

The presidential nominee also met former Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy.

"We extend our unconditional support to NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind," Panneerselvam reportedly said.

The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu is divided into three factions led by Palaniswami, Panneerselvam and the party's Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran.

IANS
Pakistani woman who crossed border inadvertently handed back

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Chandigarh, July 1: The Border Security Force (BSF) has handed over a Pakistani woman who had inadvertently crossed into Indian territory in the Amritsar sector in Punjab to Pakistan rangers, a BSF official said on Saturday.

The Pakistani woman, Nimmo, aged around 55-60 years, hailing from Kila Da Jawar in Pakistan, was apprehended by the BSF troopers on Friday evening in the operation area of Border Out Post (BoP) Pulmoran in Amritsar sector.

"She had crossed the international boundary inadvertently and entered Indian territory. The Pakistan Rangers were contacted (late on Friday) and the apprehended lady was handed over to them at about 11.50 p.m. being an inadvertent border crosser on humanitarian grounds," BSF Deputy Inspector General R.S. Kataria said.

This year, the BSF has handed over nine Pakistani inadvertent border crossers to the Pakistan Rangers.

Security along the 553-km long international border in Punjab with Pakistan is always on high alert.

Security agencies have been extra cautious following the terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot in January 2016 and the terror attack in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district in July 2015.

IANS
Restrictions imposed in Srinagar to prevent anti-GST protests

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Srinagar, July 1: Most of the shops and other business establishments were shut across Kashmir today to protest against GST in the state, prompting authorities to impose restrictions on the assembly of people in parts of Srinagar as a precautionary measure.

The shutdown call was given by Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers (KTMF). The traders and the opposition parties claim the new tax regime would lead to erosion of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir guaranteed by Article 370 of the Constitution.

However, public transport was plying normally. KTMF had on Friday called for a general strike in the Valley today, saying GST, in its present form, would lead to erosion of the fiscal autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir and was not acceptable to the people of the state.

"We are against this new law in which they talk about one India, one tax. We will not allow the implementation of this new law, even if we have to sacrifice our lives. "We will not allow the erosion of our special status," KTMF president Muhammad Yasin Khan said here.

We are giving a call for Kashmir bandh today. The business community in the Valley was ready to face any losses on account of non-implementation of GST, but they would not allow implementation of the new tax regime in the state in its present form, he said. "We will not allow any amendments to the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

People in Chenab valley and Pir Panchal are with us and they will also observe the bandh," he said. Khan said KTMF would hold a sit-in protest at city centre Lal Chowk here and made an appeal to the traders in other districts to protest the against the new tax regime in its present form. Apprehending law and order problems, authorities imposed restrictions in parts of the city here as a precautionary measure.

Restrictions under Section 144 CrPc were imposed in five police station areas in downtown (old city) areas of Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, district magistrate (deputy commissioner) Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Lone told PTI. He said the curbs were in force in the areas under the jurisdictions of police stations Nowhatta, M R Gunj, Rainawari, Khanyar and Safakadal.

Oneindia News (with agency inputs)

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 13:22 [IST]
UP govt wants to put cows, prisoners together in overcrowded jails

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Lucknow, July 1: In today's time of gau raksha (cow protection), states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party are walking the extra mile to ensure that cows get the best of facilities.

It is not just mob lynchings that are taking place at a regular interval in the BJP-ruled states. In fact, we often hear leaders of the saffron party making vitriolic statements against people whom they believe are on a cow-killing spree.

Now, the Yogi Adityanath government is planning to open gaushalas (cow shelters) in prisons of Uttar Pradesh. However, the problem is that jails in the state are already overcrowded with inmates. Moreover, these jails are understaffed too.

"We have manpower and most jails have adequate land to set up gaushalas. Naini Jail in Allahabad already has a gaushala," Minister of State for Jails Jai Kumar Singh had said of government plans for jail gaushalas.

"We are looking at the possibility of starting gaushalas in other jails. Our plan is to run them with a little grant from the government and utilise the assistance from social workers and citizens," he said.

Now, the question is will overcrowded jails be able to accommodate bovines? As per reports, prisons of India's most populous state have an overcapacity of 69 per cent -- compared with the national average of 14 per cent -- and have only two-thirds of the staff they need.

The figures are a part of the 2015 prison statistics, the latest available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The capacity of jails across UP is 49,434, but they hold 88,747 inmates, the data revealed. Nationally, the figures are 366,781 and 419,623, respectively.

Moreover, human rights activists have often raised the subject of living conditions of prisoners in jails.

Since 2013, the Supreme Court has been hearing a suo motu case involving inhuman conditions in 1,382 prisons in India.

We wonder, if the UP government has any plans to improve the conditions of inmates in jails.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 13:41 [IST]
Bangladesh: At least 69 dead in fire in apartment used as chemical warehouse in Dhaka

First anniversary of terror attack: Dhaka cafe allows people to pay respect to victims

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Dhaka, July 1: The Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen restaurant, will remain open for four hours for the relatives and general people to pay respect to the victims where a terror attack left over 20 people dead.

On the first anniversary of the attack on Saturday, the house no. 5 on road no. 79 at Gulshan-2 will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. when the people can pay their homage, bdnews24 reported.

The location previously housed the cafe where a group of militants shot dead 23 persons including 17 foreigners and a chef in an overnight siege on July 1, 2016.

The owners of the two-storey building, Samira Ahmmed and her husband Sadat Mehedi, are renovating it and planning to move into the house. The couple took charge of the building in November last year following a court order.

"We will manage to keep the compound open for four hours for the people to pay tribute to the victims. We've also sought law enforcers' help," Mehedi said.

He said the visitors can come up to the veranda of the building through the lawn, but will not be allowed inside the building.

"This is my house now. I am not allowing anyone to enter with camera," he added.

The eatery was reopened on a smaller scale at Rangs Arcade in Gulshan Avenue on Jan 10 this year, around six months into the carnage.

It is only a bakery now unlike the old restaurant that had a 50-seat capacity. The new 500 square-foot bakery can seat 20 guests.

IANS

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 10:19 [IST]
Using govt jobs as covers how Hizbul chiefs sons facilitated funds from Saudi to further terror in J&K

Syed Salahuddin vows to continue fight for 'Kashmir liberation'

International

pti-PTI

Islamabad, Jul 1: Militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin on Saturday vowed to continue the struggle for "liberation" of Kashmir from India, days after the US blacklisted him as a "global terrorist".

Addressing the media amid tight security at the Centre Press Club in Muzaffarabad for the first time since the US declared him a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" on June 27, Salahuddin rejected the US decision and said he was a freedom fighter and not a terrorist.

"We are not terrorists...Our struggle is for freedom from India and it will continue till liberation of Kashmir," said the 71-year-old Kashmiri separatist leader who is based in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

"The US cannot provide a single example of when I and other Kashmiri fighters committed any act of terrorism," he said.

"Kashmiri freedom fighters have a code of conduct to not harm minorities, the elderly, children and women, and if sometimes the enemy offers a peace deal, we accept it," he added.

Salahuddin also claimed that his group has the capability to launch attacks inside India. He offered conditional talks with India if Russia or China guaranteed that peace talks would be result oriented. He also announced to observe a "Week of Resistance" from Monday to commemorate the first death anniversary of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul commander who was killed on July 8 last year in an encounter in Kashmir.

Salahuddidn also led a protest rally in Muzaffarabad. In a notification, the State Department said Salahuddin, who hails from Kashmir and is based in Pakistan for the last 28 years, "has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism."

The US took the step against Salahuddin, whose original name is Mohammed Yusuf Shah, as he had "vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir Valley into a graveyard for Indian forces".

PTI
G20 Summit: Modi leaves for Japan, likely to hold bilaterals with Trump, Shinzo Abe on Day 1

Trump and Biden race to woo voters in final hours before US Election 2020

Trump supports S Korean initiative to resume dialogue with N Korea

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Washington, July 1: U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for South Korean President Moon Jae-in's policy to resume dialogue with North Korea in a joint statement released on Friday after their summit at the White House.

"President Trump supported President Moon's aspiration to restart inter-Korean dialogue on issues including humanitarian affairs," the statement said.

In the six-point statement, the two leaders also said the door to dialogue with North Korea "remains open under the right circumstances."

Moon earlier said the North would have to at least freeze its nuclear and missile activities before they can resume talks.

Seoul and Washington also agreed to put maximum pressure on Pyongyang while affirming their resolve to work for "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner."

"They affirmed their commitment to fully implement existing sanctions and impose new measures designed to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to compel Pyongyang to cease its provocative actions and return to sincere and constructive talks," said the statement.

The leaders also vowed to step up efforts to strengthen their countries' alliance.

Oneindia News (with agency inputs)

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Story first published: Saturday, July 1, 2017, 10:51 [IST]
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SPRINGFIELD - Hoping to hold off Illinois bonds being dropped to junk status, Republican members of the Illinois House jumped on board Speaker Madigan's proposed budget Friday afternoon, the 10th day of a governor-called special session.

At midnight, Illinois became the first state to enter its third fiscal year without a budget.

Of the House's 51 Republicans, 23 agreed with the Democrats that the budget proposed by Speaker Madigan the day before ($5 billion away from being constitutionally balanced) was acceptable and should be supported. House Minority Leader Jim Durkin urged support for SB 6, saying the "revenue" portion of the budget was yet to be considered.
In the past 15 years that Brady has served in the Illinois Senate, he ran for governor three times - in 2006, 2010 and 2014. He won the Republican Party's nomination in 2010, but lost that year in the General Election to Democrat Pat Quinn. Governor Rauner won over Brady and Kirk Dillard in the 2014 GOP primary.

BLOOMINGTON - Former gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady of Bloomington will take over leadership of Illinois Senate caucus Saturday, succeeding Christine Radogno, who announced her sudden retirement earlier this week.

Brady boasted during his last gubernatorial bid that he would "protect taxpayers" and that he had never "voted for a tax increase." His "Brady for Illinois" website still features his call for Illinois' 2011 67% temporary income tax hike to sunset in 2015.

But in May, Brady called for an income tax hike as part of a "grand bargain" he was negotiating with the Democrats. He told POLITICO he supported a five-year income tax increase and expansion of the services tax as long as theyre coupled in time with a five-year property tax freeze.

The hope here would be if Republicans would participate in a revenue increase, that the revenue increase would be associated in time with a property tax freeze, Brady told POLITICO. He said the proposal would call for a cap on spending and reforms with workers' compensation. In five years when the increase in the revenues falls off, spending will be in line with new revenues and things will not have the cliff that we were left with under Pat Quinn.

Political observers say that little will change from Radogno's positions with Brady at the helm of the Senate GOP.

From Brady's gubernatorial campaign website:
A half-dozen Oregon-brewed IPAs landed among the top 50 in Draft Magazine's recent ranking of America's 50 best, including one in the top 10.

Released this week, the ranking was the product of nearly a month-long process, with 386 IPAs obtained from breweries throughout America and tasted blind.

Breakside Brewery was the big local winner, snagging the 26th spot for its flagship IPA and 7th for Wombat vs. Wallaby, an IPA brewed with a blend of hops from New Zealand and Australia only available at the Portland and Milwaukie brewery's Slabtown location.

Elsewhere, the list kicks off with Cast Out from Bend's Crux at No. 50, neighbor Boneyard's Hop-a-Wheelie jumps in at No. 40 and Astoria's Fort George heads home with the chill-activated Suicide Squeeze at No. 34. And Fort George wasn't done: The brewery's annual Three-Way IPA collaboration, a hazy New England-style IPA brewed this year with Portland's Great Notion and Seattle's Reuben's, was more than OK, landing at No. 11, just outside the top 10.

The list's methodology seems sound. A group of certified beer judges tasted each beer blind and gave each a 100-point score which was used to determine the ranking. Still, as writer Zach Fowle notes, with more than 5,000 breweries operating in the United States, there are at least 5,000 IPAs brewed in the country. And since many of these self-selecting breweries who took part sent in two, three, four or even five entries, it's safe to say 386 represents a tiny fraction -- 2-3 percent, perhaps -- of all available American IPAs.

Another quirk of the list: Certified Cicerones are trained to detect all sort of flavors in IPA, not just pine needles or tropical fruit. And since IPAs often have alliaceous -- onion like -- notes, Fowle & Co. have documented them. Exhaustively. Through only 50 blurbs, I count 36 times "onion," "scallion," "garlic," "chive," or "allium" is used as a flavor descriptor. The problem? While technically accurate, nobody wants to drink an IPA that tastes like "green grass and sweaty onion" (Crux's own Cast Out). This is one beer-writing trend that should be rooted out at the bulb.

-- Michael Russell
Notes from The Oregonian/OregonLive's books desk.

Electronic Literature Organization: The Electronic Literature Organization, which promotes and preserves "born-digital literature," is moving west to Washington State University Vancouver from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Washington State University, where organization president Dene Grigar is a professor and director of the Creative Media & Digital Culture Program, will host the 20-year-old organization, which migrates around the U.S. periodically, for the next five years. Grigar said the premise of born-digital literature is that "the computer can be used as a form of creative expression." It's also a genre that must be read electronically; "it's not like Emily Dickinson on the web," she said. As examples, she cited poet Thom Swiss' "Shy Boy," which features music, scheduling and text animation; screenwriter Kate Tullinger's interactive digital novel "Inanimate Alice"; Alan Bigelow's (very funny) story "How to Rob a Bank," which is best experienced on a smartphone; and Jason Edward Lewis' PoEMM cycle, designed to be read on touchscreen devices. Grigar said she's looking forward to working with local tech companies, especially when it comes to the genre of literary games. She said the organization plans readings, performances and other public events. Meantime, check out the three anthologies it's published at http://collection.eliterature.org.

Lee Spencer: For nearly 20 years, Lee Spencer, a Portland native and onetime field archeologist and fly fisherman, has spent summers next to a pool along the North Umpqua River that is favored by summer steelhead. His task: to keep humans from poaching or disturbing the fish. Spencer's new book, "A Temporary Refuge: Fourteen Seasons with Wild Summer Steelhead" (Patagonia, 320 pages, $27.95), published in June, is fascinating reading for anyone interested in Oregon's wild rivers and the fish that depend upon them. Spencer writes that his time at the pool has irrevocably changed his view of steelhead: "By partway through our second season on the pool, I was much more prepared to regard steelhead as fellow creatures adapted to their own perceptual world, and not as myopic creatures responding to the magical reality of steelhead flies." Spencer also seizes the opportunity to write about other creatures he's observed by the pool, from ants to otters, and even the occasional human.

Ken Wytsma: Ken Wystma is a Bend evangelical pastor and founder of The Justice Conference, which encourages Christians to make justice "a way of life." His latest book, published in June, is "The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege" (InterVarsity Press, 208 pages, $18). In the book, Wystma argues that Christians have a responsibility "to break the cycle of objectifying and marginalizing other people. ... If every person is made in the image of God, then stereotypes lead us down a dangerous path, short-circuiting the difficult process of loving our neighbors." His topics include white supremacy, white privilege, the history of racism, equality and the Kingdom of God, and more.
Citing market uncertainty, Regence BlueCross BlueShield and its affiliate Bridgespan Health Co. sent letters this week to inform customers they will be pulling out of the individual health care market in 15 counties in 2018, and they'll have to find another option.

Discontinuation letters went out to some 18,450 customers, about two-thirds of the individual customers insured by both carriers in Oregon. Nearly 6,000 of them live in the Portland area, but Regence said Friday that it is working with Oregon Health & Science University, Adventist Health and Tuality Healthcare to develop new individual offerings for customers in Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties.

The remaining 12,500 customers reside in Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook or Yamhill County.

"We understand the disruption this change may cause; we did not take this decision lightly," the Regence letter said. "The individual market continues to be unsettled nationwide, and Oregon is no exception. We are taking this action now, and we will continue to advocate for stability in the markets in hopes of better serving Oregon long-term."

Individual customers' current coverage will remain in effect through the end of the year, so no action is needed until open enrollment begins again in November. The filing does not affect the company's Medicare customers or those who buy insurance through their employers.

Regence spokesman Jared Ishkanian said the new network in the Portland area should offer a comparably sized group of in-network local providers to what's offered today with some additional out-of-network restrictions. Bridgespan would offer a plan on the exchange, healthcare.gov, where customers can access government subsidies, and Regence would offer a plan off the exchange. Because those plans would be new, the company was required to issue discontinuation notices.

"We'll be communicating with these members in the coming weeks to help them navigate their care options in 2018," Ishkanian said.

There are 18,457 clients with Regence BlueCross BlueShield individual plans in Oregon and another 8,843 with Bridgespan. In 2017, they accounted for about 13 percent of individual plan enrollment in the state, according to figures from Oregon's Division of Consumers and Business Services.

"Portland does have quite a bit of competition, so there are other choices in that market," said Lisa Morawski, a spokeswoman for Oregon's Department of Consumer and Business Services.

- Ted Sickinger

50-3-221-8505; @tedsickinger
NORMAL  Boot camp. That's how an Illinois State University faculty member describes what he is put a group of high school students through this week as part of the Summer Research Academy.

Eighty students are taking part in this year's academy, with 13 of then performing original research in the Molecular Neuroethology Lab  also known as the worm lab  on the third floor of the Science Lab Building.

I treat this like it's kind of a boot camp, said Andres Vidal-Gadea, an assistant professor in the biological sciences department.

Students  many of whom haven't been in a research lab before  are thrown into the thick of things, learning lab procedures and techniques along with detailed observation and record-keeping.

Their youth and eagerness to learn are advantages, said Vidal-Gadea, adding with a smile, "They can learn faster. So far it's working. We haven't lost anyone.

All but three of this year's participants are from Illinois, said Amy Bloom, assistant director of outreach for the Center for Mathematics, Science and Technology.

In addition to the students working on molecular neuroscience with Vidal-Gadea, others are doing hands-on work in biochemistry with professor Marjorie Jones, organic chemistry with associate professor Andrew Mitchell and information technology with associate professor Glen Sagers.

ISU started the research academy in 2010.

This is the second year Vidal-Gadea has been part of the academy. He enjoys working with the young students.

They have bright minds for a bright future, said Vidal-Gadea, who has been at ISU since January 2015.

But he also likes the experience his ISU students get working with younger students who are contributing to their research related to Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It gives them teaching-mentoring experience, he said.

For my students, it helps them learn their own projects, said Vidal-Gadea. They are going to be asked questions they haven't thought of before.

Angelica Rodriguez of Rockford, an ISU graduate student in biology, said the teaching experience was sometimes stressful but when you see the students understand why they're doing what they're doing, it's exciting.

She also was impressed by how quickly the students picked up what they needed to do.

By the end of the second day,  they're all so independent, she said.

In their high school classrooms, they are doing experiments that have been done a million times before and for which the outcomes are already known, said Vidal-Gadea. Here, it's exactly the opposite. We don't know the answer. It's never been done before.

That's part of what attracted Summer Will of Hudson, who will be a junior at Blair Academy in New Jersey this fall.

It's extraordinary to be working hard on something that can help people with this disease even if we're just kids, she said. I've always liked helping people.

The research involves C. elegans, a transparent nematode  or tiny worm  that can mimic the effects of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Teams of students are studying how exercise, such as burrowing through gelatin, is helpful or detrimental and also measuring effects on bodily functions.

We make worms with muscular dystrophy exercise by mimicking 'endurance training' with swimming or 'strength training' with burrowing, Vidal-Gadea explained.

Dyes allow them to observe the muscles through special microscopes. Vidal-Gadea said the muscles light up when the worms flex them.

Alex Kullman of Bloomington, entering his senior year at University High School, said, I wasn't expecting to do actual research for the lab.  You're really contributing.

Calis Lim of Bloomington, who will be a University High School junior, said, I feel like I'm getting to be a part of something bigger, she said.

Lim, like several of the young students, said she became interested in science at a young age.

Science is the future, said Lim. It is a constantly moving train that's constantly moving forward.
BLOOMINGTON  State Sen. Bill Brady thinks he can be a facilitator to bring a state budget to the finish line, he said Friday after being named Senate Republican leader.

Brady, of Bloomington, was selected by a unanimous vote of the Republican caucus, replacing Sen. Christine Radogno, who announced Thursday that she would step down as Senate GOP leader.

An official vote by the full Senate will take place as soon as possible, according to the caucus.

Brady, who has represented Bloomington in the Senate since 2002, told The Pantagraph he has a good working relationship with Gov. Bruce Rauner and Senate President John Cullerton, but as of noon Friday, I have not talked to the speaker.

That would be powerful House Speaker Mike Madigan, D-Chicago, who is the key to working out a grand compromise on the budget stalemate, said Brady.

We still hope that we can tie up the knots and have a package we could agree on in a bipartisan way and get the governor's approval on it, Brady said.

He wasn't sure if that could be done before the new fiscal year begins Saturday, but hopes it will be soon.

By and large, the Democrats are there, Brady said. We're right at the goal line.

Radogno was unable to bring all the pieces together, but Brady said, I think Christine Radogno is part of the solution, not the problem, adding, "I will leverage the skills of my caucus to help bring about an agreement.

I'm a pretty good facilitator  to carry something to the finish line, he said.

Brady said he has been told that one advantage of him becoming Senate minority leader is having a downstate lawmaker in leadership meetings.

In a statement congratulating Brady, Gov. Bruce Rauner described Brady as a champion for Illinois families  understanding the changes our state needs to create jobs, lower property taxes, strengthen schools and reform our political system.

Brady has been assistant Republican leader. He lost the 2014 Republican gubernatorial primary to Rauner and narrowly lost the governor's race to Pat Quinn in 2010.

State Sen. Jason Barickman, R- Bloomington, assistant Republican Senate leader, congratulated Brady in a statement, adding that he is looking forward to my role as part of his leadership team in the Senate.

Brady was nominated by Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, and Sen. Karen McConnaughay, R-St. Charles. McConnaughay had been mentioned in media reports as a possible successor to Radogno.

Brady was first elected to the General Assembly in 1990, serving as a state representative from 1990 to 2001.

Radogno, 64, a Republican from Lemont, has been minority leader since 2009 and has served in the Senate since 1996.

Though I leave political office with a sense of sadness and some disappointment, I leave with no regrets, said Radogno. I did my best  that's all I could do.

Illinois is in the midst of a political impasse that has left the state without a full-year budget since fiscal year 2015 and there is nothing in place for the fiscal year that begins on Saturday.
PESOTUM  Illinois State Police Trooper Ryan Albin's squad car struck the rear of a commercial box truck in the crash in which he was fatally injured Wednesday on Interstate 74 near Farmer City, state police said Friday.

While offering few new details about the accident during a news conference Friday at ISP District 10 headquarters in Pesotum, police officials praised Albin's accomplishments in law enforcement.

"I had met Trooper Albin a few times," ISP Director Leo P. Schmitz said. "He was always a good worker, a good person people wanted to be around. I had known who he was because of the work he had done. I had read his name. He had done significant drug, weapon, cigarette seizures."

Gov. Bruce Rauner has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff from sunrise Tuesday through sunset Thursday in Albin's honor.

Albin, 37, died at 8:45 p.m. Wednesday at Carle Hospital in Urbana from injuries suffered in a two-vehicle crash about five hours earlier on westbound Interstate 74 at mile post 155 just west of Farmer City, police said. Schmitz said both vehicles were approaching a construction zone where traffic was slowed and merging.

An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday, but results have not been released.

The truck driver, a 47-year-old Normal man, and his passenger, a 38-year-old Bloomington man, both refused medical treatment. They have not been identified, and no tickets have been issued.

Albin was nominated as officer of the year for Pontiac-based ISP District 6 in 2015 and for DeWitt County in 2009. He received awards from anti-drunken-driving groups for making more than 100 arrests in one year for driving under the influence.

Albin was a member of the National Criminal Enforcement Association and dedicated his career to criminal interdiction work, the officials said, also noting his service as a juvenile officer and a Fraternal Order of Police trustee.

Trooper Ryan Albin was universally loved by his peers," said Steven Riesenberg, commander of District 6, in a statement issued Friday. "He was a big man who spoke softly, yet had a booming laugh that instantly let everyone in the building know he was there.

Ryan was a true professional and a very effective crime fighter," he said. "He will be sorely missed.

Albin, who grew up near Bellflower, graduated from Blue Ridge High School in Farmer City and earned a bachelors degree from Eureka College. He joined the state police Jan. 8, 2006, after graduating from the Illinois State Police Academy.

His canine partner, Biko, was taken to an emergency veterinarian in Urbana but had no significant injuries, Schmitz said.

Schmitz said people in law enforcement across the nation have been calling and texting him to offer their condolences.

Sangamon County Deputy Sheriff Terry Roderick, president of Illinois Chapter of the Concerns of Police Survivors, said teams have been called in to offer support and counseling for Albin's family and co-workers.

Albin is survived by his parents, two sisters, 6-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.

Visitation will be 2-8 p.m. Wednesday and the funeral will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, both at Blue Ridge High School. Calvert-Belangee-Bruce Funeral in Farmer City is handling arrangements.

The public is encouraged to line the funeral procession route, which will be posted on the Illinois State Police website and Facebook page.
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As locals know, the legislature in Illinois is knee-deep in negotiations to actually pass a budget, finally taking the task seriously because of the deadline imposed by ratings agencies, that is, due to the need to come to some kind of agreement in order to avoid a junk-bond rating. Are Madigan and Rauner finally going to make a deal? I suppose it depends on whether each of them finally believes they need to give in, in order to finally fix the situation, or whether each of them still thinks they succeed in getting the media, and the general public, to blame the other for a failed deal.

(Note that CNN Money describes this as a problem thats been building up over the long term. I dont entirely see it that way  if a Madigan pawn had won election to governor, rather than Rauner, theyd likely have solved the budget issue by now. To be sure, theyd have solved it with massive tax increases, but theyd have solved it.)

But this afternoon, I got an e-mail from the Archdiocese of Chicago, presumably sent to all Catholic school families, encouraging us to contact our legislators. The key text is this:

We recently became aware that there are concrete, productive conversations happening in Springfield about a potential state budget. As part of these conversations, tax credits for students/families attending Catholic schools has once again become a possibility. A tax credit program in Illinois would represent a tremendous windfall for Catholic school families as well as our Catholic schools. I cannot understate how such a program would positively change the economics of Catholic education!

The e-mail references a site called Illinois Kids Campaign, which has precious few details, but seems to be related to a campaign in 2015 which provided, not traditional vouchers but a tax credit for donations to foundations benefiting public schools (e.g., arts funding) and private schools (scholarships for poor kids or schools in poor neighborhoods), with in each case, a cap for the total tax credit available statewide (how that works isnt clear to me  at the time of the donation, how would you know if the cap had been exceeded or not?).

At the time, I had mixed feelings: it would be great to give Catholic schools a boost, and, ideally, be a win for the state as well, if a scholarship sends a kid to a Catholic school who otherwise would have gone to a public school at a greater expense (rather than just funding families whod be sending their kids to Catholic schools no matter what). At the same time, though, the state simply didnt have any excess funds to be doling out.

And thats even more true now. At a time when the state cant pay its bills, and social service organizations are going without reimbursement for months on end, Im really shocked that this is coming up again. It suggests that, despite the seriousness of this crisis, legislators arent taking it seriously, but still trying to gain some wins with horse-trading, which, however well-intentioned, is still disappointing.

Image: Illinois state capitol; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illinoiscapitol2.jpg
After Attack on IS, Iran Proposes Expanding Missile Program

07/01/17

By Mehdi Jedinia, VOA

Iran's parliament is considering a proposal to spend nearly $550 million to bolster security and expand the country's missile program. The proposal follows an Iranian rocket strike on Islamic State in Syria that analysts called retaliation for twin terror attacks in Tehran and a warning to regional rivals.





The bill would raise the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) budget to $8 billion, in addition to an already approved five-year development plan that requires the government to earmark at least 5 percent of the national budget to defense, particularly development of the multidimensional missile program.



The June 18 strike - the first time Iran fired missiles outside its borders in 30 years - hit IS command centers in the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor and a bomb-manufacturing facility outside the city, the IRGC said.



Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the "Islamic Republic will respond more decisively to any future terrorist attack on Iran's soil."



And former IRGC chief General Mohsen Rezai wrote on Twitter, "The bigger slap is yet to come."



A parliament correspondent in Tehran, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was little doubt the bill would pass because it projected patriotism and some legislators are retired IRCG commanders or have strong ties with the force.

Symbol of pride

Although Iran's defense budget is less than those of many of its Arab neighbors, the missile program is considered a symbol of national pride and deterrence.



Iran has surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, including the Zolfaghar, the kind Iran used to hit IS in Syria. The military also has missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), long enough to reach Israel and U.S. bases.



Hojatoleslam Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi, former deputy speaker of parliament, has called the missile program one of the major pillars of sovereignty.



Babak Taghvaee, a Malta-based Iran military expert, said the additional fund for missile development "would probably be spent on the domestically produced Ya-Ali cruise missile, which was long awaited for financial sources."



"I assume a big chunk of this money is going to be dedicated to [research and development] on anti-jamming and target-error-correcting technology," he said. The money would be insufficient to push Iranian missile capability close to that of Chinese or Russian weapons, but it would help the Iranians "enhance their progress in terms of making missiles more accurate."



Still, the timing of the bill, which will be considered in the coming days, and the agility to be able to spend such a large amount are very important factors to consider, analysts say.

U.S.-Saudi deal

U.S. President Donald Trump sealed a $110 billion arms deal last month with Iran's chief rival in the region, Saudi Arabia, and Tehran was stung by the IS-claimed June 5 attacks on parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that killed 17 people.









"The quick reaction of parliamentarians in putting together the bill and accelerating country's missile program projects the level of insecurity Tehran feels from its southern neighbors teaming up with the United States under the Trump administration," said retired Iranian Admiral Houshang Aryanpour, now based in Virginia.



"The successful missile strike, which was also a real-time test for them, was a great victory for IRGC to be rewarded after that huge frustration of the Tehran attacks," Aryanpour said. "This bill carries, for sure, a propaganda aspect within and serves domestic public opinion."



The U.S. and Israel are rankled by Iran's increasing missile activity, which they see as a threat to regional stability.

'Bad behavior'

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Iran this year over what it called "bad behavior" with respect to Iranian missile tests, and on Thursday the U.S. urged the United Nations to closely watch Iran's missile buildup.



The U.N. said Thursday that Tehran was in compliance with its obligations under an international nuclear deal, but U.S. envoy Nikki Haley disputed that.





Under Security Council Resolution 2231, Iran is "called upon" to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years. Tehran and Moscow argue that the language does not make such restraint obligatory. The U.S. and Israel strongly objected to an Iranian missile test in March 2016 that they said violated the U.N. resolution.



"Iran's destructive and destabilizing role in the Middle East goes far beyond its illicit missile launches," Haley said. "From Syria to Yemen and Iraq to Lebanon, Iran's support for terrorist groups continues unabated. Iran's weapons, military advisers and arms smugglers stoke regional conflicts and make them harder to solve."



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Costs of the Clenched Fist - - In his first inaugural address, one of President Barack Obama's messages to America's adversaries was that "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." A few years later, the unclenching of Iran's fist was marked by the election of reformist Hassan Rouhani and the entry of Iran into negotiations with the United States and five other powers, leading to a detailed agreement in which Iran accepted severe limitations on, and intrusive scrutiny of, its nuclear program and closed all possible pathways to possible acquisition of a nuclear weapon. -Paul R. Pillar, LobeLog

Saudi Rulers To Take War Dreams In Iran To Grave: Iranian Official - Iran's Foreign Ministry says Saudi leaders will take their wish to provoke a military attack against the Islamic Republic to their graves. The strong-worded reaction by Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi came after Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a recent interview that his country "will work to have the battle in Iran."

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Reformist Former MP: Iran's President Rouhani Should Stand By His Voters Despite Opposition From Hardliners

07/01/17

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

Despite a spate of attacks from powerful conservatives, newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani should fulfill the promises he made to the people who voted for him, a reformist former legislator told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). "The main objective of the pressure coming from the opposition is to paralyze the [Rouhani] government and throw off track the policies it promised to the people," said Mohammad Kianoush-Rad, a senior member of the reformist Islamic Union Party of Iran (IUPI).



Mohammad Kianoush-Rad



"Mr. Rouhani can effectively control the situation by having constructive talks with other officials and at the same time doing an acceptable job of defending the people's political, social and cultural rights," said the former MP (2000-04) from the southern city of Ahwaz.

"Radicalization of the political climate will primarily benefit the extremists," he added.

Rouhani, the centrist cleric who was re-elected to the presidency on May 19, 2017, has recently come under sharp attacks by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei regarding a range of cultural and political issues.



"Rohani Under Attack"

coverage (in Persian) by Ghanoon daily



Two weeks before the presidential election, Khamenei accused Rouhani of trying to impose "un-Islamic" policies into the country's educational system. Then, on June 7, Khamenei told supporters to act in a "fire at will" fashion when the Rouhani government "falls into "stagnation and disarray."

The greatest blow came on June 12 when Khamenei compared Rouhani to Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran's first president who fled the country in 1981 after losing a power struggle with then Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.

The attack manifested on the streets of Tehran two weeks later when a pro-Khamenei mob circled Rouhani at a rally on June 23 shouting "Death to Banisadr," forcing the president to flee to the safety of his car.

"The recent attacks show how frustrated and angry extremist opponents of the [Rouhani] government are," said Kianoush-Rad, a member of the IUPI's Central Committee, in the interview with CHRI.

"What Mr. Rouhani can do on the one hand is to keep calm and maintain control of the situation while standing firm on implementing the people's wishes," he added.

"If he backs down from his duties under the Constitution, it could embolden the government's extremist opponents," he said.
I must, perforce, commend you highly on your professionalism and discipline that shone through during the recent traumatic event of the murder of Major Mahama, and the national revulsion and outcry that it ignited. It was a trying time for the whole country, and the matured handling of the situation has certainly enhanced your reputation.





These were the words of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, when he held his maiden durbar, as Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, with officers and other ranks of the Armed Forces, at Burma Camp, in Accra, on Friday, June 30.

According to President Akufo-Addo, You have won the respect of your fellow citizens, and positioned yourselves as an institution whose standards are worthy of emulation by the larger society. You continue to earn the gratitude of a nation for whose defence you are prepared to lay down your lives.

The President added that in the six months since the good people of Ghana, including members of the Ghana Armed Forces, voted him into office as the President of the Republic, they have displayed a keen sense of professionalism in all they do.

Citing a few examples to illustrate the point, President Akufo-Addo noted that when the call to duty to The Gambia came up, there was no hesitation, even in the midst of forbidding logistical and financial challenges.

The President continued, You continue to work closely with your police counterparts to address the numerous internal security challenges through OPERATION CALM LIFE, OPERATION HALT, OPERATION HUNTER, OPERATION BOAFO and OPERATION COW LEG, among others. Your ceremonial duties are a source of national pride and an inspiration for the youth.

In order to be able to make the Armed Forces perform the core functions of defending the territorial integrity of Ghana better, President Akufo-Addo recounted the strategy for that as laid out in the 2016 Manifesto of the New Patriotic Party.

These included, among other things: the improvement of institutions under the Armed Forces, such as the Recruits Training Schools, the Military Academy & Training Schools (MATS), the Staff College and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre; the protection of military lands from encroachment; and the continuation of local and foreign training for Armed Forces personnel.

On peacekeeping, we pledged to increase the daily allowance, and we have done so by raising it from US$31.00 to US$35.00 for each soldier with effect from 1st January 2017. Furthermore, we pledged that personnel, who serve in UN and other Peacekeeping Missions, will be paid at their duty post; we have fulfilled that pledge and gone further to clear all outstanding bills to the tune of US$30 million, he said.

Touching on their performance on Peace Support Operations (PSO), which have brought Ghana international acclaim, President Akufo-Addo urged them to work to guard this hard won reputation and keep the country and the Ghana Armed Forces in the top spot when UN Peacekeeping is mentioned.

On the deficits in manpower levels of all units of the Armed Forces, President Akufo-Addo stated that the enlistment and recruitment processes have begun, after an initial hold to enable Government align the critical requirements with the budget.

President Akufo-Addo announced to the gathering that consultations to give effect to the policy on the extension of service period from 25 to 30 years have already begun.

To this end, a Legislative Instrument has been drafted by the Attorney General with significant input from the Military High Command, noting, however, that the adoption of this policy would have serious implications for the military establishment.

There would be extra pressure on the already difficult accommodation situation; the current rank structures would need to be reviewed with regard to the time served in a particular rank; and there would doubtless have to be a review of medical needs. And, most important of all, the policy has direct budgetary implications. All these processes of review are underway to enable government come out with a good, comprehensive policy, he added.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Eight persons are feared dead at the Bui Power reservoir site at Banda in the Brong Ahafo Region after the boat they were traveling in capsized on Friday.



The victims mostly market women and children from Jama, a farming community along the reservoir were on their way to a neighboring area known as Accra town for a market day transaction.



Reports say the outboard motor of the boat developed a mechanical fault. An emergency boat they called on to assist them broke down on its way, leaving the passengers to their fate. Although divers close to the water bank helped rescue some 25 passengers, 8 others could not be found.



The Corporate Affairs Manager of Bui Power Authority, Mrs. Cherie Lawson Adamu, who confirmed the incident to Citi News, said early in the morning they received reports that two boats had capsized on the dam around our reservoir and immediately the Navy who have been deployed around the Bui area were dispatched to go on to the reservoir on a search mission to check and the information we have is that the boat was carrying market women towards the Jama area, the northern part of Bui for market day transactions when they developed a fault around Accra Town and a second boat sent to rescue and help them with their outboard motor but unfortunately both boats capsized.



She said personnel from the Navy are on a search mission for the eight missing persons.



Lawson Adamu lamented that activities and operations of the illegal settlers on the catchment of the Authority was a source of worry necessitating the deployment of the Navy to patrol the boundaries.



She therefore appealed to residents to cooperate with her outfit to deliver efficient service to the benefit of Ghanaians.

Source: citifmonline









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A group of concerned law graduates from the Ghana School of Law have petitioned the Chief Justice, for a pronouncement regarding the decision by the Supreme Court.



A petition signed by Ken Donkor Addor, Naomi Sam, Godfried Tessu Kwame, Sussie Ntim and Irene Korley-Ayerteye said the case was instituted by Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare against the General Legal Council and the Attorney General.

It said the substance of their petition was that since the Court has declared the entrance examination and interviews for admission into the Law School unconstitutional and illegal, they prayed the Council for an understanding of the dilemma.

The petitioners said they have been placed in a dilemma, asking them to take part in an act or a series of acts declared illegal and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

They said as law graduates, they have been taught that once an act was declared illegal and unconstitutional, it is so ab initio and no action could be found on an illegality.

It is also their case that their rights are being infringed upon because they are being asked to take part in an illegal act.

In their view, the Supreme Court judgment was explicitly clear in the sense that the Supreme Court itself has declared the examination to be illegal and unconstitutional, the petitioners added.

They, therefore, prayed the Council to grant them automatic admission to the Ghana Law School as all of them qualified for admission by virtue of the decision of the apex court in the matter under reference.

In October 2015, Professor Kweku Asare filed a suit against the General Legal Council and the Attorney-General over the way and manner the Ghana School of Law conducts its entrance exams and interview for students, who want admission into the school.

The plaintiff in his suit prayed for a declaration that GLCs imposition of entrance examination and interview requirements for the Professional Law Course violates Articles ll (7) 297 (d) 23, 296 (a) (b) and 18 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.

He also sought a declaration that the GLCs exclusion of persons who have qualified under Regulation 2 of L1 1296 from pursuing the Professional law course violates Article ll (7)297 (d), 23, and 296 (a) and (b) of the Constitution.

The plaintiffs also prayed the court for an order directed at the GLC to specify within 60 days; alternative places and modes of instructions that would afford all persons meeting the requirement of Regulation 2 of Ll 1296 the opportunity to pursue the profession component of legal education, the completion of which entitles them to take the qualifying certificate examinations as determined by the GLC.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A disgruntled doctor bent on revenge has opened fire at a New York City hospital today, killing one female doctor and injuring six other people before turning the gun on himself.





Dr Henry Bello was dismissed from the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in 2015 after allegations of sexual harassment. According to other doctors at the hospital, he had threatened them when he was fired. Dr Maureen Kwankam, who was a witness to todays rampage, told the Daily News:

We fired him because he was kind of crazy. He promised to come back and kill us then.

The Bronx gunman today was a doctor accused of sexual harassment. Again, misogyny and mass murder are intertwined. https://t.co/Xs8c8a8Kcf  Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) June 30, 2017

Bello entered the hospital at around 2:45pm New York time while wearing a white lab coat concealing a semi-automatic rifle. After moving through the hospital, shooting  a police report suggests that he was aiming for and aiming at doctors  he attempted to set himself on fire, and then shot himself dead.

The doctor had a criminal record including attempted burglary, fare evasion, trying to look up womens skirts with a mirror (what the fuck) and sexual assault  he reportedly grabbed a womans crotch on the street in Manhattan in 2004, telling her youre coming with me.

This was not an act of terrorism, @NYCMayor says of Bronx hospital shooting. It was an isolated incident. https://t.co/apNwXZs5f4 pic.twitter.com/5tBZP1WKyb  CBS News (@CBSNews) June 30, 2017

Police have praised the actions of hospital staff, who apparently underwent active shooter training just three months ago. Some of them carried a wounded doctor down nine floors in order to get them into emergency treatment.

One of the shooting victims is in a stable condition, but the rest are critical. Our thoughts are with the people of the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, and their families.

Source: Sky News / ABC News / Daily Beast / New York Daily News.

Image: Facebook.
Billy McFarland, the young entrepreneur behind the disastrous Fyre Festival, has been arrested by the FBI, and is expected to appear before a Manhattan judge later today, facing charges of wire fraud.

Fyre Festival promised a weekend of music and high-end, Instagram-ready luxury on an island in the Bahamas, but poor planning sent the whole thing to shit, leaving a bunch of angry rich kids stranded without basic amenities.

Wire fraud is very serious business, and Joon Kim, the acting U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, delivered a stern rebuke to McFarland when announcing the charges against him, saying:

As alleged, William McFarland promised a life changing music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster. McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes.

It is specifically alleged that McFarland provided investors with materially false information about his finances, claiming that the value of certain shares he owned was more than $2.5 million, when in reality it was less than $1500.

Prosecutors also claim that McFarland:

 perpetrated a scheme to defraud, inducing at least two individuals to invest approximately $1.2 million dollars in Fyre Media and an associated entity based on misrepresentations about Fyre Medias revenue and income.

Criminal fraud convictions can carry a sentence of up to 20 years, but federal prosecutors will need to convince a grand jury that McFarland was not merely incompetent, but actually formed an intent to defraud investors.

The embattled entrepreneur also faces a number of civil suits from Fyre Festival attendees and investors, and these will likely proceed alongside the criminal matter.

Source: Variety.

Photo: Chance Yeh / Getty.
Mariah Carey deserves a lifetime achievement award for her contribution to the art of reclining seductively on chaise lounges. I mean, just try and look away from this:

Carey is currently on a trip to Israel, where she is promoting a line of skin-care products, and she made an obligatory trip to tourist hot-spot The Dead Sea, where she took reclining to a whole new level.

The Dead Sea has an extremely high salt content  rather like Mariah herself, come to think of it  which means its much easier to float there than in regular seawater.

Of course, when Mimi went for a dip, she did so in the style to which weve all become accustomed:

Floating #deadsea #israel A post shared by Mariah Carey (@mariahcarey) on Jun 30, 2017 at 7:00am PDT

Leopard-print swimsuit? Check.

Aviators? Check.

$500,000 diamond necklace (a gift from ex-fiancee James Packer)? Check.

A posture that says the world is my chaise lounge and Ill recline where I want? Big old check.

Its Mariahs world, and were all just living in it:

#deadsea #israel A post shared by Mariah Carey (@mariahcarey) on Jun 29, 2017 at 3:10pm PDT

Shes so extra.

Source: Billboard.

Photo: Instagram.
PHOTOS: Petoskey celebrates Veterans Day 2022

Petoskey's American Legion taught local elementary students how to fold the flag during the Veterans Day ceremony on Friday, Nov. 11 in Pennsylvania Park.
When selling a home, owners are only required to disclose problems related to the physical aspects of the property. Read more

Events that transpired in Westfield, N.J., three years ago might sound a lot like the plot of a horror film.

A couple with three young children purchased a property they said was the home of their dreams: a 3,920-square-foot house nestled in a quiet, high-income suburb 30 miles outside Manhattan. To snag it, they shelled out $1.3 million, and closed the deal in June 2014.

But, they said, three days after closing, a letter arrived  from someone claiming to be "the Watcher."

"My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s, and my father watched it in the 1960s," the letter said. "It is now my time."

In three letters Derek and Maria Broaddus said they received in summer 2014, "the Watcher" made clear his obsession with the house. In one, the writer asked whose bedroom faced the street. Another criticized them for making the home "so fancy." In another, "The Watcher" wrote, "I am pleased to know your names now and the name of the young blood you have brought me."

It is not surprising that the Broaddus family never moved into the house. Instead, they hired an investigator, sued the former owners, contending that they concealed that they also had received a letter allegedly sent by "the Watcher," and at some point attempted to sell and even demolish the house. In the end, the property did not sell, demolition permits were not approved, and the lawsuit remains open. It has even inspired a countersuit by the former owners against the Broadduses  this one, for defamation.

In the years since the Westfield home became a sensation, the story has continued to grip professional and amateur sleuths alike: Was it legitimate or a hoax?

But it has also raised a more serious question for the real estate community: When a property does have an unsavory past, must you disclose anything nefarious to potential buyers?

In the lawsuit over the Westfield home, the Broaddus family accused the former owners of fraud and concealment, contending that by not disclosing they had also received a letter from "the Watcher," they "suppressed material facts in connection with the sale of the home."

What is a "material fact," though, and what, as a seller, are you required to disclose?

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, laws require the disclosure of only physical kinds of problems: holes, leaks, infestations, and the like. In Pennsylvania, the Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law requires that sellers disclose any "material defects" that are "known to the seller." In New Jersey, a similar law indicates sellers must make "a reasonable effort to ascertain all material information concerning the physical condition."

That's just not enough, buyers such as the Broadduses and others have argued.

In Delaware County in 2006, Thornbury Township resident Konstantinos Koumboulis shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself. Later that year, a couple bought their house at auction, renovated it, and sold it to a new buyer. They never disclosed the home's high-profile tragedy, and a new buyer  Janet Milliken, from out of town and unfamiliar with the news  purchased it for $610,000.

When she discovered the house's history, she sued the sellers, Joseph and Kathleen Jacono, for not disclosing the history. In 2014, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Jaconos in Milliken vs. Jacono, specifying that psychological stigma is not a material defect.

"When you start going beyond physical defects, it's hard to figure out what effect these might have on a potential buyer," said Hank Lerner, director of law and policy at the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors.

There are no similar precedents in New Jersey, but there is one nuance to the law: If a buyer in New Jersey directly asks a seller about "psychological" defects, a seller must disclose them if he or she is aware of them.

Even so, there are ways buyers can find some answers for themselves.

Nearly four years ago, software project manager Roy Condrey developed a website, DiedInHouse.com, to allow buyers to track the history of a home for a small fee.

To create the database, Condrey built an algorithm that collects information from news articles, police reports, property records, death records, sex-offender registries, and other sources to provide users information related to crimes, fires, drug-related incidents, and other events. Though he acknowledges the database is not comprehensive, Condrey said his team is working to provide users "everything we can  instantly." There are nearly five million incidents in his system, he said. One search costs $12; three, he said, is about $20.

"Everyone has their own opinion, but if there was a murder-suicide in my home, I would want to know," Condrey said. "The laws in the industry kind of marginalize that."
Cheryl Dimitri (center), sister of Danny Dimitri, with her daughters Stephanie (left) and Brittany Prosinski at the Cottman Avenue memorial to Danny Dimitri, who was killed in January by off-duty Officer Adam Soto. Read more

Our prisons are full of young men who've done dumb things. It's looking like Tony Forest will not be one of them.

I'm not sure exactly why that is. But let's say I have questions.

On the morning of Jan. 31, Forest, 26, did a dumb thing. He and a friend, Adam Soto, 24, while driving separate cars, were involved in some kind of speed contest after leaving a Northeast Philly gym where they'd worked out together.

At the time, they were off-duty Philly cops.

Soto was gunning his Subaru over 80 mph when he blew a light at Cottman and Algon Avenues  a school zone, for God's sake  slamming into and killing pedestrian Danny Dimitri, 50.

Soto was charged in May with homicide by vehicle and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Dimitri, a beloved chef at Chuck's Alibi on Oxford Avenue. Forest, who was driving a Mercedes, was given a pass.

Which is weird.

In many other speed-related contests that led to death, both drivers were charged, even if only one of them killed a victim.

Case in point: On July 29, 2015, Christopher Bloomfield and Ryan Farrell, both 21, were speeding on Sandmeyer Lane, a notorious drag-racing strip in Northeast Philly. Rounding a curve, Bloomfield's vehicle jumped the curb at high speed and hit a tree, killing three of his young passengers and critically injuring a fourth.

Both Bloomfield and Farrell were charged with homicide by vehicle and other offenses. Bloomfield, who pleaded guilty Thursday, was sentenced to 11 to 25 years. Farrell, who is out on bail, appears headed to trial.

So what's the deal with Forest?

Philly district attorney spokesman Cameron Kline says that an extensive investigation and a review of the evidence, including video, "clearly indicated" that the district attorney had insufficient evidence to charge Forest.

Until my call Monday to ask about Forest, though, the guy hadn't been given so much as a traffic ticket related to the incident.

By Wednesday, that changed when Forest was cited for speeding  five months after the fact.

Kline emphasized, twice, that Forest is not contesting the citations even though "among other factors, he slowed down almost two blocks before Officer Soto  hit Danny Dimitri."

But "slowing down" doesn't always make a difference in speed-related charges.

It didn't for Ahmen Holloman, who is in prison for his part in the horrific drag-racing deaths of Samira Banks, 27, and three of her four small children on July 16, 2013.

Holloman was racing Khusen Akhmedov on Roosevelt Boulevard when Akhmedov hit Banks and her kids with his Audi as they crossed the highway. The impact sent Banks' body flying 120 feet.

It was a horror. Her babies were just 5, 4, and 2.

Holloman's attorney, Lonny Fish, argued that his client should not be charged because he had significantly slowed his Honda prior to the accident  so much so that he was easily able to stop when he came upon the accident scene.

"There were no skid marks from his car at all," says Fish.

No matter. Holloman is doing five to 10 years for vehicular homicide; Akhmedov, 17 to 34 for four counts of third-degree murder.

I think they both got what they deserved, by the way, as did Christopher Bloomfield. Hopefully, Ryan Farrell will do lengthy time, too, for his part in the Sandmeyer Lane crash.

They were all young and dumb when they did what they did. That might be a reason for their actions but it's no excuse.

Which brings us to Forest and Soto, trained police officers who should've known the dangers of risky road behavior.

Even though Forest wasn't criminally charged, Police Commissioner Richard Ross fired him.

"Clearly, from our standpoint the conduct was egregious," says Ross. "We're supposed to be the people stopping folks from speeding and not engaging in those acts ourselves."

Asked whether Forest should've been charged, Ross says, "I don't know the extent of the investigation, but I think that's a very legitimate question to ask."

Danny Dimitri's sister, Cherylann Prosinski, thinks so, too. She wants both Soto and Forest in prison for what happened to her brother, who was single and her only sibling. His death, which occurred while he was on his way to work to pick up his paycheck, has blasted a hole into her family.

"My mom, she's 89, she can't stop crying," says Prosinski, 58, whose two daughters are also deeply grieving their adored uncle. "Danny called her a billion times a day. We couldn't even do Easter this year. We missed him too much."

Like I said, young men do dumb things. It's far from clear to me whether Forest got special treatment for doing a dumb thing.

But if he didn't receive a traffic citation until the week a reporter called to ask about charges, well, like I said, I've got questions. And to paraphrase the commissioner, I think they're legitimate to ask.
A former South Jersey police officer who was off-duty last year when he slammed into a utility pole while driving drunk, killing his female passenger, was sentenced Friday to four years in state prison.

Justin Rodriguez, 26, of Burlington Township, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Terrence R. Cook on one count of vehicular homicide as part of a plea deal.

An investigation found that Rodriguez had consumed several alcoholic drinks in the hours before the Sept. 23 collision, which killed Ariana Williams, 27, of Florence, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. Toxicology tests revealed that Rodriguez had a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit.

Rodriguez was driving his personal Acura Integra when he lost control of the car about 2:10 a.m. on West Front Street, near Woodlawn Avenue, in Florence Township and slammed into the pole. Williams was pronounced dead at the scene.

Rodriguez was ejected from the car and was transported to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton, where he was treated for three days.

At the time of the crash, Rodriguez was off-duty from the Burlington Township Police Department, where he had worked for 11 months. He was suspended without pay and lost his job after pleading guilty on May 3.

"You, as a police officer, knew better and should have taken a different course of action," Cook told Rodriguez in court, according to a video of the sentencing posted on the Cherry Hill Courier-Post's website. "But you didn't."

The judge said he thought Rodriguez was remorseful and regretted what he did. He said Rodriguez's record showed no prior incidents involving alcohol.

"What I think is that you've made the biggest mistake of your life," the judge said.

The judge suspended Rodriguez's driver's license for 10 years after he gets out of prison.

Williams' family and friends spoke for nearly an hour at the hearing, telling the judge how she brought happiness to their lives and describing the heartache her death has caused, prosecutors said in their statement.

"This was a criminal act, and like all criminal acts, this was senseless," Assistant Prosecutor Thaddeus Drummond told the judge. "There was no reason for those who loved Ariana  her friends and her family  to lose a daughter, a sister, a friend."
Police are investigating a fatal shooting Friday night in which a 47-year-old man was killed in North Philadelphia.

Just before 9 p.m., officers responded to a report of a person with a gun inside a house on the 2400 block of West Oakdale Street, police said. Inside, they found the victim suffering from gunshot wounds to his neck and shoulder. Officers rushed the man, whose name was not released, to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:40 p.m.

Police said the initial investigation reveals the victim was involved in an argument with a 76-year-old man. Officers encountered the older man as he was trying to flee from the area, police said. The man was taken into custody and was being questioned.

No charges had been filed as of Saturday afternoon. Police said the investigation was ongoing.
Electricians union leader John Dougherty was wiretapped for 16 months by the FBI. Read more

Almost a year after FBI agents raided the offices of Philadelphia labor leader John Dougherty and his electricians' union, the sweeping scope of its investigation is becoming evident.

Search warrants and the recent disclosure of long-running wiretaps make clear that the federal inquiry extends to virtually every aspect of the union's operations, as well as Dougherty's personal finances.

Along the way, it has touched a broad swath of Philadelphia's political class and even reached into the office of Mayor Kenney, whose voice, like scores of others, was picked up on wiretaps placed on the union leader's phone.

Federal prosecutors are examining everything from the campaign donations that have made the union a political powerhouse and Dougherty a kingmaker, to the union's turbulent and sometimes violent relationship with nonunion contractors. They also are exploring the union's dealings with the Kenney administration.

Documents obtained by The Inquirer and Daily News last week also outline a broad array of crimes federal prosecutors believe may have been committed.

The warrant authorizing the August 2016 search of the union's offices in Philadelphia states that FBI agents were seeking evidence of embezzlement, attempted extortion of contractors, mail and wire fraud, tax evasion, and honest services fraud by public officials.

Investigators are also exploring possible embezzlement from employee benefit plans and unlawful payments to felons, said the warrant.

James B. Jacobs, a labor expert and a professor at New York University law school, said he knew of no other federal labor probe in recent years as vast as the Philadelphia inquiry.

"It has so many pieces," Jacobs said. "What you're talking about is a whole systemic investigation."

But Paul Messing, a prominent criminal defense lawyer, cautioned that an investigation, no matter how sweeping, does not guarantee a successful prosecution  or even criminal charges.

"It's not uncommon for federal investigations to go nowhere and to produce no indictments," he said.

Dougherty, 57, has led the 4,700-member Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers since 1993. He has built the union into a potent economic and political force.

Frank Keel, a spokesman for the union, said in a statement Friday that the federal search warrant amounted to nothing more than a "fishing expedition."

"Despite being subjected to annual audits, this appears to be an effort by the government to scrutinize every aspect of Local 98," he said.

In a separate statement, Dougherty criticized any story based on "a leaked document." He said it was "extremely unfair and possibly unethical" for the newspapers to publish names listed in the search warrant "when none of them have been implicated in any wrongdoing."

This is the second federal investigation of Dougherty, who was paid $406,532 in salary and expenses last year, records show. A decade ago, the first inquiry led to the conviction of an electrical contractor with ties to the union, but no charges against Dougherty or any other Local 98 officials.

The recent mass distribution of so-called intercept letters suggests that this latest investigation has entered an advanced stage. The letters notify individuals they have been heard on existing wiretaps, but do not signify any wrongdoing on their part.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment for this article.

In simultaneous raids last August, FBI and IRS agents searched more than half a dozen locations, including the union offices, Dougherty's home in Pennsport and his sister's house next door, the Mount Laurel home of union president Brian Burrows, and the City Hall and district offices of City Councilman Bobby Henon, who also holds a paid position with the union.

Dougherty, widely known as "Johnny Doc," nonchalantly served iced tea and doughnuts to reporters who gathered outside his Moyamensing Avenue home on the day it was searched.

He did not know it, but investigators had been tapping his cellphone conversations for 16 months.

The length of the wiretaps is significant. To tap calls, prosecutors must convince a judge there is evidence that a crime has been committed. The wiretaps are reviewed on a monthly basis by the judge. They are kept in place only if the judge believes they are picking up useful information.

L. George Parry, a former federal prosecutor, said the duration of the wiretap seemed promising for prosecutors. "It's not like they went up on these phones and hit a dry hole," he said.

The breadth of the federal inquiry can be gauged from contents of the search warrant for the raid on Local 98 headquarters, approved last year by U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry S. Perkin.

The legal document demanded contracts, canceled checks, emails, and any other communications with more than 60 people and companies. The list included top union officials, contractors, political consultants, and officials, elected and appointed, with ties to the union. A spa and a massage therapist also drew scrutiny.

The nine-page search warrant obtained by The Inquirer and Daily News described in detail what prosecutors were seeking. The document did not lay out the underlying evidence that prosecutors had assembled to present to a judge to justify the search in the first place.

The newspapers sought to reach those named in the warrant. Most declined comment or did not return phone calls and emails. Simply being named in a search warrant is not an implication of wrongdoing.

In addition to seeking records from Dougherty, federal investigators sought documents related to the union's president, two executive board members, and three business agents.

Among the nearly two dozen union staffers named in the warrant were two who were with Dougherty last year when the labor leader brawled with a nonunion electrician at a job site in South Philadelphia.

Federal investigators also sought documents and emails relating to union picketing and other job actions against nonunion contractors as well as reports by Local 98 officials on nonunion job sites.

Personal financial records of Dougherty and his wife, Cecelia, were sought, including bank and credit card records and tax returns.

The search warrant put Dougherty's family ties to his union on display as well.

For instance, it sought information about his daughter Erin, 36. She is the chief executive of Philadelphia Electrical & Technology Charter High School, which her father and the union founded in Center City in 2002. Investigators also sought records of any union payments to the school.

Tara Chupka lived with Dougherty's family when she was a teen and now works as a lawyer for Local 98. The warrant sought financial records of her union ties.

Investigators sought records related to Dougherty's sister, Maureen Fiocca, an office worker for the union, and any payments to Fiocca's sons  George, Brian, and Greg. George Fiocca III works at the charter school his uncle founded, Brian Fiocca is a Local 98 union organizer. Greg Fiocca's job could not immediately be learned.

The search warrant suggested that federal authorities are taking an interest in the links between Local 98 and the Kenney administration.

The labor leader was a key early supporter of Kenney in his bid for mayor. When he took office last year, Kenney appointed Local 98 loyalists to several significant positions, including the chairmanship of the Zoning Board.

Prosecutors sought correspondence and other documents from three current and former members of Kenney's administration. Among them was Richard Lazer, Kenney's deputy mayor for labor. Dougherty attended the news conference at which Kenney announced Lazer's appointment.

The warrant sought similar information about Lazer's wife, Lindsey, who according to union records was a Local 98 staffer in 2014 and 2015.

Richard Lazer, through a city spokesman, declined comment. Lawyer David H. Conroy, who represents Lindsey Lazer, said: "At this point, we don't have any comment."

Federal investigators also asked for information about the union's dealings with Christopher Rupe, who has worked as chief of staff for the city Managing Director's Office since January 2016. Before that he was Local 98's legislative affairs director. In 2015, he was treasurer for a Dougherty-backed PAC that aired some of the first television advertising in support of Kenney's mayoral campaign.

Investigators are also exploring the union's dealings with James Moylan, whom Kenney appointed as head of the city's Zoning Board last year. Moylan, a civic leader and Dougherty's chiropractor, quit the position after news broke that his home and office had been searched as part of the federal probe.

In addition, the warrant demanded union records of correspondence and emails to and from the Zoning Board and the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections.

Kenney's spokeswoman, Lauren Hitt, said Friday that federal prosecutors had not subpoenaed the city seeking any correspondence between the Mayor's Office and Local 98. "The Mayor is not the target or the subject of the investigation," she said.

**

Local 98, under Dougherty, has spent heavily on a network of political consultants.

This spending, too, drew federal interest.

In the warrant, prosecutors sought information on the union's dealings with more than a dozen consultants, including former Democratic U.S. Rep. Michael "Ozzie" Myers, who went to prison after accepting a $50,000 bribe in the 1980s Abscam sting. Campaign records show that the union has paid Myers more than $400,000 in recent years. In an interview Friday, Myers said he did consulting work for many clients, including Local 98. He declined to comment on the investigation.

They also asked about William R. Miller V. Records show that Local 98 has paid the political consultant and his firm more than $550,000 in the last four years.

Investigators also sought information about the union's dealings with Daniel Pellicciotti and his Pyramid Consulting firm, a business paid more than $450,000 by Local 98 in recent years.

The warrant also demanded that the union provide information about payments and emails to and from consultant Michael Youngblood.

In an interview last week, Youngblood, who was wearing a gold "98" lapel pin, said he did not know why he was named in the warrant. A former boxer, Youngblood worked as a City Council staffer and later as a political activist and consultant. He has twice served time in prison, once for a federal drug conviction in the 1980s and then in 1999 after a conviction for extortion, bank fraud, and tax evasion.

The warrant also sought information about any payments to and communications with William DeWeese, a former Democratic House speaker who was convicted in 2012 of using public employees and taxpayer resources for political purposes.

Having served two years in prison, DeWeese is now a frequent presence in the state Capitol. Records show that Local 98 paid him and his company more than $95,000 in the last two years as a political consultant.

Reached in the hallway inside the Capitol this week, DeWeese declined to answer questions about the investigation.

***

Longtime labor leader Patrick Gillespie, a former head of the Building Trades Council, was also named in the warrant.

In an interview, Gillespie said federal authorities delivered a subpoena to him at his home last year, even before the raids. He declined to say what prosecutors were seeking.

Federal authorities also sought information about any communications with or payments to leaders of other unions, including Anthony Gallagher, business manager of Steamfitters Local 420.

"You know more than me, obviously," Gallagher said when asked about the mention of his name on the search warrant. He said he had not been subpoenaed or had his records searched.

Investigators also asked about any payments to Thomas J. Kelly, general secretary-treasurer of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association in 2002.

***

Another aspect of the federal inquiry involves firms that have received union subsidies.

Investigators sought information about Local 98 payments to MJK Electrical Corp., and its top officials, president Michael J. Jones and vice president and treasurer George L. Peltz.

The company, with offices in Berlin, N.J., and Philadelphia, was paid $2.1 million by the union from 2010 to 2015, according to the federal Labor Department.

Most of that money was allocated to "market recovery," a subsidy that unions pay to contractors so they can submit lower bids when they compete with nonunion firms.

The prosecutors also demanded to know about the union's dealing with Donald "Gus" Dougherty, a South Philadelphia electrical contractor who is not related to John Dougherty but is a childhood friend.

In 2008, Donald Dougherty pleaded guilty to stealing more than $500,000 in "market recovery" money. He also pleaded guilty to providing $115,000 worth of free renovations on John Dougherty's Philadelphia home.

Donald Dougherty served a two-year prison sentence. Since he left prison, Local 98 has continued to provide his firm recovery funding, paying it $470,000 from 2010 to 2015.

**

Along with spending on political consultants and contractor subsidies, Local 98 has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for recreational activities for its members. Records show that the union purchased tickets to sporting events, concerts, and the theater. It even spent money on back rubs for its electricians.

In disclosures with the U.S. Department of Labor, the union said it paid a masseuse and a spa almost $210,000 between 2008 and 2015. The money went to Heidi Winkel and her firm, Well Deserved Corporate Spa Services.

Winkel is a massage therapist at The Spa at the Sporting Club at the Bellevue. Local 98 said it had paid her at times for providing massages at union events, including chair massages at a holiday party.

Leaving no stone unturned, prosecutors said they wanted to know all about that, too.

Staff writers Chris Brennan, Angela Couloumbis, Dylan Purcell, Jane Von Bergen, and Martha Woodall contributed to this article.

Contact staff writer Nancy Phillips at 215-854-2254, nphillips@phillynews.com or @PhillipsNancy
Many New Jersey residents woke Saturday morning with errands on their minds and Fourth of July holiday plans ahead  and no clue that Gov. Christie had shut down state operations because of the legislative budget impasse.

That meant closing of nonessential services, including the Motor Vehicle Commission, state parks and beaches  and disappointing scores of holiday visitors and residents. Businesses counting on robust holiday traffic took an economic hit and had little to celebrate.

At Wharton State Forest, New Jersey's largest state park, calls were supposed to go out informing incoming campers of the closure. But plenty of tourists showed up Saturday, saying they didn't know about the shutdown.

"Can we sue somebody?" asked Victoria Perdomo, who traveled from New York City with eight friends and relatives for an annual camping trip. "We had a reservation for two months in advance!"

The group arrived at the 115,000-acre Pinelands forest near Hammonton  towing a rented U-Haul wagon filled with camping equipment  after paying $300 to stay through Wednesday.

"Everybody is very upset," said Perdomo, 30, who was calling around to campsites in Pennsylvania to ask about availability. "We're going to continue to do our trip, but maybe next time we won't do it in New Jersey."

The Florea family arrived Saturday morning from Jenkintown with a reservation to stay for three nights but found the park office closed.

"I want to talk to Governor Christie," said Catalin Florea, who was accompanied by his wife and their daughters, 7 and 5. "This is unacceptable."

Florea's wife, Beth, said they might call some private campsites or places in Pennsylvania, but worried about finding space on a holiday weekend.

"It's really disappointing," she said. "The girls packed two weeks ago."

She said the experience wouldn't deter them from camping again in New Jersey, however.

"I love camping in Jersey," she said. "I'm from Michigan, and the geography is similar. The pine trees, the sand, it's wonderful."

At the Pic-a-Lilli Inn, a Shamong bar on Route 206 down the road from the Wharton state forest campgrounds, manager Bonnie Schneider said business was slow.

"We usually plan for a huge weekend," she said. "It's awkward  we have a lot of people working for not many people."

Typically, the 90-year-old restaurant gets drive-by traffic as well as overflow from nearby lakes and campsites. But as business lulled through the afternoon, Schneider said she may have to start cutting some servers loose from their shifts early.

"People aren't headed in this direction today," she said. "They're finding something else to do."

At Island Beach State Park in Ocean County, police turned away cars, bicyclists and joggers attempting to enter the park on Saturday.

Ronah Harris, 39, was among those surprised to find it closed. She had traveled to Island Beach from Princeton for the holiday.

"I'm confused about it," said Harris "For Fourth of July weekend? It's unfortunate. It's ironic." She said she would look for a different beach to visit.

Jane O'Leary, 57, another holiday weekend visitor, rode her bike up to the park entrance and saw police. O'Leary, who has a summer house in Ocean County, said she thought she and her family would be able to work around the park's closure.

"We're not the ones who have planned our whole vacation around this, but we like to ride (our bikes) in," she said.

Minutes earlier, police stopped Andrew Karemer, 52, as he attempted to jog into the park. He said he knew of the park's closure but assumed police would still let people run through it.

The shutdown, he said, would "affect everyone's plans."

"It's a bad situation," said Karemer. "I hope they're working in Trenton, trying to fix this. They get paid to fix problems, not create them."

Arthur Palacio and three of his friends drove in from Morris County, about two hours' north, and were thrilled to score a walk-up campsite in Wharton State Forest Friday night. They set up camp about a mile and a half in, planning to spend the weekend.

But they were told Saturday morning to pack up and leave, and they trooped back to the parking lot around noon.

"It sucks," Palacio said, shaking his head. "We're expected to go to PA now? That's a long drive."

They lost no money, but by the time they packed the car back up, their motivation was low to start over at a new campsite.

"We're closing it up after this," Palacio said. "That's it for us."

In Cherry Hill, a steady stream of motorists pulled up to the MVC with hopes of getting their cars inspected, only to find a chain and a "station closed" sign blocking the parking lot.

The shutdown was news to them all.

"Saturday is the only day I have to do things like this," said 28-year-old Ashley Hoffer, of Riverside, whose last day to get her car inspected was Friday. "Will it be back open on Monday?"

"Is this Christie's fault?" asked Brian Giovanetti, of Riverside. "He's the governor  ultimately it falls to him. Has it ever happened before?"

Christie, meanwhile, scheduled an 11:30 a.m. press conference with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, blaming the shutdown on Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D., Hudson), who refused to consider a bill Christie demanded in exchange for signing the 34.7 billion budget for 2018.

Giovanetti, 59, worried what would happen if he were pulled over with expired inspection papers.

"If I can't get it inspected, I can't get it inspected," he said.

Frank Liang, of Voorhees, pulled up in a new car. He had a week to get it inspected.

"Today's the last day," he said, burying his head in his hands.

Santosh Kotgire, 47, said he had checked the Cherry Hill MVC's online queue Saturday morning and was surprised to see nobody was reported in line.

"I thought maybe it was a good time to come," he said. "I also thought, something is fishy."

Essential services, such as state police, remain open.

Christie, a Republican, and the Democratic-controlled Legislature are expected to return to work Saturday morning for another round of budget arguments. At issue in the impasse is legislation that would restructure Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New jersey, the state's largest health insurer.

The governor said he would sign the overall budget measure for 2018 if lawmakers passed a bill that would require Horizon to develop a plan to allocate excess surplus to benefit policyholders and improve "the overall health status of all New Jersey residents."

The Horizon legislation was passed on Thursday but Prieto refused to consider the bill, calling it a "Christie tax" on Horizon's 3.8 million policyholders.
TRENTON  Gov. Christie ordered a shutdown of state government and called for lawmakers to convene for a special session Saturday morning after the Legislature failed to pass a budget Friday.

Christie issued an executive order early Saturday morning declaring a state of emergency while maintaining essential services such as hospitals, correctional facilities, and state police operations. Other government services such as state parks and Motor Vehicle Commission offices will be closed.

The shutdown stems from a stalemate between Christie and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D., Hudson) over legislation to restructure New Jersey's largest health insurer.

Christie, a Republican, earlier said he told the leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature that he would sign their budget priorities into law if they also passed a bill that would establish a process affecting Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. Horizon would be required to develop a plan to allocate excess surplus to benefit policyholders and improve "the overall health status of all New Jersey residents."

The Senate passed the Horizon legislation on Thursday. But Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D., Hudson) refused to consider the bill, calling it a "Christie tax" on Horizon's 3.8 million policyholders and declaring the budget shouldn't be "held hostage" to Christie's demand on Horizon.

About half of Prieto's 52-member Democratic caucus declined to vote on the $34.7 billion fiscal year 2018 budget on Thursday, citing concerns that Christie would gut about $325 million in spending. That includes $150 million in school funding, as well as aid for cancer research, prisoner reentry programs, and dozens of other line items.

By Friday evening, lawmakers had failed to break the impasse, voting by 26-25 with 24 abstentions on the budget, falling short of a 41-vote majority. Under the New Jersey constitution, the state must pass a balanced budget no later than 12:01 a.m. July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

"If there's an unusual fit of sanity on the part of the speaker and they send me a budget tonight, I'll be here to sign it," Christie told reporters earlier at a news conference, following a meeting with Prieto, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), and other legislative leaders. "If they leave tonight, I'll leave when they leave. I'm not happy about this. This is completely avoidable."

New Jersey's only government shutdown came in 2006, when Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, feuded with his own party over his proposal to raise the sales tax.

In the event of a shutdown, Motor Vehicle Commission offices, state parks, and state beaches would close, Christie said. Essential services, such as the state police, would continue to operate. The governor has some discretion in determining what services are essential.

Liberal and labor groups rallied to support Prieto, giving him a standing ovation as he walked into a Statehouse Annex committee room to declare he wouldn't budge on the Horizon bill.

"That's not good public policy," he said.

Christie, though, seized on a revelation Friday that a decade ago, Prieto had co-sponsored legislation that would have authorized the commissioner of the state Department of Banking and Insurance to dedicate Horizon's excess surplus to charity care for hospitals.

The 2006 bill didn't advance.

"Now, I can't say that I'm stunned by hypocrisy in Trenton, but it's outrageous," Christie said. "So I don't think we can assume any longer that the speaker's reticence to do this has anything to do with principle."

"We need to find out why the speaker's really doing this," he added.

For his part, Prieto told reporters, "That was over a decade ago. I was just here a couple of years." He said he didn't recall his rationale back then.

"Things change and things evolve," he said, adding that uncertainty in Washington over the Affordable Care Act made today's proposed Horizon legislation reckless.

Christie says the legislation is needed to make Horizon more transparent; the bill would require greater financial disclosure and change the company's 15-member board to include three members elected by subscribers. It would also designate Horizon as the state's insurer of last resort.

Christie has spent months ripping the nonprofit company's executive compensation practices and arguing that the insurer isn't doing enough to help the poor, drawing comparisons to liberal politicians such as Bernie Sanders (Ind, Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.).

Horizon had $2.4 billion in reserves at the end of 2016. It says the money is needed to protect against risk and that dedicating surplus for the broader public benefit would force it to raise premiums.

The insurer has rallied opposition against the bill. A coalition that's funded in part by Horizon has also been running advertisements grilling Christie and Sweeney.

"Steve Sweeney is selling out millions of Horizon policyholders, siding with Chris Christie to score political points, and allowing the governor to take over the state's largest health insurer and raid its reserve funds," the narrator intones in one digital ad. "Tell your legislator: Hands off our health care."

Sweeney said on Friday, "I'm really sorry that people's egos are getting in the way of the public."

As the reality of the imminent shutdown sunk in, Christie and lawmakers tried to find a possible exit ramp.

Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R., Union) said some Democrats had approached him about replacing the speaker.

But that didn't appear likely to happen as of yet.

Christie, describing himself as "Mr. Reasonable," said he told legislative leaders that he welcomed other ideas that could replace the Horizon legislation.

"I said, my offer's on the table. You don't like my offer, counter it. I'm always willing to listen," he said.

Democrats did not make any such offers at the meeting, Christie said. But during an Assembly Democratic caucus meeting later in the day, lawmakers briefly discussed a potential counteroffer  legislation that would eliminate a requirement that local governments publish legal notices in newspapers.

Christie and Democratic leaders tried to pass that bill last year but failed amid intense public backlash.

There wasn't support in the Democratic caucus on Friday for the bill, Prieto told reporters.

Lawmakers were ready for a long night.

Prieto held a vote on the budget around 7:30 p.m. and left the voting board open for hours. He said he was "doing my duty to keep government open."

"Members that should be voting on this are holding the budget bill hostage and that's not right," he told reporters around 8 p.m.

Asked why he wasn't trying to persuade members to vote for the budget, Prieto said that "everybody knows where everybody is."

"I'll entertain anything," he said. "I'm just waiting."

Bramnick said he didn't think that was productive. "Sitting here and staring at a board is not negotiation," he said.

The budget drama was replete with reports that Prieto had sent an emissary to meet with Christie Thursday afternoon. But Christie said there was no meeting.

"You know that was baloney, right?" Christie said at the news conference.

"I was sitting upstairs all day," he said. "I was so bored yesterday I was watching the Legislature on my computer.  Why wasn't an emissary able to find me?"

Partial list of what shuts and what stays open:

Open: State Police, state correctional facilities, key child welfare services, state hospitals and treatment facilities, NJ TRANSIT, and operations linked to the health, safety, and welfare of the public, including certain environmental and health monitoring. Also the lottery, casinos and racetracks.

Unemployment Insurance and disability determination services remain operational.

Child abuse hotlines, protection services and response teams will continue to operate. Schools for children with special needs will remain open.

Closed: All Motor Vehicle Commission agencies and inspection stations (except online services). All state parks, recreation areas, forests, and historic sites, including Liberty State Park Also, permitting offices for Air, Historic Preservation, Land Use, Site Remediation, Solid Waste, and Water Supply; Green Acres and Blue Acres offices; Office of Dispute Resolution; Office of Permit Coordination; most of the Division of Fish & Wildlife (Wildlife Management Areas and on-line services will not be impacted); NJ Geologic Survey; and Rebuild by Design projects.

One Stop Career Centers (state not county services). Travel and tourism welcome centers. The public will not be able to obtain copies of birth and marriage certificates, or copies of adoptees' original birth certificates.
A 17-year-old male accused of attacking and robbing a 72-year-old Chester County woman in February and locking her in a closet of her home will be tried as an adult, a judge decided Friday.

The teen, who faces attempted murder charges, will stay in the county Youth Center until his bail hearing next week, according to Assistant District Attorney Christine Abatemarco, who is prosecuting the case. If he does not post bail, he will be transferred to the county prison.

County Judge John Hall made the decision after an all-day hearing at the county Justice Center in West Chester. He is expected to file a written opinion with his findings at a later date.

According to police, the teen broke into the woman's East Brandywine Township house, in a wooded area in the 1000 block of Creek Road, on Feb. 22. She lived alone. The woman's daughter-in-law found her in a closet four days later bound with duct tape and zip ties, and with a cloth bag over her head. The woman stayed in intensive care at Paoli Hospital for several days.

The teen had run away from the Brandywine campus of Devereux, a residential treatment program for students with behavioral, emotional, and psychiatric disorders. Police arrested him on March 1.

The incident prompted State Sen. Andy Dinniman (D., Chester) to introduce a bill June 19 that would make sure municipalities alert their residents when a juvenile runs away from a residential treatment facility. Under the proposed legislation, such facilities would also need to work with law enforcement and municipal officials when developing written safety plans in order to receive a license from the state.

Police said the teen accused of attacking the woman did not know her but after leaving Devereux, he walked to her home, which was nearby. He returned to Devereux two days later wearing bleached sneakers.

According to police, he had driven from the woman's home in her car and with her credit cards, cellphone, and laptop. Police said the inside of the teen's elbow was bruised. They allege he used it to choke the victim.

He had been arrested for two burglaries in October in Delaware County.

Michael Raffaele, the teen's attorney, had argued that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to charge his client with attempted murder, but prosecutors said the defendant's alleged actions showed his intent and warranted adult court.
Posters outside the governor's office in Trenton blame Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto for the shutdown. Read more

TRENTON  Gov. Christie on Saturday framed New Jersey's government shutdown as a battle against the state's largest health insurer, exhorting lawmakers to support his push against what he cast as a profit-hording "machine" and resolve a budget impasse.

The shutdown, which began after lawmakers failed to pass a budget Friday amid a stalemate over the proposal to restructure Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, left residents and visitors frustrated at the start of the holiday weekend. Services deemed nonessential were ordered closed, including Motor Vehicle Commission offices, and campers and beachgoers were turned away from state parks.

The stalemate stems from the Horizon proposal: Christie wants lawmakers to pass a bill requiring the insurer to develop a plan for allocating its "excess" surplus to help pay for drug treatment and other care of the poor and uninsured.

But Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D., Hudson), has refused to consider that bill, which he has called a "Christie tax" on Horizon's 3.8 million policyholders. As a result, Prieto couldn't get enough Democratic votes to pass the budget  because Christie had pledged to line-item Democratic-backed spending if lawmakers didn't pass the Horizon bill.

Returning Saturday to Trenton, where he called lawmakers in for a special session, Christie blasted Prieto, repeatedly referring to the "speaker's shutdown" during a news conference. "It's embarrassing and pointless," Christie said.

The governor has called another special session at 2 p.m. Sunday, although it's unclear whether any vote will be taken. The Assembly is technically still in session from its failed attempt to pass a budget Friday night.

But Christie also on Saturday defended his decision to push the Horizon legislation, calling it a "transparency and accountability fight" during an afternoon speech to lawmakers in the Senate chambers.

"Let me tell you what we're really fighting for in this debate. It's not just words on a page. Believe me, it's not just politics," Christie said. "We are fighting for the mother and father wracked with grief over their child who is drug-addicted, but unable to get Horizon to pay for his treatment through the policy they paid for  We are fighting for the middle-aged carpenter, who pays a fortune already for his health insurance to Horizon, then watches them increase his premiums each and every year."

Christie said the bill was not an "evil proposal" or "a government takeover," and noted that provisions for Horizon to spend its excess surplus wouldn't take effect until after his term ends in January.

"I have compromised," Christie said. "But I want to be clear to all of you. I will not capitulate to the high-paid lobbyists' smear campaign."

He urged Prieto to "come to the table and end these political games."

Horizon fired back at Christie after the speech, accusing the governor of "resorting again to bullying and distortions to retaliate" against opposition to raiding the company's reserves.

"Not once in the previous seven years has the governor raised any issue in response to the many audits, annual reviews or thousands of pages of detailed financial filings that have been publicly filed including those detailing compensation information and lobbying expenses," said Horizon spokesman Kevin McArdle. He noted the company's A rating from Standard and Poor's, and argued that given a potential health care overhaul in Washington, "Trenton shouldn't be adding to the uncertainty and making health care more expensive and less accessible."

Earlier Saturday, Prieto dubbed the shutdown "the Chris Christie hostage crisis," calling it "unconscionable" that Christie was tying his commitment to sign the Democratic budget to passage of the Horizon legislation.

"It's extortion," Prieto told reporters. The speaker reiterated that he would consider proposals to address Horizon's surplus after the budget is passed  but not beforehand.

Prieto said the shutdown wasn't his fault, noting that he had posted the budget for a vote Friday. The speaker left the voting board open overnight, after failing to garner enough votes from fellow Democrats in the Assembly, some of whom are refusing to pass the budget without a deal that Christie won't slash spending.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), flanked by dozens of fellow Democrats from both houses, said Saturday it was imperative that an additional $150 million in school funding be included in the budget. Passing the Horizon legislation would ensure Christie keeps that budget language, Sweeney said.

"It's time for leadership, not being a martyr," Sweeney said in a thinly veiled shot at Prieto.

Christie was doing his part to assign blame. Outside the governor's office, signs taped to the windows facing Trenton featured a photo of Prieto with the message: "This Facility is CLOSED Because of this Man." Christie said he authorized the printing of 500 of the signs.

While state parks were shut down, Christie's family was spending the weekend at the governor's residence at Island Beach State Park.

He dismissed criticism that his family was accessing a park that others could not. "That's just the way it goes," Christie said at the news conference. "Run for governor and you can have the residence."
A Philadelphia city councilwoman says she will try to block a medical marijuana dispensary from being located in her East Mount Airy district.

Cherelle L. Parker said she will appeal the zoning permit granted to TerraVida Holistic Centers, which on Thursday was awarded a potentially lucrative permit to open at 8319 Stenton Ave., near Allens Lane. Only four dispensary permits were slated for the state's most populous city, though more could be added.

"This is not a debate about the merits of medical marijuana  which the community and I both support  but it is solely about the proposed use at this location," Parker said in a statement, citing concerns about public safety and security. "I remain vehemently opposed to this site."

State Rep. Chris Rabb (D., Phila.), who lives four blocks from the proposed dispensary, said he was happy to have one in the neighborhood. But Rabb said he believes the two-story structure is "specifically an awful location."

"It's on Stenton Avenue, which is no stranger to crime," Rabb said of the former bank building. "And this will be a cash-only business."

The former commander of the 14th Police District, Capt. Sekou Kinebrew, said that although that section of the city isn't particularly violent, "we've had some problems there in cycles."

"There was a guy robbing women at bus stops in late 2015," said Kinebrew, who now serves as the department's spokesman. "We got him, but I can understand their concerns."

The president of TerraVida, Chris Visco, said the East Mount Airy dispensary is scheduled to open the first week of January.

"We have a commitment to open there, but we will keep our options open," Visco said. "One of the reasons we bought it is it's a former bank. We like that community. We can create great jobs there and hopefully spark some more development there."

TerraVida also is set to open dispensaries in Abington and Sellersville.

The competition for dispensary permits was highly competitive. An anonymous panel reviewed more than 280 applications. Aspirants vied for a chance to provide cannabis oils, tinctures, lotions, and vapor cartridges to patients wanting to treat their ailments with medical marijuana. The panel weighed answers to 30 questions before tallying up points and awarding a total of 27 permits.

"Whether or not a community was for or against an application does not appear to have been a factor in scoring them," said Seth A. Goldberg, a partner at Duane Morris LLC who heads the firm's cannabis practice. "But I'm sure of all those granted permits are happy."
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Twenty-four states have defied Trumps request for sensitive voter information data, as they are refusing to turn over personal information to the unstable president.

Ari Berman of The Nation has the updated listed:

24 states won't provide voter data to Kobach: AZ, CA, CT, IN, KY, MA, MN, MS, NC, NM, ND, NV, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI  Ari Berman (@AriBerman) June 30, 2017

The Secretary of State in Mississippi told Trump to go jump in the Gulf of Mexico. The home state of the man leading Trumps voter suppression charge, Kansas Sec. of State Kris Kobach turned down his request for voter data. The panel which was born out of Trumps false belief that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote because of people voting illegally has turned into another black eye and a complete fiasco for this White House.

The smart thing to do would be for the White House to quietly announce over the holiday weekend that they are putting the commission on hold for the time being, and then never speak of it again. Since this is the Trump administration, they will probably attack the states that refuse to turn over the voter data, and claim that since Trump is president, he can do whatever he wants.

Its ironic that just days before Americas Independence Day holiday, the states are celebrating their independence by defying a request from a president who is becoming more like King George III with each passing day of his presidency.
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CNNs Jake Tapper went on a blistering tweetstorm on Saturday morning, slamming Donald Trump for using his social media platform to attack his enemies instead of advance policy goals or discuss real issues.

Tapper said the presidents tweeting does nothing to solve the problems he promised to address during the campaign.

The epic series of tweets:

More than 10% of tweets fr @realDonaldTrump as president have been attacking journalists. Far fewer discussing troops, opioid crisis, Syria  Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

2/ North Korea, Assad, punishment of Russia for election interference, how to deal with debt/deficit, famine in Africa, education,   Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

3/ plans to rebuild US crumbling infrastructure, tweets specifically using the word jobs, what to do in Ukraine, crisis in Venezuela,  Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

4/ attacking media does nothing for the troop in harms way, the hungry child in Appalachia or inner city, the unemployed factory worker.  Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

The advice from Tapper comes as Trump has spent much of the week not doing his job and, instead, making vulgar and false attacks on media figures who criticize him, most recently going after Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Tweet from Saturday morning:

Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

Trump also added Tappers network, CNN, to his social media hit list on Saturday, calling the news organization fake news and garbage journalism.

Tweet:

I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. Its about time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

As Tapper noted in his own posts, all of this focus from Trump on attacking his critics does nothing for the people he claimed he would help during the campaign.

But its also a demonstration of the presidents disinterest in talking about issues or putting forward substantive policy ideas  because he knows nothing about policy. In fact, some of the only opportunities he takes to discuss issues are when hes complaining about how complicated everything is.

At the end of the day, Tapper is right that the presidents tweets are counterproductive, but attacking his enemies is all Trump knows how to do. Trump has spent a lifetime showing that engaging in public feuds is one of the only things he is good at, and the American people should not have expected that to change after he was elected.

This is what happens when you elect a reality TV star to run the free world.
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Donald Trump is claiming that the states are hiding something by refusing to turn over sensitive voter personal information to his commission that looks designed to suppress the vote.

Trump tweeted:

Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

The problem with Trumps claim is that many of the states that are refusing to turn over data are states that he won. The majority of the country has refused to give Trump what he wants because they are protecting their power under the Constitution.

Here is the list of states via Ari Berman of The Nation:

27 states now opposing Kobach: AZ, CA, CT, IN, KY, MA, MN, MS, MT, NC, NM, ND, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI  Ari Berman (@AriBerman) July 1, 2017

The majority of the list is made up of states that Trump won in 2016:

1). AZ

2). IN

3). KY

4). MS

5). MT

6). NC

7). ND

8). OH

9). OK

10). PA

11). SD

12). TN

13). TX

14). UT

15). WI

The President is so crazy that he is claiming that states he won are conspiring against him to cover up voter fraud. His conspiracy makes no sense, and it all centered around a belief that he did not lose the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. This would all seem silly if it wasnt a demonstration of Trumps inability to accept reality.

Substitute voter fraud for a North Korea nuclear bomb, and the problem becomes much more serious. Trumps refusal to live in reality is putting the United States and the world at risk. If Trump believes that North Korea has a nuclear weapon, when they dont, it could lead to world war.

If Trump will attack that the states that supported him in a presidential election because he believes in a conspiracy theory, there are no limits to the damage that the mentally unwell president could cause.

The states did something that the Presidents party wont do. They stood up to Trump, and as a result, the President is psychologically breaking with reality.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Overcast with rain showers at times. High near 75F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 64F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
After spending 14 years growing Affordable Buttons into a business with an annual revenue of $3.5 million, its owners say Rochester no longer is affordable enough to remain here.

Linda Christopherson, who moved her family-owned operation to Rochester in 2003, plans to shift her growing national button-making business with 166,000 customers to the heart of St. Charles in Winona County.

"The cost of having space in Rochester has gotten too costly," she said. "It's sad. We're a revenue importer. We ship to 80 percent of the states every day. But there's nothing in Minnesota to keep a business like us, other than the fact that we love Minnesota."

Christopherson and her husband, Tom, lease their space in the Highlands Business Park, as well as a 3,000-square-foot warehouse in Rochester.

They pay the property taxes for the properties, which have increased substantially in recent years. Leaving the city and Olmsted County is expected to add up to substantial savings for Affordable Buttons.

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"In St. Charles, what we'll pay annually in taxes will be about the same as what we now pay monthly in Rochester," she said. "St. Charles is the perfect community for us."

Many of Affordable Buttons' competitors are based in states with lower tax rates or in cheap labor countries such as Mexico or China. That competition spurred the business to look at ways to reduce its costs.

The Christophersons looked at communities throughout the region and out of the state for about a year before settling on St. Charles as a new home.

During the next few months, they hope to start moving from 3269 19th St. NW in the Highlands Business Park to the former home of Active Tool & Die Manufacturing at 1221 Whitewater Ave. in St. Charles. Active Tool built a new facility in the Chattanooga Innovation Park on the edge of the city.

The 8,500-square-foot building will give Affordable Buttons a lot more space than it has in Rochester, and all of that space will be under one roof.

"It will be a lot more efficient," she said.

While the bulk of the operation and jobs will move, Christopherson is spinning off her Image Splash printing business to stay in Rochester as a separate entity. Image Splash prints brochures, business cards, shirts and other items.

It launched in 2011 with a very different business model than Affordable Buttons. Button customers from all over the country and the world make orders online. Image Splash is focused on the local community and is more "relationship-based."

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"We definitely will keep Image Splash based in Rochester," she said. "That is not going to change."

While Christopherson sees this move as a shift away from the Med City and its growing pains, Gary Smith, of Rochester Economic Development Inc., has a different view.

"They will still be part of Rochester's economic base and labor market. This is just an example of Rochester becoming more of a Rochester metropolitan marketplace," he said.

Smith said each business must look at their own expenses and make the decisions that are right for them.

"I'd be more concerned if they were moving out of state or to the Twin Cities," he said.

Christopherson isn't certain how many of her 35 employees will end up working in St. Charles, but she does expect it to be easier to find workers outside of Rochester.

"The troublesome thing is there are more jobs than there are good people here. Rochester is in a painful state right now. Everybody is feeling it," she said.

Prior to deciding to move to St. Charles, she tested the waters by advertising for help there. That experiment turned out to be a success and resulted in five new employees for Affordable Buttons.

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Bus service between Rochester and St. Charles also was considered, which means employees will have a reasonable way to make the daily trip from the Med City.

Looking long term, Christopherson said St. Charles will give them exciting options that wouldn't be available in Rochester.

"I think it'll be great for us and for St. Charles," she said.
While hiking in the Himalayas for three weeks, Mike Scanlin had no cellphone service much of the time and no way to charge his phone. Running his business  a one-man operation  became a very sporadic proposition.

It was a calculated risk. "I felt I was going to lose customers, lose some business if they couldn't get a response for three days," says Scanlin, owner of Born to Sell, a business software company based in Las Vegas.

"But it's worth maybe losing a bit of business to accomplish the items on your bucket list."

Changes in technology have made it possible for vacationing small business owners to never be out of touch  unless they decide to go to a part of the world without enough cellphone towers, bandwidth or electricity. Sometimes they find out by surprise. But many understand they're losing their tether to their companies. Some leave the business in the hands of trusted employees or have projects and pressing matters dealt with so being out of contact won't be a problem.

Scanlin was able to check emails when the hiking group made it to the top of inclines during his 2012 trip. But in valleys where they camped, there was no service. And even when Scanlin could get a connection, he couldn't download documents or photos, and the nine hour-plus time difference with the U.S. meant a lag between emails and replies. He couldn't go online to fix any problems that might come up with his website, and there was no one back home who could do it.

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It did make Scanlin, whose company was a year-and-a-half-old when he made the trek, a little uneasy. Born to Sell survived, however, and he since has visited places such as Peru and Easter Island, located nearly 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile, where cellphone and internet service often were unavailable.

Checking in is the norm for most owners. With tablets or smartphones in hand, many set aside time on a trip to at least read important emails or touch base with employees and important clients. In a recent survey of 700 small business owners and managers released by American Express, the vast majority said they check in by phone or email while on vacation. More than half of those do so at least once a day. But nearly a quarter don't check in.

Aaron Hockel knew before he left on his two-week honeymoon to Peru last summer he would have minimal access to a cellphone network or the internet. So he decided to just be offline and leave the digital marketing company, AltaVista Strategic Partners, in the care of his three business partners and 15 staffers. They would deal with customers and issues that were his domain.

"It was a scary proposition at first because two weeks is a long time to disconnect," says Hockel, whose company is based in Glen Burnie, Md.

At places such as Machu Picchu, the historic Incan mountain fortress, there wasn't any connectivity. But even at a hotel with Wi-Fi, Hockel ignored his email inbox.

"I knew, if I open this, I'm opening a Pandora's box," Hockel says. When he returned home, he found he'd made the right choice: "Our staff did an incredible job communicating and tackling issues."

Corey Kupfer, an attorney for 30 years who also has a speaking and consulting business, called his office several times a day from vacations in the early years of his practice. By about 15 years ago, he was calling just once a day, and Kupfer realized the problems his staff talked to him about were things they could handle on their own. He told them he wouldn't call in on his next vacation.

"People figure things out when they don't have you as a crutch. It empowers them and helps your team to grow," says Kupfer, who's based in New York.

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Kupfer has traveled in recent years to Ecuador, the Utah desert and the West Bank and had no cellphone service and no worries because his staff and partners can handle the business without him. His mantra: "I'm not that important."

Owners of brand-new companies are less likely to disconnect. In May, Brad Weber was ready to leave his laptop home and his 10-year-old mobile app development company in the hands of his 15 staffers.

"The business had matured to a point and the team jelled to a point where I felt comfortable doing it. I knew they'd be able to handle whatever came up," says Weber, owner of Boulder, Colo.-based InspiringApps. He went on a weeklong sailboat trip off Grenada where he had to focus on the sailing.

"There was not much energy left to think about the office," he says.

Still, for some owners, being out of touch isn't part of the plan.

"There was a bit of a gulp," recalls Chris Brantner about his Rocky Mountain backpacking trip this spring when he had virtually no cellphone service. His brothers, who work with him at his Houston-based company, CutCableToday.com, were doing their jobs, but "I'm the guy who gets the call at 8 p.m. if the website's down. That was probably the most worrisome part, if things stopped functioning."

Brantner, whose website provides information about cable TV alternatives, was able to give one brother a heads-up that he wouldn't be able to access the website if needed. After that, with nothing more he could do, he went back to hiking.

"It was nice to get away for a few days and turn off my brain," Brantner says. When he reconnected, he found the website hadn't crashed and no harm was done.

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Dale Janee was caught by surprise during a weekend trip to a rural part of Poland in 2014, discovering there was no way to go online or connect with customers as she expected. Janee, the owner of a pillowcase maker called Savvy Sleepers that sells to beauty salons and retailers, worried that clients who wanted to place orders or had questions would turn to another supplier when they were unable to reach her.

"It felt like an eternity to be disconnected from my business," Janee says.

While at the airport to head home, she logged in and found all was well. Since then, the Dallas-based company has grown to the point where Janee has hired an assistant who can keep an eye on the business when she's away. And, she realizes, the walks she took and books she read on her trip provided a needed respite.

"At some point, you have to disconnect on vacation," she says.
SEATTLE  Mike Spencer lit the fuse and held the firework above his head.

It was a shell-and-mortar-style firework, and directions on the box usually say to put the barrel-like mortar on the ground pointing skyward, pop in the grenade-like shell, light the fuse  and run.

But Spencer, who was visiting his girlfriend in Bigfork, Mont., held it in his hands instead.

Then, "Bang!" The shell never left its tube.

"My hands felt warm," Spencer said. "I looked at them and just saw red."

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That's the last thing he remembers of April 30, 2015.

According to friends, he took off running after the explosion and had to be tackled.

He regained consciousness the next day at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he had been airlifted because of the severity of his injuries.

He lost one finger on his right hand and three on his left.

Spencer is one data point in a study by Harborview's Injury Prevention and Research Center of 10 years of patients who came through its doors for firework injuries between 2005-2015. Researchers found that nearly 40 percent of injuries came from shell-and-mortar style fireworks like the one that hurt Spencer.

Since 1999, about 10,500 people have been treated for firework-related injuries every year in the U.S., according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. But there's not much data on what types of fireworks cause the most severe injuries, said Dr. Monica Vavilala, director of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center. Most studies focus on the danger inherent in all fireworks, according to researchers.

"That doesn't give you the sense of how serious these injuries are," Vavilala said. "Here are the consequences, here's what's happening to real people."

Shell-and-mortar fireworks are legal in Washington state, but the injuries they cause are more similar to those inflicted by illegal fireworks, the study found. In fact, they were even more damaging than homemade fireworks.

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"Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's safe," said Vavilala.

The typical person to suffer an injury in this study is a 20- to 30-year-old man. But lots of these injuries also happen to bystanders, according to Dr. Brinkley Sandvall, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who worked on the study.

Seventy-eight percent of patients in the study had burns, 43 percent had fractures and 59 percent had soft-tissue injuries. Twenty-one percent of patients had eye injuries, and 70 percent of those lost some or all of their vision. Of the 294 patients examined in the study, 11 had an eye removed, and 67 had a hand injury requiring at least one finger amputation.

"Fireworks don't usually just burn," Sandvall said. "The explosion rips through skin and muscle and bone."

That's what happened to Spencer. He's had 11 surgeries, including one to replace his left thumb with one of his toes. He has a sense of humor about it, calling it his "thoe."

But his injury affects Spencer two years later; he cried "really hard" when he saw himself for the first time on a local TV report in his hometown of Bowling Green, Ky.

"I still kind of wonder if I'm not in denial about it today," Spencer said. "(But) I choose to be happy and not spend my life looking in the rearview mirror."

As for this Fourth of July, Spencer has advice for revelers who want to use fireworks:

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"Leave them to the professionals."
Part 1 of Rochester housing series

It's a great time to sell a house in Rochester's tight housing market, but that benefit evaporates when the seller moves to the other side of the table.

"It's a conundrum. People are selling high, but they then have to also buy high," said Realtor Ron Wightman, of Wightman Brock. "The buyers are making all of the concessions."

House sales every month this year have topped the same month in 2016. And, predictably, house prices have climbed steadily.

The median price for the 106 houses that sold in January was $187,450, which is a 2 percent increase from January 2016. In April, 563 houses were sold in Rochester for a median price of $214,900. That's a 15 percent increase from April 2016, when 546 houses sold for a median price of $181,165.

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For all of 2016, 2,351 single family homes sold in Rochester with a median price of $197,000. That was up 8.6 percent from the median sale price of $181,480 in 2015.

Longtime Rochester Realtor and educator Jim Miner points out that while the market is wild now, it's not something unheard of in the Med City.

"We've had this before, back when IBM was ramping up in the mid- to late 1970s. 'Sold' signs were going up on houses in one day all over," he said.

However, there does seem to be more money on the table during this seller's market. In 2007, two homes sold for more than $1 million in Olmsted County, according to data from the Southeast Minnesota Realtors. That number spiked to 10 in 2016. Two single-family homes have sold for more than $1 million this year, and more seven-figure deals are pending.

Of course, on the other end of the scale, apartment renters and first-time home buyers, whose wages have not bounced back since the recession, are struggling to find housing as it grows more expensive

"Income has to rise to match the cost of living," said Miner. "I alway say that if you don't sell them the first house, you can't sell them the second one."

This extreme seller's market is spooking some would-be buyers.

"Some buyers are backing out because the market is too crazy right now," said Realtor and former TV weatherman Randy Brock.

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He left television earlier this year to allow him to spend more prime time with his family. He is enjoying the new gig selling houses, but he isn't encouraging people who think the hot market means it's a good time to make a career change into real estate.

Brockman said the current market is incredibly complex and tricky for new Realtors, so he leans heavily on his experienced partners, the Wightmans.

While homes are selling quickly and the inventory is tight, Realtors stress there are houses available at all price ranges. Competition is especially hot in houses priced for first-time home buyers, but that didn't scare off Cameo Johnson Brown.

'Something I can make my own'

Brown, a 24-year-old nurse, looked for the right house for months before landing one near enough to downtown Rochester that she can walk to work.

She graduated from University of Minnesota Rochester in 2015. After living in a dorm for a year and renting apartments with multiple roommates for three years, Brown decided it was time to look to the future.

"I would suggest if you want to stay in Rochester for a while, it is a good idea (to buy a house)," she said, "If you're not staying here for five years, I think it's a bad idea."

Brown acknowledged her house is a "fixer-upper" with an unfinished basement, but it has huge yards in front and back. She does have a roommate to help cover the cost.

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During the months she shopped, Brown looked at 10 to 15 houses. One thing that slowed her search was she refused to put in bids on houses that already had offers. Unfortunately, that's a pretty common situation for many houses.

"I didn't like the idea of putting in a bid on a house that I liked and not getting it. I didn't want to get emotionally invested," said Brown.

It took a while, but she finally found a three-bedroom house near downtown. Work is needed to fix the foundation, the basement and gutters, but that doesn't bother her.

"In the end, I ended up with something I can make my own," she said.

Silver tsunami

While many look to young home owners such as Brown for the future of Rochester, aging Baby Boomers probably will make the biggest splash as they leave their longtime homes.

The often-repeated statistic still holds true  about 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 65 every day and have been doing so for years. Almost 16 percent of Rochester's population is older than 65. That age group is most likely to own one of Rochester's 30,400 detached single family dwellings and 4,233 attached townhome-style dwellings.

Jeff Ellerbusch, city of Rochester planning supervisor, points out the Silver Tsunami is coming, and it will dramatically change the real estate market in every major city, including Rochester.

"Many single family households are over 65 years old. We have thousands of those. That means a lot of affordable and market-rate homes will come on the market in the next 20 years," he said. "A lot of people living in houses that are really, really, really affordable."

Given so many people live in houses that cost far less that 30 percent of their income, Rochester looks to have an abundance of affordable houses  on paper. Ellerbusch said those numbers are a factor in why Rochester often is ranked so high as a good place to live.

Of course, people enjoying the homes they have paid for after decades of work doesn't really help the crowd of people looking for affordable housing in the Med City. Demographers, who take the long view, say it's just a matter of time

This is a trend that is happening across the country.

An example of this happened earlier this year. The Homestead at Rochester, a large senior community at 1900 Ballington Blvd. NW, opened an addition with many new "active lifestyle" and "assisted living" units. That means people who had reserved units beforehand suddenly were ready to sell their homes.

While it certainly didn't flood the market, it did cause noticeable ripples.

Ron Wightman said at least three townhomes in the Stonehedge neighborhood in northeast Rochester went on the market in the spring because the owners had been waiting for two years to move to Homestead.

"It used to be that the (Mayo Clinic) residents really affected our market. It really stirred things in the spring, and I think that perception is still there. But now there are other factors beside just the residents," said Lynn Wightman. "It used to be everybody would just hang on (waiting to sell) until the residents arrived."

Renting for now or for good

Short stints of a few years at Mayo Clinic and other operations bring a lot of people to Rochester every year. That means many will rent. It's convenient, requires less capital outlay and gives people time to decide if the Med City will be a long-term home.

Instead of looking to buy a house, medical residents now are calling Realtors right after Match Day looking for an apartment. Some are signing a lease without even seeing the apartment in person.

All over Rochester, the number of apartments is quickly growing.

At the end of 2016, there were about 16,457 dwelling units in multifamily buildings in Rochester, ranging from small four-plex buildings to large apartment complexes. However, that number has been growing rapidly in recent years.

Permits for about 1,000 new apartment units were issued last year, slightly down from the peak of 1,165 units approved in 2015. While Med City residents might believe apartment complexes have been sprouting up around town forever, it is a recent trend.

In 2014, just 124 new apartments were approved to be built in Rochester.

Most of those new apartments are priced to be considered luxury or market rate, ranging from $800 to $2,000 per month. Very few new units are being priced in the affordable housing range, where there is a greater need as well as a smaller profit margin.

Some local housing experts think this apartment boom might be starting to pass its peak and beginning to cycle down.

"I believe we're going to experience an oversupply. We're already starting to see some rent stagnation," said Tom Hill, Realtor and CEO of Matik Management. "I think what we're seeing is an overresponse to demand."

Hill's 8-year-old firm manages more than 1,000 housing units in the area. Most of his portfolio is older houses or smaller properties with four or six units.

"In the last two to three years, rents across the board have been going upward of 10 percent per year. Those rent values can't just keep going up," he said.

Ethan Herber, a 28-year-old eCommerce marketing manager at Interstate Hotels, has been renting in Rochester in the four years since he and his girlfriend moved here from Winona.

"We're not really sure where we want to go in life yet," he said. "We love Rochester, but we're not certain that we love Minnesota and its winters."

The young couple always has passed over newer apartment complexes to rent older houses or smaller properties such as a unit in a four-plex. Plus having two dogs and two cats makes renting a house a more practical option.

They recently signed a lease for another year in the three-bedroom house they rent in northwest Rochester. A roommate helps the couple cover the $1,300 monthly rent.

Hill, whose firm manages properties considered to be affordable housing, points out real estate always is cyclical, and things will change.

"What's different in Rochester is that the DMC (Destination Medical Center) predictions are accelerating the wheel. It's a unique situation," he said.
Olmsted County residents may see a greater housing boom during the next 15 years, according to the Destination Medical Center development plan.

Thousands of additional residents will move into Rochester and Olmsted County between 2020 and 2030, increasing demand for available housing units.

The DMC development plan also highlights the significance of affordable housing to a "healthy community" but acknowledges challenges to building affordable units throughout Rochester.

Here's what the DMC development plan says about population growth, housing demand and affordable housing:

Population growth

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Olmsted County is estimated to add more than 27,000 new residents between 2020 and 2030  occupying more than 12,600 households.

Estimated housing demand

The influx of residents between 2020 and 2030 will necessitate the construction of more than 12,650 housing units in Olmsted County.

In Rochester, the report found a need of more than 24,000 additional for-sale and for-rent residential units between 2015 and 2034. The DMC area will require an extra 2,200 units of for-sale and for-rent housing by 2034.

Making the market affordable

A healthy mix of affordable and market-rate housing options will be necessary to accommodate the city's growing workforce, according to the development plan.

But the plan also acknowledges challenges to developing affordable housing in the DMC area of Rochester.

"Inclusionary zoning or housing development incentives will be needed to ensure a housing mix that includes affordable and workforce units, as well as market-rate," the plan says.

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Other strategies the plan recommends for ensuring affordable housing include identifying and utilizing state and federal resources such as low-income housing tax credits to assist developers.
KASSON  Worried about losing customers, Kasson Municipal Liquor Store owner Cathy Pletta recommended the store open on Sundays when a new law allowing it takes effect July 2.

"I don't want my customers to change their buying patterns," Pletta said.

The Kasson City Council ultimately went along with Pletta's recommendation. The store will open its doors from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.

But other city-owned liquor stores will be keeping their doors closed. That's the case in Spring Grove. The city owns an on- and off-sale liquor business that is closed on Sundays. Spring Grove City Clerk Erin Konkel said the city council would have to OK opening the business on Sundays, and so far, the idea hasn't been considered.

"We haven't even put it on the (city council) agenda," Konkel said.

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For the first time in 159 years, liquor stores in Minnesota will be able to sell booze on Sundays between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. thanks to a bill passed last session by the Minnesota Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton. But just because liquor stores can be open on Sundays doesn't mean they will. The decision is an especially tough one for municipal liquor stores in Greater Minnesota, which have struggled to stay financially afloat.

A Minnesota State Auditor's report found net profits for municipal liquor stores dropped nearly 9 percent in 2015 compared to the year before. Meanwhile, a total of 34 municipal liquor stores lost money in 2015. All of them were located in Greater Minnesota.

Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association Executive Director Paul Kaspszak said most municipal stores are planning to give Sunday sales a try. That is reflected in Southeast Minnesota, where five of seven city-owned stores are planning to open on Sundays.

So will Sunday sales help boost profits? Kaspszak said he doesn't expect it will. His organization opposed legalizing Sunday liquor sales.

"We haven't been blowing smoke. It really does spread six days of sale over seven days of expenses. It just does," he said.

So far, Kaspszak said the biggest hurdle for these stores has been finding employees to work Sunday shifts. That's the case in Plainview. Donny Hall, who manages that city's on- and off-sale liquor business, said he can't find employees willing to work on Sundays.

"You cannot find help," he said. "Years ago, I remember turning good help away."

But Hall said he has decided it is important the store's off-sale business be open on Sundays. So he plans to work on Sundays and decide at the end of the year whether it's worthwhile.

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"More or less, I'm going to try it. I'm going to see what it does the rest of the year. If it doesn't pay my labor, then I'm not going to do it," Hall said.

In the case of Mazeppa Municipal Liquor Store, the on-sale side of the business is open on Sundays. Manager Heather Groby said it just makes sense to sell off-sale liquor, too, since there already are employees on-site.

"It's kind of a no-brainer, in my opinion," she said.

Groby said historically business has been slow on Sundays at the city-run bar. But she has tried to boost interest by adding a meat raffle at 3 p.m. on Sundays. The store also has been undergoing a remodeling project, which will finish in time for the launch of Sunday sales.

West Concord City Administrator Theresa Booms, who oversees the city's municipal liquor store, did not return phone calls asking whether the store would be open on Sundays. A woman who answered the phone at the liquor store was asked if the store planned to open on Sundays, and she said, "No, not that I've heard."

In Kasson, reaction to news that liquor stores will start opening on Sundays has been mixed.

"Our customers have asked, and we've told them what our hours will be. Some think it's unnecessary, and some are happy. Just like everything else, we don't all agree," Pletta said.

Customer Casey Arnold is among those who welcome the decision. The Mantorville resident said he expects he will shop at the store on Sundays and expects others will as well. He added, "I would think it would be good for them."
ALTURA  The fence can't go up fast enough for Jessica Strong-Edstrom. The mother of three and her husband, Arick, worry daily about their youngest, Jaxen, 4, an active boy with autism who can wander off at a moment's notice.

The family lives next door to the middle school in Altura, and the playground and other things that look like fun to the average 4-year-old keep Strong-Edstrom worrying. "If I'm not paying attention, he'll sneak out to the park," she said.

The family considered getting a service dog for Jaxen, but the cost was prohibitive. Instead, a news story about a Habitat for Humanity Winona-Olmsted Counties ' program caught her eye. The program helps families with additions for their homes. She called and got the ball rolling.

"Our next best plan was a fenced-in yard," she said. While Jaxen can probably climb the fence, she added, "It will be a boundary for him, so he'll know to stop there."

Amanda Hedlund, executive director for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, said the A Brush With Kindness program is designed with families like Strong-Edstrom's in mind. The fence isn't just to add privacy or value, it serves a specific purpose that will help the family with a specific need. In this case, the project will keep a special needs child safe.

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Like any Habitat for Humanity project, what is built isn't free, though the family is getting a good deal. Strong-Edstrom said a neighbor recently had a similar fence installed for about $7,000. Her family's new fence will cost them about $2,000.

The biggest savings comes from the volunteer labor. A group of soon-to-be seniors from Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill., are providing the work as part of a service trip. Jamie Simon, the group's leader, said about half of each senior class at the Jesuit high school choses to take part in service trips each year. The school has come to Winona for the last five years, he said.

Simon said that in addition to working on the fence, the group had also spent a day at Saint Anne of Winona, an assisted living facility, and a day doing team-building on a high ropes course at St. Mary's University in Winona.

The adult leaders of the group make sure their students understand they aren't just building a fence. "We spend every night in reflection for awhile," he said. "We talk about why we're here and how it benefits the family."

For Maggie McGill, 17, that lesson has also come from her interaction with Strong-Edstrom and her family. "Just meeting Jessica and working with her, we have so much sympathy for her needs," McGill said. "She'll talk about Jaxen and how she worries about him running off."

Knowing they have helped a worried mother and her boy in need has been worth fighting the rain on Wednesday and learning a new set of skills that most of the teens did not have when they arrived from Illinois. "The drill," said Catherine Comerford, when asked what tool she'd never touched before. "I've figured it out on this trip."

Habitat for Humanity Construction Manager John Cocoran said the teens, for the most part, showed up without serious construction skills. But by Thursday, they were ready to get the fence done -- or at least close to it. "They'd have made it if it wasn't for Wednesday's rain," he said. "They'll get pretty close."

Cocoran will come back with another crew to finish the job, if needed, he said. Over the years, the high school from Illinois has helped finish a home in Utica and been responsible for three home foundations in Winona.

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LAKE BENTON, Minn.  The Dakota skipper mysteriously disappeared from these southwest Minnesota prairies a decade ago. Nobody has pinpointed exactly why, but their numbers fell about a decade ago as farming practices changed.

The moth-like skipper butterfly is no Monarch  they're typically an inch wide, ruddy brown and fuzzy. Somewhat homely, you might say.

But to Erik Runquist's eyes, they're a beautiful sight. The Minnesota Zoo butterfly conservation biologist is helping with the first effort to reintroduce skippers to their old habitats.

If the effort is successful, he said, "then it raises the prospect for conservation of Dakota skippers and of really a lot of other butterflies at the same time."

The goal is to release a couple hundred Dakota skippers over several weeks at the Hole-In-The-Mountain Prairie preserve, Nature Conservancy property. Workers will release a similar number of butterflies each of the next two years.

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But these efforts could be in vain  the same factors that caused skippers to disappear from the region about a decade ago could also doom the new population.

There's a long list of possible causes for their decline, ranging from habitat loss to farm pesticide drift.

The decline of the Dakota skipper and other butterfly species coincides with the implementation of widespread pesticide spraying programs to control the economically damaging soybean aphid, Runquist said.

Vegetation at Hole-In-The-Mountain and other prairie areas have tested positive for small amounts of pesticides, he said. "We were collecting it from the grasses that the caterpillars would be feeding on, presumably."

But he cautions there's no proof that pesticides caused the butterfly's disappearance  more research is needed.

Currently, the only self-sustaining population in Minnesota is on prairie land near Moorhead.

Controlled burns of the prairie help produce the habitat the butterfly relies on, said Joe Blastick, who manages the Hole-In-The-Mountain preserve.

"Dakota skippers need the coneflowers," Blastick said. "And usually after a year of prescribed fire in the springtime, you get a real big flush of coneflowers."

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One recent day, Runquist coaxed a Dakota skipper onto a coneflower just after it emerged from its chrysalis. "Welcome to your new home, buddy."

Runquist said he won't be happy until the Dakota skipper comes off the endangered species list.
Twenty years ago, Great Britain handed over Hong Kong, with its 6 million residents, to Red China. Keith Richburg of the Washington Post recalls the prevailing wisdom among Western reporters who covered the region at the time  acquiring Hong Kong would transform China:

Beijing desperately wanted  needed  what Hong Kong had: wealth, stability, good relations with the world. What did Beijing have that Hong Kong wanted? Nothing. China was not about to change Hong Kong; Hong Kong was going to change China.

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times suggested that China was inheriting a colossal Trojan horse that in time could undermine the entire communist regime.

The optimistic view of the takeover was consistent with the notion, popular at the time including among conservatives, that we were reaching the end of history. In other words, liberal democracy was on the verge of carrying the day worldwide.

Fortune Magazine rejected this view, fundamentally non-conservative in my view, at least as applied to China. In a story called The Death of Hong Kong, it predicted that once business-friendly Hong Kong became infected with Chinas culture of corruption and patronage, this glittering international finance hub would become just another typical mainland city. In fact, the article declared, the naked truth about Hong Kongs future can be summed up in two words: Its over.

This wasnt the kind of end Francis Fukuyama had contemplated. However, it was a reasonable prediction, especially given the show of intent China had forcefully made in Tiananmen Square not that long ago.

Fortune Magazine was right, as Richburg now acknowledges. China has not become more free and democratic:

China. . .now, under President Xi Jinping, is arguably in one of its most politically restrictive periods since the Mao Zedong era, and certainly since the crackdown that followed the Tiananmen massacre. Human rights lawyers and activists have been rounded up and jailed ; some have been sentenced to long prison terms after closed trials, while others have simply disappeared . Chinas nascent civil-society movement has been quashed. Websites and blogs deemed critical of the government have been shut down and bloggers and journalists arrested.

As for Hong Kong:

Hong Kongs 20th-century role as the entrepot, or connector, between China and the West has long since vanished, as foreign firms are able to base offices in China and sell directly to Chinese consumers. Dozens of Chinese companies, such as the e-commerce giant Alibaba, chose to skip Hong Kong and list on the New York Stock Exchange. Ships now bypass Hong Kongs harbor to sail to mainland ports. Hong Kong in 1997 accounted for some 16 percent of Chinas GDP; that figure has now shrunk to 3 percent. China is also outpacing Hong Kong in digital innovation, including e-commerce, social-media start-ups and particularly fintech  proprietary software used in the financial industry. . . . What we are seeing now is. . .the slow erosion of the separate culture and norms that have set [Hong Kong] apart. And its the incremental marginalization of Hong Kong in the Chinese economy. Since the Occupy protests, China has shown an increasing propensity to meddle directly in Hong Kongs affairs. Chinese security agents operating in Hong Kong have abducted book publishers, as well as a reclusive Chinese billionaire secluded in a five-star hotel, and spirited them back over the border for secretive interrogations. Chinas rubber-stamp assembly has short-circuited the local judicial process by making rulings on Hong Kong laws  in one case banning two elected members of the legislature from retaking their oaths.

China drove home the point during a visit to Hong Kong by President Xi Jinping. He warned Hong Kong residents that any activities seen as threatening Chinas sovereignty and stability would be absolutely impermissible. He also warned that that Hong Kong had to do more to shore up security and boost patriotic education.

In response to calls for more freedom from Hong Kong, which have been backed by protests, Xis response was the typical totalitarian one. He decried the carry[ing] out [of] infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland. Making everything political or deliberately creating differences and provoking confrontations will not resolve the problems, Xi said, adding that Hong Kong cannot afford to be torn apart by reckless moves or internal rifts.

Hong Kongs ordeal under Red China is an object lesson for those who blithely assume that Communism and other forms of brutal dictatorship can be tamed by exposure to Western values. This, of course, is the assumption many liberals make when it comes to Cuba. Cubas Communist regime is considerably weaker than Red Chinas, but appears to be more immune to liberalization, for the time being at least, than many had thought.

Just as one can be too optimistic about history, its possible to be too pessimistic about. it The fact that the Soviet Union and its empire fell didnt mean that Red China would enjoy a similar fate. It didnt even mean that Russia wouldnt begin to resemble, in some important ways, the Soviet Union.

But just because Red China is still Communist doesnt mean that the Castroite regime in Cuba wont collapse fairly soon, or that mainland China will always be Red.

The two lessons I draw from the Hong Kong experience are: (1) we shouldnt underestimate the ability of determined totalitarian regimes not only to maintain their power but to extend it and (2) we should never be highly confident in our predictions about the future.
Telecommunication firm, MTN, on Friday in Abuja said it would list its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange this year.

The companys General Manager, Nikiwe Tsaagane, made this known when he paid a courtesy visit to Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology.

Mr. Tsaagane said the efforts would help to fast-track improvement in the Nigerian economy.

It is going to offer important role in capital market as it will be one of the largest transactions in Africa. This will showcase Nigeria in the global economy if we can achieve it.

The transaction is structured by ensuring that its data based and inclusive as we ensure that our Nigerian customers are able to participate, he said.

According to him, MTN has 62 million subscribers already in Nigeria which represents a significant Nigerian population.

He said the application processes would be in a digitalised way as there would be minimal utilisation of paper.

 So we are working with the Nigeria Stock Exchange to develop application platform to make our customers to be able to apply online.

Here will be first place of doing such digital application, he added.

He said the Nigerian Communication Commission and the Nigeria Stock Exchange among others were fully in support of the plan.

The general manager said MTN would like to partner with the ministry to enjoy its know-how leadership.

We will ensure that all the stakeholders in different sectors will be incorporated and it is important to obtain your imput, support and guidance, he said.

Responding, Dr. Onu said the ministry would collaborate with MTN as it was its culture to uplift any brilliant idea to grow the nation.

We commend MTN for its contribution to our economy. We will support you, study your proposal and make our own view, Mr. Onu said.

The minister urged MTN to do its research and innovation in Nigeria to make the company to remain ahead of its competitors.

The firm is currently listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

(NAN)

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Ifeoma Amugo, a medical consultant with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, says infertility is prevalent in Africa due to frequent usage of non-prescribed medications which affects the reproductive organs.

Mrs. Amugo said this during the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Women of Zion, FCT province 7 Sisters Convention 2017, with the Theme For Such A Time As This, in Abuja.

According to her, the case of infertility was more in Africa than Europe because in developed countries, drugs are not sold over the counter without doctor prescription.

She said some women had mistakenly damaged their wombs and ovaries because of the side effects of drugs used in the past, urging women to always consult a doctor before using any drugs.

Infertility is high in Africa than in Europe, in Nigeria people just go to the pharmacy and buy drugs without doctor prescription which causes so much damage.

In Europe, you cant buy any drugs over the counter without prescription or proper consultation from the doctor, she said.

She said anxiety, overweight, heavy drinking and smoking also causes infertility in both men and women.

Mrs. Amugo, however, advised women on family planning and the importance of child spacing, stating that if a woman had so many children, she wont be able to take care of all of them properly.

She said there was a natural method of family planning and hormonal methods which included the use of birth controls and pills.

According to her, safe period is a good method of birth control while withdrawal method is very unreliable and basically not advised.

The medical expert, however, advised women to seek medical help from the hospital when faced with infertility challenges rather than using herbs and non-prescribed medications.(NAN)

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Henry Michael Bello, the gunman who shot six people at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Centre in New York on Friday, has been identified as a Nigerian.

Some Nigerians in New York, who knew Mr. Bello, confirmed to the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday that the NYPD had also identified the man to be a Nigerian-born doctor.

Mr. Bello, 45, shot dead a woman, on the 17th floor and injured at least six others on the 16th floor, before killing himself, the New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner James ONeil, said.

Five of his victims were seriously injured and fighting for their lives.

Mr. Bello went into his former workplace wearing a white lab coat with an AR-15 machine gun hidden underneath with the intention of targeting the same individual.

NYPD officials said Mr. Bello asked for a specific doctor on the 16th floor but when he was told the doctor was not there, he became angry and started shooting at everyone.

Officials said Mr. Bello tried to set himself on fire before committing suicide.

Reports said Mr. Bello, who was hired at the hospital in August 2014 as a house physician, had past arrests for sex abuse, turnstile jumping, burglary and public urination.

In September 2004, he was arrested and charged with sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment after a 23-year-old woman told officers he had grabbed her crotch area outside a building on Bleecker Street in Manhattan and tried to penetrate her through her underwear, reports said.

Court records indicated that in September 2004, Mr. Bello pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, a misdemeanour, and was sentenced to community service, while the felony sexual abuse charge was dismissed, according to reports.

He was going to be fired by the hospital, after reports of sexual harassments, but instead chose to resign in February 2015 in lieu of termination, reports further said.

Reports from the New York State Education Department said Mr. Bello had received a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate in order to gain experience so he could be licensed.

The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired on July 1, 2016, while he also had a pharmacy technician license that had been issued in California in 2006.

He went to medical school on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean.

A photo provided by authorities showed him dead on the floor of the hospital, wearing a bloodied doctors coat.

Law enforcement officials described Mr. Bello as transient recently, with at least five different addresses since he left the hospital.

(NAN)

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A controversial French support to Biafra as it fought to break away from Nigeria between 1967 and 1970 was not in defence of Biafras secession cause  even though it had a humanitarian appeal.

Instead, it was based on that European countrys desire to have access to the regions oil, recently-declassified war-time memos compiled by the U.S. Central Investigation Agency, CIA, say.

France supported Biafra because of the oil and ERAP, but not the Ibo revolution, said Jean Mauricheau-Beaupre, French secretary general for African and Malagasy Affairs, referring to Emergency Response Action Plan, ERAP.

The February 10, 1969 memo quotes Mr. Mauricheau-Beaupre, the equivalent of a minister at the time, as saying French support was merely given to a handful of Biafra bourgeoisie in return for oil.

As the hope of Biafra breaking away increasingly seemed lost, the French minister ruled out the possibility of a guerilla war in the region, saying there was no popular support in the region.

The real Ibo mentality is much farther to the left than that of Ojukwu and even if we had won, there would have been the problem of keeping him in power in the face of leftist infiltration, he said, referring to the Biafran warlord, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu.

At a time renewed agitation for a Biafran state has reached an extraordinarily feverish pitch, the declassified American intelligence shed light on how external interests largely shaped a three-year atrocious war that left over a one million Nigerians dead 50 years ago.

Amongst nations that took sides in the war, only France, Gabon, Tanzania and Ivory Coast openly backed Biafra, at that time comprising present south east and parts of south south Nigerian states.

The federal government received help mainly from the United Kingdom and Russia, as it struggled to thwart Biafras exit.

Both sides received huge cash support, arms and ammunition, and relief materials from their backers.

Altogether, France sent $30 million worth of material to Biafra, and lent then Ivory Coasts President Houphouet-Boigny $3 million to aid Biafra operations, said then French Minister of National Defense, Michel Debre, and Mr. Mauricheau-Beauprea, according to the diplomatic cables.

Details of French arms supplies remain classified till date.

But the CIA file said on January 13, 1970, as the war wound down, Mr. Mauricheau-Beaupre and Mr. Debre, the national defence minister, decided to remove stocks of French-supplied arms and divide same to French bases at Douala and Abidjan.

France resolved there was no chance of supporting a Biafran guerrilla resistance, CIA noted.

The rationale for this position as expressed by Mauricheau-Beaupre to individuals concerned with executing Biafran operations was as follows: France supported Biafra because of the oil and ERAP, but not the Ibo revolution, the cable said.

The telegram containing these intelligence was forwarded to U.S. President Richard Nixons deputy assistant for national security affair.

Richard Helms, the director of CIA at the time, said there was cynicism on the part of the French to support a Biafran guerrilla resistance.

Later, the CIA noted the war had stalemated with federal troops surrounding the Biafran enclave. Yet, it analysed that despite the federal militarys superiority in personnel and material, there was very little prospect that either side, by itself, can win militarily in the next six months unless Biafras arms supply is cut off.

A prolonged stale-mate or ceasefire could well result in the replacement of the present moderate leadership by military leaders who would be proponents of a ruthless, all out military victory and less concerned about international opinion, the CIA said of the military ruler, Yakubu Gowon.

It also noted that Mr. Ojukwu, a former lieutenant colonel, had the strong support of a people who seemed determined to win self-determination.

The Biafran leaders have successfully-if cynicallyexploited the issue of starvation to win political sympathy abroad. They believe time is on their side and that either (a) the FMG coalition will collapse or (b) outside sympathy for their plight will bring about a solution favourable to them, it wrote.

Foreign powers and interests

The CIA said the British government supported the federal military government with non-sophisticated arms sales, while the Soviets became a major arms suppliers at the outset of the war.

The U.S. on its part embargoed arms sales to both sides, in a war that also created opportunity for influence peddling between the west and the east.

The FMG gives frequent assurances that the Soviet involvement is only a matter of wartime necessity and portends no political realignment of Nigerias traditional pro-Western stance. We have no evidence that the FMG has thus far granted any significant political concessions in return for Soviet arms. However, Soviet prestige and acceptance has increased, the CIA wrote.

Soviet intentions are unclear. They probably consider Nigeria a target of opportunity to extend their influence at Western expense and relatively little cost to themselves. Whether requested or not, they have not gone beyond the provision of military equipment, including aircraft and the training of pilots.

Although disappointed and perhaps somewhat embarrassedat slow FMG military progress, they appear willing to continue their support in the belief that prolonged fighting and FMG frustrations will increase the political value of their help, the report said of Russia.

At the Organization of African Unity (OAU), all but four members (Ivory Coast, Gabon, Tanzania, Zambia, that recognized Biafra in 1968), shifted support to the Federal Military Government by 1969 and regarded the civil war as an internal question which should be solved within an African (OAU) frame-work.

For the United Nations, there was no role for it in the war, beyond the participation by UNICEF and other specialized agencies in the relief effort.

The U.S. said it regarded the civil war as primarily a Nigerian and African problem, but continued to recognise the FMG; imposed an arms embargo on both sides; contributed $30 million to the international relief effort; voiced political support for a negotiated settlement in the context of one Nigeria with workable safeguards for Ibo protection.

The French decision to supply arms clandestinely to Biafra probably saved the rebellion when it appeared near defeat last summer, the CIA cable noted, saying President De Gaulles motives were mixed.

First, France hoped to acquire British and American oil concessions in the oil-rich Niger Delta, and could have been motivated by the possibility of the breaking up of an Anglophone federation which could have exerted a powerful influence in a West Africa it had strong interests.

So far, the French have stopped short of outright recognition. They deny giving arms. We simply do not know how far the French are prepared to go in support of Biafran independence, the U.S. said.

Ojukwus first destination revealed

Mr. Ojukwu fled as the stronghold city of Enugu fell under federal control. The CIA said his first stop was Gabon, contrary to the commonly known fact that he travelled to Ivory Coast.

In Libreville, the Gabonese capital, Mr. Ojukwu lived in a private villa and told French agents he departed Nigeria according to the wishes of his general staff, Phillip Effiong, and to spare his people from extermination.

Christopher Onyekwelu, Biafran finance representative in Europe and brother-in- law of Mr. Ojukwu, was given a round-trip ticket to Libreville on January 13 by the French general secretariat for African and Malagasy Affairs in Paris.

He was to join Mr. Ojukwu in Libreville a day later. Separately, C.C. Mojekwu, Biafras representative in Lisbon, Portugal, also departed by air for Libreville.

Later, French secretary general for African and Malagasy Affairs, Jacques Foccart, left Yaounde where he was attending Cameroons tenth anniversary celebrations to meet with Mr. Ojukwu in Libreville.

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In this Interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob, a professor of Multimedia/Digital Journalism at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, speaks about his students social media campaign to combat extremism, the role of religion in bringing peace to the Northeast, and the dearth of research in Nigerian higher institutions.

PT: Tell us about what the School of Arts and Sciences has been up to in the past one year.

Jacob: There are three things I will talk about. First, let me start with the Challenging Extremism project. Last year, we participated in that competition. Its funded by Facebook and the U.S. State Department. Its a global university competition where students are challenged to develop digital campaigns to challenge extremism within their communities, so we won in Africa last year. Now we are competing for the global top prize and this time around, again, weve gathered a few set of students to develop campaigns, and the campaign that theyve developed, this time they are focusing more on bringing the attention of the international community to the problem of girl suicide bombers. Theres a brief video that they created to bring attention to this problem and its a global campaign developed by students.

We are excited about the campaign, the number of followers on Facebook already getting to 10,000 and they are trying to get 10,000 women to be part of these women against violent extremism campaign. And lets not forget that it is a class project in a course, the campaign was developed in a classroom as part of the course and this was also developed by students as part of that campaign. We hope to win, globally, we won in Africa last year so this time we hope to win globally. The course is called Public Diplomacy and Strategic Media Intervention.

Thats one, then two, the valedictorian is from petroleum chemistry, from the School of Arts and Sciences. What we try to focus on a lot in Arts and Sciences is what we call research-led teaching, focusing on research, trying to get faculty and students to be involved in research. You asked a very important question, the reason for the decline in the standard of education in Nigeria, the way I look at it is basically because weve walked away from research. Research should be the central purpose of the university, obviously in addition to teaching, and teaching should be by research. Petroleum Chemistry department and a couple of other programmes we have weve really focused our attention on research. We started a programme, a small-grant programme for our faculty to be involved in research. A particular research that Im really excited about right now, were exploring how we can get the plastic bags, the plastic bottles that are out there, mix in a few other particles and developing them to diesel, kerosene. If you drive round Yola youll see several of those plastic bags all over. So were getting almajiris involved in that project so that they can pick up plastic bags, plastic bottles and we pay them stipends based on what they are able to gather every day.

Theres another research on water purification, this time in the Natural and Environmental Sciences programme. The main objective of that particular research is for us to be able to work with local communities, be it those communities up north or in the Niger Delta region where water is contaminated by heavy metals. Its basically a system of water purification that can be homegrown, using rice husk. also including some nanoparticles so that water can be purified no matter how metallic the level of those water and it will be good enough for consumption.

The idea with that project is that we can deploy it anywhere be in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Somalia or wherever, it can be easily deployed its just about getting that technology right and having that level of purification. Its attracting a lot of attention already. In fact, it was in a publication by Cambridge University Press, theyre quite interested in that research. The interesting thing about this research project is that its not fully conducted by faculty, we bring the students as our research assistants so that they work with us in this research and get involved.

The third research is one that our Department of International and Comparative Politics is undertaking. You know, the Boko Haram insurgency has affected people in many different ways but its funny because we dont have a register of atrocities committed or atrocities suffered by the IDPs. So, maybe two years, five years, ten years, 20 years from now there will be some kind of truth and reconciliation commission in this country or maybe somebody may have to face a war crimes court or have to face some judges in the International Criminal Court so its possible that may happen in the future, but by that time these people would have grown and they would have forgotten about whatever they suffered. So what we are doing in that project is actually talking to IDPs and having a register of atrocities, what they suffered, what they lost and so forth and so on so that we have that documentation, because its not been done, its not there. In most other countries around the world, this atrocity is committed not only by Boko haram but also by Nigerian soldiers and security officials, so we hope that one day there would be some truth and reconciliation commission and that those atrocities that somebody would someday account for, so those are the very specific projects that we are undertaking right now.

PT: Last year, you launched the IAmABeliever campaign to fight extremism, de-radicalisation of the youth, as well as bridge the gap between the Christians and the Muslims. To what extent has this campaign really affected the people here?

Jacob: Now, I have to say, for universities, what universities do is to develop models and anything we do is more of a pilot, like a proof of concept, to say this is workable, okay, there it is, go and deploy it. So our role while we do these things the intention is not we must not forget that we are a university and our primary business is teaching and research, not to undertake a global, nationwide campaign to challenge extremism, so we developed that campaign and we undertook a research and we had that baseline research and an endline research to actually see how people that were exposed to that campaign would look at things after their exposure to that campaign.

What we found out is that those that were exposed to that campaign, there were certain questions we asked such as those that do not believe in my God they deserve whatever evil that befalls them, so statements like that we had to put to score based on the level with which they agree with such statements and we had about 51 of such statements, then we deployed the campaign and, endline, went back to undertake the same research and what we saw is that those that had extremists views it reduced by 25% and thats significant when you look at a campaign that was undertaken for three to four months.

Theres a report that we have that contains all of our findings. And we at felt that a campaign of this nature that focuses not so much on challenging experiences but creating a common space for Christians and Muslims to come together, understand more about the religious views of the other, that can actually be a lot more effective than campaigns that seek to challenge religious views because extremism, the thing about valid extremism, is there is a religious justification for it. If i say I am a believer and you are an infidel and there are certain things that should befall an infidel because you are not a believer, so if I try to challenge that, I am challenging your religious view because these are deeply held religious views. So rather than seeking to challenge, I try to reverse it too that I am a believer, you are a believer Im a believer too, so we created that Believepedia where we have the Bible and Quran in conversation series, where you can compare texts. So there can be a text, for example on love or kindness, and you see what the Bible says about kindness and what the Quran says about kindness. So its basically that shared space for different religious beliefs, so that they can understand what the faith of the religious order is about.

PT: How important do you think religion is in bringing peace to the Northeast?

Jacob: Religion, I think is extremely important. We are a very religious country and theres no way we can deal with these issues without still bringing religion in. But at the same time, I should say this quickly based on the focus groups we conducted, its not only Muslims that are radicalized, there are also Christians who are equally radicalized, so there has to be the process of de-radicalisation, its not so much of change your religious opinion, but its mostly about considering the religious views of the other and I dont know whether people have an understanding at all, I mean the Christians now, about what the Quran says about peace, about love, people dont know that and we have to focus on creating that shared space, having a conversation between the Bible and the Quran, and if people get to understand more of what the Bible says about this and what the Quran says about that, I think that there would be that space for consideration of the views of the religious order. So religion is actually extremely important, if Im to lead a campaign in the Northeast, if Im to challenge extremism in the Northeast, I certainly would use religious leaders because they are very highly respected within their communities, so yes it is important to that extent.

PT: Has there been any kind of collaboration between AUN and other universities in this region to ensure the spread of this IAmABeliever campaign?

Jacob: Yes, we collaborated with we actually took the campaign to MAUTECH: Modibbo Adama University of Technology (former Federal University of Technology Yola). Then we also took the campaign to the Adamawa State University in Mubi, they are gladly helping us to organize events there. So what we have developed for Beliepedia, its out there for the world to use, the website is there and people have been leaving comments there. So its our campaign gift to the world and its available for anybody to use. But again lets not forget this, its a students campaign, its a course, so at the end of the course students of that course move on to do another course because its a class project. Like now theres a totally different set of students in that same course but its the same competition that theyve registered for, this time for the global so its a course and whatever they will develop like short videos like this and whole range of other things they are developing. I dont know if you saw that #schoolgirlsnotsuicidebombers, so trying to see how we can get that to trend as well, so yes, the semester has come to an end although they are still working on this campaign, theyll end the campaign middle of June. But at the end of the day they will be gone and a new set of students come in but then again these are proof of concertsFacebook is particularly interested in our campaign this #schoolgirlsnotsuicidebombers school campaign and Im optimistic that we may at the end of the day get their support even at the end of the competition to get this going on.

PT: It appears this course was built into the school curriculum year because of the location where you are operating?

Jacob: Well, the course Public Diplomacy and Strategic Media Intervention is one of the courses we have in CMD. It was introduced in 2015, one of the first things when I became Chair of Communications and Multimedia Design programme I looked at the curriculum and felt that we need to look at what the field is like in various parts of the world and make it more aligned with current challenges and the challenges of tthis region as well. It wasnt created for the purpose of this competition but its one of the courses we have and it fits in really well with the competition.

PT: We spoke with two of the students that won in Accra, now that another set will be carrying on at the global level, those who won in Accra are they still around or they have graduated?

Jacob: A few of them are gone, a few of them have graduated, we have a totally new set now. The campaign has slightly changed from what it was before, before it was IAmABeliever, this time its IAmABeliever2, the two there is like the part two of IAmABeliever but its also like I am a believer also. The purpose of the other campaign was that in addition to being a believer, Im also a father, mother, brother, an artisan and so on, so dont look at me based only on my faith but look at me also as a fellow father in that sense, a fellow mother. This time its slightly changed, I am a believer also, I am not an infidel, I am also a believer in that sense, trying to make it a lot more assertive.

PT: I want to bring you back to the issue of research, you said one of the problems is basically because we walked away from research, now we know as a university what they do generally is to make this research and its expected that our government picks such research to solve societal issues. So how would you describe the attitude of our government towards the use of university research?

Jacob: I think the government can do more to support research, one of the very strong criticisms if I should say is the way the TETFUND is used. TETFUND should be primarily used for research, the money there should not be used for constructing buildings, its not really buildings that make a university. So I think there should be research councils in this country and we should support research because that is what would make this country great, that is how we can harness the energy of youth Theres got to be government councils, research councils that form research not just government councils but organizations. I really think that one of the things this government can do is there should be a tax for research, there should be a tax for organizations, multinational organizations working in this country should pay some kind of tax to funding research in universities. A state of emergency should be declared in the educational sector in this country because I think we are letting the young men and women of this country down.

When you go to most public universities what you see there is an utter tragedy, then you see 1.7million applying for how many places in the university. So you admit 20 percent, even if u admit 50 percent, what happens to the remaining 50 percent? The 800,000 men and women? These are people who want to go to school. I think if we invest more in research, every university should have various research centres. One of the things I forgot to mention is, the School of Arts and Sciences, we created a research impact committee to, at least some of the projects we are doing to see how we can collaborate with the organizations out there to take them out and find ways to commission this project.

PT: When you look at government attitude to education, where do you see the country in the near future in terms of education?

Jacob: Well, we look at where we have come from and where we are now right now. Look at how universities were 20, 30 even 40 years ago, public universities in our days and if you look at where we are now the glory days of Nigerian universities are gone, and the professors are not really motivating. Then, if current trends continues 20, 30 years from now it will still be a struggle, except there is a huge intervention, theres got to be an intervention, theres got to be there has to be a national emergency on education not just at the tertiary level. Because we have students that come into this university, try to come into this university and they cannot read well or write well, and you become very ashamed. Ive had NYSC folks posted and before I accept them I ask them to write a little essay on anything they want to write about. And what I see is shameful. At the end of the day you just ask yourself look, within a university you have only four years, how do you use four years to undo a damage that took 12 years to be done? So you look at secondary schools, I mean, weve let down our kids in secondary schools and in primary schools, so they go through primary school, secondary school, cannot read and write and you expect a miracle to happen in the university, it will never happen. So its a national emergency that has toat the primary schools, secondary schools and the universities.

PT: Most stakeholders have been saying the quality of our graduates is very poor and recently in view of that the National University Commission decided to review our curriculum, do you think that is where the problem lies?

Jacob: You know you always have to review your curriculum, every university should periodically review its curriculum. But thats routine, theres nothing exciting about waking up in the morning and having a shower because its routine, so theres nothing exciting about reviewing curriculum, theres going to be deeper and broader intervention to it.

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) says President Muhammadu Buhari is fast recovering from his illness contrary to allegations that he is on life support.

The National Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, gave the assurance in Abuja while speaking with journalists at the end of a meeting between the partys National Working Committee (NWC) and state governors elected on the partys platform.

We are glad to inform you that President Muhammadu Buhari is recovering in a very robust manner.

We hope he takes it easy and when he comes back, I have no doubt at all that we will have a new and active period of activities.

He, however, said only the presidents doctors abroad could decide when he would be fit to return to the country.

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State had recently alleged that President Buhari was on life-support in a London Hospital where he is receiving medical attention.

The national chairman, however, refused to respond to the governors comment, saying he would do that at an appropriate time.

If I respond, I will be dignifying him, he said.

At the appropriate time, people will answer him; at the appropriate level; at the appropriate time.

He is in a different world altogether.

According to him, the partys leadership has confidence in President Buhari.

He added that the meeting x-rayed the nation, ongoing agitation for its restructuring and inciting statements emanating from different parts of the country.

Mr. Odigie-Oyegun stressed that such inciting statements are not good for the nation`s health and have to be stopped.

According to him, the party maintains its earlier position on the restructuring of the country as clearly stated in its manifesto.

He further said the partys leadership would do all it could at all times to ensure that the unity of the country was preserved.

He added that the APC leadership was ready to listen to whatever grievances any group in the country might have.

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The Federal Secretariat building in Abuja is currently on fire.

A witness at the scene told PREMIUM TIMES that the building housing the Federal Ministry of Health is the one caught in the blaze.

He also said fire fighters are at the scene trying to put out the inferno.

Details later

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In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Gilbert Bukenya, a former Vice President of Uganda, speaks on Africas leadership challenges, corruption, and how to foster African unity.

PT: You are an advocate of other universities not only in Nigeria but in Africa, adopting the development university model. Knowing that funding has been a major challenge for education on the continent, how do we go about that?

Bukenya: I dont think its a question of money for universities to participate in the population, no. In 1989, then I was still in the medical training, we started in Africa, public health training without walls. The concept was you can train doctors in communities without putting up a building and we applied this concept in Zambia, Cameroon, Uganda, and Malawi, it worked very successfully. We would have the doctors when they are doing public health, they would sit within the communities, theyll help the communities to build sanitary systems. And it was much cheaper than the training programmes that are taking place here. Why did it fail? It only failed because our collaborating partners in the world made it sophisticated into needing the computer, into needing this transportation system, etc, and it failed. I still believe very strongly that universities in Africa must practice community-based education within where the buildings are. I mean, here in Yola, if you go to Jimeta and you see how people liveI thank the new governor because he has put up roads and really cleaned up the place. When I came here, first I said lets put public health training in this university because I would go to the community here and see the problem they were in. Why has this university, AUN, managing.? Its such a budget, its the conception, the teachers and students and its the concept of leadership that they have used to apply the methodology of teaching at a higher level to communities. So, for me I think it;s not a question of money, it is a question of mind change of people, it is a question of having a lecturer change his mind or her mind, that Im so super, I cannot rub shoulders with the poor people.

PT: How do you feel having a son graduating from a university like the American University of Nigeria?

Bukenya: Im very happy, extremely happy, not because my son graduated from AUN, happy because of the concept of bringing in Africa a development university. A university that does not become the ivory tower, I went to a university which was an ivory tower and beyond the compound, beyond the fences, I didnt care what was happening there. Now this university here is unique for Africa, its a university which deals with excellence, at the same time a university which looks after the poor. In fact, that is why I brought my son here without taking him to these ivory towers but I prefer somebody to understand the development of people, at the same time applying the knowledge of advancement.

PT: You have the means to send your son to school in any of the western countries or the US, but you sent him to Nigeria. Why?

Bukenya: Absolutely, I had the means, I had the contacts to send this young man to any American university or European university, why? I lectured at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, which is a good university. I lectured at Tulane University in Louisiana, which is a good university. I was at the University of London but I didnt want to send him there. Why? Because they train you in the traditional way. Someone will come, give you the knowledge, and leave you to take it or you dont take it. Whereas when this university was being formulated, I happened to have known the vice president, Atiku. Weve been friends for a long time and he was coining in this idea of bringing American University. My first question was, why are you bringing American University? We had a lot of arguments until the question of bringing in development, leadership, training within all the faculties of the university, it clicked on me. I said wow! And then when they brought in the staff, the faculty members here who came, the president then of this university, Margie (Ensign)  we had known for quite a bit of time in America, I said no, this is something very unique. So the first year was very good, my son was not yet here. Second year I came, because I was a member of the Board of Trustees and I found there is something unique in Yola; thats when I told my wife in Uganda, Im taking this son of ours to Yola. There was a lot of arguments, she actually refused and even the son was influenced, the son had refused until I said We part company, then the son, of course, fearing the father said Well, I have to go where the father wants me to go. He came here, only two years of his stay here, when this man came back to Uganda, I saw a change. You know for me I was in politics, I was the vice president of the country, I used to go to communities, his mother would not allow me to go, you know chatting with these poor people because she thought Im far above these poor people.

Now, this young man, Conrad, would come with me to my programmes within the communities and would shake hands with the poor, shake hands with the disadvantaged. And then I said Conrad, where did you pick this? And this young man said You know when we were in Yola, we go to communities, we go to see their sewage systems I said fantastic and I told him to continue that, that is going to be the future of leadership in Africa. Because in Africa we have leaders who stay in the palaces and they dont know, they have no communication between where they stay and where the poor live. They dont know that some of these poor people may not even have a meal a day, they dont know that these poor people may go to the hospital and they dont even get a tablet. Unless we create leaders who can permeate within the population and understand the problems that they face, thats when Africa will change.

PT: One of the problems with Africa as far as leadership is concerned is the sit-tight syndrome. Having once served as the vice president of your country, do you intend to return to partisan politics in Uganda?

Bukenya: (Laughs) No. I think every human being must have a journey. My journey started in my profession as a medical doctor, then my journey came into politics, and I did my part. Then my journey now is back into application of my profession and community service. Every politician and I appeal to politicians, they should never ever make politics a job. They must know that being a politician is a service to the community, but if they continue making it a job, thats why theyre fighting, thats why people dont want to leave politics, thats why they make a lot of money because they make it a job. Im an example of those who say You do your part, when you finish, quit and you do other things.

PT: With your exposure professionally and politically, and having travelled extensively around the world, why do you think Africa is struggling with infrastructure, corruption and so on. What is wrong with Africa?

Bukenya: Why is Africa lagging behind? Simple reason, we African leaders cannot say no. If African leaders learn to say no to foreign influence, then we can shape our way. The African leaders copy, if someone comes here with a very good jet plane, they want to take it; they dont ask how does this jet plane come about? African leaders copy the wrong things from Europeans. And I will tell you straight away, a white man does not like you, a white man comes here to exploit you. So if he finds you in a position of weakness, he will exploit you, even convince you to fly for you food from Europe, you as a president to eat it. And I have seen many presidents in Africa who completely forgo their own traditional food to prefer a la carte from Europe. We must learn to say no, we must learn to plan for our people, we must learn to eat and live with our people. If the mosquitoes are biting people in my community, Im ready to put my skin so that the mosquitoes bite me. But in Africa, no. We must always take with scepticism what a white man brings to you as a proposal; look at it, say no if you think it is a no, say yes if you think it can help your country or Africa  thats the problem we have.

PT: Obviously, your generation was not able to say no to the white man, when you look at the generations coming behind you, do you think they have that capacity to say no?

Bukenya: The only way the young people can build the capacity to say no is to start training young people in leadership from primary level of education. Let these young people in primary education be trained to be leaders. Leadership does not mean leadership in politics, it is leadership in totality. If we have a road in the rural population and these young people can mobilise the community to clean up their roads, thats leadership. If we have poor latrines and these young people can come around and say no no no, you, my father, my dad, the latrines are poor, this is how we will make them, we are now coming to your house to put up a latrine, thats leadership. Once we develop that, like Europe did, Europe did a long time ago, even these Americans, they did it, you create patriotism, you create natural leadership. But this imposed leadership like mine, you decide let me become a political leader, its dangerous.

PT: How would you rate the level of education in Africa, generally, and how do you think its related to the continents level of development?

Bukenya: Education in Africa was imported from Europe and now from North America, etc. Education in Africa was not self-created in Africa and thats why you find in Africa there is a fight. When I used to be in the political leadership, we had the Francophone because they spoke French, we had the Anglophone because they spoke English, we had the Portuguesephone and so on and then we found ourselves divided when we are all black people. We must create an education which is localised; if I teach my child agriculture the way we do it here, what is going to be the implication for the future? Look at Nigeria, Nigeria would have been the biggest agriculture country, in short Nigeria should be a net exporter of agriculture products, are you? Youre a net importer of rice, mangoes that is why our educational system which was imported in Africa is wrong. And it is very difficult to change it. My children want to go and study in the UK, why dont the UK children want to come and study in Africa? Why should I want to go to study in America and the American children dont want to come and study in Africa? So, the education system in Africa must change, must look at our local challenges in Africa and then apply it. You know these Americans, they started the university training based on their problems. Thats why every state had a state university but based on agriculture, now they changed because the are now advanced. But in Africa, where? I go to universities, I go to the university of Ibadan, which I know very well, and if you drive around the university, its as backward as it has been. So we need to change out education system.

PT: The language divisions you spoke about, as a challenge to African unity, what do you think about the calls for the adoption of one language for the entire continent?

Bukenya: If Africa has to move forward, we have to start getting languages that support our systems. I come from East Africa, in East Africa, weve adopted the Swahili, Rwanda used to be a French speaking country, theyve now adopted the Swahili and they are English speaking, Burundi so this is the way forward. And we have to abandon colonial mentalities, even in food. I am amazed that, you know one African president whose food is flown from Paris and Im sure when he was growing up he was eating yam and cassava. So, that mentality must go. And how does it go? Its mobilising communities to get rid of those political leaders.

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The Supreme Court on Friday gave a verdict allowing aggrieved persons to appeal the decision of the National Industrial Court.

Four members of a five-man panel at the court gave the decision following an appeal filed by Sky Bank Nigeria Plc. against a respondent, Anaemem Iwu.

Before the decision on Friday, only judgements emanating from fundamental right appeals, could go to a higher court.

The applicants had asked the Supreme Court to determine whether there were exceptions to the powers of the appeal court to entertain decisions of the lower court.

In a unanimous ruling by four members of the bench, the court ruled that the appeal court had power to entertain matters from the National Industrial court, regardless of whether they were fundamental rights suits or not.

In the ruling read by Justice Centus Nweze, the four members of the bench said the law allowed the appeal court to sit on matters emanating from trial courts, including the NIC.

It said there was no law that prevented the Appeal Court from entertaining cases from the NIC.

The lower court, that is, the Court of Appeal, has the jurisdiction, to the exclusion of any other court in Nigeria, to hear and determine all appeals arising from the decisions of the trial court, Mr. Nweze.

No constitutional provision expressly divested the said Court of Appeal of its appellate jurisdiction over all decisions on civil matters emanating from the trial court.

And, as a corollary, the jurisdiction of the court to hear and determine all civil appeal on decisions of the National Industrial Court is not limited to only fundamental human rights.

These shall be the opinions of this court and shall be transmitted to the Lagos division of the Court of Appeal for its guidance in determining the appeal before it.

A member of the panel, Justice Kumai Akaahs, said he believed the appeal court was only empowered to entertain such matters as fundamental rights suits and criminal cases from the NIC.

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The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has confirmed the death of five persons in a road traffic accident involving several vehicles on the Benin-Auchi road in Edo, on Saturday.

Bisi Kazeem, FRSC Public Education Officer, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that 10 persons were injured in the incident that occurred at the Ewu slope area of the route.

The accident involved six vehicles, including two trailers, two Toyota buses and an Audi 80 car.

The crash was caused by a head-on collision and a total of 40 persons were involved, he said.

Mr. Kazeem said the injured were taken to hospitals in nearby Auchi, Irrua and Agbede towns. (NAN)

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Kidnappers who abducted Edith Moron, the wife of the principal of Gbanrainowei Grammar School, Okolobiri, Bayelsa, have demanded a ransom of N3 million to free her.

Moron Pereowei, who confirmed the kidnap of his wife, said the abductors had established contact with the family.

The incident occurred about 2.03 a.m. on Friday at their residence at Azikoro Village, Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state.

A family source said the armed gunmen numbering about 12 gained access into the principals home after breaking in through a window.

The hoodlums pointed gun at Ediths brother, whom they used to lure the principal and his wife to come out of the bedroom.

According to the source, when the Principal and his wife came out, their attackers shot at the house repeatedly to scare them and to make it clear they were serious with the operation.

The kidnappers shot the principals wife in the leg before whisking her away.

The family source said the 12-member gang divided themselves into two groups with two going inside for the operation, while 10 persons mounted guard on the premises and outside the residence.

The source, who is a secondary school teacher, said the kidnappers allegedly ransacked the house, stole some money and other valuables before whisking away their victim to an unknown destination.

The bullet fired at the house touched the wife on the leg. They took the wife and left the husband. About 12 of them came for the operation, 10 persons were outside, while two were in the house, he said.

On the demand for ransom the source said: The family of the victim has been discussing with them. The abductors said they should come with N3m.

The family even talked to the principals wife, he said.

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The police in Anambra on Saturday said no person or group could stop the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra.

The Commissioner of Police in Anambra, Garba Umar, said this in Awka while reacting to the call by the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) on residents of the state to boycott the November 18 governorship election.

Mr. Umar told journalists that he only heard about the said call for boycott of the election in the media, adding that IPOB had not claimed responsibility.

He gave an assurance that the police would ensure a peaceful election in the state.

We have the capacity to provide a peaceful atmosphere in Anambra State for that election.

I have not heard from IPOB that it would stop the election apart from what was published in the media. But that is for the media.

Nobody or group can issue such threat and succeed because we have all it will take to subdue such threat.

The people of the state have the right to have periodic elections to choose their leaders; nobody or group can stop them from exercising such right. We cant allow it.

We are fully on the ground and we can suppress such threats, he said.

Mr. Umar, who assumed office in the state on June 21, said consultations were on in the state to ensure a peaceful poll.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that political parties and Ohanaeze, the apex Igbo socio-cultural body, had cautioned IPOB after it called for the boycott of the guber poll. (NAN)

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Residents of an estate in Ikorodu on Friday lynched a suspected member of a gang popularly known as Badoo on the Ikorodu- Mile 12 Express road.

Adewale Adejumo, head security, Igbo-Oluwo Estate, said the suspect was arrested at Unity Close inside the estate around 6:30 a.m. with black oil all over his body and stone on his hand. Several other gang members ran away.

According to Mr. Adejumo, the arrested suspect was to be handed over to a nearby police station, but angry residents set him on fire.

We saw them very early in the morning moving around the estate naked with black oil all over their bodies.

On seeing us, they started running and we chased them and caught one of them with oil on his body and stone in his hand. We kept him till morning to hand over him to the police.

When the residents saw him, they were angry and forcefully took him, put tyre on him and set him on fire, Adejumo.

Sanni Ibrahim, senior officer, Lagos State Neighbourhood Watch, Ikorodu West, said they received a distress call that some Badoo gang members were in operation in Igbo-Oluwo Estate.

Mr. Ibrahim said he mobilised some of their members and moved into the estate around 7:00 a.m. to forestall breakdown of law and order and curtail the activities of the Badoo gang.

Segun Adebayo, resident of Igbo-Oluwo Estate said it was the third time, the Badoo gang would attempt to attack residents, but were repelled by the efforts of the residents and internal security officers.

Niyi Shonibare urged all the residents in Ikorodu to cooperate to curtail the activities of the gang, blamed for many killings in recent months.

NAN reports that some police officers and members of the Neighbourhood watch later came to the scene where the residents burnt the culprit.

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Java lovers rejoice.

Theres a new spot in town to get a cup of joe  and chances are its an experience some coffee devotees havent had before.

The newest Roasting Plant Coffee recently opened its doors in Dearborn Heights, and is wooing customers with its high-tech coffee blending process that unfolds right before their eyes.

The location at 26931 Ford Road in Dearborn Heights, and operates from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Customers can watch their custom-made coffee being blended in front of their eyes in less than a minute by Roasting Plants Javabot roasting system, which features a high-tech display of pneumatic tubes to custom-blend fresh coffee for each patron.

The clear tubes propel the beans through the air into the green bean towers and then theyre send through to the roasters where people can watch and smell the coffee being roasted, Roasting Plant co-founder Thomas Hartocollis said. Its really fun and unusual. We think its the new wave in coffee. You can get it at a good price and get it quickly.

Coffee lovers can relax inside the 2,400-square foot space or get their unique blend of coffee to go at the stores drive-thru  the first of its kind among the companys franchises.

Hartocollis said the Dearborn Heights location also is the largest, symbolizing its commitment to the metropolitan Detroit area. The New York-based company also operates five other locations including one at Campus Martius in downtown Detroit, two in New York, one in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport and one in the Denver International Airport.

We think that Detroit as a city is just a remarkable place in a remarkable stage of recovery, Hartocollis said. We also think the innovation going on there is really remarkable, and we wanted to be a part of it.

He added that Dearborn Heights is a perfect location for the company to expand.

Its a commuter location that allows people coming from different areas around metro Detroit and the suburbs to have a specialized choice in coffee, he said. Its in a great neighborhood in a community where people are social and value a place to go and be together whether its students, housewives or business people.

Roasting Plant is touted as a high-tech coffee company, according to Hartocollis, a self-described coffee fanatic.

We designed, developed and maintain our own automated roasting and brewing system, he said. The core is microbatch roasting, and we do it in every store we operate. You can go into the Dearborn Heights location and see coffee being roasted, and choose from any bean we offer.

The companys motto is Just roasted, just brewed, just for you. Roasting Plant employs coffee masters to travel the world and choose its beans, which are bought directly from farms.

Customers can choose up to four beans, which are brewed by the cup in less than a minute. The automation allows people to create their own custom cup, he said. If they want a Sumatra bean and a Guatemalan bean, weill grind them and brew it right there.

Younger patrons often find the blending process the most fascinating.

Kids laugh and often ask their parents do it again, he said, People usually say its like Willy Wonka.

The onsite roasting and brewing experience means the freshest coffee available, he said, because most large retailers roast their coffee in central facilities, package it and then distribute it, which is a more cost-effective process but sacrifices freshness.

Hartocollis compares roasted coffee to wine, saying that coffee, just like wine, turns stale and loses flavor after seven to 10 days of being exposed to the elements.

When its exposed to air and oxidizes, it can taste bad, he said. We use our coffee within seven days of roasting.

Because the coffees fresh, theres no need to add syrups, sugars and sweeteners to better the taste, but patrons are welcome to add any of those things if they wish.

Theyll be surprised at how each bean tastes, he said.  Roasting Plant isnt a snobbish coffee place; its really humble and friendly and we want everyone to have it their way.

Its a fun and soothing experience. Customers find it very artisanal but fast.

The coffee shop also sells a variety of freshly baked pastries, fruit and coffee-based blended beverages as well as bottled and canned beverages.

And theres plenty of room to stretch out and charge electronic devices.

Weve got plugs everywhere, and we encourage people to socialize, stay for a while and drink different coffees, he said. Were really coffee-obsessed people.

Hartocollis said the company has future plans to expand in the greater Dearborn area.

Roasting Plant Coffee is located at 26931 Ford Road in Dearborn Heights. Hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Theres no bigger summer weekend at the South Jersey shore than the Fourth of July holiday, as the beaches from Long Beach Island to Cape May are expected to be packed, especially with a nice forecast. And after dangerous rip currents have already caused a pair of tragedies this year, area lifeguards are ready with a watchful eye to educate, alert and spring into action whenever necessary.

Rip currents are an ever-present danger along any South Jersey beach.

Warning signs are a common sight at beach access points, on dunes and on jetties.

Yet many still dont know what a rip current is or why they are dangerous.

A rip current is an influx of water that comes in and has to exit out somewhere, normally in a narrow, fast-moving fashion, said Mark Jamison, the operations chief for the Ocean City Beach Patrol.

Rip currents have already proved to be deadly this season, as four swimmers drowned in the waters off New Jersey after being swept away by the water last month.

Two Atlantic County teenagers, Kaliy-ah Hand, 16, of Atlantic City, and Ramon Quinn, 15, of Pleasantville, drowned off the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard beach in Atlantic City on June 15.

Farther north, in Monmouth County, two cousins, Emily Pedro-Gonzalez, 12, and Mitzi Hernandez, 13, both of Belmar, drowned off a beach after being swept away by rip currents, also on the evening of June 15.

Lifeguards had left for the day in Atlantic City, and Belmar only had lifeguards on duty on weekends in the middle of June. The seven-day-a-week lifeguard schedule begins in most shore towns after school lets out for the summer.

Any beach patrol will be quick to recite the cardinal rule: Only swim when lifeguards are present. The United States Lifesaving Association says there is only a 1 in 18 million chance of drowning on a beach protected by lifeguards, but that chance dramatically increases on unguarded beaches.

Lifeguards are not only there to act when swimmers get caught in a rip current. They are trained to spot rip currents and keep swimmers away from danger in the first place.

We look for a break in the incoming wave pattern, a murkier spot amidst clear water, or a white and sudsy area, basically any spot that looks different in color or clarity, Jamison explained.

But Ocean City doesnt only train its guards how to spot rip currents. Training involves getting caught in one, and practicing escape and rescue techniques.

Jake Arbeiter, of Princeton, is a first-year lifeguard in Ocean City who has felt the grip of the rip.

Its a strange feeling getting stuck in one and to feel how much faster than normal the water is pulling you away from shore, Arbeiter explained.

According to the USLA, rip current speeds are normally one to two feet per second but can be as fast as eight feet per second. Thats faster than even an Olympic swimmer can go.

They are scary for a swimmer to get stuck in, but we can actually use the fast flow of water to our advantage to reach the swimmer much faster during a rescue, Arbeiter said, something he learned during training.

Arbeiter, along with first-year Ocean City lifeguards Billy Rodgers, of Linwood, and Drew Vreeland, of Short Hills, conducted live demonstrations of rip current rescues and escape tactics Thursday on the Ninth Street beach in Ocean City.

Never directly fight the rip current, but let it take you out and swim parallel to the shore, not towards it, to safely escape, Arbeiter said.

Rip currents that are always present near jetties or groins are called fixed rips, according to Jamison, which he said are easier to avoid, knowing they are there.

Sometimes a large incoming wave can create a flash rip current, which forms instantly, and those can form quickly with no notice, Jamison said.

The National Weather Service issues daily rip current forecasts throughout the summer, placing South Jerseys beaches at a low, moderate or high risk of rip currents depending on weather conditions. The forecasts are made after consulting with area beach patrols to take into account what lifeguards are seeing, Jamison said.

The National Weather Service expects a moderate rip current risk for Saturday. As winds and waves subside, the risk may diminish by Sunday and Monday, but meteorologists stress that low risk does not mean no risk. Lifeguards certainly agree.

Swimming on guarded beaches and being watched by professional eyes that know what to look for is your best scenario for staying safe and having a great experience at the Jersey Shore this summer, Jamison said.
Gov. Chris Christie is pushing forward with efforts to pull millions from insurer Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey as the state budget deadline looms and the Legislature remains divided on the plan.

Christie got last-minute support from previously opposed Democrats such as Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Salem, Gloucester, Cumberland, and Sen. Joe Vitale, D-Middlesex, when the latter introduced a bill last week that would increase political involvement in how the states largest health insurer is managed.

The legislation is speeding through Trenton as the clock ticks toward Fridays budget deadline. It was presented Monday afternoon to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. A vote on the Horizon bill is expected Thursday.

Christie had championed a plan that would take money from Horizons $2.4 billion in reserves, or about $300 million, and redirect it to a state-run addiction treatment program, but Vitales finessed plan would require the insurer to more generally spend excess funds on health care initiatives.

Businessman and publisher Steve Forbes, who has been a vocal opponent of Christies plan, attacked it during a conference call with reporters Monday, calling it political extortion.

This is a raid by Trenton politicians, Forbes said.

Christie attacked the displays Monday as showy and costly.

They were out there spending money like they were Goldman Sachs, he said.

Late Monday, the Senate budget panel passed new Horizon legislation that includes adding subscriber-elected members to Horizons board, in line with Christies proposal. Christie declined to give his position on the bill but called it a pretty good start.

The bill also would set up a range for Horizons surplus, with excess being required to come up with a plan to spend down the cash to benefit policyholders.

The Senate also approved Christies legislation to transfer the lottery to the public pension as an asset, which Christie also sought as part of budget negotiations. Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto said the Assembly would consider the idea.

In return, Prieto has said Christie agreed to Prieto and Sweeneys school funding overhaul, which would provide nearly $200 million, but with unspecified tweaks proposed by the governor.

Christie on Friday signed an executive order requiring state agencies to publish opinions and decisions online, a move apparently aimed at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, which was fined $15.5 million for Medicaid contract violations.

Christie spotlighted the citations against the insurer last week over its Medicaid contract compliance with the state, which the governor said predates his effort to use Horizons surplus.

Christie didnt share the citations, and an attempt to obtain the documents through an Open Public Records Act request resulted in a response that said contractual obligations prevented the release of the documents but that the administration was reaching out to Horizon to try to release them.

Fridays executive order was retroactive.

This is Christies final budget. The term-limited, two-term governor will leave office January after the Nov. 7 election.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno has not weighed in on the budget, but Democratic nominee Phil Murphy has called Christies Horizon proposal a raid and added that Democrats need more time to vet the proposal.

The Governor is now once again holding hostage funding for public education and critical programs in order to score a cheap political victory, Murphy said in statement. While Democrats in the Legislature have worked hard to find compromise, we simply need more time to give this policy a proper vetting.

Members of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association echoed those sentiments in a statement Monday when president and CEO Michele Siekerka said Horizons reserve funding is intended to protect its 3.8 million policyholders.

This is money that New Jersey businesses and policyholders had paid in premiums, and it must be kept in reserve to pay future health care bills, she said. It is inappropriate to divert Horizon policyholders money to pay for other state programs.
Wow, what a sad day for Egg Harbor Township. Great family event, part of the history of EHT.

James Armstrong

via Facebook

I have been to other shows in smaller towns where they have no problem controlling the traffic flow for one day.

Gary Menkin

Flemings Pumpkin Run

in EHT has ended

Why would there be a changing room in a ice cream parlor?

Rowland George

via Facebook

Vineland ice cream shop owner allegedly taped employees in changing room

Go into any convenience store at night and watch all the people coming home from bars and buying snacks with SNAP cards.

James Kane

What about the children who go hungry every night? Without WIC and SNAP, these kids would have no food.

Crystal Wyman

via Facebook

SNAP vital to prevent hunger, but locations can fall short on healthy foods

Just move down a bit, thats all. This is the Jersey Shore.

Paoline Walterz

via Facebook

Ventnor beach project to start

What really gets me is that they denied him bail. This has been going on for five years and has he fled? Nope.

Yogi Tucker

Police search Kauffman home in Philadelphia, mothers home in Margate

Ill personally do it for a cool 100K.

Nicholas Pyle

via Facebook

CRDA to spend $135,000 to tear down rundown properties in Atlantic City

Nice story. There are tons of these stories that need to be shared.

Tony Mazzone

via Facebook

Family fun walk and celebration

supports Nothing Down

They didnt renew their lease because they felt the building wasnt safe.

Chrissy Lauletta

via Facebook

Atlantic City Planned Parenthood closes its doors

Fix up the boardwalk, clean up the beach, get rid of those cheap junky shops on the boardwalk.

Lisa McClaine

via Facebook

A year of anticipation awaits Atlantic City

So far its looking good. Thanks.

Bonnie Matani

via Facebook

Atlantic Citys 6 wards come together in 48 Blocks art celebration

Get rid of this low life, and if someone comes to take their place... get rid of them also.

Cynthia Forman

via Facebook

Suspected Atlantic County drug and gun trafficking ringleader and others indicted

This is why we need sprinklers in homes.

James Agnello

via Facebook

Multiple homes in Wildwood Crest damaged in fire that spread quickly
BEIJING, July 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LKKER Conference 2017 & Global Innovation Design Conference took place in Ningbo, China on June 30. It was initiated and organized by LKKER, China's first internet-based platform for "Sharing Designs". Technology experts and chief executives from IT titans including Tencent, Microsoft, and Airbnb, as well as top designer Masayuki Kurokawa gathered in Ningbo, discussing the new business model of "sharing designs" in the new era of the sharing economy. The Conference connected the enterprises, designers and end users. It gathered global innovation resources, broke the barriers between innovative design and traditional manufacturing, maximizing the value driven by the power of imagination.

In light of the rise of the sharing economy, LKKER initiated the concept of "Sharing Designs" in the design industry. At its core, sharing design is driven by design, which unlimitedly connects needs, people and objects. By sharing the power of imagination, it extends to all fields from the fundamental framework of "Customer to Business to Designer"(CBD). Ultimately, a new design ecosystem generated by customized needs comes into being.

When technology and management become the standard-configured skills of smart robots, it marks the start of the Imagination Era. Yet, despite how superior it is, artificial intelligence will never overwhelm human's taste, and will never surpass human's imagination or their proactive creativity. People are engaged so much in the innovation activities that every single user is outputting his own creativity and value, which generates the so-called "Economy of Imagination". Through innovative designs, economy of imagination offers new values and possibilities to our lives. Consumption upgrade is the upgrade of individual imagination, and IoE (Internet of Everything) gives imagination to products, enabling all products connect with each other without limits, all of which will lead to the revolution of channels, and eventually, the channels of imagination. According to LKKER, the future Era of Industry Internet will be an era when imagination prevails.

The mission of LKKER is to enable everyone enjoy the value of Sharing Designs. As a platform for product creativity, the new model gathers outstanding designers and massive users, opens as a makerspace, where enterprises and makers can benefit from the product design and new ecosystem in which products are designed and created more excellently, more efficiently, and more openly.

SOURCE LKKER
DUBLIN, June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "United States Anesthesia Drugs Market & Forecast" report to their offering.

United States Anesthesia Market is expected to be more than US$ 4 Billion by 2022

This growth is driven by increasing incidence of cardiovascular cases, growing old age population and rising number of urgent surgeries in United States. Private as well as public health insurers also help to boost this market as they consider anesthetic products in their reimbursement policy.



General intravenous anesthesia is the leading segments in the United States Anesthesia Market. Propofol, Benzodiazepines Class, Fospropofol Disodium, Ketamine, Methohexital Sodium, Pentobarbital, Etomidate and Fentanyl are commonly used general intravenous anesthesia in the United States. Among these anesthesia, Propofol and Benzodiazepines Class are the leading anesthesia drugs which hold more than 75 percent combined market share in 2016.



In the United States anesthesia drugs market several players are selling their products. Most of the anesthesia drugs sale are in generic form as it is available in the low cost. However all major drugs manufactures such as AstraZeneca, AbbVie , Endo Healthcare etc. anesthesia products sales are turning down continuously. Only Baxter International anesthesia drugs sales are growing in the United States market.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Executive Summary



2 United States Anesthesia Drugs Market (2011 - 2022)



3 United States Anesthesia Drugs Market Share & Forecast (2011 - 2022)



4 By Type - United States Anesthesia Drugs Market (2011 - 2022)



5 By Drugs - United States General Intravenous Anesthesia Drugs Market (2011 - 2022)



6 By Drugs - United States Local Anesthesia Drugs Market (2011 - 2022)



7 Key Players Profile in United States Anesthesia Drugs Market



8 United States Anesthesia market Merger & Acquisition (M&A)



9 United States Anesthesia Reimbursement Policy - Private Health Insurance Providers



10 United States Anesthesia Reimbursement Policy - Public Health Insurance Providers



11 United States Anesthesia Drugs Market - Growth Drivers



12 United States Anesthesia Drugs Market - Challenges



Companies Mentioned



- AbbVie

- Aetna International

- Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield

- AstraZeneca

- Baxter International Inc.

- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas

- Coventry Health Care

- Endo Health Solutions Inc.

- MDWise

- Medicare

- UnitedHealthcare



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5kcwb4/united_states

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com



SOURCE Research and Markets
BOCA RATON, Fla., June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc. announced today that it has entered into a multi-product agreement with Sam Chun Dang Pharm. Co. Ltd. (SCD), based in Seoul, Korea, under which Breckenridge and SCD expect to develop and commercialize at least seven ANDAs. Under the terms of the agreement, SCD will develop, manufacture and supply the products exclusively for Breckenridge for the U.S. market and Breckenridge will market and distribute the products in its label. This multi-product agreement represents the first foray for both companies having products developed and manufactured in South Korea for the U.S. market.

This agreement contemplates filing ANDAs for at least six ophthalmic products and one otic product, beginning in the first quarter of 2018. The total addressable IMS market value for this portfolio is $2.4 billion USD.

This selection of products also contributes to Breckenridge's Paragraph IV portfolio. Breckenridge currently has twenty-six (26) ANDAs filed and pending with FDA that contain Paragraph IV patent challenges, and intends to continue that trend in the next several years, focusing on niche and first-to-file Paragraph IV opportunities with certain barriers to entry.

About Breckenridge:

Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc. is a privately-held own-label distributor that performs pharmaceutical marketing, research and development, as well as marketing and distribution in the U.S. The company was founded in 1983 and markets a broad range of generic prescription products in many therapeutic categories. The Breckenridge label is recognized by wholesalers, distributors, chains, and managed care accounts, as well as retail pharmacies nationwide. The company markets over 70 products in a variety of dosage forms including: tablets, capsules, soft gel capsules, liquids, suspensions, ophthalmics, nasal sprays, powders and injectable products. www.bpirx.com

About Sam Chun Dang Pharm. Co. Ltd.:

SCD is a privately-held manufacturer based in Seoul, Korea that develops and manufactures ophthalmic solutions, solid orals, nasal solutions, and ampules for a wide range of therapeutic classes. Founded in 1943, SCD exports its products to Asia, the Middle East, North America, and throughout Latin America.

SOURCE Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bpirx.com


"The creation of the College of Management is a bold step in our University's evolution that will elevate management education and at the same time enrich the learning experience for all Bucknell students," said Ken Freeman '72 , chair of the Bucknell University Board of Trustees . "Deeper connections will be forged between the arts and sciences, engineering and management, enabling Bucknell to provide a transformative education unattainable at traditional liberal arts, engineering or business colleges."

The launch of the college establishes a third academic pillar of Bucknell University, where the vitality and inquisitive spirit of a liberal arts education coexists with and informs top-notch professional programs. Joining the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Engineering, the new College of Management strengthens Bucknell's distinctive interdisciplinary offerings in an undergraduate, residential learning environment.

"Our graduates lead with integrity and work in teams to solve the most pressing global challenges," said Raquel Alexander, the inaugural Kenneth W. Freeman Professor & Dean of Management. "Building their professional education atop a solid liberal arts core provides our students with diverse experiences and a broader outlook to help them confidently take on the key issues confronting our world."

As a college, management gains greater autonomy in crafting curriculum and programming that best prepares students for their first jobs and a lifetime of professional and personal success.

"Delivering a specialized education requires leadership with specific expertise," said Bucknell Provost Barbara Altmann. "Having an independent college with a dedicated dean allows for the thoughtful planning and thorough oversight that will best prepare students to thrive after graduation, without drawing away from other areas of the University."

The college will be funded through dedicated gifts and outside partnerships, and will not detract from the College of Arts & Sciences. Existing partnerships include longstanding funding from PricewaterhouseCoopers supporting the accounting program, faculty development and scholarships; recent support from GE in support of the ILTM program; a grant from Accenture to support entrepreneurship development; and a grant from the Teagle Foundation supporting connections between management and the liberal arts.

The establishment of the new college will also further increase course offerings for non-management majors. Alexander noted that the preparation offered through these courses is a key asset for Bucknell students, roughly 80 percent of whom will work in the private sector after graduation. Twenty percent of students who enrolled in management courses in the last three years were non-management majors.

The transition from school to college will also increase support for signature co-curricular initiatives, such as the Bucknell Business Pitch Competition, a collaboration with Bucknell's Small Business Development Center, and the Student Managed Investment Fund, a portion of the University's endowment overseen by students and currently valued at close to $2 million. These hands-on learning opportunities teach through action what can't be simulated in the classroom.

The transition builds on significant progress since the 2008 launch of the School of Management, including earning accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business in 2013, an achievement granted to only 5 percent of business schools worldwide.

"This is a pivotal moment in Bucknell's storied history, one more than a century in the making" said Bucknell University President John Bravman. "Through the excellence of our three colleges and the points at which they intersect, coupled with our undergraduate residential learning environment, we have forged a truly distinct educational experience that will serve our students for a lifetime."

SOURCE Bucknell University
TUMON, Guam, July 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) is proud to announce the BBQ competition winners of the fifth annual Pleasure Island Guam BBQ Block Party that took place on Saturday, July 1st. Eight teams competed in three categories  chicken, beef and pork  but only one earned the title of the overall 2017 Champion Grill Master. Team Meskla, led by chef Peter Duenas, swept competition away and took this top honor. Team Meskla also placed first in all three categories.

GVB congratulates Team Meskla, as well as the winners in the following categories:

CHICKEN:



First Place: Meskla (Team captain: Peter Duenas) Second Place: Team Dokgnos (Team captain: Darren Dragon) Third Place: Asu Smokehouse (Team captain: Buddy Orsini)





PORK:



First Place: Meskla (Team captain: Peter Duenas) Second Place: Guam Barbecue Company



(Team captain: Joe Okada) Third Place: Dusit Smiles (Team captain: David Hodge)





BEEF:



First Place: Meskla (Team captain: Peter Duenas) Second Place: Team Dokgnos (Team captain: Darren Dragon) Third Place: Asu Smokehouse (Team captain: Buddy Orsini)

The Micronesian Chefs Association has again partnered with GVB to conduct the BBQ competition and awarded over $4,000 in prize money to competition winners.

"At the Guam BBQ Block Party, one person wins the title of 2017 Champion Grill Master, but everyone is a winner," said GVB President and CEO Nathan Denight. "This family-friendly event had something for everyone to enjoy, from the always-popular BBQ competition to the new addition of food trucks. Local residents and visitors came together to celebrate Guam's love of barbecue as Fourth of July festivities kicked off."

The night opened with a surprise Marching Band number by the Guam Territorial Band and live music performed by Joe Guam, Cool Down and DJ Sylnt kept the crowd entertained. Domingo Ocampo was named the winner of the second annual Hot Diggety Dog hot dog eating contest after he devoured seven 10-inch Nathan hot dogs in 5 minutes. Additionally, the Guam BBQ Block Party offered more food options by featuring food trucks from the Guam Street Grinds & Finds. As tradition follows, various food and beverage vendors also lined up the block party catering to thousands of people that walked around Pleasure Island with their families and friends.

GVB would like to thank its partners and sponsors  T Galleria by DFS, The Plaza Shopping Center, Outrigger Guam Beach Resort, Dusit Thani Guam Resort,

SandCastle, Miller Lite, Pepsi Bottling Company, the Stations of KUAM, Triple J Five Star Wholesale, Hot Diggety Dog, Docomo Pacific, The Guam Daily Post, Micronesian Chefs Association, Tymeless, Guam Street Grinds & Finds, Guam Police Department, Guam Fire Department, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Department of Public Works, Guam Homeland Security and Department of Public Health and Social Services  for their support of the Pleasure Island Guam BBQ Block Party.

Photo by Noriyuki Yagi/Getty Images for GUAM VISITORS BUREAU

Photos from the 2017 BBQ Block Party can be accessed via this link:

http://www.image.net/guam2017bbqblockparty

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/apbhfmgf72ioovm/AAB6qP-WnOPYZBT58zswAODGa?dl=0

SOURCE Guam Visitors Bureau
ZUG, Switzerland, July 1st, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Monaco Technology GMBH announced today that it's MCO Token will begin trading on Bittrex Exchange on July 1st, 6pm US Pacific Time.

Monaco recently completed a successful CrowdSale raising $26.5m placing it in the Top10 ICOs of 2017 according to CoinSchedule.

Monaco Token to Begin Trading on Bittrex on July 1st, 6pm US Pacific Time (PRNewsfoto/Monaco Technology GMBH)

Kris Marszalek, Founder of Monaco Technology, commented: "We're excited to partner with Bittrex, a leading Digital Currency trading platform and one of the most trusted brands in the industry. It's the perfect platform for millions of users to get access to MCO Token, especially those who missed out on our CrowdSale."

Trading begins on July 1st, 6pm Pacific Time.

ABOUT MONACO

Founded in June 2016, Monaco built world's best cryptocurrency card, allowing users to spend Bitcoin and Ether at perfect interbank exchanges rates anywhere Visa cards are accepted, saving $30-40 on every $500 equivalent spent. Monaco raised over $26.5m through one of the most successful CrowdSale events to date. The company is headquartered in Switzerland with operations in Hong Kong and Singapore. For more information please visit www.mona.co

ABOUT BITTREX EXCHANGE

Bittrex provides individuals and businesses with a world-class experience buying and selling cutting-edge cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. Based and fully regulated in the United States, Bittrex provides lightning-fast trade execution, stable wallets, and industry-best security practices. For more information, visit: www.bittrex.com

SOURCE Monaco Technology GMBH
NORCROSS, Ga., June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Peak Enterprises Corp's President announced that the firm has won Atlanta's Best and Brightest to Work For award for 2017. The award is given by the National Association for Business Resources based on positive employee surveys.

Peak Enterprises Corp.

"There has been a lot of excitement around the Peak Enterprises Corp office as of late, and this award from the National Association for Business Resources [NABR] has served to remind us why things are going so well," shared the firm's President. "We're succeeding because we have a great team of professionals who feel supported and empowered by working here."

The NABR was established in 1996 as a service organization dedicated to giving companies the data, best practices, and tools that would provide a real financial payoff and make a difference in performance metrics. Through their efforts to improve companies, they are increasing workplace satisfaction and the communities in which these businesses operate.

Peak Enterprises Corp won the Best and Brightest to Work For award for the Atlanta area, in recognition of the number of positive associate surveys that were filled out and submitted to the NABR. With this tangible recognition of the firm's excellent corporate culture, the firm's President is certain that even more talented professionals will be seeking to join the company roster.

How Awards Help Peak Enterprises Corp Achieve Growth Goals

"In an increasingly competitive landscape, businesses don't have the luxury of doing the same thing year after year. They have to grow just to stay relevant," declared Peak Enterprises Corp's President. "We accomplish this by setting goals in several different areas of our operations, ranging from sales and revenue, to associates promoted into leadership roles, and overall team growth."

By earning the Best and Brightest to Work For award, Peak Enterprises Corp's team has set itself apart from others in the area. Savvy young professionals know that the difference between a job and a career often comes down to culture, and whether a company's leadership prioritizes workplace satisfaction and associate development. Being recognized by the NABR provides proof that Peak Enterprises Corp is an organization to which they can commit.

"Of course, what I find really humbling about this award is that we won it through positive feedback from our team. To everyone who filled out a survey, I just want to say, 'Thank you!' I appreciate each and every one of my colleagues, and I will continue to create the kind of environment in which they enjoy working and succeeding."

About Peak Enterprises Corp:

Peak Enterprises Corp is the premier consulting and marketing services provider for the telecommunications industry. By applying in-depth market analysis and demographic research, their team of branding specialists infuses each interactive promotional campaign with a customized feel that is precisely targeted. This approach leads to meaningful connections between companies and their ideal customers to drive rapid market saturation. By forming these connections, Peak Enterprises Corp has built a reputation as an industry leader while providing a high return on investment for a diverse portfolio of clients. Whether working with a small local startup or an international corporation, Peak Enterprises Corp delivers consistent boosts to bottom lines and brand awareness. Check us out at http://peakenterprisescorp.com/.

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q442-Fx8Jkk

SOURCE Peak Enterprises Corp.

Related Links

http://peakenterprisescorp.com


COLUMBIA, Md., June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Founders of Freedom Consulting Group have appointed Sean Keller as Chief Strategy Officer, effective July 1, 2017. In this capacity, Mr. Keller will focus his efforts on positioning Freedom for accelerated growth and expanded opportunities for its highly skilled staff. He will also work with the Freedom Leadership Team to build upon the company's successes and leverage Freedom's expertise in both traditional and non-traditional market spaces.

Prior to joining Freedom, Mr. Keller was one of the founders of Sage Managementa technology solutions provider, where Mr. Keller served in a variety of capacities culminating as President & CEO. Specializing in high-end atmospheric dispersion modeling and consequence management, software and systems engineering, geospatial information systems, and intelligence analysis, the company employed nearly 100 professional staff in offices and locations across the country. In 2015 Sage was acquired by the Xator Corporation.

A native of Maryland, Mr. Keller grew up in Howard County and is a 1991 graduate of the University of Maryland College Park and 1999 graduate of the Johns Hopkins University. He is also a retired US Air Force Reserve Officer.

At Freedom, Mr. Keller will join the Freedom Leadership Team in leveraging the company's outstanding software and system engineering practice into non-traditional national security market spaces. Mr. Keller said, "Freedom Consulting has grown to be a key solutions provider in the intelligence community. With a culture built upon trust and respect, I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for Freedom and grateful for the opportunity to join this great team!"

Dana Gift, CEO/CFO of Freedom, speaking on the addition of Mr. Keller, said, "Sean's ability to quickly understand our culture and our capabilities gives him unique insight into the opportunities and market spaces in which Freedom can bring its expertise to solve critical national security challenges. His knowledge of non-traditional market spaces will provide even greater opportunities for our talented staff. We are excited to have Sean join the team!"

ABOUT FREEDOM CONSULTING GROUP

Founded in 2004, Freedom Consulting Group is a company in which honesty, integrity, and trust are valued above all else. The founders believe these values and our reputation are fundamental to our success, and strive to instill those values in all who work for Freedom. At Freedom, we don't believe a quick buck is worth sacrificing our values, nor do we believe in "spin." We treat our clients with respect and we "tell it like it is." Such an approach builds trust, which in turn enables us to work in closer cooperation with our clients to ensure their success. It is through the success of our clients that we measure our own success.

Freedom Consulting Group's experienced team has expertise and a proven track record of delivery in a variety of different information technology fields. Freedom's core skill sets include Data Engineering & Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, Geographic Information Systems, Software Engineering and Cloud Computing.

SOURCE Freedom Consulting Group
NEW YORK, June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Rackspace Hosting, Inc. ("Rackspace" or the "Company"). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether Rackspace and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On May 11, 2015, Rackspace reported its first quarter 2015 revenue and margins and issued a weak sales outlook. During an earnings call, the Company's Chief Executive Officer characterized the expiration of a lucrative contract with Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone") as "material" and "significant." On this news, Rackspace's share price fell $9.38, or 17.65%, over the following two trading days to close at $43.75 on May 13, 2015.

Then, on May 27, 2015, during an analyst conference call, the Company's Chief Financial Officer stated that Vodafone is "one of our largest customers in the Company and the largest one in our UK business" and acknowledged that the Company had "known about" the impending cancellation of its contract with Vodafone. On this news, Rackspace's share price fell $0.78, or 1.83%, to close at $41.86 on May 28, 2015.

Finally, on August 10, 2015, Rackspace lowered its 2015 revenue guidance to "just below $1.99 billion" citing "marketing and sales issues . . . and product challenges." On this news, Rackspace's share price fell $2.49, or 7.85%, to close at $29.24 on August 11, 2015.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

http://www.pomerantzlaw.com


Sugarwise's Chief Scientist, Vinicius Ferreira explains: "One of the main challenges of reformulation is recreating the sweetness profile of high-sugar foods with low-calorie alternatives. SweetLeaf is hitting this challenge out of the park with its impressively wide range of products that are helping manufacturers and individuals create great-tasting, Sugarwise recipes."

The first Sugarwise accredited recipe book "Sugar Free" will be available on shelf and online mid-July. It will feature some of the SweetLeaf products that will be certified sugar-free by Sugarwise, and carry the coveted Sugarwise marque.

Sugarwise fully supports the use of calorie-free, sugar-free, carb-free SweetLeaf stevia to reduce sugar intake and regulate weight. SweetLeaf is the first brand to be invited to enter into the Sugarwise Founding Partnership, an alliance which will be made up of no more than 12 members. Only one other invitation has so far been extended, to a Californian company.

Rend Platings, founder of Sugarwise, comments: 'I'm delighted that Sugarwise and SweetLeaf are partnering to advocate like-for-like swaps in the strategy to combat obesity. You don't have to deny your sweet tooth to stay healthy  SweetLeaf means you can enjoy sweet-tasting foods and drinks, absolutely guilt-free!'

Brian Hall, Global Brand Manager of SweetLeaf adds, 'We are thrilled to support the Sugarwise mission. Sugarwise is one of the most trusted sources for nutrition information on free sugar, backed by a scientific approach. We feel honoured to meet their standards and share in this important cause affecting billions of people around the world.'

SweetLeaf and Sugarwise will be exhibiting together at the upcoming Eat Smart Show in London Olympia on the 7th-9th July. Sugarwise's next Founding Members will be announced at upcoming Parliamentary Summits in the UK and EU in September.

SOURCE Sugarwise
Narayen and Murthy will be honoured with the prestigious Great Immigrants annual award on US independence day on July 4.

By Press Trust of India: Indian-Americans, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen and former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, are among 38 immigrants to be honoured this year for their role in helping advance the country's society, culture and economy.

Narayen and Murthy will be honoured with the prestigious Great Immigrants annual award on US independence day on July 4.

Murthy, 39, born in the UK and a Harvard and Yale alumnus, was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, becoming the first-ever Indian-American to occupy the post and also the youngest ever surgeon general of the country.

advertisement

However, Murthy was dismissed this year in April by the Trump administration.

Narayen, 54, a native of Hyderabad has an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering, a masters degree in computer science, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is a board member of Pfizer and US-India Business Council (USIBC).

He was among a select group of CEOs who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington for a roundtable during the leaders visit for first bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump this week.

Among other honorees include Canadian-origin social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, who has been awarded the 2017 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, PayPal cofounder of Ukrainian origin Max Levchin, Iranian-origin philanthropist and entrepreneur Hushang Ansary.

Each year since 2006, the corporation has recognised the contributions of naturalised citizens, and for 2017, the honorees represent more than 30 different countries of origin, a wide range of personal immigration stories, and a high-level of professional leadership in numerous fields.

"Our annual tribute to Great Immigrants demonstrates the richness of talent, skills, and achievements that immigrants from around the world bring to every sphere of American society," said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York.

"This campaign reminds us of the debt the United States owes to generations of immigrants who become citizens and contribute to the progress of this country. Today, we celebrate and thank them," he said.

The honorees will be recognised with a full-page public service announcement in The New York Times and an online public awareness initiative.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York was established in 1911 by Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.

In keeping with this mandate, the corporations agenda focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and a strong democracy.

Also read:

Trump targeting over 200 Indian immigrants; India seeks details from USA

Donald Trump's immigration plans could impact 3 lakh Indian-Americans

Also Watch:

What happens when Donald Trump gets a WhatsApp message from PM Modi

--- ENDS ---
(

Public Organization

)

or TCEB is encouraging Thai meetings and incentives travel operators to tap into the Indian MICE market by organising the Thailand Incentive & Meeting Exchange 2017

(

TIME 2017

)

, under the theme

'

India In

-

depth

'.

The event brings together world renowned industry experts to share in

-

depth exclusive information while providing a business negotiation platform for Thai MICE operators

.

Ms Nooch Homrossukhon, Director of Meetings and Incentives Department, TCEB revealed that Thailand's meetings and incentives (MI) sector is a major contributor to the MICE industry, delivering approximately 40 per cent of the industry's total revenue. During the 2016 fiscal year, Thailand welcomed a total of 1,273,465 MICE travelers, earning the Thai economy 102.936 billion baht, with the MI sector accounting for 522,039 travellers, and generating MICE revenue of 39.662 billion baht. India, the second highest source market following China, contributed more than 90,000 MICE travellers, generating more than 8 billion baht MICE revenue.

"Thailand has significant opportunities to welcome MICE travellers from India, who are also often repeat travellers. We foresee the highlighted and high potential target group from the Indian MICE market in the premium segment. The Thailand Incentives & Meeting Exchange or TIME is a key initiative of the Meetings and Incentives Department, which aims to provide an education and business opportunity platform for Thai MICE operators. The overall economic impact, and the numbers of MICE travellers and revenue from India as a source market - along with lucrative business opportunities in India - highlights the importance of increasing the competitiveness of Thai MICE operators. With such significance, this year's TIME platform will deep-dive into the Indian MICE market to enable our entrepreneurs to understand this market better, and to envision the potential of the mid-to high-end segment as well as the possibilities of new sectors. The information we share today will be able to help Thai MI operators to creatively plan their market strategies that meet the demands of the Indian market, while differentiating and creating added value for Thailand's MICE industry as a whole."

Held under the theme 'India In-depth', TIME 2017 comprises three key activities including the Knowledge Exchange  an education and competitiveness forum that helped Thai MICE operators to understand the Indian market better, consisting of the overall MI market landscape in India, the 'Understanding the Corporate Buying Power' panel discussion that shares information on the decisions of corporate buyers when choosing venues for meetings and incentives travel by representatives of leading multinational companies in high potential industries including the Health, wellness & biomedical technology sector (Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Zimmer Biomet Ltd), Automotive (Goodyear India Ltd) and Banking and Finance (Bajaj Finance Ltd) as well as the 'Leveraging Connections and Conversations through Intermediary Relations' dialogue exchange among Thai and Indian destination management companies to help identify and co-create sales and marketing strategies that meet the demands of the Indian MICE market.

The Business Exchange featured a table-top session with 80 participants, which offering business opportunities and connected Thai MICE operators with meetings and incentives travel organisers from India, and representatives from alliance partners.

The Experience Exchange will bring together 41 Indian MICE agents and 6 international media to experience the Mega Familiarisation Trip to Chiang Mai, one of the Thailand's key MICE city, from 1 to 4 July 2017. An array of activities have been strategically designed to provide first-hand experience for participating target buyers from India, while helping increase sales opportunities for Thai MICE operators and showcasing the capabilities, readiness, and latest products and services that underline Chiang Mai's enchanting charm and unrivaled uniqueness. The 'Mantra of The Golden Land' Mega Familiarisation Trip comprises tailored activities targeting Indian customers including a 'Mantra of Chiang Mai' cultural field trip rally, a Business Showcase for MICE operators to present their capabilities for MI activities to potential buyers, an orchid planting CSR activity to help revitalize ecosystems, a team building activity to assemble bicycles to donate to a community school, umbrella painting, and weaving Thai traditional fish mobile (Pla-Tapian) and other fun-filled competitions that will see the highest scoring team win a special prize  a hot-air balloon tour over Chiang Mai. Other key highlight events include the 'Mantra of Lanna Heritage' reception party at the Royal Park Ratchaphruek, and the farewell party in the theme 'Mantra of Himanvanta', to express gratitude to valued partners which include Thai Airways International PCL, Thai Smile Airways Limited, and the Thai Incentive and Convention Association (TICA), for their strong support for TIME 2017.

As part of the marketing promotion for meetings and incentives travel in the 2017 Fiscal Year, Ms Nooch concluded that TCEB has put in place a range of financial and non-financial support campaigns for corporate customers, providing subsidies based on delegate group size, and types of activities, such as Thailand BIG Thanks, Meet Double Cities and Meet Sustainable Way.

About TCEB

Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) - the government leading edge agency - has been the key to success for a wide range of global & regional business events since 2004. With our key strategic model, Growth Driver; TCEB works as your strategic business partner, delivers creative ideas, and provides solutions from our capable resources for every scale and various customised business events.

TCEB has formed numerous collaborations and networks linked to open up grand new chapters of business opportunities, and to strategically enhance every business success with special care that will spur lasting advancement and achievements. Our goal is to equipping business events industry at national, regional, and global stage for continuous development, long-term growth and sustainable success.

For further information, please contact: Corporate Communications Division, Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (Public Organization)

Ms Arisara Thanuplang

Tel: +66 2 694 6095

Email: [email protected].or.th

Ms Titiwanlaya Thaimongkolrat

Tel: +66 2 694 6103

Email: [email protected].or.th

Ms Kwanchanok Otton

Tel: +66 2 694 6096

Email: [email protected].or.th

a publicist

Tel: +66 2 101 6860

Ms.Arpaporn (A) +6689 788 4868

Ms.Thittaya (Jang) +6694 323 5641

Mr.Sorasak (Earth) +6689 406 5544

SOURCE Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB)

Related Links

http://www.tceb.or.th


BOSTON, July 1, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 1,200 registered nurses at Tufts Medical Center, who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), delivered a ten-day notice to hospital management on July 1 notifying them of their intent to hold a one-day strike beginning at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, July 12 and running until 6:59 a.m. on Thursday, July 13.

The letter, which was addressed to Tufts CEO Michael Wagner, stated that the Tufts RNs, " will engage in a strike and picketing beginning at 7 a.m. on July 12, 2017 at and about the Medical Center. It is our intention to end the strike and picketing at 6:59 am on July 13th with the nurses returning to work at that time. However, if Tufts Medical Center locks out or otherwise prevents RNs from returning to work at that time, MNA will continue its strike and picketing until such time as the lockout or other refusal by the Medical Center to allow the nurses to return to work ceases."

The Tufts RNs have been in talks with management for a new contract since April of 2016, and more than 30 negotiating sessions have been held to date. Last week an additional closed-door session was held at the request of the federal mediator who has been involved in the talks since the spring, but that session failed to result in an agreement that addressed the nurses' key issues.

"We do not want to strike," said Mary Havlicek Cornacchia, an OR nurse and bargaining unit co-chair. "But management has left us with no other choice. They won't hear us. They don't believe us when we say that the contract improvements we are fighting for are necessary in order to keep patients safe, and in order to keep Tufts Medical Center competitive in a city full of top-notch hospitals. We want to be inside on July 12 caring for our patients, but if striking is the only way to get management to hear us and to take our issues seriously then we will be on the streets instead."

The nurses' key issues in these talks continue to be:

The need for improved nurse staffing with safer patient assignments for nurses throughout the hospital

The need for more IV nurses and clinical resource nurses

The need to have charge nurses who are free of patient assignments at the start of all shifts, in all units. A charge nurse is an RN who is responsible for managing all aspects of nursing responsibilities during each shift, from processing patients in and out to delegating nursing rounds. Being free of an initial patient assignment will allow Tufts' charge nurses to provide desperately needed support to patients and nurses at the busiest time (i.e., change of shift)

charge nurses to provide desperately needed support to patients and nurses at the busiest time (i.e., change of shift) The need for wage improvements that will make the hospital market competitive, thereby improving nurse recruitment and retention

The need for pension protections/improvements that will make the hospital market competitive

Concerns over Safe Staffing and Safe Patient Care

In the current environment at Tufts, nurses across all units and floors are contending with unsafe staffing situations on a daily basis, with many units reporting constant unsafe staffing levels. The result is too many RNs are regularly carrying patient assignments that are too large and unsafe. Every day, the hospital sends RNs blast-text messages asking them to pick up shifts that are open due to the bare-bones approach management uses to staff the hospital.

Simultaneously, hospital management insists on using a fragmented and broken system of temporary reassignment as a way of trying to deal with its chronic staffing challenges. This results in RNs being directed to work on units and floors where they are unfamiliar and/or untrained to safely care for patients. In addition, there are not enough specialty nurses to help with patients' IV needs or in an emergency.

"We have offered a variety of proposals  and amended proposals, and doubly amended proposals  that would address staffing," added Havlicek Cornacchia. "But management's responses have been so inadequate that they don't get to the heart of the problem. They insist on offering us staffing proposals that are disjointed and superficial. What we need from them is simple: more full-time RNs and specialty nurses, and charge nurses without an initial patient assignment. That's what will keep our patients safe."

Market Competitive Compensation

In addition to having some of the worst staffing conditions in Boston, Tufts Medical Center has also become the hospital that offers its nurses the lowest wages and retirement benefits in the city. "The hospital's proposals have not adequately addressed these issues," said Barbara Tiller, union co-chair and an IV/PICC/CRN nurse. "Without market competitive wages and benefits, Tufts cannot recruit and retain the nurses it needs, and the staffing problem spirals downward."

Management has also proposed freezing the defined benefit pension plan for approximately 350 RNs and instituting a divisive, inequitable, and complex catchup mechanism as part of a proposed higher-risk 403(b) matching program. That change would result in significant losses in retirement funding for most nurses. Meanwhile, RNs already in the defined contribution plan would continue to receive the lowest employer contribution of all nurses in the city.

The nurses have countered with an innovative proposal that would benefit all RNs while still saving the hospital millions of dollars annually. This proposed plan, which is a multi-employer defined benefit pension plan, would add as much as $11 million to Tufts' bottom line, would eliminate more than $85 million in pension liability, and would save as much as $8 million by eliminating the costs of administering and insuring the existing plan. Management has refused to engage in any real talks on this issue.

"The pay and retirement benefits at Tufts just aren't competitive," added Tiller. "We know it, Tufts knows it, and the other hospitals in the city know it. As a result, we've become the nurse training ground for all the other facilities. New graduates come here, they get their experience, and they move on. This cycle won't stop until the hospital makes us competitive. And in the meantime, our patients suffer."

The nurses voted to authorize this one-day strike on March 29, 2017. They subsequently voted down a last, best, and final contract offer from management on June 8, 2017.

It is expected that the federal mediator will call the nurses back for an additional negotiation session prior to the July 12 strike.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association

Related Links

http://www.massnurses.org


NAIROBI, Kenya and SINGAPORE, June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Youtap, a global provider of contactless mobile payments and financial services software, is offering its new X8 'micro' point of sale device as a packaged solution for mobile money and payment service providers.

Youtap's X8 package includes:

Youtap is offering its new X8 'micro' point of sale device as a packaged solution for mobile money and payment service providers.

A supply of X8 merchant POS devices

A supply of NFC tags, cards, or wearables needed to launch 'tap and pay' services

Access to Youtap Pay Express, an integrated software and hardware payment processing platform

Various options for payment

Youtap's new NFC X8 is a small, low-cost point-of-sale device that can fit easily in a merchant's pocket or be worn around the neck. The X8 can process all mobile money transactions, including cash-in and cash-out transactions, airtime top-ups, bill payments and in-store payments.

The discreet size and low price of the X8 make it ideal for mobile airtime resellers, small shops, wet markets, street vendors, taxi drivers and other transport operators who need a secure and convenient way to accept mobile money.

Youtap has enhanced traditional mobile wallet transactions by integrating closed-loop mobile wallets with open-loop payment providers. Youtap's technology enables high-speed merchant payment and cross border transaction processing and integration across multiple third-party platforms to utilise all types of existing and new POS devices.

The Youtap Pay payment processing platform has rich APIs, which enables integration with solutions offered by banks, payment service providers (such as Visa and Mastercard) and third-party mobile wallets.

Youtap Pay Express is an 'entry-level' processing platform that gives mobile money service providers access to the technology they need to launch NFC-based payments in a new market, with the ability to upgrade to the Youtap Pay platform.

"Merchant payments are growing at a phenomenal rate in emerging markets," said Chris Jones, CEO of Youtap.

"Youtap is at the forefront of this growth, enabling more than 30 payment providers in Africa alone to process large volumes of in-store, transportation and cash-related transactions," he said. "By bundling X8 acceptance devices with the Youtap Pay Express platform, we're providing mobile money services with the latest in mobile money payment processing technology and an entry ramp into merchant payments."

Youtap will be demonstrating the X8 solution at the GSMA Mobile 360 event in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 11-13 July.

For details on the X8 or any of Youtap's product range, email [email protected].

About Youtap

Youtap is a global provider of contactless mobile payments and financial services software enabling mobile money and stored value wallet customers to tap and pay at any point of sale with any device. Youtap's full suite of contactless mobile payments and commerce solutions bridge the gap between mobile money and stored value wallets and the retail point of sale. Youtap's secure NFC solutions support payment acceptance for contactless and non-contactless cards, NFC tags and wearables, and NFC phones.

On the web: www.youtap.com

Twitter: @youtap2pay

Contact:

Karen Knott

Head of Communications

Youtap

[email protected]

+64 9 360 9719

SOURCE Youtap Ltd

Related Links

http://www.youtap.com


Washington, June 26 : Senior adviser Jared Kushners real estate firm received a $285 million loan a month before Election Day from Deutsche Bank that has lent millions to his father-in-law President Donald Trump in the past, the media reported.

According to the Washington Post report on Sunday, Kushner was acting as both an adviser to the Trump campaign and working at his real estate company when his firm received the loan from Deutsche Bank.

The White House told The Post that Kushner "will recuse from any particular matter involving specific parties in which Deutsche Bank is a party."

Kushner also reportedly made a personal guarantee on the loan, which he did not reveal on his financial disclosure form with the Office of Government Ethics.

A lawyer representing Kushner told the Post that the senior adviser was not required to disclose the loan because of guidance from the ethics office that "clearly states that filers do not have to disclose as a liability a loan on which they have made a guarantee unless they have a present obligation to repay the loan".

A former ethics official said he would have recommended that Kushner include the loan on the disclosure because of how large it is and the implications of being the guarantor of the loan.

Deutsche Bank has also been tied into the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Kushner is reportedly under scrutiny for meetings with Russian officials, reports The Hill magazine.

House Intelligence Committee leaders have been pushing the bank to share information about Trump's financial dealings with Russia.

Trump's personal financial disclosure report showed that he owes a debt of $130 million to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, suggesting the bank is one of the President's major lenders.
Ahmedabad, June 26 : The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Monday said it has passed a resolution demanding the immediate scrapping of the National Commission for Minorities and the Ministry of Minority Affairs, as they "give credence to a separatist mindset".

The VHP's Central Governing Council met in Vadtal in Kheda district of Gujarat between June 24 and 25, where it concurred that minorities "gather sympathy" and carry out "anti-Hindu and anti-national activities" with the help of the minorities commission.

"The National Human Rights Commission is more than enough to take care of the rights of all citizens of the country... The workings of the minorities commission creates a false feeling that the Muslim and Christian community are being persecuted," reads the resolution.

The VHP also reiterated its demand of enacting a law for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

"Iron Man Sardar Patel has already shown us, through the example of Somnath temple, how this can be done. The best tribute to the Iron Man would be if the Ram temple could be built on the lines of the Somnath Temple," the resolution said.

Freedom fighter and India's first Home Minister Sardar Patel was born in Kheda district.

The VHP also expressed concern over the imposition of GST on "prasad" of the Tirupati and some other big temples. It asked Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to quash all taxes on Hindu religious items such as agarbatties, dhoop, gods and goddesses' idols, etc.

It stated that there was a conspiracy to malign the image of "gau rakshaks" (cow vigilantes).

"Gau rakshaks never take law in their own hands and it is police who file false cases against them to hide their own failures," the VHP resolution said.
Bangkok, June 27 : Thai navy confirmed that a Thai oil tanker which was hijacked by a pirate vessel in Malaysian waters had returned to Thailand, the media reported.

"The hijacked oil tanker C.P. 41 is safe now," said Thai Navy spokesman Admiral Jumpol Lumphikanont on Monday.

Jumpol said the oil tanker were sailing on the right route when it was attacked and Thai navy sent patrol boat HTMS Takbai there to save them after being informed.

C.P. 41, carrying 17 crew and some 3,800 tonnes of diesel oil, was attacked by six armed pirates, while en route from Singapore to Songkhla Friday night.

The crew said they were held captive at gunpoint during the hijack, and the hijackers cut their communication, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Bahasa spoken pirates siphoned 1,500 tonnes and left the oil tanker on Saturday morning.

Jumpol said Thailand and Malaysia "has a strict joint patrol" after the incident and they have asked private companies to be more cautious and assigned authorities on routes of high risk of piracy.
Los Angeles, June 27 : Reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian has reportedly called it quits with her beau Younes Bendjima.

According to a source, Kourtney ditched Bendjima because she didn't love him and just used him to make her former partner Scott Disick jealous.

"Kourtney broke Younes's heart. While they were in Cannes, he told her that he was falling in love with her, but she just wasn't feeling the same way," the source told radaronline.com.

Kourtney and Bendjima went to Cannes for a vacation last month. Disick was later seen with seven different women during his vacation in Cannes and Monaco.

"She loved the sex but she was not able to give him what he really wanted, which was a serious relationship. When Kourtney brought Younes with her it was basically to make Scott jealous -- and it worked! But she also realised that the age gap between them was just too much and she could not relate to him," the source said.

"Kourtney's friends just really want her to settle down with a guy her own age and someone who has his own money. But she is still trying to make up for all of the time lost while she was with Scott. She is totally content with being a cougar for now," the source added.
New Delhi, June 27 : Farhan Akhtar starrer "The Fakir of Venice" will be the opening movie at the 8th Jagran Film Festival, which will start here from July 1.

The gala, to be inaugurated by veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, will be held at the Siri Fort Auditorium, said a statement.

Directed by Anand Surapur and also featuring Annu Kapoor, "The Fakir of Venice" is a drama inspired by the real life experience of filmmaker Homi Adajania of taking a fakir (saint) to Venice.

The film showcases a story of an Indian conman who is hired to find a fakir who can bury himself in sand for an installation art project in Venice. He passes off a poor slum dweller from Mumbai as the real thing, conning the European art world successfully.

The story depicts a strange relationship between two characters who are brought together to carry out a deception. To pull it off, however, they must learn to shed the layers of deceit and move towards understanding themselves, the statement read.

In the film's poster, Farhan and Annu are seen wearing saffron clothes.

Beginning with New Delhi, the festival will travel to 16 other cities including Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Bhopal, Ranchi, Indore, Ludhiana and Dehradun before culminating in Mumbai with the award ceremony in September. Over 130 movies will be screened.
Mumbai, June 28 : Actor Arshad Warsi, who has been hospitalised after suffering a "bad knee injury", says he has been advised bed rest for two weeks.

"My knee treatment was going on and I have gone and injured it some more. I was doing a Tango dance sequence and my knee gave way during a lift. I have been advised bed rest for two weeks but can't do that so I am on heavy medication now," Arshad told IANS over a text message from Mumbai.

The 49-year-old actor on Wednesday tweeted a photograph showing a wall clock, and wrote: "My view this morning, had a bad knee injury yesterday, in the hospital, trying to fix...I'm doing this."

The "Jolly LLB" star later shared a photograph of his knee in a navy blue coloured cast and mentioned that he hurt himself doing the Tango.

"'Dard bhari taang' (painful leg) from doing Tango to painful Taangon," a second image was captioned so by the actor, who once had a dance studio.

The "Ishqiya" actor also shared a photograph along with his doctor and thanked him.

"My doctor, Dr Ali Irani, a great physiotherapist and an even greater human being... Thank you," he added.

Arshad is known for his comical roles in films like "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." and "Jolly LLB". He also featured in "Ishqiya" and "Dedh Ishqiya".
By PTI: Kota (Rajasthan), Jul 1 (PTI) Three men died of asphyxiation when they went down a 60-foot well to rescue a calf in Mangrole area of Baran district, police said today.

The calf had fallen in the abandoned well in an agricultural field in Rawal-Jawal village yesterday evening.

Six people went down the well to rescue the calf.

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While three people died of asphyxiation, three others were pulled out by villagers in unconscious state.

The deceased were identified as Rameshwar Mali (25), Jitendra alias Jitu Mali (19) and Om Prakesh Mali (45), Mangrole police station SHO Jagdish Prasad said.

The injured were rushed to a local hospital from where one of them, Raju, was referred to Mharao Bheem Singh (MBS) Hospital in Kota, he said.

Several villagers, who had rushed to the well after the incident was reported, were also affected by the poisonous gas emitting out of the well and complained of vomiting and irritation, the SHO said. PTI CORR SMN

--- ENDS ---
Beijing, June 30 : The Chinese army on Friday deployed its largest ever number of troops in Hong Kong during President Xi Jinping's visit to mark the 20th anniversary of the UK's return of the territory to Beijing.

Xi reviewed the troops during a parade on Friday morning in which around 3,000 soldiers from around 20 squadrons participated, reports Efe news.

The deployment also included more than 60 armoured vehicles, 12 helicopters and anti-aircraft missile units, according to local Hong Kong media.

Xi's visit to the People's Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong aims to reinforce his image in the territory, following the emergence of new pro-democracy and pro-independence movements.

While the President will adhere to his strictly official agenda involving meetings with local government officials and visits to government-related sectors, pro-democracy activists are trying to demonstrate against his visit, under the watchful eye of the authorities.

Xi arrived on Thursday when police had already detained several pro-democracy activists over occupying an iconic monument in the city, where the Chinese president is expected to preside over an event on Saturday.

The activists were released from custody on Friday and are expected to hold protests demanding Xi to grant greater freedoms to the region along with the unconditional release of Chinese dissident and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo.

The dissident was recently transferred from prison to a hospital to be treated for terminal liver cancer and kept under surveillance.

This is Xi's first official trip to the territory to mark 20 years of Chinese governance of Hong Kong.

When Hong Kong was returned in 1997, Beijing pledged to govern under a "one country, two systems" principle, where the city was given greater autonomy compared to the mainland, including freedom of the press and judicial independence.
Washington, June 30 : Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling trolled Donald Trump with a tweet that mocked the US President with a quote by one of his predecessors, the media reported.

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power," Rowling tweeted on Thursday night.

The quote, which she attributed to US President Abraham Lincoln, led to over 35,000 re-tweets.

Rowling was responding to Trump's tweet about MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, in which the President attacked Brzezinski's looks and Scarborough's intelligence.

"I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago three nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no," Trump tweeted earlier on Thursday.

However, this is not the first time the British author has attacked Trump on Twitter. She's been vocal against him in the past too.
Berlin, June 30 : Germany on Friday became the 23rd country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, after lawmakers passed a bill in a snap vote that was approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel just four days ago.

The initiative, which delivers full rights to same-sex couples, including on adoption, was propelled through Germany's Bundestag (parliament) with the backing of 393 lawmakers to 226 against, reports Efe news.

"Progress is possible. As the 23rd country on earth, we now have marriage equality in Germany. I'm happy for all the married couples-to-be," wrote Martin Schulz on Twitter, whose Social Democratic Party (SPD) seized on Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision on Monday to allow the vote.

The SPD has several government ministers in office as part of its grand coalition agreement with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, but broke ranks with the CDU in order to push for Friday's vote, sparking criticism from several conservative lawmakers.

Merkel voted against the measure, saying she personally believed marriage in German law is be between a man and a woman, although she thought same-sex adoption should be possible.

"I hope that the vote today not only promotes respect between different opinions but also brings more social cohesion and peace," she added.

The measure was backed by the SPD, the Left and the Green Party as well as members of the CDU, who were allowed a free vote.

Speaking during the debate ahead of the vote, SPD parliamentary chairman Thomas Oppermann argued that "if gay marriage is chosen, then many will receive something, but nobody will have something taken away".

In his debate intervention, CDU's parliamentary group leader Volker Kauder reiterated his ideological support for those who believe marriage should be available only for a man and woman, he added, however, he would respect those in his party who would vote in support.

Jan Marco Luczack, also from the CDU, defended legalising same-sex marriage, saying conservatives should defend the traditional values of love and harmony.

Prior to the vote, same-sex couples had access to civil unions.

Germany now joins 13 other European countries such as the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and Ireland, which already have same-sex marriage laws in place.
Bhubaneswar, June 30 : The Odisha government on Friday approved Rs 1,188 crore investment proposals of three companies including Ambuja Cements Ltd.

The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) headed by Chief Secretary A.P. Padhi approved the investment proposals of Ambuja Cements Ltd, Emami Paper Mills Ltd and Surya Foods and Agro Ltd.

Emami Paper Mills would expand their multilayer coated board manufacturing plant at Balgopalpur industrial estate in Balasore with an investment of Rs 650 crore.

With the expansion plans, the company is expected to generate around 1,750 direct and indirect employment opportunities, said an official.

Emami had started its paper manufacturing unit in Balasore in 1982 and since then, it has been regularly expanding its operations by setting up manufacturing of newsprint and paperboard project. It has also set up a 10.50 MW co-generation power plant in 2015.

The proposal of Ambuja Cements to set up a 1.5 MTPA cement grinding unit in Jharsuguda has also been approved by the SLSWCA. The company would invest Rs 430 crore in the project, said the official.

The proposed facility will spread across 125 acres and add to the company's existing portfolio of five integrated cement manufacturing plants and eight cement grinding units across the country.

The proposed project is expected to generate 300 direct and indirect job opportunities in the state, said the official.

The SLSWCA also approved the Rs 108 crore project proposal of Surya Foods and Agro Ltd to set up a biscuit manufacturing unit at the food park in Khurdha.

The state government has already approved investment proposals of Rs 1.10 lakh crore after the Make in Odisha conclave in Bhubaneswar and investors' meets in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Washington, June 30 : A key US Senate panel has asked the Pentagon to identify ways for India to play a larger role in providing increased and coordinated defence-related support to Afghanistan.

US Senator Dan Sullivan presented a resolution in this regard on Thursday and it was passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee as part of the the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA-2018). The committee authorised $640 billion in critical defence spending for Fiscal Year 2018.

"This provision encourages the Department of Defence to identify ways that India can play a larger role in providing increased and coordinated defence-related support to Afghanistan, a critical part of overcoming the current 'stalemate' in the fight against the Taliban," said a statement by the office of Sullivan.

"Encourage Increased Role for India in Afghanistan" was one of the 24 amendments unanimously passed by the Senate committee.

Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary James Mattis called on NATO allies to "finish the job in Afghanistan" or risk "terrorist revenge" as the alliance confirmed a troop increase to counter a resurgent Taliban.

"The bottom line is that NATO has made a commitment to Afghanistan for freedom from fear and terror, and freedom from terror demands that you can't let this be undone," he added.

The US, which once had more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, is preparing a new strategy for a war which has dragged on for 16 years and which even US generals concede is a "stalemate" at best.
Kolkata, June 30 : President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said peaceful co-existence of contrary opinions was a must in a thriving democracy.

Inaugurating the bi-centenary celebrations of Bengali newspapers at the Press Club here, the President said: "There will be lot of opinions, the peaceful co-existence of which is a must in a spirit of co-operation in a democracy."

The President recalled that the country's first newspaper Bengal Gazette was published from Kolkata in 1780.

Since then, 38 newspapers in the country were published till 1870, of which 19 were from Bengal only.

In this connection, the President dwelt on the glorious past of the evolution of Bengali newspapers.

Referring to the advent of technology in communication, he mentioned the growing importance of social media in the country.

On the occasion, West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi released a commemorative volume on the two hundred years of Bengali newspapers, brought at by the Kolkata Press Club. The first copy was handed over to the President.
Gandhinagar, June 30 : "Symphony of Weaves", a fashion show curated and produced by IMG Reliance Industries Ltd on the opening day of Textiles India 2017 at Mahatma Mandir here on Friday, was a unique fashion presentation celebrating the story of Indian textiles in the form of exquisite innovations in craft and design.

Textiles India 2017 is positioned as the first ever global B2B textiles event in India, from June 30-July 2 bringing to the fore the inspiring vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi - "From Farm to Fibre, Fibre to Factory, Factory to Fashion, Fashion to Foreign Exports". Textiles India aims to showcase the strength of the value chain in India.

The show presented a compelling story of the textiles of India, focusing on innovations in craft and design. It was the largest curated presentation of Indian textiles on the runway that unfolded the story of growth and development of the Indian textiles sector and its transformation to become a global power.

Inspired by the seven key notes of music that form the Sargam, a fundamental base for any tradition of music, the show celebrated textiles of India and showcased the entire spectrum through seven key segments covering Cottons, Silks, Wools, Embroidery, Hand-Dyed and Hand printed, Modern/Industrial and Futuristic Sustainable textiles of India.

Leading Indian designers have joined hands with master-craftsmen to showcase their work in heritage handlooms, handicrafts as well as modern and futuristic textiles. The textile panaroma spans across regions and states of North-East India, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam and many more.

The fashion show featured the designs from a combination of 31 established and emerging designers and master craftsmen/weavers from across different textile traditions, languages and states of India.

The story of the evolution of cottons in India was showcased by designers such as Anavila Misra, mastercraftsmen Chaman Siju from Kutch and Richana Khumanthem from Manipur as well as Wendell Rodricks for Goa Kunbi Cotton Handlooms. The rich legacy of Indian silk included Banarasi Silks by Sanjay Garg, Meghalaya Ryndia Silk by Daniel Syiem and Tussar handlooms from Jharkhand by Shruti Sancheti. Rahul Misra and Rajesh Pratap Singh among others showcased the story of evolution of Wool.

The embroidery category was presented by eminent designers such as Anamika Khanna, Anita Dongre, Manish Malhotra, Ritu Kumar, Rohit Bal, Sabyasachi, Tarun Tahiliani among others. Young gen next label Poochki collaborated with Master craftsman Berulal Chippa from Rajasthan to showcase Bagru handicraft and Vineet Rahul collaborated with Mohammed Yusuf Khatri from Bagh, Madhya Pradesh to showcase Bagh handicrafts in high end fashion. Gaurav Gupta and Pankaj & Nidhi presented modern textiles and in the final segment Abraham & Thakore, Amit Aggarwal, Hemang Agrawal and Manish Arora presented modern and futuristic textiles that included man-made fibres, metal yarns and sustainable recycled fabrics.

Talking about how such shows are going to bridge the gap between designers, craftspeople and government, Dongre told IANS: "It's for the first time that such a large initiative is done by the textile industry that everyone has come together to showcase what they got or are known for. Our textile industry is very versatile and no other country has this versatile textile industry like ours, so it's good to see so many foreign buyers coming under one roof."

Jaspreet Chandok, Vice-President & Head- Fashion, IMG Reliance said the show was an extension of what they are doing at Lakme Fashion Week (LFW- a bi-annual show organized by IMG Reliance).

"We have such a strong designing linkages on board that they come all the way to Gandhinagar to support us. This shows how much they support us at IMG Reliance."

Giving reference of a craftsman, he added: "Chaman Siju, a craftsman from Kutch who we discovered and put on Lakme Fashion Week stage on the Artisans of Kutch show that we did six months back, got the felicitation from Prime Minister today."

The lavish set had a circular ramp and a huge spindle as the centre piece. The backdrop installation for the show was inspired by the handloom jacquard attachments for punching pattern cards that is considered as an initial version of the modern computer.

The Symphony of Weaves fashion show was attended by Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani, Ajay Tamta, Minister of State for Textiles, and Industry Commissioner of Gujarat Mamta Verma.

((The writer's trip is at the invitation of IMG Reliance. Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)
Moscow, July 1 : Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a decree prolonging until the end of 2018 an embargo on perishable foodstuffs originating from the European Union.

The decision taken by Putin on Friday came one day after the EU prolonged, for a period of six months, sweeping economic sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow's role in the ongoing unrest in eastern Ukraine and its failure to uphold its end of a peace deal in that region, Efe news reported.

"The EU has decided to extend its anti-Russia sanctions. Russia will extend its response measures through 2018," said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in the wake of Brussels' decision on Thursday.

The list of banned EU food products includes fruit and vegetables, meat, fish and dairy products.

Meanwhile, the Brussels sanctions on Russia restricts the country's access to EU markets and focus particularly on state-owned oil and defence sectors.

Senior EU officials have accused Russia of failing to implement stipulations in the so-called Minsk agreement, which seeks to de-escalate the ongoing conflict between pro-Moscow separatists and the Ukrainian army in Ukraine's Russian borderland.
Hong Kong, July 1 : Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was sworn-in as the new Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Saturday as the territory marks 20 years since its handover to China from Britain..

Lam took her oath before Chinese President Xi Jinping, who oversaw the swearing-in ceremony along with the rest of her cabinet. She is Hong Kong's first female leader, reports Xinhua news agency.

"It is with a humble heart that I accept this greatest honour of my life and prepare to take on the greatest challenge in my public service career," Lam said in her inauguration speech.

Lam said she will "resolutely do everything" within her ability to implement the "one country, two systems" principle, uphold the Basic Law of the HKSAR and defend the rule of law.

"As we capitalise on our strengths and harness the opportunities presented by our country's development, Hong Kong's future is indeed bright and promising," Lam added.

On Friday night, clashes broke out between pro-democracy and pro-Beijing demonstrators close to the site, with several arrests made, reports the BBC.

Many parts of the city were shut down as part of the security operation.

The pro-democracy party, Demosisto, said police had arrested five of its members, and four members from the political party of the League of Social Democrats.

Among those arrested was Joshua Wong, the leader of the so-called umbrella protest movement.
Washington, July 1 : US President Donald Trump has backed his visiting South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in's policy to resume dialogue with Pyongyang, according to a joint statement issued after their summit at the White House.

"President Trump supported President Moon's aspiration to restart inter-Korean dialogue on issues including humanitarian affairs," Yonhap News Agency quoted the statement as saying on Friday night.

It said the two countries do not maintain a hostile policy toward North Korea and that the door to dialogue "remains open under the right circumstances".

Moon earlier said talks can be resumed if Pyongyang freezes its nuclear and missile activities.

Seoul and Washington shared top priority to resolve the nuclear issue and agreed to put maximum pressure on Pyongyang while affirming their resolve to work for "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner".

Sanctions are a tool of diplomacy, the statement said.

"They affirmed their commitment to fully implement existing sanctions and impose new measures designed to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to compel Pyongyang to cease its provocative actions and return to sincere and constructive talks."

The leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to an increased deterrence against North Korean threats and vowed to step up efforts to strengthen their countries' military alliance.

Seoul and Washington will also enhance their bilateral cooperation in dealing with global issues including terrorism.

"The two leaders condemned the grave human suffering and violence in Iraq and Syria caused by IS (Islamic State), and reaffirmed the strong US-South Korea partnership in the Global Coalition to counter IS," the statement added.
By PTI: Jammu, Jul 1 (PTI) Over 4,400 pilgrims today left the winter capital for the twin base camps of 3,888 metre high Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva in south Kashmir Himalayas, amid tight security.

The yatrawas suspended from Jammu base camp after multiple landslides triggered by heavy rains blocked the Jammu-Srinagar national highway yesterday.

Over 15,000 pilgrims have paid obeisance to the Ice Lingam of Lord shrine at Amarnath in South Kashmir hills.

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Amid chanting of "Jai Bholay Nath" and "Bum Bum Bholay", the pilgrims comprising 3,298 males, 986 females and 193 sages and transgenders left in a convoy of 142 vehicles for Amarnath this morning and were escorted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a police officer said.

With todays batch, 9,238 pilgrims and sadhus have left Jammu for Amarnath since the yatra began from Jammu on June 28. Todays was the third batch of pilgrims.

The annual yatra in Kashmir had begun amid terror threats, according to an Intelligence warning, prompting the authorities to mobilise the "highest level" of security measures,including satellite tracking system.

The Intelligence reports had claimed that militants were planning to target 100 policemen and as manypilgrims participating in the yatra.

"The Intelligence input received from SSP Anantnag revealed thatterrorists had been directed to eliminate 100 to 150 pilgrims andabout 100 police officers and officials," said a letter by Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Zone) Muneer Khan to the Army, CRPF, and range DIGs in the state last week.

"The input is assessed to be a HUMINT (human intelligence) andneeds further corroboration," the IGP had said in the letter, adding the possibility of a sensational attack by a terroristoutfit could not be ruled out.

"The attack may be in the form of stand-off fire on the yatraconvoy which the militants believe would result in flaring of communal tensionsthroughout the nation," the IGP had said in the letter which is beingcirculated on WhatsApp.

The government has mobilised a heavy security blanket of over 35,000 to 40,000 troops including the police, Army, BSF and CRPF as part of the multi-tier security for the pilgrimage.

In addition to the existing strength of the CRPF in Jammu and Kashmir,the Centre has provided over 250 companies (25,000 personnel) ofparamilitary forces to the state government.

The BSF has deployed over 2,000 troops for the yatra, while theArmy has provided 5 battalions (about 5,000 personnel) and additional54 companies (5,400 personnel) of the police have also been mobilised.

The yatra will be eight days shorter this year against lastyears 48 days and conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on August 7.

Situated in a narrow gorge at the farther end of Lidder Valley, Amarnath shrine stands at 3,888 metres, 46 km from Pahalgam and 14 km from Baltal. PTI AB SRY

--- ENDS ---

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Srinagar, July 1 : Authorities have imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar city on Saturday to prevent protests against the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the state.

Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation (KTMF) President Muhammad Yasin Khan has called for the valley-wide protests and shutdown.

Jammu and Kashmir is the only state yet to make a final call on the GST as the country's biggest tax reform was rolled out past midnight Friday.

The state government has called for a special session of the legislature on July 4 to discuss the implementation of the reform.

Shops and and public transport remained shut since Saturday morning.

However, the movement of pilgrims to the Amarnath Cave Shrine remained unaffected by the shutdown call.

Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in full riot gear were deployed in the areas -- Khanyar, Rainawari, Nowhatta, M.R.Gunj, Safa Kadal -- placed under restrictions.
Toronto, July 1 : Challenging theories that say human lifespan is approaching a limit, researchers have found that there is no evidence that maximum human lifespan has stopped increasing and could instead far exceed previous predictions.

In a previous study researchers concluded that the upper limit of human age is peaking at around 115 years.

However, the new study, published in the journal Nature, finds no evidence for such a limit.

"If such a maximum exists, it has yet to be reached or identified," said Siegfried Hekimi biologists at the McGill University in Canada.

"We just don't know what the age limit might be. In fact, by extending trend lines, we can show that maximum and average lifespans, could continue to increase far into the foreseeable future," Hekimi added.

Although some scientists argue that technology, medical interventions, and improvements in living conditions could all push back the upper limit.

It's impossible to predict what future lifespans in humans might look like, Hekimi noted.

"It's hard to guess. Three hundred years ago, many people lived only short lives. If we would have told them that one day most humans might live up to 100, they would have said we were crazy," Hekimi said.
Washington, July 1 : The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested a man in connection with the disappearance of a visiting Chinese graduate student last seen on June 9 in the University of Illinois campus, the media reported.

FBI nvestigators think the student, Yingying Zhang, 26, is probably dead, the US attorney's office for Central Illinois said in a statement on Friday.

Brendt Christensen, 27, of Champaign, Illinois, was charged with kidnapping, CNN quoted the statement as saying.

Christensen was under surveillance on Thursday when agents overheard him saying he kidnapped Zhang. He said he took the Chinese student back to his apartment.

"Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement agents believe that Zhang is no longer alive," the statement said, without offering further details.

The FBI says Christensen was driving the black Saturn Astra that was captured on security camera video picking up Zhang the afternoon of June 9.

She was seen entering the front passenger side of the vehicle, which then drove away.

On June 15, Christensen admitted picking up Zhang but he told the FBI that he let her out just a few blocks away, reports CNN.

Zhang had a year-long position at the university's department of natural resources and environmental sciences. She graduated from Beijing's Peking University last year with a master's degree in environmental engineering.

Christensen's first court appearance is on July 3.
Chennai, July 1 : Political party leaders have asked the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) to shut its operations in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district following police action on people protesting against oil spill after a pipeline burst.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss demanded the ONGC to halt operations in Kadiramangalam village and also the removal of police force deployed there.

Ramadoss said he would camp and protest in the village if his demands are not met.

Known as the "Rice Bowl of Tamil Nadu", Thanjavur is located around 350 km from here.

According to Ramadoss, unlike in advanced countries where pipelines are laid in unpopulated areas, the ONGC has laid down its pipelines in a heavily populated area which is unsafe.

"It is as if people are residing on a volcano," Ramadoss said.

He also condemned police action against the protesters on Friday.

MDMK General Secretary Vaiko demanded the Tamil Nadu government to announce that it would not allow exploration of shale gas, methane or other hydro carbon in the state.

The ONGC began its Thanjavur operations in 2002.
New Delhi : Muslims were the target of 51% of violence centred on bovine issues over nearly eight years (2010 to 2017) and comprised 86% of 28 Indians killed in 63 incidents, according to an IndiaSpend content analysis of the English media.

As many of 97 per cent of these attacks were reported after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government came to power in May 2014, and about half the cow-related violence -- 32 of 63 cases --were from states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when the attacks were reported, revealed our analysis of violence recorded until June 25, 2017.

Of the 28 Indians who died over the seven-year period, 24 were Muslim, or 86 per cent. As many as 124 people were also injured in these attacks. More than half (52 per cent) of these attacks were based on rumours, our analysis found.

National or state crime data do not distinguish general violence from cow-related attacks and lynchings; the IndiaSpend database is the first such statistical perspective to a growing national debate over such violence.

2017 is on track to be worst-ever year for cow-related violence.

In the first six months of 2017, 20 cow-terror attacks were reported -- more than 75 per cent of the 2016 figure, which was the worst year for such violence since 2010.

The attacks include mob lynchings by vigilantes, murder and attempt to murder, harassment, assault and gang-rape. In two attacks, the victims/survivors were chained, stripped and beaten, while in two others, the victims were hanged.

These attacks -- sometimes collectively referred to as gautankwad -- a portmanteau of the Hindi words for cow and terrorism on social media -- were reported from 19 of 29 Indian states, with Uttar Pradesh (10), Haryana (9), Gujarat (6), Karnataka (6), Madhya Pradesh (4), Delhi (4) and Rajasthan (4) reporting the highest number of cases.

No more than 21 per cent (13 of 63) of the cases were reported from southern or eastern states (including Bengal and Odisha), but almost half (six of 13) were from Karnataka. The only incident reported in the northeast was the murder of two men in Assam on 30 April, 2017.

About half the cases of cow-related violence -- 32 of 63 -- were from states governed by the BJP at the time; eight were run by the Congress, and the rest by other parties, including the Samajwadi Party (Uttar Pradesh), People's Democratic Party (Jammu & Kashmir) and Aam Aadmi Party (Delhi).

Muslim victims were identified by name. In eight per cent of the 63 cases, the reports explicitly stated that those attacked were Dalits, who are also targets because many among them clear cow carcasses, skin them and eat beef. In a few cases, religion was difficult to determine.

In 50.8 per cent (32) of the cases, the targets were Muslim, in 7.9 per cent (5) Dalit, 4.8 per cent (3) Sikh or Hindu (names appeared Sikh, but it wasn't certain) and 1.6 per cent (one) Christian; in 20.6 per cent (13) cases, religion was not reported. Among 14.3 per cent (9) cases, the targets were Hindus, but their caste was not clear.

Police officers and onlookers were injured in eight per cent (5) of the attacks; 27 per cent of those targeted were women. The searches were carried out in English media, but a quick assessment showed Hindi media to be carrying the same incidents.

Of the 63 attacks over eight years, 61 (96.8 per cent) occurred, as we said, after Modi's government came to power (2014-2017), with 2016 reporting the most attacks: 25. In the first six months of 2017, 20 attacks were reported -- more than 75 per cent of the 2016 figure.

In five per cent of the attacks, there was no report of arrests. In 13 attacks (21%), the police registered cases against the victims/survivors.

In 23 attacks, the attackers were mobs or groups of people who belonged to Hindu groups, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and local Gau Rakshak Samitis.

During the period under consideration -- 2010 to 2017 -- the first such attack occurred on June 10, 2012, in Joga town in Mansa district, Punjab, "after carcasses of about 25 cows were found" near a factory.

According to data collected, rumours spawned 52% of the attacks.

(In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public interest journalism platform. Delna Abraham & Ojaswi Rao are interns at IndiaSpend. The views expressed are those of IndiaSpend. Feedback at respond@indiaspend.org)
Washington, July 1 : The White House released its annual report to the Congress detailing the salaries of President Donald Trump's Executive Office staff which includes 22 of his aides who earn the maximum pay.

According to the 16-page report issued on Friday, the 22 staff members are earning the maximum of $179,700, including Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Counsellor Kellyanne Conway, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller, White House counsel Donald McGahn, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Social Media Director Dan Scavino, and Office of Public Liaison Communications Director Omarosa Manigault, reports CNN.

Sixteen staffers earned the maximum salary under former President Barack Obama, according to last year's annual report.

Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who are both White House advisers did not draw salaries.

Trump's top economic adviser, former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn, is paid a $30,000 salary.
New Delhi : A year ago, the Prime Minister had admonished the gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) in no uncertain terms. He did so again last Thursday, but even as he was speaking a mob was killing a man suspected of carrying beef in Jharkhand, which is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It will obviously take much more than an occasional condemnation to bring under control the murderous fanatics of the Hindu Right. The reason is the ingrained animosity of these groups towards Muslims who are mostly associated with eating beef. Since this bias has been instilled in them over decades by the Sangh Parivar led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), it will be futile to expect an overnight change of heart.

Nevertheless, Narendra Modi should be complimented for taking up cudgels against them. No one else either inside or outside the BJP could have done so. It is not impossible that his castigation of the gau rakshaks will turn a not inconsiderable section of the Parivar against him, thereby damaging the BJP's electoral prospects.

But Modi doesn't seem to have any hesitation in following a path different from the one favoured by the hardliners in the saffron brotherhood. While the latter wants the establishment of a Hindu 'rashtra' (nation) now that 1,200 years of "slavery" under the Muslims and the British have come to an end, Modi wants to take India forward as a modern country with a vibrant economy.

But this objective cannot be achieved if the country remains in the grip of lawless groups bent on lynching those who do not share their reverence for the cow.

Considering that Modi has succeeded in checking some of the excesses of the Hindu fundamentalists like arranging for 'ghar wapsi' - or the return of Muslims to their "original" faith of Hinduism - or opposing inter-faith marriages via their 'love jihad' propaganda, it is possible that he will be able to rein in the gau rakshaks as well.

But, unlike the two other "programmes" of the fanatics, controlling the cow vigilantes will be much more difficult because their rampages relate to the cow, a longstanding emblem of Hinduism in the eyes of the animal's worshippers who believe that it exhales oxygen and that its urine has therapeutic value.

An effort to restrain them, therefore, will be a real test for Modi, much more than the rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax or inviting foreign investment or popularising genetically modified food.

If he fails, there is little doubt that the halo surrounding his persona will be vastly diminished not only among the "not in my name" hashtag brigade of the urban middle class but also among the less privileged communities.

These include the Dalits, who have been alienated by the suicide of a bright young scholar in Hyderabad, the lynching of a group skinning a cow in Gujarat, and the clashes with high-caste Thakurs in Saharanpur, U.P.

On the other hand, if the Prime Minister succeeds -- if only because the police will now be far more active in apprehending the Hindu zealots -- Modi's image will receive a tremendous boost. But even as he gains among the people at large, the impact of restraining the gau rakshaks -- one of whom was compared with Bhagat Singh by a saffron sadhvi in Rajasthan -- on the Parivar diehards remains unclear.

Although the RSS has warned the Hindutva activists against taking the law into their own hands, the reactions of the more belligerent Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal and other groups like the Ram Sene, the Hindu Sena and the Hindu Mahasabha cannot but be less restrained.

For them, any administrative action against the gau rakshaks will be a betrayal of the Hindutva cause, which will bring the BJP in line with the "sickular", anti-Hindu, anti-national Congress and the left-liberals.

It is too early to say whether the saffron camp will split, but it goes without saying that for outfits like the VHP, it will be virtually meaningless to remain a part of the Parivar when their cherished hopes are receding further into the distance.

In India, another regimented group, the communists, splintered into many factions because they could not establish their beloved dictatorship of the proletariat via an armed revolution. Does a similar fate await the votaries of Hindu rashtra?

The country will however see a major transformation of the political scene if no more lynchings or murders take place in the name of the cow. The BJP can then look forward to any easy victory in 2019.

On the other hand, more venomous targeting of Muslims will be ruinous for Modi's reputation as a strong leader and energise his opponents as never before. Either way, the holy cow will be playing a seminal role in the country's social and political scene to the amazement of the rest of the world.

(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
Dhaka, July 1 : Police in Bangladesh on Saturday detained three women militants and seized weapons, ammunition and explosives, including suicide vests, during a raid on a suspected Neo JMB hideout in Bheramara in Kushtia district, a media report said.

Superintendent of Police, Kushtia, S.M. Mehedi Hossain, said the house near the Upazila town's Taltola Mosque was surrounded around 12 a.m. on Saturday based on information from the Counter Terrorism Unit, bdnews24.com reported.

Hossain said a woman wearing a suicide vest attempted to attack police during the operation that began around 3 a.m.

"She was stopped before it exploded. Two other women were detained later," he added.

The women have been identified as Tithi, the wife of neo-JMB leader Ayub Bachchu aka Shojib; Sumaiya, the wife of neo-JMB second-in-command Annaman Ali, and Toli Begum, the wife of Rajikul aka Rashed aka Talha of Bheramara's Daulatpur village, the report said.

Police recovered two suicide vests, a pistol, a magazine and some gunpowder during the raid on the first anniversary of the Gulshan Holey Artisan attack.

The neighbouring homes have been evacuated as police fear there may be more explosives inside the house.

According to an account in the Daily Star, soon after cordoning off the house, police asked the suspected militants to surrender.

After about five hours of the stand-off, Sumaiya Khatun wearing a suicide vest walked towards the police personnel along with her two sons.

Police foiled her attempt to blast the suicide vest and arrested her, SP Mehedi said.

The house was sealed off and a bomb disposal unit of CTTC in Dhaka was summoned.

The suspected militants rented the house from one Nasima Khatun around two months back, police said.

Police are in search of Nasima Khatun and her family members, the official said.
New York, July 1 : Google recently announced that it would update its Home virtual assistant/speaker with Bluetooth audio support but the update has accidentally begun to roll out silently to some Home owners, the media reported.

At the Google I/O 2017 - an annual developer festival held in California in May -- the company announced Bluetooth streaming will be available on Home.

"Even though Bluetooth is as old as the hills in tech years, it still took some time to get this feature ready. It's rolling out now and you might already have it on your Google Home," tech website Android Police said on Friday.

The update does not appear to be widely available and Google hasn't announced yet when it will be releasing Bluetooth support for the Google Home.

When the update does roll out for real, users will be able to use it as a Bluetooth speaker.

Google's own Home speaker has supported the company's Chromecast Audio standard since launch.

The new addition of Bluetooth will work with Home for music streaming, as well as allow it to be used as a speaker even without Wi-Fi.
New Delhi, July 1 : India on Saturday again sought consular access to its nationals Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on alleged espionage charges, and Hamid Nehal Ansari, an Indian engineer and businessman who was sentenced to three years in jail for entering Pakistan.

"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," it stated.

Jadhav was allegedly arrested from Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016. Pakistan claimed that the former Indian Navy officer confessed in a video that he was involved in spying and terror activities in Balochistan, a charge rejected by India. He was convicted in April by a Pakistani military court and sentenced to death.

India has maintained that Jadhav was abducted from Iran, where he was pursuing his business, and passed off as a spy.

In May this year, India moved the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which then stayed the execution pending a final decision by the court.

Ansari, an engineer and business professional, had gone to Kabul in Afghanistan on November 4, 2012, on a tourist visa for a job in aviation. He entered Pakistan on November 12.

From his e-mail accounts, it was revealed that he was in touch with a Pakistani girl on Facebook and had gone to Pakistan, where he was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail.

According to the ministry statement, in line with an agreement signed in 2008, India and Pakistan on Saturday exchanged, through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, the lists of nationals - including civil prisoners and fishermen - of each country lodged in the jails of the other country.

The Agreement on Consular Access between India and Pakistan, which was signed on May 21, 2008, provides that a comprehensive list of nationals of each country lodged in the other country's jails has to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

"India remains committed to addressing on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen," the statement said.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation."
Ajmer Dargah Dewan on Saturday hit out at Kashmiri separatist leaders for instigating youths to indulge in stone pelting and helping terrorists in fleeing, calling them anti-nationals.

By Dev Ankur Wadhawan: Ajmer Dargah Dewan (spiritual head) on Saturday hit out at Kashmiri separatist leaders for instigating youths to indulge in stone pelting and helping terrorists in fleeing, calling them anti-nationals.

Moinuddin Chishti Dargah Dewan Sayed Jainul Aabedin Khan said that it was important to rein in such people.

Khan said, "Stone pelters in Kashmir are anti-nationals but bigger anti-nationals are separatist leaders who instigate them to indulge in stone pelting and help terrorists in fleeing. They must be reined in. While political leaders understand that violence cannot be the solution to anything, they side with separatist leaders for their selfish motives." Kashmir has witnessed several incidents of violence in recent times, including those of stone pelting, apart from terrorist attacks on security forces and installations.

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KASHMIRI SEPARATISTS BEHIND UNREST

Several separatist leaders have been found to be behind instigating Kashmiri youths to take part in protests and stone pelting.

"Separatists like Mirwaiz are the real culprits and anti-nationals who instigate Kashmiri youths to fulfill Pakistan's designs. If India reins in separatist leaders like him, Kashmir's problem will be immediately resolved", the Ajmer Dargah Dewan said.

Kashmir was in the news recently regarding the lynching of DSP Mohammed Ayub Pandith, who was beaten to death near Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area in Srinagar.

Also read | Restrictions in parts of Srinagar against separatists' protest

Also read | Security cover to separatists must be withdrawn: Jammu and Kashmir Deputy CM Nirmal Singh

--- ENDS ---
Paris, July 1 : An oil tanker carrying 38,000 tonnes of hydrocarbon fuel on Saturday collided with a cargo ship in the English Channel, which separates France from the UK, authorities said.

The vessels, the Seafrontier tanker and Huayan Endeavour, both registered to Hong Kong, collided at around 3 a.m. (local time) in British waters, some 33 km off the coast of Dunkerque, in France, reports Efe news.

French and British response teams were deployed to the area to assess the damage.

Authorities said the Seafrontier was currently in a controlled drift and the Huayan Endeavour had the capacity to continue navigating.
New Delhi, July 1 : A Delhi court on Saturday directed two persons, accused of threatening the chairperson of the Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) Neelam Krishnamurthy, to tender an unconditional apology.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass directed P.S. Sharma and Deepak Kathpalia, employees of Ansal Buildwell Limited and Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Limited (API) respectively, to write an unconditional apology in a proper format and publish it in leading newspapers.

Earlier, both the accused who had abused and threatened Krishnamoorthy in the Patiala House Courts premises in 2007, sought to tender an unconditional apology for their act.

The apologies came after the court had concluded arguments on framing of charges against the duo and was about to pronounce the order in the case.

As per the complaint lodged by Krishnamoorthy, Sharma and Kathpalia had threatened her and told her to drop the Uphaar fire tragedy case.

Krishnamoorthy, who lost two minor children in the Uphaar fire tragedy and has been fighting a legal battle for justice on behalf of the victims' families for the last 20 years, had claimed in her complaint that she and her husband were harassed by the accused persons inside the Patiala House court premises on the evening of May 10, 2007, when they were emerging out of the court room.

Krishnamoorthy had gone to the court to attend the trial proceedings in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case and Sharma and Kathpalia were accused of passing lewd remarks against her and clicking her photographs.

Chairman of API Sushil Ansal and Chairman of Ansal Buildwell Gopal Ansal were also named in the complaint. Then Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had also summoned them in the case but later, the Delhi High Court quashed the summons against them.
Chandigarh, July 1 : On the backfoot after controversy over the appointment of law officers in Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday claimed that all appointments were on merit and there was no favouritism or nepotism.

"Every single appointment of the new Law Officers in the state government was based on merit after taking into account the professional qualifications and expertise of the candidates," Amarinder said in a statement here on Saturday, trashing reports that kin of influential people in his government and party were appointed.

Lawyer Rameeza Hakeem, wife of Punjab Advocate General Atul Nanda (who is a close confidante of Amarinder); Sukhmani Bajwa, daughter of Congress legislator Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa; Deepali Puri, wife of Amarinder's OSD Sandeep Sandhu; former Chandigarh mayor and Congress leader Anu Chatrath; relatives of sitting and former judges, bureaucrats and politicians were accommodated as law officers in the list of 121 announced on Friday.

Reacting to reports suggesting that the kin of various Congress and government functionaries had been accommodated in the new legal team, Amarinder, who became Chief Minister for a second time in March this year, said: "All appointments were cleared independently, without bias or prejudice, and solely on account of individual's background, proficiency and experience. It is unfortunate that a political colour is being sought to be given to the appointments."

The law officers will deal with cases concerning the Punjab government in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court. There is tremendous pressure on the government to accommodate lawyers as law officers as they get good salaries and other perks.

On Friday, the Amarinder Singh government claimed credit for downsizing its team of law officers from the existing 215 to 154.

Out of the 121 new Law Officers appointed, 25 are additional advocate generals (AGs), 49 assistant AGs, 30 deputy AGs and 17 senior deputy AGs. Advocate General (AG) Nanda had proposed that 123 lawyers ought to be engaged in Chandigarh, while another 31 were required for Delhi.

The AG had pointed out that with an average of 25,000-26,000 fresh cases filed every year (2012-2015), and the figure escalating by almost 27 percent in 2016 to 33,000 cases, there was drastic need to scale up the number of law officers as this level of increase was expected to be maintained.

Nanda pointed out that, compared to 2012, the increase in legal workload of the government was a big 160 percent and 432 law officers were required to deal with it. He said, however, that he had proposed a much smaller team.
Bhubaneswar, July 1 : The Odisha government on Saturday decided to expedite the setting up of a fly ash park in Angul district to combat pollution in the highly polluted region.

Holding a stakeholders' meeting here, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium (MSME) Secretary L.N. Gupta said the setting up of the proposed fly ash park near Angul should be put on fast track and the park should become a reality during the current financial year.

He emphasised on the need of value addition in terms of manufacturing of value added products based on fly ash.

The park would have a Common Facility Centre, a testing lab and other necessary infrastructure to support fly ash based brick manufacturers in the park.

Gupta requested the Angul district collector to coordinate for the formation of a special purpose vehicle of the fly ash industries to set up the park.

The park is proposed to be set up over 53 acres near Angul and the alienation of land is under progress. The Diagnostic Study Report (DSR) for the project has already been prepared by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Bhubaneswar.

It was decided to send the DSR to the Ministry of MSME, Government of India by July 31 this year for funding of development of the Common Facility Centre (CFC) under the MSE-CDP scheme.

Debadutta Biswal, member secretary of the State Pollution Control Board said about 32 million tonnes of fly ash is generated annually from the thermal power plants set up in the state.

Of this, around 14 million tonnes of fly ash is generated from the Angul-Dhenkanal region alone, he added.

D.K. Behera, senior environmental scientist, State Pollution Control Board, explained that this fly ash can be utilised for manufacturing bricks, blocks, tiles as well as cement.

He indicated that at present approximately 57 per cent of the fly ash in the districts of Angul and Dhenkanal is being utilised.
London, July 1 : Lifeboats were launched on Saturday to assist the two Hong Kong registered vessels -- an oil tanker and cargo ship -- that collided in the English Channel. None of crew, mainly Chinese and Indian, on board the ships was injured.

An oil tanker carrying 38,000 tonnes of hydrocarbon fuel collided with a cargo ship in the English Channel, which separates France from the UK. Both vessels, Seafrontier tanker and Huayan Endeavour, are registered in Hong Kong, The UK Coast Guard called for the immediate launch of the Dover and Ramsgate RNLI all-weather rescue lifeboats following reports that the two ships with a total of 49 people on-board had collided and were at a complete stop in the channel, which is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, Xinhua news agency reported.

With initial reports of damage to at least one of the ships and the location of the incident in the southwest channel of the busy main shipping lane, both RNLI rescue vessels raced to the scene, nearly 15 miles northeast of Dover.

A UK Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter was also scrambled to assess the damage to the vessels, the 183-metre-long crude oil tanker, the Seafrontier and the Huayang Endeavour, a 75,000-tonne bulk carrier.

Huayang Endeavour was en route to Lagos in Nigeria while Seafrontier was travelling to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala.

A spokesman for the RNLI said that both vessels suffered damage in the collision, with the Seafrontier having a hole above the water line and damage to the superstructure.

On reaching the ships, one of the lifeboats was tasked with standing alongside the Seafrontier while the second lifeboat stood ready to assist the Huayang Endeavour. A tug was also called to the scene from Boulogne, France.

A UK Coast Guard spokesman said: "Although both vessels have been damaged, there is no water ingress and no pollution."
Panaji, July 1 : The Congress has accused the BJP of acting in a "high-handed" manner, after it organised a welcome meeting for party president Amit Shah within the premises of Dabolim International airport in Goa.

"Airport authority officials, who allowed this meeting should be penalised along with all the Ministers and MLAs including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah for conducting the illegal public meeting inside the airport," All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary Girish Chodankar said on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday morning, Shah, who arrived in Goa on a two-day visit, had addressed a meeting of nearly 2,500 party workers in the premises of Goa's only airport, located around 40 km from Panaji.

"This as a total and complete abuse of power by the power-intoxicated BJP," Chodankar added.
Ranchi, July 1 : The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on Saturday apprehended a Maoist from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and recovered arms and ammunition from his possession, an official said.

The 26th Battalion of the border guards conducted a joint operation, along with Jharkhand Police, and arrested a Maoist, identified as Ravinder Kumar, from Balodar Godalpura area in Hazaribagh.

The raiding team also recovered one country-made pistol, ammunition, two sets of combat dress, Rs 95,000 in cash and five mobile phones from the possession of the Maoist, the SSB official said.

"The maoist has been handed over to Jharkhand Police," he added.
Srinagar, July 1 : In a major success, security forces in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday killed one of the most wanted militants, top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Bashir Lashkari who had masterminded the gruesome murder of six policemen, including officer Feroz Dar, last month.

Lashkari and his associate, a Pakistani LeT militant Abu Maaz, were killed after a four-hour-long gunfight in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, that ended in police finally blasting the house where the militants were hiding, in Brenthi Batapora village.

Two civilians were also killed near the site of the gunfight where a stone pelting mob had gathered to disrupt the operation against the militants.

Police said a 42-year old woman, identified as Tahira, and a 22-year old youth, Shadab Ahmad Chopan, were killed in the cross-firing between the security forces and the militants.

Earlier, massive protests had broken out near the gunfight site where a stone-pelting mob engaged the security forces in clashes to disrupt the operation.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has expressed grief at the deaths of the two civilians. She again appealed to people not to go near encounter sites as this was likely to endanger their lives.

Kashmir Inspector General of Police (IGP), Munir Khan said in Srinagar that after the murder of Station House Officer Dar and five policemen last month in Achabal area of Anantnag, Bashir Lashkari had become the most wanted militant for the security forces.

Lashkari had masterminded and carried out the attack in which the six police men were killed and their bodies badly mutilated.

The IGP said that though Lashkari has been killed, the security forces cannot lower their guard as "The militants would be on the lookout for soft targets".

Police said the Pakistani militant Maaz was behind several militant attacks in Kashmir.

The IGP said 17 civilians who had been trapped inside the house where the militants had been hiding were brought out to safety.

"It was a long wait as the militants would not allow the civilians to leave the house. I commend the valour of the security forces who ensured that all the 17 civilians were safely rescued," he said.

He said a full-fledged shootout between holed up militants and the security forces started only after the civilians were rescued.

"The encounter continued for two hours after which the two militants were neutralized," the IGP said.

The security forces used explosives to raze the house in which the two militants were hiding.

The IGP confirmed that the two slain militants were Bashir Lashkari and his associate, Abu Maaz.

Lashkari belonged to Sopshali village in Kokernag area of Anantnag district. He carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

State DGP, S.P. Vaid congratulated the state police and other security forces for carrying out the encounter.

In the evening, hundreds of people from south Kashmir districts marched to Sopshali village in Kokernag to attend the funeral of Lashkari.

As news about Lashkari's death spread in Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian districts, people using all modes of conveyance started reaching Sopshali village.

Authorities will hand over the body of Lashkari to the next of kin late on Saturday evening to avoid any face off between the mourners and security forces.

Following the death of the two LeT militants, train services between Baramulla and Bannihal towns were suspended.

The District Magistrate Anantnag had ordered closure of all educational institutions in the district earlier in the day when the gunfight began.

Separatist leaders have called for a protest shutdown in the Valley on Sunday against the killing of the two militants and the two civilians in Brenthi Batapora village.
Gandhinagar, July 1 : Emphasising that India's textile industry has the potential to double its growth rate, textile giants on Saturday stressed on strategic branding and style positioning in the industry.

On the second day of India's first-ever textile extravaganza -- Textiles India 2017, participants discussed the future of textile industry, colour and design, along with what the future holds for India's traditional handmade carpet industry as well as its tribal weaves.

Eric Duchamp, Worldwide CEO, Peclers Paris, stated that India's textile industry has the potential to double its current rate of growth.

"There is a need for India to focus on strategic branding and style positioning in the textile industry," he said.

Ajoy Sarkar, from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New Jersy, said that India's legacy fibers, like jute and silk, could be improved upon through the use of technology.

"Branding is nothing but quality assurance and that a brand is all about functionality. Hence, it is important that availability, accessibility and assurance of quality are made priorities and worked upon," said Gaurav Mahajan, President (Apparel) of Raymond Group.

During a session on handmade carpet industry and how technology could improve it, many of the speakers talked about how there was a growing market abroad for Indian handmade carpets.

They, however, felt that the quality of machine-made carpets had improved considerably and had given stiff competition to the handmade industry, which needed to work on newer designs and yarns.

"Given the emergence of online market, the handmade carpet industry can utilise it for branding, marketing and promotion, particularly in the overseas market," said M.P. Sharma, Chairman of Carpet Export Promotion Council.

During a session on future of tribal weaves in India, the speakers spoke of the unique nature of the tribal weaves and how they were different from many of the traditional weaves found in other regions across the country.

"Tribals are extremely good weavers, but due to their relative isolation, they don't produce traditional designs," said Mukti Gogoi, Commissioner and Secretary, Textile, Sericulture Department, Assam.

Rajeev Sethi, Founder of the Asian Heritage Foundation, said tribal weavers were facing stiff competition from cheaply-made fibres, which were replacing their rich fibres.

"However, methods such as Intellectual Property Rights can immensely help the creators of these weaves... Protection from their designs being copied and other government help can provide support to this industry," he said.

Madhura Dutta, Executive Director, All India Artisan and Crafts Workers Welfare Association (AIACA), said there was a mismatch of expectations between buyers and retailers regarding products and hence it was a must to educate buyers.

The textile giants also discussed the prevailing and expected trends in the cotton sector.

According to them, India produces very good quality of cotton but is sold at discounted prices because of certain contaminations. Therefore, there is a need to reduce the level of contaminations.

Currently, only about 2.5 per cent of cotton was tested, they said.

They noted that that cotton industries should understand the requirements and pay attention to the downstream process -- towards the finishing levels.

(Brajendra nath Singh can be reached at brajendra.n@ians.in)
Thiruvananthapuram, July 1 : The rift between the two Communist parties in the ruling Left coalition came out once more in the open on Saturday when neither CPI Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekheran or any of his party colleagues took part in a meeting called by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here to discuss issues concerning land in Munnar in Idukki district.

Vijayan ensured that this "boycott" by the CPI gets maximum media attention as the media was allowed to cover his speech during the meeting, which was a departure from routine.

He pointed out that this meeting was called after there was a request from all parties from Munnar to find a solution to the long standing problems related to land. He read out the names of leaders from the CPI who had asked for the meeting to be called.

Chandrasekheran was at Kottayam taking part in a meeting and also spent an hour with his state party secretary Kanam Rajendran.

"I am here, so how I can take part in the meeting in the state capital," Chandrasekheran told reporters in Kottyam.

Rajendran spoke sternly, saying he finds no reason for holding of the meeting.

"What's the use of this meeting as the Kerala High Court is looking into this issue. Anyone can call a meeting, but the law is there to take care of it," Rajendran pointed out to reporters in Kottayam.

CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan tried to play down the absence of the CPI Minister and said everything is fine in the Left coalition.

Former Revenue Minister and senior Congress legislator Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan remarked that if the CPI has any self respect left then they should withdraw support to the Left government, as the collective responsibility of the government has disappeared.

Vijayan and Rajendran have been sparring against one another on numerous occasions. Early this week, Vijayan while addressing a meeting had said that "some people are here who think that it's they who are the ultimate and control everything." When the media asked Rajendran about this, he said, "I don't think he was referring to me."

The standoff between the two premier Communists parties in Kerala has been coming out in the open ever since the Vijayan government assumed office in May last year and they publicly sparred over the manner in which the Right to Information Act on cabinet decisions was dealt with.

The CPI early this year expressed its displeasure when the Kerala government diary saw the names of CPI Ministers below that of other allies, even when the CPI is the second biggest ally of the Left coalition.

The convention of printing the names of Ministers in alphabetical order was also not followed.

Following the protest by the CPI, the dairy went for a reprint.

The two parties also clashed in the open when two Maoists were shot dead by a special police team in the deep forests, with the CPI strongly condemning the police act.

It was in 1964 that the CPI-M was formed after it broke away from the erstwhile Communist Party of India. During the 70s the CPI had joined hands with the Congress party to run the state government, after which it returned to the Left fold.
The police said that after rescuing all the civilians from the area, the operation against the militants resumed.

By Ashraf Wani: Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday said that the 17 civilians, who were trapped with militants in a house in Dailgam area of Anantnag district, have been rescued.

The police said that after rescuing all the civilians from the area, the operation against the militants resumed.

Earlier, cross-firing between security forces and militants had taken place in Anantnag district, and two civilians, including a woman, were killed after they were hit with bullets near the encounter site during clashes.

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At least 10 civilians sustained injuries during the clashes which started soon after security forces started the encounter operation against the militants.

As per reports Bashir Lashkari, a militant commander believed to have masterminded an ambush in Achabal area where six policemen including a Station House Officer (SHO) were killed last month, is hiding in a house in Brenthi Batpora village with three more local militants.

The encounter started at around 6 am. Following the encounter, locals came out in protests and clashed with the forces.

Also Read:

Anantnag encounter: 2 civilians killed, 3 terrorists including Lashkar commander holed up

Jammu and Kashmir: Terrorist arrested from Rajouri

Jammu and Kashmir: 2 terrorists killed in encounter in Sopore

Watch Video: Jammu and Kashmir: Two Hizbul terrorists killed in encounter with security forces in Sopore

--- ENDS ---
Gandhinagar, July 1 : The Woolmark Company announced the second phase of its successful "Grown In Australia, Made In India" initiative during the Textiles India 2017.

The key campaign will continue to highlight the farm-to-fashion journey of Merino wool, growing in Australia before being transformed into unique fashion pieces in India, and champion both the woolgrowers of Australia and the handloom sector of India.

"The campaign aims to further connect brands, manufacturers and the government of India, present across the wool supply chain and this year will also allow consumers to join the journey," said a statement.

Chris Elstoft, Australian Deputy Commissioner; Aditi Rout, Trade Advisor-Wool from the Ministry of Textiles; Peta Slack Smith, General Manager, Australian Wool Innovation for Corporate Affairs and International Market Access; Arti Gudal, The Woolmark Company Country Manager India; and Shravan Reddy, Wool Ambassador in India, also spoke about using wool driving exports in the domestic market and encouraged this initiative with their support.

"The second year of the Grown In Australia, Made In India highlights the journey of Merino wool from grassroots to a global level, and is aimed towards driving wool consumption along with manufacturing in India," said Arti Gudal.

"The campaign will be a four-month-long project, starting from September and ending in December. Through this initiative, we will bring to light the different stakeholders of our journey -- the Kullu weavers of Himachal Pradesh, the wool shawl and knitwear industry and our collaboration with commercial brands who have endorsed Merino wool in India.

"We are proud to work with the government of India and support the local handloom and textile traditions, especially in wool. Their support has helped sustain India's rich traditions while creating positive employment avenues," she added.

Peta Slack-Smith said: "It is great to see the Grown In Australia, Made In India campaign receive support from the government of India."

"As Australia and India work in tandem and promote the handloom industry. Furthermore, involving the consumers during this phase will spread awareness about Merino wool's endless potential as a trans-seasonal and natural fibre," said Smith.
Chandigarh, July 1 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's official helicopter had to make an emergency landing in Jhajjar town in southwest Haryana on Saturday evening, police said.

The helicopter had to make the emergency landing due to bad weather.

The Chief Minister and others on the helicopter were safe.

Khattar later posted photographs of himself with some children, who were playing in the Police Lines in Jhajjar, around 55 km from New Delhi. He spent some time with the children.

Khattar, who was flying from Chandigarh to Gurugram for an event there, later left for Gurugram by road.
New Delhi, July 1 : Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who had taken a break to visit his 93-year-old maternal grandmother in Italy, has returned after almost three weeks.

Gandhi on Saturday attended the launch of the commemorative publication of the Congress party's organ "National Herald", which was attended by President Pranab Mukherjee, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi, among others.

Before taking a break, Gandhi had posted on Twitter: "Will be travelling to meet my grandmother and family for a few days. Looking forward to spending some time with them."

Rahul was conspicuous by his absence when Congress President Sonia Gandhi announced former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar's name as the presidential nominee of the informal grouping of 17 opposition parties.

He was also not present on the day (June 28) Kumar filed her nomination for the election to the highest constitutional post of the country.
New Delhi, July 2 : Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and veteran actor Rishi Kapoor here on Saturday inaugurated the "8th Jagran Film Festival", which will travel to 16 cities across India and showcase over 400 films.

The festival will feature a retrospective on Rishi's acclaimed films including "Do Dooni Char", "Chandni", "Bobby", "Kapoor & Sons" and a part of "Mera Naam Joker".

"I am thankful that they are showing my films. I have been working in the industry for last 45 years, but nobody has showcased a retrospective of my work. I am very humbled by this. They are showing my eight-and-a-half films. This includes eight full films and one part of 'Mera Naam Joker'," Rishi said.

Also present at the inaugural ceremony were actresses Divya Dutta and Tannishtha Chatterjee.

The eighth edition of the festival kick-started with the screening of Farhan Akhtar and Annu Kapoor-starrer "The Fakir of Venice".

The Anand Surapur directorial tells the story of an Indian conman, who is hired to find a fakir who can bury himself in sand for an installation art project in Venice. He passes off a poor slum-dweller from Mumbai as the real thing, conning the European art world successfully.

The festival will pay a homage to late actors Vinod Khanna and Om Puri with the screenings of their films "Achanak" and "Mr. Kabaadi".

Speaking on the occasion, Naqvi said: "This is a memorable occasion as people who have taken art and films to each and every house are associated with this festival. I am happy that through this festival, social messages are being transmitted to small places across India via films."

While Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and the starcast of upcoming film "Mom", including Sridevi, Akshaye Khanna and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, were supposed to attend the opening ceremony, they were not able to make it to the event.

This year the festival will have Morocco as its country focus.

"We are pleased to showcase Moroccan films here. Bollywood is the oldest known cinema. Surprisingly, in Morocco, there are a few cinemas that are completely dedicated to the Indian movies. People there speak Indian languages just by watching Indian films," Moroccan Ambassador Mohamed Maliki told IANS.

The five-day Delhi leg of the film festival, which is talking place here at the Sri Fort Auditorium, will showcase Indian films like "Hindi Medium", "Pink", "Agneepath", "Shivaay", "M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story", "Phillauri", "Sachin: A Billion Dreams", "Neerja", "Jolly LLB 2" and "Trapped".

Some films from different countries across the world that will be showcased this year include "Black Cat" (US), "Last Christmas" (Italy), "The Letterbox" (Turkey), "Adios Carmen" (Morocco), "The Bench" (Iran), "Inner Court" (Brazil) and "Letter to the Night" (France), among others.

After its Delhi leg, which will conclude on July 5, the festival will travel to cities like Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhopal, Indore, Hisar, Meerut and Raipur. The final leg of the festival will take place in Mumbai.
Tehran, July 2 : Iran has opened its airspace to the passenger planes of Qatar over the past days, media report said on Saturday.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has issued the permission for the flights over the Islamic republic space as they are banned from Saudi, Egyptian and UAE airspaces after a diplomatic row between Qatar and the Arab countries, Xinhua cited Tasnim news agency as saying.

Qoliollah Qolizadeh, a member of the presiding board of the parliament's civil commission said that the Qatari authorities coordinated the issue with Iran's Foreign Ministry and got the required permissions from the SNSC.

Some Arab allies of Saudi Arabia recently closed their airspace to the Qatari planes after they cut diplomatic ties with the country, accusing the latter of supporting terrorism.
As a progenitor of the jam band movement, Melvin Seals has solidified his place as a Rock & Roll Legend.

The 25th Annual Summer Series of live music, dinners, cocktails, picnics, dancing, a Kid Zone, and fun presents its final summer concert on Saturday, Aug. 5 with a Celebration of the Summer Love with Melvin Seals & JGB (Jerry Garcia Band)

Melvin Seals is best known for his long friendship and musical partnership with cultural icon, guitarist Jerry Garcia and the smile of his that lights up the room. Melvin spun his B-3 magic with the Jerry Garcia Band for 18 years and in doing so helped pioneer and define what has now become "Jam Band Music," from blues to funk to rock to jazz. With a little R&B and gospel thrown in to spice things up, Melvin and JGB brings an intuitive, expressive style, soul, spontaneity and unique combinations of guitar, mandolin, slide and lap steel with savory bass, hearty drums and, of course, a heapin' helpin' of the wizard's magic on Hammond B-3 Organ and keyboards. They offer an exciting, often psychedelic musical journey that keeps audiences dancing and smiling for an evening of natural organic grooves that challenges genre boundaries.

The concert opens with a short performance from 'Til Dawn, Youth in Arts' teen a cappella group singing songs from the era.

Bring a picnic or appetite as local fave restaurant, Piazza D'Angelo of Mill Valley will be offering affordable and delicious dinner choices for the evening. A childrens hands-on art project will be provided by Brandeis Marin School and on-site festival shopping will be provided by Good Will Industries' Georgi & Willow store.

The Osher Marin JCC's outdoor music series has been created to celebrate diversity, find commonalities, and bring generations together through live music. Five consecutive Saturday nights of great music, under beautiful Marin Skies in an intimate and beautiful setting  five evenings of community building through the arts.

WHAT: Outdoor family- friendly concerts, fun, and dining for all ages.

WHO: All are invited. No membership/affiliation required. Kids 17 and under free.

TICKETS: From $25. Kids 17 and under FREE.

VIP, Reserved tables & General Admission choices

WHEN: Sat. Aug. 5, 2017

WHERE: The Osher Marin JCC, 200 N San Pedro Road, San Rafael,

1/2 mile E off 101

PARKING: Ample FREE lot and on-street parking available.

TICKETS: Available at http://www.marinjcc.org/arts

FACEBOOK page

THE 25th ANNUAL SUMMER NIGHTS SERIES

7/8: Americana - Brothers Comatose

7/15: African  Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited

7/22: Latin Big Band  Pacific Mambo Orchestra

7/29: Afro-Cuban  Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca

8/5: Celebrate the Summer of Love  Melvin Seals & JGB
Owosso is a city in Shiawassee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 15,194 at the 2010 census. The city is located on the eastern side of Owosso Township, but is politically independent. The city was named after Chief Wasso, an Ojibwa leader of the Shiawassee area. The town of Owosso is located about 30 miles west of Flint, Michigan and about 40 miles south of Saginaw, Michigan and about 40 miles North of Lansing Michigan. Lansing is the Capital city of Michigan. Thus Owosso enjoys a 30 minute drive travel from any of these major cities. Owosso is just an hour and half ride from Detroit, Michigan.

Owosso is home to the Curwood Castle, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as home to The George Perrigo House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and more. Owosso provides a very relaxed environment for those who seek to get away from all the various distractions as today's working class is always looking for a place to relax. The town has limited transportation available for those who arrive into town especially by private aircraft which is now being improved.

Owosso was home for Sohani Mathew a long term resident who passed away at a young age in a sudden accident. In memory of her, a ride service called Sohani Ride is now established from the airport to serve those who arrive in town via private aircraft. Interested parties may contact the Owosso Community Airport or check the bulletin board at the Owosso community airport for further details.
Give Something Back, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships and mentoring to low-income students in five states, has donated $45,000 to Mercy College to provide scholarships to students who have each experienced the incarceration of a parent.

These scholarship funds, combined with assistance from Mercy College as well as state and federal grants, will cover four years of tuition, fees, and room and board for two promising young students.

Mercy College President Tim Hall said: It brings the Mercy College Community great joy to welcome these students to our family in the fall. Here at Mercy College we look for students who are driven and determined to make a better life for themselves and for others. I know that these two young people, who have overcome a tremendous amount of adversity, will thrive here. I am confident we can give them the tools they need to succeed. The students, who wish to remain anonymous, recently graduated high school with GPAs above 3.0.

These two students have overcome so much in their young lives, said Robert Carr, the founder of Give Back. We are very proud that our ongoing partnership with Mercy College is making it possible for deserving students to go to college and pursue career goals that would otherwise be out of their reach.

Carr, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and author, grew up in a financially strapped household in rural Illinois. As a high school senior, Carr received a $250 scholarship from a local womens club; their gift inspired him decades later to establish Give Back and help other working-class students. Since the organizations founding in 2003, Give Back has presented more than $28 million in scholarship funds to 20 colleges nationwide.

About Give Something Back

Give Something Back provides mentors and scholarships to help Pell Grant-eligible students go to college and graduate in four years, debt-free. More information can be found at http://www.giveback.ngo/

Visit Give Back at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

About Mercy College

Mercy College is the dynamic, diverse New York City area college whose students are on a personal mission: to get the most out of life by getting the most out of their education.

Founded in 1950, Mercy offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs within five schools: Business, Education, Health and Natural Sciences, Liberal Arts and Social and Behavioral Sciences. Mercy College challenges its faculty and staff to make higher education work for anyone hungry enough to earn a better place in life. With campuses in Dobbs Ferry, Bronx, Manhattan and Yorktown Heights, the vibrancy of the College culture is sustained by a diverse student body from around the region.

Committed to supporting students throughout their education, Mercy College offers a personalized learning experience that includes the Colleges Personalized Achievement Contract (PACT) program. PACT is a nationally recognized mentoring program that serves as a model for student success. http://www.mercy.edu/ 877-MERCY-GO.
America's Essential Hospitals If ever there was a time in our recent past when we should truly be focused on our most vulnerable, it is now.

New member leaders for Americas Essential Hospitals and its research and quality arm, Essential Hospitals Institute, today officially began their new roles overseeing the organizations work.

"We value the talent, energy, and new perspectives our board members bring to our association," said Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, president and CEO of Americas Essential Hospitals. "We look forward to working with them in our advocacy, research, and population health improvement efforts."

Donna Sollenberger, MA, executive vice president and CEO of University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, becomes Americas Essential Hospitals board chair, replacing John Haupert, president and CEO of Grady Memorial Hospital, in Atlanta. Haupert becomes past-chair.

"I am honored to serve as board chair of Americas Essential Hospitals," Sollenberger said. "Our association serves as a strong advocate for essential hospitals - those that care for people who face economic hardships and that provide lifesaving services and physician training for communities. I am proud to chair the board of an organization that ensures the voices of underserved patients are heard, and that advocates for access and equitable care for all."

Joseph Scott, president and CEO of Jersey City Medical Center and executive vice president of health care transformation at RWJBarnabas Health, in Jersey City, New Jersey, becomes the associations new chair-elect. Michael Karpf, MD, executive vice president for health affairs at UK HealthCare, in Lexington, Kentucky, continues as the boards secretary, and Sharon OKeefe, MS, president of University of Chicago Medicine, continues as treasurer.

The new Essential Hospitals Institute board chair is Susan Moffatt-Bruce, MD, PhD, chief quality and patient safety officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, in Columbus.

"I am delighted to be part of the Americas Essential Hospitals team. If ever there was a time in our recent past when we should truly be focused on our most vulnerable, it is now," said Moffatt-Bruce. "Through continued research, patient engagement, and strong population health efforts, Americans Essential Hospitals and Essential Hospitals Institute will enable patient-centric care delivery for all those who are so deserved of the highest quality of care."

Moffatt-Bruce succeeds Leon Haley Jr., MD, MHSA, vice president of health affairs at UF Health Jacksonville and dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine  Jacksonville. Haley becomes past-chair.

The Institutes new chair-elect and secretary is Delvecchio Finley, MPP, CEO of Alameda Health System, in Oakland, California. Christine Neuhoff, JD, system vice president and chief legal officer at St. Lukes Health System in Boise, Idaho, becomes the Institutes new treasurer. Siegel continues as recording secretary (ex officio).

NEW AND CONTINUING DIRECTORS

Americas Essential Hospitals board welcomes these new at-large member directors:

--Charlie Shields, president and CEO, Truman Medical Centers, Kansas City, Missouri.

--Kevin Spiegel, president and CEO, Erlanger Health System, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

These member leaders continue as at-large association board directors:

--Akram Boutros, MD, president and CEO, The MetroHealth System, Cleveland

--Patrick Cawley, MD, MHM, executive director and CEO, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Charleston, South Carolina

--Eric Dickson, MD, MHCM, president and CEO, UMass Memorial Health Care, Worcester, Massachusetts

--Susan Ehrlich, MD, MPP, CEO, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center

--Barry Freedman, president and CEO, Einstein Healthcare Network, Philadelphia

--Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit

--Carlos Migoya, president and CEO, Jackson Health System, Miami

--Steve Purves, president and CEO, Maricopa Integrated Health System, Phoenix

--Samuel Ross, MD, MS, CEO, Bon Secours Hospital, Baltimore

--Pamela Sutton-Wallace, MPH, CEO, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia

The Essential Hospitals Institute board added these new member directors:

--Ericka Brown, MD, MBA, executive vice president, Ben Taub General Hospital and Quentin Mease Hospital, Houston

--Dave Chokshi, MD, MSc, senior assistant vice president, NYC Health + Hospitals, New York

These member leaders continue as Institute board directors:

--Reuven Pasternak, MD, MPH, MBA, CEO and vice president for health systems, Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook, New York

--Anthony Patterson, RN, MSHA, senior vice president for inpatient services, UAB Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama

--Jon Pryor, MD, MBA, CEO, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis

--John Jay Shannon, MD, CEO, Cook County Health & Hospitals System, Chicago

--Loel Solomon, PhD, vice president, community health for Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, was named an outside, at-large Institute director.

These leaders also continue as outside, at-large Institute directors:

--Ann Scott Blouin, PhD, RN, executive vice president of customer relations, The Joint Commission, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois

--Stuart Guterman, independent consultant, Washington, D.C.

--Erica Murray, MPA, president and CEO, CAPH-California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, Oakland

# # #

About Americas Essential Hospitals

Americas Essential Hospitals is the leading association and champion for hospitals and health systems dedicated to high-quality care for all, including the vulnerable. Since 1981, Americas Essential Hospitals has initiated, advanced, and preserved programs and policies that help these hospitals ensure access to care. We support members with advocacy, policy development, research, and education.

Our more than 300 members are vital to their communities, providing primary care through trauma care, disaster response, health professional training, research, public health programs, and other services. They innovate and adapt to lead the broader health care community toward more effective and efficient care. Learn more at essentialhospitals.org.

About Essential Hospitals Institute

Essential Hospitals Institute is the research and quality arm of Americas Essential Hospitals. The Institute supports the nations essential hospitals as they provide high-quality, equitable, and affordable care to their communities. Working with members of Americas Essential Hospitals, we identify promising practices from the field, conduct research, disseminate innovative strategies, and help our members improve their organizational performance. We do all of this with an eye toward improving individual and population health, especially for vulnerable people.
Heritage Woods of Dwight, an affordable assisted living community managed by Gardant, is hosting bingo games from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on July 5, 14, 19, 21, 26 and 28.

The community, which is located at 701 E. Mazon in Dwight, Illinois, serves seniors of all incomes, including those on Medicaid, who need some help to maintain their independence.

The bingo games are open to the public; there is no charge to attend. Prizes will be given to winners.

For more information, call 815-584-9280.

The Heritage Woods of Dwight affordable assisted living community is certified to operate through the Illinois Supportive Living program and is managed by Gardant Management Solutions, the largest provider of assisted living in Illinois.

The community combines a residential apartment-home environment with the availability of personal assistance, help with medications, and a variety of convenience and support services.

"We provide older adults with a wonderful alternative to a nursing home or to struggling alone at home," says Emily McKenna, Director of Marketing.

Each of the private studio and one-bedroom apartments at Heritage Woods features a kitchenette, spacious bathroom with shower and grab bars, individually-controlled heating and air conditioning, and an emergency alert system.

Certified nursing assistants, working under the direction of a licensed nurse, are on-duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Three meals each day, housekeeping and laundry are among the included services.

"Residents also benefit from all of the opportunities that are available to socialize with friends and neighbors and to participate in activities and special programs," says McKenna.

Based in Bradley, Illinois, Gardant Management Solutions operates more than 50 assisted living, senior living and memory care communities.

"Our focus," says Rod Burkett, CEO of Gardant, "is to provide Heritage Woods residents with the love, compassion and dignity that they deserve and the help and assistance that they need. Our emphasis is on helping each resident acheive and maintain as much independence as possible for as long as possible."

Communities managed by Gardant include the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living communities in Bolingbrook, Manteno, Ottawa, Plainfield, Watseka and Yorkville, Illinois. The company also manages the Heritage Woods of Minooka community that opened this summer.

For more information about Gardant and the assisted living, senior living and memory care communities that the company operates, visit http://www.bma-mgmt.com or call 1-877-882-1495 toll-free.
By PTI: blood

Rampur/Meerut (UP), Jul 1 (PTI) Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has been booked for sedition for his alleged derogatory comments against the Army, even as right-wing bodies offered monetary rewards for his head and tongue.

FIRs were registered against Khan at Chandpur and Civil Lines police stations. While in Meerut, local Bajrang Dal leaders today filed a complaint against the controversial former Uttar Pradesh minister.

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An FIR was registered against Khan under IPC sections 124 A (sedition), 131 (abetting mutiny) and 505 (public mischief) at Chandpur police station yesterday, Station Officer Ajay Kumar Singh told PTI.

The case was registered following a complaint by VHP leader Anil Pandey.

"The second FIR was registered at Civil Lines police station in Rampur on a complaint filed by Akash Saxena, president of District Industries Association and son of former BJP minister Shiv Bahadur Saxena," Rampur station incharge Rajesh Kumar Solanki said.

The SP leader had kicked up a row recently with his comments that "excesses by security forces had led women in some places chopping off the private parts of Army men."

Meanwhile, VHPs district secretary in Shahajahanpur, Rajesh Kumar Awasthi offered a cash reward of Rs 50 lakh to one who would severe the tongue of the SP leader and present it to him.

Goraksha chief Mukesh Patel termed Khan a "terrorist" and offered Rs 51 lakh to the person who will bring "Khans head".

Even as the SP leader was cornered, his supporters lodged a complaint against saffronites in Ganj police station in Rampur for issuing such threatening rewards against their leader, which they termed as "rude and uncivilised."

UP minister Buldev Singh Aulakh said the state government has taken cognisance of Khans remarks and action will be taken soon.

"Azam has lost his mind. His remarks amount to lowering the morale of army personnel which is an insult to the entire country as well," he said in Rampur. PTI CORR SRY ZMN SRY

--- ENDS ---
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
Representatives of various political parties, various civil society groups and police personnel paid their respects and laid flowers at the site.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: On the first anniversary of Gulshan terror attack, nation remembered and paid tributes to the victims of the terror attack.

Representatives of various political parties, various civil society groups and police personnel paid their respects and laid flowers at the site. They also kept one minute's silence for the victims.

On July 1 last year, 20 foreign nationals and two police officers were killed in the terrorists attack at Gulshan's Holey Artisan Bakery. The militants seized the restaurant for almost 12 hours. The next day, on July 2, five militants were killed in a para-commandos operation.

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Japanese ambassador Masato Watanabi also paid tribute to the departed souls.

Relatives of the Italians who were killed and the representatives of the donor organizations also paid homage. 17 foreigners were killed in the militant attack at Holey Artisan Bakery. Of them, 9 were Italians, seven Japanese and one Indian.

Awami League's general secretary Obaidul Quader paid tribute at around 10am. He said, "The militants have become weak, but they are not eliminated."

Opposition BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also came to pay tribute .

Earlier, in the morning, the Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee paid tributes to the departed. Committee's president Shahriar Kabir said, "With strength, militancy may be temporarily suppressed, but it can be eliminated."

On behalf of the Bangladesh Police, Additional IGP Mokhlesur Rahman came to pay tribute.

He said, "Holey Artisan's incident was a turning point for law enforcement personnel. All steps have been taken to ensure that Bangladesh is not known as a terrorist state in the international arena. With the help of state and professionalism of police and other forces, Bangladesh has been made a safer place. There is no place for militancy in Bangladesh. The world is praising the successful operations of Bangladesh."

DMP commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, CTTC chief Monirul Islam and other senior police officers were present then.

--- ENDS ---
That's according to a new book by Ben Mezrich called "Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive one of Historys Most Iconic Extinct Creatures."

As the MIT Tech Review reported, Thiel made a quiet donation of $100,000 to a de-extinction organization called " target="_blank"Revive & Restore" in 2015.

The project to revive woolly mammoths has been going on for several years, but it gained new attention in February when a team of Harvard scientists said they intend to resurrect the furry creature within a decade.

The woolly mammoth went extinct 10,000 years ago, and in reality, the scientists wouldn't actually be bringing it back. Instead, they aim to create a hybrid animal using genetic material from an elephant and a woolly mammoth. To do that, they'd carefully combine a selection of DNA from both creatures using gene-editing technology Crispr, put the cells into an artificial embryo, and accio! Woolly elephant. Elephammoth. Mammophant.

Regardless of its name, the resulting animal would essentially be an elephant with mammoth features like long, shaggy hair, subcutaneous fat, and blood uniquely adapted for frigid temperatures.

Mammoths aren't the only animals that people want to resurrect  now-extinct or threatened species of reindeer, bison, wolves, tigers, and horses are also on the list of potential candidates. The movement to "resurrect" these creatures isn't limited to scientists, either; it's become a pet project of people across the globe, including a Russian father and son whose Kickstarter-funded "Pleistocene Park" aims to recreate a "vanished ice-age ecosystem."

Ethical debates about de-extinction projects are intense, with some scientists saying the animals could could help preserve endangered or threatened species and others saying it would destroy existing ecosystems.

Proponents say the project and others could help restore ecosystems and help fight climate change by bringing back plants like grasses and trees that suck up pollution. Other supporters say iconic resurrected animals could serve as a sort of "flagship species" which is used to encourage the public to protect the regions they represent.

But some scientists disagree. Tori Herridge, a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum of London, is one of the scientists who examined the 28,000-year-old remains of a woolly mammoth uncovered in Siberia in 2014. She wrote in The Guardian that "cloning [a woolly mammoth] would be ethically flawed," since we still dont fully understand the role that many of these now-extinct animals once played in the wider ecosystem.

don't know how these creatures' modern incarnations would affect other animals, plants, and the planet as a whole.
Osafo Maafo made the comments following concerns raised by the former minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Inusah Fuseini that the deal could have some far reaching implications on the environment.

Ghana last week signed a $10 billion Memorandum of Understanding with China to develop its bauxite industry.

Environmentalists have also said bauxite exploitation at Atiwa and Nyinahin, the nations largest bauxite deposit, could compromise the Atiwa forest and the Brim river.

But speaking on BBCs Focus on Africa, the former Finance Minister allied their fears, saying: there are two major deposits of bauxite in Ghana, the bigger one is the Nyinahin deposit, and not the Atiwa one.

Therefore, what we are talking about can be done without touching the Atiwa [Forest].

He continued: You can exploit the bauxite in Atiwa from the north-eastern side without affecting the River Birim The bauxite deposit covers a very extensive area. The river takes its sources from a particular side and you can do it without affecting the river source.

Osafo Maafo on Wednesday told reporters in London that Ghana will need $10 billion to develop its railway and bauxite. He said the Chinese Development Bank will provide the funding for the project.

To develop the bauxite project with its railway and converting bauxite into aluminum we will need about $10 billion, he said.

READ MORE: Government to establish Aluminum Development Authority
The IFC was asking for a stay of execution on the matter in which Quantum Oil is asking for $41.3 million as damages to be heard in London. The court held that their argument did not hold.

Consequently, the president judges, His Lordship Justice Samuel Asiedu, awarded a cost of GH12,000 against IFC and OPEC Fund to be paid to Quantum Oil.

IFC argued that the governing loans agreement between the parties had an arbitration clause for all disputes and those of related agreements to be resolved at the London Court for International Arbitration.

Quantum Oil is seeking $41.3 million as damages, the local oil company indicates it was incorporated by The Quantum Group to construct a tank farm for the storage of petroleum products, which was to be leased to Eco Petroleum Limited to enable Eco Petroleum and its associated company and a bulk distributor for petroleum products to meet the directives of the industry regulator, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) of Ghana.

It said the directive was part of the licensing requirements of the NPA issued to all bulk distribution companies to construct their own storage facilities before the set deadline to be able to hold licences to operate as such.

According to the suit, the directive obliged Quantum Oil to show evidence of its compliance immediately after the issuance of the directive and to complete construction of same within 2 years

It noted that Quantum Oil made substantial progress in the development of the facility; including among others, securing land, obtaining NPA permit for the construction, completing the engineering designs and obtaining environmental permit for the facility.

It said as of 2012, plaintiff had determined the total construction cost of the said tank farm as $30million of which it was to raise $9 million from its own resources and $21million from debt financing.

Quantum Oil said following substantial investments, it engaged a number of financial institutions, including Emerging Africa Infrastructural Fund and Fidelity Bank of Ghana in negotiations towards acquiring facility to speed up construction of the tank farm so as to meet the deadline set by the NPA.

In the midst of all these, it said Bulk Oil Storage Terminal (BOST) with which Quantum Oil had been storing its imported consignment had also served notice it would not store products belonging to third party companies which included Quantum Oil as from April 2014.

According to Quantum Oil, sometime in June 2012 IFC approached it in its offices and declared their intentions to finance the project.

The suit said the most significant and fundamental promise made by the two firms to Quantum Oil to attract the latters agreement to commence negotiations with the former was that it took no more than six months to commence and complete defendants procedures and processes to access their financing.

Quantum Oil averred that one of the other main attractions that the two firms eventually offered that it accepted to abandon dealings with the local financers was that while the cost of financing from local financers averaged 12% per annum, IFC made the representation that the cost of their financing was libor plus 6.5% which approximated to 7% in todays market environment.

READ MORE: Bui Power Authority to add 250MW solar farm to its operations

Following these promises, Quantum Oil said it truncated the previous discussions and initial agreements it had initiated with other international and local financiers so as to pursue this simpler alternative promised by the defendants.

Quantum Oil added that it firstly dealt with the IFC which later brought in the OPEC Fund to also negotiate same terms and conditions in a bid to syndicate the total facility required by the plaintiff.

Subsequently, Quantum Oil said it dealt with the two firms as one party-Financier though it executed separate facility agreements with the defendants.

According to Quantum Oil, in the initial discussions with the two firms, the amount required to complete the tank farm stood at $21 million.

It stated that IFC and OPEC Fund made their initial delay in approving funds which compelled plaintiff to arrange bridge financing from First Atlantic Bank in the sum of $5million.

According the complainant, immediately the two firms became aware of the bridge finance, they affirmed that they would limit their financing of the project to the sum of $11million.

However, Quantum Oil said following negotiations, $16 million was promised and IFC committed to disburse 50% and invited OPEC Fund to also commit to disburse the other 50%.

As a result, the two firms executed the facility agreement in 2015 but Quantum Oil said it suffered future repercussions from local and other international financiers with whom it was to negotiate for financing due to the unexpected conduct of the two defendants in abruptly breaching the agreement between the parties to finance the construction of tank farm.

It noted that despite promises to executive the deal within six months, Quantum Oil spent the whole of 2013, 2014 and 2015 repeating the provision of same documents and information it had provided to the defendants previously before the above execution.

Quantum Oil argued that delays resulted in missing deadlines of the NPA and BOST which attracted heavy penalties.
The trio in conjunction with the 1in3 Africa campaign are walking the streets of Lagos today, June 30, 2017, to show their displeasure at the high rate of domestic violence cases.

Recall that Mercy Aigbe and Tonto Dikeh are both victims of domestic violence and have taken the DV awareness to heart.

The group kicked off their walk at 10 am under the Falomo Bridge by Awolowo Road, Lagos. This comes after Aigbe took to Instagram writing, "Battery and Assault is a CRIME! #saynodomesticviolence #saynotoassault

Join us in the #1in3Africa campaign, a campaign against violence! We are walking the streets of lagos to show our displeasure at this menace that is eating deep into our system....... Join us tomorrow by 10am, Start off point is Falomo Bridge by Awolowo Road......

Conflicts should be settled amicably and not through violence, only weak men hit women."
They were each sentenced to a fine of GHs900.00 and would spend 10 months in prison should they fail to pay the money.

Police Chief Inspector James Obeng told the court presided over by Mr. Godwin Kpogli, that the crime was committed on June 26. The pair stole two cows from a kraal at Anyinasu near Sekyedumase with the intention of selling the animals at Nkoranza to raise money to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The prosecution said one of the cows escaped and as they arranged to transport the one left at about 0200 hours, a police patrol team emerged and on seeing the officers they attempted to flee.

They were however, prevented  arrested and handed over together with the animal to the Anyinasu police for investigation. Ibrahim Alhassan, a livestock farmer, from whose kraal the cow was stolen, later reported to the station to identify the animal.
This occurred at a time when a bunch of her colleagues were expecting payment for months of owed wages.

Upon receiving the surprising credit alert on her bank account, Mohammed discussed the unexpected error with her husband who is also a civil servant.

Both made a decision to follow the most ethical course by returning the amount to the government despite having huge financial responsibilities to handle.

As her next step of action following her strong resolve to surrender the money, the woman who is also an accountant contacted Alhaji Abdulkareem Abdulamlik, the Director General, Bureau of Information and Grassroots Mobilisation, to inform him of the error in payment.

The latter was full of praise for Mohammed, while also noting that her act of honesty will certainly meet good reward.
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He said Ghanaians want professional officers who will serve any government elected by the people.

He said: We must all be grateful to the Almighty that there is now a firm and widespread consensus in our country that the military takes its powers from the elected civilian government.

We do not want NPP soldiers, nor do we want NDC soldiers. We want Ghanaian soldiers, who will serve any government, duly elected by the Ghanaian people, with equal zeal and loyalty.

The President made the comments at a durbar in Accra on Friday, his first as the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces.
Police arrested three suspected women militants from southern district of Bangladesh. They have also recovered several suicide vests, a pistol and gunpowder.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Police have arrested three women - including the wife of neo Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh's (JMB) leader Amir Ayub Bachchu from a suspected militant den in Bheramara in Bangladesh's Kushtia district.

Cops also recovered arms and ammunition, including several suicide vests from Bheramara town. The operation began on the first anniversary of the Gulshan attack on Saturday.

Kushtia's Superintendent of Police SM Mehedi Hassan said that they detained a woman, identified as Amir alias Sajib's wife Tithi.

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Deputy Commissioner of Police's Counter Terrorism Unit Mahibul Islam said that Amir Ayub Bachchu, who was involved in the Gulshan attack, used to go to that house.

Mehedi said that the tin-shed house was hired almost two months ago by the militants.

According to the information of Counter Terrorism Unit, the house at the town's Taltala Mosque owned by Nasima Khatun, was surrounded by police on Friday midnight. Later, a counter-terrorism unit and district police jointly started operations around 3 am.

Mehedi said, "During the campaign, a woman tried to attack the police wearing a suicide vest." The police caught her before the explosion. Later, two more women were arrested.

He said, among the detainees, apart from Amir's existing wife, are wives of second-in-command Arman Ali and Rajikul of Daulatpur village of Bheramara.

Police got hold of suicide vests, a pistol, a magazine, and some gunpowder.

Also Read:

Bangladesh remembers Gulshan terror attack victims on first anniversary

Bangladesh: Heavy weapons recovered from Rangamati district

--- ENDS ---
The charitable gesture is in collaboration with Books Matter, a Non-Governmental Organisation which supports literacy by donating books to schools in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Three young Ghanaians awarded by Queen Elizabeth

Paul Coelho is well-known for his bestseller, the Alchemist which has sold more than 83 million copies and has been translated into 81 different languages.

Known as an avid user of social media, the author shared the good news via his Twitter account on Thursday, July 1, 2017.

"Books I'm donating to Africa arriving in Volta region ( Ghana) thanks to @ksammyg," the tweet said.

Coehlo through his Paul Coehlo Foundation continues to donate books to underprivileged children around the as well as his fans. In 2014, for instance, he uploaded his personal papers, documents-manuscripts, diaries, photos, reader letters, press clippings online to create what is now the virtual Paulo Coelho Foundation.

The donation according to the founder of Books Matter, Keith Goddard, a retired American education currently based in Ghana, will go to libraries in the selected schools in the region and help alleviate illiteracy.

"We are helping young people in Ghana become lifelong readers and acquire all the benefits that come along with that through this donation" a statement on his website said.
The action comes after a Tema High Court granted the TDC up to September to ensure that the residents have vacated the apartment for repair works and rebuilding.

A spokesperson for the associated of affected residents told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Friday that, This morning, we were all asleep, around five am when they came in with a court bailiff and thugs with no identification.

"They came in and started throwing people out of their rooms. Then they came to call me.

"When I came around, I saw the commander drenched in sweat and when I approached him, he said he cant talk to me.

He said the there were not given prior notice by the Bailiff, saying the court had given them one year to vacate the flay.

He insisted that the one period had not elapsed.

When we went to court, we were given twelve calendar months after which they were to go for the ejection notice. Even the twelve calendar months would end in September 22 which is even not due, so why should they eject us, he queried.

The Assembly man of the area, Mr Richard Anning, slammed the style of eviction adopted by the TDC.

about the nature of the ejection.

If its a court order we dont have a problem, but they have to engage us and tell us when they want to evict us. They cant come here unceremoniously and enter our rooms with unknown faces and attack us, he said told the GNA.
As of Friday night, at least 27 states, including Arizona, California, Kentucky, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin have denied the commission's request.

The bipartisan commission is led by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

The letter dated June 28 and signed by Kobach asks for registered voters' names, addresses, dates of birth, partial social security numbers, political party, a decade's worth of voter history, information on felony convictions, and whether they have registered in more than one state.

The letter was followed by a separate one from the US Justice Department, which asked states to reveal how they maintain their voter rolls. The commission said all voter data submitted by the states would be made public.

The group was formed in response to Trump's claims that nearly three million unlawful votes were cast in the 2016 presidential election, causing him to lose the popular vote. He first made the claim in November and has repeated it many times since. That claim has been widely debunked.

Experts say they are concerned about the voter-fraud commission's activities. Some said the request appeared to be politically motivated, ProPublica reported on Thursday night. One expert, according to reporter Jessica Huseman, was especially skeptical of Kobach, who has spent years focusing on voter fraud in his current role as Kansas' secretary of state. Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project, said of Kobach:

"I have every reason to think that given the shoddy work that Mr. Kobach has done in this area in the past that this is going to be yet another boondoggle and a propaganda tool that tries to inflate the problem of double registration beyond what it actually is."

Vanita Gupta, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, torched the commission Thursday night: "Pence and Kobach are laying the groundwork for voter suppression, plain & simple," Gupta said.

How US states are responding

Election officials and lawmakers from at least five states called out Kobach's request.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said it is his duty to ensure election integrity and protect voters' privacy. "I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally," a statement from Padilla said.

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Grimes also pushed back, saying "I do not intend to release Kentuckians' sensitive personal data to the fed. gov't." Grimes also offered a sharp rebuke of Trump in her statement, calling the president's voter-fraud claims a "lie."

Denise Merrill, Connecticut's secretary of state, said she would provide "publicly available information" to the commission, but sharply criticized Kobach, who she said "has a lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in Kansas." Given that history, Merrill said, "we find it very difficult to have confidence in the work of this Commission."

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said, "I have no intention of honoring this request."

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin told Commonwealth Magazine, "Theyre not going to get it. It's not a public record."

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann released a statement on Friday that told the Presidential Advisory Commission to "go jump in the Gulf of Mexico" and that Mississippi residents had a "right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes."

Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea called Kobach's authority "deeply troubling" and criticized his credentials in her statement: "Secretary Kobach was fined for misleading the courts in his own state of Kansas, where his attempts to disenfranchise Kansas voters have been overthrown by the courts."

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf called the request "problematic for several reasons," and said he held "serious reservations about the true intentions of this effort in light of the false statements this administration has made regarding voting integrity."
In its story, the New York Times named one particular woman, Sarah Kunst, who told the paper McClure harassed her after she talked with him about a job at 500 Startups. McClure did not dispute the account, according to the Times.

After being made aware of instances of Dave having inappropriate behavior with women in the tech community, we have been making changes internally, 500 Startups told the Times. He recognizes he has made mistakes and has been going through counseling to work on addressing changes in his previous unacceptable behavior.

Christine Tsai, co-founder of 500 Startups, is now CEO. Tsai wrote in a statement published Friday that she took over the role a few months ago, a detail that the company had not previously announced.

"Daves role has been limited to fulfilling his obligations to our investors as a General Partner. In addition, hes been attending counseling to work on changing his perspectives and preventing his previous unacceptable behavior," Tsai wrote.

The website still listed Tsai as a managing partner and McClure as a general partner as of Friday afternoon.

McClure is a big name in the San Francisco startup world. His company, which provides funding to young companies and helps them get off the ground, has backed CreditKarma and Twilio, among other successful startups.

Many of the businesses that work with 500 Startups are early in their development, when the entrepreneurs that created them might be more desperate and eager for funding  and potentially more vulnerable to behavior that exploits an imbalanced power dynamic.

The sidelining of McClure is only the latest example of how a growing awareness of gender inequality and sexual harassment in tech is shaking up the industry.

Justin Caldbeck, a co-founding partner of Binary Capital, resigned last week following a similar report in The Information. Meanwhile, reports of poor treatment of women at Uber prompted an investigation that led to CEO Travis Kalanick's resignation, the departure of numerous other executives, and the firing of more than 20 employees.
The New Yorker long read article is titled "The Desperate Journey of a Trafficked Girl" and Taub provides an in-depth and explosive look into the world of sex trafficking.

The article reveals the ugly reality of how thousands of Nigerian women are tricked to move to Italy to become prostitutes. Ben Taub writes on the hardship that faces the women when they get to Italy, how they are held hostage by madams and how they have to sell their bodies to pay for their debt.

More importantly he writes on the often deadly journey many Nigerian women take to get into Europe. With great detail he shows us how many of our country men suffer and die in the desert or drown in the sea to make it into Europe.

The sad but revealing article centers on one character, Blessing, who went through hell. It also states that Edo state is the capital of sex trafficking in Nigeria.

"The migration of young women out of Benin City began in the nineteen-eighties, when Edo womenfed up with repression, domestic chores, and a lack of economic opportunitiestravelled to Europe by airplane, with fake documents. Many ended up doing sex work on the streets of major citiesLondon, Paris, Madrid, Athens, Rome.

"By the end of the decade, according to a report commissioned by the United Nations, the fear of aids rendered drug-addicted Italian girls unattractive on the prostitution market; Nigerians from Edo State largely filled the demand. The money wasnt great, by European standards, but, before long, parents in Benin City were replacing ramshackle houses of mud and wood with walled-off properties.

"Lists of expensive assetscars, furniture, generatorspurchased with remittances from Europe were included in obituaries, and envious neighbors took note. Pentecostal ministers, preaching a gospel of prosperity, extolled the benefits of migration" writes Ben Taub for the New Yorker.

Blessing's story started from Benin then to Northern Nigeria, where they avoided Boko Haram territory and passed an unguarded part of the country's border into Niger state where a perfect network for trafficking women had been established for years.

The next stop is Libya and the article greatly reveals tales of horror that Nigerian women face daily who want to make it into Europe. The story of Blessing is not an exception but what happens regularly. Blessing was lucky to make it into Italy after she nearly died on the sea.
However, it is still expected to end life support in the next few days, after his parents lost a legal battle against the doctors decision.

Parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates were prevented by doctors at Great Ormond Street childrens hospital from taking the 10-month-old infant, widely known as Baby Charlie, to a therapy trial in the U.S.

The baby has a rare genetic condition that causes muscle weakness and brain damage.

Together with Charlies parents we are putting plans in place for his care, and to give them more time together as a family.

We would ask you to give the family and our staff some space and privacy at this distressing time, a spokesperson for the hospital trust said in a statement.

The parents said earlier that they expected life support to be turned off on Friday.

However, the Daily Mail quoted a family friend as saying that Charlie could now remain on life support over the weekend.

At last a tiny ounce of compassion! said a tweet from the couples Charlies Fight campaign, with a link to the newspaper report.

Gard and Yates said earlier that they were utterly heartbroken, spending our last precious hours with our baby boy.

Were not allowed to choose if our son lives, and were not allowed to choose when or where Charlie dies, the babys parents said.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected an appeal by the parents on Tuesday, ruling that the case had been meticulously examined by the British courts.

The British courts had concluded that the child was probably suffering continued pain and distress that would be prolonged by undergoing experimental treatment with no chance of success.

In the video statement via YouTube, Yates said the couple had promised our little boy every single day that we would take him home because that is a promise we thought we could keep.

We cant even take our own son home to die, Gard added.

Weve even been denied that.

Charlie suffers from mitochondrial depletion syndrome.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nnamdi Kanu, the self proclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), had called for the boycott of the Nov. 18 election in Anambra.

But the National President of Ohaneze, John Nwodo, had addressed legislators in Anambra and told them to ignore the directive.

Udeji told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday that Kanu was not qualified to give such a directive on behalf of Igbos.

Ohaneze Ndigbo remains the apex body of Igbos in Nigeria and world-wide.

No single individual will give any order on behalf of Igbos if that person is not the elected President of Ohaneze.

We understand Nnamdi Kanu`s emotions about the plight of Igbos in Nigeria. But, he should realise that we have a leader and that is Nwodo.

He is the one to speak on behalf of Igbos, he said.

Udeji urged Anambra people and other South East states to ignore such directive from IPOB and elect their leaders when the opportunity comes.

According to him, Igbos should collectively decide on such sensitive issues under the leadership of Ohaneze, their apex body, and not based on an individuals directive.

He said that Anambra people had the right to elect their governor and other representatives at the local government, state and national levels.
In videos tweeted by journalist Kadaria Ahmed on her Twitter handle (@KadariaAhmed), hundreds of people can be seen waving the Biafran flag chanting, while Kanu stands on the balcony of his house, not too far away from the Abia state government house.

In one video, Kanu can be seen waving at the noisy crowd down below in solidarity, and at some point, pointed up to the sky.

One of the conditions Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court in Abuja handed out before granting Kanu bail in April was that heshouldn't address a crowd of more than 10 people.

He has appeared to violate that condition on a number of occasions since his release from jail after he was picked up by law enforcement in 2015.

Kanu had also declared days ago that no election will hold in the southeast region during the 2019 general elections.

He said, "In 2019, the whole of Biafra land will not vote for any president. There'll be no Senator, there will be no House of Reps, there'll be no House of Assembly and there'll be no Councillorship elections in Biafra land if the federal government fails to call for a referendum".
According to Punch, Mora is home to the headquarters of the first sector of the Mixed Multinational Force.

Reports say the incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, July 1, 2017.

An eyewitness said the suicide bombers attempted to enter the town, when they were discovered by a vigilante team, prompting them to detonate the bombs.

ALSO READ:Two female bombers killed in foiled attack in Nigeria

A source who spoke to newsmen said There was one civilian victim and two injured.
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with fresh quotes from Foreign Ministry)

By Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Jul 1 (PTI) One year after the worst terror attack in Bangladesh, a popular cafe here which was the site of the horror was reopened today even as the country was grappling to rein in radical Islamists and searching for the five remaining terrorists behind the gruesome incident.

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The Holey Artisan Bakery and O Kitchen restaurant in the upmarket Gulshan area was opened for the public to pay respects to the 22 people, including an Indian girl, killed in the attack.

Representatives of various political parties, including the ruling Awami League, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and various civil society groups and police personnel paid their respects and laid flowers at the site.

Bangladesh expressed gratitude to individuals and foreign countries like India, Japan and the US for supporting it during its difficult one year since the July 1 attack.

"Were grateful to the people and governments who stood by Bangladesh during a difficult last one year," State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said.

"We remember those who lost their lives in Holey Artisan Bakery with deep respect and convey deep sympathy to their families and governments of their countries," Alam said on his official Facebook page.

On the evening of July 1, five operatives of Islamic State-inclined Neo-Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB) stormed into the eatery and started firing indiscriminately. They turned off all the lights and held the diners hostage.

They then brutally killed the hostages with guns and machetes. An Indian woman was among the 22 victims.

Around 12 hours later, para commandos stormed the restaurant. Two police officers were killed in the attack claimed by the Islamic State.

Eight suspects who were involved in its planning died in several anti-terror raids that followed. Four have been captured alive, while five more remain at large.

"We are trying to track down the five fugitives as we identified all those involved in the attack," a police spokesman told PTI.

Officials familiar with the investigations said they found evidence that 21 people were involved in the attack.

"Some 70 militants were gunned down or blew themselves up during encounters with police in the past one year. We have also arrested 128 suspected militants," police spokesman Quamrul Islam said.

But several analysts, however, said despite intensified security clampdowns after the July 1 attack, no visible progress has been made in investigations.

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Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan earlier this week said despite being late, the investigating agency would submit a "flawless? charge-sheet in the Holey Artisan attack case.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that the prosecutors await the completion of the investigation process to "take a special initiative to ensure quick hearing of the (Holey Artisan attack) case".

"We will take the case very seriously so that the trial proceedings are completed within the shortest possible time," Alam added.

The Bangladeshi government has arrested several militants after the cafe siege, but denies the existence of the Islamic State in the country and blames home-grown groups for the attack.

Police today arrested three suspected women terorists during a raid at their den in western Kushtia district.

Analysts believe that the IS may not be physically present in the country, but is involved in propagating jihadist ideologies and contributing to radicalisation and the recruitment of jihadists by domestic extremist groups. PTI AR NSA AKJ NSA

--- ENDS ---
NADCEL is celebrated yearly on every July 6.

In the Federal Capital Territory, the army carried out the exercise at a market at the NYSC Camp junction in Kubwa and Utako market.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, who addressed Kubwa residents, who turned out in large number to partake in the exercise, said the army was conscious of the environment.

Buratai, represented by Maj.-Gen. Christopher Jemitola, the Chief of Policy and Plans, said what we are doing in essence is to show that before we became soldiers, we were civilians and when we retire, we will become civilians.

But for the period within, we have to partner with civilians to show that we  soldiers, are conscious of the environment and we are ready to cooperate with everyone.

As an institution, we are ready to support government to take care of the environment and carry out our task.

Our colleagues in all in the geopolitical zones are carrying out same exercise today, and at the same time keeping the peace, he said.

ALSO READ: Nigerian Army conducts field training exercise in Bauchi

The army chief advised the people to cooperate with the army by keeping the peace and feel free to contact it through its toll-free number  193 to report misconduct by of its personnel.

This is why the information centre -193, is set up so that if anybody sees or hears anything or witnesses misconduct by any of us, you should call us. We will address it.

Report from Chibok IDPs camp in Borno on Saturday morning said that troops of the 28 Task Force Brigade offered free medical service to over 300 people as part of activities to mark the day.

Activities to mark NADCEL started on Friday with a news conference at the army headquarters, and Jumaat service at the Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja.
According to reports, Suntai died in the United States of America (USA), on Wednesday, June 26, 2017.

GEJ said I am deeply saddened by the death of former Governor of Taraba State, Mr. Danbaba Suntai, who passed on at the age of 55 years.

He was a committed patriot, an astute politician and altruistic State Governor who worked assiduously to improve the lives of the good people of Taraba State.

Through his purposeful leadership and development strides, the late Suntai was able to establish an enviable governance paradigm that has continued to guide Taraba State towards its desired greatness.

As a democrat, the late Suntai etched his name in the annals of our democratic advancement by working courageously for the emergence and consolidation of the Fourth Republic.

Before venturing into politics Suntai acquitted himself as a highly committed practitioner who brought honour and glory to the pharmacy profession.

His good works as a dedicated family man, accomplished professional, selfless politician and great philanthropist would continue to live after him.

On behalf of my family, I convey our deepest sympathy to his family, Government and good people of Taraba State, and the rest of the country.

May his soul find eternal repose in the bosom of the Almighty God.
Suyi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja on Saturday that the completion of the road project was long over-due.

He stated that the delay in the completion of the project has paralysed economic activities in the area as vehicular movement has drastically reduced since the construction work started.

He, therefore, appealed to the federal and state governments to compel the contractor handling the project to expedite action so that normalcy could be restored in the area.

Suyi applauded the Federal Government for awarding the contract, saying it would go a long way toward making life easier for the communities as well as boost economic activities in the area.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division, Maj.-Gen. Peter Dauke, and the 9 Brigade Commander, Brig.-Gen. Elias Attu, led the soldiers in a massive sanitation exercise in the streets of Mushin.

According to Dauke, the environmental sanitation is part of the activities lined up to commemorate the 2017 Nigerian Army Day Celebrations.

He expressed the hope that the exercise would further boost the Army-Public relations.

Sanitation is one of the activities lined up for this years Army Day celebration which will be followed by a medical outreach.

Sanitation is the civic responsibility of everyone and we feel part of our corporate social responsibilities is to interface with the public and the government in this vicinity.

This is why we are contributing our quota by interfacing with other security agencies to keep this vicinity clean, he told newsmen.

The GOC appealed to residents of Mushin to maintain a clean and healthy environment, saying cleanliness is next to Godliness.

Everyone should ensure that they do everything possible to make their environment clean.

Our environment must be clean for us to live healthily, he said.

Traders and food sellers as well as residents, who came out for the exercise, expressed gratitude to the Army for their intervention.
According to reports, the former VPs residence was raided by security operatives who were led by a team from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

A representative of the DSS Public Relations Unit, Nnana Nnochiri saidthey carried out an invitation to find out if their men were part of the raid, Punch reports.

Nnochiri also said We have carried out investigations to ascertain the identities of those that were involved in the raid.

We have spoken with all our directors in Kaduna State and the states close to where the incident happened, but I can tell you that our officials were not part of it.

Apart from this, we have also done our investigation to ascertain the agency or the agencies that went there; we found out that the DSS was not one of them.
UN member-states agreed to $6.8 billion to finance 14 missions, but an additional $500 million earmarked for peacekeeping in Haiti and in Sudan's Darfur region will get final approval in December.

The United States, the biggest financial contributor to peacekeeping, had sought a nearly $1 billion cut to the bill and the European Union had also pushed for savings to bring costs down to $7.3 billion.

The budget, however, fell short of what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had sought from member-states.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the financing is "meaningfully smaller than what we had last year" but that the world body will "make every effort to ensure that the mandates are implemented."

"We cannot overstate the value of peacekeeping," said Dujarric. "It remains the most cost-effective instrument at the disposal of the international community to prevent conflicts and foster conditions for lasting peace."

UN officials have repeatedly argued that the cost of peacekeeping is a fraction of military expenditures worldwide.

Most of the budget cuts will come from the closure of the mission in Haiti, a sharp drawdown of peacekeepers in Darfur along with some downsizing to the large peace operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Only getting started

After the budget deal was reached in a General Assembly committee on Wednesday, US Ambassador Nikki Haley claimed victory and vowed there would be deeper cuts in the future.

"Just five months into our time here, we've already been able to cut over half a billion dollars from the UN peacekeeping budget and we're only getting started," Haley said.

Washington pays 28.5 percent of the peacekeeping budget and 22 percent of the UN's core budget of $5.4 billion.

While the United States pushed for the biggest cut, European countries and Japan also wanted to rein in the budget while Russia and China did not put up opposition to moves to streamline missions, diplomats said.

China, Japan, Germany, France along with the United States are the five top financial contributors to peacekeeping.

Italian Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi, whose country is among the top 10 peacekeeping financiers, said that while the cuts were "substantial," the "operational activities in all locations have been protected and preserved."

Ambassador Elbio Rosselli of Uruguay, whose troops serve in Haiti and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said better management of the missions could help cushion the blow from the budget cuts.

"It's going to hurt," Rosselli told reporters, but "there are problems in peacekeeping that are not exclusively related to funding."

The Security Council on Thursday approved a major drawdown of peacekeepers from the UNAMID mission in Darfur but kept the force levels for the MINUSMA operation in Mali unchanged.

On Friday, the United Nations officially closed its mission in Ivory Coast, ending its 13-year presence in the West African country.
"Coast guards guided the boat to safety at (the eastern port of) Mukho," a South Korean coast guard official told AFP.

Government authorities were questioning the five North Koreans, he added.

The incident came after a North Korean fishing boat with eight people on board developed an engine trouble and drifted into South Korean waters off the country's eastern coast late last month.

Days later, South Korea repatriated all the eight, as they had requested.

Early last month, two people out of four crew members on another North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle in the South.

There has also been a spate of overland border crossings in June.

Two North Korean soldiers walked across the heavily fortified border and a civilian swam across a river to defect to the South.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.
Ceremonies at the European Parliament begin a day of commemoration and mourning, culminating in his burial in the German town of Speyer.

At his widow's request, there will be no state funeral in Germany.

The former chancellor's coffin will be brought to the parliament chamber in the French city of Strasbourg where his successor, Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and former US president Bill Clinton will give speeches.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will represent Russia at the ceremony, which will also be attended by British Prime Minister Theresa May and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The speeches and a short film to be played to the chamber will focus on Kohl's role in German unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and on his close cooperation with France's Francois Mitterrand in shaping the European Union.

It is the first time that the European Parliament has paid tribute to a leader in such a way.

Son's criticism

The idea for a ceremony was proposed by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, whom Kohl affectionately called "junior" when the Luxemburger became prime minister at the age of 41.

On Kohl's death, Juncker described him as "my mentor, my friend (and) the very essence of Europe".

The parliament building in the city on the Franco-German border will be ringed by steel. More than 2,000 police will be on duty to protect the visiting dignitaries.

After the ceremony in Strasbourg, Kohl's coffin will be taken by helicopter to the German city of Ludwigshafen where it will be transferred to a boat and taken down the Rhine to the southwest town of Speyer for his funeral service.

The arrangements have been clouded by criticism from Kohl's elder son. In an interview with Die Zeit weekly he called the plans "unworthy" of his father's role in Germany's history.

Walter Kohl, whose mother was the late chancellor's first wife Hannelore Kohl, criticised the lack of a state funeral, which was refused by Kohl's second wife Maike Kohl-Richter.

Kohl married Kohl-Richter, 34 years her husband's junior, when he was 78.

One of the reasons for her refusal was lingering anger at Merkel's treatment of her former mentor.

Merkel ousted Kohl from the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and urged the party to drop him when he became embroiled in a party funding scandal.

Walter Kohl wants his father's coffin to be taken to the German capital for "a national homage, an ecumenical requiem and a military farewell ceremony" near the Brandenburg Gate, where the German leader witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Because of a long-running feud with his stepmother, who jealously guards her husband's political legacy, Walter Kohl had not had contact with his father for many years and said he learned of his death from a radio report.
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with arrest of all six accused)

Mumbai, Jul 1 (PTI) The crime branch of the Mumbai Police today arrested all the six accused in the death of Byculla prison inmate Manju Shette.

Those arrested have been identified as Manisha Pokharkar, Wasima Shaikh, Shital Shegokar, Surekha Gulve, Aarti Shingne and Bindu Naikde, a senior crime branch official told PTI.

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Police had registered a case of murder against the jail officials and staff in connection with the death of the inmate, he said.

Shette (45) died at the government-run J J Hospital on June 23 after being allegedly beaten up by the jail officials and staff as she had failed to account for two eggs and five loaves of bread, which were distributed by her to the inmates, the official said.

Naikde was arrested in the afternoon, while the other accused were arrested later, said the official.

All the six accused were already suspended by the jail department.

After Shettes death, around 200 prisoners began a protest on June 24 for their demands, including allowing the media inside the jail premises.

During the protest some of the inmates went to the prisons roof, while others made a bonfire with newspapers and other documents inside the premises to express their anger.

Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, was among the 200 inmates of the Byculla jail who were booked by police for rioting and other offences after they staged a protest over Shettes death. PTI DC NRB RMT NSD

--- ENDS ---
Some Nigerians in New York, who knew Bello, confirmed to the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday. And the NYPD has also identified him to be a Nigerian-born doctor.

Five of his victims were seriously injured and fighting for their lives,

Bello went into his former workplace wearing a white lab coat with an AR-15 machine gun hidden underneath with the intention of targeting the same individual.

NYPD officials said Bello asked for a specific doctor on the 16th floor but when he was told the doctor was not there, he became angry and started shooting at everyone.

Officials said Bello tried to set himself on fire before committing suicide.

Reports said Bello, who was hired at the hospital in August 2014 as a house physician, had past arrests for sex abuse, turnstile jumping, burglary and public urination.

In September 2004, he was arrested and charged with sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment after a 23-year-old woman told officers he had grabbed her crotch area outside a building on Bleecker Street in Manhattan and tried to penetrate her through her underwear, reports said.

Court records indicated that in September 2004, Bello pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, a misdemeanour, and was sentenced to community service, while the felony sexual abuse charge was dismissed, according to reports.

He was going to be fired by the hospital, after reports of sexual harassments, but instead chose to resign in February 2015 in lieu of termination, reports further said.

Reports from the New York State Education Department said Bello had received a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate in order to gain experience so he could be licensed.

The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired on July 1, 2016, while he also had a pharmacy technician license that had been issued in California in 2006.

He went to medical school on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean.

A photo provided by authorities showed him dead on the floor of the hospital, wearing a bloodied doctors coat.
"In the course of last weekend, 12,600 migrants and refugees arrived on its shores, and an estimated 2,030 have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year."

He added: "Italy is playing its part in receiving those rescued and providing asylum to those in need of protection. These efforts must be continued and strengthened. But this cannot be an Italian problem alone."

Separately, a source in Paris said the interior ministers of France, Germany and Italy will meet in the French capital on Sunday to discuss a "coordinated approach" to help Italy.

Faced with rising numbers of migrants risking the perilous sea crossing to reach Europe, Italy last week threatened to close its doors to people arriving on boats with foreign flags.

Europe had to get fully involved through an "urgent distribution system" of migrants and should widen legal channels so that migrants can be admitted, Grandi added.

He also called for greater international efforts to tackle the causes of the migration, protect people and fight trafficking.

Since the beginning of the year, 83,650 people have reached Italy by sea, an increase of nearly 20 percent compared to the same period last year, according to UN figures.

Nearly all of Italy's 200,000 places for accommodating migrants have been filled.

Many of the migrants need health care and support, with a large percentage of them non-accompanied children and victims of sexual violence, says the UN.
Expressing his condolences, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: "May her example inspire our fellow citizens, as the best of what France can achieve."

Macron's office announced a state funeral for Veil on Wednesday, adding that EU flags would fly at half mast on the day with French flags on public buildings bearing a black ribbon in her memory.

Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande said Veil "embodied dignity, courage and moral rectitude".

"France has lost a figure the likes of which history produces few," French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe added in a tweet.

'Exceptional woman'

Former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, whom Veil served as health minister in the 1970s, said: "She was an exceptional woman who experienced life's greatest joys and its greatest sadnesses."

Veil -- a model of composure who always wore her hair in a sleek bun and dressed in Chanel suits -- was seen as something of a secular saint for her unwavering stance on moral issues.

Her standout achievement as a politician was shepherding a 1974 abortion law through parliament after a 25-hour debate during which she endured a torrent of abuse

"I never imagined the hatred that I would unleash," the former health minister said later.

Some French lawmakers at the time likened pregnancy terminations to the Holocaust

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed Veil, saying she had been "committed for several decades and with great energy to the process of European unification."

In a message addressed to Macron, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier hailed a "great European" whose life embraced "both the horror and the hopeful construction of 20th-century Europe."

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker also wrote to Macron saying that Veil "suffered personally from the tragic tearing asunder of Europe and managed, through her political engagement, to help build sustained peace in Europe".

In the evening a crowd, some from feminist groups, gathered in a central Paris square to pay homage to Veil

I wouldn't be the woman I am today without Simone Veil," said 42-year-old Johanna Nizard, one of those who gathered in the iconic Place de la Republique.

Some groups hailed her as a "heroine" deserving to be buried in the Pantheon in Paris, to join the likes of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola and Marie Curie.

Parents died in death camps

Born Simone Jacob in the Mediterranean city of Nice on July 13, 1927, Veil was deported to Auschwitz in 1944.

Her father, mother and brother died in the Nazi death camps, while she and her two sisters, one of whom later died in a car crash, survived.

After the war she studied law and married Antoine Veil, who died in April 2013. The couple had three sons.

As a young judge she lobbied for improved conditions in French prisons before throwing herself into the battle to end backstreet abortions.

A staunch believer in European integration, she became the first elected president of the European Parliament in 1979, a post she held for three years.

Polls consistently showed her to be one of France's most popular and trusted figures.

She also frequently took part in World War II commemorations and spoke out against the far-right National Front (FN).
BHC closed Tuesday

All Black Hawk College facilities will be closed Tuesday in observance of Independence Day.

Dig into family history with BHC class

Interested in your roots but unsure where to start, how to organize and where to look?

Learn the tools and strategies to successfully research your family lineage in the Black Hawk College class Starting Your Family Search.

Participants will use popular and obscure websites as well as pedigree charts and family group sheets.

The class will meet Thursdays, July 20 to Aug. 17, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the colleges Outreach Center in East Moline. Cost is $50.

To register, call 309-796-8223.

BHC welding classes begin July 24

Black Hawk College is offering Production MIG welding and Stick/TIG welding classes beginning July 24.

Both classes are 140 hours. The first 40 hours are classroom training. The remaining 100 hours are in the weld lab with hands-on experience and demonstrating the proper use of materials.

Classes will be Monday through Friday, July 24 to Aug. 30. Day and evening classes are available.

Cost is $1,999. For more information, call 309-796-5718 or visit www.bhc.edu/welding.

Food service manager training offered in Geneseo

Black Hawk College offers training for restaurant and food-service workers.

The Food Service Sanitation Manager course meets Illinois and Iowa state requirements and prepares students for the Food Service Sanitation Manager Certification exam.

Classes will be Mondays, July 31 and Aug. 7, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Geneseo Public Library. Cost is $147.

For class details, visit bhc.edu/foodservice.

To register, call 309-796-8223.

BHC congratulates 2017 GED, high school completion grads

Black Hawk College celebrated the accomplishments of 81 students at the annual GED and High School Completion Graduation Celebration.

The event recognized Adult Education and Optional Education students from across the college district who completed all GED or high school completion graduation requirements during the 2016-17 school year.

GED and high school completion classes at Black Hawk College are offered at no cost to students and are conducted in a variety of locations. A new session will begin Aug. 8.

For more information, call or visit one of these learning sites:

Black Hawk College Outreach Center

301 Avenue of the Cities, East Moline

309-796-8216

Black Hawk College Adult Learning Center

4610 Black Hawk Commons Drive, Rock Island

309-794-1072

Black Hawk College Community Education Center

404 E. Third St., Kewanee

309-854-1875

High Roads Advantage

2004 SE. Third St., Aledo

309-582-8181.
The reputations of many men were made in the Civil War, which became a springboard to greatness for some of the best and brightest. However, Cadwallader C. Washburn, who went to school in Rock Island, enjoyed his finest moments in civilian life.

Born on April 22, 1818, in Livermore, Maine, Washburn came from limited means and had a burning drive to succeed, a trait shared by his siblings. One brother, Elihu, was a lawyer in Galena, where he was closely associated with Ulysses S. Grant. Elihu later served in Congress and as Secretary of State. Another brother, Israel, was a wartime governor of Maine, while a third, William, served in both houses of Congress from Minnesota.

Cadwallader came to Iowa in 1839 and spent his last four dollars on a pair of shoes, which he needed to wear to his job as a school teacher. Three years later, he began to study law in Rock Island and passed the bar in Wisconsin. There, he established a practice in Mineral Point, where he also amassed considerable wealth in land speculation. In 1852, he co-founded a bank in Mineral Poin, and eventually owned 40,000 acres of logging timber on the Black River.

His holdings were highly leveraged, though, and by the late 1850s, Washburn was facing financial ruin. Still, he was one of the most popular men in western Wisconsin, and, in 1854, he won the first of three terms in Congress as a Republican. In 1859, he moved to LaCrosse and, two years later, attended the peace conference in Washington in 1861.

Wisconsin Gov. Alexander Randall offered a colonelcy if Washburn could raise a regiment, which became the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry. Partly from family connections  Elihu was also a friend of President Abraham Lincoln  Cadwallader moved quickly up the ranks to brigadier general on July 16, 1862, and major general that Nov. 29.

A reasonably competent officer, Cadwallader held various divisional and departmental commands in Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters, as well as serving three stints as commander of the XIII Corps. Captured at Memphis in August 1864 and later exchanged, he also was nearly captured by troops under the notorious Nathan Bedford Forrest, who chased Washburn down a Memphis alley in a nightshirt. Still, Washburn is credited with preventing Forrest from threatening William T. Shermans armies in Georgia.

Washburn also battled military corruption and ended the lucrative contraband cotton trade that lined pockets on both sides. Confederate Lt. Gen. Stephen Dill Lee once said Washburn was the only Federal commander we couldnt buy.

After the war, Washburn spent two more terms in Congress before winning election as Wisconsin governor in 1871. In Madison, he favored railroad freight regulation, which drew the wrath of rail executives, and his support of limits on liquor sales angered the German population. He was defeated for re-election in 1873.

But there was plenty else to keep Washburn occupied. A spike in lumber prices in 1865 had saved his business empire, and by the late 1860s, Washburn was looking to expand once again. In 1871, he was part of a conglomerate that built an enormous sawmill near LaCrosse, and he bought out his partners four years later. By 1880, the mill had an annual output of 20 million board feet of lumber.

Washburn was also raking in money in other ventures. In 1866, he poured $100,000 into a flour mill near Minneapolis, which he continually upgraded. Six years later, the mill made a $150,000 profit, and, in 1873, Washburn built an even larger mill. His operations reportedly produced 2,600 barrels of flour a day in 1874.

As his wealth grew, so did his philanthropic efforts. He donated his opulent estate near Madison to a convent for a school for young women, which today is Edgewood College. Other gifts included a new library to LaCrosse, an orphanage to Minneapolis and an observatory to the University of Wisconsin that bears his name.

Washburn died on May 15, 1882 and is buried in LaCrosse.

Today, his legacy lives on with his flour mills, which later became food giant General Mills, and one of its signature products, Gold Medal Flour.
ROCK ISLAND  Sixteen years after Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Stanley Talbot's death, his memory will be honored with the rededication of the Centennial Bridge in his name.

The ceremony is planned for 1 p.m. July 17 at the foot of the bridge in Rock Island, near where Master Sgt. Talbot died, said ISP Trooper Jason Wilson, of District 7, headquartered in East Moline. Expected ceremony participants include two of Master Sgt. Talbot's children, both police officers, Master Sgt. Dyan Talbot and Collinsville Police Officer Doug Talbot.

State Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, who helped spearhead the campaign to rename the Mississippi River span between Rock Island and Davenport, also plans to attend, said Trooper Wilson.

The Centennial Bridge will be renamed the Master Sgt. Stanley Talbot Memorial Bridge in his honor, Trooper Wilson said.

"We're going to be able to honor him now by at least putting up the signs on the bridge and making sure people are aware of the sacrifice one of our own has made for this job," Trooper Wilson said. "We hope it will bring to light the danger of what we do every single day."

Trooper Wilson said he was stationed in the Chicago area at the time of Master Sgt. Talbot's death, but he learned all about it.

Master Sgt. Talbot, of Cambridge, was 50 when he was killed during a roadside safety check about six months before the 26-year police veteran was set to retire.

At about 1:30 a.m. June 23, 2001, at the intersection of 15th Street and 2nd Avenue in Rock Island, Master Sgt. Talbot was dragged for about four and a half blocks by Jonathan C. Posey. He also was accidentally run over by another officer's squad car pursuing Mr. Posey.

Sentenced to 12 years in prison for Master Sgt. Talbot's death, Mr. Posey was paroled in January 2006, according to earlier reports.

Master Sgt. Talbot began his Illinois State Police career March 11, 1975, assigned to District 5 in Joliet. He transferred to District 7 in East Moline in September 1979.

In 1985, he moved from District 7's patrol to its investigations unit. He was promoted to special agent master sergeant in 1989, and he transferred back to the patrol division in 1996.

The rededication of the bridge was part of an Illinois House of Representatives bill approved May 31.
ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL -- First Army Soldiers and civilians were on hand Tuesday to help celebrate Maj. Gen. Chris Gentrys promotion from brigadier general. Maj. Gen. Gentry serves as First Armys deputy commanding general for support and is also commanding general of the First Army United States Army Reserve Support Command.

Officiating the ceremony was Lt. Gen. Stephen Twitty, First Army commanding general.

There are only a few joys of being a general officer, and one of them is being able to stand up here and promote great people, he said. The Army is in the business of people, and part of that is taking care of people. You take care of them by promoting them, awarding them, and re-enlisting them. Chris, its great to promote you today.

Lt. Gen. Twitty reflected on the importance of having the right person in the deputy commanders slot. It is hard to make general, then when you make one star, it is hard to move to the next rank, he said. The Army got it right on this one, without a doubt. Most of the time Im gone; Im away from the headquarters. I am able to go off and do the things Im supposed to as a leader because of the great deputy that I have in Chris Gentry. Hes always going to have his hands on the pulse, and hes going to do whats right. I have the trust and confidence that he will make it happen.

Maj. Gen. Gentry recounted his early days a second lieutenant when he continued a family tradition of military service. All those years ago, never in my fondest dreams did I think I would be standing here receiving this honor. It does instill a lot of humility, but it also reinforces the honor of serving, he said.

He also emphasized the importance of being part of a team.

If theres one thing I could tell you for those of you on your way up and aspiring to bigger and greater things, its not how far you climb, its how many you encourage to climb with you.
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 1 (PTI) The Mumbai Police Crime Branch today arrested a guard of the Byculla prison in connection with the death of inmate Manju Shette.

The arrested jail guard has been identified as Bindu Naikde. This is the first arrest in the case, a senior police official said.

Bindu was produced before a Mumbai court which sent her to police custody till July 7, the official added.

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Shette (45) died at the government-run JJ Hospital on June 23 after being allegedly beaten up by jail staff after she failed to account for two eggs and five bread loaves, meant for distribution to inmates, said the official.

Around 200 prisoners had on June 24 protested over Shettes death and demanded media access inside the jail.

During the protest, some of the enraged inmates went to the prisons roof, while others made a bonfire of newspapers and documents inside the premises to express their anger.

Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, was among the 200 inmates booked by Nagpada police for rioting and other offences.

With regard to Shettes death, a complaint was filed and a case of murder was registered against jail staff, including Manisha Pokharkar, Wasima Shaikh, Shital Shegokar, Surekha Gulve and Aarti Shingne and Naikde, he added. PTI DC NRB RMT GVS

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For the second time in five years, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra is in the market for a new executive director.

Ben Loeb, 51, left his post Friday after four-and-a-half years on the job, but he will continue to serve as an independent consultant as needed until a new director takes over. The QCSO board of directors has hired retired Deere & Co. attorney Michael Harring as interim executive director and Toronto-based executive search firm Genovese Vanderhoof & Associates to lead the search process, board president Sue Honsey said Tuesday.

"He's a friend of the symphony, with good management and leadership skills," she said of Mr. Harring, past Deere vice president and deputy general counsel for North America. Mr. Harring joined the Deere law department in 1984.

The symphony board has formed an eight-member search committee that will interview executive director candidates as recommended by Genovese Vanderhoof, Ms. Honsey said. A job description and ad are expected to be posted nationwide next week. Interviews are planned for the fall, and a new director should be in place on or before Jan. 1, 2018, she said.

The search firms clients range from North America's largest ballet and opera companies, theaters, museums, art galleries and orchestras, to highly specialized cultural organizations such as modern dance companies, folk festivals, theaters for young audiences, science museums, performing arts facilities, historic theaters and living history museums, according to genovesevanderhoof.com.

Mr. Loeb  who was named to the position in late November 2012 and started in January 2013  holds four music degrees and has an extensive background as a pianist, conductor, arranger, teacher, music director and arts administrator. He came to the Quad-Cities after spending two years as executive director of the Greater Bridgeport (Conn.) Symphony Orchestra.

His leaving the QCSO is not voluntary, he said in early May. "As I understand it, this was a strategic decision from the board."

Ms. Honsey would not comment then on whether the transition was forced, instead terming it "amicable." She said Mr. Loeb has "done a lot of really great things for us in the four and a half years he's been here."

He replaced Jeff vom Saal, who took a similar job with the Marin Symphony Orchestra in California in August 2012.

"I'm optimistic for the future of both the QCSO and for me," Mr. Loeb said Tuesday. "I don't have any specific options yet, but I'm pursuing various opportunities. My family and I really love it here and love being active in the community."

The executive director's compensation will not be posted in the job description but will be open to negotiation, Ms. Honsey said.
ROCK ISLAND  Temperatures are destined to return to hot and humid heights, and when that happens, area residents are welcome to spend time at Christian Care in Rock Island.

Pam Hauman, outreach coordinator at Christian Care, said, Summer can be a harsh time in the Quad-Cities for many in our community, and as the temperature and heat indexes rise, many people struggle to stay cool. Christian Care is dedicated to helping the less fortunate by opening its doors as an emergency cooling center when temperatures are 90 degrees and above.

Anyone needing assistance is welcome between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days per week, at 2209 3rd Ave., Rock Island.

People who come to the Center to get relief from the heat are allowed to sit in the dining room area, watch television, read,play cards, engage in conversations or put their heads down and nap. The Center also serves as an emergency warming center when outside temperatures are below 10 degrees and/or wind chill is below 0.

As long as they are not disruptive to our work or residents, they will be allowed to remain on the premises, Mrs. Hauman said.

Visitors also are welcome to stay for lunch and dinner.

We dont track the number of individuals who come in to get out of the heat, but we do track the number of folks who utilize the Community Meal Site at the Center, Mrs. Hauman said, adding that in June, July and August 2016, there were meals served to more than 10,000 individuals. The Centers ministries include a Community Meal Site that serves more than 45,000 meals annually.

The Center has a 24-hour Crisis Line, 309-788-2273, that receives calls 24/7/365.

We provide information on local resources available and take calls for those seeking our shelter services, she said. We have a clothing room with mens clothing and personal hygiene items that can be accessed by residents and nonresidents.

The cooling and warming service is a natural fit, as Mrs. Hauman explained the Center is a 24-hour facility, and it doesnt cost us any more in terms of utility costs to allow nonresidents to take advantage of our air conditioning or heating. There are so few sites that offer the services; we feel we are giving back to the community for their continued, on-going support of Christian Care.

The 36-bed shelter for homeless men is at capacity with a waiting list, Mrs. Hauman said.

By providing safe shelter, support and resources, Christian Care empowers the homeless to make positive changes in every aspect of their lives, and Christian Care has a Grant Per Diem Program funded through the Veterans Administration and has six beds designated for veterans, she said.

Homelessness is often the result of mental illness, addiction or lack of support and guidance. Mrs. Hauman said, Not every man who stays at the shelter is a drug addict or an alcoholic. Some individuals are here because they are experiencing circumstances beyond their control and desperately want their lives to return to normal.

There is no defined length of stay at the Center, and men are allowed to stay as long as they are working on their goals. Counseling and case management services are provided for every resident.

Our goal is to have them become productive, contributing members of society, she said. We want them to secure safe, affordable housing and become self-sufficient.

Christian Care was founded in 1916 in the Quad-Cities and provides many services to the homeless population. Staff members are hoping individuals and organizations will continue to support Christian Care so the services offered will not be jeopardized. For more information, call the Center at 309-786-5734.
(My granddaughter, a college senior, recently visited the island of Cuba with family. This is her account. She asked that I not use her name.)

Now that traveling to Cuba has become somewhat available to Americans, I visited Cuba with family (who are Cuban) to see family that lives there.

The country is beautiful and much different than anything you see in the everyday life of an American.

We flew out of Miami, which is 90 miles north of Cuba. This was only about a 40 minute flight. We boarded a large Southwest Airplane, the kind with over 100 seats. However there were only 13 people on the plane.

When we arrived in Varadero at the small colorful airport, we got our bags, went through border security and stepped outside.

The first thing I noticed was the single small parking lot outside in comparison to the massive parking lots abundant in the U.S. The small parking lot was half full of older antique cars. We were kindly greeted by everyone there.

Varadero was one of the larger towns in Cuba. We stayed in a house there near the beach for a low price.

Family members from out of town all worked hard to find a way there so they could see us, just one of the many gestures that showed just how important family is to them in their culture.

The restaurants were within walking distance and even at night it was safe to walk around the town. (She later said there were police on every corner.) During the day we visited the markets that sold souvenirs and other novelties. We visited the beach, with its soft white sand and sky blue water.

Canadian flags were everywhere. When they heard us speak English the people asked if we were Canadian.

They love Canadians. (There are 1.2 million Canadians who visit Cuba each year.)

We stayed one day at a resort. It was a five-star all inclusive resort, as are most of the resorts that lined the coast of Varadero. The five-stars were not equivalent to five-star hotels in America. However, it was quite nice, especially when compared to conditions in the average Cuban home.

For example, the hotels had central air, pools, all-you-can eat dining and were clean. The odd part about that large resort; it was only 25 percent full. There were about 20 hotels in Varadero.

We visited Havana, the capitol. My impression of Havana visually was that of a crumbling New Orleans. The social atmosphere reminds me of New Orleans as well, with live music and dancing in the streets.

Bedrooms had window air conditioning units. Windows had wooden slats.

Items became scarce after the embargo. (The current regime has been in place since 1959 and weathered a U.S. economic embargo from 1962 until last year with some restrictions lifted.) We brought our own soap and toilet paper with us. (It has been reported infections in Cuba are on the rise due to lack of soap.)

Hotels, restaurants and homes had no toilet seats. When they broke or wore out Cubans could not replace them.

My favorite part of the trip was seeing how important family is to them. The house we stayed in Varedero was one of many on a street of vacation rental homes.

When walking on the street, I noticed the front porches were always filled with family and friends sitting together talking and enjoying each others company. This was the norm when they werent out working hard.

(It was 90 degrees every day of the trip. U.S. citizens cannot spend money in Cuba without a special license issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Certain categories of people who arent tourists may apply such as close relatives of Cubans. President Trump recently announced new travel restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba ending self-directed trips by Americans to Cuba among other restrictions. Rules wont take effect until they are formalized in a few months.)
High-speed rail has the ability to transform travel between cities by shrinking journey times dramatically, but it is increasingly difficult to implement, particularly in densely-populated or prosperous countries where land prices are escalating, environmental protection is becoming more onerous and opposition to such projects is growing. Britains HS2 project has a very high price tag for these very reasons and had to overcome very-well-organised and vociferous opposition from people living along the route.

Strong and unwavering political support is therefore vital for the successful realisation of high-speed projects. SNCF has always enjoyed this and HS2 has had cross-party support despite the challenges posed by the economic crisis, constant pleas to spend the money on the conventional network or public services such as health care and education.

International projects face the added challenge of overcoming cross-border political differences and national rivalry. Singapore and Malaysia have rarely seen eye-to-eye since Singapore broke away from Malaysia in 1965. But now the two countries appear seized by the opportunities that a standard-gauge high-speed railway linking Singapore with Kuala Lumpur will bring. Malaysias MyHSR Corporation and Singapores Land Transport Authority (LTA) will jointly hold an industry briefing in Singapore on July 5 for the Assets Company, which is responsible for designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining both the rolling stock and the infrastructure, to explain the tender parameters and technical specifications to potential bidders.

Indifference in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the ambitious Rail Baltica project to link the three capitals with Poland appears to be turning into enthusiastic support if the supportive speeches and strong attendance at the first Rail Baltic forum in Riga are anything to go by. This project, which will form part of the North Sea-Baltic TEN-T corridor, will not only cut journey times significantly, but will plug the three states more firmly into the European Union by providing them with their first standard-gauge connection. While some funds have already been secured, the project relies heavily on EU funding which may become less certain following Brexit. Wisely, RB Rails CEO Ms Baiba Rubesa says the three countries must be willing to consider alternative sources of funding.

France has funded the three extensions to its high-speed network, two of which open this month and the third at the end of the year, through public-private partnerships. While all three projects are on time and within budget, SNCF is not so happy because of the increased access charges it faces to use the new lines. Indeed, SNCF has been cautious about how many trains it will operate on the lines for fear of racking up excessive charges. This in turn could mean that the PPP concessionaires will not earn as much revenue as they predicted when the funding was arranged prior to starting work on the project.

France and Spain took control of the Perpignan - Barcelona high-speed rail link between both countries in December 2016 after the PPP contract with concessionaire TP Ferro was terminated following the companys liquidation in September. TP Ferro, which was owned by construction firms ACS and Eiffage, entered into receivership in late 2015 after declaring debts of e560m. Traffic on the line was one third less than forecast when the 50-year concession was awarded in 2003. This was a salutary lesson for all concerned and a warning of the potential risk for private companies considering investing in high-speed projects.

Even experienced and well-established high-speed operators can get their fingers burnt if they take their eye off the ball and fail to react to changes in the market, as SNCF has discovered. After years of steady increases in traffic and revenue, SNCFs TGV network took a knock in 2013-14 when people started to take advantage of cheap car sharing schemes and long-distance bus operators entered the market. SNCFs initial response was to set up its own long-distance bus operation and introduce a no-frills low-cost TGV service called Ouigo.

Ouigo has been extremely successful as it has demonstrated that there is a market for a low-fare high-speed product, and that it is possible to operate high-speed trains more cheaply by streamlining maintenance and working the assets much harder. SNCF will now expand the Ouigo network and plans to cut operating costs by 30% on its conventional TGV network.

More than this, SNCF has taken the bold, and some might say risky, step of re-branding TGV as inOui as part of an initiative to improve the quality of its high-speed services. While the leaked story caused consternation that such an iconic and well-known French brand was being changed, SNCF is quietly pleased at the huge amount of free publicity it received. Only time will tell if SNCF has made the right decision or made a horrible mistake. In any event, SNCF appears committed to getting TGV back on track.
The Chinese trijunction, marked by an arrow that claims it is under the 1890 Britain-China treaty, is at the Mount Gipmochi.

By Ananth Krishnan: Stepping up its claims that India had "trespassed", China has now released a map showing the site of the stand-off as well as China's territorial claims at the India-China-Bhutan trijunction that are in conflict with India's and Bhutan's claims.

The map claims the Indian Army crossed the border at Doka La pass, depicted with a blue arrow, into the Doklam plateau which India and Bhutan see as Bhutanese territory but is claimed by China.

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The map, released on Friday, also reveals China's substantial territorial claims at the trijunction that are conflicting with India's and Bhutan's. It shows that China fixes the trijunction far south of where India and Bhutan do, which explains the current stand-off.

WHAT THE MAP SHOWS

The Chinese trijunction, marked by an arrow that claims it is under the 1890 Britain-China treaty, is at the Mount Gipmochi. This is far south of where India and Bhutan mark the trijunction, which the map acknowledged with a dotted line.

The area on the Doklam plateau south of the dotted line is claimed by China, and it is here that Beijing was building a road into what Bhutan sees as its territory, triggering the stand-off with Bhutan and India.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday: "The line commences at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier, and follows the above-mentioned water-parting to the point where it meets Nepal territory. It is without any doubt that the spot where the Indian border troops trespassed is on the Chinese side of the boundary."

INDIA CONCERNED OVER CHINESE INCURSION

India, however, on Friday reminded China that building a road in this disputed area was a violation. "India is deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese Government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India," the Ministry of External Affairs said.

"In this context, the Indian side has underlined that the two Governments had in 2012 reached agreement that the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalized in consultation with the concerned countries. Any attempt, therefore, to unilaterally determine tri-junction points is in violation of this understanding. Where the boundary in the Sikkim sector is concerned, India and China had reached an understanding also in 2012 reconfirming their mutual agreement on the "basis of the alignment". Further discussions regarding finalization of the boundary have been taking place under the Special Representatives framework."

Also Read:

India-China standoff in Sikkim: What happened at Doka La

China says India to blame for border row, Nathu La closure

Also Watch:

China claims these photographs prove Indian Army crossed the border

--- ENDS ---
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By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 1 (PTI) Two foreign climbers who went missing while scaling the 8,125-metre Killer Mountain in northern Pakistan have been presumed dead and the rescue operation has been called off, officials said today.

Alberto Zerain, a Spanish, and Mariano Galvan, an Argentinian, went missing while attempting to summit the Nanga Parbat.

Officials called off rescue operation today after last ditch efforts to locate the missing duo failed.

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"The climbers are presumed dead as we failed to get any clue about them," according to an official of Alpine Club of Pakistan.

The two missing men had started the climbing on June 19 but could only reach at 6,100 metres when they were held by bad weather.

They lost contact with the base camp on last Friday, prompting search operation. PTI SH UZM

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Porterville, CA (93257)

Today

Sunshine early followed by mostly cloudy skies this afternoon. High 61F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 38F. Winds light and variable.
Athens-Clarke County is doing its part for National HIV Testing Week. On June 27, National HIV Testing Day, the Georgia Department of Health and the Speciality Care Clinic teamed up with Live Forward and Advantage to provide free HIV/AIDS testing across Athens-Clarke County.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation at the Central Hall of Parliament ahead of the GST launch at midnight.

Here are highlights from the PMs speech:

1) GST is result of combined efforts of all political parties

2) GST is a result of a long thinking; all states along with Centre discussed for years

3) GST an example of cooperative federalism

4) GST is economic integration of India just like what Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had done decades back to integrate the country

5) GST is transparent and fair system that prevents black money and corruption and promotes new governance culture

6) GST has potential to end harassment at hands of officers; hopes traders will transfer its benefits to consumers

7) GST is a good and simple tax regime that will eliminate the compounding effects of multi-layered tax system

8) Albert Einstein had once said that if there is one thing that is most difficult to understand, it is income tax. I wonder what he would have said had he seen our tax system

Photograph: Kind courtesy, PIB
By PTI: Srinagar, Jul 1 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today expressed grief over the death of two civilians during an encounter between militants and security forces in Anantnag district and urged people to keep away from the conflagration sights.

She also called for efforts at all levels to revive the peace and reconciliation process for the larger good of people of the state.

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Meanwhile, separatists called for a shutdown tomorrow against what they called "cold-blooded murder" of two civilians and to express "solidarity" with the families of the two militants killed in the gunbattle.

Top Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari and his associate Azad Dada, who were wanted in a number of militancy-related incidents including killing of six policemen last month, were gunned down in an encounter with security forces at Brenti-Batpora village in Dialgam this afternoon.

Two civilians, including a 44-year-old woman, were also killed and several others were injured as a stone-pelting mob clashed with security forces in a bid to help the militants flee from the encounter scene.

Terming the death of the two civilians as "tragic and unfortunate", the chief minister appealed to the people to keep away from the points of conflagration so that precious human lives are not lost.

Conveying her sympathies to the bereaved families, Mehbooba said "the vicious cycle of death and destruction confronting Kashmir must end at the earliest and efforts should be made at all levels to revive the peace and reconciliation process for the larger good of the people sandwiched in a gory situation.

"We, in Jammu and Kashmir, understand better what the ordeal of violence is, as it has been our fate to live through and survive its frightening and devouring hazards," she said.

Mehbooba said that for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, suffering over two decades of turmoil, has been a long, dark experience, bloody at times and frustrating at almost every step.

"This gory era must end now for the sake of our future generations," she said.

On the other hand, chairman of hardline Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani, head of moderate Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF chief Yasin Malik issued a joint statement, urging the people to observe a "complete shutdown" tomorrow.

"The ruling regime has crossed all limits of repression and killings. Imposition of curfews, restrictions and curbs has become an everyday affair in Kashmir," they said. PTI MIJ TA AKK AKK

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Ironically, West Bengal, which has been seeking a postponement of the GST roll-out, has fared better among most other states.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Karnataka seems to have taken the lead in migration to the goods and services tax (GST) regime, with almost all traders moving to the new platform.

There are 5,60,000 traders in Karnataka, and, as of the last week of June, all of them had migrated to the GST platform.

Ironically, West Bengal, which has been seeking a postponement of the GST roll-out, has fared better among most other states; since May, the enrolment has moved up from 89 per cent to 94 per cent.

In contrast, the figure for Gujarat, at the forefront of spearheading the GST, is at 93 per cent; Tamil Nadu at 90 per cent, Chhattisgarh and Telangana at 85 per cent, and Odisha at 73 per cent.

Karnatakas success in getting traders on board is largely due to preparatory work by the government.

We have done nearly 400 workshops for dealers and companies across the state to educate and provide hands-on training in the IT (information technology) system, said K S Basavaraju, joint commissioner of Karnatakas commercial taxes department and the state nodal officer for the GST Network (GSTN).

The state has also worked with trade organisations.

Even though the enrolment in West Bengal is better than most others, small traders are unprepared.

We support the GST but are worried about the procedure. No proper time was given to technically unsound traders to adapt to filing tax online, Mahesh Singhania, chairman of the Federation of West Bengal Trade Association said.

West Bengal has around 3,00,000 small traders.

In Odisha, 73 per cent enrolment has happened. For the balance dealers, a three-month window is allowed.

The state government has been hosting outreach and sensitisation programmes jointly with the officials of the Central Board of Excise & Customs.

The training and outreach programmes will continue for six to 12 months after the GST roll-out," said Saswat Mishra, commissioner of commercial taxes-CCT (Odisha).

Gujarat has, so far, managed 93 per cent migration of its total 5,11,000 manufacturers, dealers, and traders from the existing platform.

According to state government officials, factors like non-cooperation and lack of key documents, such as PAN cards and address proof, have contributed to a slower migration of dealers and traders to GST.

Telangana, where 85 per cent migration has happened, has reopened the window of registrations from June 25 to get on board all those who have been reluctant to enroll themselves and also those who are under the impression that they need not register under the GST, as they do not come under the tax net.

While 172,000 assesses have already been registered under the GST, the authorities believe another 15 per cent of businesses are yet to get into the GST fold.

Even those who come under the Rs 20-lakh threshold limit will have to register themselves because people will not buy from those who do not have GST registration, J Lakshmi Narayana, joint commissioner (policy) of Telangana commercial tax department said.

In Chhattisgarh, too, the enrolment level is at 85 per cent.

However, the states commercial tax minister, Amar Agrawal, said that the state was fully prepared to introduce the GST.

He added that 99 per cent of the registered dealers in the state had verified the PAN and Chhattisgarh was the first to do so in the country.

In Tamil Nadu, tax payers have been issued provisional IDs. The tax payers can continue their business for three months using this provisional ID without any hindrance.
'There is no evidence of newspapers and television channels ganging up to wage a coordinated war to expose the BSP, destroy the AIADMK, malign Kejriwal, discredit Lalu or defame Mamata.'

'But it's of interest that none of these exposes threatens the 12 states the BJP controls,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Watching the exciting personal political dramas that are suddenly unfolding on our usually rather staid television channels and wading through details of controversies and crises in the newspapers, I am reminded of the media revelations that were laced into the death rattle of the old Soviet Union.

Not that the Union of India is similarly collapsing, but there do seem to be some remarkable similarities between the interplay of media and politics in the two countries.

The journalists I met in Moscow, Tbilisi, Kiev and what was still Leningrad, although destined to return soon to St Petersburg, in 1989 or 1990 spoke proudly of their brave exploits in exposing Communist repression and highlighting the defiance of unknown heroes and heroines.

I was shown newspaper clippings and regaled with stories that were in turn chilling and exhilarating.

Editors pulled out bulky files of documents that supported their stories.

With my Russian restricted to about "Na zdorovie", I couldn't make head or tail of any of this, but recognised from the summaries that the stories were explosive.

What were the official repercussions after publication? None, I was told.

How did they get hold of such incriminating documents regarding arrests, secret trials, torture and imprisonment?

Moscow sent them, they said, adding the one word Mikhail Gorbachev made famous, Glasnost (openness).

The explanation confirmed my old-fashioned suspicion that there is no such thing as a journalistic scoop.

Every scoop is, in fact, a leak.

There's a Deep Throat with a motive behind every startling disclosure about a leading politician's land speculation, black money or sex life.

Older readers may recall Deep Throat was the pseudonym The Washington Post gave to the shadowy official who provided secret information to two Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, about Richard Nixon's complicity in the Watergate scandal.

Many of my colleagues will bristle at this dismissal.

Only recently, when I happened to mention a Delhi newspaper's detailed account of the so-called 'surgical strike' across the Line of Control, a well-known magazine editor scoffed, "That was a ministry plant!"

True enough, but almost all stories on terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and certainly all on cross-border operations are plants. They are based on official briefings.

In the days when I occasionally dropped in at the government spokesman's informal briefings, I was always surprised at how much the media knew but didn't publish because it hadn't been told to.

Given the pugnacious new spirit of patriotism that is abroad, the media is often even more the willing mouthpiece of ultra-nationalistic authority.

The pattern becomes clearer if the targets are considered.

Titillating tales of Mayawati and her former aide Naseemudin Siddiqui accusing each other of corruption, and the latter being expelled from the party, don't enhance the Bahujan Samaj Party's image.

The Aam Aadmi Party is permanently on the boil. Arvind Kejriwal had already sacked two luminaries before the former water and culture minister, Kapil Mishra, plunged the party into a new scandal by claiming to have seen with his own eyes the health minister, Satyendra Jain, stuffing a bribe of more than Rs 2 crore into Kejriwal's pocket.

I wondered if Mishra counted the notes and how he knew it was a bribe.

Also, can a minister bribe his boss?

As for the AAP's Kumar Vishwas, no one seems to know whether he is coming or going or only singing Koi Deewana Kehta Hai.

Mamata Banerjee totters from one ponzi scam to another.

Naveen Patnaik in Odisha just totters.

An already battered Congress may be left reeling if Shashi Tharoor is brought low.

With a saffron-draped monk in charge of Uttar Pradesh, the cow belt's other bastion may also collapse if property speculation charges can be stuck on Lalu Prasad.

Down south, Tamil Nadu's ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is torn between the jailed Sasikala and the former chief minister, O Panneerselvam, with the late J Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa lurking hopefully in the wings.

A Dalit student's suicide and police excesses cast a shadow over Pinarayi Vijayan's first anniversary in Kerala.

Congress-ruled Karnataka's euphemism for kickbacks is 'diary politics'.

These are all separate stories.

There is no evidence of newspapers and television channels ganging up to wage a coordinated war to expose the Bahujan Samaj Party, destroy the AIADMK, malign Kejriwal, discredit Prasad or defame Banerjee.

But it's of interest that none of these exposes threatens the 12 states the Bharatiya Janata Party controls.

That's why my mind turns to the Soviet twilight and the information that was leaked to the media because of glasnost.
The BJP will be the obvious gainer while the DMK stands to lose a major chunk of its vote bank, says R Rajagopalan.

Now that superstar Rajinikanth has announced that he will indeed be joining politics, it would be interesting to see who will be affected by his decision and in which way.

It is clear that after the two rival factions of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supported the National Democratic Alliance's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, bonhomie has developed between them and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Leaders of both the factions -- of Chief Minister E Palaniswami and his predecessor O Panneerselvam -- have been visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, looking for the Centre to intervene to resolve the AIADMK's internal feud.

However, the income tax and Central Bureau of Investigation raids on AIADMK leaders have also raised some suspicion.

The BJP will now concentrate on Tamil Nadu, having made inroads, especially after Rajinikanths decision to enter active politics.

However, a clearer picture of Tamil Nadus politics will emerge only after the presidential polls.

At this point in time, these are some of the emerging trends in the state.



1) Modi as saviour of AIADMK leaders

For the past six months, meetings between Modi and AIADMK senior leaders have increased. What does it indicate? Is the AIADMK looking for guidance to run the affairs of the state and also for the future of the party?

Their frequent meetings have brought peace to the EPS camp. He is now in control of the AIADMK government.

The BJP utilised this to secure the AIADMKs support for Kovind. With 134 MLAs and 50 MPs, the AIADMK has four per cent of the total electoral college votes. It is also the third largest party in the Lok Sabha. How can the Centre ignore this?

2) Rajinis entry has made DMK jittery

Rajinikanths announcement to launch a political outfit has sent shockwaves within the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

The timing of Rajinis entry is very crucial. DMK working president M K Stalin was emerging as an undisputed leader of the party and he had even organised a mega event on the 94th birthday of his father and party patron M Karunanidhi, which brought together on stage Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and the Trinamool Congress to. A euphoria about the DMK was at its peak and Stalin, it seemed, was the emerging star.

But, Rajinis entry has certainly affected the DMK, and damaged whatever plans it may have drawn up to topple the state government.

Also, Nitish Kumars address in Hindi on Karunanidhis birthday was not received well by the audience.

Moreover, the Chennai meeting was called by the DMK to ensure that there was a common presidential candidate put up by the Opposition against the NDA nominee.

But Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav avoided being seen with Nitish in Chennai in the first week of June itself. And the later turn of events have brought about a clear division between Lalu and Nitish.

But Stalin did not foresee this.

On the other hand, the AIADMK government has got some breathing space, thanks to the BJPs support and Rajinis decision.

Of late, the DMK had been trying to bring down the Palaniswami government, using the sting operations on members of the two factions of the AIADMK conducted by an English news channel.

But now, the DMK has begun to concentrate on Rajini more than on AIADMK, because it realised that the actor will most certainly eat into its vote bank.

The DMK is a cadre-based party. It has organisational strength in remote corners of Tamil Nadu.

However, Rajinikanths fan clubs have some 25,000 to 30,000-strong vote bank in each of the assembly constituencies, which will certainly damage the DMKs plans for registering a thumping victory in the assembly elections.

That is the reason why the DMK is jittery over Rajinikanths entry into politics.

Once the AIADMK split following former chief minister Jayalalithaas death in December 2016, the DMK, especially Stalin, presumed that their chances of making political capital from the crisis are bright. But that seems to have failed. And one should appreciate the AIADMK leaders for this.

In the past six months, not one AIADMK leader or member has crossed over to the DMK.

The AIADMK is basically an anti-Karunanidhi party, and Stalin shouldnt have expected its MLAs to cross over.

Adding to the DMK's woes was the release on bail of AIADMK deputy general secretary T T V Dinakaran from prison. With this the DMKs hopes of overthrowing the Palaniswami government dimmed.

3) Stability of AIADMK government comes at a price

BJP leaders have asked the AIADMK factions to sit together and arrive at a solution to regroup themselves. The BJP is the chief gainer from this entire drama, as it has managed to secure major votes for its presidential candidate from both the factions.

Now, the BJP is keen that Dinakaran and Palaniswami should meet and sort out their internal problems, including issues like Thevar and Gownder domination of the AIADMK.

Whichever way one looks at it, what is indisputable is that the BJP has gained an entry in the state. And with Modis popularity, if the BJP brings the AIADMK factions together and gets the state government to last its full term, it would be seen favourably by the party cadres.

And apart from saving the government, it will also have stopped the gains made by the DMK.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters.
Ten days later, with the Indian Army in full control of the area where the incident took place, New Delhi has signalled a face-saver for Beijing.

Ajai Shukla reports.

In its first statement on the Indian Army's ongoing confrontation with a Chinese patrol and road construction party that began two weeks ago, New Delhi stated on Friday, June 30, that it is 'deeply concerned' at China's attempt to alter the status quo, which could have 'serious security implications' for India.

This refers to Sikkim's proximity to the Siliguri corridor -- a narrow 'chicken's neck' that connects northeast India with the rest of the country.

China's army edging toward this corridor constitutes a nightmare for Indian defence planners.

New Delhi's statement reveals that troops of the Royal Bhutan Army first intercepted a Chinese construction party on June 16 in the Doka La area of the Doklam Plateau in Sikkim.

The incursion took place on Bhutanese territory, near the 'tri-junction' of the borders of India, Bhutan and China.

It quickly drew in Indian troops, which crossed into Bhutanese territory.

Explaining India's involvement, the statement says: 'In coordination with the RGOB (Royal Government of Bhutan), Indian personnel, who were present at general area Doka La, approached the Chinese construction party and urged them to desist from changing the status quo. These efforts continue.'

Highlighting further the coordination between New Delhi and Thimphu, the statement goes on: 'In keeping with their tradition of maintaining close consultation on matters of mutual interest, RGOB and the Government of India have been in continuous contact through the unfolding of these developments.'

Using typically robust methods, Indian troops physically prevented the Chinese from building activities while New Delhi and Beijing have attempted to defuse the crisis.

'The matter has been under discussion between India and China at the diplomatic level in the Foreign Ministries since then, both in New Delhi and Beijing. It was also the subject of a Border Personnel Meeting at Nathu La on 20 June,' said the Indian foreign ministry statement.

Ten days later, with the Indian Army in full control of the area where the incident took place, New Delhi has signalled a face-saver for Beijing: 'India is committed to working with China to find peaceful resolution of all issues in the border areas through dialogue.'

The three-way confrontation came to public notice early this week, when television channels repeatedly broadcast a video showing members of the Indian patrol physically jostling with a Chinese patrol.

I have learnt authoritatively that the video in question relates to another patrol clash that took place elsewhere, much earlier. No video has been broadcast of the current confrontation in Sikkim.

Thimphu has played an active role in negotiations, although it does not have diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Consequently, Bhutan's diplomacy was conducted through its embassy in New Delhi.

On June 20, the Bhutanese ambassador lodged a protest with the Chinese embassy in New Delhi.

On Tuesday, June 27, Beijing had issued a statement claiming the Doklam plateau, based on the 1890 'Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet'.

Bhutan responded on Thursday, June 29, pointing out that Chinese road building directly violates the 1988 and 1998 agreements between the two countries to maintain peace and tranquillity on their border, pending a final solution.

Beijing is particularly furious at India's intercession on Bhutan's behalf.

Its foreign ministry spokesperson declared: 'The China-Bhutan boundary is not delineated, no third party should interfere in this matter and make irresponsible remarks or actions.'

Further, 'If any third party, out of hidden agenda, interferes it is disrespect of the sovereignty of Bhutan. We don't want to see this, as Bhutan is a country entitled to sovereignty by the international community.'

New Delhi's statement also pointed out that India and China 'had in 2012 reached agreement that the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalised in consultation with the concerned countries.'

'Any attempt, therefore, to unilaterally determine tri-junction points is in violation of this understanding.'

The statement urges China not to unilaterally change the status quo of the well-settled Sikkim-Tibet boundary.

It notes: 'India and China had reached an understanding also in 2012 reconfirming their mutual agreement on the "basis of the alignment". Further discussions regarding finalisation of the boundary have been taking place under the Special Representatives framework.'

While a shrill Chinese defence ministry has aggressively reminded the Indian Army chief of the 1962 military defeat of India, New Delhi's statement on Friday is more restrained: 'India cherishes peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas. It has not come easily.'

While the crisis plays out, it has disappointed about 100 Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarover, who were to cross through Nathu La into Tibet, but whose entry was blocked by China when the crisis broke out.

In 2015, China had accepted India's request to allow pilgrims through Nathu La -- a relatively easier route than the other route through Uttarakhand.

The yatra through Uttarakhand is continuing smoothly.

IMAGE: An Indian Army officer with a People's Liberation Army officer at the 4,310 metre high Nathu-la pass on India's northeastern border with China, 2009. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
Terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin on Saturday vowed to continue the struggle for liberation of Kashmir from India, days after the US blacklisted him as a global terrorist.

Addressing the media amid tight security at the Centre Press Club in Muzaffarabad for the first time since the US declared him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on June 27, Salahuddin rejected the US decision and said he was a freedom fighter and not a terrorist.

We are not terrorists...Our struggle is for freedom from India and it will continue till liberation of Kashmir, said the 71-year-old Kashmiri separatist leader who is based in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The US cannot provide a single example of when I and other Kashmiri fighters committed any act of terrorism, he said. Kashmiri freedom fighters have a code of conduct to not harm minorities, the elderly, children and women, and if sometimes the enemy offers a peace deal, we accept it.

Salahuddin also claimed that his group has the capability to launch attacks inside India.

He offered conditional talks with India if Russia or China guaranteed that peace talks would be result oriented.

He also announced to observe a Week of Resistance from Monday to commemorate the first death anniversary of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul commander who was killed on July 8 last year in an encounter in Kashmir.

Salahuddidn also led a protest rally in Muzaffarabad.

In a notification, the US State Department said Salahuddin, who hails from Kashmir and is based in Pakistan for the last 28 years, has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.

The US took the step against Salahuddin, whose original name is Mohammed Yusuf Shah, as he had vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir Valley into a graveyard for Indian forces.
Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar said an insulting question by a television anchor to Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore after the 2015 anti-insurgency operation along the Myanmar border prompted him to plan last years surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Goa chief minister said, The surgical strikes against militants in PoK was planned 15 months in advance.

On June 4, 2015, north-eastern militant group National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Khaplang ambushed an Indian Army convoy in Chandel district of Manipur and killed 18 jawans.

Parrikar said when he was informed about the incident, I felt insulted... A small terrorist organisation of 200 people killing 18 Dogra soldiers was an insult to the Indian Army and we sat in the afternoon and sat in the evening and worked out the (plan of) first surgical strike which was conducted on 8th June morning in which about 70-80 terrorists were killed (along the India-Myanmar border).

It was a very successful strike, he said, adding that on the armys side, the only instance of an injury was a leech attaching itself to a soldiers leg.

But one question (from the media) hurt me. (Union minister) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an ex-armyman, was on TV and he was explaining about all kinds of search operations. An anchor asked him would you have the courage and capability of doing the same on the western front, Parrikar recalled.

I listened very intensely but decided to answer when the time came. The starting of September 29 (2016) surgical strike on the western border was 9th of June, 2015...We planned 15 months in advance. Additional troops were trained. Equipment was procured on priority basis, he said.

The Swathi Weapon Locating Radar, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, was used first in September 2016 to locate firing units of Pakistani army, though the system was inducted officially three months later, Parrikar said.

Thanks to this radar, forty firing units of the Pakistani army were destroyed, he added.
A doctor fired from a New York hospital over a sexual harassment accusation returned to his former workplace with an assault rifle and shot dead a woman doctor and injured six others before taking his own life, the latest incident related to gun violence in the United States.

Henry Bello, 45, went on the furious rampage at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital, killing the female physician and seriously wounding six other people, including doctors.

The five seriously injured patients were fighting for their lives, said Police Commissioner James P ONeill.

The sixth had a gunshot wound to the leg.

Law enforcement authorities said Bello was wearing a white, medical coat, and carrying ID. They believe he hid the AR-15 rifle under his coat.

The New York Police Department said officials encountered Bello lying on a floor of the hospital dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had apparently tried to set himself on fire as during the incident, the hospitals fire alarm got activated.

The woman doctor was found dead on the 17th floor of the hospital and an assault rifle was found nearby.

Sridhar Chilimuri, Physician-in-Chief at the hospital, said the victim was shot at random, according to CNN.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio termed the shooting a real tragedy. He said the incident was not an act of terrorism and appeared to be a work place related matter but that did not make it any less tragic and horrible.

The situation unfolded in the middle of a place that people associate with care and comfort, de Blasio told reporters outside the hospital.

A report in the New York Times said Bello had a troubled past and had resigned from the hospital in February 2015 after working there for only six months following an accusation of workplace sexual harassment.

It added that in 2004, Bello was arrested and charged with sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment after a 23-year-old woman told officers he had sexually assaulted her.

The attack appeared to be the type of mass shooting by a lone gunman that has struck communities around the US.

Image: NYPD officers outside Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, after an incident in which a gunman fired shots inside the hospital in New York City. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Pakistan has quietly banned Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir, a new front for Hafiz Saeeds Jamaat-ud-Dawa, as international pressure on the country grew, including from a global watchdog, to combat terror and its funding.

TAJK gained prominence as a JuD front when it held pro-Kashmir freedom rallies and displayed banners and streamers across Pakistan on Kashmir Day on February 5, days after Saeed was put under house arrest for 90 days in Lahore.

The mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people died had indicated about a week before his house arrest he might launch TAJK to expedite the freedom of Kashmir.

The re-branding of JuD as TAJK showed that Saeed had got a wind of the government plans and had worked out how to resurface and survive after the clampdown on his ostensible network of JuD and its affiliate Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

The JuD front was put on the list of proscribed organisations on June 8 -- a fortnight before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force in Spain, according to a list available on the website of Pakistans National Counter Terrorism Authority.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa has called a meeting on Monday to discuss the ban on its affiliate, The Nation reported.

There are 64 other outfits in the proscribed organisation category, including Jaish-e-Mohammad, Al Qaeda, Tehreek-e- Taliban, and JuDs armed wing Lashkar-e-Tayiba responsible for 26/11 and several other terror attacks in India.

According to a report in Dawn newspaper, Pakistan continues to remain on the radar of the FATF over concerns that it is not fully complying with curbs against entities listed with the United Nations.

India had raised the terror financing issue at the FATF in February this year.

The FATF last week referred Pakistan to its regional affiliate - the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering  for further analysis and a follow-up report on actions the country has taken against entities designated under UN sanctions list.

Pakistan government has been under mounting international pressure to crackdown on terrorist networks and their fronts.

However, according to the report, Pakistani officials expect that Pakistan would be cleared of the concerns.

The United Nations placed both JuD and FIF on its watch list in December 2008 and March 2012, respectively.

The ban on TAJK on June 8 happened a day before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakh capital Astana. India had pushed the SCO members at the summit to curb the financing of terrorist organisations and their fronts.

The Astana Declaration of the Heads of State of the SCO said that the member states will continue to cooperate in order to counteract the activities of individuals and legal entities related to the recruitment, training and utilisation of terrorists, public calls for terrorist activities or the justification of acts of terrorism, and financing terrorist activities.

Last week, the US declared Pakistan-based Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist. The announcement had come hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had their first bilateral meeting.
Condemning the recent string of brutal lynching incidents emerging from across the nation, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday called on the country to pause and reflect if they are being proactive enough to save Indias basic system of belief.

With the change of history we can see colonialism now as dominance, exploitation by one power to another power. When we see on the TV and read the newspapers that an individual has been lynched, and when the mob frenzy becomes so high and uncontrollable then we have to pause and reflect, the President said at the re-launch of the National Herald website.

I am not talking of vigilantism, I am talking of are we vigilant enough proactively to save the basic tenets of our country? he questioned.

The Presidents assertion comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday strongly voiced out against the lynching incidents, saying that there are growing atrocities against innocent people in the guise of cow protection.

Killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something that Mahatma Gandhi would have approved. There is no place for violence in the society, Prime Minister Modi said at Sabarmati Ashram centenary celebrations in Ahmedabad.

The PM asserted that violence is not a solution of any problem and no one has the right to take the law in his or her own hands in this nation.

However, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modis condemnation of violent cow vigilantism is too little, too late.

Rahul said that words mean nothing when actions out do them.

Just hours after Prime Minster Modi condemned the killings in the name of cow protection, a Jharkhand man was attacked by a mob on the suspicion carrying beef in his car on Thursday.

He was stopped by a group of people near Bajartand village before being brutally killed.

The van was later set on fire.

A case has been registered on the basis of a video footage of the lynching.

Image: People protest against the recent cases of mob lynching of Muslims who were accused of possessing beef, in New Delhi. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
By PTI: Hyderabad, Jul 1 (PTI) Congress today felicitated two policemen for ensuring that no disturbance was caused when Muslims were conducting prayers here on Eid-ul-Fitr recently by their gesture of putting uniform caps on paper mats.

The two constables, Venkatesh Naik and Pratap Singh, who were on duty at Mir Alam Eidgah for Eid prayers, put their uniform caps on paper mats to prevent them from being blown away by wind, Mohd Ali Shabbir, Leader of Opposition (Congress) in Telangana Legislative Council, said.

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The incident came to light after it appeared in media reports.

Shabbir Ali and Opposition Leader in Legislative Assembly K Jana Reddy felicitated the two policemen.

"The gesture, despite the rules that cap should not be removed by policemen while on duty, stood out as an example of communal harmony and humanitarian help," Jana Reddy said.

The two were felicitated with a shawl, flowers and a cash reward of Rs 5,000, Shabbir Ali said. PTI SJR RS NP

--- ENDS ---
A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter condemning the recent incidents of attacks and mob lynching in the name of cow protection. They have alleged that this is happening with tacit complicity of state machinery.

By India Today Web Desk: Over 60 retired IAS and IPS officers have written an open letter to the Narendra Modi government asking it to enforce the rule of law and not allow vigilantism to grow.

The open letter has been signed by 65 officers including noted former bureaucrats Bhaskar Ghose, Harsh Mandar and Wajahat Habibullah.

The former administrators are particularly unhappy with the way self-appointed cow vigilantes are going around, attacking and lynching people in the name of protecting the animal. Majority of such attacks in recent past have had communal overtones.

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They ex-bureaucrats said, "Gau-rakshaks function with impunity and seem to be doing so with the tacit complicity or active encouragement of state machinery."

The letter was written on June 24. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his 'anger' against cow vigilantism since then at public meeting in Gujarat.

Speaking at Sabaramati Ashram on Thursday, Prime Minister Modi warned those "taking law in their hands in the name of protection of cows."

'INTOLERANCE EVERYWHERE'

They also expressed deep concern over growing intolerance in the universities across the country. They said, "Student groups and faculty members on campuses like Hyderabad and JNU, who raise troubling questions about equality, social justice and freedom, are subject to attack by the administration, with a supportive government to back them."

The retired top officials are also critical of the Centre's action against the NGOs for violating foreign contribution laws. "Several reputed NGOs and civil society organisations are being charged with violating the provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and the Income Tax Act," they said.

They further said, "While we agree that genuine violators should be identified we note with dismay that several of the targeted groups are those who have taken stands against government policies, expressed dissent or supported communities in cases against the state."

"There is a growing hyper-nationalism that reduces any critique to a binary: if you are not with the government, you are anti-national," the retired IAS and IPS officers said, adding, "These actions undermine the rule of law and the Indian Constitution since only the state - through its various organs and institutions - has the power to enforce the law."

Following is the full text:

Open Letter by Retired Officials on the Growing Religious Intolerance

Saturday 24 June 2017

The following is an open letter of sixtyfive retired officials released on June 12, 2017.

We are a group of retired officers of All India and Central services of different batches, who have worked with the Central and State governments in the course of our careers. We should make it clear that as a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but believe in the credo of impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian constitution. A sense of deep disquiet at what has been happening in India has prompted us to write this open letter to chronicle our reservations and misgivings about recent developments in the body politic. What has gone wrong?

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It appears as if there is a growing climate of religious intolerance that is aimed primarily at Muslims. In Uttar Pradesh, in the run-up to the elections, an odious and frankly communal comparison was made between the relative number of burial grounds and cremation grounds. The question was also asked as to whether electricity was being supplied equally to different communities during their religious festivals. All this without any basis in fact or evidence. The banning of slaughter-houses targets the minorities and affects their livelihoods as well. Such intolerance breeds violence in a communally charged atmosphere-even to the extent of a local leader in UP provoking an attack upon the residence of a Superintendent of Police, whose family was terrorised.

Vigilantism has become widespread. An Akhlaq is killed on the basis of a suspicion that the meat he has is beef and a Pehlu Khan is lynched while transporting to his place two cows he had bought and for which he had the necessary papers. Nomadic shepherds are attacked in Jammu and Kashmir on some suspicion as they practice their age-old occu-pation of moving from one place to another along with their cattle and belongings.

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Punitive action against the perpetrators of violence does not take place promptly but cruelly, the victims have FIRs registered against them. The behaviour of vigilantes-who act as if they are prosecutor, judge and executioner rolled into one-flies in the face of law and juris-prudence. These actions undermine the rule of law and the Indian Constitution since only the state-through its various organs and insti-tutions-has the power to enforce the law.

Vigilantism has become popular as 'anti-Romeo' squads threaten young couples who go out together, hold hands and are perhaps in love with each other. A thinly-veiled effort to prevent a Hindu-Muslim relationship or marriage, there is no justification in law to harass these couples, particularly when there is no complaint from the woman of being ill-treated.

Student groups and faculty members on campuses like Hyderabad and JNU, who raise troubling questions about equality, social justice and freedom, are subject to attack by the administration, with a supportive government to back them. In Jodhpur, a planned lecture by a renowned academic was cancelled under pressure and the faculty that organised the event subjected to disciplinary action. What happened in Jodhpur has happened at other institutions as well. Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives-the life-blood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself-are being throttled. Disagree-ment and dissent are considered seditious and anti-national. Such attitudes have a chilling impact on free speech and thought.

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Several reputed NGOs and civil society organisations are being charged with violating the provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and the Income Tax Act. While we agree that genuine violators should be identified and penalised, we note with dismay that several of the targeted groups are those who have taken stands against government policies, expressed dissent or supported communities in cases against the state.

We are also seeing an ugly trend of trolling, threats and online intimidation of activists, journalists, writers and intellectuals who disagree with the dominant ideology. How does this square with free speech?

There is a growing hyper-nationalism that reduces any critique to a binary: if you are not with the government, you are anti-national. Those in authority should not be questioned- that is the clear message.

In the face of a rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism, which do not allow for reasoned debate, discussion and dissent, we appeal to all public authorities, public institutions and constitutional bodies to take heed of these disturbing trends and take corrective action. We have to reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution of India, as envisaged by the founding fathers.

(Inputs from Seemi Pasha in New Delhi)

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Srinagar: DSP Ayyub Pandith beaten to death by mob outside Jamia Masjid

Jharkhand: Man accused of raping, killing 8-year-old lynched by mob

ALSO WATCH | Ballabgarh lynching: Train seat not the reason for Junaid's killing, says father

--- ENDS ---
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
The Goel loyalist Jai Prakash had invited Tiwari's ire after he attended a felicitation ceremony organised by the Union minister on May 16.

By Rakesh Ranjan: Making it clear that there was no place for "indiscipline" and "factionism" in the state unit, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari has dropped Jai Prakash, known as close to Union minister Vijay Goel in Delhi political circles, from the post of leader of house in North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Sources said the party noticed the BJP councilor was frequently seen in different events organised by Goel against party's directives. Jai Prakash had invited Tiwari's ire after he attended a felicitation ceremony organised by Goel on May 16.

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After BJP's massive win in the civic polls, Delhi BJP had announced Jai Prakash, Shikha Rai and Santosh Pal as leader of house in North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporation respectively. However, their appointment was put on hold after they attended Goel's function despite the party leadership urging them to abstain from the same. Subsequently, the party had also issued them show cause notices with a warning to adhere to party's directives in future.

Appointment of these leaders was withheld after they attended a felicitation function for the newly elected BJP counsellors in three civic bodies at the official residence of Goel despite clear instruction from Delhi BJP president to not attend the program.

"After much deliberation it was decided that the party would forgive them considering their act a 'mistake'. The party was ready to give them the chance to perform but it was noticed that Jai Prakash did not pay heed to the warning. He was again seen managing the live telecast of India-Pakistan Champions Trophy final match at National Stadium organized by Goel," a well placed source said.

On Friday, when BJP announced its leaders of house in three corporations, Jai Prakash's name was missing. Instead, the party appointed Jayendra Dabas as the leader of house in North MCD. The party also appointed Shikha Rai and Santosh Pal as leader of house in the SDMC and EDMC respectively.

"Despite a stern warning to party leaders not to indulge in factionism, some party leaders refused to abide by party's missive. Jai Prakash was found managing affairs at Champaions Trophy final between India and Pakistan. He failed to explain in what capacity he was managing the affairs at the function organized by the union minister. He was acting like a protocol officer receiving guests and VIPs at the stadium," said a party insider.

Party leaders said nomination of a councillor to the post of leader of house in civic body is the sole prerogative of state unit president. Leader of the house is one of key posts of the ruling party, other than Mayor and Chairman of the Standing Committee. He not only oversees the floor management but acts as a crucial link between the executive and the deliberative wings of the corporations.

ALSO READ | Woes for Delhi BJP refuse to die: Manoj Tiwari invites media for big meet, Piyush Goel asks them to leave

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BJP infighting renders MCDs without leaders. Has Manoj Tiwari, Vijay Goel's tussle gone too far?

ALSO WATCH | Thank Mishra for bringing allegations against Kejriwal to light: Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari

--- ENDS ---
Protesters in Hong Kong express a range of grievances as the former British colony marks 20 years under Chinese rule, July 1, 2017.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong to mark the 20th anniversary of the city's handover to China on Saturday, calling for fully democratic elections and for the immediate release of terminally ill political prisoner Liu Xiaobo.

Calling on the Beijing-backed administration of newly inaugurated chief executive Carrie Lam to "delay no more" in moving towards universal suffrage and public nominations, some 60,000 marchers took umbrellas, banners and performance art to show their anger over the erosion of traditional rights and freedoms in the city during the past two decades of Chinese rule.

March organizer Au Nok-hin called on people to stand up for Hong Kong's rights and freedoms under the terms of the handover treaty, which China dismissed on Friday as "a historical document ... with no practical application," and which the U.K. said is still valid.

"Our theme is about the betrayal of one country, two systems," Au said, in a reference to promises that Beijing would stay out of Hong Kong's affairs and concern itself only with issues of foreign relations and security.

He called on Beijing to re-balance its Hong Kong policies at the forthcoming 19th Party Congress later this year.

"We are calling on them to ... pay attention to the voices of Hong Kong people when formulating their policies, not just to focus on the 'one country' part," Au said.

Visiting President Xi Jinping warned that Hong Kong should give up any bid to "challenge the central government," however, and crack down on moves towards "Hong Kong independence".

"Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government ... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible," Xi said.

He also called for better education for Hong Kong's children, apparently endorsing previous attempts to introduce "patriotic education" in the city that sparked mass protests in 2012.

"Education on national history and culture needs to be strengthened," Xi said.

Out on the streets, marchers carried punch-bags and toilets bearing the faces of Hong Kong's leaders, as well as a cardboard cutout of visiting President Xi Jinping holding a yellow umbrella in a reference to the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement for universal suffrage.

Scuffles with pro-Beijing groups

A small group waved pro-independence and colonial-era Hong Kong flags, gathering a large crowd of journalists eager to depict opposition to Chinese rule.

But the march, which saw banners with the slogans "Democracy Delay No More!" "China, Get Out of Hong Kong!" and "Independence for Hong Kong!" jostling with portraits of Nobel peace laureate Liu, was marred by scuffles with pro-Beijing groups and allegations of police violence.

Avery Ng, who heads the opposition League of Social Democrats, accused a police officer of attacking him while he was handcuffed, pulling his hair, kicking his genitals and screaming abusive language at him.

Ng, who was never arrested, later displayed bruises to journalists, while a second protester showed similar injuries he said were inflicted by police.

Participants said the anniversary also comes amid widespread public anger at Hong Kong's own government, which has frequently been accused of caving in too easily to Beijing's interference in the city in recent years.

"The people of Hong Kong are very angry on this July 1 march, marking the 20th anniversary of the handover," lawmaker Lau Siu-lai told RFA.

"We have suffered five legal interpretations that have rocked our judicial system, and we no longer have any confidence in one country, two systems."

China's National People's Congress (NPC) standing committee has recently intervened to rule out public nomination of candidates in a debate over electoral reform and to oust two pro-independence lawmakers who changed the wording of their oaths of allegiance, prompting protests by lawyers fearing for the city's judicial independence.

"We want to take back Hong Kong, defend our independent judiciary and the rule of law, as well as the foundations of our economic success,"

Lau said. "That includes narrowing the gap between rich and poor, and bringing back the prosperity of our working class."

One country, two systems has failed

And a high school student surnamed Lam told RFA at the march that he took part because he wants young people's voices to be heard.

"We need to show our dissatisfaction with the Chinese government and the government of Hong Kong, and we want them to understand our point of view better," he said.

Bruce Lui, senior journalism lecturer at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said Saturday's march was also full of anger over the ruling Chinese Communist Party's treatment of Liu Xiaobo, a peaceful advocate of constitutional reform who was recently granted medical parole only when his liver cancer had reached a terminal stage.

"My own aim in taking part in today's demonstration is to protest the fact that Liu's life has been put in danger by the delays until his liver cancer was in its later stages, and all because he is a prisoner of conscience who was jailed for speaking out," Lui said.

"The Chinese government has treated him inhumanely, and persecuted his wife and those around him in all manner of illegal ways," he said.

Organizers estimated that around 60,000 people turned out on Saturday, compared with some 110,000 last year, but police, who sealed off a number of road intersections to prevent new protesters from joining the march along its route, said they had counted just 14,500.

Veteran Democracy Party founder Martin Lee told Hong Kong not to give up its fight for democracy: "This is going to be a long, drawn out battle which will not be won easily," Lee said. "The more repressive the Community Party is, the more we must stand up together."

And Cantopop stars Denise Ho and Anthony Wong, who were prominent in the 2014 Occupy Central movement, also marched.

A government spokesman said the government understands people's desire for universal suffrage, but added the issue is "extremely controversial."

Police said they had arrested three men on suspicion of assault after pro-democracy protesters were charged by a group of pro-Beijing on Saturday morning, but they also forcibly removed lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung and Joshua Wong from the scene, although they weren't arrested.

Wong told government broadcaster RTHK that the pro-Beijing protesters were from criminal gangs loyal to the Communist Party.

"Police just had the intention to collaborate with those patriotic triads," Wong was quoted as saying. "They just allowed them to physically assault us and let us be hurt."

"Its totally a failure of one country, two systems ... if our peaceful demonstration, the right to assembly is eroded by those triads," he said, saying he should never have been handcuffed.

Demosisto said in a brief statement via Twitter: "We condemn the brief arrest earlier today of [Joshua Wong] and others after a pro-Beijing mob staged a sudden, guerrilla attack."

Around 10 Demosisto activists said they were threatened in a separate incident by a policeman who said he would use his gun if they didn't stop "causing an obstruction" by handing out leaflets to passers-by.

An online video posted by the party on its Twitter account appeared to support their claim.

Across the internal immigration border in mainland China, one activist said he had been issued with a travel ban after trying to board a flight to Hong Kong to take part in the protests.

Jiang Zucheng, an evictee from the southwestern city of Chongqing, said he had wanted to use the march as a way of protesting during Xi's visit to Hong Kong.

"All my land has been taken away, and my home was demolished," Jiang said. "All I wanted was to shout out my grievances in front of President Xi, if I ran into him."

Reported by Lau Siu-fung and Goh Fung for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
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Donald Trump's decision has marked an end to two of his predecessors' tradition of officially recognising the month as the LGBT Pride Month.

By Indo-Asian News Service: President Donald Trump's White House has broken a precedent by not recognising June as the LGBT Pride Month, the media reported.

The decision marks an end to two of his predecessors' tradition of officially recognising the month, CNN reported on Friday.

Former President Bill Clinton first recognised it in 1999 in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots of June 1969, which many point to as the start of the modern gay rights movement.

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Clinton again recognised June as Pride Month in 2000, but the practice was stopped under the George W. Bush administration.

Former President Barack Obama picked it up again during his eight years in office, issuing June proclamations and hosting celebrations inside the White House.

WHAT TRUMP PROMISED AS A CANDIDATE?

Although Trump did not recognise the LGBT Pride Month, he proclaimed June as the Great Outdoors Month, National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, African-American Music Appreciation Month, National Ocean Month and National Homeownership Month, CNN reported.

As a candidate, Trump had promised to be different than many of his Republican peers on the campaign trail.

In June 2016, he declared that he would be a better ally of the LGBT community than his opponent former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Trump's decision to stay silent on the matter throughout June comes at a time when record numbers of Americans support same-sex marriage.

According to the Pew Research Centre, a record 62 per cent Americans favour same-sex marriage.

ALSO READ:

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Trump calls for firm response to North Korea, targets Seoul on trade

ALSO WATCH:

Ahead of PM Modi's US visit, Donald Trump may ease restrictions on H1-B visa issue

--- ENDS ---
Five Richmond-area budding entrepreneurs had the motivation and a business idea.

Thanks to UnBoundRVA, the five now have their own small business and the skills to run their business.

The Richmond-based organization helps people from low-income communities get the resources, training and support needed to become successful entrepreneurs. It runs an intensive six-month program focused on turning motivated individuals into becoming small-business owners.

The program is intense to help individuals realize if they are ready for business ownership, said program advancement director Megan Murray. If someone can finish the program, they are ready to run a business.

Since UnBoundRVAs first class in 2014, 12 entrepreneurs have started a small business.

Participants are chosen after a competitive application process.

The yearlong program starts with 20 individuals who attend a variety of workshops and mentoring programs over six months. Participants are narrowed down after each phase until five entrepreneurs are selected to move forward with their business ideas.

Participants enroll in the program free of charge but are expected to spend hours each week both in the classroom and working on homework, Murray said.

They participate in personal branding workshops focused on self-development, not business development. Then they spend time creating a business idea  and are encouraged to look for proven business models.

The final stage of the program involves participants writing business plans with help from volunteers, who come from Richmond-area companies.

The five final participants receive a low-interest loan  not a grant  from Village Bank to get their business started.

Loans, which are backed by UnBoundRVA, are given based on the businesss needs and depend on the type of business. The 4 percent loan is to be paid off over four years, but businesses just make interest payments during the first year instead of interest and principal payments.

UnBoundRVA was founded in 2014 by Sarah Mullens and Richard Luck. The two started the organization after noticing a large amount of underutilized talent in low-income areas while working with Teach for America, a nonprofit organization that brings high-achieving college graduates to teach in low-income public school districts.

UnBoundRVA is funded solely through donations from foundations, corporations and individuals.

The organization, which runs on an annual budget of about $250,000, has four employees and relies heavily on the assistance of more than 200 volunteers. Its offices are at the Gather co-working space in Scotts Addition at 2920 W. Broad St.

The five entrepreneurs in UnBoundRVAs third class graduated Tuesday. The organization starts its fourth class on July 12 with 20 participants. With class four, UnBoundRVA will move from a 12-month timeline to an 18-month timeline.

Buchanans Cleaning Service

Angela Buchanan has been cleaning professionally for more than 30 years. She began her career cleaning hotels at age 16.

Buchanans mother and sisters all went into nursing, but Buchanan took a different path. She decided last year that she wanted to have her own business.

She sought help at the Neighborhood Resource Center of Fulton Bottom, which referred her to UnBoundRVA. She wrote a proposal and was accepted into the program.

Shortly after, Buchanan was hit by a car. With staples and stitches in my arm, I was still determined to get my business, she said.

Buchanan has a passion for cleaning as well as for making her clients happy.

You have got to love what you do to do it well, Buchanan said. I love to see people smile.

Buchanan said she is cleaning in her sleep and has always had a strong passion for cleaning homes.

But she said completing the UnBoundRVA class was no easy task.

I was up late nights getting my homework in. ... I was determined to stay in the class, Buchanan said.

Although Buchanan loves cleaning, she cares most for her clients.

I like to treat my clients like family, she said. When I finish (cleaning), I want them to know Angela has been there.

Plated Traditions

Kendra Moses has been cooking since she was 9 years old.

She has always had a slight obsession with recipes, and used to go to libraries to photocopy and write down every recipe she could with dreams of making the ultimate cookbook.

Moses wanted to be a business owner in the baking field but was unsure how to get started. Shannon Venable, CEO of the Childrens Museum of Richmond, where Moses works full time, referred Moses to UnBoundRVA to find assistance with getting a business started.

Moses takes customers old recipe cards and gives them new life. Customers give her their recipes, either digitally or on paper, and she then formats the recipes into a PDF file on her computer.

Recipes then can be customized with family photos, nutritional information and anecdotes. Customers can receive the recipes as a digital file or in a physical book.

Moses gained interest in preserving recipes after seeing her mothers recipe book, which was hanging on by a thread. She hoped to help her mother and others who wish to maintain recipes for generations to come.

Moses said she never would have been able to receive the training or afford a branding agency without the aid of UnBoundRVA.

They helped with every aspect of my business, Moses said of UnBoundRVA.

Winston Property Preservation

Mike Winston worked in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning business for 20 years.

Last year, Winston went to the Neighborhood Resource Center of Fulton Bottom in search of a job. When he listed his skills, officials at the center told him to apply to UnBoundRVA because he was too gifted to work for someone else and he should instead start his own business.

Winstons business now is hired by banks, property managers and apartment complexes to prepare homes and apartments to be sold on the market. Winston works mostly on foreclosed homes.

He does everything with regards to making the house ready for market, ranging from winterizing homes and fixing roofs to pressure testing water systems and painting.

You never know what you have to do before you get inside (a home), Winston said. Every place is different.

Regardless of the homes situation, Winston is able to prepare the property to be sold.

I can do everything, Winston said. If your house is broken, I can fix it.

Before UnBoundRVA, he rarely stayed in one job for a long period of time. He was always ready to try something new.

Property preservation gives him the opportunity to constantly do different things in different homes around the Richmond region.

However, in the end, the reason he decided to start his own business was simple, he said. I want to have a successful business to take care of my family.

Cut Close Lawn Care

Clarence Bassett launched his business after more than 13 years of experience in the lawn service industry.

He learned about UnBoundRVA through a friend at church after Bassett mentioned he wanted to relaunch his lawn care business. Bassett owned a lawn care business in Hampton Roads for 10 years.

I was totally lost before working with UnBoundRVA, Bassett said. Volunteers and employees helped Bassett learn to use technology, such as computers to help run the business side of his company.

Bassett works in all aspects of lawn care, from mowing and weeding to leaf or snow removal.

I love all aspects of lawn care because you are not doing the same thing day in and day out, Bassett said.

Since beginning his business in April, he has worked with eight different Speedway convenience stores as well as for other commercial businesses and residences.

Bassett employs one person but hopes to grow the business and add jobs.

In this business (lawn care), you either love what you do or you dont do it long, Bassett said. I am outside doing what I love to do. ... I am never really working.

Egghead

Nathan Kent has worked in the food industry for more than 10 years and has been cooking for five.

I found my place in the kitchen, Kent said. Being a cook is the right place for me. ... I like working with my hands.

Egghead specializes in breakfast food catering. Kent said he chose breakfast food because he didnt see any company in the Richmond area that specialized in breakfast either as a food truck or a catering business.

Kents other reason for choosing to make breakfast food was quite simple: He loves breakfast.

He said UnBoundRVA helped support him throughout the process of learning how to run his own business.

I have always had an interest in small-business ownership, Kent said. I knew how to make great food, but not how to run a business.

Even though UnBound RVA is a competitive program, Kent said there was more camaraderie among individuals than competition.
A nonprofit advocate for high-speed rail has posted an altered photo from a train rally that edits out signs opposing adding a third rail in Ashland.

The original photo was taken Wednesday by Joe Mahoney, a photographer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, at a rally at Main Street Station in Richmond. The rally was held in opposition to proposed budget cuts to passenger rail. The photo was altered and then featured on the Facebook page for Virginians for High Speed Rail this week.

The original photo shows a group of people holding signs that read DONT CUT OUR TRAINS, along with two signs held by Ashland residents Jen Chambers and Kristin Reihl that bear the slogan NO THIRD RAIL. Chambers can be seen holding her sign, but Reihls face is hidden behind a woman standing in front of her.

In Virginians for High Speed Rails version of the photo, the NO THIRD RAIL signs have been replaced with DONT CUT OUR TRAINS signs.

When Reihl saw the altered photo, she posted a comment on it with a quip about Photoshop, a picture editing program. Reihls comment, along with others pointing out the altered photo, have been removed from Virginians for High Speed Rails Facebook page, Reihl said.

Reihl said Virginians for High Speed Rail should not have changed the messages on signs being held by people who can be identified and should take the picture down.

They changed the message that somebody is holding in their hand, Reihl said. That to me is completely unethical.

When asked about the photo and Reihls comments, Danny Plaugher, the executive director of Virginians for High Speed Rail, responded with the following statement:

It was a great photo. However, Virginians for High Speed Rail has not taken a position on the Hanover/Ashland issue and we did not want it to appear that we were endorsing one side over the other until the Hanover community has had a chance to make its preferred route known.

Virginians for High Speed Rail changed its cover photo Friday afternoon after a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch inquired about it. But the altered version of the picture could still be seen on the Facebook page as of Friday afternoon.

Reihl said she and Chambers attended Wednesdays rally because they are train people. When they arrived at Main Street Station, a woman got annoyed that Reihl and Chambers had brought signs opposing the prospect of a third rail being added to Ashlands downtown as part of the a federal high-speed rail project called DC2RVA.

She said, This is not about that,  Reihl said. We made it clear we were not there to contradict their message.

Reihl sits on a citizens advisory council that is exploring what the best route for DC2RVA might be through the Ashland and Hanover County area. Reihl said she follows Virginians for High Speed Rail on Facebook because she likes to get different perspectives on train issues.

They objected to our signs messing up their optics, Reihl said.

Reihl said she has been blocked from commenting on Virginians for High Speed Rails Facebook page.
Firefighters responded to a pair of early-morning fires Saturday in Richmond.

Firefighters were called at 3:15 a.m. to the first blaze, which broke out in the 1000 block of St. James Street, said Richmond fire Lt. Chris Armstrong.

Everyone at that address evacuated the building during the blaze, Armstrong said. Red Cross officials were called to possibly assist three adults and four minors displaced by the fire, Armstrong said.

A second fire occurred at Dont Look Back, a taco business in the 2900 block of West Cary Street. That blaze was reported at 5:46 a.m., and responding crews found fire on the first and second floors of the building, Armstrong said.

The Red Cross was also notified to provide possible assistance to two adults following the fire, Armstrong said. A message posted on the Facebook and Twitter accounts for Dont Look Back said the restaurant will be closed until further notice.

Both fires remain under investigation, Armstrong said.
Voters in November will see a familiar name on their ballots.

The Republican candidate challenging Attorney General Mark R. Herring, the Democratic incumbent, is John Adams.

This John Adams, a 43-year-old father of four from Chesterfield County and a lawyer at one of the states most powerful firms, is a descendant of the same Massachusetts family as the nations second president. His views on social issues like gay marriage and the role of the attorney general are the opposite of Herrings. The two sparred in a recent debate and will continue through November as Herring seeks to hold his seat in a state that has been trending Democratic in statewide contests.

Adams is making his first run for public office and is already feeling the sting of Virginia politics. Some of his words in the debate were so twisted by Herrings campaign, he said, that his words became the exact opposite of his position.

The fact that so early his team and his supporters are pushing a narrative that is just objectively false tells me that Im doing a good job, Adams said. Tells me that theyre scared.

So who is John Adams, and why does he want to be the states top lawyer?

Adams was born in Richmonds Chippenham Hospital. His father was a business manager and lobbyist for a telephone company, and his mother was the daughter of a Kentucky coal miner.

Adams paternal grandfather, the Rev. Theodore F. Adams, relocated his family to the Richmond area from Toledo, Ohio, in the 1930s to become the pastor at First Baptist Church. The minister became so well-loved that he was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

Adams, the youngest of four boys, grew up in Midlothian and graduated from Midlothian High School. Virginia Military Institute was the only college he applied to. While there, he became executive officer of the VMI Corps of Cadets.

He lived in Pearl Harbor and Virginia Beach while serving five years in the Navy, then went to law school at the University of Virginia. He clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who recommended he clerk for a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Adams clerked in 2006 and 2007 for Justice Clarence Thomas, whose son had attended VMI with Adams. From there, he worked as an associate counsel in the White House of President George W. Bush in 2007 and 2008 before moving back to Richmond near the end of the Bush administration to become an assistant U.S. attorney.

Adams said he does not come from an overtly political family but was naturally a Republican. He knows of no one in his family whos ever run for office before.

As a prosecutor, he handled the case of John W. Forbes, a former state finance secretary who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2010 for defrauding the state tobacco commission of $4 million.

In 2010, Adams left the U.S. Attorneys Office to join the law firm McGuireWoods in Richmond, and his friend and neighbor Mike Gill, also an assistant U.S. attorney at the time, handled Forbes sentencing. The two worked on several cases together. Gill went on to become chief of staff for the Drug Enforcement Administration and is now a director at the law firm Hancock, Daniel, Johnson & Nagle.

He is one of the most intelligent, hard-working guys that Ive ever known, Gill said of Adams. He worked hours on end in that job on the cases, and he was very passionate about the cause, doing the right thing. And I really developed a deep respect for that. And also how he treated people. Hes got a great sense of whats right.

Gill added: I was very excited when I found out that he wanted to run for attorney general because I think that he is one of the most solid, grounded individuals Ive known.

Adams is on unpaid leave from McGuireWoods, whose law firm and consulting wing are one of the most powerful political entities in the state, and a national presence.

Most of Adams work in white-collar criminal defense at McGuireWoods was in other states. His brother Tray Adams is senior vice president of state government relations with McGuireWoods Consulting. The law firms chairman is Richard Cullen, a former state attorney general and U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia whose current clients include Vice President Mike Pence.

John Adams work for the firm included representing banks, accounting firms and corporations under federal investigation. He rose to head the firms government investigations and white-collar litigation department.

A lot of what I do is representing clients who are in sometimes difficult spots, so I tend not to talk about it, he said. One of the things about being a lawyer is respecting your clients privacy.

Adams handled the defense of Simon Hounslow, who was the only one of five defendants a jury acquitted in 2013 in a vast federal fraud trial in Norfolk involving the Bank of the Commonwealth.

Adams is a friend of U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito while Adams clerked for Thomas. Lee, as a senator, has suggested Adams run for office. And I always said no, Adams said.

Adams, who has supported Republican candidates, said, I never actually thought I would be running for office.

What changed, he said, is how Herring has handled the job. Adams announced his run in January 2016. At the time, state Del. Robert B. Bell, R-Albemarle, was already running for the Republican nomination.

When I saw the way that Mark Herring had politicized the office, and then when he said that he was going to run for re-election, thats when I decided that I could do something about it, Adams said. And the reason I got in  I had a lot of respect for Rob Bell, who I knew was running  but I thought because of what had happened in the Attorney Generals Office, a candidate who wasnt a career politician would have the strongest argument for running against Mark.

Bell ended his campaign in November 2016, citing his duties as a father to two young children, one with special needs. Virginia Beach attorney Chuck Smith did not qualify for the June primary ballot, leaving Adams unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Among people Adams asked for advice was Jerry Kilgore, a Republican who served as Virginias attorney general from 2002 to 2005. I had never done anything like this, Adams said.

When asked for examples of how Herring had politicized the office, Adams first cited the states law requiring voters to show a photo ID. Herring opposes the law on policy grounds, but defended it in court via outside counsel. Adams said that cost taxpayers extra, though, and Herring should have defended the law  which has withstood challenges  himself.

Adams also criticizes Herring for not defending the states ban on gay marriage, which Virginia voters approved in 2006. The U.S. Supreme Court later made gay marriage the law of the land. But Adams says he would have defended the ban and any law passed by voters or the legislature because its the attorney generals job.

We have an attorney general whos not enforcing or defending the laws of Virginia, he said.

Adams is opposed to gay marriage, while Herring, who opposed it as a state senator, has championed it as attorney general.

I have a religious faith that tells me that marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. Thats what I believe, Adams said.

Among other critiques, Adams noted that Herring has filed briefs in court opposing right to work  the laws that say workers cannot be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Virginia has such a law, making it a right to work state.

And he said Herrings political activism in the areas of gun control and his opposition to President Donald Trumps proposed travel bans from certain Muslim majority countries are further examples of politicization of the office. Adams backs Trumps position.

The two candidates held their first debate June 17 in Virginia Beach. Herring painted Adams as a defender of embezzlers and money launderers, said Adams would ban abortion in all cases and had fought against womens access to birth control.

The reference was to Adams work on behalf of Hobby Lobby.

The retailer won a 5-4 decision in 2014 at the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that requiring family-owned companies to pay for contraception for employees violated religious freedom. Adams said his position was that the government should not tell an employer to violate its own religious beliefs  and that he was not interested in limiting womens access to birth control.

Fundraising emails by Herring, however, selectively pulled part of his comments from the debate, creating the impression Adams did not care about the issue at all.

I dont care about limiting it, Adams said in an interview. It was very clear to anybody who was in the room.

Do people really think Im running for attorney general to limit womens access to birth control? Thats crazy, right?

These social issues will be debated until November.

Herring campaign manager Adam Zuckerman said in an email: John Adams cannot credibly say he doesnt care about limiting womens access to birth control when he volunteered to fight twice in federal court to do just that. The Supreme Court itself said our decision in these cases is concerned solely with the contraceptive mandate and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the courts decision would deny legions of women who do not hold their employers beliefs access to contraceptive coverage.

Meanwhile, the GOP ticket is excited about Adams. He joined gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie  who worked in the Bush White House at the same time as Adams  and lieutenant governor nominee Jill Holtzman Vogel on Saturday morning at kickoff events for GOP field offices across the state.

Adams wife, Lisa, and their sons Thomas, 12, Daniel, 10, Andrew, 6, and Henry, 5, joined.

At the field office in Chesterfield, state Sen. Amanda F. Chase, a Republican who represents the area, said she and Adams had the same government teacher.

Hes so smart and so capable and the fact that hes from Chesterfield is incredible, Chase said.

State Del. Roxann L. Robinson, R-Chesterfield, told Adams, Were proud that you kind of came out of nowhere and said, Im going to do this.

Hes taking on the giant, she said.
Virginia has informed federal energy regulators that it will expand its review of two proposed interstate natural gas pipelines to protect water quality beyond the stream and river crossings covered by a general federal permit.

The state Department of Environmental Quality is preparing additional conditions for certifying the protection of water quality under the Clean Water Act and submitting them for public comment in a series of hearings next month, including three on the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Harrisonburg, Farmville and Dinwiddie County.

DEQ officials say their approach will review the potential water quality effects of every inch of land disturbed by construction of the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines in Virginia, including acting on plans for erosion and sedimentation controls to ensure that streams arent damaged by pipeline construction on adjoining mountain slopes.

Melanie D. Davenport, director of water permitting at the DEQ, said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch this week that the agency has created a new approach to regulating the proposed projects because of their size and scope. The projects would be built through sensitive terrain across parts of Virginia.

Weve built a process that doesnt look like anything weve done before because weve never had a project like this before, Davenport said.

DEQ Director David K. Paylor said the agencys approach is the same as it intended in early April, when it announced it would require individual certification of each project under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. The agency in recent weeks has tried to clarify its plans in the wake of confusion surrounding that announcement. At the same time in early April, the state also certified the Nationwide Permit 12 used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review the effects of temporary work on utility projects that cross streams, wetlands and rivers.

The agency will rely on the Nationwide Permit 12 for the places where the pipeline crosses waterways or wetlands, though that review also will incorporate state standards for erosion and sediment control. But Paylor said the additional Section 401 certification was intended to assure the public that the state intended to do more on the two pipeline projects.

Paylor acknowledged in the interview that the agencys position had sown public confusion about whether the state would review all potential effects on water quality from construction of the proposed pipelines, which would measure 42 inches in diameter through most of their paths across Virginia.

I regret any public confusion that has been caused, but we believe that we are protecting water quality to the maximum extent of our authority, he said.

The initial announcement of the states plan on April 6 came after months of pressure from environmental groups opposed to the pipelines and a letter from Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, the eventual Democratic gubernatorial nominee, calling for a comprehensive environmental review of the projects. Northam was engaged in a hard-fought primary battle with former Rep. Tom Perriello, who opposes the pipelines.

Opponents have taken political aim at Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who had courted the environmental vote in his election in 2013, and Dominion, the Richmond-based energy giant proposing the $5.1 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline across 600 miles from West Virginia through the heart of Virginia and eastern North Carolina.

Leaders of the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition say they are not appeased by the DEQs approach. They said it misleads the public by not providing substantive plans for them to review on erosion and sedimentation controls as part of the Section 401 certification.

Although Dominion and its supporters have claimed that the project will be built above and beyond environmental requirements, the public has yet to see the site-specific plans for the project, said Rick Webb, coordinator of the coalition and an environmental scientist who lives in Highland County.

Just as we feared, the DEQ has now initiated a public comment period without providing access to the critical project details that are required for objective review, Webb said Friday evening.

The coalition already has filed suit against the DEQ in Richmond Circuit Court over the agencys decision to certify the use of the Corps Nationwide Permit 12 for utility projects over the next five years.

They know the Corps of Engineers permit will not assure compliance with Virginias water quality standards, and they dont intend to do anything to fix that, said David Sligh, conservation director at Wild Virginia.

In separate letters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Davenport said the state agency anticipates that it will be drafting and providing public notice of additional water quality limitations and conditions as outlined in requests for information on May 19 to the developers of the proposed Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines.

In a guidance letter to DEQ staff the same day, she said the additional requirements under Section 401 are intended to supplement, but not replace the processes under the Corps permit or the Virginia Water Protection Permit for addressing the effects of pipeline construction on wetlands and water bodies.

Davenport said large interstate natural gas pipeline projects could include activities in upland areas that may have the potential to affect water quality but do not fall within the scope of state water permit regulation.

She said the state would consider additional permit conditions based on the length of the pipeline and land disturbed by construction, the diameter of the pipe and a range of geographic, hydrologic and topographic considerations.

Those consideration include steep slopes  a major concern of opponents in Nelson County and other mountainous regions that would be crossed by the pipelines  and karst geology, composed of porous limestone-based rock formations considered critical to water quality in areas such as Augusta and Highland counties. Other areas of concern are public and private water supplies, sensitive streams and wetlands.

In the interview Wednesday, Davenport said the states proposed Section 401 certification would give the public opportunity to participate in the regulatory review and appeal any decision. In fact, thats what were doing with this individual 401, she said.

The DEQ has scheduled four-hour hearings on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline on Aug. 7 at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Aug. 10 at Longwood University in Farmville and Aug. 14 at Dinwiddie High School. The agency has scheduled hearings on the Mountain Valley Pipeline on Aug. 8 at Radford University and Aug. 9 at Chatham High School.

Opponents contend that the hearings wont be useful unless the public has detailed information to consider.
The Trump administration wants to make some of the National Security Agencys vast spying powers permanent. Thats a dangerous proposition, and Ill tell you why.

Since 9/11, Americans have been asked to sacrifice their freedoms on the altar of national security. Weve had our phone calls monitored, our emails read, our movements tracked, and our transactions documented.

Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by the U.S. governments vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops.

These government snoops are constantly combing through and harvesting vast quantities of our communications.

They are conducting this mass surveillance without a warrant, thus violating the core principles of the Fourth Amendment which protects the privacy of all Americans.

PRISM and Upstream, two of the spying programs conducted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are set to expire at the end of this year.

Heres why they should be allowed to expire.

PRISM lets the NSA access emails, video chats, instant messages, and other content sent via Facebook, Google, Apple, and others.

Upstream lets the NSA worm its way into the internet backbone  the cables and switches owned by private corporations like AT&T that make the internet into a global network  and scan traffic for the communications of tens of thousands of individuals labeled targets.

Ask the NSA why its carrying out this warrantless surveillance on American citizens, and youll get the same Orwellian answer the government has been trotting out since 9/11 to justify its assaults on our civil liberties: to keep America safe.

Yet warrantless mass surveillance by the government and its corporate cohorts hasnt made America any safer. And it certainly isnt helping to preserve our freedoms.

Frankly, America will never be safe as long as the U.S. government is allowed to shred the Constitution.

Now the government wants us to believe that we have nothing to fear from its mass spying program because theyre only looking to get the bad guys who are overseas.

Dont believe it.

The governments definition of a bad guy is extraordinarily broad, and it results in the warrantless surveillance of innocent, law-abiding Americans on a staggering scale.

Under Section 702, the government collects and analyzes over 250 million internet communications every year. There are estimates that at least half of these contain information about U.S. residents, many of whom have done nothing wrong.

The government claims its spying on Americans is simply incidental, as though it were an accident  but it fully intends to collect this information.

Indeed, this sensitive data is not destroyed after the NSA vacuums it up. Rather, the government has written its own internal rules  called minimization procedures  that allow spy agencies such as the NSA to retain Americans private communications for years.

Far from minimizing any invasion of privacy, the rules expressly allow government officials to read our emails and listen to our phone calls without a warrant  the very kinds of violations that the Fourth Amendment was written to prohibit.

Finally, once this information  collected illegally and without any probable cause  is ingested into NSA servers, other government agencies can often search through the databases to make criminal cases against Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism or anything national security-related. One Justice Department lawyer called the database the FBIs Google.

In other words, the NSA, an unaccountable institution filled with unelected bureaucrats, operates a massive database that contains the intimate and personal communications of countless Americans.

Warrantless mass surveillance of American citizens is wrong, un-American, and unconstitutional.

Its time to let Section 702 expire or reform the law to ensure that millions and millions of Americans are not being victimized by a government that no longer respects its constitutional limits.
The principal chief commissioner of GST Mumbai zone, Subhash Varshney spoke to India Today on preparedness for GST.

By Mustafa Shaikh: Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime has reorganised Service Tax and Central Excise departments in Mumbai. The Central Excise building near Churchgate in south Mumbai is now named as GST Bhawan.

On the ground, the situation remains intense as millions want to register for GST.

The principal chief commissioner of GST Mumbai zone, Subhash Varshney spoke to India Today on preparedness for GST.

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Excerpts from the interview:

Q. There is possibility of panic as a lot of people trying to register themselves will come forward.

A. There is no need to panic. We have started central processing centres for registration. If the applications are not cleared within three days they get automatic registration.

We have 11 taxpayers commissionerates called as field formations which will deal with taxpayers. Above that, we are having five audit commissionerates and five appeal commissionerates.

Q. A new regime comes with a lot of question, queries and doubts.

A: We have Seva Kendras at each of the field formations where officers will give answers to taxpayers problems. Seva Kendras will help taxpayers in registration, tax payment, refunds and filing of returns.

We are also starting a E-helpline. We have published phone numbers and email addresses of the officers in two leading newspapers. If anybody faces a problem, people can contact me directly or through officers. We are ready to help people 24x7.

Q. Implementation remains a key issue. Are the field officers trained for GST?

A: Officers have been trained by Directorate of Training and our national academy customs, excise and narcotics. State officers are also trained. For this process, we first started master trainers who trained the trainers and trainers trained the field officers for five days.

This five day training was compulsory for each officer. I can guarantee each field officer has been fully trained. We will continue the training and upgrade our course so that no one lacks in the technical understanding of GST.

Q. Is there an estimate of how much more revenue will be generated under the new regime?

A: We are not sure about revenue estimation, but we are sure revenue will increase through this process because cascading effect on tax is no more. How much revenue will increase that has not yet been calculated by any of organisation.

ALSO READ:

Goods and Services Tax: How world went about GST and what lies ahead for India

GST now a reality, Good and Simple Tax a collective effort, will help poor, says PM Narendra Modi

--- ENDS ---
A man believed to be the one captured on video setting fire to an American flag on the front porch of another mans home surrendered to authorities Wednesday night, police said.

Andrew Rosas, 26, of Catherine Street in Richmond, turned himself in at police headquarters at 10:30 p.m. He was arrested on a charge of arson.

The video  posted online by a woman who identified herself on social media as the victims neighbor  shows a young-looking man approach the front of a home in the 1600 block of Floyd Avenue and fiddle with the flags mount. The man then lights the flag on fire before briskly walking east toward Lombardy Street.

Jim Tanner, the homeowner, said on Wednesday he wanted to see the perpetrator arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

If hes going to burn a flag for no reason at all, who knows what hes going to do? Tanner said.

The flag was adjoined to the beam of a wooden deck that Tanner said could have very likely caught on fire, potentially putting him and his neighbors in great danger. The row houses on his block are more than 100 years old, making them more vulnerable to fire, he said.
RICHMOND  The muscles in the 7-year-olds biceps flexed hard against the Velcro straps of her prosthetic hand, closing her new fingers.

Its my robot hand, Lydia H. exclaimed, then grabbed at her mom and older brother.

Lydia, who was born without her left forearm and hand, has in many ways overcome the limitations of her body on her own. But the free prosthetic created using ECPIs 3-D printer will make life easier.

Lydia said she enjoys practicing archery. Shes taught herself to shoot using her little arm to draw the string.

Now, she can hold the bow with her new hand and expects to receive a separate attachment for it. But shes more excited to tussle with her older brother.

[Im going to] grab my brother then throw him on the ground, said Lydia, whose family asked that only the first letter of their last name be used because of privacy concerns.

The device can be made for about $20,000 less than a comparable prosthetic through insurance, said ECPI Innsbrook campus president Jacob Pope. Families who invest in child prosthetics often find the cost even steeper, he said, because the children quickly outgrow the devices.

We can produce one of these arms for about $150 plus production hours that our students go through. Then for as many arms as this young lady wants and that we can produce, ... well produce them for her, Pope said.

The university formed an Enabling The Future chapter in August, headed by faculty member Negar Ghochaghi.

Enabling The Future is an international organization of skilled volunteers in such areas as engineering, coding and design dedicated to creating free prosthetics for youth.

Its members share and build upon original open-sourced patterns to improve the quality and accessibility of assistive devices .

Ghochaghi said Pope found the program and asked if she wanted to advise the group since the university already had a competition related to use of the printer.

Now our goal is to have our students be more involved and get them to make a better design, said Ghochaghi, who has worked for ECPI since 2014.

ECPI can use the 3-D printer to design three types of upper body devices: ones for the hand, ones reaching to the upper arm, and ones reaching to the shoulder.

The team used a pattern provided by Enabling The Future to make devices for three children so far  two locally and one in Sudan.

Pope said one of the students created his own design for a device that helps a 7-year-old boy ride his bike.

The larger Enabling The Future organization matches families to the chapters.

Kevin H., Lydias father, said the first chapter the family had gone to did not follow through on the request, so Enabling The Future connected them with ECPI.

Kevin said, Its been a month since we came in for the measurements and ever since then shes been asking, How much longer? 

We try to give her a lot of pride in the way God made her, Kevin said. Focus on her arm in a positive way so shes not ashamed of it or hiding it.

The family will let ECPI know how the hand is working so the students can try to improve it.

Were so fortunate they found us, Ghochaghi said.

ECPI electrical engineering students Joseph Andarz and Juan Hernandez were on the team that helped make the prosthetics. Both said they enjoyed the chance to do hands-on engineering work that also helped others. The more we know, the better we work, " Andarz said.

More families interested in using the services of an Enabling The Future chapter can connect through their website.
In August 1812, Thomas Jefferson sat in retirement in Monticello and chortled about the war the United States had just declared against Great Britain. Jefferson, who had already nearly doubled the nations borders with the Louisiana Purchase, saw an opportunity to expand the country yet again through this new war. The acquisition of Canada, he gleefully wrote a supporter in Pennsylvania, will be a mere matter of marching.

We think of Jefferson today for his refined intellect, but he was remarkably casual about the violence that another war with the British might bring. Perhaps they may burn New York or Boston, he wrote. If they do, we must burn the city of London  by hiring arsonists, what some might call terrorists. For Jefferson, the burning of American cities was a small, and acceptable, price to pay for the grand prize  the final expulsion of England from the American continent.

Things didnt exactly work out that way, of course. The acquisition of Canada was not a mere matter of marching. Each time President James Madison sent the American army marching across the border, the result was an unmitigated military disaster. The British army turned out to be pretty formidable. And the Canadians werent exactly welcoming the Americans as liberators. The Americans did manage to burn the city of York  present-day Toronto. For some reason, the Canadians did not take this as an act of friendship.

Today, the War of 1812 is a footnote in American history books, mentioned mostly because we got a national anthem out of it, and a problematic hero in the form of Andrew Jackson. In Canada, though, the War of 1812 is heralded as the singular event that guaranteed that countrys independence. In downtown Toronto today, theres a sculpture which depicts a Canadian soldier triumphing over a fallen American, with an inscription noting that without such a valiant defense Canada would have been absorbed into the United States.

We bring up all this history for one reason: Today Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary as an independent country. That prompts this historical question: Why isnt Canada part of the United States, as Jefferson grandly envisioned?

Going back even further: Why didnt the Canadians join us in the Revolutionary War? If they had, there never would have been that failed attempt to conquer, er, liberate Canada in the War of 1812. Put another way, why are Canadians Canadian and not simply Americans with an unusual taste for poutine?

The answer to that is actually pretty simple, if obscure. Canada in 1776 was not the Canada we know today. In 1776, Canada mostly consisted of French-speaking Quebec and Nova Scotia, with only scattered settlements elsewhere in the future Maritime Provinces.

Quebeckers were traumatized when France lost their province to Great Britain in the Seven Years War in 1763. The British wisely decided the best thing to do with so many French speakers was to leave them alone and guarantee freedom for the Catholic church. Consequently, Quebec wasnt in any mood to disturb that delicate arrangement by siding with a bunch of hot-headed American revolutionaries who probably werent going to win anyway.

Nova Scotia, by contrast, was considered Britains 14th colony. However, at the time of the American Revolution, Halifax was a major port for the British Navy, and the leaders there were keenly attuned to British mercantile interests. There would be no revolution there.

After the war, American royalists fled  largely to Nova Scotia and the western parts of Quebec, which became todays Ontario. You might even say that Canadians were the original anti-Americans.

In any case, Canada basically grew up after the American Revolution and was always somewhat wary of the big, unpredictable country to the south. Likewise, Americans were always a little skeptical about British influence to the north, even after Canada officially became independent in 1867. After all, Queen Victoria remained the head of state, so was it really independent?

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police  the ones who always get their man  owe their origin to a certain fear of American intentions. In the 1870s, when the west was still being settled, Canadian authorities heard rumors that an American flag was flying over a trading post in the future Alberta. They mounted up some armed men  being careful to call them police, and not soldiers, lest they alarm the Americans  and had them ride west to affirm Canadian sovereignty. The flag over Fort Whoop-Up did look a lot like the Stars and Stripes. But it turned out to be a mere trading flag, or corporate logo, if you will, from some enterprising whiskey salesman who happily took payment regardless of nationality. Today its the municipal flag for the city of Lethbridge and still turns heads on both sides of the border.

Even into the 1930s, the United States maintained plans on how to invade Canada in case things ever went crosswise with the British  War Plan Red, it was called. The Canadians had Defense Scheme No. 1, which called for seizing Seattle, Minneapolis and Albany, New York.

Thankfully, the worst thing we have to fear from the Canadians today is an Alberta Clipper, or, perhaps, Justin Bieber. For its part, Canada mostly fears a cultural invasion; one reason their broadcasters have a Canadian content rule to emphasize homegrown music and shows.

Canada is not simply a colder version of the United States. It has a distinctly different culture that has figured out a lot of things we havent. A national health care system, for instance. And broad support for increased immigration as a way to re-balance an aging population. We have the same demographic problem, but still argue over the solution. For years one of the most popular shows on Canadian television was Little Mosque On The Prairie, about an Islamic family in Saskatchewan. The country is proudly multilingual, and multi-cultural.

Canadian conservatives manage to run without resorting to the God, guns and gays formula that their American counterparts often fall back on. The current prime minister is a liberal who happily touts building pipelines to sell his countrys oil. Canada is, simply, a different place. Happy birthday. Or, perhaps, bon anniversaire.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) Countrys largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today posted 1.2 per cent rise in domestic sales in June but rival Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra reported decline during the month impacted by speculations over GST tax structure.

MSI said it sold 93,263 units in June as against 92,133 units in the same period last year although sales of mini segment cars, including Alto and WagonR, declined by 7.9 per cent to 25,524 units in June from 27,712 in the year-ago month.

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The company said sales of compact models comprising Swift, Estilo, Dzire, Baleno and Ignis rose 1.3 per cent to 40,496 units last month as compared to 39,971 units in June last year.

Utility vehicles, including Ertiga, S-Cross and Vitara Brezza, saw sales rise by 43 per cent to 13,879 units in June, from 9,708 in the year-ago period.

Vans, including Omni and Eeco, saw sales dip by 6.7 per cent to 9,208 units last month compared to 9,874 units in the same period of the previous year. Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) reported a 5.6 per cent decline in domestic sales at 37,562 units in June. The company had sold 39,807 units in June 2016. HMIL Director Sales and Marketing Rakesh Srivastava said the market was challenging fuelled with speculations on the GST tax structure.

The company expects a positive demand pull, post successful implementation of GST, in coming months as the industry will witness heightened level of customer interest in a seamless and unified single market, he added. Tata Motors said its domestic passenger vehicles sales were impacted by the mixed reactions towards GST resulting in low buying sentiments. Passenger vehicle sales during the month were at 11,176 units, down 10 per cent from 12,482 units in June 2016. "This drop in volume is seen temporary and will be recovered in the quarter to come based on 11 per cent growth in April-June 2017 quarter compared to the last year," Tata Motors said in a statement.

Utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra also reported 3 per cent decline in domestic sales at 33,861 units last month. Exports of the Mumbai-based automaker were down 54 per cent at 1,855 units in June against 4,020 units in the same month last year.

Sales of passenger vehicles, including Scorpio, XUV500, Xylo, Bolero and Verito, declined 5 per cent at 16,170 units compared to 17,070 units in the same month last year.

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Commercial vehicle sales were, however, up 12 per cent at 15,131 units in June against 13,538 units in the year-ago period.

M&M President Automotive Sector Rajan Wadhera said the companys focus has been to minimise channel stocks to reduce the transition losses on account of GST implementation.

"We are closely observing GST and strongly believe that once we tide over the initial uncertainties, GST is set to usher in a new era for the economy in general and the automotive industry in particular," he added. PTI MSS RKL MKJ

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Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin is roaming free in Pakistan. Salahuddin was seen at a public meeting in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, where he was accorded grand reception.

By India Today Web Desk: Hizbul Mujahideen may have been responsible for umpteen number of terror attacks in India particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, its head Mohammad Yusuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin may have been designated global terrorist by the US, the terror chief is a free bird in Pakistan.

A day after US President Donald Trump's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US declared Syed Salahuddin as a "specially designated global terrorist." Hizbul Mujahideen is already a proscribed organization.

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But, Pakistan does not seem to deterred with increasing sanctions on Syed Salahuddin and his Hizbul Mujahideen.

In the latest development, Syed Salahuddin was found roaming freely in Pakistan. In a video doing rounds on internet and social media, Salahuddin was accorded a grand welcome in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Salahuddin recently attended a public function at Muzaffarabad in PoK. His free movement puts question mark on the Pakistan's commitment to fight terror.

Salahuddin's Hizbul Mujahideen is biggest terror outfit active in the Kashmir Valley especially in the southern regions. Salahuddin is a local militant who operates from across the LoC under Pakistani patronage.

US ACTION AGAINST SALAHUDDIN

On Monday, following a meeting PM Narendra Modi's meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tilleron and Defence Secretary James Mattis, the US State Department declared Salahuddin as a global terrorist.

The US notification read, "Department of State has designated Mohammad Yusuf Shah, also known as (AKA) Syed Salahuddin as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Section 1(b) of Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which imposes sanctions on foreign persons who have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States."

It further said, "Designations of terrorist individuals and groups expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the US financial system."

Pakistan came out in open support of Salahuddin after the US imposed sanction on him. Defending Salahuddin, Pakistan's foreign office said, "The US State Department's designation of Syed Salahuddin, the head of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group based in Pakistan, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist was unjustified."

Pakistan has been denying its role in encouraging anti-India terror groups including Salahuddin and his Hizbul Mujahideen.

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There were a lot of young people in the small club and that the youngest victim is believed to be 16 years old. Some sort of dispute broke out between people inside, Little Rock police chief Kenton Buckner told the media. Police are continuing to investigate but do not believe the incident was terror related but a dispute between two groups inside the club. No suspect has been determined. There were however several shooting suspects.



Police at the Power Ultra Lounge nightclub in Little Rock, Arkansas

Police chief said its too early to know the exact number of suspects. The principal suspect is believed to have left the scene in a Mercedes Benz or Dodge Charger. Anyone with information about the incident should call 371-4660. People concertgoers from inside the club posted videos showing moments of the incident on Facebook and Instagram, including the moment shots rang out. It is strange but a promotional poster of the concert showed a man pointing what appeared to be a gun at the camera. The shooting followed a week of multiple drive-by shootings in the capital city, though there was no indication the events were linked.
This month, India will get its 14th President. Electing the President of India, a process that has already begun, is not quite as simple as voting in a Lok Sabha. Here's a complete guide and answers to common questions about the Indian presidential election.

By Dev Goswami: On July 17, 4,896 electors will cast a total of 10,98,903 votes (more on that later) to elect the next President of India.

The electors will include all elected Members of Legislative Assemblies and Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha). People nominated to a state's legislative assembly (for example, Peter Fanthome from Uttar Pradesh) or to the Rajya Sabha (such as Sachin Tendulkar or Subramanian Swamy), like the rest of us, cannot vote in the Presidential election 2017.

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Counting of votes for the Presidential election will take place on July 20 and on July 25, a day after incumbent Pranab Mukherjee demits office, India will get its 14th President.

This will be the 15th time an election is held for the office of the President of India - there have been only 13 Presidents as Dr Rajendra Prasad won the first two elections, in 1952 and 1957.

The process for electing the President of India is quite unlike elections to the Lok Sabha or a state Legislative Assembly.

For example, each elector's vote is valued in hundreds - a vote cast by one Uttar Pradesh MLA, for example, will be valued at 208. The vote of a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha) will be valued at 708. (A complete, state-wise list of the value of each MLA can be found at the end of this article.)

But, it ensures that each state gets a fair say in the election, in proportion to its population, and that the candidate who is elected President is one who has the support of the majority of electors.

Click here to Enlarge The President of India is elected by legislators acting on behalf of the population (Source: India Today TV)

Here is how the President of India is elected:

STEP 1: Nomination

Each candidate considering a run for the President of India's office were supposed to file their nominations by June 28. The candidates were also required to fork over Rs 15,000 as deposit and submit a signed list of 50 proposers and 50 seconders. The proposers and seconders can be any of the 4,896 electors eligible to vote in the Presidential election 2017.

An elector can only propose or second one candidate's name. This rule of getting electors to propose and second a person's candidature was adopted in 1974 after the Election Commission realised that in the 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1969 (an early election after 3rd President of India Zakir Husain's death in office) polls, several candidates submitted their names even though they did not have "even a remote chance of getting elected."

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This part of the process of electing the next President of India is over - both Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar have filed their respective nominations.

Click here to Enlarge Currently, Ram Nath Kovind leads Meira Kumar in terms of support. However, note that parties cannot issue whips for the Presidential election (Source: India Today TV)

STEP 2: Voting

Only July 17, all elected MLAs, in their respective state and union territory capitals, and all elected MPs, at Parliament, will be given ballot papers (green coloured for MPs and pink coloured for MLAs) to cast their vote. They will also be given special pens, which is the only instrument they can use to record their votes.

Each ballot paper will contain the name of all candidates who are contesting the Presidential election. The electors will proceed to indicate their preference for each candidate - marking '1' for the candidate they most prefer as President, '2' for the candidate who is their second preference, and so on.

An elector isn't required to mark preferences for all Presidential candidates. He/she has to only mark their first preference for their vote to be considered in the election.

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ALSO READ | Presidential election 2017 list: Lalu Yadav, Saira Bano also in race

STEP 3: Segregating ballot papers

On July 20, the Returning Office Anoop Mishra will verify all ballots and begin the counting process using the ballots that are valid.

The ballot papers will be taken up state-wise and allotted to each candidate's tray depending on whose name appears as the first preference. For example, if an MLA from Uttar Pradesh marks Ram Nath Kovind as his/her first preference that MLA's ballot paper will go to Kovind's tray.

Then the ballots papers of the Members of Parliament are similarly distributed. For example, all ballot papers of MPs who mark Meira Kumar as their first preference will go to Kumar's tray.

Click here to Enlarge This is how the value of the vote of an MLA/MP is calculated (Source: Inida Today TV)

STEP 4: Counting votes

The total number of votes that a Presidential candidate garners is calculated by adding up the value of all the ballots in which a particular candidate receives a first preference.

Remember, the value of each ballot paper depends on who cast the votes. The ballot paper of a UP MLA will be valued at 208, of an Andhra Pradesh MLA at 159 and of an MLA from Sikkim at 7 (full list of the value of votes of MLAs from each state is at the end of this article).

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The value of the ballot paper of any MP (from Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha) is 708. Adding up the value of each ballot paper that is in a candidate's tray gives the total number of votes polled for that candidate.

Click here to Enlarge Electors mark their preferences for each candidate instead of simply voting for one (Source: India Today TV)

STEP 5: Deciding the winner

The winner of the Presidential election is not the person who gets the most number of votes, but the person who gets more votes than a certain quota.

The quota is decided by adding up the votes polled for each candidate, dividing the sum by 2 and adding '1' to the quotient.

The candidate who polls more votes than the quote is the winner. In case, no one gets more votes than the quota, then the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated.

Then, the eliminated candidates' ballot papers are distributed between the remaining hopefuls based on those ballot papers' second preference choice. The process of counting the total votes for each candidate is then repeated to see if any one polls above the quota.

The process continues until someone's votes tally up to more than the quota, or until just one candidate is left after the constant eliminations, at which point that person is declared as the winner of the President of India.

STEP 6: Taking oath

On July 25, a day after President Pranab Mukherjee demits office, the President-elect will take oath. Note that Mukherjee can only leave office if another person is ready to take his place. For an unforeseen reason, if there is nobody to assume the office of President of India on July 25, Mukherjee will continue to remain in office.

The oath for President is usually administered by the Chief Justice of India, which in this election cycle will be Justice JS Khehar. The President-elect will be admitered the following oath in order to be sworn in:

"I, A.B., do swear in the name of God/solemnly affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of President (or discharge the functions of the President) of India and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law and that I will devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of India."

ALSO READ | How Ram Nath Kovind was Amit Shah's best kept secret until the last moment

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: FAQs

Here is a full list of frequently asked questions about the process for the election of the President of India (courtesy the Election Commission of India):

Who elects the President of India?

The President is elected by an Electoral College, which consists of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of all the States and also of NCT of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

What is the term of the office of the President?

The President shall hold office for a term of 5 years from the date on which he enters upon his office. He shall, however, continue to hold office notwithstanding the expiry of his term, until his successor enters upon his office.

When is the election of the Office of President of India held?

The notification calling the election to the office of the President can be issued by the Election Commission on any day within the period of sixty days before the expiry of the term of office of the outgoing President. The election schedule shall be so fixed, that the President-elect is able to enter upon his office on the day following the expiry of the term of the outgoing President.

Who conducts the election to the Office of President of India?

The authority to conduct elections to the Office of President is vested in the Election Commission of India.

What electoral system/process is followed for the election to the office of the President?

The election of the President shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.

What are the Qualifications required by a candidate to contest the election to the Office of the President of India?

Under Article 58, a candidate should fulfill the following eligibility conditions to contest the election to the Office of President:

Must be a citizen of India

Must have completed 35 years of age

Must be eligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha

Should not be holding any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Governments.

However, the candidate may be holding the office of President or Vice-President or Governor of any State or Ministers of the Union or any State and shall be eligible to contest election.

Apart from the above what are the conditions to be fulfilled by a candidate for his nomination to be valid?

A nomination paper of a candidate for the election has to be made in the prescribed form and it has to be subscribed by at least fifty electors as proposers and at least fifty electors as seconders. The nomination paper duly completed in all respects has to be presented to the Returning Officer, between 11AM and 3PM on any day other than on a public holiday appointed for the purpose by the Election Commission, either by the candidate himself or by any of his proposers or seconders. Here 'Electors' mean elected MPs and elected MLAs who are electors for Presidential Election.

The Security Deposit for the election, of Rs.15,000 should also be deposited either in cash with the Returning Officer or a receipt showing that the amount has been deposited by the candidate or on his behalf in the Reserve Bank of India or in a Government Treasury should be furnished along with the nomination paper.

The candidate is also required to furnish a certified copy of the entry showing his name in the current electoral roll for the Parliamentary Constituency in which the candidate is registered as an elector.

Who is appointed the Returning Officer/Assistant Returning Officer for the election to the Office of President of India? Who makes such appointment?

By convention, the Secretary General, Lok Sabha or the Secretary General, Rajya Sabha is appointed as the Returning Officer, by rotation. Two other senior officers of the Lok Sabha/ Rajya Sabha Secretariat and the Secretaries and one more senior officer of Legislative Assemblies of all States including NCT of Delhi and Union Territory of Puducherry, are also appointed as the Assistant Returning Officers. The Election Commission of India makes such appointments.

For the Presidential Election, 2017 the Secretary General Lok Sabha, Anoop Mishra, is the Returning Officer.

Can a Candidate submit more than one nomination paper? What would be the security deposit to be made by such candidate?

Yes. A candidate can file a maximum of four nomination papers. However, he is required to make only one security deposit in this regard.

Can an elector propose or second the nomination of more than one candidate at a Presidential election?

No. An elector can propose or second the name of only one candidate at a Presidential election. If he subscribes as proposer or seconder, the nomination papers of more than one candidate, his signature shall be deemed operative only on the nomination paper first delivered to the Returning Officer.

Who scrutinizes the nomination papers filed by the candidates and who can be present at the time of such scrutiny?

All nomination papers received by the Returning Officer during the period specified for the purpose by the Election Commission are scrutinized by the Returning Officer himself on the date fixed by the Election Commission. At the time of such scrutiny, the candidates, one proposer or one seconder of each candidate and one other person duly authorized, in writing, by each candidate shall be entitled to be present, and they shall be given all reasonable facilities for examining the nomination papers of the candidates and raise objections in regard to those nomination papers.

What are the grounds for rejection of the nomination of a candidate in the Presidential election?

A nomination paper may be rejected by the Returning Officer on either of the following grounds:

On the date of scrutiny of nominations, the candidate is not eligible for election as President under the Constitution

If any of the proposers or seconders is not qualified to subscribe a nomination paper, i.e., he is not an elector at the election.

If it is not subscribed by the required number of proposers and/or seconders.

If the signature of the candidate or any of the proposers or seconders is not genuine or has been obtained by fraud.

If the nomination paper is not presented in person by the candidate or any of his proposers or seconders or if it is not delivered to the Returning Officer, within the hours and dates prescribed for the purpose or at the place appointed for the purpose, or the candidate has failed to make the required security deposit in the prescribed manner

However, a candidate's nomination shall not be rejected, if he has submitted another set of nomination papers, which are without any irregularity or defect. A candidate's nomination shall not be rejected on the ground of any defect that is not of substantial character.

Where is the poll for election to the Office of President held?

A Room in the Parliament House in New Delhi and a room in the Secretariat building of State Legislative Assemblies in each state, including NCT of Delhi and UT of Puducherry are generally fixed as places of poll, by the Election Commission.

Can the electors choose their place of voting?

Yes. While normally Members of Parliament vote in New Delhi and the members of the State Legislative Assemblies, including the members of the Legislative Assemblies of NCT of Delhi and UT of Puducherry vote at the place fixed in each State/UT capital, facilities are provided by the Election Commission for any MP to vote in the capital of State and similarly an MLA may vote at the polling booth set up in the Parliament House, if he is in Delhi on the date of poll.

However, the MP or MLA who opts to vote in a place other than the place where the member is designated to vote is required to intimate the same to the Commission well in advance (ten days) for making necessary arrangements. In exceptional circumstances, MPs and MLAs may be permitted by the Commission to vote at other State Capitals also.

What is the colour and form of ballot papers used in the election to the office of the President?

The Election Commission has directed that the ballot papers should be printed in two colours - in green for use by Members of Parliament and in pink for use by the Members of the State Legislative Assemblies. The ballot papers are printed with two columns - first column containing the names of the candidates and the second column for marking preferences by the elector for each such candidate. The ballot papers are printed in Hindi and English for use by MPs and in the official language(s) of the State and English for use by the MLAs of the State concerned.

For marking the vote, the Commission will supply particular pens. This pen will be given to the electors in the polling station by the designated official when the ballot paper is handed over. Electors have to mark the ballot only with this particular pen and not with any other pen.

Is the value of vote of each elector the same?

No. The value of votes of MLAs would differ from State to State as the value of each such vote is calculated by the process explained below. However, the value of votes of all MPs is the same.

How is the value of votes of members of the Electoral College calculated?

The value of votes of electors is basically determined on the basis of population of the States in accordance with the manner laid down in Article 55(2) of the Constitution.

The Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Act, 2001 provides that until the population figures for the first census to be taken after the year 2026 have been published, the population of the States for the purposes of calculation of value of the votes for the Presidential Election shall mean the population as ascertained at the 1971 census.

The value of the vote of each member of a State Legislative Assembly included in the Electoral College is calculated by dividing the population of the State concerned (as per 1971 Census) by the total number of elected members of the Assembly, and then further dividing the quotient by 1000. If the remainder, while so dividing is 500 or more, then the value is increased by '1'.

Total value of votes of all members of each State Assembly is worked out by multiplying the number of elective seats in the Assembly by the number of votes for each member in the respective State.

The total value of votes of all the States worked out as above in respect of each State and added together is divided by the total number of elected members of Parliament (Lok Sabha 543 + Rajya Sabha 233) to get the value of votes of each Member of Parliament.

What is the manner/procedure for recording votes at an election to the office of President?

In accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote, every elector can mark as many preferences, as there are candidates contesting the election. These preferences for the candidates are to be marked by the elector, by placing the figures 1,2,3, 4, 5 and so on, against the names of the candidates, in the order of preference, in the space provided in column 2 of the ballot paper.

The preferences can be indicated in international form of Indian numerals or in the form used in any Indian language or in Roman form but the preferences cannot be indicated in words like one, two, first preference second preference etc.

Is it compulsory for an elector at a Presidential election to mark his preference for all candidates?

No. Only the marking of first preference is compulsory for a ballot paper to be valid. Marking other preferences is optional.

Are the provisions of the Anti-Defection Law applicable in Presidential elections?

No. Members of the Electoral College can vote according to their wish and are not bound by any party whips. The voting is by secret ballot. Therefore, Party whip does not apply in this election.

Are Nominated Members of either Houses of Parliament or a State Legislative Assembly eligible to vote at the election to the Office of President?

No. Only elected members of both Houses of Parliament and of the State Legislative Assemblies are members of the Electoral College for Presidential Election. Therefore, nominated members cannot vote in this election.

Can an elector at a Presidential election exercise his vote by proxy?

No.

Whether provisions of NOTA are applicable?

No.

Can a disabled or illiterate elector in a Presidential election take the help of a companion to record his vote?

No. Unlike in Parliamentary and Assembly election, an elector cannot take the help of a companion. He can take only the assistance of the Presiding Officer to record his vote, if he is unable to read the ballot paper or to record his vote by reason of his illiteracy or blindness or any physical or other disabilities. The Presiding Officer is obliged under the rule to record the vote according to the wishes of the elector and keep such vote secret.

How can an elector who is under preventive detention during the period of Presidential election cast his vote?

An elector under preventive detention can cast his vote through postal ballot, which will be sent to him by the Election Commission on the place of his detention.

Is the winner in a Presidential election elected on the basis of obtaining simple majority? Or by securing a specified quota of votes?

As the Presidential election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, every elector has as many preferences as candidates contesting the elections. The winning candidate has to secure the required quota of votes to be declared elected, i.e., 50 per cent of valid votes polled + 1.

What are the grounds for rejection of the ballot papers?

The Returning Officer shall reject a ballot paper as invalid on which:

The figure 1 is not marked; or

The figure 1 is marked against the name of more than one candidate or is marked in a manner which renders it doubtful as to which candidate it is intended to apply; or

The figure 1 and some other figure is marked against the name of the same candidate; or

Any mark is made by which the elector may be identified.

A ballot paper will also be invalidated if the preference is marked in words like one, two, three or first preference, second preference, third preference, etc., instead of in figures 1, 2, 3 etc.

A postal ballot may be rejected if the signature of the elector on the declaration and the attestation form received with the ballot paper is not duly attested by the authority specified in such form (who is normally the officer-in-charge of the jail or the place of detention).

What is the procedure of counting in a Presidential election? How is the quota of votes to be secured by the winning candidate determined?

After the valid ballot papers are segregated from the invalid ones, the valid ballot papers are distributed among the contesting candidates on the basis of first preference marked on each of them for those candidates.

The total votes secured by each contesting candidate is ascertained by adding together the value of vote of each ballot paper (of an MP or MLA) that has the candidate as the first preference. This is the first round of counting.

For ascertaining the quota sufficient to secure the return of a candidate, the value of votes credited to each contesting candidate in the first round of counting is added up to determine the total value of valid votes polled at the election.

Such total value of valid votes is then divided by two, and one is added to the quotient so obtained, ignoring the remainder, if any. The number so determined, is the quota, which a candidate should secure to be declared elected.

If the total value of the votes credited to any candidate at the first count, is equal to, or greater than, the quota sufficient to secure the return of a candidate, that candidate is declared elected by the Returning Officer.

If, however, after the first round of counting, no candidate secures the requisite quota, then the counting proceeds on the basis of a process of elimination and exclusion, whereby the candidate credited with the lowest number of votes is excluded and all his ballot papers are distributed among the remaining (continuing) candidates on the basis of the second preferences marked, if any, thereon. The value of such transferred ballot papers will be the same as the value at which the excluded candidate received them.

The ballot papers on which second preference is not marked is treated as exhausted ballot papers and shall not be further counted, even if the third or subsequent preferences are marked thereon.

If no candidate secures the requisite quota even at this stage after distribution of votes of the excluded candidate then the process of counting will continue on the same basis of elimination and exclusion of the candidate with lowest vote till a candidate secures the required quota of votes.

In case, even after the exclusion of the candidates receiving the lowest number of votes, no candidate secures the requisite quota and ultimately one candidate remains as the lone continuing candidate, he is declared elected even if he has failed to secure the quota sufficient to secure the return of a candidate.

Where is the counting of votes in a Presidential election held?

The counting of votes is done in the office of the Returning officer at New Delhi.

When is the security deposit of a candidate in a Presidential Election forfeited?

The Security deposit shall be forfeited if the candidate is not elected and the number of valid votes polled by him does not exceed one-sixth of the number of votes necessary to secure return of a candidate at such election. In other cases, the deposit will be returned to the candidate. The security deposit is returned by ECI.

Can the result of the election to the Office of President be challenged? If so, what is the proper procedure for doing so?

Yes. An election to the Office of the President can be called in question by means of an election petition presented to the Supreme Court after the election is over. Such election petition should be presented by a candidate or twenty or more electors joined together as petitioners, and may be presented at any time after the date of publication of the declaration containing the name of the returned candidate at the election, but not later than 30 days from the date of such publication. Subject to these provisions, the Supreme Court, under Article 145 of the Constitution, may regulate the form, manner and the procedures connected with such election petitions.

How is the President sworn in?

Every President and every person acting as President or discharging the functions of the President shall, before entering upon his office, make and subscribe in the presence of the Chief Justice of India or, in his absence, the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court available, an oath or affirmation in the following form, that is to say:

"I, A.B., do swear in the name of God/solemnly affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of President (or discharge the functions of the President) of India and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law and that I will devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of India."

How can a President be impeached?

When a President is to be impeached for violation of the Constitution, the charge shall be preferred by either House of Parliament.

No such charge shall be preferred unless:

The proposal to prefer such charge is contained in a resolution which has been moved after at least fourteen days' notice in writing signed by not less than one-fourth of the total number of members of the House has been given of their intention to move the resolution, and

Such resolution has been passed by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the House.

When a charge has been so preferred by either House of Parliament, the other House shall investigate the charge or cause the charge to be investigated and the President shall have the right to appear and to be represented at such investigation.

If as a result of the investigation a resolution is passed by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the House by which the charge was investigated or caused to be investigated, declaring that the charge preferred against the President has been sustained, such resolution shall have the effect of removing the President from his office as from the date on which the resolution is so passed.

Click here to Enlarge State-wise list of the value of each MLA's vote

Click here to Enlarge Total electors and value of the votes of each MP

WATCH | Presidential election 2017: Bihar's ex-Governor Ram Nath Kovind versus Bihar ki beti Meira Kumar

--- ENDS ---
The situation is still tense in the Sikkim sector of India-China border as Beijing has refused to back off from its plan to build a road in a disputed area. The stretch is contested by both Bhutan and China, and strategically located very close to Sikkim.

Chinese tropps destroyed two bunkers at Doka La before they were stopped by a human chain of Indian soldiers. (Photo: PTI)

By Prabhash K Dutta: Smarting under India's snub to its One Belt-One Road project, the Dalai Lama's recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh and deepening cooperation between India and the US, China is trying to assert itself in Bhutan very close to Sikkim. China is attempting to build a motorable road in an area claimed by Bhutan.

Chinese attempt has resulted in a face-off between the forces of the two countries. India and China have beefed up deployment of forces at the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction as part of the ongoing stand-off between the armies of the three countries.

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Incidentally, China tried to escalate tensions by referring to the 1962 war and asking India to take lessons. China put forth the condition of withdrawal of Indian troops from Doka La - the actual site of conflict - for a meaningful dialogue over the matter.

However, the Chinese foreign office seems to have missed the 1967 military conflict - the last that the two countries had. Accounts of the time show how the Indian Army gave the Chinese a bloody nose. Close to 400 Chinese troops were killed while Indian Army lost its 80 soldiers.

China was forced to back off three kilometres from Cho La Pass located north of Nathu La. Responding to China's threatening gestures, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley almost dismissively said, "India of 2017 is different from 1962."

MEA EXPOSES CHINESE LIES

After China made frivolous accusations against India saying that it was the 'third party' in China-Bhutan border dispute and it had entered another country to alter borders, the Ministry of External Affairs has systematically destroyed the narrative spread by Beijing.

"The facts of the matter are," read the MEA statement, "On 16 June, a PLA (People's Liberation Army of China) construction party entered the Doklam (Doka La) area and attempted to construct a road. It is our understanding that a Royal Bhutan Army patrol attempted to dissuade them from this unilateral activity. The Ambassador of the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGOB) has publicly stated that it lodged a protest with the Chinese Government through their Embassy in New Delhi on June 20."

Even Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said that after having been pushed back by the Chinese soldiers, the Bhutan Army sought help from its Indian counterpart. India is in a security arrangement with Bhutan to provide protection to its borders. The Indian Army entered the area to honour the bilateral arrangement.

The MEA further stated that on Thursday "the Foreign Ministry of Bhutan has also issued a statement underlining that the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory is a direct violation of the 1988 and 1998 agreements between Bhutan and China and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between these two countries. They have urged a return to the status quo as before 16 June 2017."

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THE SITE OF CONTENTION

The stand-off seems to be a strategic Chinese ploy to take advantage of the confusion about the location and extent of Doko La plateau. Different maps show it differently. This displaces the tri-junction between Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet about 15 km on either side.

Doko La plateau is strategically significant. It overlooks the Chumbi valley which has two important passes - Nathu La and Jelep La - to connect India and China. The plateau is contested by both Bhutan and China. Doko La plateau makes survey of Indian territory up to the Siliguri corridor easy. This also brings the security of Sikkim under threat.

However, there is no real issue with regard to boundary along Sikkim as it is based on the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890. This 127-year-old treaty between the British and the Qing rulers continues to hold valid for India and China. The boundaries were demarcated in 1895. As late as June 27, the Chinese foreign office stood by the 122-year-old boundary delineation.

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It is at this Doko La plateau that the Chinese army started piling up road building materials to which Bhutan objected and sought India's help after being scared off by PLA troops.

WHAT IS INDIA'S STAND?

India has repeatedly said that it is in favour of resolving disputes through dialogues. "In coordination with the RGOB, Indian personnel, who were present at general area Doka La, approached the Chinese construction party and urged them to desist from changing the status quo. These efforts continue," said MEA.

At a diplomatic level, India has told China that "such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India."

India and China reached an agreement in 2012 that the tri-junction boundary points (at Doko La) between India, China and third countries would be settled in consultation with the concerned parties.

SECURITY OF SIKKIM

With Indian and Chinese troops having taken positions for "eyeball to eyeball confrontation", Army Chief General Bipin Rawat visited Sikkim to take stock of the ground situation. He was briefed by the military commanders at the ground level.

When General Rawat was back in Delhi on Friday, a high-level meeting was held to review the security situation in Sikkim sector. The meeting was attended by General Rawat, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar among others.

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A detailed analysis of the ground situation of the sensitive areas along the international border was done at the meeting.

India and China share a total boundary of 3,488 km. A 220-km section of the India-China border falls in Sikkim, where attempts to defuse tension are underway.

ALSO READ |

India-China stand-off in Sikkim: Bhutan blames China for violating bilateral agreement

The last Sikkim stand-off: When India gave China a bloody nose in 1967

China bulldozes Indian Army bunker in Sikkim, tension escalates along border

Chinese media on border stand-off: 1962 defeat has left lingering effect on India

ALSO WATCH | Indo-China border stand-off: Security officials hold meet with Home Ministry in Delhi

--- ENDS ---
Twenty-two students studying the Chinese language have completed their course at the National University of Samoa.

The students were presented with certificates at the Aoa Conference Room on Wednesday.

Faaiuaso Laban was the top student with a 97 percent pass mark.

He received a prize of $500 from the Chinese Embassy.

During the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Samoa, Wang Xuefeng congratulated the students.

The Chinese Embassy and N.U.S have maintained a very good cooperative relation for many years, he said.

This year we plan to have about 30 students to go to China to do degree studies in various majors under the Chinese Government Scholarship programme.

We have also invited about eight N.U.S professors to go to China to attend an art training programme.

These programmes are important parts of the people to people exchange between China and Samoa and they play an important role in enhancing the friendship between China and Samoa.

We hope that we could expand our cooperation into more and more fields so that there will be more and more exchanges between the students and faculties of N.U.S with those from the universities in China.

Mr. Xuefeng went on to say that language serves as a bridge for communication and a link of friendship.

It also helps people from different countries to learn from each other and to understand each other better, he said.

With the rapid development in the cooperation in such fields as education, culture, trade and economy between China and Samoa, there is an increasing demand for more talents who can speak the Chinese language.

I hope all those who have successfully completed this programme will continue to study the language so that you will be able to contribute better to China/Samoas friendship as well as to further the cooperation in all fields between China and Samoa.
Fifty-five-year old Greg Kennish from Australia has spent two months on the shores of Samoa.

He came here to explore and experience the life, the scenery and also the local beer of a small country in the Pacific.

Today is his last day.

But he said he is leaving knowing he has had a great time.

I had two months holiday because I wanted to know the country more and I knew that two or three weeks will not be enough especially because this is my first time here, he said.

From the day I landed until now I dont think I will never get tired of Samoa because its just natural the people are just pure amazing and lovely.

They say hi to you when you go past them and from where were from we dont get that.

Samoa is just a dot on the map but you have a very unique culture and tradition and that makes you unique.

Mr. Kennish went on to say that he visited the island of Savaii as well.

Oh man the scenery on both islands is just straight beautiful and this is the kind of life I would rather have, he said.

Theres so much green here and fresh water and white sandy beaches, it is just unexplainable and I loved it.

This is the place where you can lie on the beach with a bottle of Vailima and just say ahhhhhhh this is it.

I will miss the weather because winter is starting in Australia, the scenery, the people and especially the beer.

I will definitely tell my friends and other family members about Samoa and I cant wait to come back again.
If you are looking for a place to get away from the hassles of life and just let your hair down, Samoa is the place to be.

Ask Jackie and Delwyn of New Zealand and they will tell you.

The pair are here for a six-day holiday. And the dairy farmers are loving it.

Samoa has been so good to us and we love it so much, said Jackie.

The couple are staying at Taumeasina Island Resort.

The place is just gorgeous as well. The staffs are friendly as well and the food is just great so we are enjoying ourselves.

Asked what they love about Samoa,Jackie said its the people.

From where were from people just stick to themselves and do their own thing but from the moment we set foot here until now we have people who come up to us and say hello and asking if we needed any help.

Its just different and we never get that back home because we are always busy with work and things.

The To Sua Trench is one of their favourite places.

That was beautiful.We also went to the place where the tsunami occurred and its amazing how people have built up themselves after the disaster.

We also visited the Museum up at Vailima, the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, and my goodness that was beautiful.We had a little exercise on the mountain as well.

The town is just beautiful with all your traditional wear and earrings we actually bought some for us and especially the wrap around (ielavalava).Thats something new.

They also enjoy a drop of local beer.

Oh its got to be the Vailima Beer all the flavors, said Jackie.

Its different and it tastes good.We love it, its very local so Samoa is just amazing.

We are also looking forward to visit Savaii today and we will be going to see the dwarfs caves, the blow holes and so much more.

We will definitely recommend Samoa to our friends and families but we will tell them to stay longer because five days is just not enough to explore and experience this beautiful island.
Two men aged 42 and 45 have been arrested and kept in custody in connection to the possession of methamphetamine found at the Fagalii Airport this week.

The incident was confirmed by the Acting Assistant Police Com-missioner, Salaa Moananu Salaa, who said the Police were alerted by the staff at Fagalii Airport on Wednesday.

It was a package from American Samoa and the staff at Fagalii Airport found out when the package went through the scanning machine, said Salaa.

The Police were contacted right away and they quickly responded and confirmed that it was indeed meth, weighing 5.9grams.

The Police said the men were arrested when they turned up to collect the package.

They are scheduled to appear in the Supreme Court on 17 July 2017.

Salaa said they are still investigating how the package got through Customs in American Samoa.

Something is not right with this picture and there are many questions at the moment."

Maybe the staff in American Samoa did not check the package properly hence it was allowed to get here but all we are thankful and acknowledge the alertness of the airport staff who immediately informed us about what had happened.

Salaa added that the Police do not tolerate the importation of hard drugs such as meth into Samoa.

This is a very serious offence, he said adding that the Police will ensure lawbreakers are dealt with as harshly as possible under the law.

The Police also confirmed that the 42-year-old accused has had previous drug-related convictions.
The leader of Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organisation wants Starbucks to mind its business after company's pro-gay stand. He wants Indonesians to boycott the coffee chain.

By India Today Web Desk: Indonesia has a larger Muslim population than any other country in the world. And an Indonesian leader of the country's second-largest Muslim organisation has called for a boycott of international coffee chain Starbucks.

According to the Muslim leader, Starbucks pro-gay stand risks ruining the "religious and cultured" core of the Southeast Asian nation.

With the exception of the ultra-conservative Aceh province, homosexuality is legal in Indonesia. But police raids on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have risen in the world's most populous Muslim country of Indonesia.

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Anwar Abbas of Muhammadiyah, an organisation that has around three crore members, said the government should revoke Starbucks' operating license as the company's support for the LGBT community is "not in line" with the nation's ideology.

"If Starbucks only does business, then fine. But don't bring ideology here," Abbas told Reuters by phone on Saturday.

Asked why he had taken a stand against Starbucks, Abbas said he was informed in a chat group about a pro-LGBT comment made by the company's senior executive, Howard Schultz.

STARBUCKS: "NOT EVERY DECISION IS AN ECONOMIC DECISION"

Forbes reported that when a Starbucks shareholder complained in 2013 that the company had lost customers because of its support for gay marriage, Schultz said it embraces diversity and that "not every decision is an economic decision".

"If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it's a free country. You can sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in another company," Schultz was reported as saying at that time.

STARBUCKS' IN INDONESIA

PT Sari Coffee Indonesia, which holds the license to run the Starbucks chain, is a legal entity that "always obeys the prevailing regulations and appreciates the cultural values in Indonesia," an executive at its parent company said.

"We also value the religious background of our customers and employees," Fetty Kwartati, a director at PT MAP Boga Adiperkasa Tbk said.

Starbucks customer Annisa Meidiana, who is a Muslim, said she would not stop buying coffee there because of the call for the boycott.

"Islam condemns LGBT. It's a sin," the 22-year-old university student said outside Jakarta. "But it doesn't matter to me. For me, being an LGBT is a human right."

FYI || Boycott CCD trends: Twitter sides with man who spotted cockroaches in CCD and got slapped by cafe's employee ||

FYI || #BoycottSnapchat: Enraged Indians are uninstalling Snapdeal mistaking it for Snapchat ||

--- ENDS ---
The Leone Bridge has been re-opened after a $10.9million project to repair the damage inflicted by Cyclone Evans five years ago.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was joined by Australias Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, for the official opening.

The project was co-funded by Australia and the World Bank.

Sir Cosgrove highlighted the importance of such facilities for Samoa.

We understand and your government is clear that this sort of infrastructure investments directly contributes to the Samoan economy so from our point of view this is a wonderful outcome, he said.

Let this be an ongoing symbol of the growing and important partnership between Samoa and Australia.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa was delighted.

Australia with others, continue to provide support through the Infrastructure Technical Assistance Facility, Green Climate Fund and other facilities, he said.

Similarly we would like to also pay tribute to the World Bank Group through its in country Representative Saoleitititi Maeva Vaai for persisting in the development of the Land Transport Sector.

You were able to leverage resources and encouraged partnerships to facilitate the completion of a number of major works including Leone Bridge.

The delays that pushed back progress due to limited technical capacity in country, is now history as we gather to celebrate the completion of Leone Bridge.

The construction of the bridge was carried out by China Railway First Group for $10.9million.

Isikuki Punivalu and Associates was the Project Management Unit.

Leone bridge was officially opened for public use in May this year.

China Railway First Group (Samoa) Company Limited was contracted by Land Transport Authority to conduct the project co-funded by the World Bank.

C.R.F.G is known to the world through civil work skills and it recently established its branch in Samoa and are now working on their first project at Leone Bridge.

Yang Jun, Project Manager said the bridge should last 100 years.
The Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (S.R.O.S.) will not be privatised.

Contrary to media reports, the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Seuseu Tauati, told the Sunday Samoan yesterday the government has no plans to privatize the organisation.

We are not going to privatise S.R.O.S., what we are doing at the moment is looking to commercialise our value added products, he said.

The C.E.O. visited the Samoa Observer yesterday to clarify the matter after a story from the Office of the Press Secretary quoted the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt, that S.R.O.S. could become privately owned.

But Dr. Seuseu said the Minister was referring to commercialising their researched products.

According to Dr. Seuseu, it has been 10 years since S.R.O.S. was established. As a research organization, that will not change.

This is our mandate to conduct research and we have no intention of privatizing.

He added that S.R.O.S.s objective is to develop value added products.

Our value added products include breadfruit flower, avocado oil. Weve also got the production of essential oils made from a range of local flowers."

In addition to that, we also provide services which include chemical, physical and biological analysis where foods are brought in to be tested."

We are accredited and so we follow New Zealand guidelines. We are internationally recognized for our services.

We also do a lot of post harvest activities, which includes assisting our agricultural produce to meet the import requirements and also be able to transported through the long distances between Samoa and the imported countries.

He said they were able to do that with the research of frozen taro, which is currently being exported to New Zealand and Australia.

According to the S.R.O.S C.E.O, the organisation has been looking for partners in efforts for them to take on the products they have researched.

Over the years, they have not signed up a company and Cabinet has directed S.R.O.S to commercialise these [value added] products.

The keyword here is to commercialise these products. This is has nothing to do with commercialising S.R.O.S. We belong to the government and its a government research facility.

He further explained that they want to commercialise the added value products so the business community can see the growth potential.
Eight months ago, California voters approved Proposition 64, making the recreational use of marijuana by those 21 and older legal. In barely more than six months, state officials have to make sure Prop 64 becomes a reality by putting a legal and regulatory framework in place.

Regulations for production and sale of adult-use cannabis are due at the beginning of 2018, and the scope of the rollout is huge  including cultivation, manufacturing, testing, distribution and sales.

The clock is ticking, said Lori Ajax, the chief of the states Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation for California, who in charge of coordinating Californias efforts to oversee a cannabis industry that some estimate may soon be worth between $4 billion to $7 billion. We all know what we have to get done and failure is not an option for us.

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Other states have legalized recreational marijuana laws but California is by far the largest to do so  both in terms of population and in size of its agricultural base  and principals in every sector of the cannabis industry are watching closely.

I dont envy them, said Jack Scatizzi, managing director at Canopy San Diego, a technology accelerator aimed at finding and funding cannabis companies. Theres a lot of pressure on them but I think this is really the opportunity to get this right, on scale.

Earlier this month, the state Legislature passed a budget trailer bill that essentially marries the rules for medicinal marijuana with recreational use, which will give the state one set of regulations instead of two.

Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign the bill into law.

I think it streamlines things and hopefully it will be less expensive for the industry to operate, Ajax said.

State officials plan to have an online licensing system up before Jan. 1, 2018, allowing people to apply ahead of time. The state can then perform background checks and vet applicants, although Ajax said completing the process before the first of the year is going to be a challenge.

Licensing fees have not been finalized. The California Food and Agriculture and the Department of Public Health have been releasing proposals and are still drafting environmental impact reports.

I think were right on schedule, Ajax said.

As per state law, the bureau cannot issue state licenses unless applicants have received the OK from their local governments.

However, the state is allowed to issue temporary licenses to those already in compliance with their local jurisdictions.

This will get done but I dont think this will be a situation where come Jan. 1, you can walk in and get into any dispensary and buy, said Scatizzi. It will probably be a slow roll out.

Ajax said the state will take a measured approach.

If somethings not working, we have to change direction, she said. This is a growing industry so weve got to be quick, weve got to be nimble.

The rollout may have national implications. Due to Californias sheer size, a smooth transition  or, alternately, a clumsy one  may go a long way toward influencing other states attitudes about marijuana, especially considering that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a harsh critic of legalizing pot.

If California can do it right, Scatizzi said, and if the amount of taxes theyre predicting comes in, and if its able to (reduce) some of our deficits, with no increase in cannabis-related accidents and we dont see an increases in crimes related to cannabis, its going to blow all of the naysayers out of the water.

In Canada, marijuana for medicinal purposes is already legal in every province and the countrys lawmakers are on the verge of doing the same thing for recreation use, effective July 2018.

Jacob Crow, the CEO of Toronto-based BudTender, said a successful implementation in California depends on coordinating each sector of the industry.

I think what California can learn from Canada is go as strict as possible and then move off. Thats the way to do it, Crow said. If you go too loose, theres too much of an opportunity for the black market. You see that in Colorado. Theyve killed off the black market significantly but 33 percent of all cannabis is being sold through the black market. You need to root that out from the beginning and then move on from there.

Christian Valdez is CEO of Traffic Roots, a digital advertising firm aimed at connecting cannabis users to industry producers, wants to make sure the new regulations dont impede his company, which is just getting launched.

Government is very good at making loose and broad laws that arent really defined enough to make progress, he said.

Melissa Stapley, who runs MJ Hybrid Solutions, a small business in San Diego that specializes in sales training for cannabis outlets, said the state needs to institute safety and educational guidelines, especially as the market for edible marijuana grows.

Too many potential customers, Stapley said, dont know what can happen if they take too much too fast.

Its not like alcohol, Stapley said, Everyone knows that if you buy a six-pack of beer, you cant go home and drink all six in 15 minutes.

Business

rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski

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The deplorable conditions took their toll. Skittish little Millie, a full-bred Yorkshire terrier, has no teeth, and just had six tumors removed from her tummy. The dark scares her. Move too fast and she will drop to the floor and snake away.

Then theres Buddy, who had to have his back paw amputated, the result of poor circulation. Lucy, a 2-year-old Yorkie mix, has limited eyesight and Lacy, 1, has lost all her bottom teeth.

They are among 170 Yorkies that the San Diego Humane Society rescued from a Poway couple earlier this year. It was the largest hoarding rescue in the agencys 137 years.

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The number of animals and their squalid surroundings quickly made headlines when dozens of the animals were first pulled from a mice-infested home with feces on the walls and debris covering the floor.

The Humane Society of San Diego estimates it spent roughly $250,000 to take in and treat the dogs, removing teeth from some, limbs from a few, and spaying or neutering all of them. Some had lost hearing or eyesight.

Months after their rescue, the Yorkies are moving toward recovery and their new owners have formed a community, meeting up for play dates, sharing tips and encouragement, and raising thousands for the San Diego Humane Society.

On a private group Facebook page, they post photos of their Yorkies sporting new haircuts, and revel in small victories  like the day that Flower took her first trip to the park, or when Floki actually responded when her new owner called her over.

You get to see these dogs recuperating, said Lucys owner, Holly Goulart. Im telling you, it is truly a happily-ever-after story. We have taken something negative, and turned it into something that is positive. At least we are trying to.

The Humane Society of San Diego estimates it spent roughly $250,000 to take in and treat the dogs, removing teeth from some, limbs from a few, and spaying or neutering all of them. Some had lost hearing or eyesight. (Nelvin C. Cepeda)

The story of rescue started in January, when Mark Vattimo, one of the dog owners, called the San Diego Humane Society and asked for help, said agency spokeswoman Kelli Schry.

He estimated like 30 to 35 dogs, she said, and we just kept pulling out more and more and more.

Authorities would take 92 Yorkies or Yorkie-mixes from the four-bedroom home that day; the smell of feces and urine so strong that officers were forced to wear masks.

Many of the dogs were suffering from ear infections, fleas and hair loss. Their coats were severely matted and caked with excrement  so bad that the amount of matted fur removed from them actually weighed more than the tiny dogs themselves, Schry said.

1 / 24 Close to a dozen Yorkies gathered with their new families at the San Diego Humane Society for a reunion and for a live Facebook interview. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 24 Close to a dozen Yorkies gathered with their new families at the San Diego Humane Society for a reunion and for a live Facebook interview. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 24 Serene Pakton holds 9-month old Rylee who she recently adopted from the San Diego Humane Society. Rylee a disabled Yorkie was born with a deformity with her hip. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 24 Kitty Kizziar recently adopted Mini who was part of the 186 Yorkies rescued from a couple in Poway. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 24 Janice Smith (l) holds Cali as she re-acquaints her with Holly Goulart (r) and her two adopted Yorkies, Lacy and Lucy. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 24 Buddy was too nervous to leave the comfort of his new family. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 24 During an event at the San Diego Humane Society, several of the recently adopted Yorkies found more comfort standing next to their adopted owners. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 24 Close to a dozen Yorkies gathered with their new families at the San Diego Humane Society for a reunion and for a live Facebook interview. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 24 Close to a dozen Yorkies gathered with their new families at the San Diego Humane Society for a reunion and for a live Facebook interview. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 24 Serene Pakton holds 9-month old Rylee who she recently adopted from the San Diego Humane Society. Rylee a disabled Yorkie was born with a deformity with her hip. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 24 Staci Hurley a volunteer at the San Diego Humane Society, spends time with 10 year old Franco. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 24 10 year old Franco, a 2-pound Yorkie was among the 186 dogs rescued. At the time of his rescue, Franco had pneumonia and all of his teeth were rotted out. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 24 Close to a dozen Yorkies gathered with their new families at the San Diego Humane Society for a reunion and for a live Facebook interview. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 24 Close to a dozen Yorkies gathered with their new families at the San Diego Humane Society for a reunion and for a live Facebook interview. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 15 / 24 During an event at the San Diego Humane Society, several of the recently adopted Yorkies found more comfort standing next to their adopted owners. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 16 / 24 Buddy was recently adopted by Daniel and Dorothy Bertram, after he was rescued from a home in Poway where the owners reportedly hoarded 186 dogs. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 17 / 24 Daniel Bertram place a paw sock on the right rear leg of Buddy. Because of the lack of care given to Buddy, his right rear foot was amputated. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 18 / 24 Buddy was recently adopted after he was rescued from a home in Poway where the owners reportedly hoarded 186 dogs. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 19 / 24 Buddy a two year old Yorkshire Terrier sits with his owner, Dorothy Bertram at their home in Little Italy of San Diego. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 20 / 24 Buddy a two year old Yorkie follows his owner, Daniel Bertram around their home in Little Italy of San Diego. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 21 / 24 Buddy was recently adopted after he was rescued from a home in Poway where the owners reportedly hoarded 186 dogs. Because of the lack of care given to Buddy, his right rear foot was amputated. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 22 / 24 Daniel Bertram and Dorothy Bertram enjoy their pair of Yorkies, Scrappy (left) and Buddy (right). (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 23 / 24 Buddy a two year old yorkie sits with his owner, Dorothy Bertram at their home in Little Italy of San Diego. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 24 / 24 Buddy a two year old Yorkie was one of the 186 dogs rescued from a home in Poway. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Days later, authorities would find and seize another 30 or so dogs that had been hidden from them, and several weeks after that, discover Vattimos girlfriend, Christine Calvert, had fled the state with even more dogs. They found and arrested her in Primm, Nev., just across the California line, with 46 little dogs in a motor home.

In all, the San Diego Humane Society rescued about 170 dogs from the couple, but the number rose to 186 after some of the pregnant Yorkies had puppies.

Three of the dogs were so unhealthy they had to be euthanized, and five of the puppies died of natural causes. Seven of the dogs are still at the San Diego Humane Society and 171 have been adopted.

More than 1,800 people filled out applications for the animals. Goulart was among the lucky few tapped to take a dog.

I felt like I won the Lotto when they called and said I could adopt one, she said. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Janice Smith (l) holds Cali as she re-acquaints her with Holly Goulart (r) and Lacy and Lucy. The three dogs were part of the 186 Yorkies rescued from a couple in Poway. (Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune)

Like all the adoptive owners, she was strongly warned that these were dogs with special needs, medically and psychologically. After bringing Lucy home, Goulart quickly noticed little quirky behaviors. And I thought, What have I gotten myself into here?

Within a week, Goulart set up a private Facebook page for fellow owners of the rescued Yorkies, a place to share tips, concerns and ideas as to how to socialize the scared dogs. She called it #92 Yorkies Happily Ever After.

I thought maybe we could teach steps to each other, Goulart said. There were people who were so overwhelmed, they might have returned the dogs.

There, she asked basic questions  does your dog bark, does it hide and shake, does it know how to drink water out of a bowl? What Goulart got back were tales of dogs whod never been in grass, who refused to drink water, and who were so anxious that they would throw up. And none of the owners had heard their dogs bark.

The best word I can use to describe these dogs is broken, Goulart said.

Of the 186 rescued Yorkies, close to a dozen Yorkies gathered with their new families at the San Diego Humane Society for a reunion and for a live Facebook interview on Thursday. (Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune)

After Debbie Parker took home Millie, she realized the 6-year-old Yorkie refused to drink from a bowl. Parker initially had to use a syringe to get water into her mouth. The dog, who had to have all her teeth removed, would pace in the dark at night and howl when Parker went to work.

The Vista woman joined the Facebook group, and found answers, suggestions and support. She also went back and got a second dog, the effervescent Rosie.

Millie is coming along, but its a matter of 10 steps forward, five steps back, said Parker, who believes the little dog is scared of the dark because it reminds her of the crowded, fetid room.

I dont think Millie wants to remember, Parker said.

In a row house in Little Italy, 2-year-old Buddy is learning to navigate without his hind right paw.

Hes a sweetheart, owner Dorothy Pecoraro Bertram said. He just runs back and forth all day. He must think this is the biggest place hes ever had.

Husband Daniel Bertram said they hope to outfit the 7-pound dog with a prosthetic. Like the other rescues, he is quite timid. But I think hes a pretty resilient and spunky little guy, Bertram said.

Buddy was recently adopted by Daniel and Dorothy Bertram, after he was removed from a Poway home where the owners reportedly hoarded 170 dogs. Because of poor blood circulation resulting from cramped conditions, a section of Buddys right rear leg had to be amputated. (Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune)

Scores of the owners are now part of the Facebook group, and a few even went back to the Humane Society and adopted a second of the rescued pups. The owners also started to get together in person, forming a team for a Humane Society fundraising walk in May. They raised more than $4,500  third highest fundraising team of the event.

They also teamed up last week for a Facebook livestream, to be part of a fundraiser for what the agency dubbed the Day of Giving. The donations topped $300,000.

When the owners get together, the dogs come too. The pups absolutely recognize each other.

When my little Lacy sees Rosie, they kiss and climb and play. It brings tears to your eyes, Goulart said. The two dogs were part of the bunch taken from the RV.

Of the 186 rescued Yorkies, close to a dozen Yorkies gathered with their new families at the San Diego Humane Society for a reunion and for a live Facebook interview. The dogs were among the 186 rescued dogs from a Poway couple (Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune)

Schry said her agency is buoyed by the community the Yorkie owners have formed.

You can tell that they (the Yorkies) are the center of these peoples worlds, she said. Its great to see them finally get to live the life that they deserve.

Calvert, 62, and Vattimo, 72, each pleaded guilty two felony counts of animal neglect. They had to relinquish the motor home, and will probably receive three years probation when they are sentenced in a San Diego courtroom later this month. A few of the adoptive owners plan to be there.

People get mad at the (couple), Goulart said. But we all have our dogs.They are safe and loved and healthy, and at the end of the day that is what counts.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
On Oct. 28, San Diegans like Evelyn and Ernest Rady, and Lori M. Walton will be honored at National Philanthropy Day San Diegos awards luncheon.

But working behind the scenes to organize the event and spread the word about volunteerism is Del Mars Linda Katz.

Katz, who describes herself as a full-time civic activist, is the honorary chair for National Philanthropy Day San Diego. If her name sounds familiar, its because shes married to Mel Katz, co-owner of Manpower and fellow philanthropist.

Linda Katz, 62, moved to San Diego from Phoenix in 1977. In between raising three children  and now being a grandmother to five  shes been involved with local causes for over 30 years.

Q: What is National Philanthropy Day?

A: National Philanthropy Day, sponsored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) San Diego, is an annual celebration of philanthropy and the rich diversity of our region. The event recognizes and honors individuals and organizations whose philanthropic achievements have demonstrated a significant positive impact on the San Diego community.

Q: Why should the average San Diegan care about this?

A: The nonprofit sector is a vital component of our community. With government funding continuing to decline, the importance of the work of the nonprofits is an increasingly critical factor to a vibrant economy. Also, the face of philanthropy is changing. Philanthropy is about sharing the gifts of time, talent and treasure. Collectively, these hundreds of thousands of diverse gifts shared generously, each and every day, are what make the magic in our community. National Philanthropy Day San Diego celebrates these gifts from across the county, from people we hear about in the news, as well as from unexpected places  but all demonstrate a commitment to making our region a better place to live, work and play.

Q: Is philanthropy only about contributing money?

A: We all have different gifts to give, at different times of our lives. Philanthropy is reading to a child, mentoring a young professional; tutoring a student. Each and every one of us, regardless of our position, has gifts that others can benefit from us choosing to share. Every little bit we share, collectively, adds up to a whole, whole lot.



Q: Do you have a specific cause to which you volunteer or contribute?

A: Equity is one of my core values; I mostly volunteer and support organizations that benefit the most vulnerable populations of women and girls, particularly working to set underserved women and girls up for economic security and financial sustainability. I have enjoyed serving as a volunteer with Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest for over 30 years. I am proud to have served as founding president of the San Diego Womens Foundation, an affiliate of The San Diego Foundation and as co-founder of Women Give San Diego, a donor circle of the Womens Foundation of California.

Q: How did you first become interested in helping others?

A: I grew up in a family who believed in sharing with others. My mom and I volunteered together at an early age. We volunteered at the local senior center and I served as a candy striper in our local hospital. My husband, Mel, was raised in a family with the same value of giving back to the community. Its what we do; we are so grateful for the many gifts we have received. We gain great pleasure in actively engaging in the work of bettering our community for all San Diego.

Q: What are some issues you think are especially important in San Diego?

A: Equity surfaces itself as a continual challenge for many in our community, in our nation and throughout the world. Women are not paired equally for equal work. Women are not equally represented in many sectors in our community, whether public, private or nonprofit. Quality health care and education are not available to all. I believe passionately that our community is better served when our power structure is gender balanced and truly reflects the rich diversity of our region.

Q: You arrived in San Diego in a unique way, can you tell us about it?

A: In 1977, together with our best friends, Catherine and Phil Blair, we rented a U-Haul and moved to San Diego. Within three months, Mel and Phil bought the San Diego Manpower franchise. Mel and I got married and Catherine and Phil gave birth to their first child. People told us that the four of us would either stay best friends or business partners, but never both. Thirty-seven years later, Mel and Phil are still business partners; we are all still best friends. Lucky, lucky us.

Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: I was a home economics major in college; I dont enjoy cooking or sewing,

Q: Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.

A: My ideal weekend is walking along the Del Mar shore with my 7-year-old, mini Labradoodle, Charli, and then curl up in our courtyard with a good book. The day would wrap with walking into the village, enjoying the sunset and meeting friends for a glass of wine and tapas.
Imagine a Marine team that decimates enemy communications, spies on foes tanks moving toward grunts on the beach and protects American drones overhead from hackers bent on taking them over.

Reflecting an ongoing evolution within the Marine Corps, Camp Pendleton on Thursday will stand up a new command modeled after its insignia  a cross shield and a hammer, protecting the force while relentlessly bludgeoning its foes.

During a ceremony on that day, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Forces Headquarters Group will become its Information Group. The Corps insists the shift is more than a name change, that it highlights the militarys increasing interest in waging future war in the cyber realm while decimating enemy capabilities across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

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It also marks the departure of the Headquarters Group commander, Col. Roberta Shea, a former enlisted mechanic who rose through the ranks and, for the past two years, toiled to prep the way for a Marine team that mirrors the Armys growing cyber directorate at the Pentagon and the Navys cyber protection teams aboard warships.

Her replacement is Col. Dawn Alonso, the former skipper of 1st Intelligence Battalion at Camp Pendleton.

Youll see over the next couple of years that well be expanding the capacity of those highly skilled Marines, said Shea, who is pinning on her first star as a brigadier general and is expected to join the Pentagons Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The idea, Shea said, is to permeate the battlespace by putting Marines specializing in intelligence operations, electronic warfare and cyber war closer to the infantry and combat-support units fighting an enemy.

Its the military police officer who is exploiting a cellphone somebody left on the battlefield, Shea said. Its one of my intelligence Marines analyzing images hes getting from assets up in space. Its an electronic warfare Marine whos trying to deny the enemy the ability to use a handheld radio.

The Information Groups job is to become the ringleader  getting all those acts in the Marine Corps battlefield big top to work together seamlessly.

Were really paying attention to both the offensive and defensive missions, not just trying to degrade and deny his ability to use networks  whether theyre social networks or computer networks, Shea said.

The Marines innovations at the MEF level reflect broader changes in the Corps as it adjusts to 21st Century warfare. The Marines are establishing a cyber Military Occupational Specialty and have fought calls to lower physical fitness standards for the recruits.

Its also not a surprise that 1st MEF will be the first large Marine command to pioneer the Information Group concept. Californias military units have long championed collaborative relationships with Silicon Valley, defense contractors in Southern California, academia and other armed forces.

For example, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division and the Association of Old Crows co-hosted the 46th annual Collaborative Electronic Warfare Symposium on Ventura Countys Point Mugu from April 25-27, bringing the private sector and military together to talk about 21st Century warfare.

More federal funding is flowing to spur the Corps cyber initiatives, but questions of whether its enough continue to dog debates over the future of modernization efforts.

So-called sequestration cuts to the Corps budget beginning in 2013 prevented the Marines from recruiting more cyber warriors and buying them the equipment they needed, military leaders have testified.

By last year, only 7 percent of the Corps budget was earmarked for modernization and funding was skewed toward aviation. The Marines budgeted about $1.5 billion for ammo and ground gear  3 times smaller than the allotment for revamping the Corps aircraft programs, which continued to gobble much of the services funding.

The Marines sought $2.1 billion for ground warfare procurement programs in 2018, but the defense spending bill percolating through Congress provides only $1.8 billion.

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cprine@sduniontribune.com
Building a company that ferries passengers between Tijuana and San Ysidro is Carlos Diazs long-fought dream  and not one hell easily abandon.

So when rock-throwers began targeting his Ticketon buses as the vehicles made their way from Tijuanas airport to the U.S.-Mexico border, there was no question. He would keep going  even after 23 incidents in the past 16 months.

Just as it seemed things couldnt get any worse, Diazs luck may have turned a corner. Business leaders and public officials in Tijuana are vowing that the rock-throwing attacks must stop; in recent days, theyve made public statements and held news conferences to support Diaz, Ticketons founder and president. And on Monday, for the first time, police arrested three suspects.

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This is not just an act against Ticketon, Baja California tourism secretary Oscar Escobedo said in a Tijuana news conference Wednesday. This affects all tourism operators in the state.

In the complex world of cross-border commerce, Ticketon fills a niche: shuttling passengers between Tijuana and San Diego in a narrow strip that spans the international border.

With 25 buses, minibuses and vans of varying sizes, the company transports an average of 180 clients per day. Most of those customers are passengers in transit, making their way between Tijuanas A.L.Rodriguez International Airport and San Ysidro, where they board buses for destinations such as Anaheim, Riverside, Ontario and Santa Ana.

Ticketon is not the first cross-border bus company targeted by rock-throwers. In 2002, a San Diego charter bus company suspended operations because of rock-throwing incidents after cab drivers complained buses were stealing their customers. In 2007, five companies reported a total of 30 such attacks in a two-week period.

Carlos Diaz, president and founder of Ticketon, in San Ysidro with one of his new buses. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Despite the rock-throwing incidents against his vehicles, Diaz vows to stay in business. Weve all got to do our bit to reactivate tourism, he said.

The attacks against Ticketon began more than a year ago, after Diaz seized on a new opportunity: transporting tourists between San Ysidro and Tijuanas tourist strip, Avenida Revolucion. He harbors childhood memories of the street being filled with visitors, and he hopes to bring back crowds of visitors to the city.

That new service, called TJ Passport, hasnt sat well with a group of Tijuana yellow-taxi operators who have sought to control the business of driving pedestrians who walk into Tijuana from San Ysidro, Diaz said.

Diaz accuses the groups leadership of orchestrating the attacks.

All the indications point to them, because of the verbal threats weve gotten from their operators, that we should not be moving people that are their customers, he said.

Recent days brought support for his suspicions.

A news crew from the Spanish-language Telemundo television station in San Diego happened to be shooting a story about the rock-throwing incidents when a Ticketon bus was attacked on Monday.

Police were quickly able to arrest three suspects. Two of those individuals are linked to the yellow taxis, police said, and all three face charges of carrying out a dangerous attack as well as causing property damage connected to gang activity.

This type of crime hurts tourism and damages the image of Baja California, said Jorge Alvarez, head of the Baja California Attorney Generals Office in Tijuana. This is not just a crime about a rock that shatters a window. It is far more complex.

The leader of the yellow taxis, Oscar Morales, could not be reached for comment. Staff members at his office near the San Ysidro border said he couldnt be contacted, and they wouldnt provide a phone number so as to protect his security.

But Morales did meet on Thursday with leaders of the citys chamber of commerce, Canaco, and Canirac, the restaurant chamber. And next week, they plan to arrange a face-to-face meeting between Morales and Diaz.

Since the attacks began in February 2016, Ticketon has suffered $20,000 in material damage and business has dropped off by 25 percent, Diaz said.

Though no passengers have been injured, one of his drivers was struck by a rock but was able to safely pull over to the side of the road. Tijuana police cars, with lights flashing, now escort Ticketon buses between the airport and the border.

Whoever is behind the attacks, theyve picked a tough adversary.

Diaz has never been to school, but has been working practically all his life  ever since he was 11 years old  and moved to Tijuana from Jalisco with his mother.

He brought home money by selling burritos on a bicycle and cleaning taxis. He worked in a papeleria, a stationery store, and learned to read. He eventually saved enough money for a taxi permit, and years later, for his own taxi.

Though other cross-border bus operators have gotten out of the business, Diaz vows to remain. The poverty that I lived through made me strong, he said.

And he said if tourists have a good experience with Ticketon, theyll feel more confident about coming down to Tijuana on their own  and riding taxis to their destinations. In that scenario, he said, everybody wins.

Struggles are this way, Diaz said. If things were easy, then everyone would do them.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble
Barely a week after the Los Angeles Board of Education approved a budget based on reduced federal anti-poverty aid, schools officials have restored nearly all of the funding.

The added dollars will help L.A. Unified avoid some cutbacks and may make some planned layoffs unnecessary.

While the news was welcome, it was less clear why the belt-tightening went forward in the first place: Federal officials had told the district about the improved funding projection in a May 24 letter, and the school board did not approve the budget until June 20.

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I am relieved that schools will not after all be enduring a disproportionate cut in budget and services, said board President Steve Zimmer, whose term ended Friday. I am troubled by the stress that they went through over a cut that, in the end, was not nearly as dramatic as people feared.

The planned $40-million reduction would have affected more than 700 campuses, about 70% of district schools. The cut in the anti-poverty funds was about 16.5% at each affected campus, about $113 per student at most schools. Now, all but 2% of the cut will be restored, officials said Friday, and the remainder could be added later as well.

At the June 20 meeting, the school board approved 121 layoffs  including 30 library aides. Although no school had been required to go without library staff, many chose to do so in light of other needs they regarded as more pressing. The result was the planned closure of more than two dozen campus libraries.

The restored funds wont countermand the layoffs, but individual schools will have the option to reinstate employees. Layoffs that were related to shrinking the central administrative staff are unlikely to be reversed.

The nations second-largest school system is facing long-term budget problems, partly rooted in declining enrollment. The central-office cuts are among the measures Supt. Michelle King is taking to move more resources to the schools.

But the cuts that provoked worries in June proved to be a false alarm.

King and her senior staff elected not to tell the school board about the incoming funds ahead of the budget vote, because a revised budget calculation could not be completed in time  even though nearly a month had elapsed since the federal notification, deputy budget director Kathy Norris said Friday.

We always budget conservatively, Norris said. The worst thing in the world is to allocate resources to schools that you then have to take back. It is a nightmare.

howard.blume@latimes.com

@howardblume

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Radio waves gave way to shock waves Wednesday morning when the longtime KyXy 96.5 radio show Jeff and the Showgram went dark without explanation.

The program, which features host Jeff Detrow, producer Tommy Sablan and co-host sidekicks Laura Cain and Emily Griffiths, had broadcast as usual on Tuesday morning. Detrow even gave away his temporary tooth on the air to the first caller.

But radio has always been a fickle business churning with format and personality changes. In todays economic climate, radio operators face consolidation and increasing pressures to cut costs.

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Last February, a deal was struck to merge CBS Radio, which operates KyXy, with the Entercom radio chain, focusing increased attention on the bottom line.

Jerry Jer Cesak, who retired as Showgram co-host in 2015, confided to a radio announcer group in 1998 (when they were deejays at KFMB/FM Star 100.7) that they each were making $1 million a year, not to mention salaries for their show colleagues.

While my query to KyXy radio management went unanswered, the Showgram team is optimistic they may land elsewhere and have taken the resilient high road. We simply got let go. It happens, Sablan said.

Tight lips arent surprising considering nondisclosure agreements are routinely extracted in exchange for severance pay.

Just last year, the long-running show was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. It has gone through numerous incarnations at successive radio stations since Detrow and Cesak moved to San Diego and started The Jeff and Jer Showgram at KBZT radio in 1988.

They relocat ed to KFMB in 1990, switched to KKLQ in 1994, then back to KFMB in 1998. They stayed put until contract negotiations snagged in 2009, prompting them to depart FM radio to produce their own internet show.

The Jeff and Jer Showgram re-emerged in 2011 at KyXy, then reinvented itself as Jeff and the Showgram after Cesak left.

An outpouring of shock and sadness quickly came from fans and longtime listeners, much directed to Sablans Facebook page.

My favorite morning crew ... gone  Booooo on KyXy, wrote Andrea Pham Marin. Thank you for filling my mornings with laughs, tears and pure love.

WHAT.........NO WAY......are they crazy? My heart just STOPPED, posted Lynn Johnston.

Comments from other listeners included: #nothappy, Sad day in San Diego and Morning commute is going to be rough.

Keep the faith, stay strong, and keep us all posted as to where you land, counseled David Wallace.

But there are far fewer station options for a landing these days. Bob Bollinger, general manager of Entercom San Diego, has been a longtime friend of Jeff, Jer and Tommy, so, as they say in the radio business, stay tuned.

Zoo news: Three families of donors who contributed more than 38 percent of the cost of the San Diego Zoos new Africa Rocks exhibit took part in private opening festivities on Wednesday.

The $68 million attraction highlighting African animals and foliage will open to the public in stages, beginning with its penguin habitat on Saturday.

Sadly, two of the major backers have died since pledging their gifts: Conrad Prebys, the naming donor who gave $11 million, and Dan McKinney, who with his wife Vi, gave $5 million for the penguin habitat.

Ernest and Evelyn Rady were there. They made a $10 million challenge gift providing the Zoo secured $20 million in matching donations within two years (the Zoo did it in 14 months).

Prebys life partner, Debbie Turner, pushed a button Wednesday dropping the black shroud to reveal the eight-foot-tall Conrad Prebys Africa Rocks sculpture. The McKinneys daughter, Norinne, along with her daughter and son-in-law, cut the ribbon to open penguin beach.

The Radys turned a ceremonial valve to activate the exhibits signature 65-foot waterfall. When nothing happened, Zoo Global President Doug Myers quickly assured folks the water was flowing even though it was too far away to see.

When asked what Conrad would say, Debbie responded: He would call the San Diego Zoo the 100 happiest acres for people and animals in the world.

A lot of things he donated to  such as the arts and classical music  because he loved them, she added. But he supported the Zoo because it was for the people  thats where everybody goes.

Rady got involved after Prebys invited potential donors to a breakfast meeting at the Zoo. Rady later told Mark Stuart, the Zoos development director, If Conrad Prebys loves you this much, I should probably get to know you a little bit more. Eight months later, he announced his challenge gift.

In keeping with the Zoos thank-you tradition, a lion and lioness are named Ernest and Evelyn, and the penguins in Africa Rocks bear names of McKinney family members.

Turner chuckles, saying, We already had rodents named after us. But they arent just any rodents. They are Tasmanian devils, she says, and Conrad loved Tasmanian devils.

In other snooze: Occasionally, fact is funnier than fiction. Local comedy writer Mary Jo Crowley was asleep when a daytime call came in from her medical office, abruptly wakening her up.

The phone call was confirming her appointment for a sleep study because she suffers from sleep apnea.

diane.bell@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1518

Twitter: @dianebellSD

Facebook: dianebell.news
The 40-day yatra started with a fresh batch of pilgrims on Saturday.

By Indo-Asian News Service: A fresh batch of 4,477 pilgrims on Saturday left winter capital Jammu to perform the Amarnath Yatra after the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was restored for traffic.

"Comprising 3,298 males, 986 females and 193 sadhus, the yatris left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in 136 vehicles escorted by the security forces", officials said.

The convoy of vehicles carrying the pilgrims left Jammu at 4.15 a.m. as no vehicle carrying the yatris is being allowed to cross the Jawahar Tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar highway after 3.30 p.m. due to security reasons.

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No pilgrim was allowed to move to the Valley yesterday due to blockade of Jammu-Srinagar highway due to landslides in Ramban district.

The 40-day yatra started on June 29 and will end on August 7 on Shravan Purnima coinciding with Raksha Bandhan festival.

So far, over 10,000 pilgrims have had Darshan inside the Cave Shrine situated in Kashmir Himalayas at an altitude of nearly 14,000 ft. in south Kashmir's Anantnag district.

ALSO READ:

Amarnath Yatra briefly suspended due to heavy rainfall along way to shrine

Kashmir: Terrorists likely to target Amarnath Yatra, say intel reports

ALSO WATCH:

Amarnath Yatra begins with pilgrim convoy escorted by CRPF vehicles

--- ENDS ---
It has been a year since the start of a series of brutal attacks on homeless men in San Diego that left three people dead and others seriously wounded.

On July 15, police arrested a suspect in the case  Jon David Guerrero  who was charged later with murder, premeditated attempted murder, arson and assault in connection with the attacks on the men and an attack on an elderly woman in North Park.

Guerrero, now 40, has pleaded not guilty to charges linked to a dozen victims in what could become a death penalty case.

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The District Attorneys Office has not yet announced whether it will seek the death penalty in the case or life without the possibility of parole if Guerrero is convicted. Typically, that decision would be announced after a preliminary hearing has been held, when a judge would determine whether there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 11, but that is expected to be postponed when attorneys on both sides of the case meet Wednesday before San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth.

Smyth, who is the new criminal supervising judge at the state courthouse downtown, has said the case will be assigned to another judge. No trial date has been set.

Guerrero is accused of attacking several people while they were sleeping or otherwise catching them off guard by hitting them in the head from behind. A couple of the men who were killed had railroad spikes driven into the head or chest.

Two victims were set on fire.

Court records indicate Guerrero has a history of mental illness. His case was suspended last year when his attorney raised questions about his mental competency. Guerrero was sent to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County where he was treated until he was deemed fit to stand trial.

The criminal case resumed in March.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield
San Diego shelters fewer homeless people today than it did in 2007, despite spending millions of dollars to add thousands of shelter beds.

A U-T Data Watch review of federal bed inventories and homeless headcounts found the city and county is home to 3,495 sheltered homeless people and 4,084 temporary shelter beds. Thats 85 percent more beds than a decade ago, but 12 percent fewer sheltered people.

San Diego  homeless population 9,116  is one of 19 municipalities in the country that sheltered fewer people while its bed count and homeless population grew, according to numbers disclosed in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments annual homelessness reports to Congress.

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So why hasnt San Diego put more heads in its thousands of new beds?

Interviews and emails obtained by the U-T show not all homeless residents seek, or qualify for, a shelter stay. Many who do never make it to a permanent home, meaning shelter providers are helping the same clients over and over rather than moving on to help more people temporarily in need.

Hundreds of pages of housing reports and homelessness data revealed:

Residency rules  especially restrictions on spouses, significant others and pets  are the most common reason police say homeless residents turn down shelter.

City-funded shelters do not take all comers, despite contracts that require adherence to so-called low-barrier admission standards.

Most homeless people who entered a city-funded shelter over the past two years did not reach a permanent home, a milestone that could allow shelter providers to help someone new.

Homeless advocates interviewed by the U-T say shelters havent moved quickly enough to adopt a housing first approach centered on permanent supportive housing. Such residences, long favored by federal regulators, tend to offer more social services and fewer residency requirements than a typical temporary shelter. Theyre also heavily reliant on the use of federal rental vouchers  not always popular among landlords  to place homeless residents in San Diegos increasingly shallow pool of affordable housing.

Shelter operators, for their part, say most of the permanent accommodations available in that notoriously tight market are already spoken for  a situation exacerbated by the loss of some 10,000 affordable units from the citys rolls, mostly to make them available for private redevelopment.

Carmen Randall, a wife and mother of 11, has bounced in and out of four area shelters over the past few years. She said both sides had a point.

Admission to some programs was difficult, Randall said, especially with kids. But not nearly as hard as finding a four-bedroom apartment that takes a rental voucher for less than $2,300 per month. She and her family have until September to use, or lose, that six-month voucher.

Im having trouble finding a place that will accept us, she said from under a shade structure at Fault Line Park, at 14th and J Streets. Were at our wits end. We just keep praying about it. I know the good lord is going to put something in our path.

Residency rules

Melissa Peterman, vice president of the San Diego Housing Commissions homeless housing division, said she has no doubt all parties are doing their best to permanently house homeless residents. The commission, she added, is working closely with shelter operators to ensure they meet contractual obligations.

Asked why San Diego shelters fewer people than a decade ago, Peterman pointed to a copy of the regions latest annual homeless headcount findings. A survey conducted as part of that report listed shelter restrictions, safety concerns and other reasons homeless respondents said they were prevented from staying in a shelter.

Accounts relayed by the San Diego Police Department put residency rules high up on the list of hurdles to shelter entry.

Such restrictions, on everything from drugs and alcohol to clothing, accessories and video games, were chief among the reasons Lt. Carole Beason said homeless residents turned down treatment and shelter services offered by her Homeless Outreach Team.

Beason reported in an August 2016 email that less than 5 percent of the more than 35,600 homeless people who came in contact with the outreach team were placed with homeless service providers in fiscal 2015 and 2016.

The people who were not placed either refused services, werent eligible for services (sex or arson registrants/violent offenders), or werent willing to do anything to help themselves once placed in a shelter, Beason wrote to Jonathan Herrera, the citys neighborhood services director. We try not to place people who arent interested in developing a plan to get into permanent housing into our beds.

Sgt. Jonathan Zimmerman, of the Police Departments Quality of Life team, backed up that version in an email a day later.

Zimmerman told Herrera the vast majority of homeless who came into contact with his team said they werent interested in services, including some who reported they didnt think they were eligible.

Police are allowed to arrest homeless residents who refuse an open bed. Bob McElroy, president and CEO of service provider Alpha Project, said that policy ought to be enforced vigorously, but only if there are enough beds to go around.

Ive had so many people come up to me over the decades and say they needed jail as that kick in the ass, McElroy said. Most of us needed a whipping growing up. Everybody needs a consequence every now and then.

Federal figures show San Diego added nearly 4,400 subsidized permanent beds since 2007. Around 80 percent were in use as of January.

Housing commission officials in December received an unpublished report that repeatedly urged city-funded shelters to adopt a strategy focused on filling those beds.

Despite the thousands of new government-aided permanent units, the report found fewer than 25 percent of homeless residents who entered a city-funded shelter over the past two years made it to permanent housing. It found most wound up in another temporary shelter or back on the streets. The report went on to note those lucky enough to find a permanent home usually found it with friends, family or in a rental unit that did not require a federal housing voucher, including some hotel and motel rooms.

LeSar Development Consultants, authors of the unreleased 63-page document, recommended shelter operators at Father Joes Villages, PATH Connections and YWCA Cortez Hill combine waiting lists, invest in staff training and, in some cases, relax admission and residency rules in order to better serve shelter clients.

The report, obtained under the California Public Records Act, points to a bottleneck between temporary shelters and permanent housing that has long irked San Diego homeless advocates.

Among the most prominent of those voices is Michael McConnell, co-founder of Funders Together San Diego, a homelessness philanthropy group. He said shelter providers failure to move residents into permanent housing is the main driver behind the decline in San Diegos sheltered homeless population.

You can build as many emergency shelters as you want, its not going to solve homelessness, McConnell said. My opinion is, our shelters arent focused on getting people into permanent housing.

Deacon Jim Vargas  president and CEO at Father Joes Villages, one of the regions largest shelter operators  said its a shortage of dwellings, and not a lack of effort, thats kept homeless residents out of permanent homes.

Vargas said the situation has worsened with declines in San Diegos affordable housing inventory,- a stock that once included thousands of additional low-cost, single room occupancy hotel units.

Last year, we placed 828 people into permanent housing, he said. The only reason we didnt place more is because more housing wasnt available.

If we dont have the back end of permanent housing, theres nowhere for them to go.

Emails show the city and its housing commission are aware of the barriers faced by shelter providers, as well as the barriers some providers pose to prospective entrants. Federal guidelines advise shelters to accept people regardless of income, past substance abuse or, in most cases, criminal history.

James Carter, a program coordinator in the citys performance and analytics department, in March wrote the housing commission to ask if he was right to conclude San Diego shelters were not in compliance with those protocols.

That is an accurate assessment, replied Peterman, the homeless housing division vice president.

Peterman, who asked that Carter and others not share Decembers shelter report, told the Union-Tribune theres always room for improvement in the quest to house San Diegos homeless population. She said housing officials are offering shelters technical assistance to help them meet federal shelter guidelines.

The citys permanent housing placement rate is in line with the national average, Peterman added, citing data collected by federal housing officials.

Their figures are drawn from headcounts coordinated by Continuums of Care -- local planning bodies tasked with orchestrating homeless services in a given city, county, metropolitan area, or even an entire state. The yearly point-in-time tallies are held on a single night in January, with the help of thousands of volunteers across roughly 500 municipalities.

They show San Diegos homeless population has counted among the 15 largest in the country since 2007, the first year HUD officials started compiling the data. Only six cities and counties added more homeless residents over the same time period.

Three  New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.  topped San Diegos tally of new homeless accommodations. All but L.A. and San Diego shelter more residents today than a decade ago.

The figures came as little surprise to Dorothea Sontag, who said she felt safer outside San Diegos shelters. Sontag, who uses an electric wheelchair, said it was also easier to keep track of her belongings, including a pet chihuahua, on the streets.

They really need to do something to help the homeless, and not just say theyre going to, she said. But I think its going to get worse before it gets better.
More than 500 Scripps Ranch High School students had their summer vacations disrupted Friday with news that they would have to return to school to retake Advanced Placement tests that have been declared invalid.

The College Board, the organization that oversees college admission tests, did not claim any students cheated on the exams, but is invalidating 847 AP tests because new seating arrangements established two years ago were not followed. The move means 540 students will have to take the tests again.

Students often study for months for AP tests, which can earn them college credits by meeting the requirements for certain subjects. Each tests costs $93 and can last two or three hours, and some students take up to nine exams.

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San Diego Unified School District officials said Friday that the tests will be given again for free, and eight teachers have agreed to return to school to teach refresher courses for students who want to bone up on the subjects before taking the exams.

Its a huge bummer, said Jonathan Lu, 17, who took four AP tests in May and recently graduated with plans to study business at the University of South California.

When I found out, I was pretty angry, he said. It took awhile to let it sink in that I was going to have to retake all my AP tests.

Jonathan said hes grateful that teachers have offered to teach refresher classes, but was disappointed that the proctor who administered the tests at his school did not follow proper procedures.

He and his friends had planned to take a trip to Peru this summer, but with everybody having to retake their tests, that vacation will have to be put off, he said.

Superintendent Cindy Marten and Trustee Kevin Besier said they were frustrated that the College Board and Educational Testing Services, which administer the tests, took such a hard line after detecting a seating mistake.

While Im disappointed that the proper protocols were not followed at the site, Im extremely disappointed the ETS is invalidating the scores, which I think is an over-reaction, said Besier, who represents a district in San Diego Unified that includes Scripps Ranch. In my opinion, I think they should have considered a lesser penalty, such as a sanction.

Marten said the test proctor, a teacher at the school, was experienced at overseeing AP tests but did not follow the new procedures. ETS noticed the error while examining the seating charts for the tests, she said.

Among new requirements, students taking the tests must be at 8-foot-long tables so they have space between one another, and partitions are not allowed on the tables.

At Scripps Ranch this year, many students were at 6-foot tables with partitions, which previously had been allowed.

Marten said the school will have a new proctor giving AP tests in the future, and all proctors in the district will be required to be trained in the latest testing protocols.

She also said the districts attorney contacted ETS about the issue, but has recommended not pursuing a legal challenge because the company is within its right to require the retest and past challenges have not been successful.

The district hasnt heard of similar problems at its other high schools, but the issue isnt unique to San Diego. In Marin County last month, 177 students at a private school were notified they would have to retake their AP tests because of seating irregularities.

A community meeting on the issue has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Marshall Middle School. The first round of new tests will be July 17- 20, and the full schedule can be found along with other information at the Scripps Ranch High School website, sandiegounified.org/schools/scrippsranch.

Students who opt to not take the tests again will be given refunds, and not all students who took the tests at the school are affected.

Matt Lawson, vice principal at Scripps Ranch High, said that while 540 will have to retake the tests, about 700 or 800 in all took them, and many were in seating arrangements that did not violate the protocol. Lawson said the average AP student takes five tests.

Among the students who will have to retake a test is Kayla Daniel-Gonzales, 17, who graduated a couple of weeks ago.

The test was maybe two or three hours, but we prepped for it all year, she said about the AP test in psychology she took.

Kayla took the test May 1 and isnt confident shell do as well when she takes it again after being away from the subject for two months. She plans to take the refresher class at school.

Otherwise, Ill completely bomb it, she said. Theres no feasible way to restudy an entire years worth of work on my own.

Kayla said her family had planned to take a vacation in July.

This is now going to halt all that because Im not going to be able to enjoy my summer, she said. Ill have to study. Ill have to utilize my free time to study for a test I already took. It is frustrating, especially considering I dont even go to the school anymore.

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
The words nuclear power once sent chills down the spines of everyone from schoolchildren to grandparents. During the 1970s and 80s, televisions routinely broadcast footage of protests against the construction of new reactors. Americans feared that radiation leaks would harm legions of people.

In the publics imagination today, images of mushroom clouds have to a notable extent been replaced by scenes of melting glaciers, flooding from sea-level rise and demonstrations over oil and gas pipeline projects.

Individual communities might still harbor concerns about their local nuclear power plant, such as the debate on how best to store spent uranium from the shuttered San Onofre facility in northwestern San Diego County. But experts agree the widespread alarm, the fevered opposition that became the stuff of Hollywood movie plots in bygone decades has largely died down.

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In fact, worries about climate change have renewed support for nuclear power among some environmentalists and scientists. This energy options relatively small carbon footprint is prompting a cautious rethinking  even among people who once fought on the front lines against splitting atoms for electricity.

Prominent environmental organizations have downscaled or shifted their focus away from nuclear issues.

Perhaps the best-known is Greenpeace, which launched its anti-nuclear campaign in 1971. Today, the group has mostly disbanded its efforts to oppose such power plants in the United States.

Its not that were not concerned about nukes. Its that the biggest threat we perceive to the stability of our climate and environment is the oil and gas industry, said Jason Schwartz, spokesman for Greenpeace on climate and energy issues.

A baby is screened at an evacuation center for leaked radiation from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan on March 24, 2011. (Kyodo News / Associated Press)

Americas cultural shift on nuclear power is driven by a mix of factors.

For one, nuclear power has logged an enviable pollution and safety record when compared with fossil fuels. There have been only a handful of meltdown incidents at nuclear power plants worldwide, and they have led to far fewer deaths and injuries than whats attributed to pollution from coal- and gas-burning facilities.

The biggest nuclear meltdown in U.S. history occurred in 1979 at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, when large amounts of radioactive coolant escaped into the atmosphere. But scientists and public-health officials have consistently found no cause-and-effect connection between the radiation leak and rates of cancer in that region.

In 1986, a series of failures at the Soviet Unions Chernobyl plant released radiation into the atmosphere for nine days  radiation that traveled across Europe. Experts have linked that radiation to about 4,000 cases of cancer  a significant number but considerably lower than the health toll associated with coal-fired power plants. Up to 10,000 new cancer diagnoses each year are linked to coal-fired facilities just in the U.S., according to analyses by groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Environmental Defense Fund and the American Lung Association.

The Chernobyl disaster is one of two nuclear meltdowns in global history that were given the most severe rating.

The other involves the Fukushima facility, which was hit hard by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011. The incident has been widely regarded as an example of increased safety over the decades, made possible by improvements in building standards and retrofits, as well as nuclear containment technology and procedures for dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear disaster.

Although the Fukushima facility suffered three meltdowns, several explosions, the release of radioactive material from multiple reactors and the overheating of a pool used to store spent fuel, no one has died from the crisis.

Experts cite one other significant element for Americans changing mindset: Nuclear energy appears to be a slowly dying industry in the United States, especially as cheaper fuels like natural gas and renewable ones  including wind and solar  threaten to cut into nuclear powers roughly 20 percent share of the U.S. energy market.

No new nuclear power plants are being proposed in this country, and many of the existing ones have been slated for closure or are nearing the end of their operational life.

Environmental and other activists are debating what would be the safest way to decommission such facilities and, perhaps most of all, what to do with the radioactive waste piling up at dozens of sites around the nation.

You might see concerns about nuclear reactors, but I dont think youre seeing much of that. All the concern is primarily around spent fuel and nuclear waste, said M.V. Ramana, a physicist at the University of British Colombia whos working on international security issues related to nuclear energy.

One of the best examples of this discussion is playing out with the now-defunct San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station, which is undergoing the decommissioning process after experiencing a small radioactive leak five years ago. The plant has more than 3.5 million pounds of nuclear waste, and all of it needs long-term storage.

Researchers in the field generally believe nuclear waste should be moved as soon as possible from individual power plants, including San Onofre, to a centralized and federally run storage facility. The U.S. government promised to create such a site by 1998, but has yet to follow through.

The same researchers, along with national environmental and other advocacy groups, have also said the situation at San Onofre isnt particularly dangerous when compared to the dozens of other locations nationwide that have radioactive waste onsite as well.

In San Diego and Orange counties, local environmentalists and many residents living near the shuttered nuclear plant couldnt disagree more. They argue that San Onofre is a uniquely precarious situation, namely because of the regions threats of earthquake, tsunami and sea-level rise.

Storing spent fuel adjacent to the coastal waters, adjacent to one of the busiest railroads in the country, adjacent to a freeway that accommodates 140,000 vehicles per day, adjacent to 4.8 million people within a 50-mile radius, and finally, over an active earthquake fault  what could possibly go wrong? said Garry Brown, executive director of the environmental group Orange County Coastkeeper.

Brown has served on the community engagement panel for San Onofres decommissioning since Edison created it in 2014. Other panel members include people affiliated with the American Nuclear Society, California State Parks, Camp Pendleton, the Orange County Sheriffs Department and regional universities.

The panels chair, David Victor, a professor of international relations at UC San Diego, said he would like to see San Onofres nuclear waste moved eventually, but that storing the fuel onsite can be done relatively safely, especially once its all transferred from climate-controlled pools of water into steel-lined canisters that will be encased in concrete and then buried.

There are some people in the environmental community that dont trust anything that Edison and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission do, and so they view all actions with suspicion, including building this spent-fuel storage pad at the San Onofre site, Victor said. The safest thing we can possibly do is get the fuel out of pools and into casks. Thats what we need to do, and thats what Edison is doing right now.

The utility, state regulators and nuclear-power experts from around the country have said the canisters will be able to withstand large earthquakes and even a flooding event.

A study from the U.S. Geological Survey in 2013 found that a massive quake off the coast of Alaska could trigger a tsunami in Southern California that causes more than $1 billion of damage, but it also noted that such a natural disaster likely wouldnt affect San Onofre.

Making the issue even harder for the public to grasp is the reality that safety projections for sites like San Onofre rely on long-range hypotheses  predictions for decades to even centuries later.

 You have to supply security for (each) site, and it doesnt make any money. And theres going to be an awful lot of pressure to minimize whats spent on that security. A utility may try to divest itself of that responsibility, said Arthur Ruggles, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee and an industry consultant.

Edison, which is responsible for safety and monitoring at San Onofre, downplayed concerns that the onsite waste-storage facility could become neglected overtime.

As long as used nuclear fuel is onsite here, we will be the licensee, said Maureen Brown, spokeswoman for Edison. We safely stored this fuel for more than three decades, and after (another) 20 years, we will indeed evaluate alternative locations.

The San Diego nonprofit group Citizens Oversight has taken Edison to court over its onsite waste-storage plan. In April, the unity entered into a settlement agreement with the group thats aimed at finding a new storage site.

The news was hailed as a major win for local environmentalists and homeowners, but its far from clear what the outcome will be.

We have said repeatedly and continue to say that we support all reasonable options to move San Onofres used nuclear fuel offsite, Brown said.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com
Republican San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who has been lobbied intensely by GOP leaders to run for California governor, on Friday again vowed to serve out his current term at City Hall.

Both House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and state Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte had urged Faulconer to run for governor in 2018. His mayoral term runs through 2020.

As fiscal conservative and social moderate, Faulconer has largely been seen as the GOPs strongest potential gubernatorial candidate, and one who could help Republicans in down-ballot races if he was at the top of the ticket in 2018.

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Faulconers vow to serve out his mayoral term could affect some hotly contested congressional races in California and potentially affect Republican efforts to retain control of the House of Representatives.

Faulconer renewed his pledge in a Facebook post Friday afternoon.

I care about our state and I am deeply honored that so many are strongly encouraging me to run for governor. Its a testament to the people of San Diego, and the progress weve made to create a fiscally responsible, prosperous city that is moving in the right direction. I made a pledge last year to serve out my second term as mayor, and thats exactly what Im going to do, Faulconer said in the post.

Its not the first time Faulconer has pledged to fill his full mayoral term, as he has faced mounting pressure to enter the gubernatorial race.

Its not hard to understand why Faulconer didnt want to be a sacrificial lamb for the National Republican Congressional Committee. He obviously knew what an uphill fight the campaign would be, said Dan Schnur, a professor at USCs Annenberg School of Communications.

The governors race already has attracted a handful of Republican candidates, but none with Faulconers political stature. They include conservative Orange County Assemblyman Travis Allen and Rancho Santa Fe venture capitalist John Cox. Speculation is mounting that former state Assemblyman David Hadley plans to announce a run.

They also will face a cadre of Democratic heavyweights in the race, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Treasurer John Chiang.

The last time a GOP candidate won a statewide race was in 2006.

A strong top-of-the-ticket candidate would be expected to increase Republican turnout in that election.

Political operatives said it was too soon to know how Faulconers decision will affect the congressional races integral to Democratic attempts to retake control of the House. If a Republican gubernatorial candidate fails to make the general election, creating a Democrat-on-Democrat race in November 2018, that could depress GOP turnout and affect those targeted congressional races.

It leaves the Republicans without an obvious front-runner that the donors would have confidence in, said GOP strategist Rob Stutzman, who previously advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and 2010 GOP nominee Meg Whitman. But it still depends on the nature of the race next November. Its too early to say.

Update 4:21 p.m.: This story was updated with reaction about Faulconers decision and more information about the 2018 election.

This story was originally published at 3:30 p.m.
An employee at an illegal Chula Vista marijuana dispensary shot one of four or more robbers Thursday and police are still looking for suspects who escaped.

One suspected robber took his wounded companion to a hospital and both were arrested, police said.

The employees, who first didnt open their door to officers after the robbery, finally did and told them about the hold-up, police Lt. Kenny Heinz said on Friday. The three workers were detained for questioning at police headquarters, then released.

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Investigators have been piecing together the events at the Chula Vista Clinic Medical Marijuana Dispensary on Third Avenue near Emerson Street.

Shortly before 3 a.m., staff at a hospital called police and said a 20-year-old man had been brought in with two gunshot wounds. The companion who brought him, also age 20, there was evasive about what happened, Heinz said.

But officers were directed toward the dispensary and found the sidewalk and a nearby parking lot littered with broken jars of medical marijuana and other products.

Heinz said it took a while for employees inside the dispensary to open up to police. They said four or more robbers with guns had come in and stolen the drugs, then left in three vehicles.

Investigators got a search warrant to enter the dispensary later in the afternoon. Heinz said they are still gathering surveillance video from the shop, and others along Third Avenue, to try to learn who the escaped robbers are.

The wounded man was transferred to a trauma center and is expected to survive, Heinz said.

Hes lucky to be alive, Heinz said.

That man and the one who took him to the hospital were taken into custody on suspicion of armed robbery.

The dispensary was operating illegally, without a city business license. Heinz said the city has not issued any licenses to medical marijuana dispensaries, and is trying to investigate those that pop up.
A 24-hour warning was issued at San Onofre State Beach after surfers spotted a shark in the ocean Friday.

Camp Pendleton officials were notified by lifeguards about 3:15 p.m. that surfers had spotted an 8- to 10-foot shark in the waters off a beach known as Old Mans, a popular surfing spot.

Marine base officials posted a warning on Twitter and Facebook, urging beach-goers to heed advisory notices posted at the beach and report other sightings to lifeguards.

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The shark advisory notices did not forbid people from going in the ocean, said Capt. Brian Villiard, a Camp Pendleton spokesman.

As of right now its just an advisory, he said. Wed rather people be warned that one was seen instead of going down there without being advised.

The spot where the shark was seen is not far from where a great white bit a womans right buttock and upper leg on April 29. Doctors have said that the quick actions of her boyfriend and bystanders, who tied a tourniquet around her mangled leg to stop the bleeding, likely saved 35-year-old Leannee Ericsons life.

Her doctor, trauma surgeon Gail Tominaga, a former director of a trauma unit in Honolulu, said at a news conference last week that the shark attack was the worst one she had ever seen.

Ericson has undergone seven surgeries and will be able to walk again, Tominaga said.

A mother to three children, Ericson wrote an update on a GoFundMe page three weeks ago, saying she was focused on her recovery.

My kids have visited me a few times and cant wait for their mommy to be back home. For now I need to focus on healing so I can get back to my family as soon as possible.

The GoFundMe page set up to help with Ericsons medical expenses has raised more than $90,000 to date.

The last reported shark sighting near San Onofre beach was on May 10.

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Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones asked President Trumps immigration chief for help fighting Californias so-called sanctuary state bill weeks before the two hosted a town hall meeting in March on immigration enforcement that drew hundreds of people and erupted in protests.

In a March 13 email to Thomas D. Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Jones proposed holding the joint conference, saying the presence of a high-ranking official could make statewide news and change public opinion on Senate Bill 54. The legislation, vehemently opposed by Republican lawmakers and sheriffs including Jones, would prevent police and sheriffs departments from enforcing federal immigration laws.

I know this is a big ask, but I really feel that there is a showdown coming between the federal government and California on many fronts, and truly believe we could together head off that showdown on his particular bill, Jones wrote.

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The letter was obtained by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and a coalition of other immigrant rights groups whose members are arguing that the sheriff misrepresented his intention for the March 28 town hall. Speaking to roughly 300 people at the event, which was held in a Sacramento gym, Jones said he wanted to host the forum to provide facts, not change minds, and said he was there not as a politician, but in his public safety role.

The sheriff said he and Homan wanted to dispel what he called misconceptions about how sheriffs and federal immigration agents collaborate on cases and share information.

Requests to Jones office for comment were not answered on Friday.

Senate Bill 54, introduced by Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon, (D-Los Angeles), would prohibit, with some exceptions, state and local agencies from using their facilities, property, equipment or personnel to detain, question or arrest immigrants.

Jones, a staunch critic of illegal immigration who lost a race for Congress in November, has said that his office has $4.8 million in ICE contracts. But he says his ardent opposition to the legislation stems from public safety concerns including diminished collaboration between law enforcement agencies, not potential financial losses to his department.

In the email to Homan, the sheriff said he was happy to have become the face of the anti-SB 54 campaign because I can speak intelligently and factually about what a disaster the bill would be.

He said their joint conference could focus on making it clear that federal immigration agents would be going into communities not to arrest every law-abiding immigrant, but people who fit ICEs priorities, such as criminals.

And that the best way to prevent wide nets being cast in the communities is for law enforcement to cooperate with ICE where the criminals already are  the jails, Jones wrote.

Angela Chan, policy director at Asian Law Caucus, which was among organizations that sought public records on the meeting, said the email did not come as a surprise given Jones track record on immigration enforcement and his departments financial ties to ICE.

But it is disheartening that he continues to go down this route, she said.

Heres why law enforcement groups are divided on legislation to turn California into a sanctuary state 

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

@jazmineulloa

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What you need to know about Californias sanctuary state bill and how it would work

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California sheriffs say sanctuary state bill would prevent immigration officials from going after violent offenders

Updates on California politics
Jammu and Kashmir police today confirmed that two terrorists were killed in Anantnag following an encounter with security forces. Two civilians were also killed.

By India Today Web Desk: Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid has confirmed that two terrorists have been killed in Anantnag encounter. The police are trying to ascertain the identity of the slain militants.

Earlier, two civilians were also killed and over 10 persons were injured in firing during an encounter between security forces and militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag.

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Two militants identified as Bashir Lashkari and Azad Malik were believed to be trapped inside a house that was blasted by Army.

Security forces rescued about 17 civilians who were trapped with militants inside a residential complex.

The encounter started at around 6 am. Following the encounter, locals came out in protests and clashed with the forces.

According to police, after receiving specific information regarding presence of militants in Birnhi Batpora Dailgam, security forces cordoned off the area in the wee hours.

While the cordon was being laid, some militants outside a house fired upon the security personnel which was retaliated.

In the cross firing, a woman sustained injuries and later on succumbed. However, some militants are holed up in the house.

"Security forces were fired at when they launched an operation in Batpora village after a tip-off about the militants hiding in a house," the police said in a statement.

The statement said, "Some militants are still holed-up in the house. Efforts are ongoing to take out the civilians."

"The militants are using the civilians as human shield," it added. Search operations by security forces in Dailgam village are underway.

WHO IS BASHIR LASHKARI

Hailing from Kokernag area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir Bashir Lashkari crossed to POK in 1999.

He returned from POK under state government amnesty scheme announced by Omar Abdullah government in 2012. Lashkari was jailed till 2014 and got reactivate as terrorist in 2015.

In a year Bashir has managed to mobilise group of terrorists and even some Pakistani Lashkar terrorists are part of this group. Lashkari is the most wanted Lashker Commander with bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

Lashkari is also responsible for killing of SHO Feroz with other 5 policeman last month. Special police teams were formed to hunt him down after the killing.

With inputs from Ashraf Wani

ALSO READ:

Jammu and Kashmir: Collision between Indigo flight, BSF plane averted over Banihal

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Restrictions in parts of Srinagar against separatists' protest

ALSO WATCH:

Kashmir: Army patrol attacked in Tral, militants reportedly trapped

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Response to George Eastwood, Congress must impeach Trump, June 15 Ramona Sentinel.

George, I agree with you that we must hold all our politicians to a higher standard. But, I would take your stance one step further to include all public officials: If caught lying to the American people while in office should be dishonorably discharged without benefits  no golden parachutes, no severance pay.

During my lifetime, Richard Nixon was the first president to be caught lying while in office. He resigned rather than face impeachment. Bill Clinton was the second president caught lying while in office. Clinton was impeached yet survived. Barack 0bama was the third president to be caught lying to the American people while in office, and he was not even impeached. This lowering of our standards, especially for those who hold public office, has got to stop. We used to hold our politicians to a higher standard.

I was in 100% agreement with you up to your comment, It is abundantly clear that this current president is unfit for office and routinely lies to the American people.

No, it is not abundantly clear that Trump has lied while in office to the American people.

What happened to innocent until proven guilty? It is up to you, the accuser, to provide abundant proof of those lies, because to falsely accuse someone of lying is worse than being a liar.

I gave 0bama and Hillary the benefit of doubt until I had irrefutable proof that they lied to me and the America people. With Hillary, we know she knew Benghazi was not caused by a YouTube video the night of the attack, proven via the WikiLeaks disclosures. In a news conference, 0bama admitted in his own words to knowing that it was a terrorist attack on Sept. 19, 2012, six days before his United Nations speech where he once again inferred the attack was incited by a YouTube video in that speech. Although looking back on it now, if Hillary knew the night of, so did 0bama, regardless of where he was and what he was or wasnt doing.

Most on the left maintain that 0bama and Hillary were merely wrong about Benghazi, yet in the same breath those same people convict Trump of lying with little or no evidence. I think this is hypocritical.

Your abundantly clear comment leads me to believe you have irrefutable proof that Trump lied on several occasions and was more than merely wrong. Please provide that truth, because I have not seen it, and your hand waving innuendos are not convincing.

This is the conundrum that the left has placed themselves in. For the last 8-plus years, virtually every person on the left failed to keep their own politicians honest, especially those in the media. This disqualifies them to keep the other sides politicians honest without being hypocritical. I was wondering, does the military code of honor put hypocrites and false accusers less trustworthy and with less integrity than liars? Because I do.

Steve Yanke is a Ramona resident.
Health care proposal, a cruel mean trick

The Senate GOP leadership is trying to ramrod TrumpCare through Congress in time for the long 4th of July recess. Americans cannot sit idle while their current health care is being stripped away from them.

Trumps bill is a cruel trick. It will decimate health care coverage for 74 million Medicaid recipients. Virtually no one even knows what the bill says. Senators are going to vote on a bill that most of them have never read. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said, I havent seen any legislative language, so he could not comment. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has not had time to analyze and score the bill. The 52 GOP senators are planning to postpone the vote until just before the month-long August recess. These senators will surely face the wrath from their angry constituents when they return to their home districts.

For eight long years, the Republicans in Congress sat on their brains during the tenure of the Affordable Healthcare Act, popularly known as Obamacare. This bill takes hundreds of billions of dollars for providing health care coverage to vulnerable and working people and uses it to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires, said Dianne Feinstein. The bill would allow federal government to apply a fixed amount of money to California and leave the state taxpayers on the hook for billions of additional costs.

Trumps bill will hurt 14 million Californians covered under Medicaid: children, women, working families, the elderly, and disabled. Under Trumps health plan, millions of Medicaid eligible citizens will have no Essential Benefits. A few of these benefits are: emergency room care, hospitalization for mental and physical problems and coverage for Medicaid eligible pregnant women. These benefits would no longer be available to patients. His plan allows individuals and states to opt out if they choose. This is a major flaw in the bill.

This bill rewards the wealthy at the expense of the middle and lower classes. Large insurance companies are anticipating gigantic windfalls if this plan is finalized. Indeed, insurance stock has been soaring in recent weeks. Whats great for Wall Street is terrible news for everyone else.

Peter Quercia

Ramona

Thank you, museum docents

The Guy B. Woodward Museum and Ramona Kiwanis Club have joined forces to provide docents for the museums many visitors, both local and from out of town.

Thanks go out to the following helpful Ramona citizens: Bob Hailey, Darrell Beck, Jeff Funk, Myra Arrendale, Shelley Eukert, Jackie Foglio, Mary Halliday, Ken Woodward, Alice Funk, Wayne Jones, Ed Bates, and Judy Nachazel.

Bert Byrne

Publicity chairman

Ramona Pioneer Historical Society
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) Ahead of the Bawana bypoll, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today dubbed former MLA Ved Prakash, who had quit AAP just before the MCD polls, as a "traitor" who ditched the party and the people of his constituency.

Prakash, who was legislator from Bawana, resigned from his Assembly and AAP membership in March this year and joined the BJP.

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Canvasing support for Ramchandra, who is the partys candidate from Bawana, Kejriwal said Ramchandras top priority is improving the conditions and solving the water problem in the area.

"There is still time for elections but Ramchandra is taking me to all the lanes. He is asking me to first get the roads fixed rather than thinking about elections. In one month, the construction of roads will start and in three months they will be ready," Kejriwal said.

He also assured the residents that the problem of water in the area will be solved and said he has brought along two officials from the department concerned to address the issue.

Kejriwal recently had also interacted with farmers in the area. PTI PR PLB KUN

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India demanded for the eighteenth time today that Pakistan provide consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav. Ministry of External Affairs exchanged lists of nationals of each country lodged in the jails of the other country.

By India Today Web Desk: India today demanded consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav for the eighteenth time. Jadhav, an Indian citizen, was sentenced to death by the Pakistan Army on April 10. India has also sought access to Hamid Nehal Ansari, a resident of Mumbai who was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012.

Earlier this week, two separate petitions were filed before the Lahore High Court seeking that Jadhav's mercy plea be rejected. Ministry of External Affairs today exchanged lists of nationals of each country lodged in the jails of the other country. According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.

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The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access which was signed on May 21, 2008. As per the pact, lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

MEA STATEMENT

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said. It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.

"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement in Delhi.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," it said.

The Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.

Jadhav was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage activities. India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav. Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.

(With inputs from PTI)

Also Read

Reject Kulbhushan Jadhav mercy plea, Lahore High Court petitioned

Pakistan's 'confessional video' of Kulbhushan Jadhav is farcical, has 'manufactured facts': MEA

Also Watch

Kulbhushan Jadhav case: Pakistan releases another 'confession' video

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Marine Le Pen, france's far-right National Front party leader has been accused over the alleged use of a European Parliament fund to pay her party's staff.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Leader of France's far-right National Front (FN) party Marine Le Pen was placed under formal investigation over the alleged use of a European Parliament fund to pay her party's staff.

"In accordance with her commitments made during the presidential campaign, Marine Le Pen complied with the judges' summons," news channel BFMV quoted her lawyer as saying on Friday.

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On Monday, Le Pen is to appeal the investigating magistrates' decision which "violates the principle of the separation of powers," according to the defense lawyer, Xinhua news agency reported.

The European Parliament has accused Le Pen of paying party staff working in France with European Union (EU) funds worth 340,000 euros ($387,690), after she claimed they were European parliamentary assistants.

In December 2016, the French prosecutor opened an investigation for breach of trust, fraud and forgery following the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) initial findings.

Le Pen's chief of staff Catherine Griset was put under formal investigation on February 22 after a day of questioning over the alleged misuse of EU funds to pay parliamentary assistants. Her bodyguard was also questioned but was later released without being placed under investigation.

Le Pen, who is gaining popularity in France that helped her to enter the National Assembly for the first time, dismissed any wrongdoing.

ALSO READ:

What if Marine Le Pen wins and France decides to leave the EU?

Macron vs Le Pen: Why this French Presidential election is historic

ALSO WATCH:

PM Modi in Paris to hold talks with French President Macron

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By PTI: Bengaluru, Jun 30 (PTI) Hundreds of liquor vends here and elsewhere in Karnataka along highways will cease to function from tomorrow in line with the Supreme Courts ban on sale of liquor along highways.

Though the apex court ban on sale of liquor within 500 metres of highways came into force on April 1 in most parts of the country, in Karnataka it will be implemented from tomorrow as the Excise Year of the state begins from July.

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License of liquor shops in the state will expire tonight as Karnataka excise year is from July 1 to June 30. Licences of shops along national and statehighways will not be renewed, officials said.

With four major national highways criss crossing Bengaluru, high-end pubs and bars in the citys central business district like M G Road, Brigade Road and upmarket Indiranagar and Koramangala will be the worst hit.

According to records, Old Madras Road, MG Road and Hosur Road in the heart of the city, where high-end pubs and bars are located, have been tagged as highways, but they are not used as such and are being maintained by the city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

According to the officials, about 700 establishments fall under the 94-km stretch of NH and its service roads passing through the city, with majority of them located in east and south zone.

Some prominent clubs, pubs, restaurants and five star hotels in the city would come under the ban.

Earlier, following the Supreme Court order the state governmenthad asked the Centre to denotify about 858 km highways passingthrough the limits of urban local bodies.

The state has also denotified parts of the statehighways in a bid to save vends functioning along it.

It looked like there was need for common policy on the matter with the Centre receiving similar representations from other states, but it wouldtake time, a state government official said.

Karnataka Wine Merchants Association State Secretary Honnagiri Gowda said liquor shops along national and state highways will have to shut from tomorrow as their licenses will end and will not be renewed.

"We feel state governmentdelayed a bit in taking up with Union government on the NHthing, while in the case of state highways, it has onlydenotified stretch passing through municipal limits, theyshould have done at other places also," he told PTI.

A total of around 6,000 liquor shops come within the radius of 500 metres along the highways in the state. PTI KSU RA VS KIS

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In fact, if it took 45 years after the independence for India to allow Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, it was because of India's principled solidarity with the Palestinian cause that was against the forced settlement of Israelis in the Palestinian territory.

By Santosh Chaubey: India and Israel established full diplomatic ties on January 29, 1992 and in the first ever prime ministerial visit to the nation, Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Tel Aviv from July 4 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the diplomatic ties. In these 25 years, Israel has emerged as India's most reliable defence partner and India as Israel's largest defence market, accounting for 41 per cent of its arms export.

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But it was not like this always. In fact, if it took 45 years after the independence for India to allow Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, it was because of India's principled solidarity with the Palestinian cause that was against the forced settlement of Israelis in the Palestinian territory. And the origin behind this principled stand can be traced back to Mahatma Gandhi, our Father of the Nation, who believed that Israelis could settle in Palestine only with the permission from Arabs and it was wrong for them to enter with the might of the British gun.

Writing in Harijan on November 26, 1938, Mahatma Gandhi says that his sympathies are with the Jews some of whom have been his friends since his days in South Africa. Thus, he knows about the age-long persecution of the Jews. He refers to the Jews as the untouchables of Christianity, like the untouchables of Hinduism and that religion is used in their persecution, as was happening then with the Jews in Germany.

But, he draws a line here saying his sympathy for the Jews cannot blind him to the requirements of justice.

He writes in his write-up, The Jews, in Harijan, "The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me." He says that Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French and it is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs."

Mahatma Gandhi says the settlement of the Jews in the Palestinian territory is akin to a religious act that rules out use of force, "The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs."

In this article written in 1938, before the organized massacre of the Jews in the German concentration camps began, Mahatma Gandhi argues that the Jewish people are the citizens of the world and they should be treated as such, a Jew born in France as French, a Jew born in Germany as German. He advises the German Jews to use the civil movement through non-violence to take on the German persecution.

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Though, we can see a change in approach in the later writings of Mahatma Gandhi on German persecution of the Jews after the German concentration camps massacred millions of Jews, his stand on Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land remains the same.

In another Harijan article titled "Jews and Palestine", written on July 21, 1946, after the Second World War and the German massacre of the Jews were over, he says, "I do believe that the Jews have been cruelly wronged by the world. "Ghetto" is, so far as I am aware, the name given to Jewish locations in many parts of Europe. But for their heartless persecution, probably no question of return to Palestine would ever have arisen. The world should have been their home, if only for the sake of their distinguished contribution to it."

But in the next paragraph, he reiterates his long held stand on the forced Jewish occupation of the Palestinian land, "But, in my opinion, they have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism."

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And he held this view on the Palestine-Israel problem till his death, blaming the singling out and wronging the Jews, "Their citizenship of the world should have and would have made them honoured guests of any country. Their thrift, their varied talent, their great industry should have made them welcome anywhere. It is a blot on the Christian world that they have been singled out, owing to a wrong reading of the New Testament, for prejudice against them. "If an individual Jew does a wrong, the whole Jewish world is to blame for it." If an individual Jew like Einstein makes a great discovery or another composes unsurpassable music, the merit goes to the authors and not to the community to which they belong."

ALSO READ:

Out of the closet: Narendra Modi to make history as first Indian PM to visit Israel

Modi world's most important PM: Israeli daily

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Press Release

July 1, 2017 SPAIN EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR PEACE PROCESS IN MINDANAO ON PHIL-SPANISH FRIENDSHIP DAY The Spanish government has expressed its support for the development of peace process in the country during the celebration of the 15th Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day on Friday in Baler, Aurora. "The Spanish government is following with interest the development of the peace processes in the Philippines. The support of these processes has been one of the constants of Spanish cooperation in the Philippines, with various projects implemented by civil society, particularly in Mindanao," Spanish Ambassador to Manila Luis Antonio Calvo said in his speech. Senator Sonny Angara, who authored the Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day Act (Republic Act 9187) when he was still a congressman together with his father, former senator Edgardo Angara, commended the Spanish government for strengthening its bilateral cooperation with the Philippines. "We thank them for their unceasing support to our country, especially for extending valuable assistance to help alleviate the situation and to spur the socio-economic growth in conflict areas," Angara said. "The cordial relations between our countries--a result of the Philippines and Spain's deep historical and cultural ties--have never been stronger," the senator added. Since 2003, the Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day celebrates the strong relations between the two countries every 30th of June. Members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of the business sector and officials from the country's cultural agencies had joined the festivities in Baler. The 15th Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day also coincides with the 118th anniversary of the historic Siege of Baler, where Filipino and Spanish soldiers demonstrated their valor, nobility and shared humanity, even during conflict. Department of Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who was chosen as this year's guest of honor, cited the Spanish government's development projects in the Philippines funded through the Agency Espanola de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarollo (AECID). "The Philippines is the only priority country in Asia for official development assistance from Spain, having received up to 278 million euros in the last 15 years," Diokno said in his speech. Projects carried out by AECID with Philippine government institutions are focused on areas such as governance, support to the peace process, education, health, and disaster risk reduction. "AECID also has projects on cultural development, and scientific and academic cooperation, making Spanish aid one of the most comprehensive in terms of aid modalities and financing instruments," the budget secretary noted.
Press Release

July 1, 2017 No detention can stop my work - De Lima As she marks her first year in the Senate, Senator Leila M. de Lima today said that no amount of trumped-up charges leveled against her could stop her from fulfilling her job as a duly-elected Senator of the Republic. De Lima, who is currently detained at the Philippine National Police - Custodial Center, Camp Crame in Quezon City, said she would continue fulfilling her legislative duties in the Senate even from her detention cell. "They can continue persecuting me, but it will not stop me from stepping up my role as a duly-elected Senator. I shall continue filing bills and resolutions, co-author other worthy legislation that will benefit our countrymen," she said. Less than a year into her first term as a neophyte lawmaker, De Lima was arrested for trumped-up illegal drug charges that were all based on manufactured evidence and perjured testimonies of convicted criminals. She said she believes that these charges were part of the political persecution meant to silence her strong opposition to the government's all-out war on drugs that saw the continued spate of extrajudicial killings in the country. De Lima initiated a Senate inquiry into the spate of extrajudicial killings when she filed Senate Resolution No. 9 to look into the extrajudicial and summary executions carried out in the government's war on drugs. To date, De Lima has filed 29 bills and 30 resolutions in the Senate, of which 10 bills and 19 of these resolutions were filed while in detention. She has also co-authored seven bills and 13 resolutions. De Lima's bills include the Anti-Extrajudicial Killing Bill, the Commission on Human Rights Charter, the Criminal Investigation Bill, the Philippine National Railway Rehabilitation and Revitalization, the Libel Reform Act, the Criminal Code of the Philippines, among many others. In her first year in the Senate, De Lima was recognized by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of its 100 Gl0bal Thinkers for 2016 for "standing up to an extremist leader." Time Magazine also named her as one of the 100 Most Influential People for 2017, while Amnesty International labeled her as a Global Human Rights Defender last May. The respect for and admiration to De Lima and her vocal opposition to the government's all-out war on drugs has not faltered even as cases filed against her have piled up despite the absence of credible evidence linking her to drug trade. The European Parliament has condemned her arrest, calling it an obvious case of political persecution, while the Inter-Parliamentary Union sent a delegation last May to check on her and the cases she is facing. Meanwhile, the Magnificent 7 of the House of Representatives and the Senate Minority Bloc have also visited her and vowed to support De Lima and her immediate release from illegal detention. Even while in detention, the Senator from Bicol has refused to be silenced as she continued to issue regular dispatches which contain her views, positions and even reflections on important national and international issues. De Lima, however, has a pending petition at the Supreme Court questioning her illegal arrest and unjust detention. Pending the High Court's ruling, she hopes she could vote on important legislation in the Senate. Her colleagues in the Senate Minority Bloc have also expressed their unequivocal support for her request for a legislative furlough as they filed Senate Resolution No. 391 urging the Senate leadership to support her request. "I remain hopeful that, at the very least, I would be able to vote during the deliberations of crucial legislation, such as the proposals to reintroduce the death penalty, the postponement of barangay elections, and the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility, all of which I am opposing," she said. De Lima said she does not regret any of her decisions during her first year as a neophyte senator. She maintained that all of her actions in her first year in the Senate were done for the sake of protecting human rights and the rule of law.
Press Release

July 1, 2017 On deliverance from injustice

Dispatch from Crame No. 106 6 / 30 / 17

7:10 p.m. My PNP custodians brought me this morning to RTC-Muntinlupa to attend a hearing in one of the 3 drug cases, all trumped-up, filed against me by this government. As our convoy navigated through Skyway, my usual daily route to and from work (well, way back when I was free), and as we were at the strip overlooking the service road going to the subdivision where I live, I realized how much I miss my own home, its comforts and tranquility. It dawned on me how much I miss my life, my normal life as a free creature. With my continued detention based on orchestrated lies, I have suffered and continue to suffer an intense cruelty by my persecutors. I'm not, of course, talking about physical cruelty, but the kind that pierces through the very essence of your being, your very humanity: the curtailment of the basic freedoms of movement and to happiness, the deprivation of simple pleasures in life (movies, music, shopping, etc.) and normal human contact, and worse, the profound agony brought upon my family and loved ones. Yes, I'm tough enough to withstand and survive through all these. But I long for the day to see my tormentors tremble out of shame and guilty. Yes, I desire for vengeance but I am unwilling to execute it myself. Instead, I ask God, who is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful to intervene. He knows best and He knows when. Pinapasa Dios ko na lang po silang lahat... Dear Lord, deliver me from injustice...deliver our country from evil.
Press Release

July 1, 2017 ACCOMPLISHMENT REPORT

(as of June 29, 2017) I. 80 BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS FILED 29 - Principally Authored Bills

8 - Co-authored Bills

30 - Principally Authored Resolutions

13 - Co-authored Resolutions Among those principally authored:

a. SB No. 195 - Act Defining Criminal Exploitation of Children

b. SB No. 196 - Amending Bank Secrecy Law by Removing from its Coverage, Government Officials and Employees

c. SB No. 368 - Act Punishing Extraordinary Crimes with Qualified Reclusion Perpetua and Prohibiting Imposition of Death Penalty

d. SB No. 369 - Institutionalizing Criminal Investigation System

e. SB No. 1197 - Act Defining Extrajudicial Killing and Providing for its penalty

f. SB No. 1227 - Act to Ordain and Institute a New Criminal Code

g. SB No. 1359 - Act Criminalizing Subornation of Perjury

h. SB No. 1373 - Act to Strengthen the Human Rights Affair Office of the Philippine National Police

i. PSR No. 9 -Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the recent rampant Extrajudicial Killings and Summary Executions of Suspected Criminals

j. PSR No. 97 - Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the Current State of Jails and Penitentiaries all over the country

k. PSR No. 153 - Resolution Extending an Invitation to UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions

l. PSR No. 171 - Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the Status of Implementation of the Juvenile Justice Welfare Act

m. PSR No. 195 - Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the Root Causes of Internal Displacement of Indigenous Cultural Communities

n. PSR No. 222 - Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the Various Investment Deals, Particularly those involving Public Procurement, Signed or Entered into by the Present Administration

o. PSR No. 260 - Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the Current State of Voters Database in the Custody of COMELEC that was Hacked by Anonymous Philippines and Lulzsec Philippines

p. PSR No. 300 - Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the recent Killings of Lawyers

q. PSR No. 322 - Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the Suspicious Maritime Activities of People's Republic of China in Benham Rise

r. PSR No. 377 - Resolution Directing an Inquiry into the Possible Long- Term Financial and Economic Repercussions of the Multi-Billion Dollar Loan and Investment Package Offered by China to the Philippines *One bill (1) was enacted as Republic Act No. 10923.

* Three (3) bills were passed on Third Reading.

* Twelve (12) Resolutions were adopted.

*Sen. Leila de Lima's Chairmanship Committee of Electoral Reforms and Peoples Participation was able to submit one (1) Committee Report.

*Senator de Lima filed one (1) Dissenting Report to Committee Report No. 18. II. COMMITTEE HEARINGS As Chairman of the Committee on Electoral Reforms and Peoples' Participation, Senator de Lima was able to conduct seven (7) hearings. During her stint as Committee on Justice and Human Rights Chairperson, she was able to conduct four (4) hearings on extrajudicial killings. Senator de Lima was able to attend thirty two (32) hearings from 30 June 2016 to 23 February 2017. III. PLENARY DEBATES Senator de Lima participated in the Plenary Debates on various measures of national concern, including, among others -

a. 2017 General Appropriations Bill

b. Proposed Bill Expanding the Anti- Wiretapping Act

c. Proposed Bill Amending the Corporation Code

d. Proposed Free Internet Access in Public Spaces

e. Proposed Full Tuition Subsidy in SUCs

f. Proposed Bill Increasing Maternity Leave.

g. Proposed Bill Granting Subpoena Powers to CIDG

h. Proposed Bill Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

i. Proposed Bill Amending Anti-Money Laundering Act

j. Proposed Bill Increasing Maternity Leave Period

k. Proposed Bill Creating the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund

l. Proposed Bill Implementing People's Right to Information Senator de Lima was also able to submit her Amendments to various measures. Including among others -

a. Proposed Bill Adjusting Fines of the Revised Penal Code

b. Proposed Bill Amending the Corporation Code

c. Proposed Bill Creating the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund

d. Proposed Free Internet Access in Public Spaces

e. Proposed Bill Granting Subpoena Powers to CIDG IV. PRIVILEGE SPEECHES Senator de Lima delivered three (3) Privilege Speeches on controversial issues including extrajudicial killings and proliferation of Fake News.
Jon Durr/Getty Images

Jharel Cotton, pushed back several days by a blister on his right hand, threw a bullpen session Saturday that went well, putting the rookie in line to start Monday.

The blisters healed, Cotton said. Now Im just ready to pitch when they call on me.
By PTI: Kolkata, Jul 1 (PTI) The police arrested one person for duping several US citizens from his fraudulent call centre.

The arrested man, Sharafat Ali, used to run the call centre along with others and they used to pose as Microsoft Corporation employees to dupe the US citizens, a senior Kolkata Police officer said today.

Ali (33) was arrested from the call centre at Beckbagan Row, under the jurisdiction of Karaya police station in south Kolkata yesterday, he said.

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Elaborating their modus operandi, the police officer said, "They used to call US citizens through VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) posing as employees of Microsoft Corporation after downloading their phone data over internet.

Ali and his aides would tell them that their system had been hacked and their data compromised, the report of which they got from the Microsoft system installed in the machine.

They used to then compel the US citizens to cough up considerable amount of money ranging from $199 to $300 which was to be paid online through Moneygram or Western Union for reinstating the system."

A specific software Team Viewer was used for this purpose, he said.

CPUs, IP Phones, i phones, laptops and documents were seized during the raid at the call centre, he said. A city court remanded Ali, a resident of Ballygunge area in south Kolkata, to police custody till July 10. PTI SCH MM

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When the China Clipper arrived, soaring over the partially built span of the Golden Gate Bridge in late November 1935, the journey tested the limits of even The San Francisco Chronicles most poetic reporters.

It was one of the few hyperbole-proof moments in Bay Area history. No single reporter could cover the story. No single adjective was enough to describe the scene. International commercial air travel had begun.

Mans conquest of time and space turned to a new chapter of its endless story yesterday, when the China Clipper dropped from the sky from San Diego, soon to open Pacific service and shrink this old world of ours incredibly, wrote The Chronicles Royce Brier.

The greatest airplane ever built in America, probably the most efficient flying machine men have yet conceived, the 25-ton China Clipper of Pan American Airways sailed in through the Golden Gate with an eagles ease and confidence, and came to a feathery landing at Alameda Airport.

For the residents of San Francisco at the time  starved for good news in the middle of an economic depression  the event was as fantastic and thrilling as a moon landing. When the sea plane on twin pontoons departed for Hawaii en route to Midway, then Guam, then Manila with a small crew and 120,000 pieces of mail, more than 25,000 residents reportedly gathered in Crissy Field and on San Francisco rooftops.

But the excitement surrounding the China Clipper and the landmark trans-Pacific commercial flight has been all but lost in time.

Remnants of the hysteria remain in The Chronicles archive, where the newspaper spared no expense for the event. The Chronicle published stunning aerial photos of the China Clipper flying with 1930s San Francisco in the background, and also flying over and under the still-under-construction Golden Gate and Bay bridges.

San Francisco residents learned about the pending arrival of the Clipper just a couple of weeks before the plane arrived. A few years earlier, the feat seemed impossible. The China Clipper was the first of three planes built by Glenn L. Martin company for $1.2 million, with Charles Lindbergh as a technical adviser.

Articles came out every day for weeks before the planes arrival, explaining air travels superiority over rail and ship. The China Clipper was described as somewhat bigger than a Pullman car, traveling speeds of 140 miles per hour, which strains the imagination. The trip to China, which would have taken weeks by boat, took four days.

In a scoop for the newspaper, a reporter caught a ride down to San Diego, then traveled on the Clippers final U.S. leg to San Francisco, reporting the sights, sounds and sensation of commercial air travel.

You gaze at the California coastline, blue with distance, or down on lighthouse points, The Chronicle reported. You talk in a conversational tone and are heard, you stroll in 60-foot aisles, read a little, doze a little on chesterfields, idly watch a wing-tip half a hundred feet away. You sail through the air with the greatest of ease, for at least in good weather there are no air bumps, and far less side sway than is found in a railroad car.

The Alameda China Clipper launching point was barely an airport. Rowboats can be seen picking up passengers and cargo from early Clipper flights. Future Clipper planes from Pan Am, United and other carriers would take off from a much larger and grander San Francisco Bay-adjacent airport at the new Treasure Island.

More from the Archive The Vault Home of the San Francisco Chronicle's archive and more than 150 years of journalism covering the Bay Area and beyond.

But for witnesses of that first flight, the surroundings didnt matter. There was only an airplane and its occupants, flying off majestically into the not-so-distant-anymore future.

Thats what the China Clipper is, an idea, something peculiarly recent and expressive of our civilization, far more than it is a commercial venture, The Chronicle reported in 1935. Commerce bought the metal, but theres something behind it all.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicles pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub
The rumbling of city trucks packed with shovels, leaf blowers and telescoping pole saws broke through the stillness of a recent cool, gray morning in San Franciscos Outer Mission neighborhood.

Sidling up to a line of trees next to the Pacific Supermarket on Alemany Boulevard, a crew of professional pruners from the Public Works department set to work hoisting themselves into the tree-tops to trim off gangly, drooping limbs and feed them into a wood chipper.

It seemed like an ordinary scene, but the crew was in the midst of an unprecedented change in San Francisco.

Starting Saturday, the city will for the first time take full responsibility for the care and maintenance of the nearly 124,800 street trees in the citys right of way, sweeping aside its unpopular practice of making property owners care for most of the trees.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

In November voters passed Proposition E, which set aside $19 million annually from the citys general fund for Public Works to maintain the trees and the sidewalks surrounding them  most everything short of raking leaves and fallen twigs. Both property owners and people who want to see San Franciscos civic forest remain healthy have welcomed the change.

The city had long maintained a clunky and often confusing system of designating tree-care duties, sometimes making it difficult to know who was responsible for a particular tree. It was assumed that property owners would care for trees they planted, with the city taking charge of trees on major thoroughfares.

The policy we used to have actually made no sense from so many different directions, said Dan Flanagan, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of the Urban Forest, which campaigned for Prop. E.

A lot of people didnt know they were responsible for the trees to begin with; and if they did, they couldnt afford it, he said. Thats why we got 79 percent of the vote.

Confusion over who was responsible for a decades-old cypress in Noe Valley contributed to its unpermitted removal last month. Though the tree appeared to be on private property, nestled next to an apartment building, the city actually owned it.

Neighbors were absolutely devastated to see it gone one day, said Carla Short, superintendent of the citys Bureau of Urban Forestry. The property manager that had the tree chopped down, Greentree Property Management, will be fined $8,000 and says it will pay.

There was some confusion regarding the ownership of the tree based on its location, but the removal of the tree was not intentional, Greentree spokesman Ron Heckmann said, adding that the company had initiated a donation to the Friends of the Urban Forest to create significant tree plantings and landscaping in the Clipper Street area.

When tree maintenance budgets were slashed in 2011 amid broader spending reductions, the city made the deeply unpopular decision to shift care of thousands of trees to private citizens.

Prior to Prop. E. taking effect Saturday, property owners were responsible for more than two-thirds of all city-owned trees, Short said. Under the citys old rules, property owners could face fines if their pruning harmed those trees or they otherwise failed to live up to city codes.

Suddenly, youre given this role. Youre not a tree expert, you have to pay to have someone take care of it and youre still getting a bill of $2,500 from the city for not doing it right  that was a major frustration, said Charley Goss, manager of government affairs for the San Francisco Apartment Association, an advocacy group for landlords.

An even bigger concern, Goss said, was the liability property owners could face from sidewalks swollen and cracked by tree roots.

Maybe the way a sidewalk is damaged creates a tripping hazard, he said, and if someone gets hurt, who are they going to look to?

Data compiled in a recently completed census of the citys trees have helped Short and her team map out block by block which trees need the most attention. Over the first two years of Prop. Es implementation, crews will prioritize trees that are in decline or pose potential safety hazards, gradually moving on to those with less pressing needs.

Under Prop. E, the city will assume responsibility for sidewalks damaged by trees, but residents who previously received notices from the city to prune a tree or fix a cracked sidewalk may still be held liable until that repair work is completed, said Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.

Were not going to go after you, but youre taking a risk because if someone trips and falls, or the city has a lawsuit, were going to be holding hands with you in court, saying, You knew to do this repair, and you didnt do it, Nuru said. It doesnt mean were not going to do (the repair work), but if something happens, youre taking a risk.

Work will begin soon, but Short said that San Francisco residents shouldnt expect to see caravans of tree-trimming bucket trucks descending upon the citys streets right away.

Were going to be systematic about this, and we cant necessarily respond to individual requests, so were asking for patience as we get the program up and going, she said.

Our hope is that within three to five years we will have brought all the trees to a baseline standard, and then well be on a routine pruning cycle based on the species and needs of any particular block, Short said.

Using data from Public Works tree census, the city will then establish a maintenance schedule for each tree. Short said that schedule will be posted online soon.

Short is also looking to bolster the size of the fleet of specialized tree-trimming trucks and double the number of people on her in-house pruning crew. About 75 percent of city tree trimming is now done by contractors; Short hopes to eventually get that down to 50 percent.

Transferring tree maintenance responsibilities back to the city, she said, will also be a boon for the trees themselves. Research conducted on behalf of Public Works found that overall, city-maintained trees tended to be larger and healthier than privately maintained trees, and that was consistent with research from other cities, Short said.

If were successful in getting the word out, my hope is that people say, Great, that tree is your responsibility now, Im not going to touch it. People were trying to do the right thing, but they didnt do the research or didnt understand how. Now theyll say, Ill let the city do it, she said.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

A growth of blue-green algae in a pond in southern Napa County killed two dogs that swam in the murky water this week, causing local officials Friday to issue a county-wide warning.

Its the second reported outbreak of dangerous algae in the Bay Area in a week  Oaklands Lake Temescal was closed following a similar outbreak that was the same color.
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Before Kevin Powers underwent lung cancer surgery in October, his girlfriend, Agi Orsi, meticulously checked and double-checked to be sure his Santa Monica hospital and surgeon were in his health plans network. They were.

Even in the hospital, Orsi dutifully wrote No out-of-network doctors across the top of Powers admission paperwork.

Her diligence was for naught.

Powers, 57, suffered serious complications, resulting in a two-week hospital stay that included visits from several specialists. It also resulted in a barrage of surprise medical bills from some of those specialists charging out-of-network rates.

The bills total about $5,600  so far.

Its overwhelming, says Orsi, 64, who lives with Powers in Topanga Canyon (Los Angeles County). I feel like consumers are at a major disadvantage.

Starting Saturday, many Californians will be protected against such surprise medical bills from out-of-network providers, also known as balance billing.

Under a new state law, if you visit an in-network facility  such as a hospital, lab or imaging center  you will be responsible only for your in-network share of the cost, even if youre seen by an out-of-network provider.

The law applies to nonemergency services received on or after July 1.

This is a very big deal, says Tam Ma, legal and policy director for the advocacy group Health Access California. Weve heard from hundreds of consumers who were getting these surprise bills.

A 2015 Consumers Union survey found that nearly 1 in 4 Californians who visited a hospital or had surgery in the previous two years were charged an out-of-network rate when they thought a provider was in-network.

Heres a common scenario: A patient takes pains to ensure that her hospital and surgeon are in the network, only to get billed by the out-of-network anesthesiologist who appears at her bedside to put her under.

No one gets to pick their anesthesiologist, Ma says. It depends on who is on duty, who is available.

Surprise bills also often come from pathologists, radiologists and assistant surgeons  other providers that patients typically cant choose, she says.

The new law covers Californians with private health insurance plans that are regulated by the state Department of Managed Health Care and the state Department of Insurance, which includes roughly 70 percent of the states private insurance market, according to the California Health Care Foundation. It does not cover some 5.7 million people whose employer-sponsored insurance plans are regulated by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Insurers, health care providers and regulators are working furiously behind the scenes to hash out some details about that law, including how much out-of-network providers should be compensated for their services.

But that shouldnt affect you.

Is it going to be pretty as plans and providers figure this out in the background? Maybe not, says Charles Bacchi, president of the California Association of Health Plans. But whats important is that its not readily apparent to the consumer.

The key point to remember is that you shouldnt pay more than your in-network co-payment, coinsurance or deductible, as long as you visited an in-network facility for nonemergency services.

So, if you receive what looks like a bill from a provider showing an out-of-network rate, dont panic, says Betsy Imholz, director of special projects for Consumers Union.

First, read it carefully. It may not actually be a bill. Under the law, any communication to the patient from an out-of-network provider before that provider gets the consumers in-network cost information must say  in bold, 12-point type  that it is not a bill.

If its an out-of-network doctor, they shouldnt be claiming that you owe anything right away, Imholz says.

And dont pay anything until you receive an Explanation of Benefits from your insurer, experts advise.

When you do receive it, inspect it. If you think youre still being billed incorrectly, call your health plan and file a grievance, says Mary Watanabe, the Department of Managed Health Care deputy director of health policy. Your plan will have 30 days to resolve the problem.

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If your plan doesnt resolve the situation within that time frame, or youre dissatisfied with the decision, its time to call your regulator. For most of you, that will be the Department of Managed Health Care: www.healthhelp.ca.gov or (888) 466-2219. To reach the Department of Insurance, visit www.insurance.ca.gov or call (800) 927-4357.

You can also call your regulator before you hear back from your health plan, particularly if out-of-network providers are hassling you for payment.

If you inadvertently paid an out-of-network provider more than he or she is owed, all is not lost. The doctor has to refund the overpayment within 30 days, Ma says. Otherwise, interest starts to accrue.

One warning: The law allows out-of-network providers to bill you out-of-network rates, but only if you voluntarily sign a form at least 24 hours before you receive care, Imholz says. The form must include an estimate of your cost and explain that you can receive care from an in-network provider instead, she says.

You dont have to sign it. Its completely voluntary.

If you do want to be seen by an out-of-network provider and are willing to pay the out-of-network charges, you still have to sign the consent form.

Since this law kicks in July 1, the surprise medical bills Powers received after his lung surgery wont be covered. Orsi says Powers cant afford to pay them.

I dont think its fair, she says. Im going to keep fighting it.

There may be hope. If, like that Southern California couple, youre currently fighting a surprise bill for a service you received before July 1, Watanabe urges you to call DMHC anyway.

We can often help, she says.

Emily Bazar is a senior correspondent with California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation produced by Kaiser Health News (which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente). Email: ebazar@kff.org Twitter: @emilybazar
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images

Hoping to encourage more companies to go public, the Securities and Exchange Commission is expanding a program that has allowed smaller businesses and technology startups to keep some details of their finances and business strategies under wraps early in the process of an initial public offering of stock.

In a policy change announced late Thursday, the regulator said all companies would be able to confidentially file draft registration statements for review by the agency before their offerings beginning July 10. A number of companies were previously able to take advantage of confidential filing, including Snap, Twitter and burger chain Shake Shack.
Brian Cornell didnt know U.S. retail just got rocked.

Last month, the CEO of Target was on a plane when Amazon said it would pay $13.7 billion to purchase Whole Foods Market, an acquisition that would make the Seattle online giant appear even more omnipotent than it already seemed. By the time Cornell landed, his phone was inundated with messages about the megadeal, including breathless headlines that declared the death of physical retail.

But then Cornell received a message from Chief Operating Officer John Mulligan: a photo of the retailers sales figures for the day.

Brian! Look! There are still consumers shopping at our stores today! Mulligan joked.

It was a lighthearted moment between two men who lead the nations second-largest retailer. But the subject matter was serious. Over the next few days, Target stock, along with that of other brick-and-mortar retailers, lost billions of dollars in market value. Cornell arranged for a conference call with the board of directors to discuss the situation.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

It was the topic of conversation everywhere across the country, Cornell told the annual Stanford Directors College in Palo Alto last week. People are sitting at dinner and asking what just happened and what does it mean?

It falls to executives like Cornell to answer those questions. Since joining Target as CEO in 2014, Cornell has faced the delicate task of reassuring employees and investors that the company is still strong while acknowledging that the industry is rapidly changing and Target needs to step up its game.

What were seeing today is that ... theres not a place for poorly run retailers, Cornell told me in an interview after his speech in Palo Alto.

Target has certainly see better days.

In 2011, Targets revamped website repeatedly crashed as people tried to purchase items from the retailers highly anticipated partnership with Italian fashion house Missoni. Embarassingly, Target had just taken control of the site after Amazon ran it under contract for a decade.

Other problems: the online theft of millions of credit card accounts in 2013, and a humiliating and expensive retreat from its foray into Canada, the retailers first attempt at international expansion.

Remarkably, Wall Street largely gave Target, a company traditionally known for strong profit and sound management, a pass on those miscues. But shareholders of late have not forgiven Target for declining store traffic and weak sales growth.

Since 2015, Target stock has dropped 40 percent to around $50 per share. More worrisome, Target  a retailer that through savvy marketing and smart merchandising once occupied the heights of pop culture relevance  seems to have lost its way.

The rapid rise of e-commerce has challenged Targets identity, said Alicia Hare, a former strategy executive for the retailer.

Target is at its best is when they have a clean sense of who they are and what they want to deliver, said Hare, who is now West Coast president of the SYPartners consulting firm in San Francisco. In this new environment, when consumers want it when they want it, what is the expression of that clean, holistic experience? At the moment, its kind of a messy experience. You dont feel like it is rooted in the soul of the company.

When companies are disrupted like Target, the No. 1 emotion is fear. Fear creates a lot of different behaviors. If you dont have the sense of purpose, there is no focus. Its hard to decide whether we should go left or right.

Target has always occupied a unique place in U.S. retail, best reflected in its motto Expect More, Pay Less. Like Walmart, the company sells staples like toilet paper and shampoo at discounted prices but nabs higher-income shoppers with trendy apparel and home goods.

Target is best known for partnerships with designers like Jason Wu, Michael Graves and Missoni to create exclusive, limited-time assortments that quickly sell out. Target coined the term cheap chic. Stores were clean, spacious and well lit.

But two things happened: the Great Recession and Amazon.

The economic crisis from 2007 to 2009 has caused consumers to cut discretionary spending, which continues to hurt Target in key, profitable categories like clothing, accessories and furniture.

For low-margin but fast-selling food and household essentials, Target has lost market share to Walmart and Amazon, whose supply chains far outmatch their rival. Targets Achilles heel has always been inventory: A common complaint is that shelves are frequently empty, and that stores constantly run out of things like bottled water and green bean casserole.

In some ways, Amazon has usurped the Expect More mantra from Target. While Target surprised shoppers with affordable luxury in apparel and home goods, Amazon has wowed customers with innovations like Amazon Prime.

Target has slowly pulled away from the positioning that won it the love and affection of middle America, said Brian Kelly, a consultant and a former top executive at Sears.

For an annual subscription, Prime customers not only get free shipping but also free access to movies, books and magazines. Like Netflix, Amazon has invested heavily in producing original films such as the Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea and television shows such as The Man in the High Castle.

Studies by the Kantar Retail consulting firm show that Targets greatest competitor is Amazon, because of the number of shoppers who frequent both retailers.

Cornell says that now more than ever, Target needs to rededicate itself to both Expect More and Pay Less.

Its about balance, he said. Its those great home brands that you can only find at Target. Or that unique item that we only sell. Then weve got to make sure that when someone looks at ... the Victoria Beckham dress ... and says, Hey, that dress only cost $35.

But we also need to make sure we deliver great value on household essentials, because those drive the trip, Cornell said. Its both the things you need and things you want.

Cornells five main strategies to revitalize the retailer:

Expand the base: Target has always focused on its most loyal customers. The goal was to encourage those shoppers to buy more and buy more often.

But Cornell says the company needs to expand into cities and college campuses with smaller formats, as well as remodel its existing stores to include more visual merchandising displays.

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Reclaim its merchandising powers: Rather than rely on limited-time assortments to create excitement, Cornell wants Target to deliver more new year-round brands to generate buzz and meaningful sales.

Where I do think we fell behind is innovation, Cornell said.

We had to step back and make sure we were putting quality back into the product and the investments weve made in product design and development is fueling the creation of several brands like Cat & Jack and Pillowfort.

Fix the supply chain: To encourage shoppers to visit Target more frequently, the company has to make sure stores dont run out of household products.

Weve got to do the basics well, Cornell said. I will tell you weve made great strides there. Paper, pet supplies and food, were in stock much more often than we were three years ago.

Invest cash into lowering prices: Target has always favored profit over sales. The company has been reluctant to engage its competitors in price wars to win market share.

Target wont do big clearance sales, but Cornell said the company will sacrifice some of its treasured profit to more consistently offer lower prices on a daily basis.

Improve integration between the Web and physical stores: Targets e-commerce sales have been one of the companys bright spots, growing well over 20 percent on a quarterly basis. But the increases have not been enough to offset the decline in store traffic and sales.

Cornell wants to create a more consistent experience online and in stores.

I think its always going to be a work in progress, but I think its gotten much better, he said. If you go to our site, versus even a year ago ... the ease, the features, the ability to search and check out, the ... improvement has just been dramatic.

Some wonder whether Targets overall efforts will be enough. With Amazon acquiring Whole Foods and Walmart creeping into higher-end fashion, Target may find itself squeezed on all sides, said Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York Universitys Stern School of Business.

Target is caught in no-mans land, Galloway said. It doesnt have the same access to capital like Amazon and they dont have the scale of Walmart.

But Cornell is not panicking. Though Amazon has mastered e-commerce, it will face a significant learning curve in running a grocery chain in Whole Foods, he said.

Amazon is going to find out pretty quickly how challenging stores are to operate, he said. Particularly when theyre filled with fresh foods.

Cornell likes to think the Whole Foods acquisition validates what he has been saying all along: Physical stores still matter. And Target has 1,800 of them, in prime locations across the country.

What Target needs is some of that old magic that made it special in the first place.
Fannie Mae is making it easier for some borrowers to spend up to half of their monthly pretax income on mortgage and other debt payments. But just because they can doesnt mean they should.

Generally, its a pretty poor idea, said Holly Gillian Kindel, an adviser with Mosaic Financial Partners. It flies in the face of common financial wisdom and best practices.

Fannie is a government agency that can buy or insure mortgages that meet its underwriting criteria. Effective July 29, its automated underwriting software will approve loans with debt-to-income ratios as high as 50 percent without additional compensating factors. The current limit is 45 percent.

Fannie has been approving borrowers with ratios between 45 and 50 percent if they had compensating factors, such as a down payment of least 20 percent and at least 12 months worth of reserves in bank and investment accounts. Its updated software will not require those compensating factors.

Fannie made the decision after analyzing many years of payment history on loans between 45 and 50 percent. It said the change will increase the percentage of loans it approves, but it would not say by how much.

That doesnt mean every Fannie-backed loan can go up 50 percent. Borrowers still must have the right combination of loan-to-value ratio, credit history, reserves and other factors. In a statement, Fannie said the change is consistent with our commitment to sustainable homeownership and with the safe and sound operation of our business.

Before the mortgage meltdown, Fannie was approving loans with even higher debt ratios. But 50 percent of pretax income is still a lot to spend on housing and other debt.

The U.S. Census Bureau says households that spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing are cost-burdened and those that spend 50 percent or more are severely cost burdened.

The Dodd-Frank Act, designed to prevent another financial crisis, authorized the creation of a qualified mortgage. These mortgages cant have certain risky features, such as interest-only payments, terms longer than 30 years or debt-to-income ratios higher than 43 percent. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said a 43 percent limit would protect consumers and generally safeguard affordability.

However, loans that are eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and other government agencies are deemed qualified mortgages, even if they allow ratios higher than 43 percent. Freddie Mac, Fannies smaller sibling, has been backing loans with ratios up to 50 percent without compensating factors since 2011. The Federal Housing Administration approves loans with ratios up to 57 percent, said Ed Pinto of the American Enterprise Institute Center on Housing Risk.

Since 2014, lenders that make qualified mortgages cant be sued if they go bad, so most lenders have essentially stopped making non-qualified mortgages.

Lenders are reluctant to make jumbo loans with ratios higher than 43 percent because they would not get the legal protection afforded qualified mortgages. Jumbos are loans that are too big to be purchased by Fannie and Freddie. Their limit in most parts of the Bay Area is $636,150 for one-unit homes.

Fannies move comes at a time when consumer debt is soaring. Credit card debt surpassed $1 trillion in December for the first time since the recession and now stands behind auto loans ($1.1 trillion) and student loans ($1.4 trillion), according to the Federal Reserve.

Thats making it harder for people to get or refinance a mortgage. In April, Fannie announced three small steps it was taking to make it easier for people with education loans to get a mortgage.

Some consumer groups are happy to see Fannie raising its debt limit to 50 percent. I think there are enough other standards built into the Fannie Mae underwriting system where this is not going to lead to predatory loans, said Geoff Walsh, a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center.

Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, said, There are households that can afford these loans, including moderate-income households. When they are carefully underwritten and fully documented they can perform at that level. He pointed out that a lot of tenants are managing to pay at least 50 percent of income on rent.

A new study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University noted that 10 percent of homeowners and 25.5 percent of renters are spending at least 50 percent of their income on housing.

When Fannie calculates debt-to-income ratios, it starts with the monthly payment on the new loan (including principal, interest, property tax, homeowners association dues, homeowners insurance and private mortgage insurance). Then it adds the monthly payment on credit cards (minimum payment due), auto, student and other loans and alimony.

It divides this total debt by total monthly income. It will consider a wide range of income that is stable and verifiable including wages, bonuses, commissions, pensions, investments, alimony, disability, unemployment and public assistance.

Fannie figures a creditworthy borrower with $10,000 in monthly income could spend up to $5,000 on mortgage and debt payments. Not everyone agrees.

If you have a debt ratio that high, the last thing you should be doing is buying a house. You are stretching yourself way too thin, said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst with Bankrate.com.

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Michelle Brownstein, director of private client services with Personal Capital, agrees. A rule of thumb is to spend no more than 28 percent of income on housing and no more than 36 percent on all debt. That lets people live comfortably, pay taxes and save for retirement, college and emergencies, she said.

You can make the argument, for some individuals, that a higher (ratio) makes sense if their income is going to go up dramatically in a short period of time, or if they have reserves earning 7 or 8 percent in an investment account and a 4 percent mortgage, she added.

Of course, spending no more than 28 percent of income on housing is not realistic for many people in the Bay Area. According to the California Association of Realtors, only 25 percent of people here had enough monthly income ($13,362) to make the monthly payment including taxes and insurance ($4,010) on a median-priced single-family home ($780,3330), in the first-quarter.

Many buyers are afraid to go that high. We have buyers balk at going to 45 percent, much less 50 percent, said Jay Vorhees, a mortgage broker in Walnut Creek. This is especially true with Millennials.

Borrowers who are refinancing a mortgage and taking cash out to pay off other debt may be tempted to go up to 50 percent, especially if they are already spending at least 50 percent of income on debt. This move seems appealing, because interest on home-equity debt is deductible  up to a limit  whereas interest on other debt is not. But converting short-term consumer debt into 30-year mortgage debt is not always a smart move.

Kindel, the financial adviser, said borrowers should talk over such moves with a financial thinking partner who doesnt have a vested interest in the decision. That excludes mortgage and real estate agents and even some family members.

If this is data-driven as Fannie says, I guess its OK, said David Reiss, who teaches real estate finance at Brooklyn Law School. People can make decisions themselves. We have these rules for the median person. A lot of immigrant families have no problem spending 60 or 70 percent (of income) on housing. They have cousins living there, they rent out a room.

Reiss added that homeownership rates are low and expanding them seems reasonable. But making credit looser will probably drive up housing prices.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender
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When I first visited M.F.K. Fisher at her Glen Ellen home, named Last House, she was writing longhand on a yellow legal pad, in bed.

The reason Id been invited to lunch in 1988 was that her friend Kathleen Hill had worked in the John F. Kennedy White House and they thought that since I was a reporter for the local paper, the Sonoma Index-Tribune, I could write a story on the 25th anniversary of the presidents assassination.

That day, Fisher  I addressed her as Mary Frances  invited me to come visit again. I did, and often. She was both gracious and stern with me. When I complained of difficulties being a single mother and making a living in journalism, she was unsympathetic, shooting me just do it looks. Shed raised two daughters on her own industrious writing. If I mentioned a looming deadline, shed rush me out the door: Never miss a deadline!

On my visits, I would eat sauteed squash blossoms and vivid greens in the redwood-ceilinged living room or sit on the balcony facing Sonoma Mountain, craving one of her famous fried-egg sandwiches to stash in my pocket for later.

No one ever came calling to the prolific food writers house empty-handed, and I, too, was tormented seeking treats worthy of her, like perfectly ripe black mission figs picked off my El Verano tree.

Flowing through the house was an endless stream of gifts. There would always be bottles of wine, zucchini, jars of honey or a dozen eggs. People would drop off fresh things for her, said Margie Foster, Fishers typist from 1976 to 1981. People would bring her bounty and put it on that table. And she would reciprocate.

It was not uncommon for Alice Waters to show up with armloads of vegetables and flowers from a nearby farm visit, or to see Fisher practicing a peasant stew recipe for a meal with Julia Child.

She was kind of a contemporary of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but she outwrote and outdrank both of them, said Scott Worsham, a former Sonoma County resident who now owns a Chicago restaurant named MFK in her honor.

Fisher died in 1992 at 83. Since then, visitors to Sonoma Valley and fans of hers have long wondered about the fate of her enchanting palazzino on that oak-studded hill at Bouverie Preserve.

Theres finally an answer.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Fisher moved into Last House in 1971, after she sold her St. Helena Victorian for $36,000. She gave the money to David Pleydell-Bouverie, an English aristocrat and architect, to build her a house on his Glen Ellen property. The two designed it together. She got exactly what she wanted. She was very grateful, said her daughter, Kennedy Golden. A few years later, Bouverie donated his 535 acres of wildflowers, waterfalls and wildlife to the nonprofit Audubon Canyon Ranch (ACR).

It was understood that when VIPs visited Fisher, they would be brought round to Bouveries home just up the hill. They had a lot of well-known people in common, said Golden, noting lauded visitors like Herb Caen and Maya Angelou. There was a well-worn path between the two houses. Occasionally a celebrated guest would spend time with one, and not the other. David was not pleased if they came to visit my mother and they didnt come up to see him, Golden said.

After Fishers death, many wanted Last House to immediately be turned into a museum, though the family was reluctant. Some were crestfallen when Bouveries land steward, John Martin, moved in. But Golden said Martin and Fisher were friends, and the family had no objection.

When Martin retired last year, Golden was convinced by Audubon Canyon Ranch board members that restoring her mothers Mediterranean-style house would benefit Fishers legacy and the property.

At first I was not interested, Golden said. It sounded commercial.

But her stance softened. Now she believes it is aligned with her mothers priorities (people, food, nature).

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Instead of an exact restoration, the nonprofits executive director, John Petersen, said the goal is to re-create the ambience of Last House. A task force will decide how to carefully turn the residence into a destination.

Its wonderful the way its not being treated as a museum, how its being done in her spirit. She often talked about making it a writers retreat, said Marsha Moran, Fishers former secretary.

A letter was sent out to Fishers circles, asking those who were given or inherited Fishers possessions to consider returning them to the house.

Some things people are not ready to part with. I think its sort of fine for it to be thinner than it was. It represents her spirit, said Moran, who is holding onto a bookcase and bed that belonged to Fisher.

Foster, the typist, did not hesitate to return the wicker fan chair she was bequeathed. I felt it should be there, she said. Other personal possessions like Fishers Coronamatic typewriter, her books and her artwork have also been returned, and the centerpiece of the house  the palatial bathroom  has been repainted the requisite Chinese red.

An inaugural event held on June 11 shows the stucco structure looks like it did when Fisher lived there.

Its definitely a step in the right direction. She dearly loved the preserve, said friend Joanne Filipello, founder of Wild Thyme catering. Her relationship with Fisher began in 1978 when she and chef-husband Keith owned a farm-to-table French restaurant named Capri on Sonoma Plaza. Years later, she ended up as Fishers substitute driver.

It unleashed a flood of memories, she added.

On that Sunday, Filipello made ratatouille from Fishers classic cookbook, With Bold Knife and Fork. It was a dish Fisher made many times; shed cook the vegetables together in a fairly slow oven for a short while, then turn it off, leaving it in there overnight. She served it at room temperature, with bread and salad. She liked fresh, clean, fairly simple food. The ingredients were very key, Filipello said.

Going forward, Last House will be a site for author and chef interviews, open-house afternoons and maybe even some cassoulet dinners. Many hope it to be a fitting tribute for Fisher, whose final work was titled Last House. In it, she wrote about aging, bothersome journalists, leftovers, letters to friends, sipping vermouth, eating chocolate and her cat Charlie.

In her books and in her home, Fisher always seemed to be able to put words together and people together in a way that made things extraordinary, noted former secretary Moran. I think that was her genius, she added.

Bouverie Preserve is accessible for docent-led events only; reservations are necessary. More information at www.egret.org or (707) 938-4554

Lisa Amand is a San Francisco freelance writer. Twitter: @imnofoodie Email: food@sfchronicle.com
Abortion will remain legal in the United States, at least for the foreseeable future. So will same-sex marriage. Housing policies that harm minorities will remain prohibited by federal civil rights laws. And the fate of President Trumps travel ban is still in doubt.

The reason is that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy  who holds a potentially deciding vote on each of those issues  did not announce his retirement at the close of the courts 2016-17 term last week, despite widespread rumors to the contrary. His replacement by a Trump appointee would shift an already conservative court further to the right, with potentially dramatic impacts on questions of individual rights and executive powers.

Kennedy, who turns 81 on July 23 and is in his 30th year on the court, could still announce his departure at any time, but he appears to have signaled otherwise by hiring a full set of law clerks for the upcoming 2017-18 term. He hasnt spoken publicly about the subject, except, perhaps, in remarks at a dinner he held for his law clerks on June 24.

According to the legal publication Above the Law, Kennedy said something like, There has been a lot of speculation about a certain announcement from me tonight. And that announcement is, the bar will remain open after the end of the formal program.

The most plausible interpretation of Kennedys attempt at humor, said David Levine, a law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco, was that hes not going to dignify these rumors ... coming from people who want him to move aside. Theres no evidence that hes been musing about retirement.

UCLA Law Professor Adam Winkler read it differently. Reports of Kennedys impending departure were coming from all the inside lawyers who circle around the Justice Department, he said, and Kennedy passed up an opportunity to put those rumors to rest at the dinner.

Its obvious that hes flirting with the issue of retirement, Winkler said.

But both professors, and other legal commentators, agreed that Kennedy has a powerful incentive to stay where he is: As a relatively moderate conservative on an ideologically divided court, he holds the deciding vote on its most contentious issues.

Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

His position gives him immense influence on the shape of American life, Winkler said.

Levine called it the role of a lifetime. And Jesse Choper, a UC Berkeley law professor and former Supreme Court law clerk, said Kennedy is the single most powerful public official in the United States.

Perhaps the most incendiary issue is the right to abortion, legalized nationwide in 1973 in the Roe vs. Wade decision and a target of religious and political conservatives for decades. Trump has said his Supreme Court appointees would vote automatically to overturn Roe and allow states to limit or outlaw abortion, though a 2003 California law would preserve abortion rights in this state.

Kennedy, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, has cast some antiabortion votes, notably his 2007 majority opinion upholding a federal ban on a second-trimester procedure that foes dubbed partial-birth abortion. But he provided crucial votes for a 1992 ruling that upheld the core of Roe vs. Wade and for a June 2016 decision striking down a Texas law that sought to close abortion clinics by requiring them to meet hospital standards.

There are no abortion cases on the courts current docket. But many states have continued to pass laws restricting the procedure, and a shift in the court could encourage lawmakers in conservative states to push for an outright ban and a reconsideration of the 1973 precedent.

Dirck Halstead/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Kennedys departure during Trumps administration would probably lead to the overruling of Roe, said Michael Dorf, a Cornell University law professor who was a law clerk for Kennedy in 1991-92. Others predicted the court would move more cautiously, upholding Texas-type regulations of clinics and physicians, but all agreed that abortion would become less accessible.

Other close decisions on contested social issues could also be vulnerable. In 2015, Kennedy led a divided court in upholding a federal ban on housing practices that unintentionally harmed racial minorities. A year later, his majority opinion allowed the University of Texas to consider race as a factor in admissions.

He has also written rulings, over dissents from more conservative justices, that banned the death penalty for juveniles and for rapists whose victims survived.

But the issue with which Kennedy is most closely identified is gay rights. He has written all of the courts major rulings on discrimination based on sexual orientation: overturning a states ban on local gay rights measures in 1996, barring states from criminalizing gay sex in 2003, striking down a ban on federal benefits for same-sex spouses in 2013 and, finally, legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Those cases will be in constitutional law textbooks read by law students 100 years from now, UCLAs Winkler said. Another Trump appointment to the Supreme Court puts at risk Justice Kennedys legacy in gay rights.

Kennedy joined the majority in last weeks 6-3 ruling requiring Arkansas to list a married lesbian couple as parents on their childs birth certificate. It was also the occasion for Trumps first appointee, Neil Gorsuch, to take his first public position in a gay rights case  a dissenting opinion in the states favor, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Gorsuchs arrival may also have been the deciding factor in the courts recent vote to take up an appeal by a Colorado bake-shop owner who refused, on religious grounds, to prepare a wedding cake for a gay couple. State courts refused to exempt the owner from a Colorado law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.

After previously denying review of similar cases, the justices could use the Colorado case, to be argued in the upcoming term, to allow religious objections to gay rights laws in states such as California  a decision that most likely will turn on Kennedys vote.

And the departure of Kennedy, or a more liberal justice such as 83-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg or 78-year-old Stephen Breyer, would embolden states that have been reluctant to recognize same-sex marriages despite the 2015 ruling, returning the issue to a reconstituted Supreme Court.

Levine, of UC Hastings, said he thinks Kennedy relishes being the man in the middle and will try to stay on the court, and preserve its current balance, as long as he feels up to it.

Trumps nomination of Gorsuch, a respected appeals court judge who was once a Kennedy law clerk, was widely viewed in legal circles as an attempt to reassure Kennedy that he would be replaced by a well-qualified successor upon retirement. But Levine said the president has undermined any such reassurance with his continual attacks on so-called judges and much-reversed courts that rule against him.

Kennedy is devoted to the institutions of the court. I think that sort of thing is offensive to him, Levine said. I would think hed be reluctant to give up his seat to a person who would disparage the court.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko

A Supreme Court without Kennedy

Here is a list of Supreme Court rulings that could be reversed or decided differently if Justice Anthony Kennedy were replaced by a more conservative appointee:

Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

Gay rights rulings, including Kennedys 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Also at stake is a case now before the court on the rights of business owners to refuse service to gays and lesbians on religious grounds.

The legality of a federal law, upheld in a Kennedy opinion in 2015, that prohibits housing practices that harm racial minorities, regardless of intent.

President Trumps temporary bans on travel to the U.S. by residents of six nations with overwhelmingly Muslim populations and by all refugees, now before the court.

A suit challenging the authority of state legislators to draw district boundaries to benefit their political party, known as political gerrymandering.
RENO  Thousands of tokers kicked off retail pot sales in Nevada Saturday, crowding into more than two dozen dispensaries in Reno and Las Vegas, where long lines of giddy buyers waited throughout the day for a taste of history.

Whoops and cheers broke out as the doors opened in several locations at one minute past midnight Saturday, making Nevada the fifth state in the nation to let pot shops sell recreational marijuana.

Its a day in history, shouted Todd Weatherhead, 35, who was the first to walk through the doors of the Dispensary in Reno at 8 a.m., after waiting outside for three hours and 40 minutes. Here we have been arrested, persecuted, frowned upon  and now we have a chance to purchase this plant legally and, by paying taxes, support local government. Its incredibly exciting.

It was a major victory for a state better known for its legal gambling and prostitution, but the latest indulgence is particularly special because it comes six months before neighboring California pulls the trigger on recreational reefer.

The rush began amid the pomp of Las Vegas, where a cannabis-crusading state senator was among the first to purchase the newly legal herb amid fireworks and preening celebrities. But the crowds were just as big at the four shops that opened in Reno, where many of the ganja trades true-blue hedonists, including several from California, crowded against the shelves and display cases to sample the wares.

Its huge, said Mikel Alvarez, director of retail operations for Blum, a Reno dispensary where the hoi polloi of hemp gathered before midnight Friday in hopes of getting in on the action. It's been a long time coming.

Tourists mingled with veterans, housewives, people in tie-dye apparel, young people holding skateboards and folks in button-down shirts as they waited in line at the various dispensaries.

Its like Christmas in July, said a giddy Mike Stephenson, a 51-year-old veteran from Reno, who had never obtained a medical marijuana card for his lingering pain because the Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize pot as medicine.

Its a dream come true, he said, as he bought weed at the Dispensary. I dont have to worry anymore.

Customers were elbow to elbow at Blum, where the store shelves were stocked with edibles, lozenges, gums, extracts and oils. Bud tenders explained the psychedelic qualities of the stores neatly arranged jars of sticky flower, which had names like Purple Monkey, Skunkberry, Gorilla Glue and Dream Queen.

Ive been waiting for this for a long time, so I had to be a part of it on day one, said Rick Hernandez, 35, of Carson City, who spent $35 for 3.5 grams of a potent brand called Blueberry Cookies. Its going to be much more convenient now that I dont have to deal with shady characters in a parking lot.

Motorists honked at the many first-time pot buyers waiting in line at the MYNT Cannabis Dispensary, the only retail outlet near the casinos in downtown Reno.

Its a monumental day here, said Clint Cates, the owner of MYNT, an acronym for My Natural Therapy. Were slammed. We have about 150 people in line at all times. Were doing about one customer a minute, and we cant get going fast enough.

Nevada state Sen. Tick Segerblom kicked off the statewide shindig at the Reef dispensary, a Las Vegas store that sells Segerblom Haze, a potent strain named after him. The high-flying scene was lit up by fireworks and featured barbecued meat for consumers with the munchies.

Essence Vegas hosted a dignitary-packed event, where bud tenders peddled 50 strains of cannabis, pipes and other accoutrements.

The recreational pot trade was not supposed to start in Nevada until 2018, but lawmakers sped things up when they found out the state could earn an additional $3 million in tax revenue if sales started July 1.

The early start forced last-minute rulings on distribution permits and an emergency order by Gov. Brian Sandoval allowing medical dispensaries to sell existing medical supplies to recreational customers as long as they met packaging requirements. The order, issued Monday, forced many dispensary workers to stay up late Friday re-labeling their supplies.

Dispensaries are allowed to sell both medical and recreational pot in Nevada, where all flowers and edibles have to be placed in child-proof packaging with dosages, strains and growing regions listed on the label.

Recreational users can buy up to an ounce of marijuana flower. Edibles are limited to no more than 10 milligrams per serving and 100 milligrams per package of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical compound in cannabis that makes people high. Patients with medical cards can purchase more.

Regulators believe that the 50 million tourists who visit Las Vegas and Reno every year will account for more than 60 percent of recreational sales. Thats largely because out-of-towners do not have to pay the 10 percent recreational cannabis excise tax.

Im here more for the novelty, because it is a landmark moment for Nevada, said Django Broomfield, 41, who drove to Reno from Laytonville in Mendocino County to buy a gram of pot. The gram wont make it back across the state line.

Wherever he smokes, Broomfield will have to limit his pleasures. The states renowned brothels dont allow pot.

Nevada joins the states of Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in opening pot retail stores. California voters also approved sales of recreational marijuana last fall, but regulators are still working out its rules.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite
By PTI: By Aditi Khanna

London, Jul 1 (PTI) British Prime Minister Theresa May is under growing pressure to entirely replace the local authority in charge of Grenfell Tower, the residential block here that went up in flames earlier this month.

London mayor Sadiq Khan called on May to replace the council with independent commissioners after the leader of the council, Nick Paget-Brown, and his deputy, Rock Feilding- Mellen, both announced on Friday that they would be stepping down over "perceived failings" by the council after the fire on June 14 that claimed at least 80 lives and displaced hundreds.

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In a letter to May on Friday evening, Khan said that while the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Councils leader and deputy leader have resigned, choosing new leadership from the existing members may aggravate the situation.

His comments followed criticism of the councils decision to adjourn a meeting over the presence of the press and public.

He said: "Following yesterday evenings [Thursday] shambolic council cabinet meeting, it is self-evident that the leadership of the council has lost the trust of local residents.

"Therefore, I believe the government has no option but to immediately appoint commissioners to take over the running of council.

"It is also clear that a change in leadership from amongst the existing councillors will not address this situation - in fact it may aggravate it further, as it fails to address the fundamental breakdown in trust that has taken place."

He called on the prime minister to appoint "untainted" commissioners with "a genuine empathy for local people and the situation they face" to take over the running of the council until the next local council elections.

Announcing his resignation on Friday, Paget-Brown had said: "This council has been criticised for failing to answer all the questions that people have.

That is properly a matter for the public inquiry.

"As council leader, I have to accept my share of responsibility for these perceived failings.?

Last month, Robert Black, chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which ran Grenfell Tower, had agreed to resign to "concentrate on assisting with the investigation and inquiry".

Meanwhile, Catherine Faulks, Conservative party councillor for Kensington and Chelsea Council,said a new council leader will be elected next week.

"Of course we werent immediately quick off the ground, it was an enormous tragedy...I challenge any borough in the whole country to immediately have had an action plan that they could put into place," she said.

The fire at the 24-storey block in North Kensington destroyed 151 homes, both in the tower and surrounding areas.

Documents seen by the BBC indicate the cladding fitted to Grenfell Tower during its refurbishment was changed to a cheaper version, which was less fire resistant.

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The towers cladding has been the focus of attention, amid suggestions it was why the flames spread so quickly.

Since then hundreds of other tower blocks around the UK have also failed fire safety tests for their cladding, prompting the British PM to announce a wider inquiry into the use of material used on the exterior of housing blocks in the country. PTI AK NSA

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Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, who came under fire for sentencing former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to six months in county jail for sexual assault, sought Friday to dismiss demands for his removal, saying the court of law should be separated from the court of public opinion.

Persky, who has served as a judge in the South Bay county for 12 years, faces a formal recall campaign initiated with a filing Monday by 50 area activists who want him out of office, claiming the Turner sentence shows he does not take sexual violence seriously.

In a Friday filing with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters  the first formal response by Persky to the allegations  the judge defended his record on the bench and said that allowing outside forces to overtly influence the judiciary would have problematic implications for the independence of the third branch of government.

Persky, who was cleared of misconduct by several agencies, including Californias Commission on Judicial Performance, said he was following a probation departments recommendation in sentencing Turner.

California law requires every judge to consider rehabilitation and probation for first-time offenders, Persky wrote. Its not always popular, but its the law, and I took an oath to follow it without regard to public opinion.

Citing his earlier career as a prosecutor, Persky said he fought vigorously for victims. Though the filing cites an Associated Press review that found no racial bias in Perskys other rulings, activists allege hes been lenient to other athletes convicted of domestic violence.

The path for the activists seeking to remove the judge is a long and complex one that has not been successful in California in decades. It involves gathering more than 50,000 signatures from registered county voters  though organizers say theyre pushing for 90,000 as a safeguard  and carefully working through county regulations.

If all goes as planned for the petitioners, Persky, who ran unopposed for re-election last year, would be forced to run again in a special election in June 2018, four years before his term is to expire.

A special election would leave the fate of Persky  who sentenced Turner in June 2016 to far less than the six years in state prison prosecutors had sought  in the hands of Santa Clara County voters.

If the special election happens, Perskys statement in his Friday filing will appear on the ballot alongside the motion against him.

Thousands of people in the county and around the world were angered by the sentence Persky imposed on Turner, who served half of his six-month term before returning to his home state of Ohio to register as a sex offender.

Persky could not be reached for comment Friday, and the campaign to keep him in office said a representative was not immediately available for comment.

Turner was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old unconscious and intoxicated woman behind a dumpster near a fraternity party at Stanfords campus in January 2015.

The victim, who was rescued by two passing graduate students who tackled Turner, read aloud a powerful letter at Turners sentencing hearing that called the recommendation of the probation office a soft timeout.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In September 2016, Gov. Jerry Brown visited Stanford and signed into law a bill redefining rape, capping a push by state lawmakers to crack down on similar crimes.

Stanford law Professor Michele Dauber, who is the chair of the campaign to recall Persky, which has raised about $450,000, said such a recall of an elected judge has happened just twice in California.

The first instance, in 1913, involved San Francisco Judge Charles Weller, who reduced bail for a man charged with assaulting two young girls in Golden Gate Park. The suspect, Albert Hendricks, fled after making bail, drawing the ire of thousands of women who had recently gained the right to vote in California.

The case of Weller, who was voted out in a recall election, strikes Dauber as similar to Perskys situation.

Just like the women in San Francisco in 1913, she said, were going forward (with) this, and were going to prevail.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michael_bodley
Roberto Delgado gathered an armful of leather brogues and oxfords that had been placed on Northgate Avenue in Oakland by a passing motorist.

They were size 10, too small for him. But they were in good condition, and he knew someone in his community would want  no, need  a pair of shoes without holes in the soles.

Delgado didnt leap out of the chair in front of his tent fast enough to sift through the sweaters and pants that were also dropped off. And the portable speaker, which could have been sold or traded for toiletries, cigarettes  anything  was long gone before he made it to the fresh pile of goods.

Delgado, 27, was wearing black Air Jordan sneakers, a black Raiders T-shirt and a black North Face jacket  clothes he either found or were given to him.

Black is also Delgados race.

Its the race of many of the residents in the Northgate Avenue tent encampment under the Interstate 980 overpass.

And its the race of most of Oaklands homeless population, which jumped by 25 percent to 2,761 between 2015 and 2017, according to a recent point-in-time count.

Dig into the citys homeless statistics, and you should be moved by what they suggest: Black people in Oakland are more likely to lose their homes and end up homeless on the citys streets than any other racial or ethnic group.

According to a survey administered by Alameda County weeks after the point-in-time count, almost 70 percent of the people living on Oaklands streets are black. Yet black people were 28 percent of Oaklands 2010 census population. And, 58 percent of Oaklands homeless people said money issues were the primary cause of their homelessness. Whats more, 48 percent said rent assistance might have prevented their homelessness while 36 percent said employment assistance would have kept them in their homes.

That data should be dismaying to everyone, especially those who champion Oakland as a diverse, inclusive city.

It is heartbreaking, but it is not surprising, that even in a city that has embraced black achievement ... were still dealing with the structural injustice in our economy, said Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who represents the district that includes most of the tent cities.

She said the disproportionate number of black people in the tents really just demonstrates that whole continuum of injustice that we see from the cradle to the grave.

Black communities were once deprived of loans and investment, a practice known as redlining. But its those same communities that were targeted for subprime mortgages and loans, which left many drowning in debt and unable to make the payments necessary to keep their homes.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Then theres folks like Marcus Emery, who got an astronomical rent increase. Emery, 53, said the rent on his Milton Street apartment jumped from $800 to $2,100, and he could no longer afford it. He moved to the Northgate camp and has been outside for nine months.

I had a home for 18 years, said Emery, lifting his shirt to show me the scar from a stab wound he suffered two months ago in the tent he now secures with a padlock. Its my first time out here. Its so cruel.

The convenient narrative about homeless people is that theyre lazy, mentally ill or drug addicts. Or just looking for handouts. But thats not true. Stop by any homeless encampment, and youll likely find people who will tell you they simply cant afford to keep a roof over their heads  and that they have nowhere else to go but the sidewalks under highway overpasses, where its cool in the summer and dry in the winter.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Oakland leaders have stressed that theyve learned from San Franciscos mistakes in dealing with homelessness. I wonder what Oakland has learned from San Francisco about its dwindling black population.

Delgado, an East Oakland native who told me hes on a housing waiting list, has been homeless for four years since he was kicked out of his parents house. He didnt tell me why.

I just want to live peacefully and get a job again, he said. Im just doing what I can. I dont have nothing right now.

Two weeks ago, he had a job doing home construction. But he lost his job.

Outside his tent, Delgado offered his neighbor, Shonee Stringer, 50, the shoes he had picked up. But they werent her partners size. He let her take a few drags from his cigarette, because thats what most of the neighbors on Northgate Avenue do for each other: They share.

Its what we should be doing, Delgado said. If everybody did that, we wouldnt even be in this situation.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. normally appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr
Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of a new White House commission examining voter fraud, sent an unusual letter to all 50 states last Wednesday.

The letter requested all state election officials to send the following from their voter-roll data to the White House by July 14: the names, addresses, birth dates and registered political parties for every registered voter in the country, the last four digits of every voters Social Security number, and, finally, which elections each voter has participated in since 2006.

Kobach is the current secretary of state for Kansas. In Kansas, he drew criticism (and lawsuits) for his aggressive actions, including instituting a law that required people to show a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous ruling that he had engaged in mass denial of a fundamental right by blocking 18,000 voting applicants.

Theres little reason to believe Kobach has learned from the avalanche of studies showing no evidence of widespread voter fraud in any state of this union.

Yet he seems to believe he has the right to request sensitive personal information about Americas voters with little justification at all. For many of these states, releasing this kind of sensitive information would violate their own state constitutions.

In California, details such as home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses are considered confidential  though exceptions can be made for political campaigns, scholarly research and journalistic pursuits. Nevertheless, the law prohibits the posting such sensitive information on the Internet or other places where it could be available for open viewing.

Kobach didnt say how the commission plans to use this data, only that it intends to fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting  and he has pledged to make the data he collects available to the public.

On Thursday, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla released a statement saying he wouldnt be providing the information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally.

New York and Kentucky have refused to participate. In Georgia, Wisconsin, Vermont, Oklahoma and many other states, officials have said they wont release any information that isnt already public.

If Kobach were really interested in our election integrity, he would be scrutinizing our outdated voter technology, suppressive voter laws and Russian interference.
The Senates bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act is not a health care bill. Its a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, paid for by a dramatic reduction in health care funding for approximately 23 million poor, disabled and working middle-class Americans.

Americas wealthiest taxpayers (earning more than $200,000 a year, $250,000 for couples) would get a tax cut totaling $346 billion over 10 years, representing what they save from no longer financing health care for lower-income Americans.

Thats not all. The bill would save an additional $400 billion on Medicaid, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Trump are intent on shrinking in order to cut even more taxes for the wealthy and for big corporations.

If enacted, the bill would be the largest single transfer of wealth to the rich from the middle class and poor in American history.

This disgrace is being proposed at a time when Americas rich own the highest percentage of the nations wealth and receive the highest percent of U.S. income since the era of the robber barons of the late 19th century.

Almost all of the transfer is hidden inside a bill thats supposed to be a kinder and gentler version of its House counterpart, which Trump called mean, mean, mean.

Look closely and its even meaner.

The Senate bill appears to retain the Affordable Care Acts subsidies for poorer Americans. But starting in 2020, the subsidies would no longer be available for many of the working poor who now receive them, nor for anyone whos not eligible for Medicaid.

Another illusion: The bill seems to keep the Affordable Care Acts Medicaid expansion. But the expansion is phased out, starting in 2021.

The core of the bill  where its biggest savings come from  is a huge reduction in Medicaid, Americas health care program for the poor, elderly and disabled.

This, too, is disguised. States would receive an amount of money per Medicaid recipient that appears to grow as health care costs rise. But starting in 2025, the payments would be based on how fast costs rise in the economy as a whole.

Yet medical costs are rising faster than overall costs. Theyll almost surely continue to do so  as Americas elderly population grows, and as new medical devices, technologies and drugs prolong life.

Which means that after 2025, Medicaid coverage will shrink.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute estimates that between 2019 and 2028, about $467 billion less will be spent on Medicaid than would be spent if Medicaid funding were to keep up with the expected rise in medical costs. After that, presumably, the shortfall would be even larger.

The states would have to make up the difference, but many wont want to or be able to.

One final major deception: Proponents of the bill say it would continue to protect people with preexisting conditions. But the bill allows states to reduce insurance coverage for everyone, including people with preexisting conditions.

So insurance companies could technically cover people with preexisting conditions for the cost of, say, their visits to a doctor, but not hospitalization, drugs or anything else they need.

The Senate bill only seems like a kinder, gentler version of the House repeal of the Affordable Care Act, but over time it would be even crueler.

Will the American public find out? Not if McConnell can help it.

He hasnt scheduled a single hearing on the bill.

Hes shut out major hospitals, physician groups, consumer advocates and organizations representing millions of patients with heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other serious illnesses.

McConnell thinks hes found a quiet way not only to repeal the Affordable Care Act but also to unravel Medicaid  and funnel the savings to the rich.

For years, Republicans have been looking for ways to undermine Americas three core social insurance programs: Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The three constitute the major legacy of the Democrats, of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. All continue to be immensely popular.

Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act is almost part of that legacy. Its not on quite as solid a footing as the others because its still new, and some wrinkles need to be ironed out. But most Americans support it.

Now McConnell believes he can begin to undo the legacy, starting with the Affordable Care Act and, gradually, Medicaid.

But he knows he has to do it in secret if hes to be successful.

If this shameful bill is enacted, McConnell and Trump  as well as every Republican senator who signs on  will bear the burden of hundreds of thousands of deaths that could have been avoided, were they not so determined to make rich Americans even richer.

 2017 Robert Reich

Robert Reich, a former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. He blogs daily at www.facebook.com/rbreich. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at http://bit.ly/SFChronicleletters
Normally, when a play is defined by repetition, digression and palaver, the proper response is to head for the hills. Thats assuming that your playwright isnt Abi Morgan. The British writer finds an incandescent glow and a thrumming subtext in banalities, which she breaks into fragments and reconstructs into a kind of endlessly expanding spiral, a set of themes and variations, or elaborations.

Thats also assuming you have hills you can head to.

Part of the point of Morgans Splendour, whose Bay Area premiere opened Thursday, June 29, at Aurora Theatre Company, is that theres nowhere its four characters can go beyond the Art Deco mansion (the icily handsome set design is by Michael Locher) where Micheleine (Lorri Holt) lives with her husband, a leader in an unnamed country. In the snow outside, the rumbles and rockets of battle draw dangerously close, and anyway, photographer Kathryn (Denmo Ibrahim) and her translator Gilma (Sam Jackson) have a gig to shoot a portrait of Micheleines husband. But he keeps delaying his arrival, and the outsiders presence unsettles the already tizzy-prone hostess, so she calls in her slow but sweet friend Genevieve (Mia Tagano) as reinforcement.

That scene plays out again and again, restarted each time kleptomaniac Gilma shatters the vase shes sneakily appraising. With each new go-round, Morgan divulges more and often conflicting information about characters, revealing as prisms women who at first might seem more two-dimensional.

Micheleine is no mere cloistered ornament with the ignorance of privilege. Her smarts, her cruelty, her restraint all bore deep, and in Holts rendering she is equally capable of vaulting into rage or guffaws or sobs at any moment, though shes incapable of, say, answering the incessantly ringing phone.

Similarly, Gilma isnt just a wartime opportunist. She has to touch things as other creatures have to reproduce, smudging or eating or stealing every object within reach. Yet in Jacksons smart performance, shes just as surprised or dismayed as everyone else is each time she gets caught, as if snapping back to consciousness. She knows the others underestimate her  her boxy clothes (designed by Fumiko Bielefeldt), her manners, her accent all suggest lowly enemy origins. But she draws inward satisfaction just from knowing shes keener than everyone thinks she is.

Morgans tense dialogue lets flaws ripen in a way we dont often see in female characters in theater. Theyre allowed to annoy not just each other but also us a little. That makes us share in the entrapment until one of many monologues, set off from the rest of the action, reestablishes the burning righteousness of each conflicting perspective. Morgans view here is both deep focus and wide-angle, simultaneously considering the levels of consciousness, home and globe.

Still, under the direction of Barbara Damashek, much in this tangle of resentments and backstory remains opaque. Morgan withholds so much for so long, about whats keeping the husband, whats happening outside and how bad it is, and why Genevieve and Micheleine hesitate even with shared giggles, that youll probably be tempted to give up more than once.

But if not all the rewards of this advanced-level challenge emerge right away, one point remains clear. As the battles of our own time and place escalate, our downfall is as likely to come from our failures to connect, listen and reckon as it is from violence.

Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicles theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LilyJaniak

Splendour: Written by Abi Morgan. Directed by Barbara Damashek. Through July 23. One hour, 40 minutes. $32-$65. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

To see a teaser: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2vtH5L-U9Y
Impeachment march: Nationwide marches will call for President Trumps impeachment. The march in San Francisco begins at 1 p.m. along the Embarcadero and will head to Powell and Market streets. For information: http://bit.ly/2sYoEER

Peace talk: The East Bay and San Francisco branches of Womens International League for Peace and Freedom present historian, author and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz to discuss the history of wars and gun violence and possible solutions. The free event is from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Eric Quezada Center, 518 Valencia St. in San Francisco. For information: www.wilpfeastbay.org

Environmental action: A conversation with the Sierra Clubs executive director and local environmental justice groups on what people can do to take action against President Trumps environmental agenda. The event is from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the International Hotel Manilatown Center, 868 Kearny St. in San Francisco. For information: http://bit.ly/2rWxPUs

Health care film: A free screening of Now Is the Time: Healthcare for Everybody and discussion on single-payer health care. The event is at 7 p.m. at Or Shalom Jewish Community, 625 Brotherhood Way in San Francisco. For information: (415) 469-5564 or www.orshalom.org
When Jeanette Hall learned she was pregnant in 2013, it wasn't in the typical way a woman receives the news. She wasn't anxiously waiting in a doctor's office, or in her own home excited by the two bright pink lines on a plastic stick.

Hall was in jail, addicted to heroin and had been living in poverty on the streets of San Francisco for years. She was not in a place to raise a child, and decided was finally going to rise from her destitution and get off drugs.

"That was a huge turning point in my life," Hall, now 31, says. "I knew that if I was going to have the baby, I was going to do it right from the very beginning."

Within a week, she signed up with a drug rehab program. She also registered for services with the Homeless Prenatal Program, and now credits the nonprofit aimed at stabilizing struggling families with helping her give birth to a healthy baby.

The 28-year-old Homeless Prenatal Program is currently exhibiting a photo project showcasing Hall's success story and those of eight other women at its center in the Mission District. Berkeley-based documentary photographer Janet Delaney took the photos and interviewed the women for "Nine Women: Nine Stories" and was impressed by their resourcefulness in navigating a complicated system of government and nonprofit services to launch themselves into better lives.

(Find six of the nine women highlighted through Delaney's images in the gallery above and all nine and their full stories on the Homeless Prenatal website.)

"Whenever we can personalize a statistic with a story, it helps us to become more empathetic and possibly that awareness brings more action," Delaney says. "I think we can become lethargic and depressed driving past tent cabins every day. When you know there are success stories, there's hope."

***

Within the exhibit, you'll find the story of Starr Sandoval who lived in a truck with her 1-year-old daughter for nine months before moving into a home, securing a full-time job and sending her daughter to preschool. And there's also Hope Williams who is raising her two daughters under a roof after years of being bouncing around when her family's home burned down in Bernal Heights.

And these are only a handful of the hopeful stories of the thousands of pregnant women and moms who've benefitted from the Homeless Prenatal Program over the years. Of the 525 pregnant women registered with the program each year, about 89 percent of them have healthy, drug-free pregnancies, according to Martha Ryan, the founder and executive director of the program.

"We try to get that baby born as healthy as possible," says Ryan. "We want our kids to never end up on the streets again. We want our kids to be able to start kindergarten at the same level as every other kindergartner in San Francisco."

The women can tap into a wide range of services from prenatal classes and acupuncture to drop-in childcare and job training, and Sandoval, who now interns with the program once a week, says its this holistic approach that stabilized her and her daughter.

"The reason homeless prenatal works is they approach all angles of wellness," Sandoval says. "Most programs are set up for immediate crisisit sets you up to remain in the system. Homeless prenatal has so many resources. Legal, wellness, acupuncture, counseling."

***

Some four years later, Hall is clean and on track to graduate from San Francisco State University in May 2018 with a degree in public health. She's married to her son's father, Anthony Hall, who had also lived on the streets and is now clean and working as a union carpenter.

Jeanette and Anthony had a second child a year ago and this time it was planned and Jeannette found out about her pregnancy in their apartment from a home pregnancy test.

"It was like night-and-day different," Jeanette says. "We had so many things that were stable in our lives. We had healthcare through my husband's job. I got to enjoy my pregnancy more. I had a lot less stress and worries."

She added: "The way we were treated at the hospital was different. I followed the doctor's orders to a T, and yet I feel like there was so much more stigma because they knew about my past. With my daughter, I feel like they trusted my judgement. It was healing for me. I felt validated as a mother."
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Wardell Walters adjusted his green top hat as he strolled along Fillmore Street, the crown-shaped, green and gold broach pinned near this throat shimmering under the morning sun.

Behind him, musicians and stage crews set up speakers, amps and drum sets in preparation for the two-day Fillmore Jazz Festival in San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday, held annually in a changing neighborhood once known as the Harlem of the West.

Despite the changes to the neighborhood, the 63-year-old Walters, whos lived in the Fillmore for 31 years, said that on this day the streets musical history is reinvigorated and jazz reverberates throughout the city.

I dont worry about whether or not jazz is going to fade away. The most important thing is that you enjoy it while its here, Walters said, smoothing out his maroon and purple robe and twirling his black cane.

His clothing ensemble stood out in the sea of people as he weaved in and out through the crowds until passersby stopped him to take a photo.

You take a blank canvas, some paint, some brushes and you go for it, Walters said of his style.

Lee Carter, 46, and her husband, D. Carter, 48, had driven in from Castro Valley for a date day, leaving their children, ages 10 and 18, at home. The two are regulars at the Fillmore Jazz Festival and said that since Yoshis San Francisco, a jazz music venue, shut its doors in 2015, the festival isnt as vibrant as it once was.

In past years, Yoshis San Francisco would feature artists who filled the street with music and set a unique vibe in the festival, D. Carter said, a vibe that was missing this year.

You dont really hear the music, you dont really hear the vibe just yet, D. Carter said, looking around, noting that it was still early.

As the two wandered through the tents of handmade jewelry and baskets, they snagged a card that opens to a bouquet of flowers.

Never seen anything like this before, D. Carter said, holding up the red greeting card.

The aroma of funnel cakes cooking in a fryer overpowered that of the samosas and kabobs roasting nearby. Vendors set out the usual festival fare, like shirts with Frida Kahlos face painted on the front and one-piece outfits for children with Im All That And Dim Sum and Oh Kale Yeah! printed on the front.

Rachel Adjobi, 18, of Oakland, helped her mother by setting out sticks of incense, with names such as Michelle Obama, Butt Naked, Lick Me All Over, and of course, more of the usual scents, such as sandalwood and rose.

The two brought goods from their shop in Oakland, Sankofa African Arts & Jewelry, where they sell handmade items from Ghana. To Adjobi, whose mother has been selling at the festival for 13 years, the festival vendors are more diverse now than in years past. And the music isnt bad either.

For Adjobis generation, concerts usually include a table and a DJ set, as electronic dance music has taken off. Adjobi herself said she likes to stick to hip-hop and rhythm and blues.

I dont listen to a lot of jazz, but when it does come on, its tolerable. Its really soothing, Adjobi said.

Less than a block away from where Adjobi and her mother had set up shop, Will Harris had his back against the wall near Fillmore and Sutter streets, waiting for a generator to hook up the speakers that rested by his feet.

The trumpet player was planning to go live around noon with his Oakland band, Loafers and Sneakers.

To him, jazz wasnt dead, even as DJs were becoming more prominent on the music scene and listeners like Adjobi had popular hip-hop artists playing on repeat.

Every time has its own rhythm, its own beat. (Jazz) is our culture, Harris said, extending his arms and gesturing to a bandmate, who plugged in his keyboard to the speakers. Its steeped in the spiritual blues and gospel music of the African American culture.

Within the hour, Harris was blowing into his trumpet as another bandmate swayed while playing the saxophone. A large crowd of listeners of all ages gathered in front of the group, dancing to the jazz and filming the artists on their cell phones.

Its all about what you bring to it, Harris said of the genre. It takes dedication. Its a sacrifice. We dont have people who support (jazz) like classical, but we have people who dedicate their lives to this art form.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
The Aam Aadmi Party is likely to support UPA's nominee and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in presidential election.

By Ashutosh Mishra: The Aam Aadmi Party is likely to support UPA's nominee and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in presidential election.

Top AAP sources told India Today that the party might vote for Kumar.

A final official decision in this regard would be taken by the Political Affairs Committee of the AAP.

According to sources, AAP leaders have said that there is no question of their abstaining from voting or lending support to NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

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MEIRA KUMAR FILED NOMINATION PAPERS ON WEDNESDAY

Meira Kumar filed her nomination papers in Parliament on Wednesday. She said the Congress-led Opposition represented "the true legacy, thought and ideology of Mahatma Gandhi".

The former Lok Sabha Speaker said that she would start her campaign in Sabarmati.

"Everyone knows the importance of Sabarmati and Sabarmati's Sant (Mahatma Gandhi). Just by going there one gets Shakti (power), so I am also going there," Kumar had said.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has called the presidential election "a fight of ideologies and principles."

ALSO READ | With Sonia, Manmohan by her side, Meira Kumar files nomination for presidential election

ALSO READ | Presidential election: Opposition pick Meira Kumar to invoke Mahatma Gandhi's legacy during campaign

ALSO WATCH | Meira Kumar on presidential election: It's a fight of ideologies

ALSO WATCH VIDEO

--- ENDS ---
ROCKET CENTER, W.Va.  A few years ago, Sean Bridges lived with his mother, Linda, in Wiley Ford, W.Va. Their only income was her Social Security disability check. He applied for work at Walmart and Burger King, but they were not hiring.

Yet while Bridges had no work history, he had certain skills. He had built and sold stripped-down personal computers, and had studied information technology at a community college. When Bridges heard IBM was hiring at an operations center in 2013, he applied and demonstrated those skills.

Now Bridges, 25, is a computer security analyst, making $45,000 a year. In a struggling Appalachian economy, that is enough to provide him with his own apartment, a car, spending money  and career ambitions.

I got one big break, he said. Thats what I needed.

Bridges represents a new but promising category in the labor market: people working in new-collar or middle-skill jobs. As the U.S. struggles with how to match good jobs to the two-thirds of adults who do not have a four-year college degree, his experience shows how skills can be emphasized over traditional hiring filters like college degrees, work history and references. And elevating skills over pedigree creates pathways to employment and tailored training, and a gateway to the middle class.

This jobs approach matters at a time when there is a push to improve the circumstances of those left behind in the economy, many of whom voted for Donald Trump.

We desperately need to revive a second route to the middle class for people without four-year college degrees, as manufacturing once was, said Robert Reich, a labor secretary in the Clinton administration who is now a professor at UC Berkeley. We have to move toward a system that works.

The skills concept is gaining momentum, with nonprofit organizations, schools, state governments and companies, typically in partnerships, beginning to roll out such efforts. The approach just received a strong corporate endorsement from Microsoft, which announced a grant of more than $25 million to help Skillful, a program to foster skills-oriented hiring, training and education. The project, led by the Markle Foundation, began last year in Colorado, and Microsofts grant will be used to expand it there and move it into other states.

We need new approaches, or were going to leave more and more people behind in our economy, said Brad Smith, president of Microsoft.

It is unclear whether a relative handful of programs can train large numbers of people and alter hiring practices broadly. But the approach has already yielded encouraging results in technology, which may provide a model for other industries.

These jobs have taken off in tech for two main reasons. For one, computing skills tend to be well defined. Writing code, for example, is a specific task, and results can be tested and measured. At the same time, the demand for tech skills is surging.

One project that has expanded rapidly is TechHire, created in 2015, the flagship program of Opportunity at Work, a nonprofit social enterprise. TechHire provides grants and expertise to train workers around the country and link them to jobs by nurturing local networks of job seekers, trainers and companies.

TechHires network has grown to 72 communities, 237 training organizations and 1,300 employers. It has helped place more than 4,000 workers.

Nichole Clark of Paintsville, Ky., heard a radio ad last year for TechHire Eastern Kentucky. The program offered six months of training in software programming that included working with a company while being paid $400 a week. That was not much less than what Clark, now 24, was making as a manager at Pizza Hut.

Without a degree, Clark said, her horizons seemed confined to low-wage jobs in fast-food restaurants, retail stores or doctors offices. TechHire, she said, could be a doorway to a good-paying job, which is everything here.

Clark made it through online screening and an interview and got into the program. TechHires role varies, and it often funds training grants, but in this program it solicited applicants and advised and shared best practices with Interapt, a software development and consulting company. The training stipends were paid for with a $2.7 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

After four months of taking all-day classes on the basics of writing software and two months of working in an internship alongside Interapt developers, Clark was hired by Interapt in May. As a member of the team that performs software quality assurance and testing, she is now paid more than $40,000 a year, about double what she made at Pizza Hut.

Clark is growing confident about her future. There are endless roles you can play, if you have these skills, she said.

In Rocket Center, IBM occupies a few buildings and employs 350 people, including Bridges. They are working on cloud computing, cybersecurity, application development and help desks.

In two years, nearly a third of IBMs new workers there and in a few other locations have not had four-year degrees. IBM has jointly developed curricula with a community college, as well as one-year and two-year courses aligned with the companys hiring needs.

It makes sense for our business, for the job candidates and for the communities, said Sam Ladah, IBMs vice president for talent.

IBM plans to hire up to 250 people there this year, including more like Bridges.

Now were recruiting for skills, Ladah said.

Steve Lohr is a New York Times writer.
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A man who rented a Marin County home through a scam Craigslist ad not only learned he was fleeced, but that he was wanted on a probation violation when sheriffs deputies knocked on the door to investigate why he and a pregnant woman were living there, officials said.

Francisco Reyes, 34, and the woman were moving into a bank-owned home in Bel Marin Keys that is up for sale, Lt. Scott Harrington of the Marin County Sheriffs Department said Friday.

Deputies were called to the house on Wednesday after a worker servicing the pool noticed the couple moving in with their dog. The worker thought the house was supposed to be vacant, so he called the property management company who in turn contacted the sheriffs department.

When deputies arrived, Reyes answered the door and told them he had rented the house through a Craigslist ad. He said he paid a man $6,300 and signed what he believed to be a legitimate lease agreement, Harrington said.

While running a criminal background check, deputies learned Reyes had a warrant out of Sacramento for violating his probation for domestic violence. While police were talking to him, he suddenly bolted for the front door and down the street.

Deputies lost sight of Reyes when he ran into a neighbors backyard. They looked for him for about 15 minutes before a plainclothes officer spotted him running down Bel Marin Keys Boulevard.

Reyes ran behind another house and a neighbor came out and directed deputies to a nearby yard.

As the deputies closed in, Reyes scaled a fence, jumped into a nearby lagoon and began to swim away. After a few yards, he gave up and swam back to the deputies, Harrington said.

Reyes is facing charges of probation violation and resisting arrest. Neither him nor the woman are facing charges for entering the vacant house.

They look like they were renting it out of good faith, Harrington said. Were going to be looking at the Craigslist ad. From our perspective, theyll be victims of a fraud on that incident.

Police have not yet determined how the couple entered the house, but the property management company has since changed the locks.

Alison Graham is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: agraham@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @alisonkgraham
Americas democracy is broken and congressional oversight of presidential military decisions is a joke, says a federal appeals court judge  not some liberal firebrand, but one of the courts most outspoken conservatives, former California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown.

Brown was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., by President George W. Bush in 2005 after nine years on the California court. She offered her harsh assessment Friday in the case of a Yemeni man who lost two relatives in an August 2012 drone strike, apparently ordered by the U.S. military during President Obamas administration.

The man, Faisal bin Ali Jaber, alleged that the missiles that killed his brother-in-law, a local imam, and his nephew, a policeman, were fired as signature strikes  aimed at three other men, also killed, who had supposedly exhibited suspicious behavior  and violated both U.S. and international law. The government could have tried to capture the alleged terrorists rather than first resorting to lethal force, the suit said.

Brown, writing for a three-judge panel, upheld a federal judges dismissal of the suit, saying it involved a political question that courts lacked authority to decide.

It is not the role of the judiciary to second-guess the determination of the executive, in coordination with the legislature (Congress), that the interests of the U.S. call for a particular military action in the ongoing War on Terror, she wrote.

But in a separate opinion she issued on her own, Brown said the ruling, while compelled by the Constitution, meant that drone strikes and other technological warfare would proceed without supervision or accountability.

She cited Obama administration reports estimating as many as 900 noncombatants had been killed in U.S. drone strikes from 2009 through 2015, and said nongovernmental groups had offered much higher estimates. While the push-button war has killed terrorist leaders and disrupted their operations without risking U.S. troops, Brown said, such technological weaponry encourages the use of military force in hundreds or thousands of actions with few restraints.

If judges will not check this outsized power, then who will? she asked.

Boards appointed by the president to oversee the military decisions engage in pitifully little oversight and often seem more interested in protecting and excusing the actions of agencies than holding them accountable, Brown said.

Congressional oversight is a joke, she said, marked by partisan wrangling and complaints that the military is hiding vital information from congressional committees  which, when they receive such information, all too often leak like a sieve.

Our democracy is broken, Brown said. We must, however, hope that it is not incurably so, she added, calling on the president and Congress to establish a clear policy for drone strikes and precise avenues for accountability.

A lawyer who brought the suit praised Browns comments.

She is right to ask who will check the power of the U.S. executive, said Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, an attorney for the nonprofit Reprieve U.S. The bleak answer today is, no one.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko

Ruling online

Read the ruling, including Justice Janice Rogers Browns separate opinion: https://tinyurl.com/yaozh3f8
Union minister Ramdas Athawale took a jibe at the Congress saying it was using Kumar as a "scapegoat" by fielding her as the opposition candidate.

By India Today Web Desk: Opposition's presidential nominee Meira Kumar on Saturday asserted that she was not a "scapegoat" in the upcoming election to India's top constitutional post as she was fighting for an ideology.

"Anybody fighting for an ideology and appealing to the voice of conscience cannot be a scapegoat. I am a fighter and I will fight and I am sure that many will join me in this fight," she said in response to a question whether she was being made a scapegoat in the presidential election.

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Union minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale had yesterday took a jibe at the Congress saying it was using Kumar as a "scapegoat" by fielding her as the opposition candidate in the July 17 presidential election.

Meira Kumar, who is a former Lok Sabha speaker and the daughter of iconinc Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram, was speaking to reporters after meeting the Congress MPs and MLAs at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office.

As many as 17 opposition parties have backed Kumar as their joint candidate in the presidential election against NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

To a question on her not having the support of enough lawmakers, Kumar said she was fighting the poll on values and principles which were "sacred" to the people of the country.

"Wherever I go, people tell me that I do not have the numbers. If I do not have the numbers, why don't you round up the figures and declare the results? Why have the elections?," she wondered.

Pointing out that she launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, Kumar said, "I am carrying forward those values and principles which are sacred to most of my countrymen and women.

"Someone has to take them up. I am taking up your fight also....you want me to withdraw? Do you want me to get defeated? I am simply fighting."

Kumar also met former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H D Deve Gowda and sought his party's support to her candidature.

Asked about the presidential poll turning into a "Dalit contest", she said it was "shameful" that a supreme election to the post of president was being painted in this manner.

"We have to come out of this mentality....even in 2017, people with high qualifications are talking about castes. When both the sides had fielded candidates from higher castes in the past, no one discussed about it. We were not even aware of their castes. We were only aware of their accomplishments, experience and capabilities and only those things were discussed.

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"When the contest is between me and Kovind, our caste is being discussed and there is no other talk. Where are we today? Where are we heading?," she wondered. Noting that in today's era, everyone craved for quality, Kumar said, "Our thinking needs to become good as well."

Asked if she would meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the run-up to the election, Kumar said she had written a letter to him and would decide on meeting him when she visit the eastern state.

Going against the decision of its alliance partners, the RJD and the Congress, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) has decided to back the candidature of former Bihar governor Kovind. When pointed out that like her, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also been speaking about development based on Mahatma Gandhi's ideologies, Kumar said Gandhiji's ideology was that of "secularism".

"We do not just have to be tolerant towards the other religions, but be respectful towards them. That was Gandhiji's ideology and we have always carried that forward," she said.

Also Read:

AAP to back Meira Kumar in presidential election, not to abstain from voting, say sources

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Presidential election 2017: AAP most likely to back Opposition's nominee Meira Kumar

Also Watch: Meira Kumar files nomination for Presidential election

--- ENDS ---
While the Congress and several other Opposition parties boycotted the function, here is a look at what happened at the Central Hall.

Vice-President, PM Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker and Finance Minister arrive to attend GST launch from Central Hall of Parliament (Pic: PIB))

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi defined GST as Goods and Simple Tax at the midnight rollout of the India's biggest tax reform. President Pranab Mukherjee said that the unified tax system was "the culmination of 14 year long journey".

While the Congress and several other Opposition parties boycotted the function, here is a look at what happened at the Central Hall.

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Parliament was lit up for the historic midnight launch of the Goods and Services Tax.

Festive mood at the Parliament as leaders gathered to usher in India's biggest tax reform (Pic: PTI)

Also Read: India enters GST era, PM Narendra Modi says Good and Simple Tax will help poor

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other dignitaries at the Central Hall of the Parliament.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Pranam Mukherjee with dignitaries (Pic:PTI)

Also Read: 17-year-long wait ends; know from where the GST dream started

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley kicked off proceedings, delivering a short address in which he called GST an "important achievement for the entire country." "The old India was economically fragmented, the new India will create one tax, one market and for one nation," Jaitley said.

Also Read: From inflation to legal hassles, how well GST fared in other countries after its implementation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who spoke at length after returning from a two-day Gujarat trip just hours earlier. "We are setting India's roadmap with GST," Modi said. "The best brains of the country worked together for GST."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the gathering before GST rollout. (Pic: PTI)

At midnight, President Mukherjee and PM Modi stood together and pressed a buzzer to launch GST. The moment was followed by a promotional video on the Goods and Services Tax.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi press the buzzer. GST is implemented. (Pic: PTI)

Also Read

What is the GST bill? Here's all you need to know about India's biggest tax reform

GST FAQ: Answers to all your questions about India's biggest tax reform

--- ENDS ---
The French artist Sophie Calle  I accept that she is an artist, though visual author may be more apt  will make you cry. She will do it with sublime efficiency. A blurred photograph. A three-word phrase. A video clip of the back of a head, the oceans horizon fanning from a kerchief quivering in the breeze.

Her work is not visual art, not short story, not autobiography but all three, and then some.

She is a correspondent from loves front lines, an impresario of one-act tragedies. In her works, memory and longing become almost concrete things, subject to a kind of emotional inspection  one that yields few answers but can be as gruesomely detailed and as fascinating as a vivisection.

I might tell you about the plot of a book, but that would not help you to know if you would be moved by it. So it is with Calles installations of photographs, video and text.

The themes of four projects, assembled as an exhibition called Missing at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture through Aug. 20, will intrigue you: The Last Image (2010) deals with the visual memories of individuals who lost the sense of sight at some point in their lives. Voir la Mer (2011) silently observes as people experience the sea for the first time. Rachel Monique (2007) is built around the death of the artists mother.

The largest and best known, Take Care of Yourself (2007), enlists the aid of interpretive specialists in coming to terms with a breakup letter, received via visual email from a lover. The piece occupied the entire French Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

But none of this description can prepare you for the deeply intimate encounters into which you will enter.

Nor will the setting, at first. Fort Mason was built as a military facility, and its concrete, steel and cinder block construction materials were not chosen for their sentimental associations. Gradually, however, the logic of the layout takes over.

An exhaustive catalog of visual and verbal responses in Take Care of Yourself is laid out on long tables and spread out like charts and maps on the walls of the crisply functional Gallery 308. The callous email, maybe 600 words of jilting defensiveness, is analyzed through the agency of 107 women with differing expertise.

It is translated into braille, stenographic shorthand, Morse and binary code. A proofreader marks its repetitions and awkwardnesses. A headhunter determines that the letter shows a lack of courage and limited imagination, but allows that the writers manner might be useful in a company that was laying off workers with the hope that it did not stir up too much protest from the unions.

Presented in a grid on one wall are video recordings of the letter as it is acted, sung and danced. In a large projection in another room, a sharpshooter fires at it from a long distance, obliterating three occasions of the word love with three bullets.

Voir la Mer (To See the Sea) is displayed in the firehouse, where windows open to San Francisco Bay. Five video screens are each filled with the head of a man or woman, seen from behind. Beyond them, there are only waves and sky. The poor of Turkey are referred to as the people that never saw the sea, Calle told an audience at a recent talk. Those are the people Calle brought to this place from just a few miles away, and upon whose eyes, as they turn from the view, the camera sharply focuses.

Nearby, another work also deals with sight. For a piece in the mid-1980s, Calle asked people blind from birth to talk about their idea of beauty. Here, for The Last Image, she prompted people who had lost their sight to describe memories of the last thing they saw. One remembers a sunrise on the day of a botched operation. Another describes a hunter as he raises his gun.

Rachel Monique is presented in the forts chapel. A video is projected at the front, where an altar would be in some churches. We are told it is a recording of Calles mother in her final minutes, though we have no idea from the image of any difference, any boundary between living and dying. Arrayed around the room, like Stations of the Cross, are memories and stories in photographs and text.

The Fraenkel Gallerys Market Street outpost, FraenkelLab, is presenting a touching, related Sophie Calle exhibition. My Mother, My Cat, My Father, in That Order comprises responses to the deaths of cherished beings in the life of the artist, who has no children. One text from the chapel installation of Rachel Monique appears in a different format at the gallery.

It reads, On December 27, 1986, my mother wrote in her diary: My mother died today./ On March 15, 2006, in turn, I wrote in mine: My mother died today./ No one will say this about me./ The end.

Charles Desmarais is The San Francisco Chronicles art critic. Email: cdesmarais@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Artguy1

Sophie Calle: Missing: Noon-8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays. Through Aug. 20. Free; advance tickets recommended. Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, 2 Marina Blvd., S.F. (415) 345-7575. www.fortmason.org.

Sophie Calle: My Mother, My Cat, My Father, in That Order: 1-7 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays; noon-7 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Through Aug. 26. Free. FraenkelLab, 1632 Market St., S.F. (415) 347-8366. https://fraenkelgallery.com/fraenkellab
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State water officials announced today that they have reached a settlement agreement with a Contra Costa County company over allegations of fraudulent billing related to underground storage tank clean up work.

The State Water Resources Control Board had accused Aqua Science Engineers, which also has an office in Orange County, of over billing for equipment, labor costs and visits to project sites.
SAN RAFAEL (BCN)  A wanted parolee from Antioch was arrested in San Rafael Friday on suspicion of human trafficking and cocaine possession, a police sergeant said today.

Jeffrey Berard Jenkins II, 26, was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, sex with a minor, transportation of methamphetamine and cocaine for sale and an outstanding parole warrant, according to San Rafael police Sgt. Scott Eberle.
In the wake of the growing number of mob lynching cases in the country, President Pranab Mukherjee has said that people need to pause and reflect whether they are vigilant enough to save the basic tenets of the country.

In the wake of the growing number of mob lynching cases in the country, President Pranab Mukherjee asked whether people were vigilant enough to save the basic tenets of the country.

Pranab was speaking on Saturday at the relaunch of the National Herald Paper. He inaugurated the event in the presence of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

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Pained to see mob frenzy, President Mukherjee said, "When mob lynching becomes so rampant and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough?"

He added, "I am not talking of vigilantism, I am asking whether we are vigilant enough, proactively to save the basic tenets of our country."

Condemning such lynchings further, Mukherjee added, "We shall have to ponder if we see a newspaper and read that an individual was lynched because of an alleged violation. When mob frenzy becomes so strong, we need to reflect and ask are we vigilant enough. Vigilance by citizens against such acts can act as the biggest deterrent to the forces of darkness."

"Colonialism comes back in different shapes. We shall rise to fight the subjugation and suppression of rulers", he added.

IDEA OF INDIA IS UNDER ATTACK: SONIA GANDHI

Meanwhile, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also used the occasion to hit back at the Modi government over the spurt in cases of mob vigilantism and acts of violence over beef and cattle slaughter rumours.

Sonia said, "The idea of India is under attack. Mob violence is the new order. The culture of vigilante violence is being actively supported by those who are supposed to uphold the law."

The Congress chief added, "The Modi government is trying to divide India along sectarian lines. Cultural authoritarianism and bigotry have come to be the order of the day. If we do not speak up now and accept without scrutiny these follies and fallacies, we will leave for our children a divided and broken country. The concept of inclusiveness is under attack. It is our duty to expose this hypocrisy of the government and show the truth to the people. Where we choose to stand today is where we will head tomorrow."

She went on to say, "It is ironical that the sacrifice of our founding fathers and their selfless service for society are being appropriated by those who belonged to the opposite ideology that polarises and divides people along different lines. Our founding fathers were guided by unity, peace and justice, not division and hatred. Their ideals are now being threatened by those who made no sacrifice in shaping India."

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PRIYANKA VADRA ECHOES MOTHER SONIA, PRANAB ON VIGILANTISM

In an exclusive chat with India Today, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said she was absolutely on the same page as her mother and President Pranab Mukherjee as far as rising intolerance in the country was concerned.

She said, "It makes me furious to see such things on social media and internet. It makes my blood boil and it should make every right thinking Indian's blood boil too."

PM Modi, only a few days ago, had slammed cow vigilantes while addressing a gathering in Ahmedabad. But his reprimand seems to have hardly had any effect as cases of mob lynchings have gone up in recent times. Ironically, most of these cases have been reported from states where the BJP is in power.

Under the banner "Not In My Name", there were agitations witnessed across various states on Wednesday to protest against the incidents of mob lynching in the country.

Also read | Lynch mobs don't fear PM Narendra Modi, says Chidambaram on Jharkhand murder

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Also read | Accused of trafficking, woman lynched by angry mob in West Bengal

WATCH PRIYANKA GANDHI'S RESPONSE ON LYNCHINGS IN INDIA

ALSO WATCH: Are we vigilant enough to save tenets of country? Asks President Mukherjee over lynching fever

--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: In yet another case of atrocities taking place in educational institutes, nearly 25 students were humiliated by the director, physical training (PT) teacher and office assistant of their school in Mumbai's Vikhroli on Thursday.

The trio chopped the hair of the students for not following the prescribed haircut. Some of the students even suffered injuries caused by scissors. Mortified by the incident, family of the students approached the Vikhroli Police. Following the incident, the accused trio was booked for cruelty and injuring the students.

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The incident took place at Kamal Vasudev Vayakule English Medium School in Tagore Nagar locality of Vikhroli.

Sources said that the school director had intimated the student about the prescribed haircut few days ago. However, on Thursday, the director identified as Ganesh Bata, PT teacher Milind Zanake, and office assistant Tushar Gore enforced the rule in a humiliating manner.

The students were from class V and VII. Sources said that traumatised after the incident, the students cried inconsolably for hours. One of the students said that they were held and pinned down before they were given haircuts. According to the police, when parents sought an explanation from the school management they simply did not entertain them.

Despite the claims by students, the school director has denied any such incident. He has ordered an inquiry into the matter.

ALSO READ

Delhi: Car with college students on way to exam falls off Punjabi Bagh flyover; 2 dead, 5 injured in accident

Teachers, students oppose DU seat reservation move

ALSO WATCH: Students fear class XII CBSE results could be delayed over moderation policy

--- ENDS ---
A violent protest broke out between the cops and the protesting villagers at Kathiramangalam village in Thanjavur over broken oil pipes laid out by ONGC.

By Pramod Madhav: A violent protest broke out between the cops and the protesting villagers at Kathiramangalam village in Thanjavur over broken oil pipes laid out by ONGC.

On Friday evening, villagers noticed some oily fluid flowing from the pipes laid out in the farm lands of Kathiramangalam.

Energy major ONGC had been operating an oil well in the village since 2000. Last month, the company decided to service the well to sustain it. This was not recieved well by the villagers.

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Villagers claimed that this had led to water scarcity in the area stating that earlier they had to only dig 10 feet for water, but now they have to go to 70 to 100ft below ground.

Panic gripped the villagers after word of smoke from pipes spread around.

When the collector and village administrative office tried to visit the site, they were not allowed. Authorities claim that protestors ganged up against them and blamed the ONGC for the leak, saying the land was not suitable for cultivation anymore.

The situation went out of control when a few miscreants began to pelt stones at the cops, and someone lit up haystacks. Police was forced to resort to lathi charge.

Many women were injured, and the protesters were chased away.

According to police reports, the miscreats were motivated by some local leaders.

--- ENDS ---
By Sweta dutta: Even with the Congress cold-shouldering the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on upcoming presidential polls slated for July 17, the AAP is most likely to back the Opposition's nominee Meira Kumar. Though the party is yet to convene a meeting of its highest decision making body, the Political Affairs Committee that will formally decide who the party will vote for and thereafter communicate to its representatives, sources from AAP told Mail Today that the party will 'absolutely not vote for the NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind.'

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The growing chasm between Congress and AAP has been visible over the past month, as the grand old party consciously left out AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal from the joint meetings of the Opposition while it was deliberating over its probable candidate. Even as 17 Opposition parties came together for the meetings, AAP was repeatedly cold shouldered. However, senior Opposition leaders such as CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee played conduits to keep the channel of communication open on both ends.

While Congress was not agreed to share the same space with Kejriwal, the latter having made scathing attacks on the party, so far too did not want to be seen on friendly terms with Congress leaders. "Not being a part of the meetings worked both ways. We did not miss being a part of the deliberations. As for our final choice, a PAC will formally decide who our elected representatives will vote for. What is certain is that we will vote," said a senior AAP functionary.

The AAP roughly has 9000 votes, which though not sizeable, is significant in symbolic terms. Senior leaders said that the party will now 'have to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.' "Going with Kovind is next to impossible. It will be a clash of our ideologies. Kumar seems like the logical choice for AAP as it would mean backing a woman and a Dalit.

As the AAP aims at emerging as a formidable force in national politics, opting out of the presidential polls would mean letting go of its position as a member of the Opposition, said another party leader.

ALSO READ | Meira Kumar kicks off presidential campaign in Gujarat, spins charkha at Sabarmati Ashram

Ram Nath Kovind as presidential candidate: How BJP aggressively continues to woo Dalits

ALSO WATCH | Meira Kumar on presidential election: It's a fight of ideologies

--- ENDS ---
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The landmark estate sits along Orinda Country Club, and Roaring 20s grandeur is on full display inside the charming Tudor.

It has been extensively updated and showcases incredible warmth, stunning craftsmanship and character, said Dana Green of Pacific Union Real Estate, who is listing 27 La Noria for $4.75 million.

Heritage oak trees pepper the bucolic landscape. The grounds afford panoramic vistas of the surrounding region, a verdant oasis of tree-studded hills.

Architect Stephen Sooter and interior designer William Anderson renovated the home in 2005.

They brilliantly captured the essence of the home and elegantly enhanced it with their design, Greens said.

Leaded glass French doors and windows welcome sunlight into the charming estate.

Rich woodwork is found throughout. Solid-core doors and hand-hewn open-beam ceilings represent some of the fine Douglas fir finishes found throughout the home.

Other examples of fine woodwork include multi-framed window millwork and custom cabinetry. The quarter-sawn oak hardwood floors are original.

Both upstairs and downstairs enjoy their own sound system, as does the detached guest house.

Dual seating areas offer the oversize living room plenty of space for gathering and entertaining. A Rumford gas fireplace warms the space graced by a hand-hewn Douglas fir ceiling. Glass panels accent the room capped off by a wet bar with custom accents.

Brazilian slate counters finish a chefs kitchen equipped with a six-burner Wolf range. A mini brick backsplash rests behind the range, and the kitchen hosts a built-in spice rank, dual dishwashers and a pair of sinks.

Custom cabinetry accents the eat-in kitchen as the adjoining media area includes a built-in desk. Leaded glass windows frame the landscape as original masonry borders an Inglenook wood-burning fireplace. Bench seating beside the fireplace offers a romantic spot to curl up with wine and a book.

Leaded glass also appears in the master suite, this time in a French door opening to a private deck. A spa bathroom draped in marble finishes the suite. Upgraded last year, the bathroom offers dual vanities, a soaking tub and a stall shower with rainfall head.

Built in 2005, the pool house is fashioned after the main home with both structures offering a similar material palette. Connecticut Bluestone floors line the great room, while Brazilian slate counters accent the kitchen.

Learn more at www.27lanoria.com.

Listing agent: Dana Green, Pacific Union Real Estate, (925) 339-1918, dana@dana

greenteam.com.

Details

Address: 27 La Noria, Orinda.

Price: $4.75 million.

Features: Built in 1928, this seven-bedroom with more than 5,000 square feet of living space sits atop a 0.8-acre estate. Connecticut Bluestone patios surround the listing that includes a detached pool house with a similar design and material palette. Rich woodwork like custom cabinetry, solid-core doors and hand-hewn open-beam ceilings are found throughout. Architect Stephen Sooter and interior designer William Anderson renovated the Tudor.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) Torrential rains led to a deluge- like situation in parts of Gujarat and triggered fresh landslides in Himchal Pradesh, even as the flood situation in Assam remained grim with more rains likely to hit the northeast region tomorrow.

Sharp showers pounded Tankara taluka of Gurjarats Morbi district in a short span of time. The rainwater breached several check dams, leading to heavy water-logging.

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Tankara gauged a massive 280 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours. Teams of the disaster management department with the help of National Disaster Response Force personnel rescued around 14 people stranded in floodwaters in the district.

Suigam taluka in Banaskantha, Kodinar taluka in Gir Somnath and Kalyanpur in Devbhoomi Dwarka received 110 mm of rainfall overnight, which led to traffic snarls.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said the states disaster management authority has been put on alert to tackle any emergency situation.

The low-lying areas in Ahmedabad are waterlogged. The city recorded 31 mm of rainfall. The IMD has warned of "heavy to very heavy" rains in Gujarat in the next three days.

A 17-year-old youth was killed after a cloudburst struck a village in south Kashmirs Kulgam district last night.

Meanwhile, the 300-km-long Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the only all-weather road connecting the Valley to the rest of India, was reopened for vehicular traffic after a day-long closure due to rainfall-induced landslides in Ramban and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

Widespread rains led to fresh landslides in Himachal Pradesh. The Manali-Leh road was blocked near Koksar.

The MeT office has predicted moderate to heavy rains and thundershowers in the mid and lower hills, and snow and rains in the higher reaches up to July 7.

In Assam, floods have affected more than 2.68 lakh people in Barpeta, Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Karimganj, Cachar, Dhemaji, Karbi Anglong and Biswanath districts.

The Assam State Disaster Management Authoritys report said 453 villages have been inundated and over 5,272 hectares of crop area damaged by the swirling flood waters.

Karimganj is the worst hit with 1.53 lakh sufferers. 76,000 people have been affected in Lakhimpur. 5,670 people have taken shelter in 269 relief camps set up in four districts.

The southwest monsoon advanced into the remaining parts of Bihar.

Heavy and very heavy showers drenched northern Bihar, while the southern part of the state received light to moderate rainfall in the last 24 hours.

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Patna gauged 0.7 mm of precipitation, Gaya 0.6 mm and Purnea and 7.7 mm. Humidity levels soared up to 100 per cent in Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea.

A fresh spell of rains and a cloud cover thereafter kept the heat at bay in the national capital.

Several parts of the city gauged rainfall between 9.8 mm and 15.9 mm. It had a high of 35.1 degrees Celsius and a low of 25.4 degrees Celsius. Light rains and thundershowers are likely tomorrow.

It was another wet day for Punjab and Haryana. Rains over the last two-three days have arrested the rise of the mercury in the region.

The maximum temperature in the two states remained below the normal levels and was recorded in the mid 30s at most of the places.

The weatherman has predicted very heavy rains in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

A downpour is "very likely" in Arunachal Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, west Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Goa, Chhattisgarh and coastal Karnataka. PTI TEAM GVS

--- ENDS ---
BEIRUT  As the U.S.-led coalition tightens the noose around the Islamic State group in Syria, President Bashar Assads Iranian-backed troops are also seizing back territory from the militants with little protest from Washington, a sign of how American options are limited without a powerful ally on the ground.

Washington is loath to cooperate with Assads internationally ostracized government. But it will be difficult to uproot militants and keep them out with only the Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the U.S.  and a coalition spokesman pointed out that Assads gains ease the burden on those forces.

Letting Assad grab Islamic State territory, however, risks the U.S. being seen as legitimizing his continued rule and would likely strengthen his hand in his war against the already struggling rebellion. It also threatens to further empower Assads allies, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, which both have forces alongside his troops in the assault into Islamic State-held territory.

Within the Trump administration, there is a split over whether to aggressively try to stem Assads advances, said a senior U.S. official, who requested anonymity.

Army Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the anti-Islamic State coalition, said Syrian government forces are welcome to reclaim territory held by the militants and fill the vacuum once the group is gone.

The statement was startling  even more so because soon after President Trump last week warned Assad he would pay a heavy price, claiming potential evidence that Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack.

The mixed messages reveal a discomfiting fact that most policy makers would rather not spell out: Assad is a pariah but he is also a convenient tool to secure and govern territory in majority-Arab cities in a complex terrain.

The U.S. so far has shunned any cooperation with the Syrian leader, whom Trump described as an animal. Instead, it has partnered with local Kurdish and Arab forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.

Those fighters are currently spearheading the assault on the Islamic State groups self-declared capital, Raqqa in northern Syria, and then face the prospect of assaulting the groups final major stronghold to the southeast, in Deir el-Zour.

Assad and his Iranian allies have positioned themselves in key areas on the flanks of the U.S.-led war against Islamic State, grabbing territory on several fronts, including on the outskirts of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour. With Russian and Iranian support, Assad has made steady gains and now controls almost all of Syrias major cities except those held by the militants.

The symbolism was striking this week as a smiling Assad paid a visit to central Hama, driving his own car, and to a Russian air base in western Syria, where he posed alongside Russian generals and inside the cockpit of a Russian SU-35 fighter jet.

Zeina Karam and Josh Lederman are Associated Press writers.
Pool/Getty Images

STRASBOURG, France  Current and past world leaders gathered Saturday to bid farewell to the late Helmut Kohl, recalling the former German chancellor as a man who was instrumental in uniting Europe and bringing about reconciliation between former adversaries on the continent.

Kohl, who died June 16 at the age of 87, was the first person to be honored with an official memorial event by the European Union in the French city of Strasbourg.
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Commenting on the Yogi government's working, Jayant said that the RLD will hold a sit-in at the UP Assembly in Lucknow on 11th July in protest of the rising crimes and the poor working of the government in the past 100 days.

By Siraj Qureshi: Rashtriya Lok Dal general secretary Jayant Chowdhary has said that the BJP government in the state and Centre are according step-motherly treatment to Agra.

"Not only have they snatched away the international airport from Agra, they will also take away High Court Bench, International Stadium, Barrage and Passport Office," he added.

Talking to India Today on his arrival in Agra, Chowdhary said, "The construction of an international airport in Jewar is a welcome step, but ignoring Agra in the process is completely unfair." He further said that it was the BJP and its leaders who had been showcasing the airport dream to the people of Agra throughout the electoral process and now they have forgotten their promise.

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On the issue of farmer deaths, Jayant said that nobody knows when the farm loans will be waived off and to what extent. Banks are sending notices, revenue officials are terrorizing farmers, forcing them to commit suicide. Farmers have also been included in GST as their fertilizers are now taxed at 12 per cent. He said that GST was a good step, but farmers should've been kept out of it.

Commenting on the Yogi government's working, Jayant said that the RLD will hold a sit-in at the UP Assembly in Lucknow on 11th July in protest of the rising crimes and the poor working of the government in the past 100 days.

Jayant was in Agra to offer his condolences to the family of the farmer in village Taharpur, who had committed suicide due to continuous pressure for recovery by the revenue clerk. He also instructed the district unit of RLD to file an FIR against the revenue clerk.

Jayant said that the farmers are not getting their due share of their crop price and loans are making it difficult for them to survive in the current scenario.

Commenting on Jayant's statements, BJP city president Vijay Shivhare said that Jayant Chowdhary is trying to mislead farmers against the BJP, when it is only the BJP which is the real well-wisher of the farmers.

Shivhare said that if the RLD is such a well-wisher of farmers, then why didn't the farmers vote for the RLD. He said that the farmers all over the country now know that only the BJP can lead them to prosperity and they will not be misled by anyone.

ALSO READ:

Tourism industry up in arms as Agra loses international airport bid to Jewar

Centre gives wings to Greater Noida, clears proposal for Jewar airport

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) Aam Aadmi Party MLAs today lashed out at BJP legislator Manjinder Singh Sirsa, accusing him of spreading "lies" that they had batted for a referendum in Kashmir.

After a heated exchange during the days proceedings in the Assembly, the case was referred to the privilege committee of the House.

AAP MLA Alka Lamba raised the issue and was joined by other party legislators including Somnath Bharti, Nitin Tyagi and Saurabh Bhardwaj. Sirsa claimed his comments were being taken out of context to corner him.

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Yesterday, during a discussion on mob lynchings, Sirsa had brought up the issue of Kashmir. He had demanded that a resolution be passed stating the Valley is an "integral" part of India.

He was later marshalled out, following which he made a tweet, which sparked the row. "@AamAadmiParty leaders are wooing Muslim votes by asking for Referendum in Kashmir! Are these leaders the agents of Pakistan? @BJP4India".

During the days proceedings, Lamba latched on to the tweet. She demanded an explanation from Sirsa over his attempts to "create a false impression" and to "malign the image of the members" of the House.

In his defence, Sirsa said he was merely referring to comments made by AAP leaders "in the past". "Your comments were made in the present continuous form," Bhardwaj retorted.

Later, Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla, who was anchoring the proceedings, referred the issue to the privilege committee of the House and said a report will be tabled in the next session of the Assembly.

Sirsa and another BJP MLA, Jagdish Pradhan, had come to the Assembly wearing wearing black scarves around their mouth as a mark of protest. They removed it after Birla told them that it was against the dignity of the house.

Meanwhile, sacked minister Kapil Mishra was marshalled out of the House for the second consecutive day.

Undeterred, he made his way back through a different door, only to be removed again. "What rule have I broken? I am only trying to raise an issue," he shouted while being escorted out for the second time.

Minutes into the proceedings, Mishra had raised the issue of "misbehaviour" of certain AAP MLAs with a woman he had allegedly brought to the premises of the Assembly yesterday, prompting Birla to order that he be marshalled out. PTI SBR BSA

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Panaji, Jul 1 (PTI) BJP president Amit Shah today said the surgical strike conducted by the Army in Pak-Occupied Kashmir last year changed the worlds outlook towards India and showed the country is committed to "self-defence".

The decision to conduct the surgical strike was taken with a political will, he said.

Speaking to a group of people here, he said Indian forces are attacked on the border "everyday and terrorists enter our territory".

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"I dont say it is not happening today. It is happening today also. But when the Uri attack happened, the BJP government led by Narendra Modi took a decision," he said as he listed the Centres achievements in the last three years.

An Army battalion headquarter in Uri was attacked by terrorists on September 18 last year in which 19 jawans were killed.

Later that month, the Army conducted surgical strike on terror launchpads in PoK.

"We told the world that India is capable of self- defence," the BJP president said. "Nobody has dared to do this except the USA."

Since the surgical strike, the worlds outlook towards India has changed, he added. PTI RPS TIR

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Indore, Jul 1 (PTI) Police today claimed to have busted a racket that sold regulated medicine at higher price by arresting three persons and seized alprazolam tablets from them.

Ravi Paryani (25), Lucky Narvare (24) and Mohammad Sultan Khan (19) were arrested from different places in the district in the last 24 hours and 5,500 alprazolam tablets seized from them, additional superintendent of police (ASP) Amrendra Singh told reporters here.

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The accused have told police that they used to acquire the tablets from Gwalior and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Agra in Uttar Pradesh and sell them at high prices here, the official said.

On the statements of the accused, efforts are on to arrest some people associated with them in the illegal business.

The sale of alprazolam tablets (to treat anxiety and panic disorders) is regulated and these pills are available on doctors prescription at licensed medicines stores. PTI HWP LAL RMT

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: civilians also die

Srinagar, Jul 1 (PTI) Top Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari and his associate, who were behind the recent killing of six policemen, were today gunned down by the security forces in south Kashmir in a fierce encounter which also left dead two civilians, including a woman.

The security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in Brenti-Batpora in Anantnag early this morning after receiving information about the presence of militants, including Lashkari, a police official said.

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He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the militants opened fire on security forces.

For some time, the militants used 17 civilians as a human shield inside a house but the security forces managed to rescue them before launching the final assault against the ultras, the police spokesperson said.

"The encounter is over. Two militants have been killed," Director General of Police S P Vaid told PTI.

Vaid said the slain militants Bashir Lashkari and Azad Dada, both affiliated with the LeT. According to the police, Lashkari and his group were involved in the brutal killing of SHO Feroz Ahmad Dar and five other policemen in Achabal area of south Kashmir on June 16.

Bashir Lashkari, whose original name was Bashir Ahmed Wani, hailed from Kokernag and had joined militancy in October 2015, according to the police sources. He was A++ category militant.

Azad Dada, whose original name was Azad Ahmed Malik, hailed from Bijbehara and had joined militancy in January this year.

During the cross-fire between the security forces and the hiding militants, a 44-year-old woman Tahira and 21-year-old Shadab Ahmad Chopan were killed, the police said.

According to the locals, Chopan was killed allegedly in action by the security forces against a mob which was trying to disrupt their operation.

Chopan had firearm injuries in his face and was declared dead at the SKIMS hospital here, a police official said.

Four other persons were admitted to hospitals here with firearm injuries sustained near the encounter site, he added. PTI MIJ MIN AKK AKK

--- ENDS ---
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An ActewAGL call centre worker has been charged with skimming money from customers by saving personal and bank details she had accessed as part of her job.

The woman is alleged to have stolen more than $13,000 in about three months.

Jessica Kate Anderson, 29, of Gungahlin, appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Saturday following her arrest on Friday night.

She did not enter pleas, and did not apply for bail.

The woman is charged with 15 counts of dishonestly obtaining money through her work as an ActewAGL retail customer care contact centre contractor, a position she obtained through a labour hire company.
It can be hard sometimes to find the right person for the job, but one company has gone to extreme measures to get that soul in Canberra.

Braddon-based recruitment company HorizonOne is offering a six-week paid holiday upfront for the person successful in securing its vacant role for a new recruitment consultant. The six weeks leave is on top of the standard four-week annual leave period.

Businesses who think creatively about recruiting will be the big winners in future according to HorizonOne director Simon Cox. Credit:Karleen Minney

HorizonOne director Simon Cox said the idea began as a way to spark interest from talent interstate.

"We knew we had to do something to grab people's attention," Mr Cox said.
The number of cocaine seizures in the ACT has risen by more than 500 per cent, climbing from 11 to 68 in one year, new figures show.

The figures, released in the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's annual Illicit Drug Data Report, showed there was a 518 per cent increase in the 2015-16 financial year.

There were 68 seizures of cocaine in the ACT in 2015-16.

The ACT had the largest increase in cocaine seizures during the time period out of any other state of territory.

NSW recorded the second largest increase of 34 per cent, rising from 2017 seizures to 2716, followed by Victoria, rising 26.5 per cent from 434 to 549 seizures.
A motorcyclist has been taken to hospital in a serious condition after the bike he was riding collided with a truck in Queanbeyan on Saturday afternoon.

The Queanbeyan man, 36, was taken by ambulance to Canberra Hospital, suffering fractures following the collision on the intersection of the Kings Highway and Stephens Road.

Two ambulances were on the scene of a crash between a truck and a motorcycle in Queanbeyan. Credit:Andrew Brown

Emergency crews were called to the scene just before 2pm, after the motorcyclist and the truck collided.

Queanbeyan police said they believe the motorcycle struck the left-hand side of the truck as the truck was turning from the highway onto Stephens Road.
As a young bricky, Chris Parmangos had no idea silica dust rising from the Sydney sandstone and bricks he worked with would cost him his health.

Mr Parmangos was about 33, and 15 years into his job as a labourer in Sydney, when he was diagnosed with early signs of lung disease from exposure to silica dust. Silicosis is potentially deadly and can have a shorter latency period than asbestosis, another dust disease, which can take decades to surface.

Chris Parmangos was about 15 years into his job as a labourer in Sydney when he was diagnosed with lung disease from exposure to silica dust. Credit:Lindsay Moller

The re-emergence of relatively forgotten industrial diseases, including silicosis and black lung disease in Queensland coal mines, has alarmed Australian health professionals.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry this week heard people are now being diagnosed with potentially life-threatening silicosis, linked to newer engineered stone products increasingly used for kitchen and bathroom benchtops.
"Do I want to exonerate myself? Yes," he said. "I think the world blames me for almost everything." Shkreli also said the media had not emphasised enough that the prosecution's first witness, Sarah Hassan, an investor in one of his hedge funds, had made a significant profit. "It was kind of interesting that the victim of this case made 10 times her money. . .we should only be this victimised in life," Shkreli said. He added that he made nothing from the transaction. 'Can I see you a minute?' It's almost unheard of for a criminal defendant on trial to walk into what's essentially a press room and speak so openly to reporters. But there's nothing typical about Shkreli, who live-streamed for hours after his December 2015 arrest and is currently discussing his case on Facebook. Shkreli's five-minute-long tirade was finally interrupted by his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, who came to the door of the courtroom and asked, "Martin, can I see you a minute?" Then, Shkreli was gone.

Earlier in court, prosecutors began laying out Shkreli's entire business career, a more than decade-long stretch allegedly marked by zeal and deception. Josiah T. Austin, managing member of El Coronado Holdings, said he invested $US4.8 million in Shkreli's Elea Capital Management in 2006 and 2007 because he liked Shkreli. Austin told the jury he lost it all. Austin, 70, was allowed to testify as prosecutors attempt to show a pattern in Shkreli's behaviour of deceiving investors from early in his career. He said he met Shkreli in about 2005 and was impressed with his intelligence. At the time, Shkreli was managing investments at UBS in New York. "Martin was young, a little cocky, he knew biotech," Austin said. "I think Martin wanted to be successful, wanted to make a lot of money." He wanted to be like "Stevie Cohen," Austin said, referring to the multibillionaire whose SAC Capital Advisors hedge fund generated large returns before it pleaded guilty and was shuttered to settle an insider-trading probe.

Shkreli, 34, is fighting charges of operating two hedge funds -- which he ran after Elea Capital -- like a Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors claim he took clients' money without permission and used it to start Retrophin. Shkreli is also accused of looting $US11 million of the drug company's assets to pay off investors who'd lost money in the funds. He faces as long as 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges. Rankled by news reports Shkreli seemed rankled by news headlines about the trial during his visit to the overflow courtroom and complained that reports suggested he made no money while running the hedge fund MSMB Capital. The government's first witness, Sarah Hassan, an investor in the fund, wasn't a victim because she made $US2.7 million in profits, he said.

Hassan testified on Thursday that she got the impression from marketing materials Shkreli sent that her father was involved in the launch of Retrophin. Fred Hassan took the stand on Friday and said that wasn't true. The managing director of private equity firm Warburg Pincus and former chairman and chief executive officer of pharma giant Schering Plough said he was never Shkreli's mentor, business reference or adviser. "There was no personal contact to the best of my knowledge," Hassan said. 'Markets go up, markets go down'

While speaking to the reporters, Shkreli said he had nothing to do with Fred Hassan's name appearing in the materials his daughter received. He blamed that on "folks in marketing and accounting." When asked whether the government offered him a deal to resolve the case, Shkreli didn't answer directly, saying only: "I wanted my day in court." Shkreli ran Elea Capital from 2005 to 2006 until it collapsed after a series of failed trades, Austin said. In the months before Shkreli shut the fund down, he asked for at least $US1 million, saying he needed to meet margin calls, Austin testified. "Markets go up, markets go down," Shkreli told his investors in an August 16, 2007, email that was shown to jurors. "Sorry for all the inconvenience I cost you -- I know sorry doesn't cut it." Austin, who said El Coronado has $US300 million in assets, told the jury that Shkreli continued to seek him out to invest in a new hedge fund he was starting -- MSMB Capital -- and later asked him to invest in Retrophin. Austin said he declined.

"I still thought Martin was an intelligent, smart guy," Austin said. "But I didn't particularly want to do any more business with him." The trial is scheduled to resume on Tuesday. As he was leaving court ahead of the four-day weekend, Shkreli was asked by a reporter how he thought the afternoon session went. Loading "I have to be careful about who I talk to," he replied. "I could get into trouble."
If you're reading this still snuggled up in bed, you might want to stay there. It was colder in Canberra than at Thredbo on Saturday morning, as temperatures in the capital plunged to minus 8.7.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Helen Reid said that while it was the coldest morning in at least six years, the low actually surpassed that recorded on July 29 2011, at minus 8 degrees, and was on track to break more records.

Bernard Majadas, 5, rugged up to brave the frosty Canberra morning on Saturday. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos

"We won't know for sure for a few days yet if it's surpassed any others, but it's definitely in the running for a medal," she said.

While Canberrans were already bracing for a chilly start to the weekend, with lows of 6 degrees forecast for Saturday and Sunday, temperatures slid even further into freezing just after sunrise.
Sydney residents were greeted with the coldest start to July in two years on Saturday morning as temperatures dropped to 3 degrees in the city and plunged to zero degrees in Campbelltown.

But while many residents chose to bunker down indoors, the opposite was true for the city's ice skaters.

Harry Spencer-Gibson and his sister Kitty skate at Bondi Winter Wonderland outdoor ice rink Credit:Cole Bennetts

A handful of amateur and professional enthusiasts embraced the chilly weather by taking to Bondi's ice rink, which opened on Friday as part of the Bondi Winter Magic festival.

While families lapped up the winter sun on the beachside ice rink throughout the afternoon, meteorologists warned that the mercury would sink yet again to single digits on Saturday night.
Business and agriculture groups have welcomed Australia's pioneering pitch for a free trade agreement with four major Latin American countries, predicting a major windfall for farmers and exporters.

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo announced the start of trade negotiations with Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia, with the goal of bringing down prohibitively high tariffs in the Pacific Alliance trading bloc.

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo. Credit:Cole Bennetts

Farmers are eyeing the countries' combined population of 224 million, which has largely gone untapped as an export market despite the alliance importing $780 billion in goods and services last year.

"The size of the pie of those four countries together is extraordinary," National Farmers' Federation president Fiona Simson said. "It's a very good thing for agriculture and also Australia if we can get the formula right."
Almost two decades separate the age people die in some of Sydney's most disadvantaged and most privileged areas, the latest Social Health Atlas shows.

People living in the low socioeconomic areas were significantly more likely to die avoidable deaths than their neighbours in more affluent postcodes, according to the data mapping a range of demographics and health indicators across local areas.

In the United States, a stronger flu vaccine for the elderly has been used since 2009. Credit:Nicolas Walker

Sydneysiders in the Primary Health Area (PHA) of Mount Druitt-north west died on average 19 years earlier than those living in Cherrybrook and West Pennant Hills (68 versus 87 years old), the 2010-2014 median age at death data showed.

The national Social Health Atlas compiled by researchers at the Public Health Information Development Unit at Torrens University Australia confirms stark health inequity over relatively small geographical areas. Sydney  one of the most affluent cities in the country  was no exception.
Actor Sam Johnson has penned an emotional tribute to his sister as she approaches "the end" of her long battle against terminal cancer.

Johnson has revealed that his older sister Connie's health is deteriorating, following her recent decision to cease cancer treatment after years of intensive chemotherapy.

Samuel Johnson and his sister Connie. Credit:Facebook

The 2017 Gold Logie winning star of Molly, who rose to fame via television's Secret Life of Us, has been sharing the ups and downs of his sister's journey via social media since 2012 as part of the Love Your Sister campaign.

The campaign has amassed more than 450,000 followers on its Facebook page and raised more than $4 million for cancer research, including more than $1.5 million when Johnson rode a unicycle almost 16,000 kilometres around Australia.
At least one person has sustained minor injuries after a light plane crashed into a field of lettuce in southeast Queensland.

The pilot made an emergency landing just before 3pm on Saturday, coming down outside of the Lockyer Valley town of Gatton.

Emergency crews respond to reports that a light plane crash landed in a lettuce field near Gatton. Credit:Nine News Queensland

A Queensland Fire and Emergency Services spokesman said the plane was found upright with one person suffering from minor injuries.
The pair and associates tagged trains at a host of locations including Bayswater, South Kengsington, Pakenham and a V/Line train at Traralgon. Credit:UTAHETHER.COM Ferman, 35, died when Security and Emergency Services Group officers  the heavily-armed response unit known as toggies by inmates  tried to remove him from his cell after he assaulted two prison officers. Harper said the unit where Ferman had barricaded himself was in view of his cell, and that he had seen inside the unit while he was being escorted back to his cell from working in a prison factory. Hizir Ferman after being arrested in 2003 Credit:Channel Nine "I could see an officer covered in blood, laying [sic] like a starfish on the floor. Another officer was injured and already being carried away by a medical," Harper writes.

Hours later, the "toggies" showed up, and started plotting an operation to remove Ferman, he writes. "The toggies entered his unit, followed by lots of shouting and commotion, and all of the inmates became silent, trying to listen to what was going on. Graffiti believed to have been painted by Ether, Utah and Nokier in Melbourne this year. "We heard Hez screaming in agony, for what felt like forever, but in reality it probably only lasted three or four minutes." The officers were seen leaving the unit shortly after, followed by a steady stream of what appeared to be nurses and then detectives, Harper writes, before Ferman's body was carried into the back of an ambulance at night. His account appears to contradict evidence given to State Coroner Sara Hinchey last October. Ferman's death is still being investigated, but the coroner has been told he died after gas was deployed by prison officers and he became unwell.

"I guess the official reason given for Hez's death was an allergic reaction to pepper spray or whatever," Harper writes, "but for sure it was the toggies that killed him." A Corrections Victoria spokesman could not comment on the allegations, given the ongoing coronial investigation. Port Phillip Prison is operated by G4S Australia and New Zealand. Brett McMerrin, the company's justice operations director, said the company had robust contraband systems, but did not answer specific questions about prisonsecurity. Harper's five years on the run appeared to have come to an inauspicious end in May last year. Luke*, a single father from Fitzroy, objected to Harper and another man slapping stickers on businesses in Brunswick Street, a fight erupted, and Harper was wrestled to the ground in a headlock, while Luke* waited for the police.

Harper was eventually sentenced to six months in jail for assault, theft and criminal damage offences, had his Australian visa cancelled, and was told he would be escorted back to the US after serving his time because of the outstanding warrant. But he was not arrested upon his return to the US, and has since left the country again. The Department of Homeland Security, and Harper and Bremner, had not responded to emailed requests for comment by the time of publication. The self-published magazine, which contains details of the pair's Australian exploits, was limited to 500 copies and released in May for $US25 each. It was sold out within weeks. A video release, which accompanied the magazine, showed them breaking into rail sidings and painting trains, including Metro Trains and V/Line carriages.

Half of the magazine tells the story of the trip from Harper's perspective, which is largely confined to his time in prison, given he was arrested within a fortnight of arriving in Melbourne, and from the view of Bremner. The zine contains images of their vandalism across five states, and of court documents relating to Harper's case. Bremner writes that she had to convince Harper to come to Australia, and that their main motivation was to gain a "top hat" in the "Gentleman's Club". The honour is apparently bestowed in the graffiti underworld for those who document tagging metropolitan trains in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Bremner also reveals that she was stopped by Australian immigration officials in Brisbane before she left for Hong Kong, and was then spoken to by police, but was not arrested  despite being suspected of offences in Victoria, and the recent arrest of Harper.
Police are seeking public help to find a 10-month-old boy who has been missing since Wednesday.

Police have concerns for the welfare of Haze Knowles, who was last seen at a house in Argyll Circuit, Melton West, on June 28.

He is believed to be with his mother, Rebecca Pearson.

Senior Constable Adam West said Ms Pearson has been known to spend time in the suburbs of Caroline Springs, Melton and Mount Cottrell.

Anyone with information about Haze or Ms Pearson is urged to call Melton police station on 9747 7999.
English teacher Paul Stewart has noticed a worrying change in his students' essays.

It's not so much the content of the writing, or the structure, that bothers him.

A brainstorming session at Brighton Grammar. Credit:Mark Chew

The mess of obscure shapes and lines is the concern.

With laptops and iPads replacing notepads in classrooms, the head of middle school English at Brighton Grammar believes that his Year 7 and 8 students' handwriting has slowed, is messier and is causing them anxiety under exam conditions.
A WA woman who lost her leg during a make-shift go karting activity set up in her church's car park has successfully sued for damages.

Jenny* had volunteered at Grace Christian Church in Bunbury on August 25, 2012, to take photos and videos of a men's spiritual growth conference at the Apostolic church.

A woman has won her legal bid for her church pay damages after she lost her leg in a go karting accident.

Church member Graeme Holman had a background in go kart racing and had arranged for participants in the conference to ride them during the lunch break  setting up a course in the church's car park.

The course was bordered on the inside by a rope and witches hats and on the outer perimeter by a witches hat, one traffic barrier and a traffic bollard.
A 47-year-old woman has died in a head-on collision east of Perth on Friday night.

The woman was travelling east along Brookton Highway in Flint - 75 kilometres east of Perth - when her Volvo hatchback collided head-on with a Holden Commodore being driven west on the same road around 6.15pm.

The 47-year-old woman died after the collision in Flint - 75 kilometres east of Perth Credit:St John Ambulance

The woman died as a result of her injuries.

The 18-year-old male driver of the Holden was taken to Royal Perth Hospital by ambulance.
The world's biggest floating gas facility - nearly twice the size of the Titanic - is expected to arrive off WA shores later this month.

Prelude is a 488-metre long, 600,000 tonne vessel owned by Shell which can extract, process and store gas at sea.

Once it arrives in around four weeks time, it will be located 475 kilometres north of Broome, in the Browse basin.

The multi-billion dollar offshore project is expected to employ around 350 people, mainly from Western Australia.
A former Melbourne university student, who was among the 26 democracy activists detained for 28 hours as Chinese president Xi Jinping arrived in Hong Kong last week, was attacked on his way to protest on Saturday morning.

League of Social Democrats chairman Avery Ng Man Yuen and a group of other pro-democracy protesters were set upon by men they believe to be pro-Beijing thugs.

Three men in their 30s and 40s were arrested on suspicion of assault.

Ng showed injuries to news cameras, which he said were due to rough handling by police inside a police van. Police later told them they were taken away from the scene in a police van for their own safety.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, speaks to Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive-elect, in West Kowloon. Credit:Bloomberg Hong Kong has them. Shanghai doesn't. Academics say the judiciary remains largely independent, and there is no indication Beijing intends for Hong Kong to fade into just another Chinese city, usurped by Shanghai. Huge barricades near the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit. Credit:Bloomberg But there is dissatisfaction that the high degree of autonomy promised to Hong Kong in the joint declaration between Britain and China has been eroded in recent years. The abduction of booksellers in 2015, and then a Chinese billionaire by mainland authorities shook Hong Kong residents' sense of security.

Last year's intervention by Beijing in a court case to disqualify young democracy activists from taking their seats in parliament, after they breached an oath, was an unwelcome exercise of the mainland's right to "interpret" Hong Kong's Basic Law. Chinese President Xi Jinping with first lady Peng Liyuan at Hong Kong International Airport on Thursday. Credit:Bloomberg Voting reform for the 2017 chief executive election was abandoned after 2014 street protests for universal suffrage failed to persuade Beijing to allow the public to choose a candidate. "After Xi Jinping became general secretary we have seen Beijing trying to impose Chinese values on Hong Kong. The emphasis has been on the One Country, rather than the Two Systems," says Willy Wo-Lap Lam, adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, referring to the 1997 blueprint for how a communist country would take control of one of capitalism's freewheeling capitals. The 2014 Umbrella Movement occupied the streets of Hong Kong. Credit:AP

Professor Jean-Pierre Cabestan, head of the government studies department at Hong Kong Baptist University, says "it is true that Hong Kong's autonomy has shrunk". He says the Central Government Liaison Office had become the backseat driver of Hong Kong's government. The problem with the One Country, Two Systems formula is that it is left to Beijing to flesh out the details, he says. But he rejects the claim there has been a betrayal of Deng Xiaoping's intentions for Hong Kong, because it was designed as a hybrid system to give Beijing control. Nathan Law, lawmaker and chairman of Demosisto, addresses a protest near the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong, China, last year. Credit:Bloomberg Tim Summers, a senior fellow for Chatham House's Asia program, also argues Beijing hasn't changed its approach, with Deng intending for a patriot to run Hong Kong in a system of constrained democracy. The key worries held at the time of handover haven't been realised, as Hong Kong continues to have a free press, with basic rights and freedoms maintained, says Summers, who started work at the British consulate-general in the year after handover.

More than 10,000 police have been deployed across Hong Kong this weekend. Credit:Bloomberg But any conversation about the handover anniversary this week always comes around to the seismic political shift among Hong Kong's young, who don't accept the future spelt out for them in the 1997 documents. "The political centre of gravity has shifted away from Beijing, not towards it. The rise of Hong Kong identity, which to some degree rejects Chineseness, has been a big change," says Summers. Agnes Chow, deputy secretary general of Demosisto, the political party set up by a group of student activists following the Umbrella Movement. Credit:Lisa Murray On the eve of Xi's visit, police arrested and detained 26 democracy activists, including Demosisto's high-profile former schoolboy activist Joshua Wong and elected Legislative Council member Nathan Law, for public nuisance after they climbed the Golden Bauhinia statue given to Hong Kong by Beijing in 1997.

Demosisto, which grew out of the 2014 umbrella street movement that occupied central Hong Kong, was indignant that a day later, 22 protesters remained in detention, although they considered theirs to be a "peaceful protest". It seemed a clear attempt to keep the protest leaders off the streets until after July 1. Pro-democracy activists shout slogans from the top of the golden bauhinia statue, which was given to Hong Kong by Beijing in 1997. Credit:Kin Cheung Lam is under pressure from Beijing to show that "independence movements" will not be tolerated. She is expected to renew Beijing's push for national security legislation, criminalising sedition, abandoned after 2003 street protests. But Willy Lam says the use of the label "independence movement" by Beijing is a red herring  because few Hong Kong people support the concept  to justify a crackdown on all democracy activists. "Britain has no sovereignty, no governing power and no supervising power over Hong Kong after the handover," Chinese government spokesman Lu Kang said. Credit:Aventurier/Getty Images

Multiple people interviewed by Fairfax Media warned of a "vicious cycle" emerging where the more hands-on Beijing became in Hong Kong, the stronger the reaction from young people who had been educated in a liberal system. Xi's visit to the PLA garrison as part of his 20th anniversary tour was "very disturbing", says Willy Lam. From left, lawmaker Albert Chan and pro-democracy leaders Nathan Law and Joshua Wong last year after Wong was acquitted of obstructing police at a 2014 protest. Credit:AP "For the past 20 years, the 6000 to 7000 soldiers there have been invisible. You don't see them on the street and they are seldom mentioned by Beijing or Hong Kong officials. It is an implicit threat that the soldiers will be used." The Liaoning aircraft carrier is due to visit Hong Kong later in the month. "It is a new development. The Chinese authorities are reinforcing the army as playing a big role in safeguarding One Country, Two Systems," he says.

In a short speech after arriving in Hong Kong, Xi promised economic support and called for "all sectors of Hong Kong to work together" to uphold One Country, Two Systems. Summers said Beijing would prefer the status quo in Hong Kong, but the problem was Hong Kong society had changed. In an annual survey by the University of Hong Kong, just 3 per cent of young people identified as Chinese, down from a third at the time of handover. Gestures such as a visit by China's astronauts to Hong Kong schools this week, and the visit by Xi's wife Peng Liyuan to a kindergarten, signal a campaign by Beijing to win back Hong Kong's youth. Lam recently told Chinese state media that patriotic education will need to begin with kindergarten children, and Chinese history lessons should become compulsory for schools.

The risk is in reopening the battle that originally gave rise to the radical youth protest movement. Cabestan says Hong Kong parents micro-manage their children's education, and among religious families anything pro-Communist "won't go down well". Derek Lam, who formed Scholarism with Joshua Wong as a 16-year-old in 2011 to fight against the first attempt to introduce patriotic education to schools, says: "Most Hong Kong teenagers and their parents won't let it happen again." Scholarism's Lam, Wong and Agnes Chow all graduated to Demosisto. In the Netflix film Joshua: Teenager versus Superpower, Derek Lam likens the battle of the school students to Star Wars.

Teenagers attending the demonstration outside the North Point police station where Wong was being detained on Thursday, gave similarly stark views. One 17-year-old, who didn't want to be named, said: "I hate China." Another, Charlie, said: "We are angry about the Chinese government. I can't find any solution or any future." Addressing the socio-economic factors driving youth disengagement may be more fruitful than patriotic education, analysts said. Cabestan says the government has failed to address housing affordability by not building enough public housing. Students are facing pressure in the jobs market from more highly qualified mainland Chinese graduates who enrol in masters programs to access Hong Kong residency visas. Derek Lam says "the rich-poor gap is very severe" and there is no prospect for young people without wealthy parents to own their own apartment.

He said the "young firebrands" have little in common with the older generation of democratic politicians. Eddie Chu, 39, an independent elected to the Legislative Council with the highest number of votes in September, said the "old democrats" stick to the Basic Law to fight for universal suffrage, but he doesn't think this will work. "What young parties like Demosisto are thinking, and I am thinking, is we need to rebuild a process for a referendum, to ask 'what kind of future do you want?'" he says. "It is a healthy argument." He said the first 20 years of his life were in the colonial era, before handover. "Since my birth the sense of uncertainty has been overwhelming," he says.
Mumbai: For the second time in less than a year, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is putting India through a revolution in the way the country does business. Last November, the government imposed one of the most radical monetary experiments ever, abruptly banning most of the country's currency notes in an effort to stem corruption.

Now, it is instituting the country's biggest tax overhaul since independence. On Saturday, a nationwide sales tax replaced the hodgepodge of business taxes that vary from state to state and are seen as an impediment to growth. It is expected to unify in a single market 1.3 billion people spread over 29 states and seven union territories in India's $US2 trillion ($2.6 trillion) economy.

Textile traders protest against the new goods and services tax in Bangalore, India on Friday/ The new system will replace a welter of taxes from around the country that were seen as a major impediment to growth. Credit:The New York Times

At a midnight ceremony in parliament's central hall Mr Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee together launched the new tax by pressing a button. "With GST, the dream of 'One India, Great India' will come true," Modi said.

For the first midnight ceremony in the central hall in two decades, Modi was joined by his cabinet colleagues, India's central bank chief, a former prime minister and major company executives including Ratan Tata.
The AmeriKat when promises have been made,

but not delivered....



The patent system has a duel purpose - incentivize new inventions (by granting time-limited exclusive rights) and encourage inventors to publicly disclose knowledge about those inventions for society's benefit (Teva Canada v. Pfizer Canada (2012 SCC 60)).

For a creation to be an "invention", section 2 demands that the subject matter be useful. This is the utility requirement. This requirement avoids granting patents prematurely (and thereby restricting others ability to conduct research/development). It ensures that patents are not granted where the use is speculative, fanciful or inoperable. At this stage of the patent analysis - section 2 - the invention just need to be useful and not merely a "laboratory curiosity" where its "only possible claim to utility is as a starting material for further research" (Re Application of Abitibi Co (1982) 62 CPR).

The claims define the subject matter of the invention and set out the scope of the monopoly (section 27(4)). This allows others "to ascertain with some measure of exactness the boundaries of the exclusive privilege upon which they may not trespass during the exercise of the grant" (Pioneer v Canada [1989] 1 SCR 1623).

Section 2 is a qualifying gateway. Once the subject matter qualifies as an invention , then the invention must be properly disclosed.

Section 27(3) provides that the specification must describe the invention "with sufficiently complete and accurate details as will enable" a skilled person to "construct or use that invention".

O Canada, thank you for getting rid of the

Promise Doctrine

"Where the specification does not promise a specific result, no particular level of utility is required; a mere scintilla of utility will suffice. However, where the specification sets out an explicit promise, utility will be measured against that promise : Consolboard; Pfizer v.Canada (Minister of Health), 2008 FCA 108, [2009] 1 F.C.R. 253 (Ranbaxy). The question is whether the invention does what the patent promises it will do." [Emphasis added.] (Eli Lilly v Novopharm (2010 FCA 197)

Reviewing the entire specification (claims and entire disclosure) Identifying the promises made in the entire specification Determining whether the patent fulfils those promises by demonstration or sound prediction.

"There are consequences for failing to properly disclose an invention by claiming, for instance, that you have invented more than you have. A disclosure which is not correct and full, or states an unsubstantiated use or operation of the invention, may be found to fail to fulfill the requirements of s. 27(3) . An overly broad claim may be declared invalid; however, under the operation of s. 58 of the Patent Act , remaining valid claims can be given effect. As well, this mischief may result in a patent being void under s. 53 of the Act, where overpromising in a specification amounts to an omission or addition that is willfully made for the purpose of misleading."

Christmas has come early for Canadian

patentees thanks to the Supreme Court

"otherwise useful invention to be deprived of patent protection because not every promised use was sufficiently demonstrated or soundly predicted by the filing date....The effect of the Promise Doctrine to deprive such an invention of patent protection if even one promised use is not soundly predicted or demonstrated is punitive and has no basis in the Act. Furthermore, such a consequence is antagonistic to the bargain on which patent law is based wherein we ask inventors to give fulsome disclosure in exchange for a limited monopoly (British United Shoe Machinery Co. v. A. Fussell & Sons Ltd. (1908), 25 R.P.C. 631(C.A.), at p. 650).

To invalidate a patent solely on the basis of an unintentional overstatement of even a single use will discourage a patentee from disclosing fully, whereas such disclosure is to the advantage of the public. The Promise Doctrine in its operation is inconsistent with the purpose of s. 27(3) of the Act which calls on an inventor to fully describe the invention and its operation or use. Thus, the Promise Doctrine undermines a key part of the scheme of the Act; it is not good law." [Emphasis added]

"A single use related to the nature of the subject-matter is sufficient and utility must be established by either demonstration or sound prediction as of the filing date."

Courts must identify the subject-matter of the invention as claimed in the patent Courts must ask whether that subject-matter is useful - is it capable of a practical purpose (ie. actual result)

The Court stated, in line with Consolboard, that is not a requirement of section 2 that a patentee must disclose the utility of the invention, just that the subject matter must have utility.





The Court's Decision





Having put the Promise Doctrine firmly in a locked box in respect of the utility requirement, the Court was tasked with deciding whether the '653 Patent was indeed "useful" under section 2. The subject matter of the '653 patent was defined by Justice Rennie as:

". . . the subject matter of the 653 patent was optically pure salts of the enantiomers of omeprazole, described as novel compounds, having improved pharmacokinetic and metabolic properties and high stability to racemization in neutral and basic pH, a method to make them, and therapeutic uses." The subject of the patent that must be useful for the purposes of section 2 is the "optically pure salts of the enantiomer of omeprazole".



It was accepted at first instance that at the filing date the optically pure salts of the enantiomer of omeprazole would be useful as a proton pump inhibitor to reduce the production of gastric acid. Use as a proton pump inhibitor is related to the subject matter of the patent, thereby making it useful within the meaning of section 2. This is sufficient utility to satisfy the requirements of section 2.



The Supreme Court thereby allowed the appeal finding that the patent was not invalid for lack of utility.



Comment



Patentees and industry organizations are heralding yesterday's decision as a big win for innovation. This is not the least bit surprising given that since its inception in 2005, the Promise Doctrine resulted in the invalidation of 26 patents relating to 22 medicines and

"The Doctrines extremely restrictive approach has created harmful instability and uncertainty for medical innovators by making it difficult to obtain or defend a life science patent in Canada. Today, the Supreme Court has begun to restore much-needed clarity and confidence that biopharmaceutical innovators will be afforded equal protections under the law. This ruling sends an important signal that Canada is open for the business of innovation." AstraZeneca

"will resolve a key issue for Canadian innovators because it removes the ambiguity that the promise doctrine created. It signals to global investors that Canada is a good place to invest with a predictable and stable market, aligned to other major trading partners. From a political angle, the removal of this hurdle will be a welcome development for both the US and Canada as they prepare for the upcoming NAFTA talks.



Legally, however, it is also important to note the limits of the decision. This was a question about utility - not sufficiency. The Court noted that sufficiency has an important role in patent law in remedying the mischief of "over promising". Utility was and is not the place for this function, as otherwise the consequences of an applicant not even being able to jump over the first hurdle to obtain patent protection at all is excessively onerous (as opposed to, the Court noted at [46], obtaining a patent, but then having to rely on a limited claim should a broader claim be found to over promise at the relevant date).



With the promising of patents all the rage at the moment, the next question will be how the UK Supreme Court will grapple with similar arguments in the context of plausibility in sufficiency. The subject of the patent that must be useful for the purposes of section 2 is the "optically pure salts of the enantiomer of omeprazole".It was accepted at first instance that at the filing date the optically pure salts of the enantiomer of omeprazole would be useful as a proton pump inhibitor to reduce the production of gastric acid. Use as a proton pump inhibitor is related to the subject matter of the patent, thereby making it useful within the meaning of section 2. This is sufficient utility to satisfy the requirements of section 2.The Supreme Court thereby allowed the appeal finding that the patent was not invalid for lack of utility.Patentees and industry organizations are heralding yesterday's decision as a big win for innovation. This is not the least bit surprising given that since its inception in 2005, the Promise Doctrine resulted in the invalidation of 26 patents relating to 22 medicines and over $1 billion in sales . As you would expect, the US Chamber of Commerce's Global IP Center stated in a press release that AstraZeneca stated that the decision:From a political angle, the removal of this hurdle will be a welcome development for both the US and Canada as they prepare for the upcoming NAFTA talks.Legally, however, it is also important to note the limits of the decision. This was a question about utility - not sufficiency. The Court noted that sufficiency has an important role in patent law in remedying the mischief of "over promising". Utility was and is not the place for this function, as otherwise the consequences of an applicant not even being able to jump over the first hurdle to obtain patent protection at all is excessively onerous (as opposed to, the Court noted at [46], obtaining a patent, but then having to rely on a limited claim should a broader claim be found to over promise at the relevant date).With the promising of patents all the rage at the moment, the next question will be how the UK Supreme Court will grapple with similar arguments in the context of plausibility in sufficiency.

in the appeal between 2017 SCC 36 ). The Court unanimously rejected the controversial "promise doctrine" in relation to the utility requirement under Canadian patent law.In 1994, AstraZeneca made an application for the 2,139,653 patent ("the '653 patent"). The '653 patent claimed the optically pure salts of esomeprazole. Esomeprazole is a proton pump inhibitor which blocks acid producing pumps in cells to reduce the amount of stomach acide The drug is marketed under the name NEXIUM.Apotex sought to sell a generic version of NEXIUM, applying for a Notice of Compliance to the federal Minister of Health to enable it to do so. Under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations, SOR/93-133 , AstraZeneca applied to the Minister of Health to stop the issuance of a Notice of Compliance to Apotex. This application was dismissed by Justice Hughes in 2010, allowing Apotex to launch. AstraZeneca brought an action for patent infringement against Apotex. Apotex counterclaimed for invalidity.At first instance,Justice Rennie found that the '653 was novel and inventive, but lacked utility. Although the patent proved to be useful for some purposes, it was invalid because "it promised more than it could provide". Thus, falling foul of the Promise Doctrine. The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed AstraZeneca's appeal. AstraZeneca appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that the Promise Doctrine was unsound. The Supreme Court agreed.The Court set out some basic background and principles which inform their reasoning. These were as follows:The utility requirement is a necessary pre-condition to patentability - if the invention that a patent purports to protect is not useful, it cannot be an invention ((2002 SCC 77),). But useful for what? That lower courts had answered that question with the reply - the "promise of the patent" ((2011 FC 547). This means that:This exercise requires:This exercise is a question of law viewed through the skilled person at the time of filing (with the assistance of expert evidence) and has been applied in several cases ((2005 FC 1348),(2009 FCA 222),(2009 FC 676),(2012 FCA 109)).The Court stated that although the Promise Doctrine is viewed as uniquely Canadian, it has its roots in English law in ((1919) 36 PRC 231 ) and where, the now extinct doctrine the Court referred to as the "False Promise Doctrine" derived. The Court explained, citing this paper by former Guest Kat, Professor Norman Siebrasse (see Norman's blog here ), that this was a doctrine from a different era which was based on the view that no one wanted to second guess the Crown in its exercise of granting a patent. So if the representations made by an applicant turned out to be false, it was not for the Courts to presume that the Crown would have granted the patent based on a more "limited" promise. [Although admittedly not having poured over Victorian patent law precedent, the AmeriKat read bothandand could not discern a logical evolution between the dicta in either case, especially, and what ultimately resulted in what became the Canadian Promise Doctrine - a task for another time...].Although dead in English law, the Doctrine found a new home in Canada. But, the Supreme Court noted, "this doctrine...is unsound". The Court stated that the doctrine was as "excessively onerous" in two respects : (i) expressed promises and (ii) multiple uses.In relation to expressed promises, the Court stated that the Promise Doctrine conflated utility (s. 2) with sufficiency (s. 27(3)) - utility is a "condition precedent to an invention" and sufficiency is a "disclosure requirement independent of the first" (see Dickson J (as he then was) in). The Promise Doctrine effectively imports sufficiency requirements into the utility requirements by demanding that for an invention to have utility "the disclosed use [must] be demonstrated or soundly predicted at the time of filing". If the disclosed use does not fulfil this requirement, then thepatent is invalid as utility is the pre-condition of patentability.Although "overpromising is a mischief", the Canadian Patents Act deals with this in a variety of ways (namely via sufficiency). The Court stated:In relation to multiple uses, the Court stated that the Promise Doctrine was contrary to the Act by requiring that where multiple promises were expressed, all of them must be satisfied to meet the utility requirements. All that was required was that "[a]ny single use of the subject matter that is demonstrated or soundly predicted by the filing date is sufficient to make an invention useful for the purposes of" the utility requirement. To demand that all uses be met is unfair as it would risk an:In summation, "promises are not the yardstick against which utility is to be measured" [63].The Court stated that utility requires the subject matter of an invention to be useful. This means that the invention must be capable of an actual use relevant to the subject matter and not devoid of utility. At [55] the Court stated:To determine whether a patent discloses an invention with sufficient utility, the courts should adopt a two-stage test:
Jakarta: Former President Barack Obama, stressing the importance of the Paris climate agreement, criticised President Donald Trump for taking the US out of the deal.

Trump said last month he would withdraw from the agreement and seek to negotiate a better deal.

"In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history to fight climate change," Obama said on Saturday in a speech at the opening of the Fourth Congress of the Indonesian Diaspora in Jakarta. He said it was "an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership will still give our children a fighting chance."

"The challenges of our times, whether it's economic inequality, changing climate, terrorism, mass migration; these are really challenges and we're going to have to confront them together," he said.
Berlin: When Sarah Kermer proposed to her girlfriend in March, she knew she was in love, but she did not know when, if ever, Germany would allow them to marry.

The answer came early on Friday, when the lower house of the German parliament voted to legalise same-sex marriage after a brisk but emotional debate, prompting Kermer and scores of other gay and lesbian Germans to celebrate in the streets.

Men with rainbow flags stand in front of the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Germany. Credit:AP

"I was at work, and I just started crying," Ms Kermer, 25, said as she and her fiance left a spontaneous gathering at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. "I was watching the decision on live-stream, and I cried - a lot. This has all happened just so fast."

The historic decision came with a swiftness rare in Germany's usually staid politics, just five days after Chancellor Angela Merkel unexpectedly relaxed her party's opposition to same-sex marriage and allowed lawmakers to vote on the issue according to their consciences.
Ms. Neydia Romou becomes programs second graduate.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Through an intervention of sorts just two years ago by Ms. Tamara Leonard, a concept was born to attempt to assist one student with a scholarship. This lead to a vision of trying to assist much more that suffered the same fate of that student. This vision eventually led to the establishment of the Education For Us All Foundation (E4UA), an organization whose initiative is to give Sint Maarten born students a chance to pursue and achieve their tertiary education. The main focus of the organization is the students who tend to fall through the cracks of our educational system after completing high school. Each year, there are several students that fail to secure a scholarship due to various reasons. E4US decided to take on an approach as a supplementary body to the department of education in its mission to assist these students by issuing grants or scholarships. With the help of many generous sponsors, the organization managed to raise the necessary funds to start positively affecting the lives of young aspiring Sint Maarteners.

The fruits of our labor are the college graduates who have worked hard to maintain their grades while being supported by E4UA scholarships stated Mr. Duncan van Heyningen, President of E4UA. We are proud to announce that in 2017 we yielded our second college graduate, Ms. Neydia Romou, who achieved an Associates Degree from the University of Sint Maarten (USM). She follows in the footsteps of our first graduate Ms. Keidy Gregoria who graduated in 2016 he continued. Ms. Neydia Romou, who graduated on Saturday, June 24th, via a Facebook post thanked E4UA for their assistance, the management of STM Shipping for allowing her time off to complete her studies and her close friends and relatives for their continued support.

Education For Us Alls scholarship program would not be possible without the sponsors that financially backed the foundation without hesitation. This includes NAPA, Le Grand Marche, Caribbean Liquors & Tobacco, Ace Mega Center, Dominos Pizza, Windward Islands Bank Ltd., All Waste In Place, Clean SXM, Prime Distributors, MJR Bailiff Marshall Services, Rotary Club of Sint Maarten, UTS and St. Maarten Shipping & Stevedoring. These sponsors have been on board with E4UA and during this past year have made it possible for 8 students to attend the USM with one student receiving a financial grant to assist with attaining her Masters degree in the Netherlands. E4UA consists of Director Mrs. Sharalee Lint-Beudeker, President Mr. Duncan van Heyningen, Treasurer Ms. Roxanne Howell, Secretary Mrs. Keyla van Heyningen and Honorary Board Member Ms. Withney Murray. Founder of the organization is Ms. Tamara Leonard. They are currently accepting new applications, and young persons interested in applying for the E4UA scholarship program can send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." -Martin Luther King Jr.-
Oranjestad:--- The submission of various financial reports to the Cft is still not up to standard. The chairman of the Board of supervision of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (Cft) reached this conclusion during talks with both the Executive Council and the Island Council. An approved budget and accountability for its execution are essential instruments for the management of Sint Eustatius. It is therefore of great importance that the financial statements 2015, the 2017 budget and the progress report for the first quarter of 2017, which are in an advanced draft stage, will be finalized. In addition, priority should be given to the 2016 financial statements. It is expected that the latter will not be completed by the legal deadline of July 15, 2017.

During the visit of the Cft, the need for a sound budgeting and accountability process was discussed. In that context, on of the subjects was the Finance department. An external office is working on addressing the capacity problems. The Cft, therefore, assumes that the backlog in the financial reports in the short term will be reduced. Based on the latest figures, Sint Eustatius expects to realize a surplus of approximately USD 0.5 million in 2016, fully compensating for the deficit in 2014. This represents significant progress compared to 2015, which is expected to close off with a deficit of USD 0.6 million. Compensation of that deficit is scheduled for 2017. The Cft notices that payments are made that are not in line with the rules of the preceding supervision as performed by the Ministry of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations.

It is necessary that Sint Eustatius soon arranges for an approved budget in 2017. It is important that the process of reaching a modified agreement with NuStar is completed in the short term. This will result in a sharp increase in the income of the island which will make the finances of the public entity more sustainable. The Cft has expressed its appreciation for this. The Cft has emphasized that there are still some risks with regard to the finances on which St. Eustatius still has to focus. One example is the flaws related to the salary administration.

The Board als discussed the BES pension legislation for (former) political officials with the Executive Council. This pension legislation requires the establishment of a pension provision. Due to various causes, this provision has not yet been calculated and incorporated in the financial statements of Sint Eustatius. It is agreed that the Cft, together with the public entities, will analyze the financial aspects of the relevant pension legislation more closely.

This visit of the Board to Sint Eustatius was also to bid farewell to the current chairman Age Bakker, who is departing as of July 1, 2017. Cft, together with the members of the Island Council and the Executive Council, looked back on the collaboration. During the visit, Mr. Herbert F. Domacasse was also already introduced. He was appointed as the new Cft member on behalf of the public entities Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, as per July 1st, 2017. Starting July 1st, 2017 Cft Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba will consist of Raymond Gradus (Chairman), Sybilla Dekker and Herbert Domacasse.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The All New 2018 Mazda CX-5 Crossover SUV, revealed late last year at the Los Angeles Motor Show in the U.S., is finally here in Sint Maarten/Saint Martin all the way from Hiroshima Japan, thanks to the efforts of the management and owners of Caribbean Auto, located in Cole Bay. The Mazda CX-5 has become an instant SXM hot ticket item, with its beautiful looks that are loaded with tons of features. Mazda is known for its 'Zoom Zoom' driving philosophy, creating vehicles that are fun to drive. The All-New CX-5 not only embodies this driver first mentality but now has dramatically reduced road noise for an incredibly premium and quiet cabin.

Since its introduction in 2012, the CX-5 has become one of Mazdas best-selling global models and has been a vehicle for the brands SkyActiv engine technology. Mazda has confirmed that the engine options all new CX-5 Crossover have been tweaked for more performance and greater fuel efficiency.

It looks like a clear evolution of the car it replaces rather than a radical overhaul, but there are some important design changes. At the front, it gets slimmer headlights and a slightly larger grille, joined by re-profiled tail lights and a tweaked tailgate at the back.

The subtle alterations hide front and rear tracks widened by 10mm, and the A-pillars sit 35mm further back than on the existing model. It sits on a modified version of the existing platform, and while the wheelbase remains the same, its a longer car by 10mm and sits 15mm lower.

Inside, the all-new CX-5 Crossover gets the latest evolution of Mazdas infotainment system. Its seven-inch display is crisper than before, thanks to a new process that uses optical bonding to join the LCD screen to the touch panel, and the unit now sits high up on top of the fascia.

Other changes up front include a higher-resolution TFT (thin-film-transistor) display in the instrument panel and the option of a head-up display that can project navigation instructions onto the inside of the windscreen.

Further, passengers in the back seats get a slightly lower hip point and the option of rear cabin climate control vents and rear USB ports.

Under the skin, Mazda has tweaked the 2.0L/2.5L Skyactiv petrol engines. Modifications to the chassis have increased torsional rigidity by 15.5 per cent and helped to reduce low-frequency road noise to make conversations about 10 per cent clearer at 60mph.

Other changes include a deeper, richer version of Mazdas popular Soul Red paint scheme  now called Soul Red Crystal. All St. Maarten CX5s come standard with gorgeous two-tone 19" Alloy wheels, LED headlights, auto rain wiping sensors, rear USB ports, Push Button Start, Electronic Parking Brake and a 7" Touchscreen with Rear View Camera. Top Trim Grand Touring models add premium leather powered memory seats, a sunroof, front and rear parking sensors, full-color digital 'HUD' heads up display projected on the windshield, LED daytime running lights, power liftgate and a 10 speaker Bose Sound System. For the first time in St. Maarten for any manufacturer, the Grand Touring CX-5 will come iActivsense safety features such as Lane Keep Assist, Pedestrian Detection, and 'SCBS' Smart City Brake Support. With SCBS, the CX-5 will automatically detect pedestrians or vehicles in front of you with a potential collision, and brake automatically for you which either completely avoids an accident, or dramatically reduces impact depending on the speed you're traveling.
Mobi724 Global Solutions Inc. (CSE: MOS) Final Issuance of Shares Pursuant to Provisions Concerning the Acquisition of the remaining 49% Shares of Mobi724 Solutions Inc. (Solutions Inc.)

MONTREAL, QUEBEC  (Marketwired)  06/30/17  Mobi724 Global Solutions Inc. (the Company) (CSE: MOS)(CSE: MOS.CN)(CNSX: MOS)(OTCQB: MOBIF), a technology leader in the digital incentives, couponing and payment space, announces that it has issued 6,798,577 common Shares of the Company at market price to the previous shareholders of the Solutions Inc. pursuant to the terms of pre-defined anti-dilution provisions and agreements with those shareholders. This issuance has been reviewed by the audit committee and approved by the Board of directors and these shares issued form part of the purchase price for the remaining 49% shares of Solutions Inc. which transaction was announced on October 28, 2015, reported in the financial statements and covered during the last annual meeting. The Purchase Price was subject to a pre-defined anti-dilution provision with a cap of 18.05% of the total issued and outstanding shares of the Company and this issue covers events up to the Companys Board of directors meeting on May 1, 2017. This is the final issuance with respect to the anti-dilution provisions.

Forgiveness of debt

On June 28 and June 30 2017, the Company issued 501,566 common shares at market price varying between $0.23 and $0.235 in forgiveness of $115,664.41 of bona fide debt. On June 28, 2017 the Company also issued 202,898 common shares at a price of $0.1725 (market price less the maximum allowable discount pursuant to the settlement agreement) in payment of a $35,000 portion of a lawsuit settlement.

Options

The Company also announces that on June 30th, 2017 it has granted 710,000 stock options under its stock option plan to its employees, officers and consultants. Each option shall vest gradually over a period of 3 years (1/3 per year, the first 1/3 vesting upon grant) and will allow the optionee to acquire 1 common share of the Company at a price of $0.35 until June 30, 2020. Details are found on Form 11 filed on the CSE on June 30, 2017.

About Mobi724 Global Solutions

Mobi724, a leader in the fintech industry based in Montreal (Canada), offers a unique and fully integrated suite of payment & digital marketing solutions with a combined EMV Payment, Card Linked Offers, and Digital Marketing platform that works on any card and any mobile device. Mobi724s solutions add value to all types of transactions benefiting banks, retailers and cardholders by leveraging available user and purchasing data to increase transaction volumes and spend. Mobi724 provides a turnkey solution to its clients to capture card transactions on any mobile device, at any point of sale or from any payment card. Mobi724 provides its customers with full and comprehensive traceability and enriched consumer data through its offering. Its solutions enables card associations, retailers, manufacturers, offer providers, mobile operators and card issuers to create, manage, deliver and track and measure incentive campaigns worldwide to any mobile device and allow its redemption at any point of sales.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this document, including those which express managements expectations or estimations with regard to the Companys future performance, constitute forward-looking statements as understood by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are, of necessity, based on a certain number of estimates and hypotheses; while management considers these to be accurate at the time they are expressed, they are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and risks on the commercial, economic and competitive levels. We advise readers that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other known and unknown factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Investors are advised to not rely unduly on the forward-looking statements. This advisory applies to all forward-looking statements, whether expressed orally or in writing, attributed to the Company or to any individual expressing them in the name of the Company. Unless required by law, the Company is under no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events, or other circumstances.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed this news release and does not accept responsibility for its adequacy or accuracy.

Contacts:

MOBI724 Global Solutions Inc.

Marcel Vienneau

1-514-394-5200 x 413
'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever': What to know before you see it
The overarching title of the panels was, Where is Iran heading?, and discussed how the Iranian Regimes policies are dangerous to the people of Iran, the Middle East and the world as a whole.

Iran Regimes Policies

The first panel, which covered the Iranian Regimes policies, was monitored by Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield, the former US assistant secretary of state for military affairs.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, former Senator and vice presidential candidate, said that the Iranian Regime is clearly an enemy of the US and cited the comments of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Ambassador Robert Joseph, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control, explained that he supported the MEK and the Iranian Resistance because of their commitment to a non-nuclear Iran.

Joseph insisted that Regime Change in Iran must not come from outside forces, like military intervention, and instead must come from the people of Iran.

General Jack Keane said that the Regimes policy is to drive US forces out of the Middle East, in order to take control of the region. He explained that the Iranian Regime is already building a Shiite Crescent from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean through Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.

John Baird, a former foreign minister of Canada reminded us that the Iranian people do not support the Regime, and that the ordinary Iranians should be at the heart of any policy from the rest of the world.

Bruno Tertrais, Deputy Director of the Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique of France, said that Iran has not been showing any evidence of its supposed good intentions following the nuclear deal.

Iran Regimes Role in the Middle East

The second panel, which focused on Irans role in the Middle East, was hosted by Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former vice president of the EU Parliament & current President of the International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ).

Alejo Vidal-Quadras noted that Western Governments must not seek to work with the Iranian Regime and said that constructive dialogue from the Regime was merely an illusion.

Adam Ereli, the former US Ambassador to Bahrain and a spokesman for the State Department warned that the Iranian Regime is patient and opportunistic; they are merely waiting for the right time to strike back.

Lieberman said that the kind of political unrest that is evident in Iran at the moment, will ultimately spell the end of the Iranian Regime.

Joseph warned heavily against businesses making investments is Iran, saying that the last thing we want is to fund a Regime that supports terrorism.

Sid Ahmad Ghozali, the former Prime Minister of Algeria, announced that the Iranian Regime posed a huge threat to world peace, because of their attempts to dominate the Middle East.

Many MEK members were evacuated to Albania in 2016, under the supervision of the UN, following years of abuse and attacks from the Regime.

Ghozali said that the panel as whole rejected the idea that the international community could negotiate with the Iranian Regime.

Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, a researcher at the Institut Francais de Geopolitique who has a doctorate in geopolitics, said that we should be surprised at the Iranian Regimes attempts to dominate the Middle East. He said that it was in the Iranian Regimes DNA right from the 1979 Revolution.

Keane said that the Iranian Regime was responsible for bringing Russia into the Syrian conflict on behalf of the Bashar Assad dictatorship.

Michael P Pregent, an expert in the fields of Foreign Policy, National Security, Intelligence & Terrorism, said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) increased its operations in Iraq following the nuclear deal, because of the funds they received from sanctions relief.

Pregent praised the NCRI and MEK for the valuable information that they have provided to the International community over the past several years.

Struan Stevenson, a former MEP for Scotland, said that regime change in Iran would in fact end all extremist Islamic fundamentalist groups.

Role of MEK

The third panel, moderated by Ambassador Bloomfield again, focused on the role of the Iranian opposition forces, specifically the NCRI and MEK.

Ramesh Sepehrrad from George Mason university, said that the Iranian regime has made it hard for the Iranian people to express their support for the NCRI and MEK because of the harsh punishment doled out to those who criticise the Regime.

Stevenson suggested that if the US wanted to really send a strong signal to the Iranian Regime, they should lend their support the MEK.

Linda Chavez, the Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity said that despite the backlash from the Regime, the Iranian people are still seeking out the NCRI and MEK. She noted that many people boycotted the recent sham elections because they could not vote for the Regime chosen candidates and put up posters of Maryam Rajavi around Iran.

She praised the NCRI/MEK for their work and said that change would come soon, but it must come from within.

Kenneth Blackwell, a former US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council said that US strategic interests and human rights issues are well aligned.

He said that the Regimes illegitimacy is multifaceted and that they pose a direct threat to international security.

He also reminded us that the Iranian people, who are being oppressed, are the single most important factor in this crisis.

He said: Human rights struggles are not a spectator sport; you cant sit on the sidelines, you have to engage.

Mohammed Alsulami, Head of the Arabian Gulf Centre for Iranian Studies (AGCIS) said that the Iranian regimes strategy has always been to export its problems abroad, ever since 1979.

Senator Robert Torricelli praised the MEK for their relentless activism, even in the face of adversity. He said that the MEK continues to work for change every day, and will continue to work until they see change.

Tomorrow, the Free Iran Great Gathering will officially begin in Paris. For more information go the official website of the #FreeIran Gathering.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms. High around 80F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Showers likely along with a possible rumble of thunder early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 63F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Every year, the speakers pay tribute to the many political prisoners which the Iranian regime has tried to silence. The speakers pledge to continue speaking on behalf of those who cant. However, despite the best efforts of the Iranian regime, the political prisoners in Iran have not been silenced. Far from it.

They have already risked their lives to speak out and they are continuing to do so despite being in prison. Many have sent messages of solidarity ahead of the Free Iran rally, from prison.

Sixty-six year-old Ali Moezzi is one such prisoner. He was imprisoned during the eighties for being an MEK supporter. His daughters are now part of the MEK and he has been in and out of prison since they joined.

In his message he said: This gathering echoes the cries of all the enchained people of Iran. It echoes the voice of the deprived, the toiling porters in Kurdistan, the voice of the Sunnis, our Baluchi compatriots, and everyone else. It manifests the pride of Iran and Iranians, it is the symbol of their organized resistance, the democratic alternative and the flag they have hoisted for resistance at any cost to achieve freedom.

The Iranian peoples historic demands to reach a free and democratic Iran will never be forgotten. Demands such as a pluralist society with fundamental freedoms, separation of religion and state, rights of ethnic and religious minorities, gender equality

Mrs. Rajavi was right to say that our only asset is Resistance. She spoke of 1000 Ashrafs and of 1000 bastions of rebellion and resistance. She was right when she said no to the white turbans and the black turbans. Because any effort for a free Iran and a democratic future is not tolerated by the Velayat-e Faqih regime.

Now, from the corner of this prison cell, I see myself with you and among you in the great and glorious gathering of this year in Paris on July 1. With pride and heart-felt love and hope, I hail each and every one of you who add to our nations asset of determination and faith. Hail to you, the delegations, the distinguished guests and hail to Maryam Rajavi, the shining sun and the great honor of Iran.

Mr. Moezzis latest imprisonment started in 2011 because he attended the funeral of political prisoner Mohsen Dokmehchi (who died in prison after a horrific amount of suffering because officials denied him essential treatment for cancer). Moezzi should have been released two years ago, but officials refused and invented some new charges so he could be kept there.

He was taken from Gohardasht prison at the beginning of the year and was put in Evin prison where he was kept in solitary confinement and subject to harsh interrogation. He is now in Greater Tehran Prison which has been described as a concentration camp.

Mr. Arjang Davoudi is another political prisoner that took a huge risk in sending a message to the Iranian opposition. He said: It is not any exaggeration if I honestly and explicitly say that presently, the Peoples Mojahedin of Iran (MEK), is the oldest and most organized part of the potential alternative that manages the nationwide struggle of the Iranian people for freedom from the clutches of Khameneis mafia and his partners.

The MEK has become indispensable to our struggle. Therefore, I urge everyone who loves to see a free Iran and thinks of the pride and honor of Iranians to make their best effort to take part in this great gathering in Paris and make this gathering more glorious with their presence.

We should know that extensive participation of freedom-loving Iranians in such events is greatly heart-warming for resistant prisoners who linger and spend their nights and days inside the Iranian regimes medieval dungeons.

Mr. Abolghassem Fouladvand who is in prison because of his support for the opposition sent a message of support too. He said: It is time to rise up. The galaxy of freedom, is marching on with strength and determination to overthrow the clerical regime. I would like to join this galaxy and be along your side and stand beside true Iranians, and freedom-loving Iranians. I want to stand with the family of Resistance and the Army of Freedom.

With such participation and support, I say another resounding NO to the clerical regime and declare my all-out support for the only organized resistance in Iran and abroad. We must know that at this time, there is no middle. Remaining silent and passive is not any different from standing in the ranks of the mullahs.

I hope that with your active presence, you would be my voice and the voice of my other imprisoned comrades.

Mr. Shahin Zoghi-tabar was put in prison for freedom activities and for supporting the opposition. He said in his letter: Your presence in the great gathering of the Iranian Resistance is not only a form of declaration of support for the Iranian opposition, but also echoes the voice of the oppressed women of Iran and the child workers. You can be the voice of Irans workers, nurses and teachers By participating in this gathering show the world that the Iranian peoples choice is not the mullahs or the IRGC. Rather, their choice is resistance for freedom.

Many of the political prisoners in Iran are there because of their links to the PMOI / MEK. They were arrested for exposing violations carried out by the regime or for helping the opposition financially.

During the recent presidential election in Iran, many MEK activists and supporters urged people to boycott the election. They also called for justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre in which more than 30,000 political prisoners were executed. The sheer extent of dissent gave great fear to the regime.

In a backlash against the support for the opposition, the regime has started to ramp up misinformation campaigns in state media about the MEK.
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STAMFORD  If you ask him, James Gibson will tell you he used to run the streets, drugging and drinking.

A felon who Judicial Branch records show was convicted of a 2002 robbery in Norwalk where a man was shot, Gibson spent the next four Christmases and birthdays in jail.

I spent over 20 years living the lifestyle, like a gangster, like a gangbanger, a dealer, he said, his bright eyes unwavering from their laser focus even while talking about something so embarrassing.

Now at 38, Gibson is running his own business at the First Presbyterian Church on Bedford Street. Stop by or pull through the driveway any evening other than Sunday and he will be there making pizzas in a brand new Little Box Pizza truck.

Gibson will also tell you that after years of living with little hope for his future, he is astounded to find himself the owner-operator of the business that bases itself at fish church.

Im in awe, he said. Its like the universe is the limit. Where can this go from here?

The food truck is the brain child of Brad Nagy and Angelo Viscoso, who own restaurants in Westchester County, the West Village and Sheepshead Bay in New York.

Nagy, a Fairfield resident, calls Little Box Pizza a social franchise  where we create a franchise model but we dont sell them, we give them away.

Nagy met Gibson in 2016 at Black Rock Church, where Nagy was a member and Gibson the facilities manager.

He said he and Viscoso, who lives in Queens, N.Y., believe that everyone is called upon to do something with their talents that is bigger than themselves.

We are using our skills and talents to do something to benefit other people, Nagy said. It is a lot more rewarding and that is why we are doing it.

Nagy said he and Viscoso know pizza and how to make it, market it and run a restaurant selling it.

We can use those skills and talents to help people create small businesses, make turn key operations and teach people how to run them, Nagy said.

Nagy and Viscoso found the financing for the $250,000 pizza truck, which they hope will be paid back by the profits made on each one of the pizzas.

Nagy says the truck is equipped with a gas-fired oven that cooks the large or small pizzas, which are propelled through the 750-degree oven on a stone conveyor belt. Single-topped pizzas go for $16.95 and the truck also sells garlic rolls, meatball sliders, salads and stuffed cannoli.

After finding the money to build the truck, Nagy and Viscoso looked for the right person to run it. Nagy said that although he went to church regularly, he did not know Gibson.

But a mutual friend told Nagy about Gibson and his background and the idea took hold.

He completely turned his life around and is an amazing person, Nagy said. He was struggling financially and it was hard for him to provide for his family.

Nagy said he hopes Gibsons Little Box Pizza will be the first of many trucks in the area being run by those who could use a second chance.

For Gibson, who sold slices and pies Thursday night during the churchs first installment of its Concerts on the Green music series, said turning his life around was not easy.

After getting out of jail in 2005, he knew he wanted to change. He tried to become a carpenter. But after a while living out of his car, the vehicle was stolen.

So, I went back to getting money the way I was used to getting it, which was not robbing people but it was making a dishonest living by selling drugs, he said. After almost a decade of dealing drugs and becoming an alcoholic, he realized the bottom was getting ready to fall out of his life and he had to make a real change.

I surrendered to God, Gibson said of his revelation in 2014. He then began participating in religious programs at the Bridgeport Rescue Mission, which led him to Black Rock Church in Fairfield.

First Presbyterian Churchs Pastor David Van Dyke said the parish supported Nagys idea to bring the Little Box Pizza truck to the church.

They asked if we could join them in this mission outreach because we had the space here, where it will be their (Little Box Pizza) permanent location, Van Dyke said. It is very exciting for us. The social outreach as we understand it is a ministry and it fits with our ministry.

The churchs music director, Jim Wetherald, said he loves the idea of a pizza truck and he thinks it will be a smash for the concert series.

These guys know how to do it, Wetherald said. They will be serving pizza by the slice from a separate tent, you wont have to wait for a pizza to be made.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
A man was rushed to hospital after thugs squirted bleach at a driver before stealing his car - the second attack in the area in just one week.

Police were called to Commercial Road with the junction of Sidney Street, in Tower Hamlets, at 6.10pm on Thursday to reports of a robbery.

The attack happened when a car pulled up alongside the victims vehicle before one of the occupants squirted a noxious substance at the driver, police said.

Detectives believe the substance was bleach.

The robbers then stole the mans car, though it was later recovered in a nearby street.

Dramatic footage has emerged online of the victim being treated by paramedics at the scene in front of a crowd of shocked onlookers.

The victim, a 23-year-old man, was then taken to an east London hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries which are not life-threatening.

It comes after two Muslim cousins were targeted in a horrific attack in Newham, which police are now treating as a hate crime.

John Biggs, mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: "We know some of our residents are very concerned about this attack.

"The police have confirmed the incident was not like the terrible attack involving acid that recently took place in Newham.

"We will continue to work closely with the police to do everything we can to keep our residents safe. The police are continuing investigations into this robbery."

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is asked to call the police non-emergency line on 101.
T hree men have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command, assisted by officers from Sussex Police, arrested two men in Essex and a third in East Sussex at around 6pm on Friday

The trio were detained on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

The men, two aged 28 and one aged 31, were being held in custody at a south London police station on Saturday.

Police have also executed search warrants at one address in East Sussex, and three addresses in east London.
N ile Rodgers has called his current trip to London and the UK the most inspirational in his long career.

The multi award winning musician was in the capital for the O2 Silver Clef Awards, which raises funds for music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins, where he won Best International Act.

Rodgers also volunteered to help those affected by the recent Grenfell Fire tragedy.

Speaking about returning to London he said: From the moment the plane landed, it's been the most inspirational trip I've ever had here and I've had lots of the. Jesus Christ, I started years ago with Duran Duran and it's just amazing.

Music man: Nile Rodgers at Glastonbury Festival / Getty Images

The plane landed and I took a call from a good friend of mine and he told me, 'You need to come over to a centre and volunteer'. I was, like, Wow - you know what cloth I'm cut from because that's how I started out, doing community service. I got to Grenfell Tower and the woman said, Fantastic - Nile Rodgers! You're here! Now do some work!

He continued: We packed, sorted clothing, did all sorts of things. It was just so inspirational - the spirit of the volunteers and especially how many young people were there. That's what it's all about to me because that's the future. I felt like a million dollars. I said, Why don't you all come home with me? It was so cool.

Glastonbury 2017 - In pictures 1 /80 Glastonbury 2017 - In pictures Ed Sheeran performing on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm Ben Birchall/PA Festival goers watch Ed Sheeran performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival Ben Birchall/PA Nile Rodgers and Chic performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival PA Thom Yorke of Radiohead PA Barry Gibb performs at the Glastonbury Festival EPA Festival goers watch Ed Sheeran performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival Ben Birchall/PA Katy Perry performing on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival PA Katy Perry performing on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival PA Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival PA ohnny Depp poses on a Cadillac before presenting his film The Libertine, at Cinemageddon at Worthy Farm Reuters Emily Sande performing on the Other Stage at Glastonbury Festival PA Musician Jarvis Cocker plays a DJ set from a wooden tree structure Getty Images Rory Graham, known as Rag'n'Bone Man AFP/Getty Images Haim performing on the Other Stage at Glastonbury Festiva PA Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters Getty Images Fireworks mark the end of the Foo Fighters performance at the Glastonbury Festival Getty Images Kiefer Sutherland performs on the Avalon Stage at Glastonbury Festival PA Justice for Grenfell: Stormzy performing on the Other Stage Rex Features Hero's welcome: Jeremy Corbyn onstage with Michael Eavis Reuters An aerial view of tents during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton PA An aerial view of the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm Ben Birchall/PA People gather to watch the sun set as temperatures reach record levels at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images A reveler relaxes in a hammock at the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm AFP/Getty Images Festival goers enjoying an ice cream during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Revelers are sprayed with water as they cool down at Worthy Farm in Somerset for the Glastonbury Festival REUTERS Camping field stewards use a paddling pool as people arrive at the Glastonbury Festival amid heightened security at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images A bonfire featuring a large wooden phoenix burns at the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm AFP/Getty Images People attend a screening of film maker Julian Temple's Glastonbury documentary being shown at the new night time area, Cinemaggedon at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images People queue for water as temperatures reach record levels at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images People walk around the festival site as temperatures reach record levels at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images Festival-goers pose for a selfie at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2017 at Worthy Farm EPA Festival-goers gather to watch the sun set at the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm AFP/Getty Images Festival goers dressed as Spiderman pose for photographs at the Glastonbury music festival at Worthy Farm Grant Pollard/Invision/AP Festival-goes gather in the Stone Circle to watch the sun set at the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm AFP/Getty Images Fireworks illuminate the night sky at the end of the first day at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images Revelers are sprayed with water as they cool down at Worthy Farm in Somerset for the Glastonbury Festival Reuters Revelers attend the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerse AFP/Getty Images Festival-goers gather to watch the sun set at the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm AFP/Getty Images People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA People gather to watch the sun set ahead of the gates opening to the public amid heightened security this year at the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images Festival goers arrive for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Police watch over festival goers arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Sniffer dogs at the entrance gate during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Police watch over people arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA People gather to watch the sun set ahead of the gates opening to the public amid heightened security this year at the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Festival goers arrive for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Festival goers arrive for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Security staff inspect the bags of people arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton PA Festival goers queue as the gates open at the Glastonbury Festival amid heightened security at the the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Images People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA Festival fans queue as the gates open at the Glastonbury Festival amid heightened security Getty Images People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA People arriving for the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset PA A police sniffer dog checks over festival goers bags as the gates open at the Glastonbury Festival amid heightened security Getty Images

Rodgers also spoke about sharing the news he was cancer-free with the crowd during his wildly successful Glastonbury set.

It was amazing, he said. 200,000 people. Six years ago I didn't know what was going on with my life. I think that music plays a huge role in it. One of the first songs I wrote was Get Lucky with Daft Punk and Pharrell, and how lucky do I feel after that?

Not only do we get a big record but I'm cancer-free six and a half years later.

When asked how receiving the all-clear might inspire his next set of songs, Rodgers said: I don't know, but I was just talking to Alice Cooper backstage and I said, Isn't it funny how we wake up in the morning and we got a pain here and a pain there and you say, how the hell did that happen?

And he said, But it's so inspirational because we run out on stage and we couldnt care less. We just care about the music, doing a great job for the people, and waking up the next day.
By Tyler Durden on 1 July 2017 for Zero Hedge -

Image above: Looking down the throat of a hungry steer. From ( http://pixdaus.com/cow-yawning-cow-gaping-maw-yawning/items/view/81009/ ).

.

SUBHEAD: Court ruling forces state to pay the $2 billion toward its past obligations within a year from today.First Maine , then Connecticut , and finally late on Friday, confirming the worst case outcome many had expected, Illinois entered its third straight fiscal year without a budget as Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic lawmakers failed to agree on how to compromise over the governments chronic deficits, pushing it closer toward becoming the first junk-rated U.S. state.By the end of Friday - the last day of the fiscal year - Illinois legislators failed to enact a budget, and while negotiations continued amid some glimmers of hope and lawmakers planned to meet over the weekend, the failure marked a continuation of the historic impasse thats left Illinois without a full-year budget since mid-2015, and which, recall , S&P warned one month ago will likely result in a humiliating and unprecedented downgrade of the 5th most populous US state to junk status.Then came the begging.According to Bloomberg , on Friday Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Democrat who controls much of the legislative agenda, pleaded with rating companies to "temporarily withhold judgment as lawmakers negotiate. Much work remains to be done, the Democrat said on the floor of the House Friday, before the chamber adjourned for the day. Well get the job done.Meanwhile, the state remains without a spending plan, its tax receipts and outlays mostly on "autopilot", leaving it with a record $15 billion of unpaid bills as it spent over $6 billion more than it brought in over the past year, and with $800 million in interest on the unpaid bills alone.The impasse has devastated social-service providers, shuttering services for the homeless, disabled and poor. The lack of state aid has wrecked havoc on universities, putting their accreditation at risk.However, in a "shocking" development, just hours remaining before the midnight deadline to pass the Illinois budget, and Illinois' imminent loss of its investment grade rating, federal judge Joan Lefkow in Chicago ordered Illinois to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars it owes in Medicaid payments that state officials say the government doesnt have, the Chicago Tribune reported.Judge Lefkow ordered the state to make $586 million in monthly payments (from the current $160 million) as well as another $2 billion toward a $3 billion backlog of payments - a $167 million increase in monthly outlays - the state owes to managed care organizations that process payments to providers.While it is no secret that as part of its collapse into the financial abyss, Illinois has accumulated $15 billion in unpaid bills, the state's Medicaid recipients had had enough, and went to court asking a judge to order the state to speed up its payments.On Friday, the court ruled in their favor. The problem, of course, is that Illinois can no more afford to pay the outstanding Medicaid bills, than it can to pay any of its $14,711,351,943.90 in overdue bills as of June 30.The backlog of unpaid claims the state owes to managed-care companies directly, as well as to the doctors, hospitals, clinics and other organizations is crippling these providers and thereby dramatically reducing the Medicaid recipients access to health care, Lefkow said in her ruling.Fridays court ruling, which meant that the near-insolvent state must pay an additional $593 million per month, may have been the straw that finally broke the Illinois camel's back.Fridays ruling by the U.S. District Court takes the states finances from horrific to catastrophic, Comptroller Susana Mendoza, a Democrat, said in an emailed statement after the ruling.As a result of the court decision, payments to the states pension funds; state payroll including legislator pay; General State Aid to schools and payments to local governments -- in some combination -- will likely have to be cut."As if the governor and legislators needed any more reason to compromise and settle on a comprehensive budget plan immediately, Friday's ruling by the U.S. District Court takes the state's finances from horrific to catastrophic," Mendoza said in a statement. "A comprehensive budget plan must be passed immediately." Realizing where all this is headed, she said that payments to bond holders won't be interrupted (more below).Friday night's legal decision followed a previously discussed ruling, when on June 7, Judge Lefkow ordered lawyers for the state to negotiate with Medicaid recipients to come up with more money, but she stopped short of dictating how much more the state should pay each month, or when. That decision sent Illinois General Obligation bond soaring.Earlier this week, the parties again went before the judge to say they were at an impasse, with lawyers for Medicaid recipients asking for more than $1 billion a month to cover past and ongoing costs.While the state was livid over the decision, plaintiffs were delighted. Tom Yates, one of the lawyers who represented the Medicaid recipients. said the judges ruling is a fair result that will help them have access to care.Medicaid is an incredibly important program for 25 percent of the states population, Yates said. It remains unclear, however, where Illinois would find the required funds.In her ruling, Lefkow said the state must pay the $2 billion toward its past obligations beginning July 1 and ending June 30, 2018. She ordered the state to file monthly reports showing that its making the payments consistent with the ruling.The Judge said she considered submissions by managed care organizations, including The Meridian MCO and Aetna Better Health Inc., in reaching her decision. Meridian is owed $540 million and Aetna is owed $700 million, the judge said. In addition, she considered submissions from doctors and clinics.Adding insult to crippling financial injury, the judge also ordered the state to file monthly reports showing that they are making the payments consistent with the ruling.Lawyers for Illinois countered that they could only come up with approximately $75 million more a month, which would translate to $150 million with federal matching dollars.Although the state is way behind, state officials said in court filings that they have been making more than $1 billion in Medicaid related payments each month in 2017, including payments to safety net hospitals, MCOs, and other providers.While the state was livid over the decision, plaintiffs were delighted. Tom Yates, one of the lawyers who represented the Medicaid recipients said the judges ruling is a fair result that will help them have access to care.In her ruling, Lefkow said the state must pay the $2 billion toward its past obligations beginning July 1 and ending June 30, 2018. She ordered the state to file monthly reports showing that its making the payments consistent with the ruling.See also: Ea O Ka Aina: When the Deal goes Down 6/30/17
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GERING  A tradition handed down from 1887 continues today as the Gering City Band played another Concert in the Park the evening of Thursday, June 29 in Gerings Legion Park.

First organized in 1887 under the direction of George Luft, the Gering City Band was set to play at the Fourth of July celebration. One problem: they didnt have enough instruments.

According to G.L. Shumways History of Western Nebraska, the band in Kimball offered to loan their instruments. The music has been playing since.

Some of the bands first members included Gering Courier publisher A.B. Wood; Edson Gering, son of Martin, the towns namesake; Oscar Gardner, one of the towns founders; and Frank Garlock, who built some of the first houses in town.

The Gering City Band is under the direction of Randy Raines, who also serves as director of bands for the Gering Public Schools. This is his 22nd year as conductor of the summer band.

Working with a great group of people is what I really like about the band, Raines said. Some of the players are still in high school. Others that Ive taught have gone on to college and play with us for the summer while theyre home.

About 70 musicians make up the Gering City Band, including Raines wife Deb and son Aaron. As for age, members range from 13-year-old Victoria Eckerberg to 87-year-old John Kissack.

Todays bands serve as a nostalgic reminder of days gone by. In the 19th century, with no internet, radio or television, band concerts had a huge impact on the social and cultural life of the community. They brought the people together for an entertaining social outing.

One of those who remember is Leann Sato, who brought her mother and son with her to listen.

I really like Mr. Raines enthusiasm for music that makes the summer festive, she said. Seeing so many people I know gives it an old-fashioned community feel. Its nostalgic and the weather has been great for a concert.

Appearing as a special guest with the Gering City Band Thursday evening was 1977 Scottsbluff graduate Tim Andersen, back for his 40th class reunion. A friend and band member asked if hed like to play since hed be back in town. His quick response was "yes."

I taught band for 25 years and retired three years ago, Andersen said. Im still playing all the time and really enjoy it.

Andersen is currently playing with the Imperial Brass in Dallas, Texas, and has played with the Dallas Symphony and the East Texas Symphony.

Hes also a member of the Dallas Winds professional concert band.

The group has been nominated for Grammys three times, he said. We have 16 CDs on the market and Ive been playing with them for almost 28 years.

From several concerts in the park to performances at the Western Nebraska Veterans Home and other special events, the Gering City Band carries on a time-honored local tradition during the summer.

The Gering City Bands next performance will be at the Allred Brothers fireworks show July 1 at Gering Memorial Stadium next to the junior high.

Their season wraps up the evening of Friday, July 14 during Oregon Trail Days with a concert at Five Rocks Amphitheater.
Scottsbluff Police are investigating a report from a family reporting a male peeking into a girl's window and threatening to kill the girl.

According to a Scottsbluff Police report, a woman reported on June 19 that an unknown male had been sneaking up to her daughter's window and looking inside during the night. The woman said that her daughter saw the male, describing him as having a dark complexion and wearing dreadlocks to his shoulders.

The woman reported that someone, believed to be the same male, had left a note in the mailbox, "indicating he was watching her daughter and would do so until he killed her."

No arrests or suspects are noted in the report. The Star-Herald will update this report as more information is made available.

Anyone with information about the report can contact the Scottsbluff Police Department, 308-632-7176.
Two people have been arrested in Sidney, accused of delivering methamphetamine through the mail.

Cheyenne County Attorney Paul Schaub said Sean Ewert, 49, and Nikole Houser, 35, were arrested on charges Friday morning.

Schaub said that Ewert and Houser are accused of being involved in a scheme where methamphetamine was delivered through the mail. Authorities seized about four ounces of suspected methamphetamine, he said.

According to arrest affidavits released by Schaub, investigators and the U.S. postal inspector executed a search warrant Friday morning on a package addressed to a Sidney address and having originated from Mesa, Arizona. Investigators observed later in the morning as Ewert arrived to pick up the package and arrested him as he got into his vehicle.

The package contained one large bag of containing three other cellophane bags of suspected methamphetamine. The substance tested positive for methamphetamine and weighed about four grams.

Officers also located a methamphetamine pipe on Ewert, as well as personal items such as his cell phone and wallet. In an interview with police, Ewert allegedly admitted that he had been receiving methamphetamine in the mail monthly.

Police obtained a warrant and searched Ewerts home, finding a shotgun that Ewert is not allowed to possess because he is a convicted felon.

Investigators also interviewed Houser, who shared a residence with Ewert. The woman admitted that there was marijuana in the home, paraphernalia and five guns, two of which were pellet guns.

Investigators searching the home located the guns, a baggie of marijuana, a chocolate bar containing THC, drug paraphernalia, pills of oxycodone, methylphenidate hydrochloride (Ritalin) and Lorazepam, a laptop and $280 in cash that were seized from common areas or Ewerts bedroom. Two pipes were seized from Housers room.

More arrests are expected, Schaub said Friday.

The arrests are the result of a joint investigation by the Sidney Police Department, Cheyenne County Sheriffs Office, Nebraska State Patrol, WING (Western Nebraska Intelligence Narcotics Group) and the US Postal inspector.
By now, everyones probably heard Bill Cosby is doing a national tour to repair his image. One of his self-admitted goals is to educate young athletes and married men how to avoid accusations of sexual assault. Another writer suggested this was like sending Jeffrey Dahmer on a cooking tour. But, Dahmers dead, so who might we suggest as Cosbys opening act?

Ted Bundy died nearly 30 years ago and his methods may have been too simple to warrant much time  he simply decapitated women, then sexually assaulted them and, like Dahmer, ate his victims. Jack the Rippers been dead for years, but again he only murdered prostitutes  women many consider disposable.

Perhaps the best celebrity to join Cosbys tour would by #45s second-in-command. It could be a point-counterpoint type of presentation. And, the VPs message might resonate better than the groper-in-chief. By avoiding alcohol and never being alone with any woman other than his wife, Pence is less likely to be accused of giving in to his baser instincts. Because dont all men sleep with the women they meet for lunch? Cant all men not control themselves alone in a room with a woman? What about gay men and their male subordinates?

To me, this is insulting to all men. How debasing to the male gender to assume they only want one thing. To assume they cannot be human beings, colleagues and friends, first.

Cosby chose beautiful women, often actresses and models as his victims. He admits to rendering them immobile with Quaaludes. Then, he simply had a consensual dalliance with each one while she was unable to consent. He couldnt even rely on his own fame, charm and money to attract women. He was a star. It was OK. Not!

And, so we have our first excuse why the women were asking for it: they accepted dinner and drinks from a celebrity. Perhaps they were wearing a low-cut blouse or short skirt. They were alone with a married man and may have asked a favor for their career. They fell asleep, at his behest, so they hardly were able to say no. Oh, yeah, they asked for it.

Ladies and gentlemen, sexy clothing is not consent. Flirtation and heavy petting are not consent. Alcohol is not consent. The absence of a no doesnt mean yes.

Do I sound angry? Yes. Am I a victim of a sexual assault? No, not yet. But 1 in 6 American women are victims of completed or attempted sexual assault in their lifetime, usually by someone they know. I am one of six sisters, one of six women in a book club, one of six cousins living in the immediate area. One in six.

Of the 63,000 child victims of sexual abuse, the majority are teens. Forcible rape numbers are up from previous years and victims are often blamed. Perhaps its only the snowflakes who are victims (insert wink and noogie emoticons).

Abusers are all around us, around our children and around our friends. There are eight sex offenders living openly in Box Butte County and two I know, living in Nebraska prisons. A close family member seemed to make it a habit of walking into doors and gathering black eyes and bruises like an old woman collects cats.

Perhaps Im viewing this wrongly, through the lens of a sad, old woman. But, I was pretty once. I was single once and Ive been married forever. In all three instances, I have had male friends, male colleagues and male bosses. We didnt drink heavily, we didnt touch inappropriately and we didnt grope or avoid one another, as our nations two top political leaders seem to think are the best options.

In a perfect world, we would all be kind to one another. Men and women would avoid drinking to excess, not have to fear walking down dark streets alone and never show admiration by initiating uninvited sex. But, its not a perfect world. We must all protect ourselves against violence, masquerading as sex.

Here are some things to watch for: jealousy, controlling behavior, quick involvement and unrealistic expectations. An abusive person will try to cut you off from others, blame you for their problems or their feelings -- both anger and happiness. Abusive people are often easily insulted, ranting and raving about a parking ticket, being asked to help with the kids or work overtime.

They may show cruelty to children and animals, enjoy force during sex, use verbal abuse or rigid gender roles to control the relationship. One minute the abusive person is super sweet and the next they are screaming. But, the following four signs are found in those who are certainly abusive: a past history of abuse, threats of violence, breaking or hitting objects and using force during an argument.

If you partner exhibits any of these behaviors, run, dont walk to your closest advocate. It may be your best friend, your sister-in-law or another family member. It may be a professional or volunteer advocate with The DOVES Program.

The DOVES Program serves nine Panhandle counties. Founded in 1979, they merged with Family Rescue Services in 2010 to create one regionwide program offering help with sexual, domestic and dating violence. Services are free and confidential.

As a recently-trained community advocate for DOVES, Ive learned more in the last week about these types of horrors than Id seen in 20 years of watching Law and Order: SVU. Advocates, volunteers and professionals, are available to speak to your group, as well. From civic groups to teens, sororities to mens prayer group, we are equal opportunity information and assistance sharers. The toll-free number for help is 866-95-DOVES or 866-953-6837.

Or call me. As you may have gathered, I care. A lot.
Toques, the starched, stovepipe hats worn by chefs, are crowned with 100 tiny pleats that, explain the French, represent the 100 ways to prepare an egg every cook must master before earning the title Chef and a much-prized toque.

Recent action by President Donald Trump and his administration suggest there must also be 100 ways to cook up more-robust American agricultural trade and they  ready or not  are happy to try em all.

The President started stirring the trade pot three days after his inauguration when he canceled American participation in the nearly complete Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, the 12-nation deal that would have overseen trade on 40 percent of the global economy.

Most farm group leaders strongly supported TPP but no one complained too loudly. When they did, many echoed the view of American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall, who noted, With this decision, it is critical that the new administration begin work  to develop new markets for U.S. agricultural goods 

Well, sure, but less than two months later, Duvalls mild admonition was met with more anti-trade heat from the President when Trump  as he had throughout his campaign  called the North American Free Trade Agreement a catastrophe and the worst trade deal ever.

Most farm groups again held their collective tongues until other political leaders  this time, the president of Mexico and Canadas prime minister  telephoned Trump to explain the continental consequences of the U.S. pulling out of the deal. Trump relented, saying hed move to renegotiate the agreement tied to 14 million American jobs.

Shortly thereafter, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced an agreement in principle between the U.S. and Mexico in a long-simmering sugar dispute. The agreement, however, wasnt warmly received by all farmers. Sugar beet and cane growers complained loudly that it would allow more, not less, Mexican sugar into the U.S.

On June 16, Trump dropped another trade brick on farmers. I am canceling the last administrations completely one-sided deal with Cuba, the President announced during a visit to Miami.

This time, however, most ag groups reacted swiftly and not so sweetly. We urge the administration to exercise caution  on any new restrictions on doing business with Cuba, said AFBFs Duvall. We should be doing more, not less 

That same, clear eye should be used now by U.S. farm leaders as they measure the impact of China allowing American beef back into its domestic market after a 13-year ban. Instead, most are gushing like teenagers being asked to their first prom; they see China as rocket fuel for sending U.S. beef prices to the moon.

The reality is far different. While China now imports about $2.5 billion of beef each year (mostly from Australia and Brazil), it bought just $65 million of U.S. beef in 2003, the year it banned American imports because one mad cow  and a non-American one at that  was found in the U.S.

Also, China will enforce its ban on synthetic hormones and beta agonists, feed additives widely used in the U.S., writes Gregory Bloom, a meat industry expert, in the June 22 online edition of meatingplace.com.

And, he adds, China  enforces this policy  through residue testing while demanding bookend traceability, defined as knowing the farm or entry point of origin and the slaughter facility location  of the beef-supplying animal  standards well in excess of any U.S. requirement.

As such, warn trade analysts, it will be years before Chinas impact on U.S. cattle markets is felt by any cowboy this side of the wide Pacific.

In the meantime, the trade cooks at the White House  from the President to his commerce, treasury and ag secretaries to his special trade rep  will continue to search for a trade recipe that they hope will boost ag exports.

To date, however, with no clear trade leader, policy or principle in place, all theyve really done is break some eggs.
An officially conducted exodus of several hundred East St. Louis Negroes to St. Louis took place shortly before noon today. The Negro men, women and children who had been under the protection of Illinois militiamen in the East Side city hall since last night were rounded up and were marched by the Eads Bridge route to this city. Two militia companies served as their escort.

The St. Louis Municipal Lodging House, 110-112 South Twelfth Street, was opened to the refugees by order of acting Mayor Aloe, and $100 was taken from the Mayors contingent fund for the feeding of the Negroes there. A Negro charitable organization, with an office near city hall, did what it could to care for those who were directed to it. A meeting of city officials and Red Cross representatives was called for the purpose of providing for the needs of the destitute blacks in the next few days.

The refugees were of every age and size. They were infants in arms and children pushed in buggies or pulled in express wagons. There were pickaninnies carrying pets, one hugging a small chicken.

There were white-haired men and buxom mammies, and there were men and women, young and middle-aged, who seemed unable to recover from the horror of yesterdays experiences, or to realize where they were going.

The fugitives carried hand baggage and household possessions of all sorts. Some talked of finding relatives or friends in St. Louis, and some were without any thought than to get away from a town where, they felt, their lives might be no safer tonight than they were last night.

They were more than 20 minutes crossing the Broadway viaduct, which leads to the bridge approach. The two companies of soldiers would have been a scanty protection for so many Negroes if the spirit of last evening had been shown by the white men along the streets, but there was no attempt to molest the pitiable procession.

At the St. Louis end of the bridge, a police guard inspected and searched the men, but permitted all to enter the city. Two Negro men seized suit cases which travelers had laid down, and ran way with them, a policeman throwing his club after one of them in the attempt to stop him.

Earlier in the morning, smaller groups of Negro refugees were taken into St. Louis over the free bridge.

One of the boys told of his home having been fired upon by whites. He said that every time he ventured out on the street he was slapped or kicked. He and his mother finally packed some of their belongings and fled.

Among the refugees were several Southern Negroes who said that they had been attracted to East St. Louis by advertisements for laboring men, offering good wages. The jobs were offered by steel plants, street railway companies and the aluminum ore works, they said. They did not know that their presence was not desired by the white inhabitants, they said.

Some of the men expressed intention of returning to the East Side after the present trouble is over, but the women declared that they would never cross the river again.

Policemen confiscated several weapons which were dropped on the bridges by the fleeing blacks. Two rifles and a half dozen revolvers were picked up and taken to Central Station. Chief Young this morning ordered an embargo on the sale of firearms by Market Street dealers. Half a dozen Negroes who carried weapons were held.
In November 2012, Brian Johnson, a 39-year-old pizza deliveryman, was shot and killed. Earon Anthony Rivers was arrested the night of the shooting and eventually pleaded guilty to the murder. Rivers admitted ordering three pizzas in order to set up the robbery. He shot Johnson while he was still in his car, then took the pizzas and Johnsons cellphone.

Rivers, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was caught in a house with three friends, the empty pizza boxes and the murder weapon. One of his friends was 15 and the other two were 17. Rivers was the only one charged.

He was sentenced to 25 years. Because of truth-in-sentencing laws, he will have to serve 80 percent of that time.

Something about the Johnson murder got to me. What kind of society have we become? Our parents, and our grandparents, would not have put up with this.

In the first 40 years of the last century, St. Louis had a terrible smog problem. We didnt use the word smog. We called the stuff smoke. Pollution was a problem in a lot of cities, but it was particularly bad here. If people slept with a bedroom window open, they would find a layer of soot on their sheets in the morning.

The region had a Citizens Smoke Abatement League, but the president was Erle Ormsby, president of the Donk Brothers Coal Co.

Finally, Mayor Bernard Dickmann appointed Washington University professor Raymond Tucker as smoke commissioner. After an infamous midnight-at-noon Black Tuesday in November 1939, Tucker recommended draconian measures, including outlawing Illinois coal unless mechanical stokers were used. Residents were forced to buy cleaner Arkansas coal.

Coal companies were outraged. Residents complained. But in the winter of 1940-41, there were 19 hours of thick smoke compared to 177 hours the previous winter.

Those people knew how to get things done.

So I suggested we follow their lead and establish a crime czar. He or she would be empowered to do whatever he or she deemed necessary to stop crime. I figured the first step would be to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution. Racial profiling would be a logical move because  lets face it  there is a racial component to many of our shootings. Young black men are the perpetrators, and young black men are most often the victims.

But they make the streets unsafe for everybody. There are neighborhoods where young children cant chase fireflies on a summer night. Too dangerous to be outside.

Some of the shooters are children themselves. Maybe we ought to jail their mothers, I mused. That might make the kids think twice, or at least make their mothers get serious about parenting.

The column was not well-received.

I had been asked to be a luncheon speaker at a Federal Practice Seminar. That invitation was withdrawn. U.S. district Judge Carol Jackson, the chair of the Federal Practice Seminar Committee, sent me a letter.

The decision to withdraw the invitation was made by the judges of the district court and the planning committee for the seminar. It was prompted by your column, Time for a crime czar, that appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on November 14, 2012. The views you expressed in that column are not shared by the court, and we do not want to be perceived as supporting the actions you advocated by featuring you at a court-sponsored event.

I got a few columns out of that, believe you me.

Other than a few angry letters and the disinvitation by the judges, nothing came of that column. Of course not. We would need federal permission to do something radical and in November 2012, Barack Obama was president and Eric Holder was attorney general.

Donald Trump is now president and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is attorney general.

I believe they would work with us.

This is not entirely a right-wing idea. For instance, a crime czar might decide we should legalize drugs. How many shootings have to do with turf wars and drug sales? Nobody is shooting anybody because theyre selling a six-pack of beer on the wrong corner. That stopped with the end of Prohibition. Maybe the same thing would happen if we ended the prohibition on drugs.

Or maybe we should think about a local version of what President Franklin Roosevelt did during the Great Depression. He put young men to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps. There is plenty of work to do rebuilding St. Louis.

We would need federal money, of course, but Trump has talked about increased spending on infrastructure projects and that seems like the one place where the Democrats are in agreement with the administration.

The people of St. Louis once got sick and tired of smog, and they got themselves a smoke commissioner. Whats wrong with us?
ST. LOUIS  A man was charged with murder Saturday for setting another man on fire using charcoal lighter fluid.

Authorities say Derrion Demarco Gray, 27, said he bought lighter fluid days ago with the intention of burning McAlister Presley to death. Authorities say Gray doused lighter fluid on Presley while he was sleeping, then set him on fire.

Presley, 34, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident took place about 3:30 a.m. Saturday in the 5500 block of Virginia Avenue, in the Carondelet neighborhood.

Gray, of the 7000 block of Nottingham Avenue, was charged Saturday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Gray was being held in lieu of a $500,000 cash bond.
WASHINGTON  Days before the 2016 election, Missouri Democrats tried to make an issue of a report that Sen. Roy Blunts wife, lobbyist Abigail Blunt, was trying to join a tony suburban Washington, D.C., country club.

Allies of Blunts opponent, Jason Kander, said it was an example of Blunts distance from Missourians. Blunts campaign spokeswoman said in October that the senator had never applied to be a member of a country club and has no plans to join one.

But now Blunt and his wife are listed as candidates enjoying summer privileges at that very club  the Chevy Chase Club. The country club is one of the capital regions oldest, where Politico last year reported that membership begins with $80,000 up front, plus $600 in monthly fees.

A person familiar with the membership process at the club said the candidates enjoying summer privileges list is an early step of a multiyear vetting to fully join the club, and that people who make the list generally become members unless other things, such as financial hardship, intervene.

The Blunts are among 54 couples or individuals on the list in the clubs summer newsletter.

Blunts office refused to comment Friday.

A spokesman at the Chevy Chase Club said it would not comment on any potential members nor describe what the candidates enjoying summer privileges list meant.

After the flap and the denial late in last years campaign, Blunt went on to defeat Kander for re-election in one of the most-watched Senate races of 2016.

That political tempest began with a post in Politico that Abigail Blunt, a top lobbyist for Kraft Foods, was trying to join Chevy Chase.

Politico said that Sen. Roy Blunt is fighting for his political life in Missouri, where his opponent has accused him of working on behalf of special interests and having deep ties to D.C. But Blunts wife, Abigail Blunt, is trying to become a member of the prestigious Chevy Chase Club, a tony Washington country club that costs tens of thousands of dollars to join.

Democrats pounced. During the campaign they tried to portray Blunt as a Washington insider with a lobbyist wife who was more interested in D.C. than in his home state.

Kander had been trying to project himself as a fresh face who wouldnt be lured into Washingtons power trappings.

A Kander spokesman tweeted then that the everyday hubris displayed by @RoyBluntMO is incredible to watch.

But the story quickly faded with the Blunt denial to the Post-Dispatch. He defeated Kander by 3.2 percentage points 11 days later.

The 90-year-old private Chevy Chase Club describes itself as steeped in history and rooted in old-time service on its website.

It says that the classic, Tudor-style clubhouse harkens back to an era when making guests feel welcome was an art form.

From the moment you arrive, we encourage you to indulge in the historic surroundings, it goes on. Your comfort is assured in an atmosphere where respect is understood and your name is remembered. Our full-service facility offers a remarkable and stylish atmosphere in a clubhouse setting. The Grand Ballroom offers available seating space for up to 500 guests.

To get on the candidates enjoying summer privileges list, a couple must have had at least two sponsors and go through other vetting by club officers, according to a person familiar with the process.

Prospective members can be on the candidates list for several summers. The overall membership process  which includes letters of support from more than a dozen club members  can take two or three years and require thousands of dollars of membership fees up front.
Police arrested a Lincoln man Friday night on suspicion of robbing two Burger Kings in less than a week.

Capt. Ryan Dale said Jeremiah Nation, 26, was arrested an hour after he showed a handgun and robbed the Burger King at 48th and Van Dorn streets at about 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Five employees were inside during the incident. No one was injured.

An officer found Nation in a black Dodge Charger nearby around 11:30 p.m., and arrested him on suspicion of two counts of robbery, Dale said.

Police say Nation, armed with a handgun, allegedly approached two employees who were outside the Burger King at 48th and Holdrege streets just before 11 p.m. Monday.

He demanded they go inside with him, where Nation allegedly stole cash and cellphones, Dale said. No one was injured.

Nation, who is on parole for another robbery, was booked into the Lancaster County Jail.
WASHINGTON  July could be both the hottest month on the thermometer and the sultriest month of 2017 in Missouri politics.

A cavalcade of decisions and revelations in coming weeks will greatly shape the 2018 elections, which will put Missouri squarely at the center of the battle for control of Congress.

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill is seeking re-election, and the prospect of her facing a top Missouri Republican  U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, of Ballwin, or Attorney General Josh Hawley  has already attracted streams of negative campaign advertising from outside, dark money groups.

Events this July will define the early contours of that race.

Missouri is going to get a huge amount of attention because this is going to be a marquee matchup for the Democrats, said David Robertson, professor and chairman of the political science department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Referring to the fact that 10 Democratic senators, including McCaskill, face re-election in states won by President Donald Trump, Robertson continued: The Democrats need to hold on to all the seats they have.

This is a very vulnerable seat to a strong Republican, Robertson said. Either Hawley or Ann Wagner would be seen as pretty strong candidates.  So this is going to get a whole lot of coverage in the media and a whole lot of money, certainly an unprecedented amount of money for a Missouri Senate race.

Hawley, 37, the first-term attorney general, is being coaxed to run by leading Republicans, including former Sen. John Danforth, who said he likes and respects Wagner but sees in Hawley a fresh Republican who could defeat McCaskill, who will be 64 later this month.

Wagner, 54, is expected to announce her intentions soon. The former Missouri and national Republican Party official has been robustly raising money. She has developed a strong, national fundraising network and political chits from key members of Congress from raising money and campaigning for them.

The dollar primary

A lot of focus will be on second-quarter fundraising reports, which will be released early in July.

Wagners campaign account, especially, will be notable, given that major GOP fundraiser Sam Fox has urged donors to hold off until Hawley decides whether he will run. If Wagner shows a strong second-quarter bottom line, it will be a barometer of her independent fundraising strength in a race that could, with outside dark money pouring in, easily exceed $100 million in total spending.

But Hawley also has national notoriety as a young, up-and-coming conservative. He told the Post-Dispatch in late June that I am working as hard as I can at the job that I was elected to do  Thats where all my focus is.

McCaskill, who has said she expects to need at least $30 million just for her campaign, knows either Hawley or Wagner would be a serious challenger. (Democratic opposition researchers have also been following Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, in anticipation that she could run for the Senate.)

I will certainly take them seriously, McCaskill told the Post-Dispatch. And I look forward to debating them and hopefully keeping it on the issues, and telling any groups that are out there that are helping me to not engage in this kind of mudslinging that is so distorted and unfair.

Indeed, groups aligned with political operatives David Brock on the left and Karl Rove on the right have already begun running attack ads or hiring opposition researchers to dig and dish. Given the fact that Missouris Senate race could be, as Robertson said, a 2018 marquee, their spending is almost certain to dwarf the almost $45 million spent in Sen. Roy Blunts narrow win over former Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander last year.

That win by the Republican Blunt, as important as it was in the GOPs retention of the Senate, was overshadowed by Trumps big win in Missouri, and by the GOP sweep of the rest of the statewide ticket, led by Gov. Eric Greitens.

A Show-Me election

Next year, the Senate race will be top shelf in Show-Me country. And these current indicators show how it could play out:

 McCaskill has begun a rural-first strategy. She already has had numerous town halls in rural communities and is planning another 10 for the July Fourth recess. She says theyre valuable listening posts on the issues. But they also serve a multilayered political purpose for the two-term senator.

First, they help her lasso support in rural areas where she and other statewide Democrats often lag  not necessarily to win counties, but to narrow the GOP advantage enough that the Democrats traditional strength in urban Missouri is not eroded as severely.

These are communities that typically do not vote for me and I need to understand and listen, McCaskill said. I am working for everybody, even if they dont vote for me. I owe them my time and I owe them my respect.

Robertson said that this is a classic McCaskill move, and a strategy that might have helped Hillary Clinton win the White House in 2016 had she employed it.

McCaskills campaigns have included rural Missouri in a way that really aims at as much as anything at minimizing her losses in that part of the state, Robertson said. That is the kind of strategy that might have helped Hillary Clinton in states like Michigan, maybe Wisconsin.

 By having town halls, McCaskill is trying to not-so-subtly make connectivity to voters and authenticity an issue for any Republican challenger. Wagner, for instance, has been the subject of protests  some of which she says has included things like dead-body drawings in her driveway  for not holding town hall meetings. Wagner says she is willing to meet with any constituent in her district offices, but her opponents have kept a steady online campaign against her for not meeting with voters.

 A development in Nevada in the wake of the Senates health care bill struggles could be a precursor to Missouri and other states. A political action committee affiliated with Trump bought ads in Nevada attacking Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican who is up for re-election next year in a Democratic-trending state, for expressing doubts about the GOP bill. The ads compared Heller with Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi, a supreme insult in Republican primary politics, and they were pulled after protests from other Republicans.

Will Trumps PAC take sides in GOP primaries next year? That could be an important factor in a potential Senate Republican primary in Missouri, for reasons unique to the state.

While Hawley has strong backing from the Tea Party wing that propelled Trump to a 19-point blowout over Clinton in Missouri, Wagner has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the president. She twice backed away from Trump during the 2016 election, in particular denouncing him after a tape of Trump speaking in vulgar terms about women surfaced a month before the election.

But she supported him in the end, and since Trumps inauguration, Wagner has been an enthusiastic Trump backer. She has had several high-profile visits to the White House, and she has focused on issues, like financial regulatory reform, that attracted a lot of Trump supporters. Wagner has said her criticism of Trump in 2016 was her characteristically speaking her mind.

But what if Trump, who has shown a big appetite for mixing it up politically even inside his own party, decides to take sides in a Missouri Senate primary? Will Wagners comments about him in 2016 come back around?

 How other dominoes fall in coming weeks in area U.S. House races could have a huge effect on the regions politics next year. Several Democrats, including three first-time candidates 35 or under, are expected to announce they will run for Wagners 2nd District seat in July or soon thereafter. That could create more robust competition in a district Wagner has three times won handily, potentially boosting turnout in the suburbs of St. Louis next year.

National barometer

A Wagner-Hawley Senate primary in 2018 would be a microcosm of competing strains in the GOP nationally, a textbook case for political scientists.

Hawley represents the insurgent strain of outsiders that helped elect Trump. As a former state and national party leader, Wagner helped stack the building blocks that have revitalized the Republican Party, both in Missouri and nationally, since Ronald Reagan.

The question hanging over Republicans is whether the prospects of a tough primary battle helps or hurts the partys chance to knock off McCaskill, whom many Republicans think got a lucky break in 2012 with the meltdown of her opponent, former Rep. Todd Akin.

A Hawley-against-Wagner primary could have bad consequences if it divides the party very much, Robertson said.

National Republicans are playing wait-and-see on the prospect of a GOP primary. The National Republican Senatorial Committee does not take sides in primaries. But top Republicans took note of Trumps PAC attack on Heller, and acknowledge it could be a wild card if there is a Senate primary in Missouri next year.

No matter who becomes their nominee, Republicans are preparing to attack McCaskill as an opponent of Trumps agenda and an opportunist when it suits her political needs.

McCaskill, who frequently portrays herself as a moderate and who has shown a willingness to work with Republicans on some issues, made news recently by praising Trumps administrative rollback of an Obama-era waters of the USA environmental initiative.

But Republicans pointed out that McCaskill on at least four occasions had cast votes that kept that program alive.

Its no secret Missouri is a top pickup opportunity, said NRSC spokesman Michael McAdams. He said the GOP would attack McCaskills liberal record and willingness to obstruct President Trumps agenda.

A second question is how Hawley sees the next 16 months in the context of his ambitions.

With Blunt ensconced in the Senate for another four years and showing no signs of slowing down, and with Greitens just starting his term in office, the Senate seat now held by McCaskill is the most direct and immediate step up for both Wagner and Hawley.

Even before Hawley was elected in November, Wagner was always in the conversation about McCaskills challenger in 2018. When he won the attorney generalship, Hawley immediately became a wild-card in that conversation, even more with the actions of Danforth and Fox.

Hawley is relatively young and has won a statewide election in Missouri, which Ann Wagner has not done, Robertson said. So that is part of the attraction. He is seen as a very up-and-coming conservative in the Republican Party, seen as somebody who can attract a lot of money.

Wagner is one of the architects of the strengthening of the Republican base and the strengthening of the Republican Party in this state since the 1980s, Robertson said. She has an awful lot of contacts and, I would think commitments, around the state. So she would be a formidable candidate, both in a primary and in the general election.
Like some exotic bird of prey that migrates back every other year, national Democratic strategists are expected to again circle Southern Illinois in 2018, intent on wrenching two putatively vulnerable Metro East congressional districts away from Republicans.

On paper, its easy to see why they keep returning.

Illinois 12th and 13th districts are held by two relatively new Republican incumbents: Mike Bost of Murphysboro, in the 12th District, and Rodney Davis of Taylorville, in the 13th.

The 12th was, not that long ago, home base to one of Congress most powerful and longest-serving Democrats. The 13th was drawn by Democrats to include the states flagship university and its rich cache of young, left-leaning voters. Neither Bost nor Davis has ever broken 60 percent in a general election  a low bar for incumbents in todays gerrymandered political landscape.

In theory, both districts should be ripe for the taking. But its a theory that has repeatedly failed to translate into reality. Both incumbents have been targeted by national Democrats each time theyve run in the past. Yet each victory margin has been wider than the one before.

Still, Democratic strategists say next year could be different. The election of Republican President Donald Trump, they say, has angered and revived downstate Illinois once-dominant, lately dormant Democrats. Wide fields of potential Democratic challengers are lining up early in both districts.

Both Congressman Bost and Congressman Davis voted for the repeal bills (to undo Obamacare), which would be devastating for Southern Illinois families and older Americans, said Rachel Irwin, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Both these representatives will be held accountable.

While Democratic challengers can be expected to play up the controversial health care vote, the Republican incumbents will almost certainly play the Nancy Pelosi card, reminding voters that a Democratic takeover of Congress will mean putting the unpopular Democratic leader from California in the third-highest position in the country.

Regardless of who the Democrats select, their nominee will have a difficult time justifying lockstep support for Nancy Pelosis extreme agenda in Washington, Bost spokesman George OConnor said in an emailed statement last week. ... [W]e are confident that we have the values, the message, and the resources to stop Nancy Pelosi from taking control of this seat.

National ranking sites list both Republican incumbents as odds-on favorites  but not sure things  for re-election next year. The Cook Political Report, for example, downgraded Davis district in May from Solid Republican to Likely Republican.

Downstate Illinois has trended away from Democrats, and Davis appeared to have locked down this seat last year, states the site. But in a wave environment, this Democratic-drawn seat could still come into play.

Will Brendan Kelly challenge Bost?

Bost first won his 12th District seat in 2014, unseating one-term Democrat Bill Enyart. Prior to Enyart, powerful longtime Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, had held the seat for 25 years.

Bosts ascension has stood as a key example of Southern Illinois political transformation in recent years from Democrat to Republican  making it symbolically as well as numerically urgent to Democrats to get the seat back. Bost, now seeking his third term from his Carbondale-area base, already faces more than a half-dozen Democrats who say they might run next year.

It was a field of relative unknowns until last week, when St. Clair County States Attorney Brendan Kelly confirmed to the Post-Dispatch that he is strongly considering seeking the Democratic nomination for the district in March. Kelly indicated he could have an announcement as early as next week.

A Kelly nomination, with St. Clair Countys Democratic machine fully behind it, could make the November 2018 general election a regional showdown between the urban-suburban Metro East and a large, mostly rural swath of southwestern Illinois.

Rep. Bost is proud to stand on his record in Congress, which includes legislation hes introduced to help our steelworkers combat unfair foreign trade practices, to empower our farmers and small business owners, and to ensure our veterans get the quality care they deserve, said the statement by OConnor, Bosts spokesman. Rep. Bost continues to receive broad-based support from across the district and across the political spectrum.

Other possible Democratic challengers for Bosts seat include David Bequette of Columbia; Nathan Colombo of Carbondale; Adam King of Alton; Pat McMahan of Mascoutah; Chris Miller of Roxana; and Dean Pruitt of Millstadt.

Davis has been perpetual target

In the 13th District, Davis, seeking his fourth term, has been a perpetual target for Democrats for his entire tenure in Congress, in part because of the way he initially won the seat in 2012: by 1,002 votes, or 0.03 percent of the total cast. It was the second-closest congressional race in the country that year.

Though Davis won two subsequent elections with percentages in the high 50s  including a solid victory over former Madison County Chief Circuit Judge Ann Callis in 2014  that first near-loss continues to entice national Democrats.

Among Davis potential Democratic challengers next year is Bloomington physician David Gill, the nominee who almost beat Davis in 2012 and who has tried again since with less success. Also considering a run is Illinois state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, who as an African-American woman could bring new political complications to the contest.

Springfield fundraiser Betsy Londrigan has been floated as a potential Democratic candidate. Montgomery County Board member Dillon C. Clark of Litchfield also may run. And there has been talk in the party of drafting state Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill, a popular rural Democrat, but he has so far demurred.

Davis spokesperson Ashley Phelps argued that Davis has cultivated a bipartisan approach to lawmaking that is unusual in todays Congress, and said he will continue to stress his core issues of jobs and economic development. You have seen Congressman Davis make a lot of progress with swing voters and Democrats alike, she said.

The fact that national Democrats keep targeting the seat, she said, isnt surprising, given its demographic mix and political history. Democrats drew this district, so theyre always going to keep trying.

Davis campaign records show he had almost $580,000 cash on hand at the end of March. Bost had a little over $205,000.

The 12th District includes all of St. Clair County and part of Madison County, and stretches south to Cairo and east past Mount Vernon. The 13th district takes in part of Madison County and the region immediately above it and reaches northeast to encompass Decatur, Springfield and Champaign-Urbana.

The other Illinois congressional district in Southern Illinois, the 15th, runs along the entire southern half of the states eastern border and reaches across to the edge of the Metro East. Eleven-term incumbent Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville  who faced no Democratic opponent in his 2016 re-election  is considered safe.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouris Republican governor signed a controversial proposal into law Friday that will make suing for workplace and housing discrimination more difficult.

Despite high-profile opposition from civil rights groups, a personal friend and Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Eric Greitens approved a measure that will require people to explicitly prove their race, sex or other protected status actually motivated their boss or colleague to mistreat them to win an employment discrimination case.

Greitens, a political newcomer who took office in January, had said little about his position on the measure, which was sponsored by Sen. Gary Romine, R-Farmington.

On Friday, in a release, the governor said the law brings Missouri in line with 38 other states and the federal government.

Tort reform is important. We need to prevent trial lawyers from killing good jobs, Greitens said.

Missouri workers currently need only prove their protected status was a contributing factor to prevail in court. For example, if a Hispanic plaintiff is fired for being late for work while white workers show up late and arent fired, the Hispanic employee could ask a jury to compare the treatment and contend that race contributed to the bosss decision.

Under the new law, which goes into effect Aug. 28, such an employee would need to meet a higher standard: The worker would have to show that race explicitly motivated mistreatment through, for example, written documentation of racist comments.

The measure also caps damages for successful plaintiffs based on the size of the company and curbs protections for whistleblowers as well.

The measure has drawn scorn on a number of fronts, including from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which said the law will make Missouri inconsistent with the federal Fair Housing Act, putting an estimated $600,000 in federal funding in jeopardy.

Romine also was put in the spotlight because his business  a rent-to-own furniture chain  was sued for racial discrimination in 2015.

The Missouri NAACP issued a travel advisory aimed at telling travelers to be aware of a danger to their civil rights as part of a push to have Greitens reject the bill. Among those speaking at a related news conference was former Missouri veterans ombudsman Pat Rowe Kerr, who said the new law would have made it harder for her to win a discrimination case against her boss.

Kerr was an avid supporter of Greitens during the campaign season and served on his inaugural planning committee.

Supporters of the legislation said the change will help reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits that hurt businesses in the state.

Ive met with passionate advocates on both sides of SB 43. I respect all of them. Ive listened to every side. I believe we need to bring Missouris standards in line with 38 other states and the federal government, said Greitens.

That fits with Greitens repeated comments and actions on the campaign trail and since taking office that Missouris legal system favors trial attorneys who seek large damage awards.
The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday took up the question of whether foster parents should be able to sue the state for an employee lying about a child's history of sexual abuse.

Within five months of being placed in a couple's home, a boy had sexually abused the couple's adopted son, according to their lawsuit.

Under Nebraska Health and Human Services policy, they should have been told about the boy's history.

So the couple sued the state.

But, because of an exception in the State Tort Claims Act for claims based on misrepresentation and deceit by state employees, a Gage County judge dismissed their lawsuit in 2015.

In his order, now retired Judge Paul Korslund said the parties had argued extensively about damages.

"The court does not address the appropriate measure of damages inasmuch as defendants are immune from liability," he wrote.

Korslund said the couple's claim against the state was "rooted in and inextricably intertwined with multiple instances of misrepresentations" on the part of an HHS employee.

Specifically, when the boy was placed with the foster parents, the caseworker knew he had been sexually abused and that he had a history of sexually acting out, yet she denied it when the foster mother specifically asked. She also told a mental health counselor helping with the boy's placement process that he had no sexual abuse history as a victim or predator, according to court records.

No one by the name of the employee accused in the lawsuit works for HHS, according to spokesperson Russ Reno.

Korslund said the Nebraska Supreme Court has held that the misrepresentation provision "insulates the government against liability for conveying false or inaccurate information," whether it was done willfully or negligently.

The couple appealed to the state's high court, which reached the same conclusion Friday.

Justice William Cassel said "because the employee consciously deceived the parents, the exception applies."

In the 40-page decision, he illustrated how sovereign immunity works by giving an example of two vehicles being driven for work purposes, one by a state employee and the other by an employee of a corporation.

If either driver gets distracted and negligently injures someone, both are liable, the judge explained. But, if they both get enraged and intentionally run someone down, causing injury, only the corporation would be liable. The state would be immune.

That's because the Legislature set out exclusions for injuries intentionally caused as a result of "assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, libel, slander, misrepresentation, deceit, or interference with contract rights."

Cassel said sovereign immunity goes back to days of monarchs and 18th-century English law recognizing the right of sovereign authority to be free of liability unless waived by the Legislature.

But, the judge said, lawmakers may wish to consider whether the exception, at least as to misrepresentation and deceit, still should be protected.

"From the perspective of the parents, immunity 'adds insult to injury,'" Cassel wrote. "Their child was the one, so to speak, 'run over by the truck.' And it may well be that time has demonstrated that Congress' fears  of the difficulty of defending such suits and the probability of judgments against the government in amounts out of proportion to the damages actually suffered by claimants  have proved unfounded."

But, he said, it's clear those questions are for the Legislature, not the courts.
The SRC approaches sustainability science from the perspectives of complexity and social-ecological interactions in the Anthropocene, a new and novel global epoch in which the social and the ecological are intertwined. Based on this there are three key core propositions that provide the foundation for Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) research:

1. People are part of the biosphere

2. People and nature are intertwined within integrated social-ecological systems

3. People need to respond to, engage with, and purposefully shape the biosphere to develop a sustainable future.

We aim to produce researchers who understand this area of sustainability science and have expert knowledge within a specific problem domain.

How to make it as a PhD student: Recently graduated centre share their experiences

Completed PhD defences
People fighting over who gets what of our planet is nothing new. Human history is rife with land disputes, mineral wars, water clashes, and battles over food. The Anthropocene might bring us more of this, with environmental change becoming more volatile and abrupt.

Despite the reoccurrence natural resources conflicts, environmental change and social conflict is anything but straightforward. In a paper recently published in Regional Environmental Change centre PhD candidate Jessica Spijkers and associate professor Wijnand Boonstra attempt to open what they call the black box of factors that influences the cause and effect of environmental change to social conflict.

Using a case of the northeast Atlantic mackerel dispute which started in 2007, Spijkers and Boonstra examine which social mechanism caused this notorious dispute to unfold.

Link to article

Request publication

The dispute: Whos in and whos out?



Fish stocks in the north Atlantic are managed by a two-tier process, but for now it is only important to consider the Coastal States. Coastal States negotiate the division of fish stocks that enter their coastal 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). First, they decide on the total catch of a particular species. Second, they negotiate what amount of catch each Coastal State is entitled to that year.

Originally, Coastal States that decided on the mackerel stock quota were comprised of Norway, the EU, and Faroe Islands.

Atlantic mackerel are a migratory species, and reside in a number of different waters throughout its life cycle. However, in recent decades the mackerels migratory behaviour started to change, likely influenced by changing climate and ocean temperatures. This moved the mackerel stock further north into Icelandic and Greenlandic waters. As mackerel were typically not found in these waters, Iceland and Greenland were not considered Coastal States, and therefore did not have rights to receive part of the mackerel quota.

In 2007, Icelanders started fishing mackerel in their own waters. This was a point of tension for EU and Norwegian fishers whom believed that mackerel exclusively belonged to their quotas. However, their reluctance to revisit total allowable catch mackerel quotas fueled Icelands discontent with the EU and Norway.

As Spijkers highlights, The change in geographical distribution resulted in a spatial mismatch, the failure to cover relevant geographical areas and include all relevant stakeholders. With the exclusion of Iceland and its fisheries from the agreement, not all relevant Coastal States are included in management plans. The mismatch resulted in overfishing of the northeast Atlantic mackerel, and eroded the legitimacy and functioning of existing management plans.
On the last day of Deb Dabberts 42-year education career she planned to walk out the door of Eastridge Elementary School and directly into her future as a retiree: a trip to the zoo with her grandchildren.

The folks at Eastridge who love their principal had other plans.

Meredith Petrick, a para-educator at Eastridge whose daughter attended the school, wanted to do something to honor her. So she sent an e-mail to friends and coworkers announcing a retirement rally. People shared the e-mail and they posted it on Facebook. Friday afternoon at 1:45 p.m., more than 100 people gathered outside the school.

They parked around the corner to remain unseen, and inside, colleagues having lunch with Dabbert told her they wanted to snap a picture and needed to close the window blinds to avoid a glare.

That means when Dabbert finally walked out the door a little before 2 p.m., she had a very big, loud, cheering and clapping surprise awaiting her.

Im really glad I didnt have a heart attack, she said after shed walked down the sidewalk lined with students, parents and staff, stopping for hugs and gifts of flowers and a plant.

Everybody just loves you so much we just wanted to say good-bye, Petrick said to Dabbert.

In the parking lot, Dabbert's husband, three grandchildren, her two kids and their spouses waited. They're the reason shes looking forward to her future, to spend time with the people who have understood and accepted the demands of her job for so many years.

That is what its all about when you retire, she said.

One of nine LPS administrators and 79 teachers who retired at the end of the school year, Dabbert knew walking out that door would be bittersweet  even before she knew what was awaiting her.

Theres such a sense of excitement but also this feeling of knowing its the last time Ill be walking in a door to a profession I love, she said.

That profession began 42 years ago, when she began teaching at Omaha Public Schools. She went on to work for an educational service unit, which supports school districts, but spent the bulk of her career  32 years  at LPS. She taught children with behavioral disorders, was a coordinator before becoming a principal at Hawthorne, Belmont and  since 2009  at Eastridge elementary schools.

At the top of the hill, a group of Eastridge students waited patiently  while Dabbert said her good-byes  so they could cheer her one final time as she drove off with her family.

Blair Lee Zaiger, a second-grader, and first-graders Izzie Oates, Evija Watton, Sophie Witherspoon, Adella Coffin and Alyssa Coffin had no problem explaining why they were there.

Shes the best principal in the world, they said. Shes nice, kind, generous, beautiful, they said, searching for the adjectives that communicated just what Mrs. Dabbert meant to them. Until Izzie found a way to sum it all up.

Shes everything except bad.
In the backdrop of allegations against the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) of tampering records related to the Chaudhry Sugar Mills Limited (CSML) being investigated as part of the Panama Papers case, the commissions chairman Zafar Hijazi has asserted that money laundering did not come under the purview of his organisation and that he was not to be held responsible for the tampering of records by a subordinate officer.

In a statement issued by an SECP spokesperson on Friday, the SECP chief shared his position on the alleged tampering of records, but also added: Since the inquiry proceedings are continuing, I am not supposed to give any version publicly. Once the inquiry is complete, I will definitely explain my position publicly to my countrymen.

The SECP chairman adds: Here I have to merely say that anti-money laundering proceedings and the proceeding under Section 263 of the Companies Ordinance 1984 are two entirely different matters and should not be mixed.

Imran wants SECP officials behind record tampering imprisoned

Mr Hijazi claimed that he was not aware that records related to the CSML had been tampered with or that there had been any irregularity, and stressed that he should not be held responsible for it. Secondly, the head of any organisation cannot be supposed to be aware of deficiencies or shortcomings in a particular case file nor he can be considered responsible for any such deficiency or wrongdoing. If this precedent of allowing subordinates to apportion blame for their omissions or wrongdoings is allowed to be set, every subordinate officer may attribute his failings to the heads of organisation, he added.

Media reports said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had caught on to the tampering of SECP records related to the CSML and seized the records. It is expected to present them before the Supreme Court soon. However, there has been no official confirmation of this from the interior ministry.

The SECP chief, however, said: I have explained my position to the FIA team which is also reflected in media reports.

Various media reports have alleged that the SECPs inquiry proceedings in the CSML case were closed in 2016, but the records were backdated. This discrepancy was pointed out by the FIA and the JIT.

It is yet to be ascertained whether any junior officials had tampered with the records on their own or if it had been carried out on the directives of the SECP chairman.

The JITs June 12 report presented before the apex court says that it had been revealed during the examination of witnesses from the SECP that Mr Hijazi was instrumental in closing the investigation of a money laundering case against the CSML.

This investigation was commenced in the year 2011 but was closed in the year 2016, in back date with effect from 8-01-2013, at the sole behest of the SECP chairman. This act of backdated closure of the investigation apart from being patently mala fide, is also a criminal act, with a view to facilitate the respondents against whom the present investigation is being conducted, the report said.

The report continues: It is pointed out that the orders of the SECP chairman to tamper the records and close Chaudhry Sugar Mills investigation of money laundering in back date, was executed by Mr Ali Azeem Ikram, Executive Director, SECP. Incidentally, the said Ali Azeem Ikram was initially nominated by SECPs Chairman so as to be a member of the present JIT. It seems that the nomination of said Mr Ali Azeem Ikram to be a member of the present JIT by the Chairman SECP had been made with a clear intent to subvert the investigation of the JIT.

PTI reaction

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan expressed concern over the alleged tampering of the records in a tweet on Friday. He demanded that the SECP officials responsible for tampering the records be imprisoned. Media reports since the last two days exposing SECPs record tampering to protect the Sharifs...if proven correct it is a deliberate interference in due process and an attempt to impede justice. The perpetrators of this crime must be jailed.

PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry said the prime minister was misusing state institutions to save his own skin.

He questioned why the top posts of FIA director general, Intelligence Bureau DG and SECP chairman were occupied by officials on acting charge and not through regular appointment. One of the reasons is that the Sharifs want to run these institutions by their own men, he said.
Indian Army once against resorted to unprovoked firing at Line of Control (LoC) in Abbaspur Taroti sector in Rawlakot Azad Kashmir.

The Indian Army once again targeted civilian population in cross border firing in violation of 2003s ceasefire agreement in Nakial sector in Kotli AJK. A civilian was injured in the unprovoked firing.

The firing damages private properties Abbaspur Taroti along the LOC. The injured was rushed to a local hospital where he is being treated.

Pakistan Army befittingly responded the Indian aggression and silences the enemys guns.

It is to be mentioned here that India has been resorting to unprovoked firing at LoC wherein score of civilians have martyred so far.
India condemned a new road that China is building on the rivals' Himalayan border on Friday, saying it raises serious security concerns.

The two sides are trading increasingly stern diplomatic warnings over the new hotspot, a remote scrap of territory where the frontiers of China, India and Bhutan meet.

Beijing made a formal protest this week, accusing Indian border guards of crossing from the northeastern state of Sikkim into its Tibetan territory to stop the road building.

India's foreign ministry said Friday that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops entered the area to unilaterally construct the road.

India is deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India, a ministry statement said.

India cherishes peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas. It has not come easily, it said, urging Beijing to resolve the skirmish through dialogue.

India and China have long disputed parts of their Himalayan border, and regularly accuse each other of making illegal troop encroachments.

Bhutan has also lodged a formal protest to China, saying the road violated a bilateral agreement.

Bhutan, which does not have diplomatic relations with China, still disputes sovereignty of the land. And the showdown is part of a wider friction between India and China over the 4,057 kilometre border.

China has insisted several times this week that India withdraw troops who are trespassing on its side of the frontier.

It insists that it has every right to build the road and that it controls the territory under an 1890 accord made with Britain when it was colonial power in the region.

We can tell you that the Chinese people hold a friendly and goodwill relations to the Bhutan people but our determination to uphold our territorial integrity and sovereignty is unwavering, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Friday.

The nature of this standoff is quite clear, it's a trespass by the Indian side to the Chinese border. So the obvious thing is their withdrawal from the Chinese side.

'Chicken neck'

India and China's ties have been dogged by mistrust stemming from a brief war in 1962 over the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh which has a large ethnic Tibetan population.

Flare-ups around Sikkim are rare. It is the least populous and second smallest of India's states, but its location gives it strategic importance.

India's seven remote northeastern states are connected to the rest of the country by a narrow sliver of land known as the chicken's neck. Sikkim is wedged between Nepal, Bhutan and China.

The Chinese have realised that India is vulnerable at the 'chicken neck' so it could be a way to test the reaction of the Indian establishment, said Sameer Patil, a defence and security analyst at the Mumbai-based Gateway House think-tank.

Tensions along the frontier rose in 2014 when Chinese soldiers moved into territory on the Sikkim-Tibet border claimed by India, sparking a two-week stand-off.

Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops faced off on the de facto border, overshadowing a visit by China's President Xi Jinping.

The latest border scuffle was triggered after PLA soldiers damaged two old Indian bunkers, according to Indian media.

China has reportedly since stopped pilgrims crossing into Tibet to visit a mountain shrine to the revered Hindu god Shiva because of the showdown.

India has a number of disputes with China. It is angry at China for proposing to finance Pakistan infrastructure in disputed Kashmir, which India also claims.

It also blames China for blocking its efforts to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the international club that controls the global nuclear trade.
At the Intercontinental Beijing Sanlitun hotel in China, chef Luca Zhang seasoned Nebraska bone-in, ribeye steaks with salt, pepper, mustard rub, herbs and olive oil. He brought the meat to room temperature then roasted it.

The prime steak was cut into bite-sized pieces and fed to a room full of reporters Friday covering the ceremonial end of Chinas nearly 14-year ban on U.S. beef and a growing effort to ship more U.S. farm products to the Asian nation to help balance trade between the two countries.

On behalf of President Trump and the people of America, the citizens there, we want to say thank you to our great customers here in China. We want to respect your market, and assure you that these products coming in are safe, wholesome, and very delicious, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told media and dignitaries as the steak bites were brought into the room, according to a transcript of his comments.

The meat they sampled was part of a small test shipment of beef, the first from the United States to China under the new protocol finalized earlier this month, flown to China in a refrigerated container by Greater Omaha Packing Co.

Nebraska Department of Agriculture Director Greg Ibach and U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad joined Perdue in China to meet with officials, including Chinas Agriculture Minister Han Changfu, as well as to get a bead on potential buyers.

For some of the Chinese nationals, there is going to be a learning process to understand the difference between U.S. beef and what theyre used to, a product they probably marinade heavily and cook very slowly because it doesnt have the inherent tenderness, juiciness and flavor that U.S. beef has, Ibach said.

Businesses that cater to American and European expatriates will be an easier sell, he said.

China, which banned beef from the United States in 2003 after mad cow disease was discovered in Washington state, represents a huge potential market for American beef exporters.

Chinas appetite for red meat has grown ravenous in recent years, with imports increasing from $275 million in 2012 to $2.5 billion in 2016.

And theres still room to grow, said Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation economist Jay Rempe.

Chinas beef consumption per person, 12 pounds, is still one of the lowest in the world, according to the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service. Even a small, 1-pound increase in that average would amount to 623,000 metric tons, Rempe said.

How much growth depends on factors such as population and per capita income expansion, changing consumer habits and the pace of urbanization, he said.

Chinas population, 1.374 billion in 2015, is expected to grow to 1.406 billion by 2020 and the gross domestic product per capita to grow from $6,497 to $8,330 over the same time, Rempe said.

Competitors in countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Australia are taking note of the U.S. intrusion into the marketplace and will be working hard to keep their market share, Rempe said.

The USDA maintains a public list of companies that have been approved to export beef to China. The beef they sell must be from a bovine less than 30 months old and be traceable to place of birth and where the animal was raised.
ADEL, Iowa  On a scorching day 86 years ago, a dropped sparkler ignited an inferno that roared through much of the small city of Spencer, Iowa, and led to a statewide fireworks ban that endured for generations.

Fireworks have since become legal in most of the country, and Iowa legislators voted this year to end the bans. But with the Fourth of July approaching, officials in many cities are resisting fireworks sales and prohibiting people from setting off newly legal bottle rockets, firecrackers and roman candles.

"They've made it really tough," said Todd Wallace, who gave up on plans to sell fireworks from a tent in a grassy field on the edge of Des Moines. "There would be no impact on anybody, but the city said, 'no can do.'"

Many Iowa officials remain keenly aware of the blaze that engulfed about 100 buildings in Spencer on a 97-degree, windy June day in 1931, when a fire started by a sparkler at Bjornstad's drugstore quickly spread.

Iowa lawmakers were prodded to end the ban by polls showing support for legalizing fireworks, the prospect of $1.5 million annually in sales tax revenue and the conclusion that if 43 other states allowed consumer fireworks, Iowa should join in.

Cities are supposed to allow the sale of consumer fireworks  products with more pop and sizzle than sparklers but much smaller than professional displays. Some communities have passed restrictive zoning rules, outlawed fireworks use or limited the crackles and bangs to just a few hours on the Fourth of July.

Des Moines technically abided by the new law's sale requirement, but limited retailers to industrial areas and required that temporary tents be broken down and the inventory removed for six hours each day.

The sales restrictions and limits on setting off fireworks have left state Sen. Jake Chapman exasperated.

"If you listen to the opponents of this law, you'd think everyone is going to die and the whole state is going to burn down," said Chapman, who was among the strongest supporters of the legislation.

Chapman doesn't begrudge cities from outlawing the use of fireworks, but he argues local officials are violating state law by creating barriers to selling the explosives. If cities persist, Chapman said the Legislature might take up the issue next year to specifically outlaw such restrictions.

Some vendors also are taking action. The nation's largest fireworks wholesaler asked a judge to block the sales restrictions in Des Moines.

"The city's pretty dramatic action left us little option" said Tim Coonan, a Des Moines lawyer who is presenting Alabama-based American Promotional Events.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger denied the company's motion for a temporary injunction that would have forced the city to allow fireworks sales in locations other than industrial areas on the city's outskirts.

But in another lawsuit brought by Nebraska-based Bellino Fireworks against several Des Moines suburbs, the judge said those cities cannot require Bellino to get a special permit to sell fireworks and two other cities cannot ban fireworks sales from temporary structures. The judge also stopped a Des Moines suburb from requiring additional insurance coverage.
Coca-Cola partners with Red Cross for long term flood relief operations View(s):

Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd recently joined hands with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society  Gampaha Branch, to carry out intensive emergency disaster relief and rehabilitation activities following the severe floods which occurred in May.

In a media release Coca-Cola said it focused on the immediate needs of distribution of safe, clean water and the provision of medical camps to those left vulnerable in the Biyagama and Dompe divisions.

The emergency relief operation was mainly carried out in the flood-affected areas of Yabaraluwa, Mabima, Bollegala, Thelwatta, Ambaraluwa in the Biyagama Division and Malwana, Kanukatiya, Pahala Mapitigama, Nikawela, Giridhara and Kapugoda in the Dompe Division.

Furthermore, in a step towards rehabilitation; facilitating the return to their daily lives, the company engaged in cleaning all contaminated wells of the Biyagama Division, totalling 600 wells.

The May disaster once again left Gampaha residents feeling vulnerable and isolated by the flood waters, while being exposed to health issues in its aftermath such as the risk of dengue and waterborne diseases. Flooding from the nearby Kelani River caused water levels to rise 5 ft in Biyagama and 3ft in Dompe (Gampaha district).

Volunteers of Biyagama and Dompe Red Cross executed the operation and technical support was provided by the relevant area Government officers, Grama Niladharis, Public Health Inspectors, Ministry of Health and Divisional Secretariats.

Volunteers from Coca-Cola were active in the medical camps and in delivering water to affected families and individuals, as additional operational support on the ground in the week after the floods were of great need.

The company distributed over 10,000 litres of water and this was executed through deliveries by foot, by trucks and by boat, to access areas isolated by the remaining flood waters.

Medical camps, Mobile camps and First Aid services were conducted through 16 service events providing access for essential healthcare to 2,129 affected individuals in the first week after the flooding began.

Medical Officer of Health, Biyagama, Ms. Kumari Wijesuriya said, Many areas in Biyagama were particularly badly affected and residents here needed all the possible relief and rehabilitation assistance.

As a state body, we are offering every possible support to this community. However, Coca-Colas support at this crucial time has helped ease our stretched resources.

I am grateful for the companys generous support in well-cleaning activities in Biyagama, which will go a long way in supplying clean drinking water to these communities as they slowly limp back to normalcy.
Duo World Inc roadshow in New York View(s):

Muhunthan Canagasooryam, Founder and CEO of Duo World Inc., recently completed a roadshow for Duo Worlds newly listed shares on the OTC Markets, trading under the symbol DUUO.

Duo Worlds goal is to introduce itself to the establishments in New Yorks investment community and create long-term relationships.

During the roadshow, Mr. Canagasooryam visited the OTC Markets Office in New York, and met with Jason Paltrowoitz  Executive Vice President at the OTC Markets

Duo World, being the first Sri Lankan company to list on the OTC Markets in the US, was well received. Speaking of the roadshow, Mr. Canagasooryam said that it was a world-wind of meetings with investment bankers, market-moving brokerage firms, investors and media.

We received many positive comments from the investment community as well as technology specialists reviewing Duo Worlds newest software, FaceTone, he said.

Duo World Inc operates its development centre through its wholly owned subsidiary, Duo Software (Pvt.) Ltd. in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Incidentally its founder is also Managing Director/CEO at the governments Information Communication & Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) where he goes as Muhunthan Canagey, using a shortened version of his full name.
Rs.4 bln loss to SLPA from ECT By Sunimalee Dias Colombo Port to be re-branded View(s): View(s):

The East Container Terminal (ECT) has reported an estimated loss of Rs.4 billion to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) due to its inactiveness over the past two years, Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said on Thursday.

Dodging the crucial questions on how the ECT would be run, the minister insisted that the government intends on fast-tracking the project and make it operational.

Minister Samarasinghe was addressing the industry at a panel discussion of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) at the Kingsbury in Colombo on Thursday.

He noted that the present Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) was insufficient to handle deep draft vessels, which could only be accommodated currently at the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT).

Its a shame we have wasted two years, the minister said noting that they were currently also paying attention to the concerns mentioned in a cabinet paper submitted by former Minister Arjuna Ranatunga regarding the Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the ECT.

The minister also said that they had the capacity to run the ECT adding however, that should the government believe it is necessary to bring in an outside equity it will do so. But ownership as of now is with the SLPA adding that they would continue developing the terminal.

Meanwhile the SLPA, which has already spent US$175 million in servicing the Hambantota port project loan, would be compelled to take on the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by China Merchant Holdings to help pay off these loans.

The SLPA Act would not be amended to suit a particular situation and the minister assured they would put in place an agreement without endangering the countrys national integrity.

He dismissed as bunkum allegations of selling the Hambantota port to the Chinese insisting however, that the government was conversely trying to get itself out of the debt trap.

SLPA Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayaka addressing the industry said that they were currently talking to stakeholders in a bid to draw up the maritime master plan.

He called for the warfare between the South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT), the SLPA-run JCT and the CICT run by China Merchant to stop as the authorities were embarking on a national port master plan.

In this respect, the government has taken the initiative to launch a programme to re-brand the Colombo Port, Dr. Dissanayaka said.

Modernisation of the JCT is expected with more modern equipment; a cargo distribution centre at Bloemendhal Road and a logistics corridor for which land along the port access road would be used, the Chairman explained. In addition the yacht marina in Galle port and a ship repair and maintenance centre would also be established.
Tea workers plucked out of 150-year celebrations By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s):

A group, considered the indispensable backbone of the thriving Sri Lankan tea industry, by none other than the most important Prime Minister in the world, Indias Narendra Modi, has been left out of any involvement in the 150-year celebrations of an industry that they were born into.

Steeped in a colonial past that brought them to the island to reap its success for generations, estate workers have been left in the lurch with hardly anyone aware that it is now 150 years since they started work on the tea plantations.

Workers are not involved in this and they dont even know about these celebrations, the main trade union representing the estate workers Ceylon Workers Congress President and MP Muthu Sivalingam said in an interview with the Business Times on Wednesday.

Estate workers today have come a long way since their forefathers, with some even graduating from the local universities.Mr. Sivalingam queried what the people would gain by these celebrations and noted that this is just a promotional event to push the product. But he also noted that it was commendable that the industry has remembered the importance of this industry.Commenting on the celebrations, Tea Commissioner Jayantha Edirisinghe said that there were a number of events scheduled including competitions for best tea plucker, factory owner and smallholder which are being worked out at present.

They would be advertised at a regional level on a district and sub district level to ensure the people are made aware of it, he explained.Increased awareness would be carried out in August when the tea exhibition would be opened for the public.

It was Business Times columnist Kussi Amma Sera who first raised the issue in a May 21, 2017 column titled Dignity of the plantation worker, saying, In the past few months going through a lot of literature, events and even new coffee table books as Sri Lankas primary export commodity tea marks its 150th anniversary, there seems to be something missing in the celebrations: The worker!

It asked: have workers and/or their representatives been invited to any of the celebrations this year apart from the tokenism of a best tea-plucker contest? Dont they too deserve a place in the sun as the most important link in the tea industry? KAS suggested that a 3-4 day holiday tour abroad for a representative group of workers sponsored by the state or the plantation industry might give these workers some dignity and not leave them completely out of the tea party.
Vista Rooms partners with over 50 SL villa and apartment owners View(s):

Vista Rooms, South Asias largest chain of affordable stays, is expanding operations to include apartments and villas in their portfolio of properties.

Following a wave of success with standardizing and branding budget hotels across the island, Vista Rooms is now set to be a complete turnkey solutions provider for the private stays segment. They offer end to end support to villa and apartment owners  right from tech, to sales, to regulatory and operational support.

This expansion into the informal tourism sector comes as the sector is experiencing a surge in popularity in recent years, according to a company media release.

Vista Rooms follows an asset and people-light model. Having opened operations in Sri Lanka in March 2016, the company has already built the largest network of branded stays in the country with over 300 properties across 25 cities.

The same swift growth can be expected from the brand going forward, as they begin catering to a large, untapped demand segment. The online start-up believes that their technological prowess, the ability to offer good quality, standardised experiences and stellar customer service will uplift the segment and create greater demand.

We are seeing a greater desire from tourists for more authentic stays.

Travellers are seeking localised, personal experiences and apartments and villas are great alternatives to hotels that can help meet this need. Hence we are excited to move into this segment where we see a lot of potential for growth. We believe the key to unlocking this potential is in building trust with the customer by providing them with a quality stay.

This is where our turnkey solutions will help hosts navigate the usual pitfalls of the hospitality industry, said Ankita Sheth, Vista Rooms Co-Founder.

Vista Rooms has already tied up with over 50 apartments and villas across the island and has begun providing an off the beaten path experience to tourists.

This burgeoning segment is only set to grow further with the increase in global awareness of Sri Lanka as an excellent holiday destination thanks to a concerted push from the tourism board.
GMOA to go for the kill over SAITM

Doctors terminal obsession over SAITM enters last stage as union warns: Countdown to do or die battle has begun

Eight years after the Tigers were vanquished in the Mullaitivu jungles; the scene of battle of another bloody terror war has now shifted to the sick wards of Lankas hospitals. Even as Prabhakaran and his LTTE cadres used innocent civilians as hostages to win their demand to establish a separate state called Eelam and intransigently refused to shift their stance no matter the civilian casualties, the Doctor of Death and his GMOA cadres have declared war on the Government and announced they will not rest until they win their demand to destroy SAITM; and that they will not budge an inch from their intransigent stance, without a tosh for the patients pain and suffering, no matter the loss of innocent lives. Fortified no doubt by the fresh mandate granted unto him by the GMOAs general membership  making all doctors who voted for him and his hit squad accessories before the fact  to lead the troops to battle by his reelection as GMOA president last week, Dr. Padeniya delivered his plans to continue with GMOAs campaign of terror against the ailing masses on the poverty line and use them as human sacrificial goats, if need be, in order to achieve their one and only goal: the complete annihilation of SAITM. Not even the dengue epidemic which claimed the lives of 200 last month alone could move their stony hearts to relent. Of course, they say that dengue patients will be attended but only the victims in government wards know of the dearth of doctors in government hospitals. It is another instance of their campaign of lies to camouflage their campaign of violence inflicted on poor patients by denial of medical treatment at the vital life saving hour.

On Thursday, Padeniya sidekick, the GMOA secretary Haritha Aluthge pompously announced GMOA plans to go for the kill over SAITM as if he was some sort of military commander at the gates of a besieged capital delivering an ultimatum to the enemy government. Aluthge told the news conference that the GMOAs Central Committee had unanimously authorised its executive committee to take a decision on the strike; and that the next couple of days would be crucial. Again, this time in the manner of some terrorist chief not wishing to reveal exact time and date of a terror strike for their dastardlyness to contain an element of surprise, he said: Perhaps the strike will be launched today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. All I can say is that it will be very soon Proudly he confirmed that the GMOAs rubber stamp Central Committee have unanimously agreed and authorized the Executive Committee to stage an nationwide indefinite strike. In other words, to do their worst against the poor; to deny medical treatment for the millions who come to government hospitals seeking their succour, seeking relief from pain and suffering: against the same poor who through, indirect taxation, paid for their government education and who still are their paymasters. The GMOAs Central Committee unanimously bestowing on them the unfettered power to deny indefinitely the suffering poor medical help in their hour of anguish was callously hailed as a supreme moment of Government doctors supreme power over the life and death of Lankas les miserable, a power to be used to feather their own nests by continuing their monopoly at state hospitals whilst simultaneously safeguarding their lucrative private channeled practice at private hospitals. And all because on January 31st this year, the Court of Appeal ordered the Sri Lanka Medical Council to register graduates of SAITM and thus enable 60 or so medical graduates to practise at Government hospitals. Two days after the court of appeal judgment, medical college students launched a protest march in the city. This was no protest against the government for taking a political decision not to their liking which is legitimate in any democracy but a protest against the entire judiciary for daring to give an independent ruling not in their favour. An extra judicial exercise to coerce courts to rubber stamp their views. The ultimate affront and threat to law and order and to the majesty of the courts. And when the protesters attempted to storm the barricades erected by the police to prevent them entering the road to the Presidential Secretariat, and the police had no alternative but to take recourse to tear gas and water cannon, the GMOA shouted blue murder and launched a street protest of their own the following day and a hospital strike the day after. The street action was to protest the alleged police brutality against the medical college student protesters. The other was to boycott all hospitals island wide, save a few, leaving thousands of patients helpless and denied medical treatment and put at risk.

Purely because the Court of Appeals decision had not been in accordance with their own political agenda, the GMOA vowed to continue their strike campaigns in order to coerce the Government to raze SAITM to the ground. The GMOA demanded the Government to overturn the Court of Appeal decision. But how could the Government do, short of bringing legislation in Parliament? Did the GMOA think that one phone call from Sirisena to their Lordships could do the trick?

Snubbed, they then decided to focus their stethoscopic guns on Lankas innocents: civilians struck down by illness and to hold them as hostages to force the Government to give into their one demand to abolish SAITM. They then pursued their itinerary for pain and anguish to visit Lankas disease hit poor. Their strike weapon went mobile from province to province. The UVA province got the first dose on February 20th. On the 21st it was the turn of the South. On the 23rd it was the East and the North Central. On the 27th it was the North West and the Central Province. The caravan moved to Sabaragamuwa on March 1st followed by the GMOAs Mara Devil arriving in Jaffna on the 2nd. And on March 3rd the GMOAs misery train hit the buffers at the Western station. All nine provinces covered.

Then in the first week of April, even as the people waited to celebrate the Sinhala New Year, they staged a 24 hour nationwide strike on Friday the 7th April. But even before the strike ended, the Government caved in. It announced that it would take over the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital. But to no avail. The GMOA remained intransigent. The ogre wanted to swallow SAITM whole. Nothing else would do to sate its perverse craving but SAITM flesh and SAITM blood. Then at the eleventh night hour last Wednesday, they announced that they would be launching an indefinite nationwide hospital strike the following morn. The strike continued for nearly three days. By Friday the patients and their relations had come to the end of their tether and began to unleash their pent up anger over the doctors crass and heartless unconcern for the visibly sick and ailing. Perhaps the GMOA, in their stupendous arrogance, had never expected such a reaction and the following day they sought a meeting with the President to lay before him their demands. After the meeting, they called off the strike with the face saving excuse that the President had agreed to their demands giving the impression that they had won the battle.

But what were their demands that they claimed the President had agreed to and which the GMOAs Secretary was to repeat on Thursday. According to him the four demands were (1) Gazetting of minimum standards of medical education and legalizing technical report of the Sri Lanka Medical Council

(2) Higher Education and Highways Minister Lakshman Kiriella to inform court that the SAITM has not received SLMC approval

(3) Suspension of enrolment

(4) Suspension of awarding degrees and

(5) Setting up a committee to address the grievances of those studying there subject to SLMC approval. Now consider the statement issued last Sunday by the Presidential office.

As far as the first demand it said: As the minimum standards of medical education should be ensured under the law and expeditiously gazette the minimum standards of medical education.

As far as the second demand it said: Informing the governments position about the SAITM, to the Supreme Court.

As far as demands 3, 4 and 5 the Presidents statement said: Formation of current courses of SAITM is according to a method accepted by the SLMC and forming a system to register the degrees which have already been offered. The Presidential statement went even as far to state that: No institute and person should influence the autonomy and the impartiality of Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC). Which served to raise eyebrows whether the Presidents statement was attempting to oust the jurisdiction of the courts to tender opinion on the exclusive right of the SLMC to decide whom to register and whom to reject? But even this conciliatory gesture on the Presidents part was not good enough for the GMOA hierarchy. They issued a statement alleging that the statement issued by P. B. Abeykoon, Secretary to President Maithripala Sirisena, has violated the agreement they reached with the President and used this as the foundation to launch an indefinite strike in the very near future. The GMOA wanted SAITM dead, full stop. And why? According to GMOAs secretary Aluthge: We want to safeguards the patients right to live. Funny way of achieving that, isnt it? Tell that to the patients Dr Aluthge. But  in view of the patients anger erupting during last weeks indefinite strike  not before ensuring that there is a doctor on call not on strike at the accident ward. If the nation holds with abhorrence a small group of men in saffron robes going around the countryside making hate speeches against the minority Muslims and urges the government to crackdown on those bigots for their criminally irresponsible actions, with how much more repugnance should the masses hold 17,000 doctors announcing plans boldly in public to indefinitely put millions of the nations citizens of all denominations on death row by denying them their right to medical treatment merely to realise their vested interests? Suddenly these merciless doctors, once the angels of mercy now demons of death, have become the scum of Lankas soil.
Although Civilian Conservation Corps camps operated by the U.S.D.A.s Soil Conservation Service had nearly 20 sites in Nebraska and a larger number of Prisoner of War camps and satellites were scattered around the state, in between their existence, six camps housing conscientious objectors were formed as well.

In a few cases there were ties connecting the three camp functions, either proposed or actually carried out, though little was ever recorded about the C.O. locations.

From the earliest records of warfare there have been those who, for moral or religious reasons, have been unwilling to participate in violence or war of any kind. During World War I the law recognized specific Peace Churches such as the Quakers, Mennonites and Church of Brethren.

Those not specifically members of a designated church and who totally refused the draft were simply jailed. Five hundred conscientious objectors were subsequently court martialed, 150 received life sentences and 17 were sentenced to death, though none were actually executed.

The Selective Service Act of 1940 noted that individuals could be excused by reason of religious training and belief with their military obligation fulfilled with work of national importance under civilian direction. An executive order issued by President Franklin Roosevelt put C.O.s under the Selective Service Administration but left the C.O. designation to local draft boards.

A total of 72,354 men applied for C.O. designation and were placed under the Civilian Public Service or C.P.S. The first C.P.S. camp was opened in Maryland in 1941. Men in these camps wore green pants and shirts and, rather than receiving military pay, were charged $35 a month room and board, which was often paid by churches.

Ultimately there were 152 C.O. camps in the U.S., mostly performing C.C.C.-like duties by building dams, farming, forestry, firefighting and digging irrigation canals, but one group of 36 men volunteered to be studied under starvation conditions to see how they might be brought back to health while others served in combat areas as medics.

The location of some of the C.O. camps were in fact old C.C.C. sites. The C.C.C., originally a work program instituted during the Great Depression, was slowly being phased out in the late 1930s as the effects of the Depression faded. With the onset of World War II, funding for the C.C.C. ended and all camps were closed. Because of their barracks, dining facilities and compounds which were immediately available, some were instantly converted to C.O. camps.

As the wartime draft greatly reduced the number of men available for farming and related work it was common for the fear to develop that crops would simply rot in the fields.

In March 1933, the Holdrege Chamber of Commerce and the Phelps County New Industries Committee appealed to Nebraska congressmen and senators to establish a federal C.O. camp near Holdrege at Atlanta, Nebraska, to provide a local farm workforce. The request was intercepted by the Office of the Provost Marshall General after Britain agreed to accept prisoners of war and urged the U.S. to do likewise. As a result, what was originally intended to be a C.O. camp instead was built as a German prisoner of war facility.

Early in 1944 two 80-acre farms were purchased: northwest of Lincoln near the city of Malcolm at East 51 and Malcolm Road (#138-2) and (#138-1) 1 miles east of College View. Barracks, dining halls and offices were constructed at both camps, which opened in October 1944. The Malcolm camp initially housed 35 men and ultimately held 142 men.

Another camp (#106) was a joint camp headquartered on the University of Nebraskas Agriculture Experimental Station in Lincoln with six of its men then stationed at North Platte. The 50 men based in Lincoln lived first in a rooming house at 1301 N. 33rd St. and later in a fraternity house at 3605 Holdrege.

Camp #138-3 was located at Waterloo, west of Omaha which, in concert with the Lincoln and Malcolm camps, did surveys, planted crops, built irrigation canals, terraced fields and constructed fences. Camp #25-1 housed 203 men on the southeast edge of Weeping Water in a 5-acre abandoned C.C.C. camp and operated a tree farm in addition to doing work similar to Lincoln and Malcolm camps.

All of the Nebraska C.O. camps closed in December 1946 but the Weeping Water camp began to reassign men in 1942 when 12 men were sent to the U.S. Forest Service in Montana. Beginning in July 1944, German POWs began arriving at the old C.O. camp in Weeping Water and as their number increased the four remaining C.O./C.C.C. barracks were supplemented with two new ones.

The Weeping Water POW camp closed in October 1945, and although many of the buildings were then razed, two buildings survive, the hospital and an office now converted to an apartment and home. Other than these two structures virtually no evidence of the Conscientious Objector camps in Nebraska survive.
Sirisena in bid to salvage Nuwara Eliya Presidents House View(s):

A British mansion, once known as Queens Cottage (and also as The Lodge), was the home of colonial governors responsible for Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

Located at Bambarakele in Nuwara Eliya, also known then as Little England, the mansion, a protected monument under the Antiquities Ordinance, may go into rack and ruin if not repaired immediately.Moving into arrest the situation is President Maithripala Sirisena. The building and its environs are now the Presidents House. Since Independence in 1948, it became the vacationing residence of the Governor General of Sri Lanka. It changed to Presidents House in 1972.

President Sirisena is seeking approval of Rs. 120 million to carry out urgent repairs. In view of financial constraints faced by the Government, he wants the money in four yearly instalments  Rs 20 million in 2017, Rs 70 million in 2018, Rs 20 million in 2019 and Rs 20 million in 2020. The Sri Lanka Navys engineering division personnel will carry out the repairs resulting in a saving on payment for labour. Work will be carried out from January to April next year, the period when there is the lowest rainfall in the area.

President Sirisena has pointed out that a notable feature at the British built mansion is the use of wooden tiles made of Burma teak. They have decayed due to lack of maintenance. Rotten tiles will now be replaced but those in good shape are to be retained. He has pointed out that in 2014 repairs have been carried out to a small section of the roof where the Burmese teak wooden tiles have been replaced.

President Sirisena has insisted that the antiquity of the building should be preserved when the repair work is conducted.

Demos in specified areas only

The Law and Order Ministry is to issue a Gazette notification next week prohibiting protests or demonstrations on pre-identified roads in the City of Colombo.

The notification is also to identify specific areas where such protests or demonstrations could be held.

Battle-ridden Lankan mission in the news again

The Sri Lankan mission where there was a ding dong battle between the number one and two is in the news again.

This time it was over an Iftar ceremony the mission hosted to Muslims in the capital where it is located. One speaker who represented a Muslim organisation lashed out at the yahapalanaya government for what he called inaction over attacks on mosques and Muslim business establishments. The missions head, who was in the chair, made no comments when speaking later.

The tussle between the numero uno and the number two, however, is over. The big boss in Colombo has declared that the deputy will not be recalled and the head must learn to coexist.

The boss has also ruled that a staffer for whom extension of service has been obtained on two different occasions by the head of mission should return to Colombo. There will be no more extensions.

House and property for Ranaviru Real Stars

Soldiers who participated in the Ranaviru Real Star Mission 5, a television show which showcases their talents, are in lucks way.

The Ministry of Defence wants to build houses for 36 winners instead of providing them other rewards. Of the number, 19 soldiers have asked that houses be built in lands they possess. Six winners are to receive six plots of 15 perches each in Mirigama.

Two adjacent plots of 12 perches each are to be given in Mirigama to the top most winner whose prize money is Rs 60 million. Eight other soldiers will receive 12 perches each whilst one plot will be given to a soldier from a land in Beruwala.

New building to house STD/Aids programme

The Government will spend Rs 125.5 million for a building to house the National STD/Aids (Sexually Transmitted Diseases/Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome) Programme.

The new building will replace the existing one at De Saram Place, Colombo 10. It will also bring together the information management unit, the multi-sectoral HIV prevention unit and the Global Fund office now located within the Out-Patient Department (OPD) of the National Hospital. Since the latter premises was demolished for re-construction, the offices are functioning from a private rented building at T.B. Jayah Mawatha (the former Darley Road).

According to Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, 23,000 new patients visit the clinic every year to obtain treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. A further estimated 4,000 undiagnosed patients are said to be requiring treatment in Sri Lanka, he says.

Working in two locations, Minister Senaratne has pointed out, has caused considerable reduction in the efficiency of services. In addition, he says, the Government pays a high rental for units situated in the new locations. The people who visit the clinics and the laboratory belong to a wide range; from patients, to public servants who need testing for pre-employment screening, pregnant mothers and undergraduate and post-graduate medical trainees, the Health Minister says.

Lankan Admiral features in Prince Husseins human rights speech

In a speech he delivered to the Law Society in London, the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Zaid bin Raad Al Hussein quoted the British Prime Minister Theresa May in making a reference to Sri Lanka.

He said: A few days ago, citing Prime Minister May, a former Sri Lankan Rear Admiral delivered a petition to the President of the Human Rights Council. He demanded action be taken against my Office for forcing Sri Lanka to undertake constitutional reforms, and for exerting pressure on them to create a hybrid court to try perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity  when in reality, he claimed, all they had engaged in was fighting terrorism.

My first question is: Why is international human rights law such an easy target? Why is it so misunderstood, so reviled by some, feared by others, spurned, attacked?

Prince Hussein then went on to add; And why are we fighting the terrorists in the first place, if not to defend both the physical well-being of people and the very human rights and values the Prime Minister now says she is willing, in part, to sacrifice  in order to fight the terrorists? And where would it stop? Foregoing some rights now may have devastating effects on other rights later on.

Its clear that the UN Human Rights Council is now under scrutiny, but only because the Western powers are having to fight terrorists  even at the expense of human rights principles they want countries like Sri Lanka to have upheld while fighting terrorists.

President, PM wont meet striking unions

Neither the President nor the Prime Minister will in future engage in talks with trade unions that have already embarked on strike action.

This new policy, President Maithripala Sirisena told last Tuesdays weekly Cabinet meeting was after his encounter with a delegation from the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA).

Hours after the meeting, the association representing state sector doctors issued a statement, giving its own version of what transpired at the meeting. This came ahead of a statement issued by Presidential Secretary P.B. Abeykoon. What the latter said was at variance with claims made by the GMOA.

President Sirisena said he had chosen to meet the GMOA delegation informally. That was why there were no other ministers or officials present. Hence, he had expected the trade union concerned to respect confidentiality. In future, he said, the minister in charge of the subject will be called upon to deal with the trade union concerned. It would be only in exceptional circumstances that he or the Premier would intervene.

President Sirisenas meeting with the GMOA did irk Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne who went as far as calling it a hora meeting  a rogue meeting. Dr. Senaratnes proposal to nationalise the Neville Fernando Hospital  attached to the South Asian Institute for Technology and Medicine (SAITM)  has now been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. The GMOA wants the SAITM itself shut down or nationalised but insists that it should not be listed in the stock exchange. The hospital has been functioning as a private venture with 500 ward beds and 100 room beds.

The Government Valuer has said that the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital, part of SAITM, is worth Rs 3.55 billion. SAITM is also to be listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange, in terms of a decision by the Cabinet of Ministers. To do this, Minister Senaratne has obtained approval together with Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella to amend a Gazette notification to withdraw a condition that exists.

A Governing Board will manage SAITM. It shall consist of Vice Chancellor of SAITM, Deans of respective faculties, a Registrar, a Bursar, nominated independent experts from the fields of accountancy, Business Management, Marketing, Law and two persons recognised for distinguished services to the academia and administration.
Waste and inaction: Govt. with begging bowl By Our Political Editor View(s): View(s):

Rajitha says he has documentary evidence of former VVIPs secret accounts in Dubai, but scepticism on what could or would be done

Presidential Task Force appointed more than two years ago to probe corruption, but little or nothing has happened

Donor conference called to seek funds for rehabilitation, but SriLankan gets billions more to stay in the air

Official business listed in the agenda for last Tuesdays Cabinet meeting was over when Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne made a revelation.

He declared that he was in possession of documentary evidence that a previous government VVIP remitted money to an account in a Dubai bank.

He said he would soon reveal details of the transaction and added they were alleged spin offs from funds meant for the Gin Ganga-Nilwala Ganga diversion project. The project seeks to divert excess water from the two southern rivers to meet requirements of the Greater Hambantota Development Area.

Already the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) is probing how an advance payment of more than US$ 29.9 million or 4.3 percent of the contract value had been paid to a contractor hired by China CAMCE Engineering Company. An agreement for the project costing US$ 690 million was signed on November 5, 2014 between the Irrigation and Water Resources Management Ministry and the Chinese firm. However, the probe is to determine why work had not begun for a long time. The cost then had been just over US$ 500 million. FCID detectives have questioned several government officials in this regard and the probe continues. They have learnt from the Chinese company that the contracts were not in order then.

Minister Senaratnes remarks over which no decision was taken have once again re-kindled the fate of several high profile investigations into bribery, corruption and other malpractices. Will they ever be concluded and those involved tried in courts? If the state investigative arms and the Attorney Generals Department sniped at each other over the delays, the blame game has paled away. The issue, one of the main planks on which the political campaigns for Maithripala Sirisena at the presidential election and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the parliamentary elections, appears to have lost steam with little or no interest being shown by political leaders of the ruling coalition. The catalogue of allegations against key personalities in the previous administration is too lengthy to document here.

However, Minister Senaratnes revelations do rewind memories of how vigorously this coalition proceeded, two and a half years ago, before and soon after it was voted to power. Take the case of this former VVIP. Then Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera declared in a statement that the former VVIP and his family had stacked away US$ 17 million abroad. In another instance, a close associate of the VVIP, Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka declared, transported gunny sacks of money for use during the elections. He gave names, vehicle registration numbers and related details. Whether this was probed, to say the least, is not known.

On April 30, 2015, President Maithripala Sirisena appointed a Special Presidential Task Force for the recovery of illegally acquired state assets. The website of the Presidential Secretariat reported that President Sirisena handed over the appointment letters to the members of the Task Force at the Presidential Secretariat today (April 30, 2015). The Task Force comprised 13 members, and they were: Bimba Tillakaratne, H.M.L.T. Mudalige, H. Amarathunga, C.A.H.M. Wijerathna, A.K.D.D. Arandara, L.S. Pathinayake, Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe, Kalyani Dahanayake, Jagath P Wijeweera, D.G.N. Jayawardena, C.A. Premashantha, Presidents Counsel Yasantha Kodagoda and senior lawyer J.C. Weliamuna. Presidential Secretary P. B. Abekoon was also present at the occasion.

It is no secret that substantial amounts of money have been spent on foreign travel by some members. In one instance, Task Force members and other officials sought to file legal action in Dubai seeking secret bank details of the VVIP and members of his family not having a clue of how the Emirati kingdom works. Their ham-handed approach naturally angered senior officials in the Emirate. Subsequent measures to persuade them failed miserably. The entire exercise was botched. According to one source familiar with the workings of the Special Presidential Task Force, there has not been one instance of illegally acquired illegal assets of any politician or official been found out, leave alone those in the previous regime.

This naturally raises questions of credibility for the Government. On the one hand, here is a Cabinet Minister who declares to his colleagues at a ministerial meeting chaired by President Sirisena that the VVIP held money in a Dubai Bank. He said he is in possession of documents. On the other, investigative agencies of the state including the Special Presidential Task Force have not been able to ferret out any evidence so far, more than two years after they were entrusted with the job.

Thus, not only Senaratnes own ministerial colleagues, but also most people would view the Health Ministers latest accusations as not only a witch-hunt but a distraction (or diversion) too. The Minister himself is required to present himself to the Bribery Commission locally on various allegations against him, but has not given statements on some of them. This is by no means to say his claim of being in possession of documents is a fairy tale. Even if it did contain credible information, why there is no investigation, and whether a probe could yield results when larger probes have not, remains the question.

More so, when a wide array of issues have collectively brought into question the governments effectiveness in dealing with crisis situations and badly lowered its credibility. Take for example the piling of garbage in Greater Colombo and principal cities. Whilst no emergency measures to clear the garbage are visible with concerned agencies buck passing responsibility to one another, a Police operation assisted by the Army is rounding up those dumping refuse in unauthorised areas.

True, the law has to be enforced. However, the use of soldiers to come down hard has many other connotations and raises the inevitable question  who is in control? If an effective garbage disposal system was in place the need to throw it on the streets would not have arisen. The same question arises when one looks at the spread of dengue to its highest proportions. By Health Minister Senaratnes own admission, more than 200 have died and tens of thousands are affected. One of the worst offenders have been some government departments which have become a breeding ground for dengue mosquitos. A western diplomat told a Cabinet minister jokingly this week your newest tourist attraction is garbage dumps on streets. Yet, they will not come to see it for fear of dengue.

Here again, their measures have centred mostly on the Police and the Army visiting households and prosecuting them if dengue mosquitos or larvae breeding places are found. Sufficient attention has not been focused on an eradication campaign.

Another is the periodic blockade of roads in the City of Colombo, the nerve centre for commercial activity. Practically every week there are protests and demonstrations. Just last week, Police were forced to baton charge student protestors who invaded the Health Ministry. No thought has been given to the man hours lost, business opportunities missed and the degree to which the life of the community is disrupted. A postal strike was the latest of strikes this week.

Thousands in the Bandarawela area staged a big protest this week as cracks on their walls and wells running dry further intensified leaving drinking water scarce. The cause being the construction of a tunnel underneath as part of the Uma Oya project to take water from the highlands to the south. Now, the highlands are without water and neither has the south got any of it. Coalition leaders blamed the entire mishandling of the project on the previous regime as they are wont to do. The fact that they have been in office for 30 months and done little or nothing to rectify the project gone horribly wrong was lost in the accusation. It is because they said we had done so much wrong that people voted for this government. Blaming us will not absolve them. What did they do? asked a leading Joint Opposition personality who opted not to be named. Bus fares have been raised and LPG or cooking gas prices are to be increased. These developments come in the backdrop of a deteriorating law and order situation.

All this and more, one need hardly say, have been turning out to be extra bonus for the Opposition though it has been slow to exploit the issues politically. Added to that are state owned enterprises that are bleeding the countrys economy dry. One such case is SriLankan Airlines which is swallowing up a substantial part of the countrys financial resources. Details of how a termination of a lease to procure four Airbus A-350 900 aircraft cost US$ 124.5 million were revealed exclusively in these columns last week. Some selected parts of the reportage drew a response from SriLankan Chairman Ajit Dias. It appears on Page 16 together with a response from me.

More billions for SriLankan

SriLankan is in the news this week too. Public Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim is seeking Letters of Comfort from the Bank of Ceylon and the Peoples Bank in order to continue with the operation of SriLankan Airlines (SLA). Earlier, then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake obtained ministerial approval for short term loan facilities from the two banks for Rs 12.90 billion (Bank of Ceylon) and Rs 13.35 billion (Peoples Bank) or a staggering Rs 1,525 billion. These facilities were secured by Letters of Comfort with an expiry date of December 31, 2016. This same facility was further extended by the Cabinet of Minister on December 20, 2016. Thus, it is clear the taxpayers moneys amounting to Rs 1,525 billion will be paid out in twelve monthly instalments to keep the SriLankan Airlines operational. That is not only to pay high salaries but also to continue to compensate the losses suffered every month. Ironic enough.

The then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake also gave the same reason when he sought approval  that funds were necessary until a public-private partnership was completed.

According to Minister Hashims latest request, at present the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is in the process of sourcing a strategic partner transaction for SLA. The funding requirements for the airline are expected to be finalised at the time this transaction is concluded. Therefore, Hashim has said, the facilities already granted need to be extended until a final decision is made on the strategic partnership. Hence, Hashim has sought approval to re-issue two Letters of Comfort to the Bank of Ceylon for Rs 12.90 billion and Peoples Bank Rs 13.35 billion by the Treasury for one year from July 1, 2017. That means, the two state banks will pour in more billions of rupees for SriLankan until July next year. In the past year, a strategic partner could not be found. Thus, for one more year the tax payer will bear the burden whether or not a partner comes along.

Like the Sinhala adage, the situation appears to be similar to one being gored by a bull after a fall from a tree. A debt driven economy has been badly hit by the recent floods leading to landslides. Paradoxical enough, whilst pumping vast amount of money annually to a heavily loss making enterprise like SriLankan, the Government has been compelled to convene a Donor Conference to raise funds for rehabilitation work. Colombo-based diplomats and international agencies are to be invited to hear details of the losses suffered and to make a plea for help.

Rubber shortage

An idea of the enormity of damage caused by the recent natural disaster played out at a recent Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. It came to light that substantial extents of rubber trees have been damaged causing an acute shortage of natural rubber in the local market. This has badly affected the local industry, particularly tyre manufacture. It was decided to import 1000 metric tonnes of natural rubber. Imports will be made by the State Trading Corporation (STC) for three to four months on the recommendation of the Ministry of Plantation Industries. The STC is to release the imported rubber to the affected industries only on the recommendation of the Secretary to the Ministry of Plantation Industries. It has been decided that Customs duty for the imported natural rubber should be fixed by the Ministry of Finance in such a way that it will not be cheaper than the local price.

President Sirisena has assigned ministers to be in charge of different flood affected electorates to formulate rehabilitation programmes. Their reports will be merged into an overall document which will be placed before those attending the donor conference. Other than the rehabilitation work, which will require large amounts of money, a further financial commitment has been necessitated by a programme to construct permanent houses for people who reside in Landslide High Risk areas. The National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) has traced that a number of families are residing in landslide prone areas. According to NBRO statistics, there are 14,860 houses in nine districts. Funds are to be made available for these householders to obtain land and build new houses.

Notwithstanding Minister Senaratnes revelations last Tuesday, the Government will go ahead with the Gin-Nilwala Diversion project once a string of procedural formalities are completed. The Government is seeking a loan, possibly from China, for US$ 690 million to proceed with the work.

Thus, developments in the recent weeks make it abundantly clear that there is no government machinery at present to be worked assiduously to identify areas where there is colossal waste of public funds. If indeed such a mechanism existed, billions of rupees that are saved could have been used for development and even rehabilitation work after natural disasters without chasing foreign loan after foreign loan.

This is what is forcing the Government to go with the begging bowl to foreign donors when it is cash strapped. A good part of it could be saved if waste is stopped.

Last stages of the war: Blake discloses secret plan

Former US envoy optimistic about Lanka despite slow progress

The United States had a detailed coordinated plan with the Indian and Sri Lanka Governments for its Navy to rescue trapped displaced persons in Puthukudiyiruppu during the final stages of the separatist war, according to Ambassador Robert Blake, then Washingtons envoy in Colombo.

However, the Sri Lankan Government killed the idea for fear that Erik Solheim (Norwegian peace broker) and I would be taken hostage by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), he said last week in Washington DC. Blake was speaking to the Serendipity Group, a body of US Ambassadors and diplomats who served in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Americans. Blake said he did not believe that Solheim and he would be taken hostage. He said there were also perceptions that it was an effort to rescue LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Every person would have been transferred by US Navy boats to Sri Lankan custody, he said. Blake said another debate was whether the United States helped the Sri Lanka Navy to sink LTTE boats. We did help them locate boats carrying arms for the LTTE. The Sri Lanka Navy actually sank them, he added. The comments came after he remarked that he first wanted to clear some misinformation that continues to circulate about somethings we worked on when I was Ambassador from 2006 to 2009. We never had the intention of helping the LTTE, Blake said adding that the plan was to rescue as many IDPs whom the LTTE had refused to allow to move south through the lines of fighting and were in effect were human shields.  Here are some highlights of his speech:

Another decision for which I continue to receive critical emails was our decision to have the US support and lead efforts to pass a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution in 2012. I argued for the early part of the Administration that we should give the GSL (Government of Sri Lanka) a chance to work on reconciliation and accountability so they could own it and not have a solution imposed from outside. Domestic ownership is always preferable.

And indeed the GSL came up with the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which had many positive aspects.

But the LLRC did not address serious allegations of violations of international law, particularly at the end of the war. So we decided to support a landmark resolution that:

Welcomed the LLRC report; called for its implementation;

called on the GSL to take credible actions to ensure justice and accountability for all Sri Lankans;

requested the GSL to draft an action plan;

and called on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to report at next session what had been done. The January 2015 presidential elections represented a sea-change in Sri Lankan politics:

Maithripala Sirisena defected to lead an opposition coalition that defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa who was seeking a third term.

Suddenly we had a government in power that promised many of the political, economic and social reforms that Sri Lankan civil society and the international community had been seeking and chose a lot of reformers as Ministers to carry out those reforms. The GSL almost immediately began work, culminating in a landmark speech to the UNHRC in June in which Foreign Minister Samaraweera marked a new era of cooperation with the Council and promised to achieve transitional justice by announcing, among other things: A Task Force of civil society representatives to seek the views of the public in order to inform the design of the truth-seeking, justice, accountability and reparations mechanisms;

A draft Bill to establish a Permanent and Independent Office on Missing Persons;

A Bill to amend the Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions) Act No 19 of 2010 to enable the issuance of Certificates of Absence in respect of Missing Persons;

The ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

A new counter-terrorism law to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act,

A National Human Rights Action Plan for 2017-2021; and

The return of lands to conflict displaced civilians, no later than 2018. First 9-12 months saw impressive progress: President Sirisena won the needed two-thirds parliamentary approval for a constitutional amendment to reduce the presidencys enormous powers and restore the independence of oversight commissions for the police, judiciary, and human rights.

The government ended censorship and intimidation of the media.

It reduced the military presence in Tamil-majority areas in the north and east and the military returned some of the private land it had seized during and after the war.

Parliament passed a Right to Information law, which is considered one of the strongest in Asia, and allows citizens to access information on government procedures, policies, and decisions.

But progress stalled in other areas:

The Office of Missing Persons was approved in August 2016, but has yet to be set up. This is really important on many levels due to the large number of enforced disappearances, white van abductions and many people who went missing after the war.

Likewise the timetables for establishing a reparations office, a truth commission and a transitional justice mechanism have been repeatedly delayed.

Progress on a new constitution to strengthen devolution also slow. Civil society is pushing hard for a constitutional referendum but few politicians agree; the rest believe it is too risky and could well become a referendum on the Government. Economic growth slowed in 2016 to 4.4% with a marked fall in agricultural production because of bad weather, but growth is expected to rebound to about 5% this year. Tourism has been a particularly bright spot, growing 17% last year. The GSL would of course like to see higher growth but faces some obstacles:

Still burdened by high levels of public debt;

Ruinous floods this year will again hurt agricultural production; Sri Lanka has one of the regions lowest tax revenues as a percentage of GDP; so the idea of a VAT in 2016 has been introduced.

Im told there is extensive new investment in real estate in Colombo, and the Chinese and Indians continue to provide infrastructure but not much new investment to diversify the economy from textiles and tea, which are still about 60% of exports.

Land and labor issues also remain obstacles. Job creation remains a challenge. So the good but not stellar growth is important because economic satisfaction impacts support for political reforms. US-Sri Lanka trade has progressed: SL exports to US increased from $1.59 billion in 2009 to $2.89 b in 2015 and then slight dip to $2.78 b last year. US exports to Sri Lanka are still small: $229 million in 2009 to $368 m today. Why has political progress stalled? Much ink has been spilled on the divisions in the unity government that often lead to focus more on political manoeuvring than forging coalitions on specific issues to get things done. And indeed, the President and the Prime Minister have an uneasy coexistence. Old familiar divisions remain: the SLFP tends to be more nationalistic, populist and less business oriented; UNP more internationalist, and supportive of free trade. Looking Ahead The good news is that the GSL reaffirmed its ambitious plans in the most recent UNHRC resolution in March. And they still have about two and a half years before Presidential elections in 2020. Civil society, much of Colombo and of course the international community support reforms. But Mahinda Rajapaksa continues to oppose efforts on reconciliation and transitional justice, casting them as capitulation to western interests.

But from what I can tell, President =Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe still have the will to move forward.

The decision to have Mangala Samaraweera -Ravi Karunanayake switch portfolios may also provide new energy.

With already high public debt levels, Sri Lanaka and many other countries need to carefully evaluate future projects to be sure of good IRR and avoid higher debt burdens. The white elephant is of course Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport which according to some reports is currently a daily flight or two away from being completely defunct:

12,000 square meter terminal building,

A runway long enough to handle the largest commercial jets,

Capacity for one million passengers per year,

Built at a cost of $209 million, $190 million of which reportedly is coming in the form of loans from China. That is top of $1 billion-plus multi-stage deep sea port at Hambantota, a large industrial zone, and several other expensive projects.

Conclusion: As friends of Sri Lanka, we all want to see a Sri Lanka that is democratic, prosperous, and at peace, with reconciliation proceeding. That is the Governments vision as well. We have a good US Embassy team led by Ambassador Atul Keshap who has a lot of experience in the region and is very active. We have restored very robust military cooperation. And we should remember the many advantages Sri Lanka always has enjoyed: Strategic location astride the main Indo-Pacific sea lanes through which pass two-thirds of global oil supplies and half of the worlds container cargo.

Colombo Port is already the busiest transhipment port in South Asia.

Free trade agreements already exist with India and Pakistan, while work is underway for agreements with China and Singapore. Politically, of course civil society and many others always want to see faster progress but lets not forget, democracy matters. Of course, public policy is always more complicated, but democracy opens avenues for constructive dissent, good ideas.
SriLankan: Going down; not up View(s):

One of the key promises of the electoral campaigns of the then Opposition in 2015 was that a new administration under Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe would, not only eliminate corruption, but hold those suspected of it in the past to account. On both counts, this Government has failed.

The promised transparency in procurement has not come about. There are instances of tender guidelines being so specifically drafted that only favoured bidders qualify. At other times, tender invitations are unprofessional, weak, incomplete and non-specific. Unsolicited proposals are still entertained. Procurement processes are held hostage to bilateral offers, aid and financial packages. Swiss Challenge procurements are being manipulated to avoid transparent and competitive supply arrangements. It is corruption, as usual.

The Government promised to rectify obtaining and managing loans; to reassess mega projects and punish those responsible for technical offences irrespective of the status of the offenders. The Presidential manifesto also pledged a special programme to investigate big and small development activities throughout the country, procurements and transactions of institutions and fraudulent investment of Employees Provident Fund monies. None of this has come to bear.

This newspapers Political Editor last week wrote of damning things that have happened inside SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier that has taken the whole country for a ride for many years. When President J.R. Jayewardene wound up Air Ceylon and re-launched one of Asias oldest airlines as Air Lanka, one expected it to fly to the sky with SIA (Singapore Airlines) as its role model. It was not to be. A partnership with SIA, and later with Emirates came a cropper as we over-estimated ourselves, wanting to keep it within ones control eventually running the airline not to the sky, but to the ground.

Sheer mismanagement and a chronically divided present Board, not keeping the Minister informed bad as they are, pale into insignificance when there is corruption  and nothing tangible done about it. The airline has responded this week to the Political Editor (See page 16), arguing that aircraft leased and purchased by the previous Board were unsuitable for the airlines routes and this Board is only cutting losses. But the basic question remains  why were those involved in ensuring the people of this country lost millions of Dollars (not just Rupees)  and comparable to the Central Bank bond scam or worse, are not even questioned.

The incumbent Board brushed aside early findings saying the Attorney General is looking into the matter. That is not good enough, surely. The sum involved is phenomenal and worst of all is that this Board has agreed to a secrecy clause to the sum involved in the terms of settlement for breach of contract. Yes, it was the previous Board that was involved in the seemingly sordid deal-making, but why is this Board so cagey and hesitant in pursuing those behind the deals? Naturally, there are allegations of a cover-up of the misdemeanours of the previous Board and its chief executives by the present Board.

It is a damning indictment on this Government that is increasingly facing the wrath of its voters for protecting the rogues of the past who are well and truly ensconced with the present lot as well.

Practical policy on alcohol

The new Finance Minister is not averse to political controversy and making unconventional remarks on matters of public interest. While some of them are utterly abstract and controversial, to say the least, some are home-truths. You might say, he says as it is.

His most recent statement that liquor sales on the day before full moon Poya holidays are higher than on normal days is correct. The monthly Poya is a day for some to meditate, and for others to imbibe.

We have been imposing some haphazard policies on alcohol: One year the duty on beer is dropped to wean tipplers from hard liquor to soft liquor, whereupon breweries imported new machinery and then the duty is slapped back again in the next Budget; bars are even closed when a popular musician passes away.

Either people stock up or buy the booze freely in the dingy back lanes of the city on such days. Tourists are made to curse when they cant get a glass of wine to go with their dinner at hotels. Even in strict Islamic countries they are getting relaxed about the consumption of alcohol and during the recent Ramadan fasting hours non-Muslims were permitted to eat in secluded areas in public places.

There is a crying need to get rid of various misconceptions on the current liquor policy. Chicago tried prohibition in the 1930s only to find it giving rise to boot-legging and crime. Morarji Desai introduced this in India in the late 1970s, and it didnt work. Today, the Indian states of Gujarat and Bihar are dry states because alcoholism is rife.

Whether one is a teetotaller as the former Finance Minister was, or a connoisseur of choice wines as the incumbent is, is immaterial. They must not be guided by those in the hooch business. Former President J.R. Jayewardene said that if the Buddha couldnt stop people drinking alcohol, how could he? Former Finance Minister Dr. N.M. Perera started the State Distilleries Corporation to give the poor man a good arrack at an affordable price. Strangely, the profit-making corporation was privatised and began adulterating the arrack at its source  the distillery. Then, it got further adulterated at the taverns.

The profits are enormous from this business and some of the profit goes to fund local politicians. That is what must be stopped. The State then tries to milk revenue by way of periodically raising excise taxes altruistically claiming it is aimed at cutting consumption. The end result is that the ordinary man is forced to molasses and moonshine and an astronomical rise in the use of narcotics in the country. Narco dealers have even entered Parliament or fund MPs. That is what must be stopped.

Todays excise taxes have encouraged top of the range brands of whiskeys to be cloned and sold here. People buy this putrid stuff as the genuine product is too expensive; the net result is that the State doesnt receive excise revenue it expects and the consumer is drinking poison.

Lets have a realistic and practical alcohol policy that is neither too rigid nor too liberal, mindful that there are far more lethal intoxicants in the market that are even more harmful and are being targeted at little children as well.
King Rajasinghes request This article is part of a continuing series on Sri Lankan history View(s): View(s):

Gasper Pigera managed to revive the Portuguese power that had been declining, within the span of a few months. During this time, King Rajasinghe had settled in Batugedara. A Portuguese army marched to Karantota. A request was made for

King Rajasinghe to take all his possessions and go to Kandy.



This request was made by a letter. The Portuguese were happy over this. It was a false demonstration that they made by making the king feel that he was allowed to take his army. The armies then went to Malwana and conquered land there. Meanwhile the Dutch conquered Kalutara once again and marched to Pasdun Korale.

Army contingents were sent to all the districts in Pasdun Korale to win the loyalty of the subjects, so that they could collect the spices. These armies stayed in Diyagama. Then the Portuguese marched to besiege them. Then the Dutch went to Kalutara, where they were joined by the Dutch army there.



All of them marched to fight against the Portuguese. They set up camp in Thenuwara and managed to fight a number of battles. Then the Dutch heard that the Portuguese were sending a huge army to besiege Galle. So the Dutch gave up Kalutara and marched to Galle to protect that post.



Taking this opportunity, the Portuguese stationed an army contingent in the fort of Kalutara with the intention of harming the Dutch interests. The Portuguese stationed another army contingent in Aluthgama. In the meantime, a huge convoy of five Portuguese ships, accompanied by naval officers, came to attack Galle. By that time, there were three ships blocking entry to Galle.

By Halaliye Karunathilake,

Edited and translated by Kamala Silva

Illustrated by Saman Kalubowila
Abstract and fluid creations By Tarini Pilapitiya Young artist Sumali Piyatissa speaks to the Mirror Magazine about her love for painting and what drew her back to its calling. View(s): View(s):

Bold, eye catching, sophisticated adjectives which capture the essence of Sumali Piyatissas portraits for her upcoming exhibition KOLORFLO.

This artist is as vibrant as the intensity of colour you see on her canvases, her artistry is painted with carefully maneuvered brush strokes making a clear white canvas a piece of art that anyone would be happy to take home.

The exhibition will take place on July 7 and 9 at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery from 9.30 am to 7.30 pm.

Sumali has a sentimental connection to her pieces. On closer inspection you might notice that the artist Sumali has enigmatically signed her pieces Buki. When questioned about it Sumail laughs. The nickname was given to her by her late father due to her love for the Abba song Yes Sir, I can Boogie when she was young.

Her father, her biggest motivator to start painting, affectionately deconstructed the word Boogie nicknaming his daughter (what we can only assume is the Sri Lankan equivalent) Buki instead.

The name stuck, well into Sumalis adult life, even after the loss of her father at the tender age of eleven years old, Sumali signs her paintings with her childhood nickname  a sign of love on a canvas of paint.

My father always wanted me to paint, Sumali states He saw in something in me at that time she recalls being only around 7 or 8 when she started drawing. She fondly remembers her father getting her to paint Christmas cards where he would proceed to distribute to everyone they knew.

However, as Sumali got older art took on a minor role in her life.She muses Art kind of drifted away from me for a while, as she juggled work, studies and a hectic adult life with all its priorities and agendas.

The hiatus didnt last very long with Sumali saying I kind of missed it, painting whenever she could during her free times and taking classes in withKumari De Alwis in 2000.

She started exhibiting her work at the Kala Pola art market Colombo, and has sold portraits in Sri Lanka and abroad through the online platform saatchiart.com.

Her work also hangs on the walls of friends and family, at the Havelock City model apartments and Goodies at Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel. Although she currently works full time, Sumali now makes time for her passion.

This July, KOLORFLO will feature a range of abstract and fluid art. Although we havent seen much fluid art in

Sri Lanka Sumalis paintings are distinctive creations with boldly used colour palates.

She says her techniques are almost accidental and experimental in its metamorphoses.

Fluid Art, a process of pouring various acrylics to create a hypnotizing effect on canvas, is as unpredictable as it sounds says Sumali You dont know what you will get.

KOLORFLO will be Sumali (Bukis) second solo exhibition. The main theme for KOLORFLO will be a Blending of colours, Sumali says, guaranteeing to bring out the wow factor of her work.

Greatly moved by her faith, Sumali captures biblical verses, merging them into her work.

Her paintings are what we can describe as divine inspiration embodying the spirit and nature of the messages and teachings of God. Some of her paintings titled Trust in Me and King of my Heart are some such examples of her more devout pieces.

An unusual piece titled Breath of God Sumali revealed was drawn one way but is now displayed upside down, (truthfully we didnt see the difference as it looks picturesque either way and apparently thats the goal here!)

Religion plays a big part in my paintings, Sumali states, however some of her other work are inspired by her travels abroad.

A travel bug by heart Sumali is an exhibition goer who finds home in galleries. She enjoys sitting on the long wooden benches for hours in Western galleries, gazing in wonder at the masterpieces adorning the walls.

Her motivation to try her hand at Fluid art stemmed from her travels to Australia, where she noticed the growing trend for this particular technique. Having visited galleries in Australia, New York, Washington D.C, Brussels and many more places.

Sumali states My view on art was limited but now I enjoy playing around with the colours.

Unique aspects of Sumalis creations are also the way in which they are framed. Her frames take on a diversified portfolio of shapes and sizes, from hexagons to ovals; one particular rectangular frame even attached on top of a mirror gives her a work a sophisticated, aesthetic touch.

Sumalis work we noticed uses the colour yellow, minimally found or in different shades, itsimprinted into almost all her work. When inquiringabout it the bubbly artist revealed it to be her favorite colour from her whole palate, the yellow pigment making her associate it with sunflowers, and making us associate it with her vibrant persona.

She is full of delight as she speaks of her muses Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet  artist who were eminent for their styles of Impressionism ( a style famous in the 19th century where artist painted bright vibrant pictures of images that captures an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse of it).

Her awe is apparent as she shows us her treasured prints from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York of celebrated paintings of the two artists.

KOLORFLO will take place on July 7 and 9 at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery from 9.30 am to 7.30 pm. Entrance Free. For more information contact Sumalis on www.bukiarts.com.
Jude Ratnam reveals an unknown truth about the war By Susitha R. Fernando Demons in Paradise- First Sri Lankan documentary film in Cannes View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankas first and only documentary film to go to prestigious Cannes Film Festival this year, Jude Ratnams Demons in Paradise, a mostly biographical cinematic venture, unearths the grisly bitter truth about Sri Lankas war from the point of view of an insider.

Actual facts and real life incidents with classic cinematographya montage of the sights, smells, and sounds of a war ravaged country- Demons in Paradise is a true depiction of honest cinema.

Jude was nominated for twp awards; Golden Camera and Golden Eye at the Cannes.

A film that was made for ten years from 2007 is a story of the ethnic war that could be seen within and outside.

The connection between the North and the South and peace and the war is made using the railway system of Sri Lanka.

I thought railway lines could be a good metaphor to tell about the conflict in this country.

This is specially because the railway is connected to the colonial past as well, says Jude Ratnam.

The film starts with a few old archaic film shots taken probably from the Government Film Unit.

They include how the British blasted rocks to make the railway lines to the hill country and there onwards throughout the film railways play a key role.

I am fascinated by trains and I dont know why the cinema had to be started with trains.

You must ask that question from Lumiere brothers themselves, giggles Ratnam laughing at his own madness for the railway and of course for cinema reels as well.

The film does not stop dealing with violence inflicted by Sinhalese on Tamils but Tamils among themselves as well, thus winning the wrath of extremists in both communities and becoming a traitor to the country and to ethnicity.

Whenever I see the films about war there is a victim and a victimizer.But deep inside I knew that was just a half truth.robably this comes out of the social activism I was involved in as well, says Ratam.

As a 6-year-old Jude witnessed the riots and war and was forced to hide in neighbours bathrooms to save his life during the 1983 riots.

Son of an Anglican priest, Jude was born in Colombo. Since his father was a religious leader posted in different places he went to Kandy.

In 1982 the family returned to Colombo but had to flee to Batticaloa to save their lives during the 1983 riots. Our house was burnt and we were hidden by some Sinhala families.

Having seen the flames of burning shops and houses that belonged to Tamils my brother and I were excited without knowing what was happening.

It was at that point my mother shouted at us dont shout in Tamil they will kill us, Ratnam says referring to an almost the same dialogue that comes in his film.

Before becoming a filmmaker Jude became a medical salesman trying to sell anaesthetic equipment. But I couldnt sell anything.

Some days I walked and walked but couldnt sell a single equipment, fed up with the job he gave it up it.

Then he joined the National Christian Council where he started working for human rights and went around the country.

I was travelling all over the country and it was during this time that I realised the reality as to what was happening around the country, Jude says.

According to Jude artistes have to be born and art houses cannot do the job of creating artistes. Art is in the genes of Jude as many of his seniors in the family were involved in writing, singing, theatres and many other aesthetic fields.

My grandfather M. S. Ratnam was a poet, writer, chorister and a cinema actor. My father was inspired by him.

The film mainly narrates around Judes uncle, S. Manorajan, former fighter and a well-known journalist in Sri Lanka and now based in Canada.

The film captures the return of Manorajan and going to his original house in Kandy and visiting Sinhala families who rescued him and his family during earlier violence in 1977.

The brutality among the Tamil community is worse than the brutality of Sinhala community on Tamils. This hard truth was taught to me by my uncle Manorajan, a journalist, Jude says analyzing the bitter truth he discovered.

This he proves with one of the final scenes where he brings together a group of former fighters around a campfire who confessed what they did and what they saw.

Talking about his film going to France, Jude says how it went to France itself was a magical story. I came out with this film idea at a film workshop and a lady who was there said that it could be taken to French film school, La Femis which made an exception for a non-European film,.

He was also lucky to meet Thierry Garrel who had come down to Sri Lanka on a holiday.

Garrel is known as the godfather of French documentary cinema and having seen rushes of two sequences he agreed to help Jude.

With Yahapalana government in operation Jude is hopeful that he will be able to screen his film in Sri Lanka.

I hope it will be possible to screen it here. I wanted to break the misconception that a documentary is boring and prove that it can be intellectually challenging.

In addition to uncle, Ratnams father, mother and many relatives are features in the film. In a number of scenes he himself is featured and this was after persuasion by his producer Julie Paratian.

At Cannes Judes film received rave reviews and warm welcomes by some Sri Lankan domiciles as well.

Jude Ratnam I am the first Tamil director to make a film from within the country. Ironically, my experience of being displaced as a child and as an adult, and my resulting knowledge of both the Tamil and Sinhalese communities, made this film possible, he told the media there.
Tea and dessert: Flavourful pairing at Park Street Mews View(s):

At the Park Street Mews kitchen, pastry chef P.D. Chaminda shows us how to plate this months special  Baileys pannacotta with strawberry granita and passion fruit sauce.

First, he slices the pannacotta in half along with a few strawberries and places them neatly on a plate. Next he spoons the strawberry granita into a bowl and places it carefully between the two halves of the pannacotta.

Then he spoons some chocolate crumble (which resembles cookie crumbs) and passion fruit and mint sauce in horizontal lines on either side of the pannacotta and finally adds two white chocolate triangles.

The result is a delectable dish like what you would see being made at a top Michelin star restaurant.

The mix of textures, colours and flavours make this dessert (and the many others Chaminda expertly makes) so interesting in fact that Park Street Mews will be pairing a selection of their desserts with flavoured teas throughout the day.

Although pairing dessert and tea is a unique idea for Sri Lankans, the concept is popular in other parts of the world. An overseas assignment on food and tea pairing which was organised to present Sri Lankan tea gave Chaminda the idea of pairing desserts with tea.

With the help of executive chef Rohan Perera, they devised a menu which they handed over to Dushyantha De Silva who made teas which matched the desserts.

With unconventional flavours of tea such as passion fruit and pineapple, almond truffle and chilli chocolate, Dushyantha aims to revolutionize Sri Lankan tea.

I want to blur the lines between tea and dessert, he explains, adding that although Sri Lanka is new to the idea of unconventional flavours of tea, the concept is well accepted in other countries  he got the idea from observing the teas served in France. Tea should transport people to a different time and place.

Were in the business of emotions, he says.

Priding himself on using single estate teas- the tea in any specific product would come from a single estate rather than blending teas from different estates, the tea he carefully selects at auctions have flavours added to them in a facility in Colombo.

He works on the flavours for weeks until he gets it just right. When I say chilli chocolate you should be able to actually taste the chilli and the chocolate, and you can with our teas, he explains.

He specifies at what temperature and for how long each tea must be brewed before it can be enjoyed  a process which he has trained the staff at Park Street Mews to perform.

People need to know about the value of tea, he says. If you want to sell Jamaican coffee people will readily spend and buy but when you say tea, people wonder why you should spend so much and buy it, but this is a different experience and I think people should try it and see, he says adding that he hopes pairing the teas with desserts will encourage people to try out new flavours of tea.

The desserts at Park Street Mews are elegantly plated so that they are a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds. Chaminda feels that the most important aspect of a good dessert is a combination of different textures and flavours which merge to form something extraordinary, while Rohan adds that using good ingredients is vital for success.

We use natural ingredients which complement the teas so that the desserts turn out well, he explains. Dessert prices range from Rs. 500 upwards and teas from Rs. 350.

The dessert and tea menu at Park Street Mews can be experienced throughout the day at the Park Street Mews restaurant at 50/1, Park St, Colombo 02. For further information, please contact 2303133.

(KF)

A different taste of Tea Twenty- five year-old, Dushyanthas tea brand Teaeli is so well received that he even presented Prince Charles his tea when he came here for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2013. Dushyantha has even started making tea flowers and stars  dried tea leaves which have been collected in shapes which can simply be dropped into hot water to make tea. Committed to giving people a great experience through his teas, Dushyantha feels that the recent trend of high teas in Colombo is less about the tea and more about the food, but hopes that the teas themselves will also become popular in the near future. His teas are available for purchase at the Bayleaf tea room and can be ordered online through his website www.teaeli.com.
The healing power of travel By Joshua Surendraraj View(s): View(s):

For Yaseen Khan, the founder of Long Weekend Sri Lanka (LWSL), a lifestyle brand that is slowly gaining hype in the travel industry, believes travel attests to a healthy lifestyle.

Soon after graduation in 2009, Yaseen together with a few partners, started his own business -an inbound travel company. When I was small, our family travelled a lot in Sri Lanka.

So, I felt that this was the perfect industry for me to get into. Generally, the travel industry from the outside looks very extravagant and fun, he recalls.

But he soon found out that this was a completely different on the inside. You dont really travel when youre in the industry.

And coming into the business as a fresher and managing it for the first time was quite tough and challenging, he says.

Things however worked out well for the company. But in 2015, they hit a wall, because they were dealing with the Russian market and the country had its own problems at the time.

However they managed to keep afloat. But it was last year he thought it was finally time and sold his shares and moved on taking a long break from work for about four or five months.

During this period, Yaseen travelled by himself and it was his first visit to Jaffna, which was an eyeopener. This was when he slowly began to build the concept for Long Weekend Sri Lanka.

This was a low point in his life, where he wasnt sure about what to do with his career, he narrates. He got into his car, put some clothes in and drove off to Jaffna.

Yaseen explored Jaffna and the surrounding areas for two weeks, by himself. He did not make any plans or hotel reservations at the time, yet he covered Jaffna, Delft Island, Point Pedro and Mullaitivu etc.

It was during this trip, when I thought to myself that there must be so many people just like me, who might not have explored Sri Lanka properly, he recalls, adding that if you took Colombo as an example, on a weekend most people would spend time either partying or with their family.

He explains, Sri Lanka is a gifted island. Everything is just a few hours away.

Thats when he realized that he wanted to get into the domestic market, which he felt, no one else was really considering.

Being in the industry, what I realized was that the domestic market was sort of cornered into going on weekend getaways to hotels etc. So, I thought Id dive in full time, even though the margins were low. Thats when he came up with the concept of LWSL.

There are people who do a bit of travelling. But in most cases, its to the same places such as Unawatuna, Galle etc.

Other than that, as Sri Lankans we have not explored the country properly, Yaseen says adding that in some instances he was introduced to new locations by foreigners.

These are places like hidden beaches and attractions like snake farms etc.

He firmly tells us his idea is not to sell any travel packages, rather LWSL is more of a lifestyle brand, which works primarily through content. Its just visual content with the aim of inspiring and educating the public on the experiences and destinations that the country has to offer.

Through this they also hope to spark an interest in people to explore Sri Lanka. Its about promoting that lifestyle to appreciate your surroundings and perhaps be a little more adventurous and go out there.

Yaseen maintains that travelling has a lot of healing power.

He explains that while its a good way for families to bond, or for friends to get closer, one could also find themselves through travel, which is mentally healing.

This is what LWSL is about.LWSL is currently in their first stage showing whats out there with the objective of letting the market explore for itself. But they do provide support whenever its needed.

Yaseen does most of the work from filming to editing the video content.Get in touch with Yaseen through facebook.com/longweekendlk/
Ananda College student dies after falling off train View(s):

A student of Ananda College Colombo was killed when he fell off a train at Dematagoda, a coroners court inquiry was told yesterday.

An O/Level student, Jayasekara Adikari, Isuru Yoshitha from Veyangoda was returning home after school on Friday with friends when the accident occurred. He was rushed to the National Hospital.

The students father Appuhamilage Sujith told the inquiry that his son usually travelled by bus but had recently started travelling by train.

I was told that my son had been travelling close to a carriage door. He had been talking to his friends when he fell off, he said.

The post mortem examination was conducted by JMO Dr K.K Joozari who said that death was due to multiple injuries to the head, abdomen and right leg.
Govt seeks world aid for flood relief Four ministers appointed to work out plans for donor conference in Colombo View(s): View(s):

A four-member ministerial team has been set up to make preparations for the upcoming donor conference to seek funding to rehabilitate the areas devastated by recent floods. The team is headed by Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera and includes Special Assignments Minister Sarath Amunugama, Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake. Finance Ministry Secretary R.H.S. Samaratunga will act as secretary to the committee.

The proposed donor conference, for which a date is yet to be determined, will be held in Colombo. Invited to attend will be Colombo-based diplomats and representatives of international organisations including lending agencies. The Government, which plans to formulate a detailed programme, will seek funding assistance to implement it.

President Maithripala Sirisena, who named the committee has tasked different ministers with responsibilities. It is a prelude to the formulation of the final report seeking assistance. Among such measures are:

 Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa has been called upon to prepare a suitable plan to provide housing facilities to displaced families. He has been told to forward his report for Cabinet approval within two weeks.

 Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne to ensure restoration of health services in conjunction with the Provincial Councils.

 Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena to immediately fill the existing vacancies for key posts like District Secretaries and Divisional

ecretaries. He has also been told to ensure these Secretariats provide food and other relief items to the displaced on time. President Sirisena has said that payments of relief should be effectively extended by the Government, deviating from adopting traditional procedures, where necessary.

 Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam to ensure that educational institutions in the affected areas are functioning smoothly.

 Women and Child Affairs Minister Chandrani Bandara to conduct a survey on children who have lost their mothers or fathers and formulate a report.

Early last month the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) approved a request for the Treasury to release two billion rupees through the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. This is to help self-employed and small scale businessmen who are not covered by the banking system and insurance schemes.
OMAHA  Omaha's zoo has opened its new Children's Adventure Trails exhibit, which is part of a $27.5 million expansion project that includes a new education center and an amphitheater.

The trail exhibit at Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium is designed for kids to explore and discover on their own.

"We thought if kids could have fun here while they're playing, it would really facilitate learning about wildlife even more," said Dennis Pate, the zoo's CEO and executive director.

The exhibit includes a treehouse with a wrecked pirate ship and nearby netted tubes crawling with squirrel monkeys.

There's also a waterfall that feeds into a creek meandering down a hillside. At the bottom, kids can tug on a rope to pull a wooden skiff across the stream.

When creating the exhibit, the zoo consulted with childhood development and play experts, and they crafted panels of parents and children to determine what features should go in the final plan.

"One kid said there's a creek in his backyard, and he would love to go down there and stomp in it and play, but he wasn't allowed to go into it, just to stay on the edge,'" said Elizabeth Mulkerrin, the zoo's director of education.

Mulkerrin emphasized that the exhibit is meant to encourage children to explore without parents. The zoo is placing about a dozen "play leaders" throughout the area to watch over the children and facilitate play.

"(Parents are) afraid of germs or they're afraid of somebody snagging their child," Mulkerrin said. "That part of childhood is disappearing. ... We just want to create a very safe environment where the kids are safe to play and explore and do all kinds of things."

Earlier Friday, the zoo welcomed its millionth visitor, Dave Albrecht of Lincoln. He entered with his family at 9:34 a.m. Albrecht received a free zoo membership and other gifts.
Information Dept. stops release of Cabinet papers DG says directive came from Cabinet Secretary, but he denies claim View(s): View(s):

The Information Department has halted the practice of releasing to the media Cabinet papers submitted by ministers after they are approved by the Cabinet. The move comes despite the Cabinet in April approving a note submitted by President Maithripala Sirisena informing all ministries that Cabinet decisions and memoranda not falling within excepted categories under the Right to Information (RTI) Act have to be made available to a citizen upon request.

However, the practice has now been halted on a directive from the Information Department Director General Ranga Kalansooriya. He confirmed the directive and said it had been issued due to advice given by the Secretary to the Office of the Cabinet of Ministers. The DG said he had sought clarification from the Secretary regarding the matter and had been informed that the practice of the Information Department providing detailed Cabinet papers to the media was wrong. Hence, it was stopped.

However, Cabinet Secretary Sumith Abeysinghe said he did not issue any directive, but it was up to the relevant ministry to decide whether to release Cabinet papers. Mr. Abesysinghe, explained that papers submitted to Cabinet belong to their respective ministries and that the Information Department could not issue them directly.

He said there were provisions under the Right to Information (RTI) Act for a citizen to obtain any document which did not fall under excepted categories.
SC unanimously dismisses FR application with costs By Namini Wijedasa View(s): View(s):

The Supreme Court has dismissed a Fundamental Rights (FR) application by a mosque president and a principal of a madrassa in Panadura, arguing their right to proceed with building a religious schoolwhich residents and Buddhist monks vehemently demonstrated againstwas violated.

President of the Board of Trustees of the Wekada Jumma Mosque, M.J.M. Faril and Principal of Anas Ibnu Malik Hiflul Quran Madrassa, Moulavi M.B.M. Haris had not obtained the Religious Affairs Ministrys approval to build the proposed educational institution, Justice Anil Gooneratne held, with Justices Sisira J. de Abrew and Vijith K. Malalgoda, P.C. agreeing, while dismissing the petition with costs.

The material placed before court indicates that the real purpose of the petitioners seems to be to have a mosque, instead of a school, the judgment held. This seems to be the starting point for the dispute. The villagers, residents and Buddhist monks vehemently protested against any further construction for a different purpose.

Our country has suffered over the years as a result of communal violence, it continued. History repeats and, if one were to analyse as to what happened in the 1915 riots, though it was meaningless for the two communities to clash, lessons have not been learnt by a certain section of the community.

Riots at that point of time resulted in loss of valuable life and property. Time and again incidents of such nature have taken place in our country. As such, the official respondents had to take steps to avoid and avert any breach of peace.

Mr Faril and Moulavi Haris stated that an application was made in January 2008, to the Bandaragama Pradeshiya Sabha (first respondent) for a development plan for a two-storey school on a plot of land. A permit was issued in March.

The ground floor was completed, but the rest was delayed due to a lack of finances. The school was started with 30 in-house students.

In 2015, the petitioners started building the first floor. Secretary to the Pradeshiya Sabha N.D.I. Swarna K. Perera (second respondent) then wrote to Mr Faril saying the development permit had lapsed and that a fresh one must be obtained. Her letter observed that the petitioners were installing a slab instead of a roof, in violation of the building plan.

The petitioners were also notified that residents had complained. In October 2015, Ms Perera convened a meeting attended by residents, representatives of the Jumma mosque and Buddhist monks.

The residents and the monks were mainly concerned that a mosquenot a dhamma schoolwas being constructed. The petitioners insisted that the building would be a school and not a mosque.

In exchange for issuing approval, Ms Perera called for a signed letter stating that the purpose of construction was for a school. The petitioners complained to Court they had no alternative but to sign the said letter. They pleaded that the letter included certain clauses that took away their FR.

In January 2016, an amended plan was submitted to the Pradeshiya Sabha and approved. But in February 2016, as the concrete slab was to be laid, Ms Perera served a letter on Mr Faril, through a senior police officer, directing him to suspend construction as residents and Buddhist monks had protested.

A discussion was held at the office of the Headquarters Inspector of Police in Panadura, attended by mosque representatives and Buddhist monks. The Senior Superintendent of Police informed them that facts would have to be reported to the Magistrate to prevent a breach of peace.

The proceedings were not instituted in the Magistrates Court as the residents were not present. The police then handed over a letter to Mr Faril to the effect that the construction was for the purpose of a place of worship and not for a school which cannot be done without proper approval, and requested the petitioner to stop construction work.

Attempts to continue construction through discussions with authorities did not succeed. Appearing for the petitioners, Faiz Mustapha, P.C., argued that direction to stop work was a violation of FR; was arbitrary, unreasonable and contrary to law; and caused irreparable loss and damage.

The petitioners had a permit to build a dhamma school for Muslims in Panadura and no proper reasons given why work should be halted. Mr Mustapha also maintained there was no law for the police to prevent construction work, as the petitioners had the necessary approvals from the Pradeshiya Sabha and its Secretary.

The Supreme Court granted leave to proceed in May 2016. Upul Kumarapperuma, Counsel for the Pradeshiya Sabha and its Secretary, submitted that, although approval was granted to erect a school, there were protests from residents and Buddhist monks. Several meetings were held.

Steps were taken to stop construction, owing to massive protests and to avoid a breach of peace that could spread to other areas.

In the context of the case in hand, I cannot conclude that the petitioners were denied equal protection of the law, Justice Gooneratne said, in his judgment.

Certainly, I cannot fathom as to whether there was a violation of the petitioners FR.

What is necessary is to avoid a crisis situation which could spread to other areas of our country, he asserted. No further reasons need to be adduced in the circumstances of the case in hand by the respondents.

The guarantee of equal protection of the law must mean protection of equal laws, he continued. Judicial decisions must of necessity depend on the facts and circumstances of each particular case, and what may superficially appear to be an unequal application of the law may not necessarily amount to a denial of equal protection of law, unless there is shown to be present in it an element of intentional and purposeful discrimination.

The acts of the respondents did not suggest any form of discrimination based on race, the judgment held. The material indicates a continuous protest, which authorities considered and gave due consideration to in deciding to suspend construction.

The petitioners had also not obtained approval from the Ministry of Religious Affairs to open the relevant dhamma school.
President Maithripala Sirisena will pay a three-day state visit to Bangladesh beginning July 13. He was originally to have gone there as chief guest for that countrys national day parade on March 26. This was after he concluded a visit to Russia. However, it was later put off.
SLMC asks Health Minister to extend Prof. Carlos tenure View(s):

Members of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) have written to Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne requesting that outgoing SLMC chairman Professor Carlo Fonseka be given a further extension to serve in the post.

The request came as Professor Fonsekas tenure as Chairman ended on Friday (30).

Council Member Dr. Upul Gunasekara told the Sunday Times that members of the SLMC had written to the Health Minister requesting that Prof. Fonseka be given another extension.

We believe he will be reappointed because he is deserving and energetic to hold the post. And we believe there is no replacement for him. He is an individual respected by everybody in the country, he said.

Prof. Carlo Fonseka was appointed SLMC Chairman in 2012 by then Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, and completed his five-year term last December. He was given a six-month extension which ended last Friday.

The request letter addressed to the Health Minister was signed by council members Dr. Upul Gunasekara, Dr. Chandana Atapattu, Dr. Susith Senaratne, Dr. S. Sivapriyan, Dr. Pushpitha Obeysiri, and Dr. Suresh Shanmuganathan.
Brass cast: The story of the Samadhi statue in the park View(s):

45 years on, Aloy Jayawardene a Roman Catholic who heeded the request of sculptor monk Ven. Dr.

Mapalagama Vipulasara Thera to create a brass cast for a Buddha statue to be placed at

Viharamahadevi park in 1972, presents a replica of it to President Maithripala Sirisena

The serene brass cast 15-foot statue of the Buddha that sits at the entrance to Viharamahadevi park against a backdrop of green opposite the Town Hall is one of the most well known in Colombo. Devotees stop by to offer flowers and pay obeisance and tourists photograph it from every angle. To mark 45 years since its installation on May 26, 1972, Aloy Jayewardene who did the brass casting of this largest brass cast Samadhi Buddha statue in the country presented a replica of the statue to President Maithripala Sirisena at his office.

It was the well known sculptor priest, Ven. Dr. Mapalagama Vipulasara Thera who created the moulds in concrete to have the statue cast in brass. When the big companies turned down the request, Ven. Mapalagama contacted Aloy Jayawardene who had his factory Metalrich in Wattala which did electroplating and brass sheet spinning and asked him to come over to his temple where he explained what was required and showed him a sketch of the statue.

Having examined the sketch and talked with the Ven. monk, the type of casting needed for the production of the statue was beyond my experience in brass casts. All what the Venerable Priest said was you are intelligent enough, kindly study, reading the required books and my kind request is that you should undertake this job for me, Mr. Jayewardene recalls.

I took this challenge and started. He financed me to put up an additional structure at my factory to house the work of the statue. Subsequently he gave 58 pieces of concrete moulds for the brass cast. By trial and error, I was finally successful to complete all 58 pieces moulded in brass and have them welded together. The Colombo Municipality sent a tractor to transport the brass casts to Viharamahadevi park, where Ven. Mapalagama put up a concrete pedestal to place the statue.

The statue was in two sections, the body and the head separately. We filled the body with sand as it was hollow and thereafter welded the head to the body. The final polishing and lacquering was done on the statue and it made ready for the opening on May 26, 1972, to commemorate Republic Day, Mr. Jayewardene recalls.

The distinguished gathering at the unveiling of the statue included President William Gopallawa, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, several ministers and Mayor of Colombo, Vincent Perera.

In October 1972, Mr. Jayewardene received a letter from the Prime Ministers Office informing him that he had been selected for the Leaders Invitation Programme from the Government of Japan. He had been the nominee from the private sector. Mr. Jayewardene recalls that he telephoned Ven. Mapalagama and was told that Mrs Bandaranaike had discussed the invitation with him at Temple Trees and he had recommended Mr. Jayewardene for this four-week programme.

The Government of Japan had arranged my complete programme for visits and study of major brass cast factories in Kyoto where large brass cast Buddha statues were made. This was a great exposure I had in brass castings.

On his return from Japan, there was another commission. Ven. Mapalagama asked Mr. Jayewardene to undertake another 10-foot brass cast statue of the Lord Buddha for the Pepiliyana temple.

I am extremely proud that as a Roman Catholic that late Ven. Dr. Mapalagama Vipulasara Thera had great confidence in me doing these two jobs for him, Mr. Jayewardene, who is Emeritus President of the Sri Lanka Chamber of Small and Medium Industries says. It was a great honour for me.
Free Education opened up my path: UNs new youth envoy By Shakya Wickramanayake Jayathma Wickramanayake will soon be off to New York to be officially sworn in View(s): View(s):

Jayathma Wickramanayake who has been appointed the United Nations Envoy on Youth, said, she was a testament to what a young Asian woman can achieve if shes empowered.

This is the message that I want to send across to other young women in the world, girls who are dreaming of becoming something big, if you have a will then you will have a way!, the 26-year-old who will be only the second to hold this position in the United Nations said.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced Jayathmas appointment as UN Youth Envoy on June 20. She will be replacing Ahmad Alhendawi of Jordan, who held the position since January 2013.

At a news conference on June 27 at the UN office in Colombo, Sri Lankas UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Una McCauley officially welcomed Jayathma and introduced her to the local media, saying it was an honour to introduce Jayathma as the Youth Envoy of the Secretary General of the UN, being both the representative of the UN in the island, as well as being a working woman herself.

Addressing the press, Jayathma said she was honoured and humbled to have been appointed, and thanked all those who aided her in a campaign for the position, including her family, in-laws, and her colleagues at the youth movement she co-founded, Hashtag Generation.

In a statement released to the press she made reference to the opportunities that were made available to me as a Sri Lankan. I am someone who benefitted from the Free Education system, from Grade 1  13 and then in university. So, Im very much obliged to the people of Sri Lanka for the opportunities that were given to me as a young woman from a rural area. I was born in Bentota and I initially schooled at Sangamiththa Vidyalaya in Aluthgama until the scholarship exams at which point I entered Visakha Vidyalaya and continued my education from there. These opportunities were made available to me by the people of Sri Lanka from the money of the tax payer and Im very much grateful to everyone that has contributed in creating my path up to this point in time.

From becoming the 1st ever UN Youth Delegate, to the negotiator of the UN Resolution that declared the World Youth Skills Day, now as the newly appointed UN Envoy on Youth to the Secretary-General, my journey has been truly wonderful, she said.

Her appointment was a result of the work done both here in Sri Lanka and internationally towards youth empowerment and development. Hashtag Generation advocates greater civic and political engagement among young people in Sri Lanka, and as a senator of the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament, her work has greatly impacted youth engagement in the public and civil spheres here. Internationally she has acted as one of the lead negotiators in the UN resolution that culminated in the creation of World Youth Skills Day. In addition, she advocated for the interest of the youth in global forums such as Rio+20 held in Brazil in 2012, the World Conference on Youth held in Sri Lanka in 2014 and the UN forum on post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.

With a bachelors degree from the University of Colombo and currently reading for a Masters in Development Science, Jayathma is attached to the Sri Lankan Administrative Service and was the former secretary to the Secretary General of the Sri Lankan Parliament. She will be officially sworn-in as the UN Youth Envoy later this month. For the next three years, she will hold the position and operate from New York City, where the office of the Youth Envoy is based. As Youth Envoy, her work will involve placing young people as a priority of the UN and ensuring their perspectives are reflected across the different pillars of the UN, as well as empowering the youth and leveraging their talents for the success of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
From the river Jordan to the Dead Sea By Sanjiva Wijesinha View(s): View(s):

This is Israel  the Holy Land considered sacred by Christians, Jews and Muslims, yet a land from which peace and goodwill seem so far removed.

This is the land where Jesus Christ lived and preached, the Promised Land (HaAretz HaMuvtahat) which Jews believe God gave to their patriarch Abraham and his descendants- and a land with a 17% Muslim population wherein lies Islams third holiest city.

Having spent the weekend exploring the city of Jerusalem, I decided to spend the next few days going further afield. Following the Six Day War of 1967, Israel captured the land on the west bank of the Jordan river from the Kingdom of Jordan  and Israels borders now extend from the Mediterranean coast on the west to the Jordan river on the east. At the south end of the river is the saltiest lake in the world, the Dead Sea, situated 423 metres below sea level (the earths lowest elevation on land). Towards the northern end of the river is the Sea of Galilee (actually a large freshwater lake) along the shores of which much of Jesus Christs ministry took place. Many of Jesus miracles  the feeding of the 5,000, calming the storm, walking on the water -were all supposed to have taken place here.

From Jerusalem, it takes about two hours to travel to Yardennit, one of the traditional sites along the Jordan River where Christian pilgrims come to be baptised just as Jesus himself was baptised in this river at a place called Qasr-el Yahud.While visiting Yardennit I was impressed by the Wall of New Life which consisted of about 40 panels of beautifully hand-painted Armenian tiles. Each panel carries the Bible verse describing the baptism of Jesus in a different language, from the tribal tongues of West Africa to the Roman script of modern European languages to the unique scripts of Asia. I was very pleased to see here the panel donated by a Sri Lankan couple carrying the verse in Sinhalese script!

The area where Jesus spent most of his short life was on the western shores of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee  places like Nazareth where he spent his boyhood, Tabgha (where the feeding of five thousand people took place), the Mount of the Beatitudes (where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, probably his best known discourse) and Caphernaum (which has the ruins of an ancient fourth century synagogue).

It was peaceful walking along the shore  and even stepping into the water  of the Sea of Galilee  and in particular absorbing the view of the sea from the Mount, where now stands the beautiful Church of the Beatitudes.

Having seen the lowest freshwater lake in the world in Galilee, I set off the following day to see the worlds lowest salt water lake, the Dead Sea at the southern end of the Jordan River. The water here is about ten times as salty as the ocean  the salt concentration being so high that one cannot sink in this water. One can peacefully float in the water and look across at the mountains of Jordan on the opposite shore (as I did) and apply the therapeutic black mud from the sea bed on ones body (which I did not!). The high salinity precludes any plants and animals from living in these waters  hence the name Dead Sea.

The mineral content of the water, the therapeutic reputation of Dead Sea mud and the low content of pollens and other allergens in the region have made this an important centre for health research.

On my trip to the Dead Sea, I was keen to visit the famous UNESCO Wold Heritage site of Masada the isolated plateau of rock upon which the Jewish King Herod the Great built a fortified palace during the first century BCE. I could not help drawing comparison to King Kasyapas fifth century palace atop Sigiriya.

The archaeological ruins of Masada were fascinating  but what is more significant about this place is the story of the Siege of Masada.

During the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans that began in the year 66 CE, a group of Jewish rebels, the Sicarii, fled to King Herods former palace atop Masada and took refuge there. Over time more Jewish refugees and rebels arrived until Masada was harbouring some 900 Jews who had fled the Romans at which time the Roman governor decided to lay siege to the place. The rebels held out for almost three years, but in April 73 the Romans, having built a siege ramp, finally succeeded in breaching the walls and entering the citadel. When they entered, however, they made a horrifying discovery: the Jewish rebels trapped and with nowhere to escape to from the top of the citadel had, rather than be captured by the Romans, all killed themselves  preferring a glorious death to a life of infamy and slavery.

Masada has become a symbol of sacrifice and resistance for modern Israel  strengthening the peoples resolve that there shall never be another Masada, that Jewish people will never be subjugated again.

Masada is a haunting place  made all the more poignant because of its associated history and legends.

For more information, check https://new.goisrael.com/area/galilee

For an aerial video view of Masada, seehttps://vimeo.com/134929132
Dry food donation for flood victims View(s):

A large quantity of packets of dry food to be distributed among flood-affected people was handed over by Kandy Hotels Company Vice President Ranjan Peiris to Central Province Governor Niluka Ekanayake and Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake. The donation was made on the instructions of Sanjeev Gardiner, the Group Chairman of the Galleface Hotel Management, after a request was made by the Ven. Mahanayakes of the Asgiriya and Malwathu Chapters.
Lankas Rakitha, Senel win Queens Honours for changing the world View(s):

Britain Queen Elizabeth II presented young people from Sri Lanka with a Queens Young Leaders Award at Buckingham Palace, to honour Rakitha Malewana and Senel Wanniarachchi for their work in the fields of HIV/AIDS and social engagement. Prince Harry joined the Queen in congratulating the winners at this special ceremony.

The Queens Young Leaders Awards programme, now in its third year, celebrates the achievements of some of the most exciting young change-makers from across the Commonwealth, who are dedicated to transforming lives in their communities. From tackling bullying head-on in schools, to preserving the environment, to promoting gender equality, these young people are taking the lead in driving change in their communities.

Guests including Sir Mo Farah, Liam Payne, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and Anita Rani and former UK Prime Minister and Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, Sir John Major, joined the latest cohort of Queens Young Leaders at Buckingham Palace to congratulate them on their remarkable achievements.

The celebrations continued after the ceremony at Australia House in London, where the award winners, guests including Australian comedian and presenter, Adam Hills, and Prince Harry came together to help launch the search for the final Queens Young Leaders.

Speaking at the ceremony, Prince Harry said: At home and abroad, I see people  especially young people doing incredible thingsThey are creative and innovative, and most importantly, they are committed to making the world a better, more optimistic, and compassionate place. Thats why I am honoured to welcome this years award winners here tonight. The Queens Young Leaders award recognises what these incredible young people have achieved  not for themselves, but for others  for their peers, for their communities, for their environment, and for those less fortunate.

Sir Mo Farah said: Its so great to be here with the Queens Young Leaders today! Their passion and dedication to helping peoples lives in their home countries is amazing. You can really see how much change these young people have made through their hard work and they absolutely deserve this honour.

Liam Payne said: Meeting the Queens Young Leaders today as they receive their Award from The Queen has been amazing. Its really inspiring to meet people my age doing such important work to help people in the ways they are. Its an honour to be part of their celebration.

Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer said: I am delighted to welcome these exceptional young people from 36 Commonwealth countries to Australia House this evening. The leadership these talented Queens Young Leaders have shown, and the lasting difference they are making in their communities, is inspiring.

Im particularly proud that this year there are three Queens Young Leaders from Australia. I look forward to celebrating the achievements of all of the Queens Young Leaders this evening.Sri Lanka Award Winner Rakitha Malewana, said: Its such a huge honour to receive an award from Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of the work to help others at home. Its been an amazing week here in the UK, meeting all of the other Leaders  Ive learnt so much and I cant wait to put it all into practice. Being part of the Queens Young Leaders family is really exciting and Im looking forward to seeing what the future now holds.

The Queens Young Leaders programme was established in 2014 to help talented young leaders to realise their potential and achieve even greater success in the future that will benefit peoples lives across the Commonwealth for generations to come.As part of the Awards programme, Queens Young Leaders, including Sri Lankas Rakitha Malewana and Senel Wanniarachchi, gain unique access to training, mentoring and networking designed to improve their leadership skills.

Ahead of receiving their awards from the Queen, this years award winners attended a reception at 10 Downing Street, visited UK headquarters of global social media company Facebook, and met with senior executives at the BBC World Service. They also met the Commonwealth Secretary-General, took part in workshops at the University of Cambridge, had meetings with UK business leaders, and visited projects that are changing the lives of vulnerable people in the UK.

The search for the 2018 Queens Young Leaders is now on and applications are invited. If you or someone you know is doing exceptional work in their community apply or nominate them at www.queensyoungleaders.com
WATERFORD  Four local teens are getting a lesson in compassion and civics after pictures of them vandalizing decorations at a park went viral on social media and led police to them.

Village staff had just placed two super-sized Adirondack chairs in Village Hall Park along the Fox River where they were waiting to be painted by local artists. But just a week later, four local high school students defaced them.

We received an anonymous tip on social media, Waterford Police Chief Matt Johnson said. We identified all four teens after they posted pictures on their Facebook accounts.

The four boys, who are entering school in the fall as seniors, carved their names into the wood arm chairs, snapped photos and posted them June 23, Johnson said.

At least one passersby posted photos of the teens standing on the chairs during the alleged vandalism.

Waterford resident Dan Bowser was shocked and disappointed to see the chairs vandalized in a post his wife ran across on Facebook.

It was four Waterford High School youth who carved their names on the chairs in broad daylight, Bowser said.

Bowsers son, Josh, raised the money and created the chairs for an Eagle Scout project in partnership with the village. Bowser was able to talk to a parent of one of the teens who declined to talk to The Journal Times.

We talked to them about how to make amends. We discussed having the boys apologize to the village and figure out appropriate community service with them, Bowser said.

Village response

Village President Jim Schneider said he agreed with the village not seeking charges after the boys came forward.

Kids do stupid stuff at that age. It was reported to the police and the parents jumped right in, Schneider said. My view of it was this is a good lesson for the kids and the parents stepped up and said, you guys did something bad and were going to fix this. At the same time you dont want them to have a juvenile record.

The teens and their parents came back the next day and sanded the damage off of the chairs. That pleasantly surprised Bowser.

The chairs were a gift to the community and the result of dozens of individuals efforts and donations, not just us, so it seemed appropriate that this be worked out through the village, Bowser said.

Waterford Village Administrator Rebecca Ewald met with the three of the four students and their parents first thing in the Monday morning after the incident, at their request.

They came in to meet with me because they wanted to talk about what happened. They apologized for what happened, Ewald said. We want to see them do good things. Hopefully this will encourage them to do something good for the village.

Ewald is working out some community service for the boys to get more involved with the community.

The students are going to come and meet with our Public Works and Utilities Committee to talk with them about some ideas for improvement they could make into the park, Ewald said. Its a brainstorming session.

The teens will also get a lesson in how local government works as any plans would be approved by the Village Board, Ewald said.

Chief Johnson said the teens could have faced fines.

We would have cited them under the village ordinance, Johnson said. Because the village was satisfied with the repairs and their apologies, it was requested that they not be cited. This is not the normal outcome, but a very good outcome. They stood up and took responsibility for their actions.

Expression rock

As a way of preventing this from happening again, Bowser presented the village with an idea for a designated place in the park for people to add their names, initials and writings if they feel so compelled.

To keep this type of thing from happening is to have some type of expression rock or wall where people can write their appropriate thoughts. It could be whitewashed once or twice a year to clean the slate, Bowser said.

Ewald said the proposal was presented, but it hasnt been discussed within the village or to elected officials.

Ewald said Village officials consider the vandalism an isolated incident and dont plan to rope off the chairs or otherwise restrict access.

The plan is to continue wearing the wood to prepare it for painting.

Volunteers from Absolutely Waterford, the local chamber of commerce, will oversee a call for artists to paint the chairs, creating a public art piece as well as functional seating. Two artists will be chosen to do the work over the winter.

For more details on the art project, go to www.waterfordwi.org.
Australian sexploitation expert Melinda Tankard Reist is bringing her message about the link between pornography and violence to Bay parents, educators and youth next week

Melinda is co-founder of the grassroots campaign Collective Shout which exposes corporations, advertisers and marketers who objectify women and sexualise girls to sell their products and services.

Her trip to Tauranga is organised by local tech company Safe Surfer which is also passionate about reducing the harm pornography is causing in society.

Safe Surfer founder Rory Birkbeck believes Melindas message is an important one for local families that needs to be heard.

Melinda is one of the worlds best presenters on the damage advertisers and pornography can do to our youth and she has a huge ability to shift our current highly-sexualised youth culture.

Her Collective Shout campaign generated momentum in Australia that forced some of the biggest retail brands to withdraw inappropriate products and axe commercials thanks to sheer public pressure.

A free lecture for parents and educators entitled Too Sexy Too Soon: what media, internet, marketing and pop culture are teaching your children and what you can do about it will be held at 7pm, Wednesday, July 5 at Lifezone Church, 7 Oak Lane, Judea.

Melinda will also speak to 1500 Bay teenagers at organised school and youth group events where shell deliver the same message tailored to a younger audience.

Her message directly to Bay school students will be equally as powerful. Pornography, the internet and sexualised advertising have a direct impact on the way youth view their own self-image, love and relationships.
Taurangas fifth Seriously Good Food Show has everything for anyone looking for something a little bit different in food.

The main thing is the quality of exhibitors has changed, says exhibition manager Dana McCurdy.

We have a far greater variety, and the quality of the product people are selling. Its things you just wont find in your normal supermarket.

Its really worthwhile coming to the actual show because you get to see and taste products that you would never find anywhere else.

There are demonstrations, samples and cook-offs.

Ruahine Port is always very popular. Its probably for me the best port in New Zealand, but thats just my personal opinion, says Dana.

Also West Indies Spices, they havent been back in a couple of years. They are loving it and they have a huge crowd around them because they do the yummiest spices.

Art Green and Matilda Rice, the couple from The Bachelor NZ, are also battling it out over mince recipes, with the public judging the winner.

The Seriously Good Food Show is on at ASB Stadium from 10am to 5pm today.




















Kia ora, and welcome to your midwinter Sunday.

Its starting to get fairly cold at night, and not too pleasant during the day, which means finding ways to stay entertained indoors can be a chore,

However, food fans can rejoice, because today is the second and final day of the Seriously Good Food Show.

Held at ASB Arena Baypark from 10am-5pm, the expo showcases all the best new foods to try and buy. Designed with good taste in mind, the Seriously Good Food Show hosts displays and exhibits from some of New Zealands top food and drink producers with live cooking seminars, lots of tastings, and unique products. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids.

If feeding your soul is more your thing, then we have a range of spiritual events on, including A Course in Miracles, Bay Bible Fellowship, Bible Seminars, Quakers in Tauranga, Spiritual Healing, and the Tauranga Theosophical Society. Theyre on most weeks, discussing a range of spiritual and religious views, and will no doubt welcome any open-minded people to join them.

Check out the details of these and todays other events below:

WHATS ON  Sunday, July 2:

A Course In Miracles

Loving solutions for unloving situations. Join a spirited discussion on the application of Miracle principles in the Backbenches Room, Grindz Cafe, 50 First Ave. 12:30 Coffee and chat. 1:00 Discussion: eft. healing the body by healing the mind.Trans religious. Donation appreciated.

Bay Bible Fellowship/Lords Day

Join us for our Worship service at Welcome Bay Primary School Hall, 309 Welcome Bay road. 10.00am. 1 Peter 3:13-17. Pastor Lincoln Forlong. All welcome. Visit us at www.bbf.net.nz

Bible Seminars

Asa King of Israel - God can save Interactive, Q & A. All welcome. Refreshments provided. Sunday 1:45pm at Greerton Senior Citizens Hall, Maitland St Vic 543 0504

Croquet

Every Sun, Tues & Fri at Tauranga Domain, Cameron Rd 12.45pm. Beginners welcome. Peter 571 0633

Czech and Slovak Club Tauranga

Czech School & Playgroup. Guests welcome! Tauranga Boys College, 10am - 12noon, Devonport Rd, More info: https://www.csclubtauranga.nz/en/

Papamoa Lions Club Market

Gordon Spratt Reserve, Parton Rd, Papamoa. Gates open 7am for stall holder entry. Wayne 027 974 5699

Quakers in Tauranga

In hall behind Brain Watkins House, cnr Elizabeth St/Cameron Rd 10am for an hour of mainly silent worship followed by tea/coffee & talk. 544 0448 www.quaker.org.nz

Radio Controlled Model Yachts

Meet Sun 1.30pm & Thurs 1.30pm at pond behind 24 Montego Drive, Papamoa to sail Electron & similar 3ft long yachts, for fun. Adult beginners welcome. Graham 572 5419

Spiritual Healing Centre

The Psychic Cafe. Bringing you over 25 of the Bays top Psychics, Healers and Spiritualists in a cafe style environment. One off fee of $10 and from there everything is FREE. Greerton Community Hall, Greerton Tga. Doors open 6.45pm for 7pm start. Ph 07 578 7205 or www.psychiccafe.nz

Sunday Funday

Games & activities for the whole family at Greerton Aquatic & Leisure Centre 12-3pm. Parents & caregivers are welcome & encouraged to participate. BBQ hire $15.

Tauranga Organ & Keyboard Society

Carmel Country Estate Social Centre, 11 Hollister Lane, Ohauiti, Tauranga at 1.30pm. Listen to, or play the Organ EL900, or the Clavinova 405. Contact June 574-2204.

Tauranga Theosophical Society.

Join us for a look at Krishnamurti & some of his messages. All welcome, entry by donation. Tauranga Yoga Center, 2pm. Phone 577 6042.

The Seriously Good Food Show

1 & 2 July 10am - 5pm, ASB Baypark Arena. Over 130 exhibitors, see where your food comes, meet the producers face-to-face, new and exciting products to try, gluten-free, nut-free, vegetarian, paleo  or just hungry. Adults $10.00 Children 13 & Under $5.00
Members of the public will have the chance to find out more about the cyber currency bitcoin at a special presentation next week.

The Bay of Plenty Linux User Group will be hosting the presentation by bitcoin enthusiast Uli Fuerst on Tuesday evening.

Hell be discussing where people can use bitcoins in New Zealand, and how to go about buying them.

Bitcoin is very useful for buying online. I have a few myself, but Im not what you would call a trader or investor, says Uli.

The session is about informing people of the pitfalls as well. Bitcoin has recently had a bit of a bad name, due to the WannaCry ransomware attack. But ransomware has been around for 20 years. Like anything, it can be used for criminal activity.

The cyber currency was created around nine years ago, and has gone from being worth a fraction of a dollar to NZ$3500 per bitcoin.

It fluctuates depending on demand, so I wouldnt recommend investing in it for monetary gain  theres a high risk involved.

Group member and default secretary Robert Taylor says the small group of Linux users have been meeting every month at the LJ Hooker offices on Cameron Rd.

Hes a big fan of Linux, which is a free operating system for computers, chosen as an alternative to Microsoft Windows.

I dont understand why more people dont use Linux. Its free and safe  Ive never had a virus  and many big institutions use Linux, he says.

The monthly meeting of the Bay of Plenty Linux User Group is on at 7pm, Tuesday, July 4 at the LJ Hooker offices on the corner of Cameron Rd and 8th Avenue.

For more information call Robert on 578 6024.
BNZ staff members are about to get stuck into it for the local community volunteering event.



The Closed for Good project, which is New Zealands largest corporate volunteering day, is an event where all BNZs close for a day on Wednesday, August 23, to help out community organisations across New Zealand.

Bay of Plenty BNZs had 121 staff members volunteering for 22 different community projects suggested to them by the public last year.

Some of the suggestions supplied to them included: maintenance at the Papamoa Playcentre, beautification of grounds at the Waipuna Hospice, cleaning the Whakatane Kiwi Trust, painting the Opotiki SPCA, and clearing vines from the foreshore at Cooney Reserve, Omokoroa.

BNZ chief executive Anthony Healy says staff look forward to Closed for Good and the opportunity to get out in the community and help those who need it.

This is the eighth time we have run Closed for Goodand its always hugely exciting to see all the different project submissions come in. The day reflects the great Kiwi reputation for mucking in and helping out.

We used our peoples specialised skills when it came to areas like budgeting, business planning and financial literacy, as well as the good, old fashioned Kiwi skills of DIY and ingenuity.

We still have people in the business who are just as excited to get involved as when it first started. Its a very rewarding day and as all staff have a second day to use for volunteering purposes we often find Closed for Good becomes the catalyst for conversations around how we can support a community on a longer term basis.

Submissions for this years project close on July 7.
RACINE  A Racine man has been arrested and charged with four misdemeanors after allegedly admitting to breaking into a gum machine and candy machine on Gateway Technical Colleges campus in June.

Trevon Bunck, 18, of the 3700 block of Washington Ave., faces two counts of misdemeanor theft and two counts of misdemeanor bail jumping. Bunck allegedly broke into a gum machine on June 3 and a candy machine on June 26, stealing about $50 combined.

According to the criminal complaint:

Bunck was identified via closed-circuit camera footage that showed him allegedly committing the crime on June 26. Racine police officers located Bunck on June 29 and arrested him in the 900 Block of Center Street.

Bunck said he was not enrolled at Gateway, but a Gateway student allegedly showed him how to break into the machines.

Bunck said that he spent the money on a can of formula for his child, a pack of cigarettes and marijuana.

Bunck made his initial appearance in court Friday. Records show his bond was set at $250 cash and he has a status conference scheduled for Aug. 29.

He remained in custody as of Friday night at the County Jail.
RACINE  Two local men, who allegedly shot at each other following a June 3 bar fight, have been charged with a pair of felonies.

Joshua Martin, 26, of the 3500 block of 17th Street, and Kelly Oliver Jr., 29, of the 4200 block of Marquette Drive, allegedly shot at each other after they left BJWs Ultra Lounge, 1301 Washington Ave., following a fight on June 3.

Both Martin and Oliver face charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

BJWs Ultra Lounge owner Michael Winston was questioned about the incident at a recent city Public Safety and Licensing Committee meeting.

According to the criminal complaint:

Oliver drove to the bar to pick up his brother and saw him fighting someone. Oliver came to his brothers aid and punched the person his brother was fighting, which prompted Martin to punch Oliver.

Martin allegedly grabbed his gun while he and Oliver were fighting and shot at Oliver as he ran away. Oliver ran to his car and grabbed his gun to shoot back at Martin.

Oliver allegedly tracked down the man with whom his brother had originally been fighting with and allegedly shot him in the buttocks twice.

Multiple people and cars were in the area during the shooting, according to police. Once vehicle had three bullet holes in it, investigators said, while a nearby business had another bullet recovered inside.

Both Martin and Oliver made their initial appearances in court Friday, court records show. Records show that both men had their respective bonds set at $10,000 cash.

They will both next appear for their preliminary hearings on July 5. they remained in custody at the County Jail as of Friday night.
A largely used pesticide's detrimental effects on bees has been controversial with manufacturing companies claiming that previous studies had been conducted in artificial conditions. The largest field study ever conducted on neonicotinoid pesticides (neonics) show that they are, in fact, harmful to bees.

However, the detrimental effects that were observed in most countries were less apparent in German bee colonies.

Largest Field Study

A large study that spans across three European countries monitored 33 sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Hungary, focusing on honeybees and two types of wild bees, the Bombus terrestris and Osmia bicornis.

What researchers did was to monitor the 33 sites in the three countries, all strategically placed near large fields of canola. Some fields were treated with a combination of neonic pesticides and a standard fungicide, while the other fields were treated with the fungicide but without the neonic pesticide.

What researchers found was that the bee populations that were placed close to fields treated with neonic pesticides showed lower reproductive success and slimmer survival chances in the winter.

Specifically, the bee colonies in Hungary showed a 24 percent decrease in colony size, while colonies in the UK showed generally low colony survival rates, but were lowest in areas where bees fed on the clothianidin treated oilseed rape the previous year.

However, the bee colonies in Germany showed no specific detrimental effects even with neonic exposure, and in fact yielded more eggs and more larvae, and were practically free from parasites.

Opposing Results

Results of the study published in the journal Science are quite interesting as they showed detrimental effects on the bees in the United Kingdom and Hungary, and seemingly opposite results in the colonies in Germany.

Researchers aren't exactly stumped by these results, and in fact believe that this discrepancy could explain the inconsistent results from previous studies. Apart from possibly having other unknown factors, which contribute to bee colony health, they believe that the difference in results may lie in the bees' environment.

In the UK and in Hungary, about 40 to 50 percent of the colony's pollen was collected from canola, while only 10 percent of the pollen in German colonies was collected from the crop. Because of this, researchers believe that a large factor in the bees' vulnerability is their dependency on pesticide-treated crops.

In the UK and in Hungary where the wildflower population has gone down due to modern farming, the bees' dependence on pesticide-treated crops is higher, whereas the German colonies are likely to be exposed to more diverse food sources.

It is perhaps worth noting that this research was partly funded by pesticide manufacturers Bayer and Syngenta. Even so, the researchers were said to have operated independently, and because of the results, they believe that the case on neonics effect on the bee population remains inconclusive and requires further research.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A research published in the journal Science Advances reveals that a temple in Gobekli Tepe may have served as a gathering place for a Neolithic "skull cult" thousands of years ago.

Archaeologists from the German Archaeological Institute excavated thousands of bones in the 12,000-year-old temple and confirmed that about 700 bone fragments belong to humans but more than 300 of the fragments came from skulls.

According to the researchers, only three of the skull fragments had actually been modified with deep incisions, but stone carvings and other artworks also excavated in the temple depict an eerie fascination with human heads, especially decapitated ones.

Human Skull Modifications

As mentioned above, only three of the partial bone fragments found in the excavation site showed evidence of intentional deep incision, but the sheer number of confirmed human skull fragments already offer a glimpse of burial or cult practices at work.

In fact, one of the modified skull fragment had a small hole drilled through it and contained traces of red ochre pigment  the same pigmentation used for religious rituals and cave paintings. According to anthropologist and team member Julia Gresky, the holes and grooves would allow someone to place a cord around the skull and jaw and suspend it as a complete object.

The researchers confirmed that the markings were made using flint tools after employing the latest microscopy techniques to rule out animal activity and natural processes. Just to be clear, whoever made the markings did not wait for bodies to decay and reach the bone stage. Flint tools were actually used to remove the flesh from the skull, which really makes one hope that none of the skull owners were incorrectly pronounced dead.

"They're deep incisions, but not nicely done. Someone wanted to make a cut, but not in a decorative way," Anthropologist and team member Julia Gresky said.

The intention for the grooves and holes are not really clear yet, but various artworks in and around the temple seem to head toward the "skull cult" hypothesis.

Stone Carvings And Decapitation

Stone carvings also offer insight about the ancient tribes' interest in severed heads.

Two of stone carvings researchers shared depict figures carrying a human head like an offering, while a stone statue of what seems to be a human figure was intentionally decapitated, as seen in the photos below.

Gary Rollefson, an archaeologist from Whitman College in Washington who was not involved in the study, expressed his interest in the find but also hope to further their understanding of the mysterious site.

"It's nice to find this stuff, but it would be nice to understand it, too," Rollefson said.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
People are gearing up for another festive 4th of July celebration, but while many would be enjoying setting off fireworks, combat veterans who actually had a part in maintaining the freedom could be suffering from anxiety inside their homes.

While Independence Day is a big cause for celebration, everyone should remember to be considerate of veterans whose Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms could be triggered by the sound of exploding fireworks.

This is because the loud explosive sounds, sudden flashes of light, and the smell of gunpowder in the air are similar to what combat veterans experience in a war environment, so it is easy for their stress and anxiety levels to shoot up. It's also not that easy to relieve an anxiety attack once triggered.

No One Is Trying To Stop The Festivities

Some people may see a sign on combat veterans' homes that reads "Combat Veteran Lives Here: Please Be Courteous with Fireworks," but it should be clear to everyone that they are not stopping anyone from celebrating the national holiday.

"I wouldn't ask anybody to limit it because it's a celebration of freedom. And that's what we fight for is freedom," Joe Schneider, a Vietnam War Veteran said.

What combat veterans are asking of people is mostly to give them a "heads up" before setting off loud fireworks so they can mentally prepare themselves in order to avoid triggering their PTSD.

"All we're wanting people to do is to be aware that ... fireworks can be a real trigger for us ... [We] want you to enjoy the holiday. But those fireworks people shoot off at 2 or 3 in the morning? Please don't do that," Kevin Haynes, a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran expressed.

Combat Veterans And PTSD

War movies have romanticized what it means to be a combat soldier in the middle of a war, but real combat veterans can attest that the stress and anxiety arising from that chaotic period is a heavy burden.

When triggered, PTSD can cause flashbacks, anxiety, insomnia, and agitation, among others, and could even be dangerous for people around them if the affected veteran's muscle memory causes them to reach for a weapon and defend themselves.

"Have some consideration for people ... We're not a bunch of crazy old men out there. We're tired. We don't want to bring that back up again," Iraq veteran Dan Cardwell appeals.

Studies have also shown that PTSD can re-emerge after several years, therefore, just because a combat veteran neighbor seems stable does not mean they won't experience an anxiety attack. A little consideration really goes a long way.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A paradise, on paper

As three of the countrys seven provinces waded into a damp and wet, second-phase of the local level elections, I had the opportunity to closely follow the campaigns and electioneering in the cities of Province One, where I am based.
"It is not the role of military commanders to comment on the political process, much less on the performance of republican institutions," Gleisi Hoffmann pointed out. | Read More
A remarkable history of the Ranas

The perception that the past is a series of linear events, a sort of cause-and-effect, distorts our understanding of how history unfolds.
Barely a flicker

Another Eid, and like clockwork, theres another Salman Khan biggie out on screens. This time, the star has reteamed with director Kabir Khanthe man who had helmed two of the actors more recent hits in the form of 2012s Ek Tha Tiger and 2015s Bajrangi Bhaijaanto bring to us the new Tubelight
A student types on a laptop after finishing a cursive lesson in Gen Bentley's third-grade class at Bannockburn Elementary School, September 23, 2011. The students learn both cursive handwriting and typing. (Keri Wiginton/Chicago Tribune/MCT)
LATEST: Andrew Bice's employer in Mandeville said he had stolen ATVs, believed he was on the run before shooting San Antonio officer.

ORIGINAL STORY

A man who killed himself after mortally wounding a Texas police officer on Thursday had previously been booked into St. Tammany Parish Jail on 30 different counts over a 9-year period, an official confirmed.

Andrew Bice, listed on Facebook as being from Abita Springs, died after firing on two officers investigating a vehicle break-in. Bice, 34, was booked as recently as January in St. Tammany for cruelty to a juvenile, and also has past bookings for counts of kidnapping and hit and run.

San Antonio officers Miguel Moreno and Julio Cavazos had arrived to question Bice and one other person about a vehicle break-in when Bice opened fire as they stepped out of their patrol car, police said. Moreno was shot in the head and later died. Cavazos underwent surgery after he was shot and is expected to recover, police Chief William McManus said during a news conference on Friday.

Gunman who killed San Antonio officer possibly came from Louisiana, chief says A police officer in San Antonio died Friday of wounds suffered when he and his partner were 

"I'm at a loss to describe what a tragedy this is," McManus said.

Bice was shot in the buttocks during the exchange of gunfire as he attempted to flee, and then suffered a fatal, self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. McManus said the second man was unaware Bice was going to pull a weapon.

The chief added at the time that he believed Bice had traveled from Louisiana. Bice was confirmed to have been an employee for a car wash in Mandeville, although it was unclear whether he was still employed at the time of the shooting.

Below are dates and criminal charges via STPSO

Aug. 7, 2008 : disturbing the peace, resisting an officer, simple criminal damage to property (two charges), second-degree kidnapping, aggravated criminal damage, simple burglary, contempt of court

: disturbing the peace, resisting an officer, simple criminal damage to property (two charges), second-degree kidnapping, aggravated criminal damage, simple burglary, contempt of court March 23, 2009 : contempt of court, simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling

: contempt of court, simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling July 1, 2009 : aggravated criminal damage, contempt of court, simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling, second-degree kidnapping, simple criminal damage to property, unauthorized entry to an inhabited dwelling

: aggravated criminal damage, contempt of court, simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling, second-degree kidnapping, simple criminal damage to property, unauthorized entry to an inhabited dwelling March 15, 2015 : operating a vehicle while intoxicated, improper lane use, driving under suspension, no proof of insurance and expired license plate

: operating a vehicle while intoxicated, improper lane use, driving under suspension, no proof of insurance and expired license plate Oct. 9, 2015 : probation violation

: probation violation Dec. 28, 2015 : second-degree kidnapping, aggravated criminal damage and simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling

: second-degree kidnapping, aggravated criminal damage and simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling Sept. 13, 2016 : improper lane use, no driver's license on person, aggravated flight from an officer

: improper lane use, no driver's license on person, aggravated flight from an officer Nov. 21, 2016 : hit and run

: hit and run Jan. 20, 2017: cruelty to a juvenile

It's unclear whether Bice was convicted on any of the above counts.

Shelia Landry, who claimed she was Bice's fiancee, told KSAT12 that he had been on the run, and was afraid of going back to jail. According to the report, Bice's mother, Terri Lopez, said Landry was not engaged to her son.

Landry said Bice had a drug problem, and that she knew he would display his weapon in an altercation, according to the report. Bice's mother said she had last spoken with him on Tuesday morning before he disappeared.

Something spooked him to make him leave, Lopez said in the report, adding that her husband told him some guns had gone missing from their home. I thought he took those to sell for cash.

Check back for more.

For the full KSAT report, click here.
I am in one of those seasons that many of us who are three score years old have to deal with. More and more of our friends and loved ones are 
Cabinet expansion likely next week

The much-anticipated Cabinet expansion has been further delayed after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba failed to balance a power equation both within the Nepali Congress as well as the ruling coalition.
IT'S A DRAW!!

Shaw's kick from defence is pinged for being deliberate, Tuohy takes the free kick and hits up Hawkins!!

The siren sounds and from a sharp angle in the pocket, Hawkins misses to the right!
The world has changed.

Change is ever afoot, of course, but in this past week something happened that was both unprecedented and enormous, those two words somehow too spindly and inadequate to convey the extent to which this particular event deeply, intimately rearranged the globe on its customary axis.

Social scientists will puzzle for years over what might have triggered things.

Was it climate change? Is it possible that the creeping fingers of warmth tickling the animal kingdom in its innermost parts (waking marmots early from hibernation, and playing hell with the flight schedule of the arctic tern) could also have brought about this entirely unanticipated aberration in human behaviour?
Then they compete to see who can build the most spectacular, most delicious cake in a particular theme  it might be a Spongebob theme, or a Powerpuff Girls theme (a particularly distressing cake-war. I don't want to go into details, but let's just say it involved brown-sugar spice-cake with a mac 'n' cheese filling. For many of us, the grief is still too raw).

Cake Wars is an American TV series where contestants gather in a big purple kitchen and prepare for battle, dressed in protective kevlar combat-aprons, and armed with nothing but spatulas, wooden spoons and those crinkle-effect wheel-tools that can prove deadly in a fondant-decorating skirmish.

Watching all that war can do your head in, so if it's getting too much, you should flip over to another SBS channel and watch a much sweeter, fluffier and moister kind of war  Cake Wars. The perfect blend of hostile armed conflict and baked desserts.

SBS news can break your heart. It's pretty much nothing but war. War in Iraq. War in Afghanistan. War in Syria, which is about 17 different wars going on at the same time, with the government fighting rebels, and rebels fighting ISIS, and ISIS fighting Kurds, and Kurds fighting the government, and somehow at the end of it, Hezbollah turns out to be its own grandpa.

Once the cakes are baked, a table of judges examine and taste-test each one then pronounce one contestant the Cake War winner, while the defeated cake warriors must slink away in shame, wondering if their cola and artichoke frosting was a tactical military error, and whether they'll be charged with frosting-atrocities at the Cake-War-Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. But nobody ever dies in a Cake War, nobody suffers in a Cake War, there are never any Cake War injuries apart from the slow, long-term sugar-related deterioration of the outer enamel layer of the judges' teeth.

Cake Wars is a vision of how all wars should be fought. It would be a much better world if people only cake-fought each other. ISIS could bake a delicious syrupy baklava, carved into the shape of an Islamic Caliphate. And the US could challenge them with a light, fluffy Captain America cake, from a Betty Crocker packet-mix. Then the Kurds could strike with a lemon curd tart  just tangy enough to make it a real showstopper.

And the winner could be decided by a jury made up of representatives from the United Nations, and also the Country Women's Association. If war could be like that, I'd happily go and fight, armed with a recipe for my mother's famous airplane-shaped birthday cake with wings that actually poke out in the air, so it's 3 per cent cake, 97 per cent support-toothpicks.

And in decades to come, the only war veterans would be gnarly, battle-scarred bakers, hanging out in RSL Clubs, reminiscing about the time they used a hair-dryer to save a split Italian buttercream, or revealing their painful struggles with PTSD and how they still jump under a table every time they hear the spinning beaters on a KitchenAid stand mixer.

Or sneering at the other war vet sitting alone in a corner: the one who served on the other SBS series, Cupcake Wars. "Hey cupcake!" they'll yell across to him. "You think baking a couple of salted-caramel 'n' pecan cupcakes is a war? We carved a whole Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle out of rice cereal treats! You hear me? Now that was a real war!"
Bujarri Gamurruwa 

That's g'day (or perhaps something more formal) in the Gadigal language of the Eora nation. We greet our readers this way to mark NAIDOC week, the annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, in the year of the 50th anniversary of the referendum which was the first step in recognising the rights of Aboriginal Australians.

The Gadigal inhabited the land where Sydney's CBD now stands, as well as surrounding areas to the east and south. This sweep of territory may have been called Gadi or Cadi by its Indigenous owners, although the precise meaning of that word is a subject of some doubt.

That doubt is significant. Language binds a culture together. It is not just a means of communication, but a community's entire way of thinking. When it is gone, swept away by colonisation, along with almost all the Gadigal people, much more than words is lost. Scholars can try to reconstruct the first language of the Sydney region, but it will be conjecture. The evidence comes not from living speakers, but from notebooks written down by European observers in the early years of the settlement.

Colonisers know that language has this power. Throughout history, groups who have sought to dominate others have started by banning local languages. It undermines culture, and destroys identity. Colonisers from Europe and elsewhere from ancient times to the present have worked this way. English-speaking colonisers were banning native languages throughout the world for centuries  in Ireland, America, Australia and elsewhere.
Lee Rhiannon has been suspended from Greens party room meetings on contentious issues. Credit:Eddie Jim The NSW Greens, and Rhiannon, have long mistrusted the drive by the Australian Greens to broaden the party's appeal and engage with the major parties. It was Brown's position that the Greens should not so much "keep the bastards honest" as to replace the bastards entirely. Rhiannon sees the Greens as a party of protest. Her stance against compromising with the Turnbull government over the Gonski reforms is in keeping with this tradition. While the Australian Greens grew out of the movement to protect native forests, elements of the NSW Greens trace their roots to the left of the Labor party. Tony Abbott has ramped up his hostilities against Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:Andrew Meares As one close observer put it on Friday, Rhiannon  and much of her support base  stridently support the public education sector, which they see Gonski as weakening, and inherently mistrust the broader political outlook of Greens leader Richard di Natale.

As a result, keeping Rhiannon out of party room meetings is unlikely to end her dissent. Rather di Natale and his leadership team faces the prospect of prolonged warfare with the dominant left of NSW Greens. He is unlikely to win such battle without forcing a change in that party's constitution, which can only be amended with the support of 75 per cent of members. His faction does not have it. Greens leader Richard di Natale faces the prospect of prolonged warfare with Lee Rhiannon. Credit:Eddie Jim Similarly Abbott this week again cast himself as defending his vision of Australian conservatism. "The next election won't be won by drawing closer to Labor," he said during his IPA speech. "The next election can only be won by drawing up new battlelines that give our people something to fight for; and the public something to hope for." The problem is that his attack on Turnbull is now so broad, and crosses so many policy areas, that he is now as easily cast as a wrecker bent on revenge as an ideological warrior.

As The Australian Financial Review's Phillip Coorey put it this week, a section of the Liberals has come to the conclusion that winning the internal battle is now more important than winning the next election. Indeed so bitter has the internal rancour become that this week we were witness to the disconcerting spectacle of Peter Dutton cast as peacemaker. "I want to reach out to those people because as a conservative and as a leader in the government, I want those people and I need those people to support us and to vote for us at the next election," Dutton told 2GB. "You won't be happy with us on every issue, but I can promise you that myself, Mathias Cormann and others do work closely with the Prime Minister. "We do offer advice. I mean he's accused of being captured by the right because he listens to Mathias or I, or he hasn't changed the boats policy.

"You know, it's not a perfect world, it's not an easy world, but we deal with the hand we've been dealt and that's as frank as I can be." There is another dynamic at work too. Political actors across the spectrum appear to have been influenced by the outsider politics that saw Donald Trump elected and Brexit backed. This is evident in the language adopted by Abbott and Rhiannon. Abbott's new anti-Turnbull plan, Make Australian Work Again, is a transparent re-working of Trump's language and agenda. Rhiannon has long argued that the Greens should emulate Bernie Sanders and his rhetoric of wealth redistribution. This week also saw Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives secure yet another defection, this time the Victorian upper house MP Dr Rachel Carling-Jenkins, who had been the one and only elected representative of the Democratic Labour Party. Bernardi hopes to unite conservative outsiders under his banner, though his politics is at odds with other right-wing fringe movements.

Where Pauline Hanson's One Nation prosecutes the politics of economic populism and nationalism, the Australian Conservatives tend towards small-government conservative Christianity, while both parties share a mistrust of Islam. Dr Geoffrey Robinson, a political scientist with Deakin University, observers that while Abbott, Rhiannon and Bernardi appear to have identified an opportunity in the current disaffection with mainstream politics, none are ideal rebel messengers. All three have long incumbency as party insiders. Rhiannon carries the baggage of her long advocacy for term limits within the Greens. Abbott, he observes, is far more popular among the Liberal Party rank and file than he is among voters. But Robinson does not believe the insurrections will end anytime soon, even if party machines maintain their grip on power. Loading
He's a controversial US physician touring Australia to argue the case against voluntary euthanasia.

But while William Toffler hopes assisted dying is never legalised here, if it is, he wants vets to be responsible for treating terminally ill patients who wish to die  not their doctors.

US physician William Toffler: "Perhaps you should have veterinarians, who have training and skill in giving overdoses to living things, living animals."

In a parliamentary briefing this week, Dr Toffler urged Victorian MPs not to make the same mistake as his home state of Oregon, where physician assisted suicide has been legal for two decades.

However, if enough MPs vote in favour of reform when the matter is debated at Spring Street this year, his view is that doctors should have nothing to do with the law because it goes against their fundamental obligation to heal people.
Victoria's Treasurer says the state's rapid population growth is a boon for its economy rather than a drain on its coffers.

Tim Pallas has dismissed the findings of a Fairfax Media special report revealing figures that have led prominent economist Saul Eslake to declare Victoria a "poor state".

Growth is good: Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas. Credit:Penny Stephens

Booming population increases of almost a million people since 2006 have sharpened further in recent years, smashing budget projections by more than 20,000 people, the investigation revealed.

On a per capita basis Victoria's economy performs worse than battler states such as South Australia and Tasmania, it found.
He was also remarkably accommodating when the ginger cat from across the road rubbed itself across his flanks, purring loudly.

Hamish was the catalyst for our many happy encounters. He took his "meet and greet" duties very seriously and even diplomacy came into his purview when a Chinese wedding party borrowed him to form the centrepiece of their photograph, taken in the grounds of Montsalvat.

When my traumatised adopted dog, Hamish, suddenly morphed into a courtly companion, my street and its environs, including Montsalvat in Eltham South, became "my place", shared with residents, their children and pets, visitors, both human and animal and the wildlife living among us.

On our daily walks, most meetings were amiable, as owners and their dogs succumbed to his winning smile and his wagging tail. I merely basked in his reflected glory.

Both of us were dumbstruck when, one early morning, we were confronted by a large grey kangaroo, who glanced at us briefly, then hopped off towards the Yarra River.

On school days, we would join the stream of children en route to Eltham South Primary. Some were accompanied by a parent, often with the family dog. How appalled I was when Hamish poked his head right into a St Bernard's mouth, emerging to my great relief, dripping with saliva.

In other memorable moments, quite near to home, we were intrigued to see two pooches pause with their owner and refresh themselves, each with their own baby's bottle. We also witnessed Eva, the normally vigilant German shepherd, who lived close by, blissfully asleep on her lawn, unaware of a wandering Montsalvat peacock, in full display mode, stalking around her.

There were sad occasions also, when a friendly dog was missing and its owner was bereft. Now it is my turn. Vale Hamish, my faithful companion for more than eight years. You transformed "My Place" into a most congenial "Our Place".
CDS approves three more clearing banks

Three more banks have been allowed to handle fund transfers for share transactions cleared through CDS and Clearing Limited, a subsidiary of the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse).
Residents of Melbourne's outer suburbs are being deprived of as much as $250 million a year in basic services such as mental health, disability and physiotherapy as population growth adds record numbers to the city's sprawling fringe.

A confidential report, based on sensitive state government data and obtained by The Sunday Age, underscores the relentless population pressure on services, and the failure of the governments to keep pace through adequate funding.

It comes just days after new census data revealed Victoria grew by 146,600 or 2.4 per cent in 2016, a rate much higher than the Andrews government had forecast, or planned for.

The findings highlight Melbourne's growth pains as it lurches from a smallish regional to a large global city of 8 million by mid-century, based on government projections. If the growth rate for 2016 were to continue, Melbourne's population would be more like 10 million in 2050.
Melbourne's horse-drawn carriage owners have vowed to go to jail in defiance of a ban in the CBD as police reined in one operator on Saturday.

Footage shot in the early afternoon shows the operator being confronted by police in Swanston Street and ordered to move her carriage.

"I'm giving you a police direction to move your vehicle," an officer can be heard saying in the footage recorded by animal rights activists.

"Please move your vehicle now. Move your vehicle. You will receive an infringement the next time I see you do this. Move the vehicle."
The state government's timber agency has apologised for the death of a koala in one of its logging coupes, but has continued harvesting in an area that is home to the endangered Greater Glider.

As The Sunday Age revealed last week, the dead koala was found between logged trees in a forest in the Acheron Valley  a central highlands area the Andrews government could have protected, had it not ignored advice from its scientific committee.

After graphic images were published in the media, VicForests sent a letter to stakeholders admitting its procedures to protect the iconic native animal had failed, and "we deeply regret that this has happened".

"VicForests follows procedures in its timber harvesting operations for the protection of koalas and unfortunately these were not successful on this occasion," wrote acting chief executive Nathan Trushell.
Police are searching for a teenage boy who broke into a Geraldton woman's home in the early hours of Saturday morning and indecently assaulted her.

The woman, aged in her 60s, was asleep in her bedroom in Wonthella when she woke around 5.20am to find a person in her bedroom touching her inappropriately.

The male, described as dark skinned, 160 centimetres tall and aged between 13 and 18 years old, ran from the house.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
MONTREAL, June 30, 2017 --

 Version francaise: http://www.newswire.ca/fr/news-releases/air-canada-celebre-linauguration-de-son-service-montreal-alger-631773493.html 

With the departure of Air Canada Rouge flight AC1920 to Algiers tomorrow evening, Air Canada marks the launch of non-stop service to Algeria's capital city, its second destination in North Africa from its Montreal hub.

"Air Canada is excited to introduce non-stop service from Montreal to Algiers a new enticing destination that further expands our global reach from Montreal, reinforcing Montreal-Trudeau as a strategic hub for all of Eastern Canada and the North-Eastern U.S.," said Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines at Air Canada. "Building on Air Canada's successful Montreal-Casablanca flights now operating on a year-round basis, the service to Algiers will be the only non-stop flight by a Canadian carrier between Montreal and the North African city, establishing Air Canada as an important player in the large and growing market between Canada and Algeria. It will be our second destination in Africa, which makes Air Canada one of only a small number of global carriers flying to all six inhabited continents."

"With this new seasonal flight, it will now be possible to travel to Algiers and onwards non-stop providing more opportunities for travellers and help promote Quebec abroad. I am convinced that this return flight will make the beautiful city of Montreal more attractive to tourists. This flight is also good news for the business community, as it will foster commercial relationships between Quebec and Algeria," said Lise Theriault, Deputy Premier, Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Minister responsible for Small and Medium Enterprises, Regulatory Streamlining and Regional Economic Development, and Minister responsible for the Lanaudiere region.

"The addition of Algiers to Air Canada's Montreal network once again demonstrates how Montreal-Trudeau is becoming a strategic hub and enhances services offered from Montreal," said Philippe Rainville, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aeroports de Montreal. "The rapid growth of our airline services confirms our position as an international traffic hub, especially with the emerging niche markets of North Africa and the Middle East."

This new seasonal route will be operated by Air Canada Rouge with a 282-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, featuring a choice of three customer comfort options: Economy; Preferred seating offering additional legroom; and Premium Rouge with additional personal space and enhanced service.

Flights are timed to optimize connectivity to and from Air Canada's Montreal hub. All flights provide for Aeroplan accumulation and redemption and, for eligible customers, priority check-in, Maple Leaf Lounge access, priority boarding and other benefits.

Flight Departs Arrives Day of Week Algiers 07:40 +1 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and AC1920 Montreal 18:50 day Saturday AC1921 Algiers 10:10 Montreal 13:40 Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge and its regional airline partners flying under the Air Canada Express banner operate on average approximately 2,100 flights per week between Montreal and 87 destinations: 23 in Canada including nine in Quebec, 20 in the United States, 26 in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, 12 in Europe, and stating in 2017 one in China, two in North Africa, one in the Middle East, and one in South America, representing a 146% increase in international long-haul capacity since 2009. Air Canada also offers service to Munich and Zurich through codeshare flights with Star Alliance partners Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines.

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 200 airports on six continents. Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2016 served close to 45 million customers. Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 64 airports in Canada, 57 in the United States and 95 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,300 airports in 191 countries. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax. For more information, please visit: http://www.aircanada.com, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.



Contacts:

Isabelle Arthur (Montreal)

Isabelle.arthur@aircanada.ca

514 422-5788



Peter Fitzpatrick (Toronto)

peter.fitzpatrick@aircanada.ca

+1-416-263-5576



Angela Mah (Vancouver)

angela.mah@aircanada.ca

+1-604 270-5741



Internet: aircanada.com



SOURCE Air Canada
Monday 05 September, 2016 Reliable information reaching Biafra writers desk has it that the life of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indi...
EC proposes holding all elections by Nov 23

The Election Commission has proposed holding the elections for provincial parliaments, the National Assembly and the Federal Parliament by November 23.
Two Texas A&M seniors will take the stage in Richardson tonight against 52 other women in an attempt to be named Miss Texas 2017.

Alyssa "Aly" Beaupre and Cora Drozd, both 21, have been competing all week, interviewing, modeling gowns and swimsuits and showing off their talents. Beaupre is serving as Miss Aggieland, while Drozd is Miss College Station.

Beaupre, who is from Corpus Christi, is studying political science with a marketing minor at Texas A&M. A member of the class of 2018, she said she hopes to use any scholarship money earned toward pursuing her master's of business administration. Unlike many of tonight's contestants, this is her first experience competing in pageants.

"I'm friends with the current reigning Miss Texas," Beaupre said. "I watched her compete as Miss Texas Teen and then become Miss Texas."

Watching reigning Miss Texas Carolina Carothers have success in the competition convinced Beaupre that she might have a chance. Beaupre said for a year after winning the pageant, Miss Texas travels the state to speak to young children in elementary schools, which was a major draw for her.

"If you don't like kids, you're probably not meant for this," she said. "... I want to go to elementary schools and talk to kids about healthy eating. That's basically the sort of thing Miss Texas does. She goes to schools and talks to [students] about ways to be successful."

Beaupre has been baton twirling since she was 3, and will perform a twirling routine for the talent portion of the pageant. She twirled competitively through her high school years, even mastering the art of maneuvering flaming batons.

"The judges are looking for the whole package," Beaupre said, explaining that each element of one's overall performance bears its own significance. "A lot of the competition is about speaking, since as Miss Texas that's what you'll be doing all year long."

Drozd, who is also a member of the class of 2018, comes from Midland, and is studying philosophy with a minor in dance. She plans to use any scholarship money she wins toward attending law school. Drozd has been involved in pageants since she was 15, when she competed in Miss Texas Teen and placed high two years in a row. Drozd is inspired by her older cousin, Kristen Blair, who reigned as Miss Texas 2009. It was because Drozd looked up to her cousin that she decided she was interested in pageants.

"My mom is a bit of a tomboy and would have never put me in a pageant as a kid," Drozd said with a laugh.

Drozd is passionate about her studies in philosophy, and has worked alongside one of her philosophy professors and other students and faculty at Texas A&M to nourish an educational philosophy program for children. Every week during the school year, Drozd will teach a class at Harmony Science Academy, familiarizing young students with philosophy. She hopes that if she becomes Miss Texas, when she tours elementary schools for speeches, she will be able to share her studies with children across the state.

"It's cool I've been able to merge my college life with pageant life," she said.

Drozd has been dancing competitively since she was young, and continues to dance as part of her minor at Texas A&M. Her talent is jazz dancing, and for judges this week she has performed a dance to songs from the Broadway musical Chicago.

"People expect Miss Texas to present herself well and look beautiful, but it's also a lot more," Drozd said. "There's so much emphasis on your community service and your interview. I say the interview is the most important part, because you're expected to speak to kids all year long."

Starting at 3 p.m., Miss Texas contestants will begin their final performances in events such as swimsuit modeling, question-and-answer sessions, evening gown wear and a exhibiting talent. The first cut will narrow the pool down to 15 women, then 10, then five, then the final selection. At each round of cuts, contestants are given different amounts of scholarship money. The ultimate prize is $20,000 for university studies, Beaupre said. The winner of Miss Texas will also move on later this year to represent the state in the Miss America pageant.

Two of the first 15 women selected will be chosen not exclusively by judges, but by public polls made with online donations. As of Friday night, Beaupre was the top earner, but the official results will be announced today..

To learn more about the women of Miss Texas 2017, visit www.misstexas.org/miss-texas-contestants.html. To watch the performance at 3 p.m. this afternoon, visit the live stream at pageantslive.com. Miss Texas finals will be aired at 7:30 p.m.
FNCCI condemns Shresthas murder

The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the largest umbrella organisation of the private sector in the country, has condemned the brutal killing of businessman Raj Kumar Shrestha.
Shortly before he was struck by a vehicle early Wednesday in Franklin County, Stephen Yopp had helped a driver involved in a separate crash, state police officials and family members said.

Yopp, 51, was walking on Bethlehem Road at the Sauls Hill Lane intersection, about five miles southwest of Boones Mill, when an unknown vehicle traveling east hit him. He was struck at about 12:05 a.m. and died at the scene, state police said.

Police are seeking the public's help in finding the vehicle, which would have sustained damage to its right front side.

Mike Yopp, 33, said his father had walked out to the road after he heard a wreck near his home. Near an embankment, Stephen Yopp found a woman inside an overturned car.

"He was just helping a 19-year-old," his son said. "He was just trying to get her out of the car so if somebody came around the curve they wouldn't hit the car."

The woman told Yopp that after his father helped her out of the car, he walked down a hill so he could call 911. Cellphone reception is limited in the area, Mike Yopp said.

State police Sgt. Michael Bailey confirmed that a wreck had occurred just before Yopp was hit, although further details were not immediately available.

Mike Yopp said Wednesday was not the first time his father had helped someone after a wreck along the curvy road. The family has a system worked out for wrecks in the area: assist the occupants of the vehicle, call 911 and then direct traffic until officials arrive.

"In life, you help people out. He had done this a hundred times," Yopp said. "It's just the one time he didn't come back. I hate it, and I'm upset, but that young girl, she still has her whole life ahead of her. It could be that my father hadn't gone out there and that young girl wouldn't be here right now."

Perry Brown, Yopp's brother-in-law, said Yopp invited a woman and five children to his home last Thanksgiving after a crash happened in the same area.

"Any time there was a wreck right here in front of the house, he always went out to help," Brown said. "He was a loving guy, he loved his family, and he done all he could."

The unexpected death affected the family not only emotionally, but financially, Yopp said. He said he spent Friday afternoon digging his father's grave to cut funeral costs.

"I have a wife and four kids, and I have my mortgage payments," Yopp said. "I wasn't prepared for it."

Yopp said he hopes that the driver of the vehicle who struck his father will come forward.

"You could have grief hurting you, or you could be afraid, 'cause you could know him or me," Yopp said. "Come to me, come to my house and apologize. That would be a lot better than me just sitting here wondering."
The GOP's red wave foundered nationally, but it swept away Democrats in Iowa
Last rites of slain businessman Shrestha performed

The last rites of well-known businessman Raj Kumar Shrestha were performed on Saturday.
NORWALK  A Norwalk man is facing theft charges after a restaurant manager accused him of stealing money from the businesss safe, police said.

Police responded to a report of a theft that occurred at Sails Bar and Grill in Rowayton on May 31.
Biotechnology varieties of corn and soybeans make up 95 percent of the 15.5 million acres planted this spring by Nebraska farmers, according to a report from the USDAs National Agricultural Statistics Service on Friday.

According to the report, Nebraska corn growers planted 9.8 million acres, down 1 percent from last year. Biotechnology varieties were used on 96 percent of the area planted, up 1 percentage point from a year ago. Growers expect to harvest 9.5 million acres for grain, which is down 1 percent from last year.

Statewide, soybean planted area is estimated at 5.7 million acres, up 10 percent from last years total and a record high. Of the acres planted, 94 percent were planted with genetically modified, herbicide resistant seed, down 2 percentage points from a year ago. Acres expected to be harvested are 5.65 million, up 10 percent from a year earlier.

Last year, Nebraska ranked sixth in the nation in harvested acres of principal crops at 19,223,000 acres.

Nationwide, the USDA reported that corn planted area for all purposes in 2017 is estimated at 90.9 million acres, down 3 percent from last year. Compared with last year, planted acres are down or unchanged in 38 of the 48 estimating states. Area harvested for grain, at 83.5 million acres, is down 4 percent from last year.

Soybean planted area for 2017, nationwide, is estimated at a record high 89.5 million acres, up 7 percent from last year. Compared with last year, planted acreage intentions are up or unchanged in 24 of the 31 estimating states.

The USDA reported that winter wheat seeded in the fall of 2016 totaled 1.11 million acres, down 19 percent from last year and a record low. Harvested acreage is forecast at 1 million acres, down 24 percent from a year ago.

Along with declining wheat acres, Nebraska wheat farmers are also having to deal with a wheat virus outbreak that has reached epidemic levels and has been damaging fields and yields in the southern Nebraska Panhandle, according to the Associated Press. The Nebraska Wheat Association earlier this month reported that as many as 85 percent of southern Panhandle fields have been affected by the virus.

Nationwide, all wheat planted area for 2017 is estimated at 45.7 million acres, down 9 percent from 2016. This represents the lowest all wheat planted area on record since records began in 1919. The 2017 winter wheat planted area, at 32.8 million acres, is down 9 percent from last year. Of this total, about 23.8 million acres are hard red winter.

For other Nebraska crops, the USDA reported that:

 Alfalfa hay acreage to be cut for dry hay is at 770 thousand acres, up 3 percent from 2016. Other hay acreage to be cut for dry hay is 1.70 million acres, unchanged from last year.

 Sorghum acreage planted and to be planted, at 140 thousand acres, is down 30 percent from a year ago. The area to be harvested for grain, at 110 thousand acres, is down 37 percent from last year.

 Oats planted area is estimated at 115 thousand acres, down 15 percent from the previous year. Area to be harvested for grain, at 25 thousand acres, is unchanged from a year ago.

 Dry edible bean planted acreage is estimated at 150 thousand acres, up 9 percent from last year. Harvested acres are estimated at 139 thousand acres, up 14 percent from the previous year.

 Proso millet plantings of 130 thousand acres are up 37 percent from a year ago.

 Sugarbeet planted acres, at 49.7 thousand, are up 4 percent from last year.

 Oil sunflower acres planted are estimated at 55 thousand, up 90 percent from last year. Non-oil sunflower planted acreage is estimated at 6 thousand acres, down 52 percent from a year ago and a record low.

 Dry edible pea estimated planted acres are 45 thousand acres, down 18 percent from last year. Harvested acres are estimated at 42 thousand, down 19 percent from the previous year.
When a car drives into a wall, the damage can easily involve something more than the car and the wall.

Things inside the building might also fall victim to a chain reaction started by the impact. A crash Sunday night, for instance, caused major damage to a 1955 Chevy 210.

The car was just minding its own business inside the Hydro Tech building, where it had sat, in fine shape, for 13 years.

Then an 18-year-old Grand Island man, whom police say was involved in a drag race, drove a white Honda Accord into the brick building at about 8:45 p.m. After the fast-moving Accord put a hole in the east side of the building, the 1955 Chevy spun into a Bobcat forklift that was parked in front of it. When things stopped moving, there were several dents in the car.

The damage is hard to take for Kandee Hymer, who has owned the classic Chevy for 25 years. She bought it when she was a 15-year-old student at St. Paul High School.

Her husband, Bob, stores the vehicle at Hydro Tech, where he works. The car is parked on coasters at Hydro Tech, which is at 2219 E. Highway 30.

Sundays commotion put dents in the trunk, the rear drivers side door and both fenders. A brick bounced off two places at the rear of the roof. Further damage was done to the back tail-lights.

Before the crash, the cars body was in excellent shape, Bob Hymer said.

Now, he figures it will cost more than $10,000 to repair the car. Even then, it would no longer have its original parts.

The other problem is its hard to find people who do steel body work, Bob Hymer said.

The car, which has 57,600 miles on it, has its original motor and transmission. Early in Kandee Hymers ownership, the original color scheme was covered with white paint.

Before the accident, Hymer found similar vehicles offered for sale on the internet priced at $7,000 to $23,000.

Grand Island police say the driver who caused the damage was Marlon Cruz Lozano, who was transported to CHI Health St. Francis. He was referred for willful reckless driving, driving without an operators license and racing on the streets. A passenger was also transported but was not charged.

Before crashing into the building, Lozanos car hit a black Chevy Blazer that tried to avoid the vehicles. The Blazer was towed from the scene.

According to police, the collision with the Blazer caused Lozano to lose control and hit Hydro Tech.

As of Sunday night, police were looking for the drivers of two other vehicles involved in the race  a GMC Acadia and a white Honda.

Since the weekend, the public has come forward.

We do have some new information, but nothing that were ready to share yet. Were still working it pretty hard, Police Capt. Jim Duering said Thursday.

Its safe to assume police are making headway in identifying at least one of the drivers.

We had good cooperation from the public on that one, Duering said.

The hole left by Sundays speedster is temporarily patched. Lou Schmitt, the owner of Hydro Tech, figures it will cost $3,000 to $4,000 to fix the hole.

A broken window has already been replaced.

The crash also took out two overhead doors, a walk-in door and the front door. In responding to the crash, police kicked in the front door, Schmitt said.

Aside from the 1955 Chevy, Schmitt figures it will cost $12,000 to $14,000 to repair the damage.

Hydro Tech sells and services fire extinguishers. The company also handles dry ice, carbon dioxide and does hydrostatic testing.
Maharas concern over Nepalis in Qatar

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Krishna Bahadur Mahara has expressed concern over the security of Nepali migrant workers in Qatar.
With a long Fourth of July weekend beginning today and the return of hot weather in the forecast beginning today, this is a great time to pop some popcorn and settle in on the couch to watch a movie or two.

There are plenty of Fourth of July-related films from which to choose, ranging from historical dramas to blockbuster fare. Here are a few I consider my favorites:

- The Patriot, from 2000, is one of the best movies made about the Revolutionary War, the impetus for the creation of our country that we celebrate on Independence Day.

Its full of historical inaccuracies, but Mel Gibson is at his best playing a veteran of the French and Indian War who is forced to join the revolution and become the leader of a militia group when the British kill his family.

- Born on the Fourth of July, from 1989 may not be considered patriotic by some as it shows the hopelessness faced by American troops as they fought in and returned from the Vietnam War. Tom Cruise, early in his career, puts on one of his best performances portraying Ron Kovic, a paralyzed veteran.

We must recognize that the troops who fought in the war went to fight for freedom and make the world a better place, so their sacrifices must be honored, but its not unpatriotic to learn from the mistakes our country has made in going to war.

- Lincoln, from 2012, is a valuable lesson in the battle that members of our government fought in order to end the fighting in the Civil War. This is one of director Steven Spielbergs masterpieces, strengthened by the amazing performance of Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln.

Watch this movie to see how the American political process worked back at the time of the Civil War and remind yourself of the great accomplishments that can come when our government representatives come together in compromise.

- Gettysburg, from 1993, is an extremely long movie at more than four hours, but its the Civil War movie that tells the full story of that decisive battle leading up to our countrys birthday back in 1863 when the United States was anything but united in the midst of the Civil War.

For a history buff, this is an essential watch, showing the strategies, mistakes and heroism that came together over the case of three days to turn the tide in the Norths battle against the South.

- Glory, from 1989, is a third choice from the Civil War that tells the story of the first U.S. Army unit to ever be composed entirely of African-American men. It shows how oppressed black people were, even in the North where they joined the fight to end slavery, but it also shows how they were able to play an important role in the battle for equality of all, as our country was created to provide its citizens.

Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington are magnificent in this movie from early in their careers and this is a movie thats a reminder that their fight for equality is a forerunner of the fight that minorities are still involved in today.

- Independence Day, from 1996, is the perfect holiday blockbuster and has to be at the top of any list of Fourth of July films. It has powerful aliens, it has the president of the United States flying a fighter jet to attack the invaders, and it has Will Smith.

And after the movies focus on separate groups getting involved in the fight to save their world from aliens, they all come together in Nevada for a final battle on our countrys Independence Day.

The spectacle is so much fun even as we realize how ridiculous it all is.

- And the ultimate Fourth of July film is Jaws, from 1975.

Anytime you can watch a Steven Spielberg film, go for it. But this is an especially great choice  such an effective fear-striking thriller made way before the current CGI special effects were possible.

A great white shark terrorizes a Florida resort at the height of its tourist season, the Fourth of July weekend. The movie perfectly depicts the feeling of summer fun at the beach ... and then the shark shows up.

Spielberg knew just how to use his mechanical shark to full impact. Youll be afraid to go in the water.

I have a special memory associated with this movie. One day while I was walking to class at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, I was approached by a shark, who asked me a trivia question. When I answered, Jaws, I won a copy of the book by Peter Benchley on which the movie was based.

So these are seven choices for your holiday fun. But if youre just in a mood to watch something patriotic, you could also choose these flicks:

- Forrest Gump, from 1994, a comprehensive look at all the important historical moments of our countrys past century, with Tom Hanks in a career-making performance.

- Yankee Doodle Dandy, from 1942, an unabashedly patriotic and idealized story of the life of George M. Cohan, starring James Cagney.

- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, from 1939, the story of an idealistic everyman who goes from being a nobody to being his states junior U.S. senator and finds a way to get things done despite the corruption that was rampant in politics even back then.

Senior editor Bette Pore spends her weekdays at The Independent, but if shes not at work or home, chances are youll find her at the movies. Email her at bette.pore@theindependent.com.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 1, 2017 13:11 1959 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a75cd31 4 Parents boogers,immunity,health,#health,nose-picking Free

According to a new study, parents may want to consider allowing their children to eat their boogers.

Scientists at both MIT and Harvard have found that dried nasal mucus contains beneficial bacteria, and consuming it may help boost the immune system.

Eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the bodys immune system, Austrian lung specialist Professor Friedrich Bischinger said, as quoted by The Telegraph.

Read also: Bad habits that may harm your teeth

Eating dried nasal mucus has been found to stop cavity-causing bacteria from sticking to teeth and has been helpful in defending against respiratory infection and stomach ulcers.

Professor of biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Scott Napper, told The Telegraph, Nature pushes us to do different things because it is to our advantage to have certain behaviors, to consume different types of foods." (sul/kes)
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Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 1, 2017 17:13 1959 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a760704 1 Lifestyle South-Korea,Korea,korean-fans,K-pop,K-Drama,skincare,#skincare,#koreandrama,Sulwhasoo,beauty,#beauty Free

Korean skincare products are all the craze these days.

Affi Assegaf, co-founder of local online beauty hub Female Daily, told The Jakarta Post that the popularity of South Korean skincare products was a result of Indonesian womens interest in Korean dramas (K-drama) and Korean Pop (K-pop), leading them to follow the trend inspired by their idols.

The South Korean beauty industry is well developed. There are many beauty brands that use K-drama or K-pop stars as brand ambassadors. It was not a surprise that the fans get familiar and become interested to use the products, said the beauty guru.

Images of dewy skin are among the reasons Indonesian women are keen to try South Korean beauty products.

Those wanting to get clear and youthful skin like South Korean celebrities may want to try these premium skincare products recommended by Affi.

Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum

Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum.(Sulwhasoo's official website/File)

Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum is said to be a best-selling product from South Korean brand Sulwhasoo. The product is applied after cleansing, working as a booster to optimize the absorption of other products used afterwards. Inspired by Korean traditional medicines, the serum is said to help moisturize, clean and tighten the skin.

Read also: South Korean expo to feature latest beauty trends in October

Sulwhasoo Timetreasure Renovating Eye Cream

Sulwhasoo Timetreasure Renovating Eye Cream claims to reduce puffy eyes in an instant.(Sulwhasoo's official website/File)

Containing red pine, white and red ginseng, Sulwhasoo Timetreasure Renovating Eye Cream reportedly works like magic.

[The eye cream] solves my puffy eyes [problem] after one use, Affi said, adding that it also made the skin around her eyes area slowly grow brighter and tighter.

Goodal Waterest Vital Sleeping Pack

Goodal Waterest Vital Sleeping Pack helps to moisturize the skin.(Ulta Beauty's website/File)

Sleeping packs are popular in South Korea as they hydrate and nourish the skin during sleep. Affi describes the product as a mask that does not need to be wiped off.

You can sleep with it, she said.

Suitable for women with oily skin, Goodal Waterest Vital Sleeping Packs gel texture is said to help moisturize the skin.

Read also: Top 10 beauty influencers that we love

Su:m37 Miracle Rose Cleansing stick

Su:m37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick is suitable for frequent travelers.(Su:m37's website/File)

Affi praises Su:m37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick as an innovative and unique product from South Korea. Its unique, deodorant-like stick shape makes the compact cleanser suitable for travelers as it is practical to be carried around. Using natural ingredients, such as coconut oil, lemon peel, green tea seed, olive oil and rose extract, it works as an effective skin cleanser.

COSRX One-Step Pimple Clear Pad

COSRX One-Step Pimple Clear Pad contains BHA, which helps to treat acne. (COSRX's Instagram/File)

Though COSRX One-Step Pimple Clear Pad is not exactly a premium product, Affi stands by its superlative quality. Containing BHA, the pads can be used to treat acne. Its exfoliating effect is also suitable to treat excess oil, resulting in clean, clear and smooth skin. (kes)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Bandung/Surakarta  Fri, June 30 2017

When tens of millions of people travel at the same time to their respective hometowns for Idul Fitri celebrations, bumpy roads, brutal traffic jams, or even a tired driver can easily turn joy into disaster.

This year, however, the governments coordinated efforts to safeguard the countrys biggest exodus season helped travelers enjoy relatively safer and more comfortable trips than last year.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, June 30 2017

The North Jakarta Police has arrested suspected pickpocket 64-year-old Sriatun for attempting to steal a mobile phone from a visitor at the Taman Impian Jaya Ancol recreation center in North Jakarta on Wednesday.

The woman was caught red-handed while trying to steal a mobile phone from Kokom, 32, when the two of them were queuing for the toilet, said North Jakarta police chief Sr. Comr. Dwiyono.

Sriatun pretended to stand in line and then tried to pickpocket the phone from the back pocket of Kokoms trousers, but an Ancol employee saw her in the act and reported it to police, Dwiyono added.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, June 30 2017

A bus crew has complained that people are still unaware that the city administration has opened at the Pulo Gebang bus terminal in East Jakarta, with many thinking that the bus still departs from Pulo Gadung terminal.

Pulo Gebang bus terminal, which is thought to be the largest bus terminal in Southeast Asia, has been in operation since December 2016.

People still think we operate buses from Pulo Gadung terminal. The relocation of [the bus service] has not been well-communicated to the people, said Martahan, who works for bus operator Sahabat, on Wednesday.

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Linkedin Megha BAHREE (Agence France-Presse) New Delhi  Sat, July 1, 2017 14:43 1959 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a75ea4a 2 Business India,tax,business-climate Free

India on Saturday launched its biggest ever fiscal reform with the government promising a stronger, less corrupt economy while businesses are nervous about the new tax.

The goods and services tax (GST) replaces more than a dozen levies imposed nationally and by the 29 states. It aims to transform the nation of 1.3 billion people and its $2 trillion economy into a single market.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a special midnight session of parliament to launch GST which he called "a good and simple tax."

"With GST, the dream of one India, great India, will come true," the prime minister said.

"GST is a simple, transparent system which prevents generation of black money and curbs corruption," said Modi who jolted the country last year by withdrawing more than 85 percent of India's bank notes from circulation in a clampdown on under-the-table dealings.

"The system gives opportunity to honesty and people who do honest business."

But the prime minister, who has put huge efforts into the economy as he targets re-election in 2019, acknowledged that it would have teething problems.

Jammu and Kashmir state has refused to sign onto the one tax regime. And GST has sparked protests by traders, while the main opposition Congress Party boycotted the launch ceremony.

- Tax rules confound -

Businesses are nervous about the imposition of GST, which sets out four different rates of between five and 28 per cent instead of the one originally envisioned.

The GST rule book runs to more than 200 pages and last-minute changes were still being made late Friday.

Textile traders and other sectors went on strike ahead of the launch and many businesses say they are unclear about what to charge.

The Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal, a national traders association that claims 60 million members, called a one-day strike Friday to protest the GST.

Many are worried because while returns have to be filed by computer, they do not have or do not understand computers.

"Since August last year we have put forward our demands on GST but the government has never responded," national secretary general Vijay Prakash Jain told AFP. "We told the government, either fix this, or we will strike."

Most economists agree the reform -- first proposed in 2006 -- is long overdue, but warn the initial shock to the economy is likely to drag, rather than stoke growth, as businesses adjust.

Credit Suisse managing director Neelkanth Mishra warned that "the next few months will be a period of uncertainty in which no company would want to invest, that slows down the investment cycle and acts as a drag on the economy."

Rating agency ICRA said that while GST would lead to an increase in compliance in some sectors, it would also reduce the competitiveness of the informal businesses who are expected to lose out to the formal and organised players.

"Although it is still far from perfect, we realise how much better it is than the myriad taxes we've been subjected to over the last several decades," said Pratik Jain, Partner and Leader Indirect Tax, PwC India.

"The old India was economically fragmented. The new India will create one tax, one market for one nation," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
Oberthur Technologies helps rebuild school

A quake-damaged school in Bhaktapur reopened from Thursday after it was rebuilt with the help of Oberthur Technologies (OT), a France based digital security company.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 1, 2017 17:40 1959 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a76146b 2 Business angkasa-pura,Airport,flight Free

State-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) I expects to see the opening of dozens of new flights in its area of operation this year to boost connectivity and the tourism industry in central and eastern Indonesia.

From January to July, various airlines launched a total of 28 new routes that depart from or fly to one of 13 airports under AP I management.

Of the new routes, 20 are domestic flights and eight are international.

"We always support efforts in air transportation connectivity, which grows alongside the tourism industry," said AP I president director Danang S Baskoro as quoted by Antara on Saturday.

(Read also: Obama's vacation beneficial to Indonesia tourism: Minister)

AP I handles the management of major airports in the central and eastern parts of Indonesia.

The new domestic flights serve various routes that connect cities in the area, including Raja Ampat in West Papua, Merauke in Papua, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Denpasar, Manado and Ambon.

Among the new international routes are Lion Airs Kinabalu-Denpasar flight, Malindo Airs Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar-Brisbane flight and Indonesia AirAsias Kuala Lumpur-Yogyakarta flight.

"Considering the number of new routes opening in the first half of the year, we are optimistic that the total number of passengers [traveling through AP I airports] can reach 90 million, up by about 11 percent compared to last year, Danang said. (dis/hwa)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 1, 2017 15:30 1959 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a75faf6 2 Business Freeport-Indonesia,concentrate,Incidents Free

The Papua Police said they had ruled out the possibility of an intention to commit sabotage being the motive behind recent cuttings of PT Freeport Indonesia concentrate pipelines at the gold and copper mining giants site in Mimika regency.

"So far, we still consider the incidents as purely criminal acts, as we have discovered similar previous cases, Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said in Timika, as quoted by Antara on Saturday.

Over the past weeks, a number of concentrate pipes in the facility had been found to have been sawed through by unidentified perpetrators. The most recent occurrence took place on June 25, during the Idul Fitri Islamic holiday.

(Read also: Freeport gets red-carpet treatment, again)

Boy admitted that it was quite difficult to monitor Freeport Indonesias concentrate pipelines, which span from Tembagapura district to the Amamapare Port in the Far East Mimika district. Moreover, the pipeline also runs through the wilderness of the Papua forest.

"It will need extra effort to supervise, he said.

In a recent meeting with Freeport Indonesia management, Boy said that detection equipment, such as CCTV cameras, was needed at every critical point of the concentrate pipeline. (dis/hwa)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 1, 2017 15:38 1959 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a760244 4 National National-Police,attack,stabbing,South-Jakarta Free

Bekasi Police chief Sr. Comr. Asep Adi Saputra said the now deceased man accused of stabbing two police officers at Falatehan Mosque in the National Police headquarters complex in South Jakarta on Friday evening was using a false address on his ID card, which was found at the crime scene.

Asep said that the police officers had checked the address on the ID card of a Mulyadi, 28, who was said to reside in Suka Resmi, South Cikarang, Bekasi.

The officers discovered that two residents named Mulyadi lived at that address, but Asep confirmed that neither of them was the suspect.

Two police officers, identified as Adj. Comr. Dede Suhatmi and First Brig. M. Syaiful Bakhtiar, were attacked by an assailant with a dagger after they completed their afternoon prayer at the mosque. The suspect stabbed the officers after shouting, Thogut! Thogut is an Arabic word for those who worship anything other than God.

Other police officers reportedly gunned down the perpetrator when he attempted to flee the scene.

The wounded officers were taken to the National Police hospital in Kramat Jati in East Jakarta after being treated at Central Pertamina Hospital near the crime scene. (ecn/dmr)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 1, 2017 08:08 1959 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a759c3c 4 Tips flight,bacteria,#health,health,airplane Free

Most travellers have heard the usual reminders for remaining healthy during a flight. They mainly range from making sure one stays hydrated to not remaining seated during the entire flight -- especially long ones -- as well as slapping on sunscreen to protect from UV rays at high altitudes.

What may not come to mind for some travellers, however, is that the public transport they are about to board may not always be cleaned thoroughly before each journey.

Experts have revealed to Reader's Digest the places on an airplane where germs most commonly hide and what not to do during your flight to stay healthy and comfortable while airborne.

Before boarding that plane, the most important thing to remember is not to feel embarrassed to tell a flight attendant when you are not feeling well.

Read also: Five innovations that could transform air travel

Don't walk around barefoot

Anything could have fallen on the carpet, as flight attendants reveal they have seen "everything from vomit to blood to spilled food hit the carpet".

We see people walking from their seats into the bathrooms all the time barefoot and we cringe because those floors are full of germs, said Linda Ferguson, a flight attendant for 24 years, as quoted by Reader's Digest.

Don't turn off the air vent over your seat

Keeping the air vent on is important to help blow airborne germs away from your personal zone, with doctors recommending that it should be set to medium or high in flight.

Travellers should instead consider adding on a layer by wearing a jacket or sweatshirt when they start to feel chilly, rather than turning the air vent off.

Don't let your food touch the tray table

The tray tables reportedly do not get sterilized between every flight. Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health, says the tray tables are usually wiped down once a day or when the plane goes into an overnight station.

Those tray tables are used for all kinds of things, said Ferguson. During flights, Ive seen parents changing babies on top of tray tables. Ive seen people put their bare feet on top of tray tables.

Although samples of a study tested negative for potentially infectious bacteria, such as E. coli, it did find that the trays harbor an average of 2,155 colony-forming units of bacteria per square inch.

Other items to keep in mind that may have been used by others without getting a thorough cleaning before getting to you include blankets and pillows.

Read also: The dirty dozen: UN issues list of 12 most worrying bacteria

Dont snooze against the window

Remember that others have sat on the very same seat you're on and may have pressed their head against that wall too. Not only that, just think maybe they have even sneezed and coughed on the glass you're about to lean on.

I see plenty of people carry Lysol wipes with them that will wipe the area around their seat, said Ferguson.

A rule of thumb, he said, is never to put your hands in your mouth or near your face. It is also recommended to avoid wearing shorts and instead, try to wear clothing that covers the skin from the seat.

Dont touch the flush button in the bathroom

With the bathroom notoriously known as a major place where germs hide out, Catherine Sonquist Forest, a primary care doctor at Stanford University Health Care, suggests to avoid touching the flush button without a towel to protect your skin.

When you go to the bathroom, the right thing to do is always wash your hands, dry your hands with a towel, and then use the towel to turn off the water and even open up the door, Forest said. (liz/kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 1, 2017 13:48 1959 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a75e3cb 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,yogyakarta-tourism,#BarackObama,Barack-Obama Free

Former US President Brack Obama has been seen vacationing to places such as Necker Island and Tahiti, following the completion of his presidency in January 2017. However, his recent visit to Yogyakarta might be his most personal one yet.

Born in Hawaii, he spent several years of his childhood in Indonesia after his mother remarried an Indonesian man. He arrived in Jakarta when he was six-year-old in 1967 and stayed in the country until 1971.

Read also: 24-hour of cultural adventure at Nglinggo tourist village

During those years, the family often traveled to Yogyakarta where his mother, an anthropologist, conducted research for her Ph.d. thesis. In his recent visit to Yogyakarta, Obama and family visited Borobudur, Prambanan temples and Becici Peak.

The group spent three days in Yogyakarta, beginning on Wednesday, June 28 until Friday, June 30. Prior to their Yogyakarta trip, they had spent five days in Bali. On Saturday, Obama is expected to address the fourth Diaspora congress in South Jakarta.

Obamas Indonesian vacation has made several international headlines. Vogue publication published an article about the trip titled President Obamas Trip to an Ancient Indonesian City Had a Deeply Personal Meaning, while Washington Post runs a story taken from the Associated Press titled Obama and family move from Bali to Java on Indonesia holiday. (asw)
(lead article, Communist League statement)

UK: Grenfell fire deaths product of capitalist rule

Fight for safety on road to workers power

Ricardo Silvestre

Grenfell Tower has shone a spotlight on the rulers utter contempt for the lives of working people  from the refusal to act upon multiple warnings about proven flammable cladding, inadequate exit routes, no sprinklers, faulty alarm systems  the list goes on as the truth comes out.

This was not an accident. It was the direct product of how capitalism works. It is totally bound up with the broader carnage that working people face  from declining real wages to job insecurity, mounting social crisis and ongoing wars. The capitalist rulers only answer to their crisis is to make working people pay, including with their lives.

This is generating anger among millions of working people. The government, the Labour Party leadership and the propertied rulers fear this anger. Its the source of their political crisis today.

Seeking to deflect it, they stand together beating the drum of British values  the lie that workers and bosses have the same interests  ramped up after the terror attacks in Manchester and London. Their goal is to convince working people to look to their government, their cops and courts as our protectors; and to win acceptance for the erosion of political rights. Grenfell Tower shows we have no common values, interests or way of life with the capitalist rulers. We can only rely on independent working-class political action.

We should join with the survivors of Grenfell Tower in their fight for immediate quality rehousing in the local area and serious compensation. The trade unions should engage in a mass campaign  working together with tenants around the country  demanding immediate dismantling of cladding, installation of sprinklers and other protective measures nationwide. Workers dont need the fraud of long inquiries and better regulations or feel your pain visits by party leaders and the Royals. The outpouring of solidarity with Grenfell residents points to what we could achieve through the mobilization of working-class unity and power.

Such a course paves the way for building a revolutionary working-class party to overturn the dictatorship of capital and establish a government that acts in our class interests. It paves the way for working people transforming ourselves, throwing off the degrading image that the rulers strive to inculcate in us, recognizing that we are capable of taking power and organizing society.

Join with the Communist League and Young Socialists on the national demonstration July 1 in London to demand action and to pose the need for a revolutionary working-class alternative to capitalist rule.





Related articles:

Workers demand action on deaths, social catastrophe







Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home




(front page)

Workers demand action on deaths, social catastrophe

LONDON  When Grenfell Tower went up in flames in the early hours of June 14, killing at least 79 people and leaving hundreds homeless, it threw into sharp relief the U.K. capitalist rulers contempt for working people.

A fire which started in a refrigerator on the fourth floor spread rapidly upwards when cladding panels that cover the outside of the 24-story tower turned it into a blazing inferno. The panels were installed as part of a 2015-16 cosmetic renovation.

The Grenfell Action Group, made up of tower residents, had repeatedly sounded the alarm over negligence of fire safety by the local council, which owns the building and supervises some 10,000 other properties.

In November 2016 Edward Daffarn published a post on the action groups website warning that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord  and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. Daffarn, who lives on the 16th floor, narrowly escaped with his life.

Building management responded by threatening legal action against Daffarn because of his blog.

Grenfell Action Group and fire safety experts warned about other hazards. A single staircase was the only escape route. It quickly filled with smoke. Fire alarms didnt work. There was no sprinkler system. In 2014, Conservative Housing Minister Brandon Lewis resisted calls to make sprinklers compulsory, saying, The cost of fitting a fire sprinkler system may affect house building  something we want to encourage.

Both Labour and Conservative governments have worked overtime to pare back restrictions on construction, arguing cost concerns outweighed the risks of allowing flammable materials to be used, the New York Times reported June 24.

And capitalist greed knows no borders. The cladding strung around Grenfell was made by the U.S. company Arconic  formerly Alcoa  and marketed around the world, even after it was banned from high-rise construction in the U.S. because of its proven danger.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people live in similar style tower blocks. Fire safety tests are now being carried out on 600 buildings. Of the 120 tested by June 28, all have failed. Hundreds have been thrown out into the streets in emergency relocations while others have refused to leave, despite intimidation from company security guards.

Grenfell Tower is located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which has the highest average incomes in the country  as well as the biggest gap between rich and poor.

Residents reported widespread confusion over what emergency housing and other assistance was available. Some ended up sleeping outdoors.

The borough councils inaction stood in sharp contrast to the outpouring of support from working people, who brought donations and organized their distribution.

Prime Minister Theresa May drew anger when, the day after the fire, she visited police and firefighters  but not residents. When she returned for a second visit under heavy police protection, a large crowd gathered to confront her, with shouts of Coward! and Shame on you!

Hundreds of residents and supporters joined an angry protest at Kensington Town Hall, demanding immediate rehousing in the borough, financial assistance, a full list of victims, a review of safety at other buildings and that those responsible for the fire be brought to justice.

May was forced to apologize June 21 for a failure of the state, local and national, to help people when they needed it most.

The opposition Labour Party has posed as a defender of the affected workers. Party leader Jeremy Corbyn went to meet residents and called for the requisitioning of empty houses in the area. Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the victims were murdered by political decisions. The thrust of Labour Party proposals is to blame Tory cuts and demand more regulation. In fact, the 2006 decision to not install sprinklers into existing high-rise council flats was taken by the Labour government of Tony Blair.

With the government unable to put a foot right, the rulers tried to boost national unity with a much-hyped visit to residents and volunteers by Queen Elizabeth and Prince William, who live down the road in Kensington Palace. Put to the test, the United Kingdom has been resolute in the face of adversity, said a statement released by the queen.

But this isnt adversity. This is the normal workings of capitalism, backed by the government, and they bear the full responsibility for this disaster to working people.

McDonnell and Corbyn are calling for workers outraged by the Grenfell killings to join a July 1 march calling for the May government to step down. Instead of pointing the finger of responsibility at capitalisms dog-eat-dog system, they say the Conservatives are responsible.
(front page)

Opponents of US colonial rule in Puerto Rico speak out at the UN

AP/Danica Coto

UNITED NATIONS  At this years hearing of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization, supporters of the fight against U.S. colonial rule over Puerto Rico spoke out against Washingtons increasing exploitation of the islands people and the plunder of its resources to pay the regimes $74 billion debt to wealthy bondholders.

Participants welcomed longtime independence fighter Oscar Lopez to the June 19 hearing. Lopez was released from U.S. custody May 17 after nearly 36 years in jail for his actions opposing U.S. domination. Puerto Rico has been a U.S. colony since 1898, when Washington wrested control of the country from Spain.

The hearing took place as the U.S.-imposed Financial Oversight and Management Board  known in Puerto Rico as the Junta  continues to push the government there to make deeper and deeper cuts in public employee wages, pensions, health care and other services.

On May 1, tens of thousands of workers and unionists marched in San Juan and held a one-day strike to protest the Juntas demands, in the largest labor action in some two decades.

Lopez, the first speaker, was given 20 minutes, instead of the usual five, to address the committee. Puerto Rico has a right to be an independent and sovereign nation, he said.

Everything the fiscal control board is doing is criminal, Lopez said, and its only purpose is to squeeze every cent out of the pockets of every Puerto Rican on the island, and, if they could, of those in the diaspora, to pay the debt.

Lopez also denounced Washingtons pressures and threats against Venezuela. He called for an end to the U.S. embargo of Cuba and its occupation of Cubas territory of Guantanamo.

Speakers from a wide variety of groups and views from both Puerto Rico and the United States described the deep economic and social crisis on the island today and how U.S. colonial rule makes it worse.

I come from an island of 3.5 million inhabitants, where 45 percent of its people live below the poverty level, where the unemployment rate is above 12 percent, where last year 99.5 percent of its population drank contaminated water, where the school drop-out rate is above 40 percent, where they are trying to close 170 public schools, noted Joselyn Santos Valderrama, a leader of the Hostos Youth and students at the Inter-American University in Arecibo. We need a radical change of course.

Santos said students at the University of Puerto Rico went on strike for two months in response to government demands for drastic cuts in university funding.

The debt is the empires

The debt is not ours. Its the empires, said Gerardo Lugo Segarra, speaking for the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico. Its the United States that owes Puerto Rico for subjecting it to more than a century of exploitation, of experiments and of deaths.

The U.S. fiscal boards actions have become so unpopular that even the two main bourgeois parties that take turns running the colonial regime  the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and the New Progressive Party (PNP)  have complained. At the hearing, Puerto Rico Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin, representing the pro-statehood PNP administration, complained that the undemocratic Junta has powers over the elected government. If this is not colonialism, then international law does not exist.

At the same time, Rivera acknowledged that the Puerto Rican government is working hard to meet the requirements and demands of this Junta.

Rivera defended the June 11 non-binding plebiscite pushed through by Gov. Ricardo Rossello despite a call for a boycott by virtually every other political party and trade unions on the island. He admitted that the wording of the plebiscite had been changed to meet the dictates of the U.S. Justice Department.

Even though only 500,000 people voted, barely 23 percent of those eligible, Rivera said the vote  97 percent for statehood  was the unequivocal choice of our people. This is the fifth non-binding plebiscite since 1967 and the turnout this time was the lowest ever.

Maria de Lourdes Santiago, vice president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, called the plebiscite a farce, noting that statehood would not be independence but the annexation of Puerto Rico to the United States.

Joselyn Velazquez from the Socialist Front pointed to the May Day protests, saying, If the demands of the people are not met, the world should not doubt that our people will continue to struggle.

In addition to representatives of organizations that back the fight for independence, there were also speakers from the Federation of Teachers of Puerto Rico, the New York State Nurses Association and the Professional Social Workers Guild of Puerto Rico.

Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of New York, who visited Puerto Rico last month to welcome Oscar Lopez at his release from U.S. custody and to support the struggles of working people and youth there, told the hearing that a successful struggle for Puerto Ricos independence from Washingtons domination is also in the interest of working people in the United States.

Building the fight by working people in Puerto Rico to take political power out of the hands of Washington and their capitalist allies on the island, Hart said, is the road to independence. He pointed to Cubas socialist revolution as an example for working people in Puerto Rico, the U.S. and around the world. (Harts statement is printed on this page.)

The U.N. committee approved a resolution initiated by the government of revolutionary Cuba, reaffirming the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence.

Cuba will continue defending the legitimate right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence, Cuban Ambassador Ana Silvia Rodriguez said, and will be at their side until final victory.





Related articles:

NY Puerto Rican Parade welcomes Oscar Lopez

Fight for workers power is road to independence







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(feature article)

Havana: We will make no concessions on sovereignty

None of these U.S. presidents could overthrow the invincible Cuban Revolution, read the words on a poster from Cubasmagazine with pictures of the 12 presidents who have been in office since the Cuban Revolution triumphed in 1959. Underneath the picture of President Donald Trump it says, Nor will you.

The poster captures the calm but firm response across Cuba to President Trumps reversal of a few of the measures taken by then President Barack Obama after Washington and Havana re-established diplomatic relations in 2015.

Trump announced the shift to great fanfare in Miamis Little Havana neighborhood June 16. Flanked by veterans of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, he saluted some of the most notorious henchmen of overthrown Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and claimed he was taking the measures to back the fight for human rights on the island.

In a press conference in Vienna, where he was on a diplomatic visit, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced the steps back. The United States has no moral authority, it cannot give lectures on human rights or on democracy, he said, pointing to widespread police brutality, lack of adequate health care, low rates of unionization, deportations of immigrant workers, and torture of prisoners held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Washingtons measures are also an attack on the rights of U.S. citizens to travel, Rodriguez said. He noted that during the presidential election campaign, Trump said he supported the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba and other changes in U.S. policy but that he would seek a better deal with our country.

A better deal would mean lifting the blockade, returning the territory of the Guantanamo Naval Base, accepting the concept of mutual compensation that would greatly benefit certified U.S. property owners, due to the nationalizations of the 1960s, Rodriguez said.

President Trump had announced he was ending individual people-to-people travel to Cuba. Other travel, including group travel, will not be affected. In addition, he said that U.S. companies would no longer be allowed to have any economic dealings with companies that are run by the Cuban military.

None of the measures will take effect until the Treasury Department issues new regulations, which could take months, according to a White House fact sheet. And White House officials told Reuters that already concluded deals such as Marriott-owned Starwood Hotels joint venture with a Havana hotel would be left alone.

Trump also vacated Obamas Oct. 14, 2016, directive United States-Cuba Normalization. A statement by the government of Cuba noted that although it did not attempt to hide the interventionist character of U.S. policy or the objective of advancing its interest in changes in our countrys economic, political and social order, the [Obama] directive recognized Cubans independence, sovereignty and self-determination, and the Cuban government as a legitimate, equal interlocutor.  It also recognized that the blockade was an obsolete policy that should be eliminated.

Washingtons economic war against the Cuban Revolution began in 1960 and has been maintained by every U.S. president, Democrat and Republican alike, ever since.

Despite all of Trumps hype about canceling the last administrations completely one-sided deal with Cuba, the changes leave most of the last two years agreements in place. Among the measures not affected are: the lifting of many restrictions on group travel to the island; ending the U.S. governments wet foot, dry foot policy, which had encouraged Cubans to head to the U.S. in rickety rafts instead of getting visas; and allowing a little more trade with Cuba, while keeping the draconian embargo in place and continuing to fund programs aimed at undermining the revolution.

The Miami Herald noted in a June 16 editorial that it had backed Obamas thaw and still does. At the same time the paper said that Trump is right to recalibrate this policy without jettisoning it wholesale because Washington has made most of the concessions and Cuban President Raul Castro has given very little in return.

A number of mass organizations in Cuba have spoken out against Washingtons continuing attacks on Cuban sovereignty. A statement by the Union of Young Communists (UJC), pointed out that when U.S. President Eisenhower approved, in 1960, a program of covert action against Cuba with the clear goal of destroying the revolution, none of us had been born.

Although Cuban youth today did not live through the early days of the revolution, we have learned from history, the UJC said. The empire might have changed its personalities and vintage, but its essence remains the same.

Cubas National Association of Small Farmers said, For campesino families, the work of the Cuban Revolution has meant the development of an Agrarian Program that dignified our countryside, granted ownership of land to its true owners, brought the advances of science and technology to agriculture, granted credits to finance production, a stable market for products, ensured the right to education, health, sports, access to cultures and most importantly, it gave us independence and dignity.

Foreign Minister Rodriguez said Cubas revolutionary government reasserts its willingness to continue the respectful dialogue and cooperation in areas of mutual interest with the U.S. government, but will not make concessions which compromise our independence or sovereignty.





Related articles:

Che Guevara Cuba brigade set for October







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Prelude to an end

The skies are clear, the sun is warm, the grass is brilliant green and there is much cool wine to be had. Out in the thousands of parks that break Vienna up into islands of concrete amid rivers of green, there are hammocks and lawn chairs, beach towels and bikinis, sunscreen and suntan.
Gender perception is becoming more indistinct in every walk of life - and 2017 has certainly seen a brave increase in the blurring, testing and breaking of gender boundaries in fashion.

This year, fashion houses have welcomed in androgynous clothing, interchangeable male and female models and a one of a kind beauty blogger, with Lewys Ball making headlines as the first ever male ambassador for Rimmel Londons new campaign, Edge Your Look.

Be selfie ready like @lookingforlewyswith our brand new Insta Collection. Theres now a new way to create this perfect Power Sculpt Look Stay tuned to find out more about this on-point range #INSTASELFIE A post shared by Rimmel London UK (@rimmellondonuk) on Jun 6, 2017 at 10:20am PDT

The modelling industry has also become less defined by gender, Andrej Pejic being the name that really paved the way. A man with looks that many women would kill for, Pejic makes his money wearing womens clothes.

Since his success, more men and women, such as Tamy Glauser, have had much success in their genderless roles.

Furthermore, clothing seems to be leaving the strict confines of conventionally acceptable men and womens clothing. Rick Owens and Alessandro Michele of Gucci are two of the most notable fashion designers to have recently lead the fight for gender neutrality.

I wanna be your birthday cake #BarbieRage A post shared by Andreja Pejic (@andrejapejic) on Jun 23, 2017 at 11:59am PDT

What does this mean for fashion? Are we to completely eradicate the distinguishing aspects of men and womens clothing? And if so, is this a good thing?

For the movement looking to eradicate gender related prejudice, this is great news. The extension of an unjudging, welcoming arm through fashion is an incredibly accessible form of support and acceptance.

But the drive for equality might not be the only power at play here. For the cynics amongst us, this trend could otherwise be seen as an innovative business plan focused more on a satisfying profit, than it is on equality.

Economically speaking, this move away from gendered clothing further allows fashion businesses to display identical women and mens fashion simultaneously, saving both money and time, while creating an identity for the label.

Man purses. Hot or hmmmm? (I like them) #fashionstalker #mensfashionweekparis #streetfashion #bloggerlife #unisexfashion #theyneedsumthintocarrytheysh*# A post shared by Tricia Elam Walker (@triciabreathing) on Jun 24, 2017 at 11:12am PDT

The fixation on unisex fashion, originally made cool by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie, was not necessarily born out of a wish to blur gender boundaries. Nevertheless, they certainly grew into the uniform of any progressive fashionista with a desire to break out of the strict confines of conventionally acceptable men and womens clothing.

Whatever the designers true reasons for the upsurge in this form of branding, it does provide the modern consumer with the opportunity to be part of the bigger picture, the fashion gender movement.

This movement provides a welcome rise in the receptivity of people to subjects that were originally off-limits, i.e. transgender narratives. Such stories are becoming more widely known via the increase in use of trans-models such as Andreja Pejic and Lea T, faces of dominating fashion and beauty campaigns.

Anything that increases the positive perception of gender neutrality can only be a good thing. Fashions influence on popular culture throughout history has proven it to be a powerful medium for self-expression.

Hopefully, this breaking of gender confines in fashion will be looked back on in 20 years time as a turning point in the ongoing narrative of gender perceptions and freedom of identification.
Approximately one in three refugees in the world are Palestinian. Ahave been forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, or in refugee camps in parts of Palestine such as the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The crisis has not been helped by the unrest in countries like Lebanon, but especially the implosion of Syria as a result of the ongoing civil war, which is rising in magnitude, hasn't helped. Many Palestinians are finding themselves in strenuous positions and, just like with the general refugee crisis, there is a great deal of negligence occurring. The Palestinian refugee crises emerged following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that transpired following the Balfour Declaration, which favoured the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. This coupled with the UN Partition Plan of 1947, which designated 45% of the land to the Palestinians and 55% to Israel and labelled Jerusalem, a city sacred to both groups, an international city. This set the ball rolling for a period of skirmishes amongst Palestinians and Israelis. Accordingly, this was exacerbated once Israel declared their independence on the 15th of May 1948, which kickstarted the Arab-Israeli War.Palestinians treated the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent UN Partition Plan as institutionalism of the usurpation of land. On the other hand, Israelis who are the spearheads of the Israeli occupation project, which precipitated the Palestinian refugee crisis, considered the Balfour Declaration and the UN Partition Plan as the dawn of the rightful return to the ancestral homeland of the Jews. Thus, two irreconcilable narratives were formed and paved the way for years of internal conflict, which resulted in the burgeoning refugee crisis. Israel was victorious in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and this had incriminating effects on the refugee crisis for Palestinians. Israel emerged with 72% of the land and the territorial boundaries that are apparent today were created. Ultimately, the geopolitical entity of Palestine was wiped off the map following the war and this led to the 1948 Palestinian Exodus, known in Arabic as the 'Nakba' (the catastrophe), whereby 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and forced to flee. This evoked the long uphill struggle for Palestinians for refuge because Israel's grip tightened and there was no compromise, as they were adamant on accomplishing their quest of returning to their homeland. Furthermore, the 1967 Six Day War also had transformative consequences in regards to the wider Palestine-Israel conflict, and specifically the refugee impasse. The 1967 war represented the consolidation of the Israeli project, as the occupation became deeper and gave birth to the Jewish Settler Movement. The 1967 war led to another, with a further 150,000+ forced to evacuate their homes. Today, Palestinians are facingand levels of restriction, which alongside the wars and conflicts that materialise often, and the subsequent grip Israel gain on the desired land, is subsidising the Palestinian refugee crisis. It does not help when reports emerge about Hezbollah flags being apparent during an Al Quds Day rally, because actions like these will only irritate Israeli-Palestine relations further due to the historical tensions between Hezbollah and Israel - and fuel the already raging fire, which is deepening followingthat Hamas and Israel are exchanging rockets in Gaza. If these attacks between Hamas and Israel persist, another war in Gaza will be foreseeable and the Israeli-Palestine conflict will hasten. All of which will amplify the lengthiest refugee crisis in history.
A mothers moving story about her two-year-old son with a heart condition has gone viral online, and shone a light on the issue of healthcare in the US.

Ali Chandra, 33, shared a picture on Twitter of the most recent bill for the treatment of her son Ethan  who has heterotaxy syndrome, a rare condition which invariably causes heart defects.

It seems fitting that, with the #TrumpCare debate raging, I got this bill in the mail today from Ethan's most recent open heart surgery. pic.twitter.com/pyUE2UxbWW  Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

The bill cost Ali and her husband $500 (391), but she said if it were not for health insurance they would have had to pay $231,115 (180,601)  and she said in reply to the Twitter thread that Ethans frequent need for healthcare blew past the million dollar mark long ago.

He takes 5 different prescription medications multiple times a day. All of this adds up. None of this would be possible without insurance.  Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

Ali, from New Jersey, said reinstating lifetime caps on benefits would stop Ethan getting the healthcare he needs.

Barack Obamas administration scrapped lifetime caps on health insurance in the US, but it is rumoured new president Donald Trump could reinstate the limit.

A lifetime cap on benefits is the same as saying, "Sorry, you're not worth keeping alive anymore. You're just too expensive."  Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

Tell that to the boy who just tucked a sick firefly into bed with a leaf blanket and told me to keep the light on so he wouldn't be scared. pic.twitter.com/SAwsdHISPi  Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

Tell that to the boy who picks me bouquets of sticks instead of flowers because he loves them better so he's sure I will too. pic.twitter.com/Zu987SCGTK  Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

Look my son in the eyes and tell him that he's fought so hard to be here but sorry, you're just not worth it anymore. I dare you. pic.twitter.com/IgdQOounyB  Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

Alis heartfelt post has caught the imaginations of those online, with the original post being retweeted more than 19,000 times.

This has all been incredibly surprising, to be honest, Ali told the Press Association. It can often feel so lonely on this road.

To have so many thousands of people suddenly in our corner, voicing their support for Ethan and affirming the value of his life is incredibly encouraging.

If it means anything at all, and I doubt it will, I would gladly pay an extra few % in taxes if it meant keeping your son covered.  /grego (@Someguygrego) June 24, 2017

Yours is a heartbreaking and beautiful story. Thank you for sharing for all of us. Please listen, @clairecmc and @RoyBlunt.  Kate Bender (@KateBender5) June 24, 2017

Maybe it's JUST ME, but this is what we should be doing. TAKING CARE of EACH OTHER. ( why is there a price tag anyway ?? confused )  James Blugen (@Intheyear1964) June 24, 2017

Ethan has no idea about any of this, said Ali. He turns three in a week, and hes just concerned with being a normal kid now that were getting a little break from hospital stuff.

Ethan (Ali Chandra)

Ali said she is starting a digital scrapbook of stories written about Ethan, to show him the impact his story had when he is older.
Many stories of Bali have spread like fire throughout the Asia-backpacker scene over the years.

Hearing these on my (almost) six month journey off the battered path around southeast Asia somewhat dampened my eager spirit about arriving at this Indonesian island, which seems to be the first sun-drenched destination to appear on my Instagram feed every morning.

Its smoothie-clad cafes, towering palm trees and stunning white shores are just a few reasons the island has made it to the top of the majority of tourist's bucket lists.

Upon getting my first taste of life 'Balinese' style, it's become apparent that the 'Bali Bug' is a real disease, affecting wanderers from across the world and drawing a HUGE travellers' scene to its towns.

Canggu, famous for its multiple surf spots, was my first destination on the island, and what seems like the home to a population of more foreigners and expats than local Indonesians! You can't blame them for being drawn to the beauty of this place, surrounded by lush green rice fields and picture perfect beaches; it really does have it all.

There are many ways to 'make it' in Bali, but one trend that will never leave is the soul enriching Yoga and Surf scene. I was lucky enough to escape to one of the best retreats on the island and a perfect example of expat success at its finest.

Mondo Surf and Lifestyle Village is a paradise in itself, started by three men who came to the island in 2011 and bought this patch of heaven amongst the local rice terraces just out of Canggu town.

Whilst back then there wasn't even a road leading to this escape, you can now stay in one of its dorm or private rooms where the team will show you how a retreat should be in Bali.

The dorms at the retreat aren't what you'd expect from the stereotypical accommodation around Asia. Spend your nights chilling out under your super cosy duvet with a movie from their DVD collection or party the night away with your hilarious local surf instructors.

Wake up to a rejuvenating yoga session at 7.15am and stretch that hangover into the skies of the open workout hut built into nature. Follow it up with your delicious breakfast, homemade in the kitchen, including the best granola I've ever tasted and the all important smoothie bowl - vital to any experience in Bali!

You will be whisked away to the best surfing spot for the day by the Indonesian talent working at the retreat. From Echo beach in Canggu to Kuta and Seminyak, the breaks in Bali never fail to give you a great workout and with these guys on hand, a great laugh too.

Alternatively spend your day by the pool at Mondo, receive a traditional oil massage to recover from all your 'hard work' (oh retreat life), or attempt some martial arts to get your blood pumping.

the Rinjani bungalow. The retreat draws an array of visitors, from solo travelers to honeymooners, who can enjoy a romantic escape in the ground's most wonderful haven,For two blissful nights I relished in its fourposter luxury bed, private balcony, with hammock of course, and spa standard bathroom.

Dinner gets social as the surfers return and everyone refuels with the amazing kitchen offerings: from Balinese yellow curry to Vegetarian tempeh wraps, you won't be disappointed by anything here and you certainly wont want to leave.

See for yourself why Mondo is making a name for itself and why you should make Bali your next relaxing break.
The 60 minute run-time is packed to the brim, but the story never feels too rushed. There are many larger-than-life characters on screen, and all are dealt with evenly and never short-changed for time or their part in the story. The music is sublime, the direction terrific and the acting spot on.

The action in the episode is brilliantly realised, with various versions of the Cybermen parading about the screen and being blown up in epic fashion - most notably, when the Doctor attacks them in the woods in slow motion, shouting the names of places he has previously encountered them as if to glory in a sweet vengeance. Peter Capaldi gives a virtuoso performance as the Doctor in his penultimate episode. He rages at the dying of his light, exclaims his philosophy of kindness to the Master and Missy and is left heartbroken at Bills transformation.

Speaking of which, Pearl Mackie also bows out in satisfying style. Seeing herself as her human form rather than the Cyberman she has become is a neat trick, meaning that she isnt hidden away all the time. She shows the grief of a terminally ill person, transformed physically, and even asks to be euthanized at one point - it's very dark stuff for Saturday teatime viewing, but is tastefully done and emotionally acted by Mackie and Capaldi. Her bravery and humour still show through, and her strong friendship with the Doctor is played to a bittersweet end.

Bill is given the perfect exit. She is reunited with her crush Heather from the first episode and transformed again into the same watery being Heather is, but with her human form and humanity. They share a kiss, save the Doctor and go off into the stars together, to live happily ever after. Nardole also leaves us, it seems, though there may be room for him to return.

The most shocking exits however involve the Master and Missy, played with humour, restraint and darkness by John Simm and Michelle Gomez. They are a great double act - Simms Master is as irredeemable and cruel as ever, while Missy seems to dither between him and siding with the Doctor, having been through her rehabilitation programme with the latter. They flirt and mock, revelling in their narcissism. In the end, they leave the Doctor to his fate.

That is, until they are both killed, by each other, Missy desiring to return and help the Doctor and the Master wanting revenge after she has betrayed him. He goes off to regenerate, presumably into her, and she seemingly dies in the forest, unable to regenerate, but redeemed. Is this the end for the Master? Michelle Gomez has stated that she will be leaving the show, but both her and Simm have expressed that they could return, and a new era for the show could mean a new actor in the role.

There are many final moments in this episode, as the Moffat era winds to a close. Bill, Nardole and Missy are seemingly gone, and the Doctor is fighting to prevent his regeneration. This series has given us no clangers a la Fear Her or In the Forest of the Night. Instead, it has showcased one of the best companions of recent Who history and one of the most endearing TARDIS teams.

We have seen the return of old enemies and friends, and viewers have been left reeling on many occasions - not least at the end of the finale, with the First Doctors surprise return! By the episodes end, our emotions are left frazzled - sad that Bill has gone, but glad she got a happy ending; sympathetic to the Doctor's erratic refusal to die, but excited by that extremely tantalising ending.

It will certainly be a long wait until Christmas, when Peter Capaldis swansong as the Doctor finally reaches its ultimate conclusion.

Doctor Who: Series 10 will be available on DVD and Blu-ray from 24th July. The show will return to BBC One at Christmas.
Saarc secy-gen calls on Mahara

Saarc Secretary-General Amjad Hussain B Sial called on Foreign Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is also the chair of the Saarc Council of Ministers, in Kathmandu on Friday.
When someone whose eyes can pop out of their skull asks the internet to send them questions, theres inevitably going to be a deluge.

Lauren Cook from North Carolina won $2,500 (1,929) from Ripleys Believe It or Not when she sent this picture into a funny face contest, and led with that for her reddits Ask Me Anything

Lauren first realised she had the peculiar talent  officially known as globe luxation  in seventh grade (year eight), when she absent-mindedly stuck a pencil behind her eye in class.

The picture that won Lauren $2500 (Lauren Cook)

My friend saw me and freaked out. I didnt even know it happened til she told me. So I took the pencil to the bathroom and did it in the mirror, she explained.

I know how this sounds. It was not contacting my eyeball at all though, I was pressing the eraser end against my eyelid, which was going behind my eyeball. Its hard to explain.

I dont know why or how it started, I just marvelled at how far it went behind my eye.

That first time looking in the mirror was definitely weird. It was very surreal and pretty frightening. It was a huge oh no, well I definitely should not be doing that kind of vibe. Buuuut I was a kid and kept doing it because stubborn.

This is Lauren with her eyeballs firmly in (Lauren Cook)

Obviously, people had a lot of questions about Laurens vision. Can she see more when her eyes are popped out? Is her vision overly powerful?

Yes, I still have full range of motion in both eyes when they are out, she said. Peripheral vision is the same. I cant say for sure if I see magnified for lack of better word because I wear glasses, things look a little blurry without them no matter what. It gives me sort of double vision as well.

Obviously the next thing people needed answered was, how? How is this possible? HOW do you make your eyes pop out?

I use my hands to open my eyelids wide enough and use my eye muscles to push them out, she said. To go back in I just relax the muscles and they slip back by themselves.

Its a unique feeling.

Lauren said it doesnt hurt to pop her eyeballs (Lauren Cook)

Onto the worries  what if they never go back in?

It would be a very bad day for me, she said, somewhat understating things.

I asked an optometrist one day when I was getting my prescription on my glasses redone and this is what he told me: Your eye wont fall out and roll across the floor. If it were to fall out, it would hang by the optic nerve and dangle by your cheek. If that ever happens, hold it in a glass of water so it remains moist and go to the emergency room.

I made the mistake of asking him what I should do if there were no glasses of water available to me and he told me if I wanted to keep my eye, put it in my mouth and go to the emergency room.

Lauren said she believes the muscles that push out her eyeballs are strong enough to push her eye out all the way but, luckily, I know just the point where they are bulging at maximum with no threat of popping all the way out.

The AMA was definitely a learning experience for everyone, including Lauren.

When someone asked if shed be using it for comedic or dramatic effect, she said: No, but Im beginning to think I should. What am I doing with my life? So much wasted opportunity!

People of North Carolina, beware.
Anup Ojha is a reporter for The Kathmandu Post primarily covering social issues and human interest stories. Before moving to the social beat, Ojha covered arts and culture for the Post for four years.
Single vote decides victor

The winner for the post of ward chairperson of Sisne Rural Municipality-6 in Rukum was decided by a hairs breadth margin.
The tussle for Kasthamandap

At their small office overlooking Kasthamandap, a group of young volunteers for the Campaign to Rebuild Kasthamandap are huddled in a circle, discussing the flurry of events that have taken place at the seventh century monument this week.
Watertown landowners will be involved in new Corps flood-control study

After 30 years, a new flood control feasibility study will include the input of landowners and supply a multitude of options other than a dry dam.
Will major forces win west Tarai?

If the early trends of vote count at the local level in the western Tarai are anything to go by, established major parties are highly likely to dominate the election results.
But the tribe has a long way to go
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called upon the chartered accountants to desist from helping clients shift their money out of the country or circumvent provisions of law.

Calling them the custodians of India' s economic health, the prime minister urged the CAs to direct their clients on the path of honesty. Modi was addressing the foundation day function of ICAI, the apex body of chartered accountants in the country.

He said the chartered accountants' signature in companies' balance sheet was a powerful one, in which both the government as well as the people had faith.

He called for their participation in implementing the insolvency and bankruptcy laws.

Like the lawyers who participated in the freedom struggle, the chartered accountants of today should join India' s economic struggle, Modi said.

The prime minister pointed out that along with the swachata abhiyan to clean the country, he had launched an effort to clean the economy of the country and curb corruption.

Modi referred to the Swiss bank accounts of Indians and said those account holders were in for tough times.

"The money of the poor will be returned to the poor," he said. The prime minister wondered how only 32 lakh people in the country admitted to earning more than Rs 10 lakh a year.

At the event, which came within a day of the launch of GST, the prime minister said the new tax will help in nation building.
Even as China asserted its claim over the disputed Doklam area in the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction, India ramped up its defenses. The construction of a motorable road till the tri-junction, through the Bhutanese territory of Doklam plateau, will allow Beijing to run light battle tanks and artillery guns. Sources disclosed that this has raised heckles in the security establishment.

This is for the first time that China has adopted a provocative stance in the mid-eastern sector. All border incursions and build-ups in the last five years were in the Ladakh sector, where China feels the Indian defences are weak. Their foray in the Sikkim sector is unprecedented, prompting the top government officials to term the turn of events as "very serious".

Presently, nearly three thousand personnel are guarding the Indian side. Troops are rotated in a manner that ensures the overall strength is maintained, sources said.

China has refused to stop its construction activities in the disputed territory that it shared with Bhutan, even after strong objections were raised by both Bhutan and India.

When Army chief General Bipin Rawat held meetings with the commanders of the armed forces, the focus was on defence preparedness in the Sikkim sector.

Earlier this month, PLA personnel had breached the Line of Actual Control in the Sikkim sector and destroyed two makeshift Indian Army bunkers in Lalten area of the Doka La sector. Official sources, however, were tight-lipped and maintained that the Army chief's visit was a routine one, which was planned before the stand-off between the Indian Army and People's Liberation Army of China had even begun. The PMO is expected to take complete stock of the situation once the Army chief returns to New Delhi.
The implementation of GST has caught many people unawares like it happened in case of Indian Railways.

#WATCH Gujarat Queen train TTE collects Rs 20 each from passengers after #GST rollout. Passengers demand fare revision circular pic.twitter.com/l9PZ91kiCp  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

On the Gujarat Queen train, running between Ahmedabad and Valsad, the TTE asked passengers to pay extra Rs 20, which was reportedly levied in lieu of the GST. A video, which has gone viral on social platforms, shows an altercation between the TTE and the passengers after the latter refused to pay the additional amount.

The passengers were seen claiming that the charge must be levied on tickets booked after July 1, and not on those booked before the roll out of the new tax regime. They also demanded that the TTE show them the official circular in this regard.

Pradip Sharma, PRO of Ahmedabad Division of Western Railways, told THE WEEK that 0.5 per cent fare has increased in AC class due to GST and the slab is Rs 5 to Rs 20. It is applicable for all trains in which passengers boarded after 12 midnight, he said.
India and Pakistan exchanged a list of nationals lodged in the other's jails, on Saturday. The list includes civil captives and fishermen. This is a routine exchange, through diplomatic channels, in accordance with the provisions of the agreement on consular access between India and Pakistan. The agreement was signed on May 21, 2008. It entails that the two countries provide a comprehensive list of nationals in each other's jails, twice a year, on January 1 and July 1.

India made a fresh request for full and early consular access to Indian nationals Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav, who are currently incarcerated in a Pakistani prison. Ansari is a Mumbai-based engineer who was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012, reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online. A Pakistani military court later found him guilty of espionage.

Jadhav, a retired commander of the Indian Navy, was picked up from the Chabahar area in Iran, though Pakistan alleged he was picked up from Balochistan. Jadhav was awarded the death sentence by a military court in Pakistan. India appealed to the International Court of Justice in Hague, and the matter is currently being heard there. Repeated requests for consular access to Jadhav have gone unheeded.

"India remains committed to addressing, on priority, all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen...." said a release from the Ministry of External Affairs. "India has once again requested for the early release and rapatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen, along with their boats," the statement added.
India on Saturday called on Pakistan to grant consular access to Indians lodged in their custody including Mumbai resident Hamid Nehal Ansari and former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Both countries also exchanged lists of nationals lodged in the jails of the other country, in consistent with the provisions of the Agreement on Consular Access between both the neighbouring countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in this statement stated that, "India remains committed to addressing on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen. In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation."

The Consular Access agreement between New Delhi and Islamabad was signed on May 21, 2008, as per which the comprehensive list of nationals of each country lodged in other country's jails has to be exchanged twice each year, which takes places every year on January 1 and July 1.
Even as NCP state president Sunil Tatkare welcomed UPA's presidential candidate Meira Kumar in Mumbai on Friday, his former cabinet colleague and senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal was eagerly awaiting fate of his bail application from his cell in Mumbai's Arthur Road prison .

Chhagan Bhujbal | PTI

Arrested by ED and facing allegations of money laundering to the tune of Rs 870 crore, former deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal is keen to vote in upcoming presidential election. In his application, he has urged the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai to grant him bail for a day to vote on July 17 when voting will take place for the presidential election.

In a plea filed on Friday, Bhujbal urged the court that he should be granted bail for one day on July 17 so that he can exercise his right to vote in presidential election. The voting will take place at Vidhan Bhavan where all members of parliament and legislators from assembly and council will cast their vote. Bhujbal is a former deputy chief minister and current NCP legislator form Yeola in Nashik district.

The Enforcement Directorate, however, opposed Bhujbal's plea on technical grounds. While arguing against the plea, ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar pointed out that a special court like PMLA court can not decide on this issue as it does not have jurisdiction to decide on constitutional rights of the applicant. He said that only Bombay High Court can decide whether an under trial prisoner can be granted special permissions. Venegaonkar also pointed out that the issue whether Section 62 (5) of the People's Representation Act can be applied to presidential election is subjudice before Supreme Court and hence special PMLA court should not pass any order on Bhujbal's plea.

Bhujbal's lawyer Shalabh Krishna Saxena has now sought time from the court to decide whether to withdraw the application and file another plea in the High Court. The PMLA court asked Saxena whether he would like to withdraw the application or face rejection of the application. The case will come up for hearing again on Monday.
Fifty years ago this week, the world's first Automatic Teller Machine or ATM was put into service by three European banks, almost simultaneously.

On June 27, 1967, at the Enfield branch of Barclays Bank in London, the world's first customer-operated cash machine was open for business.

It was the brainchild of Scotsman John Shepherd Barron, managing director at banknote manufacturer De La Rue, who was inspired after he arrived at his bank 'one minute too late' to withdraw money. There were already chocolate vending machines everywhere. Why not cash vending machines, he thought-- and turned his idea into a piece of hardware. He got an order for six ATM machines from Barclays, and then another 50.

Barclay's commemorative website today, explains that there were no cards yet. "Customers had to get special vouchers from the bank, which were processed in the same way as cheques and debited to the customers account. Each voucher was worth 10 and was valid for six months. Vouchers were issued only to approved customers, who were given a six-digit code known only to them and the branch manager. An unbreakable punch code of the same numbers would be printed on the vouchers. Customers would sign the voucher and place it in a drawer in the ATM. The machine would then test the carbon-14 stripe on the voucher, which was a slightly radioactive material. Customers were then asked to enter their code, which was checked against the one on the voucher. If the two matched, the cash was dispensed in 1 notes in another drawer. Those who needed more than 10 could repeat the process with additional vouchers."

This week, Barclays unveiled a golden ATM at the site of that 1967 machine.

Only three days later, on June 30, 1967, a bank in Uppsala, Sweden, launched its own ATM, calling it the Bankomat. And in the first week of July, another British bankthe Westminster Bank (later NatWest and now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group)launched its own ATM using technology from safe-maker Chubb & Smith.

The tipping point came when Britain's largest bank, Lloyds, placed what it called Cashpoints in all its branches and many public places like shopping centres, starting from 1972. Cashpoints worked like ATMs todaywith cards.

Close encounters of the financial kind

When I landed in UK a few months later as a postgraduate student, the manager at the Birmingham University branch of Lloyds, opened a checking account for me in two minutes flat. Those were less complicated daysall I need to show him was my ID card issued, not by the University, but by the Students' Union. No 'minimum balance'. No 'two sureties'. The manager gave me a Cashpoint card and simultaneously deposited 5 in my account as an 'enrolling' gift. I stepped out and promptly withdrew 2 from the ATM, to pay for my lunch in the cafeteria next door. It was thrilling for me, who had never seen a cash machine, to draw money, anytime anywhere, without going to a bank. I did not then appreciate that by the accident of being in the UK at the right time, I was among the earliest users of what was to become the greatest self service finance technology of the century.

Back in India after a year, I had to wait another decade and more, to use an ATM. It was introduced by HSBC in 1987 in the Sahar Road branch of Andheri East, Mumbai.

But it was to be another six years before ATMs came to Kerala, where I then worked. The first ATM in Kerala was set up in Velayambalam, Thiruvananthapuram by the British Bank of the Middle East (now HSBC) in 1993, followed by the State Bank of Travancore at Statue junction in 1994 and Centurion Bank in Ernakulam. Among private banks, Citibank soon had the largest Indian ATM network. Way ahead now is State Bank of India with some 60,000 ATMs. The number will go up when the ATMS of affiliate State Banks, now merged, are also added

Today in India, there are over two lakh ATMs. But in a lopsided policy flowing from demonetisation, the government seems to have pressured banks to go slow on growing their ATM network, so that e-cash takes off . In doing this, it hasn't sensed the popular will. Even as the ATM crunch eased around April 2017, e-payment transactions shrunk as people returned with relief to cash.

ATMs will not go away in the foreseeable futurethey will morph into new systems that are cardless, contactlessand work with mobile phones.
In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rands stupid novel of epic proportions, John Galt invents a motor that runs on air. Hot air! No physics.

But an Israeli company, Water-Gen, has built a machine that produces water from aircold air. And good physics. The machine sucks in air from around it, and cools it to produce water, just like cold wind blows on clouds and makes rain. It runs on little electricity, and is already installed in the Israeli embassy in Delhi. Maxim Pasik, Water-Gens executive chairman, thinks it has huge potential in India. We will soon install one on pilot basis at Delhis Connaught Place, he said.

The machine comes in three sizesa small one for homes, which can make 20 litres a day (30 in India, where the air is humid); another that makes 600 litres a day for schools; and a third that makes 5,000 litres a day for townships.

With no piping or pumpingand just connected to a simple power plugthe machines water will cost Rs 1.6 per litre (at current rates). The other beauty is that it doesnt need maintenancejust change the filter once a year, said Michael Rutman, a director of Water-Gen.

Israel has many such wizardries to offer India, which the more advanced western world does not have. The reason is simple. Western technologies are based on abundance of resources, whereas Israeli technologies presuppose scarcity of resources. The desert country gets hardly a weeks rain a year, and has only two small barrages and no dams, but it exports tomatoes and flowers to Europe and peppers to the rest of the world.

The trick is not just drip irrigation; the Israelis even have sensors that find out when a plant is thirsty and wet its bedthe plant bed. Half the water that Israelis drink and use in farms is desalinated sea water; 80 per cent of the water, including sewage, is recycled.

Israel is already big in Indias farms, having opened 15 centres of excellence in India in agriculture, horticulture and micro-irrigation. Another 11 will be opened to train farmers in better practices.

Israels cows, fed on pomegranate peels, yield 40 litres a daythree times more than the best Indian cow. Cowsheds have sensors that guide cows into and away from the sun. Israels vets have found that too much exposure to the sun reduces yield.

Most of the power is from the sun, yet Israelis do not waste it. Lights in the government press office rooms go off when there is no movement for more than a few minutes; sensors detect human presence and switch lights on or off. Tel Aviv University has high-ceiling halls, but the air-conditioning, from the floor, works only up to six feet. It is simple physics that hot air goes up; it is smart engineering to cool the room from the floor.

Military commanders throughout history have insisted on economy of firepower; Israelis have technologies even for that. Hamas had been shooting rockets in thousands, and Israel developed missiles that anticipate the trajectory of the incoming rockets and fire at them. If an incoming rocket is expected to land in an open area, the launchers would just let the rocket land and waste its fire in the desert air. Engineers have also developed radars that detect tunnels dug by Hamas insurgents; archaeologists use the same radars to dig out ancient cities in Jerusalem, Jericho and elsewhere.

Israel leads in health care, not with expensive hospital machinery that the west sells, but with smart little gadgetry that makes health care cheap. Researchers have developed a kit that nurses can carry in their bags and detects cyst in the wombs of village women. The device looks for unusual hair growth on a womans facea sign of cyst growth.

Israeli innovators are ready to partner with India to upscale such technologies. Israel can be the lab, and India the factory, said Anat Bernstein-Reich, president of Israel-India Friendship Society, who believes that Israel can help India in water technologies, agriculture, irrigation, smart cities (Tel Aviv is rated as one of the worlds smartest cities), health care and more.

The big business with India is now in two Dsdefence and diamonds. Without defence, trade has been only $4.5 billion a year, half of which is made up by diamonds that are traded both ways: uncut to India, and cut diamonds back to Israel. Exportminus the two Dsamounted to just $1.15 billion last year, of which 80 per cent was telecom goods and electronics. Indias export to Israel, minus the diamonds, amounted to a paltry $800 million, mostly chemicals, textiles, plastics and rubber.

India figures in three shapes on the Israeli business radar. The first is as a market, one of the worlds largest, and one which would need Israels little technologies. The second is as a factory, where the technologies developed in Israel can be manufactured to scale. This fits in well with Narendra Modis Make in India. Moreover, Israel views itself as a startup nation, and its manufacturing economy is run largely by startups. Modis Startup India thus excites Israelis.

One problem area is Indias outmoded patent laws. Israelis jealously guard their intellectual property, much more than the westerners do. Bernstein-Reich, who is also a lawyer, wants India to make its patent laws stricter. Indias IP regime makes Israeli businessmen nervous, she said. We want the laws, and the law enforcement, to be stricter.

A third potential of India is as a conduit to the Arab world. Since Arab states do not have diplomatic or trade ties with Israel, Israeli traders see India, which has business and labour contacts with the rich Arabs, as a bridge. There is no untouchability about technologies, quipped an Israeli diplomat. They do buy our stuff through third countries. India can be one big third country. But the lack of a free trade pact with India is a barrier.

Indian companies have started investing in Israel. Jain Irrigation has bought Israels NaanDan, Triveni Engineering has invested in Aqwise, and Sun Pharma acquired controlling stakes in Taro Pharmaceuticals. Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, TechMahindra and Infosys are already there, as is State Bank of India.

Another area, which Israelis are a little reluctant to talk about, is the labour market. Though machines do a lot of jobs, Israel needs more people, too. Workers come in thousands from Thailand, but Israelis think that Indians, who speak English, could replace them. There are only 12,500 Indian citizens in Israel, most of them nurses and other hospital hands from Kerala, a few diamond traders from Gujarat and techies from all over.

Israelis believe that the fondness that the cultures have for each other should help businesses click. About 40,000 Israelis visit India every year; almost every youth wants to go to India for shalom and shanti on the banks of the Ganga or the lakeside of Pushkar, after his compulsory military service.

The Indian Hospice in Jerusalem, started by Sufi saint Baba Farid from Punjab, soon after Sultan Saladin and King Richard left after the third crusade 800 years ago, is a legend of fortitude in the strife-torn city. Even when the citys control changed hands several times during the 20th century, it survived as a beacon of peace and compassion, and is still run by the descendants of the baba.

Every Israeli who meets an Indian talks of how well India had treated its Jews, unlike how Europe had. It is almost a folklore herehow we were treated as the nobility there, said Yoel Elias, a Cochini Jew. There are about 85,000 Indian-origin Jews, 4,000 of who are expected to throng the Tel Aviv Exhibition Ground to listen to Modi. The majority are the Bene Israelis from Mumbai, many of who still speak a creole of Marathi, Hindi and Hebrew, followed by the Baghdadi Jews from Kolkata and the highly-regarded, but fewer Cochini Jews, who have their Malayalam songs, stories, appams and distinct rituals. Of late, a Mizo tribe has been recognised as a long-lost Jew tribe and its people have started migrating.

Eliyahu Bezalel, who hails from Chennamangalam near Kochi, is regarded as Israels foremost farm scientist; India honoured him with Pravasi Samman in 2005. Sheikh Ansari, who runs the Indian Hospice in Jerusalem, was honoured in 2011, and cardiothoracic surgeon Lael Anson Best in 2017.

Most Israeli universities have collaborations with Indian universities, not only in technology disciplines but also in humanities. President Reuven Rivlins visit to India last year saw the signing of 21 memorandums of understanding in education. Tel Aviv University has nearly 100 Indian postgraduate students.
Real Estate Investors is a Midlands-based property company with a track record of steady growth and generous dividend payments.

Recommended by Midas in July 2014 at 52p, the shares rose to 70p last year  then Brexit struck and REI suffered, along with almost every other property stock. Having fallen to 53p last summer, the price has crawled back to 60p, at which point the shares look rather cheap.

REI is run by Paul Bassi, a property market veteran with 35 years experience and a reputation for providing shareholder value.

Upmarket: Birmingham, where rents for retailers now outstrip those in Manchester

The group delivered a 271 per cent increase in underlying profits to 5.2 million last year and a total dividend of 2.625p. Further strong growth is expected this year  profits are forecast at about 6.5 million with a dividend of at least 3p, putting the stock on a yield of 5 per cent.

REI has 250 tenants and even the largest one accounts for just 3 per cent of group income. The business is entirely focused on the Midlands, a region peppered with manufacturers that have benefited from the Brexit vote, as the weak pound has boosted exports.

Birmingham is thriving too and retail rents are now higher than in cities such as Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Bristol.

HSBC is moving its retail bank head office to Birmingham, Revenue & Customs is moving thousands of staff to the city and trendy London restaurant The Ivy is opening an eaterie in the city centre.

This all bodes well for REIs prospects. Bassi said last month that rental income was rising and that any economic uncertainty arising from Brexit should provide the group with acquisition opportunities.

To that end, REI recently bought two sites, one in Birmingham for 6.1 million and a second in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, for 2.8 million. Both were bought off-market, so avoiding competitive auctions, and they benefit from financially secure tenants such as Travelodge, Subway and Dominos Pizza.

REI is also receiving strong interest from institutional investors looking for income-bearing properties outside London, so Bassi recently sold a property in Birmingham city centre for 7.2 million, a premium to the value at which the site was held in the books.

Midas verdict: Bassi owns more than 5 per cent of REI shares and is committed to expanding the business and delivering annual dividend growth. At 60p, the shares are a strong hold for existing shareholders, while new investors could also find value at current levels. REI may even be an attractive morsel for large, London-based property giants to swallow up in time.

Traded on: Main market Ticker: RLE Contact: reiplc.com or 0121 212 3446
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A non-profit advocacy organization for Planned Parenthood is disavowing a mailer released by state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) which uses the Planned Parenthood logo and a quote from the group. The flier features a photo of Peralta, who defected to the Independent Democratic Conference in January, and touts his support for reproductive rights and investing in Planned Parenthood.

It has come to our attention that a mailer has been disseminated creating the appearance that Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts has endorsed members of the Independent Democratic Conference, PPESA President and CEO Robin Chappelle Golston said. PPESA is a 501(c)(4), non-profit organization that advances public policy to increase access to reproductive health care. PPESA does not endorse any New York State or local elected officials or parties. We were blindsided and disheartened that the PPESA logo was used in a way that creates the appearance of an endorsement for a candidate or committee. This was done without our consent.

The mailer was not produced by Peraltas office but the IDC.

This is an issue-based mailer, not a campaign mailer, IDC spokeswoman Candice Giove said. It is meant to convey that the IDC is the only conference that universally supports a womans right to choose. Thats why we are calling on the minority Democratic conference to state where they stand on womens productive rights and call the roll.

Senate Democratic Communications Director Mike Murphy dismissed Gioves claim.

Senator Peralta and his cohorts in the IDC are lying to the people of New York, he said. The reality is by empowering Trumps allies in New York they are blocking crucial legislation to protect womens rights.

Peralta also angered more than 150 constituents who packed the Jackson Heights Jewish Center Monday night for a Wheres Peralta? town hall meeting by attending a meeting of the Ericsson Street Block Association in East Elmhurst instead. During a contentious town hall meeting in February, when Peralta tried to explain his reasons for joining the IDC, Peralta promised to hold a second town hall after the state budget was finished, but failed to schedule one,

My office constantly receives invitations to attend events to have conversations about issues affecting our communities. I regularly attend meetings like this because its important to me to listen to the people I represent, and deliver results for them. Unfortunately, Citizens for District 13' a group that my office has never hear of in the many years of dealing with community organizations  appears more focused on furthering a counterproductive anti-Independent Democratic Conference agenda than taking any action that has to do with a

healthy and constructive debate about the future of this district.

Susan Kang, a Jackson Heights resident and organizer with the organization No IDC, called his reason for skipping the town hall disingenuous.

Its too bad that Peralta seems scared to meet with his constituents, Kang said. I sent out the original invite from my email to his scheduler, and since I was one of the original citizens to demand the first town hall, Peralta knows who I am. We are further disappointed that his office never wrote me back or gave any other constituents a yes or no response regarding his attendance. In the end, it is Peraltas loss to refuse to meet with his constituents. One hundreds people were locked of his February town hall and he promised to continue the conversation on the IDC. If Senator Peralta doesnt know us now, he will certainly get to know us well because we will not stop holding him accountable.
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By Bill Parry

Three months after Mayor Bill de Blasio endorsed the findings of the blue-ribbon Lippman Commission report on closing the citys most notorious jail, he presented Smaller, Safer, Fairer: A Roadmap to Closing Rikers Island last week. In the plan are 18 concrete steps the city is taking to shutter the facility and replace it with a smaller network of jails in each borough.

The plan includes $30 million over the next three years to accelerate the reduction of the jail population, while renovating the current facilities.

New York City is at the forefront, both for ending mass incarceration and reducing crime. We have the smallest rate of incarceration of any big city in the country and crime continues to drop, de Blasio said. Closing Rikers Island is a continuation of this important work. We are building a correctional system that is smaller, safer and fairer  one in which jails are safe and humane.

To ensure effective implementation of the roadmap, the city is launching a Justice Implementation Task Force that will coordinate with groups inside and outside of government to focus on safely reducing the jail population and achieving a smaller jail system.

City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton), the co-chairman of the Progressive Caucus, agreed.

The horror stories about Rikers Island are endless and heartbreaking, which is why creating a smart, well-thought out plan with all stakeholders at the table is one of the most crucial policies we can work on as a city, he said. Tough decisions will have to be made and decades of neglect will not be solved overnight. With every major leader in the city on board, there is no better time than now to address the vast amount of issues that have plagued our citys jail system.

City Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Hillcrest), the chairman of the Committee on Courts and Legal Services, is not so sure.

The plan the mayor released to close Rikers Island is a political document whose numbers dont add up on its face. It certainly doesnt set us on a path to closing Rikers within 10 years, Lancman said. The mayors plan barely expands supervised release, abdicates responsibility for the siting of the new jails, and is overly reliant for keeping people out of jail on an updated flight risk assessment tool that currently does not even exist. Let there be no doubt: New York City can close Rikers Island in less than 10 years if we have the leadership and political will required to do so.

Glenn Martin, the founder and president of Just LeadershipUSA, who organized a march last September through Astoria demanding that Rikers be closed, has his doubts as well. Martin, whose organization is dedicated to cutting down the nations jail population, was a member of the Lippman Commission.

While the mayor spends his time assembling a task force, New Yorkers at Rikers  mostly black and brown  continue to suffer in deplorable conditions and face routine human rights abuses, Martin said. After dismissing the report from the yearlong work of the expert Lippman Commission as a bunch of volunteers making recommendations, the mayor will need to prove his authenticity by sharing a plan that is equally thoughtful and reflective of the communitys input. Make no mistake: Any plan that does not incorporate the voices and experiences of people most harmed by Rikers will be dead on arrival.
ALBANY  If you've always lived and voted in Albany, it may not seem so unusual to cast your vote for a local school board candidate alongside your vote for mayor, governor or even president in the November general election.

That's the way it's been done since the 1970s, in fact, when residents first gained the right to elect members of the school board in a major departure from the cronyism of the Erastus Corning II era.

But it's not how most cities do it. Indeed, only Rochester and Syracuse hold school board elections in November. The nearly 700 other districts around the state hold elections on the third Tuesday in May, on the same day as their budget votes.

"When you start to look at all the reasons behind the timing, it really makes no sense whatsoever to still be doing this in November," Albany Board of Education President Sue Adler said.

It's something the current school board hopes to change, and for the first time in decades, it's found some traction. A bill that passed the Legislature this month would move Albany's school board elections from November to May, putting it in line with most other board elections in the state.

The pros are many, Adler argues.

It would allow voters to decide school matters  a multimillion-dollar budget, capital projects and school board candidates  all on the same day, and separate them from the highly political and combustible setting of the November general election.

It would allow new members to assume office on July 1, the start of the school fiscal year, and get a head start on legally mandated board training while school's still out. And it would allow new members to follow the budget development process from start to finish, rather than parachuting into the process in January, when terms now begin.

"We start doing program reviews in the fall to help inform our budget planning," Adler said. "To thrust someone new into the middle of deciding a $234 million budget without their having been there from the beginning is a lot to ask."

Of course, May elections have their own downside in the form of lower voter turnout. Voters are far more likely to show up when they get to pick a new mayor, governor or president, than when they get to vote on a local school budget.

But Adler is wary. The people who show up to vote for president in November are far less likely to know who's running for school board and what the issues facing the local school system are than those who show up to vote on the school budget in May, she contends.

"People who aren't invested in school issues will go into the voting booth and either randomly vote for members of the school board or not vote for them at all," she said.

Such behavior was predicted long ago by the city's Democratic Party, which used to recruit board candidates whose last names were at the start of the alphabet  Abrookin, Amodeo, Cahill, Callahan and so on  since their names would appear first on the ballot and perhaps be selected by lazy voters rushing to fill out a ballot.

"It's like voting Row A all the way; it's one way control is maintained," Virginia Hammer told the Times Union in 1987 after she had been tasked with studying Albany's school board election procedures for the League of Women Voters.

The concern then  and it's one that lingers today  is that the partisan nature of November elections corrupts what should be a nonpartisan school board election.

"If there is one certain thing about over-all State education policy, it is that school board elections should be kept apart from general political contests," the late Chief Judge Stanley Fuld wrote in a 1971 court ruling on Albany school board elections.

Although state education law mandates nonpartisan school board elections, it was an unspoken rule in Albany for years that school board candidates be hand-picked by local Democratic leaders. It wasn't unusual to see Democratic committeemen carrying petitions for school board candidates and distributing party palm cards with their names.

Such behavior would be rebuked today, but party politics are still carried out in subtler ways. Local school boards are a popular launching pad for wannabe politicians, and it's not uncommon to see freshman members leave after one term to pursue other opportunities.

"When I was running for school board I remember people asking me what party I was running with, and I'd have to explain to them that, no, school board elections are non-partisan," Adler said. "And they'd laugh."

Unfortunately, she said, candidates for school board often have to campaign alongside partisan candidates just to get their names out  a process that involves attending political fundraisers, endorsements and meetings.

"School board campaigns often wind up becoming politicized and when school board candidates become political, public education suffers," she wrote in a letter to lawmakers this May seeking support for the bill.

Previous boards have discussed moving elections to May, but didn't get far, Adler said. In October, a then-seven-member school board voted unanimously to propose legislation to change the date.

The bill was sponsored in the Assembly by Patricia Fahy and John McDonald III, and in the Senate by Neil Breslin. It passed in June, and is now awaiting the governor's signature. The board is hoping that comes soon, so that it can inform residents of the change before the petitioning period for November's election gets underway July 11.

Three seats on the board are up for re-election this November. They belong to Adler, Ellen Roach and Kenny Bruce, who resigned in May following yearlong tensions with the board.
TROY  A fugitive from Massachusetts wanted for kidnapping, weapons possession and attempted murder was apprehended in the city's Griswold Heights housing complex, police said Friday.

Officers were alerted by Massachusetts State Police that Juan Gutierrez, 22, was believed to be in the Troy area with a woman and officers narrowed down the area where they thought he could be hiding,leading them to the complex.

On patrol, Officer Ryan MacDonald saw a man resembling Gutierrez walking in the complex with a woman, stopped the man and with the help of back-up police determined he was Gutierrez.

Gutierrez, of Southbridge, Mass., was taken into custody without incident and was being held in the city police lockup on a fugitive from justice charge for later proceedings.

In order police and court news this week:
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GUILDERLAND  A portion of Route 20 will be named for a two-star general who was the highest-ranking American military officer to be killed in a combat zone since the Vietnam War.

Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene  who was born in Albany, grew up in Guilderland and graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy  spent 34 years in the military.
New York

Backyard cooks looking to grill this summer have another option: hot dogs without "added nitrites."

Are they any healthier?

Oscar Mayer is touting its new hot dog recipe that uses nitrite derived from celery juice instead of artificial sodium nitrite, which is used to preserve the pinkish colors of processed meats and prevents botulism. Kraft Heinz, which owns Oscar Mayer, says sodium nitrite is among the artificial ingredients it has removed from the product to reflect changing consumer preferences. The change comes amid a broader trend of big food makers purging ingredients that people may feel are not natural.

But nitrites are nitrites  and the change makes little difference  according to those who advise limiting processed meat and those who defend it.

Kana Wu, a research scientist at Harvard's school of public health, said in an email that it is best to think of processed meat made with natural ingredients the same as those made with artificial nitrites.

Wu was part of a group that helped draft the World Health Organization report in 2015 that said processed meats such as hot dogs and bacon were linked to an increased risk of colon cancer. She notes WHO did not pinpoint what exactly about processed meats might be to blame for the link.

One concern about processed meats is that nitrites can combine with compounds found in meat at high temperatures to fuel the formation of nitrosamines, which are known carcinogens in animals. It's a chemical reaction that can happen regardless of the source of the nitrites, including celery juice.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture caps the amount of artificial nitrites that can be added to meats to prevent excessive use, said Andrew Milkowski, a retired Oscar Mayer scientist who consults for the meat industry. Meat makers also add ingredients to processed meat like bacon that help block the formation of nitrosamines, he said.

Though the terms nitrates and nitrites are used interchangeably, the meat industry says it's mainly sodium nitrite that companies currently use to cure meats such as hot dogs, cold cuts and bacon.

For Oscar Mayer hot dogs, the packages now list ingredients like celery juice that has been treated with bacterial culture. That turns the naturally occurring nitrates in celery juice into nitrites that serve a similar purpose.

While the nitrites derived from celery juice are no better, the switch may nevertheless help address negative consumer perceptions, said Milkowski, who also teaches at the University of Wisconsin's department of animal sciences.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest agrees nitrites from natural sources aren't that different from artificial nitrites in processed meats. But the group has cited the WHO report in calling for a cancer warning label on processed meats, regardless of how they're made. It also says nitrite-preserved foods tend to be high in salt and should be limited or avoided anyway. The American Cancer Society also suggests limiting processed and red meats.

The meat industry has contested the WHO's finding, saying it is based on studies that show a possible link but don't prove a cause, and that single foods shouldn't be blamed for cancer. Many health experts also say there's no reason to worry about an occasional hot dog or bologna sandwich.

And while natural preservatives may not make hot dogs any healthier, they fit with the growing preference for ingredients like celery juice that people can easily recognize.
Albany

From a guarded 25-acre compound in the Poconos, Fethullah Gulen preaches to millions of worldwide followers. The two main buildings at his compound reportedly resemble the architecture of Turkey, where Gulen remains an influential figure despite his 18-year exile.

Turkey's increasingly authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blames Gulen for fomenting a bloody coup attempt in Turkey last year; the Turkish government wants to see him extradited. Gulen denies those allegations, and his supporters say he preaches messages of service, tolerance and education.

A public records search concerning Gulen's Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center turns up potential dealings closer to home.

In 2013, the credit database service Experian opened a file on an entity listed as Apple Educational Ser. The address given for that firm is 1857 Mt. Eaton Road in Saylorsburg, Pa.  Gulen's compound.

Apple Educational Services is a New Jersey-based charity incorporated in New York in 2005 by a number of Turkish men living in the United States. New York Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has released three reports flagging contracts between Apple or related entities and Gulen-inspired charter schools in three upstate cities.

PAUL BUCKOWSKI

According to a March report by CBS News, the FBI is investigating whether money is being skimmed from taxpayer-funded, Gulen-inspired charter schools in America in order to support his movement in Turkey. About 140 schools in the United States are considered to be part of the Gulen movement, which in its schools in the United States focus on math and science education.

In New York, Gulen-inspired schools operate in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. The schools are often staffed with Turkish men here on visas meant for highly skilled workers, and their boards of directors are also generally well-represented with Turkish men.

PAUL BUCKOWSKI

None of the leaders of the upstate New York charter school officials said they had any knowledge of any FBI probe in New York.

But an extensive Times Union review of public records found a pattern of deals involving those New York schools and two charities that provide services to them: Apple Educational Services and Terra Science and Education.

Out of all the possible locations where the Gulen movement charter schools could locate in Utica, Syracuse or Rochester, all have selected Terra Science and Education as their landlord.

In several instances, Terra  founded in 2010 and based in Syracuse  has purchased land and then received rents from the schools in amounts that would quickly exceed the purchase prices. Some staffers at the schools or members of their boards of directors  the people who decide where to steer school contracts  also have been affiliated with Apple or Terra.

For instance, three people that have been board presidents for the schools in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica were also listed as the directors of Terra in its 2011 tax return. Unlike traditional public schools, there is no public vote to pick the boards of directors for charter schools.

In the school year that begins this fall, state taxpayers will provide more than $26.7 million to Gulen-inspired charter schools in New York, according to an analysis done by the New York State United Teachers union, which has warred with charter schools.

NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn said the State Education Department and lawmakers "should revoke these charters and reform the charter law to ensure real accountability and transparency for how public funds are spent and students are served."

Leaders of the schools strongly deny there are any fiscal irregularities, and insist their rental agreements are standard and represent good deals for taxpayers.

They also point to strong academic results: The Buffalo Academy of Science, also known as BuffSci, was named one of America's best high schools in 2017 by U.S. News & World Report. Ninety-five percent of students at the school are economically disadvantaged and 13 percent have special needs, according to Joseph Polat, the school's director, who said the school is "not motivated or governed by any political causes."

DANIEL ETTER

Gulen-inspired schools around the world  there are estimated to be roughly 1,000  are known for giving scholarships to the poor  a practice in keeping with what his supporters describe as his reading of Islam that emphasizes peaceful coexistence, tolerance and service. Some believe he is a force against Islamic extremism.

While the schools in the United States do not have a religious bent, the influence of Turkish culture can be seen. For instance, the schools in Buffalo and Utica have hired Turkish language teachers that came to the United States on work visas.

After the failed coup attempt in Turkey, Gulen schools there were shut down. The Turkish government has designated his network as a terrorist organization, and sought to purge its members from bureaucratic ranks. In April, Erdogan tightened his grip on power by winning a ballot referendum giving him sweeping new authority.

In the United States, the Turkish government has also sought to undermine the Gulen charter schools by funding lawyers and high-profile representatives to assail the movement and its affiliates. (A Times Union request for comment made through Gulen's website was not answered.)

If there has been another center of Gulen's movement in the northeast United States besides his Poconos compound, it may be a one-story brick building at 545 Interstate Place in Carlstadt, N.J.

In 2004, a nonprofit that would eventually be renamed the Peace Islands Institute  an organization inspired by Gulen that spreads his ideas  rented out the Carlstadt property. Other nonprofits tied to the Gulen movement have also listed the address.

Officials of a company called Zaman Ltd. listed the address when they were soliciting H1-B visa applicants to fill editorial positions at the company. Zaman was Turkey's largest, pro-Gulen newspaper, and has had an English-language edition. The Turkish government took the newspaper over during its crackdown on opposition.

RUTH FREMSON

Mixed in with these companies and nonprofits are the education nonprofits that have landed deals with charter schools in upstate New York.

Apple Educational Services has listed the same Carlstadt address both in its 2007 tax return and on an old version of its website, though it now lists a different New Jersey address. And a number of other companies that have received contracts from the upstate New York charter schools can also be linked to the Carlstadt address through public records.

One nonprofit also tied to the Carlstadt address is North East Turkish American Scholars Inc. Its board of directors has featured leaders of both of the charities that have landed the upstate New York contracts. The group's board has included Fehmi Damkaci, the president of Terra and the leader of the Syracuse charter school's board of directors, and Mesut Sahin, who has served as the president of Apple Educational Services.

Buffalo

A 2013 audit from DiNapoli's office examined a lease agreement BuffSci signed in 2006 with a New Jersey firm. Though the entity was unnamed in this audit and others from DiNapoli's team, the comptroller's office confirmed it was Apple Educational Services.

Apple Educational Services purchased the old Young Women's Christian Association building in Buffalo for $650,000 in 2006. The president of BuffSci told the comptroller's office it did not communicate with Apple before signing a lease at the property  but that assertion contradicted 2005 board minutes, DiNapoli's auditors found.

"We find it surprising that (Apple)  in business for less than a year with no apparent real estate experience and with limited financial resources  would have purchased the YWCA building without prior communication with (BuffSci) officials and without some form of commitment from the school to enter into a lease agreement," the audit found.

Auditors also questioned whether the transaction was done at the required "arm's length" to prevent self-dealing. And it flagged another arrangement: The school and not the landlord, Apple, was responsible for paying costs such as utilities, general maintenance and repairs.

The lease agreement appeared to benefit Apple more than BuffSci, the audit found, with the lease payments exceeding Apple's costs by more than $4.4 million  a return on investment of more than 200 percent.

In 2015, Apple sold the property back to BuffSci for $4.15 million, more than six times the amount Apple had paid for the property nine years earlier.

In buying the property, BuffSci also got $3.4 million in tax-exempt bond financing from the Eric County Industrial Development Agency.

"Public funds are managed carefully by the school as this can be confirmed by our independent auditors, review of our financial records, and meeting minutes," Polat said.

He said a search committee had considered 19 different sites before choosing Apple as a landlord in 2006.

Polat said that the $4.4 million property purchase from Apple in 2015 was at "appraised value" for a property in downtown Buffalo, which has experienced a real estate boom in recent years; it also reflected "major capacity improvements" such as a new heating and cooling system, a "tear-off" roof, new windows and additional classrooms. He also said the school had received a "rent credit" from Apple which dropped the purchase price to $3.7 million.

"We have no affiliation or relationship with Apple Educational Services," he said. "In purchasing the property from Apple, each party was represented by separate counsel and the terms of the deal were negotiated at arm's length."

But if officials at the school are not directly connected to Apple, there are notable second-degree connections. The president of BuffSci's board of directors has been Murat Demirbas, a University at Buffalo computer science and engineering professor. In a 2011 tax return, Demirbas is listed as the treasurer of Terra Science & Education, the other Gulen-affiliated education management nonprofit.

Polat said Demirbas left Terra's board in 2012, and noted that the Buffalo school has not done any business with the nonprofit.

Syracuse

In tax returns, Terra has listed the address of its Syracuse headquarters as 1001 Park Ave.  the same address as Syracuse Academy of Science's high school. (Terra used to rent cubicle space from the school for a half-time employee, according to Terra, but now has moved into a bigger office.)

That school is one of three locations in Syracuse that have paid rent to Terra in amounts that  as in the case of BuffSci  seem to total far more than the amount Terra paid for the land it's renting to the schools.

Terra says that rent analysis should not be done based on how much is getting paid, but by the square foot. It says rents at all Terra-owned schools are between $4.75 and $5.75, which it says can run as high as $8 to $10 for other non-Terra owned charter schools in similar markets.

In another seeming overlap, Terra's website has listed its address as 1409 W. Genesee St., where the Syracuse Academy of Science's "district office"  a property in addition to its three Terra-owned school locations  is based. Terra said it now operates out of a different location.

Those are not the only close ties between the schools and its landlord.

Fehmi Damkaci has served as president of the board of directors for the Syracuse Academy of Science schools; he is also the president of Terra.

Damkaci has "never been paid either by the schools or by Terra," Terra said in a statement, adding that he has "actually dedicated his life, as an educator, to both institutions to increase STEM awareness" in central New York.

Annual reports issued by the school state that Damkaci "abstains from voting matters affecting both the school and Terra."

Under the terms of three 15-year leases with Terra at its three locations, the Syracuse schools will pay $908,000 in total rent in 2017, according to Syracuse Academy's annual report. The amount increases annually by either 4 percent or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater.

Like all the Gulen-inspired schools that do business with Apple or Terra, Syracuse Academy is also responsible for paying utility bills and maintenance. Terra says that "almost all commercial leases" actually require the tenant to pay expenses like insurance and maintenance, not the landlord. That view was echoed by commercial real estate experts contacted by the Times Union.

Property records show that Syracuse Academy's high school was purchased in 2011 for $1.26 million, and that its elementary school for $375,000. Its middle school was purchased by Terra in 2014 for $350,000, records show.

In other words, based on those rents the payments to Terra would pay off the property purchase prices in about two years.

When Terra decided to construct its elementary school, it bypassed local contractors and hired Apple Educational Services, the New Jersey firm involved in the flagged Buffalo transactions, the Syracuse New Times reported.

Galip Bak, the director of the Syracuse Academy from 2013 to 2016, said in an interview that it was easier for Terra to get a loan from banks than it was for a charter school, which must have its charter renewed by state government every five years. Bak said he "kept pressing" for Terra to "do something for our school" because of the revenues it seemed to be making; Terra subsequently implemented a scholarship program for Syracuse students.

There are other close connections between Syracuse Academy and Apple, or companies closely tied to it.

From 2006 to 2008, Tolga Hayali was the "group science coordinator" for Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile. In August 2008, he took a job as director of the Syracuse Academy. Since 2013, he has been the superintendent of both the Syracuse charters and another set of Gulen-inspired schools in Utica.

A DiNapoli audit of Syracuse Academy covering July 2010 through 2012  the period in which Hayali was director  found that the school purchased equipment and furnishings from a "limited group of four vendors that were affiliated with one another" as well as Apple and a sixth that were in "close proximity." All hailed from New Jersey.

When Syracuse Academy sought bids for various goods or services  from computers and furniture to clothing  it failed to solicit the required number of bids, the audit found. In some cases, quotes were sometimes dated after purchases were made.

Also, the six vendors that were picked did not always specialize in the items they were selling, and the audit questioned whether $383,000 in purchases could have been obtained at lower prices.

Apple received $308,000 to provide software support, testing and staff training. The school did not solicit other bids for the services during the audit period. (School officials did issue a request for proposal for 2012-13.)

The Syracuse Academy did not return request for comment. But in 2014, Damkaci dismissed the issues raised by DiNapoli's audit to the Syracuse New Times as "procedural problems." He said the school had been unaware that at least two of the vendors were related to one another.

Rochester

Four of the Apple-affiliated New Jersey companies flagged in DiNapoli's Syracuse audit came in for criticism in another audit of Gulen-inspired schools in and around Rochester.

A DiNapoli audit of Rochester Academy Charter School from July 2011 to March 2013 found that its procurement process was not competitive enough, and lacked proper documentation to support decisions. The school "used restrictive practices in some of their purchases, which undermine the intent of true competition."

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It also stated that although the payments made to the four vendors appeared to be separate, the same person endorsed the checks. One of the purchases  from a company called Inspire Uniforms  was for tables and chairs, even there was no evidence the vendor sold those wares.

"The (school's) Business Manager told us that he believed the vendors in question were members of a partnership that had the same owner," the audit states.

Mehmet Demirtas, director of Rochester Academy, said in a statement that he had no knowledge of the reported FBI probe and the school has "never diverted funds to any person or entity."

He said the DiNapoli audit did "not find any evidence of a misuse of the charter school's funds" and noted that the state Board of Regents has approved a full, five-year extension of the school's charter.

Terra Science and Education plays a role in Rochester, as well: It is the landlord for at least one of the Rochester Academy schools, at 1757 Latte Road in the town of Greece. The property, a high school, was purchased by Terra in May 2016 for $700,000.

The Rochester Academy is paying $7.76 per square foot to Terra, according to Demirtas, which he said is below the average rate for acceptable commercial rental properties in the metro Rochester area. He provided an analysis of rental rates showing the rent to be in the mid-range as compared with other local charter schools.

Terra says it also put in $1.2 million in renovations.

The school's board of trustees has begun negotiations with Terra to purchase the building, which would result in an expected saving of $13,000, according to Demirtas. He said the school expected to close on the deal "within a few weeks."

As in Syracuse, there is a Rochester connection between the school board that makes contracting decisions and Terra, which landed a contract. Mahmut Gedemenli, who has been president of the board of directors at Rochester Academy, in 2011 was listed in tax filings as the secretary of the board of Terra. His volunteer work ended after one year.

Utica

As noted, Fehmi Damkaci has been chairman of the Syracuse schools' board and the president of Terra. He also has been the president of the board of the Utica Academy of Science Charter School. As in Syracuse, the school's reports say Damkaci refrains from voting on matters involving Terra.

PAUL BUCKOWSKI

And the Utica Academy superintendent is Tolga Hayali, the Syracuse superintendent who is a former official at Apple.

According to a June 2015 report, the school projected paying $222,000 in rent over the following year for its high school location at 160 School Lane in the nearby village of Frankfort, equating to more than $19,200 a month. The lease runs through 2030 and will increase each year by either 4 percent or the Consumer Price Index.

The property was purchased by Terra in April 2015 for $425,000, which means that at just the base rent Terra would recoup the cost of the land in less than two school years.

In 2015-2016, the school was in 2015-2016 to pay only $72,000, or $6,000 a month, at a location at 1214 Lincoln Ave. Notably, that property is not owned by Terra, but by Holy Trinity Church.

As in the other three upstate cities, under both leases, the school and not the landlord, is responsible for payment of utilities, maintenance, and real property taxes. The school paid a total of more than $111,000 in maintenance costs in the school year ending in June 2016. The school itself was also expected to pick up $15,000 in property taxes in 2015-2016, according to its 2015 annual report.

Unlike the schools in Buffalo, Syracuse or Rochester, a DiNapoli audit in 2015 of contracting at the Utica school returned an entirely clean bill of health. These audits "are not for the faint of heart," said Mustafa Ersoy, director of the Utica Academy of Science. "If the Comptroller's office gives an entity a clean bill of health, you can be sure it is very healthy."

Ersoy also suggested that he would sue the Times Union if there were a suggestion the school was engaged in fraudulent behavior.

He said DiNapoli's office had reviewed its transaction with Terra and found no issues. He said the Terra-owned Frankfort property  with the substantially higher rent  was not comparable to the less costly Holy Trinity school building, which was "substantially lower in grade and quality" and did not include a gym, a full-service kitchen and a functional cafeteria.

Ersoy said the Utica school asked Terra to purchase the property, renovate it and lease it on reasonable terms. Terra spent $400,000 renovating the new property and is charging $4.85 per square foot, he said, while the average commercial lease in Utica was about $10 per foot at that time.

"I do not believe you can find a banker or developer anywhere in the state that would provide better terms," Ersoy said.

The charities

Terra said in its statement that in all the properties it owns in Syracuse, Rochester and Utica, it not only had to pay the purchase price for land, it had to pay for financing costs, attorney fees and renovations to meet the needs of the charter schools. The renovation costs ranged from $300,000 to $1.2 million, according to Terra, and the charity often acted as the general contractor to reduce costs.

With its money, Terra Science and Education officials say it also funds academic fairs, trips for students to compete in competitions in other states, teacher development conferences, merit-based awards for teachers in Utica and a free four-week college readiness program for Syracuse students, among other endeavors.

Apple's executive director, John Durmaz, said he has been in the position for only three years. Changes in internal administration and management "makes it very difficult, if not impossible" to respond to many of the Times Union's questions about the charity's links to the larger Gulen movement, he said.

Durmaz said that during his time running Apple the organization has provided educational database services, professional development programs for teachers and administrators and supplemental educational and exam preparation services. He said Apple has no current service contracts with any of the upstate schools.

"Needless to say, AES has no ties or affiliation with any organization or schools," Durmaz said.

The schools emphasized that state education officials visit the schools annually to speak to parents, teachers and administrators, and they must file annual reports detailing the operations and finances.

The state Board of Regents, which charters and oversees the schools, seems pleased with their performance. At a mid-June meeting in of the K-12 committee in Albany, they recommended without controversy to allow the Buffalo Academy of Science to dramatically increase in size.

"This is one of the highest-performing schools in the Buffalo City School District," said David Frank, executive director of the Department of Education's charter schools office.

The Regents' committee also recommended the merger of the boards of directors at the Syracuse and Utica schools. Syracuse's academics were "strong," and the merger would allow Utica to get "more support from the Syracuse school," Frank said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said it has "provided extensive oversight and monitoring to these schools," and that corrective action was taken after the audits raised issues.

Mehmet Demirtas, director of the Rochester Academy, said the schools were victims of a smear campaign.

"I understand that there are some powerful political forces that seek to denigrate charter schools and eliminate or constrict that charter school option and reduce its availability to students," Demirtas said. "These efforts are motivated by a myriad of interests, but I do not believe any of them center on the best interests of our community's children or their families."

cbragg@timesunion.com  518-454-5303  @ChrisBragg1
Fethullah Gulen's civic movement is inspired by the concept of "hizmet," which means "service" in Turkish. The Turkish Cultural Center in Albany is affiliated with the movement, although no Gulen-inspired charter schools operate in the Capital Region.

In Turkey, the movement is portrayed by the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as shadowy and bent on infiltrating key parts of the government, such as the judiciary and police. Last year, Turkey's strongman leader  a onetime Gulen ally  charged that the violent July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey that resulted in widespread arrests and more than 250 deaths, was organized by Gulen from Pennsylvania. The cleric denies it, and Erdogan's tactics both at home and abroad have drawn sharp criticism. In April, Turkey's chief prosecutor opened an investigation of 17 people, including New York U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, for what were termed possible connections to the Gulen movement and the coup. In May, members of Erdogan's security team were accused of assaulting peaceful protesters outside the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C.
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Albany

Since Ersin Konkur was a 15-year-old living in Turkey, he has been influenced by the movement of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who now lives in Pennsylvania and preaches a moderate version of Islam and the teaching of science and math in schools worldwide.

Konkur was tutored by college students who were part of the movement, assistance that helped him get into one of the best universities in Istanbul.

But after Konkur came to the United States to teach math at schools inspired by Gulen's movement, his experience was markedly different.

According to Konkur, Turkish teachers at charter schools in Texas and Utica were required to pay a portion of their taxpayer-funded salaries back to the schools. When he ultimately refused to pay the "tithe," Konkur says, he was fired in 2015 from the Utica Academy of Science.

The school strongly denies forcing the payment of any sort of kickback.

Konkur, who says he gave back about $10,000 of his salary over his first year teaching in Utica, provided the Times Union with what he said were copies of checks he wrote to charities in Rochester that share an address with a prominent arm of the Gulen movement.

According to a March report by CBS News, the FBI is investigating whether money is being skimmed from taxpayer-funded charter schools in America that are aligned with Gulen, with the goal of funding his movement in Turkey. More than 140 schools in the United States, which focus on the teaching of math and science, are considered to be part of the movement.

SEE THE CBS NEWS REPORT HERE

In upstate New York, schools that observers believe are Gulen-inspired operate in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. The schools and their governing boards are dominated by Turkish men, many of them here on visas meant for highly skilled workers.

Mustafa Ersoy, director of the Utica Academy of Science Charter School, said in a lengthy statement that Konkur was fired because his students had performed poorly on tests.

Ersoy also stressed that Konkur had met with Robert Amsterdam, an attorney retained by the Turkish government to research and file litigation targeting the Gulen movement. Turkey's increasingly authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blames Gulen  who fled from Turkey in 1999  for fomenting a July 2016 coup attempt from Pennsylvania, a charge Gulen denies.

"Since leaving (Utica Academy), Mr. Konkur has been a constant critic of the school, spreading misrepresentations about it and its personnel whenever an opportunity presents itself  just as he has with you," Ersoy said. "To be very clear, the allegations you report that he made to you regarding UASCS are entirely false. I would point out that if these things had occurred, Mr. Konkur could and should have reported them to the New York State Department of Labor or the U.S. Department of Labor, which would have investigated and addressed any such conduct. However, he never reported these allegations to any governmental agency."

Konkur, however, is not the only person to make such an allegation. Mustafa Emanet, a former IT administrator at a Gulen-inspired charter in Ohio, told CBS News in March he had been forced to pay back about 40 percent of his salary. The school told CBS it was cooperating with a federal probe into the matter.

For his part, Konkur says he has met with the Department of Homeland Security about his allegations.

The Gulen schools across the country have hired a large number of Turkish men on H1-B visas, which are meant to be for highly skilled jobs.

Records show that in Utica, math, science and computer science teachers have been hired through the program, as well as a college guidance counselor and a Turkish language teacher.

At the Syracuse Academy of Science, the visas have even been used to hire physical education teachers.

One such HB-1 recipient in Utica was Konkur, who came to the United States in 2008 at age 28. There was a powerful incentive to keep his job: His visa and entry to the United States could be revoked if he became unemployed, he said.

PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Konkur said he and many others inspired by the Gulen movement came to the United States because they wanted to help poorer students that are often charter school students.

"We came here because we really felt that we wanted to work for the kids," Konkur said. "I came here to serve people."

He taught at a private school in Virginia for a year, and had a good experience. Then he taught for two years at charters in El Paso, and two years in Dallas at Gulen schools.

It was in Texas, he said, that his salary was first tithed. Konkur said school employees also were frequently asked to clean out their email, cellphones and houses.

"They were trying to hide that we were following Gulen," Konkur said.

In 2013, Konkur said he got a call from Galip Bak, the former director at the Syracuse Academy of Science, who told him there was an opening for a math teacher at a new school. Konkur said he submitted no application and was simply "hired by the network" of Gulen followers.

Konkur says that on Aug. 31, 2013  before he had received a paycheck in the new post  he was told by the then-Utica school director, Kadir Yavuz, to pay the school's business manager $2,000. Konkur said an explanation was not offered, but "the same thing had happened in Texas."

Konkur provided the Times Union with what he said was a copy of a $2,000 receipt he demanded in exchange for cash he handed over the next day. He provided another one for $580 in November 2014. The first receipt, Konkur says, was signed by the business manager, Murat Gunes, the second, with the initials M.G. No reason for the payments was listed on the receipts. Konkur maintains that Gunes refused to list one.

Konkur also provided three checks he wrote from July to September 2014 totaling $2,797.91 made out to a charity called "High Way Education," and another written in April 2014 to the Rochester Turkish Cultural Center.

Both the Turkish Cultural Center and High Way Education list an address in Rochester at 2692 Dewey Ave.

According to tax filings, High Way works to "provide math, English, science and foreign language for the children." The same address is listed as the upstate New York office of the Peace Islands Institute, a charity that works to spread Gulen's ideas.

Konkur said he finally stopped paying in January 2015. By February, the school had cut his salary from $49,440 to $39,500.

He said the school's human resources staff asked him to sign a backdated contract with the pay cut, but Konkur refused. He sued in small claims court, and says he was offered a settlement.

"It was, 'Keep your money  but keep your mouth closed and sit down,' " Konkur said.

Konkur again refused, and claims that three days before a court date in June 2015 the school agreed to pay back the lost salary.

Konkur says he was fired a week later. By that time, he had earned a green card that allowed him to stay in the U.S. Still, he went 17 months without employment before finding a new job in Utica teaching math.

Chris Post

"Most of (the charter school's teachers) believe in Gulen," he said, "but even if they don't believe in Gulen, they worry they can't find a job."

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Konkur says the amount of pay from a teacher's check that is required by the Utica Academy involves a formula: Unmarried teachers pay more to the movement, married educators and those with children pay less.

An accountant puts all the information into an Excel spreadsheet and figures out the required amount, he said. At the end of the year, the school figures out whether a teacher has overpaid or underpaid to the Gulen movement. Teachers are also asked to donate money to various charities, he said.

Konkur says he drove a number of school officials to Gulen's compound in Pennsylvania in July 2014 to hear him preach.

Konkur also provided an audio recording (in Turkish) where he says the then-director of the Utica Academy, Kadir Yavuz, instructed employees along with a local imam to learn about various sections of a Gulen book called "Mefkure Yolculugu."

Bak  the former administrator at the Syracuse Academy of Science, which has close ties to the Utica school  said he never was asked by school officials to pay back any of his salary.

A former close friend of Konkur's, Bak said that it appears he has a "vendetta" against his former employer in Utica.

"If there was something illegal, I encouraged him to go to the police," said Bak, who now works at a public school in Massachusetts. "To me, it seemed a bit far-fetched."

Ersoy, the Utica director, said he believed that Amsterdam & Partners, the London and Washington D.C.-based firm hired by the Turkish government to undermine Gulen and have him extradited back to Turkey, was working to recruit disgruntled employees from schools with a heavy Turkish presence.

Konkur says he met Amsterdam only to tell his story and "never received any kind of benefit" from the firm.

Ersoy said the school initially gave Konkur a one-year contract to be a classroom teacher and test coordinator.

In February 2015, Ersoy said school officials met with Konkur and explained to him that his class was not performing well. The school relieved him of his additional duties as test coordinator and provided him with a revised contract that cut his pay.

Konkur was let go when his performance didn't improve, Ersoy said. He said the school settled with Konkur over his back pay "in order to be done with him."

Konkur insists he never received any warning from the school about his performance.

Ersoy said the school has never conducted a meeting to teach Gulen's book. He does not know if Konkur or anyone else ever made a trip for an event connected to Gulen.

In early June, Konkur went to small claims court in Utica for a hearing. He is trying to get back the $2,600 he paid in cash to the school. The school has filed a counterclaim saying Konkur actually owes it hundreds of dollars for helping Konkur apply for permanent residency. A full hearing on the matter is scheduled for August.

Konkur said he could not speak to whether the money he paid was going to fund resistance efforts in Turkey.

"I'm just a math teacher," he said.

cbragg@timesunion.com  518-454-5303  @ChrisBragg1
Tributes were paid to renowned Nenagh man and peacemaker Fr Alec Reid at the launch in the town of a new book dealing with his life and times.

Fr Reid, who died in 2013, was one of the main negotiators in the IRA ceasefire, ending decades of conflict in Northern Ireland.

However, the Redemptorist priest, who spent most of his ministry in Clonard in Belfast, was remembered as a Christian and a priest, but, above all, a Tipperary man, at the launch in Nenagh Arts Centre.

The book, One Man, One God, The Peace Ministry of Fr Alec Reid, by Martin McKeever, CSsR, was launched by Rev Harold Good, the Methodist minister who oversaw the decommissioning of IRA arms with Fr Alec.

It was launched in the presence of members of his family, including his sister Maire, cousin Mary and extended family.

He spoke so often of his Nenagh family, said Rev Good, who recalled that his own relationship with Fr Alec came from a different direction.

We came from two different traditions but he took delight in what we had in common, he said.

We shared the same humour, banter, our faith, our understanding of the Gospel that, sadly, many in our churches don't. We also shared our travels, and he said his best loved journey was the journey of decommissioning, said Rev Good.

He said the most important thing about Fr McKeever's book was that it was a remembrance of a prophetic ministry and a practical record of somebody central to the story of peace. It was also a template for those places where conflict still existed.

Author Fr McKeever described One Man, One God as not a biography and not a history of the Troubles, though both are in there.

He said if we wanted to understand Fr Alec, we must look at him as a priest, a Christian and a Redemptorist.

He described Fr Alec as a man to whom God had given a tremendous gift.

Former Fianna Fail Tipperay South TD Martin Mansergh, who was also involved in the peace negotiations, said that the history and traditions of Tipperary, especially the republican ones, had had a strong influence on Fr Alec.

He had a strong moral sense that the Church should do something and he had the satisfaction of seeing real results, he said.

I think we should be proud of him and celebrate his contribution, he said.

Earlier, Cllr Siobhan Ambrose, Cathaoirleach of Tipperary County Council, said it was a tribute to Fr Alec that the book was being launched in Nenagh. It also had a launch in Belfast.

He was a Nenagh man and a man of many accolades who was very unassuming and didn't shout about the wonderful work he carried out, she said.

Cllr Ambrose said Fr Alec would have been very proud last January when Tipperary and Antrim GAA came together to play a match.

One Man, One God, The Peace Ministry of Fr Alec Reid CSsR, by Martin McKeever, is published by Redemptorist Communications and costs 14.95.
[June 30, 2017] Chicago Based Creative Agency Named #1 in Top 20 Design Agencies Quarterly Report

CHICAGO, June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ArtVersion Interactive, a leading independent design and branding firm headquartered in Chicago with satellite offices on the west coast, announced today that AgencySpotter has ranked their agency #1 on a list of Top 20 Design Agencies Report. "Our cross-disciplinary creative team works closely through a highly collaborative process to ensure the best product is delivered to the client to meet their goals. We are proud to be recognized for the work that drives us," said Goran Paunovic, Principal and Creative Director of ArtVersion Interactive. The top design agencies quarterly report evaluates more than 3,000 top agencies and design firms across different service areas based on their credentials, focus and expertise in design, client feedback, and project work. The report takes a broad focus on desin agencies which includes those who specialize in branding, communication design, innovation, industrial design, design strategy, user experience design, motion video, and packaging design.



With ranking factors such as Competitive Portfolio, Project Completeness, and Client Reviews, in part, ArtVersion was chosen due to its unwavering commitment to communication and collaboration. With a stellar track record of client-agency relations from brand strategy to digital and UI/UX strategies, Kate Smith states on working with ArtVersion, "Over many years I have worked with ArtVersion on all types of projects for both my own company and on behalf of my clients. In every case they did a wonderful job and were a pleasure to work with." For the full report, to see ArtVersion's range of work, and read client reviews, visit:

https://artversion.com/news/agency-spotter-5/ .. ABOUT ArtVersion Interactive is a creative agency headquartered Chicago and offshoot studio in Portland. With over decade-long experience, the ArtVersion team works with clients worldwide to craft ideal strategies, visuals, tonality and dynamic messaging ranging from conceptualization, design, layout and content strategies relevant to digital web and print delivery methods. https://artversion.com/ Media Contact :

Vanessa Petersen

Executive Director, Strategy

Portland, OR

503-946-5100 Related Links Company Website To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chicago-based-creative-agency-named-1-in-top-20-design-agencies-quarterly-report-300482785.html SOURCE ArtVersion Interactive

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[June 30, 2017] QUADRANT INVESTOR ALERT: Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses Exceeding $50,000 Investing In Quadrant 4 Systems Corp. To Contact The Firm

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at Quadrant 4 Systems Corp. ("Quadrant" or the "Company") (OTC:QFOR). The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws. On November 30, 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") announced that it had charged then current Quadrant Chief Executive Officer Nandu Thondavadi (the former "CEO") with misrepresenting Quadrant's cash flows and concealing its liabilities in Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") filings. On this news, shares of Quadrant fell $0.16 per share or over 80%'s to close at $0.03 per share on December 1, 2016, damaging investors. On June 30, 2017, the SEC announced that it had charged Quadrant's former CEO, and former Chief Financial Officer Dhru Desai in an accounting fraud scheme that misled investors and allowed the former executives t siphon millions from the firm for their personal benefit.



If you invested in Quadrant stock or options and would like to discuss your legal rights, click here: www.faruqilaw.com/QFOR. There is no cost or obligation to you. You can also contact us by calling Richard Gonnello toll free at 877-247-4292 or at 212-983-9330 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170630005766/en/

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INVESTOR ALERT: Goldberg Law PC Announces an Investigation of Quadrant 4 System Corporation

Goldberg Law PC, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Quadrant 4 System Corporation ("Quadrant 4" or the "Company") (Other OTC: QFOR).

If you purchased or otherwise acquired Quadrant 4 shares, and would like more information about the investigation, we encourage you to contact Michael Goldberg or Brian Schall, of Goldberg Law PC, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90067, at 800-977-7401, to discuss your rights without cost to you.

You can also reach us through the firm's website at http://www.Goldberglawpc.com, or by email at [email protected].







The investigation focuses on whether Quadrant 4 and certain of its officers and/or directors violated federal securities laws. On November 30, 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it charged then current CEO Nandu Thondavad with misrepresenting the Company's cash flows and concealing its liabilities in SEC (News - Alert) filings. Following this news, Quadrant 4's stock price dropped dramatically. On June 30, 2017, the SEC announced that it charged the Company, former CEO Nandu Thondavadi, and former CFO Dhru Desai in an accounting fraud scheme that misled investors and allowed the former executives to take millions from the firm for their personal benefit.

If you have any questions concerning your legal rights, please immediately contact Goldberg Law PC at 800-977-7401, visit our website at http://www.Goldberglawpc.com, or email us at [email protected].

Goldberg Law PC represents investors around the world, and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170630005846/en/
[July 01, 2017] Experience China Event Brings Chinese Culture To Finland By A VR Exhibition Hall

HELSINKI, July 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 29th, a high-tech VR exhibition hall from China met the Finnish people in Helsinki. In the exhibition room, the Finnish visitors got a chance to learn about China by high-tech virtual reality (VR) interaction. They were no longer bound by space and time and participated in a Chinese culture carnival with the help of VR technologies. Experience China in Finland-- Hi China VR Show, hosted by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China and the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Finland, organized by the China Intercontinental Communication Center and the Gbtimes Group, adopts an entire new way to present China to the world. In the 6 sections of the show, with the help of cutting-edge VR technologies, audiences are able to explore Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, walk in Potala Palace, and intimately contact with Chinese millennium-old legion in the Qin Shi Huang's tomb Pit No.1. Among those experience zones, Spaceflight Dream of China zone, which is based on Chinese StpVR Space positioning technology, drew the most people's attention. In this experience zone, an audience can become the protagonist of a thousand-year story about spaceflight dream of China, and he/she can freely walk in a 100 m2 around area and cross the Chinese history, to enjoy an interactive experience of witnessing how the Chinese people realizing their thousand-year dream of ascending to the outer space.



The show is designed and organized by the China Intercontinental Communication Center, which is one of the earliest media organizations that applied VR technology to the cultural industry in China. After over 6 months of preparation, the China Intercontinental Communication Center restores many giant scenes of China in a limited exhibition hall, and provides the oversea audiences an in-door opportunity to personally perceive Chinese brilliant history and rapid development at present. The purpose of the show is to explore a creative way of expressing China to the world, through which people from different countries can walk into China from thousands of miles away, and personally experience a real China. According to the person in charge of the show, the China Intercontinental Communication Center has been exploring the application of VR, AR and other related technologies on media communication for years, and established New Media International Joint Laboratory with Dell, AMD, G-Wearables, Nokia etc. in 2016; the contents provided by this show are all based on the most advanced technology over the world. The person in charge also said, VR might be the last screen of mankind. With the technology advancing, from television, computer to mobile phone, human beings are using increasingly smaller screen to communicate. Therefore, this event wishes that VR could open the door of time and space, and invite people from different countries to each other's world, to shorten the distance between people and enhance mutual understanding.

The Hi China VR Show is the first large-scale overseas promotional activity with VR interactive technology. It is also the first time that Finnish people really walk into China and experience China in scenes created by high-tech. In Finnish people's exclamation on such spectacular scenes, the Dunhuang, the Terracotta Army, and the Silk Road has become a memory of experiencing China. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/experience-china-event-brings-chinese-culture-to-finland-by-a-vr-exhibition-hall-300482851.html SOURCE China Intercontinental Communication Center

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Election results: Check out results from various races across the state
Airport Funding Power Move By Council Lady Katy Shields Is Over The Head Of Most Kansas City Voters

Kansas SecState Kobach Is The New Flyover Country Progressive Boogieman

Mark Alford and Nick Vasos Channel Classic And Powerful Movie Moment

While gunfire, violent crime and a lot of fireworks marked the week for most local denizens, here's a peek at the top ranking power players who stand atop the Kansas City chattering classes.Checkit:Council Lady Katy Shields wins this week becauseagainst the Kansas City Corporate Airport plan that involves big companies stealing most of the revenue out at MCI. The weakness of the plan is that there aren't many specifics except that it is the only viable option right now against a corporate power move to bully KC voters into submission.He's the subject of nearly half the local newsprint scorn this week that's based mostly partisan rhetoric and late night TV comedy shows. We're not gonna waste time defending this GOP golden boy but it's worth nothing how much ire he elicits from equally clueless liberals on the other side of the same coin.FOX 4's Mark Alford and Nick Vasos took a moment toin a strong display of confidence and cinematic knowledge which was probably the best thing on morning TV this week.And so . . .At the halfway point of the year and as always, this list has been compiled according toand it's a weekly comprehensive guide to local powerful people.
DESPITE A RELATIVELY QUIET WEEK KANSAS CITY STILL SUFFERS A 35% INCREASE IN MURDER FOR 2017!!!

WILL KANSAS CITY CELEBRATE THE WEEKEND LEADING UP TO THE 4TH OF JULY WITH MORE DEADLY VIOLENCE???

a better and more realistic warning about increased local threats of violence

This weekend is make or break for Kansas City 2017.So far KCPD counts 69 homicides this year compared to 51 last year.That's right . . .Prep for the typically bloody weekend involved a stroll by the Mayor and warnings about celebratory gunfire from police. Sadly, both of those illicit activities are part of Kansas City tradition and this town lives for illegal fireworks and hasto address our atypical murder count.So we ask our blog community . . .Either way, this post serves asthan anything that City Hall politicos are providing.You decide . . .
"Nick Haines, Colleen Nelson, Dave Helling, Bryan Lowry and Steve Vockrodt discuss Senator Jerry Moran's opposition to the Trump healthcare bill, Gov. Greitens' veto of UMKC Arts Campus, Jason Kander's political aspirations, the public option for KCI, the raid of Jackson County Jail, MU revoking Bill Cosby's honorary degree and KC Streetcar Authority requesting $12 million for two more streetcars."

Dead-Tree talking points more widely discussed on social media but preserved here in video form for the last remaining people waiting for journalists to tell them what to think . . .Description . . .You decide . . .
Greeces highest administrative court, the Council on State (CoS), issued a landmark decision on Wednesday essentially mandating a five-year statute of limitation on audits, probes and investigations regarding tax cases and indictments in the country.

The only loophole left for the state, its services and the independent justice system is if tax authorities receive supplementary information regarding alleged tax evasion/avoidance for the five-year period prior to the expiration of the statute of limitation.

Only in such cases will an additional five years be allowed for more investigation, audit and subsequent prosecution.

Beyond the legal parameters of the ruling, the political impact was also severe, given that the current leftist-rightist coalition government had rode to power in 2015, in part, on a promise to extensively investigate, indict and collect hefty fines from convicted tax evaders detected on a handful of eponymous lists of Greek citizens with overseas bank accounts.

The now notorious Lagarde list, so named by local media after then French FinMin Christine Lagarde, who conveyed a file containing information on Greek depositors at an HSBC branch in Geneva to the George Papandreou government in October 2010, was one such very high-profile cause celebre for the current Tsipras government. Another is the so-called Borjan list, which included nearly 11,000 bank accounts purportedly held by Greek citizens at an UBS branch in Switzerland. That file was given to Greek authorities by Norbert Walter Borjan, the finance minister of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, while yet another political furor revolved around charges -- usually launched by leftist SYRIZA when it was in the opposition -- that various high-profile Greek citizens with ties to the then Samaras government were also listed in the Panama Papers.

The crux of the CoEs decision is that successive extensions of deadlines to delay the expiration of the statute of limitation are unconstitutional. A majority of CoS justices argued that current digital technology and communication can detect transnational tax evasion much faster and effectively than in previous years.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Badseed License: CC-BY-SA

Source: naftemporiki.gr
Athens, Greece  According to the latest Travel Report prepared by PayPal and analytical agency GfK  Greek tourists appreciate attractive prices and unique natural and cultural heritage of the CEE region.

Greeks seem to be proud of their country and its tourist value. 99% of them would recommend visiting Greece to foreign tourists while only 1% of respondents would not do this.

The other representatives of surveyed nations, meaning, Poles, Czechs and Hungarians, are proud of their home countries as well (92% of them would recommend visiting their countries to foreign tourists).

In Greeks opinion, the most attractive venues for foreign tourists in Greece are the Greek islands, indicated by 70% of respondents. Acropolis, Thessaloniki and Delphi pointed by 60%, 50% and 40% of Greeks, respectively.

The main preferences of Greek travelers

Because of richness and diversity of Central and Eastern Europe, Greek tourists have many options to choose from. In the last three years, the most popular Greeks destination in CEE was Bulgaria, visited by 44% of Greek respondents. According to the survey, Cyprus and Czech Republic were the second and the third the most often visited countries by our compatriots, 41% and 15% respectively.

The preferences regarding destinations go hand in hand with the type of holidays taken by tourists. The biggest groups of Greek travelers visiting Central and Eastern Europe in the last 3 years went for leisure (70%) and culture (30%). Other popular types of trips among Greek citizens were family and friends visit (chosen by 15%), business travel (14%) and shopping tours (13%). Only 9% travelled for events (festivals, concerts, performances etc.)

Most of Greeks prefer to visit Central and Eastern Europe in spring and spend there less than one week. For such trips, 35% of Greeks spend 250-500 euros and 34% spend 501-1.000 euros. The most popular occasion for travelling to CEE are annual vacations, followed by national holidays and weekends.

Great tourist attractions, history and culture are the key drivers to travel around CEE

General opinion about travelling to Central and Eastern Europe confirms that Greek people recommend trips across their region because of the great tourist attractions, history and culture, as well as the excellent tourism infrastructure facilities.

The decision regarding place of stay in Central and Eastern Europe is mainly driven by price and good opinions/reviews among friends (it was chosen as very important by 87% and 74% of respondents respectively). Other important factors are distance from downtown (chosen by 75% of tourists), payment methods (71%), peacefulness (65%) and Wi-Fi connection (64%).

One of the best things about Central and Eastern Europe is a unique and vibrant atmosphere. No matter what you are looking for, you can easily, within a few hours from your home country, visit beautiful islands in Greece, ride a bike around Balatons lowlands, wonder around narrow streets of Pragues Old Town or admire breathtaking views in Tatra Mountains in Poland  summarizes Matt Komorowski, Managing Director of PayPal in Northern and Central Europe. One of the things which make a trip more convenient and give travelers piece of mind is a possibility to pay for hotels, flights or tickets to museum easier and safer. In such cases, very useful proposal may be activating PayPal One Touch which keeps you logged in and thanks to that travelers can pay with one click on their mobile devices. Instead of wasting time for filling payment forms for each transaction, travelers can enjoy their holidays.

Greeks travel around the CEE region by plane, stay in hotels and prefer to pay for their trips online

Internet becomes one of the most important source of information for tourists. 57% of Greeks start preparing for a trip by checking search engines, but 55% of them also rely on friends reviews opinions. 25% of Greek travelers used social media to find information about accommodation, tourist attractions, food, visa and administration. At the same time, only 17% of respondents rely on information from offline sources.

The most popular mean of transportation is plane, chosen by 74% of Greek travelers going to Central and Eastern Europe. 30% of us go by car and 16% by bus. When it comes to accommodation, most of Greeks stay in hotels (73%), friends places (16%), and rented apartment/houses (12%). What is interesting, even for younger people aged 25-35 hostels are not particularly popular.

Most of the expenditures for vacations in Central and Eastern Europe are covered by cash (62%), followed by credit cards (54%) and PayPal (14%). However, a role of online payments is significant  only 28% of Greek tourists say that they prefer to pay during planning trip offline. What is especially interesting, is that tourist aged 55+ do not differ here a lot from the whole surveyed group as 67% of them also prefer to pay online. 83% of Greek tourists chose payment option based on its security and convenience (42%).

14% of travelers cover some of their last Holidays expenses with PayPal  the online payment platform is especially popular among younger tourists for payments for air tickets and accommodation and it was chosen by 56% of those, aged 18-24.

Czech, Hungarians and Poles enjoy visiting neighboring countries

As the research shows, 68% of Czech respondents visited Slovakia. In Hungary, 47% of tourists have been in Croatia, 45% of Polish respondents visited Czech Republic and 44% of Greek respondents visited Bulgaria in the last three years. On the other hand, Greece is among the Top-5 destinations of these three nations. 27%, 26% and 25% of Polish, Czech and Hungarian respondents respectively visited our country during the last three years.

Central and Eastern Europe has many beautiful venues and attractions to visit. Poland offers interesting places near the border in Klodzko: a newly built and interesting park MiniEuroland and Nowa Ruda (SPA town). Greece offers clean sea and beaches, amazing culture and great culinary experience. Croatia is of course convenient for traveling by car and very popular for Czechs, as you can visit Dubrovnik, Split or Zadar and natural beauties like lakes and parks.  says one of the Czech respondents.

Regarding specific destinations, Greeks actually prefer the most popular ones of the region, a rather easy and money-saving way to travel. I would recommend other travelers not to miss the opportunity to visit historical cities such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Bucharest, Prague, Karlovy Vary and Krakow.  says one of the Greek respondents.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Lockheed Martin said its subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation was awarded a US Army contract worth $3.8 billion for Black Hawk helicopters for sale to Saudi Arabia, reported Reuters, citing Pentagon officials.



The contract for a multi-year production effort includes associated services for program system management, engineering, technical data and publications, stated the Pentagon officials.



According to Lockheed Martin, the "Multi-Year IX" contract for UH-60M Black Hawk and HH-60M medical evacuation (Medevac) aircraft marks the ninth multiple-year contract for Sikorsky and the US government for H-60 helicopters.



The contract includes options for an additional 103 aircraft, with the total contract value potentially reaching $5.2 billion. Actual production quantities will be determined year-by-year over the life of the program based on funding allocations set by Congress and Pentagon acquisition priorities.



The deliveries are scheduled to begin in October of this year and continue through 2022.



The UH-60M/HH-60M helicopters are the latest and most modern in a series of Black Hawk variants that Sikorsky has been delivering to the Army since 1978, said a top offiial.



"Four decades of production, strong program execution and delivery on behalf of the warfighter, coupled with great affordability for the taxpayer, have been the cornerstones of this program," remarked Sam Mehta, the president, Defence Systems and Services, Sikorsky.



"This contract allows us to continue supporting the important missions the Black Hawk performs as the workhorse utility and Medevac helicopter in the US Army inventory," he added.
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt has won praise from the board of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for its air navigation safety measures, said a Saudi Press Agency report, citing a top official.

Mohammed Rahma, the ICAO director of the Middle East regional office, said that in direct co-operation with the countries that announced severing their relations with Qatar, office staff activated at 8.30am on June 5 the contingency plan set forth in Annex XI to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago, 1944).

He was speaking at the informal session held yesterday (June 30) in which the Secretariat General of the ICAO presented updated information about the safety of the skies over the Arabian Gulf.

In response to a question from a board member, the director of the Air Navigation Bureau, Steve Kramer, said that the General Secretariat of the ICAO has no concerns about the safety of the skies over the international waters in the Gulf, as the boycotting states possess modern navigation devices and abilities covering all international airspace over the Arabian Gulf, stated the report.

The Regional Bureau will hold a meeting on July 6 in Cairo with representatives of the countries that have cut ties with Qatar to discuss any new demands from Qatar regarding the opening of new air routes over the international waters in the Gulf, stated the SPA report.

A number of international representatives commended the efforts being exerted by the countries and the Secretariat General of the ICAO, especially the staff of the Middle East Regional Office, and requested continuing co-operation between the Regional Office, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain to ensure safety over international waters in the Arabian Gulf, it added.
New Delhi, June 30

Housing prices will come down after the GST rollout, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said, while expressing confidence that the landmark tax regime along with property law will bring big relief to home buyers.

Naidu, the minister for Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, said only fly-by-night operators and habitual tax evaders are opposing the GST.

GST plus Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act (RERA) will definitely bring big relief to house owners. There is no scope for evading anything in the GST. Input credit will also be transferred, he said at the GST conclave organised by a news channel.

The RERA regulations, which came into force from May this year, are such that there is no way to escape, he added. As a Urban Development and Housing Minister, I am the happiest man that with the GST, prices of houses will definitely come down, Naidu said.

If anybody is opposing the GST, it is habitual tax evaders. Larger builders community is happy, except fly-by- night operators, he said. He emphasised that the Centre and states need to implement the new real estate law in an effective manner.

Land and housing are state subjects. States are implementing agency, he said, but added he was not shying away from his responsibilities.  PTI
New Delhi, June 30

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today sought to allay industry concerns over the anti-profiteering clause in the GST law, saying there is nothing to fear if benefits of reduced tax rates are passed on duly to consumers.

In order to ensure that businesses pass on the benefits of tax rate reduction under the new indirect tax regime, the Central GST Act provides for an anti-profiteering section.

As per the rules, a five-member National Anti-Profiteering Authority will be set up, which will have the powers to order reduction in price commensurate with the lowering of incidence of taxation under the new indirect tax regime. The proposed anti-profiteering authority can cancel registration of any entity or business if it fails to pass on to consumers the benefit of lower taxes.

I would want to allay that fear (of industry). Every concession or reduction in the rates, we want that to be passed on to the end consumers...This objective has to be served by those who are dealing with the matter and if you dealt with it, there is nothing to be worried about it, she said at a conclave on GST.

She said there were times in India before GST that many of the incentives and subsidies were never passed on to the end consumers and there are very clear violations.

So, there is a need for us to have a provision to question why it (benefits) has not reached to the consumers, the minister added.

When asked about the opposition political parties boycotting the mid-night launch programme, Sitharaman said this is a moment of happiness and pride.

It should be some sense of ownership for all of us. Its no festivity only for me, it is not my diwali versus your diwali. This is a gigantic and historic step...so where is the politics in this, she added.  PTI
Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

There was a face-off between councillors and MC Joint Commissioner Manoj Khatri today as officials were taken to task by the former over civic works.

A councillor, Davesh Moudgil, asked Khatri not to show attitude after he said it is an anti-officer day today.

Showing attitude is not a big thing; even we can do that. We are raising issues as representatives of people, who are facing problems. It should not be taken to heart, said the councillor.

Earlier, councillors raised questions over the working of MC officials regarding incomplete works. Councillor Gurpreet Singh said, The stray cattle menace is a big issue in Sectors 46 and 47, and Burail, but nothing is being done in this regard. It is leading to accidents. It seems workers are only pretending to work. They should start their drive at night; it has been noticed they just come in the morning.

Taking exception to his remarks, the Joint Commissioner rebuffed him and said they could provide the data of the stray cattle removed from different places in Chandigarh.

Councillors Gurbax Rawat, Shakti Prakash Devshali and Gurpreet Singh raised doubts over the proposal of the Rs 50 lakh budget for three years meant for fodder of cows kept at a shelter in the Industrial Area, Phase I. Some said they did not know "how much fodder actually comes and how much is given to the cows". On this, an angry Khatri dared the councillors to prove their allegations and not to make sweeping allegations, which had no basis.

On others issues too, the officials were slammed by the councillors. Khatri later quipped, "It seems it is an anti-officer day today." To this, the councillors reminded him that it was their duty to highlight unresolved issues.
Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

With a major change in the tax regime post July 1 following the midnight roll out of the GST on June 30, city shopkeepers offered huge discounts on cars, electronic items and branded clothes. Expecting a change in prices, residents broke into a frenzy and went on a shopping spree to

make most of the pre-GST sales today.

Automobile dealers of Maruti Suzuki, Mercedes, Hyundai, Honda, Nissan, Mahindra and Mahindra and Ford India in the city continued their schemes on the last day of the old tax structure to attract customers.

Sanjay Dahuja of Berkeley Hyundai in Industrial Area, Phase I, Chandigarh, said they were offering GST benefits even before the implementation of the system. There was heavy rush of people in their store as the company was offering discounts ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 73,000 on different Hyundai models, he said.

Suresh Singh, manager of an electronics store in Sector 35, said they were offering discounts ranging from 15 per cent to 50 per cent on different models of LEDs, washing machines and other electronic items. The sales had picked up in last three-four days, he said.

Besides, a visit to Sector 17 revealed that stores of branded clothes and shoes were also offering discounts up to 50 per cent to clear their old stock.

Maninder Singh, a visitor, said he went to different stores in Sector 17 and

purchased some clothes for the marriage of his brother. He got a good deal as the sale was on.

What were you paying earlier

Central tax

Central excise duty

Duties of excise (medicinal and toilet preparations)

Additional duties of excise (goods of special importance)

Additional duties of excise (textiles and textile products) e-additional duties of customs (commonly known as CVD)

Special additional duty of customs (SAD)

Service tax

Central surcharges and cess so far as they relate to supply of goods and services

State tax
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

Even places of worship are not safe from thefts. A thief struck at the Sai Dham temple in Sector 29-A in the wee hours of today and decamped with nearly Rs 7 lakh.

Krishan Kumar, DSP (East), said the theft was committed following a thorough recce. He said the theft seemed to be the handiwork of a person who was aware of the place and the surroundings.

The incident came to light this morning when Shiv and Mukesh, workers of the temple trust, opened the main door of the temple.

We opened the door around 4.30 am and saw currency notes scattered all over the place. The lock of one of the donation boxes, located on the right side of the Sai idol, was broken and the cash was missing from it, said Mukesh Kumar.

The employees claimed that soon after learning about the theft, they closed the temple gate and informed the temple trust authorities about the incident.

According to Ashit Manchanda, joint secretary of the temple trust, it is for the first time that the Sai Dham temple has been targeted by thieves. We have installed 36 CCTV cameras inside the temple to keep a check on pick-pocketing. However, we never thought a thief would strike at the place, said Manchanda. He said the thief was caught on CCTV cameras installed inside the temple hall.

The thief, who was wearing a hood jacket, entered the temple premises at 2.54 am. The thief is suspected to have arrived from the rear side of the temple, said Manchanda. After climbing the wall, the thief walked on the fibre-reinforced roof sheet and reached the window where an air conditioner was installed.

The thief entered the first floor of the temple by cutting the mesh of the window. Soon after entering the temple, the thief covered his face with a gunny bag. He then went on to spray paint on the CCTV cameras and also twisted the camera positions.

The thief then came on the ground floor using an almirah. Soon after reaching the ground floor, he broke open the lock of the donation box placed on the right side of the Sai idol and decamped with the cash lying in it using a gunny bag.

The thief left the temple through the same route. Workers at the garbage dump located at the rear side witnessed some activity around 3.30 am. They told me that dogs had started barking and they saw two persons fleeing on a bike; one of them was carrying a sack, said Manchanda.

Asked how he came to know that Rs 7 lakh was stolen, Manchanda said every Sunday, the trust members counted the cash and the collection was between Rs 5 and Rs 7 lakh.

Fingerprint experts visited the temple this morning to collect vital clues. The police are checking the footage of CCTV cameras installed in houses located at the rear side of the temple.

The police are also looking at the mobile dump of the area to get clues.

One thing is clear. The thief knew about the temple and must have visited it several times before committing the theft, said Manchanda.

Did thief visit temple on Thursday?

The police have not ruled out the theory that the thief might have visited the temple on Thursday. A large number of devotees visit the temple on Thursday to pay obeisance and offer donations. Police officials said the thief might have been present and kept an eye on the donation box, which received the maximum donations. The thief only broke the lock of the donation box located on the right side of the temple, while the box located on the lift side remained intact. Besides questioning the temple staff, the police have collected details of persons who left their jobs at the temple recently.

Jewellery, smaller currency left untouched

The thief did not lay hands on the jewellery adorning the idol of Sai Baba. According to Asit Manchanda, joint secretary of the temple trust, the gold ornaments on Sai Baba's idol were intact. He said the thief also did not lay his hands on currency of smaller denomination.
S Nihal Singh

US President Donald Trump was in a tactically advantageous position in his first face-to-face meeting with PM Modi. While the latters anxiety was to keep relations between the two countries on an even keel after his assiduous cultivation of Mr Barack Obama, the new White House occupants reputation as temperamental and unpredictable made his guest especially careful.

While there were no spectacular breakthroughs, there were benefits for both sides to take home. Given the new transactional nature of President Trumps worldview emphasising the slogan of America First. The joint statement emphasises how each gesture made by the US had to be balanced by a concession by India, Washington holding the credo of free and fair trade pointedly referring to its trade deficit.

Washingtons gesture was to declare Syed Salahuddin of Hizbul Mujahideen an international terrorist and the US side has never been more explicit in blaming Pakistan for cross-border terrorism, naming several Pakistan-based movements, some for the first time, and asking Islamabad to come clean on bringing to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai, Pathankot and other attacks on Indian territory. Certainly the new designation of Syed Salahuddin will make his movements more difficult although it remains to be seen whether it will make any difference to US-Pakistan relations or the largesse given to Islamabad.

In addition to being lectured on balanced trade  substantial Indian military orders are not counted  New Delhi had to make a gesture to Mr Trumps obsession with North Korea by promising to forgo its paltry trade with that country. It means little in practical terms.

In line with President Trumps America First slogan, there is little in the way of a wider view of the world and its future. India is stated to be a major defence partner with a focus on the forthcoming naval exercises involving the Indian, US and Japanese navies, but the formula evolved is circumscribed by the phrase Indo-Pacific. In addition, the US has agreed to sell India naval drones. With an eye on not displeasing China, Mr Trumps view on the South China Sea and the Chinese militarisation of the atolls is far from clear.

There were some interesting asides to the series of meetings the Prime Minister had with Mr Trump and his family, apart from the trademark Modi hugs. He invited the eldest of Mr Trumps daughters Ivanka to lead an American delegation to India in the autumn following the example set by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in inviting her to Berlin. The betting is that the route to the Presidents heart lies through his family. At any rate, she is an official adviser in the White House and so is her husband Jared Kushner, charged with the horrendous task of untangling the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio. Though the US sent a mid-level delegation to the Beijing summit of OROB India boycotted has not made Mr Trump starry-eyed about it.

In the Trump era we live in a world that has become more uncertain. Drawing closer to the US in the miliitary and security spheres is inevitable, given Indias two hostile neighbours and the rise of China even as the American instinct is to draw inward.

Ms Merkel has warned Europe after her frigid meeting with Mr Trump and subsequent meetings in Europe that in the security sphere the continent is more on its own, given the new US Presidents predilections. The mood in Europe today is of foreboding and a new resolve for European unity, particularly after Britains exit from the EU. It is therefore just as well that Mr Modi could fit in visits to several European countries, including Germany and France, during his recent travels abroad.

In geopolitical terms, there are some verities in the Indo-US relationship that became apparent after the end of the Cold War. To begin with, the US emerged as the sole superpower even as the Soviet Union disintegrated. But Chinas transformation from a hard-working nation lying below the parapet gave way to an assertive country chalking out an ambitious concept of a new Silk Road and taking full advantage of Americas soul-searching in a new world order.

China was blessed by the Trump phenomenon and avidly grasped the leadership role in such areas as climate change and the US decision to leave the Pacific Partnership trade deal Mr Obama had painfully put together. But even as Beijing was proclaiming itself as the new champion of globalisation, its own state-controlled economy and restrictions on imports in an authoritarian system of crony capitalism became a severe drag on Beijings assumed new role.

The world therefore is in a state of flux, with China eyeing a leadership role, Europe troubled by the new American order, the Middle East still mired in several tragedies heightened by the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar and many in East Asia outside Japan bending to the will of Chinese might.

India has to negotiate these choppy waters as best it can. The bedrock of the US as it existed is gone and when it will re-emerge lies in the realm of speculation. One thing is clear: there is little room to make errors in seeking to buttress Indian interests. The early days of Afro-Asian solidarity and non-alignment are gone. Each country in each continent is pursuing its own interests as best it can.

Are the days of soaring rhetoric and nobler objectives gone for good? India, together with the rest of the world, must believe that the selfish era will give way to a less transactional concept of the future of mankind. If the views of some American political scientists are right, American bouts with isolationism come in cycles and we must await the present cycle to end.

Mr Modi has performed his task of making his number with Mr Trump and we must wait to see how it will affect the nature of the relationship. The US and the world are skating on thin ice and despite Mr Trump, ice in the northern regions is melting faster than it used to.
New York, July 1

Indian-Americans, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen and former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, are among 38 immigrants to be honoured this year for their role in helping advance the countrys society, culture and economy.

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Narayen and Murthy will be honoured with the prestigious Great Immigrants annual award on USs independence day on July 4.

Murthy, 39, born in the UK and a Harvard and Yale alumnus, was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, becoming the first-ever Indian-American to occupy the post and also the youngest ever Surgeon General of the country.

However, Murthy was dismissed this year in April by the Trump administration.

Narayen, 54, a native of Hyderabad has an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering, a masters degree in computer science, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is a board member of Pfizer and US-India Business Council (USIBC). He was among a select group of CEOs who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington for a roundtable during the leaders visit for first bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump this week.

Among other honorees include Canadian-origin social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, who has been awarded the 2017 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, PayPal cofounder of Ukrainian origin Max Levchin, Iranian-origin philanthropist and entrepreneur Hushang Ansary.

Each year since 2006, the corporation has recognised the contributions of naturalised citizens, and for 2017, the honorees represent more than 30 different countries of origin, a wide range of personal immigration stories, and a high-level of professional leadership in numerous fields.

Our annual tribute to Great Immigrants demonstrates the richness of talent, skills, and achievements that immigrants from around the world bring to every sphere of American society, said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This campaign reminds us of the debt the United States owes to generations of immigrants who become citizens and contribute to the progress of this country. Today, we celebrate and thank them, he said.

The honorees will be recognised with a full-page public service announcement in The New York Times and an online public awareness initiative.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York was established in 1911 by Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.

In keeping with this mandate, the corporations agenda focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and a strong democracy. PTI
Tribune News Service

Panipat, July 1

Randeep Singh Surjewala, media in charge of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), today said, The BJP-led Union government has implemented the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is the highest in the world, and will have a crippling impact upon traders, shopkeepers, industrialists and common people in the country.

He was addressing a state-level traders programme Udyog Bachao, Vyapar Bachao and Dukandar Bachao held at a banquet hall in the city today.

Surjewala said, The BJP has announced five slabs of the GST out (0, 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent) but concealed the slab of 43 per cent. The previous Congress-led UPA government had put a cap of 18 per cent on the GST. This is why the Congress decided to boycott the GST launch ceremony, he added.

Surjewala said, The GST draft of the UPA was simple while the current GST is a maze of a multi-tier tax structure requiring 37 returns to be filed by every taxpayer every year. If a taxpayer is doing business in all 29 states and seven union territories, he would have to file 1,332 returns every year, which was not possible, he claimed.

The GST would badly hit the textile sector and could even wipe out micro, small and medium size manufacturers, traders and cloth merchants, alleged Surjewala.

He said the tax on man-made fiber yarn, dyeing, printing and embroidery at 18 per cent and the rate of the end product of 5 per cent would be death knell for the non integrated textile players while helping the big fish in the sector to make huge profits.

This was the first time in the history of the country that BJP has imposed tax on the agriculture sector too in the name of GST, which exposes the anti-farmer face of the BJP, he said.

BJP has imposed 12 percent tax on fertilizers but after protest by the Congress reduced it to 5 percent late last night, he added. Besides, GST of 28% has been imposed on pesticides, 12 percent on tractors while 28 percent on its spare parts including tyres, tubes, engine and other agricultural implements, which was double attack upon the farmers, he said.

Ha accused the government of lunching the GST without the basic IT infrastructure and training.
Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Palwal, June 30

Over 150 residents of Khambi village in Palwal district held a panchayat today and resented the arrest of four youths from the village recently in connection with the lynching of 16-year-old Junaid Khan, a resident of Khandawali village, on a train on June 22. They demanded the immediate release of all accused and sought setting up of a special investigating team (SIT) for an independent probe into the case.

Haridutt, husband of the village sarpanch, presided over the meeting. He later claimed at a press conference here that the four youths arrested from the village on June 28 are innocent and have no role in Junaids murder. He said the manner in which the police swooped down on the village and arrested the four suspects was objectionable. Policemen allegedly misbehaved with women and children.

Rajbir, another villager, claimed that the charge of communal attack on the victims was baseless as the actual dispute was regarding a seat in the train. The arrested youths had no animosity towards anyone and have no criminal background, he added.

The panchayat demanded a probe into the case and tracing of calls made by the victims and their relatives before the stabbing incident on the train. It was claimed at the panchayat that the arrested youths did not carry the knife used in the crime and the police should find the accused who brought it at the Ballabagarh railway station, where the incident took place.

The villagers also demanded a CBI inquiry, if the state government thinks it fit. The arrested youths are on a three-day police remand. Meanwhile, Industry Minister Vipul Goel met Junaids family members and assured them of full justice.
Chandigarh, July 1

A man and his son were shot dead on Saturday at a village in Sonepat district allegedly by a man known to them due to a dispute over distribution of water in the fields, police said.

The 55-year-old man and his son (26) were gunned down in the village by the accused, they said, adding that senior police officials had reached the spot.

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A police official said a murder case had been registered against the accused and some of his accomplices and further investigation is on.

The 26-year-old victim was said to be employed with Delhi Police, they said. PTI
Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 30

Already in election mode to wrest power from the Congress in Himachal, the BJP is roping in all its national stalwarts right from its party president Amit Shah, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and if possible Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to conclude its Parivartan Rath Yatra in all the four parliamentary seats.

BJP National Chief Amit Shah will address a rally at Bharmour in Chamba district which is part of Kangra Lok Sabha seat on July 8. Prior to this Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh would be the Chief Guest at the conclusion of the Parivaratn Rath Yatra for Mandi Lok Sabha seat on July 4 at Sundernagar. Shrikant Sharma, earlier BJP in charge of Himachal and now Power Minister in Uttar Pradesh, will address meetings at Badsar and Nadaun on July 1 and 2 as part of Parivartan Rath Yatra.

The entire state BJP leadership, including former Chief Minister PK Dhumal, former CM and Kangra MP Shanta Kumar, state BJP chief Satpal Satti and all senior leaders will be present at the function in Kinnaur. During his last visit to Kangra, Shah had made it amply clear that the party must put up a united face as there was no place for infighting.

The dates for the conclusion of the Rath Yatras in Shimla and Hamirpur parliamentary seats are yet to be decided. We have already sought time from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shiv Raj Chauhan and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, said Ganesh Dutt, state BJP spokesperson. The Parivartan Rath Yatra is presently being undertaken in all the four Lok Sabha seats of Himachal.

Modi visited Shimla to address a rally on the Ridge here on April 20 and Amit Shah too visited Kangra recently. With elections in Himachal due by November this year, the entire top brass of the BJP has been focusing on Himachal. Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has already visited Himachal in connection with party functions.

Leader of Opposition PK Dhumal, who today addressed meetings in Drang area of Mandi, said development in the state had come to a standstill. The state has virtually been pushed on the brink of bankruptcy with rampant corruption. The BJP on being voted to power will fix responsibility for all irregularities, he said.

The party cadres are fully geared to throw the corrupt Congress regime out of power. People are fed up with rampant corruption and complete absence of governance in Himachal, said Satti. He asked what can one expect from a Chief Minister whose maximum time is consumed in meeting his lawyers to discuss the cases he faces in various courts of law.
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 30

A daylong bandh called by traders over tax slabs under the GST passed off peacefully here today.

Traders and business establishments partially downed their shutters in support of their demands to make changes in the threshold limits for traders.

Traders bodies submitted memorandums to the Prime Minister seeking uniform GST in all 11 special category states, including Himachal, said Somesh Kumar, president, HP Beopar Mandal.

On the other hand, the state Excise and Taxation Department has set up facilitation centres in all its 13 tax collection centres in the office of the Assistant Commissioner across the state.

We are setting up the GST Suvidha Kendras soon for customers who have opted for the GST, said KK Sharma, state Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner.

Himachal is one among few states in the country that has launched online tax collection facility for customers at all 80 tax assessing authorities in the state.

Of the 70,000 customers, over 98 per cent have already opted for the GST and others are also in the pipeline, he added.

Talking about the demands of the traders, Sharma said the GST for special categories state was about the same. Any change in threshold limit of Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh have to come from the Central GST council and it does not fall under the preview of the state, he added.

Of all 2,111 items approved by the GST Council, all essential items like rice, wheat, pulses, bread, salt, milk, butter milk, curd stamps, judicial papers, printed books and newspapers that constitutes about 7 per cent, are exempted from the GST, he said.

The GST on 500 services had been approved under four different slabs  5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent in Himachal, he added.

From July all registered users would have to file tax reports thrice every month, he added.

Una businessmen back shutdown

Una: Business establishments remained shut in Una today in support of the bandh call given by the Himachal Pradesh Vyapar Mandal. Only medical stores and few eating joints remained opened.

Sumesh Sharma, President, Himachal Pradesh Vyapar Mandal, said the Centre should review the provisions under the GST and make them business friendly. He said there was no clarity on certain issues.

He demanded the disparity between the traders of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab regarding minimum annual turnover to be registered under the GST be removed. He said the annual turnover for traders in HP was Rs 10 lakh, while it was Rs 20 lakh for their Punjab counterparts.

He said traders are against tax on cloth, branded food grains, edible oil, agriculture produce, life saving drugs and compulsory filing of three online tax returns every month. Besides, he said the taxes in each slab were exorbitant, which will affect the movement of goods in the market.

Kullu traders join protest

Kullu: All shops and commercial establishments in Kullu, Manali, Bhuntar, Banjar and Anni areas of the district remained closed today in support of bandh called by the Beopar Mandal against the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. Rakesh Kohli, president, Beopar Mandal, Kullu, said that bandh was being observed due to anomalies in the GST. He said that the traders were not against the implementation of the GST but the provision of penalising the traders was not correct. He said that threshold limit of Rs 10 lakh and composite sale limit of Rs 50 lakh was set for the traders in HP, whereas it was higher in neighbouring Punjab and other states. Rakesh said that under the GST the traders will have to file three returns in a month and update online records daily. He said that the government should waive compulsory computerisation, as most of the traders were not computer educated. Meanwhile, small traders rued decline in sales as companies stopped supplying items on which tax would increase after the implementation of the GST.
Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 30

The Union Ministry of Health has sanctioned three trauma centres in medical colleges at Tanda, Shimla and Mandi for Himachal for which an amount of Rs 189 crores has been sanctioned. However, the state government was moving at a sluggish pace over the project, said Union Minister for Health JP Nadda in an exclusive interview with The Tribune at Dharamsala today.

The union ministry has sanctioned tertiary centres for cancer treatment at the IGMC Shimla and a medical college at Mandi for which Rs 45 crores has been sanctioned, but the state government had not even prepared the Detailed Project Reports (DPR) for the project, he said.

After the outbreak of jaundice I had proposed to set up a National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) at Shimla to check the spread of epidemic. An amount of Rs 10 crores was sanctioned for the NCDC. The state has however, not even completed the formalities for implementing the project, the Union minister said.

The NDA government at the Centre has sanctioned Rs 1,000 crores for an AIIMS in the state and Rs 190 crores for medical colleges at Nahan, Chamba and Hamirpur. Only yesterday, I announced a grant of Rs 12.5 crores for setting up a nursing college in Tanda Medical College, Nadda said.

The union government has also sanctioned setting up of 14 dialysis units in various government hospitals across the state. Eight dialysis units are to be set up in each unit and BPL families will get dialysis free of cost. However, the state government has set up dialysis units in just four hospitals, he charged, asking, What else I could have done as a union health minister for Himachal.

Nadda also claimed that a BJP wave was sweeping Himachal. The people of the state are in anguish, bureaucrats sluggish and corruption rampant. Every minister in the ruling party is busy in minting money and has no time to work for the welfare of people. The Chief Minister does not have time for administration as he was busy with his court cases, alleged Nadda.

When asked if some senior Congress leaders were interested in joining the BJP, Nadda said many were interested but the state unit of the party would take a final call regarding their inclusion in the BJP.

He said the strategy of the BJP for the forthcoming Assembly elections was that it was offering people of the state a government that would be accountable to the people and development oriented. Besides, it would have zero tolerance for corruption.

When asked whether he would join the state organization before the next Assembly elections, Nadda said that he was happy with whatever responsibility was given to him by the party. I have always remained a disciplined soldier of the party and have never craved for any post, he said.
Jaipur, July 1

Strict action is required against Kashmiri separatists for provoking youth to indulge in stone-throwing and carrying out Pakistan-sponsored agenda, Ajmer dargah head Zainul Abedin Ali Khan said today.

Speaking at the dargah of Usman Harwani, the mentor of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chisti, he lamented how the separatists were forcing the youth to throw stones at the security forces, adding that it was a matter of grave concern and should be stopped.

Khan said the separatist leaders send their sons abroad for education, but had damaged the educational infrastructure in the Valley to keep the generation of Kashmir away from education.

They were misleading such youth and provoking them to create unrest in Kashmir, he said. PTI
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 1

Security grid had gone into an overdrive to zero in on militant commander Bashir Lashkari, after he along with other militants ambushed a police party a fortnight back killing five policemen and a Station House Officer in Anantnag. The police claimed that attackers later disfigured cops faces before walking away with their weapons.

Bashir Wani, alias Bashir Lashkari, an A plus plus category militant, in his early thirties, was a recycled militant and joined the Lashkar-e-Toiba ranks in October 2015. He carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh and his name was also in the 12 most-wanted militant list issued recently by the Army.

After the killing of the policemen at Achabal, Anantnag, on June 16, efforts were stepped up to track him down. Lashkari is believed to have escaped security cordon at least twice since the killing of six policemen, police sources said.

His killing is a major success, a police officer said.

Lashkari, had crossed to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1999 at the age of 15 and returned in 2000 after arms training. After his return he joined the Hizbul Mujahideen. He was later arrested in 2001 and remained in jail for three year. He rejoined militancy at least twice since 2008.

With his killing, the ability of his group (Lashkar) to carry out major actions has been substantially restricted, General Officer Commanding of Victor Force, the Armys counter-insurgency division in south Kashmir, Maj Gen BS Raju said.

In 2016 when Kashmir was in the grip of unrest, Laskahri, a resident of Sopshali Kokernag was blamed by the police for being involved in many rifle-snatching incidents and attacks on police pickets guarding a few politicians in Anantnag. Lashkari was the outfits commander in Anantnag district and was also motivating youth to the join militancy.

Security agencies claim that the Lashkar had received major jolts in south Kashmir in the past fortnight. The Lashkar has suffered a major reverse in south Kashmir in the past fortnight. We have been able to kill top local commander of the group Junaid Mattoo and now Bashir Lashkari, a police officer said.

Mehbooba mourns civilian killings

Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has expressed grief over the death of two civilians during an anti-militancy operation in Anantnag on Saturday. Terming the deaths as tragic and unfortunate, the Chief Minister appealed to the people to keep away from the points of conflagration. Conveying her sympathies to the bereaved families, Mehbooba said the vicious cycle of death and destruction confronting Kashmir must end at the earliest and efforts should be made at all levels to revive the peace and reconciliation process for the larger good of the people of the Valley. People of the state understand better what the ordeal of violence is, as it has been our fate to live through hazards, she said. TNS
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service



Srinagar, July 1

Two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, including a top commander, were killed in gunfight in south Kashmirs Anantnag district on Saturday. Two civilians were also killed in the clashes near the encounter site.

Bashir Lashkari, police said, was wanted in the killing of six policemen, including an SHO, last month.

Lashkaris killing is a huge success, J&K Police chief SP Vaid said.

A joint operation was launched by forces at Birnhi Batpora Dailgam, 55 km from here, after getting information regarding the presence of militants.

While the cordon was being laid some militants outside a house fired upon the securitymen, which was retaliated. In the cross-firing a woman suffered injuries and later succumbed to them. At least 17 people were rescued before the final assault was launched, a police officer said.

In the gunfight that followed two militants, including Lashkari, were killed.

Intense clashes had erupted in the area where protesters tried to march to the gunfight site. Police and CRPF maintained a tight cordon and did not allow militants to escape. In the clashes, another protester was killed and nearly a dozen others were injured.
Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 30

Twelve more diarrhoea cases were diagnosed at the Giaspura area here.

The Health Department visited 619 houses in Giaspura here today. Health workers distributed 550 chlorine tablets and 106 packets of ORS. In all, 24 group meetings were held where people were made aware about the precautions to be taken. The total number of diarrhoea cases detected from the area is 456 so far.

Health workers have also been visiting the Jawahar Nagar area regularly and distributing ORS packets and chlorine tablets in the area.

We have collected water samples from Jawahar Nagar and more samples from Giaspura. The reports are yet to arrive, said Dr Ramesh, district Epidemiologist.

He said the health workers are also visiting the Jawahar Nagar area, but no case has been detected so far.

However, The Health Department is complaining about the Municipal Corporation not extending enough help. Medical camps were being organised by the Health Department, but the MC should also take up the responsibility of providing enough water to the area residents so that they did not fall prey to the disease, said Dr Ramesh.
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 1

Mahaveer Parsad Tordi, an advisor to the vice-president of Government of Nepal who is on his Punjab visit today visited the city.

He said the culture of Punjab and Nepal is similar since Vedic times. He further added India should get a permanent membership of United Nations.

India has always come forward in the time of need and this is the reason why all the countries should get together and vote for India to get veto power. India today has become the eighth powerful country of the world and most countries in Asia sub-continent have similar cultures and traditions but it is China whose culture is different. In the coming votes of United Nations, Nepal will vote in favour of India to get permanent membership, he said.

He also visited office of Federation of Industrial and Commercial Organisation (FICO) and interacted with Office Bearers and members of FICO.

 There is a great potential in bi-lateral trade between India and Nepal. Ludhiana is a large manufacturer of bicycles, sewing machines, hosiery and textile items. There is a great demand of these goods in Nepal, he said.

He invited a delegation of FICO to visit Nepal to meet Nepali president and vice-president of Nepal and find business opportunities and work for the development of Nepal.

He said India has always stood by Nepal in every situation. He further added that 42 per cent of Nepals total import comes from India. He also said India has played an important role in increasing business in Nepal and have always worked for the betterment of the country, he said.
Johnson Thomas

Scripwriters Emily V. Gordon and Pakistani born stand-up comic, TV star Kumail Nanjianis real life love story comes to the screen with Kumail playing himself and Zoe Kazan taking on Emilys role in his life. The film is basically about how they dealt with their cultural differences, break-up pains, While you were sleeping twist and grew their relationship to a committed and intimate one.

So its a romcom with a different slant from the ones we are so used to seeing. Nanjiani, is a struggling stand-up comedian in Chicago who is close with his parents (Anupam Kher and Zenobia Shroff) but not exactly ready to settle down with any of the potential brides who just happen to be around when he sits down to dinner with them. When he meets a feisty blond grad student named Emily (Kazan) they hit it off and have a great time together.

They strike sparks off each other and even manage to tickle the funny bone with their antics. Lines are intimate and funny too. The comedy is basically mined from their cultural differences thus allowing for newness in the engagement. Emily gets to know that Kumail has not talked to his parents about their relationship, and breaks off .

But tragedy strikes. Emily is hospitalized and in an induced coma because of a fatal illness and Kumail is forced into the company of her parents (Ray Romano and Holly Hunter), come down from North Carolina to sit at her bedside. The second half is all about Kumails exploits with the family and its pretty much howlarious. Hunter and Romano rouse up a storm with their frisky chemistry and marriage dynamics.

In fact all the actors in this film have excellent comic timing and deliver their performances with stirring authority. Its a pity that a talented actor like Kazan doesnt get much to do here. Even in the brief role she is luminous. Kumail and Gordons writing is what takes this film to a new level altogether.

The manner in which they mine in intimate secrets of their own courtship and give the imagined narrative a livedin feel, is what makes this film so wonderfully lively !
Sanjeev Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30

Indias biggest tax reform since Independence Goods and Service Tax (GST) was launched at a special session in Parliaments Central Hall at the stroke of midnight.

The GST, countrywide single taxation system which has been in the making for 15 years, was launched by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by pressing a button in an hour-long special function in Parliament attended by MPs, state finance ministers, GST Council members and other dignitaries.

Among those present on the dais along with the President and Prime Minister were Vice President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh skipped the event as the Congress had decided not to attend the function.

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The GST seeks to create a national market for goods and services by subsuming multiple taxes at the national and state level, thereby creating a paradigm of one nation, one tax, one market.

President Mukherjee said GST was a disruptive change and similar to the introduction of VAT when there was initial resistance. When a change of this magnitude is undertaken, however positive it may be, there are bound to be some teething troubles and difficulties in the initial stages, he said.

Video courtesy: Facebook handle of PIB

Modi called the GST Good and Simple Tax which would replace 500 kinds of different taxes prevalent in the country. Showering praise and thanking political parties, Modi said the GST was the result of combined efforts of all political parties and did not belong to any one party or one government.

Invoking the legacy of Sardar Patel, the Prime Minister said the GST would bring about economic integration of India similar to what was done by Patel at the time of Independence to integrate the states and the country.

Referring to the vision of New India, Modi said the GST was the economic system of a New India and its scope was not limited to the financial system but now India would move in a new direction.

The PM said under the new system due to an audit trail, the harassment of traders and small businesses will end while integrating India into one market with one tax rate.

During the initial phase, he said that doubts and anxiety should not be spread and even small traders will adapt to the new system. He added that GST will end generation of black money and corruption, promote new governance culture and help to garner resources for the welfare of the poor.

Talking about the teething troubles, the PM said even eyes had to adjust for some days when once wears new spectacles. In his address, Mukherjee said the central tax was a tribute to the maturity and wisdom of Indias democracy, as he recalled steps taken during his own tenure as Finance Minister on this key reform measure.

The new era in taxation is the result of a broad consensus arrived at between the Centre and states. This consensus took not only time but also effort to build. The effort came from persons across the political spectrum who set aside narrow partisan considerations and put the nations interests first. It is a tribute to the maturity and wisdom of Indias democracy, Mukherjee said.

He said the GST Council should continuously review the implementation and suggest improvements to the taxation regime. After the GST launch, the government imposed levy of 10 per cent basic customs duty on mobile phones, which make imported phones expensive, while inputs and raw materials for manufacture are exempt.

Momentous event: Pranab

It is a momentous event for the nation. This historic moment is the culmination of a 14-year-long journey which began in Dec 2002. It (GST) is a tribute to the maturity and wisdom of Indias democracy. It will make exports more competitive and provide a level playing field to domestic industry. Pranab Mukherjee, President

Good and Simple Tax: MODI

Its the best example of cooperative federalism and success of Indian democracy. GST is Good and Simple Tax  good because there will be no tax on tax and simple because there will be only one form of tax. It will help eliminate black money and corruption. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

Highlights

GST is a tribute to the maturity and wisdom of India's democracy: Pranab

This historic moment is the culmination of a fourteen-year long journey which began in December 2002: President

Introduction of GST is a momentous event for the nation: President Pranab Mukherjee

It is good and simple tax: PM Modi

Not just economic reform but also social reform

Working with vision of new India by 2022: PM Modi

Foreign investors will get a good opportunity in india

GST is not the legacy of one political party but the collective legacy of all political parties: Modi

GST is economic integration

One nation one tax to replace 500 kinds of taxes

Central Hall is the most appropriate venue for historic GST launch, says PM

Central Hall of Parliament witness to momentous occasions of Indian history

It is the contribution of every party and government

The path we have chosen doesn't belong to one government or one party

GST process big example of cooperative federalism

125 crore Indians will be witness

India will move in a new direction

PM says at midnight we will steer country direction

Prime Minister Narendra modi starts addressing at GST function

Will boost revenues drive growth and single flow of goods and services

GST has removed multiplicity of taxes and cut tax interface: FM

Jaitley says India will write new destiny and GST being launched in time of global slowdown

GST process started 15 years ago, says FM

Thanks Mps political parties state Finance Ministers

New India will create one tax, one nation, one market, says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

President Pranab Mukherjee, PM Narendra Modi, VP Hamid Ansari arrive in Central Hall of Parliament for the launch of GST.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on dais with President, PM, Vice President and Lok Sabha.

Former PM Manmohan Singh skips GST launch event owing to Congress' boycott of the ceremony. (With PTI inputs)

Fertiliser rate cut from 12% to 5%

In a farmer friendly move, the GST Council chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley decided that the GST rate on fertilisers will be reduced from 12 per cent to 5 per cent and on exclusive parts of tractors from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. The reduction of tax on fertiliser will benefit farmers to the extent of Rs 1,261 crore. TNS
Beijing, July 1

China has released a map to back its claim that Indian troops transgressed into the disputed Doklam area of the Sikkim sector, days after releasing photographs of alleged Indian incursion into the area, which it claims as part of Chinese territory.

In the map, released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry last night, a blue arrow with markings in Chinese, points Indian troops alleged "transgression" into the area to prevent the PLA troops from building a road.

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The map shows Doklam, a disputed territory between China and Bhutan, as part of Chinese territory. In an unprecedented move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Thursday displayed two photographs of the alleged Indian "incursion" into the area during a media briefing.

Later, the ministry uploaded two photographs on its website. One photo showed two bulldozers stated to be that of the Indian military while another showed one bulldozer. A redline in the photos was showed as Chinese side of the border.

A standoff erupted between the two militaries after the Indian Army blocked construction of the road by China in the disputed Doklam area. Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.  PTI

India attends SCO meet amid stand-off
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30

Contrary to expectations, the little-after-midnight launch of the Goods and Services Tax at the Central Hall of Parliament today turned out to be a rather modest affair that went well with the sanctity of the historic venue.

Even the technical launch by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not by the echo of a gong as earlier thought. It was through the press of a button that started on pre mounted TV screens a short video snapshot of what the PM described as a Good and simple Tax.

There were not many comparisons to the historic Tryst with destiny speech of Indias first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru either. All PM Modi borrowed from the August 14-15, 1947 midnight speech of Nehru was a reference to midnight itself.

At the stroke of midnight hour today, we will together determine the future course of this nation, PM Modi said, borrowing from the Tryst with Destiny speech, which was part of the first midnight celebrations at the Central Hall, that was to later see three more such events, including todays.

Dressed in white and blue, PM Modi spoke for around half an hour to an illustrious 800 strong gathering comprising seasoned politicians, lawmakers, industry doyens led by Ratan Tata, RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and a host of guests. Amitabh Bachchan and Lata Mangeshkar, learnt to be on the invitee list, were not there.

The real star of the evening was Asim Dasgupta, the former Finance minister of the Left front Government in West Bengal and the principal architect of the GST law. Dasgupta, the first man asked to head a GST committee by the then Atal Behari Vajpayee government in 2000, found an elaborate mention in the inaugural speech of the day by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Also in attendance was KM Mani, who, as FM of then Left Government in Kerala, succeeded Dasgupta as the head of the GST committee in 2011. It was after Mani quit owing to a scandal that Bengal FM Amit Mitra took the task of consensus building among states forward. Mitra was missing on account of a TMC boycott of the event.

Also missing were Congress, RJD, NC, DMK and Left leaders though SP was in full attendance with Ram Gopal Yadav and Naresh Agarwal present along with Akshay Yadav and even Amar Singh. BSP cief Mayawati sent MPs Raja Ram and Veer Singh. NCPs Sharad Pawar came with all senior party colleagues and was seated in the front row beside BJP chief Amit Shah and party senior LK Advani. The sole Congressman present was Rajya Sabha Deputy chairman PJ Kurien, who came on account of his constitutional position.

The PM for his part emphasized the absence of Congress by insisting that the Central Hall, which witnessed Indias historic transition to Independence apart from the first meeting of the Constituent assembly, was the best venue to launch GST. Congress today boycotted the event objecting to the venue which has so far seen midnight celebrations only to mark Indias freedom.

PM went many steps further to sanctify the GST and its rollout from Parliament. He drew linkages between the Gita and GST; between the Constitution and GST and also between Sardar Patels act of unifying princely states to GSTs power of unifying the economy.

Gita has 18 chapters and GST Council has had 18 meetingsJust like the Constituent assembly debated the Constitution for over two years, we have now debated GST for over 14Just like Sardar Patel gave us national integration, GST will signal economic integration, PM said, adding that the Central Hall was a perfect setting for GST launch as this place had seen the adoption of the Constitution on November 26, 1949.
Bengaluru, July 1

Congress leader Meira Kumar, the opposition's presidential nominee, reacted to allegations that she was made a "scapegoat" in the upcoming election to the country's top constitutional post by saying as she was fighting for an ideology.

"Anybody fighting for an ideology and appealing to the voice of conscience cannot be a scapegoat. I am a fighter and I will fight and I am sure that many will join me in this fight," she said in response to a question whether she was being made a scapegoat in the presidential election.

Union minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale had yesterday took a jibe at the Congress saying it was using Kumar as a "scapegoat" by fielding her as the opposition candidate in the July 17 presidential election.

Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker and the daughter of iconic Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram, was speaking to reporters after meeting the Congress MPs and MLAs at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office here.

Seventeen opposition parties have fielded Kumar as their joint candidate in the presidential election against NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

To a question on her not having the support of enough lawmakers, Kumar said she was fighting the poll on values and principles that were "sacred" to the people of the country.

"Wherever I go, people tell me that I do not have the numbers. If I do not have the numbers, why don't you round up the figures and declare the results? Why have the elections?" she asked.

Pointing out that she launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, Kumar said: "I am carrying forward those values and principles which are sacred to most of my countrymen and women.

"Someone has to take them up. I am taking up your fight also. You want me to withdraw? Do you want me to get defeated? I am simply fighting."

Kumar also met former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo HD Deve Gowda and sought his party's support to her candidature.

Asked about the presidential poll turning into a "Dalit contest", she said it was "shameful" that election to the position of president was being painted in this manner.

"We have to come out of this mentality. Even in 2017, people with high qualifications are talking about castes. When both the sides had fielded candidates from higher castes in the past, no one discussed about it. We were not even aware of their castes. We were only aware of their accomplishments, experience and capabilities and only those things were discussed.

"When the contest is between me and Kovind, our caste is being discussed and there is no other talk. Where are we today? Where are we heading? " she said.

Noting that in today's era, everyone craved for quality, Kumar said: "Our thinking needs to become good as well".

Asked if she would meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the run-up to the election, Kumar said she had written a letter to him and would decide on meeting him when she visited the eastern state.

Going against the decision of its alliance partners RJD and Congress, Nitish Kumar's JD (U) has decided to back the candidature of former Bihar governor Kovind. Kumar, the opposition's presidential nominee, also hails from Bihar.

When pointed out that like her, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also been speaking about development based on Mahatma Gandhi's ideologies, Kumar said Gandhiji's ideology was that of "secularism".

"We do not just have to be tolerant towards the other religions, but be respectful towards them. That was Gandhiji's ideology and we have always carried that forward," she said.  PTI
New Delhi/Islamabad, July 1

India has asked Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav, a death row prisoner in Pakistan and Hamid Nehal Ansari, an Indian engineer and businessman who was sentenced to three years in jail for entering Pakistan.

According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.

"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement in Delhi.

A Pakistani military court sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav, a formal Indian naval officer, to death for espionage in April. India moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on May 18 restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.

Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing. He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.

In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".

The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access, which was signed on May 21, 2008. According to the pact, lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said.

It said India would address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," it said.

Pakistans foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10. PTI
New Delhi, July 1

Raising the issue of lynchings in the country in the name of vigilantism, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said when mob frenzy becomes so "irrational and uncontrollable", the people have to be "vigilant" to save the basic tenets of the society.

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He also urged the intellectual class to rise and be vigilant as it could act as the biggest deterrent to forces of darkness and backwardness.

"When mob frenzy becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect. Are you vigilant enough," he said at a function to celebrate 70 years of India's independence.

"I am not talking of vigilantism. I am talking about whether we are vigilant enough proactively to save the basic tenets of our time," he said.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, besides a host of dignitaries, former ministers, MPs and Congress leaders were present at the event that saw the launch of a commemorative publication by National Herald.

When mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough?: President Pranab Mukherjee pic.twitter.com/TC4Bi97WvQ  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017
New Delhi, June 30

Commercial establishments and wholesale commodity markets in some cities remained closed today in protest against the hasty rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

As the GST was set for an ambitious rollout, Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation called for a general strike in the Valley tomorrow against the new unified tax system.

Commercial establishments in major cities in Madhya Pradesh were closed as part of a bandh called by traders and a trade bandh call by Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal (BUVM) in West Bengal evoked mixed reaction.

Trade and industry bodies in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana urged the Centre to be lenient for at least one year on filing of returns as many more businesses come under the GST regime for the first time.

Wholesale commodity markets, including grains, pulses and sugar in Delhi were closed in protest against the five per cent GST on branded grains and sugar.

A majority of wholesale grain, pulse and other commodity shops were shut in Naya Bazar, said Ashok Kumar Bansal, general secretary, Grain Merchant Welfare Organisation.

According to Ravindra Modi, president of the Federation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, it would take at least six months for the trade to get accustomed to the new regime. ...There are some issues that need clarity. We will learn about it only after implementation, he said. In MP, shops in Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur downed shutters.  PTI
New Delhi, July 1

Warning of tough action on companies indulging in tax evasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said over 37,000 such shell firms have been already detected and registrations of more than 3 lakh others have been cancelled.

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Modi said his government is committed to taking even tougher action against those helping hide black money and he was not at all concerned about political implications of tough decisions.

Addressing chartered accountants on the foundation day of the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants in India), Modi also said CAs should take a pledge to bring people in the tax bracket rather than boasting about the number of clients they have saved from paying taxes.

Modi said his government along with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India) was cleaning India's economy and had taken tough stand against those who looted the nation.

He said it is a bitter truth that only 32 lakh Indians have declared over Rs 10 lakh income, despite crores of them being in high-end professions.

Giving details of action taken post demonetisation, he said data mining shows that over 3 lakh registered companies indulged in suspected dealings.

"Government has cancelled registration of over 1 lakh companies in a single stroke and more than 37,000 shell firms have been identified for strong action," he said.

He said the impact of the government's steps on checking black money was clear from the latest figures of Swiss banks, which show that there was 45 per cent drop in Indians deposits in Swiss banks since his government came to power .

The deposits had risen sharply earlier in 2013, Modi said, referring to a period when the Congress-led UPA regime was in power.

People with black money will face more difficulties when Switzerland begins automatic information exchange in two years, he added.

Modi said chartered accountants needed to safeguard society's economic health and they have a big responsibility.

"Your signature is more powerful than that of the Prime Minister and the government also believes the accounts signed by you," he said addressing the CAs.

He exhorted them to take charge of bringing their clients to path of honesty and said a wrong audit could impact lives of gullible investors as people took investment decisions on the basis of their audit reports. PTI
1. Yes. Taxpayers are funding its operation; they should have a voice in the naming process.

2. Yes. The city should operate with a spirit of inclusivity. Residents will be responsive.

3. No. Public input can be problematic; rejection of suggestions can be divisive for residents.

4. No. Residents elect council members to make decisions on their behalf. No input is needed.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether public input would be more of a benefit or a hindrance.

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Hoshiarpur, July 1

The city police today arrested seven persons, including an ASI, posted with the 5 IRB, Ludhiana, for allegedly vandalising the office of Union Minister Vijay Sampla at Shalimar Nagar last night.

The accused were presented before a local court which remanded the ASI in police custody, while the remaining six were sent to judicial remand.

Bharat Bhushan Verma, Samplas private secretary, in his complaint, alleged that ASI Vijay Kumar and his accomplices broke the office door and occupied the building forcibly. Verma said when he reached the spot, the accused threw stones at him. He alleged that the accused had stolen records and other articles from the office.

Sukhwinder Singh, DSP (City), reached the spot and arrested the seven persons, including four women.
Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

A freedom fighter has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking compensation for his grandfathers brutal death in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The petitioner, Mohan Singh, claimed that the compensation was long overdue for the past over 98 years.

Mohan Singh said his grandfather, Ishar Singh, along with 15-16 other villagers, had gone to Amritsar on April 13, 1919, to take part in a congregation at Jallianwala Bagh. Ishar was among those who died in the firing, he added.

His counsel said the Central and Punjab Governments had been launching welfare schemes for freedom fighters and their dependants since Independence, but the same had not matured due to the apathy and negative mindset of the implementing agencies.

He added that the government had decided to award compensation to the kin of those killed in the massacre. But the lopsided attitude of the respondent authorities is writ large and the kin of the victims have been made to suffer. Persons such as the petitioner, who are bedridden and at a ripe age, are being made to suffer for want of necessary compensation, benefits etc. admissible to them, the counsel said.

The petitioner, who is in his 90s, submitted that he was a freedom fighter who had been lodged in the Lahore jail from October 20, 1942, to July 24, 1943, during the Quit India Movement.

He was granted pension under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, but it was withdrawn in December 2007 on the ground that he could not establish his presence in jail for at least six months. He subsequently moved the High Court, which allowed the writ petition.

On his compensation claim, he said his representation was gathering dust in the office of the administration.

The case was placed before the Bench of Justice MMS Bedi and will come up for hearing in the second week of July.
Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, July 1

Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SGRDIMSR), Amritsar, today announced to bring its 75 government-quota MBBS seats under the management quota. The SGPC-run college has also increased the tuition fee for these seats from Rs 13.43 lakh to Rs 46.10 lakh.

The Secretary, Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER), has asked the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, to probe the matter and question the SGRDIMSR for these sudden changes.

We have no official information about the government-quota seats being brought under the management quota and the three-fold hike in the tuition fee. The process to make admissions in all medical and dental colleges is under way, said Vikas Partap, Secretary, DMER.

On June 3, the Medical Education Department had issued a notification to fill the government-quota MBBS seats (75 of the total 150) in the SGPC-run college. As the statute of a private university for the college is yet to be approved by the state government, the distribution of seats there shall be as per the old formula  50 per cent seats under government quota and the remaining under management/minority quota, including 15 per cent NRI quota, read the notification.

While the tuition fee for the government-quota seats is Rs 10.43 lakh, the DMER had fixed Rs 40.29 lakh as fees for the management/minority-quota seats.

In a public notice issued this evening, the SGRDIMSR announced that the tuition fees for its 127 MBBS seats will be Rs 46.10 lakh while the fees for 23 seats under NRI quota is fixed at US $ 1,26,500. Further, the college has introduced registration fees, which will be charged at the rate of 15 per cent of the total tuition fees and will be applicable to all seats.

SGRDIMSR Principal Geeta Sharma said the college had every right to decide its seat quota and fee structure as it was in the process of becoming an autonomous medical university.

Though the statute of converting the medical college into a university is yet to be approved, there is nothing wrong in fixing seats and fees, she said, adding that several other medical colleges, which were in the process of getting the university status, were adopting the same procedure.

BFUHS Vice-Chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur said the university had no information about the college bringing its government-quota seats under the management quota.
Phagwara: Union Minister Vijay Sampla on Saturday alleged that the Punjab Police were working under the pressure of the Congress government and it could be described as merely a police wing of the Congress. Talking to the media here, Sampla claimed that even the DGP was working under political pressure. He alleged that the law and order situation in the state had collapsed and corruption and unemployment had increased. He described the Goods and Service Tax (GST) as pro-people. On resentment among industrialists and traders, Sampla said few amendments could also be made after assessing the implication of the new tax regime. He said the Union Transport Ministry had sanctioned the construction of Rs 263-crore elevated road in Phagwara. He said the would start soon. OC

CMs greetings on Canada Day

Chandigarh: Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has greeted the people of Canada on the nation's 150th anniversary, terming it a historic moment in the country's progressive journey, to which the Punjabi and Indian community has significantly contributed. In a message, the Chief Minister said the enactment of Canada's Constitution Act on July 1, 1867, had laid the foundation for the emergence of one of the brightest stars on the global landscape. The CM extended greetings to the Indian community in Canada, saying that they were an integral part of the Western nation's progress and well respected the world over for their dedicated hard work.

Proud of Canadian Sikhs: Sukhbir

Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said Punjabis settled in Canada had done their motherland proud. In a statement here, Sukhbir said Punjabis had made a mark for themselves by sheer hard labour and sacrifices. "They have excelled in all spheres be it farming, IT, broadcast media or business. Now, 17 Sikhs are part of the country's Parliament. Four of them are ministers in the Trudeau government," he said. TNS

Mentally challenged minor raped

Fazilka: A 12-year-old mentally challenged girl was allegedly raped at Bakainwala village in this district. The victims mother alleged that Jaspal Singh, a resident of their village, sexually assaulted the girl on Friday. A case was registered against the accused under Section 376 of the IPC and Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on Saturday. The accused is yet to be arrested. OC
Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 1

As the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has failed to print and distribute a large number of school textbooks in time this year, the state, taking an unprecedented step, has decided to get the books published from the State Council of Education and Research Training (SCERT).

The PSEB has thus been divested of its exclusive right to publish textbooks for the first time since its establishment in 1969.

The move, however, is in violation of the Punjab School Education Board Act, 1969, which states that the board will arrange for the preparation, writing, compilation, printing and sale of textbooks.

Sukhdev Singh Kahlon, Director, SCERT, in a letter to the Secretary, PSEB, said: As per oral orders of the Principal Secretary, Education, all textbooks meant for classes I to XII are to be published by the SCERT. In a meeting held with the Director General School Education (DGSE) in this regard, he (DGSE) has directed that expenditure details, right from the preparation of books up to their distribution, should be sought from the publication cell of the PSEB.

The SCERT has also asked the PSEB to provide details of the total number of titles to be published in 2017-18 and size and sample of the paper used to print books.

Krishan Kumar, Principal Secretary, Education, said: It is the governments decision to pass on the responsibility to the SCERT. There is nothing illogical about it. At the national level, the CBSE and the ICSE only conduct exams, while the National Council of Education and Research Training (NCERT) publishes books. In several states, the SCERTs are already preparing and publishing school textbooks. So why cant we adopt the same system in Punjab?

Till now, the SCERT was not given this responsibility owing to shortage of staff and other logistics. Such shortcoming will be removed soon, he added.

Quizzed as to how the SCERT could be given the work when the PSEB Act, 1969, empowered the board to publish school textbooks, Kumar said the government would amend the Act.

Sources said even three months after the beginning of the current academic session, the board was struggling to procure paper to publish around 80 of the total 357 titles of the textbooks it had to publish this year.
Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

Punjab will no longer have two supervisory levels in its policing structure. Among the last states to bring in the reform, it has abolished the post of DIG in different police zones. Also, IGPs have been vested with supervisory powers.

Punjab will now have seven police ranges  Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Ropar, Ferozepur and Ludhiana. Each of these will be headed by an Inspector General of Police (IGP). Earlier, four police zones were headed by a DIG each and seven by IGs. Now on, three districts will form a police range.

A new post, that of ADGP (Border), has been created for a greater vigil at the India-Pakistan border. Harpreet Singh Sidhu, in-charge of the Special Task Force to fight the drug menace, has been given the additional charge. With orders abolishing the police ranges of Ropar, Ferozepur and Ludhiana expected tomorrow, the state will have four 'spare' DIG-level officers.

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Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, calling it the beginning of police reforms aimed at providing good governance, said the tenure of "senior operations men" would be fixed. He did not mention any posts. But sources in the police department said the Director General of Police (DGP), Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) and Inspectors General of Police (IGPs) will have a fixed one-year tenure.

The CM said after the Cabinet expansion (expected by mid-July), he would keep the Home (police, Intelligence and jails), Horticulture and Animal Husbandary Departments with him. He said he would also be appointing parliamentary secretaries who would not be involved in official work "but will be trained in parliamentary roles."

Meanwhile, the state government has decided to have English as the medium of instruction at the primary level, beginning this academic session. Mandarin, Italian and French will be introduced as optional subjects in Class X.

English medium in primary schools

The Punjab government has decided to have English as the medium of instruction at the primary level, beginning this academic session. Mandarin, Italian and French will be introduced as optional subjects in Class X.
Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, June 30

Huge variation in fee structure among private medical colleges for MBBS course in the state has left many students confused.

For 350 management quota seats of 1,125 MBBS seats in the state, while four private medical colleges are charging Rs 40.29 lakh as tuition fee for full course, Bathinda-based Adesh Medical College has fixed its tuition fee at Rs 63.95 lakh.

The Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER) fixes the tuition fee for three government and four private medical colleges. However, Adesh Medical College has been given full autonomy to fix its fee structure this time.

For 500 MBBS seats in three government medical colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot, the state government has fixed Rs 4.44 lakh as full course tuition fee. While the tuition fee for about 200 government quota seats in four private medical colleges is fixed at Rs 13.43 lakh, the fee for management seats in these private colleges is Rs 40.29 lakh.

However as Adesh Medical College does not offer any government quota seat, the fee structure for its 127 MBBS seats is quite high. All other private colleges in Punjab have 50 per cent government quota seats.

As per the state government-approved fee structure of all colleges except Adesh, Rs 11.9 lakh is the tuition fee for the first year of MBBS course with 10 per cent increase every year. The college will charge the fee for four-and-a-half years.

For its 23 NRI quota MBBS seats, the college has fixed $1.25 lakh as full course fee. However, the fee for NRI quota seats in all other private medical colleges is $1.1 lakh.

On the huge difference in fee structure, Dr Sujata Sharma, Director, DRME, Punjab, said, As Adesh Medical College runs under a private university in the state, the college has the liberty to decide its own fee structure.

Though the fee for MBBS course is quite high in Adesh College, the fee for its BDS seat is not much.

For management quota seat in BDS course, while four medical/dental colleges in the state are charging Rs 7.81 lakh as tuition fee, Adesh has fixed about Rs 10 lakh as full course fee for dental course. For NRI quota BDS seats, Adesh has fixed $44,000, which all other private dental colleges are charging.

The reason for this relaxation is that more than 50 per cent BDS seats in dental colleges in the state remained vacant for the past three years.
Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Barnala, July 1

Residents of Cheema and Jodhpur villages clashed today over draining out rainwater. Some villagers suffered minor injuries.

After a breach in the rajbaha (small canal) yesterday morning, the authorities had stopped the flow of water. However, villagers had plugged the breach last evening. This morning, some Cheema residents drained out the rainwater accumulated in their fields during the past three days towards the canal. As rainwater started flowing towards their already flooded village, Jodhpur residents reached Cheema village.

They blocked the flow of water, which started inundating our fields near Cheema village. When we tried to remove the blockage, Jodhpur residents attacked us with bricks, stones and sticks, alleged Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Cheema village.

Later, Cheema residents made an announcement from the village gurdwara that Jodhpur villagers had attacked them. Soon, residents of Cheema village assembled and started hurling stones and bricks at their opponents.

Barnala SDM Bikram Shergill, DSPs Rajesh Chhibber and Jasbir Singh, along with other police officers, reached the spot and spoke to both groups.

The situation is under control. No one has suffered any serious injury. The police are conducting an investigation, the SDM said.
Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 30

The SAD has alleged political vendetta in the registration of a case against district Youth Akali Dal (YAD) vice-president Shafiq Chauhan, accused of circulating an inflammatory WhatsApp message against Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Senior party leaders here today announced that an indefinite agitation would be launched against the Malerkotla police for implicating Chauhan under political pressure.

On June 27, the police had booked Chauhan under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was arrested the same day.

The message was about Sidhus anti-Muslim act. To speak against anyone with facts is not a crime. The police did not act on a complaint either from Sidhu or any other leader, but registered a case on secret information. This shows that the case is politically motivated, alleged Advocate Parvez Akhtar, a block samiti member of the SAD.

He further said Chauhan did not create any hate message, but only forwarded one against Sidhu.

Malerkotla SP Raj Kumar Jalhotra denied the allegation of implicating the YAD leader and said the police registered the case after getting secret information. The police have the legal power to register case against those, who attempt to promote enmity among sections of society, he added.
Christopher Hooton

Planes are inherently cinematic, aesthetically pleasing vehicles, so its kind of a shame that most charter jets are simply painted a block colour and then have a logo slapped on the fin. Icelandair has opted for something more tasteful to mark its 80th anniversary this year, theming one of the Boeing 757-200s in its fleet around the breathtaking Vatnajokull glacier in the south east of Iceland.

Spray painted by a team of skilled artists, the job took 24 days and involved 195 litres of paint. The cabin of the plane was also given a glacial spin, with ambient blue lighting evoking the atmosphere beneath the ice. Hell, even the sick bags are glacier print. The Vatnajokull glacier is more than 8,000 sq km in size and is the most active in Iceland thanks to the three volcanoes beneath its surface: Orfajokull, Baroarbunga and Grimsvotn.

Icelandair has been supporting Friends of Vatnajokull since it launched in 2009, a non-profit that supports research and educational activities around the glacier. The Vatnajokull plane will fly the companys transatlantic routes.  The Independent
Saba Naqvi

THE smartest quip I heard last week was about the ghost of Mohandas Gandhi calling up Narendra Modi after he heard the prime minister of India in 2017 condemn the lynching of human beings and invoke Gandhis name to do so. The ghost then tells him, one Gujarati to the other, beta Narendrabhai please, NotInMyName.

In February 2013, along with several other Indians, some of whom are celebrities, I attended the Karachi literature festival. A modest event was scheduled around my first book, In Good Faith that is a journey across India in search of syncretistic traditions. Its the sort of theme that actually sold a few copies in Pakistan (possibly making me guilty of treachery under the new norms that govern our country).

What struck me then is how traumatized a certain type of Pakistani (who would be called pseudo secular or pseudo liberal were they Indian today) was by the many jolts that doctrines of hate were giving their country. Karachi is routinely visited by horrendous violence and even as the festival ended, there was curfew in the city as protests broke out after a massacre of Hazara Shias in Quetta (death toll 89). The road to the airport was blocked and some international visitors had to leave with security escort.

Writers at the venue -- and Pakistan has produced an outstanding crop of novelists writing in English such as Mohammed Hanif, Mohsin Hamid, Nadeem Aslam and Kamila Shamsie who were present at the lit fest -- spoke of their collective misery.

But what really remained with me was the opening ceremony of the festival as it included a dance-drama called Tagore. Gurudevs poem Where the Mind is Without Fear was recited to a dance. Included in the drama was a rendition of Mahatma Gandhis favourite bhajan, Raghupati Raghav Rajaram, patita paavana Sitaram, Ishwar Allah tero naam.... I had one of those moments of quiet pride standing there in Karachi.

There is good patriotism that fundamentally draws from humanitarian values distinct from the hysterical invoking of nationalism to damn other people. George Orwell, who damns the nationalist narrative more effectively in the classic 1984 (written in 1949) than any writer has done, was a quintessential Englishman to the very end. I mention Karachi because, its been suggested that somehow the #NotInMyName campaign defamed India because some people in Karachi wanted to hold a similar event, linking it up to their own traumas such as the lynching of young student Mashal Khan.

Bad times do bring out the best in the human spirit. The NotInMyName Campaign and citizens protests that took place in several Indian cities came from that sort of emotion. Initiated by a facebook post by an independent film-maker, it struck a chord. Whether the PM spoke out as a result of the citizens campaign or bad press in the West, I do not know. I will just admit that by the time he did, I was ready to weep with relief, fall at his feet and say thank you. Thats how desperate one has been feeling about the targeted attack on a particular community. And the scary silence about it. Its not a distant fear; its closing in on those of us who live in areas with a sizeable Muslim population. For nearly a decade now, Ive lived not far from the Qutub Minar in an area that is part slum, part middle class buildings. There are glorious monuments of the Delhi sultanate period, some maintained, others encroached on. Its a chaotic area dotted with temples, madarsas, mosques, garbage dumps.

I always heard the Azan in my neighbourhood. The ramzan of 2017 was the first when the call to prayer is no longer being broadcast, at least not in my ear-shot. The madarsa near my home stopped its broadcast several months ago, as they now just want to keep their head low, and be as invisible as is possible for groups of boys wearing little skull caps. I had gone to speak to the Imam last year requesting him to keep the volume down for the morning Azan during Ramzan as many non-Muslims get disturbed. This year there was no need: no Azan is broadcast, morning, afternoon, evening.

Today morning, during my walk, four little kids with the sweetest faces came up to me with a grin to ask for money. I asked their names: Muskaan, Fatima, Abrar and Anjali, ages three to eight, whose parents worked as labourers in a nearby slum. When I asked where they emerged from, they pointed to a small temple inside the park. They said they play there sometimes. In the past I would have seen it as an example of intertwined lives, but now I am worried if the pujari knows that three of the kids are Muslims. Perhaps they are taking a risk, I thought. They are innocent children not yet aware of their religious identity.

Because of my fears I shall investigate the matter tomorrow morning. Perhaps I am wrong and the pujari is a man with an open heart. Meanwhile, Ive promised the children presents so they will be there.
Harish Khare

THINGS have come to such a pass in our national life that we are made to feel content with small mercies. There is an enormous sense of relief and gratitude that the Prime Minister has, at last, spoken about the creeping lynching culture. All the modernists are heaving a sigh of relief that finally the Prime Minister has spoken up. Their conscience is salved. Many in civil society are inclined to believe that the Prime Ministers disapproving words against cow vigilantes were in response to the country-wide protest, under the banner Not in My Name.

My own inclination is to believe that the Prime Minister was constrained to say what he said at the Sabarmati Ashram probably because of what he heard during his American visit a few days earlier. It would be natural and normal for the presumptuous American CEOs to tell an Indian Prime Minister: stop this lynching spree, if you want us to set up shop in your country. Killings of Muslims may sit well with the Donald Trump administration's inner biases, but the American businessman  perhaps like all other businessmen  would be extremely reluctant to invest in a land of civil strife. This is a normal expectation, as also a moral imperative.

For example, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says  and rightly so  that it was about time the citizens of this country learnt to develop a culture of paying taxes. This is a modern insistence. The power to tax as well as an obligation to pay the tax flow from a larger modern architecture of lawfulness. The lynching  and, worst, its subtle acceptance  is at variance and conflict with Arun Jaitleys contention and demand.

Nonetheless, it was wonderful that so many Indians across the land  and, some abroad also  came out and joined the not in my name protest. It was heartening and reassuring that the large sections of the society have not yet submitted to the demands being made and violence being meted out in the name of the Hindu sensitivity.

It was important to do this Jantar Mantar solidarity show because what we are witnessing is an organised slide into tribal primitiveness. The villainous energy of the lumpen elements is getting respectified in the name of the majoritys honour and presumed cultural preferences. Aberrations and absurdities are being explained away as new normal. The itch to kill has become infectious.

Since when has it become normal for the Hindus to carry knives on train journey? And, who has made it normal for a Hindu to knife to death a fellow Muslim passenger, even if it was a dispute about seating arrangements?

One can only hope that tut-tutting from the Prime Minister would be heeded. Political leaders never seem to understand that it is far easier to excite the base and much more difficult to control its anger.

**********************

TILL Raghuram Rajan intruded into our national attention with his rock-star flamboyance, all Reserve Bank of India governors preferred to sport a staid, even dull, demeanour. But that did not mean that the job was any less sexy, less exciting than, say, that of a cabinet minister. Money, in fact, is the most potent, most coercive and most corrupting currency of power. In a kingdom, the most crucial task is that of safeguarding the national treasury  even from the King and his generals and durbaris. In the modern parlance, the RBI has to be a step ahead of the crooked businessmen and bankers, who are often in collusion with the bent politician.

It in this context I read the former RBI governor, YV Reddys memoirs, Advice and Dissent. (I was impulsively attracted to the book because the title seemed to me an obvious play of words on the famous political novel, Advice and Consent by Allen Drury.) For a banker, Governor Reddy writes well and lucidly. And, he seems to have the knack to say a lot without saying too much. That does not come easily to all writers.

The perennially vexatious question about each and every RBI governor boils down to one code word: autonomy. In India we simply do not have a culture of letting institutions run autonomously and independently and professionally. The itch to interfere and control is the bane of modern India.

The Reserve Bank of India is one institution where it is entirely up to the Governor what to make of its institutional autonomy  to surrender it, to add to it, to preserve and protect it from the inevitable poaching by many other players, starting with the Finance Minister of India. The RBI has many advantages, as Governor Reddy points out, of strong technical competence, professional skills and an institutional memory. Yet it still requires a watchful Governor to mind the store.

And, this autonomy is neither a fad nor a fetish. There is an important rationale for this autonomy and Governor Reddy explains it succinctly: The governments in market-oriented economies want central banks to appear to be independent and apolitical. The philosophy is that the authority that creates money should ideally be independent from the authority that borrows and spends money, namely, the government. And, each governor brings to the job his own set of convictions, beliefs, values, knowledge of theory and facts, and personal rectitude. It has worked out well so far, Dr Reddy would like us to believe, and we are better off buying into that assurance.

Since the RBIs policy actions create gainers and losers it is natural that various lobbies should want to influence those actions. And, often, these lobbies are not constrained by ethical considerations. That is when a Governor gets tested. But India has been very, very fortunate that it has invariably had RBI governors who protected the banks autonomy and enhanced their own moral stature.

**********************

LET us call it the Dagshai syndrome: a cruel practice of branding a criminal. During my recent visit to Kasauli, I visited the Dagshai cantonment, one of the oldest of its kind, having being established as early as 1847. The name  Dagshai  we are informed by a board outside the Army Public School, was derived from the Mughal practice, called Dag-e-shai, as the prisoners were branded on their forehead and brought here.

We now have a modern version of this Mughal practice. In Rajasthan, the local authorities are forcing the BPL (below poverty line) families to brand their houses with an inscription, announcing to the whole wide world, that they are poor and take food grains under the National Food Security Act.

This is insensitivity writ large. Similar demands have reportedly been made in some districts in Madhya Pradesh. This kind of humiliation after 70 years of Independence!

The official argument is that such acts of humiliation are necessary to weed out bogus and fake claimants from the deserving ones. The only thing that needs to be noted is that the governments, at the Centre and in the states, never gather the courage to name and shame when the offenders seem to be rich and powerful.

A veteran, Major Gurddep Samra (retd) wrote to lament the distorted priorities and prejudices of the media towards an authentic military hero, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. The retired Major points out that 27th June was the great soldiers death anniversary, but there was not even a whisper in any of the newspapers, on any of our shrill television channels who churn out so much of trash in high decibels.

Major Samra also wrote a poem in honour of the Field Marshal, the Iron Man:

Sam was flamboyant, commander who led from the front

His decisions were timely and he was blunt,

No politician could dwarf him, as he spoke his mind,

He won the war and reduced the enemy to dusty grind,

Soldiers miss him with misty eyes and choked breath,

No General now can match him as he walked with a broad chest

Now we have pigmies, who behave like tarts,

They command bodies, not rule the hearts

Well said.

I am happy to raise my cup of coffee in honour of the great soldier. Join me.

kaffeeklatsch@tribuneindia.com
By K. Natwar Singh

IT has been Jammu and Kashmir and nothing else. In the ministry of external affairs, there is inexplicable confusion. Contradictory statements are being made. One official says the US used the phrase Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir. What the US says about J&K, whatever terminology it resorts to, is of consequence. It is for the external affairs minister to pull up careless officials for taking so casual an approach to so vital an issue. IFS officers are hard-boiled professionals, and always function as such. Indias policies are made in New Delhi, not in Washington. That we should be guided by the US is totally unacceptable.

***********************

It is alarming that the head of the Indian Army should make statements on India-China relations and invite a snub from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) spokesman, Wu Qian. Wu said, Such rhetoric is extremely irresponsible. We hope the particular person of the Indian Army could learn from the historical lessons and stop such clamouring for war.

Arun Jaitley is the finance minister and also minister of defence. He is overworked. Nevertheless, he should pull up the Army Chief and tell him to display verbal restraint. Why does the Prime Minister not appoint a defence minister and reduce the burden of the finance minister? The dangerous complexities of Sino-Indian relations are beyond the understanding of our military brass. Lt. General M. Kaul got it all wrong in 1962. We paid a heavy price for his misplaced enthusiasm.

***********************

Several books on Indira Gandhi have appeared in the last two months. The latest is by Sagarika Ghose. Many more will appear before Nov 19. Indira Gandhi had lively sense of humour. Here are a few gems:

About a month before her assassination, I told her as we were going down the steps from her office that I would be going to Bharatpur to get ready for the Lok Sabha elections. My first priority would be to acquire the Congress livery, Jawahar jacket, kurta and pyjama. She looked at me and said: Now that you are coming into politics, a thicker skin would be more useful. I soon acquired one.

The next: In a letter to me, Indira Gandhi wrote, on Nov 22, 1972: Another book that has followed me on my wonderings is Han Suyins A Mortal Flower I was interested in the review of her latest book which you sent. I knew Han Suyin well for many years. We met in Peking in 1956. She had become world famous after the publication of her wonderful love novel, A Many Splendoured Thing. What other type of book could she have written on Mao? The Mao-Nixon story was new to me

The story was as follows. Nixon asked Mao what would have happened if Khrushchev was assassinated instead of Kennedy. Maos answer was: I dont know, but Onassis would not have married Mrs. Khrushchev.

A third one: Indira Gandhi wrote in May 1974: May I send you birthday greetings even though they are 13 days late. What do you mean by feeling and looking 43? It is a nice age as you will discover when you are older and you should, I hope, have more wisdom and equilibrium. I acquired both in small measure.

***********************

On the 50th anniversary of Gandhijis assassination, I wrote an article in the Hindustan Times. I said: How does Gandhi look outside India? Gandhians from South Africa, Argentina and Belgium received the Nobel Prize for Peace. The velvet revolution in Central Europe was inspired by Gandhi.

Readers will be surprised to know that PV Narasimha Rao gave a memorable lecture on Mahatma Gandhi in Paris in the early 1980s. Normally the former PM did not arouse any kind of passion. In this lecture, he declared: The nationwide satyagrah campaigns waged by Gandhi ranks among the biggest popular mobilisations in the history of humankindThe demographic scale of the nationalist movement was breathtaking, since it mobilised 10 percent of the nation that is about 40 million persons.. the incredible economy of Gandhian action, the inverse relationship between the scale of satyagrah and the demographic moment of popular arousal illustrate the tactical genius of the Mahatma at the same time as they testify to the vast numbers of men and women who were drawn into political action.

Statues of Gandhiji can be seen in South American countries, the US, UK and South Africa. The London one was installed a couple of years ago in the lawn opposite to the Houses of Parliament. It is placed next to that of Nelson Mandela. It is a splendid one.
WE gather from a brief report appearing in the Morning Post (London) of the 23rd May that Bishop Copleston, the late Metropolitan, is anxious to improve the position of Indian Christian priests. Presiding at the annual meeting of the Cambridge Mission to Delhi held at the Church House, Westminster, the late Metropolitan of India said he hoped the question of leaving parishes wholly under the carte of "native" priests would be pushed forward. "He had left," he said, "a great many native clergy in sole charge of their parishes, and in no instance had there been a failure. The appointment of Mr. S.K. Rudra as Principal of St. Stephen's College at Delhi he described as a great success.
Geetu Vaid

The first day of July, 2017  the day when Goods and Services Tax (GST) became a reality, is a landmark in the history of tax reforms in India. There is no denying the fact that GST roll out has happened in the midst of brickbats and bouquets with winds of scepticism and doubt blowing all around. The realty sector is also rife with speculation about its short and long-term impact. While for a common homebuyer the key question is whether GST will mean higher cost for him, the developer on the other hand is sweating over profit margins.

In spite of the initial hiccups that are expected the industry mavens and market watchers have both given a thumbs up to the new tax regime terming it to be a positive move for the sector. Much like the initial heartburn caused by demonetisation it would trigger some momentary disturbances, but GST augurs well for the industry in the long term. So, it is a welcome move, says Shishir Baijal, CMD, Knight Frank India. While there might be a marginal impact on the sector in the near term, we are definitely looking at a significant improvement in buyer sentiment and perception of this sector, adds Anuj Puri, Chairman of ANAROCK Property Consultants Pvt. Ltd. According to NAREDCO Chairman Rajeev Talwar, There is no doubt that the GST Law will single-handedly solve many of the challenges faced by the real estate of the country, push the sluggish sector out of its long slumber and lead to greater transparency.

Eye on Input Tax Credit

As GST will replace taxes like VAT, service tax, excise tax, customs duty etc creating one market across the country, for developers it would mean working in a simpler tax regime besides having the benefit of Input Tax Credit. As Ashish Sarin, CEO, Alpha Corp puts it, One of the key benefits to the developers would be that now they will be able to take credit of the taxes paid by suppliers completely unlike in the earlier tax system. This will reduce the cascading of taxes being levied by state and central government agencies. The benefit of being able to claim input tax credit can also improve developers profit margins, adds Puri.

Till now the developers were passing on the burden of multiple taxation to buyers as they were paying different taxes at different levels at various stages of a project. As Anuj Puri explains, On various construction materials they purchased, builder paid customs duty, central sales tax, excise duty, entry tax, etc., thus creating various instances of multiple taxation and the cumulative burden eventually got passed on to the buyer. However, it will be a bit too soon for the buyers to cheer and start expecting a drop in prices as there are certain grey areas regarding the input tax credit as it will be applicable for the projects that will be undertaken after the implementation of the GST regime. It is important to note that the developers will not be able to avail full credit of taxes paid by suppliers for the projects that are under a transitional phase, as traders were not issuing the excise invoice for the materials bought from them by the developers. For such projects the government has restricted the limit at 60 per cent of the GST, says Ashish Sarin.

Price  The big question

Thus, it is evident that GST may not bring the prices of property down, but it is surely going to have a long-term impact in improving market sentiment through a simpler tax regime. According to experts its effect on prices is going to be neutral. But it will give an extra thrust to the affordable housing segment. Government has made it amply clear that buyers should not be burdened with extra tax. In view of complaints from certain quarters regarding buyers being asked to make entire payment before July 1, 2017 or to face higher tax, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made it clear that it was not a right demand and the developers should pass on the benefits of input tax credit to buyers or else they will have to face action under anti-profiteering rules. As per the rules, if the Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS) after investigation finds that the benefit of price reduction has not been passed to consumers, the anti-profiteering authority will ask the business to refund the same to the consumers.

Challenges to overcome

Thus, the implementation of GST will be a challenging task, especially in the case of the real estate sector. Some of these are:

n The authorities have not agreed for centralised registration and this will increase the compliance cost of the developers. There will be a considerable increase in the number of returns filed due to this, says Sarin.

n The valuation of land in the payment of taxes is another major challenge for developers who are expected to pass on the ITC benefits to buyers. As proposed earlier, stamp duty has not been summed up in GST. Hence, if the government does not come out with the abatement of the land value in the valuation of taxable amount, it will lead to double taxation of the land being transferred to the buyer during execution of the project. In case of a joint development project, total taxable value of land will be a matter of concern. In the coming times, this should get addressed by authorities and courts, adds Sarin. The buyers may end up paying higher cost in absence of abatement of the land.

 With inputs from ANAROCK Property Consultants Pvt Ltd.

The single tax edge

n Any real estate product comprises three expense components  land, material and labour or service costs. VAT is calculated on material cost, and service tax is calculated on labour and service cost. It is very difficult for buyers to ascertain what components were included for calculation of VAT and service tax. The implementation of GST makes the calculation much simpler now.

Conceptualised around a One Nation, One Tax philosophy the new tax regime will:

Help eliminate the previous cascading tax structure

Ease compliances

Create uniform tax rates and structure, and

Help in reducing additional tax burdens on consumers.

New tax table for construction materials
Dehradun, July 1

A woman from Maharashtra has accused a former priest of Badrinath temple and the CEO of Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee of molestation.

Chamoli Superintendent of Police (SP) Tripti Bhatt told PTI that the woman, a sadhvi from Mumbai, alleged that priest Vishnu Prasad Namboodiri and CEO B D Singh made undue advances towards her when she had visited Badrinath to pay obeisance at the famed temple in June.

A case has been registered against the duo under relevant sections of the IPC and investigations are on, the SP has said.

The sadhvi accused the duo of threatening her and trying to usurp her property in Mumbai and alleged their involvement in the mysterious disappearance of five members of her family over the past few years, the police officer said.

A team is being sent to Mumbai to probe charges about the duo trying to usurp the sadhvis property there, the SP added.

Such allegations have been levelled against a Badrinath priest in the past also.

Former head priest of Badrinath Keshav Prasad Namboodiri was arrested in February, 2014, after he was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a Delhi hotel in an inebriated state. PTI
Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, June 30

To boost the construction of ropeways in the state, the state government has submitted a proposal to the NITI Aayog for the inclusion of construction of ropeways under the Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) scheme.

Chief Minister TS Rawat held discussion with the members and the chairman of the NITI Aayog in April and with the members of NITI Aayog, who were in Dehradun, two days ago.

The proposal entails broadening the nomenclature to include ropeways and steamers by changing Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) to Prime Minister Gramin Sampark Yojana (PMGSY), said BS Manral, Additional Secretary, Department of Planning.

The proposal will boost connectivity through ropeways in the state. If it is included under the Prime Minister Gramin Sampark Yojana, we will be able to receive a 60 per cent subsidy to set up the ropeway network, said BS Manral.

The state receives substantial assistance under PMGSY for the construction of roads. In case the same is extended for ropeways, the state government will be able to cut costs on import duties on ropeways. The ropeways will have to be imported in case this is included under PMGSY, the state government can expect saving a lot of money, added Manral.

Though the ropeways are ideal means of connectivity and are environment friendly, requiring less intervention, the costs are huge both for installation and maintenance.

The ropeways as a means of transportation for ferrying passengers and agriculture produce such as fruits and vegetables have not been exploited in Uttarakhand.

If these are installed in fruit and vegetable-producing belts of Tyuni, Purola and Chamba, farmers can hope to ferry their produce to the main road, thereby reaching the main markets with ease. All the safety aspects have to be followed for running the ropeways and only international agencies have the technology to run these ropeways that is why we are keen that the Centre also assists us, he added.

Further, the proposal is likely to be discussed with other Himalayan states for reaching a consensus.

In Uttarakhand, the construction of ropeways has been pending for the past few years, though some private agencies are using cable cars to ferry tourists in Haridwar and Auli.
Victoria, June 30

British Columbias Liberal government was defeated on Thursday in a non-confidence vote, as expected, paving the way for the left-leaning New Democrats to rule the Western Canadian province for the first time in 16 years. The Liberals lost the vote 44-42.

Such a prospect has unnerved investors in Canadas third-most populous province, not least owners of oil and gas projects such as Kinder Morgan Incs C$7.4 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which the New Democratic Party (NDP) has vowed to halt.

But an NDP government, which has to be propped up by the third-place Green Party to achieve a slim parliamentary majority of one, is fragile, and few expect it to survive the four-year term.

On Thursday, seven weeks after a knife-edge election, NDP and Green lawmakers used their 44 votes in the 87-member legislature to pass a non-confidence amendment to the Liberal governments Throne Speech.

After the vote, NDP leader John Horgan told reporters he had met the provinces nominal head, Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon, and that she had invited him to form a new government, making him British Columbias next premier.

Well have access to government documents tomorrow to start working on a transition, Horgan said. I cant predict when that (transition) will be, but its going to be soon. Incumbent Premier Christy Clark told media she offered her resignation to Guichon, but asked for dissolution of the legislature, which the lieutenant-governor did not grant.

Dissolution would trigger another poll. While Guichon technically has that power, such a move would go against convention for the largely ceremonial leader. Guichon said in a statement she will accept Clarks resignation.

The NDP and Greens struck an agreement last month to oust the right-leaning Liberals - unaffiliated with the left-leaning Liberals in power federally, after a May 9 election reduced Clarks party to a minority  Reuters
Champaign (US), July 1

A central Illinois man has been charged with kidnapping in the disappearance of a visiting Chinese scholar who authorities believe to be dead after last being seen three weeks ago.

Yingying Zhang, the daughter of a working-class factory driver from China, disappeared on June 9, just weeks after arriving at the University of Illinois where she was pursuing studies in agriculture sciences.

Federal authorities say Brendt Christensen, 27, of Champaign, Illinois, is charged in a criminal complaint with abducting Zhang shortly after she stepped off a bus near the university campus. Video show her getting into the front seat of a black Saturn Astra.

According to the affidavit filed in federal court by Special Agent Anthony Manganaro, Christensen was under surveillance Thursday when agents overheard him explaining he kidnapped Zhang.

Authorities say based on that and other facts uncovered during the investigation, agents believe Zhang is no longer alive.

Asked last night if authorities had any leads on where Zhangs body might be located, the spokesman for the FBI Springfield office, Bradley Ware, declined comment.

Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement the campus community is saddened by the news Zhang is believed dead.

This is a senseless and devastating loss of a promising young woman and a member of our community, Jones said. There is nothing we can do to ease the sadness or grief for her family and friends, but we can and we will come together to support them in any way we can in these difficult days ahead. According to Manganaros affidavit filed in US District Court in Champaign, investigators determined there were 18 vehicles similar to the one Zhang got in that were registered in Champaign County.

The vehicle belonging to Christensen was first observed June 12 in an apartment complex parking lot, and investigators questioned him. The affidavit stated that investigators noted Christensen couldnt recall what he was doing on the day Zhang disappeared. They searched the vehicle but didnt remove anything.

Investigators later determined the car in the video had a sunroof and cracked hubcap, like the vehicle belonging to Christensen, according to the affidavit.

When investigators interviewed Christensen again, he admitted to driving around the University of Illinois campus and giving a ride to an Asian woman who said she was late for an appointment.

Christensen said the woman panicked after he apparently made a wrong turn and he let her out in a residential area.

The court document indicates a search of Christensens car indicates the area where Zhang was believed to have been sitting had been cleaned.  AP
Muzaffarabad, July 1

Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin on Saturday denounced United States declaring him as a global terrorist, and lamented that Washington gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a red carpet welcome despite denying him entry into US earlier over the Gujarat riots.

Addressing a press conference at the Muzaffarabad's Centre Press Club, the Hizbul commander said the declaration was a joint move by the US, Israel, and India to express their animosity towards Pakistan, reports the Express Tribune.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Earlier, the Hizbul chief, in his traditional appearance, emerged out of the sunroof of his vehicle and waved to the crowd and made the victory sign.

He also alleged that the Islamic State (IS) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were being backed by India, Israel and the US to weaken Pakistan.

Further, training his guns on the Indian Prime Minister, Salahuddin said referring to the 2002 riots in Indian Gujarat, Modi was even banned from travelling to the US and now the he has been given a red carpet welcome in Washington.

In 2005, Modi was denied visa to travel to New York to address Indian-Americans at a rally after his alleged failure to stop a series of anti-Muslim riots three years earlier in Gujarat, where he was chief minister.

Salahuddin also complained that the US sidelined Pakistan but signed a F-16 fighter jet deal with India.

Despite Pakistan's role on the frontline in the war on terror, the US ignored it and signed a deal to provide F-16 jets technology to India. Similarly, the US builds pressure on Islamabad to close its nuclear programme, while it signs a nuclear deal with India, he said.

Rejecting the US declaration of his terrorist status, Salahuddin said it was a big lie to declare a freedom fighter a global terrorist.

The US Department of State on June 27 declared Salahuddin, Specially Designated Global Terrorist, hours before visiting Prime Minister Modi's meeting with US President Donald Trump.  Agencies
Islamabad, July 1

Pakistan has quietly banned the Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir (TAJK), a new front for Hafiz Saeeds Jamaat-ud-Dawa, as international pressure on the country grew, including from a global watchdog, to combat terror and its funding.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

TAJK gained prominence as a JuD front when it held pro-Kashmir freedom rallies and displayed banners and streamers across Pakistan on Kashmir Day on February 5, days after Saeed was put under house arrest for 90 days in Lahore.

The mastermind of the November 26, 2008, Mumbai attacks in which 166 people died had indicated about a week before his house arrest he might launch TAJK to expedite the freedom of Kashmir.

The re-branding of JuD as TAJK showed that Saeed had got a wind of the government plans and had worked out how to resurface and survive after the clampdown on his ostensible network of JuD and its affiliate Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

The JuD front was put on the list of proscribed organisations on June 8 - a fortnight before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force in Spain, according to a list available on the website of Pakistans National Counter Terrorism Authority.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has called a meeting on Monday to discuss the ban on its affiliate, The Nation reported.

There are 64 other outfits in the proscribed organisation category, including Jaish-e-Mohammad, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e- Taliban, and JuDs armed wing Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for 26/11 and several other terror attacks in India.

According to a report in Dawn newspaper today, Pakistan continues to remain on the radar of the FATF over concerns that it is not fully complying with curbs against entities listed with the United Nations.

India had raised the terror financing issue at the FATF in February this year.

The FATF last week referred Pakistan to its regional affiliate - the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering - for further analysis and a follow-up report on actions the country has taken against entities designated under UN sanctions list.

Pakistan government has been under mounting international pressure to crackdown on terrorist networks and their fronts.

However, according to the report, Pakistani officials expect that Pakistan would be cleared of the concerns.

The United Nations placed both JuD and FIF on its watch list in December 2008 and March 2012, respectively.

The ban on TAJK on June 8 happened a day before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakh capital Astana. India had pushed the SCO members at the summit to curb the financing of terrorist organisations and their fronts.

The Astana Declaration of the Heads of State of the SCO said that the member states will continue to cooperate in order to counteract the activities of individuals and legal entities related to the recruitment, training and utilisation of terrorists, public calls for terrorist activities or the justification of acts of terrorism, and financing terrorist activities.

Last week, the US declared Pakistan-based Hizb-ul- Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist. The announcement had come hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had their first bilateral meeting. PTI
Berlin, June 30

Germanys Parliament backed the legalisation of same-sex marriage on Friday in a historic vote hailed by gay activists and leftist parties but criticised by some in Chancellor Angela Merkels ruling conservative bloc and by the Catholic Church.

The move brings Germany into line with many other European nations including France, Britain and Spain and follows Merkels surprise decision this week to allow her lawmakers to follow their own conscience rather than the party line on the issue. Merkel, daughter of a Protestant pastor, voted against the Bill.

Hundreds of gay activists, some with painted faces, celebrated outside the Bundestag lower house of parliament after the vote, waving rainbow flags and placards that read Marriage for all, make love for all.

This is simply a historic day for Germany, said Soeren Landmann, a marriage equality activist. Today, thousands of same-sex couples were given equality, and the two-class society in matters of love was abolished. Germany can really rejoice today.

The vote has particular resonance in Germany as it unwinds a legacy of virulent homophobia. Earlier this year, Parliament agreed to grant compensation to thousands of gay men jailed under a 19th century law that was strengthened by the Nazis and only dropped in 1969 when homosexuality was decriminalised in West Germany.

Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term in a national election on September 24, said she had voted against the Bill because she believed that marriage as defined under German law was between a man and a woman.

But she said her decision was a personal one, adding that she had become convinced in recent years that same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children.

I hope that the vote today not only promotes respect between the different opinions but also brings more social cohesion and peace, she said.

A survey by pollster INSA for daily Bild showed this week that three quarters of Germans favoured the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

Lawmakers voted by 393 votes in favour of same-sex marriage to 226 against, with four abstentions.

The landmark vote came about almost by chance after Merkel announced on Monday she would allow lawmakers to vote on same-sex marriage according to their individual conscience, drawing the ire of some in her traditionally Catholic conservative bloc.

Same-sex marriage became a hot election topic after three parties -- the Social Democrats (SPD), the pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens -- each made it a condition for joining any future coalition with Merkels conservatives, effectively forcing her hand. The SPD is part of the current coalition.

The swift, untroubled passing of the legislation contrasts with the experience of neighbouring France, where the issue was a political hot potato for months, triggering mass street protests.

The Catholic Church said it regretted the decision. An appreciation of same-sex cohabitation can also be expressed by a different institutional design, said Archbishop Heiner Kochof of Berlin. The same-sex bill will likely be signed into law by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier some time after July 7.  Reuters

Its Legal in 22 other nations around the world
Washington, July 1

President Donald Trump barged into Senate Republicans delicate health care negotiations, declaring that if lawmakers cant reach a deal they should simply repeal Obamacare right away and then replace it later on.

Trumps yesterday tweet revives an approach that GOP leaders and the president himself considered but dismissed months ago as impractical and politically unwise. And its likely to further complicate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells task as he struggles to bridge the divide between GOP moderates and conservatives as senators leave Washington for the Fourth of July break without having voted on a health care bill as planned.

If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date! Trump wrote.

The president sent his early-morning tweet shortly after Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse appeared on Fox News Channels Fox & Friends to talk about a letter he had sent to Trump making that exact suggestion: a vote on repealing former President Barack Obamas health law followed by a new effort at a working out a replacement.

Trump is a known Fox & Friends viewer, but Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky also claimed credit for recommending the tactic to the president in a conversation earlier in the week.

Senator Rand Paul suggested this very idea to the president, said Paul spokesman Sergio Gor. The senator fully agrees that we must immediately repeal Obamacare and then work on replacing it right away.

Either way, Trumps suggestion has the potential to harden divisions within the GOP as conservatives like Paul and Sasse complain that McConnells bill does not go far enough in repealing Obamas health care law while moderates criticise it as overly harsh in kicking people off insurance roles, shrinking the Medicaid safety net and increasing premiums for older Americans.

McConnell told reporters after an event yesterday in his home state of Kentucky that the health care bill remains challenging but we are going to stick with that path. Its not easy making American great again, is it? McConnell said.

McConnell, Representative from the state of Kentucky, has been trying to strike deals with members of both factions in order to finalise a rewritten bill lawmakers can vote on when they return to the Capitol the second week of July.

Even before Trump weighed in, though, it wasnt clear how far he was getting, and Trumps tweet did not appear to suggest a lot of White House confidence in the outcome.

McConnells trying to achieve a 50-vote Venn diagram between some very competing factions, said Rodney Whitlock, a veteran health policy expert who worked as a Senate GOP aide during passage of the Democrats Affordable Care Act.

So what the president tweeted takes one side of that Venn diagram and pushes it further away, and actually puts on the table an option that will probably drive that group away from seeking compromise with the other side of the Venn diagram.

Even before Trump was inaugurated in January, Republicans had debated and ultimately discarded the idea of repealing Obamacare before replacing it, concluding that both must happen simultaneously.  AP
Action in the Aftermath of a Collision

Just one collision, if it's serious enough, can sink a business. Having a plan for what to do in the aftermath of collisions can mean the difference between minimal impact to operations and a company-ending lawsuit. This white paper details how to build a plan to help protect your business from the risks you cant control. Learn eighteen specific steps to plan for, in four main categories:

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How remarkable is this.

Yesterday Olivia de Havilland turned 101, but that hasnt stopped her from filing a lawsuit against FX and Ryan Murphy over her depiction by Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Feud miniseries (pictured).

De Havilland is the only principal character in the Joan Crawford-Bette Davis saga still alive, but she was not consulted over her portrayal in which she was seen spilling to a journalist on the stars rivalry.

[A]ll statements made by Zeta-Jones as Olivia de Havilland in this fake interview are completely false, some inherently so; others false because they were never said, writes attorney Suzelle Smith. FX defendants did not engage in protected First Amendment speech in putting false words into the mouth of Olivia de Havilland in a fake interview that did not occur and would not have occurred.

De Havilland claims she has built a reputation for integrity and dignity by refraining from gossip and other unkind, ill-mannered behaviour. She also takes issue with Feuds references to her relationship with her sister.

Zeta-Jones de Havilland refers to Joan Fontaine as her bitch sister, an offensive term that stands in stark contrast with Olivia de Havillands reputation for good manners, class and kindness, writes Smith.

The actress says the defendants knew or recklessly disregarded publicly available information that she is alive, she never gave an interview about the relationship between Davis and Crawford, and that she maintains a reputation for avoiding gossip mongering.

She is suing for infringement of common law right of publicity, invasion of privacy and unjust enrichment and is asking the court for not only damages but also any profits gained from the use of her likeness and an injunction to keep FX from continuing to use her name and likeness (the latter creates big problems for replays and DVD sales).

Murphy has previously confirmed, I didnt write (to) Olivia because I didnt want to be disrespectful and ask her, Did this happen? Did that happen? What was your take on that?'

Source: Hollywood Reporter
Mondays Australian Story profiles Uncle Ossie Cruse, a pastor who has been a quiet achiever in advocating Indigenous rights.

Hes lived through very difficult times but his life is about social justice. And peace for everyone really. Linda Burney, Federal Labor Member of Parliament

He had that capacity to have politicians come to the table. He had that capacity to sit them down and theyd listen. Michael Anderson, Aboriginal Embassy founder and friend.

We were hoping to achieve the freedom of our people in Australia. Pastor Ossie Cruse

Pastor Ossie Cruse has been a driving force of the Aboriginal rights movement on the world stage yet some of his most influential work is happening right now in his hometown of Eden, on the south coast of NSW.

At 83, Ossie Cruse, or Uncle Ossie as he is more commonly known, is seeing a long-held dream come to fruition  the re-establishment of an ancient Aboriginal pathway that was lost for hundreds of years. Known as the Bundian Way, it stretches for about 360 kilometres from the heights of the Snowy Mountains to the coast at Eden.

It was here that Aboriginal people first handed out the hand of friendship to non-Aboriginal people and said come, well show you the safest way up to the high country, Uncle Ossie Cruse says.

He describes it as a shared pathway and a place that will bring divided cultures together in reconciliation  something Uncle Ossie Cruse has been fighting for his whole life.

With only a primary school education and having lived as an itinerant worker for years, Ossie Cruse stepped into the world of politics after the 1967 referendum, which saw Indigenous Australians counted in the census for the first time.

We needed leadership and people like Ossie Cruse stood up and paved the way for many of us young ones, says Michael Anderson, founder of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

While many Aboriginal activists took to the streets in protest, Ossie Cruse worked behind the scenes, a quiet but persistent negotiator, gently persuading politicians to recognise the cause of his people.

Decades on, Uncle Ossie Cruse continues to fight for his people, attending the landmark Constitutional Convention at Uluru in May.

8pm Monday on ABC.
Leaks surrounding Google's upcoming Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 smartphones continue to surface online. The company's latest Pixel iterations are expected to arrive with a new screen size and the devices will run Android 8.0.

The new 2017 Pixel mobile devices will have the best Android software experience, support and speed available. This is the second handset that Google will release, and the search engine giant wants everything perfect. A huge reason why tech enthusiasts will prefer the Google Pixel 2 is that the device will run Android 8.0 operating system before any other mobile device and it will be updated first before other smartphones, Gotta Be Mobile reported.

The tech giant updates its devices first, then releases developer previews as well as betas, and provides its users an access to new features. Although the device users may deal with bugs during the update, but several benefits will make up for the issues. Also, the search engine titan supports its devices longer compared to some manufacturers, so the Pixel 2 smartphone will get security and software updates for more than a year.

The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones will probably come along with the Qualcomm SnapDragon 835 processor, paired with a 4GB of RAM. The first model, which is dubbed as the Walleye, will have the usual 4.97-inch Full HD resolution display, while the Pixel 2 XL, which will be called the Taimen, will have a 5.99-inch QHD screen, Mens XP reported.

The Google Pixel 2 or the Taimen will have a smaller bezel around the display and offers a 128GB internal storage. The larger Pixel device will come along with a two-tone glass, metal finish at the back as well as a single camera with dual LED flash.

The Google Pixel 2 is also expected to have camera improvements as its rear camera will boast an improved low-light shooting. Nevertheless, Google is expected to announce their upcoming Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 smartphones this October.

Watch The Video Here:
Wyoming Business Tips for July 9-15

A weekly look at Wyoming business questions from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (WSBDC), part of WyomingEntrepreneur.Biz, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming.

By John Privette, WSBDC Network regional director

I am evaluating credit terms with my foreign buyer. How can I protect against nonpayment? Robert, Casper

Asking your foreign buyers to pay cash up front for your Made in the USA product is a great deal for you, the exporter, but are you losing business to competitors who are offering credit terms?

Export credit insurance from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM Bank) provides the opportunity to offer credit terms in international markets, while protecting your foreign receivables from nonpayment.

In addition to mitigating the risk of nonpayment by a foreign buyer, export credit insurance can enhance your borrowing relationship with your lender. For the most part, lenders exclude uninsured foreign receivables from your borrowing base, reducing the amount of capital available to you.

With an export credit insurance policy from EXIM Bank, your foreign receivables are insured at 95 percent, and your lender will likely add these to your borrowing base, making more funds available to you.

Another and perhaps most surprising reason to leverage export credit insurance: It is a powerful marketing tool. Think about deals you have negotiated in the past.

Usually, the early discussions focus on product features and functionality, the opportunity for sales in the buyers marketplace and the logistics surrounding export-import. Rarely are credit terms discussed up front, and the discussion becomes contentious when you have been assuming cash in advance and your buyer has been assuming payment over time.

Export credit insurance lets you turn this situation around. Knowing your receivables are insured at 95 percent enables you to offer credit terms from the start and gives you the competitive edge you may need to win the deal.

Three compelling reasons to explore export credit insurance are:

-- Offer credit terms that are good for you and good for your foreign buyer while protecting your receivables against nonpayment.

-- Enhance your borrowing relationship with your bank.

-- Leverage a powerful marketing tool for competitive advantage.

For more information about EXIM Bank financial solutions, call Privette at the WSBDC Network at (307) 772-7371 or email jprivett@uwyo.edu. The source for this column was obtained from EXIM Bank.

A blog version of this article and an opportunity to post comments are available at www.wyomingsbdc.org/blog1/.

For more information, call the WSBDC Network Procurement Technical Assistance Center at (307) 772-7372 or email amlewis@uwyo.edu.

The WSBDC is a partnership of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Wyoming Business Council and the University of Wyoming. To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922.


The+Source, a top Las Vegas marijuana and retail (recreational) dispensary, will celebrate the first day of legal retail sales with Nevada State Senator Tick Segerblom as the first person in line when doors open at 9 a.m., at which time he will be able to purchase his namesake strain, Segerblom Haze.

The+Source will host members of the community and will offer a 10 percent discount on all medical cannabis sales to honor the day.

Owner and CEO of The+Source, President of the Nevada Dispensary Association and recently appointed member to the Nevada Green Ribbon Panel, Andrew Jolley, will join Segerblom to commemorate the day. The dispensary will also host local food trucks, Grumpy Johns Coffee, Senor Blues and Treasure Iceland, along with a DJ performance. Representatives of The+Source will be present throughout the day as a resource for information and customer questions.

The+Source provides a safe, clean, comfortable, respectful and compassionate environment to its patients looking to obtain medical marijuana, as well as those seeking to buy retail marijuana starting July 1. The+Sources original location is located at 2550 S. Rainbow Blvd. near the corner of Sahara Ave. and Rainbow Blvd. Its newest location opened in Henderson near Serene Ave. and Eastern Ave. at 9480 S. Eastern Blvd. The Las Vegas location is approved for medical and retail sales and maintains hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. The Henderson location is approved for medical, only, and is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The phone number for The+Sources Las Vegas location is 702.708.2000, and 702.708.2222 for the Henderson location. The website is www.thesourcenv.com, and information about the sale of retail and medical marijuana is available via email at info@thesourcenv.com. The+Source is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/The-Source-Las-Vegas and Twitter at @TheSourceNevada.


Nathan Adelson Hospice, the largest non-profit hospice in Nevada, is collecting items for its annual Back to School Supply Drive to help local children in the 2017/2018 school year.

From now through Aug. 7, the hospice locations will serve as drop-off points for much-needed school supplies for children in its Families in Need Program, which assists families utilizing hospice care for loved ones. Additional drop off locations in the valley are Gaudin Ford and Gaudin Porsche.

School supplies needed include:

Backpacks

Paper

Crayons

Markers

Scissors

Erasers

Glue sticks

Tissue boxes

Colored pencils

Pocket folders

Rulers

Binders

Paper towels

Zip lock bags

Items can be dropped off between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at one of the following Nathan Adelson Hospice locations: 4141 Swenson St. off East Flamingo Road, Las Vegas; 3150 N. Tenaya Way at the corner of Cheyenne Avenue, on the third floor of the MountainView Medical Office building in Las Vegas; and the Pahrump office at 2270 E. Commercial Rd., Suite A/B; Gaudin Ford at 6625 Roy Horn Way and Gaudin Porsche at 6800 Redwood St., Las Vegas. All donations will be delivered to the families or schools prior to the first day of classes on Aug. 14.

We at Nathan Adelson Hospice are committed to supporting community members and helping children who have been part of our Families in Need program, said Nathan Adelson Hospice President and CEO Carole Fisher. We greatly appreciate any business partners and others in the community who would like to donate and help these wonderful youths.

The Families in Need Program provides immediate resources for necessities such as food, clothing or paying a utility bill. In many cases, hospice patients do not have time to wait for assistance; for them, every minute counts. The Families in Need Program allows dollars to be disbursed swiftly for urgent patient needs. The program reflects a commitment to adding more life to the patients days.
Our Italian Food, Wine & Travel group this month is featuring Italian summer red and white wines. I'd say most folks gravitate towards whites, but I want to share with you some Italian red wines that you can enjoy even in the hot, summer days.





Of course we'd all love to be sitting in a piazza, watching the locals take their evening passagiata while sipping many of Italy's fine wines, but for those of us that can only dream of it right now can still be left with some suggestions to pick up a bottle, close one's eyes and only dream.

Italy has a never ending list when it comes to native varietals to select from, but here are just some of my suggestions on some Italian reds to enjoy this summer. One of the key points to remember when drinking these suggested red wines below is to make sure they have a slight chill to them.

My recent trip to Peschiera del Garda. Let's all dream of sipping with this view!

Lambrusco

Home to Emilia-Romagna in north central Italy, this wine is well beyond what many remember as the inexpensive, sweet wine clouding many images in folks minds. Lambrusco comes in many different styles and is best known as being dry, slightly frizzante full of red fruits. You can read more about the different styles of Lambruso on a previous blog. Start your meal with it alongside some salumi or enjoy it on it's own.

Schiava

Located in the region of Trentino-Alto Adige in northeastern Italy, but more specifically in the Alto Adige. It's also known as vernatsch. This wine is delicate and light bodied as well as light in color. It's full or aromatics and fruity, red berries with slight spice.





Dolcetto

Another grape from northern Italy found in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Known as little sweet one, this is purple hued in color with juicy red fruits of cherry and raspberries with some spice and low in tannin. It is typically light in body, but there are definitely more modern style dolcetto out there that are heartier reds as well.





Frappato

This wine can be found in eastern Sicily. It's used mostly in the Cersasuolo di Vittoria wines, the only DOCG of Italy, where it's blended with nero d'avola. Enjoying this wine on it's own though will leave you satisfied in the summer months as it is light-bodied, aromatic, full of strawberries and bright acidity.





Don't forget about any of the wonderful rose' wines of Italy, known as roasto. Depending on your palate and preference the rose' wines of the south, due to the climate, typically tend to have more body and riper fruits where those of the north are more delicate, lighter and crisp. Either way you can't wrong so choose depending on your mood or what you're pairing it with. On my recent trip to Italy last month I tried a new rosato release from the Pasqua Winery 11 Minutes. It's a blend of corvina primarily with syrah, carmenere and trebbiano di lugana. It received it's name from it's 11 minutes of skin contact with the juice. Light salmon in color, it's a very soft, delicate and elegant rose' with nice acid and notes of strawberry. A perfect wine for beginning our evening recently in Piazza Dante in Verona.

Join my fellow wine bloggers as they share more Italian wines for you to indulge in this summer. Also, join us live on Twitter this Saturday July 1st at 11am EST at #ItalianFWT. See you then!

Don't miss an Italian wine blog ~ Subscribe




An apartment under construction built by Coteccons.-VNS Photo Doan Tung

The board of directors will select the time of implementation as well as procedures related to the expansion. CTDs foreign ownership ratio now accounts for just 3.63 per cent and CTDs stock is currently most preferred by foreign investors. Therefore, the expansion plan is expected to increase liquidity and attract money inflowing into CTD, said Nguyen Ba Duong, CTD Chairman of the Board of Directors.

In 2017, CTD aims at a growth of 30 per cent in revenue, amounting to VND27 trillion (US$1.18 billion). Post-tax profits are estimated to reach VND1.7 trillion.

With strong business results in 2016, CTD decided to pay a cash dividend of 50 per cent in 2016. The company will retain 60 per cent of post-tax profits to supplement the development investment fund scheduled for the investment to the value chain of the construction sector to increase the CTDs profit and maintain its sustainable development.

Regarding corporate governance, Duong said that by the end of June next year, CTD will have officially renewed corporate governance in accordance with the law and international practices.

CTDs total number of employees has reached over 2,000, and the firm therefore needs to reorganise its apparatus in line with international practices to meet development requirements, Duong said.

Accordingly, Coteccons will remove the old supervision board and replace it with a new internal supervision sub-commission, which has been applied this year by the Viet Nam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company (Vinamilk). Duong was previously elected as a member of Vinamilks board of directors at the companys 2017 annual shareholders meeting.

The company has also established internal boards of economic, investment, financial supervisory and auditing, he added.

Duong said that CTD focuses firmly on human-centred developmen and continues to boost policies that balance benefits between employees and shareholders.

The company has been implementing a shares issuance programme under the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), he said. Recently, CTD has issued a decision to revoke ESOP shares from employees who have quit their jobs.

At the same time, the company has generated policy encouraging key staff who contributed largely to the development of the company in 2016. The incentive value offered for employees was more than VND209 billion, equivalent to the number of ESOP shares of 2.5 million shares, representing 3.36 per cent of total shares circulating in the company.

However, in order to ensure the balance of interests between staff and shareholders, the Board members agreed to adjust the number of ESOP shares to limit the dilution of shares.

Accordingly, instead of issuing 2.5 million of ESOP shares, the company would issue only half of those shares, equivalent to nearly 1.3 million shares at the price of VND40,000 per share. This amount of stock is limited in transfer for two years from the date of issuance, Duong said.

Half of the incentive share amount will be paid in cash, he added.
Mount Sinabung volcano spews thick volcanic ash, as seen from Brastagi in North Sumatra province in May 2017. A German tourist missing for over a week has been found dead in the vicinity of another Indonesian volcano in North Sumatra AFP/TIBTA PANGIN

Klaus Wolter, 48, who lived in Singapore, went missing last Wednesday after telling the hotel he was staying at that he wanted to trek up Mount Sibayak, an active volcano in North Sumatra province.

Scores of rescuers began scouring the volcano - which last erupted over a hundred years ago - the day after he set off, in a frantic search which lasted eight days, and at one point included a helicopter.

Wolter's body was found on Thursday near a waterfall several kilometres away from where he was last seen.

The rescue team took hours to retrieve the body due to the rough terrain, the head of the local search and rescue mission office, Budiawan, said.

"The wife of the victim has confirmed that it is her husband," Budiawan, who goes by one name, told AFP.

There have previously been fatalities among tourists climbing volcanoes in Indonesia.

In 2010, an Italian tourist was killed after falling into a ravine when climbing Mount Rinjani, the second-highest volcano in Indonesia.
Allegedly, there are significant differences between the tax figures of Uber and Grab and traditional taxi companies like Vinasun

At the dialogue held by the Ministry of Transport (MoT) on June 28 about passenger transportation by taxis and pilot projects on technology in managing and connecting contracted passenger transportation, some stakeholders voiced concerns over unfair competition of enterprises providing taxis services using technology.

There are allegedly big differences among the tax figures of Uber and Grab and traditional taxi enterprises like Vinasun.

An unofficial source of information said that in 2016, Grab reported a loss of hundreds of billions of VND, possibly due to regularly reducing prices for customers. Running such hefty losses, Grab did not pay corporate income tax. The total taxes paid by Grabtaxi Co., Ltd. in 2016, including corporate income tax, value added tax, and license tax, was only a portion of the taxes paid by Vinasun.

According to the annual tax figures, a representative of Vinasun said that they suffered a lot to fulfill all tax obligations, while other enterprises benefited from unfair competition, including not fulfilling all tax obligations.

Also, he raised questions about the tax obligations of individuals and organisations working for Uber and Grab, because their number is increasing, while Grab and Uber reported losses. Additionally, he asked whether Grab and Uber are responsible for declaring tax on behalf of their drivers.

At the beginning of June 2017, Vietnams General Department of Taxation issued a document to require the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City departments of Taxation to submit a report on the current situation of the taxation of traditional taxi companies and Uber and Grab taxis. However, the results have not been released to the public yet.

Regarding the new carpool services Grabshare and UberPOOL that Grab and Uber are deploying, delegates at the meeting accused these two enterprises of deliberately ignoring regulations, claiming that they are implementing these services although MoT had sent them an urgent document requiring them to stop the carpool services of all contracted cars in Vietnam.

A delegate from Danang, the city that does not allow Grab cars to operate, said that there are still about 1,000 active Grab cars in the city.

Why does Grab still operate when local authorities withdrew their permission? asked Le Quang Vinh, chairman of Phu Hoang Transportation Service Joint Stock Company based in Danang.

Deputy Minister of Transportation Nguyen Hong Truong said he would note the feedbacks of the enterprises and MoT will work with Grab and Uber as well as inviting the leaders of the four cities and provinces that are implementing pilot projects on taxis applying technology to discuss this business model.
The Vietnamese insurance market is awaiting sizeable M&A transactions

Recently, Mirae Asset Life Insurance, an insurer from South Korea, has signed an agreement to purchase 50 per cent of Prevoir Vietnam. Detailed information of the deal, such as the deal value, and the reasons why Prevoir Vietnam chose this partner, has not been revealed yet. However, it seems that the deal will open a new page for the French insurer, which now holds about 1 per cent of the market share in Vietnam.

Prevoir Vietnam was established in 2005 and it started to sell its first insurance products in Vietnam in 2006. It is a subsidiary of Groupe Prevoir, a French insurance firm, which now holds 91.55 per cent stake in Prevoir Vietnam, while the rest is held by Scor Global Vie.

Vietnam Post and the banking system are the two main distribution channels of the French insurer. However, after ending the exclusive cooperation with Vietnam Post, Prevoir Vietnam stopped selling insurance products through this channel, leaving the banking system its only distribution channel. Afterwards, Dai-ichi Vietnam, another insurer in the Vietnamese market, signed an exclusive contract with Vietnam Post.

Prevoir Vietnam used to develop its own agents, but failed. Currently, bancassurance (insurance distribution through banking system) is still its main distribution channel, as Prevoir Vietnam has teamed up with nearly ten banks. Many of them signed long-term exclusive contracts with Prevoir Vietnam.

Mirae Asset Life Insurance is a newbie on the Vietnamese insurance market, but in South Korea, it is a giant, ranking among the top five insurers by assets after it purchased PCA Life Insurance Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of London-based multinational life insurance and financial services company Prudential Plc.

This deal came as little surprise as the Vietnamese insurance market keeps luring in big financial corporations from around the world.

M&A is the fastest way for this Asian investor to join the Vietnamese market, an industry insider said.

Recently, M&A in the Vietnamese life insurance market has become quite popular. In April 2017, Aviva Group, a multinational insurance company headquartered in London, completed the purchase of a 50 per cent stake in VietinBank Aviva (Aviva Vietnam) from Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank).

At the end of August last year, Sun Life Assurance Company from Canada purchased the entirety of the stakes of PetroVietnam Insurance Corporation (PVI) in their affiliate PVI Sun Life Co., Ltd., renaming it Sun Life Vietnam Co., Ltd., with 100 per cent of foreign capital.

One of the reasons for the attractiveness of the Vietnamese life insurance market is its annual growth rate of about 20 per cent.
The Miss ASEAN Friendship 2017 finale stage in Phu Yen province

Based on the unique cultural symbols of each country within the ASEAN community, the stage design team has set up a perfect common background highlighting the significance of each nation on a large LED screen.

The modern equipment, colours, and animations that will be constantly running on the LED screens are arranged in accordance with each national symbol and each dress, making it a truly memorable night for the contestants, the audience, and people who are participating in Miss ASEAN Friendship 2017 in the central province of Phu Yen.

For the people of Phu Yen, Sao Mai Theatre has 3,700 seats for watching live. Organisers also arranged a big LED screen at April 1 Square for those outside the theatre. The audience across the country can also watch the impressive performances of Miss ASEAN 2017 finale live at the VTV6 channel tonight.

On the eve of the Miss ASEAN Friendship 2017 finale, Tran Quoc Tri, chairman of the judging panel, had a brief discussion about the issues that will be raised with the contestants and the basic judgment criteria.

What do you think about the Miss ASEAN 2017 contest held in Phu Yen?

It has been a long time since Vietnam hosted an international competition such as Miss ASEAN Friendship 2017. Especially, the ASEAN competition takes places in Vietnam for the first time. Basically, the organising board has made great efforts in promoting the contest so that it garnered wide attention across not only Vietnam but the ASEAN countries and the world at large. A competition like this carries the valuable message that the ASEAN is moving towards becoming a region of peace, prosperity, and development.

As you say, the competition relies on its strong regional and international features, making it a challenge for the jury to introduce a complete, high-standard, yet general set of criteria fitting to the particulars of each country. How has the jury agreed on the criteria for assessing candidates?

Every beauty pageant has common criteria. The first standard is a beautiful face, body balance. The second is the style of the contestants traditional costumes, then the ability to communicate. However, the candidate's behaviour counts for a lot, particularly the knowledge of the ASEAN.

What key formulas will the jury use to evaluate the general knowledge of the ASEAN to select the winner?

Prospective Miss ASEAN must understand the reason why she entered the competition. At the same time, they must have a basic knowledge of the ASEAN, including cultural issues, country-specific issues, humanitarian issues, and issues facing the whole of the ASEAN.

There will also be questions related to the protection of the marine environment and the countries relation to the sea. Or, for example, contestants will have to present their feelings about people, culture, and nature in Phu Yen, Vietnam. Miss ASEAN Friendship carry bring this message across the region.

Has the jury trained candidates in fundamental knowledge and basic skills?

The jury has compiled 30 sets of bilingual questions in English and Vietnamese. We have provided lectures to candidates and gave them documents to understand content related to the ASEAN. The jury thinks that the questions are not too difficult, but are not easy, either, and require candidates to actually understand the message of the ASEAN. The jury gave candidates a common basis of knowledge, but what to make of it and how to utilise it is up to them.

Here are some pictures of the Miss ASEAN Friendship 2017 finale stage:
As many as 19 State-owned enterprises (SOEs) were approved for equitisation as of the middle of June, lower than the same period last year. Dang Quyet Tien, Deputy Director of the Corporate Finance Department under the Ministry of Finance, made the statement during a meeting in Ha Noi Thursday. - VNS Photo

Dang Quyet Tien, Deputy Director of the Corporate Finance Department under the Ministry of Finance, made the statement during a meeting in Ha Noi Thursday.

Tien said the reduction in the number of firms approved for equitisation shows continued sluggish progress of divestment and equitisation in Viet Nam.

He gave some examples of SOEs that need to accelerate the equitisation process, such as the Viet Nam Southern Food Corporation, The Electricity of Viet Nam Group and the Viet Nam Rubber Group.

He attributed the slow process at SOEs to the firms leaders hesitation and lack of assertiveness, adding that the economys capital absorption capacity of businesses remains weak.

According to Tien, the larger the scale of a business, the more difficult it is to conduct equitisation. The process requires that each firm clarifies the responsibilities of leaders through various periods, partly affecting their credibility and thus leading to avoidance and delay.

Regarding State capital divestment process, the Ministry of Finance reports that in the first five months of 2017, State units divested VND3.4 trillion (US$150 million) and collected VND14.8 trillion through the divestment. However, a large part of the collection came from the sale of stake the Viet Nam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company (Vinamilk) late last year, reaching more than VND11 trillion.

At the meeting, Tien also mentioned some contents of the draft decree amending and supplementing some articles of Governments Decree No 91/2015/ND-CP dated October 13, 2015 on investment of state capital in enterprises and management and use of capital and assets at enterprises, adding that Decree No 91 shows some particular limitations.

Tien said the draft amended the determination of the starting price of state capital when conducting State capital transfer, indicating that the determination of the starting price is made through an organisation competent enough to conduct price evaluation. The firm must ensure that land use rights at the time of state capital transfer are valued correctly.

The draft also stipulates the method of transfer of state capital invested in joint stock companies, adding that the transfer method is different due to two separate cases.

The first case is transferring state capital invested in joint stock companies which have been listed on the stock market or registered for transactions on the Upcom. The second one is transferring state capital invested in joint stock companies which have not been listed or registered for transactions on the Upcom.
A boy and a girl from the Dao ethnic group in northern Lai Chau Provinces Phong Tho District join the pulling wife custom that usually takes place after the first full moon of the third month of a lunar year. In the custom, boys pull the girls they like. Some parents who want their sons to get married early join the custom to get a girl for him. Many child and early marriages are the result of this custom. - VNA/VNS Photo Xuan Truong/ Chu Quoc Hung

The first national survey on the socio-economic conditions of 53 ethnic minority groups conducted by the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) and the General Statistics Office in 2015 revealed that the average rate of child marriage among the groups was 26.6 per cent while some ethnic minority groups had rates of early marriage from 50 to 70 per cent.

Nguyen Thi Tu, director of CEMAs Ethnic Minority Department said at a conference on Thursday that child marriage occurred in all cities and provinces and among all ethnic minorities in Viet Nam.

The rate of child marriage is particularly high in ethnic minorities living in the northern mountainous, Central Highlands, some central provinces and the Mekong Delta.

The overall rate of child marriage in ethnic minorities is 26.6 per cent, 18 times higher than the rate in the majority Kinh people population (1.4 per cent) and 10 times higher than the national rate (2.5 per cent).

In Viet Nam, despite the Law on Marriage and Family setting the minimum age for marriage at 18 for women and 20 for men, 11 per cent of woman aged 20-49 years were married or in a union before the age of 18.

Child marriage negatively impacts other socio-economic issues including school dropouts, leading to a lack of opportunities for decent employment and children born with poor health or susceptible to illness and deeper poverty, she said.

In largely ethnic minority populated areas, 83.2 per cent of female minors are reportedly illiterate, 58.2 per cent of students from ethnic minorities stop attending school at secondary school level or under 15 years old, a popular age for child marriage among many ethnic minorities.

Ha Hung, vice head of CEMA stressed that early marriage constrained girls opportunities for education, training and work in the future.

Early marriage also leads to early pregnancy while the body hasnt reached full growth, significantly affecting girls psychological and physical development. Early marriage also contributes to the risk of domestic violence and other forms of gender based violence, he said.

Early marriage violates child rights. Overall, early marriage directly affects socio-economic development, making a vicious cycle of poverty among ethnic minority groups. This also degrades quality of human resources in ethnic minority areas, he added.

Shoko Ishikawa, UN Women Country Representative in Viet Nam said the key to breaking the cycle of child and early marriage was empowering and investing in women and girls.

Every girl and woman at risk of or affected by child and early marriage must have equal access to quality services such as education and training, legal and health counselling, including for sexual and reproductive health, shelter and other social services, she said.

All government bodies should ensure that their planning, budgeting, decision-making, policy making, and monitoring reflect the needs of girls and boys and that investments in girls empowerment are prioritised in all areas, she added.

In 2015, the then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved a scheme to reduce child marriage and close-kin marriage in 2015-2025.

CEMA official Tu said following the scheme, communications to improve public awareness of child marriage and relevant laws has been boosted and carried out under various forms depending on the features of each locality, such as on TV, radio, newspapers, posters or talks community leaders.

Under the scheme, CEMA selected 15 provinces with the highest rate of child marriage in the country to implement a pilot programme reducing the practice, with volunteer clubs established to further communications.

However, high poverty rate and outdated customs related to marriage challenged efforts made in the fight against child marriage, she said.

Ethic minority people have very low opportunities to get paid jobs, hence increased pressure to provide a livelihood and food for families. Many families consider their daughters getting married as a means to reduce economic pressures on the family, Tu said.

Children decide their marriage

At the Thursday conference Preventing and ending child and early marriage: learning from promising strategies and good practices, four non-governmental organisations in Viet Nam  Plan International, Child Fund, World Vision and the Institute for Studies of Society Economy and Environment (ISEE) released a study, highlighting that Children are the ones who decide their marriage.

Child and early marriage are usually forced marriages and children are usually the victims of outdated traditional customs, beliefs or adults whims.

However, the study of people from ethnic groups of Mong, Muong and Van Kieu in four provinces ien Bien, Yen Bai, Hoa Binh and Quang Tri - found that in many cases, children under the lawful age for marriage wanted to get married early.

They announced their decision and even told their parents they would commit suicide, or leave home if they were opposed.

With increasing use of the internet, social networks and mobile phones, the children can easily contact each other.

The boys are usually more active in seeking marriages, as according to traditional customs and thinking, a boy becomes more mature and has higher social status if he gets married.

The girls, though less actively than boys, want to marry for fear their lovers will find someone else and she will be left on the shelf. In many cases, the girls want marriage after becoming pregnant or seeing other girls in the neighbourhood get married.

No more schooling, get married is another excuse for child marriage. Children drop out as their family face financial difficulties or unemployment.

A 21-year-old woman from Mong ethnic group in Yen Bai Province said that she got married when she was 15 and quit school, as her parents requested.

I like to go to school but I cannot as I have a child, she said.
The Ministry for Heritage has announced that three new interpretation panels have been placed within our Old Town in order to provide information on our Medieval History, namely our Islamic and Spanish Periods.
Pirates of the Caribbean. Photo: Youtube.com/ThemeParkHD

Now that Pirates of the Caribbean has become perhaps their most internationally recognizable franchise, Disney has decided that maybe its time to do something about the whole selling women part of the classic ride. From introducing characters from the film saga, to the technology and story enhancements, changes to our attractions are done in the spirit of moving forward what Walt Disney inspired. We believe the time is right to turn the page to a new story in this scene, consistent with the humorous, adventurous spirit of the attraction, amusement park spokesperson Suzi Brown said about Disneys decision to edit the rides bride auction out of Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Disneyland Paris next year. The scene features a number of visibly distraught women being offered to the highest bidder; the scenes prominently featured redheaded bride will be transformed into a pirate herself, a career boost if there ever was one. Looks like your children will have to learn about wenches from some other, less wholesome theme park ride over their summer break.
Fyre. Photo: @AlexStivers/Twitter

Fyre Festival, a luxury music festival co-created by Ja Rule and a constant punch line during the last week of April, inspired at least seven lawsuits filed by ticket holders, vendors, and service providers alike. Each suit alleged that just about everyone had been woefully misled about the festival, which descended quickly into mass chaos once attendees reached its location in the Bahamas. At the time, festival co-creator and planner Billy McFarland blamed organizational ineptitude, a lack of infrastructure, and inclement weather for the debacle, which left concertgoers without shelter on the unfinished festival grounds. According to the Department of Justice, however, at least part of the discrepancy between expectation and reality came down to wire fraud.

McFarland was arrested and charged with one count of wire fraud Friday in New York. Acting U.S. Attorney for Manhattan Joon H. Kim said in a statement, McFarland promised a life changing music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster. McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes. The New York Times reported in May that the FBI had opened an investigation into possible mail, wire and securities fraud committed by the festivals parent company Fyre Media. Now that at least one festival co-creator has been charged with a crime, it is with a heavy heart that one must now ask in all sincerity, Wheres Ja?
Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

While you spend your Fourth of July consuming various meats and pondering if Taylor Swift will be throwing herself another holiday extravaganza, Ron Howard is working his ass off across the pond, ensuring that Disneys upcoming Star Wars Han Solo spinoff will be the greatest sci-fi spinoff in the history of cinema. But does that mean our beloved narrator cant have a little fun, too? The director has been simultaneously amusing himself and trolling the general Star Wars populace by tweeting out some behind-the-scenes looks of the film over the past few days, but what does it all mean? Nothing. It means nada.

Cool scene today but I'm afraid this is the most revealing image I dare share from my 1st day on the set of the Untitled Han Solo movie pic.twitter.com/RB15lG7FGE  Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) June 29, 2017

Maybe the plot twist is that this was actually Alden Ehrenreichs lunch.

despite my NDA & a closed set here's a carefully chosen behind the scenes look at the #UntitledHanSoloMovie pic.twitter.com/bd2x19TFGy  Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) June 30, 2017

Heres to Howard not being met with an onslaught of disaster.
Marlin Independent School District has finalized plans for support staff, excluding the superintendent, to get a 3 percent increase to their salaries next school year.

In a unanimous vote, excluding member Byrleen Terry who was absent from Fridays special meeting, the districts state-appointed board of managers approved the 2017-18 budget as proposed in mid-June. Superintendent Michael Seabolt was also absent from the Friday evening meeting.

The budget includes an estimated $9,160,305 in expenditures and $9,466,127 in revenue for 2017-18, Chief Financial Officer Patricia Lewis said when the budget was first presented. That is an overall decrease of $738,147 from last year, Lewis said.

Marlin ISDs 76 teachers will also get a $500 bump in pay, and new, first-time teachers will now be able to start in the district with a salary of $50,000.

Its basically the same as we discussed at the workshop, Lewis said. There are no changes.

The district can come away with a budget decrease while giving raises primarily because it cut several positions in recent months and opted to outsource some services for special education students to the Falls Education Cooperative.

The budget is the first hard look at how Marlin ISD will spend taxpayer money going into next school year after being taken over by the state in February. The school district has failed state accountability ratings five years in a row and has signed an agreement with the state that would allow it to be closed if it fails a sixth time or doesnt meet other requirements.

However, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath recently said the chance of closure is slim.

In terms of closure, I dont view that as a likely possibility, Morath said about Marlin in mid-June. In terms of exiting state oversight, Im not too sure about that either. Its going to be somewhere in between.

The district also approved a new playground for Marlin Primary Academy, which will be paid for by Falls County, not the school district, Lewis said. The cost will be more than $60,000, Primary Academy Principal Kimberly McKnight said.

The age of that (current) playground, I wouldnt even try to guess right now. Our big kids, all they have to play on are old tractor tires and three sort of steel pipe, upright kind of things, McKnight said. Theyve been making it work because theyre kids and theyre great, but this is kind of turning everything around and bringing everything in Marlin to where it should be.

Its a very visual, very tactile thing that the kids can be like, Wow, look at my school. Its a great place to start with that pride, especially for little ones, because playgrounds are important.

The playground is expected to be done by the start of next school year, McKnight said.
An arrest affidavit and complaint filed against a Marlin police captain details sexual abuse of a woman who feared the captain would arrest her if she did not capitulate to his requests, because she had entered the country illegally.

Hector Almazan Gonzalez, 51, of Marlin, was arrested Wednesday by the Texas Rangers on a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault. Marlin Mayor John Keefer said Gonzalez resigned after his arrest Wednesday night.

The only statement we are making at this point is that he has officially resigned. He resigned at 7:55 p.m. last night to the city manager, Keefer said Thursday. At this point, that has just been a verbal (resignation), and we have asked for a written, just so we have it for our file. But at this point, he is no longer employed as far as we are concerned with the city of Marlin.

The district attorney notified authorities on June 20 about allegations of sexual misconduct against Gonzalez where he allegedly approached a woman about her legal status, the arrest affidavit states. Gonzalez allegedly forced the woman into sex acts using his power as a law enforcement officer.

She claims since meeting Captain Gonzalez he has approached her on many occasions and has let her know that he is aware she is an undocumented alien, the affidavit states. She stated that Gonzalez told her that he could arrest her for being illegal, but he would not do that if she would have sex with him.

The woman initially refused, stating she did not want to have sex with Gonzalez. She also claimed that Gonzalez sexually touched her one day, the affidavit states.

(The woman) explained Captain Gonzalez promised to keep her safe and take care of things for her because she had no documents to be in the United States, the affidavit states. He told her if she ever got in trouble with law enforcement for her to call him for help in exchange for sex.

Crash report

The affidavit states that the woman was involved in a vehicle crash in another jurisdiction and needed help getting a crash report in late June. Gonzalez allegedly went to the jurisdiction, showed his police badge, obtained the information the woman requested and brought it to the Marlin Police Department where he used a department computer to get the crash report.

After printing the crash report, Gonzalez told (the woman) that he would not give her the report unless she would have sex with him, the affidavit states. 

The woman denied Gonzalezs sexual proposition but later agreed to engage in oral sex, the affidavit states.

(The woman) explained she kept Captain Gonzalez (as) her friend, because she did not want to be arrested by him for being an illegal alien, the affidavit states. She explained she felt compelled to let Captain Gonzalez perform oral sex on her because he is a police officer and he can take care of her problems and she did not want to be arrested for being an undocumented alien.

Investigators reported that the woman has been attempting to avoid seeing Gonzalez since the incident.

Texas Rangers arrested Gonzalez at a Marlin financial institution late Wednesday afternoon where he was reportedly working off-duty. He was taken to Falls County Jail before he posted a $50,000 bond and was released from custody.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. D.L. Wilson said the investigation remains ongoing.
Retired Waco police Sgt. James Howard did not find his old police hat in Bellmead on Saturday, but the 100-year-old former police supervisor found friends, colleagues and memories to laugh about at the Bellmead Civic Center.

I can tell you that my best memory isnt hanging onto that power pole after the tornado knocked me off my motorcycle, Howard said. I still go by about once a year and thank that pole.

In 1953, Howard was patrolling near downtown Waco on his police motorcycle when the historic tornado wiped out much of downtown Waco. Howard said he was thrown from his bike, grabbed onto a utility pole and survived the EF5 tornado that killed 114 people and injured almost 600.

A few days later, someone found my hat outside of town  almost in Bellmead, he said.

Howard, who now lives in Lewisville and is the oldest retired Waco police officer, visited the Waco Police Museum on Saturday and spoke about memories from his work with the department from 1941 to 1961. After the museum stop, he visited the Bellmead Civic Center for a catered lunch with past and present regional law enforcement officers and dozens of supporters.

This is pretty incredible to have James here today. I know he has been trying to come here for the last several years, former Waco police Sgt. Robert Lanier said as Howard toured the museum. He was one of the first officers I contacted after I started collecting information for the museum.

The visit was Howards first time in police headquarters since the department moved to the former Hillcrest Medical Tower. It was an honor to have Howard visit, said Lanier, who is the museum curator and helped open it in 2015.

200 gather

After the tour, with almost 200 present, retired members of law enforcement and their supporters applauded as Howard entered the civic center for lunch. Wilburn Willis, founder of Brothers/Sisters in Law and a former Waco police officer, organized the gathering as a chance for officers to connect with the oldest Waco officer.

I was 23 years old when I started out on the midnight shift for Waco PD, Willis said. He (Howard) was our sergeant, and everyone was 35 or 40 years old. I was just a young kid, but he always looked after and took care of me.

Police memorabilia from across Central Texas was displayed throughout the civic center, and officials thanked Howard for his dedication to law enforcement.

You know, I think I did it because I wanted to help people, Howard said. I liked helping people. I really enjoyed it.
Recently NBC News published an article asking the question, Is the Universe Conscious? The article referred to a paper by Gregory Matloff, a physicist at the New York City College of Technology. Matloff is not alone. Others who support the idea that the universe is conscious of itself include David Chalmers, a New York University philosopher and cognitive scientist, neuroscientist Chistof Koch of the Allen Institute for Brain Science and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose.

According to the article, three decades ago Penrose theorized that consciousness is rooted in the statistical rules of quantum physics as they apply in the microscopic spaces between neurons in the brain. Bernard Haisch, a German physicist, took this further in 2006, proposing that quantum fields that permeate all of empty space produce and transmit consciousness. According to Koch, ubiquitous consciousness is strongly tied to scientists current understanding of the neurological origins of the mind.

If all of this confuses you, we are in the same boat. I am not a scientist and doubt that I comprehend the ideas behind scientific debate regarding consciousness of the universe.

But I know that I am conscious. I know that family and friends are conscious of me and that we shape each others thoughts and actions. I know that animals are conscious. This must be the reason so many people love their dogs, cats and horses. My dog knows me, recognizes me, and interacts with me. He expresses happiness, sadness, loneliness and love. All of which, I assume, scientists could reduce to a Pavlovian theory. But it seems real to me.

The Bible is clear that there is a greater consciousness in the universe that gives rise to our own. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts  (Isaiah 58:8-9).

God is conscious of our every thought. He knows every word before it is formed by our tongue. You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Gods greater consciousness is expressed not in logic but in love. But God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).

It is this love that binds the entire universe together: The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. . . . For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:15-20).
Three attorneys filed motions Friday in an effort to remove 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother from hearing their clients cases stemming from the deadly Twin Peaks shootout in 2015.

The filings allege Strother has shown bias in the proceedings.

Dallas attorney Clint Broden, who represents George Bergman; Susan Criss, a former state district judge from Galveston who represents Rolando Reyes; and Austin attorney Millie Thompson, who represents Thomas Paul Landers, filed similar recusal motions seeking to remove Strother from the pending criminal cases relating to the Twin Peaks shootout in May 2015.

All three attorney state the judge has shown favor to the state.

Strother said he had not received the newly filed motions Friday morning and declined comment when reached by the Tribune-Herald.

Strother has presided over the three bikers cases since the cases inception. All three men were arrested, along with 174 others, on identical charges of engaging in organized criminal activity the day of the shootout that left nine dead and several injured.

Brodens filing argues Strothers actions indicate he would not be an impartial judge for Bergman, a member of the Desgraciados, a Bandidos support group. He argues Strother has had prohibited communication with prosecutors that defendants were not privy to, known as ex-parte communications.

Broden also states Strother has made improper comments to media outlets and has assigned court dates to defendants to benefit the state.

In an ideal world, it would go without saying that the United States Constitution guarantees any defendant the right to an impartial judge, the motion states. Mr. Bergman deserves nothing less.

In a similar filing, Criss alleges Strother should be disqualified for bias against Reyes, a member of the Los Caballeros from Killeen, which has resulted in due process violations. She also cites alleged ex-parte communications, particularly in connection to setting up a docket in February that required defendants to appear and allowed prosecutors to collect DNA samples.

Similarly, Thompsons filing states Landers, a founding member of the Escondido motorcycle group and an active motorcyclists rights advocate, had not been made aware of the district attorneys communications in creating the February DNA docket. She also alleges Strother gave a preferred strategic lineup for the order of trials.

Judge Strother has expressed and acted upon a bias for the state, such that the defense now has an additional opponent in the courtroom in the Twin Peaks cases, Thompson states in her motion.

McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna and his first assistant, Michael Jarrett, stated in court that they want Christopher Jacob Carrizal, a Bandido from Dallas, to be the first of the 155 bikers indicted to stand trial. Several defense attorneys have requested the right to a speedy trial. Carrizal is set for trial Sept. 11 in 19th State District Court.

A call and message left for Reyna were not returned Friday.
Making a rare visit from Germany to this years Air Tattoo will be an A-4N Skyhawk from a fleet operated by Discovery Air Defence, based at Wittmund. The A-4N Skyhawk will be on static display on the Saturday and Sunday of the 2017 show. The Canadian company began operating a fleet of seven Skyhawks from the German base in January 2015 after winning a contract to provide an adversarial air support to help train Luftwaffe crews. The A-4s are contracted to provide services ranging from threat simulation, target towing to flight test support.

The aircraft based at Wittmund were originally Israeli Air Force airframes before being purchased, stripped and modified by Discovery Air Services. This modification including fitting modern navigation equipment and glass cockpits, whilst retaining some of the key military capabilities like the A-4s air-to-air refueling systems.

In February 2017 it was reported that Discovery had joined forces with Inzpire Limited to bid for the UK Ministry of Defences Air Support to Defence Operational Training (ASDOT) program.

The last time an A-4 visited the Air Tattoo was 1977, when a small number of A-4Gs visited Greenham Common from 805 Squadron, Royal Australian Navy. The aircraft launched from HMAS Melbourne, which itself was attending the Silver Jubilee Fleet Review in Portsmouth.

An Air Tattoo spokesman said: Confirmation that an A-4 Skyhawk is participating in next months Air Tattoo is great news and will be welcomed, in particular, by all our enthusiasts. The type last appeared at an Air Tattoo 40 years ago when the event was staged at RAF Greenham Common and since then weve been trying hard to get one back. Its a compact little fighter that in its heyday punched above its weight and played important roles in significant conflicts during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Its rarity alone makes it one of the stand-out aircraft taking part in this summers airshow.
As Canada prepares to celebrate its sesquicentennial today, the 150th anniversary of confederation, there will be massive celebrations across the country, and especially in the nations capital of Ottawa, Ontario. Amongst the many events will be a significant flyover over Parliament Hill featuring aircraft from the Royal Canadian Air Forces past and present. Vintage Wings of Canada, based nearby in Gatineau, Quebec, will play a significant role in this flypast, both contributing vintage military aircraft from their own collection, as well as playing host to those visiting from afar. One of those aircraft to take part will hopefully be VWoCs newly restored Spitfire Mk IX TE294. We thought it would make a fitting tribute to show Vintage Wings boss and founder, Mike Potter, during his recent first flight in this marvelous machine on June 19th. The aircraft has been under restoration at various locations for a couple of decades, but it was at Vintage Wings where she underwent the bulk of that work, including the entire refabrication of her wings, amongst many other difficult tasks. As is true of all of Vintage Wings of Canadas aircraft, the Spitfire is dedicated to a single Canadian airman, by way of his story serving as testament to the countless sacrifices of so many other Canadians in preserving Canadas freedom. Spitfire TE294, marked as Y2-K, represents the life of RCAF 442 Squadron pilot Flt Lt Walter Arnold Rosie Roseland who gave his life for King and Country over France on July 13th, 1944. For more on the life of Rosie Roseland, please click here to read the Vintage Wings of Canada article on him, beautifully written and illustrated by Dave OMalley.

We hope youve enjoyed this photo essay, and want to thank VWoC mechanic Pat Tenger for taking these beautiful images, and to Vintage Wings Dave OMalley who graciously provided them to us. Many congratulations to Vintage Wings for their marvelous achievement, and to their newly reinvigorated road forward. And Happy 150th Canada!
Aged Care and Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt. Credit:Elesa Kurtz In a statement to the ASX it quotes as a key point of rebuttal an "independent industry survey" purporting to show 98 per cent of residents would make the same choice to live in a retirement village if they had their time over. It was a similar message peddled by the executive director of the Retirement Living Council, the peak body for retirement village operators, when he was interviewed on ABC's Lateline earlier this week saying "surveys, conducted independently ... consistently show that over 90 per cent of residents are happy with the choice they have made." John Hayto suffered a fall while living in an Aveo village. Credit:Penny Stephens The Retirement Living Council includes representatives from major retirement village operators including Aveo.

Even the Federal Minister for Aged Care Ken Wyatt mentioned the surveys, telling Fairfax in response to the media investigation: "While the industry advises me the majority of residents are happy, these highlighted cases are not what we want in a fair-go society." All they seem to want is your money and nothing else. John Hayto, Aveo resident Nowhere do they mention how old the survey is, the number of people surveyed, how it was conducted, who paid for it and who actually did it. After a series of detailed questions sent to Aveo this week, the company finally said: "the statement is based on industry based data as well as internal surveys undertaken by Aveo regularly with its residents and purchasers."

It still doesn't answer the pertinent questions. Aveo says it independently conducts surveys of its villages which shows 89 per cent of residents agree they feel safe and secure in their village and 87 per cent agree that in an emergency they are confident they will receive prompt attention via the emergency button. One Aveo staff member sees things differently. They contacted me to describe the surveys as highly questionable, saying only a fraction of residents fill them in and in one village some of those who filled them in had dementia. It is a theme echoed by residents at villages across the country who believe the surveys are flawed. It should be said that number of current and former staff have come forward since the scandal broke saying staff care deeply for the welfare of residents but tight cost controls from head office make it increasingly difficult to do their jobs. One said they were pressured to charge residents in 15 minute increments for any extra help such as pushing a resident in a wheelchair or delivering a tray of food if someone was too sick.

"I was told I wasn't making them enough money," one staff member said. Aveo likes to claim its new contracts, The Aveo Way, are simpler and give residents more certainty, with a 35 per cent exit fee charged on the sale of a unit after three years. Whatever the case it is worth noting that most of Aveo's residents are living under old contracts, which are complex and include costly refurbishments and reinstatement requirements. To put it into perspective, Aveo has a total of 11,014 units and more than 13,000 residents, and of those, 2000 have signed up to the Aveo Way contracts. Aveo also claims in its full-page ads that it does not have a "churn target" and that it simply presents the figures of people leaving to investors. This is despite the same turnover figure of 10 to 12 per cent, equivalent to 1200 units, being referred to as being "within target range" in ASX presentations and transcripts of calls to analysts.

It also says that in a recent Victorian Parliamentary inquiry only 22 of the almost 800 submissions came from Aveo residents. It doesn't mention that some of these submissions were submitted by groups of residents. In its TV ads and brochures, Aveo paints itself as caring. But residents who have appeared in recent media stories don't feel it is caring. Iris Lees who died while a resident in an Aveo retirement village. Relatives of 93-year-old Iris Lees say Aveo never apologised to the family after she was found dead in January 2014 after opening a glass door that locked when she walked outside. The door didn't have any warning signs or an emergency buzzer or surveillance cameras. Iris Lees would spend the next few hours fighting for her life in more than 40 degrees heat. When the story of 86-year-old John Hayto was told, where a friend, had called the Aveo front office and asked someone to check on his friend who hadn't been answering his calls, Aveo responded by saying there was no record of receiving a call.
But the disastrous events of this week have only served to further raise eyebrows in Australia and Washington about Innate. More broadly, how and why had a group of Republican congressmen ploughed money into this risky venture 10,000 miles away?

Collins, a director of Innate and its largest single shareholder with 17 per cent of the stock, lost $22 million as he slept. Friends, associates and donors he had brought on board also saw their investments tank.

On Tuesday, the Sydney-based company announced its lone, promising asset  a multiple sclerosis drug known as MIS416  had bombed its clinical trial, having shown no meaningful difference to the placebo. Its value plunged 92 per cent.

US congressman Chris Collins has backed two horses in the past 18 months: Donald Trump, and an obscure Australian biotech firm called Innate Immunotherapeutics. Trump turned out to be a winner  Innate has been just the opposite.

Shares in Innate Immunotherapeutics plunged 92 per cent on Tuesday.

According to various US reports, Collins had evangelised Innate to colleagues for years, and was recently overheard boasting about "how many millionaires I've made in Buffalo the past few months". At least four other Republican congressmen bought in to Innate earlier this year, at close to its peak price of $1.77, according to Collins' hometown newspaper The Buffalo News.

That all came crashing down on Tuesday, when the price crashed to 5 a share. Innate chief executive Simon Wilkinson acknowledged the clinical trial results were "a shock", and "definitely not what we were expecting based on our previous clinical experience". The results were "distressing" for special access patients who had used the drug in the past eight years, and for "all the stakeholders who were relying on the outcome of this study," Wilkinson said.

However, just six days earlier, Innate had been spruiking its bright future in the US. On June 21, it announced an "important milestone" in the development of MIS416, having received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration to proceed to clinical trials. Two days later, the stock was placed in a trading halt pending the results of the Australian trial. Over-the-counter trading in the US continued. It was another four days before those dire trial results were announced.

Collins brushed off the calamity, telling The Buffalo News the result was "a shocker" but "sophisticated investors know there's a risk". Among those investors were Collins' chief of staff Michael Hook and Collins' children, Caitlin and Cameron, who are Innate's third and fourth largest shareholders. Tom Price, Trump's secretary for health and human services, was also an investor until February.
Australia and other Western nations risk fuelling global radicalisation by turning their backs on desperate refugees, Amnesty International's global chief has warned.

Secretary-General Salil Shetty says hardline border protection policies like Australia's are dangerous, amid the world's largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty has called for the release of those detained in Turkey this week. Credit:AAP

He warns that without a more humanitarian stance on refugees, Western nations including Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, risk escalating radicalisation and more acts of terrorism.

"There is no doubt about that," Mr Shetty said in London, as part of a special news investigation into the global migrant smuggling trade. "When people are fleeing from Syria, from Islamic State and radical extremists, taking such huge risks, if you push them back to those countries, what exactly is the impact of that? You are radicalising them."
If your ideal 45 minute workout involves nothing more than a pillow, a doona and the chance to shut your eyes, you might just be in luck. Napercise has arrived on our shores and is the newest wellness trend being trialled in Brisbane.

Targeted at busy and fatigued individuals, napping classes are believed to help improve overall wellness. The classes, which have proven to be a success in the UK, encourage participants to settle down on comfy mattresses for a nap with no other distraction.



"So many busy people don't get enough sleep, so these classes are a great way to reinvigorate, rejuvenate and increase productivity with a power nap," says Alexis Fenton, marketing manager at InspireCyles, where the classes are being trialled.

If you're not getting enough sleep, a napercise class could be what the doctor ordered. Credit:Stocksy

"Guests have 15 minutes of relaxed stretching supported by music, followed by a 30-minute nap in a naptime mattress complete with blanket and eye mask."

Fenton says that interest in the class has been growing and is attracting busy corporates and tired parents.
"The way news media frame a story about violence against women can have a powerful impact on the way the public understands the issue. Who or what is selected to appear in the news and how those individuals and events are portrayed matters.

"There is a clear link between media reporting and community attitudes towards violence against women," Our Watch chief executive Mary Barry says.

The media needs to change how it reports violence against women, says new research. Credit:Nemanja Glumac/Stocksy

The media can be a powerful tool in preventing violence against women and children, according to research released on Friday by Our Watch.

"Blaming victims for the violence inflicted upon them, for instance, still happens in one in six articles about violence against women. Not only are people never to blame for experiencing violence, in society these views impact how many people report violent incidents and conviction rates."

The report makes a number of welcome recommendations about media training and collaboration between journalists and front-line workers, but barely mentions how audience responses can help push for change.

Media outlets don't just include newspapers and TV any more, and audiences are no longer passive consumers. Social media can be, and often is, used as a tool to express aggression and threats towards women, however it can also be used to communicate with media outlets, enabling readers to respond to the stories they are told and read.

An example of this is the collective disgust expressed at the Daily Mail's coverage of Sam Armytage wearing underwear under her dress when she went shopping. While Armytage's threat of legal action may have put a stop to that alleged news, it was the huge social media backlash that forced the publication to make a public apology and change its policy on body shaming women for fun and clicks.

It would be nice to think that newsrooms and editors of large publications don't need to be told that shaming women or blaming victims of violence is not only wrong, but also dangerous. However, it appears, that's not the case.
Paris: Prosecutors placed French far-right leader Marine Le Pen under formal investigation on Friday as part of a probe into the alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants.

Le Pen, who is being investigated for breach of trust, has previously denied any wrongdoing in a case that she has said is politically motivated.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Credit:AP

In a statement, her lawyer said she would launch an appeal against the investigation.

The case relates to an amount of about 5 million ($7.5 million).
Hong Kong: Former Melbourne university student Avery Ng Man Yuen was detained in a police station for 28 hours as Chinese president Xi Jinping arrived in Hong Kong this week.

When he was finally released, "thugs" trailed him home, followed him to McDonald's, and waited outside his apartment overnight as he slept. At 6am they were still there, talking into earpieces.

At least five members of his political party were followed, and one was attacked, he says.

"It is extremely worrisome."
Hong Kong: Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned Hong Kong's youth-led democracy movement not to cross China's red line, in a tough speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover.

He implicitly rejected the criticism that Beijing was increasingly interfering in Hong Kong's affairs, despite the promise given in 1997 that Hong Kong could keep a "high degree of autonomy" under the One Country, Two Systems policy.

A pro-democracy activist is taken way by police after the group's march clashed with pro-China counter protesters. Credit:AP

"The people of Hong Kong enjoy more extensive democratic rights and freedoms than at any other time in its history," he said. Hong Kong had maintained its "capitalist system and way of life and its laws have remained basically unchanged".

One Country, Two Systems was designed to firmly uphold China's sovereignty, according to Mr Xi. He warned there had been "new developments", and the Hong Kong government needed to respond by improving its systems to ensure national sovereignty and security.
By WestKyStar and City of Paducah Staff Jul. 01, 2017 | 08:03 AM | PADUCAH, KY

Last September, the City of Paducah received an Assistance to Firefighters Grant through the Department of Homeland Security to be the host site for this training program. The grant also provided Paducah with the training materials and equipment.





Paducah Fire Department Deputy Chief of Operations Kevin McKellips says, Firefighter safety is the main goal of this training program. At the end of the day and after fighting fires, we all want to go home to our families.





IAFF Fire Ground Survival Master Instructor Danny Garcia with the Phoenix, Arizona Fire Department says, Firefighters receive extensive training on rescuing victims and putting out fires. However, the purpose of this course is to revisit basic skills that may be overlooked but are critical if we, as fire fighters, need to save ourselves.





Garcia says the programs goals are for firefighters to stay calm and be confident, rely on their training so that they can manipulate their gear and identify potentially dangerous situations and egress points, and make life-saving decisions when faced with extremely stressful situations.



Six trainers from across the United States and Canada trained the firefighters and shared their experiences. During the classroom program, they used training equipment that simulate entanglement situations, a structure collapse, and zero visibility situations.

Fifteen members of the Paducah Fire Department in addition to members of the Mayfield, Kentucky and Chattanooga, Tennessee fire departments attended the Fire Ground Survival Training Program this week at the Julian Carroll Convention Center. This 32-hour course trains the firefighters to be Fire Ground Survival Program instructors. They learned life-saving actions that firefighters would use if they become lost, disoriented, injured, low on air, or trapped.
Man killed after being struck by vehicle on KY 131
Living Word Christian Church, 2015 Ward Ave., welcomes the Rev. Ray Bensch to the 8:15 and 10:30 a.m. services on Sunday, July 9. Child care will be provided. For more information, call 608-787-5922.
Five Republican state senators said Friday they oppose an Assembly Republican idea to tax heavy trucks for miles driven in Wisconsin, causing Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald to say the idea likely is doomed.

Its obviously a heavy lift if youve got that many members saying they wont support the concept, Fitzgerald said.

GOP senators kind of shot it down in a closed-door caucus meeting Wednesday, added Fitzgerald, R-Juneau. The meeting came hours after, according to Fitzgerald, he discussed the heavy truck fee in budget talks with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Gov. Scott Walker.

Vos and Assembly Republicans have said the proposal, which would involve a new per-mile tax on big trucks, could end the impasse over the states next two-year budget, the deadline for enactment of which is Saturday.

State spending continues at current levels if the budget isnt passed on time, though a protracted stalemate could begin to have an impact on road projects because they rely heavily on borrowing.

Spokespersons for Vos and Walker did not respond to Fridays developments.

Assembly Republicans contend the state needs more revenue for road projects so it wont need to delay projects or continue to borrow to pay for them.

The five senators opposing the truck fee disagree; they are Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon, Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville.

In the statement, the senators blasted Walkers Wisconsin Department of Transportation, saying it has been inefficient and does not deserve new revenues.

Instead of getting creative to find new ways to tax Wisconsinites, we should be discussing the reforms needed to clean up an agency with a record of over-designing, over-building, and over-paying for our roads, the senators said.

The senators account for five of Republicans 20-13 Senate majority. Democrats will be tough sells to vote for a GOP-crafted budget, meaning Republicans likely need at least 17 senators to support it.

Fitzgerald and Walker support borrowing  Fitzgerald $850 million and Walker $500 million  to avoid delays to ongoing highway projects. Assembly Republicans have said its irresponsible to further tax the states credit card.

Legislative leaders also have discussed highway tolling as a potential transportation revenue source. Even if lawmakers approved it and secured federal approval to start tolling Wisconsins U.S. Interstates, they likely wouldnt be collected for at least four years  meaning that revenue wouldnt have an impact in the next two-year state budget.
ONALASKA  Great Rivers United Way long ago abandoned the fundraising thermometer as the symbol to judge its annual campaign, focusing instead on its effect on people, a philosophy that 2017-18 campaign Chairman Mike Klauke plans to stress vigorously.

GRUW formerly advanced its annual campaign, which will have its initial kick-off on July 19, mostly with reports on its tally, while it now follows a community impact model, highlighting the results of the supported programs.

We need to show the community what dollars raised actually do and the number of people who are affected by those dollars to really get to the meat of why we are asking for money, Klauke said in a statement from the Onalaska-based nonprofit agency.

I come from a long history of United Way engagement. The organization does great things and helps thousands of people get services. Once you know the impact of one dollar, I think youll want to give another, and another, Klauke said.

Majel Hein, GRUWs newly hired development director who will lead fundraising efforts, echoed that philosophy, viewing contributions as investments in the community rather than mere donations.

I came to United Way from a community organization whose program mission is financial stability, Hein said. It is exciting to talk about engaging the community with investments that use every partners mission toward larger, impactful work coordinated by United Way.

On the Day of Caring, employees of Pacesetter Companies will fan out to contribute the volunteer muscle for projects at several organizations and agencies. The campaigns official goal and kick-off will take place in September.

We want to move the needle on large-scale social issues collectively, United Way Executive Director Mary Kay Wolf said.

For example, its no longer how one program is affecting the 100 participants it serves, but rather how 15 funded programs doing valuable work on homelessness are working together to stabilize a community around the issue of housing, Wolf said.

Owners and officials of businesses who are interested in discussing becoming pacesetters to ramp up United Way efforts for community programs are asked to call GRUW at 608-796-1400 or send an email to info@gruw.org.

I come from a long history of United Way engagement. The organization does great things and helps thousands of people get services. Once you know the impact of one dollar, I think youll want to give another, and another. Mark Klauke, 2017-18 United Way campaign director
As told in a previous post, I like to watch the RDS-TMC traffic messages every now and then, just for fun. Even though I've never had a car. Actually I haven't done it for years now, but thought I'd share with you the joy of solving the enigma.[disclaimer 1]

RDS-TMC is used in car navigators to inform the driver about traffic jams, roadworks and urgent stuff like that. It's being broadcast on a subcarrier of a public radio FM transmission. It's encrypted in many countries, including mine, so that it could be monetized by selling the encryption keys.

A draft of the encryption standard, namely ISO/DIS 14819-6, is freely available online. Here's an excerpt[disclaimer 2] that reads blatantly like a challenge:

"After calling for candidate proposals [for a method of encryption], the submission from Deutsche Telekom was judged by an expert panel to have best met the pre-determined criteria the task force had established. The method encrypts the sixteen bits that form the Location element in each RDS-TMC message to render the message virtually useless without decryption. The encryption is only 'light' but was adjudged to be adequate to deter other than the most determined 'hacker'. More secure systems were rejected because of the RDS capacity overhead that was required."

TMC messages consist mostly of numeric references to a static database of preset sentences and locations; no actual text is being transmitted. The database is not a secret and is freely available. The location information is encrypted with a key that changes daily. Every night, a random key is picked from 31 pregenerated alternatives. The key is never transferred over the air, only its numeric ID (131). The keys are preprogrammed into all licensed TMC receivers, and they can decrypt the locations knowing the key ID.

The size of the key space is 216 and the encryption algorithm consists of three permutation operations:

The algorithm is simple enough to be run using pen-and-paper hardware, and that's just what I did while creating the above crypto diagram:

The tricky part is that I don't know the keys. But there's a catch. To save bandwidth, only regional messages are transmitted. This limits the space of possible locations, giving us a lot of information about the encrypted data. Assuming all messages are from this limited region, we can limit the number of keys to a very small number, in the dozens.

The next day, we have an all new encryption key again. But there's another catch. Many messages persist over several days, if not weeks. These would be messages about long-lasting roadworks and such. We just need to wait for messages that we heard yesterday that only have their location code changed, and we can continue limiting the keyspace by collecting more data.

Once we've limited the keyspace to a single key, we can decrypt all of today's messages. When the key changes again, it is trivial to find today's key by knowing yesterday's key and comparing the locations of persistent messages; this is known as a known-plaintext attack or KPA.

Here's some encrypted data straight from the radio.

$ ./redsea.pl | grep TMC  TMC msg 00 1828 4400  TMC sysmsg 6040  TMC msg 00 1828 4400  TMC msg 07 8264 0294  TMC msg 07 8264 0294  TMC msg 07 8264 0294  TMC sysmsg 0021  TMC msg 07 5964 72ca 

A little Perl script then decodes everything and even plots the affected segment on a little map. The screenshot is from a few years back.

Now I just need a car. Well, actually I prefer motorcycles. But I guess it would work, too.

Tools used: Ordinary FM radio, sound card, computer. All data is from public sources. RDS was decoded from intermodulation distortion in the radio's Line Out audio caused by the stereo demuxer circuitry.

Update 2014-07-27: Some news seem to highlight that I was the first one to break this joke of a cipher. This could be true; I don't really care. In any case, the often-referred-to 2007 work by Barisani and Bianco (PDF 13MB) was done on unencrypted RDS-TMC and no cryptanalysis was involved; "encryption is supported for commercial services but irrelevant to our goals". I encourage you to read it, it addressed some of the real-world security implications of injecting crafted TMC messages into cars.

Disclaimer 1: I will take this post down on the first appearance of any complaint from any party, of course. My intent is not malicious and I'm not even publishing any keys or code.

Disclaimer 2: This use of the above excerpt of the ISO standard is not an infringement of copyright as it is being used here under the doctrine of "Fair Use" of the United States Copyright Law (17 U.S.C.  107), seeing as this blog is hosted on US soil.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/06/2017 (1960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg city council will consider approval of the tentative agreement with CUPE 500, after that unions members narrowly voted to accept the deal Thursday.

In what is expected to be a formality, Mayor Brian Bowman and members of his executive policy committee will consider the deal at its July 5 meeting. The agreement will then be forwarded to council for its regular meeting on July 19.

I want to thank the negotiating committees for working together on this agreement, Bowman said in a statement released Friday by city hall. I believe this agreement values the important work done by CUPE employees, and is fair and reasonable for both sides, including taxpayers.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The tentative agreement is a 50-month contract, which expires Feb. 28, 2021. The deal provides wage increases of 1.5 per cent in each of the first three years, but no increase in the remaining 14 months.

In contrast, the city had negotiated larger wage increases with the unions representing police and firefighters. Police got a five-year deal, with annual increases of 2.5 per cent; firefighters got a four-year deal, with a 1.8 per cent increase in the first year and increases of 2 per cent in each of the remaining three years.

CUPE 500 is the largest union at city hall, representing about 4,600 civic employees working in most departments. The last contract expired Dec. 24, 2016. The new deal means members will go two years without a wage increase.

Members voted 66 per cent in favour of the new agreement.

Gord Delbridge, president of CUPE 500, attributed the low margin of support to members dissatisfaction with the wage settlement compared to what was negotiated with police and firefighters.

However, Delbridge said the unions bargaining committee still recommended approval, explaining they didnt believe they could get any more even if they went on strike.

Delbridge said the city had removed the bulk of its concessions after members had rejected an earlier offer and given the union a strike mandate. Delbridge defended the deal, saying that while other unions negotiated larger wage increases, CUPE 500 was still able to retain its no-layoff clause for the entire term of the deal.

In a statement Friday, city hall singled out several provisions in the tentative agreement, including:

 Capping the banked overtime, allowing only 80 hours of overtime to be banked and taken as time off in a fiscal year

 A review and reclassification of certain positions that were amalgamated by combining duties and roles

 Changes relating to discipline and investigation process, which now allows management to conduct investigations in a timely manner, and allows the employer to suspend an employee temporarily without pay during an investigation

 All employees are now required to serve a six calendar month probationary period of continuous service, or 1,040 regular hours worked for part-time, seasonal and temporary staff.

 Summer students have a defined time period in the collective agreement and are not entitled to any of the provisions or benefits of the collective agreement with the exception of the grievance procedure.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/06/2017 (1960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Questions are being raised about the future of the old Public Safety Building after an administrative report disclosed for the first time the total cost to demolish the building and the adjacent civic centre parkade and prepare both for redevelopment would be almost $11 million.

At the cost to demolish both properties and prepare the site for redevelopment, we need to question whether demolition is the best option, said Coun. Jeff Browaty. We were never told clearing the site would have such a price tag.

Browaty (North Kildonan) said a consultant report concluded the old PSB building is structurally sound but there would be a cost of $6 million to address the crumbling Tyndal stone exterior.

BORIS MINKEVICH/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Public Safety Building

I was always skeptical about the redevelopment costs for that property and now the cost has climbed from $1.8 million to almost $11 million, Browaty said. Maybe we should consider reviving the old idea of moving staff from leased property into the PSB.

The property that the old police headquarters is built on had been gifted to the city in 1875 with a caveat that it remain in the public use, which prevents the city from selling it to private developers. The caveat does not apply to the parkade property.

The PSB building was closed in 2016 when the new police headquarters on Graham Avenue opened. The parkade was closed in 2012 because of structural concerns.

Council, at the urging of Mayor Brian Bowman, decided in April 2016 that the PSB would be demolished after a redevelopment plan had been drafted with community consultation. The decision to demolish the building was reached after intense debate within the community, where some individuals and groups  including the buildings original architect Les Stecheson  urged the city to save the building. The structure is considered a prime example of brutalist architecture, typical of many Winnipeg buildings constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s  but to many others it is simply ugly.

Bowman said he wanted the PSB site redeveloped into a public meeting place

The new figure for the demolition and site preparation was revealed in an administrative report to councils property and development committee, which will consider the issue at its meeting Tuesday.

Previously, council had only been told that the cost to demolish the parkade would be $1.8 million. Officials said in the fall that proceeds from the sale of the parkade could be used to offset demolition and redevelopment costs

The latest administrative report now recommends that the $1.8 million previously set aside for demolition of the parkade alone be redirected to prepare preliminary designs and develop a detailed budget for readying both structures for eventual redevelopment. The report states council must find an additional $9.8 million for that work.

Browaty said that as the price tag to fulfill Bowmans vision for the site keeps rising, council needs to ask if it needs more green space.

We already have Market Square only one block away from there, Browaty said. Do we need more public space in that vicinity.

The administration recommended demolishing both the PSB and the parkade, selling the parkade land and developing the PSB site as a public green space. However, officials said its possible other alternatives could see the property developed in a civic campus design, which would include either a large or smaller parkade.

The citys downtown development agency, CentreVenture, launched a public consultation initiative in January advance of redeveloping the property, which has now been dubbed the Market Lands. CentreVenture released a report in May that said the three-month public consultation revealed there is consensus the former PSB building and civic parkade property developed with a mix of commercial and residential uses but the public does not want to see the area turned into a vast, empty park.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
When Bob Dylan tells the story of Bob Dylan, he often starts at a concert by rock n roll pioneer Buddy Holly in the winter of 1959.

At least, thats where he started in his recent Nobel Prize for Literature lecture.

Something mysterious about Holly filled me with conviction, said Dylan. He looked me right straight dead in the eye, and he transmitted something. Something, I didnt know what. And it gave me the chills.

Days later, Holly died in a plane crash. Right after that, someone gave Dylan a recording of Cotton Fields by folk legend Lead Belly. It was like Id been walking in darkness and all of the sudden the darkness was illuminated. It was like somebody laid hands on me, said Dylan.

That story probably sounded rather strange to lots of people, said Scott Marshall, author of the new book Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life.

What happens when somebody lays hands on you? If people dont know the Bible, then who knows what theyll think that means? ... Dylan is saying he felt called to some new work, like he was being ordained. Thats just the way Dylan talks. Thats who he is.

For millions of true believers, Dylan was a prophetic voice of the 1960s and all that followed. Then his intense embrace of Christianity in the late 1970s infuriated many fans and critics. Ever since, Dylan has been surrounded by arguments  often heated  about the state of his soul.

The facts reveal that Dylan had God on his mind long before his gospel-rock trilogy, Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot of Love.

One civil rights activist, the Rev. Bert Cartwright, catalogued all the religious references in Dylans 1961-78 works, before the born-again years. In all, 89 out of 246 Dylan songs or liner notes  36 percent  contained Bible references. Cartwright found 190 Hebrew Bible allusions and 197 to Christian scriptures.

Also, Dylan told People magazine in 1975: I didnt consciously pursue the Bob Dylan myth. It was given to me  by God. ... I dont care what people expect of me. It doesnt concern me. Im doing Gods work. Thats all I know.

What does that mean? Marshall collected material from stacks of published interviews and has concluded that two words perfectly describe Dylans approach to answering these questions: inscrutability and irascibility. Plus, its hard to know when Dylan is being serious, cranky or playful.

Nevertheless, faith language always plays a central role. Marshall cites waves of examples, including a time when Dylan was asked if his raucous Rainy Day Women #12 & 35  with its everybody must get stoned chant  was code for getting high. Dylan wryly noted that many critics arent familiar with the Book of Acts.

In his Nobel lecture, Dylan also stressed the role great literature has played in his life, dating back to grammar school days. Once again, there were religious themes.

Moby-Dick, for example, combined all the myths: the Judeo-Christian Bible, Hindu myths, British legends, St. George, Perseus, Hercules  theyre all whalers.

All Quiet on the Western Front mixed politics, nihilism and horror, and Dylan noted that he has never read another war novel. In that book, Youre on the real iron cross, and a Roman soldiers putting a sponge of vinegar to your lips.

With The Odyssey, he said readers have to live the tale, wrestling with gods and goddesses. Some of these same things have happened to you. You too have had drugs dropped into your wine. You too have shared a bed with the wrong woman. You too have been spellbound by magical voices, sweet voices with strange melodies.

In the end, said Dylan, a songs impact on each person is what matters. I dont have to know what a song means, he said. Ive written all kinds of things into my songs. And Im not going to worry about it  what it all means.

Marshall believes one thing should be obvious: If Dylanologists want to understand Dylans life and art, they will have to wrestle with all of his songs, including those drenched in God-talk. Biblical literacy is an essential skill in that work.

The bottom line is clear, according to Hollywood director Scott Derrickson, writing in the books foreword: Dylan has never recanted a single line from a single song.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 01/07/2017 (1959 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

People in red and white milled down Winnipegs Osborne Street Saturday, eating food from vendors and drinking in the midday sun. Just around the corner from the festivities, on a quieter street, a sign read Today your hosts are Treaty 1 First Nations.

In with the sign and informational flyers, a group of people asked walkers-by to rethink their decision to celebrate Canada 150.

The 150 years of Canada have been cruel and wretched to the people who were here first. And that is acknowledged a tiny bit, but not enough, said Kathy Moorhead Thiessen, a spokesperson for the UNSettling Canada 150 movement.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Protestors took over the steps at the Manitoba Legislature Saturday afternoon.

The movement focuses on how Canadas constitutional framework, established in 1867, took indigenous land and assimilated the people in traumatizing ways. For some indigenous people, watching 150 celebrations hurts.

I think for many of them it is a slap in the face because there is very little recognition of (the history and current suffering), Thiessen said.

Thiessen said Manitoba is taking small steps toward reconciliation with its education. The province will be the first to have a First Nations school board and the Success Skills Centre plans to expand its program on indigenous history for newcomers.

Movement has been made but theres a whole swatch of people on this land that dont know that history. History and present, she said.

Thiessen pointed to Shoal Lake 40 as an example of present-day suffering. Friday marked day one of construction on Freedom Road, the highway that will reconnect the community to the mainland after Winnipegs aqueduct turned it into an island a century ago. The town has had a water boil advisory for 20 years, while the aqueduct in their lake supplies drinking water to Winnipeg.

Thats unacceptable that they had to live under these conditions for over 100 years so that we could have clean water, Thiessen said.

She hopes more people will educate themselves on indigenous history and issues.

The crowd gathered outside Manitobas legislative building Saturday afternoon did just that.

They listened to indigenous people tell their stories of hardship and resilience.

Vivian Ketchum spoke about feeling alone at Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School, which she attended for three years. She didnt want to talk about her most painful memories, but recounted being beaten in the hand with her own shoe because she was afraid to go to the dentist for the first time.

The dreams and ghosts of my past still haunt me sometimes to the points of me wanting to give up, she said.

Instead of celebrating 150 years of Canada, the crowd celebrated 150 years of resilience.

We survived the genocidethe residential schools, colonization, assimilation, the reserve system and the treaties, said Gerry Shingoose, a residential school survivor. Were still strong, were still willing to share, were still beautiful as our ancestors were.

Shingoose hopes Canada will fully implement the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, which recognizes indigenous peoples basic human rights, and rights to self-determination, language, health, education, among others.

We have to respect each other. We have to love each other, said Sadie Lavoie, a Winnipeg activist from Sagkeeng First Nation.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/06/2017 (1960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brian Pallister says he will celebrate Canada Day by attending festivities at Assiniboine Park.

The premier said he will be counting his blessings for living in an incredible country formed without a drop of blood not long after the U.S. fought its deadly civil war.

Canadas an amazing country in many ways. Marking this 150th year  its a well-earned celebration, he said Friday.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister's Canada Day plans include a visit to Assiniboine Park.

Pallister, who turns 63 next Thursday, was barely a teenager when Canada marked its centennial year.

We were then, and we are increasingly, an open, vibrant, diverse country, he said. 

We have seen great growth, not just in our population but in our economy. Weve seen incredible advances in many specialist fields that have helped Manitobans and Canadians to have better lives.

The Manitoba premier said theres been a growing understanding within the country in recent years of the need to strengthen Canadas infrastructure and to trade globally to improve the quality of life of citizens both here and abroad.
Theirs is a slow love story.

JamieAnn Meyers met Peggy Kauffman in 1957, shortly after her family moved onto Peggys street in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

JamieAnn, who went by Jim back then, had spent the first 12 years of her life struggling to fit in  at age 3, squeezing into her old baby shoes and pretending to be her mother in heels; at age 6, clubbing home runs against the older boys in the schoolyard.

Peggy had spent her entire childhood in Columbia  on summer days, making the migration to the pool with her friends; on summer nights, listening to her father and neighbors tell stories until the sun set.

In middle school and their first three years of high school, JamieAnn and Peggy took a lot of classes together and hung out in the same group of kids. But their hearts were far from aflutter.

You were a nice guy and everything, Peggy said to JamieAnn on a recent afternoon. But I never thought of you as someone to date.

Well, JamieAnn said and smiled. Thanks a lot.

Then came June 2, 1962.

JamieAnn, Peggy and the rest of the Columbia High School Band were playing at a summer carnival. During a break, the pair drifted away from their friends and struck up a conversation, the kind of intimate conversation they didnt often have.

That was their first date, if you listen to JamieAnn.

Peggy, after all these years, insists that could hardly be considered a date.

But there would be others.

Living so close, JamieAnn and Peggy often went on walks around their neighborhood, talking and listening as the stars came winking into the sky.

They held hands for the first time at a screening of El Cid, and kissed for the first time outside Peggys front door.

JamieAnn, whose family was leaving for an extended vacation out West, had to work up the courage to do it.

I was saying goodbye for 34 days, she said.

It took you an hour, Peggy replied. And all I got was a peck.

When she returned to Columbia with her family, JamieAnn, who had always been one to cut school, had perfect attendance for the first time in her life.

She and Peggy would walk the hallways, holding hands and avoiding the teachers who would tell them to stop.

They had a notebook theyd pass back and forth  JamieAnn drawing pictures of mountains, Peggy drawing pictures of cabins in the woods.

In those pictures ... thats how we envisioned our life together, JamieAnn said.

Soon, the couple graduated from high school and went about the business of summer  swimming pools and evening walks.

In July, JamieAnns parents invited Peggy on a Meyers family vacation out West, with the condition that Peggy would come as a friend of JamieAnns.

There was to be no boyfriend-girlfriend interaction  no touching, no hugging, no kissing, JamieAnn said. I remember that trip. Peggy had to keep me away from her. I was less likely to behave than she was.

Meeting Peggy was a turning point for JamieAnn. The doubts she had about her gender identity, about her ability to fit in among other boys, began to fade.

And she had no intention of losing Peggy.

In the fall, JamieAnn studied geology at Franklin and Marshall College in nearby Lancaster. Peggy spent her days at the hospital in Lancaster, studying to become a nurse.

They were seeing less of each other and did not yet live together, but they made the most of what time they did have.

On a note card, Peggy sketched out her schedule so JamieAnn could compare it to her own. When JamieAnn had a break from class, she would run to the hospital  a mile away  so she and Peggy could have lunch or simply walk no place in particular.

It was a great, great time, JamieAnn said. When I look back, it was one of the most precious times of our lives.

JamieAnn Meyers and Peggy Kauffman got engaged in May 1966 and married that November.

Their first child, a boy, was born the next year. Their second child, a girl, was born three years after that.

It was the arrival of someone else, a sort of fifth family member, that threatened to pull the family apart.
President Donald Trump on Thursday ridiculed the brains, looks and temperament of a female cable television host whose show he says he has stopped watching. His latest crude broadside against a woman's appearance set off a storm of protest from Republicans and Democrats alike and did nothing to advance his struggling policy agenda.

In a series of tweets morning tweets, the president went after Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who have criticized Trump on their MSNBC show "Morning Joe."

I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 ...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017

Brzezinski responded on Twitter by posting a photograph of a Cheerios box that includes the phrase "made for little hands." Critics looking to get under the president's skin have long suggested that his hands appear smaller than usual for his frame.

"It's a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job," NBC News spokeswoman Lorie Acio said in a statement.

Other reactions from both Republicans and Democrats:

House Speaker Paul Ryan: "Obviously I don't see that as an appropriate comment. What we're trying to do around here is improve the tone and civility of the debate, and this obviously doesn't help."

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi: Pelosi told reporters Thursday that Trump's tweet "really saddens me because it is so beneath the dignity of the president of the United States to engage in such behavior."

She says it was "blatantly sexist."

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford: Trump's comments "don't help our political or national discourse and do not provide a positive role model for our national dialogue."

Melania Trump: The first lady's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said Melania Trump has long said that "when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder."

White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders: The president has never been someone "who gets attacked and doesn't push back." She added that the show has made "an outrageous number of personal attacks" on the president and says Trump "fights fire with fire and certainly will not be allowed to be bullied by liberal media and the liberal elites within the media or Hollywood or anywhere else."
Maybe Pat Nash should read the Bible to learn what Jesus taught. Apparently Pat thinks that speaking out against homosexuality is un-Christian. Well, God did say, in Leviticus 18:22, "Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable." Doesnt that make it wrong, a sin? Is not sodomy a sin?

And didnt Jesus say that if your brother sins, you should try to correct him, and if you dont try, you are also guilty of that sin? My take on all that is that homosexual activity, in the eyes of God, is wrong. The same thing can be said about abortion.

Mike Pence, backing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, did grasp very well what Jesus meant in the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:10, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness..." Pence was being righteous. People who advocate for, condone or engage in abortion or homosexual activities are not righteous. Remember, God did say such activities are wrong.

The RFRA allows discrimination? Since God says those activities are wrong, does anybody really think that, in the end, God couldnt discriminate against people who have advocated, condoned, engaged in sodomy or abortion during their lives?

Jim Kremsreiter, Baraboo
1967

As of July 1, Lathrops Steak House will be known as Capri Steak House, the name the new owners, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Guertin, have selected.

An early morning alarm answered by the Columbus firemen saved City Hall by the fire departments quick response. Smoke was detected in the police room by Hugo Platz. The fire apparently was caused by defective wiring with a reported loss of $10,000. Fire Chief Harold Wendt said he would not place an estimate on the loss, other than it was a heck of a lot.

1977

The city of Columbus will set up a meeting with rural townships to discuss a plan to contract with a private ambulance service. The consensus was that the local fire department rescue squad could no longer handle all ambulance calls as the department is a volunteer unit.

Randall Lueders will be joining the law offices of Robert W. Behl in the Poser Professional building starting July 5. Lueders graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

1987

Anchor Savings and Loan Association of Madison and Columbus Federal Savings and Loan Association have announced their plans to merge. The two Columbus Federal offices in Columbus and DeForest will become Anchor offices.

Wrist bands for the July 4 carnival will be sold for $5 to be used on wrist band night July 2.

1997

Reuben Damm was chosen by the Columbus Fourth of July Committee to be this years parade marshal. Damm has served on various school boards for 38 years including 18 years as president of the Columbus School Board. He spent 33 years as a director of the Columbus First National Bank and served on the Columbia County Board since 1976.

Jonathan Overby, Wisconsin Public Radio personality, will return to Columbus to lead the fourth annual Going Gospel worship service in Firemans Park sponsored by the Columbus Ecumenical Association.
As we approach another birthday for our nation, Im reminded that hard work and community spirit is alive via the way Columbus celebrates Independence Day.

Thanks are always in order this time of year particularly for the Columbus July 4 Committee and many others who put in a years worth of planning for about one week of fun for our city. As a 4-year-old back in the bicentennial year of 1976, to being a 44-year-old in 2017, theres no better place to be on July 4 than Columbus. (Well, the one rough spot I remember is getting sick after riding the Tilt-O-Whirl at the carnival when I was about 10. Havent rode that ride since that day, and my older sister has not let me forget about that, either.)

The Columbus July 4 Committees dedication to serve in this way directs my mind to the old, patriotic Uncle Sam posters that show him pointing directly out and saying We Want You! These messages personified the call from a nation to its citizens to pitch in and help out, particularly in times of war and economic distress.

On a smaller, but still impactful scale, the city of Columbus Wants You to consider serving on a board, commission or committee. Like the individuals who pour their hearts into the July 4th events every year, I appreciate the time and efforts that those who spend their time to keep city government moving forward.

The Columbus mayor appoints individuals to fill these positions. Mayor Michael Thom has been working to fill these spots and he and I have talked about his interest in talking to people who want to make their hometown the best place it can be. Wide and unique perspectives from neighbors who want to be involved are the only real prerequisites for serving so long as there are vacancies on these decision-making bodies.

The Cable Commission, the Tourism Commission, the Community Development Authority currently have openings. If these dont interest you and you still want to help, please still let your interest be known as opportunities regularly pop up here and there. The city does keep a list of volunteers whove expressed their desire to serve when the opportunity arises. If you are interested, contact Mayor Thom or myself at the information below.

Have a happy July 4 everyone. I hope you all have a chance to get out and enjoy the events planned in the upcoming week, and I hope to see you out and about.

If you have any questions on this or any other issue before city government, please contact me down at City Hall at 623-5900 or via email at pvandersanden@columbuswi.us.
Portage High School junior Dalton Brauner packed his bags for an eight-day trip to Ripon College without knowing what to expect.

Badger Boys State, held from June 10-17, brought 885 soon-to-be seniors to the campus. Brauner was one of five Portage students to go  the others being Tyler Wood, Cade Harkner, Codey Neises and Aaron Jacobson  but not long after he arrived, they were split up.

We were all scrambled, he said.

Cities formed in the dormitory floors  Brauners being the city of Rusk. Brauner decided to run for city attorney, which he won. He and his peers later elected county and state officials, but those are pretty competitive so Brauner was satisfied with being city attorney.

As city attorney, he handled cases set up by the counselors and  this might sound silly, he said  but his big case was when 15 horses (made of foam) had escaped a corral, a disaster the city of Rusk was blamed for.

The case was a bit one-sided, Brauner said, as the other side had an actual attorney in charge of their case. It was a setup, he added with a laugh. Rusk lost, but he did his best defending it. He and his mates argued that it was an unfair trial  and it was  because we had a listing of times that each city was supposed to watch the corral, and that was not posted before the time of escape.

Winning wasnt the point, however.

I thought it was really cool to see a bunch of younger men work all together as a team, Brauner said. You dont see that a lot today; I thought it was a really nice experience, to know its not hard to work as a team if you all have the same goal and same mindset.

Tremendous experience

American Legion Post 47 Adjutant Norm Bednarek went to Badger Boys State for the seventh straight year. His organization is one of the events sponsors, along with Knights of Columbus, The Computer Clinic and former Portage Mayor Bill Tierney.

Badger Boys State, Bednarek said, gives students a tremendous experience on how government is run, but more than that, it helps them build great leadership skills.

The boys come there the first day quite scared and frightened, said Bednarek, and he would know, since he does the orientations for parents and students. They know theyre going, he added, but they wont have the feel of what its like for a day or two, when theyre experiencing what its really like.

Dawn Brauner, Daltons mother, is the programs coordinator for the Wisconsin American Legion, which is headquartered in Portage. She attended Badger Boys State for registration and some setup work. Last year she was involved in some of the event organizing, and theres quite a bit of behind-the-scene work that takes place there, she noted.

I think its a really amazing program for the boys to attend, Dawn Brauner said. Theyre learning about government from all different levels, but at same time theyre learning about the importance of their involvement as a citizen, and learning about themselves as young men.

Importance of teamwork

Dalton Brauner was really surprised at how much emotion was put into the trip, by every student. The level of teamwork he saw in Ripon inspired him, to the point where hes staying in touch with about 20 students from across Wisconsin.

We have some group chats going (online), he said. Hes planning to attend University of Wisconsin-Madison after graduating high school, and a couple of his new friends are considering UW-Madison, too. They might be roommates down the road.

Why is teamwork surprising?

I think in todays society its kind of every man for himself, Brauner said, and its really hard to find a lot of people who want the same thing and are willing to make certain sacrifices to get there.

I think what Ill take from it, he continued, is no matter what background you come from  who your parents are, what your name is, I dont think that should be looked upon as your character. Its the certain type of work ethic that you put into everything (that defines you). You should view people as they are, rather than who you think they are at first.

Brauner, who works for Zimmerman Plumbing, wants to get a degree in mechanical engineering. I really liked cars, and that got me into engines, and I owe a lot of it to my auto tech teacher at PHS  Dustan Garrigan. Garrigan helped Brauner develop his passion for engines, and it kind of took off from there.

For a career, he wants to work for Ford or Harley-Davidson in their police inspector divisions. Hed be designing either engines or different parts of the car to make it easier for law enforcement officers to basically do their whole job, make it safe.

How might Badger Boys State impact his future?

Its quite the experience to build friendships, he said, and to feel like brothers.
The political pressure and budget cuts that dismantled the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources science research bureau are also taking a toll on the agencys ability to engage the public in conservation.

Under Gov. Scott Walker, the DNR has reduced environmental education efforts despite state law and department regulations mandating an active effort to ensure that citizens understand natural resources topics.

It just seems like they are getting out of the business of educating people about our natural resources, which seems strange to us, said Betsy Parker, of the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, a nonprofit whose 400 members work in parks and outdoors centers.

If you want people to be involved as stewards of natural resources, you have to help get them engaged, so they can make informed decisions on how we manage our lands and preserve resources for the future, said Parker, a Madison resident who is the groups advocacy chairwoman.

But DNR spokesman Jim Dick said department leaders take their public education duties seriously.

We are not concerned that strategically adjusting the way we direct public outreach will lessen the publics understanding of our natural resources, Dick said. In fact, we may be able to reach more people.

The changes are outgrowths of a major DNR reorganization announced in November that is also altering the departments use of science, law enforcement in parks and pollution enforcement.

DNR secretary Cathy Stepp and other top administrators appointed by Walker have said elected officials demanded the agency shed unnecessary programs.

This was on the heels of 2015 budget cuts the Republican governor and lawmakers enacted, eliminating $34 million and 93 full-time positions while saying the department did unneeded work on climate change, mine pollution and wildlife management.

The 2015-17 budget included removal of 11 full-time DNR educator positions, and other changes resulting in a volunteer group supplying funding for most part-time parks naturalists.

The cuts also eliminated DNR forester positions two years after a DNR assessment found that its forestry education and outreach efforts had strengths but lacked staff and money to be consistent and effective.

In the 2017-19 budget, Walker proposed eliminating the departments 88,000-circulation subscriber-supported Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine. Constituents howled and said the publication was crucial for rallying the public to conservation efforts, so lawmakers may just reduce the number of issues the magazine publishes.

This summer, the DNR announced it was sharply scaling back its presence at the 11-day state fair. For decades, hundreds of agency employees have promoted conservation and outdoor recreation with thousands of children and adults who passed through a 2-acre Natural Resources Park.

The reason I got was Were going to go back to our core mission, said Doug Hoskins, a retired DNR conservation warden who has helped coordinate the fair effort since 2000. I always thought that was part of our job, meeting the public.

Hoskins said its an extension of Stepps practice of forbidding staff from publicly commenting on pending legislation  the administration doesnt want knowledgeable DNR staff talking to the public about pollution problems or laws allowing high-capacity wells near vulnerable lakes and streams.

When members of the public deluged the DNR with complaints about its removal of factual information about the human causes of climate change from its website in December, department employees expressed frustration about how they should defend the decision.

A week or so later, the DNR told the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education to stop distributing the departments climate change activity guide to school teachers. An unknown number of the 86-page, full-color booklets were recycled.

The department said the booklets were out of date, but it hasnt responded when asked if information about the human causes of climate change was what they considered outdated.

Refocusing education

DNR spokesman Dick said the department is allowing employees to focus on their main duties while using new and old ways to reach the public.

The department has had more than a million views on its YouTube channel, 18,800 Twitter followers, and 93,603 followers on Facebook, Dick said.

The DNR continues to host popular learn-to-fish and beginning archery events at Devils Lake State Park and an outdoor heritage event at the MacKenzie Center near Poynette, and it opened new interactive displays in 2015 at Horicon Marsh, Dick said.

The DNR will continue to send representatives to hunting and fishing shows that will allow us to strategically deliver our message of conservation and preservation of our natural resources, Dick said.

Dick also touted the departments partnership with volunteers in providing naturalists in state parks.

As funding for park naturalists has ebbed, local Friends of the State Parks volunteers have stepped in and raised money to supplement naturalist programs in 25 parks, said Friends president Bill Zager.

Education mandated

Wisconsin enacted a law mandating environmental education in the early part of the 20th century when the Dust Bowl was fresh on peoples minds and Wisconsin had its own environmental problems after loggers clear-cut the states forests.

The law doesnt include funding or penalties, but its requirements are in the DNRs administrative code  which carries the same weight as law.

The successful stewardship of those resources is largely dependent upon enlightened and responsible decision-making by Wisconsin citizens, government and private interests, the regulations state. Education is the foundation of effective resource management and environmental protection activities.

One section of the regulations requires the department secretary to appoint a committee to give advice on environmental education. Dick couldnt say if the group has been meeting, but he said the department is complying with the regulation.

The regulations also call for the department to actively work with other organizations on conservation education and to make educational materials and the expertise of DNR employees available to the public.

And they require DNR to assist schools at all grade levels and ensure that they understand the importance of their environmental education.

Climate change lessons

Education on climate change has been a particular sore point in Wisconsin, where several Republicans have questioned it.

A week or so after the DNR changed its global warming website, copies of the agencys climate change education guide for teachers were recycled by the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education at UW-Stevens Point on instructions from the DNR.

That resource is currently out of date and should no longer be distributed, DNR air pollution program worker Lindsay Haas, said in a Jan. 5 email to the WCEE director.

During our phone conversation you mentioned receiving a few calls regarding the resource, Haas said in the email. If the calls are from teachers, you can let them know that the resource is out of date and currently not available.

Paul Robbins, director of the UW-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, said science is always advancing and its good to update teaching materials, but it was hard to imagine that a 2009 guide on climate change would be unusable.

Ive never been contacted to shred any teaching materials in my entire career, Robbins said. And neither have most teachers, Id wager, whether K-12 or higher ed. Thats a weird one, for sure.

The guide was funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board, which Walker and the Legislature eliminated in the 2015-17 budget.

In its last round of grants, the board distributed 41 two-year grants totaling over $300,000 for schools and outdoor centers. The money came from a surcharge on pollution fines, which have declined under Walker, and from a forestry tax he wants to eliminate in the current budget.

The Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education at UW-Stevens Point, which provides educational support on the topics of forestry and energy efficiency, was also to be eliminated in Walkers 2015-17 budget, but the Legislature balked after the environmental educators group protested.

Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to accurately attribute the source and date of an email on climate change teaching materials.




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The UKs Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has charged Barclays PLC with conspiracy to commit fraud and the provision of unlawful financial assistance during the financial crisis in 2008.

The prosecution has absolutely nothing to do with the criminal and reckless banking behaviour that precipitated the crashthe bank's lending practices, the selling of worthless mortgage-backed securities, false valuation and rating of debt instruments, abuse of loan foreclosure procedures, misrepresenting its financial position or any other forms of financial skulduggery.

Instead, the prosecution relates to Barclays rescue.

While the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank sought refuge in the tender arms of the British governmentwith billions of pounds seized from the public purse to bail them outBarclays sought to evade nationalisation and the possibility of sanctions or restrictions by the UK government on its activities, and instead raised equity from Qatar. It was thus able to meet the higher capital requirements set by regulators as the financial crisis became more acute.

The fraud charges relate to Barclays arrangements for loans totalling 12 billion with Qatar Holding LLC and Challenger Universal Ltd in June and October 2008, and an apparent 3.5 billion loan from Qatari and Abu Dhabi investors in November 2008.

The SFO charges Barclays with failure to properly disclose the so-called advisory services agreements (ASAs) struck in 2008 that involved payments totalling 322 million over five years to the Qatari investors. Barclays said at the time the fees were for advice. The SFOs charges imply that Barclays made corrupt payments to secure Qatars support for the cash injection.

The second set of charges of unlawful financial assistance relates to the 3.5 billion in loans. The SFO is arguing that, contrary to the way Barclays represented the transaction as a loan from Qatar, it had loaned Qatar money, which was then used to buy shares in Barclays as part of the rescue deal. In other words, Barclays was using its own money to buy up its own shares in a circular and illegal operation.

In an unusual move, the SFA brought charges against not only Barclays, but also against its top executives, including John Varley, the chief executive at Barclays between 2004 and 2011. This is the first time that the chief of a global bank has faced criminal charges arising out of the 2008 crash.

Three others face prosecution: Roger Jenkins, the executive chairman of investment banking and investment management in the Middle East and North Africa, who was paid 40 million a year, Thomas Kalaris, chief executive of Barclays wealth and investment management, and Richard Boath, European head of the financial institutions group.

Barclays and the four executives have been charged with a conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in relation to the June 2008 capital raising. Barclays, Varley and Jenkins face the same charges in relation to the October 2008 capital raising. Barclays, Varley and Jenkins have also been charged with unlawful financial assistance. If convicted, they face jail terms of up to 10 years. The first hearing is set for July 3.

The four men are the most senior UK banking chiefs charged since the financial crisis. While Jenkins lawyer said his client would vigorously defend against these charges, Boath issued a statement saying he was not a decision-maker and had no control over what the bank did in 2008. Varley and Kalaris have declined to comment. Boath added, I repeatedly raised concerns about the decisions taken by the bank with both senior management and senior lawyers and was reassured that those decisions were lawful.

The SFO also investigated Chris Lucas, the banks group finance director, but apparently decided against pressing charges because of his health. It also investigated Bob Diamond, a former CEO, and former senior Barclays lawyers--Mark Harding, Judith Shepherd and Matthew Dobson--but again decided not to file charges against them.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is also reviewing the Qatar deals, having re-opened its inquiry earlier this year after more documents surfaced. The FCA fined Barclays 50 million in 2013 for failing to disclose some of the fees paid to Qatar Holding, but following Barclays appeal, it put the case on hold.

The Stock Exchange shrugged it off, with shares in Barclays down only slightly after the announcement. The announcement was not unexpected, with Barclays acknowledging that it had anticipated that charges would be brought.

There should be no illusions that there has been some kind of cultural transformation among Britains regulators. The SFO has not changed its spots and is not in hot pursuit of the banks. The SFO, which the Conservative Partys election manifesto pledged to fold into the National Crime Agency--emasculating what was an already puny agency--opened its probe in 2012. It has postponed the charging decision at least twice since missing a promised March deadline.

It is pertinent to consider the fact that Barclays did not immediately protest its innocence. Instead, it issued a statement saying that it was considering its position in relation to these developments.

This is because, once again, the authorities have acted with kid gloves to protect Barclays from the full impact of a possible criminal conviction, revealing how both the corporate structure and the regulatory system work to safeguard the financial institutions.

The SFO has charged Barclays PLC, the holding company that owns Barclays Bank, not Barclays Bank, apparently out of concern for the damage a conviction would cause. This could lead Barclays to plead guilty and accept a fine of several hundred million pounds so as to continue its operations without hindrance, particularly in the US, where a criminal conviction would preclude it from operating. Such fines, so much loose change for the banks, have become part of the costs of the banking business and are simply passed on to customers in innumerable charges.

Pleading guilty presumably means abandoning their former top executives to their fate.

However, the decision is likely to depend upon whether the SFO also charges Barclays Bank, as well as what the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission decide to do over Barclays cash injections from Qatar and Abu Dhabi and its alleged mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities. The SFO told Barclays that it has not made a decision as to whether it will also bring charges against Barclays Bank PLC.

Furthermore, Barclays faces a 750 million civil claim for unpaid fees from PCP Capital Partners Amanda Staveley and PCP International Finance Limited, which the bank is defending.

Staveley was the advisor on the purchase of Barclays shares on behalf of Abu Dhabis Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in October 2008. The case, to be heard next January, has already played a crucial role in unravelling Barclays version of the share purchase as a loan, making it difficult for the authorities to avoid a prosecution.

The evidence thus far rebuts any notion that Barclays in 2008 was in an any less penurious state than the other banks, which only survived because of the government bailout.

Furthermore, far from saving the British taxpayer the cost of bailing out Barclays, as some commentators have claimed, Barclays, like all the other banks, has benefited enormously from the 1 trillion provided by the taxpayer, including more than 500 billion of quantitative easing that has created the biggest government bond bubble in history.

Barclays, like the other banks, has robbed millions if not billions of people around the world via its criminal fixing of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and Forex market.

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Two years after the Libor scandal: Banks get token fines for rigging global foreign exchange rates

[13 November 2014]
Shortly before 3 pm on Friday, a gunman dressed in a white lab coat entered Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City and opened fire, killing one doctor and injuring at least seven other people, five of whom are currently in critical condition. The gunman subsequently committed suicide.

Law enforcement has identified the shooter as Dr. Henry Bello, a former physician at the hospital who resigned two years ago in lieu of being fired. According to media reports, Bello was fired for harassing a fellow employee.

Bello, according to law enforcement, entered the hospital around 2:55 pm and proceeded to the 16th floor with an assault rifle concealed under his lab coat. Sources stated that Bello then proceeded to search for a specific employee before opening fire.

Police later found Bello dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the 17th floor. He shot himself after attempting to commit suicide by lighting himself on fire. A woman who has been identified only as a fellow doctor at the hospital was also found dead near Bellos body.

Bellos life is the all-too-common story in America of an unstable individual losing his or her job and then, unable to recover, violently lashing out at the boss and coworkers before committing suicide.

Dione Morales, a witness to Bello's firing, told CBS New York that the 45-year-old Nigerian-born doctor was let go because I guess they figured he was unstable. She also said that he had threatened the hospital.

The police told the media that Bello had been arrested in the past for sex abuse and burglary, as well as more petty criminal activity such as jumping a subway turnstile and public urination.

It appears that Bello was unable to find a stable living situation after losing his job. According to senior police officials, he had five different addresses within the last two years and was considered transient.

Workplace shootings have become a frequent occurrence within the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2015 there were 417 homicides at workplaces across the country.

A report by the news website Mother Jones noted that there have already been three separate workplace shootings this year, not including the one at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, two of which occurred in June.

Bellos rampage comes approximately two weeks after Jimmy Lam, a 38-year-old UPS employee, opened fire on his coworkers at a San Francisco UPS facility, murdering three of them. Lam then took his own life as police showed up and began to close in on him.

The frequency of these violent incidents at schools and workplaces is a reflection of the immense social crisis in the US, marked by mass economic inequality, unemployment and lack of basic social services. As a result, individuals such as Bello are often unable to find help or develop a stable living situation as a result of personal issues combined with extreme poverty.
On Thursday, special prosecutors dropped a misdemeanor perjury charge against Brian Encinia, the Waller County, Texas police officer who arrested Sandra Bland, an African American woman who was later found hanged in a jail cell in July 2015. Encinias conduct during Blands arrest and her subsequent death contributed to a wave of mass protests around the country against police violence.

In exchange for the dropped charge, which carried a $4,000 penalty and up to a year in jail, Encinia agreed to resign from the police force and never seek, accept or engage in employment in any capacity with law enforcement. Encinia also agreed to never have the charge expunged from his legal record.

Encinia was charged in January 2016 for filing a false police report, claiming Bland had become combative and uncooperative during a July 10, 2015 traffic stop. Police dashboard camera footage of the incident shows an irritated but cooperative Bland being ordered out of her car by Encinia, who draws a taser on the 28-year old woman and declares I will light you up! Off camera Bland was tackled and aggressively subdued by Encinia.

Bland, a critic of police brutality and supporter of Black Lives Matter, was later found dead in her cell in what was ruled to be a suicide.

In December 2015, a Texas grand jury declined to bring charges against Waller County for Blands death, despite the existence of evidence contradicting the countys claims surrounding the incident.

Special prosecutor Phoebe Smith explained that her reason for dropping the charge was skepticism that a court would return a guilty verdict. Its pretty obvious that its always going to be an uphill battle when youre prosecuting a case against a police officer, she said, more or less admitting that police officers are considered to be above the law.

The bottom line is, we never wanted him to be a police officer again and we wanted to ensure that outcome. When you take a case in front of jury theres always that risk, she added.

Representatives of the Bland family stated they had felt blindsided by the prosecutions decision, which had been reached without consulting the family. Its a shame that they didnt take the time to contact the family ahead of their decision to do what they said they would not do They assured the family they would see this through. This is the reason why the community has a hard time trusting the system, said Bland family attorney Cannon Lambert of the dismissal.

Blands family members were less restrained. In September, we were expecting to be in Texas sitting in the courtroom, but today they cut him a deal Why? Why? Why? Why did you cut him a deal when you sat in our faces and you seen our pain and you told us you were going to take it to court? stated an agitated Shante Needham, Blands older sister, in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. Other members of Blands family have previously said they did not consider the misdemeanor charge to be proportionate for Encinias belligerent behavior.

The dismissal of charges against Encinia comes on the heels of several high profile cases in which police officers have been acquitted of criminal charges.

On June 23, the second trial of former University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing ended in a hung jury. Tensing had been charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter for shooting unarmed motorist Samuel DuBose in the head in July 2015. Just days earlier, a Minnesota police officer was acquitted in the 2016 killing of Philando Castile, who was shot while reaching for identification and died in front of his girlfriend and her daughter.

The dropping of charges comes days after Texas governor Greg Abbott signed the Sandra Bland Act, which requires jails in Texas to forward prisoners with mental health and substance abuse issues to treatment.

Significantly, earlier versions of the bill were stripped of provisions requiring higher burdens of proof for officers wishing to stop and search vehicles and denying the ability to arrest in instances where giving a fine is more suitable. Its a complete oversight of the root causes of why she [Bland] was jailed in the first place, stated Sharon Cooper, Blands sister, to the Texas Tribune of the new law.
Hundreds of New York Times employees staged a brief walkout on Thursday afternoon to protest the newspapers plans for major staff cuts through buyouts and layoffs. The main focus of the demonstration was the plan to eliminate the freestanding copy desk and do away with the jobs of dozens of copy editors.

The newspaper plans to streamline its editing process. The elimination of a separate copy desk will seriously diminish the role of copy editors in the preparation of the final version of articles. There are currently several stages in the preparation of copy, including one in which editors work directly with reporters, followed by copy editing, including the choice of headlines, fact-checking, correcting grammatical and spelling errors and other tasks. The Times plans to replace this with a single editor responsible for a given article.

By managements own account, more than 100 copy editor positions are being eliminated in one swoop, while applications are then being taken for about 50 positions after the reorganization of the department. This technique, increasingly common in the corporate world, will enable the company to pick and choose its rehired editors without regard to seniority.

The Thursday walkout, apparently aimed by the union representing Times editorial employees at appealing to the conscience of the Times owners, is only a pale expression of the outrage felt by the copy editors and other Times employees.

Employees marched outside the Timess modern office building on Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan with signs declaring, Without us its the New Yrok Times, This sign wsa not edited, and Copy editors save our buts. Workers said that while there had been other rounds of layoffs and buyouts, this is something different in kind.

Earlier this week, the copy editors wrote an open letter to the papers executive editor and managing editor, stating, We have begun the humiliating process of justifying our continued presence at the New York Times . They added, We only ask that you not treat us like a diseased population that must be rounded up en masse, inspected and expelled. Donald McNeil, Jr., the Times science reporter, told the New York Daily News, If they come for the copy editors today, they will come for the reporters later today.

The editors letter stated that they were the group that protects the institution from profoundly embarrassing errors, not to mention potentially actionable ones.

There is an obvious contradiction between the Timess editorials claiming to decry corporate callousness and indifference and its treatment of its own workers. This hypocrisy is not primarily a matter of corporate greed. It reflects the dictates of Wall Street, where stock prices increasingly determine whether even giant firms live or die.

The Times editorials, reflecting well-founded fear of a social explosion in the face of growing inequality and struggles of the working class, are largely aimed at refurbishing the liberal image of the Democratic Party. As far as its own business decisions, however, it takes its cues from the giant banks and hedge funds, which demand ruthless attacks on every section of the workforce, even somewhat better-off white-collar workers such as the Times editors.

There is a connection, moreover, between the disinterest in copyediting and the more basic elements of news reporting. The journalistic content of the Times has steadily declined over the years, mirroring broader processes in the bourgeois media. The Times in particular contains almost no serious investigative journalism, with its articles on US politics and foreign policy serving as conduits for various state and military officials.

Moreover, along with the entire newspaper industry, the Times has been hit by steady declines in advertising revenue and circulation. The ongoing economic crisis is one factor in this process, and the exponential growth of social media and the Internet another. According to a report in the Washington Post, newspaper jobs across the US have been slashed by more than 50 percent, from 412,000 to 174,000 in the past 15 years.

The Times found itself forced to turn to the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, one of the worlds wealthiest men, for a $200 million loan some years ago. Slim now is the Timess largest stockholder, although the newspaper remains, through its ownership of all the Class B Stock, under the control of the Sulzberger family.

Looming over all these developments is the financialization of the economy. In generations past, the Sulzbergers articulated the interests and formulated policies for the ruling class. To a great extent this was backed up by their own leading position within the corporate establishment. Today, however, the weight of this one still-wealthy family has been drastically reduced within the ruling class.

The Times remains the private property of the Sulzbergers, but there are scores of hedge fund multimillionaires and nouveau riche billionaires who could easily snatch it upif it becomes availableas Amazon chief Jeff Bezos has done at the Washington Post. To that extent, there is a bit of truth contained in Donald Trumps tweets about the failing New York Times, as he lashes out in hysterical fashion at his bitter political opponents within the ruling elite.
Senate Republicans failed to reach agreement on a new version of their bill to cut $1.2 trillion from government spending on health care and effectively dismantle Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor, prior to the 10-day Independence Day congressional recess, putting off a vote on the measure until mid-July at the earliest.

The more that becomes known of the Senate version of a similar Republican measure passed last month by the House of Representatives, the more rapidly popular opposition grows. On Wednesday, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll was released showing popular support for the Senate bill at a mere 12 percent. According to the survey, conducted among registered voters from last Saturday to Tuesday, 45 percent oppose the bill, 40 percent do not know enough about it to form an opinion, and 3 percent fall into the category of other.

Even among Republicans, support is minimal. The poll showed 26 percent supporting, 17 percent opposing and 52 percent saying they need more information.

Far from seeking to mobilize the anger among working people over the assault on health care, Democrats are appealing to President Donald Trump and the Republicans to reach a bipartisan agreement to impose new cuts and make further concessions to the insurance industry, by making the current Obamacare system even more pro-corporate and anti-working class.

On Wednesday, as Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Mike Pence were meeting with various far-right and moderate Republican senators who have expressed opposition to the current draft of the bill, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer was stepping up his bid for talks on a bipartisan compromise.

President Trump, the New York senator declared, I challenge you to invite usall 100 of usto Blair House to discuss a new bipartisan way forward on health care in front of all the American people. It would focus about what you, Mr. President, have talked about in your campaign: lower costs, better health care, covering everybodynot on tax cuts for the rich, not on slashing Medicaid.

The New York Times, which reflects the views of the Democratic Party establishment and its Wall Street backers, hinted at the actual content of the compromise on offer from the Democrats in its front-page lead article Thursday, bearing the hopeful sub-headline Deal on Existing Health Law Could Emerge if Senate Bill Fails. The article noted longstanding talks between members of the two parties on avenues for changing or improving President Barack Obamas health care law, from tweaks to the requirement for employers to offer health insurance to revisions involving how the marketplaces created under the law operate.

These are code words for watering down already weak requirements that businesses provide health coverage for their employees and for implementing the insurance giants demands for tighter eligibility and more leeway to jack up premiums, copays and deductibles on policies purchased on the Obamacare exchanges.

Whatever emerges from the largely stage-managed political maneuvers in Washington, the result will be a new point of departure in the decades-long attack on health provision and working class living standards, leading to the privatization and gutting of the basic social reforms dating from the 1930s and 1960sMedicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Obamacare, passed by the Democrats and signed into law by Obama in 2010, was itself a milestone in this direction, imposing massive cuts on Medicare funding, weakening the system of employer-sponsored health insurance and further subordinating health care to the private market.

Trump and the Republicans have no intention of pulling back from a qualitative escalation of this process, singling out in the first instance Medicaid, which presently covers 70 million poor, elderly and disabled people. The negotiations going on within the Republican Senate caucus have to do with changes at the margins of the bill that was released last week, not its basic content.

Maine Senator Susan Collins, a moderate opponent of the current bill, announced Thursday that Trump and Senate Republican leaders had agreed to increase a set-aside for opioid addiction treatment from $2 billion to $45 billion in an effort to win over recalcitrant Republicans from states particularly devastated by the opioid epidemic. However, as even some Republicans pointed out, this will be a drop in the bucket compared to the impact of the draconian cuts in Medicaid$772 billion over ten yearsin the bill. Medicaid pays for a large share of the cost of substance abuse treatment and prevention in many states.

There are also proposals from some Senate Republicans to retain one of the Obamacare taxes targeted for repeal in the original Senate billpart of a $700 billion tax cut designed to benefit overwhelmingly the corporations and the wealthy. Retaining a tax on investment income for individuals earning $200,000 and couples taking in $250,000 a year would, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), save some $172 billion over 10 years that could go to somewhat paring back cuts in health care subsidies and increases in deductibles and copays. However, more far-right factions within the Republican caucus have already denounced any such move.

Some of the most right-wing senators, including Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, are calling for the Republicans to ditch their effort to repeal and replace Obamacare and instead simply repeal the current law, with a replacement to come sometime in the future. This would likely destabilize the entire health care system and strip even more people of health insurance than the 22 million who would lose coverage under the Senate bill.

Trump posted a tweet Friday morning backing this approach, proposing that if the Senate Republicans failed to pass their bill, they should simply put an end to Obamacare and worry about a replacement later.

Meanwhile, the CBO published an update on its earlier scoring of the Senate measure, which had estimated that Medicaid funding would decline by 26 percent over ten years from the projected level under current law. The CBO said that over 20 years, by 2036, the decline would reach 35 percent.

The Wall Street Journal noted on Friday that little-discussed provisions in the Senate bill would have a devastating impact on people currently covered by employer-provided health plans, as well as those seeking to purchase insurance plans as individuals. The bill would, the newspaper reported, remove 4 million people from such plans in 2018.

This is because under both the House and Senate bills, some large firms would drop coverage since they would no longer face a penalty for not offering health benefits. The bills would also lift a requirement that employer plans cover at least 60 percent of costs such as deductibles and copays. This would allow businesses to offer skeleton plans that limit the number of physician visits, days in the hospital and prescriptions.
The US House of Representatives passed two anti-immigrant bills Thursday as the American ruling classs attack on immigrants gains political momentum.

The House votes came just hours before Trumps travel ban took effect. On Monday, the Supreme Court reached a shameful historic milestone when it unanimously allowed the ban to go forward, stranding thousands of immigrants in war-torn North Africa and the Middle East.

The No Sanctuary for Criminals Act passed 228-195 on a near-party line vote. The bill will strip federal funding from so-called sanctuary areas, i.e., states and localities that do not turn over to federal officials for deportation immigrants arrested for criminal offenses.

Under the terms of the bill, roughly 600 localities will each lose tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for services such as drug prevention and social programs if they do not turn over migrants in their jurisdiction for deportation. The bill also gives state and local police free rein to illegally detain immigrants at the behest of the federal government by divesting individuals of the right to sue localities. In addition, the bill will allow indefinite detention without a bond hearing for immigrants awaiting court proceedings.

The second bill, commonly known as Kates Law, drastically expands federal sentences for immigrants with criminal records who are deported and attempt to reenter the US. Already, over one quarter of all federal criminal prosecutions are for illegal reentry. If the bill becomes law, the sentences will increase to 10 to 25 years, depending on the immigrants criminal record.

Under the bill, an immigrant with three misdemeanor convictions for reckless driving who is deported but attempts to return to live with his wife and children in the United States will face 10 years imprisonment. The bill will also allow the prosecution of those who attempt to provide assistance to migrants.

The Democratic Party leadership gave the green light to the passage of Kates Law, with Democratic Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Maryland) noting, Kates Law is a little more complicated. Im advising members to look at it carefully and see what their conclusion is.

Legitimizing the reactionary tough on crime line used to eviscerate democratic rights over the past three decades, Hoyer said, You talk to the families who have been adversely affected by that, it is a wrenching experience.

This comment was in reference to the Republicans efforts to exploit the murder of Kate Steinle in 2015 by a previously deported undocumented man. According to two 2017 studies, one by the Sentencing Project and another by the Cato Institute, immigrants are substantially less likely to commit crimes than US citizens. After green-lighting a yes vote, Hoyer cynically voted no with the knowledge that the bill would pass anyway.

Twenty-four Democrats voted for Kates Law, including Hispanic Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar, self-proclaimed liberals from the San Francisco Bay Area such as Jackie Speier and Eric Swalwell, Collin Peterson from rural Minnesota, Peter DeFazio from a college town in Oregon, and several others.

Speiers vote is emblematic of a whole layer of liberals who sign congressional letters denouncing the immorality of Trumps abuse of immigrants while paving the way for mass roundups and deportations. Swalwells vote is also indicative of the right-wing and xenophobic character of the Democrats groundless anti-Russia campaign, of which he is a leading congressional proponent.

With the Democrats green light on Kates Law and the four Democratic-appointed Supreme Court Justices voting to reinstate the travel ban, the Trump administration has the political initiative to intensify its anti-immigrant policies. The bills now head to the Senate.

On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement unveiled a new policy to crack down on parents who pay smugglers to bring their children into the US in an effort to free them from dangerous conditions in Central or South America. Michelle Brane, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice program at the Womens Refugee Commission, said the policy is an effort to use children as bait with the clear intent of punishing parents and deterring them from protecting their children.

Speaking Thursday at a pre-vote press conference, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, the retired commander of the US Southern Command, gloated that the government has arrested 66,000 immigrants in roundups since January, including 18,000 not convicted of any crime. Adopting the tone of a mafia boss, Kelly said he was offended that some lawmakers and state and local officials would support sanctuary cities.

It is beyond my comprehension, he said, why state and local officials sworn to enforce the laws of the nationas I amwould actively discourage or outright prevent law enforcement agencies from upholding the laws of the United States. He then accused sanctuary cities of prioritiz[ing] criminals over the public and law enforcement officer safety.

Kelly, who oversees a vast apparatus of domestic repression, was confirmed in January by a vote of 88 to 11, including 37 of 48 Senate Democrats. In a January 20 statement, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his yes vote for Kelly, claiming he was not a right-wing extremist.

I hope General Kelly will have a moderating influence on some of the racist and xenophobic views that President Trump advocated throughout the campaign, the Vermont senator declared. Sanders statement exposes not only his own political bankruptcy, but the bankruptcy of all efforts to reform the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party (PD) of Matteo Renzi suffered a damaging defeat in the second round of the Italian local elections on Sunday, June 25. An electoral alliance of Berlusconis Forza Italia (Forward Italy), Matteo Salvinis Lega Nord (Northern League) and the fascists of the Fratelli dItalia (Italian Brothers) profited from Renzis setback.

Turnout was extremely low, reaching only 46 percent in the second round, with not even one in two voters going to the polls. The election result is a huge vote of no confidence in the governing Democratic Party and the entire so-called centre-left camp.

The term centre-left, which is found everywhere in the media, has long since lost all political meaning. In the past 25 years, it was primarily the successor organisations of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) that carried out the attacks on the working class, most recently with Renzis so-called Jobs Act. They have moved further and further to the right. The PD is the result of this process.

In total, more than a thousand cities and municipalities participated in the two election rounds. A run-off election took place on Sunday in 111 municipalities. The local elections are the last important test before national parliamentary elections, which must take place no later than May 2018.

In the 25 regional capitals and large cities where elections were held this year, the government camp lost 9 out of 15 cities to right-wing parties. These include Genoa, La Spezia, Pistoia, Como, LAquila, Asti and Rieti. In Rome, Turin, Milan and Naples, elections were held last year.

In the port city of Genoa, where the mayors office was traditionally held by the PCI, the Socialist Party and, most recently, the PD, the non-party manager Marco Bucci won, standing on the list of the Lega Nord. The same was true of La Spezia, a town traditionally regarded as left-wing. Here, a former functionary of the Christian Democratic trade union federation CISL won, also with the support of the Lega Nord.

In the Milanese suburb of Sesto San Giovanni, a traditional industrial and working class city, the 39-year-old journalist Roberto di Stefano won. For the first time since 1945, i.e., for 72 years, a candidate supported by an alliance of right-wing parties has become mayor.

The election results evince a veritable collapse of the government camp. Dissatisfaction with the PD government and the numerous supposedly left-wing mayors has reached a huge scale. The country is a social powder keg. Millions of Italians stayed away from the polls on the 11th and again on the 25th of June because they no longer see the possibility of influencing political developments via the ballot box.

This is especially true for the younger generation. Young people increasingly reject all parties equally. This was shown by a survey of 2,000 young people aged 20-34 years. When asked which party they preferred, 34.6 percent answered, None at all. The Generation What survey by the European Broadcasting Agency (EBU) found that 65 percent of 18-34-year-olds were prepared to participate in a major uprising. Italy came second (67 percent), after Greece.

Five years ago, Beppe Grillos Five Star Movement (M5S) benefited from the general dissatisfaction. Hurling loud insults against the corruption of the politicians, Grillo appeared as a kind of popular tribune against the establishment parties. In reality, he sought to incite angry layers of the petty-bourgeoisie against foreigners by means of a nationalist policy.

Just a year ago, the Five Star Movement captured the cities of Rome and Turin. In the event, this sealed the fate of M5S, after Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi became embroiled in corruption and was accused of links to the Mafia.

As a result, Beppe Grillos candidates for the first time suffered enormous losses in the municipal elections. M5S was able to win only a few municipalities in the first round. Of a total of 158 municipalities with over 15,000 inhabitants, M5S now holds the mayors office in only 8. In Parma, the city of its first great victory five years ago, Federico Pizzarotti, following his expulsion from M5S, won the election against Grillo.

It was above all the Lega Nord, Forza Italia and the fascists who were able to benefit from the poor results for the M5S, especially as they relied on largely unknown, non-partisan candidates in many places.

But the most important feature of these elections is the crisis of Matteo Renzis governing party. The overwhelming dissatisfaction with the right-wing policies of the PD was already expressed on December 4, 2016 in the defeat of Renzis constitutional referendum. As a result, Renzi had to resign. In the spring, his party broke into several parts when a wing of former PCI officials split off and founded the Movement of Democrats and Progressives (DP).

Since then, Renzis successor, Paolo Gentiloni, has continued the right-wing course in the interest of the banks and corporations. This was demonstrated by the bankruptcy of national airline Alitalia, the imposition of Renzis Jobs Act and the recent bank rescue.

The same Sunday on which the runoff election took place, the Gentiloni government tabled an emergency decree providing support for the ailing banks. Once again, the state has intervened to save the banks at the expense of the population. It is paying over 5 billion to the Intesa Sanpaolo bank, which is to take over the healthy parts of the Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza. A bad bank, which will take over the bad loans, is being secured by a further 12 billion in taxpayers money. Six hundred bank branches will be closed and 4,000 jobs destroyed.

The interchangeability of the establishment parties also manifested itself in the alliance of the four largest parties, recently agreed by the old and new PD party chairman Renzi. Together with Silvio Berlusconi, Matteo Salvini and Beppe Grillo, he agreed to a new electoral law and early elections. However, the election reform, which was supposed to raise the hurdle for election into parliament from 3 to 5 percent, failed shortly before the vote in the House of Representatives.

A section of the Italian and European bourgeoisie would rather do without elections altogether and carry through planned cost-cutting measures against the working class in silence. Italys debt is almost 2.3 trillion, or 133 percent of gross domestic product, the second highest debt rate in Europe after Greece. The European Union is demanding that Rome impose cuts of up to 30 billion in government spending.

The working class is willing to fight against these attacks. Strikes against job cuts, privatisation and wage dumping are increasing. For example, a national 24-hour strike of railway workers, bus drivers, airport workers and transport drivers took place between the two polls.

But the perspective of the so-called rank-and-file trade unions that lead most strikes is just as nationalist and bankrupt as that of the mainstream CGIL, CISL and UIL trade unions. Like Rifondazione Comunista (Communist Refoundation), Sinistra Italiana (Italian Left) and other pseudo-left parties, they also advocate a new political project within the framework of capitalism, essentially based on the model of Syriza in Greece.
Two US coal miners were killed in separate accidents on June 13 and 19, bringing to nine the number of coal miners killed on the job in the first six months of 2017. This figure surpassed the total number killed in 2016, and approaches on an annualized basis the total fatality figures of 2011 through 2013, when the US mining industry experienced a relative boom.

On June 19, a Jasper, Alabama man was killed at a mine in west Jefferson County, near Birmingham.

A preliminary report by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) states that around 6:25 p.m., pre-shift examiner Marius Slick Shepherd, 32, was riding a 20-ton locomotive in the Oak Grove Mine when the locomotive lost control on a long grade, and the victim was thrown or jumped from the moving locomotive striking his head. Shepherd received first aid at the scene before being transported to the University of Alabama-Birmingham hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. The locomotive operator was also injured in the accident.

Shepherd was a miner with nearly nine years experience and a member of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW). He leaves behind a wife and two children. A cousin of Shepherd told the local newspaper, the Daily Mountain Eagle, that they came from a mining family. Our grandfather worked in the coal mines, and our uncles worked in the coal mines. He was proud of what he did, and he enjoyed it.

At the time of the accident, 73 miners were on shift at the mine, which employs more than 400, most of them underground.

The Oak Grove Mine, once a US Steel metallurgical mine, is operated by Oak Grove Resources, LLC, a subsidiary of Seneca Coal Resources. Seneca is a subsidiary of ERP Compliant Fuels, LLC. ERP, in turn, is a subsidiary of the environmental organization Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund. The fund has acquired numerous mine operations from bankrupt companies in the past couple of years.

This shell game of limited liability companies, utilized across the coal industry, shields parent companies from financial and business problems in individual mines, as well as legal repercussions of accidents.

Moreover, the public is kept largely unaware of the true ownership of coal mines, which effectively shields powerful corporations, hedge funds, and individual owners from outrage and culpability for worker deaths. Many owners are extremely wealthy speculators and entrepreneurs who are highly connected to political leaders in local, state, and national politics, donating to election campaigns, lobbying for tax and safety laws favorable to the coal industry, and wheeling and dealing in the global energy market.

The Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund, owned by Virginia businessman Tom Clarke, has snatched up numerous bankrupt and idled mines across the coalfields of central and southern Appalachia. Clarke entered the mining industry under the fraud of sustainability, selling coal as a compliant fuel by bundling it with carbon credits awarded for planting trees. (See West Virginia coal miner killed at pit run by environmental fund)

Shepherd is the second person killed in the Oak Grove Mine in the past year. On December 2, 2016, a technical representative for a safety equipment manufacturer with 13 years of experience was killed while working on a piece of longwall shield equipment. According to MSHA, 36-year-old Yujun Qian was positioned inside the shield near the hinge point when the shield collapsed and crushed him.

MSHA lists nine other injuries since that time, three of them categorized as powered haulage accidents involving flatcars and loss of control on the tracks. The June 19 accident was likewise classified as powered haulage.

Last year, the mine was fined $265,932 in penalties for 314 violations, of which it has paid $16,122. So far this year, the mine has been cited 210 times, for a total of $117,912 in fines. It has paid nothing toward 2017s citations.

In the past 12 months, the mine has received 140 citations for significant and substantial (S&S) violations, far more than the 50 S&S citations denoting a pattern of violations. Despite this, MSHA does not classify the Oak Grove Mine as a pattern violator.

In 2016, the mine had a non-fatal operator incidence rate of 7.6, compared to 3.41 for mines of the same type nationwide. MSHAs injury severity measure for the mine, the number of lost workdays per 200,000 employee hours, was 2,177.6nearly six times the 5-year industry severity measure of 378.6.

On June 13, a miner was killed at the Gateway Eagle Mine in Boone County, West Virginia. Thirty-two-year-old Rodney Osborne, of Artie, was operating a continuous mining machine at around 8:45 p.m. when he was pinned between the cutter head of a remote-controlled continuous mining machine and the coal rib. He had 10 years experience in mining. Osborne is the fifth West Virginia coal miner killed this year, the most in three years.

The Gateway Eagle Mine is a unionized mine employing 112 miners, all but three underground. It is operated by Rockwell Mining LLC, a subsidiary of Blackhawk Mining LLC.

MSHA safety statistics tell a familiar story: numerous injuries, a nonfatal operator injury incidence rate of 15.67 compared to 3.36 nationally, and unpaid fines for scores of safety violations. The mines injury severity measure for the past 12 months was 454.5. And predictably, the mine is not classified as having a pattern of violations.

With these latest accidents, 2017 is on track to approach the fatality numbers of 2011-13, years of boom in the coal industry when well more than double the mining workforce were employed. What it reflects is intensified exploitation of a workforce terrorized by the threat of layoffs and worked to the bone in unsafe conditions to maintain company profit margins despite the fall in coal tonnage rates.

Politicians such as West Virginias Democratic governor Jim Justice, himself a coal executive, and Senators Joe Manchin (Democrat) and Shelley Moore Capito (Republican), were quick to issue statements of sorrow and prayer. On his blog, Charleston Gazette-Mail coal industry reporter Ken Ward, Jr. noted, None of the statements said anything about taking any actions to prevent the death toll from going higher.

On the contrary, at the state and federal levels, coal mine taxation, regulation and safety are being targeted for cuts. The new West Virginia budget includes outright cuts to the state Division of Miners Health, Safety and Training (-$848,582) and the Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety (-$7,125), as well as the Division of Environmental Protection (-$130,358) and other regulatory agencies.

At the federal level, the administration of President Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle all regulatory restrictions to the coal industry, including the most basic safety and pollution standards. In this campaign it has the assistance of the UMW, which has championed Trumps America First rhetoric and efforts to attack environmental regulations on the burning of coal. (See: Trump, the coal miners and the environment)

For its part, MSHAwhich, halfway through the first year of the Trump presidency, has no leadershiphas responded to the uptick in coal mine injuries and fatalities with a completely voluntary compliance assistance initiative.

Patricia W. Silvey, a deputy assistant secretary of labor filling in the vacancy at MSHA, suggested in a press release June 19 that the recent accidents were caused by a lack of experience and that MSHA would talk to and observe work practices of miners and work with mine operators to improve their training programs.

Not only does the initiative give coal operators total control over any compliance with regulations, it also levels blame for accidents at the less experienced coal miners themselves. Many of these coal miners, who may indeed have less than a years experience at their current mine due to the constant layoffs and idling in the coalfields, are working with a metaphorical knife at their back, pressured by coal operators to cut corners on safety and keep silent about hazards. For this hostage situation and the latest unnecessary deaths of coal miners the entire political establishment, regulatory agencies, and the unions all bear blame.
The Supreme Courts decision on Monday permitting Donald Trumps anti-Muslim ban to go into effect is one of the most significant cases in the history of the institution. After lower federal judges had blocked Trumps flagrantly discriminatory executive orders from being enforced, the Supreme Court intervened to hand Trump a victory.

The written opinion of the court is significant not because it is distinguished by brilliant legal reasoning or profound affirmations of democratic principle. It is a dull, tepid document of a mere 13 pages. A political compromise was obviously reached and the legal reasoning of the decision is just a crude, half-hearted shuffle towards the pre-determined outcome.

Nothing recognizable as a democratic sentiment is expressed anywhere in the opinion. It is simply announced that the balance tips in favor of the Governments compelling need to provide for the Nations security.

The Supreme Courts decision is a signal that, after a protracted twilight, the sun is setting on anything that might be called American democracy. The historical association between the US political establishment and a certain democratic political culture, institutions and traditions, inherited from the American Revolution and Civil War, has long since passed over the horizon, no longer a reality.

Donald Trump, loud and ugly, proclaims the new reality. With his appeals to bigotry and prejudice, Trump expresses the rot at the heart of the American social system. Everything sick about American capitalismincluding the criminality, ignorance, rapacity, narcissism and kleptomania of its ruling classhas been puked up in the form of this vulgar imbecile. Trumps rise heralds a new era of war, repression, social counter-revolution and class struggle.

The comparison of Mondays decision with the notorious 1944 Supreme Court decision in Korematsu v. United States is entirely warranted. In that case, a majority of the Supreme Court justices, on the grounds of military expedience, affirmed the legality of exclusion orders, internment camps and curfews for people of Japanese ancestry. Once again, the Supreme Court is authorizing discrimination based on nationality.

But unlike Korematsu, there are no dissenting justices today, crying out against the injustices being perpetrated against a persecuted minority. The Korematsu decision, at least, featured the famous dissent of Justice Frank Murphy, which concluded: I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism. Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting, but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States.

Who is dissenting today? In 2017, the only dissent is from the Supreme Courts far right wing. The controversy is between six justices who would allow the anti-Muslim ban to go into effect except for those with bona fide connections to the United States, and three justices who would allow it to go into effect without restrictions.

It is not clear whether the anti-Muslim executive orders are worse with or without the arbitrary caveat about bona fide connections, which was endorsed by the courts so-called liberal wing. This caveat grants even more capricious authority to Trumps immigration officials. Will a penniless, desperate Syrian refugee with extended family in Los Angeles be deemed to have bona fide connections? Will a wealthy businessman with associations on Wall Street receive the same treatment?

The Supreme Courts decision is not based on law, but on lies and prejudice. According to data gathered by Professor Charles Kurzman of the University of North Carolina, exactly zero Muslim extremists who conducted terrorist attacks inside the United States since 2001 came from the countries targeted by the executive order.

While the media prefers to use the term travel ban, opponents as well as supporters of Trumps presidential decrees recognize that they are motivated by anti-Muslim bigotry. During his presidential campaign, Trump declared that he would impose a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, frequently returning to the theme of extreme vetting for Muslims at his rallies. Trump adviser and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has boasted in public that he was consulted about drafting an instrument for persecuting Muslims that would survive legal scrutiny.

Large protests greeted the announcement of the ban in January, and the clear majority of Americans oppose the anti-Muslim executive orders. At these demonstrations, some of the best placards were those that read, First they came for the Muslims. Many who participated in these protests expressed an understanding that the anti-Muslim ban is more than an attack on one particular minority. It represents an attack on the fundamental democratic rights as a whole, an attempt to divide and conquer, and a precedent for future repression.

The ultimate target of the apparatus of repression is the working class, the great bulk of the population, excluded from political life, increasingly angry and opposed to the politics of oligarchy and wealth.

Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, the fascistic Trump advisers who drafted the anti-Muslim executive orders, have a method. Like the reactionaries of the last century, they are deliberately churning up backwardness, obscurantism and prejudice, which they are seeking to channel in a reactionary political direction. Trump himself, according to a 1990 article in Vanity Fair, used to keep a book of Hitlers speeches in a cabinet by his bedside.

Americas left-wing and progressive commentators, who are collectively in denial about the depth of the crisis, are preaching complacency in response to Mondays decision. Generally aligned with the Democratic Party, these individuals are attempting to conceal the shameful capitulation of the so-called liberal wing of the Supreme Court, including Obama appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The day after the travel ban went into full effect, the New York Times, the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party and the CIA, buried the story, devoting its lead article to the media uproar over Trumps tweets attacking MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.

These are the same social layers who claim every other year that the election of Democrats is necessary to turn the Supreme Court to the left. Fixated on identity politics and blind to social reality, they gushed enthusiastically in 2009 about the appointment of the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court, as one New York Times article began. Faced with Mondays unanimous decision in Trumps favor, these types shrug their shoulders and make excuses.

The Democratic Party itself, completely preoccupied with its reactionary anti-Russia campaign, has no interest in encouraging popular opposition to Trumps anti-Muslim executive orders or his persecution of immigrants.

Mondays Supreme Court decision rests on decades of uninterrupted attacks on democratic rights and the rule of law, continuing through both Democratic and Republican administrations. In particular, the decision was made possible by a decade-and-a-half of the bipartisan war on terror, with its state-sanctioned assassinations, torture, renditions, dictatorial presidential powers, states of emergency, military commissions, militarized police, official impunity, city-wide lockdowns, domestic spying, state secrets, persecutions of whistleblowers and flag-waving xenophobia. The same period has witnessed a social counterrevolution within the United States, sharply increasing social inequality, and murderous rampages by the American military abroad.

Sharp conclusions must be drawn from the Supreme Courts decision on Monday. Ours is not an epoch for half-measures or hazy conceptions. Those who are protesting against Trumps anti-Muslim executive orders confront more than just one billionaire and his gang of fascistic advisers. They confront the entire rotten political establishment, the capitalist ruling class and their servants. The growing insurgency against the Trump regime must merge the struggles against repression, inequality and imperialist war into a mass political movement, independent of both the Democrats and Republicans, against the whole diseased world social, political and economic system.
A political and constitutional crisis was narrowly averted last week when three Liberal-National Coalition government ministers belatedly apologised to one of Australias highest courts for accusing its judges of being hard-left activists who were soft on terrorists.

If the ministers had not retracted their comments and apologised unreservedly and unconditionally, they would have been referred by the Court of Appeal, the state of Victorias top court, for prosecution over contempt of court.

Any conviction on those charges could have disqualified them from sitting in parliament, potentially bringing down the already unstable Turnbull government, which is barely clinging to office with a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives.

Contempt of court can lead to imprisonment. Had the ministers received such a sentence, it could have triggered section 44 of the Australian Constitution, which specifies that anyone convicted of any offence punishable by imprisonment for one year or longer cannot sit in the parliament.

The entire episode exposes the increasingly desperate efforts of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls government to stave off threats to its survival by ramping up the fraudulent war on terrorism and its support for US militarism.

The affair erupted on June 13, when the Australian, Rupert Murdochs national flagship, splashed across its front page the incendiary comments of Health Minister Greg Hunt, Human Services Minister Alan Tudge and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar. The newspaper featured the banner headline Judiciary light on terrorism, accompanied by an editorial backing the ministers attack.

Among the accusations levelled by the ministers against the Court of Appeal judges were that the latter were conducting ideological experiments, were divorced from reality and had eroded any trust that remained in our legal system.

Aggravating the attack, the ministers issued it in the middle of two sentencing appeals. The Director of Public Prosecutions was in the process of seeking longer prison terms for two teenagers convicted of alleged terror plots. This made the comments sub judice, that is, calculated to influence and prejudice the outcome of a criminal trial already underway.

The three ministers are all lawyers, well acquainted with the law of contempt. The court declared that this compounded their offence, as did their initial refusal to apologise when summonsed to appear before the judges.

On June 16, the judges ruled that there was a prima facie case of contempt because the ministers and the Australian had failed to respect the doctrine of the separation of powers, breached the principle of sub judice, and undermined the public perception of the independence of the judiciary.

Turnbull made matters worse by deliberately rushing to the trios defence. He declared that in a free society, a person is entitled to criticise the conduct of the courts or of a judge. Attorney-General George Brandis made similarly defiant comments.

Turnbulls ministers, however, are not ordinary persons. They are members of the executive who were deliberately seeking to influence the outcome of a sentencing hearing while it was in progress. As the court stated, this was a clear violation of sub judice, as well as an attack on the separation of powers and judicial independence from government.

Moreover, the comments were part of a campaign, orchestrated with the Australian, to shift the official political agenda further to the right. The attack was timed to back the plans of federal and state governments to exploit the recent attacks in Manchester and London by calling a terrorism summit, aimed at rubberstamping new, far-reaching measures to bolster police and detention powers.

Hunt, a senior cabinet member, told the Australian: We have a crisis on our hands with people who want to kill indiscriminately and yet some judges seem more concerned about the terrorists than the safety of the community.

As the ministers later admitted, they had not even read the remarks of the judges whom they were denouncing. Instead, they relied upon a misleading report published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the judges had criticised their New South Wales (NSW) counterparts for handing down more severe sentences in terrorism cases.

Actually, the opposite was true. The Victorian judges were addressing concerns raised by the High Court, Australias supreme court, about the discrepancya discrepancy they later corrected by substantially lengthening the sentences of the two young prisoners.

Last Friday, the judges rejected the newspapers claim that it was merely the messenger for the ministers statements. On behalf of the court, Chief Justice Marilyn Warren stated: The Australian parties chose to publish the comments, and did so prominently on the front page of the newspaper, with a prominent and eye-catching headline. The newspaper added its own comments, and editorialised.

Nevertheless, the court accepted the apologies of the ministers and the Australians publisher, editor and national affairs editor, who wrote the article. This was despite the regrettable week-long delay in the ministers apologies, which had aggravated the contempt.

Earlier that day, the court acceded to the prosecutions applications. As a result, two troubled working-class youth will languish in jail for many more years.

The judges lengthened the sentence of Sevdet Besim, who was 18 when accused of participating in a conspiracy to prepare a 2015 attack in Melbourne on Anzac Day, an annual official commemoration of war. Besims imprisonment was extended from 10 years, with a non-parole period of seven and a half years, to 14 years, with a minimum period of 10 years and six months.

In a message to all Victorian judges, the court said the starting point must be the maximum sentence for this offence, which is, of course, life imprisonment. The court criticised the trial judge for giving too much weight to the prisoners plea of guilty ... prospects for rehabilitation ... youth and previous good character.

Likewise, a teenager identified only as MHK, who was jailed for seven years for similarly preparing for a supposed Mothers Day terror plot in 2015, then aged 17, had his sentence increased to 11 years with a non-parole period of 8 years and 3 months.

Reflecting the escalating political and media clamour, the court declared: The protection of our society, and the upholding of its most fundamental values, necessitate that in cases such as this the sentencing considerations of general deterrence and denunciation must be given primacy above the ameliorating effect of youth.

In other words, all considerations of youth and rehabilitation will be overruled in locking away those convicted of a terrorist-related offence for many years in maximum-security prisons.

Despite its brush with the law, the Australian hailed the outcome in a June 24 editorial. The court made a fair and responsible ruling, it declared, citing the courts verdict that lesser sentences imposed a decade ago were unduly lenient. Exuding satisfaction, the editorial concluded: The key public interest issue is that the judiciary has moved forward on penalising terrorism.

Last Friday, the court stated in the strongest terms that it is expected there will be no repetition of this type of appalling behaviour. Regardless of such protestations, however, the reactionary war on terrorism will intensify.

Backed by the corporate media and the Labor Party, the government is whipping up fears of terrorism as a means of diverting rising economic and social tensions, justifying the handing of more draconian law and order powers to the police and intelligence agencies, expanding Australias involvement in the predatory US-led interventions in Afghanistan, Syria and the Philippines, and participating as a key partner in the US-led preparations for war on North Korea and, ultimately, China.
Auto workers at the Volkswagen plant in Bratislava, Slovakia resumed work at the beginning of this week. Eight thousand of the 12,300 workers at the plant had struck for six days, paralyzing production.

The trade union "Modern odborov Volkswagen" has greeted the wage deal agreed by management as a great success and claims that the 13.5 percent wage increase is a major concession in light of the strikers original demand for 16 percent.

This is not true, however. On closer inspection, it is clear that the union has agreed to a deal only marginally higher than the offer made by VW management in April. Then the company offered a 4.5 percent wage increase with another 4.2 percent for the coming year, as well as a one-off payment of 350 euros.

Last Sunday, management agreed a 4.7 percent increase as of June 1, 2017, 4.7 percent from January 2018 and 4.1 percent from November 2018 onwards. This means a monthly increase of 32 euro for pay group 1, and a 48 euro increase for pay group 6. In addition, the company agreed a one-off payment of 500 euros which, as is always the case with such payments, will be subject to a considerable tax deduction.

The assertion that the wage increase totals 13.5 percent (4.7 percent + 4.7 percent + 4.1 percent = 13.5 percent) is standard trade union double talk, which is then echoed by the media. The fact is that each wage increase covers a separate year, meaning the actual wage contract is around five percent.

Many workers had hoped for much more, and there are many critical comments on Facebook. They accuse the union negotiation commission of capitulation and complain the strike was ended with a lousy compromise precisely at the moment when it was having a considerable impact on production at other plants. This is not what we had struck for, some workers wrote. Others asked which union bureaucrats had been bribed to agree the settlement. Some write bluntly: "We have been tricked."

At a press conference on Monday management emphasized that the deal could have been achieved without a strike. VW CEO Ralf Sacht stated that the long duration of the contract (the end of August 2019the longest contract in the history of the plant) was important for the company. He added, "This gives us planning security for the next two years and beyond." As is the case in Germany, the so-called "peace" obligation means that workers cannot take strike action during the duration of the contract.

The importance of the strike, however, should not be assessed merely on the basis of the limited nature of the final deal. This was the first industrial action at Volkswagen since the company moved to Slovakia in 1991 and it was the first strike at a major auto factory in the Eastern European country since the re-introduction of capitalism. It demonstrates the growing radicalization of the working class in Eastern Europe and marks a new stage in the class struggle.

The time when the big auto companies and other multinationals could use low wages to achieve maximum profits is coming to an end. There is mounting anger in factories across the region about the gulf between astronomical profits and rock bottom wages.

The minimal wage increase will do nothing to stem growing social inequality. As before, workers can barely afford reasonable accommodation and pay their day-to-day bills, despite working arduous shifts. The Slovakian capital Bratislava, on the outskirts of which the VW plant is located, is one of the most expensive cities in Europe, with above-average rents and living costs.

The contract does nothing to alter working conditions characterised by ever-increasing work demands, short breaks, constant control and the type of psychological pressure accompanying group work. One striking worker told the World Socialist Web Site last week: "We work like robots on the production line." The company management will use the above-average time frame of the wage agreement to increase exploitation even further.

In other words, new and even bigger class struggles are imminent and it is important to prepare for them. This requires a ruthless assessment of previous conflicts. The strike and negotiations last week have confirmed that the limited, nationalist conceptions and the trade union mantra of social partnership are completely bankrupt.

The union "Modern odborov Volkswagen" was founded last autumn following growing resistance to the corrupt OZ KOVO union, which is closely linked to Germanys IG Metall and the company management. Despite its militant trappings "Modern odborov Volkswagen" defends the same nationalist conceptions. It was no coincidence that Zoroslav Smolensky, the new head of the union, was a long time member of the OZ KOVO.

The VW strike found considerable support in neighboring Czech Republic where the workers at the VW subsidiary Skoda earn even less than their counterparts in Slovakia. Nevertheless, the strike leadership did not call on Czech workers to actively support the strike. Workers in other Eastern European countries and Germany were also not informed of the dispute or asked to provide support. There was also no criticism from the Slovak strike committee of IG Metall, which plays the leading role among European auto workers, but kept silent about the strike and denied any sort of solidarity.

Instead, the strike leadership at Smolensky sent the company management signals indicating it was ready to end the strike as quickly as possible with a compromise. The union leadership did not want to extend the action. This was clear when a reader of the World Socialist Web Site in Bratislava suggested translating and spreading the WSWS appeal to support the strike. The strike leadership expressly rejected this.

The main conclusion to be drawn from the strike is the necessity to break with the nationalist and pro-capitalist perspective of social partnership and prepare a broad political mobilization of the working class based on an international socialist program.

Almost thirty years ago, the collapse of the Stalinist regimes was celebrated as a "velvet revolution, and the subsequent introduction of capitalist exploitation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as a triumph of freedom and democracy.

Today, a quarter of a century later, the true character of capitalist restoration is evident. The attack on the wages and social gains of workers is not restricted to Eastern Europe, but is taking place worldwide. As the living standards of the vast majority of the population decline, a small clique at the top of society is piling up enormous wealth. According to a report from Oxfam, the eight richest billionaires in the world now possess the same wealth as the poorest half of the world's population, 3.6 billion people!

The US has always been celebrated as a shining example of capitalist prosperity. Today, the gulf between rich and poor is now more extreme than ever before. President Donald Trump heads a government of billionaires, military chiefs and right-wing extremists that threatens the world with war. And, far from bringing its long standing promises of "peace" and "justice," the capitalist European Union has become a breeding ground for nationalism, social counterrevolution, police state measures and militarism.

Behind these developments is the insoluble crisis of the capitalist system. Private ownership of the means of production and the nation-state upon which capitalism rests, cannot be reconciled with the global economy based on an international division of labor and trade. As was the case a hundred years ago, capitalists react to the crisis of their system with intensified attacks on the working class, dictatorship and war.

Under these conditions, any struggle to improve wages and working conditions requires a political perspective directed against capitalism, that is, a socialist program and an international strategy. It is necessary to organize independently of the trade unions, undertake a discussion of these political issues and to get in touch with the International Committee of the Fourth International and the WSWS which fights for this perspective.
A search and rescue command post is set up at the intersection of forest road 1900 and 1914, close to where 20-year-old Kaylean Johnson went missing, near Nile, Wash., Wednesday, June 28, 2017. Kaylean Johnson was riding on a 1974 Harley Davidson motorcycle with Patrick Frawley, 61, when it crashed over an embankment and she went missing last Friday north of State Route 410, according to a news release issued by the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office. (SOFIA JARAMILLO/Yakima Herald-Republic)
Caleb Valdez-Copeland is a junior at Davis High School and is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republics Unleashed program for teen journalists
Anna Ergeson is a freshman at Selah High School and is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republics Unleashed program for teen journalists.
David Taylor, representative of the 15th district of Washington, speaks with Unleashed writer Delaney Lust over coffee at a bustling North Town Coffeehouse in Yakima on May 12, 2017. The commotion of the coffeehouse is nothing compared to what Taylor often experiences during long sessions on the legislative floor in Olympia. (DELANEY LUST/Davis High School)
The Syrian army reportedly managed to drive terrorist group ISIS from its last territory in Aleppo province on Friday, a Syrian military source said, in a strategically-important move that relieves pressure on a government supply route.

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The SDF, the US backed alliance in Syria, took the industrial district of Raqqa this month in its biggest gain so far in its fight for ISIS's Syrian capital and if, as the Observatory has reported, ISIS has regained control there it would be a setback.

The SDF, on its social media feed, acknowledged there had been intense clashes, but added that the whole industrial district was still in its hands and the attack had been thwarted.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said ISIS had retaken most of the industrial district of Raqqa after mounting a fierce counter-attack against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias.

Syrian army soldiers celebrate east of Aleppo (Photo: AFP)

Even though ISIS is under pressure in these urban strongholds in Iraq and Syria its fighters still occupy an area as big as Belgium across the two countries, according to one estimate.

Across the border in Iraq, US-backed Iraqi forces pressed Islamic State fighters holding out in Mosul's Old City on Friday, while in Syria the militant group launched a counter-attack against an alliance of militias trying to oust it from its de facto capital of Raqqa.

Aleppo refugees (Photo: AFP)

In Iraq, dozens of civilians poured out of Mosul, long held by ISIS, and fled in the direction of the Iraqi forces, many of them women and children, thirsty, tired and some wounded.

Iraqi authorities said they are only days away from a victory over militants in their remaining redoubt in Mosul, though commanders of counter-terrorism units fighting their way through the narrow streets of the Old City said die-hard ISIS fighters are dug in among civilians and the battle ahead remains challenging.

Thousands displaced or killed

In Iraq, grinding warfare in Mosul has displaced 900,000 people, about half the city's pre-war population, and killed thousands of civilians, according to aid organizations.

Major General Maan al-Saadi, of the Counter Terrorism Service, told Reuters it could take four to five days to capture the insurgents' redoubt in Mosul by the Tigris River which was defended by about 200 militants.

Syrian army tank (Photo: AFP)

Tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in the city in desperate conditions, with dwindling supplies of food, water or medicine and no access to health services, according to those who have managed to flee.

The capture of the city would in effect mark the end of the Iraqi half of the caliphate, although the group still controls territory west and south of the city, holding sway over hundreds of thousands of people.

Those who escaped on Friday streamed through alleyways near the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate in 2014 and which Islamic State fighters blew up a week ago rather than see it fall to the Iraqi army.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of the caliphate on Thursday after CTS units captured the ground of the ruined 850-year-old mosque.

A Reuters correspondent on Friday saw smoke billowing over the riverside districts amid artillery blasts and burst of gunfire. Western troops from the US-led coalition were helping adjust artillery fire with air surveillance, he said.
BEIRUT - A Palestinian Islamist militant wanted for planning bomb attacks in Lebanon was detained by the army on Saturday at a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Islamist sources in the camp and a security source said.

Islamist factions in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp handed Khaled al-Sayyid over to the Lebanese army at dawn at a check point outside the camp, on the outskirts of the city of Sidon, the Islamist sources said.

Sayyid had previously travelled to Syria to fight with jihadist groups in the civil war there, the security source said
Israel will build a pipeline to absorb sewage from neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip after the sewage treatment facility there was shut down due to the electricity crisis.

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The Sderot Municipality and the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council in the Gaza vicinity were asked this week to implement the decision of the Water Authority and to receive the wastewater from Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip through its sewage treatment facility.

Gaza in the dark (Photo: AFP)

Currently, the sewage from the Gaza Strip flows through Nahal Hanun, is stored in the sands of Moshav Netiv Ha'asara and pollutes the area and the groundwater. Once every few days, Israeli trucks come and draw the sewage.

The new sewage pipe is to be built in the Erez Crossing area. From there, the absorbed sewage will be transferred to the sewage storage facilities of Kibbutz Erez and then to Sha'ar Hanegev and Sderot's sewage treatment facilities.

Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council head Alon Shuster addressed the Water Authority this week: "The State of Israel should devote great efforts to the flow of dedicated electricity to the sewage treatment plant in Beit Lahia, and not only to solutions that mean the use of Gazan water, which should be used for agriculture in Gaza, . The Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council and the Association of Towns for Sewage in Sderot-Sha'ar Hanegev do not accept any conclusion made over our heads."

The Water Authority said in response: "The Authority is treating the matter as an emergency event, to stop the massive flow of sewage from the Gaza Strip into the territory of the State of Israel (via Nahal Hanun.) The Water Authority is working to reduce the expected damage from Palestinian wastewater overflows and to protect the wells of the area. The flow of sewage from the Gaza Strip toward the State of Israel began long before and without any connection to the electricity problems in Gaza, and we expect the cooperation of and with all the regional bodies in the region. "

The United Nations envoy to the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, met Thursday with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and a number of senior Hamas officials in an attempt to bridge the gap between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority over the electricity cuts.

The Al-Hayat newspaper reported Friday that Mladenov had suggested to Hamas's leadership that the European Union pay the excise tax on diesel fuel entering the Gaza Strip to operate its power plant, which Hamas and the Palestinian Authority refuse to pay. In return, the EU will be allowed to erect an oversight body in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Ariel Mayor Elyahu Shaviro and a host of dignitaries broke ground for Israel's newest medical school Wednesday, saying the new faculty at Ariel University in the West Bank would become an integral part of Israel's academic and healthcare landscape.

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"The doctors who will graduate from the Faculty of Medicine at Ariel will heal the sick for many years, and the medical school itself will heal the open wounds in Israeli society and between us and our neighbors," said Bennett, "This is a place for Israelis of all backgrounds to meet and interact. Secular and religious, Jews and Arabs, rich and poor."

"This is a great day for the future of medicine in Israel and for the city of Ariel. The city is on the map, and it will always be on the map," Bennett told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

Ground breaking ceremony (Photo: David Michael Cohen/TPS)

Bennett, one of the main supporters of the project, and Netanyahu both made reference to the heterogeneous student population at the university, and both said the medical school would help bridge gaps between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as between different sectors of the Israeli populace.

"(This is an) open and pluralistic institution, where Jews and non-Jews cooperate, which reflects the true spirit of the State of Israel," said Netanyahu. "We are building in Ariel, and Ariel will always be part of Israel."

The university, previously known as the Ariel public college, is home to more than 15,000 students and 300 faculty members. In the field of health sciences, the university already offers a pre-med program and 30 research labs studying a variety of communication disorders, physiotherapy, and nutritional sciences.

The new medical faculty, Israel's sixth, will be named after Sheldon Adelson, the American billionaire, owner of the Israel Hayom freesheet and long-time supporter of Prime Minister Netanyahu, and his Israeli-born wife, Miriam. According to Israel Hayom, the Adelsons couple donated $5 million to the medical school, nearly a quarter of the estimated $28.4 million price tag.

According to the Israel Medical Association, Israel faces a severe healthcare crisis largely due to a lack of both licensed medical personnel and training vacancies for students. Accordingly, students often move abroad to study medicine or are more likely to choose from more lucrative professions in their studies.

Ariel Mayor Shaviro described the medical school as a "breakthrough" for the residents of the city and the entire region, all of whom will benefit from the institution.

"When I worked in New York, I met Dr. Sackler and I was overwhelmed to meet the man who permitted me to study medicine (at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University)," said Dr. Miriam Adelson at the ceremony. "So for me this is coming full circle, and we are happy and thankful to Ariel University for giving us the opportunity to give back to the community."

Reprinted with permission from TPS
For the first time in 17 years, a US aircraft carrier is anchored off the coast of Israel. The USS George H. W. Bush anchored Saturday morning about 4 km from the breakwater of the port of Haifa, being too large to dock at the port itself. The war machine will stay in the area until Wednesday.

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The carrier is accompanied by several other US Navy ships, which serve as its strike group, including the USS Philippine Sea, USS Hue City and the Danish frigate Peter Willemoes.

USS George H.W. Bush arrives in Haifa (:  )

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Said Katish, one of the veteran navigators at the Haifa port, boarded the aircraft carrier this morning and directed it to the docking point.

The ship runs an impressive 333 meters, and the length of its runway is 200 meters. It rises 20 stories above sea level and is powered by two nuclear reactors.





(Photo: Momi Gabai/Haifa Port)

Haifa port can handle vessels larger than 300 meters docking, and the water depth isn't a problem either, but the American ship is too wide for the port to handle: the width of the upper deck of the aircraft carrier, which includes the runway and airplane parking area, does not allow it to dock there.

(Photo: Momi Gabai/Haifa Port)

Ahoy, sailors! (Photo: Momi Gabai/Haifa Port)

The aircraft carrier has about 80 fighter planes, as well as helicopters and various weapons to protect the ship itself. The ship's crew numbers about 5,700, about 2,500 of whom belong to the US Air Force. The rest are sailors.

During its stay in Israel, Israeli officials and military officers are expected to visit USS George H.W. Bush, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The crew will also celebrate the 4th of July, the US Independence Day, at the Haifa Port.







The fleet is in. (Photo: Momi Gabai/Haifa Port)

The USS George H.W. Bush has recently played a significant role in the fight against ISIS. Every day, F-18 Super Hornet jets take off from this aircraft carrier to bomb ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq.

Two weeks ago, one of these F-18s shot down a Syrian Sukhoi Su-22 after it dropped bombs near the Syrian Democratic Forces, an opposition group supported by the US-led coalition.





(Photo: Momi Gabai/Haifa Port)

In the 1980s and 1990s, Haifa Port was the home port of the US Navy's Sixth Fleet, where tens of thousands of sailors arrived each year and contributed greatly to the economy of the city. However, with the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, the American ships ceased to visit the port. In 2007, an American ship returned to Haifa, but an aircraft carrier had not visited the city for 17 years.
STRASBOURG, France -- Current and former leaders from Europe and beyond are gathering in Strasbourg, France to bid farewell to former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died June 16 at 87.

The ceremony Saturday at the European Parliament's seat in Strasbourg, close to the border with Germany, was deemed fitting for a chancellor whose biggest achievements included helping unite Europe.

It is the first time such a memorial for a national leader is being held at the European level.

Among the speakers are EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, French President Emmanuel Macron and current German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Juncker described Kohl as "a German patriot and at the same time a European patriot."

Kohl will be buried later Saturday following a mass in the German city of Speyer.
NICOSIA, Cyprus -- A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says there's now a "clear understanding" about what's needed to reach an agreement reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus.

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Saturday that the recognition of the "essential elements" of a possible accord emerged from a meeting Guterres had with the rival sides during high-level peace talks in Switzerland.

Guterres met Friday with Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and breakaway Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in an attempt to give the three-day-old talks a momentum boost.

He also met with diplomats from Cyprus' "guarantors" -- Britain, Greece and Turkey.
A helicopter was scrambled on Saturday to rescue four Israeli hikers who were on the Holy-Lake: Kol Mazar trek in Kyrgyzstan when a snowstorm hit the area.

The Israelis sent a distress call from an elevation of 3,713 meters, saying the snow, heavy fog and difficult terrain had left them stranded.

Israel's Foreign Ministry in cooperation with the insurance companies scrambled a helicopter to rescue the hikers.
Two projectiles fell in the northern Israeli Golan Heights on Saturday evening, the 17th and 18th such instance this week of spillover from the civil war in Syria. No one was hurt.

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In response to the spillover fire, the IDF attacked a cannon belonging to the Syrian army. The Lebanese Al Mayadeen TV network, which is affiliated with the Assad regime and Hezbollah, reported the Israeli retaliation targeted a position of the Syrian army near the Naba'a al-Fawar base.

Israel-Syria border, earlier this week (Photo: Avihu Shapira)

The projectiles, the result of internal fighting in Syria, fell between Quneitra and the Valley of Tears, the same area where most of the projectiles fell over the past week.

They landed in "no man's land" between the two border fencesthe Syrian and Israelicloser to the Syrian fence.

IDF forces were sent to the scene to search for the projectiles and see if any additional projectiles landed inside Israeli territory.

Following the falling of the projectiles, the IDF issued a warning to the Syrian regime. "Israel holds the Syrian regime responsible for any breach of its borders and will act accordingly," IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said in a statement.

"Israel maintains a policy of non-involvement in the Syrian civil war. However, we will not tolerate any breach of Israel's sovereignty."

Battles were raging on Saturday in the area between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, with the sounds of explosions continued to carry across the border throughout the evening.

The spillover into Israel began last Saturday, while thousands of vacationers were visiting the Golan Heights, some of them taking part in cherry and berry pickings.

On Wednesday, minutes before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to make a speech in Katzrin, a mortar shell landed in an open area in the northern Golan. An hour later, the IDF attacked the Syrian military mortars that fired the shell.

"During my speech, shells from the Syrian side landed in our territory and the IDF has already struck back. Whoever attacks uswe will attack him. This is our policy and we will continue with it," he said.

Netanyahu further added that "We courageously control the Heights, and we know what's happening beyond the border. Our line is clearwe do not interfere in the happenings in Syria, but we are determined to respond aggressively and powerfully to any violation of our sovereignty. We won't accept any spillover nor trickle in the Golan."
MOSCOW - Ukraine accused the Russian security services Saturday of planning and launching a massive cyberattack that locked up computers across the world.

The Ukrainian security agency, known as the SBU, alleged in a statement that similarities between the malicious software and previous attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure revealed the work of Russian intelligence services.

The SBU added the attackers appeared uninterested in making a profit from the ransomware program and were more focused on sowing chaos in Ukraine.

There was no immediate official response from the Russian government, but Russian lawmaker Igor Morozov told the RIA Novosti news agency that the Ukrainian charges were "fiction" and that the attacks were likely the work of the United States.
District of Columbia: Defense Secretary James Mattis on Friday delayed a plan by Barack Obama's administration to start accepting transgender recruits in the military, the Pentagon said.

The decision to delay the plan for six months was made on the eve of a deadline set by Mattis's predecessor, Ashton Carter, during Barack Obama's administration.

The five armed service branches can now delay accepting transgender recruits until January 1 as they "review their accession plans and provide input on the impact to the readiness and lethality of our forces," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.

Last week, White explained that the different services were not in agreement on when to accept transgender recruits.

"The service chiefs all had to give their what needed-to-be-done timeframes" for integrating transgender troops, she told reporters.

"Different services had different takes. Some asked for time there were all kinds of different recommendations."

An estimated 2,500 to 7,000 transgender people are among the 1.3 million active duty service members.

But these are troops who could not make their sexual preferences openly known prior to joining the military.

Until a year ago, they could be fired for openly expressing their sexual orientation.

"We have reason to be proud today of what this will mean for our military -- because it's the right thing to do, and it's another step in ensuring that we continue to recruit and retain the most qualified people -- and good people are the key to the best military in the world," Carter said last year.

"Our military, and the nation it defends, will be stronger.
Islamabad: Pakistan has quietly banned Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir, a new front for Hafiz Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa, as international pressure on the country grew, including from a global watchdog, to combat terror and its funding.

TAJK gained prominence as a JuD front when it held pro- Kashmir freedom rallies and displayed banners and streamers across Pakistan on "Kashmir Day" on February 5, days after Saeed was put under "house arrest" for 90 days in Lahore.

The mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people died had indicated about a week before his house arrest he might launch TAJK to "expedite the freedom of Kashmir".

The re-branding of JuD as TAJK showed that Saeed had got a wind of the government plans and had worked out how to resurface and survive after the clampdown on his ostensible network of JuD and its affiliate Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

The JuD front was put on the list of "proscribed organisations" on June 8 - a fortnight before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force in Spain, according to a list available on the website of Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has called a meeting on Monday to discuss the ban on its affiliate, The Nation reported.

There are 64 other outfits in the proscribed organisation category, including Jaish-e-Mohammad, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e- Taliban, and JuD's armed wing Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for 26/11 and several other terror attacks in India.

According to a report in Dawn newspaper today, Pakistan continues to remain on the radar of the FATF over concerns that it is not fully complying with curbs against entities listed with the United Nations.

India had raised the terror financing issue at the FATF in February this year.

The FATF last week referred Pakistan to its regional affiliate - the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering - for further analysis and a follow-up report on actions the country has taken against entities designated under UN sanctions list.

Pakistan government has been under mounting international pressure to crackdown on terrorist networks and their fronts.

However, according to the report, Pakistani officials expect that Pakistan would be cleared of the concerns.

The United Nations placed both JuD and FIF on its watch list in December 2008 and March 2012, respectively.

The ban on TAJK on June 8 happened a day before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakh capital Astana. India had pushed the SCO members at the summit to curb the financing of terrorist organisations and their fronts.

The Astana Declaration of the Heads of State of the SCO said that the "member states will continue to cooperate in order to counteract the activities of individuals and legal entities related to the recruitment, training and utilisation of terrorists, public calls for terrorist activities or the justification of acts of terrorism, and financing terrorist activities."

Last week, the US declared Pakistan-based Hizb-ul- Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist. The announcement had come hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had their first bilateral meeting.
New Delhi: Steel industry on Saturday said with GST rollout unorganised players in the sector will have to move to organised form of doing business.

The GST - India's biggest tax reform since Independence - was rolled out at the stroke of the mid-night, unifying more than a dozen central and state levies.

Listing the positives of the GST for steel trade, SUFI said, the new tax regime abolished the special additional duty (SAD) on imported goods which was a very cumbersome procedure. There will be a shift from unorganised players to organised form of doing business.

Another positive will be that the new indirect tax regime will bring "the trade and industry will be at par," Steel Users Federation of India (SUFI) President Nikunj Turakhia told PTI.

He also said there will be "excessive paperwork and more number of returns and section 16 (2)(c) which disallows input tax credit if seller does not deposit to government treasury".

"But, as we move forward...I am sure these bottlenecks will be addressed," Turakhia added.

Another industry body Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) said this is a transition period for the industry.

Some problems the industry may face. "For unorganised sector, the rest of the year will be a learning year... Like during post-demonetisation phase, I am anticipating, as any problem will come and (the) government will give some relaxation...," he said.

The unorganised sector will have to go through a learning cycle to adapt the new tax structure. This will be more IT- enabled. The number of IT-enabled stakeholders in the unorganised sector is not significant. "They will have to get tech-compliant. People evading taxes would not be able to survive any longer," Pahuja had told PTI.
New Delhi: The decision to reduce GST rate on exclusive tractor parts to 18 percent instead of an earlier proposed 28 percent will provide a great relief to farming community, tractor manufacturers said on Saturday.

The GST Council on Friday cut tax rate on exclusive parts of tractors from 28 percent to 18 percent, while also announcing reduction on fertilisers to 5 percent from previously decided 12 percent.

Tractor Manufacturers Association (TMA) welcomed the move saying that this would go long way in making small and medium farmers profitable.

"The announcement of the GST council reducing GST on exclusive tractor parts has come as great relief to the farming community, which would otherwise have been impacted adversely," TMA said in a statement.

TMA immediate past president and chairman Technical Committee TR Kesavan said: "This reduction will go a long way in making small and medium farmers profitable, at a time when farm profitability has become critical."

Expressing similar views, TAFE Chairman Mallika Srinivasan said it will be a great relief to the hard pressed farming community and will ensure that there is no increase in costs for the farmers from the pre-GST days.

"The reduction of GST from the earlier announcement of 28 percent on tractor parts and components to 18 percent, which reflects the pre-GST revenue neutral duty," she added.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the chartered accountants and the general public on the occasion of Foundation Day of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India at Delhi's sprawling Indira Gandhi stadium.

In his speech, the prime minister highlighted his government's decision to roll out the Good and Service Tax and how it will help build a new economic system in the country.

Here are the live updates:

- If you know anyone with black money, warn them that they would not be spared, PM Narendra Modi to CAs: PTI

- Impact of our steps to check black money is clear from latest figures of Swiss banks, where Indians' money has dipped to record low, says PM

- Encourage taxpayers to be honest, PM Modi tells Chartered Accountants

- PM exhorts CAs to take charge of bringing their clients to path of honesty; says a wrong audit can impact lives of gullible investors: PTI

Also Read: Chartered accountants a big pillar of Indian economy: PM Narendra Modi

- People get electricity in their homes with the taxes paid by people, says PM Modi

- Your signature is more powerful than PM's and the government also believes the accounts signed by you: PM Modi tells CAs.

- Your signature carries immense faith, please do not break that trust that is placed on you, PM Modi tells Chartered Accountants

Also Read: 'GST roll-out will create one lakh jobs in next three months'

- PM Modi asks CAs why action has been taken against only 25 of them for irregularities, while over 1,400 cases are pending for many years.

- Just like doctors don't want people to be ill to get more business, chartered accountants too need to safeguard society's economic health: PM Modi

- We will always remember how the community of professionals took a lead during the freedom struggle of India: PM Modi

- Only 32 lakh people in our country declare their income in excess of Rs 10 lakh: PM Modi

- Demonetisation was a necessary step against corruption, black money; we will take action against shell companies: PM

- GST will root out black money: PM

- Our Government has taken a tough stand against those who have looted the nation, says PM

- On one hand, there is a Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and there is a movement to clean the nation from the menace of corruption: PM

- Govt committed to more tough action against firms helping in hiding black money; we are not concerned about political implications, says PM Modi: ANI

- A country where a select few loot, such a nation cannot scale new heights. These select few never want the nation to grow, says PM Modi: ANI

- Govt has cancelled registration of over 1 lakh companies and more than 37,000 shell firms have been identified for strong action, says PM: PTI

- Post demonetisation, data mining shows that over 3 lakh registered companies indulged in suspected dealings, says PM Modi: PTI

WATCH live video:

#WATCH PM Modi speaking on Foundation Day of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India https://t.co/UbePZkQx09  ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2017

- People with black money will face more difficulties when #Switzerland begins automatic information exchange with India in 2 yrs, says PM: PTI

- Impact of our steps to check #blackmoney is clear from latest figures of #Swiss banks, where Indians' money has dipped to record low, says PM Modi: PTI

- There lakh firms have come under suspicion, at least 1 lakh have been shut; 37,000 shell companies have been identified, says PM Modi

- Two years from now when Swiss Bank starts giving real time data, people who deposited money in foreign banks will face tough time: PM Modi

- There have been 45% decrease in Swiss bank in last three years: PM Modi

- Just like doctors don't want people to be ill to get more business, CAs too need to safeguard society's economic health, says PM Narendra Modi: PTI

- PM Narendra Modi says CAs have a big responsibility to ensure that society's economic health remains good: PTI

- The CA community looks after the economic health of society, says PM Narendra Modi: ANI

- A country where a select few loot, such a nation cannot scale new heights. These select few never want the nation to grow, says PM Modi: ANI
New Delhi: Terming the GST a 'good and simple tax', Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it will put an end to harassment of honest traders and small businesses while integrating country into one market with one tax.

At a gala event to launch the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the historic Central Hall of Parliament, the prime Minister said the new tax is simple and transparent that would end corruption and check black money.

The GST will eliminate 500 types of taxes and there will be one tax from Ganganagar to Itanagar and Leh to Lakshadweep, he said, adding it is a catalyst which will remove trade imbalance and promote exports.

"GST is a simple, transparent system which prevents generation of blackmoney and curbs corruption. The system gives opportunity to honesty and people who do honest business," he said, terming GST as an economic integrator just like the integration of the nation that Sardar Vallabhai Patel had done after the independence.

Acknowledging that there may be some initial hiccups, the Prime Minister said even an eye takes time to adjust to sight corrective spectacles. He went on to urge people not to pay attention to rumours and not create apprehensions about the new tax.

Modi said that the GST is just not a tax reform but an important economic reform. "The law says that GST stands for Goods and Services Tax but according to me it stands for good and simple tax," he added.

The tax is good because it will eliminate tax on tax and simple because there will be just one rate and one system for the entire country, he said, adding even a student of 10th standard can use technology to file GST returns.

Modi said GST is an effort of successive political parties and an example of cooperative federalism where centre and states have worked as equals in deciding on the new system and the tax rate.

The GST is a reflection of team India and the Central Hall is the most appropriate place for launch of the new tax regime as Constituent assembly met here and also Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the Independence Day speech, he said.

The new tax regime will benefit poor by reducing cost and saving money by removing barriers like checkposts between states, he said, asking traders to pass on the benefit of reduced taxes to consumers.

Observing the GST Council met for 18 times today, he said that interestingly there are 18 chapters in Gita, the holy book of Hindus.
New Delhi: On 18th November 2016, NASA's IceBridge mission  an airborne survey of polar ice  completed an eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment.

On November 10, the scientists photographed an oblique view of a ginormous rift in the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf.

The image of the rift was released in December 2016, along with a concerning report that said that the ice shelf is close to breaking off and as per NASA, it is about 70 miles long, more than 300 feet wide and about a third of a mile deep.

The crack completely cut through the ice shelf but it did not go all the way across it  once it does, it will produce an iceberg roughly the size of the state of Delaware.

If the ice shelf does break off, which is what the scientists are afraid will happen eventually, it would reportedly be the largest event since the recorded iceberg calving in 2000.

Now, another report carries the news that the soon-to-be largest iceberg ever recorded, could break off soon.

Currently, the iceberg is attached to the shelf but is moving at rates faster than previously recorded, moving at speeds of roughly 32 feet per day. The team monitoring the rift is unsure of when the split will occur but does warn that it could happen within hours, days or weeks.

But is it really worrying? Jonathan Kingslake, a glaciologist and assistant professor at Columbia Universitys earth and environmental science department, tells Newsweek that there will likely be loads of headlines saying scientists are worried, but thats not really right. We're not worried about this causing anything really catastrophic.

According to a report in Tech Times, the massive iceberg would not have too much of an impact on sea levels. If this event caused the rest of the ice shelf to break apart then we could see a rise in sea levels.

"If you remove an ice shelf, all of the glaciers that used to feed into it start putting more ice out into the ocean and that's where you get your potential contributions to sea level rise," said a member of the Midas team monitoring the ice shelf.

Overall, the glaciers that feed into the Larsen C ice shelf contain about 10 centimeters of global sea level equivalent, but researchers do not think all of it would go into the sea, the report said.
London: British Prime Minister Theresa May is under growing pressure to entirely replace the local authority in charge of Grenfell Tower, the residential block here that went up in flames earlier this month.

London mayor Sadiq Khan called on May to replace the council with independent commissioners after the leader of the council, Nick Paget-Brown, and his deputy, Rock Feilding- Mellen, both announced on Friday that they would be stepping down over "perceived failings" by the council after the fire on June 14 that claimed at least 80 lives and displaced hundreds.

In a letter to May on Friday evening, Khan said that while the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council's leader and deputy leader have resigned, choosing new leadership from the existing members may aggravate the situation.

His comments followed criticism of the council's decision to adjourn a meeting over the presence of the press and public.

He said: "Following Thursday evening's shambolic council cabinet meeting, it is self-evident that the leadership of the council has lost the trust of local residents.

"Therefore, I believe the government has no option but to immediately appoint commissioners to take over the running of council.

"It is also clear that a change in leadership from amongst the existing councillors will not address this situation - in fact it may aggravate it further, as it fails to address the fundamental breakdown in trust that has taken place."

He called on the prime minister to appoint "untainted" commissioners with "a genuine empathy for local people and the situation they face" to take over the running of the council until the next local council elections.

Announcing his resignation on Friday, Paget-Brown had said: "This council has been criticised for failing to answer all the questions that people have.

That is properly a matter for the public inquiry.

"As council leader, I have to accept my share of responsibility for these perceived failings.

Last month, Robert Black, chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which ran Grenfell Tower, had agreed to resign to "concentrate on assisting with the investigation and inquiry".

Meanwhile, Catherine Faulks, Conservative party councillor for Kensington and Chelsea Council,said a new council leader will be elected next week.

"Of course we weren't immediately quick off the ground, it was an enormous tragedy.I challenge any borough in the whole country to immediately have had an action plan that they could put into place," she said.

The fire at the 24-storey block in North Kensington destroyed 151 homes, both in the tower and surrounding areas.

Documents seen by the BBC indicate the cladding fitted to Grenfell Tower during its refurbishment was changed to a cheaper version, which was less fire resistant.

The tower's cladding has been the focus of attention, amid suggestions it was why the flames spread so quickly.

Since then hundreds of other tower blocks around the UK have also failed fire safety tests for their cladding, prompting the British PM to announce a wider inquiry into the use of material used on the exterior of housing blocks in the country.
Berlin: The German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) on Friday passed a bill which will require social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, to delete content in clear breaches of hate speech laws within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.

In ambiguous cases of the above, network operators have a window of seven days to act. Widespread failure to comply with the new regulation could incur fines of up to 50 million euros ($57 million), Xinhua news agency reported.

Under Germany's prevailing legal framework, hate speech includes the incitement to kill or be violent, threatening speech, abusive language, and sedition.

According to the new legislation, network operators are obliged to offer users an easily recognizable and immediately responsive process to lodge complaints about hate speech.

Social media networks can pass the actual decision on to a shared independent oversight body for operators that is yet to be created. Such an institution would also be obliged to act within seven days.

The law was passed with the votes of Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD), which together form a German coalition government.

Federal Minister of Justice Heiko Maas (SPD) defended the bill, which he championed as ending the "verbal jungle law" on the internet and protecting everyone's freedom of expression.

"The past has shown: the big firms will not assume their responsibility without pressure," Maas said.

The bill caused heavy controversy in the run up to its passing, with a diverse range of social media operators and civil rights and interest groups warning about its purported negative implications.

Alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May, German politicians have called on social media companies to do more to help governments combat terrorism.
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has given nod to extend tit-for-tat sanctions until December 31, 2018 against the European Union (EU).

On June 29, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the Russian government would recommend prolonging the counter-sanctions as he recalled that earlier the EU had extended sanctions against Moscow, reports TASS.

On Wednesday, the EU formally extended its economic sanctions on Russia, imposed in July 2014 in response to Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.

According to Euro news, Putin has also suspended payments to the Council of Europe until the Russian delegation's full rights are restored.

All European food products are banned under the sanctions. The aviation and energy sectors have also affected.
Panaji: BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday met coalition partners in the Manohar Parrikar-led Goa government and party legislators over lunch here.

"There was no discussion on any issue. It was just a courtesy meeting with the BJP president over lunch," state Revenue minister and Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte told reporters after the meeting.

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party's MLAs led by Sudin Dhavalikar, two Goa Forward Party ministers Vinod Palyekar and Jayesh Salgaoncar, and Art and Culture minister Govind Gaude met Shah over the lunch.

However, Goa Forward Party leader and state Agriculture minister Vijai Sardesai could not attend the meeting as he was out of station.

The BJP chief is on two-day visit to the coastal state from today.

He would be addressing two different events during which he would meet various professionals in the city.

Shah would be inaugurating the party's South Goa office in Margao tomorrow.
Islamabad: At least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in Pakistani jails, according to a list the Pakistan government handed over to the Indian envoy here on Saturday.

The list was given to High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale under the Consular Access Agreement signed between the two countries on May 21, 2008.

The foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".

It said the "step is consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement", under which both countries were required to exchange lists of prisoners in each other's custody twice a year - on January 1 and July 1.

The foreign office said the Indian government will also hand over a list of its prisoners in India to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

According to the list Islamabad shared with India on January 1 this year, there were 351 Indian prisoners held in Pakistan, including 54 civilians and 297 fishermen.

The foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 this year and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
Chandigarh: The Border Security Force (BSF) has handed over a Pakistani woman who had inadvertently crossed into Indian territory in the Amritsar sector in Punjab, a BSF official said on Saturday.

The Pakistani woman, Nimmo, aged around 55-60 years, hailing from Kila Da Jawar in Pakistan, was apprehended by the BSF troopers on Friday evening in the operation area of Border Out Post (BoP) Pulmoran in Amritsar sector.

"She had crossed the international boundary inadvertently and entered Indian territory. The Pakistan Rangers were contacted (late on Friday) and the apprehended lady was handed over to them at about 11.50 p.m. being an inadvertent border crosser on humanitarian grounds," BSF Deputy Inspector General R.S. Kataria said.

This year, the BSF has handed over nine Pakistani inadvertent border crossers to the Pakistan Rangers.

Security along the 553-km long international border in Punjab with Pakistan is always on high alert.

Security agencies have been extra cautious following the terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot in January 2016 and the terror attack in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district in July 2015.
New Delhi: Stressing his government's resolve to fight graft and root out black money, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that some three lakh companies have been under the scanner post demonitisation.

The implementation of the Goods and Sales Tax (GST) will chart a new chapter for the Indian economy as it will make it extremely difficult for tax evaders, PM Modi said adding the new system will usher in prosperity for all.

GST will encourage taxpayers to be honest, he stressed.

The impact of our steps to check black money is clear from the latest Swiss banks figures as money deposited by Indians dipped to record low, he said.

Further driving home his point, the prime minister said, People get electricity in their homes with the taxes paid by them.

Only 32 lakh people in our country declare their income in excess of Rs 10 lakh, he said while addressing a gathering on the occasion of Foundation Day of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India at the Indira Gandhi stadium.

He exhorted the chartered accountants to take charge of bringing their clients to path of honesty, saying a wrong audit can impact lives of gullible investors.

Your signature is more powerful than prime minister's, he said, urging, Please do not break the trust that is placed on you.

Highlighting his governemnt's determination to fight the menace of corruption, PM Modi said, Demonetisation was a necessary step against corruption and black money, and the GST will root out black money.

He said that his government is committed to take more tough action against firms helping to hide black money.

We are not concerned about political implications, Modi said.

A country where a select few loot, such a nation cannot scale new heights. These select few never want the nation to grow.

Government has cancelled the registration of over 1 lakh companies and more than 37,000 shell firms have been identified for strong action, PM said.

He said that post demonetisation, data mining shows that over three lakh registered companies indulged in suspected dealings.

He emphasised it would become more difficult for people stashing illicit funds in Swiss banks once automatic tax information exchange regime begins between India and Switzerland.

Taking a dig at the previous government, he said the amount had risen sharply by 42 per cent in 2013, referring to a period when the Congress-led UPA regime was in power.

In an hour-long speech at the foundation day function of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the prime minister sought to send out a strong message against chartered accountants trying to help entities in black money dealings even as he underlined their powers and responsibility.

Modi also wondered as to why action has only been taken against just 25 of them for irregularities, while more than 1,400 cases have been pending for many years.

According to him, CAs need to safeguard society's economic health and they have a big responsibility.

He exhorted them to take charge of bringing their clients to path of honesty and said a wrong audit can impact lives of gullible investors as people take investment decisions on the basis of their audit reports.

While stating that there are four goals of a human being -- dharma, arth, kama and moksh -- Modi said that in the economy, it would not be wrong to say that chartered accountants are rishi munis (saints).

Alluding to the concept that even if one member of a family breaks the rules, then the family ends, Modi urged the CAs to lead their clients on the path of integrity.

"Your patriotism is no less than mine" in ensuring the development of the country, he said.

While emphasising that the CAs have been given a new opportunity with the GST where they also have a crucial role to play, the prime minister urged them to start preparing the roadmap for 2024 -- when the institute would be completing 75 years.

"Never let the opportunity slip out of your hands," he said.

More than two crore went on foreign trips last year but there are only 32 lakh people who have declared income above Rs 10 lakh, Modi said and wondered whether there can be only that much number of people with high income.

At the launch of GST in parliament on Saturday, Modi said the new tax law will help chart out a new course for the country, and its roll-out should not be seen as the achievement of any one party or government.

"We are deciding India's future course. We will chart a new course for the country at midnight with the launch of GST which is not an achievement of any party or government but a collective achievement. It`s scope is not limited to the financial system," Modi said, speaking in Parliament during a special function to launch the GST on Friday.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President M. Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Modi along with several cabinet ministers and MPs were present in Parliament.

Modi said with this landmark tax reform measure the dream of "one nation, one tax" will be achieved.
New Delhi: India on Saturday again asked Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to its national Kulbhushan Jadav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court as the two countries exchanged a list of prisoners lodged in each other's jails.

According to the list Pakistan shared with India, at least 546 Indian nationals, including nearly 500 fishermen, are languishing in jails in that country.

"India again requested Pakistan to grant full and early consular access to the Indian nationals lodged in the custody of Pakistan, including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadav," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement in Delhi.

Jadhav was in April sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage activities.

India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty. The ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.

Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was caught for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online and then went missing.

He was later arrested and tried by a Pakistani military court, which pronounced him guilty of espionage.

In its list, the Pakistan foreign office said the Indian prisoners included "52 civilians and 494 fishermen".

The lists of prisoners were exchanged as per provisions of the bilateral agreement on consular access which was signed on May 21, 2008.

As per the pact, lists of prisoners have to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1.

"India once again requests Pakistan for the early release and repatriation of Indian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats whose nationality has been confirmed by India," the MEA said.

It said India remains committed to address on priority all humanitarian matters with Pakistan, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen.

"In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in India's custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation," it said.

The Pakistan foreign office said 219 Indian fishermen were released on January 6 and added that Pakistan would release another 77 fishermen and one civilian on July 10.
Srinagar: Dreaded Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Bashir Lakshari , involved in the killing of six policemen last month, along with two other terrorists was on Saturday killed in an encounter by security forces in Anantnag district of Kashmir.

The Jammu and Kashmir DGP confirmed the report of Bashkari's death.

Lakshari along with his three associates was the four ultras trapped in a security forces' cordon in Anantnag district of Kashmir where a civilian woman died in crossfire today, police said.

"Bashir Lakshari and three terrorists are trapped in the security forces cordon in village Brenti in Anantnag. The trapped ultras were involved in the killing of an SHO and five other policemen in Achabal area of south Kashmir on June 16," a police spokesman said earlier.

One woman was killed and seven other people wounded in the cross-firing after she was caught in the exchange of fire between security forces and the militants during the operation. At least 17 civilians were rescued from the house in which the militants were holed up

Tahira, 44, sustained injuries during the encounter and was rushed to the district hospital, where she died later, officials said.

"The lady was killed while we were laying a cordon," Inspector General of police Muneer Ahmed Khan told AFP.

Security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in Brenti-Batpora in Anantnag at 3:00 am today after they received information about the presence of the militants, a police official said.

He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the militants opened fire on the security forces.

A police spokesman said the militants were using civilians as human shields and that efforts were on to rescue them. The operation was still on.

"They (the civilians) told the soldiers from inside the house that either let the rebels go or kill us as well," said a resident of Dialgam who declined to give his name.



As gunshots were heard in the area hundreds of villagers came out on to the streets shouting anti-India slogans and throwing stones at soldiers in their attempts to break the cordon and help the rebels escape.

On June 16, SHO Feroz Ahmed and five other policemen were killed on the outskirts of Anantnag district. After the deadly attack, the Jammu and Kashmir police had announced a bounty of Rs 12 lakh on Lakshari.
New Delhi: US lawmaker Ted Poe has again urged the US Congress to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terror and said Islamabad must face consequences for sponsoring terrorism.

His remarks came just four days after he had made similar comments in which he urged the Trump administration to cut-off military aid to Pakistan.

He also asked Washington to revoke Pakistan's non-NATO ally status.

"Quit giving them military aid. Quit giving them money. Designate them as a state sponsor of terrorism, and remove Pakistan's status as major non-NATO ally to the US," PTI quoted Congressman Poe as saying.

"There needs to be consequences for this long history, that most Americans are not aware of, where Pakistan says one thing and, does something else.

"Those consequences need to come down to get attention. The longest war in American history continues today, and it is a war supposedly against terrorism," Poe said.
New Delhi: Pakistan seems to be undeterred by the United States designation of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist.

In the latest development, the Hizbul terrorist was recently given a grand welcome in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir's Muzaffarabad. This comes after Salahuddin was declared "specially designated global terrorist" by the State Department following Modi's meetings with US secretary of state Rex Tillerson and defence secretary James Mattis on Monday in Washington.



The Zee News has access to a video which shows the Hizbul Mujahideen chief receiving a grand welcome by a crowd of hundreds.



The designation happened hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump, signalling the new administrations commitment to stamping out Pak-sponsored terror. With this, Salahuddin has joined the likes of Lashkar chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and Dawood Ibrahim in the list.

"Department of State has designated Mohammad Yusuf Shah, also known as (AKA) Syed Salahuddin as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Section 1(b) of Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which imposes sanctions on foreign persons who have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States... Today's action notifies the US public and the international community that Mohammad Yusuf Shah, AKA Syed Salahuddin, has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.



Designations of terrorist individuals and groups expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the US financial system, a State Department press statement announced.



After the United States designated the Hizbul Mujahideen chief on its list of global terrorists, the Pakistan came out in defence of militants fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir saying "it was a legitimate struggle for freedom".



"The US State Department's designation of Syed Salahuddin, the head of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group based in Pakistan, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist was unjustified," Pakistan's foreign office said.



Pakistan denies giving material help to the Kashmiri separatists but reiterated on Tuesday it would continue to provide political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination.



"The 70-year-old indigenous struggle of Kashmiris in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir remains legitimate. The designation of individuals supporting the Kashmiri right to self-determination as terrorists is completely unjustified," the foreign ministry statement said.



Tensions have been running high along the de facto border which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Over the past year, militant violence and anti-India protests have increased as Modi`s rightwing government seeks to tackle the revolt with a firmer hand.



Salahuddin's Hizbul Mujahideen is the biggest militant fighting group Indian forces in Kashmir. Unlike the Lashkar-e-Taiba and other groups operating from Pakistan soil, the Hizb is a largely indigenous Kashmir group and its leader seen as a hero.
Chennai: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance`s (NDA) candidate for the President`s post Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday arrived here and sought the political parties` support in the July 17 presidential polls.

Kovind was received at the airport by the BJP leaders. He met former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and sought the support of the legislators belonging to his faction. He would also meet Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and seek his faction`s support.

The presidential nominee also met former Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy.

The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu is divided into three factions led by Palaniswami, Panneerselvam and the party`s Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran.
Athens: The International Monetary Fund, a key creditor in Greece's bailout, will not participate in any further rescues of the debt-wracked country, Germany's finance minister told a Greek newspaper today.

"We have all acknowledged (eurozone and IMF) that the third Greek (bailout) payment will be the last with the participation of the IMF," Wolfgang Schaeuble told Greek daily Ta Nea.

The German finance chief has been inflexible on the issue of Greek debt relief, in opposition to the IMF which says it needs to be done to breathe new life into Greece's floundering economy.

Agreement was reached last month to pay the third tranche of Greece's 86-billion euro (USD 97-billion) bailout, after being held up for months by a row over its need for debt relief which has pitted bailout-weary Germany against the IMF.

After participating in two previous international loans to save Greece from bankruptcy, the IMF is still set to take part in a third bailout.

But for the moment, it has held back its contribution over the issue of whether the eurozone will decide to ease Greek debt -- currently at 180 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Since 2010, the international bailouts accompanied by tough austerity measures "have obtained some results but have not resolved the problem," said Schaeuble, who hopes a solution can be reached by the end of the current programme in 2018.

Under pressure especially from Berlin, Greece's 18 other euro partners have not yet broached the issue of debt relief, preferring to push that hot-button topic to next year.

But IMF chief Christine Lagarde has warned that Greece's debt is not sustainable and that the country requires significant debt relief from Europe.

In the interview, Schaeuble pointed to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), a bailout fund for eurozone countries, as a way to respond to the future needs of countries sharing the single currency.

Meanwhile, in another Greek newspaper, ESM chief Klaus Regling appeared to share that view, saying there is "a discussion in Europe on reinforcing the monetary union."

Speaking to the Efimerida ton syntakton (Journal of Editors), Regling said the eurozone had to become "less vulnerable" and that he was certain that "the ESM will play a very important role" if a new financial crisis arises.

"We can assume some of the responsibilities the IMF has undertaken over these past few years and I think there is a wide consensus for that in the future," he said.

"If the reforms continue over the next 14 months, Greece will be able to return to the international markets," he added.
Srinagar: A fierce encounter is underway between security forces and militants in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.

Security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in Brenti-Batpora in Anantnag early today after they received information about the presence of the militants, a police official said.

Dreaded Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Bashir Lakshari and three terrorists are trapped in the security forces cordon in village Brenti in Anantnag.

The forces have cordoned off the area and are engaged in a gunbattle with the terrorists.

A woman civilian was killed in a cross-firing between security forces and militants.

Meanwhile, locals started pelting stones at the security forces. Twelve protesters were reported to be injured.

Lashkari is said to be the mastermind of the June 16 terrorist attack when a police party was ambushed in the outskirts of Anantnag district of South Kashmir.

Six policemen, including a Station House Officer of Achabal area were killed in the attack.

The terrorists first overpowered them, then fatally shot them in their faces from close range and escaped with their weapons.
Panaji: BJP national president Amit Shah today said that for the first time, the separatists in Kashmir were facing the heat, adding that the security forces would soon take control of the situation in the Valley.

Shah, who interacted with people from various walks of life in Goa in the presence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, said the situation in Kashmir could not be assessed on the basis of the events of the last 4-5 months.

"You can't assess the situation in Kashmir in the backdrop of the happenings of the last 4-5 months. Kashmir has been witnessing these issues since 1989," he said.

"If you look at the scenario there since 1989, you will see certain phases running for months, which will make you feel that Kashmir has gone out of our hands. But Kashmir has not gone till now and will never go," he said.

"Our security forces have always controlled the situation and they will continue to do so. The beginning has been made. For the first time, the separatists are feeling the heat and what you see is their reaction," Shah added.

"The security forces have given an apt reply. Our security agencies will soon control the situation in Kashmir and after that, for a long span, no one will dare to act against India in Kashmir," he said.
New Delhi: Tightening norms for credit rating agencies (CRAs), Sebi has asked them to proactively monitor the financial health, including share price movement, of companies to provide timely and accurate ratings on their debts.

The decision follows several instances of CRAs not taking cognisance of delays in servicing debt obligations by the issuers they rate, even though the information has already been discounted by the market.

Besides, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has increased the disclosure requirements.

"CRAs are required to track the servicing of debt obligations for each instrument rated by them, ISIN wise, and look for potential deterioration in financial which might lead to defaults/delays, particularly before/around the due date(s) for servicing of debt obligations," Sebi said in a circular.

They would have to monitor the exchange's website for disclosures made by the issuer.

Sebi asked rating agencies to carry out a review of the ratings upon the "occurrence of or announcement/news of material events" including financial results, any significant decline in share/bond prices of the issuer or group companies if it is not in line with the overall market movement and any attachment or prohibitory orders against the company.

Besides, rating agencies would have to seek a "No Default Statement" from the issuer at the end of each month.

In the rating actions, disclosure report by CRAs would include key financial indicators and ratios for the issuer for the last and current financial year, in tabular form, as well as any other significant information relevant to the issuer and its sector, the regulator said.

Sebi has asked CRAs to make disclosures in case of considerable delay in providing information by the issuer.

"If the issuer does not share information sought by the CRA within seven days of seeking such information from the issuer, even after repeated reminders from the CRA, the CRA shall take appropriate rating action depending upon the severity of information risk of the issuer," the regulator noted.

Rating agencies have to accept an appeal from the issuer with regard to review of rating within five working days.

"In case rating is not accepted by the issuer within a month of communication of rating by the CRA to the Issuer, the same shall be disclosed as 'Non Accepted Rating' on the CRA's website," Sebi said.

CRAs have been advised to refrain from giving indicative ratings without having a written agreement in place.

"In case such indicative ratings are provided by the CRA, it shall be considered as aiding and abetting the Issuer in suppression of material information by the CRA," Sebi said.

Last month, Sebi had said it plans to soon come out with a detailed discussion paper on credit rating agencies as it seeks to check the menace of rating shopping and pick-and- choose approach in their actions.

Separately, Sebi has asked Debenture Trustees to have adequate systems to ascertain the status of payment of interest/ principal by issuer companies on due dates in timely manner and efficiently share such information with the CRAs.

The stock exchanges have been asked to disclose the information submitted by the Debenture Trustees immediately on its website.
New Delhi: R Madhavan, fondly called Maddy by his fans is looking super handsome in his latest picture which he shared on Instagram. The talented actor is a huge star in the South and Bollywood alike.

The actor, who is now all geared up for his tough avatar in 'Vikram Vedha' recently confessed how he is done with 'chocolate boy' roles. His latest picture is breaking the internet and rightly so!

Well, Maddy, who is 47-year-old hunk has defied age for sure. His dashing looks are making us weak at the knees and so feels the world right now. Some of his fans commented on the picture saying:

Madhavan, you are our latest crush all over again!
New Delhi: In a bonanza to 48 lakh central government employees, the Union Cabinet this week approved recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission with 34 modifications which will impose an additional annual burden of Rs 30,748 crore on the exchequer.

The increased allowances, which comes into effect from today (July 1, 2017), is based on the recommendations of the Committee on Allowances (CoA).

The allowances as recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission would have cost the exchequer Rs 29,300 crore. The modified allowances approved by the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will increase the burden by Rs 1,448 crore to Rs 30,748 crore per annum.

The 7th Pay Commission suggested abolition of 53 allowances. Of these, the government decided not to do away with 12 allowance, he said.

This will benefit over one lakh employees belonging to specific categories in railways, posts, defence and scientific departments.

The modifications approved were finalised by the Empowered Committee of Secretaries based on the recommendations of the CoA, he said.

The Pay Commission had recommended reduction in the HRA rates to 24 percent for X, 16 percent for Y and 8 percent for Z category of cities.

"As the HRA at the reduced rates may not be sufficient for employees falling in lower pay bracket, it has been decided that HRA will not be less than Rs 5400, Rs 3600 and Rs 1800 for X, Y and Z category of cities respectively, FM Arun Jaitley had said.

"This floor rate has been calculated at 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent of the minimum pay of Rs 18,000. This will benefit more than 7.5 lakh 1 to 3 levels of employees," he said.

House Rent Allowance (HRA) is currently paid at 30 percent for X (population of 50 lakh and above), 20 percent for Y (5-50 lakh) and 10 percent for Z (below 5 lakh) category of cities.

With regard to defence forces, he said ration allowances will be directly credited to their accounts.

Talking about Siachen allowance, he said level 9 and above will get Rs 42,500 as compared to Rs 31,500 recommended by Pay Commission. For level 8 and below it would be Rs 30,000 against Rs 21,000 recommended by the Pay Commission.

"Additional allowances has been restructured, the government has doubled medical allowance for pensioners to Rs 1,000. However, the Pay Commission had recommended Rs 500 as medical allowance for pensioners," he said.

Talking about dress allowance, he said various types of allowances are paid at present for provisioning and maintenance of uniforms/outfits such as Washing Allowance, Uniform Allowance, Kit Maintenance Allowance and Outfit Allowance.

These have been rationalised and subsumed in newly proposed Dress Allowance to be paid annually in four slabs -- Rs 5,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 for various category of employees, he said.

"This allowance will continue to be paid to nurses on a monthly basis in view of high maintenance and hygiene requirements.

"Government has decided to pay higher rate of Dress Allowance to SPG personnel keeping in view the existing rates of Uniform Allowance paid to them (which is higher than the rates recommended by the 7th CPC) as also their specific requirements," he said.

The rates for specific clothing for different categories of employees will be governed separately, he said.

Allowance granted to CRPF personnel deployed in Naxal-hit areas will be governed by the Risk and Hardship Matrix, he said, adding the rates will go up from Rs 8,400-16,800 per month to Rs 17,300-25,000 per month.

With PTI Inputs
Jaipur: Strict action is required against Kashmiri separatists for provoking youths to indulge in stone pelting and carrying out Pakistan-sponsored agenda, Ajmer dargah religious head Zainul Abedin Ali Khan said today.

Speaking at the dargah of Usman Harwani, the mentor of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chisti, he lamented how the separatists were forcing the youths to pelt stones at the security forces, adding it was a "matter of grave concern" and should be stopped.

Khan said the separatist leaders send their sons abroad for education, but have damaged the educational infrastructure in the Valley to keep the generation of Kashmir away from education.

They are misleading such youths and provoking them to create unrest in Kashmir, he said.

"Some political parties are involved in politicising Kashmir issue which is not only unfortunate, but shameful too," the Ajmer Dargah deewan said.

He added that many people in Kashmir support Sufism, but have no institutional support, thus are unable to oppose the fanaticism there.
Lucknow: In a show of strength, Apna Dal (Sonelal) will hold a rally in Varanasi on Sunday to mark the 68th birth anniversary of Dr Sonelal Patel with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath billed to be key speaker.

The Jan Swaabhimaan Rally, which will also be attended by state minister Omprakash Rajbhar of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), is an opportunity for alliance partners to come together for the first time since the "historic" win in the assembly elections, said party spokesperson Arvind Sharma.

"It will be a show of strength for the party, as we look forward to strengthening our ties with our alliance partners, BJP and SBSP. This year, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be the key speaker in the rally, which is going to be attended by party workers not only from UP but from neighbouring states as well," Sharma told PTI.

Last year, BJP president Amit Shah had addressed the gathering.

"This year's Jan Swabhimaan Rally is going to be a special one as it is for the first time that both BJP and Apna Dal(S) are sharing the stage after the historic win in the 2017 UP assembly elections," Sharma said.

The party is planning to distribute pamphlets containing detailed information about Dr Sonelal, founder of the Apna Dal and father of Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel. Apna Dal(S) is a breakaway faction formed following tensions between Patel and her mother.

According to Sharma, tomorrow's rally in Varanasi's Rohaniya area holds special significance for party workers and supporters as "it will also provide a common platform to all the alliance partners in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections".

On June 24, Apna Dal(S) had demanded that the civil enclave of Allahabad airport be named after Sonelal Patel.

"Since Allahabad has been the karmabhoomi of Sonelal Patel, we are demanding that the civil enclave of the Allahabad airport be renamed after him," national president of the party Ashish Singh Patel had said.

In October 2014, fissures within Apna Dal became public for the first time when its then national general secretary and Mirzapur MP Anupriya Patel was removed from her post with immediate effect.

Infighting between mother and daughter intensified in May 2015. Anupriya Patel was also stripped of party's primary membership for alleged anti-party activities.

In November 2016, Apna Dal (Sonelal) was registered with the Election Commission, and subsequently contested the 2017 UP assembly elections.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who recently completed 100 days in office, described Triple Talaq as a social problem and it would be good if Muslim society itself resolves it.

" Triple Talaq is a social problem, it would be good if Muslim society itself resolves it," Adityanath said in an interview with ZEE CEO Jagdish Chandra.

He also said that the difference in male - female sex ratio has to be reduced. Muslim women have to come forward for their rights, he added.

He further said that there were some recommendations of the Central Waqf Board which have to be and are being implemented.

"There were some recommendations of the Central Waqf Board which were implemented," he said.

Adityanath said he was satisfied with the work done by his government in the first 100 days.

He said his government would continue to work for all sections of society without discrimination.

"We are satisfied with the work we have done in the first 100 days of our government, but 100 days is little for change or development in any state. We want to assure people that the government has started initiatives to take Uttar Pradesh forward on path of development," Adityanath said.

He accepted Uttar Pradesh was ravaged by nepotism and castism and expressed the hope that his government would change the dynamics in the state.

He praised for government's initiatives to start the anti-Romeo squads for better women security and for waiving off farmers loans as one of significance.

He said around 86 lakh farmers have benefitted with the waiver.

"Waving off farmer loans will not affect developmental works in the state. Loans worth Rs. 22,000 crore were waived off for sugarcane farmers. It's our aim to protect farmers. We're buying five times more wheat from them," he said.

Pledging to achieve open defecation free status in the state, he said that every household in the state would have a toilet by 2018.

Adityanath further said that his government has asked the Centre to provide 24-hour power supply all villages in the state.

The 44-year-old chief minister had taken oath with two deputies and 44 other ministers on March 19 after the BJP won 325 out of 403 state assembly seats.
Florida: Twenty-five people were shot and three others injured in an early morning nightclub shooting in the southern US state of Arkansas, police said Saturday.

Police in the city of Little Rock had initially said that 17 people were shot when gunfire rang out inside the downtown Power Ultra Lounge nightclub around 2:30 am (0730 GMT).

They updated the toll later Saturday to 25 shot and three with unrelated injuries, adding on Twitter that "ALL are expected to survive."

"We do NOT believe this incident was an active shooter or terror related incident," police said. "It appears to have been a dispute at a concert."

Authorities did not immediately release any names or information on a suspect or suspects.

"Little Rock`s crime problem appears to be intensifying," Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said in a statement, decrying "this senseless violent tragedy."

He promised state resources to help "support local law enforcement efforts."

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola thanked first responders and hospitals on Facebook.

"My heart is broken this morning -- my prayers are with the victims of this tragedy," he said.

According to the nightclub website, an artist by the name of Finese 2 Tymes was scheduled to perform.
Dhaka: One year after the worst terror attack in Bangladesh, a popular cafe here which was the site of the horror was reopened on Saturday even as the country was grappling to rein in radical Islamists and searching for the five remaining terrorists behind the gruesome incident.

The Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen restaurant in the upmarket Gulshan area was opened for the relatives and public to pay respects to the 22 people, including an Indian girl, killed in the attack.

Representatives of various political parties including the ruling Awami League, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and various civil society groups and police personnel paid their respects and laid flowers at the site.

On the evening of July 1, five operatives of Islamic State-inclined Neo-Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB) stormed into the eatery and started firing indiscriminately. They turned off all the lights and held the diners hostage.

They then brutally killed the hostages with guns and machetes. An Indian woman was among the 22 victims.

Around 12 hours later, para commandos stormed the restaurant. Two police officers were killed in the attack claimed by the Islamic State.

Eight suspects who were involved in its planning died in several anti-terror raids that followed. Four have been captured alive, while five more remain at large.

"We are trying to track down the five fugitives as we identified all those involved in the attack," a police spokesman told PTI.

Officials familiar with the investigations said they found evidence that 21 people were involved in the attack.

"Some 70 militants were gunned down or blew themselves up during encounters with police in the past one year. We have also arrested 128 suspected militants," police spokesman Quamrul Islam said.

But several analysts, however, said despite intensified security clampdowns after the July 1 attack, no visible progress has been made in investigations.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan earlier this week said despite being late, the investigating agency would submit a "flawless charge-sheet in the Holey Artisan attack case.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that the prosecutors await the completion of the investigation process to "take a special initiative to ensure quick hearing of the (Holey Artisan attack) case".

"We will take the case very seriously so that the trial proceedings are completed within the shortest possible time," Alam added.

The Bangladeshi government has arrested several militants after the cafe siege, but denies the existence of the Islamic State in the country and blames home-grown groups for the attack.

Analysts believe that the IS may not be physically present in the country, but is involved in propagating jihadist ideologies and contributing to radicalisation and the recruitment of jihadists by domestic extremist groups.
Washington: At least 17 people were left injured after a gunman opened fire at a nightclub following a dispute at a concert in Little Rock city of US state Arkansas, said US media.

As per the report, the concert was underway at the time of the shooting.

All the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital and one of them is said to have been admitted in a critical condition.

Meanwhile, police are still uncertain if more than one shooter was involved in the incident. Also, they do not believe it as a terror attack.

The motive behind the attack is unclear.

Further details awaited.
Jerusalem: The Israeli army bombed a Syrian military position from which it claims a rocket was fired from the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel, in the fourth incident of this type to occur in less than a week.

The rocket hit an unpopulated area of the Golan Heights and was the result of internal strife in Syria and left no damage, Efe news cited an Israeli army note as saying on Friday.

In response, an Israeli army aircraft targeted a Syrian military position from which Israel claims a mortar was launched, said a second statement.

It is the fourth time in less than a week that projectiles have fallen from Syria, as a result of the approach of the fighting to the border with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned after the latest incident on Wednesday that the Israeli army will respond to any such attacks.

Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, numerous shells have fallen in the part of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since 1967, which are often the result of stray fire in the fighting although others have been considered intentional.
Yangon division: A local employee with an international aid group in Myanmar's conflict-torn Rakhine State was stabbed to death by "terrorists", the government said on Saturday, the latest in a spate of grisly killings blamed on Rohingya militants.

Northern Rakhine has been gripped by crisis ever since the military launched a brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in response to a militant uprising in October 2016.

More than 75,000 Rohingya fled the army campaign, which UN investigators say was so ruthless it may amount to a crime against humanity.

While the region has stabilised in recent months the government has documented at least 60 cases of civilian murders or abductions since October, with an uptick recent weeks.

Most killings have targeted local leaders or other suspected collaborators with the state.

On Saturday the government said a local aid worker in northern Rakhine was dragged out of his home on 29 June and hacked to death by "about 10 terrorists wearing black masks and holding hatchets and knives".

The victim, 34-year-old Nu Islam, worked for Community and Family Services International (CFSI), a humanitarian group based in Philippines.

The organisation was working on child protection and education services in northern Rakhine, according to the statement from the office of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In recent weeks a Twitter account that claims to represent the militants, known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), denied responsibility for the killings and accused Myanmar authorities of trying to discredit their movement.

The ARSA says it is fighting for the political rights of the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority, who have endured years of discrimination and persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Richard Horsey, an independent analyst based in Myanmar, said it was not "100 percent clear" who was behind the killings but that they appear to play to the advantage of the insurgents.

"What is clear is that across northern Rakhine state there is a systematic effort underway to take out Muslims who are in some way connected to or perceived to be connected to authorities," he told AFP.

The crisis in Rakhine has heaped global pressure on Suu Kyi, who has disappointed rights groups by defending the army's crackdown on the Rohingya.

Her government has also rejected a UN probe of the alleged atrocities carried out by soldiers, vowing this week to deny visas to the fact-finding team.
Karachi: Pakistan's counter-terrorism officials are concerned about the battle-hardened and well- trained militants returning from Syria and fear that they could launch major terrorist attacks in the country.

The killing of four policemen last week in Karachi has set off alarm bells in the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Sindh police after the attack was claimed by a relatively unknown splinter group of militants returning from Syria.

Though target killing of policemen and security personnel is not new in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, but creditable leads and information with the CTD confirm that the new outfit - Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan - carried out the deadly attack.

Well-informed sources in the CTD confirmed that earlier in June they had sent a report to the home department warning them that a group of militants which had recently returned to Pakistan from Syria after fighting for the ISIS had formed its own splinter group and could carry out terrorist attacks.

"The information we have indicates that since April this outfit has carried out three attacks. A retired army officer, Colonel Tahir Nagi was targeted near Baluch Colony while two policemen were gunned down in New Town area in May. And the latest attack has come in which four policemen were killed while having Iftaar at a hotel last week," one source said.

He said a forensic examination of the used bullet cases showed they were fired from the same weapon, a 9mm pistol.

"We are concerned because these returning militants from Syria are battle-hardened and well-trained and they could launch major terrorist attacks in parts of the country," another source said.

He said the militants had fought in Syria under the banner of Jabhat al-Nusra which is loyal to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri rather than ISIS chief Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

"The group announced its formation on social media and since than the leads we have show these are battle hardened militants whose primary targets appear to be policemen and retired security officials," he added.

Senior CTD official Raja Umar Khatab said what was more concerning for them was that in recent times they had found out that the ISIS and the groups supporting it had been targeting educated young men and women in educational institutions and brainwashing them into joining their ranks.

"Some of the people who have returned from Syria after fighting there also appear to be educated and well positioned persons," he added.
Jakarta: Indonesian police shot dead a suspected militant after he stabbed two policemen inside a mosque near the national police headquarters in Jakarta, less than a week after an Islamist attack on security forces.

The attacker had just finished praying with several policemen and other worshippers on Friday night when he stabbed the two officers and screamed 'infidel', said national police spokesman Rikwanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

The perpetrator immediately ran to a nearby crowded bus terminal and refused to surrender.

"He instead threatened to attack us with a bayonet. After warning shots were fired, he was killed on the spot," Rikwanto said.

The two police officers were stabbed in the neck and face and are being treated at a local hospital.

The motive and identity of the attacker are still being examined, police spokesman Setyo Wasisto told AFP on Saturday.

Indonesia has seen a string of low level attacks since January last year carried out by Islamic State sympathisers mostly targeting the police.

The attack is just the second attack on the police this week.

Last Sunday, two alleged Islamic State group militants attacked the police headquarters in North Sumatra province leaving a policeman dead.

In May three police officers were killed in twin suicide bombings at a Jakarta bus station.
Geneva: Italy needs more international support to cope with a wave of migrants that has flooded its shores since the start of the year, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Saturday.

"What is happening in front of our eyes in Italy is an unfolding tragedy," Grandi said in a statement.

"In the course of last weekend, 12,600 migrants and refugees arrived on its shores, and an estimated 2,030 have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year."

He added: "Italy is playing its part in receiving those rescued and providing asylum to those in need of protection. These efforts must be continued and strengthened. But this cannot be an Italian problem alone."

Separately, a source in Paris said the interior ministers of France, Germany and Italy will meet in the French capital on Sunday to discuss a "coordinated approach" to help Italy.

Faced with rising numbers of migrants risking the perilous sea crossing to reach Europe, Italy last week threatened to close its doors to people arriving on boats with foreign flags.

Europe had to get fully involved through an "urgent distribution system" of migrants and should widen legal channels so that migrants can be admitted, Grandi added.

He also called for greater international efforts to tackle the causes of the migration, protect people and fight trafficking.

Since the beginning of the year, 83,650 people have reached Italy by sea, an increase of nearly 20 percent compared to the same period last year, according to UN figures.

Nearly all of Italy`s 200,000 places for accommodating migrants have been filled.

Many of the migrants need health care and support, with a large percentage of them non-accompanied children and victims of sexual violence, says the UN.

The number of migrant children arriving on their own rose two-fold between 2015 and 2016, reaching 25,846 at the end of last year.
YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan on June 29 hosted the Georgian delegation led by Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Giorgi Gakharia who arrived in Armenia within the frames of Georgias business days in Armenia forum, press service of the Government told Armenpress.

The agreement on holding the forum has been reached between the Armenian and Georgian PMs in February, 2017 during Karen Karapetyans official visit to Georgia.

The Armenian PM welcomed the holding of the forum which will boost the bilateral commercial ties and will provide new opportunities for fully utilizing the existing potential. The PM in particular attached importance to promotion of economic and business ties at bilateral and multilateral platforms, as well as within the frames of free economic zones.

In his turn Georgian Minister Giorgi Gakharia said given the high level of political dialogue between Armenia and Georgia, it is necessary to make efforts to intensify the trade-economic cooperation. He presented to the Armenian PM the results of discussions with Armenias Ministry of Economic Development and Investments, as well as the agreement reached on June 29.

The two officials exchanged views also on the possibilities to carry out joint tourism projects, strengthen bilateral cultural ties and increase the mutual recognition among the youth.




YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS. The Minister of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia and the Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development discussed on June 29 the road construction works at Lars checkpoint. Armenpress reports Armenian Minister Suren Karayan told the reporters that his Georgian colleague presented the road construction projects which they will implement in the near future.

Particularly, he informed that the works will kick off by the construction of a tunnel under the Lars checkpoint, as a result of which our transportations will not depend on climatic changes, the Minister said.

The Lars checkpoint often causes troubles for Armenian exporters and importers, since its often closed in winter months.
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. During the 2nd quarter of 2017, the Armenia-Artsakh Fund raised 6,8 million dollars in humanitarian aid for Armenia and Artsakh.

The Fund provided 6,4 million dollars in medications and humanitarian devices to AmeriCares (3,8 million dollars), Direct Relief International (2,4 million dollars) and MAP International (81,000 dollars) charity organizations.

The abovementioned organizations in their turn donated large amounts of products to the Armenian Orhpans Relief Union, the Armenias Kidney Association and Californias Alpert Philips medical institution.

During the past 28 years, the Armenia-Artsakh Fund raised 755 million dollars in humanitarian aid for the two countries.

The Armenia-Artsakh Fund offers lifesaving medications and medical equipment worth millions of dollars on a regular basis and free of charge. We only have to pay for the shipping costs. We highly encourage the generous donations of the Fund, in order to be able to continuously provide vital contribution to all medical centers of Armenia and Artsakh, Harut Sasunyan, president of the Fund said.
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament and head of the Armenia-Slovakia friendship group Eduard Sharmazanovs delegation, which included MPs Gagik Melikyan and Vardan Bostanjyan, met with State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Lukas Parizek, and head of the Slovakia-Armenia friendship group Dusan Tittel on June 30 on the sidelines of their visit to Slovakia.

The sides discussed opportunities for developing the bilateral relations.

The delegation underscores that Armenia is interested in developing political dialogue with Slovakia.

Issues related to the Armenia-European Union relations were discussed.

Speaking on regional issues, the Armenian deputy parliament speaker talked about the Azerbaijani provocations in the line of contact with Artsakh and the Armenian state border, which result in losses.

The sole responsible for the bilateral losses in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact is Azerbaijan, Sharmazanov said

He added that Turkey in its turn escalates the regional tension by keeping its border with Armenia closed and supporting the terrorist actions of Azerbaijan.

The sides also highlighted the global fight against terrorism.

On the sidelines of the visit, Mr. Sharmazanov laid a wreath at the Armenian Genocide memorial cross-stone in Bratislava.
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. The UN General Assembly approved the 7,3-billion-dollar budget cut for its peacekeeping missions, Deutsche Welle reports.

The cuts will be spent for 14 peacekeeping operations.

The financial reductions will mostly impact on the peacekeepers in Haiti, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Wester Sudan.

Earlier, the US had also said it will cut its UN peacekeeping mission budget by half a million dollars.
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of emergency situations of Armenia held fire and rescue operation drills in the Republic Square station of Yerevans subway.

The drills were supervised personally by emergency situations minister Davit Tonoyan.

In addition to various units of the ministry, subway police units, authorities, traffic police, regular police forces, ambulance units, first responders and incident response specialists from the water, gas and electricity supply companies of the city took part in the drills.

The drill scenario was a bomb related fire call.

Minister Tonoyan thanked the participating officers for the productive training, and highlighted similar exercises.
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) national and regional leaders explored opportunities for broader U.S.-Armenia cooperation, expanded foreign assistance, checks on Azerbaijani aggression, and justice for the Armenian Genocide during a week of policy-level consultations with the White House, State Department, and Members of Congress of the United States, ANCA reports.

ANCA National Chairman Raffi Hamparian led the delegation, which included ANCA Eastern Region Chair Steve Mesrobian, ANCA Western Region Chair Nora Hovsepian, Esq. and national board member Aida Dimejian. They were joined by ANCA staff, including Government Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian, Esq.

A special focus was placed on ANCA priorities in the US Fiscal Year 2018 Foreign Aid bill, including increased aid to Artsakh for HALO Trust de-mining and healthcare services provided by the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center. Also among the ANCAs top aid priorities are maintaining U.S. economic aid to Armenia and expanding U.S. support for Armenia as a safe haven for Middle East refugees. The US Presidents proposed FY 2018 budget included extremely sharp proposed reductions to all aid programs, including those for Armenia. Parallel to the ANCAs assistance advocacy, the delegation pressed for key provisions of Armenias aid-to-trade transition, including a Double Tax Treaty and direct commercial and cargo flights between Los Angeles and Yerevan.

Among topics of discussion were the May 16th beating of peaceful protesters in Washington DC, by President Erdogans security forces and the need for a fundamental re-evaluation of U.S.-Turkey relations, including its policies regarding justice for the Armenian Genocide and the ongoing occupation of Cyprus.

At the State Department, the ANCA held policy meetings with officials responsible for a range of regional areas and issues, including senior Trump Administration appointee Pam Pryor. Within the Europe and Eurasia Bureau, meetings were held with Acting Assistant Secretary John Heffern, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bridget Brink, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mark Libby, Director of the State Department Office of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts Natasha Franceschi, and the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador Richard Hoagland. At the White House, ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian took part in a meeting with National Security Council officials, led by Admiral Garry Hall, a Trump Administration appointee who serves as Senior Director for International Organizations and Alliances. A separate meeting was held with the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the growth of U.S.-Armenia bilateral economic cooperation.

On Capitol Hill, the ANCA leadership spoke with several dozen Members of Congress and key staff, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN), senior Committee member Ed Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), House Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee Nita Lowey (D-NY), US Helsinki Commission Co-Chair Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Brad Sherman (D-CA), Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus (D), Rhode Islands Jim Langevin (D), Texas Republican Ted Poe, Central Californias Jeff Denham (R) as well as Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs David Valadao (R-CA) and Jackie Speier (D-CA). Rep. Valadao, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, has been an outspoken advocate for expanded US assistance for Artsakh.

Extensive consultations were also held with key staff from the offices of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Democrat Ben Cardin (D-MD), Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Marco Rubio (R-FL), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe Chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and House Appropriations Committee members Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE).

ANCA leaders held a meeting with the senior leadership and staff of In Defense of Christians, led by President Toufic Baaklini, to discuss expanding legislative and other efforts to address the ongoing violence against Christian and other minority communities in the Middle East as well as passage of the Armenian Genocide Prevention Resolution (H.Res.220). The ANCA joined with IDC in co-hosting their 2016 convention, which brought together hundreds of citizen advocates from across the U.S. in support of a broad range of issues, including the protection of Christian communities in the Middle East and U.S. reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide.

Discussions also held with San Jose State University President Dr. Mary Papazian regarding education policy and opportunities for future cooperation.

During consultations with Armenian Ambassador to the United States Grigor Hovhannisian and Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Permanent Representative to the U.S. Robert Avetisyan, ANCA leader discussed expanding US ties with both republics.
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Lt. General Movses Hakobyan  Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces visited the Central Conscription Station of the Defense Ministry on July 1 to personally review and follow the ongoing summer draft.

Lt. General Hakobyan toured the station, talked with the draftees and wished them all peaceful service.

At a press briefing, the Chief of the General Staff said that certain innovations have been introduced in this years organizational works. Our goal is for the conscription to be absolutely fair, visible for everyone and for nobody to have any doubts. Certain changes have been made in the military uniform, the quality of the boots has been improved, which is made entirely from leather.

IN addition, it is currently banned for conscripts to bring food with them to the station, because after entering the station all items, except for personal hygiene items, are returned to parents, Hakobyan said, adding that the conscripts are happy with the food provided in the station.

The Lt. General talked with the conscripts and advised them to be bold, strong and willing to serve for their country. I wish that you will be able to keep, maintain and multiply what the senior generation has created, he said.

Asked what he finds to be a priority change, the Lt. General said I want everyone to serve in the Army and for the deferment to be completely eliminated. I would like there to be more focus on medical examinations in the pre-concription age. Of course, this is a nationwide action and you will soon witness it.

The Lt. General thanked the parents of the conscripts for raising men who are willing to serve and defend their country.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.In an announcement that appeared in today's edition of the CalOSHA Reporter, the California Division of Occupational Safety & Health (Cal/OSHA) announced that "in order to protect the life and safety of employees," a new budget bill had just been signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that raises the fines for certain violations by nearly double the previous top limits on such penaltiesand some of the categories for which fines will be raised are ones that may affect adult industry productions.

According to a press release by the Division, "The California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973 authorizes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to administer laws and enforce labor standards, orders, or special orders in order to protect the life and safety of employees. Under that law, an employer who violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order or a prohibition against asbestos spraying that is specifically determined not to be of a serious nature may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $7,000 per violation. Existing law also authorizes a civil penalty of up to $7,000 for violating any of the occupational posting, recordkeeping, or notice requirements. That law further authorizes the imposition of a civil penalty of not more than $70,000 per violation upon an employer who willfully or repeatedly violates any of these occupational safety or health standards.

"This bill would increase those civil penalty amounts to up to $12,471 for each violation that is not of a serious nature and each violation of the posting, recordkeeping, or notice requirements, and up to $124,709, but not less than $8,908, for each willful or repeated violation of any of these occupational safety or health standards or orders. The bill would also permit those maximum penalty amounts to be increased on January 1, 2018, and each January 1 thereafter based on the percentage in the Consumer Price Index for All Consumers (CPI-U), as specified. The bill would also exempt any regulation issued increasing those penalty amounts based on the CPI-U from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, but would require the filing of those regulations with the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Code of Regulations."

Get that? Not only will violation of "occupational safety or health standards or orders"like, for instance, failing to use "barrier protections" when shooting adult contentnow possibly cost producers $54,000 more for each offense, that amount may increase each January 1and best of all, the legislature will have virtually no power to rescind those increases, thanks to the Administrative Procedure Act!

"During the quiet of summer, the legislature and the governor sometimes shuffle new regulations and laws right under our nosesand Cal/OSHA penalties just got higher," noted Karen Tynan, a First Amendment attorney who frequently represents adult producers accused of Cal/OSHA violations. "Within the budget bill signed by Governor Brown, Cal/OSHA is now authorized to issue higher penalties for the more mundane violations involving record-keeping, reporting, and notices. General violations that had typically been calculated at a few hundred or a few thousand dollars can now go up to $12,471. Thats quite a bite for a violation that many employers inadvertently commit. Willful violations are now calculated at up to $124,709. Thats a huge jump, especially when you consider that Cal/OSHA uses that 'willful' classification against employers within the adult film industry.

"My 'take away' for adult film industry employers is this," she added. "1) Keep your OSHA 300 log up to date and accurate; 2) If you have a serious accident in the workplace, take action to follow the reporting requirements; and 3) Make sure you have all of your California required workplace postings up to date."

Additionally, the Division will be reporting to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board when it meets in San Diego on July 20 regarding the two petitions currently before it, one from Free Speech Coalition and one from AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and both involving protections for adult performers. While it is unlikely that any decision will be made regarding either petition at that Standards Board meeting, a healthy presence from the adult industry at that meeting would show the Standards Board that the issue is of great concern to the industry. The meeting will be held in Room 310 of the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway, San Diego 92101, beginning at 10 a.m.
Apprenticeships Are Not a Silver Bullet

For decades, economists have considered the costs and benefits of adopting variations of highly developed apprenticeship systems operating in Germany and Switzerland. Such efforts are based on the belief that apprenticeships are almost always a "win-win" for employers and apprentices. For employers, apprenticeships are billed as an efficient and cost-effective way to address skills and knowledge that are deficient in the workforce. For apprentices, they are a way to acquire hard and soft skills that boost employment prospects and wages.Recently, both the North Carolina General Assembly and the Trump administration have earned praise by announcing plans to expand and strengthen apprenticeship and workforce development programs. Nevertheless, apprenticeships are far from a foolproof way to address deficiencies in the workforce. Before the state and federal government commit to a long-term investment in apprenticeships, they should consider the various shortcomings of work-based programs, including institutional incentives and constraints that may undermine well-intentioned efforts to address deficiencies in our state's labor market.There is no question that a "skills gap" exists in North Carolina. According to the 2016 Employer Needs Survey (pdf) commissioned by the NCWorks Commission, employers have found that many job candidates lack the necessary work experience, training, and technical and soft skills to be successful in the workforce. Manufacturing and construction industries appear to have a more difficult time finding qualified candidates than other surveyed professions. Overall, around 40 percent of respondents had difficulty finding a suitable candidate for at least one position last year. I suspect that businesses and industries in most states encounter similar obstacles.Not all firms, however, have the incentive or capacity to support apprenticeships. Businesses in the United States have reasonable concerns about the costs and benefits of work-based programs. During the initial apprenticeship period, the cost of paying wages to apprentices and trainers, supplying apprentices with requisite equipment and materials, and compensating for lost productivity far exceeds any short-term benefits. A separate study found that 60 percent of all Swiss firms that sponsored apprenticeship programs encounter a net cost.Only when the apprentice obtains knowledge and skills comparable to trained workers and applies what they have learned for an extended period, do businesses begin to recoup their initial investment. But studies of German and Swiss apprenticeship programs indicate that only between one-third and one-half of apprentices remain with the firm that trained them. As such, businesses may be reluctant, and understandably so, to invest in an apprentice because they believe that it will ultimately benefit their competitors. That said, research suggests that the likelihood of "poaching" talent depends on the industry, the quality of the apprenticeship program, and market conditions.Multiple legal and regulatory barriers also impair the ability of the business in the United States to retain an apprentice long enough to recover their initial cost training costs. Child labor laws, union contracts, state and federal statutes, agency-enforced rules and regulations, and policies established by educational institutions or sponsoring entities impose limits on the amount of time that an apprentice can work and, thus, limit the return on investment for participating industries and businesses. Addressing these barriers are an oft-overlooked prerequisite to any large-scale expansion of apprenticeship and workforce development programs.The size of the business also plays a role. Larger firms often have the capacity to train several apprentices simultaneously, thereby reducing the marginal or individual cost of training each. Additionally, large businesses are better positioned to recoup their costs because they are likely to have post-apprenticeship job opportunities available. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), on the other hand, have limited resources and are less likely to be able to recoup their investment through the subsequent employment of the apprentice. Subsidies or tax incentives for firms that sponsor apprenticeships may put SMEs at an even larger competitive disadvantage.In the end, North Carolina and the federal government should strongly encourage, but not offer grants or tax incentives, to employers who offer apprenticeship and work-based programs. If businesses and industries believe it to be in their best interest to sponsor a training program, they should do so with minimal regulatory interference.
Gov. Cooper joined by bipartisan group of state officials, legislators for signing ceremony at State Capitol

Strengthening oversight and tightening supervision on opioid prescriptions

Requiring prescribers and pharmacies to check the prescription database before prescribing opioids to patients

Instituting a five-day limit on initial prescriptions for acute pain, with exemptions for chronic pain, cancer care, palliative care, hospice care, or medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders

Saving lives through increased access to naloxone which can reverse opioid overdose

Allowing local governments to support needle exchange programs

Contact: Ford Porter

Ford Porter govpress@nc.gov

RALEIGH: Governor Roy Cooper today signed House Bill 243, the STOP Act, into law in a ceremony at the North Carolina State Capitol.Cooper said. The STOP Act , which stands for the Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act, seeks to help curb epidemic levels of opioid drug addiction and overdose in North Carolina through several key provisions, including:The STOP Act was passed unanimously by both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly. At today's bill signing, Gov. Cooper was joined by a bipartisan group of bill sponsors, Attorney General Josh Stein, Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen, Public Safety Secretary Erik Hooks, law enforcement leaders and advocates for substance abuse treatment and recovery from across North Carolina.Gov. Cooper was also joined by Marsha Gintis, the mother of Drew Gintis, a student from Athens Drive High School in Raleigh who was prescribed opiates to treat an injury he sustained while captaining the school wrestling team. Gintis became addicted to opioids and eventually died of a fentanyl overdose.Gov. Cooper said.Signing the STOP Act is just one in a series of actions Gov. Cooper has taken to address the opioid crisis. He currently serves on the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, where he has advocated for expanding affordable health care options to increase access to treatment for people struggling with substance abuse across the country.Gov. Cooper said.More than 12,000 North Carolinians have lost their lives to opioid overdose since 1999, and opioid-related overdose deaths have spiked by more than 800 percent in the state through 2016. According to DHHS data, in 2016, opioid-related deaths were up by 20 percent from the previous year. If that rate were to continue, North Carolina could expect to lose more than 1,500 additional lives per year to opioid overdose by 2021. Gov. Cooper believes that we need to expand treatment options to people struggling with substance abuse in order to reverse the current upward trend.Earlier this week, Gov. Cooper joined Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen, M.D. at the Opioid Misuse and Overdose Prevention Summit in Raleigh to roll out a statewide plan to fight opioid abuse and overdose deaths. To read North Carolina's Opioid Action Plan, visit ncdhhs.gov/opioids.
Craft breweries and distilleries in North Carolina are shackled by lawmakers who are substituting their personal sense of morality for the greater good of the state

The N.C. House has stripped a provision in Senate Bill 155 that would have allowed North Carolina distilleries to sell directly to consumers, via the internet.Rep. Pat Hurley, R-Randolph, proposed the amendment to remove that part of the bill, which passed the House on Tuesday evening and the Senate Wednesday night.S.B. 155, among other things, clears the way for N.C. craft distillers to sell five bottles to customers each year, instead of the current one, and, contingent on local approval, allows restaurants and retail stores to begin selling alcohol Sunday at 10 a.m., as opposed to noon.Hurley's amendment, which was adopted, was misguided. It was based on bad information, a personal animus toward alcohol, and a general lack of knowledge about the sale of online liquor.Hurley proposed the amendment, but, as the vote indicates, 59 of her colleagues agree that giving North Carolina distillers a better chance to grow their business and to pad state coffers is a bad idea.Rep. James Boles, R-Moore, tried and failed to remove the retail aspect from the bill allowing Sunday sales in restaurants to start at 10 a.m. He referred to the move toward loosening rules on alcohol sales as an issue of public safety and flat-out said the bill's proponents are taking the "control" out of the Alcoholic Beverage Control commission.Just want champions of liberty and the free market want to hear, right?The C in ABC means something else altogether, he said.It hasThis isn't even close to the truth.Because of the decision to kill distiller-to-consumer sales, says one North Carolina distiller, the state, according to projections, will miss out on $4,000 in sales and excise taxes in 2017.That's one distiller. North Carolina now has almost 40 distilleries producing and selling liquor. More are coming.That lost revenue goes elsewhere. North Carolina distillers now sell their products online, but they do so, for example, using an out-of-state distributor.The distillers still get paid. The state and localities don't.The North Carolina distiller says 20 percent to 30 percent of visitors to that distillery come from places other than North Carolina, and rules prevent them from carrying bottles on an airplane. The distillery can't ship the bottles, so the state, in effect, has so far lost $10,000 to $15,000 in excise taxes, the distiller says.As Carolina Journal reported this week, the North Carolina excise tax on distilled spirits is the fifth-highest in the country, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States says.A handful of legislators, Rep. Jon Hardister, R-Guilford, and Rep. John Bradford, R-Mecklenburg, chief among them, tried in vain to persuade amendment proponents to listen to reason and to accept reality.Some lawmakers, though, make a habit of demonizing liquor, wrongly equating consumption of spirits with sin and a faltering faith. They worry about a proliferation in underage drinking, about fake IDs and fraudulent signatures. The federal rules for shipping and receiving alcohol are voluminous and exceedingly stringent, requiring forms, receipts, and signatures.North Carolina wineries can sell directly to consumers, but, as Hurley said Tuesday, wine is different. A bottle includes much less alcohol, she said. That's true. But the argument, if not silly, is flawed because, well, alcohol is alcohol. People tend to drink more beer and wine in a sitting, because the hops and fruit effectively mask the pure alcohol.A glass of wine, a pint of beer, and a shot of liquor contain a similar amount of alcohol by volume.So, people who sit down with beer and wine tend to drink more. Further, North Carolina distillers are making "craft" spirits, which are typically much more expensive than a mass produced jug-o-whiskey and, of course, taste much better. Craft spirits are made to sip, to savor. To appreciate. Kids won't rush to their cell phones to order a $50 bottle of N.C. single malt whiskey.They just won't.Alcohol isn't benign by any stretch. Its demons have probably touched us all, including me.But as Bradford so poignantly said Tuesday, S.B. 155 bill isn't only about alcohol.he said.It's about jobs and the economy. It's about entrepreneurship and innovation. It's about freedom of choice and the freedom to live one's life - within the law - as he or she sees fit.North Carolina has taken the lead toward quenching a teeming national thirst for craft beer and liquor. They've done this despite our state's cadre of restrictive Prohibition-era rules and regulations.They've done this in spite of a group of lawmakers who, rather than helping the state grow and prosper, prefer to preach to us and to foist upon us their perception of morality and righteousness.Put more plainly, it's the same old not-so-veiled attempt to establish a state religion in North Carolina. To make Sundays sacrosanct.I was raised in the Catholic Church in Pittsburgh. We often went to mass on Saturday night so we could get up early Sunday and tailgate outside Three Rivers Stadium. With an ice cold Iron City.But none of that makes me any less Christian, and any such implication is among the highest of insults.
The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day?

Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount.

Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what so called "Democracy" does exists.
Sasha Trubetskoy always makes great maps, like this cool imagining of the Roman Empire road system in the style of a public transit system.

Sasha writes:

The biggest creative element was choosing which roads and cities to include, and which to exclude. There is no way I could include every Roman road, these are only the main ones. I tried to include cities with larger populations, or cities that were provincial capitals around the 2nd century.

Obviously to travel from Petra to Gaza you would take a more or less direct road, rather than going to Damascus and "transferring" to the Via Maris. The way we travel on roads is very different from rail, which is a slight flaw in the concept of the map. But I think it's still aesthetically pleasing and informative.
Yesterday, MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were subject to typical (if unusually gross) insults from the President of the United States, leading to a standard round of milquetoast criticism from his fellow Republicans and futile rage from everyone else. But it's their claim that Trump tried to blackmail them through the threat of negative press coverage that's making news all around the world. Even the BBC has it as its top story.

What started yesterday as an undignified personal spat between Donald Trump and the hosts of a cable news show has morphed into something much more sinister  allegations of White House machinations that tread ever so close to outright blackmail. If what Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough say is true, they were the targets of political dark arts reminiscent of the schemes of the Watergate "fixers" during the Nixon White House. Could Trump aides have really used the threat of an embarrassing story in a tabloid newspaper to pressure the two hosts to provide more favourable coverage?

Trump admitted it, in one his bizarrely revealing attempts at misdirection

Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017

and yet we're so deep into the surreal dreamland of his presidency that it seems nothing he says or does could possibly lead to consequences. It's as if he's so deranged that his own party simply doesn't feel his behavior will reflect badly on them, irrespective of their support for and tolerance of it.

To many Americans, this seems almost like empty dramaa distraction, perhaps, from the partial implementation of the administration's travel ban on visitors from several Muslim-majority countries. But I wonder if to people in other countries, Trump has always been a superficial spectacle. This story has unusual international import because it looks a lot like the kind of secretive political wetwork they associate with quieter, more dangerous men. So attention is being paid to reportage like this:
According to Iran Human Rights, the Iranian authorities carried out 239 executions within the first half of 2017.





Iran Human Rights (JUNE 30 2017): According to reports by Iran Human Rights (IHR), 239 executions were carried out in Iran in the first six months of 2017.





Among them were three individuals who were under the age of 18 at the time they allegedly committed the offence they were sentenced to death for.





One of the juvenile offenders was reportedly executed in Karaj Central Prison for a murder crime he allegedly committed 30 years ago at the age of 16. The other two juvenile offenders were identified as Arman Bohr Asemani and Hassan Hassanzadeh.





194 of the 239 executions were reported by unofficial sources, while only 45 executions were announced by official sources (including Iran's Judiciary and state-run media). 12 of the 239 executions were carried out in public.





129 of the 239 prisoners were executed on drug related charges. Iranian parliament members had formerly requested from the Judiciary to stop drug related executions for at least five thousand prisoners pending further investigation. However, the request has not stopped the Judiciary from carrying out death sentences for prisoners with drug related charges.





In 2016, at least 530 people were executed in Iran, according to IHR's annual report





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The United States recognizes the importance of its partnerships with its neighbors and friends in the Western Hemisphere.

"Our partnerships in this region are vital to our economic competitiveness and our ability to solve our shared security challenges," said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan at a gathering of the Organization of American States.

The United States strongly supports the role of the Organization of American States and is committed to its success. The OAS mission in Colombia plays a critical role in monitoring the implementation of the peace process and ensuring commitments are met. And the U.S. is proud to support the OAS mission against corruption in Honduras and hopes that other nations will demonstrate this type of aggressive anti-corruption effort.

With regard to the worsening situation in Venezuela, the United States remains committed to working with OAS member-states to help find a peaceful, democratic, and lasting solution to the political and economic crisis there.

"Weve all been alarmed by the dramatic deterioration of democratic norms in Venezuela, as well as the attendant violence in which many people have died," said Deputy Secretary Sullivan."As neighbors and fellow citizens of the Americas, we can no longer stand by and watch this suffering, nor can we ignore the denial of basic freedoms like freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and political participation. . . .The responsibility falls to us to show the kind of leadership the people of our hemisphere deserve."

The United States has joined with a growing number of democracies to urge the Venezuelan government to promptly hold free, fair, and credible elections, respect the constitution and the National Assembly, provide for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, and tend to the humanitarian needs of the Venezuelan people.

"Our common goal remains," said Deputy Secretary Sullivan, "to help the people of Venezuela return to peace and prosperity with a full restoration of the rule of law and respect for freedom, political expression, and participation."
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 22

Trend:

The visit of the Moldovan president is a very important event in bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Moldova, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev while making statements for press in Baku.

Following the meeting in an expanded format, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Moldova Igor Dodon made press statements on June 22.

President Aliyev expressed confidence that President Dodons visit will give a good momentum to dynamic development of the Azerbaijan-Moldova relations.

Today we discussed a wide range of issues of mutual interest and outlined the ways for further joint activities, noted the Azerbaijani president.

Azerbaijanand Moldova will continue to strengthen political relations and joint active work at international structures, said President Aliyev.

He noted that the Moldovan presidents visit is an indicator of mutual respect and mutual interest between the two countries.

I would also like to note that the official visit of President of Moldova Mr. Dodon to Azerbaijan is one of his first official visits, and that he came to our country, we regard as a sign of respect for Azerbaijan. Today we have also discussed very widely the issues related to trade and economic cooperation. There is good potential, added the president.

Relevant instructions have already been given to the two countries structures in order to accelerate the process of coordinating issues related to the increase in the Azerbaijan-Moldova trade turnover, said President Aliyev.

To do this, we expect that a joint intergovernmental commission, which hasnt been meeting for a long time, to meet soon, added the Azerbaijani president.

During the commissions meeting, important issues will be discussed on how to increase the mutual trade, said Ilham Aliyev.

The president said that the commission will further discuss the investment opportunities, and infrastructure projects, in which the two countries companies can jointly participate.

In other words, these issues are also of great importance, because todays level of trade and economic relations, of course, cant satisfy us. We know that there is a much bigger potential, noted the president. Meanwhile, the cooperation in the field of energy and transport has great prospects. We realize many transport and energy projects in Azerbaijan, which have exceeded the borders of our country, and it would be interesting to cooperate with the Moldovan partners in this direction.

Today we also discussed the issues of interregional relations. We have already outlined here the concrete steps to structure or formalize interregional relations between various regions of our countries, said President Aliyev.

He added that the two sides also discussed the issues related to humanitarian cooperation.

The president of Moldova told me that yesterday he met with representatives of the Moldovan community in Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani diaspora in Moldova operates very actively, and I am grateful to the president for the attention shown to them. This is also an important factor in bilateral relations, said the head of state.

The Azerbaijani president thanked the Moldovan president for the visit and wished him and the friendly people of Moldova further success and prosperity.
Details added (first version 16:54)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 1

Trend:

Despite the instruction of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, certain government officials willfully decided to demolish the Haji Javad Mosque in Baku, before completing the construction of a new mosque.

Ilham Aliyev immediately after receiving the information, instructed to seriously punish those officials, Assistant to the President for Public and Political Issues Ali Hasanov told Trend.

He also noted that the main culprit, the head of the districts executive authority, has already been dismissed.

Ali Hasanov said that President Ilham Aliyev stopped the demolition of the Haji Javad Mosque in the Sovetski area back in April and instructed to create a special commission for a comprehensive and objective investigation of the issue.

Having studied the issue, the commission decided that the mosque demolition is inevitable, and Ilham Aliyev was then informed about the result of the investigation, according to Ali Hasanov.

Taking into account the opinion of the local community, President Aliyev decided on the construction of a new mosque and after this considered the demolition of the Haji Javad Mosque.

Ali Hasanov also noted that upon instruction of the Azerbaijani president, funds as well as an area on Sharifzade Street in the Yasamal district of Baku were allocated for the construction of a larger, more beautiful and modern mosque.

However, despite the instruction of the president, the Haji Javad Mosque was demolished before the construction of the new mosque was completed.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 1

Trend:

Over the past five years, the crime detection rate stood at 83 percent in Azerbaijan, said the countrys Minister of Internal Affairs Ramil Usubov in an interview with Azerbaijan newspaper.

During the period, 1,300 criminal groups that committed particularly serious crimes were neutralized, as well as nearly 12,000 wanted persons were detained, noted the minister.

According to him, about 3,500 firearms were seized, which resulted in a significant decrease in the number of crimes committed with firearms.

Usubov added that 87 percent of registered crimes are the crimes that dont pose a great threat to society.

One of the significant results of the internal affairs bodies activities is the low crime rate as compared to European countries, according to the minister.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 1

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Bulgarian entrepreneurs can invest in Azerbaijans industrial and agricultural parks, said Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev.

He made the remarks in Baku at a meeting with Menda Stoyanova, head of the budget and finance committee of the Bulgarian parliament, Azerbaijani Economy Ministry said July 1.

During the meeting, Mustafayev noted that more than 20 documents were signed between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria in the economic sphere.

The intergovernmental commission plays a major role in the development of ties between the two countries. The Azerbaijani-Bulgarian business forum was held last year, which played an important role in creation of direct ties between business communities of the two countries. Currently, nine companies with Bulgarian capital operate in Azerbaijan, he said.

The economy minister noted that favorable business and investment climate was created in Azerbaijan and there is great potential for the development of economic ties and cooperation in energy, education, tourism and agriculture.

Bulgarian businessmen can invest in various sectors of the Azerbaijani economy, in particular in industrial and agricultural parks. Azerbaijan is a transit hub in the region and in this regard, major projects are being implemented, Mustafayev said, adding that Bulgaria can also use Azerbaijans transit opportunities.

Azerbaijans trade turnover with Bulgaria in January-May 2017 reached almost $4.77 million, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 19

By Demir Azizov Trend:

Uzbekneftegaz National Holding Company intends to implement a number of joint offshore projects with Azerbaijani and Turkmen colleagues in the Caspian Sea.

Earlier, Uzbekneftegaz signed memorandums of understanding envisaging the joint activity in that sphere.

In particular, the memorandum with the Turkmen Oil State Concern envisages the establishment of mutually beneficial and long-term cooperation in joint exploration and development of deposits in the Turkmen section of the Caspian Sea, a representative of the Uzbek holding told Trend June 19.

Turkmen Oil State Concern and Uzbekneftegaz National Holding Company intend to conclude a production sharing agreement (PSA) on hydrocarbons in the future, the representative added.

In his turn, Alisher Sultanov, chairman of the board of Uzbekneftegaz National Holding Company, said during the meeting of the International Press Club that the memorandum with Azerbaijans State Oil Company SOCAR envisages admitting of Uzbekneftegaz as a partner on the operating deposit.

"The Azerbaijani side will help us train the personnel," Sultanov said.

The details of the joint work with SOCAR will be determined later, Uzbekneftegaz told Trend.

Uzbekneftegaz has not implemented any projects outside the territory of Uzbekistan during its activity since 1992.

Uzbekneftegaz is the national operator of the oil and gas complex of Uzbekistan, uniting more than 200 oil and gas enterprises.

According to British Petroleum (BP), oil production decreased by 3.1 percent up to 2.6 million tons and natural gas production increased by 8.4 percent up to 62.8 billion cubic meters in Uzbekistan in 2016 compared to 2015.

According to BP, the export of Uzbek gas amounted to 11.4 billion cubic meters, including 5.6 billion cubic meters to Russia, 4.3 billion cubic meters to China, and 1.5 billion cubic meters to Kazakhstan in 2016.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 1

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Ashgabat hosted a meeting of the Intergovernmental Turkmen-Hungarian Commission for Economic Cooperation, Turkmenistans Watan newspaper reported.

During the meeting, special attention was paid to energy issues and the prospects of supplying the Turkmen natural gas to Europe.

The issues concerning the export of liquefied natural gas and products of gas chemical enterprises were also mulled at the meeting.

"The sides focused on the interaction between the countries chambers of commerce and industry to attract business communities to implementation of investment projects and creating joint ventures," according to the newspaper.
Baku, Azerbaijan July 1

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) commenced the formal land exit process of the temporary leased land for the construction of the pipeline in June 2017, read a message on the website of TAP AG consortium.

To date, more than 420 parcels have been returned to the landowners and land exit agreements have been signed, according to the message.

The process of land exit and the return of the land to the owners commenced in Albanias Fier immediately after construction works for some of the pipeline sections in this region were completed. Before the land was returned to the respective landowners, it was reinstated to its previous condition.

The land easement and servitude process was implemented in accordance with the international standards of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). TAP has compensated landowners and land users for leasing the land and for the crop loss for a period of two years, whereas in many cases the land has been handed over in less than one year.

Temporarily leased land for the pipeline construction corridor is approximately 8,170 hectares. A total of approximately 10,585 land plots are impacted in total in Albania.

TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.

The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italys south.

TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).

TAPs shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 1

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Japans Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko mulled preparation of a bilateral investment agreement in Tokyo, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message July 1.

The sides also discussed the issues of intensifying trade and economic cooperation between Turkmenistan and Japan.

The message said that during the visit to Japan, the Turkmen delegation took part in a joint meeting of the committees on economic cooperation. Also, a meeting was held with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

During the talks, the sides discussed a wide range of issues of cooperation in political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres, reads the message.

Moreover, the Turkmen delegation was received by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan Nogami Kotaro. The parties exchanged views on the bilateral cooperation in political, trade and economic spheres.

In particular, the progress of construction of high-tech enterprises in Turkmenistan with participation of major Japanese companies was mulled during the meeting.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 21

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

The trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan has increased greatly in the past two years.

This was announced at an intergovernmental meeting in Dushanbe June 21, headed by Tajik First Deputy Prime Minister Davlatali Said and Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Ulugbek Rosikulov, Asia-Plus News Agency reports.

In 2016, the trade turnover between the two countries hit $69 million, which is almost 6 times more than in 2015. In January-May 2017, the trade between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan exceeded $70 million.

The intergovernmental meeting was attended by businessmen of the two countries, who urged the two governments to cancel or simplify visa regime introduced in 2000. They noted that this will favor development of bilateral trade and economic relations.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 23

By Demir Azizov  Trend:

The Consular Department of Uzbekistans Foreign Ministry and the countrys Embassy in Kazakhstan are taking measures to establish the identity and provide the necessary assistance to the victims of the road accident in Kazakhstan, the Foreign Ministrys press service said in a message.

The accident occurred in the Akmola Region of Kazakhstan on June 22. A bus heading from Shymkent to Volgograd overturned and as a result of the accident, nine citizens of Uzbekistan were killed.

In total, the bus was transporting 52 people, including 50 citizens of Uzbekistan. Eighteen out of 17 citizens of Uzbekistan and a citizen of Kazakhstan were hospitalized.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 1



By Fatih Karimov  Trend:



The trade turnover between Iran and China stood at $15.2 billion in first five months of 2017, according to the latest statistics released by the Chinese Customs Administration.



The figure indicates a rise by 41 percent in comparison with the first five months of 2016.



China's exports to Iran in the 5-month period amounted to $7.2 billion, 25 percent more, year-on-year.



The country also imported $8 billion worth of goods from Iran in that period, 58 percent more compared to the 5-month period of 2016.



The trade turnover between the two countries was $51 billion in 2014, 31 percent more compared to the preceding year.



The figure stood at $34 billion in 2015, indicating a 34-percent plunge.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 30

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Iran increased gas delivery to Turkey by 14.1 percent to 3.228 billion cubic meters (bcm) in four months of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016.

Irans gas deliveries to Turkey in April reached about 811 million cubic meters (mcm), 24.5 percent more than in April 2016, the statistics of Turkeys Energy Market Regulatory Authority indicate.

Since January 2017, Iran delivers gas to Turkey free of charge to pay off its $1.9 billion debt to Turkey, based on the International Court of Arbitrations verdict. Turkey had sued Iran for overcharging on gas price during the second term of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran exported 7.7 bcm of gas to Turkey in 2016. Iran had 17.46 percent share in Turkeys total gas imports (including LNG) in March 2017.
Tehran, Iran, July 1

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

EMO Hannover metalworking exhibition, to be held in Hannover, Germany on Sept. 18-23, held a press conference in the Iranian capital city Tehran to announce its agenda to companies in Iran as one of the traditional trade partners of the world economic and technological power, Trend correspondent reports July 1.

EMO Hannover is the world's premier trade fair for the metalworking sector. It is the top global trade fair of the sector and the most efficient marketing instrument in the branch, bringing together manufacturers and users from all countries.

Wilfried Schafer, executive director of the German Machine Tool Builders Association (VDW) headed the press conference.

Besides explaining the exhibition in detail, Mr. Shafer also briefed the session on Iran-Germany technological and industrial cooperation.

We plan next year to bring representatives from our association to Iran to help with learning and training Iranian technicians to help cooperation between Iranian and German partners, he said.

According to Schafer, last year a similar round of training was held in Stuttgart for Iranian workforce.

The training included one month of theory learning and two weeks of internship with German partners, and the Iranian and German partners signed technological contracts worth 12 million euros in the aftermath of the training.

According to Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization, a similar training semester is going to be launched for Iranian workforce under German partners in about one month.

The organization has announced that representatives from 12 Iranian companies are to be dispatched to Germany under the program. A key topic in this program will be the use of renewable energy in industry.
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has admitted Germany's failures in combatting propaganda activities of the PKK terror group in his country, Anadolu reported.

I think Turkey is right when it warns us and says we should not allow the PKK to carry out propaganda activities in public, Gabriel told reporters in a news conference at the Foreign Ministry on Friday.

I also think that it is unacceptable to ban public appearances of Turkish politicians, but at the same time [we] allow posters of Mr. Ocalan, he said, referring to rallies of PKK followers in Germany, in which they use flags of the terrorist group and its so-called chief, Abdullah Ocalan.

Germany outlawed the PKK in 1993, but authorities have been reluctant to take strong measures against the propaganda, funding and recruitment activities of the group, which is also listed as a terrorist organization by the EU and the U.S.

Berlins reluctance in combatting PKK activities in the country has been the source of major friction between Turkey and Germany, and the issue was recently raised by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his meeting with Gabriel in Ankara early this month.

The top German diplomat said on Friday the PKK was not only a threat for Turkey, but also Germany.

The PKK was banned in our country in the early 90s, not only for what it did in Turkey, but also due to its involvement in extortion, drug trafficking, arms trade in our country; [and] due to the threat for citizens who came from Turkey to Germany, he said.

The PKK has more than 14,000 followers in Germany, and raised more than 13 million ($14.3 million) in 2015, according to reports by the German domestic intelligence agency, the BfV.

German courts opened more than 4,000 cases against PKK suspects since 1993, but German authorities often turned down extradition demands by Ankara.

Gabriel argued that German government have no influence on the decisions of independent courts and urged the Turkish side to send legally-sound evidence to their German counterparts.
According to Al Mayadeen broadcaster, the Qatari Emir said that Doha "is seeking a complex development of relations and cooperation with Iran in order to solve the problems of the Islamic world, which is currently in a difficult situation", Sputnik reported.

The Emir's comments come two days after Kuwait, a mediator in the diplomatic row between Qatar and Gulf Arab states, had handed to Doha a list of objectives it needs to meet to restore ties with the neighbors. In particular, the Gulf States demand from Qatar to reduce ties with Iran, halt military cooperation with Turkey and shut the Al Jazeera state broadcaster.

Rouhani, on his part, expressed hope that the regional crisis would be settled by diplomatic means, according to the broadcaster.

"Air, land and sea space will always be open to the brotherly country and neighbor - Qatar," Rouhani stressed during the conversation.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt broke off diplomatic relations with Doha and stopped all communication with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs. Later, the Maldives, Mauritius, and Mauritania also announced the severance of diplomatic relations. Jordan and Djibouti reduced the level of their diplomatic missions in Qatar. Senegal, Niger and Chad announced the withdrawal of ambassadors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa discussed during Saturday's phone call the situation around Qatar, pointing out that the diplomatic row is negatively affecting the situation in the Middle Eastern region, the Kremlin said in a statement, Sputnik reported.

"During the exchange of opinions on the situation around Qatar, [the leaders] noted that this is negatively affecting the difficult situation in the Middle East. [The leaders] pointed out the need for the mutually respectful dialogue between all the states involved in the conflict," the statement said.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt broke off diplomatic relations and communication with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs. Later, the Maldives, Mauritius, and Mauritania also announced the severance of diplomatic relations. Jordan and Djibouti reduced the level of their diplomatic missions in Qatar.

Last week, Kuwait, which is serving as a mediator between Qatar and the Gulf States, handed the demands of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain over to Doha. The requests include the severance of Qatars relations with Iran, closure of Turkeys military base on Qatar's territory and a shutdown of the Al Jazeera TV channel. Doha was given 10 days to implement the demands.

Qatar has called the conditions impossible and urged for their revision.
Nineteen people were killed in Mexico's northern state of Sinaloa late on Friday in a run of related shootouts between police and gunmen, Reuters reported.

Armed men in pickup trucks approached police on a major highway near the city of Mazatlan and began firing at them, according to press releases from the state police and state attorney general's office.

Aided by federal forces, the police fought off the attackers and pursued them to the nearby town of La Amapa, where the gunfight resumed.

Seventeen people were killed in the shootouts with police, and another two were killed nearby in what appear to be earlier, related shootings, the attorney general's office said.

Five police suffered gunshots and are in stable condition, with two of those officers suffering head wounds, according to state police. Sinaloa is a major battleground in Mexico's drug war.

Found at the scene were 16 semiautomatic rifles, seven handguns and a shotgun, the attorney general's office said.

The state is home to the Sinaloa cartel, whose most well known boss, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was extradited to the United States in January to face trial.

Police killed 17 people for every officer lost in gunbattles in 2014, according to a study by Mexico's National Autonomous University, a number experts say is consistent with excessive use of force.

In 2015, Mexican police executed nearly two dozen suspected gang members after ambushing them at a ranch near the small town of Tanhuato in the violent western state of Michoacan, one of the worst abuses by security forces in a decade of grisly drug violence.

Some 30,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since drug violence increased sharply around 2007. Since former president Felipe Calderon sent the army out to battle drug gangs at the end of 2006 more than 150,000 have been killed.
The ruling AK Party southeastern Diyarbakir's Lice district deputy chairman Orhan Mercan was shot dead early Saturday, the partys district chairman told Anadolu Agency.

Mercan was shot in front of his house in the Mulla neighborhood and taken to Lice State Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to Ismail Demir.

Initial indications point to the PKK being responsible for the attack, Demir said.

The PKK is listed as a terror organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU.

More than 1,200 victims, including security personnel and civilians, have lost their lives in PKK attacks in Turkey since the terror group resumed its decades-old campaign against the state in July 2015.

According to Turkey's defense minister, more than 10,000 terrorists have been since killed in security operations.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 1

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The composition of Turkeys Cabinet of Ministers is expected to be changed, the Turkish media outlets reported July 1 citing sources in the countrys ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

According to the reports, changes in the government will be made next week.

It is expected that at least five new ministers and advisers will be appointed.

Meanwhile, several deputy prime ministers are expected to be replaced, according to the reports.

Earlier, it was expected that the formation of a new Cabinet of Ministers in Turkey will be held after the referendum in the country.

The referendum on making amendments to the Turkish Constitution was held on April 16. According to the results, 51.33 percent of voters cast their ballots in favor of the amendments to the Turkish Constitution. Some 84 percent of Turkeys population participated in the voting.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Turkey said Saturday that it will respond to any kind of terror threat coming from the soil of Syria or any other country, Anadolu reported.

Turkey will continue to take all necessary measures to protect its national security and its borders, said presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, referring to recent harassment fire on Turkish forces from the PKK/PYD-held area of Afrin, northwestern Syria.

His comments followed Turkey deploying military troops to the border near Afrin last week.

"Any threat that may come from Syria or another country towards Turkey -- this could be from Daesh, the [PKK] PYD/YPG, whatever terrorist organization it is from -- Turkey responds immediately with all reprisals," he said.

Turkey considers the PYD/YPG to be the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, a designated terrorist organization in Turkey, the U.S. and EU.

More than 1,200 victims, including security personnel and civilians, have lost their lives in PKK attacks in Turkey since the terror group resumed its decades-old campaign in July 2015.
A total of 11 PKK terrorists were killed in Turkeys eastern and southeastern provinces and northern Iraq on Saturday, Anadolu reported.

Five terrorists were neutralized in Karliova district of eastern Bingol province during an air-backed operation against the terrorist group PKK, Bingol Governors Office said.

Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question were killed or sometimes captured.

During an ongoing anti-PKK operation in southeastern Hakkari province, four terrorists were neutralized in an airstrike on Ora area in northern Iraq, a source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

Operations in the region continue, the source added.

The Hakkari Governors Office said that one other PKK terrorist was neutralized in Guvendagi area of Cukurca district in a separate operation while another was killed in southeastern Diyarbakir province.

In southern Hatay province, two Syria-born terrorists who were reportedly trying to cross to the PKK/PYD-held area of Afrin in northwestern Syria were apprehended, the governors office said.

The PKK is listed as a terror organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU.

More than 1,200 victims, including security personnel and civilians, have lost their lives in PKK attacks in Turkey since the terror group resumed its decades-old campaign in July 2015.

A total of 11 PKK terrorists were killed in Turkeys eastern and southeastern provinces and northern Iraq on Saturday, according to local governors.

Five terrorists were neutralized in Karliova district of eastern Bingol province during an air-backed operation against the terrorist group PKK, Bingol Governors Office said.

Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question were killed or sometimes captured.

During an ongoing anti-PKK operation in southeastern Hakkari province, four terrorists were neutralized in an airstrike on Ora area in northern Iraq, a source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

Operations in the region continue, the source added.

The Hakkari Governors Office said that one other PKK terrorist was neutralized in Guvendagi area of Cukurca district in a separate operation while another was killed in southeastern Diyarbakir province.

In southern Hatay province, two Syria-born terrorists who were reportedly trying to cross to the PKK/PYD-held area of Afrin in northwestern Syria were apprehended, the governors office said.

The PKK is listed as a terror organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU.

More than 1,200 victims, including security personnel and civilians, have lost their lives in PKK attacks in Turkey since the terror group resumed its decades-old campaign in July 2015.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 1, 2017 - 15:36 | World, All

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Saturday against Hong Kong becoming the base for an anti-China movement, in remarks on the 20th anniversary of the return of the former British colony to China.

Xi also said the young people of Hong Kong should be given a more patriotic education, and the territory must adopt procedures for Beijing to legally wield power over local issues.

In an inauguration ceremony as part of the same event, Xi swore in Hong Kong's new leader Carrie Lam and her Cabinet, whom Beijing is counting on to quell the swelling pro-democracy movement in the territory.

"With the backing of China, Hong Kong will continue to thrive," Xi said, addressing some 2,000 guests including Chinese officials, foreign diplomats and local dignitaries.

"Hong Kong's continued prosperity is in China's best interests. The 'one country, two systems' principle is proven to be the best solution to Hong Kong's historic issues. We will ensure that the principle will be implemented without bending or shifting and remain on the right track."

But Xi was emphatic that Beijing would not tolerate any challenge to its ultimate authority.

"Any act that endangers the safety of national sovereignty, challenges central authorities' power and the authenticity of the Basic Law, or uses Hong Kong to infiltrate and sabotage the mainland, is crossing the bottom-line and will resolutely not be tolerated," Xi declared.

In last year's elections, advocates for self-determination and even for independence won a handful of seats in the Hong Kong legislature for the first time. That occurred in the wake of the "Occupy Movement" in 2014, when tens of thousands of people blocked major thoroughfares across the territory for 79 days to protest what they viewed as an undemocratic political reform plan enforced by China.

According to the Basic Law, the mini-constitution in effect since the handover, Hong Kong was promised it would be allowed to elect its leader and legislators by universal suffrage. But China's parliament decided for the 2017 leadership race, only candidates it approved would be allowed to run.

Although the plan was rejected by Hong Kong's legislature, a 1,200-strong Election Committee loaded with Beijing-loyalists chose Carrie Lam to become Hong Kong's new chief executive, over a more popular rival, former financial chief John Tsang, and a retired judge.

In her inauguration speech Saturday, Lam said she will ensure the "one country, two systems" set-up endures, rebuild trust between the executive and legislative branches, and boost job opportunities, especially for young people in the innovative technology sector.

"My vision is to make our home Hong Kong a place where justice, the rule of law, civilization, fairness and kindness thrive," Lam said.

During a flag-raising ceremony held earlier, a scuffle broke out hundreds of meters away from the venue.

A group of pro-democracy protesters demanding redress for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and freedom for Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo were blocked from marching by a larger pro-China group. Police also took away some of the pro-democracy protesters, including radical legislator Leung Kwok-hung and student leader Joshua Wong.

An annual pro-democracy protest march is scheduled later in the day where tens of thousands of participants are expected.

Xi departed Hong Kong on Saturday afternoon aboard a Chinese government plane, ending a three-day visit to Hong Kong, his first there since becoming the Chinese president more than four years ago.
- Nollywood actress Lola Alao reveals why Yoruba movie genre of Nollywood has many single mothers

- The actress who is also a single mother claims such actresses have children for men who they are not meant to be with

- Though she is not with her baby daddy and had even married another man after him, she is back to being single

- She claims she is not writing off a reunion with her baby daddy

Nollywood actress Lola Alao is speaking up for a single mothers in the Yoruba movie industry.

The single mother of one thinks every single mother made the wrong choice of man thus their getting separated from the father of their child(ren).

Taking questions from Vanguardngr, the Kogi state born actress explains why there are many single mothers in the Yoruba movie genre of Nollywood. She said:

Every single mother made a wrong choice - Nollywood actress Lola Alao

PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

I think it has to do with making the wrong choices. I will say they havent gotten to their final destination that is why they are single mothers. I think every single mother you see made a wrong choice.

Does that apply to you too?

Yes, I think every single mother you see made a wrong choice.

She also spoke on her relationship with the father of her daughter whom she left years back to marry another man, unfortunately that marriage too crashed like a badly packed cards. She said:

What is your relationship with the father of your child?

Actress Lola Alao's daughter

I will keep saying that the father of my daughter is the best. He is kindhearted and he is a very good person. Forget whatever he might have said about me out of annoyance, we have a very good relationship.

Despite marrying another man after her baby daddy, Alao is not giving up on a reunion with the father of her daughter. Asked of any plan to go back to him she said:

If God says so, why not!

Is there any man in the picture right now?

No, there is none.

Speaking on the prices she has had to pay for stardom she said:

I have paid a lot; stardom has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include preferential treatments wherever you go and the disadvantages have to do with being harassed by area boys, any time you are in the public.

READ ALSO: How Flavour forced me to quit my promising music career - Ex-fiancee Beverly Oh reveals

Legit.ng reported that Lola Alao broke the net when she converted to Islam from Christianity. She later went on to explain the reasons behind her conversion.

Watch Nigerians' reaction to whether they can marry a baby mama or baby daddy below on NAIJ TV:

Source: Legit.ng




Sears

Some Sears and Kmart stores are deteriorating as their parent company, Sears Holdings, struggles to turn the business around following years of plunging sales.

In interviews with Business Insider, half a dozen employees described signs of decay in the stores they work in. These include a rat problem, collapsing ceilings, empty shelves, and a lack of working toilets for weeks on end.

Some of these problems started several years ago, and have been getting progressively worse, according to the employees, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from Sears.

Sears acknowledged some of the issues that employees highlighted, such as leakage problems and broken toilets, saying in an email that several of these have been addressed with repairs, but denied an employee's claim that the store they work in has a rat infestation.

Workers from the store level to Sears' headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois  as well as critics outside the company  claim that the stores' decline is the result of years of underinvestment in maintenance and other capital expenditures at the direction of Sears CEO Eddie Lampert.

"He has been clamping down on that from day one. This has been going on for over a decade," Mark Cohen, former Sears Canada CEO and a professor at Columbia Business School, told Business Insider.

"Stores are your face to your customers and they have to be refreshed and renewed and maintained  and if they arent, the customer starts to treat you like a pariah," he said.

Lampert has long faced criticism for not investing enough money in Sears' physical stores. He addressed this criticism head-on in 2013.

"I was criticized for not investing enough in the stores," Lampert said at the time. "My point of view is we couldn't invest in everything."

Story continues

Lampert has invested instead in share buybacks and building up the company's e-commerce operation and loyalty program, called Shop Your Way.

But the stores' decline has stymied those initiatives, according to employees.

"We missed the basics so badly," a senior Sears executive who recently left the company told Business Insider. Sears' website and loyalty program "is icing on the cake and means nothing if the cake is fundamentally rotten."

'The store is infested with rats'

At a Sears store in Lafayette, Louisiana, maintenance delays led to a rat problem, according to a former employee who worked in loss prevention at the store.

"Sears turned into a disgusting, filthy place," the former employee said. "The store is infested with rats... at night when we would all be in the office area waiting for the managers to finish, you would hear troops of rats running around the ceiling."

Kmart

He said there were frequent ceiling leaks in the store and in the stock room, which "smelled of rat urine and feces."

"Every storm the ceiling would leak," he said. "This water would sometimes get on the merchandise. There would be tiles so soaking wet that they would fall."

Sears spokesman Howard Riefs said the store "experienced ceiling leaks during heavy storms."

Riefs said the claim of a rat infestation is "false," citing the store exterminator. He also said the store is closing in September.

The Sears store in Cockeysville, Maryland  which Sears recently revealed it is planning to close  has also had recurring ceiling leaks, according to one long-time employee of the store.

Sears 43 of 59

But "the biggest problem over the years has been the air conditioning," the employee said. "At times, in the past, it was hotter inside than outside."

Meanwhile the Kmart store in Eureka, California went three weeks in April 2016 without a functioning bathroom, according to an employee of that store.

"We were told to clock out and drive to the mall or go to a gas station" until the store rented porta-potties and set them up outside the store, he said.

There were problems in the Eureka store's employee break room, as well, according to this employee. He claimed it lacked a working sink and drinking water, that the garbage cans regularly overflowed, and that light bulbs in the store parking lot were out for months.

Conditions aren't much better in the corporate offices, according to a former Sears employee who worked at the company's headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, for more than four years until he was laid off in late 2016.

"It is very typical to see garbage cans, buckets, and even large plastic dumpsters scattered all over the building to catch leaks," the former employee told Business Insider.

Kmart

He said leaks aren't properly repaired, so water-damaged walls and ceilings are a common sight.

"Typically just a hole would be punched in the ceiling to keep the water draining vs. pooling," he said.

Riefs said a glass atrium at Sears' headquarters "experiences occasional leaks during heavy rains."

He confirmed leakage problems at the Cockeysville store. He said the roof was replaced in 2016 and since two roof drains failed in May 2017, there have been no additional issues. The store's air conditioning system was also rebuilt last year and "we actively monitor for issues," he said.

The broken toilets and sink at the Eureka Kmart were related to a leaking pipe, and porta-potties were on the site within six hours of the water being shut off for repairs, he said. The parking lot lights adjacent to the building are currently functional and "a few on the perimeter away from the building will be replaced this summer," he said.

When reached by phone, the Eureka Kmart store declined to comment. The Lafayette and Cockeysville Sears stores did not return requests for comment.

Sears 1 of 59

The problems that employees describe in Sears' stores aren't just structural. Some stores are running out of merchandise to fill the shelves as suppliers retreat from the ailing retailer, according to several employees.

"We used to have walls and aisles full of televisions  upwards of 100 on the floor," one Sears store employee said. "Now we have six or so displayed and nothing in stock. I find it's harder and harder to satisfy customer needs  can't get things from other stores anymore because everything close has closed... we are like a ship adrift on the open stormy sea."

Riefs said this shortage is intentional.

"In 2014, the company made a shift in its consumer electronics strategy from focusing on televisions to connected solutions," he said. "As a result, we stock fewer television models in stores."

A former employee of a Kmart store in Rochester, New York, told Business Insider in January that her store started moving freight straight from delivery trucks to the sales floor  skipping the stock room altogether  to fill empty store space, and that it led to an "appalling" mess.

Kmart

On top of these problems, many Sears and Kmart stores are struggling with a lack of labor, as Sears trims its store staff and slashes hours for its part-time workers to cut costs.

The company has said it plans to reduce costs by $1.25 billion in fiscal 2017.

"We are making progress with the fundamental restructuring of our operations that we initiated in February," Lampert said in a statement in June. "We remain focused on realigning our business model in an evolving and highly competitive retail environment. This requires us to optimize our store footprint and operate as a leaner and simpler organization."

Sears 34 of 59

But store issues aren't going unnoticed by shoppers  and they appear to be sending many customers away for good.

Sears' annual revenues dropped by nearly 50% to $22.1 billion between 2011 and 2016, and the company recorded net losses of more than $8.2 billion over that period.

"Sears can only blame themselves," Michael Looney, who worked at his local Sears store in Antioch, California in the 1970s, told Business Insider. The Antioch store has "suffered terribly" and now "looks like a flea market."

"You could fire a cannon in any direction and not hit one sales person," he said.

NOW WATCH: Forget Chicago and New York  the best hot dog in the world is in Iceland

Related:





More From Business Insider
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence look on as employees work during a visit to Carrier factory, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis, Ind.

As part of his America First principles, president Donald Trump and the steel industry figures he has brought into his administration, including commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, are planning to overrule virtually his entire cabinet to impose 20% tariffs on steel imports, Axios reports. They plan to cite national security concerns.

Aside from angering US allies and undermining global trade norms, the first victims of such a policy are likely to be American workers who make things with steel.

Here are the simple economics: There are 60,000 US workers employed in the steel and iron-working industry. More than 900,000 American workers make cars and car parts out of that steel. While tariffs will be a boon to the domestic steel industry, driving up prices, those same price increases will make using that steel more expensive, especially in a competitive global market. Driving up prices of raw materials is a good incentive to move manufacturing overseas.

We even have an object lesson: In 2002, president George W. Bush imposed tariffs on steel imports for much the same reason as Trumpcombatting cheap imports from other countriesbut ended them when the World Trade Organization ruled them illegal. Over the 18 months that the tariffs were imposed, a spike in steel prices put 200,000 workers out of their jobs, according to a study (pdf) paid for by companies who buy steel. Some of the states with concentrated job losses were those that were key to Trumps victory in 2016, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Florida.

Its true that the steel industry has suffered in the US and Europe thanks in part to state-backed firms in China dumping cheap steel on the international market. But unilateral tariffs dont promise a simple solution, since the US bought less than 2% of Chinas steel exports in 2015, and less than 1% last year, a result of 20 trade remediesrules that limit unfair salesincluding four that went into effect last December after court wins against China by the Obama administration. Most US steel imports come from Brazil, Canada and South Korea.

Story continues

The policy-making process on steel appears seems similar to the one that resulted in restrictions on travel to Cuba. In that case, as with steel, most officials argued that the US would be better served by normalization but were overruled by a handful of White House advisers.

Other policies might do a better job of fixing the US steel industry. A confusing thicket of regulations, for example, means that companies melting down raw steel imported from abroad can sell their finished product under rules that privilege American manufacturers, while those that use more modern technology to heat and press raw steel from abroad dont get the same preferential treatment.

This is the challenge of industrial policy: Its very hard to intervene in one sector of the economy without creating unintended consequences in another. The steel industry may see gains from higher prices, but workers up the value chain will suffer. When Bushs tariffs went into place, Ford and GM challenged him in court. Were likely to see the same scenario this time around, so expect to see a clash of Donald Trump versus Americas carmakers.

Related:

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More stories from Quartz:
Elon Musk went on a tweet storm about finishing the first leg of his L.A. tunnel dig

Elon Musk is on a roll.

On the weekend of June 23, his company SpaceX successfully completed two back-to-back rocket ship launches .

Then on Wednesday, Musk announced The Boring Company, the infrastructure business he founded in 2016, has completed the first leg of its dig to create a tunnel underneath Los Angeles.

He shared his glee through a series of tweets that proclaimed his love for tunnels and floors.

First he revealed the progress, referring to "Godot," the boring machine named after the Samuel Beckett character.

Then this:

According to Musk's tweets, "They will never let you down." And, "They are so under appreciated." Still:

"Just try one," Musk urges via Twitter. "It's way better than you think."

Then he gets romantic:

Musk has used social media to share various milestones during the tunnel-boring project, which he is undertaking in an effort to alleviate L.A. traffic. First, he plans to build a tunnel from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. to nearby Los Angeles International Airport.

Last month, Musk posted photos of "Godot." Before that he posted a YouTube video of what the completed tunnel system might look like.

Musk has also been posting about his SpaceX projects.

Friday, SpaceX launched and landed a reused rocket carrying the first telecommunications satellite for Bulgaria in a mission that originated at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Then on Sunday, SpaceX launched a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California that landed on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean in eight minutes. The drone ship the rocket landed on was named "Just Read the Instructions."

Musk put a time-lapse video of the landing on his personal Instagram account.

The Sunday launch was part of a project SpaceX is doing for mobile voice and data satellite communications company Iridium. In total, SpaceX will put 75 satellites into orbit for the telecommunications company.

Story continues

In addition to launching telecommunications satellites, Musk has grand plans for utilizing reusable rockets to make living on Mars feasible  he believes it could bring down the cost to less than buying a house in the U.S. He sees a future where people would save up for a move to Mars like they do a home.

"It gets to the point where almost anyone, if they saved up and this was their goal, could buy a ticket and move to Mars  and given that Mars would have a labor shortage for a long time, jobs would not be in short supply," he says.

On Musk's Instagram, he has also posted things like SpaceX parties and nights out with his new(ish) girlfriend Amber Heard.

There are more intimate shots, like hotel-room selfies, moments with his kids and this picture of him at 17.

Musk also recently revealed his morning routine .

See also:

The psychological trick that motivates Mark Cuban and Elon Musk to succeed

Elon Musk's 3 best pieces of advice for how to be a great leader

Ahead of Elon Musk, this self-made millionaire already launched a company to merge your brain with computers

This is an updated version of a previously published article .





More From CNBC


greta van susteren

MSNBC anchor Greta Van Susteren announced in a tweet that she is leaving the network after just six months.

"I am out at MSNBC," she wrote.

Van Susteren's new show premiered in January, several months after she was taken off the air at Fox, where she had worked for over a decade, amid a difficult contract renegotiation.

Chief legal correspondent Ari Melber, who has played a number of different roles at the network over the past several years, will replace Van Susteren permanently.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin informed staff about the change in a memo Thursday afternoon.

"MSNBC and Greta Van Susteren have decided to part ways," Griffin wrote. "Greta is a well-regarded television veteran and one of only a few broadcasters who can say theyve hosted shows at all three major cable news networks. We are grateful to her and wish her the best.

"Im also pleased to share that Ari Melber, MSNBCs Chief Legal Correspondent and host of the 'The Point' on weekends will become the permanent host of the 6pm hour next month. Ari is a frequent presence on TODAY and across various MSNBC shows and will continue those appearances as he takes on his new duties."



While cable programs often take years to steadily grow ratings, Van Susteren's show at 6 p.m. was one of the lower-rated shows on cable news in her time slot.

In the second quarter of this year, she trailed both Bret Baier's "Special Report" on Fox and Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room" on CNN in overall viewers and in advertisers' coveted demographic of viewers between 25-54 years-old.

NOW WATCH: Ivanka Trump's Instagram put her at the center of a controversy over her lavish art collection





More From Business Insider


If President Donald Trump or members of his administration told MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough that a National Enquirer hit piece would be published unless they provided the president with better coverage, that would be a crime, a Harvard law professor said.

Laurence Tribe, a liberal Harvard Law School professor who worked in the Obama administration, tweeted that if the White House told Brzezinski and Scarborough that the tabloid would "smear them unless they laid off" Trump, it would be a violation of the anti-extortion statute.

That statute, 18 US Code 872, says: "Whoever, being an officer, or employee of the United States or any department or agency thereof, or representing himself to be or assuming to act as such, under color or pretense of office or employment commits or attempts an act of extortion, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned."

The statute appears to leave open a window for interpretation. One could read it as covering only extortion directly tied to an amount of money, as another line in it specifies the punishment for an official "if the amount so extorted or demanded does not exceed $1,000." But the statute could also be read to cover any possible "act of extortion," and the National Enquirer incident, if true, could fall under that umbrella.

"If Trump told staffers to extort, he too has committed that serious crime," Tribe, whom Trump once cited at a 2016 Republican primary debate to question whether Sen. Ted Cruz was eligible to run for president, subsequently tweeted.

Alan Dershowitz, the famed attorney and a fellow Harvard law professor, disagreed with Tribe's assertion.

"Threatening to smear someone who smears him is not extortion," Dershowitz tweeted. "If it were prisons [would] be more overcrowded. Jefferson [would] have been imprisoned."

"Why are many libs willing to expand crim statutes/contract constitution in futile effort to 'get' Trump," he said in a follow-up tweet. "Establishes dangerous/bad precedent."

Story continues

The National Enquirer story, published earlier this month, accused "Morning Joe" cohosts Brzezinski and Scarborough, who announced their engagement in May, of carrying on an affair while married to other people and of using "ironclad divorce deals to keep their dirty secret." Questions about it arose after Trump's vicious Thursday tweets claiming Brzezinski had been "bleeding badly from a face-lift" during a trip to his Mar-a-Lago estate in December, a claim that photos of Brzezinski seemed to disprove.

The pair wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday: "This year, top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked.

"We ignored their desperate pleas," they wrote.

Trump's response to the allegation on Friday morning appeared to confirm that such conversations took place.

"Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time," Trump tweeted. "FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show."

After Trump's tweet, both The Daily Beast and New York magazine published reports about the context of the conversations between the White House and the hosts of "Morning Joe" regarding the National Enquirer story.

White House officials told The Daily Beast that Scarborough had spoken "many weeks ago" with Jared Kushner, a senior adviser and Trump's son-in-law, whom Scarborough is known to be close with, about the upcoming story.

The officials said Scarborough "calmly sought" the advice of Kushner, who "recommended he speak with the president."

But those sources said there was no hostile threat or blackmail attempt in those conversations.

New York magazine, citing "three sources familiar with the private conversations, made public a much different account:

"After the inauguration, Morning Joe's coverage of Trump turned sharply negative. 'This presidency is fake and failed,' Brzezinski said on March 6, for example. Around this time, Scarborough and Brzezinski found out the Enquirer was preparing a story about their affair. While Scarborough and Brzezinski's relationship had been gossiped about in media circles for some time, it was not yet public, and the tabloid was going to report that they had left their spouses to be together.

"In mid-April, Scarborough texted with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner about the pending Enquirer story. Kushner told Scarborough that he would need to personally apologize to Trump in exchange for getting Enquirer owner David Pecker to stop the story. (A spokesperson for Kushner declined to comment). Scarborough says he refused, and the Enquirer published the story in print on June 5, headlined 'Morning Joe Sleazy Cheating Scandal!'"

Trump is close with Pecker, who has run several pro-Trump pieces in his publication in addition to salacious, unfounded stories involving Cruz and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

New York magazine noted that Trump tweeted last August: "Some day, when things calm down, I'll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns!"

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski

In a Friday statement, the National Enquirer denied any knowledge of or involvement in any discussions between the "Morning Joe" hosts and the White House.

But after Trump's Friday tweet, many were quick to note his not-so-subtle acknowledgment that he had the power to thwart a National Enquirer story.

"Woops, you just admitted you can kill National Enquirer stories if you want," tweeted Judd Legum, the editor of the liberal website Think Progress.

Trump "had power over Nat'l Enquirer coverage of Joe & Mika's private life," tweeted Jonathan Alter, an MSNBC analyst, who questioned whether he "also orchestrated hits on" Cruz, Clinton, or Ben Carson, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate.

Scarborough shot back at Trump's tweet, but his answer led to additional questions.

"Yet another lie," he tweeted. "I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months."

But MSNBC told Politico that it would not immediately release those conversations, which caused some to question why the "Morning Joe" hosts and their network would hold back.

"If NBC talent were being blackmailed, threatened by the WH, why would they sit on this for so long?" tweeted John Weaver, the chief strategist for Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich's 2016 presidential campaign. "Or at all?"

Tribe, who said he was confident the White House violated the law with the Enquirer story, tweeted that he'd be pleased if this too became an element of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.

"It would be poetic justice for Trump if Special Counsel Mueller were to interview @JoeNBC & @morningmika as part of his investigation of WH," he wrote.

NOW WATCH: 'Do you even understand what you're asking?': Putin and Megyn Kelly have a heated exchange over Trump-Russia ties





More From Business Insider
Greta Van Susteren, whose For the Record With Greta program was canceled by MSNBC on Thursday, was given every chance to succeed by the cable network, but she apparently never gained the trust of loyal MSNBC viewers who refused to see her as anything but a former Fox News host.

Van Susterens program faced dismal ratings throughout its run. One particular statistic that alarmed insiders at MSNBC was that ratings would sink after anchor Chuck Todds 5 p.m. Meet the Press Daily ended and her 6 p.m. show began. Typically, the ratings are supposed to go up throughout the day, not decline. According to two sources, Chris Matthews, who hosts Hardball, was frustrated that Van Susterens show preceded his at 7 p.m. Eastern time, which didnt help his ratings.

At a time when MSNBC as a whole has enjoyed a surge in ratings and when the network is No. 1 in the highly coveted demographic of viewers ages 18 to 65, Van Susterens ratings were the one sore spot in the lineup.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin announced that Ari Melber, chief legal correspondent, is replacing Van Susteren. Melber has become a popular member of MSNBCs lineup and has been hosting his own program on Sundays, The Point. He also regularly fills in for other MSNBC hosts, including its top anchors, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence ODonnell.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss network business, Melber started negotiating with MSNBC to replace Van Susteren in the past two weeks, but that was not known to Van Susteren.

CNN was the first to report that Van Susteren was in the midst of preparing for her program Thursday when she was told she was being pulled off the air. Van Susterens husband, a prominent trial lawyer who also negotiates her contracts, told CNN that issues related to the termination of her contract were still being worked out.

Van Susteren was not given the opportunity to say goodbye to her viewers on MSNBC. Not allowing departing hosts to bid farewell on air became a de facto NBC News policy after Ann Currys tearful goodbye on Today after she was pushed out in 2012. Currys farewell led to a flood of harsh criticism of NBC News for her unceremonious termination.

Story continues

MSNBC had been the third cable network that Van Susteren had hosted a program on. The lawyer started her television career at CNN during the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1994 before moving in 2002 to Fox News, where she hosted her own program for 14 years. She left in September 2016, shortly after Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes was forced to resign.

Van Susteren, according to one well-placed source, did not have a lucrative contract with MSNBC, compared with what she had been paid at Fox News. That means the network wont be faced with having to pay out a hefty sum to terminate her contract. Additionally, Van Susteren, while hopeful that her show would be successful, always knew that For the Record was an experiment, given MSNBCs largely progressive audience, and that the risk of cancellation was always on the horizon.

Multiple sources within MSNBC, including those who told HuffPost they didnt want Van Susteren at the network, said she was affable, professional and well-liked. The sources who spoke to HuffPost didnt want to be identified because they werent authorized to discuss internal network activity.

But MSNBCs announcement Jan. 5 that she was joining the network led to internal frustrations and external criticisms from viewers who didnt understand why the progressive network was hiring a former Fox News host. Van Susteren isnt a conservative ideologically, but the association with her former network and her support of Ailes after Gretchen Carlson accused him of sexual harassment hampered her image with loyal MSNBC viewers.

Internally, more than a dozen staff members expressed confusion over the decision to bring Van Susteren on, texting a reporter with complaints about her Fox News past, her continued public defense of Ailes despite multiple sexual harassment claims (she later apologized for supporting him) and the fact that she and her husband are prominent Scientologists who donate generously to the controversial organization.

The cancellation of her program comes at a difficult time for NBC News Chairman Andy Lack, who oversees MSNBC. While MSNBC is enjoying record ratings, Lack has been under fire for hiring former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who has faced a torrent of criticism for her NBC interviews of Russian President Vladimir Putin and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Lack shepherded Van Susterens hire, but in the past few weeks it became clear that keeping her on the network was untenable. He hinted at that in an interview with The New York Times this month, saying, Its not breaking out.

MSNBC invested money in a new set for Van Susterens program, regularly ran promotions of her show during other programs and gave For the Record more than 100 episodes to succeed before pulling the plug.

Greta Van Susteren kicked off her MSNBC program on Jan. 9 with an appearance by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). (Photo: MSNBC via Getty Images)

Van Susteren also didnt starve for A-list bookings. For the Record booked top-shelf guests from both sides of the aisle, and her debut show featured Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

However, Van Susteren regularly had Donald Trump on her Fox News program before and during his presidential candidacy. But she was never able to book President Trump on her MSNBC program, which had more to do with the network she appeared on, MSNBC, rather than her relationship with him. A source close to the president said that Trump was a fan of Van Susteren and also noted that she was invited backstage at his celebratory rally in Alabama in December before his inauguration.

On Jan. 6, three days before her program launched, Van Susteren got the ultimate endorsement as far as MSNBC viewers are concerned: She was featured on the networks No. 1 program, The Rachel Maddow Show, for eight minutes.

Maddow was effusive in her praise of Van Susteren, calling her a friend and praising her reporting and interviewing style. Aware of what her largely progressive viewers might think, Maddow was sure to mention that executives at the network had not asked her to have Van Susteren on her show and that she had made the decision because of her affection for her.

Maddow reminded viewers that she would regularly feature clips from Van Susterens Fox News program as a way to highlight how much she respected her, adding, If you want to count on your fingers how many times we on this show have played clips of Greta Van Susteren on this show, you could not do it. Youd need four extra hands.

Maddow wrapped up her introduction of Van Susteren by saying, She has an uncanny ability to make newsworthy things happen when the red light is on the camera and she is on TV talking about the news.

While that may have been true at Fox News, that uncanny ability didnt carry over to MSNBC, where the biggest news related to her program was the announcement of its cancellation.

Related Coverage

Lawrence O'Donnell Says He's Staying At MSNBC

Rachel Maddow Stands By Her Trump Tax Reporting

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Peter Thiel

Woolly mammoths could be coming to a park near you sometime before 2027, thanks to funding from PayPal founder and tech luminary Peter Thiel.

That's according to a new book by Ben Mezrich called "Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive one of Historys Most Iconic Extinct Creatures."

As the MIT Tech Review reported, Thiel made a quiet donation of $100,000 to an unnamed de-extinction organization sometime in 2015.

The project to revive woolly mammoths has been going on for several years, but it gained new attention in February when a team of Harvard scientists said they intend to resurrect the furry creature within a decade.

The woolly mammoth went extinct 10,000 years ago, and in reality, the scientists wouldn't actually be bringing it back. Instead, they aim to create a hybrid animal using genetic material from an elephant and a woolly mammoth. To do that, they'd carefully combine a selection of DNA from both creatures using gene-editing technology Crispr, put the cells into an artificial embryo, and accio! Woolly elephant. Elephammoth. Mammophant.

Regardless of its name, the resulting animal would essentially be an elephant with mammoth features like long, shaggy hair, subcutaneous fat, and blood uniquely adapted for frigid temperatures.

mammothhunted

Mammoths aren't the only animals that people want to resurrect  now-extinct or threatened species of reindeer, bison, wolves, tigers, and horses are also on the list of potential candidates. The movement to "resurrect" these creatures isn't limited to scientists, either; it's become a pet project of people across the globe, including a Russian father and son whose Kickstarter-funded "Pleistocene Park" aims to recreate a "vanished ice-age ecosystem."

Ethical debates about de-extinction projects are intense, with some scientists saying the animals could could help preserve endangered or threatened species and others saying it would destroy existing ecosystems.

Story continues

Proponents say the project and others could help restore ecosystems and help fight climate change by bringing back plants like grasses and trees that suck up pollution. Other supporters say iconic resurrected animals could serve as a sort of "flagship species" which is used to encourage the public to protect the regions they represent.

But some scientists disagree. Tori Herridge, a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum of London, is one of the scientists who examined the 28,000-year-old remains of a woolly mammoth uncovered in Siberia in 2014. She wrote in The Guardian that "cloning [a woolly mammoth] would be ethically flawed," since we still dont fully understand the role that many of these now-extinct animals once played in the wider ecosystem.

The problem she raises, which has been pointed out by several other researchers as well, is that we don't know how these creatures' modern incarnations would affect other animals, plants, and the planet as a whole.

"It is unclear still whether the mammoth steppe disappeared as a result of the loss of the mammoth or whether the mammoth disappeared because its habitat was lost, along with its ice age world," Herridge wrote. "Its a big gamble to put your climate-change mitigation hopes on a herd of woolly mammoths."

NOW WATCH: Scientists have almost discovered how to resurrect a woolly mammoth





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mitch mcconnell

Senate Republicans are making are taking a second crack at their healthcare bill, but it's unclear if proposed compromises will be enough to get the bill across the finish line.

Members of the conference have been meeting constantly since Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delayed a vote on the bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, until after the week-long July 4 recess.

Reports have suggested a slew of ideas bandied about to bridge the divide between centrist members of the party and more conservative members, but an agreement has yet to be reached.

Republican leaders sent the Congressional Budget Office the outline of a new bill to get preliminary feedback on the ideas when they get back from recess. That would likely speed up the CBO's process when Senate leaders send a full bill.

While sending something to the CBO is a minor victory for a divided party, the biggest policy disagreements still need to be hammered out. Moderates are demanding more funding for various healthcare initiatives, while conservatives want to gut funding even more and repeal more of Obamacare's regulations.

Here's a rundown of the ideas being discussed:

More funding to fight the opioid crisis: The BCRA included $2 billion to fight the growing crisis, much lower than GOP senators from states hit hard by the crisis were hoping. Discussions have included raising the funding level to $45 billion. That would be a carrot for moderates like Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

Allow insurers to sell plans that do not follow Obamacare's regulations: Sen. Ted Cruz has proposed an amendment appealing to the conservative wing that would allow insurers to offer plans that did not qualify under Obamacare's essential health benefits and community rating provisions, as long as they maintained at least one plan that did qualify. That would allow young and healthy people to buy skimpier plans that cost less while maintaining high quality, more expensive plans for those that needed them. But the community rating provision prevents people with pre-existing conditions form being charged more, so a change has faced resistance.

Keep some of Obamacare's taxes: Senators are discussing leaving some of the taxes included in Obamacare in place, potentially freeing up more funding for programs like Medicaid and the opioid crisis. The biggest could be the 3.8% net investment income tax on people incomes of more than $200,000 a year.

Expand the use of health savings accounts: A discussion among GOP senators would allow these nontaxable accounts to be used toward premiums.

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Whether or not those changes would be enough to get 50 senators on board is unclear. Cruz's proposal would face resistance from moderate members who saw the public backlash after the House included a proposal that would've allowed states to gut preexisting conditions protections.

"If Cruz succeeds in putting it in the bill, the bill dies. Period. End of sentence, end of paragraph, end of story," a GOP aide told Axios.

Senate leaders also want to expand funding for various proposals to cut down the number of people the CBO projects would be without insurance under the BCRA. Monday's CBO score showed 22 million more Americans would go without insurance by 2026 than under the current baseline. Of those, 15 million would come off the Medicaid rolls, according to the report.

On the other hand, leaving some of the taxes in place or upping the spending on Medicaid and the state stability fund included in the bill might be non-starters for conservatives like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Greg Valliere, chief strategist at Horizon Investments, said the longer the disagreement continues on the bill, the more likely it is to fail.

"It's too early to declare the bill dead, but it's on life support," Valliere told Business Insider in an email. "The longer it lies in the July sun, rotting like a dead fish, the more difficult it will be to win public support."

But Valliere said "the wily McConnell will keep dealing until the August recess; if there's no compromise by then, the dance will be over."

Getting the two sides to an agreement soon is paramount to finish the push before the month-long August recess.

Once Congress returns from the summer break, it will have just one month to deal with raising the nation's debt ceiling, moving a funding bill to keep the government from shutting down, and a slew of other necessary legislation.

NOW WATCH: 'Do you even understand what you're asking?': Putin and Megyn Kelly have a heated exchange over Trump-Russia ties





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trump

President Donald Trump held a reelection fund-raiser at his Washington, DC, hotel on Wednesday where he railed against the "horrible human beings" at CNN, according to leaked audio of the event posted by The Intercept.

At the $35,000-a-person event, Trump took aim at some recent troubles at CNN.

"Boy, did CNN get killed over the last few days," Trump can be heard saying on the recording.

In the past week, three CNN staffers quit over the retraction of a story that claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee was investigating the head of a large Russian investment fund who met with Anthony Scaramucci, a member of Trump's transition team, before the inauguration.

CNN removed the story and added an editor's note, which Scaramucci applauded as "the right thing."

The event, Trump's first major reelection fund-raiser, was not open to the press. That broke with tradition, according to The Associated Press, and caused some confusion about whether pool reporters would be allowed to attend.

Trump also riffed on Van Jones, a frequent CNN commentator whom conservative activists recently caught on camera saying "the Russia thing is just a big nothing burger," apparently in response to a question about what he thought might happen that week with the investigation into whether there was collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Jones' comment would appear to contradict statements he's made on the network about the severity of the investigation. He has dismissed the video as "edited, right-wing propaganda."

"Van Jones  you see this man?" Trump said at the fund-raiser, according to the audio clip. "These are really dishonest people. Should I sue them? I mean, they're phonies. Jeff Zucker, I hear he's going to resign at some point pretty soon. I mean these are horrible human beings.

"It's a shame what they've done to the name CNN, that I can tell you," Trump continued. "But as far as I'm concerned, I love it. If anybody's a lawyer in the house and thinks I have a good lawsuit  I feel like we do. Wouldn't that be fun?"

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Trump has increased his attacks on the media lately. His administration has also increasingly chosen to hold off-camera press briefings.

Several prominent Republicans said on Thursday that they were disturbed by Trump's tweet that claimed that Mika Brzezinski, a host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," had been "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when she visited his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida earlier this year.

NOW WATCH: 'I'll ask it one more time': Kellyanne Conway won't say whether Trump thinks climate change is a hoax





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Watch news, TV and more Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

President Donald Trump has asked National Security Council staff to come up with "deliverables" that he can offer to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany next week, The Guardian reported Thursday.

It is unclear what those "deliverables" would look like, but they could include an offer to ease sanctions  which the Trump administration has reportedly looked into at least twice since January  or to give back the Russian diplomatic compounds that President Barack Obama ordered evacuated in December. Obama issued new sanctions and closed the facilities in response to Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The news comes on the heels of a report published by The Associated Press last week that said Trump has been pushing for a full bilateral meeting with Putin rather than just an informal "pull-aside" on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

It is unclear what Trump would ask for in return for such concessions, if anything. A former official familiar with the debate inside the White House told The Guardian that the NSC has resisted "offering anything up without anything back in return."

A White House official recently told Business Insider that the administration will not lift or alter the existing sanctions until Moscow "fully honors its commitments to resolve the crisis in Ukraine." But the White House has looked into lifting the sanctions twice since January, including once just days after the president's inauguration.

Tom Malinowski, who stepped down as Obama's assistant secretary of state for human rights on January 19, said in an interview earlier this month that if those efforts had been successful, it would have given the Russians "exactly what they wanted in exchange for absolutely nothing."

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"As you would expect for a president who campaigned on getting rid of impediments to chummy US-Russia relations, his administration immediately started charting ways forward to achieving that," Malinowski said.

Malinowski said that he and Daniel Fried, then the chief US coordinator for sanctions policy until he retired in late February, had to lobby Congress to halt the development of the sanctions-lifting package after government officials began ringing "alarm bells about possible concessions being made" to Russia.

[Money Basics: How the stock market works]

The president's defenders say offering such concessions is a standard diplomatic technique. Others, however, have said the Russians would likely perceive an offer to roll back sanctions or return the compounds, while asking for little or nothing in return, as a sign of weakness.

"This isn't how negotiation with the Kremlin works," tweeted Molly McKew, an information warfare expert and foreign policy consultant. "If you go in prepared to offer things for ???, you already conceded too much."

But top administration and intelligence officials have reportedly been struggling to convey the gravity of the threat posed by Russia's election meddling to Trump, according to CNN.

Former FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee in testimony earlier this month that Trump never once asked him about Russia's interference in the US election as it related to national security in their nine conversations before he fired Comey in early May. And National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers told lawmakers in a recent closed-door briefing that he was struggling to convince Trump to accept the intelligence community's conclusions about Russia's interference, CNN reported.

The Guardian report also follows news that the White House is pushing to remove a key portion of a new Russia sanctions bill passed by the Senate earlier this month that would require the president to inform Congress before taking any action that could alter the sanctions regime.

"There are some provisions in the Senate bill that would inadvertently impair the Treasurys ability to wield its sanctions tools (as we did the other day), risk endangering the trans-Atlantic sanctions coalition, and weaken the Administrations ability to credibly signal that it would calibrate our sanctions in response to Russian behavior," a White House official told Business Insider last week.

The official added that while the administration remains "remains committed" to the existing sanctions and to working with Congress, any effort to alter or remove those provisions "is ultimately a bid to preserve the idea of co-equal branches of government.

"This isnt about sanctions on Russia," the official said. "It is about Congress trying to usurp the executive branchs prerogative to conduct US foreign policy."

NOW WATCH: Trump accidentally tweeted 'covfefe'  and Twitter immediately turned it into a huge meme





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donald trump

President Donald Trump is considering a 20% tariff on imports of steel and possibly a number of other goods, Axios says.

According to the report, Trump held a meeting with key advisers on Thursday and was heavily in favor of the tariffs despite their warnings of the economic implications.

The pending decision comes after Trump set up a task force to look into steel import practices a few months ago.

The move is not surprising, given that Trump made free trade one of the central topics of his campaign after criticizing China, Mexico, and Japan.

He suggested putting a 45% tariff on Chinese imports, said he would declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office, proposed taxing imports from Mexico, said he'd "rip up" trade deals, and called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, "a rape of our country."

At post-election rallies, Trump said that "we have to look at it [trade] almost as a war," asking "Who the hell cares if there's a trade war?"

Trump said China specifically is committing "the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world."

Following the election, Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citi, wrote in a note to clients that protectionist trade policies might spark a global trade war, "which could easily trigger a global recession."

Deutsche Bank has also addressed the negative risks of the Trump trade agenda. A team from the firm wrote in a December note that "the biggest threat to growth is a possible protectionist turn, which could depress global trade and even trigger trade wars."

While the Deutsche Bank report did not predict a coming collapse in international trade, the possible moves from Trump could be the first domino in a broader change in global change.

Additionally, a tariff of any kind is likely to spark a reaction from major US trading partners such as China. Chinese officials reportedly weighed options for how to respond to hostile trade moves by Trump when he took office.

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Given the newest moves by Trump, we've broken down just how a protectionist trade scenario could affect the US economy and the geopolitical order.

A macroeconomic drag

While the 20% tariff would only apply to certain goods like steel, semiconductors, and household appliances, it could lead to higher costs and possibly a slight drag to GDP growth. The bigger fear for economists is what it signals going forward.

Michael Gapen, a chief US economist at Barclays, in December estimated the economic drag that broader tariffs on imports from China and Mexico, two of Trump's favorite targets, may have on US GDP growth.

One idea floated by the Trump team previously was a 15% tariff on Chinese imports and a 7% tariff on Mexican imports  modestly above their current levels of 2% to 10%, depending on the good. In this scenario, Gapen estimated that the US would see a 0.5% reduction in annual GDP growth in the year after implementation.

china factory

Meanwhile, Buiter said Citi estimates trade and other policy uncertainties could be a 1% drag on US GDP over the next year.

And should Trump eventually follow through with any of these policies, the US risks retaliatory measures from other countries.

"If tariffs are more punitive and lead to a public trade spat with China, markets will get nervous, especially if a sharp, retaliatory, [Chinese yuan] depreciation looks like a realistic response," said Ajay Rajadhyaksha, head of macro research at Barclays.

If other countries follow this pattern, it could lead to a downward spiral or litigation at the World Trade Organization.

"Depending on the specific measures, retaliatory action from elsewhere could be expected, while the risk of trade and currency wars could grow," said Janet Henry, chief global economist at HSBC.

Making it more expensive for consumers

An increase in tariffs could be passed through to individual Americans by companies in the form of higher prices.

Parts for consumer items are made abroad, so increasing tariffs could make it more expensive to import these parts for goods. To protect corporate profits and margins, companies could hike prices  which is not ideal for consumers.

Best Buy TV shopping deal extended warranty

A crucial thing to consider here is that this type of price increase is not caused by the virtuous wage and price increase cycle, but rather by an exogenous shock to prices without a boost to the labor market. In plain English, that means that while parts manufactured in China instantly become more expensive for Americans under tariffs, wages do not necessarily go up by the corresponding amount to offset this cost increase.

Theoretically, companies could avoid tariffs by increasing production in the US. However, the problem is that labor is more expensive in America, so even if companies brought production to the US, the increased labor costs could push prices up, too.

A 'nail in the coffin' of the post-World War II economic order

Not only could Trump's moves affect US consumers, they also could upend macroeconomic policies that have been in place for more than half a century. As Buiter notes, these policies have increased worldwide prosperity and been positive developments for the US.

From the Citi economist's note (emphasis ours):

"We stress the potential multipliers of changes in the US position on international trade: the US has been the champion of free trade and open borders for decades. A retreat from globalization by the US would likely lead to reciprocal actions from other countries, and reinforce the latest shift towards de- globalization and could be another nail in the coffin of the liberal global economic world order that has supported prosperity since 1948."

Japan Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe China Chinese President Xi Jinping

Taking it a step further, Trump already removed the US from the TPP  the landmark free trade agreement that aims to slash tariffs and promote economic growth among 12 nations in the Pacific Rim excluding China.

And that could have major implications for the future of the economic and geopolitical order in Asia Pacific, given that the deal was arguably more about the US's long-term position in Asia than about the near-term financial advantages.

Americans want jobs

Mainstream economists generally agree that free trade is good for an economy in the long run  even though some people will benefit less, particularly in the short term  while trade-restrictive measures hurt consumers.

However, some voters across developed economies believe free trade hurts their countries, which is likely a reflection of their personal experiences.

In the US, 89% of Americans said they think the loss of US jobs to China is a somewhat or very serious issue, according to Pew Research statistics previously cited by Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Ethan Harris and Lisa Berlin.

Moreover, only 46% of Americans said they think NAFTA was good for the economy. But it's not just Americans who are skeptical  Japanese farmers, for example, have been staunchly against the TPP.

There's some empirical evidence to back up those grievances. In January, labor economists David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson published a paper showing that increased trade with China caused some big problems for US workers.

From the paper's meaty abstract (emphasis ours):

"China's emergence as a great economic power has induced an epochal shift in patterns of world trade. Simultaneously, it has challenged much of the received empirical wisdom about how labor markets adjust to trade shocks. Alongside the heralded consumer benefits of expanded trade are substantial adjustment costs and distributional consequences. ...

"Adjustment in local labor markets is remarkably slow, with wages and labor-force participation rates remaining depressed and unemployment rates remaining elevated for at least a full decade after the China trade shock commences.

"Exposed workers experience greater job churning and reduced lifetime income. At the national level, employment has fallen in US industries more exposed to import competition, as expected, but offsetting employment gains in other industries have yet to materialize."

Moreover, most of the economic gains from globalization have been for the middle class in emerging markets  not the middle class in developed markets such as the US.

Below is one of the more popular charts illustrating this, from the economist Branko Milanovic, via BAML's Ajay Singh Kapur and Ritesh Samadhiya in June.

screen_shot_2016 10 27_at_1.58.53_pm

Though Trump has zeroed in on workers' anxieties over job losses, it's important to note that automation has had at least as much of an impact on jobs as trade in recent years. And crucially, automation not only hits manufacturing, but also affects jobs that require advanced degrees, such as neuroradiology.

"From a political perspective, I don't think the focus on trade is misplaced. It's effective because it has an 'other,'" Alexander Kazan, a strategist at Eurasia Group, said in a video for the Eurasia Group Foundation. "When you talk about technology, it's much more amorphous. It's this sense that we all lose. So I think politically it's less effective."

Uncertain future

Ultimately, a lot will depend on how far Trump takes the tariff idea and the response from the countries that face the new taxes.

While previous president's used tariffs to try and combat unfair trade practices, a sweeping and public tariff like Trump is considering would likely open the door to a greater response from the countries impacted by the move.

Some observers say it's unclear how much anti-trade rhetoric Trump genuinely intends to carry out. Additionally, there is a strong contingent within Trump's own party that is supportive of free trade.

The possible tariff, however, would be the first concrete sign that a protectionist trade will play a major factor in the Trump policy agenda.

NOW WATCH: An economist explains what could happen if Trump pulls the US out of NAFTA





More From Business Insider


Healthcare: Life is hard, but its even harder when youre stupid

By David Nelson, CFA

The Senate health care bill, now on hold till after the Fourth of July break, triggers partisan rhetoric across print and broadcast media. The challenges of an aging population and the increased drain on social backstops like Medicaid and Medicare have pushed the system to the limit and can no longer be put off till the next election cycle. While there is huge disagreement regarding the path forward, one point where theres consensus across the political aisle is that drug pricing in the US is putting a heavy burden on consumers and the system at large.

The US is losing the war on drug prices

I think we all understand that drug discovery is expensive and that if you reduce the profit incentive, much less money will be earmarked for research and development. However, I along with millions of Americans would like a simple explanation as to why drugs in the United States are more expensive than most countries in the developed world.

In its 2015 report, the International Federation of Health Plans released some key comparisons across several popular prescription drugs. A quick Google search will pull up dozens more.

Source: The International Federation of Health Plans

Source: The International Federation of Health Plans

With 48% of Americans receiving at least one prescription drug, its pretty easy to conclude that if we dont get a handle on this, Congress is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Source: Flickr

After more than a week of digging into the issue, Ive concluded that the current system of drug pricing sucks. A team of detectives headed by Charlie Chan, Columbo and Sherlock Holmes couldnt get to the bottom of this one.

Ive talked with many from the industry, and after hours of debate and discussion, I knew less than I did going in.

Heres something I do know: Drugs here are more expensive than in Canada and Europe. What can and should be done about it.

Life is hard, but its even harder when youre stupid  The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Even with a disagreement over the path forward, we should be able to coalesce around the idea of avoiding STUPID. Its conventional wisdom that other government-run health care systems negotiate more effectively than their US counterparts. Senator Sanders and others have pointed out that Medicare still doesnt negotiate.

Story continues

Here in the US, we pay $2,669 for a 28-day supply of Humira. Switzerland pays $822 and the UK $1,362. Important cancer drug Avastin (400mg vial) here in the US comes in at $3,930. In Switzerland, the cost is $1752 and in the UK $470.

After examining dozens of comparisons, I did find one drug and one procedure where Americans arent paying top dollar. For the potent and often abused pain medicine OxyContin, the cost here in the states is $265 for a 30-day supply and, for a colonoscopy, its only $1,301. Both were well below some of the countries mentioned earlier. Great news! I guess we can get high while we take it up the . well you get the picture.

Hello, anyone home? US consumers are subsidizing health care systems around the world even while we cant afford our own. I put the following scenario to a drug company executive and couldnt get a straight answer.

Think like a drug company CEO

In my mind, if Im the CEO of a drug company with an important in-demand product, I go through the following pricing excise. Weve spent millions in research and legal to get the drug to market so we have to price accordingly in the US to recoup development and marketing costs. Thats economics 101.

Europe says itll only pay half that price. The actual cost to manufacture the drug may be nominal and even still profitable at a reduced cost, as long as Im covering my R&D here in the US. Why not? Its a little extra revenue and adds something to the bottom line.

Europe, Canada and others are playing us for fools

We pay for the R&D, and they get the drugs well below the real cost. If Merck (MRK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and others werent allowed to play one country off the other, Europe would be forced to pay more and we would likely be paying less. The gap in pricing would start to close. Force these countries to pay more now!

The complexity of our system along with cross-border price differentials plays into the hands of both the industry and our so-called friends and allies across the pond. I dont find it that much different from the cost of NATO defense spending. Americans carry more than their fair share of the burden with Europe and others freeloading off of our generosity.

Legislation will be difficult as those who stand to lose will fight hard against change. Free trade issues and potential retaliation will dominate the rhetoric. Perhaps an export tax geared to the gap in pricing would work. After all, there are many in Congress that would love another tax.

Out of the gate, Canada and Europe will balk and try to hold out saying they wont pay a higher price. In the end, theyll pay. Deny your citizens a lifesaving drug because you arent willing to pay your fair share and see how that works out for you.

I would imagine there are any number of ways to tackle the problem and well need some of the brightest minds on the planet to help us come up with the best options, but in the end we have no choice.

Life is hard, but its even harder when youre stupid.

-

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Reuters/ Lucas Jackson

Legendary investor Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B), has made billions off investing in once beleaguered financial firms.

According to our estimates, Buffett has earned $18.71 billion on initial investments totaling $13 billion in Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), and GE (GE).

Buffett invested in Bank of America as it dealt with legal troubles in 2011 related to mortgages, and he invested much-needed capital to Goldman and GE during the darkest hours of the 2008 financial meltdown.

These sorts deals reflect Buffett acting on his famed maxim: Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.

But as Yahoo Finances Myles Udland notes, a closer look at these deals reveals that this is something only someone of Buffetts investing caliber could ever accomplish.

Bank of America  $5 billion investment

Back in 2011, Bank of America was facing massive legal fines and settlements related to mortgage-backed securities and mortgages. Most were related to Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America bought in 2008.

That summer, Buffett called Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and let him know that the wanted to invest.

On August 25, 2011, the bank announced that Buffett snapped up $5 billion worth of its preferred stock that paid a 6% annual dividend. In other words, Bank of America would pay Buffett $300 million annually. This investment also came with warrants allowing him to buy 700 million common shares at $7.14 per share any time before Sept. 2, 2021.

In his 2016 annual shareholder Buffett wrote that if Bank of America  which offered a dividend rate of 30 cents at the time  increased its dividend rate above 44 cents before 2021, he would likely make the exchange from preferred shares to common.

This week, Bank of America said it plans to increase its quarterly dividend to 12 cents per common share, or 48 cents per share annually. And as expected, Buffett announced plans to exercise those warrants once the dividend rate increase takes effect.

Story continues

Upon exchanging the preferred for common shares, Berkshire Hathaway will be Bank of Americas largest shareholder, with a position valued at just over $16.98 billion based on Fridays closing price of $24.26. It would also make the position one of Berkshire Hathaways top five largest equity holdings, according to our estimates.

With a strike price of $7.14 and the stock closing $24.26 on Friday, Berkshire has made around $11.98 billion on paper on its initial $5 billion investment. Taking the $300 million annual dividend payments into consideration, Buffett has made another $1.725 billion.

Estimated return: $13.71 billion

Goldman Sachs  $5 billion investment

Of course, Bank of America is not the first investment in a struggling financial firm to result in a windfall for the Oracle of Omaha. In 2008, as the financial world was reeling from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Buffett struck a deal with Goldman Sachs that was seen as a vote of confidence in the storied investment banking firm.

On September 23, 2008, Goldman announced that it would sell Buffett $5 billion worth of preferred stock that also paid a 10% dividend. Goldman would pay Buffett $500 million annually. The preferred stock was redeemable at any time but at a 10% premium. As part of the deal, Buffett received warrants to purchase $5 billion of common stock with a strike price of $115 per share that would be exercisable anytime over the next five years.

Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Berkshire clearly enjoyed the dividend payment. Breaking it down, $500 million per year works out to be over $1.4 million per day, $57,077 per hour, $951 per minute, and $15 per second.

But Buffett knew that wouldnt last long.

Goldman Sachs has the right to call our preferred on 30 days notice, but has been held back by the Federal Reserve (bless it!), which unfortunately will likely give Goldman the green light before long, Buffett wrote in the 2010 shareholder letter.

Within days of that letter, the Fed gave the bank the go-ahead and in April 2011 Goldman repurchased Buffetts 50,000 preferred shares for $110,000 per share, giving him his $5 billion principal back and another $500 million for the early prepayment.

Up to that point, Goldman had shelled out close to $1.25 billion in dividend payments, according to our estimates.

At the time of Goldmans repurchase, Berkshire still had the right to purchase close to 43.5 million shares of common stock with a strike price of $115 per share. In March 2013, however, Goldman and Berkshire amended the terms of the warrants, so that Buffett would get a smaller stake equal to the difference between the average closing price of the ten trading days leading up to October 1st and the $115 strike price. Buffett wasnt required to commit any capital to exercise the warrants, according to Reuters.

The 2013 annual letter included a table that showed it owned just over 13 million shares of Goldman, or a 2.8% stake, valued close to $2.32 billion that cost Berkshire $750 million.

Berkshire last held just over 11.39 million shares at the end of 2016. Assuming Buffett hasnt changed the position, it was last valued at $2.55 billion based on current stock prices.

In all, its possible that Berkshire has earned around $3.5 billion on its initial $5 billion Goldman Sachs investment.

Estimated return: $3.5 billion

GE  $3 billion investment

Buffett made a similar deal with General Electric, giving the giant conglomerate a big vote of confidence as concerns around its GE Capital unit grew during the 2008 crisis.

In October 2008, GE agreed to sell $3 billion of preferred stock to Berkshire Hathaway, offering a 10% dividend, or $300 million per year. Like the Goldman deal, the preferred shares were redeemable at any time. As part of the agreement, Buffett also got the right to buy $3 billion of common stock with a strike price of $22.25 per share.

On October 17, 2011, GE redeemed all of its preferred shares from Buffett for $3.3 billion, which includes the 10% premium.

Including the annual dividend payments, Buffett made an estimated $1.2 billion.

In January 2013, GE and Berkshire amended its agreement for exercising the warrants so that Buffett would receive a net share settlement equal to the difference between average price of GEs common stock on the 20 days preceding the October 16, 2013 exercise date and the $22.25 per share strike price. That October, Buffett exercised all of its warrants to purchase 10.7 million shares of GEs common stock, a position valued at $264.76 million based on the closing price on the date the shares were delivered.

Berkshire last held 10.58 million shares, a position currently valued at $291 million.

Estimated return: $1.5 billion



Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
The death toll from an oil tanker explosion in central Pakistan has risen to 190, hospital and government officials said on June 30 as 16 more people succumbed to their injuries.

The tanker overturned on June 25 on a main highway from Karachi to Lahore while carrying some 40,000 liters of fuel.

It exploded minutes later as crowds from a nearby village gathered to scavenge for fuel, despite warnings by the driver as well as motorway police to stay away.

Dozens of people were taken to hospitals with severe injuries and many have died from their wounds.

Pakistan held a collective funeral for 130 of the victims on June 27.

The tragedy marked a grim start to Eid, the celebrations closing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Pakistan has many fatal traffic accidents due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles, and reckless driving.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
RaviChandra wrote:

Agencies studying discrimination in housing have experimentally proved that minority clients are often discouraged as prospective buyers of residential real estate and the antidiscrimination legislation of recent decades were only mitigating, rather than abolishing, inequity in housing practices .



(A) the antidiscrimination legislation of recent decades were only mitigating, rather than abolishing, inequity in housing practices



(B) in recent decades, the antidiscrimination legislation only mitigated, rather than abolishing, inequity in housing practices



(C) that antidiscrimination legislation of recent decades has only mitigated, rather than abolished, inequity in housing practices



(D) that, in recent decades, antidiscrimination legislation has only mitigated, rather than abolishing, housing practices' inequity



(E) that recent decades' antidiscrimination legislation only were mitigating, rather than abolishing, housing practices' inequity

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

When you're dealing with long sentences and large underlined portions like this, it's even more important to isolate specific problems to help you weed out choices. The sentence describes the agencies as proving two things: one, that minority clients are discouraged, and two, that past legislation hasn't made the problem any better. The two things that are proven need to be in grammatically parallel forms and, since the first isn't underlined, the second will have to borrow the original structure. You can eliminate (A) and (B) for failing to do so right from the beginning. The underlined section needs to begin with that in order to recall the initial proved that and make it clear where this information fits into the sentence. Next, mitigated and abolished need to be in the same tense since they're in parallel positions, so eliminate (D). Finally, only were mitigating in (E) is not idiomatic word order, plus were mitigating is wordier than mitigated. (C) is the best choice._________________
- A devastated robber has revealed how his arrest led to the death of his mother

- The 26-year-old man was arrested for stealing a car

Sikiru Lawal, a 26-year-old Nigerian man, has revealed how his arrest led to the death of his sick mother. He was taken in by the police for stealing a green Peugeot 206 saloon car in Badagry.

The young revealed how sad he is upon hearing that his ailing mother passed on when she heard the news of his arrest.

He revealed what made him venture into a life of crime as he had hopes of raising money and traveling out of the country.

Sikiru Lawal, the young man whose arrest led to the death of his mother.

READ ALSO: Little boy takes his own life after grandmother complained about missing money (photos)

She had been sick and had been on hospital bed for some time. We were praying she would get better. Im one of the three children she had. I was told that when she heard I was arrested for a criminal offence, she gasped and died. I regret my action.

Prior to his arrest, Lawal had been imprisoned for stealing and conspiracy in March. The police interrogated him further to know the country he was planning to relocate to but the young man simply insisted that he wanted to leave Nigeria.

Lawal was paraded along with other suspects by Dasuki Galadanchi, the deputy commissioner of police and the acting commissioner of police in Lagos state.

The young man not only regretted the fact that he was arrested, he also regretted the fact that his mothers life ended because of him.

PAY ATTENTION: Install the latest android app to get updates from Nigeria's number one online news platform

What are your thoughts on this?

Watch the Legit.ng TV video below to see how frustrated this man is with the situation of things in the country. He said he could go into robbery if the government wants him to:

Source: Legit.ng
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
OMAHA  The University of Nebraska Medical Center unveiled four "Simulation in Motion" trucks at a special ceremony June 14 in Omaha.

The 44-foot long, dual-axle customized trucks soon will be deployed and stationed in Norfolk, Lincoln, Kearney and Scottsbluff. The UNMC College of Nursing has divisions in those cities.

The customized trucks, funded by a $5.5 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, feature a mobile simulation, real-life training experience designed to increase life-saving training opportunities through high-tech simulation. The training is free and targeted to rural emergency medical service agencies and rural critical access hospitals.

"We are excited to partner with UNMC to bring state-of-the-art simulation training to rural communities," said Walter Panzirer, a trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Gail Suhr, an emergency medical technician with Bloomfield Ambulance Service, is excited about the prospects of the training.

"After 34 years in the emergency medical services, this is one of the best things to happen, and I hope everyone takes advantage of it. Theres so much we can learn through these trucks," Suhr said.

The trucks feature dual slide-out room extensions, a simulated emergency room and an ambulance, as well as computerized mannequins that talk, breathe, have heartbeats, and can react to medications and other actions of the learners. They can die and be revived over and over again.

Each mobile unit is outfitted with supplies to recreate a realistic environment for learners that includes: pre-programmed computerized medical and trauma scenarios; monitors that display vital signs of patient simulators; and audio and video recording/playback capabilities.

Participants will use real medical and rescue equipment that includes airway management equipment, cardiac monitor/defibrillators, medications, intravenous supplies, stretchers, immobilization devices, and resuscitation equipment.

UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey Gold said the project will help save lives.

"These four trucks are a realization of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, of Nebraska Medicine and of the University of Nebraska system at large," he said. "Because its a way of saying to the communities we serve we hear you and were here to help you to keep the citizens of the local community healthy, to keep them engaged, to keep them productive, to keep them part of the economic development resources of this great state of Nebraska and to continue to allow us to recruit the best and the brightest. "

One of the trucks was on display in Gothenburg on Wednesday as a leadership team from the University of Nebraska Medical Center headed by Chancellor Jeffrey Gold visited. Other representatives from UNMC and UNO in attendance were Dr. Michael Sitorius, chairman of family medicine in the UNMC College of Medicine; Juliann Sebastian, dean of the UNMC College of Nursing; Dr. Howard Liu, director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska; Bob Bartee, vice chancellor of external affairs at UNMC; and Erin Owen, executive director of university communications at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
New Delhi, June 30 (IBNS): A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Thailand was signed in the presence of Minister of State for Home Affairs, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Minister of Justice of Thailand, Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, on Cooperation in Controlling Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, their Precursors and Chemicals and Drug Abuse, here on Friday.

The MoU was signed by Dr. Rina Mitra, Special Secretary, MHA & DG, Narcotics Control Bureau and Sirinya Sitdhichai, Secretary General, Office of Narcotics Control Board, Thailand.

The MoU will enhance the mutual cooperation between India and Thailand in regulation of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and combating drug trafficking.

"It will facilitate the exchange of information of new trends and modus operandi of drug traffickers, sharing the list of smugglers/syndicates in operation, sharing of best practices in the field of supply and demand reduction and help to provide mutual assistance & cooperation in investigation of drug offences," read a government statement

Senior officers of the MHA were also present on the occasion.
The huge increase in the number of refugees entering northern Uganda from South Sudan has affected the countrys already-weak health care system.

VOA recently visited the Adjumani area in northern Uganda. Health centers there are also near refugee settlements for South Sudanese. But the health centers are unable to care for all of the pregnant women in the area.

Experts estimate that Uganda has one doctor for every 24,000 of its citizens. It has about one nurse for every 11,000 people. Most health care workers are in cities.

Because of war and violence in neighboring countries, the country now has 1.2 million refugees.

The United Nations says more refugees entered Uganda than any other part of the world in 2016 as civilians fled conflict and hunger in South Sudan. The flow of refugees into Uganda has continued this year.

Ester Ponne Charles is a refugee. She arrived in northern Uganda eight months ago. She also was pregnant.

If you do not have money, you may lose your life and the child too. Because there they want money. Without money, even medicine, you buy even the gloves yourself, everything in the hospital. So those are the challenges we are facing. Those ones who cannot even afford any coin, so they will just end up losing their life.

Aid agencies and the government have worked to set up temporary health centers in the refugee settlements to help women.

One refugee settlement called Maaji now has 15,000 refugees. However, there are no doctors and only eight medical officers and nurses for the settlement.

Tako Stephen provides medical care at health center three in Maaji. However, there are limits to what medical workers can do for pregnant women at the center.

We are unable to conduct planned deliveries here because of the setup of the place. The place is very small, he said. We only conduct emergency deliveries and yet there are very many pregnant mothers here. So they have to walk all the way from here up to Maaji Two for deliveries.

Some of the women are sent to another health center. Odaru Judith is a nursing officer at the center. She says the number of babies born at the center has increased from 29 to 75 a month.

But, there is little space for patients, she says.

Our general ward is very small, says Judith. It has only 10 beds, but the number of deliveries we have in a day, the average is five, and when you take the labor room, it is so squeezed and small that it only fits one bed and at times you have three deliveries at a time, so making it very difficult. You will not even have a place where you can squeeze at least a carpet for a mother to deliver.

In January, the government and United Nations agencies promised to spend $1 million for womens health in the refugee camps. But the U.N. Population Fund says the camps will need four times that amount.

Im Jill Robbins.

Correspondent Halima Athumani reported this story from Adjumani, Uganda. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted her report for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

coin  n. money

conduct  v. to plan and do something

deliveries  n. the act or process of giving birth to a baby

ward  n. a section in a hospital

squeezed  adj. to be small, not having enough room

carpet  n. a kind of floor covering
The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a new resolution, 2362, authorizing the checking of high sea vessels suspected of smuggling Libyan oil while extending the weapon embargo, other sanctions that impose travel bans and the freezing of assets.

The resolution does not however prevent Libyan authorities from requesting military supplies to continue the fight against terrorism. The members of the Security Council believe that Libya still poses a threat to international peace and have decided to extend the presidency of the group of experts established in 2011 during a NATO-backed uprising against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan authorities recognized by the U.N. is the Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister-designate Fayez Serraj. The military prowess of the GNA is limited compared to the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar who is loyal to the Tobruk-based House of Representatives.

The North African country has been unstable and it is believed that its oil is being used to finance the chaos that has been ongoing for the past six years. It is unclear how the smuggling of oil will be controlled especially along the Oil Crescent. A Libyan oil source revealed to Reuters on Thursday that production is close to reaching 1 million bpd and it would stabilize at the higher end of the range very soon. Libya produced more than 1.6 million bpd before a 2011 uprising, and average production has not exceeded 1 million bpd since July 2013.

Among the latest victims to subdue the countrys insecurity were seven members of a U.N. mission in Libya. Their convoy was attacked around 50 kilometers west of the capital on Wednesday before being held hostage but they have been reportedly freed safely and in good health before any negotiations.
A new study reveals that children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) show a striking developmental delay in their understanding of emotions. Even in those children with an average IQ, researchers found that their emotional understanding was lagging by two to five years behind their typically developing peers.

"Many children with FASD have considerable difficulty with managing and regulating their emotions and behavior, so it makes sense that they would have delays in emotional understanding," says Christie Petrenko, assistant professor at the University of Rochester's Mt. Hope Family Center and lead coordinator of the study.

Researchers from the University of Washington co-authored the study, which was funded by the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

For the study, which appeared in Journal of Population Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology, researchers assessed 56 children with FASD, ages 6 to 13, for their emotional understanding. As defined by psychologists, emotional understanding (EU) means knowing how emotional processes work both in one's self and in other people. This includes understanding the causes and consequences of emotions, as well as knowing how to regulate and cope with one's feelings.

The researchers asked questions such as, "How do you know when other people are feeling sad?" and "Can someone feel mad and sad at the same time?" and scored children's responses using the Kusche Affective Inventory-Revised (KAI-R), a standard measure of evaluating children's emotional understanding. The study coordinators then compared the scores to existing published data from typically developing kids.

"Having well developed EU skills helps us navigate our emotional and social world more effectively," says Petrenko. "It increases our ability to get along with others and follow social norms."

fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, which result from prenatal alcohol exposure, are a group of developmental disorders that result in a range of impairments in the areas of impulse control, task planning, social skills, and emotion regulation.

Poor or delayed emotional understanding leaves many children with FASD to face lifelong challenges.

"People with weaker EU may have poor awareness of how their emotions and behavior affect others, which can cause a lot of social problems," Petrenko explains. "Also, kids with FASD often experience more negative emotions than other kids their age. They may also feel bad about themselves, especially if they don't get supportive responses from adults in how to cope with strong emotions."

The researchers conclude that treatments for FASD should therefore focus on improving emotional understanding.

"When paired with skill building in emotion regulation and support from adults, such interventions could improve the adaptive functioning of kids with FASD," says Petrenko.

Petrenko has also published a study about the Families Moving Forward (FMF) program, which helps parents and caregivers of children with FASD interpret, understand, and properly respond to their children's behavior.

More information: Emotional Understanding in School-Aged Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Promising Target for Intervention. Fetal Alcohol Research. DOI: 10.22374/1710-6222.24.2.5 Emotional Understanding in School-Aged Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Promising Target for Intervention.
For patients with colorectal cancer that has metastasized to the liver, having a primary tumour on the left side, as opposed to the right side of the colon, is known to be a significant advantage in terms of treatment response.

But now a new study, presented here at the ESMO 19th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, suggests this imbalance may be at least partially redressed.

Reversing the usual pattern, patients whose liver metastases had spread from right-sided primary tumours (RSP) had a 36% better survival rate after treatment with a combination of first-line chemotherapy and selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) using Y-90 resin microspheres, compared to chemotherapy alone, according to the study.

This same treatment combination was no better than chemotherapy only in patients with left-sided primary tumours (LSP).

"These findings are good news for patients with right-sided primary tumours, who have a much worse prognosis and fewer treatment options than patients with left-sided tumours," said study investigator Guy van Hazel, MD, from the University of Western Australia in Perth, Australia.

"We are excited because hitherto no treatment apart from the addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy has improved the dismal outcome of liver metastases coming from right-sided primary tumours."

The analysis included 739 patients from two completed studies called SIRFLOX (SF) and FOXFIRE-Global (FFG).

All patients had liver-only or liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), and had been randomised to receive either standard chemotherapy alone, or combined with SIRT. The chemotherapy regimen was mFOLFOX6, and most patients received bevacizumab as well.

Information on the patients' primary tumour location was recorded at the start, with 24% having right-sided and 73% left-sided disease (the remaining 3% had primary tumours on both sides of the colon, or the primary tumour site was unknown).

Overall, outcomes were not different between the chemotherapy alone and chemotherapy plus SIRT groups, with median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) around 24 months and 11 months, respectively.

However, when the investigators examined patients with RSP and LSP separately they saw a clear difference.

Patients with liver metastases from RSP had significantly better OS when SIRT was added to their chemotherapy compared to those who had chemotherapy alone (22.0 vs. 17.1 months, respectively; p=0.007; Hazard Ratio [HR]: 0.64 [95% CI: 0.46-0.89]), but this was not the case for patients with LSP (24.6 vs. 25.6 months; p=0.279; HR: 1.12 [0.92-1.36]).

"That means that RSP patients treated with chemotherapy plus SIRT have a 36% reduced risk of dying at any time point," said van Hazel.

There was also a 27% improvement in PFS, although this was not statistically significant.

"This is the first time that location of primary tumour has been linked to radiation therapy," said van Hazel, and although it's possible that it may only apply to patients receiving first-line therapy, he said it opens a new treatment option for these patients.

There were no differences in side effects between patients with RSP and LSP tumours, and although patients who had both chemotherapy and SIRT did experience more side-effects than those who had chemotherapy alone, these were "predictable and manageable," said van Hazel.

Commenting on the study, ESMO spokespersons Dirk Arnold, from Instituto CUF de Oncologia in Lisbon, Portugal and Eric Van Cutsem, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, said that these findings contribute to the recent debates on both the biological heterogeneity of colon cancers and tumour localisation.

"It remains to be confirmed whether these results mean that right-sided tumours are more sensitive to this kind of radiotherapy - or whether this is simply related to the fact that the molecular characteristics of right-sided tumours allow less treatment options, because they have more mutations," they explained. "Additionally the well-known worse prognosis of right-sided tumours increases the relative importance of a non-systemic treatment option. More data on the molecular factors determining these results are warranted."

More information: Abstract LBA-006 - 'Impact of primary tumour location on survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer receiving selective internal radiation therapy and chemotherapy as first-line therapy' will be presented by Dr Van Hazel Guy during 'Session XIX: Colorectal Cancer' on Saturday, 01 July, 12:30 to 12:55 (CEST) in Auditorium A.
Cryptocurrency mining in South Africa is gaining popularity, with an increasing number of users earning the likes of Ethereum and ZCash.

The most popular graphics cards among miners are AMDs Radeon RX cards and Nvidia GeForce GTX 10-series units, as these offer the best price-to-performance ratio.

This has resulted in a global shortage of GPUs due to the increased demand from miners, forcing manufacturers to respond by creating cards designed specifically for crypto mining.

Manufacturers like Asus, Gigabyte, and Sapphire have designed new cards with a focus on power efficiency and mining performance, with enhanced cooler designs.

MyBroadband spoke to South African retailers to determine whether these cards would be available in South Africa and when they will arrive.

Retailers

Wootwares Rory Magee said there was no confirmed local release date or pricing for the graphics cards in South Africa.

However, manufacturers such as Asus are reportedly interested in bringing the mining-focused units to the country.

Wootware said it will definitely sell the cards if they become available from suppliers.

Raru said it was waiting for more information regarding the new cards, but has listed Sapphires Radeon RX 470 Mining Edition cards on its online store.

Gigabyte will reportedly not release its Nvidia mining graphics cards in South Africa and it is unclear whether any Nvidia mining graphics cards will launch locally.

Gigabytes new Nvidia cards will currently only launch in Western Europe, China, and Russia.

Evetech said it did not have any information regarding the pricing or launch date of crypto mining cards in SA.

Now read: Buying a graphics card in South Africa is absolutely ridiculous right now
Several dozen activists detained at protest rally in Baku: They chant slogans 'Freedom!', 'Resign!'

Princess Haya seeks asylum in Wales

Pashinyan: Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan listened to presented proposals

Volvo reveals its flagship EX90 electric crossover

Pashinyan: Yerevan supports Russia's proposals for Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement

Pashinyan: We will do everything to Armenia-Azerbaijan sign peace treaty by end of year

Russia bans entry of Biden's family and White House press secretary

Pashinyan says positions voiced by some member countries of CSTO are unacceptable

19 countries that use euro currency will slide into recession over winter

Pashinyan to Baku: If 1991 border is mutually recognized, what are your troops doing near Jermuk?

Pashinyan: If the Karabakh issue is solved, why is Azerbaijani Armed Forces shooting at Karabakh residents?

Pashinyan: Russia should say whether their version of peace settlement is still circulating?

Pashinyan: Maybe Azerbaijan doesn't want Armenia to receive revenues?

Pashinyan: Azerbaijan must withdraw its troops from Armenia

Pashinyan: My yesterday's speech served its purpose, Azerbaijani MFA no longer uses 'corridor' term

Microsoft founder Paul Allen's collection of world masterpieces sold for $1.6 billion

Public TV of Armenia hosts Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan

China shows drone killer

Armenian FM meets his French counterpart

Rishi Sunak decides to close hole in British budget through austerity

Delegation of Russian MPs visits Jermuk resort town

Lavrov and Mirzoyan discuss regional agenda

Harut Sasunyan: The best way to achieve peace is to be prepared for war

Turkish prosecutor demands court to ban Istanbul mayor from political activities

German business leaders warn against leaving China

Sasunyan: Russia and US pursue their own interests in South Caucasus

British economy shrinks in three months, foretelling prolonged recession

Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan summoned to Foreign Ministry

Euro rises above dollar for first time in long time

Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister calls Council of Turkic States 'forum of peace' and praises Turkey

EU embargo on Russian oil will be a boon for OPEC

Armenia defense minister receives China ambassador, military attache

Lemkin Institute condemns Azerbaijan president's genocidal rhetoric

Dollar goes up, euro rises sharply in Armenia

U.S. warns Europe that conflict over Taiwan will cause massive global economic shock

EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to moderate their rhetoric

Erdogan says Turkey has been waiting at door of EU for 52 years and will give answer when time comes

U.S. fears that European support for Ukrainian strategy will begin to weaken

Armenia, Iran emphasize need to quickly implement agreements reached (PHOTOS)

Armenia soldier wounded by Azerbaijan shooting undergoes surgery

Gas over morality: Hungary guards Azerbaijan's interests

U.S. quietly seeks concessions from Saudi Arabia after Mohammed bin Salman humiliated Biden

Italy's Ambassador to Armenia visits Gyumri

Russian Armed Forces complete redeployment of grouping from right bank of Dnieper

IRGC: Adversaries are frightened and on alert

Armenia appoints ambassador to Sri Lanka

Kremlin doesn't consider leaving Kherson 'humiliating'

Israeli president thinks the world is concerned about Netanyahu's far-right coalition partner

Chinese MFA: China is not distancing itself from Russia, as Biden believes

Ukraine will seek help from its foreign partners in financing Starlink satellite internet systems

Erdogan: Situation in South Caucasus remains fragile

Marukyan: Azerbaijans Aliyev admitted that his country started 2nd Karabakh war, despite previously insisting opposite

Azerbaijan blackmailing Armenia through Lachin corridor

Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus becomes observer in Organization of Turkic States

Armenia PM: In his latest speech Aliyev flagrantly violated agreement on refraining from threat or use of force

World Bank official: Armenia is one of best countries in terms of credit portfolio performance

Azerbaijan president makes repeated accusations, threats against Armenia

Iran citizens injured in Armenia road accident

China reveals new giant drone that could point to the future of air warfare

US embassy in Armenia closed today

Karabakh MOD: Defense Army did not fire at Azerbaijan positions located in occupied territories

Israel and U.S. counter threat of hypersonic missiles together

U.S. and EU plan to publish new roadmap on artificial intelligence

Armenia ombudsperson meets with Belgium colleagues

Newspaper: Armenia parliament opposition seats to no longer be empty

Newspaper: Armenia parliament committee of inquiry into 2020 war circumstances is inactive

U.S. will no longer consider Russia a country with a market economy

US intends to protect Azerbaijan from threats of Iran

Aliyev, Erdogan discuss results of tripartite meeting in Russias Sochi

Azerbaijan army fires at Armenia positions, uses mortars as well

UAE is going to launch flying cabs from airports

Volvo Cars expects to introduce electric SUV by 2024

Amazon becomes world's first public company to lose $1 trillion in market value

EU's odd couple: Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel can't stand each other

US, China set first benchmarks ahead of presidents' meeting

Iranian MFA summons Azerbaijani ambassador to carpet in connection with anti-Iranian propaganda

Washington to resist any attempt by new Israeli government to annex West Bank

Biden thinks Elon Musk's relations with other countries are worthy of being looked at

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister tells Polish senator about consequences of Azerbaijani aggression

Armenian deputy in Vilnius talks about goals of Azerbaijan's aggressive policy

Taliban bans women from gyms

U.S. to send Ukraine another $400 million in military aid

Ursula von der Leyen announces EUR 250 million support package for Moldova

Biden and Jinping meet on sidelines of G20 summit in Bali to be held on November 14

Riches of world get poorer suddenly

State Duma deputy: Interparliamentary format Yerevan-Baku-Moscow will be included soon to solve issues

IMF sees growing risk of economic fragmentation

Armen Gevorgyan to visit Strasbourg, Brussels and Paris

State Duma deputy: Upper Lars border crossing capacity has increased fivefold

UK government freezes over 18 billion pounds worth of Russian assets

State Duma deputy on Zatulin's ban on entering Armenia: These issues must be resolved

Borrell calls for retooling EU infrastructure for rapid transport of military equipment to East

European Parliament clears way for Croatia's admission to Schengen Area

European Council President Michel calls on EU member states to jointly purchase gas to reduce fuel prices

Alen Simonyan congratulates scientists on their professional holiday

Armenian President meets with leaders of several countries in Egypt

Greece accuses Turkey of profiting from the suffering of other countries under sanctions

USAID official says she personally saw how democracy, economic development are progressing in Armenia (VIDEO)

Spain court sentences civilian to prison for spreading fakes

Armenian Embassy in Russia issues statement on Azerbaijan's actions
YEREVAN. - At the moment there is no need to sign a double taxation agreement between Armenia and US, US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills told Armenian News  NEWS.am.

Responding to the question as to whether he doesn't think that such an agreement will be beneficial for both sides, the Ambassador noted that he understands that Armenia has certain interest in signing the double taxation agreement, however, according to him, based on their assessments in the embassy and Washington, currently there is yet no need to sign it.

Mills also noted that they have received no information from US or Armenian citizens on that the absence of such an agreement has somehow prejudiced their activity. According to their assessment, there are other high priorities which both governments should focus on in order to open ways for large investments.

Furthermore, Ambassador Mills added that according to the estimates of the US Department of the Treasury, there is no need to sign such an agreement either.

Should such a need rise later, the embassy is ready to take steps, he noted.

Apart from this, the diplomat stressed that if they are informed on such cases when an entrepreneur suffers losses due to the absence of this agreement or the absence of the agreement served as a reason for not making investments, the embassy will make a proposal to sign such an agreement with Armenia based on those fact, Mills concluded.
We would not even notice from the road the archaeological monument Arteni 1 located in semi-arid slope of Armenia's Mount Aragats between Talin town and Arteni village but for the blue tent under which the archaeologists sometimes hide from the scorching sun (photos).

For an ignorant eye this is merely a landscape painting: it is hard to imagine that it is man-made. To show it to us, the leader of Armenian-French expedition, fellow of Archaeology and Ethnography Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Irena Kalantaryan takes us to a small hill from where one can look at the monument from above. We are treated to a view of round form on a small plain.

This view is made of bushes but Irena Kalanyaryan explains that since this is a windy place, the bushes scramble to stones, the latter being nothing but blockwork.

In her words, unique archaeological monuments, which are known as Desert Kite in archaeology, have been registered in this region. These are unique facilities with two long walls (antennas), which have the form of a flow cup and close up in the form of starlike triangular, rectangular and round facility (crown) resembling a corral. Small bartizans are located on each row of crown. The height of the walls is between 1 to 1.5 metres, their length reaching hundred meters. Desert Kites were first found out in Jordan in mid-20th centuries. Then they were found out in Syria and Sinai. Their significance has not yet been finally ascertained but they most likely served as hunting traps. It is supposed that the hunters impounded their prey into a gradually narrowing passage between the walls, and when the animals appeared in a startlike or triangular trap, they were slaughtered by the hunters guarding in towers. It is also supposed that the most ancient Desert Kites appeared in Pre-Pottery Neolithic (10-7th millennia) and existed until the early Middle Ages.

In 2009, geologist A. Karakhanyan found such Desert Kites in Armenia as well. Since 2011, the systematic research of these monuments was launched within the framework of an Armenian-French project.

As a rule, settlements known in the archaeological literature as jellyfish, wheelhouses or agglomerated houses are located not far from Desert kites. They were called jellyfish or wheelhouse, since they resemble jellyfish or wheelhouse from above. Arteni 1 is one of the many settlements of that type found by the Armenian-French expedition.

The settlement is surrounded by a wall, which most probably had a defensive function. It is also divided into units by walls. The archaeologists are trying to understand the functional significance of such a division and, most importantly, determine the age of the monument. The radiocarbon test taken from the upper layers showed that they can be dated to the early Iron Age. This place was most likely again settled after the fall of the wheelhouse. The samples taken from the already destroyed 'wheels' showed an earlier periodlate Bronze Age. But the research showed that there are also cultural layers below, their tests coming as a surprise to the archaeologists: they date back to the middle Bronze Age. ''This is very important for Armenia and the entire Caucasian region, since no settlements of mid-Bronze Age had been recorded in the region. The entire culture of that period is known to us from graves,'' she says, adding that during the excavations they haven't yet reached the 'mother earth,' so findings of earlier period may stiil be unearthed.

Already below the archaeologist shows us the dug-up trenches and the findings unearthed there: a semi-circle wall, pits, where there were remnants of carbonized manure, a round hearth made of stone, as well as a large well, whose significance has not yet been ascertained.

Large number of bones and ceramic pieces, which may be referred to Trekhk-Vaandzor culture, are being unearthed.

All this is neatly put in packages and enumerated in order to be sent to the institute for further studies.

According to the archaeologists, the round wall surrounding the settlement should have an exit but the excavations have not yet yielded results with this respect.

French archaeologists work together with the Armenian ones here. Head of Mission Caucase program Berengere Perello says that within the framework of the mission, which is funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they are studying the protohistory and prehistory of the entire Caucasian region.

We fully realized why the bushes scramble to stones here, when the gust of wind tore off the blue tent under which we had sit ourselves, trying to eat and drink coffee. The wind not only tore off our tent but also poured soil into our modest lunch.

We were very lucky that the wind didn't disrupt our shooting by drone.
Farewell to the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety

Because potential budget cuts could hit federal agencies research budgets hard, the timing of the decision is unfortunate.

We'll miss the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, I believe. The Boston-based insurer announced in mid-May that it plans to close the research unit in Hopkinton, Mass., a unit that had opened in 1954.

The progress made in U.S. workplace safety and health during these past 63 years has been amazing, when you consider the nation's occupational injury rate in the mid-1950s was 6.38 per 100 workers, more than twice the 2015 rate of 3.0, and there were more than 13,000 workplace fatalities in 1958versus 4,836 in 2015, or a 62 percent improvement, according to BLS.

Deaths and injuries on the job remain far too numerous, but there has been progress, and research work done by many experts from many organizations, the institute included, deserve some of the credit for it.

Thomas Cecich, CSP, CIH, outgoing president of the American Society of Safety Engineers, said in a statement released May 15 that its closing is a "major loss for the occupational safety and health field," calling it "a prime source of scientific workplace safety data for more than 60 years." And Jordan Barab, a former acting head of OSHA, told The Boston Globe's Deirdre Fernandes, who first reported the closing, that Liberty Mutual did significant work to reduce injuries and reduce the costs of claims. "Workplace safety is really a science-based issue," Barab said. "In order to understand what really works, you need good research. They were a major private-sector research facility. It's catastrophic to see them leave the field."

The institute in particular provided helpful research on transportation safety issues. Both because of the continuing importance of that topic and because potential budget cuts could hit federal agencies' research budgets hard, the timing of the decision is unfortunate.

The company has promised to continue funding research at some universities and schools of public health, and that's to be commended.

This article originally appeared in the July 2017 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
GHS HazCom Training is More Important Than Ever

An effective HazCom training program provides employees with a deeper understanding of the dangers and emergency situations they may face.

In the United States, the final GHS deadline is now long behind us. However, OSHA's alignment of the Hazard Communication Standard (HazCom) to GHS provided a wakeup call to millions of companies across the U.S. that they need to do a better job with their HazCom programs, especially when it comes to training. HazCom violations remain number two on OSHA's top 10 list of violations, with training failures being a big driver of citations.

In this article we'll look at four steps employers can take to ensure employees understand the chemical hazards present in their work environment and to comply with GHS updates to HazCom.

Step One: Build a Training Program Focused on Efficacy

While OSHA doesn't specify how to do training, it does state that the training must be effective. In short, employees must carry their learning into the workplace and be able to put it into use. HazCom training has two key components: one, providing employees with a basic understanding of the HazCom Standard; and two, training employees on the specific hazards of the chemicals to which they are exposed.

Regarding the first item, its no coincidence that OSHA's first GHS deadline focused on employee training because workers needed to understand the new SDS and label formats that accompanied GHS adoption. For some companies, meeting this GHS training deadline wasn't a major cause for concern. However, GHS alignment uncovered an unsettling truth: Many employers lacked a basic level understanding of HazCom, making it difficult for them to comprehend and address the changes brought on by GHS. As a result, these employers' workers either had never been adequately trained on HazCom in the first place or had been trained so long ago that what they had learned had been forgotten. Moving forward, it's critical that employers continue to emphasize basic HazCom training, which now includes GHS-aligned information to ensure employees are actually able to use that information in the course of their day-to-day activities.

This article originally appeared in the July 2017 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
Trucks loaded with containers are lined up outside a terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, India, Thursday, June 29, 2017. Operations at a terminal at India's busiest container port have been stalled by the malicious software that suddenly burst across the world's computer screens Tuesday, another example of the disruption that continues to be felt globally. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

Many businesses still struggled Friday to recover hopelessly scrambled computer networks, collateral damage from a massive cyberattack that targeted Ukraine three days ago.

The Heritage Valley Health System couldn't offer lab and diagnostic imaging services at 14 community and neighborhood offices in western Pennsylvania. DLA Piper, a London-based law firm with offices in 40 countries, said on its website that email systems were down; a receptionist said email hadn't been restored by the close of business day.

Dave Kennedy, a former Marine cyberwarrior who is now CEO of the security company TrustedSec, said one U.S. company he is helping is rebuilding its entire network of more than 5,000 computers.

"It hit everything, their backups, servers, their workstations, everything," he said. "Everything was just nuked and wiped."

Kennedy added, "Some of these companies are actually using pieces of paper to write down credit card numbers. It's crazy."

The cyberattack that began Tuesday brought even some Fortune 1000 companies to their knees, experts say. Kennedy said a lot more "isn't being reported by companies who don't want to say that they are hit."

The malware, which security experts are calling NotPetya, was unleashed through Ukraine tax software, called MeDoc. Customers' networks became infected downloading automatic updates from its maker's website. Many customers are multinationals with offices in the eastern European nation.

Containers are piled up at a terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, India, Thursday, June 29, 2017. Operations at a terminal at India's busiest container port have been stalled by the malicious software that suddenly burst across the world's computer screens Tuesday, another example of the disruption that continues to be felt globally. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

The malware spread so quickly, worming its way automatically through interconnected private networks, as to be nearly unstoppable. What saved the world from digital mayhem, experts say, was its limited business-to-business connectivity with Ukrainian enterprises, the intended target.

Had those direct connections been extensiveon the level of a major industrial nation"you are talking about a catastrophic failure of all of our systems and environments across the globe. I mean it could have been absolutely terrifying," Kennedy said.

Microsoft said NotPetya hit companies in at least 64 nations, including Russia, Germany and the United States. Victims include drug giant Merck & Co. and the shipping company FedEx's TNT subsidiary. Trade in FedEx stock was temporarily halted Wednesday.

One major victim, Danish shipping giant A.P. Maersk-Moller, said Friday that its cargo terminals and port operations were "now running close to normal again." It said operations had been restored in Spain, Morocco, India, Brazil, Argentina and Lima, Peru, but problems lingered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Elizabeth, New Jersey; and Los Angeles.

An employee at an international transit company at Lima's port of Callao told The Associated Press that Maersk employees' telephone system and email had been knocked out by the virusso they were "stuck using their personal cellphones." The employee spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to reporters.

Back in Ukraine, the pain continued. Officials assured the public that the outbreak was under control, and service has been restored to cash machines and at the airport.

But some bank branches remain closed as information-technology professionals scrambled to rebuild networks from scratch. One government employee told the AP she was still relying on her iPhone because her office's computers were "collapsed." She, too, was not authorized to talk to journalists.

Trucks loaded with containers are lined up outside a terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, India, Thursday, June 29, 2017. Operations at a terminal at India's busiest container port have been stalled by the malicious software that suddenly burst across the world's computer screens Tuesday, another example of the disruption that continues to be felt globally. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

Security researchers now concur that while NotPetya was wrapped in the guise of extortionate "ransomware"which encrypts files and demands paymentit was really designed to exact maximum destruction and disruption, with Ukraine the clear target.

Computers were disabled there at banks, government agencies, energy companies, supermarkets, railways and telecommunications providers.

Ukraine's government said Thursday that the FBI and Britain's National Crime Agency were assisting in its investigation of the malware.

Suspicion for the attack immediately fell on hackers affiliated with Russia, though there is no evidence tying Vladimir Putin's government to the attack.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been tense since Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Pro-Russian fighters still battle the government in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. intelligence agencies declined to comment about who might be responsible for the attack. The White House did not immediately respond to questions seeking its reaction to the attack.

Experts have blamed pro-Russian hackers for major cyberattacks on the Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and 2016, assaults that have turned the eastern European nation into the world's leading cyberwarfare testing ground.

The main entrance of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, India, Thursday, June 29, 2017. Operations at a terminal at India's busiest container port have been stalled by the malicious software that suddenly burst across the world's computer screens Tuesday, another example of the disruption that continues to be felt globally. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

A disruptive attack on the nation's voting system ahead of 2014 national elections is also attributed to Russia.

Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos Inc. and an expert on cyberattacks on infrastructure including Ukraine's power grid, said the rules of cyberespionage appear to be changing, with sophisticated actorsstate-sponsored or notviolating what had been established norms of avoiding collateral damage.

Besides NotPetya, he pointed to the May ransomware dubbed "WannaCry," a major cyberassault that some experts have blamed on North Korea.

"I think it's absolutely reprehensive if we do not have national-level leaders come out and make very clear statements," he said, "that this is not activity that can be condoned."

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
News

Windows AutoPilot Service Promises 'Zero-Touch' PC Provisioning

Microsoft announced a new Windows AutoPilot service this week that promises to ease the provisioning of new PCs for end users.

The service lets end users receive new Windows 10 PCs directly from the computer manufacturer, or OEM. They turn it on and the provisioning is automatic, according to Microsoft's description. IT pros don't have to reimage machines and add drivers. The service enables so-called "zero-touch" provisioning of new PCs and will skip some of the traditional out-of-the-box setup steps to get machines ready for use.

The Windows AutoPilot service currently functions with Windows 10 version 1703, the "creators update," according to Microsoft. The service, though, apparently is not yet broadly available. For organizations using Microsoft Surface devices, the Windows AutoPilot service will be arriving "later this year."

"The Surface team is working with customers and partners to roll out the Windows AutoPilot Deployment program and expects to make it broadly available to customers later this year," Microsoft explained in a TechNet blog post.

If organizations buy their Windows 10 PCs from other vendors, then they'll have to find out if the distributor participates in the Windows AutoPilot Deployment Program. Exactly when OEMs might have such support wasn't described by Microsoft.

The Windows AutoPilot service consists of three basic steps to easily provision Windows 10 machines, according to a Microsoft video. First, the PC vendor will send a "device ID file" to an organization when new hardware gets ordered. The IT department then uploads this file to the Windows AutoPilot service. Next, a deployment profile gets created and assigned to the devices. Lastly, users get the machines directly from the PC vendor, and they can just turn them on and get provisioned by signing in with their Azure Active Directory password.

Windows AutoPilot Requirements

The Windows AutoPilot service has certain requirements. The scheme is heavily dependent on using Microsoft's Azure Active Directory service. Each device needs to be registered to an organization's Azure AD tenancy.

Microsoft's Windows AutoPilot documentation seem to point to a requirement for having either Azure AD Premium P1 or P2 licensing in place, as well as a subscription to Microsoft Intune or other mobile device management (MDM) service. The service also seems to require using the Microsoft Store for Business or Partner Center admin portal.

For users with Azure AD Premium subscriptions, this service will automatically enroll users under Microsoft Intune management or another MDM solution, although IT pros need to set that up in Azure AD. It's likely that integration of the service with vendor MDM software providers is yet to come. The TechNet post explained that Microsoft is currently "working with MDM partners to integrate the AutoPilot Deployment configuration experience."

One of the benefits of the Windows AutoPilot service is the ability to upgrade devices automatically from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 10 Enterprise, with nothing required of the end user and no system reboots. However, that capability requires having Windows 10 Enterprise E3 licensing in place.

Other Windows AutoPilot Capabilities

Microsoft plans to add three new capabilities to the Windows AutoPilot service when the Windows 10 "fall creators update" gets released. The Windows 10 fall creators update likely will appear in September or October as a "monthly channel" release (see Microsoft's lingo changes here).

One of those new capabilities will be the ability to reset a device to a "business-ready state." These reset devices will retain Active Directory domain join and MDM enrollment states, Microsoft promised.

Another new feature coming with the Windows 10 fall creators update will be a "self-service Active Directory domain join" feature. Lastly, it will be possible to "preassign a new Windows 10 device to a specific user" to deliver a "highly personalized" out-of-the-box provisioning experience.

Microsoft also indicated that end users will see some sort of indicator of progress during the device provisioning process, but that capability will arrive with the Windows 10 fall creators update.

New Device Health

Tucked into Microsoft's Windows AutoPilot announcement was a note about a new addition to the Windows Analytics feature of the Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS). The addition, called "Device Health," is a service that purportedly tracks issues that could affect the experience of end users on Windows 10 devices.

Device Health will "soon be available to preview, with general availability expected later this year," Microsoft's announcement stated.

OMS is Microsoft's solution for managing public cloud workloads, but it also has some features that are designed for managing PCs. For instance, OMS has an Upgrade Readiness feature and an Update Compliance feature as part of Windows Analytics. The new Device Health feature is just the latest Windows Analytics tool along those lines. Microsoft sometimes suggests that these Windows Analytics features can be used without having to pay for an OMS subscription.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called Friday on rival Cypriot leaders to seize a "historic opportunity" to bring peace to their island at negotiations aimed at ending Cyprus' 40-year division. Guterres said UN-mediated talks in Switzerland offered a chance to reach a comprehensive settlement to the conflict that has divided Cyprus for "too many decades". "I firmly believe that through determination and political will, it will be possible to clear this final hurdle to a comprehensive settlement," he told reporters. Guterres arrived Friday at the talks in the Swiss Alpine resort of Crans-Montana to bolster efforts to reunify Cyprus and solve one of the world's longest-running political headaches. Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops launched an invasion and later occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-inspired putsch seeking union with Greece. More than 2,000 people are thought to have died during the offensive and the years of ethnic violence that preceded it. Around 1,200 people are still missing, and more than four decades of mistrust between Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot communities have foiled successive reunification efforts. Key to any deal would be the potential withdrawal of some of Turkey's 35,000 troops still stationed on the island. In return, Turkish-Cypriots want guarantees against a repeat of the coup attempt as well as a rotating presidency to head up any future federal state. President Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader who heads the island's internationally recognised government, and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci are representing their respective communities. They are joined by delegations from Cyprus's so-called guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and Britain. "Those gathered here today, the leaders, the communities in Cyprus, the guarantor powers, have a responsibility to grasp the opportunity for peace and to bring a comprehensive settlement owed to Cyprus," Guterres said. "But there is still a lot of work to be done." The Crans-Montana conference has been billed by the UN as Cyprus' best chance for peace and could last until July 7 if headway is made on a range of issues.
ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Sergio Mattarella said on Friday that early national elections this year were unlikely. He told Bloomberg Television during a visit to Toronto that he believed the current legislature, which is due to end next February, will run its course and that elections would be held before the start of spring. There has been frequent speculation that they could be held in the autumn of this year. Mattarella, the only figure with the power to dissolve parliament, has said frequently in the past that elections should only be held after parliament has passed a new electoral law to harmonize voting systems for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. At present, there is a system based on proportional representation for both houses of parliament, but in the Chamber there is a lower threshold of votes needed to elect representatives, and a winner's bonus of seats for any party that gets 40 percent of the vote. After months of bickering, the parties have still not reached a deal over a new system and opinion polls suggest that no party or coalition would win a majority if a vote were held under current rules. (Reporting By Philip Pullella; editing by Ralph Boulton)
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama urged Indonesians on Saturday to resist divisive politics based on race and religion, saying the world's most populous Muslim nation has a long history of tolerance that should be preserved. Indonesia's reputation for pluralism has come under scrutiny since Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic-Chinese Christian, was sentenced in May to two years in prison for blasphemy in a trial that came after Islamist-led rallies. Obama, who was on a personal visit to the country where he spent some of his childhood, said the Muslim community in Indonesia had historically protected Hindu and Buddhist temples. "Indonesia is made of thousands of islands, hundreds of languages, scores of regions and ethnic groups. So my time here made me cherish and respect for people's differences," he told a packed audience in Jakarta. Obama stopped short of mentioning any specific cases of racial or religious intolerance. "It is very important here in Indonesia, the United States, Europe, everywhere, to fight against the politics of 'us and them'," he said to cheers from thousands of mostly Indonesians who have worked or studied abroad. He arrived in Jakarta after visiting the cultural city of Yogyakarta and white-water rafting on the tourist island of Bali. He also met Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Bogor, south of the capital. Indonesia, a country of 250 million people, has experienced rising intolerance against non-Muslims and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. A leader of Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organisation this week called for a boycott of Starbucks, saying that the international coffee chain's pro-gay stand risks ruining the "religious and cultured" core of the country. (Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Writing by Eveline Danubrata; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
The interior ministers of France, Germany and Italy will meet in Paris on Sunday to discuss a "coordinated approach" to help Italy deal with hordes of migrants arriving in its ports, a source said. Italy on Wednesday threatened to suddenly stop vessels from other countries disembarking migrants at its ports after rescuing them in the Mediterranean. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere and Italy's Marco Minniti will meet European Union Commissioner for Refugees Dimitris Avramopoulos in the French capital, the informed source said. "The aim is to have a coordinated and concerted approach to the influx of migrants in the central Mediterranean," as well as "how best to help the Italians," the source close to the issue said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron both expressed their backing for Italy after meeting in Berlin. "Germany will certainly help Italy face this problem," Merkel said. Macron meanwhile cited the Italian premier as saying that more than 80 percent of the migrants were seeking a better life economically and were not fleeing war or persecution. Nearly 77,000 migrants have landed in Italy since January, up 15 percent on the same period in 2016. "We are confronted with growing numbers that over time could severely test our reception system," Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni had said. Speaking in Ottawa, Italian President Sergio Mattarella warned that "if we continue with these kind of figures, the situation will become unmanageable, even for a large and open country like ours". Mattarella called on the fellow EU nations to make a "concrete contribution" to help Rome deal with the problem.
Turkey on Friday said the rights of Qatar must be respected as it hosted the defence minister of Ankara's main Gulf ally which has been left isolated by Saudi-led sanctions. Khaled bin Mohammed al-Attiyah met with Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik at the defence ministry in Ankara, the state-run news agency Anadolu said on Thursday. The meeting came as Ankara, which has stood by Doha throughout the crisis, resists pressure to shutter a Turkish military base on the emirate that Qatar's neighbours want to see closed. In the talks, Isik said that "the current issues between the (Gulf) countries, who are brothers, must be resolved soon on the basis of a sincere dialogue and respect for Qatar's rights." Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain announced on June 5 the suspension of political, economic and diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting extremist groups. Doha denies the claims. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the allegations are baseless and offered Ankara's full support. Turkey has provided food and other aid through hundreds of planes and a cargo ship, although Ankara's attempts to mediate between the sides have so far come to nothing. Crucially, Ankara is also setting up a military base on the emirate that is set to give Turkey a new foothold in the Gulf, sending in a first deployment of two dozen troops. Last week Riyadh and its allies issued 13 demands to Qatar for resolving the crisis, including the closure of the Turkish military base and the Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera. Erdogan hit back at the Saudi-led demands, saying the sweeping demands were "against international law" and saying that asking for the withdrawal of Turkish troops was a "disrespect to Turkey." Yet Ankara has also been careful not to directly criticise Riyadh and previously urged the kingdom to lead attempts to solve the crisis. US President Donald Trump spoke with Erdogan on Friday by telephone on the crisis, the White House and Turkish presidency said.
By Jim Finkle TORONTO (Reuters) - The U.S government this week warned American industrial firms about hacking activity targeting the nuclear and energy sectors, a security report seen by Reuters on Friday said, the latest event to highlight the power industry's vulnerability to cyber attacks. Since at least May, hackers used tainted "phishing" emails to "harvest credentials" so they could gain access to networks of their targets, the joint report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation said. The report said that in some cases hackers succeeded in compromising the networks of their targets, though it did not identify specific victims of the campaign. "Historically, cyber actors have strategically targeted the energy sector with various goals ranging from cyber espionage to the ability to disrupt energy systems in the event of a hostile conflict," the report said. Homeland Security and FBI officials could not be reached for comment on the report, which was dated June 28. Energy firms have become increasingly concerned about the threat from hackers following cyber attacks that cut power in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016. The energy-industry news site E&E News reported on Tuesday that U.S. investigators were looking into cyber intrusions this year at multiple nuclear power generators, Reuters has not confirmed details of that report, which said that there was no evidence safety systems had been compromised at the affected plants. It was not immediately clear whether those incidents were related to the hacking activity described by the FBI and Homeland Security. The report provided technical details to help firms identify whether they had been compromised and information on how to defend against the hacking campaign. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto; editing by Grant McCool)
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General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and salty snacks, ice cream, nutrition bars, wellness beverages, and savory and grain snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Blue Basics, Blue Freedom, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Haagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Larabar, Latina, Liberte, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. It sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. The company operates 466 leased and 392 franchise ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Think you have a weird product that no customers would go for? The story of Bobs Pickle Pops might prove you wrong.

Bobs Pickle Pops is a business that provides a really weird product  frozen pickle juice. Think freezer pops but with pickle juice instead of sweet, fruity flavors.

Sound gross? Maybe to you. But theres actually a decent sized market for the product.

Co-founder of Bobs Pickle Pops John Howard actually owned a roller skating rink before starting this latest business. Pickles were one of the most popular items at the snack bar. And when the pickles ran out, he started serving the juice. Then the juice became more popular than the actual pickles, and he started freezing it just to keep up with demand.

Now, Bobs Pickle Pops are actually stocked in Walmart stores and have been featured on the Food Network.

Bobs Pickle Pops Prove that Weird Products Sell

This doesnt mean that every weird business idea is going to succeed. But there are some unexpected ideas out there that could surprise people. So the next time youre considering a new idea for your business, dont just dismiss something because you think its too weird. Do some research or testing to see if theres a market out there for your very own weird business offering.
Many people did not get the joke but comment about stupid Americans.

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Facebook page Medzinarodny den borovicky (International Day of Borovicka) published a video with the comment: Have you seen this? Borovicka in the US news. Do they really think that we make borovicka out of pine?

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

video //www.youtube.com/embed/2rOY2GbWXpI

The video got thousands of likes, hundreds of comments and thousands of shares. The video brings a news report in English as breaking news about the fact that the desire of Slovaks for their national alcoholic drink Borovicka causes considerable increase of deforestation in Slovakia. The prank is a play on words with the drink Borovicka (with borievky, juniper berries) and the word for pine, borovica.

Many people had fun with the video but many reactions proved that some people are taking the video seriously and believe that this reportage was broadcast from America. Comments have been left about stupid Americans and hateful comments directed towards the US and American journalists.

There is no journalist, however, but an ordered actor, the portal omediach.com stated.

The fanpage originated last year as a part of five Slovak producers of borovicka initiative to increase interest in this type of alcohol, omediach.com wrote.

The author of the campaign is AMI Communications Slovakia agency.

We proved that its easy to make news that seems real, said managing director of the company Peter Chalmovsky, as quoted by omediach.com. He hopes that people will learn a lesson in not to taking everything seriously and only trusting verified sources of information.
Chiang Mai is one of those places we just knew we were going to love before even arriving. There is a legend surrounding this perfectly sized city surrounded by a wealth of activities, culture, food and amazing Chiang Mai budget accommodation. Chiang Mai had a lot to live up to, but thankfully it didnt disappoint and very quickly grew to being one of our favourite cities in the world after almost 2 weeks here we just didnt want to leave! Here are our highlights of our Chiang Mai things to do list!

Chiang Mai things to do:

Head up above the city to Doi Suthep

Looming above the city of Chiang Mai is the mountain of Doi Suthep and the glittering temple which sits on top of it. Jump on a bike and ride up the winding roads towards the summit and feel the change in temperature shift literally over one turn. Or grab your hiking boots and follow the sacred Monks Trail up here following a path of orange robes tied around tree branches. On your list of Chiang Mai things to do this has to be a must do, you havent really visited this city properly until youve been up here!

Dont forget to stop along the way to visit the many smaller temples and waterfalls as well as soaking in the magnificent view over this mountainous region of Northern Thailand. A peaceful retreat that makes a great ride or magnificent hike heading up to Doi Suthep is one of the reason why Chiang Mai seems to have it all!







Watching the sun go down over the city from up here as the smell of incense burnt into snake like wisps, the hanging charms dance a jangling pitch and the monks sing sweetly in the background is one of the most magical experiences weve ever had.

Experience the best of Thai food for next to nothing!

Chiang Mai is a food lovers heaven. From bustling markets stalls with an amazing array of local foods including Pad Thai and Red Curry for ridiculously cheap prices to trendy food markets offering up gourmet burgers, burritos and grilled cheese amongst a whole host of other treats. The city also has some great cafes as well as more upmarket dining options and all for amazing prices. Food is a big part of the best Chiang Mai things to do!

As veggies we were also spoilt for choice with a dedicated stall on the local markets, a vegan cafe called Morning Glory and plenty of veggie burgers, hot dogs, pizzas and Mexican dishes on offer!

Buy the weird and wonderful on the weekend markets

By this point Ive been to a LOT of markets all across South East Asia and those usually catering for the tourist crowd I can tell you are around 90% the same gear wherever you are! Its strangely reassuring in a way, if you forget to buy something in once country you can bet it will turn up again a few weeks down the road, but its also pretty uninspiring and symbolic of the dumbing down of the rich cultures of each region for craft markets aimed at tourists.

However, Chiang Mai, especially for a large city, does seem to have one of the most varied selections on offer with each stall genuinely offering something different on the famed weekend markets. Sure, it does also have some of the usual tat, but we were pleasantly surprised by the products on offer here as well as the colour and life of the happening market place!

Visit the many stunning temples

Chiang Mai might be known as a modern and happening city on the digital nomad circuit but it is also quite a traditional and religious place too. The old centre of the city has a wealth of amazing temples and as a result it is quite a common sight to see the orange robe clad monks wandering gracefully around town. Temples such as Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh offer the most well known and historic sights. Partially ruined the ancient Royal temples of the Chiang Mai kings, Wat Chedi Luang is part relic and part shimmering working temple, it really is a wonderfully peaceful place despite the crowds.

But if you really want to tour the cities temples then there are so many more out there, the most impressive and important include Wat Suan Dok, Wat Pan Tao, Wat Pansao, Wat Lok Malee, Wat Sri Suphan (The silver temple), Wat Chiang Man and Wat Jet Yot. Each of these offer a historic, atmospheric and beautiful look into ancient Chiang Mai. For those even more interested in the religious side of the city you can even attend the regular monk chats, morning Alms giving and even meditation classes! The city is a religious centre too so visiting at least the main temples is a must on our Chiang Mai things to do list!

Go trekking and see the rural side of Chiang Mai

One of the best things about Chiang Mai is the diversity of things to do and see. On the surface it is a busy city of medium size that spreads out further than you initially suspected. Its modern, full of everything you could ever wish for, hip and happening. But travel just an hour outside of the city and the Thailand you know and love changes dramatically. The modern country begins to fade into memory and villages complete with bamboo huts and deeply traditional ways begin to appear.

Its a refreshing change from the multinational feel of Chiang Mai and also a chance to get out into the dense jungles and bat filled caves of the region. Trekking can last anything from an afternoon to a few days hiking and sleeping in villages in the steep jungles of Northern Thailand. Bathing in rivers, walking for hours and meeting the minority tribes of the region. This really is a very rewarding and eye opening part of Thailand to discover!

Read more: Our two day jungle trekking adventure in Thailand

Swing like a Gibbon through the jungle

If hiking is a little on the tame side for you or like us you just cant get enough of this enchanting environment then you can strap your harness on and fly like a gibbon. Well, maybe not all that gracefully but around the jungle lined outskirts of the city there are many amazing high ropes and zipline courses to take your pick from. The allow you to take a birds eye view of the amazing ecosystem here in Northern Thailand or if you what just have an amazingly fun day swinging around 100ft above the forest floor!

Our favourite, and the original, has to be the Flights of The Gibbon. This course is mostly centred around ziplines with them having the longest jungle top line in the world at almost 1km long. But not only that but by visiting this wonderful place you are also contributing to the conservation of this cute and cheeky endangered species. In the city of adventures ziplining is a must on our Chiang Mai things to do list!

Read more here: Flying through the jungle of Thailand!







Look after the amazing elephants

You cant come to Chiang Mai without seeing the most amazing inhabitants of this region, the beautiful Asian elephants, its top of our Chiang Mai things to do list! However choosing the right place is key to making this a trip to remember for all the right reasons or one to be ashamed of. The practice of riding elephants is one that is cruel and completely abhorrent, these gentle giants are tortured into submission and spend years in pain as their fragile spines are not designed to carry anything on their backs, despite what their size might have you think.

But spend the day, or even longer, at either Elephant Nature park or Elephant Jungle Sanctuary and you can have the most amazing day looking after and interacting with these wonderful animals. This gives you a chance to not only get up close to these stunning and characterful creatures but also contribute to their rescue, rehabilitation and care rather than their suffering. We had one of the most amazing days of our 7 months in Asia here and it totally exceeded our expectations!

Read more here: Visiting the most wonderful Elephant Sanctuary

Rent a bike and ride up to the amazing hippy heaven of Pai

Some 762 turns from Chiang Mai along winding mountain roads brings you to the hippy paradise of Pai, a place that cant fail to make you happy! This relaxed backpackers heaven set in a wonderfully beautiful landscape is like an escape from the pressures and the horrors of the modern world into one where anything goes and it usually does. From living in huts practicing circus stills to lazing in hot springs, watching the sunset over the canyon or lazing your day away in a hammock after eating your way through the street food stalls, Pai has a lasting charm that will keep you dreaming of its wonders long after you have left.. if you ever do!

We recommend taking your own bike up here, but we warned the roads do often cause first timers to fall fouls of their challenging contours. If you fancy yet more adventure then take the bike along even more turns to the amazing Lod Cave where you can take a bamboo raft through its enormous caverns and glance at mysterious thousand year old coffins! Even though its not in the city itself heading off to Pai is a backpackers rite of passage and one of the top Chiang Mai things to do!

Read all about Pai here: Pai: The hedonistic hippy heaven in the mountains we almost never left, Thailand!

Read about the ride up the mountain here: Taking the 762 turn Chiang Mai to Pai scooter trip & the information on the bus from Chiang Mai to Pai, Thailand

Stay a while and become entranced by this wonderful city!

Chiang Mai has an endless list of amazing things to see and do, even just being here is a treat as the city has such a unique and welcoming atmosphere. Chiang Mai is a place to stay a while, relax and explore. We stayed at City Capsule Hostel which cost us 2 a night per bed for amazing capsule pods, we met some amazing people here too including the owner Boon who is just the loveliest man and such a great help when figuring out what to do and where to go! But if you are after somewhere a bit more lively then there are some great party hostels in Chiang Mai, it really is a city where there is something for every type of traveller.

We even rented our bikes through them and they let us keep our things here whilst on the trekking tour overnight in a locker and our big bags whilst in Pai for a week! Our Chiang Mai things to do list could go on and on really, we just love this place!

Book your transport across Thailand and Asia here:

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Read how we arrived in Chiang Mai on the 2 day slow boat down the Mekong from Laos: Laos to Thailand on a boat

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Hey, youve got your Travel Insurance sorted havent you?

Travelling and especially backpacking is a wild adventure, but make sure you are covered just incase something goes wrong, which if youre living it up to the fullest its always a possibility!

Check travel insurance prices with World Nomads here!

Have you ever been to Chiang Mai and fallen in love as we did?

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Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
fireworks statue of liberty fourth of july independence day

Baranov E/Shutterstock

The fireworks you enjoy every 4th of July are the result of a chain of chemical reactions.

When a firework container is lit, its contents of colored explosives called "stars" light up the sky.

The colors that sparkle in the sky are chemical reactions happening right before your eyes.

The spectacle of a fireworks display may leave you wondering what it took to get that color-changing, dazzling sequence into the sky.

We're here to help.

Fireworks are the result of a whole bunch of chemical reactions. And it all leads to an explosion.

Simply, a firework is a container  typically a tube or ball shape  that holds explosives hitched up to a time-delay fuse.

There are two explosive parts in a firework  the one that shoots it into the sky, and a set of little balls of explosives called "stars." These stars are filled with colors that blaze brightly in the sky, but after only a certain amount of time has passed. This is why fireworks can get up high in the sky before exploding into brilliance.

When the fuse gets low enough in the firework, it reacts with a bursting charge, which in turn lights the explosive that will disperse the stars. The ignited explosive creates a high-pressure gas that blows the colorful stars outward. Afterward, the cardboard that enclosed the explosives rains to the ground as charred remains.

Here's what that looks like:

Chemical reactions create the colors

The colors that sparkle in the sky are chemical reactions happening right before your eyes.

Inside every star is an oxidizing agent, fuel, a metal that acts as the color, and a binder that holds it all together. The fuel and oxidizing agent are the parts responsible for the intense heat and gas of the explosion, according to the American Chemical Society.

But the coolest part is the metals that act as the colors. The heat makes the atoms inside the wire move faster and faster, causing the atoms to bump into each other more, which gives off light. If you can control the temperature of the firework, then you can pick the exact time you want that firework to be a certain color.

Story continues

Some fireworks heat up and cycle through red, orange, yellow, and white, depending on how hot the explosion is. But more commonly, fireworks create light by letting off specific colors that depend on which metals are in the mix.

For a complete display, fireworks often mix different metals and metal salts for vibrant, multicolored effects. Calcium salts will burn orange, while sodium salts will burn yellow. If you burn copper, it'll give off light that's blue-green.

The science behind fireworks' shapes and sounds

Fascinated by that smiley face or oddly lopsided heart in a firework display? It's nothing more than some careful organization of the stars. If they're just spread randomly, they'll expand out evenly through the sky once they explode.

But, because the explosion will push the stars out in a predictable trajectory, it is possible to organize the stars in a pattern on the cardboard cylinder on the outside of the firework. This will create specific shapes.

And of course, no fireworks display would be complete without the ear-shattering booms that freak out dogs and resonate in our chests. Those noises are caused by a sonic boom that happens as the gases inside the firework expand faster than the speed of sound.

In the end you get one bright, loud, beautiful way to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Jennifer Welsh and Mike Nudelman contributed to earlier versions of this article.

NOW WATCH: This artist makes paintings with firecracker explosions

See Also:
science laboratory Sir Ray Avery, a New Zealand pharmaceutical scientist

Phil Walter / Getty Images

They say theres no alternative to hard work, but most researchers probably wouldnt turn down the opportunity for more collaborative research thats well-funded.

Thats the philosophy behind what the Broad Institute at MIT calls the Miracle Machine.

The Miracle Machine produces amazing advances in science and technology as a result of federal support an funding for the public and private sectors of the research community.

However, as a video narrated by Broad Institute director Eric Lander explains, one of Americas greatest assets is falling into disrepair.

Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates retweeted Landers postthat linked to the video, echoing some of its major points. One of which is that research can do wonders for the economy, health, energy, and defense of the United States  or any nation for that matter.

Tweet Embed:

https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/880149690095878144

Investing in basic scientific research drives remarkable returns for Americas economy, health, energy, and defense. https://t.co/oVvgy63Nuy

Unfortunately, federal support for research has been dwindling. Over the past decade, funding for a number of research institutions has been on the decline, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which has lost 25 percent of its budget over the past 13 years. The most recent budget proposed by the US Congress wouldnt do much to improve those number, either.

In the same way that this private and public sector partnership pushed basic scientific research forward, much to the benefit of many sectors in the US, the decline in federal support will have a ripple effect across several industries.

We may wake up to find the next generation of technologies, and industries [] are being produced elsewhere, Lander points out in the video. With Europe, China, Dubai, and other nations investing more in scientific research rather than less, it isnt a stretch to think that the US could fall behind.

Story continues

Watch the video here 

Youtube Embed:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/BNqa8TWM_10

Width: 840px

Height: 472.5px

NOW WATCH: What happens when a tarantula meets its worst predator

See Also:
BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 2,000 undocumented migrant workers from Myanmar and Cambodia fled from Thailand this week, officials said on Friday, after a decree aimed at managing foreign workers came into effect. Workers from Thailand's poor neighbours, in particular Myanmar and Cambodia, make up the backbone of its manual labour force and many industries, including a multi-billion dollar seafood industry, are heavily reliant on foreign workers. Undocumented migrants are sometimes subject to exploitation by employers and cases of forced labour have been found by the media and Thailand's foreign trade partners. Under a decree that came into effect on June 17, an employer who hires an undocumented foreign worker faces a fine of up to 800,000 baht (18,085 pounds). The penalty has some businesses scrambling to fire undocumented workers or get them registered. "Some employees are scared, because they employ illegal workers. Even though we aren't rounding these workers up they are still scared about the hefty fines," Pornchai Kuntee, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, told Reuters. "There will be an impact to the economy because foreign workers are an essential part of the workforce," he said. Thailand's military government says it has made legalizing foreign workers a priority to help business. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha had said workers and their employers should be given an extension of 120 days to register and comply with the new decree, his deputy, Wissanu Krea-ngam, told reporters later on Friday. Media had earlier published pictures of workers crossing a border river from Thailand back into Myanmar carrying, bundles of belongings in plastic bags. Official government figures for the number of undocumented workers leaving this week were not available but immigration police estimated 2,000 had gone back to Myanmar and Cambodia. Reuters reported last month that, despite a Thai crackdown on people smuggling and trafficking networks, people-smuggling across the Thai-Myanmar border is on the rise as people arrive in search of jobs. This week, the United States kept Thailand on a trafficking watch list saying it did not meet the minimum standards to end human trafficking. Thailand defended its efforts to stop trafficking and urged U.S. officials to visit and see its efforts. (Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Robert Birsel)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian rebel group accused the Syrian army of using chlorine gas against its fighters on Saturday in battles east of Damascus - an accusation the military swiftly denied as a fabrication. The Failaq al-Rahman group said more than 30 people suffered suffocation as a result of the attack in Ain Tarma in the Eastern Ghouta region, which government forces have been battling to take back from insurgents. In a statement circulated by state-run media, a military source said the army command completely denied the accusation. "It has not used any chemical weapons in the past, and will not use them at any time". The United States said on Wednesday the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appeared so far to have heeded a warning issued earlier in the week not to carry out a chemical weapons attack after saying it saw possible preparations for one. Western governments including the United States say the Syrian government was behind an April gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed dozens. In response, the United States fired cruise missiles at the air base from which it said the attack was launched. The Syrian government has denied any role in that attack. On Saturday the government also dismissed a report by the international chemical weapons watchdog that said the banned nerve agent sarin was used in the April attack in Khan Sheikhoun, saying it lacked "any credibility". A joint United Nations and OPCW investigation has found Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State militants used mustard gas. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Gareth Jones)
PHOENIX  The state's top election official is preparing to turn over data on Arizona's 3.6 million registered voters to the head of a Trump-created commission exploring elections fraud.

In a statement Friday, Michele Reagan said Kris Kobach who is making the same request of all 50 states is entitled to the same redacted information that is available to the general public through a public records request.

Reagan, a Republican like Kobach, said he won't get everything he wants.

She said state law precludes her from giving out the last four digits of voters' social security numbers. And the data will not include a date of birth but only the birth year.

But Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said Kobach, a Trump ally who contends millions of people not in this country legally voted in the last election, may not be entitled to even what's left.

He agreed that Arizona law does make the records public.

But Fones, a Democrat, said that law also says information in registration records can be used only for political party activity, campaigns, revising voter precinct boundaries and other purposes specifically authorized by law. He contends that does not include Kobach's purported interest, even for purposes of a presidential commission.

What's worse, Fontes said, is that Kobach, in his letter to state election officials, told them that whatever they turn over to him will, in turn, be made public by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Here's Kris Kobach, running around and telling everybody that they're going to publish everything all over the place, he said. That's voter suppression.

Fontes said people already are worried.

I've already got voters calling me, asking me how they can unregister to vote because they don't want Donald Trump to have their voter information, he said. Fontes said there's reason for concern, citing Kobach's history of voter suppression as secretary of state in Kansas: The American Civil Liberties Union says it has sued him successfully four times over his practices.

Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez, also a Democrat, had her own questions about why Kobach should get the information.

What is the goal, what is the objective? she asked.

Rodriguez also noted that the request, while on commission letterhead, appears to come strictly from Kobach. She questioned whether this is what the commission wants or just Kobach.

But David Stevens, his Cochise County counterpart, said Kobach's intent may not matter legally.

The voting records are public if you come into my office, he said. And Stevens said anyone can purchase the list as long as it's not for commercial purposes.

Reagan spokesman Matt Roberts said his boss hasn't received her copy of the letter that already has been sent to election officials in several other states. He said a formal response to Kobach will come once that happens.

Trump established the commission in May, naming Kobach and Vice President Mike Pence as co-chairs. Among its duties are to find laws, rules, policies and practices that undermine the American people's confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in federal elections and vulnerabilities that could lead to fraudulent registration and voting.

But the choice of Kobach has led to fears the commission is being guided to a pre-conceived conclusion that there is massive voter fraud.

For example, he told Fox Business in January that probably in excess of a million people who are not citizens voted in the 2016 election and that Trump might have won the popular vote over Hillary Clinton but for really big states like California, Texas ... that have a large alien population.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he won't honor the request, questioning Kobach's agenda.

At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump's alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression, said McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill said she will share publicly available information in the spirit of transparency. But Merrill, a Democrat, echoed the concerns by Rodriguez about the panel.

State officials have not been told precisely what the commission is looking for, she said. And Merrill said there's reason to be suspicious, saying Kobach has a lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in Kansas, methods she said have been repudiated by courts.

This isn't just a partisan thing.

They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said in a statement Friday of the request. And Mississippi is a great state to launch from.

The White House struck back Friday. Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that objections by some officials are mostly a political stunt.

Roberts said his boss is not focused on the politics swirling around Kobach and the commission.

At the end of the day, this is a records request and it shouldn't matter who is making that request, he said. It's not necessarily our job to determine who gets information and who doesn't.

As to Kobach's contentions of massive voter fraud, so far unproven, Robert said that, at least for Arizona, Reagan does not share that view.

He said there have been several instances of people voting twice, specifically in Arizona and in another state. But Roberts said Arizona has protections against people who are not eligible casting ballots, including a requirement to provide proof of citizenship when registering.

Does it occur? Certainly, Roberts said. Is it a widespread problem? I don't think the secretary feels that this is something that is widespread in Arizona because of the laws that we have in place.

Other states are coming down on the same side as Reagan.

In New Hampshire, Secretary of State William Gardner told WMUR he will comply. And he said what Kobach wants will help cross-check to make sure people are not voting twice in federal elections.

What makes that noteworthy is that Trump argued he lost New Hampshire because people were being bused into the state from Massachusetts to vote illegally, taking advantage of New Hampshire's same-day registration. But even Gardner denied at the time there was widespread voter fraud in his state.

Kobach's reputation, at least in Arizona, goes beyond his contentions of massive voter fraud.

It was Kobach, then a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, who helped craft SB 1070, the 2010 law designed to give police more power to detain and question those who they suspect are not in this country legally.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The goal of a statewide ban against texting while driving was to put the brakes on the dangerous habit among New Mexico drivers.

That doesnt appear to be the case  at least so far.

In fact, theres been a continued increase in the number of citations issued by State Police officers since the ban took effect three years ago, according to numbers obtained by the Journal.

Since July 2016, State Police have averaged roughly five citations a day for texting while driving, compared with an average of a little over one citation a day in the first months after the law hit the states books.

State Police Chief Pete Kassetas acknowledged earlier this week the law hasnt been a major policy push for law enforcement, and said that its often difficult to enforce. Thats because State Police officers usually only issue citations when they can see a driver blatantly texting while behind the wheel or when they observe erratic driving.

Kassetas said he doesnt know how many accidents have been caused by texting drivers, but he said the practice still appears to be prevalent.

Id be going out on a limb if I were to say it had changed behavior  I dont know if it has or hasnt, Kassetas told the Journal. But Ive seen (drivers texting) many times on the interstate between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

In an attempt to curb the prevalence of texting while driving, Gov. Susana Martinez announced an ad campaign Friday that will run this month. The ad features a woman who answers a text message while driving and kills a child crossing the street.

But it was unclear whether additional state resources would be directed toward enforcement efforts.

State Police officers had issued 1,696 citations for texting while driving from July 2016 through mid-June, according to data provided in response to a request filed under the states Inspection of Public Records Act.

In the preceding year, from July 2015 through June 2016, there were 1,029 such citations issued  or fewer than three per day. And there were just 362 citations issued in the first 10 months after the laws enactment in July 2014.

While enforcing the texting ban hasnt been a top priority for State Police officers, Kassetas said the citation numbers may be going up due to officers increasing familiarity with the law.

Obviously, more officers are aware of the statute and are utilizing it, he said.

New Mexico became the 43rd state in the nation to bar texting while driving when Martinez signed into law the 2014 bill, and other states have followed suit in the past few years. Currently, there are only three states  Arizona, Montana and Missouri  that do not have texting bans for drivers of all ages on their books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The New Mexico law not only bars drivers from texting while driving but also prohibits them from reading or viewing text messages while theyre stopped at traffic lights, though theres an exception for summoning emergency assistance.

The fine for a first-time violation of the law is $25, and subsequent violations are punishable by a $50 fine. An attempt to increase the fine to $100 for a first violation passed the Senate but stalled in the House during this years 60-day legislative session.

Sen. Steven Neville, R-Aztec, who sponsored that legislation, said drivers might take note if the penalty were stiffer.

Its $25 for something thats as statistically significant as drinking and driving  thats not much of a penalty, Neville said.

He also said the push for tougher penalties was prompted by the death of Michael Jakino of Farmington, who was killed while riding his motorcycle near Durango, Colo., in September 2015 in an accident caused by a distracted driver.

However, Kassetas said educating drivers about the risks of texting while driving could be more effective than increased penalties.

The new ad campaign announced Friday by the governor will attempt to accomplish that task, as it will feature ads, billboards and other materials aimed at reminding New Mexicans of the dangers of distracted driving.

In 2015, 42 percent of American high school students who had driven in the past 30 days reported sending a text message or email while driving, according to a survey by the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition to the state ban, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces are among the New Mexico cities that have their own ordinances against texting while driving.
Independence Day holiday travel in the mountain region including New Mexico is expected to set records, with some 3.3 million people predicted to head out.

And having some of the lowest gas prices in months  as low as $1.89 a gallon  isnt hurting.

Three Costco stores and two Sams Club locations in Albuquerque posted gas at $1.89 a gallon Friday, according to gasbuddy.com.

And about 20 stations throughout the Albuquerque area were showing regular unleaded below $2 a gallon, from Bernalillo to Isleta and Interstate 40 and Atrisco to I-40 and Tramway.

Those prices are some of the lowest in the Albuquerque area since the first week of December, according to the price-tracking website.

AAA New Mexico is forecasting that many vacationers will travel 50 miles or more away from home during the holiday weekend, slightly more than a 3 percent increase in overall travel volume from last year. Nationally, a record-breaking 44.2 million Americans will travel, also up nearly 3 percent from last year.

The mountain region encompasses New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. The Independence Day holiday travel period is defined as Friday to Tuesday.

Combined, strong employment, rising incomes and higher consumer confidence bode well for the travel industry, in particular this Independence Day weekend, said Ana Gonzalez, AAA New Mexico regional manager.

Broken down by category: about 2.6 million are expected to travel by vehicle, up 3.2 percent; 339,000 by air, up 3 percent; and other modes of transportation, such as trains, buses, cruise ships, 306,000, up 2.2 percent.

AAA also credited low gas prices  just pennies higher than this time last year  for boosting travel.

We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration is putting renewed pressure on China amid frustration with Beijings reluctance to deal with North Koreas nuclear threat.

In recent days the Trump administration has approved a $1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan and blacklisted a small Chinese bank over its business ties with North Korea. In addition, the State Department has given Beijing a dismal grade in a new human trafficking report.

American officials had been describing improved coordination with China as the centerpiece of their North Korea strategy. They seek to prevent the North from being able to strike the U.S. homeland with nuclear weapons.

President Donald Trump and top aides are irritated over Chinas reluctance to tighten the economic screws on North Korea. Yet the White House insists its not out to punish Beijing.
NEW YORK  A doctor angry that his career was derailed at a New York City hospital toted an assault rifle past security in search of a colleague he was going to hold responsible. When that person wasnt there, he opened fire anyway, killing a doctor who was only there covering a shift as a favor, authorities said Saturday.

The new details of Dr. Henry Bellos rampage emerged along with an email rant against colleagues he blamed for forcing him to resign from Bronx Lebanon Hospital amid sexual harassment allegations two years earlier. The email was sent to the New York Daily News just two hours before the shooting Friday afternoon that left six other people wounded and Bello dead from a self-inflicted shot.

This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine, the email said. First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse.

He also blamed a doctor for blocking his chances at practicing medicine.

Bello had warned his former colleagues when he was forced out in 2015 that he would return someday to kill them.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Bello arrived at the hospital with the assault rifle hidden under his lab coat and asked for a specific doctor whom he blamed for his having to resign, but the physician wasnt there at the time. The official spoke on anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

It was not clear if Bello knew Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, 32, who was killed in the shooting on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital and was, like him, a family medicine doctor. Hospital officials said that Tam normally worked in one of the hospitals satellite clinics and was covering a shift in the main hospital as a favor to someone else.

It makes you think that anything can happen to anybody, said Tams neighbor, Alena Khaim, 23, who saw Tams sister outside the home Friday night overcome with grief, shaking and unable to walk. She was such a sweet girl. You would never think something like that would happen but it happened.

Judy Beckles-Ross, 46, said shes not surprised Tam volunteered to cover the shift.

She never said no, said Beckles-Ross, a friend from medical school who knew her for 11 years. She had a good heart. Anybody that needed help, she would help them.

The six others who were injured  a patient, two medical students and three physicians  largely suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen. One physician remained in critical condition and the rest were stable, officials said Saturday.

Hospital vice president Errol C. Schneer said his staff responded heroically.

Many of our staff risked their own lives to save patients, Schneer told reporters at the hospital where the 16th and 17th floors remained closed, and staffers were still recovering from the rampage that sent people diving for cover and huddling in patients rooms while the gunman was on the loose. Adding to the chaos, authorities said, was a fire alarm that went off when Bello attempted to set himself ablaze, the flames extinguished by sprinklers, shortly before he shot himself.

Detectives searched the Bronx home where Bello was most recently living and found the box where the gun came from. Investigators were checking serial numbers and trying to determine where it was purchased.

His former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud and threatening.

All the time he was a problem, said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello as a family medicine doctor. When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the dismissal.

Dr. Maureen Kwankam told the New York Daily News that he promised to come back and kill us then.

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello graduated from Ross University and had a permit to practice as an international medical graduate that was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

In 2004, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her. He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror. That case was eventually sealed.

Schneer told the New York Times that the hospital did not know about Bellos criminal history when he was hired.

At that time, and as a result of a human resources and security department background check, which includes fingerprinting, there was no record of any conviction for sexual abuse, he said.

___

Associated Press writers Larry Neumeister, Rebecca Gibian, Steve Peoples and Karen Matthews contributed to this report.
CHICAGO  The 28-year-old Illinois man charged with kidnapping a Chinese scholar now believed to be dead was among a select few admitted to the University of Illinois highly competitive physics graduate program in 2013.

Brendt Allen Christensen originally planned to earn a doctorate degree, but told his graduate adviser in 2016 he had changed his mind, Professor Lance Cooper recalled on Saturday. He didnt say why, and Christensen continued taking classes and teaching as a graduate assistant. He earned his masters degree in mid-May.

Christensen is in federal custody awaiting a court appearance Monday in the June 9 kidnapping of Yingying Zhang, the 26-year-old daughter of a working-class factory driver from China. Weeks ago, Zhang arrived at the university to conduct research in agricultural sciences and planned to begin work on her doctorate in the fall. Her body hasnt been found.

Hong Lei, Chinas general consul in Chicago, visited Zhangs family on Saturday when he expressed condolences. Hong condemned the cruelty by the suspect and urged the U.S. judicial system to hold a fair trial and mete out harsh punishment to the man charged in the case.

A criminal complaint accuses Christensen, of Champaign, Illinois, of abducting Zhang shortly after she stepped off a bus near the university campus. Video from nearby cameras showed Zhang, on her way to sign a lease for an apartment, trying unsuccessfully to flag down another bus. Minutes later, shes seen getting into a black Saturn Astra.

According to an affidavit filed in federal court, Christensen was under surveillance Thursday when agents overheard him explaining he had kidnapped Zhang. Authorities say agents believe Zhang is no longer alive based on that and other facts the investigation uncovered.

The charging document says his smartphone was used to visit an online forum in April called Abduction 101. One of the threads on the forum, which was visited months before Zhang went missing, was entitled, Perfect abduction fantasy. Another was about planning a kidnapping.

Some 5,600 Chinese students are enrolled at the university  more than at any other college in the nation  and Zhangs disappearance fed anxieties of families of Chinese students studying in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the charges came as a shock to some who knew Christensen at the university. Cooper, a director of the graduate program, said hed received no indication of anything unusual.

There are many ways in which we find out there are problems with students, Cooper said. We get reports theyre not teaching well. We get reports from faculty that theyre not doing well in classes, theyre not showing up for classes. None of those flags were raised.

Former classmate Souvik Dutta said he was dumbfounded by the news, recalling Christensen as a normal guy and very calm.

Public records show Christensen lived previously in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and his LinkedIn profile states he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 with bachelors degrees in physics and math. Relatives couldnt be reached for comment or declined to speak to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement the campus community is saddened Zhang is believed dead.

This is a senseless and devastating loss of a promising young woman and a member of our community, Jones said. There is nothing we can do to ease the sadness or grief for her family and friends, but we can and we will come together to support them in any way we can.

According to the criminal complaint, investigators determined 18 vehicles registered in Champaign County were similar to the one Zhang got in. One belonging to Christensen was first seen in an apartment complex parking lot June 12  days after Zhang went missing  and investigators questioned him. The affidavit stated that investigators noted Christensen couldnt recall what he was doing the day Zhang disappeared. They searched the vehicle but didnt remove anything.

Investigators later determined the car in the video had a sunroof and cracked hubcap, like Christensens car, the affidavit states. When investigators interviewed Christensen again, he acknowledged driving around the campus and giving a ride to an Asian woman who said she was late for an appointment. Christensen said the woman panicked after he apparently made a wrong turn and he let her out in a residential area.

Christensen was placed under continuous surveillance June 16 and his apartment was searched. On Thursday he was captured on an audio recording explaining how he took Zhang to his apartment and held her against her will, according to the affidavit.

Zhangs father, Ronggao Zhang, traveled to Illinois from Nanping, China, to be closer to the search. On Thursday, he took part in a walk with students and university staff to the corner where his daughter was last seen.

Zhang graduated last year with a masters degree in environmental engineering from one of Chinas elite schools, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. Friends and family said she dreamed of one day landing a professorship and helping her parents financially.

___

Associated Press writers Herbert McCann and Michael Tarm contributed to this report.
A checkout clerk at the Sears store in Santa Fe is accused of stealing about $2,300 over six months by canceling customers transactions and pocketing the money, according to a city police report made Thursday.

Santa Fe police responded to a call Thursday from a Sears employee who said he had proof that the cash register of the 25-year-old sales rep, was short on cash nearly 65 times over the last six months, totaling to more than $2,260. Despite an embezzlement criminal complaint made against the man, he has not been arrested or charged.

The man admitted to taking the money, but said he only took $200 over only a one-month span rather than the amount in the report. The report says he had been suspended before because of an embezzlement issue, but had been able to come back.

The man wrote in a statement to police that he took $200 because he felt frustrated and deceived when his commission amount was lower than he expected, according to the report.

At the time of the police call, the employee accusing him of embezzlement said he had seen video surveillance of the man checking out a customer, then canceling the transaction after giving the customer their change.

The employee also reportedly provided documents that showed each of the 64 times the mans register came up short.

The report says the officer spoke with Kathryn Farquhar, assistant district attorney for the 1st Judicial District, who advised to not arrest based on the time frame in which each incident occurred. Farquhar said she could not comment on pending charges.

Calls to the Santa Fe Sears location were not answered, and it is not clear if the clerk is still an employee following the complaint. A voicemail left for the clerk was not returned as of press time, but they later left a message with the Journal stating the accusations were false. A call back has not been returned.

Sears, which is located within the Santa Fe Place Mall on Cerrillos Road, announced in May it would be closing July 30.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  New Mexico authorities will be out in force over the holiday weekend as part of an ongoing effort to crack down on drunken driving.

State Police and other law enforcement agencies also will be conducting sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols around the state throughout the month of July.

People should celebrate the Fourth of July, but theres no excuse for getting behind the wheel if theyre intoxicated, Department of Public Safety Secretary Scott Weaver said in an interview Friday.

The warnings are coming in the form of billboards, television and radio ads and messages flashing on digital road signs.

Youve got to be living under a rock to not know that this is wrong, Weaver said of driving under the influence. Were in the 21st century. Its on social media. Its on the news. It is everywhere.

Weaver said he believes more people are getting the message, but without a constant education campaign and partnerships between anti-DWI advocates and law enforcement, the problem will persist. He likened a vehicle with an intoxicated person behind the wheel to a 2,500-pound bullet.

In the first five months of the year, 56 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes on New Mexico roads, according to figures compiled by the University of New Mexico and the state Transportation Department. That represents nearly two-fifths of the total traffic fatalities recorded from January through May.

Last year, 175 people died in alcohol-related crashes, up from a low of 120 in 2015.

About 10,000 people die every year nationally as the result of drunken driving and 290,000 are injured, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

The group says the number of deaths caused by drunken driving increased for the first time in 50 years in 2015 and is expected to rise again when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration releases the 2016 totals later this year.

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall was among the congressional lawmakers to join with MADD in issuing a warning this holiday weekend. Our fight is far from over, and we must strengthen our resolve to eliminate these completely preventable tragedies, over the holidays and every day, the New Mexico Democrat said in a statement.
PHOENIX  About 1,400 children had to be evacuated from summer camps led by YMCAs, churches and other youth groups in the area of a major wildfire near the northern Arizona city of Prescott.

Yavapai County Supervisor Tom Thurman says local school buses drove some children to Prescott, where their parents could pick them up. He says no camps had been burned, but he wanted to evacuate them before the fire split in two and cut off both escape routes.

Stone Barras, 8, was sad to leave his summer camp, though.

He says: I was a little scared about the fire, but I was really sad I had to leave. I was having a lot of fun.

An estimated 1,100 firefighters are attempting to further contain the fire, which has charred almost 40 square miles (104 square kilometers) since it ignited almost a week ago.
The parents of Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, have just gotten a financial windfall. The insurance company for the city has agreed to pay them $1.5 million to settle their wrongful-death lawsuit against the town, the former police chief and officer Darren Wilson, who fired the fatal shots.

In other words, Ferguson folded, probably on the advice of its insurance companys lawyers.

While I cannot imagine the grief of those parents, losing their son the way they did, I cant shake the feeling that these parents are being rewarded for their 18-year-olds bad behavior. The cold, hard truth of that day is that Michael Brown had just stolen a box of cigarillos from a local market and was defiantly walking down the middle of the street ignoring a police officers instructions to get on the sidewalk. Trustworthy eyewitnesses report it was their son who was the aggressor that day, violently pushing the officer back into his patrol car as Wilson tried to get out, and then wrestling over the policemans gun.

Forensic evidence confirmed the teenagers blood was found on Wilsons uniform near his holster, on his gun and on the inside of the car  clear corroboration of the eyewitness accounts that the teen started the fight and the officers claim that Brown was going for the weapon.

Initial witnesses screamed into TV cameras that Brown had his hands in the air, begging, dont shoot! before he was shot in the back. Those reports were proven to be false. Of the six bullets fired by the officer, the first took off a hunk of Browns right thumb, four others hit the teen in the right neck, chest and arm. The fatal bullet struck him in the top (apex) of his head, indicating the 65 289-pound young man was either falling forward or charging at Wilson.

A grand jury heard 60 witnesses and declined to indict officer Wilson. A separate Obama-era Justice Department investigation cleared the officer of any civil-rights abuses.

The DOJ also investigated the practices of the political and justice system in Ferguson and concluded city officials had engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination against African Americans. The DOJs report said it stemmed from the undue pressure put on the police department by Fergusons finance director to increase revenue gathering by issuing more tickets and fines for often minor infractions.

From the report: Officer evaluations and promotions depend to an inordinate degree on productivity, meaning the number of citations issued. Partly as a consequence of city and FPD priorities, many officers appear to see some residents, especially those who live in Fergusons predominantly African-American neighborhoods, less as constituents to be protected than as potential offenders and sources of revenue.

It was a terrible thing that happened that steamy August day in Ferguson. A young man who was anticipating going to college was gunned down in the street. Because an angry crowd gathered and officers heard gunshots, his body laid on the hot pavement for four hours. Ultimately, officer Wilson resigned and at last report is unable to find another law enforcement job and still receives death threats. I suppose it is human nature to think someone, somewhere, should pay for what happened.

But this practice of insurance companies automatically paying out to avoid the expense of proving the truth in court should end. By believing that it is cheaper to pay a bit up front, these insurance companies give strength to the idea that big money must be the reward for any and all unexpected occurrences. This practice has gone on too long.

More than a decade ago I was verbally and physically threatened by a man while covering a long-running criminal trial. Day after day his ugly, in-my-face taunts continued until finally court security urged me to file a restraining order so they could have legal standing to arrest him should he cross the line. I did so. My tormentor teamed up with an eager, imaginative attorney and threatened a lawsuit because I had chilled his clients constitutional right to free speech. Im pretty sure the founding fathers did not believe that constant cursing rants constitute free speech, but no matter. Rather than go through a costly trial to argue the merits of the case, my employers insurance company decided to pay the man and his attorney to go away.

After looking into the law enforcement system in Ferguson, the Justice Department reported, We have found substantial evidence of racial bias among police and court staff in Ferguson. Surely that conclusion underscored the need for a major overhaul. But in the specific case of officer Wilson and Michael Brown? The DOJ found no fault on the part of the officer, no reason to charge him for, in effect, defending himself during a violent citizen-instigated altercation.

So, where is the logic in paying out $1.5 million to Michael Browns parents? Im sorry, I just dont get it.

www.DianeDimond.com; e-mail to Diane@DianeDimond.com.
The progressive strategy of investigating President Donald Trump nonstop for Russian collusion or obstruction of justice or witness tampering so far has produced no substantial evidence of wrongdoing.

The alternate strategy of derailing the new administration before it really gets started hasnt succeeded either, despite serial efforts to sue over election results, alter the Electoral College vote, boycott the inauguration, delay the confirmation of appointments, demand recusals, promise Trumps impeachment or removal through the 25th Amendment, and file suit under the Emoluments Clause.

A third strategy of portraying Trump as a veritable monster likewise so far has failed in four special elections for House seats.

Apparently progressives have accepted the idea that Barack Obamas formula of twice winning the Electoral College is not yet transferrable to other progressive candidates such as Hillary Clinton. And they probably have concluded that Obamas progressive political agenda proved unpopular with voters by 2010 and had to be implemented by ad hoc executive orders  presidential prerogatives now utilized by Donald Trump to overturn the ones Obama issued.

A fourth potential pathway to power would be a return to Bill Clintons pragmatic agendas of the 1990s. But apparently progressives find that centrist remedy worse than the malady of losing elections  given that during the Obama tenure, more than 1,000 state and local offices were lost to Republicans, in addition to majorities in the House and Senate, and a majority of governorships and legislatures.

What next?

Trump acts as if he is a Nietzschean figure, assuming that anything that does not destroy him only makes him stronger. And now, slowly, his accusers are becoming the accused.

One nagging problem with the progressive case against Trump for purported Russian collusion and obstruction of justice was that members of the Obama administration had more exposure to those allegations than did the political newcomer Trump.

Last year, then-FBI Director James Comey testified that not only did former Attorney General Loretta Lynch improperly meet in secret with Bill Clinton during an investigation of Hillary Clinton, but that Lynch had asked Comey to downplay the investigation into Hillarys use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. Comey confessed that he had reluctantly agreed to Lynchs request.

Last month, in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey admitted that he asked a friend to leak notes about Comeys earlier conversation with Trump in hopes of forcing the nomination of a special investigator to lead the Russia investigation  perhaps a successful gambit, given that Comeys friend, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, was soon appointed to that role.

Comey also wrongly dismissed Hillary Clintons email problems because of a perceived lack of criminal intent  a supposedly mitigating circumstance that legally should have had no bearing on things.

As far as alleged Russian collusion, there had long been conservative accusations that Bill and Hillary Clinton used Hillarys status as secretary of state to leverage honoraria for Bill and donations to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for concessions to Russian interests.

Moreover, Russian tampering efforts had been going on for months before the 2016 election, but without any retaliatory measures from the Obama administration, which knew about Russias meddling.

In an inadvertent hot-mic request in 2012, Obama asked outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to give me space during Obamas re-election campaign, so that after his assumed success, Obama could reciprocate with more flexibility on Russian issues. In the present highly charged climate, would that be seen as a form of Russian collusion?

Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee is still investigating whether top Obama administration officials wrongfully used the power of foreign-intelligence collection to conduct surveillance of Americans  particularly members of the Trump campaign.

The point is not whether the Clintons, James Comey, Barack Obama or members of the Obama administration can be proven to have engaged in illegal or unscrupulous behavior.

Rather, the lesson is that progressives should have offered alternative political visions that might have won back the American people rather than attempting to terminate the Trump presidency on charges to which the progressive side was far more vulnerable. 

In sum, to thwart a new presidents policies, it is probably wiser to offer alternative agendas instead of trying to destroy him before he has even entered office.

e-mail: authorvdh@gmail.com.
STRASBOURG, France  Current and past world leaders gathered Saturday to bid farewell to the late Helmut Kohl, recalling the former German chancellor as a man who was instrumental in uniting Europe and bringing about reconciliation between former adversaries on the continent.

Kohl, who died June 16 at the age of 87, was the first person to be honored with an official memorial event by the European Union in the French city of Strasbourg.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the ceremony at the European Parliaments seat, close to the border with Germany, was Kohls own choice, describing him as a German patriot and at the same time a European patriot.

During his 16-year term as Germanys leader, stretching from 1982 to 1998, Kohl spearheaded his countrys reunification and the creation of Europes common currency, the euro.

Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves, said former U.S. President Bill Clinton, citing Kohls willingness to put international cooperation before national interests at key moments in history.

Kohl was widely regarded as having skillfully overcome the fears of Germanys neighbors when an end to the countrys decades-long division into a communist east and a democratic west first became a realistic possibility in the late 1990s.

Drawing on his friendships with several world leaders, often forged over hearty meals, Kohl assured the Allied nations that had beaten Nazi Germany in World War II that his country no longer aspired to dominate others.

His successor, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Kohls vision and persistence had paid a historic dividend.

Without Helmut Kohl the lives of millions of people who lived behind the (Berlin) Wall until 1990 would have taken a completely different course, including mine, said Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany. Thank you for the opportunities you gave me.

EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Kohl deserved a place of honor in the European pantheon for unhesitatingly extending the hand of friendship to fledgling democracies in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain.

French President Emmanuel Macron noted that it was his predecessor, Francois Mitterrand, and Kohl, two men who had experienced the suffering of war on opposing sides, who were able to overcome the terrible memories of their generation.

Several speakers recalled the poignant gesture of reconciliation in 1984, when Mitterrand and Kohl held hands during a ceremony at a World War I cemetery in Verdun, France.

Following the memorial event in Strasbourg, which was attended by over 800 dignitaries, Kohls coffin draped with the flag of the European Union was taken to the German city of Speyer for a requiem Mass and military honors.

He will be buried in a private ceremony at a cemetery in the city.
LAS CRUCES  Tony Martinez, a native New Mexican and co-founder of a local Indivisible activist group, has announced his bid for New Mexicos 2nd Congressional District seat now held by Steve Pearce. He opened his campaign with a public event today at San Miguel Church Hall in San Miguel.

Martinez, 58, grew up in San Miguel and Mesquite, and returned to southern New Mexico a few years ago after careers in the military and private industry, according to his announcement. He said the outcome of the 2016 election compelled him to find a way to stand against President Donald Trump, and in January he organized like-minded progressives to form a local group affiliated with the national Indivisible movement. WERE IN: Las Cruces Indivisible today has some 200 members, he said.

Martinez said he began having discussions with people from all over the region. They felt the deck was stacked against them, and thought Washington no longer worked for them, he said.

Ive never run for any office before, but I believe my experience as a soldier and as a manager taught me the realities of problem solving, he said. Also, southern New Mexico is home for me. Generations of my family farmed here, and raised their families here, and educated their children in schools here.

Martinez graduated from Gadsden High School and New Mexico State University. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Las Cruces.

He said he will spend the next few months traveling the district and listening to peoples concerns.

Martinez is the second Democrat to announce his intention to enter the race. David Baake has also said he plans to run.

Pearce, who has held the seat since 2002, with the exception of two years when he stepped down to run for Senate, is reportedly considering vacating his House seat to run for governor in 2018, when Susana Martinezs second term comes to an end.



2017 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)

Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____
Nokia, the Finnish network equipment supplier, has demonstrated how a refined version of LTE could help carriers transition to 5G networks. In order to properly demonstrate what it calls the 4.9G technology, the company used its AirScale Base Station, which is a radio site solution offered by Nokia for different types of networks that utilize technologies ranging from 2G to 5G. While carriers are still waiting for 5G standards to be finalized, Nokia hopes that its solution could help them in the deployment of 5G technologies through offering solutions that decrease the latency of wireless networks close to the figures required by 5G standards. According to the equipment supplier, its solution could deliver network latency figures as low as 2 milliseconds. In order to achieve low network latency, Nokia designed a technology that allows the transmission time intervals to be reduced by up to 86%. By reducing the intervals between data transmission, the data moves faster across the networks, resulting in reduced latencies.

This network solution, according to Nokia, would be useful in urban areas where there is currently high demands for mobile data. While it is likely that the 5G technology will be first deployed in urban areas, it is important to keep the quality of service the carrier offers to its subscribers in areas with high data consumption. As network latency improves, carriers could benefit from their enhanced network in two ways. First, carriers will benefit from the enhanced customer experience its network could now deliver since reduced latency positively affects the subscribers perception of data speeds. Second, carriers could offer solutions for enterprise customers that will take advantage of the networks reduced latency.

Aside from offering enhanced versions of LTE, Nokia is also developing solutions for 5G networks. Last February, Nokia announced a new solution called 5G First. The said technology allows the carriers to utilize early specifications of 5G networks through a combination of radio access networks, packet core, and mobile transport solutions. In addition, the company has been working with carriers in order to test the design and deployment configurations of its 5G solutions. Recently, Nokia worked with Finnish wireless carrier Elisa to test 5G network solutions on 3.5GHz band.
Android Pay, which is Googles latest attempt on mobile payments, routinely announces a slew of new banks being added to the list of supported financial institutions. In the latest round of updated banks, Android Pay has added around 72 new financial institutions. At this point, these are mostly smaller banks and credit unions, ones that are not nationwide, but only available locally. Some of the listed banks include Bank of Hawaii, 1880 Bank, 1st Summit Bank, Mid Carolina Federal Credit Union, McCoy FCU, South State Bank and many more. You can head to the source link at the bottom of this post to see all of the banks and credit unions that are now supported by Android Pay.

With Android Pay, users with a compatible Android smartphone  which is any smartphone running Android 5.0 Lollipop or later along with NFC  can simply tap to pay at supported merchants. This is basically any merchant that has tap to pay terminals installed. Unlike with Samsung Pay, where even the legacy terminals are supported, thanks to MST technology that was part of its purchase of LoopPay. Android Pay does also support a number of loyalty cards, which means that users are able to add their loyalty cards and then when checking out at a store like Walgreens, they are able to tap their phone and scan the loyalty card as well as pay with their credit card all at the same time. Making it pretty easy for everyone involved.

Even though Android Pay does have a slew of banks and financial institutions supported already, it is still pretty far from supporting all 5804 FDIC-insured banks across the US. And for those in other countries where Android Pay is supported, theres still quite a ways to go there as well. As of now, there are 873 banks and credit unions supported in the US. As well as all of the major card issuers, which includes MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express. Android Pay also has a few promotions going on right now, so if your bank is now supported, now is a great time to start using Android Pay.
A possible revision of the LG G6 thats rumored to be called the LG Q6 was certified by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this week, having been listed by the agency on Thursday. The device in question is identified by the model number LG-M700TV and with industry sources previously claiming that the LG Q6 will be part of the LG-M700 series, this is likely to be one variant of that upcoming handset lineup.

The newly released documents reveal little details about the device, save for the fact that its running some build of Android Nougat. However, the LG Q6 has been the subject of several rumors since April, with initial reports about the smartphone referring to it as the LG G6 Mini. According to a number of industry insiders, the LG Q6 will sport a 5.4-inch display panel that will essentially be a smaller version of the Full Vision screen that debuted on the LG G6, i.e. it will succeed its unconventional 18:9 aspect ratio, making the device noticeably taller than most of its contemporaries. The existence of another Full Vision panel also hints at the possibility of the LG Q6 sporting a nearly bezel-less design, also similar to its predecessor that was released this spring at the latest iteration of Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain.

Other rumors indicate that the LG Q6 will not only be a more compact, but also a somewhat less powerful revision of the LG G6, with the handset being said to feature 3GB of RAM as opposed to 4GB and lacking a dual camera setup of the previous model. The single lens housed on the phones back panel is allegedly of the 13-megapixel variety and if that information is accurate, the LG Q6 will likely succeed Sonys IMX258 sensor with an aperture of f/1.8. Its currently unclear when the South Korean original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is planning to launch the device, but with the handset now being certified by the FCC, its stateside release seems like a fairly certain possibility. More details on the LG Q6 and LGs other hardware endeavors should follow soon.
Dubai is planning to deploy a fleet of self-driving robotic police cars built to patrol its streets and identify individuals using biometric software as part of a broader effort to have robots constitute 25% of the nations police force by 2030. The news comes months after the country unveiled its autonomous flying taxi. Now by the end of 2017, the driverless robot cars called O-R3 will start to police Dubais thoroughfares in order to assist in performing minor enforcement tasks. The hope is for the autonomous cars to help deter crime across the nation using a 360-degree surveillance system offered by the new technology. Dubai Police said the driverless vehicles will be equipped with software tools to scan individuals who might potentially break the law. It can also scan crowds to find persons of interest in different areas of the city. The robotic cars will ship with its own drone that takes off from a rear sleeve. The Dubai Police command room will work to monitor both the self-driving car and the drone.

Manufactured by Singapore-based startup OTSAW Digital, the driverless vehicle is about the size of an electric toy car. It is the worlds first ground-aerial security robot powered by an advanced machine learning algorithm and 3D SLAM technology, according to OTSAW Digital. O-R3 comes equipped with laser scanner, thermal camera, HD cameras, and LIDAR  all in an effort to avoid obstacles as it navigates the road and detect anomalies. For instance, the cars thermal imaging, facial and license plate recognition, and stereo photography help to access various data. Meanwhile, the 3D and 2D laser scanners, IMU and ultrasonic sensors, GPS, and long range data transmitters also enable specific data to be transmitted. The vehicle is also designed to self-charge once it runs low on energy. O-R3 also has a fleet control center that serves as the central communication system to send all alerts to Dubai Police in real time.

Although the vehicle is automated, OTSAW Digital says that it is also designed to allow for a manual takeover, meaning that security personnel can override the O-R3 manually to control its movements. The system is part of the Smart Dubai initiative. It is worth mentioning that Dubai is the worlds first city to deploy O-R3. Whether the self-driving police car can help deter crimes in Dubai remains to be seen. Theres also the question of whether driverless cars are safer than the ones with human drivers.
The first event is the Dax Motor N Blues, which starts Friday 7th July and ends on Sunday 9th. It will be held in Dax, France, and, as the name suggests, the event is a petrolhead and music lovers paradise.Attendance has increased steadily since 2009 from 4,000 to almost 25,000 people, attracting bikers from all over France but also from neighboring countries for a weekend of partying that youll never forget.On Thursday 20th July the 36th edition Faro Rally starts at Concentration Faro in Portugal, near the airport, and it ends on Sunday 23rd.The event will offer four wonderful days under blue skies in hot weather with thousands of other bikers and partygoers. Its possibly one of the best biking ambiance you can get in Europe, and you can ride home saying youre one of the happy few that have been to the Old Continents Biker Mecca.If you love northern countries in Europe, the Viking Ride was meant for you. It starts on Friday 11th August in Norway, and is organized by the Lyngdal Riders Group.The Viking Ride is now becoming a recurring yearly adventure and is gaining huge popularity, not just with the Norwegians, but with many European bikers who see photos of the roads there.The start point is in Lyngdal, and the target destination is Skanevi which should be reached on Sunday. There you will be greeted with free demo rides of Indian bikes and Gil Edwards along with the Vintage Chiefs band playing and entertaining the crowds. Scandinavian beer and food are on the list too.Last but definitely not least is the European Bike Week. It starts on September 5th in Austria, ending on 10th. Also known as Faaker See or Faak Am See, the event is centrally located in Europe, making it easier to reach from all countries and has amazing nearby roads to have fun riding.
Disgraced Minister Paul Flowers Sacked By Methodist Church

Paul Flowers, who resigned as Co-operative Bank chairman amid claims about his use of expenses at the bank and was also caught using drugs and entertaining male escorts, has been sacked as a minister by the Methodist Church.

In a statement today, the Methodist Church said: "Following the conclusion of our disciplinary process, Paul Flowers has been removed from the list of ministers of the Methodist Church."

The Church added: "We call on the Methodist people to pray for Mr Flowers and for those whom he served."

Flowers, 66, nick-named the "Crystal Methodist", has claimed it was the stress of the job that led him to look online for male escorts. He was suspended by the Methodist church in November 2013 and also the Labour Party after he was caught in a tabloid sting.

He was fined 400 in the Leeds court and ordered to pay 125 costs after admitting possession of Class A drugs.

Later, he also admitted "seriously impairing the mission, witness or integrity of the Church" after a subsequent feature appeared in a Sunday newspaper of him taking class A drugs and entertaining male escorts at a hot tub party in his house in Salford, Greater Manchester.

"You had nights when you had been battling through the issues of the day, then the senior officers had to entertain the troops in the evening and I was bloody well worn out. That was part of the job, but you were knackered. And like many thousands of other people  judges, lawyers, journalists, people of all professions and none  I sought intimacy among escorts," he said at the time.

He could not put a figure on the number of escorts he had used but it was more than 20.

He has also said he has never in fact taken crystal meth and that he was traumatised when he was raped by another student while studying theology in the 1970s.
ISIS under pressure in Iraqi and Syrian strongholds, launches counter-attack

US-backed Iraqi forces pressed Islamic State fighters holding out in Mosul's Old City on Friday, while in Syria the militant group launched a counter-attack against an alliance of militias trying to oust it from its de facto capital of Raqqa.

In Iraq, dozens of civilians poured out of Mosul, long held by IS, and fled in the direction of the Iraqi forces, many of them women and children, thirsty, tired and some wounded.

Iraqi authorities say they are only days away from a victory over militants in their remaining redoubt in Mosul, though commanders of counter-terrorism units fighting their way through the narrow streets of the Old City say die-hard IS fighters are dug in among civilians and the battle ahead remains challenging.

Across the border in Syria, parts of which the IS says fall under its self-proclaimed caliphate, the picture was more complex.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the group had retaken most of the industrial district of Raqqa after mounting a fierce counter-attack against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias.

But west of Raqqa, the Syrian army put the group under more pressure, driving it from its last territory in Aleppo province, a Syrian military source said, in a strategically-important move that relieves pressure on a government supply route.

Even though the IS group is under pressure in these urban strongholds in Iraq and Syria its fighters still occupy an area as big as Belgium across the two countries, according to one estimate.

In Iraq, grinding warfare in Mosul has displaced 900,000 people, about half the city's pre-war population, and killed thousands of civilians, according to aid organizations.

Major General Maan al-Saadi, of the Counter Terrorism Service, told Reuters it could take four to five days to capture the insurgents' redoubt in Mosul by the Tigris River which was defended by about 200 militants.

Tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in the city in desperate conditions, with dwindling supplies of food, water or medicine and no access to health services, according to those who have managed to flee.

The capture of the city would in effect mark the end of the Iraqi half of the caliphate, although the group still controls territory west and south of the city, holding sway over hundreds of thousands of people.

Those who escaped on Friday streamed through alleyways near the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate in 2014 and which Islamic State fighters blew up a week ago rather than see it fall to the Iraqi army.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of the caliphate on Thursday after CTS units captured the ground of the ruined 850-year-old mosque.

A Reuters correspondent on Friday saw smoke billowing over the riverside districts amid artillery blasts and burst of gunfire. Western troops from the US-led coalition were helping adjust artillery fire with air surveillance, he said.

The SDF, the US backed alliance in Syria, took the industrial district of Raqqa this month in its biggest gain so far in its fight for IS's Syrian capital and if, as the Observatory has reported, IS has regained control there it would be a setback.

The SDF, on its social media feed, acknowledged there had been intense clashes, but added that the whole industrial district was still in its hands and the attack had been thwarted.

Equally, IS appeared to have suffered a setback in Syria with the army taking the last stretch of the Ithriya-Rasafa road, part of the highway from Hama to Raqqa, forcing IS fighters to withdraw from a salient it held to the north, a Syrian military source and the Observatory said.

Islamic State had used that salient, an area containing a range of hills and a dozen villages, to mount frequent attacks on a different road linking Ithriya to Khanaser, part of the government's only available land route to Aleppo.

The capture of the Ithriya-Rasafa road also shortens the Syrian army's route to its battlefront with Islamic State south of Tabqa, a possible route for its multi-pronged offensive to relieve the government's enclave in Deir al-Zor.

On Thursday, the Observatory said the SDF had managed to take the last stretch of the Euphrates' south bank opposite Raqqa, completely encircling Islamic State inside the city.

Since all Raqqa's bridges were already destroyed, and the US-led coalition was striking boats crossing the river, the city had already been effectively isolated since May.

The secretive Baghdadi, who has scarcely been seen publicly since proclaiming the caliphate, has left the fighting in Mosul to local commanders and is believed to be hiding on the Iraq-Syrian border, according to US and Iraqi military sources.

He has often been reported killed or wounded. Russia said on June 17 its forces might have killed him in an air strike in Syria. But Washington says it has no information to corroborate such reports and Iraqi officials have also been sceptical.
Virginia school calls off transgender 'coming out' event after pressure from parents

The conservative Family Research Council has praised parents who forced the Fairfax County School System in Virginia to postpone a taxpayer-funded transgender "coming out" discussion event.

"It's a small victory in the fight against political indoctrination of public school children," FRC's blog on Thursday stated.

One parent apparently asked organizers whether anyone on the panel would argue against children choosing their gender and transitioning, but was told there would not be such a view represented.

Following more questions and pressure from parents, Fairfax decided to postpone the LGBT talk.

As The Washington Post reported back in June 2016, Fairfax has had nondiscrimination policy allowing male students identifying as females to use the bathroom of their choosing, and vice versa, since even before former President Barack Obama's directive to all schools in May last year.

Fairfax was also planning at the time to put the policy into practice by adding enforcement protocol for teachers and administrators, but put those plans on hold after concern from school board members regarding the privacy of non-transgender students.

WP's Editorial Board criticized Fairfax's decision at the time, arguing that LGBT opponents present "trumped-up fears" about student safety.

"In reality, it is transgender students who are made to feel unsafe when their peers harass and bully them for trying to go to the bathroom," WP argued.

"It appears their advocates have been similarly bullied into abandoning a smart change to the status quo: Fairfax's regulations would have made it easier for transgender students to access the accommodations they are entitled to, and for schools to serve them without confusion."

LGBT initiatives have been pushed on a number of public schools across America in recent months, with a group of Texas-based conservative Christian pastors denouncing last week proposals for Houston schools to include an LGBT studies program.

"The proposal by HISD Superintendent Richard Carranza to introduce California-style LGBTQ 'studies' into our children's U.S. History curriculum is not about education, it is about indoctrination," the Houston Area Pastor Council said in a statement.

"Carranza is an import from San Francisco where this kind of propaganda that attempts to equate sexual lifestyles, gender confusion and hostility toward the traditional family has become the norm."

The Council also stated that school district leadership "needs to remind Dr. Carranza that this is Texas, where the people of all ethnicities still believe that our children are to be protected, nurtured and educated, not used as a social experiment of a radical political agenda."

FRC has spoken out against the implementation of transgender policies in a number of sections in U.S. society.

FRC President Tony Perkins warned earlier in June that mandatory transgender sensitivity training in the Army, part of initiatives to welcome in LGBT soldiers, exposes that female soldiers will be left vulnerable.

"In a major break from precedent, the military's largest branch is warning female soldiers to expect biological men in their showers. That's just one of the mind-blowing changes the Army is bracing for on July 1, along with 'male pregnancies' and taxpayer-funded gender reassignment," Perkins warned at the time, referring to the date transgender people will officially be welcomed in the Army.

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
Paul tells us to 'pray continually': Here are five ways we can try

In 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 Paul comes out with one of his most demanding instructions to the church there.' Rejoice always,' he says, 'pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.'

Does continually really mean continually? Because that seems rather a lot... Let's have a look at a couple of other translations.

The NRSV says 'pray without ceasing', the Good News has 'pray at all times', while The Message (which is sometimes your get out of jail free card, if you're struggling with a phrase), also sounds pretty insistent. It says, 'pray all the time'.

If that's the case, though, isn't it just another example of Paul being unrealistic?

He's not the only one to say the stakes on prayer are pretty high. JC Ryle was the Bishop of Liverpool and a fiery preacher. Here is what he said about prayer. 'It is absolutely needful to salvation that a person should pray... To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven.'

For many of us, prayer  something which is integral to the Christian life  is a struggle. It's something we know we should do, but it's something we also struggle to do.

Here are five suggestions to help us pray more.

1. Walking

St Augustine said, 'Salvator ambulado', which roughly translates as 'it is solved by walking'. If prayer isn't working for you sitting in your room, then get out and have a walk. Either in a local park, a beach, or just around the streets where we live, walking can change our perspective and help us to pray.

Whether it's a pilgrimage of hundreds of miles away or a quick stroll round the park  get outside and meet and talk to God in nature.

2. The Jesus Prayer

It's one of the oldest prayers of the Orthodox Church and it's very simple. 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me'. The repetition of this prayer over and over is one of the ways in which Orthodox spirituality has opened up to a number of people. If you don't find that helpful, you could use that other ancient prayer, 'Come Holy Spirit', or even just repeat the name of Jesus over to yourself. Give it a try for five minutes and I think you might be surprised how helpful you do find it.

3. Find a local service/meeting

Find a prayer service. Many churches offer a space for prayer every day. Especially in big cities, there will be options to suit whatever you need from a silent Quaker meeting to a liturgical service of evensong.

If you can find a service that's near to your workplace, then it can naturally become part of your week.

4. The Examen

At the end of the day, you could experiment with the Ignatian practice of the 'examen'. It's a very simple but profound tool to help you pray through the day you've just had. At its most basic, there are four very simple elements:

1. Become aware of God

2. Review the day.

3. Be thankful for the good and repent of the bad.

4. Look toward tomorrow.

It's a process that many millions around the world find helpful. There's even an app for it these days, called Pray As You Go.

5. Seek inspiration

Christians through history have found ways of praying that might be helpful to you. Use the resources they've developed as well as their inspiration.

On constant prayer, Brother Lawrence said: 'In order to form a habit of conversing with GOD continually, and referring all we do to him, we must at first apply to him with some diligence: but that after a little care we should find his love inwardly excite us to it without any difficulty.'

In other words, give it a go and see what happens! Which seems like a pretty good rule for the Christian life.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, and markets biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, neuroscience, and covid-19 diseases. The company's products include Revlimid, an oral immunomodulatory drug for the treatment of multiple myeloma; Eliquis, an oral inhibitor for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in NVAF, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for anti-cancer indications; Pomalyst/Imnovid indicated for patients with multiple myeloma; and Orencia for adult patients with active RA and psoriatic arthritis. It also provides Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia; Yervoy for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; Abraxane, a protein-bound chemotherapy product; Reblozyl for the treatment of anemia in adult patients with beta thalassemia; and Empliciti for the treatment of multiple myeloma. In addition, the company offers Zeposia to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis; Breyanzi, a CD19-directed genetically modified autologous T cell immunotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma; Inrebic, an oral kinase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of adult patients with myelofibrosis; and Onureg for the treatment of adult patients with AML. It sells products to wholesalers, distributors, pharmacies, retailers, hospitals, clinics, and government agencies. The company was formerly known as Bristol-Myers Company. The company was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) held a Cruise Sector Committee meeting this week to discuss further developing the kingdoms cruise sector, according to Trade Arabia. The focus of the committee is to increase calls to Bahrain.

The aim of such meetings is to strengthen the cooperation between all stakeholders and drive the growth of the tourism sector and national economy at large, said Shaikh Khalid bin Humood Al Khalifa, chief executive officer of the BTEA.

During our participation in regional and international events, we were able to attract MSC Cruises Netherlands and Tom San Cruises to the kingdom for the first time, said Yousif Al Khan, director of Tourism Marketing and Promotions at BTEA.
The ever-prescient John Oliver talked about this back in 2014. In the clip above, the Last Week Tonight host takes aim at climate change deniers who contest the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is causing the planet to warm.

You dont need peoples opinion on a fact, the British comedian said. You might as well have a poll asking: Which number is bigger, 15 or 5? or Do owls exist? or Are there hats?'

Well, the Trump administration is now seeking opinions.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has launched a program to critique climate change science, a senior administration official told Climatewire. The government plans to recruit individuals to study the issue.

According to the report:

The program will use red team, blue team exercises to conduct an at-length evaluation of U.S. climate science, the official said, referring to a concept developed by the military to identify vulnerabilities in field operations.

The administrator believes that we will be able to recruit the best in the fields which study climate and will organize a specific process in which these individuals  provide back-and-forth critique of specific new reports on climate science, the source said.

We are in fact very excited about this initiative, the official added. Climate science, like other fields of science, is constantly changing. A new, fresh and transparent evaluation is something everyone should support doing.

The EPA did not return Climatewires request for comment.

You may have heard about the red team, blue team strategy of skeptics versus scientists before. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is in favor of the plan and Pruitt touted its benefits to Breitbart earlier this month saying, The American people need to have that type of honest, open discussion, and its something that we hope to help provide as part of our leadership.

But as Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)

pointed out to Perry during his departments budget hearing last week, even the notorious oil baron Koch brothers know this strategy of trying to disprove extensive, peer-reviewed research does not work.

Youre not the first to do red team/blue team, Franken said. The Koch brothers hired a red team of skeptics in 2012, in an effort to cast doubt on mainstream science. It was called the BEST Project, and much to the chagrin of their funders, the skeptical scientists found that mainstream climate science is correct.

Pruitt has cozy ties with the fossil fuel industry and has sued the EPA more than a dozen times over regulations as Oklahoma Attorney General. Since taking the EPAs helm, Pruitt has assisted with President Trumps systematic dismantling of critical rules that protect the environment in favor of energy development.

Environmental groups have spoken out against Pruitts new initiative.

Pruitt continues to push the same playbook of delay and deceit that the fossil fuel industry has been peddling for decades, 350.org U.S. campaigns director Jenny Marienau said. This latest crusade from the fossil fuel puppets in the Trump administration is an attempt to distract from their dangerous regression on climate protections, so the already wealthy can reap even more profit. But the science is clear: we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and transition to a 100% clean energy economy that works for all of us. Its our only shot at a safe and livable planet. Our communities are already bearing the brunt of the fossil fuel industrys liestheres no time left for debate.

Greenpeace Climate Liability campaigner Naomi Ages also criticized the program. Using the EPA and our tax dollars to attack scientific consensus and promote the agenda of the fossil fuel industry is hugely destructive to this country, Ages said. We know the Trump administration does not believe that U.S. law applies to them, but rejecting heavily-scrutinized, peer-reviewed climate science is idiotic and cynical, especially when the consequences will be disastrous.

Pruitt notoriously told CNBC in March that he does not believe carbon dioxide drives climate change, and hinted that he wants to reconsider the EPAs 2009 endangerment finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to public health and welfare and should be regulated.

Ages explained, In what seems like an act of comedic theater, the Pruitt EPA and the Trump Administration are actually setting up the fulfillment of the fossil fuel industrys desperate desire to obliterate the CO2 endangerment finding. You can expect the outcome of this process to echo all of Scott Pruitt strange contrivances: Some phony logic that says CO2 is essential for life and more of it will be just great for everyone.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 July 2017 - For patients with colorectal cancer that has metastasized to the liver, having a primary tumour on the left side, as opposed to the right side of the colon, is known to be a significant advantage in terms of treatment response.

But now a new study, presented here at the ESMO 19th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, suggests this imbalance may be at least partially redressed.

Reversing the usual pattern, patients whose liver metastases had spread from right-sided primary tumours (RSP) had a 36% better survival rate after treatment with a combination of first-line chemotherapy and selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) using Y-90 resin microspheres, compared to chemotherapy alone, according to the study.

This same treatment combination was no better than chemotherapy only in patients with left-sided primary tumours (LSP).

"These findings are good news for patients with right-sided primary tumours, who have a much worse prognosis and fewer treatment options than patients with left-sided tumours," said study investigator Guy van Hazel, MD, from the University of Western Australia in Perth, Australia.

"We are excited because hitherto no treatment apart from the addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy has improved the dismal outcome of liver metastases coming from right-sided primary tumours."

The analysis included 739 patients from two completed studies called SIRFLOX (SF) and FOXFIRE-Global (FFG).

All patients had liver-only or liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), and had been randomised to receive either standard chemotherapy alone, or combined with SIRT. The chemotherapy regimen was mFOLFOX6, and most patients received bevacizumab as well.

Information on the patients' primary tumour location was recorded at the start, with 24% having right-sided and 73% left-sided disease (the remaining 3% had primary tumours on both sides of the colon, or the primary tumour site was unknown).

Overall, outcomes were not different between the chemotherapy alone and chemotherapy plus SIRT groups, with median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) around 24 months and 11 months, respectively.

However, when the investigators examined patients with RSP and LSP separately they saw a clear difference.

Patients with liver metastases from RSP had significantly better OS when SIRT was added to their chemotherapy compared to those who had chemotherapy alone (22.0 vs. 17.1 months, respectively; p=0.007; Hazard Ratio [HR]: 0.64 [95% CI: 0.46-0.89]), but this was not the case for patients with LSP (24.6 vs. 25.6 months; p=0.279; HR: 1.12 [0.92-1.36]).

"That means that RSP patients treated with chemotherapy plus SIRT have a 36% reduced risk of dying at any time point," said van Hazel.

There was also a 27% improvement in PFS, although this was not statistically significant.

"This is the first time that location of primary tumour has been linked to radiation therapy," said van Hazel, and although it's possible that it may only apply to patients receiving first-line therapy, he said it opens a new treatment option for these patients.

There were no differences in side effects between patients with RSP and LSP tumours, and although patients who had both chemotherapy and SIRT did experience more side-effects than those who had chemotherapy alone, these were "predictable and manageable," said van Hazel.

Commenting on the study, ESMO spokespersons Dirk Arnold, from Instituto CUF de Oncologia in Lisbon, Portugal and Eric Van Cutsem, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, said that these findings contribute to the recent debates on both the biological heterogeneity of colon cancers and tumour localisation.

"It remains to be confirmed whether these results mean that right-sided tumours are more sensitive to this kind of radiotherapy - or whether this is simply related to the fact that the molecular characteristics of right-sided tumours allow less treatment options, because they have more mutations," they explained. "Additionally the well-known worse prognosis of right-sided tumours increases the relative importance of a non-systemic treatment option. More data on the molecular factors determining these results are warranted."

###

Notes to Editors

References

1. Abstract LBA-006 - 'Impact of primary tumour location on survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer receiving selective internal radiation therapy and chemotherapy as first-line therapy' will be presented by Dr Van Hazel Guy during 'Session XIX: Colorectal Cancer' on Saturday, 01 July, 12:30 to 12:55 (CEST) in Auditorium A.

Disclaimer

This press release contains information provided by the authors of the highlighted abstracts and reflects the content of those abstracts. It does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of ESMO who cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the data. Commentators quoted in the press release are required to comply with the ESMO Declaration of Interests policy and the ESMO Code of Conduct.

About the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer

The ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer is the premier global event in the field - encompassing malignancies affecting every component of the gastrointestinal tract and aspects related to the care of patients with gastrointestinal cancer, including screening, diagnosis and the latest management options for common and uncommon tumours.

About the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)

ESMO is the leading professional organisation for medical oncology. With more than 15,000 members representing oncology professionals from over 130 countries worldwide, ESMO is the society of reference for oncology education and information. We are committed to supporting our members to develop and advance in a fast-evolving professional environment.

About Imedex

Imedex is an industry leader in providing accredited, independent continuing medical education to health care professionals. We develop high quality scientific programming that translates the latest research into clinically relevant information. The activities have exceptional organization and outstanding educational value, with a proven sustained impact on disease management. Our programs focus on improving patient care around the world. With over 50,000 e-learning experiences annually and more than 100,000 live meeting attendees, since 2001, Imedex truly educates the global healthcare community. At Imedex, education is the best medicine.
In a first-of-its-kind study, Mount Sinai researchers have discovered a novel technique to monitor laryngeal and vagus nerve function while patients are under anesthesia during otolaryngology and neurosurgery procedures. The findings, published in the July 2017 issue of Clinical Neurophysiology and featured on the cover, could save patients from vocal paralysis, maintain their swallowing function, and transform the way doctors perform surgeries.

Laryngeal nerve injuries following thyroid or anterior cervical spine surgeries affect approximately 10 percent of patients. To prevent these injuries, doctors typically monitor these nerves intermittently by stimulating them at various times through the procedure. But with intermittent monitoring, a possible nerve injury can be missed. Continuous stimulation allows doctors to see damage before it occurs and take preventative measures, but until now the only method of continuous monitoring has required doctors to place an electrode around the vagus nerve in the neck (this cranial nerve extends from the brainstem to the abdomen and helps supply voice and swallowing functions and control heart, lungs and digestion), which is invasive for the patient and can cause surgical complications.

Mount Sinai researchers recently developed a new, less invasive technique to continuously oversee the nerve function throughout thyroid procedures and cervical spine fusions. This novel technique relies solely on a special type of breathing or endotracheal tube, inserted by the anesthesiologist at the start of the surgical procedure. They use the tube to both stimulate and monitor nerve responses during the entire surgery, which has never been done before. This technique allows surgeons to see how different surgical maneuvers affect nerve function, and then change their approach to prevent post-surgical voice and swallowing complications resulting from nerve dysfunction during the procedure. According to their research results, this technique may improve patient outcomes and lower complication rates.

"This simple technique will likely have wide-reaching effects by greatly enhancing our ability to monitor the vagus nerve in the head and neck during neurosurgical and cardiothoracic surgeries. It requires no equipment other than a monitored breathing tube, and this type of tube is generally already used in most of these surgeries," said lead investigator Catherine Sinclair, MD, FRACS, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Never before have we been able to monitor both sensory and motor branches of the vagus nerve. The ability to monitor sensory function for the first time is a huge breakthrough and will hopefully translate into improved patient outcomes."

Dr. Sinclair, along with fellow lead investigator Sedat Ulkatan, MD, Director of Intraoperative Neurophysiology, Mount Sinai West, and Maria Tellez, MD, a fellow in the Department of Intraoperative Neurophysiology, used this new technique on 15 patients in the Mount Sinai Health System. Fourteen of them underwent thyroidectomies, and one had a cervical spine fusion. During each procedure they used electrodes in one side of an endotracheal tube to send electrical stimulus through the superior laryngeal nerve to the brain stem, and the other side of the tube's electrodes to record the reflex responses in the vocal folds. They discovered that they could elicit a particular reflex in the brain previously thought to not exist in humans under general anesthesia. In turn, doctors could make immediate surgical modifications and adjustments during the procedures to prevent irreversible nerve damage. All 15 cases resulted in good outcomes.

"This is a non-invasive method for monitoring laryngeal nerve and vocal fold function that has been simplified to a placement of just one endotracheal tube, eliminating the necessity of invasive electrodes," said Dr. Ulkatan. "Surgery of the lower brain stem is still relatively conservative, given the critical functional role of this small area and the lack of reliable techniques to monitor these structures. This novel methodology will provide neurosurgeons important feedback to protect vagus nerve and lower brainstem structures, reducing life-threatening surgical complications."

###

About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health system committed to providing distinguished care, conducting transformative research, and advancing biomedical education. Structured around seven hospital campuses and a single medical school, the Health System has an extensive ambulatory network and a range of inpatient and outpatient services -- from community-based facilities to tertiary and quaternary care.

The System includes approximately 7,100 primary and specialty care physicians; 12 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the renowned Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the highest in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding per investigator. The Mount Sinai Hospital is in the "Honor Roll" of best hospitals in America, ranked No. 15 nationally in the 2016-2017 "Best Hospitals" issue of U.S. News & World Report. The Mount Sinai Hospital is also ranked as one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Geriatrics, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Nephrology, Neurology/Neurosurgery, and Ear, Nose & Throat, and is in the top 50 in four other specialties. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 10 nationally for Ophthalmology, while Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, and Mount Sinai West are ranked regionally. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital is ranked in seven out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report in "Best Children's Hospitals."

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/, or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Saturday, July 1, 2017

Whether youre sitting at the beach or sitting in traffic this 4th of July weekend, make sure to check out these three incredible ads to get you in the patriotic spirit.





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Budweisers A Dream Delivered

4th of July is all about freedom, and this year Budweiser is honoring those who have paid the ultimate price for that freedom. Teaming up with Folds of Hope, Budweiser and Star Wars star Adam Driver deliver a special surprise to honor the sacrifices made by one military family. Have your tissues ready!





Ad Councils We Are America

What is patriotism? While you may be thinking about stars, stripes, and fireworks, The Ad Council partnered with John Cena to share an important message that redefines patriotism, what it means to be an American, and how to love with no labels.

The post 3 Fourth of July Inspired Ads to Watch This Long Weekend appeared first on AdLibbing.org.


UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.  When it comes to libations, more and more Pennsylvanians are raising their glasses in favor of craft beer.

In fact, according to the Brewers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, there are 136 craft breweries in Pennsylvania that produce more than 4 million barrels of beer annually. The economic impact of the industry is estimated at $4.48 billion, the second largest in the country.

Increase

The industrys popularity has caught the attention of researchers in Penn States College of Agricultural Sciences, including Greg Roth, whos spearheading research in malting barley, a key ingredient in craft beer production, with a goal of helping Pennsylvania farmers benefit.

In the last 15 years, there has been a tremendous increase in the craft beer industry, said Roth, professor of agronomy and associate head of the Department of Plant Science. With this rapid growth has come an increased demand for locally sourced, high-quality and high-yielding malting barley.

So they started a multifaceted examination of malting barley varieties that began in 2014 at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center in Centre County and at Penn States Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Lancaster County.

Related: Farmers go farm to bottle with malted barley.

Joining Roth was colleague Alyssa Collins, director of the Lancaster County research center and assistant professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology. She became interested in researching malting barley after a conversation with Mike Davis, president of the American Malting Barley Association.

He told me there wasnt enough malting barley research conducted in the Northeast, she said. Our farmers know how to grow barley here, but if were going to supply high-quality product for this growing industry, we have to be very intentional about our management.

Malting barley

According to Roth, craft beer generally is made by small brewers whose goal is to develop unique, locally made beers with a variety of flavors and styles.

As with all beers, the brewing process involves using malting barley, a cereal grain.

Malting barley differs from the feed-barley commonly grown. Typically, malting barley lines produce higher levels of amylase enzymes, which convert starch to sugars during the brewing process. These sugars are coupled with yeast and converted into alcohol.

Malting barley has other characteristics that are important to the brewer. Plump, uniform kernels are important for producing a good, evenly germinating malt to maximize the malt extract potential.

Flavor characteristics of different malting barley varieties is a new area of interest for some brewers. Different malting barley varieties can produce different flavors when malted, thus increasing the importance of variety selection in the brewing and malting industry.

Malting barley varieties are available in either two- or six-row head types, based on the arrangements of the kernels. Two-row head types are preferred by most craft brewers, Roth noted. The crop is classified further as either spring or winter, depending on planting season.

Most malting barley is grown in the western United States, Canada and Europe, as many of those climates provide drier growing seasons. But that doesnt mean Pennsylvania cant play a role in the industry.

With a multitude of winter and spring malting barley varieties available, the first undertaking was to identify which ones would grow well in Pennsylvania and meet grain-quality and yield specifications of the industry.

Research

To do that, Roth began collaborations with researchers at malting-barley breeding programs at North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota, who provided seeds from 20 to 30 different varieties from the Midwest and Europe.

Over several planting seasons, Roth and Collins analyzed crop growth, soil conditions, insect damage and yield.

They focused on disease control, which is a major challenge associated with growing malting barley.

Unfortunately, our states climate is very favorable to the development of fungal diseases, said Collins. One fungal disease, fusarium head blight, can result in the production of a toxin, called vomitoxin. In order to prevent this vomitoxin from entering our food supply, we must prevent the disease. So barley disease management is a critical part of growing a crop suitable for malting in our area.

Most European varieties outperformed those from the United States, demonstrating good disease resistance, high yields and good quality.

Some of the western lines couldnt withstand the high amount of rain in the region. The moisture caused seeds to germinate in the field, and once that happens, the crop is deemed unacceptable, Roth noted.

To further refine their selections, Roth and Collins sought input from malt house owners as well as Aaron MacLeod, director of Hartwick College Center for Craft Food and Beverage in Oneonta, New York, who analyzed samples for quality and malting characteristics.

They are beginning a new collaboration with faculty and students from the new brewing and fermentation program at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, a special mission affiliate of Penn State.

Results

In the end, the researchers identified five varieties as standouts. To share this information with growers, they created a factsheet with study information including varieties, seeding, crop rotations, weed and insect control and disease management. This factsheet can be viewed at extension.psu.edu/plants/crops/grains/small/production/malting-barley.

Roth and Collins are pleased with how the trials turned out and plan to continue to investigate new malting barley lines in partnership with the all of their collaborators.

Whats really exciting is that some of the malting barley varieties weve recommended are showing up in craft beers in Pennsylvania, Roth said. Another great thing is that the barley that isnt used for brewing still has value as livestock feed. So nothing is wasted.

Collins agreed, adding, If we as a community feel strongly about local agriculture, and supporting local farming is important to us, then it is critical that we have research conducted locally. The research and education were doing will make sure that our farmers can be successful and profitable, while keeping toxins out of beer.
Payments worth 2.4 million to Scottish dairy farmers will arrive in farmers bank accounts in the coming days, the Scottish government has confirmed.

Dairy farmers patience has been wearing thin as market indicators for dairy commodities soar to levels not seen since the highs of 2013.

The payments will be seen as a much-awaited move. As announced last month all applicants will also now receive an increased payment rate to ensure all available EU funding is distributed.

The funding is targeted towards the hardest hit dairy farmers.

It is hoped the payments will encourage the uptake of milk recording and production profiling techniques, which provide dairy farmers with the information required to help make informed business decisions.

Scotland's Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: The recent downward pressure on gate prices badly affected our dairy sector, which is why I took the decision to reopen the EU Adjustment Aid Scheme window to ensure that as many farmers as possible were able to fully benefit from all available EU support.

As promised last month, if any funding remained unclaimed by the end of the application period, I would increase all the current payment rates to ensure our dairy farmers received the maximum level of support.

Anger at farm level

NFU Scotland has said that farmgate prices have, as yet, failed to respond, leading to anger and frustration at farm level.

Actual Milk Price Equivalent (AMPE) and Milk for Cheese Equivalent (MCVE) track the basic wholesale commodity prices for butter, skimmed milk powder, mild cheese and cheese by-products.

The union says that is a 'staggering' increase that has yet to be fully reflected in the price farmers receive for their milk.

Farmgate prices by comparison have risen by only 7p in the same period to an average of 26 or 27p per litre.

NFU Scotlands Milk Committee Chairman, James Rankin said: By anyones arithmetic, this does not add up.

Milk buyers failing to pass on market returns is clearly unacceptable in any circumstance, but particularly at a time when dairy farmers are recovering from the deepest price squeeze many have ever experienced.

There is no reasonable excuse. Production is muted, demand is strong and while the processing and retail sectors can cite concerns about oversupply and being competitive, there is no reason to hold back prices at this time, other than to manage their balance sheets and risk at the expense of farmers.




Haiti - Panama : Donation of rice and maize seeds





In the context of bilateral cooperation, the Panama Agricultural Research Institute (IDIAP) donated this week to Haiti, a first lot of 8 selected seed varieties of rice and maize, which will be handed to farmers so they can recover after the Hurricane Matthew.



The event took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MURE) of Panama, in the presence of Axel Villalobos, Director General of IDIAP, Willian Exantus, Charge d'affaires of Haiti in Panama, Luz Divina Arrededondo, Representative of the Directorate General for International Cooperation, of Stephanny Moncada, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and several members of the MIRE.



The IDIAP specifies that among the varieties that have been handed over to the staff of the Haitian Ministry of Foreign Affairs are:



Rice: IDIAP-GAB-6; IDIAP 38; IDIAP-GAB-8; IDIAP-52 -05;

Maize: IDIAP MQ-12, PRO-4A, IDIAP-MV-1102, IDIAP-MV-0706.



Varieties that should adapt to climatic conditions and soils in Haiti, says the Institute.



SL/ HaitiLibre


















Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis historic visit to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that his government has approved the Israeli Cabinet Resolution on Strengthening Ties with the Republic of India.

This resolution is a direct result of the Israeli Prime Ministers instructions to concentrate governmental efforts on strengthening political, economic, scientific and cultural ties with India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first serving Indian prime minister to visit Israel to mark 25 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Jerusalem.

Celebrating 25 years of Indo-Israel diplomatic relations, the Government resolution aims at combining the capabilities of both the Indian and Israeli economies for the benefit of both countries.

The measures to be taken by the government ministries stress the importance of our growing partnership in various fields: Agriculture, Water, Innovation and Research and Development, Space, Cyber, Health and more.

In addition, the resolution has placed an emphasis on bringing the modern people of two ancient nations closer together, through deepening cultural ties and encouraging tourism.

A flagship project will be undertaken by the both governments in the field of water and agriculture, which will demonstrate Israels capabilities while providing solutions to current Indian needs. The project will include, inter alia, solutions to the following concerns: water conservation, reducing pollution along the Ganges River, using recycled water in irrigation and increasing agricultural production.

Israels ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said, This landmark resolution is a significant tool providing ministries and governmental agencies a road map and resources in order to implement PM Netanyahus vision of further bolstering the relationship between both our countries.

Source : Outlook
New Delhi : India on Friday expressed deep concern over Chinas plans to construct a road in the Doklam area in Sikkim sector, saying that such a move represent a significant change of status quo with security implications for India.

On 16 June, the Chinese soldiers had entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct a road. Doklam is located close to the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan.

However, the Indian security personnel, who were present in the area, in consultation with the Bhutanese government urged the Chinese construction party to desist from changing the status quo, the MEA said in a statement.

The matter has since been under discussion between India and China at the diplomatic level. It was also the subject of a border personnel meeting at Nathu La on 20th June.

The MEA further said, It is essential that all parties concerned display utmost restraint and abide by their respective bilateral understandings not to change the status quo unilaterally.

It is also important that the consensus reached between India and China through the Special Representatives process is scrupulously respected by both sides.

Bhutan has also lodged a strong protest with the Chinese government through its embassy in New Delhi on the same day. Both India and Bhutan have been in constant touch over the issue.

On Thursday, the Bhutans Foreign Ministry has also issued a statement underlining that the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory is a direct violation of the agreements between Bhutan and China.

It said that the construction activity affects the process of demarcating the boundary between these two countries.

New Delhi and Beijing in 2012 reached an agreement that the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalized in consultation with the concerned countries. And any attempt, therefore, to unilaterally determine tri-junction points is in violation of this understanding.

Source : Zee News
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Nevada has become the fifth state in the US with stores selling marijuana for recreational purposes.

People aged 21 and above can now buy up to an ounce of the drug at a time and use it in their homes if they have a valid ID in the western state, which is famed for the hotels and casinos in its largest city Las Vegas.

The millions of tourists who visit Nevada cities every year are expected to make nearly two of every three purchases from retailers, who began selling pot early on Saturday morning.

 Pot lovers light up as Washington DC legalizes marijuana

Hundreds of people lined up at Essence Cannabis Dispensary on the Las Vegas Strip and cheered as the doors opened just after midnight.

Dispensaries worked furiously to prepare for the launch, stamping labels on pot products, stocking up their shelves, adding security and checkout stations, and announcing specials.

Desert Grown Farms hired about 60 additional employees. Workers in scrubs, hair nets and surgical masks slapped stickers on sealed jars this week as others checked on marijuana plants or carefully weighed buds.

"It would be a good problem to have if I couldn't meet my demand," said CEO Armen Yemenidjian, whose Desert Grown Farms owns the only dispensary that is selling recreational pot on the Las Vegas Strip, across the street from the Stratosphere hotel.

Some dispensaries took to social media to spread the word or tried to draw in buyers with special events. Some planned to give away free marijuana to their first 100 customers or throw parties with barbecues and food trucks later in the afternoon.

Some facilities are in strip malls, while others, in stereotypical Las Vegas fashion, are in neighborhoods shared by strip clubs.

Lovin' Las Vegas: A wild week in Sin City Show all 3 1 /3 Lovin' Las Vegas: A wild week in Sin City Lovin' Las Vegas: A wild week in Sin City 8545.bin Lovin' Las Vegas: A wild week in Sin City 8546.bin Lovin' Las Vegas: A wild week in Sin City 2240.bin

Voters approved legalisation eight months ago, making this the fastest turnaround from the ballot box to sales in the US.

Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska also allow adults to buy marijuana, which is still banned by the federal government.

Marijuana smokers will still face fines of up to $600 if they light up in public places, including casinos, bars, restaurants, parks, and concert halls, and driving under the influence of the drug remains illegal.

Recommended Marijuana used to treat drug addiction at Los Angeles rehab centre

There are also restrictions on advertising.

Here's a look at what's expected from legal marijuana:

WHERE CAN PEOPLE LIGHT UP?

Only in a private home, including yards and porches. While it may be legal to stroll down parts of the Las Vegas Strip with your favorite adult beverage, the same doesn't apply to pot. It's prohibited in casinos, bars, restaurants, parks, concerts and on U.S. property, from national forests to federally subsidized housing.

While anyone who is 21 with a valid ID can buy up to an ounce of pot or one-eighth of an ounce of edibles or concentrates, using it in public can get lead to a $600 ticket for a first offense.

WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?

Industry experts predict Nevada's market will be the nation's biggest, at least until California plans to begin recreational sales in January.

Nevada sales should eventually exceed those in Colorado, Oregon and Washington state because of the more than 42 million tourists who annually visit Las Vegas. Regulators anticipate 63 percent of customers will be tourists.

Additional reporting by agencies
Kolkata, July 1 (IBNS): When India celebrates Doctorsa Day in honour of doctor and former CM of West Bengal Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry hosted a group discussion on aTrust-The Currency of Healthcarea, here on Saturday.

July 1 is the birth and death anniversary of former chief minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.

Dr. Amit Ghose , Chairperson-Emeritus, Health Committee, the Bengal Chamber, Jawhar Sircar, former Culture Secretary, government of India and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Editor, Economic and Political Weekly were present at the discussion.

Dr. Ghose said he feels India is racing towards top rankers in the world presently.

But at the same time certain unpleasant developments have cropped up in this sector that has badly shaken the peoples trust and faith in medical services and doctors. Where there was once blind faith and respect has now given way to an atmosphere mired with doubts and suspicion. Even aspiring students wishing once to take up this field have now started rethinking alternate career in the wake of recent violence and turbulences, he added.

Sircar opined that there was a failure in the system that was put forward in the past. There has to be transparency, self regulating system, intervention of paramedics to ease off load from the medical establishments.

Patientss families should be aware of the costing that has been involved, he added.

Speaking about the profession, the former culture secretary said: "History of humanity is a history of reason over passion-to work towards a consensus of conflicting views. The medical profession is a very honoured one. People look up to the very name of this profession. So that needs to be kept up."

Faith of a patient on a doctor cannot be compared to any other relationship stated Mr. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Editor, Economic and Political Weekly.
Srinagar, Jule 1 (IBNS) : Two militants, including a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander and two civilians were killed during an encounter in Jammu and Kashmiras Anantnag district on Saturday.

The encounter started after security forces launched a cordon-and operation in Brenti-Batpora following a tip-off about the presence of militants, including top Lashkar commander Bashir Lashkari.

During encounter, scores of youths tried to disrupt the operation which resulted in the death of two civilians, including a woman, when forced fire on protesters

near the encounter site.

"Bashir Lashkari carried a bounty of of 10 Lakh on his head. He was involved in attack on SHO Feroz Dar and his five associates, a police officer said.

Categorised as an A++ militant Lashkari, a resident of Sopshali Kokernag, was recruited by the militant outfit on October 2, 2015.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Dhaka, July 1 (IBNS): With heavy hearts and paying tributes to those killed, Bangladesh on Saturday observed the first anniversary of the militant attack which hit Dhaka city on July 1 last year.

The attack by militants killed 22 people in Holey Artisan Bakery here.

The deceased included 17 foreign nationals.

People from different fields of lives went to the Bakery and paid tributes to the victims of the attack.

"Laying flowers, representatives of various political parties including Awami League, BNP, Jubo League, various civil societies and police personnel paid their respects," The Daily Star reported.

Taking several people as hostage, five militants attacked the bakery on July 1 last year.

The attackers killed 22 people, including two policemen and foreign nationals.

The hostage crisis came to an end after 12 hours of battle between security forces and terrorists.
New York, July 1(Just Earth News): Highlighting progress in the Colombian peace process, especially the completion of the laying down of arms by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), the United Nations envoy for the country has called for shifting the momentum to other aspects of the historic peace deal.

In his briefing to the UN Security Council on Friday, Jean Arnault, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Colombia, recalled the conviction expressed by President Juan Manuel Santos and Timoleon Jimenez, the head of the FARC-EP Secretariat, at a ceremony for the final laying down of weapons  that the half-century-long armed conflict was over.

I cannot but quote President Santos when he said that reaching that day, living that day had made it worthwhile to be President of Colombia, said Arnault.

Attention should now shift to other aspects of the peace agreement, including the reintegration of FARC-EP combatants and militias, among whom a deep sense of uncertainty prevails as to their physical security following disarmament and their socio-economic future, he noted.

No effort can be spared in the prompt implementation of that agenda, he added.

He also highlighted that in addition to the reintegration of combatants, the peace process must also respond to the needs and expectations of the more vulnerable sectors of Colombian society and recalled the priority areas identified by the Colombian Government: rule of law and increased security; providing access to goods and services to areas that did not have access to it; and prompt delivery of justice to victims of the conflict.

We welcome the fact that together with reintegration these were precisely the priorities indicated by the Government to the [UN] Peacebuilding Fund, and we call upon the international community to support the achievement of these goals, said Arnault.

In this context, Arnault, who is also the head of the UN Mission in Colombia, expressed that it was an honour to be requested by the Government and the FARC-EP to establish a second verification mission focused on reintegration and wider security guarantees, and to begin as soon as possible.

Like the first mission, the second one will be as much about fostering cooperation and building confidence as it will be about verification as such, he said, noting that the Mission believes that the trust that has been established between it, the two parties, state institutions and civil society can be brought to bear on the success of the second mandate.

The UN envoy also informed the Council of the impact of the Tripartite Monitoring and Verification Mechanism as an effective tool to maintain and strengthen confidence between the parties.

Its presence at the local level will help ensure that incidents that may occur in the coming weeks and months can continue to be dealt with cooperatively.

As to the steps after the laying down of arms, Arnault also informed the Council that the UN Mission and the FARC-EP, with the support of the armed forces and the police, will now focus on the disposal of hundreds of arms caches, the collection of weapons in them, and the destruction of explosives and unstable armament.

The disposal of arms caches is undoubtedly a difficult process, but we are encouraged by the willingness of FARC-EP and the armed forces to move forward, and we are confident that if not all, at least a high percentage of the caches can be dealt with [within set timeframes], he stated.

Photo: UN Mission in Colombia

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 1(Just Earth News): The United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted its first-ever resolution on mine action, noting the serious and lasting threat posed by landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices, while also recognizing the positive contribution of mine action to sustaining peace and stability.

Resolution 2365 calls on all parties to armed conflicts to end immediately and definitively any indiscriminate use of explosive devices in violation of international humanitarian law.

The 15-member body unanimously adopted the resolution, noting the danger that they pose to civilians, including children, as well as refugees returning home, peacekeepers, aid workers, law enforcement, and other personnel.

Given the positive contribution of mine action to efforts to sustain peace and stability, the new resolution stressed the importance of considering mine action during the earliest stages of planning and programming in peacekeeping operations and special political missions, as well as in humanitarian responses.

The Council encouraged the international community to provide assistance for the care, rehabilitation, and economic and social reintegration of victims and persons with disabilities maimed by mines.

In addition, the Secretary-General has been requested to provide information on threats posed by landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices, and efforts to mitigate these threats, when reporting on peace operations and humanitarian responses.

On Fridays adoption comes just two weeks after the Council held a debate on mine action and mitigating the risks associated with mines.

UN Photo/Sylvain Liecht

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 1(Just Earth News): Haiti has a window of opportunity to implement reforms necessary to bring the Caribbean country onto a path of stability and development, the United Nations Security Council President said on Friday.

Recounting the Councils recent visit to Haiti, Ambassador Sacha Sergio Llorentty Soliz of Bolivia, which holds the presidency for the month of June, pointed to opportunities to cement positive change in the country.

Haiti is at political crossroads. The window of opportunity is open to promote the reforms the country needs to respond to challenges, he said. These include strengthening the rule of law, reforming the security sector, providing basic services, and creating jobs.

Llorentty led the Security Council mission to Haiti from 22 to 24 June, to get a first-hand look at how the UN could best contribute to stability and development in the country.

The mission of the Security Council to Haiti was successful because of the large amount of information we obtained in face-to-face meetings, and the better understanding of concerns and expectations that Haitians have about the drawdown of MINUSTAH and the transition to the new mission, Llorentty said, using the acronym for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

In April, the Council extended MINUSTAHs mandate for a final six months, deciding to transition it into a smaller follow-up mission, known as the UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), which would assist the Haitian Government to strengthen rule-of-law institutions, its security sector and human rights monitoring.

The information gathered will be useful when defining the nature of implementation of the new mission, said Llorentty.

During the visit, the Council members met with President Jovenel Moise, members of his cabinet, parliamentarians, national police, judicial officials and civil society and private sector representatives.

The main issue which came up at every meeting, and which requires the Councils attention, Llorentty said, was cholera. Concerns over cholera were vital to all aspects of Haitis future, from water and sanitation concerns to its development and stability, he noted.

In December 2016, then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon put forth a New Approach to Cholera in Haiti, which demonstrated the Organizations commitment to eliminating the disease in the country.

UN Photo/Logan Abassi

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 1(Just Earth News): United Nations Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres on Friday called on the leaders of the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus to grasp aan historic opportunitya to reach a comprehensive settlement to the conflict that has divided the Mediterranean island for more than four decades.

The road back to Switzerland has not been easy, but the path to lasting peace never is, Guterres told a press conference in the Swiss town of Crans-Montana, where the UN-facilitated talks are taking place.

The Conference on Cyprus, which began on 28 June, brings together Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, as well as the guarantors  Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The European Union is attending as an observer.

To get to this point, the leaders have overcome significant challenges and making unprecedented progress, and I salute the determination and common vision which has led them here, the Secretary-General stated.

He added that the reconvening of the Conference offers an historic opportunity to reach a comprehensive settlement to the conflict that has divided Cyprus for too many decades.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974. The negotiations have come down to six main areas, which include new territorial boundaries, power-sharing and the economy.

I firmly believe that, through determination and political will, it will be possible to clear this final hurdle and reach a comprehensive settlement, Guterres said, recognizing that some sensitive and difficult issues remain to be resolved, including in the area of security and guarantees.

Asked what the UN would do if the sides failed to produce a settlement at the Conference, the Secretary-General said that the Organization is not impatient and its role continues to be providing support for the parties to find a solution.

UN Photo/ Jean-Marc Ferre

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 1(Just Earth News): Recognizing the efforts of the United Nations Operation in CAte daIvoire (UNOCI) in promoting peace, stability and development, the UN Security Council on Friday marked the closing of the mission by underscoring the importance of action by the Government to address the remaining challenges in the country for the benefit of all Ivorians.

In a statement read out by Ambassador Sacha Sergio Llorentty Soliz of Bolivia, which holds the Council presidency for June, the 15-member body also emphasized that the departure of the mission did not mark the end of the UNs support to the country.

In addition, the Council welcomed progress in the West African nation, including the consolidation of peace and stability, improvements in economic prosperity and the successful holding of presidential and legislative elections in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

At the same time, it noted that there is important work ahead in tackling remaining challenges  including in the fight against impunity, the advancement of national reconciliation and social cohesion, security sector reform and other critical areas.

It also noted that the Government had indicated that the UN would continue to be an important partner in the next phase of Cote dIvoires development, and in that regard, encouraged the international community, including bilateral and multilateral donors, to assist the activities of the UN Country Team  the group of all UN agencies working in Cote dIvoire  and to consider providing funding for its transition plan.

Also in the statement, the Security Council requested the Secretary-General to undertake a study on UNOCIs role in Cote dIvoire, and expressed its intention to take its findings into account in ongoing efforts to enhance the overall effectiveness of UN peacekeeping efforts.

The UN mission was deployed to Cote dIvoire in 2004 when the country was divided in half by an armed conflict. During its time in the country, the mission helped protect civilians, enabled inclusive political dialogue and supported the Government in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of nearly 70,000 former combatants.

It also supported social cohesion through about 1,000 quick impact projects, resulting in the decrease in inter-communal conflicts by 80 per cent.

Photo: UN Photo/Kim Haughton

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 1(Just Earth News): Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres has met with the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities and their backers at the Conference on Cyprus in Switzerland, saying there is now an understanding of what is needed for a possible settlement on the Mediterranean island.

In a statement from his spokesperson, the Secretary-General said he held a positive, results-oriented meeting last night with the heads of the delegation, including Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.

A clear understanding emerged of the essential elements of a package that might lead to a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus, the spokesperson said, adding that the talks are continuing on Saturday at the political level.

The Secretary-General remains fully engaged in these efforts to deliver a comprehensive settlement to the people of Cyprus, said the spokesperson.

Also attending the UN backed Conference, which began on 28 June in the Swiss town of Crans-Montana, are the three guarantor powers  Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom  and a European Union representative, as an observer.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974. The negotiations have come down to six main areas, which include new territorial boundaries, power-sharing and the economy.

UN Photo/ Jean-Marc Ferre

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Toronto, Jul 1 (IBNS): Decision by many indigenous people to boycott the celebration of Canadaas 150th birthday was justified, said Canadaas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while speaking at an event in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Islands (P.E.I.).

He made a call to the nation that not everyone will be celebrating 'Canada 150' the same way and to show respect and understand the feelings of the so-called reoccupiers, media reports said.

To justify their reasons for boycotting the celebrations, indigenous people had posted on social media, hashtags like #UNsettleCanada150 and #Resistance150.

Trudeau said he clearly understood the messages sent by those behind the reoccupation, which implied that they did not see any reason for celebration.

Clashes were reported between the police in Ottawa and the Bawaating Water Protectors, an indigenous group from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, leading to the arrest of some people when they attempted to set up a teepee on the site selected for Saturdays Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill, recently.

The arrested members were later released.

But the indigenous group decided to set up the teepee on the edge of the fenced parliamentary grounds, away from the the site, media reports said.

Security was higher than usual in Ottawa as about half a million people are expected to be on Parliament Hill this year for Canada Day celebrations.

We just have to make sure that we deal with both what are going to be historic crowds on Canada Day on the Hill but also deal with people in a respectful and a responsible way, Trudeau said at a news conference.

Thats what I expect of our security services and thats what I am expecting to see.

Organizer Brendon Nahwegezhic said their intention was not to protest, but make Canadians aware about the historical fact of the genocide and the assimilations.

The group planned perform indigenous ceremonies, for the next four days, including sharing circles and sacred fires, media reported.

We are on Algonquin territory and we do have that right to practice our traditions, Nahwegezhic said.

When Trudeau talks about truth and reconciliation, we wont be able to get to the reconciliation part until the truth is exposed and in the open and told properly.

Unfortunately, it seems to be getting misconstrued by politics and whatnot, he said.

Relating to the history of indigenous population, Trudeau in P.E.I. said, "Impatience from many people after decades, centuries of a broken relationship," was understandable and added that the work of reconciliation was about "redefining a relationship and that can't be done overnight."

Drawing attention to disparities between the city and life on Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, Carolyn Bennett -- Canadas Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs and the Member of Parliament for the riding of Toronto -- also said there would be protests on Canada Day picnic in her Toronto ridings as well as at an event in Winnipeg,

She said that for two decades Winnipeg community had not seen clean running water despite the fact that it is situated on the side of the lake where Winnipeg gets its water.

Jessica Bolduc, who had been on a long reconciliation journey, was with the Sault Ste. Marie group, and said still much work is needed to be done before anyone can say Canada has achieved reconciliation.

I think Canada has one sort of view and way in which they engage with the world around them and then there is the Indigenous experience, said Bolduc.

We talk about this smart and caring nation, but dont acknowledge that those privileges arent afforded to indigenous peoples in the same way that they are to folks who have settled here, whether that was 200 years ago or to people who we are welcoming here today in a ceremony of becoming Canadian, she said.

The indigenous group Idle No More had called upon indigenous people in May to protest on July 1 with a National Day of Action  Unsettling Canada 150.

Our history predates colonization yet we are still being treated like third class citizens even though treaties were signed in good faith on our part, stated Senator Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, an indigenous woman from the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick. She added she would not be celebrating Canadas 150th birthday.

We are of the opinion that we will celebrate when all treaties are settled, all First Nation children enjoy equality in education, health care, safe drinking water, quality housing and governance in our own land, she said.



(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)



Image: Indigenous group protests in Ottawa days before Canada's 150th Day Celebrations: twitter
Washington, July 1 (IBNS): US Vice President Mike Pence will visit NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 6, officials said.

NASA Television and the agencys website will provide live coverage for parts of the visit starting at noon EDT with Air Force Twos arrival at Kennedys Shuttle Landing Facility runway, as well as a special address to the centers workforce at 12:50 p.m.

"The Vice President will tour Kennedy and learn more about the centers work as a multi-user spaceport for commercial and government clients, as well as see the agencys progress toward launching from U.S. soil on spacecraft built by American companies, and traveling past the moon, and eventually on to Mars and beyond with the help of NASAs new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket," read a statement issued by NASA.

Image: NASA website


Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 1)

One of six cargo ships granted to Myanmar by India. / Supplied

India Hands Over Cargo Ships

India this week handed over six cargo vessels to Myanmar to support the Kaladan Multimodal Transport Project, a bilateral project that will connect the two countries via a water route from Rakhine States Sittwe to Paletwa in Chin State and a road from Paletwa to Zorinpui in Mizzoram State, India.

The ships were built in Dala, Dagon Seikan and Dawbon dockyards in Yangon.by Myanmars Inland Waterways Transport at a cost of US$89 million, according to a statement by the Indian embassy in Yangon.

The vessels are 45 meters long and 9.5 meters wide and have a cargo capacity of 300 tons.

Work is continuing on the Kaladan project at Sittwe and Paletwa ports.

IFC Invests in Microfinance

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has committed a financing package of $13.5 million for Myanmar-based microfinance institutions.

The package includes a $1.5 million stake in Maha Agriculture Public Company and $6 million in loans each to Fullerton Finance (Myanmar) Company, in which the IFC already holds a 15 percent stake, and Early Dawn Microfinance Company.

The move is intended to support microfinance businesses to engage the largely untapped rural, low income market segment.

Demand for microcredit for small enterprises and poor households underserved by mainstream banks is estimated to exceed supply by three-fold, according to an IFC statement.

Improving access to microfinance will help unlock the great potential of the rural sector and small enterprises by providing much needed financing to increase productivity and create jobs, incomes and prosperity for a significant number of workers in this country, said Vikram Kumar, IFC country manager for Myanmar.

The deals fit with a strategic IFC focus in Myanmar to develop a sustainable and responsible commercial microfinance sector to serve urban and rural poor, the statement said.

It added that the IFC is mitigating lending risks through development of a central credit bureau, expected to be launched later this year following the issuance of a landmark IFC-supported credit reporting regulation in March.

Going forward, IFC will introduce responsible business practices to microfinance institutions and promote financial-consumer protection through knowledge transfer activities with regulators and industry players, according to the statement.



The IFC is a member of the World Bank Group. It conducts investments that are intended to leverage the power of the private sector to help end poverty and boost shared prosperity.

Investment Firm Looks at Expansion

Private equity firm Delta Capital is close to finalizing another $50 million in investments after its first round raised the same amount, the companys founder and managing partner Nick Powell told DealStreet Asia.

By November it expects to have raised $150 million in total since the firm was founded in 2013 in Myanmar.

In the first round the firm invested in oil and gas, alcoholic beverage manufacturing, an internet service provider, a local business conglomerate and a domestic bottle manufacturer. For the second round the firm is looking to close investments in the consumer and ICT sectors.

Powell founded Delta Capital as a partnership between Hong Kong-based assets management company, SMC Capital and Serge Pun & Associates.

The fund-raising for the second fund has garnered interest from European family offices and wealthy Asian families, according to the report. The firm is also seeking to be the first Myanmar-focused private equity fund to get investments from Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).

Rubber Plant Mooted for Mon State

Plans for a rubber manufacturing plant in Mon State have been discussed by Ministry of Industry and Thaton Township officials, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

The plan was discussed at the annual general meeting of the Thaton Township Rubber Planters and Producers Association on 23 June, according to the report.

Association Chairman Dr. Than Myo said the project is needed because of high level of international demand for high-quality rubber, while Myanmar has struggled to produce a quality product.

Most of Myanmars rubber producers are small holder farmers using traditional farming methods.

Thaton Township is a rubber-growing hub with 40,000 acres under cultivation, although only half of that acreage produces rubber of sufficient quality for export to China, India, South Korea and Japan.

Myanmar has more than 1.6 million acres of rubber plantations and rubber latex is produced by over 700,000 acres of rubber land, according to the report. It added that most of Myanmars rubber goes to China through cross-border trade stations, while other countries receive shipments by sea.

Trade With India on the Rise

Myanmars trade with India grew by 6 percent from 2015 to 2016 to the same period the following year, according to a report.

The figure was given by Indias minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman, at the 6th Joint Trade Committee Meeting between India and Myanmar this week.

Myanmars exports to India were $1.06 billion in 2016 to 2017, a growth of 8.43 percent over the previous year.

Imports from India were $1.11 billion, up by 3.79 percent.

Sitharaman told media that the bilateral trade potential between the two countries remains untapped and she sought Myanmars cooperation in actively pursuing enhanced road, sea and air connectivity between the two countries.

She urged Myanmar to expedite work on the Kaladan Multimodal Transport Project in Rakhine State and to speed up completion of work on the waterway linking the port of Sittwe with the interior.
Dateline Dateline Irrawaddy: Lurking Pitfalls for NLD Politicians

The Irrawaddy discusses the dangers facing NLD members, including arrogance and exploitation.

Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy. On June 24-25, the National League for Democracy (NLD) held its central executive committee (CEC) meeting. NLD CEC member and lawmaker in the Upper House, U Aung Kyi Nyunt, said the NLD is facing three major dangers.

He said party members at different levels are facing the danger of being misguided, the NLD is facing the danger of being exploited, and another danger is that NLD party members are acting arrogantly.

So, this week, well discuss how serious this problem is, and what we can point out. Director Ko Thwin Lin Aung of civil society organization Genuine Peoples Servants and journalist Ko Thiha of NHK [Japanese acronym for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation] join me to discuss this. Im Irrawaddy English editor Kyaw Zwa Moe.

What U Aung Kyi Nyunt said at the NLD CEC meeting on June 24-25 made the headlines in the newspapers. Lets define what he said: by misguided, does he mean NLD party members at different levels are being bought and put into the pockets of businessmen and cronies? By exploitation, does he mean other parties or political organizations are using [the NLD] for their own benefits? In terms of arrogance, we journalists as well as some other people have borne witness to it. So, Ko Thiha, how would you define those three?

Thiha: Being misguided is a problem facing various institutions. We can even find it in government mechanisms. Cronies especially, and those with strong financial backgrounds who have monopolized government projects in successive periods, are able to approach and persuade NLD leaders. Yes, this is a danger.

But the danger for the time being is that government institutions are hampering the [NLD-initiated] reforms by obliquely inducing [ministers appointed by the NLD] to accept their bureaucratic mechanisms, which they are good at, and have been engaged in for many years.

At first, when the NLD came to power, there were signs that the government [bureaucratic] mechanism would change. But gradually, those signs disappeared and things have gone back to their previous state. In other words, Im suspicious that heads of government departments who have engaged in a deep-seated bureaucratic system for ages are misguided [NLD] leaders. This is how I understand the word misguided.

KZM: Ko Thwin Lin Aung, what is your assessment of those dangers?

Thwin Lin Aung: Im quite happy that U Aung Kyi Nyunt has pointed these out, because they are the existing dangers. There is a Burmese saying that when something is too big, it is difficult to see it.

The danger is too bigtoo big that they dont see it. We really wanted to point that out. But sometimes, it is difficult for us to do so because of the level of success the NLD has achieved and its reputation as the peoples party.

Under such circumstances, Im quite happy that a CEC member of the party has pointed those out. On the other hand, the market economy were practicing is capitalism. So, [the government] has to engage with capitalists. We cant hope for their fall like communists do.

When people in positions of political power engage with them, the risk of being bought is quite large. Im glad that U Aung Kyi Nyunt has pointed this out. Again, the transition is not yet over, and there are certain groups that do not want the transition to take place.

There is also the danger of them taking advantage by criticizing the NLD. While there must be opposition, which is a norm in a democracy, the NLD should be careful to make sure that such opposition doesnt overstep the boundaries of check and balance. Another factor is success. The NLD achieved great success in the 2015 [election]. There may be [NLD party members] who are too proud of that success and unconsciously display arrogance. Yes, there are. We are seeing them, so Im grateful to U Aung Kyi Nyunt that he has explicitly warned about it.

KZM: As far as Im concerned, U Aung Kyi Nyunt is the only CEC member since last year who has boldly pointed out orin other wordscriticized his own party. Were seeing NLD party members acting haughtily every day, and people are highly tolerant of itperhaps because it is their favorite party, and they have chosen it themselves. Ko Thiha, as a journalist you have interviewed NLD party members. Do you ever feel put out when you talk to senior or mid-level leaders of the NLD?

Thiha: The first problem we faced was that when the NLD started to form its government, people speculated about the president and chief minister positions. And there were problems when we engaged with those who were tipped as future ministers or the like, as they were pressured at the time. Some people didnt get the high positions they had expected. Some felt pressures because of the responsibility of their positions. And some were, you know, putting on airs. Some are under pressure as they are afraid that they would accidentally say or make mistakes in their high positions. Sometimes, as they practise restraint to avoid mistakes, it looks like they, especially party leaders, are haughty. And some act like I dont care whatever you say. To put it bluntly, those people could not resist the sense of achievement. Again, it is also partly because they have not been honed properly for it. As they got something big all of a sudden, they dont feel at ease, and perhaps they had not prepared to be able to adapt to the new environment. Again, perhaps they dont have the idea of mending themselves even after they are confronted by criticism. Most of them are sensitive to criticism. And people have tolerated their faults all because of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. As much as the people have shown tolerance, those who criticize [the NLD] have drawn criticism themselves. So, those who are too proud of themselves have got out of control. This is what is happening.

KZM: There are ministers under the U Thein Sein government who were infamous for what they said. For example, minister U Ohn Myint said he had gone around the country and slapped people. But no incumbent minister is that bad under the new government. But as U Aung Kyi Nyunt has said, they acted with an I dont care attitude in dealing with media. For instance, U Win Htein was known for calling a reporter an idiot six times in an interview, and this attitude has created hostility between him and the media. He could have chosen not to say it, but as he said it, it caused problems. What is your assessment? Are they unprofessional as a politician or haughty as U Aung Kyi Nyunt has said?

Thiha: Talking of U Win Htein, he is mentioned quite frequently in the media. NLD party members avoid the media for fear that they would say something mistaken. But, U Win Htein talks to all media. It is his good point. As every media outlet approaches him, and as he sometimes makes remarks recklessly, it was covered repeatedly in the media. This has happened time and again, but he still doesnt exercise restraint. Recently, he said again that he doesnt care what people say about of them. It is very bad. We dont think he said it on behalf of the party. But he said it at the party CEC meeting and this has raised question, and grabbed the headlines.

Yes, talking of slapping is far worse. If there were no leaders like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Uncle U Tin Oo and U Win Tin in the NLD, such words would surely attract severe criticism. This is the difference between the previous government and current government. Under the previous government, people didnt like what the ministers said as well as the ruling party they represented, so they responded angrily. And under the new government, people are frustrated that they act like that despite there being leaders like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. And it seems that the media also bears them acting like that. This is not a good development.

KZM: Ko Thwin Lin Aung, their standpoints might be right. But the problem is they are politicians and political leaders, and, as they are elected by the people and represent the people, they are the public figures, I think. To what extent would their actions impact the NLD?

TLA: I think there is an impact. What U Aung Kyi Nyunt has said has made headlines in every journal, and so it is like a white spot coming out of the dark black. This is how I see it.

KZM: His words are welcomed by many, as he spoke the truth.

TLA: What he pointed out is happening in reality, but no one mentioned it before him. So, as he was the first person to point it out, it has attracted particular attention from the people.

KZM: After the NLD-led government assumed office, some criticized Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as not being friendly toward the media. In fact, in any country, persons in top positions like the president or the State Counselor need not meet the media frequently. Ko Thiha, do you think they are not friendly to the media? Some say that people view Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a mother rather than a leader. As you know, many call her mother Su. So, she is not friendly, but she is motherly. She treats us as if she were a mother.

Thiha: My view is that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had a lot of pressures after she has become the State Counselor. She is very busy. Perhaps she has a lot to think about because of her responsibilities. So, she is not ready to meet the media. She cant give doorstep interviews to the media while she is on the go like she did in the past. Previously she used to give doorstep interviews on the go. But now, she avoids it, and perhaps she exercises caution in response to the criticism of media. But I think she does this just for work purposes. Personally, she has not changed. If we ask her how are you aunty? she would smile and say Im good, how about you, son? So there is no problem with her personal relations. However, compared to the past, I think she exercises greater caution in speaking to the media.

KZM: Ko Thwin Lin Aung, you mean if party members at different levels, senior levels, mid-levels, and perhaps the lower level, have such problems engaging with people, media, or the society at large, it will have an impact on the party. The next election will be held in 2020. If such things can not be controlled, it will have an impact. All the way, the NLD has been the most popular party in 1990, 2012, and 2015 elections. But after it came to power, people are feeling frustrated. And groups like the 88 Generation students are also planning to establish a political party. To what extent do you think these factors will result in a political shift? Maybe it is not a serious problem. But what if party leaders could not control the things pointed out by U Aung Kyi Nyunt?

TLA: I think it will have a considerable impact. Besides those things pointed out by U Aung Kyi Nyunt, there is a problem with the NLDs party policy. Parties have to take action according to their policies. And their policies should reflect the voices of the people. Sometimes the NLD is weak in that aspect, and I think they are overconfident because of the big success they have achieved. When their policy doesnt meet the needs of the people, rather than trying to adjust it, they are acting stubbornly, like our policy is not wrong, we are the peoples party. Such an attitude is quite problematic. This would lead to a big change of results in the 2020 election. As for the other people [trying to establish political parties], they are trying with goodwill. I think those who are concerned that people would be frustrated with the NLD and switch to [the USDP], which is unacceptable because of its history, are trying to fill the gap. They are doing so not because they view the NLD as an opponent, I believe.

KZM: U Aung Kyi Nyunt has pointed those things out as a visionary and dutiful party member. There are many people like him in the NLD. But very few in the party like Uncle U Tin Oo, the NLD patron, and U Win Tin talk and listen respectfully when dealing with people and the media. I think there is a need for NLD, as a leading party, to have and nurture such people. Thank you for your contributions!
Commentary The Militarys Offensive Against the Media

Cartoon / Kyaw Thuyein Lwin

We journalists are under attack. Press freedom is in jeopardy in Myanmar.

The last act of aggression happened on Monday when the military arrested The Irrawaddys senior reporter Lawi Weng and two Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reporters, Aye Nai and Pyae Bone Naing, also known as Pyae Phone Aung.

Now the military has charged them as having violated Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act as they ventured into territory controlled by the Taang National Liberation Army, as part of a reporting trip.

The arrest and charges demonstrate that either Myanmars military leaders dont understand the nature and purpose of the media, or that this was a deliberate act intended to frighten journalists away from covering sensitive issues that could lead to criticism of the armed forces.

If the military arrested Lawi Weng and two DVB reporters due to what they describe as a connection to ethnic armed rebels, they would have to arrest hundreds of journalists who work for independent media across the country.

I am sure that nearly all Myanmar journalists have made contact at least once with members of unlawful ethnic armed groups, as all publications across the country have covered the peace processone of the most important issues facing the nation.

Heads of key institutions, including the army and those within the current government, must understand that journalists need to talk to people from all sides of a conflict in order to verify facts, to be able to provide accurate information, and to interpret complex situations and perspectives. If we were to not do this, we would be failing to provide comprehensive information to the public.

Since 2011, when ex-President Thein Sein took office and his administration started negotiations with ethnic armed organizations, we journalists also started covering issues concerning conflict more openly. We approached it with a sense of responsibility to help end seven decades of civil war.

Journalists from many publications in the country have traveled to conflict zones, including areas controlled by ethnic armed groups, to speak with rebel leaders, their soldiers, ethnic civil society groups, residents, and refugees.

We have repeatedly interviewed and had conversations with leaders and members of such groups whenever the previous and incumbent governments held meetings or conferences relating to peace and conflict in Naypyidaw, Yangon and elsewhere.

Over the past years, ethnic armed group leaders have flown to the capital or to Yangon from their headquarters to attend talks organized by both ex-President U Thein Seins administration and the current Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led administration. The most significant event was the Union Peace Conference, also known as the 21st Century Panglong, held by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

A number of rebel leaders attended the conference and made speeches alongside the State Counselor and the commander-in-chief of the military.

The most recent media arrests by the military are damaging press freedom, a principle that is considered a pillar of the democracy that we are trying to create. In fact, the arrests are limiting greater freedoms that have been realized since the lifting of draconian censorship laws by military-backed ex-President U Thein Sein in 2012.

These days, I tend to say to international guests and journalists that Myanmar is not an enemy of the press, as it was under the military regimes of past decades. But the situation seems to be headed backward.

While the military appears to be solely responsible for the arrest of Lawi Weng and the DVB reporters, the government holds responsibility, too.

We understand that the powerful Myanmar Army did not need approval or a green light from the State Counselor or the President or the National League for Democracy government in order to arrest those journalists. But Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Htin Kyaw are the two highest leaders in the country. I believe that they both are responsible for ensuring the protection of citizens basic and professional rights, particularly when these rights are abused or mishandled by a powerful institution like the military.

Lawi Weng has been working for The Irrawaddy since 2007. He was a journalist doing his job, as were Aye Nai and Pyae Bone Naing. Since their arrest on Monday, I have sent three letters to the State Counselor, the President and the Minister of Information concerning Lawis detention. I have requested that they assist us in finding a way to release him, as he and the other reporters were simply doing their duties as journalists, gathering information in a sensitive area.

To be honest, I do not know if either the President or the State Counselor can help out in this matter. But at the very least, I am sure that they can raise the issue with Myanmars top military leaders.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Htin Kyaw, the military can be held accountable by your government: they have to answer your questions.

The arrest of these journalists is damaging the norms of democracy youve promised to achieve under your government. The charges they are facing are an attack on press freedom, which is essential to rebuilding and restoring peace to Myanmar.

As state leaders, you are responsible for securing our professional rights to do our job for our country. Please do not let us down.
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By Roshni Majumdar | (Inter Press Service) |  

UNITED NATIONS (IPS)  As US-backed Syrian rebels plow ahead in the fight to take back Raqqa from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, the stake of civilian lives, who number as many as 100,000 in the city, has raised concerns among top UN officials.

Among them, at least 40,000 are children.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, at least 173 civilians have been killed by air and ground strikes since June 1. Even though the estimated numbers provide the international community with a sense of the killings, the actual numbers are likely much higher.

The intense bombardment of Al-Raqqa over the past three weeks has reportedly left civilians terrified and confused about where they can seek refuge as they are caught between ISILs monstrosities and the fierce battle to defeat it, said Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday.

Reports of civilian casualties continue to stream out of the region as escape routes are strategically choked off. Hospitals and schools have also been allegedly attacked. In fact, modern urban tactics of warfare, such as the use of humans shield in densely populated areas, has wreaked havoc in the region.

The large number of civilian casualties indicates that much more needs to be done by the parties to ensure protection of the civilian population, Zeid stressed.

Fleeing civilians face the risks of landmines and getting caught in the crossfire. Those who have managed to escape have had to pay hefty sums of money, sometimes to smugglers affiliated with ISIL.

There are also allegations that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have looted homes and abducted children to join the fight against ISIL in cities where they enjoy control, like Tabqa.

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Tuesday that Washington may continue to supply Syrian Kurdish fighters with weapons even after the ISIL is ousted from its de facto capital Raqqa.

Zeid has called on all parties in the war to review their tactics to minimize loss of civilian lives, and commit fully to international law.

Licensed from Inter Press Service



Related video added by Juan Cole:

CBS Evening News: ISIS leaves behind a deadly path of destruction in Syria
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By John Feffer | (FPIF) | Originally published in Korea Quarterly |  

The last near-century of American dominance was extraordinarily violent. Is it coming to an end?

John Dower is one the most preeminent historians of World War IIs Pacific theater and the aftermath of the conflict in Asia. His book War Without Mercy (1986) described the racial component of the U.S. campaign against Japan. In Embracing Defeat (1999), he examined the post-war U.S. occupation of Japan. He has long taken a critical look at U.S. foreign policy, subjecting the vaunted ideals of Americas global pretensions to skeptical scrutiny. Hes not interested in good wars or good occupations. He describes the exercise of power, and its almost never a pretty picture.

In recent years, Dower has been extending his critical analysis both chronologically and geographically. Cultures of War (2010) was an initial effort to link the violence of World War II to 9/11 and the Iraq War. Now, with The Violent American Century, Dower deepens his analysis by addressing the emergence and expansion of American global power all the way up to the Obama era. Dower is particularly interested in connecting the dots between the United States that emerged victorious from World War II and the America of the 21st century that appears willing to do almost anything to maintain its status as the worlds only superpower.

Dower begins his story just at the moment when the United States is poised to become a global titan. Its 1941, the year the United States officially entered World War II. Its also when Times Henry Luce proclaimed the beginning of the American century. For all his talk of democratic principles and the American spirit, Luce was not naive. He knew that America would have to use force  in some cases, overwhelming force  to establish its global position. The saturation bombing of Dresden and Tokyo followed by the nuclear attacks against Nagasaki and Hiroshima became the pivotal moments of war and terror on which the United States would secure its authority.

Dower traces the impact of Americas nuclear policy from Hiroshima to the present, explaining how the balance of terror served a key role in cementing U.S. status. He discerns in U.S. indifference to human rights considerations during the Cold War  with the exception of the first two years of the Carter administration  the origins of later torture policy in the post-9/11 era. Certainly successive administrations in Washington introduced innovations in the maintenance and control of U.S. global influence, such as extraordinary rendition, drones, and enhanced surveillance capabilities, but many of the features of the violent American century were present at the creation.

And thats Dowers point. He is writing against a

chorus of detached observers who argue that violence has been contained compared to the horrors of World War Two and earlier times  and that even the death, pain, and agony we have seen since September 11 actually reflects, on the part of the United States, a praiseworthy technological and psychological turn in the direction of precision, restraint, and concern with avoiding civilian casualties.

Quite the contrary: the United States, Dower argues, may have refined its techniques, but it has done nothing to minimize the brutality. The casualties of the Iraq War alone  which number in the hundreds of thousands  undermine any notion that the United States had become a kinder, gentler superpower.

By 2016, the American century was only three-quarters complete. Dower brilliantly describes the infancy, adolescence, and working years of U.S. global dominance. He spends less time exploring the slowing down of the U.S. war machine during the period of international instability the Obama administration experienced. And he doesnt speculate much on what will happen with Americas global power during what might very well be its dotage.

True, the United States seems unlikely to retire from the international stage as the American century passes the 75-year mark. But the election of Donald Trump does appear to herald a kind of second infancy, as the new president toddles about the world stage, promises to use force without restraint, and makes the most elemental of errors.

Even without Trump, whose election came after the completion of Dowers book in September 2016, the United States was showing the strain of its long war against terrorism, its military bases and operations in more than 100 countries around the world, and the opportunity costs for American infrastructure and American lives at home. The obvious question, which Dower doesnt ask or answer, is: what comes next?

China has proposed its own dream of power and prosperity. Many Russians would like to put together a Eurasian century. The European Union vacillates between disintegration and a larger global role for itself. The global South  India, South Africa, Brazil  is tired of the arrogance of the global North.

Will these aspirants to global power necessarily adopt comparable policies of war and terror to displace the United States and maintain their new status? Thats not part of Dowers remit. But however brutal the century that follows the American century, you can be sure that the new hegemons will use the same language of virtue and restraint as the United States has done, even as they engage in abuses both large and small.

John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus and the author of the dystopian novel Splinterlands.

Via Foreign Policy in Focus



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Newsy: Coalition airstrike might have killed civilians
By Kim Se-jeong



The girl statue in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul can now stay there permanently. The Jongno District Office made a legislative move this week to protect the symbol of young sex slaves, mostly Koreans, exploited by Japanese troops before and during World War II.



According to the office, the district council ratified the ordinance to designate the statue as public property. Going into effect July 1, the ordinance will require permission from the district office for removal. The district office will also undertake maintenance on and around the statue.



The statue, erected in 2011, has been a subject of dispute with Japan as it wants it removed.



The demand grew particularly stronger after a December 2015 statement when the two countries' top diplomats announced the issue of sexual slavery was permanently "resolved" with Japan's one-time financial contribution to the Korean government for the care of surviving victims.



As for the statue, Korea recognized Japan's concern and said it "will strive to solve this issue in an appropriate manner." Japan viewed the statement as Korea's willingness to remove it.



The new ordinance was a result of orchestrated acts among local governments. Reportedly, the idea came from the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Similar statues have also been erected in other parts of the country, and Jongno's move may encourage other local governments to follow suit.



Thursday's move is expected to further escalate tension between Korea and Japan regarding wartime sex slaves, who are also called "comfort women."



In a recent phone conversation with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in May, new President Moon Jae-in said many Koreans citizens cannot accept the 2015 statement. New Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has also echoed this view.












By Ku Yae-rin





President Moon Jae-in's willingness to engage with North Korea comes as a breath of fresh air, especially following the failed diplomacy tactics of the two former administrations. It is wise of Moon to condemn North Korea for launching missiles soon after his inauguration, since this will show dialogue will be resumed only on the condition that North Korea stops its reckless provocations. Some compare Moon and former U.S. President Barack Obama, saying that they share many similarities. When it comes to security policies, however, their stances differ: Moon is much more proactive in denuclearizing North Korea.

Obama's strategic patience was mainly concerned with waiting for the Kim Jong-un regime to give up its nuclear warheads and missiles, while urging China to put pressure on North Korea. As much as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson denies it, the Trump administration appears to have adopted much of Obama's policies. What sets aside Moon is that he understands the dilemma faced by the Kim Jong-un regime: Both options for unification and denuclearization serve as a threat to the survival of the regime.

In almost every aspect, South Korea is superior to the North with double its population and a GDP more than 40 times that of Pyongyang. To top it off, Global Firepower (GFP) announced that South Korea's military power is ranked 9th, whereas the North is ranked 35th. At this rate, North Korea's decision to build its nuclear capacity seems almost rational. After all, realists say that anarchy is the ordering principle of the international system so why would the North trust any state. On the flipside, why would Kim and his high-ranking government officials welcome the idea of reunification when, clearly, all circumstances point to the likelihood of the North gobbled up by the South Korean government. Talks of reunification may even trigger Kim's regime to proliferate its nuclear weapons.

Thus Moon proposed "peaceful coexistence" with an emphasis on the North's denuclearization  a smart move that reads between the lines of all the major states involved in the debacle. Of course, the ultimate goal will be unification, but by then, at least the economic level of North Korea will be on a par with that of the South. Moon wants to bring back the Sunshine Policy, an effort from 1998 to 2008 to improve relations with North Korea through humanitarian assistance, diplomatic dialogue, cultural exchanges, and increased economic relations. He has proposed reopening the Gaeseong Industrial Complex and tourist destination jointly run by the two Koreas, as a first step towards gradual economic unification of the peninsula.

Although Moon will not abandon the prominent status of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, he will not endorse a complete reliance on it. He is on point for acknowledging that it is for the best that South Korea takes the lead with the United States by its side in dealing with North Korea. In line with his self-determined and self-reliant strategy, he proposed an early recovery of wartime operational control of the South Korean military. Indeed, as long as the atmosphere surrounding North Korea is insecure, Kim will pursue his provocative measures in retaliation. As the saying goes, "it takes two hands to clap." A peace settlement can only be achieved when the goal is first set upon peaceful coexistence.





Ku Yae-rin is a student at Kyung Hee University majoring in international relations. Write to realyepuda@hotmail.com
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

For school-aged youth, access to a gun can increase their risk for becoming a victim of or for committing a violent crime, including suicide and homicide. It also increases a childs risk of experiencing an unintentional injury or death. Youth may gain access to guns in school, friends homes or other settings. No matter the source, gun access can increase the chances of an adolescent being involved in an injury or crime.

But are some youth at even higher risk? Current evidence suggests that youth who have been bullied by their peers, traditionally (e.g., verbal, physical) and through cyber media (e.g., email, SMS, social media), may be especially vulnerable to gun violence. We know that bullied students tend to carry guns more frequently than nonbullied students.

What is less understood, however, is whether this is because bullied students may have more access to guns than their nonbullied peers. We decided to examine this question, and the results were alarming.

Bullied youth are more likely to have gun access

Our recent study examined if youth who have been bullied are also more likely to report having access to a loaded gun without adult permission. Participants included students ages 12-18, who responded to the 2011 and 2013 School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey. The SCS asks students about their experiences during the current school year related to bullying, school security, exposure and access to weapons and illicit substances, and presence of gangs at school.

Of the 10,704 students included in this study, about 4 percent (446 students) said they could get access to a loaded gun without adult permission. This number is startlingly high, and should be of great concern given the frequency of school shootings in the U.S. It becomes even more concerning when we compare students self-reported experience of being bullied.

We found that bullied students were three times more likely to report that they could get access to a loaded gun compared to their nonbullied peers. Those who experienced only traditional bullying were two times more likely. Students reporting only cyberbullying were three times more likely, and students who experienced both types of bullying were six times more likely.

Overall, bullied youth, particularly those who report both traditional and cyberbullying, were significantly more likely to also report access to a loaded gun without adult permission.

This study did not explore why access differs among bullied and nonbullied students, but this is an important avenue for future research.

Bullying and gun access can both be prevented

The results of the study do not indicate that bullying necessarily causes access to loaded guns. Nor do they suggest that gun access necessarily leads to bullying. Instead, these findings indicate that youth who are bullied tend to also have greater access to loaded guns, which may leave them at especially high risk of self-inflicted injury and perpetration of interpersonal violence.

Gun violence leads to thousands of injuries and deaths each year in the United States. In 2015 alone, there were 1,881 fatal and 9,297 nonfatal gun-related injuries among youth 12-18. Factors like gang presence in schools, parental gun storage practices and previously being victimized in some way (including bullying) can influence the risk of gun violence in this age group.

Bullying in schools is a serious public health concern. National estimates suggest between 18 percent and 31 percent of youth have been bullied by their peers. Bullied youth are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, loneliness and low self-esteem. They are also more likely to be injured, attempt suicide, and report recent illicit substance use.

These are two serious issues worth addressing and should be part of the national dialogue on bullying. Schools are not filled with dozens of students toting guns in their backpacks every day; most youth who have access to guns do not end up carrying them. However, understanding which students are most likely to have access to a gun and which are most likely to carry it is important for developing interventions to try and prevent gun violence.

Bullying and unsupervised gun access among youth can be both measured and prevented through educational campaigns, conversations in schools, homes and health care settings, and at the policy level. Studying these factors together can help us develop training for parents of bullied children, and teach them about how to safely store guns and talk to their children about them.

Maayan Simckes, Ph.D. Student in Epidemiology, University of Washington

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Space.com.
Along with mermaids and dragons, unicorns are among the world's best-known mythical creatures. From early artistic representations by Albrecht Durer and medieval tapestries to kitschy New Age posters and kids' T-shirts, unicorns are universally beloved. We all recognize the striking image, but the story behind the magnificent beast is equally enchanting.

The unicorn did not spring fully formed in the popular imagination; instead, it gradually evolved from numerous early sources. First reports of the unicorn date back to the fourth century when Greek physician Ctesias recorded exotic tales he'd heard from travelers: "There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses, and larger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot and a half in length." The horn, he added, was said to be white, red, and black.

The legends spread, and different cultures spawned various versions of the unicorn. The ki-lin of Chinese lore  which had a 12-foot-long horn on its head and a coat of five sacred colors  was renowned for bringing good luck. Though modern images tend to assume unicorns are horse-sized, the Physiologus (a 12th-century bestiary) described it as "a very small animal, like a kid." The comparison is to a baby goat instead of a preteen human, but in either event the unicorns described wouldn't stand much above knee height.

Unicorns, like mermaids, were long thought to be real. Both were based on legends and first-hand accounts from travelers to distant regions. Unicorns have a rich pedigree, having been discussed by luminaries such as Aristotle, Julius Caesar and Marco Polo. Belief in unicorns increased with the invention of printing and distribution of the Bible, which mentions the creatures at least seven times in the Old Testament.

There was no shortage of information about unicorns, provided by rumors and legends, but the regal beast itself remained elusive. For centuries, many believed that unicorns were surely real enough  after all, a great number of stories and artworks were devoted to the fine beasts  and perhaps lived in faraway lands. Others believed that the unicorn was once alive but went the way of the dodo, hunted to extinction.

Symbol of purity

Unicorns are freighted with symbolism and often depicted as white, representing purity. Though virtuous, unicorns are said to be quite enamored of themselves and fall prey to vanity, spending hours admiring themselves in silvered mirrors. (Despite YouTube videos and Internet memes to the contrary, there is no evidence that unicorns poop glitter or fart rainbows.)

Unicorns are said to be powerful and feral, thwarting all brutish efforts to capture them. Only through guile can the unicorn be tamed or taken: it requires setting a trap for the beast, and the cooperation of a virgin.

The procedure is this: First, find a forest where unicorns are known or suspected to live; then locate a clearing and find a place for a virgin to sit (a tree stump or fallen log should do), and have her wait quietly. Unicorns are said to be drawn by the presence of a virtuous maiden, and let their guard down only in her presence  whereupon hunters lying in wait could then capture or kill the fine beast.

The coat of arms of the United Kingdom features a lion representing England lion on the left and a unicorn representing Scotland on the right. (Image credit: Pres Panayotov/Shutterstock)

Unicorn horns

Why would anyone want to capture or kill a unicorn? For its horn, of course.

The unicorn's horn was greatly valued for centuries. It had a variety of magical powers (most of them related thematically to its purity), including purifying rivers and lakes and neutralizing poison. The latter quality was much prized by kings who were paranoid about being poisoned  a real concern for monarchs fearful of being dispatched by rivals and heirs alike.

In her book "The Unicorn (opens in new tab)" (1980, Penguin Books), Nancy Hathaway tells the story of how England's King James I determined whether or not the unicorn horn he'd purchased for a kingly sum was authentic: "James summoned a favorite servant and instructed him to drink a draught of poison to which powdered unicorn horn had been added. The servant did so, and James could not have been more unpleasantly surprised when the servant promptly expired." (The king presumably kept the receipt and requested a refund.)

In the 1600s, London newspapers contained advertisements for miracle elixirs made of "true Unicorn Horn," which was said to relieve a laundry list of diseases and symptoms including ulcers, scurvy, melancholy, consumption, fainting spells, and "King's evil" (swelling of the lymph nodes, often due to tuberculosis). The unicorn preparation was available in both liquid form (patients should drink four ounces at a time, "the oftener the better") and as pills (twelve to a box), both available for a mere two shillings.

Some authors have whimsically suggested that the unicorn was hunted to extinction for its horn, in a tragic parallel to the fate of several rhino species in Africa. The horns are sold as trophies or ground up and used in traditional Chinese medicine as miracle cures.

The lion is said to be the unicorn's enemy, perhaps due to its stature as King of the Jungle, and many illustrations attest to competitions between the two. Poet Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" from 1590 describes a bitter rivalry between the animals, though they appear together on the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, the lion representing England and the unicorn representing Scotland.

Belief in unicorns had waned by the Age of Enlightenment (around the 1700s) as more and more of the world was explored and the animals were not found. Shakespeare's reference to unicorns in "The Tempest" ("Now I will believe that there are unicorns") is a sarcastic one, and reflected an acknowledgement among many of the age  however reluctantly  that unicorns existed only in stories and fairy tales.

The historical unicorn is but lore and legend, though one-horned animals do seemingly exist. The rhinoceros does not have a true horn, however; it is instead hair tissue that grows together to form a horn shape. Then there's a marine version, the narwhal, a medium-sized whale whose tusk resembles a horn and was once known as a "sea unicorn."

Nonetheless, modern "unicorns" can be made. In the 1980s a "unicorn" (actually a goat with surgically implanted horn buds that grew together) was displayed at fairs and circuses, much to the chagrin of animal rights groups. A U.S. Department of Agriculture investigation determined that the animal was healthy and thus the show was allowed to go on, but the "unicorn" was retired in 1987.

Two millennia after the unicorn was first described, the regal beast remains as popular an image as ever: strong, virtuous, and always capable of inspiring mystery and fantasy.

Additional resources
The more time people spend on Facebook, the better it is for the social giant and its business partners. Its no surprise then, that Facebook is expanding its Find Wi-Fi initiative worldwide.

The Find Wi-Fi feature helps Facebook users locate available Wi-Fi hot spots nearby -- or at least those that businesses and other institutions have shared with Facebook from their Page.

Wherever you are, you can easily map the closest connections, Alex Himel, an engineering director at Facebook, notes in a new blog post.

The tech titan first launched Find Wi-Fi in a handful of countries last year. During the test, it found the service was especially helpful for travelers and people living in less densely populated regions.

To find Wi-Fi hot spots, users are being asked to top their Facebook app, click on the More tab, and then Find Wi-Fi.

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Earlier this year, Facebook announced FB Lite had surpassed 200 million active users.

The low bandwidth version of Facebooks app debuted back in 2015 as part of a broader effort to grow its network beyond those consumers with access to high-speed broadband networks. Indeed, connecting all humanity has long been one of Facebooks stated missions, but doing so has not been easy.

In 2016, for example, Indian telecom regulators decided to block Facebooks Free Basics Web service as part of a ruling in favor of net neutrality. The move made good on a threat issued in 2015 by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India -- an independent regulator of the countrys telecom industry.

Also in late 2015, Egyptian authorities pulled the plug on the free Internet service for reasons they never fully explained.
by Ray Schultz , June 30, 2017

The firm will capture email from any source, analyze the contents and tag it with metadata. Also, it will organize the content into Box Governance folders to provide security and governance for all enterprise content in one solution, the company said.

This service will free expensive human resources from having to manually inspect emails and attachments, MxHero added.

When the emails have been stored, the content will be protected by version controls, retention, legal hold and access security, the firm continued.

MxHeros flagship offering is Mail2Cloud, a technology that automatically stores email and/or email attachments to cloud platform targets like Box. Mail2Cloud solution works with all email solutions, including Microsoft Office 365, Exchange, and Gmail.

The company has assisted over 13,000 domains with over 1 million users, MxHero claimed

Over 13,000 domains with over 1,000,000 users have leveraged mxHeros email solution suite, the company added.
by Larissa Faw , June 30, 2017

Every year, mono closes for the week of July 4 for what the Minneapolis-based agency calls Midsummers Dream.

Employees are encouraged to hang with their families and spend time doing the things they love. It's an additional free week of paid time off for everyone at the agency.

As part of the celebration, mono introduces one overarching project to pull together the talents and skills of its staffers. There has been monoradio, a pirate radio station on the agencys office rooftop. It played a weeks worth of summer tunes for neighbors when the office was away.

And monoface was designed as a microsite to let users mix up the different facial features of employees.

This year, for the first time, mono is incorporating one of its clients - Walmart - as part of its tradition.

Mononomnoms is an online summer cookbook that only used food purchased from the giant retailer. The 25 recipes are balanced between meals, snacks and drinks, with most containing fewer than four ingredients.

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The recipes come with a unique moniker and GIF from its creator, along with the step-by-step recipe. Zach's 'Cado Crostini,' for instance, features grilled bread and avocado slices. Hux's 'Beergarita' includes tequila, frozen limeade and a light lager, topped off with a fancy straw.

The agency will promote five recipes at a time each day next week on mono's social channels.

mono has been AOR for Walmarts grocery business since last year. It is currently working on their sixth national TV spot for the brand, scheduled to launch later this summer.
by Aaron Baar , June 30, 2017



No holiday represents American strength and spirit like Independence Day, and considering those are the attributes Georgia-Pacifics Brawny paper towel brand is trying to convey, it makes sense the company is using the holiday to send out a special message.

The brand has launched a series of videos, featuring three people who have overcome obstacles to achieve great things. The campaign celebrates the I-Can spirit (thats also reflected in the last four letters of American.)

With everything we do, we try to inspire consumers to face lifes challenges with strength and resilience, Joel Potts, senior associate brand manager for Brawny, tells Marketing Daily. We want people to find the inspiration to overcome whatever obstacles they might face.

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The videos, featuring Sallie Mae Teacher of the Year Brad Cohen (who also has Tourettes Syndrome); Destyni Tyree, a once-homeless teen who managed to graduate high school at 16 with a 4.0 grade-point average; and entrepreneur Jason Saltzman, who failed at 20 different startups before finding success with shared office-space company Alley, are featured on a website, www.Brawny.com/AmerICAN.

The company is also running an anthem video on digital channels that reinforces the mantra Its not Americant, its American. The video features an oversized representation of the Brawny Man character doing all-American things (standing next to the Statue of Liberty, helping build a house, attending a little league game), while a voiceover explains how being an American is about more than just the country you live in. Its a value system, a belief that if we get knocked down, we get back up.

The campaign is an extension of Brawnys Stay Giant campaign, which highlights Americans who have triumphed over adversity, Potts says.

In addition to the videos, which will run throughout July, Georgia-Pacific has partnered with One World Observatory atop One World Trade Center in New York to offer a select number of complementary admissions to the attraction on July 4.

[One World] is a great place to activate because its a great representation of the resilience and strength within our country, Potts says.

The brand is also encouraging consumers to share their own stories (via short stories, images or videos) through the microsite, and is offering consumers who leave their e-mail a chance to win a trip for to Washington, D.C.
Bank of America has a rich history dating back to 1800 and even earlier. It was begun by immigrants as a group of separate and unrelated banks that, over the years, merged and grew together. One such is the Bank of Italy which was founded in 1904 by Amadeo Giannini to serve Italian immigrants that were facing discrimination. He later buys out the Banca de America e de Italia (Bank of America and Italy) which was also located in San Francisco. Over the years additional mergers and changes in Federal banking legislation, as well as the boom brought on by WWI and then WWII, helped boost the bank to national prominence.

Things turned sour, however, in 1998 with a major bond default that led to yet another merger, this time with Charlotte, NC-based Nations Bank to officially become the Bank of America that exists today. At the time, the merger was the largest bank merger in history and the company has only grown in the time since.

Other additions to the new Bank of America include MBNA (a major credit card operator), Fleet Boston (then the US 7th largest and one of its oldest banks), and Merril Lynch, now Merril, which was added to the group in 2008 to provide an investment banking branch. Together the company dominates as one of the Big Four Banks in America. Bank of America lays claim to nearly 11% of all US deposits which ranks in line with its peer group and Bank of America Securities is listed as the worlds 3rd largest investment bank.

Today, Bank of America Corporation provides banking and financial services for individuals, small businesses, institutions, corporations, and governments worldwide. The bank operates in three segments Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management, and Global Banking bringing in a combined revenue greater than $90 billion in 2022.

As of 2022, Bank of America serves approximately 67 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,200 retail financial centers. The bank also operates more than 16,000 ATMs and digital banking platforms with approximately 41 million active users.

Its Consumer Banking segment offers traditional banking and investment products for retail clients. These range from deposit accounts to savings, credit cards, consumer loans, and IRAs. The Global Wealth & Investment Management segment offers investment and wealth management solutions including, brokerage, banking, and trust and retirement products. The Global Banking segment provides lending products and services, including commercial loans and leases for businesses of all varieties. The Global Markets segment offers market-making, clearing, settlement, and custody services, as well as risk management, derivatives, and FX exchange services.
Healthcare Trust of America, Inc. (NYSE: HTA) is the largest dedicated owner and operator of MOBs in the United States, comprising approximately 25.1 million square feet of GLA, with $7.4 billion invested primarily in MOBs. HTA provides real estate infrastructure for the integrated delivery of healthcare services in highly-desirable locations. Investments are targeted to build critical mass in 20 to 25 leading gateway markets that generally have leading university and medical institutions, which translates to superior demographics, high-quality graduates, intellectual talent and job growth. The strategic markets HTA invests in support a strong, long-term demand for quality medical office space. HTA utilizes an integrated asset management platform consisting of on-site leasing, property management, engineering and building services, and development capabilities to create complete, state of the art facilities in each market. This drives efficiencies, strong tenant and health system relationships, and strategic partnerships that result in high levels of tenant retention, rental growth and long-term value creation. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, HTA has developed a national brand with dedicated relationships at the local level. Founded in 2006 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, HTA has produced attractive returns for its stockholders that have outperformed the US REIT index.
The following companies are subsidiares of PerkinElmer: 2Cure LLC, Analytica of Branford, Applied Biosystems, Arnel Inc., ArtusLabs, Beijing Huaan Magnech Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Testing Lab Co. Ltd., Beijing OUMENG Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Bio Evolution SAS, BioLegend, BioLegend CNS Inc., BioLegend China Beijing Ltd., BioLegend Europe B.V., BioLegend France SAS, BioLegend GmbH, BioLegend Inc., BioLegend Japan KK, BioLegend Shenzhen Ltd., BioLegend Taiwan Ltd., BioLegend UK Ltd., BioLegend Ventures LLC, Bioo Scientific Corporation, Biosense Technologies Pvt Ltd., Boulder Diagnostics Europe GmbH, Caliper Life Sciences, Caliper Life Sciences Inc., Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc., CambridgeSoft, Ceiba Solutions, Chengdu PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Cisbio Asia Pacific Ltd, Cisbio Bioassays SAS, Cisbio China Ltd., Cisbio.com, DIA.Metra S.R.L., DNA Laboratories Sdn. Bhd., Dani Analitica S.r.l., Dexela, Dharmacon Inc., EUROIMMUN AG, EUROIMMUN Brasil Medicina Diagnostica Ltda., EUROIMMUN Diagnostics Espana S.L., EUROIMMUN France SAS, EUROIMMUN Hangzhou Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Italia Diagnostica Medica S.r.l., EUROIMMUN Japan Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics Canada Inc., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics China Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics South Africa Pty Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, EUROIMMUN Polska Sp. z o.o., EUROIMMUN Portugal Unipessoal Lda., EUROIMMUN Schweiz AG, EUROIMMUN South East Asia Pte Ltd., EUROIMMUN Tianjin Medical Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Turkey Tibbi Laboratuar Teshisleri A.S., EUROIMMUN UK Ltd., EUROIMMUN US Inc., EUROIMMUN US Real Estate LLC, Geospiza, Guangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Hangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Horizon Diagnostics Limited, Horizon Discovery, Horizon Discovery Biosciences Limited, Horizon Discovery Group Ltd., Horizon Discovery Inc., Horizon Discovery KK, Horizon Discovery Limited, Horizon Genomics GmbH, IDS Brasil Diagnosticos Ltda., Immunetics Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems, Immunodiagnostic Systems Deutschland GmbH, Immunodiagnostic Systems France SAS, Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems SA, Inochem S.A. de C. V., Integromics S.L., Jiangsu Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., LabMetrix Technologies, Labtronics, Nexcelom Bioscience, Nexcelom Bioscience Holdings LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Instruments Shanghai Co. Ltd., Nexcelom Bioscience LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Ltd., NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation, OZ Systems International SARL, OZ Systems USA LLC, Omni International Inc., Optimization Zorn Corporation, Opto Technology, Orchid Biomedical Systems Pvt Ltd., Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories UK Limited, Oxford Immunotec, Oxford Immunotec Asia Ltd, Oxford Immunotec Global Limited, Oxford Immunotec Ireland Limited, Oxford Immunotec KK, Oxford Immunotec Limited, Oxford Immunotec Shanghai Medical Device Co. Ltd., Oxford Immunotec USA Inc., Pediatrix Medical Group - Newborn Metabolic Screening Business, Perkin Elmer Chile Ltda., Perkin Elmer Instruments Philippines Corporation, Perkin Elmer Italia SpA, Perkin Elmer Sdn. Bhd., Perkin Elmer Yuhan Hoesa, Perkin-Elmer Argentina S.R.L., Perkin-Elmer de Mexico S.A., PerkinElmer Argentina Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Automotive Research Inc., PerkinElmer BV, PerkinElmer CV Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer Danmark A/S, PerkinElmer Diagnostics Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Diagnostics Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Espana S.L., PerkinElmer Finance Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Finland Oy, PerkinElmer Genetics Inc., PerkinElmer Genomics Sweden AB, PerkinElmer Germany Diagnostics GmbH, PerkinElmer Global Diagnostics S.C.A., PerkinElmer Global Financing S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Health Sciences B.V., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Canada Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences FZ-LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Healthcare Diagnostics Shanghai Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Holding Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Hong Kong Ltd., PerkinElmer IVD Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Inc., PerkinElmer India Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Informatics Inc., PerkinElmer Instruments Suzhou Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer International C.V., PerkinElmer Investments Ky, PerkinElmer Ireland Ltd., PerkinElmer Israel Ltd., PerkinElmer Japan Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer LAS Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer LAS UK Ltd., PerkinElmer Life Sciences International Holdings, PerkinElmer Life Sciences Singapore Pte. Ltd., PerkinElmer Limited, PerkinElmer Ltd., PerkinElmer Management Chengdu Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Management Shanghai Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Nederland B.V. , PerkinElmer Norge AS, PerkinElmer Oy, PerkinElmer Polska Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer SAS, PerkinElmer Saglk ve Cevre Bilimleri Ltd., PerkinElmer Schweiz AG, PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund L.P., PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Shared Services Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer South Africa Pty Ltd., PerkinElmer Sverige AB, PerkinElmer Taiwan Corporation, PerkinElmer UK Holdings Ltd., PerkinElmer VertriebsgmbH, PerkinElmer chemagen Technologie GmbH, PerkinElmer do Brasil Ltda., Perten Instruments, Perten Instruments AB, Perten Instruments GmbH, Perten Instruments of Australia Pty Ltd., Qognit Inc., RHS Ltd, RayAl Ltd., SIRION Biotech, SIRION Biotech GmbH, SIRION Biotech International Inc., Sage Labs LLC, Shandong Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Signature Genomic Laboratories, Singapore Biosciences Pte Ltd., Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., SonoVol Inc., Suomen Bioanalytiikka Oy, Surendra Genetic Labs, Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Suzhou Sym-Bio LifeScience, Suzhou Sym-Bio Lifescience Co. Ltd., Synthetx Limited, Tulip Diagnostics, Tulip Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., Vanadis Diagnostics, Vanadis Diagnostics AB, ViaCell, ViaCord LLC, VisEn Medical, VisEn Medical Inc., Wallac Oy, Wellesley B.V., Xenogen Corporation, ZeLab SAS, and chemagen Biopolymer-Technologie AG.

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Devon Energy Corporation is an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company was incorporated in 1971 by John Nichols and his son J. Larry Nichols and later went public in August 2000. The company has since grown to be included in the S&P 500 and is one of the first energy companies to introduce resolutions requiring the company to monitor its impact on global warming. One time a major player in the global oil market, Devon has since sold off its offshore holdings in an effort to focus on US production and its transition to a lower-carbon future.

Devon Energy merged with WPX in early 2021 in an all-stock merger of equals. The new company is primarily engaged in the exploration, development, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the US midwest. The company operates more than 5,100 wells in Oklahomas Delaware Basis, Eagle Ford Group, and the two locations in the Rocky Mountains. As of late 2022, the company laid claim to 1.625 million barrels of reserves including 44% petroleum, 27% natural gas liquids, and 29% natural gas. Daily production was running in the range of 300,000 BPD in petroleum liquids, 125,000 BPD in natural gas liquids, and 920 million cubic feet of natural gas.

Rick Muncrief, formally CEO of WPX, is now the head of Devon Energy. Mr. Muncrief comes to the table with more than 40 years of experience including 27 years with one of the US Big Three Oil Companies. WPX Energy (Williams Production and Exploration) brought properties in the Williston and Permian Basins to the combined company. Its proven reserves were roughly 527 million barrels of oil and equivalents. The company also owns and operates a midstream network of pipelines and storage facilities it uses to market and deliver its products.

Devon Energy Corporation has pledged to reduce its GHG impact to net zero by 2050. This will be done by a variety of methods that include improving efficiency and leakage, a reduction in flaring, and the electrification of its operations. Near-term goals include a 50% reduction in GHG by 2030 including a 65% reduction in methane release and a 100% reduction in flaring. The company is also focused on reducing its environmental impact by relying on recycled water wherever possible and plans to reduce freshwater usage by 90% in the most active areas. Total greenhouse gas emissions have been in decline since 2018 and fell 17% between 2018 and 2020 alone.
The YOLO actress has this week not taken it lightly after releasing some stunning photos that have since caused massive traffic online. Fella in her reddish designed African print straight dress to her knee level, posed to the cameras in a rather confident manner with her side, forgetting everything else behind her back.

These images have since gone viral with some fans comparing what her Mama gave her to a heavy hard body Toyota Tundra vehicle.

In a reply to critics over this issue, "Serwaa" posted on her snapchat saying, " So now i can't park my own ass in my own dress  if am naked you guys will complain, if i wear dress you guys will complain is it my fault to have ass abeg anyone who won't accept the fact that my ass is real should go and hug a skeleton".

See picture below'



Fella Makafui has gained some media attention for her role as Serwaa in the popular YOLO TV Series.

Jibriel Suliah Jagbesie

Showbiz Publicist/Writer/Blogger

www.showcasegh.com
I am a bit bewildered about this unwritten and silent rule that almost makes it look like it's a taboo for a man to propose to his woman friend.

And I notice this is a big deal for some women to the point that; they even consider it offensive, and they can get upset with the male friend who proposes.

I thought that the best thing for anyone to do is to love or marry people they know very well and are quite familiar and comfortable with. So if a man has built that acquaintance with a female over a considerable period; what's wrong if he proposes love?

Yes; I have heard arguments that, for women who find this kind of proposals a big deal, the fact that they have become too familiar with a male friend; they sometimes open up about their secrets and other sensitive issues to them, and for that reason, they wouldn't want to date such persons who know all about them.

They will instead prefer to keep them as friends that they can always trust to fall on for advice and other forms of help when the need arises. I don't find the above reasons even strong enough for some women to reject proposals from trusted male friends; and rather opt for 'strangers'.

I think that women should equally treat proposals from male friends as those from 'strangers', and that proposals should be accepted on merit, compatibility and above all love.

My thoughts about this subject were relighted last night; and I was moved to put it in writing, when I came across a post by a Facebook friend, Theresa Dekpey. Theresa posed this question on her Facebook wall. Can a lady have that one male friend who will never propose love to her?

In responding to one of the comments to her post, Theresa also said that: I have never had a male friend who has lasted up to a month. They end up proposing, and when I decline they tend to hate me and will never talk to me.

Theresa's question somewhat made it appear as though it was inappropriate for her male friends to propose to her.

Reading the responses to her post, I noticed it wasn't one-sided. They answers were 'yes' and 'no'; and they often came from the men.

One guy said: A guy keeping a female as a friend is like a cat keeping a mouse as a pet. One day, when the mouse least expects it, the cat will eat the mouse. My grandma would tell you baa adanfo ne baa, which in the Akan dialect means (A woman's friend is a woman).

Let me also add that, I have often heard the question; 'How's a woman's friend a man' or vice versa.

I have concluded that, these mind-sets, which many people, especially males hold on to, is totally wrong and very problematic. And my answer to Theresa's question, Can a lady have that one male friend who will never propose love to her is a big 'YES'.

It is 'YES' because it is not in all cases that men propose to female friends. It is the men with the skewed mind-sets that a man can't be a woman's friend; who will always want to take advantage of female friends even when there's no genuine love.

Excuse me to say that this mind-set is often held by men with very little self-control who also lack discipline or sometimes lack the courage to hit on other women outside their circles; and so they will easily propose to that female friend who is closer and familiar.

However it must be stated that, women and men naturally attract each other and so some men can genuinely develop love for a female friend over a period.

Like the saying goes 'sometimes the best friends are the best couple', so there's absolutely nothing wrong for a male to make such a move on a female friend who's available, once the proposal is backed by a good intention for the long-term and not just for momentary fun.

Nonetheless, I find it a bit problematic when a male friend in a short time of knowing a female, begins to propose. Such proposals I believe may not be genuine. I have kept female friends; some for several years; and even though I was single at some point, I didn't propose till they got married; and they haven't stopped being friends.

But I must add that, it was not in all cases that some of these friends were single; they had been taken; but I still valued the friendship because I don't have the mind-set that a man can't have a woman as a friend.

For some who were single however, I proposed to a few after years of friendship; which I felt had developed into love. I had become familiar with them and knew them so much. Besides; its better dating someone you know than a 'stranger' that you need time to start afresh.

And my intentions for those few proposals were good and for the long-term. And I didnt see how I was deliberately going to hurt people I called friends if they had accepted me. But for their own individual reasons, none of them accepted my proposal. For some, it was inconceivable to date me, after building years of friendship to a certain level where they almost saw me as a BROTHER.

Others made me know that they felt nothing for me beyond friendship. Seriously; it's heart-wrenching to hear such words from people you call friends; and so when such rejections come, naturally you find yourself drifting away; and the friendship often doesn't become the same again.

In my experiences, I have often taken time off from the friendships to recover from the shock because there's even some kind of shyness and embarrassment you feel especially when that female friend finds your proposal awkward or even offensive as if you've committed a crime.

But eventually; after a while, I return to my normalcy with these women and life goes on; and thats maturity. Therefore, my view is that; any male who calls himself a friend to a female, and decides to hate them because they turned down their proposal, didnt really have good intentions; and to some extent, lacks maturity. For the reason that; in all of my experiences, I have learnt that, as a man, you can have a very good and cordial relationship with a female friend; but if you try a love relationship or marriage, you can turn out as terrible lovers or couple.

And so you always need to be very sure and read between the lines not to confuse the friendship easily to mean compatibility in love or marriage. Just that sometimes in that friendship, women can unconsciously give you signals that can make you think that they want more than friendship from you, only for you to propose and then they turn you down.

It's a painful experience; but I have matured to understand that one cannot have a romantic or sexual love as a reward for friendship. People must naturally and consciously desire that deep love for you to accept you beyond a friend; you simply can't force it or expect it to be gifted to you because of friendship, else the regrets can be irreparable.

Let it also be known, that the point about proposing to a friend; isn't only a one-way affair. There are also women who make advances at male friends who even have no intention of proposing love to them, but only want them as friends.

In fact, if not for the fact that women have been conditioned to accept that only men must propose, some women would have actually proposed to their male friends too. And despite this unwritten rule, some audacious and open-minded women have damned the consequences and gone ahead to propose to their male friends. And just like it happens in the case of some male friends, some women also turn to hate and stay away from male friends who don't accept their verbalized or action-driven proposals.

I have had that experience from a female friend who later chose to stay away from me in disappointment and anger. I understood her feelings; and I made sure I got closer to keep the friendship even though she was being difficult. In the end, she found a partner, and I attended her wedding and she was happy to see me. We are friends; and she shares sensitive things about her marriage with me for counselling.

Appallingly; there are even women who also express disappointment in their male friends for not proposing to them even though they showed them a sign that they wanted more than friendship; and this often happens after that male friend has found someone else.

Finding love or choosing a partner, must have no strict rules else it ceases to be what it ought to be. Sometimes all that you seek for is the one closer; yet you look faraway waiting for the one that never comes.



By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Email: [email protected]
The Chinese government has dangled a staggering $15bn before the eyes of a government busy fighting off illegal miners including Chinese nationals.

Ghana in exchange, wants to roll out the red carpet to Chinese investors to come in for rich natural resources some of which are being harrased by illegal miners.

Returning from his 4-day visit to China, Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia said at a Sunday press briefing at the Jubilee lounge of the Kotoka International Airport, Ghana needs to 'leverage its natural resources.'

Dr. Bawumia said it "makes economic sense" for Ghana to use what it has to get what it needs - money. The Akufo-Addo government needs cash - lots of it.

In his last attempt at the presidency, the 2016 NPP flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo went in for the jugular, with an ambitious shopping list of promises to the electorate.

The country's current economic misfortunes cannot foot the bill of manifesto promises which includes free Senior High School, $1million for each of the 275 constituencies, a factory in each of the 216 districts, dotting the country's savannah areas with dams.

With tax payer cash going into salaries, statutory payments and servicing debts, government has acknowledged something creative needs to happen to raise money for manifesto dictates.

Enter China.

China's Eximbank in 2012, offered $3bn to the previous Mills and Mahama governments but only $1bn finally came after years of back and forth between the two countries.

But what the NDC government could not get, the Chinese has promised to give to the NPP government.

Under the new agreement $2 billion would be used to fund a grand industrilisation policy, 'one district, one factory'.

The China National Building Materials and Equipment Import and Export Corporation (CNBM) would provide up to 85 percent financing for viable projects recommended by the One District One Factory secretariat.

The $2 billion is coming but on even better terms, from government's point of view. Then a loan, the balance is now a grant, the Chinese has told the Akufo-Addo government.

If the NDC government was desperate enough for $3billion, then $15billion is a slayer.

Dr. Bawumia offered China details of what awaits the Chinese government underneath Ghanaian soil.

"Our untapped mineral resources include 2.8bn metric tonnes of iron ore, 960million metric tonnes of Bauxite, 430m metric tonnes of manganese and 413m metric tonnes of limestone. This is excluding gold and so on"

He made the case to China that a Bauxite refinery in Ghana could rake in $460 billion alone for an investor.

"If we need just $20bn to do a major, massive Marshall Plan and we have $460 billion sitting in the ground then what we really is to develop a financing model that leverages just a small fraction of our reserves" Bawumia said.

The Vice-President said China opened its ears after the government opened her eyes to Ghana's mouth-watering investment potential.

China has had cause to complain about government's crackdown on some of her citizens engaged in illegal mining.

A Chinese national, Aisha Huang - poster girl suspected to be engaging in illegal mining in Ghana, is in court facing three charges including contravening Section 99 (1) of the Mining and Minerals Act and illegally employing foreigners.

Several others have been rounded up and are at various levels of investigation and prosecution.

Illegal mining has destroyed Ghana's water bodies and farmlands.

Ghana appears to want a win-win situation where the resources are mined responsibly by investors while the government gets the money to fund a list of promises it certainly would be reminded of in three years time.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|Edwin Appiah|[email protected]
The welter of revelations of corruption scandals in Ghana these days is more than simply overwhelming. I have been trying to catch my breath while sifting through them like the mountainous filth that is swamping the land and soon may well swallow everybody up, if creative and effective measures are not put in place to arrest this already dire situation which is threatening to become an epidemic. Already, cholera has become a common occurrence which has been indiscriminately felling both university graduates and the totally unschooled left and right. Last year, for example, several cases of cholera, if I remember accurately, were reported on the campus of the countrys pedagogical flagship, the University of Cape Coast, in the Central Regions capital. One or two teacher-training colleges around the country also reported about several incidents of cholera.

One begins to wonder what breed of leadership currently rules the land. And whether such leadership has any remarkable sense of hygiene and responsibility at all. Yesterday, my wife showed me a Youtubemedia coverage of the indescribable filth that has literally engulfed the Ashaiman township, not far from the countrys industrial hub of Tema. On the video, a woman trader was bitterly complaining about the fact that the local authorities were lightening quick to collect taxes but did not seem to give a hoot about sanitation.

That is just one level of the scandalous extent of official corruption in the country, of course. The other has to do with the veritable curse that appears to have afflicted the country with the striking of crude oil in commercial quantities offshore of the countrys Western Region exactly a decade ago.

In a bid to unconscionably scamming the ordinary Ghanaian citizen of the countrys considerable oil wealth, a bureaucratic system has been erected which has ensured that much of the royalties accruing from the exploitation of oil and natural gas resources by foreign companies end up in the pockets of politicians, rather than being wisely and profitably invested in the general quality-of-life uplift of the ordinary people.

There has been created, for example, an entity called the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), a state-owned and operated enterprise.And then, we have the National Petroleum Corporation (NPC), and I believe another entity called the National Petroleum Authority (NPA). There are quite a legion number of them that I have yet to fully appreciate, much less be able to differentiate one state-owned petroleum-related company from another.

But BOST is currently on the excoriation chopping board of the musical chairs that has become the slugfest of incrimination and recrimination between the key players of the two major political parties that have been taking turns, through the ballot box, to manage the countrys affairs, namely, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The Rawlings-founded National Democratic Congress has held the reins of governance longer and, according to its founding-patriarch, Chairman Jerry John Rawlings, it is also the most corrupt of all Ghanaian political parties and governments since the Nkrumah-led Convention Peoples Party (CPP) regime of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

I am slowly trying to feel my way up the latest BOST Scandal, in which some 5 million liters of contaminated fuel taken receipt of by a Mahama-appointed Managing-Director, Mr. Kwame Awuah Darko, was allegedly sold in giveaway deals by an Akufo-Addo-appointed Managing-Director, Mr. Oteng-Boateng, to some two allegedly unlicensed petroleum dealers.

The figures of the buyers widely differ from one media account to another (some have 29 retailers buying the contaminated oil). But whatever the real details of the latter scandal may be, Ghanaians clearly want to know, and deserve to know, precisely how it came about that the former CEO of BOST, under the tenure of former President Mahama, Mr. Kwame Awuah Darko, regularly transferred a monthly amount of GH 5-7 million from the BOSTs coffers to the Flagstaff House. I know the Mahama Gang were unconscionable public-money guzzlers, but we need some real forensically sustainable evidence here. There must be a paper trail somewhere. And this also where the proposed Office of the Special Prosecutor comes in handy.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
01.07.2017 LISTEN

The Prestea Magistrate Court in the Western Region presided over by His Worship Frank Addo Ashitey on Thursday June 30, 2017 sentenced two taxi drivers into one and half year imprisonment for stealing diesel.

The police prosecutor Detective Sergeant, Richard Akumay explained to the court that the complainant Destiny Akakpo is a night security man at Akapii Guest House at Prestea Ankobra.

The 1st and 2nd accused persons are taxi drivers and at Prestea Himan.

On June 27, 2017 about 2:15am the accused persons loaded a taxi cab with registration no.CR 4411 - 15 driven by 1st accused person, Human Abu with five empty gallons and a rubber pipe and went to the premises of the Guest House and attempted to siphoned diesel from the vehicles parked in the there.

The complainant saw the two accused persons and raised an alarm and the 2nd accused, Enock Owusu managed to escape but the 1st accused person, Jumah Abu was arrested.

Upon thoroughly interrogation, the 1st accused person informed the complainant that he came with the said taxi car together with the 2nd accused person to steal the diesel.

The 1st accused person together with the taxi cab was handed over to the police for investigation.

The 1st accused person later led police to arrest the 2nd accused person. Both accused persons admitted the offence and were charge with before court.
The Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Honourable Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, has revealed that his order for the suspension of construction work on a storey building in the Techiman market, pending the submission of all required documents of permit, was ignored.

Speaking to Sunyani based Suncity FM, the clearly incensed minister wondered why his order, which was in the general interest of the people of the community was ignored, resulting in the collapse of the building, killing one and injuring two others on Wednesday.

According to Hon. Asomah-Cheremeh, construction of the said building commenced under the previous government, and upon visiting the construction site, he ordered the project managers to furnish him with the required documents of permit before he would allow the construction to continue. This order, he said, was ignored.

This project began under the previous government and upon assuming office, I asked for documents on the building. Both the Municipal inspector and the building inspector could not provide the said documents, he said. I further asked the Municipal Chief Executive to provide me with documents as regards the owner of the building, a request the MCE also couldnt honor. Everyone was tight lipped and no one was ready to provide information, but what I heard via rumors was that the building belonged to one of the sub-chiefs of the area, he told Suncity FM

I ordered for the suspension of the project because required documents from the PWD, environmental health and sanitation, and other documents were absent from the assembly, he continued. I incurred the wrath of the project managers who called me all kinds of names for giving this order. They ignored the order and unfortunately such a disaster has befallen us, he concluded.

Honorable Asomah-Cheremeh also confirmed that two individuals, Alfred Osei Berko, the Municipal Engineer, and Isaac Yeboah, the building inspector of the assembly, have been suspended, pending the conclusion of investigations into the collapse of the building.

He also hinted that a court order may be sought to bring down similar storey-buildings without the required documents in the area to forestall another disaster.
In unity we stand but in division we fall, so a popular adage goes. Why then are the Kumawu Ananangya royal family members backstabbing themselves?

In every family or household, there could be the holding of grudges, misunderstandings and minor rivalries among the members some of the times. However, they are resolved amicably to maintain the unity and cohesion of the family against external aggressions or inquisitiveness.

Is it not said in the bible in Mark 3:24-25 that If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand.? Does this make any sense to the maliciously feuding Ananangya royals? I doubt it or else, those masterminding and orchestrating the senseless evil machinations that have the potential to derail their genuine quest to wrestle their usurped throne from the Kumawu Ankaase royals would not have embarked on their most evil and deplorable agenda of pulling Barima Tweneboa Kodua V down.

Barima Tweneboa Kodua V, the currently most eligible, popular and famous member of the Ananangya royal family who is also acceptable to the rank and file has been enstooled Kumawuhene, although he is battling an alleged Kumawuhene Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua (Dr Yaw Sarfo) from the Ankaase royal family in court over who the real and legitimate Kumawuhene is. Notwithstanding the overwhelming support he courts among Kumawuman subjects both home and abroad, some dubious members within the Ananangya royals are scheming against him.

These said schemers have constantly over the years been instigated by a Kumawuman subject, a lady of course, resident in Switzerland. For her unrelenting obnoxious quest to acquire a 10% of Kumawuman wealth or whatever, for, and on behalf of, her deceased father who she claims to have been the originator of most of the things in Kumawu, she has found a soft touch in one Osei Yaw and his mum to foment family tensions directed at deposing Barima Tweneboa Kodua V.

Why should a section of the Ananangya royal family led by one Madam Berhene allow themselves to be influenced by Lady Switzerland with her narrative Kumawu history adulterated with falsehoods? I am aware of how she has been plotting with Madam Berhene, Osei Yaw, Yaw Boamah and others for a while but now is the time to tell her enough is enough with her nonsensical fabrications and evilness.

Who cares if she wants to become the wife of Osei Yaw in future although she is currently a married woman? Who knows if they may love themselves after meeting physically or exchanging their pictures? Whatever their relationship is, they should not in any way be allowed to scupper our long fought battle to redeem Kumawuman from the grips of Kumawuhemaa Nana Abenaa Serwaah Amponsah, Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and their powerful team of accomplices who have no respect for the rule of law let alone, respect for Kumawuman subjects.

To have plotted to arrange the police, military and macho men to wreak havoc on mourners and possibly maim or kill certain members of the Ananangya royal family was criminal to say the least. I do not countenance bad attitudes hence reprimanding all those involved in causing confusion within the Ananangya royal family with intent to deliberately or otherwise prop the position of Dr Yaw Sarfo.

Why did the named persons and their agents and assigns take traditional drinks to Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua to not only inform him of, but also, invite him as the Chief mourner to Nana Damtes one week funeral celebrations? When the Kumawu Traditional Council raised objection to the invitation on the grounds that Nana Damte, the chief of Kumawu Ananangya, never attended the traditional council meetings nor paid his dues when some chief/sub-chief died hence they were not going to attend his funeral, what happened? Kumawuhene Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua immediately offered to pay the GHS1, 000 arrears Nana Damte owed to pave the way for him to attend his funeral.

Dr Yaw Sarfo knew the adverse effect of him attending the funeral might have on the Ananangya royal family hence his eagerness to pay off the so-called debt in dues owed to the council by the deceased. From my investigations, other higher accomplices who dubiously aided the illegal accession to the Kumawu Kodua Stool by Dr Yaw Sarfo also waded into the seeming opportunity. Their aim was to use it against the Ananangya and the Odumase royal family members who are opposing the accession of Dr Yaw Sarfo to the throne and the circumstances surrounding his enthronement.

I hope those who initiated that move that led to the abortion of the one week funeral celebration might have realised their mistake if not folly. Should they persist with their diabolical plans, using Nana Damtes funeral as a means to the end, thus, achieving their disgusting goal, then I am afraid, I shall have to plead with the paternal side of Nana Damte to step in to take over the control of his funeral.

Should I ask Nana Adwoa Badu and sons, Messrs Kwasi Poku, Kwasi Addai, and Kwasi Duffour etc. from Kumawu-Abenaso to step in?

Kumawuman citizens who care about Kumawuman and her citizens will not sit by while some overambitious Ananangya royals plot mayhem against their fellow Ananangya royals. Those concerned must give their plans a second thought to see how they have erred big time!

I am not going to take it kindly to any acts that are intended for scuppering the good fight already in process to declare Dr Yaw Sarfo ineligible to ascend the Kumawu Kodua Stool.

To that woman in Switzerland, she had better bugger off before the exposure of her lies and evil machinations consume her like fire set to a forest in mid-summer.

No one is ready to make enemies so they should not seek trouble where there is none.

Rockson Adofo
Ghana achieved republican status on July 1, 1960, and that marked an event of profound historical and political significance. After three years of independence, Ghana completely weaned itself from British colonial rule and Dr Kwame Nkrumah became the first President of the Republic.

As the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence on March 6, 1957, Ghanas political freedom instigated the liberation of many African countries from colonial rule.

Consequently, the African independence movement gathered momentum in the 20th century, and over 30 countries had succeeded in the struggle for freedom by 1963.

One may wonder why it is relevant to commemorate the Republic Day. In other words, what does the historical event mean to the ordinary Ghanaian?

A reporter interviewed some Ghanaians randomly to seek their views why 1st July happens to be a statutory public holiday. In fact the feedback was shocking and unbelievable.

The above revealed that most Ghanaians have little or no clue about the Republic Day. Meanwhile, many enjoy themselves on such occasion having picnics, travelling (excursions), beach party and other social activities nationwide.

Aside from having fun, the event should create the enabling environment for Ghanaians to reflect on the countrys rich history after 60 years of independence.

For instance, both Ghana and Malaysia gained independence around the same period, so why is Ghana still lagging behind after six decades of self-governance?

What is a republic?

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines republic as a country without a king or queen, usually governed by elected representatives of the people and a president.

A republican system of government is where the citizenry have the mandate of electing political leaders and other representatives to govern their country through a direct voting process.

Republic Day is a national holiday in several countries to commemorate the day they gained republican status. In some countries, it is referred to as National Day or Proclamation Day.

In Ghana for example, the day is also known as Senior Citizens Day. And some elderly citizens who played significant roles in the struggle for independence and nation-building process are accorded state recognition on every July 1.

First Republic

In 1956, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) won the Legislative Election leading to Ghanas independence, and Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah became the first Prime Minister of the land.

Ghana held its first presidential elections alongside a referendum on creating an executive presidency on April 27, 1960. There were only two candidates  Osagyefo and Dr J.B. Danquah, leader of the United Party (UP).

Dr Nkrumah won the election and took the oath of office as President of the First Republic of Ghana on July 1, 1960. The first Republican Constitution which came into being in 1960 ended the rein of British Governor-General William Hare.

Regrettably, Nkrumahs regime was overthrown on February 24, 1966. The architects of the 1966 revolution were Col. E.K. Kotoka, Major A.A. Afrifa and Mr. J.W.K. Harley, the then Inspector-General of Police.

The 1966 revolution truncated the First Republic while President Nkrumah was on peace mission in Hanoi. The National Liberation Council (NLC) was formed and it held power until the 1969 elections.

Parliamentary system of government

On August 29, 1969, another general election was held and Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia formed a new government. The main political parties were the Progress Party (PP) and the National Alliance Liberals (NAL) led by Komla A. Gbedemah.

The PP won the parliamentary elections with 105 of the 140 seats contested. Dr Busia became the second Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Ghana on October 1, 1969.

The then Chief Justice and father of the sitting President, Edward Akuffo-Addo, took office as the President of Ghana on August 31, 1970, but real power rested with the prime minister.

After barely three years in office, the Second Republic was overthrown by Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong of the Ghana Army on January 13, 1972.

Military intervention

The Supreme Military Council (SMC) headed by Col. Acheampong suspended the 1969 Constitution of Ghana and stayed in office for six years.

The then Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. Gen. Frederick W.K. Akuffo, succeeded Col. Acheampong through a palace coup in 1978. And the Supreme Military Council II (SMC 2) was formed.

The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) led by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings seized power on June 4, 1979. The June 4 uprising culminated in the execution of three former military heads of state and five other military officers.

The AFRC relinquished power to Dr Hilla Limann of the Peoples National Party (PNP) who assumed office as President of the Third Republic of Ghana on September 24, 1979.

Flt. Lt. Rawlings staged another coup that toppled Limanns government on December 31, 1981. The military junta formed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and ruled for 11 years until 1992.

Return to civilian rule

Following the promulgation of the 1992 Constitution, Ghana adopted multi-party democracy. Flt. Lt. Rawlings became the first President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana.

He handed over the baton smoothly to Mr. John Agyekum Kufour in 2001. Professor JEA Mills took over in 2009, but died in office in 2012. He was succeeded by Mr. John Dramani Mahama who handed over in 2017.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo is the fifth President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. And this boils down to the fact that Ghana has been able to stand the test of time as the beacon of democracy in Africa.

The Fourth Republic has come to stay. The people of Ghana have embraced democracy and believe that the only way of changing government is through the ballot. I wish fellow Ghanaians a happy 57th Republic Day.

ASP James Annan

Prisons Headquarters

[email protected]

The writer is an Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) at the Ghana Prisons Headquarters, Accra
01.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, June 30--The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) commended Ghana for standing firmly as a Republican State over the past 57 years in the West African Sub-region dotted with unrest.

Ghanas victory in attaining full republican status went along with claiming the full sovereignty over all aspects of our national and international life under the leadership of the father of the nation, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the CPP stated in a statement.

The CPP statement signed by Professor Edmund N. Delle, Chairman and Leader of the party said Ghana on fist July 1960 totally weaned itself from British colonial rule, as the Queen of England's Governor General left the shores of the country to signify that the Black Star of Africa had taken charge of its own affairs.

The CPP congratulate the Nation Ghana for protecting its sovereignty over the past 57 years and still counting.

We must continue to work together to protect the State and fight against injustice, corruption, and political victimization. Ghana must work again, the statement stated.

The CPP also recounted that after becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence on March 6, 1957, Ghanas political freedom inspired the liberation of many other African countries from colonial governance.

Indeed Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, our revered founder of Modern Ghana led it in the vanguard of the African revolution where in 1960 alone about 17 African countries were liberated from the yoke of colonial rule and the clutches of imperial and metropolitan political control, the statement said.

The CPP therefore extends its felicitation to the Government and People of Ghana, as the nation marks its 57th Republican Anniversary.

The CPP wishes to extend sincere felicitation and congratulatory message to all members of the party and citizens of our dear country on the 57thanniversary of the attainment of republican status.

Source: CDA Consult
Accra, June 30, GNA - Mr Robert Mensah, an Economist with the Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Unit of the Ministry of Finance, has said institutions in Ghana were seeking to access 320 million dollars from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

He said the monies from the GCF would go into infrastructure and programmes to combat climate change and adapt to its worst effects on communities.

He said if Ghanaian institutions secure the funds it would ensure adequate protection of citizens' rights, especially the youth and women from the effects of climate change.

Mr Mensah noted that the funds would go into building flood defences, irrigation systems, emergency shelters, re-forestation projects and renewable energy to fight climate change.

He said this at a workshop in Accra on Friday on Climate Finance Integrity organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative, the local chapter of Transparency International, an anti-corruption international organisation.

Mr Mensah said the Ministry was facilitating efforts of institutions to write bankable proposals adding that the difficulty was that a lot of institutions and individuals that submitted proposals to the Ministry failed to meet the criteria set by the funding agencies.

He said the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation was putting together a strong team that would develop projects that would meet the criteria set by funding agencies.

Mr Mensah said climate finance was monies invested to help countries prevent climate change and adapt to its worst effects.

The funds were pledged by rich and carbon-emitting countries to poorer and climate-vulnerable countries to combat climate change, he said.

Mrs Mary Addah, the Programmes Manager of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, said as part of the negotiation leading to the Paris Agreement, world leaders agreed to mobilise 100 billion dollars in climate finance by 2020.

The amount, she said, if spent judiciously would save millions of lives and ensure billions of lives were safe in the future.

She said Transparency International had been working on climate finance since the launch of its Global Corruption Report on climate change in 2011.

Mrs Addah said the organisation's multi-country Climate Finance Integrity Programme, being implemented in more than 12 countries and coordinated by Transparency Initiative Secretariat in Berlin, would safeguard climate money against abuse, waste and mismanagement.

She said Transparency International was implementing measures to ensure maximum transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels.

In addition, it would ensure that climate change-affected communities take ownership over deciding where climate monies should be invested.

The workshop brought together experts and practitioners in the environmental and natural resource sectors, heads of department and representatives of development partners as well as civil society organisations to discuss best practices for climate finance governance.

GNA

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Accra, June 30, GNA - President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed the need for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to remain a neutral instrument of the State, and for its personnel to rise above partisan considerations in the discharge of their duties.

He made it clear, that for the utmost functioning of the Armed forces and every other armed service, it was imperative that the military was apolitical and insulated from contentious party partisan politics, irrespective of which constitutionally elected authority was in power.

'We must all be grateful to the Almighty that there is now a firm and widespread consensus in our country that the military takes its powers from the elected civilian government ...to that end, we must guard against the politicisation of the military by political parties.

'We do not want NPP soldiers, nor do we want NDC soldiers...we want Ghanaian soldiers who serve any government duly elected by the Ghanaian people with equal zeal and loyalty,' he said when he addressed the officers, men, women and civilian personnel of the GAF at a durbar at the Burma camp in Accra.

President Akufo-Addo maintained that the Ghanaian military had an enviable reputation that should be protected at all times and not tainted with political colouration, adding that the nation needed men and women who would serve in the security services with loyalty and dedication, and who would eschew individual interest in maintaining the cohesion, integrity and security of the nation, as constitutionally demanded of their commission.

He suggested that military personnel who could not keep their political opinions private and felt compelled by their conviction participated actively in politics, to resign their commission before pursuing that ambition.

'Those amongst you who want to do politics are very welcome, but please remember first to take off your uniforms and lay down your state issued arms,' he stressed.

The President gave the assurance that his government would fulfil all pledges to resource the GAF to make it better and able to perform its core functions of defending the territorial integrity of Ghana and other contemporary and emerging security challenges.

He said government would ensure that all the manpower, training, funding and infrastructural deficits would be addressed in due course.

President Akufo-Addo further assured personnel of government's commitment to improve the housing conditions at the various garrisons across the country, announcing that the stalled SSNIT housing project initiated in 2007, would be continued as the Finance Ministry was processing outstanding debts owed contractors to enable them resume and complete the project.

Additionally, he said an amount of GHc26 million had been released for the take-off of the barracks regeneration programme, which would see the construction of new accommodation units for the ranks of the military.

The President also mentioned the completion of the Kumasi Military Hospital, and indicated that sod would be cut in August to commence the construction of a new military hospital in Tamale to cater to the health needs of personnel of the Northern Command of the GAF.

He used the opportunity to commend the military for the professionalism and discipline exhibited during the traumatic and unfortunate death of Major Maxwell Mahama, saying

"The matured manner in which you handled the situation has won you respect as an institution whose standards are worthy of emulation."

"You continue to earn the gratitude and respect of the nation to whose defence, you have decided to lay down your lives," he said, urging them 'to keep up the good work to maintain the stable environment needed for economic growth and development.'

The President assured military personnel, as well as the civilian staff of the GAF, that an on-going policy review would hopefully address their conditions of service.

GNA

By ken Sackey, GNA
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia yesterday made history as the first sitting president and vice to attend the memorial service of the three slain high court judges.

The annual event, organized by the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in collaboration with the judiciary, has never had a sitting president in attendance.

At least former presidents  Jerry John Rawlings, John Agyekum Kufour, late John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama  made no appearance during their respective tenures as first gentlemen of the land.

Throwback

Thirty-five years ago on June 30, 1982, three high court judges  Justices Fred Poku Sarkodee, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, as well as a retired Army Officer, Major Sam Acquah  were abducted at night during the curfew hours.

Their partly burnt bodies were found on July 1, 1982 in a state of decomposition at the Bundase Military Range on the Accra Plains.

Their bodies had been doused with petrol and set on fire but by divine intervention, raindrops that night quenched the burning bodies before they were discovered.

The defunct Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), headed by Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, which publicly expressed horror at the crime and yielded to strong public pressure, set up a Special Investigation Board (SIB) with a former Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Samuel Azu Crabbe, as chairman, to investigate the murders.

The inquiry is noted for the courage and professional expertise of its main investigator, J.J. Yidana, an officer of the Ghana Police Service.

The SIB submitted its report and was published along with a Government White Paper.

The SIB made a number of findings, leading to the prosecution of Joachim Amartey Kwei, a member of the PNDC; L/Cpls Samuel Amedeka; Samuel Michael Senyah; Johnny Dzandu and Tekpor, who are ex-soldiers.

For the past 35 years, the Bar and the Bench have been mourning the death of the martyrs of the rule of law.

Sermon

In a sermon on the theme, 'A Ghanaian Indeed,' Very Reverend Emmanuel Aryee, a Methodist Minister at the Ridge Church in Accra, tasked the leadership of the country to use its authority to build but not to tear up the country.

He said many had expressed disquiet about the politicization of almost everything in the country, leading to the polarization of the people.

According to the man of God, political radicalism and extremism are on the ascendency in Ghana's democracy.

Very Rev Emmanuel Aryee said, Our well crafted constitution stipulates that the rule of law should be the bedrock of our democracy; however, mob and instant justice continue to undermine the administration of justice in the country.

He averred, Ghana is a naturally well resourced country with a lot of things to be proud of as a nation. We also have a myriad of challenges that militate against our national cohesion, progress and peace.

He noted that from public discourse, one could gather that corruption is pervasive in the nation, including the religious sphere, making it difficult to promote clean business in the country and to trust one another.

Our casual attitude to work and our lateness to functions and places of work leave much to be desired. Indiscipline on our roads, poor sanitation practices and the poor stewardship of our environment are all weaknesses in the national psyche of the Ghanaian, Very Rev. Aryee stated.

The Methodist minister, for this reason, indicated that there was the need for a change in our thinking, adding that the problems of the nation are not only the responsibility of the leadership of the country.

He observed that institutional challenges are difficult to solve if the leadership is the cause of the problems, among others.

Benson Nutsukpui, National President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), said although the circumstances of the abduction of the judges and their subsequent murder had been recounted every year, the memories of the abductions and murders serve as constant reminder of the importance of the rule of law and more importantly the dangers and threats posed to the rule of law.

He said an independent judiciary is the lifeblood of the rule of law and that the occasion was apt for judges and lawyers to remind ourselves of the critical role of the judiciary in the promotion and entrenchment of the principles of rule of law.

Mr Nutsukpui argued that there is a global consensus that upholding the rule of law is the surest safeguard of individual and national security and protection from arbitrary power.

He explained that in spite of the seeming national consensus to apply the rule of law to govern every aspect of the people's lives, recent developments in the country indicate that it is under threat.

Vigilantism

The GBA National President said the recent spate of vigilantism in the country poses a serious threat to the rule of law, adding that if not checked it would erode the very essence of the country's democracy.

We have been particularly alarmed at the brazen attack on a Circuit Court in Kumasi in April this year. The attack was simply outrageous and shocking; it demonstrates total disrespect for the judiciary, more worryingly, it signals a flagrant disrespect for the authority of the state, he noted.

Mr Nutsukpui contended that Ghana has not made enough progress in the fight against lawlessness.

He stated that it was necessary for the country to commit itself to the entrenchment of the rule of law, insisting that it cannot be sustained when the conditions of service and working conditions of our judges are nothing to write home about.

[email protected]

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson


NATIONAL UNION of WAEC Diploma Students (NUWADS) yesterday demonstrated against the abolition of the Advanced Business Certificate Examination (ABCE). It was aimed at making WAEC rescind its decision to discontinue the October/November 2017 ABCE examinations.

The president of NUWADS, Norbert Goodsman, asserted that the decision had affected over 3,000 candidates sitting for the private October/November 2017 diploma examinations and consequently affected their admissions to top up at level 200 in universities in Ghana.

Mr. Norbert alleged that the decision would also increase the number of unemployed teachers in Ghana, since it would lead to the laying-off of about 2,500 teaching staff of the ABEC affiliated schools.

At a press briefing, Mr Norbert Goodsman expressed dislike for the action taken by management of WAEC. According to him, the diploma is the key to Ghanaian vocational reforms.

He said the demonstration was organized to caution WAEC about the need to keep running the diploma and also believed that the peaceful protest should bring a positive solution to the demand of the student body.

The demonstration, which took place from the Kanda Total filling station in Accra to the office of the West African Examination Council. Some students complained that the information about the termination of the ABEC programme was spotted on the website of the Council without proper announcement or some period of notification to the students.
The voices of the persons who came knocking on the doors of the three high court judges and a retired Army Major were not those of ordinary citizens.

They were indeed persons with the authority to move about at a time when a curfew was in force. It was on June 30 June, 1982 and their objectives were clear as it is in military orders. Companies, Platoons and Sections are given orders to carry out. In the case of these men, they were asked to abduct the three high court judges and the retired Major and eliminate them.

They succeeded in doing so on the aforementioned date. It was a date in the country's history unlike any other by its sheer callousness and the great efforts employed to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians so the telltale pointers could be erased completely.

Yesterday's commemoration of the murder of these distinguished personalities especially the judges has a great significance on the national calendar.

It is over three decades since it took place. Children born in that year, now senior adults with vague or no memories at all about what took place except what they pick from history books and oral tradition.

As for the members of the bench, it is a day they can never forget as would the rest of the nation safe those with a hand in what happened.

There is no country without blots in their histories but the magnitude of such aberration varies. What happened in our case was laden in usual callousness especially when we consider the fact that one of the victims was breastfeeding her baby when she was abducted never to be seen again.

Her husband, a respectable lawyer, Koranteng Addow was certainly devastated when eventually it dawned upon him that his beloved wife had paid the ultimate price of death at the hands of devious persons acting upon the orders of persons at the helm.

We are told about how when the killers knocked on the door of the lactating woman, a house-help not sensing danger nodded that her madam was at home. If she had known she would have feigned, perhaps, any knowledge of that name. She did not know that those were killers sent by persons in authority to abduct and kill.

What a world. The setting up of a commission of enquiry into what happened neither placated the troubled hearts of Ghanaians nor the bereaved families.

Passwords required for curfew time movements were known only to persons associated with the junta. This and many other questions continue to agitate the minds of Ghanaians. The answers are available but that is all there is to it. God has a way of dealing with such situations.

It might take several years to come. Since our sense of time as mortals differ from God's we might be drawn into thinking that a thousand years is such a long time. The time shall come when the truth will be out.

If they had their way, those behind the murders would have abolished the celebration of the lives of the martyrs. They laid down their lives just so the rule of law shall endure.

Let our children and their children's offspring be taught the real history of the country  not the so-called pretentious rhetoric of a few persons who think they constitute the sole repository of the history of the nation.

Yesterday's commemoration was outstanding because for the first time since the date became part of the national calendar a sitting President and his Vice were in attendance.

The date has a special place in the heart of President Akufo-Addo knowing personally the victims of the murder, 35 years ago and indeed the real story.

Not even the efforts of the National Reconciliation Commission can launder their bad deeds. Let them come out and confess so perhaps they can enjoy some relief from the mental torture they are suffering unknowingly.

To murder human beings in such a manner and deny their remains any dignity is to state the least; so wicked an action, not belonging to the human kind. After several hours with no traces about their whereabouts and a source of embarrassment to the junta, the bodies were eventually found on July 1 1982 on the verge of decomposition.

God who moves in mysterious ways sent down a rain which did not make it possible for the fire set to consume their remains to do so.

Their bodies had been doused with petrol and set on fire but by divine intervention, raindrops that night quenched the burning bodies before they were discovered.

The late Chief Superintendent JJ Yidana who investigated the case suffered for doing his work so well. He too was sent to jail for trumped up charges.

As for the prosecution of Joachim Amartey Kwei, a member of the PNDC, L/Cpls Samuel Amedeka, Samuel Michael Senyah, Johnny Dzandu and Tekpor, the action prompts more questions whose answers are nowhere available for now.

The sermon by Very Reverend Emmanuel Aryee the Methodist Minister at the Ridge Church was fantastic when he said Our well crafted constitution stipulates that the rule of law should be the bedrock of our democracy; however mob and instant justice continues to undermine the administration of justice in the country.

Ghana is a naturally well resourced country with a lot of things to be pound of as a nation, we also have a myriad of challenges that militates against our national cohesion, progress and peace.

Our casual attitude to work and our lateness to functions and places of work leave much to be desired, indiscipline on our roads; poor sanitation practices and the poor stewardship of our environment are all weakness in the national psyche of the Ghanaian, Very Rev. Aryee stated.

By A.R. Gomda


The Government of Ghana and Unilever on Thursday announced plans to transform the Twifo Oil Palm Plantation (TOPP) into a state-of-the-art sustainable plantation in the shortest time possible.

This came to light when the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Unilever Global, Paul Polman, called on Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia at the Flagstaff House.

Dr Bawumia and Mr Polman agreed on a joint vision, outlining their support for the development of a sustainable oil palm industry in Ghana.

Under the agreement, Unilever and the Government of Ghana would work together to develop the plantation, support small holder farmers and help ensure a positive impact on the local economy.

It is expected to initially create between 3,000 and 6,000 jobs as indicated by the Unilever CEO, with the hope of creating 5 million jobs in the near future.

Dr. Bawumia commended Unilever for the support it has offered the Ghanaian economy over the years through its continuous presence and operations in Ghana.

Your company is a household name on account of the special contributions you have made to job creation and production of top quality brands and products for the Ghanaian market, he said. He reiterated that government would continue to create the enabling environment for partnerships with the private sector for growth.

Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, pointed out during the signing of the agreement, We intend to harness opportunities in the agro-processing and manufacturing industries and are indeed delighted about Unilever's commitment in supporting of our vision to initiate Public-Private Partnerships as vehicles for executing this task. This specific cooperation will focus on the development of a leading edge oil palm plantation and downstream industry.

This is Mr. Polman's third visit to Ghana in the last four years. He was accompanied by the African President of Unilever, Bruno Witvoet; Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs for Africa, Dougie Brew; Executive Vice President for Unilever Ghana and Nigeria, Yaw Nsarkoh; Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, Ziobeieton Yeo and some selected members of the Ghana-Nigeria Leadership team.

Paul Polman also visited the Unilever Ghana factory site in Tema where he interacted with the Board, management and staff of the facility.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent
The murder of the three high court judges and a retired Army Major remain arguably the darkest spot in the country's history. We think it still is, given the gruesomeness of the deed and the faces of officialdom behind it who managed to erase the telltale pointers on their hands. Time will surely tell. Their consciences will continue to haunt them until they too answer the call of the Omnipotent and Omniscient.

Governments, even if they are juntas as we had in 1982, can do a lot of things except of course, change God's diktats.

Yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the murder of the three high court judges and the retired Army Major. So much has passed under the bridge since the execution of the dastardly and gruesome act during a curfew.

The questions still stand today as they did at the time of the murders  the most outstanding of which was the lactating mother. How callous!

Yesterday there was no doubt that families of those murdered so callously were in pain as they once again came to terms with what befell them over three decades ago.

It is an opportunity for us to reflect upon what descended upon us as a nation with a view to ensuring that never again should such a callous murder happen in the country.

Many remarks have been made about what happened, the compelling evidences not out of reach, yet we have as a nation kept our calm just so the country moves forward.

We recall the objectives of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) and how much the proceedings led us into the nature of criminal actions of so-called patriotic citizens at the helm.

We might not necessarily go back to the events of the so-called revolution, at least officially, these having dealt with by the NRC, we would however continue to consider in our thoughts the pain the country suffered as a result of the murder of not only the three high court judges and retired Army Major but the hundreds of persons gone missing at the time.

That we continue to remember solemnly this sordid blot in our history as we did yesterday is suggestive of the importance of this psychological and spiritual exercise.

For the families who lost their beloved ones, we can only join them in mourning the dead. Their thoughts and the annual rituals are all we can do as mortals. We can also do a lot to ensure that never again should a group of persons visit their personal frustrations on the rest of their compatriots in the name of a so-called cleansing exercise.

They might have succeeded in covering their tracks but the truth shall be out one day no matter how long that should take. Their consciences shall continue to torment them in various forms including even hallucinations.

May the souls of Justices Kwadwo Adjei Agyepong, Poku Sarkodie and Mrs. Cecilia Koranteng-Addow including retired Major Sam Acquah, Rest In Peace. Those who ordered their murders would not live forever.

Their memories shall endure because they are part of the country's history.
01.07.2017 LISTEN

It's 'Prostate' not 'Prostrate'-Prostate-to stand in front and Prostrate, to lie face Down. I bring you the amazing functions of the Prostate gland. Knowing this is a sure way to keep it healthy!

It is a Gland!

So, you heard that it is called the prostate gland but what exactly the gland do? The most important job of the prostate is to manufacture and secrete some of the alkaline seminal fluids during ejaculation (about 30-35% of the semen ejaculate). Being alkaline, the prostate fluid, which is milky whitish in color, helps the sperm survive in the acidic vaginal environment. So our prostate is therefore considered to be a gland because glands produce something.

The Professor of blending

I called the prostate gland the professor in charge of mixing but not professor know everything. You are wondering why? Because, the prostate mixes its fluids with those from the seminal vesicles to convey the sperm made in the testicles. Collectively these fluids rush through the prostate into the urethra during ejaculation. The urethra doubles as the semen pipe during ejaculation and as the urine pipe from the bladder, both fluids move from the angle of the penis.

The prostatic urethra is the path that runs through the prostate gland and is about 3cm((1) in distance. And you have heard about the controversial, Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a fluid produced in the prostate, it plays a key role in helping the sperm to swim into the uterus by helping to maintain the semen in liquid form. It opposes and mitigates the clotting enzyme in the seminal vesicle fluid, which in effect binds the semen to the woman's cervix, next to the uterus opening inside the vagina. PSA dissolves this glue with its own enzyme so that the sperm can hasten into the uterus and help impregnate an egg if it is available.

This is the same PSA that is tested during the PSA blood test, a very controversial test because of the many factors that can cause the results to vary extensively.

Muscle

For simplicity and better understanding a muscle is a body tissue consisting of long cells that contract when stimulated and produce motion or an organ that is essentially a mass of muscle tissue attached at either end to a fixed point and that by contracting moves or checks the movement of a body part. It has a physical strength, power and influence on a man.

So, the prostate is also a muscle that pushes the semen out through the penis with adequate power to enter into the vagina to help the sperm do well in getting into the cervix and to help reproduction.

Oh Man!

You are wondering why I am screaming. Probably you must know this because, the up and down movements of the prostate no doubt feels good, making sex pleasing and therefore helping reproduction and remember that is why prostate problem can also leave a man to be infertile

Women, where are you? It is your Man's G-Spot

Men also have a G-Spot so don't think that only women have G-Spot. Men prostate is their G-Spot. Do you how it is done? Simple, Prostate stimulation can create an extraordinarily well-built sexual response and strong orgasm in men that are open to this sexual method. So your ability to manage ejaculation at the prostate can also guide you to delayed orgasms and ejaculations where no semen is move out-so men suffering from premature ejaculation you happy now. But this method is done in superior Taoist and Tantric sexual practices to contain the sexual energy within.

Sexuality plays an important part in our health and wellbeing, but it is often not addressed in our rushed, modern world. Our puritan background and overachieving work ethic may have something to do with our reticence to delve there. Many people have taboos and wounding that can be triggered when they start looking into their sexuality. The ancient practices of Taoism and Tantra with their rich viewpoint can offer us a reawakening of a healthy sexuality.

Both Tantric and Taoist principles consider sexual energy the same as life force, and both practices use the energy centers of the body to increase life force as a means to increased spirituality and improved health and longevity. Both Tantra and Taoism have practices for conserving and building sexual energy. Joining of sexual energies by two partners is purported to bring the highest pleasure and spiritual enlightenment.

Medically, when two people make an intimate connection through sex, stress hormones decrease and serotonin increases. This provides a potent internal milieu for optimal health.

In researching Taoism, there is mostly information available on practices for males to use to energetically conserve their jing (life force) by learning to redirect the energy of orgasm throughout the body without ejaculating. The ancient texts gave much more instruction to men, and considered women to be merely a vessel or cauldron. While the place of women has changed over the years, less information is available for women to learn to redirect sexual energy. The Taoist practices are best learned with a teacher.

Tantric practices seem somewhat more approachable to the Westerner. Some simple steps for beginners are to create a sacred space, take it slowly, look into one another's eyes, and work with the breath. Breath is the most important element in Tantra. Using your breath, you can spread orgasmic energy from your genitals through your entire body. With your partner, you can synchronize the breath, one inhaling while the other is exhaling. There are more elaborate practices for moving the sexual life force energies through the body, some that are safest to practice with a teacher.

If you are ready to open up more energy and health by harnessing sexual energy, you may find Tantra or Taoism a helpful pursuit

Sieving

The prostate also acts as sieve and removes toxins or waste for defense of the sperm, which helps men chances of impregnation and also made sure that men start with the most favorable class of sperm. I consider this as the prostate's most significant function and, at the same time, can be one of the main reasons there is a rising problem of prostate disease and cancer as men in Ghana and the black communities as we deal with more and more toxins or wastes in our food, water and the surroundings.

Manhood for Life! Don't sleep on duty!

The prostate gland gives men their erections because the prostate erection nerves are in charge for erections. These nerves activate the penis to enlarge and solidify with added blood flowing into it, and this helps men in producing an erection.

So obviously, if these nerves, which attach to the sides of the prostate, get damaged then erectile difficulties are certain and they now call your inability to have sex with your woman due to prostate problem is called sleeping on duty! That is why many medical prostate procedures (surgery or radiation) have an unwanted side effect of erectile difficulties or impotence and also when men have a problem with their prostate been it enlarged prostate et al the men have problem with their sex life, so if you are suffering from sexual difficulties please kindly check your prostate.

Secretions

Secretion is the process of elaborating, releasing, and oozing chemicals, or a secreted chemical substance from a cell or gland. In contrast to excretion, the substance may have a certain function, rather than being a waste product.

Prostatic secretions also play an expensive function by defending the urethra from urinary tract infections, which appear to be a great deal rarer in men than women.

Valves

The prostate, surrounds the upper part of the urethra tube just below the bladder (the prostatic urethra), its controls the flow of urine. It does this by preventing urine from exit the bladder, apart from when unrestricted by urination. It also prevents urine from destructive ejaculate during orgasm. It does this in a very critical way by using the two small prostatic muscles called sphincters. They act as gatekeepers with shut-off valves to control and regulate the dual-purpose urethra tube. These gatekeepers make sure the right fluids flow at the right time  urination or ejaculation. Great one by God and not a demon at all!

One of the sphincters is situated where the bladder and the upper part of the prostate convene (the interior upper sphincter). In a healthy state, it prevents urination until the man feels the need to go and pee and stops seminal fluid from moving backwards into the bladder during ejaculation. When injured, semen is pushed back into the bladder and finally exits with normal urination. This is known as retrograde ejaculation because the normal one is called ante grade ejaculation and is an added possible side effect of prostate surgery  no chance of seeding a woman then, Ronald M Bazar said this!

The second, external lower sphincter is at the bottom of the prostate and is subject to our control. It prevents dribbling after urinating and is how as men voluntarily can delay urination when ill-timed to go. Incontinence finally occurs when control of either sphincter is damaged and urine leaks or flows uncontrollably, this force many men with prostate problems to wear adult diapers.

But men can voluntarily control the lower sphincter and to stop urine or semen from moving if men have enough Kegel muscle control, the ability to squeeze the flow shut. Any one of these sphincter muscles will block the urine until the push for to peeing takes control and the timing is right to release and let the urine flow.

An enlarged prostate or BPH can squeeze the prostatic urethra tube and the upper or lower sphincter, making urination difficult with a host of unpleasant, uncontrollable symptoms. BPH surgeries that remove part of the prostate can easily have side effects of incontinence or retrograde ejaculation.

Father or God of male Hormones

I call the prostate gland the father of men hormones. Because, it contains a vital enzyme, 5-alpha-reductase. This enzyme converts the hormone testosterone in the body to DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which is at least ten to thirty times more powerful than simple testosterone. This potent hormone DHT has numerous function including male sexual drive and function. As men age and at a point in time, a build-up of toxins in the prostate may affect the production of this enzyme, which is then accountable for the declining sex drive in men as they age.

DHT and testosterone have erroneously been under attack as responsible hormones in prostate problems rather than the extreme rise in modern male estrogen levels, leading to medical interventions with serious side effects including lack of libido. Estrogen levels rise because of the predominance of estrogens in factory foods, commercial meats and dairy and estrogen-mimicking chemicals present in body-care and household products. It's even found in our water and some plastic food packaging.

The prostate gland is a very complex gland with numerous functions; if you don't take good care of it then certain prostate disease can cause havoc on your health. So I entreat you as men to do everything possible now that you know the functions of the prostate gland to be smart and pay close attention to your prostate gland likewise our women because they play a critical role in ensuring the health of our prostate gland. You see a detrimental prostate can have a huge impact on our sexual function and our daily urination. So you can describe it any way you want it but if you don't take good care of it then you are in doom and your inability to enjoyed good has now been term sleeping on duty!

Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu is a Research Professor of Prostate Cancer & Holistic Medicine at Da Vinci College of Holistic Medicine, Larnaca city, Cyprus. You can reach him on 0541234556
Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), anti-corruption and media advocacy organisation, has congratulated the newly sworn-in Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, on her appointment to her current position.

In a Statement signed by the CEO, Raphael Godlove Ahenu in Sunyani, GLOMEF expressed the hope that considering the rich experiences gained over the years in both the bar and on the bench, Justice Sophia Akuffo comes into her new role with more innovative ideas that could help improve and transform the justice delivery system in the country.

The new Chief Justice must put in place proactive measures to restore the image of the judiciary by ensuring that corrupt judges are expeditiously and severely punished to serve as a deterrent to others, because a lot of Ghanaians still hold the perception that the Judiciary is very corrupt, the Statement said.

The NGO further called for pragmatic measure that would drastically minimise or possibly eliminate corruption from the judiciary to improve upon the level of confidence people have in the judiciary.

As part of measures to stop mob justice in the country, GLOMEF called for speedy adjudication of cases involving people suspected to have engaged in mob action and also ensure that those found culpable are severely dealt with according to the law.

GLOMEF noted that the immediate past Chief Justice, Theodora Georgina Wood, embarked on some programmes which were aimed at reforming the judiciary and improving justice delivery in general.

Among such initiatives, the NGO recounted, were the Specialized Courts and the Justice for all Programme and urged the new Chief Justice to continue with them and also introduce new programmes in the Judiciary that would inure to the benefit of Ghanaians.

The NGO further called for pragmatic measures that would drastically minimise or possibly eliminate corruption from the judiciary to improve upon the level of confidence people have in the judiciary.

The NGO also extended another congratulatory message to the Immediate-past Chief Justice, Mrs. Theodora Georgina Wood for her inclusion in the Council of State.

The NGO believes that her rich experiences over the years on the bench would be of immense benefit to the Council.

From Michael Boateng, Sunyani.
Hon. Osei Assibey Antwi-KMA boss

01.07.2017 LISTEN

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), as part of measures to manage disasters when they occur, has decided to stockpile adequate and relevant relief items from the Disaster Management Fund to assist victims of disasters.

The Metropolitan Chief Executive, Osei Assibey Antwi, while addressing Assembly members at an ordinary general assembly meeting, said the KMA would take advantage of the Disaster Management Fund to support disaster operations at the metropolitan and district levels, under the amended NADMO Act which has introduced new measures to address disasters.

He said the Assembly would liaise with the National Directorate of NADMO to seek further guidance on how to access and utilize such funds to mitigate disasters in our communities.

The KMA boss noted that since one of the key components of disaster management is the level of the communities' preparations in anticipation of unpredicted or inevitable events, the Assembly shall identify specific spots and designate them as safe havens, where victims of disasters can assemble for immediate relief.

He said since studies have shown that victims of disasters are rendered very vulnerable if no response is received within the first 24 hours, the KMA intends to mobilize volunteers in every electoral area in the metropolis and equipped them with the necessary training to assist affected persons in times of need.

Osei Assibey Antwi also indicated that the KMA shall resource and build the capacity of its NADMO staff and the volunteers to enable them carry out the required assessments and assist with the needed relief items, so that the suffering of the victims would be alleviated, whilst steps are taken to embark on the reconstruction phase of the disaster management process, within the shortest possible time.

He noted that all over the world, disasters have never been successfully managed and that they are done through a reactionary process instead of proactive actions where the communities are conscientised of the natural, man-made, self-inflicted and sometimes the inevitable risks surrounding them.

As a result, the KMA boss said the Assembly, through its Environmental Management Sub-Committee shall collaborate with National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), the Emergency Services, such as the Fire Service, Ghana Ambulance Service, as well as the Ghana Red Cross Society and St. John's Ambulance Service, to carry out massive public education on how to identify the various activities and occurrences that have the potential to trigger disasters.

He said the KMA would also collaborate with the Ghana Education Service to also explore the possibility of introducing the teaching of Domestic First Aid and other courses towards disaster risk reduction, as an extra curriculum activity in the schools.

He also proposed that such an exercise should be extended to various groups and associations in the metropolis.

On Managing Flooding, MCE Assibey Antwi said since the Kumasi Metropolis has several streams and rivers such as Susan, Aboabo, Suntreso, Subin and Wewe among others, with most of the suburbs in low lying terrain, the KMA would take a cursory look at the landscape of Kumasi and find ways of reducing the incidence of floods within communities.

According to him, the KMA would intensify the ongoing projects and commence the dredging of the storm drains, as well as the construction of concrete walls in the rivers/streams, as well as maintain water courses and drains to required standards to avoid overflow or flooding.

They also intend to remove waste from water courses/drains, minimise shoreline erosion that claims vast portions of our lands for settlement and agricultural purposes and discuss with the residents living very close to the storm drains on their possible relocation to higher and safer grounds.

The KMA boss described as alarming the 671 fires recorded in the metropolis, out of the 1,356 cases recorded in the Ashanti Region.

Quoting data from Regional Fire Service, the MCE said Kumasi recorded 136 fire outbreaks between January and February 2017, and that from 1993 to date the Kumasi Central market alone recorded 49 fires, out of which 19 were classified as major outbreaks.

He also referred to the fire outbreak on April 10, 2017, which destroyed the stores in front of the Central Market.

From Sebastian R. Freiku, Kumasi.
01.07.2017 LISTEN

THE ASHANTI Regional Police Command has arrested suspected armed robbers after engaging in a series of robberies at Kejetia.

DCOP Ken Yeboah, the Regional Police Commander, at a press briefing, explained that the suspected armed robbers -Obediaba Joseph, 19 and Salisu Yakubu 20, both unemployed, were arrested at Asante Akropong in the Atwima Nwabiagya district.

According to him, the Divisional Command had intelligence that the suspects have in their possession some weapons and ammunitions, which they have kept in their rooms at Atonsu for their criminal activities.

He said the police patrol team, armed with the above information, proceeded to the house and arrested the suspects.

A search conducted in their room revealed two Masks, 3 Rifles and Ten (10) AA live cartridges. When they were interrogated, Salisu Yakubu claimed ownership of the weapons, while the second suspect, Obediaba also confessed to police that about two weeks ago, he and three others, names not yet known, robbed a woman of her four thousand Ghana cedis (GHC4000) at Kejetia and shared the booty among themselves.

Both suspects have been charged with Robbery and Possession of firearms without lawful excuse and are being processed for court.

In a related development, the command has arrested Yaw Boateng, 37, who is also known as Ogu, alias Ajangugy, who was declared wanted two and half years ago.

The command also used the opportunity to appeal to the general public to volunteer information that can lead to the arrest of the following persons, who are still on their wanted list -Killer, Baby Last, Solo, Adepa, Hamidu, Abdulia, Tofik (Medownwodown), occasionally seen at Aboabo, Kofi (from Puano) and Azumah Yahaya-Wa.

From Ernest Best Anane, Kumasi.
YaoundA (AFP) - One civilian was killed and two others injured Saturday when four female bombers blew themselves up in Cameroon's Far North, an area regularly targeted by Boko Haram jihadists, local sources told AFP.

The incident took place in Mora, near the northwestern border with Nigeria, during the early hours of Saturday morning, when four female bombers set off the deadly blasts near the edge of town, a source close to the security services said.

Mora is home to the headquarters of the first sector of the Mixed Multinational Force, an anti-insurgent regional force, as well as a large artillery unit of the Cameroonian army.

"There was one civilian victim and two injured," the source said, adding that all four bombers also died.

The attackers were trying to reach the centre of town when they were spotted by members of the vigilance committee and troops, the source said.

They then detonated the bombs.

Details of the attack were confirmed to AFP by a source close to the local authorities.

Vigilance committees are made up of local residents and aim to inform security forces of any suspicious activity in a bid to prevent attacks by Boko Haram, which has been waging an insurgency since 2009.

Though Boko Haram was born in Nigeria, the Islamic State-affiliated group has carried out frequent attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, prompting the formation of the regional force to fight back.

The Far North region, which borders Nigeria, has seen a resurgence in attacks blamed on Boko Haram after months of relative calm.

Six civilians were killed nearly two weeks ago in a double suicide attack in Kolofata, and two others died in Limani in early June when a female bomber blew herself up near the town's public school.

Some 200,000 Cameroonians from the Far North region have fled their villages in fear of the violence.
The Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini has held up calls for independent investigation into allegation that some of his colleagues last year, received E100,000 from the National Lottery Authority, after deliberating on amendments of the Lotteries Act 2006, (Act 722).

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) in a joint statement issued Thursday, called for an independent probe into the possible bribery scandal that has hit Parliament and the Lottery Authority.

It followed expose by Joy FMs Super Morning Show host, Kojo Yankson, who intercepted a series of emails in which Head of Legal Department at the NLA, David Lamptey requested then Director General, Brigadier General Martin Ahiaglo (Rtd.) to authorise the release of a total sum of E150,000 to facilitate passage of the amendments in the Act 722, in 2016.

In the email, Mr. Lamptey indicated the funds were intended to be used to push the bill to ensure its smooth passage by the legislature.

Justifying the move, Mr. Lamptey then told Kojo Yankson in an interview that the money was used on accommodation and other resources when the NLA organised a workshop for members of the Finance Committee of Parliament on the Bill at Royal Senchi Hotel in the Eastern region last year.

Former Chair of the Committee, James Klutse Avedzi admitted receiving the money but maintained he received only E100,000 from the NLA and not 150,000. The remaining E50,000 is yet to be accounted for. He told Joy FM the money was paid to them as allowance/per diem contradicting the NLAs claim it was expended on hotel accommodation.

Speaking on Joy FMs weekly news analysis programme Newsfile, Saturday July 1, 2017, Mr. Inusah Fuseini said the development has actually cast a negative image on parliament.

The former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in the erstwhile John Mahama administration, questioned why the MPs will agree to the NLAs decision to organise the the workshop in Senchi and receive money while the very sitting you are having, parliament recognizes it [and] you are paid allowance.

Why would they take it to Senchi; how many members attended the brainstorming session before it was submitted to the house?

I am tempted to support the need for investigation into the case, he yielded.

Andrew Egyapa Mercer

His colleague on the side of the Majority and MP for Sekondi, Andrew Agyapa Mercer, however, doubts if the Parliamentarians would allow themselves to be dishonestly persuaded.

If you look at the quantum of money that was being alleged to be given to Finance Committee membersreally is it a bribe? Do committees of parliament pass laws? They dont, he stated.

He said the fact that the Bill was not even passed before the previous Parliament was dissolved, is enough proof that the money was not given to them as bribe to hurry the Bill.

Mr. Mercer vehemently stated that: It is practically impossible to bribe a committee to push a bill.

Prof. Stephen Adei

Dean of Arts and Sciences at the Ashesi University, Prof. Stephen Adei who participated in the discussions suggested the state should consider building resort outside Accra where once a while, Parliamentarians can move to hold committee sittings.

According to him, "there is the need occasionally, for parliamentarians to be out of their immediate environment" so they can deliberate on issues without unnecessary interference.

This he noted, could limit the possibility of the MPs finding themselves in such situation and go a long way to help in improving the integrity and reputation of parliament.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Jerry Tsatro Mordy | Email: [email protected], Twitter: @jerrymordy
01.07.2017 LISTEN

It must be pretty obvious to many in Ghana by now that it is only the vigilance of the media that will save our nation from being destroyed by high-level corruption.

As things currently stand, perforce, the media must focus on the regime of President Akufo-Addo. But we must also examine the past - and help bring all those who took part in the brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana during the Mahama-era to book too.

However, having said that, it also needs pointing out that every fair-minded and independent-minded Ghanaian citizen, who is also a one-nation patriot and nationalist, will concur with those who say it is still too early to judge the government of President Akufo-Addo.

Many such Ghanaians simply await passage of legislation establishing the office of the independent special public prosecutor to be passed by Parliament.

Current events show clearly that the president was right and very wise in deciding that he would use someone outside his regime to fight high-level corruption in Ghana.

This blog wholeheartedly backs the appointment of Mr. Akoto Ampaw as the first independent public prosecutor. He is fearless, strong-willed, fair-minded, principled, and, best of all, firmly committed to riddimg Ghana of high-level corrpution.

In light of the many shenaningans the downstrean sector of Ghana's oil industry is awash with - which are slowly bleeding Mother Ghana to death whiles enriching a callous, super-ruthless, greedy and powerful few - it is now clear that it is only when the independent special public prosecutor starts his work that the final battle to bring an end to egregious high-level corruption in Ghana can begin in earnest.

The unedifying war of words - over the sale of contaminated fuel by the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) - between the two biggest political parties in Ghana, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), shows clearly how systemic graft is slowly strangulating our nation.

The question is: How can anyone possibly justify the importation for sale in Ghana of substandard fuel?

And how can anyone who truly loves Mother Ghana think it morally right to reward a party "financier" with the job of running BOST?

Are we to assume that the main objective of the appointment is to enable his ruling party to engage in pork-barrel-politricks distributing sundry oil sector downstream Kweku-Ananse-contracts - to create a new clutch of super-wealthy NPP crony-capitalits: the very sin the NPP accuses the NDC of.

In other words the constituent parties that make up the NPP/NDC duopoly - that have dominated the politics of our country since 1992 - think that it is OK to treat BOST and other strategic state-owned entities as veritable cash-cows. Incredible.

To protect our nation and its people the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media must make fighting high-level corruption in our homeland Ghana their number one priority-task.

Alas, if we don't make those who engage in high-level corruption understand that they will eventually be exposed by the media, the greediest of Ghana's many thieves-in-high-places will rob this country blind and eventually destroy it.

As society's watchdogs, the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media must not allow that to happen. They must constantly keep their most powerful spotlights focused on high-level corruption in Ghana - and help to expose all those who engage in it. Enough is enough. Haaba.
01.07.2017 LISTEN

The National Science and Maths Quiz NSMQ has been able to capture the hearts of Ghanaians, in the way and manner only the Blackstars were able to, and I would like us to think and reflect on these issues suitable for this moment before the fire dies out.....

So having been on campus when the competitions began, I was at one of the outdoor socialization games held for the schools involved.

I ended up making some new friends with some of them who hoped to enter the University of Ghana.

To my dismay, most of the contestants I interacted with all wanted to pursue Medicine in UG.

We are all familiar with stories of many brilliant chaps not getting into Medical School even with their excellent WASSCE results; or sometimes too, students having to move from KNUST to LEGON during their 2nd or 3rd year to pursue Medicine or vice versa. Two of my own brilliant course mates moved after 2years of nursing school to pursue Medicine in KNUST.

I think Medicine is a great course, however, I believe if we want to be a prosperous nation, we need more and more of world class trained science related professionals such as Engineers of all kinds and other pure science and pure maths related professionals.

Last year a member of Prempeh's Brilla' team got 8As but was rejected for UGMS and was given Biomedical engineering instead. He was devastated though his parent was hopeful that he will be successful with a reapplication this year, the public outrage meant a lot.

So I did a little research on biomedical engineering to help my little 'Brilla' sweetheart.

In fact in my opinion I found the course more fascinating than his dream medicine course, and foresaw a much more rewarding career life for him if he's able to at least graduate with an upper in UG and got the chance to further abroad.

With lots of persuasive talking and literal begging at a point, I decided to introduce him to a friend of mine who had done an MSc. in an engineering course at Cambridge University (to be his inspirational mentor) and also got him a level 400 friend of mine ending his biomedical engineering bachelors who was more exposed to the UG system in that respect.

He was encouraged and begun to do his own investigations into the course and found out more details about an exciting career he could build out of biomedical engineering.

He then decided voluntarily, to abandon the plans to reapply to Medical School.

Inasmuch as his parents weren't too happy over that, they strongly believe in the potential of their son to excel at whatever he decides to do.

He accepted my challenge to him- to aim at graduating with a First Class or at least an Upper: although only 9 people have made it out of biomedical engineering with a 1st class since the inception of the course in 2004/2005 academic year.

So far he's on track and I believe so much that he would make it.

However, how about all the other brilliant chaps who will not have the encouraging encounter of support and of speaking of their interest in the subjects they have been "dumped in"?

Those who will find themselves in the pure chemistry class, statistics class, and the various engineering programs- as medical school "rejectees"?

Should they keep reapplying to Medical School?

Or wait and bait, and hope the new fashionable Graduate Entry Medical Program GEMP will console them?

I think it's about time we get SHS leavers to know about the wide variety of science course available in our universities; their prospective career paths in the various field, and have them choose these courses freely and willingly- rather than, PUSH them into those (far brilliant) courses as medical school "rejectees".

In fact I believe the other way round is more probable.

In addition we must find a means of making these courses more student- friendly once they enrol on them.

I don't know why, but it is very difficult for people (we all knew were very brilliant) to come out of these course with a first class or even Upper divisions.

Not because they stopped being brilliant when they entered university, but because first of all, they are demoralised from the start and to add insult to injury, it seems they must work and learn ( In some case chew baba) to "breaking point" just to excel in these course (which surprisingly are easy for them at the masters level abroad).

This is because majority of lecturers in these course do not teach to "pleasing point" yet they are Over-The-Top hard to please!

I am not sure about KNUST/ UCC but in LEGON the number of Graduates we have from these Science and Maths and Engineering-related courses is nothing to write home about.

The fact of the matter is that the Ghanaian educational system does not support (to satisfaction) pure science, maths and engineering courses in the universities.

The way around it is to make it more easier for brilliant student to get the grades they require to further abroad or home.

Unfortunately however, Some ( In fact most) Ghanaian Lecturers design the course to, as it were, bring out the worst in our brilliant chaps instead of bringing out the best.

The brilliant students end up with Lower or 3rd Class Degrees making it impossible or very difficult to further, and because career paths for these courses are also not advanced in our country, these graduates end up doing far less in jobs which are far below their brain power.

It is a pathetic situation and a vicious cycle which I want us to think about as we celebrate our Brilla boys and girls.

Let's stand up and Speak about these things.

To Ghanaians:

Let's not live for only the momentary joy and euphoria the NSMQ brings during those winning moments.

To our headmasters;

Let's make sure our brilliant contestants and those who are not contesting but are equally brilliant are exposed to the varied options of courses and careers they could build in other fields.

To university management and government;

Let's give our brilliant chaps a better experience in furthering their various interests at the university level.

To our Lecturers,

Let's give them the opportunity to provide Ghana with a variety of world class professionals.

Janet Maame Serwaa Arkorful; the writer, is a Student-Nurse, and General Secretary of the University of Ghana Students Representative Council, SRC.

She may be reached through the following email addresses:

[email protected]

[email protected]
Recently, Chief John Nwodo, President-General of the Apex Igbo Cultural Organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo, addressed the Anambra State House of Assembly concerning the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB leaders alleged call to Ndigbo to boycott the Anambra State Governorship elections slated for November. He said: News that reached us in the past few days that Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB, has declared that there will be no election in Anambra in November is shocking and disturbing. I hereby countermand that declaration as President General of Ohaneze. Whereas Ohaneze understands the marginalization and unfair treatment of Igbo which have given rise to self-determination movements in Igboland, leaders of these movements must not arrogate to themselves the supreme leadership of Igboland. Statements of the kind credited to Nnamdi Kanu are provocative, misleading and unproductive. Why should Anambra people be denied the opportunity to choose their own leader? Why should any of us who is not from Anambra, no matter how highly placed, descend to the arena and dictate for Anambra people when to vote, whether to vote or who to vote for? Anambra, nay Igbo, are still part and parcel of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Yes, we are not happy with our treatment in Nigeria. Yes, some of us want Biafra. Yes, some of us prefer a restructured Federal Republic of Nigeria. But the fact remains that we are still part and parcel of the present Federal Republic of Nigeria, bound by its laws, no matter how repressive or unjust. Our approach to reforms of our laws even if it leads to

self-determination or restructuring must be lawful. We must convince other Nigerians of our point of view, we must strive to make others share our convictions. Our language must be civil, respectful and lead to consensus building. We must resist any attempt to turn division amongst us, as to which way we must go, become a source of altercations between us. As we speak, very many of our people living in Northern Nigeria are in complete awe and consternation regarding how safe they will be after October 1st. Other Northerners living amongst us are also worried. The Inspector General of Police has taken public notice of Nnamdis comments, which may amount to inviting a possible invasion of Anambra by the Nigeria Police, increasing the already existing siege on our people, which may lead to daily extortion on our highways. All these developments have arisen out of unguarded utterances. I find no venue more suited for the statements I make here. Every constituent part of Anambra is represented here. I believe that the honourable members here are competent enough to carry the Ohaneze message to every nook and cranny of Anambra State.

Nwodo explained further that Ohaneze leadership would visit other Houses of Assembly in Igbo-speaking states, to acquaint them on the stand of the Ohaneze on issues concerning the people. He expressed happiness with the peace that exists in Anambra State and the steady progress being made over the years, noting that the November election could only improve and not retard the progress.

This swipe of the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo on the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, for allegedly ordering a boycott of the November 18, 2017 governorship election in Anambra State raises very important issues.

The position of the Igbo in the entire Nigerian experiment should be very straight forward. The Igbo are the ones being hounded for agitating for the break-up of the Nigerian nation. But the Igbo also know that they are the ones for whom the unity of Nigeria means so much. They are the ones who have made and who keep making the most enormous sacrifices to keep Nigeria together. They are the ones who have invested their money and skills in the development of Nigerian villages, towns and cities other than their own. And these facts are incontrovertible.

For the Igbo, being truly Nigerian means that ethnic chauvinism has to be expunged from the national dictionary. It means that any Nigerian child born in any part of Nigeria has legitimacy of citizenship of his or her place of birth. It means that any citizen of Nigeria can live, work and help develop any village, town or city in Nigeria where he feels comfortable to live in, without being constantly harassed and reminded by those who claim to own the land that he is a foreigner in his own country.

It means that Nigerians have to realize and accept that they are Nigerians first, before they can see themselves as Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba. It will possibly mean the death of tribal leadership. So, from what the constitution of the country specifies, the Igbo are saying that either they are truly Nigerian or they are not. And if they are not, they should be allowed to go!

In this struggle for self determination, no one can conveniently deny the role the IPOB leadership has played in bringing the plight of the Igbo into international limelight. The organisation of our young people agitating for self determination across nations has made the plight and demand of the Igbo more globally appreciated than in those days we fought the secessionist war in the late 60s. That is also important. In one of my articles titled The Agility of Youths and Wisdom of Old Age, I made it clear that in this struggle the Igbo will need both the agility of their youths and the wisdom of their elders to pull through. And no one should be seen to lose face, if we must create the impression to the world that we not only know what is good for us, but also that we are together in this struggle.

Most Igbo know that what we need is not a breakaway. Kanu knows that too. And we also know that the authorities in Nigeria will not easily concede to hold either a plebiscite or a referendum to enable Nigerians determine how they want to live together unless they are put under immense pressure like some of us threatening to break up. Kanu knows that as well. And I think the leadership of Ohaneze should have known that this is all politics. The leadership should have known that the Igbo are only asking for a fairer deal, and that such a treatment will not easily come from the feudal lords in the North because the taste of power is never relinquished without a fight.

It is not just enough to keep wishing or even crying for a plebiscite or a referendum to decide how Nigerians want to live together as one big, populous and massively endowed country. Something has to be done to diffuse the

enormous economic grip a few families in the country, mostly in the North have over the majority, which amounts to taking the country to ransom. And that something is to dangle alternatives before the Nigerian authorities: it is either you restructure the country or we go our separate ways. Beyond that, I think the Igbo know the hard facts that count.

One fact that must be associated with the success of the May 30 sit-home order throughout Igboland is that people obeyed because they did not want their shops attacked and looted by hoodlums if they opened them up on that day. So, in a sense, the success may have motivated Kanu to convince himself that one more step would give the Federal government the reasonable force they need to cave into the demands of both the extrovert agitators and the silent ones. His mistake was that he failed to consult the elders. That mistake should have been mildly corrected by Ohaneze privately calling him to order to rescind the call. If he refused, then the leadership would be right to approach the representatives of the people with a stop order on Kanu. But I am not sure this was the case.

The impression being created now is that Igbo youth leadership is at crossroads with Igbo elders. God forbid. Igbo is Igbo. Whether they come from Anambra or from Imo, from Abia or Ebonyi, from Enugu, Port Harcourt or Asaba, Igbo is Igbo. So, I suggest the IPOB leadership visits Ohaneze leadership to map out a clear vision of what is best for the Igbo in a united Nigeria, hold a press conference and issue a communique together to put things right for the Igbo.

This little controversy must not be allowed to create the impression to the world that the Igbo are divided if we know what is good for us. The need for this invigorated sense of unity becomes more poignant when we consider the fact that the National Chairman of the ruling APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has just distanced himself from any pre-election promise to restructure the country in its present context. Oyegun is quoted as saying that the APC promise to devolve more powers to the states and to adopt the principles of true federalism did not tantamount restructuring. And clearly, his position pits the party he chairs directly against the council of state governors which is visibly encouraging and supporting the agitation for a restructuring of the Nigerian nation. What else should the Igbo be told about mending their fence so that they can speak with one voice?

 Mr Asinugo is a London-based journalist and publisher of Imo State Business Link Magazine
Kinshasa (AFP) - The United Nations on Saturday called on the Democratic Republic of Congo to publish a timetable for elections which are due by the end of the year.

Under a deal brokered last New Year's Eve, President Joseph Kabila agreed to a transitional arrangement enabling him to stay in power pending presidential and legislative elections by the end of 2017.

In a statement, the UN's special representative for DR Congo, Maman Sidikou, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) "to publish an official, consensus-based timetable, without further delay" for staging the elections.

The transitional deal, brokered by the influential Catholic church, aimed at avoiding fresh political violence in the sprawling central African country of 71 million people after Kabila failed to step down when his mandate ended in mid-December.

Under it, Kabila was allowed to remain in office pending the elections, ruling in tandem with a transitional watchdog and a new premier, to be chosen within opposition ranks.

CENI spokesman Jean-Pierre Kalamba reacted sharply to Sidikou's call, saying he could not "give orders to CENI."

Kalamba said the question of publishing an electoral calendar would be dealt with by a new electoral law which had to be voted by parliament, and legislators were on holiday, returning for duty on September 15.

Kabila, 46, has been in power since 2001 and under the constitution does not have the right to run again.
01.07.2017 LISTEN

At their press conference last Friday, the majority side of Ghana's Parliament accused Mr Awuah Darko of transferring between 2.5ghc and 3.5ghc twice every month between October 2015 to June 2016 to the seat of government.Flanked by the majority leader Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu and other leaders on the majority side, the MP for Odotobri, Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi, made this allegation without supporting it with any concrete evidence. On Citi FM, Umaru Sanda gave the MP the opportunity to substantiate his allegations but the minister couldn't provide any. How much profit was BOST making monthly to transfer that colossal amount to the seat of government twice every month. It is hard to give a precise estimate of the effect of Parliament on the other sectors of government though its role is best understood by regarding it not primarily as a check on the executive but as one of the institutions through which our government operates. We have a committee in Parliament charged with the responsibility of monitoring government business and to investigate all government businesses and transactions including operations at all state agencies. Why is the majority raising this allegation at this time?

When similar allegations of massive corruption at BOST was reported to President Mahama, he did not use his party's strength in Parliament to suppress the allegations rather,he ordered for a comprehensive investigations into the allegations raised and an independent body was contracted to do the forensic investigation Ernest and Young ( E&Y), a renowned international accounting firm.Portions of the report revealed deliberate activities of top officials at BOST who supported the BDCs to rob BOST of petroleum products at the depots leading to significant petroleum product losses that affected the national strategic reserve of petroleum products. President Mahama quickly acted on the report which revealed choreographed acts by making changes at the place replacing the C.E.O with Mr Awuah Darko. Contrary to the majority's allegations, the appointment of Mr Awuah Darko and other major changes at the place halted the overdrawn balances at BOST. Before Mr Awuah took over, most of the key BDCs were indebted to BOST to the tune of millions of liters of petroleum products, which was projected to be in excess of tens of millions of dollars.

Another bad practice President Mahama through E& Y halted at BOST, is insufficient documentation. Prior to the investigation, some underlying documents had not been made available to support information recorded in the monthly stock reconciliation carried out by BOST and BDC officials and some BDCs. This is the very practice being introduced back into operations at BOST by the new management. The majority MPs have the Mahama precedent to guide them and will advise them to impress upon the President to act swiftly on the matter just as Mahama did than defending this obvious criminal act in the media.

THE SUBSTANTIVE ISSUE

The issue at stake is not assessment of Mr Awuah's stewardship or, rolling in President Mahama to counter an obvious truth. NPA the parent agency of the sector has stated emphatically that, Movenpiina Energy and ZUPOIL were not licenced to undertake any commercial activity in the downstream petroleum industry at the time the BOST boss offered them the deal. The activity according to NPA,therefore infringes on section 11 of National Authority Act,ACT 691,2005.

The second issue is the sale of the contaminated product for public consumption when Management knew it was not a good product and knew the consequences of their action including damaging engines of innocent consumers ( buyers),and serious environmental consequences. These are the major issues at stake. If the majority has other issues to deal with, it has the right to do so but I don't think theirs partisan inclinations should bury their supervisory and investigatory roles.

HISTORICAL FACTS

The problems at BOST began from 2005 and such internal deals contributed to the ToR debt which was settled by the Mills administration. These nefarious activities led to the over $600m debt ToR owed GCB and other service providers. BOST started making substantial profits after the changes made by President Mahama and records available confirm this fact. The fake figures being peddled around by the majority, shows the confidence they have in the once distressed state agency...
01.07.2017 LISTEN

I am beginning to get a bit edgy about the fate of Hon. Kennedy Okompreko Agyapong, the firebrand Member of Parliament for Assin Central Constituency in the Central region. He has since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) assumed the mantle of government on 7 January 2017, been repeatedly alerting the populace to what awaits him at the hands of his fellow NPP faithful. His fears were confirmed by a pastor/prophet whom I read about recently on Ghanaweb predicting that some NPP members are planning to eliminate Hon. Kennedy Agyapong hence calling on the nation to pray to God to avert that plot.

I wonder why some people within the NPP family would want to kill him if the said-pastors prophesy is nothing but the absolute truth even though many a Ghanaian commentator blasted and branded him a fake pastor/prophet.

Has there ever been any smoke without fire? No! Therefore, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong has every cause to get worried about his life at the hands of not only the members of the opposition NDC party that he has been exposing for their corrupt practices but also, his own friends within the NPP governing party.

Who could be in the NPP plotting to eliminate him physically through contract killing, mob lynching or spiritual means of juju or whatever? Will they try to kill him by running him over using a car or through a head-on collision?

Has he so soon become the enemy of the members of the political party he funded and helped to come to power? Has he become a friend of yesterday but an enemy today to his own NPP family members? I cannot get my head around this.

Let me be frank with the NPP members some of whom have started, or are planning, to involve themselves in corruption that they may hate or plan to eliminate Hon. Kennedy Agyapong for one thing and one thing only. They want to practise the same disgusting and ruinous corruption as practised by the members of NDC but feel threatened by Hon. Kennedy Agyapong whom they have tagged as loquacious. If this is not the reason, what else could their reason be?

The NPP could be as corrupt as the NDC if they were left to have their own way. Some of those in government may think their party is in power so it is chop, chop time for them. Therefore, they will not take it kindly to Hon. Kennedy Agyapong should he dare be an obstruction in their way to achieving their selfish and parochial objective of amassing illegal wealth.

Let me state it clearly to all those NPP members and sycophants aspiring to engage in illegal means to enrich themselves because their party is in power that the dynamics have changed. Most Ghanaians have become a bit savvy politically. They will not sit down for any politician to come and commit their usual nonsensical daylight robberies on the country as it was the common phenomenon under former President John Dramani Mahama and his NDC-led government.

Lessons are to be learnt from the Ye gye ye sika demo organised and led by Captain Smart of Adom FM radio station. Awareness has been created in Ghanaians and we shall continue to sensitize them to the problems faced by the nation because of politicians and people placed in higher positions embezzling State funds.

From the look of things, Ghanaians will not hesitate to embark on civil agitations as a check on our inherently corrupt politicians and leaders. Subsequently, any malice they bear against Hon. Kennedy Agyapong is to me pure nonsense.

Yes, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong now appears to be a used-sponge which is good for nothing but to be cast away. When the party was in opposition and in dire need of financial help, NPP members looked up to him as though he was a tree bearing cash. He helped as much as he could. Now that the party is in power, his wages is the threat on his life if his public claims to that effect and the pastors prophesy are anything to go by.

Anyway, nobody from within or outside the NPP should dare kill him as the repercussions could be enormous and disastrous. Now that Ghanaians have come to realise how to cherish the honest and bold ones among them who are fighting the cancerous corruption, the bane of Ghanas socio-economic development and prosperity, the public will revolt violently should anyone like Hon. Kennedy Agyapong or Captain Smart suffer political assassination.

For the attention of public readers, the immediate causes of the First World War lay in decisions made by statesmen and generals during the July Crisis of 1914. This crisis was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by an ethnic Serb who had been supported by a nationalist organization in Serbia. The war began in the Balkans in late July 1914 and ended in November 1918, leaving 17 million dead and 20 million wounded

Look at the devastation the death of one person, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, caused the world. A word to the wise is sufficient.

I shall in the coming few days quit online publications to retreat into my lair to do something else of more importance, although, I will resurface from time to time to write about the ongoing Kumawu chieftaincy dispute.

Long live Hon. Kennedy Agyapong. Long live President Nana Akufo-Addo and Ghana!

Rockson Adofo

(Written on Saturday, 1 July 2017)
On the left is the cast brass head, Ori Olokun, an Ife head, in British Museum and on the right the sculpture by Damien Hirst which he calls Golden Heads(Female).

01.07.2017 LISTEN

For, not content with being a racial slanderer, one who did not hesitate to denigrate, in such uncompromisingly nihilistic terms, the ancestral fount of the black races - a belief which this ethnologist himself observed - Frobenius was also a notorious plunderer, one of a long line of European archaeological raiders. The museums of Europe testify to this insatiable lust of Europe; the frustrations of the Ministries of Culture of the Third World and, of organizations like UNESCO are a continuing testimony to the tenacity, even recidivist nature of your routine receiver of stolen goods.  Wole Soyinka - Nobel Lecture. (1)

There have been some very strong reactions, mainly on the part of Nigerians and other Africans on the use/misuse, appropriation/misappropriation by the English artist, Damien Hirst, of the image of the famous Nigerian sculpture, the bronze head from Ife, Olokun, in his current exhibition at Venice, entitled  Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable

Many have accused the English artist of copying Nigerian art, some said he had stolen Nigerian culture, and others accused him of plagiarizing Yoruba art. He has been called a thief, day-light robber, and many other names. (2) Very strong reactions came from the Nigerian artist, Victor Ehikhamenor and the Nigerian painter Laolu Senbanjo.

For the first time, Nigeria is represented at Venice Biennale by the painter Victor Ehikhamenor , sculptor Peju Alatise , and performance artiste Qudus Onikeku .

We reproduce in an annex below Laolu Senbanjos letter addressed to Damien Hirst because it discusses many aspects of the issues involved and deserves to be read by all. (3)

Damien Hirst is by no means the first European to have copied African art or, if you prefer, to have let himself be inspired by African art. The great Pablo Picasso is a well-known example of Western artists benefitting from such inspiration as well as a whole lot of modern artists, the so-called avantgarde, Fernand Leger, Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, Max Ernst, Constantin Brancusi, Amedeo Modigliani, Miro, Armand, etc. This inspiration has been well discussed in several exhibitions and in the well-known book by William Rubin, Primitivism in 20th Century Art (1984).

Most people accept that African art was an important factor in the birth of modern art. The influence of African culture on Western culture whether in art or in music and dance as well as in other areas is no longer questioned. What is sometimes irritating is the tendency by some to minimize or to deny the role of African art. Some of the very artists who obviously have been influenced by African art even try to deny knowledge of this art or its presence in their work. Brancusi who was obviously influenced by African art tended to deny this influence. We have the statement from Joseph Epstein: Brancusi, some of whose early work was influenced by African art, now declares categorically that one must not be influenced by African art, and he even went so far as to destroy work of his that he thought had African influence in it.(4)

Even Picasso has been credited with saying he does not know Negro art even though this has often been interpreted as a joke by the artist. But so, widespread is this tendency of denial or minimizing that even the Musee du quai Branly thought it useful to organize recently an exhibition entitled Picasso Primitif showing the undoubted influence of African art on the great artist.

A most important factor in understanding the strong reaction of Africans to the use of the Olokun image by Damien Hirst is contained in the statement by Victor Ehikhamenor:

The British are back for more from 1897 to 2017. The Oni of Ife must hear this. "Golden heads (Female)" by Damien Hirst currently part of his Venice show "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable" at Palazzo Grassi. For the thousands of viewers seeing this for the first time, they won't think Ife, they won't think Nigeria. Their young ones will grow up to know this work as Damien Hirst's. As time passes it will pass for a Damien Hirst regardless of his small print caption. The narrative will shift and the young Ife or Nigerian contemporary artist will someday be told by a long nose critic "Your work reminds me of Damien Hirst's Golden Head". We need more biographers for our forgotten. #ifesculptures #classicnigerianart #workbynigerianartist #ifenigeria #lestweforget #nigeria #abiographyoftheforgotten

Benin artefacts have become pan-African icons and represent excellence in African art. Corresponding to the status of the Benin artefacts, the notorious British invasion of Benin in 1897 has also come to stand for the various European imperialist attacks on African countries whether in Asante in1874 by the British or their attack of Ethiopia in1868 that involved large scale looting of artefacts by invading Europeans. The looting or stealing of artefacts in various European expeditions, such as the French Dakar-Djibouti Expedition (1931-1933) as well as the fascist Italian dictator, Mussolinis invasion of Ethiopia and stealing of artefacts, including the Obelisk at Axum in 1937, remain fresh in the minds of many Africans. The French robberies have been well documented by Michel Leiris in Afrique Fantome .

Added to colonialist military aggressions, were also the stealing by ethnologists and other European civil, military, and missionary personnel that traversed the continent under one pretext or another. The notorious German ethnologist, Leo Frobenius whose activities in Nigeria were too much even for the British colonialists, is a good example of scholar/robber that the continent has known.

Equally annoying for many Africans is the European racist insistence on calling African art primitive/savage whilst at the same time looting and stealing our artefacts on a large scale. That designation is still being used by many scholars and dealers since it appears to correspond to their assessment of Africans and African cultures. Sometimes they put such disparaging descriptions in inverted commas and feel then authorized to say whatever else they want in their assessment.

Looted Nigerian and other African artefacts have continued to remain in Western museums and other institutions but all calls for restitution have fallen on deaf ears. Worse, demands for restitution have been met with insulting and deprecatory arguments by Western museum directors and scholars, basically questioning the intelligence and ability of Africans. These looted artefacts are now selling for millions in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, and New York.

Many have also tried to present different and incomplete histories of the looted artefacts. Many Westerners have not abandoned the belief in their superiority to Africans and have even acted or spoken as if they had a God-given right and duty to preserve African artefacts even against Africans. Writings and speeches by directors of major Western museums are replete with such arrogant assumptions. They have sought to take hold and control of the narrative of African history. Whether in London or in Boston, illegal holders of looted African artefacts pretend they need our artefacts to explain African culture and history. That we Africans would also like to have our artefacts back to tell our own history seems to be a point of view that is difficult for many Westerners to understand or to accept. Some even doubt whether we are really interested in our artefacts and suppose we are only interested in getting these objects back to sell them on Western markets.

In many ways, our contemporary Westerners appear to be worse than their predecessors who stole or looted African artefacts. Old imperialists and colonialists may have acted on their beliefs in the various atrocities they committed. Our contemporary Westerners mostly reject, at least verbally, racism, colonialism, and imperialism but they are not prepared to return any of the looted objects that these evil ideologies brought to the West. Indeed, some have the impudence to reply, in response to demands for restitution, that the artefacts are better kept in the West.

When we suggest that looted African artefacts should be returned, Westerners argue that we want to re-write history. We are not interested in rewriting history but in correcting the present imbalance whereby there are more iconic African artefacts in the West than in Africa. Indeed, nobody will contest that the best places to study African art are not, Abuja, Accra, Cotonou, Harare, Johannesburg, Kumasi, Lagos, Luanda, and Maputo. Those who can afford the costs involved and get visa, go to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Frankfurt, Hamburg, London, Lisbon, and New York. Western cities not only keep documents such as the looted historical documents of Ethiopia but also most of the archives of the colonial period. Those who want to do research in African history or culture are obliged to go to former colonial countries where the colonial archives are kept. The colonial powers looted the colonial archives and records which should have been left in the colonies at the time of independence.

We were genuinely amazed to read the text that accompanied Hirsts Golden Heads (Female) which refers to Leo Frobenius:

Stylistically similar to the celebrated works from the Kingdom of Ife (which prospered c.1100-1400 CE in modern Nigeria), this head may be a copy of a terracotta or brass original. Shockingly, it is only a little over a century since the German anthropologist Leo Frobenius (1873-1938) was so surprised by the discovery of the Ife heads that he deduced that the lost island of Atlantis had sunk off the Nigerian coast, enabling descendants of the Greek survivors to make the skilfully executed works .

It is unbelievable that such a statement has been produced in 2017. It is remarkable to refer to stylistic similarity between the work of a young artist to a well-known classical work that he has copied or that has inspired him, creating the impression that his work had gone through a similar creative process as the established work with which he really has no connection except that it happens to be kept in a museum in his country. More explanations would seem necessary. There seems to be here a perfidious attempt and conspiracy to write Damien Hirst into the narrative of the art history of Nigeria and Africa. Future generations would be obliged to make stylistic comparisons between the famous Olokun of Ife and the work of Damien Hirst, Golden Heads (Female). They would have to work out the similarities and differences between the Ife head and the imitation by the Englishman. Bearing in mind that Nigeria had been under British colonial domination for decades, the possible confusion of thoughts for future generations can be imagined. Some might wonder whether the style had not been imitated by the Africans to whom the British alleged they were bringing civilization, education, and culture. The presence of many Ife objects in Britain would add to the confusion. We may reach a situation such as we have in music where some seem to think African musicians have copied certain sounds from Latin American musicians. The history of Africans in Latin America is a mystery to many persons.

Could the artist and the curators not find anybody in the United Kingdom to advise them that it would be better to leave the notorious racist German anthropologist, Leo Frobenius out of this? Had they not heard of the arrogant racist comment the German anthropologist made about the Yoruba he met in Ife? Wole Soyinka, in his 1986 Nobel Lecture, criticized Frobenius for his schizophrenic view of Yoruba art and the Yoruba. Frobenius was overwhelmed by the beauty of Ife art: "Before us stood a head of marvellous beauty, wonderfully cast in antique bronze, true to the life, incrusted with a patina of glorious dark green. This was, in very deed, the Olokun, Atlantic Africa's Poseidon." But the same Frobenius also expressed contempt for the people he met at Ife: "I was moved to silent melancholy at the thought that this assembly of degenerate and feeble-minded posterity should be the legitimate guardians of so much loveliness. Soyinka has described this statement as "a direct invitation to a free-for-all race for dispossession, justified on the grounds of the keeper's unworthiness."(5)

Obviously, all the political and scholarly developments since the independence of the Africa States have escaped some people in the Western world, including Damien Hirst and his team. They do not seem to be aware that in discussing African art certain words must be avoided unless they express the racist opinion of the speaker himself or herself.

It is interesting that in response to the accusation that Hirst had used the Ife image without reference to its source and history, the reaction of a spokesperson for the artist is reported as follows:

However, a spokesperson for the exhibition curator, Elena Geuna, assured CNN that there is indeed text accompanying the artwork, as well as in the exhibition guide, that makes reference to the Ife heads origin and concept. One of the sources of inspiration for the exhibition is the collection of the British Museum, in London, where the Ife heads are displayed, she elaborated. An Ife head from the British Museum collection has also been included in the famous book, A History of the World in 100 Objects by the former museum director Neil MacGregor..

The reference to the British Museum may have been given in all innocence, not being aware of the relations of that museum to looted African artefacts. Many Africans regard the venerable museum as a den for looted artefacts. The reference to a book by a former director of the museum reinforces the damage already done. The former director of the British Museum has been behind many of the feeble theories developed to defend the interests of the so-called universal museums including the notorious Declaration on the Value and Importance of Universal Museums. (6) Since Hirsts text refers to Neil MacGregors A History of the World in 100 Objects, he could have paid more attention to this statement about the German anthropologist: Its easy to mock Frobenius, but at the beginning of the twentieth century Europeans had very limited knowledge of the traditions of African art. (7)

In our time, there is no excuse for ignorance about African art nor can we accept the repetition of views that have been proved to be patently wrong. Obviously, in his efforts at myth-building, the artist liked the idea of a lost island of Atlantis and descendants of the Greek survivors who allegedly made those works. Myth-building at the cost of secure knowledge is no contribution to respect for a culture that one is imitating.

Damien Hirst should delete completely the entry in the catalogue concerning his imitation and replace it with a statement indicating that the artist has been inspired by the Ife head in the British Museum. There should be no reference to Frobenius nor any stylistic comparison. Moreover, the postcard of the Golden Head should also contain such a statement or be withdrawn from sale. The suggestion that the object Hirst was imitating might itself be an imitation is not very clever. But this artist seems to thrive on provocation and controversy and thus will not be inclined to make corrections.

Post card of the contested Golden Heads.

The lack of sensitivity displayed by many Westerners in the question of looted artefacts or artefacts acquired under dubious circumstances, is simply astonishing. Hirst and Western artists can derive inspiration from the looted artefacts that are kept in Western museums which they can visit anytime they want. Where can African artists derive such inspiration when iconic African objects are all in the Western world? Do Hirst and other Western artists ever ponder on how they would be able to continue their traditions or question them, if most of the iconic works of their culture were outside the Western world? How would they like to travel to see the works of Rembrandt in Ouagadougou or view the paintings of Turner in Kwadaso, Kumasi? Doula might be the best place for works of Picasso and the French avant-garde. Timbuktu has a long tradition in keeping and guarding manuscripts and so why not send the various medieval European manuscripts and paintings there for safe-keeping? Dakar surely would be able to accommodate the works of Monet, Manet, and Matisse. Germans could surely find Durer and the expressionists in Bamako. Abuja would be able to accommodate Goya and Michelangelo. Europeans could always visit African cities even though some African governments may be making it difficult for Westerners to visit those countries.

Westerners hardly show any remorse for the violent despoliation of Africans and many Western artists do not see any problem in dealing with looted African artefacts. The opprobrium that normally attaches to dealing with stolen goods does not appear to affect otherwise sensitive artists known for protesting at the least injustice or violation of human rights

Victor Ehikhamenor and Laolu Senbanjo have rendered an invaluable service by pointing out the dangers implicit in such an appropriation/misappropriation of an iconic figure of Yoruba culture and religion. Many who are coming for the first to this image would associate it with Damien Hirst and not Ife culture and anyone who makes a similar sculpture would be considered as imitating Hirst and not the famous Ife Head. Can Nigerians continue to derive inspiration from the traditional Ife Head without being labelled imitators of a famous English artist? Those with no idea of history or African history might think the imitators/creators existed before our people ever thought of making art. After all many scholars, who do not speak our languages or really know much about our cultures have written that the word art or the concept of art does not exist in African languages.

The possibility of confusion alluded to by the Nigerian artists reminds one of the confusion concerning the Ori Olokun caused by the notorious Frobenius whose dubious activities annoyed even the British colonial officials who eventually threw him out of Nigeria after his attempts to take the Olokun out of Ife and Nigeria. After Frobenius left Ife, the original sculpture found in 1938 and seen by him in 1910, had disappeared with the result that till today nobody knows where the original sculpture is. We now have three similar sculptures all called Olokun-the Olokun that Frobenius saw, the one at the British Museum and the one in the National Museum at Ife. (8)

But can we blame Western artists and others from deriving huge profits from African art and our looted artefacts? How are Westerners to know the deep and strong resentments harboured by many Africans in such matters when African representatives and institutions do not convey our true feelings to their Western counterparts whom they meet so often? Take for instance the quest for the return of the looted Benin artefacts. Apart from the petition submitted by Prince Edu Akenzua to the British Parliament in 2000 and the requests in 2009 to the Field Museum, Chicago, and the Chicago Art Institute, we have no further actions or written requests by Nigerian institutions. Yet every Nigerian Government and Parliament has proclaimed its determination to bring home Nigerian artefacts from abroad. Nobody seems to be concerned with the implementation or otherwise of Government and Parliamentary decisions. Accountability does not seem important for many.

Others are busy creating the illusion that Nigeria has been very successful in its policy to recover its looted artefacts from Western museums and institutions when in fact not a single artefact of the well-known Benin bronzes or the Ife sculptures has been returned from any western institution as a result of Nigerian efforts. It is not difficult to understand the motive behind such illusory games.

Some Africans regard as friends States that are illegally holding on to our looted artefacts. But are friends those who steal and hold onto our looted artefacts for hundred years and stubbornly refuse to return any? The definitions of friend and friendship would have to be re-examined in the light of this adamant refusal to return what are undoubtedly stolen objects. Those who meet regularly with representatives of those States at meetings on restitution that have so far not brought any tangible results may regard them as friends but are they also friends of the African peoples? One may legitimately doubt this. Some European States and officials have stated in writing that their African counterparts have not requested the return of looted artefacts such as the Benin Bronzes and no African State or officials have challenged this.

.

Three crown heads: left is the one in the National Museum in Ife, in the centre is the one in the British Museum and on the right is the one Frobenius saw but disappeared after his departure from Nigeria.

The protest by Ehikhamenor and Sebanjo should encourage others to do their work and protest loudly whenever necessary. The bankrupt policy of quiet diplomacy must be finally laid to rest in the interest of good Afro-Western relations which have so far been characterized by one side calling the shots, deriving all the advantages and the other side, feebly and quietly nursing its resentments. When somebody steps constantly on your foot and you smile continuously at him, why should he remove his foot? Decolonization does not appear to have gone far in the area of museums.

Perhaps after this controversy on the use of a classical Yoruba image, Damien Hirst and other Western artists will pay attention to the continuing exploitation of African art resources and join forces with those claiming the return of looted African artefacts. They should do this not only in the interest of African artists and in solidarity with their colleagues. Think about what art in general is losing because African artists are deprived of the tools that are available to other artists elsewhere. How are they to develop in the absence of the iconic objects of Africa art? Even Westerners must recognize at one point that the continued illegal holding of the artefacts of other peoples must stop.

But African intellectuals, museums and their governments cannot just fold their arms and expect Westerners to do the right thing. Five hundred years of relationship with the West have taught us a few lessons about Western nations and States that some pretend not to recognize: our artefacts will not be returned until our governments and institutions show determination to solve this problem finally. Increased pressure will be required. Since cultural institutions have so far not been able to recover our looted artefacts, African governments, in particular the Foreign Ministries, should take over this subject and negotiate for their return of the looted national treasures.

Qudus Onikeku,in performance in video,Right Here Right Now

As usual, when African interests are involved, many are silent who should be talking but as soon as there are signs of some success, they will announce loudly that they sere working silently for our cause and regard the slight hope of success as an effect of their silent diplomacy. We believe everybody should come out now and state where they stand on the misuse of classical Nigerian art images and support the quest for the return of our looted artefacts.

i

A biography of the forgotten (2017), Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigeria Pavilion, 57 Venice Biennale.

Peju Alatise, Flying Girls (1975)

Ile ahun la npa ahun si. Yoruba Proverb. (9)

Kwame Opoku. June 30, 2017.

NOTES

1.  Wole Soyinka - Nobel Lecture, This Past Must Address Its Present , December 8, 1986. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1986/soyinka-lecture.html

2. L. Senbanjo, A Letter from one Artist to Another. www.okayafrica.com/in-brief/laolu-senbanjo-damien-hirst-nigerian-art/

Damien Hirst accused of copying African art - CNN.com

www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/africa/damien-hirst-appropriation-venice.../index.html

Damien Hirst Accused Of Appropriating Nigerian Art, Whitewashing ... www.huffingtonpost.com/.../damien-hirst-nigerian-art_us_5911b952e4b0e7021e9b1 ...

Damien Hirst Accused Of Plagiarizing Nigerian Ile-Ife Ancient Sculpture

www.nairaland.com/3802214/damien-hirst-accused-plagiarizing-nigerian

Damien Hirst Controversy at Venice Biennale - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/.../arts/.../damien-hirst-controversy-at-venice-biennale.ht..

It seems Hirst himself is not easy with those he considers to have violated his copyright. Damien Hirst 'threatened to sue teenager over alleged copyright theft ... www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Damien-Hirst-threatened-sue-teenager-alleged-copyright-thef t.

3. See annex below.

4. Jacob Epstein, Let there be sculpture, (Kindle Edition) Chapter 17, African and Other Primitive Carvings.

5. Wole Soyinka, "This Past Must Address Its Present," Nobel Lecture. The great Ekpo Eyo, leading authority on Ife and Nigerian art, writes that Frobenius was astonished by the quality of Ife sculptures and observed that they were eloquent of symmetry, vitality, a delicacy of form directly reminiscent of ancient Greece and proof that once upon a time, a race, far superior in strain to the Negro had settled there.Ekpo Eyo, Two Thousand Years of Nigerian Art, Ethnographica, London, 1977, p.100.

Frobenius on arrival at Ife set about to collect artefacts but even the British colonialists had to restrain him in his collection frenzy. He wanted to take away a crowned head, Ori Olokun but was prevented from doing so by the British colonial administration which had received complaints from people of Ife about the activities of the German ethnologist. Still he managed to take many artefacts away that are now in the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt, and in the Ethnology Museum, Berlin, Germany. Glenn Penny writes in his book, Ethnology and Ethnographic Museums in Imperial Germany, (The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 2002, p.116.) as follows:

During his travels in Nigeria in 1911, Frobenius came into direct conflict with the British authorities concerning his collecting policies in what has come to be known as the Olokun Affair. This incident developed following complaints by the inhabitants of Ife, the sacred capital of the Yoruba country in southern Nigeria that Frobenius had mistreated and deceived them, and had taken away religious objects without their consent. The principal item in dispute was the bronze head of the god Olokun, which Frobenius claimed to have discovered in a groove outside the walls of Ife, but which the towns inhabitants accused him of stealing. As a result of the complaints, which followed Frobeniuss departure from the city British authorities summoned him before an improvised British court and eventually forced him to return many of the items he had acquired from the area.

The original olokun that Frobenius saw in 1910 has mysteriously disappeared. Ekpo states: The original Olokun head described by Frobenius is now represented only by a copy; no one knows where the original is. It is not impossible that Frobenius could have arranged for its subsequent replacement with a copy. Ekpo Eyo, and Frank Willett, Treasures of Ancient Nigeria, William Collins, London, 1982, p. 11

Edith Platte and Musa Hamdulo write in Bronze Head from Ife, (The British Museum Press, 2010, p. 42): Frobenius was an uninvited if highly experienced, explorer and ethnologist, visiting Ife for just a few weeks and provoking arguments with most of the people he encountered. It is quite possible that he took the head and left behind a replica, as it was suggested in negotiations with the Oni at that time. However, it could also be the case, as suggested by Willet, that the reproduction was made sometime between 1910 and 1934, when it was brought to the palace for safekeeping.

It seems to us though, that somebody in Germany and perhaps in Nigeria, must know where the original Olokun is. German scholars and institutions are well-known for good record-keeping. We would be surprised if the Ethnology Museum, Berlin, where at one time all artefacts brought into Germany from overseas had to be sent, had no record of the Olokun. And what about Frankfurt, the home town of Frobenius who made a large gift of 4700 artefacts to this town? Would they not have a record of the famous Nigerian sculpture that impressed him so much that, he erroneously thought it could only have been made by a lost Greek tribe? Has Nigeria reported the loss of this famous piece to international institutions such as Interpol?

6 . Kwame Opoku: Declaration On The Importance And Value Of The ... www.africavenir.org/.../kwame-opoku-declaration-on-the-importance-and-value-of-t.

7. 2010 Allen Lane, p.406. For a view of MacGregors book, see K. Opoku, A History of the World with 100 Looted Objects of Others: Global Intoxication?

https://www.modernghana.com/.../a-history-of-the-world-with-100-looted-objects-of-

8. Platte and Hambolu, op. cit, pp.13-16.

9. One should make a stand in defence of one's rights and property, even to the death. Oyekan Owomoyela, Yoruba Proverbs. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 2005, p.429.

Head of Obalufon, Ife, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria.

ANNEX

LETTER FROM LAOLU SENBANJO TO DAMIEN HIRST.

The letter reproduced below deserves our attention because it expresses the feelings and anger of many Africans. The language of Senbanjo may appear at certain points somewhat intemperate but in view of the great violence used by Europeans to destroy African properties, kill innocent children and women, loot our artefacts and cause general havoc for which no compensation has yet been paid, some might consider the language used of minor significance. And how do you express anger without the use of angry language?

A Letter from one Artist to Another. 

www.okayafrica.com/in-brief/laolu-senbanjo-damien-hirst-nigerian-art/

Dear Damien Hirst,

You may not know me but I know you. My name is Laolu Senbanjo; also known as Laolu NYC. I am your contemporary, a visual artist based in Brooklyn who just happens to be Yoruba from Nigeria.

You see, as an artist we all pay our respects and give homage to different artists in all our works at some point in time. In fact, I helped bring Beyonces vision to life in her visual album, Lemonade which was an homage to her ancestry and paid tribute to the Yoruba culture.

However, you did not give an interpretation, you created a flat-out carbon copy. I refuse to sit down and be quiet about what you are doing in Venice.

To quote you Mr. Hirst, with all the liars running our governments, its far easier to believe in the past than it is in the future. Whos past should we believe? Is it the German Anthropologist (Frobenius) who claims the Yorubas were far too primitive to create such beautiful things or is it we the descendants of the Yoruba people who know our own history and can recognize a counterfeit when we see it. This body of work, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable is an unbelievable pile of cheap knock offs.

Damien, who do you think you are that you can literally just outright steal, imitate and appropriate my culture? As a Yoruba man, I consider myself a keeper of my culture and my art also reflects that. How would you feel if I started creating copies of your work, then claimed that you were incapable of creating such beauty, because White people are degenerates and feeble minded? As artists, all we have is our integrity. As an African my culture is everything to me. It drives me crazy when people see Africa as a commodity, something to be bought and sold and yet never understood. Africa is a continent, not a country with so many languages and cultures. My people, the Yoruba are some of the most prolific individuals that have graced this earth and to make replicas of our antiquities and pass them off as your own originals is sacrilege, racist, ethnocentric, and downright dirty. You should be ashamed of yourself. You did not discover Yoruba art and its people. I am also extremely disappointed in the curators that allowed this to happen.

Apparently, youre past your prime because you cannot create something original without stealing from others. Just because the Artist is Unknown does not mean we dont know where it came from and what it represented. Did you know the significance of the figures that you copied? Why did you choose them? Its funny that you make comments about Trump yet you are doing the same as he is, making alternate facts. Venice is one of the largest art platforms in the world, some of the kids attending are going to be art history students someday and when they see what youve done they cant unsee or unlearn your version of the history of my people. They will believe what youve fed them. You dont know how far and wide your art will spread; because of your stature and your white male privilege you should not be ignorant about the impact of your art in the world. Now, you are imposing yourself and infusing yourself into our history, when we are struggling to make our own mark and names in this industry that is dominated by people like you (white men). Is it not enough that this art was stolen from us by the colonial rulers who came and destroyed our civilization (The Brits), our culture, our religions, and pilfered the culture and the artifacts that represented it. This is double jeopardy, first your forefathers conquered and stole our people and our art (which we still have not received it back) and now your weapon has changed, its no longer guns, youre using your status to steal whats not yours and claim it as your own original art and ideas and profit off it.

How can the man that comes from the country where Stonehenge exists, a landmark phenomenon that is still shrouded with mystery deny the possibility that the Yorubas could create artifacts of our great Kings? Is it that you think Africans are not capable? You have the audacity to perpetuate the idiotic logic of Frobenius stating that this art must be from Atlantis because the Africans are too primitive to create such beauty? And then you create an exact replica of one of our Oonis and say it may be a copy? May be??? Like, its a complete perfect copy. Who do you think you are that you can go and create and profit off my people and my art? Isnt being colonized once enough?

I wonder if Pharrell, Disney, or the Greeks and Romans (and countless others youve ripped off) are as offended as we are? Damien, youve messed with the wrong people. No more appropriation. Enough is enough. You are ripping off bronzes of our Kings. No more stealing from my people and denying our excellence, let alone our existence. Do you not realize the sacred symbolism of these pieces of work for example, the one you called, Golden Head is actually called, Ori Olokun which is named after the Orisha (God/Goddess) Olokun who is the God of Great Wealth and the Bottom of the Ocean and can be either male or female. Olo meaning Owner and Okun meaning Ocean. For the Yorubas, this work of art is sacred as it holds the passageway for the living to be able to connect with their ancestors. The original removal of this artifact was a crime to the Yoruba people and to re-create such a significant and important sculpture without truly understanding how sacred it is, its value and importance to its original owners, not sharing that information and just washing away its importance that it holds to the Yorubas, a group of over 40 million people within Nigeria (not counting those in the diaspora) is just horrendous.

As a Brit, you should understand the importance of royalty and kingdoms. Why didnt you make a bust of the Queen? Oh wait, that would be wrong, right? It would disrespectful. Right? This only shows us what you really think of Africans? You just want to drown us, make us disappear, rewrite our history to include you.

I find it very curious that you chose Frobenius, an open racist thief of antiquities as your source of knowledge and information about the piece you call, Golden Heads.

Here is a direct quote from when Frobenius first set eyes on the beautiful Ori Olokun in Ife, Nigeria:

Before us stood a head of marvelous beauty, wonderfully cast in antique bronze, true to the life, incrusted with a patina of glorious dark green. This was, in very deed, the Olokun, Atlantic Africas Poseidon.

He follows this up with the following statement:

Profoundly stirred, I stood for many minutes before the remnant of the erstwhile Lord and Ruler of the Empire of Atlantis. My companions were no less astounded. As though we have agreed to do so, we held our peace. Then I looked around and saw  the blacks  the circle of the sons of the venerable priest, his Holiness the Onis friends, and his intelligent officials. I was moved to silent melancholy at the thought that this assembly of degenerate and feeble-minded posterity should be the legitimate guardians of so much loveliness.

It is truly incredible that you have decided to quote and believe Frobenius, the man who believes that the Yorubas were not capable of creating something beautiful and therefore stole it because in his mind they were not deserving. Unfortunately, by using him it appears that not only Frobenius but that you too, Mr. Hirst feel the same way about us. Was no one else available? No current scholars of Yoruba art? Not one? Really? Do you think me and my colleagues like Victor Ekpuk, Victor Ehikhamenor, are we also degenerates and feeble minded? Are we not worthy of spreading our own art, culture and ideas in an intelligent manner to the world?

Yours Truly,

Laolu Senbanjo
Education will not give one the chance to escape poverty but it will help fight poverty from one's community  Julius Nyerere.

Mavis Abban writes;

Over the years some African scholars and critics have pointed out some anomalies in Ghana's educational system as being antiquated, primitive, colonial and backward, treating students as depositing agents than humanizing them. Ghana's educational system to some extent can be described as what Paulo Freire calls the 'banking system' since it merely treat students as receiving and depositing agents than as active agents. The use of bank in this piece of writing is highly metaphorical. Banks are known to be solely in charge of keeping monies and we in turn withdraw it when the need arises. Such has been the structure of Ghana's educational system. It merely treats students as depositing and receiving agents. It's an educational system that treats students as subordinates and teachers as masters and the sole repository of knowledge. Teachers come to the classroom adequately prepared and ready to pass any form of knowledge to students without any hesitation. Students in turn absorb all that they are taught by the teacher hook, line and sinker and reproduce it in examination for what we term certificate to the neglect of the development of students creative skills, abilities and talents. True education must however involve student in the classroom; they must be allowed to contribute ideas, suggestions, criticisms to issues being discussed in the classroom, true education must make students active not passive agents by the absolute involvement of students in classroom affairs.

Gloria Bassaw writes;

We do not in any way seek to chastise and to dent the image of Ghana's educational structure but to rather critically point out some of the things worth noting. As described above, Ghana's educational system sees students as depositing agents and that partly if not wholly explains why we have so many university graduates yet more problems. The educational system sees students as passive agents with extraordinary powers of memory who can memorize concepts and theories and reproduce it when the need arises. As if that is not enough, even the foundation upon which the educational system was built including the nature of curriculum is entirely antiquated and backward with continued over reliance on theories to the neglect of practical form of learning, thwarting the need for students to reason logically and think critically. In Ghana even the construction of roads is in most instances done by foreign engineers and contractors. One would ask as to whether our engineers are still in existence. The truth of the matter is that these engineers have imbibed theoretical learning to the extent that employers including the government doubt their enormous skills and talents. In other words, the policy makers and government officials do not have faith in the educational system and hence they resort to the services of foreign engineers.

Mavis Abban writes;

We must all note that the function of education is to teach students to be creative, harnessing their talents and gifts for national development and such is very possible. The only remedy to this disturbing 'banking system' of education being practised in Ghana is for school administrators, heads, and teachers to consciously work towards the humanization of students rather than 'itemizing' them. Instead of treating students as passive and depositing agents, they must be seen as active and creative agents whose ideas matter to the world at large. Teachers must note that they are not the sole repository of knowledge but must rather see themselves as aiding in the development of active agents. When humanization of humans is achieved, then we would say that a true revolution has occurred in the antiquated and traditional system of Ghana's educational structure.

This article is a collaborative effort of two students reading Masters in Educational administration at the University of Cape Coast.

Mavis Abban

Email:[email protected]

Gloria Bassaw

Email:[email protected]
Kinshasa (AFP) - The Congolese health minister on Saturday declared the end of an Ebola outbreak in a remote northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo which caused four deaths in the area.

On May 12, officials declared an outbreak of the highly contagious disease, the eighth to date in the sprawling country, in Bas-Uele province -- an equatorial forest zone near the Central African Republic.

"I declare the end of the Ebola outbreak in Likati in DRC from midnight tonight," Oly Ilunga told reporters.

Ilunga said none of the 105 suspected cases had tested positive and that the country had recorded no new cases since June 2.

The incubation period for this highly contagious disease is 21 days.

An Ebola outbreak in 2014 left 11,300 people dead, mainly in west Africa.
In every story, the lead is very important. Mr. William Nyarko was telling participant at two day seminar organized by Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability. (ACILA) on the theme: Investigative Formation.

The seminar was held on the 23  24 June, 2017 at ACILA near Accra Community School, Abelenkpe . ACILA, Executive Director welcomed all the thirty (30) participants.

Mr. William Nyarko was talking on the topic,  From an idea to investigation and reporting for impact. When he told all the participants importance of the five(5) Ws and the H he further explained the five(5) Ws and the H.

The five (5) Ws stands for, what, when, who, where and which whiles the H is How. He noted that, to be a very good journalist you need to use these words in every story you write. For the reader to get the meaning very clear.

ACILA, Executive Director added that, to get a very strong or good lead , you need to bring in all the five Ws and the H, like what is the story talking about, when did the story happened, who is the story talking about, where did the story happened,  which specific area, and how did the story happened. A lot of journalist has the idea but how to put it on paper is their problem. He said.

He decided to test the writing skills of participants. He gave the participants a case study to present on the day two. This is the case study.

You are a repeater for the Serachlight. A source at the Kotaka international Airport has told you that president Akuffo Addo has bought a presidential jet, a Gulfstream V arrived in Ghana on June 18th 2017.

Explain why you think this tip off could be started at an investigatory story. Outline the steps you will take to investigate the story. Assume that, you have confirmed the information provided by the source. Write the story for publication by your media organization the Searchlight.

The participant put it upon themselves to write the story although the time was not enough effort. During the presentation, it was panel discussion make good use of the five (5) Ws and H,

On the topic From an Idea to Investigate and reporting for impact. Mr. Nyarko also taught the participants how to plan for investigative story after getting a tip off. He discussed the steps with the participants. He noted that, the first step is to get story idea, then, you deal with hypothesis, the hypothesis will help you to get more information about the story, the necessary documents and a lot more. Also you develop plan for the story. When, to go for information.

After that, the budget of the story. The amount of money you need to undertake the investigation. Now the investigation makes a follow up until you achieve your aim. The participants were very excited to get this in-depth knowledge about an investigation story.

The ACILA Investigative Journalism Seminar was blessed with a lot of prominent people. Some are journalist, lawyer, investigative journalist, lectures and many more.

Dr. Sikanku, Lecturer of Communications, Ghana Institute of journalism. Talk about New media and online Journalism. He told the participants that, without online journalism, an investigative journalist will find his or her job very difficult. Dr Etse added that, young journalist should make good use of online media, because it is not expensive, easy to access, etc.

Mr. Kwatey Nartey, Senior Broadcaster Journalist, Investigative Desk, Multimedia Group limited, and Mr Gabriel O.T Ashong, Broadcast Journalist, Metro TV, talk about Investigative panel discussion. Mr. William Narko was the moderator. These gentlemen shared their experience how they started as investigative journalist. Mr. Kwatey Nartey talk about The Rebel Land how he came about it Mr. Gabriel O.T Ashong also, told the Street Children which won him an award. They all encouraged participants to work hard, because hard work pays.

Media law and Ethical Reporting was treated by Mr. Zakaria Tanko, Head of Print Journalism Department, Ghana institute of journalism. He was very emphatic to participants to weigh the difference between rights, freedom and responsibilities. Any journalist should respect the Supreme Law of the country. This will make their work very easy. Journalist should not use their freedom to infringe on peoples rights.

Ms Esther Armah, Awards  Winning International Journalist, Media Communication Lectures, Webster University and host of the spin on Starr Fm talked about International Reporting.

She differentiates between challenges and choices. Ms Esther Armah advised the participants to write simple sentences in their story. Also, they should always train regularly and use the five Ws and the H. All participants should start something on their own.

A private talk with ACILA, Executive Director, he will organize another seminar on the five (5) Ws and H. All the participants was very happy for such an opportunity.

GYAGRI FIGHTON BAALAAH

[email protected]

0241105236
The Member of Parliament for Weija-Gbawe constituency and also Deputy Minister of Health in the person of Hon. Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah today Saturday, July 1, 2017, joined constituents in Ash Bread, a community located at Weija-South Electoral Area in the Weija Gbawe Constituency to observe the National Sanitation Day in a grand style.

As part of observing the National Sanitation Day, Mrs. Comfort Mildred Amofah, an aspiring women organizer for Weija-Gbawe Constituency organized a clean-up exercise in Ash Bread in partnership with the illustrious Deputy Minister of Health who is also the Member of Parliament for the area, Hon. Tina Naa Ayeley and Hon. Alice Ofori-Atta, alias Area Mama who is also aspiring to become the first vice chair for the constituency.

The event which was witnessed and participated by a large number of constituents numbered about 500 was a communal affair. The inhabitants of Ash Bread trooped onto the principal street from their homes to clear the choked gutters, tidy up the streets and the entire community.

In a close up interview with the Honourable Member, she remarked that, she decided to join this worthy course because as Deputy Minister of Health, it is incumbent on her part to support any activity that will prevent malaria and that she was pleased to be part of the worthy exercise which took place in her constituency.

The National Sanitation Day is a national event observed nation wide by all well-meaning Ghanaians across the country. The National Sanitation Day which was established by the erstwhile NDC administration is laudable and should be observed throughout the country to prevent malaria, she stated. She quizzed, why some Ghanaians decide to stay at home on the day of the national exercise.

The clean-up exercise organized on the National Sanitation Day, is the first ever organized under the auspices of Hon. Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah as MP for the area. The programme was attended by constituents drawn from all the 14 electoral areas of the constituency.

The indefatigable MP who could not hide her passion to support the sanitation exercise descended into the gutter to clear debris that have choked the gutter preventing water from flowing to avoid flooding.

Story by: Jude Ofei

Reporter for Hard Point Newspaper
The Assemblies of God Liberty Centre-Sunyani (AGL-Sunyani) together with the Professional Christian Womens Network have partnered the award winning NGO, The Sangy Foundation to give a face lift to the Autism Awareness Care and Training centre in Accra.

The activity which took place on Saturday 17th June, had Sangy Foundation special volunteers known as the Glam Squad involve in various renovation exercises which included painting of the whole campus which has given a new brand to the centre which caters for children living with Autism in Ghana.

As one among few autism centres in Ghana, the centre was founded by Mrs. Serwah Quaynor when she returned to Ghana but couldnt find a school to enroll his son, Nortey who also lives with Autism.

In a special interaction with Sara Nana Yeboah, vice president of the organisation, she expressed excitement of the turnout of the work at the centre and hope it would inspire more parents to enroll their children in the center to receive the treatment and care they deserve.

She also used the opportunity to admonish, Liberty Assemblies of God church in Sunyani, Professional Christian Womens Network and Sesil Consult Ltd who came on board to support the exercise through funding and kind.

The Sangy Foundation engages in various charity activities across the country and has impacted lives of more than 50,000 individuals since its inception in 2013 and has also been awarded severally across Africa.
A Florida woman, Makeva Jenkins, has been killed hours after revealing she is making 'a six figure' salary.

Recalling how she went from being homeless to "making six figures", the 33-year-old married mother of three took to Facebook to share how proud she is about herself.

Recalling how she went from being homeless to "making six figures", the 33-year-old married mother of three took to Facebook to share how proud she is about herself.

She took to Facebook to share a chat conversation which she captioned:

"I'm in awe of how far I've come. This lady reached out to me about my business plans. We've been Facebook friends for years but the last time we spoke through private message was 8/2011. In this message I was inquiring about Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University offered through her church. I couldn't even afford $99 at that time.

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"Fast forward to now: We overcame being homeless in 2013/2014 to reaching my six figure mark in 2015 to now making multi six figures. No matter what the road looked like, I followed my heart and stuck with it growing my business.

"I'm saying this to say, anyone can do it. It takes determination and consistency."

Barely two hours after posting on Facebook, a masked man knocked at her front door on Plumbago Place near Santaluces High School, just west of Boynton Beach.

The masked man was said to have walked in, and was met by the people inside. It was during an altercation that he shot Jenkins fatally. No one knows who the target was in the home.

The shooting happened 2am. The masked man fled in the familys vehicle and ditched it nearby, a sheriffs spokesperson said. Jenkins was rushed to a hospital where she died.

A visit to Jenkins Facebook page shows that the family members also fear the Facebook posts led to her death. They posted:

"Regretfully, the news reports are true. The family of Makeva Jenkins asks that their privacy be respected at this most trying time. All of your love, condolences, and well wishes are appreciated; however, please refrain from calling or texting concerning the events. Please keep the family in your prayers."

Source: Legit.ng
- Men suspected to be Fulani men allegedly attacked a group of traders returning from market

- The traders were reportedly robbed and some were shot

- One of the victim was reportedly one Nwafor, a 33-year old South-East trader

A 33-year-old trader, Nwafor and four other men have been reportedly murdered by suspected Fulani men while returning from a market in Nassarawa state.

The attack according to a Facebook user, Uchechukwu Madu, happened in Lafia, the capital of Nassarawa while the traders where returning from Barkiladi market.

The attackers who were reportedly in possession of AK47 guns allegedly separated their victims according to tribes and reportedly shot five men including Nwafor.

Nwafor and four other men were allegedly shot by the armed men.

Legit.ng gathered that two of the men died instantly while the remaining three allegedly died at Dalhatu Araf specialist hospital, Lafia in Nassarawa state.

READ ALSO: N-Power releases list of processes for 2017 applicants

Watch a video of Nwafor's body being prepared for burial:

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Linus Ogbeh, a 64-four-year old father of seven and a farmer whose farm is located next to that of Olu Falae, the former secretary to the government of the federation in Ileyo community in lgbatoro area of Akure, Ondo state, was murdered by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

The farmer was found with his chest riddled with bullets after leaving home at 6am on Sunday, June 25, to go fetch cocoyam for his family. Ogbeh never returned home.

His body was eventually discovered by his wife, Roseline and two of the couples children in the farmland with cocoyam tubers beside him, after they had waited till 10 a.m for him to return.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video about the Fulani herdsmen massacre in Southern Kaduna:

Source: Legit.ng
- Youths from the Niger Delta region are set to hold a conference

- The youths will deliberate on agitations rocking the country

- Through the gathering, they are expected to have a consensus position on the issue of restructuring

Youth leaders in the Niger Delta region have concluded plans to hold a conference over the agitation for Biafra and restructuring of the country.

READ ALSO: Dr Henry Bello launches shooting spree at Bronx hospital in New York City before shooting self dead

The youth leaders are expected to come with a position that will serve as the blue print of the region's demand in the scheme of things in the country.

The gathering which is expected to hold in Port Harcourt was to have been informed by the current agitations rocking the country, Vanguard reports.

Mr. Moses Siasia, chairman of the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum and former governorship candidate in Bayelsa state said the meeting will also address internal issues in the region.

The youth leaders are expected to come with a position that will serve as the blue print of the region's demand in the scheme of things in the country

His statement read: 60 carefully selected young leaders across the Niger Delta will be meeting in Port Harcourt next week over the calls for the immediate restructuring of the country by prominent Nigerians and geopolitical groups on the basis of a growing national consensus to redefine the connections that bind the country and the disturbing hate comments from many groups.

The roundtable meeting was born out of the current national discourse on the need to restructure the country and redefine our existence as a people.

The meeting will also address internal issues in the region, such as the need for political leaders who are occupying public trust to be more accountable to the people. It will fashion out economic solutions that will aid the much needed growth and development in the Niger Delta so that those who are into productive ventures in the society would be encouraged with the aim of moving out of the old order, where miscreants are celebrated.

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Legit.ng had reported that the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has reacted to the quit notice issued by Arewa youths to Igbo living in the north, describing it as a treasonable offence.

In a statement signed by a member of the central working committee, Dr. Alfred Mulade, PANDEF said the statement of the youths was more treasonable than the charges levied against Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and that serious action should be taken by security operatives.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of a retired major general comparing the Biafra agitation to the Niger Delta issue.

Source: Legit.ng
- The Boko Haram members had storm a spot where a truck carrying various materials got spoilt with the aim of looting it

- Unknown to them, troops of the Nigerian Army were around the spot with the result being the death of five terrorists

The Nigerian Army says its troops in the north-eastern part of the country have killed five Boko Haram members.

The troops of 3 Battalion, 22 Brigade reportedly ambushed the Boko Haram members on Thursday, June 29, 2017 according to Sani Usman, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army.

READ ALSO: Fulani herdsmen now worse than Boko Haram - Army officer cries out

Based on information, troops Nigerian Army, on Thursday 29th June 2019 evening, ambushed Boko Haram terrorists along Gamboru-Mussini-Logomani that came to loot and burn a broken down truck loaded with assorted goods at Mussini village.

Nigerian troops said five people were killed

The troops neutralised five terrorists and on further exploitation recovered one AK-47 rifle with registration number 565203290, one AK-47 magazine, three rounds of 7.62mm (special) ammunition, 27 bicycles, 10 Machetes and one dagger, Usman, the director of Army public relations, said.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that Boko Haram terrorists may have decided to adopt the planting of improvised explosive devices at strategic places and roads in the north-east.

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This is proven by recent discoveries made by the Nigerian Army and its troops combating the activities of the terrorists.

For example, on Wednesday, June 28, 2017, troops of the 151 battalion who were on routine fighting patrol within Lt-Col Abu Ali Range discovered freshly dug hole prepared for IED by suspected of Boko Haram terrorists.

Watch how the Nigerian Air Force recently neutralise a Boko Haram base:

Source: Legit.ng
- A security source close to Evans investigation has revealed why the kidnapper will not be released

- The source said that given Evans sophistication, he could attempt a prison break

- The source also alleged that Evans could reorganise himself in prison

Nigerian security operatives are jittery over the ability of notorious kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka, Evans, to organise an escape if remanded in prison custody.

READ ALSO: Nigerian troops ambush, kill 5 Boko Haram terrorists

According to Vanguard, Evans pose a security threat to Nigeria if he is remanded.

The operatives believe that the sophisticated kidnapper could use his high profile network to obtain some respite in prison and organise a break-out eventually.

It was also learnt that all the monies and properties criminally obtained by the kidnapper during his 20-year reign have not been traced and in such a situation where he has access to such vast sums of money, he could use his money while in prison to reoganise his network and set up a new gang.

The source said that given Evans sophistication, he could attempt a prison break

Legit.ng learnt that the police have obtained a court order and as such, are legally backed to detain the high profile kidnapper for the next three months before his prosecution.

The security source claimed that top criminals with access to huge sums of money when arrested are treated with respect by prison officials and consequently given access to social amenities like cell phones and internet connections.

The source said: High-profile criminals enjoy VIP treatments in prison custody because they have money. We have learned that these suspects usually pay the warders to be detained in cells that are classified as VIP, and they would have access to their phones as well as the internet. These suspects dont usually feel like they are in prison custody because they enjoy unlimited access to visitors anytime.

Since his money has not been recovered completely because we had information that he has hotels in Ghana and South Africa, it will be wrong to send him to prison. He is also said to have auto spare parts outlets in Ghana and some other Africa countries. People working for him are numerous and the Police are yet to arrest all of them. If he is remanded in prison with these assets unrecovered, Evans could rule any prison. Evans, can be in prison and easily recruit men outside, radicalise them, buy them arms and send them out for operations. Evans can organise a jailbreak

"Evans could enjoy the security of the prison and unleash terror on the society. We have seen a lot of criminals like him and they have done same

We have had several cases like that in the past. We had the case of Henry Chibueze, alias Vampire, who kidnapped and killed several persons and was arrested in 2015 by the Department of State Security Service, DSS. While in prison, Vampire sponsored several groups, who carried out kidnappings on his behalf. Having raised enough money he staged an escape from the prison while he was being taken to court. Luckily for us, he was gunned down, a few weeks after his escape. There were also other cases in Abuja and Port Harcourt Rivers state, recently.

Backing his claim that criminals in prisons could still orchestrate crime in the free society, the source highligeted the escapades a suspect in Kuje and Port Harcourt prisons.

He said the suspect masterminded several fraudulent acts while locked up in the prison.

When members of the syndicate were arrested, they confessed that their leader was serving in Kuje Prison. One of the cases in Port Harcourt saw a detainee operating a massive kidnap gang. The kidnapper had organized several kidnappings before members of his gang were apprehended and he was exposed.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported suspected billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike ( a.k.a. Evans), has again dragged the inspector general of police, and three others before a Federal High Court in Lagos, over his alleged illegal detention.

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In the new suit filed on Thursday, June 29, Evans is claiming N300 million as general and exemplary damages against the police for alleged illegal detention and unconstitutional media trial.

Watch this Legit.ng TV Video of the house of the Billionaire kidnap kingpin, Chukwudubem Onwuamadike popularly knows as Evans after he was recently nabbed by men of the Nigeria Police Force:

Source: Legit.ng
- The Nigerian Navy said its recruitment exercise for 2017 comes with major but basic requirements

- The Navy also listed what could make the organisation disqualify some applicants from the exercise

The Nigerian Navy has commenced the 2017 recruitment exercise by for citizens of the country who want to join the security body.

The exercise commenced today, July 1 with the Nigerian Navy opening its online portal, l for the free registration exercise.

As released by the security organisation, applicants for this years exercise possess at least one of the following:

1. West African School Certificate/Senior Secondary School Certificate.

2. General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level.

3. WAEC City and Guilds or London City and Guilds.

4. Ordinary National Diploma (OND).

5. Any other educational qualification equivalent to those mentioned above.

The Nigerian Navy also listed the requirements for the exercise

The Navy said while all applicants are to produce their primary school leaving certificate.

For the exercise, applicants with HND, higher educational and professional qualifications are not qualified according to the Nigerian Navy.

READ ALSO: Arms deals: Former Army Chief loses his N4bn estate to EFCC

Apart from this, the applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 22 years at the time of entry into the training school for school certificate holders, while 24 years of age is the acceptable limit for those with higher qualifications like Nurses, NCE holders, ICT professionals, etc.

Candidates are therefore warned that it is an offence to declare false educational /professional qualification. This attracts outright withdrawal or dismissal and hand over to civil police for prosecution.

Any certificate or qualification not declared or tendered and accepted during the recruitment exercise is not acceptable after recruitment and cannot be tendered for the purpose of change of branch or advancement while in the naval service.

Only qualifications obtained through proper service provisions are tenable after joining.

The requirement stipulated further that the applicants must be single and not have children before joining.

The applicant are to print out the parent/guardian consent and local government attestation forms.

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Also to be disqualified are applicants with short sightedness, ear problem, previous orthopaedic operation, flat foot, below the required height of 1.70 for males and 1.67 for females, fracture, stammering or any natural disability.

None of the applicants should have any previous conviction by a court of law on criminal charges.

Legit.ng earlier reported that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has reportedly granted approval for the appointment of 14 new Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs).

The newly appointed would be joining their colleagues at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Watch this video of what Nigerians think about couples and salaries:

Source: Legit.ng
- The Ohaneze Ndigbo in South Africa has cautioned Nnmadi Kanu over his recent outburst that election will not hold in Anambra

- The founder of the group in South Africa said Kanu should be ignored

- He insisted that Anambra people have the right to elect their leaders

Chief Jonas Udeji, the founder of Ohaneze Ndigbo, a socio-cultural group in South Africa, says the stance of its national body not to boycott the Anambra governorship election is in order.

Nnamdi Kanu, the self proclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), had called for the boycott of the Nov. 18 election in Anambra.

READ ALSO: Evans may escape from prison - security operatives jittery over notorious kidnapper

But the National President of Ohaneze, John Nwodo, had addressed legislators in Anambra and told them to ignore the directive.

The founder of the group in South Africa said Kanu should be ignored

Udeji said in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday that Kanu was not qualified to give such a directive on behalf of Igbos.

 Ohaneze Ndigbo remains the apex body of Igbos in Nigeria and world-wide.

 No single individual will give any order on behalf of Igbos if that person is not the elected President of Ohaneze.

 We understand Nnamdi Kanu`s emotions about the plight of Igbos in Nigeria. But, he should realise that we have a leader and that is Nwodo.

 He is the one to speak on behalf of Igbos, he said.

Udeji urged Anambra people and other South East states to ignore such directive from IPOB and elect their leaders when the opportunity comes.

According to him, Igbos should collectively decide on such sensitive issues under the leadership of Ohaneze, their apex body, and not based on an individuals directive.

He said that Anambra people had the right to elect their governor and other representatives at the local government, state and national levels.

Udeji said that Ohaneze under Nwodo`s leadership had been focused and remained determined to achieve set goals and objectives.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ngLegit.ng had earlier reported that the factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ahmed Makarfi, has said the way the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is going about the agitation for Biafra is wrong.

Speaking during Sunrise Daily, a live television programme on Channels Television on Friday, June 30, Makarfi said Kanus method is worse than that of the Coalition of Arewa Youths who issued a quit notice to Igbos in the north.

He said although he was not in support of the action of the northern youths, Kanus approach was more infuriating.

With the current unrest in Nigeria arising from agitations for Biafra, Legit.ng hit the streets to ask Nigerians how they think the country can be united again. Watch their responses below.

Source: Legit.ng
- The Nigeria Police Force recently decided to collaborate with local volunteers including the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC)

- Following the raid that began on Saturday, July 1, the police said 15 suspected cult members were arrested

- The numbers of arrested cult members have however increased to 100 by Sunday morning

100 members of the dreaded Badoo cult gang operating in Ikorodu area of Lagos state have been arrested by Sunday morning of July 3.

Confirming the operation where 40 police and RRS vehicles were used, the Public Relations Officer of Lagos state police command, Olarinde FamousCole, said the state is prepared to rid Lagos state of the criminal activities of Badoo cult members.

We can confirm the arrest of 100 suspected members of the dreaded cult group, Badoo and they are helping with ongoing investigation into the activities of the gang, said Mr. Famous-Cole, an Assistant Superintendent of Police.

Government is on top of the situation and we like to use this medium to caution the people to desist from jungle justice.

We also like to assure residents that they are free to go about their normal activities without let or hindrance, as the police and other security agencies in the State are poised to make the State uncomfortable and hot for criminal elements to perpetrate their nefarious activities, Mr. FamousCole said.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that fifteen suspected Badoo cult members were arrested days after the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) agreed to support the police in riding the Ikorodu area of Lagos of the dreaded killers.

Legit.ng learnt that apart from the OPC, other organisations including local vigilantes decided to join the war against the cultists.

READ ALSO: Biafra agitation: Nnamdi Kanu is wasting his time - Presidency

A statement from the police obtained by Legit.ng said that the operation, which started in the morning of Saturday, July 1, witnessed the movement of a combined team of police officers drawn from Lagos command, the Rapid Response Squad (RSS) and led by deputy commissioner of police, operations, Mr Imohimi Edgal.

The police said 15 suspects have been arrested

Also involved in the exercise were the Commander, Rapid Response Squad, ACP Olatunji Disu, DPO, Ikorodu among other top police officers.

The team combed every street and arrested the suspects.

Some of the areas raided include Ikorodu, Ibeshe, Ita Maja, Ijede, Ipakodo and environs.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Todays exercise was a follow up to a meeting with the factional leaders of Odua Peoples Congress, Chief Gani Adams, and Onyabo held yesterday.

Over 40 police and RRS vehicles are believed to have been used in the operations, the statement said.

The public relations officer of the Lagos state police command, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, said the exercise is continuous.

Seemingly overwhelmed by the activities of the Badoo cult group that has taken over the Ikorodu area of Lagos, top officers of the Nigeria Police Force have met with the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC).

The meeting was to fashion out the best ways to curb the attacks by these cult members with a trademark of killing their victims with grinding stones or pestles.

Watch this video of kidnapper Evans' home in Lagos:

Source: Legit.ng
- Namadi Sambo, Nigeria's former vice president, finally raised an alarm after the DSS raided his house five times allegedly in search of incriminating evidence

- Sambo said the five times the DSS had raided the same building, its men have destroyed fittings while claiming to search the apartments

Immediate vice president of Nigeria, Namadi Sambo, has raised an alarm over the alleged raid on his house by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Sambo noted that the most recent raid on his house was the fifth in a sequence.

Explaining how the security operatives raided his home, Sambo said despite the continuous action of the organisations, nothing incriminating had been found.

Ex-VP Namadi Sambo said nothing incriminating had been found in his home

In a statement issued by his media adviser, Umar Sani, Sambo noted that during the five different raids, valuable fittings in the home were deliberately destroyed.

In the late afternoon of Wednesday, the 28th of June 2017, the Alimi Road, Kaduna un-occupied residence of the former vice president, Arc Mohammed Namadi Sambo, GCON, was invaded by security operatives armed with a search warrant, who conducted a forensic search of the entire residence.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Navy commences its 2017 recruitment exercise

Initially, we were at a loss as to their identity but later discovered that they were operatives from the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

This raid brings to five the number of times the residence was searched within a period of six months and on each occasion valuable fittings were deliberately destroyed.

It is worthy of note to state that no such brazen attempts were made at any point, either at his Link Road Kaduna residence, or his Abuja apartment, which he presently occupy.

As the visit of the operatives was unscheduled, the reasons for the search were not specifically stated.

However, the outcome of the search was made known. At the end of the whole exercise, the officers, who carried out the search were satisfied that nothing incriminating was found.

As a law-abiding citizen, the former vice president did not raise any alarm in the previous invasions in view of the fact that he has nothing to hide, the statement said.

Sambo added that the recent desperation exhibited by some security agencies in carrying out a raid on an unoccupied residence speaks volumes of the clandestine intention of the security operatives.

It is therefore worrisome to note that the consistency with which the searches occurred and the intervals between them portrays a desire of a fault-finding mission.

We are apprehensive that a repeat of such episode will not be surprising if an incriminating object is planted in his residence in order to willfully and deliberately incriminate him.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

It is against this background that we wish to draw the attention of the unsuspecting members of the public to this phenomenon.

The desperation of some of the security agencies is glaring by the number of times such searches were conducted and still counting.

We hope it is not a way to try to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it, the statement added.

Legit.ng reported earlier that heavily armed security operatives from various arms of the security services led by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission on Wednesday, June 28, stormed the Kaduna residence of former Vice President, Namadi Sambo in Kaduna state.

It was learnt that the operation which lasted several hours saw the operatives cordoning off the No 1 Alimi road residence of the former number 2 man while some of the operatives went into the residence ostensibly to carry out a search.

Can you name a clean politician in Nigeria? Watch this video:

Source: Legit.ng
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Lockheed Martin is using turbine rocket combined cycle (TRCC) to build a mach 6-10 hypersonic plane. The TRCC is an engine that switches between turbofan, ramjet and scramjets for subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flight. The TRCC engine will be tested on a fighter-sized flight testbed by 2020. They would then try to develop a Mach 6, unmanned spyplane by 2030 that would perform the same role as the old SR-71 Blackbird. The hypersonic spyplane would enter highly contested and defended airspace at altitudes of 18 and 62 miles, using its speed to outrun enemy defenses. Hypersonic planes could fire hypersonic missiles. It would join the B-21 stealth bomber in the US air force future global strike arsenal.

Raytheon is also developing anti-hypersonic missile defenses.

Air-breathing hypersonic weapons and boost glide weapons are very difficult to engage, as both fly depressed trajectories that dispense with the high, arc-like, and most importantly predictable trajectories of traditional ballistic missiles.

Raytheon makes three types of ballistic missile interceptors, the SM-3 Block 1B midcourse interceptors that intercept incoming warheads at very high altitudes and the Standard SM-6 and Patriot PAC-3 terminal phase interceptors that destroy warheads as they near their targets. A successful hypersonic defense would likely use both types of interceptors to provide a layered defense system.

China is working to develop the hypersonic Teng Yun by 2030. It would also use the TRCC-engined hypersonic carrier aircraft to carry the second rocket-powered stage into near space. Both stages will be reusable; the hypersonic carrier airframe could also be used to hypersonic strike and spyplane roles.

The DSTO Teng Yun would have a combined weight of 100-150 tons. The first stage is a Mach 6 hypersonic carrier aircraft, with TRCC engines that can fly to altitudes of 18 to 25 miles. Unlike the XS-1, the Teng Yuns second stage is a reusable, 10-15-ton rocket-powered spaceplane capable of carrying either 2 tons of cargo or 5 passengers.

CASIC Vice President Liu Shiquan said that company has finished technology demonstration of key Teng Yun flight technology (like, you know the engine), and looks to have the two-stage space plane flying by 2030, as part of a $16 billion research effort.

Chinas second innovation is CASCs hypersonic spaceplane, which was announced in August 2016. Its engine and other critical technology are slated for completion by 2020, and a full-scale hypersonic spaceplane is expected to fly by 2030.



The turbo-aided rocket-augmented ram/scramjet engine (TRRE), which uses rocket augmentation in order to aid in the transition into the supersonic and hypersonic flight regimes, could be the worlds first combined cycle engine to fly in 2025, paving the way for hypersonic near space planes and single-stage space launchers.

Beijing Power Machinery Research Institute

CASCs ambitions match the projected timeline for the rocket-assisted scramjet being built by the Beijing Power Machinery Research Institute for near space strike and reconnaissance, as well as dual- and single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) vehicles. BPMRI will commence full-scale testing of the technology demonstrator in 2020, followed by the flight of a full scale afterward.
Rupert church holds patriotic service

RUPERT  Rupert United Methodist Church will hold a patriotic service at 11 a.m. on Sunday at 605 H St. in Rupert. This event is free and open to the public. There will be fellowship and light refreshments after the service.

Magic Valley Jubilee to perform at Eastman Park

BUHL  The Buhl Chamber of Commerce and the West End Ministerial Association is hosting a free community service celebration at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday at Eastman Park in Buhl. The Rev. Matt Woodroof of Buhl Calvary Assembly and the Rev. Jackie Roberts of Buhl Calvary Chapel will be speaking. Magic Valley Jubilee will host a free patriotic concert. Bring a lawn chair, blankets and the whole family. For more information, call Woodroof at 208-543-5559.

Hollister church schedules annual Meeting in the Pines

HOLLISTER  The Hollister Presbyterian Church will be holding its annual Meeting in the Pines July 7 through July 9. The meeting will be held at the Porcupine Springs campground Loop B. The campground is located two miles south of the Magic Mountain Ski Resort. Overnight camping is available. There will be a campfire and hot dog roast on July 7. The potluck dinner will begin at noon on July 9, and will feature a variety of Dutch oven dishes. Please bring a salad or dessert and a lawn chair. Table service will be provided. A worship service with the Rev. Jim Sommer will follow the potluck dinner. Visitors are invited to attend. For more information, contact Linda at 208-733-9183.

Unitarians to discuss the necessity of God

TWIN FALLS  What do you think about when you hear the word God? Turn on? Turn off? No reaction? And how does our being human make the idea of a God seem to be a necessity? Theologians have been at this issue for centuries, but lets see what we can do in 30 minutes.

The Magic Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meets at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday at the Vendor Blender and Event Center, 588 Addison Ave. W. in Twin Falls. Newcomers of all religious paths or none at all are welcomed to attend. The building is handicapped accessible, please park behind the building. Child care is available.

July donations to support school pantries

TWIN FALLS  Throughout the month of July, Ascension Episcopal Church will collect non-perishable food and cash donations to support school pantries in the Twin Falls School District. A basket is in the gathering area of the church for the collection.

A morning prayer worship service will be held at 9 a.m. on Sunday with a fellowship coffee hour held after. Ascension Cafe, the adult discussion group, will also meet after the worship service. Child care for children 7 and younger is available from 8:45 a.m. until after the worship service. Older children are welcome to participate with their parents in worship. Knit-Us-Together, the handwork group, meets from 1 to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays to work on prayer shawls, baby blankets and hats to donate, or on individual handwork projects. Ascension Episcopal Church, 371 Eastland Drive N, is handicapped accessible. For more information, go to episcopaltwinfalls.org or call 208-733-1248.

Methodist church hosts guest speaker

TWIN FALLS  The Rev. Shirley Knight will be the guest speaker at 9:30 a.m. worship on Sunday at Twin Falls First United Methodist Church, 360 Shoshone St. E. Knights sermon is titleed Are You Enjoying Your Inheritance? The sermon is based on the parable of The Prodigal Son, but will focus on the son who stayed at home. Donations of food and other items for the First Sunday Food Drive will be taken to Voices Against Violence.

Paul church celebrates 100 years

PAUL  Members of the Paul United Methodist Church, 127 W. Clark St., will celebrate the centennial with a special birthday church service and a luncheon on July 9. Service will be at 9 a.m. with luncheon from 10 a.m. to noon. The church was purchased as a one-room community church in 1917. A sanctuary was added in 1954, along with a kitchen in 1963, along with a fellowship hall and classroom added later. A centennial book All That Heaven Allows, by Gary Schorzman, will make its debut at the July 9 celebration. The book features the beginning of Methodism in Southern Idaho, the Minidoka Irrigation Project, the homesteaders and how Paul and a description of how the Church came into existence in 1917. The book follows a chronological history up to 2017.

Information: Gary Schorzman, 208-436-3982.
We are just about ready to celebrate our nations independence and rejoice in the freedoms we have as Americans. I love the Fourth of July  the food, the fireworks, the family fun. Even with our countrys weaknesses and imperfections, we live in a great land. Happy Fourth of July! Have fun and be safe!

As Christians, we know that our freedom was bought and paid for by Jesus on the cross. We can live in freedom, no longer enslaved by sin. Our day of liberty came when we asked Jesus to come into our lives. Galatians 5:1 basically says Christ has set us free to live in complete liberty; we never have to be harnessed again in the bondage and the slavery of sin. (Dorettes paraphrase)

Within the last month, two of my very dear friends have both published books that talk about freedom in different ways. Karen Jensen Salisbury released a book called I Forgive You, But and Tracy Wilde released her book called Finding the Lost Art of Empathy. I recommend both books highly, and to me their messages dovetail in a beautiful way. We all have suffered hurts. We live on an earth with a curse and people often hurt people, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Situations and circumstances can wound and pierce our heart. What both books emphasize in different ways is that forgiveness leads to freedom and freedom leads to loving others and ourselves with empathy.

Everyone I know wants peace, freedom and love in their lives, but most dont have the understanding that so often it starts with forgiveness. Unforgiveness can affect us in so many negative ways. In Karens book I Forgive You, But, she uses the example that unforgiveness is like drinking poison and praying for the other person to die. What actually happens is just the opposite. A slow death happens in us. Unforgiveness perpetuates pain, and only hurts us and those around us. Bitter people dont draw people to them, they push them away. I Peter 5:9 reminds us that we do not suffer alone; suffering goes on all around the world. (Dorettes paraphrase) We are not one isolated hurting heart, people have experienced hurts everywhere. We have to make a choice in our hurt, to forgive.

In Finding the Lost Art of Empathy, Tracy talks about the power of forgiveness when she was recovering from a tragedy in her own life. Her world was upside down and her physical body was suffering as well as her heart. Through the kind-hearted empathy of her trusted doctor, he suggested that her physical ailments were connected to her brokenness, and asked her if she had forgiven the other person involved. Her honest answer was that she didnt know. He then asked if she would repeat a phrase after him. She repeatedly said this, I forgive myself and others for all the wrong that has been done to me. Her doctors wisdom to walk Tracy toward forgiveness, not only healed her heart, but healed her body.

So my question to you is this, are you suffering in your heart or your body? Maybe freedom for you can start with forgiveness. This might be a great weekend to get free, and find true freedom!
Cassia County

Felony sentencings

Wallace Eugene Morgan; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $285.50 costs, two years probation, two years determinate time, two years indeterminate time, ten days credited, penitentiary suspended; misdemeanor driving under the influence, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Jason Joseph Bearce; felony controlled substance, manufacture or deliver, or possess with intent to manufacture or deliver, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony controlled substancemanufacture or deliver or possess with intent to manufacture or deliver, guilty, $845.50 costs, three years probation, two years determinate time, three years indeterminate time, 23 days credited time, 100 hours community service time, penitentiary suspended.

Deanna Larae Brady; felony controlled substancemanufacture or deliver, or possess with intent to manufacture or deliver amended felony controlled substance (conspiracy) to manufacture or deliver or possess with intent to, guilty, $905.50 costs, $100 restitution, three years probation, five years determinate time, ten years indeterminate time, two days credited time, 200 community service hours, penitentiary suspended,

Felony dismissals

Deanna Larae Brady; felony possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Jordan Isaiah Vega; felony robbery, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony grand theft, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor batterydomestic violence without traumatic injury against a household member, guilty, $100 fine, $187.50 costs, 24 months probation, 365 days jail, 354 days suspended, 11 days credited.

Driving under the influence sentencings

Robert Vernon Blettenberg; misdemeanor driving under the influence, disposition withheld.

Valentino CG Olivas; misdemeanor driving under the influence (excessive) amended misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $400 fine, $202.50 costs, 90 days drivers license suspended, 18 months probation, 180 days jail, 173 days suspended, two days credited.

Francisco P. Beltran; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $300 fine, $202.50 costs, 12 months probation, 90 days jail, 88 days suspended, one day credited, two days community service in lieu of jail.

Ashley S. Pierce; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $300 fine, $202.50 costs, 90 days drivers license suspended, 18 months probation, 90 days jail, 87 days suspended, three days credited.

Jose Ramon Cordillo-Cordero; misdemeanor driving under the influence (excessive), guilty, $400 fine, $202.50 costs, 365 days drivers license suspended, 18 months probation, 365 days jail, 344 days suspended, 21 days credited; misdemeanor fail to purchase or invalid drivers license, guilty, 18 months probation, 21 days jail, 21 days credited.
Minidoka County

Felony sentencings

Casey Scott Higley; felony burglary, guilty, $245.50 costs, $1,306.72 restitution, two years determinate time, eight years indeterminate time, 495 days credited; misdemeanor petit theft, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Tiauna Marie Easton; felony controlled substancepossession with intent to manufacture or deliver amended felony controlled substancepossession of marijuana in any amount greater than three ounces in prepared form, guilty, $285.50 costs, $200 restitution, three years probation, three years determinate time, two years indeterminate time, 46 days credited, penitentiary suspended; felony possession of controlled substance with intent to manufacture or deliver amended, felony controlled substance manufacture or deliver, or possess with intent to deliver, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor possession with intent to manufacture or deliver amended misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, dismissed on motion of prosecutor, $200 restitution.

Jeffery Lee Hall; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $285.50 costs, $300 restitution, three years probation, three years determinate time, four years indeterminate time, two days credited, penitentiary suspended; misdemeanor possession of controlled substance amended misdemeanor driving under the influence (second offense), guilty, $197.50 costs, $300 restitution, one year jail, one year suspended, two days credited.

Michael Paul Friel; misdemeanor petit theft amended felony burglary, guilty, $245.50 costs, $1,469.98 restitution, guilty, $245.50 costs, four years probation, two years determinate time, three years indeterminate, eight days credited, penitentiary suspended; felony grand theft amended theft by receiving, possessing or disposing of stolen property, dismissed on motion of prosecutor, $1,469.98 restitution; misdemeanor false information provided on own identity or anothers to an investigating law enforcement officer; misdemeanor drivers license or commercial drivers license violation, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; $1,469.98 restitution.

Sarah Lynn Maybin; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $285.50 costs, $200 restitution, two years determinate time, three years indeterminate time, 79 days credited, retained jurisdiction; felony major contraband introduced to correctional facilities to convey, possess, receive, obtain or remove, dismissed on motion of prosecutor, $200 restitution.

Ronald James Madeiros; felony malicious injury to property, guilty, $245.50 costs, five years probation, two years determinate time, two years indeterminate time, 62 days credited, penitentiary suspended.

Felony dismissal

Christian Michael Wallace; felony grand theft, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Misdemeanor sentencing

Ronnette Eldridge; misdemeanor probation violation, guilty, $103.84 restitution, 365 days jail time, 365 days credited.

Driving under the influence sentencings

Anthony Eugene Hood; misdemeanor driving influence (excessive), guilty, $1,000 fine, $700 suspended, $202.50 costs, 365 days drivers license suspended, 24 months jail time, 283 days jail time, 20 days other time, 82 days credited, 20 days ordered/suspended; misdemeanor alcoholic beverage open container or consume or possess by driver, dismissed by motion of prosecutor; infraction driving speed exceeding the maximum posted speed limit, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Savanah Marie Schultz; misdemeanor driving under the influence (excessive), disposition withheld.

Edward Franklin Loftis; misdemeanor driving under the influence (excessive), disposition withheld.
The Sun Opens New Online Casino

Published July 1, 2017 by Mike P

The summer 2017 launch of The Sun Casino could inspire the launch of other newspaper casino sites.

The Sun is one of the most recognisable UK newspapers, with thousands of Brits reading the paper to stay up-to-date with the latest news and sports. From now on, The Sun will also be providing an online casino service for its readers to enjoy. This is new for 2017 and now open to players.

The Sun Casino

A few different channels have been opened for readers, who can experience the latest in Playtech slots, progressive jackpots, and table games by visiting The Sun Casino. The slots and table games are comprised of recent Playtech releases, including American Dad, Robocop, Batman & The Riddler Riches, Superman: The Movie, and Age of the Gods.

The Sun Casino Live

The English media brand has also invested in acquiring live casino software. At the time of the casinos launch, the selection includes key table gaming variants in the form of roulette, French roulette, unlimited blackjack, and blackjack. For something more specialised, The Sun has elected to also integrate casino holdem and baccarat among the live dealer games.

The Sun Vegas

At The Sun Vegas, players can also have the choice of Microgaming slots. These come from another software provider, but are not available anywhere else on The Suns online gambling portal. When visiting this channel, players will encounter a range of well-known Microgaming releases, featuring Jurassic World, Game of Thrones, Bridesmaids, Last Vegas, and Jungle Jim: El Dorado.

Future Newspaper Casinos

The 2017 release of The Sun Casino begs the question of whether or not there will be a continued rise in newspaper casino sites. Over in Spain, there has already been the example of Marca casino, with loyal readers given access to the officially licensed site. Looking back to the UK, it will be interesting to see if a newspaper like The Daily Star or The Daily Mail elects to follow suit.
See original here

The Daily Beast (6/8/17) reported that MSNBC -- "once considered the "liberal" cable-news outlet" -- continued its "conservative hiring spree."

In the past few years, the Democratic Party's rank and file has shifted left on major issues. From healthcare to legalization of drugs to taxes, the heart of the party has grown more progressive -- and, in many instances, overtly socialist in nature. Forty-seven percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents now identify as both socially liberal and economically moderate or liberal, up from 39 percent in 2008 and 30 percent in 2001.

In contrast, nominally liberal media -- or major media whose editorial line is reliably pro-Democratic -- have drifted rightward. On Wednesday, MSNBC announced it had hired torture-supporting, climate-denying, anti-Arab racist Bret Stephens, a recent hire at the New York Times opinion page. Stephens -- whose very first article at the Times had to be corrected due to his misunderstanding of basic climate science -- will be an "on-air contributor" for both MSNBC and NBC.

This pickup continues a conservative hiring spree at MSNBC, including former George Bush adviser Nicolle Wallace, right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt, old-school conservative Washington Post columnist George Will, and former Fox News stars Greta Van Susteren and Megyn Kelly (though Van Susteren's show has already been canceled due to comically low ratings).

Despite their ratings going up as their marquee liberal firebrands rail against Donald Trump on a day-to-day basis, MSNBC has decided not to double down on this approach, but rather is populating its 24-hour broadcast with an increasing number of Bush-era also-rans and ex-Fox News personalities. At the same time, the New York Times has added the far-right Stephens to its coveted and influential list of full-time columnists -- joining fellow #nevertrump conservatives David Brooks and Ross Douthat.

As notable as their outreach to the right is these outlets' resolute resistance to introducing any new voices to the left of the party's corporate center. Forty-three percent of Democratic voters backed Bernie Sanders in the primary, yet the New York Times and MSNBC editorial teams don't have one vocal Sanders supporter. Some, certainly, are sympathetic to him, such as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes, and the Times' Charles Blow. But none openly back him in the way Paul Krugman, Gail Collins and Joy-Ann Reid (FAIR.org, 4/20/17) openly spin for his more centrist primary opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Indeed, MSNBC's Reid spends an unhealthy amount of time on Twitter dragging the Vermont senator for being inadequately obsequious to the corporate wing of the party.)

Obviously, sitting around waiting for corporate-owned media to embrace subversive left political commentary -- or even Sanders' brand of soft European-style social democracy -- is a fool's errand, and one should be under no illusions this will ever happen. But the lack of any effort to represent a major sector of their audience is still worth pointing out. If the media were "all about the clicks" or "the views," a major network would jump at the chance to at least have one token leftist to appeal to this underserved demographic. Yet they keep going in the other direction, hiring more right wingers without any apparent marketing reason to do so.

Shaping ideology and public opinion is less about the voices we hear, and more about those we don't. The range of debate is set by liberal gatekeepers like the Times and MSNBC, and it's clear, with each additional hire, the Overton window at these institutions won't budge one inch to the left, regardless of how much their consumers do. One is left to conclude that MSNBC and the New York Times are not veering right despite Democratic voters' increasing embrace of left policies; they're doing so precisely because of it.

You can send a message to the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com(Twitter:@NYTimes). You can add comments to MSNBC's site here (or via Twitter: @MSNBC). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.


YouTube Screen Shot

(Image by A blogsite by novelist John Rachel) Details DMCA



Here we go again. If you can handle my mid-Western whine, this video offers a detailed explanation on how candidate contracts can be used to weaponize the electoral campaigns of populist candidates. Or you can read the entire text of the presentation, which follows here:

In my last article, I talked about the ethical and political basis for introducing candidate contracts into our electoral process.

Now I want to address their practical application, specifically how the candidate contract becomes a powerful and decisive weapon on the raging battleground that our campaigns for public office have become.

Let me be absolutely clear at the outset. The candidate contract strategy can only be used to boost the effectiveness and accelerate the momentum of populist campaigns -- those which reflect the priorities and values of a majority of American citizens -- because the strategy is predicated on expressing the democratic will of that majority. Therefore, using the candidate contract for narrow, niche activism, or unpopular causes is a non-starter. In theory, candidate contracts can be drawn up for any reason, around any issue big or small. But they are only effective in attracting voter support if they reflect enormous popular support.

Having said that, making the candidate contract the centerpiece of a populist campaign can be decisive -- it can win elections.

Here's how.

It's crucial to recognize, the candidate contract by embracing a number of pivotal populist policies, then requiring focused and unwavering dedication by whoever signs the contract to inaugurate those policies, is not intended to constrain or control the 'good guy' populist candidate. These items are the things he or she would do anyway if elected. In fact, within each district the 'good guy' populist candidates themselves each tailor the contract for their particular constituents, literally designing the contract he or she can and will deliver on.

While my template lists eleven issues where vast majorities of Americans want decisive action, I recommend, that based on a familiarity and understanding of each local voting jurisdiction, only those "wedge" issues unique to a particular district and the campaign taking place there, be included in the contract for that district. It's hardly necessary or even productive to put an entire campaign platform in the contract. Less is more. Three to eight decisive issues is sufficient. Just enough to defeat the establishment opponents and assure victory.

For example, if the demographic is relatively older, Social Security and Medicare likely would be incorporated, whereas free college education may not be consequential enough to include. If the demographic is young and working class, most likely the $15 per hour minimum wage clause should be adopted. And so on.

The 'good guy' populist candidate must know where the voters stand, and fashion his or her candidate contract accordingly. Specifically, he or she is looking for those pivotal, high-visibility issues which have major voter support, but are not championed by the opposition candidates! If an incumbent has, for example, voted in Congress against an increase in the minimum wage, and there's enormous support among low wage voters locally, that divergence is exactly what the populist candidate is targeting.

I can't stress this enough . . .

The contract should identify those issues with popular local support which differentiate him or her from their opponents. The progressive candidate is on the side of the people, whereas the opponents -- establishment/centrist/neoliberal candidates from either major party -- are on the wrong side of these issues.

This now points us to how the candidate contract weaponizes the populist's campaign.

The contract draws a massive, unmistakable line in the sand. The populist is on one side -- the side of the people -- and his or her opponents are on the other side. The populist candidate offers the voters something substantial, powerful, unprecedented, a guarantee in writing in the form of a legally-binding contract, declaring in no uncertain terms, what he or she will be doing from day one when arriving in Washington DC, for those same voters who voted them into office.

What can the establishment candidates put on the table? More vague promises, more empty rhetoric, more nice campaign slogans and pleasant sound bites?

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This is a reprint from NewsBred.

Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi on 30th January 1948. We also know the provocation was Gandhi's insistence to newly-formed Indian government that Pakistan be paid the obligated Rs.55 crores from the treasury.

Godse's full statement in his trial was banned for 20 years till the Bombay High Court lifted it in 1968. It bears a reminder now for both Hindus and Muslims lest a similar communal frenzy overtakes the nation in our lifetimes, abetted by forces who don't have the interests of Muslims, certainly not of Hindus, and most definitely not of the nation we know as India.

Godse believed Muslims were appeased by Gandhi at the cost of Hindus. He cited several instances such as Khilafat Movement in the early 20s; the move to separate Sind from Bombay presidency in 1928; Mahatma's "neither support nor opposition" to the Government of India Act of 1935 which allowed elections on communal lines and prepared the way for the horrific Partition; and the Great Calcutta Killings and Noakhali Riots where lakhs of Hindu men and women paid with their lives and honour.

The Muslim League feared Hindu domination. Hinduphobia was built upon by Jinnah and other leaders of the Muslim League, abetted by British policy of "divide-and-rule." Gandhi's desire for a united front of Hindus and Muslims against British never materialized. His doctrine of Ahimsa didn't work. It only caused rivers of blood to flow in front of his eyes. His turned out to be violent pacifism.

MODERN TIMES: Muslim viewpoint

Fast forward to modern times. Muslims perceive a hostile climate against their lives and food habits abetted by the central BJP government. They don't stop to question:

(a)if BJP indeed is communal how come it doesn't react to hundreds of Hindu killings in Kerala and Bengal ? Why Advani's Ayodhya's rath-yatra was completely bloodless;

(b)How come its first act was to provide new subsidy to Islamic schools;

(c)If BJP indeed was fundmanetalist, how come the most strident Hindu voices such as Arun Shourie and Dr. Subramanium Swamy were never inducted in the Cabinet?

(d)Every time a stray voice, such as Sakshi Maharaj or Jyoti Niranjan go extreme, the government most vehemently come down on it;

HINDU VIEWPOINT

Hindus have their own grouse.

(a)Hindus pride in their religion is termed as "bigotry";

(b)Hindus can't come to terms with Ayodhya where Rajiv Gandhi himself had allowed Hindus to worship in 1986 and where all the eminent historians, such as Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib were shown to be manipulating history and archeology by the three-member jury;

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From Gush Shalom

CONAN DOYLE, the creator of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, would have titled his story about this incident "The Bizarre Case of Bashar al-Assad."

And bizarre it is.

It concerns the evil deeds of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, who "bombed his own people with Sarin, a nerve gas, causing gruesome deaths of the victims".

Like everybody else around the world, I heard about the "foul deed" a few hours after it happened. Like everybody else, I was shocked. And yet...

AND YET, I am a professional investigative journalist. For 40 years of my life I was the editor-in-chief of an investigative weekly magazine, which exposed nearly all of Israel's major scandals during those years. I have never lost a major libel suit, indeed I have rarely been sued at all. I am mentioning this not to boast, but to lend some authority to what I am going to say.

In my time I have decided to publish thousands of investigative articles, including some which concerned the most important people in Israel. Less well known is that I have also decided not to publish many hundreds of others, which I found lacked the necessary credibility.

How did I decide? Well, first of all I asked for proof. Where is the evidence? Who are the witnesses? Is there written documentation?

But there was always something which cannot be defined. Beyond witnesses and documents there is something inside the mind of an editor which tells him or her: wait, something wrong here. Something missing. Something that doesn't rhyme.

It is a feeling. Call it an inner voice. A kind of intuition. A warning that tells you, the minute you hear about the case for the first time: Beware. Check it again and again.

This is what happened to me when I first heard that, on April 4, Bashar al-Assad had bombed Khan Sheikhoun with nerve gas.

My inner voice whispered: wait. Something wrong. Something smells fishy.

FIRST OF ALL, it was too quick. Just a few hours after the event, everybody knew it was Bashar who did it.

Of course, it was Bashar! No need for proof. No need to waste time checking. Who else but Bashar?

Well, there are plenty of other candidates. The war in Syria is not two-sided. Not even three- or four-sided. It is almost impossible to count the sides.

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BOISE, Idaho (AP)  The Idaho Secretary of State office said Friday it's reviewing a request for key points of voter data from President Donald Trump's commission investigating alleged voter fraud in the 2016 election.

Trump's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity sent a letter to all the states and the District of Columbia on Wednesday giving them two weeks to provide voter names, addresses, birthdates, recent voting history, the last four digits of Social Security numbers and any information about felony convictions and military status  if that state allows that information to be public.

Trump lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton. But he has alleged, without evidence, that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally. Some Democratic officials already refused to comply, saying the request invades privacy and is based on false claims of fraud.

State Election Director Betsie Kimbrough said the office will fulfill the request if Secretary of State Lawerence Denney, a Republican, determines it complies with state public records law. The secretary of state is Idaho's chief election officer and oversees compliance during primary and general elections. Denney has previously defended the integrity of Idaho's voting system, arguing that the likelihood of voter fraud is very low to nonexistent.

In Idaho, the state's voter registration system is public, including voters' names, addresses and voting history. However, information about driver's license numbers, the last four digits of Social Security numbers and date of births are not released even though that data is collected on registration forms.

Kimbrough said the commission's request will be treated like any other records request from the public, adding that Idaho's voter roll is routinely provided to political campaigns, the press and other groups that ask for it.

Mark Warbis, a spokesman for Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, said Friday that the Republican governor pans on discussing the request with Denney before making a determination.

In addition to the voter information, the letter asks state officials for suggestions on improving election integrity and to share any evidence of fraud and election-related crimes in their states.

The data will help the commission "fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting," vice chairman and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach wrote.

Idaho has a history of being protective of its citizen data. In 2008, state lawmakers banned complying with national proof-of-identity requirements because of concerns of handing over residency information. Idaho has since become compliant with the federal law.


BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE FAR EAST DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

(Image by iwmarc) Details DMCA



From edwardcurtin.com



"The gates of hell are open night and day;

Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:

But to return, and view the cheerful skies,

In this the task and mighty labor lies." Vergil, The Aeneid

Not since Edmund Gosse's classic memoir, Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments, has an estranged son written more nobly of his father than Douglas Valentine. Nobly because, apart from a brief author's note, the son is absent from the book, except as a faithful and creative amanuensis to his father's chilling, dark, life-long secret of his WW II years as a prisoner of war of the Japanese. A secret so horrifying that a reader can't help but realize that its harboring throughout the thirty plus years of the son's life could do nothing but poison his relationship with his father as it ate away at his father's soul.

Responding to his ailing father's call to come home and hear his tale of the war experiences that have tormented him his whole life, the son discovers that his father has awakened him to his vocation as a writer. By listening, the son receives the gift of telling. He answers the call. And in telling his father's story (originally in 1984; see 2016 edition here) the son opens himself to other serendipitous opportunities that would result in other books exposing the treacherous secrets of state criminals, notably the CIA (The Phoenix Program) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). While these latter books have made Valentine's reputation, his first and most intimate, The Hotel Tacloban, stands out in so many ways.

Joseph Campbell, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, describes this acceptance of the call as follows:

The first stage of the mythological journey -- which we have designated as the 'call to adventure' -- signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown".the hero can go forth on his own volition to accomplish the adventure, as did Theseus when he arrived in his father's city, Athens, and heard the horrible history of the Minotaur.

While I doubt Valentine or his father -- Douglas Valentine, Sr. -- considers himself a hero in any popularly understood sense, both are heroes in a deeper sense. They are truth tellers. They tell truths that, if closely heard and meditated upon, could transform the lives of other suffering souls, just as they granted the father a semblance of peace and began to heal the broken bond between father and son. While nothing is more unheroic and conventional than the social lie that glorifies war and the modern Minotaurs who demand an endless supply of war victims to feed their blood lust, father and son make it clear that war is nothing but a sick racket. Many people will nod in agreement, but the Valentines, through graphic illustrations, courageously lance the festering wound that war's depravity inflicts on all who experience it.

Part ventriloquistic non-fiction memoir, part history, part murder mystery, part war story, part confessional -- wholly beyond categorization, really -- The Hotel Tacloban is a mesmerizing read that will leave you stunned and shaken, but also awe-struck by the courage and depravity to which humans can rise and fall. So gripping is the story that I find it shocking that it hasn't yet been made into a movie.

It is also a cautionary tale that exposes the destructive effects that guilty secrets can have on soldiers, who have returned from war terrorized by their experiences, and their families. And, by implication, on anyone who harbors secret nightmares that eat them alive.

Perhaps I would best describe it as a tale told in an Aristotelean tragic style that engrosses the reader from the start as one is slowly -- as if stepping into quicksand -- drawn into the story of a patriotic sixteen year old boy soldier's war nightmare. With each page the tension builds as the reader is led by the action to feel pity, fear, and disgust -- the gamut of emotions that lead to a catharsis, of sorts. At the end the reader, together with father and son, exhales, takes a deep breath, and exits the theater profoundly shaken by the experience. Shaken into life's profound mystery.

Masterful in structure and eloquently written in poetic prose that belies its subject matter, it is reminiscent of the best American war writing.

Scene: New Guinea in the south Pacific. Late August 1942.

On the unpublicized orders of General Douglas MacArthur ("Dougout Doug"), poorly trained units of the U.S. Army 32nd Division are unexpectedly diverted to New Guinea to back up undermanned and beleaguered Australian troops trying to stop a Japanese advance to the southern Port Moresby. Among them is Douglas Valentine, Sr, a "sixteen, not too bright, runaway from a broken home in Pleasantville, New York, an orphan of the Great Depression." His best friend, Bobby Stevenson, eighteen, an Indiana farm kid and former hoopster, who cannot swim, dies in an amphibious landing, despite Valentine's valiant efforts to drag him to the safety of a rescue craft. "And when Bobby's dripping body rose out of the sea," he says, "I saw that both his legs were gone from above the knees. Not even his pants remained".That's when I came apart."

So this kid Valentine, who should have been in his sophomore year in high school, despite coming apart, joins his unit chasing the Japanese through the jungles up to the mountain ridges. Here's is how Doug Valentine, Jr/Sr describe it:

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From Mike Malloy Website

Truthseekers, we've come to the end of another batshit crazy week in Trumpland. Even with all his outrageous, juvenile stunts it is difficult to believe he has stooped to personally attacking cable TV hosts on Twitter. What is it with this guy and women and blood? Creepy. He's been hatin' on and objectifying women his entire life, so his latest attacks on Mika Brzezinski and Morning Joe aren't exactly a surprise, just another inch whittled off what remains of our global reputation.

There he is, tweeting about her low IQ and bloody face the same day he's meeting with the newly elected leader of South Korea. What an embarrassment. His son Barron is more mature and probably has a better understanding of the working of our political system.

But maybe he's misogynistic-like-a-fox, and this latest twitter torrent is an intentional distraction to swing the media away from the breaking Wall Street Journal story about Michael Flynn's possible collusion -- through the late GOP operative Peter Smith -- with Russian hackers about releasing Hillary Clinton's email from her private server.

Whatever. Joe and Mika brushed off his tiny-handed attack as immaterial to them personally, adding it was a blow to our standing in the world. "We're O.K. The country's not," Scarborough stated this morning. Then they dropped the bombshell that Trump's staff basically blackmailed them with harassment from the National Enquirer that included calling Mika's teenage daughters and parking a van outside her home.

Scarborough said he received phone calls from the White House begging him to call the President and "apologize" for news stories that ran on Morning Joe, and that the President would call his buddy David Pecker (the CEO of American Media/National Enquirer) and spike the story if Joe made the call. The National Enquirer, talk about fake news. What a joke.

Sleazy sleazy sleazy. Can you imagine President Obama, or any American President in history using a scummy tabloid to harass the hosts of a cable tv program? How much is enough for the GOP? It's just a matter of time before this immature orange twit tweets something about a foreign leader -- or his wife -- and causes an international crisis. Maybe then the powers that be will put this guy out of our misery. Let's just hope it happens before he blows off a nuke at North Korea or Syria or something.

And all this garbage when we are facing so many serious issues that actually impact American lives. And this is what we have to deal with. Sad.
Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"You have something special and important here. Somehow you manage to teach and suggest and introduce the reader to concepts in a way that feels inclusive. Like, we're thinking about it together. Partly it might be because the subject, bottom-up, is innately understood by all of us and so it feels like you're stirring up stuff we already know. But also I think it's because you truly are practiced at connection consciousness and so it's natural for you (I'm guessing) to write about it with a desire to include us. As a reader I was learning more because it feels like you're inviting me to think with you."



Tsara Shelton, author
From Alternet

Western media are continuing to do their part in the propaganda war on Syria.



Silence is compliance - A protester with a message

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If you wish to understand the degree to which the supposedly free western media are constructing a world of half-truths and deceptions to manipulate their audiences, keeping us uninformed and pliant, there could hardly be a better case study than their treatment of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

All of these highly competitive, for-profit, scoop-seeking media outlets separately took identical decisions: first to reject Hersh's latest investigative report, and then to studiously ignore it once it was published in Germany last Sunday. They have continued to maintain an absolute radio silence on his revelations, even as over the past few days they have given a great deal of attention to two stories on the very issue Hersh's investigation addresses.

These two stories, given such prominence in the western media, are clearly intended to serve as "spoilers" to his revelations, even though none of these publications has actually informed their readers of his original investigation. We are firmly in looking-glass territory.

So what did Hersh's investigation reveal? His sources in the U.S. intelligence establishment told him the official narrative that Syria's Bashar Assad had dropped deadly sarin gas on the town of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 was incorrect. Instead, they said, a Syrian plane dropped a bomb on a meeting of jihadi fighters that triggered secondary explosions in a storage depot, releasing a toxic cloud of chemicals that killed civilians nearby.

One might assume that an alternative narrative of the events would be of great interest to the media, given that Donald Trump approved a military strike on Syria, based on the official narrative. Hersh's version suggests that Trump acted against the intelligence advice he received from his own officials, in a highly dangerous move that not only grossly violated international law but might have dragged Assad's main ally, Russia, into the fray. The Syrian arena has the potential to trigger a serious confrontation between the world's two major nuclear powers.

But in fact, the western media were supremely uninterested in the story. Hersh, once considered the journalist's journalist, went hawking his investigation around the U.S. and UK media to no avail. In the end, he could find a home for his revelations only in Germany, in the publication Welt am Sonntag.

There are a couple of possible, though unlikely, reasons all English-language publications ignored Hersh's story. Maybe they had evidence his inside intelligence was wrong. If so, they have yet to provide it. A rebuttal would require acknowledging Hersh's story, and none seems willing to do that.

Or maybe the media thought it was old news and would no longer interest their readers. It would be difficult to sustain such an interpretation, but at least it has an air of plausibility -- except for everything that has happened since Hersh published last Sunday. His story has spawned two clear "spoiler" responses from those desperate to uphold the official narrative. Hersh's revelations may have been entirely uninteresting to the western media, but strangely they have sent Washington into crisis mode.

Of course, no U.S. official has addressed Hersh's investigation directly, which might have drawn attention to it and forced western media to reference it. Instead, Washington has sought to deflect attention from Hersh's alternative narrative and shore up the official one through misdirection. That alone should raise the alarm that we are being manipulated, not informed.

The first spoiler, made in the immediate wake of Hersh's story, was statements from the Pentagon and White House warning that the U.S. had evidence Assad was planning yet another chemical attack on his people and that Washington would respond harshly if he did so.

Here is how the Guardian reported the U.S. threats:

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See original here

"At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump's alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression."

by Andrea Germanos, staff writer



Several states have already rejected a voter data demand from Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, calling it an effort to suppress voters.

(Image by (Photo: Stephen Melkisethian/flickr/cc)) Details DMCA



A handful of states are pushing back against a sweeping demand from a controversial Trump voting commission for information about voters in every state.

Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was met with outrage at its inception last month, as it is headed by "notorious vote suppressor" Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and is tasked with investigating "the imagined scourge of voter fraud."

But a request the commission sent Wednesday to the 50 states and District of Columbia requesting voter names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, felony convictions, military status, and their voting history dating back to 2006 was met with swift rebuke. While one civil rights group called it a "meritless inquisition," Esquire political columnist Charles Pierce characterized the move as "the final step backwards across the Edmund Pettus Bridge."

Advocacy organization Common Cause welcomed the fact that several election officials have voiced their concerns about the information request. The organization's president, Karen Hobert Flynn, said they were right to be wary:

"First, some of the information sought by the Commission's Co-Chair, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, isn't publicly available data, and disclosure of such data runs the risk of rampant privacy breaches. Second, it's clear from Kobach's request that he will attempt to match data obtained from the state elections officials and from the DOJ requests, as he and several states have already done through his faulty Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck program. This program has improperly cut hundreds of thousands of eligible voters from the registration rolls due to mismatches, in clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act. As he's also publicly stated, Kobach intends to check voter registration data against the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification Entitlements) database to determine whether non-citizens are on the rolls despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security has clarified that this is not an accurate database for updated citizenship records."

California's response to the request? Not a chance.

In a press statement that notes the president "has falsely alleged that three to five million votes were cast illegally in the 2016 election," Secretary of State Alex Padilla said "California's participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the President, the Vice President, and Mr. Kobach.

"The President's appointment of Kobach -- who has a long history of sponsoring discriminatory, anti-immigrant policies including voter suppression and racial profiling laws -- sends a clear and ominous message. His role as vice chair is proof that the ultimate goal of the commission is to enact policies that will result in the disenfranchisement of American citizens," Padilla said.

Virginia's not getting on board either.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Thursday: "I have no intention of honoring this request. Virginia conducts fair, honest, and democratic elections, and there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in Virginia. This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November. At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump's alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression."

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The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in collaboration with the Judiciary, has observed the 35th anniversary of the Martyrs Day with a Remembrance Service for the three murdered Justices of the High Court.



The late Mr Justice Fred Poku Sarkodee, Mrs Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Mr Justice Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong were murdered and burnt on June 30, 1982 at the Bondase Military firing range.



Speaking at the ceremony in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional minister, Lawyer Kwaku Asoma-Cheremeh, encouraged the justices to remember their source of power and be independent in their line of duty to ensure the rule of law thrives.



He stressed that "the state cannot be efficiently ran without an independent and dignified judiciary."



On his part, the Brong Ahafo Regional chairman of the Ghana Bar Association, Mr. Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, posited that the Bar and Bench would "continue to celebrate the martyrs and also forgive the perpetrators" of the heinous act that sent the three justices to their graves.



He stressed the need for judges to administer justice without fear or favour to promote peace, happiness and rule of law which are necessary ingredients for national development lest they "forget what the justices lived and died for."



He, however, bemoaned the disrespect for the judiciary and asked political parties to check the growing feature of vigilante groups in the country, reiterating that they "pose threat to the rule of law."



He cited the raid on a Kumasi circuit court judge by some members of the Pro-NPP Delta Forces as an example, condemned it and called for it to stop.



Rt. Rev. DR. Festus Yeboah -Asuamah, the Bishop of the Anglican Church in Sunyani, Who was the guest speaker, described the killing of the three Judges as heinous and barbaric act that should be condemned in no uncertain terms.



He said the " love and respect of human dignity had been thrown to the dogs," adding that the gruesome murder of the late major Maxwell Mahama depicted that Ghana was not that peaceful, quizzing " is Ghana the peaceful country we boast of? "



He also urged the judicial service to be "mindful of corruption whether perceived or right."

Source: Henryson Okrah









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Featured Video
The Brong Ahafo Youth Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC, has said he will meet the National Organiser of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, in court regarding a suit against him.



I am ready to expose him in courtI will fight this matter like a wounded tiger, he told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class FMs 505 news programme on Thursday, June 29.



Mr Adams filed a writ at the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court against the Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Major General Obed Akwa, in connection with the seizure of his vehicles.



Joined to the suit are Captain Anane Tandoh of the Defence Mechanical Transport Unit at Burma Camp as well as Brong Ahafo Youth Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC.



The writ is seeking to recover items which Mr Adams alleges were stolen from his vehicles when a taskforce led by Captain Tandoh stormed his Tema residence early this year.



According to Mr Adams, the taskforce stole a pistol and some quantity of cash.



However, Abronye DC said he had not been served with any writ of summons at the time of the interview, indicating that he is not running away from Mr Adams.



According to him, he will go for the writ from the courts himself and respond appropriately.



I will go there tomorrow [June 30] to make sure the writ of summons is served on me I am not running away from Kofi AdamsI will meet him in court, he emphasised.

Source: Classfmonline









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Featured Video
The Poker Hand Ill Never Forget: Greg Raymer

June 30, 2017 Sean Chaffin Contributor

It's the hand that put you over the top. Or the two cards you held that time you were rivered for a monster pot. Everyone has "the hand," that one that you remember no matter how many more tournaments or cash games played. PokerNews takes a look at those hands that stick with players and relive the glory, or misery, depending on the results.

For the fourth edition of this series, we spoke to Greg Raymer about two hands came to his mind  one positive and one negative. The first may be fairly obvious.

2004 World Series of Poker Main Event

"The final hand in 2004 when I won the Main Event is obviously one I'll never forget," Raymer says. "We played six inconsequential hands where no one won more than two or three blinds, and we're very deep in the tournament."

Raymer had about 70 percent of the chips in play against David Williams, playing heads-up for the title, but Williams still had a lot of room to maneuver. Williams raised to preflop 300,000 and Raymer called with .

"It was certainly a hand worthy of three-betting heads up," Raymer says. "But I felt like some percentage of the time you should just flat there to disguise the fact that you have a decent pair, and I chose that line."

The flop came and Raymer checked to Williams, who put in a bet of 500,000. Raymer then raised to 1.6 million and his opponent quickly called. The turn brought a , pairing the board, and Raymer bet 2.5 million. Williams called again, and the river brought the . Raymer moved all in, and Williams quickly called and showed for a full house. Raymer tabled pocket eights for a bigger house, securing the bracelet and first-place money of $5 million. However, the immediate river call by Williams, who won $3.5 million as runner-up, at first cast some doubt in Raymer's mind.

"When he snap-called on the river, my first thought wasn't, 'Yes I've won,' it was like 'Oh Jesus, he called that fast,'" Raymer says. "At that point, I was like, 'I must be losing for him to call that fast.' That was obviously a great hand I'll never forget."

2005 World Series of Poker Main Event

The next year, Raymer was back at it  running deep in the Main Event with 25 players left. He had about 4 million in chips, twice the average stack. He picked up and put in a raise.

"We were down to 25 people on the second to last day and I was one of the bigger stacks," he says.

Aaron Kanter, of Sacramento, Calif., elected to call with . Raymer said this idea of "floating" with anything to try and bluff a later street was rare then (and the term floating did not really exist yet for this strategy). Raymer said Kanter told him later he had planned to call with any two cards the next time he raised and bluff the turn or river.

The flop came and Raymer fired 150,000 chips, which Kanter called. The turn then brought the and Raymer bet 300,000. Kanter then re-raised to 900,000 on with flush draw and with two over cards.

"I'm looking at him the whole time and I'm 100 percent sure he's bluffing and he doesn't have anything," Raymer says. "As soon as he commits to the amount of the raise, as soon as he pushed all those chips forward, I just said, 'I'm all in.'"

Kanter studied a bit and then called.

"I cannot believe Aaron Kanter's chips are all in the middle on this hand," ESPN analyst Norman Chad announced.

The river card brought the completing Kanter's flush, and Raymer was crushed. Most of his chips were sent over to Kanter's stack, and he was left with only about 400,000 chips.

"That's the nature of the event these days," Chad said. "Aaron Kanter, behind every step of the way, makes a horrendous play for all his chips and he takes the defending champ to the brink of being out of here."

If Raymer had won the pot, he would have had about 10 percent of the chips in play and at least a shot at repeating his Main Event title. He says while there were still some great players left in the tournament (such as Joe Hachem, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow), there were also still some amateurs left.

"When you look back still, from today's perspective, the field was soft," says Raymer, who now runs FossilManPokerTraining.com. "Even at that point in the tournament, there were guys who just weren't very good. So I would have given myself about 15 percent chance of winning again. With 10 percent of the chips, I would have been the chip leader and could have pushed people around and abused the bubbles. If I had won back to back, then I'd have really etched my name in poker history."

The missed opportunity is still tough to look back on, but has made any bad beats that have come his way since then much easier to get past.

"The good news is the dealer can't deliver a card where I'm just tilted and emotionally destroyed," he says. "It's impossible to beat me in a way that's going to come close to that ever again. And that's the silver lining  it's even easier for me to kind of be tilt-proof."
In a word, Blood Drive is bad. But one word doesn't mean you shouldn't watch it.

If you're not a regular fan of Syfy (the channel, not the genrethey are quite different), then the closest you've come to experiencing it was probably Sharknado. If so, you've seen what might be called the "best" of what Syfy does: the kind of stuff that's so badand just the right amount of self-awarethat it's good, even great television.

Syfy's newest series, Blood Drive, presented by Midnight Grindhouse, is the same kind of program. Instead of spoofing summer shark movies, Blood Drive pays homage to the best/worst of the grind house genre. No matter how much you enjoy it, you can't call it good.



I first thought the Grindhouse Cinema brand was connected to the Grindhouse double-feature film, created in 2007 by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. In fact, they're not at all related and some quick research shows that Midnight Grindhouse is a trademark of NBCUniversal Media, LLC. It also turns out that Syfy is owned by NBCUniversal, so it all suddenly makes more and less sense.

Arthur and Grace share a drink before the race. (YouTube)

The first observation, after how immediately bad the acting is, might be the HBO/Starz levels of profanity. That's something you won't find in Sharknado. The show wastes no time plunging past its bare minimum backstory and into the mid- or post-apocalyptic world of whenever this takes place.

Fracking has carved a gash through the U.S. that basically follows the Mississippi and has left the country without fuel. The show places itself "in the distant future of 1999," but there's really nothing to suggest a time setting besides the beige PCs and lack of smartphones. The receptionist at the show's Umbrella Corporation-copy, "Heart Enterprises," taps on a tablet that looks exactly like an iPad. The show basically tries to create 1999 as if it were being imagined in 1968.

Hungry engine. (YouTube)

It exaggerates the blood, gore, sex and profanity to salute a specific subgenre of grind house each week, all while following a cross-country death race called the Blood Drive. A maniacal host (Colin Cunningham; think Joker in black) pits pairs of racers against each other for a grand cash prize. The last place finishers at each stop die and, oh yeah, the cars run on human blood.

"Why would anyone do that?" asks our hero-cop, Arthur, in a skin-tight police uniform like a 2017 Halloween costume (Alan Ritchson). There's no technical explanation given for how this works, nor is anybody asking for one. After a hopeless attempt to singlehandedly stop the entire operation after stumbling into the starting ceremony, Arthur is forced into the race with a partner, Grace (Christina Ochoa).

When Arthur scolds her for killing for money, Grace explains: "That's enough to get my sister the help she needs and set us up for life." Thinking that would be all the explanation the show felt like it needed, I was surprised that her sister already becomes a real, live, almost-character who probably does need to be saved.

Slink, the master of ceremonies. (YouTube)

Other racers include Fat Elvis, the Gentleman (posh Brit.) and the Scholar (his likely illiterate mechanic partner), and a variety of horrible, murderous people. There's a cannibal called Caligula who has something to do with something. Plus, Arthur's police partner, Chris (Thomas Dominique), has been abducted by bionic humanoids in the impenetrable basements of Heart Enterprises, apparently to "recruit" him.

"Is everybody a psychopath?" Arthur asks on his whirlwind first day in the race. Short answer: yes. Episode 2 was a tribute to the cannibal and zombie subgenre, where a diner serving homestyle human becomes the battle ground between the racers and a gang of hungry customers.

Arthur is the first to discover the restaurant's secret recipe and warns the Gentleman:

Arthur: You're going to want to stop eating that.

Gent.: Give me one good reason.

Arthur: It's made of people.

Gent.: Mm. No wonder it tastes so pedestrian.

If that made you laugh as loudly as I did, then please enjoy Blood Drive for 13 episodes of campy gore, every Wednesday at 10pm Eastern, on Syfy.

Watch full episodes online here.

Follow Blood Drive on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

READ MORE ABOUT FILM/TV:

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Review | 'MINDHORN' is the low-key comedy of the summer




With some elegantly retro dance synth beats and sweetly spaced-out vocals, Anna of the North has graced us with another incredible single off their debut LP Lovers. The musical pair is made up of Anna Lotterud and her partner Brady Daniell-Smith. Lotterud came to Australia on a soul-searching mission after spontaneously leaving her native Norway. Daniell-Smith was a little nearer the continent, hailing from New Zealand originally, but when the two previously lovelorn musicians came together after meeting in a bar where Daniell-Smith was performing, neither of their lives or music careers have been the same.

"Someone," which came out on Friday - the same day where Anna of the North also appeared on the latest Tyler, the Creator track "911 / Mr. Lonely" with Frank Ocean and Steve Lacey - feels, though not in a bad way, like Lana Del Rey with the "disco" dial cranked all the way up. Or perhaps Icona Pop with the tempo turned down. It toes the line between dancey and just upbeat; it's both a love song and a warning by way of explanation.

With nervous excitement, Lotterud tells her lover about her growing feelings. "There's something in the water. I can feel you getting under my skin," she starts. Then, just following, "I don't need another lover - I need someone who understands me." She's not cruel about it, but wants to guard her heart.

via Facebook

Which, honestly, is fair. Because we could all relate - we've all been on strings of semi-successful relationships we tried to shape from Tinder or that one time we thought it would be a good idea to kiss our friend's weed dealer for three days straight. And too many times, our hearts were dropped - not cruelly, but not gently, either - as our lovers said "oh, I'm not looking for anything serious, by the way." So months later, when we found someone we liked spending time with and who kept texting us back without any sense of reservation, it's only natural to want to clarify where we stand. Even if it takes us a few more months of being nervous on really cute dates and cookies made from old family recipes and offered up as casually as our hearts could manage before asking exactly what is going on between you two. Lotterud knows this all too well, as her chorus fully admits to her vulnerability.

"I'm only human baby, sometimes act a little crazy. I'm only human baby, need someone to come and save me."

"Someone" is a happily tender offering. We all, in the end, just want someone to understand us, too. We want to dive in, but damned if the distance to the water isn't a little daunting. Lotterud's perfectly sweet vocals and the Phil Collins-esque drums that recall deep nights of romance without wandering into aggressive bass beats create a soundscape that is as comforting as your lover reaching for your hand or a happy blush on their face.

Anna of the North is on her way to a happy, healthy love, and even more so, on the way to a blossoming time atop the charts. Without a doubt, the upcoming LP is sure to be even more enchanting than her singles thus far.

Lovers will be released on September 8th on Honeymoon / +1 Records / Different Recordings.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




Aroma Bravo's medium dark roast coffee will be having a 20% off sale this July 10 to celebrate Prime Day.

Contact

Charles C Harmon Co LLC

***@gmail.com

888-582-6650 Charles C Harmon Co LLC888-582-6650

End

-- Aroma Bravo Coffee and Tea has just announced its participation in the upcoming Amazon Prime Day this July 10. This will be a first for the Nevada-based company, which just entered the gourmet coffee market a couple of months ago. To mark this important event, Aroma Bravo plans to give a generous 20% discount on its best-selling Honduras coffee on the actual sale day.The decision to take part in Amazon Prime Day 2017 was easy for Aroma Bravo. "We've always looked forward to joining Prime Day. Because the deals are good, Amazon customers tend to buy more items than usual. We want to sell as many of our Aroma Bravo Honduras Coffee as we can so that more coffee lovers on Amazon will learn about our brand," said a company official.Aroma Bravo's 20% off price reduction will apply specifically to its medium dark roast coffee. This is a special item because it is the company's very first coffee product to be sold on Amazon.com. It is also a customer favorite and the best-selling product among the current roast levels."Our customers seem to really enjoy our medium dark roast, and we totally understand why. Like us, they have been captivated by the smooth, mellow chocolatey flavor of this gourmet coffee. The rich taste, clean finish and mild aroma make it a real delight to drink first thing every morning. This medium dark roast is the perfect introduction to true Honduras coffee, that's why we've chosen to put it on sale on Prime Day," the Aroma Bravo official remarked.The Nevada-based company expects a huge turnout for its medium roast coffee, that's why arrangements are being made as early as now. Thousands of coffee bags are currently being prepared so that customers can purchase all the coffees they desire."On a regular day, our customers often buy more than one bag for their home or office supply. On Prime Day, the orders will be much higher per person since the coffee will come with a 20% discount. We will reveal the special 20% off coupon code sometime this week, so be sure to stay tuned for the announcement!"the official advised.More info about Honduras coffee is available at https://www.amazon.com/ Honduras-Coffee- Whole-Bean-Marcala... Aroma Bravo offers certified organic coffee beans from Marcala, Honduras. Grown in organic farms and roasted in small batches, Aroma Bravo Honduras Coffee is highly recommended for coffee lovers.
The reputation of Gordon Lish precedes him. Hes known as a master of avant-garde prose and as a controversial editor (dubbed Captain Fiction in his stint at Esquire) whose slash-and-burn style has made bestsellers out of many nascent authors. His infamous writing workshops have been described as grueling and hellish, a form of torture. He used to instruct his students to seduce the whole world with their writing; the classes apparently went beyond mere intellectual seduction.

Reading about him, and reading his latest book, White Plains: Pieces & Witherlings (Little Island, Aug.), an autobiographical group of linked stories, one is not predisposed to like him. But Lish is 83 now, a somewhat mangy lion in winter who leads a reclusive life and who doesnt let people in, metaphorically and perhaps literally. Its hard to feel antipathy for a man whose brain is sharp but whose sight and hearing are dimmed, and for whom getting about is no longer easy. When I leave his Upper East Side apartment a few paces from Central Park after a 90-minute chat, I kind of like him. He has been polite and kind, looking for antihistamines to temper my sudden allergy attack, concerned lest my perch on a high stool prove uncomfortable.

The kitchen is where Lish prefers to sit, our chat conducted across the breakfast bar. He misses teaching, he says, and misses the students, though he occasionally sees them one-on-one, giving them tutorials at the local Starbucks and sometimes at his home, where he has lived alone since his second wife died. Columbia has hinted that in the autumn they might want me back to give some lectures, he says. Ill do them if Im invited. One ends up talking about oneself.

Our encounter is prompted by the publication of White Plains. Lish, who has no tolerance for editorial interference in his own work, has nothing but high praise for his publisher, Andrew Latimer (Hes crackerjack), whose U.K.-based independent, Little Island Press, is publishing the book worldwide. Latimers intercessions were made with such adroitness, but, according to Lish, there was no line editing of a kind that I would do. Of course not!

As for the collections subtitle, witherlings is stolen from Wallace Stevens. What did he mean by it? Lish asks. I think it says what it says. Its not of great consequence anyway. An odd reply for an editor, but Lish likes the acoustical sound of the word and wishes American writers concerned themselves more with the acoustical aspects of writing, which he believes British writers do.

Lish says he has already written another book but he wont talk about it. Yet he says hes not a writer and told the Paris Review in 2015 that he has no stake in... being thought of as a writer. So why, as an editor with famously exacting standards, does he write? Im accused, and I have no alibi for doing so, Lish says. It keeps me busy. Theres a Yiddish word, potzer: somebody who horses around, plays, moves a thing here, moves a thing therewho devises what would seem a personality via language. But do I have, can I do, any of the things those people I admire do? No, not by a long chalk.

Comparisons of his own work to Joyce and Beckett are preposterous, he says, but then Lish is not a fully paid-up fan of either. I like Joyce marginally, I like Beckett greatlynot the novels, his plays. In the instance of Joyce, the short story Araby is better than the rest of Dublinersjust that one story, and theres not much in it. The one thing in Ulysses thats been read by me more than once is Mollys soliloquy at the end of the book. I dont care for the rest of it at all. Its a lot of hoopla over nothing. He adds that he can see merit in Finnegans Wake.

I used to hang around with [Denis] Donoghue and [Harold] Bloom, he says. Wed have lunch a couple of times a week, and also with Harold Brodkey and Don DeLillo. Bloom would toss a new book back at you and then two decades later write an introduction and say what a great book it was. I find that behavior shameless. Rhapsodizing about the long dead is easy, he says, but critics should have no alibi in not being able to apprehend excellence right off the bat. He adds: If not, then fuck them! What are they doing as critics?

Lish has no such problems, and his ability to make immediate judgmentson the basis of just one sentence that a student has read outis legendary. I have a gift, he says. Or I have an opinion, or I have a prejudice, or a bias. Would that I were otherwise, but Im not. I have a quick sense of the destiny of whats before me by having a taste of whats there. When I was at Esquirewhere he was the fiction editor from 1969 to 1977I could not have made my way through as much stuff as came over the transom had I not had that ability. In those days I could look at a page of text and arrive at some kind of view of its qualities, its value.

Rarely if ever did Lish use readers, and it was many years before he dealt with agents. Instead of paying $10,000 to Saul Bellow or John Updike, Id pay $1,000, hoping to conserve the budget of Esquire so I could spread the money among people theyd never heard of, he says.

Lish worked hard, arriving in the office at 6 a.m., and is scathing about editors and agents who cant be bothered to read their slush piles. Publishing has already gone into the crapperits a business, he says. The thrill, we agree, is in the discovery. These editors in publishing houses, do they know or do they care? Theyre order takers.

Lish is no less damning about writing courses. Its all nonsense, he says. Theyre ghastly, institutionalized. The only [teacher] I admired was John Barth, who taught at Buffalo and SUNY in the 1960s. The rest I thought was absolutely a way of the teacher getting income support for his or her own writing adventures. Courses are full of no-hopers, he thinks, writers retreats are a way of conducting affairs or romances, and the workshops are shamefulno teaching goes on.

Lish is good at teaching, and even students who bemoan his sadismhours and hours without a break, though students were permitted to go to the bathroomwould agree they owe their careers to him. (He himself made a point of not going to the bathroom, causing what his novelist son Atticus calls a boggy bladder, which has twice required surgery.) Some argue that Lish launched many books but rather fewer careers, a characterization with which he disagrees.

As an editor, he championed authors such as Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Richard Ford, and, of course, Raymond Carver, on whose 1980 collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love he did so much surgery, as papers in Indianas Lilly Library attest. That revelation, in 1998, left Lish feeling abused, because it was promptly construed in the worst light.

Its hard not to like, or at least admire, a feisty octogenarian. As a young man, Lish wrestled with Ken Kesey in his front yard in Stanford. The Merry Prankster rammed him into glass, and Lish ended up requiring sutures. It was impossible not to be in thrall of him, given that Id been in the bughouse and he wrote about the bughouse, Lish reflects. But still, he refused to get on the bus. Probably just as well.

Liz Thomson is a London-based journalist and author, and the cofounder of the Village Trip, a celebration of Greenwich Village history and culture.
Tiffany Jackson always wanted to be a novelist, but struggled to find a home for what would become her first published book, Allegedly (HarperCollins/Tegen, Jan.). She conceived of the novel for adults, thinking the content was too dark for the teen market, but stumbled into YA. In ways, she says, Im still stumbling. While she feels that a lot of her peers are knee-deep in the YA world, shes tiptoeing, always asking questions. Though the content of the novel was made slightly less graphic for YA readers, Jackson notes that her young narrator remained unchanged and that the story stood on its own.

Allegedly tells the story of Mary Addison, a black 15-year-old, accused of killing a three-month-old white child; its loosely based on the 2012 case of a nine-year-old convicted of murdering a three-month-old in Maine. I read the article and assumed [it] could never happen, Jackson says. Someone else did it. There are always rumored stories of adults forcing kids to murder people because a child would receive a lighter sentence for the crime. She wondered, Wouldnt it be interesting if that had happened in this situation? What would that look like?

Landing an agent took time, Jackson says, because she was originally looking for an agent for an adult book. Once she reconsidered the novels she read as a young adult, she realized Allegedly was YA, and she began the query process again. I made a goal for myself to query 100 agents, then revisit whether the book was worthy of publishing. Jackson made it through 25 queries before finding the agent who would represent her: Natalie Lakosil of Bradford Literary Agency. An avid follower of Lakosils website Adventures in Agentland, Jackson pitched Lakosil, never expecting that Lakosil would eventually represent her.

Jacksons editor, Ben Rosenthal, joined the project three months after Allegedly sold to Katherine Tegen Books (her original editor left the publisher). Jackson says that what she loves most about Rosenthal is that he is very direct, providing concise notes. Im the same way: I want to get to the root of the problem, cutting out fluff. I dont have time for sugarcoating. She jokes: There arent a lot of male editors in YA. Im lucky to have a really cool one.

Jackson has a background in television, having worked for networks such as National Geographic on Lockdown, a prison subculture series, and having written and directed the short horror film The Field Trip. She says her background aids her writing, particularly in regard to character development. She pays close attention to how characters move and carry themselves, ensuring her characters have depth. Writing Mary, Allegedlys unreliable protagonist, required Jackson to be on her toes. You need to be conscious of everything thats going on [with an unreliable narrator]. Its almost like watching a horror movie.

Jacksons next novel, which will be published in May 2018, is titled Mondays Not Coming. Like Allegedly, it is loosely inspired by a criminal case. The story is set in D.C., which Jackson considers her second home after attending college there. She is excited to bring D.C. culture to the scene, especially the vibe of southeast D.C.
We profile six childrens book creators to watch whose debuts published this past spring.

Angie Thomas

If there were a poster child for the Flying Start awards, given by PW semiannually for the most striking debuts in childrens and YA books, it just might be Angie Thomas, a Mississippi church secretary who wrote a cri de coeur on race in America during her lunch hours at the bishopric. A book I was so afraid of has touched so many people, and more than that, has shattered so many myths, says Thomas.

Pablo Cartaya

The initial inspiration for Pablo Cartayas The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora came after Newbery Medalist Matt de la Pena spoke at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where Cartaya was pursuing his M.F.A. in writing for children and young adults. I had been writing for a long time, but Matt sparked something new. He was Latino like me, and it spurred me to explore my identity, he says.

Stephanie Garber

Though Stephanie Garber began writing her first novel as a way to unwind from her job as a college resident director, it quickly became more than just a hobby. After multiple rejections from agents and publishers, Garber endeavored to write a book that she, as a reader, could get lost ina YA fantasy set in a bright, colorful, over-the-top world. The end result was Caraval.

Tiffany Jackson

Tiffany Jackson always wanted to be a novelist, but struggled to find a home for what would become her first published book, Allegedly, which tells the story of a black teen accused of killing a white child. She conceived of the novel for adults, thinking the content was too dark for the teen market, but stumbled into YA.

Paul Mosier

The idea for Train I Ride came to Paul Mosier while listening to Mystery Train, the 1953 song written by the American blues legend Junior Parker and most famously recorded by Elvis Presley. I heard that lyric, Train arrives, 16 coaches long, and I wondered, who is singing? Where is the train going? Mosier recalls.

Ibi Zoboi

Haitian-born and Brooklyn-raised Ibi Zoboi first captured the attention of the publishing world as a finalist for Tu Books inaugural New Visions Award. Her debut YA novel explores what happens when economic disparity and a rich culture, like that of Haiti and Detroit, clash, and what happens to a teenager in the center of that clash.
Pressing deadlines, tight budgets, and complex requirements are just some of the usual issues digital solutions providers have to face as they move from sketchy project briefs to error-free deliverables. Throw in requests for accessibility standards, responsive design, and scanning of brittle archival documents, and the challenges start to mount. But these solutions providers have a whole arsenal of tools, experience, and subject matter experts to tackle the issues and offer the right solutions. Here, they select their most unique and recent projects, and illustrate the major steps taken in delivering the finished products.

Aaltech Group

Scanning 40 million pages of answer scripts within seven days was just the start of a complex project for a major client at Aaltech Group. The scanned pages then have to be converted into PDF files that are less than 10MB in size, says director P. Shivaalkar, whose team also developed a Web portal to host the scanned pages. The short turnaround time given by the client was the biggest challenge. Here, our IT expertise and experience is front and center, enabling this project to be delivered on time with zero compromise on quality.

Another ongoing project with a multinational academic publisher, on the other hand, has the team creating interactive e-books and HTML5 simulations and animations. The keyword for this project is responsive design. Our team uses Adobe Edge, Adobe Animate CC, Canvas and open source JavaScript to make the animations interactive and captivating for the target audience, says v-p for business development Thiru Baskaran.

Cenveo Publisher Services

The Cenveo team recently worked with a global education publisher to develop an HTML5-based flashcard engine that offers flip card-styled content. The end product combines terms and definitions with all types of media support to enhance user interaction and engagement, explains marketing director Marianne Calilhanna, adding that the engine also has complex assessment content built into the application to test knowledge about those terms and definitions learned.

The entire application, which is WCAG 2.0 AA-compatible, was tested on three different browsers on three operating systems (iOS, OSX, and Windows). It was also tested by an accessibility certification authority to ensure that the product is easily accessible by differently-abled users. The WCAG 2.0 AA compliance guidelines were thoroughly applied to the engine, including the colors used, color contrast, and settings panel. Then there was the use of large and well-spaced interactive elements or virtual controls, and the reinforcement of texts and visuals to ensure that no essential information was conveyed by audio alone, says Calilhanna.

The next project from a major educational publisher was about creating and developing core content and supporting materials without hiring authors. At first glance, it sounded like a cost-saving approach but it was actually more complex than that. Anyone involved with publishing educational content understands the deep and often hidden costs related to publishing and production, Calilhanna says. Our client, by partnering with Cenveo to develop and author higher-ed curriculum content, effectively bypassed ongoing royalties and permissions. This has resulted in lower costs and a positive P&L for the publisher, with savings passed on to students.

CodeMantra

For one publishing partner with a time-to-market problem in delivering their frontlist titles, the solution was codeMantras Integrated Workflow technology. The client needed to hit the market by a certain date, but they were falling behind due to author delays and other factors beyond their control, explains Ed Marino, CEO of codeMantra, adding that the client needed to compress the production cycle by 30% in order to meet the deadline. By utilizing codeMantras automated Integrated Workflow, high-quality results were produced even as the production process was shortened by weeks. For this particular project, the automation reduced the overall production cycle time by about 40% and brought about an increased level of author satisfaction.

In another project, this time for a large educational publisher with quality and integrity issues on digital files coming from their full-service vendors, codeMantra deployed its collectionPoint (cP) platform. The clients composition vendors were taking too much time to deliver files to the market, and it became a global problem requiring collaboration between the publishers diverse business units and its many vendors, says Marino. Our platform integrated the communications and file management among different stakeholders, and in the process, provided complete and high-quality files in record time for the client to meet market demands.

Continuum Content Solutions

A recent magazine digitization project that arrived at Continuum was literally hard to handle. It involved creating article level METS ALTO XML for magazine issues dated from the 17th and 18th centuries. These are hardcopy issues that were in fragile conditions with warped pagesmaking them extremely sensitive to handling. Our team had to recreate segmentsand digitally straighten the contentwithout putting more stress on those fragile pages, explains CEO Amit Vohra, whose team converted over 200,000 pages over a period of six months. Image scans had to be deskewed and cleaned up prior to processing to obtain better OCR results.

Then there was another complex e-book conversion project for a leading trade publisher where the team created 2,000 fixed layout ePub3 files from publisher-supplied PDF files. All files were delivered over a period of five months using ContinuumX workflow. Faster time to market combined with high quality ePub3 files were the main reasons the publisher chose Continuum over other suppliers, adds Vohra.

DiacriTech

For a school publisher requiring rich media-enabled math and science titles across five grades and in three languages, the diacriTech teams first step was to create age-appropriate storyboards and meet the stated learning objectives. Our mandate was to gamify the content but not to make it too simple, says executive v-p A.R.M. Gopinath, explaining that the storyboards had to be approved by the editorial board and the education department, which was partly funding the project, before proceeding further. The storyboards had to be submitted for approval within 45 days, and the whole project completed within two monthsin time for the school season and for the grant.

Our conversion software was used to extract the content from clients PDF-based source files, and then export it into our HTML5 production system instead of working from scratch in order to keep the costs low, adds Gopinath. We delivered the project on time, and were told that our client was the only company to get the project approved for all five grades. This not only boosted the publisher in the eyes of the education department, but also increased the print sales of the titles. The client is now proposing the use of our AR and VR solutions to the education department as the next digital innovation project.

Hurix Digital

When an actor-based video project for grades 6 to 8 was nearing its submission deadline, Hurix Digitals publishing client made a last-minute requirement. The client wanted to add accessibility feature with minimal delays to the whole project, explains Srikanth Subramanian, president of Hurix Education & Publishing division. Fortunately, with our experience in accommodating last-minute requests, our team of instructional designers were able to deliver on all the accessibility guidelines for each of the 200-plus videos.

The next project, on the other hand, is a testimony to the agility of Kitaboo Cloud in adapting to client requirements and delivering the end product at the shortest timeline. Using this enterprise-grade cloud publishing platform, our team was able to convert 300-plus titlesin Indic languagesfrom PDF to ePub, in five weeks, says CEO Subrat Mohanty.

Impelsys

A project to develop a university-level course for engineering studies in Africa was one of the highlights at Impelsys last year. Partnering with a content aggregator, the team sorted out course modulesspread across 250-plus CDs, from installation files to applicationinto beginner, intermediate, and advanced pedagogy, and then converted them into SCORM-compliant online courseware, complete with interactivity and the assessments necessary for engineering certification studies. The courses created are now placed on iPublishCentral Learn platform and made available to universities offering engineering studies in Africa, explains Uday Majithia, assistant v-p for marketing and presales. In addition to the classroom training, students can now access these device-responsive courses to reinforce classroom learning, thus providing a unique blended learning solution.

Integra Software Services

A Flash-to-HTML conversion project from a major k-12 online provider that arrived at Integra last year was far from simple. The client wanted digital learning objects for three subjectsEnglish, Literature, and Mathto be converted from legacy Flash to HTML5 to support their metric-driven LMS, which helps to track student performance, explains managing director and CEO Sriram Subramanya. The client wanted to use a bespoke authoring tool for the conversion process, which involved well over 1,600 assets in a very short turnaround time.

But the storyboards were not up-to-date, and many interactivities had no exact matching alternatives available in the unstable authoring tool. So our team provided HTML5 output that matches as closely as possible to the previous Flash-based courses, redesigned the Flash-based interactivities to achieve the intended learning objectives, and suggested several improvements in the conversion process to overcome the bespoke tools limitations, adds Subramanya, whose team used Adobe Flash CS6 to extract the media assets, Media Encoder CC to convert WAV files to MP4 format, and Adobe Audacity and Audition for editing audio files. We ended with a project that met the learning objectives at maximum cost savings within the quickest possible turnaround time.

Lapiz Digital Services

Recent months have seen more quality auditing of mobile apps at Lapiz Digital. We check for content accuracy and functionalities of the apps, explains president V. Bharathram. Since different developers created these apps, inconsistencies in app performance are inevitable. At the same time, the apps must also match the clients CMS. But the turnaround time given to our team is particularly short since most of these apps are already available online, and the corrections are required almost immediately.

For another project, this time covering right-to-left reading e-books, the team faced a different set of issues. The problem in processing these types of e-books is mostly due to the unavailability of some fonts, resulting in the e-books looking vastly different from their printed editions. In some cases, where the input provided was the hardcopy, getting the appropriate keyboarding and QC personnel are the biggest challenge since there is a limited number of people who are proficient in these languages.

Lumina Datamatics

Evaluating a clients test banks saw Lumina Datamatics putting its Smart Test Technology to task. Firstly, we conducted a large-scale semantic analysis to identify duplicate questions from two test banks, explains senior v-p Gordon Laws. We also created a similarity score between questions in the banks, which informed editors of the coverage breadth and depth of a topic to help them in determining which bank a question should go to. Next, user response data was utilized to determine which questions were performing as intended, and which were non-predictive or weak. This allowed us to weed out questions that had no predictive validity in the learning environment. By doing all these, we nearly doubled the size of the smaller test bank for a lower cost than if the client had paid to write new questions, which would have given them only a 25% increase in their item bank volume.

For the next project, the companys RightsPlatform was used to evaluate if a client was paying fair rates for rights research and if they could better constrain their licensing fees. With RightsPlatforms tracking and collaboration tools, we were able to analyze the clients rights purchasing data to see which suppliers were most often used, and for which types of purchases, says Laws. Internal hours expended on managing rights and freelance spending were also examined. From the results, we created a hierarchy of purchasing pathways that allowed our client to maximize preferred vendors while minimizing high-cost selections. They were also able to standardize pricing among their freelance base, expand rights clearance, and lower research fees. Furthermore, by using this tool, the client reached near-100% compliance on data tracking that mitigated litigation risks. In the end, the client saved more than 20% on licensing fees and 25% on research fees.

MPS

The MPS team recently developed and implemented an efficient workflow with rapid turnaround time (TAT) for production editors to review journals prior to sending them out to authors. This involved setting up an end-to-end workflow around MPS DigiEdit and DigiComp, which offers Cloud-based review and editing of content, with automated generation of PDF proofs from XML and graphics for their journals, explains CEO Rahul Arora, adding that input files were validated against journal specifications and DTDs with auto-alerts and notifications. DigiComp also has built-in option for publishers to specify reasons for rejection for further analysis and improvement of the journal content. We have cut down the TAT by half during the transition, and the goal is to reduce it by 75% at page proof stage.

The next project, involving a centralized composition service for a leading STM publisher, covered about 60% of their portfolio of journals, articles and issues. The MPS team reviewed and standardized the journal layouts in collaboration with the publisher, and set up a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform for automated PDF proof generation; along with covers and issue-based workflow automation, for all the journals in scope. A highly automated workflow, using multiple composition servers and effective queue management and decision-making solutions, was deployed on the cloud for speed, reliability, scalability and efficient resource/BCP management. MPS iTrak was used for workflow tracking, automated routing and alerts, and dashboard reporting. This enabled the publisher to achieve a reduced time to market, release standardized products with improved and consistent quality of XML and PDF outputs, and highly optimized workflow automation.

Newgen KnowledgeWorks

One major project involving the conversion of hard-copy contract agreements for a large legal publishing firm has kept the Newgen team busy for weeks last year. These agreements, cumulated over the past four decades, had to be digitized and transferred onto the clients portal within six weeks, says Tej P. S. Sood, executive v-p for global business development and strategic partnerships. We had to analyze the agreements, identify key information, tag the content, extract the appropriate fields, and accurately map it into the platform.

A dedicated team was tasked with analyzing and segregating the agreements into predefined categories while experienced developers were called in to build the automation tools. Newgens automated extraction technology further fast-tracked the process while subject matter experts worked around the clock to ensure the accuracy of the extracted content. We started populating the content onto the platform during the second week of production on a trial-run basis, and this helped to identify potential issues even as we were tweaking solutions to resolve those issues, Sood says. The project was successfully completed well within the given timeframe.

OKS Group

Handling XML in InDesign is not always as easy as a click of a button, says business development manager Sanam Khanna of OKS Group. This is predominantly because InDesigns default Import XML feature is not geared for complex or long XML documents. For k-12 books with their complex layout and design requirements, our team developed a special workflow that imports and transforms the XML documents into InCopy files, which were then flowed directly into pre-determined InDesign template.

For another project requiring conversion from PDF to ePub3 fixed layout, the team faced a different kind of challenge. By default, ePub documents, unlike PDF files, are designed to flow, or reflow, to fit the screen and needs of the reader. This, however, may not work for all document types, explains Khanna, pointing out that sometimes the content and design are so intertwined that they cannot be separated. Any change in appearance risks changing the meaningor losing all meaningof the content.

In such instances, fixed-layout documents give content creators greater control over the presentation. But while there are many PDF-to-ePub3 tools in the market today, very few actually seek to preserve the document layout, which is a time-consuming task, adds Khanna. The quickest and most efficient solution is to develop an automation that preserves complex layouts in ePub3 documentand this is the tool that we are now offering to clients requiring such workflow.

Quick Sort India

For one of the largest Open Access academic publishers in Europe, the Quick Sort India team had to edit, compose and provide XML, HTML, and ePub deliverables within a short turn-around-time. The client started with two journals, and currently, we are working on nearly 70. Their journals come from all over the world with the content contributed by more than 70,000 high-profile editors in about 28 fields in humanities, education, science, technology, and medicine, says president A.R. Nallathambi.

Within the past decade, the publisher has gone from 69 articles per year to nearly 14,000. When the Quick Sort India team started working on the project, the production processes were mostly manual with non-standardized styles. Once we took over, we analyzed the content and set out to standardize the styles for copyediting and composition. We implemented pre-XML workflow, which resulted in multifold increases in quality and productivity. In fact, our productivity has increased 500% compared to 2007, and this is due to the innovative tools that our technical team has implemented along the way, adds Nallathambi.

Westchester Publishing Services

One full-color textbook with multiple contributors, an art program requiring extensive revisions, and a crash schedule to get it published in time for a conference landed at Westchester recently. Our team handled the project management, copyediting [including very heavy edits on several chapters], working with artists to replace a lot of the art, managing permissions for some content, composition, proofreading, and indexing. We had the project completed within the space of 14 weekson time and at the quality standards that our client is known for, says business development director Tyler Carey.

Another project, an engineering title from an academic publisher, involved extensive collaboration with a non-native English speaker and covered intricate mathematical models. For this project, we had to navigate a subject that is not typical for many packagers or editorial houses. We coupled that expertise with our deep understanding of composition on mathematical content, allowing us to be a one-stop shop for a project thathad the client gone another routethey may have needed to leverage multiple freelancers and vendors, adds Carey.
In the rapidly growing book and journal industry, STM publishing plays a key role in helping scientists and authors communicate their research results and innovations to the society. In order to present their publications in a more precise way, typesetters use different programs such as LaTex, InDesign, and 3B2. Each program has its own unique features designed specifically for the production of technical and scientific documentation.

Among the typesetting programs, LaTex is considered to the most powerful to render math books. Even the most complex equation can be built in LaTeX as it is controlled in coding. Since this program is an open source, many authors prefer to create their content in it. Even content editing can be performed in LaTeX, and the revisions and annotations can be viewed directly by the authors and duly corrected.

LaTeX performs as an engine where we can generate table of contents, list of figures, tables, acronyms, glossaries, bibliography and index along with their page numbers automatically. Any updates in the content at the later stages will also be controlled by user-defined macros within LaTeX. Furthermore, LaTeX has multilingual capabilities for content contributors that go beyond Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

In recent months, authors like to have their books designed creatively, which is quite difficult to manage in LaTeX. So, most publishers are moving towards InDesign, which was developed for creative works. The ecosystem of InDesign plug-in contributors have developed supporting math plug-ins namely Math Tools, MathType, PowerMath, and MathMagic, and supports MathML as well.

DiacriTech has gone a step ahead and developed a LaTeX plug-in for InDesign to support LaTeX equations within the creative InDesign environmentand this is an added advantage.

Since customers are demanding digital deliveries along with print products, InDesign has an edge as Adobe is continuously enhancing its features to support XML/HTML. Now XML/HTML contents are imported directly into InDesign so that the content travels along with the XML tags. This process helps in producing the finalized XML/HTML content, which can then be used to generate ePub files directly from InDesign.

Due to technology revolution, the demands and expectations are getting higher in terms of add-ons and quick turnarounds. To fulfil the market requirement, we are upgrading ourselves and implementing lot of automation in our processes. The biggest challenge is the HTML delivery from InDesign and LaTeX platform when working on math-heavy projects.

To manage such projects in LaTeX, we have created a platform which simultanously compile both PDF and the HTML5 files from the LaTeX files at every pass. At the same time, all corrections during revisions are directly taken into the LaTeX files. HTML5 animation and simulations, if needed, are also created and embedded into the HTML5 file. Furthermore, HTML5 deliveries in InDesign are managed with help of InXML workflow, which is our patent-pending XML/HTML workflow. InXML takes in XML or HTML5 as input, and maintains the structure throughout the process and delivers various outputs including PDF, ePUB3, HTML5, and Word.
Kepner Closes First Deals

Chris Kepner has done his first deals since establishing his own agency. He sold North American rights to a three book sci-fi debut called the Stars Now Unclaimed to Devi Pillai at Tor in a six-figure deal. The author, Drew Williams, is the fiction buyer at the Little Professor indie bookstore in Birmingham, Ala. Anne Perry at Simon & Schuster UK preempted the U.K./Commonwealth rights, also in a three-book deal. The series revolves around the deployment of a weapon 100 years ago that was intended to protect a peaceful world, but when things go wrong a group called the Justified set out to fix them.

Mira Buys Debut Thriller

Michelle Meade at Mira has acquired Wendy Heards debut psychological thriller, Hunting Annabelle, and another title in a two-book North American rights deal negotiated by Lauren Spieller at Triada US Literary Agency. According to Spieller, Hunting Annabelle was pitched as Dexter meets Gone Girl: A young man struggles to control his murderous impulses as he desperately searches for his kidnapped girlfriend before she falls victim to a killer even more dangerous than he. Publication is set for winter 2019.

Kaminskys Poetry to Graywolf

Graywolfs Jeff Shotts has acquired Ilya Kaminskys much-anticipated poetry collection, Deaf Republic, for publication in 2019. Shotts took world rights and Kaminsky did not use an agent. Per Graywolf, the collection is a parable-in-poems that opens in an occupied country in a time of political unrest. When a boy is killed by soldiers breaking up a protest, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hearall have gone deaf, and their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language, which is reproduced in line drawings in the forthcoming work. Kaminsky was born in Ukraine in 1977 and lost most of his hearing at age four. He moved with his family to the U.S. in 1993.

Menon Re-ups with Simon Pulse

Jennifer Ung at Simon Pulse acquired When Ashish Met Sweetie by Sandhya Menon, a companion novel to the bestselling When Dimple Met Rishi, released by Simon Pulse this May. Thao Le at the Sandra Dijkstra Agency negotiated the six-figure, two-book deal for world rights. According to Le, the novel is told in dual perspectives, following Rishis brother, Ashish, as he hilariously navigates love and identity in the wake of a crushing breakup, and Sweetie Nair, a heavyset athlete who wants to prove to herself that shes more than just her dress size. Publication is scheduled for summer 2019. The second book is a currently untitled contemporary YA slated for summer 2020.

More Misadventures from Waterhouse

In two separate three-book deals, Waterhouse Press CEO David Grishman has acquired world rights to six titles for Waterhouses Misadventures erotic romance series, which is kicking off on September 12 with Misadventures of a City Girl, cowritten by Chelle Bliss and bestselling author and Waterhouse founder Meredith Wild. In the first new agreement, brokered by Sara Younger of the Nancy Yost Literary Agency, Elizabeth Hayley sold three books to Grishman. Her first Misadventures title, Misadventures with My Roommate, will be released Mar. 27, 2018. The other three-book deal was made with Toni Aleo, whose Misadventures of a Rookie, will be published Apr. 11, 2018. Aleo did not use an agent.

Europa Nabs Crime Novels by South African Author

Sandro Ferri, publisher at Europa Editions, has acquired world English rights (excluding Southern Africa) to Weeping Waters and Our Fathers by South African author Karin Brynard. The deal was brokered by Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. Dixon, along with Maya Fowler, will translate Weeping Waters from the Afrikaans. Ferri describes the work as a terrific thriller by a new voice of South African literature. Europa will publish the novel in spring 2018.
Since it is the eve of the Fourth of July weekend, it must be time yet again to remind the Idaho Legislature that its inconsistent, wink-and-nod policy of allowing the sale of aerial fireworks to unpermitted individuals is neither safe nor sane.

If nobody ever purchased these fireworks and misused them well, I think we know better than that.

Friday marks the anniversary of the June 2016 Table Rock Fire, a blackened scar on our Boise Foothills history that burned 2,500 acres, destroyed Van Danielsons home and possessions, and endangered thousands of residents. This came about because of a young mans careless use of aerial fireworks  illegal to use in this state and doubly so in the Foothills, where all fireworks are prohibited. Taylor Kemp received jail time and was ordered to pay $391,790 in damages.

Community leaders who recognize that this kind of incident  or much worse  could happen again are trying to do something about it, and Im with them. Boise Fire Chief Dennis Doan got things rolling last year as the damage was being assessed, pointing out that we are literally playing with fire in Idaho if we continue to allow the sale of aerial fireworks in some Idaho counties (they are banned in Ada County) to people who then use them indiscriminately.

Rep. Mat Erpelding, the Democratic minority leader in the Idaho House of Representatives, dropped a bill this year to close loopholes in the vague law that allows retailers to sell aerial fireworks. Though that bill went down to defeat, Erpelding has continued to research the issue. That led to an opinion from the Idaho Attorney Generals Office on what state law says about the sale of aerial fireworks  an opinion his colleagues in the Legislature ought to read and act upon.

Paul Panther, chief of the AGs criminal law division, said only people with a permit to put on a fireworks display  such as the one planned next week for Expo Idaho  can buy aerial fireworks in this state. According to the opinion, that means retailers cannot purchase and resell them and individuals cant either  even if they follow the practice of signing some waiver promising to not shoot them off in areas where they are illegal to use.

Kudos to Doan and Erpelding for keeping this issue alive and pursuing a solution. Doan said in a Statesman story Tuesday that law enforcement and fire officials plan to work with and educate retailers to get aerial fireworks off the shelves. Details of that initiative are still forming. I hope Erpelding continues to work with and educate his legislative colleagues with that AGs opinion, and that these discussions result in legislation that bans the sale of aerial fireworks to anybody but the professionals who conduct fireworks shows.

It doesnt make sense to sell fireworks that are deemed unsafe to use in this state. Idaho is sitting on a powder keg and needs to thoroughly douse it before another incident like the Table Rock Fire.

Ada County Magistrate James Cawthon, who sentenced Kemp, also lectured him about how lucky he was that the outcome was not worse. Cawthons words apply to this whole situation in Idaho:

Youre lucky the Bureau of Land Management pumped every resource they had at it. Youre lucky Boise police put every unit, every officer on this. Youre lucky Boise Fire responded as quickly as they did and then unloaded every single station in the city, every single resource at their disposal.

Their work in the middle of the night, in high winds changing three, four, five, six times amid that heat and that smoke, in the darkness saved lives, saved property. Youre lucky.

So, Idaho, feeling lucky this weekend?
Though summertime means vacations and a break from the normal routine for many people, it is the busiest time of the year for seasonal booksellers. We checked in with four owners of five indie bookstores in popular vacation destinations around the Great Lakes region that are open only from late spring to early fall; all indicated that, while its hard work and long hours, operating a bookstore four months per year is a good way to supplement ones income.

There are only 100 year-round residents in Copper Harbor, Michigans northernmost town, where Lloyd Westcoat has operated a 700-sq.-ft. bookstore, Grandpas Barn, since 2002. Since Copper Harbor, on Lake Superiors south shore, is, she said, at the end of the road, and tourists are there on purpose, the number of summer visitors is limited. Our customers are cottage people,  Westcoat added, noting that residents who live there year-round are likely to shop online in winter.

Grandpas Barn, which stocks one or two copies of each title in its 4,000-book inventory, opens each year on Mothers Day weekend and closes the third week in October. Most of the inventory, one-third of which is childrens books, is fiction and nonfiction pertaining in some way to the Great Lakes.

Staffed by Westcoat, who has owned retail stores since 1981, and her husband, Clyde, the store has one other very part-time employee who works eight hours each week. I make a profit, though its slim, Westcoat said. This would not be true if we had a mortgage, or greater expenses for employees.

During the eight months the store shuts down, Westcoat lives 20 miles south, in Houghton, where she teaches full-time at Michigan Technological University. When not in class, she updates the stores books and manages inventory with Booklog, peruses print catalogues, orders books, and thinks about next year, she said.

A seasonal bookstore is as much work as a full-time bookstore, because its all condensed, and you dont have a fleet of employees, Westcoat noted. Most probably, you are doing much of it yourself.

Since 1989, Mary Jane Barnwell has operated Island Bookstore on Michigans Mackinac Islandan island on Lake Huron that forbids motor vehicles and can only be accessed via ferry or plane by its 500 permanent residents, as well as up to 15,000 tourists per day in summer. The 1,000-sq.-ft. bookstore was founded in 1975. It opens the first weekend in May and closes at the end of October.

In 1996 Barnwell started a second, slightly larger seasonal bookstore, also called Island Bookstore, in Mackinaw City, on the mainland, located near the famous five-mile-long suspension bridge connecting Michigans upper and lower peninsulas. This location opens the second weekend in May and closes the third Sunday in October.

Keeping the doors open only during the summer and early fall works well, Barnwell said. She admitted that its crazy, but we love it, adding that theres not a lot of downtime for her during the rest of the year. Relying primarily on Edelweiss and phone reps, Barnwell spends the winter months ordering frontlist and sidelines that, due to the difficulties of fulfillment on the island, can take a couple of weeks for delivery, as they must be transported by horse or be hand carried by a UPS driver.

Barnwell reported that both stores are making a little profit. There are a total of 11 employees working at the two stores who are laid off in the fall and rehired in the spring. Despite the vagaries of their employment status, there is little staff turnover. By some miracle, they want to come back every year, she said, noting that Island Books manager, Tamara Tomac, has, for the past 25 summers, taken the Mackinac Island ferry daily to work at the store.

Asked about the difficulties of operating two seasonal bookstores, Barnwell insisted that the biggest challenge lies in opening and closing the store, unpacking books [in May] and then sending books back [in October].

July through October is my Christmas, said Deb Wayman, the owner of Fair Isle Books in Door County, Wis. The 550-sq.-ft. store on Washington Island on Lake Michigan is open from Memorial Day weekend through Columbus Day. Wayman, who started Fair Isle Books in 2015, said that she has been making a profit since the first year but is not paying herself a salary; there is only one other employee. Instead, she puts the proceeds back into the store, which also sells fair-trade products.

Her customers are primarily the 4,000 summer residents, who have a lot of money and a lot of education, she explained, although some of the 10,000 day-trippers who visit the island stop in at the store as well. The 700 permanent residents buy books too, but more as gifts, she noted, as they typically rely on the public library for their reading needs.

Wayman said that during the months the store is closed, she sells books and other products at a church in Lombard, Ill. (where she lives when Fair Isle is closed), manages the stores inventory, and reads ARCs.

Fine Print Books in Lakeside, Ohio, where there are 150,000 summer visitors but only 300 year-round residents, typically has an even shorter selling season: the 500-sq.-ft. store on the shores of Lake Erie opens its doors on Memorial Day weekend and is open every day until Labor Day, after which it is open only on weekends into October. Last year, Fine Print stayed open through December but, co-owner Joan Price said, it didnt work out as well as wed hoped. A decision has not been made whether or not to do that again.

Established in 2010 and operated by two retired teachers, the store has been making a profit that is going up a bit every year, with $110,000 in net revenues last summer, Price said. The co-owners order directly from publishers in the spring and then reorder on a daily basis from Ingram and Baker & Taylor throughout the summer, because they can ship [STOP orders] quickly.

The inventory of 4,500 titles is almost equally divided between adult and childrens titles, with one copy of each in stock, unless the local reading group requests more. For such a small store, we pack in a lot, co-owner Beverly Bartczak said. Theres not a lot of face-out titles. But we know where everything is.

Michigan's Island Bookstore's two locations -- on Mackinac Island and in Mackinaw City -- were both incorrectly identified in the print version of this story and have been correctly identified on our website.
Despite having committed tens of millions of dollars over the last three years to offer an alternative to the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, Vimeo has called a halt to its plans for a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) offer with original content.





The online video provider first launched a video-on-demand (VOD) service, Vimeo On Demand, in 2013 offering an open direct distribution platform that enables creators to sell work on their own terms by choosing their price, viewing format, and geographical availability while retaining full ownership of their work. In March 2014, Vimeo gave the service a $10 million cash injection to fund a global expansion of support for creators selling their work directly online. This included website development and translation services, in exchange for distributing their content on Vimeo On Demand. Vimeo currently attracts over 213 million unique monthly viewers and over 45 million registered users.An expanded service featuring original content was designed to roll out in 2018, with Interim CEO and chief executive of parent company IAC, Joey Levin promising in Autumn 2016 tens of millions of dollars worth of original and licensed programming in what was called a robust slate. At the time the company also hired a director of content development and director of content acquisitions. But Levin has now announced that the company will not go ahead with its plans. This was a difficult decision  the idea of pursuing an SVOD service for Vimeo has always been intriguing, commented. The opportunity ahead for Vimeo to empower creators is too large and too important for us to attack with anything other than absolute focus and clarity.Only weeks ago, Vimeo enhanced its over-the-top (OTT) product, VHX, with ad-supported video for VHX-powered partner channels. Features include the ability to integrate ad-supported videos with Google DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP); player SDKs for web, iOS, and Android to build custom OTT apps; in-app subscriptions APIs for iOS, Android and Roku; full support for Google Widevine, Microsoft PlayReady, Apple Fairplay and other studio-approved DRM systems; bulk video ingestion; and a metadata API.
Nearly a quarter of Argentinian pay-TV subscribers are considering cutting the cord, Carrier y Asociados has revealed.





According to the Internet y consumo audiovisual 2017 report this is around the same rate as last year. It also showed that pay-TV remains the preferred platform to access video content among the countrys connected homes. In fact, nearly 80% of Argentinians use their pay-TV platform to watch video, regardless of the source.As DTT keeps increasing coverage, the free-to-air digital platform (TDA) grows as second most-used source of content, preferably used by 13% of homes. Analogue free-to-air (FTA) is the main video platform for 8% of Argentinas households.Despite of the increasing fear to cord-cutting , the intention of stop paying for pay-TV has not grown since last year. One in four subscribers are thinking about doing that, said the report.According to Carrier y Asociados , users still value many features delivered by pay-TV, particularly those copied from over-the-top (OTT) players, such as multi-screen access, catch-up and video-on-demand (VOD).Millennials and young homes are highly attracted by TV services that mimic the consumption habits of the Internet, concluded the report. A new scenario of network operators offering connectivity services and OTT channels on top of that is appearing.
Afghan officials say at least 13 militants, including five Islamic State (IS) fighters were killed in air strikes across the country in the past 24 hours.

The air strikes took place in southeastern Paktika and northern Jowzjan and Sar-e Pul provinces, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on July 1.

Jowzjan police chief Abdul Hafiz Khoshi said the five IS militants were killed when their vehicle was hit by air strikes in Jowzjan's Qush-Teppa district.

The Interior Ministry statement said that Afghan security forces "have stepped up counterterrorism operations" against "antigovernment militant groups."

Police in the northern province of Faryab say security forces repelled attacks by Taliban militants that targeted several police outposts in Dawlat Abad district on June 30.

Provincial police spokesman Karim Yurish said two Taliban militants were killed and three others wounded in the clashes. He said there were casualties among government forces and civilians.

Meanwhile, seven civilians, including women and children were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in eastern Nangarhar Province, the local government said.

Attaullah Khugyani, a spokesman for Nangarhar's governor, said five others were wounded in the blast in the volatile Achin district on June 30.

So-called improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are a major cause of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

Militants plant IEDs on roads to target security forces but mostly the bombs kill or maim civilians.

With reporting by dpa


In life, Russian diplomat Vitaly Churkin was often in the middle of controversy. In death he is as well.



A Bosnian Serb group has filed a request to unveil a monument in Srebrenica to the former Russian ambassador to the United Nations on July 8 for his role two years ago in blocking an initiative by the UN Security Council condemning the massacres that took place there in 1995 as genocide.



The "Eastern Alternative" citizens group has asked the city council in Srebrenica -- located in Republika Srpska, a Serb-majority entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina -- for permission to erect the monument in a town park on July 8. That's just three days before the 22nd anniversary of the orchestrated killing of thousands of Muslim men and boys.



"We want to pay our gratitude to Vitaly Churkin for his work to veto the resolution proposed by the United Kingdom," Vojin Pavlovic, president of the association, told RFE on June 28.



Near the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 war, Bosnian Serb forces swept into the eastern Srebrenica enclave, a UN-designated "safe haven," and slaughtered 8,000 Muslim males, dumping their corpses into pits.

The UN war-crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has ruled the massacre, the worst mass killing on European soil since the end of World War II, was genocide, a term that the Bosnian Serbs dispute and Serbia avoids at all costs.



Britain drafted the resolution at the UN Security Council to mark the 20th anniversary of the massacre. While 10 of the council's 15 members voted in favor of the measure, Russia's veto -- granted due to its status as a permanent member -- was its death knell. The four other countries on the council abstained from the vote.

'A Finger In The Eyes Of Survivors'



Bosnia remains a fragile state reliant on external aid, its economy hobbled by a complex and unwieldy power-sharing system.



With tensions between its two constituent republics still simmering just below the surface of everyday life in Bosnia, Eastern Alternative's move has touched off a wave of anger.



"Building a monument to Vitaly Churkin in Srebrenica is like putting a finger into the eyes of survivors, as well as the victims of genocide, because we know the role he played," said Zulfo Salihovic, a municipal councilor in the ethnically mixed city of Srebrenica.

"If the monument is erected, I believe that it will bring unrest, dissension and disrupt interethnic relations in Srebrenica," Salihovic added.

Srebrenica Mayor Mladen Grujic has said he doubts the monument will be approved as city bylaws prohibit such acts. Pavlovic says he will not give up in the association's drive to honor Churkin, and that he doesnt think the monument would strain relations between ethnic groups in the area.



Churkin, who died of a heart attack on February 20, a day before his 65th birthday, came to prominence as a Foreign Ministry spokesman for the Soviet Union from 1990 until the superpower collapsed a year later.



A former child actor, Churkin became Russias top diplomat at the UN in 2006, quickly becoming a darling of the Western media because of his fluency in English and rare penchant for answering every question at length.



He said Russia vetoed the British measure because it was "confrontational and politically motivated" and only blamed Serbs for atrocities during the conflict.



Serbia has acknowledged that a "grave crime" occurred in Srebrenica and has adopted a declaration condemning the massacre as it sought to strengthen ties with the West. But it has stopped short of describing it as genocide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared that Kherson is "ours after his special forces entered the strategic southern city following the retreat of Russian troops, marking another dramatic battlefield victory in Kyivs drive to recapture territory occupied by Russia since the start of its unprovoked invasion.

The Ukrainian military also said on November 11 that its troops had advanced all the way to the western bank of the Dnieper River in some areas of the Kherson region as Moscow said its forces had completed their withdrawal to the eastern bank in the face of Ukraines powerful counteroffensive.

"Our people -- Ours. Kherson," Zelenskiy wrote in a Telegram post that also included what appeared to be a video of Ukrainian troops celebrating with local residents.

Today is a historic day, Zelenskiy said in the post. We are returning Kherson. As of now, our defenders are on the approaches to the city. But special units are already in the city.

Various videos on social media from Kherson showed resident cheering and waving flags as the first Ukrainian troops reached the center of the city, the only provincial capital captured by Russian forces following their February 24 invasion.

"Kherson is returning to the control of Ukraine," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said earlier in the day. "Units of the armed forces of Ukraine are entering the city."

"The Russian occupiers' routes of retreat are under the direct fire of the Ukrainian Army," the statement added. "Any Russian soldier who resists will be killed."

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a tweet that "Ukraine is gaining another important victory right now and proves that whatever Russia says or does, Ukraine will win." The tweet included a video purporting to show Kherson residents removing a billboard that proclaimed "Russia is here forever."

Serhiy Khlan, a deputy for the Kherson Regional Council, said a Ukrainian flag had been raised in Kherson, as multiple videos circulating on social media purportedly showed Ukrainian soldiers planting their yellow-and-blue flag on administrative buildings in the city and local residents celebrating.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had finished the pullout from Kherson city and the region at 5 a.m. on November 11 and that no military equipment had been left behind, in an another embarrassing blow to Moscow's war effort, which it refers to as a "special military operation."



"In total, more than 30,000 Russian servicemen, about 5,000 pieces of hardware, and military equipment and materiel have been withdrawn," the ministry said. "Not a single piece of military equipment or weaponry was left on the right (western) bank," he added, although the report could not immediately be confirmed.

Khlan said some Russian soldiers had been unable to leave the city and had changed into civilian clothing and urged local residents to stay at home while Ukrainian troops cleared the city.

"The number of these people is not known," he told a news briefing, without citing evidence for the claim.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Khlan also said, without citing evidence, that many Russian troops had drowned attempting to flee across the river.

The head of the joint coordination press center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, Natalya Humenyuk, said Russian troops "have been changing into civilian clothes for two weeks."

"This should focus our forces as it means saboteur operations cannot be ruled out," Humenyuk told a separate briefing.

"Because of this, we are not rushing to announce our successes in other directions and in other towns."

Russia did not immediately comment on Khlan's or Humenyuk's remarks.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on November 10 that it would take Russia at least a week to withdraw, telling Reuters in an interview that Russia had 40,000 troops in the Kherson region and that it still had forces in the city.

Kherson controls both the only land route to Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the mouth of the Dnieper, which bisects Ukraine.

Recapturing the city could provide Ukraine with a launching pad for supplies and troops to try to win back other lost territory in the south.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's public broadcaster quoted local residents as saying on November 11 that the Antonivskiy Bridge, the only nearby road crossing from Kherson city to the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnieper, had collapsed.

The Suspilne broadcaster published a photograph showing whole sections of the bridge missing. The next road crossing across the Dnieper is more than 70 kilometers from Kherson city.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the collapse.

Recapturing the city could provide Ukraine a launching pad for supplies and troops to try to win back other lost territory in the south.

The Ukrainian General Staff said retreating Russian forces have been looting homes and destroying critical infrastructure, while forcibly evicting residents from the settlements still under their control.

"The Russian invaders continue to loot the settlements from which they are retreating. The enemy is also attempting to damage power lines and other elements of the transport and critical infrastructure of the Kherson region as much as possible," the military said, adding that Russian mines continue to wound civilians.

Elsewhere, six civilians were killed in a Russian rocket attack on Mykolayiv overnight, the mayor of the southern Ukrainian city said on November 11, as Ukrainian troops continued their advance in the direction of Kherson.

The mayor of Mykolayiv, Oleksandr Sienkovych, said on November 11 that the people were killed when Russian rockets hit a residential area of the city, destroying a five-story building.

"As of 10 a.m., six people were killed by the impact of the attack on the residential building," Sienkovych said.

Fierce fighting continues in Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region as well as in the adjacent Luhansk region, the military said, adding that heavy Russian shelling pounded about 20 settlements in the Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Mykolayiv regions.

In his nightly address late on November 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: "Today we have good news from the south. The number of Ukrainian flags returning to their rightful place within the framework of the ongoing defense operation is already dozens.

He added that 41 settlements had been liberated.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa
The death toll from an oil tanker explosion in central Pakistan has risen to 190, hospital and government officials said on June 30 as 16 more people succumbed to their injuries.

The tanker overturned on June 25 on a main highway from Karachi to Lahore while carrying some 40,000 liters of fuel.

It exploded minutes later as crowds from a nearby village gathered to scavenge for fuel, despite warnings by the driver as well as motorway police to stay away.

Dozens of people were taken to hospitals with severe injuries and many have died from their wounds.

Pakistan held a collective funeral for 130 of the victims on June 27.

The tragedy marked a grim start to Eid, the celebrations closing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Pakistan has many fatal traffic accidents due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles, and reckless driving.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP


Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on June 30 said he was disappointed with Washington's "silence" despite human right violations in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, where scores of youths have been killed.

Sharif's remarks came days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Washington and issued a joint statement with U.S. President Donald Trump calling on Pakistan to stop harboring terrorists on its territory.

Sharif decried "the complete silence in the U.S.-India joint statement on the atrocities being committed by the Indian forces against Kashmiris," his office said.

While criticizing Washington, Sharif expressed satisfaction with Pakistan's strategic ties with China and Russia, and praised China's recent efforts to defuse tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

India accuses Pakistan of backing Kashmiri rebels, but Pakistan says it only provides moral and political support to Kashmiris.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry earlier this week criticized the joint U.S.-Indian statement as "singularly unhelpful in achieving the objective of strategic stability and durable peace" and asserted that "Pakistan has been the primary victim of terrorism in the region."

The ministry said Pakistan is also "deeply concerned" about U.S sales of advanced military technologies to India, saying they "accentuate military imbalances...in South Asia."

Based on reporting by AP


The following editorial appears in The Washington Post:

After his latest execrable tweets, its obvious that there is no point in urging President Donald Trump to act with greater dignity, respect for his office or, for that matter, self-respect. It isnt going to happen. That makes it all the more urgent for the rest of us to think about how to safeguard civility and democratic values until his presidency ends.

It would be wrong to say that Trumps attacks on Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough Thursday were shocking, because his boorishness no longer can shock. But the hateful insults directed at the MSNBC co-hosts (and, in Scarboroughs case, Post columnist) did seem to take the capital citys collective breath away. Please just stop, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, Neb., tweeted in response. This isnt normal and its beneath the dignity of your office. Many others chimed in, urging Trump to apologize, to stop tweeting or even (in a moment of extreme wishful thinking) to resign.

Yes, Trump should apologize, he should stop tweeting insults, he should respect the awesome history of his office. Similarly, he should stop attacking the news media, which plays an important role in American democracy. He should take questions from the press more often, and he should answer truthfully. He should show more respect for women. He should, in short, act presidential, and he should continue to be urged to do so, not only by editorial pages but also by other leaders, especially in his own party, and by people in his administration.

But assuming he remains immune to such importuning, what can the rest of us do? Weve given this some thought in the context of international relations, because the world had become accustomed to looking to the United States as a defender of democracy, human rights and liberal values. Admittedly the nation has played this role imperfectly, with dollops of hypocrisy and inconsistency along the way. But from World War II until now, the United States had not been led by anyone espousing selfishness as a lodestar. And that has made it crucial for others to fill the gapcrucial for Congress, civil society and citizens across the nation to stand up for freedom and for the United States remaining a beacon of freedom across the globe.

Wed say the same now about plain old courtesy and decorum. It may be beyond the power of any other politician to change Trumps behavior. But all of us can model a different way of acting and interacting.

What gives us hope is the conviction that the American people are better than the misogyny and rudeness we see spewing from the White House. Our politics have always been rough and tumble, but most of us dont want to see this kind of ugliness become the dominant trait. We should all be focused on preserving a little flame of decency so that, whenever the Trump era ends, that flame can be rekindled into the kind of discourse that would make the country proud again.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 1 signed a controversial law authorizing the demolition of thousands of Soviet-era Moscow apartment buildings, forcing the relocation of hundreds of thousands of residents.

The legislation was approved by lawmakers on June 14 in the 450-seat lower house of parliament by a vote of 399-2. The upper chamber Federation Council adopted the legislation on June 28 and the text was published on July 1.

Plans to implement the law brought thousands of protesters to the streets in central Moscow in May and again in June after the Duma approved the bill.

Moscow authorities say the buildings are dilapidated and outdated, but many residents and activists see the plans as an excuse for the lucrative construction of high-rises in an already congested city whose green spaces are shrinking.

The bill calls for some 4,500 buildings erected in the 1950s and '60s -- many of them five-story blocks known as Khrushchyovki after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev -- to be demolished and replaced with high-rises.

An original plan had called for the demolition of 8,000 buildings but was scaled back after the protests.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has said the plan is to raze the buildings starting in September in a project the authorities say will eventually set out $61 billion to develop more housing for the crowded capital of some 12 million people.

Authorities say residents relocated will be housed in apartments of an "equivalent" size  but not of equal value -- in the same neighborhood.

Moscow authorities have said the apartment blocks listed for "renovation" will only be demolished if two-thirds of the apartments vote in favor.

But activists have protested that dwellings that do not vote will be considered to have voted "yes" and worry about the likelihood of falsification of results.

With reporting by AFP, Dozhd TV, Interfax, TASS, and RFE/RLs Tom Balmforth
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on June 30 that a report by the world's chemical weapons watchdog concluding that the banned nerve gas sarin was used in an April attack in Syria was based on "doubtful evidence" and politically "biased."

The attack on April 4 killed more than 90 people in the town of Khan Sheikhoun and prompted a U.S. missile strike against a Syrian air base, which Washington said was used to launch the gas attack.

The Russian ministry said the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' conclusions on the incident "are based on extremely doubtful evidence."

"The contents of the report by the special mission of the OPCW are in many ways biased, which suggests that political motivation is present in the actions of this organization," it said.

The French Foreign Ministry, however, on June 30 called the report's findings "undisputable."

Russia and its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deny that his forces deployed chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun.

They say the attack was carried out by Assad's opponents, who, Russian officials alleged, made it look as though it was the work of government forces.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, TASS, and Reuters




Russia will not be able to achieve strong economic growth unless ties with the West, which have been frozen by economic sanctions, begin to thaw, a longtime Kremlin economic adviser said on June 30.

"Domestic demand will not push our economic growth to 3 percent-4 percent," said Aleksei Kudrin, a former Kremlin finance minister who now heads the Center for Strategic Research in Moscow and informally advises the Kremlin.

Speaking before the Primakov Reading Forum, Kudrin said Russia must develop export markets for goods other than oil and gas if it hopes to emerge from what he calls a "lost decade" of economic growth and return to the world's list of top 10 economies.

"These tasks cannot be solved without an improvement of relations with the Western countries," which have the technology and financial resources that Russia needs to succeed, he said.

"It is necessary to find steps toward each other from both sides and put one's ambitions and insults aside. I am sure this is possible," he said.

Kudrin is credited with having helped engineer robust growth of over 7 percent a year during Russian President Vladimir Putin's first two terms in office. But growth has averaged only 1 percent in the past decade, and the deep recession in 2015 and 2016 caused Russia to drop off the list of the 10 largest economies, World Bank data show.

'Serious Shortfall'

While Putin recently asked Kudrin to help devise a new economic plan to achieve growth of around 3 percent, which he delivered at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum last month, so far the president has not heeded Kudrin's advice.

A report released by Kudrin's research center this week said Russia is losing from its confrontation with the West, which will continue to be the main engine for world economic growth in the near future.

"The conflict [between Russia and the United States] serves to marginalize the Russian Federation in international institutions and projects, and is causing a serious shortfall in economic benefits," the report said.

Moscow's recent focus on building up military strength is distracting from the economic reform and modernization efforts needed to improve the economy's performance, the report said.

The Kudrin think-tank said Russia should try to minimize the risks of armed conflicts, work to secure a step-by-step settlement to conflicts in former Soviet states, particularly in eastern Ukraine, and seek a gradual lifting of reciprocal sanctions with the West, returning to full-fledged economic cooperation.

While Putin has not seized on any of Kudrin's proposals, he has conceded recently that the economic sanctions imposed by the European Union and United States after Russia illegally seized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014 have been holding down Russia's economy.

'Losing Time'

Moreover, Bloomberg reported that Kudrin has privately told Putin that Russia's economic slide puts at risk the geopolitical heft that the president values.

Russia, catastrophically, is losing time, Kudrin said last month at the St. Petersburg Forum. Unfortunately, authorities are only slowly understanding that structural changes are necessary.

Yevgeny Yasin, a former economy minister and one of the driving forces behind Russias transition from communism to capitalism, told Bloomberg that he doubts the Kremlin will embrace Kudrin's plan for a stronger economy.

Some of the pressure for change is off because the economy is now recovering modestly from the recession thanks to the rise in oil prices in the past year.

The authorities wont risk fundamental changes now because there are too many people around Putin who have no interest in them, Yasin said. "Reforms would deprive the ruling elites of all the privileges and benefits they currently enjoy."

With reporting by Bloomberg, TASS, and Interfax


Ukraine and the United States are close to signing new defense agreements enabling Kyiv to purchase more defensive U.S. military equipment and play a role in manufacturing such equipment, a Ukrainian defense executive said on June 30.

The agreements were announced during Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's June 20 visit to Washington, but details are still being negotiated. They are aimed at facilitating military sales and promoting joint research and development, and will be signed soon, said Denys Hurak, an executive at Ukroboronprom, a Ukrainian defense conglomerate.

Ukraine needs equipment such as radar systems, drones, and secure communications as it battles Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.

The first agreement aims to free up Ukraine's access to the U.S. defense market as well as make it easier for Ukraine to sell its own defense equipment to the United States.

'Strategic Partner'

The agreements do not contemplate the sale of U.S.-made lethal weapons to Ukraine. But Ukraine anticipates receiving U.S. funding to develop new military technologies under the second joint research agreement, which would also pave the way for some U.S. Army equipment to be partly manufactured in Ukraine, Hurak said.

The agreements "will show that we are a strategic partner for America in the defense complex," Hurak told Reuters.

"We are asking for help, but we are also ready to be America's partner and we have something to offer -- namely, production capacity, outsourcing production, [and] cheaper production of components for them."

Hurak told Reuters that he has negotiated with U.S. companies about setting up facilities in Ukraine to manufacture, for example, radio and communications gear.

He told Interfax that the agreements are intended to "implement the initiatives the U.S. announced in 2014 to compensate for losses to the Ukrainian defense-industrial complex from the break-off of its military-technical cooperation with Russia."

Ukrainian factories were once an integral part of Russia's military-industrial complex, but Moscow recently announced that it has found replacement sources for most weapons parts formerly manufactured in Ukraine.

Poroshenko earlier said that U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis is expected to visit Ukraine in the coming months to sign the defense agreements.

"These are absolutely clear and concrete agreements, unprecedented ones. Ukraine has never had such agreements in its relations with the United States," Poroshenko said.

With reporting by Reuters and Interfax


Uzbek media have quoted a senior cleric warning that any would-be pilgrims who fail to pay their utility bills won't be allowed to depart for the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the hajj.

The chief imam in Tashkent, Anvar-qori Tursunov, reportedly said Muslims should pay off their debts before performing the fifth and final pillar of Islam.

Tursunov's comments, at an official gathering on June 28, come amid a campaign by the Uzbek government to seek the payment of a massive backlog of unpaid utility bills.

Authorities in Uzbekistan, like many predominantly Muslim countries, carefully regulate citizens' travels to Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and its environs, which attracts millions of worshipers.

"Even if you owe one som" -- the Uzbek currency, worth around $0.0002 -- "your pilgrimage won't be accepted," Tursunov was quoted as saying at a meeting of the International Press Club in the capital. "So we will not allow them to board the plane, because their hajj won't be accepted anyway."

Muslims are routinely urged to pay off all debts before going to the hajj, but there is no explicit ban preventing someone who has debts from performing the pilgrimage.



Tursunov reportedly urged Uzbeks to pay their electricity, gas, and water bills in time. "There are people who regularly pray and perform the hajj but don't pay for electricity," he said. "This is theft."

The imam made his statements at a televised gathering headlined "Saving Resources, Consumer Responsibilities, And A Culture of Timely Payment."

The Uzbek government has said it is seeking the equivalent of around $1.2 billion in unpaid gas and electricity bills from citizens and businesses.

In May, President Shavkat Mirziyaev ordered prosecutors to set up an enforcement bureau to help pursue the debts.

The government has mobilized local governors and neighborhood committees, as well as banks, educational institutions, police, and tax officers in the effort.



But it's the first time religious leaders in tightly controlled Uzbekistan have publicly joined the campaign.

The hajj takes place in the 12th month of the Islamic calendar, next beginning on August 30.

Every able-bodied Muslim is expected to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.

Written by Farangis Najibullah based on reporting by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service


Toomaj Salehi's lyrical support for protesters in Iran has landed him behind bars before, but this time the popular rapper's fortune-telling has fans and family members fearing for his life.

Just days before his September 30 arrest, the 32-year-old Salehi released his latest music video, in which he makes foreboding predictions about the future of Iran's clerical regime if it continues its violent crackdown against ongoing anti-government demonstrations.

"I am the predictor, the fortune teller," he raps in the video for Omen, which shows him reading the patterns left in his coffee cup and warning that brute force will not prevail.

"I saw a cage in the coffee grounds -- a lion was hunting a jackal," he explains, alluding to a fairy tale about wisdom defeating physical strength. "We will rise from the bottom and target the top of the pyramid."

Salehi goes on to warn that the regime's protectors -- including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Basij paramilitary forces, the Intelligence Ministry, and the state media -- will all get their day in court.

Salehi followed up on the new video by posting on social media images of him standing alongside protesters and chanting against security forces in his native city in Isfahan Province. The rapper, an ethnic Lur who was arrested last year after releasing other songs critical of the government, offered to turn himself in if protesters detained in his hometown of Shahinshahr were released.

In subsequent posts, he called the provincial authorities "cowardly vermin" and "scum who suppress and arrest [innocent] people."

Shortly afterward, Salehi went missing and has not been heard from since.

State media reported on September 30 that Salehi had been arrested, and a news agency close to the IRGC published a photo of the blindfolded rapper inside a car.

A short video later released by a press club associated with Iran's state broadcaster purports to show the rapper admitting he made a mistake.

But the reports' claims he had been caught while "illegally exiting the western borders of the country" have been fiercely disputed, and the video confession has been labeled a fake by some and a coerced confession by others.

Family members as well as Salehi's official Twitter account have said the rapper was, in fact, arrested in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, hundreds of kilometers from Iran's western border.

In a statement, Salehi's uncle Eghbal Eghbali said his nephew was in the province's city of Borujen on the morning of September 30 when he wrote saying "suspicious things" were happening outside his home. Soon after, Salehi stopped communicating. Eghbali said he learned from Salehi's neighbors and friends that security personnel had arrived to take the rapper away.

Later on September 30, a prosecutor in nearby Isfahan Province was quoted by the Meezan news agency, which is close to Iran's judiciary, as saying Salehi was arrested "in one of the provinces of the country." The prosecutor alleged the rapper had played a key role in "creating disturbances and inviting and encouraging the recent disturbances in Isfahan Province and in Shahinshahr."

The official IRNA news agency, meanwhile, quoted a judiciary official from Isfahan Province as saying Salehi stood accused of "propagandistic activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments, and the formation of illegal groups with the intention of creating insecurity in the country."

Thousands of Iranians, many of them from the younger generation, have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died shortly after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran's hijab law requiring that women cover their hair.

As the protests have continued, the authorities have intensified their crackdown, resulting in the deaths of at least 305 people, including 41 children, according to the latest figures released by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) on November 6.

Salehi is among the hundreds of prominent young voices, including activists, artists, and athletes, who have been arrested for speaking out against the states bloody crackdown on the protests. Overall, activists estimate thousands of people have been arrested by the authorities since the rallies erupted.

Faced with a potential existential threat to Iran's clerical rule, 227 of 290 Iranian lawmakers this week called for even greater force by urging the judiciary to "deal decisively" with those behind the protests.

In recent years, Salehi has gained notoriety for his open opposition to the country's leadership, using his music and social media presence to take on issues that resonate with Iranian youths.

In the song Normal, he highlights the effects of poverty, saying "Our children sleep hungry at night" and asking Iran's leaders how their conscience can let them sleep.

The song Rathole, released in 2021, accuses members of the media and art community both inside and outside Iran of being an "ally of the tyrant," a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In another song, he blasts Tehran's close relationships with Moscow and Beijing, asking: "Haven't you robbed us enough? Now, you want to give away half [of our resources] to China and the rest to Russia."

Salehi was detained in September 2021 after security agents raided his home in Isfahan, with Human Rights Watch decrying the detention of the artist for "exercising his right to freedom of expression."

Salehi was charged with "spreading propaganda against the state," but after more than a week was released on bail. In January, he was sentenced to six months in prison but was released on a suspended sentence in February.

While out, he continued his work and released Omen amid the states increasingly violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind," he raps. "Someone's crime was that she was brave and criticized."

Listing a litany of violent acts carried out by the authorities against protesters, Salehi asks, "How many young people did you kill building a tower for yourself?" and predicts that next year, the 44th year of the clerical regime's rule, will be its "year of failure."

Salehi's arrest has led to widespread condemnation inside and outside Iran, and his advocates have spread the #FreeToomaj hashtag on Twitter to shed light on his situation.

His family has said they do not know Salehi's whereabouts or health, leaving them wondering if he is even alive.

But the authorities have shed some light on the fate of another Iranian rapper arrested shortly before Salehi. The judiciary announced on November 7 that Saman Yasin, a rapper from Kermanshah Province -- a northwestern region with a significant Kurdish population and that has been a focus of the government crackdown -- has been accused of waging "warfare" against Iran and acting against the country's security.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, with contributions by RFE/RL senior correspondent Michael Scollon
An important factor in fighting cancer is the speed at which the disease can be identified, diagnosed and treated.

The current standard involves a patient feeling ill or a physician seeing signs of a tumor. These indicators lead to more precise diagnoses via blood tests, x-rays or MRI imaging. But once the disease is far enough along to be noticeable, the cancer has often spread.

In the future, though, it may be possible to diagnose cancer much earlier using more sensitive body scans, new types of biomarker tests, and even nano-sensors working in the bloodstream.

Experimenting with these techniques in cancer patients or healthy individuals is difficult and potentially unethical. But scientists can test these technologies virtually using supercomputers to simulate the dynamics of cells and tissues.

Building a Better Breast Cancer Early Detection System

Manual breast exams and mammograms are currently the most effective and widely used techniques for early detection of breast cancer. Unfortunately, manual breast exams are limited in their ability to detect tumors since they only produce local information about the site where the force is applied.

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Mammograms (breast x-rays), on the other hand, are more accurate, but expose patients to radiation. Importantly, they do not quantify tissue stiffness, an identifying characteristic of breast tumors. They also produce many false positives, resulting in painful biopsies.

Lorraine Olson, a professor of mechanical engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, is collaborating with colleagues Robert Throne of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Adam Nolte of Chemical Engineering to develop an electro-mechanical device that gently indents breast tissue in various locations and records the tissue surface deflections. This data is then converted into detailed 3-D maps of breast tissue stiffness, which can then be used to identify suspicious (stiffer) sites for further testing.

"The research takes an approach to early detection of breast cancer that utilizes a fundamental mechanical difference between cancerous and noncancerous tissue," Olson said. "Although this stiffness difference is the basis of manual breast exams, it has not been systematically investigated from an engineering point of view."

Olson and her team's approach to determining the relationship between stiffness and interior mapping involves a combination of finite element methods -- a numerical method for solving problems in engineering and mathematical physics -- and genetic algorithms -- a method for solving optimization problems based on natural selection.

Paired together, they can map the distribution of stiffness in a given tissue and systematically use "guesses and checks" to find which tissue stiffness map best models the response they actually see in testing.

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The process involves thousands of these "guesses" and therefore requires powerful supercomputers like Stampede at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), one of the most powerful in the world.

After numerous computer studies, the team has begun to experimentally validate this model using gelatin tissue phantoms (similar to Jell-O) with and without stiffer "tumors." They have been running indentation experiments to measure surface displacements on the tissue and identify tumor locations. They presented their work, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, at the 2016 Inverse Problems Symposium.

"This system has the potential to significantly increase the early detection of breast cancer with no unnecessary radiation, essentially no risk, and with little additional cost," Olson said.

Designing Nanoscale DNA-Readers

Olson, Throne and Nolte's electromechanical technique works on the surface of the body, but an emerging class of nano-scale sensors aims to diagnose cancer from within the body.

Nanosensors must be small and sensitive, targeting specific biomarkers that may indicate the presence of cancer. They must also be able to communicate that information to an outside observer. Scientists and sci-fi authors have long predicted the rise of nanosensors, but only recently has it become feasible to engineer such technologies.

A number of scientists have been using TACC's supercomputers to investigate aspects of this problem. One such researcher is Aleksei Aksimentiev, a professor of biological physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Aksimentiev focuses on creating silicon nanopore devices that can sequence DNA inside the body to detect the telltale signs of cancer or other diseases.

A nanopore is essentially a tiny hole in a very thin membrane, through which an even smaller particle, like DNA, can pass. In addition to being precisely shaped, it must be able to attract the right molecules and induce them to pass through the pore so they can be genetically sequenced and identified.

Writing in ACS Nano in December 2016, Aksimentiev and bioengineering professor Li-Qun (Andrew) Gu from the University of Missouri's Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center described efforts to detect genetic biomarkers using nanopores and synthetic nanocarriers. The nanocarriers selectively bind to target biomolecules, and increase their response to the electric field gradient generated by the nanopore, essentially forcing them through the hole.

The researchers showed that modestly charged nanocarriers can be used to detect and capture DNA or RNA molecules of any length or secondary structure. Such selective, molecular detection technologies would greatly improve the real-time analysis of complex clinical samples for cancer detection and other diseases.

Aksimentiev used TACC's Stampede supercomputer, as well as Blue Waters at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, to design and virtually test the behavior of these nanopores systems.

"In the development of nanosensors, such as the nanopore single-molecule sensor for genetic diagnosis of cancer, we can experimentally discover various clinically useful phenomena at the nanometer scale. But our collaborator, Dr. Aksimentiev can utilize their superior computational power to accurately dig out the molecular mechanisms behind these experimental observations," said Gu. "These new nano-mechanisms can guide the design of a new generation of nanopore sensors for genetic marker-based cancer diagnostics, which we believe will play an important role in precision oncology."

(This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01-GM079613, R01-GM114204). The simulation studies led to the development of a patent, which was published in May 2017.)

Diagnosing Biomarkers in the Bloodstream With a Microscopic Lab-On-A-Chip

Researchers from Lamar University, including Tao Wei, Ian Lian and Yu-Hwa Lo, are exploring a different approach to nanoscale cancer diagnostics. In place of nanopores, they are using lab-on-a-chip techniques invented by Lo's group that can recognize short nucleic acid fragments -- which act as biomarkers for diseases -- in the bloodstream.

The detection is based on the hybridization of nucleic acid fragments grafted on the substrate surface inside an evaporating droplet. Hybridization occurs when nucleic acids form hydrogen bonds. This process is influenced by the molecular geometry of the nucleic acid fragments that spontaneously self-organize into an ordered structure on the surface, also known as self-assembling monolayers (SAMs).

The sensitivity of such biochips is dependent on the degree to which the target material can bind to the surface of the biochip. Various factors affect the binding processes, including the structure of SAMs surface, the ion strength, the target DNA concentration and the surface packing density.

Wei and his collaborators used Stampede to perform molecular dynamics simulations and free energy computations to study the DNA hybridization process in detail.

"Our unique contribution is the use of atomistic simulation to design the surface and optimize the conditions to enhance hybridization efficiency in order to increase the detection resolution," said Wei. "The research will facilitate the development of new biodevices based on nucleic acid hybridization."

The team presented their work at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and are working to design and test experimental sensors capable of detecting nucleic acid biomarkers.

Sensors That Enter Nuclei and Report On DNA Repair

Henry Herce, a research scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (currently at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) takes yet another tact to solve the problem of cancer detection in living cells. His research focuses on developing molecules that can enter the nucleus of a cell and bind to a specific protein there known as the Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA).

PCNA, nicknamed the "ring master of the genome," is one of the key proteins in DNA replication and repair. DNA replication is essential for the survival, growth and spread of cancer, making it an intriguing target for tumor labeling and inhibition.

In a series of publications in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (2014) and Nucleus (2014) enabled by Stampede, Herce and his collaborators described the creation of a novel peptide -- a chain of several amino acids -- that can enter the cells of an organism, separate from its carrier molecule and bind to PCNA. They also uncovered the nature of the interactions between the peptides and their PCNA targets in atomistic detail.

Finally, they showed that both replication and repair sites can be directly labeled in live cells -- the first cell-permeable peptide marker for these two fundamental processes -- and introduced a PCNA staining method that causes the target molecule to light up so they can assess its distribution.

The simulations complemented experimental results and offered insights into how chemical modifications to the peptide's design can enhance its efficiency, increase its stability, and allow for intracellular delivery.

"The discovery represents a versatile tool for instantaneously labeling repair and replication processes in fixed and live cells," Herce said. "Down the road, it could lead to a new tool for early cancer detection."

From better palpation systems, to nanodevices that enter the bloodstream -- or even the nucleus of cells -- and uncover signs of cancer, new diagnostic systems are coming and supercomputers are helping researchers design them.

"Advanced computing is critical for the simulation and materials design aspects of diagnostic devices," said Matt Vaughn, TACC's Director of Life Science Computing. "Since the data that emerges from these devices is almost invariably noisy, advanced computing and clever algorithms can help stratify out the noise and boost the signal, too, making new diagnostics feasible."
The cell scaffolding holds muscle fibers together and protects them from damage. Individuals who suffer from muscular dystrophy often lack essential components in this cell scaffold. As a result, their muscles lack strength and become progressively weaker. The research team of Prof. Markus Ruegg at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has now designed two proteins that stabilize the cell scaffolding link it to the muscle fiber and thereby restore muscle structure and function. Their findings are published in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Muscular dystrophy is a term used to describe many different muscular diseases caused by genetic defects. To date, there are no treatments available to stop disease progression. In their study, the scientists led by Prof. Markus Ruegg have investigated a specific type of muscular dystrophy, called congenital muscular dystrophy. In an animal model, they demonstrated for the first time that two proteins designed by the researchers not only recover muscle force and increase body weight in the sick animals but also significantly prolong survival.

Severe impairments due to congenital muscular dystrophy

Congenital muscular dystrophy is a rare and severe form of a muscular dystrophy that presents at birth or during infancy. "The children born with this disease are also called floppy infants because of the poor muscle tone and weakness," says Judith Reinhard, first author of the study. "The disease becomes more severe with increasing age, as the muscle wasting progresses." Affected children are often unable to walk independently or they lose this ability with age. The respiratory muscles are also affected. The lifespan is often short and many patients die before reaching adulthood.

Defective gene -- defective cell scaffolding

This form of muscular dystrophy results from a genetic defect in laminin-2. This protein is a key component of the cell scaffolding and connects it with the inner part of the muscle fiber, ensuring the stability of the tissue. Consequently, as a result of gene defects in laminin-2 the muscles are extremely unstable and even normal use of the muscles leads to muscle injuries, inflammation and finally to the degeneration of muscle fibers. In these diseased muscles, which are unable to produce laminin-2, another laminin takes over. This protein, called laminin-4, however, is only a poor replacement because it is not well integrated into the cell scaffolding.

Proteins anchor cell scaffolding and stabilize muscle fibers

The researchers designed two proteins that allow the integration of laminin-4 and anchor it to the muscle cell. "Using these linkers, we were able to stabilize the muscle fibers," explains Ruegg. "When animals with a laminin-2 defect express the two linkers, there was a significant improvement in muscle structure and force and an increase in body weight. We were particularly pleased to observe that these animals also had an almost normal lifespan. Some of them even survived their healthy siblings." Furthermore, the scientists examined muscle biopsies of patients with congenital muscular dystrophy. They found very similar structural defects and laminin-4 was also found in place of laminin-2 in the diseased muscle fibers.

"Both of the designed linker proteins may possibly be used in the future as a gene therapy treatment for congenital muscular dystrophy," says Ruegg. "Our study is a nice example of how the understanding of a disease on the molecular and cellular level results in new therapeutic options. We are now interested in whether these linker proteins also improve muscle function as well as affect survival in advanced stages of congenital muscular dystrophy."
For the first time, researchers have demonstrated a surprising effect of microglia, the scavenger cells of the brain: If these cells lack the TDP-43 protein, they not only remove Alzheimer's plaques, but also synapses. This removal of synapses by these cells presumably lead to neurodegeneration observed in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Similar to other neurodegenerative disorders, Alzheimer's is a disease in which the cognitive abilities of afflicted persons continuously worsen. The reason is the increasing loss of synapses, the contact points of the neurons, in the brain. In the case of Alzheimer's, certain protein fragments, the -amyloid peptides, are suspected of causing the death of neurons. These protein fragments clump together and form the disease's characteristic plaques.

Voracious microglia cells destroy brain synapses

Together with researchers from Great Britain and the United States, the group of Lawrence Rajendran from the Institute for Regenerative Medicine of the University of Zurich now shows that dysfunctional microglia cells contribute to the loss of synapses in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. These scavenger cells usually monitor the function of neurons in the brain by removing excess synapses during development or toxic protein aggregates. Until now, their role in neurodegenerative disorders remains controversial.

In an initial step, the researchers looked at the effect that certain risk genes for Alzheimer's have on the production of the -amyloid peptide. They found no effect in neurons. This led the researchers then to examine the function of these risk genes in microglia cells -- and made a discovery: If they turned off the gene for the TDP-43 protein in these scavenger cells, these cells remove -amyloid very efficiently. This is due to the fact that the lack of TDP-43 protein in microglia led to an increased scavenging activity, called phagocytosis.

The TDP-43 protein regulates the activity of scavenger cells

In the next step, researchers used mice, which acted as a disease model for Alzheimer's. In this case, as well, they switched off TDP-43 in microglia and observed once more that the cells efficiently eliminated the -amyloid. Surprisingly, the increased scavenging activity of microglia in mice led also to a significant loss of synapses at the same time. This synapse loss occurred even in mice that do not produce human amyloid. This finding that increased phagocytosis of microglia can induce synapse loss led researchers to hypothesize that perhaps, during aging, dysfunctional microglia could display aberrant phagocytic activity. "Nutrient deprivation or starvation-like mechanism during aging could enhance phagocytic mechanism in microglia and this could lead to synaptic loss" Lawrence Rajendran assumes.

Direct role in neurodegeneration

The results show that the role of microglia cells in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's has been underestimated. It is not limited to influencing the course of the disease through inflammatory reactions and the release of neurotoxic molecules as previously assumed. Instead, this study shows that they can actively induce neurodegeneration. "Dysfunction of the microglia cells may be an important reason why many Alzheimer's medications reduce the amyloid plaques in clinical testing, but the cognitive functions in patients do not lead to improvement," Rajendran says.
A new University of Colorado Boulder study comparing dissolved black carbon deposition on ice and snow in ecosystems around the world (including Antarctica, the Arctic, and alpine regions of the Himalayas, Rockies, Andes, and Alps) shows that while concentrations vary widely, significant amounts can persist in both pristine and non-pristine areas of snow.

Black carbon is the soot-like byproduct of wildfires and fossil fuel consumption, able to be carried long distances via atmospheric transport. Because these black particles absorb more heat than white snow, the study of black carbon concentrations in glaciers is important for predicting future melt rates.

Scientists have previously studied black carbon in areas with obvious nearby sources (such as a coal mine in Svalbard, Norway), but less is known about its complex interactions in snow-covered areas further removed from human impact.

While the exact sources of black carbon are often difficult to pinpoint in remote areas, the researchers used molecular analysis of the black carbon along with analysis of wind patterns to show that Greenland's ice sheet had recently seen clear effects of wildfires burning thousands of miles away in the Canadian Arctic.

"We could tell that the carbon was fresh from these fires," said Alia Khan, a post-doctoral researcher in CU Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and former graduate student at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). "The molecular signature from these samples was distinctly different from the rest of our dataset."

Wildfires are anticipated to increase in future years, a trend that could compound the effects of longer summer melt seasons and allow for more black carbon deposition.

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"More black carbon exposure on the ice could continue to drive a feedback loop of further melt," said Khan.

The global scope of the study could help researchers set upper and lower limits for black carbon deposition and better account for the effects of photodegradation, a process by which sunlight alters the molecular composition over time.

"Photodegradation muddles the dissolved black carbon signature," said Khan. "Right now, for samples that have been exposed to sunlight over long durations, it is hard to pinpoint the source. However, fresh samples like those we collected on the Greenland Ice Sheet can show a clear wildfire signature."

The relatively high amount of black carbon measured in one glacial stream in Greenland may also suggest that the particles can be transported locally across ice surfaces through melt processes.

"The influence of distant forest fires on melt events on the Greenland ice sheet is inherently challenging to demonstrate and these clear chemical results provide another line of evidence for this connection," said Diane McKnight, a CU Boulder professor and a co-author of the study.

The research was also co-authored by Richard Armstrong and Mark Williams of CU Boulder, INSTAAR and NSIDC; Sasha Wagner and Rudolf Jaffe of Florida International University; and Peng Xian of the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, California.

The National Science Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, the Dark Snow Project and Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research Program provided funding for this work.

The findings were recently published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
Ten years after cigarettes were banished from all UK pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants, new figures from Cancer Research UK today (Saturday) reveal there are 1.9 million fewer smokers in Britain compared to when the smoking ban was introduced in 2007, with smoking rates now the lowest ever recorded.

Smokefree laws have had one of the biggest impacts on public health over the last decade. The drop in smokers means there are now around 8,300,000 adult smokers in Britain.

Importantly, over this decade of clean air in pubs, the proportion of 16 to 24 year olds who smoke has fallen to 17 per cent from 26 per cent in 2007 -- a record low. The drop in this age group is bigger than in any other.

England was the last of the four UK nations to go smokefree, in July 2007. Scotland was first in March 2006, followed by Wales then Northern Ireland, both in April 2006.

A new poll for Cancer Research UK of more than 4,300 people also revealed that very few people want to turn back the clock and allow smoking in enclosed public spaces. Only 12 per cent were in favour of reversing the smokefree laws.

Most people feel the smoking ban has been positive, with only eight per cent who think this change has made no difference to them or to public spaces.

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The most commonly identified benefit was that people's clothes do not smell of smoke after a night out (67 per cent), followed by restaurants and pubs are now more family-friendly (66 per cent).

Almost six in 10 (57 per cent) agree that the health of hospitality workers has improved, and almost four in 10 (38 per cent) say their own health has also benefited from the reduced exposure to second hand smoke.

20 per cent of smokers said the ban had helped them cut down the number of cigarettes they smoke, and an impressive 14 per cent of ex-smokers credit the ban with helping them quit altogether.

Almost four in 10 (38 per cent) people across the UK believe that the ban has also helped protect the next generation from taking up smoking.

In addition to the smokefree laws, other measures have been introduced to help reduce smoking over the last ten years. This includes increased taxes, putting tobacco out of sight in shops, getting rid of cigarette vending machines and most recently plain, standardised tobacco packaging.

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But even with the fall in smoking rates, tobacco continues to devastate millions of lives. Continued effort is needed as smoking rates will not come down on their own.

Cancer Research UK is calling on the government to publish a tobacco control plan without further delay, to help maintain the progress in reducing smoking rates. Only by building on the success of the ban will the UK reach the goal of reducing smoking to five per cent across all socioeconomic groups by 2035.

Julie Griggs, 51 from Hertfordshire gave up smoking five years ago with the help of her local Stop Smoking Services.

The mum-of-two said: "I first started smoking when I was 15 -- it was what you did back then. I carried on until I was 35 when I tried to give up and failed. It was hard because it had always been the accepted thing to do and no one really thought about how bad it was for your health. When the smoking ban first came in 10 years ago, there were more people outside the pub than inside and that was quite fun at first. But times have changed.

"I think the ban made it a lot easier for me to give up. There was less social pressure to smoke and people weren't watching me and waiting for me to light up anymore. My local Stop Smoking Service offered me great support too and I've not had a cigarette since 21 May 2012 -- something I thought I would never manage.

"By not smoking I know I am giving myself the best chance of being here for my children for as long as possible. It's great waking up feeling energetic and healthy, and not having the smell of smoke around me. It's a relief to be free from starting the day wanting a cigarette."

Sir Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive, said: "We're thrilled that 10 years on, the smoking ban has been such an enormous success.

"Cancer Research UK worked incredibly hard for many years to ensure that the law would be effective and that no one would be exposed to toxic second-hand smoke. The impact on public health is huge. It's rewarding to know that this effort will go on to have a great impact on the health of future generations.

"As well as protecting people from the deadly effects of passive smoking, we've also seen big changes in public attitudes towards smoking. It's now far less socially acceptable and we hope this means fewer young people will fall into such a potentially lethal addiction. But the job is far from done when we still have more than eight million smokers in Britain and tens of thousands of children taking up the deadly addiction every year. We need this government to continue focussing on tobacco and we urge it to publish the Tobacco Control Plan for England as soon as possible."
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NASA's Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) aircraft passed a preliminary design review last week, marking a major milestone for the agency's experimental X-plane concept.

NASA has been developing new designs for supersonic aircraft, with a specific focus on reducing the strength of the sonic booms  the sound created by a shock wave from an aircraft that moves faster than the speed of sound. The shape and overall design of a supersonic plane is particularly important for minimizing the loudness of the boom during flight.

"The idea is to design the airplane so that the shockwaves that are produced in supersonic flight are arranged in such a way that you don't have a boom, you have just a kind of general, gradual pressure rise, which produces a quiet sound," Peter Coen, commercial supersonic technology project manager, said in a video from NASA's Langley Research Center. [Images: Airplanes of Tomorrow, NASA's Vision of Future Air Travel]

QueSST is the preliminary design stage of NASA's Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) experimental airplane, also known as an X-plane. So far, a scale model of QueSST has been tested in an 8-by-6-foot supersonic wind tunnel at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The next phase will be to test the technologies in flight, Coen said in the video.

"So to do that, we're building an X-plane design and the eventual Low Boom Flight Demonstration aircraft that represents the boom of a larger airplane," Coen added. "The idea is to prove the technology; show how robust it is in a variety of atmospheric conditions, but ultimately to prove that the sound that is created is acceptable to people on the ground."

Last week, QueSST was reviewed by NASA engineers, as well as experts from the Lockheed Martin Corp.  the lead contractor NASA partnered with in February 2016 to create the initial design of the supersonic aircraft. The teams concluded that "the QueSST design is capable of fulfilling the LBFD aircraft's mission objectives, which are to fly at supersonic speeds  1.4 times the speed of sound  but create a soft 'thump' instead of the disruptive sonic boom associated with supersonic flight today," according to a statement from NASA.

Completing the initial review of the design's operational effectiveness is a major milestone in NASA's initiative to make supersonic passenger jet travel over land possible. This also means that NASA can begin the process to collecting proposals and awarding a contract to build a piloted LBFD X-plane, and then possibly start flight testing as early as 2021, according to the statement.

"Managing a project like this is all about moving from one milestone to the next," David Richwine, manager for the preliminary design effort under NASA's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project, said in the statement. "Our strong partnership with Lockheed Martin helped get us to this point. We're now one step closer to building an actual X-plane."

For the next phase of testing, pilots will fly the LBFD X-plane over communities to collect data, including details about the atmosphere so that engineers can better understand the effect the atmosphere has on the sonic boom. Most important, researchers will conduct ground measurements and surveys of the population to better understand the level of disturbance caused by the supersonic, albeit quieter, aircraft. Those measurements are necessary for regulators to allow supersonic flight over land in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, according to the video.

"It should sound like a thump, so it could be that people don't even notice the sonic boom  and that's really the data that we are talking about for regulatory change," Richwine said in the video.

NASA will work with Lockheed Martin to wrap up the preliminary design and aerodynamics of the QueSST experimental aircraft over the next few months. Acquiring the LBFD X-plane contract will be "fully open and competitive," agency officials said in the statement.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom,Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will depart the International Space Station July 2, bringing more than 4,100 lbs. of cargo back to Earth.

UPDATED 7/1 8:52 p.m. EDT: Due to weather conditions in the Pacific Ocean splashdown zone, the Dragon spacecraft's release will be delayed until Monday, July 3 at 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 GMT).

On Monday (July 3), the crew of the International Space Station will bid farewell to a Dragon cargo spacecraft, which will head back to Earth with more than 4,100 lbs. (1,900 kilograms) of returning cargo in tow. It's this specific spacecraft's second splashdown: It brought cargo to the space station and safely returned to Earth in 2014 as well.

When the cargo craft launched to the space station in June on SpaceX's Falcon 9 spacecraft, it was the first-ever relaunch of a previously used Dragon.

Departure coverage will begin at 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT), and you can watch it here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. Flight controllers will detach the spacecraft using Canadarm2, the space station's robotic arm, and then NASA astronauts Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson will command the arm to let go, NASA officials said in a statement.

The spacecraft will move away from the space station and then head out of orbit, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean after a 5.5 hour journey. The deorbit burn and splashdown won't be shown on NASA TV.

The spacecraft brought close to 6,000 lbs. (2,700 kg) of supplies, equipment and research experiments to the station. Its cargo included the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) and the experimental Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA). After ROSA's experiment completed, the array was jettisoned from the space station because the ground team was unable to roll it back up to stow.

When Dragon splashes back down, SpaceX personnel will travel two days by sea with the spacecraft to return it to Southern California. From there, the craft's cargo will be shipped back to Houston, NASA officials said in a blog post.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
WASHINGTON  U.S. President Donald Trump signed a long-awaited executive order June 30 re-establishing the National Space Council.

At an event in the White House, flanked by several members of Congress and industry officials as well as Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Trump signed the executive order that re-establishes the council, last active at the end of the administration of President George H.W. Bush in 1993.

"Today we are taking a crucial step to secure America's future in space," Trump said, according to a press pool account of the signing ceremony. The White House did not broadcast the event live, and provided scant advance notice of the event, taking place shortly before the president left for the July 4 holiday weekend. "We are a nation of pioneers and the next great American frontier is space." [The First 100 Days: What Trump Has Done on Space So Far]

Trump had previously announced that Vice President Mike Pence would serve as the head of the space council once it is reestablished. Pence stated on several occasions, dating back to the signing of a NASA authorization bill in March, that the president would soon sign the order re-establishing the council, with Pence as chairman.

Pence also spoke at the signing ceremony prior to Trump's arrival, reiterating past statements that the council will be key to ensuring American leadership in space. "With the action he takes today, President Trump will bring a renewed sense of purpose to America's space policy," he said, according to the pool report of the event.

See more

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The text of the executive order indicates that the new National Space Council will be structured like its previous incarnation in the George H.W. Bush administration, led by the vice president with representatives from various cabinet agencies and NASA. The council will be responsible for reviewing space policy and providing recommendations to the president, as well as fostering "close coordination, cooperation, and technology and information exchange" among agencies and with the private sector.

The order establishes a "Users' Advisory Group" that is similar to the "Space Policy Advisory Board" that the previous National Space Council had that provides outside advice to the council on space issues. One difference is an emphasis by the Users' Advisory Board that "the interests of industries and other non-Federal entities involved in space activities, including in particular commercial entities, are adequately represented in the Council."

Among those in attendance at the event was Sandy Magnus, the executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics who also served on the NASA transition team for the incoming Trump administration. "We appreciate the Trump Administration's efforts to strengthen our nation's space enterprise and view this as an opportunity to create an integrated strategic approach to U.S. space endeavors," she said in an AIAA statement.

Another person at the event was Tory Bruno, president and chief executive of United Launch Alliance. "I was honored to be there. This is a very exciting announcement," he tweeted shortly after the signing ceremony.

See more

The White House did not announce additional details about establishing the council, including naming an executive secretary who will handle the day-to-day operations of the council. A former executive secretary of the council, though, was optimistic about the new council.

"Vice President Pence is ready and able to lead an active and energetic Space Council team and agenda to ensure U.S. space pre-eminence for decades to come, and do so faster and more efficiently than ever before," said Mark Albrecht, who was executive secretary of the council from 1989 to 1992.

Albrecht predicted a full slate of activities for the council when it starts its work. "The agenda for a White House coordinating body on space policy will be substantial and urgent, from rationalizing space launch, to fully integrating new privatized and commercial space capabilities into all national space activities, to fielding new and dominant space deterrence and warfighting capabilities and doctrine," he said.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Even in this age of free-flying conspiracy theories, this one's a doozy.

On Thursday (June 29), a guest on Alex Jones' radio show named Robert David Steele claimed that Mars is inhabited  by people sent to the Red Planet against their will.

"We actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20-year ride, so that once they get to Mars, they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony," Steele told Jones, the founder of the controversial InfoWars website. [25 Space Conspiracies That Just Won't Die]

It's unclear why this "ride" would last two decades; it takes just 6 to 9 months to reach Mars using current propulsion technology. Perhaps Steele believes that the kidnapped children return to Earth, as adults, 20 years after being spirited away?

Whatever the details may be, Jones seemed open to the possibility.

"Look, I know that 90 percent of the NASA missions are secret, and I've been told by high-level NASA engineers that you have no idea," Jones told Steele, who the show billed as a "CIA insider." "There is so much stuff going on."

Jones went on to add that "clearly, they dont want us looking into what is happening; every time probes go over, they turn them off."

The Daily Beast did some due diligence on Steele's assertion, contacting NASA for a comment.

"There are no humans on Mars. There are active rovers on Mars. There was a rumor going around last week that there werent. There are," Guy Webster, a spokesman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who specializes in the agency's Mars-exploration activities, told The Daily Beast. "But there are no humans."

Alex Jones has supported and promulgated conspiracy theories in the past. He has claimed, for example, that the December 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut  in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 27 people, including 20 first-graders  was a hoax.

Mars has proven to be fertile ground for conspiracy theorists over the years as well. There's the famous "face on Mars," of course. And more recently, UFO enthusiasts have claimed that NASA's Curiosity rover has captured images of a variety of Red Planet animals that resemble rats, lizards, squirrels and crabs.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
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China launched a fifth 071 class amphibious ship in June 2017 and apparently it will enter service by early 2018. The first one arrived for duty in 2007 and by the time the second one entered service in 2011 the Chinese apparently realized they would need more than the four they originally planned to build. There is a sixth one under construction.

The 071s are LPD (landing ship dock) type vessels and were the largest ships in the Chinese Navy until the first aircraft carrier enters service in 2013. But Chinese aircraft carriers are still a work in progress the Chinese found the LPDs more useful than expected right away.

These LPDs are 210 meter (689 foot) long, 20,000 ton amphibious ships with a flight deck for up to four helicopters and a well in the rear for landing craft. It normally carries four hovercraft in the well and two smaller landing craft suspended on davits. The ship can carry up to 800 troops (500 are more common) and up to 20 armored vehicles. The 071 class ships are similar to the American 25,000 ton San Antonio class or the French 21,500 ton Mistral class. The 071s have the smallest crew (120) compared to 180 in the Mistral and 396 for the San Antonio.

Armament consists of a 76mm gun, four 30mm anti-missile autocannon, and four 18 tube decoy/chaff dispensers (for anti-missile work). Each 071 is believed to cost about $300 million.

The 071s have had some interesting adventures early on. In 2010 China sent the first one (the Kunlan Shan) to join the anti-piracy patrol off Somalia. The Kunlan Shan went to Somalia without a lot of troops or any armored vehicles. But there were two Z-8 helicopters on board, each capable of carrying up to twenty troops, and the landing craft could be used to go after pirates. Some naval commandos were probably on board as these troops have been seen, several times, practicing landing on cargo ships (via helicopter or small boats).

The Kunlan Shan was the largest Chinese warship to be sent on anti-piracy duty. The previous five rotations (each four months long) only included frigates and destroyers. The appearance of the second LPD in the South China Sea made Vietnam and the Philippines nervous that China might be ready to seize possession of some uninhabited islands that all these nations claim. But the Chinese also found the LPD useful for handling the situation in the South China Sea and for disaster relief missions. These proved very popular with the distressed locals and Chinese diplomats.

Now that it is clear that China will soon have six (and possibly even more) of these LPDs it is clear that these ships will be crucial in establishing and supplying small outposts in the South China Sea and elsewhere off the Chinese coast where there more disputed islands. When not being the intimidator the 071s stand ready to help out in natural disasters in the region. In both cases the 071s show countries in the region that China now has a large fleet and can be your friend or the neighbor who quickly invades you from the sea.
The New Zealand Fire Service dissolves into history today in the biggest change to New Zealand fire fighting in a generation.

July 1 marks the inauguration of Fire and Emergency New Zealand, and the amalgamation of 40 rural and urban fire fighting units into one organisation.

The start of the new organisation is being marked up and down the country with vary degrees of ceremony. But while they can pull down the old NZFS flag they cannot yet replace it with the new Whakaratonga Iwi flag  because there arent any, yet.

Whakaratonga Iwi is the new Fire emergency New Zealand motto and is adopted because it reflects the desire of the service to continue to be seen as serving its people.

From today it becomes the largest emergency management organisation in the country with 14,100 people.

Its a huge organisation, most of them volunteers still. Police are only 10,000, its massive, says acting area manager Kevin Cowper.

The new service is still going to be mostly volunteers.

Its still a big ask to integrate 41 organisations into one. Some of them are quite large, Pumicelands Rural Fire District which covers most of the central North Island. Thats quite a large rural fire district. Coromandel has got three, (rural fire districts) so we are bringing them all together.

Its the biggest shake up in the fire service since the sector reform in the aftermath of the fatal Ballantynes fire in Christchurch in 1947.

Current law, organisations, and funding have not kept up with changes in tasks. Currently the 41 urban and rural organisations are unevenly funded and equipped and can be difficult to co-ordinate.

The new name Fire and Emergency New Zealand covers a lot of what the fire service has actually been doing but not supported for over recent decades.

Firefighters originally focussed on fires and they were funded by the insurance industry  to put out fires; but not to extract injured people from motor vehicle accidents, attend medical emergencies, hazardous material spillages and help out with storms flood and earthquakes  as well as still being called to pet animals stuck in trees or behind the walls of houses.

The changes have been going on behind the scene for about two years, and they are expected to take another three years, says Kevin.

Its not all happening at once, says Kevin. Weve been given that time to get it right.

The formation of Fire and Emergency New Zealand is supported by all the political parties, except for New Zealand First which withdrew its support because it did not like the funding model. It wants FENZ funded from general taxation.

FENZ is comprised of 8000 New Zealand Fire Service volunteers, plus 3,500 rural fire fighters plus 1800 paid fire fighters and 550 paid rural fire staff and 150 NZFS paid fire service. All paid employees are transferring under current pay and terms.

Volunteers are also to be treated as employees. They wont be paid but they are the responsibility of the FENZ in the same manner as employees.

Across the area from Waihi to East Cape, all the volunteer brigades are the responsibility of the area management, and it is their responsibility to look after those brigades, make sure they can operate as they are supposed to operate.

One of the reasons we are making these changes is because it has been identified that we didnt treat our volunteers well, says Kevin.

One of the reasons we struggled to retain volunteers is because we dont make it easy enough for them, so we need to take cognisance of that and fix it up. And I would say the next three years is for that.

Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Garry Webber and Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller attended a morning tea with fire service staff following the briefing.
Preventing people from being bitten by a dog is the number one priority of Tauranga City Councils animal services education coordinator Cheniel Powell.

Cheniel goes into both workplaces and schools to teach people how to avoid being bitten by a dog. Many people dont know how to behave around dogs, she says.

They think its okay to approach a dog they dont know and pat it, and thats how bites happen.

Cheniels work over the past 12 months has so far taken her mainly into workplaces  educating people such as meter readers, posties, midwives and others who have to have to go onto private properties that might have dogs.

I teach them how to neutralise a situation with a dog, how to avoid confrontation and how to avoid being attacked by a dog.

Working with schools is something the council is looking to develop further, including designing its own teaching resource for schools featuring an animated dog mascot.

Once it gets underway I hope to take a real dog with me so kids can practice on a calm dog and develop their confidence, says Cheniel.

The first piece of advice Cheniel gives to both adults and children is to stand still if approached by a dog. Stand still, dont move around. We tell children to be like a tree. The dog will eventually get bored and move away.

The main message for children is not to pat a dog in the street. If youre walking down the street and see a dog on a lead with its owner, dont think its safe to walk up to the dog and pat it. Ask the owner and if they say yes let the dog sniff your hand. Again, dont just pat the dog as the dog needs to give permission itself.

Children are advised to then pat the dog on its chest, not the head.

If youre walking down the street and see a dog that doesnt have an owner, dont approach it. Leave it alone, says Cheniel.

Any schools that would like a presentation on how to stay safe around dogs can contact Cheniel on 07 577 7498.
German lawmakers have approved a controversial bill aimed at cracking down on hate speech on social networks, under which sites like Facebook and Twitter could face fines of up to 50 million ($57 million) for failing to delete such postings within 24 hours.

The Social Networks Enforcement Law, also known as "Facebook Law", was first announced in March by Justice Minister Heiko Maas and it is now slated to go into effect starting this October.

Haas asserts that the law will not infringe on free speech, but critics argue that it essentially shifts the burden of law enforcement from public authorities to private companies. They say that the tight time limits are unrealistic, and will lead to censorship as technology companies will prefer to be cautious and delete ambiguous posts to avoid paying penalties.

According to Justice Minister Heiko Maas, experience had shown that without political pressure, "the large platform operators would not fulfill their obligations" to take down illegal content. Engadget points out that Facebook, Twitter and Google struck a deal with Germany in 2015 to pull down hate speech and other content, but failed to meet that commitment according to a government report.

There are certain criteria to determine the amount that a company would be fined and how quickly they are expected to take down content. Penalties start at 5 million and could rise up to 50 million. Content that is "obvously illegal" --- including hate speech, defamation, and incitements to violence --- must be taken down within 24 hours, and within a week in particularly complex cases.
GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
President Donald Trump is considering placing big tariffs on steel shipments into the U.S. from other countries. The president claims the steel poses a big risk to the national security.

The tariffs could be placed as high as Trump decides to put them and could easily cause countries to take retaliatory action that would hurt other industries in the U.S.

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One analyst in the steel industry said that the decision could be the biggest and most important related to trade in several decades.

U.S. secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross said that his team would be announcing its results from an investigation into imports of steel before the end of June.

Experts in trade and investors on Wall Street have become convinced that tariffs will come, it is just how high they will be and on what countries.

Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the European Union are amongst the top exporters of steel to the U.S. China, which has been criticized by Trump for what he called cheating on steel prices is No. 11 in steel exports and experts in trade believe it will be a likely target for the Trump administration.

One big question many have is if Trump will impose an across the board steel tariff on all countries or just target specific countries.

One other question is will countries in turn retaliate with tariffs of their own on products from the U.S., including those not in the steel industry. This could spark a trade war that could cost some Americans their jobs.

That possibility is alarming for U.S. farmers advocates. The agricultural industry in the U.S. exports 25% of its products.

It is a huge deal and many are worried about it, says one economist with the American Farm Bureau, which represents more than 6 million farmers in the U.S. The potential exists of retaliatory measures taken by other countries.

An official with the Department of Commerce said that businesses in the U.S. should feel assured that Secretary Ross makes a reasoned and methodical approach to all the recommendations that he makes to President Trump.

A law from 1962 allows Ross to skirt the independent panel of trade judges in the U.S. and make the decision himself of tariffs for steel.

By invoking the U.S. national security, the White House has broad powers in determining how big and broad any tariffs it imposes will be.

The White House argues that the U.S. has become too dependent on imported steel for its infrastructure and military equipment.
Boundary

By Andree A. Michaud

Biblioasis, 328 pages, $19.35

This is an English translation of the French-Canadian writer Andree Michauds 2014 book which won both that years Arthur Ellis Award for best French-Canadian Crime Novel and the Governor Generals Award for Best French Novel. The book features two murders and a pair of sleuth figures (hence the Arthur Ellis), but it often seems less a whodunit and more a literary meditation on the impact of the killings on the small community, Boundary, where they took place (hence, the GG Award).

The rural community in question straddles the border between Quebec and Vermont where few of the residents of either side speak the other sides language. When two flamboyant American teenagers are murdered at two different times but in similarly brutal fashion, the result is to change Boundarys landscape.

What those changes are all about is mostly the books subject, and in Michauds dense and evocative prose, we get the answers which may not always be satisfying but give us enough interesting stuff to think about from beginning to end.

Girl Last Seen

By Nina Laurin

Grand Central, 345 pages, $19.49

A debut crime novelist from Montreal (though she sets the story in Seattle), Nina Laurin works from a diabolical plot premise. At age ten, a girl named Laine was kidnapped by a monstrous villain, held for three years and released pregnant by the monster. Laine puts the baby up for adoption, and ten years later, the adopted child is herself kidnapped by of all people, the monster.

Events are narrated by Laine who has lived a post-kidnapping life of addiction and despair. Shes still young, just 23, and plucky enough to hold herself together, both psychologically and socially. But when the police compel her to play a role in catching the kidnapper of the second child, Laine struggles merely to survive.

Though in sleuthing terms, its not too difficult to figure out the identity of the bad guy, the book is still a well-written winner in its handling of the narrative details and its depiction of Laine, a central character whos admirable for her courage.

Perish The Day

By John Farrow

Minotaur, 304 pages, $36.99

More than most sleuths, John Farrows Emile Cinq-Mars relies on feel. Ratiocination doesnt come into play until Cinq-Mars has taken a long whiff of the crime scenes and all the other locales that figure into the story.

This is the seventh book in the Cinq-Mars series, and as in his previous forays into crime solving, Cinq-Mars is sophisticated but cheeky, one step ahead of all the other smart people in any room, and an all-round master of intuition. But what else is to be expected of a 66-year-old retired star of the Montreal Police?

His latest case takes him to a university community in New Hampshire where three disparate people are murdered within hours of one another. Everybody is baffled, Cinq-Mars included, until he begins to feel things in his bones.

Murder in Saint-Germain

By Cara Black

Soho, 328 pages, $35

Aimee Leduc is the tireless Parisian private eye, the one with the eight-month-old daughter, no live-in partner, the upkeep on an apartment on tres chic Isle Saint Louis to maintain, and a murder case to solve. Is Leduc cool about this overload? No way! Shes frantic! Its her permanent state, but shes a fast thinker, physically fit and nimble at fibbing her way out of tight spots.

The new book is the 17th in the Leduc series, set in the 1990s with the principal action in each novel taking place in a different Paris neighbourhood. This time out, Leduc finds herself racing around the Left Bank on the hunt for a Serbian killer of Bosnian children during the recent Balkan wars who has somehow evaded capture and is now loose in Paris.

The pace is, as ever, lickety-split, the sleuthing complex and the small pauses to savour Saint-Germains glories delightfully educational.

Jack Battens Whodunit column appears every other Saturday.

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As Canada celebrates a milestone 150th birthday, here are five great and iconic ways to mark the celebration with your home decor:

MUSKOKA CHAIRS: Why not sit back and enjoy Canada Day in the comfort of a Muskoka chair? The wide arms are almost a side table, offering a two-in-one value. The chairs were originally designed in 1903 by Thomas Lee and became a staple at Muskoka lakes cottages; eventually, the rest of the country caught on. Synonymous with Canada the enduring design is now available in cedar, plastic, pine and metal and is made by a range of manufacturers  but the one most common to the Muskoka lakes is still made by the same company, Muskoka Chair Company.

HBC POINT BLANKET: Recognized around the world, its iconic green, red, yellow and indigo stripes have come to be a testament to Canadas shared heritage. These blankets are created in the traditional European weavers point style, with short black lines above the bottom set of stripes that tell how big the blanket is while still folded. Originally commissioned by the Hudsons Bay Company in 1810, the blankets are 100 per cent wool and (ironically) still made in England  this years blankets bear a special crest. This is the kind of blanket you pass from generation to generation.

NEIGHBOURHOODS ALIGHT:The Vancouver Candle Co. celebrates Vancouver and Toronto with candles named after communities in these cities. Made of a soy-wax blend, each has its own scent and comes in two sizes, one that burns for 30 hours and another that lasts 60 hours. These make great Happy Birthday, Canada! gifts to take to a Canada Day party in a neighbourhood that was used as the namesake for the candle. If your budget isnt up to a chair or a blanket, this is a great choice. The glass container can be kept as a souvenir of the celebration.

GROUP OF SEVEN: Renowned around the world, artworks by Canadas Group of Seven masters are iconic in their depiction of our country. Most of us, though, could never afford originals  founder Lawren Harriss Mountain Forms sold for a record $11.6 million in November, 2016. Instead, celebrate Canada 150 by adding a good reproduction to your home. I love the icy details of Harriss Mt. Lefroy, part of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection  reproductions of the painting run from $5 to $200 in the gallerys online gift shop. As well, the gallery, in Kleinburg, celebrates Canada Day with a festival.

MOOSE: A well-recognized creature of the Canadian fabric  from the highway crossing signs and commemorative coins, to a notable and well-loved beer company. Home decor has gravitated toward reproductions of mounted animal heads, so consider a moose mug to mark our 150th. These various and artistic styles of heads suit a range of room decor, from a more sophisticated look, often done in ceramic, metal and origami, to kids rooms with stuffed animals designed to hang on the wall. This kids collection from HomeSense is playful and gives parents a wonderful opportunity to discuss Canadas heritage. www.homesense.ca .

Glen Peloso is principal designer of Peloso Alexander Interiors, national design editor of Canadian Home Trends magazine and a design expert on the Marilyn Denis Show on CTV. Contact him at pelosoalexander.com, follow on Twitter at @peloso1 or @glenandjamie, and on Facebook.

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Sarah Lewis had never won a contest in her life before she entered a snap of her children with a Canadian flag into Star Touchs Canada Day themed photo contest, but an outpouring of support online changed that.

In the winning photo, Proud to be Canadian, her two children  Emily, 6, and Wyatt, 8  are silhouetted holding hands in front of an orange sunset in Lewis backyard on the Bay of Quinte in Prince Edward County.

They were happy to stay up past their bedtime to do it, she said.

She posted the photo a bit late to the contest, and said it was through her community sharing the link to vote for her on social media that she was able to make it to the top 20 submissions for the judges to pick from. She said that people (she) didnt even know giving her this support was a pretty Canadian thing for them all to do!

Lewis got her camera, her kids and her Canadian Tire Canada flag on June 18 when she saw the sunset over the water. Photography is her hobby, and she owns a Canadian Tire in Campbellford, Ont. with her husband.

To Lewis, Canada means not only community, but freedom.

We have the freedom to criticize our government if we want without fear of repercussion . . . to go to school if thats what we want to do, to get the jobs we want, to really work toward our dreams, which I think is amazing.

Its a place where everyone is welcome, and everyone is wanted.

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The national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls has hit another roadblock after the resignation of the executive director.

Michele Moreau cited personal reasons for her resignation, according to a memo she released to staff late on Friday afternoon. The memo said she is leaving as of July 21.

Moreau, an accomplished lawyer from Hauterive on the north shore of Quebec, said it is with mixed emotions that shell be resigning from the inquiry but she still fully believes in its purpose and will always be an ally.

In a statement posted to the inquirys Facebook page, Moreau announced her departure.

It is with mixed emotions that I inform you that I have resigned from the national inquiry. For personal reasons, I have chosen to go back to my home and family in Montreal. I will continue to follow the work of the national inquiry with keen interest and can assure you I will remain an ally. I wish the whole team great courage to bring this national inquiry where it needs to go in order to change our society for the better, the statement said.

When contacted by the Star, Moreau did not wish to comment and referred all calls to the communications director, Bernee Bolton.

We wish her well. We are going to miss her. Shes making personal life choices, said Bolton.

Moreau is the latest high-profile inquiry staffer who has decided to step down from their post on the inquiry. Michael Hutchinson, the communications director, left in February, then his replacement, Sue Montgomery, left in May, and Tanya Kappo, a lawyer and one of the organizers of the Idle No More movement, left on June 15.

The inquiry, which began sitting at the end of May in Whitehorse, heard from only a handful of families before taking a pause for the summer so it could reorganize. The inquiry has faced much criticism for its apparent lack of organization and inability to get a hearing schedule posted  one is expected next week  and it has been faulted for a lack of communication with victims families and survivors.

Families of the more than 1,181 murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, as well as survivors, have had high hopes for the inquiry for many years, but felt no one was listening to their concerns. For a decade, Indigenous leaders and activists begged the government to hold an inquiry into the MMIWG crisis. Former prime minister Stephen Harper refused to do it but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared he would hold one if elected.

However, since the inquiry was announced last summer, many families have felt left in the dark and not knowing what is happening with the hearings, where they will be held and when.

Marion Buller, the chief commissioner of the inquiry and a British Columbia judge, has insisted the inquiry will be able to meet all of its targeted reporting dates. An interim report is expected this November and it is also mandated to report by the end of December 2018.

Moreau was effectively in charge of the inquiry and its $53.8-million budget. Her biography on the inquiry website notes she has actively campaigned for social justice and access to justice and was the founding director of the Pro Bono Quebec and the Greater Montreal Community Justice Centre. As well, she was honoured in May, 2011 for her contributions to the Montreal Bar.

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CRANBROOK, B.C.A special prosecutor has asked a judge to send a strong message of denunciation in sentencing a man and woman who took a 13-year-old girl over the U.S. border to marry the now-imprisoned leader of a polygamous sect.

Peter Wilson told a B.C. Supreme Court judge in Cranbrook on Friday that Brandon Blackmore should serve a jail sentence of 12 to 18 months, while Gail Blackmore deserves a six to 12 month sentence.

The former husband and wife were convicted earlier this year on a charge of taking a child under the age of 16 out of Canada for sexual purposes.

Read more:Two of three convicted in B.C. child bride case

The trial heard that in 2004, the girl was secreted into the United States to marry Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who is serving a life sentence for assaulting two of his child brides.

Wilson acknowledged that its an unusual case and theres no volume of Canadian law to assist Justice Paul Pearlman, who scheduled sentencing for Aug. 11, in reaching an appropriate decision.

But he said the sentence must deter other members of the secluded community.

Deterrence might have particular importance in this case because other persons who could potentially commit the offence are, I would say, a very, narrow group, Wilson said. The likely group of potential offenders is probably small and could very well be limited to other adherents of the FLDS as its being espoused by Mr. Jeffs.

Wilson said Brandon Blackmore is more culpable than Gail Blackmore, but both were present at the wedding of the girl and knew what would happen. He said the teen and many women in that church live cloistered lives.

The fact that the victim was 13 ... had spent her whole life in Bountiful, and was not what I would call a worldly person, which I submit would have rendered her more vulnerable.

The young woman, whose name is protected by a publication ban, was sitting in the front row of the courtroom.

Brandon Blackmores lawyer said his client, who is 71, was ex-communicated in 2012 and has no contact with any of the members of his former church.

John Gustafson said his client has begun to have some insight about his actions, but was taught his whole life that Warren Jeffs was Gods representative on earth.

He asked for a conditional sentence, a form of house arrest, for his client.

He is not in a position, even if he wanted to, to commit these acts again, Gustafson said.

Gail Blackmore, 60, declined to say anything during sentencing but Joe Doyle, a lawyer appointed as a friend of the court, spoke on her behalf.

Doyle said the woman should not be painted with the polygamist brush. He said she is less culpable because women in the church are taught to have absolute obedience to the male head of the household.

It is now 13 years later. Mr. Jeffs is in jail for the rest of his life, said Doyle.

She doesnt have a husband whos going to order her to do anything. Theres no need for individual deterrence for Mrs. Blackmore.

Doyle said there havent been any similar charges in 13 years, telling the judge: You dont have evidence theres a lot to deter at this stage.

In rebuttal, Wilson disputed whether the Blackmores realized what they were doing was against the law.

It was known they were taking a 13-year-old girl out of her community to be married to a 49-year-old man who already had multiple wives. A 13-year-old cant give consent.

James Oler, a former leader in the polygamous community of Bountiful, was acquitted of the same charge after the judge ruled there wasnt proof he crossed the border with a 15-year-old girl.

Wilson is asking British Columbias Court of Appeal to overturn his acquittal or order a new trial.

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VERNON, B.C.Ok, lets go, shouts the tractor driver at Davison Orchards, an 81-year-old working farm in Vernon, B.C.

His green farm machine roars to life and sluggishly begins hauling 10 cars packed with visitors dressed in Canada Day red and white.

The group, a mix of tourists to the dry Okanagan region and locals alike, meander through rows of at least four apple varieties and past a pen of young goats eager for a scratch behind the ear from a child  or better yet, a handful of food.

Roughly 200 kilometres east of Vancouver, the region is Canadas most productive fruit grower  getting nearly 2,000 hours of sunlight annually and up to 400 millimetres of precipitation despite its desert conditions.

Our familys been farming this same (14 hectares) since 1933, explains Davison Orchards co-owner and marketing director Tamra Davison, sitting in the shade beside the now 40-plus-hectare farms restaurant where visitors emerge with fresh apple juice ice slush to stave off the sweltering Canada Day heat.

The Davisons emigrated from England in the 1930s with no plan, Davison explained, but were promised free rail passage west, a government policy to increase the settler population there. Disembarking in Calgary, an RCMP officer learned theyd farmed hops.

Get back on that train and get to B.C.  thats where all the horticulture is, he advised. With an $8,000 loan, they bought 14 hectares growing just one apple type; since then, theyve diversified into many varieties, plus cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, melons and value-added pies, juices and preserves; eventually they adopted an idea from Eastern Canada and the U.S.: agri-tourism, she said.

We provide jobs for 100 people, she said proudly, because weve been able to attract all this interest.

More and more, people are really interested in where their food is grown and how  Canadian farmers dont get appreciated for providing food not only for local markets but worldwide.

For Canadas 150th anniversary, the Davisons offered free farm tours on their tractor-powered-train through their three-generation orchard.

Her 86-year-old mother-in-law, Dora Davison emerges from their bakery, her apron covered in flour, and shows off a Canada 150 quilt she and Tamra made together  having just this year shared her lifelong quilting expertise with her daughter-in-law.

And our own kids now want to be part of this and come back to work full-time with us, Tamra said.

Two siblings, festooned in Canada Day T-shirts and red ball caps, squeal as they scramble up a stack of hay bales three high under a small shed. Hearing a rooster crow nearby, they run to it and manage to pet it. Then it follows them, squawking, to the fruit stand where their parents wait. I pet the rooster, the young girl boasts.

Up the hill two girls, 8 and 11, put a quarter into a dispenser, each get a handful of brown pellets, and excitedly feed a brown-and-white goat nearby.

It teaches kids about food and how they grow it, explained their mother, 34-year-old Carol Martinez, who fled the civil war in El Salvador as a child  another story of migration connected to this farm through an interest in how Canada harvests its food.

Im happy to be in Canada, she said. I want my kids to know where everything we eat comes from and be grateful.

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WINNIPEGThe phrase Happy Canada Day draws a mixed response from the crowd at Oodena Celebration Circle at The Forks National Heritage Site in Winnipeg.

We dont celebrate Canada Day! shouts one Indigenous woman before the emcee offers a Happy Neechi Day instead (the word neechi, which comes from the Ojibway language, means friend). The change is met with both cheers and groans by those marking Canadas 150th birthday at the Founding Nations Tribal Village powwow.

For Shannye Michelle of Sagkeeng First Nation, celebrating Canada 150 and challenging a colonial legacy arent mutually exclusive.

I was always proud to be Canadian and Indigenous, said the 17-year-old powwow dancer. Im not going to protest.

For her, dancing on Canada Day is a way to inform Canadians about Indigenous contributions and the rich culture that existed before Confederation. But, she added, her father was protesting Canada 150, at least in part because her grandparents are residential school survivors, making for some interesting conversations leading up to July 1.

Breaking from preparations for the powwows grand entrance, Dwayne Gladue said that in some ways celebrating Canada Day is an act of protest, inserting Indigenous people and issues into the conversation.

There is a lot of controversy on this, says Gladue, who has been dancing at powwows for decades. But I think as an Aboriginal person, this is our right, so thats why Im here today to dance for all those people who are suffering in jails, in hospital, in foster homes.

Sherry Starr reacts to the Canada Day protests with a long exhale.

There is a lot of political issues going on and I try and stay away completely from those because all were trying to do is highlight the beautiful and positive side of the Aboriginal people and dispel with any of those stereotypes, said the executive director of Founding Nations of Manitoba Tribal Village, the non-profit co-operative leading Indigenous programming at The Forks.

Im thinking of the kids, Im not even thinking of an adult perspective . . . the kids dont understand the politics of what is going on, but the kids all know its Canadas birthday and they want to celebrate, Starr said.

Putting on the last of his regalia, Gladue makes a final point.

Some people protest . . . thats up to them, he said. I come to dance.

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IVVAVIK NATIONAL PARK, YUKONSomething strange is swirling about in the roaring Firth River under the midnight sun. The dark, spinning mass looks at first like a deflated inner tube, but its way too spirited to be an inanimate object.

At the stroke of midnight, Parks Canada interpretation officer Rachel Hansen and I had grabbed our fishing rods, quietly let ourselves out of Imniarvik Base Camp through the electrified bear fence and scrambled down the rocky shore to the spot where Sheep Creek intersects with the Firth River.

We stay up on December 31 to greet the new year, I figured, so why not do the same for Canada Day, especially this big one, our 150th birthday. Besides, its 24/7 sun here in the northwest corner of mainland Yukon in the first Canadian national park created as a result of an Indigenous land claim settlement.

One provision of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement of 1984 was the creation of Ivvavik National Park. The Inuvialuits gift to Canada draws 100 odd annual visitors, and this year, on one of six guided Parks Canada Northern Iconic Experience tours, I am one of them, along with three Quebecers and an Albertan.

Round and round the swirling black mass goes. We see fins and realize its two fish, Arctic Grayling, frolicking under the midnight sun.

My gosh, exclaimed Hansen, thats something that Ive never seen before.

Me neither.

We watched them for 10 minutes as they chased each others tails in a tight circle, floating downstream in the current and then making their way back upstream and doing it over and over again before eventually disappearing.

Strange things happen under the midnight sun. We cant bear to catch these magical fish and, after an hour of casting into Canadas oldest flowing river, we happily left empty-handed after scrambling up a rocky lookout to marvel at the pristine arctic wilderness that so few people are blessed enough to see.

A few hours later at breakfast in the base camp kitchen cabin, Renie Arey, our 72-year-old Inuvialuit cultural host, marvels at my frolicking fish video. I was thrilled to brag, especially since I stayed behind a few nights earlier when the hardcore night hikers returned with tales of unusual grizzly bear, caribou and golden eagle encounters.

Its a male and female, declared Quebecer Jean Vallee of my fish. Love is in the air, love is in the water.

Arey has never seen fish behave this way.

They do a good show for you, the animals. Even the fish do a good show for you.

The hardcore hikers set off on a 10-kilometre hike, but not before we grabbed a Canada 150 banner, posed for pictures and sang a few bars of Happy Birthday.

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At a certain point in life birthdays are to be endured rather than enjoyed  until they become enjoyable again, nearer the end of days and a whole bunch of things dont much matter anymore.

Probably its not the same for nations. As life cycles go, Canada hasnt even reached puberty yet. Though it cracks me up when chauvinists says the world needs more Canada. In truth, Canada needs more of the world. More entrepreneurs, more dreamers, more builders, more artists, more labourers. And more immigrants who will help pay off that astronomical debt were bestowing on our descendants.

Ordinarily, I would not waste breath promoting that Trudeau The First ideal of multiculturalism and diversity because its hardly unique to this country. I, as the daughter of immigrants, am more the melting pot sort.

If theres one singular characteristic that differentiates Canada at 150  but most especially Toronto of 2017 from the city in which I grew up  its the craving for distinct and eternal ethnic identities.

On the street where I lived, younger generations yearned to be part of the wider assimilated culture, unhyphenated and a

nglicized. It was an embarrassment to have parents who couldnt speak English or spoke it in broken vernacular. Our houses smelled different, mostly because of the food we cooked. Now, of course, ethnic cuisine is a staple of pricey restaurants so that even pig slop like polenta can be ordered a la carte.

In my house we butchered pigs, hung the porker upside down in the basement so the blood would run out to be mixed with flour and turned into flapjacks. Is that the same as blood pudding, that old English peasant vittle? (Not sure vittle can be properly used in the singular; English is my second language.)

Anyway, chop up the pig meat, put it through a sausage grinder and drape the links in front of the fire. Salt the prosciutto flanks, hang those in the wine cellar for next year. And speaking of wine, in early autumn the California grapes would be delivered, stacked on the front lawn. Thus would begin the arduous labour-intensive process of running the grapes through a hand-cranked crusher, transferring the mush to a wood-slatted bladder, swishing the strained juice between carboys and finally into oak barrels.

The whole neighbourhood reeked of fermentation.

Mortifying to me, all of it.

And now, sadly, lost knowledge, like slaughtering and preserving and fixing your own broken stuff.

We didnt look or act remotely like the families I saw on TV sitcoms. It took a long time to realize those Hollywood families were chimeras, not even the four-square American families on which the fable was based were real. Took a while, too, before my childhood self realized that we werent living in America, engrossed as I was in programming broadcast by the U.S. networks out of Buffalo.

I wanted to be English and rejected everything that had a hint, or odour, of Italianness, of foreignness: the food, the traditions, the ethos of outsider. I wanted a father who worked in an office and would wear a suit instead of a construction belt. I wanted a mother who shaved her legs.

Now, I just want my father back. To say: You were so much smarter than I appreciated.

Browsing through the immigrant exhibit at the Market Gallery the other day, I see men and women and children who look bewildered and shy upon their arrival in Toronto, part of the mass universal convulsion that followed both world wars, millions on the move. I wish there were photographs of my mother, who came to Canada with her sister in 1954, disembarking in Halifax and travelling by train to Union Station. The only picture I have from that era was taken in Rome when she obtained a passport and visa. How anxious and lost they must have felt, hailing from a tiny mountain village outside Naples.

A couple of years ago, a Muslim woman from Pakistan won a court battle to keep her face covered with a niqab at her citizenship ceremony. I think my mother would have whipped off her dress and danced the tarantella for the privilege of citizenship. She had no concept of entitlement, no one who washed up on Canadas shores back then did, and certainly no human rights industry to ease her way.

Im not saying it was better then because it most emphatically was not. But it did have its virtues, those days.

My dad arrived a year later. Hed been a shepherd and sold his flock to book passage.

Within a year theyd married and bought their first house, on Grace St. That little home bulged at the seams as other newcomers from their village passed through, staying with us temporarily, mostly men whod left their wives and children behind. At one point I distinctly remember 13 lodgers. Its just what you did  extended a hand.

The pattern would be repeated in subsequent decades, with different ethnic groups, right through to the present.

The English looked down on the Irish, the Irish looked down on the Italians, the Italians would look down later on the Portuguese and the Koreans. And everybody looked down on Blacks, some of whod been in Canada for generations. Shameful.

Oh how I pined to be indistinct and homogenized and the same. Died a thousand deaths when my mother came to school on parents night or struggled to communicate with a saleswoman at Eatons  but only on the very special occasions when a trip to Eatons was deemed absolutely necessary, like buying me my first typewriter.

All these later, I hear teenage girls who were born here, first-generation Canadians, speaking their parents tongue on the streets and I wonder: How could you? Why would you?

My respect for the contribution of immigrants and refugees is boundless. But diversity, the on and on clinging to it, doesnt make us stronger or particularly admirable. It makes us fragmented, ghettoized in thought and attitude.

I love our beautiful flag. I love the national anthem just as it is. I love the gorgeousness of this country from sea to sea.

On Canada Day, as every day, this is a fine country to call home. But dont let us look down on the world, down on America  even with that fool man in the White House. Look outward Canada. Theres a whole lot of wondrous world out there too.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

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Ontarios Divisional Court has ordered an end to the secrecy surrounding the provinces highest-billing doctors.

A three-judge panel dismissed an application to quash an order from Ontarios Information and Privacy Commissioner to make the names of the highest-paid physicians public, ruling that the order was a reasonable one.

The court accepted that the names of the doctors, in conjunction with the amounts they receive in OHIP payments and their medical specialties, are not personal information. They are, therefore, not exempt from disclosure under the provinces Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The Star has been trying to get physician-identified payment data from the province for more than three years. The effort started with a freedom of information request to Ontarios Health Ministry in 2014.

The ministry refused to release the names, arguing that doing so would be an unjustified invasion of privacy. The Star successfully appealed to the privacy commissioner, but then three groups of doctors, including the Ontario Medical Association, sought a judicial review.

In an unanimous decision released late Friday afternoon, the court rejected the doctors argument that the Star had failed to establish a proper rationale for the disclosure.

Justice Ian Nordheimer, writing on behalf of the majority, said the argument ignores the well-established rationale that underlies access to information legislation.

The rationale is that the public is entitled to information in the possession of their governments so that the public may, among other things, hold their governments accountable, the decision states.

Nordheimer said the Star did not require a reason to obtain the information. The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act mandates that information is to be provided unless a privacy exception is demonstrated.

Once it is determined that the information is not personal information, there is no statutory basis to refuse to provide it, he wrote.

The proper question to be asked in this context . . . is not why do you need it? but rather why should you not have it,  the decision states.

The top 100 OHIP billers took in a combined $191 million in 2012-13, according to the limited information supplied by the ministry in response to the Stars FOI request.

The highest biller alone claimed more than $6 million, while the second- and third-highest billers each claimed more than $4 million. Nineteen doctors received payments of more than $2 million each.

The courts ruling is important because it will affect how the Information and Privacy Commissioner deals with another appeal by the Star, this one seeking the release of physician-identified billings for all Ontario doctors. The commissioner put that appeal on hold, pending the outcome of this case.

It is not yet known whether the doctors will appeal the latest ruling.

I dont know yet. I just got decision and sent it to my client, said lawyer Joe Colangelo, who represents the OMA. We are going to study it, digest it and make a decision early next week on what we intend to do.

Lawyer Linda Galessiere, who represents a group known as Affected Third Party Doctors, said she was out of town and had not yet spoken to her clients.

Lawyer Chris Dockrill, who represents a group that describes itself as Several Physicians Affected by the Order, could not be reached for comment.

Other jurisdictions release this kind of data annually: New Brunswick began to do so earlier this week; the United States started in 2014; Manitoba in 1996, and British Columbia in 1971.

Ontario already makes public the names and salaries of doctors employed in the public sector  for example, at hospitals  in its annual Sunshine List of public servants earning more than $100,000.

But they represent only a small fraction of Ontarios 29,000 physicians, most of whom work as independent contractors.

In opposing the release of the names, the three physician groups argued that John Higgins, an adjudicator with the office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, had erred in departing from previous commission orders that found such information was personal.

Higgins had concluded that physicians receive OHIP payments in relation to a business or profession. The monies do not reflect actual income, as physicians themselves argued, because doctors pay for overhead expenses out of them. OHIP payments, therefore, do not reveal personal information about the doctors.

The doctors complained that Higgins failed to justify his departure from previous commission rulings. But Nordheimer wrote that he did not view the applicants criticism on this point to be a fair one.

Not only was Higgins not bound by earlier decisions of the privacy commission, but he explained his departure from them head on, Nordheimer said.

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WASHINGTONU.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has a reputation as a tactical genius. It was cemented during the Obama era when he executed a long blockade of the Democratic presidents agenda.

His current test is tougher. He is trying to persuade his caucus to vote for a key item on the Republican presidents agenda  one of the most unpopular major bills in modern U.S. history.

The polls on Trumpcare vary, but theyre all abominable. McConnells version of U.S. President Donald Trumps effort to replace Obamacare, written in haste and secrecy, has the support of between 12 per cent and 27 per cent of the country.

Thats like Congress and their families or something. Its really hard to get to 12 per cent, said Jonathan Oberlander, a University of North Carolina professor who studies health policy and politics.

Most legislation so widely loathed would be dumped. But this isnt just any legislation. Republican members of Congress have campaigned for seven years on repealing Obamacare.

Almost every relevant interest group, from hospitals to doctors to the seniors lobby, says the plan is terrible. Almost nobody in Congress appears to be an enthusiastic fan. But some Republican lawmakers fear that their reputations will suffer with devoted party supporters if they do not fulfil such a central promise.

I generally think there will be hell to pay if we dont follow through here, said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist who previously led a Super PAC backing McConnells 2014 campaign in Kentucky.

We control the whole government. Voters dont want incrementalism, Jennings said. They want change and we damn well better give it to them.

But other Republicans believe the party is better off taking the hit from a failure to act than the hit they would take if they actually passed the bill. Rick Tyler, an MSNBC analyst and former senior aide to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, said Republican lawmakers who back the plan are suicidal.

A change of this kind  a massive clawback of an important social benefit program  has never been approved. The bill would result in millions of people losing insurance.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 22 million fewer people would have insurance in 2026 under the Republican plan than under Obamacare, 15 million fewer through the Medicaid program for low-income people.

The Medicaid cuts are especially bad politics because the bill also cuts a tax on investment income for people earning $200,000 or more.

A caricature of a Republican health care bill, said Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee. Trump called it mean. Justin Krebs, campaign director for liberal group MoveOn.org, said it is a sop to wealthy Republican donors interested in tax cuts above all else.

When people hear health-care reform,  Oberlander said, what they expect is not that youre going to de-insure 22 million Americans.

Democrats are shouting their opposition from every available rooftop. They have been joined by Republican governors, like Ohios John Kasich and Nevadas Brian Sandoval, whose residents have benefited from Obamacares expansion of Medicaid.

Seeking to minimize public discussion, McConnell tried to rush the Senate to a final vote by Friday. A Republican rebellion forced him to delay until after the weeklong Independence Day recess that begins this weekend.

The slowdown gives anti-bill forces an opening. As McConnell attempts to find the magic adjustments that will secure the necessary 50 votes  some lawmakers have suggested dumping the tax cut  his swing voters are being forced to march in local parades during which activists from liberal groups like MoveOn and Indivisible will confront them with signs, chants and questions.

Its very difficult for them to hide on July 4th, said Indivisible co-founder Angel Padilla.

McConnell can afford only two defections. As of Friday, he was staring at a far bigger number.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, relative moderates, have forcefully criticized the Medicaid cuts and other central features of the bill. Several others, including West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, have expressed similar concerns less sharply. More than 15 additional senators have been noncommittal.

And McConnell must try to address moderates anxiety about coverage while also satiating the opposite concerns of hard-liners like Lee and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who say the bill is insufficiently different from Obamacare.

Krebs said MoveOn would focus its recess activism on bucking up senators concerned about the impact of the reversal of the Medicaid expansion, telling them that small cosmetic tweaks cant fix a bill that is rotten to the core.

The president might normally be expected to intervene at such a critical juncture. McConnell is on an island: Trump has never demonstrated that he understands enough about the bill to be useful. In a Friday tweet, the president floated the non-starter idea of repealing Obamacare first and then passing a replacement later.

At a normal level of first-year popularity, Tyler said, Trump could persuade lawmakers simply by threatening to hold rallies in their states and denounce them for thwarting his key initiative. His poor approval rating, hovering around 39 per cent, sharply reduces his arm-twisting power.

He has no influence on the Congress, Tyler said. When members feel their power is threatened, they will move. But their powers not threatened. The president has no political leverage.

But even liberals think McConnell might figure out how to pull another rabbit out of his hat.

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NEW YORKDr. Henry Bello proved a man of his word.

After he was forced to resign as a family medicine doctor amid sexual harassment allegations, he threatened his colleagues. He said he would kill them.

On Friday, Bello returned to Bronx Lebanon Hospital with an AR-15 assault rifle tucked under his white lab coat and opened fire in his old department, killing one doctor and critically wounding six other people at the hospital, according to law enforcement officials.

Bello then shot himself, and staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, officials said. A photo showed the doctor on a blood-spattered floor as police stood over him.

Now, detectives are trying to piece together what prompted Bello to snap two years after he was forced out, and whether he was hunting for someone in particular when he went to the 16th floor and started shooting.

There are many, many details that were still putting together, said Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that terrorism was not involved in the attack. This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere.

His former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud, and threatening.

All the time he was a problem, said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello as a family medicine doctor. When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the dismissal.

We fired him because he was kind of crazy, Dr. Maureen Kwankam told the Daily News. He promised to come back and kill us then.

People described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted, spreading terror throughout the medical facility as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives after hearing an announcement warning of someone in the building with a weapon.

I thought I was going to die, said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. Fifteen minutes later they confirmed he was dead in the building.

Bello may have doused himself with an accelerant like gasoline and tried to set himself on fire before shooting himself, officials said. Sprinklers extinguished the fire.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello graduated from Ross University and had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day. Family medicine doctors handle more routine cases, such as coughs and sprained ankles.

Bello also worked as a pharmacy technician at Metropolitan hospital in Manhattan because he was having a hard time getting licensed as a physician, but quit the job in 2012 and filed for unemployment, according to the lawyer who represented him on appeal in 2014. He lost his case. One former colleague at Metropolitan said he would frequently argue with nurses and bristled at being told what to do, but his attorney in the unemployment action said thats not the man he knew.

Im absolutely shocked, attorney David Wim said. He was such a nice gentleman. He was very humble, very polite, very respectful.

Wim said he even jokingly suggested to his assistant that she date the doctor, who was unmarried.

But Bello had a history of aggressive behaviour. In unrelated cases, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanour, in 2004 after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, Youre coming with me. He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror. That case was eventually sealed.

It was not immediately clear if the hospital was aware of his criminal history when he was hired.

Two surgeons at the hospital told the AP that all six victims were in critical condition, but they were expected to survive. Medical staff at the hospital immediately treated all the patients in its emergency department. The victims largely suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen, they said. The most seriously wounded was shot in the liver, said the surgeons, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly.

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called from inside to tell him about the gunman.

She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebodys out there shooting people, Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry.

Brown, 53, emerged around 6 p.m.  hours after the initial report of a shooter at about 2:50 p.m.  and said employees had only recently been freed to leave their secure areas.

I was scared, said Brown, a Bronx resident who described herself as the hospitals patient ambassador. Very scary. It was like something youd see on TV. I just thank God to be alive.

The 120-year-old hospital has one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York City, and is just a few kilometers from Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.

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LAS VEGASTourists and locals alike were among the more than 100 people waiting in line at one Las Vegas-area dispensary Saturday as Nevada became the latest state in the U.S. with stores selling marijuana for recreational purposes.

Minnesota resident Edgar Rosas Lorenzo on Saturday flew with his family to Sin City for a wedding. But even before he checked in to his hotel, he stopped at a dispensary on the Las Vegas Strip.

Lorenzo, 21, said he learned of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Nevada while he was at the airport waiting for his flight to depart. He drove with his sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law from the rental car facility in Las Vegas straight to the dispensary. They waited in line about 40 minutes before he could buy one-eighth of an ounce of marijuana and hemp wraps.

Read more:

Canadian pot ads? Think beer ads. Then think again: Delacourt

Ottawa sticking to July 2018 deadline to legalize pot

It was worth the wait. Im going to come get some more tomorrow, Lorenzo said after paying about $60 in cash at Essence dispensary. It helps me sleep. I get back pain. I have a slipped disc.

It remains illegal in Nevada to consume marijuana in public, including hotels. Violators face a $600 fine.

Thats one reason why some in the industry think edibles will be most popular with visitors, who can eat the goodies almost anywhere without attracting attention, including casino floors where cigarettes are allowed but pot-smoking is not.

I have yet to figure that out, Lorenzo said of where hell smoke the weed he got at the Essence dispensary.

Lorenzo immediately posted photos of his stash on Snapchat. His friends have said theyre jealous and asked where he bought the products, he said. Lorenzo said he will plan another trip to Vegas specifically to be able to legally purchase marijuana, not to visit the citys world famous casinos.

We just got here ... Instead of looking around in Vegas, Im in a dispensary, he said.

Armen Yemenidjian, CEO of Essence Cannabis Dispensaries, called the day historic. The prohibition of cannabis is ending slowly but surely, and, you know, we as Las Vegans are happy to be a part of it, Yemenidjian said.

Meanwhile, Kristin Deneal got in line outside a pot shop at 5:45 a.m., after a different store that opened at midnight closed before she could make a purchase. She brought a folding chair and sat by the door, striking conversations with the security guard and others as the line continued to grow before doors opened at 9 a.m.

Deneal, a Las Vegas resident, said she is elated at being able to legally buy the drug that for decades she has had to buy through acquaintances. She said smoking marijuana helps her cope with health conditions while also working a stressful job at a bank.

It looks like they have enough stuff for everyone, its just a question of getting through the door, she said.

State Sen. Tick Segerblom, one of the main proponents of marijuana legalization in Nevada, made the first purchase at The Source dispensary at a strip mall. Deneal and others followed. An hour after the door opened, at least 80 transactions had been recorded.

Deneal, 57, said she has a bipolar disorder and a bad neck. She said she never got a medical card for fear of a federal crackdown on those who provided their information to obtain it. And now, she said, she no longer has to fear potentially being arrested for possessing marijuana.

Im going to spend the whole $100 bucks, she said.

Recreational marijuana sales began shortly after midnight, just months after voters approved legalization in November, marking the fastest turnaround from the ballot box to retail sales in the country.

Hundreds of people lined up at Essence Cannabis Dispensary on the Las Vegas Strip. People were excited and well-behaved as a lone security guard looked on. A valet was available to park cars for the customers.

A cheer erupted when the doors opened.

Those 21 and older with a valid ID can buy up to an ounce of pot. Tourists are expected to make nearly two of every three recreational pot purchases in Nevada, but people can only use the drug in a private home.

Despite the limits on where people can get high and restrictions on where the industry can advertise, dispensaries worked furiously to prepare for the launch. They stamped labels on pot products, stocked up their shelves, added security and checkout stations, and announced specials.

Some facilities are in strip malls, while others, in stereotypical Las Vegas fashion, are in neighbourhoods shared by strip clubs. Some dispensaries have ATMs inside because they only accept cash transactions for marijuana.

Nevada joins Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in allowing adults to buy the drug thats still banned by the federal government.

Ive been living in Vegas for 15 years and I keep missing the cities that legalize marijuana and edibles. So Im happy that its here now, said Babs Daitch, who was waiting in line.

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I dont want to offer platitudes to celebrate Canadas 150th birthday as we are all stuffed to the lid with those. Instead Ill tell you about Moments in Canada, as opposed to the more sugary My Canadian Moments. Inside each moment very likely sits a platitude, if you are minded to pluck it out, but dont feel you have to.

1. My father fillets a pickerel. Throughout his life, he fishes whenever he has a free moment, and every fish is filleted on an outdoor table as soon as its brought home. Two slices below the head, evisceration, bisection and then the most fascinating part, the long slide of the knife peeling fresh white flesh from the skin. Each movement is smooth and measured. My late father was a surgeon, and each pickerel underwent the same graceful autopsy in the late afternoon as the sun lowered and the light turned golden. I watched agog. To this day I am fascinated by visual details and how to manage them with tiny knives, scissors, paintbrushes and a camera. I photograph bricks, for instance. In Britain, the brick is king and the mortar joints are understated with a thin white fillet. In Amsterdam, the mortar is the star and the brick is slotted in. Canadian bricks are moody and inconsistent. Fish, bricks, photos, its all in the detail.

2. I am a small child determined to reduce the suffering of the minnows that I plunge a hook into for bait as they wriggle. So before we get on the water, I take a minnow from the bucket and smash it on the head with a large metal hammer. The minnow is flattened, its eyeballs dangle appallingly, and my childs mind realizes I am being cruel with no good effect. The limp flat thing will look implausible to passing fish and is thus unusable. The minnow died fast but for naught. I think about this for the rest of my life pretty much.

3. I am standing in a field of tall yellow grasses in Alberta on a summer afternoon, doing nothing at all. The wind is gentle, the sky enormous and an empty blue. I suddenly feel planted under an immensity, with the violent shock that Virginia Woolf called moments of being. The world is huge and I am a small thing surrounded by a beauty that humans cannot encompass or rival. In this numinous moment, Im just another stalk of grass, happy to be alive under a huge sky. The consciousness of being alive is valuable. Always notice it.

4. Canadian Tire smells the same as always, like a garage, dusty and metallic, useful for its purpose. I remember the Canadian Tire in Dryden, Ont., a young woman at the cash suddenly freezing at an accumulation of tasks and my father speaking quietly and gently to her. Later, he explained the petit mal seizure to me.

5. As a teenager, I fill out my first passport application. It asks for my religion. We have none. Oh, just put Presbyterian, my Scottish mother sighs, the implication being that nobody objects to Presbyterians. I spend the rest of my life objecting to Presbyterians.

6. We are walking in snowy woods and come across a tiny rabbit trapped in a metal snare, a noose around its neck. The quivering animals light-brown fur is soaked with sweat and her eyes filled with terror. My father, despite being an enthusiastic hunter, bends over to let the bunny loose from the trap. The rabbit wrenches herself loose and hops off with the wire noose still around her neck.

7. Later, my pet rabbits, Thumper and Cinnamon, are attacked by dogs and Thumper is left paralyzed. My father takes Thumper out one afternoon and shoots her. We release Cinnamon on an island where she can hop wild and free, we hope futilely. We move and leave my dog behind. I dream of one day moving to a big city where moral quandaries and animals will not haunt me.

8. I move to Toronto where I live with squirrels with distemper, rabid raccoons, savage rescue dogs and feral cats. A raggedy coyote lopes across the street. I suppress all animal affections.

9. My fathers ashes are scattered over a lake in northern Alberta where he loved to fish.

10. I visit Montreal. Everything is better in Montreal. Its a Montreal state of mind.

11. I visit Vancouver. Why isnt everyone in Vancouver blissed out? Why do they quarrel so much? A vast water dwarfs the narcissism of their small differences.

12. The colours of Canada: the stained grey slabs of Torontos brutalist architecture era; networks of faded pastel diamonds on schools and pools built in Centennial Year 1967; turquoise Lake Louise, turquoise Porter Airlines pillbox caps; Air Canadas multi-unfortunate upholstery; Bank of Montreal warm blue vs. Royal Bank emphatic blue; the greenish blue of the loons smooth head around an auburn-chocolate eye; the dark green fuzz of millions of scrub jack pine seen from the air over Timmins; slate chunks with a halo of cigarette butts in an elderly Toronto snowbank in February; the soaplike white of packed snow on a dirt road in Sioux Lookout; fish-belly white; the glutinous pale grey of jackfish bones; the 50 flat shades of grey of ex-Prime Minister Stephen Harpers tremendous hair; the scarlet flash in Erdem dress fabric, the damnable dark red of dour 1930s Toronto brick houses vs. the flaring orange of the 1890s; the dopey browns of the gangly moving-van-with-legs moose; the red-and-white sea to shining sea of the Canadian flag which should logically be brilliant blue-and-white but there you are. Its just a flag of a country that doesnt like to be brash or boastful or even slightly loud. Ill just say it, Im really rather extremely fond of almost every bit and moment of you, my fine Canada.

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Brought back to life for the big day, the fathers of Confederation would no doubt be proud to learn that on the 150th anniversary of their historic pact, an expanded version of the country thus formed is having quite a moment.

Canadas economy is growing faster than that of any other G7 nation. Our prime minister is lauded internationally as a champion of liberal democracy, a last bulwark against the nativist barbarians. We are more open than most of our peer nations  and for this weve earned a reputation. A Canadian musical about the inclusive generosity of Newfoundlanders is a sensation on Broadway, a nightly reminder to the world that, whether by skill or luck, we have so far avoided the xenophobic populism now infecting much of the West.

Given all this, however, the resurrected statesmen might be perplexed by the prevailing national mood. As many have noted in recent months, despite our evident success, Canadians hardly seem celebratory. The giddy patriotism that 50 years ago marked our centenary has been largely supplanted by eye-rolls and self-flagellation.

Take the giant rubber ducky, six storeys high, which will make its way into Toronto Harbour today and float there as an oblique tribute to our nations founding. Some have dismissed the big yellow waterfowl as hopelessly lame, some as confusingly irrelevant, others as a gross waste of tax money. Few dare defend the duck.

Similarly unpopular was the CBC television documentary series celebrating the occasion, the presumptuously titled The Story of Us, which was widely lashed for its narrow view of who us is.

Well reviewed and thickly attended, on the other hand, has been Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience, an exhibit of paintings by Kent Monkman at the University of Toronto that chronicles Indigenous suffering over the century and a half since Confederation. Thats where much of the countrys head is at.

As the Canadian novelist Stephen Marche put it in the New York Times, The principal excitement of our sesquicentennial so far has been the fury of national self-critique it has inspired.

Its our party and well cry if we want to. But why, exactly, do we want to?

Our lack of enthusiasm may stem in part simply from the awkwardness of the word sesquicentennial, which takes about 150 years to say, and the relative non-roundness of the number to which it refers. When it comes to birthdays, 100 is greater than 150.

More profound is the acute and spreading awareness, not yet mainstream in 1967, that many do not share in the Canadian success story  and that some have been directly victimized by it.

For those who were looking forward to a nationalistic sesquicentennial fervor, last years Truth and Reconciliation Report was a major buzzkill. There is of course much to celebrate in our countrys history, but we cannot reflect in good faith on our founding without considering its place in generations of Indigenous injustice. And what constitutes our founding anyway?

In place of the centenarys unbridled enthusiasm, there is now an uncomfortable grappling. How do we consider the countrys success without considering, too, the ways in which it has been enabled by government policies that uprooted the first inhabitants of this land from their languages, their cultures and their communities? Or that, as a result of those policies and our continuing failure to redress their worst consequences, Indigenous people are to this day disproportionately likely to live in poverty, end up in jail or worse?

Sir John A. Macdonald, returned from the grave, would have much to be proud of on this anniversary, but he would also, understandably, be Twitter mobbed for his willing role in Canadas callous colonial folly.

Of course ours is by no means the only country with shameful blights on its history, but we more than most become fixated, preferring self-criticism over jingoism, a symptom perhaps of our lack of any firm sense of national identity. After all, we are not tethered across our vast geography and diverse communities by language, blood or soil; we are by definition bilingual and multicultural. To the extent that we are bound at all, it is by the precarious, compromise-filled political union struck 150 years ago and the collective accomplishments that followed: medicare, a world-leading education system, the Charter.

These, increasingly, are the symbols that matter to Canadians, a recent EKOS Research poll found; not so much the beaver, the maple leaf, or other emblems of identity, but what we have together made. We are in a sense the existentialist nation: unbound by grand founding myths or any fixed sense of national character, we may be freer than most to choose the sort of country we want to become.

In this light, our tendencies toward self-doubt and party-pooping, which have been on such clear display this year, can be seen as national strengths, albeit ones that easily veer into annoying smugness. The fear that outsiders were diluting some essential national greatness contributed to both Britains decision to secede from the European Union and Americas decision to secede from sanity. Such a notion is a much tougher sell in Canada.

The sesquicentennial combination of pride and reluctance captures a constitutionally Canadian view that theres much to be grateful for, but also much work to be done. Is this the basis for a national party? Maybe not. But just maybe a country that cant have fun because its so concerned about those being left behind is a country on the right track.

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PulteGroup, Inc., through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the homebuilding business in the United States. It acquires and develops land primarily for residential purposes; and constructs housing on such land. The company also offers various home designs, including single-family detached, townhomes, condominiums, and duplexes under the Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, American West, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods brand names. As of December 31, 2021, it controlled 228,296 lots, of which 109,078 were owned and 119,218 were under land option agreements. In addition, the company arranges financing through the origination of mortgage loans primarily for homebuyers; sells the servicing rights for the originated loans; and provides title insurance policies, and examination and closing services to homebuyers. PulteGroup, Inc. was formerly known as Pulte Homes, Inc. and changed its name to PulteGroup, Inc. in March 2010. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. operates bookstores for college and university campuses, and K-12 institutions in the United States. It operates through three segments: Retail, Wholesale, and Digital Student Solutions. The company sells and rents new and used print textbooks, digital textbooks, and publisher hosted digital courseware through physical and virtual bookstores, as well as directly to students through Textbooks.com. It also offers First Day and First Day Complete access programs; BNC OER+, a turnkey solution for colleges and universities, that offers digital content, such as videos, activities, and auto-graded practice assessments; and general merchandise, including collegiate and athletic apparel, school spirit products, lifestyle products, technology products, supplies, graduation products, and convenience items. In addition, the company sources, sells, and distributes new and used textbooks; and sells hardware and a software suite of applications that provides inventory management and point-of-sale solutions to approximately 350 college bookstores. Further, it offers direct-to-student subscription-based writing services; and bartleby, a direct-to-student subscription-based offering that includes textbook solutions, expert questions and answers, and writing and tutoring services. The company operates 805 physical college and university bookstores; 622 virtual bookstores; 8 True Spirit e-commerce websites; pop-up retail locations; 73 customized cafes and 11 stand-alone convenience stores; and a media channel for brands targeting the college demographic. Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol. It produces conventional, premium, and reformulated gasolines; gasoline meeting the specifications of the California Air Resources Board (CARB); diesel fuels, and low-sulfur and ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuels; CARB diesel; other distillates; jet fuels; blendstocks; and asphalts, petrochemicals, lubricants, and other refined petroleum products, as well as sells lube oils and natural gas liquids. As of December 31, 2021, the company owned 15 petroleum refineries with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.2 million barrels per day; and 12 ethanol plants with a combined ethanol production capacity of approximately 1.6 billion gallons per year. It sells its refined products through wholesale rack and bulk markets; and through approximately 7,000 outlets under the Valero, Beacon, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar, and Texaco brands. The company also produces and sells ethanol, dry distiller grains, syrup, and inedible corn oil primarily to animal feed customers. In addition, it owns and operates crude oil and refined petroleum products pipelines, terminals, tanks, marine docks, truck rack bays, and other logistics assets; and owns and operates a plant that processes animal fats, used cooking oils, and inedible distillers corn oils into renewable diesel. The company was formerly known as Valero Refining and Marketing Company and changed its name to Valero Energy Corporation in August 1997. Valero Energy Corporation was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.
An Autopsy revealed the 5 month old baby, born to a 13 year old mother died from positional asphyxia.

The baby's great grandmother tells TV6 there's no way the baby's mother would have hurt the baby.

Dr. Valery Alexandrov tells us Baby Leah's death was accidental.

The baby was asleep in Between her mother and her 7 year old aunt. Sometime during the night, the 7year old's leg covered the child's nose and mouth. The baby would've been dead in a minute.

13-year-old mom carries her dead 5-month-old into Police Station Police have confirmed the death of a five-month old baby in San Rafael. According to San Rafael police, a 13-year old girl, the mother of the baby, brought the infant into the police station shortly after seven o'clock this morning.

It's a tragic story that begins before baby Leah was even born.

The 13-year-old's mother died a year ago from cancer. She lives in San Rafael with her father and three younger siblings.

She spent much of her time taking care of her ailing mother.

She dropped out of High school when her mom died and started taking classes in a nearby community centre, making jewelry.

We spoke to the teen's grandmother today who said she was upset by the comments she's been hearing. people who commented that she'd ever hurt her baby.

"It was pain to hear people talking to stupidness." She told us...

"She loved that child so much."

"She in a mess"

She said her granddaughter took the baby to Church every Sunday.

"Every Sunday they in Church knocking about. I Feeling bad for that child.

"I feeling terrible, terrible terrible"

She said she often asked for and shared parenting advice with the other members of her class.

The child's father is 19. He and the teen dated for some time, but he apparently become distant when the baby was born.

The Children's Authority says in late 2016, the girl, who was pregnant at the time, had been referred to them. Investigations were conducted by the Authority to identify the circumstances of the childs pregnancy.

They say the Police were addressing the criminal investigation into sexual offences committed against the child.

The children's Act makes exceptions for teenagers under the age of 18 who may be having consensual sex. But only if they're separated by two years.

According to part 6 of the Children's Act....A person twelve years of age or over, but under fourteen years of age is not liable under section 18 or 19 if (a) he is less than two years older than the child against whom he is purported to have perpetrated the offence;

The Authority says it will continue to provide the necessary counselling and other interventions, given the childs further traumatic experience.

According to San Rafael police, the 13-year old girl, brought the infant into the police station shortly after seven o'clock Thursday morning. The child was motionless. The mother and child were taken to the Arima Health Facility where the infant was pronounced dead.
The United States of America will provide Ukraine with assistance worth about $127 million this year.

Official representative of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, Colonel Dmytro Hutsuliak said this at a press briefing, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Ukraine will receive assistance worth about $127 million from the United States of America this year. In particular, the assistance includes medical supplies, equipment for medical evacuation aircraft and hospitals, 2,500 first aid kits for health instructors, 25,000 individual first-aid kits, equipment for training centers, spare parts," Hutsuliak informed.

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Militants launched 35 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO press center.

In Mariupol direction, militants used grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms to shell Ukrainian positions near Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk) and Marinka (35 km south-west of Donetsk).

In Donetsk direction, Russian-backed militants fired at ATO troops near Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk) and Kamyanka (62km south of Donetsk), using infantry weapons, 120 mm and 82 mm mortars and tanks. In addition, the enemy launched attacks on Ukrainian strongholds near Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk) and Zaitseve (67km north-north-east of Donetsk), using 120mm mortars, grenade launchers, small arms and infantry fighting vehicle weapons.

In Luhansk direction, ATO troops came under fire near Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk).

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DOOLOW, Somalia, 30 June 2017  Faisal Bule sits with his daughter, 18-month-old Dahran Faisal, at the nutrition centre in Doolow, a town in southern Somalia on the border with Ethiopia. Dahran is one of the newly admitted patients at the centres Outpatient Therapeutic Programme.

They were forced to leave their home village because of a severe drought that started in December 2016 and has been affecting the lowland areas across the Horn of Africa, particularly Ethiopia and Somalia, as well as Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda.

They are among the 6.7 million people  over half of Somalias population  who need humanitarian assistance. More than one million children are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition during 2017.

Dahran suffers from the most serious form of malnutrition  severe acute malnutrition  which is expected to affect 277,000 children in Somalia this year.

After the staff check Dahrans health, Faisal is given a supply of a nutrient-dense peanut paste known as ready-to-use therapeutic food to take home. He will bring Dahran back to the centre for regular monitoring.

Until recently, it would have been much more difficult to reach Dahran with her life-saving treatment.
Ethnomusicologist and Host Dr. Heather Maxwell takes you to the Sahara Desert in Morocco where she talks to Malian desert rock band, Terakaft. Listen to them play live and unplugged from the International Nomads Festival in M'Hamid el Ghizlane. You'll also hear from Kenyan artist Tetu Shani and other new and old African songs you'll love.
Outside the generals office, Raith al-Shababi, an Iraqi Special Forces fighter, flips through Facebook on his phone.

This is my brother, he said, showing a reporter a picture of a young man in a white dress shirt, posing with a serious, thoughtful face.



Daesh, al-Shababi explained, holding his finger up to his head like a gun. Boom, boom. Islamic State militants killed his brother at the age of 21.



Waiting for the generals to escort them on a victory tour of Mosuls Old City, al-Shababi says Mosul has not been completely captured, but the end is near.



But the losses endured over eight months of fighting, three years of IS rule in Mosul and more than a decade of constant extremist attacks, he observes, make the coming milestone more sad than celebratory.



Weve won, but look around you, said Col. Saaed Badeer Katam, of the Special Forces Najaf Battalion. Everything is destroyed.



Even the al-Nuri Mosque, the victory tours destination, is in ruins, with its iconic minaret chopped down and prayer space destroyed. Abu-Bakar al-Baghdadi declared himself Caliph of IS in 2014 in this mosque. Three years later IS destroyed it, apparently just to lessen Iraqs triumph in Mosul.



Living in the battle zone, Col. Katam says he isnt bothered that the declared victory precede the end of the fighting. As he speaks, airstrikes pound IS targets, and militants lob mortars and snap off sniper fire. Soldiers battle house to house, and families continue to flee the fighting.

Katam explodes IEDs that litter the re-captured streets of Old Mosul, hidden in debris and even in childrens toys. Buildings in the area are crushed and abandoned, and militants corpses rot in the streets. Under the piles of rubble are the remains of families killed when houses collapsed in airstrikes, sometimes burying them alive.



I lost 25 of my friends in the fight for Mosul, said Kaisar, 28, an Iraqi Special Forces fighter. When asked if he is happy about the victory, he replies, Im just tired. I want to go home.



Coming battles



For Iraqi fighters, going home will be a break, but not the end of the war. Militants continue hiding out in Iraqi-controlled territory, poised to strike again. IS still holds large parts of Iraq, including parts of Anbar province, Hawija and the strategic city of Tal Afar, according to Col. Katam.



Operations will continue until IS is finished, he noted.



Tal Afar has been surrounded by Popular Mobilization Units, or Hashd Shaaby fighters, since last year, though an advance to retake the city itself has not yet begun.



And the terrain around Tal Afar is so rough that it is impossible to completely secure, added Katam. Militants fleeing other areas will finally retreat to the city if they can.



The last place we fight will be Tal Afar, he said. And there, they will fight to the death.



Hidden militants



Sleeper cells in Iraqi-controlled Mosul already are conducting attacks. Last week three suicide bombers targeted eastern Mosul, killing and maiming people in a market.



Early this week, 40 to 50 militants believed to be hiding out in an abandoned industrial zone overran two neighborhoods of western Mosul in an apparent attempt to distract Iraqi forces from their battle in Old Mosul.



They thought Iraqi forces would leave Old Mosul so some other militants could escape, said Sergeant Mahmoud Mohammad of the Iraqi Armys 9th division. But they failed.



Special Forces and Iraqi Army soldiers killed all of the battling militants, he said, showing us bloodstains on the floor of one house. The blood is still sticky, and two bullet shells are on the floor. Mohammad thinks it was an IS double execution.



Returning neighbors say there was pandemonium when IS showed up in an area controlled by Iraq since mid-April. Families were separated as everyone ran when they saw the bushy beards and traditional clothes. They dont know if anyone was killed.



Soldiers and civilians agree, however, that more sleeper cells are hiding out all over Mosul and that attacks are far from over.



Of course we are always afraid, said Mohammad, a 31-year-old father of seven who lives in Tenek, one of the areas briefly overrun by IS early this week. But where else are we going to go?


Australia has a new Information Warfare Unit that will start operations within days. It will defend Australian military targets from cyber attacks and will be able to launch its own assaults on foreign defense forces.

Australias newest frontline forces are keyboard warriors - analysts, technicians and computer experts who will lead the fight against cyber attacks.

The unit will run both defensive and offensive operations. It will allow Australia to respond to modern digital forms of conflict, as the United States, China and Russia increase their investment in electronic warfare.

The Information Warfare Unit will have 100 staff members, but that figure is expected to grow to about 900 in a decades time.

John Blaxland, a professor in International Security and Intelligence Studies, says it will have the ability to counter foreign powers, or criminal gangs.

There is a lot you can do that can hassle, harass, interdict, subvert, undermine and damage, and that is a space Australia has not sought to buy in on," he said. "It is buying in on it big time now.

Professor Greg Austin is a professor in the Australian Center for Cyber Security at the University of New South Wales. He says Australia needs to increase its investment in electronic warfare.

We are definitely well behind the United States, but the good news is that Russia and China, potential adversaries of Australia, only really joined this cyber arms race in the relatively recent past," Austin said. "We are really lucky that they were also behind the play.

Earlier this year, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull warned that cyber attacks were the new frontier of warfare and the new frontier of espionage.

Analysts say the formation of the cyber warfare unit is one of the biggest strategic shifts in Australian military planning for many years.
Biodiesel made from microalgae could power buses and trucks and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80 percent, Chilean scientists said, possibly curbing pollution in contaminated cities like Santiago.

Experts from the department of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses at Chile's Catholic University said they had grown enough algae to fragment it and extract the oil which, after removing moisture and debris, can be converted into biofuel.

"What is new about our process is the intent to produce this fuel from microalgae, which are microorganisms," researcher Carlos Saez told Reuters.

Most of the world's biodiesel, which reduces dependence on petroleum, is derived from soybean oil. It can also be made from animal fat, canola or palm oil.

Saez said a main challenge going forward would be to produce a sufficient volume of microalgae. A wide variety of fresh and salt water algaes are found in Chile, a South American nation with a long Pacific coast.

The scientists are trying to improve algae growing technology to ramp up production at a low cost using limited energy, Saez said.
Many businesses still struggled Friday to recover hopelessly scrambled computer networks, collateral damage from a massive cyberattack that targeted Ukraine three days ago.

The Heritage Valley Health System couldn't offer lab and diagnostic imaging services at 14 community and neighborhood offices in western Pennsylvania. DLA Piper, a London-based law firm with offices in 40 countries, said on its website that email systems were down; a receptionist said email hadn't been restored by the close of business day.

Dave Kennedy, a former Marine cyberwarrior who is now CEO of the security company TrustedSec, said one U.S. company he is helping is rebuilding its entire network of more than 5,000 computers.



It hit everything, their backups, servers, their workstations, everything, he said. Everything was just nuked and wiped.

Kennedy added, Some of these companies are actually using pieces of paper to write down credit card numbers. It's crazy.

Some attacks are unreported

The cyber attack that began Tuesday brought even some Fortune 1000 companies to their knees, experts say. Kennedy said a lot more isn't being reported by companies who don't want to say that they are hit.

The malware, which security experts are calling NotPetya, was unleashed through Ukraine tax software, called MeDoc. Customers' networks became infected downloading automatic updates from its maker's website. Many customers are multinationals with offices in the eastern European nation.

The malware spread so quickly, worming its way automatically through interconnected private networks, as to be nearly unstoppable. What saved the world from digital mayhem, experts say, was its limited business-to-business connectivity with Ukrainian enterprises, the intended target.



Had those direct connections been extensive  on the level of a major industrial nation  you are talking about a catastrophic failure of all of our systems and environments across the globe. I mean it could have been absolutely terrifying, Kennedy said.

Microsoft said NotPetya hit companies in at least 64 nations, including Russia, Germany and the United States. Victims include drug giant Merck & Co. and the shipping company FedEx's TNT subsidiary. Trade in FedEx stock was temporarily halted Wednesday.

Danish shipping giant still struggling

One major victim, Danish shipping giant A.P. Maersk-Moller, said Friday that its cargo terminals and port operations were now running close to normal again. It said operations had been restored in Spain, Morocco, India, Brazil, Argentina and Lima, Peru, but problems lingered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Elizabeth, New Jersey; and Los Angeles.

An employee at an international transit company at Lima's port of Callao told The Associated Press that Maersk employees' telephone system and email had been knocked out by the virus  so they were stuck using their personal cellphones. The employee spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to reporters.

Back in Ukraine, the pain continued. Officials assured the public that the outbreak was under control, and service has been restored to cash machines and at the airport.

But some bank branches remain closed as information-technology professionals scrambled to rebuild networks from scratch. One government employee told the AP she was still relying on her iPhone because her office's computers were collapsed. She, too, was not authorized to talk to journalists.

Security researchers now concur that while NotPetya was wrapped in the guise of extortionate ransomware  which encrypts files and demands payment  it was really designed to exact maximum destruction and disruption, with Ukraine the clear target.

FBI joins investigation

Computers were disabled there at banks, government agencies, energy companies, supermarkets, railways and telecommunications providers.



Ukraine's government said Thursday that the FBI and Britain's National Crime Agency were assisting in its investigation of the malware.

Suspicion for the attack immediately fell on hackers affiliated with Russia, though there is no evidence tying Vladimir Putin's government to the attack.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been tense since Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Pro-Russian fighters still battle the government in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. intelligence agencies declined to comment about who might be responsible for the attack. The White House did not immediately respond to questions seeking its reaction to the attack.

Russian hackers blamed before



Experts have blamed pro-Russian hackers for major cyberattacks on the Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and 2016, assaults that have turned the eastern European nation into the world's leading cyber warfare testing ground.



A disruptive attack on the nation's voting system ahead of 2014 national elections is also attributed to Russia.

Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos Inc. and an expert on cyberattacks on infrastructure including Ukraine's power grid, said the rules of cyber espionage appear to be changing, with sophisticated actors  state-sponsored or not  violating what had been established norms of avoiding collateral damage.

Besides NotPetya, he pointed to the May ransomware dubbed WannaCry, a major cyberassault that some experts have blamed on North Korea.

I think it's absolutely reprehensive if we do not have national-level leaders come out and make very clear statements, he said, that this is not activity that can be condoned.
One of Dakar Fashion Weeks biggest events is free and high-end  a fashion show in a working class neighborhood. The events founder, Senegalese designer Adama Paris, says the Street Show is her favorite show of the week because she gets to take fashion back to the streets where it belongs.

Just across the street from where fast-moving public buses pause briefly to pick up passengers, Moussa Diouf lines up Nike, Adidas and Puma shoes on a short cement wall. The wall sits on one side of a makeshift catwalk in the Niary Tally neighborhood of Dakar, Senegal.

Across the flashy stage, Nicole Coly sells shiny fabrics by the meter in her small corner store. Lace is one of her top sellers right now, she says.

These fashion vendors flank a large catwalk set up for the 15th annual Dakar Fashion Weeks Street Show. In addition to their traditional fashion shows in high-class hotels, every year DFW holds a free fashion show in a working class neighborhood of Dakar.

In Photos:



This show is my favorite show, because were bringing back fashion to the streets, says Paris, a designer and Dakar Fashion Week founder. For the years coming, I want this show to become more popular because its important to inspire the young people and come to this street with high fashion. Fashion is from the streets, so basically what were doing is taking back fashion where it belongs.

Locals inspired

This fashion week show is open to the public, and 11 of the more than 30 designers from nine countries are participating to show off their new lines. A few meters away from the models rehearsing before the show, local tailor Al Hassane Diallo says he is looking forward to seeing new designs.

I am very inspired because I see what is new. I see something that I didnt know about before, Diallo says.

The 25-year-old tailor is just wrapping up one of his busiest seasons of the year, a few days after the end-of-Ramadan parties have quieted down.

Down the street from the tailor shop, Ramatoulaye, a 21-year-old communications student sits next to her grandmother while sporting stylish sunglasses.

I adore what Adama Paris does, she says of the Dakar Fashion Week founder and Senegalese designer. Shes a star.

Ramatoulayes friend, Marie Beye, chimes in: She could have chosen a nice hotel (for this fashion show), but she loves her country.

No cheap or little show

As the music starts, children line up in the front row and clap loudly for the different sartorial creations. The crowd dances along as golden-clad models sway down the runway in Paris golden, shiny dresses to the French rapper Maitre Gims song, Sapeur Comme Jamais (Dressed Like Never Before).

I dont want to do, just do a cheap or little show, Paris said of the Niary Tally fashion event. I just want to do just actually what were doing in fancy places.

Another designer comes out with funky dresses that highlight the colorful wax fabric so popular in West African streets, as models march down the runway, knees high, to the 1950s American song, Lollipop. This year there are 100 models walking in the street parade  more than any other year.

In its 15th year, DFW has grown from six designers its first year, to 36 this year from nine countries.

After this nights street parade, the catwalks of Dakar will move to an upper-crust hotel, but for this night, its Niary Tallys moment in the spotlight.
3 A wedding cake in rainbow colors and decorated with figurines of two women and two men is pictured in Berlin. The German parliament legalized same-sex marriage, days after Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would allow her conservative lawmakers to follow their conscience in the vote.
The separation of church and state was enshrined in Turkey's constitution by constitutional amendment in 1928. But the current government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received some criticism for eroding the country's historic commitment to secularism. The latest move by the government is to ban the teaching of evolution in high school. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports.
The interior ministers of France, Germany and Italy will meet in Paris Sunday to help Italy deal with masses of migrants arriving on its shores.

Italy is struggling to respond to the influx of tens of thousands of migrants and threatened earlier this week to close its ports to migrant rescue boats in order to force the vessels to go to other Mediterranean countries.

Officials say French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere and Italys Marco Minniti will meet European Union Commissioner for Refugees Dimitris Avramopoulos in Paris Sunday to discuss the situation.

Watch: EU Pledges Support as Italy Threatens to Close Ports Following Migrant Surge

Upsurge in migrants

So far this year, Italy has taken in 82,000 migrants as the country has become the main point of arrival to Europe for the mostly African migrants. In that same period, more than 2,000 migrants have died attempting to make the trip from North Africa.

A stretch of good weather and calm seas has led to more than 10,000 migrants being rescued off Italys coast since Sunday. At the current rate, and with months of good sailing weather ahead, the number of migrants heading toward Europe is on track to exceed the 200,000 who landed in Italy in 2016.

Unsustainable situation

In a letter to the European Commission, Italys ambassador to the EU, Maurizio Massari, said the situation has become unsustainable.

The EU Commission has backed Italys pleas for greater European solidarity and has urged other EU states to allow rescue boats to dock in their ports.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday the group will discuss further measures with Italy and Greece in the next week to help them tackle the influx.

Avramopoulos, the EU migration commissioner, also offered Italy his support this week.

Italy is under huge pressure and we are not going to leave this country alone, he said.

Other options

Legal experts say Italy is likely obligated to take the migrants under international refugee laws. However, they say Italy may be trying to force the European Union to implement a 2015 agreement for countries to share refugees across the bloc, a deal that has so far made little progress in being implemented.

Other EU nations have closed their borders to migrants, hoping to block them from moving north. Poland and Hungary have refused to host some asylum-seekers to help ease the burden on Italy and Greece, another front-line country.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has accused fellow EU nations of looking the other way and not doing enough to assist Italy with the surge in migrants.

Political ramifications

The influx in migrants this week prompted Minniti, the Italian interior minister, to cancel a trip to Washington in order to address the growing crisis, which is turning into a political issue for the countrys left-leaning coalition government. In municipal elections earlier this month, the coalition lost ground to center-right parties such as Matteo Salvinis Northern League, which has called for a stop to the invasion.

An intense debate is also centered around the role of international NGOs who fund boats to pick up the refugees. Some argue the groups are effectively aiding the human smugglers and allowing the trade to continue.

Migrant origins

The migrants are coming from the shores of Libya, which has become the main gateway to Europe for people from across sub-Saharan Africa, and also from the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Syria and Bangladesh.

Around 15 percent of the migrants arriving this year in Europe are Nigerian. Twelve percent are Bangladeshi; Guineans account for 10 percent, and 9 percent are Ivorians.
President Emmanuel Macron heads to Mali on Sunday to throw France's weight behind a new West African military force he hopes will lay the basis for an exit strategy for its own troops; but its prospects for success look slim.

Mali is hosting a heads of state summit with Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania - known as the G5 Sahel - who could ultimately deploy thousands of troops into the vast, arid Sahel region that remains a breeding ground for militants and traffickers that Paris considers a threat to Europe.

Four years after intervening in its former colony to ward off a jihadist offensive, there is no sign of France withdrawing its 4,000-strong regional Barkhane contingent as they, alongside 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers, struggle to stabilize Mali and implement peace accords.

"It's not wrong to say that it's part of an exit plan because the Barkhane mission is not intended to be there for ever, but it's hard to see how we could draw down soon," said a senior French diplomat. "We need a long-term multilateral strategy so that we're less exposed. The time of doing everything alone in West Africa is over."

The force endorsed by the U.N. aims to initially establish specially-trained units by the end of the year, which would work with French forces where jihadist groups are known to operate.

But it faces headwinds before it even becomes operational, with questions over financing, manpower and equipment.

"France had an exit strategy in mind when it spearheaded the new force and wanted as much multilateral funding as possible," said Vincent Rouget, West Africa analyst at Control Risks.

"They don't have the option that they had in CAR [Central African Republic] to just leave. The fact that Macron is in Bamako twice in a month really shows he is pushing his whole weight behind it."

Experts and officials question the merits of a mission that could muddy the picture in an area where there are already a plethora of military operations and there is a risk of diverting money away from local governance.

"By putting the emphasis on setting up a new autonomous force with 'mostly' external financing the risk is that it might distract from the absolute necessity of consolidating the states in all their dimensions," said Yabi Gilles, founder of WATHI, a citizen think tank of West Africa.

French officials insist that their efforts will not just focus on security aspects. Macron pledged in May to ensure unfulfilled development promises from Paris and the wider international community would materialize.

Reaching the Limit

But the real concern is that there will not be enough appetite to finance another regional military operation and that it could be hampered because interests and objectives are not aligned.

The neighboring multi-national joint task force (MNJTF) to fight Boko Haram, for example, has been complicated by divisions and a lack of cooperation. With the world's wealthy nations focused on the fight against Islamist militants in the Middle East, financial support for the MNJTF, has fallen short.

"Chad and Niger are already members of the MNJTF so a solid foundation has been laid; let us build on it instead of creating another layer and going begging for resources from the same donors," said an African security source. The G5 Sahel gives them [France] leverage over the heads of states who virtually depend on it for their security."

Those concerns were echoed by the United States when it watered down the French-backed Security Council resolution fearing that U.N. funding - as much as $800 million could be required - would be wasted and that bilateral financing would be more fruitful.

In response, France is lobbying for more European involvement beyond an initial 50 million euros and at some point might push for a donor conference. It will also have to dig into its own pocket despite its own budget constraints.

"We have always said that the security of the region should be done by Africans themselves," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Le Monde newspaper on June 29. "Barkhane will accompany them for as long as it takes... until the situation is pacified."

But where those thousands of efficient troops to replace Barkhane will come from is a mystery.

The G5 Sahel nations are already heavily committed, leading to speculation that Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger may simply re-hat some or all of their 4,100 soldiers now serving in the U.N. MINUSMA force in Mali, potentially undermining a mission that is already struggling.

"We have reached our limit. We can't continue to be everywhere," Chadian President Idriss Deby, whose troops are considered the most battle-hardened in the region, said in an interview to French media on Sunday. "Even if we had financing, Chad would be either in the G5 or MINUSMA. Choices will have to be made."
Chinese President Xi Jinping gave Hong Kong a stern warning Saturday as he oversaw the swearing in ceremony for the citys new leader, telling its residents that Beijing will not tolerate attempts to challenge its authority. The warning came even as Xi tried to adopt a softer tone in a speech at the gathering to mark 20 years since the former British colonys return to China.



"Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible," Xi said.



He did not say what actions might constitute a challenge to Beijings authority, but in recent years there has been growing frustration with what many see is Chinas stalling on promises to allow its leader to be directly elected. That has led to growing calls for democracy and even independence.



In his speech, Xi said that he was looking to the new administration in Hong Kong to heal the divide in society, create new opportunities and address economic and livelihood issues.



He acknowledged that the implementation of the one country, two systems model is facing challenges and that Hong Kong has yet to build a consensus on what he called some major political and legal issues.

Preempting consensus



For those who rallied in the streets on Saturday, it is not Hong Kong that lacks a consensus, but Beijing that is stopping that from happening.



Among those at the rally was one high school student, surnamed Hong. Marching together with others, both young and old, and holding a large black banner that read I want real universal suffrage, she said Xi Jinping knows what the Hong Kong citizens want, but he pretends to not understand.



The people of Hong Kong want freedom, we want [true] one country, two systems, but he has not kept his promises, she said.



At the rally, protesters had a wide range of demands from direct elections, to the rights of the handicapped and foreign immigrants. Many carried pictures or wore stickers calling for the unconditional release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.



Earlier this week, it was learned that Liu, who was serving an 11-year sentence for voicing his views about democracy and political reform, was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. He has been released on medical parole, but is still under tight control.



Under the one country, two systems model, that was key in negotiating Hong Kongs handover, the city was given the guarantee that it would continue to enjoy its already established freedoms of the press and speech as well as rule of law. Norms where China still lags far behind.

Growing divide



But some have grown frustrated with what they see is Beijings increasing meddling in Hong Kongs affairs. A massive influx of capital and workers from the mainland to the port city has had an impact on society from jobs and opportunities to skyrocketing housing prices.



Since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, the port citys economy has seen tremendous growth, but not all have benefited from the boom. Hong Kong has one of the worlds biggest gaps between rich and poor.



Hong Kongs new leader, Carrie Lam, who was pre-approved by Beijing, has been tasked with healing the citys divide and mistrust between the public and the government, both in China and at home. In a speech following her swearing in ceremony, Lam talked about bolstering education, even as she highlighted achievements Hong Kong has already made.



Lam said that plans are underway to give priority to nearly $700 million a year in extra funds for education. She also said that Hong Kong would promote the development of innovation technology and creative industries, something that several people we spoke with this week tell us is sorely needed.



Chinese education

Xis speech also touched on what he said was the need to enhance education and raise public awareness of the history and culture of the Chinese nation. He also talked about the need for the patriotic education of Hong Kongs young people.



Of those we spoke with at the rally, all were highly skeptical about the effort to teach Hong Kong residents Chinese history. Some also wondered how it was that China could be suggesting that Hong Kong learn more about history, given that many topics are still taboo to discuss on the mainland.



We have already overcome the [challenge] of discussing taboo subjects about Chinese history and now today they are talking about putting more Chinese history into our modules, but I dont believe what they are saying, said one protester named Job. They are just doing some brainwashing and want to spread their ideas.



One father, who joined the rally with his wife and was pushing his daughter in a stroller, said that Chinas calls for more Chinese education is a big concern, especially as his child would soon be going to primary school.



Chinas government is trying to control the education methods. They want to change our language. They prefer that we speak Mandarin, but from when we are born, we speak Cantonese and we are very uncomfortable about this, he said.


On Saturday, Hong Kong marked 20 years since the end of British colonial rule, when the Asian financial hub was handed back to mainland China.

The territory has seen tumultuous times since July 1, 1997, with economic turmoil, outbreaks of disease and more recently, pro-democracy protests casting shadows over the island, its stunning harbor and the New Territories up to the border with the mainland.

Hong Kongs reputation as a free-market haven was challenged during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, while the 2008 global financial crisis tested the health of its banks.

The city of 7.3 million people suffered badly during an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS as it is known, in 2003, when 299 people died from the flulike virus. It was also among the places hardest hit by bird flu.

A rush of money from mainland China vaulted Hong Kong into the ranks of the worlds most expensive property markets. It also fuelled public anger over high living costs and a widening wealth gap.

My priority will be to heal the divide and to ease the frustration  and to unite our society to move forward, Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam said in March after her selection by a 1,200-person election committee stacked with Beijing loyalists.

Chinese President Xi Jinping attended anniversary events on the island, including Lams swearing into office Saturday as the citys first female leader.

Lam, 60, is the territorys fourth leader since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

As part of the handover, a mini-constitution known as the Basic Law promised that Hong Kong would retain a high degree of autonomy under a one country, two systems formula, with full democracy an ultimate aim.

But two decades later, theres no sign of that aim.

China declined to make any concessions to student protesters demanding universal suffrage in Occupy street demonstrations in 2014. Frustration among democracy activists has simmered since.
3 A mourner wears a mask to ward off the SARS virus while attending a funeral in Hong Kong, May 22, 2003. Hong Kong was the hardest hit by the flulike SARS virus when the WHO declared a pandemic in March 2003. Tse Yuen-man, a 35-year-old doctor, received highest honors at her funeral.
A central Illinois man was charged Friday with kidnapping in the disappearance of a visiting Chinese scholar who authorities believe to be dead after last being seen three weeks ago, and a federal criminal complaint alleges the suspects phone was used to visit an online forum in April called Abduction 101.



Yingying Zhang, the daughter of a working-class factory driver from China, disappeared June 9, just weeks after arriving at the University of Illinois where she was pursuing studies in agriculture sciences.



Federal authorities say Brendt Christensen, who turned 28 Friday, of Champaign, Illinois, is charged in a criminal complaint with abducting Zhang shortly after she stepped off a bus near the university campus. Video shows her getting into the front seat of a black Saturn Astra.

According to the 10-page affidavit filed in federal court by FBI Special Agent Anthony Manganaro, Christensen was under surveillance Thursday when agents overheard him explaining he kidnapped Zhang. Authorities say based on that and other facts uncovered during the investigation, agents believe Zhang is no longer alive.



Asked Friday night if authorities had any leads on where Zhangs body might be located, the spokesman for the FBI Springfield office, Bradley Ware, declined comment.

University statement



Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement the campus community is saddened by the news Zhang is believed dead.



This is a senseless and devastating loss of a promising young woman and a member of our community, Jones said. There is nothing we can do to ease the sadness or grief for her family and friends, but we can and we will come together to support them in any way we can in these difficult days ahead.



The federal charging document says one of the threads on the forum that Christensens smartphone visited online in April  months before Zhang went missing  was entitled, Perfect abduction fantasy. Another was about planning a kidnapping.



According to Manganaros affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Champaign, investigators determined there were 18 vehicles similar to the one Zhang got in that were registered in Champaign County.



The vehicle belonging to Christensen was first observed June 12 in an apartment complex parking lot, and investigators questioned him. The affidavit stated that investigators noted Christensen couldnt recall what he was doing on the day Zhang disappeared. They searched the vehicle but didnt remove anything.



Investigators later determined the car in the video had a sunroof and cracked hubcap, like the vehicle belonging to Christensen, according to the affidavit. When investigators interviewed Christensen again, he admitted to driving around the University of Illinois campus and giving a ride to an Asian woman who said she was late for an appointment.



Christensen said the woman panicked after he apparently made a wrong turn and he let her out in a residential area.



Christensen was placed under continuous surveillance June 16, and on June 29 he was captured on an audio recording explaining how he took Zhang to his apartment and held her against her will. The affidavit says the woman remains missing.

Thousands of Chinese students



Some 5,600 Chinese enrolled at the University of Illinois, more than at any U.S. college, according to government data. There are more than 300,000 Chinese students in the U.S. in all. Some parents in China wondered if Zhangs disappearance meant it wasnt safe to send their children to the United States.



Those who knew Zhang described her as bright and outgoing. Zhangs boyfriend has said she was also cautious and wouldnt normally get into a car with a stranger unless duped or forced.



Zhang graduated last year with a masters degree in environmental engineering from one of Chinas elite schools, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. She had been doing research on crop photosynthesis, which included using drones to study fields, the universitys communications office has said.
India early on Saturday introduced its biggest tax reform in the 70 years since independence from British colonial rule.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) replaces more than a dozen federal and state levies and unifying a $2 trillion economy and 1.3 billion people into one of the world's biggest common markets.

The measure is expected to make it easier to do business by simplifying the tax structure and ensuring greater compliance, boosting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic credentials before a planned re-election bid in 2019.

At a midnight ceremony in parliament's central hall Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee together launched the new tax by pressing a button.

"With GST, the dream of 'One India, Great India' will come true," Modi said.

For the first midnight ceremony in the central hall in two decades, Modi was joined by his cabinet colleagues, India's central bank chief, a former prime minister and major company executives including Ratan Tata.

The launch, however, was boycotted by several opposition parties including the Congress Party, which first proposed the tax reform before it fell from power three years ago.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - the architect of India's economic reforms - also gave it a miss.

Complex Structure

It has taken 14 years for the new sales tax to come into being. But horse trading to get recalcitrant Indian states on board has left Asia's third-largest economy with a complex tax structure.

In contrast to simpler sales taxes in other countries, India's GST has four rates and numerous exemptions.

The official schedule of rates runs to 213 pages and has undergone repeated changes, some taking place as late as on Friday evening.

Many businesses are nervous about how the changes will unfold, with smaller ones saying they will get hit by higher tax rates.

Adding to the complexity, businesses with pan-India operations face filing over 1,000 digital returns a year.

While higher tax rates for services and non-food items are expected to fuel price pressures, compliance is feared to be a major challenge in a country where many entrepreneurs are not computer literate and rely on handwritten ledgers.

"We have jumped into a river but don't know its depth," said A. Subba Rao, an executive director at power firm CLP India.

'One Tax, One Market, One Nation'

Poor implementation would deal a blow to an economy that is still recovering from Modi's decision late last year to outlaw 86 percent of the currency in circulation.

In a bid to mitigate the impact on the farm sector, the GST rates for tractors and fertilizer were slashed on Friday to 18 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

HSBC estimates the reform, despite its flaws, could add 0.4 percentage points to economic growth.

An end of tax arbitrage under the GST is estimated to save companies $14 billion in reduced logistics costs and efficiency gains.

As the GST is a value added tax, firms will have an incentive to comply in order to avail credit for taxes already paid. This should widen the tax net, shoring up public finances.

"The old India was economically fragmented," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. "The new India will create one tax, one market for one nation."
Faced with a series of terror attacks, Pakistan is fighting back against Islamic State-affiliated militants after repeatedly claiming that Islamic State has been unable to establish a foothold in the country, analysts say.

"Pakistan no longer denies ISs presence as it used to, Michael Kugelman, deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at Wilson Center in Washington, told VOA.

He and other analysts warn that the IS group in Pakistan, while still relatively small, is spreading swiftly in many areas where the government struggles to maintain law and order, including the restive Balochistan province.

Earlier this month, officials claimed that a military operation destroyed an IS stronghold in the southwestern province, killing 12 hardcore terrorists.

The operation took place days after a Chinese couple was abducted and killed by IS operatives in Quetta, the provincial capital.

In May, a suicide bomber killed at least 25 people in a caravan of a prominent politician in Balochistan. IS claimed responsibility.

Poverty

While Balochistan is Pakistans largest province by size, it also is wracked by poverty, creating fertile breeding grounds among the disenfranchised.

Islamic State is an international phenomenon and the name of an ideology, and anyone can get impressed by that ideology, Abdul Qayyum, a lawmaker and prominent member of the ruling PML-N party, told VOA.

But the Frontier Corps Balochistan and Pakistan Army are doing a commendable job to overcome such security obstacles in the province, he said.

But with so many groups active in the region, its a tough task, analysts say.

Islamic State is trying to establish a territorial presence through its terror allies such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister for Balochistan, told VOA recently. But these groups should not be mistaken for Islamic State.

Pakistan said Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a predominantly Punjab-based militant sectarian group that has been tied to the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaida, and recently linked to IS, had occupied the base that was used as an IS foothold until it was destroyed in the military operation earlier this month.

Pakistani authorities believe LeJ pledged allegiance to IS to help the group establish a base in Pakistan, and that it also wanted to carry out terror attacks on its behalf.

Pakistan has an environment that encourages and enhances the prospects of terror groups, because the presence of other terror groups and their facilities presents an enabling environment for extremism overall, said Kugelman.

Islamic States influence is not limited to Balochistan.

Emerging threat

In 2016, Aftab Sultan, Pakistans Intelligence Bureau Chief, warned that IS was an emerging threat in the country and that hundreds of Pakistanis linked to local banned religious groups had left for Syria to join IS ranks there.

Last week, at least two alleged IS leaders in Pakistan, including its Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief, were killed in a gun battle with security forces in Peshawar. Police said they were planning to carry out an Eid attack.

In May, Pakistani authorities arrested five suspected IS operatives from Karachi who were planning terrorist attacks in the city. Last year, Pakistani authorities found a group of women from Karachi that was raising funds for IS.

Scores of suspected IS militants and operatives have been arrested in recent raids across Pakistan in the recent past. Many of them went to Syria for training before returning to Pakistan.

Noreen Laghari, a young woman from Lahore arrested in April, was planning to target an Easter gathering  and had gone to Syria to get trained by the IS.

The government says it is aware of the gravity of the matter and how IS is luring youth, working to establish a foothold in Pakistan. It has beefed up security measures in Balochistan to combat groups like IS.

Pakistan has come under frequent criticism from U.S. officials over its inability to curb homegrown militancy and extremism in the county.

In its defense, Pakistan says the government is determined to root out extremism from the country, and it has done a lot to address the issue of terrorism and extremism in the country.

Islamic State has made inroads recently in the mountain regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, branding itself as the Islamic State of Khorasan, a title that distinguishes the militant group in that area from its main branch in Iraq and Syria.
The leader of a prominent Kashmir rebel group has rejected U.S. sanctions and vowed to continue fighting until the disputed Himalayan region is liberated from India.

Syed Salahuddin, who operates from the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, said at a news conference Saturday that Washingtons decision will not impact activities of his Hizbul Mujahideen, the main militant organization fighting New Delhis rule in the divided territory.

The State Department on Monday (June 26) designated the 71-year-old militant commander as a global terrorist. The action came hours before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his official U.S. visit.

This announcement has been made in violation of international laws and [United Nations] resolutions. This is an attempt by the Trump administration to appease Narendra Modi, Salahuddin said.

He went on to say that freedom fighters only target Indian security forces and have not conducted any operations outside Kashmir.

This [U.S. decision], God willing, has strengthened our resolve and we will continue our struggle with more energy, Salahuddin asserted.



He added that American representatives, in their speeches at U.N. meetings, repeatedly acknowledged Kashmiris struggle for "freedom" and did not endorse what President Donald Trump has done.

The rebel chief vowed to legally counter the U.S. decision and urged Pakistan to declare a diplomatic offensive against nefarious Indian designs of trying to link the freedom movement in Kashmir to terrorism. He added that terrorist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida do not exist in Kashmir nor will they have any place there.

The State Department, in its announcement, said that the militant commander committed, or poses "a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States."

It went on to say that in September 2016, Salahuddin vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir valley into a graveyard for Indian forces.

Saturday Salahuddin again called for the United Nations to implement its longstanding resolutions to allow Kashmiris to exercise their right to vote on independence or merging with Pakistan.

Islamabad also has criticized the United States for declaring Salahuddin a global terrorist and defended militants fighting New Delhis rule in Kashmir as a legitimate struggle for freedom.

"The 70-year-old indigenous struggle of Kashmiris in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir remains legitimate. The designation of individuals supporting the Kashmiri right to self-determination as terrorists is completely unjustified, according to the Pakistani foreign ministry.

New Delhi, which hailed Mondays decision by Washington, accuses Islamabad of fueling the 28-year-old armed rebellion in the Muslim-majority Kashmir, accusations Pakistan rejects.

India controls two-thirds of Kashmir while Pakistan controls the rest. The nuclear-armed rivals claim the Himalayan region in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over it.

Salahuddin on Monday called for a week of resistance, including two days of strikes starting July 8, the anniversary of last years killing of young rebel leader Burhan Wani by Indian security forces.

Wani's death provoked violent anti-India protests across the region, prompting Indian security forces to use force to suppress the uprising. The slain commander was a key member of Salahuddins group and is credited with reinvigorating the recent wave of militancy in Kashmir.

Ekram Shinwari in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.
With the Islamic State (IS) militant group on the verge of defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul and surrounded by counter-Islamic State forces in the Syrian city of Raqqa, one question looms  where will the next major battle be?

Many U.S. military officials point to the Euphrates River Valley, namely Deir Ezzor province in Syria, and the area around the city of al-Qaim in Iraq. Those areas are not heavily populated like Mosul or Raqqa, but the fight could still prove incredibly difficult as multiple counter-Islamic State forces, with entirely different political agendas, converge on the region.

The counter-IS coalition has seen a steady stream of the terror groups leaders try to move into swaths of the Euphrates River Valley, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Ryan Dillon said Thursday. The last five coalition strikes targeting high-level IS leaders were conducted in the Muyadin and Abu Kamal areas of Deir Ezzor province.

Dillon would not say, however, whether the area has become the new center of the so-called Islamic State caliphate.

There is no hub anymore, he told reporters. They are on the run, and we will not allow them to regroup and catch their breath.

Training opposition groups

U.S. Central Command spokesman Major Josh Jacques told VOA the United States has been training two vetted Syrian opposition groups to fight IS in southeastern Syria.

Those two Syrian tribal groups are Maghawir al-Thawra (MaT) and Shohada al-Quartayn (ShQ), whose homelands include the Qalamoun Mountain region, the Euphrates River Valley and the Hamad desert, which stretches from the Jordan border north along the Iraqi border to the Euphrates River.

Both groups are supported under Section 1209 of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Action. In addition to first aid, clearing and marksmanship training, the coalition has provided MaT and ShQ with small arms, land navigation tools and medical supplies.

I wont go into specifics for operational security reasons, but the coalitions two southern Syrian partner forces currently comprise a few hundred fighters. More are being recruited every day to help in the fight against ISIS, Jacques told VOA, using an acronym for the militant group.

He added, Vetted Syrian opposition groups all swear an oath to fight only ISIS, uphold the law of armed conflict, and respect human rights.

But that oath to fight only IS could prove problematic for the future of Syrias lower Euphrates River Valley.

Some members of these two groups are Syrian army defectors who have no interest in working with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Tanf army base

Meanwhile, Iranian-directed, pro-Syrian forces have positioned themselves between the al-Tanf army base, where the coalition is training Maghawir al-Thawra and Shohada al-Quartayn fighters to defeat Islamic State, and IS-held territory in the Euphrates River Valley.

I think that the only way to get to [the Deir Ezzor provincial city of] Abu Kamal right now, if that were something that was even on the table, it would have to be from a different direction or different location, coalition spokesman Dillon told reporters recently.

Michael OHanlon, a senior defense fellow at Washington-based Brookings Institution, said the U.S. and Iran are now in direct competition for certain access points inside eastern Syria.

We dont necessarily want that for ourselves, but we dont want it for Iran, OHanlon said.

Iranian leaders sense an opportunity to create a continuous land bridge that would span from Iran to the Mediterranean, and the Syrian government wants to retake the oil-rich lands in Deir Ezzor province.

Dillon and other military officials have said the United States would welcome pro-Syrian forces moving in to defeat Islamic State in Deir Ezzor province and would deal with any necessary military conflicts at a later date.

Right now the focus is on Raqqa, and well have to see what happens after Raqqa and where there are still ISIS fighters that remain, Dillon said.

But OHanlon said the United States does not need to issue open invitations to Assad to be anywhere in eastern Syrian, because Assad is an illegitimate leader who has lost the faith of many inside Syria.

The Sunni populations are not going to tolerate Assads regime being in control of an area like Raqqa or Deir Ezzor, so if its Assad who liberates it, or if its Assads allies ... its just going to be a guarantee of a Sunni attack down the road, OHanlon said.
New Zealand is giving $1 million in aid to help clear landmines in Colombia, one of the most mine-scarred countries in the world after a half century of war, officials said on Friday.

Most of the funds will go to a two-year program by the British-based Halo Trust, a demining group, said New Zealand's foreign minister, Gerry Brownlee, in a statement.

The balance will go to the United Nations in support of mine clearance in Colombia.

Getting rid of mines is seen as critical for the South American nation of mountains and jungles to recover from its civil war, allowing for rural development and for millions of displaced people to return home safely.

"More than 50 years of conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government has left the country heavily littered with mines, posing significant safety risk for its citizens," said Brownlee, who was in Colombia attending the Pacific Alliance summit.

Colombia's FARC rebels handed over all their weapons this week to the U.N. as part of a peace deal signed last year with the government.

The move helps pave the way to expand mine clearance as security improves in areas once under rebel control.

"Colombia's historic peace agreement has seen about 200 new municipalities become eligible for demining assistance but this requires a substantial increase in resources," Brownlee said.

After Cambodia and Afghanistan, Colombia has had the third highest number of landmine casualties, with more than 11,000 people killed or injured by landmines since 1990, government figures show.

Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, this year pledged to make the country free of mines by 2021.
Former U.S. president Barack Obama has returned to Jakarta, the Indonesian city that he called home for part of his childhood, to deliver the keynote speech at the fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora.

Obama drew parallels between the two diverse, multiethnic nations of the United States and Indonesia, and called on young people to fight for democracy.

He spoke at length on the values of pluralism, tolerance, and religious diversity. His remarks are likely to resonate in Jakarta, a city that has been shaken over the past year by a contentious gubernatorial election.

The conference he spoke at was staged Saturday to unite people of Indonesian heritage from all over the world. There were Indonesian diaspora from 55 countries, according to organizers.

Call for tolerance

After reminiscing about his childhood years in Jakartas Menteng Dalam neighborhood, and sharing his favorite local foods that he tasted on his family vacation, Obama spoke on the value of diversity in both the United States and Indonesia. Without mentioning the Jakarta election or the last American presidential election, Obama denounced sectarian politics.

We start seeing a rise in sectarian politics, we start seeing a rise in an aggressive kind of nationalism, we start seeing both in developed and developing countries, an increased resentment about minority groups, and the bad treatment of people who dont look like us or practice the same faith as us.

Obama praised the religious diversity he had seen on his Indonesia vacation, where he visited Hindu and Buddhist temples that were protected and cherished in the worlds largest Muslim country. That tolerance, he told the crowd of more than 3,000, is special, and worth fighting for.

I believe, by the way, that if you are strong in your own faith, that you should not be worried about someone elses faith, he said, to loud applause.

He also affirmed his support for a market-based liberal economy in both America and Indonesia, and he said that globalization likely would be a positive force in developing Asian countries. But he acknowledged that there are losers to globalization, and it will be important to keep in mind how governments can serve such citizens, as well.

We cant put technology back in the box what we can do is create social arrangements to guarantee that everyone gets a good education. We can make sure that workers get decent wages, said Obama.

Diaspora Investment

The forum was organized by former Indonesian ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal, who hopes to forge a diaspora identity for overseas Indonesians similar to that of overseas Chinese and Indians, whose assets played large roles in the latter countries economic booms of the last two decades.

Indonesians who work abroad sent home $10.5 billion in remittances in 2015  the 14th largest amount in the world. The worlds largest remittance destination was India, which received $72.2 billion that same year.

Dont think of diaspora as brain drain, said Djalal, but rather as a global network. He gave the example of one Indonesian-American engineer in attendance, Sehat Sutardja, who has registered more patents under his name than exist in all of Indonesia.

It remains to be seen whether the effort will have an impact on federal policy towards overseas Indonesians. Indonesia still does not allow dual citizenship with any country, which is the topic of a panel at the Diaspora Forum.

The government could probably do a better job listening to the concerns of diaspora, said Wayne Forrest, president of the American-Indonesian Chamber of Commerce. Some countries like, India and Kenya, have created savings bonds specifically for their diaspora. But Forrest didnt think that was in the cards for Indonesia. I cant see the Indonesian government carving out a pathway with different rules for overseas Indonesians to invest in their country, he said.

Advice for Indonesia

Obama also spoke about climate change and health care, two areas where the United States has struggled to find a policy consensus, and he advised Indonesia to try and learn from its mistakes.

He expressed regret that the United States has withdrawn from the Paris climate accord since he left office, but said he hoped it was an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, will still give our children a fighting chance.

The former president also counseled Indonesia to invest in public infrastructure and health care while it is still developing. America, he told the audience, was one of the few developed countries that did create universal healthcare in the mid-20th century, and it is proving difficult to do so now.

When the economy grows, [public goods like healthcare] grow with it, he said.

Finally, he gave some personal advice from his eight-year presidency for anyone pursuing a long-term goal.

I wasn't worried about what was in the newspapers today," Obama said, when asked about his reputation for remaining calm under pressure. "What I was worried about was, What are they going to write about me 20 years from now when I look back?"
The Trump administration said Friday that it would begin arresting parents and other relatives who hire smugglers to bring their children into the U.S., a move that sent a shudder through immigrant communities nationwide.

The new "surge initiative" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement marked the latest get-tough approach to immigration by the federal government since President Donald Trump took office. The government says the effort aims to break up human smuggling operations, including arresting people who pay coyotes to get children across the U.S. border.

That marks a sharp departure from policies in place under President Barack Obama's administration, during which time tens of thousands of young people fleeing spiraling gang and drug violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador crossed the border. The children are then placed with "sponsors"  typically parents, close relatives or family friends  who care for the minors while they attend school and their cases go through the immigration court system.

The government now says it plans to arrest the sponsors.

'Illicit pathways'

"ICE aims to disrupt and dismantle, end to end, the illicit pathways used by transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling facilitators," agency spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez said. "The sponsors who have placed children directly into harm's way by entrusting them to violent criminal organizations will be held accountable."

Officials did not respond to questions Friday seeking details on the number of sponsors who would be targeted or already had been arrested, or what charges would be applied. Immigrant advocacy groups said they were investigating a dozen arrests or investigations in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia.

Elsy Segovia, an immigration attorney in Newark, New Jersey, said armed agents visited her client Wednesday under the guise of checking something with his Social Security number, then announced he was being investigated for smuggling his 16-year-old nephew from El Salvador. The teen had crossed the border in Arizona last week.

"They coerced him into giving over his phone, and they said, 'If you don't tell the truth, we will take away your temporary protected status,' " Segovia said, referring to a program that has allowed many Salvadorans to legally live in the U.S. "He is very, very worried."

The man's nephew had been fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, and the agents told him they knew he had wired money to smugglers to get his relative to the U.S., Segovia said.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said that as a matter of policy, the agency could not comment on an ongoing law enforcement action.

'Unimaginably cruel'

"Arresting those who come forward to sponsor unaccompanied children during their immigration proceedings, often parents, is unimaginably cruel," said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, a nonprofit that has matched thousands of unaccompanied minors with attorneys in the last eight years. "Without caregivers to come forward, many of these children will languish in costly detention centers or be placed in foster care at great expense to states."

Immigration enforcement was a centerpiece of Trump's presidential run, and he has sought to carry through on his campaign promises by cracking down on people in the country illegally. He has vowed to build a wall on the U.S-Mexico border and go after "sanctuary cities" that enact favorable policies toward immigrants, while emboldening ICE to arrest more people.

At the Annunciation House shelter in El Paso, at the westernmost point of Texas' border with Mexico, director Ruben Garcia said more families are beginning to arrive after a big decline in numbers in recent months. The Trump administration had sought to take credit for that decline, saying its policies and Trump's signature promise to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall were keeping people away.

"To zero [in] on, 'You smuggled so and so, and so you contributed $3,000 to the cartels,' and to try to isolate the discussion that way, is pretty disingenuous," Garcia said. "If we really cared anything about the impact of some of these policies and some of these practices, then we would be much more engaged in how do we solve this."

Children whose sponsors were arrested would be placed with another verified relative or guardian, or under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the federal agency that takes custody of unaccompanied minors, Rodriguez said.

170,000 minors

Since October 2013, nearly 170,000 unaccompanied minors have been placed with sponsors in all 50 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and many are still awaiting their day in court, according to federal data. ICE officials said they were intervening after three incidents in Texas in recent years in which unaccompanied minors had been injured, sexually assaulted or locked into semitrailers.

Last year, an Associated Press investigation and a bipartisan congressional probe found that the agency's own inadequate screening had endangered more than two dozen migrant youths in the government's care, including six Guatemalan minors who were placed with traffickers and forced to work on egg farms. The office later made numerous internal changes to strengthen its safeguards, but the program again came under fire recently after some unaccompanied minors were recruited by gangs in the U.S.

Leon Fresco, a former Obama administration Justice Department official, said Trump's recent move most likely would be challenged in court, given limits on the amount of time children can be detained.

"This sends a signal to young people who would cross the border not to cross, or your relatives will be placed in removal proceedings," said Fresco. "This is a policy change to say a minor is no longer to be treated as a person worthy of our sympathy, but instead to be treated as another unlawful entrant whose entrance must deterred at all costs."
Qatar says it doesn't fear any military retaliation for refusing to meet a Monday deadline to comply with a list of demands from four Arab states that have imposed a de-facto blockade on the Gulf nation.

During a visit Saturday to Rome, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani again rejected the demands as an infringement on Qatar's sovereignty. He allowed that any country is free to raise grievances with Qatar, provided they have proof, but said any such conflicts should be worked out through negotiation, not by imposing ultimatums.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties with Qatar earlier this month and shut down land, sea and air links. They accuse Qatar of supporting regional terror groups, a charge Qatar denies.
Churches should have the First Amendment right to endorse political candidates and still keep their tax-free status, say House Republicans, who quietly tucked a provision into a sweeping spending bill that would deny the IRS money to enforce the 63-year-old law prohibiting such outright politicking from the pulpit.

Republicans repeatedly have failed to scrap the law preventing churches and other nonprofits from backing candidates, so now they are trying to starve it. With little fanfare, a House Appropriations subcommittee added the Internal Revenue Service measure to a bill to fund the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies.

The subcommittee passed the bill Thursday.

Republicans say the law is enforced unevenly, leaving religious leaders uncertain about what they are allowed to say and do.

"I believe that churches have a right of free speech and an opportunity to talk about positions and issues that are relevant to their faith," said Representative Jim Renacci, an Ohio Republican.

Some Democrats say the measure comes too close to mixing church and state. They say religious leaders already have First Amendment rights, just like anyone else. But if they want to get political, they don't have a constitutional right not to pay taxes.

Some also worry that the measure could upend the system of campaign financing by allowing churches to use their tax-free status to funnel money to political candidates.

Representative Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, recalled a speech that former President John F. Kennedy gave to religious leaders when he was running for president.

"He said the pope wouldn't tell him what to do, and the people in that audience shouldn't be telling people on Sunday morning who to vote for," Neal said. "I don't think churches should be endorsing."

Many nonprofit groups want to avoid politics. In April, 4,500 nonprofit groups signed a letter to congressional leaders asking them to preserve the law.

The law prohibits tax-exempt charitable organizations such as churches from participating directly or indirectly in any political campaign to support or oppose a candidate. If the IRS determines that a group has violated the law, it can revoke its tax-exempt status.

The law doesn't stop religious groups from weighing in on public policy or organizing in ways that may benefit one side in a campaign.

The bill specifically forbids the IRS from spending money to enforce the law against "a church, or a convention or association of churches," unless the IRS commissioner signs off on it and notifies Congress.

The bill doesn't mention other types of nonprofit groups, or even synagogues or mosques, said Nick Little of the Center for Inquiry, which promotes secularism.

"All they care about is the Christian groups, and in particular, it will end up as the extreme religious right Christian groups," Little said. "If this goes through, this would add just another way in which unregulated dark money could be used."

Religious leaders have been weighing in on political issues for generations, whether it's the debate over abortion or advocating for the poor. But periodically, the IRS has stepped in when religious leaders explicitly endorse or oppose candidates.

The law is called the Johnson Amendment after former President Lyndon Johnson, who introduced it in 1954 when he was a Democratic senator from Texas. Johnson was upset because a few nonprofit groups attacked him as a communist in a Senate campaign.

The law was signed by a Republican president  Dwight Eisenhower  but Republicans have been attacking it in recent years.

House Republicans have pledged to repeal the law as part of a tax overhaul. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May discouraging the IRS from enforcing the law.

Representative Pat Tiberi, an Ohio Republican, says the law has been enforced unevenly.

"Some churches, including my own, have been very concerned about appearing political in any way shape or form," Tiberi said. "Churches I went to that were primarily in Democrat areas, that I would go to because I had a Democrat district, the local candidates on the Sunday mornings before the election would be introduced, would speak from the pulpit about the campaign and why the congregation should vote for them."

The full Appropriations Committee will consider the measure after the July Fourth congressional recess.
The state-by-state responses to a request for detailed voter data from President Donald Trumps Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which is investigating whether there was voter fraud in last years election.

ALABAMA: Undecided

Secretary of State John Merrill said he has questions about security and other issues. He wants those answered before turning over any information. He declined to detail the other issues.

ALASKA: Partial

Division of Elections Director Josie Bahnke says she will respond to it as she would to any request for voter information. Some information, she said, can be provided, such as voter names, voting histories and party affiliations. But other information is considered confidential and would not be provided.

ARKANSAS: Undecided

Chris Powell, a spokesman from the secretary of states office, said the office had not yet received the letter and did not have a comment on the request.

CALIFORNIA: Deny

Californias participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud, Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said in a statement.

COLORADO: Partial

Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, said he will provide some of the requested information. State law prohibits releasing Social Security numbers, drivers license numbers or dates of birth.

CONNECTICUT: Partial

Connecticuts secretary of state says her office plans to comply in part. Denise Merrill says in the spirit of transparency the state will share publicly available information. She says the state will ensure the privacy of voters is honored by withholding protected data.

DELAWARE: Undecided

The elections commissioner hasnt received the letter, which may have gone to the secretary of state. The commissioner says state law would not allow release of birth dates or any part of Social Security numbers.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Deny

The best thing I can do to instill confidence among DC residents in our elections is to protect their personally identifiable information from the Commission on Election Integrity. Its request for voter information, such as Social Security numbers, serves no legitimate purpose and only raises questions on its intent. I will join leaders of states around the country and work with our partners on the Council to protect our residents from this intrusion, Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement.

FLORIDA: Undecided

Sarah Revell, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Ken Detzner, said the state was reviewing the request but did not provide any additional information.

GEORGIA: Partial

The Georgia Secretary of States office will provide the publicly available voter list. As specified in Georgia law, the public list does not contain a registered voters drivers license number, Social Security number, month and day of birth, site of voter registration, phone number or email address.

HAWAII: Undecided

Hawaii hasnt received the request, said Nedielyn Bueno, voter services section head.

IDAHO: Undecided

State Election Director Betsie Kimbrough said the office will fulfill the request if Secretary of State Lawerence Denney, a Republican, determines it complies with state public records law. The state allows handing over voter registration records that include voting history, but not Social Security numbers or dates of birth.

ILLINOIS: Undecided

Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Ken Menzel said the office has not yet received the letter. Once its received, they will review the request and decide how to proceed. However, Menzel noted that Illinois election code has provisions that limit which entities may receive voter information and what type of information can be released.

INDIANA: Partial

Indiana law doesnt permit the Secretary of State to provide the personal information requested by Secretary Kobach. Under Indiana public records laws, certain voter info is available to the public, the media and any other person who requested the information for non-commercial purposes. The information publicly available is name, address and congressional district assignment, Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said in a statement.

IOWA: Partial

State from Secretary of State Paul Pate: My office received a letter from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity late Wednesday and has not yet responded to it. There is a formal process for requesting a list of registered voters, as specified in Iowa Code. We will follow that process if a request is made that complies with Iowa law. The official list request form is available on the Iowa Secretary of States website, sos.iowa.gov. Some voter registration information is a matter of public record. However, providing personal voter information, such as Social Security numbers, is forbidden under Iowa Code. We will only share information that is publicly available and complies with Iowa Code. I am attending a national meeting of Secretaries of State next week, where the Commissions letter will likely be discussed.

KANSAS: Partial

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is vice chairman of the commission, but even his office does plan to provide the last four digits of Social Security numbers because that information is not available to the public under Kansas law, spokeswoman Samantha Poetter said. All information that is publicly available will be provided.

KENTUCKY: Deny

As the commonwealths secretary of state and chief election official, I do not intend to release Kentuckians sensitive personal data to the federal government, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said in a statement. The president created his election commission based on the false notion that voter fraud is a widespread issue. It is not.

LOUISIANA: Undecided

We have received the letter and are reviewing with staff and our attorneys to determine our response, said Meg Casper Sunstrom, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Tom Schedler. Our priority, as weve demonstrated in the past, will always be to protect voters protected, personal information. This includes Social Security numbers, mothers maiden name and date of birth. As you know, voter lists are publicly available by law but only include limited information including name, address and voter history. Voter history is not how a voter cast their ballot; its whether they participated. Sunstrom said Louisiana law prohibits the release of Social Security numbers.

MAINE: Undecided

Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said he is reviewing with the attorney generals office whether to comply with the request.

MARYLAND: Undecided

Maryland State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone said she has asked the state attorney generals office for an opinion on how the board should respond. She received the letter Friday, after it was forwarded to her by the Maryland secretary of states office.

MASSACHUSETTS: Deny

A spokesman for Secretary of State William Galvin said the states voter registry is not a public record, and information in it will not be shared with the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

MICHIGAN: Undecided

A spokesman for Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said the department had not yet received the request and would review it if it does. Fred Woodhams said voter lists are public record under state law, and the department has no authority to deny voter data. It is common for political parties and candidates to obtain voter information, he said. The department will provide voter information consistent with state law but will not provide info protected by state law. He noted that voter info is readily available in many states for a nominal fee.

MINNESOTA: Deny

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, announced Friday he would not share the data with Trumps commission.

MISSISSIPPI: Deny

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said in a statement Friday that he had not received the request for information from the Trump commission, but another secretary of state had forwarded the correspondence to him. In a federal court case after a contentious U.S. Senate primary in Mississippi in 2014, a group called True the Vote sued Mississippi seeking similar information about voters, and Hosemann fought that request and won. Hosemann said if he receives a request from the Trump commission, My reply would be: They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from. Hosemann also said: Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our states right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes.

MISSOURI: Partial

In Missouri, Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said he is happy to offer our support in the collective effort to enhance the American peoples confidence in the integrity of the system. On Friday, Ashcroft spokeswoman Maura Browning said the state is providing only publicly available information. She said that means no Social Security numbers, no political affiliations and no details on how people voted.

NEBRASKA: Undecided

A spokeswoman for the secretary of state said its not clear whether the request has been received.

NEVADA: Partial

Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske says her office will provide public information only, but not Social Security numbers or how people voted. The state will turn over voter names, addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, party affiliation and turnout.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Partial

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, a member of the Trump commission, said his office will provide public information: names, addresses, party affiliations and voting history dating to 2006. Voting history includes whether someone voted in a general election and which partys primary they voted in.

NEW JERSEY: Undecided

No response from spokeswoman for the Division of Elections.

NEW MEXICO: Deny

Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse-Oliver says she will never release personally identifiable information for New Mexico voters that is protected by law, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth. She also declined to provide information such as names and voting histories unless she is convinced the information is secured and will not be used for nefarious or unlawful purposes.

NEW YORK: Deny

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday his decision not to comply with the commissions request for information. He said state laws include safeguards to protect sensitive voting information and that the state refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election.

NORTH CAROLINA: Partial

North Carolinas elections board will provide voter data requested this week by President Donald Trumps commission investigating alleged voter fraud. But the records will not include personal information deemed confidential in state law, including dates of birth and Social Security numbers.

NORTH DAKOTA: Partial

North Dakota, the only state that does not have voter registration, does require identification at the polls and does have a central database of voters, compiled with the help of state Transportation Department records and county auditors. However, the information can be used only for election-related purposes under state law, such as compiling poll books for elections. We certainly cant comply with that part of the request, but we are going to submit a response, Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum said.

OHIO: Partial

Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said Friday he will not turn over the last four digits of voters Social Security numbers or their drivers license numbers to Trumps commission. Confidential info wont be provided to Pres Advisory Comm on Election Integrity, Husted said in a Twitter message. He later added, We do not want fed intervention in our states right & respon to conduct elections.

OKLAHOMA: Partial

A spokesman for the Oklahoma State Election Board said the state will not provide the last four digits of voters Social Security numbers. Thats not publicly available under the laws of our state, said Bryan Dean. He said the commissions request will be treated like any other from the general public. The election board will tell the panel to fill out an online form asking for the information. Oklahomas voter roll is routinely provided to political campaigns, the press and other groups that ask for it.

OREGON: Undecided

No response from the Secretary of State.

PENNSYLVANIA: Partial

Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, wrote a letter saying the state will not cooperate, but said the state will sell the commission the same data the public can purchase. It cannot be posted online, however.

RHODE ISLAND: Partial

Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea says she wont share some of the requested voter information, including Social Security numbers or information regarding felony or military status.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Undecided

The AP was unable to reach anyone from the Secretary of States office Friday.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Deny

A spokesman for South Dakota Secretary of State Shantel Krebs says the state will not share voter information with the Trump commission.

TENNESSEE: Deny

Although I appreciate the commissions mission to address election-related issues like voter fraud, Tennessee state law does not allow my office to release the voter information requested to the federal commission, said Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, a Republican.

TEXAS: Partial

Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos said Friday he will provide the commission public information and protect the private information of Texas citizens. Much of the information requested, including names, addresses, date of birth and party data, are publicly available in Texas. Social Security numbers cannot be released under Texas law. Publicly available voter registration lists in Texas also do not include information about military status or criminal history.

UTAH: Partial

Republican Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox says he will send information classified as public, but Social Security numbers and dates of birth are protected.

VERMONT: Partial

Vermonts top election official, Democrat Jim Condos, said Friday he is bound by law to provide the publicly available voter file, but that does not include Social Security numbers or birth dates. Condos said he must first receive an affidavit signed by the commission chairman, as required by Vermont law. He said there is no evidence of the kind of fraud alleged by Trump. I believe these unproven claims are an effort to set the stage to weaken our democratic process through a systematic national effort of voter suppression and intimidation, he said.

VIRGINA: Deny

At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trumps alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression, said Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat.

WASHINGTON: Partial

Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican, says her office will send the commission names, addresses and birth dates of registered voters because they are public record. She will not send Social Security numbers, drivers license numbers or other information.

WEST VIRGINIA: Undecided

Secretary of State Mac Warner, a Republican, said in a statement that his office would review the request but is limited by state law in what it can provide.

WISCONSIN: Partial

Administrator Mike Haas issued a statement Friday saying most of the information in the states voter registration system is public, including voters names, addresses and voting history. The state does not collect any data about a voters political preference or gender, he said.

He said the state routinely sells the information to political parties, candidates and researchers. It would charge the presidential commission $12,500 for the data, the maximum amount allowed under agency rules, Haas said. State law doesnt contain any provisions for waiving the fee, he said.

Wisconsin law allows the commission to share voter birth dates, drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers only with police and other state agencies, and the presidential commission doesnt appear to qualify, Haas said.

WYOMING: Undecided

Officials did not respond Friday to multiple requests from the AP.
A growing number of U.S. states refused Friday to give voters names, addresses and sensitive personal information to a commission created by President Donald Trump to investigate alleged voter fraud, saying the demand was unnecessary and violated privacy.

This commission was formed to try to find basis for the lie that President Trump put forward that has no foundation, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said.

Claims unsubstantiated

Republican Trump made unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally for his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. He established the panel by executive order in May despite evidence that voter fraud was not widespread.

Trumps Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity sent a letter to all 50 states Wednesday asking them to turn over voter information including names, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, political affiliation, felony convictions and voting histories.

The request from commission Vice Chairman Kris Kobach caused a backlash in states including Virginia, Kentucky, California, New York and Massachusetts, where election officials said they would not provide all the data.

State backlash

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Thursday that handing over information would only serve to legitimize debunked claims of widespread voter fraud.

More than 20 states said they would not or could not provide some or all of the information requested, according to statements from election officials and media reports.

Some said certain data such as Social Security numbers were not publicly available and that they would turn over only public information. Others raised privacy concerns or questioned the need to examine voter fraud.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said in a statement that he had not seen the letter but would rebuff the commission.

They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from, he said.

Civil rights objections

Kobach, the secretary of state for Kansas, has been a high-profile advocate of tougher laws on immigration and voter identification.

His office did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Kobach was quoted in a Kansas City Star article as saying that his own state would not provide Social Security numbers at this time since they are not publicly available. Kobach did not rule out providing that information in the future.

In his letter, a copy of which was provided to Reuters by the Connecticut Secretary of States office, Kobach also asked states for feedback on how to improve election integrity and for evidence of voter fraud and convictions of voter-related crimes since 2000.

Civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have called the commission a tactic to suppress votes against Republicans.

States are right to balk at turning over massive reams of personal information in what clearly is a campaign to suppress the vote, Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, said in a statement Friday.

While the public availability of voter data varies by state, the request raises privacy concerns, said Richard Hasen, a University of California, Irvine, professor who studies election law.
"I was 12 years old when I was raped. I did not understand what was happening."

Nelle is now 36 years old. But in 1993 when war broke out in Burundi, armed men came to her village near the capital, Bujumbura. They killed her mother and father and six siblings. She was raped, but she survived.

I saw people were killing each other. They were running away and killing each other. I hid myself under dead bodies for five days, she said.

Difficult story

Nelles story of survival was long and difficult to tell. After living through years of instability, she told VOA that she left for South Africa in 2004 when a new government came to power in Burundi.

I was scared, she said. I was afraid war was coming and I did not want to go through the same thing as in 1993. I did not want to be raped again. So, I quit the country and became a refugee in South Africa.

Nelle is one of 25 rape survivors from South Sudan, Mali, Colombia and 12 other conflict-affected countries around the world who attended a four-day retreat this week in Geneva.

They came to share their experiences and to devise strategies for the creation of a global movement to end rape as a weapon on war.

These 25 women have suffered unthinkable things and developed remarkable powers, said Esther Dingemans, director of the Mukwege Foundation.

They have experienced the cruelest violence. But the perpetrators did not succeed in breaking them, she said.

The foundation is headed by Denis Mukwege, a renowned surgeon from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who has treated thousands of survivors of sexual violence in Congo.

We hope that this week will be the beginning of a large long-term movement that leads to a global platform of survivors, said Dingemans, and that their voices will finally be heard.

Wartime atrocities

In 1992, after the atrocities committed in the Bosnian war, especially against Muslim women, rape, for the first time was recognized as a weapon of war by the United Nations Security Council.

In 2000, the Security Council adopted resolution 1325, which was the first formal and legal document that required parties to a conflict to protect women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict.

It also was the first U.N. resolution to specifically mention women.

Ulrike Lunasek, vice president of the European Parliament, who spoke at the ceremony honoring the 25 women survivors, said it is "important to break the vicious circle of shame and silence" that women usually feel when they are raped.

She said women raped in war must be supported, helped to heal and then be encouraged to speak up, but also to tell the truth about what military conflict and war means for women.

Women did speak up at this conference. Several survivors presented searing testimony about their ordeals.

Solange Bigiramana, who survived the horrors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, now lives as a stateless person in South Africa.

My situation of being a survivor, that comes from a situation of war. It happened for me to face rape. I know what rape means," she said.

And I am here with a story of hope, she said. "I once was under a shadow. I want every survivor to be out of the shadow and to be into the light."

Yazidi girl

Another survivor, Farida Abbas-Khalaf, a Yazidi girl from the Iraqi village of Kocho, described the torment to which she and other members of her community were subjected by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in her book The Girl Who Beat ISIS.

She spoke movingly and in agonizing detail about being raped, beaten, insulted, and forced to pray and read the Koran.

"Young boys were brainwashed and sent to ISIS training camps to become ISIS fighters while women and young girls were taken as sex slaves and sold at slave markets," said Abbas-Khalaf.

She said that she was able to heal because of support from her family, her community and her spiritual leader who she said made a statement "that the surviving girls are an important part of the Yazidi community and that what happened to them was against their will."

She added, It is time that survivors break the silence. But mostly it is time for the world to hear their voices."
The Syrian government on Saturday dismissed a report by the international chemical weapons watchdog that said the banned nerve agent sarin was used in an April attack in northern Syria, saying it lacked "any credibility."

Western governments including the United States have said the Syrian government carried out the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed dozens of people. The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons.

The attack prompted a U.S. missile strike against a Syrian air base that Washington said was used to launch the strike. The report into the attack was circulated to members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, but was not made public.

In a statement, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said the fact-finding team had based its report on "the testimonies offered by terrorists in Turkey." Turkey is a major backer of the Syrian opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

After interviewing witnesses and examining samples, the fact-finding mission of the OPCW concluded that "a large number of people, some of whom died, were exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance."

Russia, Assad's most powerful ally, has described the report as biased.

The April 4 attack on in northern Idlib province was the most deadly in Syria's civil war in more than three years. Western intelligence agencies had also blamed the Assad government. Syrian officials have repeatedly denied using banned toxins in the conflict.

Chlorine gas

A joint U.N. and OPCW investigation has found Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State militants used mustard gas.

Syria joined the chemical weapons convention in 2013 under a Russian-U.S. agreement, averting military intervention under then U.S. President Barack Obama.

The United States said Wednesday that the Syrian government appeared to have heeded a warning this week from Washington not to carry out a chemical weapons attack.

Russia warned it would respond proportionately if the United States took pre-emptive measures against Syrian forces after Washington said on Monday that it appeared the Syrian military was preparing to conduct a chemical weapons attack.
President Donald Trumps administration has dropped plans for an executive order that would require all U.S. food aid to be transported on American ships after members of Congress protested, congressional and aid sources said Friday.

Reuters reported Thursday that Trump was considering issuing an order that would have increased to 100 percent the current requirement that 50 percent of such aid be transported on U.S.-flagged vessels.

Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stopped short of confirming information about the order but said he had discussed the issue with Trump and that he understands that the shift would have increased the cost of food aid and caused more people to starve.

I had a good conversation today with President Trump, Corker said in a statement emailed to Reuters. As a businessman, he understands that expanding the cargo preference would substantially drive up the cost of food aid and cause more people to starve around the world, Corker said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lower shipping requirement

Although unlikely to have any significant effect on the $4 trillion global cargo shipping industry, the initiative originally touted as part of Trumps America First platform might have slowed food aid getting to millions of people and do little to create jobs, critics said.

Aid groups, and members of Congress from both parties have been working for years to lower, or eliminate, the 50 percent shipping requirement. The United States, the worlds largest provider of humanitarian assistance, spent about $2.8 billion on foreign food aid in 2016. About half of that is estimated to go to shipping and storage.

The conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute said in a November report that shipping food aid on U.S.-flagged vessels costs 46 percent more than aid shipped at internationally competitive rates and can take as much as 14 weeks longer.

Congress calls to White House

Jeremy Konyndyk, a former director of USAIDs Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, welcomed the administrations decision to drop the order.

Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development, said that with four potential famines in the world it would have been the worst possible moment to be shifting money out of hungry mouths and into subsidies for big shipping conglomerates.

Corker has been pushing for years to reform the U.S. food aid program, including by eliminating the cargo preference. He said in his statement he looked forward to working with Congress and the administration to achieve long overdue reforms.

After hearing about the possible executive order, several members of Congress called the White House to express their concern, congressional aides said.

The administrations budget proposal has suggested slashing foreign aid in general while increasing defense spending.

That plan was also met with stiff opposition in Congress, as lawmakers argued that soft power options such as food and medical aid and disaster recovery assistance can be effective tools in foreign policy that should not be discounted.

Supporters say Trumps initiative would not only create new U.S. jobs in the shipping industry but that U.S.-controlled food shipments are important for national security because the U.S. fleet could be transferred to the military in case of a conflict.

Food aid is a very small percentage of the worldwide sea cargo flow, critics argue, while the security issue is moot as most cargo ships are too slow for use by the 21st century military.

They said the costs would also be far higher by eliminating competition for shipping contracts with lower-cost international carriers, requiring more U.S. taxpayer dollars to feed fewer people.
The fly that carries African sleeping sickness may carry the seeds of its own destruction, according to new research.

Scientists have detailed the unique relationship between the tsetse fly and bacteria in its gut the fly can't live without.

The tsetse fly spreads African sleeping sickness to humans from wild animals and has caused several major epidemics in the past.

The parasite responsible for sleeping sickness is one of the few pathogens able to pass from the blood into the brain. It disrupts the sleep cycle and leads to mood changes, confusion, tremors and ultimately organ failure.

Researchers have long hoped to take advantage of a number of the fly's unusual properties. Like mammals, the tsetse fly lactates and gives birth to live young.

The tsetse milk contains bacteria called Wigglesworthia that the mother passes on to its young. Despite having one of the smallest known genomes, Wigglesworthia is a big deal for the tsetse fly. Without it, the fly becomes infertile.

In the report published Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Pavia in Italy described a number of ways that the tsetse fly depends on Wigglesworthia. The bacteria supply B vitamins that the fly can't produce on its own and doesn't get from blood, its only food source. Without B vitamins, the fly can't properly nourish its young, and they starve.

Proteins' roles

The scientists also examined the tissue that houses the bacteria. The fly produces a special protein that guides the bacteria where they are needed. Another protein hides the bacteria from the fly's immune system.

This leaves the researchers with several attack strategies as they move forward. They could try to produce drugs that target Wigglesworthia directly, or unleash the flies' immune system on the bacteria, or block one of the several pathways that the bacteria use to support the fly.

"There's a lot of potential places you could throw a wrench into the works," study co-author and entomologist Geoffrey Attardo told VOA. "It's just finding a place that's optimal."

Recent efforts to stem the spread of sleeping sickness have been largely successful. According to the World Health Organization, the number of reported cases fell from almost 40,000 in 1998 to just 2,804 in 2015.

But researchers say it is still important to develop new control methods that are cheaper, easier to deploy and more effective.

"During epidemics, the political will to address this is there, but then when the disease goes away, the control efforts stop," said Attardo. "Then flies come back in from wild areas, and the cycle starts again. And 20 or 30 years later, you have another epidemic."
Turkey has always prided itself on being a secular state.

The nation enshrined the separation of church and state in its constitution by constitutional amendment in 1928. But that was nearly a century ago, and about 99 percent of the nations citizens are now identified as Muslim.

Watch: Evolution vs. Erdogan: Turkey Struggles with Basic Science

The current government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received some criticism for eroding the countrys historic commitment to secularism and moving the nation in a more fundamentalist direction.

Recently, in a decision that many saw as moving Turkey away from secularism and toward Islam, the government banned the teaching of evolution in high school.

That means Turkish students entering high school will no longer learn naturalist Charles Darwins theory that all living things share a common ancestor. It is a simple idea that is the foundation of the study of life on Earth and beyond.

In explaining its decision, the government said it is not about Islam. Instead, officials said that students, Dont have the necessary scientific background and information-based context needed to comprehend the theory.

Alpaslan Durmus, head of the education ministrys curriculum board, said members thought the theory should be taught to higher-level students.

We tried to leave out some of the controversial issues from our students agenda, Durmus added.

Unable to compete on world stage

Whatever their reason, critics say the practical outcome is that Turkish children will not get the education they need to compete on the world stage.

The Turkish education system is very weak concerning the fundamental sciences, secular scholar Alaattin Dincer told VOA. Both in domestic and international exams; be it in math, physics, chemistry and biology, our students have very low passing grade percentages. It is actually terribly low.

If you dont tell our children, the next generation, about science and evolution and Darwin; if you raise them without them learning those subjects, how can you argue that we are a scientifically enlightened country that can producer the scientists of the future? How can you tell them this? Dincer asked.

Other critics say it is part of a plan by President Erdogan to embed an official Islamic identity into Turkish society. But like Catholic scholars, many Islamic theologians say evolution and Islam can co-exist quite easily.

If something has scientific truth, then you cannot stand against it, Ihsan Eliacik, a Muslim theologian, told VOA. If evolution is scientific truth that exists in nature, nobody can stand against it. Because it is true. Fiction cannot cover a lie. A religious faith cannot destroy truth. Besides, by my religious faith, scientific truth means religious truth. The two are not contradictory.

VOA Turkish Services Tan Cetin contributed to this story.
Ukraine has blamed Russian security services for a massive cyberattack that started in the last week in Ukraine and eventually spread to computers across the world.

Ukraines security agency, the SBU, said in a statement Saturday the attack bore resemblances to past hacks of Ukrainian infrastructure by the Russian security services.

"The available data, including those obtained in cooperation with international antivirus companies, give us reason to believe that the same hacking groups are involved in the attacks, which in December 2016 attacked the financial system, transport and energy facilities of Ukraine, using TeleBots and BlackEnergy," the statement said.

Russia has denied involvement in the recent attack that halted operations at large companies and government agencies in more than 60 countries around the world. The hackers encrypted data on infected machines and demanded a ransom to give it back to its owner.

Europol Director Rob Wainwright called Tuesdays hack another serious ransomware attack. He said it bore resemblances to the previous "WannaCry" hack, but it also showed indications of a "more sophisticated attack capability intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities."

The WannaCry hack sent a wave of crippling ransomware to hospitals across Britain in May, causing the hospitals to divert ambulances and cancel surgeries. The program demanded a ransom to unlock access to files stored on infected machines.

Researchers eventually found a way to thwart the hack, but only after about 300 people had already paid the ransom.

The most recent hack has been largely contained, but now some researchers are questioning the motivation behind the attack. They say it may not have been designed to collect a ransom, but instead to simply destroy data.

There may be a more nefarious motive behind the attack, Gavin O'Gorman, an investigator with U.S. antivirus firm Symantec, said in a blog post. Perhaps this attack was never intended to make money [but] rather to simply disrupt a large number of Ukrainian organizations.

Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab similarly noted that the code used in the hacking software wouldnt have allowed its authors to decrypt the stolen data after a ransom had been paid.

"It appears it was designed as a wiper pretending to be ransomware," Kapersky researchers Anton Ivanov and Orkhan Mamedov wrote in a blog post. This is the worst case news for the victims  even if they pay the ransom they will not get their data back.

The computer virus used in the attack includes code known as Eternal Blue, a tool developed by the NSA that exploited Microsoft's Windows operating system, and which was published on the internet in April by a group called Shadowbrokers. Microsoft released a patch in March to protect systems from that vulnerability.

Tim Rawlins, director of the Britain-based cybersecurity consultancy NCC Group, says the attacks continue to happen because people have not been keeping up with effectively patching their computers.

"This is a repeat WannaCry type of outbreak and it really comes down to the fact that people are not focusing on what they should be focusing on, the very simple premise of patching your systems," Rawlins told VOA.
The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to cut $600 million from the organization's nearly $8 billion annual peacekeeping budget.

The move comes amid pressure from the Trump administration, which contributes more than a quarter of the department's annual budget. But U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who took office Jan. 1, has also called for major U.N. reforms, including in peacekeeping.

U.N. peacekeeping, which supports more than 110,000 troops, police and civilians in 16 missions, has come under harsh criticism in recent years for undisciplined troops who have sometimes failed to protect civilians and even sexually abused them. In Haiti, U.N. peacekeepers have been blamed for bringing a cholera epidemic to the island nation that sickened and killed thousands.

But despite inefficiencies and problems, the blue helmets, as peacekeepers are known for their distinctive head gear, still play an important role in fragile countries where civilians need protection, humanitarian assistance and stable institutions.

It's great value, said Jordie Hannum, senior director for the Better World Campaign, which works to promote strong relations between the United States and the United Nations.

There is decades of research that shows that peacekeeping, when sufficiently resourced and equipped, can make a huge difference in terms of preventing the resurgence of conflict and in terms of protection of civilians, Hannum said.

US push

Upon arriving at the U.N. in January, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said she would be looking at what is working and fixing what is not.

Anything that seems to be obsolete and not necessary, we're going to do away with, Haley warned.

The United States is the U.N.'s largest donor, contributing about $611 million this year to the regular budget of more than $2.5 billion. Washington also contributes more than $2 billion annually to peacekeeping, and hundreds of millions more to programs, including the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program.

Friday's vote was focused only on the peacekeeping budget, meaning the U.S. will save around $150 million next year, as it pays about a quarter of the peacekeeping budget.

Washington had hoped to slash $1 billion from the department's budget, but lengthy negotiations among member states ended with a European Union-proposed compromise of $7.3 billion for the annual peacekeeping budget. Ambassador Haley proclaimed it a victory.

Just five months into our time here, we've already been able to cut over half a billion dollars from the U.N. peacekeeping budget and we're only getting started, she said in a statement.

Impact on the ground

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters the world body will make every effort to ensure mandates are implemented, despite the sizable budget cut.

We cannot overstate the value of peacekeeping to achieve peace and stability, Dujarric said. It remains the most cost-effective instrument at the disposal of the international community to prevent conflicts and foster conditions for lasting peace.

Several peacekeeping missions have already been under review. On Friday, the 13-year-old mission in the Ivory Coast completed its shut down. That mission had a budget of more than $150 million in its final year.

Others, like the massive, decade-old African Union-U.N. Hybrid operation in Sudan's Darfur region, which has more than 19,000 peacekeepers and an annual budget exceeding $1 billion, will see a gradual reduction in troops.

In Haiti, that mission has begun a six-month drawdown of its nearly 4,000-strong military component and in mid-October will transition to a police-only mission.

Managing with less

Several Security Council ambassadors welcomed the cuts, which will translate to savings for all countries that contribute to the peacekeeping budget.

There was a substantial cut, which is of course what many delegations were looking for, said Italian Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi. But the operational activities of all the missions have been protected and preserved, and I think that's what we were looking for.

We believe in some cases there is a need for some cuts, depending on each mission, said Bolivian Ambassador Sacha Llorentty. I think that, for instance, we have taken a wise decision in terms of Darfur, the downsizing of that mission was the right thing to do.

Funding is essential, but better management at a certain point may compensate not substitute, but compensate for reduced funding, said Uruguay Ambassador Elbio Rosselli. It will mean that we will all have to make more efforts in making sure that we deliver with less resources, which is something most of us have to do in real life.

But some missions have actually seen an increase in resources, including in Mali, which is on the front line of the war on terror in the Sahel region of West Africa.
The United Nations called on Venezuela on Friday to uphold the rule of law and freedom of assembly, and criticized President Nicolas Maduro's government for moves against the chief state prosecutor.

Critics of Maduro have taken to the streets almost daily for three months to protest against what they call the creation of a dictatorship.

The protests, which have left nearly 80 dead, frequently culminate in violent clashes with security forces.

Ruling Socialist Party officials have launched a series of attacks against chief state prosecutor Luisa Ortega, from accusations of insanity to promoting violence, after her high-profile break with the government.

The Supreme Court's decision last Wednesday to begin removal proceedings against the Attorney General, freeze her assets and ban her from leaving the country is deeply worrying, as is the ongoing violence, U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva briefing.

Appointment nullified

The Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber has nullified Ortega's appointment of a deputy attorney general, naming someone else in violation of the law, he said. It also transferred some of her functions to the ombudsperson.

Since March, the Attorney General has taken important steps to defend human rights, documenting deaths during the wave of demonstrations, insisting on the need for due process and the importance of the separation of powers, and calling for people who have been arbitrarily detained to be immediately released, Colville said.

The court's decision appears to seek to strip her office of its mandate and responsibilities as enshrined in the Venezuelan Constitution, and undermine the office's independence.

We urge all powers of the Venezuelan state to respect the constitution and the rule of law, and call on the government to ensure the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of opinion and expression are guaranteed, Colville said.

Avoid intimidation

In a separate statement, the U.N. special rapporteur on the independence of judges rejected what it called the latest step against democratic institutions in Venezuela.

The independent expert, Diego Garcia-Sayan, said that a hearing was scheduled on Tuesday during which a decision will be taken on whether to prosecute Ortega following accusations by a government MP of "serious misconduct."

Any investigation of judicial actions must be carried out in a transparent manner and with strict respect for due process and the legal system, he said. It is essential to avoid any kind of intimidation against the Attorney General.

Maduro says the demonstrations are an attempt to overthrow him with the support of Washington.
The most urgent challenge in Colombia following the handover of the last weapons by leftist rebels is to reintegrate the 10,000 former combatants into society, a process that will be difficult, the U.N. special representative in the South American nation said Friday.

Jean Arnault told the U.N. Security Council that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have a deep sense of uncertainty about their physical security following their disarmament and their economic future.

The ceremony Tuesday at which U.N. observers padlocked the last containers of FARC weapons put Colombia one step closer to turning a page on Latin America's longest-running conflict, which caused at least 250,000 deaths, left 60,000 people missing and displaced more than 7 million.

After years of thorny negotiations, the rebels reached an agreement with the government last year to transition into a political party. In January 2016, before the agreement, the Colombian government and FARC rebels jointly asked the United Nations to monitor any cease-fire and disarmament process, a rare request to the U.N. for help, which it accepted.

Reintegration is next step

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos asked the U.N. earlier this month to establish a new mission focused on reintegration of the former guerrillas and wider security guarantees.



The Security Council said in a press statement Friday that it will work towards a positive response to Santos' request over the coming days.



Council members welcomed the FARC's laydown of arms as a vital step forward and urged the parties and all Colombians to join efforts to support the implementation of the peace agreement.



Arnault said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has stressed that reintegration is a daunting endeavor, particularly in light of entrenched illegal economies, the spread of armed groups including organized crime and FARC dissidents, and a pattern of violence against social leaders.

The reintegration of combatants is the first and most urgent challenge, but the peace process must also respond to the needs and expectations of the more vulnerable sectors of Colombian society, Arnault said.

He said the U.N. agrees with Colombia's government that the focus must be on deploying security forces to protect communities most affected by the war and establish the rule of law, bringing goods and services to rural areas long outside its reach, and delivering on the promise of justice for victims of the conflict.

Arms caches

As for the U.N., Arnault said that with the handover of the rebel fighters' last individual arms, the U.N. mission and the FARC, with support from Colombia's armed forces and police, can now devote their full attention to disposing of hundreds of arms caches, collecting the weapons in them, and destroying explosives and unstable armaments.

So far 81 arms caches were visited and a large amount of explosives was destroyed, Arnault said. Planning is currently ongoing with FARC and the government to extract another 380 in the coming weeks, with more to follow.

He said the U.N. is confident that if not all, at least a high percentage of the caches can be dealt with by Sept. 1, the date at which the mission's verification of the caches will end, and responsibility will switch to the government.

Colombia's U.N. ambassador, Maria Mejia Velez, told the council that the final handover of weapons opened a new phase moving into the future.

She said the government is fast-tracking new laws and adopting many decrees to promote economic and social development of the areas affected by the conflict and social and the economic reintegration of the FARC rebels.
The United States and Britain urged Russia on Friday to bring to justice all those responsible for the slaying of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.

A Russian court on Thursday convicted five men of murdering Nemtsov, but allies of the politician have said the investigation was a cover-up and that the people who had ordered his killing remained at large.

"We call once more on the Russian government to ensure that all involved in the killing of Boris Nemtsov, including anyone involved in organizing or ordering the crime, are brought to justice," the U.S. State Department said in a statement, calling Nemtsov a "champion of democracy and human rights."

Britain said it wanted Russia to further investigate Nemtsov's death.

"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office supports Boris Nemtsov's family in their call for a fuller investigation into who ordered his murder," a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Ministry said. "Responsibility for his murder goes further than those already convicted, and we call on the Russian government to bring the perpetrators to account."

Litvinenko slaying

Russia and Britain have repeatedly clashed publicly over Syria, Ukraine and the 2006 London slaying of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Trump had frequently called during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign for warmer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite criticism from lawmakers in his own Republican Party.

Allegations that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election last year and colluded with Trump's campaign have overshadowed the businessman's unexpected victory and dogged his first five months in office.

Russia and the United States are also at odds over Ukraine, NATO expansion and the civil war in Syria, where Moscow supports President Bashar al-Assad.

Trump and Putin are due to meet next week in Hamburg at the summit of leaders from the Group of 20 major world economies.
A judge in the case against U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has ruled that injuries to fellow military personnel who were wounded while searching for Bergdahl can be used as factors in the sentencing phase of his upcoming trial.

Bergdahl is charged with endangering other service members by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 as well as desertion. His military trial will be held in October.

Judge Colonel Jeffery Nance ruled Friday that service members who wound up in firefights and got wounded would not have been injured if they were not searching for Bergdahl.

Bergdahls attorneys argued that he should not be held responsible for the decisions and actions of military personnel who were involved in the search.

The judge had previously ruled that the injures sustained by service members who were looking for Bergdahl cannot be used in the first part of the trial, in which Bergdahls guilt or innocence will be determined. However, he said the sentencing phase of the trial has a different standard of evidence.

Bergdahl was stationed in the Afghan province of Paktia when he left his post without permission in 2009. He was subsequently captured by allies of the Taliban and held captive for five years.

The Obama administration secured his release in a prisoner swap that touched off a firestorm of criticism from Republicans in Congress. Some lawmakers accused the administration of aiding a deserter and complained that Congress did not receive a required 30-day warning about the transfer of foreign prisoners in U.S. custody who were freed in exchange for Bergdahl's release.

Bergdahl's lawyers said their client walked away from his post to warn officers at another base about problems in his unit.

Bergdahl has been working at a desk job at a Texas Army base until his legal case is resolved.
The United States and Philippine navies held a joint naval patrol Saturday in dangerous southern Philippine waters, amid rising international concern about Islamist militancy and piracy in the region.

U.S. Navy combat ship USS Coronado joined a Philippine Navy frigate, BRP Alcaraz, in patrolling the Sulu Sea, where numerous pirate attacks on commercial shipping have been made since 2015.

Our at-sea operations with the Philippine Navy demonstrate our commitment to the alliance and deter piracy and illegal activities, U.S. Rear Admiral Don Gabrielson said in a statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Manila.

There are international fears that fighters sympathetic to Islamic State will cross maritime borders between Malaysia and Indonesia to join Muslim rebels who seized Marawi City in the southern Philippines five weeks ago.

About 300 militants, 82 security forces and 44 civilians have been killed in the fighting.

The naval patrols were held at the invitation of the Philippine government, the U.S. embassy said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte does not allow joint patrols with the United States in the disputed South China Sea to avoid damaging its relations with China, which claims the sea as its own.

But he welcomes cooperation in the south because of increased militant activity. Two weeks ago, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines held joint naval patrols in southern waters.
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How to respond to North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction was the top agenda item when President Donald Trump hosted his South Korean counterpart. VOA White House Bureau Chief Correspondent Steve Herman reports that the trade relationship between Washington and Seoul was also discussed.


One of the automation investments at the Georgia Pacific cellulose mill are bar codes that track innovatory and allow forklift drivers in the 87,000-square-foot warehouse to load specific rolls into the correct shipping container. (Stephen B. Morton/For The Washington Post)

Charles and David Koch are best known for their controversial political empire, where they ply their combined personal fortunes of nearly $96 billion into conservative causes and candidates across the nation.

Theyre less known for the business empire thats enabled that wealth: Koch Industries. One of the United States biggest companies  whose annual revenue of $100 billion is more than that of Goldman Sachs, Starbucks and Honeywell International combined  Koch owns brands that are fixtures of American households, such as Brawny paper towels and Lycra. But because its privately held, how it has grown so big has remained something of a mystery.

A year-long look into Koch Industries $21 billion purchase of wood and paper giant Georgia-Pacific, involving interviews with Georgia-Pacific employees from the factory floor to the executive suite, offers a rare view into how the brothers run their businesses. The companys approach, examined for a forthcoming book, aligns with the brothers brand of economic conservativism, which stresses the power of the market and skepticism of government. At times, its approach is at tension with their philosophy.

Charles Koch often frames his political giving in economic terms, saying that the free market is better able to solve societys problems than the state. As chief executive of Koch, one of his strategies has been to shield his companies from the market pressures that many public firms face.

That shield also makes it difficult for outsiders to judge whether Koch Industries is a good steward of its investments. Outsiders are left to wonder: What does it mean to become part of Koch? What can public companies learn from Kochs management techniques once it takes another company private? What can employees expect if Charles Koch becomes their boss?



Charles Koch often frames his political giving in economic terms, saying that the free market is better able to solve societys problems than the state. (Bo Rader/AP)

Charles Koch, who did not comment for this story, has implemented deep changes at Georgia-Pacific. Most of them exploit one of Kochs key advantages: The company is privately held, with essentially only two shareholders: the brothers. This gives the firm flexibility to operate in a way that makes it more nimble than many publicly traded firms.

After taking Georgia-Pacific private, Koch jettisoned annual budgets and quit focusing on quarterly earnings. Reinvestment has skyrocketed. Strategic thinking has shifted years, or decades, out.

The strategy makes Koch Industries somewhat of an outlier among major American corporations, fighting the tide of shareholder-return management strategies that many critics say have led to an excessive focus on short-term returns. Charles Koch perpetually reminds his managers they want to achieve the highest return on investment, but hes willing to take 10 or 20 years to get it.

If you need to wreck your budget to do what creates the most value, you should wreck the budget, said David Robertson, president and chief operating officer of Koch Industries, summarizing his bosss philosophy.

Yet to achieve success, Koch has at times had to compromise some of his principles. Koch has used his political power to crusade against what is sometimes called crony capitalism  the use of tax breaks and subsidies to benefit some companies over others. And yet Georgia-Pacific made use of one such tax break to ride out the recession.

Whatever the approach, it seems to be working for the companys bottom line. Georgia-Pacifics debt rating has climbed from junk status to high investment grade. Annual net income averages just slightly more than $1 billion a year, according to Koch Industries, compared with $623 million before the acquisition.

Seeing value others missed



James Hannan and his team thought Georgia-Pacifics pulp mills could push Koch into a new industry while allowing the company to build on what it did best. Pulping wood turned out to be not all that different from refining oil. (Annalise Kaylor/Courtesy of Georgia-Pacific)

Like almost virtually everything with Koch Industries, the deal began in secret. Not even senior managers at Georgia-Pacific knew what was coming when a small delegation of Koch employees arrived in 2003 and started asking questions. Koch had amassed most of its influence in the energy business, owning oil refineries. But its sprawling business interests span agriculture, minerals, materials engineering and even cattle ranching.

One afternoon, Koch executives met with Georgia-Pacific executives on the 51st floor  reserved for Georgia-Pacific executives and their guests  of the companys headquarters. Over lunch served on fine china, Wesley Jones, who oversaw Georgia Pacifics wood-pulp mills, explained how they operated, where it bought timber and where it sold pulp, and the potential growth of Asian markets.

One of the visitors listening was James Hannan, who worked for Koch Industries and would be installed as Georgia-Pacifics CEO in 2007. (Today he is an executive vice president at Koch Industries.) He wasnt used to wearing a tie  Koch culture was much more informal.

Hannan and his team thought Georgia-Pacifics pulp mills could push Koch into a new industry while allowing the company to build on what it did best. Pulping wood turned out to be not all that different from refining oil. At Kochs oil refineries, crude oil was pumped in one end and then heated and processed in big towers, making gasoline and other products. At Georgia-Pacifics pulp mills, truckloads of pine trees were fed into one end of the mill and cooked down into a fibrous goo and sprayed into churning machines that make long rolls of dense pulp material.

The Georgia-Pacific mills were attractive for another reason. Koch executives believed they were undervalued in a way a privately held company could exploit. The company had been on a decades-long spree buying a lot of businesses that didnt fit neatly together  Georgia-Pacific made high-profit tissue paper and lower-profit wood pulp. The markets for tissue paper and plywood were so different that bank analysts had a hard time putting a single value on a company that was heavily involved in both. The pulp line was cyclical and dragged down the value of the consumer-products business.

Koch Industries wasnt bothered by the boom-and-bust cycles of the wood-pulp business. Volatility was Kochs bread and butter. Koch bought Georgia-Pacifics pulp division in 2004 and renamed it Koch Cellulose. Koch put Jones in charge.

After Koch took the pulp mills private, Jones noticed an immediate change. The biggest, most obvious change was Kochs willingness to reinvest its profits.

The art of killing dividends



As it spent money on Georgia-Pacifics pulp mills, Koch Industries liked the results. (Stephen B. Morton/For The Washington Post)

Georgia-Pacific had been skimping on capital spending at its pulp mills for years, Jones said. That was partly because the company had to pay off the roughly $3.5 billion in debt it took on to buy Fort James, a tissue maker. The firm had about $8.7 billion in total debt in early 2005. Georgia-Pacific also paid out generous dividends to shareholders, a common practice that public companies employ to make their shares more enticing.

The companys strategy was to run its mills as long as possible without shutting them down for repairs, Jones said. It delayed the purchase of new equipment that might have made the plants more profitable. The strategy worked for a while, Jones said, but by 2004 the equipment was starting to show serious wear and tear.

We were trying to spend as little as possible, Jones recalled. He said he was frustrated with the lack of investment. Theres a lot of smaller stuff that we had to have fixed.

Under Georgia-Pacific, Jones undertook a laborious, bureaucratic process to get new investments approved. He was girding himself for the same under Koch. He badly wanted to install a new set of more-efficient processing towers at Kochs pulp mill in Brunswick, Ga. After the Koch purchase, he talked about it on the phone with a Koch executive in Wichita, saying they had cost $35 million to $40 million.

To Joness surprise, the investment was approved. On the phone. That was a first.

I remember putting the phone down and thinking, Damn,  Jones said, shaking his head. It was like a month or two after the acquisition. I was floored.

Executives at Kochs headquarters in Wichita were accustomed to such quick approvals. Charles Koch requires that 90 percent of the companys profits are reinvested. He fought a legal battle for roughly 20 years against his younger brother Bill Koch, who along with other shareholders wanted to pull more cash out of the firm. Charles Koch refused.

To be sure, the relentless drive for profits has led to criticism of Kochs business practices in the past. In 2000, the company paid what was then the largest civil fine ever  $30 million  for violating pollution laws after its pipelines sprung hundreds of leaks. Its oil refinery in Minnesota was fined for improperly dumping ammonia into local waterways. In such cases, Charles Koch has said, members of management had misinterpreted the companys philosophy.

As it spent money on Georgia-Pacifics pulp mills, Koch Industries liked the results.

We were able to demonstrate relatively quickly that the improvement opportunities were there, Jones said.

In late 2005, Koch Industries announced that it was buying all of Georgia-Pacific for $21 billion.

The timing of the deal could not have been worse.

Riding the crash



Koch took full custody of Georgia-Pacific just as the nations housing bubble burst. Georgia-Pacific made plywood, lumber and gypsum building panels used in everything from apartment buildings to new restaurants. (Stephen B. Morton/For The Washington Post)

Koch took full custody of Georgia-Pacific just as the nations housing bubble burst. Georgia-Pacific made plywood, lumber and gypsum building panels used in everything from apartment buildings to new restaurants. The market collapsed.

When Georgia-Pacific hit a rough patch in 2009, it made use of a highly controversial tax credit for a pulping byproduct known as black liquor, the company acknowledged to The Washington Post. Critics said the creation of the tax credit in 2007 was a backdoor bailout for some wood companies in lean times.

Of all the tax loopholes Ive seen in the last three decades, none is more despicable than the totally unintended and unproductive black-liquor tax credit, Marty Sullivan, a tax consultant and former staff economist with the Treasury Department, said in an email.

Karen Cole, a Georgia-Pacific spokeswoman, said: We did not advocate for this tax credit, but ultimately we did participate in it  not doing so would have put us at a competitive disadvantage. We have consistently opposed all subsidies, mandates and programs that distort the market and will continue to do so, even when they benefit us.

The market collapse was particularly bad news for Jose Casanova, a manager of Georgia-Pacifics gypsum mill outside Savannah, Ga. Casanova said the market for his products tanked just as the plant opened a newly expanded production line. Sales were low for years afterward. But Casanova, who had worked for Georgia-Pacific since 2000, noticed something surprising. Koch didnt pull back its capital spending.

Koch installed new safety fencing around the machines, hoping to cut down on lost-time accidents. The yellow metal barriers would discourage employees from manually dislodging jammed machines or trying to clean around conveyor belts while they were will running.

We didnt think it was possible  until we implemented it, Casanova said. Now we need to make sure the equipment is reliable. Then you dont need to access the equipment and risk getting hurt.

Kochs experience with volatility created another practice that soon swept through Georgia-Pacific.

In the 1980s, Koch stopped routinely using annual budgets  those financial documents that for many public companies are akin to divinely inscribed stone tablets, dictating which financial targets would be hit in a given quarter. The power of budgets was logical for public companies  if sales or profits are below expectations, even for one quarter, it can hurt the stock price.

During the oil shocks of the 1970s and 80s, Koch executives realized that budgets were all but worthless  it was all but impossible to predict how much Koch needed to pay for oil six months or a year down the road.

Instead, Koch uses plans for each year, sketching out revenue, costs and profits it anticipates, mainly used so executives can better plan acquisitions. Managers arent judged on how closely they adhere to the budget  just on whether they expand their business.

The difference is that many companies go to painstaking detail on every line item in their budget in an effort to, Ill say, predict the future, Robertson said. What we determined is that we werent very good at predicting the future. So why do we want to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to?

A new culture



Two semi-tractor trailers with wood chips are elevated to dump their product into a hopper at the Georgia Pacific cellulose mill. (Stephen B. Morton/For The Washington Post)

Kochs other changes reshaped Georgia-Pacifics corporate culture. Koch started almost immediately by moving senior executives out of the lavish offices on the 51st floor, where Hannan had received his first presentation on Georgia-Pacifics pulp mills. Having a floor reserved for executives, where a necktie was required for admission, conveyed too much of a command-and-control mentality, Charles Koch later wrote.

Merging Koch Industries culture with Georgia-Pacifics has not been without its challenges. The union was a complication for Koch, not known for any warmth toward organized labor. The company had unionized workers at some of its operations but nothing compared with the size and scope of Georgia-Pacifics collective-bargaining units.

The Nation magazine published an article about other cultural tensions in 2011 with the headline Big Brothers: Thought Control at Koch. Employees were particularly troubled when Koch Industries shared literature that recommended voting for Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.

One union filed a labor complaint over Kochs policy that restricted social-media posts for employees. Greg Pallesen, who represents Georgia-Pacific workers in the Association of Western Pulp and Papers Workers, told the news outlet In These Times that Kochs policy was hypocritical and unfair to workers.

They dont allow their employees to have free speech, he said. The National Labor Relations Board and Georgia-Pacific reached a settlement in which the company backed off the policy.

Still, the number of union workers at Georgia-Pacific has declined precipitously. When Koch took over, roughly 22,000 of 55,000 Georgia-Pacific employees were unionized. Today, that number has dropped steeply, to 11,800, the company said. A Koch official said that selling off its tissue business in Europe and closing some noncompetitive facilities in the U.S. contributed to that drop.

For its intense focus on company performance, Georgia-Pacific has not swept the paper market.

Its returns are probably average to above average when compared with competitors such as Kimberly-Clark or Procter & Gamble, said Chip Dillon, a stock analyst who has covered the forest-products industry for two decades. Both of those firms invest heavily in consumer products with higher profit margins and have strong market positions.

I would say that Georgia-Pacific is respected. I wouldnt say theyre feared. I think their competitors are equal to them in many senses, Dillon said. Theyre not going to take over this business.

Hannan said the best way to stay competitive is to stay uncomfortable. Even if the financial indicators for Georgia-Pacific are positive  with higher earnings, a lower debt rating and more acquisitions on the horizon  Hannan said the one emotion he tries to avoid is that of self-satisfaction.

The thing you worry most about is that were going to feel that way, Hannan said, and then just get dragged down from behind and get our throats slit.

Christopher Leonard is a fellow at the New America Foundation. He is the author of the forthcoming Kochland (Simon & Schuster).
ECONOMY

Consumer spending rose slightly in May

Americans saw a healthy jump in income last month but didnt spend much of the gain.

The Commerce Department said Friday that personal income increased 0.4 percent in May, up from a 0.3 percent increase in April. But consumer spending rose just 0.1 percent last month after climbing 0.4 percent in both March and April.

After-tax income rose 0.6 percent, the biggest gain since December 2012. The gap between the May increase in income and the increase in spending drove the U.S. savings rate to 5.5 percent, the highest since last September.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. Despite the modest rise in May, analysts said they remain confident that consumers picked up their spending overall this quarter and will be eager to spend over the summer.

 Associated Press

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook tweak targets spammers

Facebook said Friday that it was changing the computer algorithm behind its News Feed to limit the reach of people known to blast out links to clickbait stories, sensationalist websites and misinformation.

The move is another step by the social network to weed out spam, a battle Facebook has fought for years but that gained urgency after hoax news stories spread widely during last years U.S. presidential campaign.

Facebook said the change would reduce the influence of a tiny group of people it has identified. About 0.1 percent of people who share more than 50 posts a day would be affected.

Our research shows that there is a tiny group of people on Facebook who routinely share vast amounts of public posts per day, effectively spamming peoples feeds, Adam Mosseri, Facebooks vice president for the News Feed, said in a blog post.

 Reuters

SETTLEMENTS

Honest to pay $7M in ad fraud lawsuit

Honest Co. will set up a $7.35 million fund to compensate shoppers who said the website co-founded by actress Jessica Alba fraudulently labeled dozens of home and personal care products as natural, plant-based or chemical-free.

The fund is part of Honests second settlement this month of proposed class-action litigation, which was filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan and requires a judges approval.

Shoppers accused Honest of marketing soap, bubble bath, floor cleaners, laundry detergent and other products with superlatives such as no harsh chemicals (ever!), even though the items contained synthetic and toxic ingredients.

Under the settlement, shoppers would receive a $2.50 payment or credit per eligible product, up to a maximum of 10 without proof of purchase and with no maximum if they have such proof.

The company also agreed to change its product labeling.

 Reuters

Also in Business

AT&T has expanded the lineup of local channels on its DirecTV Now Internet streaming service, the No. 2 wireless carrier said Friday. AT&T, which is in the process of buying Time Warner for $85.4 billion, said the service now offers live local channels to 70 percent of U.S. households, more than double at its launch in November. New additions to DirecTV Now, which starts at $35 a month, include Disneys ABC in 30 new markets including Atlanta and Boston.

The Minneapolis City Council on Friday voted overwhelmingly to raise the citys minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years. The higher wage will be phased in over five years for large businesses with 100 or more employees, and over seven years for smaller businesses. The $15 minimum wage will be fully implemented citywide by 2024. Minneapolis joins Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., among other cities that have approved similar measures in recent years.

Lockheed Martins Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. subsidiary was awarded a U.S. Army contract worth $3.8 billion for Black Hawk helicopters for sale to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said on Friday. The contract for a multiyear production effort includes associated services for program system management, engineering, technical data and publications, the Pentagon said in a statement.

 From news reports


Alexis Gomezs Being, 3-D printed sculpture, on view at Target Gallery. (Alexis Gomez/Target Gallery)

Digital technology, which allows for the promiscuous duplication and dispersal of images, is not necessarily a friend to art galleries. But its hard to avoid, and impossible to ignore. Thus, the vogue for shows such as Target Gallerys Glitch, whose 11 artists mate computerized devices with more traditional media  and with the human form itself.

Alexis Gomezs Being is a 3-D outline based on a scan of the artists body, its nine slices cut by a computer-operated machine, but finished by hand. Lyric Princes video animation represents a childhood concussion that might have been a hard reboot of my brain. Less personally, Zach Nagle distorts images from fashion magazines, stretching willowy models into even more elongated figures, and distorting black-and-white fabric patterns into prism-like color.

In the cyber era, personal identity isnt always corporeal. Tracy Miller-Robbinss projected animation represents the female spirit, while Eric Corriels digital-generated light piece transforms all 710 of the artists computer passwords into blotches of purple and green. Maxim Leyzerovich provides local off-color with degraded digital prints of the District as seen by surveillance cameras.

The three jacquard weavings in Sasha de Konincks Zeroes and Ones might appear traditional, but they notate musical scores that play when a computer tablets camera reads them. Theres also a tablet in Jill Burkss piece, but the digital animation unspooling on its screen is largely obscured under a sheet of yellow-gridded glass. This might be an act of revenge on crisp digital imagery, or simply an acknowledgment that everyone, computer-assisted or not, perceives the world through a glass darkly.

Glitch: An Exploration of Digital Media On view through July 9 at the Torpedo Factory, Target Gallery, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. 703-746-4590. torpedofactory.org/target.



Rosemary Feit Coveys Gingko, mixed media on canvas, on view at Morton Fine Art. (Rosemary Feit Covey/Morton Fine Art)

Rosemary Feit Covey

Nature teems in Rosemary Feit Coveys large mixed-media paintings. Hundreds of pink and red fish school in spirals, and uncountable yellow ginkgo leaves cover most of a deep blue background. Yet the Washington artist has doubts about the fecundity she depicts. Her Morton Fine Art show is titled The Planet Is a Delicate Thing.

Coveys skills include woodblock printing, whose carving technique she incorporates into low-relief pictures that are partly engraved and partly painted. This arrays epic, Black Ice, is an immersive eight-panel tableaux; it fills the gallerys longest wall with blue-and-white ice floes on a darker-than-wine sea. The dramatic Arctic oceanscape, like the polar bear on the adjacent wall, was inspired by a trip to northern Norway.

The artist doesnt directly portray ecological disasters, although this show includes one of the bone-pile pictures she has exhibited at Morton before. But global warming menaces the polar scenes, and those fish are fleeing the oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout. Coveys responses to such disasters are both expansive and exquisitely detailed.

Rosemary Feit Covey: The Planet Is a Delicate Thing On view through July 9 at Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave. NW. 202-628-2787. mortonfineart.com.



Jeremy Flicks 575015755, acrylic on canvas, on view at Studio 1469. (Jeremy Flick/Studio 1469)

The Eye of Faith Flanagan

Watching over the current exhibition at Studio 1469 is a large but faint drawing of local art curator and patron Faith Flanagan, rendered by Ian Jehle in pink pencil. The portrait can be seen as fragile or unearthly, either of which now seems apt: The Eye of Faith Flanagan is a memorial to the D.C. art curator and patron, who died suddenly in January.

The show features work by nearly two dozen artists and includes items from Flanagans own collection. Sales will benefit the District of Columbia Arts Center, where Flanagan had served as a board member.

The selection is diverse in style as well as media. A small Erik Thor Sandberg painting recalls the grotesqueries of Bruegel and Bosch, while Jeremy Flicks hard-edged abstraction places one crimson square amid cool and neutral hues. The photographs document excursions such as William Christenberrys to rural Alabama (of course) and Jayme McLellans to a sideshow populated by inflatable superheroes. Thom Flynn constructed a stripe painting by collaging found posters, while Brandon Morses computer-generated video perpetually builds and collapses a structure of black lines. It is, in a way, a vision of eternity.

The Eye of Faith Flanagan On view through July 8 at Studio 1469, 1469 Harvard St. NW, rear. 202-518-0804. studio1469.com.



Jorge Caligiuris Unseen III, on view at Watergate Gallery. (Jorge Caligiuri/Watergate Gallery & Frame Design)

Jorge Caligiuri

Fresco and encaustic are ancient techniques, and Jorge Caligiuri uses them to make art that appears timeworn. Yet the Philadelphia artist included in the Watergate Gallery show Motion is an abstractionist whose principal motifs are stripes and circles. These dont bleed into the surface, as in post-painterly color-field pictures. Instead, theyre built up with, or punched into, thick layers of pigment. Rendered on wood panels, the near-sculptural pictures employ mostly muted hues, with the occasional vivid contrast.

At their simplest, Caligiuris paintings suggest close-ups of battered stucco walls or (like Thom Flynns piece at Studio 1469) found-object assemblages. Theyre stark in design yet rich in nuance. Interestingly, the artists newest frescoes are less minimalist. Although the colors remain quiet, these appealing Cubist-influenced compositions break loose of regular patterns.

The show also includes stainless and mild-steel sculptures by Richard Binder, whose usually sleek but occasionally funky pieces are often shown at the gallery.

Motion: In Two and Three Dimensions: Richard Binder & Jorge Caligiuri On view through July 8 at Watergate Gallery, 2552 Virginia Ave. NW. 202-338-4488. watergategalleryframedesign.com.



Ed Coopers April Waters, oil on canvas, on view at Susan Calloway Fine Arts. (Ed Cooper/Susan Calloway Fine Arts)

Chesapeake Views

If no longer the immense protein factory extolled by H.L. Mencken, the Chesapeake Bay is still abundant in vistas. The three oil painters in Chesapeake Views at Susan Calloway Fine Arts  Virginias Ed Cooper, Washingtons Stephen Day and New Yorks Judith Vivell  travel different distances to reach the area, and portray it in different ways.

The only one of the trio who includes signs of human presence, Cooper contributed one large and more than a dozen small pictures. His work is the most realistic and excels at simulating the play of light. Vivells style is ever so slightly looser, and evocatively captures the soft colors and shapes of cloudy days or misty mornings.

Days work is nearly abstract, but divided into horizontal slices that represent water or sky. The artist make that clear by adding a form of plaster to the occasional band of color, yielding textures that suggest currents or clouds. The results are crisp and clean, with just a hint of real-world grit.

Chesapeake Views On view through July 8 at Susan Calloway Fine Arts, 1643 Wisconsin Ave. NW. 202-965-4601. callowayart.com.
Police nationwide shot and killed 492 people in the first six months of this year, a number nearly identical to the count for the same period in each of the prior two years.

Fatal shootings by police in 2017 have so closely tracked last years numbers that on June 16, the tally was the same. Although the number of unarmed people killed by police dropped slightly, the overall pace for 2017 through Friday was on track to approach 1,000 killed for a third year in a row.





The Washington Post began tracking all fatal shootings by on-duty police in 2015 in the aftermath of the 2014 killing in Ferguson, Mo., of Michael Brown, who was unarmed and had an altercation with the officer who shot him. The ongoing Post project has documented twice as many shootings by police in 2015 and 2016 as ever recorded in a single year by the FBIs tracking of such shootings, a pattern that is emerging again in 2017.

Since Browns killing in Ferguson, other fatal shootings by police, many captured on video, have fueled protests and calls for reform. Some police chiefs have taken steps in their departments to reduce the number of fatal encounters, yet the overall numbers remain unchanged.

Academics who study shootings give weight to The Posts accounting.

These numbers show us that officer-involved shootings are constant over time, said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina who has studied police use of force. Some places go up, some go down, but its averaging out. This is our society in the 21st century.

As in previous years, the data gathered by The Post showed that police most frequently killed white males who were armed with guns or other kinds of weapons. One in four people killed this year were mentally ill. And police have continued to shoot and kill a disproportionately large number of black males, who account for nearly a quarter of the deaths, yet are only 6 percent of the nations population.

This year, fatal shootings of unarmed people have declined, continuing a trend over the past two years. In the first six months of this year, 27 unarmed people were fatally shot, compared with 34 for the same period in 2016 and 50 in the first six months of 2015.

Black males continued to represent a disproportionately large share of unarmed people killed, although their share has dropped slightly: from 32 percent of all unarmed killings during the first six months of last year to 26 percent for the same period this year.



Mourners emerge from the funeral for 15-year-old Jordan Edwards at Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church in Mesquite, Tex., on May 6, 2017. (Louis DeLuca/AP)

One of those seven unarmed black males killed was Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old high school freshman who was shot in April by a police officer in a Dallas suburb. An officer in Balch Springs opened fire with an AR-15 rifle on Edwards and his friends as they drove away from a party, according to news reports. The department initially said the teens tried to back over the officer but retracted the statement after officials reviewed video of the shooting. The officer, who is white, has been fired and charged with murder.



A woman holds a sign in honor of Charleena Lyles during a protest and rally in Seattle on June 20, 2017. (David Ryder/Getty Images)

Mental illness has remained a factor in fatal police shootings, as a quarter of those killed were struggling with some form of mental illness. Last month, Seattle police shot and killed Charleena Lyles, 30, a pregnant woman suffering from mental illness, after she called 911 to report an attempted burglary at her home. Police said Lyles pulled a knife on two officers, who both shot her. The Seattle Times reported that one of the officers, trained to use a Taser, was not carrying it, a violation of the departments policy.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which develops training programs and advises police chiefs around the country on policy, said some fatal shootings can be eliminated.

We know we can make a difference in cases where the person is mentally ill and in cases where someone is not armed with a gun, Wexler said.

The study by The Post has found that about 8 percent of the nations police departments have had at least one fatal shooting since 2015. Of those, most had only one.

All deadly force scenarios are different, and you could have five in a week and then not have any for a year, said Rodolfo Llanes, chief of the Miami Police Department.

Llanes noted that his department of 1,250 officers has gone as long as a year without firing a single bullet. [But] there will be that situation where there is a confrontation and deadly force is used. Police work is inherently ugly, he said.

The pace at which officers have been killed in the line of duty has held steady over the past two years.

According to the FBI, 21 police officers were killed from January to June 29, two fewer than in the same period last year. The 2016 year ended with 66 officers killed, not including accidental deaths. Since January 2015, according to the FBI, 128 police officers have been killed in the line of duty.

In Tulsa, police shot and killed one person in an 18-month stretch, and then, in the second half of 2016, officers shot and killed six, including Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man whose death led to criminal charges against an officer. Last month, that officer was acquitted of a charge of first-degree manslaughter.

This year, Tulsa officers have fatally shot four people.

Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said that his agency reviewed its use-of-force policy after the surge in shootings in 2016 but that there was not much the department could change.

Were a reflection of the society we live in, Jordan said.

In Los Angeles from January 2015 to the end of last month, city police officers shot and killed 47 people, the most for any U.S. police department in the period.

Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department said they have been working to reduce the number of deadly encounters. In the past two years, the department extensively tracked use of force, added training and updated its use-of-force policy, which now requires officers to de-escalate confrontations before firing their guns.

This year in Los Angeles, fatal shootings are down to seven, which Matthew Johnson, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, considers a small victory.

All these things in concert are going to have an impact on the need to use deadly force, but thats not to say were not going to have a bad quarter or a bad year, said Johnson, who made reducing the number of fatal shootings a priority when he took over as president of the commission in 2015.

About 360 miles away, Phoenix police have emphasized reforms but are leading the nation in fatal shootings in 2017. Officers there have fatally shot eight people, more than any other department.

The reforms began in 2014, after a year in which the Phoenix Police Department said it experienced an unusually high number of fatal and nonfatal shootings by its officers. The agency began an unprecedented review of those violent confrontations, modeling some of its reforms on those used in Las Vegas, where police reduced shootings from 11 in 2015 to three in 2016. This year, Las Vegas has had five fatal shootings by police.

Phoenix police were retrained in tactics to de-escalate encounters and avoid resorting to deadly force.

On June 23, a Phoenix police officer fatally shot a motorist when the driver accelerated toward him as the officer approached the car on foot. Two days later, police killed a man who fired a rifle at a police helicopter and pointed the weapon toward officers.

In February, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams defended her department in an op-ed for the Arizona Republic: None of our officers wanted to be put into a position where they felt they had no other choice but to use deadly force. She wrote that in each shooting, her officers had exhausted other options. It was their last resort.

There is no comprehensive government data source that tracks fatal shootings by police officers. The Post database relies on local news coverage, public records and social-media reports to identify fatal shootings by police.

Academics caution that fatal shootings are rare events in the universe of police-civilian interactions and say that more-complete data is needed about all police use of force.

What we really need to know is how many times police shoot people, not just how many of those people die, said David A. Klinger, a criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri in St. Louis who studies police use of force.

The FBI gathers information on fatal police shootings, but that program is based on voluntary reporting by police agencies and covers only cases in which police fatally shoot people who are committing felonies. The Posts data has revealed a dramatic undercount by the FBI.

The Posts project, and a similar counting effort by the Guardian newspaper in 2015, prompted now-fired FBI director James B. Comey to call his own agencys systemembarrassing and ridiculous. In October 2016, the Justice Department announced that it would move forward with plans to collect better data about officer-involved shootings.

The FBI said it would launch Saturday a pilot study of that data collection program that will gather a broad range of information on use of force from about 50 local and federal law enforcement agencies. The FBI said it intends to begin nationwide collection of the data in 2018.

When a police officer takes a life, thats a significant event, said Darrel Stephens, the executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. The group, which includes 80 police chiefs and sheriffs, helped advise the FBI on the pilot program. We should know on a national basis how many times that happens and under what circumstances.

Samuel Walker, an expert on police accountability and a criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, said that because of the large number of U.S. police agencies, years of reforms may be required before the number of shootings declines.

There is no single quick fix, Walker said. You have to have a really systemic approach.

Ted Mellnik, Steven Rich, Jerrel Floyd and Catherine York contributed to this report. This article was produced in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, where Thebault, York and Floyd are students.
Exceptional Excellent Very Good



(Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)

Weve had some glorious summer days of late, so to celebrate here are two new roses as scene-setters to slake your thirst, plus a savory pinot noir, a white Burgundy and a fun Malbec.

Domaine de Fussiacus Saint-Veran 2015

Burgundy, France, $21

Fussiacus is the ancient Roman spelling for the town of Fuisse in a part of Burgundy known for producing some the worlds greatest chardonnay. This beauty is another reminder to buy 2015 vintage wines from France  any part of France  whenever we can find them. The ripe vintage chardonnay produces something akin to peach cobbler in a glass: Think juicy, sweet peaches with a buttery biscuit topping. Then drink it in. Alcohol by volume: 13 percent.

Distributed by Elite: Available in the District at Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits, MacArthur Beverages, Whole Foods Market (Foggy Bottom); on the list at Le Diplomate, Matisse, Mirabelle. Available in Maryland at Fairgrounds Discount Beverages in Timonium, Friendship Wine & Liquor in Abingdon, the French Paradox Wines in Stevenson, Reds Wine & Spirits in Kingsville, SoCo Fine Wine & Spirits in Deale; on the list at Ouzo Bay in Baltimore. Available in Virginia at Dominion Wine and Beer in Falls Church, Grand Cru in Arlington, Libbie Market in Richmond, the Town Duck in Warrenton, Vino Market in Midlothian, Whole Foods Market (Alexandria, Arlington).

Brooks Pinot Noir 2014

Willamette Valley, $28

This wine was reticent when I opened it, as though it didnt like being called to perform just yet. But a half-hour or so later, it opened into a lovely, savory wine with dark berry fruit and more than a hint of earth. ABV: 13 percent.

Distributed by Country Vintner: Available in the District at S&R Liquors; on the list at DBGB Kitchen & Bar, Del Friscos Double Eagle Steak House, Mirabelle, Squash on Fire. Available in Maryland at Old Line Fine Wine, Spirits & Bistro in Beltsville; on the list at Artifact Coffee and Grand Cru in Baltimore, Carrols Creek Cafe in Annapolis, the Dish and Dram in Kensington. Available in Virginia at Oakton Wine Shop; on the list at 2941 in Falls Church.

Great Value

E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone Rose 2016

Rhone Valley, France, $16

From a top producer in the northern Rhone Valley, this rose is a perennial favorite. It offers strawberry flavors, a hint of herbs, and good value. ABV: 13.5 percent.

Distributed by M. Touton: Available in the District at Best in Liquors, Cairo Wine & Liquor, Capital City Wine & Spirits, Capitol Hill Wine and Spirits, Eye Street Cellars, Pan-Mar Liquor, Rodmans, Sherrys Fine Wine & Spirits. Available in Maryland at Bethesda Co-Op in Cabin John, Crestwood Liquors, Old Farm Liquors, Riverside Liquors, Village Mart Beer & Wine and Ye Old Spirit Shop in Frederick, Downtown Crown Wine and Beer in Gaithersburg, the Old Vine and Smittys Liquors in Baltimore, Silesia Liquors in Fort Washington. Available in Virginia at Wegmans (various locations), Whole Foods Market (various locations).

Petit Jammes Malbec 2015

Cahors, France, $13

Fans of Argentinas malbecs should check out Cahors, the region in southwestern France that specializes in the grape. Cahors can be rustic and tannic, but this little charmer is more polished and modern in style. Enjoy it with red meat from the grill, takeout kebabs, pizza . . . you get the idea. ABV: 13.5 percent.

Distributed by Dionysus: Available in the District at New York Liquor Store, Rodmans. Available in Maryland at Balduccis and Bradley Food & Beverage in Bethesda, Wine Source in Baltimore. Available in Virginia at Balduccis (Alexandria, McLean), Unwined (Alexandria, Belleview).

Beauvignac Syrah Rose 2016

Pays dOc, France, $10

This is a straightforward, delicious rose, with berry and melon flavors and loads of refreshment. ABV: 13 percent.

Distributed by Kysela: Available in the District at Grape Intentions, Magruders, Morris Miller Wine & Liquor; on the list at the Black Squirrel. Available in Maryland at Eddies Liquors in Baltimore, Finewine.com in Gaithersburg, Libations in Millersville, Maple Lawn Wine & Spirits in Fulton, Orion Wine & Spirits in Frederick, Petite Cellars in Ellicott City, Port of Call Liquors in Solomons, Wine Loft in Pikesville. Available in Virginia at Culpeper Cheese Company, Kroger (various locations), Wine Seller in Williamsburg.

Availability information is based on distributor records. Wines might not be in stock at every listed store and might be sold at additional stores. Prices are approximate. Check Winesearcher.com to verify availability, or ask a favorite wine store to order through a distributor.


Ivanka Trump listens as her father speaks during an event on emerging technology at the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Ivanka Trumps office: clean, white, quiet. A zone of punctual start times and promptly offered water bottles, and a conference table at which she conducts meetings. A short, winding walk away from her fathers Oval Office downstairs.

She does not necessarily appreciate daily schedules. Neither does her father. When Ivanka needs to see the president, she stops by. When he needs to see her, he calls. When he wants her opinion, he asks for it and she gives it, but without expectation that it will be followed.

She sees her role as not to persuade, but to inform and support: That much is clear to White House staffers and friends who have observed the first daughters early months in the White House. Anyone who has invested in her the ability to change her father clearly doesnt understand the dynamic that has always governed their relationship and also the dynamic of a president and his staff. After all, she works for him.

The people are different. The decisions are different and the office is different, Ivanka, an assistant to the president, said in a recent extended interview in her office, one of the few shes granted. But he is the same person and I am the same person. And we interact in the same way as we always have.

One morning last week, she was one of the senior staff who convened around a long table in the White Houses Situation Room. On the agenda was solidifying her fathers remarks at the upcoming G-20, a global economic summit, particularly in a session relating to the economic empowerment of women.

Shes been the advocate to put these things on the presidents agenda, said a senior White House official who was in the meeting.

Ivanka argued that the administrations message should focus on the barriers facing women: access to capital, access to markets  issues that were her personal interests before she maneuvered them onto her fathers official platform.

In the meeting, she was, as usual, collegial and thoughtful, thanking the mid-level staffers present for their research and work.

A few hours earlier, her father had already issued a few words on one woman. Just before 9 a.m. the president had gone on a Twitter bender, targeting MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. He called her crazy and low IQ. He described her as coming to his Florida estate, bleeding badly from a facelift.

The media and political world exploded  another days-long uproar over a sexist remark by the impetuous @RealDonaldTrump. His words were again seen as tearing down the platform Ivanka says she is trying to build. People wondered: Who would dare tell him to stop undermining his office and damaging himself?

Where are Jared and Ivanka right now? Politico demanded.

Ivanka was discussing policy.

And then she went, presumably, back to her West Wing Office  small by CEO standards, big by White House ones  and to what has become the most complicated father-daughter dance in the history of American politics.

For Ivanka, moving to Washington has been a masters course in the zigzagging political process. But there is no rule book for dealing with a presidents discombobulating tendency to overshadow everything she and everyone else in his administration is trying to do.

Her response to what she called all the noise has been to retreat into a cocoon of carefulness, to put her head down and work. Every time Im a little tired or frustrated  I remind myself that its the greatest privilege in the world to do this, to be in the White House, she said.



President Trump walks with his daughter Ivanka Trump from the Oval Office to board the Marine One helicopter. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

She is learning to more carefully weigh the consequences of her opinions, which impact not the family business, but the country and the world. Unlike in business, where she felt comfortable exchanging off-the-cuff opinions with her father, she now tries not to respond too quickly. She waits until he has asked her opinion multiple times on the same issue, taking that as a cue to its importance, and then she reaches out to subject-matter experts to help her develop a reasoned position.

When she disagrees with her dad, she asks herself whether the issue was a campaign promise or not. If it was, she readily suppresses her own wishes. She believes that doing otherwise would undermine what the American people voted for. She asks herself why her opinion is more right than the 46 percent of the country who put her father in office.

Foremost, she presents him with information. She tells him what she thinks, and then lays out what the other sides strongest arguments are. Then the president decides. As he always has.

My father trusts me to be an honest broker, Ivanka said. I dont have a hidden agenda. I have a very clear agenda. He knows exactly where I stand, and I express why I care. Theres no secrecy about it.

In a meeting with CEOs in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, she is her fathers mouthpiece, hosting business leaders who want to support his plan to boost workforce training. On a tour through a technical school in Wisconsin, she stayed at his shoulder, shaking hands and passing compliments to a man demonstrating an automated cutting machine. In a briefing with reporters, she constantly revises her notes with a felt-tip pen, but rarely needs to consult them as she speaks about the administrations proposal for a workforce training program.

She said shes pushing the administrations working-family agenda. She uses the language of her father  tremendous, incredible.

When you say daughter, when you say staffer  she is definitely not a staffer, said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn), who has met with Ivanka multiple times in the 16 weeks since she took on a role as adviser to the president. No question. That is not the case. I think its very much she is  I dont want to use the word peer, but she is a partner.

(Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump has relied on his daughters advice since she began working for him as a vice president at the Trump Organization, the tempered Athena to his furious Zeus. She was 24.

She did not build her life thinking she was going into politics, said a person close to Ivanka.

[Is Ivanka Trump building bridges  or walking a tightrope?]

Over the course of a decade working for her dad, she grew accustomed to offering her opinion, sometimes off the cuff, on the familys business portfolio: deals, properties, hotel openings and hotel design.

This is her portfolio now: Workforce development. Childcare tax credits and paid parental leave  issues that no American Congress has ever passed, and which have become Ivankas signature topics, and bellwethers for her success. Human trafficking. Last Tuesday, she stood by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a crowded State Department ceremony, honoring award recipients who have contributed to the study and eradication of trafficking.

When I have conversations with her, its really not about trying to influence the president, said Corker, who was at the event and has counseled Ivanka on the issue. In meeting with Ivanka, I feel like Im dealing with the principal who is going to be carrying out these issues in the White House.

At the conclusion of their meetings, on occasion Ivanka has walked Corker downstairs to wander into the Oval Office and say Hi to the president. And, it was clear to the senator that Ivanka has real power in the White House over the subjects that are on her agenda.

She may not be able to sway her fathers opinions. But she is throwing her weight behind issues such as family leave  building coalitions and, if all miraculously aligns, she could see Congress pass legislation that she has helped to push.

Says her husband, Jared Kushner: I think shes very lucky in that she cares less about what people think and more about if shes doing the right thing and will be able to get positive results. Ultimately thats what has and will make her very successful.



Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner hold their son Theodore James Kushner during the congressional picnic on the South Lawn in June. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

At its heart this is a story about fathers and daughters, and what happens when one becomes president of the United States and the other follows him to the White House and tries to make heads or tails of it.

This is a story of a daughter who leaves her beloved New York. Moves her three children to D.C. Marvels at having a house with an actual back yard, and wonders if the paparazzi who post themselves in front of their new home are paid in 10-hour shifts, because theyre always there to photograph when her husband Jared leaves for work at 6 a.m., but then are always gone by 4 p.m.

This is a story that gets exceptional because its the Trumps, for whom life and career are always entwined with family: Ivanka as a child, building future Trump towers out of Lego sets, as one of her favorite stories goes. An older Ivanka, using the interoffice envelopes in the real Trump Tower to send her father positive press clippings about himself, as an acquaintance remembers. Season after season of The Apprentice, with the fates of D-list celebrities determined by the opinions of the two Trumps.

Then as now, when Ivanka presents her dad with information, she said she tells him what she thinks, and then tries to tell him the opposing arguments.

A lot of the way people try to get things done, or sell things in Washington, is they present facts that align with the outcome that they want the other person to come to, she said. In business its the same  they tell you the good facts about a company, not the bad facts. I dont do that. I have never done that.

Maggie Cordish, a longtime friend whose husband now works in the Trump administration as an assistant to the president, said Ivanka understands what a privilege it is to find herself in this position and to be able to move the needle on things she cares about. . . . She uprooted herself from New York to come down here to get things done.

As she goes about her work, there is another oddity that is Ivanka-specific: the fact that she becomes a cipher into which people pour their own beliefs and aspirations, the fact that multiple people can sit in a room with her and each believe she is speaking directly to them.

Republican female lawmakers who have met with Ivanka spoke about her preparedness, and their excitement to have a representative from the White House who cared about issues they had worked on, in some cases, for years. Multiple male lawmakers spoke at length about her elegance and her grace; and then worried out loud that they seemed enamored of her.



Director of Oval Office operations Keith Schiller, far left, Vice President Pence, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner listen as the president speaks about last months shooting in Alexandria, Va., where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others were wounded. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

In the eye of Democrats, Ivanka is forever moving one step forward and two steps back, forever caught up in her fathers unseemly dramas. Three months into her official role, observers who analyze her influence on Donald Trump are still doing so via a method of reading her tweets like tea leaves: Ivanka sends out support for refugees on World Refugee Day, against a father interminably stumping for a travel ban. Ivanka wishes her LGBT followers a happy Pride month, while her father eschewed Barack Obamas tradition of issuing a proclamation. At times, she comes across as earnest, if slightly oblivious; at times it seems like she knows exactly what she is doing, which is goading her dad.

Ivanka, taken out of context, is rarely offensive. But Ivanka is all context  the context of her father. He is why people write about her, dissect her, fret over her. She is playing a flute in an orchestra. He is running around banging a gong in the background, making her look tone-deaf.

***

Trent Franks, a Republican congressman from Arizona, recently received an invitation from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for a meeting to brainstorm a pro-family tax code. A special participant  the predicate of the meeting, as Franks saw it  would be Ivanka Trump, the woman whose father had spent an election cycle gleefully referring to the meetings host as Little Marco.

Nine Republican lawmakers gathered around a table at which the first daughter spoke softly enough that other participants fell silent to hear her bring greetings from the president and talk about her desire for a child-care tax credit and paid family leave. The roundtable, and Ivankas behavior in it, was representative of how she has come to conduct business in Washington.

She was a very active listener, said Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), noting that Ivanka responded to each participants favored issue  an adoption tax credit, a caregiver tax credit  as if she had personally researched them.

In every sincere way, said Franks, I left and felt like this was a meeting of consequence.



Ivanka Trump listens at an American Technology Council roundtable at the White House last month. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Ivanka left and told Kushner  in one of the frenetic catch-ups that the couple holds, sometimes in his office, sometimes in the 11-11:20 p.m. timespan between when her husband gets home and when the two go to bed  that the meeting had been really positive.

Paid parental leave is on the administrations proposed budget this year: a mandated six weeks for birth and adoptive parents. Ivanka knows proposed budgets never survive intact, an aide said, and that the proposal could struggle to find support from either Democrats, who dont think it goes far enough, or from conservative Republicans, who disagree with a mandate at all.

I think theres going to be a question of whether it gets there, but you know, shes happy that people are talking about this  and again shes working hard to build a coalition and understanding around the issue, said a person close to Ivanka in the White House, who requested anonymity to speak openly.

While Ivanka did meet privately with her home state Senator, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, according to the Associated Press, her early public meetings have largely included Republicans on Capitol Hill, leaving some Democrats who have pressed the legislation for decades wondering about her strategy.

I appreciate what Ivanka Trump is doing to elevate the issue to make it part of the public discourse, said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), a veteran advocate for family leave whose own proposed bill was analyzed alongside the Trump administrations in a recent collaborative study by the liberal Brookings Institution and the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.

I havent met with her. I havent been asked to meet with her, DeLauro adds. I dont want to be presumptuous, but since I have been engaged in these issues on the House side for such a long time Id hope that I would be included in a discussion of these issues.

***

When Donald Trump announced he would be pulling out of the global climate change agreement known as the Paris climate accord, it angered liberals who had put their hopes in Ivanka. She had personally met with Al Gore, and gotten Leonardo DiCaprio into a room with her father to talk about climate change. She telephoned business executives, encouraging them to reach out to her father and tell him to stay in the deal. He didnt.

Is it possible shes doing nothing to moderate her father? asked exasperated HBO host John Oliver  and aides say she felt frustrated. She had done her job, as she saw it, exposing her father to a variety of ideas, but she couldnt make her father commit to something he didnt want to.

That is her typical approach. I am not sort of trying to selectively curate information that will lead him to agree with me, she said. Debate is good.

In other interviews, she has said she would never criticize her father in public. Where I disagree with my father, he knows it, she told CBSs Gayle King in a televised interview in April. People who know her say that speaking out in public would be inappropriate.

At times it seems like the question of whether Ivanka could change her fathers mind misses the question of how much she wants to. Understanding her requires understanding them as a unit.

A childhood friend of Ivankas remembers a moment during the campaign. Ivanka was scheduled to come to California and be interviewed on stage for a Fortune magazine-sponsored summit on powerful women. The friend lived nearby, so Ivanka invited her to attend. It was supposed to be more about her, and being a successful woman in business, the friend recalls. But it was hard for them not to turn it around to something like, How do you define your fathers actions about X that day? 

Day X, a quick Google search reveals, took place shortly after the presidents leaked Access Hollywood tape. Without preamble, the Fortune interviewer asked for Ivankas reaction.

Way to warm up! Ivanka said, laughing. Its lovely to be here in California.

The friend, who asked to speak anonymously, remembered being nervous on Ivankas behalf, but then unsurprised at Ivankas easy response. Ivanka noted that her father had apologized and had always treated her with respect.

1 of 68 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Ivanka Trump: A life in the spotlight View Photos Heres a look at Ivanka Trumps early life of privilege and transformation into a business executive, first daughter and adviser to the U.S. president. Caption Heres a look at Ivanka Trumps early life of privilege and transformation into a business executive, first daughter and adviser to the U.S. president. July 16, 2014 Ivanka Trump poses for a portrait at Trump Tower in Manhattan. Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

That ease could be traced to half a lifetime in the public eye: She started modeling as a teenager and spent nearly a decade on prime-time TV with her father. And she had become used to explaining his behavior.

[Ivanka Trump faces boos and groans along with applause at Berlin summit]

The same thing happened in April in Germany: Ivanka was invited by Chancellor Angela Merkel to attend a summit on how to achieve equality for women. Ivanka showed up and was immediately asked to defend her fathers statements about women. The fact that Merkel announced Ivankas involvement with a World Bank fund for women-owned businesses was overshadowed by stories about whether some audience members had booed Ivankas rationalization of her dads behavior.

The same thing happened last week while she was in the Situation Room for the G-20 meeting. On Twitter, a flurry of commenters were blasting Ivanka to explain her father.

Ivanka is always asked to explain her father.

But, the childhood friend notes: In more than two decades of knowing Ivanka, she has never once heard her complain about that.
It would be of interest to many to read about the beach resorts founded by local newspapers. If I remember correctly, The Washington Post had Woodland Beach and the Times Herald had Herald Harbor, both in Anne Arundel County, Md. I spent my summers at Woodland Beach during the 1950s in a cottage my grandmother bought when they were first placed on the market.

 Bob OConnor, Ocean City

In 1931, The Washington Post created a beach resort on the South River near Annapolis as a way to get more subscribers. Ads for Woodland Beach promised woods and water, shade and sun in a location just 32 miles from Washington. You could buy a plot of land only if you got The Post, ensuring that all of your neighbors at the summer getaway would be fellow Post readers.

Sounds like heaven to Answer Man.

The crazy thing is, The Post wasnt the first Washington newspaper to embrace a circulation-boosting scheme that today may strike us as odd. In 1924, the Washington Herald had done the same thing, carving Herald Harbor out of a former peach orchard on the other side of Annapolis, on the Severn River.





Answer Man likes to imagine residents of both communities sailing into the Chesapeake Bay and waging fierce naval battles against one another. Talk about a newspaper war.

The 460 acres that became Herald Harbor were purchased in May of 1924 by three executives from the paper. By the end of the month, front-page stories in the Herald touted the community and invited subscribers to escape the hot and hazardous streets of the city. If you had $25, you could get a 25-by-100-foot lot. Waterfront lots sold for $200.

It seems inconceivable to Answer Man that the executives could have acted without the approval of the papers owner, the formidable William Randolph Hearst, but apparently they did. In any case, Hearst was furious about the scheme. He ordered that the paper sever ties to Herald Harbor. Three weeks after the resort was announced, the Herald ran an article headlined, Herald Harbor Company Is Not a Hearst Newspaper Project.

Still, it was current and former Herald executives who continued to oversee the project, which continued to have a newspaper vibe. In 1925, readers of the Evening Star were invited to buy lots in an area of Herald Harbor known as Star City.

One group was not invited: African Americans. As the Herald wrote: This particular club and colony is for white people.

Seven years later, The Post started its own beach colony. An ad proclaimed: Everyone desires to get away from the city to the shore during the hot months, and to own a piece of land at a desirable shore resort where one can leave every-day cares for days of rest and relaxation.

A single 20-by-100-foot lot was $93. And this amount need not be paid in full, The Post wrote. A down payment of $9 permits selection of your lot, and then you may pay $3.50 a month until the obligation has been fulfilled. The only restriction on the purchase of a Woodland Beach lot is that you must be a subscriber to The Washington post, either old or new.

Were these gimmicks successful from a circulation point of view? At this remove, its hard to say. But Answer Man is doubtful. The lure of Woodland Beach wasnt enough to keep The Post from sliding into insolvency. Two years after the community was founded, the paper was bankrupt, and Eugene Meyer bought it for $825,000. In 1954, the Herald  by then called the Times-Herald  was bought by The Post.

Both beach communities still exist. They are no longer summer refuges but year-round neighborhoods. Most of the primitive bungalows have been torn down and replaced by more modern dwellings.

Herald Harbor is still called Herald Harbor, but in the 1960s, Woodland Beach dubbed itself London Towne, the name of an earlier settlement on the peninsula and of a Colonial-era almshouse there.

John Rhoadss parents bought a waterfront parcel in Woodland Beach in 1960 from the original owners, two brothers who ran a photography business on Ninth Street NW and had put up a pair of rustic beach houses. In 2006, John, a retired Prince Georges police chief, replaced the uninsulated buildings with a modern house.

Im standing out in the front yard, John said over the phone. There is a breeze blowing that takes away much of the humidity.

Answer Man wondered whether residents there felt any loyalty to the great media organ that started the colony 86 years ago. Does John read The Post?

At 5:30 every morning, theres a paper in my driveway, he said.

Good man.

Twitter: @johnkelly

What dont you know that youd like to know? Maybe Answer Man knows. Send an email to answerman@washpost.com.

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
A surprising constituency agrees with critics of Washingtons gentrification that wealthy newcomers are driving housing prices through the roof: wealthy newcomers.

A new Washington Post poll finds 78 percent of people who moved to Washington in the past 15 years with incomes of at least $150,000 per year say that new high-income residents are a major reason for the shortage of affordable housing in the city.

Concern is widespread across racial and income groups, as well as those who have both lost and benefited amid the citys rapid development in the past few decades.





Nearly 1 in 5 D.C. residents named housing as the biggest problem facing the District, outpacing crime, education and even the oft-lamented Metrorail system.

While Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) earns a 67 percent overall approval rating, 55 percent of respondents say she has done a not so good or poor job creating and maintaining affordable housing.

Beyond wealthy newcomers, majorities of District residents blame the city government for not spending enough to create and maintain affordable housing, failing to ensure benefits go to residents who need it most and catering too much to the needs of developers.

The city has done a decent job of developing areas that needed it, but thats pushed a lot of lower-income families out, said Daniel Nilsen, a 35-year-old government worker who moved to the District in 2005. Nilsen rents an apartment near Logan Circle, but when he lived in Bloomingdale, he watched as gentrification and the increased rents that came with it forced out long-term residents. The city needs to figure out a way to balance being good for the economy and preserving these areas.

Daniel Pedraza, a 35-year-old diplomat from Colombia, said development is good for the city but comes at the cost of the displacement of communities that dont have good-paying jobs or dont have jobs at all.

In terms of policies that create more affordable housing, the city should do more, said Pedraza, who added that he supports Bowser. In Bogota, the Colombian capital, which has a population of 8 million that dwarfs the District, the government subsidizes housing for low-income residents, Pedraza said.

The rise in D.C. housing costs has been stark, with the median home value tripling from $136,200 in 2000 to $484,000 last year, and rents rising in parallel. Bowser added $100 million annually toward affordable housing programs, an ambitious approach compared to other major cities. Yet a recent city audit claimed a major program was beset by mismanagement, and a Washington Post investigation found the city forfeited millions in federal housing aid because it missed key deadlines.

While three-quarters of residents polled say wealthy newcomers are a major factor behind the dearth of affordable housing, 64 percent fault the District government for not spending enough to create and maintain that housing. The same percentage say the city government caters too much to the needs of developers. And 54 percent blame the city for not ensuring help for those who need housing assistance the most, while 30 percent say a major cause is people seeking housing aid they dont need.

Jacque Perry, 62, said she doesnt think the city is doing enough to make sure redevelopment benefits all residents.

As an African American, its been painful to watch the exit of other African Americans, said Perry, who has seen redevelopment fundamentally alter the racial and economic makeup of the Capitol Hill neighborhood where she grew up.

Shes watched as friends and neighbors have left the District, many for less-expensive Prince Georges County. Its quickly becoming Ward 9, to be flip, she added.

While not being priced out of the city, rising housing costs have driven some residents with above-average incomes to live elsewhere. Sandy Abdallah, 32, said she is moving to San Diego this week after three years in Washington because of the cost of living.

It wasnt so much about the rent  it was more that we could get twice as much in San Diego as we can in D.C., where she and her husband have paid $2,300 monthly for a 650-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment between Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan with her husband.

Gentrification is one of those words that can be good, or it can mean losing diversity and culture, said Abdallah, who is white and makes more than $100,000 annually as a consultant. As higher-income residents move in, they should get to know the communities, and dig into what is here rather than build over it, she said.

The Post poll finds 67 percent of city residents saying District redevelopment efforts to attract new businesses and residents have been mainly good for people like them, higher than 61 percent who said so in 2015.

Just over half of African American residents surveyed say redevelopment has benefited people like them, compared with nearly 9 in 10 whites. Positive ratings of redevelopment dip to 47 percent among those who say they are falling behind financially, rising to 62 percent among those who are making just enough to maintain their standard of living and 86 percent of those who say they are getting ahead.

Other residents are sharper in their criticism.

I feel bad about it, said David Sanchez, 35, who lives near the rapidly changing Southwest waterfront area. The city is bringing in a lot of housing that is outside of the amount of money that most people can . . . afford.

Sanchez, who grew up outside Dallas, earns $75,000 a year at a nonprofit but says he finds it virtually impossible to afford to buy a house in the District. Instead, he rents an apartment where water pressure is poor and the lights sometimes break, but at least the rent is low  $900 a month  by D.C. standards.

Newcomers to the District  like himself  have a responsibility to understand the impact of their arrival on long-term residents, he said.

Homelessness is a visible problem, and the city should be sure it is supporting mental health programs as it fights homelessness, he said.

You would expect the nations capital to be on top of homelessness, Sanchez said.

The number of homeless people in the District dropped 11 percent since last year, according to a report released in May. But there are still 7,473 people in the city who are homeless, which is higher than the total in 2015, when Bowser took office.

The poll finds residents sense little improvement when it comes to homelessness, with almost 4 in 10 Washingtonians saying the problem is getting worse, while just under 1 in 10 think its getting better. Half say its staying the same  a judgment thats not necessarily good or bad  though over 6 in 10 rate Mayor Bowser negatively for her management of the issue.

Concerns about homelessness peak among those who are more financially stressed. Nearly 6 in 10 of those who say theyre falling behind financially think homelessness is getting worse, compared with just under 3 in 10 who say theyre getting ahead financially.

There are also stark differences along racial lines, with almost half of African American Washingtonians, 47 percent, saying homelessness is getting worse in the District, compared with 27 percent of white Washingtonians.

The Washington Post poll was conducted June 15-18 among a random sample of 901 adults living in the District, reached on cellular and landline phones. The margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus four percentage points.

Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
As the group of 15 teachers paddled their canoes into the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, their leader pointed out a tern ahead  stirring a moment of confusion.

Not a left turn or a right turn, explained Jocelyn Tuttle, who leads Baltimore harbor education programs for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. A tern  one of many seabirds common to the marshes the group was touring in Masonville Cove.

The educators from schools across Baltimore City had come to see the bay up close as part of a week-long summer school intended to improve environmental literacy among teachers, and eventually their students.

Although the bay is close to the heart of Baltimore, the educators said, its far from the minds of many youths in the city. And many of the teachers are realizing how unfamiliar it is for them, too.

In one activity, teachers were asked to consider how the broader bay watershed affects Masonville Cove, home to the nations first urban wildlife refuge.

Did any of you guys know that this exists? Theresa Dennis asked her colleagues.

Dennis, who teaches science, social studies and reading at Booker T. Washington Middle School for the Arts in Madison Park, said she is always looking for free and local experiences for her students. As she and her colleagues toured the Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center, she started thinking about ways her students could learn from a trip there.

The bay foundation has been holding this summertime crash course in Chesapeake ecology for about a decade. Organizers describe it as an investigation of ways that human activities and choices impact the ecosystems and natural habitats of the bay through the collection, analysis and interpretation of authentic data.

On Wednesday, that included an exercise collecting water samples from the Middle Branch and seeing up close that its marshes are strewn with trash and teeming with life.

That had followed a trip to Great Kids Farm, the city school systems working farm in Catonsville, and a tour of the Patapsco River Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Teachers were also set to meet with the water-quality advocacy group Blue Water Baltimore and tour Cylburn Arboretum before venturing back out onto the bay aboard a bay foundation work boat .

Im really hoping these teachers can take away lessons they can bring back to their students, Tuttle said  anything that can help them connect their actions to life in the water.

Todd Closson, who leads the PRIDE program for students with behavioral and emotional disabilities at Digital Harbor High School, said he was already imagining his students visiting the farm and the Masonville Cove center. He said African American students, in particular, dont feel a strong connection to the harbor, but the course experience was giving him ideas of ways to change that.

It helps us to develop curriculum thats hands-on, he said. Im trying to find ways to engage these kids, maybe in careers.

Wavie Gibson III, a chemistry teacher at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, said many students see his subject in isolation. In physics, students can study roller coasters, and biologists can dissect animals. His field trip reminded him that students could be exploring what chemistry reactions happen among pollutants in the water.

Its more than the lab and a textbook, he said.

There was plenty for the teachers to learn, too.

After taking water samples from the Middle Branch as well as bringing samples taken from bay tributaries closest to their schools, they learned how to analyze their temperature, electric conductivity and pH levels.

The teachers used equipment that is available at every Baltimore high school, except charter schools, but they were items few of them had ever used or had any idea how to help students use.

Which is most important if Im a fish? Tuttle asked the group. The group responded in a chorus: pH.

As a fish, she explained, the acidity of a waterway could affect my ability to have babies, or the slime film on my scales.

Staff from the Maryland Environmental Service led the teachers through an activity analyzing a series of maps that is usually presented to middle and high school students. The state agency works with the Maryland Port Administration and the Living Classrooms Foundation on outreach and education at Masonville Cove.

The cove was a popular watering hole more than a century ago. But then, for generations, it was used as an industrial dump site. Its now home to an active dredge-material containment facility in addition to the education center and refuge.

The teachers divided into groups that studied maps of the bay watershed or of the prevalence of paved surfaces across Maryland. They came to a conclusion that environmentalists know but the average student might not: That stormwater runoff flushes pollutants from across the city and the bay watershed into places including Masonville Cove.

They also expressed shock at the large number of plastic bottles they saw during their canoe trip.

Rachael Gilde, who helps lead the state environmental services education programs at the center, reminded the teachers that the bottles stand out only because they float.

Think about how much more is in the water column and how much is at the bottom, she said.

They also saw signs of life in the cove. The port administration began clearing it of trash and debris in 2007.

Along with the tern, the teachers saw the abundance of birds that have made Masonville a popular spot for birdwatchers.

After a tour of the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Tuesday, the contrast between the darkest days for the Chesapeake Bay and its rehabilitation since was clear to Gibson.

The overall quality of the bay is actually improving, he said. Were in better shape now, but we still have a long way to go.
As Maryland orders an investigation into whether grades were manipulated to drive up graduation rates in Prince Georges County, employees at several of the districts high schools say they have encountered signs of grade tampering and pressure to pass their students.

Eight employees, based in six of the countys 22 high schools, described in interviews with The Washington Post grading incidents they found troubling after allegations emerged of corruption in the school system. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) asked for an investigation on June 25, and the state board of education voted to pursue it two days later.

Prince Georges school officials deny that they engaged in any effort to fraudulently inflate graduation rates, while those who made the allegations  a minority bloc on the 14-member county school board  say dozens of whistleblowers have come forward with evidence.

Employees interviewed on the issue agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, saying they feared retaliation for speaking out. Several told of being thwarted if they tried to fail a student, which they described as part of a larger push to raise on-time graduation rates.

Its a problem weve been dealing with a few years now, but it has definitely gotten worse, one teacher said.

[Maryland officials vote to conduct investigation of graduation rates in Prince Georges County]

Kevin Maxwell, chief executive of the school system, has called allegations of systemic corruption baseless and politically motivated. He and the school boards majority said they welcomed a state-ordered review, saying it would put the issue to rest.

Maxwell has pointed to an earlier state investigation of graduation rates as evidence that the district does not have a problem. But critics have said that examination was not sufficiently impartial or broad, largely relying on several hours of interviews with Maxwell and four people he had a hand in selecting.

As the debate has intensified, some educators and other employees offered glimpses of what they see as the problem.

One said he did everything he could this year to help a senior headed toward failure  contacting parents, alerting a counselor and an administrator and referring him to a school intervention team. But little changed, so the teenager got an E  a failing grade  in an English course required for graduation.

A couple weeks later, he said, he spotted the student in a cap and gown, collecting a diploma. How that happened remains a mystery, he said. It solidified what Id heard about grades being changed and that administrators will do whatever it takes to make sure they meet their graduation rates, he said.

At another school, a teacher said two of her seniors this year missed weeks of school, did not do assignments or make up work, and failed her course. But the principal encouraged students and their families to appeal, she said, and their course grades were revised to a C and a D. She was told both graduated.

For a child not to come to class  maybe been in class three days in a whole quarter  and youre going to change their grade? she asked. Its not right. If they dont come to school, and they dont do the work, they deserve to fail. It doesnt help them.

The teacher said she believes such appeals and recovery packets of work are a front for grading changes that allow students to graduate. She said the focus is not only seniors: They do it for freshmen, sophomores and juniors. In all, she estimated grades were changed improperly for more than 10 of her students during the past few years.

At a third high school, an employee with firsthand knowledge said grade-change forms are often signed by the principal but not by teachers. The employee said the forms are often attached to academic packets designed to compensate for missed or failed work, but many of the packets are only partly complete.

I think its all a numbers game, the employee said, alleging that more than 100 students at the school graduated with the help of such changes during the past four years.

Four-year graduation rates in Prince Georges have jumped from 74.1 percent in 2013 to 81.4 percent in 2016  lower than the state average of 87.6 percent but the largest gain for that period of any school system in Maryland.

Maxwell has pointed to the progress as a signature accomplishment since he was hired as schools chief in 2013.

In February, he and other top administrators did a bus tour of the eight county high schools with a graduation rate of 90 percent or better. Students and staff cheered their success, with banners celebrating them as part of the 90 Percent Club.

Two years earlier, no Prince Georges high school was at 90 percent.

School system officials said they could not comment on questions employees raised about grades without knowing names of the students involved. But they said graduation rates have climbed in recent years as a result of several efforts.

The district has worked with high school principals to set targets for graduation rates, with increases of three to five percentage points over three years, officials said. They said the numbers are goals, with no penalties or bonuses involved.

[Four school board members in Pr. Georges County allege fraud in graduation rates]

They also said student support and intervention have been improved through early-warning systems that identify those at risk and a credit recovery program that gives failing students another chance at learning and boosting their grades so they can stay on track.

One teacher at a 90-percent school said that the day Maxwell and others arrived at her school, she and some of her colleagues rolled their eyes.

We knew that it wasnt real, she said. Its just common knowledge that they push kids through who shouldnt be pushed through. She said she worries about the message to younger siblings and students who show up and try hard. Why should they continue to work hard? she asked. Why should they come to school and listen to their teachers about putting in maximum effort when you dont have to?

Another longtime teacher said that in a couple of cases, students have let her know they passed her class when she knew they failed. She had not signed a grade-change form, she said. Its appalling to me, she said. Im not averse to helping a student pass. But when people are pressuring you to do it, when it happens behind your back, thats when its problematic.

At another county high school, a teacher said she once returned from a three-day leave that fell at the end of a marking period to find that all of her students with failing grades had been given 80 percent for the quarter. That was the threshold for a B, which she said they did not deserve. She said she complained, to no avail. She said tampering needs to stop.

Kids deserve to get educated, she said. You dont give someone a grade they didnt earn.

Prince Georges high school principals disputed allegations of improper practices, saying schools succeed for reasons including a laserlike focus on ninth-grade promotion rates and graduation rates, and programs that give learners a second chance to master content and earn credit.

Theres nothing magical about our methods and no shortcuts to our success, they said in a recent statement, voicing dismay that at a time of positive momentum, the school system was again a casualty of unfair, ugly scrutiny.

The credit recovery program in Prince Georges, expanded and standardized two to three years ago, is one focus of scrutiny. Some students may do packets of work aligned to their course that can provide extra points on a quarter grade. Another option involves lessons that are largely online, said special projects officer Janice Briscoe.

Maxwell has said that a majority of Maryland school systems have credit recovery programs, and that the districts efforts intend to provide students multiple pathways to succeeding in school.

[Maryland graduation rates hit new high, with big rise for Prince Georges]

At DuVal High School, a recent email The Post obtained shows that 14 days before graduation this year, more than 140 seniors still needed one last intervention.

If there is any last minute, (rub a genie in a bottle), assistance you can help our future scholars, please assist, (yes, one more time)! a counselor wrote.

Some saw the email as a sign of pressure to alter grades.

A school district spokeswoman said the email was sent by a member of DuVals staff, intending to make sure credit recovery options had been offered to students.

Some parents have voiced concerns, too.

Vida Kelly of Lanham, a DuVal mother, said its important that students do the work and come away with a solid education.

Something is going on, and our kids are on the losing end, she said. My prayer is that with all of this exposure, it changes things for the betterment of our children. Theyre there to learn, not to just be given grades and pushed along.
MARYLAND

Life sentence in drug distribution case

A Gaithersburg man was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to life in prison for distributing a drug more potent than heroin that led to the users death.

A federal jury convicted Justin Larson, 30, in January after a three-week trial showed Larson distributed acetyl fentanyl on May 9, 2014, to a user who later died, according to the office of the U.S. attorney for Maryland.

Acetyl fentanyl is similar to the painkiller fentanyl but is up to five times more powerful than heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Larson also was convicted of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and multiple counts of possession or attempted possession of a controlled substance and controlled substance analogue with intent to distribute, and one count of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance.

 Ellie Silverman

Break-in turns into homicide investigation

Prince Georges County police opened a homicide investigation Saturday after a shooting in a residential neighborhood near Brandywine.

Police spokesman Cpl. Harry Bond said detectives were on the scene of the shooting that left one dead in a home in the 12600 block of Lusbys Lane.

According to police, officers responded to a report of a shooting at about 12:30 p.m. and found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

In a statement posted to Twitter, police said two people broke into a home and exchanged gunfire with people inside the residence. One of the intruders was shot and killed. The other person is at large, Bond said, adding that there is no description of the person who fled.

One of the occupants of the home was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered to be life-threatening, police said in a statement.

Bond said the shooting does not appear to be random and that police are investigating ties between the occupants of the home and the intruders.

The motive for the break-in is under investigation, Bond said.

 Taylor Shapiro

Police nab four suspected thieves

Four men have been charged in connection with a string of residential burglaries and car thefts, including stealing two cars in one day from different houses, Montgomery County police said.

Police caught two of the men after they allegedly used stolen credit cards to purchase items at pharmacies in the District, and later identified the other men through evidence left in a stolen vehicle.

Oussama Kassimi, 25, and Rodrigo Adalberto Miranda, 37, both of an unconfirmed address, and Alejandro Josue Perez, 23, and Gary Johnson, 36, both of Northwest Washington, are linked to burglaries in the neighborhoods of White Oak, Kensington and Chevy Chase Terrace from May to June, police said.

The men face burglary and theft charges and are linked to incidents between May 29 and June 3 in which police said the four often entered occupied homes through unlocked doors or windows.

Online records do not indicate whether any of the men have a lawyer.

 Ellie Silverman
Mitch Jones, a senior policy advocate with Food and Water Watch, urges Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) to join a multi-state climate alliance during a rally outside the statehouse in Annapolis. State Sens. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery) and Paul Pinsky (D-Prince Georges), behind him, look on. (Josh Hicks/TWP)

With four Maryland progressive groups holding major events in different parts of the state last weekend, activists had to make tough choices about which activity to attend  or rush from one to the other.

Trying to avoid the same problem, another group is rethinking plans to hold a forum for gubernatorial candidates on Sept. 9, the day a different coalition of activists is scheduled to march on Washington for racial justice.

The scores of left-leaning organizations that have cropped up since the 2016 election often trip over each other as leaders try to harness a groundswell of opposition to President Trump and Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in a way that could impact the states 2018 election.

In addition to scheduling problems, they have clashed over issues as basic as whether to endorse a candidate early in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, or wait until all the hopefuls have had a chance to campaign.

There always seems to be some kind of conflict, said Betsy Halsey, who chairs United for Maryland, which had proposed the Sept. 9 forum. She hastened to add that she thinks the proliferation of groups is good for the progressive movement, and that efforts are underway to improve coordination.

Maryland Democratic Party chair Kathleen Matthews, right, says a proliferation of progressive groups in the state has been like rocket fuel for the party. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

Bob Muehlenkamp, a longtime activist who chairs Our Revolution Maryland, said the leaders of many emerging groups are new to political activity and are strategizing as they go along.

Theyve been very effective with various resistance activities since Trump was elected, but thats not enough, he said. You cant have an effective state legislative program or political program with these groups functioning on their own.

[Our Revolution Md. moves to endorse Jealous for governor]

The Maryland groups are part of a vocal and visible wave of activism that has swept the country since the 2016 election cycle. Progressive organizations fueled the upstart presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and turned the selection of a Democratic National Committee chair after the election into a battle between the partys left and centrist elements. But progressives ultimately lost both battles, with the nomination of Democrat Hillary Clinton and the selection of establishment favorite Tom Perez for DNC chair.

It remains to be seen whether progressive groups in Maryland will succeed in nominating one of their own to challenge Hogan in 2018, or will be able to achieve their other goals of pushing the party to the left in Annapolis and denting the governors sky-high approval ratings.

Im not sure yet how this will play out in the Democratic primary for governor, but I think it means going into the general election that there will be a lot of energy and activity, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

When progressive and resistance groups have formed a united front, they have often made an impact. For example, several joined forces this year to successfully fight a Baltimore County Council measure that would have required local correctional officers to participate in a federal program to carry out certain immigration-enforcement measures.

Many activist leaders say collaboration will be key to replicating that kind of success in the midterm elections.

We have to demonstrate and write letters to elected representatives, but that has to be backed up by then working on elections, supporting candidates that meet our ideology and even recruiting candidates, said Sheila Ruth, of the Baltimore County Progressive Democrats. In order to do that, we have to work together. Theres a lot at stake here  not only the Trump-Republican thing we have to resist, but we want to go beyond that and start to work toward progressive priorities.

Kathleen Matthews, who was tapped by party elders this year to chair the Maryland Democratic Party, has made a point of reaching out to progressives, inviting activists to participate in voter-outreach training sessions and giving Ruth a seat on the organizations diversity leadership council.

Matthews said she sees progressive groups becoming more and more organized despite their disparate efforts.

I see them as rocket fuel to help us move forward our efforts, she said. They have a lot of passion and determination and are working with us in many parts of the state.

State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), who has said he will run for governor in 2018 and is courting the progressive vote , said he sees some value in the chaos, as long as the groups are generally pointed in the same direction.

People are bringing their own activism and issues and enthusiasm to the table, he said. Its organic, its exciting, and Id hate for any part of that to be lost because there is a sense that we all have to coalesce around certain issues.

[At least two Democrats seek progressive mantle in Md. governors race]

Similarly, Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin, who specializes in U.S. politics and social movements, said that movements are messy but tend to succeed because people agree in general what direction to move.

For their part, Maryland Republicans say they are not particularly concerned about the surge in activism, and are focused on their quest to win enough seats in the state Senate to disrupt the Democrats veto-proof majority.

Anger is not a strategy, said state GOP chair Dirk Haire. Were pretty unified, and Ive been working closely with all of our various Republican groups across the state to make sure everyone is on the same page. Republicans arent sitting around in a salon in Takoma Park talking about how bad Trump is. Theyre walking the streets with an app on their phones, figuring out who might vote for us next year.

With just under a year until the Democratic primary, progressive groups disagree over whether and when to endorse one of the candidates vying for the right to challenge Trump.

Some want to hold off until candidates have participated in debates and proven that they can appeal broadly to an electorate, while others plan to endorse early, in part out of concern that the states Democratic leaders move quickly to help centrist candidates win the partys nomination.

We have to make the decision earlier and unite around one candidate and bring in all the resources  the money and the people  behind them, said Muehlenkamp, of Our Revolution, which on Friday started canvassing its supporters about endorsing Jealous, a former board member. You wont get the establishment Democratic Party to hold off. Theyll get together and quietly come up with whoever theyre going to support.

Groups associated with the Indivisible movement and Women Indivisible Strong Effective, say that endorsing a gubernatorial candidate could hurt their cause in conservative-leaning districts. Their leaders said they will focus instead on educating voters about the voting records of incumbents and where candidates stand on the issues.

If we go issue by issue, theres a lot more room for consensus, said Katherine Bain, a member of the steering committee for WISEs Severna Park chapter. We want to create a wealth of information for people and hopefully avoid this habit of people marking an entire column for either the Ds or the Rs.

Together We Will , which hosted a June 24 meeting with progressive leaders from across the state, is working to organize a follow-up session this fall, with the goal of coordinating strategies for the states 2018 legislative session and primary elections.

Additionally, a coalition of activists organizing as the progressive caucus plans to meet July 26 to discuss how to better coordinate their efforts.

Theres room for different strategies, Bain said. And well see at the end of the day if that adds up to more progressive candidates winning elections.
National Geographic writer Peter T. White, right, and photographer and editor Bill Garrett on assignment in Southeast Asia. (Courtesy of Kenneth Garrett/Courtesy of Kenneth Garrett)

Peter T. White was a National Geographic writer and editor who slogged through tropical rain forests, hiked the Tyrolean Alps, examined the addictive and therapeutic uses of the opium poppy and wrote about cannibalistic tribes in the Brazilian jungle who ate their dead as a gesture of respect.

Mr. White died May 22 at his home in Washington. He was 92. The cause was respiratory failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said his son, Norbert White.

Mr. Whites 38 years with National Geographic included lengthy visits to Southeast Asia, which he described as a place of hope and terror, known for bloodshed and the beauty of its temples.

From Laos in 1961, Mr. White wrote, The first rattle of machine guns, at 7:10 in the evening, roused around me the varied voices and faces of fear. Vientiane, the administrative capital, became known as the city of bullet holes, he wrote.

He was among the early corps of American journalists to report on the regions protracted conflicts that morphed into a Vietnamese war that would engulf the full military might of the United States and rend the fabric of the American soul.

For three decades, Mr. White was in and out of the region. In 1989, 14 years after Vietnam had been reunited under Communist rule, he returned for the National Geographic story, Vietnam: Hard Road to Peace, finding that the Hanoi-based government was making overtures to a capitalist world and groping for ways to invigorate a sluggish economy. Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, had officially become Ho Chi Minh City. But to the man in the street, it was still Saigon.

In 1986, Mr. White wrote about the painstaking search for clues and information from the debris at the Laotian site of a U.S. Air Force plane crash in 1972, with the loss of a 14-man crew. For nine days, investigators combed the newly discovered wreckage, finding some 5,000 bone fragments, many of them no larger than a rice kernel, Mr. White wrote.

Not all of his stories were exotic. In April 1983, he wrote The Fascinating World of Trash, storing his notes in boxes piled from floor to ceiling in his office. He carefully labeled each box trash.

Peter Theodor Futterweit was born May 11, 1925, in Vienna. His father was a Jewish World War I veteran of the Austro-Hungarian army who had been decorated for bravery. In civilian life, he ran a jewelry shop. The family lived in an upscale neighborhood of Vienna and took regular vacations in Italy and the Austrian Alps.

In June 1933, when Peter was 8, his father was killed by a bomb tossed into his shop during an anti-Semitic outburst of violence that followed Adolf Hitlers ascent to power in neighboring Germany.

In September 1937, Peter and all other Jewish students were expelled from his public school. Six months later, the German army marched into Vienna, and Austria was absorbed into Germany.

Within days, his familys jewelry shop  run by his mother after his fathers murder  was plundered by Nazi soldiers. What remained was confiscated by the puppet Austrian government.

Peter Futterweit, 13 at the time, left Austria via what came to be known as the kindertransport, an organized pre-World War II evacuation of children from areas under threat by Hitlers regime. He went first to England and then, on his 15th birthday, arrived in New York, where he met his mother who also had fled their homeland.

He became a copyboy at what then was International News Service and went to high school at night. When he turned 18, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in military intelligence in England, France and Germany during World War II.

He graduated from Columbia University in 1948, then became New York correspondent for newspapers in Australia and New Zealand and contributed freelance articles to the New York Times Sunday magazine. In 1956, he joined the staff of National Geographic in Washington.

For a 1985 story on the opium poppy, Mr. White and photographer Steve Raymer visited 30 countries over 18 months. They interviewed and photographed drug addicts and dealers, doctors, scientists, police officers and government officials for a story that examined the medicinal value and destructive power of the poppy plant.

Mr. White retired from National Geographic in 1994.

His wife of 52 years, the former Carol Henderson, died in 2014.

Survivors include their son, Norbert White of New York, and two grandchildren.

While serving in the Army during World War II, Mr. White became a U.S. citizen. At that time he changed his surname to White.

Colleagues said he retained his Old World courtliness and was almost frantically meticulous in his reporting and research  and never seemed to throw anything away.

Lord, he was thorough! former National Geographic Society president and chairman Gilbert M. Grosvenor said in an in-house memorial statement.

Mr. White was questioned once by an editorial researcher about the accuracy of a statement in one of his stories that a remote stream deep in a jungle had become heavily polluted. Back to his office he went, rummaging about until he produced the proof  a bottle of dark, thick liquid from the offending stream, which hed brought back from the jungle.
Jose Zaldivar-Medina ordered a gang subordinate to stab another young man outside a mall in Gaithersburg, Maryland, as captured in this still from security camera video. (Montgomery County States Attorneys Office)

Over the past year, detectives in the Washington region have identified Jose Zaldivar-Medina as a leader among local members of the MS-13 gang.

This week, Zaldivar-Medina, now 17, was convicted by a jury as an adult for orchestrating an assault he undertook at 16. He had spotted two young men at Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg and, thinking they were rival gang members, called subordinates to join him and ordered one of his gang allies  who was 20  to go after the pair with a knife.

Jose Zaldivar-Medina (Montgomery County States Attorneys Office)

A short time later, in broad daylight, the two groups converged in a parking lot outside the mall. One of Zaldivar-Medinas subordinates, armed with a knife, chased one of the targets the length of the parking lot, running in a dead sprint. The youth made his way to the mall and ducked inside. The attacker turned to the other target, who was nearby, and slashed him in the buttocks before fleeing, prosecutors said.

The victim suffered relatively minor injuries.

Such was not the case, Montgomery prosecutors have alleged in court papers, in a case they say Zaldivar-Medina planned last year and for which he has been charged in Virginia: The killing of Christian Alexander Sosa Rivas, 21, whose body was found in a river in Prince William County on Jan. 12.

To prosecutors, the cases against Zaldivar-Medina show that while young, he has influence among a gang turning to younger leaders.

He has real, legitimate power over individuals, Montgomery County prosecutor Jessica Zarrella said during a hearing in the mall assault case. And he willingly wields that power.

The underlying facts of the case in Virginia are that the defendant ordered [Sosa Rivas] to be killed, Zarrella wrote in court files about Zaldivar-Medina. Sosa Rivas was beaten with bricks and stabbed to death on Dec. 31, 2016, by seven individuals; his body was thrown into the Potomac River.

Rank in this gang has nothing to do with age, said Montgomery States Attorney John McCarthy, the countys top prosecutor. It has to do with your reputation and how you have established yourself in service to the gang.

Jose Zaldivar-Medina wrote gang-related markings on his backpack at high school, as shown in Montgomery Circuit Court records. (Montgomery Circuit Court)

Zaldivar-Medina grew up in Honduras, where he joined MS-13 as a 13-year-old, according to court records and McCarthy. He soon came to the United States, entered the Montgomery County school system and continued to be involved in gangs, McCarthy said.

The leaders in MS-13 that were seeing arent 25 or 30 years old. Theyre kids, he said. Youre dealing with children out there ordering hits on people.

In the Gaithersburg mall stabbing, McCarthy said, the injuries could have been worse had the victim not made it to a mall entrance, which seemed to cause the attacker to make only one slashing movement before running off.

Zaldivar-Medinas attorney, Paul Zmuda, said his client did not order the stabbing attack at the Lakeforest Mall, something he tried to advance to the jury this week. Zaldivar-Medina was present, but the assailant acted on his own, Zmuda said.

Jose continues to deny being a leader within MS-13, Zmuda said Friday.

He and his client are weighing whether to appeal the verdict. Zaldivar-Medina was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, two counts of first-degree assault and one count of criminal gang participation. He is scheduled to be sentenced in late July.

At that hearing, Zmuda said, I certainly intend to bring out a different side of Jose than has been portrayed by prosecutors.

He said he did not represent Zaldivar-Medina in connection with the specific allegations tied to the Prince William case, in which police there have arrested multiple suspects.

On Friday, Sgt. Jonathan L. Perok, a spokesman for the Prince William police department, confirmed that police there have a warrant on file for a juvenile who is a 17-year-old from Maryland in connection with the slaying of Sosa Rivas.

Zaldivar-Medinas immigration status could not be learned Friday. Federal agents had not lodged a detainer against him at the Montgomery County jail as of Friday, according to jail officials, as agents often do when they suspect that a person may be in the country illegally.
D.C. police are investigating whether a police cruiser struck an 11-year-old bicyclist in this alley on June 29, 2017, and then left the scene. The alley is between Otis Place and Newton Place NW in the Districts Park View neighborhood. (Annaliese Nurnberg/The Washington Post)

D.C. police are investigating whether patrol officers struck an 11-year-old bicyclist with their cruiser Thursday night in Northwest Washingtons Park View neighborhood and drove away without reporting the incident.

We are aware of the allegations, and we are looking into whether procedures were followed, said Dustin Sternbeck, the departments chief spokesman. He said the officers involved have been identified.

Police said they are sorting through conflicting accounts of what occurred but would not elaborate. No witnesses interviewed by The Washington Post saw the cruiser strike the bicycle, but one said she saw the officers leave the scene. It could not be determined whether the officers, who are from the 4th Police District, had turned on their body cameras, but police said that is part of an internal affairs investigation.

The incident happened about 8:45 p.m. in an alley between Otis Place and Newton Place NW, near Bruce-Monroe Elementary School and just off Georgia Avenue.

Portreona M. Brown, the boys mother, said her son told her he had been riding the Roadmaster Granite Peak bicycle he got for Christmas and had fireworks sticking out of the back pocket of his shorts when he encountered police.

The damaged bicycle of an 11 year-old. Police are investigating whether a police cruiser struck the bicycle, then left the scene. (Abbey Hunter)

Brown, 30, said her son told her that the officers apparently saw the fireworks and pursued him down the alley. She said her son told her the cruiser struck the back of his bicycle. By his account, she said, one officer got out of the car and checked the fireworks, gave them back to him and the cruiser drove off.

They shouldnt have just left him there, Brown said, adding that detectives told her the investigation could take about two weeks. She said her son, who still has a limp from the incident, went off to summer camp Friday.

Some types of fireworks are legal in the District; the boys mother said she did not know precisely what her son had but noted that the officers did not confiscate it.

Three people who live near where the child fell said they heard a thud. Patricia Shepperson said she went outside, ran into the alley and saw a boy on the ground next to a purple bicycle with a bent rear wheel.

I saw police get back in their car and they zoomed off, Shepperson said. Why would you leave? Who does that?

Abbey Hunter, whose porch faces the alley entrance, said she also heard the thud and then heard a scream. She said she looked out a window and saw a child on the ground with two officers standing over him. Her husband, Ben, went outside and said, The police were gone and the kid was still there.

Surveillance video captured from the Hunters porch shows a group of youths and a woman standing at an alley entrance. Look at that, the woman is heard saying on the video. Oh, hell no. . . . The police just hit him. No officers or police cars can be seen in the wide-angle image.

The Hunters said they called police and spoke to investigators, as well as to the boy, who had two bruises on his lower right leg. He was treated by an ambulance crew but did not go to a hospital. His mother came and took him home to Columbia Heights.

Abbey Hunter, the special-events coordinator for the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, said she was sitting on her sofa when she heard an impact. When she saw the officers with the boy, she said, I thought instinctually, The police are here; everything is fine. 

On going outside with her husband, she said, she saw the bicycle. The wheels were completely bent, she said. The boy was eleven years old and crying. It was so sad. He was completely shocked. . . . He tried to move [the bike] and couldnt even drag it around. She ran back into her house to get peroxide to treat the bruises, which she said took three bandages to cover.

Ben Hunter, an attorney with the Federal Education Association, a union for teachers in the Department of Defense school system, said one of the boys friends told him, The police hit him, the police hit him. He said the 11-year-old told him, The cop hit me.

On Friday, Ben Hunter said that internal affairs detectives visited the alley and that he walked them through what he saw. Whatever happened, he said, I dont understand how anyone would think the boy was okay to leave alone.

Annaliese Nurnberg and Calla Kessler contributed to this report.
Metro paid United Iron & Metal $1.3 million to haul away and scrap nearly 300 1000-series cars, the oldest in Metros fleet, which date from the 1976 opening of the subway system. (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority)

Eleven years after the National Transportation Safety Board first advised Metro to get rid of the systems original rail cars, the last of the 1000-series fleet has finally been retired.

The stragglers were sent to the rail yard to be scrapped June 25, with little fanfare and no nostalgia-imbued send-off from Metro officials. Although the nearly 300 cars are a major part of Metros history  they began running when the system opened in 1976  they had come under intense criticism in recent years after NTSB determined they were not safe in the event of a crash.

The 1Ks were faulted in the deadly 2009 Red Line crash near the Fort Totten Metro station, which killed nine people.

During the crash, one of the cars collapsed in on itself  a phenomenon known as telescoping, like an old-fashioned maritime telescope that folds into itself. From the outside, it looked like the aluminum exterior of the car had peeled back like a can of sardines. All of the fatalities occurred in the first car of the 1000-series train. The other train involved in the crash was composed of the newer 3000-series cars.

Acting NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt, who was one of the NTSB board members who oversaw the investigation into the Red Line crash, said it was clear to him, and to others, that fewer people might have died if the cars had been more structurally sound.

The 1000-series Metro cars were known for their orange, 1970s living-room-like feel. They were also faulted in the deadly 2009 Red Line crash near Fort Totten, which killed nine people. (Pete Marovich/For The Washington Post)

[June 2009: In a Terrifying Instant in Car 1079, Lives Became Forever Intertwined]

The failure to replace or retrofit the 1000-series certainly contributed to the severity of the crash, Sumwalt said.

Now that the cars are gone, transportation safety officials say theyre breathing a little easier. Of Metros myriad problems and ongoing efforts to improve safety, the retirement of the 1000-series cars means theres one less thing to worry about.

Every day that the 1000s have been there, weve had an unacceptable risk to the traveling public, Sumwalt said. We will all be well served to have those cars going to the junkyard.

Problems with the trains had been raised even earlier, in 2004, when a runaway train rolling down an incline at more than 30 mph at Woodley Park crashed into another train, injuring more than 20 people.

Two years later, the NTSB concluded that the 1000s in Metros fleet were dangerous in the event of the collision.

Patrick Regan, a lawyer who represented many of the victims and family members in the aftermath of the Red Line crash, said it took Metro an unacceptable length of time to replace the trains after the two crashes. Trains outfitted with safety standards from the 1970s simply have no place on modern transit systems, he said.

Its a great thing theyre gone, Regan said, referring to the 1000s. Is it soon enough? No. It should have happened years ago, but it didnt.

Regan said there were many people in the Washington region who, like him and many of the survivors, refused to set foot on a 1000-series car, following the crash.

The conclusion that the 1000-series cars were unfit for the rails affected Sumwalts commuting habits, too.

The truth is, I actually pay attention to the numbers, and I would prefer to get on one thats not a 1000-series car, Sumwalt said. His colleagues do the same thing. Many of us at NTSB, when were going somewhere to a meeting, we do consciously see a 1000 and say, Lets slide back another car or two. 

After the NTSB investigation into the two crashes, Sumwalt said he had hoped Metro would swap in new, stronger rail cars within three years. Instead, it was eight years before the 1000-series cars vanished, replaced with a fleet of stainless steel 7000-series cars that feature an internal honeycomb design meant to absorb the shock of impact and protect the survivable space inside the train.

Despite the delay, Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said the retirement of the last of the cars is a huge milestone. At this point, he said, Metro has received 45 percent of its order of the new 7000-series fleet, and the cars that have been delivered so far constitute 43 eight-car trains.

[New Metro subway cars signal the end of an era]

Metro officials say the years it took to replace the 1000-series fleet was a product of the complex and highly regulated nature of procuring new rail cars. The vehicles must be custom-made for each system, and financed, approved, designed, tested, delivered and assembled. By the time the Red Line crash took place in 2009, the process to design and pay for the new trains had already been in motion.

These cars are very customized cars, and this is very typical for most transit properties, said Metro board member Robert Lauby, the chief safety officer at the Federal Railroad Administration. Theyre not off-the-shelf at all.

And when the NTSB recommended that Metro retrofit the old cars with reinforced steel interiors that would fare better in a collision, Metro officials said it would be cost-prohibitive  especially when their goal was to dump the old cars as quickly as possible anyway.

[Say goodbye to Metros most troublesome rail cars]

Meanwhile, as they awaited the arrival of the 7000s, Metro officials came up with a stopgap solution: They would belly the old train cars, placing the 1000-series cars in positions so they would not be the first or last car in a set. The rationale: If the train was involved in a collision, then the more resilient, newer cars on either end would absorb most of the impact, protecting the weaker cars on the inside of the train. Even so, Metro did not perform adequate engineering analysis to determine whether there was any scientific basis to conclude that a 1000-series train surrounded by newer train cars would prove significantly safer for passengers.

And thats not quite how it works, Sumwalt said. Theres a significant risk that in the event of a crash, the shock of impact would pass through the outside, sturdier cars and transfer to the interior, aluminum-skinned cars, causing a pancake effect in which the older cars would experience intense damage in their sandwiched positions.

Thats not really solving the immediate problem, Sumwalt said. That energy has to go somewhere.

Lauby said its not just an issue of reliability. Brake defects, door malfunctions and defunct air-conditioning units had long been a problem for the vintage cars.

Its not only about crashworthiness. The cars were unreliable, he said.

In Metros most recent vital signs report, which measured performance from January to March 2017, the 1000-series trains logged an average of 74,354 miles between defects that caused a significant delay  the worst performance of any member of the fleet, followed closely by the 4000-series cars, which also were officially retired from the system in June.

Still, Sumwalt said he was pleased that Metro officials accelerated their timeline to retire the oldest cars from the system, bumping up the deadline from the end of this year to the end of June.

Those cars have outlived their life, and its a good thing [Metro] made the decision to phase them out ahead of time, he said.

[Nov. 2004: 20 Injured in Crash of 2 Red Line Trains]

Despite the cars worrisome reputation, there are a few riders who are sorry to see them go  such as Peter Darmody, who works for Metro as a construction project manager. For years, he has managed a Facebook page called Friends of the 1000 Series, where like-minded train geeks post pictures of 1000-series cars they encounter on the system.

Darmody said hes sad to see the old trains go  especially because he remembers when he first encountered them, when he went to the official opening ceremony of the Metro system 41 years ago.

The orange 1970s scheme inside the cars  its kind of funky. It looks more like a living room, Darmody said. I just cant get excited about the new trains. They feel sterile.

Hes never been fearful of the old cars (The most risky thing people do is drive a car, he pointed out), and hell miss something special about Metros original model of trains: the expansive windows on both ends. If you sit at the back of a 1000-series train at an aboveground station, you get an expansive view thats particularly stunning while going over the Potomac.

I know the trains have a bad history, Darmody said. But theres still some nostalgia there.

[For Metros original subway cars, the last stop is just ahead]
A prototype of a medical drone being developed in Mississippi. Interactive gear on the devices may enable doctors to help survivors of a disaster give aid to other victims. (WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE)

The towering tornado that struck Hattiesburg, Miss., in 2013 ripped roofs off houses, twisted steel girders as though they were Play-Doh, obliterated buildings and tossed cars through the air like toys. It barreled down Hardy Street like a bowling ball, said Italo Subbarao.

In the aftermath of the twister, Subbarao, an associate dean and disaster medicine specialist at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, sent his students out to study how quickly emergency medical teams had responded to the disaster. The tornado, with winds up to 170 mph, had injured at least 80 people. In some cases, the students found, emergency medical responders had been slowed by debris and by fallen trees and power lines as they tried to reach the injured.

That research led Subbarao to wonder whether there was a way to deliver medical care before emergency responders could navigate the mayhem that comes with a natural or man-made disaster. His answer: a drone outfitted with audiovisual equipment and medical supplies.

By combining drones and telemedicine, a doctor miles away could instruct a layman at the scene in how to provide rudimentary but perhaps lifesaving medical care.

Subbaraos project, which he began the year after the Hattiesburg tornado, has now produced three prototypes and several demonstration flights. It appears to be the most advanced attempt to equip a drone with audiovisual equipment for doctors and survivors to interact in an emergency.

Subbarao said he has received inquiries from officials in Arizona, Louisiana, New York and Texas. Emergency management officials from Dallas, New York, Phoenix and Washington have contacted him, as have officials from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Drone technology has been around for at least half a century, and for years people in health care have speculated about the medical use of drones  for example, to carry medicines, organs for transplants, blood supplies and anti-venom serums.

But to date, very few of those possibilities have been realized, in part because of the federal rules governing drones. By law, nonmilitary drones can be operated only within the pilots line of sight, during daytime and at altitudes no higher than 400 feet.

The most extensive use of drones for medical purposes appears to be in Rwanda, where last year drones started dropping medical supplies to hospitals. In the United States, Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit that delivers medical care to isolated regions around the world, did a test drop of medications in a mountainous area of southwest Virginia in 2015. The next year, Field Innovation Team, a nonprofit that devises technological responses to disasters, ran a test off the coast of Cape May, N.J., to carry a blood sample from a ship two miles out in the Atlantic to a doctor on shore.

Ready to launch

Subbarao and a medical student named Guy Paul Cooper Jr. started building several interactive medical kits geared toward different types of disasters (tornadoes, shootings) and the first two drone prototypes in 2014. Then, looking for additional expertise, they joined forces with the unmanned aircraft systems program at Hinds Community College in Raymond, Miss., and its director, Dennis Lott.

They now have three rotary-wing prototypes capable of carrying medical kits weighing up to 20 pounds. (The legal weight limit for a drone and its cargo in the United States is 55 pounds.) So far, the project has been financed by the schools, but the inventors said they will soon begin seeking grants to continue the work.

They have already held several successful demonstrations, including one in December for representatives of the Department of Homeland Security, federal law enforcement agencies and the United Nations. They are working with Mississippi officials on integrating the medical drones with existing emergency systems, and Subbarao says he hopes to have a drone in operation before the end of the year.

Lee Smithson, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said, This is going to be a phenomenal way to provide immediate medical attention anywhere in the state. Noting Mississippis frequent poor rankings among states in measures of well-being, he added, Its about time that Mississippi leads the nation in something good for a change.

The plan, Smithson said, is to eventually station unmanned aircraft in as many as nine parts of the state, so that every place in Mississippi is within two hours of a medical drone.

Chris Sawyer, medical director of Remote Area Medical, isnt surprised by the broad interest in the project. It is revolutionary, he said.

Its also not altogether a surprise that the idea of an interactive medical drone arose in Mississippi. The state is frequently visited by tornadoes, some of which have caused substantial numbers of deaths and injuries. The state has a shortage of doctors, and, according to Smithson, many areas cannot be reached quickly by medical responders.

We had a tornado in January, Smithson said. All the debris prevented us from getting in there with search-and-rescue and medical care.

Interacting with doctors

Despite the federal restrictions on civilian drones, the Federal Aviation Administration does grant exemptions. Part of the agencys challenge, according to Cornelius Thiels, a surgical resident at the Mayo Clinic who writes about medical drones, is balancing requests for permission with the need to ensure that the airways do not become dangerously congested.

Were still a little way away from a regulatory system as nimble as we need it to be, particularly in the case of emergencies, Thiels said.

The Mississippi inventors of the interactive medical drone want to fly far beyond line-of-sight, perhaps scores of miles beyond, and to fly day or night. Lott said the FAA has cooperated with the Mississippi program and is now able to give emergency permission for test flights within two hours of a request.

The prototypes can fly only up to five miles, at speeds up to 40 mph, Lott says, but hes working on another model that could travel up to 100 miles.

The drones carry a suitcase with medical supplies and equipment. The audiovisual equipment comes in two varieties: stand-alone cameras with microphones and speakers, and interactive goggles that can be worn by someone on the ground. In either case, a doctor from a remote location could instruct a survivor to train the camera on victims or parts of the body to assess their condition.

The doctor could give instructions on taking readings such as blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, or sugar or oxygen levels, using equipment dropped by the drone. And the doctor could talk a survivor through ways of giving aid, such as applying tourniquets, cleaning, clotting or bandaging wounds, and injecting medicines.

Smithson said the medical drones will not only save lives in the field but also help coordinate emergency medical care all over the state in a disaster, with doctors from far away able to make triage decisions and ensure that patients get taken to the most appropriate facility.

This is no longer in the realm of science fiction, he said. The skys the limit.

Stateline

Read more

Is your childs pediatrician better than a smartphone?

When the doctor is far away, heres how the distance can shrink

Where you live can have a lot to say about your health
When your doctor recommends that you have an elective procedure, its important to gather information before you say yes.

Orly Avitzur, Consumer Reports medical director, says you should ask your doctor (or the surgeon youre considering) to explain the details of the procedure; why he or she thinks you need it; the benefits and possible risks; the alternatives; and what may happen if you dont have the surgery. Youll also want to know what your costs may be, what anesthesia will be used and whether the procedure will be done on an inpatient or outpatient basis.

There are a few other questions you may not think of, however. And getting the right answers may reduce the likelihood of pre-op and post-op problems.

How experienced are you?

Youll want to know that the surgeon has recent and significant experience with the procedure youre going to have. Research has found that the more often a surgeon has done a particular procedure, the lower the risk of complications or even death for the patient.

Theres no magic number. When it comes to hip or knee replacements, for example, you ideally want a surgeon who has done at least 50 in the previous year, with a complication rate of 3 percent or less. (A study published in 2017 that looked at laparoscopic hysterectomies found that there may be a learning curve for the first 100 procedures.)

If you arent satisfied with what the surgeon tells you, ask your internist to recommend another surgeon.

How safe is your hospital?

About 650,000 people develop an infection while in a hospital each year, most commonly pneumonia and surgical-site infections. Because many surgeons have operating privileges at multiple hospitals, you may be able to choose the facility you prefer. Your surgeon may be unable to provide infection-rate information, but you can go to cr.org/hospital-ratings to find out how Consumer Reports rates your hospital on the prevention of five types of infections, along with other measures of patient safety.

Do I really need that test?

X-rays, blood tests, stress tests: Getting ready for a scheduled procedure can take longer than recovering from the operation itself. People with certain medical conditions need preoperative tests to make sure that theyre in good enough physical condition for surgery. The practice has been broadly adopted for healthy patients, too, although studies have found that its unnecessary.

You probably dont need a chest X-ray unless youre a smoker, you have symptoms or a history of heart or lung disease, or youre having major surgery, especially in the chest or upper abdomen. Blood tests arent needed if youre undergoing an elective procedure thats considered to be low-risk, such as cataract surgery.

Having a heart stress test may also be unnecessary. Seven medical specialty societies, including the American College of Cardiology, advise against pre-op stress testing for people scheduled to undergo low- or intermediate-risk noncardiac surgery, such as those above.

What costs might surprise me?

You probably already know its important to make sure your primary surgeon accepts your health insurance. But other providers who arent in your insurance network may become involved in your care during and after a procedure.

These are often providers you have no role in selecting, such as assistant surgeons, anesthesiologists, pathologists who review your biopsy and radiologists who read your imaging test results. Out-of-network consulting specialists may be able to bill you separately and charge a much higher rate than those who contract with your health insurer.

Although more than 20 states are working toward or have already enacted protective measures, millions of people are still vulnerable to surprise medical bills.

Ask your surgeon to make sure those involved in your care are in your network. He or she can take this into consideration when selecting a surgical team. Before youre admitted to a hospital, ask whether pathology and radiology providers are in your network. (For advice on how to fight a troublesome bill, go to cr.org/surprisemedbills.)

Copyright 2017. Consumers Union of United States Inc.
VENEZUELA

Opposition leaders urge more protests

Opposition leaders are asking Venezuelans to step up their participation in street protests in advance of President Nicolas Maduros constitutional rewrite.

Leaders of the Democratic Unity coalition say they are recruiting Venezuelans to join Committees for the Rescue of Democracy to organize neighbors.

A poll by one Caracas-based university this week found that nearly 20 percent of Venezuelans have participated in the protests. A majority of those surveyed also said they believed it was dangerous to demonstrate.

At least 77 people have been killed in three months of near-daily anti-government demonstrations that typically end with authorities launching tear gas and firing rubber bullets at protesters.

 Associated Press

COLOMBIA

Integrating ex-fighters seen as key challenge

The U.N. envoy for Colombia said the most urgent challenge after the handing over of the last weapons by leftist rebels is to reintegrate the former combatants into society.

Jean Arnault told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have a deep sense of uncertainty about their physical security after disarmament and about their economic future.

He said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has stressed that reintegration is a daunting endeavor, particularly in light of entrenched illegal economies, the spread of armed groups and violence against social leaders.

 Associated Press

ARGENTINA

2,000 agents enter slum in drug raid

Argentina said more than 2,000 police officers and other security agents have staged a massive raid in one of the most perilous slums of Buenos Aires.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said they seized more than 500 kilograms of marijuana, 50 kilograms of cocaine and thousands of doses of a crack-like drug during Fridays raid in the 1-11-14 slum. Police also arrested 15 alleged drug dealers and seized arms.

Traffickers are increasingly using Argentina as a trade route for drugs bound for the United States, Europe and beyond.

 Associated Press

At least 22 killed in clashes in the Central African Republic: At least 22 people have been killed in three days of fighting in a southeastern town in the Central African Republic, a lawmaker from the area and a local journalist said. The clashes between armed Fulani herders and militia fighters in Zemio, about 620 miles east of the capital, Bangui, began on Wednesday. Heavy gunfire continued the following day and into Friday.

Abused 4-year-old rescued in Mexico may be U.S. citizen: A 4-year-old boy who was found chained, malnourished and beaten in an apartment may be a U.S. citizen, Mexico Citys prosecutors office said. The office said in a statement that it has asked the U.S. Embassy for help in determining the boys citizenship. Authorities rescued the boy Tuesday and arrested two people identified as an aunt and uncle in a neighborhood north of downtown. The child was admitted to a hospital with multiple injuries.

Suspected militant stabs 2 Indonesian police officers: A suspected Islamist militant stabbed two police officers with a bayonet inside a mosque before being fatally shot by another officer, Indonesian police said. The attacker stabbed the two men after they finished Friday night prayers at a mosque near the national police headquarters in Jakarta, national police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said. The officers were hospitalized with wounds to the ear and neck. Another officer ordered the attacker to surrender, fired warning shots, then shot him.

 From news services
ONE FALLACY about cyberattacks is that they hurt pixels, not people. A cyberintrusion might steal emails, empty bank accounts or compromise identity but probably cant do real damage in the physical world, or so the thinking goes. There are exceptions: The Stuxnet worm that the United States and Israel unleashed against Irans nuclear enrichment centrifuges caused physical damage  compelling the machines to spin too fast and break  but that was a sophisticated sabotage operation, not an everyday occurrence.

Now, the danger has moved closer to everyday. The wave of malware that spread across the globe last week, called Petya by some analysts (and NotPetya by others), suddenly locked up computer systems being used to manage oil companies, airline flights, electrical grids, container ships, ports, banks and government ministries. Even the computers monitoring radiation at Chernobyl, scene of the worlds worst nuclear accident, were silenced. How far away is the moment when a power outage caused by a cyberattack throws a hospital into darkness, causing patients to suffer, or die? Or, leads to even more frightful consequences?

The latest onslaught was a malicious program  a worm  that caused computers to lock up and demand from the user a ransom in bitcoin, the anonymous digital currency. When infected, a computer displays a simple text screen with the chilling first line Ooops, your important files are encrypted. It is not clear whether the files were encrypted or just destroyed. Since the email address for paying ransom was swiftly cut off by the provider, it appears the attack was intended to be more destructive than profitable.

Some researchers think it was not really about ransom at all, just intended to sow chaos. The malware displayed clever attributes that allowed it to spread rapidly across networks and reportedly infect computers running the latest Windows operating system, a reminder of how threats in cyberspace can outrun defenses. In this case, it seems the nasty worm was aided by an advanced exploit, or delivery vehicle, named EternalBlue, that had been looted earlier from the National Security Agency. This was the second mass cyberattack using one of these stolen exploits in two months.

No one knows who perpetrated the latest attack, and that is another enduring worry about cyberconflict: Attribution is often difficult, and time-consuming. This might have been a malicious gang, or a nation-state.

There is no magic solution that can stop a threat such as this, one that crosses national boundaries and infects real-world systems. The attack shows once again that, for all the wonders of the digital revolution, bad actors are constantly innovating too, looking for ways to disrupt, thieve and destroy. There is no substitute for vigilance and defense, especially protecting all-important critical infrastructure, hopefully stopping the malware before it manages to turn off more than just pixels.
Some American history museums belabor visitors with this message: You shall know the truth and it shall make you feel ashamed of, but oh-so-superior to, your wretched ancestors. The new Museum of the American Revolution is better than that. Located near Independence Hall, it celebrates the luminous ideas affirmed there 241 Julys ago, but it does not flinch from this fact: The war that began at Lexington and Concord 14 months before the Declaration of Independence was Americas first civil war. And it had all the messiness and nastiness that always accompany protracted fratricide.

Among its many interesting artifacts  weapons, uniforms, documents  the museums great possession is the tent George Washington used from 1778 to 1783, which on its long, winding path to the museum was owned by Robert E. Lees wife and was later sold to raise money for Confederate widows. The museum makes rather more than is necessary of the Oneida Indian Nations contributions to American independence but, then, the Oneidas are now in the casino business and contributed $10 million to the museum.

The museum has one of those immersive exhibits wherein visitors hear the cannon and feel the vibrations of battle. It would, however, be a more convincing experience of war if enemies were trying to impale the visitors with this wars most lethal device, the bayonet.

Never mind. There are limits to what realities a museum can, or should try to, convey. This probably bothers those who are properly intent on making us face the worst facts. Consider, for example, Holger Hoocks recently published Scars of Independence: Americas Violent Birth.

He writes in the manner of current academics, who are forever unmasking this and that. He offers an unvarnished portrait of revolutionary violence in order to purge the popular memory of romanticized notions and end the whitewashing and selective remembering and forgetting and  herewith the inevitable academic trope  the privileging of patriots perspectives.

Hoock is, however, right to document the harrowing violence, often opportunistic and sadistic, that was fundamental to how both sides experienced Americas founding moment. The war caused proportionately more deaths  from battle, captivity and disease  than any war other than that of 1861-1865. The perhaps 37,000 deaths were about five times more per capita than America lost in World War II. Sixty thousand loyalists became refugees. The dislocated proportion of the American population exceeded that of the French in their revolution, Alan Taylor tells us in American Revolutions: A Continental History. The economic decline lasted for 15 years in a crisis unmatched until the Great Depression.

After the second civil war, William Tecumseh Sherman declared that war is hell. Hoock demonstrates that this was true even when battle casualties (only 23 patriots died at Yorktown) were small by modern standards. He is, however, mistaken in suggesting that he is uniquely sensitive to our founding mayhem. Consider two recent books that examine the anarchic violence on both sides.

Nathaniel Philbricks Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution (2013) recounts a patriot mobs long torture, in January 1774, of loyalist John Malcom, a Boston customs officer, who was tarred and feathered: The crowd dislocated his arm while tearing off his clothes, then daubed his skin with steaming tar that parboiled his flesh. Paraded for many hours through Bostons two feet of snow, he was beaten, whipped and finally dumped like a log at his home, where his tarred flesh started to peel off in steaks. 

Taylors American Revolutions  (2016) hammers home the wars human costs. A Connecticut critic of the Continental Congress was tarred, carried to a sty and covered with hogs dung, some of which was forced down his throat. Connecticut loyalists were imprisoned in a copper mine, in darkness 120 feet underground. Georgia patriots knocked a loyalist unconscious, tied him to a tree, tarred his legs, and set them on fire and then partially scalped him. Some courts ordered loyalists branded on the face or cut off their ears to make them recognizable.

This small, efficient new museum will stimulate public understanding by quickening interest in books such as these. Its bookstore includes The Last Muster, a treasure of photographs displayed in the museum. They are of people who were born before the Revolution and lived to sit in front of cameras. An unquenchable dignity radiates from the visage of nattily dressed Caesar, who was born in 1737 and was owned as a slave by four generations of a New York family until his death in 1852, shortly before a new birth of freedom in our complicated country.

Read more from George F. Wills archive or follow him on Facebook.
Regarding the June 25 front-page article Obamas secret struggle to retaliate against Putins election assault:

I was disappointed to learn that the U.S. governments planned response to Russian interference in the 2016 election amounted to Old Testament-style vengeance in the form of escalating cyberwarfare.

I expect the U.S. government to prevent interference in our elections. Such efforts can succeed only if all countries, including our own, respect the electoral process. But, according to an NPR interview with Carnegie Mellon University researcher Dov Levin, the United States has the worst record of electoral interference, with 80 interventions between 1946 and 2000, two-thirds of which were covert operations unknown to the people of the United States. Mr. Levins data does not include the most heinous forms of interference: coups and attempts at regime change, e.g., Iran in 1953 and Chile in 1970.

If voters in the United States are to be protected from future election interference, we must abide by the Golden Rule. If we want other countries to stay out of our elections, we must stay out of theirs. Otherwise, a dark future of escalating cyberwarfare will undermine democracy at home and abroad.

Keshini Ladduwahetty, Washington

In the excellent June 26 front-page article In Europe, fake news from Russia is old news was a sobering quote from a senior Estonian Ministry of Defense official, who observed that most of Russias malicious activities are aimed at eroding trust within our societies between different groups, political movements, the elites and the people.

That is eerily similar to the current patterns of declining trust seen among the U.S. public in recent years. While the factors leading to the United States trust deficit are undoubtedly complex and varied, congressional probes into Russian meddling of the 2016 presidential election would do well to take a far wider lens in assessing the Kremlins efforts to undermine Americans faith in their democracy. We may find that these efforts (and their impacts) stretch much further back than we realize.

Joe Siegle, Silver Spring
The Islamic States headquarters in this city at the western gateway to Raqqa has been crushed like a sandcastle by American bombs. At a dam complex on the Euphrates River where the Islamic State was torturing prisoners and hurling alleged homosexuals from a giant concrete tower, all thats left of the extremists are militant slogans scrawled on the wall and a pile of trash.

Its far too soon to say that life is returning to normal here after liberation, but much of the horror is over. Mines and improvised explosive devices were cleared here last week. Young children flash V-for-victory signs. Islamic beards have nearly disappeared. The most visible people sporting full beards on Thursday were American Special Operations forces who accompanied visiting U.S. special envoy Brett McGurk.

The city is strewn with rubble, and Ahmad al-Ahmad, the co-president of the newly formed Tabqa Civil Council, described it as a city of ghosts, with perhaps 40 percent of its buildings damaged. The electricity, water-distribution and school systems have been largely destroyed. Young boys who were indoctrinated at Islamic State training camps are trying to find their balance in a new world where beheadings and the chanting of Islamist slogans are over.

To look at peoples wary faces, uncertain but with a trace of hope in their eyes, its like theyre waking up from a nightmare. The newly formed town council is meeting, created by the Kurdish-led military force that cleared the town, and it seems to be getting cooperation from local Arabs. A new internal security force is policing the streets and occasionally pops off warning fire. At a warehouse near the town center, the first shipment of American food arrived on Wednesday; sacks of flour and rice are stacked on pallets, ready for distribution, and much more is coming in the next week, says veteran U.S. relief coordinator Al Dwyer.

A boisterous group of young Syrian men is gathered outside a tire and vehicle-parts shop across from the warehouse. American military advisers arent sure at first that its safe to talk with them, but the men press eagerly toward two visiting reporters. Abdul-Qadr Khalil, 22, dressed in a bright blue-nylon jacket, speaks for the group. He complains that theres not enough food, water, gas or bread, and there are no jobs. But he dismisses the idea that the Islamic State will ever take hold here again.

No, never! says Khalil, and the young men around him nod in unison. It will be impossible to live if they come back. They will kill all of us.

Nothing is permanent in this shattered country, but there are tipping points when the momentum shifts, and this seems to be one. As the battle for Raqqa begins in earnest, this city offers a preview of whats ahead:

 The black balloon of the Islamic State caliphate is deflating quickly in Syria, as in Iraq. There may be up to a year of hard fighting left, but the surprise for U.S. officials is that the battle in eastern Syria is going faster and better than expected. In a symbol of that advance, Kurdish commanders gave McGurk the ring of an Islamic State emir who once used it to seal orders to kill Tabqas inhabitants. The emir blew himself up when he was surrounded in May, leaving behind the ring and its now-empty claim of authority.

 The confrontation with Syria and Russia that led to the shoot-down of a Syrian fighter jet just south of here two weeks ago seems to have eased, at least for now. Despite the Russians public protests, they quietly agreed last weekend on a roughly 80-mile deconfliction line that stretches from a few miles west of here to a village on the Euphrates called Karama. That line appears to be holding, and its a promising sign that broader U.S.-Russian cooperation in Syria may be possible.

 The Kurdish-led militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces has shown it can defeat the Islamic State, so long as its backed by U.S. air power. The Tabqa battle in May was perhaps the most ambitious and daring operation of the war so far. Five hundred SDF soldiers were airlifted across Lake Assad in V-22 Osprey aircraft in a raid that caught Islamic State forces by surprise. The SDF suffered about 100 killed and more than 300 wounded in the bloody operation, but it worked, and in this part of the world, success breeds success. Arab refugees are now streaming toward the Kurdish-led SDF, rather than away, and 8,200 U.S.-trained Arab forces are joining the front lines.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who commands U.S. and coalition forces in Syria and Iraq, explains in an interview that the Kurdish military leadership here is the thickener, the hardener you put on the glue to make it hold.

McGurk repeats at every meeting with local officials that the United States ability to fix Syria is limited. America can help defeat the Islamic State, and it can provide quick stabilization support to repair water, electricity and other infrastructure. But it cant do everything.

This sense of whats achievable for the United States in Syria with its limited commitment, and what isnt, is probably the biggest takeaway from our visit here. The United States seems to have found a way, in its almost accidental alliance with the Syrian Kurds, to drive the Islamic State from eastern Syria and stabilize this part of the country. But U.S. officials frankly admit they dont have the resources or a clear strategy to repair Syria as a whole. The rubric seems to be: Do what you can with the forces available, and dont promise more than you can deliver.

This is not a work of beauty. This is pragmatism, says Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones, the British deputy commander of coalition forces in Iraq and Syria who accompanied McGurk here. The United States and its partners are supplying potent Special Operations forces for training and air support. But the Syrian Kurds and their Arab allies are doing the fighting and the dying on the ground, and for better or worse, its their vision of governance that will take hold as the Islamic State falls.

Read more from David Ignatiuss archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
I feel like we sort of choked. Thats how one former administration official recently described President Barack Obamas failure to react to intelligence reports on Kremlin attempts to influence the U.S. election. Plenty of other people  including, with extraordinary cynicism, President Trump  have also asked why more wasnt done.

But now that the details of that story are finally coming into focus  now that one Trump associate has been linked directly to Russian hackers  its important to remember the bigger picture. For the real mystery is not why Obama didnt stop Russian hacking in 2016 but why didnt either Obama, or President George W. Bush, or any of their Cabinet members, recognize the peculiar dangers posed by a resurgent, aggressive Russia years earlier  and how did that failure help boost the careers of people such as Trump?

The answers have to begin in the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed and most Americans dropped the whole subject of Russia with great relief: At last, the Cold War was over and we could begin thinking about something else  maybe climate change, or the Middle East. Russian speakers in the State Department began retraining to learn Arabic, strategists focused their talents elsewhere, and President Bill Clinton invited Russia to join the Group of Seven (G-7), which became the G-8.

In subsequent years, nobody paid much attention as Russia, which many had hoped would become a Western-oriented, liberalizing state, turned into something quite different. Or perhaps I should put it more strongly: Nobody in Western politics paid much attention, but many others in the West were eager to aid that transformation. In particular, many were eager to help a cabal of revanchist former KGB officers, in league with Russian organized crime, to steal money that belonged to the Russian state, launder it abroad, bring it back and use it to take power. While Western presidents and prime ministers were distracted by other things, Western lawyers, accountants, unscrupulous offshore bankers and even mainstream bankers were happily taking cuts.

Everybody wanted a piece of the action. In 2006, Rosneft, a Russian company blatantly built on stolen assets, debuted with great fanfare on the London stock exchange. The prospectus warned that crime and corruption could create a difficult business climate in Russia, but it was convenient, and very lucrative, to pretend that Russia had a normal business environment  with that small exception  nevertheless. The same week the stock debuted, President Vladimir Putin hosted a G-8 meeting in St. Petersburg.

Here I am offering a truncated version of this long and complicated story. But its worth recalling the basic elements because they help explain where we are today. Think about this: We still dont know exactly how much Russian money was invested in Trumps real estate empire. But we do know that Russian money flooded into New York real estate (and London real estate) over the past 15 years, where it pumped up prices, distorted housing markets, contributed to rising inequality and helped enrich Trump, among others. We know that Trump, among others, did deals with many people who had Russian or ex-Soviet connections. We also know that he has admired Putin for many years, perhaps because Putin used money to win political power and then used political power to make money, which is exactly what Trump clearly aspired, successfully, to do, too.

We also know that he was not alone. Russian money was corrupt in a legal sense, but also in a softer sense: There was so much of it that it tempted banks and businesses to cut corners and persuaded politicians to change sides. It drew in the former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who works for an arm of Gazprom, a Russian gas monopoly, and argues Russias case on German television. It funded the National Front, an extremist, anti-NATO and anti-European French political party whose leader made it into the final round of the French presidential elections. It still supports extremist groups and extremist propagandists of both the far left and the far right all across Europe and, it now seems, in the United States as well.

For nearly two decades, in fact, the Russian government and Russian companies spent money systematically to create corrupt business relationships as well as to undermine democracies in both Eastern and Western Europe. During that period, no U.S. president or secretary of state ever took any threat from Russia seriously, all of them either overestimating the Kremlins goodwill or underestimating its capacity to do damage. Bush looked into Putins eyes in 2001 and got a sense of his soul. Obama dismissed Putin back in 2013 as behaving like a bored kid in the back of the classroom.

Neither one of them ever understood the corrosive effect of Russian money, whether on New York real estate or Western democracy. Neither understood the subtle ways in which a large, kleptocratic, semi-criminal state on Europes borders could threaten Western political stability. Neither understood that the U.S. political system, like that of France, Germany and Ukraine, had become so vulnerable, or that U.S. political operatives may have turned to Russian hackers for help. By 2016, it was already too late to stop Russia, because most of the damage had already been done.

Read more from Anne Applebaums archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
VENEZUELAS POLITICAL and humanitarian crisis, which has long been desperate and deadly, this week tipped toward the surreal. On Tuesday, a helicopter swooped over the Supreme Court and interior ministry, dropping grenades and firing shots; President Nicolas Maduro called it a U.S.-backed coup attempt. But no one was injured in the incident, and when the pilot of the helicopter turned out to be an actor who has played a police commando in the movies  and who has yet to be detained by authorities  opposition leaders understandably wondered whether the incident was orchestrated by Mr. Maduro.

If so, it wouldnt be suprising. The corrupt clique around the president, which inherited the leftist populist movement founded by Hugo Chavez, is resorting to increasingly far-fetched tactics to combat a mass protest movement that has the support of the vast majority of Venezuelans. It has dispensed tons of tear gas at the daily marches and demonstrations, and fired thousands of bullets, both rubber and real; at least 78 people have been killed since the unrest began in April. Five died on Wednesday.

The regime has detained more than 3,200 people, many of whom have been beaten and tortured, according to independent human rights groups. More than 300 are facing summary trials before military tribunals and sentences of decades in prison. Mr. Maduro meantime is pressing forward with a plan for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution prepared under Chavez. It likely would eliminate the opposition-controlled National Assembly and convert Venezuela into a regime modeled after Cubas.

When the governments own attorney general protested the manifest illegality of the constitutional rewrite and the brutal repression of demonstrations, the regime banned her from traveling and moved to strip her powers. Mr. Maduro meanwhile delivered a blood-curdling speech in which he promised to go to combat to defend the regime. What couldnt be done with votes, we would do with weapons, he said.

Youd think the specter of civil war in a major oil-producing country of more than 30 million people would finally rouse its democratic neighbors to action. But Latin America remains largely paralyzed over Venezuelas chaos. Last week, a group of countries led by Mexico tried to pass a resolution at the Organization of American States calling for the establishment of a contact group of nations to broker a peaceful solution, including free elections and the release of prisoners. It failed, thanks to the opposition of a handful of Venezuelan clients, including tiny Carribean nations bribed by Caracas with discounted oil.

It didnt help that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson withdrew from the OAS meeting, preferring to focus on the boycott of Qatar by other Arab states. While the Trump administration has sporadically acted on Venezuela, imposing sanctions on some senior regime figures and issuing statements, it appears to have no strategy for addressing the most consequential crisis in the hemisphere since the Central American wars of the 1980s.

The United States cant rescue Venezuela, but there are things it can do to pressure the regime: more sanctions against individuals and entities involved in repression; dissemination of information about the involvement of regime leaders in drug trafficking and other corruption; demarches to those Caribbean states and to Cuba. Standing by while Mr. Maduro stokes combat should not be an option.
THE ESSENCE of Joe Arpaios long reign as sheriff of Arizonas Maricopa County, whose 4 million residents in and around Phoenix make it one of the nations biggest localities, was lawlessness masquerading as law enforcement. Blatant racial profiling, inhumane treatment of prisoners and contempt for federal court orders  this was the stuff on which Mr. Arpaio staked his relentlessly self-promoted reputation as Americas toughest sheriff.

Now Mr. Arpaio, who lost a reelection bid for a seventh term in the fall after voters tired of shelling out tens of millions of dollars in legal fees on his behalf, is facing a day of reckoning. In a trial that began Monday in federal court, Mr. Arpaio stands accused of criminal contempt of court for having thumbed his nose at a federal judge who ordered a halt to Mr. Arpaios traffic patrols, which singled out Hispanics on the basis of nothing more than their appearance, for immigration enforcement.

Lawyers for Mr. Arpaio, who is 85, have tried out an array of legal strategies in his defense, variously arguing that he did not understand the order , or that the order was ambiguous or invalid. His supporters argue that the entire case is a political vendetta orchestrated by holdovers from the Obama administration in the Justice Department.

Unfortunately for the sheriff, the most damning evidence against him are the words he himself uttered, unambiguously, after U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow, in December 2011, ordered his office to halt detentions based on nothing more than suspicion that a person might be in violation of federal immigration law. Im still gonna do what Im doing, Mr. Arpaio told the media in April 2012 . Im still gonna arrest illegal aliens.

The sheriffs insolence  an open admission that he would persist in conduct the judge had ruled was discriminatory  translated into open defiance. For at least 18 months, his deputies continued to racially profile motorists for detention. Some 170 people were stopped in that period, even as Mr. Arpaios own lawyer at the sheriffs department warned him to stick to enforcing the state laws he was sworn to uphold, not federal ones.

Mr. Arpaios defiance didnt sit well with the judge, who found the sheriff in civil contempt of court and referred the case to the Justice Department, which, having concluded that Mr. Arpaios policy was intentional, brought criminal contempt charges against him. If convicted, he could face up to six months in prison.

As a federal prosecutor said in his opening argument for the sheriffs trial, this was a day Mr. Arpaio never imagined would come. He fancied himself above the law, not its instrument in one county. Whatever the outcome of the judicial process against him, the trial of Mr. Arpaio is the direct result of his own arrogance, and of contempt not just for a single federal judges order but also for the standards, norms and values of a civilized society.
Steven Brill is the author of Americas Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, And The Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System. He has received consulting fees for work on a consumer information and ombudsman program for New York-based Oscar Health Insurance.

If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cannot salvage his partys effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, there is still a way forward if he and his Democratic colleagues truly want to fix Obamacare. All they have to do is be willing to compromise  and to acknowledge some history.

The failure of the Republicans to agree, so far, on an alternative to Obamacare should not be surprising  because Obamacare was, in fact, the long-standing Republican alternative to the more radical health-care reforms, such as a single-payer system, that Democrats have proposed since the Truman era. What President Barack Obama and his party pushed through Congress in 2010 was more conservative  and more pro-private sector  than what Richard M. Nixon proposed in the 1970s, or what Republican Gov. Mitt Romney implemented in Massachusetts in 2006. Put simply, Obama dared Republicans to take yes for an answer. In a polarized America, they still said no.

Obamacare did little to deal with the problem of health-care costs. There would be no cost-control interference with the only-in-America profits of drug companies, medical device makers or hospitals. Instead, the law subsidized Americans who could not otherwise afford health insurance, allowing them to become paying customers in the same overpriced private-sector system.

True, there would be a provision aimed at making the insurance pool big enough to keep costs lower than they would be if people could just buy insurance when they got sick. Everyone would have to buy insurance (with subsidies where necessary) or pay a penalty. But that big-government mandate was first suggested by the conservative Heritage Foundation in 1989 under the banner of a classic conservative principle: individual responsibility. Romneycare included the same mandate.

Obamacare performed a great public service by giving more Americans access to health care. But by not addressing costs, it preordained the problem that McConnell and the Republicans have said they are trying to fix this year: rising insurance premiums and some insurers fleeing the market because their costs are too high.

However, the Republicans answer would fix nothing related to health-care costs, while eliminating access to care for millions of poor people in order to cut taxes for the wealthy. They have proposed lowering premiums not by reining in costs, but by allowing insurers to sell shoddy insurance that pays for less health care. That will not work in any event, because the healthiest people would buy the cheaper products, leaving those who need full protection in a less healthy insurance pool facing sky-high prices. (Consumer choice may sound like an unassailable virtue, but in insurance it can be self-defeating.)

So, here are nine ways that Democrats and Republicans could come together  if they really wanted to  to fix Obamacare by truly tackling the problem of high premiums caused by high costs.

(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

1. The Republicans were right that a 3-to-1 ratio  heavily lobbied for by the Democrats friends at AARP  between the rates charged for older people and those for the youngest adults does not match the relative actuarial costs of insuring the two groups and discourages the young from enrolling. The ratio should be moved to 5 to 1, as was originally contemplated by those drafting Obamacare until AARP got to them.

2. However, much more generous subsidies should then be given to older Americans to make insurance more affordable to them.

3. Those increased subsidies could be paid for by new controls on the price of prescription drugs, either by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices or by other mechanisms used by every other developed country, where prices are 30 to 60 percent lower than here. Taking just 15 percent off the price of prescription drugs would produce more than $600 billion in health-care savings over the next decade, which would lower private premiums while saving taxpayers billions on Medicare costs.

4. As an additional lure to get younger, healthier people into the insurance pool, insurance companies should be allowed to offer them an introductory 50 percent off for their first year of coverage.

5. Five percent of Obamacares 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices (which was suspended in 2015 and should be reinstated) should be used for a massive marketing program aimed at enticing younger people into the pool. The ad campaign should also tout the mandate to buy insurance (which must be kept) as, in the Heritage Foundations words, a matter of individual responsibility. The more young people who enroll, the lower the premiums will be for everyone.

6. Medicare should finally be allowed to fully implement competitive bidding for medical equipment and devices. Believe it or not, Congress has restricted Medicares ability even to negotiate the price of diabetes test strips to selected pilot project regions. Competitive bidding could save the government at least $50 billion over the next decade, which could be used to increase premium support for older Obamacare enrollees.

7. Antitrust reform needs to be part of the new package, too. Hospitals are merging with abandon. Every study says that although they say they are doing it to save money by consolidating services, prices always go up instead. How are insurers supposed to keep premiums under control if they can negotiate with only one hospital system that controls all the areas hospital beds and most of the doctors and clinics?

8. The experiments in bundled payments (as opposed to paying for every episode of care) for knee and hip replacements or cardiac surgery, which Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has sharply curtailed, need to be restored and intensified.

9. Finally, tort reform should be included. Abuse of malpractice suits is not as costly as Republicans claim, but it is a real issue because it provides a reason  and an excuse  for hospitals to over-treat and over-test. If tort reform shaved just half of one percent off of health-care costs, that would yield close to $200 billion over a decade. Democrats need to stand up to their trial lawyer patrons on this one.
THE RULE of law means, at its most fundamental level, that no one is above the law. The end of a trial in Moscow of five men accused of taking part in the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov shows quite clearly that that rule does not apply in Russia. The five Chechen men were convicted of carrying out the assassination, but the people who ordered the killing were not pursued and not found.

Nemtsov, then 55, was gunned down from behind as he crossed a bridge near the Kremlin Walls on Feb. 27, 2015. He had once been a rising young reformer as governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region in the early days after the Soviet collapse, and later in the 1990s served as a deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, attracting speculation as a possible Yeltsin successor. By the third term of President Vladimir Putin, Nemtsov had become a nettlesome critic of the president, preparing reports calling out corruption among Mr. Putins cronies. Before his death, he had spoken out publicly against Vladimir Putins war, the instigation of an armed uprising in southeastern Ukraine.

The brazen, coldblooded murder was shocking. Many friends and family have asked how Nemtsov could have been assassinated so close to the Kremlin without some kind of official connivance. The court was not so curious. After an eight-month jury trial, the five Chechens were convicted, including Zaur Dadayev, who was identified as the triggerman. The other four served as accomplices, the court found, and the group was promised 15 million rubles, or about $254,000, for the attack. The court did not pursue who may have ordered the hit.

Nemtsovs family has demanded that investigators examine the role of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen strongman, but he was not questioned. Testimony at the trial showed that a Chechen police commander who has since disappeared permitted Dadayev to go to Moscow and provided an apartment there. The commanders driver was the one who offered the payment to the killers  he has also fled.

Such contract killings with impunity have been a terrible black mark on Russia for more than two decades. On Oct. 7, 2006, the courageous journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot to death in her apartment building. The men who killed her were caught and convicted, but the person who ordered it was never found. The list of such murders runs long: Journalists, politicians and businessmen have been the most common targets.

The sad fact is that Yeltsin failed to build a state based on rule of law, and Mr. Putin did not seriously try. Though a Russian judicial system exists and post-Soviet laws are on the books, enforcement can at times be arbitrary in the extreme, and the powerful enjoy an exalted position, beyond reproach and beyond questioning.
In his June 25 Local Opinions essay, The big business of reenactments in Virginia, Roger Barbee described the sounds of a Civil War reenactment in New Market while wistfully pondering his homestead in Edinburg and the occupants who lived there during the 1864 battle. For Mr. Barbee, the sounds were just the sound of men, women and youths playing at war. He should step off his comfortable homestead and witness a reenactment in person.

Every participant dressed in a period military uniform or womens or childrens clothing is a teacher. They would be overjoyed to impart what they have learned. Every move that the acting troops perform has been learned from period military manuals. Reenactors take immense pride in learning and re-creating what their ancestors had mastered. Every step that cannoneers take to prepare and fire their field piece is a lesson directly from an army manual. Every cavalryman on horse has mastered the correct way to direct and control his mount into battle.

These diligent reenactors put it all on display for folks to see. For every reenactor, it is something far more important. It is connecting one-on-one with the past and experiencing perhaps a part of what their ancestors went through. No doubt we cannot show all the agony and suffering that war brought to the troops and residents of the valley or elsewhere in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Attend a reenactment; let us help you imagine.

Jay Henson, St. Michaels, Md.
Regarding the June 28 Metro article Chaffetz: Members of Congress should get stipends to afford homes in D.C.:

I think former congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was on to something in wanting to help members of Congress with housing. However, Ive got another idea.

I propose the construction of a dormitory, maybe on the site of the old congressional hotel, that would provide low-cost rooms for members of Congress. Political scientists often criticize the lack of civility in Congress today based, in part, on members not spending quality time together like in the old days. A dormitory would throw Republicans and Democrats together and provide bonding experiences. Although their schedules are filled with official lunches and receptions in the evenings, maybe a boarding-house breakfast could be provided.

Perhaps, like at many colleges and universities, the newly elected would be required to live in the congressional dorm to get bonding and civility going from the very beginning of their congressional tenures.

Don DeArmon, Frederick

Heres an idea for former congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah): Rather than giving members of Congress a housing stipend, why dont we pay them minimum wage and provide a low-income housing voucher? And  because they are working  lets add a food-stamp allotment. And if you really want health care, just forgo that new iPhone.

Try walking a mile in those shoes.

Ray and Ellen Battistelli, Silver Spring
ALMOST EXACTLY 4 years after the U.S. governments leading antitrust agency decided that Google had not unlawfully abused its position as the worlds No. 1 Internet search engine, the European Commission in Brussels has reached a contrary conclusion. After lengthy investigation, the commission ruled that Google had violated European antitrust law, and slapped the U.S.-based company with a $2.7 billion fine. This turn of events proves the United States and Europe have different approaches to fighting monopoly. And while the latters is certainly more satisfying to the Silicon Valley giants many critics, that does not necessarily make it superior, in terms of antitrust policys core purposes.

Obviously the whole matter has gotten caught up in European angst over the dominance that U.S. companies exercise in this crucial industry. But to the extent that there was a real issue, it was Googles shopping tool, which affords privileged treatment to paid sponsors in responding to queries from consumers. Search womens ECCO shoes on the German version of Google, for example, and up pop various offerings for Birkenstocks from a select group of vendors  accompanied by a note, in tiny type off to the side, indicating that merchant links are sponsored.

Google argues that this is not a case of Internet payola, but a search result that balances the consumers individual needs and preferences, based on the data the company possesses about him or her  and Googles need to make enough revenue to stay in business crunching all that data. In fact, the firm insists, it wouldnt be in its interest to do anything truly skewed by advertising dollars, because consumers would quickly catch on. The European Commission disagreed, in effect siding with comparison shopping sites that claimed Google unfairly shut them out  many of which had, in fact, already gone out of business in the time it took the commission to rule.

Whether the demise of any of them is specifically traceable to Google, however, is not so clear. Also unclear is the aggregate harm from Googles practices to consumers, as opposed to the unlucky companies. Birkenstock-seekers may well prefer to see a Google-generated list of vendors first, instead of clicking around to other sites. Certainly Googles disclosure of its sponsorship arrangements adds a small but nontrivial note of transparency. Those who arent happy anyway have other options. Indeed, the rise of comparison shopping on giants such as Amazon and eBay makes concerns that Google might exercise untrammeled power over e-commerce seem, well, a bit dated. (Amazons founder and chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Post.) Who knows? In a few years we might be talking about how Facebook leveraged its 2 billion users to disrupt the whole space.

The immense size and power of all Internet giants are a legitimate focus for the antitrust authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. Brussels vs. Google, however, seems to be a case of punishment without crime.
Gary Abernathy is publisher and editor of the (Hillsboro, Ohio) Times-Gazette.

There is an ongoing terrorist attack happening in Ohio. It has nothing to do with the Islamic State or political anarchists. The weapons in this case come in the form of heroin and other opioids, and the terrorists are the pushers who spread the deadly poison.

From the Columbus Dispatch this spring: At least 4,149 Ohioans died from unintentional drug overdoses in 2016, a 36 percent leap from just the previous year, when Ohio had by far the most overdose deaths in the nation. . . . Many coroners said that 2017s overdose fatalities are outpacing 2016s.

Consider that number  4,149 overdose deaths in Ohio in one year, more than the number who died on 9/11.

The worst of the states opioid problems are here in southern Ohio. The Highland County coroner provided our newspaper, the Times-Gazette, with a recap of cases from 2016 showing at least 16 overdose deaths in this small rural county. He also pointed to 50 deaths during the year from other causes where drug use or a history of drug use were present.

Even non-fatal overdoses are taxing local resources. During the first three weeks of May, emergency responders answered calls to at least 18 overdoses around the county, almost three times as many as during the same period a year ago. The public information officer for the local fire and emergency medical services department called it the new normal.

This is all happening around little Hillsboro, a town often compared with televisions idyllic Mayberry. With the FBI reporting that most heroin enters the United States from Mexico, and local officials saying that it then makes its way here through metropolitan drug rings, its no wonder that few people in Hillsboro think President Trumps border security plans are extreme.

Like other forms of terrorism, the opioid attack will have a generational impact, in this case in a foster-care crisis being left in its wake. In December 2015, our newspaper reported that a focused crackdown on drug abuse by local law enforcement  a focus applauded by nearly everyone  has led to the unintended consequence of more children who are left homeless.

Our most recent article on the subject, in April, reported that there were more than 100 children in foster care, costing our county about $1.9 million annually. With just 15 foster parents in all of Highland County, many children must be placed in other counties, incurring higher costs.

The drug crisis is leading to some controversial initiatives. Our local health commissioner recently unveiled a program to supply free naloxone, an opioid inhibitor, to people who attend training on how and when to administer it to overdose victims. Many residents oppose the idea, arguing that the same users are being revived time and again, but the commissioner responds that his agency is charged with saving lives.

Opioids come in legal form, too, and Ohios attorney general, Mike DeWine, recently sued the pharmaceutical industry, accusing drugmakers of contributing to the problem through misleading marketing campaigns.

After I briefly mentioned the overdose epidemic in a recent op-ed for The Post about our regions support for Trump, I heard from readers claiming that Trumps 2018 budget does little to fight the opioid problem. Maybe, but the statistics show that what we have been doing is not working, which indicates we should not just keep doing more of it.

Some local officials have begun tackling the heroin crisis more aggressively, especially since recent batches have been laced with fentanyl, an even deadlier drug. Fentanyl is largely a Chinese export, which presents Trump with an opportunity to insist on a crackdown as a bargaining chip in what appears to be his effort toward better trade relations with China.

Our local prosecutor has begun charging those accused of supplying fentanyl-laced heroin to overdose victims with involuntary manslaughter, rather than treating these simply as accidental deaths. If that approach is more widely adopted, drug pushers who are arrested but typically back on the streets in short order will instead find themselves behind bars under stiffer charges more representative of the death and carnage they are causing.

In southern Ohio, the opioid problem is beyond mere fodder for partisan budgetary debates. Were dealing with purveyors of poison carrying out a real-time assault on our communities. When it comes to the flow of deadly drugs into the United States and communities such as Hillsboro, we have to combat it outside the scope of typical drug abuse prevention programs.

Our vaunted war on drugs has long represented little more than benign phraseology. But it has become a real war, and the drug cartels and pushers here and abroad are enemy combatants. Until we respond as we would to any terrorist attack, the casualties will continue to mount. That may sound extreme, but the rising death toll suggests otherwise.
The June 27 Politics & the Nation article Lets (not) move: Sedentary lifestyles taking over among youths confirmed what fitness experts such as myself have been saying for years: New social structures have a negative impact in our society.

Reducing or limiting physical-education classes, a lack of funding for after-school fitness programs and school officials opting out of mandatory physical fitness have contributed to these results. A reverse in community and family behaviors needs to occur, such as challenging and demanding school officials to increase physical activity; encouraging and allowing children to attend after-school fitness programs; finding opportunities to establish family fitness in which families exercise together for 45 minutes before dinner, which would reduce the amount of time children spend on electronic devices; and teaching healthy eating patterns. Businesses should offer incentives for employees, such as extending lunch periods for those attending group fitness classes.

Without changes, we will see our health-care systems clogged, and they already are stretched. Todays youth are tomorrows diabetic patients, kidney patients and high-blood-pressure patients.

Greg Raleigh, Washington
Concentrated coverage of the Kremlins meddling in the 2016 campaign and the 24-hour news cycle with its minute-by-minute reporting have converted Washington into a kind of circus. The best seats under the tent are up high, where you can keep an eye on the multiple rings.

To your left, watch media performers act out their delivery of breaking news and headline-attracting scoops, such as this Post-exclusive jaw-dropper: FBI questioned Trump campaign adviser . . . at length in Russia probe.

To your right, watch as lawmakers perform choreographed acts of congressional oversight using skills honed to suggest they are doing something of consequence when they are only posturing. The possibility of Russians having their hooks into the Trump crowd is the last thing the GOP-controlled Congress wants to face.

In the center ring, find President Trump himself, the greatest showman on Earth.

Watch as the ringmaster shamelessly tweets obnoxious comments about the other performing acts. Listen to his whining about fake news and witch hunts. See how he skillfully moves the circus audience away from notions of collusion, cyberattacks and Russias wanting him in the White House.

And whats a circus without clowns? To wit: the trio of Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose antics are more cause for pathos than amusement.

Yet Washingtons Big Top Circus is, in truth, a mere sideshow.

The Main Event is being staged far from the publics eye. Its where special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, and his team of first-rate prosecutors and federal agents, are focused laser-like on the Russian governments campaign to disrupt and undermine the 2016 U.S. presidential race; the possible involvement of Trump or his campaign with the attempted foreign sabotage; and Trumps possible obstruction of justice in the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey.

The daily claims of Trump, his White House staff and personal counsel, and right-wing media that the FBI investigation has come up empty, call to mind the movie The Untouchables, and crime boss Al Capones sneering taunt to pursuing federal agent Eliot Ness: You got nothing.

Capone learned better. The Trump cabals dismissal of the federal probe is little more than a blustering attempt to put on a brave front.

Trump does not know what information the army of prosecutors and investigators are busily acquiring from witnesses at home and abroad, including, ta-da, possible sources within Trumps own political and business circles.

Watergate got started like this.

The beginning of Richard M. Nixons demise was launched by the surreptitious penetration of the Democratic National Committee to steal information and set up means to illegally monitor DNC operations. The five arrested culprits, dismissed by Nixons press secretary as participants in a third-rate burglary, were found to be tied to Nixons own Committee to Re-Elect the President, appropriately known as CREEP.

After the break-in, Nixon okayed the payment of hush money to the burglars. He went so far as to work with his staff to hatch a plan to have the CIA impede the FBI investigation  an act that led the House Judiciary Committee to vote an article of impeachment that prompted his resignation from office on Aug. 9, 1974.

Fast-forward to 2015.

Once again, thieves set out to surreptitiously penetrate the Democratic National Committee to monitor and steal internal information. This time, however, the cyber-intrusion was the handiwork of Russian agents. According to U.S. intelligence services, their assault on U.S. democracy, and other actions to disrupt the presidential election, were launched on the specific instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the expressed objective of defeating, or at least damaging, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and helping to elect Trump.

Putin had his reasons for loathing Clinton. She took a hard line on Russia. She supported the 2011 protests against Putins government.

But the Kremlin also had its reasons for wanting Trump in White House.

No American presidential candidate since Communist Party-USA boss Gus Hall has ever enjoyed greater Moscow acceptance.

Certainly no candidate in U.S. history, whether Democratic or Republican, has had deeper Russian business and financial connections than Trump.

He has even confirmed his business links to Russia and his meetings with Russian oligarchs closely connected with Putin.

Whats more, no White House prospect has had more campaign, business and family associates with personal ties to Russias politically connected.

In Trump, Russia saw the prospect of having a good friend in the White House. Probably, the best ever.

Helping get Trump there served the Kremlins best interests. And, of course, Trumps, as well.

Mueller and the feds are not on a fishing expedition. They have been told whats in the water. They are baiting their hooks and assembling all the facts about Putins operation to defeat or damage Clinton, including any swimmers on the American side who knew about and helped to achieve Putins wicked objectives.

That makes this not a circus, but an outright criminal probe. One day, Washington is going to learn the difference.

Read more from Colbert Kings archive.
Carlos Lozadas June 18 Outlook review, Is the Western order becoming irrelevant?, didnt counter the implication offered in two British books that though the United States has made mistakes, abdication of its role in world leadership would leave a gap. Really?

The United States arguably reached a high point in international statesmanship in the immediate aftermath of World War II with the Marshall Plan and policies toward defeated Axis nations. But since then, has the United States really had a principled and positive role in world affairs? Has it contributed to peace and stability? Consider history:

With President Dwight D. Eisenhowers approval, the CIA contrived with British intelligence to overthrow Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 because he planned to nationalize the Iranian oil industry. Mossadegh was Irans democratically elected prime minister, a brilliantly talented and principled leader elected with nearly 90 percent vote in the Iranian Majlis (parliament). He rejected both Soviet and Western influence.

The bungled Bay of Pigs attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1961 led to the Russian missile crisis in Cuba in 1962.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy assented to South Vietnamese generals plan to remove President Ngo Diem Dinh and his brother. Despite promises of safe passage, they were killed. According to Mark Moyars book Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965, Ho Chi Minh said he could scarcely believe the Americans would be so stupid.

The Pentagon Papers, released by Daniel Ellsberg to the New York Times in 1971, revealed that Lyndon Johnsons administration had systematically lied about U.S. involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967, not only to the public but also to Congress.

Under President Richard M. Nixon, the United States materially supported Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, which resulted in horrendous loss of life, genocide against the East Pakistan intelligentsia and systematic rapes.

The Reagan-Bush administration supported Saddam Husseins Iraq in the bloody Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) with several billion dollars worth of economic aid, weapons sales, intelligence and training. Can we understand that Irans hostility toward the United States may have legitimate roots?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States did almost nothing to support the former Communist superpower in its deep economic crisis and fledgling attempts to form a democratic system. Meanwhile, it supplied billions in weaponry to Egypt and other nations. And that doesnt take into account recent history.

In short, the United States has talked lofty principles while both Democratic and Republican administrations have been ready to interfere in other nations affairs whenever perceived U.S. interests were involved. While it continued to provide billions in aid to other nations, it expressed only satisfaction over the collapse of the Soviet Union, failing to step in with meaningful support when this might have helped head off authoritarian rule in Russia. Compare this with the history of the European Union and its extraordinary commitment in the Middle East refugee crisis. Give me E.U. leadership any day.

Frank T. Manheim, Arlington
Former first lady Michelle Obama and actress Julia Roberts embrace at the end of an Obama Foundation event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Dec. 12, 2019 Former first lady Michelle Obama and actress Julia Roberts embrace at the end of an Obama Foundation event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ahmad Yusni/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

A look at how the former president and his family are spending their time.

Take a look at the family as they begin their post-presidency lives.

Take a look at the family as they begin their post-presidency lives.

What the Obamas have been doing since they left the White House

What the Obamas have been doing since they left the White House

Following another week of dust-ups between the media and President Trump, his predecessor shared a bit of wisdom Saturday from the other side of the world about tolerance and taking the daily news cycle in stride.

I wasnt worried about what was in the newspapers today, former president Barack Obama said during a nostalgic visit to Indonesias capital, his childhood home. What I was worried about was, What are they going to write about me 20 years from now when I look back? 

Obama was greeted by a crowd of thousands, including leaders, students and businesspeople, in Jakarta, where he opened the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora.

He reminisced about moving to Jakarta in 1967 when he was just 6 years old, shouting, Indonesia bagian dari diri saya! or Indonesia is part of me!

Obama lived in the country with his mother, an anthropologist, and his Indonesian stepfather. The couple split up after his half sister was born, and Obama moved back to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his grandparents.

The image of former U.S. President Barack Obama is shown on a large screen at a busy street in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday. (Dita Alangkara/AP)

My time here made me cherish respect for peoples differences, he said, noting how he and his family had just visited two of the most treasured ancient temples  Borobudur, a Buddhist complex, and the Hindu compound of Prambanan  in the worlds most populous Muslim country.

Obamas speech came on the final leg of his 10-day vacation in Indonesia. In addition to visiting the temples in the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java, he and his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia, also went rafting and toured the resort island of Bali. On Friday, he met Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the grand Bogor Palace in West Java, just outside Jakarta.

Obama largely stayed away from U.S. politics and the Trump administration, but he did tout one of his accomplishments while in office.

In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change, an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance, he said.

Trump shocked many countries last month by announcing he was pulling out of the accord. He has also had a difficult relationship with members of the news media and was recently condemned by Democrats and Republicans for a tweet that attacked a female MSNBC host.

Obama stressed the importance of stepping away from news sites where only like-minded views are shared, and he warned about social media giving rise to resentment of minorities and bad treatment of people.

He urged the country to be a light of democracy and to never stop embracing differences. Indonesia has faced a rise in Islamist radicalism and anti-gay attacks and was recently condemned by rights groups for jailing Jakartas former governor, an ethnic Chinese Christian, for blasphemy.

The spirit of this country has to be one of tolerance. Its enshrined in Indonesias constitution, its symbolized by mosques and temples and churches beside each other, Obama said. That spirit is one of the defining things about Indonesia. It is one of the most important characteristics to set as an example for other Muslim countries around the world.
More than 200 street children who were rescued from the streets of Manila have completed the anti-drug education program Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) being implemented by Manila Mayor Joseph Erap Estrada.

The 200 street children, aged eight to 14, are the first batch of homeless children at the Manila Boystown Complex in Marikina Citya halfway house for orphans, juvenile delinquents, and former drug dependents being run by the city government of Manilato undergo DARE lessons.

In simple recognition ceremonies at the facility, Estrada called on the young DARE graduates, some of whom were the so-called rugby boys or substance abusers, to shun drugs and other vices and instead go to school to start a new life.

Youre probably thinking that no one cares for you and that you no longer have any chance at all, Estrada told the street children in Filipino.

Its too early for you to give up life. You still have a bright future ahead of you, Estrada said.

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But you cant have a future if you continue using drugs. Stop it, it wont do you any good, Estrada added.

For those wanting to go to school, he said public schools in Manila are tuition-free, including school supplies and uniforms.

The city-run Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) and Universidad de Manila (UDM) also offer college degrees, free of charge, to poor but deserving students, Estrada added.

To inspire the street children, Estrada reminded them that many former orphans at Boystown have become successful in their chosen fields such as actor Enrico Torralba, businessman Herbert Yu, and Romnic Toledo, a youth rights advocate.

But I must remind you: Manila loves you. And as father of Manila, I love you, Estrada told the street children.

Originally from the United States, DARE is a classroom instruction program that taps active duty police officers to teach Grades 5 and 6 students good decision-making skills to keep them away from drugs and other vices.

The Manila Police District has so far 32 highly-trained personnel dedicated to teaching DARE lessons, according to MPD director Chief Supt. Joel Coronel.

Since 1993 when Estrada introduced the program in the country when he was vice president and head of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC), more than 1.5 million students have underwent DARE instructions.

Estrada now serves as chairman of DARE Philippines Inc., a private non-profit organization that implements DARE not only in Manila but also in the entire country.

According to Donna Gasgonia, the organizations executive vice president, the 202 street children from Boystown were given special DARE lessons by Manila-based DARE officers.

They really did participate in the lessons so the Mayor thought its only fitting that we give them recognition. They are the first batch of children here to complete DARE, Gasgonia said of the street children.

She pointed out it was Estradas wish to save these children from drugs and criminal activities and give them another shot in life, thus, the introduction of DARE at Boystown.

At the facility, the children are enrolled in the Fugoso Integrated School that offers Alternative Learning System (ALS) for free. They are also provided with decent shelters, clothes, foods, medicines, and proper healthcare.

As for the adults, they are made to undergo development activities such as skills and livelihood trainings and basic business management courses. Upon their release, they are referred to the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) for job referrals.

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Jonathan Shenkin, right, a pediatric dentist, at his office in Augusta, Maine. (Photo by Sarah Rice for The Washington Post) (Sarah Rice/For The Washington Post)

 Little in politics has surprised Richard Malaby as much as the power of dentists.

For years, local dentists held four Christmas parties at Malabys 19th-century country inn in the picturesque town of Hancock. But in 2014, Malaby, a Republican lawmaker in the Maine state legislature, voted to create a new type of dental provider to perform basic services in poor and rural areas.

The Maine Dental Association, which opposed the bill, was furious. And the dentists took their Christmas parties elsewhere, costing Malaby $6,000 that December and every Yuletide since.

Among the general public, dentists tend to have a Norman Rockwell appeal  solo practitioners who clean your teeth, tell your kids to cut down on the candy, and put their seal of approval on a range of minty toothpastes and mouthwashes. But lawmakers from Maine to Alaska see a different side of dentists and their lobby, the American Dental Association, describing a political force so unified, so relentless and so thoroughly woven into American communities that its clout rivals that of the gun lobby.

I put their power right up there with the NRA, Malaby said. Dentists do everything they can to protect their interests  and they have money.

(Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)

As the cost of dental care rises beyond the reach of millions of Americans, the dental lobby is coming under increasing scrutiny. Critics say the ADA has worked to scuttle competition that could improve access to dental care in underserved areas and make routine checkups and fillings more affordable.

[The painful truth about teeth]

The Federal Trade Commission has battled dentists in state after state over anti-competitive conduct. In 2007, the FTC successfully settled a complaint over a South Carolina dental board requirement that dentists examine children in school clinics before hygienists can clean their teeth, adding greatly to the cost. In 2015, the FTC won a Supreme Court ruling against the North Carolina dental board, which tried to block teeth-whitening businesses from operating in malls.

This year, the FTC publicly commented on a growing campaign to improve access to dental care by creating a category of mid-level practitioners, or dental therapists, to provide some routine services. In a letter to the Ohio lawmakers considering such a measure, FTC officials said therapists could benefit consumers by increasing choice, competition, and access to care, especially for the underserved.

More than a dozen states are considering similar proposals, despite fierce resistance from the ADA and its state affiliates. During the Maine debate, so many dentists flooded the statehouse in Augusta that besieged lawmakers taped up signs declaring their offices a Dental Free Zone.

The dentists had a unique way to get around the blockade: the regular checkup. While the bill was pending, some lawmakers found themselves getting an earful when they stretched out and opened wide for an oral exam.

Im certainly a captive audience when I am in the dental chair, said Brian Langley (R), a Maine state senator who also got calls from four other dentists in his district and ended up siding with them.

Former lobsterman Michael Hanson, 54, says the American dental system is broken. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

The bill establishing a new provider type ultimately passed, but it was brutal, very brutal, recalled David Burns, a Republican state senator who retired after supporting the measure. Afterward, Burns said, he got a call from his dentist, who vowed never to treat him again, saying, This relationship is over.

Most of the 200,000 dentists in America work solo, in offices that are essentially small businesses. They are known for projecting a remarkably unified voice on issues relating to their livelihood. The ADA says 64 percent of dentists belong to the association. By comparison, only 25 percent of physicians belong to the American Medical Association.

The ADA agrees that too many Americans are getting inadequate dental care. They argue that the answer is not the creation of lesser trained therapists, but more government funding and community dental health care coordinators to educate people and get them to a dentist.

[Why the Republican health plan could have devastating consequences for your teeth]

Dentistry has a fundamental belief that dentists should be the only ones to do surgical, irreversible procedures, said Michael Graham, senior vice president of the ADAs Division of Government and Public Affairs. A lot of things can happen when you cut into a tooth.

Others argue that the American model of dentistry is badly in need of innovation and competition. The Pew Charitable Trusts and other foundations advocate therapists as a way to improve access and affordability.





Therapists cost less to train than dentists do, and states set the rules governing their training and scope of practice. Supporters say the idea is for the therapists to work in concert with a licensed dentist but be more mobile, visiting people in nursing homes and underserved rural areas to perform basic oral exams and fill and pull some teeth.

They would also treat people on Medicaid, the government health-care program for the poor. Two-thirds of licensed dentists do not accept Medicaid, and hospital emergency rooms are swamped with people with neglected teeth.

Therapists are not a silver bullet but a significant way to begin addressing the problem, said John Grant, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts dental campaign.

Louis Sullivan, a physician who served as secretary of health and human services under President George H.W. Bush, said dentists opposition to therapists is largely about money.

They think dental therapists will be competing against them and therefore will compromise their income, he said.

Sullivan noted that doctors strongly opposed the creation of nurse practitioners in the 1970s. Now doctors  and the health-care system  cant live without them, he said.

As in the nurse-doctor battle, there is a gender factor: More than 95 percent of dental hygienists are female. As a group, they support the idea of therapists and, with additional training, could join their ranks. Currently, hygienists work in small offices with licensed dentists, 70 percent of whom are male.

Dentistry has been an old boys club, said Ruth Ballweg, a professor and physician assistant at the University of Washington School of Medicine who has been involved in the fight for dental therapists. But the model is changing.

More than 50 countries, from Canada to New Zealand, have dental therapists. Alaska Native tribal areas first introduced dental therapists to the United States in 2004. Since then, Minnesota, Maine and Vermont have approved them. Ohio, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Dakota and several other states are now contemplating their authorization.

The ADA has spent millions of dollars trying to block the bills. It also filed multiple lawsuits trying without success to stop the Alaska program.

They went after these Alaskan therapists like they were ISIS. It was embarrassing, said Jack Dillenberg, a dentist who has taught at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

Dillenberg visited the Alaska program, where therapists working in consultation with a licensed dentist  sometimes by telemedicine  visit islands, remote villages and other underserved areas.

I thought they were awesome, said Dillenberg, one of few dentists to publicly support the therapist idea.

Of two dozen dentists interviewed, a handful said they liked the idea, with some arguing that the existence of therapists would let them concentrate on more complicated procedures. Another proponent, Maine dentist Aatif Ansari, posted pro-therapist comments on Facebook during the 2014 debate. He got hammered by his colleagues.

It was very aggressive. Folks were upset, Ansari said. They said things like, How could you? I spend this many years in school and how could you let someone with inferior training do this work? 

The ADA and its state associations often argue that therapists provide second-class care. Jonathan Shenkin, a Maine dentist who is active in the lobby, said the push for therapists is misplaced. He argues for more emphasis on prevention, including better nutrition and regular brushing.

The issue is intensely debated and can be very emotional, said Mary Otto, author of a new book, Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America. It has to do with dentists identity and the professional autonomy they have fought to keep for generations.

In Maine, the therapist bill turned out to be the most contentious issue of the 2014 legislative session. It passed only after opponents added multiple restrictions, including a requirement that therapists work only in the presence of a dentist. Supporters failed even to persuade lawmakers to let therapists travel to nursing homes alone.

Three years later, resistance remains high. Dentists control the dental schools and the state licensing board, and not one therapist has yet been trained. Supporters of the legislation say restrictions and bureaucracy have made becoming a therapist less desirable.

Meanwhile, people who cant pay continue to put off care. On a recent Friday, Michael Hanson, 54, a lobsterman who went 15 years without seeing a dentist, was sitting in the community health clinic near Maines Acadia National Park. Over time, lack of care and poor health ruined Hansons teeth. In February, they were all pulled. He sat toothless, talking about eating soft food for months while he awaits his dentures.

Hanson said his daughter, too, skips annual exams because it is hard to come up with the money.

The dental system is broken, he said. You go to the hospital and they give you time to pay your bill. But you go to the dentist and they want you to pay right there, and people just dont have the money.

Heather Sirocki, a Maine lawmaker who backed the therapist bill, is a hygienist by training. She has seen the swollen jaws and blackened teeth of people who cant afford dental care. Shes even heard of people driving to Canada to seek treatment.

People like Hanson are not asking for a free handout, Sirocki said. They are asking for a dental appointment.
Protestors outside of a town hall held by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in Baton Rouge on Friday. (Ashley Cusick /For The Washington Post)

Sen. Susan Collins will celebrate the Fourth of July within view of the Canadian border, at a remote northeastern Maine towns annual parade. Sen. Lisa Murkowski will appear on the other end of the continent in an old timber town on an isolated Alaskan island.

These two Republican senators, critical swing votes in the debate over health-care legislation, are not exactly rushing into the public spotlight to engage their constituents on the controversial plan and their own decision-making about the proposal.

Then again, at least they have released information about where they will be. Thats more than most Senate Republicans have done at the start of a 10-day break wrapped around the nations Independence Day celebration. This creates the belief among liberal activists that Republicans are trying to hide, which in turn primes every public moment to become that much more confrontational.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wanted to avoid this by passing the Better Care Reconciliation Act by Friday, believing that Republican senators might have faced some heat back home over the coming week  but then would have been able to focus on many other issues for the rest of the summer.

Instead of reaching agreement, rank-and-file Republicans demanded more time to review the proposal and to try to negotiate more compromises, with a final vote not likely until late July.

(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

That timeline will run right up against the start of the traditional summer break, with Congress scheduled to leave Washington on July 28 and not return until after Labor Day. This is exactly what McConnell was trying to avoid, a scenario in which Republicans replay the same political summer that Democrats endured in 2009 as they delayed and delayed consideration of what eventually became the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

The longer the issue remained in the public sphere, the more it consumed every interaction Democrats had at home with their constituents. The month of rowdy town halls in August 2009 in particular created exactly the optics McConnell was trying to sidestep this time around.

It would have been better if we had been able to finish it, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) lamented as he left the Senate on Thursday, pondering the likelihood that the rest of the summer would focus on this one politically troubling issue. Im just saying, if I had my druthers, I wish we had gone ahead and gotten the product agreed to.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), another holdout on the legislation, got the first dose of whats likely when senators hold public events for the foreseeable future. On Friday, in Baton Rouge, Cassidy tried to discuss flood relief  a critical issue in his state  only to be interrupted with chants of health care, health care.

Democrats, who are unified in their opposition to the GOP effort to repeal Obamacare, are watching in amazement as the Republicans handle the issue in the same political circumstances they faced eight years ago. They contend that the issue will only get worse for Republicans and could lead to more bad coverage, just as Democrats faced in 2009.

It could very well, I sure hope so, said Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who was the House majority whip in charge of rounding up votes for the legislation back then.

Some Republicans dismiss worries about timing. Rewriting the laws governing health care, they say, will always be a laborious process because the issue is so prominent in peoples lives.

View Graphic See where the Senate health-care bills subsidy cuts will affect Americans most

These Republicans say they want their colleagues to focus less on the process and instead get the policy right.

No matter what you do, you eventually go home and you have to explain your vote, said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which wrote much of the Houses version of the bill. Whether thats this week, next week, the week after or the August break.

Walden spent the previous four years running the House Republican campaign arm, which last year was still running ads blasting Democrats for their support of Obamacare  more than six years after the law passed on party-line votes.

Lawmakers who know the issue and can talk fluently about it will be best positioned to weather what is shaping up to be a stormy 2018 midterm election for Republicans. It comes with the territory. You better know what youre voting for and why, and be able to go home and explain it, Walden said.

The biggest division among Senate Republicans remains how to handle the ACAs provision allowing states to expand Medicaid to provide coverage to millions of additional low-income families. The provision is fully paid with federal funds now and is set to shift in a few years to require states to pick up 10 percent of the tab.

Cassidy and Murkowski are among the Senate Republicans from states that accepted that Medicaid expansion and have deep concerns about McConnells plan to force states into a near 50-50 split in funding, as well as another conservative plan to impose strict spending caps on the original entitlement program that primarily serves low-income children, the disabled and the elderly.

This bloc has left McConnell far short of the minimum 50 votes he needs (with Vice President Pence ready to cast a tiebreaking vote). McConnell will spend the next few weeks trying to forge consensus to pass the legislation. And that means Republicans have to continue talking about the issue  or hiding from their constituents.

On Tuesday, even in Wrangell, an island town with fewer than 2,500 residents in the Alaskan panhandle, Murkowski will march in a parade and almost certainly face questions about how she will vote on health care.

And in Eastport, population 1,300  long considered the easternmost city in the nation  residents of greater Moose Island are also likely to pepper Collins with questions.

And thats why some Republicans fear that time will only hurt the legislations chances.

Things start going backward over the Fourth. I think a lot of people then start to think about, you know, its less likely to make a deal, said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a conservative who led some of the Houses health-care negotiations in the spring. Having negotiated all my life, if you get close, its better to stay and get it done.

Mike DeBonis in Washington and Ashley Cusick in Baton Rouge contributed to this report.

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Deep beneath this frigid stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, some of the worlds most valuable diamonds are scattered like lost change.

The discovery of such gems has sparked a revolution in one of the worlds most storied industries, sending mining companies on a race for precious stones buried just under the seafloor.

For over a century, open-pit diamond mines have been some of the most valuable real estate on Earth, with small swaths of southern Africa producing billions of dollars of wealth. But those mines are gradually being exhausted. Experts predict that the output of existing onshore mines will decline by around 2 percent annually in coming years. By 2050, production might cease.

Now, some of the first floating mines could offer hope for the worlds most mythologized gemstone, and extend a lifeline to countries like Namibia whose economies depend on diamonds. Last year, mining companies extracted $600 million worth of diamonds off the Namibian coast, sucking them up in giant vacuum-like hoses.

As [Namibias] land-based mines enter their twilight years, its very important for us and for Namibia that we have long-term mining prospects, said Bruce Cleaver, the chief executive of De Beers, in an interview.





But as companies weigh the prospect of more offshore operations, environmentalists have raised concerns about the damage that could be inflicted on the seafloor.

From above, the mining vessels look like oil rigs, 300-foot-long ships with helicopter landing platforms, dredging equipment and industrial metal pilings. On a recent day, a family of seals swam off one of them, as the machines hummed and sediment was sucked on board through a 170-yard hose to be sorted. It might be the worlds most complex commercial mining endeavor.

Diamonds are formed when carbon is subjected to high temperatures and pressure deep underground. Some were hurled toward the surface millions of years ago in volcanic eruptions. In recent decades, geologists realized that because diamonds could be found in Namibias Orange River, there was a good chance they could also be detected at sea, swept there by the current. As it turned out, the underwater gems were among the worlds most valuable stones  with far greater clarity than diamonds mined on land.

De Beers, which historically dominated global diamond production, purchased mining rights to more than 3,000 square miles of the Namibian seafloor in 1991. So far, it has explored only 3 percent of that area.

The technology to extract the underwater diamonds took years to develop. Only recently has the firm been able to efficiently scavenge the sea for diamonds. Underwater gems only represent about 13 percent of the value of diamonds De Beers mines onshore each year, but more countries are pushing for exploration to begin along their coastlines.

At the unveiling last month of the SS Nujoma, a giant exploration vessel, former Namibian president Sam Nujoma smashed a bottle of champagne over the hull, surrounded by signs that read:

The future of marine diamond mining is here, and its Namibian.

The SS Nujoma is seen at its official launch on June 15 in Walvis Bay Harbor, Namibia. Debmarine Namibia, a partnership between the Namibian government and De Beers, owns the SS Nujoma, the worlds most advanced diamond exploration vessel, which sucks up sediment from the ocean floor in an effort to find diamonds. (Hildegard Titus/AFP/Getty Images)

Mining sites turned ghost towns

In 1908, a railroad worker named Zacharias Lewala found a shiny stone in the desert of southwestern Namibia. South Africas diamond rush had been underway for a few decades, and now another boom began in the territory to its northwest, with miners finding some valleys strewn with the precious stones. Germany, which controlled present-day Namibia until World War I, extracted 7 million carats between 1908 and 1914.

A century later, many of those mining sites are now ghost towns. All thats left of Kolmanskop, where Lewala found his diamond, is a cluster of abandoned wooden houses, their living rooms covered in sand. It is a portrait of the rapid boom-and-bust life cycle of diamond mining.

Mining companies have invested billions in technology that would lead to new finds. And there have been some big ones: In 1982 in Botswana, De Beers opened a mine called Jwaneng, which produces roughly 12 million carats per year, worth over $2 billion.

But known diamond deposits began to diminish in recent years, even as demand for the gems has remained strong. Last year, the world spent $80 billion on diamond jewelry, more than half of it in the United States, an all-time high. Demand in emerging economies such as China and India is also expected to increase.

Those trends  diminishing supply and rising demand  made Namibias offshore deposits all the more important. In the 1990s, De Beers sent its first commercial vessels into the Atlantic in search of diamonds. Now, more than 90 percent of Namibia's diamond-related revenue comes from offshore finds.

These days, the company uses drones to fly over vast stretches of the ocean, looking for areas that might be worth exploring. Then it sends vessels like the Mafuta to dredge the most promising areas. Most of the diamonds are close to the surface, De Beers said, so it does not go deeper than six feet beneath the seafloor.

The mining vessels combine technology from oil rigs, dredging ships and even canneries to do their work. A remote control, tractor-like crawler moves slowly along the surface of the seafloor, directing a hose that sucks up tons of sediment every hour.

The sediment is then passed through a series of machines that cull material first by size and then, using X-ray technology, by geological composition. Diamonds make their way down five floors of conveyor belts and machines into a metal container that looks like a soup can.

The things we do for women, quipped Mike Rogers, the chief engineer of the Mafuta, as the crawler descended from the vessel one day last month.

Ninety-eight people live aboard the Mafuta, which has the urgent, frenzied feeling of a naval ship. A few weeks ago, it was hammered with 30-foot swells as it tried to operate.

Diamond mining contributes roughly a tenth of Namibias gross domestic product, and its offshore contract with De Beers is a 50-50 partnership with the government. But while the soaring revenue has made some Namibians rich, this remains the worlds third most unequal country, according to the World Bank, with millions of people unaided by the diamond rush.

Debate over ecological damage

Although Namibia is considered the easiest place to extract offshore diamonds, mining executives are not ruling out exploring other stretches of ocean. Marine mining has also taken place off the coast of South Africa, though it has proven less lucrative.

Never say never, Cleaver said.

But environmental groups have raised concerns about the offshore mining operations, which spew the sediment back into the ocean after it is processed for diamonds. Companies also plan to begin mining offshore for gold in coming years, with one commercial operation scheduled to launch in 2018 off Papua New Guinea.

My concern with this and all deep-sea mining is that we just dont know much about the deep sea at all, said Emily Jeffers, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, a U.S. nonprofit organization. The worry is that we are going to irreparably harm this environment and these species before we discover them.

De Beers says its offshore operations do not cause significant ecological damage, as sediment is returned to the sea and eventually resettles. The company says it employs ecologists who monitor the environment where they have mined to make sure it is recovering.

Sitting on the bridge of the Mafuta one recent day, a middle-aged South African man named Leonard Bunce manned the joysticks that control the dredging equipment. In front of him, a series of screens showed a live stream of various stages in the mining process. Sometimes, he said, he sees fish and octopus sucked up by the hose, but they appear to survive as they are dumped back into the sea.

Mostly, what Bunce saw that day were the tons and tons of sediment churned into the vessel  any diamonds indistinguishable on his screen. The culling process is entirely mechanized, and the diamonds are only visible to workers when they are dropped into the can. When enough of the gems accumulate there, the can is sealed and flown to Windhoek, Namibias capital.

That is where, in an office on the 11th floor of a nondescript building, Peter Kayser inspects high-value diamonds that could be worth anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.

One day last month, his attention was on a diamond about the size of the tip of his thumb that had recently been vacuumed up from the ocean floor. He passed the gem through a machine that calculated its weight. It took a few moments before the number flashed on a screen: at least seven carats.

Kayser smiled.

This could be a very expensive stone.

Read more

One of the worlds biggest diamond mines opens  in remote Canada

The ANC is Mandelas legacy. Now his granddaughter has renounced South Africas ruling party.

They fled Boko Haram and famine  and then they were forced back

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
An Afghan boy rides a bicycle as he looks at murals on blast walls in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. (Jawad Jalali/EPA)

Leaders of Afghanistans three major ethnic minority political parties, all of whom hold senior positions in the government, announced from Turkey Saturday that they have formed a coalition to save Afghanistan from chaos, issued a list of demands for reforms by President Ashraf Ghani, and vowed to hold mass protests unless they are met.

The stunning development followed weeks of gathering political turmoil and public unrest after a devastating terrorist bombing in the capital on May 31. It brought together a group of powerful ex-militia leaders, once rivals in a civil war, in an extraordinary alliance that could present Ghani and his shaky government with its most serious challenge since taking office in 2014.

The groups statement was issued from Ankara, where Abdurrashid Dostom, an ethnic Uzbek strongman who is still technically first vice president in the Ghani government, moved recently on grounds of ill health despite being under investigation in Kabul for sexual assault against an elderly political rival. Dostoms aides circulated the statement on social media.

The other leaders  Mohammed Atta Noor, an ethnic Tajik and provincial governor; Mohammed Mohaqeq, an ethnic Hazara leader and deputy to the governments chief executive; and Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, a member of Noors Jamaat-e-Islami party  have been visiting Dostom in the past week for a family wedding in the lavish home where he has often lived in periods of exile.

[The West is indifferent to Afghanistan and Iraqs world of terror]

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, shakes hands with Abdullah Abdullah, the nations chief executive, as they arrive for the NATO summit in Warsaw on July 9, 2016. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

The group, calling itself the Coalition for the Salvation of Afghanistan, said their aim was to prevent the collapse of the government, avoid chaos and restore public trust. They demanded that Ghani devolve power to cabinet ministries and provinces, stop overreaching his authority for personal motives, schedule long-promised elections, and obey the constitution and the law. It also called for Dostoms full authority to be restored and a government attack against him to be investigated.

Ghanis office responded coolly and calmly to the provocative salvo. Presidential spokesman Shahhussain Murtazawi told news outlets that the government welcomes any move that contributes to national interests, but he noted that the individuals leading the coalition are involved in the government and thus also accountable for its shortcomings. If the group has any alternative plans for overcoming the current situation, he said, they should share them.

There was no comment from the office of Abdullah Abdullah, the chief executive officer who has been estranged from Ghani for many months. Abdullah, from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, has disappointed party figures such as Noor for making too many concessions to Ghani in an effort to keep the struggling government afloat.

A variety of political figures and observers reacted skeptically to the news, suggesting that the ethnic minority leaders, all of whom have had differences with Ghani while in office, may be less interested in government reforms than in using a period of public anger and unhappiness to press for political advantage. They also noted that Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, has been criticized for concentrating power in the hands of his ethnic and tribal allies and marginalizing other ethnic groups.

A spokesman for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Pashtun former fugitive warlord who returned to Kabul recently in a peace deal with Ghani, said the new coalition seemed suspicious and might be more interested in personal demands than public ones. Why have they been silent for so long? asked the spokesman, Kareem Amin. You cant be inside the system and criticize it too. 

Hekmatyar, in a separate statement Saturday, called on all Afghans to unite and support the Ghani government at a time of crisis. The country is suffering from high unemployment and a protracted insurgent conflict. The May 31 bombing was a major blow to the nations confidence in its rulers.

It was unclear whether the ethnic opposition leaders, who have called for city-wide demonstrations starting Monday, would be able to draw much support from the protesters that filled the streets of Kabul for most of June after the huge bombing and several subsequent violent incidents.

[In Kabul, anger against Afghan government touches off deadly street clashes]

The groups erected tent colonies on major streets where speakers demanded change night after night. The tents were dismantled by security forces on June 20, but protest groups vowed to return to the streets in force after Ramadan and Eid, the Muslim fasting month and holiday that ended this week.

But although many of the protesters demands were similar to those listed by the ethnic leaders, the composition and tone of their impromptu movement, called Uprising for Change, was completely different. A mix of students, academics, liberal activists and womens groups, as well as families of bomb victims, they called mainly for justice, security and more responsive governance.

The most strident voice in the new coalition has been that of Noor, a wealthy northern governor who until recently was negotiating with Ghani to obtain a greater share of power. During the fraud-plagued 2014 elections, which both Abdullah and Ghani claimed to have won, Noor threatened to create violent unrest if Ghani was declared the winner.

Last week, delivering a message to a large crowd at the end of Ramadan in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Noor warned that if Ghani did not meet the groups demands, we will come by the thousands and thousands to Kabul. Sources in the security community said the group planned to gather its forces in several suburban locations and march to the presidential palace.

Walid Sharif contributed to this report.

Read more

An Afghan bird refuge comes back to life after decades of neglect

Opium use booms in Afghanistan, creating a silent tsunami of addicted women

In Kabul, a sidewalk cobbler repairs more than shoes

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents marched through the streets in defense of their cherished freedoms Saturday, in the face of what many see as a growing threat from mainland China exactly two decades after the handover from British rule.

Earlier in the day, Chinas president, Xi Jinping, marked the 20th anniversary of the handover with his sternest warning yet to the territorys people: You can have autonomy, but dont do anything that challenges the authority of the central government or undermines national sovereignty.

Under the terms of the 1997 handover, China promised to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy for at least 50 years, but Xi said it was important to have a correct understanding of the relationship between one country and two systems.

One country is like the roots of a tree, he told Hong Kongs elite after swearing in the territorys new governing chief executive, Carrie Lam. For a tree to grow and flourish, its roots must run deep and strong. The concept of one country, two systems was advanced first and foremost to realize and uphold national sovereignty.

Many in Hong Kong accused China of violating the territorys autonomy in 2015 by seizing five publishers who were putting out gossipy books about the Chinese leadership and allegedly distributing them on the mainland.

1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Celebration and protest marks the 20th anniversary of Hong Kongs handover to China from Britain View Photos Twenty years since the handover of power from Britain to China, Hong Kong remains a place undergoing an uneasy transition. Caption Twenty years since the handover of power from Britain to China, Hong Kong remains a place undergoing an uneasy transition. June 30, 2017 Performers participate in the grand variety show in Hong Kong as part of a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to China. President Xi Jinping asserted China's authority over the former British colony, where anti-China sentiment has been on the rise since Beijing took control 20 years ago. Kin Cheung/AP Wait 1 second to continue.

[Believe in the motherland, Chinas leader tells Hong Kong people  and respect its might]

Some are also angry that Beijing intervened to disqualify newly elected pro-independence lawmakers who failed to correctly administer the oath of office last year. Many are worried about a steady erosion of press freedom, and that China is increasingly determined to call the shots in a range of areas.

But Xi made it clear that challenges to Beijings authority would not be allowed.

Any attempt to endanger Chinas sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or use Hong Kong for infiltration or sabotage activities against the mainland, is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible, he said.

That message didnt appear to go down well on the streets of Hong Kong.

Hes threatening Hong Kongs people, saying he has the power to make us do what he wants, said Anson Woo, a 19-year-old student. But I still have hope. Seeing all the people around me today, the people of Hong Kong are still fighting for what we value.

Organizers said 66,000 people joined Saturdays annual march, which they said was meant to deliver a message to the Chinese president. Researchers from Hong Kong University, however, estimated the crowd at between 27,000 and 35,000, the South China Morning Post reported.

[On Tiananmen Square anniversary, detentions in China and candlelight vigil in Hong Kong]

Organizers had hoped to bring out 100,000 people, and although they blamed rain and aggressive policing for the lower turnout, a more likely explanation is fatigue  the failure of the 2014 democracy protests led many to conclude that taking to the streets wont wring concessions from China.

Young people have a sense of powerlessness, and hence the apathy, said Patrick Chiu, a 20-year-old student. Some young people even see their way out as making money and leaving Hong Kong at some point.

A poll by the Chinese University of Hong Kong showed people here attach greater importance to judicial independence and freedom of the press than to economic development. Any notion that Hong Kong as a city is only about making money is clearly not accurate.

We have to take the chance to express our views while we still can, said Chan Sui Yan, a 15-year-old schoolgirl. They say it is one country, two systems, but right now we are losing a lot of the rights we value.

Some protesters chanted slogans demanding democracy, criticizing the territorys ruling elite or the Communist Party. Many called for the release of Nobel laureate and democracy icon Liu Xiabo, imprisoned in China since 2008, who was taken to a hospital last week under close guard for treatment for advanced liver cancer.We want to show the mainland there are other voices, outside the official voice, said teacher Tong Siu, 53. We want to safeguard the core values of Hong Kong.



[Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo taken from prison for treatment of liver cancer]

In his speech, Chinas leader said that the concept of one country, two systems was a great success and should be implemented unswervingly and not be bent or distorted. While his words made it clear that sovereignty took precedence over autonomy, he said neither aspect should be neglected. Only in this way will the ship of one country, two systems break the waves, sail steadily and last the distance, he said.

Yet many people here say China challenged Hong Kongs autonomy again in March with Lams election as chief executive. The former bureaucrat, who trailed well behind rival candidate John Tsang in opinion polls, was chosen by a panel of 1,200 members of the territorys elite that was packed with pro-Beijing loyalists. Although Tsang was also an establishment figure, political experts say Beijing seemed to want someone in the chief executives chair who would not challenge its authority.

At the swearing-in ceremony Saturday, Xi also did not shy away from raising two demands that have previously brought Hong Kong residents out on the streets in the hundreds of thousands. Xi said the territory needed to improve its systems to defend national security, sovereignty and development interests, as well as enhance education and raise public awareness of the history and culture of the Chinese nation.

Chinas demand that Hong Kong pass a national security law prompted massive street protests 14 years ago, while plans to implement a program of patriotic education brought more people onto the streets in 2012 and helped politicize the territorys youths.

Both plans were subsequently shelved, but Lam has indicated that she wants to put them back on the table. She also argues that the time isnt right to satisfy a popular demand for greater democracy by allowing a future chief executive to be chosen by universal suffrage.

Marchers said moves to interfere with the education system smacked of brainwashing.

Martin Lee, Hong Kongs veteran pro-democracy political leader, said China was deliberately confusing patriotism with obedience.

When they say you must love the country, what they mean is you must obey the Communist Party, he said. We have no problem with the Communist Party as long as it adheres to the promises made to us.

But Lee said China had not fulfilled its promise to grant Hong Kong greater democracy. They kept on postponing democracy, he said. Thats why young people are losing their patience.

On Saturday morning, a small group of pro-democracy protesters said they were attacked by hired thugs when they tried to hold a demonstration, and then were briefly detained and beaten by police.

Joshua Wong, who led protests against patriotic education in 2012 and in favor of democracy in 2014, was among the group and called the incident another violation of the promise to maintain Hong Kongs values, including the right to free speech. One country, two systems has given way to one country, one-and-a-half systems, he told The Washington Post.

Why would Hong Kong people want to accept patriotic education from a country that is ruled by a single party dictatorship? he said. This is the core question. If the government is not elected by the people, how can we have a sense of belonging?

Luna Lin contributed to this report.

Read more

Believe in the motherland, Chinas leader tells Hong Kong people  and respect its might

Taiwan arms sale, North Korea sanctions outrage Beijing in test of U.S.-China ties under Trump

Day after new pro-Beijing chief is chosen, Hong Kong police move to arrest activists

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Avihai Boaron stands at the construction site for a new Jewish settlment built by the Israeli government in the West Bank, on June 26. (William Booth/The Washington Post)

 It doesnt look like much yet. The newest Jewish settlement, deep in the West Bank, is today just a scratch of road being clawed out of chalky hillside by earth-moving machines.

But Avihai Boaron sees milk and honey here  and a new home for himself and the 40 families who were forcibly evicted from their illegal outpost by Israeli police in February.

I see all these mountains full of our people and their children, said Boaron, 42, a publisher of religious magazines.

Boaron calls himself a pioneer. He was one of the founders of nearby Amona, which was first evacuated and then demolished by Israeli authorities because it was built illegally on land privately owned by Palestinians.

The eviction made for emotional live TV. Israelis were glued to their screens and devices as they watched the settlers clash with unarmed Israeli police.

Diggers break the ground for a new settlement near the settlement of Shilo, West Bank, June 21. (Dusan Vranic/AP)

The Amona settlers and their supporters chained themselves together in a last-ditch stand in the synagogue. Others threw excrement, bleach and paint at the officers.

Some Israelis were disgusted by the behavior; others were upset to see Jews uprooting Jews from their homes. For many Israelis, the siege to remove just 40 families suggested how difficult it may be to remove thousands of settlers from their homes to make way for a future Palestinian state.

[Israeli police begin forced removal of Amona settlers in the West Bank]

Since the eviction, Boaron, his wife and children have been living in a couple of cramped dormitory rooms stacked with bunk beds.

We will start here with new inspiration, Boaron promised, as he stood speaking to journalists beside the bulldozers and trucks at his new town.

Called Amichai, a contraction of the Hebrew for Amona is alive, this is the first new Jewish settlement in the West Bank fully approved by the Israeli government in 25 years.

It is located in the heart of the occupied West Bank, closer to Jordan than the Mediterranean Sea, on land that Palestinians want for an independent nation.

Palestinians say its construction makes their dream of a contiguous state further away than ever. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the new settlement construction a grave escalation and an attempt to foil efforts by the American administration seeking to revive peace talks.

There are plans for 100 Jewish homes here  and many more in the surrounding hills. Israeli taxpayers will pay millions for the roads and infrastructure  and more to keep the soldiers in the area to protect the residents.

The families will either build their own homes or rent them. Construction for settlements in the West Bank is often subsidized by Jewish groups and wealthy donors from abroad, including the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.

Amichai may be the first settlement in years given government approval, in planning and permits, but it is not the first new settlement or new construction.

More than a hundred outposts deemed illegal or unauthorized, even by the Israeli government, have been constructed in the past two decades, including some that surround the new village of Amichai. Construction of new neighborhoods in existing settlements is also routine and done with government approval.

The international community considers all of the Jewish settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be illegal because the land is occupied. Israel disputes this. More than 600,000 Israelis live in these communities today. The residents represent a powerful force in Israeli society.

The U.S. government, under President Barack Obama, has called the settlements illegitimate and obstacles to peace. It is not yet clear what the Trump administration will call them.

President Trump, who says he wants to make the deal of the century, a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians, has cautioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go slow on building in the West Bank while his negotiators, led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, explore the possibilities.

Still, Netanyahu has announced plans to build thousands of new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The U.N. envoy for the Middle East reported a substantial increase in recent months, nearly 4,000 new units and 2,000 new tenders for construction.

Netanyahu recently posted a photograph on his Twitter feed announcing that construction of Amichai had begun.

The prime minister boasted in an earlier news release, There wasnt and there wont be a government better for the settlements than our government.

Netanyahu promised, We are building in all parts of the country, we are doing it with determination, along with being methodical and wise.

[The little NGO that managed to move an Israeli settlement]

For now, the residents of Amona are living in student dorms at a field camp in the nearby settlement of Ofra, where many of them were originally from before they established Amona 20 years ago.

Elad Ziv, 47, is an architect with seven children. Six of them are living in bunk beds in a single room. He pointed to a sink. Thats the kitchen. He pointed to a desk piled with school books. Thats the library.

Ziv is still upset about their eviction from Amona and wary that the construction of their new settlement will move forward. He blamed the Europeans, the Israeli left, Obama and others. He felt betrayed by his own leaders.

It should have never come to this, he said. Were living like refugees.

Only the left wants a Palestinian state, Ziv said. The only thing the Palestinians export is terror.

The Israeli anti-occupation group Peace Now called the new settlement a significant blow to the two-state solution and said it signals that the Netanyahu government has no intention of reaching a deal with the Palestinians.

The residents of Amona are not going anywhere, they said. Ziv alluded to the settling of the land by the tribe of Benjamin 3,000 years ago, to the exile to Babylon, their Roman conquest.

This is our home, Ziv said. This is the most natural place for us to be.

Read more:

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President Trump speaks in May at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem. The peace effort he launched is at a pivot point. (Abir Sultan/EPA)

President Trump boasted during the election that his real estate background could help him succeed where other U.S. presidents have failed in making what he calls the ultimate land deal  a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Once he took office, he dived into the seemingly intractable conflict immediately and personally, and named his son-in-law and a trusted family lawyer as would-be peace envoys.

There is no reason theres not peace between Israel and the Palestinians  none whatsoever, Trump said in April.

But five months into the job, Trump is learning that enthusiasm, business acumen and family connections go only so far, and that a strong pro-Israel stance doesnt mean Israeli leaders will see things his way.

The peace effort he launched is at a pivot point. But the negotiating team is reckoning with the limits of the goodwill extended to the new administration and the hardened positions on both sides that helped sink previous U.S. peace efforts.

At times, the small U.S. negotiating team has appeared buffeted by dueling leaks to Israeli and Palestinian media outlets, each painting the other side as the obstacle. Some commentary cast senior adviser Jared Kushner as a babe in the Mideast woods.

In separate meetings with Israelis and Palestinians in late June, Kushner used none of his father-in-laws hyperbole about a grand bargain, and left some of his audience with the impression that the United States is reconsidering the fast start.

They are reaching the realization pretty early that neither side is serious about moving forward with the peace process, said Frank Lowenstein, who led the last U.S. effort in 2013 and 2014.

U.S. officials deny Palestinian media reports that they are slowing down their efforts or lowering their sights, and they stress that no one around Trump thought that the task would be easy. The effort is not only continuing but expanding, U.S. officials said, adding that high-level discussions described as productive have continued since Kushners return to Washington.

We spent the past few months renewing each sides commitment to trying to achieve peace and to begin conversations without preconditions, said one U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. We are going to continue our steady engagement with each side, and conversations will get more in-depth as we go along.

Trump got firsthand exposure to the maneuvering and pressure tactics that have been used by both sides in the six-decade impasse during his recent trip to Israel and the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used an intimate May 22 meeting with Trump to show him an Israeli-compiled video of what Netanyahu called anti-Israel incitement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israels would-be partner in any peace deal.

Trump met with Abbas the next day and surprised him with a fusillade of accusations about terrorism and Palestinian attitudes toward Israel that Trump said would thwart a deal, U.S. and other officials familiar with the meeting said.

Trump bellowed, You tricked me! at a shaken Abbas, a U.S. official told Israels Channel 2.

Afterward, Abbas thanked Trump for attempting negotiations, but made a point of publicly reiterating Palestinian demands for a settlement that includes the hardest elements for Israeli leaders to swallow.

Our commitment is to cooperate with you in order to make peace and forge a historic peace deal with the Israelis, Abbas said woodenly.

Some U.S. officials concluded that by showing Trump the video, which included snippets of Abbas appearing to incite Palestinians to violence, Netanyahu was intent on killing any possibility of peace talks before they even began. Trumps viewing of the video has not been previously reported.

The effort may have backfired, however. On later reflection, Trump appeared to recognize that the Israelis had tried to skew the Abbas meeting, one person who spoke with him said. Others close to the fledgling peace effort denied that Trump felt misused or misled by Netanyahu.

Either way, the episode gave Trump a taste of how difficult any future shuttle diplomacy might be, and a glimpse into how both Israel and the Palestinians can attempt to manipulate American intermediaries.

The Abbas video is similar to others produced by Israel and shown to U.S. officials in the past, U.S. and Israeli officials said. But this one appeared aimed at discrediting Abbas personally and triggering an emotional response from Trump on the eve of his meeting with the aging Palestinian leader, said a senior U.S. official briefed on the meeting.

Israel has been pressing American officials on the issue of Palestinian incitement for years, and it was a focus of Abbass first meeting with Trump earlier in May.

An Israeli official confirmed that Netanyahu played a video about incitement, and said it was an attempt to set the record straight after what Israeli leaders viewed as Abbass duplicity during that White House visit.

Abbas lied to POTUS at a joint press conference about educating Palestinians for peace,  a ridiculous assertion  and Israel simply showed why it is not true, the official said, using the acronym for President of the United States.

The prime minister has full confidence in President Trump and will continue working closely with the administration in order to advance the political process, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

Abbas, meanwhile, felt betrayed by both Trump and Netanyahu, the senior U.S. official briefed on the meetings said. That first White House meeting had gone well, Abbas told supporters afterward, and he was optimistic despite Trumps frequent statements in support of Israel.

We want to create peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Trump told Abbas during their White House news conference May 3. We will get it done. We will be working so hard to get it done.

The optimism has faded, and the jockeying has begun, said David Makovsky, who was an adviser to Secretary of State John F. Kerry during the last peace push and is now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

We are at the end of Act 1, where everybody behaves, mainly because they want to give President Trump a chance, said Makovsky, who came away from a visit to Israel and the West Bank this week dispirited.

Its back to the blame game, he said.

Trump has been strongly supportive of Israel, and has said frequently that his administration would be a better friend to the Jewish state than was President Barack Obamas. But Trump has also said that he expects both sides to make sacrifices and compromises if they want peace, and he used his first presidential meeting with Netanyahu to publicly ask for Israeli restraint in settlement-building.

Trump is inexperienced even if hes not naive, veterans of past peace efforts said. He is now having a health-care moment, in which he realizes that something that looked doable on paper turns out to be far more complicated than he first imagined, said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator.

Who knew it would be so hard and complicated? Levy joked.

Netanyahus game plan is not new  he attempts to shift the focus onto diversions and distractions that he hopes will make the Palestinians look bad and will keep the pressure off him when it comes to offering something on the substance of a peace deal, Levy said. Hence the Israeli focus on incitement and Palestinian payments to the families of prisoners accused of violence against Israelis, he said.

Palestinian officials claim that many of the arrests are the result of opposition to illegal occupation and that they have a duty to support the families of those jailed. The issue may soon be out of the Trump administrations hands. Congress is moving toward passing legislation suspending all U.S. assistance to the Palestinians until the prisoner-payment issue is resolved.

The U.S. team led by Kushner and former Trump lawyer Jason D. Greenblatt claims some success in helping prepare the ground for eventual talks, but U.S. officials are tight-lipped about what form such talks could take. Likewise, they have sketched no timeline for their effort. Kerry set a deadline at the outset of the last effort, only to extend it.

The peace effort, led out of Greenblatts office in the Old Executive Office Building, is exploring ways to expand and hire additional staff. Lowensteins comparatively large operation, which was housed at the State Department, was dismantled after talks collapsed in acrimony.

U.S. officials point to Israels decision to allow 24-hour travel for Palestinians on the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge crossing to Jordan. The trial expansion of travel hours this summer is seen as a way to build confidence ahead of potential talks.

U.S. officials also suggest that Israel has cut back on at least some settlement activity in apparent deference to Trumps request for restraint.

Trump has made a break with previous peace efforts by dropping U.S. insistence on a separate, sovereign Palestinian state as the goal of negotiations, although he says he is open to that idea if both parties want it.

Greg Jaffe contributed to this report.
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Ltd., Caterpillar Renting France S.A.S., Caterpillar Reynosa S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar SARL, Caterpillar Services Germany GmbH, Caterpillar Servicios Limitada, Caterpillar Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Servizi Italia Srl, Caterpillar Shrewsbury Limited, Caterpillar Skinningrove Limited, Caterpillar Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd., Caterpillar Special Services Belgium S.P.R.L., Caterpillar Switchgear Americas LLC, Caterpillar Switchgear Holding Inc., Caterpillar Tianjin Ltd., Caterpillar Torreon S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Tosno L.L.C., Caterpillar Transmissions France S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Holdings Ltd., Caterpillar Tunnelling Canada Corporation, Caterpillar Tunnelling Europe Limited, Caterpillar UK Employee Trust Limited, Caterpillar UK Engines Company Limited, Caterpillar UK Group Limited, Caterpillar UK Holdings Limited, Caterpillar Undercarriage (Xuzhou) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Underground Mining Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Used Equipment Services Inc., Caterpillar Venture Capital Inc., Caterpillar Work Tools B.V., Caterpillar Work Tools Inc., Caterpillar World Trading Corporation, Caterpillar Xuzhou, Caterpillar of Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar of Canada Corporation, Caterpillar of Delaware Inc., Centre de Distribution de Wallonie SPRL, CleanAir Systems, Downer Freight Rail, ECM Railway Evolution Romania s.r.l., ECM S.p.A., EDC European Excavator Design Center GmbH, EMC Holding Corp., EMD International Holdings Inc., ERA Information & Entertainment (BVI) Limited, ERA Mining Machinery Limited, Electro-Motive Diesel Limited, Electro-Motive Locomotive Technologies LLC, Electro-Motive Technical Consulting Co. (Beijing) Ltd., Energy Services International Limited, Equipos de Acuna S.A. de C.V., Eurenov S.A.S., F. G. Wilson (Proprietary) Limited, F. Perkins Limited, FG Wilson (Engineering) Limited, GB Holdco (China) Inc., GFCM Comercial Mexico S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., GFCM Servicios S.A. de C.V., Gremada Industries - Assets, Hong Kong Siwei Holdings Limited, Inmobiliaria Conek S.A. de C.V., JCS Co., Kemper Valve & Fittings Corp., Leo Inc., Locomotive Demand Power Pty Ltd., Locomotoras Progress Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Lovat, M2M Data Corporation, MGE Equipamentos & Servicos Ferroviarios, MWM, MWM Austria GmbH, MWM Benelux B.V., MWM Energy Australia Pty Ltd, MWM France S.A.S, MWM Real Estate GmbH, MaK Americas Inc., MaK Americas Inc. (Canada), Magnum Power Products LLC, Marble, Maschinenbau Kiel GmbH, Mec-Track S.r.l., Metalmark Financial Services Limited, Motoren Steffens GmbH, Nippon Caterpillar LLC, P. T. Solar Services Indonesia, PT Caterpillar Finance Indonesia, PT. Bucyrus Indonesia, PT. Caterpillar Indonesia, PT. Caterpillar Indonesia Batam, PT. Caterpillar Remanufacturing Indonesia, Perkins Engines, Perkins Engines (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, Perkins Engines Group Limited, Perkins Engines Inc., Perkins Group Limited, Perkins Holdings Limited LLC, Perkins India Private Limited, Perkins International Inc., Perkins Japan LLC, Perkins Limited, Perkins Machinery (Changshu) Co. Ltd., Perkins Motores do Brasil Ltda., Perkins Power Systems Technology (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Perkins Small Engines (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Perkins Small Engines LLC, Perkins Small Engines Limited, Perkins Technology Inc., Progress Metal Reclamation Company, Progress Rail Arabia Limited Company, Progress Rail Australia Pty Ltd, Progress Rail Canada Corporation, Progress Rail Equipamentos e Servicos Ferroviarios do Brasil Ltda., Progress Rail Equipment Leasing Corporation, Progress Rail Holdings Inc., Progress Rail Innovations Private Limited, Progress Rail Inspection & Information Systems GmbH, Progress Rail Inspection & Information Systems S.r.l., Progress Rail International Corp., Progress Rail Leasing Canada Corporation, Progress Rail Leasing Corporation, Progress Rail Leasing de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Progress Rail Locomotivas (do Brasil) Ltda., Progress Rail Locomotive Canada Co., Progress Rail Locomotive Chile SpA, Progress Rail Locomotive Inc., Progress Rail Maintenance de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Progress Rail Manufacturing Corporation, Progress Rail Raceland Corporation, Progress Rail Rocklin Corporation, Progress Rail SA Proprietary Limited, Progress Rail Services Corporation, Progress Rail Services Holdings Corp., Progress Rail Services LLC, Progress Rail Services UK Limited, Progress Rail Switching Services LLC, Progress Rail Transcanada Corporation, Progress Rail Welding Corporation, Progress Rail Wildwood LLC, Progress Rail de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pyroban Group, Pyroban Group, Pyrrha Investments B.V., Pyrrha Investments Limited, S&L Railroad LLC, SCM Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., SPL Software Alliance LLC, Sabre Engines, Servicios de Turbinas Solar S. de R.L. de C.V., Shandong SEM Machinery Co. Ltd., Solar Turbines, Solar Turbines, Solar Turbines (Beijing) Trading Services Co. Ltd., Solar Turbines (Thailand) Ltd., Solar Turbines CIS Limited Liability Company, Solar Turbines Canada Ltd./Ltee., Solar Turbines Central Asia Limited Liability Partnership, Solar Turbines EAME s.r.o., Solar Turbines Egypt Limited Liability Company, Solar Turbines Europe S.A., Solar Turbines India Private Limited, Solar Turbines International Company, Solar Turbines Italy S.R.L., Solar Turbines Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Solar Turbines Middle East Limited, Solar Turbines New Zealand Limited, Solar Turbines Saudi Arabia Limited, Solar Turbines Services Company, Solar Turbines Services Nigeria Limited, Solar Turbines Services of Argentina S.R.L., Solar Turbines Switzerland Sagl, Solar Turbines Trinidad & Tobago Limited, Solar Turbines West-Africa SARL, Tangshan DBT Machinery Co. Ltd., Tecnologia Modificada S.A. de C.V., Towmotor Corporation, Traction & Mining Motor Repairs Pty Ltd, Turbinas Solar S.A. de C.V., Turbinas Solar de Colombia S.A., Turbinas Solar de Venezuela C.A., Turbo Tecnologia de Reparaciones S.A. de C.V., Turbomach, Turbomach Endustriyel Gaz Turbinleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited, Turbomach France SARL, Turbomach GmbH, Turbomach Netherlands B.V., Turbomach Pakistan (Private) Limited, Turbomach S.A. Unipersonal, Turbomach Sp. Z o.o., Turner Powertrain Systems Limited, UK Hose Assembly Limited, Underground Imaging Technologies Inc, United Industries LLC, VALA Inc., Vasky Energy Ltd., Wealdstone Engineering, Weir - Oil & Gas Division, West Virginia Auto Shredding Inc., Western Gear Machinery LLC, Wetland Sustainability Fund I LLC, Williams Technologies, Yard Club, Zhengzhou Siwei Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Sales Co. Ltd., and okyo Rental Ltd..

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A video showing a Saudi monument in the Qassim region spread with graffiti expressing sympathy to Qatar has gone viral on social media at the time Riyadh has decreed prison and fine sentences for any message showing support for the tiny emirate isolated by the Saudi-led bloc.

The graffiti, which appeared on a sculpture in the centre of a roundabout in Saudi Arabia, reads We are all Tamim and Glory to Tamim referring to Qatars emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Middle East Eye reports.

Saudi Arabia has banned any expression of support to Qatar and imposed up to 15 years in prison and a fine of about $136,000 on offenders.

Saudi Araboa, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, followed by several allies, on June 5 severed ties with Qatar. The four have also imposed air, sea and land blockades on Doha.

The bloc accuses the tiny gas-rich kingdom of sponsoring terrorism. A week ago, they tightened their grip after handing over to Doha a list of 13 demands to be fulfilled at the latest Sunday.
White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides insurance and other financial services in the United States. The company operates through five segments: HG Global/BAM, Ark, NSM, Kudu, and Other Operations. The HG Global/BAM segment provides insurance on municipal bonds issued to finance public purposes, such as schools, utilities, and transportation facilities, as well as reinsurance protection services. The Ark segment writes a portfolio of reinsurance and insurance, including property, marine and energy, accident and health, casualty, and specialty products. The NSM segment operates as a managing general agent and program administrator for specialty property and casualty insurance to various sectors comprising specialty transportation, real estate, social services, and pet. The Kudu segment provides capital solutions to boutique asset and wealth managers for generational ownership transfers, management buyouts, acquisitions and growth finances, and legacy partner liquidity, as well as strategic assistance to investees. The Other Operations segment offers insurance solutions to travel industry through broker channel and on a direct-to-consumer basis; and manages separate accounts and pooled investment vehicles for insurance-linked securities sectors, including catastrophe bonds, collateralized reinsurance investments, and industry loss warranties of third-party clients. White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
The following companies are subsidiares of Hyatt Hotels: CHANCELLOR STREET CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION INC., GLENDALE HOTEL PROPERTIES L.L.C., HT-SEATTLE HOLDINGS LLC, 1379919 ALBERTA INC., 319168 ONTARIO LIMITED, 3385434 CANADA INC., ADMINISTRACION DE PERSONAL ANDARES S. DE R.L. DE C.V., AIC HOLDING CO., AIRPORT PLAZA ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, AIRPORT PLAZA HOTEL LLC, AIRPORT PLAZA OFFICE BUILDING LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, AMERISUITES FRANCHISING L.L.C., ARANCIA LIMITED, ARUBA BEACHFRONT RESORTS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, ARUBA BEACHFRONT RESORTS N.V., ASIA HOSPITALITY INC., ASIA HOSPITALITY INVESTORS B.V., ASIAN HOTEL N.V., ATRIUM HOTEL L.L.C., AUSTIN RESORT BEVERAGE LLC, AmeriSuites Hotel, BAKU HOTEL COMPANY - AZERI, BAKU HOTEL COMPANY - CAYMAN, BASTROP MARKETING L.L.C., BAY II INVESTOR INC., BELLEVUE ASSOCIATES, BH PLAZA LLC, BRE/AMERISUITES PROPERTIES L.L.C., BRE/AMERISUITES TXNC GP L.L.C., BRE/AMERISUITES TXNC PROPERTIES L.P., BURVAN HOTEL ASSOCIATES, CAL-HARBOR SO. PIER URBAN RENEWAL ASSOCIATES L.P., CELAYA RESORTS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., CHESAPEAKE COMMUNITIES LLC, CHESAPEAKE RESORT LLC, CIUDAD DEL CARMEN DIAMANTE RESORT S. DE R.L. DE C.V, COAST BEACH L.L.C., COMPAGNIE HOTELIERE DE LAGON BLEU, CPM SEATTLE HOTELS L.L.C., CRW INVESTMENT LLC, CTR INTEREST HOLDCO INC., DALLAS REGENCY LLC, DENVER DOWNTOWN HOTEL PARTNERS LLC, DESARROLLADORA HOTELERA ACUEDUCTO S. DE R.L. DE C.V., DH BEVERAGE LLC, DIAMANTE RESORT LA PAZ S. DE R.L. DE C.V., DISTRICT HOTEL PARTNERS LLC, EXHALE ENTERPRISES GIFT SERVICES COMPANY, EXHALE ENTERPRISES II L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES III INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES IV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES V L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES VIII INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES X INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XIV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XIX L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XV TCI LTD., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVIII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XX L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXI INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXIV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVIII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXIII INC., FAN PIER L.L.C., FAR EAST HOTELS INC., G.E.H. PROPERTIES LIMITED, GAINEY DRIVE ASSOCIATES, GALAXY AEROSPACE COMPANY LLC, GHE HOLDINGS LIMITED, GRAND HYATT BERLIN GMBH, GRAND HYATT DFW BEVERAGE LLC, GRAND HYATT SAN ANTONIO L.L.C., GRAND HYATT SF L.L.C., GRAND RIVERWALK BEVERAGE LLC, GRAND TORONTO CORP., GRAND TORONTO VENTURE L.P., GREENWICH HOTEL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, H.E. ATLANTA CENTENNIAL PARK HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. AUSTIN L.L.C., H.E. BERMUDA L.L.C., H.E. CAP CANA L.L.C., H.E. DRISKILL LLC, H.E. GRAND CYPRESS L.L.C., H.E. IRVINE L.L.C., H.E. KANSAS CITY L.L.C., H.E. LENOX L.L.C., H.E. NASHVILLE L.L.C., H.E. NEWPORT L.L.C., H.E. ORLANDO L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC HOTEL L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC PARKING L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC RETAIL L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA SANSOM L.L.C., H.E. PORTLAND HC L.L.C., H.E. PORTLAND L.L.C., H.E. PROPERTIES HOLDING L.L.C., H.E. PROPERTIES L.L.C., H.E. SAN ANTONIO I L.L.C., H.E. SAN ANTONIO L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON JV L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON OWNER L.L.C., HAPP INVESTOR LTD., HARBORSIDE HOTEL LLC, HARBORSIDE LAND LLC, HC PORTLAND JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HC ROYAL PALMS L.L.C., HCV CINCINNATI HOTEL L.L.C., HE ORLANDO HOTEL LLC, HGP (TRAVEL) LIMITED, HH NASHVILLE HOLDINGS L.L.C., HH NASHVILLE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HH PORTLAND L.L.C., HHMA BURLINGTON BEVERAGE L.L.C., HI HOLDINGS (SWITZERLAND) GMBH, HI HOLDINGS BAJA B.V., HI HOLDINGS BRAZIL S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS CELAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS CIUDAD DEL CARMEN B.V., HI HOLDINGS CYPRUS LIMITED, HI HOLDINGS CYPRUS-INDIA LIMITED, HI HOLDINGS GUADALAJARA B.V., HI HOLDINGS HP CABO B.V., HI HOLDINGS HP TIJUANA HOTEL B.V., HI HOLDINGS KYOTO CO., HI HOLDINGS LA PAZ B.V., HI HOLDINGS LATIN AMERICA B.V., HI HOLDINGS NETHERLANDS B.V., HI HOLDINGS PLAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS RIO S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS RIVIERA MAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS VIENNA S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS ZURICH S.A.R.L., HI HOTEL ADVISORY SERVICES GMBH, HI HOTEL INVESTORS CYPRUS LIMITED, HIHCL AMSTERDAM B.V., HIHCL HP AMSTERDAM AIRPORT B.V., HIHCL HR AMSTERDAM B.V., HILP HOTEL SERVICE PROVIDER LLC, HOTEL AM BELVEDERE HOLDING GMBH, HOTEL AM BELVEDERE HOLDING GMBH & CO KG, HOTEL INVESTMENTS HOLDING CO LLC, HOTEL INVESTMENTS L.L.C., HOTEL INVESTORS I INC., HOTEL INVESTORS II INC., HOTEL PROJECT SYSTEMS PTE LTD, HOTEL SERVICES CIUDAD DEL CARMEN S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HOTELS CS CELAYA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HP ATLANTA CENTENNIAL PARK JV LLC, HP AUSTIN L.L.C., HP BEVERAGE DALLAS DFW AIRPORT LLC, HP BEVERAGE SUGAR LAND LLC, HP BOSTON HOLDINGS L.L.C., HP GLENDALE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HP GLENDALE L.L.C., HP INDIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, HP LAS VEGAS BEVERAGE L.L.C., HP M STREET L.L.C., HP ROUTE 46 TEXAS LLC, HP SAN FRANCISCO L.L.C., HP SAN JUAN L.L.C., HP TEN TEXAS LLC, HPHH ATLANTA L.L.C., HPHH DENVER L.L.C., HPHH SAN JOSE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HPHH SAN JOSE L.L.C., HQ CHESAPEAKE LLC, HR LOST PINES RESORT LLC, HR MC HOTEL COMPANY S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HR MC SERVICES II S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HR MC SERVICES S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HRHC LLC, HT- WAILEA LLC, HT-AVENDRA GROUP HOLDINGS L.L.C., HT-AVENDRA L.L.C., HT-CHESAPEAKE COMMUNITIES INC., HT-CHESAPEAKE RESORT INC., HT-HOTEL EQUITIES INC., HT-HUNTINGTON BEACH INC., HT-JERSEY PIER INC., HT-JERSEY PIER L.P., HT-JERSEY PIER LLC, HT-LONG BEACH L.L.C., HT-MIAMI BEACH L.L.C., HT-PARK 57 INC., HT-SEATTLE LLC, HT-SIERRA L.L.C., HT-VANCOUVER INC., HTLB L.L.C., HTS - NS L.L.C., HTS - NY L.L.C., HTS-ASPEN L.L.C., HTS-BC INC., HTS-INVESTMENT L L.C., HTSF L.L.C., HTW BEVERAGE LLC, HY LONG BEACH HOTEL LLC, HYATT (BARBADOS) CORPORATION, HYATT (JAPAN) CO. LTD., HYATT (THAILAND) LIMITED, HYATT ARUBA N.V., HYATT ASIA PACIFIC HOLDINGS LIMITED, HYATT AUSTRALIA HOTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LIMITED, HYATT AUSTRIA GMBH, HYATT BEACH FRONT N.V., HYATT BORNEO MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED, HYATT BRITANNIA CORPORATION LTD., HYATT CC OFFICE CORP., HYATT CHAIN SERVICES LIMITED, HYATT CRYSTAL CITY LLC., HYATT CURACAO N.V., HYATT DISASTER RELIEF FUND, HYATT DO BRASIL PARTICIPACOES LTDA, HYATT EQUITIES L.L.C., HYATT FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT SERVICES INC., HYATT FRANCHISING CANADA CORP., HYATT FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT FRANCHISING LATIN AMERICA L.L.C., HYATT FULFILLMENT OF MARYLAND INC., HYATT GLOBAL SERVICES INC., HYATT GTLD L.L.C., HYATT HOC INC., HYATT HOLDINGS (UK) LIMITED, HYATT HOSPITALITY SERVICES L.L.C., HYATT HOTEL MANAGEMENT LIMITED, HYATT HOTELS CONSULTANCY SERVICES ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED, HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION OF KANSAS, HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION OF MARYLAND, HYATT HOTELS FOUNDATION, HYATT HOTELS MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, HYATT HOTELS OF CANADA INC., HYATT HOTELS OF FLORIDA INC., HYATT HOTELS OF PUERTO RICO INC., HYATT HOUSE CANADA INC., HYATT HOUSE FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT HOUSE HOTEL HOLDING COMPANY L.L.C., HYATT INDIA CONSULTANCY PRIVATE LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL (ASIA) LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL (EUROPE AFRICA MIDDLE EAST) LLC, HYATT INTERNATIONAL - JAPAN LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL - SOUTHWEST ASIA LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL -ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL -SEA (PTE) LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, HYATT INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS CO., HYATT INTERNATIONAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT (BEIJING) CO. LTD., HYATT INTERNATIONAL MILAN L.L.C., HYATT INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (BEIJING) CO. LTD., HYATT INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL SERVICES INC., HYATT JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HYATT LACSA SERVICES INC., HYATT LOUISIANA L.L.C., HYATT MAINZ GMBH, HYATT MARKETING SERVICES INC., HYATT MARKETING SERVICES NIGERIA COMPANY LIMITED, HYATT MINNEAPOLIS LLC, HYATT MINORITY INVESTMENTS INC., HYATT MSS L.L.C., HYATT NORTH AMERICA MANAGEMENT SERVICES INC., HYATT OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, HYATT OF BAJA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HYATT OF CHINA LIMITED, HYATT OF FRANCE S.A.R.L., HYATT OF GUAM LIMITED, HYATT OF ITALY S.R.L., HYATT OF LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN L.L.C., HYATT OF LATIN AMERICA S.A. DE C.V., HYATT OF MACAU LIMITED, HYATT OF MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., HYATT OF PHILIPPINES LIMITED, HYATT PARTNERSHIP INTERESTS L.L.C., HYATT PLACE ANNE ARUNDEL BEVERAGE INC., HYATT PLACE CANADA CORPORATION, HYATT PLACE FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT PLACE OF MARYLAND INC., HYATT REGENCY COLOGNE GMBH, HYATT REGENCY CORPORATION PTY. LIMITED, HYATT SERVICES AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED, HYATT SERVICES CANADA INC., HYATT SERVICES CARIBBEAN L.L.C., HYATT SERVICES GMBH, HYATT SERVICES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, HYATT SHARED SERVICE CENTER L.L.C., HYATT TRINIDAD LIMITED, HYCANADA INC., HYCARD INC., HYSTAR L.L.C., Hyatt Corporation, INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED, INTERNATIONAL RESERVATIONS LIMITED, JOINT VENTURE ITALKYR CLOSED JOINT STOCK COMPANY, JUNIPER HOTELS PRIVATE LIMITED, KSA MANAGEMENT INC., KYOTO HOLDING CO., LHR-PARTNERS LTD., LORING PARK ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, LOST PINES BEVERAGE LLC, MACAE PARTNERS S.A.R.L., MAHIMA HOLDINGS PRIVATE LIMITED, MARION RESERVATION CENTER L.L.C., MEXICO CITY HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V., MILAN HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V., MIRAVAL ARIZONA GUARANTOR LLC, MIRAVAL GROUP LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA HOLDINGS LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA OPERATING CO. INC., MIRAVAL RESORT TUCSON LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS I LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS II LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS III LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS TRUST, MRG ATX BEVERAGE HOLDINGS LLC, MRG ATX HOLDINGS II LLC, MRG ATX HOLDINGS LLC, MRG ATX INVESTMENT LLC, MRG ATX MANAGEMENT I LLC, MRG ATX MANAGEMENT II LLC, MRG ATX OPERATIONS LLC, MRG CRW HOLDINGS LLC, MRG CRW MANAGEMENT I LLC, MRG CRW MANAGEMENT II LLC, MRG CRW OPERATIONS LLC, MUNICH OPCO GMBH, Miraval Resort, OASIS LUXURY RENTALS INCORPORATED, PARIS HOTEL COMPANY B.V., PARK HYATT HAMBURG GMBH, PARK HYATT HOTEL GMBH, PARK HYATT WATER TOWER ASSOCIATES L.L.C., PH NEW YORK L.L.C., PHMC RESIDENCIAS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., POLK SMITH REGENCY LLC, PT HYATT INDONESIA, PVD INVESTMENT COMPANY S.A.R.L., Peabody Hotels & Resort, RCG PROPERTIES LLC, REGENCY BEVERAGE COMPANY LLC, REGENCY RIVERWALK BEVERAGE LLC, RESERVATIONS CENTER L.L.C., RIO JV PARTNERS PARTICIPACOES LTDA., RIO PRETO PARTNERS HOTEIS LTDA., RIO PRETO PARTNERS S.A.R.L., ROSEMONT PROJECT MANAGEMENT L.L.C., ROUTE 46 MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES CORP., RUNWAY HOLDING L.L.C., RUNWAY L.L.C., SAO PAULO INVESTMENT COMPANY INC., SAO PAULO INVESTORS LIMITED, SASIH, SDI EQUITIES INVESTOR L.L.C., SDI INC., SDI SECURITIES 11 LLC, SDI SECURITIES 6 LLC, SELECT HOTELS GROUP L.L.C., SELECT JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., SEOUL MIRAMAR CORPORATION, SERVICIOS DE HOTELERIA SAN JOSE S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SERVICIOS HOTELEROS LA PAZ S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SETTLEMENT INVESTORS INC., SHG PUERTO RICO INC., SIERRA HEALTHSTYLES LLC, SJC DESARROLLOS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SKS CORP. N.V., SMC HOTELS B.V., SOROCABA PARTNERS HOTEIS LTDA, SOROCABA PARTNERS S.A.R.L., STANHOPE L.L.C., STARHILL LORING PARK L.L.C., SUGAR LAND/HP LLC, THE GREAT EASTERN HOTEL COMPANY LIMITED, THE GREAT EASTERN HOTEL HOLDING COMPANY LIMITED, TIJUANA PARTNERS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., TR MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT LLC, TUCSON VILLAS HOLDINGS LLC, TUCSON VILLAS LLC, TWO SEAS HOLDINGS LIMITED, Two Roads Hospitality, WAILEA HOTEL & BEACH RESORT L.L.C., WAILEA HOTEL HOLDINGS L.L.C., WAILEA MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION L.L.C., WAILEA RESORT VILLAS HOLDINGS L.L.C., WAILEA RESORT VILLAS L.L.C., WEST END RESIDENCES L.L.C., XENIA ASSURANCE COMPANY INC., XENIA ASSURANCE COMPANY OF ILLINOIS, ZURICH ESCHERWIESE HOTEL GMBH, and ZURICH HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V..

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The following companies are subsidiares of Jones Lang LaSalle: 225 Fitness Inc., 360 Commercial Partners, ACREST, AGL, AMAS Limited, AVM Partners, Advanced Technologies Group Inc., Alaska UK (GP) Ltd, Alkas Consulting, Aoyama Holding Limited, Australian Valuation Solutions, Avenue9, BRG, BRG Resource Group ULC, Beijing Dazheng Zhongheng Enterprise Consulting Co. Ltd., Beijing Guotai Zhongheng Enterprise Consulting Co. Ltd., Beijing Jones Lang LaSalle Property Management Services Company Limited, Big Red Rooster Flow LLC, Bill Goold Realty, Bradford McCormack & Associates, Brune Consulting Management GmbH, Building Engines Inc., Building Services Network Inc., Business Products Group Inc., Business Resource Holdings Inc., CENTRE STREET REAL ESTATE CO-INVESTMENT FUND G.P. L.L.C., CENTRE STREET REAL ESTATE CO-INVESTMENT FUND L.P., CMM Projekt & Office Solutions GmbH, COBERTURA - SOCIEDADE DE MEDIACAO IMOBILIARIA S.A., CTH, Capital Realty LLC, Capra Global Partners Holdings Limited, Carolyn House (General Partner) Limited, Centre Street Real Estate Co-Investment Fund CarryCo L.L.C., Charter Oaks Financial Services Inc., Churston Heard Ltd, CoR Advisors, Cobertura, Colliers Baltimore, ComRef LIM Co-Invest LLC, Corporate Concierge Services Inc., Corporate Concierge Services of Hawaii Inc., Corporate Realty Advisors, Corrigo, Corrigo Incorporated, Credo Real Estate (Singapore), DST International Property Services, Dalian Jones Lang LaSalle Services Limited, Database International Group Inc., ECD Energy and Environment Canada, ECD Energy and Environment Canada Ltd., EID (General Partner) LLP, ELPF Lafayette Manager Inc., Eleven Eleven Construction Corporation, Emergent Properties Inc., Enerdapt Inc., Environmental Governance Ltd, Europe Fund III Alberta GP Inc., Europe Fund III GP LLC, FITOUTETRIS SA, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (NSW) PTY LTD, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (QLD) PTY LTD, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (VIC) PTY LTD, Five D Holdings Pty Limited, Five D Holdings Pty Ltd, Five D Property Management (ACT) Pty Ltd, GFN Property Investments L.L.C., Guangzhou Jones Lang LaSalle Property Services Company Limited, Guardian Property Asset Management, Guardian Property Asset Management Limited, H Park Germany Verwaltungs-GmbH, HALL AND KAY FIRE HOLDINGS LIMITED, HFF, HFF Holdings Limited, HFF InvestCo LLC, HFF Partnership Holdings LLC, HFF Real Estate Limited, HFF Securities Limited, HG2 Limited, HUB PROFESSIONAL SERVICES LIMITED, Halcyon Real Estate, Hall & Kay Fire Services Limited, Harry K Moore, Hentschel & Company LLC, Holliday GP LLC, Hunter Facilities Management (HFM), Huntley Mullaney Spargo & Sullivan Inc., Huntley Mullaney Spargo & Sullivan LLC, IFM Services Finland OY, INTEGRAL UK HOLDINGS LIMITED, INTEGRAL UK LIMITED, Inmobiliaria Jones Lang LaSalle Limitada, Integra Realty Resources, Integra Realty Resources - Dallas, Integral Facility Services Limited, Integral UK, J P Sturge Limited, J.L.W. 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Anger over Trumpcare boiled over Friday at a town hall meeting held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy.

While the official topic of the meeting was flood recovery, in the aftermath of last summers historic floods in Baton Rouge, the focus of most of the attendees was on the cuts to federal health care spending and the effective abolition of Medicaid as an entitlement program in the bill drafted in secret by Cassidys fellow Republicans and unveiled last week.

The intense and widespread anger over the mounting attack on health care was reflected in the turnout for the meeting. A multi-racial crowd of some 300 workers, retirees and middle-class people pressed the reluctant senator for answers about the Trump administrations health care bills that are working their way through Congress.

Cassidy has been tabbed as one of the Republicans in the Senate, where the party holds a narrow two-vote majority, who might decide to vote against the so-called Better Care Reconciliation Act. Various liberal protest groups have promoted the illusion that Cassidy can be induced through popular pressure to fulfill his Hippocratic Oath (Cassidy is a former medical doctor) and oppose the bill. The senator, apparently eager not to evoke popular outrage, has made some muted criticisms of certain aspects of the bill, such as language regarding premiums for people with pre-existing conditions.

Whatever his tactical disagreements with the Senate bill may or may not be (he declined to say explicitly whether he supported or opposed the bill during yesterdays town hall), Cassidy fully supports the assault on access to health care. During the 2014 Senate race, for example, he called for raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 70.

In January, Cassidy cosponsored an alternative bill that would apportion federal health care funding to the states in the form of block grants and allow individual states to decide whether to retain or replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. While this has been presented as a somewhat more moderate bill and has little chance of gaining support from other congressional Republicans, it included many of the right-wing provisions in the current bill, including abolishing minimum coverage on Obamacares private insurance exchanges and limits on premiums for the elderly. It also would implement a 5 percent cut in federal spending across the board.

The conversion of Medicaid to block grants, effectively ending it as a federal entitlement program, has long been a demand of the Republican right and is contained in the Senate bill.

Cassidys statements on Friday make clear that he is a right-wing opponent of Medicaid. In response to questions from the crowd about how Trumpcare would slash Medicaid spending by nearly $800 billion over 10 years, Cassidy declared that if you roll back Medicaid eligibility, and instead put people on private insurance, that could be a good thing. He called for ending the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare and lowering the eligibility threshold from 133 percent to 100 percent of the federal poverty line. He also criticized the fact that employed but poverty-stricken people are eligible for Medicaid benefits under the expansion.

The mood of the crowd was angry and hostile. When Cassidy attempted to portray Medicaid expansion as financially unfeasible, one audience member shouted back, What about the $500 billion youre giving to the 2 percent? This met with a round of enthusiastic applause. Several audience members shouted their support for a universal health care system.

Cassidy did his best to avoid exposing his real position. To the growing frustration of the audience, he focused mostly on technical aspects of the (paltry) government aid for flood victims, while avoiding the subject of health care for nearly 50 minutes of the scheduled one-hour meeting. Im really concerned about pre-existing conditions, one woman said from the floor. I flooded last year, but this is why I came.

Cassidy snapped at audience members for being uncivil when they began chanting health care  health care! out of frustration. Ill tell you whats rude, one audience member retorted, kicking 22 million people off their health care who you know cannot afford it!

While the Republican bill represents an unprecedented attack on workers access to health care, the Democrats, no less than the Republicans, support pro-corporate health care reform. Obamacare itself, which Trumpcare does not replace but builds upon, is a reactionary piece of legislation designed to funnel billions to the insurance corporations and force workers off of employer-sponsored coverage and onto sub-par individual plans purchased on insurance exchanges. The Democrats have put up a toothless opposition to the Republican health care bill while focusing on their right-wing campaign against Russia and media scandals over Trumps twitter posts.
The Trump administrations decision on Thursday to approve a major arms deal with Taiwan, along with the announcement of penalties on Chinese companies and individuals over trade with North Korea, is a deliberate slap in the face to Beijing. It sets the stage for a confrontational meeting when Trump meets his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for their second summit on the sidelines of next weeks G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

The $1.4 billion weapons sale to Taiwan is the Trump administrations first and the first since December 2015. The package, which includes MK-48 torpedoes, high-speed anti-radiation missiles and early-warning radar surveillance technical support, will significantly enhance Taiwans military.

China is particularly sensitive to the arms deal with Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province. Beijing has threatened to take military action should Taiwans government ever declare formal independence. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who was elected last year, is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, which favours a more independent stand from China.

The Chinese government has routinely protested against US arms sales to Taiwan, which Washington justifies under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act as necessary to prevent the forcible Chinese takeover of the island. This weeks deal will reignite fears in Beijing that Trump is reverting to more belligerent US support for Taiwan.

In an inflammatory and unprecedented step last December, Trump took a phone call from President Tsai, ostensibly for Tsai to congratulate him on winning the US election. This symbolic move was followed by Trump tweets and comments suggesting he would tear up the One China policy that has been the foundation of US-Chinese relations for nearly four decades.

Under the One China policy, successive US administrations have recognised Beijing as the legitimate government of China, including Taiwan, and have no formal diplomatic ties with Taipei.

While Trump formally upheld the One China policy before meeting Xi in April, his administration includes top officials, such as chief of staff Reince Priebus, who have had close relations with Taiwan. Taiwanese Foreign Minister David Lee described Priebuss appointment as good news for the island.

The Chinese embassy in Washington declared on Friday that the Chinese government and Chinese people have every right to be outraged over the arms deal.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang yesterday called on the US to stop the sale, saying it would hurt Chinese sovereignty and ran contrary to Washingtons commitment to the One China policy. Lu said Beijing had begun to make solemn representations to the US over the arms deal, which he stated went against the consensus reached by Trump and Xi in April.

In his meeting with Xi, Trump backed away from his more provocative remarks in a bid to secure tough Chinese measures against North Korea to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. Beijing has taken steps to pressure North Korea to accept US demands, including a freeze on coal imports from the country and, according to some reports, a reduction in energy sales to North Korea.

Trump, however, declared yesterday at the White House that the era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has faileda reference to the policies of the previous Obama administration, which sought to ratchet up sanctions on North Korea to force it to halt its nuclear and missile tests.

By declaring that patience is over, Trump leaves few options other than the use of military strikes against North Korea. His national security adviser, Gen. H. R. McMaster, warned on Thursday that the threat from North Korea is much more immediate now. He said Trump had directed his officials to prepare a range of options, including a military option.

While McMaster declared that nobody wants to take the military option, the Pentagon has been preparing just such a plan. Three aircraft carrier strike groups have been stationed in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula, together with an unspecified number of nuclear submarines. The US military can also call on its huge military forces based throughout the region, including in Japan and South Korea.

Trump made his menacing comments alongside newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has indicated a willingness to ease tensions with North Korea. The US president, however, used the opportunity to publicly berate Pyongyang, claiming that the small, poverty-stricken country posed an imminent threat to the US.

Trumps remarks also indicate that time has run out for China to bully North Korea into line. In a tweet over a week ago, the US president declared that while he appreciated Beijings efforts, it has not worked out. The US decision to take punitive action against Chinese entities and individuals is a clear message that the Trump administration will adopt a more aggressive stance against China.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced sanctions on Thursday to cut off the Bank of Dandong from US financial markets, alleging that it had been the means for funneling millions of dollars into North Korea. US citizens also will be prohibited from doing business with two Chinese business executives accused of operating front companies on behalf of North Korea, and with Dalian Global Unity Shipping, which is charged with transporting freight between China and North Korea.

Mnuchin absurdly declared that the US is in no way targeting China with these actions and that it looked forward to continuing to work closely with the government of China to stop the illicit financing in North Korea. Chinas ambassador in Washington, Cui Tiankai, reacted by declaring that China opposed any US use of domestic laws to impose long-arm jurisdiction.

The imposition of secondary US sanctions on China is particularly galling to Beijing as, in line with agreements reached in April with Trump, it has lifted a longstanding ban on the import of US beef, ostensibly imposed over concerns about mad cow disease. In fact, as the Trump administration announced its sanctions, the US ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and assorted American cattlemen were gathered in a luxury Beijing hotel to celebrate the end of the ban.

During a bilateral meeting between US and South Korean officials yesterday, the director of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, signaled a return to the anti-Chinese demagogy that marked Trumps presidential campaign. He criticised Chinas predatory practices" on trade and said the US hoped to work with South Korea to tackle alleged Chinese trade abuses.

The shift in the Trump administrations approach to China will not be limited to trade. The bellicose US stance toward North Korea has always been indirectly aimed against Beijing and exploited as a means for a huge US military build-up throughout the Asia-Pacific in preparation for conflict with China, which Washington regards as the chief obstacle to its dominance of the region.
Photo credit: Getty

From Esquire

The President of the United States will meet with the President of Russia at the G20 Summit in Germany next week. This is not, on its face, unusual: President Obama met with Vladimir Putin many times, including when-as is the case now-the United States was levying sanctions against Moscow for its bad behavior, like its interference in Ukraine.

But President Trump's involvement does add a few extra wrinkles: Trump praised Putin frequently during the campaign, despite the Russian leader's autocratic tendencies; the U.S. intelligence community has since concluded Russia meddled in that campaign; and the president and his associates are now under investigation for their role in that effort.

So a largely routine bilateral powwow might have some extra spice, particularly because, by most accounts, Trump is normally quite eager to please the people he gets in a room with. (He's also had his issues when getting together with the Russians.) Possibly to that end, the National Security Council has been tasked with preparing "deliverables" for Trump to bring to the meeting, The Guardian reports, "including the return of two diplomatic compounds Russians were ordered to vacate by the Obama administration in response to Moscow's interference in the 2016 election."

The report adds cheekily, "It is not clear what Putin would be asked to give in return."

Apparently, Trump is pushing for a formal bilateral meeting, rather than an informal "pull-aside"-to the consternation of some on his national security team. It's unclear, at present, whether more of the sanctions the U.S. has placed on Russia-for Ukraine and for interference in the 2016 election-are on the table as part of Trump's "deliverables."

Let's just hope he doesn't black out and agree to give Alaska back.

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Mika Brzezinski is not finished responding to President Trumps tweets. (Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision for The Hollywood Reporter/AP Images)

Mika Brzezinski is setting the record straight about President Trumps tweet regarding her alleged face-lift  which wasnt a face-lift at all.

In a candid new interview with Vanity Fair published on Friday, the Morning Joe co-host reveals that she got a procedure to tighten the skin under her neck  and explains why the president knew about it.

Brzezinski says she started laughing when her coworker Willie Geist first showed her Trumps widely derided tweets, in which he claimed she was bleeding badly from a face-lift when she and her fiance and co-host Joe Scarborough visited the Trumps at Mar-a-Lago around New Years Eve.

I said  St. I kind of wanted to keep that to myself,  she said of the procedure.

I had a turkey neck. My mom told me to get it done, she explained. I was FaceTiming all my friends, telling them to get it done, that it wasnt so bad.

Brzezinski said that she told Melania Trump about the procedure when the TV hosts stopped by Mar-a-Lago on New Years Eve. But it was the then-president-elect who was impressed.

The irony of it all is that Donald kept saying, Thats incredible. You cant even tell. Who did it? Who did it? He kept asking for the name of the doctor, Brzezinski recalls. He literally asked 10 times. Is he down here? Who is he? 

A White House spokesman declined to comment on the subject.

Trumps Twitter attack on Brzezinski  in which he also called her crazy and low I.Q.  isnt the first one shes been subjected to. Last summer, Trump tweeted that she was a neurotic and not very bright mess!

Brzezinski and Scarborough told Vanity Fair that they actually mended fences with Trump at the time after his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, brokered a meeting with the four of them.

She said Trump even apologized for the tweet.

Jared said we should end the meeting right then and there, because it was one of the only times he had heard him apologize, Scarborough said.

This time, however, the couple said they are not holding out hope for an apology.
Police initially thought they were dealing with a fatal collision: Facebook

Police in Pennsylvania are searching for a man who shot and killed an 18-year-old woman in what officers said was a road rage incident.

Officers initially responded to what they thought was a fatal collision at West Goshen, west of Philadelphia, when they discovered that the driver, Bianca Roberson, had been shot in the head.

Police now believe the teenager, who had recently graduated from high school, was targeted by another driver who shot her as she attempted to merge into the same lane as his red pickup truck.

Police investigation reveals 18 year old, Bianca Nikol Roberson, victim of a gun shot wound. Case ruled a homicide. See press release. pic.twitter.com/pCcfBHYWa9  WestGoshenPD (@WestGoshenPD) June 30, 2017

Her car started jostling with a red pickup truck - not actually hitting - but both of them trying to merge together, Chester Country prosecutor Tom Hogan told reporters.

And then she was shot. The man in the red pickup truck shot her directly in the head.

He added: This was a senseless and brutal act of violence.

Traffic cameras captured images of Ms Robersons green car and the red truck.

Police believe the teenager was shot as she drove onto the highway (West Goshen Police Department)

The driver of the truck is described as a man between 30 and 40 years of age, white, with a medium build and blonde hair. He is considered armed and extremely dangerous. Every cop in three states is looking for this red pickup truck, Mr Hogan said.

The teenagers father, Rodney, told NBC that his daughter was preparing to attend Jacksonville University.

We were all excited for her, he said. She was excited. We were just happy for her.

Her brother, Dontae Arburg, said she was very loved. He said: She always smiled. Always wanted to entertain and make you smile."
WHAT WE LIKE: The G90 continues to receive compliments for its smooth ride, particularly from drivers new to the car. One driver returned home from a 1000-mile extended weekend impressed with the front seats near ideal blend of support and comfort. The same driver also liked the concise layout of the various controls, which, unlike some other luxury cars, are not buried in the infotainment system. Fitting a set of 19-inch Bridgestone Blizzak LM-32 winter tires provided improved traction on ice and snow at the cost of slightly increased levels of low-frequency tire noise.

WHAT WE DONT LIKE: Many drivers commented that the hyper-aggressive traction control steps in too early, particularly calling out the way it virtually shuts down forward movement at the slightest whiff of wheel slip during a turn. One driver noted that its overprotective nature is reminiscent of the behavior exhibited by early versions of the Lexus LS with traction control. Although switching to Sport mode loosens its grip slightly, we feel there should be a mode with a higher threshold, as turning it off entirely makes the technology pointless. A few new-to-the-G90 drivers echoed earlier comments regarding the mushy chassis behavior and the less-than-stiff feeling of the structure.

WHAT WENT WRONG: In terms of exasperating breakdowns or failures, nothing. Only one temporary and unexplained hiccup came close to requiring a service call or tow truck. Immediately after startup leaving the office one evening, the car died. Thankfully, our highly skilled technical editor, Eric Tingwall, was on hand to assess the situation. He opened the hood, found nothing amiss, and slammed it shut. Within seconds, the dash lights returned and the starter responded; the anomaly hasnt reoccurred in the hundreds of starts and thousands of miles since, so were chalking this one up to a delayed system rebootor perhaps an evil spell cast by sorceress Madam Kettering.

Readers whove been following this long-term test may remember that although the G90 comes with complimentary scheduled maintenance for the first three years or 36,000 miles, the first suburban Detroit dealership where we took it failed to recognize this fact, charging us $48 for its first service consisting of an oil change, inspection, and fuel additive. We switched to a different dealership for the 12,000-mile service. After performing the prescribed oil change and inspection, they sent us on our way with no charge, other than a fee to mount and balance a set of winter tires.

Story continues

We returned to the same dealership for the 18K-mile scheduled service, as well as to perform a recall for the infotainment system, and to have technicians look at the sunroof seal, the cause of a previously reported wind-noise issue. After performing the recall and adjusting the glass and tightening some fasteners in the sunroof mechanism to cure the noise issue under warranty, this second dealer handed us a bill for $37 for the 18K oil change and inspection. Flummoxed, we referred to the 3-year/36,000-mile complimentary scheduled-maintenance agreement and pointed out that the last servicebarely a month prior and at that same storehad been provided gratis under the plan. Despite our resolve, the staff at the dealership at the time could not verify the complimentary scheduled maintenance, and we paid up in order avoid spending the night on the service-department floor. It seems Genesis HQ needs to better inform its dealers about its own products.

WHERE WE WENT: Although the car did slip below the border into Ohio on a few occasions, the majority of the G90s time since the last update was spent in our home state of Michigan. Its expansive cabin is perfect for office lunch runs, the wide rear doors making for easy access to the spacious rear seat, even after overindulging on taco Tuesday. Likewise, the deceptively capacious trunk securely stowed the fruits of more than a few staffers Christmas-shopping excursions, as well as transporting our freshly minted 10Best Trucks and SUVs trophies to the Detroit auto show, where we passed them out to the winning brands. Longer excursions were limited to a couple of runs to the west side of the state and a single visit to Charlevoix in northern Michigan.

Months in Fleet: 9 months Current Mileage: 22,074 miles

Average Fuel Economy: 22 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 21.9 gal Fuel Range: 480 miles

Service: $85 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0

Damage and Destruction: $50

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan



PRICE AS TESTED: $69,050 (base price: $69,050)



ENGINE TYPE: twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve V-6, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection



Displacement: 204 cu in, 3342 cc

Power: 365 hp @ 6000 rpm

Torque: 376 lb-ft @ 1300 rpm



TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode



DIMENSIONS:

Wheelbase: 124.4 in

Length: 204.9 in

Width: 75.4 in Height: 58.9 in

Passenger volume: 113 cu ft

Trunk volume: 16 cu ft

Curb weight: 4717 lb



PERFORMANCE: NEW

Zero to 60 mph: 5.2 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 13.0 sec

Zero to 130 mph: 23.1 sec

Rolling start, 560 mph: 5.7 sec

Top gear, 3050 mph: 2.8 sec

Top gear, 5070 mph: 3.7 sec

Standing -mile: 13.8 sec @ 103 mph

Top speed (governor limited): 147 mph

Braking, 700 mph: 182 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad*: 0.84 g



*stability-control-inhibited



FUEL ECONOMY:

EPA combined/city/highway: 20/17/24 mpg

C/D observed: 22 mpg

Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt



WARRANTY:

5 years/60,000 miles bumper to bumper;

10 years/100,000 miles powertrain;

7 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection;

3 years/unlimited miles roadside assistance;

3 years/36,000 miles scheduled maintenance





In retrospect, its only logical that we eventually would find ourselves behind the wheel of a nearly $70,000 Hyundai. Loosely following the blueprint used by the trio of Japanese manufacturers that launched upscale divisions in the late 20th century, Hyundais newly minted Genesis is meant to put a little space between its upmarket offerings and the value-oriented fare it built its name on. Morphing the model name of its Hyundai Genesis coupe and sedan into a stand-alone brand also creates a place in which to move loyal customers as their income and tastes permit more upscale pursuits. With the G90 standing as the new brands top offering, we secured one for a 40,000-mile long-term test.

Hyundai has a reputation for tilting the feature-content-to-price ratio in favor of the consumer, and its upscale Genesis division follows that formula. If you get a kick out of optioning a vehicle to the $100,000 mark, turn your attention elsewhere. For a segment-reasonable $69,050 base price, our G90 includes all the modern conveniences and then some: nappa-leather-upholstered, heated and cooled, multi-adjustable front seats (22-way driver, 16-way passenger); a leather-covered dash, steering wheel, and door panels with real wood accents; acoustic laminated glass; rear-side-window and backlight sunshades; a head-up display; adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability; a 12.3-inch infotainment screen; and a 17-speaker Lexicon audio system, just to name the highlights. The only way to inflate the G90 Premiums sticker is to add $2500 for Hyundais HTRAC all-wheel drive. Or one can step up to the Ultimate trim, which costs an additional $1600 and replaces the Premiums 365-hp twin-turbo 3.3-liter V-6 with a 420-hp naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V-8 (and again offers all-wheel drive for $2500).

While $1600 for 55 ponies may seem like a bargain, the grunt portion of the deal isnt as convincing. Whereas all 376 lb-ft of the turbo V-6s torque is on the job as soon as 1300 rpm, the V-8s 383 lb-ft dont punch in fully until 5000 rpm.

Matched with an eight-speed automatic transmission, our V-6 G90 seems to have hit the sweet spot. Early logbook entries agree that the combo pulls hard, shifts precisely, and sounds good doing so. Our initial assessments of the G90s powertrain were confirmed at the test track, where it laid down a respectable 5.2-second zero-to-60-mph time and scooted through the quarter-mile in 13.8 seconds. Braking from 70 mph consumed 182 feet.

As for rolling stock, our Patagonia Blue G90 arrived sporting a quartet of hefty-looking 19-inch chrome aluminum wheels wrapped in Continental ContiProContact tires. The multilink front and rear suspensions utilize adaptive dampers, with mixed results. While the ride is supple, the handling and body movements can get a bit sloppy. We can think of several competitors that better manage the ride/handling/comfort equation, although the G90 never pretends to be anything but a competent luxury barge.

Daily Driver

Considering the G90s cavernous and well-appointed interior, its only natural that the car would get the nod from those with a lot of highway miles to cover. Less than a week after arriving, the G90 was pressed into service to transport staffers to Virginia International Raceway for our annual Lighting Lap competition. Barely two weeks after its return, associate online editor Joseph Capparella climbed behind the wheel for a run to North Carolina, reporting an indicated 27 mpg for portions of the trip. In between highway jaunts, the G90s enormous back seat, which is wide enough for three people even if they arent particularly friendly, makes it a top choice for lunch runs. Our overall fuel economy to date is 23 mpg, which falls on the sweet side of its 20-mpg combined EPA rating.

Although we have accumulated fewer than 5000 miles at this point, we are encouraged by the G90s rock-solid reliability, coddling interior, and hushed ride. Well see how this story develops over the next 35,000 miles.

Months in Fleet: 1 month Current Mileage: 4738 miles

Average Fuel Economy: 23 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 21.9 gal Fuel Range: 500 miles

Service: $0 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan



PRICE AS TESTED: $69,050 (base price: $69,050)



ENGINE TYPE: twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve V-6, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection



Displacement: 204 cu in, 3342 cc

Power: 365 hp @ 6000 rpm

Torque: 376 lb-ft @ 1300 rpm



TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode



DIMENSIONS:

Wheelbase: 124.4 in

Length: 204.9 in

Width: 75.4 in Height: 58.9 in

Passenger volume: 113 cu ft

Trunk volume: 16 cu ft

Curb weight: 4717 lb



PERFORMANCE: NEW

Zero to 60 mph: 5.2 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 13.0 sec

Zero to 130 mph: 23.1 sec

Rolling start, 560 mph: 5.7 sec

Top gear, 3050 mph: 2.8 sec

Top gear, 5070 mph: 3.7 sec

Standing -mile: 13.8 sec @ 103 mph

Top speed (governor limited): 147 mph

Braking, 700 mph: 182 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad*: 0.84 g



*stability-control-inhibited



FUEL ECONOMY:

EPA combined/city/highway: 20/17/24 mpg

C/D observed: 23 mpg

Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt



WARRANTY:

5 years/60,000 miles bumper to bumper;

10 years/100,000 miles powertrain;

7 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection;

3 years/unlimited miles roadside assistance;

3 years/36,000 miles scheduled maintenance





WHAT WE LIKE: First and foremost, the torquey pull of the twin-turbo 3.3-liter V-6 and the smooth-shifting eight-speed automatic. Virtually every comment in the logbook references the powertrains versatility, one editor describing its demeanor as docile when not provoked but a rocket ship when pushed. The quiet interior features near-perfect fit and finish, and aside from one driver who couldnt find a comfortable setting for the lumbar support, the 22-way adjustable seat provides enough adaptability for drivers of any size to get comfortable. Taller staffers who generally loathe sunroofs for their headroom-consuming properties have been pleasantly surprised by the noggin space in the G90. Its worth mentioning that our observed fuel economy has remained 23 mpgnot too shabby for a big beast piloted by a staff of lead-footed drivers.

WHAT WE DONT LIKE: Lots of commenters have noted tire slap over expansion joints and unfiltered impacts from broken highway pavement. Additionally, body motions, particularly rebound, are not as controlled as in most of the G90s competitors. While neither is severe enough to be a deal breaker, some have wondered how these aspects of suspension tuning seemed to escape the final development process in a vehicle otherwise so polished. Another small complaint is the inconsistency of some of the exterior panel gaps. While the alignment is generally straight, the width of the gap can vary from location to location. For instance, the gap in the junction where the passenger-side A-pillar meets the door is significantly smaller than the adjacent spaces between the door, hood, and front fender.

WHAT WENT WRONG: Not much. Within a month of the cars arrival, a small divot appeared in the windshield just left of the drivers sightline, so we had a local glass company come out and fill it for $50. At about 8000 miles, we took the Genesis in for its first service, which consisted of an oil change and a multipoint inspection. The tires werent rotated, but no abnormal wear was noted. That service set us back $48, which sounds not bad, until you realize that the G90 comes with complimentary scheduled maintenance for 3 years or 36,000 miles. Our employee wasnt aware of the plan when he was handed the invoice, and the people at the suburban Detroit Hyundai dealershipwho said this was only the second Genesis theyd servicedapparently hadnt gotten the memo from corporate.

Around the 5000-mile mark, a couple of drivers complained that the right-front edge of the sunroof was not fully sealing, causing excessive wind noise. But such notesand the noiseceased within 100 miles, leading us to believe that some debris may have been lodged in the seal.

WHERE WE WENT: After the G90 survived a trial by fire of sorts by completing a pair of epic southbound journeys within days of its arrivalon which we reported in the cars introductioneditor-in-chief Eddie Alterman turned its nose north and headed for Mackinaw City, Michigan, in July. Since then, the G90 has been spending some quality time at our home base, largely traversing the Ann Arbor/Detroit/Toledo axis of power. With the holiday season on the horizon, however, we expect the spacious, easy-driving G90 to start knocking down miles at a fevered pitch.

Months in Fleet: 4 months Current Mileage: 11,220 miles

Average Fuel Economy: 23 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 21.9 gal

Fuel Range: 500 miles

Service: $48 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0

Damage and Destruction: $50

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan



PRICE AS TESTED: $69,050 (base price: $69,050)



ENGINE TYPE: twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve V-6, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection



Displacement: 204 cu in, 3342 cc

Power: 365 hp @ 6000 rpm

Torque: 376 lb-ft @ 1300 rpm



TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode



DIMENSIONS:

Wheelbase: 124.4 in

Length: 204.9 in

Width: 75.4 in Height: 58.9 in

Passenger volume: 113 cu ft

Trunk volume: 16 cu ft

Curb weight: 4717 lb



PERFORMANCE: NEW

Zero to 60 mph: 5.2 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 13.0 sec

Zero to 130 mph: 23.1 sec

Rolling start, 560 mph: 5.7 sec

Top gear, 3050 mph: 2.8 sec

Top gear, 5070 mph: 3.7 sec

Standing -mile: 13.8 sec @ 103 mph

Top speed (governor limited): 147 mph

Braking, 700 mph: 182 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad*: 0.84 g



*stability-control-inhibited



FUEL ECONOMY:

EPA combined/city/highway: 20/17/24 mpg

C/D observed: 23 mpg

Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt



WARRANTY:

5 years/60,000 miles bumper to bumper;

10 years/100,000 miles powertrain;

7 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection;

3 years/unlimited miles roadside assistance;

3 years/36,000 miles scheduled maintenance




Three of Beijing's outposts on contested South China Sea reefs are close to being ready for the deployment of military assets including mobile missile launchers, a US think tank reported Thursday.

Analysing satellite photographs, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said Beijing's Fiery Cross Reef base in the Spratly Islands now has 12 hardened shelters, four more than seen in February, with retractable roofs that can house missile launchers.

At Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reef bases, China has expanded its communications and radar arrays with multiple radar towers on each.

And new construction of "very large underground structures, four at each reef, is underway, which AMTI said a likely designed to house munitions and other essential goods.

"Major construction of military and dual-use infrastructure on the 'Big 3' ... is wrapping up, with the naval, air, radar and defensive facilities that AMTI has tracked for nearly two years largely complete," the group said.

"Beijing can now deploy military assets, including combat aircraft and mobile missile launchers to the Spratly Islands at any time."

AMTI, part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said the air bases on the three islands, and a fourth on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, allow Chinese military aircraft to operate over almost the entirety of the South China Sea.

In December AMTI reported that large anti-aircraft guns and other defense systems had been installed ont he islands.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea despite partial counter-claims from Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

But the United States has warned it against militarizing the region or threatening international sea lanes.

"We oppose China's artificial island construction and their militarization that features in international waters," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Sydney in early June.
Thailand police officials are reinvestigating the case of a young Belgian backpacker, Elise Dallemange, who became the seventh tourist to be found dead on Thailands Koh Tao Island in the last three years, reports said Thursday.

The 30-year-old Dallemange was found in the jungle of the island on April 28 and was partially eaten by animals, wrapped in T-shirts, according to local reports. Police, however, said the girl died by suicide life by hanging herself.

The island of Koh Tao, popularly known as Turtle Island, has been a major attraction for tourists because of the Sairee beach located on its west coast. The beach is also famous for scuba diving.

Read: Will Facebook Live Shut Down? Man Kills Baby In Facebook Video In Thailand

According to one of the local reports, there have been enough deaths and suspicious disappearances to warrant the island its own CSI franchise. Another local newspaper, the Samui Times, reported Koh Tao has been dubbed Death Island due to the rising number of tourist deaths on the island.

In the recent incident of the Belgian backpackers body being found on Koh Tao Island, the victim's mother, Michele van Egten on Wednesday expressed her disbelief in the police accounts. She believed the police were trying to cover up for the mysterious deaths on the island. "I do not believe what the police have told us. We fear somebody else was involved. Were more and more thinking that the police information is not the right explanation," Michele told the Fox News.

Reports claimed that Michele disclosed her daughter was traveling around Asia for the last two years. Before her death in April, she stayed at a yoga and tantra retreat on the Koh Phangan Island. She made an unexpected stop at Koh Tao Island before leaving for Belgium, her hometown, on a ferry on April 19. However, she was found dead on April 28 in a jungle on the island. The victim's phone records also indicated that she had called her mother on April 17 before leaving for the Koh Phangan island. However, it was unclear why she chose to take a halt on the Koh Tao Island instead of continuing on to the mainland.

Story continues

Read: Is Thailand Safe? Military Ordered To Win Public Support As Coup Threat Lingers

In the last few years, a series of unexplained events have raised concerns about this island paradise and some people also refer to it as a tourist trap. Some also speculated that a serial killer is on the loose on this island as there have been instances of bodies floating in its waters from time to time.

Koh Tao can be paradise but it can also be extremely dangerous for the unwary, Australian lawyer Ian Yarwood said, according to Samui Times. Potential tourists to that island need to be warned and not given a sense of false security, he added.

According to several reports, the island was reportedly controlled by ruling families or the mafia, when the residents would very occasionally... disappear. The mafia here isn't the sort who carry guns in violin cases or knock on doors extorting people. Theyre the families that go back for generations, and who ran the islands before the police even got here, a resident of the island had told the Guardian in an article published in 2014.

Koh Tao came under media attention in 2014 when semi-naked bodies of two British backpackers Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were discovered on a beach on the island. In 2016, a Russian tourist named Valentina Novozhyonova went missing from her hostel on the island and is not found till date. There was another instance of a Briton named Christina Annesley, who died on the island in 2015 after she had consumed a mixture of antibiotics with alcohol. However, her parents accused Thai police of not investigating their daughters death properly.

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An active shooter has been reported in a Bronx hospital: REUTERS

A disgruntled former employee of a New York City hospital who shot dead at one person while injuring six others has died, after turning the gun on himself.

The gunman, named by law enforcement as Dr Henry Bello, reportedly opened fire with an assault rifle just before 3pm. He had hidden the rifle under a white lab coat, police said.

Officials indicated the gun may have been an AR-15, which is a common assault weapon based on a military rifle, and has been used in mass shootings before.

"Weve had a real tragedy here in the Bronx this afternoon, its something weve seen around the country. Now, we've experienced it here," New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said during a press conference outside the hospital.

"This was a horrific situation unfolding in the middle of a place that people associate with care and comfort. A situation that came out of nowhere. But, even in the midst of this horror, there were many, many acts of heroism."

After reports of the shooting, the hospital was immediately placed on lock down as police combed the hospital trying to find the active gunman. The fire department, meanwhile, responded to reports of multiple fires within the hospital  which officials said may have been started when the shooter tried to set himself on fire.

At least three doctors were among those who have been shot, according to reports. One woman was found dead, and a total of six victims were also injured and were taken to the hospital's emergency room. Five of those victims were seriously injured, and one had suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.

Emergency service radio fire department chatter had indicated that the shooter was allegedly a male dressed as a doctor when he opened fire. Since he was previously employed at the hospital, that would indicate that the shooter would have had a strong knowledge of the facilities.

The Joint Counter Terror Task force was reportedly activated to respond to the shooting. Special agents with the New York Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were also responding to the incident at the hospital, the bureau tweeted.

Story continues

Police cars and fire trucks could be seen surrounding the hospital after the shooting was reported. At one point, police were seen on the roof of the building, guns drawn.

The White House has been informed of the shooting, and the President is reportedly aware of the situation.

The Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Centre is one of the largest health care facilities in the Bronx, and New York City as well. The facilities claim to have nearly 1,000 beds across multiple units. It is about a mile and a half north of the famed Yankee Stadium, and is reportedly has one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York.
The parents of 10-month-old Charlie Gard have spoken out following a court ruling stating that their son could be taken off life support. Chris Gard and Connie Yates have been trying to get Charlie to the United States for an experimental treatment for his rare genetic disorder, but Great Ormond Street Hospital in London refused to release him. The European Court of Human Rights ruling Tuesday said the baby would not be allowed to go to the U.S. and that the hospital was no longer obligated to keep him on life support.

Weve promised our little boy every single day that we would take him home because that is a promise we thought we could keep, Yates said in a video statement Friday, according to BBC News. We were told he has to die in that hospital.

Read: Charlie Gard To Be Taken Off life Support, Court Rules

The parents said they begged the hospital to give them the weekend in order to allow family members to say goodbye.

We are utterly heartbroken, Yates said in a Facebook post Thursday. Spending our last precious hours with our baby boy. Were not allowed to choose if our son lives and were not allowed to choose when or where Charlie dies. We and most important Charlie have been massively let down throughout this whole process. Charlie will die tomorrow knowing that he was loved by thousands.

The hospital, however, eventually agreed to give the family more time with Charlie.

We have been in talks today with Great Ormond Street, Yates said in another Facebook post Friday. They have agreed to give us a little bit more time. We are really grateful for all the support from the public at this extremely difficult time. Were making precious memories that we can treasure forever with very heavy hearts. Please respect our privacy while we prepare to say the final goodbye to our son Charlie.

Charlie was born in August 2016 with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes muscle and organ dysfunction and cerebral disorders. After numerous other treatments had no effect, his parents wanted to take him to the U.S. for an experimental treatment known as nucleoside bypass therapy. The hospital, in turn, said they would not release the boy because the treatment might not be the best course of action.

Story continues

Charlies parents eventually took their case to the European Court of Human Rights, an international court based in France. The court first granted the boy a three-week extension, ending July 10. The extension was revoked in the ruling Tuesday.

Read: What Surgeons Said About Conjoined McDonald Twins Separation

The domestic courts concluded that it would be lawful for the hospital to withdraw life-sustaining treatment because it was likely that Charlie would suffer significant harm if his present suffering was prolonged without any realistic prospect of improvement and the experimental therapy would be of no effective benefit, the court said in a press release announcing the decision Tuesday.

The press release also said Charlie was being exposed to continued pain, suffering and distress and that undergoing experimental treatment with no prospects of success would offer no benefit and continue to cause him significant harm.

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China on Friday condemned a $1.3 billion US arms sale to Taiwan and called on the United States to stop any weapons deal with the island, which Beijing considers a rebel province.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a press briefing that Beijing has lodged a formal protest with Washington and urged the US government to "uphold its solemn commitment to the One-China principle".

"Taiwan is an indispensable part of China's territory and we firmly oppose this arms sale to Taiwan," Lu said.

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen said that peace could only be maintained by "actively improving our readiness and self-defence capabilities" at a graduation ceremony at Taiwan's National Defense University on Friday.

"Even at peace we should never forget that Taiwan remains under enormous threat. Peace shouldn't be taken for granted and national defence shouldn't be overlooked because of peace," she said.

"We will not even yield one step or one inch when it comes to facing threats and defending the territory," she added.

The comments come after China's embassy in the United States slammed the sale, saying it was a "wrong move" that would hurt relations between the two countries.

"The wrong move of the US side runs counter to the consensus reached by the two presidents in Mar-a-Lago and the positive development momentum of the China-US relationship," the embassy said.

"It will harm the mutual trust and cooperation between China and the US."

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his US counterpart Donald Trump at the billionaire's luxury resort in Florida in April.

Relations between the two countries had appeared to improve since the talks, with Trump hailing an "outstanding" relationship with Xi.

But there are signs the honeymoon might be over with Trump criticising China for not doing enough to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions and the US slapping sanctions on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash.
China vowed Thursday to continue providing the Philippines with "necessary assistance", a day after Beijing donated thousands of weapons to the country to help its fight against Islamist gunmen.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remarks during a visit by his Philippine counterpart Alan Peter Cayetano and pledged China's help with reconstruction efforts in the war-torn southern city of Marawi.

"Yesterday the first batch of emergency assistance was delivered to the Philippines," Wang told a joint news conference in Beijing.

"In the future, in keeping with the Philippines' needs, we will continue to provide necessary assistance and help."

The small shipment of assault and sniper rifles and ammunition is the first example of Chinese military aid since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to move away from Manila's traditional ally America and seek Beijing's support.

The weapons shipment, worth some 50 million yuan ($7.35 million) "highlights the dawn of a new era in Philippine-Chinese relations", Duterte said.

The US embassy said earlier this month that special forces were also assisting the Philippine military, although Duterte has said recently he had no knowledge about US technical assistance to the troops fighting in Marawi.

China's foreign ministry on Thursday confirmed the Chinese defence ministry had delivered a "batch of counterterrorism material" at the request of the Philippine government but did not elaborate on its contents.

The Philippines, which has a mutual defence treaty with the United States, has long relied on US-supplied arms.

But in a swipe at America -- which has criticised his flagship war on drugs -- Duterte has said he will seek more weapons from China and Russia.

Chinese ambassador Zhao Jianhua, who formally handed over the weapons on Wednesday, said a "second batch" would soon be delivered.

"The donation is not big but it is big in the sense that it marks a new era in relations between our two militaries," Zhao said.

Philippine troops, backed by airstrikes and artillery, have battled for over a month to drive the extremists out of Marawi but the militants have fought back.

Wang said China would work with the Philippines to remove the "threat of illegal drugs and the breeding ground of terrorism".
In the midst of celebrations marking 20 years since Britain returned Hong Kong to China, Beijing declared that the document which initiated the handover "is no longer relevant."

The remarks on Friday came a day after UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson stressed Britain's commitment to the historic Sino-Britain Joint Declaration, which gave Hong Kong rights unseen on the mainland through a "one country, two systems" agreement.

The U.S. State Department also said Thursday that the US "remains concerned about any infringement of civil liberties in Hong Kong," and expressed support for the "further development of Hong Kong's democratic systems."

In response to the US and UK statements, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang detailed Hong Kong's "comprehensive achievements with the support of the central government and mainland."

Citing Hong Kong's low unemployment rate and free economy during a regular press briefing Friday, Lu said: "Now Hong Kong has returned to China for almost two decades and this communique is a historical document."

"It's no longer relevant," Lu said, "and the UK has no sovereignty, governing power or the right to supervision over Hong Kong."

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday to lead handover anniversary celebrations, has said that he wanted to ensure the continuation of the "one country, two systems" set-up.

Xi's three-day visit comes three years after "Umbrella Movement" protesters crippled the city for months as they camped out on thoroughfares, calling for reforms and the protection of Hong Kong's unique status.

A huge security operation has been put in place for the Chinese president's visit and the anniversary celebrations, with thousands of police deployed to keep demonstrators away.

The Sino-British declaration said Hong Kong would be a "Special Administrative Region" of China, and would retain its freedoms and way of life for 50 years after the handover date on July 1, 1997.

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As part of the deal, Hong Kong was guaranteed rights including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary, but there are concerns those liberties are disappearing as Beijing becomes ever more assertive.

Young activists calling for self-determination or independence have emerged as a result.

"I've no doubt that Hong Kong's future success will depend on the rights and freedoms protected by that treaty," Johnson said.
By Michael Georgy and John Walcott RAQQA, Syria/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sheen Ibrahim's track record fighting ultra-hardline militants explains U.S. President Donald Trump's policy of arming Syrian Kurds like her as he seeks to eradicate Islamic State. It also highlights the risks. Taught by her brother to fire an AK-47 at 15 and encouraged by her mother to fight for Syrian Kurdish autonomy, she says she has killed 50 people since she took up arms in Syria's six-year-old civil war, fighting first al Qaeda, then crossing into Iraq to help Kurds there against Islamic State. Now 26, she leads a 15-woman unit hunting down the hardline group in its global headquarters Raqqa, speeding through streets once controlled by the militants in a pick-up truck as fellow fighters comb through ruined buildings for booby traps. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, have taken several parts of the northern Syrian town since their assault began this month. This week U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said Washington may arm the SDF for future battles against Islamic State while taking back weapons it no longer needs. The plan is the "headline" of a still-unfinished stabilization plan for Syria by the Trump administration, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The risk is that it causes new instability in a war in which outside powers are playing ever larger roles. The U.S.-YPG relationship has infuriated Syria's northern neighbor Turkey, a NATO ally which says the YPG is an extension of the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, designated terrorist by both Ankara and Washington for its insurgency against the Turkish state. Turkey has sent troops into Syria, partly to attack Islamic State, but also to keep the YPG, which controls Kurdish-populated areas of northern Syria, from moving into an Arab and Turkmen area that would give it control of the whole frontier. On Wednesday Ankara said its artillery had destroyed YPG targets after local Turkish-backed forces came under attack. Turkey has recently sent reinforcements into Syria, according to the rebel groups it backs, prompting SDF concern it plans to attack Kurdish YPG forces. The SDF warned on Thursday of a "big possibility of open, fierce confrontation". "WE'LL DO WHAT WE CAN" Syrian Kurdish leaders say they want autonomy in Syria, like that enjoyed by Kurds in Iraq, rather than independence or to interfere in neighboring states. They say Turkish warnings that YPG weapons could end up in PKK hands are unjustified. We were the victims of the nation state model and we have no desire to reproduce this model," said Khaled Eissa, European representative of the PYD, the YPG's political affiliate. Ibrahim and other fighters interviewed by Reuters said they were not terrorists but would stand up to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is fighting us," Ibrahim said. "Anyone who fights us, we will fight." Washington is working to calm tensions over its relationship with the YPG, which is also backed by Russia. "There is absolute transparency between Turkey and the United States on that subject," said Major General Rupert Jones, the British deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State. But disarmament will not be easy, judging by the comments of YPG fighters on the ground. "We will not give up our weapons," said a sniper aiming at Islamic State positions, who only gave her first name, Barkaneurin. "We need them to defend ourselves." Fellow fighter Maryam Mohamed agreed. "Erdogan is our biggest enemy, we cannot hand over our weapons," she said. One of the U.S. officials said Washington did not know exactly how many weapons the YPG has because some Arabs had joined its ranks, taking U.S.-supplied weapons with them, when their groups suffered setbacks on the battlefield. Loyalties are as variable as the battle lines and sometimes follow them," the official said. Asked about weapons recovery, Mattis, in his first public remarks on the issue, said: "We'll do what we can," while YPG spokesman Nouri Mahmoud emphasized the target was Islamic State. "We are fighting a global terrorist group," he said. Battlefield victory is tantalizingly close. U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Iraq announced on Thursday they had retaken Mosul, Islamic State's largest stronghold and the twin capital, with Raqqa, of the "caliphate" it declared in 2014. But the U.S. official and two others who also declined to be named, noted other huge obstacles to stabilizing Syria they said the administration was papering over. Rebuilding Raqqa will need billions of dollars and an unprecedented level of compromise among groups long hostile to each other, all three officials said. One said Iranian forces backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were poised to exploit any setbacks. Kurds are spearheading the attack on Raqqa, but a mainly Arab force is planned to maintain security in the overwhelmingly Arab town thereafter. While Kurds and Arabs fight side by side against Islamic State, with the militants' self-proclaimed caliphate shrinking, competition for territory will intensify. We are getting ourselves into the middle of another potential mess we dont understand, one of the U.S. officials said. For graphic on Raqqa map showing shrinking IS-controlled area, click: http://tmsnrt.rs/2tkHWYc For graphic on areas of control in Syria, click: http://tmsnrt.rs/2stEWIz (Additional reporting by John Irish in PARIS, Dominic Evans in ANKARA and Tom Perry in BEIRUT; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
In ten days or so, President Donald Trump is likely to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. If the U.S. president puts America first, he will firmly tell his counterpart to cease all information operations against the United States, or else Russia will face proportionate U.S. actions, including but not restricted to stronger economic sanctions. At the same time, given Russias recently renewed cyber assault on Ukraine, at least one targeted assassination, and increased artillery and other conventional attacks on the Ukrainian military, Trump should also remind Putin of his own commitment to end the war.

But for such warnings to be credible, our president needs leverage, lest Putin take any such remarks as empty threats. Leverage can best be provided now by quick passage of the Russia sanctions bill that Congress is currently considering. Indeed, failure to act at this crucial time would weaken Americas hand.

Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives have a national security obligation to take immediate and decisive action to match the Senates Iran-Russia sanctions act, which was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support by a vote of 98 to two. This bill is designed to make Russia pay for its multifaceted attack on the U.S. elections last year, its 2014 invasion of Ukraine, and its continued occupation of portions of that country. It constitutes the strongest action by Congress yet to deter the Kremlin from further efforts to undermine international law, security, stability, and the democratic principles held dear by those in the Baltics, France, Ukraine, the United States, and anywhere else Russia has recently meddled.

First and foremost, the Senate bill addresses Russias interference in the 2016 U.S. election. This attack on the American vote  the very heart and soul of our democracy  can never be tolerated. Russia must be held responsible for its actions. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. Protecting U.S. sovereignty and the integrity of our free and fair electoral process is an American issue.

To hold Russia accountable, the legislation prohibits U.S. people or entities from doing business with the defense or intelligence sectors in Russia, ensuring that U.S. businesses are not indirectly supporting Russias military or intelligence operations aimed at the United States, its allies and partners, or innocent civilians in Syria. This legislation could potentially discourage third parties from doing business with these sectors as well, which could have a significant impact on Russian arms sales and incentivize more allies and partners to quickly wean themselves off of Russian weaponry.

Second, the Senate bill codifies the economic sanctions the U.S. has already implemented in response to Russias violation of Ukraines sovereignty in Crimea and the Donbass, as well as the countrys malicious cyber activities. The bill gives Congress a veto on any executive branch proposals to change the sanctions regime, clearly signaling U.S. resolve. The European Union, NATO, and other major allies including Australia, Japan, and South Korea, who joined the United States in imposing these sanctions, are counting on America to continue to lead this effort. The Senate bill also expands sanctions on Russias energy sector, proceeds from which line the pockets of Putins colleagues and provide for more than half of the overall Russian budget. While current EU and U.S. sanctions prohibit participation in oil exploration projects in Russia, the Senate bill blocks investment in all projects involving Russian oil companies. It also provides discretionary authority to the president to prohibit investment in Russian energy pipeline projects. While these provisions may not be agreeable to all, it is clear that sacrifices will be have to made to hold Russia to account for its violation of U.S. sovereignty.

Former FBI Director James Comey said the Russian government would be back in the next election  but it never truly left. Russian intelligence agents continue to operate in the United States, and it is likely that pro-Russia hackers are still at work attacking U.S. institutions. At the same time, Russia continues to use propaganda and false news stories to influence public opinion and political outcomes. There is more we must do (as one of us argues in The Last Straw, a report for Third Way) to close sanctions loopholes, combat dark Russian money through new transparency measures, and bolster Justice and Treasury Department enforcement efforts. Nevertheless, the Senate bill is a first step towards exacting a price from Russia for its attack against U.S. democracy.

With this in mind, a united Congress should take decisive action now. Together, Republicans and Democrats must provide Trump with the leverage to send a clear message to Russia that America will unequivocally stand up for democratic principles and resist any who attempt to undermine its sovereignty.

Photo credit: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images
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If you take a good look at your skin, you'll probably spot a number of molessmall clusters of pigment-producing skin cells. Most adults have between 10 and 40 moles, and some people, especially those with lighter skin, may have many more.

Moles may change in size and appearance over the years, and in rare instances, a mole may become a melanoma, the most potentially deadly skin cancer.



But if youre like most people, you dont usually examine your moles or have a doctor check them periodically to determine whether they're changing in ways that may signal a possible skin cancer.

In fact, a survey of 476 people published in The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology found that only 25 percent of them reported checking their skin monthly and 17 percent reported that they did a skin check just once a year.

So should you or a physician check your skin? If so, how often? Heres what you need to know about changing moles and skin cancer risk.

Can Any Mole Become Skin Cancer?

Common moles are those were born with or develop until about age 40. They can change or even disappear over the years, and very rarely can become skin cancers. Some research suggests that having more than 50 common moles may increase one's risk of melanoma.

More worrisome are so-called atypical moles. They often appear during puberty but can pop up throughout life. Theyre not skin cancers but can have some features of melanoma, such as irregular borders.

And while the vast majority of these never turn into melanomas, they are more likely than common moles to become cancerous. Having five or more atypical moles is linked to a higher than normal risk of thick, or more advanced, melanoma. (Many melanomas start as pigmented moles, but the two more common skin cancers, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, dont. They arise on their own from normal skin.)

Why do some moles change from benign to cancerous? Genetics seems to play a role. And though melanoma can occur in areas that are usually shielded from sunlight, ultraviolet radiation also appears to be a significant factor.

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For example, moles exposed to UV radiation, like that from the sun or tanning beds, can mutate, triggering the abnormally rapid cell division that characterizes cancer, according to a 2015 study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Boris C. Bastian, M.D., professor of dermatology and pathology at the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues.

Most melanomas, however, don't develop from exisiting moles. And rates of the cancer, which increase with advancing age, have been rising for at least 30 years. Unnoticed, melanoma can grow and spread quickly, so experts agree that finding it early is key.

A melanoma the size of a dime has a 50 percent chance of having spread, says Darrell S. Rigel, M.D., a skin cancer expert at the NYU School of Medicine.



Debate Over Screening

There's been some controversy lately about following the standard advice of getting regular visual skin cancer checks by your doctor.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent expert panel that advises the government on screening tests, has weighed numerous studies and concluded that there's not enough evidence to recommend either for or against routine skin checks. The Task Force also says that while visual skin exams may help detect melanoma, there is no clear evidence that they save lives. (According to the Task Force, routine professional skin checks have the potential to lead to misdiagnosis, overdiagnosis, and adverse effects from biopsies and overtreatment.)

But does this mean you should skip skin exams by your doctor altogether? David C. Grossman, M.D., the vice chair of the Task Force and a senior investigator at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, says that this decision depends largely on you and your doctor's assessments of your own personal risk.

It's important to note that the Task Force didn't look at people at high risk for skin cancer. And the group only reviewed research on exams conducted by primary care health care providersand didn't assess the potential benefits of having skin checks conducted by dermatologists.

The bottom line: Our experts recommend that people at high risk should probably see a physician for a skin check at least once a year, preferably a dermatologist, says Jessica Krant, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a member of Consumer Reports medical advisory board.

Those at very high risk, or with a history of melanoma, should be screened even more often.

Key skin cancer risk factors include a history of sunburns, fair skin, light eyes, red or blonde hair, a family history of melanoma, or a personal history of basal cell or squamous cell cancer. Screenings can also help pinpoint the latter two skin cancers, which are more common, but not as deadly as melanoma.

Even if you are at lower risk, CR's experts say you should have your skin checked periodically by a doctor. Consider asking for a referral to a dermatologist for the exam.

Our experts also consider self checks important. Krant recommends a monthly or every other month schedule. (A study in the journal Archives of Dermatology found that 44 percent of melanomas were discovered by patients.) Use the commonly accepted ABCDE method.

And if you spot new moles or are unsure whether a mole's changes may be meaningful, see a dermatologist. Sometimes, a melanoma may not resemble other melanomas in shape, color, or size, says Scott W. Fosko, M.D., chair of dermatology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. For example, he says, the unusual amelanotic melanoma has little to no color.

Don't rely on a skin cancer app to give you the information you need. Research suggests that many are unreliable. And, of course, take steps to protect yourself from excess exposure to UV rays in the first place: Shield your skin when you're outside and avoid tanning beds.







More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

Best used cars for $25,000 and less

7 best mattresses for couples





Copyright  2006-2017 Consumer Reports, Inc.
On June 29, 1972, the Court decided in a complicated ruling, Furman v. Georgia, that the death penalty application in three cases was unconstitutional. The Court clarified that ruling in 1976, putting the death penalty back on the books under different circumstances.

The debate over whether the death penalty is cruel and unusual dates back to the Founding Fathers. The Constitutions Eighth Amendment states that, Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

In 1789, during the debate over the Bill of Rights in the First Congress, one argument was over the extent of the death penalty. Samuel Livermore of New Hampshire proposed that it is sometimes necessary to hang a man, villains often deserve whipping, and perhaps having their ears cut off.

But are we in the future to be prevented from inflicting these punishments because they are cruel? If a more lenient mode of correcting vice and deterring others from the commission of it would be invented, it would be very prudent in the Legislature to adopt it; but until we have some security that this will be done, we ought not to be restrained from making necessary laws by any declaration of this kind, Livermore said.

The First Congress adopted a more moderate view when it proposed the Eighth Amendment for ratification in the Bill of Rights. It was also concerned about the use of harsh punishments in an arbitrary and disproportionate way.

The Supreme Court initially considered these factors as they would have applied in the Founders time. In 1878, the Court ruled in Wilkerson v. Utah that death by firing squad was permissible, but it agreed that old English practices of execution where prisoners were emboweled alive, beheaded, and quartered, publicly dissected and burned alive were unconstitutional.

Then in 1910, the Court broadened its criteria in Weems v. United States, which wasnt a capital punishment case but still dealt with cruel and unusual punishment. The Justices referenced an earlier death-sentence case, In re Kemmler from 1890, which held that the first use of the electric chair was constitutional under the 14th Amendment. Later, the Court ruled that it was permissible to execute a person with the electric chair, for a second time, after a first attempt failed.

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However, in 1972 the Court changed direction in Furman v. Georgia, when, in a very complicated ruling, a split 5-4 Court decided the death penalty application was unconstitutional in three cases.

Furman, an armed burglar, had tripped while fleeing a scene, causing his gun to discharge and kill a victim. The Court also considered two similar cases in the Furman decision. The Court filed a one-paragraph per curiam ruling and each of the nine Justices wrote their own separate opinions.

The Court holds that the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in these cases constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. The judgment in each case is therefore reversed insofar as it leaves undisturbed the death sentence imposed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings, the brief opinion read.

Only two of the Justices believed the death penalty was unconstitutional under all circumstances. But the effect of the Furman decision was to place a four-year moratorium on all executions until more guidance came from a court challenge.

In 1976, in a series of decisions called the Gregg cases, the Court confirmed that capital punishment was legal in the United States, but under limited circumstances. It rejected automatic sentencing to death, and said death sentences cant be characterized by arbitrariness and capriciousness. The ruling led to the use by states of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in determining capital sentencing.

In later years, the Court has excluded certain classes of people from capital punishment, including the mentally handicapped and juveniles. It also eliminated rape and felony murder as capital crimes.
If you look to your left after you enter Fact & Fiction, you'll see the "Hall of Fame" photographs of the many authors who have signed books there over the years.

Ivan Doig, James Lee Burke, James Crumley, James Welch, Sherman Alexie, Deirdre McNamer and more line the wall.

The volume of pictures is a testament to Barbara Theroux's original vision for the store: celebrating books and the people who make them, and connecting readers with writers.

Theroux was doing just that on her last day Friday  customers breezed through to ask her questions about hard-covers and upcoming titles as she prepared to retire from the store she opened 31 years ago.

She'll walk away with countless stories of friendships with authors and customers, and an enviable personalized library of signed copies.

"I just can't thank Missoula enough for allowing the dream I had to become a wonderful life," she said.

"I'm not a rich person in financial ways, but I'm very rich in other kinds of ways, which is another reason not to leave Missoula," she said.

She's handing general manager duties over to Mara Panich-Crouch, and will focus on other book-related activities: starting a books blog, for one. She'll continue helping with the third-annual Montana Book Festival in September. She was a part of its previous incarnation for 15 years. Most importantly, she'll help with the new Missoula Public Library.

"That's where my real passion is going to be: working with the final design concepts, the final fundraising and then groundbreaking," she said.

***

Theroux was working at the Bookstore on the University of Montana campus when she decided to open Fact & Fiction, reasoning that downtown could use a general bookstore.

She had experience as a bookseller out of state, plus a degree in education and library science, and found a spot on West Main Street.

The city's culture of writers and readers, buoyed by the UM writing program, provided a ready audience, as it does to this day.

An early signing of Nicholas Evans' "The Loop," his wolf-themed follow-up to "The Horse Whisperer," helped break in the space. Another early signing, of the "The Last Best Place," a far-ranging anthology of Montana literature, made an even larger mark. They sold out of books by the time the publication party for its many contributors came around. Charlie Baumgartner, owner of Charlie B's bar, bought more than one carton of copies for his regulars who didn't want to attend a book signing.

Readings and signings are one of the ways the store connects authors and customers. It has six coming up in July, and sometimes hosts three in a week.

A longstanding tradition are the signings with Burke, the Lolo writer famed around the country for his mystery novels about Cajun sheriff's deputy Dave Robicheaux.

He has read and signed his work at Fact & Fiction every year since 1987, and with a few thrown in between, Theroux estimates they've had 37 together over the years.

At the first one, Burke was concerned no one would show up, so he teamed up with Rick DeMarinis, his writer-friend who convinced him to try his hand at mysteries after a dry spell of literary fiction that publishers rejected.

He hasn't forgotten the early support, and is effusive about Theroux's work.

"She's one of the most well-known independent book dealers in the United States," Burke said.

"Any writer who goes through the area always does a signing at Fact & Fiction," he said, comparing it to the Shakespeare & Co. in Paris during the 1920s heyday of Hemingway and Fitzgerald; or City Lights in San Francisco at the height of the Beats.

Burke, a prolific author who publishes one book a year, needs to sign thousands of copies in advance. The publisher ships them all to Fact & Fiction, and he and the staff get an assembly line going for sometimes three days. Some are destined for other bookstores, and some are requests for personal inscriptions from people around the world.

He's dedicating his next novel, titled "Robicheaux," to Theroux and to another independent bookseller, McKenna Jordan of Murder by the Book in Houston.

He also admires the voracious level of reading that Theroux does.

"She has read every book from Guggenheim Press' first printing. I don't know how she reads everything," Burke said.

She estimates that she reads two to three in a week, and more if she has a three-day weekend or a long flight.

She says it's part of the credibility of the store. "A bookseller has to read. A writer has to read," she said, and customers know her staff reads.

"We'll give you an honest opinion," she said. If the staff member doesn't like a book, it doesn't mean they won't sell it to you. But it does mean they gave you fair warning.

Panich-Crouch put it this way: "If you sell a bad book to somebody, they're not going to come back to you for another recommendation," she said.

***

Since opening the store, which moved to its current location in 1998, Theroux and company have weathered two national recessions and the dawn of online sales.

By her count, there were 12 to 13 bookstores in Missoula when she opened, and there are eight left.

Some of the chains, such as Hastings, no longer exist. Others, like Barnes and Noble, are still open here in Missoula. When that store debuted, she helped organize a "Nightmare on Reserve Street" protest with Freddy's Feed and Read. She has a collection of buttons from over the years that show that booksellers occasionally need to get political in defense of reading or the First Amendment.

In 2007, she went full circle and sold Fact & Fiction to the Bookstore at UM, the not-for-profit corporation where she got her start.

During the most recent recession, libraries and school districts brought their purchase orders back to Fact & Fiction. On the consumer side, some of the novelty of online orders started to wear off. There's the local support that they've aimed to serve since the beginning.

"Missoula's not fickle," she said. "Missoula supports those that support its own. That's always been a plus."
Former FBI director James Comey is sworn in during a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC: Getty Images

Donald Trumps lawyers are backing off their legal fight against former FBI Director James Comey, sources say.

Mr Trumps legal team has decided to postpone the filing of a complaint with the Justice Departments inspector general about Mr Comey's alleged leaks, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Marc Kasowitz, the outside lawyer representing Mr Trump in the investigations into his campaigns possible ties to Russia, initially decided to file the complaint after hearing Mr Comeys testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The former FBI Director told the committee that Mr Trump had pressured him to drop his investigation into the former national security adviser, and had asked him to pledge his loyalty.

He also revealed that he had given detailed memos about these conversations to a friend, in the hope of having them released to the media.

Mr Trump on Twitter called the former FBI Directors actions totally illegal and very cowardly.

Mr Comey has claimed the memos were not confidential, and the dissemination of non-classified information is not generally considered a leak.

Still, Mr Kasowitz claimed Mr Comey had unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President, and said he would leave it to appropriate authorities to determine whether the incident should be investigated.

Now, sources say the White House has postponed their intended complaint so as not to obstruct an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Mueller was appointed shortly after Mr Comeys firing to lead the Justice Departments investigation into potential Russia collusion.

Mr Trump has previously called Mr Muellers investigation a witch hunt, and maintains that he did not collude with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla

More than 7,400 cities and local councils have signed up to a Global Covenant of Mayors to fight climate change, galvanised by Donald Trumps dismissal of scientists concerns for the future.

The US President has said his country will withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change to the alarm of many other world leaders, including Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who has promised to confront Mr Trump about the issue at the G20 summit in Germany next week.

However, speaking at the covenants first meeting, Kasim Reed, the mayor of Atlanta, suggested Mr Trumps decision would have the opposite effect to its intention.

I think President Trumps order, which was meant for bad around climate issues, is actually going to end up being for good because whats happening is people are co-ordinating and becoming more passionate and engaged than they typically would have, he said.

What President Trump has done is he has  unintentionally as he does with so many things  organised and focussed people who have been doing a number of good things in hundreds of different places.

Now mayors are communicating and working in a fashion that I have not seen during my seven years in office.

We should not be discouraged, we should be upbeat, we should be passionate, we should roll up our sleeves and get to it.

Mr Reed said Atlanta had committed to be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy by 2035, among a raft of other measures designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

And he said, regardless of Mr Trumps policies, American cities had the power to meet the carbon targets laid out in the Paris Agreement, which was ratified by Barack Obama.

The bottom line is our carbon dioxide goals on the US side are achievable within cities, Mr Reed said.

According to the covenants website, it now has a membership of more than 7,453 cities and local authorities  representing 9.4 per cent of the total global population.

Gregor Robertson, the mayor of Vancouver, said: Regardless of our national governments, cities need to take action on climate and we are.

We are on the frontlines of what is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced regarding our future.


Californias Democratic lawmakers blocked universal health care legislation  the culmination of a successful lobbying campaign to portray the proposal as unrealistic and unaffordable. But days later, advocates of a universal health care system in which the government is the single payer got three boosts.

First, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren  a prospective 2020 presidential candidate  said Democrats should support legislation to create a single-payer system. Then influential investor Warren Buffett declared his support for such a system. And most recently, a new poll from Quinnipiac University found 60 percent of Americans now say they support an expansion of Medicare that would make it available to any American who wants it.

The California situation, though, exemplified the ongoing political challenges for such a proposal  even in a state with a Democratic supermajority, where government already pays 70 percent of the health care bill. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown had in 1992 declared his support for single-payer, explicitly saying states could create such systems. However, even as he made headlines slamming Donald Trump's health care proposals, he refused to support the single-payer initiative in his own state.

Meanwhile, California's Democraitc Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon  who made the decision to halt the legislation  declared the bill woefully incomplete and then moved to block it, effectively preventing the legislation from being completed. The bill that we got from the Senate cost literally double the state budget and didnt have a funding source, Rendon said. In California, existing measures like Proposition 98 make it difficult for the legislature to raise new resources without putting a funding measure on the statewide ballot.

California illustrates how the key stumbling block for single-payer advocates has been the argument that a government-sponsored health care system would be unaffordable.

Story continues

Would a state-based single-payer system really be the unaffordable budget-buster that opponents have long claimed? International Business Times David Sirota discussed the question with Robert Pollin, a University of Massachusetts economist who had been a top economic aide to Brown during his 1992 presidential campaign.

Pollin was recently commissioned by single-payer supporters to evaluate the financial underpinnings of the California proposal. After publishing a report about his findings, Pollin argues that opponents of the bill have misrepresented the most basic facts about health care economics.

Podcast subscribers can listen to the full interview here. What follows is an excerpt of the discussion with Pollin.

Sirota: Some have argued that individual states cannot afford to create single-payer health care systems. What is your response to that argument?

Pollin: I don't see where it works at all. Certainly not in principle. Right now states are spending huge amounts of money for health care. Most of the money is already coming from public funds. For example, California is spending $370 billion this year; 70 percent of that is coming from public funds already.

Really, all we're talking aboutin moving to single-payer is shifting the 30 percent that is channeled through private health insurance companies into the public system. In addition, when we move to single-payer we will get cost savings that have not been generated when we rely on private insurance companies to deliver health care.

Sirota: The term single-payer has often been used as a catch-all. But it doesnt just mean universal health care. What does that term mean in practice?

Pollin: You can come up with different definitions. In my discussions with Gov. Jerry Brown he says, "Oh, it's just a term that nobody knows what it means. It's rhetoric." Here's what I take to mean single-payer. Number one, that the first principle is universal provision of health care so that everyone in the state is guaranteed decent health care. Everyone in the state or the country or whatever the relevant body is. Second, that to pay for the health care we have the government providing the insurance function 100 percent to deliver the guaranteed health care for everybody in the state. Those are the two fundamental principles.

Sirota: You studied Californias recent legislation to create a single-payer system in that state. What would the proposed program do?

Pollin: The proposal was that every single resident of California would have access to decent health care regardless of whether they had a job, who their employer was, who their parents are. Every single resident of California would have access to decent health care. That's the basic principle. Then in order to accomplish that, basically we shift funds out of the private insurance companies and we cover that through public spending generated by new taxes. That's basically it.

Sirota: How much is California currently spending on health care, and what kind of savings do you think it could achieve if it created a single-payer system?

Pollin: What I discovered in my research with my coauthors is that California is paying about $370 billion now in health care and that's with about 8 percent of the population still being uninsured and then about another 33 percent of the population being under-insured. Meaning they have insurance but their deductibles and copays are very prohibitively high and they're not getting the care they need

We find, working from the existing research literature, we think conservatively you can get about 18 percent savings out of the system.

With 18 percent savings through four basic components: lower administrative costs; lower pharmaceutical prices; lower fees for providers, doctors, and hospitals; and somewhat greater efficiency in delivery of care. Add those four things up you get about 18 percent savings, which means that the total system is now going to cost $330 billion and that everybody gets decent care.

Sirota: Government data has shown that Medicare  which is basically a single-payer system  has lower administrative costs than private insurance. What are these administrative costs, and why do you believe there would be big administrative cost savings in a state-based single-payer system?

Pollin: Basically the administrative savings occur precisely because you get rid of multiple payers, you get rid of private insurance companies competing with one another, you get rid of those companies that are trying to maximize profits as opposed to deliver decent health care. You also get rid of the administrative costs faced by physicians and clinics and hospitals having to deal with the health insurance companies.

The research literature says that the potential savings available there are in the range of 50 percent to 70 percent. I took the low number. I said, "Okay, let's say it's 50 percent." That's really how I got that number.

A major piece of evidence in the literature was saying, "Well, what if we replicated the administrative structure of Medicare?" The argument is, "Okay, you get savings in the range of 50 percent to 70 percent.

Sirota: On drug prices  other single-payer systems throughout the world use their market power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. Would California as a state be able to do that? What kind of savings would it get from that?

Pollin: We looked at two examples that would be relevant for the state of California and also other states. One is the U.S. Veterans Administration, which negotiates drug prices as a block with all the pharmaceutical companies for all the needs of its members, the veterans. Then secondly we looked at the Canada case. The Canada case again is one in which we have a similar population level and a similar demographic.

If we look at Canada and the Veterans Administration we see cost savings in the range of 30 percent to 50 percent through negotiating drug prices as a block.

Sirota: Then there's the payment rates to health care providers. What would that look like under the single-payer system being proposed in California? And what do you say to those who worry that lower payment rates could prompt doctors to flee the state?

Pollin: What we proposed is that the payment rates for physicians and hospitals be exactly at the Medicare rate. After all, we're talking about Medicare for all so Medicare rates for all. Those rates are about 20 percent less than what private insurance pays. At the same time they're about 15 percent more than what is paid in Medicaid, which in California is called Medi-Cal, [which] provides about 30 percent of all health care in California.

I met with representatives of the California Medical Association in preparing the research paper. I thought they were going to be much more aggressively opposed to what I was talking about and in fact they weren't. What they said was, "Well, this is going to be good news for a lot of physicians who are expecting Medicaid rates. They're going to get a raise for their Medicaid rates." It's true that some physicians are getting much more.

In those cases they are going to get the compensation but their administrative costs are going to go way down, which we've already factored in. If we say that administrative costs are going to go down by about 10 percent, that goes right back into the pockets of the providers.

Overall, on balance, most physicians, most hospitals, most clinics are going to come out about the same as they are now through different means. Through the raise in Medicaid rates, through the reduction in administrative costs, while yes they are going to see a cut relative to what they get from private insurance.

Sirota: Factoring in all of these savings, there is still an amount of new revenue that would need to be generated in order to fully fund this proposal that emerged in California. Roughly how much would need to be generated? And what are some realistic ways to raise the new revenues?

Pollin: If we say that the whole system for 2017, the whole system would cost $330 billion to cover everybody decently, we have to get that money. Right now 70 percent of the health care system in California is covered by public funds already. That 70 percent is going to stay in place. That's going to remain intact. That's $225 billion out of what we need $330 billion. That means we need to raise roughly another $105 billion total.

What I proposed in the study was two simple mechanisms. One was a gross receipts tax, a tax on all receipts from all businesses at 2.3 percent. Then I built in an exemption for the first $2 million of gross receipts for all businesses. With that exemption, essentially 80 percent of the smaller businesses in the state are completely exempt from having to pay the tax. Another 10 percent are only paying at a rate of about 0.8 percent. That only leaves about 10 percent of the larger businesses in the state paying the 2.3 percent gross receipts tax.

That's going to raise the bulk of the money. Out of the $105 billion that we need, that raises about $92 billion. The rest is covered through an expansion of the existing sales tax in the state. Adding 2.3 percent sales tax but again I'm exempting necessities. I'm exempting food, housing, and utilities. When we do that it's a very progressive tax and we raise the rest of the money. That's how we get to $105 billion.

Sirota: When the single-payer bill was blocked from moving forward, there was a lot of talk about how it is unaffordable  and the big numbers about cost were thrown around. Do you think these debates end up misrepresenting the total costs of single-payer?

Pollin: That certainly seems to be what's happened. When I presented my study last month in Sacramento somebody said to me, "What techniques are you using to get these numbers?" I said, "Arithmetic and subtraction." It's really not all that complicated. It's pretty straightforward as a matter of fact. I don't see what the big deal is.

What the big deal is, that this massive misrepresentation when the $400 billion number first came out from the State Appropriations Committee report it was written up as though we were going to go from zero, spending zero, to spending $400 billion. Of course, that's preposterous. It isn't even in the study. The study did not make a point of saying, "You know what? We're at $370 billion now and then we're going to go to $400 billion." That's an increase but let's say it's not a gigantic increase.

Then that $400 billion number gets repeated over and over again and, yes, I saw the editorial in the Wall Street Journal, I saw the editorial in the Washington Post, LA Times, and so forth. They keep repeating the same thing.

Healthcare protest

Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Sirota:

What would the effect of this plan be on businesses in California?

Pollin: The single-payer system is going to lower health care costs for virtually every household level and for virtually all businesses. This program is good for business.

I wish the Chamber of Commerce would actually take a look and think about it a minute objectively. What businesses are paying now for health care is quite substantial and what I show is that they will be paying less. They will have more money to take home, households will have more money to keep as income, with the exception of the wealthy households. Most households and virtually all businesses are better off on net. Yes, they're going to pay more in taxes but, yes, they're also going to be released from having to pay health insurance premiums, deductibles, and copays.

Sirota: If thats true, why do you think many business groups oppose single-payer in general, and opposed this legislation in specific?

Pollin: First of all, it's clear why the health insurance industry is against it. They're going to be put out of business. They are operating massively to fight this. Secondly, the pharmaceutical industry [is] going to get lower prices. They're also fighting like mad to prevent this. Those are two big important powerful industries that have a lot of influence in the media. They can buy a lot of TV commercials and all that.

Beyond that, I think a lot of it is inertia. Well, this is what we have. This is what we're used to. There may be some arguments that big government is going to make things bad [but] the administrative issues are not overwhelming. Yesterday Warren Buffet, the third-richest person in the world, and the most brilliant private investor in history according to some, he came out on behalf of single-payer. Well, so there's one businessperson who sees the reasoning here. He made his reputation by being open-minded and being objective. I think that if other business people were to open their minds to an equivalent degree they would also see the benefits.

Sirota: What do you think a single-payer system would mean for the California economy as a whole?

Pollin: The first single biggest effect, and this is at the moment still a deficiency in my study and I'm trying to correct that, is what happens to the people who work in the health insurance industry? We do have to address that. As a matter of transition how do we transition?

Beyond that the issues for businesses, virtually all businesses are going to net out better off so we're lowering costs for businesses, for most businesses, to a significant degree. I would say medium-sized businesses are going to see cost reductions in the range of 3 percent to 9 percent depending on the health plans that they're already offering.

Big businesses, most big businesses, will see modest cost reductions. Not big ones. Then small businesses most of them are going to be unaffected because they're not covering their workers now. They'll be exempt from the gross receipts tax. The small businesses that are covering their workers will see a windfall 22 percent cost reduction.

This is going to induce  to the extent we believe businesses are there are out to make money and encourages them to invest more  to hire more workers, to expand their operations is the prospect of making more money. We are saving them money... Households will have more money in their pockets. That will increase overall spending by householdOverall, it's going to be a stimulus to the economy.

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Five North Koreans in a small boat crossed the sea border into South Korean waters Saturday, a Coast Guard official said, in an apparent bid to defect to the South.

The five people, including four men and one woman, have expressed their wish to live in the South as defectors, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"Coast guards guided the boat to safety at (the eastern port of) Mukho," a South Korean coast guard official told AFP.

Government authorities were questioning the five North Koreans, he added.

The incident came after a North Korean fishing boat with eight people on board developed an engine trouble and drifted into South Korean waters off the country's eastern coast late last month.

Days later, South Korea repatriated all the eight, as they had requested.

Early last month, two people out of four crew members on another North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle in the South.

There has also been a spate of overland border crossings in June.

Two North Korean soldiers walked across the heavily fortified border and a civilian swam across a river to defect to the South.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.
By Sanjeev Miglani and Tova Cohen NEW DELHI/TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Narendra Modi is making a first visit to Israel by an Indian prime minister next week, in a public embrace of a country that he has long admired for its military and technical expertise but which his predecessors kept at arm's length. India has traditionally trodden a careful diplomatic line in the region, analysts say, wary of upsetting Arab states and Iran - upon whom it relies for its vast imports of oil - and its large Muslim minority. It has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, even as it quietly pursued ties with Israel. But now Modi is lifting the curtain on a thriving military relationship. He will hold three days of talks with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to advance sales and production of missiles, drones and radar systems under his signature "Make in India" drive, officials in Delhi and Tel Aviv said. The Indian leader will not travel to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestine Authority and a customary stop for visiting leaders trying to maintain a balance in political ties. At home, the apparent shift in what has long been a bedrock of India's foreign policy risks sharpening criticism that the country's 180 million Muslims are increasingly being marginalized under Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which swept to power in 2014. "Narendra Modi's visit to Israel will only strengthen its occupation of Palestine," said Asaduddin Owaisi, a member of India's federal parliament from a regional group that promotes Muslim rights. BURGEONING RELATIONSHIP In previous decades, under the left-leaning Congress Party, former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was a regular visitor to New Delhi, pictured hugging then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when the two were championing the Non-Alignment Movement. In May, Modi hosted Arafat's successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and offered help in health and information technology, but the trip was low-key. The scale of the ongoing collaboration with Israel dwarfs anything India is attempting with the Palestinians, officials say. "We have a wide ranging partnership with Israel that ranges from agriculture cooperation to homeland security," said Bala Bhaskar, head of the foreign ministry's West Asia division. He said India's ties with Israel and Palestine were important in their own right and neither should viewed through the prism of the other. But an Israeli diplomat said Modi's standalone trip to Tel Aviv was an important signal. The two sides are expected to announce strategic partnerships in areas including water, agriculture and space technology during Modi's visit. But it is the defense relationship that is most advanced - India is now Israel's biggest arms market, buying weapons at an average of $1 billion each year. Eli Alfassi, executive vice president of marketing at state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the country's biggest defense firm, said it was supplying India with drones, radar, communication systems and cybersecurity. MISSILES, FOOD SECURITY The centerpiece of the collaboration is the Barack 8 air defense system, built jointly by the two countries in a boost for Modi's campaign to develop a domestic defense industry. "We are adjusting to the 'Make in India' policy which says only local companies will win tenders, so we are setting up three joint projects in India with local companies," Alfassi said. IAI has signed a memorandum of understanding to build missiles with India's state-run Bharat Electronics Limited, launched a joint project with Dynamatic Technologies to make drones and is scouting for a partner for a joint venture for its subsidiary Elta, which specializes in electronic warfare and communication systems, he said. India is in the midst of a military modernization program worth more than $100 billion to help counter rivals Pakistan and China. Israel, the United States and Russia are India's top military suppliers, and Modi's government has said it will favor countries that are ready to share technology. Avi Mizrachi, executive vice president of business development for Israel and Southeast Asia at Elbit Systems, which supplies electro-optic systems and upgrades of helicopters and combat vehicles, said it would be bidding for a tender to supply drones in partnership with India's Adani group. The two countries stress, though, that there is more to the relationship than arms deals. Modi will be discussing a plan for Israeli help in boosting India's food security, officials said. The plan is to expand 26 agriculture expertise centers that Israel has set up in 15 Indian states to help increase output of everything from vegetables to mangoes and pomegranates. Modi wants Indian companies involved in turning these small centers into commercial entities that would help tens of thousands of farmers to boost productivity. (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Jerusalem (AFP) - An Israeli warplane struck a Syrian army post on Friday, the Israeli military said, hours after stray fire from Syria's civil war hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"In response to the projectile launched earlier today at Israel from Syria, an Israel Air Force aircraft targeted the Syrian army position that fired the mortar," the English-language Israeli statement said.

"The errant projectile was a result of internal fighting in Syria."

It was the fourth such exchange in a week as Syrian troops battle rebels, including hardline Islamists, on the other side, leading to occasional stray fire.

There have been no casualties on the Israeli side but the Jewish state also responded to the previous three incidents by striking Syrian government positions.

Rebels recently launched an offensive against government forces in Quneitra on the Syrian side of the armistice line.

Israel has conducted several air strikes in Syria since that country's civil war erupted in 2011, most of which it has said had been against arms convoys or warehouses of its Lebanese arch-foe Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed movement is a key supporter of the Syrian regime and is fighting alongside government forces.

In April, Israel shot down what it identified only as "a target" over the Golan, hours after Syria accused it of hitting a military position near Damascus airport.

Israel did not confirm or deny the reported Damascus attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he would not tolerate any spillover from the fighting in Syria.

"We will respond to every firing," he said. "Whoever attacks us, we will attack him. This is our policy and we will continue with it."

- 'Determined to respond' -

Netanyahu was speaking at the Israeli settlement of Katzrin in the Golan, when a Syrian mortar shell hit further north and the Israeli military retaliated.

"During my speech, shells from the Syrian side landed in our territory and the Israel Defence Forces have already struck back," he said.

Story continues

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

Around 510 square kilometres of the Golan are under Syrian control.

"Our line is clear," Netanyahu said in his Hebrew-language speech on Wednesday.

"We are not interfering in the bloody conflict in Syria, which has been going on for more than six years, but we are determined to respond firmly and forcefully to any violation of our sovereignty."

"We shall not permit radical Islam, led by Iran or Daesh, to open a terrorist front against the State of Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights," he added using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State Jihadist group.
The looming government shutdown in New Jersey has threatened to close national parks, which would endanger firework displays ahead of July 4th weekend. State lawmakers failed to pass the almost $35 billion budget Thursday and, subsequently, Republican Gov. Chris Christie told his Cabinet to prepare for a shutdown, according to US News.

At a press conference Thursday the unpopular governor warned that failure to pass the budget would disrupt the holiday weekend. He also put the blame on his political rival, Democratic Speaker Vincent Prieto, who he said would be "kicking people out" of state parks if the budget didn't pass.

"I don't want to see Speaker Prieto kicking people out of Liberty State Park for Fourth of July this weekend," Christie said, adding that the shutdown was "purely up to" Pieto.

More than 150,000 attendees are expected to spend their Independence Day for the show at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, which officials boast would be the "largest fireworks display" in the state, according to local website Patch. Kool and the Gang are expected to headline.

The state Assembly hopes to pass the budget by its midnight deadline. The state constitution requires a budget be enacted by July 1 or else the government shutdown would be triggered.

READ: Twitter Reacts To Trump Nominating NJ Governor Christie's 'Bridgegate' Lawyer As New FBI Director

GettyImages-664130184

Photo: (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Christie and Prieto are in a stalemate over whether or not to overhaul the state's largest health care insurer, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield.

The Governor said Thursday he wouldn't sign a state budget unless it was presented to him alongside his proposal to overhaul the state's largest health insurer and planned to dedicate lottery revenue to the state's underfunded public workers' pensions.

Story continues

The Democrat State Senate approved the bills after Christie announced the conditions for him to approve their $34.7 billion budget proposal. The budget was passed over to the state's Assembly where Speaker Prieto agreed to the dedication of lottery revenue, but not the legislation affecting Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Prieto pinned the blame on South Jersey Democrats, who supported the budget but didnt vote for it. He said that the lawmakers were "standing with Chris Christie to give him what he wants," adding that he "has to draw the line somewhere," according to Philly.com

"I negotiated in good faith," Prieto said. "You have to draw the line somewhere."

READ: Chris Christie Attack On New Jersey Health Insurer Could Help Kushner Family

In 2006, a similar shutdown occurred when the government shuttered under Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine. The shutdown resulted road construction projects were required to wind down, motor vehicle offices shuttered and around 45,000 state employees were furloughed.

However, during Jersey's 2006 shut down, state-run parks, beaches, and historic sites remained open through the July Fourth holiday but closed afterward. Christie said Thursday that if a deal isn't reached then the parks and beaches would be closed for the weekend before the holiday.

GettyImages-664130148

Photo: (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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This question was originally published on Quora. Answer by Nicolas Nelson.

It depends on five distinct entities that could lead the way and accomplish that goal. Each one has lots of supporters and certainly a number of detractors and resistance to overcome.

The first three are government agencies: NASA, CNSA (Chinese National Space Agency), and ESA (European Space Agency). Fifty years is a long time: long enough for any of these slow-moving but highly capable agencies, each with human spaceflight capability (well, ESA is working on it, but it's only a matter of time now, and you're offering fifty years) to scale up to a human mission to Mars. They might even cooperate with one another or with other space agencies (Roscosmos is not going to take the lead but is an obviously strong partner; ISRO a less obvious but highly desirable one; there are plenty of others).

The next two are private firms, SpaceX and Blue Origin, inspired and driven by their visionary owners/leaders Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Either of these firms could send a human mission to Mars long before any space agency can, if they want to do so and are not constrained by finances.

Jeff Bezos has lots more money than Elon Musk, but Bezos is content to play the slow-and-steady turtle when folks talk of a race to Mars. His focus is on cislunar space development first, then Mars when the cislunar infrastructure is in place, at least to some degree.

Elon Musk burns with a passion to colonize Mars (yay!) but he also isn't concerned with any sort of race to Mars. He'd be delighted to see others get to Mars first, and has openly said so, if only others would hurry up and get busy. But he faces financial constraints that slow down his R&D and rocket building efforts. Musk doesn't seem too concerned with cislunar space infrastructure, his plans are more similar to a Martin Marietta Mars Direct style of mission, pushing very quickly past explore and do science missions into full-steam settlement mode. But he's taking financial risks to do so, risks that may not pan out. If Tesla or the Gigafactory or the Boring Company flop badly, any one of them could pull all the others down, including SpaceX. The fate of rapid Mars exploration and colonization might rest on whether Teslas new trucks sell well in 2018! (Okay, maybe not quite that delicate a financial position, but you get the idea.)

Story continues

So: fifty years from now, Elon Musk will have sent humans to Mars or died/gone bankrupt in the attempt. If all goes well for SpaceX, they will have a crew of humans on the Red Planet in just ten or twelve years but there's a lot that can delay this.

Fifty years from now, if Elon has failed somehow, Jeff Bezos will have sent humans to Mars, but only recently, and all in good time. Thirty or forty years is about right, I imagine.

Fifty years from now, a NASA/Boeing human mission may have visited Mars two or three times over a span of six years, left flags and footprints, taken a ton or two of geologic samples, and declared it all a success and gone home to Earth, all depending entirely on the notoriously fickle will of the American Congress and constantly-changing presidential administrations. Can this happen? Oh certainly. Is it likely? Certainly not.

Same goes for the ESA and the CNSA: assuming a sustained political will, and diplomatic success in both foreign policy and scientific cooperation, there's no reason either of them (plus any partner they recruit, optionally) could not send a human mission or two to Mars. But so many factors conspire against it, the likelihood is low, in the current geopolitical climate. Just one serious war or threat of imminent war could derail it for another fifty years.

Quora

Photo: Quora

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Legislators who earlier this year passed sweeping changes to Montanas fight against aquatic invasive species grilled the state agencies charged with implementing them during a Thursday tour of new watercraft inspection and decontamination stations.

Lawmakers and public members who sit on the Environmental Quality Council -- an interim committee that oversees state agencies such as Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Department of Environmental Quality -- were in Helena on Thursday and Friday for regular meetings. Thursday morning committee members met with officials from FWP and DNRC at the Silos boat launch on Canyon Ferry Reservoir, where along with Tiber Reservoir, boaters undergo the most stringent AIS measures in the state.

Its incredible whats been accomplished in the last six months here, said Tom Woolf, who leads FWPs AIS bureau.

Last year the detection of larvae from either invasive quagga or zebra mussels in Tiber and a suspected detection in Canyon Ferry triggered a massive response from the state. With the detection the first in the Northwest and potential implications downstream in other states, FWP and DNRC stood up a more than $5 million per year AIS program, which included doubling inspection stations and water testing, mandatory inspection for watercraft coming from out of state, and mandatory decontamination of all watercraft at Tiber and Canyon Ferry.

Invasive mussels have quickly spread in the Great Lakes, Midwest and Colorado River. Once established, they clog infrastructure for hydropower, irrigation and municipal water causing millions of dollars in additional maintenance. They also negatively impact the environment by filtering plankton, which sends ripples up the food chain and causes increased aquatic plant growth due to increased sunlight penetration.

The 2017 Legislature was tasked with funding the new programs and enacted new angler and hydropower fees to foot the bill. On Thursday with boats launching nearby, they got to see where that funding was going.

Within the fisheries division therere hardly any employees not involved, said fisheries administrator Eileen Ryce, identifying about 200 mostly seasonal staff involved.

Stacy Schmidt, animal specialist with the AIS bureau demonstrated some of her tools of the trade. A rake catches plants while various nets catch everything from snails to plankton and larvae. Sampling crews also take core samples with mussels the biggest priority.

Once in the lab, mussel larvae glow under cross polarized light when viewed through a microscope. But so do many other creatures, so suspected glowing samples then go on for more analysis.

Its a process of elimination, Ryce said.

At inspection stations where adult mussels or other invasives are the target, crews take photos and send them to Schmidt or other supervisors for identification.

Of the 9,000 boats already inspected this year, five have been found with adult mussels. None of the 100 water samples have tested positive, however, mussels reproduce as water warms.

Enforcement is also a major component of the AIS program. With stopping for inspection mandatory, wardens have prioritized compliance, which can include stopping those who drive-by, said Warden Sgt. Justin Hawkaluk.

We had a pretty significant presence when we first got rolling here, he said of Canyon Ferry. We take both a reactive and proactive approach, but its been mostly proactive as we want to be out here talking to people with outreach and education because its a new status on the lake.

Compliance has been solid thus far, save for a few people who made their opposition to having to stop known.

The purchase of a $2 resident and $15 nonresident AIS stamp, part of the legislative funding bill, also ruffled a few feathers as it was required retroactively for those who already purchased a fishing license.

Legislators were there to ask questions and raised several concerns with the new program.

Former legislator and current EQC public member John Brenden asked how FWP was protecting eastern Montana, particularly the thousands of boats coming from out of state to Fort Peck.

Woolf said FWP is working to improve inspections in the area, but its tough.

Theres a lot of space between boat ramp locations and people can get into the state a lot of different ways. We cant have inspectors everywhere and its a very complicated issue were dealing with trying to determine risk and find the best way to address it.

Lawmakers had similar questions about boats coming from Canada including those that entering through cross-border waters.

Rep. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula, asked about sea planes as a potential vector of transporting AIS and an apparent hole in the inspection program.

Thats an issue across the West thats a challenge to address because we have the authority to inspect them, but how do we do it? Woolf said.

Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, who carried the main funding bill, had a number of questions and concerns. He asked that field staff be notified about the results of suspicious inspections and that signage be made permanent -- an apparently complicated task when it comes to complying with Montana Department of Transportation regulations, according to staff.

A major concern for Vincent was the frustration he hears particularly from outfitters in his part of the state that must continually stop at the check stations. Both Tiber and Canyon Ferry have so-called local boater decals in which boaters may expedite inspections if they only operate on either reservoir.

Vincent asked if the program could be expanded, giving boaters on other water bodies the local boater option and expediting inspections.

Woolf replied that this season was not an option, but expanding local boater is a plan for next year.

Along with FWPs inspection stations, DNRCs Stephanie Hester detailed the work of the states Invasive Species Advisory Council. Established in 2014, the council built a response framework that finished in time to inform the mussel rapid response team last year.

Action by the legislature put the council into statute, and it will continue to engage the many agencies and entities impacted by AIS, she said.

Collaboration is a big charge of the new invasive species program at DNRC, Hester said.
By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - At least 22 people have been killed in three days of fighting in a town in southeastern Central African Republic, a member of parliament from the area and a local journalist said on Friday. The clashes between armed Fulani herders and militia fighters in Zemio, about 1,000 km (620 miles) east of the capital Bangui, began on Wednesday. Heavy gunfire continued the following day and into Friday. Thousands have died and a fifth of Central Africans have fled their homes in a conflict that broke out after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias. The trigger for this week's violence was not immediately clear. The Fulani herders involved in the fighting were believed to be associated with the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC), a group that belonged to the now disbanded Seleka coalition and which some experts say could be taking advantage of a security vacuum in the region. "Already on June 28 there were 22 dead, but things have evolved through yesterday and there are several other people burnt inside houses where it's not possible to have access," lawmaker Dalou Wamboli told Reuters. Wamboli was speaking in Bangui but had remained in contact with constituents in Zemio during the violence until telephone connections were cut. He then reached residents who fled to neighboring towns with phone access. Albert Stanislas Koumbobacko, a journalist from Zemio who was also in contact via phone with residents who fled, confirmed the death toll of 22. The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday that around 1,000 people had fled this week's violence. "Many are seeking refuge in a Catholic church in the town, while some 66 people have sought safety in the UNHCR compound  among them terrified women and children in fear of their lives," it said in a statement. A spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, confirmed the clashes and said it had sent additional troops to the area, but had no information on casualties. Thirteen of Central African Republic's 14 armed groups signed a peace deal this month calling for a ceasefire, but violence has continued. In addition to homegrown armed groups, the country has for decades held rebels from Chad, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. Ugandan troops, backed by U.S. special forces, were deployed to the southeast to track members of the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army, a cult-like rebel group headed by Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court. Those forces are withdrawing, however, which some observers fear will create a security vacuum. Ugandan troops pulled out of Zemio earlier this year. "We were concerned the withdrawal would embolden Seleka fighters to move into areas they once feared to tread," Lewis Mudge, Africa researcher with Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. "The conflict has arrived in Zemio and it very well could spread to towns that, until now, had been spared." (Additional reporting by Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva; Additional reporting and writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Edward McAllister and Alison Williams)
Mika Brzezinski waits for an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinksi and Joe Scarborough have responded to Donald Trumps scathing tweets about them by accusing the President of being unwell

We have known Mr. Trump for more than a decade and have some fond memories of our relationship together, the MSNBC hosts wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. But that hasnt stopped us from criticising his abhorrent behaviour or worrying about his fitness.

The President had criticised the journalists coverage of him in a tweetstorm the day before, referring to them as low I.Q. Crazy Mika, and Psycho Joe. He also accused the pair of insisting on joining him at his South Florida estate around New Years Eve, adding that Ms Brzezinski was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time.

The tweets set off a chorus of condemnation from politicians on either side of the aisle  and from Ms Brzezinski and Mr Scarborough themselves.

Americas leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president, they wrote. We have our doubts, but we are both certain that the man is not mentally equipped to continue watching our show.

The journalists then gave their own version of the events around New Years Eve, claiming they did not insist on visiting the President-Elect, but reluctantly accepted his invitation to stop by. Mr Trump then invited them to his New Years Eve party, the hosts said, and they declined.

...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017

The pair also felt obligated to clear up the accusations around Ms Brzezinskis supposed cosmetic surgery, saying she had not had a facelift but instead had a little skin under her chin tweaked. The accusation that she was bleeding badly, they said, was a lie.

Story continues

In fact, the hosts wrote, Mr Trumps insults about Ms Brzezinskis appearance play into a larger trend of the President's continued mistreatment of women.

From his menstruation musings about Megyn Kelly, to his fat-shaming treatment of a former Miss Universe, to his braggadocious claims about grabbing womens genitalia, the 45th president is setting the poorest of standards for our children, they wrote.

The piece also includes a none-too-subtle plea to the Mr Trumps daughter, Ivanka, and wife, Melania, to condemn the President's behaviour.

It would be the height of hypocrisy to claim the mantle of womens empowerment while allowing a family member to continue such abusive conduct, they wrote.

Mr Scarborough and Ms Brzezinksi have maintained a close  but tumultuous  relationship with Mr Trump over the years. The relationship started out friendly, with the hosts inviting Mr Trump to speak on their show several times at the beginning of his campaign. But it began to sour when Mr Scarborough suggested Mr Trump could not win the presidential election  a statement Mr Trump quickly contested on Twitter.

The hosts, who claim to have spoken at length with Mr Trumps top aides, have since turned to excoriating Mr Trump on-air, calling him a fake president and accusing him of lying every day and destroying the country.

Earlier this year, the hosts claimed in their article, top White House officials retaliated by threatening to run a negative National Enquirer story about them if they did not beg the President to cancel it. The hosts said they declined.

Mr Trump took to Twitter on Friday morning to refute this version of events, claiming Mr Scarborough had called him to stop the article.

I said no! the President tweeted. Bad show.

The hosts however, concluded their piece by saying they do not take the attacks personally. Instead, they said, they continue to worry about the Presidents mental state.

The Donald Trump we knew before the campaign was a flawed character, they wrote, but one who still seemed capable of keeping his worst instincts in check.
Mosul (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraq will declare victory over the Islamic State group in Mosul during the "next few days," a senior commander said Friday, as the jihadists fell back in neighbouring Syria.

IS, which declared a cross-border "caliphate" encompassing swathes of Iraq and Syria three years ago, is now facing twin offensives in Mosul and Raqa, its two most emblematic strongholds.

But while the loss of the two cities would be a major blow to IS, it would not mark the end of the threat posed by the group, which is likely to return to insurgent-style attacks that were its hallmark in years past.

"In the next few days, we will announce the final victory over Daesh," Staff Lieutenant General Abdulghani al-Assadi, a senior commander in the elite Counter-Terrorism Service, told AFP in Mosul, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

However, there has often been a gap between the declaration of victory and the actual end of fighting in a given area in the course of Iraq's multi-year war against IS.

Iraqi forces launched the gruelling battle for Mosul on October 17, advancing to the city and retaking its eastern side before setting their sights on the smaller but more densely populated west, where IS still holds limited territory.

Assadi estimated that there are between 200 and 300 IS fighters left in the city, most of them foreigners.

His remarks on victory in Mosul came as IS withdrew from a series of villages in Syria's Aleppo province where President Bashar al-Assad's forces are advancing.

"IS withdrew from 17 towns and villages and is now effectively outside of Aleppo province after having a presence there for four years," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Regime forces had been advancing through a sliver of southeastern Aleppo province around a key highway linking Hama province to the southwest and Raqa province further east.

A Syrian military source in rural Aleppo confirmed the withdrawal.

Story continues

- IS escape route cut -

"The military operation is ongoing and Daesh withdrew from the Aleppan countryside towards rural territory in Hama and Raqa," the source told AFP.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are also fighting to retake Raqa, IS's de facto capital in the country.

On Thursday, they cut off IS's last escape route, trapping the jihadists inside the city.

"The SDF has been able to completely encircle Raqa," Abdel Rahman said.

The SDF broke into Raqa on June 6 after spending months chipping away at jihadist territory around the city.

Its fighters have since captured two eastern and two western districts of the city and are pushing towards its centre, where IS fighters are holding tens of thousands of civilians.

Around 2,500 jihadists are fighting in the city, according to British Major General Rupert Jones, a coalition deputy commander.

In Mosul, Iraqi forces captured the iconic Nuri mosque on Thursday, the site where IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only known public appearance in 2014, calling on Muslims worldwide to obey him.

IS blew up the mosque and the famed Al-Hadba (hunchback) leaning minaret last week as Iraqi forces closed in.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi hailed the recapture of the mosque as a sign of IS's impending defeat.

"We are seeing the end of the fake Daesh state," Abadi said in an English statement on his Twitter account.

The US-led coalition against the jihadists also said that the end of the battle was near.

Speaking about an announcement of Mosul's recapture, coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said that: "I can't put a timeline on that for them, but I see it closer to days than a week or weeks."

He praised the Iraqi forces's "grit and determination" and said coalition support would help bring "an imminent liberation".

The end of the battle will usher in a whole new set of challenges for Iraq, including retribution against residents of the city suspected of having IS ties -- an issue highlighted by the UN rights office on Friday.

"We are seeing an alarming rise in threats, specifically of forced evictions, against those suspected of being (IS) members or whose relatives are alleged to be involved with (IS)," spokesman Rupert Colville said.
InfoWars is no stranger to controversy, as its far-right talking head Alex Jones has regularly entertained even the most fringe conspiracy theories on the program for years. A recent segment of InfoWars  which airs on 118 nationwide stations  purported that there was a sex slave colony of kidnapped children living on Mars. NASA, for its part, disagreed.

The Daily Beast reached a NASA representative for comment in its Thursday report on the bizarre rumor broached by Jones guest, Robert David Steele, during the Thursday episode of InfoWars. Guy Webster, a spokesperson for Mars exploration at NASA, told the Daily Beast that the claim was  as many likely suspected  unfounded.

There are no humans on Mars. There are active rovers on Mars. There was a rumor going around last week that there werent. There are, he said. But there are no humans.

Read: Mars Curiosity: Conspiracy Theorists Rejoice Over NASA Photos Of Spaceship And Bones

Jones was interviewing Steele, a former CIA clandestine officer, about pedophilia allegations in the Catholic Church before the Mars colony was mentioned, which happened roughly 4 minutes into a 5-minute clip shared to the Alex Jones Channel on YouTube.

This may strike your listeners as way out, but we actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20 year ride, Steele began. So that once they get to Mars they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony. Theres all kinds of

Look, I know that 90 percent of the NASA missions are secret and Ive been told by high-level NASA engineers that you have no idea, there is so much stuff going on, Jones replied. But then it goes off into all that, thats the kind of thing media jumps on. But I know this: We see a bunch of mechanical wreckage on Mars and people say, Oh look, it looks like mechanics. They go, Oh, youre a conspiracy theorist. Clearly, they dont want us looking into what is happening. Every time probes go over they turn them off.

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Alex, youre one of the most original guys on the air, and you asked what you should do. I think you should be the truth channel in America, Steele said before moving off topic.

Jones replied, Well I dont know about Mars bases, but I know theyve created massive, thousands of different types of chimeras that are alien lifeforms on this earth now.

Read: Megyn Kelly Confronts Alex Jones On Sandy Hook Shooting Claims

Jones has been the subject of public scrutiny for his conspiracy theories on more than a few occasions, perhaps most notably for his position that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut in 2012 was a hoax. The shooting resulted in the deaths of 20 young children and six adults.

Jones was recently the subject of a controversial profile by newly minted NBC News host Megyn Kelly. During the interview conducted by Kelly, Jones doubled down on his controversial position on the event.

"Some of it looks like it's real but then what do you do when they've got the kids going in circles in and out of the building with their hands up. I've watched the footage. That looks like a drill," he said.

Mars

Photo: Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images

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Paris (AFP) - Three non-governmental associations said Thursday that they had filed a lawsuit against BNP Paribas accusing the bank of "complicity" in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda.

The groups accuse the French bank of financing the purchase of "80 tonnes of arms used to carry out genocide" by the Hutu regime, even though "the bank had to have known the genocidal intentions of the country's authorities."

BNP authorised the transfer of $1.3 million (1.1 million euros at current rates) to the regime in June 1994, one month after the United Nations had placed an embargo on weapons deliveries to Rwanda, the groups said in a statement.

They accuse the bank of "complicity in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity".

A spokesman for the bank told AFP it could not comment on the claims, saying it did not yet have "sufficient details".

The groups allege that BNP authorised the transfer of the money that was held by Rwanda's national bank (BNR) to an account held at Swiss bank UBP by Willem Tertius Ehlers, a South African intermediary who owned an arms-dealing brokerage called Delta Aero.

The four-month genocide led to the massacre of about 800,000 people, mostly from Rwanda's Tutsi minority.

The lawsuit was filed in France by Sherpa, which defends victims of economic crimes; Ibuka France, a Rwanda victims' association; and the France-based Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda, which pursues claims against genocide suspects.

Kigali has repeatedly accused Paris of having a hand in the genocide and of being slow to prosecute some of its kingpins living in France.
BILLINGS  U.S. Sen. Jon Tester encouraged Republican lawmakers who backed away from the Senate GOP health care bill this week to follow through by voting against it after the July 4 break.

Tester, a Democrat, said during a stop at Riverstone Health in Billings that the GOP opposition that resulted in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dropping plans for a vote this week wasnt enough.

The Senate GOPs Better Care Reconciliation Act, written to repeal much of the President Barack Obamas 2010 Affordable Care Act, should be scrapped Tester said.

Since the ACAs 2010 creation without GOP support, Republicans have vowed to replace it, objecting to the ACA mandate that all Americans buy health insurance and that states be empowered to extend Medicaid to the working poor. In Montana, 79,000 workers earning $16,400 a year, equal to 138 percent federal poverty level, now have Medicaid under ACA provisions.

Tester counted himself among Democrats willing to work with Republicans to fix the ACA if the GOP health care bill fails.

Only 17 percent of Americans are in favor of this bill. Its hardly a profile in courage for these senators to voice opposition now, but it will be important for them to follow through with a no vote, Tester said. Opposition should not be based on popularity and party. Folks should oppose this bill because its irresponsible. It doesnt address the real problem of higher premiums and deductibles for the folks that arent getting subsidies.

Tester emphasized that if the Senate GOPs health care bill passes, thousands of Montanans will lose coverage, primarily through cuts to Medicaid. The number of people nationwide to lose health coverage under the Senate majority plan is estimated to be 22 million by the Congressional Budget Office.

Montanans older than 50 will face higher rates adjusted to reflect the costs of their health care needs. Tester called the higher rates for Montanans age 50-plus an age tax."

Medicaid provided to low-income veterans, who in some cases choose the option when Veterans health care benefits arent offered close to home, would also face cuts, Tester said.

All of this will happen so some D.C. politicians can fulfill a bumper sticker campaign promise, Tester said, and cut taxes for the wealthiest of the wealthy in our country.

The senator was flanked by members of Riverstone Health, Yellowstone Countys community health center, the largest of its kind in Montana with roughly 20,000 patients. Half of Riverstones patients rely on Medicaid. The cuts to Medicaid spelled out in the Senate GOP bill would result in tough decisions for Riverstone, said John Felton, the health centers president and CEO.

Medicaid cuts, spread over seven years, equate to a $5.3 billion cut in federal funding for Montana, according to a study commissioned by the Montana Healthcare Foundation.

The Montana Healthcare Foundation was created in 2013, and came into existence as a result of the sale of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana to a private corporation. In accordance with state law, the assets were transferred to a charitable trust to be managed for public benefit.

There are only three ways to deal with less Medicaid money, Felton said. You can reduce eligibility, you can reduce benefits, or you can reduce payments to providers, all of which have the ultimate effect of decreasing access to health care services for our most at risk and vulnerable neighbors.

In the undercurrent of the GOP Senate bill debate, is the elimination of the Prevention and Public Health Trust Fund. The $900 million portion of the Centers for Disease Control budget is key to prevention programs in Montana, where the trust fund has provided $23 million on prevention activities like diabetes prevention and immunizations.

We all understand the need to reduce the overall cost of health care. Prevention is unquestionably the best way to do so in the long term, Felton said.

Nurses are concerned that the removal of health care mandates baked into the Affordable Care Act will result in states dropping important care requirements, said Vicky Byrd, Montana Nurses Association executive director. Byrd said essential services are at risk.

Whos ever needed prescription drugs, hospitalization, pediatric services, laboratory services, rehabilitative services preventive wellness, ER visits, pregnancy and maternity? Byrd said. And probably the most important essential health care benefit needed as we battle the opioid and other addiction crisis, is the mental health and substance abuse services, which includes behavioral health treatment.

Montanas Republican senator, Steve Daines, has said hes undecided on how he will vote on his partys health care bill. Daines wanted to wait until after hearing from Montanans before making a decision. He set those terms June 22, the day the BCRA was released to the Senate. The contents of the bill, crafted by 13 Republican lawmakers behind closed doors, had not been fully known until last week.

Daines, much like Tester in the year leading up to the passage of the Democrats health care reform bill, has limited the opportunities for opponents of BCRA to confront him face to face. However, he has conducted call-in town hall meetings with 30,000 to 40,000 people dialed in to participate.

Tester, has advocated for the Affordable Care Act through in-person town hall meetings more in the last six months than he did in the year before the bill became law. Conservative opponents to the ACA, who were sure to protest at public meetings in 2009, have been nonexistent as the senators defends the ACA this year.

Tester said the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, has earned support as people learn what it does.

Its about the benefits. People can see the benefits now, where before it was air, Tester said.

Tester said he is willing to work with Republicans on a health care reform bill.

What we ought to focus on is what isnt working and I dont think its any big mystery, Tester said. Ive had listening sessions all over the state and weve heard concerns from docs and hospital administrators, patients, citizens, about the cost of premiums and the high deductible that goes with them, both in the individual exchange, particularly in the small business component and I think theres an opportunity to get folks together in a bipartisan way and discuss that without throwing 77,000 Montanans, or 22 million Americans, off of policies.
Madrid (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of revellers young and old danced, cheered and partied on the rainbow streets of Madrid Saturday in the world's biggest march for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.

Carried along by the slogan "Viva la vida!" (Live life!), drag queens, policemen, activists and politicians made their way through the centre in celebration of sexual diversity and in defence of LGBT people the world over, under the watchful eye of security forces.

Young people mixed with parents and their kids to cheer on as the noise of hovering helicopters blended in with the drums of the march, with onlookers wearing outfits as varied as regular shorts and t-shirts, tight swimwear and sailor uniforms.

Diana Vanegas, a 30-year-old Colombian who lives in California, was on holiday in Spain with her husband and her toddler daughter, who sat in a push chair waving a mini rainbow-coloured flag.

"She doesn't know what the flag represents... but she has to respect people for what they are and not judge them because of their sexuality," Vanegas said.

As night started to fall and the last marchers made their way through the crowds, police pushed people back and set up barriers to create a larger space along the route and open the road for a parade of 52 floats.

And the party really got started.

Opening the procession was a fire engine with firefighters in gear egging the cheering, whistling crowd on, followed by a slow-moving, music-blaring convoy of open trucks and double-decker buses.

Sponsored by entities as varied as LGBT rights groups, Spain's Socialist party or music streaming site Spotify, the floats all had one thing in common -- their occupants danced hard, so hard that their vehicle sometimes swayed from one side to the other.

Authorities and organisers were expecting one to two million people to attend the parade in the 3.1-million-strong Spanish capital, which has become a global reference in LGBT openness.

Story continues

So far, Madrid city hall had no official count but said "hundreds of thousands" were on the streets of the Spanish capital, drinking and laughing along the way or standing on lampposts to get a better view.

- 'Political' message -

Beyond the fiesta and glitz of an event accused of becoming too commercial, organisers said it was "a political demonstration."

Pablo Iglesias, leader of far-left party Podemos, and Albert Rivera, head of the centre-right grouping Ciudadanos, were part of the demonstration earlier on in the day, where people held banners in support of those persecuted in other countries, or more generally urging greater tolerance.

Forty years after Spain's gay community started to march for its rights in Barcelona, the country is now held up as an example of LGBT acceptance.

But it wasn't always so.

During the nearly 40-year reign of dictator Francisco Franco -- whose rule was blessed by the church in Roman Catholic Spain -- homosexual acts were illegal and thousands of gays were shipped off to rehabilitation centres, or even jailed.

Spain emerged from Franco's conservatism in the late 1970s into an exuberant era of liberal reforms and social freedom, with director Pedro Almodovar breaking ground with openly gay and trans characters in his films.

In 2005, Spain became the third country after the Netherlands and Belgium to legalise same-sex marriage.

- 'Disgusting and inexcusable' -

But further afield, the picture is not so rosy.

According to the ILGA, an international LGBT association, intercourse between people of the same sex is still illegal in 72 countries.

The death penalty, meanwhile, is implemented in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, in parts of Nigeria and Somalia, and in territory controlled by the Islamic state group.

Jonathan Franklin, a 35-year-old pilot who is half Australian, half Dutch, was dancing in the march with his boyfriend, alongside gay friends from Pakistan and Cuba.

"We have to fight for our rights together," he said.

"In Holland, we can get married but do you know that in Australia, we are still fighting to obtain gay marriage? Surprising isn't it! Disgusting and inexcusable."

The WorldPride parade took place against a background of high tension across Europe, hit by a string of attacks, and thousands of police, firefighters and other security agents were mobilised for the event.

Traffic restrictions, bag searches and mobile medical units were also in place.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday approved a six-month delay in allowing transgender recruits to join the U.S. armed forces, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement that Mattis accepted a recommendation to defer transgender applicants until Jan. 1.

The Pentagon ended its ban on openly transgender people serving in the U.S. military in 2016 under the Barack Obama administration. It was expected to start allowing transgender people to begin enlisting this year, provided they had been "stable" in their preferred gender for 18 months.

A delay under President Donald Trump's administration alarmed transgender advocates.

"We are disappointed in this needless delay because the thousands of highly trained and qualified transgender service members openly and proudly serving our nation today have proven that what matters is the ability to accomplish the mission, not their gender identity," Stephen Peters of the Human Rights Campaign said in a statement.

Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter cited a study by the RAND Corporation saying there were about 2,500 transgender active-duty service members and 1,500 reserve transgender service members.

Rand's figures were within a range, which at the upper end reached 7,000 active duty forces and 4,000 reserves.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Writing by Eric Walsh; Editing by Bill Trott)
A Pentagon report released Wednesday warns of a rising military threat from Russia and says the Kremlin believes the United States is seeking regime change, an assertion that could color the already fraught relationship between the two powers.

The Defense Intelligence Agencys 116-page report, Russia Military Power: Building a Military to Support Great Power Aspirations, sketches a picture of a Russia that sees itself in opposition to the United States and with a leadership that harbors a strong desire to make the country again the prominent power it was during the Cold War era.

The Kremlin is convinced the United States is laying the groundwork for regime change in Russia, the report says. Moscow started worrying about Washingtons hand in regime change during the so-called Color Revolutions in Eastern Europe in the early 2000s. Russia also sees the United States as responsible for the Arab Spring revolutions of 2010 and 2011, and the ousting of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

The report comes at a time when the U.S. government is torn on how to handle the rising threat from Russia. While President Donald Trump has sung the praises of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and while he is reportedly preparing concessions to make to Moscow before his first meeting with Putin, Congress has chosen a different and much tougher tack. The Senate recently passed legislation that would slap new sanctions on the Kremlin and make it harder for the White House to roll back sanctions on its own.

The intelligence community, judging by the report, sees less optimism for improved relations. Moscow worries that U.S. attempts to dictate a set of acceptable international norms threatens the foundations of Kremlin power by giving license for foreign meddling in Russias internal affairs, the report says.

The idea that Russia anticipates the United States will attempt to topple the Kremlins leadership tinges diplomatic relations between the two countries with suspicion.

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Russia has long been wary of U.S. involvement in regime change. Putin ran for president in 2012 in part because he was unhappy that then-President Dmitry Medvedev teamed up with the United States to effect regime change in Libya. Putin also blamed then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for instigating widespread protests in late 2011.

Similarly, Russia has alleged that the United States orchestrated the protests in Kiev in late 2013 that ultimately ousted the pro-Kremlin Yanukovych, who allegedly asked Russia to intervene in Crimea.

The Defense Intelligence Agency also notes a staggering increase in Russian defense spending that has reached a post-Soviet record.

Though the 2016 defense budget was set to decline, a late bump brought the total amount to $61 billion, according to the report. Thats more than double the annual defense budget of $27 billion for 2006, though still just one-tenth of U.S. defense spending.

It remains unclear whether House Republican leadership will endorse the Senate-backed sanctions amendment, and the White House has already attempted to water it down. Plenty of European governments have reacted furiously to the Senate move, which would unilaterally broaden economic sanctions on Moscow and could affect European companies doing business with Russia.

Despite the White Houses strange affinity for Moscow, U.S. government institutions continue to take Russia seriously, belatedly giving credence to former presidential candidate Mitt Romneys much-maligned claim that Russia is Americas main geopolitical threat.

Speaking to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and a former State Department official in the George W. Bush administration, said the Obama and Trump administrations failed to appropriately respond to Russias meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

President Trump has taken no action whatsoever, and thats irresponsible, Burns said. He added that President Barack Obama should have retaliated more vigorously.

Russia is our most dangerous adversary in the world today, Burns said.

Photo credit: OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images
Rodrigo Duterte ends his first year as Philippine president on Friday as a hugely popular leader, after taking Filipinos on a promised "rough ride" of drug war killings and foreign policy U-turns.

Duterte has been heavily criticised for his unprecedented crackdown on drugs, which has claimed thousands of lives, and he marks 12 months in office enduring the biggest crisis of his rule as Islamist militants occupy parts of a southern city.

The 72-year-old has also upended decades of foreign policy stability, launching verbal bombs against traditional ally the United States while steering the Philippines closer to authoritarian regimes in China and Russia.

Yet an overwhelming majority of Filipinos support him, according to a series of surveys by pollsters over the past 12 months, with the most recent one showing 75 percent were satisfied with his administration's performance.

"People like the man," Ricardo Abad, head of sociology and anthropology at Ateneo University in Manila, told AFP, referring to Duterte's decisive leadership style.

"People may disagree with his policies, or are maybe ambivalent towards them, but because they like him, people will tend to give him the benefit of the doubt."

Many people overseas know Duterte for his apparent joy in prosecuting his drug war -- he said he was "happy to slaughter" millions of addicts -- as well as gutter language in which critics are frequently called "sons of whores".

But many Filipinos look past the crass talk and see a down-to-earth, anti-establishment figure who empathises with their struggles and is willing to take extreme actions to make dramatic change across all sectors of society.

"He brought an entirely new style of leadership, which people probably thought we needed," Edmund Tayao, a political science professor at the University of Santo Tomas, told AFP.

- Rough ride -

In his inauguration speech, Duterte typically sought not to sugarcoat his plans for the Philippines.

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"The ride will be rough. But come join me just the same," Duterte said.

The roughest part of the ride had for most of the past year been his crackdown on drugs.

Police killed 3,171 drug suspects, according to official figures.

Unknown assailants killed another 2,098 people in drug-related crimes, while there were 8,200 more murders with no known motive, according to the police.

Rights groups and other critics warned Duterte may be orchestrating a crime against humanity, alleging he had unleashed corrupt police and vigilante death squads on a campaign of mass murder.

Duterte had made the drug war the top focus of his presidency until May 23, when gunmen rampaged through the southern city of Marawi flying black flags of the Islamic State group.

He immediately imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines, home to roughly 20 million people, to quell what he said was an IS bid to establish a local caliphate.

But despite a relentless bombing campaign backed by the United States, Duterte's military has been unable to dislodge the militants. The fighting has claimed more than 400 lives, according to the government, and it shows no signs of ending.

- Super majority -

Another example of Duterte's popularity is his "super majority" in the lower house of congress, where there are just seven opposition members in the 296-member chamber.

Even one of the opposition lawmakers, Edcel Lagman, offered grudging praise this week.

"Despite his unpresidential demeanour, profane language, abusive rhetoric and flawed policy statements, President Rodrigo Duterte, in his own inscrutable way, has held the nation together," he said.

But Lagman said, with Duterte's promises of "change" yet to become reality, his popularity had started to slide.

If that is happening, Duterte's "super majority" could fall apart.

In the Philippines, lawmakers from parties across the political spectrum typically flock to a popular president in the early stages of his or her term.

But the politicians, driven by self-interest rather than ideology, have also in the past quickly jumped off the bandwagon when approval ratings dropped.
Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell said Thursday that he would return to Australia to try to clear his name after becoming the most senior Catholic cleric to be charged with criminal offences linked to the Church's long-running sexual abuse scandal.

Pell was ordered to appear on July 18 at court in Melbourne for a preliminary hearing on multiple sexual assault charges related to offences allegedly committed decades ago, when he was a senior cleric in his homeland.

Pope Francis granted Pell a leave of absence, making it clear the cardinal would not be forced to resign his post as head of the Vatican's powerful economic ministry.

Claiming he had been the victim of a campaign of "relentless character assassination", Pell vowed to beat the charges and return to work in Rome.

"I am looking forward finally to having my day in court. I am innocent of these charges," the 76-year-old said. "They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me."

In a supportive statement, the Vatican noted Francis's respect for the Australian's "honesty" and "energetic dedication" to his work on Church financial reform.

"The Holy See expresses its respect for the Australian justice system that will have to decide the merits of the questions raised," the statement said.

"Cardinal Pell has openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable the acts of abuse committed against minors; has cooperated in the past with Australian authorities... and finally, as a diocesan bishop in Australia, has introduced systems and procedures both for the protection of minors and to provide assistance to victims of abuse."

But Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of clerical sex abuse, said Francis should never have appointed Pell, given his failure to address abuses carried out by priests under his charge.

While Pell deserves to benefit from the presumption of innocence over his own conduct, "it has been proved he is guilty of the appalling mishandling of cases of abuse when still in place in Australia and causing untold pain to the victims in those cases," Collins wrote on her blog.

Story continues

- Multiple complainants -

Vatican watchers said it was unlikely Pell would ever return to his post given the time it will likely take for his case to come to trial and be completed.

The cardinal is already a year past the age at which Holy See employees are supposed to retire and suffers from a heart condition.

Pell was missing from a mass Francis gave for five new cardinals on Thursday and will not appear at any public events in Rome before his departure for Australia, the Vatican confirmed.

Police in the Australian state of Victoria said Pell had been charged with "historical sexual assault offences".

Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said there were "multiple complainants" but provided no details as to the precise nature of the charges, or the age of the alleged victims.

A lawyer for two unidentified men who had made abuse claims against Pell said they were "over the moon".

"It's been very difficult for them to stick their neck out," the lawyer, Ingrid Irwin, told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper. "To come out against someone who is second to God, in some people's minds, has caused all sorts of problems for them."

SNAP, a US-based network of survivors of clerical abuse, praised the Australian authorities' action.

"We hope it will inspire other countries to follow in their footsteps," spokeswoman Joelle Casteix said. "Sexual abuse thrives when it is allowed to flourish in secrecy."

- 'Mucked up' -

The announcement of the charges against Pell coincided with the final stages of Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, ordered in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate widespread allegations of institutional paedophilia.

The commission has spoken to thousands of survivors and heard claims of child abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools.

Pell appeared before the commission three times, once in person and twice via video-link from Rome. In one hearing, he admitted that he "mucked up" in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria state in the 1970s.

The Pell charges stem from investigations by a police task force into allegations emanating from the Royal Commission and from a state parliamentary inquiry.

The commission said in February that seven percent of Catholic priests were accused of abusing children in Australia between 1950 and 2010 but that the allegations were never investigated.

It found that 4,444 alleged incidents of paedophilia were reported to church authorities and, in some dioceses, more than 15 percent of priests were perpetrators.

Widespread abuse has also been uncovered in recent decades in other countries with large Catholic communities, badly tarnishing the standing of the Church in Ireland and North America in particular.

Francis came to office four years ago promising zero tolerance and an end to Church cover-ups of the kind portrayed in "Spotlight" the 2015 Oscar-winning drama about the Boston Globe's exposure of unpunished abuse in its local diocese in the early noughties.

But critics say he has made little headway, leaving the Church still reluctant to hand paedophile priests over to civilian authorities.
Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis has dismissed the church's chief of doctrine Cardinal Gerhard Mueller -- one of the most powerful cardinals at the Vatican -- and appointed a Spanish Archbishop to the role, the Vatican said Saturday.

German conservative Mueller, 69, who served a five-year posting as head of the powerful department responsible for church doctrine, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), had clashed with the pope over key reform issues.

He was one of several cardinals who questioned Francis's determination for the Catholic Church to take a softer line on people traditionally seen as "sinners", including remarried divorced people who want to take Communion.

Mueller had also been caught up in the controversy surrounding the Church's response to the clerical sex abuse scandal after his department was accused earlier this year of obstructing Francis's efforts to stop internal cover-ups of abuse.

The Vatican said Mueller's five-year term would not be renewed and he would be replaced by CDF Secretary Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, a 73-year-old Spaniard.
Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis has dismissed the church's chief of doctrine, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller -- one of the most powerful cardinals at the Vatican -- and appointed a Spanish archbishop to the role, the Vatican said Saturday.

German conservative Mueller, 69, who served a five-year posting as head of the powerful department responsible for church doctrine, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), had clashed with the pope over key reform issues.

He was one of several cardinals who questioned Francis's determination for the Catholic Church to take a softer line on people traditionally seen as "sinners", including remarried divorced people who want to take communion.

Mueller had also been caught up in the controversy surrounding the church's response to the clerical sex abuse scandal after his department was accused of obstructing Francis's efforts to stop internal cover-ups of abuse.

"In space of three days, two leading Vatican cardinals out of their posts," said Vatican watcher Christopher Lamb, after Vatican finance chief George Pell was charged with historical sexual assault this week.

The Vatican said Mueller's five-year term would not be renewed and he would be replaced by CDF secretary Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, a 73-year-old Spaniard.

Ladaria was appointed to the CDF by former Pope Benedict in 2008, and was asked last year by Francis to head up a new papal commission studying the possibility of having women deacons in the Church.

- 'Neither angel, nor pope' -

Francis may not have liked the Mueller's "excessive media exposure" and "interventions... that almost always sounded like he was distancing himself from the pope", Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli wrote in the Vatican Insider.

The German was dragged into the row over Francis's attempt to shift Church attitudes after the pope intimated last year that some believers who have remarried should be able to take communion.

Story continues

Traditionalists were horrified; Roman Catholic marriage is for life, so divorcing your first partner and marrying someone else is considered adultery.

Four conservative cardinals accused the pope of sowing confusion and publicly demanded an answer to "doubts" about family guidelines Francis published in April. The pontiff has yet to respond.

Mueller said the cardinals were within their rights to challenge the guidelines and in February said marriage was a "sacrament, and no power in heaven or on earth, neither an angel, nor the pope... has the faculty to change it".

- Singled out -

In March a prominent church reform group called for Mueller's resignation after accusations that senior officials had wilfully ignored Fancis's decision to create a new tribunal to judge bishops who cover up sexual abuse.

Irish survivor of abuse Marie Collins, who quit the pope's commission on the protection of minors in disgust, singled out Mueller's ministry, which is in charge of the clerical abuse dossier.

The German cardinal retorted in an open letter that the tribunal had only been a "project" which Vatican departments felt would needlessly duplicate initiatives already in place to deal with wayward bishops.

Mueller is six years short of the traditional retiring age. The Vatican did not say what his next appointment might be.

His dismissal comes at the end of a turbulent week in the heartland of the Roman Catholic faith, following the charges of sexual offences brought against the Vatican finance chief on Thursday.

The Australian cardinal, 76, was granted a leave of absence by the pope to defend his name after he became the most senior Catholic cleric to be charged with criminal offences linked to the Church's long-running sexual abuse scandal.
By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - Demands made of Qatar by four other Arab states were designed to be rejected, Doha's foreign minister said on Saturday, explaining that their ultimatum was aimed not at tackling terrorism but at curtailing his country's sovereignty. However Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, speaking to reporters in Rome, added Doha was still ready to sit down and discuss the grievances raised by its Arab neighbors. He was speaking ahead of a deadline set by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt for Doha to accept 13 demands. Officials say they are aimed at ending a rift that erupted last month over accusations that Qatar supports terrorism, charges it denies. "This list of demands is made to be rejected. It's not meant to be accepted or ... to be negotiated," Sheikh Mohammed said, adding that Qatar was willing to engage in further dialogue given "the proper conditions". The demands included severing ties with terrorist groups, closing down the pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite channel, downgrading ties with arch-rival Iran and closing a Turkish air base in Qatar. Arab states have said the demands are not negotiable and warned that further unspecified measures will follow if Qatar does not comply. But Sheikh Mohammed was adamant. "Regarding the demands and our position, we have been from the beginning very clear on this. We are not going to accept anything that infringes on our sovereignty or anything that is imposed on Qatar," he said. INTERNATIONAL LAW Qatari officials have repeatedly said the demands are so draconian that they suspect the four countries never seriously intended to negotiate on them and were instead seeking to hobble Doha's sovereignty. Asked if he feared any military moves, he said his country was not afraid but believed that wisdom would prevail. "International law should not be violated and there is a border which should not be crossed," he said. He spoke after arriving from the United States. Washington is helping Kuwait, which has retained ties with Qatar, to mediate in the dispute.. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the news conference, he said that the demand by the Arab states that Qatar close the Turkish air base was "out of the question." NATO ally Turkey has backed Qatar in the dispute. "We are not going to retreat from any agreement we have already signed. We really appreciate the relationship we have with Turkey," he said. He also told the news conference Qatar would not shut down Al Jazeera, saying other Arab countries could start their own competing network if they wanted to. (Additional reporting by Sami Aboudi, William MacClean and Mostafa Hashem, Editing by Gareth Jones)
Missoula bail bondsman Brad Aipperspach received a deferred jail sentence Thursday and was ordered to take gun safety courses after being convicted of a misdemeanor for shooting at the car of a fleeing woman in East Missoula.

After a two-day trial earlier this month, Aipperspach was found guilty of misdemeanor negligent endangerment for an October 2015 incident where he fired a shotgun at the car of Tess Kovash, who he was attempting to capture.

The bondsman had bailed Kovash out of jail, then been told by her probation officer and another bondsman that she was likely to skip her next court appointment. He went out to East Missoula with a group of other men to try to get her, despite the sheriffs office declining to assist him and telling him it wasnt a good idea.

Kovash got in her car after the men arrived, driving through her gate and down the street. The bondsmans group had blocked off the road with their trucks, and it was disputed at trial whether Aipperspach fired at Kovashs tire after she went past them or when she reversed after seeing she was trapped.

In an interview with a detective after the shooting, Aipperspach said when he saw Kovash fleeing, he looked at it as his money driving away.

At his sentencing hearing Thursday, prosecutor Brittany Santorno requested a fine as well as a one-year jail sentence with all of the time suspended except 10 days, which she said could be completed in alternative jail or jail work.

Aipperspachs attorney Doug Marshall, who had already prepared the documents to appeal the case to the District Court level, said given a lack of criminal history his client was eligible for a deferred sentence.

Acting Justice of the Peace Thomas Orr agreed to the deferred sentence, but said the facts of the case had shocked him.

I think that but for the grace of God one of your posse or somebody in the community out there could have gotten hurt. That is just not acceptable to me, he said.

The deferred sentence means that if Aipperspach stays out of further trouble for the next year, he can ask for the conviction to be scrubbed from his record.

Orr ordered that Aipperspach also pay a $1,000 fine, but suspended a quarter of that under a condition that Aipperspach obtain 40 hours of gun safety training within the next three months.

I think there needs to be some sort of lesson learned here, he said.

Aipperspach also must pay for the cost of prosecution and the jury costs for his trial, which total just over $600. On agreement of both attorneys, Orrs sentence will not be imposed until after Aipperspachs appeal is completed.
Mike Flynn arrives for a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington: Evan Vucci/AP

A researcher who claimed to be linked to former national security adviser Mike Flynn, reportedly tried to access Hillary Clintons private emails during the 2016 presidential campaign

Peter W Smith, a long time operative with Donald Trump's Republican Party, assembled a team to look for approximately 33,000 emails that Ms Clinton said she deleted from her private email server.

The US leader challenged Russian hackers to uncover them during the campaign.

Mr Smith believed the emails had already been obtained by Russian hackers, and that they may provide evidence of wrongdoing by Ms Clinton.

He is also alleged to have told colleagues that he was working on behalf of Mr Flynn, who Aater just 23 days on the job, was forced to resign as national security adviser, over revelations that he had discussed lifting US sanctions on Russia with their ambassador to Washington, and that he lied to the US vice-president about that conversation.

He said, Im talking to Michael Flynn about thisif you find anything, can you let me know? Eric York, a computer-security expert who worked with Mr Smith told The Wall Street Journal.

Mr Smith also told hacker groups that he had a line of communication to Mr Flynn, and sent at least one email offering to make introductions to Mr Flynns son, the newspaper reported. He also said the younger Mr Flynn was aiding in his efforts.

The Republican operative further claimed that he had helped Mr Flynn in attempting to form relationships with Russian officials during the presidential transition period.

Mr Flynns extensive contacts with people inside both Russia and Turkey have made him a focus of ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

He has been subpoenaed to testify in front of the House intelligence committee, but is expected to plead the fifth.

US intelligence agencies have accused Russian operatives of accessing emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign workers and releasing them to the media in an attempt to sway the election in favour of her opponent, Donald Trump.

Story continues

Mr Smith told The WSJ that he and his team of lawyers, technology experts, and Russian-speaking investigators had heard from five different hacker groups who said they were in possession of Ms Clintons emails.

We knew the people who had these were probably around the Russian government, he said.

The emails, however, were never released. Mr Smith died on 14 May, 2017  10 days after he spoke with the newspaper.
Photo credit: U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Austin Anyzeski, 11th ACR.

From Popular Mechanics

Deep in the California desert, the U.S. Army has been practicing for World War III for decades. At the Fort Irwin National Training Center, outside Barstow California, the Army has created an expansive training ground-complete with a faux enemy army- to run American forces through an exhaustive routine of non-stop wargames.

Fort Irwin is one of the largest army bases in the United States. Over 1,000 square miles of desert, it became the home of the National Training Center (NTC) in 1979. For nearly forty years, active duty Army and National Guard forces from across the country rotate through the NTC to conduct realistic wargames.

The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, an active duty combat unit, acts as the permanent opposing force, or OPFOR. The American regiment's alter ego is the 60th Guards Motorized Rifle Division. Highly trained, it also operates American vehicles visually modified to look like Russian, or Russian-equipped forces. These are known as OSVs, or OPFOR Surrogate Vehicles. Often the conversion consists of little more than creatively applied fiberglass sheeting.

Here's a few OSVs, illustrating the lengths the U.S. Army will go through to get the appearance correct.

Russian T-72/T-90 Tank:

Photo credit: Wikipedia photo.

OPFOR OSV equivalent, based on an M113 armored personnel carrier:

Photo credit: U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Edge, 11th ACR.

Russian BRDM-2 Reconnaissance Vehicle:

Photo credit: Wikipedia photo.

OPFOR OSV equivalent, based on a Humvee:

Photo credit: (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Austin Anyzeski, 11th ACR.

Russian BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicle:

Photo credit: Wikipedia photo.

OPFOR OSV equivalent, also based on a M113:

Photo credit: U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Austin Anyzeski, 11th ACR.

See more examples at Guns.com.

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A cruise ship might seem like an isolated safe haven, but luxury liners may actually pose hidden dangers such as the risk of sexual assault. Due to a confluence of factors, most sexual assaults on cruises are barely investigated or never prosecuted, according to a report released Wednesday by NBC News.

More than two-thirds of the 92 alleged criminal incidents aboard cruise liners last year were sexual assaults. One in three of those incidents involved victims who were minors, according to a congressional report.

Read: Coast Guard Searches For Man Who Went Overboard Royal Carribean Ship

It happens more often than cruise lines will admit, Miami attorney Jim Walker told NBC News. A lot of times the victims will be so confused, so shocked, theyll actually leave the ship without reporting it on the ship. And I think crew members are kind of banking on that possibility.

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Photo: Getty Images

Jurisdiction issues often throw a wrench into sexual assault cases: the ship might be in international waters but registered in a different country and the situation might involve a suspect who is foreign.

Theres not law enforcement on these ships, said Walker. So when a crime occurs the reporting has to be done to the cruise ship security. Theres a conflict of interest, of course, in having the security investigating a crime that involved one of the ship employees.

While the FBI told NBC it couldnt discuss specific incidents, it did claim that such crimes on ships pose significant challenges for investigators.

I think the biggest disappointment were the actual FBI, Anne Smith, whose 16-year-old daughter said she was sexually assaulted by a gym trainer on Carnival Cruise, told NBC News. They took a brief statement from both of us and pretty much made it clear that there wasnt gonna be much after that.

Travelers could only begin accessing official crime statistics from cruise ships in 2016, when concrete numbers were finally released. A report issued in October showed that sexual assaults on cruise ships increase 550 percent in the first six months of 2016, while overall crimes reported on ships increased 408 percent.

Story continues

If you go back three years ago, when we raised the question with the FBI: What are you going to do if someone is raped on the high seas? The answer was, Nothing, Kendall Carver, founder and chairman of the International Cruise Victims Association, told Arizona Central in 2016. Now they are doing something.

Laws passed in 2014 made mandatory public disclosure of all serious crimes that occurred onboard cruise ships. The FBI also put in place a system that would put victims in contact with a federal agent while they were still on the cruise.

Read: World's Most Expensive Cities To Travel In 2017

The cruise industry, however, maintained that ships were safe. Michael McGarry, Cruise Lines International Association senior vice president for public affairs, told NBC News that the number of sexual assaults on board ships was a small fraction of the comparable rates of crime on land.

We are unaware of any case where a cruise line did not report an alleged serious crime as required by law. Out of a strong duty of care for guests, cruise lines are motivated to ensure that any allegation of a crime is immediately reported. Cruise lines have every incentive to ensure a safe and enjoyable holiday experience for all passengers and therefore continually access improvements to passenger security and safety.

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Photo: Getty Images

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A man attempting to help a fisherman bring a shark back to shore on a North Carolina beach had the tables turned on him Thursday when the shark bit him on the arm. The unidentified man went into the water near Johnnie Mercers Pier on Wrightsville Beach to help the fisherman bring the shark back to shore when he shark bit him, witnesses said.

Someone caught the shark and as they were pulling it in, it whipped around and bit him on the arm, Catherine Patton, an employee at the pier, told WNCN-TV. There was a lot of blood, but they took him away in an ambulance.

Read: Watch Sharks Surprise Tourists In Shallow Water At Florida Beach

Police and firefighters were called to the scene, but by the time they arrived, the man had been taken to a nearby hospital. It remained unclear what his condition was or what type of shark was involved in the incident.

An exchange student had his own encounter with a massive shark at the very same beach just a few months ago when, in March, a 1,000 pound, 12-foot great white shark nabbed a smaller shark he had hooked on his fishing line. Jannick Schroeder, a German student at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, was fishing about 30 miles off the coast of Wrightsville Beach when the great white ripped the smaller shark in two, rammed into his boat and took a bite out of the engine, according to TWC News.

North Carolina is listed as one of the locations with the highest number of shark attacks in the nation, according to the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. From 2007 to 2016, there were a total of 33 attacks. Three occurred in 2016, though all were nonfatal.

Experts said in 2016 swimmers should expect to see an increase in the number of sharks thanks to more suitable conditions for the creatures. Increased temperatures caused by heat waves warm the water and increase the concentration of sharks in the area, Charles Bangley, a doctoral candidate studying sharks at East Carolina University told the Virginian-Pilot at the time. The sharks tend to follow prey that flock toward warm water, like whales and turtles.

Story continues

They like to be on the leading edge of a temperature change, Bangley said. It wouldnt surprise me to see some summer species show up early.

Read: Shark Attacks Mother Of 3, Bites Off Arm While Snorkeling In Bahamas

The state broke records in 2015 when eight people were attacked by sharks. None of the attacks were fatal, but some of the people involved lost limbs.

Im not going to predict the kinds of attacks you had last year in North Carolina, George Burgess, director of the University of Floridas shark research program, said in 2016. But youll see sharks earlier than usual. If they find the going good, theyll stay for a while.

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Photo: Getty Images

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By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) - Gunfire erupted at a hip-hop concert in a Little Rock, Arkansas nightclub early on Saturday morning, wounding 25 people and leading the governor to call for a fresh effort to reduce violent crime in the state capital.

Two of those wounded at the Power Ultra Lounge were in critical condition, Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner told reporters at a press conference, while the rest of the victims suffered what he described as non-life-threatening injuries.

Three other people were hurt in a frantic rush to the exits. The ages of the wounded ranged from 16 to 35.

Buckner said no suspects had been taken into custody in connection with the melee, which may have stemmed from a dispute between rival groups. He said the general public was not believed to be at risk and that the incident was not related to terrorism.

"On a Fourth of July weekend, where we wish to anticipate having fun with our friends and family, this is certainly a terrible, terrible tragedy," Mayor Mark Stodola said at the news conference.

The shooting started at about 2:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, about 30 minutes after the downtown club's scheduled closing time, local media reported.

A bystander's video broadcast by local media showed the crowded club at the moment gunshots rang out, followed by the sound of people screaming in the dark.

After the shooting, the city revoked the Power Ultra Lounge's liquor license and the club would shut down, Stodola said.

"This activity downtown is going to cease," he said.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said it was time for the state to do more to reverse what he described as an intensifying crime problem in the state capital.

"We are still gathering facts, but it is clear that we need to have a comprehensive enforcement strategy in place that helps take the violent threats off the streets," he said in a statement.

The club was hosting a concert by the hip-hop artist Finese 2Tymes on Friday night, according to the club's Facebook page.

A promotional page for the performance shows a young man looking down the sight of what appears to be a gun, with the barrel pointed at the viewer.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bernard Orr)
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is making his first visit to the U.S. as president this week, and is due to sit down with President Donald Trump on Friday. While the visit wont be as palpably awkward as Angela Merkels, things will be tense  and not just because of Trump. Moon brings plenty of his own baggage to the proceedings. Heres what you need to know:

1. Moon is a break from the past

Moon assumed office a little over a month ago, and represents the progressive wing of South Korean politics. His election victory was a repudiation of conservative President Park Geun-hye, who ended her tenure with a four percent approval rating and was impeached over allegations she abused her authority and allowed a close friend to extort money from Koreas business conglomerates, the chaebols. South Korean business and political elites run in the same circles, and patronage is baked into the political system. Each of the last four presidentsor their close relativeshave been engulfed in corruption scandals. People want that to change, and much of Moons appeal flows from the perception that he is a clean politician. Thats partially reflected in his popularity, currently hovering around 80 percent.

Moon also brings change to his countrys foreign policy. South Korea has been governed by a string of pro-U.S. presidents, most of whom have shared Washingtons hardline attitude toward Pyongyang. Moon seeks to change tack, even as the rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang heats up.

2. who wants to bring North Korea in from the cold

How? By sticking to the basics of South Koreas sunshine policy, Seouls on-again, off-again plan since the 1980s to thaw relations with North Korea via constructive engagement. This is no progressive, elitist policy proposal, either; nearly 77 percent of South Koreans believe Seoul should restore dialogue with Pyongyang to help resolve North Koreas nuclear program. Moon has gone further, floating the prospect of economic cooperation with Pyongyang as a way of raising living standards for North Koreans and defraying the costs of potential reunification down the road. In a 2013 paper, RAND estimated that reunification between north and south could cost about $2 trillion$500 billion for military operations, another $500 billion for damages, and $1 trillion for building the Norths economy. Just think: Germanys reunification in 1990 cost West Germany approximately $1.9 trillionand East Germany was lightyears ahead of where North Korea is right now.

Story continues

3. But his country is caught between China and the U.S.

The worlds two great geopolitical powers are at odds with how to deal with North Korea. The U.S. is unsurprisingly concerned that an openly hostile regime is developing the capacity to strike the U.S. mainland with a nuclear weapon. Short of that, the U.S. has multiple defense treaties that require it to come to its allies defense.

Beijing, meanwhile, is more worried about a North Korean regime implosion. China is responsible for more than 90 percent of North Koreas trade and most of its food and energy supplies. But a collapse of the Kim Jong-un regime would flood China with distressed North Korean refugees. The International Rescue Committee believes between 30,000 to 60,000 North Korean refugees already live in China; if North Korea goes under (population 25 million), China would face millions more.

Moon knows that all these points give the U.S. and China a compelling interest in his approach to the North. Not to mention its in a tough neighborhood; 11 of the 15 largest militaries in the world are in or adjacent to Asia. China, India, Pakistan, Russia, and North Korea all have nuclear weapons.

4. Then theres the trouble with THAAD

Adding pressure to Moons relationship with Trump is the current row over installation in South Korea of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system, which is designed to shoot down short-, medium- and long-range missiles. The THAAD deal was originally negotiated by the Park administration, and two of the six missile launch platforms that normally comprise each THAAD battery have already been installed. The other four are being delayed until an environmental study is done, however, and Moon has been ambiguous on the programs future. The THAAD deployment provides the U.S. additional force projection and security for its 28,500 troops stationed in the country. At the moment, 55 percent of South Koreans say they support the THAAD installations.

China opposes THAAD, because it fears that Washington will use it to reduce Chinas military leverage by working with South Korea and Japan to build out what might become a broader and more comprehensive missile defense system. Its also worried that the radar system employed by THAAD could theoretically be used to track Chinese missile launches (though the U.S. stresses that THAAD is not designed or even necessarily capable of serving that purpose), which is a serious security concern for Beijing.

China has responded by imposing economic restrictions on South Korean firms that have forced some to shutter operations in China; Hyundai for example is expecting a 65 percent drop in its China sales for the month of May. China is also restricting tourism to South Korea; more than half of all tourists to South Korea are from China. If China maintains the travel ban, as much as 20 percent of South Koreas GDP growth could be knocked off according to Credit Suisse.

5. All of which adds up to a tricky balancing act for Moon

South Korea is in a uniquely difficult position. It cant afford to keep China, its largest trading partner, at arms length. The value of its exports to China are more than double those headed to the US. For a country where exports account for 46 percent of GDP, thats not something you take lightly. China has threatened more economic repercussions if THAAD installations continue.

Neither can it risk relations with the U.S. More than anyone else, South Korea is existentially threatened by Pyongyang; North Korea has conventional artillery trained on Seoul with enough firepower to seriously damage the city (just 35 miles away) in mere hours. While THAAD doesnt help guard against this type of shelling, Moon knows the presence of the U.S. military in his country is a major deterrent that goes beyond the number of troops stationed there or artillery deployed.

Each ally tries to thread the needle with Trump as best it can. Its just much harder for South Korea than for anyone else.
Ten of the states that had succeeded in a sweeping challenge to President Obamas 2014 order that would have delayed deportation of more than 4 million undocumented immigrants acted on Thursday to force an end to a similar 2012 Obama order to protect about 1 million younger immigrants. If that is not done by September for the youth program, those states warned the Trump Administration, they will sue to get it scuttled in the courts.

The letter to the Justice Department amounted to an effort to assure the end of the only part of the Obama deferred deportation policy that had actually gone into effect. This followed a decision by the Trump Administration earlier this month to nullify the part of the policy that had never gone into operation, affecting immigrant parents of children who are U.S. citizens or who have a legal right to stay permanently in the country.

The Obama Administration, believing that U.S. policy on deportation should not break up families of immigrants and should not penalize immigrant youths who had been brought to this country by their parents and had become part of their communities, had moved in two phases to create a regime in which those who had remained in the country without legal permission but had conducted normal lives here could stay and could get work permits.

The first part came in June 2012, the so-called DACA program, applied to youths, allowing them to seek  and later renew  permits to remain for two years. That part went into operation and has benefitted nearly 900,000 younger immigrants who had not obtained legal status. It did not guarantee them a chance to become citizens, only to stay and work.

The second part, the so-called DAPA program, would have applied to upwards of 4 million parents of children with citizenship or legal status. It was adopted in November 2014. It never went into effect, because 26 states, led by Texas, challenged it successfully in lower federal courts, blocking enforcement. The 2014 program also expanded the earlier DACA policy by allowing eligible youths to apply for three-year permits.

Story continues

The 2014 changes appeared to be doomed last year, when the Supreme Court  splitting 4-to-4  left intact the lower court orders against enforcement. Then, on June 15 of this year, the Trump Administration rescinded the 2014 program, but chose not to disturb the 2012 DAPA program that had been operating.

Now, ten of the 26 states that were involved in the earlier successful challenge, with Texas again taking the lead, have sought to complete the demise of President Obamas deferred deportation policy

Their letter Thursday argued that the DACA program for youths had the same legal flaws as the one that lower courts relied upon in blocking the DAPA program for parents that is, that President Obama did not have the legal authority to promise mass relaxation of deportations in violation of federal immigration laws that deny undocumented immigrants a right to remain in the country.

In the new demand, the ten states called for a phasing out of the DACA program, by rescinding the 2012 order setting it up, and refusing to issue any new or renewed permits to stay and work under that program. It said the demand would not require the government to nullify any such permits that are currently in force, nor would it require the government to deport any specific alien. Without the permits, though, all of the youths covered by the program would face the risk of being deported, case by case.

If the new Administration agrees to the letters demands by September 5, the states letter said, they would voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit that had prevented enforcement of the 2014 provisions. Although they had won a nationwide order against that program, on the premise that it probably would be struck down, the legality had actually never been fully tested in a trial in the south Texas federal court where it has been pending for nearly three years.

While the dispute over the 2014 program was working its way up to the Supreme Court, the trial to actually determine its legality has been repeatedly postponed. The judge in that case on Thursday issued a new order keeping the case on hold until July 7, when the lawyers involved are to notify the court on what they intend to do.

The ten states letter to the Justice Department on Thursday said that, if what remains of the DACA program for youthful immigrants is not ordered phased out by the September date, they would file a new version of the 26-state lawsuit to challenge whatever remains of that program, in the original and expanded forms. That letter has not yet been filed with the district court in Texas.

Although 26 states had joined in the earlier challenge, the new letter did not say why only ten of them were joined in the new maneuver against the DACA program. The new effort was described in a letter on the stationary of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and was signed by him and by the attorneys general of nine other states, plus one governor of one of those states.

State legal officials in Texas had repeatedly filed lawsuits against the Obama Administration, on a wide array of policies.

Legendary journalist Lyle Denniston is Constitution Dailys Supreme Court correspondent. Denniston has written for us as a contributor since June 2011 and has covered the Supreme Court since 1958. His work also appears on lyldenlawnews.com.
In one week, Germany has shifted its stance on gay marriage, with lawmakers overwhelmingly voting Friday to allow the practice.

As recently as last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) were opposed to same-sex marriage. But speaking on June 26, the chancellor said she was open to the practice. But members of the CDU said they did not expect a vote on the issue until after national elections, on Sept. 24.

The three-left leaning parties in German parliament  the Greens, the Left Party and the Social Democrats  didnt want to wait that long. On Friday morning, the lower house of Germanys parliament approved four bills to allow marriage between same-sex couples by 393 votes in favor and 226 against. More than a quarter of CDU lawmakers voted for the laws. Merkel voted no, but praised the decision, saying she hoped it would create a piece of social peace and togetherness.

The vote ends a stunning week that saw the conservative wing of Merkels coalition  the Christian Social Union, based in Bavaria  turn against the chancellor after her she opened a path for the legalization of the practice. A day after her initial comments, Bavarian State Premier Horst Seehofer, a practicing Catholic, staunch conservative and leader of the CSU, accused Merkel of attempting to break up the coalition. Its members reacted angrily to Fridays vote.

Merkels shift was clearly made with political calculations in mind, even though she voted against the measure. Her main challenger for the chancellorship, Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz, has long criticized her for her stance on same-sex marriage. During the 2013 national election, Merkel argued against gay marriage on the grounds of childrens welfare and said that she had a hard time with the issue.

During this election cycle, she shifted her position as public support for the practice surged. A recent survey by the Germanys anti-discrimination agency found that 83 percent of the German public favored marriage equality.

Story continues

Outside the chancellery in Berlin, same-sex marriage backers celebrated the decision, which brings Germany in line with most Western nations.

We woke up very early and we knew it was raining in Berlin, but we thought it is so important we have to come here, Nico, a 20-year-old student who preferred to give only his first name, told CNN. It is incredible, I cant believe it. I think [Merkel] said it on Monday and today is Friday and we have a new law.

Photo credit: TOBIAS SCHWARZ/Getty Images
President Donald Trumps administration followed through on a threat to punish Chinese firms and individuals for doing business with North Korea, imposing sanctions on two Chinese citizens and a shipping company for helping to underwrite the North Korean government. It also accused a Chinese bank of laundering money for Pyongyang.

The sanctions were announced by the Treasury Department Thursday afternoon. It named the Bank of Dandong, located in a northeastern Chinese city on the North Korean border, and Dalian Global Unity Shipping Co Ltd.; the two individuals are Sun Wei and Li Hong Ri. Sun was sanctioned for working for the Foreign Trade Bank, North Koreas state export bank, while Li was targeted for opening front companies that work with the North Korean government.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions are meant to pressure Kim Jong Un to drop his nuclear weapons program, and were not meant as a shot at China, which Trump has repeatedly urged to do more to rein in its wayward client state.

The United States is sending an emphatic message across the globe that we will not hesitate to take action against persons, companies and financial institutions who enable this regime, Mnuchin said in a statement.

The announcement comes as Trump prepares to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House on Thursday to discuss steps to rein in North Korea. In recent months, Pyongyang has made advances in long-range missile technology.

Last week, Chinese and American officials met to discuss what Beijing  North Koreas only major ally  could do to deter Kim from continuing his work. At the time, Trump tweeted that he appreciated Chinese President Xi Jinpings efforts but it has not worked out.

Even as specific Chinese entities were mentioned, Mnuchin insisted the penalties were not about Beijing. We are in no way targeting China with these efforts. We appreciate their work and hope they will continue to work with us, the Treasury chief said Thursday. He added that the two sides would meet at the G-20 summit in Germany next week.

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The United States has been hinting at possible penalties against Chinese firms and individuals for months. In December of last year, Obama administration officials hinted they could come soon. In May and in recent days, Trump officials did the same thing.

Whether this signals a harder line on China more generally from the White House remains to be seen. On the campaign trail, Trump railed against Chinas trade practices in particular, and even before taking office sparked a diplomatic spat with Beijing over Taiwan.

But after a surprisingly friendly visit with Xi in April, Trump changed his tune, and said he wouldnt take any action to label China a currency manipulator, since he was hoping to secure Beijings help on North Korea.

Photo credit: JIM WATSON/Getty Images
(Reuters) - Police officers across the United States shot 492 people dead in the first half of 2017, on track to approach 1,000 such incidents for the third year in a row, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

The Post, which has been tracking all fatal shootings by police since 2015, said the tally on June 16 of this year was identical to last year's count.

The paper said that since 2015 it had found twice as many police shootings than those recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"These numbers show us that officer-involved shootings are constant over time," Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina, told the Post. "Some places go up, some go down, but its averaging out. This is our society in the 21st century."

The Post began its tracking project following the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014.

Brown is one of a series of black men killed by law enforcement over the past three years that have sparked a national debate over racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

(Corrects year in paragraph 5 to 2014.)

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley slammed the Security Council on Thursday for failing to take any action against Iran, which she said had "repeatedly and deliberately violated" sanctions imposed by the body. "The Security Council has failed to even take minimal steps to respond to these violations," Haley told a council briefing on Iran. "We must ... show Iran that we will not tolerate their egregious flaunting of U.N. resolutions." Most U.N. sanctions were lifted 18 months ago under a deal Iran made with key world powers to curb its nuclear program. But Iran is still subject to an arms embargo and other restrictions, which are not technically part of the nuclear agreement. U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman briefed the council on Thursday on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' third six-monthly report on the implementation of the remaining sanctions and restrictions, enshrined in resolution 2231. "The secretary-general's report makes clear that Iran is in violation of the Security Council resolution 2231 and so the question becomes 'what is the Security Council going to do about it?'" Haley said. No council members have proposed taking any action against Iran. Diplomats say veto-powers Russia and China were unlikely to agree to more measures. Russia on Thursday questioned some of the findings of Guterres' report. Feltman told the council that in relation to a weapons seizure by the French Navy in the northern Indian Ocean in March 2016, the United Nations was "confident that the weapons seized are of Iranian origin and were shipped from Iran." The report also looked at Iran's Jan. 29 launch of a ballistic missile and noted there was no consensus within the Security Council on how the launch related to resolution 2231. "I call upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to avoid such ballistic missile launches, which have the potential to increase tensions," Guterres said in the report. A year ago Guterres' predecessor Ban Ki-moon described ballistic missile launches by Iran as "not consistent with the constructive spirit" of the nuclear deal. Under the U.N. resolution, Iran is "called upon" to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years. Some states argue that language does not make it obligatory. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is reviewing the nuclear deal - agreed to under President Barack Obama - and Haley said that "until that review is completed we will comply with our commitments and we expect Iran to do the same." (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
MANILA (Reuters) - The United States and Philippine navies held a joint naval patrol on Saturday in dangerous southern Philippine waters, amid rising international concern about Islamist militancy and piracy in the region. US Navy littoral combat ship USS Coronado joined a Philippine Navy frigate, BRP Alcaraz, in patrolling the Sulu Sea where numerous pirate attacks on commercial shipping have been made since 2015. Our at-sea operations with the Philippine Navy demonstrate our commitment to the alliance and deter piracy and illegal activities, US Rear Admiral Don Gabrielson said in a statement issued by the US embassy in Manila. There are international fears fighters sympathetic to Islamic State will cross maritime borders between Malaysia and Indonesia to join Muslim rebels who seized Marawi City in the southern Philippines five weeks ago. About 300 militants, 82 security forces and 44 civilians have been killed in the fighting. The naval patrols were held at the invitation of the Philippine government, the US embassy said. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte does not allow joint patrols with the United States in the disputed South China Sea to avoid damaging its relations with China, which claims the sea as its own. But he welcomes cooperation in the south due to increased militant activity. Two weeks ago, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines held joint naval patrols in southern waters. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Ankara (AFP) - The White House envoy coordinating the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group held talks in Ankara on Friday a day after visiting a Syrian Kurdish militia deemed by Turkey to be "terrorists".

The visit by Brett McGurk, which was not announced in advance, comes a month after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for McGurk to be fired, claiming he was supporting Kurdish militants.

US-backed Kurdish-dominated forces are closing in on the Syrian city of Raqa, the self-declared capital of Islamic State (IS) jihadists. Turkey has stayed away from the operation, saying it involves Kurdish militants.

McGurk met with Cavusoglu's deputy undersecretary, Sedat Onal, foreign ministry sources said.

Turkish media reported that he was also to meet with defence ministry officials, but no details were given.

"Pleased to be in Ankara today for consults (consulations) with NATO ally Turkey on mutual efforts to defeat ISIS (IS) and ensure it can never return," McGurk wrote on Twitter without giving further details.

Tensions between Washington and Ankara have escalated over US support for the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, which Turkey considers a front for outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatists.

The US, Turkey and the European Union have labelled the PKK a "terrorist group".

Washington has provided weapons to YPG fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), despite warnings from Turkey. The forces have trapped IS fighters in Raqa after cutting off a last escape route Thursday.

McGurk was in the northern Syrian town of Tabqa on Thursday, which the SDF captured from IS jihadists on May 10. He met with the Tabqa Civil Council, which is administering the town's day-to-day affairs.

The US has sought to assuage Turkey's concerns about arming the Kurdish forces, with US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis promising his Turkish counterpart Fikri Isik last week to take back weapons from the YPG once the jihadists are defeated.

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The YPG controls about 20 percent of Syrian territory but roughly three-quarters of the northern border with Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said Ankara will oppose what it terms a "terrorist corridor" on its southern border established by the YPG.

Last August, Ankara launched its Euphrates Shield offensive aimed at ousting Kurdish militias and IS fighters from the border area.

Although the operation ended in March, Turkish officials have indicated there could be another offensive in Syria if necessary.

Local media reports this week suggested a military buildup on the Turkish border close to the Kurdish-held Afrin region, but there has been no official confirmation.
Beirut (AFP) - The Islamic State group no longer has a presence in Syria's Aleppo province after withdrawing from a series of villages where regime forces were advancing, a monitor said on Friday.

"IS withdrew from 17 towns and villages and is now effectively outside of Aleppo province after having a presence there for four years," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Regime forces had been advancing on a sliver of southeastern Aleppo province around a key highway linking Hama province to the southwest and Raqa province further east.

Abdel Rahman said regime forces seized control of the road late Thursday night, prompting the remaining IS fighters to flee.

A Syrian military source in rural Aleppo confirmed the withdrawal.

"The military operation is ongoing and Daesh withdrew from the Aleppan countryside towards rural territory in Hama and Raqa," the source told AFP, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

"The Syrian army is clearing out the last few metres," the source added.

A second military source, quoted by Syrian state news agency SANA, also confirmed that IS had pulled out of territory along the Ithraya-Rasafa highway.

Since early 2015, multi-front offensives against IS have eaten away at territory the group held in Aleppo province.

US-backed Kurdish and allied Arab fighters ousted the jihadists from Kobane on the Turkish border in 2015 and from the key city of Manbij last year.

Rebels backed by Turkey seized the town of Al-Bab in February, and Syrian government troops have steadily chipped away at IS towns in the south of the province.

In neighbouring Raqa province, a US-backed offensive is bearing down on the provincial capital of the same name, which has served as the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital.

Abdel Rahman described Friday's withdrawal as "a new loss for IS that decreases its influence and demonstrates that we are watching its collapse as an organisation that can manage geographical territory".

Story continues

Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad, before turning into a complex, bloody war.

World powers including Russia, Turkey, and a US-led global coalition have all been drawn into the war, which has left more than 320,000 people dead.

Talks aimed at reaching a lasting ceasefire will resume in the Kazakh capital Astana next week, before another round of UN-backed peace negotiations in Geneva in mid-July.
Trekking poles are modern versions of staffs that date back to Moses for easing the way along difficult routes, catching your balance and prodding the occasional sheep along the way.

Although no longer used for parting the Red Sea, trekking poles that resemble cross-country ski poles are considered essential equipment by many hikers looking to make their walks more efficient and less stressful on ankle, knee and hip joints.

Ive also used them to probe brush ahead for rattlesnakes and to fend off aggressive dogs as well as one insanely food-habituated marmot in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park.

Some ultralight backpacking tents are designed to save weight by incorporating trekking poles into their structure.

Critics point out that trekking poles are just another gear item to buy and pack around, and others question the cumulative impact countless carbide tip pokes will have in trails.

But using trekking poles helps a hiker power up a hill with aerobic engagement of the arms and upper body. Then they help reduce the body-jarring impacts of descents. Theyre a full-body deal.

Dr. Meredith Heick, a Spokane rheumatologist (also my wife) recommends Nordic walking sticks or heavier duty trekking poles to some of her arthritis patients regardless of age. Many orthopedists also recommend trekking poles, especially to ease stress on knees.

Dr. Heick also practices what she preaches by religiously using two trekking poles on all of her hikes as a hedge against becoming a patient herself.

For Christmas years ago, I bought her a pair of three-section trekking poles that could be telescoped to user height, shortened for uphills, lengthened for downhills and collapsed to fit in the side of a pack when not needed or in airline baggage for hiking vacations abroad.

But the poles became hard to find when she wanted them because our daughters kept taking them for their hikes. Before the year was out, everyone in the family was happily outfitted with trekking poles.

Weve used them effectively crossing streams safely, pole-vaulting over puddles and checking the speed of snowfield glissades. Trekking poles have reduced the impact to my body from hundreds of trail miles covered in researching regional hiking trail guidebooks.

I sometimes use only one trekking pole to leave a hand free for walking a dog on leash or when photography is a priority.

However, using two poles is clearly better for upper body workout, reducing joint impacts and maintaining side-to-side balance.

When bushwhacking or scrambling in talus where handholds are necessary, its often best to collapse the poles and attach them to your pack.

The first question we ask customers is what they will be doing with them, said John Schwartz, whos been studying, selling and getting feedback on trekking poles for more than two decades as manager of Mountain Gear retail store in Spokane.

If theyre Nordic walking on concrete and asphalt theyll want poles with rubber tips for traction, he said. Hikers heading to forest trails will need carbide tips.

The biggest change since we first started selling trekking poles is the dramatic increase in whats offered, Schwartz said, noting that weight-wary hikers can find an assortment of ultralight poles, usually at the price of less durability and more cost.

Instead of fixed-length poles, Schwartz says most hikers prefer poles that can be adjusted for terrain.

Most people start with poles adjusted to form a 90-degree bend at the elbow with the tip planted by the foot.

From there you might shorten for long uphills or lengthen for extended downhills, he said. You might even adjust length for sidehills.

Avoid straight handles and opt for handles with ergonomic designs that are less fatiguing to the hand and wrist, he recommends.

Most of Schwartzs customers say cork handles are more comfortable to sweaty hands. Plastic handles dont absorb moisture and may be preferable in cool weather.

Most people arent aware that some poles have shock absorbers built in to the handles, Schwartz said. But once they try them, they quickly become fans.

Whether you chose poles made of aluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber or titanium, Schwartz said customers should expect to pay about $80-$200 or more for good quality.

You can get trekking poles for $30, but dont be surprised if they break or fall apart. The quality just isnt there.

My good-quality poles have lasted many years. The paint graphics are mostly worn off, but even the old twisting expansion-nut length adjusters still work.

Thats old school, Schwartz said, noting that adjustable poles nowadays use flick locks that are easier to use and more reliable. No more need for the pliers to twist frozen expansion nuts free, he said.

Before trekking pole customers leave the store, Schwartz said Mountain Gear staff makes sure they know how to use them.

Cross-country skiers know how, but its not intuitive to everybody, he said. A lot of people try to use them as they would a crutch. You want to stride with them and swing your arms alternately as you would when walking normally.

With a little practice, trekking poles help orchestrate a hikers stride into a rhythm with additional points of balance to put away the miles more safely and efficiently.
Being a beauty guru on YouTube involves a lot more than the ability to put on a face of makeup on camera. YouTubes biggest beauty vloggers are no longer just posting videos on their channels and cashing in AdSense checks, theyre expanding their brands and making business partnerships outside of the video-sharing site.

YouTubes most successful entrepreneurs in the beauty community, Aspyn Ovard Ferris, Kandee Johnson and Diana Saldana, gave an inside look at the business of beauty blogging at the 8th annual Vidcon last month. They discussed what it takes to prosper in the unique market.

Age Is Just A Number

Aspyn didnt lose out on any success by starting on the site while still a child. With her mothers blessing, Aspyn began posting videos at age 14 (YouTubes U.S. user guidelines state a channel owner needs to be at least 13) and seven years later, hasnt looked back.

I thought it was the most awesome thing ever, she said. After graduating from high school, Aspyn said she knew it would be her career. As its just grown, weve just taken it and run with it.

READ: The Truth About Family Vloggers On YouTube

Standing Out From The Crowd

All three beauty vloggers said that successful content comes from staying true to yourself  which can be harder than it sounds.

Whether youre in beauty, or any kind of career, or even in your daily life, I think its important that youre really true to who you are and do something that stands out and is different and is you, Kandee advised. Whatever you do it should be unique to you: to what you want to do, to what you like, not trying to fit in.

One way to show who you are, said Kandee, who has been with YouTube since 2009, is to connect with an audience by talking to the camera as if it was your best friend. Dont try to be cool, she said. Just try to be nice.

Aspyn said that its easy to tell when a vlogger is making a video about a topic they authentically enjoy versus something they feel pushed to make. Its definitely hard to make sure youre being original, especially when theres so many people doing the same things, she said. You really just had to try your hardest... and do stuff that you want to do and not feel that pressure to be like everybody else.

Story continues

vidcon

Photo: International Business Times

Video Inspiration

Being the face of a YouTube channel and the sole person responsible for its content can have its challenges. After years behind the camera, Kandee says she sometimes researches makeup looks from the past for inspiration.

I look to art, or art magazines, or Ill look like old makeup artists of the 40s or their techniques, styles they did, something that will be timeless... I want something that is going to be beautiful all the time.

Diana, on the other hand, heads to Instagram in search of fresh ideas. I just put my own spin on it and then make it so that anyone can wear it, she said.

Making A Paycheck

While a channel should always reflect your interests, the gurus warned that everything you put onto the site will not be loved. And everything you put out might not be something youre in love with.

The two videos that I did not like and wasnt going to upload are my two top videos and I cant stand them, Kandee admitted. Coincidentally, videos that Kandee is most proud of did not get what she called gangbuster views, but she found they had impact with her audience.

Aspyn also finds it hard to create a perfect balance with her videos as her beloved travel diaries arent always popular with viewers. I havent built my channel based off of that content so those people looking for that stuff are not the same people that are subscribed to me. Sometimes that can be hard because the things you put the most effort into and are passionate about, they dont do as well, she said.

YouTube is not just about he money but when youre putting in so much time and effort and youre not making enough money to make that be worth it, thats such a hard thing and I feel like a lot of people dont think people understand that. Whenever YouTubers talk about money people get really angry but the reality is that we do this as our jobs and we couldnt do it if we couldnt get paid. - Aspyn Ovard

Partnering With Brands

Some YouTubers can make six figures just posting videos, but crafting brand deals is another way that experienced vloggers bump up paychecks and build business partnerships. Diana, who was recently named a U.S. ambassador for Real Technique brushes, says branding doesnt just up her cash flow, it also inspires creativity for her channel.

Branching out and doing multiple things keeps you motivated to go back to YouTube and create new content, Diana said. I'm always telling my followers Im so grateful for YouTube and for them because obviously its taken me places that Ive never been in my life.

All of us love YouTube or we wouldnt do it, but sometimes its like, Lets do something else. Lets try something else. What else can I do? Aspyn, who runs her own e-commerce site, added. It kind of gives you a little bit of a break from YouTube and you get charged up again to make your next video.

kandee johnson

Photo: International Business Times

Working With Brands

A large following is what tends to attract brands, and while a brand deal is an exciting prospect, seasoned gurus known to take them on cautiously. Aspyn advised against accepting deals that are not in line with the message of your videos. Saying no to a brand, its OK to say no, Diana said.

Even when and if a product does align, problems can still arise. As creators, were always just trying to make sure that what were doing is organic, Aspyn said. Brands are learning more and more that we know our audiences better than they do, so they need to listen.

Kandee reminded aspiring vloggers to keep in mind that a brand is paying you to help promote them, and likely will want your ideas. Your ideas are so valuable, Kandee said.

Make sure its you. People will bully you and push you like, Oh this is what we want you to do. I'm always like the annoying little voice thats like, But I dont know if I like that. How about we try this idea? I feel like that really shows that youre putting your spin on it. Theyre paying for you to do a brand deal that is you and you need to represent you and not change who you are for anybody. - Kandee Johnson

Beyond The Deals

Ultimately, it isnt just about getting that lucrative brand deal. Money can also be made with the help of a little YouTube fame and a pure business sense. Aspyn and her and co-vlogger husband Parker Ferris kicked off their e-commerce store Luca + Grae in mid-2016. Much to their surprise, they sold out of all items just one hour after launching. Business has not slowed down since.

Today, Aspyn credits Parker and her mother for helping her run the business  which she calls a bigger and better success than they ever anticipated.

We kind of worked backwards, in a way. We started this business and then were like, lets start learning about it. It has definitely been a learning process. While other companies and product owners have reached out to them about being a part of the store, Aspyn says theyve done the brunt of the work themselves.

READ: Tana Mongeau Suffers Another YouTube Scandal

aspyn ovard

Photo: International Business Times

Network Respectively

Collaborating with other beauty YouTubers is a surefire way to grow your audience, but it should always be done with a certain tact. Kandee advised starting a business relationship with a fellow YouTuber by complimenting their work before suggesting a shared project. I never push a collab thing unless its a reciprocal situation, Kandee said. She went on to compliment Aspyns look and propose a makeup video with her onstage, which Aspyn happily agreed to.

What are you thoughts on the YouTube beauty community? Sound off in the comments section below or tweet me @RebeckaSchumann.

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The Minnesota teen who shot and killed her boyfriend in a YouTube stunt gone wrong Tuesday posted an ominous and foreshadowing message on Twitter just hours before the shooting. Monalisa Perez and her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz III, reportedly wanted to achieve YouTube fame and get more subscribers on their channel.

To achieve that fame, the pair decided they would film a stunt in which Ruiz held up an encyclopedia to his chest while Perez fired a gun at the book. The encyclopedia was meant to stop the bullet.

Read: Parents Of Teen Whose Murderer Took A Selfie With Victim Break Silence

Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever, Perez tweeted Tuesday. HIS idea not MINE.

The pregnant 19-year-old described herself on her Twitter as a mother of two who loves to laugh, positive energy and a stay at home mommy and family vlogger. She had started her fledgling YouTube channel, La Monalisa, just a few months before. So far, the account had about 10,000 subscribers.

The pair had other YouTube videos on the page involving stunts and pranks, though the others were far tamer. The most recent video, posted the day before the shooting, was entitled Doing Scary Stunts At The Fair, Part I.

The gun stunt, however, didnt go as planned. The couple set up two cameras to capture it: one on a ladder and the other on the back of a car. But when Perez fired the gun from about a foot away, the bullet went through the book and pierced Ruiz in the chest. The gun she used was a .50-caliber Desert Eagle pistol, described as one of the worlds most powerful semiautomatic handguns.

Ruiz, 22, died from a single gunshot wound.

His aunt, Claudia Ruiz, said the idea, was, in fact, her nephews. She said he liked to put a dangerous twist on everything he did, and once jumped from a roof into a swimming pool below.

He told me about an idea, she told Valley News Live Tuesday. I said, Dont do it, dont do it. Why are you going to use a gun? Why? Because we want more viewers.

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She said the couple had tested the idea earlier and the bullet hadnt gone through the book, a fact confirmed by Norman County Sheriff Jeremy Thornton. The video from the shooting would not be released, according to NBC News.

Ruiz and Perez already had a 3-year-old daughter together, who was featured in some of their videos, and Perez was pregnant with a son.

They were in love, Claudia said. They loved each other. Its just a prank gone wrong. It shouldnt have happened like this. It shouldnt have happened at all.

Read: Michael McCarthy To Be Sentenced In Death Of Baby Doe Bella Bond

Perez was charged with second-degree murder Wednesday but was released on bail. The teenager could face up to 10 years in prison should she be convicted.

The fact that she has got to live with this for the rest of her life, said Claudia. That alone is a charge to me.

Related Articles
Typically, when NASA is planning on launching something it goes off without a hitch. Sometimes storms, wind, or other unforeseeable circumstances push the launch window back a few hours, or maybe a day or two, but things almost always get back on track fairly quickly. That most certainly hasnt been the cast with the agencys plan to launch a cloud-building rocket on the East Coast, having been over and over again for over a month due to imperfect conditions and other issues. Well, NASA finally got the clear skies they were looking for and managed to successfully send its craft skyward, creating some seriously funky looking clouds that were visible from New York to North Carolina.

Don't Miss: Nests revolutionary new Nest Cam IQ was just released

The launch, saw the deployment of several canisters that produced colorful clouds in the early morning sky, was performed so that scientists could more accurately study particle motion than theyve ever been able to before. The rocket was launched from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility located in Virginia, and reached an altitude of roughly 118 miles and flew for just eight minutes while it ejected its fancy cloud canisters.

The brightly-colored clouds were relatively small in size, but they were still incredibly eye-catching, with over 2,000 reports from individuals along the coast. They quickly began to dissipate, but remained visible as off-color patches in the sky for some time afterwards. The clouds were also reportedly visible inland throughout Virginia and Pennsylvania. NASA says the whole thing went off without a hitch, which is fantastic news considering how long the mission had been delayed.

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In this photo: A Samsung 837 store in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, New York, Oct. 10, 2016.

Samsung will reportedly invest up to $21 billion to build the worlds largest OLED production plant, according to Korean site ET News (via AppleInsider ). These reports indicate this is for the iPhone 8 display.

Apple signed a $9 billion two-year deal with Samsung for OLED panels, it was reported in April. Samsung is now gearing up to deliver panels to Apple for its upcoming iPhone 8, and as it chases orders from the Cupertino company for other future OLED models.

Read: Samsung To Open $380M Plant In South Carolina For Home Appliances, Create 950 Jobs

Samsung is looking to boost its production capacity by building new factories in South Korea, supply chain sources told ET News. The company has already begun planning a new A5 plant which has a production capacity of 180,000 and 270,000 panels per month, an upgrade from the current "A3" plant which builds 180,000 screens per month.

The plants will be in Cheonin and Asan, South Korea. A report earlier this year said Samsung was leveling the ground at its industrial complex in Asan to build OLED production facilities dedicated to iPhones. The plants are expected to cost about $1.75 billion for the facility, and another $14 billion will be invested in equipment for OLED production, according to ET News. The total costs for both facilities will amount to approximately $21 billion.

The ET News revelations come after a report in April claimed Samsung was turning its LCD factory into an OLED plant, with the companys total investments for OLED production lines going up to KRW10 trillion ($8.8 billion) this year.

Read: Vivo Beats iPhone 8 To Touch ID, Reveals Embedded Fingerprint Scanner By Qualcomm

Fridays report claims the new plant is being built because of anticipated demand from smartphone companies, and mass-production of foldable displays measuring 9 to 10 inches. Plans for the facility will be discussed in July by the board of directors.

Apples OLED Display Plans

Samsung is reportedly on schedule to deliver 80 million OLED panels to Apple for the iPhone 8, a report this month said. The Korean company will deliver the screens at the end of the year, while the remainder of Samsungs production will be used to supply orders for other smartphone clients and for the company itself. Samsung will also keep some flexibility in case Apple places more orders.

Story continues

Building plants seems to be a good idea, since Apple will reportedly use OLED display screens for all iPhone models by 2019. Meanwhile, another report said Apple signed a deal with Samsung Electronics for OLED panels for next years iPhone 9, which will come in a 5.28-inch version and a 6.46-inch device.

Apples upcoming iPhone 8 is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus this fall.

The 10th-anniversary phone, which could also be called the iPhone X, iPhone Pro or iPhone Edition, will reportedly come with a 3D-sensing front camera. It is also rumored to come with a dual-camera system on the back, but will be placed vertically, unlike the camera system on the current iPhone 7 Plus.

The iPhone 8 is rumored to come with an embedded Touch ID, a True Tone display and wireless charging.

Previous reports have said the iPhone 8 will be priced at more than $1,000.

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Once expunged from its official history, documents outlining the US-backed 1953 coup in Iran have been quietly published by the State Department, offering a new glimpse at an operation that ultimately pushed the country toward its Islamic Revolution and hostility with the West.

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The CIA's role in the coup, which toppled Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh and cemented the control of the shah, was already well-known by the time the State Department offered its first compendium on the era in 1989. But any trace of American involvement in the putsch had been wiped from the report, causing historians to call it a fraud.

The papers released this month show US fears over the spread of communism, as well as the British desire to regain access to Iran's oil industry, which had been nationalized by Mosaddegh. It also offers a cautionary tale about the limits of American power as a new US president long suspicious of Iran weighs the landmark nuclear deal with Tehran reached under his predecessor.

Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh rides on the shoulders of cheering crowds in Tehrans Majlis Square, 1953 (Photo: AP)

It exposes "more about what we know about this milestone event in Middle East history and especially US-Iran history. This is still such an important, emotional benchmark for Iranians," said Malcolm Byrne, who has studied Iran at the non-governmental National Security Archive at George Washington University. "Many people see it as the day that Iranian politics turned away from any hope of democracy."

The 1,007-page report, comprised of letters and diplomatic cables, shows US officials discussing a coup up to a year before it took place. While America worried about Soviet influence in Iran, the British remained focused on resolving a dispute over the nationalization of the country's oil refinery at Abadan, at the time one of the world's largest. Many also feared further instability following the 1951 assassination of Premier Ali Razmara.

"Nationalization of the oil industry possibly combined with further assassinations of top Iran officials, including even the shah, could easily lead to a complete breakdown of the Iran government and social order, from which a pro-Soviet regime might well emerge leaving Iran as a satellite state," one undated CIA analysis from the report warned.

Out of that fear grew TPAJAX, the CIA codename for the coup plot. Papers show the CIA at one point "stockpiled enough arms and demolition material to support a 10,000-man guerrilla organization for six months," and paid out $5.3 million for bribes and other costs, which would be equivalent to $48 million today. One CIA document casually refers to the fact that "several leading members of these (Iranian) security services are paid agents of this organization."

The CIA also described hoping to use "powerfully influential clergy" within Shiite Iran to back the coup, something that would be anathema by the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It offers no definitive proof of that, though several documents show American officials in contact with Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani, an anti-British leader in the Iranian parliament who turned against Mosaddegh.

The agency faced problems, however, chief among them Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi himself. Diplomats and spies referred to him as a "weak reed" and "petulant."

"His inability to take decisions coupled with his tendency to interfere in political life has on occasions been (a) disruptive influence," the US Embassy in Tehran warned in February 1953. Ultimately, his twin sister Princess Ashraf and a US general helped convince him.

Mosaddegh was tipped off about the coup, and it appeared doomed as the shah fled to Baghdad and later Italy. But protests supporting the shah, fanned in part by the CIA, led to Mosaddegh's fall and the monarch's return.

The report fills in the large gaps of the initial 1989 historical document outlining the years surrounding the 1953 coup in Iran. The release of that report led to the resignation of the historian in charge of a State Department review board and to Congress passing a law requiring a more reliable historical account be made.

Byrne and others have suggested the release of the latest documents may have been delayed by the nuclear negotiations, as the Obama administration sought to ease tensions with Tehran, and then accelerated under President Donald Trump, who has adopted a much more confrontational stance toward Iran.

Byrne said the new administration needed just two months to agree to release the documents. "That kind of speed is unheard of in the government unless there is some sort of political foundation," he said.

Die-hard opponents of Iran's current government might look to 1953 as a source of inspiration. But the Americans involved in the coup acknowledged at the time they were playing with fire.

Widespread Iranian anger over the heavy-handed Western intervention lingered for decades, and fed into the 1979 revolution, when Iranians seized control of the US Embassy and held those inside captive for 444 days. To this day Iran's clerical leaders portray the US as a hostile foreign power bent on subverting and overthrowing its government.

As President Dwight Eisenhower wrote in his diary in 1953, if knowledge of the coup became public, "We would not only be embarrassed in that region, but our chances to do anything of like nature in the future would almost totally disappear."
A meeting of coalition leaders convened Friday morning by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to formulate an agreed-upon solution to the issue of the Conversion Bill broke down after Shas leader and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) left the meeting in fury.

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Thursday, senior coalition officials said that the proposed solution was to postpone the law by six months, and by then a public committee would be set up to formulate an agreed-upon solution to the issue of conversion.

L to R: Gafni, Netanyahu, Deri (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg, Gil Yohanan)

At the beginning of the meeting, the prime minister made it clear that there was a great crisis with Diaspora Jewry, and he spoke about the sensitivity of the situation and said that the current direction would be to withdraw the petition filed against the law by American Jewry, and in return the law will be frozen.

An argument then broke out between ministers Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) and Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) and Netanyahu about his handling of the Conversion Bill.

The two mentioned the fact that the government meeting on the matter at the beginning of the week had gone ahead without prior preparation and claimed that the announcement of the freeze in the Western Wall agreement felt like underhanded opportunism, as most ministers didn't even participate in that meeting.

Bennett and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman then commented on the Conversion Bill, saying that chief rabbis should also be allowed to perform conversions.

Netanyahu made it clear that there was a need at this stage to freeze the law and ordered a joint statement to the government and Diaspora Jewry that would announce the arrangement.

"I very much hope that the High Court of Justice will accede to this joint request because it will calm things down and also open a door to hope for an agreed-upon arrangement among our people," Netanyahu said.

Bennett (L) and Kahlon (Photo: Olivia Pitosi)

At this stage, Deri said, "I am willing that the law be frozen for six months. If in the course of that time the High Court of Justice disqualifies the law, I request that we pass it anyway."

Those present at the meeting refused to promise him such a thing, and he was furious: "I get what's going on here. You are acting contrary to a coalition agreement."

Then Deri got up from his chair and stormed out with Gafni following him. Netanyahu called to them : "I do not understand why you got up. Why are you leaving?"

The prime minister's question was ignored as the two walked out. The meeting was dispersed shortly thereafter.

Gafni's office said at the end of the meeting,"There were clear agreements with the prime minister," and what was discussed in the meeting violated a coalition agreement, clarifying that they demand it will be held even if the court rules against it.

"Domestic peace among the Jewish People is important to me. It is important to me both as Prime Minister of Israel and as a son of the Jewish People," said Netanyahu following the meeting's ending.

Kahlon wrote on his Twitter account after the breakdown of the meeting: "The national strength and the true security of the Jewish people lies in its unity. The connection between the people living in Zion and their brothers in the Diaspora is a strong and brave bond and we must guard it with care.

"In the past, the people of Israel paid dearly for the division of its people, and we must not return to that time. I expect all parties to convene again until we reach an agreed outline.

"This is the time to act for the unity of the people."

Reform Jews pray at the Western Wall (Photo: AP)

The leaders of the AIPAC lobby and the heads of the American Jewish federations made it clear that the Conversion Bill is much more damaging to them than the Kotel agreement's freeze, because the issue of conversion touches nearly all Jews abroad.

The government approved the conversion law on Sunday, which leaves the conversion rights only to the Chief Rabbinate. Leaving the monopoly of conversion in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate is in effect a step that bypasses the High Court of Justice and determines that only conversions of the state will be recognized for the purposes of the Law of Return.

About a year ago, the High Court of Justice ruled for the first time that private Orthodox conversions (performed in accordance with stringent Jewish to law) should be recognized in Israel for the purpose of the Law of Return. In other words, if certain rabbis, who do not serve on behalf of the state, convert someonehe could register as a Jew to apply for citizenship.

The Jewish community fears that the law will prevent anyone who has converted abroad from receiving permits to immigrate to Israel since the rabbinate does not recognize them as Jews.

The Jewish Agency issued a statement on Friday, followng the the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to postpone the Conversion Bill.

"The Jewish Agency for Israel welcomes the prime minister's announcement that the intensive talks and concerted effort on the part of

a number of ministers and other partners to resolve the crisis surrounding conversion have borne fruit. This effort, conducted in a spirit of understanding and a desire to reach a compromise, provides all parties of interest with a period of six months to reach a solution. We hope that the task force appointed by the prime minister will reach a conclusion that strengthens the unity of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora," read the statement.

"The Jewish Agency also sincerely hopes that the spirit seen over the last two days will lead to the resolution of the issues surrounding the Western Wall, as provided by the agreement previously reached by all concerned."
American director Quentin Tarantino is engaged to be married to his Israeli girlfriend, Daniela Pick, the daughter of the famed Israeli musician Tzvika Pick.

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The two got engaged on Friday night in Los Angeles.

"It's true, we're very happy and very excited," confirmed Daniela Pick.

Tarantino and Pick.

"Yes, there's joy in our family. They got engaged yesterday, we wished them Mazal Tov," father Tzvika Pick said.

Tarantino, 54, and Pick, 33, first started dating in 2009, when the American director met Pick during a visit to Israel to promote his movie Inglourious Basterds.

Tarantino and Pick (Photo: Yael Friedson)

Two weeks later, they were already sighted holding hands on the red carpet in Los Angeles, confirming the transatlantic romance.

The relationship, however, was short lived, and the two soon broke up.

But sometimes in the summer of 2016 the two were once again seen together, and now they're heading down the aisle.
Missoulians wanted to save some of the historic Missoula Mercantile, and now it looks like $335,746 worth of public money will go to preserve the pharmacy portion of the building within the new hotel being built.

On Friday, the Missoula Redevelopment Agencys Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve giving up to $3,597,844 in Tax Increment Financing assistance to the developers who are building a new $38 million, 177-room hotel on the corner of Front and Higgins in downtown Missoula.

The site of the hotel lies within the Front Street Urban Renewal District, so the developers are eligible to receive TIF assistance for portions of the project that benefit the public. The additional property tax revenue generated by the new project wont go into the citys general fund, but will instead be diverted back into the district.

The purpose of urban renewal districts is to offer an incentive to developers to spur new projects in formerly blighted areas so that the public will see improved conditions in run-down neighborhoods.

A total of $1,502,689 will go into reimbursing the developer, Andy Holloran of Bozeman, for deconstructing and demolishing the 140-year-old Missoula Mercantile building, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is common for the MRA to reimburse developers for demolishing old buildings in Urban Renewal Districts, ostensibly because developers would otherwise find it cost prohibitive to redevelop blighted areas as opposed to bare land, among other reasons.

Ellen Buchanan, the executive director of the MRA, said that Holloran spent extra time and money by deconstructing the Merc rather than just demolishing it. Holloran hired Home ReSource, a nonprofit in Missoula, to salvage 70 to 80 percent of the materials from the building by hand.

Deconstruction had a cost in terms of real dollars and in terms of time, Buchanan told the board. Demolition would have been quicker and the developers would be on a timeline that they would be much happier with had they gone with demolition. And the deconstruction work was done with state prevailing wage rates that added $100,000 to the cost.

Many Missoula citizens opposed allowing the developer to remove the Mercantile building because of its historic significance, and in the end, the city council required that the developer save the pharmacy portion. So, $335,746 worth of TIF funds will reimburse Holloran and his investors for restoring the pharmacy.

Another $151,500 will pay for asbestos removal that has already been completed, and another $1,607,909 will pay for burying and moving power lines and other utilities and improving the streetscaping.

The Montana Department of Revenue estimates that the new project will generate $325,000 annually in property taxes. Currently, the property taxes are $23,645, so that means there will be just over $300,000 per year in new TIF revenue when the hotel opens in December 2018.

However, Holloran says he thinks the DORs estimates are low because he and his team have added $5 million more to the total project costs, including 27 more rooms than the original design, and the commercial tenants who will occupy the ground-level retail spots will spend approximately $2 million on building improvements. Holloran mentioned that one restaurant and bar has already agreed to occupy the 4,000-square-foot, ground-floor corner space on Front and Pattee streets.

Buchanan said she recommended approving the TIF request because the project will benefit the public in numerous ways. She emphasized to the board that the Merc had been vacant since 2010 and surrounding businesses and building owners had consistently expressed concern about the negative impact of such a large and prominent building sitting empty year after year.

The Mercantile Residence Inn by Marriott will once again bring that vibrancy to this important corner by providing 22,500 square feet of new retail and hundreds of new visitors to downtown who are staying at the hotel, Buchanan told the MRA board. The businesses located in the vicinity will benefit from the hotel guests and new businesses will likely open in response to the new development.

"The current investment on Front Street is possibly already the highest of any street in the state and this project represents another $37.9 million in new investment.

Buchanan estimates that gross revenue from the hotel alone is estimated to be $6.5 million every year, and hotel wages are estimated to be $2.6 million. The hotel is expected to create many temporary construction jobs as it is built and will require about 58 total permanent employees when it opens, 35 of which will be full-time equivalent. The retail and restaurants are expected to employ about 40 full-time equivalent positions.

Additionally, revitalization of this prominent block will likely spur additional private investment in the downtown, Buchanan noted.

The project is being financed through a combination of owner equity, a bank loan from Stockman Bank, seller financing and TIF funds. Buchanan noted that Holloran has completed other successful hotel and residential projects in Bozeman.

The vacant Merc building has been the epitome of blight for the last six-plus years, Buchanan said. Replacing the structurally unsound, empty building with a vibrant new hotel with 22,500 square feet of retail and restaurant space is one of the most positive projects that could occur in any downtown.

Holloran was gently prodded by the citys Historic Preservation Officer, Emy Scherrer, to consider adding things like window stylings, cornices, pilasters and other elements to the second story that are evocative of the historic building but not mimicking the historic features. Holloran responded by saying hell take those suggestions into consideration.

The developer will not get reimbursed with any money until the project is complete and gets a certificate of occupancy. Holloran said he and his team are thrilled with the project.

The hotel will have a saltwater pool on the ground floor instead of a pool on the second-story deck, but there will be fire pits and an event space on the deck next to the fitness center. Holloran said hes secured a liquor license, and theyll soon begin actively marketing the other retail spaces.

It has increased a little bit in scope and magnitude, he said. We now have 177 rooms and we have a little bit more retail space on the ground level. We couldnt be happier being in downtown Missoula and really seeing all the activity that is going on, with the student housing project and the new library coming up and we are hearing good things about the Fox Triangle site. Its a good time to be in Missoula, particularly downtown.

Holloran said that although the process has been challenging at times, he believes Missoula is a good place to develop.

Weve got an incredible City Council and an incredible mayor, and the project is better because of this process, he said.
MARINETTE, Wisc.  The future USS Billings sits on a set of greased ramps that are ready to release and dump the 3,400-metric-ton battleship into Lake Michigan.

Hundreds of feet away, the steel that makes up hulls for the Navys new line of combat ships gets unloaded from a train, dusted with rust, to wait to be bent or cut into hundreds of variations that will eventually make up a ship.

Traditionally, ships are built from the ground up; laying the keel often signifies the start of constructions. But the ships being built in Marinette, Wisconsin, are built from the middle out, said John Torrisi, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, which contracts Marinette Marine, which is owned by Fincantieri, an Italian company.

But the Billings  LCS-15, in shipyard speak  and its brethren are constructed in sections that are then put together, like working on sections of a puzzle before locking all of the completed segments together.

The littoral  which refers to coastal waters  combat ships are designed to be multi-functional, replacing three different kinds of ships that specialized in mine sweeping and combat, both surface and submarine. Theyre designed to be fast and maneuverable, and feature reconfigurable spaces with plug-and-play technology depending on the mission.

Within 24 hours you can, in essence, change and reconfigure that ship, Torrisi said.

Building and testing the ship takes about four years after a giant electromagnet starts hauling four-ton plates of steel into a blasting and painting machine that prepares the metal for production. Work on the future Billings began in late 2014.

Despite the new construction process, the shipyard still held a ceremonial keel laying in the fall of 2015. Steel and aluminum, piping, electronics, engines, and more took shape in a compartmentalized process. For much of production, sections of the vessel are unrecognizable as a ship. But eventually, sections are sealed together.

The vessel's shape and scale quickly become apparent, with the 378-foot-long hull parked inside a giant manufacturing hangar thats not quite tall enough to put the mast on a ship. That step must wait until dozens of automated wheeled platforms roll the boat outside.

Once outside, its far from finished. The future Billings is only about 83 percent complete, despite its imminent christening Saturday. Work crews continue installing systems, electrical work, painting, interior structures and more.

The ship is slated to go through acceptance trials next summer, where its put through maneuvers and tested to make sure its up to the Navys specs. Tests range from detonating a 10,000-pound bomb near the ship that generates the rattle of a 3.4 magnitude earthquake to making sure cooking equipment functions. One of the ships the yard worked on had to replace a faulty coffee pot.

Leaders of Navy crews for the ship toured the future Billings on Friday.

"It's awesome, a good experience to see the foundation of a ship being built," said commanding officer Nathan Rowan, who will lead one of two alternating crews for the ship.

When its finished, the future Billings will be the eighth completed ship for the new group; four have been delivered to the Navy, and three more are near completion. Global Dynamics was assigned to what amounts to the second half of the Navys order for LCS ships, which are being constructed in Alabama.

According to a May 2017 Congressional Research Service document, between 40 and 52 could be completed. Then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter issued a memo in 2015 reducing the order to 40 from 52 in 2015 and limiting production to one shipyard, but Navy officials pushed back against reductions.

Several of the first ships from the class experienced breakdowns, and a review of safety procedures commissioned by the Navy was completed in August. The first four ships will be used for testing and stay in U.S. waters.

U.S. Navy Admiral Scott H. Swift, who commands the U.S. Pacific Fleet, cited negative publicity, in a 2016 column for a Navy magazine, arguing that changes were expected with any new rollout.

There was a zero percent chance the Freedoms deployment would go 100 percent correctly, he wrote, citing the first ship in the class, but the risk was worth the result  the more we operate LCSs in the Pacific, the more clearly I see their value and the more committed I am to operating them forward.

Captain Tom Anderson, the LCS program manager for the Navy, expressed confidence in the ships going forward.

"My expectation is the Billings will do exceptionally well when she get out there."
HELENA  Montana's secretary of state won't release voters' birthdays or social security numbers to the president's commission on election integrity, the state elections director said Friday.

Earlier this week, the vice chairman of President Donald Trump's commission and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach sent a letter to all 50 states asking for information from their voter rolls, including names, voting history, birthdays and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

Montana has not received that letter, said director of elections and voter services Derek Oestreicher on Friday.

Montanas voter file information is public information, but it does not contain information like birth dates or Social Security numbers.

The information in the states voter file includes a voters first name, last name, registration status, if they are active or inactive and the reason the voter is designated as active or inactive.

Our office will not release any personal or confidential information, Oestreicher said.

Voter information does not include party affiliation because Montana has an open primary system and voters do not register under any a specific party. Voter information also does not include how a person voted.

Its information the public can request at any time, and was requested by some members of the media before the November election to look at the voting history of candidates.

Trump has promised a commission looking at fraud in the country's elections, though there is no evidence or history of widespread fraud in any state.

The president made claims, with no evidence to back him up, of voter fraud both before and after his election. At one point he said, without any proof, that 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton during the election last fall.

Montana has seen its own struggles with claims of voter fraud, though there has been no evidence the state has problems with its elections administration.

During the legislative session this spring, several measures were introduced to limit who is able to collect absentee ballots. That came in response to worries by some residents that people who offered to turn in ballots for others had not done so, though there was no evidence that actually happened.

Only one bill, which would put restrictions on who can turn in absentee ballots, was passed as a referendum and will be decided on by voters in 2018.

Secretary of State Corey Stapleton said earlier this month there was a single occurrence of mail ballot fraud in Missoula during May's special election, but county elections administrator Rebecca Connors said the issue involved just one ballot and that it was a clerical error, not fraud. The elections office accepted a ballot with a signature that did not match the one on file.

Many states around the nation release voter files similar to Montanas at no charge, Oestreicher said, but Montana charges a fee that, depending on the scope of the request, could range from a couple hundred dollars to several thousand.
Reading that western Montana's fire season is about to arrive, alerted me to an old 1967 ecology paper I read a few days ago. The paper's topic dealt with how climate change cycles in the western U.S. could be objectively assessed by checking spatial shifts in mountain timberline zones.

The authors of the ecology paper, written 50 years ago, indicated that shifts in the location of the upper limits of tree growth could be used to describe the history of climate change. The advance upward, and retreat downward of trees on mountain tops would be nearly similar to current melt patterns in mountain ice fields.

The trees at high elevations grow very slowly, and also, when they die, they decay away only slowly. The slow decay allows scientists to examine many centuries of tree ring growth patterns; counting the number and width of tree rings; such tree ring data allows construction of past centuries of climate change. When living timberline zone trees can no longer reproduce because of climate changes, this provides field evidence of a downward shift of the timberline and expansion of the alpine zone. Such shifts might be local or regional.

I'd like to request those hiking to the tops of western Montana's mountain peaks this summer to take special note of any physical evidence of current or past advance and/or retreat of the timberlines. Look for small conifers getting started in places where there's no evidence of a former forest, or take note of the presence of standing or downed dead large trees, but without evidence of new trees getting started. Such field evidence may provide clues to the dynamic shifting of our local timberlines, and a local gauge of climate change.

Reading the high country landscape can be a bit tricky because both fires and insects can and do damage or kill trees that compose the mountain timberline zone. Mountain glaciers advanced and retreated over relatively long timelines, over thousands of years, but evidence from Glacier National Park suggests a very rapid retreat just since the early 1900s.

Timberline shifts in western Montana also may be happening at a more rapid pace than at any time in the past. So be alert and read the landscape carefully when you've reached western Montana's timberlines and alpine zones, and report back what you've seen. We'll all appreciate your ecological insights.
Donald Trump and his administration have proposed cutting federal funding to enforce Americas clean air and clean water laws by up to 31 percent. Budgets reflect priorities and based on this budget, industry and the wealthy are the top priorities of the Trump administration.

This Dirty Budget rigs the system for big corporations at the expense of the health of all Americans. By putting a politician, Scott Pruitt, who has raised more than $3 million from corporate polluters  and protected their interests at every turn  in charge of the EPA and proposing to slash the agencys budget and staff, Trump has made it clear that our priorities are not his priorities.

These are the same cuts that were too extreme for even his own party, who know their constituents have to be able to breathe.

There's not that much in the EPA [budget] for crying out loud, said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. He noted that more than a quarter of the EPA budget goes toward popular drinking water and clean air grants for states, local communities, and tribes that lawmakers from both parties would be reluctant to cut.

In fact, the overwhelming majority of Americans, including a majority of Trump voters, support policies to combat climate change like the Clean Power Plan.

Sixty-one percent of voters disapprove of how the Trump administration is handling the environment. And 72 percent say it would be a "bad idea" to cut funding for climate change research and education.

President Trump's budget is not just out of step; its life threatening. With his dirty budget, President Trump is waging an unprecedented and dangerous assault on public health and environmental protections.

From tap water to clean air, President Trump's proposed budget cuts put the health of Montanans on the chopping block.

Sally Brown,

Missoula
James Wasson's bail was reduced after his counsel told Butte district court Thursday that a substantial amount of evidence that the county attorney's office had against him had not yet been turned over to the defense, which they were required to do by June 15.

Wasson previously pleaded not guilty to five counts of felony criminal endangerment, one count of felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, and one count of misdemeanor criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.

"I am not going to have Mr. Wasson sit in jail on a $100,000 bond we know he can't pay when we can't make progress on the case," said Judge Brad Newman. He instructed the prosecution to deliver all required documents and photographs to the defense within 20 days and will reschedule an omnibus hearing.

Guilty plea at first appearance

Bryce Armstrong pleaded guilty to felony theft, though the judge emphasized to him that it was unusual for defendants to waive their rights to trial at a first appearance before the court. Armstrong admitted to stealing a firearm, a snowboard, apparel, and other items.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10; Armstrong remains free on bail until then.

BB gun threats

A Butte woman pleaded not guilty to three charges of assault with a weapon. Casandra LaTray is accused of threatening three minors with a BB gun from a window while driving past them. LaTray is out on bail and is scheduled for an omnibus hearing on July 27.

In other court news Thursday:

Kip Becraft pleaded not guilty Thursday to one count of assault on a minor, a felony. An omnibus hearing is scheduled for July 27, and Becraft remains out on bail.

Timothy Edwards pleaded not guilty Thursday to two charges, felony assault with a weapon and misdemeanor partner or family member assault. Edwards is accused of slapping, headbutting, and pointing a gun at the victim and was charged June 7. He remains out on bail.

Judge Kurt Krueger sentenced Randy Fugle of Butte to five years in prison with credit for 296 days served. Fugle previously pleaded guilty in February to burglary, theft, and assault with a weapon, all felonies.

Thomas Crump pleaded not guilty Thursday to felony burglary charges filed in early June. Crump was arrested in April after police found him in a basement with tools and piles of copper wire. If convicted, Crump faces up to 20 years in prison. He remains in custody on $50,000 bond.
Cobb County, GA - A 1-year-old girl is being hospitalized after drinking a cup of crystal methamphetamine that was left in a hotel room in Smyrna by her mothers boyfriend, according to a criminal warrant.

The boyfriend, Lorenzo Harris, was arrested and his charges include second-degree child cruelty, trafficking methamphetamine, intent to distribute marijuana, intent to distribute cocaine and felony possession of a firearm. He is being held at the Cobb County Jail.

The children's mother, Shantonia Heard, was also arrested.

The warrant states Harris left a Styrofoam cup of crystal meth on the top of a dresser drawer in the room. The child drank the cup and began acting erratically and scratching herself feverishly. The girl was transported to Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta, where she tested positive for ingesting meth.

Smyrna Police said a toxicology scan confirmed the child had meth in her system.

"With the detrimental effects of crystal meth, it was very dangerous to the child, we're just fortunate the child didn't take enough that it was fatal," said Smyrna Police Office Louis Defense.

Authorities seized firearms, cocaine and a large amount of marijuana and rolling papers from the hotel room, the warrant said. The womans 3-year-old son was also in the room at the time of the incident. Police believe both children were also exposed to marijuana smoke.

"There was an odor of marijuana in the room and we assumed the children were in that environment and they inhaled the marijuana smoke," said Officer Defense.

Harris was found with more than $9,200 on him, the warrant said.

Authorities searched Harris's car and discovered three firearms, including an assault rifle, a second container of meth, a large amount of marijuana, two bags of crack cocaine, several clear baggies and a scale.
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
To people celebrating the Fourth of July, an evening of fireworks may call to mind the bombs bursting in air of Americas anthem. To their dogs and cats, the scene may be only a trigger for sheer terror  and flight.

Directors of the Napa County Animal Shelter say about 30 canines escaped residential yards last year during the weekend of Independence Day, and are calling on pet owners to keep their companions far from the pyrotechnics scheduled across the county Tuesday night.

The July Fourth season of firecrackers is also the busiest time of year for animal control workers who must track down, hold and return animals driven to blind flight  and sometimes injury or death when struck by vehicles  by ear-splitting bangs and blinding flashes they cannot understand. More pets disappear on or before Independence Day than at any other time of year, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has reported.

Anytime there is a fireworks spectacular, its great for people  but for the animals its a very scary situation, said Erika Gamez, manager of the animal shelter and pet adoption center on Hartle Court. Its just not advisable to take them to these events, even if theyre left in the car.

Organized shows scheduled on Independence Day itself are not the only causes of fright for pets, cautioned Wendi Piscia, executive director of Napa Humane, pointing to pre-holiday fireworks celebrations  and even the playful shooting-off of small over-the-counter noisemakers in backyards and streets.

Its not always just the Fourth; fireworks can take place on different nights. Pay attention to when Silverado Resort and Spa has its show, for example, she said of the resorts annual display on Monday night. A lot of times, it is the neighborhood fireworks that upset the pets just as much.

Piscia advised pet owners to, at a minimum, keep sensitive animals in inner rooms of the home, and to play soft music to calm them. Owners also can take their animals to a veterinarian for a prescription sedative or anti-anxiety medication if their pets have severe noise-related phobias.

Owners are advised to take time before the holiday to buy identity tags for their dogs, or to ensure the information on existing tags is up to date. Also, microchips, paired with smartphone apps such as Whistle and Tractive, can help locate pets that do run away.

The Napa County Animal Shelter will be closed on July 4 but will be open on Monday and Wednesday between 11 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. Those who find an apparently lost pet during the shelters off hours are advised to return it to its owner if it can be located using a microchip, or to care for the animal until the facility reopens if possible, according to Gamez, the manager.

If help from county animal control services is needed to tend to a runaway pet, callers can reach a dispatcher at 707-253-4517.

Owners are charged an average of $140 upon retrieving their four-footed companions, a fee that varies based on past impoundments, whether the animal is spayed or neutered, and whether the pet is licensed.

We know the Fourth of July comes once a year, so theres no reason to not be prepared, Gamez said.
ST. HELENA  In the face of strong public opposition, the St. Helena City Council agreed that its too soon to team up with a developer to build a luxury resort on the Adams Street property next to the library.

A committee of staff and outside advisors had recommended that the council sign an exclusive negotiation agreement with HRV Hotel Partners, which is proposing a five-star, 113-room hotel on the 5.6-acre site.

Members of the public, who were highly critical of hotel plans by HRV and two other developers last October, say the process that led up to the recommendation lacked transparency, public involvement or adequate consideration of the projects effects on traffic, water, parking, views and other environmental factors.

I think we need to wait and see  what the community wants before we start considering making a recommendation for an exclusive proposal, said Tom Belt, one of 19 members of the public who spoke out against the recommendation in front of a standing-room-only crowd this week.

The council unanimously agreed to table the recommendation and discuss an alternative proposal by Councilmember Mary Koberstein at their next meeting. Koberstein called for an evaluation of each of the citys properties and public facilities and options for improving them, an analysis of the citys finances, and regular study sessions on the Adams Street property to ensure that the process stays on track and reaches a conclusion soon.

The question of what to do with the property has vexed the city ever since it bought the land in 2000. A 2009 visioning plan called for a community center, an expanded library, housing and other civic uses, but it didnt explore how to pay for those improvements.

Meanwhile, the deteriorating condition of public facilities like City Hall, the police station and the corporation yard has put more pressure on the city to monetize the Adams Street property. A hotel has been deemed the most lucrative option, with HRVs plan offering a purchase price of $20 million and $17.7 million in new tax revenue over the first five years of hotel operations.

Koberstein and Dohring said the city needs to reevaluate the 2009 plans financial feasibility, and agreed that residents wont buy into the idea of a hotel without more analysis and public discussion.

We must explore our facilities needs and our financial options, with the help of both municipal financial advisers and real estate strategists, so that we can determine the best way forward to achieve our community goals, Dohring said. One way forward may very well include a hotel on Adams Street, but at this juncture we are in no position to make that case to our residents.

Councilmembers also spoke in favor of appointing a citizens committee. However, the process shouldnt be drawn out too long, they agreed.

Im not suggesting that we launch into a five-year effort, Kobestein said.

Im hoping we can get through it sometime this fall, Mayor Alan Galbraith said, adding that he hopes the three developers who submitted proposals will continue to show interest.
Except for one year, two-plus decades ago, Democrats have controlled both houses of the California Legislature for nearly a half-century.

Moreover, most members of the Senate are former members of the Assembly, so one might assume that the two houses are in synch and so duplicative that it might as well be a one-house Legislature.

Theres a cogent argument for a unicameral legislative branch, but the notion that the two houses are merely mirror images of one another  Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, as it were  is erroneous.

In fact, they  and their leaders of the moment  are often in conflict, not unlike the historic rivalries between the nations supposedly unified military branches for mission and money.

At any given point, one house is the more activist, setting the agenda and generating legislation  the Senate most recently  while the other is more reactive as it yearns for primacy.

The Legislatures endemic dissonance has been on stark display in recent weeks, most evidently over an issue that also divides the state Democratic Party: single-payer health insurance.

With Republicans threatening to dismantle, or at least scale back, Obamacare in Washington, the partys left-wing  the so-called Berniecrats  has been demanding that California provide universal health care, including coverage for several million undocumented immigrants.

With the California Nurses Association providing the political horsepower, the Senate passed a single-payer bill without a mechanism to cover its $400 billion a year cost. Whereupon, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon declared it dead (or at least stalled) on arrival, terming it woefully inadequate.

That angered Sen. Bernie Sanders, the CNA and other advocates, who immediately denounced Rendon as a corporate puppet, although hes drawn support from other unions. CNA leader RoseAnn DeMoro posted a picture of the California bear with a butcher knife in its back on Twitter, with the blade of the weapon inscribed Rendon.

Rendons action late Friday also was a rebuff to Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, whos garnered lavish national media attention as a self-appointed leader of Californias resistance to President Donald Trump.

However, Rendon could hardly have done differently, given his own persona as a publicity-shy leader more interested in making policy than headlines.

Had the Assembly passed a bill without a financing system, it would have been accurately portrayed as empty symbolism.

Had it added the huge taxes that single-payer coverage requires, it would have exposed Rendons vulnerable members to the wrath of voters who would be paying those taxes  especially since the Legislature just voted to raise unpopular gas taxes  and thus could have eroded the Democrats very thin legislative supermajorities.

Gov. Jerry Brown also plainly didnt want a single-payer bill on his desk, given his own hope to be remembered as a careful steward of the publics money. So Rendons act was, both politically and fiscally, the right thing to do, even if it made him a pariah to his partys left-wing.

Nor is health care the only point of cross-Capitol conflict this year. Another is what form, if any, the states cap-and-trade system of limiting greenhouse gas emissions will take. De Leon has a version that conflicts sharply with the Assemblys and rectifying the two to write something that Brown can accept and get the required number of votes is no mean feat.

Whatever happens on these two issues, the rivalry will continue until and unless we emulate Nebraska and conclude that a unicameral Legislature would, indeed, make more sense.
Before the 2016 election, Donald Trump repeatedly insisted that there might be rampant voter fraud in states like Pennsylvania. Part of this was clearly that he really believed the rhetoric hed read on conservative websites that voter fraud was a frequently occurring crime, despite the lack of evidence to that effect. Part of it, too, though, was that Trump was trailing in the polls, and claiming that there was fraud gave him a possible excuse in the event that he lost.

When he won, one might think that this argument would be abandoned. But Trump, smarting from the fact that he won the electoral college while losing the popular vote by a historic margin, continued to argue that the election was rife with fraud. This was not only a weird argument, coming from the guy who won, but it was also tricky given that Trump won Pennsylvania, narrowly. Was there still fraud in Pennsylvania?

Well, after the election the attention of supporters Trump turned in another direction: To California, where it was posited that illegal immigrants flooded the polls, helping to make up a popular vote margin that otherwise would not have favored Hillary Clinton.

This was all nonsense, of course, claims made without any evidence at all in an effort to make Trumps victory seem less marginal.

So Trump decided to look for evidence, tapping Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to partner with Vice President Mike Pence on a commission to study voter fraud, which is a bit like forming a commission to study how to prevent people from being struck by lightning. It happens, sure, but very, very rarely and not enough to affect things to any great degree. But ensuring that no one ever got hit by lightning would require a lot of cumbersome rules that many would find grating.

Kobach, a self-styled anti-fraud crusader with a very short list of victories, created rules in Kansas that ended up demanding additional verification from 14 percent of his states voters, moving them into a sort of voting limbo and preventing valid voters from casting ballots without jumping through additional hoops.

In 2012, a voter ID law in Kansas kept over 30,000 Kansans from casting votesa group that skewed younger and nonwhite. That skewed, in other words, Democratic. Kobach identified a handful of people who broke voting laws, but at the cost of prohibiting thousands of legitimate voters from casting ballots.

On Thursday, news broke that Kobachs commission was seeking full voter files from all 50 states, including names, addresses and the last four digits of every persons Social Security number. The idea, clearly, is to match voters with similar names from one state to another to see if there is a glut of people crossing state lines to cast multiple votes. Something, we will add once again, for which there is no other evidence.

Some states have already declined to offer that information for the simple reason that they were not legally allowed to. Others, like Trumps longtime foe California, declined to do so because they saw where this was going: The data would be used to scale Kobachs voter-limbo system to a national level, again mostly affecting poorer and younger voters. California was joined by Massachusetts, Virginia, Kentucky and, on Friday, New York.

Which by itself means that Kobachs commission is probably doomed to failure.

Consider the scale of the states that have declined to participate. There are about 175 million active registered voters in the United States, according to voter records maintained by a firm called L2. (In most states, voter files are public records, allowing campaigns to target voters with mail and so on.)

The five states that have declined to provide Kobach with their files make up nearly a quarter of all of the active voters in the United States; 10 percent of voters live in California alone. Meaning that Kobachs commission will have no way to include those voters in his system.

We should also remember how much movement there is between states. In 2015, Census Bureau data indicates that more than half a million people moved to California from one of the other states. Another 250,000 moved to New York. Records for those 750,000 people wont be able to be compared with their previous states of residence.

Tens of thousands of people came to California from a slew of other states, too. They wont be included in Kobachs huntnor will those who moved from California to, say, Texas65,000 of whom did so.

Trump and his supporters have repeatedly pointed to a report from Pew Research. In 2012, Pew found millions of outdated voter records, a function of people moving between states (or dying, etc.) and their old registrations not being updated. Pews point wasnt that there was fraud; again, there is no evidence of rampant voter fraud using outdated registrations or anything else. Pews point was that states should do a better job managing their records.

Kobachs commission was created by a president that used Pews report to sloppily insinuate that there were millions voting illegally. The report makes clear, though, that Kobach will find lots of people registered in multiple states (including a number of people who work for the president), which by itself says nothing about fraud. But Kobach could drop some huge number which Trump could use to pressure Congress to pass a bill that makes it harder to votedoing little but decreasing the number of Democrats who cast ballots.

By withholding their data, California, New York and the other states will make Kobachs number smalleras well as cast doubt on his ultimate findings. Supporters of the commission will position this as obstructionist. Given the political intent of the commission, thats an obstructionism that California Democrats would probably embrace.
By now you will have heard rumblings of the policy idea known as "universal basic income." This is the notion that the government should give every citizen enough no-strings-attached money to cover basic living expenses.

In the last year alone, Mark Zuckerberg called on Harvard's graduating class to "explore ideas like universal basic income," Elon Musk told a gathering of world leaders in Dubai that "some kind of universal basic income is going to be necessary," and President Obama remarked that universal basic income is a subject we'll be debating "over the next 10 or 20 years."

Though universal basic income, or UBI, has become downright trendy in Silicon Valley, the concept is not actually new. Thomas Paine proposed a basic income for every citizen as early as 1792. Milton Friedman and Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed the idea in the 1960s as a way of fighting poverty. In 1971, a basic income for poor families almost became law under President Nixon.

But the idea is gaining unprecedented traction right now with good reason. The U.S. economy is increasingly unstable, with wealth accruing at the top while most Americans remain stuck in low-paying jobs. Globalization has weakened the power of labor unions, squeezing the middle class and narrowing paths into the middle class for the poor. Economists have chronicled the rise of the "precariat," a growing class of workers who rely on insecure gig work with few benefits. And we haven't even begun to feel the brunt of that other looming threat, the A-word. According to an Oxford University study, nearly half of all Americans -- 47 percent -- are at "high risk" of losing their jobs to automation.

Although economists are still debating whether automation will ultimately devastate the American labor market or not -- many point out that previous economic transitions created as many jobs as they destroyed -- few dispute that such transitions were extremely painful for workers. We know that most of the American workforce currently lacks the skills required for the jobs of the future, and costly retraining programs have failed to close this gap. For all these reasons, establishing a universal basic income is the only real way to help Americans weather the widespread disruption that automation is sure to bring.

There are competing ideas about how exactly the policy should work. Advocates on the left call for a UBI that would increase benefits to the poor and be financed by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Conservative advocates favor an approach wherein programs in the current safety net, such as Social Security and food stamps, are replaced with a UBI. Others favor an incrementalist policy in which current safety net programs are expanded to include all Americans, while another faction wants to build a UBI program from scratch. Despite their differences, all approaches to UBI policy share the core goal of establishing an income floor for every American.

An income floor would help American workers in a number of critical ways. Relieved of the immediate pressure to pay bills, workers could pursue training for the kinds of jobs that automation will bring. A universal basic income would allow skilled workers to take entrepreneurial risks they cannot afford now. It would also allow Americans to work fewer hours but maintain their living standards, leaving more time for caregiving and raising children. Overall, UBI would provide a significant boost to the American middle class, which has stagnated even as productivity and overall wealth continue to rise. By putting more money into the pockets of workers, a UBI could fuel aggregate demand and job growth in different sectors across the country.

Momentum is building. Child poverty experts in growing numbers have called on states and the federal government to consider a child allowance -- UBI for kids -- that would help level the playing field for low- and middle-income families. The California Senate is considering ambitious cap-and-trade legislation that would send "climate dividend rebates" to every citizen. Even some oil companies are in favor of schemes to tax carbon and send checks to every American.

This month, Hawaii's Legislature unanimously passed a bill that directs state agencies to study UBI as a way to provide security to all Hawaiians. This landmark legislation could pave the way for UBI to move from the realm of fantasy to reality. Other progressive states should follow Hawaii's lead and prepare their citizens for our uncertain future.
The Napa County Planning Commission will consider adopting the Final Draft Climate Action Plan on Wednesday, July 5, at 10 a.m. If the plan becomes a reality, we'll be stuck with yet another "half-way measure" that places short term profit over the long term health and well-being of our dangerously compromised climate.

Half-way measures are no longer acceptable because we have entered a non-linear period of global warming. Global mean temperature (GMT) has risen gradually since the industrial revolution, but beginning in 2013, the GMT anomaly has sharply risen from 0.8 to 1.2 degrees Celsius. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Fifth Assessment Report, describes rising radiative forcing levels as driving the increases in global warming. A lot of people dont understand this, but todays 2.4 W/m2 is sufficient excess heat to push GMT over 1.85 degrees Celsius. The heat is locked in. 2.6 W/m2 is expected within this decade, enough to push past the irreversible climate tipping point of 2 degrees Celsius, the Paris Agreements upper goal.

We need a revolution in thought and deed to reverse this climate collapse but world leaders are goofing off. Key local leaders are averting their gaze and thats really dangerous. Everyone who has the truth must speak the truth now.

Unfortunately, our CAP is being finalized using antiquated measuring standards at a time when both the state and our regional air district (Bay Area Air Quality Management District) are shifting focus to short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP), which have a much greater warming effect than CO2 (e.g. methane, black carbon, F-gases and ozone). Methane is 34 times more powerful and black carbon 900 times more powerful than CO2.

Moreover, their global warming potential is many times higher in the near term (10 years) when we still have a chance to postpone irreversible climate tipping points. We need to focus where GHG reductions can be most effective because the CAP will determine what future measures developers take to reduce emissions. We cant be burning anymore. Were smart enough to know it. Whats to prevent us from stopping?

Napa Countys Final Draft CAP offers a variety of solutions to stabilizing the climate. Instead of focusing on short-lived climate pollutants, however, the top three priorities for making the biggest cuts in GHG emissions by the year 2030 are:

1. A mandatory measure for replacing your gas water heater with an electric one (unless youd rather not do it, and prefer a more efficient gas heater instead).

2. A voluntary measure for replacing your gas and diesel-powered farm equipment with electric or alternatively-fueled equipment (unless its too hard to do).

3. A voluntary measure for replacing your boats gas or diesel-burning engine with an alternatively-powered marine engine (unless youd rather not).

No. 4 on the priority list is about land use. As the California Supreme Court recently recognized, local governments bear the primary burden of evaluating a land use projects impact on GHG emissions. While the CAP correctly identifies the critical role forests play in sequestering carbon, the county expects their continued destruction pursuant to General Plan projections. According to the California Air Resources Boards most recent climate change Scoping Plan (2014), local land use planning must take an integrated approach that avoids conversion of forests to other uses.

Yet in its land use strategies to reduce greenhouse gases, the county proposes that up to 70 percent of on-site trees may be removed. While replanting would be required, deforestation sanctioned in the CAP is not only contrary to state policy but scientifically unacceptable. Changing our attitude toward forests is an enormous lift, given the entrenched nature of the practice and the economic pressures to convert our forested hillsides to agriculture.

But in an era of deforestation and climate collapse, we must be finding ways to save our remaining forests instead of planning for their destruction.

Where the county has identified many significant sources of GHG emissions and proposes measures to counter them, it does not in most cases provide specific, mandatory and enforceable policies necessary to adequately fulfill its legal responsibilities under state law. Throughout the CAP, we read of vague steps that evaluate or consider or promote certain systems or programs in enacting measures. The county needs to take steps to require and enforce the changes we need to achieve carbon pollution reductions by the required drop dead dates.

Napa County is renowned for its quality wines and sustainable farming practices. It has a powerful global voice for meaningful climate protections. With our new state laws and with up-to-date climate stabilization accounting methods available to us, we can choose projects and technologies that are available now, scalable, and effective at reducing radiative forcing. Tell your elected officials that its time to act on real climate protections. Our children are depending on us.

Jim Wilson

Napa
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many individuals and businesses that contributed to the Celebration of Life for L. Pierce Carson on June 26. We are forever indebted to Nickel & Nickel winery and partners, Beth Nickel, Larry Maguire and Dirk Hampson, for their gracious hosting of the event. The event would not have been possible without the guidance of Far Nientes Mary Grace and the incredible management of Nickel & Nickels Galen Elliott.

Many thanks to BottleRock partners Dave Graham, Justin Dragoo, and Jason Scoggins for sharing their culinary director Chuck Meyer, instrumental in acquiring and working with the food purveyors. Napa Valley Vintners Patsy McGaughey and Cate Conniff were kind enough to notify their membership for wines to celebrate Pierce.

Thank you to restaurants and purveyors Angele, Annie the Baker, Bistro Don Giovanni, Ca Momi, Cole's Chop House, La Toque, Morimoto, Mustards Grill and Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Napa Palisades Saloon, Tarla and Napkins, and Zuzu for providing a beautiful selection of Napa Valleys finest delectables.

Exceptional pairings were provided by Alpha Omega Winery, Beringer Vineyards, Ceja Vineyards, Conn Creek Winery, Etude Wines, JaM Cellars, Long Meadow Ranch Winery, Nichelini Family Winery, Nickel & Nickel, Napa Valley Vintners, and Robert Mondavi Winery.

In honor of Pierce, event providers Pineapple Planet Event Design, Bright Rental, Sanitation Services, and CPA Valet offered special consideration for their services.

Sincere thanks goes to Congressman Mike Thompson for the memorial proclamation read into the Congressional Record and presented at the event, to California Assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and California State Senator Bill Dodd for the California State Legislature memorial resolution presentation, to the Napa County Board of Supervisors for their proclamation, and to the Napa Valley Vintners for their proclamation.

Kind words from Jack Morgan, former publisher and president of operations of The Napa Valley Register, and comments from Julie Prince, Margrit Mondavis right hand for 25 years, along with special memories from attendees reinforced Pierces importance to the wine and food culture of the Napa Valley and demonstrated the love and respect earned in his lifelong career of support.

As proclaimed in the State Legislature resolution, Pierce was a Napa Valley treasure of immeasurable importance. . . further lauded many times over by the people and organizations that had been the focus of his friendship and the tens of millions of words he so carefully crafted in print and pixels, Pierce set an exemplary standard in both journalism and life, a standard by which he came to be recognized for his commitment to excellence, his generous spirit, and his abiding and wholehearted love for the Napa Valley and its people.

We thank you all for your generous and kind recognition of this gentle man.

On behalf of his adopted family: Martin Durand, Chris Edwards, Sasha Paulsen, Sandy Smart, Roberta Quick, Pavol Mincak, Trevor Davies, and Michael Rainey.

Monty Sander

Napa
Chinese ambassador to Germany Shi Mingde receives an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Berlin, capital of Germany, on June 29, 2017. (Xinhua/Wang Qing)

BERLIN, June 29 (Xinhua) -- China hoped that the G20 Hamburg summit can build on the results of G20 Hangzhou summit last year, and make greater achievements in consensus on openness and cooperation among member states, Chinese ambassador to Germany Shi Mingde said Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Shi said China hopes that the G20 Hamburg summit will deliver positive signs to the world, including the openness of the world economy rather than protectionism in any forms, pushing forward growth through innovative pattern and structural reform instead of only using fiscal and monetary tools.

The Hamburg summit should also achieve the strengthened cooperation among G20 member states and achieve a win-win deal. The G20 member states should hold the concept of inclusiveness, in a bid to support the development in developing countries and address the gaps between the rich and the poor among different groups in a country and among different countries, according to Shi.

Leaders of G20 member states will meet in Hamburg on July 7-8, with major issues to be focused ranging from global economic growth, trade, the spread of digital technology to climate policy, migration issues, health, Africa and others.

China holds the previous G20 presidency while Germany is the host country this year and the two countries are all-round strategic partners. Shi added that facing new world situations, China will spare no efforts to support G20 Hamburg summit to achieve success, and strengthen China-Germany cooperation under the G20 framework.

China held the G20 summit last year in its eastern city of Hangzhou, with a theme of "Toward an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy."

Shi said China and Germany can cooperate closely to maintain the consistency of G20 summits, and take consideration of the new world situation in a bid to achieve new consensus and fruits in the Hamburg summit.

Shi added that China and Germany should strengthen coordination and consultion under the G20 framework, in a bid to address short-term risks and challenges that the world is facing, and address the deep-seated structural problems in world financial system, as well as explore new growth momentum for world economy.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-30 22:47:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BELGRADE, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Ana Brnabic, first woman and LGBT person to become part of Serbian government, has been elected on Thursday at the parliament as the new Prime Minister of the country by 157 votes out of 250 MPs.

Brnabic was born in Belgrade, Serbia in 1975 and obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Northwood University of Michigan, the United States in 1998, and master's degree in marketing from Hull University, in Britain in 2001.

While studying in Britain during March 1999 she got a post at the Serbian Information Centre which coordinated exchange between British media and civil organizations and pro-reform oriented political parties in Serbia, and worked there until October 2002.

Upon returning to Serbia in 2002 she coordinated cooperation between local and international stakeholders such as international organizations, foreign investors, local self-governments and public sectors in Serbia, and her employers were mostly US consultancy firms which executed programs financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Serbia.

She worked briefly as an advisor to presidential candidate Miroljub Labus during campaign of 2002, and also advised the director of the Coordination body for Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac of the Serbian government from 2007 to 2010 about cooperation with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international organizations and foreign governments, including European Union delegation, German and British embassies and others.

During this time she also worked on USAID's programs in Serbia such as the Serbia Local Government Reform Program (SLGRP) from 2002 to 2005, Municipal Economic Growth Activity (MEGA) from 2005 to 2007 and Serbia Competitiveness Project from 2007 to 2011, where she was engaged to coordinate the implementation of these programs with Serbian local and state government, as well as the media.

In 2010 she became an executive director and member of the managing board of the newly-established PEXIM Foundation, a private, non-profit organization with headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia, and Skopje, Macedonia, as a vehicle to support talented students from both countries to continue their studies at the University of Cambridge.

According to her official biography published by the website of the government, in 2011 she started working for US company Continental Wind Serbia which develops wind farms, and was its director from 2013 to October 2015.

She entered the spotlight of the Serbian public in August 2016 when then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic admitted that he was aware of Brnabic's LGBT sexual orientation when he nominated her for the minister of public administration and local self-government, and said: "What is important to me is what she can achieve, and I have no doubt in her abilities".

A month later, in September 2016 she participated in the Pride Parade held in Belgrade where she came together with Belgrade mayor Sinisa Mali to support representatives of LGBT population.

Besides being a minister, Brnabic also presided and presides over the Council for innovation-based entrepreneurship and information technologies as well as the Council for national minorities of the Serbian government.

After Vucic resigned this May to become president, he officially made Brnabic PM-designate with a presidential decree on June 15, less than a year after he first appointed her as minister in his government.

Brnabic does not have a family of her own, and lives in the apartment in Dedinje, Belgrade. Her parents are Zoran (deceased) and Ruzica Brnabic. Her brother Igor is a director of a prominent IT company that sells computer components and software.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 03:56:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that more than 440,000 internally displaced people and over 31,000 Syrian refugees overseas have returned to their homes in Syria so far in 2017, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a daily briefing here on Friday.

UNHCR noted that due to the notable trend of spontaneous returns of refugees to and within Syria, it has started scaling up its operational capacity inside the country, said Dujarric.

Since 2015, some 260,000 refugees have spontaneously returned to Syria, primarily from Turkey into northern Syria, according to UNHCR.

The Syrian war, now into its seventh year, has taken a toll on the country's population with hundreds of thousands being killed, around 6.3 million being displaced within the country, and 5.1 million being forced to flee as refugees outside its borders.

Over the past months, the situation is particularly dire in Raqqa, where an offensive was launched to take the city from the Islamic State. About 25,000 have reportedly fled the city since military operations started, however as many as 100,000 civilians could still be trapped there.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 04:16:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BRATISLAVA, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Some 74 percent of adult Slovaks approved of Slovakia's European Union (EU) membership, while 58 percent approved of NATO membership, Olga Gyarfasova of the Slovak Public Affairs Institute (IVO) announced Friday.

The IVO survey was carried out by Focus agency on a sample of 1,012 respondents between May 31 and June 4.

"Strong support for EU membership, however, could also be a reaction from the Slovak public to turbulent developments in Britain and Brexit, to the increased presence of a European agenda in Slovak public debate on possible future scenarios or a clear rejection of the EU-disapproving stance of the far right," claimed Gyarfasova.

Regarding NATO membership, it has always been a more delicate issue for the Slovak public, noted Gyarfasova.

The survey results suggest, however, that there's no need to maintain a low profile, PR-wise, on the issue of Slovakia's NATO commitments like the recent stationing of Slovak troops in the Baltic region, and the creation of a NATO liaison command in Slovakia with an eye towards not stirring up expected anti-NATO public sentiment.

"On the contrary, open and confident communications by politicians can contribute towards a positive embracing of NATO," added Gyarfasova.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 04:26:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Friday adopted its first ever resolution on mine action, urging all parties to armed conflicts to end the use of explosive devices and protect civilians from threats posed by landmines.

The 15-nation council stressed the importance of ensuring that peacekeeping operations are equipped, informed and trained to reduce the threat posed by landmines or explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices, according to the resolution.

Noting that the indiscriminated use of improvised explosive devices remains a major threat to the civilians, the most powerful UN body called on member states to comply with their respective international obligations related to mine action.

It also asked member states and relevant UN entities to provide assistance to clear landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices upon request of the countries.

The council "encourages States and organizations, in a position to do so, to remain actively engaged in the support of technical, advisory, and operational capacity in mine action, including by assisting affected States and relevant actors in the UN system."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 07:08:22|Editor: An

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Steve Barclay (2nd R), Director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, rings the ceremonial closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the United States , June 30, 2017. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday marked the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China with a special closing bell ringing ceremony. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

NEW YOKR, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday marked the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) with a special closing bell ringing ceremony.

Witnessed by many traders as well as some guests and journalists on the trading floor, Steve Barclay, Director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, New York, rang the ceremonial closing bell at the NYSE, located in the heart of New York's financial district, at 4:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) Friday.

The guests cheered and applauded as Barclay, flanked by NYSE officials, rang the closing bell, signaling the end of market day.

"Today is the 20th Anniversary of Hong Kong's return of sovereignty to China. Hong Kong is one of the world's great financial centers, and we thought it is very appropriate to come to one of the other great financial centers, here in New York, to ring the closing bell of the NYSE on June 30, just a few hours before the exact timing of the 20th anniversary," Barclay said at the ceremony.

Established in 1792, the NYSE is also celebrating its 225th anniversary this year, with both Hong Kong companies and Chinese mainland corporates being a very important part of NYSE today, echoed Chris Taylor, Vice President of NYSE Listings & Services.

"If you look back 20 years ago, just before the handover, many people were very pessimistic about Hong Kong's future. Looking at Hong Kong today, it's still a shining beacon of prosperity, of business, of freedom," Barclay told Xinhua.

"Those people's predictions of the failure of Hong Kong do not come true," he added. "If you see any predictions today that the next 20 years will not be a success, I promise you those will not come true as well."

Barclay noted that Hong Kong succeeds because it has been able to retain the best of what existed before, combined with the opportunities of access to mainland China.

"I retire at the end of next month, and I'm retiring in Hong Kong, that is my vote of confidence," said Barclay, referring to the outlook of Hong Kong.




Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 07:13:24|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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LISBON, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese parliament passed a bill on Friday to create an independent commission to investigate the cause of the devastating forest fires in central Portugal earlier this month.

Portuguese Lusa News Agency said the bill was voted in favor by the ruling Socialist Party and the largest opposition Social Democratic Party, CDS-PP and the Left Bloc. The Portuguese Communist Party voted against it with abstention from the Green Party and People-Animal- and Nature.

The independent technical commission will be formed by 12 experts, six of them to be appointed by the speaker of parliament, and the rest by the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP).

The investigation of the commission will focus on causes of the devastating fires, which erupted on June 17 in Pedrogao Grande, some 150 km northeast of Lison, claiming at least 64 lives, and injuring more than 250 others.

The commission will submit a report to the parliament when their work is completed.
Chinese Consul General in Chicago Hong Lei (1st L) poses for photos with guests in Chicago, the United States, June 29, 2017.(Xinhua/Wang Ping)

CHICAGO, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The China General Chamber of Commerce - Chicago (CGCC) held its second annual gala celebrating relations between the U.S. Midwest and China here on Thursday.

The gala included an award ceremony recognizing individuals and corporations that have contributed significantly to increasing Chinese industry and relations in the Midwest.

The CGCC recognized corporations such as Boeing, SAIC USA, and Wanxiang for bringing industry, innovation, and jobs to the Midwest region.

BOOMING CHINA-U.S. TRADE

In his opening remarks, CGCC Chairman Ni Pin introduced that in the past 16 years, Chinese companies have invested 20.3 billion dollars in nine U.S. Midwest states, creating over 45,000 jobs.

China is the largest trading partner and the third largest export market for the United States. According to the U.S.-China Business Council, China is the fastest-growing market for U.S. exports, with services to China growing by 301 percent and U.S. exports of goods increasing by 114 percent from 2006 to 2015.

"These are exciting times for U.S.-China relations, and it is crucial that both sides continue working together," Ni said.

"I hope that this event can help provide positive outcomes for both the U.S. and China business communities, creating more jobs and trade to boost economic growth in both countries."

Chinese Consul General in Chicago Hong Lei addresses the gala in Chicago, the United States, June 29, 2017. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

100-DAY PLAN BETWEEN CHINA & U.S.

A "New Era - Opportunities & Challenges in the U.S.-China Economic Cooperation" forum was also held during the gala, which falls within the timeframe of the 100-day plan agreed on by Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump that focuses specifically on promoting U.S. export to China, boosting trade cooperation, and attracting Chinese investment into the U.S. Midwest region.

"The two leaders have pointed a clear direction and laid the foundation for China-U.S. economic cooperation in the new era," Chinese Consul General in Chicago Hong Lei said.

"The political and business communities from both sides have focused on deepening economic cooperation between our two countries, carried out in-depth and pragmatic exchanges of view, and achieved a number of positive results," he said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has focused on increasing Chinese investment into Chicago during his time in office. Since becoming mayor, Emanuel traveled to China twice, signing economic agreements with eight Chinese cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu.

"This agreement makes Chicago and the eight (Chinese) cities gateways for investment between the two countries. I've worked hard to make this agreement successful and I'm pleased we have seen record-breaking investment from Chinese companies each year since it was signed," Emanuel said.

Along with business opportunities, Emanuel made an effort to promote Chinese culture in Chicago.

"From opening two new tourism offices in Chengdu and Guangzhou, elevating Chicago's Chinese New Year celebration with the goal of making it the biggest celebration in the U.S., to hosting numerous Chinese officials, including Vice Premiers Wang Yang and Liu Yandong, I have worked to make Chicago as friendly to China as possible," he said.

"The U.S.-China relationship is simply too important not to get right. We have no choice but to succeed in this critically important economic new balancing endeavor, and for that we are going to need all hands on deck," Senior White House Commercial Advisor Eric Branstad said at the gala.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross sent his remarks to Ni explaining that he and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have been working to develop the 100-day plan between the United States and China with specific action items for the short term.

"The plan has already yielded an 'early harvest' on the issues of exports of American beef, liquefied natural gas, and agricultural biotech products, along with market access for American financial service providers," Ross wrote.

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was awarded Outstanding Contribution to U.S.-China Relations for his work with China's top political and business leaders.

COMPANIES AWARDED

Leading commercial jetliner manufacturer Boeing won the award for Best Export Company. Nearly 500 Boeing 737 jets, including the 191 that went to Chinese airlines in 2015, are serving China's growing middle class that is already as large as the U.S. population.

Boeing expects that over the next 20 years 6,800 planes will be sold in China. Boeing plans on investing and creating jobs in China, as well as transferring technology to a Chinese state-owned company.

SAIC Motor won the award for Best Chinese Company for Innovation. SAIC USA covers international trade, logistics, manufacturing, investment, research and development. In North America, SAIC USA established branches in Michigan, California, Texas, and Mexico.

SAIC USA also set up an innovation center at Silicon Valley, collaborating with Stanford University and MIT, investing in technology startups, and developing advanced technologies like automated vehicles and artificial intelligence.

Another global player in the automotive and technology industries is Wanxiang Group, which won Best Chinese Company for Community Service. Wanxiang America invests in automotive, clean energy, and real estate markets, and employs over 18,000 people.

Wanxiang participated in the "100,000 Strong" initiative started by then U.S. President Barack Obama, sponsoring high school and college students in the Unite States to study Chinese language and culture, as well as to learn clean energy sciences. Wanxiang has also supported over 1,000 U.S. students to study in China, partnering with Chicago Public Schools and 15 other schools and organizations in nine U.S. states.

The China General Chamber of Commerce - USA said it expects the gala to return to Chicago next year at a bigger venue as relations between the United States and China continue to grow, especially in the Midwest.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 08:13:36|Editor: Liu

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ISLAMABAD, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed satisfaction over the status of all-weather strategic partnership with China, the launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Pakistan's membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Speaking at the foreign ministry, the prime minister appreciated China's role for improving Pak-Afghan relations, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement on Friday.

Sharif visited the ministry the day to undertake a comprehensive review of Pakistan's foreign policy priorities in the wake of the recent developments in and around Pakistan and the emerging global and regional scenarios.

"The Prime Minister appreciated China's role for improving Pak-Afghan relations and also recalled his recent meeting with President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of SCO Summit and their agreement to evolve a bilateral and quadrilateral mechanism for controlling cross-border terrorism," the statement said.

He directed the ministry to prepare initiatives on Afghanistan and also on building economic and trade linkages to promote Pakistan's development.

Sharif underscored the importance of securing peace and stability in the region through sustained dialogue and the high importance that Pakistan attached to its continued partnership with the United States.

The prime minister also reiterated his priority for a peaceful neighborhood and resolution of disputes through dialogue.

He emphasized that the importance of highlighting the unmatched contributions and sacrifices made by Pakistan in fighting terrorism and of projecting Pakistan's soft image.

He particularly stressed that Pakistan should progressively end its reliance on foreign assistance and funding by developing and generating its own resources. Trade, investment and scientific collaboration should be the strategic pillars of Pakistan's foreign policy, said Sharif.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 08:18:38|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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ISLAMABAD, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has visited the tribal town of Parachinar nearly a week after a twin deadly terrorist bomb attack that killed about 80 people and more than 200 people were wounded.

The banned sectarian group "Lashkar-e-Jhangvi" had claimed the attacks targeted Shia Muslims.

A military spokesman said Friday in a statement that the army chief interacted with local tribal elders and representatives of the protest sit-in, which had started after the blasts in a crowded marketplace.

The army chief was briefed in details about security situation and recent terrorist incidents.

"Our enemies shall never succeed to lower our resolve or to divide us," Bajwa told the tribal elders, according to the army statement.

Speaking at the occasion, tribal elders expressed their full confidence and trust in the Pakistani army and its leadership. "We stand with our Security Forces and our blood is for our motherland. We all are Pakistani's and Muslim," the elders remarked.

The army chief said that there are clear evidences of hostile foreign hands in recent incidents, local facilitators and abettors have been apprehended and will be tried in military courts.

He announced that additional troops have been moved in Parachinar to enhance its security while paramilitary troops are being beefed up on Pak-Afghan border to seal it effectively.

A trauma center will be established at Parachinar by the army while local civil hospital will be upgraded for better medical care by civil administration.

Bajwa said that threat continues to reside across the border in Afghanistan with the militant group of Islamic State is gaining strength there.

"We need to remain united, steadfast, prepared and vigilant against this threat which has an agenda of exploiting sectarian fault-line. Also, a greater Pak-Afghan border coordination and security cooperation is required in this regard," he remarked.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 08:23:39|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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SEOUL, July 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports rose 13.7 percent from a year earlier to 51.4 billion U.S. dollars in June, a government report showed Saturday.

The exports, which account for about half of the export-driven economy, kept an upward momentum for the eighth consecutive month, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The overseas shipments also posted a double-digit expansion for six months in a row since January this year.

Imports advanced 18 percent over the year to 40 billion dollars in June, sending last month's trade surplus to 11.4 billion dollars. The trade balance stayed in black for 65 straight months.

During the January-June period, exports reached 279.4 billion dollars, up 15.8 percent compared with the same period of last year. It was the biggest figure since the second half of 2014 when the exports recorded 289.5 billion dollars.
Photo provided by courtesy of Aleks Terauds shows Jasmine Lee stands with penguins in Antarctica. (Xinhua/Australian Antarctic Division)

SYDNEY, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Antarctica is under threat of increased melting of its ice deposits, according to new research has been released, and scientists have warned that climate change is the culprit.

Ice-free areas in the southernmost continent could expand by up to 25 percent by the year 2100 resulting in a substantial shift in the existing biodiversity, according to the scientists.

The lead scientist on the project, Ph.D. candidate Jasmine Lee, told Xinhua on Thursday that the impact of climate change on the ice-free areas, rather than the surrounding ice, is important to better understand the overall ecological situation in the region.

"Until now, Antarctic climate change research has focused mainly on ice sheets and the potential impact on global sea level rise, while the effect of climate change on ice melt and native Antarctic biodiversity has been largely overlooked," Lee said.

"Permanently ice free areas range in size from less than 1 square km to thousands of square km and they are an important breeding ground for seals and seabirds."

"They are also home to small invertebrates such as springtails and nematodes, and vegetation including fungi, lichen and moss, many of which occur nowhere else in the world," she added.

The effect of climate change has the potential to be "good and bad" for the plants and animals in the region, according to Lee, who said that new habitats would be created as the ice dissipated.

"It will be good because it might provide some new opportunities for native Antarctic species to spread out and colonise. But, these opportunities will also be provided to non-native (or alien) species," Lee said.

"Antarctica is currently best protected from these non-native species with its harsh climate and extreme weather, because they can't survive there. But when it becomes warmer, it will become easier for alien species to survive."

One of the other researchers on the project, Dr. Aleks Terauds, senior research scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division said that their data allows them to predict that up to 17,267 square km of ice-free areas will emerge by the end of the century.

"The Antarctic Peninsula shows the greatest change, but there are also impacts along the East Antarctic coastline," Terauds said.

As the ice-free areas expand, the "increased connectivity" afforded to alien species could possibly lead to a detrimental situation for the local wildlife, according to Lee, who said it is likely that the alien species would "outcompete" the existing fauna.

"They will probably be able to 'outcompete' some of these native species, which would make the native species contract and maybe it could eventually lead to extinctions -- in the next couple of centuries," Lee said.

"So there will be winners and losers amongst Antarctic plants and animals, but we are not yet sure which ones they will be."

Lee hopes that the research will make it easier to understand the effect of climate change on the continent, which in turn will allow for strategies to conserve the existing species who call the region home, to be developed.

"This research can help us prepare strategies to prevent or reduce impacts on native species. We can use these ice-free area models to help identify key areas for protection and key areas where we should increase biosecurity," Lee said.

"Humans are a primary method of transport to Antarctica for alien species, so we need to try and prevent the transport of these alien species."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 09:49:54|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Sharing their experiences of being bullied, several children shed tears.

"He broke my pencil without any reason, punched me, and gave me a bloody nose after I asked him to pay for my pencil," a fourth-grader, recalls in front of his classmates, his body trembling.

The little boy takes off glasses, briefly wipes his tears and bursts out crying. His teacher walks over and hugs him without saying a word.

The class at Sanjiang Ethnic Experimental School in Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is called social and emotional learning (SEL). It is a cooperation project between the Ministry of Education and UNICEF.

SEL is about helping students develop skills such as self-recognition and confidence, understanding and managing emotions, and maintaining positive relationships with others. "Say 'no' to bullying" is one of the topics.

During the course, Zhou Lihong, the teacher, tells a story of an imaginative but introverted girl's long-term bullying and asks students for ways they would help the girl.

Some suggest making friends with her, some advise her to turn to teachers or parents for help, someone suggests "an eye for an eye."

"Bullying is constant and intentional, initiated by the stronger against the vulnerable. We should learn to protect ourselves, and meanwhile, never bully others," Zhou tells the children.

Educationalist Guo Xiaoping of UNICEF says since launch of the SEL project in 2013, the number of participating schools has increased to over 500.

These schools are mainly in less-developed middle and western parts of the country, such as Guangxi's Sanjiang County, Panxian County in Yunnan Province and Zhongxian County in Chongqing Municipality, said Guo.

"With the support from local education authorities and experts, some schools that are not included into the pilot have also joined in," she said.

Wu Xinyun, head of the primary section of Sanjiang Ethnic Experimental School, says students receive a SEL every two weeks, using textbooks provided by the project.

"We have found there is less physical conflict among the kids," she said. Each class has around 60 students, much more than the advised national maximum of 45.

"Physical contact is very frequent in the classroom, and often led to fights in the past. SEL helps students understand each other, so brawls are much more infrequent," she said.

Many countries, such as the United States and Australia, have SEL in their standard curriculums, and it is helpful for students' academic progress, according to Guo.

She says a study of U.S. primary and high schools and kindergartens in 2011 found SEL participants did 11-percentage points better than control groups.

Wei Jiaqi, 12, has drawn a picture of a classmate holding an umbrella for her in rain. She names the drawing, "Thanks for caring about me."

"I was upset as my mom had scolded me that day. It was my classmate who kept me company," she says. "I changed my girl pal into a boy, because drawing a boy is easier," she says with a smile, adding they like the SEL courses very much.

Li Fuzhuo, head of teacher education at Guangxi normal university, said SEL is meant to create an atmosphere in which students feel, experience, think and acquire the related skills. Competent teachers are vital.

To address this issue, the Ministry of Education and UNICEF often organize training and demonstration courses for school heads and teachers.

The project also encourages parents to participate. The team is compiling articles about SEL to be released via the UNICEF WeChat account.

In this way, parents, especially migrant workers who have left their children behind, will be able to join in the SEL project.

Huang Guizhen, an official with the Ministry of Education, believes SEL not only improves teaching competence, but enables vulnerable groups, like left-behind children, to feel more care and love from school and the family.

"We want to expand the project to more schools, so that more children benefit from it," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 10:35:10|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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XINING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Forty years ago, Li Yifan would net more than 100 Przewalksii's naked carp a day. Now, he and fellow volunteers are saving the fish, which became endangered after decades of overfishing.

The species of carp, known in China as huangyu, is endemic to the Qinghai Lake, China's largest inland saltwater lake. It is the dominant of five native species of fish in the lake which is located on the Qinghai Plateau.

From late May to mid-August every year, the carp swim upstream to three freshwater rivers to spawn, with the migration peaking in late June. Volunteers rescue carp that become stranded as small tributaries dry up during their arduous journey.

In 2015, Li and eight villagers from Gangca County set up a team of volunteers to protect the carp. "Previously we caught them, now we save them. It's retribution for our actions," Li said.

As a result of rampant fishing since the 1960s, when a famine swept the country, the lake's carp stock plunged from its peak of 320,000 tonnes in the 1950's to just 2,600 tonnes in 2001.

The fish was listed on the China Species Red List in 2004 due to overfishing and habitat loss. All fishing has been prohibited in the lake for the last 17 years, however, illegal fishing has persisted.

"The lake is so huge and the fishermen are cunning. Law enforcement can't deal with them on their own," said Norrigsang, a herdsman from Gangca who used his own savings to found a patrol to catch people fishing illegally along the lake's 300-kilometer-long shoreline in the 1990's.

The job is no easy task. He recalled an incident in January 2013, when the seven-member team was attacked by a group of more than 100 fishermen.

Thanks to the increased efforts of volunteers and intensified law enforcement, the illegal fishing of naked carp has been dramatically decreased since 2014, according to fishery authorities.

In addition to the volunteers, the local government is working to restore the fish population by helping them spawn.

Several years ago, the Gangca government dismantled a two-meter-high dam on the Shaliu River and built 18 steps in its place to assist the fish migration. Last year, it spent 8.5 million yuan (1.25 million U.S. dollars) building 21 steps on the Quanji River.

But assisting the migration is only part of the battle, they also need to increase fertilization rates, The success rate for natural fertilization is extremely low, as the sperm of male carp can only survive for 20 seconds in the water, said Zhou Weiguo from the carp rescue center.

"With such low fertilization rates we can't increase the population of the endangered species," Zhou said.

In 2001, fishery workers began an artificial insemination program. They hatch fertilized eggs at the rescue center and raise the young fish, or fry, in tanks for a year before releasing them into the lake.

Since 2002, more than 100 million captive-bred carp fry have been released into the lake, with an 85 percent survival rate. Last year, the stock of carp in the lake climbed to 70,800 tonnes.

Despite the progress, there is still a long way to go, said Yang Shoude, a forest police officer in the Qinghai Lake National Nature Reserve. "If the naked carp population can not be increased in time, algae growth will become out of control and eventually 'kill' the lake," Yang said.

Winning the battle requires combined grassroots and governmental efforts, Norrigsang said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 11:35:22|Editor: Yamei

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QUITO, June 30 (Xinhua) -- A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook coastal Ecuador on Friday, just hours after President Lenin Moreno toured areas recovering from last year's devastating quake.

There were no reports of casualties or material damage from the seism that hit Jama, in Manabi province, at 5:29 p.m. local time (2229 GMT).

In the provincial capital Portoviejo, where Moreno had inspected new constructions earlier, "the residents went out into the streets," alarmed by the temblor, state daily Andes said.

The quake was also felt in the nation's capital Quito, according to messages posted on social networks.

Manabi bore the brunt of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the country's coast on April 16, 2016, killing more than 600 people and causing heavy property damage in the South American country.

"It is satisfying to see how reconstruction has progressed at ground zero," Moreno said during his visit.

"We are going to make Portoviejo a pretty city," he added.

More than 100 construction projects are currently underway in Manabi's capital.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 12:55:39|Editor: Yamei

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SEOUL, July 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's economy posted its second-biggest monthly exports in June, thanks to solid demand for semiconductors, ships and petrochemicals, a government report showed Saturday.

Exports, which account for about half of the export-driven economy, increased 13.7 percent from a year earlier to 51.4 billion U.S. dollars in June, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

It was the second-largest monthly figure since the country began compiling the data, the ministry said. The record high number was 51.6 billion dollars tallied in October 2014.

The overseas shipments posted a double-digit expansion for six months since January, while maintaining an upward momentum for the eighth consecutive month.

Imports advanced 18 percent over the year to 40 billion dollars in June, sending the trade surplus to 11.4 billion dollars. The country's trade balance stayed in black for 65 months in a row.

For the first six months of this year, the exports amounted to 279.4 billion dollars, up 15.8 percent compared with the same period of last year. Imports surged 21 percent to 233.6 billion dollars in the same period.

The trade ministry estimated that the South Korean economy would registered 545 billion dollars of exports for the whole year of 2017, with imports worth 463 billion dollars.

If realized, the economy's combined trade of exports and imports would top 1 trillion dollars in three years.

On a daily basis, the exports in June averaged 2.24 billion dollars, up 13.7 percent from a year earlier. The daily average exports kept rising for the seventh straight month.

By product, semiconductor exports reached the monthly high of 8.03 billion dollars in June due to stable memory chip prices and demand for chips used for personal computers and servers. The chip shipments kept growing for nine months in a row.

Display panel shipments logged a double-digit increase for the seventh straight months amid rising demand for OLED panels and higher LDC panel prices.

Exports for petrochemical products rose for nine months in a row as companies expanded production capability amid higher export prices.

Oil product exports kept rising for the eight consecutive month amid higher product prices, while general machinery exports registered the third-biggest monthly exports due mainly to exports of large-scale nuclear reactor parts to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Ship exports posted the record monthly high in June thanks to 26 shipbuilding orders, including three high value-added ships.

Automobile exports rose for the fifth straight month on demand for environmentally-friendly vehicles, with those for textile products rebounding in three months on demand from Southeast Asian countries.

Exports of telecommunication devices such as smartphones tumbled 35.9 percent last month as local companies increased production in overseas factories.

Consumer electronics exports also plunged 25.7 percent amid increased production in overseas factories that offset strong demand for locally-made washing machines and air conditioners.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 15:31:31|Editor: Song Lifang

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BUJUMBURA, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza on Friday urged citizens to make financial contributions to the country's 2020 elections.

"Considering situations that Burundi went through since 1961, we need to prepare well our 2020 general elections and other elections to come with regards to the financial aspect without requesting financial assistance from international partners," said Nkurunziza.

He said that some countries actually feel "pleased when Burundi undergoes a crisis" so that they can come and "snatch" the country's wealth.

"Those countries are glad when we (Burundian citizens) are facing crises because they are sure that we will continue to be beggars," Nkurunziza said.

He said an account has been opened at the Burundi Central Bank where donors can make financial contributions for the east African country's 2020 general elections.

He also requested that other banking and financial institutions cooperate with the central bank to facilitate transactions for those who want to deposit their contributions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 15:46:37|Editor: Song Lifang

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CHICAGO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Local police arrested a man Friday evening for kidnapping Zhang Yingying, a visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the U.S. Midwest.

Brendt Christensen, a resident of Champaign who turned 28 on Friday, was charged with kidnapping Zhang, who authorities believe to be dead.

Christensen will remain in law enforcement custody pending his initial federal court appearance in Urbana scheduled on Monday.

Zhang went missing on June 9 after she got into a black Saturn Astra car about five blocks from where she got off a bus as she was heading to an apartment complex to sign a lease.

When FBI agents first talked to Christensen, who owns one of the 18 four-door Saturn Astra cars registered in Champaign County, he said he was either sleeping or playing video games at home when Zhang went missing.

However, later when police reviewed the surveillance video footage of Zhang's last appearance, it was found the vehicle which Zhang entered had a cracked hubcap on the front passenger side, which matched Christensen's car and made the FBI put him under surveillance.

"While Christensen was under law enforcement surveillance, agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang," the FBI press release said.

"Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement agents believe that Ms. Zhang is no longer alive," said the press release.

According to the federal charging document, Christensen in April visited via his smartphone two sub-threads entitled "perfect abduction fantasy" and "planning a kidnapping."

Members of Zhang's family, who have arrived in the United States and followed the search and investigation closely, were advised of Christensen's arrest and the evidence, the document added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 16:16:48|Editor: Song Lifang

U.S. President Donald Trump (2nd R) and First Lady Melania Trump (1st R) welcome South Korean President Moon Jae-in (2nd L) and his wife Kim Jung-sook at the South Portico of the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, June 29, 2017. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

SEOUL, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The first summit meeting in Washington between visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump brought a "significant success" to the new South Korean leader, local media reports and experts said as the two leaders were in harmony to tackle Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

The summit meeting, which lasted from Thursday to Friday local time, left some of issues unresolved, such as whether to renegotiate a 2012 free trade pact between the two countries and whether to increase the costs for U.S. forces stationed in South Korea.

"It was a significant success," Bong Young-shik, a research fellow at Yonsei Institute for North Korean studies in Seoul, told Xinhua Saturday, referring to the new South Korean leader's first face-to-face talks with the U.S. president since he took office on May 10.

According to the joint statement released after the bilateral meeting, Trump supported South Korea's "leading role" in fostering an environment for peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

Moon and Trump agreed that the door to dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) remained open "under the right circumstances" and that sanctions on Pyongyang were a "tool of diplomacy" to bring the country back to the dialogue table.

The six-party talks to dismantle the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, which involves the Korean Peninsula, China, the United States, Russia and Japan, have been suspended since late 2008.

The researcher at Yonsei Institute said President Moon delivered a message that he would pursue peace in his DPRK policy based on a firm security alliance with the United States, shrugging off concerns among the conservative bloc in South Korea and a part of U.S. experts and politicians that Moon may adhere solely to dialogue with the DPRK.

Late President Roh Moo-hyun, for whom Moon had served as a chief of staff in Roh's presidency, and late President Kim Dae-jung, Roh's predecessor, advocated a so-called Sunshine Policy of trying to enhance inter-Korean relations through economic cooperation and personnel exchanges.

Moon was widely forecast to inherit the Sunshine Policy, but his comments, made in the joint press conference in Washington, indicated no big difference in Moon's stance on the DPRK and those from his conservative predecessors, Bong said.

The stance meant no acceptance of the DPRK as a nuclear state and putting a significant importance on security alliance with the United States to defend against the DPRK's nuclear and missile threats.

The summit meeting was successful for Trump as he took issue with the 2012 U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement, which Trump claimed during the joint press conference had caused the trade imbalance with South Korea.

Trade in goods and services between the two countries reached 144 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, with the U.S. running a deficit of 17 billion dollars. On his campaign trail, Trump had denounced the bilateral trade pact for one of reasons for a growing U.S. trade deficit.

Bong said Trump took this opportunity to demand the renegotiation of the free trade agreement with South Korea in a bid to deliver a message to "domestic audience," saying he was honoring his election pledges.

In contrast, taking issue with the free trade deal was a blow to President Moon. Some of South Korean experts said the trade imbalance between the two countries failed to include South Korea's imports of U.S. weapons, which was estimated at billions of dollars per year.

Trump also harkened back to his election campaign demand to urge South Korea to pay more for about 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, dealing a blow to the new South Korean president.

The bilateral negotiations on costs for the U.S. military presence in South Korea will be renewed in the near future for the next five-year period beginning from 2019.

South Korea's main opposition Liberty Korea Party said in a commentary that numerous hardships facing the Moon government were confirmed as President Trump repeatedly emphasized the renegotiations on the bilateral FTA and the increased South Korean payment for the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).

The centrist People's Party said the summit meeting left various issues unresolved, including the FTA renegotiation and the increased costs for the U.S. military presence in South Korea.

Despite the discord, Bong said, the first summit meeting between the two leaders was successful as they established a personal bond and exchanged impressions as a reliable partner with each other.

Bong said the main goal of the summit was to share their philosophy and vision on a broad range of issues, adding that detailed discussions on the FTA renegotiations, the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and the burden-sharing for the USFK would be made among working-level officials and ministers later on.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 16:36:56|Editor: Song Lifang

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MANILA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank has predicted the Philippine economy to continue its robust growth in the next two years and to expand by 6.8 percent in 2017, the bank said on Saturday.

The World Bank has updated the economic outlook for the Philippines for 2017 and 2018 as part of its quarterly forecast exercise.

The new and slightly revised 2017 projection considers recent economic trends and compares with the 6.9 percent forecast released in the April edition of the World Bank Philippine Economic Update.

The bank's forecast for 2018 remains unchanged at 6.9 percent.

Reflecting slower public spending in the first quarter, the bank predicted that the Philippine government's consumption and investment growth somewhat weakened on an annual basis.

However, the bank said export and growth of private consumption remains strong.

Growth in the first quarter of 2017 was in line with the World Bank growth projection, given the high base in the first quarter of 2016, when large election-related spending boosted growth.

"In the medium-term, supporting higher investment levels will be critical to sustain the economy's growth momentum," said Birgit Hansl, World Bank lead economist for the Philippines.

"The government's ability to realize its infrastructure spending agenda will determine if the Philippines can achieve the growth target of 6.5 to 7.5 percent for 2017," Hansl said.

The World Bank said consumption is anticipated to grow at a stable rate of 5.6 percent in 2017 and 6.1 percent in 2018, compared to 7.2 percent in 2016.

The prospect of maintaining consumption growth at current level over the medium term is supported by robust remittance flows. "Remittances increased by 8 percent in the first quarter of 2017, compared to 3 percent in the first quarter of of 2016," the bank said.

The World Bank said continued economic growth is expected to lead to increased job opportunities, and sustained economic expansion has already begun to contribute to increasing incomes across all income groups.

Between 2012 and 2015, the bank said household income among the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution rose by an average annual rate of 7.6 percent.

As global economic activity and trade are gradually improving, according to the June 2017 Global Economic Prospects released by the World Bank, robust growth among the country's main trading partners is expected to boost demand for Philippine exports.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 16:41:58|Editor: An

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Finland is enhancing cooperation with Chinese tourism service providers to tap into the China's booming outbound tourism market.

Finland Friday inked memorandums of understanding with Chinese tourism platforms Fliggy and Utour, and airliner JuneYao to attract more Chinese tourists.

Finpro Oy and Alibaba's online travel platform Fliggy will upgrade their partnership with Aurora Project 2.0 to enhance experiences for Chinese tourists in Finland this summer.

Finpro Oy is an organization which helps small- to medium-sized Finnish enterprises go international, encouraging foreign direct investment in Finland and promoting tourism.

Over 356,000 Chinese travelers visited Finland last year, up 35 percent year on year, and the growth rate soared to over 80 percent year on year in the first four months of 2017, according to Paavo Virkkunen, executive vice president of Finpro Oy and head of Visit Finland.

Virkkunen attributed the rapid growth of Chinese visitors to the growing awareness of Finland as an unique tourism destination as well as partnerships with Chinese online travel platforms such as Fliggy.

"We have learned a lot from Chinese online travel platforms, especially about changes in consumer behavior and demand structure," Virkkunen said.

Visit Finland has been developing diverse tourism products across the four seasons to cater to the demands of Chinese travelers, according to Virkkunen.

Fliggy has set up a workshop focused on finding unique tourism destinations. It leverages Alibaba's big data resources to develop customized tourism products for travelers and uses the latest technology such as live streaming to promote destinations, according to Li Shaohua, president of Fliggy.

"We are not just selling tourism products, but also trying to integrate local tourism resources and design customized products to offer consumers enhanced travel services at lower costs," Li said.

Tourism plays a role in opening people's eyes to new places and is a good starting point for other businesses to develop, Virkkunen said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 17:07:18|Editor: ZD

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CHICAGO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Local police arrested a man Friday evening for kidnapping Zhang Yingying, a visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the U.S. Midwest.

Brendt Christensen, a resident of Champaign who turned 28 on Friday, was charged with kidnapping Zhang, who authorities believe to be dead.

Christensen will remain in law enforcement custody pending his initial federal court appearance in Urbana scheduled on Monday.

Zhang, 26, went missing on June 9 after she got into a black Saturn Astra car about five blocks from where she got off a bus as she was heading to an apartment complex to sign a lease. She had just arrived at the University of Illinois in late April.

When FBI agents first talked to Christensen, who owns one of the 18 four-door Saturn Astra cars registered in Champaign County, he said he was either sleeping or playing video games at home when Zhang went missing.

However, later when police reviewed the surveillance video footage of Zhang's last appearance, it was found the vehicle which Zhang entered had a cracked hubcap on the front passenger side, which matched Christensen's car and made the FBI put him under surveillance.

According to the federal charging document, Christensen in April visited via his smartphone two sub-threads entitled "perfect abduction fantasy" and "planning a kidnapping."

"While Christensen was under law enforcement surveillance, agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang," the FBI press release said.

"Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement agents believe that Ms. Zhang is no longer alive," said the press release.

Members of Zhang's family, who have arrived in the United States and followed the search and investigation closely, were advised of Christensen's arrest and the evidence, the document added.

University of Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said that the entire campus community is saddened by the news.

"Our hearts are with the family of Yingying Zhang tonight," he said in a statement.

He added that University of Illinois would support Zhang's family "in any way we can in these difficult days ahead."

The Chinese Consulate-General in Chicago also conveyed deep condolences to Zhang's family. In a statement, the diplomat expressed "strong indignation and condemnation" of the kidnapping and called on the U.S. judiciary to "bring the criminal to justice."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 17:07:20|Editor: ZD

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SHANGHAI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland Taiwan affairs chief Zhang Zhijun Saturday called on mainland academics to continue to support the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and the peaceful reunification of the motherland.

Zhang, head of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office and the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while addressing a symposium held by the Center for Research on Cross-Straits Relations.

The official said currently cross-Strait relations face stubbornness as Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party administration runs counter to the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the political foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

Stressing that 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of the start of cross-Strait exchanges, Zhang said no force should hinder the common wishes of cross-Strait compatriots for exchange and cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 17:22:26|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- July 1 marks the 96th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). International experts have widely acknowledged that China, under the leadership of the CPC, has become a crucial engine for global economic growth and a staunch guardian of global peace and development.

In the context of today's constantly changing global political and economic landscapes, the CPC offers extensive experience in state governance for other countries to draw upon.

Over the last three decades, China has won broad acclaim from the international community, especially after the 18th National Congress of the CPC held in November 2012, as China has achieved remarkable economic growth while taking an active part in global governance.

That has been credited to the CPC, under whose leadership the Chinese people have managed to successfully overcome difficulties and hardships. The CPC has united the Chinese people and harnessed their strengths.

GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS WIN HIGH PRAISE

Analysts have pointed out that under the CPC, China has wielded great influence in the international financial system, while striking a balance between economic development and environmental protection.

"Under the leadership of the CPC, China has been active in participating in global governance. In particular, it has exerted more influence in improving the global financial system," said Sergey Lukonin, head of Economy and Politics of China at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"The China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank, as well as the Chinese renminbi's inclusion in the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) basket, are a testament to China's rising impact on the international financial system," Lukonin said.

In terms of sustainable development, Argentine lawyer Paola de Simone praised China's structural adjustment that has drawn attention worldwide, as China has put more emphasis on the balance between economic development and environmental protection.

"The CPC has called on the sort of economic growth that is innovation-driven and sustainable, and has been searching for new sources of economic growth, which makes China younger and radiate more vitality," she said.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

To address environmental degradation and global warming, China has proactively pushed for energy saving and emissions reduction, cut overcapacity in coal, strengthened the supervision and administration of industrial pollution and promoted the use of new-energy vehicles with subsidies.

China has made great contributions to the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, as the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" proposed by China has gained much popularity and support, said Nadya Helmy, professor of political sciences with Beni Suef University.

In the diplomatic field, under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese government has committed to the principles of mutual benefit and win-win, which is favorable to global governance.

The Belt and Road Initiative has also forged a bond between China and its neighboring countries through trade and economic and cultural cooperation.

"The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has laid a solid foundation for the prosperous economic development in the region, which has won international recognition and attracted the international community to actively participate," said Wichai Choi, senior vice president of Kasikorn Bank in Thailand.

EXPERIENCE TO INSPIRE WORLD

One important lesson for parties in other countries to learn from the experience of the CPC's success, in Lukonin's opinion, is that the CPC has led the country to actively carry out in-depth reforms while securing social stability at the same time, which is a great achievement.

Also, the CPC has taken as its objective to safeguard the people's interests and implemented social policies toward that goal, Lukonin said.

"Another lesson is that China, under the leadership of the CPC, always gives importance to the development of human resources and cultivation of talents, which is one of the major strategies to keep its national competitiveness," he added.

Formulating policies able to promote social progress and meet more of the people's rights is a top priority for a party, said Javier Miranda, president of Uruguay's Broad Front Party.

"Under the CPC leadership, China has not only maintained rapid economic growth, but also let the development fruits benefit wide-ranging areas including the people's living (conditions), health care and public education," he said, adding that this experience can be used by foreign ruling parties as a reference. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 17:52:34|Editor: ZD

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NEW DELHI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Indian police have arrested a man on charges of raping a 70-year-old French national in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi town.

"The accused was working as a private security guard at the hotel where the French woman had been staying. He was produced in a city court and remanded in police custody for interrogation about the crime," a senior police official said Saturday.

The woman has been a regular visitor to Varanasi, which is one of the holiest cities of Hindus and draws thousands of foreign visitors every year. For the past 11 months, she had been staying in the city and working at a center for disabled children.

The incident took place earlier this week when the security guard entered the hotel room of the woman when she was fast asleep, beat her up and then forced himself on her before fleeing with her mobile phone, according to police.

The woman is currently undergoing treatment at a local hospital, and doctors treating her have said that she is out of danger.

Sexual assaults against women are on the rise in India. The government has brought in stricter laws against such crimes in the wake of massive nation-wide protests over the brutal and fatal gangrape of a 23-year-old medical student by six men on a moving bus in 2012.

While four of the men were recently sentenced to death by India's Supreme Court, the main accused allegedly committed suicide in his prison cell during the trial while the sixth accused being a juvenile at the time of crime was released after spending three years in a remand home.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 18:22:45|Editor: MJ

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HONG KONG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday delivered a speech at the meeting celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and the inaugural ceremony of the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The following is the full text of his speech:

Address at the Meeting

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of

Hong Kong's Return to the Motherland and

The Inaugural Ceremony of

The Fifth-Term Government of

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

1 July 2017

Xi Jinping

Fellow Compatriots,

Dear Friends,

Today, we are meeting on this solemn and joyous occasion to both celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and hold the inaugural ceremony of the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

First of all, on behalf of the Central Government and the people of all ethnic groups across the country, I wish to extend our cordial greetings to all the people in Hong Kong and our warm congratulations to Madam Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the newly inaugurated fifth-term Chief Executive of the HKSAR, principal officials of the fifth-term HKSAR government and members of the Executive Council. I also express our heartfelt thanks to all our fellow Chinese, both at home and abroad, and foreign friends for their good wishes and support to Hong Kong.

Meeting here on the shores of Hong Kong, which have stood the test of time and seen profound changes, we are filled with thoughts and emotions, as we reflect on the extraordinary journey we have taken to get where we are today.

The destiny of Hong Kong has always been intricately bound with that of the motherland. After modern times, with a weak China under corrupt and incompetent feudal rule, the Chinese nation was plunged into deep suffering. In the early 1840s, Britain sent an expeditionary force of a mere 10,000 troops to invade China and got its way in forcing the Qing government, which had an 800,000-strong army, to pay reparations and cede the island of Hong Kong to it. After the Opium War, China was repeatedly defeated by countries which were far smaller in size and population. Kowloon and "New Territories" were forcibly taken away. That page of Chinese history was one of humiliation and sorrow. It was not until the Communist Party of China led the Chinese people to victory in a dauntless and tenacious struggle for national independence and liberation and founded New China that the Chinese people truly stood up and blazed a bright path of socialism with distinctive Chinese features. Thanks to close to four decades of dedicated efforts since the launch of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, we have entered a new era in the development of the Chinese nation.

It was against the historical backdrop of reform and opening-up that Mr. Deng Xiaoping put forward the great vision of "One Country, Two Systems", which guided China's diplomatic negotiations with the United Kingdom that led to the successful resolution of the Hong Kong question, an issue that was left over from the past. Twenty years ago today, Hong Kong returned to the embrace of the motherland. This ended past humiliation and marked a major step forward toward the complete reunification of China. Hong Kong's return to the motherland has gone down as a monumental achievement in the history of the Chinese nation. Hong Kong has since then embarked on a journey of unity and common development with the motherland.

Fellow Compatriots,

Dear Friends,

Time flies fast! It has been 20 years since Hong Kong's return to the motherland. According to China's tradition, a man enters adulthood at the age of 20. So today, we are celebrating the coming of age of the HKSAR, which has grown exuberant like a bamboo or a pine tree. Looking back at the HKSAR's growth, we can proudly conclude that thanks to the support of the motherland and with an international vision and an innovative spirit, Hong Kong has in the last two decades continued to develop itself as a modern metropolis. The practice of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong is a success story recognized by all. (more)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 19:07:53|Editor: Song Lifang

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MADRID, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Civil Guards have arrested a man of Syrian origin who is suspected of spending two years fighting for the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, Interior Ministry said Saturday.

The 29-year-old, whose name initials are A.S, is described as being of "Danish nationality, but Syrian origin". The ministry said he was arrested on Friday afternoon in southern Spanish city of Malaga.

The detainee's mobile devices are now being investigated and he is being questioned in order to determine what his intentions were in Spain and whether he has any contacts in the country, according to the ministry.

The arrest brings the total number of jihadists arrested in Spain since the start of 2015 to 224.

On Friday, a judge in Mallorca sent four suspected jihadists arrested on the island into preventive custody after explaining he had reasons to believe one of them was planning a bloodbath in the town of Inca similar to what happened recently on London Bridge.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 19:17:58|Editor: Song Lifang

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MOSUL, Iraq, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi government forces on Saturday recaptured a bridge across the Tigris River from Islamic State (IS) militants in the old city in the western side of Mosul, a security source told Xinhua.

"The federal police carried out a push at dawn in the southern part of the old city and managed to seize the foot of a strategic bridge across Tigris, locally known as Old Bridge," a federal police colonel said on condition of anonymity.

All of Mosul's five bridges, spanning the Tigris River to the city's eastern bank, were destroyed by airstrikes last year.

The troops also seized the commercial area of Arbiaa Market in the southern part of the old city, as heavy house-to-house clashes with assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles and hand grenades were underway against the extremist militants in the densely-populated old city, the officer said.

"The federal police recaptured the mosques of Ka'ab bin Malik and Omariyah as well as the surrounding residential areas, killing dozens of IS terrorists, including three snipers, and defusing more than 50 roadside bombs," the officer told Xinhua.

Also in the day, the federal police and the interior ministry's Rapid Response special forces freed the northern part of al-Shifaa neighborhood, the last neighborhood which remained outside the major IS redoubt of the old city center, after heavy clashes with the extremist militants, Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

According to Yarallah, the troops freed a hospital compound in the neighborhood and the main water facility of the western side of Mosul, locally known as the right bank of the Tigris River which divides the city.

The battles came two days after the commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces drove the IS militants out of al-Nuri mosque and its leaning al-Hadbaa minaret.

On June 21, the IS blew up al-Nuri mosque, as Iraqi forces were pushing closer to the mosque and the surrounding area amid fierce house-to-house battles in some nearby alleys.

The mosque was built in 1172 AD along with its famous leaning minaret, which gave the city its nickname "al-Hadbaa" or "the hunchback."

It was where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the cross-border "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria in his sole public appearance in July 2014.

The CTS, army, federal police and the Rapid Response forces have been fighting inside the old city, but the troops are making slow progress due to the stiff resistance of IS militants and a large number of roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings, in addition to IS snipers taking positions in the buildings and narrow alleys of heavily-populated neighborhoods.

According to recent UN reports, some 100,000 civilians are still trapped in the IS-held areas in the old city center and the adjacent al-Shifaa neighborhood.

Mosul, 400 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
An Iraqi soldier patrols in the street near al-Nuri mosque in the Old City of Mosulon June 29, 2017. Iraqi army recaptured Mosul's historical al-Nuri mosque and its leaning minaret on June 29. Built in 1172 A.D. and located at the heart of Mosul's Old City, al-Nuri mosque and its famous leaning minaret are considered as landmark building ofMosul, but it was destroyed by Islamic State militants on June 21.(Xinhua/Wei Yudong)

by Wei Yudong

MOSUL, Iraq, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Among the ruins of destroyed buildings, a narrow alley wound its way toward Mosul's al-Nuri mosque, which was torn into pieces by Islamic State (IS) extremists a few days ago.

At a corner of the alley, two soldiers from Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) were standing in silence against the wall, with faces lowered.

"NO PICTURES!" The two young men, noticing reporters approaching, shouted in a very loud tone, unlike most other Iraqi soldiers who are usually very receptive when facing cameras.

As the reporters put down their cameras, the two soldiers turned around and looked into a building behind them, when several of their comrades walked out of it, carrying a long stretcher.

On the stretcher was the body of a killed soldier, wrapped up in a rugged blanket with some blood on it.

He lost his life a few hours ago in the fight to retake the landmark al-Nuri mosque and its famous leaning minaret, which is at the heart of the western Mosul.

Retaking al-Nuri mosque is considered a big victory for Iraqi military because it was where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced in July 2014 the establishment of a worldwide caliphate, the so-called Islamic State.

In October 2016, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the battle to liberate Mosul. Eastern Mosul was liberated late January this year. On June 18, Iraqi army launched the offensive to liberate the Old City, the last district still held by IS militants in western Mosul.

But the operation has been dragging on because the densely-populated neighborhood and extremely narrow streets in this area hinder the progress of Iraqi soldiers.

IS militants have deployed booby traps, roadside bombs and snipers to resist government troops. The military has never released any numbers of casualties, but just as some analysts warn, the battle inside Mosul has settled into a grinding war of attrition.

Abdulllah al-Obeidi, an Iraqi political expert, said IS militants have been defeated, but their defeat was "never without heavy cost."

The cost is paid not only by the soldiers, but also the civilians.

According to the statistics provided by the United Nations, about 100,000 were trapped in the Old City before the start of offensive.

Civilians are often used as human shields, as militants often hide among the civilians and launch deadly attacks to repel the government advancing forces.

On June 23, a suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of civilians fleeing the battle in the Old City, killing at least 12.

Yet not all civilians are trying to escape.

In a small room near the frontline behind al-Nuri mosque, a woman was seen among a group of Iraqi CTS soldiers, which is quite a rare sight in Iraq.

Her name is Surour. She worked here as a medic with her husband.

"This is my hometown. So many people have died. I just want to help our soldiers. They have sacrificed a lot," said Surour.
Participants attend the arrival ceremony of the first Volvo block train at Zeebrugge Port in Zeebrugge, Belgium, June 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

BRUSSELS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A freight train carrying 123 brand new Volvo cars made in northeast China arrived in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge Friday afternoon, marking a milestone in the history of cargo transport between the two countries.

The train was welcomed by government officials, diplomats, business representatives and journalists from both countries after a journey of 9,832 kilometers, which took some 20 days, passing through Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.

The shipment carried the S90L, Volvo's flagship model, manufactured in the company's Daqing plant in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

A staff member from the car manufacturer at the site told Xinhua that all the cars have been reserved and will soon be distributed across Europe from the port.

"If we ship the cars by sea it will take up to 60 days, now we can save over 40 days. We also managed to find a balance between saving time and controlling shipping costs," said Yuan Xiaolin, senior vice president of Volvo Car Group attending the welcome ceremony.

Following the arrival of the first train, the Volvo rail cargo service will continue to run at least once a week, and eventually reach the goal of four to five weekly round trips.

Every year the trains are expected to bring 30,000 to 40,000 new Volvo vehicles to Zeebrugge, an open seaport handling over 40 million tons of cargo annually, and ferry Belgian products to China on their return journeys.

Belgian deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters, who visited the Volvo Daqing plant during his visit to China in May, hailed the arrival of the train as an example of "concrete results of the Belt and Road Initiative".

The initiative aims to build a trade, investment and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road.

Peeters stressed that Belgium is demonstrating strong willingness to participate in the Belt and Road initiative as a partner.

"The 21st Century Silk Road marks a new era for trade and cooperation between Belgium and China. As we see today it provides great opportunities for countries to deepen cooperation," said Peeters.

"We firmly believe that strengthening train connectivity and investing in excellent infrastructural links will be a crucial aspect of Europe's future relations with Asia," he added.

Qu Xing, Chinese ambassador to Belgium, believes that the potential of this new train service is tremendous.

"Belgium has great advantages in carrying out cooperation with China under the framework of the Belt and Road initiative," said the ambassador, underlining that Belgium boasts three of the 10 biggest ports in Europe.

As of early June, over 4,000 cargo train trips have been made between Chinese and European cities since the start of the direct rail freight services six years ago, according to Chinese national operator China Railway Corporation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 19:48:15|Editor: Song Lifang

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CANBERRA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo announced on Saturday that Australia has launched Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with the Pacific Alliance, the Latin American trading bloc made up of Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia.

In a press release, Ciobo said the Australian government is seeking a comprehensive, high quality agreement to open markets for Australian exporters.

An FTA with the Pacific Alliance will create new export opportunities for Australian farmers, miners, manufacturers, educators, service providers and investors in some of Latin America's major economies. The FTA will also open the door to Mexico for Australian exporters.

The Pacific Alliance is a trade bloc with a combined GDP of more than 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars in 2016. The four countries account for 38 percent of Latin America's population and 57 percent of its total imports. Pacific Alliance Members imported goods and services worth more than 600 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.

Ciobo said currently tariffs of up to 80 percent are imposed on Australian beef, while dairy products attract tariffs of up to 45 percent and sugar attracts tariffs of more than 30 percent. Australia's services exports - including education and mining services - also face competitive barriers.

An FTA will bring down these barriers and ensure Australian businesses have competitive access.

Business Council of Australia (BCA) and National Farmers' Federation (NFF) all welcomed the launch of FTA talks with the Pacific Alliance.

"An FTA with Pacific Alliance countries can deliver increased exports for Australian companies, more jobs for Australians, and investment and innovation that is driven by a growing economy," BCA chief executive, Jennifer Westacott said.

NFF President Fiona Simson said a free trade deal with four Latin American nations stands to unlock almost untapped markets for Australian farmers.

"Today's news means, that, hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, our Latin American counterparts will be enjoying much more Aussie meat, dairy, sugar, grain, fruit, vegetables and fibre," she said.

The latest FTA negotiations with the Pacific Alliance is part of the Australian government's efforts to build free trade agreements with a wide range of nations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 20:03:21|Editor: Song Lifang

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by Bedah Mengo

NAIROBI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Samuel Ambuche, a maize farmer in Bungoma, western Kenya, is anxious as the clock ticks towards September.

The month is usually the crop's harvesting season, but this time round, Ambuche who planted maize and beans on five acres is assured of a poor yield.

The odds have been heavily against him and other farmers in Kenya, with maize farming facing several hurdles this season.

"Last season things were a little better because the only challenge we faced was poor fertiliser, which we corrected in time but the rains were adequate. This season we have been fighting two major challenges: inadequate rains and fall armyworms," he said.

Growing maize has become such a major challenge for smallholder farmers in the East African nation that many now consider the grain a cursed crop.

Each season Ambuche faces a myriad of challenges, some beyond his control, and it is becoming almost impossible to grow the crop.

Kenya's Ministry of Agriculture announced invasion of fall armyworms in the country in April, about a month since the pest had been detected by farmers.

The pest has infested thousands of acres in breadbasket regions in Rift Valley and western Kenya and has since spread to other areas like Central, Nyanza and the Coast targeting mainly maize.

A variety of other crops were also under threat, including cereals such as sorghum, millet, rice, millet, wheat and barley, putting Kenya's food security at risk.

Pasture grasses, vegetables, legumes, bananas, tomatoes, capsicum, ginger, spinach, amaranth, onions, sugar beet, citrus, cucumber and sunflower have also been attacked.

The ministry in conjunction with county governments has allocated millions of U.S. dollars to purchase chemicals to help farmers fight the pest.

"I got the chemicals from the county government and even bought others myself, and dedicatedly sprayed my crops, but the pest have been on and off. I spray, they disappear for about three weeks, and reappear once again. One has to keep on spraying, we were told," said Ambuche, noting currently the armyworms have disappeared on his farm.

On the other front, Ambuche, like many other farmers in the region and across the country, has to tackle inadequate rains that threaten to heap losses on struggling farmers.

"I have lost hope on maize farming. I planted the crop on two acres and now all of it has withered because of poor rains," said Bernard Njuguna, a farmer in Rongai in Nakuru.

Njuguna had counted himself lucky as his crop was not affected by the fall armyworms, but the scarce rain still battered his hope for a bumpy harvest.

"The rains disappeared sometime early May when I had top dressed my crops, this is despite them coming late. This is usually a critical stage when the crops need a lot of water, the reason why they have withered," said Njuguna.

His plight is shared by many farmers in the country where it has rained erratically for the last two seasons.

And as the maize matures for the lucky farmers, they would again have to contend with a poor market despite high cost of production.

This season, production costs have doubled as farmers spend lots of resources on fighting armyworms.

However, as previous experiences show, the market would not be willing to reimburse farmers the expenses by buying their produce at premium prices.

Last season, the government offered farmers 30 dollars for each 90-kg bag despite the producers pleading for more.

Kenya is facing a huge maize deficit that has raised prices to 46 dollars per bag, pushing millions of households on the edge, but a lot of importation is going on currently that by the time farmers harvest in September, prices would have dropped.

Kenya consumes up to 4 million bags of maize every month, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, with the country producing only 40 million bags annually, while the rest is imported.

"Farmers may not reap good prices for their produce this season as the government allowed duty-free importation of maize which will flood the market. The fact is that struggling farmers may not sell their produce at more than 27 dollars come September," said Bernard Moina, an agricultural extension officer in Kitale, a breadbasket region.

He noted that maize growing in Kenya has become a taxing affair due to the numerous challenges farmers' face.

"Perhaps it is time the Kenyan farmer considers growing other crops as maize growing becomes untenable. With all these challenges, it may even be cheaper for the country to import maize than grow it," he said.
A Chinese stereo speaker maker introduces his products at the China-Kenya Trade Week on June 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Baishun)

NAIROBI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's world renowned scenic attractions that include wildlife and sandy beaches have always thrilled Francois Jia, the Manager of Baoding Tianzhou Machinery Company Limited based in China's Hebei Province.

The savvy entrepreneur was excited by the prospect of visiting the East African nation for the first time to participate in the China-Kenya trade week taking place in the capital, Nairobi.

Jia's company deals with agricultural machinery whose demand in Kenya is growing thanks to concerted efforts by the government, industry and even smallholder farmers to modernize food production systems in the country.

Speaking to Xinhua on Friday at his exhibition stand, Jia said Kenya is an ideal market for agricultural machinery given the positive feedback he received from potential clients.

"Kenya is a promising market for agricultural machinery and equipment and we are keen to be part of a transformation in this sector that employs so many people," Jia remarked, adding that negotiations with local distributors are at an advanced stage.

Jia told Xinhua his company regards Kenya as a springboard to enhance its penetration to an expanding regional market for agricultural machinery and equipment.

"We look forward to a regional presence aware that mechanization of agriculture to achieve food security is a priority in many African countries," said Jia.

The three-day China-Kenya trade week has attracted hundreds of enterprises from the Asian giant dealing with merchandise that cuts across different sectors of the economy.

Chinese firms participating in this mega trade fair are drawn from construction, retail, health, telecommunications and clean energy sectors.

Vivian Wei, the General Manager of Seven SS Stars, a leading manufacturer of solar water heating equipment, said both individual and corporate clients in Kenya have expressed interest in her company's flagship products.

"We have already made an impact in the Middle East and Latin America and look forward to a huge presence here in Kenya. The market for solar equipment in Kenya is growing and our list of potential clients include hotels, resorts, hospitals and schools," Wei told Xinhua.

She revealed that Seven SS Stars has already established a godown in Nairobi to facilitate expansion in the local and regional market.

"The use of solar energy in homes and industries has gained traction in Kenya and we are ready to offer technologies that would enable the country realize its green goals," said Wei.

She added that solar water heating equipment manufactured by Seven SS Stars can last up to 20 years while their cost is friendly to low and middle income earners.

Kenya has become an attractive destination for Chinese enterprises given its friendly investment climate, macro-economic stability and rising purchasing power among the country's urban middle classes.

Linda Bin, the General Manager of Guangzhou Binz import and export trading company limited, a leading manufacturer of high end art ceramic, said Kenya presents a lucrative market for accessories used in interior design.

"Kenyan clients are responding well to our custom made art ceramic that can be used to decorate homes, hotels and office blocks," said Bin.

She revealed that her company was prospecting for a local agent to distribute high end tiles to retail and corporate clients.

Bin added that Chinese enterprises have been motivated to venture into the African market thanks to the Belt and Road initiative, which is expected to revitalize economic ties with the world's second largest continent.

Over 400 Chinese exhibitors are showcasing their products at the third edition of China-Kenya trade week that ends on Saturday.

Products on display at the largest China-Kenya trade fair in recent history include construction materials, fast moving consumer goods, electronics, clothes and ceramics.

Kenyans from all walks of life who visited the exhibition confessed their admiration of Chinese manufactured goods, terming them an ideal alternative that guarantees value for money.

Johnson Otiende, a Nairobi based laboratory technician said he was keen to purchase floor tiles to add sheen to his father's house in rural western Kenya.

"So far, I have visited many stalls that are displaying exquisite tiles which I intend to purchase and have them installed in my father's house. Their price range is reasonable," said Otiende.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 20:16:59|Editor: MJ

Villagers harvest vegetable in Yaomo Village, Guyuan City of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 30, 2017. The vegetable that requires cool weather grows well in high-altitude regions such as northwest China's Ningxia. Growing these kinds of vegetable has become a new way for poverty alleviation in Yaomo Village of Guyuan, which increased the income of local farmers. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 21:08:46|Editor: An

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A residential area is seen submerged in water in Liuyang city, central China's Hunan Province, July 1, 2017. More than 260,000 people have been displaced after continuous heavy rain lashed central China's Hunan Province since June 22, said the provincial flood control office on June 30. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China's disaster relief authorities launched a level III emergency response plan Saturday to help flood victims.

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has dispatched eight work teams to south China's flood stricken areas to guide relief work, the office said in a statement.

Severe floods hit the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River in recent days, as well as some nearby rivers and lakes.

More than 260,000 people have been displaced after heavy rain in central China's Hunan Province since June 22, said the provincial flood control office late Friday.

Under a level III emergency response plan, the office must report to the State Council within two hours and dispatch a work team to the disaster zone within 24 hours.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 21:38:54|Editor: An

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- As the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrates its 96th anniversary Saturday, we have selected five things you need to know about the largest political party in the world.

How has the CPC become the largest political party in the world?

When it was established in 1921, the CPC had around 50 members. By 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, its membership had increased to nearly 4.5 million. Fast-forward more than 50 years and in 2016, the Party had 89.447 million members, making it the largest political party in the world, with more members than the population of Germany.

Party members are from all walks of life. Workers and farmers make up the highest share accounting for 36.95 percent, followed by professionals and management with 25.21 percent. The remaining members are officials, students and the retired.

How are the Party members managed?

CPC members are grouped into more than 4.5 million Party branches and each branch has 20 members, on average.

According to the CPC Constitution, a branch should be established wherever there are more than three Party members.

Almost all urban neighborhoods, communities and towns have Party branches. In the workplace, about 91.3 percent of public enterprises have resident Party branches, which supervise day-to-day operations and play a part in decision-making. Party branches are also present in 67.9 percent of private enterprises and 58.9 percent of social organizations.

Local-level Party branches are the foundation of CPC governance and are integral to connecting with and serving the masses.

What is the symbol of the Party?

According to the CPC Constitution amended and adopted in 2007, the Party emblem and flag are the symbol and sign of the Communist Party of China. Following is a brief introduction to the CPC emblem and flag:

-- The emblem of the CPC is a design of sickle and hammer.

-- The flag of the CPC is a red flag highlighted by a golden Party emblem on it.

-- Party organizations at all levels and all Party members shall safeguard the sanctity of the Party emblem and flag.

What are the strategic objectives of the Party?

The "two centenary goals" are also known as the "strategic economic and social development objectives at the new stage in the new century."

The first goal is about making China a moderately prosperous society, with the benefits felt by the well-over one billion population by the Party's centenary. The second goal is to bring China's GDP per capita up to the level of moderately developed countries, and realize modernization by the centenary of the PRC.

What role does the Party play in economic entities?

In a state-owned or collective enterprise, the primary Party organization acts as the political nucleus and works for the operation of the enterprise, according to the CPC Constitution amended and adopted in 2007.

In a non-public economic institution, the primary Party organization carries out the Party's principles and policies, provides guidance to and oversees the enterprise in observing the laws and regulations of the state, exercises leadership over the trade union, the Communist Youth League organization and other mass organizations, rallies the workers and office staff around it, safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of all quarters and stimulates the healthy development of the enterprise.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 21:51:18|Editor: MJ

Citizens take part in a fitness activity on a path alongside the Huangpu River in Shanghai, east China, July 1, 2017. More than ten thousands citizens in several districts in Shanghai joined in the fitness activity on Saturday. Different parts of the public space alongside the Huangpu River, which altogether covers a distance of 45 kilometers, are expected to be connected by the end of this year. (Xinhua/Cai Yaofang)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 21:54:00|Editor: Song Lifang

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MOGADISHU, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The UN top envoy for Somalia on Saturday said the international community will work closely with Mogadishu to help tackle daunting challenges facing the Horn of Africa nation.

Michael Keating, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia, said many challenges loom for President Mohamed Farmajo, his government and the leadership of federal states over the next 12 months.

Keating said long-standing disputes over resources and boundaries continue to divide communities, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the twin ravages of drought and terrorism.

"The hurdles facing their nation will be overcome, and Somalia can count on the international community for its broad and steadfast support, now and in the future," he said while congratulating Somalia on the 57th anniversary of independence.

Keating said agreements need to be reached through the constitutional review on fundamental issues like resource and revenue sharing.

"There will be differences and disputes, but these can be addressed if there is a collective commitment by the nation's leadership to work together for the common good. This will also be the best basis for confronting Al-Shabaab and reducing levels of violence," he said.

The envoy said the international community, led by the UN, stands ready to work closely with Somalia leadership and help it promote the state-building process and consolidate the peace and promote the development of the country.

"The UN and international partners are working closely with federal and state authorities to promote justice and human rights, step up humanitarian aid efforts, and develop more transparent and accountable institutions," Keating said.

"The UN looks forward to working with all Somalis who share these goals in a spirit of goodwill, inclusivity and solidarity," he added.

He lauded the government for the strong commitment to bring peace, stability, accountable institutions and economic growth to Somalia.

"I urge all leaders, whether in the public or private sectors, to work with them to deliver results. The more they do so, the more the international community can support Somalia," Keating said.

He said the challenge ahead is how to translate the positive politics and the enormous potential of the country into tangible benefits for all Somalis, particularly the millions of women, men and children living in terrible poverty and deprivation.

The Somali president faces a formidable set of challenges in meeting the expectations of the Somali people for the new federal government to respond to the country's worsening drought crisis and avert another famine.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:09:10|Editor: An

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China is battling floods along the Yangtze River in the south while northern regions, including Beijing, endure a heat wave.

The first flood this year of the Yangtze River, the country's longest, is forming as water levels are rapidly rising in major tributaries in the middle and lower reaches, said the Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters Saturday.

The headquarters ordered the Three Gorges Reservoir of the Yangtze to reduce the flow of discharging to 18,000 cubic meters per second from 2 p.m. Saturday to relieve the flood pressure downstream.

Other upstream reservoirs also joined the flood control efforts.

Floods have already hit the Xiangjiang, Yuanjiang and Zishui rivers in central China's Hunan, the worst-hit province. The rain continues in Changsha, the provincial capital and other cities such as Xiangtan and Huaihua.

The level of the Xiangjiang River in Changsha stood at 38.6 meters at 4 p.m. Saturday, well above the warning level of 36 meters and only 57 cm lower than its highest record level, according to the Hunan Provincial Hydrological Bureau.

The level of the Zishui River in Taojiang County was only 38 cm lower than its record level in history, said the bureau.

At around 1 a.m. Saturday, a 20-meter stretch of the Taxi river, a small branch of the Zishui River, burst due to flood, according to a local official.

The Hunan flood control and drought relief headquarters raised the flood response from Grade III to Grade II on Saturday. The province has mobilized soldiers, officials and villagers, allocated funds and sent relief supplies to affected areas.

As of Saturday, the rain had caused an evacuation of 310,000 in Hunan.

"The water level is rising and my house is in danger of being submerged. I was relieved when I saw a rescue boat coming," said Zhou Changsong, who was evacuated Saturday afternoon from Chenxi County, where eight towns were flooded by the Yuanjiang River. Around 100,000 people have been evacuated.

Downpours also hit Hubei, Guizhou and Jiangxi provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

In Jiangxi, which neighbors Hunan, seven people died and two were missing due to flood in the past ten days, showed statistics with the provincial flood control headquarters.

About 440,000 were evacuated in Jiangxi. On Saturday morning, a landslide buried two residential buildings in a village in Xiushui County, but caused no casualties as all 39 residents had been displaced on Thursday.

More than 70 passenger trains passing Jiangxi Province were suspended from Saturday to Monday due to floods, said the Nanchang Railway Bureau in Jiangxi.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters launched a Grade III emergency response plan Saturday and dispatched eight work teams to flood-stricken areas to guide relief work.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) forecast Saturday afternoon rainstorms will hit Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui from Saturday night to Sunday.

In north China, a heat wave affected Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, with temperatures reaching 35 to 37 degrees Celsius at 2 p.m. Saturday, said the center.

In Beijing, many residents chose to stay indoors over the weekend due to the hot weather.

The NMC forecast the heat wave will continue in the north until Tuesday. Some areas will see temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius in Inner Mongolia, Hebei and Shaanxi on Sunday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:09:12|Editor: Song Lifang

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by Ronald Njoroge

NAIROBI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to ratify the East Africa Community (EAC) Cooperative Societies Act before the end of 2017 to help boost regional integration, a senior official said Saturday.

Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Adan Mohamed told journalists that all the heads of state of EAC member states will also assent to the regional law as soon as possible.

"The aim of the regional law is to harmonize the national laws of the EAC partner states in order to enhance regional collaboration in the cooperative sector," Mohamed said during celebrations to mark the International Co-operative Day.

The EAC Cooperative Societies Act was passed by the East African legislative Assembly in 2015. EAC members include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

Once all trading bloc nations ratify the law, cooperatives in one member states will be able to draw membership from other partner states.

"This will help to strengthen and revive the cooperatives societies in the region," Mohamed said.

Most of EAC's cooperatives are in the agricultural sector where they have helped to market and process key cash crops.

The CS said that the EAC states are at different stages of development in the cooperative sector and so the regional law will permit greater transfer of knowledge within the bloc.

Mohamed noted that the cooperative movement in Kenya plays a significant role in national development especially in pooling of resources.

"Kenya's cooperative sector has mobilized savings in excess of 6 billion U.S. dollars and have an asset base worth of more than 8 billion dollars," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:14:17|Editor: Song Lifang

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by Shiferaw Tadesse and Zhu Shaobin

ADDIS ABABA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) is calling upon the United States to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, saying the recent U.S. exit decision negatively affects Africa's vulnerable agriculture sector, said Josefa Sacko, AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture.

The AU official was speaking to the press on Saturday during the 29th AU summit being held in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, where she said the pan-African bloc has taken various measures to promote sustainable natural resource management and mitigate impacts of climate change.

In June, U.S. President Donald Trump announced withdrawal of his country from the milestone Paris climate agreement.

Responding to a question regarding the impact of the U.S. exit on agriculture in Africa, Sacko said "of course, it will affect certain programs." However, she said African nations are determined in implementing the Paris accord and that the U.S. exit will not stop its implementation.

The commissioner noted that Africa set a pace in the adoption of the Paris climate change deal at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and made enormous contributions to the outcomes of the COP 22 held in Marrakech, Morocco.

Africa, which is said to be the least contributor to global warming and carbon emission, suffers most from climatic change and its adverse weather effects.

Underling the need to employ collaborative efforts to deal with climate change, the AU commissioner hailed China's commitment to addressing the challenges of climate change.

The commissioner said the drought in East Africa and the fall armyworm, in particular, are the major challenges facing Africa at present.

An estimated 16 million people are suffering from the worst drought in decades in East and Horn of Africa while in the coming months, many more will be needing humanitarian aid and being displaced due to the poor rains, according to data from the UN International Organization for Migration in June.

To make things worse, an outbreak of fall armyworm has been reported in 25 African countries and is still spreading, having infested 1.5 million hectares of land crops, mainly maize crop, the staple food of many Africans, Sacko said, adding the AU is taking steps to develop mechanism to support its member states in addressing the "unprecedented" infestation.

To address challenges in the agriculture sector and achieve food security, the official also expressed the AU's keen interest in strengthening cooperation with China.

"We are going to work more because China has a lot of experience in agriculture. We can get a lot of opportunities. We are looking forward, during my tenure, to strengthen the cooperation in the sector of agriculture," she said.

"We need to strengthen the department, to assure that Africa's food security is in control and in terms of the climate change issue, we can also partner with China." she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:14:19|Editor: Song Lifang

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PYONGYANG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday called for the dissolution of the United Nations Command in Seoul.

The call, made by the National Peace Committee of Korea -- the DPRK's official institution dealing with inter-Korean issues -- said that the United States brought the UN Command to Seoul in July 1957 in support of South Korea, shortly after the Korean War broke out in June 1950.

It said Washington's aim was to "internationalize the Korean peninsula issue and establish the Asia-version of NATO."

"The U.S. and the pro-American elements of South Korea are working hard to preserve the UN Command, a leftover of the Cold War and lever for aggression," it added.

The statement accused the U.S. of wanting to "ignite a second Korean war and stifle the DPRK by force of arms under the signboard of the UN."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:24:25|Editor: Song Lifang

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ARUSHA, Tanzania, June 1, (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities said Saturday they had arrested 45 illegal Ethiopian migrants hiding in maize fields.

Crispin Ngonyani, Head of Immigration Department in Tanga Region, said they were arrested for entering the East African nation illegally.

The official said that they were found the northeastern district of Mkinga while hiding in the farms located close to Tanzania-Kenya border of Horohoro.

He said that they were waiting for the person who was to transport them to the Tanzania-Malawi border as the suspected illegal migrants were on the way to South Africa for greener pasture.

"They were found in maize fields, while they have harvested some of the maize, the situation which shows that they were hungry."

Ngonyani said that Tanzanian security organs were looking for Tanzanians who were behind the syndicate of human trafficking.

The Ethiopian nationals will next Monday be taken to the court.

The immigration officer has urged citizens to stop keeping illegal immigrants in their homes and that whoever found doing so will face legal actions, including prosecution.

Tanzania is the main gateway for illegal immigrants particularly for those who are on the way to South Africa to seek greener pastures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:24:27|Editor: Song Lifang

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MADRID, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The wildfire that began on Wednesday evening in the Sierra Calderona natural park between the cities of Valencia and Castellon on the east coast of Spain was finally extinguished in the early hours of Saturday morning, Valencia regional government said.

Over 600 people worked through Friday night to finally bring the fire under control after it has destroyed 1,200 hectares in an area of natural beauty famous for its forests of cork trees.

A total of 27 helicopters and aircraft helped with firefighting duties.

Jose Maria Angel, General Director of Emergencies in the Valencia region, thanked those responsible for combating the fire, while Government delegate Juan Carlos Moragues explained that although the cause of the blaze was still being investigated, there had been an electrical storm in the area early in the week.

He said heat from a lightning strike had probably built up in a tree, which had later combusted under a combination of favorable weather conditions, including high temperatures, low humidity and high winds.

This is the second major fire in Spain in just over a week following a destructive blaze which burned over 8,000 hectares in and around the Donana National Park in the country's southwest region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:40:47|Editor: Song Lifang

People wave a rainbow flag during the Pink Dot event held in Singapore's Hong Lim Park on July 1, 2017. The annual Pink Dot event which supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual (LGBT) people was held on Saturday. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:39:33|Editor: ying

Children look out from a bus outside a cholera-separated department at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, on July 1, 2017. The World Health Organization said on Saturday that a cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen has killed 1,500 people since late April. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)

SANAA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) said here on Saturday that a cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen has killed 1,500 people since late April.

The suspected cases have reached 246,000 as the epidemic has hit 21 out of the 23 provinces in the country, Dr. Nevio Zagaria, the chief of WHO, said in a press conference.

Meanwhile, Sherin Varkey, acting representative of the United nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), said during the joint press conference that one in four of the dead are children.

The death toll has increased by 100 and suspected cases by nearly 28,000 in just four days after a Wednesday's report by WHO, where it put the death toll at 1,400 and suspected cases at 218,798.

Since April 27, the cholera cases in Yemen have been "increasing at an average of 5,000 a day," said WHO. "We are now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world."

More than three years into war, Yemen is facing a total collapse, where two thirds of the total population, around 19 million, need humanitarian aid. About 10.3 million people are at risk of famine and 14.5 million lack access to safe drinking water.

Fewer than 45 percent of the country's hospitals are operational, but even the operational ones are coping with huge challenges, especially the lack of medications, medical equipment and staff.

The blockade on Yemen, as part of a Saudi-led bombing campaign launched in March 2015, has deepened the crisis in the country which used to import most of its basic needs.

The war has pit the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebel movement against a Sunni Saudi-led military coalition, after Houthis toppled Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government in late 2014.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:39:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PYONGYANG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday condemned a Japanese politician for calling for "starving to death North Koreans" over its nuclear and missile programs.

Masanori Tanimoto, governor of Ishikawa prefecture in western Japan, has called for cutting food supplies to the DPRK to "starve North Koreans to death" and bringing about the collapse of the country's social system.

"The governor of Ishikawa Prefecture of Japan said on June 21 that the 'North Korean people should be starved to death by cutting off provision of foodstuff' over the fact that the DPRK took measures for self-defense," said Rodong Sinmum, the official daily of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

The daily compared Tanimoto to "a fascist murderer who is obsessed with misanthropic idea which casts into the shade (Nazi German leader Adolf) Hitler."

"His words remind one of the Japanese imperialists who ran amuck to massacre Koreans during the great earthquakes in Kanto area of Japan" in the 1920s, it said.

"The reckless remarks made by Japanese politicians are a revelation of the ultra chauvinism and the unchanged policy on exterminating the Korean nation," it added.

According to Japan's Kyodo News, Tanimoto retracted his remarks on June 22, citing the importance of "respecting human lives."

But he said sanctions imposed on the DPRK must be "effective," Kyodo News reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:49:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HONG KONG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was sworn in Saturday as the fifth-term chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Lam resigned as chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR government and announced her candidacy for the election of the HKSAR's fifth-term chief executive in January this year.

Lam won the election in March. She was granted the official certificate of appointment as the new HKSAR chief executive from Premier Li Keqiang in April.

Born in 1957 in Hong Kong, Lam came from a grassroots family and spent her childhood in Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island.

She studied at the University of Hong Kong and obtained her bachelor's degree in social sciences in 1980.

Lam joined the administrative service upon graduation. Between 2000 and 2017, Lam held various posts in the HKSAR government, including director of Social Welfare Department and director-general of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London.

She was appointed secretary for development in 2007. In 2012, she was appointed chief secretary for administration

In 1985, Lam was in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group to discuss legislation issues concerning the Basic Law. In 1996, she joined the liaison group again and participated in working on Hong Kong's 1997-98 budget.

"It is with a humble heart that I accept this greatest honor of my life and prepare to take on the greatest challenge in my public service career," Lam said in her inauguration speech on Saturday.

Lam said she will "resolutely do everything" within her ability to implement the "one country, two systems" principle, uphold the Basic Law of the HKSAR and defend the rule of law.
A Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300 is moved on the Tarmac of Le Bourget airport on June 18, 2017 on the eve of the opening of the International Paris Air Show.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt are among several countries that suspended ties with Qatar last week, including the suspension of all flights to and from Doha and an airspace ban on Qatar Airways. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

TEHRAN, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran has opened its airspace to the passenger planes of Qatar over the past days, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has issued the permission for the flights over the Islamic republic space as they are banned from Saudi, Egyptian and UAE airspaces after a diplomatic row between Qatar and the Arab countries.

Qoliollah Qolizadeh, a member of the presiding board of the parliament's civil commission, told Tasnim that the Qatari authorities coordinated the issue with Iran's Foreign Ministry and got the required permissions from the SNSC.

Some Arab allies of Saudi Arabia recently closed their airspace to the Qatari planes after they cut diplomatic ties with the country, accusing the latter of supporting terrorism.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:59:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ISTANBUL, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A record heat wave from North Africa pushed the temperature in Istanbul to more than 40 degrees Celsius on Saturday, while city officials said it felt like 45 degrees.

Many locals flocked to the seaside along the Bosporus Strait that divides the city's European and Asian parts, despite warnings by officials of potential risks of high temperatures.

Others took respite under the shadow of trees, as children were seen swimming in ponds in the parks.

"This is the hottest day in the city in almost 15 years," said Yasar Dikmen, a retired man taking shelter in a seaside park in the Bebek neighborhood.

A young man even said he was feeling as if in a giant oven.

Physicians, through media publications, are advising the elderly, children and those with chronic ailments to avoid going outdoors during some period of the day.

"Avoid heavy and fatty foods and consume plenty of liquid," a physician was quoted as saying by NTV news channel.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 22:59:47|Editor: ying

Soldiers carry the coffin of late Chancellor Helmut Kohl out of the Speyer Cathedral after a requiem mass in Speyer, Germany, July 1, 2017. Kohl died on June 16 at 87. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)

STRASBOURG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Gathering in honor of one of the forces behind a unified Europe, European and world leaders paid homage Saturday in France's Strasbourg to Helmut Kohl, former German Chancellor and honorary citizen of Europe, who died in Germany on June 16.

In a ceremony held in the hemicycle of the European parliament, chosen for its symbolic role in the reconstruction of Franco-German friendship and European solidarity in the wake of two world wars, Kohl was saluted by fellow heads of state and friends.

The event was opened with remarks from European Parliament President Antonio Trajani, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and European Council President Donald Tusk.

Former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, former United States President Bill Clinton, Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also spoke during the ceremony.

Other notable attendees included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, British Prime Minister Theresa May, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang, special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Maike Kohl-Richter, widow of Helmut Kohl, was also in attendance.

Kohl, who was German chancellor from 1982 to 1998 and chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998, was credited by his friends and former colleagues as being a driving force behind German reunification and the European project.

Juncker referred to Kohl as "a true European and friend," adding that "Europe owes him a lot."

"With extraordinary perseverance he sought to define a common Europe. He sought for what binds it together," Tusk said of Kohl.

"Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our terms in office and bigger than our fleeting careers," Clinton said in speech.

Medvedev called Kohl the "architect of the world order". "In Russia, we will remember him as our friend -- a wise and sincere person."

In the somber ceremony, accompanied by the Strasbourg University Orchestra playing excerpts from Handel, Beethoven and Schubert, some leaders took the opportunity to plead for reinforcement of the European project in the era of Brexit and numerous crises which have tested the Union's solidity.

European Parliament President Tajani told those gathered that "like Kohl and the other leaders of his era, we must work together to give fresh meaning to the European ideal."

French President Macron, the most junior of those who spoke during the ceremony, said, "We will draw from the example of Helmut Kohl what we must do to move forward together."

"The lives of millions of people would have been a lot different without Helmut Kohl -- including my own life," said Merkel when giving the final speech. "Dear Helmut Kohl, thanks to you I'm standing here today. Thanks for the chance that you made possible for me and many others."

The ceremony concluded with performances of the German and European anthems.

Kohl's remains are to be taken later Saturday for a funeral mass in the cathedral in the German town of Speyer, the resting place of several Holy Roman emperors and German kings.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 23:04:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DJIBOUTI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese naval fleet wrapped up a four-day visit to Djibouti on Saturday and headed to Italy for a friendly visit.

Some 100 people, including sailors of the Djibouti navy, officials of the Chinese Embassy in Djibouti and representatives of Chinese living in the country, bade farewell to the fleet at the port.

During the visit, Rear Admiral Shen Hao, who is commander of the fleet, met with the Horn of Africa country's defense and naval officials as well as the mayor of the capital city Djibouti. He also visited the command center of Djibouti's navy and its air force base.

In addition to several exchange activities between the Chinese and Djibouti navies, the three Chinese warships -- the Changchun, Jingzhou and Chaohu -- were also open to public for visit.

The fleet will sail to Italy for a friendly visit, according to its plan.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 23:04:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ADDIS ABABA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has called for further efforts to curb illicit financial flows out of Africa, which is estimated at up to 80 billion U.S. dollars per year.

In his remarks during the ongoing 29th AU summit being held June 27-July 4 in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, Abdalla Hamdok, Acting Executive Secretary of UNECA, said curtailing illicit financial flows is imperative for the implementation of Agenda 2030 and 2063.

Given the scale of the matter and the negative impact it has on Africa's development and governance agenda, the issue of illicit financial outflow is no longer just a continental agenda but also an international one, he said.

Hamdok underlined the need to do more despite tangible steps taken on the continent to curb illicit financial flows.

He revealed that currently a consortium comprised of pan-African institutions has been inaugurated and tasked to tackle the problem. Meanwhile, a campaign dubbed "stop the bleeding" was jointly carried out by the UNECA and AU commission.

The official also called for appropriate measures to address migration in Africa, which is dominated by intra-Africa migration.

He has mentioned statistics from the International Organization of Migration (IOM) that there are an estimated 7.5 million West African migrants within West Africa compared to 1.2 million in North America and Europe combined.

The UNECA official noted that if properly addressed, it could contribute to poverty eradication, job creation and economic transformation.

"We must therefore place migration at the top of the policy agenda," he said, adding the issue calls for a variety of measures, which include the development of a framework that can lead to effective sharing of responsibilities and firm partnership to promote well-managed migration.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 23:14:57|Editor: ying

Indian army troopers shout slogans as they walk to their base camp after a gunfight in village Brinthi-Batpora near Dailgam of Anantnag district, about 60 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 1, 2017. Two civilians including a woman were killed and over a dozen others wounded Saturday as government forces gunned down two militants in a gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)

by Peerzada Arshad Hamid

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 1 (Xinhua) --Two civilians including a woman were killed and over a dozen others wounded Saturday as government forces gunned down two militants in a gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.

The gunfight and clashes erupted at village Brinthi-Batpora near Dailgam of Anantnag district, about 60 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The standoff in the village began after contingents of Indian police and troops cordoned off the village during morning hours.

"Two militants including a commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) were killed today in a gunfight at village Brinthi-Batpora," a police official posted in Anantnag told Xinhua. "Two civilians, a woman and a young man, were also killed during the cross-firing."

The government forces, according to police, did not suffer any damage in the gunfight.

Police officials have identified the slain commander as Bashir Ahmad Wani alias Bashir Lashkari.

Police chief Shesh Paul Vaid in the region told media Lashkari was involved in the killing of six policemen including an officer in the district last month.

Reports said no sooner the news about the siege spread in the village, dozens of youth took to the streets shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, besides hurling stones and brickbats on government forces in a bid to help militants break through the cordon.

Locals said the government forces fired tear gas shells and bullets to scare away the protesters, during which two people were killed and several others wounded.

According to locals, several men and women rushed to the house where the militants were present and demanded safe passage for them.

A police statement, however, accused militants of holding civilians as human shields and said civilians were killed in crossfire.

"We rescued 17 civilians ahead of gunfight," a police spokesman said.

Shortly after over a dozen civilians came out of the house, a gunfight triggered, which culminated with the killing of two militants.

Authorities blocked internet and cellphone services in the district, fearing escalation in tempers over civilian killings.

Meanwhile, thousands of people are gathering in the village to mourn the killings of civilians and slain militants.

Indian-controlled Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has expressed grief over the death of two civilians and appealed people to keep away from the points of conflagration so that precious human lives are not lost.

"We in Jammu and Kashmir understand better what the ordeal of violence is, as it has been our fate to live through and survive its frightening and devouring hazards," Mufti said. "This gory era must end now for the sake of our future generations."

People assembling at gunfight sites in support of militants and attacking the government forces with stones has evolved as a new phenomenon of resistance in the region. Despite reprimand from police and army to stay away from gunfight sites, people continue to ignore calls and readily defy restrictions.

The civilian killing is likely to fuel further protests in the region.

Last month, two civilians including a teenager were killed and several others wounded during the clashes that erupted in a bid to break cordon and help local militants escape at village Aarwani in the district.

A separatist movement and guerrilla war challenging New Delhi's rule is going on in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.

Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 23:25:00|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Communism was called a haunting ghost more than a century and a half ago, and few believed the Communist Party of China (CPC) could survive when it was founded in 1921. Now, the world is watching the largest ruling party in the world march toward its first centenary goal.

The CPC is celebrating its 96th anniversary on Saturday and the 19th National Congress will be held in the latter half of this year. The congress will elect the leadership for another five-year term, the critical period for a goal of completing building a well-off nation by the Party's 100th anniversary.

Once the goal is realized, nearly one fifth of the world's population will live in a "moderately prosperous society in all respects," or "xiaokang" in Chinese.

The CPC is confident and determined in achieving that.

Since its founding, the Party has been faced with doubts, misunderstanding and even hostility. Yet, the CPC has emerged as one of the world's most successful and exciting stories.

China was a poor nation scarred by foreign aggression and civil war. It is now the world's second-largest economy and a major international player.

The CPC has evolved from a small group of around 50 members to a 89-million member strong party, more than the population of Germany, with 4.5 million Party grassroots organizations.

"Political legitimacy comes from competence and prosperity," said Zhang Weiwei, director of the Institute of China Studies under Fudan University. "The CPC experience shows that the ultimate test of a good system is how well it ensures good governance as judged by the people of that country."

China is in better shape than at any time in living memory. There is every reason to believe the CPC is leading China back to the center of the world stage, Zhang said.

THE CORE

Last year, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, was endorsed as the "core" at the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. Analysts said the position is key for the Party and the country to keep on the right track of development.

The Chinese need to unify around a core figure, a central leader, as their influence can unite the people and collect wisdom to formulate and implement suitable policies, said Professor Liu Dongchao with the Chinese Academy of Governance.

For the first 14 years of the CPC, the Party was without a strong, core leader, which resulted in repeated setbacks of the revolutionary cause. The Party was almost on the verge of dissolution.

In 1935, leader Mao Zedong established his authority within the CPC Central Committee and the military. Since then, the CPC leadership has been integral to the Party in overcoming difficulties.

Now, Xi is determined to lead China toward the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation, having drawn up a plan to promote all-round socialist economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development.

He has proposed the strategic layout of the "Four Comprehensives" and the philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development at a time when sustaining fast growth is becoming increasingly difficult.

Marxism is and must remain the fundamental, guiding principle of the Party. Xi's thoughts on state governance are often called Marxism in modern China, said professor Xin Ming with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

CHINA PATH

The CPC created China's recipe for success, officially called "socialism with Chinese characteristics."

It is through this model that the CPC represents the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people and puts the people first.

Reform is pushed forward thanks to decisions that reflect the broad consensus of Chinese society. Social stability is maintained. The market-government relationship, where the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation and the government better serves its duty, is capable of steering the country out of the harm of the current global economic downturn.

This path has gained wide support from the public, thanks largely to the fact that most people have found their living standards significantly improved over the past decades, said Liu Dongchao.

Liu was echoed by professor Xin who said Xi's vision of the Chinese dream has united the majority of people in China.

"The Party has inspired a spirit of striving for a better future," Xin said.

As an evidence of the success of the China path, more than 700 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the decades. In the past more than four years alone, the country has seen over 55 million shake off poverty. The Party has its eyes on the remaining 40 million people still in poverty.

By 2020, people in rural areas should no longer worry about food and clothing, they should be guaranteed with education, basic medical care and housing. Every rural resident will be elevated above the current poverty line.

"As long as we pay attention, think correctly, take effective measures and work in a down to earth way, abject poverty is absolutely conquerable," Xi said during a June tour of north China's Shanxi Province focusing on poverty.

Confident in its own path, China has no intention of promoting its model as an alternative for other peoples or countries.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

The key to doing things well in China lies in the CPC.

The leadership has repeatedly warned that the biggest threat to the Party is corruption and the CPC must keep improving if it is to remain in power.

Since Xi Jinping took the helm as Party leader, an anti-corruption campaign has swept across the country, exposing many officials charged with abuse of power and misusing public funds. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, at least 240 senior officials and more than 1 million lower-level officials have been investigated.

Earlier this month, for the first time in history, the CPC completed inspections within a five-year administrative term, covering CPC organizations in provincial-level regions, central CPC and government organs, major state-owned enterprises, central financial institutions and universities.

Internal evaluations have proven effective in exposing problems. More than 50 percent of investigations into centrally-administered officials were as a result of information found by discipline inspectors, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The CPC also launched a series of campaigns in recent years, including the "mass-line," an effort to build a closer official-people relationship, and "three stricts and three earnests," a political campaign that urges officials to be strict in morals, power and disciplining oneself; and be honest in decisions, business and behavior.

The CPC has never been afraid of breaking the shelters of vested interests and sweeping out obstacles hampering development, professor Zhang said.

Uncertainties ripple through the world today, calling into question the definition of governance legitimacy. In this context, the CPC century-old wisdom and practices may be increasingly relevant, he said.
A man lies on the bed of a cholera treatment center in Sanaa, Yemen May 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

SANAA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) said here on Saturday that a cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen has killed 1,500 people since late April.

The suspected cases have reached 246,000 as the epidemic has hit 21 out of the 23 provinces in the country, Dr. Nevio Zagaria, the chief of WHO, said in a press conference.

Meanwhile, Sherin Varkey, acting representative of the United nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), said during the joint press conference that one in four of the dead are children.

The death toll has increased by 100 and suspected cases by nearly 28,000 in just four days after a Wednesday's report by WHO, where it put the death toll at 1,400 and suspected cases at 218,798.

Since April 27, the cholera cases in Yemen have been "increasing at an average of 5,000 a day," said WHO. "We are now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world."

More than three years into war, Yemen is facing a total collapse, where two thirds of the total population, around 19 million, need humanitarian aid. About 10.3 million people are at risk of famine and 14.5 million lack access to safe drinking water.

Fewer than 45 percent of the country's hospitals are operational, but even the operational ones are coping with huge challenges, especially the lack of medications, medical equipment and staff.

The blockade on Yemen, as part of a Saudi-led bombing campaign launched in March 2015, has deepened the crisis in the country which used to import most of its basic needs.

The war has pit the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebel movement against a Sunni Saudi-led military coalition, after Houthis toppled Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government in late 2014.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 23:55:10|Editor: Mengjie

(Xinhua file photo)

WENCHANG, Hainan, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China is scheduled to launch the Long March-5 Y2, the country's second heavy-lift carrier rocket, from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China's Hainan Province Sunday, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence said Saturday.

Propellant for the rocket, which will send the Shijian-18 communication satellite into orbit, began to be pumped in on Saturday afternoon, it said.

After arriving at the launch base in early May, the rocket has been assembled and tested there.

The launch will be the last drill for the Long March-5 series before it carries the Chang'e-5 lunar probe into space in the latter half of this year, according to the administration.

Media are allowed to live broadcast the launch, the administration said.

The Long March-5 made its maiden flight in November 2016 in Wenchang. It can carry a payload of 25 tonnes into low Earth orbit and 14 tonnes in geostationary orbit, over two times the capacity of current carrier rockets.

China has scheduled eight launches of Long March-5 in the coming years for the nation's lunar probe, manned space station and Mars probe missions.

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TAIYUAN, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for comprehensively improving the country's rocket launch and test capabilities. Full Story

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BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- A Long March-5 carrier rocket has arrived in Wenchang in south China's Hainan Province, for the launch of the Shijian-18 communication satellite, scheduled for June, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said Saturday. Full Story

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A photo of Zhang Yingying released by the police

CHICAGO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Local police arrested a man Friday evening for kidnapping Zhang Yingying, a visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the U.S. Midwest.

Brendt Christensen, a resident of Champaign who turned 28 on Friday, was charged with kidnapping Zhang, who authorities believe to be dead.

Christensen will remain in law enforcement custody pending his initial federal court appearance in Urbana scheduled on Monday.

Zhang, 26, went missing on June 9 after she got into a black Saturn Astra car about five blocks from where she got off a bus as she was heading to an apartment complex to sign a lease. She had just arrived at the University of Illinois in late April.

When FBI agents first talked to Christensen, who owns one of the 18 four-door Saturn Astra cars registered in Champaign County, he said he was either sleeping or playing video games at home when Zhang went missing.

However, later when police reviewed the surveillance video footage of Zhang's last appearance, it was found the vehicle which Zhang entered had a cracked hubcap on the front passenger side, which matched Christensen's car and made the FBI put him under surveillance.

According to the federal charging document, Christensen in April visited via his smartphone two sub-threads entitled "perfect abduction fantasy" and "planning a kidnapping."

"While Christensen was under law enforcement surveillance, agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang," the FBI press release said.

"Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement agents believe that Ms. Zhang is no longer alive," said the press release.

Members of Zhang's family, who have arrived in the United States and followed the search and investigation closely, were advised of Christensen's arrest and the evidence, the document added.

University of Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said that the entire campus community is saddened by the news.

"Our hearts are with the family of Yingying Zhang tonight," he said in a statement.

He added that University of Illinois would support Zhang's family "in any way we can in these difficult days ahead."

The Chinese Consulate-General in Chicago also conveyed deep condolences to Zhang's family. In a statement, the diplomat expressed "strong indignation and condemnation" of the kidnapping and called on the U.S. judiciary to "bring the criminal to justice."
File photo shows solar panels at Botswana's first Photovoltaic solar power plant which was commissioned in Gaborone, capital of Botswana, Aug. 27, 2012. (Xinhua/Sharon Tshipa)

GABORONE, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Botswana is targeting to connect the remaining 20 percent of rural households to electricity by 2020, according to Botswana's energy minister.

Sadique Kebonang, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, made the announcement Saturday after touring Morupule B power plant at Palapye, some 280 km north of the capital, Gaborone.

Botswana's rural electrification currently stands at 80 percent.

Kebonang revealed that extensive works are currently ongoing to meet the southern African country's target of electrifying the remaining 20 percent of rural homes in three years' time.

According to Kebonang, the government has initiated a public-private partnership program to boost energy production in the country.

"Botswana energy production capacity will be augmented by renewable initiatives that the government is putting in place with the help of the yet to be disclosed private players," Kebonang told reporters.

Botswana is also setting her sights on gas reserves, extracted from coal beds to play an important role in the country's energy security, Anthony Gilby, the chief executive officer and managing director of Tlou Energy recently told an Africa Independents Forum in London.

According to Gilby, Botswana has a "very attractive power market" and that the country's coal bed methane (CBM) reserves could also be used to help the residents, industries and businesses access electricity.

File photo shows the sunset at Chobe River in Chobe National Park, northern Botswana. (Xinhua/Guo Jun)

Botswana has independently certified gas reserves in place and Gilby believes that the first gas-to-power plant could be online "potentially by 2019" -developments that will boost the country's quest in electrifying close to the remaining 145 000 households in rural Botswana.

Latest figures from Statistics Botswana also clearly shows that electricity generation increased by 11.1 percent while power imports dropped by 32 percent in last quarter of 2016.

The physical volume of electricity generated during that period stood at 783,141 megawatt-hour (MWH), which represents an increase of 77,940 MWH as compared to 705,201 MWH generated during the same period of the previous year.

The bulk of domestic electricity production is generated by the Morupule coal-fired station with more than half of Botswana's power requirements being imported from South Africa and Zambia.
Participants pose for a group photo during the 34th Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representative Committee (PRC) of the African Union (AU) at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, June 27, 2017. The 34th session of the Permanent Representative Committee (PRC) of the African Union (AU) opened on Tuesday in the framework of the 29th AU summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Creating more synergy and harmony in the implementation of major African Union (AU) programs is at the heart of AU's reform process, Thomas Kwesi Quartey, AUC Deputy Chairperson said on Saturday.

The reform, once complete, will assist the pan African block to effectively address the challenges that continue to hamper the AU from realizing its potential, Quartey told reporters at a press briefing during the 29th AU summit being held in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

The source of financing, as an important part of the reform, will ensure the Union's financial independence, and reduce the AU over-reliance on development partners for funds, according to Quartey.

A financing proposal for the African Union was adopted by Heads of AU member states during the 27th AU Summit held in Rwanda last year. It directs all AU member states to implement a 0.2 percent levy on eligible imports to finance the African Union in its drive to be self-dependent.

Quartey also indicated that, despite challenges, some African countries have already initiated actions to implement the decision, which entered into operations as of January 2017.

Countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, Chad, Ethiopia and Republic of Congo are said to be at the forefront in implementing the 0.2 percent levy, which applies for imports from non-AU member states arriving by sea, road and air to the continent.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former Chairperson of the African Union Commission, gives a speech during the 31st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on June 30, 2017. The 31st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union kicked off on Friday in the framework of the 29th AU summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

After asserting that the continued and successful implementation of the Union's programs requires adequate and sustainable funding, Quartey expressed his optimism with regards to financing the Union saying that "from 2018, all our 55 states will oversee the full, consistent and timely implementation of this decision."

The initiative mainly aspires to create an equitable and predictable source of financing for AU, aiming to provide reliable and predictable funding for continental peace and security by reducing dependence on partner funds.

It also targets to relieve the pressure on national treasuries with respect to meeting national obligations for payment of assessed contributions of the Union.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-02 01:25:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Violence, terrorist acts and armed conflicts across Iraq killed a total of 411 civilians and wounded 294 others in June, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said on Saturday.

A UNAMI statement said figures of casualties do not include security members, as the Iraqi military declined to give information about casualties among the troops.

Previous figures of security members' casualties were questioned by the Iraqi military as "inaccurate," while UNAMI responded "the military figures were largely unverified."

Most of the civilian casualties occurred in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, where 289 were killed and 93 others injured in battles between Iraqi forces and Islamic State (IS) militants in western Mosul.

Jan Kubis, the UN envoy to Iraq and the UNAMI chief, reiterated his call to protect civilians in the conflict in Mosul and condemned IS "continued deliberate targeting of civilians seeking to escape from the last remaining areas under the control of the terrorist group in Mosul," according to the statement.

Kubis added that there are civilians who remain trapped in the area or are held as human shields by the terrorists. "The well-being of civilians is a matter of extreme concern for us," Kubis said.

The UNAMI statement came as the Iraqi security forces backed by anti-IS international coalition are carrying out a major offensive to drive out the IS militants from their major stronghold in the western side of Mosul in northern Iraq.

Iraq has witnessed intensifying violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the United States that invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003, under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country.

The war led to the ouster and eventual execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but no such weapons have been found.
Participants attend the 31st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on June 30, 2017. The 31st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union kicked off on Friday in the framework of the 29th AU summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

by Shiferaw Tadesse and Zhu Shaobin

ADDIS ABABA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) is calling upon the United States to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, saying the recent U.S. exit decision negatively affects Africa's vulnerable agriculture sector, said Josefa Sacko, AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture.

The AU official was speaking to the press on Saturday during the 29th AU summit being held in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, where she said the pan-African bloc has taken various measures to promote sustainable natural resource management and mitigate impacts of climate change.

In June, U.S. President Donald Trump announced withdrawal of his country from the milestone Paris climate agreement.

Responding to a question regarding the impact of the U.S. exit on agriculture in Africa, Sacko said "of course, it will affect certain programs." However, she said African nations are determined in implementing the Paris accord and that the U.S. exit will not stop its implementation.

The commissioner noted that Africa set a pace in the adoption of the Paris climate change deal at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and made enormous contributions to the outcomes of the COP 22 held in Marrakech, Morocco.

Africa, which is said to be the least contributor to global warming and carbon emission, suffers most from climatic change and its adverse weather effects.

Underling the need to employ collaborative efforts to deal with climate change, the AU commissioner hailed China's commitment to addressing the challenges of climate change.

The commissioner said the drought in East Africa and the fall armyworm, in particular, are the major challenges facing Africa at present.

Moussa Faki Mahamt, Chairperson of the AU Commission, gives a speech during the 31st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on June 30, 2017. The 31st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union kicked off on Friday in the framework of the 29th AU summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

An estimated 16 million people are suffering from the worst drought in decades in East and Horn of Africa while in the coming months, many more will be needing humanitarian aid and being displaced due to the poor rains, according to data from the UN International Organization for Migration in June.

To make things worse, an outbreak of fall armyworm has been reported in 25 African countries and is still spreading, having infested 1.5 million hectares of land crops, mainly maize crop, the staple food of many Africans, Sacko said, adding the AU is taking steps to develop mechanism to support its member states in addressing the "unprecedented" infestation.

To address challenges in the agriculture sector and achieve food security, the official also expressed the AU's keen interest in strengthening cooperation with China.

"We are going to work more because China has a lot of experience in agriculture. We can get a lot of opportunities. We are looking forward, during my tenure, to strengthen the cooperation in the sector of agriculture," she said.

"We need to strengthen the department, to assure that Africa's food security is in control and in terms of the climate change issue, we can also partner with China." she said.
Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz addresses a news conference after a meeting of Austrian people's party (OVP) in Vienna, capital of Austria, on May 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Pan Xu)

VIENNA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, at 30, was officially voted as the 17th leader of the center-right People's Party (OeVP) during a party congress in Linz on Saturday.

Kurz was voted in by a near-unanimous 98.7 percent of the vote to become the youngest leader in the party's history.

Expectations are now on the rising political star to lead the OeVP to success in the next federal elections in October where it is hoped he will become the nation's next chancellor.

Saturday's outcome also means Kurz has been granted several of his demands for taking on the role, including being able to put together his own team, strategy, and party ticket at the election.

Speaking to the more than 1,000 delegates following the vote, Kurz expressed "wholehearted thanks" for the trust placed in him, and was "very very glad", to take on the role.

He called for an end to the sugarcoating of important issues in the country that need to be dealt with, and voiced a desire to bring Austria "back to the top".

His predecessor Reinhold Mitterlehner, who had resigned from his post in May, was also present at the congress to mark his farewell.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-02 03:31:49|Editor: ying

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DAMASCUS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army denied using chlorine gas during battles in eastern Damascus on Saturday.

The army said reports circulated about an attack with chlorine gas on the rebels in the Ayn Tarma neighborhood in the eastern countryside of Damascus are mere lies.

This comes as activists reported that 30 people suffered suffocation after a Syrian army chlorine gas attack in Ayn Tarma.

"These lies are fabricated by the terrorist groups to justify their losses," the army said, adding that such blatant lies are exposed and cannot be believed.

The army stressed that Syria hasn't used chemical weapons before and it's now in no possession of such materials.

The Syrian government has warned that the rebels are preparing to stage chemical attacks to frame the Syrian army.

The chemical weapons' file was stirred last April when the United States and rebels accused the Syrian army of using nerve agent sarin in an attack on Khan Sheikhoun in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The alleged attack prompted a missile attack by the United States on a military base in central Syria.

Syria then denied the accusations made without investigations.

A day earlier, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said the nerve agent sarin was used in an attack in April on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun and was likely to have spread from a crater in a road.

The report also found that hexamine, a known component of the Syrian government's stockpiles, was contained in samples taken from the scene, as well as from the blood and urine of victims.

The OPCW said its mandate was solely to determine whether chemical weapons were used in the attack, as a UN investigative task force will attempt to determine who was responsible.

In response, Syria's Foreign Ministry on Saturday slammed the report as "far from logic" and "unacceptable."

Syria handed over its chemical stockpiles to the OPCW in 2013, when it joined the chemical weapons convention.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-02 04:57:59|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BUJUMBURA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza Saturday urged its former colonizers Germany and Belgium to pay compensations to the country for damages caused during the colonial rule.

The remarks were made at Prince Louis Rwagasore stadium in the capital Bujumbura during the celebration of the east African country's 55th independence anniversary.

"Burundi's former colonial powers (Germany and Belgium) should admit atrocities made on Burundi and its people during the colonial rule. They should then apologize for those atrocities and compensate us (Burundi)," Nkurunziza said at the independence anniversary celebrations.

Nkurunziza underlined that neocolonialism still exists, adding that some Burundian betrayers are collaborating with them.

"This is a warning. Troublemakers who cooperate with neocolonialists will not succeed their mission here in Burundi if we continue to be united," Nkurunziza said.

He blamed tribalism and ethnic problems on colonialists.

The president also gave awards to Burundian citizens and foreigners for their outstanding achievements to safeguard "independence gains."

These include ambassadors of China, Tanzania and Kenya, for their support to Burundi during the country's "hard times" in 2015 when there were reports "tarnishing" the country's image.

This year's Independence Day is themed with "Unity and peace building are the right way to independence consolidation."

Burundi grabbed independence from the Belgian colonial rule on July 1, 1962. The east African nation had been colonized by Germany before World War I.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-02 05:03:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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AMMAN, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Three missiles landed Saturday near the Jaber border post on Jordan's northern border with Syria, with no injuries or damage reported, according to Petra news agency.

The incident happened as Syrian air force jets targeted rebels inside Syrian territory, said a statement from Jordan armed forces.

It said two rockets fell near the civil defense building and the third one struck close to the Jaber-Ramtha road, igniting a fire.

Several similar incidents have happened in the Jordanian village near the borders with Syria since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-02 05:43:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JERUSALEM, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Israel struck a position belonging to Syrian army after stray mortars from Syria's civil war hit the Israeli-held Golan Heights on Saturday night, Israel's army said.

A military statement said that the strike targeted a canon of the Syrian army. The action was a response to two errant mortars, which hit earlier an open area in the northern Golan Heights near the security fence, causing no injuries, according to the statement.

The army believes that the fire was a result of the heavy fighting between the Syrian army and rebels in Quneitera, near the disputed Syrian-Israeli border.

Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said Saturday that Israel maintains a policy of non-involvement in the Syrian civil war, but "will not tolerate any breach of Israel's sovereignty."

He warned that "Israel holds the Syrian regime responsible for any breach of its borders and will act accordingly."

The incident was the sixth time that a spillover from war-torn Syria hit northern Israel, without causing damage or injuries.

Israel usually responded these incidents with strikes against President Bashar Assad's army positions.

Israel had repeatedly declared it would not intervene in the internal fighting in Syria.

However, it is widely believed that Israel often carried out airstrikes on weapons convoys in Syria, and has been providing medical treatment to hundreds of wounded Syrians who reached the border.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-02 05:58:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The introduction of the world's first emergency call telephone number 80 years ago was celebrated Saturday by police forces across Britain.

Now the 999 number to alert police, fire, ambulance and coastguards to emergencies is the best known phone number in Britain.

In London, the Metropolitan Police, described how in its early days at Scotland Yard, a handful of police officers transmitted 999 messages by Morse code to wireless cars

Fast forward to now and the emergency service is run from three high-tech centralized communications complexes in Bow, Hendon and Lambeth.

In the early days of the 1930s just 24 staff in the old Victoria Embankment headquarters of Scotland Yard dealt with a couple of hundred calls a day. The three centralized complexes in Bow, Hendon and Lambeth, employ over 2,000 people who deal with up to 20,000 "999" calls every day.

Said a spokesman at the Met: "Eighty years ago this weekend the first ever emergency number system anywhere in the world came into being in London with the introduction of the 999 call -- marking an unprecedented change in the way the public communicated with the Metropolitan Police."

The current system has been upgraded and redesigned numerous times over the decades, leading to the sophisticated multi-screen automated service that prioritizes 999 calls using interactive satellite mapping as well as access to translators in 170 languages and special text phone numbers for deaf people.

Police in Britain have always made use of new technology to help them fight crime. The first case of a criminal being arrested through use of telegrams was recorded in 1845, while in 1910 the notorious murderer Dr Crippen was famously caught after telegrams between London, Canada and a ship in the Atlantic were sent.

The impetus for a new, dedicated emergency number came after a tragic event in London in 1935 when five women lost their lives in a fire at a Wimpole Street doctor's house.

A Parliamentary Committee inquiry followed, and recommended a universal number easily memorized by public and instantly recognizable to telephone operators.

After 111, 222 and 0000 were rejected, the number 999 was agreed and thousands of traditional red phone boxes were converted to allow free emergency calls when the service started on July 1, 1937.

In the early days some of the girl telephone operators were so distressed by the alert sound in telephone exchanges, they fainted.

In the 12 months to end May 2017, the Met in London received just under five million calls, including two million to the 999 emergency number and three million to the more recently introduced non-emergency 101 number.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-02 06:03:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HELSINKI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Helsinki Pride 2017 saw an unprecedented participation of public services and government agencies on Saturday, and uniformed police appeared for the first time as participants, beyond the security role.

While trade unions have participated for a long time, this year saw for the first time the attendance of the Confederation of Industries, representing the employers. The newly elected Mayor of Helsinki Jan Vapaavuori joined the event as well.

The widened social outreach of Pride was met with major disappointment in media statements from Christian Democratic Party and populist politicians. Their argument was that the widening political correctness restricts their freedom of speech.

Some ministers of the Center Party and conservative National Coalition Party joined the march. Attendance by the leftist and green opposition was more intense and their party leaders marched.

Helsinki Pride has become an annual event supporting the stance against discrimination toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. It usually takes place following the Midsummer Day.

On Saturday, the flow of 35,000 people from the civic square to the southern waterfront park went without incident.

However, the police removed one counterdemonstration and arrested one person. There had been social media messages indicating some action against the march had been planned, police told the media.

This Helsinki Pride was the first since marriage equality took effect in Finland in the past winter.
Published: 10:26 EDT, 26 June 2017 | Updated: 20:42 EDT, 26 June 2017

Italy 's right celebrated Monday after big victories in local elections, with all eyes on a potential comeback for former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi - just months before the country holds national elections.





The 80-year-old billionaire's Forza Italia (Go Italy) party and the far-right Northern League won 16 of the 22 cities up for grabs Sunday.





Their victory was a shock setback for the governing centre-left Democratic Party.





Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the far-right Northern League dominated the local elections



The loss of the city of Genoa was a particularly big blow. The northern city has traditionally been a bastion of the left, but it passed to the centre-right for the first time.





Former centre-left prime minister Matteo Renzi, dismissed the wins as having little bearing on national voter sentiment.





But the mood on the left was sombre. Editorialist Riccardo Barenghi wrote in the left-leaning Italian newspaper La Stampa that it 'couldn't have gone worse'.

He added: 'Not just for Matteo Renzi, not just for the [Democratic Party]. But for the whole of the Italian left.'





'[It was] as if we'd gone back 23 years to when the left was beaten by the Cavaliere ('The Knight', Berlusconi's nickname), who appeared on the scene like a rabbit from a magician's hat, and today reappears like a castigating ghost.'





The next general election must be held by spring 2018, but the coalition supporting Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni is fragile and many experts say the government could call elections for late in the year.

Left-leaning Italian newspaper La Stampa that it 'couldn't have gone worse' for the left



At the national level, the PD and the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) are running neck-and-neck in the polls, each with about 30 percent of voter intentions, while Forza Italia and the Northern League are each hovering at around 14 percent.





Political commentator Stefano Folli called Sunday's results 'a searing and very painful loss for the left.'





He wrote in the left-leaning La Republica: 'Berlusconi reveals himself to be politically immortal.




Warner shows new work at Art Basel

Art Basel, an international art fair with three annual shows in Switzerland, Florida, and Hong Kong, brings together artists, buyers and students and showcases contemporary works by established and emerging artists. Ranked as the premier art show of Europe, the Basel fair offers a choice platform for renowned artists and galleries from June 15  18.

Each year, Davidoff Cigars, an associate partner of Art Basel, commissions artwork for a set of limited edition products. Warner was selected to create five images for the 2017 collection. One thousand impressions of each of his five designs have been produced and are now available to the public.

In addition, Warner created a special series of three prints in which he projected the Nature Reimagined images onto himself and made self-portraits.

These images, limited to 25 copies of each, were also debuted at the Art Basel Collectors Lounge.

Warner also showed new work at Basel Meeting Point, a popup event hosted by Davidoff Art Initiative in collaboration with My Art Guides. The artist created an installation and invited visitors to stand in the light of his projected animation and be photographed.

The installation was a hit, as visitors queued daily for their chance to be a part of it, said a media release.

We made hundreds of photos of the many visitors and printed the photographs on the spot as a take-away for each participant, Warner said.

His limited edition and collectors edition works were also available and on display at Basel Meeting Point.

Albertine Kopp, manager of the Davidoff Art Initiative, said: It has been extremely enriching to discover more of Rodell Warners world and approach to the arts while working with him on the Davidoff Limited Art Edition.

Especially during Art Basel, Rodell opened up a whole new view and created wonderful connections with the installation at the Basel Meeting Point.

The collaboration could not represent better the aim of the programme, it is all about creating, connecting and tasting the new world. The experience was a positive one for the artist as well: This was my first visit to Europe, and my first time at a major art fair, he says. I learned a lot. It was incredibly inspiring, to say the least.

Now Im creating a new body of work and will soon be occupying a studio at Alice Yards Granderson Lab in Belmont. Warner is a recipient of the 2011 Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency and the 2014 summer residency at NLS Kingston.

His works have also been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The National Gallery of Jamaica.
I DONE WITH TT

Pochntan, who barely speaks English, has through the aid of an interpretor indicated to his landlord Brian Beckles that he is winding up the family business located in Cantaro Village and take his two children and leave for China. The children were born in Trinidad.

The grieving man is liaising with the Chinese Embassy to have Passports prepared for himself and the children.

Pochntan said that two years ago, he and his wife were robbed at their home of cash and their passports.

The couple did not get an opportunity to renew the passports because they were open for business seven days a week. According to Beckles, Pochntan has told officials of the Embassy that once his passport is replaced, he wants to sever all ties with this country and go back to China.

In the meantime, Pochntan will sell out all the items in the mini mart and close down the business. He has also opted not to tell his children about their mothers death and next Wednesday when the funeral and cremation takes place, the children will not be taken to either the service or cremation.

Zengs funeral service will take place at the Santa Cruz RC Church, while the cremation will be carried out at 11 am at the Crematorium in Long Circular Road, St James.

According to Beckles, Pochntan and his children have been staying at his home and he has been giving them all the necessary support.

He said that residents of Santa Cruz have been offering condolences and praying with the family, while members of the Santa Cruz RC church choir are planning to have a service outside the mini mart where Zeng was fatally shot sometime next week before the funeral.

Beckles said that on Thursday, he met with officials at the Chinese Embassy and they thanked him for his support to the husband and children of Zeng.

He told Newsday that people who knew Zeng continue to express sadness and disgust over her killing and are calling on police to capture her killers especially since they have been given CCTV footage showing the robbery and murder.

Zeng, 33, arrived in this country ten years ago from Guangdong and established the mini mart in Santa Cruz, where she also lived at the back.

Residents said her business served the community well and she will be sadly missed.
Tragic death of 13-year-olds baby

The baby, named Leah died at her Brazil Village, San Raphael home between 2.30 am and 7 am on Thursday .

The babys mother fed her at 2.30 am and placed the infant on her back on a bed. When the babys mother awoke at 7 am, she realised Leah was cold and unresponsive .

The baby was rushed to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex where she was pronounced dead .

Investigations revealed the child was placed between its mother and six-year-old aunt. The aunt, while asleep, placed her leg over the childs face causing Leah to smother to death .

Yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, before the autopsy was carried out, pathologist Dr Valeri Alexandrov used a doll to demonstrate to the 13-year-old mother how her baby was positioned on the bed when she died. Yesterday, the father of the 13-year-old said that when his wife died in 2015, his daughter who was a student at a high school in East Trinidad became depressed and began communicating with a 16-year-old boy on Facebook .

He said that unknown to him, his daughter struck up a secret relationship with the boy with baby Leah being the result. The boy, on learning that he was to be a father, ended all communication with the 13-year-old and disappeared. The man said he made numerous attempts to locate the teenaged boy and even contacted the Child Protection Unit .

According to the teens father, as the family is devout Catholics a decision was made not to abort the baby. He added that although it was a trying time for him and his daughter the baby was born healthy and everyone loved her dearly. He said that he never expected to have another death in his family so soon after his wifes and added that Leah will be greatly missed .

He pointed out that his daughter is coping very well because she is a strong person, but he is of the view that she may require some form of counselling. On a positive note he said that his daughter will be returning to school in September to continue her studies because she is anxious to move on with her life and secure a sound education. Funeral arrangements for baby Leah are yet to be finalised
Puff n Stuff owner relieved

In a brief telephone interview, Mrs Laing told Newsday that when she learnt her husband was kidnapped she began praying in earnest .

Yesterday, her prayers continued but this time they were prayers of thanksgiving. She said that Thursday was a very trying time for the family, but because of their faith in God, they knew things would turn out all right. She said when her husband arrived home on Thursday night, he had a hot meal and slept soundly throughout the night .

Gregory, she said, is a bit traumatised with a few bruises and has not yet spoken about what he endured at the hands of his abductors. We are not rushing him to speak about the event because we know he needs some time to deal with this experience, she said. When he is ready we will listen to him. Newsday was told that Laing is expected to be interviewed by members of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit (AKU) this weekend. They opted not to do the interview on Thursday because the businessman was too shaken at the time .

A source revealed that members of the Cyber Crime Unit, who are assisting the AKU, were able to trace the suspects however up until yesterday no arrests were made. Laing, 53, was taken from outside his business place Puff n Stuff at Circular Road, San Fernando at about 3 am on Thursday. Police believe he was kept at different locations between Beetham and Barataria .

Relatives received a call asking them to go to a track at Phase One, Beetham to drop off $30,000 - part of the ransom payment. The rest of the money amounting to $240,000 was dropped shortly before 5pm on a pavement opposite the TATECO Credit Union in Barataria. Laing was then released shortly after 5pm at the eastern lane of the Beetham Highway .

Meanwhile, effective yesterday, Puff n Stuff reduced its business hours to the public. In a post on the bakerys Facebook page, it stated that effective yesterday the new business hours will be 6 am - 6 pm .

Previously, the business closed at 8 pm. Police reports are at about 4 am on Thursday, a female worker arrived at work and discovered Laings Mercedes Benz sedan locked in the carpark. The cars engine was idling and his keys as well as his cellular phone were on the ground a short distance away .

Laing was nowhere to be found and she immediately contacted police and relatives. The bakery was opened for business yesterday but no one opted to speak on the issue .

When Newsday visited his home, no one came out .
Killers can run but cant hide

You cannot run from justice. A time will come when you too will meet your match, no one has the right to take a life, Ali said. He also offered advice to the killers saying they should take the first step towards reform by surrendering to the police in order to prevent further deaths.

He called on people to be each others keeper and engage in deeper prayer as they try to cope with rising crime.

To the killers, the first bit of advice I would give you is to stop whatever it is you are doing and change your hearts.

My second advice is to turn yourselves into the authorities. But I know that is unlikely since you know that jail isnt a nice place. I urge the people of T&T to please arm yourselves with prayer.

It is the only thing that can save us from the lawlessness we see on a daily basis. No one man can do it. It starts with us. Mohammeds relative Fareed Ramjohn echoed Alis sentiments and assured mourners that while criminals may evade punishment from the law of the land, he was confident that they will in time receive their just deserts. Ramjohn also extended his condolences to the family of Subar, who lived a stones throw away from Mohammed.

If you think that you have gotten away, think again. Throughout our grief, we cannot forget about the small boy Videsh.

One day you will meet your creator and He will ask, Why Videsh? and you will have no answer. Mohammeds sister-in-law, Indra Mohammed delivered an emotional address in which she expressed her grief at the murders and called on parents to step up and accept responsibility for their childrens actions.

We hear so much about crime these days but we dont pay much attention to it until it hits home. Its been a very painful experience for us and our families.

We cant sleep and we all wonder what suffering both Rosie and Videsh had to endure before they died.

The time has come for parents to really take charge and teach their children right from wrong. Set a good example for them. Newsday spoke to Mohammeds uncle Haniff Baksh, who said that he was deeply shaken by the murders and is praying for swift justice.

He suspected that theft was not the motive for the murders.

Ive never seen anything like this before.

It was nothing short of an execution, it wasnt a robbery or just a murder.

When you see how vicious her (Hafeezas) death was, you realise that this was something much more than just a theft. Throngs of relatives and friends packed the garage at the familys home yesterday and spilled out onto the streets to pay respect to a woman affectionately referred to as Rosie.
Two vessels arrive soon for inter-island services

At a press conference yesterday at the Ministry of Transport head office, at the corner of Richmond and London Streets, Port-of-Spain, chairman of the TT Port Authority, Allison Lewis, said daily rental fees for the cargo vessel named Cabo Star and the passenger vessel named, Ocean Flower are US $22,500 and US $26,500 respectively.

Lewis said the Ocean Flower has a capacity of 840 passengers and can hold 158 vehicles, where as the Cabo Star can hold 120 passengers and has that capability, unlike the Atlantic Provider, which was one of the problems. In addition to facilitating passengers, the Cabo Star can also carry trucks. The vessel (Ocean Flower) is basically comparable to the TT Express and it has more or less the same features as the Express. The vessels were contracted by Bridgemans Ferry Services, which is a company out of Vancouver in Canada. She continued, We expect those two vessels to be on service as soon as they get here. We have a number of administrative things we have to deal with. The Ministry of Works and Transport is working with us to get those things done and we expect that we would have those vessels on the 17th in TT. She said over the last few months they have had many challenges on the seabridge both with the cargo and passengers situation between Trinidad and Tobago. Lewis said over the last couple of months they have been using the Trinity Transporter and the Atlantic Provider, along with the other vessel for cargo operation.

It was reported that the daily rental fee for the Trinity Transporter and the Atlantic Provider was US$14,000 and US$8,000 respectively.

She said the vessels are going to be on charter for one year, and during this time they expect to finalise specifications for a longterm charter and to have a vessel built. We believe it will take somewhere between three years. I want to emphasise that this situation again is for a period of one year and it is on a chartered line. We expect that these vessels will take care of the cargo needs of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Lewis said at the moment they have the TT Spirit on drydock, while the TT Express has been operating together with the water taxis. However, she said due to the workload on the vessels, both vessels are scheduled to go on drydock for a period between June and September.

As we all know, we have had many incidents and challenges with both of those vessels. They have not been operating optimally.

We have also during the month of May invited an engineer who basically handled and worked on building one of the vessels. We invited him to come in to do an assessment on both the vessels basically to give us some recommendations with respect to what we need to do to go forward. She added, The situation is the vessels are really in a bad shape, and final analysis is not going to be just the routine drydock, but it is very clear to us that we are going to have to do serious work and maintenance with respect to the vessels, not only the engines but, also there is going to be other work done including electrical work etcetera. She said the scheduled drydocking for the Spirit and the Express is geared between June and September of this year.
Explosion rocks east Trinidad

Regiment officials had to apologise yesterday to those affected by the disposal, as they said they did not expect the explosion to be so powerful. At about 11 am yesterday, people along the East-West corridor began making reports of hearing an explosion followed by vibrations that rattled the roofs of their homes.

Chairman of the Sangre Grande Reigonal Corporation Terry Rondon told Newsday he also felt the effects of the explosion at his office.

Immediately after the explosion, the Corporation began investigating the source and potential effects.

Newsday understands that so far, no damage has been reported as a result of the explosion.
Murdered Videsh was placed at secondary school in Arima

Education Minister Anthony Garcia disclosed yesterday that the 13-year-old boy had been assigned to a secondary school near his Malabar hometown.

And while he did not identify the school, Garcia said he would speak to the schools principal about the type of student Subar was and what his loss meant to the school. He also signalled his intention to visit Subars primary school, Wards Learning Living Centre, to speak to the student population.

Garcia was speaking to reporters after delivering an address at the Palo Seco Secondary Schools graduation ceremony yesterday.

He said he had not yet visited Subars parents although they were practically neighbours as he was not feeling well but promised to do so before the day ended yesterday.

(We) will give as much assistance as we can whether it is emotional support, counselling, whatever (is needed) we will make it available to the parents. SE A results are scheduled to be released on Tuesday.

Garcia also identified a faulty sewer system as being the source of ongoing protest action at the Preysal Government Primary School saying the Education Facilities Company Limited EFCL did tests two weeks ago and results showed that while there were no leaks in the sewer tank, the foul stench continued to persist.

During the July/August vacation we will do a comprehensive review and when school opens in September the problem will not be there any longer, he said.

And regarding those schools which were under construction and which had not been handed over to the ministry, he said ten schools had been identified and he was hoping that several would be completed in time for the new school term.

Speaking to the graduating class earlier, Garcia applauded them on their theme- Far from finished, saying they should take advantage of the many educational opportunities which were available to them as they entered a new phase in their lives.

Aside from the customary post-secondary and tertiary offerings available, there are technical/ vocational opportunities available through such agencies as MIC, NESC, TTHTI and the National Training Agency, he said.

Whatever path you choose, if you take nothing else with you, always carry your integrity.

Never forget the values instilled in you by your school and your families, he said.
Report of pepper spraying at SFGH being investigated

Senior officials at the hospital claimed they were unaware of the incident but the hospitals Communications Department in a media release yesterday stated The South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) wishes to assure the public and members of staff that we do not condone any abuse towards any member of staff.

The latest incident between two staff members is being thoroughly investigated and will be dealt with as a matter of urgency in accordance with our staff conduct regulations. The release further stated that The utmost care continues to be provided to the staff member along with other support services and the SWRHA is committed to the continued provision of quality health care to both our staff and the nationals of Trinidad and Tobago. Director of Health at SWRHA Dr. Albert Persaud said he was unaware of the incident but would investigate. Calls to the Acting CEO Gail Millar-Meade went unanswered.
Silent protest for new school

They gave a letter of complaint to Education Minister Anthony Garcia which was copied to Barataria/ San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan who told Newsday he supported their call.

In the letter the PTA said male pupils were relocated to Tunapuna on August 31, 2013 and the girls in September 2014 as the ministry had promised to rebuild the old building, with work on both schools beginning in October 2014.

However to our great surprise the work suddenly stopped in October 2015 and security was removed.

Presently the school has been taken over by pigeons, bats, rats and other animals and the grounds have been covered by high bushes and weeds.

Homeless persons, even a paedophile trying to take little girls and drug addicts are also seen entering the compound during the day and mainly at nights. It has also come to our attention that thieves are stealing materials from the building. The parents lamented that the PTA had sought information on several occasions from ministry officials but had received none.

While grateful for the interim Tunapuna site, the PTA highlighted its drawbacks including the lack of a play area and frequent problems with toilets and air-conditioning that causes the school to be disrupted. All concerned are stressed by transport issues which has taken a toll on pupil performance.

Many parents have decided to take their children out of the school because of the difficulty of travelling. Saying pupils have suffered for four years, the letter said a temporary arrangement is now starting to look permanent even as they yearned for their children to have a comfortable, safe and modern learning environment in which to prosper.

Garcia told Newsday he had just met the PTA delegation. He said starting on Monday he would try to help to alleviate their discomfort at their interim accommodation at Tunapuna. He could not say when construction would be undertaken on the new school site at San Juan, but recalled that in his previous statement to Parliament during the mid-year review debate he had named ten schools earmarked for work including the San Juan schools. The funding is available, Garcia said, but did not have the figure at hand.

While initially saying work would begin very shortly he declined to give a full timeline so as not to be accused of making promises he couldnt keep.
Defence Force given until Wednesday to provide info

Failure to provide the information will result in the matter being taken to court. Maharaj told Newsday yesterday that when he applied for a copy of the report under the Freedom of Information Act, he was told there will be a waiting period and he decided to wait until the deadline date before seeking any legal redress in the matter.

He said he has also been in con tact with members of the Defence Force in the hope that his request for the report is made available so he could clear his name. He again described as erroneous a statement from the Defence Force accusing him of acting on his own volition in authorising the shooting practice. The allegation was contained in a letter in response to United National Congress senator Wayne Sturge who submitted a request for information after photographs of Al-Rawis children posing with, what appeared to be, high-powered rifles belonging to the TTDF were made public.

In a letter dated April 25 and addressed to Sturge, former chief of defence staff Brigadier Rodney Smart said based on evidence adduced by the board of inquiry, Al-Rawis children accompanied him to the Regiments Cumuto Barracks on October 31, 2015. Smart said Al-Rawi was invited to witness a tactical display so that he would become familiar with the set of actions his security team may have to employ in the event of an incident.

Smart said the board of inquiry deduced that Al-Rawis children were not allowed to have high powered weapons belonging to the TTDF in the presence of Al-Rawi and members of the TTDF and there was no evidence that anyone in the TTDF was complicit in the performance of their duties.

It was established that the former chief of defence staff Major General Kenrick Maharaj, acting on his own volition, authorised the range practice, Smart said.
The Justice Ministry is considering immigration procedures for Japanese passengers using automated gates equipped with a facial recognition system for identity verification at major airports from next fiscal year, according to sources.

The full-scale introduction of automated gates that do not require interviews by immigration officers will shorten waiting times at immigration control. The ministry is also aiming to strengthen counterterrorism measures ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics by reassigning immigration officers who mainly carry out immigration procedures for arriving and departing Japanese nationals to procedures for foreign nationals.

The facial recognition system will read photo data stored on an IC chip embedded in a person's passport, comparing it with a photo taken at immigration facilities to verify the person's identity. A passenger needs to hold their passport over a reader, which then takes their picture. If the person in the two photos is recognized as the same person, the passenger can pass through the gate. There is no age limit for passengers, and prior procedures are not necessary. Immigration examinations using the system are expected to be completed in about 15 seconds.

Three automated gates of this kind will be introduced at Haneda Airport in October, ahead of other airports, and will be used for immigration procedures for Japanese passengers arriving from abroad. In the next fiscal year, the automated gates will be gradually introduced at Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Chubu airports, which deal with about 90 percent of incoming and outgoing Japanese passengers. The ministry hopes to use the automated gates for immigration procedures for Japanese people arriving in and leaving from Japan.
The Japanese government has abolished taxes on online purchases of virtual currencies.

Starting from Saturday, consumers will no longer be required to pay the 8-percent consumption tax when they buy bitcoin or other virtual currencies over the internet.

Japan has lagged behind other industrialized countries, which exempt virtual currencies from sales tax.

Plans to abolish the tax were made under a law revised in May last year. The new law classifies virtual currencies as a payment method similar to gift certificates and prepaid cards, rather than taxable goods or services.
A new ordinance to regulate dating services pairing up men with teenage schoolgirls came into force Saturday in Tokyo.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly unanimously passed the ordinance Friday that prohibits girls younger than 18 from working for such operations.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department, this is the first ordinance in Japan specifically targeting the so-called "JK business." JK stands for joshi kosei, meaning female high school students.

JK business operators are now obliged to file a business registration with the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission and make a list of employees to verify their ages. Police officers are also entitled to conduct an on-site inspection under the ordinance.

Violators face penalties of up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 1 million yen.

In Tokyo, police have confirmed the existence of 110 JK business establishments and 30 businesses without any office or facility. Some establishments have been known to covertly provide sexual services.

Jul 01 (ANNnewsCH) - aae cYaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaJKaaaaaaeaaaaeaaa1aeaaaaaYaaaeaaaJKaaaaaeaaaa18aaaSacaaaaaSaaacaaaaaYaaa1aeaaaaaYa
The Japanese underworld loves gold --- it has been the analog bitcoin of crime syndicates in recent years. The origins of gold are difficult to trace, and the material is easy to convert into cash and store. Crime syndicates are increasingly smuggling it, stealing it or robbing it from other smugglers who don't have ties to gangs.

A gold smuggler isn't likely to report any theft to the authorities and therefore makes the perfect victim.

Over the past three years, thieves have conducted a "Reservoir Dogs"-style gold heist dressed as police officers hijacked a Mercedes believed to have been loaded with gold and robbed gold dealers in broad daylight.

According to the Finance Ministry, customs reported 294 cases of gold smuggling between July 2015 and June 2016.

And yet crime syndicates have been interested in gold for some time. In December 2014, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi and an associate were arrested at Fukuoka International Airport after disembarking from a flight from Hong Kong.

Hiroaki Ishimaru, 45, and Yuichi Nagano, a 30-year-old member of the Fukuhaku-kai, were subsequently charged with attempting to smuggle four blocks of gold weighing 1 kilogram each into Japan.

The gold was estimated to be worth 18 million and the pair later told investigators they had been trying to avoid paying tax. This appears to be a common practice in crime syndicates.

Customs officials say crime syndicates have been known to purchase gold in places such as Macau or Hong Kong, where the precious metal faces very little tax.

The gold is then typically smuggled into the country by plane, often through Fukuoka, which has many international flights. By not declaring the gold to customs officials, the smugglers avoid paying the consumption tax rate of 8 percent.

After the gold has been smuggled into Japan, it is sold for cash at stores trading in the precious metal, which are often similar to pawnshops.

Smugglers are typically paid the consumption tax on top of the value of the metal, which they simply pocket as profit.
The city of Brookhaven, Georgia, on Friday unveiled a statue dedicated to the "comfort women," becoming the first location in America's Deep South to install a controversial memorial to the women and young girls forced to work in Japan's wartime military brothels.

The Brookhaven statue is the latest in a growing worldwide movement by cities and towns to commemorate the victims. It comes after protests and intense pressure by the Japanese government and others who say there is no evidence that the military sexually enslaved the women before and during World War II.

Proponents of such statues in Japan and abroad have argued that they are not only about history, but also serve as an international symbol of violence against women and as a reminder of modern human rights issues.

"By establishing this memorial, we raise the awareness of ongoing problems of sexual and human trafficking that is taking place in the metro area and the world today," Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst said.

Brookhaven is a suburb directly northeast of Atlanta, which was ranked by the FBI as America's top city for human trafficking crimes in 2014. According to Brookhaven City Council member John Park, the decision to build the statue came after intense opposition by the Japanese government succeeded in preventing a statue from being erected in Atlanta's Center for Civil and Human Rights, which changed its mind earlier this year after signing a memorandum of understanding.

"It was clear that lobbying by the Japanese consul (of Atlanta) was the reason," Park said.

In Tokyo on Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the installation of the statue was extremely regrettable and that the government would continue to make efforts to explain its position through various approaches and channels.

Jul 02 (ANNnewsCH) - aaaaaeaaaaaazaaeaaeaaaeaaaaaaaaecaaaaaYaaaaaaaazaaaaaaaaaaa30aeYacaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeaaaYaaaaaacaaaaecaaaaeaaaeaaaaYa
Share



Welcome back to the week in review, where we take a look at all the top stories making headlines on the Next Generation Communications community this week.

The week started off with some insight from special guest contributor Larry Alton of Alton Enterprises. He took a look at the new partnership between Nokia (News - Alert) and Apple and what it means for the digital health world. Alton goes all the way back to the major patent war the two companies had a few months back, and examines their relationship from that point on. You can find his insights HERE.





Huawei and TELUS also made the news this week with their advances in 5G. TMCs Paula Bernier (News - Alert) writes, In fact, the communication services provider and the equipment giant have been collaborating on a 5G pilot project that is part of the companies 5G Living Lab in Vancouver. And late last week, the two companies announced that they have concluded what they called a successful pilot effort involving 5G wireless connectivity based on 3GPP standard technology. Her full analysis is HERE.

Next up, Michael Guta reminded us of just how lucky we are to live in a part of the world thats actually contemplating 5G. Other areas, like Tanzania, are still utilizing 2G and 3G. However, that isnt stopping the countrys largest telecom operator from looking toward the future to 5G. Find out the companys plans for Tanzanias infrastructure HERE.

Finally, the week rounded out with the news that AT&T (News - Alert) expects 5G to be commercialized by 2019. AT&T wants to be the first to deploy Web scale commercialization in the U.S., and the company sees 2019 as a viable date. As Guta points out, For AT&T, which has been carrying out 5G tests, the wide-scale commercialization has come faster than expected. This is because development of standards by the 3GPP has been ahead of schedule, with the group approving implementation of the non-standalone component of the 5G New Radio standard. Everything you need to know is HERE.

Theres plenty more to read about over on the Next Generation Communications community. Be sure to check out the other articles, and come back next week to read all the latest news.
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The Moroccan navy is seeking to reinforce its anti-submarine warfare capacities through the acquisition of helicopters as a prelude to the creation of an air-sea base, Moroccan media reported.

The purchase of helicopters equipped with anti-submarine warfare systems as well as sea patrol aircrafts aims at creating a military balance with Algeria, which is expected to receive two Russian Project 636E diesel-electric submarines (SSK) in 2018, Moroccan website specializing in military issues FAR-Maroc said.

The website said that the use of such anti-submarine aircraft by the Royal Navy will reinforce Moroccos deterrence capacity vis-a-vis Algeria and will pave the way for the setting up of an air-sea base in Morocco.

Algerian Navy already operates four diesel electric submarines (SSK): Two older generation Project 877EKM Kilo and two new generation Project 636 Improved Kilo class. If it goes through, this new deal will make Algeria one of the strongest submarine forces in the region, alongside Egypt.

In a bid to bridge the gap with Algeria, Senior commander of Moroccos Royal Navy had talks with Greek peers, last April, on the possibility of acquiring Submarines used by the Greek navy.

Since last year, negotiations have been ongoing between Morocco and Russia on the delivery of the Amur-class 1650 super-quite submarine, which will be the Kingdoms first submarine.

Russias Amur-1650 diesel-electric powered submarine will significantly boost Moroccos capabilities, as it will carry Club cruise missiles in addition to featuring air-independent propulsion (AIP). With a length of 66.8 meters and a beam of 7.1 meters, the submarine can sink into a depth of 250 meters.

The acquisition of submarines will also boost the capabilities of the Royal navy in its protective mission of the 2952km coastline stretching from the strait of Gibraltar to the Mauritanian coast on the Atlantic and from Tangier to the Algerian coast on the Mediterranean.

The main Atlantic bases of the Moroccan navy are found in Casablanca, Agadir and Dakhla, while the Mediterranean bases are located in Ksar Sghir and Al Hoceima.

Although it was established in 1960, the Moroccan navy traces its roots back to the 11th century. With the rise of the Al Moravid dynasty, and during the era of the Almohad dynasty, which stretched through the Maghreb, the Moroccan navy was the mightiest in the Mediterranean.
Photo: Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

Most of the commentary surrounding the Russia scandal has treated the possibility that Donald Trumps campaign deliberately colluded with Moscow as remote, unfounded speculation. The new reporting that has broken this weekend suggests instead that this collusion likely did take place. It provides a road map to the, or perhaps a, likely avenue through which this occurred.

The figure carrying out the operation in question was Peter W. Smith, who died at the age of 81 earlier this year. Smith is hardly a lone kook. Hes an established Republican donor with a demonstrated history in financing ethically murky investigations, such as paying Arkansas state troopers for stories of Bill Clintons sexual dalliances.

Smith surfaced earlier in the week in an explosive Wall Street Journal report by Shane Harris, which Harris followed up on Friday night. What really underscores the significance of Harriss reporting, though, is a detailed account, also published Friday night, by Matt Tait, a British cybersecurity expert who dealt extensively with Smith. Taits report makes it clear that Smith had access to Michael Flynn, at the very least, and was working not only to obtain stolen Clinton emails but also to hide the Trump campaigns involvement.

Tait had established some expertise analyzing Clintons emails; Smith, who said he had been contacted by someone who possessed a cache of emails from Clintons private server, wanted help validating them. As Tait explains, he warned Smith that Russia had been conducting an attack on the U.S. elections, but Smith appeared completely unconcerned about it. Smith tried to hire Tait for his project and showed him a document creating an independent-looking organization to try to acquire the stolen emails. The document, Tait reports, detailed a company Smith and his colleagues had set up as a vehicle to conduct the research: KLS Research, set up as a Delaware LLC to avoid campaign reporting, and listing four groups who were involved in one way or another. This certainly appears like an attempt to mask the Trump campaigns involvement in the plot.

The document listed a series of high-level Trump campaign officials: Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis, Lt. Gen. Flynn, and Lisa Nelson. Bannon and Conway, contacted by the Journal, deny any involvement with Smith. But Smiths comments to Tait indicate a fairly close understanding of Trump campaign internal dynamics. It is possible he was bluffing, but Smith seemed to be displaying authentic insider credentials.

The key to understanding the significance of this report is to put it together with a sentence from Harriss first story on this in the Journal, which reports that U.S. investigators have examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe Russian hackers discussing how to obtain emails from Mrs. Clintons server and then transmit them to Mr. Flynn via an intermediary.

So, according to Harriss reporting, Russians were trying to transmit emails from Clintons server. Tait is describing in detail a Republican operative trying to obtain stolen emails from Russia. So we have evidence both of the campaigns request and Russian efforts to fulfill the request.

Smith is deceased (at an old age, there is no grounds for suspicion about the cause of his death), but Michael Flynn, a figure he reportedly worked for, is very much with us and facing significant legal jeopardy. Flynns lawyer has said he has a story to tell. This might be part of the story.
Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Trump once again sought to raise suspicions about virtually nonexistent U.S. voter fraud on Saturday, wondering aloud in a tweet what numerous states were trying to hide by not agreeing to share registered voters personal information with the voter-fraud commission Trump ordered shortly after becoming president. Trump, as both a candidate and president, has repeatedly sought to spread the falsehood that the U.S. election system suffers from widespread voter fraud. As president, Trump has repeatedly promoted, without supporting evidence, the far-right conspiracy theory that millions of votes in the 2016 presidential election were cast illegally  a theory Trump purports to believe is the reason he lost the popular vote. Then in May, Trump formed the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity both to investigate his unfounded claims and, more likely, to advance a radical agenda of voting-rights restrictions.

On Friday, more than 30 states wholly or partially refused to comply with the commissions unprecedented requests for voter-file data, which included asking for the names, birthdates, voting histories, party identifications, and last four digits of the Social Security numbers of registered voters in each state. Though state governments controlled by Democrats were the most pronounced in their rejections of the request, plenty of Republicans expressed anxiety or skepticism as well. For instance, Mississippis Republican secretary of State, citing privacy and states rights concerns, said that his response to such a request would be to tell the commission they could jump in the Gulf of Mexico. No matter what, the commission wont get all that data: some states have laws that prevent them from releasing specific information about voters, while some state leaders cited their objections the commission itself as a reason, and other states have said they will only release information to the commission which is already publicly available. Politico also points out that states amassing and sending voter data to the White House carries an enormous cybersecurity risk, and that its not clear the commission even understands that, based on how they asked states to submit the information.

With his tweet on Saturday, President Trump, who may or may not understand the principles of federalism or state laws, implied that more than half of the states in the country were involved in some kind of conspiracy to hide evidence of voter fraud. Such a notion is clearly absurd, and yet it should also be seen as a natural progression of the presidents circular thinking. First, Trump has been parroting far-right ideas about voter fraud since at least 2012. Eventually, during his presidential campaign, he often warned that there was some kind of nefarious, multifaceted scheme in place that sought to deny him his rightful victory on Election Day. Assuming that end, Trump also repeatedly indicated that he would not accept the outcome of the election if he lost, and when he did lose the popular vote, that is exactly what he went on to do. Now, hes back to expanding the conspiracy, only this time hes alleging that state governments are in on it, too.

Of course, its possible that Trump doesnt believe such a conspiracy and is just trying to pressure states into submission by using his bully pulpit to make them seem shady. Its also possible that Trump is simply aping the vice-chair of the commission, Kansas secretary of State Kris Kobach, who himself got the what are they hiding rhetoric going on Friday despite the fact that Kansas is one of the states with a law that prevents it from fully complying with the data request. Indeed, if Trumps new accusation is part of a larger strategy  to the extent that there is ever a method to Trumps madness on Twitter  that strategy is likely Kobachs. Since there is no widespread voter fraud in the U.S., as studies and state governments have already confirmed, voting-rights advocates and Democrats are concerned that Kobach and Trumps commission instead will be used for voter suppression, and that would very much be in line with Kobachs previous efforts. As law professor and election-law expert Joshua Douglas argues at CNN, Kobachs obvious plan for the data is to use it to peddle theories of fraud and use evidence of voter registration anomalies to promote strict voting rules that make it harder for some people to vote:

[E]lection data experts  notably lacking on this commission  know that simply comparing large lists of voters will not provide useful information because of the number of false matches. The well-known Birthday Problem shows that it is somewhat likely that two people with the same common name  say, John Smith  will also share a birthday. The fact that two different state voter rolls might list this same name is not evidence of voter fraud.

Yet those who peddle the rampant voter fraud canard have been looking for evidence to support their theories, all in an effort to justify ever-stricter voting laws. They cannot find any widespread voter fraud, so they use issues of bloated voter registration rolls as their evidence. But that proves nothing beyond the reality that states need a better way to update their voter rolls.

Trump may not have a master plan (or may just be grasping at theories to bolster his ego), but Kobach does, as Ari Berman explained in a recent New York Times Magazine profile:

Kobachs plans [for voting restrictions] represent a radical reordering of American priorities. They would help preserve Republican majorities. But they could also reduce the size and influence of the countrys nonwhite population. For years, Republicans have used racially coded appeals to white voters as a means to win elections. Kobach has inverted the priorities, using elections, and advocating voting restrictions that make it easier for Republicans to win them, as the vehicle for implementing policies that protect the interests and aims of a shrinking white majority. This has made him one of the leading intellectual architects of a new nativist movement that is rapidly gaining influence not just in the United States but across the globe.

For all the focus on whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence last years presidential election, its important to remember that Russias interference was not only about helping Trump and/or damaging Hillary Clinton; it was also an attack meant to destabilize Americas democracy. The Trump campaign might not have colluded with Russia with that goal in mind, but the Trump administration is seeking a similar end through different means.
the Trainwreck

totally not a way for me to procrastinate my jpop ontd originals

Let's be honest: Unless you soley stan Carly Rae Jepsen, all of our faves have at least one song, moment, or era where we pretend it never existed. Whether it's an overpretentious approach to EDM music, disingenuious "woke" pop, or three questionable singles allegedly caused the album to be scrapped and rerecorded, it's clear that things haven't been going to well in the music scene. But don't worry, a hero always rises in these dark times. And that hero is CupcakKe. After reviving the second renaissance with Charli XCX, Queen Elizabitch is here to let your faves eat cake and learn how to stop falling off their game before the 33rd day of the month. Let's start with the most recent flop: Witnessera. While there is nothing wrong with addressing social issues in music, Katy falls short on selling her era as "woke" pop for many reasons ranging from disparaging Britney Spears' mental health days after calling her music "woke" pop, featuring Migos on a track despite a member's homophobic remarks (And justifying it with the gay equivalent of "I can't be racist, I have a black friend"), and simply not addressing social issues enough to justify the branding of the album as "woke" pop. Ultimately speaking, the best way to fix this era is to put Katy Perry back in her lane. No one is expecting Katy Perry to address social issues in her music to begin with, so there's no need to do it if she's unprepared to tackle said issues and the personal baggage she has regarding social issues.Luckily, there's a CupcakKe remix to remedy this issue. By stripping "Chain to the Rhythm"'s half-hearted lyrics about the current political landscape and turning it into zombie erotica, the song not only mitigates the alienation of her current fanbase, but also taps into the tumblr Bob's Burgers fanbase that relates to Tina and her interest in nerophilia. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Lady Gaga. Unlike Katy Perry's attempt at "woke" pop rivaling her attempt at getting a humidifier as a psuedo-Big Brother contestant, Gaga's ARTPOP era tried too hard. While the general public praised Gaga for previously finding the right balance of dance music, pop music aesthetics, and artistry, ARTPOP took an unnecessary step in selling pop as high brow art. This is epitomized by "Aura" (Initially titled "Burqa"). In her attempt to sell the burqa as a metaphor about artistic layers and how it relates to Hollywood fame, it ultimately comes off as a fashion designer selling his work as Fragonard-Madame-de-Pompadour-Meets-2st-C entury-Rockstar-Slash-Williamsburg-Hasid ic-Gentleman . You don't want to become that one student (Or teacher) in English class that overanalyzes everything and attaches symbolism to places where there isn't any or else everyone is interally telling you to shut up, it's just fucking red.Despite Lady Gaga's flop era having the opposite problem as Katy Perry, the solution is ultimately the same: Remove the source of the problem. Rather than selling white-person-introspection-into-Muslim-culture-meets-sex-positive-feminism-slash-how-fame-is-toxic, CupcakKe condenses the song into a cohesive theme of sex. It's less pretentious, on-brand with her fanbase, and doesn't have to rehash religious controversy for the thousandth time to gain attention. Although RiRi was able to salvage the Anti era in the end, the era definitely had a rough start. The general audience couldn't relate to "Three Four Five Seconds" and "American Oxygen". While "Bitch Better have my Money" did relatively better than the other two, it was highly debated whether the song is a bop or a flop. It also doesn't help that the song has been accused of plagarism . While Rihanna and her team figured out the solution to this dilemma is to simply have RiRi collaborate with Drake and pretend the start of the era never happened, Queen Elizabitch would much rather tackle the problem itself.So how do you deal with a song with mixed receptions with a plagarism scandal? Why, you simply have to deliver the song better! With the right approach and delivery, you can easily make people forget the original if it's either better or friendly to the general public. After all, Aretha Franklin was able to convince everybody that Respect was her song, so it clearly works. While Rihanna's delivery of the song isn't bad per se, it can definitely go in harder. So let's have CupcakKe push her aside and show how it should have been done. ... Did you not read the first fucking sentence of this post? There's nothing that needs to be salvaged from the nu-gaijin maple syrup queen of Japan. God, typical ONTD.BUY EMOTION ON ITUNES. Oh, Xtine, you timetravelling chanteuse. Ahead of your time with Bionic. After Lotus failed to revive her career, we're left with a vocal powerhouse trying to sell us Oreos . A travesty. However, we can't spend all day mourning for dead music careers, CupcakKe is here to save them. So what EXACTLY was wrong with Lotus? While Christina Aguilera had the right approach in going back to what we love about her (Sexually charged bops with vocal delivery) with "Your Body", the general public needs to be hit HARD to remember why Xtine was a thing. And who better to help address this issue than the genius behind "Deepthroat", "Va*ina", "Doggystyle", "Cumshot", and "Cpr"?While remixing "Your Body" with any of these songs would elevate "Your Body" to a musical orgasm loud enough to have every human being in the world shook, it is best to go with the classic "Deepthroat". Straight-to-the-point and a hook consisting of moans, even being reminded of Mike Pence calling his wife "mother" can stop you from spontaneously orgasming upon hearing the song. After realizing that profitting from black and hip-hop culture is not viable in the long run, Miley decided to be a virginal white girl that is above listening to hip-hop and its terrible messages. Unfortunately, not all of us are Mariah Carey (Although we can dream to be) and be forgetful, and Miley was quickly called out for it. While CupcakKe laughs at how Miley pretends to be hard when she runs from the sound of a fart, the queen is feeling generous to help Miley despite how much she does not deserve it.Social and racial issues aside, Miley definitely has the right idea to switch back to her former shtick from a white capitalistic perspective. After all, she needs to make money, and she clearly doesn't give a fuck about the people that carries the burden of her actions. However, she did it too fast. Subtlety is key. And what better way to make the transition than to combine two of her fake personas as a bridge to the white girl that is 53% likely to use her vote to screw over anyone that isn't white? <3 By making her reverse Rachel Dolezal transformation more gradual, people won't notice anything unless Billy Ray Cyrus outs her transracial journey. Although Madonna established herself as an iconic figure in music, her popularity has fallen since the peak of her career. While she tried to mitigate this issue by trying to keep up with the trends of today's youth, these attempts are met with criticisms about her not acting her age. So Dr. CupCakKe, how will you deliver metaphorical CPR to save her career? Collaborations with trendy young artists? But that's been done already.... Oh wait, the key word is? Of course! After all, kids these days are reciting the lyrics of "Deepthroat" these days, not "Bad Girls" or "Stupid Ho". While CupcakKe is busy making music videos left and right, she has been generous enough to provide some bars as someone that's actually relevant enough to revive someone's career.Katy Perry 1 Lady Gaga 1 Rihanna 1 Carly Rae Jepsen 1 Christina Aguilera 1 Miley Cyrus 1 Madonna 1
Happy birthday, Canada! Your lakes are beautiful and people are so nice!



Sorry about your uneducated, racist half brother from the south, tho.



Edited at 2017-07-01 07:52 pm (UTC)

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Keep this post friendly, please! Thanks.

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As if Canada is not racist too

You kidding me

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Right? In addition to what I posted further down, I was racially profiled so often in Canada. It's really disheartening to be thisclose to being waved through random checkpoints because your friend who is driving is white, and then I notice the officer's eyes fall on me and everything changes...

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Just yesterday, this Chinese-Canadian man was flat out racist and ableist against me. I'm so mad Im about to leave nasty reviews about his restaurant on Yelp and such.

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Come on now....

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Lol tbh. I love that gif of Robin Williams calling Canada a sweet apartment over a meth lab.

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U.S.: People have yelled at me to go back to where I came from. (I was born here.)



Canada: People have yelled at me to go back to my reservation, and that it must be nice to use their tax dollars to live the high life, and/or stop drinking Lysol to get drunk.

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damn you had the misfortune of being the first comment lol

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You are still America's hat though lol.

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shania twain invented canada 

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jk happy bday canada. ilysm and just had an argument w my friend over why you remain better than the us. 

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She made an appearance today! She looked so good

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Good 4 u Canada u go girl

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happy canada day! my mom ran around her neighbourhood and sent me pictures of everyones flags. canada day is probably her favourite holiday. she is so small and patriotic

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Aw that's so sweet!



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omg <3

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Aww bless her! <3

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Dear Canada,



You are great at health care, comedy, and the Winter Olympics.



A rancid bag of milk smeared with Kraft dinner seems to have made its way into the White House. Please come get it at your earliest convenience. You can have the Summer Olympics, too.



xoxo,

Me

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Well that's mean. I'd like that rancid bag of milk smeared with Kraft dinner out of the White House too but why do you want to unleash that on poor Canada? What did they ever do to us?

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Listen, I don't care what they do with it after they get it, I just want it to stop stinking up the joint. They just did that whole War of 1812 commemoration, right? I trust their expertise in invading DC. They can mail it to the Queen to use its holdings to cover the royals' travel costs for all I care.

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seriously. i love how everyone's like "it's canada's birthday!", and i'm sitting here with my historian's brain going "we aren't a full country when our head of state is still the queen". *eyeroll*

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Seriously.



May the overthrow be televised!

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Happy Birthday, Canada

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A true classic

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I'm gonna rock your body until Canada day!

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Always an anthem!

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How am I celebrating?? Apparently by getting fired from my high paying summer job, only fifteen days into work. After a month of ridiculous training and literally living at work.



Happy Canada Day to me :((

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aww bb :( sorry to hear

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oh no bb what happened?!

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Disappointed that Colin Mochrie was not included

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Happy birthday Canada! I would like to visit Canada.

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just don't go to quebec! :)

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But it looks so beautiful there!

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Lol why?

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It's pretty! Despite the racism!

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Only 40 percent of imported crude came from OPEC in 2016

OPECs share of U.S. oil imports has been declining, and has dropped sharply over the last few years. In 1990, OPEC supplied 62 percent of all crude imported into the U.S. This share gradually declined until 2008, as Canadian output grew and displaced imports from overseas.

After 2008, the combination of the financial crisis and booming U.S. shale output caused OPECs global market share to decline sharply, falling to 36 percent in 2015. Decreased domestic production in 2016 led the U.S. to import more from OPEC in 2016, but at 40 percent, OPECs share of U.S. crude oil imports is the second-lowest on record.

After discovering that its strategy to push out U.S. shale producers with low oil prices didnt work, OPECs efforts to stabilize the global oil market have been a popular news subject in recent months. Production cut extensions aim to reduce global inventories, but have not been as successful as hoped. And recent reports suggest that Saudi Arabia may specifically cut oil shipments to the U.S. in an attempt to improve inventory data.

The EIA has kept thorough records on all oil imports into the U.S. since 1986, compiling data on all 91.2 billion barrels of oil the U.S. has imported in the last 31 years.

(Click to enlarge)

Source: EnerCom Analytics

(Click to enlarge)

Source: EnerCom Analytics

Imports from individual nations declining

Saudi Arabia is the largest OPEC supplier of oil to the U.S., shipping a total of 14.5 billion barrels of oil since 1986.

The Kingdom has been the U.S.s foremost oil supplier, among OPEC nations, in 23 of the past 31 years. Imports from the country have recently been in decline, however, as rising domestic production reduces the need for imports. In 2016, the U.S. imported just over 400 million barrels of crude from Saudi Arabia.

Venezuela is the second-most important provider of OPEC crude to the U.S., with 11.9 billion barrels sent to the U.S. over the past 31 years. Venezuelas heavy oil is in decline, likely being displaced by similarly heavy oil from Canada. Venezuela provided the U.S. with about 271 million barrels of oil in 2016.

Nigeria is third-largest among OPEC crude import partners, and has shipped a total of 7.8 billion barrels of crude oil since 1986. Once the once the second-largest provider of oil to the U.S., imports from Nigeria are typically lighter crude, similar in grade to the oil produced in U.S. shale operations. The shale boom and domestic unrest quickly forced Nigeria out of the U.S. oil trade. In 2010 the U.S. imported 983 MBOPD of oil from Nigeria. Only four years later, though, this value had fallen to merely 58 MBOPD, a drop of 94 percent.

Source: EnerCom Analytics

Only two OPEC countries provide heavy oil

The types of crude imported from OPEC varies widely among the different countries in the group. Oil with an API gravity lower than 25 is often defined as heavy oil, while oil between 25 and 35 is medium and oil with an API gravity above 35 it typically called light oil.

Venezuela provides the heaviest oil of any of the U.S.s major trading partners, averaging around 20API. Ecuador is the only other OPEC member that exports heavy oil to the U.S., providing about one tenth of the oil that Venezuela does. Unlike almost every other OPEC country, U.S. oil imports from Ecuador have gradually increased in recent years. Related: The Offshore Boom To Break The OPEC Deal

The U.S. needs heavy oil because its refineries are not set up to process the grades of oil that are produced from shale formations. Most American refineries were set up to process heavy crude before the shale boom began, and have not changed since unconventional oil began to enter the market.

(Click to enlarge)

Source: EnerCom Analytics

Most OPEC oil is medium-grade

Medium grade crude dominates imports from OPEC members, with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Angola, Kuwait and Iran suppling medium oil.

Saudi Arabian crude, for the most part, comes from the titanic Ghawar field and a few other large deposits, meaning imports from the Kingdom are relatively consistent in grade. Most imports from the country are between 25 and 40API, averaging just under 32API.

Iraq is the second-largest OPEC supplier of medium oil. U.S. imports from Iraq were cut off entirely in 1991, a result of the first Gulf War. This ban was maintained until 1997, when imports from the country resumed.

Imports from Angola have gradually declined since peaking in 2006, and are currently less than one third of peak levels. Unlike most OPEC countries, imports of oil from Kuwait have been relatively flat in the past decade.

Imports from Iran are very small, consisting of only a few shipments, all before 1992. Geopolitical tensions and sanctions mean Iran has shipped the second-smallest amount of oil to the U.S. of any OPEC country.

Source: EnerCom Analytics

Light oil being squeezed out

Imports of light oil from different OPEC members almost all follow the same story. While Nigeria is by far the most prominent supplier of light oil, Algeria, Libya, Gabon and Qatar also produce light oil for export to the U.S. Imports from most of these countries peaked around 2007, before the U.S. shale oil boom really took off. Production from fields like the Bakken and Permian quickly made light oil imports unnecessary, and none of these countries are major suppliers of oil to the U.S. anymore.

(Click to enlarge)

Source: EnerCom Analytics

U.S. shale producers pump very light oil

U.S. production, by contrast, represents a wide variety of crude oil grades. California and GOM production provides heavy oil, and imported oil from Canada oil sands is heavy oil. Unconventional production, on the other hand, is almost exclusively light oil.

(Click to enlarge)

Source: EnerCom Analytics

By Oil and Gas 360

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.
With the almost daily battles raging inside the Beltway over claims of fake news, its hardly surprising that energy hasnt been spared.

But what is surprising is the jarringly overt way in which energy is being politicized. The new Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, is a good case in point.

As a former governor of Texas, Perry is a public supporter of increasing U.S. production of hydrocarbons like oil and gas, while openly criticizing the potential for alternative energy sources and roundly dismissing concerns over climate change.

And by the way, several times in the recent past hes also come out in favor of shutting down the very Department of Energy that hes now in charge of.

Recently, Perrys gone on the offensive against renewables  as well as (whether he realizes it or not) natural gas. He claims theyre threatening the national power grid.

Heres how some of the targeted companies responded

There are No Silver Bullets in Energy

The nub of Perrys argument comes right out of a frequent theme seen on the Trump campaign trail: that government subsidies to solar and wind power are responsible for the demise in coal production.

Now, regular readers of Oil & Energy Investor know my approach to this ongoing debate. What is needed in both the domestic and global energy markets is a genuine balance in energy availability.

That requires multiple sources providing energy as seamlessly as possible. An additional important component emerges when we also consider the desirability of having interchangeability between and among energy types. Related: The Offshore Boom To Break The OPEC Deal

That means an approach looking to wean an economy off using, say, oil or coal, is misplaced. Silver bullets only work in horror movies.

All energy sources are required. Its the integration of these sources that translates into the most efficient, cost-effective, and best solution for both producers and consumers.

Unfortunately, putting a heavy political thumb on the scales seems the preferred course of action in D.C

For Perry, Only Coal is Reliable

These days, the new refrain coming from the Energy Secretary is to link continued reliance on coal with essential availability of electricity. In other words, expanding renewables is supposed to make the power grid less reliable.

Keep in mind that this is an approach that does not address any environmental impact issues, only the availability of power.

A few months ago, Perry announced a review would be conducted to prove the connection. Overlook for a moment that any real, objective evaluation of the matter shouldnt prejudge its outcome  unless, of course, the Perry research is undertaken by an avowed oil supporter and is designed to fit into an already established political agenda

But the industry thats being targeted is already responding

And that makes the June 21 note written by Nicholas Kusnetz and appearing in Inside Climate News (Coals Decline Not Hurting Power Grid Reliability, Study Says) such an interesting read

Market Forces are Pushing Natural Gas to Replace Coal

As Nick writes, a new study released on June 20 shows that coals falling share of the U.S. power mix is mostly caused by market forces (not government intervention), and is not making the grid less reliable.

For example, the study cites an analysis by the American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). According to this analysis, most metrics of grid reliability are either improving or flat, with the number of blackouts falling.

In other words, to quote the study, The retirement of aging or uneconomic resources has not led, in any region, to an observed reduction in BPS [bulk power system] reliability from either resource adequacy or system security perspectives.

Now, the authors of the June 20 study have their own agenda. The report was released by the American Wind Energy Association and the Advanced Energy Economy, which is made up of renewable energy companies, utilities, and other firms.

But the issue here needs to be addressed by data, not invective.

And while its true that coal power plants have been retired at record rates recently, the cause is simple: because of the U.S. shale boom, natural gas is much, much cheaper  and new gas power plants are more efficient and less costly. Related: China Banks On Natural Gas As Oil Production Tanks

Unfortunately, to date, there is little reason to conclude Rick Perry has any interest in a real objective debate on these issues

The Grid Review Has Already Been Postponed

When ordering his review, Perry mentioned concerns about the diminishing diversity of our nations electric generation mix and what that could mean for baseload power and grid resilience.

As the June 20 study argued using actual data, neither concern is justified. Baseload coal is being replaced mostly by baseload natural gas, which is just as reliable.

But given his choice of who will lead this review  Travis Fisher, described by Nick Kusnetz as a political appointee who previously worked for the Institute for Energy Research, an organization that favors fossil fuels  whether Perrys grid review will follow the evidence or not remains to be seen.

Politics is as politics does, I suppose. But curiously, this review has already been postponed from June to July.

By Dr. Kent Moors via Oil and Energy Investor

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Ten years have passed since the first concession to search for shale gas was issued. There were several problems of technological, economic and legal nature, which prevented Poland from becoming potentate in extracting this resource. It may seem that Poland missed its chance. However, monitoring and using new methods of shale gas production together with legal framework implementation, which would encourage the investors, can mark a new chapter in history of the Polish gas industry.

Shale gas in Poland: from euphoria to disappointment

According to the data provided by the Ministry of Environment the first concession to search for shale gas was issued in 2007, and the first drilling took place three years later. In the peak moment in 2012 111 exploration concessions were in force.1)This year was also marked by the publication of the Polish Geological Institute, in which the deposits were estimated at 346-768bn cubic metres.2)In 2011 the Polish Prime Minister anticipated that the commercial production of shale gas will have begun after three years.3)According to the observers, for instance former Minister of Economy Janusz Steinhoff, thanks to shale gas extraction Poland would have an opportunity to become independent of its imports while causing the lowering of prices on the domestic market.4)

Yet, in 2015 foreign investors started to withdraw and Polish state companies PGNiG and PKN Orlen abandoned their projects last year.5)

Reason No. 1: Mistakes made in communication with the investors and legal issues

Up to January 1st 2015, when the amendment of the Law on Geology and Mining came into force, there were three different types of concession, which related exclusively to exploration, appraisal and production. In practice, the investor that found gas deposits and bore the costs related to research could not be sure that he would have the right for extraction.6)Not until 2015, when one concession for exploration, appraisal and production was introduced could companies have greater certainty that the business would be profitable.

Furthermore, the foreign media informed that the concessions for exploration were granted for a five-year period with the possibility of one-time extension for a further two years. As the exploration is a long-term process, the investors feared that if they did not start the production in appropriate time, they would lose their place in the market. What is more, the news broke that failure to strictly follow the schedule of whatever reason would result in financial penalties.7)

By this time such foreign corporations decided to resign. In sum, by the end of 2014 of 11 foreign investors 7 lost their interest, even though they spent 500m.8)

Before the new law was implemented, different propositions were discussed in public. Those resulted in further uncertainty related to the business profitability. An appointment of the National Operator of the Energy Fossils was mentioned as a strategic state company which would supervise the production sector and would be the shareholder of all the investments connected to the extraction. Except for that, the maximum tax rate of 40 percent of profits was under consideration, which also prompted the doubts about the profitability of further operations.9)

It the report prepared by the Supreme Audit Office it was pointed out that not only were the proper regulations introduced too late, but also that the concessions were granted in a protracted manner. According to the institution the applicants were treated unequally and the auditors underlined the potential for corruption as an outcome of such a situation.10)

Reason no. 2.: The situation on the global markets

When the interest in Polish shale gas was the greatest, the prices of the resource went rapidly down. In March 2012 the media informed about the highest decrease in the decade.11)In the end of 2014 the price dropped to $2.322 per million British thermal units, which means it was lower by 85 percent than 9 years earlier. The vehement decrease was the aftermath of the development of gas extraction industry in the US and the appearance of large amounts of American shale gas on the market.12)

Large gas deliveries from the deposits that enable easy extraction resulted in the conviction that investments in Polish shale gas are not viable, especially if we consider bureaucratic matters and the need to develop other production methods.

Reason no. 3.: The geological and litological characteristics

The first problem is the shale deposit thickness. In Poland it is considered to be thin as in the most favourable areas it is 50m thick.13)In other words, the exploration is more difficult because there is no easy way to estimate how large a deposit will be exposed. Related: Shale Rebound Runs Out Of Steam At $40 Oil

Also the depth of the deposits is crucial. In Poland shale is present in Silurian sediments, i.e. they are placed between 2,5 up to 4km beneath the surface. It means that in Poland the technology of resource extraction is more complicated.

Another problem is the large amount of clay minerals in shale. Those result in low sediment permeability. It is a huge difficulty for the companies.

For the geologists the TOC (Total Organic Carbon) index is important since it determines the percentage of total organic carbon in sediments and points at the potential quantity of the resource which may be extracted. In Poland this indicator equals usually between 3-5 percent and is similar to the Chinese, but there are many areas where it is as low as 2 percent and some where it as high as 11 percent.14)It means that in many regions the extraction is unprofitable, considering the fact that American shale is characterized by an average TOC of 10-12 percent.

Reason no. 4: The technology of hydraulic fracturing

Commonly, the resource is extracted from highly permeable sandstone, so the production is quite easy. Shale gas is considered as unconventional because it is nested within poorly permeable deposits. In order to release it, it is necessary to fracture the rocks.

However, clay minerals made the method ineffective as the rocks swelled and prevented the gas from flowing. Meanwhile, for the last few years the technology of using CO2 as fracturing fluid has been developed. It is successfully employed in China, where shale has similar parameters.

What future awaits the Polish shale gas industry?

Considering the discussed issues, extraction of Polish shale gas may be profitable for the investors if its costs of production drop or if the quantity of the extracted resource is higher. Right now the geological and litological conditions together with the applied technology enable the companies to produce 10 thousand m3 of gas per day while the investments would be viable if the output was twice as high.15)Though the discussions referring to the potential resource quantity in Polish shale continue, the truth is that not enough studies focusing on identifying gas-rich areas have been conducted. Except for that, the technologies that are becoming more and more popular in other states and may be appropriate for Polish conditions were not employed.

Firstly, Poland has to simply wait for price changes on the global markets. While gas remains cheap, there will not be any interest in extracting a resource that generates difficulties. This factor is external and it may result in production delay of a few years.

Secondly, though the new law has been introduced, there is a need to work on other provisions that would attract the investors. For instance, different tax mechanisms and their market consequences are worth considering. As one researcher argues, the lump sum tax might be the most beneficial to all parties.16)Above all, the climate of uncertainty should be eliminated. Related: $30 Oil Could Spark Contagion In Energy Markets

Except for that, states central institutions should solve the problems identified by the Supreme Audit Office. To start with, it is important that the financial capabilities of entrepreneurs and their ability to carry out actual resource exploration and extraction projects are taken into account.

Thirdly, it is in the states interest to support domestic initiatives oriented on developing new technologies of shale gas production such as BlueGas Project,17)which aims at introducing a new method of fracturing based on liquid CO2.

Only if such conditions are met could the interest in Polish shale gas re-emerge. It is even more important, considering the fact that Poland will probably resign from acquiring Russian gas in 2022.18)The policy-makers should be advised to prepare the ground for the development of initiatives in the field of unconventional gas extraction, so when the renewed interest occurs, there would be no investors that abandon their projects before they are actually started.

By Gefira

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
In mid-June, the CEO of Russias gas monopolist Gazprom, Alexei Miller, paid a spontaneous visit to Yerevan, where he met with Armenias Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan. Official information about the meeting is rather scarce. Besides mutually exchanged compliments, reports mention plans for the exploitation of the fifth unit of the Hrazdan thermal power plant and the underground natural gas storage site in Abovyan (Armradio.am, June 16). The construction of Hrazdans fifth unit originally began in 1993. But in 2006, the half-built unit was sold by the Armenian government to Gazproms subsidiary ArmRosGazprom. After construction was completed, the unit has been able to produce up to 480 megawatts (MW) of power (News.am, December 2, 2013). It has been in limited use since then, producing electricity supplied to Iran in exchange for natural gas. The underground gas storage site in Abovyan, built during the Soviet era and capable of holding around 140 million cubic meters of natural gas (Armenpress.am, November 2, 2010), was transferred to ArmRosGazprom in 2012 (Armenpress.am, December 26, 2012).

Earlier this year, the Armenian Ministry of Energy announced that some parts of the construction of a 400 kilovolt (kV) power transmission line between Armenia and Iran were already built (Aravot, February 8). In turn, Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan told his colleagues from the Visegrad Four states (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary), in April, that the European Unions support for the construction of a power transmission line between Armenia and Georgia had been received (News.am, April 12). Plans to expand the transmission capacities between Armenia and its neighbors and to develop interconnections between Iranian, Armenian, Georgian and Russian electric grids were announced in 2015 (see EDM, January 4, 2016).

Meanwhile, there could be another important reason for Millers sudden visit to the Armenian capital a couple weeks ago. Prime Minister Karapetyan, a former Gazprom employee, might feel obliged to report some news to his former boss and to give assurances about Yerevans further loyalty to Moscow and Gazproms commercial interests. Related: Can Fire Ice Replace Shale?

In May, a conference on renewable energy organized by Contour Globalthe owner of the Vorotan complex of hydroelectric power stations and the largest non-Russian investor in Armeniatook place in Yerevan with the support of the United States embassy. Representatives of several US companies, including Caterpillar and General Electric, participated in the conference. US Ambassador Richard M. Mills summarized that a technical possibility to increase the amounts of electricity transmission with Georgia and Iran, together with guarantees of unhindered economic competition and equal treatment for investors would open a perspective for US investments of up to $8 billion, primarily in solar and hydroelectric energy. Afterward, Ambassador Mills reiterated his statement on several occasions, including in a newspaper interview (168 Zham, June 14). Considering the countrys current investment-related risks, Armenia has the worst business climate in Europe and Central Asia, according to a World Bank report, which particularly mentions cronyism, arbitrary treatment and unequal competition as major impediments (Lragir.am, June 18).

Characteristically, the state-owned Armenpress news agency and other government-controlled media outlets did not report on Ambassador Millss statements. Armenian officials might not like to overtly refuse an obviously beneficial proposal; yet, they are acting as if they remain reluctant to implement a policy that would be a serious blow to Gazproms expansion plans and, more generally, to Russian interests. A major investment in energy production not dependent on fossil fuels would likely reduce domestic demand for natural gas. Armenias Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, which covers nearly 40 percent of the countrys electricity generation, sells power to the distribution network for 5.73 dram (about 1.2 cents) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (News.am, April 29, 2015). The cost of production at hydropower plants is nearly 8 dram per kWh; while the cost of production at thermal plants is 35 dram. The customer fee is calculated on the basis of the average cost of production (Lragir.am, June 22). However, since all Armenian gas and electricity distribution networks, as well as the Hrazdan thermal power plant, belong to Russian companies, Moscow has been promoting the operation of the thermal plant, which also means larger volumes of gas imports, and higher costs to Armenian consumers. Related: Will Central Banks Derail The Shale Boom?

While government representatives and government-controlled media have been ignoring the possibility of Armenia attracting large-scale foreign investment from beyond Russia, several independent publications about this issue have appeared in the meantime. They contain harsh criticism of the Armenian governments and of Russias policies. One such article emphasizes that since his appointment to the post of prime minister, in September 2016, Karapetyan has not visited any country outside the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). In particular, he has refused an invitation to visit the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The article also refers to Gazproms and Rosnefts monopolies (currently Armenian importers of motor and jet fuel can buy only from Rosneft). Moreover, it identifies Moscow-imposed impediments against Armenia importing more gas from Iran or providing transit from Iran to Georgia and, via the Black Sea, to Europe. Finally, it makes a comparison with the post-war situation, when the Soviet Union forbade Eastern European countries from using the opportunity offered by the Marshall Plan, and it ridicules Russias economic and technological backwardness in comparison with the West. The article was soon deleted from the website of Aravot daily, perhaps because of its vitriolic tone; but by then, it had already been published in the print version. The Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs also republished the piece on its website (Aiisa.am, June 14).

In a separate article, the head of the Yerevan-based Center for European Studies, Arthur Ghazinyan, also noted that a diversification of Armenias energy supply would be against Russias interests. Speaking with Aravot, he stated that Russian investments in the energy sphere have resulted from successive Armenian cabinets policies of continually yielding the countrys ability to make sovereign decisions in favor of Russias interests (Aravot.am, June 22).

Already after Millers visit to Yerevan, French Ambassador Jean-Francois Charpentier made a statement about French companies desire to possibly invest in Armenias energy sphere; specific business proposals were forthcoming, he noted (Lragir.am, June 22). The liberalization of the energy market and a general improvement of the business climate would certainly be in Armenias national interest. Such measures, in addition to expected economic benefits, would improve the countrys energy security and the security situation in general, reducing Moscows influence on Yerevans decision-making. However, the governments attitude invites more skepticism than hope.

By The Jamestown Foundation

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
By NW Spotlight

Steve Doell in a guest opinion for The Oregonian:

The legislature is again back to its get-out-of-jail-free ways. This time its House Bill 3078, which releases violent and non-violent offenders early and reduces the penalties for identity theft from 18 months to 13 months. As always with such cuts, its just a matter of time until they shatter the lives of innocent victims.

All too often kids are the victims. Nakiem Brown is alleged to have been involved in a May 22, 2017 attack at a Gresham apartment to avenge a gang vendetta. Reports of the crime indicate a nine-year old boy and his mother were shot multiple times after the assailant or assailants opened fire, spraying the apartment with dozens of bullets. Brown, a member of the Hoover Street gang, faces multiple counts of attempted aggravated murder and other violent crimes.
In a letter to Kris Kobach, Vice Chair of the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity, Secretary of State Dennis Richardson defended states rights. Richardson told the federal government that the State of Oregon should be allowed to continued to conduct free and fair elections saying, I do not believe the federal government should be involved in dictating how states conduct their elections. Richardson also pointed out the Oregon law prohibits disclosure of social security numbers and drivers license numbers with voter data. If the Commission wishes to obtain a copy of Oregons voter database, they are allowed to purchase it through the same process as any voter, advocacy group, or campaign. The database of Oregon voters costs $500 and cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Richardsons letter was in response to a letter issued earlier this week by Kobach, requesting that all 50 states turn over voter databases to the commission that included the last four digits of the social security numbers of voters. In a strange turn of events, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach responded to his own letter saying that Kansas would not turn over the social security numbers he requested from himself. A number of other states, including Oregon, have joined Kansas Secretary Kobach in rejecting his request.
In the following video, Rep. Stark Questions an Oregon State Health official, admits that at least $500,000 of taxpayer dollar will be used to fund abortions because of HB 3391. The questioning begins at the 2:50 mark in the video.

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By of the

Todd Brunner, once the foreclosure king of Milwaukee, created shell companies as part of a scheme to hide more than $7 million in assets from creditors, a federal grand jury charged in a 16-count fraud indictment issued late Tuesday.

Brunner, 57, was charged with 11 counts of bank fraud and four counts of bankruptcy fraud. His son, Shawn Brunner, 24, was charged with three counts of bank fraud and one count of bankruptcy fraud.

The charges are the latest and most serious round of trouble for Todd Brunner, who once tooled around the Milwaukee area in a 2006 Bentley and owned more than 200 pieces of property  most of which were purchased at foreclosure auctions.

Known for his real estate acumen, physical size  he stands about 6 feet, 5 inches tall and has weighed as much as 400 pounds  and his affinity for fancy cars and fast boats, Brunner's financial empire collapsed in 2011, forcing him to file for bankruptcy.

When he filed for bankruptcy, he acknowledged having about $20 million in debt as well as an impressive roster of assets, including three boats, a 2000 Porsche Boxster, a 1984 Rolls-Royce, a 1959 Jaguar, a 1918 Rauch & Lang electric car, a couple of Cadillacs and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

At the time, Brunner owed about $880,000 in back property taxes to communities in southeastern Wisconsin.

The indictment charges that Brunner never disclosed all of his holdings to the bankruptcy court and that he used various measures to hide assets from lenders. His tactics ranged from placing properties into shell companies to hiding "boat engines, superchargers and gauges removed from a powerboat known as 'El Diablo' ... at an undisclosed location," according to the indictment.

In addition, the indictment said Brunner claimed that his "gross and net income from any source" was zero even though "his rental properties generate, on average, in excess of $30,000 per month."

Debtors are required by federal law to disclose all of their holdings when filing for bankruptcy.

In a statement issued Wednesday, U.S. Attorney James Santelle said the actions the Brunners are accused of "not only compromise the strength of our financial institutions and banking systems but also undermine the legitimate and important processes of the United States Bankruptcy Court."

Contacted Tuesday, Brunner said he does not have a lawyer and that he learned of the indictment from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter.

"I don't know anything about it ... have a nice day," Brunner said as he hung up.

The indictment also charges that:

 After he and two associates in 2008 received a $2 million bank loan to finance the conversion of a school in Waupun into an assisted living center, Brunner submitted fraudulent invoices to the lender in order to draw cash on the loan. Later, the indictment alleges, he submitted copies of checks to the lender  First Business Bank-Milwaukee  "which purported to show that the various contractors had been paid by him, when, in fact, he never provided those checks to the named contractor."

In a 2011 Journal Sentinel profile of Brunner's collapsing empire, he blamed the Waupun project and his partners for his financial woes. However, city officials said Brunner's personal style of driving flashy cars and boats while contractors went unpaid doomed the project.

 Brunner created several shell companies and his son, who was then in college, was the organizer of those companies, according to the indictment. Todd Brunner then transferred "numerous parcels of real estate and various motor vehicles and power boats to Shawn A. Brunner and to the shell companies" in order to hide the assets from creditors, the indictment charged.

Later, at the insistence of his bankruptcy lawyer, the properties were moved back into Todd Brunner's name when he later filed for bankruptcy.

 Shawn Brunner opened accounts at various financial institutions in his own name and in the name of the shell companies and deposited checks made out to his father in those accounts. But, the indictment alleges, those checks were not listed on documents filed with the bankruptcy court. Shawn Brunner could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

 During his bankruptcy proceedings, Brunner repeatedly amended the court filings to disclose additional assets. But, the grand jury charged, those disclosures were made only after the U.S. Trustee or creditors discovered the assets. Regardless, the filings "never included a full accounting of Todd A. Brunner's assets," the indictment charges.

Brunner's bankruptcy filing was thrown out of court in 2011 when then-U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge James Shapiro said Brunner failed to disclose all of his assets and repeatedly blamed others for the collapse of his empire. "You have a propensity to blame others (and for) portraying yourself as an innocent victim," the judge told him from the bench.

The charges issued Tuesday are the result of an investigation by the FBI, the Milwaukee Police Department, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General and the criminal investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service. The Journal Sentinel first reported that the FBI was investigating Brunner in April 2012. The FBI searched his spacious home on a 2.2-acre lot near Pewaukee Lake in October 2012, seizing boxes of bank and business records, four computers, a boat certificate and pictures of boats, court records show.

Though he lost the titles through foreclosure to many of his properties  including his Pewaukee home that he now rents from Securant Bank & Trust  Brunner still owns about three dozen properties in Milwaukee. City records show he or his company owes about $190,000 in back property taxes on the real estate.












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Un aniversario mas del mayor genocidio de la Humanidad



Retrato del franquismo en Espana



Visca Catalunya!



El Chulo de Madrid



Cuando la policia se roba la democracia



Una imagen dice mas que mil palabras



La purita verdad



Asi gobierna la maldita burguesia



Mi pobre clase media



Como Chavez nadie



Comparte La Colmena via twitter Twittear

Programa de la MUD



Asi o mas clarito



Por que Trump no ataco Corea del Norte?



Hace 15 anos Por que la OEA no se pronuncio?



Una verguenza nacional



La luz que nos guia



La Union Europea Premio Nobel de la Paz?



Feudalismo ayer y hoy



Obama, el mentiroso



Curiosa coincidencia



Un mundo de cerdos



No es extrano?



La Marioneta



Los ricos protestan, los pobres celebran



MARICORI Y OBAMA



Cuantas muertes este ano?



USA TODAY



USA HOY 6



USA HOY 5



USA HOY 4



USA HOY 3



USA HOY 2



USA HOY (1)



Insaciable



Cronologia de un agresor



Guarimbear en USA



Mexico hoy



Bolivar y Chavez



Primero Amargado



Dios los cria y ellos se juntan



USA hoy (III)



USA hoy (II)



USA hoy



Mexico hoy



Mexico hoy



Mexico hoy



Obama



La verdad sea dicha



Los ricos



Que no nos vea Obama



Pobre Obama



SOS PALESTINA



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Chavez Cuanto te queremos!



Por culpa de Chavez



Cerveza Polar







Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar







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LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



























Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



OZ2



OZ3



OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



























La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



Capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas...



Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!


BALLSTON SPA -- A Glens Falls man who was suspected of burglaries in New York and Vermont has pleaded guilty to a felony count in Saratoga County Court.

Gerard J. "Joey" King, 52, pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary, a felony, for a January 5 home burglary in Saratoga Springs.

The arrest came after a joint investigation with Glens Falls Police, during which King was found to have items stolen from the home as well as two handguns that had been stolen in Vermont, police said.

He has two prior felony convictions, and faces up to 10 years in state prison as part of a plea deal. He is being held in Saratoga County Jail pending sentencing Aug. 24 by Saratoga County Judge James Murphy.
SHARE Todd Brunner

By of the

The FBI is investigating the business dealings and bankruptcy of Todd Brunner, the one-time foreclosure king whose real estate empire crumbled under the weight of nearly $20 million in debt last year, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.

The investigation of Brunner started this year after the U.S. Trustee Office said in court filings that he had deceived the bankruptcy court by trying to hide assets, said a source with knowledge of the investigation. The Journal Sentinel reported in October that two other police agencies were investigating Brunner, whose holdings include about 200 properties and an array of expensive boats and cars.

Disclosure of the FBI investigation comes as the Trustee - an arm of the U.S. Justice Department - is asking Bankruptcy Judge James Shapiro to dismiss Brunner's petition to reorganize his debts under protection of the bankruptcy court. Dismissal of the bankruptcy would leave the Pewaukee man and his wife, Sharon, liable for about $20 million in debt.

Brunner built his real estate portfolio largely by attending sheriff's sales throughout southeastern Wisconsin and buying foreclosed properties that were auctioned off, generally at a deep discount. Among his holdings are 143 properties in Milwaukee, which owed back property taxes of more than $1.3 million as of March 6, city records show.

In addition to his real estate, Brunner's bankruptcy filing lists ownership of about two dozen cars and boats, including a 2006 Bentley, three boats and a 2000 Porsche Boxster.

Jonathan Goodman, Brunner's lawyer, declined to comment about the substance of the criminal investigations except to say: "All I know is that the FBI and (Milwaukee) police have been interviewing some of his tenants," Goodman said.

The FBI investigation is in its early stages and is looking at the possibility of fraud in Brunner's dealings in the bankruptcy case or with tenants, two sources said. FBI and Milwaukee Police Department spokesmen declined to comment.

Since he filed for bankruptcy last June, creditors and the Trustee Office have questioned whether Brunner fully disclosed all of his holdings, as required by law. This year, the Trustee Office alleged in a court filing that Brunner did not disclose all of his property holdings, including property he owned in Bend, Ore., and that he falsely claimed his financial records were ruined by an irate ex-employee.

The two other investigations of Brunner started last summer. As a result of one of the investigations, Brunner was charged in Fond du Lac County with a felony accusing him of writing a worthless check for $13,472 the day before he filed for bankruptcy. Prosecutors charge the check was written so Brunner could retrieve a 33-foot boat from a repair shop.

The Milwaukee police investigation is looking at a number of issues, including potential fraud in Brunner's dealings with tenants, sources said.

Theresa Brand of Milwaukee said in an interview Tuesday that Brunner agreed to sell her the northwest side home where she lives with her family several years ago.

Brand - who has been interviewed by police, the Trustee Office and the FBI - testified at a recent Brunner bankruptcy hearing that the monthly payments she made to Brunner were to be applied to the property purchase.

Despite the agreement, however, she charged that Brunner has refused to count the payments as going toward a purchase, even though she wrote the word "mortgage" on the memo line of her checks.

In testimony at a bankruptcy court hearing this week, Brunner disputed Brand's story, saying the property is owned by his brother and that he only managed it. While he initially discussed selling the home to her several years ago, he said, no sale agreement was ever reached. He said he told Brand repeatedly that "this is not a mortgage, you're renting it."
















In a major shake up of the Vatican's administration on Saturday, Pope Francis replaced Catholicism's top theologian, a conservative German cardinal who has been at odds with the pontiff's vision of a more inclusive Church.









A brief Vatican statement said Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller's five-year mandate as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a key department charged with defending Catholic doctrine, would not be renewed.





Mueller, 69, who was appointed by former Pope Benedict in 2012, will be succeeded by the department's number two, Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer.





Ladaria, a 73-year-old Spaniard who, like the Argentine pope is a member of the Jesuit order, is said by those who know him to be a soft-spoken person who shuns the limelight. Mueller, by contrast, often appears in the media.









"They speak the same language and Ladaria is someone who is meek. He does not agitate the pope and does not threaten him," said a priest who works in the Vatican and knows both Mueller and Ladaria, asking not to be named.





Since his election in 2013, Francis has given hope to progressives who want him to forge ahead with his vision for a more welcoming Church that concentrates on mercy rather than the strict enforcement of rigid rules they see as antiquated.





Mueller is one of several cardinals in the Vatican who have publicly sparred with the pope. In 2015 he was among 13 cardinals who signed a secret letter to the pope complaining that a meeting of bishops discussing family issues was stacked in favour of liberals. The letter was leaked, embarrassing the signatories.





Mueller has criticised parts of a 2016 papal treatise called "Amoris Laetitia" (The Joy of Love), a cornerstone document of Francis' attempt to make the 1.2 billion-member Church more inclusive and less condemning.

































Israels Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon accused the United Nations of colluding with supporters of terror seeking to harm Israel, following a two-day panel Thursday-Friday marking 50 years of occupation in which groups Israel says have links to Palestinian terror organizations participated.









The panel was addressed by Palestinian officials, an Israeli MK, Israeli and Palestinian activists and others.





It is beyond comprehension that UN funds are supporting organizations which aid terrorists and incite against Israel, Danon said in a statement about the event, which was organized by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and held at UN headquarters in New York.





The committee was tasked in 2016 with bring[ing] together international experts, including from the State of Palestine and Israel, representatives of the diplomatic community, civil society, as well as academics and students to discuss the ongoing occupation.

Israel protested the meetings which began Thursday, saying that two of the groups participating, Al Haq and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, had links to Hamas and the PFLP.





Israels UN delegation said in a statement that according to intelligence information the Al Haq group collaborates with the PFLP and the Al Mezan Center works together regularly with the Hamas terrorist organization.

Jody Williams, the keynote speaker at the forum on Friday, urged attendees to make life hell for Israel until it withdraws from Palestinian territory.









The World Jewish Congress set up a protest table across the street from the UN where the event was taking place, and said in a statement that the organizing committee was the only UN body dedicated to an individual group of people, despite the many pressing human rights concerns facing peoples around the world. Established in November 1975 after the UN General Assembly passed its notorious Zionism-equals-racism resolution, the Committee continues to encourage that poisonous notion. While it claims to support the Middle East peace process and the achievement of a two-state solution, the Committee in fact regularly disparages Israel and administers events questioning its legitimacy, the WJC said.





























Commenting on the recent CNN report that US ships and aircraft have been moved into position and are ready to strike Syria's Shayrat airbase if the Syrian government makes "any further moves toward a chemical weapons attack," Lt. Gen. Evgeny Buzhinsky told Sputnik that the US is simply looking for an excuse to strike the airbase.

On Wednesday, CNN reported that Syria's Shayrat airbase "remains under constant overhead surveillance by the US for further signs of whether a chemical strike may be in the works."





It followed the claims of the White House that the US allegedly "observed potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime."





CNN reported that the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, along with two destroyers and two cruisers have been deployed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for routine patrol positions.





"The destroyers and cruisers could fire Tomahawk missiles without putting pilots in manned aircraft at risk. In addition, dozens of aircraft already in the Middle East for operations against ISIS (Daesh) in Syria and Iraq could be used in a potential strike," the broadcaster said.









On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the claims.





"Unfortunately, Washington has voiced new baseless accusations against the Syrian leadership that [Damascus] allegedly is planning a new chemical attack. We know about these statements, which the Washington officials have refused to support with facts. And we don't know what data was used to make such conclusions," Zakharova said. "





Former Russian Defense Ministry senior official Lt. Gen. Evgeny Buzhinsky told Sputnik that the US is looking for an excuse for a new attack.





"The Americans are seeking an excuse to be able to demonstrate yet again their determination and gun power. We shouldnt rule out something happening. In the current climate, we can expect the unexpected from the US, as well as predictable events," he said.
































































































































































































Davenport police have arrested a man who Rock Island police said shot a woman Wednesday night.

Edward L. McLaurin Jr., 21, who according to Rock Island County electronic court records is a resident of Chicago, was arrested at 4:49 p.m. Friday by Davenport police while he was at a gasoline pump at the Kwik Shop at Harrison and Locust streets.

According to a news release issued by Rock Island Deputy Police Chief Jason Foy, officers responded to a report of shots fired at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the 500 block of 7th Street.

Officers found an adult female who suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. She was taken to Trinity Rock Island for treatment and has since been released.

McLaurin is facing charges of aggravated battery with a firearm, a Class X felony that carries a prison sentence of six to 30 years. He also is charged with unlawful use of possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony that carries a prison sentence of two to five years, and reckless discharge of a firearm, a Class 4 felony that carries a prison sentence of one to three years.

His bond is set at $500,000. McLaurin will be held in the Scott County Jail until he is extradited to Rock Island County.
A four-year-old girl was left to protect her mother in the only way she knew how: by telling her mom to be just a little more perfect, a survival tactic many black parents have felt forced to teach their children in an America in which dark skin is still too frequently seen as threatening.

"Mom, please stop cussing and screaming 'cause I don't want you to get shooted," the little girl told her mother, Diamond Reynolds, a woman who had just seen her boyfriend, Philando Castile, killed for no good reason.

The little girl's pleading is the logical end to a respectability politics impressed upon black people even though it will never keep us safe. Black people have been told, repeatedly and over centuries, that if we are just a little better, dress a little better, study a little harder, be a bit more compliant and adopt more middle-class white values, we will be allowed to keep breathing.

Under no circumstances should we scare white people or make them, or others in positions of power, uncomfortable -- because it would be unfair to those powerful people.

It's why so many black parents have stressed to their children to make sure their hands are on the steering wheel, to remember to say yes sir and yes ma'am -- just as Castile did before he was shot and Reynolds did as her boyfriend bled to death -- to make no sudden movements, to make eye contact only if the officer wants them to make eye contact. Don't worry about your supposedly constitutionally-protected rights, just survive, these parents have preached.

In the Castile case, that teaching was turned on its head. While a squad car video camera captured the scene, the child delivered "The Talk" to the parent. She had just seen a police officer kill her mother's boyfriend. She was there as her mother streamed the scene on Facebook Live to the world before being placed in handcuffs in the backseat of a squad car.

That little girl knew no one was coming to her rescue. The National Rifle Association surely wasn't coming, even though Castile was a law-abiding citizen exercising his Second Amendment rights. If it wasn't clear before, the NRA's silence on the Castile case makes it crystal clear that the organization isn't about preserving the right of all Americans to carry a gun, only white people's.

The good cops we keep hearing about weren't going to show up, because they seldom do in situations such as these. They didn't scream bloody murder and demand justice after police in New York choked a man to death or shot a man in Ohio for picking up a toy gun in a Walmart or shot a man multiple times in the back in North Charleston as he ran away.

Good cops, we are repeatedly told, are there to protect and serve. But the public silence of good cops sends a different message, that that protection they offer does not extend to threats against us if those threats come with badges and batons and blue uniforms.

Juries -- who keep showing us that, no matter the circumstances, they will declare our killings justified if a cop says he was scared when he pumps us full of bullets -- weren't going to help that little girl and her family, either. That's why the child resorted to the only thing she knew, an emotional plea born of helplessness in a sea of chaos that seems to have no shore.

That's why I haven't -- and won't -- have "The Talk" with my black son, because during an interaction with a police officer, I know his actions aren't the only ones that will determine if he's allowed to come home to me.

It's clear Castile did everything "The Talk" tells black men to do. And he's still dead.
blog of the State Geologist of Arizona
Back in 1943, I was the classmate of a fellow named Herman Sitrick. We became pretty good friends at old Davenport High School, now Central. We graduated together and were drafted together, leaving one July evening on the same bus for basic training.

Now, it is 74 years later, and my old schoolmate has just received the Legion dHonneur from the French government for single-handedly capturing 21 German soldiers during World War II. Its an honor long overdue.

It has been the thrill of my life, said Sitrick in a long telephone conversation last week. The French waited long enough time to give it to me, he said with a little laugh.

Herman Sitrick is still working, head of an advertising agency that for 25 years had the Chicago Cubs as one of its accounts. He lives in Morton Grove, Illinois.

The Legion dHonneur, the highest honor for military service that the French government bestows on foreign nationals, dates back to Napoleon. It was presented in a ceremony June 12 at the Alliance Francaise in Chicago. Among those in attendance were David and Barbara Smith of Bettendorf. She is Hermans niece.

My old classmates exploits could be a Hollywood thriller. The capture of 21 German soldiers surely ranks up there with the best of the WWII action flicks. The brutal Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive campaign on the western front, took place in 1944-45 in the densely forested Ardennes region in Belgium, France and Luxembourg.

Heres how Herman Sitrick became a hero:

In a snowstorm one day, Sitrick says, he came upon an unarmed German soldier, walking alone.

I was ready to shoot him, but he pleaded with me. I learned a little German in high school and could understand him. He said Dont shoot me. I have three children.

Together, they trudged to a burned, bombed-out farmhouse. He warned the lone German that if he tried anything, he would kill him.

We went to the wrecked basement to get a little warmer. Gradually, one by one, other Germans came along and tried to get in. I hid under some stairs and warned them to disarm and get together in a bunch in the basement. I could see them through the steps. Finally, I had 21, huddled together. I was ready to shoot any of them. They didnt know that only one American GI was holding all of them prisoner.

Next morning, I heard tanks. The 3rd Armored Division was outside and they took all my prisoners. They couldnt believe I had captured 21 of them all by myself. They reached out to war correspondents and reporters from Time and big newspapers that wanted to talk to me. But no one could find me. I had been taken to a regimental hospital for treatment of my frozen feet. Inside my wet boots were Hush Puppies, frozen solid.

Its unknown how the story of Sitricks capture of 21 Germans has been overlooked for so long. He theorizes that fellow GIs passed it along. But it took the French nearly three-quarters of a century to finally honor him.

Pvt. Herman Sitrick saw all there was to see of World War II. He had toughed his way ashore at Normandy (second wave) and was wounded four times in Brittany, northern France, the Hurtgen Forest in Germany and the Ardennnes in Belgium.

At one time, with shrapnel wounds tearing at Sitrick's legs, a captain pinned a tag on him as a signal that he should not return to duty. Angered, Sitrick tore off the tag. And I made it back to my outfit. he told me in our phone visit.

Finally, in 1946, it was time to come home and marry Marcia and help his dad for a while in the family grocery store at 6th and Harrison streets in Davenport. The Sitricks have three sons, Rick, Mike and David, who say their dad never talked much about the war.

Rick told me, Dad had two boxes of medals. When I was a little kid, I played with them like they were toys.
Let's imagine a Chinese "applied history" project, similar to the one at Harvard's Belfer Center that helped spawn Professor Graham Allison's widely discussed book "Destined for War."

Allison's historical analysis led him to posit a "Thucydides Trap" and the danger (if not inevitability) of war between a rising China and a dominant America, like the ancient conflict between Athens and Sparta chronicled by the Greek historian Thucydides. A study by the Belfer Center's Applied History Project identified 16 similar "rising versus ruling" cases over the past 500 years, 12 of which resulted in war. What would the Chinese say about the lessons of past interactions with the West?

Chinese analysts, from President Xi Jinping on down, have nominally rejected Allison's pessimistic analysis. "There is no Thucydides Trap," Xi has argued, claiming that he had devised an alternative "new type of great-power relations" that would avoid war by recognizing that each Asian giant had its own legitimate interests. More recently, he has shifted to arguing that "China and the U.S. must do everything possible to avoid [the] Thucydides Trap."

Similar protestations have reportedly been offered privately in recent months by a string of senior Chinese officials, and China's modest cooperation with the United States in dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat provides some hope that this is indeed a "win-win" game, as Xi and other Chinese leaders so tirelessly repeat.

An interesting thought experiment would be to imagine a Chinese version of Allison, who decides to examine the ledger from their side. What would such applied history teach the Chinese about their looming intersection with the dominant power of the United States?

I'm no expert on Chinese history or foreign policy, so I'll simply sketch some areas of possible focus for a hypothetical Sino-Thucydides analysis. In each case, my imaginary Chinese scholars would apply Allison's rubric for applied history (developed by the late professor Ernest May), which asked how each case was like its historical antecedent, how it was different and how that evidence might produce a net assessment.

Here's my list of testable propositions, from a Chinese perspective:

(1) Economic and cultural power is no substitute for military power. China was a dominant economic and intellectual force when it first encountered European power, but it lacked technologically backed military muscle. Mistake.

(2) Weakness breeds contempt. Western powers made a show of pledging loyalty and tribute to China's rulers and warlords, but this masked hostile intent. The Chinese were wooed and corrupted by the West's influence. Mistake. Allison quotes Thucydides' precept: The weak (and by extension, the corrupt) suffer what they must. Rooting out (or at least controlling) corruption is a central Chinese task.

(3) The West preached openness as the way for China and other Asian nations to absorb advanced technology and Western know-how. But the West exploited that openness to create dependence. Even Japan, which built an astonishing manufacturing base, remained dependent on Western raw materials and energy supplies. Mistake. The result was a catastrophic war.

(4) Networks of aid and assistance are good covers for expanding influence and military power. The Marshall Plan was a sublime scheme for spreading U.S. influence and blunting the Soviet Union, in the name of relieving humanitarian suffering. China is devising similar outreach through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the cooperative development project known as "One Belt, One Road." The United States has done everything it can to prevent other nations from signing up to China's initiatives. Mistake. Asian development is the handmaiden of Chinese power.

(5) The United States argues that transparency and an international rules-based order are the best guarantee of security for all sides. But what this really means, through modern history, is that the United States makes the rules and others obey the orders. Adherence to the "rules" would have checked China's expansion into the South China Sea (allowing perpetual U.S. domination). And if last year's Philippine arbitration ruling had been enforced, it would have rolled back China's projection of power through reclaimed islands and military bases. Mistake. History teaches that China should proclaim that its intentions are limited, benign and non-military -- even as its power expands and it creates the military bases that will allow it to challenge U.S. naval power in the South China Sea.

I've stacked the deck here, a bit, with some of the cases that lead many analysts to assume that a rational China, seeing these lessons of history, will opt for a course that increases the likelihood of confrontation. But maybe I'm wrong; maybe there really is an alternative "new type of great-power relations" that would posit different outcomes. I await such an analysis from my imaginary Chinese counterpart to Graham Allison.
China's President Xi Jinping has warned that any efforts in Hong Kong "to challenge the power" of Beijing are "absolutely impermissible," as the former British colony marked 20 years of Chinese rule Saturday.

"Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security ... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses a red line," Xi said, in a nationalistic speech which emphasized Beijing's control over the city, now a special administrative region of China.

It was Xi's first visit to the city since he took power in Beijing in 2013, and came amid fears by some Hong Kongers of increasing Chinese encroachment on the city's autonomy -- guaranteed under a framework known as "one country, two systems."

Xi left Hong Kong in the early afternoon Saturday before the kick-off of an annual July 1 pro-democracy march, which saw streets packed with marchers despite stifling heat and rain. Past marches have attracted tens of thousands of marchers but this year Xi's trip has given the event a sharper focus.

Ron Wong, 17, who was marching with his parents, said Xi's visit had been a "show of power of who's in charge."

"China has barricaded itself off (from criticism)," he said.

The plight of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Chinese dissident recently granted parole for cancer treatment, was also a rallying cry.

Many protesters carried banners calling for his release, or pictures of empty chairs -- echoing the award of his 2010 Nobel prize that took place while he was in prison.

Lam sworn in

Earlier, Xi swore in Carrie Lam as Hong Kong's first female Chief Executive. Lam called for unity to heal the city's divided society -- just hours after police scuffled with pro-democracy protesters attempting to reach the harbor-side venue where the ceremony took place.

Lam said she recognized the political and economic challenges facing Hong Kong but added that the city's problems cannot be solved overnight.

Protesters had hoped to march on an early morning flag-raising ceremony, but were prevented from moving more than a few hundred meters by flag-waving counter-demonstrators and a huge police cordon.

Leaders including high-profile campaigner Joshua Wong were detained and bundled into police vans as their supporters shouted "shame." He was later released.

Lawmaker "Longhair" Leung Kwok-hung, a veteran pro-democracy activist, was also briefly taken into custody. "Patriotism is the last resort of thugs," he said after his release.

The confrontation, and police response, exposes the tensions in the city between those who seek greater freedom and those loyal to leadership on the mainland.

At a gala event Friday night, Xi urged Hong Kongers to unite and build on the progress made by previous generations.

"The road ahead is by no means smooth, but our faith in implementing 'one country, two systems' will not change, our determination won't be swayed," he said, referring to system that affords Hong Kong a degree of separation from the mainland.

Show of force

Xi's visit, which has seen unprecedented levels of security with roadblocks, huge barriers and a massive police presence, was largely peaceful.

The Chinese President oversaw a military parade Friday, the largest since the city's handover from the UK to China in 1997, with around 3,000 members of the People's Liberation Army taking part.

Multiple attempts by protesters to get anywhere near Xi during his time in the city ended in failure, while a pro-Hong Kong independence rally scheduled for Friday night was canceled after police refused organizers permission to use a public square.

Two dozen activists were arrested Wednesday after they stormed and occupied the public square where the flag-raising took place. The protesters, including "Umbrella Movement" leaders Joshua Wong and Nathan Law, were not released until early Friday morning.

Protests and challenges

The mood among many pro-democracy campaigners is muted, nothing like the anger and frustration that saw hundreds of thousands occupy the streets of central Hong Kong during 2014's "Umbrella Movement."

But deep rifts in society remain, a problem that Chief Executive Lam has vowed to tackle.

Lam has indicated she may revive efforts to pass a controversial anti-sedition law known as Article 23.

Article 23 requires the Hong Kong government to "enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government."

Some warn the law could be used as an excuse to crack down on criticism of the government or the discussion of controversial topics like Hong Kong independence.

Many locals fear the law could be the final nail in the coffin for the city's autonomy from China. A previous attempt to introduce the legislation drew half a million protesters onto the streets and resulted in the resignation of a key minister in 2003.

On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the agreement by which Hong Kong was handed over from the UK to China, was now just an "historical document" with no practical significance.

Chris Patten, the city's last British colonial governor who presided over the handover in 1997, said that China had been pressuring Hong Kong "in all sort of ways."

"You see this in attacks on the judiciary and the rule of law, interference in court cases, you see it in the atmosphere of hostility toward the independence of universities and the media," he told CNN before the anniversary.

CNN's Yuli Yang, Serenitie Wang and Karina Tsui contributed reporting.
ope Francis gave the Catholic church five new cardinals Wednesday, somberly instructing them to act as servants and not "princes" in a world where innocents are dying from wars and terrorism, slavery persists and refugee camps often are living hells.

Reflecting Francis' attention to the poor, three of the five cardinals hail from developing nations and regions: Bishop Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun of Laos; Bamako Archbishop Jean Zerbo of Mali; and Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chavez, who continued working as a parish priest while serving as San Salvador's auxiliary bishop.

The other two elevated churchmen are Barcelona, Spain, Archbishop Juan Jose Omella, who early in his clerical career worked as a missionary in Zaire; and Stockholm Bishop Anders Arborelius. The Swedish prelate last year welcomed Francis to his country, where Lutherans are the majority Christian group.

Cardinals are often referred to as "princes of the church," a reflection of their prestigious roles of advising the pope and electing his successor, as well as their often-posh residences.

But Francis in his homily told the five new cardinals that Jesus "has not called you to become 'princes' in the Church," but instead chose them to serve God and people.

Some media had speculated that Zerbo, Mali's first-ever cardinal, wouldn't show up for the ceremony or even be made cardinal after European news media recently reported that he was one three Mali prelates who had multi-million euro Swiss bank-accounts.

If Francis was upset by the reports, it didn't show when he placed the prestigious red biretta, the square, three-ridged hat cardinals wear, on Zerbo's head.

As he did with the other four cardinals, Francis gave the African prelate a fraternal embrace and said a few words to him. Zerbo, on his knees, leaned forward, his head bowed.

"It was a very emotional moment for me," Zerbo told The Associated Press at a post-ceremony Vatican reception for the new cardinals.

Francis, an Argentine and the first Jesuit pope, told his newest cardinals to be focused on the suffering in the world.

"The reality is the innocent who suffer and die as victims of wars and terrorism; the forms of enslavement that continue to violate human dignity even in the age of human rights," he said.

The pope also spoke of refugee camps "which at times seem more like a hell than a purgatory," and decried what he called "the systematic discarding of all that is no longer useful, people included."

Chavez, who heads the Latin American division of Caritas, a Catholic charity, had worked closely with Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who while celebrating Mass was shot to death in 1980 by a right-wing death squad during El Salvador's civil war.

Francis patted Chavez on the shoulder after he gave him the red hat.

Zerbo has worked for reconciliation in Mali, an impoverished country bloodied by Islamist extremism and where Muslims constitute the predominant religious majority.

"There is such violence in the world, what we need is brotherhood," Zerbo said as well-wishers waited to greet him after the ceremony.

But as the cardinal-making ceremony neared, his reputation as a peacemaker was overshadowed by news reports that 12 million euros ($13.5 million) were held in Swiss bank accounts in the names of Zerbo and two other top-ranking Catholic churchman from Mali.

A fellow Mali bishop, who has been identified as one of the account-holders and who came to Rome for the cardinals' ceremony, declined in an interview with AP to explain where the money came from or for what it might have been used.

Vatican officials have said it is common for bishops working in unstable countries to deposit church funds in either the Vatican or European banks and made clear Francis would go head and make Zerbo a cardinal.
Free concert with Koine

St Pauls Lutheran Church will host national recording artists Koine in a free for the community concert on Saturday, July 15 at 5:30 p.m. The church is located at 835 E. Fairmont Blvd. in Rapid City.

Hills Alive

The 32nd annual Hills Alive free summer music festival will be held in Memorial Park in Rapid City on July 15 and 16. There will also be an Artist Showcase at Main Street Square on Friday, July 14.

More than 20 Christian bands from all over the country will be performing throughout the weekend and there will be activities for the entire family.

Christ Church vacation bible school

Christ Church at 1900 Evergreen Drive in Rapid City will hold vacation bible school July 17 to July 21 from 9 a.m. to noon. Children age 4 through the completion of 6th grade are invited.

The program is titled Galactic Starveryors, Discovering the God of the Universe. For more information call the church office at 605-791-5591.

Gospel concert

Calvary Baptist Church in Rapid City, will hold a gospel concert Sunday, July 2, at 6 p.m. The southern Gospel music will be performed by the Redeemed Quartet and there will be a love offering taken that night.

Seventh-day Adventist Church Fruit Sale

Monday, July 3, is the deadline to order sweet dark cherries, Rainier cherries, blueberries and apricots for delivery Sunday, July 16, through the Seventh-day Adventist Church at 4703 South Canyon Road.

Order online at rcadventistfruit.com or call 605-519-8074 for more information. Funds raised through the fruit sale go to the churchs school fund.

Court revives church-state lawsuit against Colorado schools

A federal court has revived a Colorado parent's lawsuit that alleges a school district violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled Tuesday that a woman identified as Jane Zoe can sue the Douglas County School District over a fundraising appeal that a teacher distributed for a Christian group.

Zoe says she received an email from her son's teacher requesting donations for the group and her son was sent home with a flyer about it. Zoe says her family is non-Christian, and the appeals made her son feel pressured and made the family feel like outsiders.

A lower court said Zoe lacked legal standing to sue. The appeals court disagreed.

The appeals court agreed that three other parents lacked standing.
NEW YORK | Kendall and Kylie Jenner apologized Thursday for "vintage" T-shirts superimposing their images with those of famous musicians, including Ozzy Osbourne, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.

The sisters began selling the shirts Wednesday online for $125 each as part of their Kendall + Kylie brand. Sales of the shirts were halted and the apology issued after Osbourne's wife, Sharon Osbourne, and Voletta Wallace, the mother of the late Notorious B.I.G complained of appropriation on social media.

"Girls, you haven't earned the right to put your face with musical icons. Stick to what you know.lip gloss," Osbourne tweeted.

On Instagram, Wallace put a huge red X through the shirt featuring her rap legend son and called it "disrespectful, disgusting and exploitation at its worst."

The shirts were taken down and a statement released by the sisters' brand said the shirts are one-of-a-kind re-purposed vintage T-shirts and the designs were "randomly selected and not well thought out." The brand, too, apologized for "any insensitivity" and added that "we missed the mark completely."

Wives off auction on 'Pirates' ride

ANAHEIM, Calif. | Yo ho, yo ho, no pirate's wife for me.

Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride is losing a scene where a bound and tearful woman is on the auction block for pirates to buy as a wife.

A banner that now says "Auction, take a wench for a bride" will be changed to "Auction, Surrender yer loot," and the woman on the auction block will herself become a pirate.

Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown says Friday the changes will be made at the Paris park in July and at the Anaheim, California, and Florida parks next year.

The change is the most recent of several updates to the ride to match modern sensibilities, including one where a scene was altered to have pirates chasing a woman's food instead of the woman.
The Chadron Record is joining in the Fur Trade Days fun again this year, with the return of the fourth annual TCR Treasure Hunt.

Scheduled for Friday, July 6 at noon, the TCR Treasure Hunt is open to all ages and will take participants through Chadrons downtown area searching for clues to solve a puzzle and win $100 in Chadron Chamber Bucks.

You can participate individually or in teams, and the activity is a great family-friendly event that can be completed on foot or by bike (though the use of cars isnt against the rules).

The Record began the Treasure Hunt in 2014 to mark its 130th anniversary serving northwestern Nebraska and has continued the tradition since. Last years race attracted roughly 50 people to downtown Chadron.

Anyone interested in taking part needs to be at The Chadron Record office at 248 West Second St. at noon Friday to receive instructions and their first clue. The TCR Treasure Hunt is free to everyone, so come on down and join us in exploring Chadrons history.
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. | More than 50 members of the 4th Airborne Command Control Squadron held an anniversary reunion and memorial dedication at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum June 24.

A granite bench designed by the reunion coordinator was a key part of the reunion, making the 25th anniversary of the units deactivation.

According to designer Mary Hillman the bench  commemorating members of the 4th ACCS who have passed away  includes an American flag flying in the background with an image of an EC-135 aircraft flying over Mount Rushmore at the center; an image of two EC-135s conducting in-flight refueling to the right; and the squadron patch on the left.

Retired Lt. Col. Richard Hodges, a former 4th ACCS commander, who was the guest speaker at the event, thanked those members of the 4th ACCS who helped make the bench a reality.

I want to thank you for giving me the honor of dedicating this memorial of the 4th ACCS bench, Hodges said. When we think of the Black Hills, we think of landmarks associated with this area. Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park are just a few of the attractions.

Hodges added each of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore played a part in keeping this nation free, as did the 4th ACCS.

We who served know that freedom isnt free, Hodges said. It is won at a great cost. And even though we will never see our faces on a granite mountain, we now see our legacy memorialized in granite on this bench. We all stood watch with pride, honor, discipline, sacrifice and commitment for 22 and a half years.

During its nearly 23-year run, the squadron provided an airborne and auxiliary command post and a communications link for 15th Air Force and the former Strategic Air Command.

The bench will remain on the museums grounds, under the EC-135, tail 262, an aircraft the squadron used to fly.
This mostly consisted of simply listening to what people thought about self-government and independence, which was rarely supported in the villages and hamlets.

As PNG moved inexorably towards independence in the early 1970s, many of us kiaps found ourselves being required to conduct political education as an integral part of our patrol work.

PHIL Fitzpatrick's article on Papua New Guinean governance set me thinking. The sea air at Tumby Bay must be stimulating his neurons and, by some form of osmosis, mine as well.

This information was duly reported to the powers that be in Port Moresby (and Canberra) and studiously ignored. After all, the decision had been made, so the thoughts of the people were irrelevant.

At other times we were meant to explain abstract concepts like the difference between a unicameral and bicameral parliamentary system or the intricacies of preferential voting.

I did this a few times and my little talk was almost invariably greeted with bemusement. What on earth was the kiap talking about? Like many, I simply stopped bothering to discuss the matter because there was no point in doing so.

Anyway, for whatever reasons, it was decided to adopt a unicameral system (one parliamentary chamber) with single member electorates.

The use of preferential voting apparently was thought sufficient to ensure that only a genuine consensus candidate could actually get elected and, for a while at least, this seemed to be the case.

Now, however, it is clear that the wealthiest and best connected candidates can effectively game the system to buy lots of votes. In some ways this is not dissimilar to how politicians behave everywhere: a road here or a school there can sometimes be enough to get a candidate elected or re-elected.

That said, PNG appears to have raised this process (often called "pork barrelling") to another level entirely, especially by giving MPs official slush money (called improvement funds) to use as they wish to benefit the electorate or all too often buy the favour of specific groups of voters.

Even if this process is not totally corrupted, it can lead to the serious misapplication of scarce public funds based upon an MP's personal interests rather than those of the wider electorate.

Single member electorates are especially vulnerable to this form of pork barrelling, where a candidate has the task of accumulating 50% plus one of the available votes to be elected or re-elected. Thus the temptation to make sometimes extravagant or unrealistic promises can be overwhelming.

Consequently, after being elected, an MP becomes vulnerable to bribery during negotiations about the formation of a government.

Access to large amounts of cash can be the difference between meeting voter expectations or failing to do so, with predictable electoral consequences. On more than one occasion, prime minister Peter O'Neill has demonstrated his exceptional skills in this form of negotiation.

With the benefit of hindsight, saddling PNG with a unicameral parliamentary system composed of single member electorates has turned out to be a major mistake. It appears to have helped entrench rampant self interest, parochialism, patronage and outright corruption in many cases.

I think that we Australians ought to have known better.

Our noble ancestors, when framing our constitution, made a conscious decision to create a bicameral system, with the government formed in a House of Representatives composed of members representing single electorates being obliged to negotiate legislation through a separate Senate, with Senators being elected on a proportional representation basis.

Importantly, each State was to have the same number of Senators, regardless of its population. This decision was taken to protect the smaller States from being utterly dominated by the larger, more populous States which, of course, elected more members of the House of Representatives and could thus dominate the government.

As someone who has negotiated agreements between Commonwealth and States in the past, I can tell you that the founding fathers were very wise. The larger States are always keen to bully and browbeat the smaller States into submission.

In short, the history of Australian federation has repeatedly demonstrated the wisdom of having a bicameral system.

Very poor policy decisions by the major political parties while in government have been thwarted by the Senate on more than one occasion. Mostly, the Senate has forced compromises upon the government that have either improved the legislation under consideration or at least ameliorated its worst effects.

Only rarely has the Senate exerted its powers in an improper or downright irrational manner, notably when it blocked supply to bring about the downfall of the Whitlam Labor government in 1975.

Today, each of the major political parties can no longer rely upon the unthinking devotion of more than about one-third of the electorate.

As a direct consequence of this, the Senate has become a difficult body for any government to manage owing to the election of at least 10 independent Senators and another 10 who are members of the Australian Greens Party.

Thus the Senate has become an important brake upon a government falling victim to its worst instincts and ideas. (When John Howards Coalition controlled both houses of parliament, the last government to do so, not only did it lose the subsequent election but Howard lost his own seat.)

Both major parties hate and loathe a Senate in which they are a minority but they are forced to deal with it on a day to day basis.

To my mind, Australia has been the winner from this, with governments being forced to be their better selves, not simply catering for the truly rabid fringe dwellers who always exist in any political party.

In a Papua New Guinean context, to return to my theme, this suggests two major options for reform.

First, PNG could introduce a Senate composed of a prescribed number of Senators (say 5) for each Province. These people could be elected using an optional preferential voting system, whereby the candidates ranking first through to fifth respectively would be elected.

Importantly, their electorate would be the whole province, not just part of it, thereby removing or at least diminishing the value of pork barrelling specific groups of voters.

Second, if a Senate is deemed an unwarranted expense, it could look at introducing multi-member electorates based upon each Province to replace the current single member electorates.

Again, candidates would be elected based upon the total number of votes garnered across the whole Province, not just within a defined geographic area. This would help mitigate the risk of a candidate being indebted to a specific group of voters, plus provide an incentive to look after the whole electorate not just a selected part of it.

Third, PNG could actually do both of these things together, creating a system that virtually guarantees a multi-party government.

The merit of this is that the government would be forced to consider the needs of the many rather than the few if it wished to hold together a coalition style government.

The price would be the potential for significant instability as is found in places, like Italy, where governments rise and fall on a regular basis. Still, Italy manages to function (although sometimes I wonder how).

It should by now be painfully apparent in PNG that the current system is least likely to deliver government for the people, of the people and by the people.

For this reason alone, PNG's leaders ought to embrace and promote major constitutional change to install a system that better reflects the needs and aspirations of her diverse population.
South Dakotan Ernest Roth answered when President Woodrow Wilson called for volunteers.

The United States had declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917, committing the country to join the Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan in their efforts to defeat the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). The Great War had been raging since 1914.

Roth had been working as a carpenter and living with his uncle and aunt at Columbia when he decided to enlist. On April 25, 1917, he boarded the freight train for Aberdeen, where he went to the National Guard recruiting office and signed up. The next day, he was taken by train to Mobridge and transported to the headquarters of Company L of the 4th South Dakota infantry regiment. A total of 32,791 soldiers, sailors and marines from South Dakota served in the war, according to the South Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs.

In the forenoon of April 27, 1917, we were lined up and duly sworn in, thus making us full-fledged soldiers on paper although we were to learn the hard way that it required many, many months of intensive training and drilling on our part, much of it under a broiling sun, to become proficient at soldiering, Roth wrote in his diary.

The World War I Reminiscence of Ernest Roth is kept in the South Dakota State Historical Society -- State Archives manuscript collections. Find it online at www.history.sd.gov/Archives/, by clicking the Digital Archives icon, then selecting the Manuscript Collection and typing in Ernest Roth.

Two companies, both of the 4th South Dakota Infantry, were billeted in tents along a railroad siding about two miles northwest of Mobridge at Camp Pontis.

When we arrived there the only buildings in evidence were the partly completed mess halls, Roth wrote. The company kitchens were set up in three or four old boxcars on railroad sidings. I was immediately set to work on the buildings under construction.

Roth described infantry training at Camp Pontis as: reveille at 6 a.m. followed by calisthenics, breakfast, clean-up quarters, drill or hike (usually with full pack), lunch at noon, more drill, return to quarters for more clean-up, supper, and attend lectures and school.

Toward the end of September, rumors were rampant that the companies were going to be sent directly to the battlefields of Europe or to Mexico to prevent the Germans from coming over and entering the United States through Mexico.

The facts were: the last two days of this month we loaded all the property of the Company as well as our own personal stuff into boxcars and on October 1, 1917, both companies from Camp Pontis entrained for a destination yet unknown, Roth wrote.

Many people, some from Columbia, turned out to meet the train when it stopped at the Aberdeen depot. Crowds were always on hand to cheer on the troops whenever the train slowed to pass through a town, according to Roth.

The troops final destination was Camp Greene near Charlotte, N.C., where they were joined by other units comprising the entire 4th South Dakota regiment. Roth learned that the regiment was to be converted from infantry to machine gun battalions.

The rank and file of the fellows were quite unhappy with the machine gun assignment as rumor had it that these units were always the first to be ordered into the front lines of combat in actual battle and were consequently referred to as Suicide squads, Roth wrote.

Roth arrived at the battlefields in France in January 1918.

In his diary, Roth shared some of his combat experiences. He wrote about meeting a battalion coming from the trenches that had a captain and enlisted men killed, experiencing a chemical weapons attack, marching for hours, walking through knee-deep mud, and preparing to go to the front lines.

On Nov. 11, 1918, Roths diary entry read, Hostilities ceased at 11 a.m. This means  the war is officially over.

By the time World War I ended, more than 9 million soldiers had been killed and 21 million more were wounded. An estimated 10 million civilians had been killed. A total of 554 South Dakotans died overseas who were killed in action or died from wounds, disease or other causes.

Roth returned to the United States in January 1919. After being discharged from the service, he went to Cresco, Iowa, where his father and stepmother lived. He later returned to Columbia and served as postmaster for 23 years. He died in Walla Walla, Wash., on June 7, 1976.

This moment in South Dakota history is provided by the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising partner of the South Dakota State Historical Society at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Find us on the web at www.sdhsf.org. Contact us at info@sdhsf.org to submit a story idea
A pair of construction projects will cause a slowdown or stoppage of traffic in Rapid City over the next few weeks.

Skyline Drive will be closed to traffic from Flormann Street north to the KEVN Television Studios from July 5 through July 8 for utility installation and repaving of the street, according to a release from the city.

For more information on the project, call 355-0933.

Also, motorists in the area of Radar Hill Road and Morris Lane in east Rapid City can expect heavy construction traffic there. The project, the building of a new pressure reducing valve facility, is expected to be complete by the end of September.

For more information, call 348-7068.
Editor's Note This is the fourth installment in our "Eight Over Seven" series exploring the eight named peaks in the Black Hills that are 7,000 feet or higher in elevation. The series began June 10 and will publish weekly on Saturdays through July 29.

In 1876, Lt. Col. Richard Irving Dodge proudly reported that the surveyors who accompanied his 1875 expedition named the highest point in the Black Hills for his commanding officer.

The officer was Brig. Gen. George Crook, and Dodge called the peak "Crooks Monument."

Here, on a broad mesa, whose top is almost a level, stands a solitary rock forty or fifty feet in height above its base, Dodge wrote in his book, The Black Hills. The top of this rock is the most elevated point of the Black Hills, being seven thousand six hundred feet above tide-water.

Dodge was probably disappointed, then  and Crook even more so  when four years later the expeditions lead scientists published a separate report that promoted Harney Peak to the highest point in the Black Hills and demoted Crooks Monument (which the scientists alternately called Crook Tower or Crooks Tower) to No. 2.

Today, Dodge and Crook would probably be even more disappointed to learn that the passage of time has confirmed Harney Peak  which has since been renamed Black Elk Peak  as the highest point in the Black Hills at an officially listed 7,242 feet above sea level, while the solitary rock now known as Crooks Tower has fallen to the fifth-highest recognized summit in the Black Hills, at 7,137 feet.

Lest anyone criticize Dodge too sharply, it should be noted that his incorrect elevation estimates were rooted in observations that were otherwise accurate.

Dodge rightly observed that Crooks Tower, which is in the northwestern Black Hills, juts from a long limestone plateau region that is less dramatic in appearance yet generally higher in elevation than the granite canyons, needles and spires of the central Hills. Dodge merely misjudged the extraordinary elevation of Black Elk Peak, which is almost 30 miles southeast of Crooks Tower and is one of only a few places east of the limestone plateau that rise above 7,000 feet.

Dodge perhaps sensed the doubt that would be cast on his crowning of Crooks Tower as the highest point in the Hills, and he labored to support his assertion. And, once again, he was generally if not specifically correct.

The position of a mountain with reference to its surroundings has everything to do with its apparent height, Dodge wrote. Thus, Crooks Monument, the very highest point of the Hills, makes no show, because (it is) in a region the whole of which is extremely elevated.

Modern visitors to the still-remote and unspoiled peak can see what Dodge meant.

Crooks Tower is about 50 miles west-northwest of Rapid City and can be reached by numerous routes, all of them complicated and requiring a capable vehicle. You'll also want some official Black Hills National Forest road maps, which are available at any Black Hills National Forest office or online as downloads for smartphones.

The most direct route from Rapid City goes through the small community of Rochford, via state Highway 44, U.S. 385 and Rochford Road.

At the T-intersection in Rochford, take a left and drive nearly a mile to an intersection where the road splits. Instead of following South Rochford Road to the left, stay right on Rochford Road, aka Forest Road 231. You'll see no more paved roads for the rest of the trip  just gravel and dirt.

Go about 14 miles west from Rochford on Forest Road 231, heading into a remote area with grazing cattle and occasionally visible wildlife, until you reach the turn for a road marked on Forest Service maps as 189.4. Turn onto that road and go south for about two miles until you spot a dirt track marked on Forest Service maps as 189.4A. If the track is in good condition, you can drive on it; otherwise, get out and walk. At that point, you'll be only a half-mile from the summit and nearly 7,000 feet in elevation, having gained about 3,500 feet during the drive from Rapid City.

As you head up the incline toward the summit of Crooks Tower, youll first encounter a rocky ledge on your right with a view toward a large area of dead trees. We visited in late May and found a patch of about a dozen pasque flowers (South Dakotas state flower) near that ledge. On the ledge itself, we found a pile of stones  known as a cairn  placed there by previous visitors.

Don't be fooled by the presence of the cairn, which typically marks the location of a summit. The real summit is about 200 yards farther up the dirt track.

Up there, you'll emerge onto a flat area of rock about 30 yards long and 10 yards wide, terminating in a stone cliff with a drop of about 40 feet. You can backtrack and go around to the front of the cliff to see it as the solitary rock that Dodge described.

The summit is a serene place to sit and enjoy a view of distant Black Elk Peak. The views of the surrounding area are also nice, although blocked in places by the forest and some other high points.

While we were atop Crooks Tower, a chipmunk who clearly was not accustomed to visitors scurried back and forth for several minutes, advancing as we retreated and retreating as we advanced.

The little critter was among several kinds of wildlife we spotted in the vicinity of Crooks Tower, including some deer and a coyote that sprinted across a meadow and back into the forest after spotting our vehicle.

The area has retained much of the character that early U.S. explorers found there in the late 1800s. Walter P. Jenney, a geologist and a leader of the scientific party that was escorted by Dodge and his troops into the Black Hills in 1875, wrote that the setting around Crooks Tower was characterized by numerous swales of rich grass-land between the low hills and ridges.

Jenney and Dodge did not like each other, judging by the journals of Dodge, who described Jenney as weak and jealous and recounted an incident when Jenney got angry & pouted like a schoolboy.

Was Sylvan Peak once Dodge's Peak? Richard Irving Dodge not only identified the wrong peak as the highest in the Black Hills bu

Their lack of friendliness might explain the apparent lack of communication that led them to publish competing claims about the highest point in the Black Hills, despite their having spent several months together during the 1875 expedition. Jenney's report on the Black Hills expedition, co-authored with Henry Newton, was published in 1880 and listed what we now call Black Elk Peak as the highest point in the Hills.

In the years since then, Dodges descriptions of Crooks Tower  which he called a "castellated rock, rising like a tower"  have held up better than his estimate of its elevation.
EAST GRAND RAPIDS, MI - In this Republican stronghold, it's not unusual to find home owners who can boast that former President Gerald R. Ford once visited or attended a party in their homes.

Elizabeth Welch has her share of Ford memorabilia hanging on the walls of her 88-year-old Tudor home in this upscale suburb. Her mother was a close friend of Betty Ford.

But Welch, a lawyer who is active in local Democratic circles, also can boast she hosted former President Bill Clinton in her home as he campaigned for his wife Hillary in February 2016.

"I'm very politically active," says Welch, who has also hosted events for former Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Gary Peters.

Welch recently put her 88-year-old Tudor home on the market for $899,000 with Realtor Lindel Hoff of Griffin Properties.

Originally built for one of the founders of the Johnson Furniture Co., the brick and limestone manor at 955 Cambridge Drive SE takes its place along a tree-lined street of elegant homes built as Grand Rapids became established as a furniture manufacturing center.

The home's original quarter-sawn oak flooring still glows warmly in the front of the home, whose elegant foyer includes a walnut staircase with carved balusters and newel posts. An old-style telephone is kept in an elegant niche.

Rich eight-paneled doors with their original hardware connect the front rooms, all of which have molded plaster cove moldings.

The living room includes a cozy reading niche that still has the original leaded glass windows while replacement windows keep out the draft in other rooms. A set of double doors leads to a sun room that overlooks the shaded patio and backyard.

The home's furniture industry pedigree really shines in the library, where the walls are paneled in a rich cherry and include carved wood panels that are original to the home. For Welch, the library was the favorite place to hang out and relax in the evening.

The kitchen was enlarged and updated about 15 years ago and includes an eight-burner Viking gas range and double ovens. The breakfast nook is brightened by a bay window and built-in china cabinets with a desk for home management tasks.

At the top of the stairs, there's a comfy sitting area for hanging out. The master bedroom includes a small porch overlooking the shady backyard.

The master suite includes a bathroom that was recently updated with a freestanding soaking tub, glass-walled shower and double vanities. Adjoining the master bath is a home office that could be used as a bedroom or remodeled into a large walk-in closet.

Two other bedrooms are linked by a Jack and Jill bathroom that also received a recent updating.

Down the hallway and past a small Juliette balcony that overlooks the backyard, there's another bedroom and bathroom that originally served as quarters for the maid. A narrow backstairs leads from the hallway to the kitchen area.

The basement includes a 34-foot long family room with a wet bar, game tables and a wide-screen television over the stone fireplace. A laundry room, a home workshop and storage areas also are located in the basement.

This is one in a series of articles we have published about High-End Homes in West Michigan. Here are similar articles we have published recently:

* $2M estate with solar farm close to downtown, airport

* Lake Michigan sunsets are focus of this $1M-plus Parade of Homes cottage
NEW YORK, July 1: A doctor forced from a New York hospital because of sexual harassment accusations returned Friday with an assault rifle hidden under a lab coat and shot seven people, killing one woman and leaving several doctors fighting for their lives, authorities said.

The gunman, Dr. Henry Bello, fatally shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, they said. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, officials said.

People in the hospital described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted. Employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives after an announcement that an armed intruder was loose in the building.

I thought I was going to die, said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as the 45-year-old Bello, who was described on the hospital website as a family medicine physician. Officials said Bello used an AR-15 in the attack on the 16th and 17th floors.

Bello was allowed to resign from the hospital in 2015 amid sexual harassment allegations, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials didnt know the details of the allegations.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

In unrelated cases, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, in 2004 after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, Youre coming with me. He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror.

On Friday, one female doctor was killed and six other people were wounded, five of them seriously, according to Police Commissioner James ONeill. The patients were treated in the emergency room at Bronx Lebanon.

Two surgeons at the hospital told the AP that all six victims were in critical condition, but they were expected to survive. The victims largely suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen, they said. The most seriously wounded was shot in the liver, said the surgeons, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak publicly.

This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that terrorism was not involved in the attack.

Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. They later learned he was dead inside the building. De Blasio confirmed that Bello killed himself.

Bello may have doused himself with an accelerant like gasoline and tried to set himself on fire before shooting himself, officials said. Sprinklers extinguished the fire.

According to New York State Education Department records, Bello had a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience in order to be licensed. The permit was issued on July 1, 2014, and expired last year on the same day.

A former colleague described Bello as a problematic employee.

Bello was very aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people. All the time he was a problem, said Dr. David Lazala, a family medicine doctor who said he trained Bello at Bronx Lebanon.

He said Bello, who worked at night as a doctor, sent him a threatening email after Bello was fired.

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments immediately after the shooting as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his fiancee, hospital employee Denise Brown, called from inside to tell him about the gunman.

She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebodys out there shooting people, Trimble said as he waited for Brown to leave the hospital. I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry.

Gonzalo Carazo told WCBS-TV that he saw a doctor with a gunshot wound on his hand.

All I heard was a doctor saying, Help, help! Carazo locked himself in a room for about 15 minutes until police came and led him out of the hospital.

The 120-year-old hospital has one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York City. The campus where Fridays attack took place has 415 beds. It is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.

In 2011, two people were shot at Bronx Lebanon in what police said was a gang-related attack.
KATHMANDU: The results of the second phase of local elections for 82 out of the 334 local units have been declared, according to the Joint Election Commission (JEOC).

The JEOC based at the Election Commission stated that as per the election results received till 11 am on Saturday, the CPN UML has won 34, the Nepali Congress 31 and the CPN Maoist Centre 15 top posts at local units.

Similarly, the Federal Socialist Forum Nepal and the Rastriya Janamorcha has won one local body each.

The UML has won 34, the Nepali Congress 28 and the Maoist Centre 14 Vice-chair and Deputy Chief posts while the Federal Socialist Forum Nepal and the Rastriya Janamorcha won in one seat each.

Ballot boxes are yet to be collected from Phatalung rural municipality in Taplejung while the counting of votes is yet to start at the Baijanath Secondary School, Hadakot vote counting centre at Chaurpati rural municipality in Achham district due to the dispute regarding allowing the party cadres inside the counting centre.

The JEOC stated that the counting of votes has been suspended at Buddhishakti rural municipality-1 in Jhapa and in Bardaghat Municipality-12 in Nawalparasi following disputes at these local levels.

Similarly, the counting of votes at Banganga-2 in Kapilbastu has been halted since last night as the officer announcing the election result gave the wrong number of votes while the counting of votes that had been suspended at Damak Municipality-1 in Jhapa district after the UML and RPP tied with equal number of votes (801 votes), has now been resumed, the Election Commission stated.

Vote counting is now underway in 247 local levels, it is stated.RSS
De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Me, 24 Mai 2017 14:17

Sujet : Sorry, but we will continue our communication.



Hi,

Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I couldn't write earlier. Because Internet cafe

didn't work. But I have found another and I can always write to you.

I will write more to you tomorrow. I really hope that you are not

offended by me. And we will continue our communication.

Kisses,



Anastasiya. De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Me, 31 Mai 2017 9:52

Sujet : Without this code, I can not get your money.



I'm very glad that you will send money. Please do not delay this.

I must pay the visa as soon as possible. And do not forget to write me

When you send money. Also do not forget to specify a special code,

To receive money in the Moneygram or Western Union.

They will give you this, As soon as you send money.

Without this code, I can not get your money.

You know I live in a village outside the city, so you need to send

money to Irkutsk. I already wrote you that I do not have a bank

account. So the only way to get money is MoneyGram or Western

Union. I learned about it. it is not difficult.

You'll need to only use my full name : Anastasiya Abitova.

Also, the city :Irkutsk.

And specify the country : Russia.

I can get your money in any MoneyGram office or Western Union.

It is not difficult.

Please, do it. you will not need more information. Just this.

Anastasiya.





De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Je, 1 Jun 2017 13:22

Sujet : Honey, I need your help



Hi darling!!!

I'm very glad that you will send money. Please do not delay this.

I must pay the visa as soon as possible. And do not forget to write me

When you send money. Also do not forget to specify a special code,

To receive money in the Moneygram or Western Union.

They will give you this, As soon as you send money.

Without this code, I can not get your money.

You know I live in a village outside the city, so you need to send

money to Irkutsk. I already wrote you that I do not have a bank

account. So the only way to get money is MoneyGram or Western

Union. I learned about it. it is not difficult.

You'll need to only use my full name : Anastasiya Abitova.

Also, the city - Irkutsk.

And specify the country - Russia.



It is not difficult.

Please, do it. you will not need more information. Just this.

I'm sorry I have not written to you for a long time.

But I was seeking money. I do not want you to think that

I am only using you. IT IS NOT TRUE! I respect you and

your opinion. Unfortunately no one can't help me here.

You are my last hope. I asked all my friends, but no one

can't give me money. In Russia crisis now and the economy

is very bad. Therefore, people survive as they can.

To blame in this, our government, headed by Putin.

And this is one of the reasons why I want to leave this country.

It is impossible to live. You can only survive.

Help me to find new life. Help me to believe in miracles, and

realize me dreams.

I already wrote you that I was working as a cook in a regular

village school. And my salary is not good.

This is just 8000 rubles. It's not much. If this is translated

into US dollars, it will be about $ 140. I put some of the money

from the salary so could save $ 200 for a visa. So, I ask you to

send me $300, not full amount $ 500.

I do not want you to think that I was just using you.

I went to the bank to get a credit. But they denied me for two

reasons. First, because I do not have much of their property a

is an apartment or a car. And my salary is not much.

Another reason for refusal - they knew that I was getting a visa.

And I'm going to leave the country.

You are my last hope. You know that I live with my grandfather.

But he is old and has no savings. I do not know who has the most

money to ask.

I already told you that I gave all my things for sale.

But this takes time, and I have to pay a visa presently.

Do not worry, I'll have the money for the ticket and for life first

time in your country. And I will restore you debt of 300 usd.

I'm not going to depend on you financially. My visa will allow

me to work. And I'm not asking you to give me 300 usd.

I only ask you to give me their debt. I swear, I 'll give you this !

Trust me !!!

I checked as you can send me the money. I wanted to open an account

at the bank. But I refused. In Russia, to open a bank account you need

to put there a minimum amount of money. But I do not have it so

I refused. In Russia, the bank account has only wealthy people.

But the bank manager told me that they have a number of systems

to transfer money. Most popular in the banks is MoneyGram and

Western Union. I looked it. And yes, in Irkutsk so many branches

of these payment systems. They like and are very similar to each other.

I learned how they work. It is not difficult. You will need

to specify to whom you are sending money, my name

Anastasiya Abitova. And specify the country and city

in which you send money. you will need to send in RUSSIA,

in the city of Irkutsk. And I have no problem will be able to get

your money in any department WU or MG here in Irkutsk.

MoneyGram I think a more convenient way, because you will

pay less for the money transfer. I understand that it's hard to

believe, but I ask you to trust me.

I await your response

Anastasiya.

I can get your money in any MoneyGram office or Western Union.It is not difficult.Please, do it. you will not need more information. Just this.I'm sorry I have not written to you for a long time.But I was seeking money. I do not want you to think thatI am only using you. IT IS NOT TRUE! I respect you andyour opinion. Unfortunately no one can't help me here.You are my last hope. I asked all my friends, but no onecan't give me money. In Russia crisis now and the economyis very bad. Therefore, people survive as they can.To blame in this, our government, headed by Putin.And this is one of the reasons why I want to leave this country.It is impossible to live. You can only survive.Help me to find new life. Help me to believe in miracles, andrealize me dreams.I already wrote you that I was working as a cook in a regularvillage school. And my salary is not good.This is just 8000 rubles. It's not much. If this is translatedinto US dollars, it will be about $ 140. I put some of the moneyfrom the salary so could save $ 200 for a visa. So, I ask you tosend me $300, not full amount $ 500.I do not want you to think that I was just using you.I went to the bank to get a credit. But they denied me for tworeasons. First, because I do not have much of their property ais an apartment or a car. And my salary is not much.Another reason for refusal - they knew that I was getting a visa.And I'm going to leave the country.You are my last hope. You know that I live with my grandfather.But he is old and has no savings. I do not know who has the mostmoney to ask.I already told you that I gave all my things for sale.But this takes time, and I have to pay a visa presently.Do not worry, I'll have the money for the ticket and for life firsttime in your country. And I will restore you debt of 300 usd.I'm not going to depend on you financially. My visa will allowme to work. And I'm not asking you to give me 300 usd.I only ask you to give me their debt. I swear, I 'll give you this !Trust me !!!I checked as you can send me the money. I wanted to open an accountat the bank. But I refused. In Russia, to open a bank account you needto put there a minimum amount of money. But I do not have it soI refused. In Russia, the bank account has only wealthy people.But the bank manager told me that they have a number of systemsto transfer money. Most popular in the banks is MoneyGram andWestern Union. I looked it. And yes, in Irkutsk so many branchesof these payment systems. They like and are very similar to each other.I learned how they work. It is not difficult. You will needto specify to whom you are sending money, my nameAnastasiya Abitova. And specify the country and cityin which you send money. you will need to send in RUSSIA,in the city of Irkutsk. And I have no problem will be able to getyour money in any department WU or MG here in Irkutsk.MoneyGram I think a more convenient way, because you willpay less for the money transfer. I understand that it's hard tobelieve, but I ask you to trust me.I await your responseAnastasiya. De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Lu, 5 Jun 2017 18:58

Sujet : I want another life with you.



Hello my sweetheart!

I'm ashamed to contact you again. You know, it is very difficult,

to feel poor. You know, from past letters about my problem.

And I again ask you to help me.

I understand that it's very difficult to trust people.

But I know that men abroad are more kind.

And I believe that you are like that. I really look forward

to your help. I have no one to ask. You are my last hope.

I repeat again, I don't ask to give me money. I ask you to

give me money in debt. The problem is that the embassy will

not wait for payment forever. They will refused me a visa.

They didn't say a specific time frame, but I don't think it

will be long. Therefore, I ask you - help a lonely little

girl from far-away Russia to find another life. I know this

is within your power. Can I hope for your help?

When can you send money ?

Can you do this? If so, on which day will it be ?

Yesterday I went to the bank again, and they refused me.

They said they wouldn't give me money, I'm want to go

to another country. They are afraid that I leave and not return

them money. But I have a good news. When I was sitting in the bank,

I saw that Western Union and Moneygram allow to send money from

a credit card. I do not have credit card, but I think. .

Do you have a credit card ? From the booklet I saw that it was not

difficult. You just need to visit the websites Western Union or Moneygram.

There you receive all instructions. You don't leave the house. It can

be done online or visit any WU or MG office closest to you.

I already wrote that my visa cost 500, but I have 200. Therefore,

I again ask you to send me $ 300.

I imagine how I will come to you. I can imagine how you will acquaint

me with your relatives and friends. I think that I really like them.

We will have fun days together. Please, help me.

I wait your answer.

Anastasiya.

Kisses !Anastasiya. De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Me, 10 Jun 2017 7:50

Sujet : You'll need to only use this below. .



You know I live in a village outside the city, so you need to send

money to Irkutsk. I already wrote you that I do not have a bank

account. So the only way to get money is MoneyGram or Western

Union. I learned about it. it is not difficult.

You'll need to only use my full name : Anastasiya Abitova.

Also, the city - Irkutsk.

And specify the country - Russia.

I can get your money in any MoneyGram office or Western Union.

It is not difficult.

Please, do it. you will not need more information. Just this.

Anastasiya.

De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Je, 11 Jun 2017 17:27

Sujet : Don't deny me help, because I'm crying. .



Hello my love !

It is me again. And again with sad news. I still couldn't find the

money. I hope, you don't think that I'm nothing do for this. I'm

actively looking for money for a visa. But so far without success. And

I again and again ask you: Help me!!! I think you have more chances

than me. Don't deny me help.

Most of all I'm afraid to miss this chance. A chance to see you.

The embassy is very strict to Russian women, but they made me a rare

exception and approved the visa. Need only payment. Such a chance in

the future may not be. Our time is limited. They do not say deadlines,

but I'm afraid to delay and get refused.

I'm tired of the gray life in Russia. I want to live in a civilized

country. I want to enjoy life. I want to give you happiness. Please, hear me and my heart.

I can't write anymore, because I'm crying.

I'm wait your letter.

With love,



Anastasiya. De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Ma, 18 Jun 2017 13:32

Sujet : My last chance, HELP ME !



Darling, how are you ?

Today I do not have much time on the Internet cafe. I want to say that

I have 2 news. As always, good and bad. The good news is people from the embassy said that I'm guaranteed to get a visa when I pay for it.

The bad news - They said that I must pay a visa before June 21. When I heard this, I was very upset. Because I couldn't find money here. So I want to ask you one more time. Can you help me? Can you send me money in this time ? Understand, this is a chance - my chance for a better life.

I ask you not to deprive me of this chance. Do not deprive me of my dreams. You are all my hope. I haven't other person who would help me. You for me as a super hero who saves the world from evil. I am

your world, which you must save. Have you dreamed of being a super hero in your childhood ? I'm like that princess, imprisoned in a castle, in a tall tower. And you are my knight who comes and saves me

from the evil dragon. HELP ME ! I have always dreamed of finding this happiness, and you are my last hope.Therefore, I again ask you - will you have time to send money by June 21?

I do not know how to convince you to believe me. I pray to God that he will believe in my sincere intentions. And I timidly await your reply.

My destiny is in your hands.

Anastasiya. P.S. Did you like my photos ? This is my best photo.

My work colleague made this photo, he is a art teacher.

He has a very good camera and he made a beautiful photo for me.















De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Je, 19 Jun 2017 15:07

Sujet : My hope, can you help me ?



Hello, my love !

I come to the internet cafe again. I have a hope in my heart. I again write praying to God that you would understand me and believe me. And I ask you to answer one question: do you really have time to send

money to me before June 21 ? Make a miracle, please.

I don't believe in surprises, but maybe you will change my mind and will make my life a fairy tale. I know that it is within your power. Because you are a man. I didn't think that I could find a decent man

on the Internet. But I believe you. I do not know why, but I really trust you. I trust you and I want to give you my destiny.

Do you often have good dreams ? Today I dreamed about the sea. I havenever been to the sea. But I always imagined myself there. Imagine if we ended up on an uninhabited island. We would sit together by the fire at night. Soaking. We would sleep together outdoors, enjoying the starry sky. I think it's very romantic. What dreams would you have ? I always dreamed of making love in the open. These dreams excite me. But unfortunately my dream ended by morning and I had to return to normal life. I dream to find money for a visa and come to you. I am asking you last time. Can you help me ? Only yes or no.

Anastasiya.

I'm waiting your answer.Anastasiya. De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Ma, 29 Jun 2017 15:02

Sujet : Surprise from anastasiyabitova@yandex.com





My darling!

I can't write much today. I just want to share my mood with you.

Today, I have very mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's fun. On the other, sadness.

Please trust me in the future. I will never deceive you.

Are you happy with this news. Are you looking forward to our meeting ?

Tell me, how do you imagine this ?

Do you want to receive a gift from Russia ?

I wait your answer.

Anastasiya.

Now, I explain you, and you understand the reason for this. I'm sad that you didn't help me with money. But it is joyful because the store sold my things, and now I have money for visa and ticket. I can to come to you. But once again I repeat that I'm sad that you didn't trust me, and didn't help me.Please trust me in the future. I will never deceive you.Are you happy with this news. Are you looking forward to our meeting ?Tell me, how do you imagine this ?Do you want to receive a gift from Russia ?I wait your answer.Anastasiya. De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Ve,30 Jun 2017 8:17

Sujet : Are you happy ?



Hi sweety !

I hope you were happy with my last letter ? I am very glad that I found money for a ticket and a visa. Soon I will go to Moscow to the embassy to go through the last interview and get a visa.

Are you looking forward to our meeting ?

I want to say that I don't problem for you. You don't have problems with me.

I will live separately, but we can meet with you in your spare time.

I will work to have money for life.

I can pay for my living and food.

I remind you that I worked as a cook, and I don't think that I will have problems finding a job in your country.

I will write to you more when I receive information about my visa.

Anastasiya.

I can come to you on the same day.Are you looking forward to our meeting ?I want to say that I don't problem for you. You don't have problems with me.I will live separately, but we can meet with you in your spare time.I will work to have money for life.I can pay for my living and food.I remind you that I worked as a cook, and I don't think that I will have problems finding a job in your country.I will write to you more when I receive information about my visa.Anastasiya. De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Ma, 30 Jun 2017 16:42

Sujet : Airport ?



Darling !

Today I am writing you a letter with very good news. Because we'll see

you soon !!! You are happy ? Do you wait our meeting ?

The fact is that I receive an invitation from the Moscow embassy for

a meeting and an interview. Perhaps in a few days I will already have

a visa. I think, that you can't imagine how I am happy.

Tomorrow I' will go to Moscow.

You must tell me the airport closest to you. Because as soon as I get

a visa, I'll fly to you. Tell the airport where you can meet me. I'll

come to any that you tell me. I wait your letter,

because next time I will be able to write to you only from Moscow.

Anastasiya.











Darling !Today I am writing you a letter with very good news. Because we'll seeyou soon !!! You are happy ? Do you wait our meeting ?The fact is that I receive an invitation from the Moscow embassy fora meeting and an interview. Perhaps in a few days I will already havea visa. I think, that you can't imagine how I am happy.Tomorrow I' will go to Moscow.You must tell me the airport closest to you. Because as soon as I geta visa, I'll fly to you. Tell the airport where you can meet me. I'llcome to any that you tell me. I wait your letter,because next time I will be able to write to you only from Moscow.Anastasiya. De : Anastasiya < anastasiyabitova@yandex.com >

Envoye le : Ve, 01 Jul 2017 13:02 Objet : I am happy !!!



Hello darling !

I am happy !!! I can write to you. I am writing this letter from the

Moscow Internet cafe. Moscow is a very large city. I have never been

here before.I'm a little scared here. It's a pity that you are not

with me at this moment. But I have great news. I got a visa. I had an

interview at the embassy and now I have a residence permit in your

country. This will allow me not only to move to your

country, but also to work. I can provide for myself. I don't want you

to think that I'm using you just to relocate. This is not true. My intentions are sincere.But I have problem with money again.

The fact is that I spent most of money on moving to Moscow.

I didn't known it would be so expensive.

I found the cheapest ticket. This is a very good offer.

A ticket to you cost $528.

I have only $200. Because I spent all money for a trip to Moscow.

I ask you to help me, and send me 328 dollars here to Moscow to

my name - Anastasiya Abitova.

You can send it through any WU or MG office. Absolute any in Moscow. I

can come to any place and get your money. I can get it here without problems.

And trust me, please.

If I deceived you what for I would ask you to send money to Moscow ? I here in Moscow because I have received the visa. I never deceived you.

And if you will send money to Moscow I can not receive it in other

place !!! Why could I receive the visa in the city, in Irkutsk ? I would not have begun to spend money and to go to Moscow. You write insulting words, that I wish to deceive you. It's not the truth,never deceived you

And please hurry. My ticket can be sold to other people.

I'm waiting for your answer.

Anastasiya.



This is a good price. We must not miss this chance.I'm waiting for your answer.Anastasiya. If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more....
New Buffalo Sabres general manager Jason Botterill is wasting no time adding depth to his roster.

Friday, the Sabres acquired forward Jason Pominville, defenseman Marco Scandella and a fourth-round pick from the Minnesota Wild for Tyler Ennis, Marcus Foligno and a third-round selection.

Buffalo fans will be pleased at the re-acquisition of Pominville, who played for the Sabres for nine seasons as a top-line player and is a former captain. The addition of Scandella, however, may ultimately be what wins this trade.

Financially, Buffalo takes on some decent salary for the next couple seasons.

Pominville counts for $5.6 million against the salary cap for the next two years, while Scandella will cost $4 million through 2019-20. It's a significant increase from what they were paying Ennis ($4.6 million for two more years) and Foligno (a restricted free agent was qualified for $2.25 million).

Buffalo is still in decent shape with the salary cap  the Sabres are due for extensions for Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart after the 2017-18 season (both will be restricted free agents), but have $34.5 million to play with next summer.

The Sabres aren't getting back the same Pominville they dealt to Minnesota during the 2012-13 season. In his last full season in Buffalo, Pominville was a 73-point scorer  he won't reach those numbers in this next go-around. He can be, however, counted on to reach double-digit goals and 40-plus points. For a team like the Sabres that struggles to score, he's a solid asset even if he's somewhat pricey.

Pominville was a little sheltered last season in Minnesota  he had positive possession stats (53.5 percent shots for vs. shots against when he was on the ice), but rarely started shifts in his own zone (29.83 percent). Possession isn't quite as relevant when you're a winger like Pominville, but it's a positive sign that when his line starts in the offensive zone they can generally sustain offensive pressure.

Of the eight forwards that Pominville played at least 100 even-strength minutes last year, seven had superior possession numbers playing with Pominville than without  pretty impressive considering the Wild as a whole were not strong in this regard.

Scandella isn't a big point producer or minutes eater. He set career highs in points (23) and average time on ice (21:43) in 2014-15. Those numbers slot Scandella more as a second-pairing guy, but the Sabres could slide him with Rasmus Ristolainen to solidify their top unit. With him and the recently-acquired Nathan Beaulieu, the Sabres can string together a manageable defensive unit instead of the horrendous one from 2016-17.

Botterill on Scandella (via the Sabres' official website): "It was another priority for us to find another guy that can play some heavy minutes and we think Marco did a little bit of that in Minnesota. Our staff is drawn to the fact that he has good size, moves extremely well ... we think there's even more offensive upside to his game. We also think he's a guy that can help our PK."

Ennis has been in and out of trade rumors for the better part of three seasons now and could certainly use the change of scenery. The three-time 20-goal scorer has played in only 74 games over the past two seasons with an abysmal 24 points. For a player making over $4 million a season, Ennis has left plenty to be desired.

In his last two seasons of limited ice time, Ennis struggled to find consistent linemates. The Sabres never really tried him on Eichel's wing, instead playing him with either Ryan O'Reilly or Zemgus Girgensons and the results were mixed.

Foligno was an OK role player for the Sabres, but ultimately very replaceable. He scored 13 goals last season and 10 the year before that and, unlike Ennis, didn't miss much time. If Botterill is going to try and copy the Pittsburgh mold with more skill in the Sabres' bottom six forwards, the nuts-and-bolts Foligno doesn't fit the mold.

(Note: statistics are courtesy of puckalytics.com, while salary cap figures are from capfriendly.com)
Tim McGrath is the author of "Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea." He wrote this for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Readers may email him at tmcgrath97@gmail.com.
President Trump's threats to punish sanctuary cities may have seen some legal setbacks, but the Republican-led House of Representatives has now stepped in to pass two bills cracking down on illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. As the Associated Press reports, one bill, dubbed "Kate's Law" in honor of Kathryn Steinle  despite repeated protestations by Steinle's family that her death not be exploited for political purposes  imposes harsher prison sentences for deportees like accused Steinle killer Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez who re-enter the country illegally. The second bill reinforces what the President's executive order already tried to accomplish, which is barring sanctuary states and cities from receiving certain Justice Department and Homeland Security grants, particularly those related to law enforcement and terrorism.

A federal judge in San Francisco previously ruled that the "broad and threatening language" of Trump's executive order on sanctuary cities was unconstitutional, and that "Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the president disapproves."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions later conceded that the executive order would only impact certain federal law enforcement grants, and would not greatly impact San Francisco's budget.

The House bills passed with 228-195 and 257-167 majorities, with 24 Democrats joining Republicans in supporting "Kate's Law." Both bills now move on to the Senate.

Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a 54-year-old Mexican national who had previously been deported from the US on drug charges, has pleaded not guilty in the July 2015 shooting of Steinle on Pier 14, and his defense attorney has claimed that the bullet that killed Steinle was likely a ricochet. Lopez-Sanchez has said that he was on sleeping medication at the time of the shooting, in which he used a gun stolen out of a vehicle belonging to a Bureau of Land Management agent, which Lopez-Sanchez allegedly found wrapped in a T-shirt under a public bench.

Almost immediately the shooting was seized upon by Fox News and other conservative media outlets as a flashpoint in the debate about immigration, suggesting that San Francisco was to blame for Steinle's death because of its lax policies around illegal immigrants. President Trump also mentioned the case multiple times on the campaign trail.

Previously: SF Cleared In Negligence Case Brought By Kate Steinle's Parents
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | An employee at a South Sioux City school has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for sending nude photographs to a 15-year-old student.

Cecilia Hermosillo, 28, worked as a paraprofessional at Gateway to Learning and resigned on Sept. 1, 2016, a police press release said. Gateway to Learning is an alternative high school in South Sioux City.

The investigation began Sept. 6, 2016, when a school resource officer reported there was a post on Facebook referencing nude photographs were sent by a school employee to a student.

Police were able to obtain the pictures from the 15-year-old male victim. Hermosillo turned herself in after an arrest warrant was filed for enticement by electronic communication device. She pleaded no contest to attempted child abuse, a class IV felony, in April.

On June 13, the release said she was sentenced to serve 90 days in the Dakota County Jail, with 30 days to be served up front. The remaining sixty days will be served in two 30-day increments, which can be waived upon the application of her probation officer. After she is released, she will have two years of intensive supervised probation. She also has to pay a $500 fine and write a letter of apology to the victim's parents and to her former employer.

"We complement the school (district's) quick response they started once they were notified," the release said. "They (showed) safety is of extreme importance, and they have substantial safeguards in place to protect our students."
SIOUX CITY | Sioux City public schools Superintendent Paul Gausman collected a $200,000 bonus Saturday the school board promised him seven years ago as an incentive for remaining with the district..

The board authorized the retention bonus in 2010 to sweeten Gausman's compensation package. The contract language called for the superintendent to qualify for 50 percent of the bonus, or $100,000, after seven years of service, 75 percent, or $150,000 after eight years, and 100 percent, or $200,000, after nine years.

Gausman hit the nine-year mark as superintendent on Friday, the end of the district's current fiscal year.

School officials point out the bonus was structured so the superintendent grossed, rather than netted $200,000.

After taxes are deducted, Gausman will receive the net amount of roughly $110,000, school board President Mike Krysl said.

"From my perspective as a board member for the past six years, Dr. Gausman has certainly helped the district realize what has become a lengthy list of successes," Krysl said. "Our superintendent is certainly not perfect, but he has been a very effective leader in many respects."

Krysl noted retention bonuses are common in the private sector. He said turnover in top positions can be disruptive, so organizations have a reason to reward longevity.

"The monetary value they attach to that incentive has to make good business sense," Krysl said. "Personally, I feel bonuses directly linked to measurable progress in key areas like student achievement might be a better fit in the public education sector."

Earlier this year, Gausman was a finalist to succeed Omaha public schools superintendent Mark Evans, but pulled his name from consideration after it became clear neither of the two finalists had sufficient support from the school board.

Gausman said he works constantly to be a better school leader.

"I also hold our staff members and our students to high standards, and I welcome all opportunities for improvement. Every day I look forward to working with our team to serve the nearly 15,000 students of the Sioux City Schools. We will continue to follow the path to success that we have crafted together through our Focus 2022 strategic plan," Gausman said.

Last July, the school board approved a new three-year contract for Gausman that raised his base salary for the 2016-17 school year by 3 percent, or $6,904, to $235,904. He also received a 3 percent increase in the annual contribution the district makes to a tax sheltered retirement annuity of his choice, increasing that total to $33,306 per year.

Details in his contract are expected to be addressed at the July 24 school board meeting.
As members of the LGBT community and others, including Ivanka Trump, celebrated Pride Month throughout June, one voice was silent  President Donald Trump.

Although the White House issued proclamations for National Homeownership Month, Great Outdoors Month, National Ocean Month, African-American Music Appreciation Month, and National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, Pride Month was not commemorated in June. As of June 30, has also failed to use his favorite platform, Twitter, to commemorate the occasion.

Left leaning groups attacked Trump over his slight. But local Log Cabin Republicans arent concerned.

Vincent Foster, president of the Miami-Dade Log Cabin Republicans, said Pride Month events were just acts and overt displays of sexual indulgence with people tossing condoms and lube out and men in assless chaps.

Its debauchery. It really makes our community look terrible. I dont think that its significant at all that President Trump did not recognize Pride Month. As a gay conservative, I think Pride does more damage to our community than anything positive. It does nothing to promote our rights.

In 1999, Bill Clinton was the first president to declare June as Pride Month. President George W. Bush didnt issue any Pride proclamations but President Barack Obama did every year of his presidency.

LGBT groups criticized Trump for his failure to follow in Obamas tradition.

Were six days into #PrideMonth and @realDonaldTrump has yet to issue a proclamation. Look what he's doing instead, wrote GLAAD on Twitter, referring to Trumps decision to meet with anti-LGBT leaders. GLAAD has repeatedly brought up Trumps silence. As recently as June 29, the organization tweeted on the issue by stating that Trump had time to attack Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Twitter but not mention Pride Month.

Foster also said he thinks Trump is better for the LGBT community than Obama when it comes to issues like protection from Muslim terrorists, especially after the Pulse Nightclub attack in June of 2016.

He lauded Trumps travel ban, which places severe travel restrictions on individuals from six majority-Muslim countries  Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Foster said he doesnt believe all Muslims want to target the LGBT community but he endorses Trumps actions to try and stop the small percentage who do. I think hes doing phenomenally.

Andy Eddy, a founding member of the Broward Log Cabin Republican Club, said it would have been nice if Trump mentioned Pride Month. But hes not too worried about it. Im not terribly upset.

He said his organization is focused on trying to get Trump to work with them on LGBT issues. He compared todays Log Cabin struggle against right wing conservatives to the one the Dolphin Democrats used to have with conservative Democrats.

As for which issues hes concerned most about, Eddy said HIV/AIDS is still a concern and his primary focus is funding to fight the disease. Bathroom rights [for transgender individuals] isnt the end of the world when people are dying and need medication.

Scott Herman, the president of the Dolphin Democrats, pushed back against his Republican counterparts.

Pride is an essential part of our community. The Dolphin Democrats have proudly had a booth on the Drive to educate our community in light of number 45 being elected, he said. Pride also brings together every faction of the community. Its the one time of year we have veterans, Democrats, elected officials, candidates for public office, and many others present in an atmosphere of being safe.
OWASCO  High Owasco Lake levels have foiled the latest attempt at clearing out a clog in a tunnel running underneath a portion of Emerson Park.

Owasco Town Supervisor Ed Wagner had said the town would dig and cut a hole in the approximately 100-foot culvert midway to see what was inside. The town attempted to do just that and discovered it's not a culvert at all.

"We thought it was a culvert, but it's actually a concrete bunker type thing," Wagner said. "It's just another obstacle we can overcome."

The tunnel, often called a sluiceway, was installed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to increase water flow in the area around Deauville Island. The opening starts at the beach near the east side of the city of Auburn's pump house and exits at the lake's channel.

Officials have been working for more than two years on getting the sluiceway cleared of sediment, with no success. With lake levels high for summer, Wagner said it's too dangerous of a time to cut a hole and see what's there. Water could be seen seeping into the hole the town already dug, and Wagner said the soil on the sides had begun to cave in, too. Wagner said the town will soon fill the hole back in.

"The intent was good, but the reality is Mother Nature is not wanting us to get to it," he said. "Starting in October is when they start lowering the lake for winter level, so we're hoping to get it done prior to the year's end."

Other roadblocks Wagner and others have run into are telephone and gas lines running underground and up to the pump house, discovered following their work with Dig Safely New York. Those lines have been flagged along the pier walkway at Emerson Park.

Ultimately, Wagner said, he'd like to see the whole channel opened up with a fence installed around it. He said the opening would go about two-thirds of the way toward the channel, keeping enough space for the road to the pump house and the pier's walkway. That would significantly cut the amount of maintenance on keeping the tunnel clear, he said.
As Brandon Filion stood bravely in front of a crowd of mourners at Paroisse de L'Ange Gardien in Gatineau, his words resonated from wall-to-wall.

Brandon, the son of Herve Filion, spoke of his dad as a "man's man" who put his family, and the standardbred horse racing industry, first. A person who would travel across the country on his own dime if it meant helping out the sport and the business of horse racing. He was a man who personified the will to win, and the understanding that every loss was a learning experience to enable you to do better next time. Herve, he said, believed in luck, but we all know that the legendary horseman made his own luck.

Brandon took us back to the sixth race on Monday at Monticello Raceway. It was the first, and only race he has competed in since losing his father last week. Brandon used the whip that day that Herve had used in his final career race on Legends Day, 2013, at Clinton Raceway.

It was tough to stay composed as Brandon recounted the 1:58 mile that he and his pacing mare, Little Miss Marie, went that day, and the remarkable stretch move she made to capture the race by a nose. You see, Brandon and Little Miss Marie weren't alone on that half mile track that day. As he told the story of hearing his dad's advice through the race, and the firm knowledge that Herve was there with him, those in the room flashed back to their own memories of Herve in the bike, first at the wire, and smiling in the winner's circle.

I never had the privilege of meeting Herve Filion, but I did have the privilege of watching him race. I never shook the hand of the winningest driver in Canadian horse racing history, but I was touched by his accomplishments, his flair, and the stories of his never ending desire to help the industry grow.

So, perhaps it leaves me to wonder as well about what Herve is saying to us right now as he looks down, on the eve of the 250th Anniversary of horse racing in this country.

I am here in Quebec today as a writer paying tribute to the long and rich tradition of Canadian horse racing. And while the journal entry I wrote previous to coming here was titled "What are the chances," I wasn't in the area for 30 minutes before I was once again touched by a sign that felt too clear to be a coincidence.

As I looked at the clock in my car on the way to Gatineau, I realized that I was a few hours early for the funeral. So I made a quick detour over to Rideau Carleton Raceway. It being the morning of a dark day at the track, I wasn't sure what I was looking for. Perhaps I could catch an artist's rendering of the new Hard Rock renovations that will be coming in the future, I thought. Maybe something else will catch my eye as I hadn't been to the track in a few years.

As I arrived at the racetrack and made my way to the track apron, I looked out. Through a hazy fog, I saw a man standing on top of the tote board. I looked at him for a moment as he leaned down to pick something up. I found it odd that the toteboard was fully lit up, odds still brightly illuminated from the last race of the evening previous.

I soon realized what the man on the toteboard was doing.

He picked up the Quebec provincial flag, and held it on an angle. From my view, he didn't fumble with the flag much, or do much to it. He simply picked it up and held it there, it was frankly a scene that shook me a little. I stood there, watching him for a minute or two. Here I was, at 9:48 in the morning, at a racetrack in our nation's capital. Nobody in the world knows that I will be here. It's hours before the service for Herve Filion, on the eve of the 250th Anniversary of Canada's first ever horse race, which of course, took place in Quebec - and an unidentified man is standing atop the centre of the fully lit Rideau Carleton toteboard, holding the Quebec provincial flag at half mast.

A horse, seemingly from out of nowhere, jogs by. The man on the toteboard lifts the Quebec flag high into the air and holds it there - straight and high, for probably 10 seconds. Soon after, he turns and places the flag into location, and walks away.

You may or may not believe that everything happens for a reason. And I may or may not believe that the great Herve Filion decided to send a message to a Canadian harness racing writer whom he had never met.

What I know for absolute certain is that there are things in this world we will never fully understand. And on this first day of my trip to explore the earliest days of horse racing in Canada, I will allow myself to answer my question from earlier.

What are the chances this all is a coincidence?

Pretty slim.

To read TROT editor Darryl Kaplan's first blog entry on his "On The Road: Horse Racing 250" journey, click on the following link:

Part 1: June 30, 2017: What are the chances?
Fans heading to Dresden Raceway, Hiawatha Horse Park and Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday will be treated to a variety of Canada Day festivities, including Ontario Sires Stakes action.

Dresden Raceway opens the Ontario Sires Stakes Canada Day celebration at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday with four Grassroots divisions for the three-year-old trotting fillies. Trainer Mike Carther will send out Style Spotlight in the second $18,450 Grassroots division and the Dresden resident is hoping the filly delivers a solid effort in front of the hometown crowd.

Shes, knock on wood, never made a break in her life, noted Carther. And with these tight turns, some of the other ones might be bigger, it might pay off.

St. Marys resident Mike Horner will steer Style Spotlight for owners Malcolm and Robert McPhail of Dover Centre, Ont., lining up at post three with the daughter of Windsong Espoir.

Its costing nothing for gas, said Carther with a chuckle. Were not hoping for a whole lot, just having fun on Canada Day and hoping for the best.

The Grassroots winners will receive their hardware from Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP Monte McNaughton, who will join Dresden Raceway fans for the Canada Day celebrations, which include the traditional eight-foot long Canada Day cake and a variety of prizes and giveaways, among them Ontario Sires Stakes ball caps and Ontario Racing flip-flops.

Dresden Raceways program gets under way at 1:30 p.m. and the three-year-old trotting fillies will show off their skills in Races 2, 5, 8 and 9.

At 6:30 p.m., Hiawatha Horse Park will continue the Canada Day fun, showcasing the three-year-old trotting colts in a trio of $19,150 Grassroots divisions, slated as Races 2, 4 and 8.

Among the hopefuls in the first division is Rose Run Speedster, who competes for trainer Rene Allard of Matamoras, Pennsylvania and the Rose Run Speedster Stable of Guelph, Ont. Rose Run Speedster was a two-time Gold Series winner at two and comes into Saturdays test off a win in the Grassroots season opener at Mohawk Racetrack on June 6.

I think we all just assumed hed be a Gold horse forever and the fact that he has to go in the Grassroots isnt a bad thing. Hopefully he uses it as a stepping stone to get back to where we thought he belonged, but again, that will be up to him. And, having said that, he certainly doesnt owe us anything, said Anthony MacDonald, who purchased the colt as a yearling and set up the Rose Run Speedster Stable through his fractional ownership endeavour, thestable.ca.

Rose Run Speedster put thestable.ca on the map last year, at least helped to, and for that well be forever grateful, MacDonald continued. Hes played a huge role in the start of what weve built.

Dundas, Ont. resident Michael Whelan will steer Rose Run Speedster from post seven in the first division, and the Windsong Espoir colts connections will be hoping to receive their second Grassroots trophy from Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey, who be on hand for the Canada Day celebrations.

Hiawatha Horse Park fans will also be treated to Canada Day cupcakes and giveaways including Ontario Sires Stakes ball caps and Ontario Racing flip-flips, along with $1 programs and pop and $2 jumbo hot dogs.

Mohawk Racetracks Canada Day celebrations start at 7:10 p.m. with the singing of O Canada by Danielle Falls, followed by a commemorative mile by Mohawks parade marshal Joanne Colville and Wroxeter, Ont. resident Jim McKague and his 13-year-old Ontario Sired Standardbred mare, A Promise Made. A Promise Made will be hitched to a circa 1885 high wheeled sulky and during the mile fans will enjoy a video commemorating 250 years of horse racing in Canada.

The long tradition of horse racing across the country will also be commemorated by the Preferred class horses in the third race, which has been designated the 250th Anniversary of Horse Racing Pace.

Harness racings future will be celebrated in Races 2, 6 and 8 when Ontarios top three-year-old pacing colts square off for the second Gold Series battle of their season.

In addition to the on-track action fans will enjoy a Canada Day cake upon arrival, and following Race 2, the first Ontario Sires Stakes division, special red velvet Canada Day cupcakes will be available by the bottom of the main escalators. First race post time for Mohawk Racetracks Canada Day card is 7:30 p.m.

(OSS)
Winning any horse race with a homebred can feel like a special occasion, but six-year-old pacer Harbourlite Jerry made it an extra special night for Ralph Jardine with his recent victory at Hanover Raceway.

Jardine celebrated his first win as a trainer in almost three decades with the Jeremes Jet-Sanskrit Hanover gelding one week ago at Hanover. Prior to that, Jardine trained his last winner, a pacer named Historian N, in 1989 when he lived in Nova Scotia.

But his absence from the harness racing scene explains the extended gap between victories. Jardine has not trained a horse since he moved to Arthur, Ont., where he began a career as a genetic adviser for dairy cattle with Select Sires.

"I left the Maritimes and I moved up here for work in the early 90s and then I hadnt been anywhere near a racehorse or a race paddock in 15 years," explained Jardine. "And then I got to be friendly with Mike and Barb Hillis, and Mike was training some horses at the time and that kind of peaked my interest again."

Drawn back to the sport, Jardine bought a couple of broodmares and raised a couple of colts -- the first of which was actually Harbourlite Jerry.

"When he was ready to race, I still didnt have time to race them myself so, after growing up with the Rankins in Cape Breton, I gave the horse to Callie [and Jen] and then it started from there. Callie and I formed a great friendship and a great partnership. We own a bunch together and we describe it as two old guys having fun,'" he laughed.

Jardine currently owns five horses in partnership in addition to his own Harbourlite Jerry and an 11-year-old pacing gelding Hellsapoppin that he brought home this past winter and was tempted into taking over the training duties.

"Callie has been sick on and off this winter so I took a couple of the horses that I own myself home and I thought if I'm going to keep them home, I might as well race them myself," he said. "Callies been good to help me and kind of get me back into things."

Jardine had earned four runner-up finishes in seven training starts this year heading into the 10th and final race of the June 24 harness racing card at Hanover, where Harbourlite Jerry ($5.70) cruised wire-to-wire to win by five lengths in 1:59.3 with Patrick Shepherd in the sulky.

"Its been a long time and I never expected this. Ill be honest with you, it's a little bit embarrassing, its a long time between training wins! laughed Jardine.

His next win is sure to be much sooner, with a shot tonight as Hellsapoppin will start from post one in race two at Hanover. The Canada Day card kicks off at 7:15 p.m.

To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Saturday Entries - Hanover Raceway.
MONTGOMERY, Ala., June 30, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- The Foundation for Moral Law applauded the Texas Supreme Court's decision today in Pidgeon v. Turner, which declined to extend benefits afforded to heterosexual married couples to same-sex pairings contrary to Texas law. The legal issue in Pidgeon was whether the United States Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges should be applied narrowlylimited to the issue of marriage licensesor broadly, affecting spousal benefits associated with marriage. The Texas Supreme Court declined to hold that Obergefell automatically required the state to extend its benefits to same-sex pairings. The court remanded the lawsuit to the trial court for further proceedings.Along with the Institute for Creation Research, the Foundation filed an amicus brief urging the Texas Supreme Court to reject Obergefell altogether as having no basis in the Constitution. In its opinion the Texas Supreme Court acknowledged the filing of the Foundation's amicus brief.Foundation President Kayla Moore said: "The Texas Supreme Court demonstrated the critical thinking needed to see the difference between Obergefell and the case before it, as well as the courage to follow the law instead of bowing to political correctness. We are grateful that there are still courts that are willing to do what is right, even under pressure.""The Texas Supreme Court's courage is praiseworthy in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision this week in Pavan v. Smith, which extended Obergefell to apply to birth certificates," added Matt Clark, one of the Foundation's attorneys. "We hope that the Texas Supreme Court will show even more courage by rejecting Obergefell altogether should the case be appealed to them again," Clark said.The Foundation for Moral Law is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the strict construction of the Constitution according to the intent of the Framers and to the right to acknowledge God in the public arena.
City

 Linda M. Scott, 51, 178 Seymour St. Apt. 1, Auburn, was charged June 26 with fourth-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree welfare fraud.

 Sammy J. Sikes, 25, 84 Wall St., Auburn, was charged June 26 with second-degree obstructing governmental administration.

 Tiffany I. Sabb, 25, 68 Clark St. Apt. 2, Auburn, was charged June 26 with resisting arrest.

 Harry Cruz, 51, 5 Grover St. Apt. 4, Auburn, was charged June 27 with fourth-degree criminal mischief and endangering the welfare of a child.

 Adam J. Lamphere, 34, 226 Firelane 12, Jordan, was picked up on a warrant June 27 and charged with first-degree criminal contempt, first-degree harassment and second-degree criminal contempt.

 Daniel A. Pantoliano, 28, 7 Anthony St., Union Springs, was charged June 30 with fourth-degree grand larceny.

 Mack A. Givens, 40, 1002 Midland Ave., Syracuse, was picked up June 28 on a bench warrant.

 William J. Purcell Jr., 29, 3 Washington St. Apt. 3, Auburn, was picked up June 29 on a bench warrant.

 Jason L. Crane Sr., 35, 5304 Bluefield Road, Auburn, was picked up on a warrant June 28 and charged with petit larceny.

 Jacob W. Stepro, 31, 200 Woodlawn Ave. Apt. 2, Auburn, was charged June 29 with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

 Claudette M. Dockery, 57, 314 Melone Village Apartments, Auburn, was charged June 29 with endangering the welfare of a child.

 Katie Thibadeau, 24, 292 Grant Ave., Auburn, was picked up on an out-of-state warrant June 29.

County

 Zachary A. Sears, 26, Auburn, was charged June 15 with driving while intoxicated and operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of at least .08 of 1 percent.

 John C. McFadden, 22, Syracuse, was charged June 18 with driving while intoxicated and operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of at least .08 of 1 percent.

 Michael B. Lombardi, 49, Locke, was charged June 23 with third-degree menacing and fourth-degree criminal mischief.

 Eric C. Rode, 43, Victor, was charged June 24 with driving while intoxicated, aggravated DWI with a blood alcohol content of at least .18 percent and aggravated DWI with a child passenger.

State

 Delqoun M. Ross, 24, Syracuse, was charged July 27 with fifth-degree criminal possession of marijuana.

 Stephen J. Hayes, 26, Weedsport, was charged June 28 with operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit first offense and driving while intoxicated first offense.

 Leon F. Garbarini, 68, Port Byron, was charged June 28 with petit larceny and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

 Matthew P. Desimone, 27, Auburn, was charged June 29 with first-degree rape and luring a child.
Play at the new site will be free and first come, first served through the...
NEW YORK (AP)  Water that packs a hydrogen punch, snack bars as sticks and confections more savory than sweet are among innovations to emerge from hundreds of purveyors at the Summer Fancy Food Show.

The annual showcase hosted by the Specialty Food Association wrapped Tuesday in New York after three days and more than a little sampling of the artisan and high-tech bites and beverages from more than 1,200 companies.

Phil Kafarakis, president of the trade group, said in a recent interview that his industry is booming to the tune of $127 billion a year, including the retail and food service markets. The consumer has really changed the dynamic, he said.

"Everybody keeps talking about the Millennial, but it's not just the Millennial. GenX and NextGen and even Boomers, when you think about health and wellness, are looking for authenticity in products," Kafarakis said.

Denise Purcell, head of content, offered these observations gleaned from the food artisans, importers and entrepreneurs who peddled their wares:

SPECIALTY WATERS

Over the last couple of years, Purcell said, something has happened to water. Companies are playing with its natural properties to claim added benefits.

"Water is up 75 percent in dollar sales from 2014 to 2016. Separately, there's a lot of interest in functional beverages, so what we're seeing right now are enhanced waters," she said.

There's a company called HFactor Hydrogen infusing its pouched water with molecular hydrogen, reportedly to boost anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It also claims of an additional energy boost, all with no added chemicals or magnesium.

And there's Formula Four Beverages' OXiGEN water, infused with molecular oxygen, so not the O2 kind. Specifically, the company said it uses 1,000 parts per million of bio-available oxygen per 20 ounces in a bottle, compared to between five and 40 parts per million in tap or other bottled water.

Why? Well, according a study cited by Formula Four, all of that helps clear lactic acid, making for a faster recovery after exercise. It also claims a boost in endurance, stamina, mental clarity and, wait for it, decreased hangover effects.

There's also a shot format with five times more oxygen than the bottled product, Purcell said.

Another company is doing enhanced waters with pomegranate seed oil, reportedly good for inflammation and to help with digestive health, Purcell said.

Another company took an entirely different twist on water and it's not necessarily to sip or improve health.

It's from Rogers Collection and it's called Oak Smoked Water, made from Welsh oak chips smoked by the folks at Halen Mon. The water has actually been on the market since 2013 and is pretty much what it claims to be, with smoking done over four days without additives for use in soups, risottos and casseroles as a way to add depth.

It can also be frozen into ice cubes for cocktails.

SNACK BARS THAT AREN'T BARS

Purcell has been watching this market segment for a while.

"They, too, have grown a lot over the last couple of years. Snack bars are up about 50 percent since 2014 and they're forecast to grow even more. They hit on a lot of macro-trends like snacking and portability and good for you."

Among recent innovations: A company called Aunt Dottie's mixes together salad ingredients  greens, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruits  and condenses them into a bar.

What's interesting to Purcell is a variation on the bar, the snack stick.

There's one company, Vivify, doing energy snack sticks in interesting combinations of nuts, quinoa and seeds like flax and sunflower. There's a chia-pistachio combination and a quinoa and toasted coconut combo.

PLANT-BASED FOODS

For the first time, the Specialty Food Association asked members if they plan to expand out in this market category.

"A third of them said they're planning innovation around that, and it's cutting across all different categories, so there's cheese and meat and dairy alternatives but also condiments, frozen desserts and water again."

The show included a plant-based water made from hemp. Cashew sauce was offered as a cheese sauce alternative in a handy add-hot-water format.

For dessert?

"We are seeing a lot more vegan-friendly desserts, whether it's frozen ice creams or sorbets. Alternative milks, nut milks, are becoming very popular," Purcell said.

COFFEE AND TEA

"This is another area where we're seeing a lot of innovation, especially refrigerated and ready to drink varieties. Those have exploded. They've been up 114 percent between 2014 and 2016," Purcell said.

A company called Sunup uses unroasted green coffee beans in a bottle drink, offering tea-style flavor with a full caffeine kick.

Another company, Afineur, claims to have customized the natural fermentation process to eliminate the undesirable characteristics of coffee and enhance the goodness. The resulting coffee is less bitter and easier to digest, Purcell said.

Camille Delebecque, the CEO and co-founder of Afineur, has a Ph.D. in synthetic biology.

SAVORY AND SPICY CONFECTIONS

Chocolate went peppery a while ago. Now the artisans are having fun with other flavors.

"Spices, they're going to a new level in confections," Purcell said.

One company, Rumi Spice, was founded by a group of U.S. military veterans who source saffron from sustainable farms in Afghanistan for its Saffron Gems, a gummy bite-size treat with threads of saffron visible in the rich-tasting golden candy.

MilkBoy chocolates out of Switzerland offers bars of 60 percent cocoa infused with pine tree oil.
Washingtons $43.7 billion two-year budget, released to the public early Friday and voted out of both chambers of the Legislature later the same day, appears to be a net gain for the Longview and Kelso school districts.

Teachers would get a pay raise, local residents would pay less in property taxes, and school districts could get millions targeted for high poverty schools. But precise details were unavailable because local school officials were unavailable and lawmakers were racing to parse through the 620-page document before the vote.

Under the states new education funding plan, state property taxes would increase from $1.89 to $2.70 per $1,000 in assessed value, according to reports out of Olympia. Meanwhile maintenance and operation levies that local school districts can use to generate funds for education will be capped at $1.50 per $1,000 in assessed value or $2,500 per pupil, whichever is less.

Homeowners in more affluent areas of the state such as Seattle, Bellevue and Mercer Island will see their property taxes go up by as much as $400 per year. Residents in more rural areas will pay less. The plan also generates additional revenue through a new internet sales tax and by ending tax exemptions for bottled water and fuel extraction.

The state will use the money to increase K-12 education spending by $7.3 billion over four years, to a total of $18.2 billion, with about $6 billion of the additional money going toward teacher compensation. The upshot for Kelso and Longview is that while its residents will gradually pay less in property taxes, both school districts will see a boost in state funding.

The budget will also eliminate an accounting practice called the staff mix factor, which reinforced economic inequities across the state. Instead of allocating money on a district-by-district basis based on average teacher salary, the state will now send out money on a per-pupil basis based on a new average statewide salary structure.

According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, both Longview and Kelso teachers have traditionally been paid hundreds of dollars less per month than the average salary for teachers in similar-sized districts.

Still, not all education advocacy groups were pleased with what they had learned in the few hours left for review.

The Washington Education Association, which represents teacher unions throughout the state, said in a blog post that the plan fails to amply fund K-12 schools by the Sept. 1, 2018, deadline imposed by the state Supreme Court.

In its 2012 McCleary ruling, the court ruled that the Legislature must fully and amply fund basic education expenses and stop forcing school districts to rely on local levies to pay large portions of teacher salaries.

Funding for K-12 education will increase by $1.8 billion over the next two years but that wont do enough to solve Washingtons teacher shortage by the deadline, WEA said.

Washingtons Paramount Duty, a K-12 education advocacy group, has estimated that it would take an additional $8 billion over the next two years to adequately address the states current teacher shortage and satisfy McCleary requirements. The plaintiffs lawyer in the McCleary case put the number closer to $10 billion.

In a statement, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal praised the budget, saying the Legislature had gone beyond the bare minimums called for by the state Supreme Court. However the $7.3 billion in state money spread out over four years would be offset by $3 billion to $4 billion in lost local levy dollars, according to an early OSPI analysis.

And not everyone is convinced that the revenue streams are stable and dependable, as required by McCleary. Summer Stinson, vice president of Washington Paramount Duty and a pro bono attorney, said its dangerous to rely almost entirely on property taxes to fund education.

This is all based on property values, which have been going up, but its not necessarily the case that everyone who owns property can pay, Stinson said. What happens when we hit a recession and property values go down?

Stinson also said its wrong to ask working-class families to pay more in property taxes while at the same time handing more tax breaks to businesses.

As part of the budget deal, the business and operations tax for manufacturers would be lowered to the same preferential rate aerospace manufacturer Boeing has enjoyed.

We have a booming economy and we have the lowest unemployment that weve ever had in our state, she said. Yet we continue to give the wealthiest among us incredible tax breaks and weve increased the tax breaks for businesses and raised taxes on working families and the poor.

Other advocacy groups were less circumspect.

Dave Powell, government affairs director for Stand for Children, said his group is excited about additional investments the state is making that were not part of the courts deliberations. Those programs will specifically benefit Longview and Kelsos student populations.

The states new budget will create a $500 million funding stream over the next four years for high-poverty schools  those with more than 50 percent of students on free and reduced-price lunch. That means nine of Longviews 13 schools can expect to see some of those funds, which would be used to serve kids who test below grade level.

Its still unclear how labor negotiations for Longview and Kelso teachers would be affected. Both teacher unions collective bargaining agreements expire on Aug. 31, and talks had ground to a halt as lawmakers in Olympia wrestled with how to resolve McCleary.

Roy Maier, director for the WEA Lower Columbia Region, said bargaining will continue as planned.

The new budget calls for the same teacher salary schedule next year with a 2.3 percent cost of living adjustment. The plan will also move all state school employees to a single health insurance exchange.

Maier said the real question is what will happen to TRI money, which stands for time, responsibility, investment. Districts have traditionally used local levies to pay teachers TRI money in addition to the base pay they receive from the state.

The only thing we know for sure is that the state allocation, Maier said. Were not going to believe anything until we see the black and white, he said.
Firefighters from three agencies fought multiple fires at the Kalama Export grain terminal early Friday morning, including one that fire officials said posed an explosion hazard.

The fires were sparked by a bad conveyor roller that overheated and melted two separate conveyors, which in turn spread fires to a 110-foot tall silo filled with 5.5 million pounds of corn, said Terry Sinkler, captain and spokesman for Cowlitz Fire District 5.

Firefighters from District 5, Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue and Longview took about four hours to put out the conveyor and the silo fires, Sinkler said. The silo fire didnt pose much of an explosion threat because the silo was largely full, leaving little airspace for grain dust to accumulate, Sinkler said. It is airborne dust that poses an explosion hazard at grain facilities.

Sinkler said he expects that 80 to 90 percent of the corn in the silo should be salvageable.

Firefighters from the same three agencies returned to the grain terminal at about 7:20 a.m. when terminal employees discovered that flames had spread to a dust collector. The collection bin was only 15 percent filled, so the presence of airborne dust made it an explosion risk, Sinkler said.

Due to the danger, firefighters set up unmanned water nozzles to soak the material down as it was discharged from the dust collector. They also piped water into the collector through air lines.
County officials from around the state voiced displeasure with the Legislatures new operating budget, and in particular expressed dismay about limits on property taxes.

The new 2017-19 budget does not replace the 1 percent cap on property revenue, which is what helps funds local governments public safety programs, as well as other services.

Disappointed is an understatement, said Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson in a press release. Ive been speaking with legislators both at home and in Olympia, sharing the same message of the pending public safety crisis. The current cap structure will be the downfall of county government across this state. We offered sensible solutions which appear to have been ignored.

WSAC listed numerous impacts that the static property tax will have on local communities, such as reduced numbers of deputies on patrol, delayed criminal justice proceedings and public safety response times, and bridges run by cities and counties that are structurally out-of-date not being repaired.

The states new budget does increase state property levies for education past the 1 percent cap. But Cowlitz County Assessor Terry McLaughlin said Friday, he doesnt know how this will exactly impact property taxes in the county. He also said the senior exemption program will still be in place.

The problem is not going awaythe public safety issues facing our communities are not going awayjust because the Legislature did not act on it, said Josh Weiss, General Counsel at WSAC in a press release. Perhaps the Legislature will only respond to the courts, which is a course of action we will definitely consider.
RAINIER  Just in time for the the citys Rainier Days annual celebration, the citys young historical museum will reopen in a larger, more permanent space.

The Rainier Oregon Historical Museum, launched in 2014 as a loose collection of historical photos, will now have its own room on the top floor of Rainier City Hall.

The light opening will take place on July 7, coinciding with opening day of Rainier Days in the Park. The first exhibits theme will be Rainier Days Revisited, focusing on the history of the annual festival. The grand opening will be on Sept. 9.

Our main purpose is to preserve the history of Rainier and to be able to share it with the community and the people passing through, said Kay Heflin, museum president.

Heflin, 68, has lived in Rainier her entire life. She said she has always been intrigued by her hometowns history thanks to her father, who died in 2004.

I got all of his old pictures. He used to be a photographer, she said. The man that taught him about photography also had old pictures, so I got my dads old collection of Rainier pictures that he had. So I started posting them on Facebook, and people really just responded that they liked them.

For its first three years, the museum has displayed photos in glass cases in city hall and at the post office, according to Heflin. Eventually, the museum board sought to move into a bigger, more permanent space after learning that many residents were interested in the towns history.

When we had our first Getting to know you and our museum meeting last summer at the senior center, we had standing room only, Heflin said.

According to museum historian Mike Clark, who collects artifacts from the towns past, said the museum board asked the city to use the vacant third floor room. The pitch: To actually have exhibits that keep changing that reflect different parts of Rainiers history.

City Hall eventually agreed, and now the museum has that vacant room mostly to itself.

So far, Heflin said the museum will consist mainly of photos from her fathers collection, old scrapbooks from deceased Rainier historian Eleanor Abraham, and other artifacts, such as dishes that are more than 100 years old from an old Rainier store.

Their new display cases were funded by a $1,700 grant from the Columbia County Cultural Coalition. Heflin said theyve only spent $800 of their grant so far. Other storage items were donated from Country Financial or the Oregon Historical Society.

According to Heflin, there will be over 3,000 different photos in the collection, and some artifacts, such as antique Rainier-themed Christmas postcards, go back as far as the early 1900s.

Heflin said she believes the museum will continue to grow as citizens contribute their own heirlooms.

The most important thing for us is to preserve the history and share the history with our community, she said. People can come in and see the pictures and what we have, and hopefully as time goes on, theyll see what we have, and maybe theyll start donating things that they have.
Roughly 13,000 Cowlitz County residents will be out-of-town this weekend in what is expected to be the busiest weekend for holiday travel ever recorded for the Fourth of July, according to AAA. High consumer confidence, gains in personal income and relatively cheap gas prices are behind the travel frenzy.

Nationally, 44.2 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles away from their home for Independence Day, or about 13.7 percent of the population, according to AAA. This is the fourth year in a row Fourth of July travel has grown.

Expect busy roadways and traffic jams as about 79 percent of holiday travelers in the Pacific Region plan to hop in their cars to travel, AAA reported.

Nationally, average gas prices hit their lowest price so far this year, falling to $2.24 per a gallon ahead of this weekend. Thats unusual for the summer months, when gas prices typically rise because of higher-grade gas blends, said Marie Dodds, AAA Oregon-Idaho spokeswoman.

Fridays national average compares to $2.28 per a gallon last Independence Day and $3.66 pre a gallon three years ago.

In Oregon and Washington, prices are actually slightly higher than last year. The average price for a gallon of gas is $2.80 in Washington, up from $2.64 last year. In Oregon, gas costs $2.64 per a gallon on average now, compared to $2.53 last Independence Day.

Even with the slightly higher prices, drivers in Oregon and Washington are still filling up their tanks for about the same prices they were in March this year, which is unusual for the summer, Dodds said.

Cheapest gas in town

On Friday afternoon, the cheapest gas in Longview was $2.59 per a gallon at Stop & Save Food Mart on Pacific Way, according to GasBuddy.com. In Kelso, it was $2.60 per a gallon at Quick Stop on Pacific Avenue.

Gas prices havent shot up with the temperatures this season because of a global glut in crude oil and lower oil prices.

At the start of the year, analysts predicted that gas and oil prices would rise throughout the year after Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to cut oil production by 1.8 million barrels per a day. But even with OPECs cuts, the U.S. continues to crank out record levels of crude oil.

By the end of last week, U.S. oil production hit 9.2 million barrels per day, up from 6.2 million barrels per a day five years ago  a 48 percent jump, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Last weeks numbers are 100,000 barrels per a day lower than the previous week, but analysts think its a temporary decline due to maintenance in Alaska and temporary closures in the Gulf of Mexico as a precaution for Tropical Storm Cindy, Reuters reported.

U.S. oil rigs dropped by just two Friday, according to Baker Hughes, nudging up U.S. oil prices slightly to $46.04 per a barrel. Thats still down from $52.36 per a barrel in the first week of January.

Dodds said the temporary dip in oil prices wont reverse the tide of relatively cheap oil and gas.

We are just having a gangbuster year when it comes to oil and refining, Dodds said. Right now I think gas prices will continue to be relatively low this summer.
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A well-known Silicon Valley investor, Dave McClure, has been demoted within the firm he co-founded, 500 Startups, the latest fallout from revelations of mistreatment of women in the technology industry. An internal investigation found McClure "had inappropriate interactions with women in the tech community," according to a blog post published 30 June by Christine Tsai, 500 Startups co-founder, who said the decision to demote him was made a few months ago.

"His behavior was unacceptable and not reflective of 500s culture and values," she said. "I sincerely apologize for the choices he made and the pain and stress theyve caused people." McClure will assume a limited role at the firm and is attending counseling, Tsai said. McClure on 30 June said in a text message to Reuters that he and Tsai "are still on good terms" and "she has my full support."

The firm made the change public on 30 June following a report by the New York Times that named McClure, along with well-known investor Chris Sacca, as perpetrators of sexual harassment toward women who were applying for jobs or seeking fundraising. The report said McClure was no longer in charge of day-to-day operations. Sarah Kunst, founder and chief executive of fitness startup Proday, told the New York Times that McClure had sent her an inappropriate Facebook message after she discussed a potential job at 500 Startups.

"Before The New York Times article, Dave had already been demoted because of his harassment of women, however no one outside of 500 Startups had been made aware of this fact," Kunst told Reuters on 30 June.

"Women did not know to avoid him. The lack of disclosure is part of the problem. Women don't know who is a bad actor when the funds cover it up." McClure referred a request for comment on Kunst's statement and other questions to a spokeswoman, who declined to comment beyond the blog post. 500 Startups invests in early-stage startups around the world and offers an accelerator program for entrepreneurs. Its investments include the ride-hailing company Grab and personal finance company Credit Karma.

McClure is well known throughout the tech industry because of his contrarian attitudes, which include criticizing venture capitalists, his political statements and his frequent public appearances. He is known to make many investments around the world and far beyond Silicon Valley, in places like Turkey and sub-Saharan Africa. Sacca, who gained prominence with early investments in Twitter and Uber, on 29 June published a blog post apologizing for his behavior.

"I now understand I personally contributed to the problem," Sacca said. He had announced in April that he was retiring from his VC firm, Lowercase Capital.

Several women spoke to The New York Times after news site The Information published a report last week detailing inappropriate behavior toward women by investor Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital. He has since resigned and apologized publicly.

In February, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote a blog post detailing the company's culture of sexual harassment, which prompted a months-long investigation that culminated with the resignation of chief executive Travis Kalanick. The events have brought new focus to what many in the industry say is a long-standing culture of entrenched sexual harassment and discrimination that has made it difficult for women and racial minorities to raise funds and assume leadership positions.

Reuters
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The German parliament approved a plan on 30 June, 2017 to fine social media networks up to 50 million euros ($57 million) if they fail to remove hateful postings promptly, despite concerns the law could limit free expression.

Germany has some of the world's toughest laws covering defamation, public incitement to commit crimes and threats of violence, with prison sentences for Holocaust denial or inciting hatred against minorities. But few online cases are prosecuted.

The law gives social media networks 24 hours to delete or block obviously criminal content and seven days to deal with less clear-cut cases, with an obligation to report back to the person who filed the complaint about how they handled the case.

Failure to comply could see a company fined up to 50 million euros, and the company's chief representative in Germany fined up to 5 million euros.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany, in a statement, hailed the law as "the logical next step for effectively tackling hate speech since all voluntary agreements with the platform providers have been virtually unsuccessful."

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said the measure to "end the internet law of the jungle" was long overdue and dismissed suggestions that it would infringe freedom of speech.

The issue has taken on more urgency amid concerns in Germany that proliferating fake news and racist content, particularly targeting migrants, could sway public opinion in the run-up to a national election due on Sept. 24.

Concerns

But organizations representing digital companies, consumers and journalists have accused the government of rushing a law through parliament that could damage free speech.

Facebook, which has 29 million active users in Germany - more than a third of the total population - has said it is working hard to remove illegal content, deleting 3,500 posts per week in Germany in the past two months.

"This law as it stands now will not improve efforts to tackle this important societal problem," a spokesman said, adding Facebook did not think it had been consulted enough.

Facebook noted that in May it had announced plans to add an extra 3,000 workers around the world over the next year to monitor reports of inappropriate material, in addition to 4,500 people already reviewing posts.

In Berlin, Facebook's partner Arvato will employ up to 700 staff for "content moderation" by the end of the year.

A German government survey has shown that Facebook deleted just 39 percent of content deemed criminal and Twitter only 1 percent, even though they had signed a code of conduct including a pledge to delete hate speech within 24 hours.

However, Facebook says it has significantly improved its processes since then and is now removing 87 percent of posts reported by German non-governmental organizations.

Twitter has also made a number of changes, including adding new filtering options, putting limits on accounts it had identified as engaging in abusive behavior and stopping those users from creating new accounts.

In response to criticism of the draft law, the government softened the legislation by excluding email and messenger providers and opening up the option of creating joint monitoring facilities to make decisions about what content to remove.

It also made clear that a fine would not necessarily be imposed after just one infraction, but only after a company systematically refused to act or does not set up a proper complaint management system.

Reuters
IANS

Microsoft has said it will acquire Israel-based cloud management company Cloudyn.

"Microsoft has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cloudyn, an innovative company that helps enterprises and managed service providers optimize their investments in cloud services," the software giant announced.

"This acquisition fits squarely into our commitment to empower customers with the tools they need to govern their cloud adoption and realise the strategic benefits of a global, trusted, intelligent cloud," said Jeremy Winter, Director of Programme Management, Microsoft Azure Security and Operations Management. Cloudyn gives enterprise customers tools to identify, measure and analyse consumption, enable accountability and forecast future cloud spending.

.@Microsoft has agreed to acquire @cloudyn_buzz to help customers manage and optimize their cloud usage https://t.co/lgbxqSRqIh pic.twitter.com/c3mXq0SdAl  Microsoft News (@MSFTnews) June 29, 2017

Microsoft did not disclose Cloudyn's price tag. It said that closing of the acquisition was subject to regulatory approval. Global software major Infosys Ltd had previously announced investing $4 million (Rs.27 crore) in Cloudyn, an Israeli corporation, providing software as a service (Saas) solutions for the management and optimization of hybrid, multi-cloud deployments. Infosys investment in

According to reports, global software major Infosys Ltd had previously announced investing $4 million (Rs 27 crore) in Cloudyn, an Israeli corporation, providing software as a service (Saas) solutions for the management and optimization of hybrid, multi-cloud deployments. Infosys investment in Cloudyn comes two days after its rival Wipro Enterprises infrastructure engineering division announced on August 1 buying an Israeli-based aerospace firm H.R. Givon for an undisclosed amount.
NAOGAON: A human chain was formed by locals of Patrabari Village in Badlagachhi Upazila protesting vandalisation of the entrance of the village by influentials on Friday.
Changing face of international students in the US

Alyssa Walker :

Last year, nearly 1 million international students studied in the US. Long considered the land of opportunity, the US has always attracted a significant percentage of the world's international scholars. In recent years, the numbers of international students have skyrocketed; they're a lot younger, and while they're from all over the globe, they're likely from only a couple of places in the world. They also receive significant funding from their home country. International students coming to study in the US are changing the face of universities across the country. Let's take a look at what's happening-and why.

1. They're younger

A recent report published by the Institute of International Education (IIE) found that more international students who pursue higher education in the US come from US high schools. IIE's Deputy Vice President for Research and Evaluation, Rajika Badhari says, "While secondary students from around the world have been coming to the United States on high school exchange programs for many years, IIE's new analysis shows that the number of students who enroll directly in US schools to earn a US high school diploma now significantly outnumbers those who are here on exchanges. This is a remarkable finding, and one which has implications for US higher education." What does this mean? Students are coming to the US earlier and then following the direct pipeline from secondary school to higher education.

Even the ones who don't study at US high schools before enrolling in a university program are historically younger. International students are not just coming for graduate school anymore; they're starting their university education in the US as undergraduates-and freshmen, more often than not

This uptick in younger international students on US campuses has forced many universities to strengthen their foreign-student services programs. Younger international need the same academic, social, and emotional supports as domestic students, if not more so. In addition to changing freshmen orientation to meet international needs, universities are addressing issues related language barriers, cultural and religious differences, and a new kind of homesick-typically from thousands of miles away, not to mention every college student's need: time management skills. Many universities started mentorship programs for international undergraduates in the US, pairing students with older international students, or even graduate students who typically have fewer emotional support needs, mostly because they're older.

2. There are more of them

According to the Wall Street Journal, international students comprised nearly 5 percent of all undergraduate and graduate enrollment in the US in 2015, up from about 3 percent in 2005. The 2015 Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange, an annual survey of study abroad trends published by the IIE in partnership with the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, confirmed that the number of international students at US universities experienced its highest growth rate in 35 years. The IIE's conclusion? The US continues to be the destination of choice for international students. According to the IIE 2015 Open Doors press release, IIE President Dr. Allan E. Goodman said, "International experience is one of the most important components of a 21st-century education. Studying abroad is one of the best ways undergraduate and graduate students gain the international experience necessary to succeed in today's global workforce. And studying in another country prepares students to be real contributors to working across borders to address key issues in the world we share." Stay tuned for the 2016 Open Doors Report, to be released later this month.

3. Likely from Asia

51 percent of all international students who studied abroad in the US last year were from Asia. China contributed 31 percent of the total. Of the 974, 926 students, 304,040 thousand hailed from China, 132,888 from India, and 63, 710 from South Korea. 20 percent of those students studied business and management, and another 20 percent study engineering. Where are they going? All over the country. According to the 2015 IIE Open Doors Fast Facts, in 2015, the top five US institutions hosting the largest numbers of international students are: New York University, the University of Southern California, Columbia University, Arizona State University, and the University of Illinois-Urbana.

4. They pay their own way

As undergraduate numbers bulge, so do pocketbooks. Many of the US's international students-roughly 60 percent-report that their family covers their tuition. A growing number also study on scholarships sponsored by their governments. Studying in the US no longer means you have to be from a well-traveled, well-heeled elite class. The surging middle classes from places like Shanghai and Seoul, Riyadh, Delhi, and Taipei now compete with their once elite classmates. The US maintains its global edge in international education. Superior universities coupled with a diversity of study options continue to make it one of the top study destinations in the world. Learn more about studying in the US.

(Alyssa Walker is a freelance writer, educator, and nonprofit consultant. She lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with her family).
Belarus' external public debt hits $13.9b

Xinhua, Minsk :

Belarus' external public debt rose by 277.6 million U.S. dollars from January to May 2017, drifting to 13.9 billion U.S. dollars, the Belarusian Finance Ministry said on Friday.

In January-May 2017, Belarus attracted external state loans in the amount of 595 million U.S. dollars, most of which were borrowed from the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD), the Russian government and banks.

Belarus has spent 394.7 million U.S. dollars to repay the external public debt since the beginning of the year.
Moody's top-notch credit rating for AIIB "not surprising": expert

Xinhua, New York :

It is not surprising that the 18-month-old Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) obtained the highest level of credit rating from Moody's Investors Service, an international trade expert said.

"This is no easy achievement especially given the short history since the establishment of this international institution," Anthony Mak, director of Hong Kong Trade Development Council's New York office, said in an interview with Xinhua on Friday.

"But given its strong balance sheet, with subscribed capital already larger than many other multinational development banks with much longer history, it is also not surprising to me that the AIIB wins such laurels," said Mak.

On Thursday, Moody's assigned the AIIB a long-term foreign currency issuer rating of Aaa and a short-term foreign currency issuer rating of Prime-1 with a stable outlook.

The credit rating agency attributed such high ratings to the strength of the bank's governance frameworks, including its policies on risk management, robust capital adequacy and strong liquidity position.
Education: Building block for sustainable peace

Tharanga Yakupitiyage :

Millions lack access to quality education around the world-but how can the international community change this?

Two years into the adoption of the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which includes a goal to provide inclusive, equitable, and quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all, the question of 'how' still remains.

In an effort to answer this question, the UN convened a high-level meeting to discuss and explore new approaches to achieve the education goal, namely SDG 4.

"Access to quality education is not only a goal in itself, but a fundamental building block of creating a better world of sustainable peace, prosperity, and development," said current General Assembly President Peter Thomson during the opening segment.

"For in the act of investing in education, we are realizing the potential of our greatest asset: the potential inherent in the people of this world," he continued.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed echoed similar sentiments, stating, "We know that when we deliver education to a young person, we are not only delivering the knowledge and skills they will need to chart their futures, but we are preparing them to lend their hearts, hands, and minds to shaping a much more peaceful, prosperous society indeed for themselves but also for everyone."

However, much work needs to be done.

More than 260 million children and young people are out of school, and the number of primary-aged children not in school is increasing.

Over 750 million youth and adults also do not have basic literacy and numeracy skills, even if education is accessible.

Access to education often has a trickle-down effect, helping boost food, health, and economic security, all of which are also essential SDGs. Education is therefore the "golden thread" that connects all 17 SDGs, Thomson noted.

But providing education is no simple task as there are many challenges to overcome.

Children in fragile or conflict-affected countries are often hard to reach but are three times more likely to miss primary school compared to children in other non-fragile developing countries. Additionally, only 50 percent of refugee children and 22 percent of refugee adolescents have access to primary and secondary schools.

"This is not only a short-term challenge, but a challenge that goes directly to the heart of our long-term efforts to build a more peaceful and equal world," Mohammed said.

Innovative ways to deliver quality education are therefore essential, from providing temporary learning spaces to displaced children to using technology to reach children in remote and hard-to-reach areas.

Girls also still face a range of barriers from gender-based violence to social and cultural norms that prevent girls from attending to even the lack of appropriate and separate toilet facilities for girls, causing 130 million primary and secondary-aged girls to be out of school today.

Two-thirds of all illiterate adults are also women.

Since increasing women and girls' access to education is proven to directly contribute to healthier families and economies, Thomson urged to look for ways to end gender discrimination that stops women and girls from accessing education. Participants also highlighted the importance of providing lifelong learning for life and work.

"Over the next ten years, a billion young people will enter the global workforce. They need the requisite skills and competencies required not only to do the jobs that exist today, but the many jobs that haven't yet been invented," Mohammed stated.

Thomson added that adults should also be supported with ongoing training to help them adapt to and participate in rapidly changing workplaces.

According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), automation threatens up to two-thirds of jobs in developing countries, reflecting the necessity of adaptation support and vocational training.

However, among the biggest challenges to provide inclusive, equitable, and quality education is finances which continue to be insufficient worldwide.

The Education 2030 Framework for Action, adopted by the international community in 2015 to lead efforts to achieve SDG 4, provides two benchmarks for public expenditures on education: allocate at least 4-6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to education and/or allocate at least 15-20 percent of public expenditure to education.

Some countries such as the Republic of Korea, which has one of the best education systems in the world, have successfully allocated almost 5 percent of GDP to education, providingequitable access to vocational programs, and achieiving some of the highest secondary and tertiary enrollment and attainment rates in the world.

"This comes from the belief of the people on the power of education from the bottom," said Republic of Korea's Former Minister of Education and member of International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity Ju-Ho Lee during the event.

However, this is not the case for many other countries. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) found that 51 out of 138 countries with data spent less than 4 percent of GDP on education, including a number of both low-income and high-income countries.

Though low and lower middle income countries have increased their spending on education, it is estimated that these countries would still face an annual financing gap of 39 billion dollars between 2015-2030.

External resources such as aid become essential for such countries. However, aid to education has remained stagnant.

Between 2014 and 2015, aid to education was a total of 12 billion dollars below its 2010 level and significantly less than the amount required to achieve SDG 4.

Mohammed urged for increased funding both on domestic and international levels, especially to countries most in need, as well as calling on participants to explore new approaches beyond ODA.

New funds dedicated to education have already been created, including the Education Cannot Wait Fund which provides education in humanitarian contexts. The UN's education envoy Gordon Brown also proposed an international finance facility to leverage funds to help close the global funding gap for education.

Referring to his meeting with schoolgirls kidnapped from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, Thomson said that it should serve as inspiration to strengthen access to education for a safer and equitable world.

Mohammed made a similar appeal, stating: "There is no better investment in the future of peace and resilience of a society than in the education of its citizens, every citizen, and perhaps to say beyond citizens for those who are stateless-every person deserves a right to quality education."

The UN High-Level SDG Action Event on Education is the last in a series of SDG events convened by the 71st session of the General Assembly. Each event focused on a key driver of sustainable development including sustainable peace, climate action, financing, and innovation.

-IPS
Suu Kyi now addictive to power

THE government of Myanmar will refuse visas for a UN delegation tasked with investigating reports of the torture, murder, and rape of Rohingya Muslims, a government official has reportedly said, reported international dailies.



Foreign Affairs Secretary Kyaw Zeya told Parliament on Thursday that there was no reason for a fact finding mission to be allowed visas and their embassies abroad had been instructed accordingly. Myanmar had already said it would not cooperate with the UN probe when the international body announced the move in March.



The administration of specially-appointed "State Counsellor" Aung San Suu Kyi has come under fire for its handling of the Rohingya situation in Myanmar's Rakhine state. A Nobel Peace laureate charged with transitioning the country from military dictatorship, Suu Kyi said that a UN mission "would have created greater hostility between the different communities."



Although there is extensive evidence that Rohingya Muslims have been in Myanmar for centuries, the government has considered them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh for decades, leaving them stateless. On top of widespread reports of abuse and persecution on the part of local Buddhists, there are also allegations that security services working for the government have taken part in killings and attacks on Rohingya as well.



China and India joined Myanmar in distancing themselves from the UN resolution passed in March. Myanmar has insisted that its own domestic investigation is more than sufficient to uncover possible abuses.



The violent situation between the majority Buddhists and minority Muslims in Rakhine escalated further when a local group of insurgents killed nine border police last year, leading to a brutal retaliation from security forces. The UN said in a February report that the army's response included mass killings and gang rapes that "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity, and possibly to ethnic cleansing.



So once again Suu Kyi has proven that she is not averse to cohabitating with the military junta of Myanmar. Her transition from a fiery fighter of justice to a seasoned politician has indeed been remarkably swift. In less than two years, she has proven that even the most revolutionary leader can bow down to the power authority that matters. In Myanmar, that means appeasement with the military who still hold a disproportionate share of power.



Unfortunately, she does not realize that it is an asymmetric relationship - in the end the military can remove her for any reason. The main reason for 'introducing' Myanmar to democracy was that the military could become even more powerful and richer as there would be no bar to foreign investment - a major way for the economy to grow rapidly. By currying favour with them and with the ethnic Bama group -who resemble two thirds of Myanmar's population, she hopes to stay in power for a very long time.



Power is indeed tremendously addictive, but by doing so she is losing all vestiges of the very high reputation she once held internationally. It cannot be a good thing.






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Three alleged female activists along with wife of neo-JMB Ameer Ayub Ali were arrested by the police from a suspected militant den in Bamonpara area of Bheramara upazila in Kushtia on Saturday.
Karunamoy Goswami passes away

Staff Reporter :

Renowned Bangladeshi musician and litterateur Dr Karunamoy Goswami passed away on Friday night. He was 74.

He was suffering from strong fever since Thursday. On Friday, around 11:30pm, he fell flat on the bathroom floor at his Baridhara DOHS residence and his condition deteriorated.

He was taken to United Hospital in Dhaka where doctors pronounced him dead, his nephew Sourav

Bhattacharya told the media on Saturday. His body has been kept at the mortuary of Samarita Hospital in the capital.

His funeral may be held on Tuesday after arrival of his son Sayantan Goswami and daughter Tithi Goswami who are living abroad, Sourav added.

Dr Goswami was a renowned researcher in the fields of Bangla music and Nazrul songs. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2012 by the Government of Bangladesh for his contribution to art and culture, alongside many other honours and accolades.
Robber' killed in Khulna 'gunfight

UNB, Khulna :

A suspected robber was killed in a reported gunfight with police at Chuknagar in Dumuria upazila early Saturday.

The deceased was identified as Rabiul Islam alias Badsha, 35, son of Jafar Sheikh of Maltia village of the upazila. Sub-inspector of Dumuria Police Station Mamun said a team of police arrested Badsha on Friday.

The team along with Badsha went to Chuknagar Madrashah road area in the

early hours of Saturday to recover firearms as per his statement. Sensing the presence of law enforcers, cohorts of Badsha fired gunshots on the law enforcers that promoted them to retaliate, triggering the gunfight. Badsha died on the spot as he was caught line of fire. However, his cohorts managed to flee the scene. Police also recovered a pistol, some crude bombs and machetes from the spot. Four policemen, including Officer-in-charge of Dumuria Police Station Sukumar Bishwas, were also injured in the gunfight, police said. Police said he was an accused in five cases filed with Keshobepur, Monirampur and Paikgachha Police Stations.


Dairy farming to get a boost

Govt moves to cut malnutrition, imports of powder milk

Badrul Ahsan :

The government has now stepped in to give a boost to dairy farming countrywide to cut malnutrition and lower the milk powder import bill.

To this end, disbursement of loans under Bangladesh Bank's re-financing fund for cattle-rearing this financial year will be accelerated.

The move came following huge imports of milk powder and the malnutrition a large number of people suffer from.

The government allocated Tk 2 billion loans at 5 per cent interest for the farmers who rear cattle in the just-concluded fiscal year. Banks and financial institutions (FIs) are to disburse the loans among dairy farmers.

Examining the performance of commercial banks and other FIs, the government is likely to raise the amount soon, according to central bank sources.

Such low-cost funding was launched on January 13, 2016.

Around Tk 900 million loans have so far been disbursed among farmers, said officials at the Department of Livestock Services (DLS).

Earlier, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock asked Bangladesh Bank to look into the matter. The BB authorities now await the reports on such loan disbursement from commercial banks and FIs.

"We are informed about the Bangladesh Bank's decision. We hope the commercial banks and the financial institutions would disburse the rest loans among the farmers for cattle rearing," Director General of DLS Dr Md Ainul Huq told the New Nation.

The government is very much eager to help boost cattle rearing locally, he added.

Earlier, the BB asked all the commercial banks to submit monthly reports to the DLS about the progress of loan disbursement.

BB data show the country spends around Tk 40 billion for importing powder milk to meet its growing demand annually.

The refinancing facility will allow at least 10,000 farmers to get cheap loans.

Under the scheme, farmers will get loans between Tk 50,000 and Tk 0.2 million. They will have to repay such loan within four and a half years.

Farmers can borrow Tk 50,000 for one heifer capable of reproducing within maximum three months and take maximum Tk 0.2 million for four heifers (indigenous species) for milk production.

Bangladesh produced around 6.97 billion litres of milk in the 2015-16 fiscal year, up 14.4 per cent year-on-year, according to the DLR.
Tears for terror victims

Chargesheet to be submitted by year-end

People from all strata of life paid homage to victims who lost their lives in Holey Artisan CafA attack in Gulshan this day on July 1 last year.

Staff Reporter :

The nation on Saturday paid tributes to the victims, mostly foreigners, killed in the deadliest militant attack at Holey Artisan Cafe at Gulshan in the city on the first anniversary of the massacre.



A group of young 'misguided' terrorists with sophisticated arms stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan diplomatic zone in the city on July 1 last year killing 20 hostages, mostly foreign nationals, including Italian and Japanese. Two police officials were also killed during the 12-hour hostage standoff.



Besides, five militants were also killed after the operation "Thunderbolt"' conducted by a team of the 1st Para-commando Battalion of the Bangladesh Army.



To mark the day, the Holey Artisan Cafe at Gulshan Road No 79 remained opened for all between 10:00am and 2:00pm yesterday.



Survivors of Cafe attack and relatives of the victims cried and prayed as they gathered there since 10 in the morning for memorials to mark the first anniversary of the deadliest attack that is still haunting the country.



Apart from relatives and survivors, leaders of different political parties, including Awami League, BNP, socio-cultural organisations, members of civil society and police personnel also paid their homage to the victims by placing floral wreaths.



They fell silent while remembering those killed in the horrific rampage unleashed by the militants one-year back and many of them burst into tears.



Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, Ambassador of Japan Masato Watanabe, Ambassador of Italy Giorgio Guglielmino and representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), among others, have paid their homage to the victims.



Memorial was also held at the Central Shaheed Minar where Sammilita Sangskritik Jote arranged a peace rally. Besides, Ganojagoran Mancha arranged a memorial meeting and candle lighting at Shahbagh on the day.



To mark the anniversary, the Foreign Ministry, the embassies of Japan and Italy as well as different public and private organizations also held different programmes.



A four-member delegation of Italy is now in city to pay homage to their nine nationals killed in the Gulshan attack.



Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said the government is able to keep militancy and terrorism under control.



"We could not root out militancy and terrorism from the country but it is under control with the help of common people," he told reporters at Holey Artisan cafe in Gulshan.



Quader, Minister for Road Transport and Bridges Division, accompanied by Awami League Joint General Secretaries Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif and Jahangir Kabir Nanak, had been there to pay tributes to the victims of the last year's Holey Artisan cafe attack. They also placed wreaths there.



The minister said, "If the government gets cooperation from all, it would be able to root out militancy and terrorism."



BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi paid respect by placing wreaths at Holey Artisan Bakery on Saturday.



Terming the incident tragic, Rizvi said the extremists are involved in the incident. The extremists have built up a network across the country, he said, adding a comprehensive and coordinated step needs to be taken by the government to eliminate it.



Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is committed to root out militancy and terrorism from the country.



"Militant outfits have not enough organizational capacity to carry out attacks in large scale. They are now afraid of the intensified intelligence vigilance," he said.



The IGP said police also arrested many of them, but their activities are yet to be completely stopped, adding that four police personnel, including two officers, sacrificed their lives during the anti-militant campaign at Gulshan on July 1, 2016.



Meanwhile, police on Saturday got forensic report of five Holey Artisan militants Forensic examination report of different samples such as blood, hair and viscera of the five militants and a chef handed over to police on Saturday.



"We have formally handed over the forensic examination report to police around 1:15 pm on Saturday," said Dr Sohel Mahmud, head of forensic medicine department at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.



"The five militants and a chef, who were killed during the joint operation in the Holey Artisan Bakery, were hurt by bullets and splinters," he said, adding, "We have found no presence of any energy stimulating tablets in the viscera of the militants."



Samples of the six persons, which have been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and an Indian agency for conducting forensic examination, have not yet been received, he informed.



The five militants and the chef of the Holey Artisan are: Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Khairul Islam Payel and Shafiqul Islam Uzzal -- and the chef, Saiful Islam.



However, investigation into the case relating to July 1, 2016 militant attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan is nearing completion as involvement of 24 operatives of the neo-Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has so far been found in the attack.



"We have so far found involvement of 24 neo-JMB operatives in the Holey Artisan attack as investigation into the case is now at the final stage. The charge sheet in the case will be submitted to the court soon," Md Monirul Islam, Chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CCTC), told the media.



Without specifying the number, the CCTC chief said the 24 operatives have so far been found involved in different crimes in the July killing at Holy Artisan restaurant like planning, imparting militancy training and execution while two of them assisted in carrying out the attack.



"Fifteen of the 24 militants have already been killed in encounters with the law enforcers, four of them are in jails, five others are on the run," he said.



The eight killed in anti-militant operations are: Tamim Chowdhury, Nurul Islam Marjan, Major Zahidul Islam, Sarowar Jahan, Tanveer Quaderi, Md Abdullah alias Rony, Abu Rayhan alias Tareq and Faridul Islam Akash. Three of the four arrestees, Jahangir Alam alias Rajeeb Gandhi, Raqibul Hassan alias Rigan and Mizanur Rahman alias senior Mizan gave confessional statement before the court under Section 164, he said.



Asked about the update of the investigation into the Holy Artisan attack, Md Asaduzzaman Mia, Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said everything from planning to execution of the Holey Artisan attack became clear after a thorough investigation into the matter.



"The charge sheet in the case will be submitted by year-end as the investigation is now at the final stage," he said, adding that law enforcers are in an intense pursuit of capturing five more militants involved in the attack who are now on the run.



Meanwhile, State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam on Saturday expressed Bangladesh's gratitude to individuals, foreign countries and governments for standing beside Bangladesh during its 'difficult one year' since the July 1 Gulshan Cafe attack.



"We're grateful to the people and governments who stood by Bangladesh during a difficult last one year," he said.



The State Minister specially mentioned countries like Italy, Japan, India, the United States and Japan for standing beside Bangladesh.



He said the government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been able to combat militancy to a large extent with support from all. "We've more to do."



"We remember those who lost their lives in Holey Artisan Bakery with deep respect and convey deep sympathy to their families and governments of their countries," the state minister said in a post on his official Facebook page.



He thanked law enforcement agencies for their efforts and remembered those who sacrificed their lives during anti-militant drives in the country.



The State Minister also tweeted remembering the victims of Holey Artisan Bakery who were killed in the deadliest terrorist attack in Bangladesh.
A trio of arts supporters is turning a vacant downtown Billings storefront into a new space for local culture and libations.

Duane Sitzman and his wife, Terri Poleski, and a third partner, Michelle Dawson, are launching around the end of July the nonprofit Craft Local at 2413 Montana Ave., the original home of the Yellowstone Hotel.

Sitzman said the idea came about a few years ago when he and his wife were discussing ways to better support the arts.

The idea of a combination art gallery and performance space arose and gained traction when he talked with Dawson, a former co-worker. The group formed the nonprofit and are all volunteer members of its board, and they obtained a beer-and-wine license to serve Montana-made products.

We want to find our unestablished artists, people who want to get their foot in the door, Dawson said.

Sitzman is the manager of the Thrifty Nickel, which is owned by the same company that owns The Billings Gazette. Dawson is the marketing manager for the Billings Symphony and is a former Gazette employee. Poleski is a registered nurse at Billings Clinic.

All three said theyre planning to keep their day jobs. Craft Local will be open 4 p.m. to close Tuesday through Saturday.

The 3,200-square-foot space is mostly empty now as workers with Big Sky Builders move around, fixing up the place. A bar built and designed by Birch and Bennett of Missoula sits in the back.

At center is the faintly drawn outline of a stage, which will be installed later this month. Craft Local will feature local bands, comedy acts, poetry readings and other performance arts, Sitzman said. The acts will be mostly from the Billings area, with some from other parts of Montana, he said.

The spot was most recently home to Kim & Eddy's, a vintage store, but it has been vacant for several months.

Craft Local joins a growing downtown Billings arts scene, which has several art galleries, as well as the night clubs Railyard and Pub Station for music acts.

Poleski said the long-term goal for Craft Local is to eventually raise money to give back to the arts and education system.

Craft Local is for all ages, serving soft drinks along with Montana beers and wine.

You wont find Bud Light here, Dawson quipped.

Visit craftlocal.org or the nonprofits Facebook page for more information.
BISMARCK, N.D.  A police chief in a southeastern North Dakota town is charged with sex crimes in three southwestern counties, including allegations he had sex with a minor under the age of 15.

Fifty-two-year-old James Watson is the chief of the LaMoure Police Department. He was charged Friday in Stark, Hettinger and Golden Valley counties. The charges date back to 2011.

Watson faces single charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child in both Stark and Golden Valley counties. Those complaints say Watson engaged in sexual contact or sexual acts on at least a weekly basis.

Watson is charged in Hettinger County with three counts of gross sexual imposition.

Court documents do not list a lawyer for Watson, who is jailed in Jamestown. A court hearing has not been scheduled.
MURPHYSBORO  For the past 20 years, talk has ebbed and flowed about creating a highway that links Southern Illinois more directly to St. Louis, but the time is now ripe to start preparing in earnest for that to happen, says one man helping lead that effort.

Marc L. Kiehna, chair of the Four County Highway Coalition, is convinced the time is now right to prepare for that day.

He noted that since those talks started decades ago, highways like Interstate 255 have been completed and work has been completed on a roundabout near Illinois 13 and 154 on Pinckneyville's northwest side, which make the road even more of a possibility.

"Why now?" Kiehna said. "Maybe the promise of infrastructure dollars at the federal levels. There is consideration about putting money into roads  and waterways and all that and maybe its time for us to be a part of that pie and so I think thats our motivation."

After the core group formed, mayors of cities that might be impacted by a highway-to-St. Louis-route were invited to join, as were those involved in economic development efforts and some interested residents, he said. Participating mayors include Murphysboro Mayor Will Stephens; Du Quoin Mayor Guy Alongi; Pinckneyville Mayor Robert Spencer; Red Bud Mayor Tim Lowry; and Baldwin village president Jimmie L. Niemeyer.

"In the month of June, the Four County Boards passed a resolution in support of the conversation to possibly create a four-lane highway that would connect 127-13 where it hits north, out of Murphysboro and then up to Pinckneyville, and then catch 154, which would hit west over and through around Sparta and Red Bud and join into Route 3, which is four lanes now down through Waterloo," Kiehna said.

"I think for me to ask my Congressman (U.S. Rep. Mike Bost), who sits on the Transportation Committee, to seriously consider a proposal like this one, I think there has to be a groundswell of support," Kiehna said. "I think we have to do our homework, and I think people have to buy into the concept and support it."

That would extend to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, who would benefit with students from the St. Louis area traveling south to and from Carbondale; administrators of the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta; or those at Red Bud's Kaskaskia Regional Port District, which Kiehna said is the 72nd largest port in the country.

He said the Coalition is not trying to devise a route for this St. Louis thoroughfare, but would want and need the public and community to tell them what they think is best.

The Coalition brings its next meeting to Murphysboro, at 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 26, at City Hall.
One person died in a Friday shooting and a Herrin man has been taken into custody, according to Herrin Police Department.

At about 12:50 p.m., officers responded reports of a shooting at a Herrin residence. The victim was pronounced dead at Herrin Hospital. Cory A Finney, 23, was identified at the scene and arrested a short time later, charged with aggravated battery. Finney was taken to Williamson County Jail.

The name of the victim has not been released, pending notification of the family. An autopsy is scheduled later Friday. More information will be released after the initial investigation is concluded, according to the news release from the police department.

Energy Police Department, Williamson County Sheriff's Office and Illinois State Police assisted.

 The Southern
HARRISBURG  In mid-July, six Saline County Sheriff's Deputies and all part-time Sheriff's Department personnel will be laid off, according to a news release from the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council.

The Saline County Sheriff's Department employees received the layoff notices on June 29 and the layoffs are slated to become effective July 15, the news release said.

That will leave only three deputies to patrol the county 24 hours a day, seven days a week during a time that has seen a recent spike in violent crimes, including a homicide in the last month and shots fired calls nearly every week.

The safety of county residents and the lives of hard-working public servants should not be used as pawns in a local government power struggle, said ILFOP Assistant Director Shawn Roselieb.

In the news release, Roselieb said that he spoke to Saline County Board Chairman Jay Williams this week and was told Williams knew nothing in advance about the layoffs.

Williams, however, said that he was aware that layoffs might be pending, but that the Board had not yet met to discuss them when word hit the street that they were in the works.

When he became aware of the issue, Williams said he immediately moved to convene a meeting between the union, the sheriffs department, and any other involved parties. Before that meeting was able to be set, word got out to the general community and reactions have snowballed from there.

Williams also confirmed that the proposed layoffs are due to budget problems. The revenue is just not coming in, he said.

Roselieb said The Sheriff's Department has vacancies, the funds are there to fill those jobs, and yet here we are threatening the safety of taxpayers and the lives of hard-working employees.

Williams said no one wants the layoffs to happen.

If we can stop the layoffs that would be great. We do not need further unemployment in the region, and given the current climate in the county and especially in the City of Harrisburg, now, more than ever, we need people to protect and serve. So I hope that we can make that happen.

A special meeting of the Saline County Board has been set for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the boards offices in the Saline County Courthouse at 10 E. Poplar St. # 26, in Harrisburg.
CARBONDALE  Southern Illinois University students, faculty and community members stopped by the University Museum on Friday to pay their respects to the 143-year-old institution, a recent victim of the state budget crisis.

Museum staff invited members of the public to leave flowers outside the building throughout the day Friday as a show of support prior to the facilitys closure.

Earlier this month, Interim Chancellor Brad Colwell announced that the museum would close temporarily effective July 1 due to the budget impasse, which has now extended into a third year.

Curator of Exhibits Alison Erazmus said she had not expected that the museum would be closed so soon. Since 2015, three positions at the museum were vacated and were never filled; Erazmus and curator Susannah Munson have served as the museums sole full-time staff members.

We were limping along, but we were still able to keep an open facility, Erazmus said.

Erazmus was surprised at the sudden closure because the museum was given student workers for the summer and was expected to have special exhibits open for the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21.

Were not going to have our collections on display for all of these people coming in from all over the world. Its such a missed opportunity, and its so foolish, she said.

In March, the museum lost its national accreditation status from the American Alliance of Museums after a series of budget cuts. The museums $40,000 annual budget was trimmed down to $15,000 for Fiscal Year 2017.

Erazmus said that although SIU administrators are calling the closure temporary, it will be years before the museum can reopen.

Lets be realistic. In order for us to reopen, theyre going to have to replace my position at the very least.  After the last year of seeing requests for hires go up and disappear or never be mentioned ever again, I know its going to take at least a year for them to replace me, but more likely at least two years, she said.

A curator will look after the museums 70,000-object collection in an off-site storage facility. Erazmus said its critical that the university retain that one employee.

This is the time where pieces go missing. If you start to allow people to volunteer and they dont have the professional training or even understand the ethical guidelines, the collection is at risk if we lose our one professional staff, Erazmus said.

Amanda Norris, who previously worked at the museum as a graduate student, drove down from St. Louis to leave flowers outside the building.

It was important for me to drive down here to show my respect for the museum, because its been a very big part of my life. I currently work at the National Archives, and I wouldnt have that job if I didnt have the museum in my career, Norris said.

During her time at the museum, Norris helped coordinate the Arts Education Festival, a two-day annual event that brings between 2,000 and 3,000 elementary and middle school children from all over Southern Illinois to the campus.

Many of the schools said that this was (students) only access to art.  To think that 3,000 children are not getting that opportunity anymore  and then they would come year after year to get new art inspiration  thats one sad part, Norris said. She added that without the museum, SIU art students wont have a nearby space to show their work.

The students and the faculty we worked with, theyre not going to have this as an opportunity to enhance their educational goals in the classroom, so thats going to affect the pedagogy of faculty already, and students as well. We hired a good many student workers to help run the museum with us, graduate assistantships, undergraduate assistantships and also work study students. So theyre not going to have jobs next semester at the museum, Erazmus said.

Erazmus said she wished the SIU administration had worked harder to save the museum.

Its not their fault that the state hasnt come up with the budget in three years, but at the same time, were a core part of the academic mission here, so we really felt like we could still stay open during this time. We wouldnt be thriving, but we could at least be open, she said.
HELENA  The Department of Administration announced Harry Freebourn will serve as the Interim Director for the Office of the State Public Defender on Friday.

Freebourn recently retired from his position as administrative director at OPD. According to the statement, Freebourns institutional knowledge will help him to run the agency until a permanent director is hired.

Freebourn was previously responsible for strategic planning, financial management, policy development and communication strategy.

OPD has recently faced a series of challenges.

A task force was assembled after the 2015 legislative session to address budgetary and operational problems. That task force produced seven bills. While not all made it through in their original form, the primary goal of the task force was to address leadership issues and budgetary concerns.

During the 2017 session, a package of reform bills, including one to hire a director, was passed with bipartisan support. Before the session started, a financial audit revealed OPD is short $3.5 million and is unable to assess or collect money owed to it by defendants. Shortly afterward, chief administrator Scott Cruse and Richard Gillespie, chairman of the Public Defender Commission, resigned.

Before House Bill 77, there were department leaders in all three divisions of OPD with oversight from the Public Defender Commission. Now Freebourn and eventually a permanent director will oversee the entire agency and the commission will become advisory.

Freebourn will start as interim director on July 1 and serve until the Department of Administration makes a permanent hire. According to Jason Pitt, a spokesman for the department, the position will remain open until filled. The department reviewed candidates on June 19 and June 26 but has not released information on finalists.

Other measures passed by the Legislature to improve OPD include having the Department of Revenue collect fees for public defender services. Beginning July 1, OPD will provide the personal information the Department of Revenue needs to collect any fees owed, credit a defendant and deposit collected fees into the general fund.

House Bill 59 limits counseling for unknown or assumed fathers when a child has been abused or neglected. When an assumed father cannot be reached, Montana law previously required the agency to appoint an attorney to represent the unavailable father. House Bill 59 gave the court the final decision on whether to provide representation for an assumed or unknown father.

The Public Defender Commission estimated in October that an assumed father is represented in 25 percent of the agencys cases. The legislation is expected to save OPD $1.2 million by the end of the 2017 fiscal year.

A final bill to establish a pilot project to address the underlying problems that introduce people to the criminal justice system was passed, although the initial funding was removed. Now the agency must establish one pilot project with existing resources. The bill was written to mimic the model used by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, and would provide social services and advocacy in addition to comprehensive representation. The project aims to help people be less likely to return to the system and ultimately save taxpayer money.

The program, which the director will be responsible for implementing, is modeled off four pillars of holistic defense: seamless access to legal and nonlegal services that meet client legal and social support needs, dynamic interdisciplinary communication, advocates with interdisciplinary skill sets and a robust understanding of and connection to the community served.
The future USS Billings sits on a set of greased ramps that are ready to release and dump the 3,400-metric-ton battleship into Lake Michigan.

Hundreds of feet away, the steel that makes up hulls for the Navys new line of combat ships gets unloaded from a train, already dusted with rust, to wait to be bent or cut into hundreds of variations that will eventually make up a ship.

Traditionally, ships are built from the ground up; laying the keel often signifies the start of constructions. But the ships being built in Marinette, Wisconsin, are built from the middle out, said John Torrisi, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, which contracts Marinette Marine, which is owned by Fincantieri, an Italian company.

But the Billings  LCS-15, in shipyard speak  and its brethren are constructed in sections that are then put together, like working on sections of a puzzle before locking all of the completed segments together.

The littoral  which refers to coastal waters  combat ships are designed to be multi-functional, replacing three different kinds of ships that specialized in mine sweeping and combat, both surface and submarine. Theyre designed to be fast and maneuverable, and feature reconfigurable spaces with plug-and-play technology depending on the mission.

Within 24 hours you can, in essence, change and reconfigure that ship, Torrisi said.

Building and testing the ship takes about four years after a giant electromagnet starts hauling four-ton plates of steel into a blasting and painting machine that prepares the metal for production. Work on the future Billings began in late 2014.

Despite the new construction process, the shipyard still held a ceremonial keel laying in the fall of 2015. Steel and aluminum, piping, electronics, engines, and more took shape in a compartmentalized process. For much of production, sections of the vessel are unrecognizable as a ship. But eventually, sections are sealed together.

The vessel's shape and scale quickly become apparent, with the 378-foot-long hull parked inside a giant manufacturing hangar thats not quite tall enough to put the mast on a ship. That step must wait until dozens of automated wheeled platforms roll the boat outside.

Once outside, its far from finished. The future Billings is only about 83 percent complete, despite its imminent christening Saturday. Work crews continue installing systems, electrical work, painting, interior structures and more.

The ship is slated to go through acceptance trials next summer, where its put through maneuvers and tested to make sure its up to the Navys specs. Tests range from detonating a 10,000-pound bomb near the ship that generates the rattle of a 3.4 magnitude earthquake to making sure cooking equipment functions. One of the ships the yard worked on had to replace a faulty coffee pot.

Leaders of Navy crews for the ship toured the future Billings on Friday.

"It's awesome, a good experience to see the foundation of a ship being built," said commanding officer Nathan Rowan, who will lead one of two alternating crews for the ship.

When its finished, the future Billings will be the eighth completed ship for the new group; four have been delivered to the Navy, and three more are near completion. Global Dynamics was assigned to what amounts to the second half of the Navys order for LCS ships, which are being constructed in Alabama.

According to a May 2017 Congressional Research Service document, between 40 and 52 could be completed. Then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter issued a memo in 2015 reducing the order to 40 from 52 in 2015 and limiting production to one shipyard, but Navy officials pushed back against reductions.

Several of the first ships from the class experienced breakdowns, and a review of safety procedures commissioned by the Navy was completed in August. The first four ships will be used for testing and stay in U.S. waters.

U.S. Navy Admiral Scott H. Swift, who commands the U.S. Pacific Fleet, cited negative publicity, in a 2016 column for a Navy magazine, arguing that changes were expected with any new rollout.

There was a zero percent chance the Freedoms deployment would go 100 percent correctly, he wrote, citing the first ship in the class, but the risk was worth the result  the more we operate LCSs in the Pacific, the more clearly I see their value and the more committed I am to operating them forward.

Capt. Tom Anderson, the LCS program manager for the Navy, expressed confidence in the ships going forward.

"My expectation is the Billings will do exceptionally well when she gets out there."
A man is accused of beating his 11-year-old sister in a dispute over a cellphone.

The child was transported to a Columbia hospital on June 23 with a lacerated liver and hematoma to her brain, according to an Orangeburg Department of Public Safety arrest warrant.

She was in and out of consciousness, according to the warrant.

The child is in stable condition and improving, according to her mother.

Kevin Devon Smalls, 24, of 1253 Jasper St., was charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature Thursday.

According to an ODPS incident report and arrest warrant, Smalls arrived at a Whaley Street residence around 10 p.m. June 23.

A witness said Smalls asked his sister for her cellphone.

The sister said Smalls chased her and caught her in the front yard of the residence and pushed her head in the dirt, according to the report.

She ran to the back of the house and Smalls once against caught her, pushed her to the ground and kneed her in the stomach, the report said.

Smalls took his sisters cell phone battery and left the scene, the report said.

He was also charged with petit larceny.

In 2013, Smalls pleaded guilty to criminal domestic violence and received domestic abuse counseling.

In 2015, Smalls pleaded guilty to criminal domestic violence, second offense within 10 years, and was sentenced to prison for one year. After 45 days, his sentence was suspended to two years of probation and completion of a batterers program.
By Trend

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you and your people on the occasion of the national holiday of the Republic of Burundi  Independence Day, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

On this remarkable day, I wish you robust health, success in your activities, and the friendly people of Burundi peace and prosperity.
By Trend

Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva has paid another visit to Thalassemia Center. Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva chatted with children being treated at the Center.

Leyla Aliyeva had a conversation with children and with their parents.

Head of the Department at the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Soltan Mammadov spoke about care and attention of the Foundation to the Thalassemia Center.

Director of the Center Valeh Huseynov said the children being treated at the Center were provided with the necessary medicine. On behalf of the staff of the center and on parents` behalf Valeh Huseynov thanked Leyla Aliyeva for the attention and care.

On behalf of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, children were given medicines.

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation constructed Thalassemia Center in Baku to create a qualified center and blood bank in Azerbaijan, prepare high-qualified personnel in the country, develop a voluntary donor service to provide safe and high quality blood to thalassemia-affected children, promote awareness-raising to prevent the expansion of thalassemia and enhance cooperation with foreign countries in fighting thalassemia.
The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said its building in Abu Dhabi has achieved the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) Gold certification, issued by the US Green Building Council, for its sustainability standards.

Leed is an international system for measuring the design, construction and operation of high-operational, green buildings. It evaluates the impact and performance of any facility, taking into account several elements such as site selection, energy saving, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions, improved internal design environment, and others.

The buildings that receive this certificate are classified into three levels according to their application of the required standards: Platinum, Gold and Silver.

In this context, Mohammed Al Kitbi, the acting deputy director general of support services sector, said: "We, in TRA, are committed to implementing the UAE environmental protection strategy, preserving natural resources, and reducing the impact of carbon footprint and global warming."

"The report issued by the Green Building Council indicates that TRA Abu Dhabi building is an example of implementing sustainability standards, and presents a leading example of major development in the construction sector. We emphasise that the conservation of natural resources is a joint task not only for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, but also a national duty that we as individuals and institutions must strive to achieve with utmost seriousness," he remarked.

Al Kitbi pointed out that these efforts were aimed at strengthening the UAEs ranking among countries concerned about the health of its citizens.

"The Green Buildings project, which is based on modern and advanced technologies including ICT, is part of the Smart City Project," he added.

The UAE is a founding member of the World Green Building Council, which was established in 1999 in California, with representatives of only eight countries. The councils establishment was formally announced in 2002.-TradeArabia News Service
UAE-based Nirvana Travel and Tourism has announced the launch of its sister company Dana Al Bahar, the emirates prime luxury yacht company which will provide high-end marine tourism services in the country.



Dana Al Bahar, together with Nirvana Travel & Tourism, hosted an exclusive media showcase of Dana Al Bahar Yacht, as it sailed the Abu Dhabi marina. It is Abu Dhabis latest luxury destination for parties, family gatherings, wedding celebrations and corporate events.



During the launch, the media delegates toured the luxurious three-story yacht, which features a spacious living room complete with 60-inch LED TVs, a well-appointed dining room, two bedrooms with private bathrooms and a wide sundeck overlooking the Abu Dhabi skyline.



CEO Ala Al Ali said, Establishing Dana Al Bahar, Nirvana Travel & Tourisms sister company plays a vital role in meeting the increasing demands in high-end marine tourism. This follows a new remarkable development in the tourism and hospitality industry in the UAE which caters to the needs of the local market.



Nirvana has a major presence in the UAE with over 30 different locations throughout Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah.



"Within the few next years we are expecting to serve other locations such as Australia, The United Kingdom, and the US," added Al Ali.



Omar Al Ali, the executive director of Communications and Projects for Nirvana Travel and Tourism, said: This initiative is part of the companys efforts to expand its marine tourism services in the UAE. Dana Al Bahar is a prime destination to host executive meetings, social events, and family occasions.



In partnership with its sister company, Nirvana Travel & Tourism held a celebration in the presence of a number of media professionals in the Dana Al Bahar Yacht, one of the latest luxury yachts in the Marina area of Abu Dhabi.-TradeArabia News Service
IndiGo, the country's biggest airline by market share, has expressed interest in buying a stake in Air India a day after the cabinet approved a proposal to dilute state ownership in the debt-laden flag carrier, reported Economic Times.



"We have received an expression of interest for Air India from IndiGo," stated the report citing aviation secretary RN Choubey. "It has written to us that it is interested in Air India, as the government has decided to privatise it," he noted.



The civil aviation ministry has so far not received a formal expression of interest from any other entity, including the Tata Group, Choubey said. Junior aviation minister Jayant Sinha, however, added that several airlines have informally enquired about the privatisation of Air India, which has more than Rs50,000 crore of debt on its books.



It's been reported previously that the Tata Group could be a possible acquirer.



"A wide range of players  both international and domestic  have informally expressed interest in Air India. We would not like to name them as they have not yet made a formal application like IndiGo," Sinha said.



On Wednesday, the cabinet cleared the decks for the disinvestment of the loss-making flag carrier, and approved the creation of a panel led by FM Arun Jaitley to decide on the extent of ownership dilution and the best method of achieving that goal.



"The committee will have the aviation minister as a member and other ministers too will be added to the committee, if the prime minister decides," said aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju.



"The committee will look at all possibilities for Air India and will take a final decision on it," the aviation minister said.



IndiGo declared it was "time for India to take back its fair share of international traffic" and create hubs within the country in the letter to the aviation ministry, saying that the carrier was interested in the overseas operations of the state carrier.



"Over time, India has allowed disproportionate access to the airlines of some of the city states in the Middle East and Southeast Asia," said the letter, signed by IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh and published on the web site of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) late Thursday.



"The massive hubs that these airlines have built have significantly benefited at the expense of India Kindly treat this letter as our expression of interest in acquiring the international airline operations of Air India and Air India Express," he stated.



Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways connect several destinations in India to those in Europe and beyond. IndiGo, however, did not restrict its interest to Air India's international business.



"Alternatively, we are equally interested in acquiring all of the airline operations of Air India and Air India Express (the airline's no-frills overseas carrier)," he added.